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 answere: 
 
 AN AMERICAN CITIZEN; 
 
 OR, 
 
 A HEVIilW OF THE 
 
 ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE GREGORY XYI , 
 A. d. 1832, 
 
 THE BISHOP'S OATH, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 POPE'S CURSE 
 
 UPON HERETICS, SCHISMATICS, AND ALL INFRINGERS, UPON ECCLESIASTICAL 
 
 LIBERTIES, AS CONTAINED IN THE BULLA IN COZNA DOMINI, 
 
 PRONOUNCED ANNUALLY ON MAUNDY THURSDAY. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 JAMES M. CAMPBELL, 98 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
 NEW YORK:— SAXTON & MILES. 
 
 1844. 
 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1344, 
 
 By James M. Campbell, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of 
 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The publication of the following documents, 
 and the accompanying comments at the present 
 crisis, needs no apology. They present an array 
 of evidence against the Papal power, which is 
 deemed sufficient to convince every reasonable 
 man that Popery in the nineteenth century is as 
 utterly incompatible with the enjoyment of the 
 blessings of civil and religious freedom, as it was 
 in the sixteenth. In the light of the testimony 
 which this book presents, it will be out of the 
 power of any Roman Bishop, priest or layman, 
 to assert with truth that the Papal system con- 
 templates the promotion of the liberty of the 
 press, and the rights of conscience. Out of the 
 mouth of the Canon law, by the Bulls of Popes, 
 the decrees of oecumenical councils, and their 
 own solemn oath of installation, the Bishops of 
 the Church of Rome are convicted of implacable 
 hostility to our free institutions. At a time when 
 assiduous efforts are made to remove the odium 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 which begins to be poured forth upon the prin- 
 ciples of Popery, it is both proper and opportune 
 to meet the artifices and sophistry of Roman 
 prelates and priests, by just such an array of 
 stubborn testimony as these pages will furnish. 
 We may be called incendiaries for exposing the 
 false and hateful character of the Roman creed 
 and discipline, while Bishop 'Hughes' nine pro- 
 positions are extolled to the skies, but American 
 citizens are not to be deterred from any duty, 
 least of all from this, by idle clamours of this 
 description. We seek truth, and desire to diffuse 
 it. If we have erred in our estimate of the cha- 
 racter of the Papal system, and of the influence 
 which its prevalence must revert upon our civil 
 and religious institutions, let our error be pointed 
 out; let the rebutting testimony be produced, 
 and if upon a fair and open investigation and 
 discussion, it shall appear that we have drawn a 
 single unwarrantable inference, we pledge our 
 sacred honor that all the reparation shall be made 
 which can possibly accrue from a public confes- 
 sion and correction of our mistake. Vitupera- 
 tion and scurrility will ever be beneath our no- 
 tice — sober argument and temperate remon- 
 
PREFACE. 5 
 
 strance, never. We shall not be content, how- 
 ever, with a flat denial of the relevancy of the 
 present testimony, neither shall we so far sur- 
 render our judgment to the control of any man 
 as to suffer ourselves to be persuaded that the 
 Bulls of Popes, the canons of councils, and the 
 oaths of Roman Bishops are to be understood as 
 implying a meaning, precisely the opposite of 
 that which their language conveys. To all such 
 appeals and arguments we shall be deaf, and all 
 such charmers, charm they never so wisely, may 
 spare themselves the exhaustion of their art. 
 
 We have a twofold reason for publishing 
 these documents at the present crisis. In the 
 first place, people will read them now with 
 avidity; and it is right that they should, for 
 every American, whether- by birth or adoption, 
 is bound to acquaint himself with the true cha- 
 racter of the Papal system; but in addition to 
 this reason, there is another, which exerts a 
 still more powerful bias upon our mind. At- 
 tempts have been made and are still made by 
 the lower order of the public journals of this 
 city, and by persons calling themselves Ameri- 
 can citizens, but who are perfectly indifferent 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 to religious truth, to intimidate Protestants by 
 harsh denunciations from continuing to discuss 
 the civil and religious bearings of Popery. 
 The public has been solemnly informed that 
 Protestant ministers are the real incendiaries, 
 and that upon their heads rests the heavy re- 
 sponsibility of disturbing the peace of our city, 
 staining our streets with thfe blood of American 
 citizens, and laying Roman Catholic habitations 
 and churches in ruins. It may, however, afford 
 them some consolation to reflect that they share 
 this reproach in common with prophets and 
 apostles, who in their day were content to be 
 called "troublers of Israel" and " pestilent fel- 
 lows." 
 
 One of the most alarming signs of the times 
 is the disposition manifested in certain quarters 
 to suppress the right of free discussion. This 
 is a privilege which cannot be surrendered 
 without bowing the neck to the yoke of despot- 
 ism. An attempt has very recently been made 
 to exclude the advertisements of the publisher 
 of this pamphlet from the columns of a daily 
 journal of this city, because they were deemed 
 offensive to Roman Catholics. Nor is this all. 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 Protestants have been threatened with assassi- 
 nation for daring to declare what God has re- 
 corded, and commanded them to proclaim re- 
 specting the Man of Sin, and at such a time it is 
 not inexpedient to use the liberty of speech and 
 of the press whilst it is still untrammeled by 
 the gags and fetters of Papal France, Austria, 
 and Italy. 
 
 As for the charge of desiring to revive or 
 increase the excitement by which the Roman 
 controversy is at present embarrassed, we shall 
 merely reply, that we deem no excitement of 
 the nature which our discussions create, an 
 evil, neither do we believe that any jealousy 
 can be too vigilant which is occasioned by the 
 open, as well as insidious assaults of Roman 
 prelates and priests upon our civil and religious 
 liberties. 
 
 We are not the aggressive party ; we stand 
 on the defensive ; this pamphlet has been sug- 
 gested by the letters of Bishop Hughes. Whilst 
 advocating and yielding obedience to the laws 
 of the land, so long as they continue to accord 
 with the laws of God, and deprecating every 
 act of hostility and revenge, and with all Chris- 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 tians and good citizens denying the right of 
 retaliating wound for wound, stripe for stripe, 
 and burning for burning; — whilst we deplore 
 the acts of lawless violence, by which the ruth- 
 less slaughter of unoffending citizens has been 
 avenged upon their murderers; we shall never 
 cease through good report and through evil, to 
 do what we can to warn our 'countrymen against 
 the inroads of the Church of Rome, and to put 
 them in possession of the evidence within our 
 reach, which convicts her of utter hostility to 
 all that is righteous in religion and just in civil 
 government. 
 
 Should either " the Bishop of New York" or 
 "the Bishop of Philadelphia," request the name 
 of the author, it will afford the publisher great 
 pleasure to give them a personal introduction. 
 
ENCYCLICAL LETTER 
 
 OP 
 
 POPE GREGORY XYI. 
 
 Encyclical Letter of our most Holy Father, Pope Gregory, by Divine 
 Providence, the sixteenth of the name, addressed to all Patriarchs, 
 Primates, Archbishops and Bishops. 
 
 " Venerable Brethren — Health and Apostolical 
 Benediction. We doubt not but you are surprised 
 not yet having received from us, since the govern- 
 ment of the Universal Church was committed to Our 
 Humility, a Letter in accordance with primitive 
 usage, and with Our affection towards you. It was 
 indeed our most ardent desire, without delay, to lay 
 open Our hearts to you, and in communicating Our 
 own sentiments, to address you in a language suita- 
 ble to the command which, We have received in the 
 person of Saint Peter, to confirm Our brethren. But 
 you were not ignorant of the gathering calamities 
 and anxieties, which burst upon Us in the very first 
 moments of Our pontificate, when, had not the right 
 hand of God supported us, you might ere now have 
 lamented Our having fallen a victim to the dark con- 
 spiracy of impious men. But our mind shrinks from 
 the memory of troubles, whose sad recital would be 
 only re-opening the sources of sorrow: and We 
 rather bless the God of Consolation, who in subduing 
 the rebels has shielded us from impending danger ; 
 
 2 
 
10 ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 
 
 and who in stilling the tempest, hath granted a pause 
 to our apprehensions. Hereupon, We resolved to 
 delay no longer to communicate Our advice to you 
 for curing the bruises of Israel: but again the fulfil- 
 ment of Our desires was impeded, by the weight of 
 care imposed on Us in the reinstatement of public 
 order. 
 
 Meanwhile another cause of our silence arose, 
 from the insolence of faction, which laboured again 
 to raise the standard of rebellion. Finding that long 
 endurance and mildness, instead of softening, appear- 
 ed rather to foment the spirit of licentiousness, We 
 were at last, with extreme sorrow of heart, compelled 
 to raise the scourge entrusted to Us by the Almighty, 
 for subduing the obstinacy of men. Hence you will 
 easily conclude that Our anxieties have been every 
 day multiplied. 
 
 But having at length taken possession of our See 
 in the Lateran Basilic, according to our customs and 
 institution of our predecessors, We return to you 
 without delay, Venerable brethren, and in testimo- 
 ny of Our feelings towards you, We select for the 
 date of our letter this most joyful day on which We 
 celebrate the solemn festival of the Most Blessed 
 Virgin's triumphant Assumption into Heaven, that 
 She who has been through every great calamity Our 
 Patroness and Protectress, may watch over Us, writ- 
 ing to you, and lead our mind by her heavenly in- 
 fluence to those counsels which may prove most salu- 
 tary to Christ's flock. 
 
 In sorrow, and with a mind broken with grief, 
 We address you — you, whom we know from your 
 
ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 1 1 
 
 devotedness to religion, to have suffered proportion- 
 al anxiety of mind in witnessing the depravity of 
 the times with which religion has now to struggle. 
 For we may truly say this is the hour and power of 
 darkness to sift as wheat, the sons of election. — 
 Truly "hath the earth mourned and faded away — 
 infected by the inhabitants thereof; because they 
 have transgressed the laws, they have changed the 
 ordinance, they have broken the everlasting cove- 
 nant." 
 
 We speak, Venerable Brethren, of what your own 
 eyes have witnessed, and over which our tears flow 
 in common. Wickedness is restless, science grown 
 insolent, licentiousness unrestrained. The holiness 
 of things sacred is despised; and the majesty of the 
 divine worship at once so efficacious and so necessary, 
 is called in question, is vilified, is mocked at by evil 
 men. Hence the perversion of sound doctrine, and 
 hence the effrontery with which errors of every kind 
 are disseminated. The law of the sanctuary, its 
 rights, its customs, whatever is most holy in discip- 
 line is attacked by the tongues of them that speak 
 iniquity. Our Roman See of Saint Peter, on which 
 Christ laid the foundation of His Church, is assailed 
 on all sides; and the bands of unity are every day 
 weakened and breaking asunder. The divine au- 
 thority of the Church is opposed, robbed of her 
 rights. She is laid prostrate to satisfy human expe- 
 diency and iniquity, and exposed as a degraded slave 
 to the hatred of the nations. — The obedience due to 
 Bishops is infringed, and their rights trodden un- 
 derfoot. The schools and the universities echo mon- 
 
12 ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 
 
 strous novelties, which no longer content themselves 
 with undermining the foundation of the Catholic faith, 
 but quitting their lurking holes, rush openly to horrid 
 and impious war with it. The youth corrupted by 
 the doctrine and examples of their teachers, have in- 
 flicted a deep wound upon Religion, and have intro- 
 duced a most gloomy perversion of manners. Hence 
 it is that men flinging away the restraints of our 
 Holy Religion, which alone can keep together the 
 elements of kingdoms, and impart strength and sta- 
 bility to government, have brought us to witness the 
 destruction of public order, the downfall of States, 
 and the overthrow of all legitimate power. These 
 accumulated miseries owe their origin principally, 
 however, to the activity of certain societies, in which 
 is collected, as in one common receptacle, whatever 
 heresy, or the most impious sects, offer of crime, of 
 sacrilege and of blasphemy. 
 
 These things, Venerable Brethren, and many others, 
 some perhaps more distressing which it were long to 
 enumerate, must still as you are well known, embitter 
 and prolong Our grief, seated as We are in the Chair 
 of the Prince of the Apostles, where the zeal for the 
 whole of our Father's House must consume Us more 
 than others. But aware at the same time, that We 
 have been placed here not only to deplore, but also to 
 crush the evils to the utmost of Our power, We turn 
 to your fidelity for aid, and we appeal to your solici- 
 tude for the salvation of the Catholic flock, Venera- 
 ble Brethren, because your tried virtue and religion, 
 exemplary prudence, and unremitting zeal, give Us 
 courage, and shed a sweet consolation over Our minds, 
 
ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 13 
 
 afflicted as they are in this season of trial. For it be- 
 longs to Us to give the alarm, and to leave no means 
 untried which may prevent the boar of the forest from 
 trampling down the vineyard, or the wolf from taking 
 the lives of the flocks. Ours is the task to drive the 
 sheep into healthful pastures which preclude all sus- 
 picion of danger. But God forbid, Dearest Brethren, 
 God forbid, while so many evils press, while so many 
 dangers threaten, pastors should be wanting to their 
 duty, and that fear-stricken, they should fly from their 
 flocks, or slumber in idle and inactive forgetfulness of 
 them. In union of spirit, then let us be true to our 
 common cause, or rather the cause of God; and let 
 us unite our vigilance and exertions against the com- 
 mon enemy, for the salvation of the whole people. 
 
 Now you will best correspond with these sentiments, 
 if in compliance with the nature of your station, you 
 " attend unto yourselves and to doctrines ;" ever bear- 
 ing in mind, M the Universal Church suffers from every 
 novelty," as well as the admonition of the Pope St. 
 Agatho ; " that from what has been regularly defined, 
 nothing can be taken away, no innovation introduced 
 there, no addition made ; but that it must be preserved 
 untouched both as to words and meaning." This 
 will preserve unshaken, that unity which belongs to 
 the Chair of St. Peter as its foundation, so that there, 
 where the rights of all the Churches by an admirable 
 union, have this origin, " may be a wall of protection, 
 a port in which no wave ever breaks, and a treasury 
 of inexhaustible resources." To humble therefore, 
 the audacity of those who would encroach upon the 
 rights of Our Holy See, or who would destroy its 
 
 2* 
 
14 ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 
 
 junction with the Churches, to which those Churches 
 owe their support and their vigor, inculcate in her 
 regard the most zealous fidelity, and most sincere 
 veneration, proclaiming with St. Cyprian, "that he 
 falsely imagines himself to be in the church, who de- 
 serts the Chair of Peter upon which the Church is 
 founded.** 
 
 To this point, therefore, your labours must tend, 
 and your vigilance must be unceasingly directed to 
 preserve the deposit of faith, amidst the wide-spread- 
 ing conspiracy formed for the impious purpose of tear- 
 ing it from you to destroy it. Let all remember that 
 the principle of sound doctrine, with which the peo- 
 ple are to be imbued, must emanate from, and that 
 the rule and the administration of the Universal 
 Church belongs to the Roman Pontiff, to whom was 
 delivered " the full power of feeding, ruling and gov- 
 erning the Universal Church by Christ our Lord," 
 as the Fathers of the Council of Florence have une- 
 quivocally declared. It is the duty of all Bishops, 
 then, to adhere most faithfully to the Chair of St. 
 Peter, to preserve their deposit holily and religiously, 
 and to feed God's flock entrusted to them. Priests 
 too, it behoves to be subject to their Bishops, whom 
 St. Jerome admonishes them, " to regard as the parents 
 of their soul;" and let them never forget, that the 
 earliest canons forbid them to exercise any function 
 of their ministry, or to enter on the task of teaching or 
 preaching, "without the sanction of the Bishop to 
 whose care the people are entrusted, and from whom 
 the account of their souls will be required." Be it, 
 therefore, held as a certain truth, that all those who 
 
ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 15 
 
 attempt any thing in opposition to the order thus 
 marked out, become thereby, as far as their power 
 permits them, refractory members of the Church. It 
 would moreover be a crime, and entirely at variance 
 with that deep veneration with which the laws of the 
 Church should be received, to censure in the wild 
 spirit of criticism, discipline sanctioned by her, whe- 
 ther as regards the administration of things sacred, 
 the rules of morality, the rights of the Church, *or of 
 her ministers, or to cavil at its clashing with the prin- 
 ciples of natural law, or to pronounce it lame and im- 
 perfect, and subject to the civil tribunal. 
 
 Again, as it is evident that the Church, to use the 
 words of the Council of Trent " was instructed by 
 Christ Jesus, and by his Apostles, and that the Holy 
 Ghost suggests to her every truth to be taught/' it is 
 no less absurd than injurious to her that anything by 
 way of "Restoration/' or " Regeneration," should be 
 forced upon her as necessary for her soundness or 
 increase, as if she could be thought obnoxious to 
 decay, or to obscurities, or any other such inconve- 
 niences. By such contrivances the innovators hope 
 to "mould the foundations of a modern ' humane 
 institution/ " and thus would be realised, what St. 
 Cyprian so strongly declaimed against, the conversion 
 of an essentially divine "into a mere human Church." 
 Let the projectors of such a scheme, then, remember, 
 on the testimony of St. Leo, "That the dispensing 
 with the canons hath been committed to the Roman 
 Pontiff only, and not in any private individual, but 
 in him only resides the power of making decrees 
 touching the ordinances of the Fathers, and also as 
 
16 ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 
 
 St. Gelasius writes, to balance the decrees of Canons, 
 and to determine the precepts of their predecessors, 
 so as to direct, after careful consideration, what re- 
 laxations the circumstances of the times require for 
 the good of particular churches. " 
 
 And here We wish to see your constancy ever 
 watchful to defend religion against that most foul 
 conspiracy, against the celibacy of the Clergy, 
 which as you know, is daily extending its influence, 
 and in which the ranks of the jmpious philosophers 
 of the day are swelled by the accession of some even 
 of the ecclesiastical order,*who forgetful of their cha- 
 racter and their duty, and yielding to the allurements 
 of passion, have been carried by their licentiousness 
 so far as in some places publicly to solicit the inter- 
 vention of their princes, and even to repeat their 
 solicitations with them in order to abrogate this most 
 holy branch of discipline. But why detain you with 
 the recital of attempts so revolting? Having confi- 
 dence in your piety, to you We commit the defence 
 of a law of so much moment, against which the darts 
 of the lascivious are directed from every quarter. Pre- 
 serve the building entire; and in its protection and 
 defence, neglect none of those resources, which the 
 sacred Canons have in reserve for you. 
 
 Then on the subject of honourable marriage, which 
 St. Paul hath pronounced "a great Sacrament in 
 Christ and the Church," our common cares are re- 
 quired to correct errors repugnant to its sanctity and 
 to its indissoluble tie, and to put down all attempts at 
 innovation. Your attention had been directed to this 
 subject in the letter addressed to you by our prede- 
 
ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 17 
 
 cessor of happy memory, Pins VII; but the noxious 
 evil is still increasing. The people must therefore be 
 carefully instructed, that matrimony once lawfully 
 engaged in, can never be dissolved, that God has de- 
 creed that the society formed by those, who have 
 once been united in wedlock, should continue during 
 the whole of their lives; and that the tie of union can 
 only be dissolved by death. Mindful at the same 
 time that it holds a place among things sacred, and 
 is, consequently, subject to the Church; let the people 
 have always before their eyes the laws formed by the 
 Church respecting it, and let them comply with them 
 religiously and exactly; for it is on that depends the 
 validity, the stability, and the just union of marriage. 
 Let them beware of offending in any way against 
 the sacred Canons and the decrees of Councils, pro- 
 perly impressed with the conviction, that no happy 
 issue can result from marriages, contracted in defi- 
 ance of Church discipline; or when neglecting to 
 invoke the previous blessing of Heaven, and without 
 one thought given to the obligation incurred, or to 
 the mystery signified, the contracting parties place 
 their only end in the unbridled indulgence of appetite. 
 But let us turn to another most prolific cause of 
 those evils, which We deplore as at present afflicting 
 the Church. We allude to the principle of u Indif- 
 ference." — That depraved principle, which by con- 
 trivances of wicked ?nen, has become very prevalent ; 
 maintaining eternal salvation to be equally attain- 
 able in whatever profession of faith, provided the 
 natural dictates of morality be therein observed. 
 But in a matter so clear and evident you will easily 
 
IS ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 
 
 extirpate this most pernicious error from among the 
 people under your charge. Let them tremble at 
 the admonition of the Apostle: — "One God, one 
 faith, one baptism,"— who pretend that every reli- 
 gion conducts to the haven of beatitude, and let 
 them reflect from the language of the Redeemer, that 
 "not being with Christ, they are against Christ," 
 that "not gathering with him, they are unhappily 
 scattering ;" and that consequently they will, " with- 
 out doubt, perish eternally, unless they hold fast the 
 Catholic faith and preserve it whole and inviolate." 
 Let them hearken to the voice of St. Jerome, who, 
 when the Church was torn into three parts by schism, 
 relates that he, firm to his purpose, said to those that 
 attempted to draw him over to their party : " I hold 
 fellowship with them that cling to the Chair of Peter." 
 For vainly would such a one flatter his conscience 
 with his regeneration in water. To him St. Augus- 
 tine addresses himself: "The twig lopped from the 
 vine retains its shape, but what will its shape avail it 
 when separated from the life-giving root?" 
 
 From that polluted fountain of "indifference," 
 flows that absurd and erroneous doctrine, or rather 
 raving in favour and in defence of "liberty of con- 
 science," for which most pestilential error, the course 
 is opened by that entire and wild liberty of opinion 
 which is every where attempting the overthrow of 
 religious and civil institutions; and which the un- 
 blushing impudence of some has held forth as an 
 advantage of religion. "But what," exclaimed St. 
 Augustine, "what worse death to the soul than free- 
 dom in error !" For only destroy those fences which 
 
ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 19 
 
 keep men within the paths of truth, leave them to the 
 headlong sway of their natural evil propensities, and 
 that the " bottomless pit" at once yawns before you, 
 from which St. John saw the smoke arise which 
 darkened the sun, and which shed its locusts over the 
 face of the earth. From hence arise these revolu- 
 tions in the minds of men ; hence this aggravated 
 corruption of youth ; hence, this contempt among the 
 people of sacred things, and of the most holy institu- 
 tions and laws; hence, in one word, that pest of all 
 others, most to be dreaded in a state, unbridled lib- 
 erty of opinion, licentiousness of speech, and a lust 
 of novelty, which, according to the experience of all 
 ages, portend the downfall of the most powerful and 
 flourishing empires. 
 
 Hither tends that worst and never-suffieiently to 
 be execrated and detested liberty of the press; for 
 the diffusion of all manner of writings, which some 
 so loudly contend for, and so actively promote. We 
 shudder, venerable brethren, at the sight of the mon- 
 strous doctrines, or rather portentous errors, which 
 crowd upon us in the shape of numberless volumes, 
 and pamphlets, small in size, but big with evils, 
 which stalk forth in every direction ; breathing a 
 malediction, which we deplore, over the face of the 
 earth. Yet are there not wanting, alas ! those who 
 carry their effrontery so far, as to persist in maintain- 
 ing that this amalgamation of errors is sufficiently 
 resisted, if in this inundation of bad books, a volume 
 now and then issu6*from the press in favour of reli- 
 gion and truth. But is it not a crime, then, never 
 sufficiently to be reprobated, to commit the deliberate 
 
20 ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 
 
 and greater evil, merely with the hope of seeing some 
 good arise out of it? Or is that man in ti is senses, 
 who entrusts poison to every hand, exposes it at 
 every mart, suffers it to be carried about on all occa- 
 sions, aye, and to become a necessary ingredient of 
 every cup, because an antidote may be afterwards 
 procured which chance may render effective? 
 
 Far other hath been the discipline of the Church, 
 in extirpating this pest of bad books, even as far back 
 as the times of the Apostles, who we read committed 
 a great number of books publicly to the flames. It 
 is enough to read the laws passed in the fifth Council 
 of Lateran on this subject, and the constitution af- 
 terwards promulgated by our predecessor of happy 
 memory, Leo X.; " that what was wholesomely in- 
 vented for the increase of faith, and for the extension 
 of useful arts, may not be diverted to a contrary 
 purpose, and become an obstacle to the salvation of 
 Christ's faithful/? The subject engaged the closest 
 attention of the Fathers of the Council of Trent, and 
 as a remedy to so great an evil, they passed that most 
 salutary decree for forming an index of the works in 
 which depraved doctrine was contained, "No means 
 must be here omitted," says Clement XII., our pre- 
 decessor of happy memory, in the Encyclical Letter 
 on the proscription of bad books — "no means must 
 be here omitted, as the extremity of the case calls for 
 all our exertions, to exterminate the fatal pest which 
 spreads through so many works ; nor can the mate- 
 rials of error be otherwise destroyed than by the 
 flames, which consume the depraved elements of 
 evil." From the anxious vigilance then of the Holy 
 
ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 21 
 
 Apostolical See, through every age, in condemning 
 and removing from men's hands suspected and pro- 
 fane books, becomes more than evident the falsity, 
 the rashness and the injury offered to the Apostolical 
 See by that doctrine, pregnant with the most deplora- 
 ble evils to the Christian world, advocated by some, 
 condemning this censure of books as a needless 
 burden, rejecting it as intolerable or with infamous 
 effrontery proclaiming it to be irreconcilable with 
 the rights of men or denying in fine the right of 
 exercising such a power, or the existence of it in the 
 Church. 
 
 Having, moreover, heard that doctrines are now 
 circulating in writings among the common people sub- 
 versive of the fidelity and the submission due to 
 princes, and that in consequence, the flame of sedition 
 is every where kindling; all care must be employed 
 to prevent the people being seduced from the path of 
 duty. Be the admonition of the Apostle known to 
 all, that u there is no power but from God; and those 
 that are ordained of God. Therefore he that resisteth 
 the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they 
 that resist purchase to themselves damnation." Where- 
 fore both divine and human laws strive against those 
 who, by the basest attachment of treason and rebel- 
 lion, strive to dissolve the bonds of allegiance to 
 princes, and to drive them from their states. 
 
 It was to preserve their character undefiled with 
 this foul blot, that the Christians of old, under the age 
 of persecution, continued to deserve the praise of the 
 Emperors and of the Empire, not merely by the 
 fidelity, exactness, and promptitude with which they 
 
 3 
 
22 ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 
 
 discharged every office imposed upon them, not at 
 variance with their religion, but more particularly by 
 their constancy in the field, and the readiness with 
 which they shed their blood in the common cause. 
 "The Christian soldier," says St. Augustine, "fought 
 under the banner of the Pagan Emperor; but when 
 the cause of Christ came on, he acknowledged no 
 other than his celestial Master. He separated the 
 character of his eternal from that of his temporal 
 Lord; but to please the former, he became the obe- 
 dient subject of the latter. It was with eyes steadily 
 fixed on this distinction, that Mauritus, the dauntless 
 martyr, and the Theban legion's captain, found a 
 ready answer to the Emperor, as recorded by St. Eu- 
 cherius; "We are your soldiers, Emperor, but we 
 are bold to confess, that we are at the same time 
 servants of God. And now, not the least hope of life 
 moves us to rebel. With arms in our hands we 
 remain defenceless, for we choose rather to die than 
 to shed blood." But to set in its true light the fide- 
 lity of the first Christians to their princes, we should 
 remember with Tertullian, that at that time the Chris- 
 tians were neither wanting in numbers, nor in re- 
 sources to resist their persecutors. " We are but of 
 yesterday," he exclaims, "yet do we fill every place 
 around you; your cities and your islands; your for- 
 tresses and your municipal towns; your councils, your 
 very camps; yoin; tribunes and the palace, the senate 
 and the forum. To what warlike achievements should 
 we not be adequate, and prepared for, even against 
 forces more numerous than ourselves? We, who so 
 little fear death, if our religion did not require us 
 
ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 23 
 
 rather to suffer than to inflict death. If numerous as 
 we are, we had retired from you in some distant 
 corner of the earth, the desertion of so many citizens 
 of every class, would have branded the character of 
 your government with infamy, and would itself have 
 been your punishment. Then would you have stood 
 aghast at the solitude extending before you. You 
 would have asked for your own subjects. The num- 
 ber of your enemies would then have exceeded that 
 of the citizens left behind, but as it is, those enemies 
 show meanly before the multitude of Christians." 
 
 These illustrious examples of unshaken subjection 
 to Rulers necessarily flowing from the ever holy pre- 
 cepts of the Christian religion, loudly condemn the 
 insolence and impiety of those who, maddening in 
 the free unbridled passion of untamed liberty, leave 
 no stone unturned to break down and destroy the 
 constitution of states, and under the appearance of 
 liberty to bring slavery on the people. This was the 
 object of the impious ravings and scheme of the Wal- 
 de?ises, of the Beguardians, of the WicklifRtes, and of 
 the other children of Belial, the refuse of human 
 nature and its stain, who were so often and so justly 
 anathematized by the Apostolic See. Nor had they 
 any other object than to triumph with Luther in the 
 boast " that they were independent of every one," 
 and to attain this the more easily and readily, they 
 fearlessly waded through every crime. 
 
 Nor can we augur more consoling consequences to 
 religion and to government, from the zeal of some to 
 separate the church from the state, and to burst 
 the bond which unites the priesthood to the Empire. 
 
24 ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 
 
 For it is clear that this union is dreaded by the pro- 
 fane lovers of liberty, only because it has never failed 
 to confer prosperity on both. 
 
 But in addition to the other bitter causes of our 
 solicitude, and of that weight of sorrow which op- 
 presses us in the midst of so much confusion, come 
 certain associations and political assemblies, in which, 
 as if a league were struck with the followers of every 
 false religion and form of worship, under a pretended 
 zeal for piety, but in reality urged by the desire of 
 change, and of promotion, liberty of every kind is 
 maintained, revolutions in the state and in religion are 
 fomented, and the sancity of all authority is torn in 
 pieces. 
 
 Willi a heavy heart, but with confidence in Him 
 who commands the winds, and brings tranquillity; — 
 We have written on these subjects to you, venerable 
 brethren, that putting on the buckler of faith, you may 
 be encouraged to go forth to fight the battles of the 
 Lord. You above all others it behooveth to stand as 
 a wall against every height, exalting itself against the 
 knowledge of God. Unsheath then, the sword of the 
 Spirit, which is the Word of God, and let those who 
 hunger after justice receive bread from your hands. 
 Called to be labourers in the vineyard of the Lord, 
 confine yourself to this, labour at this, that every root of 
 bitterness may be torn up in the field entrusted to your 
 care, and that every noxious weed being destroyed, 
 a joyful harvest of virtues may flourish. Embrace 
 with paternal tenderness those in particular, who have 
 devoted their minds to sacred studies and to philo- 
 sophical inquiries. Exhort them and warn them, how- 
 
ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 25 
 
 ever, against an imprudent reliance on the unassisted 
 powers of their own minds which might seduce from 
 the pathway of truth, into the highroad of impiety. — 
 Bid them remember that " God is the guide of wis- 
 dom, and the director of the wise/' and that without 
 God it is impossible to understand the nature of God, 
 who teaches men by his word to know God. He is a 
 proud, or rather a foolish man, who weighs in a bal- 
 ance the mysteries of faith which surpass all human 
 understanding, or who confides in the deductions of his 
 own intellect, which, subject to the common fatality 
 of human nature, is necessarily weak and infirm. 
 
 May this our zeal for the welfare of religious and 
 public order, acquire aid and authority from the 
 princes, Our dearest sons in Christ, who let them 
 reflect, have received their power not merely for their 
 temporal rule, but chiefly for the protection of the 
 Church. Let them carefully observe, that whatever 
 is done for the good of the Church, necessarily bene- 
 fits their government and confirms the peace of their 
 states. Let them be persuaded that the cause of the 
 faith interests them more nearly than that of their 
 kingdom; and let them weigh the vast importance to 
 themselves, (We speak with St. Leo, the Sovereign 
 Pontiff,) "that the crown of faith should be added to 
 the diadem which they have received from the hand 
 of God." Placed over their subjects as parents and 
 guardians, they will ensure for them a true, constant, 
 rich repose, and tranquillity, if they make it their first 
 care to protect religion and piety towards God, who 
 has written on his thigh, "King of kings, and Lord 
 of lords." 
 
 3* 
 
26 ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 
 
 But that all may have a successful and happy issue, 
 let us raise our eyes to the most blessed Virgin Mary, 
 who alone destroys heresies, who is our greatest 
 
 HOPE, YEA, THE ENTIRE GROUND OF OUR HOPE. May 
 
 she exert her patronage, to draw down an efficacious 
 blessing on our desires, our plans, and proceedings, in 
 the present straitened condition of the Lord's flock. 
 We will also implore, in humble prayer, from Peter, 
 the prince of the apostles, and from his fellow apostle 
 Paul, that you may all stand as'a wall to prevent any 
 other foundation than what hath been laid; and sup- 
 ported by this cheering hope, We have confidence 
 that the Author and Finisher of Faith, Jesus Christ, 
 will at last console us all in the " tribulations which 
 have found us exceedingly. " To you, venerable 
 brethren, and to the flocks committed to your care, 
 We most lovingly impart, as auspicious of celestial 
 help, the apostolical benediction. 
 
 Dated at Rome, from St. Mary Major's, August 
 15th, the festival of the Assumptions of the same 
 Blessed Virgin Mary, the year of our Lord 1S32, 
 of our Pontificate the second." 
 
 We have preferred inserting the entire encyclical 
 letter to presenting mere extracts, because, however 
 perfectly the meaning of Pope Gregory might have 
 been furnished, we should have been charged with 
 intentional misrepresentation, or at least with unfair 
 and garbled quotation, had we selected those passages 
 only which have a direct bearing upon the institu- 
 tions of this country. 
 
 Let it be remembered, that the opinions set forth 
 
LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE. 27 
 
 in the above letter are the real sentiments of the 
 Head of the Roman Church. He writes from Rome, 
 surrounded by the glitter and pomp of the Vatican, 
 in the midst of a people, debased by superstition and 
 ignorance, who for centuries have groaned under 
 papal bondage, until their necks have become accus- 
 tomed to the yoke. The liberty of the press and 
 liberty of conscience are abstractions in the papal do- 
 minions, and the people of Italy can have no definite 
 idea of either, for the simple reason that they know 
 nothing of their operation except from hearsay, and 
 but very little from that source. The Pope himself 
 has never dwelt amongst a people who have been ac- 
 customed to think and speak for themselves, and it 
 is in the nature of things impossible for him to 
 appreciate the condition of a nation, who are not 
 dependent upon himself or his vassals for the creed 
 which they profess, or the form of worship which 
 they prefer. Reared in the midst of despotism — 
 himself a despot — accustomed to the servile homage 
 of all who acknowledge him as their temporal and 
 spiritual chief — flattered by the blasphemous adula- 
 tions of ghostly sycophants and exulting in the im- 
 pious appellations of Sovereign Lord, and God's 
 Vicegerent upon Earth, we are not surprised that 
 the Pope of Rome in the exuberance of pride and 
 bigotry, an$ in the overflowings of his blind zeal 
 for the spiritual and temporal supremacy which he 
 claims as his due, should denounce liberty of con- 
 science as a "most pestilential error," "an ab- 
 surd and erroneous doctrine or rather raving" — 
 we marvel not, that from his chair of state, and in 
 
2S DR. KENRICK's CARD. 
 
 his purple robe, with prostrate worshippers adoring 
 at his feet and kissing the glittering cross upon his 
 slipper, in token of abject submission, he should find 
 it in his heart to declare that " liberty of opinion" is 
 a "pest of all others most to be dreaded in a 
 state ; M but with such sentiments before us, and 
 from such a source, we confess we do admire the 
 assurance of a Roman prelate, who styles himself the 
 Bishop of Philadelphia, in openly proclaiming before 
 an American public his earnest* advocacy of Liberty 
 of Conscience, when this very man is bound by an 
 oath, which we shall present in due season, to obey 
 the mandates of his Master at Rome. What does 
 Dr. Kenrick mean when he concluded his card " to 
 the citizens of Philadelphia and the public generally," 
 dated March 12, 1844, in these terms : 
 
 "The undersigned expresses these views in behalf 
 of the Catholic community. The holding of any pn'blic 
 meeting has been avoided, lest Catholics should share 
 in any degree the responsibility of the public excite- 
 ment which has been caused most unnecessarily on 
 this subject. — It is their sincere desire to cultivate 
 peace and all the social charities with all their fellow 
 citizens, and to leave to others, what they temperately 
 ask for themselves — Liberty of Conscience. 
 
 t Francis Patrick, 
 
 Bishop Philadelphia." 
 
 Here we pause to inquire: Has Dr. Kenrick ever 
 taken a certain oath in which the following passage 
 occurs, or has he not ? 
 
 " With my whole strength I shall observe and 
 cause to be observed by others, the rules of the 
 
A QUANDARY. 29 
 
 Holy Fathers, the decrees, ordinances, or disposi- 
 tions, reservations, provisions, and mandates or the 
 Apostolic See. According to my ability, I shall 
 pursue and impugn heretics, schismatics, and rebels 
 against our said Lord, or his successors as aforesaid." 
 
 Is it indeed true, that the advocacy of liberty of 
 conscience is "a most pestilential error?" The 
 Pope has affirmed it, and if he has spoken the truth, 
 then is Dr. Kenrick a "most pestilential" errorist! 
 Has Dr. Kenrick sworn to observe the mandates of 
 the Apostolic See, with his whole strength; or, has 
 he not? Assuredly he has, or he never could have 
 earned from the Pope the title of Bishop of Phila- 
 delphia. If so, then he is bound to the utmost of 
 his power to curb this "pest of all others most to be 
 dreaded," and to destroy the odious principle of 
 liberty of conscience. And yet, be astonished, 
 Gregory! Dr. Kenrick has in the presence "of the 
 citizens of Philadelphia and the public generally," 
 become the avowed apologist of this "absurd and 
 erroneous doctrine." — Nay, more, he has encouraged 
 his flock to do the same! Hearken, Oh! Pope! and 
 let the tidings stun thee ! Thy vassal — thy sworn vas- 
 sal in defiance of "the rules of the Holy Fathers," 
 and in spite of "the decrees, ordinances, dispositions, 
 provisions, and mandates of the Apostolic See," has 
 fallen to "raving in favour of and in defence of 
 liberty of conscience!" 
 
 Liberty of conscience ? But has not the man taken 
 a great oath that, "according to his ability, he will 
 pursue, and impugn heretics, schismatics, and rebels 
 against his said Lord?" Admit it; but what then? 
 
30 PORTENTOUS OMENS. 
 
 He promises this, according to his ability, and that 
 at present is very slender. In this matter, let Dr. 
 Kenrick be blameless; he hath done what he could. 
 Mortal man, be he bishop or layman, can do no 
 more. Doubtless, as his ability increases, he will 
 "pursue and impugn" to better purpose. 
 
 But let us return to the Pope's letter. The oath 
 shall be weighed anon. When the Encyclical letter 
 of 1832 was penned, the Pope was evidently dis- 
 turbed by the signs of the times. They were not 
 auspicious. As he looked over the field which the 
 Roman Pontiff had once possessed and occupied— 
 not, however, to cultivate — but to waste and to des- 
 troy — as visions of the past floated before his imagi- 
 nation, the future loomed up black with portentous 
 omens. His holiness was seized with a fit of trem- 
 bling, and in his agitation, his fears were recorded. 
 He saw that "unbridled liberty of opinion, licentious- 
 ness of speech, and a lust of novelty" — by which, 
 kind reader, understand — a disposition to dissent 
 from the mandates of the Apostolic See — an increas- 
 ing propensity to speak in terms derogatory to the 
 Pope, and an intense desire to be freed from his in- 
 tolerable oppression — he perceived, we say, that these 
 subjects were becoming popular, and in their preva- 
 lence, he saw portended, "the downfall of the most 
 powerful and flourishing empires!" He gives vent 
 to his feelings in these terms : 
 
 " Hither tends that worst and never sufficiently to 
 be execrated and detested liberty of the press, for the 
 diffusion of all manner of writings, which some so 
 loudly contend for and so actively promote. We 
 
THE INDEX PROHIBITORY. 31 
 
 shudder, venerable brethren, at the sight of the mon- 
 strous doctrines, or rather portentous errors, which 
 crowd upon us in the shape of numberless volumes 
 and pamphlets, small in size, but big with evils, 
 which stalk forth in every direction; breathing a 
 malediction which we deplore, over the face of the 
 earth." 
 
 As if to cut off every possibility of successful or 
 even plausible evasion, the "shuddering" Pontiff in 
 his tremor, adverts to the well known u discipline of 
 the Church in extirpating this pest of bad books," 
 and after adducing apostolic example as a safe pre- 
 cedent, he refers the Patriarchs, Primates, Arch- 
 bishops and Bishops, to whom his letter is addressed,. 
 to the laws passed in the Fifth Council of Lateran, 
 and to the subsequent enactments of the Fathers of 
 the Council of Trent, who passed that most salutary 
 decree for the formation of an Index prohibitory and 
 expurgatory, which has been continued from their 
 day to the present time, and has been annually swell- 
 ing and puffing in vain attempts to keep pace with 
 the movements of "that worst and never sufficiently 
 to be execrated and detested liberty of the press !" 
 As Pope Gregory calls attention to the decrees of the 
 Council of Trent, it may be well to advert for a 
 moment to a few of the enactments of that infallible 
 tribunal. No Roman prelate or priest will venture 
 to deny that the canons and decrees of that Council 
 are binding on " the Church" in every age and in 
 every land, or question the propriety of an appeal to 
 authority, to which the Pope himself admonishes 
 his patriarchs, primates, &c. &c. to resort. We follow 
 
32 THE RULES OF THE INDEX. 
 
 the Pontiff therefore as directed to the "Ten Rules" 
 enacted by the Council of Trent, and approved by 
 Pope Pius IV. in a Bull issued on the 24th of March, 
 A. D. 1564 : 
 
 The first rule confirms the condemnation of all 
 books published by Popes and councils prior to the 
 year 1515. 
 
 The second rule prohibits the works of all heretics 
 who flourished anterior to that period, and condemns 
 the works " of those who have 'been, or are, the heads 
 or leaders of heretics, as Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, 
 Balthasar Pacimontanus, Svvenchfeld, and other sim- 
 ilar ones." These "are altogether forbidden, what- 
 ever may be their names, titles, or subjects. And 
 the books of other heretics, which treat professedly 
 upon religion, are totally condemned." Such of their 
 books as do not treat upon religion and have " been 
 examined and approved by Catholic divines, by order 
 of the bishops and Inquisitors," are graciously "per- 
 mitted to be read." 
 
 The third rule relates principally to Translations 
 of the Scriptures, and provides that versions of the 
 Old Testament " may be allowed to learned and pious 
 men at the discretion of the Bishop — provided they 
 use them merely as elucidations of the Vulgate ver- 
 sion, in order to understand the Holy Scriptures, and 
 not as the Sacred text itself." As for translations 
 made by heretics, they "are allowed to no one" 
 
 The fourth rule relates to the circulation of the 
 Scriptures, and is as follows : " Inasmuch as it is 
 manifest from experience, that if the Holy Bible, 
 translated into the vulgar tongue, be indiscriminately 
 
THE RULES OF THE INDEX. 33 
 
 allowed to every one, the temerity of men will cause 
 more evil than good to arise from it, it is on this 
 point referred to the judgment of the bishops, or in- 
 quisitors, who may by the advice of the priest or 
 confessor, permit the Bible translated into the vulgar 
 tongue by Catholic authors, to those persons whose 
 faith and piety, they apprehend, will be augmented, 
 and not injured by it ; and this permission they must 
 have in writing. But if any one shall have the pre- 
 sumption to read or possess it without such written 
 permission, he shall not receive absolution until he 
 have first delivered up such Bible to the ordina- 
 ry. Booksellers, however, who shall sell, or other- 
 wise dispose of Bibles in the vulgar tongue, to any 
 person not having such permission, shall forfeit the 
 value of the Books, to be applied by the bishop to 
 some pious use, and be subjected by the bishop to 
 such other penalties as the bishop shall judge proper, 
 according to the quality of the offence. But regulars 
 shall neither read nor purchase such Bibles without 
 a special license from their superiors." 
 
 The Fifth Rule provides, that lexicons, &c, edited 
 or compiled by heretics, may be used by the faithful 
 after " Catholic divines" have made " such corrections 
 and emendations as may be deemed requisite." 
 
 The Sixth Rule enjoins, that "books of contro- 
 versy betwixt the Catholics and heretics of the pre- 
 sent time, written in the vulgar tongue, are not to be 
 indiscriminately allowed, but are to be subjuct to the 
 same regulations as Bibles in the vulgar tongue." 
 
 The Seventh Rule utterly prohibits lascivious and 
 obscene books, excepting the works of antiquity, 
 
 4 
 
34 THE RULES OF THE INDEX. 
 
 written by the heathen, "because of the elegance and 
 propriety of the language, though on no account shall 
 they be suffered to be read by young persons." 
 
 The Eighth Rale permits the use of books, " the 
 principal subject of which is good, but in which some 
 things are occasionally introduced tending to heresy 
 and impiety" — after due correction " by Catholic di- 
 vines by the authority of the general inquisition." 
 
 The Ninth Rule utterly rejects " all books and wri- 
 tings of geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, pyro- 
 mancy, onomancy, chiromancy and necromancy 5 or 
 which treat of sorceries, poisons, auguries, auspices, 
 or magical incantations." 
 
 The Tenth Rale reiterates the rules ordained in 
 the 10th Session of the Council of Lateran, under Leo 
 X., and provides that if any book is to be printed at 
 Rome, it shall first be examined by the Pope's Vicar 
 and the masters of the sacred palace, or other persons 
 chosen by the Pope for that purpose. In other 
 places, this examination, shall be made by the resident 
 bishop, or some other person appointed by him. 
 Those who publish works in manuscript without this 
 approbation shall be subject to the same penalties as 
 those who print them, and those who read or possess 
 them shall be considered as the authors, if the real 
 authors of such writings do not avow themselves. 
 The rule also provides for frequent visitations of 
 printing establishments " by the bishop or his vicar, 
 conjointly with the inquisitor of heretical pravity, so 
 that nothing that is prohibited may be printed, kept, 
 or sold." Booksellers are required to keep a cata- 
 logue of the books which they have on sale, duly 
 
THE RULES OP THE INDEX. 35 
 
 authenticated by the said deputies — an infringement 
 of this ordinance exposes them to the forfeiture of the 
 forbidden books. As for foreign works it is ordained, 
 that " no one shall presume to give to read, or lend, 
 or sell any book which he or any other person has 
 brought into the city, until he has shown it to the 
 deputies, and obtained their permission unless it be a 
 work well known to be universally allowed." 
 
 " Heirs and testamentary executors shall make no 
 use of the books of the deceased, nor in any way 
 transfer them to others, until they have presented a 
 catalogue of them to the deputies, and obtained their 
 license, under pain of the confiscation of the books, 
 or the infliction of such other punishment as the bishop 
 or inquisitor shall deem proper, according to the con- 
 tinuancy or quality of the delinquent." 
 
 After some further statement of the discretionary 
 power of the bishops and general inquisitors the " Ten 
 Rules" conclude with the following pithy summary. 
 
 "Finally, it is enjoined on all the faithful, that no 
 one presume to keep or read any books contrary to 
 these rules, or prohibited by this index. But if any 
 one keep or read any books composed by heretics, or 
 the writings of any author suspected of heresy or false 
 doctrine, he shall instantly incur the sentence of ex- 
 communication, and those who read or keep works 
 interdicted on another account besides the mortal sin 
 committed, shall be severely punished at the will of 
 the bishops." 
 
 This is a summary of the ten commandments 
 which the Church of Rome has bound upon the con- 
 
36 LIBERTY OF THE PRESS. 
 
 sciences of her subjects, respecting the use of books. 
 Now we ask, is it possible for language to convey a 
 more determined opposition to the liberty of the 
 press than is presented in these rules of the index 
 and in the Pope's solemn endorsement of them in 
 his encyclical letter? Surely if words mean any 
 thing, the Council of Trent intended to put restric- 
 tions upon the circulation of books whose influence 
 should be deemed unfavourable to the tenets of the 
 Church ; and Pope Gregory designed to express his 
 approbation of that "most salutary decree for form- 
 ing an index of the works in which depraved doc- 
 trine was contained," which was %i passed by the 
 Fathers of the Council of Trent." And we ask 
 again, would it not be an arduous undertaking to 
 frame laws better calculated to repress liberty of 
 thought and discussion, and to shackle every free 
 expression of opinion, than the ten rules of the index 
 prohibitory and expurgatory? The law of the Pope, 
 the decree of the Church of Rome, the sentence of 
 her bishops and priests, is, that if any one reads or 
 even keeps books composed by heretics, or the writ- 
 ings of any author suspected of heresy, or false doc- 
 trine, if, without permission, he reads the Holy 
 Bible translated into the vulgar tongue — or if he 
 fails to have this permission in writing, and refuses 
 to deliver up such Bible to the ghostly authority that 
 claims it — if he inherits a forbidden book as a bequest 
 from some deceased friend — he instantly incurs the 
 penalty of excommunication — living he is under the 
 censure and curse of the Church; dying his body 
 is excluded from consecrated ground, and his soul 
 
A DILEMMA. 37 
 
 delivered over to Satan ! We appeal to the Pope's 
 own law and testimony. If we have erred in our 
 statement, let the " Ten Rules" convict us. Surely, 
 there can be but one opinion relative to the position 
 of Gregory XVI. and the Church, as represented 
 by the Councifof Trent on this momentous subject. 
 To the reigning pontiff the idea of giving men liberty 
 to think, speak, and write their sentiments on poli- 
 tics and religion without ecclesiastical supervision, is 
 terrific; he shudders at it! Now, be it remembered, 
 that this Encyclical letter is addressed specially to 
 the bishops of the Church of Rome, who are sworn 
 with their whole strength to observe and cause to 
 be observed by others, the decrees, ordinances, and 
 mandates of the Apostolic See. By his solemn oath 
 every Roman bishop is bound, therefore, with all 
 his strength to endeavour to crush the liberty of 
 the press; if he winks at this "monstrous doctrine" 
 — if he connives, to any extent, at this " portentous 
 error" — above all, if he advocates "that worst and 
 never sufficiently to be execrated and detested liberty 
 of the press," is he not recreant to his master, and 
 false to his oath ? In the style of the New York 
 Philistine, we say: Now, therefore, John Hughes, 
 Francis Patrick Kenrick, and ye other ghostly de- 
 ceivers of the public, stand forth and meet this alter- 
 native. Choose ye upon which horn of this dilemma 
 you will be impaled before the American people! 
 You, John Hughes, among your "'nine propositions" 
 have proclaimed and reiterated your advocacy of 
 Liberty of Conscience! Read again, your first, 
 
 your fifth, your sixth, and seventh propositions, all 
 
 4*. 
 
38 THE "BISHOP OF NEW YORK." 
 
 of which might have been summed up in that which 
 you term the sixth, without detriment to your cate- 
 gory or to the public. In that paragraph you affirm: 
 " I have always contended for the right of conscience ; 
 for all men, as universally as they are recognized in 
 the American constitution." Be it so, sir, then you 
 have disobeyed an ordinance of the Apostolic See, 
 whose mandates you have nevertheless sworn to obey. 
 Now, look at the seventh proposition, and though 
 essentially the same as the sixth, yet as you have 
 amplified so largely, we will improve your repetition. 
 You affirm: "I have always preached that every 
 denomination, Jews, Christians, Catholics, Protestants, 
 of every sect and shade, were all entitled to the 
 entire enjoyment of freedom of conscience, without 
 let or hindrance from any other denomination, or set 
 of denominations — no matter how small their num- 
 ber or how unpopular the doctrines they professed." 
 Now this is either true or false. If it be false, 1 ask, 
 how dare you, John Hughes, deliberately utter that 
 which you know to be untrue? How dare you at- 
 tempt to deceive the public by misrepresenting the 
 dogmas and the tendency of Popery? And, if it be 
 true, I ask again, how dare you — you who have 
 sworn that according to your ability, you will pursue 
 and impugn heretics, schismatics, and rebels against 
 your lord the Pope — oh! how dare you affirm that 
 you have always preached that Protestants of every 
 sect and shade are all entitled to the entire enjoyment 
 of freedom of conscience without let or hindrance? 
 Freedom of conscience? Do you not know, John 
 Hughes, that " Protestants of every sect and shade" 
 
the pope's curse. 39 
 
 are once a year cursed in public at Rome, by the 
 Pope in person? Look at the third section of that 
 impious Bulla in Coena Domini which your master 
 pronounced last Maundy Thursday, and what is its 
 import ? " We excommunicate and anathematize, 
 in the name of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost, and by the authority of the blessed apostles, 
 Peter and Paul, and by our own; all Hussites, Wic- 
 liffites, Lutherans, Zuinglians, Calvinists, Hugonots, 
 Anabaptists, Trinitarians, and apostates from the 
 Christian faith; and all other heretics by whatsoever 
 name they are called, and of whatsoever sect they 
 be; as also their adherents, receivers, favourers, and 
 generally any defenders of them; together with all 
 who without our authority, or that of the Apostolic 
 See, knowingly read, keep, print, or any ways, for 
 any cause whatsoever, publicly or privately, on any 
 pretext or colour, defend their books containing here- 
 sy, or treating of religion, as also schismatics and 
 those who withdraw themselves from the obedience 
 of us, or of the Bishop of Rome for the time being." 
 What say you to this mandate of the Apostolic 
 See? How do your "propositions" square with it 
 and your oath ? But John Hughes is an advocate of 
 the liberty of the press also, the Pope's letter and 
 curse and his own oath to the contrary notwithstand- 
 ing! John Hughes in his second letter to Col. Stone 
 affirms: "My last letter ought to satisfy you that I 
 regard a free press as essential to the well-being of a 
 free country." This, we are aware, is not equivalent 
 to a declaration that Mr. Hughes is the friend either 
 of a free press or a free country — but it is obviously 
 
40 THE POPE IN TERROR. 
 
 intended to imply that he is; and again we shut him 
 up to the choice of the alternative already presented. 
 Alas ! Gregory! dost thou quake at the abstract idea 
 of a free press ? — How canst thou bear to hear the 
 " Bishop of New York" "rave" in favour of " that 
 never sufficiently to be execrated and detested liber- 
 ty?" Poor man! His sorrows multiply ! Hear him, 
 "We shudder, venerable brethren." — Gregory — so 
 do we! but not so much at the blind bigotry of a 
 benighted Pope, as at the infa'mous prevarication of 
 his vassal bishops. 
 
 Another topic claims our attention for a moment. 
 Amongst many items of interest in the Encyclical 
 Letter, there is one more passage which is too signifi- 
 cant to be passed over in silence, especially as it 
 rebukes the boastful pretensions of Roman prelates 
 to the rights of American citizenship, and to the prin- 
 ciples of American freedom. After a piteous lamen- 
 tation over the prevalence of " the free unbridled 
 passion of untamed liberty," the pontiff continues in 
 this lugubrious strain. 
 
 " Nor can we augur more consoling consequences 
 to religion and to government, from the zeal of some 
 to separate the church from the state, and to 
 burst the bond which unites the priesthood to the 
 empire. For it is clear that this union is dreaded by 
 the profane lovers of liberty, only because it has 
 never failed to confer prosperity on both." 
 
 Hearken, ye patriarchs and primates, ye arch- 
 bishops, and above all ye bishops of the Roman 
 Church, who have dared in defiance of your master's 
 bidding and of your own bond, to stand forth as the 
 
CHURCH AND STATE. 41 
 
 advocates of freedom! Will you now venture to tell 
 us that your sovereign lord has any sympathy with 
 the principles of rational liberty, or that you who 
 have vowed perpetual fidelity to the mandates of 
 the pope of Rome, are honest men when you glory 
 in the title of American citizens? You do not desire 
 a union of Church and State! You are the friends 
 and favourers of the religious equality of all denomi- 
 nations! But your church is not a sect — no, it is the 
 church; and therefore when you thus jesuitically 
 advocate the equality of all denominations, there is 
 an apostolic reservation in favour of the supremacy 
 of the Church of Rome. — Is it not so, sirs? Your 
 apparent zeal for liberty of conscience is more subjec- 
 tive than objective. You affect liberty, to make 
 other men's consciences accord with your own reli- 
 gious belief. — Well has your master stigmatized some 
 men as "profane lovers of liberty," 
 
 The conclusion of the Encyclical Letter is worthy 
 of its author. The Pope winds up his invectives 
 against every cherished principle of human right and 
 liberty, by an undisguised avowal of idolatry. 
 
 "But that all may have a successful and happy 
 issue, let us raise our eyes to the most blessed Virgin 
 Mary, who alone destroys heresies, who is our 
 
 GREATEST HOPE, YEA THE ENTIRE GROUND OF OUR 
 
 hope. May she exert her patronage, to draw down 
 an efficacious blessing on our desires, our plans, and 
 proceedings, in the present straitened condition of the 
 Lord's flock." 
 
 We rejoice that "our hope" of the prevalence and 
 triumph of truth rests not upon the patronage of the 
 
42 THE BISHOP'S OATH. 
 
 blessed Virgin, though we acknowledge that she was 
 highly favoured among women. Our hope is in 
 God; all our "expectation is from him." Gregory, 
 thy throne is falling! God's curse is upon it and thee! 
 For "thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that 
 trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose 
 heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like 
 the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good 
 cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the 
 wilderness in a salt land and not inhabited." So 
 shalt thou faint and fail, Gregory, until thine arm 
 shall be clean dried up, and thy right eye shall be 
 utterly darkened! 
 
 FORM OF THE BISHOP'S OATH. 
 
 BTJLY AUTHENTICATED.* 
 
 "I N. Elect of the Church of N. shall be from this 
 hour henceforward faithful and obedient to blessed 
 Peter the Apostle, and to the holy Roman Church, 
 and to our Lord N. Pope N. and to his successors 
 canonically chosen. I shall not, either by consent or 
 action, have any share ..in any plot against their life 
 or limb, or to arrest them unlawfully, or to lay vio- 
 lent hands on them in any way, or to inflict any inju- 
 ries, under any pretext. I shall disclose to no one to 
 
 * We choose this version because it has been furnished by 
 Eugene Cummiskey, a Roman Catholic Bookseller, in Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
the bishop's oath. 43 
 
 their prejudice, knowingly, the counsel which they 
 may communicate to me, either by themselves, or 
 by their messengers, or letters. I shall assist them to 
 retain and defend against any man whatever, the 
 Roman Popedom, and the privileges of St. Peter, 
 without prejudice to my rank. I shall treat honour- 
 ably the Legate of the Apostolic See, going and re- 
 turning, and I shall relieve him in his necessities. I 
 shall take care to preserve, defend, increase, and pro- 
 mote the rights, honours, privileges and authority of 
 the Holy Roman Church, of our Lord the Pope, and 
 of his successors, as aforesaid. Nor shall I partici- 
 pate in any plot, or act, or transaction, wherein any 
 thing unjust or prejudicial to their persons, right, 
 honor, state, and power may be devised against our 
 said Lord, or the said Roman Church. And. should I 
 know that such things are treated of, or attempted, I 
 shall hinder them to the best of my power ; and as 
 speedily as possible I shall signify it to our said Lord, 
 or to another, through whom it may come to his 
 knowledge. With my whole strength I shall ob- 
 serve, and cause to be observed by others, the rules 
 of the holy Fathers, the decrees, ordinances, or dispo- 
 sitions, reservations, provisions, and mandates of the 
 Apostolic See. According to my ability I shall 
 pursue and impugn heretics, schismatics, and rebels 
 against our said Lord, or his successors as aforesaid. 
 When called to a synod, I shall come, unless I be 
 prevented by a canonical impediment. I shall per- 
 sonally visit the Apostolic See once every ten years, 
 and render an account to our Lord, and his successors 
 as aforesaid, of my whole pastoral office, and of every 
 
44 the bishop's oath. 
 
 thing in any way appertaining to the state of my 
 Church, to the discipline of the clergy andppeople, and 
 to the salvation of the souls entrusted to my care, and 
 I shall humbly receive in return the Apostolic man- 
 dates, and most diligently execute them. But if I be 
 prevented by a lawful impediment, I shall perform 
 all the things aforesaid by a certain messenger spe- 
 cially authorized for this purpose, taken from my 
 chapter, or by some other one in ecclesiastical dig- 
 nity, or otherwise in office ; ot in failure of both by a 
 priest of the diocese, or should my clergy altogether 
 fail, by some other secular, or regular priest of tried 
 virtue and piety, well instructed on all the above sub- 
 jects. And I shall furnish lawful evidence of the 
 impediment, and forward it, by the aforesaid messen- 
 ger, to the Cardinal Reporter of the congregation of 
 the Sacred Council. 
 
 " I shall not sell, nor give away, nor mortgage, nor 
 enfeoff anew, nor in any way alienate the possessions 
 belonging to my table, even with the consent of the 
 Chapter of my Church, without the leave of the Ro- 
 man Pontiff. And should I proceed to any alienation 
 of them, I am willing to contract by the very fact the 
 penalties specified in the Constitution published on 
 this subject. " 
 
 "The Consecrator holding with both his hands the 
 book of the Gospels open on his lap, the Elect still 
 kneeling before him touches the sacred text with 
 both hands, and says: < So may God- help me, and 
 these holy Gospels of God.' Then, and not before, 
 the Consecrator says: c Thanks be to God.' " 
 
THE BISHOP, A VASSAL. 45 
 
 The authenticity and genuineness of this form of 
 the oath, will not be questioned, and whilst we agree 
 with those who deem the translation as mild as a 
 decent regard to the sense of the original will permit, 
 we are willing to let it go forth in the garb which it has 
 assumed, because, with all the trimming and the nice 
 adjustment of terms, which it has received from those 
 whose interest it was to keep up appearances even 
 in a case as desperate as the one before us, the oath 
 is after all, one of the most atrocious violations of the 
 allegiance due to the laws and to society, which the 
 discipline of the Church of Rome has dared to perpe- 
 trate. No community that is true to its own interests, 
 can regard .with unconcern the attempt to establish 
 within itself a foreign power, which shall be ruled by 
 laws framed by an authority entirely beyond the con- 
 trol of the constituted government of the land. 
 
 The establishment of an imperium in imperio is 
 an act of bad faith which has ever been regarded in 
 civilized countries as treasonable. We ask any un- 
 prejudiced man, possessed of common sense, whether 
 this oath, bearing as it does in its very terms, the evi- 
 dence of having been framed in feudal times, does 
 not bind every Roman Bishop in this country to 
 the most abject submission to a foreign potentate — 
 whether, in a word, it does not make every man who 
 swears it, to all intents and purposes a vassal of the 
 Pope? So evident is this fact, that in the notes with 
 which the oath is garnished in the Roman Catholic 
 edition published in this city, the following remark is 
 made : 
 
 "The feudal style is here apparent : but the fidelity 
 
 5 
 
46 THE APOLOGY WEIGHED 
 
 to which a Christian bishop pledges himself towards 
 the chief bishop of the Church is widely different from 
 that of the vassal to his liege-lord. Though there be 
 a similarity in the terms, the spiritual bond is of a 
 higher and purer character. The bishop is faithful 
 to blessed Peter, the Apostle, and 10 the holy Roman 
 Church, and to the actual Pope, when he reveres and 
 honours the primacy divinely established, and holds, 
 with unswerving faith, the doctrine transmitted by 
 divine tradition, and ever maintained by that Apos- 
 tolic See. In the examination it is accurately ex- 
 pressed : fidelity, subjection, and obedience accord- 
 ing to canonical authority. Bianchi expressly says: 
 "we altogether deny that these clauses of their na- 
 ture imply an oath of vassalage or temporal fidel- 
 ity." — DelV esterior Politia della Chiesa, 1. III. c. 
 III., § 1. p. 305." 
 
 The design in the publication of this edition was to 
 make as favourable an impression as possible upon 
 the minds of those who are not Roman Catholics, but 
 who might from curiosity be induced to witness the 
 consecration of a Bishop ; it has scarcely been pub- 
 lished for the sake of circulation amongst Roman- 
 ists, for they do not usually trouble their reverend 
 fathers with impertinent questions, and they would 
 be disposed to pass over the Bishop's oath as a thing 
 entirely beyond their jurisdiction, especially as it is 
 pronounced in Latin. Protestants are more inquisi- 
 tive — hence Mr. Cummiskey's pamphlet, for which 
 he has deserved well of the entire community, perhaps 
 without intending it. At all events, we have a confes- 
 sion of a fact, which it would indeed have been almost 
 
AND FOUND WANTING. 47 
 
 impossible to deny, that the oath smacks strongly of 
 the feudal times. We cannot conceive any language 
 which could more straitly, and abjectly, and com- 
 pletely bind one man in bondage to another. The 
 bishop elect swears that he will be faithful and obe- 
 dient to "Our Lord, the Pope" — that he will take no 
 part in any measure opposed to the Pope's interest — 
 that he will keep his master's secrets — that he will 
 defend the Roman papacy against all men, and do 
 his utmost to promote the aggrandizement of the papal 
 authority — that he will signify to his lord, as soon as 
 possible, any information respecting dangers to which 
 the Pope's "right, honour, state or power" may be 
 exposed. 
 
 Here we pause for a moment — and in good faith 
 we ask, How dare men who enjoy the protection of 
 American laws, and even claim the rights of Ameri- 
 can citizenship, thus enter into league with a foreign 
 despot and pledge themselves to his service at all 
 hazards, under all circumstances, and against all men 
 who may oppose the Roman papacy ? If they will 
 be slaves — if they choose to sink down at the feet of 
 the Pontiff, clasp his knees and hail him as their 
 Sovereign Lord — if they would rather be the Pope's 
 vassals than be freemen, then in the name of all that 
 is Popish, let them go back to Rome, and never set 
 foot on American soil, until they have buried their 
 fetters arid every vestige of vassalage in the waters 
 of the Atlantic. 
 
 The Roman Bishop, by his own confession, is a 
 feudal servant of the Pope of Rome. This we know 
 may be denied. Suppose it to be. Then the Bishop 
 
4S ANOTHER DILEMMA. 
 
 is shut np to another dilemma. He either intends to 
 fulfil the provisions and promises of his oath, or he 
 does not. If he swears in good faith, then is he the 
 Pope's vassal. If he takes an oath which he does 
 not mean to fulfil, then is he a perjured man. We 
 take for granted the Bishop is sincere, and therefore 
 we assume the ground that he is an honest vassal of 
 the Pope — that however false he may be to the gov- 
 ernment which affords him its protection — however 
 recreant to the principles of American freedom, he is 
 and purposes to be, true and faithful to his sovereign 
 Lord. The definition of the term feudal is, "per- 
 taining to fees or sinecures by which lands are held 
 of a superior lord" — a vassal is "one who holds by 
 the will of a superior lord." Dr. Kenrick styles him- 
 self "Bishop of Philadelphia." Who has appointed 
 him to this Episcopal See? His Lord the Pope — 
 whose vassal he is — whom by oath he is sworn to 
 obey. But does Philadelphia belong to the Pope ? Is 
 he the sovereign Lord of this city of brotherly love? 
 If lie is, by whom was he appointed to this trust ? If 
 he is not, is not Dr. Kenrick an arrant usurper in 
 assuming so lofty a title without due authority? 
 
 The disclaimer in the rule, and the comment of 
 Bianchi may go for what they are worth — we have 
 given them to our readers, and if they choose to be- 
 lieve an anonymous disclaimer, rather than the oath 
 of the Bishop, so be it. But is it not mockery — is it 
 not a gross insult to the God of heaven, to call him 
 to witness an oath, which says one thing and means 
 another? If the feudal system has been abolished, 
 why is the "feudal style" retained? Would it not 
 
PERSECUTION OF HERETICS. 49 
 
 be a very easy matter to frame an oath, whose terms 
 should contain precisely what Mr. Cummiskey's 
 " Commentator" affirms respecting it ? Is it not as- 
 surance, to say the very least, worthy the brazen age 
 of Jesuitism to attempt to cancel such a bond as this 
 by the adduction of the dictum of " Bianchi :" " We 
 altogether deny that these clauses of their nature 
 imply an oath of vassalage, or temporal fidelity V* 
 Oh ! Bianchi ! Oh ! Tempora ! Oh ! Mores ! 
 
 There is another clause in this oath which requires 
 some explanation — it is the following : 
 
 "According to my ability, I shall pursue and im- 
 pugn heretics, schismatics and rebels against our said 
 Lord, or his successors as aforesaid." 
 
 The question here arises, what denominations of 
 men are included in the three classes specified in these 
 terms? Who are heretics? Who are schismatics ? 
 Who are rebels against the Pope? In the papal vo- 
 cabulary, these designations apply first to those who 
 dissent from any articles of faith as held and main- 
 tained by the Church of Rome. The term heretics 
 includes all protestant sects. In evidence of this we 
 refer the reader to the third section of the Bulla in 
 Coena Domini, quoted on a former page, in which 
 the Pope curses some Protestant sects by name, and 
 then extends his malediction to all "other heretics." 
 Schismatics are those who maintain the principal 
 doctrines and articles of faith of the Roman Church, 
 but repudiate her discipline and the pontifical juris- 
 diction ; and "Rebels against our Lord the Pope" 
 are those who apostatize from the faith as it is in 
 Rome, and cast off all allegiance to the Sovereign 
 
 5* 
 
50 A LEARNED COMMENT. 
 
 Pontiff. These characters, the Bishop, according to 
 his ability, has promised faithfully " to pursue and 
 impugn/' But what does he mean by pursuing and 
 impugning? We will hear Mr. Cummiskey's Com- 
 mentator, as he has kindly furnished us with a note 
 explanatory, and then we will ask the reader to 
 hear us. 
 
 " ' Haereticos, schismaticos, — pro posse persequar et 
 impugnabo,' is a pledge to use all possible diligence 
 as a Christian Bishop, to resist the inroads of heresy 
 and schism, and to extirpate them. The Latin term 
 6 persequor' means * to pursue,' and its original or 
 general acceptation does not include the idea of san- 
 guinary persecution. Persequi versibus, is to write 
 a poem, persequi oratione is to deliver a discourse, 
 persequi scriptis, is to assail by writing, persequi voce, 
 is to attack orally. Cicero uses the term without any 
 qualifying word, to express the philosophical exami- 
 nation of practical duties: ' Ejusmodi igitur credo res 
 Pansetium persecuturum fuisse, nisi aliquis casus 
 aut occupatio consilium ejus peremisset.' De Offi- 
 ciis, 1. III. § VII. 'I think that.Pansetius would 
 have followed up the examination of matters of this 
 kind, had not some unsuspected event, or employ- 
 ment, defeated his project/ The term is used abso- 
 lutely in regard to the bishop because he should in 
 every lawful way oppose error. The office of a 
 Christian Bishop is to guard the deposit of faith, to 
 govern the flock of Christ, to keep off the wolves from 
 the fold, and by exhortation and zealous exertion, to 
 preserve all in faith and unity. He must labour and 
 combat as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He must 
 
LABOUR LOST. 51 
 
 fight the good fight of faith, with the sword of the 
 Spirit which is the word of God. He must war a 
 good warfare. He must avoid a man who is a here- 
 tic, when repeated admonition proves vain, and he 
 must guard the faithful against the contamination of 
 his errors. All this can be done, and should be done 
 in a spirit of mildness and charity, with a view to the 
 salvation of all, and not by violence or persecution. 
 No one ever accused a Carrol or a Cheverus, of fail- 
 ing in the performance of this promise, though no 
 one ever reproached either with an unkind act, or 
 word, towards the deluded children of error. What 
 better interpretation can be given to the oath, than 
 the general conduct of Catholic bishops throughout 
 the world ? We pursue heretics, when we expose 
 their misrepresentations of Catholic doctrine ; we 
 attack schismatics, when we show the fallacy of the 
 pretexts whereby they seek to justify their separation 
 from the Church of Christ; 'the weapons of our 
 warfare are not carnal, but mighty to God, unto the 
 pulling down of fortifications, destroying counsels, 
 and every height that exalteth itself against the know- 
 ledge of God, and bringing into captivity every under- 
 standing unto the obedience of Christ. 2 Cor. x. 4.' " 
 So far the Commentator. We presume the intel- 
 ligent reader, after perusing this learned disquisition 
 upon the meaning of the Latin word " persequar" 
 will be etymologically convinced and persuaded that 
 the Church of Rome has never through her bishops 
 persecuted heretics, and that the oath is after all, a 
 very harmless thing — Perseqici versihus we are cor- 
 rectly informed is "to write a poem." — Very well, 
 
52 THE FREEMAN'S JOURNAL. 
 
 and persequi igne et gladio is to persecute with 
 fire and sword, and unless the testimony of history is 
 to be utterly discarded, heretics have ever been visited 
 with the latter mode of persecution, according to the 
 ability of the Pope's bishops. 
 
 The attempt to argue from the peculiar and tech- 
 nical uses of the word persequi, the uniform mildness 
 of the term, is a piece of sophistry too ridiculous to 
 deserve sober refutation. Now, we do not accuse 
 Dr. Kenrick or Dr. Hughes of having absolutely 
 sworn to bring heretics to the stake or the gibbet ; 
 they have promised no more than to do their best to 
 persecute and impugn or assail heretics. According 
 to their ability shall be their performance. If they 
 should ever have the power to rid the world and the 
 Church of the "pestilent fellows," who dare to dis- 
 cuss the tendencies of Popery, their oath compels 
 them to use it; but as they cannot do this, so long as 
 Americans go on "maddening in the free, unbridled 
 passion of untamed liberty," they must be content to 
 persecute them in verse, and to assail them with the 
 doggerel of the Freeman's Journal; thus : 
 
 " In that high cause they freely bled, 
 
 Our blood may flow again, 
 It matters little where 'tis shed, 
 
 We're waiting now the — when. 
 Let once the sounding signal boom — 
 
 The world then shall see 
 How small for all his froih and fume, 
 
 A braggart's strength may be. 
 Pulaski and Montgomery — 
 
 De Kalb and Lafayette ! 
 Deep in our holiest memory ^ 
 
 Your fame we cherish yet. 
 
ROMAN TOLERATION. 53 
 
 And shall these self-abasing slaves — 
 
 This blue-law canting crew — 
 These brawling braves — these " Native" knaves, 
 
 Your god-like work undo! 
 And on this consecrated soil 
 
 Would Persecution's hand 
 Tear down the patriot's work of toil — 
 
 Place on your flag a brand 1 
 Unsullied yet that flag shall wave, 
 
 That fame unshaken stand, 
 While Freedom wields a two-edg'd glaive, 
 
 To curb another bigot band." 
 
 This persecution, although the doggerel is severe, 
 can still be tolerated, whilst the Bishops' oath remains 
 inviolate, they having persecuted and assailed, " ac- 
 cording to their ability." That heretics are to be 
 tolerated when they cannot be extirpated, we know 
 the Church has long since decreed. This is the doc- 
 trine avowed in the notes of the Rhemish Testament, 
 published in the sixteenth century. There it is af- 
 firmed : 
 
 " The good must tolerate the evil when it is so 
 strong that it cannot be redressed without danger and 
 disturbance of the whole Church, and commit the mat- 
 ter to God's judgment in the latter day. Otherwise 
 where ill men, be they heretics or other malefactors, 
 may be punished or suppressed without disturbance 
 and hazard of the good, they may and ought by pub- 
 lic authority, either spiritual or temporal, to be chas- 
 tised or executed." — Note on Matt. xiii. 29. 
 
 But this was A. D. 1582. And what then? The 
 doctrines of the Church are always the same. Hear 
 a witness of the nineteenth century. In Dens' Sys- 
 
54 PUNISHMENT OF HERETICS. 
 
 tem of Moral Theology, the same sentiments are re- 
 peated ; and in the edition of 1838, Roman Catholic 
 students of divinity are taught as follows : 
 
 " Baptized infidels, such as heretics and apostates 
 usually are, also baptized schismatics, may be com- 
 pelled even by corporeal punishment, to return to the 
 Catholic faith and the unity of the Church." The 
 reason assigned for this is, that baptism, even though 
 performed by heretics, gives the Church jurisdiction 
 over them. " However," it is added, "it is not al- 
 ways expedient for the Church to use this right." 
 Speaking of the toleration of the rites of Jews, Dens 
 remarks : 
 
 "The rites of other infidels, viz., pagans and 
 heretics, in themselves considered, are not to be 
 tolerated; because they are so bad, that no truth or 
 advantage for the good of the Church can be thence 
 derived. Except, however, unless greater evils 
 would follow, or greater benefits be hindered." 
 Speaking of heresy, he says: "It is not to be tried, 
 or proved, but extirpated ; unless there may be rea- 
 sons, which may render it advisable that it should be 
 tolerated." The question is then asked, point blank — 
 
 "Are heretics rightly punished with death?" and 
 the answer is just as direct : 
 
 "St. Thomas answers, yes; because forgers of 
 money or other disturbers of the state are justly pun- 
 ished with death; therefore, also, heretics, who are 
 forgers of the faith; and, as experience shows, griev- 
 ously disturb the state." (See Synopsis of the Moral 
 Theology of Peter Dens; Lippincott, 1842; pp. 107, 
 108, 114, and 117.) 
 
 The whole idea is tersely expressed in the famous 
 
THE ALBIGENSES. 55 
 
 dictum of Cardinal Bellarmine. " Heretics, when 
 strong, are to be committed to God ; when weak, to 
 the executioner!" Or equally well, ill the bishop's 
 oath: " According to my ability, I shall pursue and 
 gnpugn heretics, schismatics, and rebels against" my 
 "Lord" the Pope. That the words do not contemplate 
 the milder forms of " pursuing," let the following 
 passage from the Bull of Innocent III., in which the 
 same terms are employed, be weighed ; they will 
 shed a little more light on the meaning of the phrase 
 and give the coup de grace to Mr. Cummiskey's 
 Commentator. They are taken from a bull addressed 
 to all archbishops and bishops, fulminated against 
 Raymond, Earl of Toulouse, and against the Albi- 
 genses, preserved by Perrin in his History of the Old 
 Albigenses; ch. 3, p. 77, folio, London, 1711. 
 
 " We therefore more strictly and earnestly admon- 
 ish and exhort you, as being a matter of so vast im- 
 portance and concern, that you would study and 
 endeavour, by all the means which God shall put 
 into your hands, {according to your ability,) to abol- 
 ish and destroy the wicked heresy of the Albigenses 
 and its followers; and that with more rigour and 
 severity than you would use towards the Saracens 
 themselves, persecuting and impugning them with 
 a strong hand and a stretched out arm, because they 
 are worse than they, and driving them out of the 
 land of the Lord, and depriving them of their lands 
 and possessions, banishing them, and putting Catho- 
 lics in their room." 
 
 So much for the "Bishop's oath." 
 
56 
 
 THE POPE'S CURSE. 
 
 The Bulla in Cgena Domini, pronounced at Rome, every Maundy 
 Thursday, against Heretics, and all Infringers of Ecclesiastical 
 Liberties. 
 
 "Section I. (Pope Paul's Preface.) The excommuni- 
 cation and anathematization of all heretics whatso- 
 ever, and their favourers, and schismatics, or of those 
 who violate the ecclesiastical liberty, or in any way 
 infringe the contents of this Bull, which is wont to 
 be published on Maundy Thursday. As for almost 
 all the chapters of this Bull (besides the 3d extrava- 
 gant of Paul II., and the 5th extravagant of Sixtus 
 IV., in the title of Penance and Remissions,) you 
 have them before ordained in the 1st Constitution of 
 Urban V., fol. 215, in the 25th Constitution of Julius 
 II., f. 482, in the 10th Constitution of Paul III., f. 
 522, and in the 81st Constitution of Gregory XIII., f. 
 348, lib. 2. Other Bulls of this nature called Bulls 
 in Coena Domini, I have purposely omitted, being 
 content with these, from which it may appear that 
 the Popes have made some variation in them ac- 
 cording to the exigency of the times. Yet I would 
 not omit those which follow, as being especially ne- 
 cessary, and particularly published upon the seve- 
 ral chapters of this Bull. There is extant there- 
 fore in this collection, a particular edict of Nicho- 
 las III., about the first section of this Bull, in his 2d 
 Constitution, Sup. fol. 143. Concerning Sect. 2, there 
 is extant, Const. 5 of Pius II., f. 290, 1. 1. Con- 
 
BULL IN CffiNA DOMINI. 57 
 
 cerning § 4. there is extant Const. 7, of Pius V., f. 
 137, 1. 2. Concerning § 7, is extant, Const. 3 of Ni- 
 cholas V., f. 283, 1. 1. Concerning § 10, is extant a 
 Canon of Calixtus in c. 23, Const. 24, qu. 3. Con- 
 cerning §'11, in respect of the Cardinals, is extant, 
 Const. 16, of Leo X., f. 420,1. 1. and Const. 93 of 
 Pius V., f. 222,1. 2. Concerning § 12, is extant Const. 
 11, of Alexander VI., f. 352. Concerning § 14, is 
 extant, Const. 2, of Martin V., f. 239, and Const. 17 
 of Innocent VIII., f. 343, and Const. 30 of Leo X., f. 
 440, and Const. 39, of Clement VII., f. 505, 1. 1, and 
 Const. 19 of Gregory XIII., f. 290,1. 2. Concerning 
 § 15, are many Canons in the Body of the Law, and 
 Const. 10, of Martin V., f. 247. Concerning § 19, is 
 extant, Const. 3, of Urban VI., f. 222. Concerning 
 § 20, is extant, Const. 8, of John XXII., f. 174, and 
 Const. 3, of Clement VI., f. 212, and Const. 13, of 
 Leo X., f. 314, and Const. 11, of Paul IV., f. 595. 
 Another like excommunication usually published on 
 Maundy Thursday, is extant in the 62d Constitution, 
 of our holy Lord Urban VIII., inf. Tom. 4. 
 
 " Sect. 2. Paul Bishop, Servant of the Ser- 
 vants of God, in perpetual memory of the 
 thing now decreed. — The pastoral vigilance and 
 care of the Bishop of Rome, being by the duty of 
 his office continually employed in procuring, by all 
 means, the peace and tranquillity of Christendom, is 
 more especially eminent in retaining and preserving 
 the unity and integrity of Catholic faith, without 
 which it is impossible to please God; that so the 
 faithful of Christ may not be as children wavering 
 nor be carried about with every wind of doctrine, by 
 
 6 
 
5S. THE CURSE ON HERETICS. 
 
 the cunning craft of men, whereby they lie in wait 
 to deceive ; but that all may meet in the unity of the 
 faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a 
 perfect man; that in the communion and society of 
 this life, they may not injure nor offend one another; 
 but rather being joined together with the bond of 
 charity, as members of one body under Christ the 
 Head, and his vicar upon earth, the Bishop of Rome, 
 St. Peter's successor ; from whom- the unity of the 
 whole Church doth flow, may be increased in edifi- 
 cation, and by the assistance of the divine grace, may 
 so enjoy the tranquillity of this present life that they 
 may also attain eternal happiness. For which rea- 
 sons, the Bishops of Rome, our predecessors, upon 
 this day, which is dedicated to the anniversary com- 
 memoration of our Lord's Supper, have been wont 
 solemnly to exercise the Spiritual sword of ecclesias- 
 tical discipline, and wholesome weapons of justice, by 
 the ministry of the supreme apostolate, to the glory 
 of God and salvation of souls. We therefore, de- 
 siring nothing more than by the guidance of God 
 to preserve inviolable the integrity of faith, public 
 peace and justice, following this ancient and solemn 
 custom : 
 
 " Sect. 3. We excommunicate and anathematize 
 in the name of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy 
 Ghost, and by the authority of the blessed apostles, 
 Peter and Paul, and by our own ; all Hussites, Wic- 
 liffites, Lutherans, Zuinglians, Calvinists, Huguenots, 
 Anabaptists,Trinitarians,and apostates from the Chris- 
 tian faith, and all other heretics, by whatsoever name 
 they are called, and of whatsoever sect they be ; as 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND ROBBERS. 59 
 
 also their adherents, receivers, favourers, and gener- 
 ally any defenders of them ; together with all, who 
 without our authority, or that of the apostolic See, 
 knowingly read, keep, print, or in any wise, for any 
 cause whatsoever, publicly or privately, on any pre- 
 text or colour, defend their books, containing heresy, 
 or treating of religion ; as also, schismatics and those 
 who withdraw themselves, or recede obstinately from 
 the obedience of us, or the Bishop of Rome, for the 
 time being. 
 
 "Sect. 4. Further, We excommunicate and anath- 
 ematize all and singular, of whatsoever^station, degree, 
 or condition they be ; and interdict all Universities, 
 Colleges, and Chapters, by whatsoever name they are 
 called, who appeal from the orders or decrees of Us, 
 or the Popes of Rome, for the time being to a future 
 General Council, and those by whose aid and favour 
 the appeal was made. 
 
 "Sect. 5. Further, We excommunicate and anath- 
 ematize all pirates, corsairs, and robbers by sea, rov- 
 ing about our sea, chiefly from Mount Argentiere to 
 Terracina, and all their abettors, receivers, and de- 
 fenders. 
 
 "Sect. 6. Further, We excommunicate and anath- 
 ematize all and singular, who, when the ships of any 
 Christians are either driven out of the way by tem- 
 pest, or any ways suffer shipwreck, convey away any 
 goods of what kind soever, either in the ships them- 
 selves, or cast out of the ships into the sea, or found 
 on shore, as well in our Tyrrhenian and Adriatic 
 seas, as in any other divisions of shores of all seas 
 whatsoever; so that they shall not be excused by any 
 
60 THE POPE'S CURSE. 
 
 privilege, custom, or possession of time immemorial, 
 or any other pretext whatsoever. 
 
 "Sect. 7. Further, We excommunicate and anath- 
 ematize all who impose or augment any new tolls 
 or gabels in their dominions, except in cases permit- 
 ted to them by law, or by especial leave of the Apos- 
 tolic See ; or who exact such taxes forbidden to be 
 imposed or augmented. 
 
 " Sect. 8. Further, We excommunicate and ana- 
 thematize all forgers of apostolic letters, even in form 
 of a brief, and of supplications respecting indulgence 
 or justice, signed by the Pope of Rome, or by the 
 vice-chancellors of the holy see of Rome, or by their 
 deputies, or by the command of the said Pope. As 
 also those who falsely publish the apostolic letters, 
 even in form of a brief; and those who falsely sign 
 such supplications in the name of the Pope of Rome, 
 or the vice-chancellor, or their deputies. 
 
 " Sect. 9. Further, We excommunicate and ana- 
 thematize all those who carry, or transmit to the 
 Saracens, Turks, and other enemies and foes of the 
 Christian religion, or to those who are expressly, 
 and by name declared heretics by the sentence of Us, 
 or of this holy see, horses, arms, iron, dust of iron, 
 tin, steel, and all kind of metals, and warlike instru- 
 ments, timber, hemp, ropes made as well of hemp 
 as of any other matter, and that matter, whatsoever 
 it be, and other things of this nature, which they 
 make use of, to the prejudice of Christians and Ca- 
 tholics. As also those who by themselves or others, 
 give intelligence of matters relating to the state of 
 Christendom, to the Turks and enemies of the Chris- 
 tian religion, to the hurt and prejudice of Christians, 
 
THE POPE'S CURSE. 61 
 
 or to heretics, to the prejudice of the Catholic reli- 
 gion, or who any ways afford to them counsel, as- 
 sistance, or favour; notwithstanding any privileges 
 hitherto granted by Us, and the aforesaid see, to any 
 persons, princes, or commonwealths, wherein express 
 mention is not made of this prohibition. 
 
 "Sect. 10. Further, We excommunicate and ana- 
 thematize all hindering or invading those, who bring 
 provisions, or any other things necessary for the use 
 of the Court of Rome ; as also those who forbid, hin- 
 der, or obstruct the bringing or conducting of them 
 to the Court of Rome ; or who abet the doers of these 
 things, either by themselves or by others ; of what- 
 soever order, pre-eminence, condition, or quality they 
 be, even although they be bishops or kings, or in- 
 vested with any other ecclesiastical or secular dig- 
 nity. 
 
 "Sect. 11. Further, We excommunicate and ana- 
 thematize all those who kill, maim, spoil, apprehend, 
 or detain by themselves or by others, those who 
 come to the Apostolic See, or return from it; as also 
 all those who having no ordinary jurisdiction, nor 
 any delegated by Us, or our judges, rashly challeng- 
 ing it to themselves, presume to commit any like 
 actions against those who reside at the Court of 
 Rome. 
 
 "Sect. 12. Further, We excommunicate and ana- 
 thematize all who kill, maim, wound, detain, appre- 
 hend, or rob travellers to Rome, or pilgrims, for the 
 sake of devotion or pilgrimage, going to that city, 
 staying in it, or returning from it ; and those who 
 
 give aid, counsel, or favour in these cases. 
 
 6* 
 
62 the pope's curse. 
 
 "Sect. 13. Further, We excommunicate and ana- 
 thematize all who slay, wound, maim, strike, appre- 
 hend, imprison, detain, or in hostile manner, pursue 
 the cardinals of the holy Church of Rome, and pa- 
 triarchs, archbishops, bishops, legates, or nuncios 
 of the Apostolic See; or those who drive them out of 
 their territories, dioceses, lands or dominions; or those 
 who command or allow these things to be done, or 
 give aid, counsel, and favour to them. 
 
 " Sect. 14. Further, We excommunicate and ana- 
 thematize all those, who by themselves or by others, 
 slay, or any ways strike, or despoil any ecclesiastical 
 or secular persons, having recourse to the Court of 
 Rome for their causes and affairs, and prosecuting 
 and managing them in the said Court, or even the 
 auditors or judges deputed for the hearing and man- 
 aging of the said causes and affairs, upon occasion of 
 these causes and affairs; as also those, who by them- 
 selves or by others, directly or indirectly, presume to 
 act or procure the said crimes, or to give aid, coun- 
 sel, or favour to them, of whatsoever pre-eminence 
 or dignity they be. 
 
 "Sect. 15. Further, We excommunicate and ana- 
 thematize all those, as well ecclesiastics as seculars, of 
 whatsoever dignity they be, who, under pretence of a 
 certain frivolous appeal from the injustice, or future 
 execution of the apostolic letters, even in form of a 
 breve, respecting as well indulgence as justice, as also 
 from the injustice and future execution of citations 
 inhibitions, sequestrations, monitories, processes, exe- 
 cutorial and other decrees issuing out, or which shall 
 at any time issue out from Us, and the aforesaid See, 
 
THE POPE'S CURSE. 63 
 
 or our legates, nuncios, or presidents, from the audi- 
 tors of our palace and apostolic chamber, from our 
 commissaries, and other apostolic judges and dele- 
 gates; as also those, who any other ways have re- 
 course to secular courts, and the lay-power, and who 
 cause such appeals to be admitted by the secular 
 courts, even although the procurator and advocate of 
 the exchequer should require it; or who cause the 
 aforesaid letters, citations, inhibitions, sequestrations, 
 monitories, &c. to be seized or retained; or those who 
 hinder or forbid the said letters to be put in execu- 
 tion, either simply or without their good will, consent, 
 or examination ; or who hinder or forbid scriveners 
 or notaries from making, or delivering when made to 
 the parties concerned, any instruments or acts con- 
 cerning the execution of these letters and processes; 
 or who apprehend, strike, wound, imprison, detain, 
 drive out of cities, places and kingdoms, despoil of 
 their goods, terrify, vex, and threaten, either by them- 
 selves or by others, publicly or privately, the parties 
 or their agents, kindred on both sides, their friends, 
 notaries, the executors or sub-executors of the said 
 letters, citations, monitories, &c, or who any other 
 way presume, directly or indirectly, to forbid, ordain, 
 and command any persons, in general or in particu- 
 lar, to betake themselves, or have recourse to the See 
 of Rome, to prosecute their affairs of any kind, or to 
 obtain indulgences or letters, or who forbid them to 
 obtain the said indulgences, or to make use of them 
 when obtained of the said See; or who presume to 
 retain the said indulgences in their own hands, or in 
 the hands of a notary, or a scrivener, or any other 
 way. 
 
64 THE POPE'S CURSE. 
 
 u Sect. 16. Further, We excommunicate and ana- 
 thematize all and singular, who by themselves or by- 
 others, by their own authority, and de facto, under 
 pretence of any exemptions, or any other apostolic 
 indulgences, and letters, take away the cognizance of 
 benefices and tythes, and other spiritual causes, or 
 annexed to spirituals, from our auditors and commis- 
 saries, and other ecclesiastical judges, and hinder the 
 proceeding and audience of them, and the parsons, 
 chapters, convents, colleges desiring to prosecute the 
 said causes; or who intrude themselves as judges 
 into the cognizance of them; or who by order, or 
 any other way compel the plaintiffs to withdraw, or 
 cause to be withdrawn, their citations or inhibitions, 
 or any other letters decreed in the spiritual court, 
 and the defendants, against whom such inhibitions 
 were issued out, to procure, or consent to be absolved 
 from the censures or punishments contained in them; 
 or who any ways hinder the execution of apostolic 
 letters, executorials, processes, and decrees aforesaid, 
 or give their allowance, counsel, or assent to it, even 
 under pretence of hindering violence, or any other 
 pretexts whatsoever, or even until they shall petition 
 Us, or cause Us to be petitioned for our better infor- 
 mation, as is commonly pretended, unless they pro- 
 secute such petitions before Us and the Apostolic See, 
 in lawful form, even although those who commit 
 such things, should be presidents of chanceries, coun- 
 cils, or parliaments, chancellors, vice-chancellors, or- 
 dinary or extraordinary counsellors of any secular 
 princes, (whether they be emperors, kings, dukes, or 
 any other dignity,) or archbishops, bishops, abbots, 
 commendatories, or vicars. 
 
the pope's curse. 65 
 
 "Sect. 17. Also, all those who, under pretence of 
 their office, or at the instance of any party, or of any 
 others, draw, or cause and procure to be drawn, direct- 
 ly or indirectly, upon any pretext whatsoever, eccle- 
 siastical persons, chapters, convents, colleges of any 
 churches, before them to their tribunal, audience, 
 chancery, council or parliament, against the rules of 
 the canon law ; as also those, who for any cause, or 
 under any pretext, or by pretence of any custom or 
 privilege, or any other way, shall make, enact, and 
 publish any statutes, orders, constitutions, pragmatics, 
 or any other decrees in general or in particular ; or 
 shall use them when made and enacted, whereby the 
 ecclesiastical liberty is violated, or any ways injured 
 or depressed, or by any other means restrained; or 
 whereby the rights of Us, and of the said See, and of 
 any other churches, are any way, directly or indi- 
 rectly, tacitly or expressly prejudged. 
 
 "Sect. 18. Also, those who upon any account, di- 
 rectly or indirectly, hinder archbishops, bishops, and 
 other superior and inferior prelates, and all other or- 
 dinary ecclesiastical judges whatsoever, by any means, 
 either by imprisoning or molesting their agents, proc- 
 tors, domestics, kindred on both sides, or by any other 
 way, from exerting their ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
 against any persons whatsoever, according as the 
 canons and sacred ecclesiastical constitutions, and de- 
 crees of general councils, and especially that of Trent, 
 do appoint. As also those, who after the sentence 
 and decrees of the ordinaries themselves, or of those 
 delegated by them, or by any other means eluding 
 the judgment of the ecclesiastical court, have recourse 
 
66 the pope's curse. 
 
 to chanceries, or other secular courts^ and procure 
 thence prohibitions, and even penal mandates, to be 
 decreed against the said ordinaries and delegates, and 
 executed against them; also, those who make and 
 execute these decrees, or who give aid, counsel, coun- 
 tenance, or favour to them. 
 
 " Sect. 19. Also those who usurp any jurisdictions, 
 fruits, revenues, and emoluments belonging to Us, and 
 the Apostolic See, and any ecclesiastical persons, upon 
 account of any churches, monasteries, or other eccle- 
 siastical benefices. Or who, upon any occasion or 
 ause, sequester the said revenues, without the ex- 
 press leave of the Bishop of Rome, or others having 
 lawful power to do it. 
 
 " Sect. 20. Also those, who without the like special 
 and express license of the Pope of Rome, impose 
 tributes, tenths, talleys, subsidies, and other charges 
 upon clergymen, prelates, and other ecclesiastical 
 persons, and the goods, fruits, revenues, and emolu- 
 ments of them, and of.the churches, monasteries, and 
 other ecclesiastical benefices, and exact them by di- 
 vers artifices, or even receive them so imposed from 
 the clergy, although they should, of their own accord, 
 grant and give them. Also those who, by themselves 
 or others, directly or indirectly, fear not to do, exe- 
 cute, or procure the said things, or to give aid, coun- 
 sel, or favour to them, -of whatsoever pre-eminence, 
 dignity, order, condition, or quality they be, although 
 they be emperors, or kings, or princes, dukes, earls, 
 barons, and other potentates whatsoever, even presi- 
 dents of kingdoms, provinces, cities and territories, 
 counsellors and senators, or invested even with any 
 pontifical dignity. Renewing the decrees set forth 
 
 
THE POPE 5 S CURSE. ~~ 
 
 concerning these matters by the sacred canons as 
 well in the last council of Lateran, as in other gen 
 ral councils, together with the censures and punish- 
 ments contained in them. 
 
 "Sect. 21. Further, We excommunica\ e an( ] atla 
 thematize all and every the magistrates ana juagea, 
 notaries, scribes, executors, sub-executors, any ways 
 intruding themselves in capital or criminal caiues, 
 against ecclesiastical persons, by. processing, banish- 
 ing, or apprehending them, or pronouncing or exe- 
 cuting any sentences against them, without the spe- 
 cial, particular, and express license of this holy Apos- 
 tolical See. Also those who extend such licences to 
 persons, or cases not expressed; or any other way 
 unjustly abuse them, although the offenders should 
 be counsellors, senators, presidents, chancellors, vice- 
 chancellors, or entitled by any other name. 
 
 " Sect. 22. Further, We excommunicate and ana- 
 thematize all those who, by themselves or by others, 
 directly or indirectly, under any title or colour what- 
 soever, shall presume to invade, destroy, seize, and 
 detain, in whole or in part, the city of Rome, the 
 kingdom of Sicily, the islands of Sardinia and Corsi- 
 ca, the territories about Faro, St. Peter's patrimony 
 in Tuscany, the dukedom of Spoleto, the county of 
 Venoso, and Sabinum, Marca di Jlncona, Massa, 
 Trebaria, Romandiola, Campania, and the Maritime 
 Provinces, and their territories and places, and the 
 lands held in special commission by the Arnulsi, and 
 our cities of Bononia, Csesena, Ariminum, Beneven- 
 tum, Citta di Castello, Todi, Ferrara, Comacio, and 
 other cities, lands, and places, .and rites belonging to 
 the Church of Rome, and subjected, mediately or im- 
 
6 g THE POPE'S CURSE. 
 
 mediately, to the said Church of Rome ; also those 
 who presume, by divers means, to usurp, disturb, de- 
 rain and vex the supreme jurisdiction of the said 
 dominions belonging to Us, and the Church of Rome; 
 Hso their Adherents, favourers, and defenders, or 
 those wrio any way give assistance, counsel, or fa- 
 vour <o them. 
 
 "Sect. 23. Willing that our present processes, and 
 all and every thing contained in these letters, con- 
 tinue in force, and be put in execution*, till other pro- 
 cesses of this kind be made and published by Us, and 
 the Pope of Rome, for the time being. 
 
 " Sect. 24. In fine, none may be absolved from 
 the aforesaid censures by any other, than by the 
 Pope of Rome, unless he be at the point of death; 
 nor even then, unless he giveth caution to stand to 
 the commands of the Church, and give satisfaction. 
 In all other cases none shall be absolved, not even un- 
 der pretence of any faculties or indulgences, granted 
 and renewed by us, and the said See, and the decrees 
 of any council, by words, letters, or any other writ- 
 ing, in general or in particular, to any persons eccle- 
 siastical, secular, and regular, of any orders, even of 
 the mendicant and military orders, or to any persons 
 invested with Episcopal, or any greater dignity, and 
 to orders themselves, and their monasteries, convents, 
 houses, and chapters ; to colleges, confraternities, 
 congregations, hospitals, and pious places; as also to 
 laymen, although they should be emperors, kings, or 
 eminent in any other secular dignity. 
 
 "Sect. 25. If by chance any shall, against the 
 tenor of these presents, de facto, presume to bestow 
 the benefit of absolution upon any such, involved in 
 
the pope's curse. 69 
 
 excommunication and anathema, or any of them; 
 we include them in the sentence of excommunication, 
 and shall afterwards proceed more severely against 
 them, hoth by spiritual and temporal punishments, 
 as we shall think most convenient. 
 
 " Sect. 26. Declaring and protesting, that no abso- 
 lution, although solemnly made by Us, shall compre- 
 hend, or any other way avail the aforesaid excom- 
 municated persons, comprehended under these present 
 letters ; unless they desist from the premises, with a 
 firm purpose of never committing the like thing; nor 
 those who, as was before said, have made statutes 
 against the ecclesiastical liberty; unless they first pub- 
 licly revoke these statutes, orders, constitutions, prag- 
 matics and decrees, and cause them to be blotted and 
 expunged out of the archives, rolls, and registers 
 wherein they are preserved, and farther certify Us 
 of this revocation : Moreover, that by any such abso- 
 lution, or any other contrary acts, tacit or express, or 
 even by the connivance and toleration of Us, and our 
 successors, for how long time soever continued; none, 
 nor any of the premises, nor any right of the Apostolic 
 See, and holy Church of Rome, howsoever and when- 
 soever obtained, or to be obtained, can v or ought to 
 be prejudged, or receive any prejudice. 
 
 " Sect. 27. Notwithstanding any privileges, indul- 
 gences, grants, and apostolic* letters, general or spe- 
 cial, granted by the holy See, to any of the aforesaid 
 persons, or any one of them, or any others, of what- 
 soever order, quality or condition, dignity and pre- 
 eminence they be; although, as was before said, they 
 should be bishops, emperors, kings, or eminent in any 
 
 •7 
 
70 THE POPE'S CURSE. 
 
 other ecclesiastic or secular dignity, or to their king- 
 doms, provinces, cities, and dominions, for any cause 
 whatsoever, even by way of contract or reward, and 
 under any other form and tenor, and with any clauses 
 whatsoever, even derogatory of those which should 
 derogate from them; or even containing, that the said 
 persons shall not be excommunicated, anathematized, 
 or interdicted by any apostolic letters, which do not 
 make full and express mention, and exact repetition 
 of the said grant, and of the orders, places, proper 
 names, surnames, and dignities of the said persons; 
 as also, notwithstanding all customs, even immemo- 
 rial, and prescriptions, how long soever, and any 
 other observances, written or not written, by which 
 the said persons may help and defend themselves, 
 against these our processes and censures, from being 
 included in them. All which grants, as far as relates 
 to this matter, and the whole tenor of them, account- 
 ing them expressed in these presents, as if they had 
 been verbatim inserted, nothing omitted ; We utterly 
 abolish, and wholly revoke, and notwithstanding any 
 other pleas, which may be alleged to the contrary. 
 
 "Sect. 28. But that these our present processes 
 may more easily come to the knowledge of all per- 
 sons, we have caused the papers and parchments, 
 containing the processes themselves, to be affixed in 
 the city, to the doors of St. John Lateran, and of the 
 Church of the Prince of the Apostles; that those 
 whom these processes concern, may pretend no ex- 
 cuse, or allege ignorance, as if they had not come to 
 their knowledge ; since it is not probable, that should 
 remain unknown, which is so openly published to all 
 men. 
 
THE POPE'S CURSE. 71 
 
 " Sect. 29. Moreover, that the processes themselves, 
 and these present letters, and all and every thing 
 contained in them, may become more manifest, by 
 being published in many cities and places; we, by 
 these writings, entrust, and in virtue of holy obedi- 
 ence, strictly charge and command all and singular 
 patriarchs, primates, archbishops, bishops, ordinaries 
 of places, and prelates wheresoever constituted, that 
 by themselves, or some other, or others, after they 
 shall have received these present letters, or have 
 knowledge of them, they solemnly publish them in 
 their churches once a year, or oftener, if they see 
 convenient, when the greater part of the people shall 
 be met for celebration of divine service; and that 
 they put faithful Christians in mind of them, relate 
 them, and declare them. 
 
 " Sect. 30. Lastly, All patriarchs, archbishops, 
 bishops, and other ordinaries of places, and prelates 
 of churches ; as also all rectors, and others having 
 cure of souls, and priests, secular and regular, of 
 whatsoever orders, deputed by any authority to hear 
 confession of sins, shall have a transcript of these 
 present letters by them, and shall diligently study to 
 read, and understand them. 
 
 "Sect. 31. Our further pleasure is, that the same 
 credit, in judgment and out of judgment, shall in all 
 places be given to copies, although printed, of these 
 presents, subscribed by any public notary, and sealed 
 by the ordinary judge of the Court of Rome, or any 
 other person in ecclesiastical dignity, as would be 
 given to these presents themselves, if they should be 
 produced or shown. 
 
 " Sect. 32. Let no man therefore infringe, or boldly 
 
72 THE POPE'S CURSE, 
 
 and rashly oppose this our letter of excommunication, 
 anathematization, interdict, innovation, innodation, 
 declaration, protestation, abolition, revocation, com- 
 mission, command, and pleasure : But if any one 
 shall presume to attempt it, let him know, that he 
 shall incur the displeasure of Almighty God, and of 
 his blessed apostles, Peter and Paul. 
 
 " Given at Rome from St. Peter, in the year of our 
 Lord's incarnation, one thousand six hundred 
 and ten, the 8th of Aprils in the fifth year of our 
 Popedom. In the year, from the Birth of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ one thousand six hundred and 
 thirteen, Indict n. the 4th day of the month 
 April, and the eighth year of the Popedom of 
 our most holy Father in Christ, and our Lord 
 Paul V., by divine Providence, Pope, the afore- 
 said Letters were affixed, and published at the 
 doors of the Churches of St. John Lateran, and 
 the Prince of the Apostles, and in the Field of 
 Flora ; By us Balthazar Vacha, and Brandimars 
 Latini, Cursors, 
 
 JAMES BRAMBILLA, 
 
 Mag. Curs." 
 
 A reference to the Preface prefixed to this oath, 
 will show that more than twenty Popes have con- 
 firmed the decrees which it contains by their extrava- 
 gants and constitutions. The extravagants were the 
 decretals of Popes and Councils and of the civil powers 
 at the instance of the ecclesiastics. They derived 
 their name from the circumstance that they were 
 issued only in cases of peculiar exigency, out of the 
 ordinary course of affairs, and during a long period 
 remained separate from the main code of the civil 
 law, collected into a volume by order of Justinian in 
 the sixth century. These mandates were termed extra- 
 
NOT OBSOLETE. 73 
 
 vagantes, wanderers without the principal book, al- 
 though they gradually became the most important 
 part of the papal directory. 
 
 The Bulla in Coena Domini is not, therefore, a pro- 
 duction, for which only a single Pope is responsible — 
 its sentiments have been endorsed again and again 
 by the self-styled successors of St. Peter, and care is 
 taken that the curse shall not become obsolete, inas- 
 much as it is repeated once a year with imposing 
 ceremonies and solemnity. We are utterly at a loss 
 for an apology for this Bull, and it is matter of regret 
 that an edition of the Pope's Curse has never been 
 published in this country with the sanction of the 
 bishops of the Roman Church, embellished with notes 
 explanatory and apologetical. The only document 
 within our reach of Roman Catholic origin, which 
 has a bearing upon this subject, is an earnest protest 
 against its infamous provisions, prepared by Rucellai, 
 secretary to the Tuscan government, in a memorial 
 addressed to Leopold, the Grand Duke of that pro- 
 vince, during the latter part of the eighteenth century. 
 The secretary was of course a Roman Catholic, but 
 he stigmatizes the Bull in Coena Domini as "an eter- 
 nal monument of priestly ambition," and urges the 
 civil authorities to resist the usurpations which it 
 enforces. The following extracts from Rucellai's me- 
 morial will be read with interest. 
 
 "A government owes it to its own dignity and to 
 justice, to defend both itself and its rights against the 
 invasions of the Bull In Voena, and their subjects 
 against the civil consequences of the measures with 
 
 which it threatens them. 
 
 *7# 
 
74 RUCELLArS PROTEST. 
 
 " The foundation of the Romish authority is con- 
 tained in the Body of Canon Law, and especially in 
 that part of it, entitled. Pontifical Authority. It is 
 composed of bulls, letters, and replies of the Pope, 
 and of decrees of assemblies at. his court, and is the 
 instrument by which Rome converts the priesthood 
 into an engine for the attainment of its political views, 
 even in other states. 
 
 " The Bull known by the name of In Coena Domini 
 is a summary of all those Ecclesiastical laws which 
 tend to establish the despotism of the court of Rome; 
 a despotism which was the work of many ages, which 
 was watered with the blood of many millions of hu- 
 man creatures, founded with the spoils of many 
 debased sovereigns, and raised on the ruins of many 
 overturned thrones. 
 
 "The Bull In Coena was the origin of those scan- 
 dalous differences between the priesthood and the 
 empire, which happened in the eleventh .century. 
 Those differences were totally unknown until the 
 Church began to speak a language invented by the 
 court of Rome in order to abuse with impunity the 
 power of the Kings, by means of the factions which 
 they brought forward and fostered. It was also the 
 origin of the Inquisition, which it supported in its 
 greatest enormities, and of the crusades, censorships, 
 interdicts, &c. All these, it employed, first to balance, 
 and then to pull down, the different powers of the 
 empire, to strip it of one part of its Italian States, and 
 out of them to erect itself into a species of new 
 monarchy. " 
 
 This is part of a Roman Catholic protest against 
 this infamous Bull, and the remonstrance was not 
 
STRONG REMONSTRANCE. 75 
 
 without its effect, although every effort to infringe 
 the ecclesiastical liberties produced renewed indica- 
 tions of papal displeasure. The Grand Duke Leo- 
 pold repeatedly commanded the entire suppression of 
 the Bull In Ccena, throughout Tuscany, and yet the 
 priests ventured in the face of the laws to affix the 
 Bull to the confessionals, and even to publish it from 
 the pulpit or the altar, on the day specified by the 
 Pope. 
 
 But the strongest portion of Rucellai's remonstrance 
 is the following : 
 
 " The priests ought to be punished as transgressors 
 of the national laws. Their obedience to the Bull 
 In Ccena should cease to operate as an excuse for 
 them. That bull is published everywhere, and its 
 principles are taught in the schools and inculcated on 
 penitents by their confessors. It is demonstratively 
 unjust, subversive of all the rights of sovereignty, of 
 law, of good order, and of public tranquillity. 
 
 " The priests are the principal executors of the bull 
 In Ccena, in the penitentiary chair, where they de- 
 cide according to the orders of their bishop. But the 
 prelate is only an instrument of the Roman Court, 
 the wretched slave of their caprice, ever since by false 
 decretals, they succeeded in changing into an oath 
 of fidelity and vassalage, that profession of faith 
 which is made before being admitted a member of 
 the Church. 
 
 " That oath, in fact, is a solemn promise, not 
 only to be unfaithful to one's lawful govern- 
 ment, but even to betray it, as often as the 
 interests of the court of rome may render it 
 necessary. 
 
76 A WISE SUGGESTION. 
 
 "Governments, by allowing such an oath to be 
 taken, thereby recognise it as obligatory. The priests 
 who observe it, by putting in force the Bull In Coena, 
 and refusing absolution to those who violate it, or 
 who do not repent of having violated it, are rebels to 
 the government of their country which has proscribed 
 it; and those who do not observe it are necessarily 
 perjured." 
 
 Rucellai then proceeds boldly to propose as the 
 only remedy for all these evils/that the Bull In Coena 
 should be pronounced an unjust civil law, enacted by 
 the Pope, which he will always execute in other do- 
 minions than his own, when it can be accomplished, 
 and consequently, that its enforcement, either directly 
 or indirectly, in private or in public, should be autho- 
 ritatively and universally prohibited. Memoirs of 
 Scipio de Bicci, Chap. III. p. 38-50. 
 
 This testimony, coming as it does, from a Roman 
 Catholic, is exceedingly important, as it proves that 
 honest men, every where, even in Papal coun- 
 tries, on the very borders of the Pontifical States, re- 
 gard the Bishop's Oath, already reviewed, as a solemn 
 pledge of vassalage, and as compelling Roman eccle- 
 siastics to fulfil the provisions of the Bull In Coena 
 Domini. Rucellai's estimate of the import of that 
 Oath is undoubtedly just. Who will assert that it 
 would be unrighteous were the Government of the 
 United States at least to inquire into the nature and 
 meaning of this oath ? Are not Roman prelates bound 
 to be unfaithful to the constitution and the laws, just 
 as often as the interests of the Court of Rome demand 
 the sacrifice of their duty to the civil authorities ? We 
 

 the bishops' apologies. 77 
 
 are free to avow the opinion that no men, who claim 
 the protection of the laws should be suffered to take 
 an oath which, in its very nature, indulges high trea- 
 son against the State. 
 
 Let the candid reader examine the different sec- 
 tions of this Bull, in the regular order in which they 
 follow, and after weighing them., one by one, let him 
 ask himself, how it is possible for men to obey the in- 
 junctions which it contains, and be faithful to any 
 other power except that of the Pope of Rome ? Yet 
 this is a rnandate of the Apostolic See, which is annu- 
 ally promulged, and which no bishop or priest can 
 disobey without peril of excommunication. What 
 becomes of the prevaricating apologies for liberty of 
 conscience and a free press, with which the public has 
 been duped by the " Bishops of New-York and Phila- 
 delphia ?" Place their apologies side by side with 
 the Third Section of the Bull In Coena Domini, and 
 let the Bishop's Oath be put in a parallel column, and 
 in the name of all that is honest, what are we to think 
 of their claims to veracity ? What ? Shall the Pope 
 curse all Protestant sects and all other heretics with 
 all their adherents, receivers, favourers and defenders, 
 with all, who without his leave, knowingly read, re- 
 tain, or under any pretext, defend their books contain- 
 ing heresy or treating of religion — together with all 
 men, who obstinately recede from paying obedience 
 to the Pope of Rome — and shall popish Bishops bind 
 themselves by an oath to obey the mandates of this 
 Bull, and yet gain credit when they assure the Ameri- 
 can people that they are the unflinching advocates of 
 liberty of conscience and a free press ? 
 
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80 PERSECUTION. 
 
 From the predicament in which these extracts place 
 the vassals of the Pope, not all the arts of Jesuitism 
 can ever extricate them. We leave them entangled 
 in the meshes of their own net, and however they 
 may roar and struggle, they are fairly involved in the 
 snare which their own hands have spread. 
 
 We return to the Pontiff's curse. Its utter opposi- 
 tion to all the first principles of freedom, becomes 
 more apparent at every step. The ecclesiastical power 
 is made superior to the civil authority, and all who 
 enact or publish any statutes by which this imperious 
 title is impugned, are anathematized and excommu- 
 nicated. If a man has been aggrieved by the eccle- 
 siastical court, and appeals to the civil power for 
 redress, the Bull in Coena curses him and all those 
 who make and execute decrees reversing the ecclesi- 
 astical mandate, or who aid, counsel, countenance, 
 or favour them. It curses with anathema and excom- 
 munication all magistrates and judges who presume 
 to institute civil process, or to visit with judicial 
 penalties, any ecclesiastics of the Roman Church 
 "without the special, particular, and express license 
 of this holy Apostolical See." 
 
 No doubt, as the eyes of the Reverend and Right 
 Reverend fathers of the Roman Church scan these 
 lines, and we have vanity enough to suppose that 
 they will read them, their vision will be dimmed vyith 
 tears, and the salt rheum will fall in scalding drops 
 upon the open page! "Alas!" we hear them ex- 
 claim! "Is it not cruelty most savage — persecution 
 most barbarous and unheard of — to rake up the cast- 
 off— long since repudiated and obsolete dogmas of 
 
 
 
LOVERS OF AMERICAN FREEDOM. 81 
 
 onr Holy Church, which were wisely framed to meet 
 certain exigencies, which no longer exist, and to cast 
 in our teeth, decrees and mandates, bulls and canons, 
 which we eschew and abhor?" Well, Reverend and 
 Right Reverend Fathers, Friends of Truth, Lovers of 
 American Freedom — Patrons and Defenders of the 
 Freedom of Conscience and of the Press — your tears 
 affect us — your protestations of sincerity and your 
 warm assurances of charity we duly appreciate — but 
 we venture to suggest, that this artifice is stale — very 
 stale, and that it would be desirable, if you possibly 
 can, to devise some new stratagem. — Read, we pray 
 you, the tiventy-second section of this Bull: 
 
 " Our present process, and all and every thing con- 
 tained in these letters, shall continue in force, and be 
 put in execution, till other processes of this kind be 
 made and published by us, and the Pope of Rome, for 
 the time being. " 
 
 You well know, Reverend and Right Reverend 
 Sirs, that this Bull is not obsolete, it has never been 
 revoked, and it never will be — its provisions are still 
 in force, and if you have not yourselves, within a year 
 past, pronounced the curse which is herein detailed 
 against heretics, you have, by that neglect, violated 
 your oath of obedience to your Sovereign Lord and 
 Master, Gregory XVI., Pope. Lest you should for- 
 get this important fact, permit me, gentlemen to quote 
 for your especial benefit, the 2Sth Section: 
 
 " Moreover, that the processes themselves and these 
 present letters, and all and every thing contained in 
 them, may become more manifest, by being published 
 in many cities and places, we entrust, and in virtue of 
 their obedience, strictly charge and command, all and 
 singular, patriarchs, primates, archbishops, bishops, 
 
 a 
 
82 THE EXCOMMUNICATION. 
 
 ordinaries of places, and prelates, wheresoever con- 
 stituted, that, by themselves or some others, they so- 
 lemnly publish these present letters in their churches, 
 once a year, or oftener, if they see convenient, 
 when the greater part of the people shall be met for 
 the celebration of service ; and that they put the faith- 
 ful in mind of them, and declare them." 
 
 You will remember also, Right Reverend Sirs, that 
 in order to stir up your pure minds, the twenty-ninth 
 section of this Bull, requires you and all others having 
 care of souls, to " have a transcript of these present 
 letters by them," and enjoins upon you diligently to 
 read and study to understand them. 
 
 Have you done so ? If you have, you perceive how 
 idle are the clamours which you have raised respect- 
 ing your devotion to American Institutions, and your 
 zeal for the freedom of conscience and of the press. 
 If you have not, you have evidently failed to exhibit 
 the promised obedience to your Lord and Master 
 Pope Gregory XVI. 
 
 In connection with this Bull, it will be proper to 
 present the form of excommunication with which 
 heretics and all infringers upon the ecclesiastical lib- 
 erties of the sovereign Pontiff are menaced. The fol- 
 lowing form is as authentic as though it had proceed- 
 ed from the press of Mr. Cummiskey. We give it 
 on the authority of Fox, the well known author of 
 the " Acts and Monuments," as fulminated against a 
 certain Thomas Bennett, who had affixed bills on a 
 chapel, declaring the Pope to be Antichrist. 
 
 " By the authority of God the Father Almighty ! 
 and of the blessed Virgin Mary, of St. Peter and 
 Paul, and all the holy Saints, we excommunicate, we 
 utterly curse and bann, and commit and deliver to 
 
THE EXCOMMUNICATION. S3 
 
 the devil him or her, whatsoever he or she be, that 
 hath in spite of God and St. Peter, (whose Church 
 this is,) in spite of all Holy Saints, and in spite of our 
 most Holy Father the Pope, God's vicar here on earth, 
 and in spite of the Reverend Father in God, John, 
 our Diocesan, and the worshipful canons, masters and 
 Priests and clerks, who serve God daily in this Cath- 
 edral Church, fixed up with wax such cursed and 
 heretical bills full of blasphemy, upon the doors of 
 this and other Holy Churches within this city. Ex- 
 communicated plainly be he, she, or they, plenarily, 
 and delivered over to the devil as perpetual malefac- 
 tors and schismatics. Accursed may they be, and 
 given body and soul to the devil ; cursed be they, he, 
 or she, in cities and towns, in fields, in highways, in 
 paths, in houses, out of houses, and in all other places, 
 standing, lying, or rising, walking, running, waking, 
 sleeping, eating, drinking, and whatsoever thing they 
 do besides. We separate them, him, or her, from 
 the threshold of God and from all the prayers of the 
 Church, from the participation of the holy mass, from 
 all sacraments, chapels and altars, from holy bread 
 and holy water, from all the merits of God's holy 
 Priests and religious men, and from all their cloisters, 
 from all their pardons, privileges, grants and immuni- 
 ties ; and we give them utterly over to the power of 
 the Fiend; and let us quench their souls (if they be 
 dead,) this night in the pains of hell-fire, as this candle 
 is now quenched and put out; [and with that he puts 
 out one of the candles,) and let us pray to God, (if 
 they be alive,) that their eyes may be put out as this 
 candle light is, {then he puts out another candle,) and 
 let us pray to God and to our Lady and to St. Peter 
 and Paul, and all Holy Saints, that all the senses of 
 their bodies may fail them, and that they may have 
 no feeling, as now the light of this candle is gone, 
 (and so he puts out the third candle,) except they, he, 
 or she, come openly now and confess their blasphemy, 
 and by repentance (as much as in them shall lie) 
 make satisfaction unto God, our Lady, St. Peter, and 
 the worshipful company of the Cathedral Church : 
 
84 ROMAN CATHOLICS OF NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 and as this Holy Cross now falleth down, so may 
 they, except they repent and show themselves. (At 
 which word, one snatching away the stick, down 
 comes tumbling Holy Cross, and all the people shout, 
 and stare, and tremble.") 
 
 This is no fancy sketch. Multitudes have been 
 delivered over to the secular arm and committed to 
 the power of the Fiend by these ridiculous, yet blas- 
 phemous ceremonies. 
 
 In conclusion, we deem it just to many Roman 
 Catholic citizens to express our conviction that they 
 are not prepared to yield obedience to the arrogant 
 demands of the Pope and his prelates, and we have 
 been gratified in witnessing the noble stand which 
 they have maintained against the usurpations of their 
 bishops. The Roman Catholics of New Orleans have 
 shown that American hearts beat in their bosoms by 
 their indignant refusal to obey the imperious dicta- 
 tion of Mons. Blanc, who assumes the title of Bishop 
 of New Orleans, If their prelate is so completely at 
 the mercy of his master at Rome, that he cannot in 
 any way alienate the possessions belonging to his 
 table without the leave of the Pontiff — if John 
 Hughes and Francis Patrick Kenrick, and Monsieur 
 Blanc, are so entirely enslaved as not to dare so much 
 as to call the knife and fork with which they eat, their 
 otvn, we trust Americans, whether by birth or adop- 
 tion, who prefer the Roman faith, will teach their 
 Prelates, that however the abject vassalage of their 
 spiritual overseers to the Pope may be in accordance 
 with the Canons of Councils, the Bulls of Popes, and 
 the oaths of Bishops, they will never surrender their 
 rights as freemen, or consent to transfer their own 
 property to the Pope of Rome. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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