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 PAPAL ROME AS IT IS; 
 
 B Y 
 
 A ROMAN. 
 
 VV I T H 
 
 AN INTRODU 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. W. C. BROWNLEE, D. D., 
 
 OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH OF NEW YORK. 
 
 BY REV. L. GIUSTINIANI, D. D., 
 
 FORMERLY A ROMAN PRIEST, NOW MINISTER OF THE EVANGEHGAL 
 LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA r 
 
 JAMES M. CAMPBELL, 98 CHESTNUT STREET, 
 NEW YORK:— SAXTON & MILES, 205 BROADWAY. 
 
 1845. 
 
PAPAL KOME AS IT IS; 
 
 BY 
 
 A ROMAN. 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN INTHODUCTION 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV.W. C. BROWNLEE, D.D., 
 
 OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH OF NEW YORK. 
 
 BY REY. L. GIUSTINIANI, D.D., 
 
 \ < 
 FORMERLY A ROMAN PRIEST, NOW MINISTER OF THE EVANGELICAL 
 LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 JAMES M. CAMPBELL, 98 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 NEW YORK :— SAXTON & MILES, 205 BROADWAY. 
 
 Stereotyped by J. C. D. Christman 4- Co. 
 
 1845. 
 
 iN\ 
 
BXnt 
 
 13 CL/^-V^ 
 
 Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by 
 
 L. GIUSTINIANI, D.D., 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Maryland. 
 
 W'VW 
 
 I 
 
/ ^^'7 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 ReCOMMENDATIONSj 5 
 
 I. Introduction of the Rev. W. C. Brownlee, D. D., 
 Pastor of the Protestant Reformed Dutch Church, 
 
 of New York, 9 
 
 ,11. Credentials — Certificates from Rome, .. ^^ ..... . 13 
 
 III. The Conversion of a Roman CathoHc is a great 
 Miracle, 17 
 
 IV. Easter, 20 
 
 V. Narrative of the Author's First Biblical Impression, 23 
 
 VI. The Mass, 26 
 
 VII. Transubstantiation, 33 
 
 VIII. Absurdities and Delusions of the Mass, 37 
 
 IX. Heathen Rome and Papal Rome. The Pantheon; 
 The Holy Virgin Lady of Parturition against the 
 Holy Virgin Lady of the Stone ) Cardinal Giusti- 
 niani at Rimini ; The Holy Stairs; The Flying 
 Stone ; Saint Peter in Vinculis ; Colosseum Ro- 
 manum ; Confessional ; Saint Antony in Rome, . . 40 
 
 X. The Opening of the Eyes of the Virgin Mary, 53 
 
 XL Beatification of a Franciscan Friar, 55 
 
 XII. The Patriarch of Egypt and the Homed Priest, . . 58 
 
 XIII. Infallibility of the Pope, and Antiquity of the 
 Church of Rome, 61 
 
 XIV. Catholicity of the Church of Rome, 66 
 
 XV. Apostolical Succession of Roman Pontiffs, 68 
 
 XVI. Apostolical Doctrines, and not the Chair, are re- 
 quired as a mark of a True Church, 70 
 
 XVn. Adoration of Saints, 72 
 
 XVIII. Three Months in the Convent of the Cordeliers, . . 80 
 
 XIX. Persecution, 86 
 
 3 
 
 fJi^ 
 
4 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 XX. Switzerland; 91 
 
 XXI. The Foundation of the Church of Rome, 93 
 
 XXII. Usurpation of the Church of Rome, 95 
 
 XXIII. Avarice, the Corner Stone of the Church of Rome, 97 
 
 XXIV. Moral Corruptions of the Church of Rome, 98 
 
 XXV. The Holy Councils of the Church of Rome, 103 
 
 XXVI. Jesuitism, 113 
 
 XXVII. Miracles, 128 
 
RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 I have bad the pleasure of examining the work written by the 
 Rev. Dr. Giustiniani, entitled •' PAPAL ROME AS IT IS, BY A 
 ROMAN.'' 
 
 Dr. G. treats of twenty-seven prominent subjects in the Roman 
 Catholic System, preceded by an account of his own conversion 
 from the religion of Rome, in which he was born and educated, 
 full of deep interest. On each of these leading articles of Roman- 
 ism, he writes as one who knows his subject thoroughly, and feels 
 most deeply. We perceive, at every step of his discussion, that 
 we are listening to a man who had been a Roman Catholic "dyed 
 in the wool," and who has, of course, had opportunities which no 
 Protestant, perhaps, ever had of knowing the secrets behind the 
 curtain; and who has had feelings deep and intent, such as we 
 never knew who never wore the mental chains of popery. He 
 fails not to manifest the best spirit, and kindest sentiments, even 
 while he is uttering the severest truths. He is anxious to reach 
 the heart, as well as to gain the ear of the Roman Catholics, his 
 former fellow disciples ; over whom his heart yearns (as did that 
 of St. Paul) to win them away from " The Man of Sin" to " The 
 most Holy One" — away from " The cross of Antichrist^^^ to the 
 CROSS OF Christ Jesus his Lord. 
 
 His style is not that of a polished English scholar. It is that of 
 a learned Italian doctor, who is, indeed, master of his own beauti- 
 ful and flowing Italian, but who is writing in a language foreign 
 to him. And this, to my mind, carries with it an external evi- 
 dence of the authenticity of the work. I therefore beg leave to 
 commend it to the public, as a work exceedingly valuable, coming 
 from such a man ; and calculated, both from its mild spirit and 
 rich materials, to do much good in opening the eyes of the Roman 
 
 a2 5 
 
6 RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 Catholics, and instructing Protestants under divine grace. Here 
 is a witness from Rome, a former priest, brought up under the 
 eyes of the pope and cardinals, fully confirming all that we havf 
 been asserting of Rome, for years past. 
 
 W. C. Brownlee, 
 Of the Protestant Reformed Dutch Church of New York. 
 New York, March 22c?, 1843. 
 
 Baltimore, March SOth, 1843. 
 ' I have carefully read Dr. Giustiniani's manuscript, and most 
 cheerfully recommend the book to all persons desirous of ascer- 
 taining the character of "Popery as it is." The Dr. writes in a 
 spirit of kindness, and he aims at nothing else than an exposition 
 of the errors which so long shrouded his own mind, but from 
 which, by the grace of God, he has been delivered. His hope is 
 to enlighten the minds of his Romish brethren in this country, in 
 regard to the enormous corruptions of the system as they are ma- 
 nifested in a country where the purifying influence of Protestant- 
 ism is not felt. 
 
 John G. Morris. 
 
 I have read with great interest the larger part of a manuscript 
 submitted to me by Dr. Giustiniani, in which he narrates the gra- 
 cious dealings of a merciful God with him — whereby he, being a 
 native of Rome, and a papal priest, was brought, even in the city 
 of Rome, to a saving knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 The manuscript contains, moreover, short and forcible discussions 
 of a number of the errors and corruptions of popery, and descrip- 
 tions of many places and practices in Rome, all of which have a 
 vividness and force which nothing but personal contact could 
 impart. My opinion is that this work cannot fail to interest and 
 instruct the reader, and I take much pleasure in recommending it 
 to such as have any confidence in our judgment in such matters. 
 I also add, with much sensibility, that having known the excel- 
 lent author for some years, I rank him among our esteemed friends, 
 
RECOMMENDATIONS. 7 
 
 and have the utmost confidence in him as an enlightened gentle- 
 man and warm-hearted Christian. 
 
 Robert J. Breckinridge, 
 Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Churchy Baltimore, 
 March 21thj 1843. 
 
 I entirely concur in the views expressed by the Rev. Dr. R. J. 
 
 Breckinridge, and will only add, that if Dr. G.'s work receives 
 
 the circulation and attentive perusal which it deserves, it cannot 
 
 fail to become the instrument of great good in the cause of pure 
 
 and scriptural religion. 
 
 B. Kurtz. 
 Baltimore, March 2Sthj 1843. 
 
 Baltimore, March 2Sth, 1843. 
 
 " Papal Rome as it is," briefly but faithfully, presents Roman- 
 ism to view as it exists and exerts its influence, in twenty-seven 
 distinct and prominent points of light. It is from the pen of a 
 native Roman, trained from infancy in that fallen church — for 
 several years a priest officiating in Rome itself, an eye and ear 
 witness of the abominations he describes. It is the testimony of 
 a most competent witness. His abandonment of Rome must have 
 been the result of deliberate and enlightened conviction, He 
 took every step surrounded with most imminent danger, and at 
 the sacrifice of his worldly prospects of honor, wealth and power. 
 His eye must have been single — his motive pure — his aim the 
 glory of God. His position gave him a commanding view of the 
 whole subject, and the singular artlessness and simplicity of his 
 statements present internal evidence of the faithfulness of the nar- 
 rative. Having attentively read the entire work in manuscript, I 
 most unhesitatingly bespeak for it a faithful and candid perusal 
 by both Protestants and Romanists. If the facts detailed be cor- 
 rectj Romanism should be at once abandoned as an incurable sys- 
 tem of error, idolatry, and moral pollution, li false, every dictate 
 of decency, to speak of no loftier motive, demands that its false 
 statements be exposed and overthrown. My personal acquaint- 
 ance with Dr. Giustiniani commenced some three and a half years 
 
B RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 since, from the first, till now, I have found him the zealous de- 
 voted Christian gentleman and faithful minister of the gospel of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, whom " I love in the truth.'' and am happy 
 to have the honor of numbering among my highly valued Chris- 
 tian friends. Let this little volume be read with prayerful atten- 
 tion, and with a heart ready to take on the beautiful impress of 
 truth. 
 
 John S. Mitchell, 
 J^ent of the American and Maryland Bible Societies. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 My estimable and learned friend, the Rev. Dr. Giustiniani, 
 the author of the following pages, is a native of Italy, bom and 
 educated in the city of Rome. Of course, he drank at the foun- 
 tain head of Romanism, and imbibed deeply its genuine spirit 
 from his infancy. He was one of Rome's cherished song. He 
 had advantages unspeakably superior to those of travelers and 
 strangers, who see only the exterior of Rome's religion; and 
 can detail of course nothing more than they have seen and 
 heard. He is a native of Rome and was admitted behind the 
 curtains, and into all her secrecies, and mingled with the hiero- 
 phants, in all "the chambers of her imagery;" and was fully 
 initiated into all the orders and mysteries of Popery as it is 
 IN Rome. Hence, with the pencil of a master spirit does he 
 delineate Rome's religion and Rome's morals, with these ad- 
 vantages which few others possess. 
 
 Bishop England and other Roman prelates, have delighted to 
 call Rome "the metropolis of the Christian world." Now, as is 
 the fountain head, so must each stream be that issues from it. 
 Whatever may be said of the Roman Catholic religion, it must 
 be found in its utmost perfection, for good or for bad, at its 
 fountain head — Rome. 
 
 When God established his throne of old, in the capital of his 
 church, namely, Jerusalem, she was the glory of all lands, and 
 remained so during her palmy days. She sent forth her salutary 
 influence, in her pure doctrines, her divine w^orship, and by her 
 spiritual members walking in the beauty of holiness over all 
 the land. But a city which is the fountain head of a false and 
 corrupt religion, has never ceased to send forth her polluting 
 streams of idolatry, superstition, unbounded vice and atheism ! 
 Witness Sodom, Babylon, the cities of Egypt, Greece, Pagan 
 Rome, Mecca, and the metropolis of the modern religion. 
 
 Of course, if modern Rome be " the metropolis of the Chris- 
 tian world," she must be as Jerusalem was, in her holy and 
 palmiest days. She must be pre-eminently pure in her head 
 and in her members, in her doctrines, worship, and morals. But 
 if she is the capital and throne of an apostate church, and an 
 idolatrous religion, then is she "the land of graven images and 
 is mad upon her idols."=* And her pope and her cardinals must 
 be pre-eminently corrupt in doctrine, worship, and morals ; like 
 
 * Jerem. 1. 38. 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 all the other leaders of the army of rebellion against the Lord 
 of Hosts ! And thence, from her Vatican, do her hierophants 
 pour forth, as through widely opened flood-gates, streams of 
 pollution and death over all the lands and the people who bow 
 the knee before her altars and her images ! 
 
 We need witnesses and testimony to throw still more light 
 on this m^atter. And here we have a distinguished witness pre- 
 senting himself before the public. Dr. Giustiniani comes to us 
 from that fountain head Rome, to do this. He has seen all, ex- 
 amined all, and candidly tells us what he knows as an eye and 
 an ear witness. He has stood as a favored priest in the pope's 
 levee. He has mingled w4th cardinals and all gradations of 
 prelates and priests in 'Hhe metropolis of the Roman Catholic 
 world." He comes among us with his '^parchment" docu- 
 ments, with the seals of Rome stamped on them ; and his testi- 
 monials from Geneva, where he solemnly recanted the false re- 
 ligion of Rome and made a Christian profession. He lifts his 
 voice of solemn warning and instraction, and speaks with ear- 
 nestness, with enlightened zeal and ardent feelings, chastened 
 by compassion and love to his benighted fellow men. Unwilling 
 to exaggerate and too honest to conceal the truth, he presents 
 to us the picture of Rome and Romanism ^-as it ?s" at this day. 
 His frank and explicit testimony with that of others, helps us 
 to decide with less and less difficulty, whether Rome be '^ the 
 metropolis of the Christian world," or the very fountain head of 
 THE GREAT Apostacy predicted by Daniel, Paul, and John. 
 
 We beg, therefore, a respectful hearing to him, by all Pro- 
 testants. They will find that he confirms all that we, who have 
 been drawn into the field against the papacy, have been utter- 
 ing on the public ear these many years past. And every candid 
 Roman Cathohc will, w^e trust, allow him also a fair hearing. 
 He comes not as your enemy. Judge ye for yourselves. He 
 utters no harsh reflections on you. His heart loves you. He 
 knows how^ to pity and sympathize. For he has worn these 
 same chains which are now on your limbs. And by the grace 
 of God, he has broken ofi" and cast from him the cruel yoke 
 which ambitious men have cruelly placed on your necks. He 
 comes to tell you how happy — how truly happy he now is, 
 since he cast away a novel and human religion, and received 
 the pure Christian faith; since he exchanged the cross of Rome 
 for the holy cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; since he renounc- 
 ed the Romish slavery of the mind, and became '-the freeman 
 of the Lord." And his bowels of compassion yearn with pa- 
 ternal affection over you, whom he longs to woo over to the 
 same divine faith, and the same Christian felicity which he 
 enjoys. 
 
 M 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 The following I give in his own words : '^I know the feelings 
 of Roman Catholics, and assure my Protestant brethren, that 
 harsh words and reproaches will not be the means of convert- 
 iiig one papist. Some writers whose intentions are pure, whose 
 desire is to propagate the gospel, but w^ho are unacquainted 
 with the interior scheme of popery, can but limit their zeal to 
 a dry theological discussion. They recur to the councils, and 
 quote the canons ; of which the body of the Roman Cathohcs 
 are totally ignorant. Hence it is no w^onder that they deny the 
 authenticity of the documents adduced : and that they resist 
 the truth and oppose it with all the might of their unregener- 
 ate hearts. 
 
 ^•I have before me," — continues Dr. G. — '^some pamphlets 
 written by some new converts," w^hose eyes the Lord had 
 opened, and enable them to see the errors of popery; but who 
 seem to betray a spirit of bitterness against their old friends, 
 as if they thought that the more violent they are against the 
 church of Rome, the better Protestants they will appear- and 
 the more they denounced the pope and his priests, the more 
 they will be appreciated and loved by Protestants ! But the 
 Lord has impressed my mind differently. He has shown me 
 not only the errors of popery, but also ^- the truth as it is in 
 Jesus." When I left the church of Rome, I did not cease to 
 love the members of it ; nor to pray for the conversion of their 
 souls — yea, even for those of my bitterest persecutors. 
 
 '•Hence," adds he, •' I have taken up the pen to write, not 
 against Romanists, but on their behalf. I come to ofier myself 
 as an humble, but faithful guide, I trust, to lead them into a 
 candid and devout investigation of the divine truths of the 
 Holy Bible, and to aid them to compare these truths with the 
 dogmas and precepts of the Roman Catholic faith. I come to 
 help them in God's name, and by his grace to do what He has 
 enabled me successfully to do myself. And when I have the 
 painful task faithfully to lift the veil and expose the fatal errors 
 of popery and the abuses of the Roman church.; it will only be 
 with the view of laying before you, my friends, in love, and 
 with earnest prayer, the facts of which I have been an eye 
 and an ear witness : and also the practices which every Ro-_ 
 man Catholic must adopt, although they are manifestly con- 
 trary to reason and to the practices of the primitive church, 
 and to the living word of God. 
 
 *'And allow me to indulge the hope," adds Dr. G. '-that 
 every Roman Catholic who reads these pages, will not hesitate 
 to imitate the applauded conduct of the ancient noble Bereans; 
 and search for themselves the scriptures, to see whether these 
 things be so. For contrary to the erring traditions of the fathers. 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the most High God has declared that '^ the holy scriptures are 
 able to make you wise unto salvatioiij through faith "which is in 
 Christ Jesus. '^ 2 Tim. iii. 15. And again He saith, '' search 
 the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and 
 they are they which testify of me.'^ John v. 39. 
 
 ^^ Above all," adds my estimable and beloved friend Dr. G. 
 ^^I am anxious to exhibit to my Protestant and Roman Catholic 
 friends, the miraculous manner in which my blessed Lord and 
 Master brought me out of the darkness of popery by my con- 
 version to the light and hope of the blessed gospel of his grace. 
 
 " Finally, if through the medium of this my feeble eifort, 
 there should be even one soul brought not only from popery to 
 Protestantism, but into the heavenly light of the Sun of Right- 
 eousness ; and should thence be enabled to burst asunder the 
 fatal chains of tradition, superstition and idolatry, which it was 
 my calamity to wear thirty-one years, and come forth redeemed 
 and disenthralled, my labors shall be amply recompensed ; and 
 all the praise and glory shall be to the divine God, Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost : Amen.'' 
 
 W. C. Brownlee, 
 Of the Protestant Reformed Dutch Church of the City of 
 
 New York. 
 
 New York, April, 1843. 
 
PAPAL ROME AS IT IS. 
 
 CREDENTIALS OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 I HAVE no doubt, that some into whose hands this little vo- 
 lume may fall will stigmatize me as a heretic ] but it matters 
 not what men may say ] I will answer them in the language of 
 the apostle, that — " I am determined not to know any thing 
 among men, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.^' 
 
 There will be others, as is usually the case, who will say that 
 I have written to gain favor with Protestants, from whom I 
 may have received some temporal support. With regard to a 
 charge of this character, I would appeal to the Protestants of 
 all denominations, if any of them can come forward and say 
 that I have asked, or even received the value of a farthing 
 from any one of them in the Union, in the form of assistance ] 
 but quite the reverse, for I have often laboured without any 
 emolument, for the promotion of the Redeemer's kingdom. 
 
 To prove this I will advance an instance from the proceed- 
 ings of the Synodical Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church in the State of Maryland, for the year 1840, by the Pre- 
 sident, the Rev. Benjamin Kurtz, D. D. 
 
 "On the 14th November, the Rev. Dr. Giustiniani, formerly 
 a respectable and zealous Roman Catholic priest in the city of 
 Rome, but for several years a faithful Protestant minister of 
 the gospel, in the employment of the Western Colonial Mis- 
 sionary Society in England as missionary in Australia, applied 
 for admission into our Synod . After examining his numerous 
 and flattering credentials from the most respectable sources, 
 and satisfying ourselves of his qualifications and the purity of 
 his motives, we cheerfully received him, and it will now de- 
 volve upon the ministerium to decide as to the propriety of 
 that act. 
 
 '' The committee constituted to take measures to erect a mis- 
 sionary station, for the benefit of our German brethren on FelPs 
 Point, Baltimore, composed of the Rev. Dr. Kurtz, sen., the 
 Rev. Mr. Morris, Mr. Sauerwein, and your President, appoint- 
 
 B 13 
 
14 CREDENTIALS OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 ed the Rev. Dr. Giustiniani as missionary to that station, and 
 agreed to allow him the compensation promised by the synod. 
 But we were very much embarrassed for the want of funds to 
 carry out the design of synod. Though a resolution was passed 
 requiring all our ministers to take up collections or subscrip- 
 tions for the maintenance of aid missionary, yet very few com- 
 plied, and the consequence ;>as, that though your missionary 
 labored most zealously, '-in season and out of season,'' yet the 
 trivial recompense we were enabled to afford him, fell far short 
 of what he had a right to expect, and was by no means ade- 
 quate to his support. Perceiving the embarrassment of your 
 committee, arising from the non-compliance of the members 
 of synod with the resolution to raise funds for his support, he 
 sometime since magnanimously resigned all claim, s on the com- 
 mittee that might accrue from future services, and generously 
 continued his missionary labors at his own cost, subject, how- 
 ever, to the instruction and control of your committee, just as 
 if he were receiving the promised compensation from them.'' 
 
 It is not very desirable for any man to speak of himself; but 
 it being natural for my readers, to whom I am about to disclose 
 some articles of Rome, and the manner in which the Lord 
 brought me out from the darkness of popery to the marvelous 
 light of the gospel, to desire to know something of the author, 
 I here submit the following facts. 
 
 A Roman by birth, and educated in the metropolis of the 
 world, having studied in the University of Rome, finished there 
 the course of Theology, graduated and promoted to sacred or- 
 ders in the Basilic Church of St. John in Lateran, in Rome, the 
 reader may be assured, that the author must know something 
 of Rome and papal corruptions. Therefore he sincerely believes 
 it to be a duty incumbent upon him to give a short account of 
 it, in order to enlighten the Protestants, and direct the Roman 
 Catholics to the sure fountain of life, Jesus Christ the only me- 
 diator between God and man. 
 
 My object is not to eulogize myself, but to show my readers 
 that T am what I profess ; and as some are generally apt to at- 
 tack (when they can not resist the truth) the writer, instead of 
 the written truths or principles which are set forth, I thought 
 it my duty to annex my credentials, in order that the reader 
 may be divested of all doubts of the truth of the stated facts, 
 which are laid before him. 
 
 First. I lay before the reader the testimonials of the Profes- 
 sors of the Theological Faculties of the University Gregoriana, 
 where I finished my regular course of Theology, before I was 
 ordained. 
 
 I lay also my ordination letter before my readers, which I 
 
CERTIFICATES FROM ROME. 15 
 
 sent for when I was in Switzerland^ as a legal document, to ar- 
 range my temporal affairs, authenticated in the office of the 
 Archbishop at Florence, and also of good authorities of this 
 country-; that these copies are true from the original . 
 
 CERTIFICATES FROM ROME. 
 
 Ego subscriptus tester R. Dnum. Aloysium Giustmiani per 
 tres annos mea sub disciplina in Gregoriana Universitate Colle- 
 gii Romani ad sacrse Theologies studium, summa cum laude, et 
 progressu incubuisse, atque tam evidentia perspicacis ingenei, 
 Donitatisque moribus specimen prebuisse. ut quisquis de ipso 
 optimam spem concipere queat, pro re veritate fateor. 
 Datum Romae, Die 15 Novembris, 1826. 
 
 Prosper Piatti, 
 Collegii Rom. Theologice Professor. 
 
 Tester ego infrascriptus tam de annis ut supra, quam de pro- 
 gressu in scientiis biblicis in hac Gregoriana Universitate, nee 
 non in Theolog. Moral, in Seminario Romano pro viribus stu- 
 duisse, ac in his scienciis ita fuit versatus, ut in agone litterario 
 pluries certaverit, et prestantissimas laudes certando semper 
 meruerit, in quorum fid em dabam ex sedibus Die 16 idem men- 
 sis, 1826. J. Caio. Pellicani, 
 
 Collegii Romani ex ProfessoTj et h. t. 
 [L. S.] Seminar a Romani Piibl. Prof. 
 
 Gaspar Gasparini Scolarum Prefectus. 
 
 D. Placidus ord. S. Benedicti Congreg. Camaldulensis tituli 
 S. Crucis in Jerusalem. S. R. E. Presbiter Cardinalis Zurla S. 
 S., D. N. Papas Vicarius Generalis, Roman^que Curiae, ejusque 
 Districtus Judex Ordinarius. 
 
 Universis, et singulis prsesentes nostras visuris, lecturis pari- 
 ter, at audituris, notum facimus, et testamur Illmum. ac Rev- 
 mum. P. D. Laurentium Mattel Patriarc. Antiochen. Romas 
 die Sabb. 4 temporum post Fest. S. Luciae 23 M. Decembris 
 1826, in Sacram Lateranens. Basilicam Generalem Ordinatio- 
 nem inter Missarum Solemn, celebrand. de licentia nostra inter 
 alios dilectissim. nobis in Christo fill. Aloysium Giustiniani Ro- 
 MANUM at titulum Pensionis prasvio examine aR. R.P.P.D.D. 
 Examinatoribus in Urbe deputatis, idoneum repertum, et ad- 
 missum cum ceremoniis, et solemnitatibus necessariis, et op- 
 
16 CERTIFICATES FROM ROME. 
 
 portuuis in similibus fieri solitis, et consuetis juxta, et secun- 
 dum S. R. E. ritum morenij et consuetudinem ad sacr. S. Dia- 
 conatus ordineni praeviis Publicationem, et Spiritualem Exerci- 
 tium ritej et recte Servor. serv. in Domino Promovisse, et ordi- 
 uasse ] in quorum omnium et singulorum fidem has praesentes 
 literas a nobis, seu ab Illmo. ac Revmo. P. D. Vicesgerente, et 
 D. secret, nostro subscriptas, Sigilloque nostro munitas fieri jus- 
 simus. 
 
 Datur RoM^ ex sedibus nostris hac die primam mensis Febni- 
 «iri anno 1827, Jurisdict. XIV. Pontificatus Sanctissimi in Christo 
 Patris, et D. n. D. Leonis, Divina Providentia Papae XII. anno 
 ejus IV. &c. C. J. Patriarch, 
 
 [L. S.] Constantinopolitanus. Vices Gerens, Sfc. 
 
 Cos. Antonius. Canonicus. Argenti. 
 
 SecretariiLs, 
 
 Concorda la presents copia col suo originale esistente in filza 
 di atti straordinarj, che si conserva nella curia Arcivescovile di 
 Firenza di 1 Luglio 1830. 
 
 In fede, Gio. Pensi, 
 
 [L. S.] Cancelliere Arcivescovile. 
 
 I have read and carefully compared the above copy, with 
 the original document; also his other testimonials, together 
 with the document given to him by "the Consistoire de Ge- 
 neve." before whom Dr. Giustiniani solemnly renounced Ro- 
 manism. W. C. Brownlee, 
 
 Of the Prot. Ref, Dutch Church of N, York. 
 
 New Yorkj March 22cZ, 1843. 
 
 Having seen the originals, as above, and having no doubt of 
 their genuineness and authenticity, I cheerfully add my attesta- 
 tion to that of Dr. Brownlee. Samuel H. Cox, 
 
 Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of this City. 
 
 Brooklyn^ N. F., March 22d, 1843. 
 
 Having read and compared the above copy with the original 
 document and believing them genuine and faithful, I freely 
 concur with the testimonials of Drs. Brownlee and Cox. 
 
 Charles Martin, 
 Pastor of St. Matthew^ s Ev. Luth. Church of N. York. 
 
 Chas. F. E. Stohlmann, 
 Pastor of the United German Luth. Churches in N. York. 
 New York, March 22d, 1843. 
 
OBSTACLES TO CONVERSION. 17 
 
 I have compared the foregoing certificate of ordination with 
 the original, and find it to be a correct copy. 
 
 Jno. G. Morris. 
 Baltimm-e, April 7thj 1843. 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF A ROMAN CATHOLIC IS A GREAT 
 
 MIRACLE. 
 
 The age of moral miracles has not ceased, whatever the opi- 
 nion of modern theologians to the contrary may be, whatever 
 proofs they may adduce to support their opinions^ I will answer 
 them in the language of the blind man, who was healed by our 
 Saviour ; " One thing I know", that, whereas I was blind, now I 
 see.'' I know that the Lord has worked a miracle in my heart: 
 once I was a blind leader of the blind, now I know that with- 
 out grace I can not do any thing. I know it : I have felt the 
 miraculous power of grace in my heart ; who will contest the 
 reality of it 1 — That the blind received their sight, and the lame 
 walked, and the lepers were cleansed, and the deaf heard, and 
 that the dead were raised up, are undoubtedly miracles ; but 
 that he should make such an extraordinary change in the heart 
 of man, who had imbibed the religious superstitions of the 
 church of Rome for thirty-one years* to give him grace and 
 strength to leave mother, sisters, friends and all that was near- 
 est and dearest to him on earth, for Christ's sake, is an astound- 
 ing moral miracle, that cannot be properly appreciated by any 
 man who has not been the subject of such a conversion. 
 
 My mind has often been filled with astonishment and deep 
 meditation on the subject of conversion. I am convinced, that 
 when a Protestant is converted, he believes the truth, which 
 he once considered folly; and looks upon the formalities in 
 which he was brought up from his infancy, (which have been 
 augmented and strengthened with his age,) as many tyrants^ 
 which bound and shackled his mind, or as many clouds which 
 have darkened the horizon of truth, and deprived him of the 
 light of the Sun of Righteousness, which he now enjoys in peace 
 with his God. 
 
 The conversion of a Protestant who had abandoned himself 
 even to the vilest passions of his heart, violatmg openly the pre- 
 cepts of God, by committing all sorts of sinful acts, is certainly 
 a miracle ; it is the work of the almighty power of God } still 
 the conversion of a Roman Catholic is a greater miracle. For 
 the Protestant, though he was living in vice, never abhorred 
 
 B 2 
 
18 OBSTACLES IN THE WAY 
 
 virtue, nor detested those who practised it. He was not reli- 
 gious, because he considered its practice difficult — but never 
 rejected it as an abominable practice; and during the time 
 when he openly transgressed the laws of God, he never con- 
 sidered the observance of them sinful ] nor did he hate those 
 who faithfully practised them : it never came into his mind to 
 extirpate the faithful believers in the Bible with fire and fag- 
 got, as obnoxious beings w^orthy of the curse of God and man. 
 But a Roman Catholic, before his conversion to the truth of the 
 Bible, is obliged to consider all other religious creeds as abomi- 
 nations in the eyes of God. I never heard them spoken of with- 
 out an imprecation. The name of Luther is never mentioned 
 without the epithet, ^-maledetto Luthero,'' the cursed Luther. 
 The name of Calvin with the addition — ^4'execrata memoria di 
 Calvino,'' the execrated memory of Calvin. The Reformation 
 was never a subject of conversation without a profusion of ana- 
 themas. Every Easter I heard the Pope curse the Protestants 
 from the balcony of the Vatican, and bless the faithful Catho- 
 lics, giving them an entire remission of all their sins, and five 
 hundred days indulgence from the pains of Purgatory to all who 
 have confessed and communed, according to the precepts of 
 the church. Is it possible to describe the horror I had for Pro- 
 testantism, and with what dread all others look upon it? 
 
 Another obstacle, which lies in the way of a Roman Catholic, 
 and one of the greatest of all, is the false peace in which Rome 
 cradles her followers. No Protestant can ever imagine, much 
 less have an adequate idea of those feelings which a devoted 
 Roman Catholic has after he leaves the confessional. I re- 
 member it with sorrow, and blush over my ignorance, that I 
 could be so credulous. When my conscience accused me of 
 sinfulness, when my heart was nearly broken with the sorrow- 
 ful conviction of having sinned against my God, I often kneeled 
 in a corner of the church before an image "of the Virgin Mary, 
 or before a statue of a saint, praying for rest to my troubled 
 soul; I was ashamed to acquaint the priest with all the in- 
 dwellings of my heart ] at the same time I feared, if I should 
 neglect that precept of the church, that I must go to hell ; in 
 that internal war with myself, and I may say with my God, I 
 approached the confessional ; I clothed my sins in the garment 
 of self-righteousness ; instead of accusing myself, I complained 
 of temptations, and strong inclinations to sin; in many instances 
 I excused myself; I promised every thing only to obtain ab- 
 solution. I repeat, that no Protestant can enter mto those feel- 
 ings which I had after having received absolution; though I 
 was conscious of having deceived the priest, still the idea of 
 having obtained the absolution — I felt as easy as if I had really 
 
OF A ROMAN CATHOLIC. 19 
 
 obtained the remission of all my sins, and a license to begin a 
 new catalogue for the next time of confession. 
 
 My readers will think that this was my mdividtud fault; 
 other papists are more sincere in the observance of the so- 
 called sacrament of penance. My readers can be assured, that 
 one-third of the inhabitants of Rome confess, only pro forma, 
 to obtain the parochial ticket^* that they might not be subject 
 to the vexations and punishments to which the disobedient 
 members are exposed. A large number of the inhabitants do 
 not confess at all : they buy the ticket from the boys, who usual- 
 ly serve the priests in the vestibulum, or room where they 
 dress themselves to appear before the altar. I remember hav- 
 ing once bought such a ticket from the Sacristano.i Not out 
 of contempt to the sacrament, but for conscience sake, I 
 thought it a sacrilege to commune without having obtained the 
 absolution. I preferred to deceive the priest, by giving him a 
 bought ticket, rather than my God, by communing with a load 
 of sin upon my soul. 
 
 Another impediment, not less obstructive in the way of the 
 truth of the gospel, is the temporal prospects which the church 
 of Rome holds out to her members. It is like a barrier raised 
 up against the gospel truth. It is like an iron grasp, which 
 holds them back. Every respectable family in Rome has a 
 priest in its bosom, who is the hope of the family. Worldly 
 honours, ecclesiastical offices, riches of this world are ex- 
 pected ', and to obtain them nothing is neglected ; the mask of 
 hypocrisy is put on 3 intrigues are entered into — even immoral 
 means ; and, if necessary, carnal prostitutions to some cardinal 
 or prelate, or even to the humble confessor, are used, as means 
 to become great in the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome. 
 
 After all these repugnances and antipathies towards Protes- 
 tanism: worldly inducements; spiritual encouragements, and 
 false peace to the troubled soul, add also the fear of papal ex- 
 
 * The ticket is given by the parish priest at the altar, when he is administer- 
 ing the communion. A month after Easter he visits every house in his parish, 
 collecting the said tickets, in order to know who had neglected that precept 
 of the church. A person who is found without the ticket is kindly admonished, 
 but if obstinate, his name is fixed on the doors of the four Basilic churches, 
 viz. St. Peter^s, St. John of Lateran, St. Maria Maggiore, and St. Maria del Tra- 
 stevere, with the excommunication of the Pope annexed. Should this second ef- 
 fort be also fruitless, the Pope, as the Father of the faithful, and anxious that no 
 soul should be lost, causes him to be put in prison, where he is visited by the j 
 priests. But should the third effort prove fruitless also, then the Pope, with 
 the authority of the Vicar of Christ, and the love of the good Shepherd, gives 
 him into the good care of the tortures of the Holy Inquisition, until he returns 
 into the bosom of the mother church. 
 
 f Sacristano is the servant of the church, whose office is to dress the priest 
 before he celebrates the mass, lighting the candles, adjusting the altar, and 
 assisting at the mass, &c. 
 
20 EASTER. 
 
 communication, and the tortures of the Holy Inquisition, and 
 then ask whether the conversion of a Roman Catholic is not a 
 great wonder ! Yes ! a moral miracle, as great as the opening 
 of the eyes of the blind, and the raising up of the dead. For 
 it is the opening of the eyes of the bhnd; and the raising of 
 the dead in sins. 
 
 EASTER. 
 
 As my intention is not only to give my personal experience, 
 but also to describe Rome as it is now^ the digression of the 
 present chapter will, not be considered a deviation from the 
 subject, but an elucidation of the moral corruption of the 
 church of Rome. Having mentioned Easter, w^hen his holiness 
 the Pope so profusely pours out curses on Protestants, it will 
 not be out of order to give a description of the manner in 
 which that festival is celebrated and sanctified in Rome. 
 
 Easter is one of the three great festivals in the church of 
 Rome. It is true, the calendar is nearly all set apart to the 
 commemoration of saints. We have more saints than there are 
 days in the year; still Easter having been a subject of agita- 
 tion in the church, and the cause of separation between the 
 Latin and the Greek churches,^ Rome displays more luxury 
 and ecclesiastical splendour in its celebration than in any other 
 festival in the calendar. 
 
 The holy week, which precedes Easter, is worthy to be men- 
 tioned. Every amateur of music will know something of the 
 so far famed ^^ miserere,^^ which is performed in the Sixtin 
 Chapel during the last three evenings of the Holy week. The 
 chapel is in the Vatican, painted by Michael Angelo^ fresh as 
 if his master pencil had touched it only to-day. On the right of 
 the altar a throne is erected for the Pope ; on both sides the 
 Cardinals are arrayed in purple ^f each of them assisted by 
 their respective caudatario^X and Maestro di ceremonia.h The 
 patriarchs, and bishops in their pontifical dress ] the generals, 
 and chiefs of every religious order in their monastic array. 
 
 * Circa ann. 862. 
 
 f The cardinals' usual dress is scarlet red, but in the morning they dress in 
 purple. 
 
 X Caudatario is, literally translated, tail-bearer, or one who carries the tail 
 of the cardinal's toga. 
 
 $ Maestro di ceremonia, is a priest who directs the order in pontifical masses ; 
 every cardinal has one as an appendix to his suit, and in the house of his 
 eminence, he is an overseer of the domestic affairs. 
 
E ASTER. 21 
 
 The lodges erected on both sides of the chapel are crowded 
 with foreign ambassadors, their ladies and other distinguished 
 foreigners of both sexes. In the middle of the chapel is a read- 
 ing desk of a triangular form, upon which thirteen candles are 
 burning, as a symbol of the candelabrum in the temple of Jeru- 
 salem ; others, however, say of our Saviour, and his twelve dis- 
 ciples. Every eye is directed towards the throne; the Pope 
 giving the signal, the ^^ miserere mei''^ is commenced, and at 
 once the chapel is rendered vocal by a hundred voices. To 
 describe the effect, and impression which it produces upon the 
 senses, is beyond the power of human language. Ecclesiasti- 
 cal splendour flashing on every side in a thousand forms, mili- 
 tary and diplomatic decorations of all the courts of Europe, 
 the display of the ladies, and other fascinations beggar all de- 
 scription. In addition to this, the paintings of the most re- 
 nowned masters of Italy, the best performers of the theatrical 
 artists, and choristers, and the most unrivalled voices of 
 eunuchsj are too overpowering to be depicted. After every 
 psalm a candle is extinguished, until the last, which remains 
 the only one burning in the whole chapel. We can see the 
 colours gradually darken, and the figures of the paintings by 
 degrees lose their form, a striking symbol of the papal power, 
 which is loosing its influence, and gradually fading away like 
 the twilight of the evening. 
 
 Saturday before Easter^ at twelve o'clock the bells are heard 
 from every steeple, the clouds are rent by their sounds, and the 
 earth trembles from the roaring of the cannon from Fort St. 
 Angelo ; the ears are deafened by the merry clamours of the 
 children in the streets, and the reports of pistols fired nearly in 
 every house. The remembrance of that joyful spectacle pro- 
 duces npw a very different sensation in my heart; for I knov/ 
 the Saviour has risen from the dead, and I w^ith him. 
 
 Saturday evening, at seven o'clock, p. m., every dwelling, 
 where an image of a Madonna, or any saint is stationed, for the 
 houses are illuminated,^^ altars are erected, litanies are sung; 
 and prayers upon bended knees are offered to those saints, all 
 these in the middle of the streets. In the meantime the mul- 
 titude of the (so called) better class of the inhabitants of Rome 
 are directed toward St. Peter's, wdiere the grandest and most 
 imposing spectacle is to be seen. But at the same time the 
 most revolting to every moral sense and religious feeling. 
 
 A cross (covered with brass, symmetrically illuminated with 
 thousands of lamps,) is suspended in the middle of the church. 
 
 * It is the custom in Italy to have niches in the walls, the outside of the 
 houses, in which the Virgin Mary, or some saint is placed, as a protector of 
 the house and family. 
 
22 EASTER. 
 
 The reader may form some kind of an idea of the colossal 
 height of that cross, when he is informed that its magnitude 
 does apparently, not diminish even after being suspended at a 
 tremendous height above the heads of the people. Round that 
 cross you can see, promenading arm in arm, the lover with his 
 dulcineaj as though promenading in a dancing saloon • chatting, 
 laughing, and mdulging in most irreverent acts, which would 
 be considered an offence in a respectable hotel; these are 
 committed publicly in the sanctuary, under the cross of Christ. 
 As the church is entirely dark, except the light which the 
 cross reflects in it, there are sometimes lovers of darkness 
 rather than of light, wdio often lose their way in the adjacent 
 collonades and chapels, where they perpetrate the most wicked 
 acts, of which every honest man would blush, except the 
 adorers of the cross in the church of St. Peter's. The specta- 
 cle lasts until eleverl o'clock in the night ; decency forbids me 
 to say more, and constrains me to relinquish the subject of the 
 adoration of the cross in St. Peter's at Rome. 
 
 Easter morning. The roaring of the cannon announces the 
 ushering in of the morn ; the harmonious sounds from the thou- 
 sand steeples mitigate the roughness of the first, and invite the 
 slumbering beauty to leave her couch, and prepare for the ren- 
 dezvous given the last night under the illuminated cross. 
 
 Nine o^clocJc^ A. M. The square of St. Peter's presents the 
 most varied and interesting spectacle. State carriages of all 
 descriptions; the cardinals in their full dress, and suit; the 
 ambassadors of all the foreign courts, with all the particular 
 characteristics of their nations ; carriages of the innumerable 
 prelates, bishops, and chiefs of the monastic orders ; two regi- 
 ments of soldiers in arms ; martial music, the spouting of the 
 gigantic fountains ; thousands and ten thousands of pedestrians 
 of every sex and class, dressed in their best garaients, take 
 their posts under the colonades, or other spots, as they think 
 the most convenient; this lasts until one o'clock, P. M., so that 
 the whole square is thronged with people. One o'clock is 
 usually the time of the appearance of the Pope on the balcony 
 of the church ; a dead silence prevails throughout the whole 
 mass of the people ; every eye is directed to the spot, with 
 watches in the hand, the minutes are counted ; in the mean 
 time the balcony is filling with cardinals, bishops, and monks; 
 the attention becomes so rivetted, that a sigh might be heard ; 
 at length the Pope appears in an arm chair, carried upon the 
 shoulders of eight persons between two gigantic fans. Then 
 the deafening shouts of the people, the sonorous martial music, 
 the roaring of the cannon rend the clouds. ^^ Padre la santa 
 benedizionCj^^ (father the holy blessing,) bursts from every 
 
CONVERSION OF THE AUTHOR. Z9 
 
 mouth; the handkerchiefs are waved by the ladies, and the 
 hats by the men. All prostrate themselves upon the ground, 
 they receive the blessing from the Pope ; a prelate then reads 
 the so called '-'^ Bulla C ana DominV'' in which the most horri- 
 ble curses against the heretics and infidels are pronounced, and 
 a blessing upon all the faithful. Thus ends the spectacle for 
 this time. 
 
 In the afternoon all the promenades are visited ] the wine 
 houses filled ] the places of amusement enjoyed until the even- 
 ing, when all again repair to the square of St. Peter's to enjoy 
 the illumination of the cupola.^ It is horrible to think, that 
 seductions of the innocent, wicked plans framed, and perpe- 
 trated in those days, partly in the sanctuary, under the eyes 
 of the priests, shall be called a religious worship. 
 
 NARRATIVE 
 
 OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD SHOWED 
 ME THE ERRORS OF POPERY. 
 
 As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is God's 
 mercy towards men ; and as far as the east is from the west, 
 so far are his counsels from ours. One day — it was a charming 
 summer day, a day w^hen an Italian sun sheds its enlivening 
 rays over the city of the world — who could think that this 
 would be the day upon w^hich I was to be emancipated from 
 the thraldom of superstition, and freed from the fetters of moral 
 and religious slavery. Coming, as usual, from the public library 
 of the Sapienza, on my way home I passed the Piazza Novonay 
 
 * The cupola is illuminated by three hundred persons, who are stationed 
 with lighted torches within the interior, in order that they should not be seen ; 
 and as soon as the first stroke of seven o'clock is heard, they rush forward 
 and light the lamps assigned unto each of them, so that in one minute the 
 whole cupola is illuminated; even the cross on the top has three lights. In ad- 
 dition to this, the reflection of these lights in the spouts of the gigantic foun- 
 tains, where every drop in the air is like a prism, and represents thousands 
 of rainbows, is above all description. When Joseph II. of Austria, visited 
 Rome, the Pope gave an illumination in honour of that august stranger ; 
 when he had watched the spouting of the fountains for a short time, he said : 
 *' It is enough." But how much greater was his surprise when he was in- 
 formed that these were perpetual fountains. And at the first stroke of seven 
 o'clock the Secretary of State asked for a pinch of snuff, and in the time the 
 emperor of Austria turned to give his snuff-box, the whole cupola appeared 
 in fire. Joseph was so astonished, that he would not take the snuff-box back, 
 but gave it as a present to the cardinal, Secretary of State. 
 
24 CONVERSION OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 one of the public squares of that name, and there encountered 
 the stand of an antiquarian, as one who sold second-handed 
 books. After having examined his stock and found nothing 
 which could be of use for my library, I saw a basket on the 
 ground with very old books, which he offered me for tre Bajoc- 
 chj, four cents a piece. I searched and searched, and found a 
 small volume in the French language, a translation from the 
 English, entitled "Father Clement." I thought it a life of 
 some saint, and being written in French, I thought it might be 
 of double benefit for edification as well as instruction. I paid 
 my four cents and left the stand. How great was my surprise 
 when in reading Father Clement, I found a discussion between 
 a Jesuit and a Protestant, instead of a life of a saint. All my 
 attention was directed to one point, where is the truth ? After 
 having attentively, perused the little book, I read again and 
 again the scriptural passages in favour of the arguments. I 
 could not then believe that such passages were in the Bible ; 
 and what was still worse, I had no Bible to confront the truth 
 and correctness of the passages. Some of my readers will think 
 it impossible that a Roman Catholic priest should be without a 
 Bible J they will attribute it to my own lukewarmness. I can 
 assure them that few, very few priests in Rome and throughout 
 Italy are in the possession of that Holy book 3 and those who 
 have it, keep it like any other classical book — only as an orna- 
 ment in their libraries.^* 
 
 Having no Bible to verify the truth of the passages quoted 
 by the Protestant, I went to the public library of the "Oominic- 
 ans, called, " La Minerva,^^ from the church which wi < once a 
 temple dedicated to that divinity. But what was my su.^^rise. 
 when on asking Frater Ambrosio for a Polyglot Bible, he asked 
 me if I had the permission from the Mcestro del Sacro Palazzo 
 to read it ? I told him with resentment that I never knew of 
 the necessity of such a license ; as a theologian I thought it an 
 affront to refuse me the Bible. Fra. Ambrosio, who was a very 
 good natured old man, and who knew me from a boy, assured 
 me that his intention was not to insult me ; but these were his 
 orders ; and that every one, even old priests must have a license 
 to read the Bible. But he stated that he would ask the libra- 
 rian, and tell him that he knew me, and if the librarian had no 
 objection, he would give me the Polyglot Bible. He did so, 
 and the librarian. Father Cipulla, at that time also the vice in- 
 
 * When I studied theology, I heard twice every week the lectures on Dis- 
 quisitio Biblica, and never saw a Bible in the hand of the professor, nor in the 
 hand of any of the students. The professor dictated from his papers on the 
 controversy of the creation ; about the Adamites and Pre-adamites, and all 
 such stuff, which was neither for the head nor for the heart. 
 
CONVERSION OF THE AUTHOR. 25 
 
 quisitor, authorized him to give me any book, even those which 
 are in the Index (libror. prohib,) of the forbidden books. 
 
 These httle difficulties augmented my desire to read not only 
 the few passages in Father Clement^ but the whole Bible. On 
 the same day I searched in all the bookseller stores for a Bible, 
 and bought one, a translation from the Vulgate by Martini^ 
 archbishop of Florence. It is impossible to describe my feel- 
 ings, when I found that the passages quoted by the Protestant 
 had been faithfully transcribed from the Bible. New, and 
 almost undefinable ideas occupied my mind. I am so old, and 
 have not known the Bible ? I studied theology, read the fathers, 
 and canons of the different councils, and not the Bible ? Why 
 should I have a special permission to read the word of God % 
 Why have Protestants, (who are considered heretics) free ac- 
 cess to the Bible ? These, and many other excruciating thoughts 
 tortured my mind. It was a problem which I could not solve. 
 I felt that there was something wrong; but where, I could not 
 find out. Haunted by these thoughts I went to my spiritual 
 adviser, and recounted to him every thing. I was sincere, and 
 that too perhaps for the first time since my fifteenth year, when 
 I first opened my whole heart and troubled mind to a confessor. 
 He was astonished that such a trifling thing should trouble me, 
 as it was nothing more than temptations of the devil, to whicn 
 I yielded. He counselled me — to let the Bible alone ^ as it was 
 too strong a food for my fervent imagination. Then he asked 
 me, ^'If I had not been in contact with some heretic ? If I had 
 given Father Clement to som£ other 'person to read? If I had com- 
 municated my sentiments to some of my companions ? If I had 
 been a long time in the possession of the Bible V^ After having 
 answered all these questions in the negative, he continued his 
 directions — ^^ To give no room in my mind to such heretical ideas ; 
 being only Satan^ who appears as an angel of light. That I must 
 burn Father Clement, as the sole cause of the evil. That I should 
 make it as a rule to pay my morning and evening devotions to the 
 ever blessed Virgin Mary. To be more exact in the duty of saying 
 the horcB canonicce in the Breviary, &c. &c.''^ 
 
 I promised to do all he required me to do, and I did all, ex- 
 cept two things I could not observe, namely, to let the Bible 
 alone and to burn Father Clement. 
 
 After a long and heart-rending struggle with myself, I kneeled 
 before the image of the Virgin Mary, and asked in fervent 
 prayer the counsel of the queen of heaven, (as I believed her 
 to be.) I came to the resolution to inquire ; 
 
 * HorcB Canonicm is a certain task, which every priest is in duty bound to 
 perform, by saying some prayers in the Breviary in the wornmo-, and is called : 
 
 Matutmae," and in the evening called "Vesper," and in the middle of the 
 day, called horoB. Q 
 
26 THE MASS. 
 
 1st. Whether the practices of the church of Rome has been 
 the practice of the primitive churches ? 
 
 2d. Whether the practices and doctrines of the church of 
 Rome can be proved and sanctioned by the authority of the 
 Bible? and 
 
 3d. Whether they can be confirmed by the authority of the 
 Fathers ? 
 
 Scarcely had I made the resolution, Vv-hen I felt as if a burden 
 had fallen from my heart. I thanked the Holy Virgin for her 
 wise counselj and determined to go to work as soon as possible. 
 Never were the words of the apostle Paul " to will is present 
 with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not,-' 
 more applicable than in my case. Though strongly determined 
 to investigate the Scriptures, still there was an internal voice 
 as it were, which whispered to my conscience, saying : -'What ! 
 inquire if the doctrines of the church of Rome are the same as 
 in the primitive churches ? Is it not the Catholic and Apostolic 
 church ? Who can doubt the primitive principles and usages 
 of the Roman church? What ! inquire whether the doctrines 
 of the Catholic church can be proved by the Bible ? Is it not 
 a mortal sin to doubt the authenticity of the mother church, 
 which is the only saving church, out of which there is no salva- 
 tion V^ Such were the thoughts and feelings, which habit, pre- 
 jiidice, and perhaps superstition, suggested to my bewildered 
 mind. 
 
 Father Clement being constantly upon my table, I read it 
 over and over again, so that I knew it nearly by heart. Finally, 
 I made a resolution, which was in harmony with my own con- 
 science, neither derogatory to reason, nor to the doctrines of 
 the church of Rome. A resolution of which tjo Roman Catholic, 
 priest or layman can be ashamed. It was simply this — If the 
 doctrines of the church of Rome are true, why should I not in- 
 vestigate them, and see if they are really based upon the Scriptures, 
 and the usages of the primitive churches ? In order that my faith 
 might be more fidly established, and also instructed in the Bible. 
 Are the doctrines of the church of Rome not based upon the Bible, 
 and if they are contrary to the usages of the primitive churches, it 
 is necessary for my souVs scdvation to know it. 
 
 THE MASS. 
 
 My readers will bear in mind, that at that time I had not 
 been persuaded of the errors of popery, nor had I been in the 
 possession of the Inith. First I doubted, and then I inquired: 
 
THE MASS. 27 
 
 therefore he must not expect an elaborate theological disquisi- 
 tion upon the gospel truth, but only the experience of a sincere 
 seeker. 
 
 All the practices and dogmas of the church of Rome, were 
 crowded together in my mind. The mass ; transuhstaatiation ; 
 auricular confession; invocation of Saints; veneration of im- 
 ages; adoration of relics ; purgatory and indulgences; infalli- 
 bility of the Pope; and the Inquisition^ ^c. All these presented 
 themselves at once to my mind, and I scarcely knew where to 
 begin. But as the Mass is' a precept of the church, and an in- 
 junction to every member, to hear the sacred office of the Mass 
 on festival daysj^^ it was the first subject of nivestigation on 
 Scriptural grounds, and also whether it was the usage of the 
 primitive churches ? In my investigation I neglected nothing. 
 I read the fathers, canons, and searched diligently the Scrip- 
 tures to support it; for my desire was not to find errors, but to 
 strengthen my faith in the doctrines of the church of Rome. 
 
 ^' The MasSy (as I had been taught,) is a sacrifice of external 
 oblation of the body and blood of Christ, through the forms of 
 bread and wine, sensibly exhibited by a legitimate minister, 
 offered to God in recognition of his supreme dominion, with the 
 use of certain prayers and ceremonies j prescribed by the church 
 for the better worship of God and edification of the people.'^ 
 As the established doctrine of the church of Rome, it is sup- 
 ported by all theologians.* The council of Trent is equally 
 decided on the subject. t "Whosoever shall say, that the sa- 
 crifice of the Mass is merely an offering of praise and thanks, 
 or a simple commemoration of the sacrifice performed on the 
 cross and not propitiatory; or that it is of benefit only to the 
 recipient; and that it ought not to be offered for the living and 
 the dead for sins, penances, satisfactions, and other necessities, 
 let him be accursed." 
 
 The ceremonies^ which form a part of the sacrifice, I had, as a 
 matter of necessity, investigated. Before that, I performed them 
 mechanically, not even thinking of their signification ; but how 
 was I disappointed, when I found that those ceremonies are not 
 more related with the things of which they should be emblema- 
 tic, than my readers are related with the man in the moon. 
 I shall give a short description of the vestment and evolutions 
 of the mass, and the reader will see, that there are many acts 
 and ceremenies, which have no signification at all. 
 
 ^•'The priest, who officiates,! shall cover his head with an 
 
 * Belarmino de MisssB sacrificio, lib. 1. — Suarez Disquisitio de Missse cele- 
 branda. 
 f Concil Tredent. Sessio 22, can. 3. 
 t Missal. Rom. Rubrica. 
 
28 
 
 THE MASS. 
 
 amice, (a white towel,) which signifies the veil that the Jews 
 put on Christ * then over his own clothing an alb, (a white linen 
 shirtj) which betokens a garment of that colour, which Herod 
 is said to have put upon Christ. The girdle, signifying the cord, 
 with which our Saviour was bound in the garden ; next he puts 
 on a stole about his neck, as an emblem of the cord with which 
 Christ was led to execution 3 then comes the manipuhim on his 
 left hand, in allusion to the cord, with which Christ was bound 
 to the pillar when scourged; over all these a very rich, with 
 gold embroidered, vestment, which hangs behind and before in 
 a curious manner, and is called pivialis, significant of the purple 
 garment with which the Jews clothed our Saviour. The altar 
 represents the cross 3 the cup, the sepulchre of the Saviour 3 
 the patina, or cover of the cup, the stone on the grave 3 the 
 lighted candle, the light of Christ. Then follow — the prostra- 
 tions, and genuflections, the boy and the little bell 3 the numer- 
 ous bowings, turnings and facings, kissings and crossings. The 
 drink mg of all the wine and the asking for more; the drying 
 of the cup w^ith a white handkerchief as a sign that he drank 
 all of it; all these things puzzled my mind. I searched the 
 Bible in order to find a chapter in which the mass, which our 
 Lord Jesus Christ said, is described. I expected to find a de- 
 scription of the sacred vestments ; the exact command of all the 
 evolutions and intricate gesticulations of the celebrator of the 
 mass. Unhappily, I found not only nothing of all these things, 
 but quite the contrary. I compared the missal with the Bible, 
 and the following was the result of my research. 
 
 The Church of Rome, 
 
 ^^I further profess that in the 
 mass is ofiered to God a true, 
 proper, and propitiatory sacri- 
 fice for the living and dead." — 
 Creed Pius. iv. 
 
 ^' The mass is a sacrifice not 
 accompanied with shedding of 
 blood." 
 
 The mass is oflfered by sin- 
 ful priests. 
 
 The Bible. 
 
 "The blood of Christ cleans- 
 eth from all sin." Epist. I. John 
 c. i. V. 7. 
 
 "Behold the lamb of God 
 that taketh away the sins of the 
 world." Gospel of John, chap, 
 i. V. 29. 
 
 "Without shedding of blood 
 is no remission of sins." Epist. 
 Heb. c. vii. v. 27. 
 
 " Christ offered up himself," 
 Ep. to Heb. c. vii. v. 27, " to 
 put away sin by the sacrifice of 
 himself." Ep. to Heb. c. ix. v. 
 26. 
 
THE MASS. 
 
 2^ 
 
 The Church of Rome. 
 '• The mass is often repeated, 
 
 for the living, and dead. 
 Tred. Can. 3.' 
 
 Cone. 
 
 The priest needs daily to offer 
 up sacrifice, first for his own 
 sins, then for the people. 
 
 Ritus missal. Romxin. 
 
 ^'The day before our Lord 
 suffered, he took bread into his 
 holy and adorable hands, and 
 lifting up his eyes to heaven, 
 to God, and giving thanks, he 
 blessed {there the priest crosses ^ 
 and re-crosses the wafer,) brake 
 and gave to his disciples, {theii 
 the maneuver begins ; the hostia 
 is broken in two pieces upon the 
 patina, the towel of the altar scrap- 
 ed with it, in case a particle should 
 have fallen upon the altar, again 
 a genuflection, the bell sounds, 
 the people fall upon their knees, 
 strike their breasts, pray, and 
 worship the hostia) saying : 
 "take ye all of this, for it is 
 my body.'' 
 
 (In the mean time while that 
 maneuver goes on, the hostia is 
 transubstantiated in the blood, 
 body, soul, and divinity of Jesus 
 Christ, or in more intelligible 
 words, the morsel of bread is in- 
 stantaneously changed into the 
 Redeemer of the world ; then he 
 crosses on the bottom of the cup 
 
 c 
 
 The Bible. 
 
 " Christ V7as once offered to 
 bear the sins of many.'' Ep. 
 Heb. c. ix. v. 28. 
 
 ^' By one offering he had per- 
 fected for ever them that are 
 sanctified." Heb. c. x. v. 14. 
 
 ^' Such an high priest became 
 us, who is holy, harmless, un- 
 defiled, and separate from sin- 
 ners, and made higher than the 
 heavens ; who needeth not as 
 those high priests to offer up 
 sacrifice first for his own sins, 
 and then for the people." Ep. 
 Heb. c. vii. v. 26. 
 
 "And as they were eating, 
 Jesus took bread and blessed 
 it, and brake it, and gave it to 
 the disciples, and said : Take, 
 eat ', this is my body. 
 
 "And he took the cup and 
 gave thanks, and gave it to 
 them, saying, Drink ye all of it ; 
 for this is my blood of the New 
 Testament, which is shed for 
 many for the remission of sins." 
 Mat. c. xxvi. V. 26 — 28 ; Mark 
 
 C. XI V 
 
 V. 19, 20; 
 V, 23, &c. 
 
 V. 22, 23; 
 
 Luke c. xxii. 
 Ep. of 1 Cor. c. xi. 
 
30 
 
 THE MASS. 
 
 The Church of Rome, The Bible. 
 
 and also on the brim of it j and 
 taking it in his hand, he breathes 
 on itj and utters the rest in the 
 same low voice, viz, "In like 
 manner after supper he took 
 this noble chalice into his holy 
 and adorable hands, and after 
 thanks to the Father, he bless- 
 ed, (there he crosses again) and 
 gave it to his disciples, saying, 
 Take ye, and drink you ali> 
 OF THIS, for this is the cup of 
 my blood, a new and everlast- 
 ing testament, a m'ystery of 
 faith, which shall be shed for 
 you, and for many, for the re- 
 mission of sins : so oft as you 
 do this, you shall do it in 
 remembrance of me.'' — (Then 
 raising the cup over his head that 
 the people may likewise worship 
 itj he kneels upon his knees, and 
 without touching anything with 
 the fingers which touched the 
 body, blood, soul and divinity 
 of Jesus Christ, he kisses with 
 outstretched arms the altar, eats 
 the hostia and drinks all the 
 wine, asks for more, says some 
 other prayers, and Christ is 
 eaten up, and the people dis- 
 missed. 
 
 Who can imagine my feelings at the disappointment; the 
 w^ords of the consecration not only maliciously altered, but also 
 igTiorantly applied, by saying, ^^ drink ye all of itj'^ alluding to 
 the wine, instead of, to the apostles, drink ye all the wine of it; 
 and the word shed, applying to the New Testament, instead of 
 to the blood of Christ, is absurd and laughable even to a begin- 
 ner of the Greek language ; people who have Calmet and other 
 expounders of the Scriptures, who teach the Greek in schools, 
 should they not know that btaexxx (testament) is feminine, and 
 aifxa (blood) is neuter gender? It is impossible; it must be a 
 wilful and deliberate deception. In addition to that, I found 
 no sacred vestment; no crossings; no evolutions whatever; no 
 
THE MASS. 
 
 31 
 
 breathing on the cup ; no mass in the Bible ) whom should I 
 beheve, the Bible or the church of Rome ? — certainly the Bible. 
 My Roman Catholic brethren see, that it is not the spirit of Pro- 
 testantism, or criticism; which induces me to write, but to call 
 forth a spirit of investigation from the hearts of ray dear Roman 
 Catholic friends, is the only object. 
 
 Though disappointed in my expectations — though the Bible 
 contradicted the councils and the whole church, still it was im- 
 possible for me to make up my mind, and to decide against the 
 church. Therefore I continued the investigation with regard 
 to the PRAYERS, being an essential part of the mass * in the hope 
 that the church and the Bible would in that point agree. Here 
 is the result of it. 
 
 The Church of Rome. 
 
 The priest begins the mass with 
 confiteor, &c. 
 
 "I confess to Almighty God, 
 to blessed Virgin Mary ever 
 virgin, to blessed Michael the 
 arch-angel, to blessed John the 
 Baptist, &c., (and to you Fa- 
 thei*." ) Ordin of the mass. 
 
 After the introit^ and the Ky- 
 rie Eleison^ he offers the fol- 
 lowing prayer : 
 
 ^•We beseech thee Lord, 
 by the merits of thy saints, 
 whose relics are here, and of all 
 the saints, that thou wouldest 
 vouchsafe to forgive me all my 
 
 sms. 
 
 At the oblation of the host, 
 he prays : 
 
 '^Accept, Holy Father, Al- 
 mighty and eternal God, this 
 unspotted host which I, thy un- 
 worthy servant offer unto thee, 
 my living and true God, for my 
 innumerable sins," &c. 
 
 Commemoration of the dead. 
 '• Be mindful, Lord, of thy 
 servants who are gone before 
 
 The Bible. 
 
 " Against thee^ thee only have 
 1 sinned, and done this evil in 
 thy sight.'' Ps. li. v. 4. 
 
 " Christ is able to save them 
 to the uttermost, that come unto 
 God by him, seeing he ever 
 liveth to make intercession for 
 them.'' Ep. to Heb. c. vii. v. 25. 
 
 " There is none righteous, no 
 not one." Ep. Romans c. iii. 
 V. 10. 
 
 The blood of Christ cleanseth 
 from all sin." Ep. 1 John c. i. 
 V. 7. 
 
 But this man (Christ) after he 
 had offered one sacrifice for sins, 
 for ever, sat down on the right 
 hand of (God." Epist. Heb. ex. 
 V. 20. 
 
 ^•Christ was once offered to 
 
 bear 
 Heb. 
 
 the sins of 
 c. ix. V. 28. 
 
 many." Ep. 
 
 '•Neither have they (the dead) 
 any more a portion for ever in 
 any thing that is done (in pray- 
 
32 
 
 THE MASS. 
 
 The Bible. 
 ers, or in masses^ &c.) under 
 the sun." Eccles. c. ix. v. 6. 
 
 ^'Blessed are the dead that 
 die in the Lord from henceforth. 
 Yeaj saith the spirit, that they 
 may rest from their labors.'^ 
 Rev. c. xiv. V. 13. 
 
 ^^ Neither is there salvation 
 in any other; (but Christ;) for 
 there is none other name under 
 heavengwen among men u^here- 
 bywe must be saved." Actsc. 
 iv. V. 12. 
 
 The Church of Rome. 
 us with the sign of faith, and 
 rest in sleep of peace. To 
 these, Lord, and to all that 
 sleep in 'Christ, grant, we be- 
 seech thee, a place of refresh- 
 ment, light and peace." 
 
 '' Lamb of God, that taketh 
 away the sins of the world, give 
 them eternal rest." Canon of 
 the mass. 
 
 St. Peter^s Chair. 
 ^^0 Lord, who by delivering 
 to the blessed apostle Peter the 
 keys of the kingdom of heaven, 
 didst give him the power of 
 binding and loosing, grant that 
 by his intercession, we may be 
 freed from the bonds of our 
 sins." Missal. Roman. 
 
 Having found no passage in the Bible to support even the prfciy- 
 ers of the mass, my faith began to shake 3 my confidence in the 
 sincerity of the church began to diminish, and suspicion against 
 spiritual tyranny awakened in my bosom. Now I know the 
 reason why the reading of the Bible is forbidden, was the lan- 
 guage of my heart, that the deception of priests might not be 
 detected. My partiality to the church, and my prejudices 
 lessened every day, and I became a more impartial inquirer 
 after the truth of the gospel. So I could soon discern that the 
 mass was not an institution of the primitive churches, but a 
 priestly fabrication of the Lateran Council in the year 1214, 
 and afterwards sealed with the thousand anathemas in the 
 council of Trent. I evidently saw that if that doctrine had 
 been the doctrine of the primitive churches, would the council 
 of Trent have been obliged to introduce it with so many '-- Let 
 him he accursed V^ Soon I discovered the shameful perversion 
 of the Holy Bible, and the privation of the greatest of all privi- 
 leges, the cup which the Lord gave to his disciples. 
 
 The consequence of all this was awful, I had no faith in the 
 authority, and infallibility of the church ; no confidence in the 
 priests, but looked on them as spiritual tyrants. I became dis- 
 satisfied with myself for having been so ignorant and supersti- 
 tious, that I for so long a time believed a lie. The Scriptures 
 I believed to be the inspired word of God, but it was a dead 
 
TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 35 
 
 letter for me ] I read the Scriptures not to edify myself, or to 
 apply it to the state of my sinful heart, and troubled soul, but 
 to find out the anti-biblical doctrineS; and other anti-scriptural 
 practices of the church of Rome ; and after I had found new 
 errors, I felt happy. In one word I was no Roman Catholic in 
 heart, nor a real believer in the gospel of Christ , I was more a 
 negative Deist, than a true Christian. 
 
 What was my surprise, when I made known my thoughts to 
 some priests, my intimate friends, to find that they were rank 
 infidels. With the Scriptures they were unacquainted; the 
 doctrines of the church they considered as human fabrications ; 
 and the ceremonies as forms without the spirit of godliness. 
 They mocked at and ridiculed things most sacred in the eye 
 of a devoted papist ] they laughed at the ignorance of the poor 
 and deluded people, and often expressed contempt, even hatred 
 against the spiritual tyrants. Such instances I witnessed many 
 times. In Rome all is appearance and hypocrisy. But as soon 
 as the heart can find another sincere heart, then the mask of 
 appearance is thrown off, and in lamentations pours its sorrows 
 into the bosom of the friend. In secret we sigh, and in public 
 we are obliged to feast. But if the providence of God would 
 deliver Italy from its temporal and spiritual bondage, the priests 
 of Rome would be the first in the rank to defend the liberty 
 of conscience, and that of the press; Voltaire, Rousseau, Mac- 
 chiavelli, the novels of Boccaccio, Casti and other unchaste 
 productions are constantly cherished as food for the passions 
 of the priests' heart, and when among themselves these are the 
 subjects of pleasing conversation. To say, "The Signora such 
 and such a one, is the amorosa of such a cardinal ; or such a pre- 
 late, is the cicisbeo, or lover, of such or such a lady. The priest 
 so and so has two beautiful married sisters, he will soon become 
 a canon,'' it is not very rare to hear, even in the presence of 
 ladies. I found the majority of the young priests negative infi- 
 dels, or real sceptics ; immoral in their hearts, filthy with their 
 tongues, and hypocrites in appearance. That under such friends 
 and companions, my Christian progress was not very rapid, is 
 not to be wondered at. 
 
 TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 Transubstantiation is the principal transaction of the priest 
 in the so-called propitiatory sacrifice of the mass. I will not 
 give my readers a dissertation on that important subject, nor 
 
34 TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 the opinion which I now entertain of it^ or make a display of 
 Biblical know^ledge^ w^hich I have acquired since that time. 
 I will only give a can^lid description of my feelings, when I at 
 first begun to investigate the doctrines of the church of Rome, 
 in the light of the Bible. 
 
 I had been taught, that — ^^ in the most holy sacrament of the 
 Eucharistj there is truly^ really^ and siibstanticdly the body and 
 blood; together with the soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. That the bread and wine are immediately changed 
 into his body and blood, without any outward appearance of 
 this change, w^hich w^e only know by faith. Though we see 
 only bread and wine as before, we firmly believe that Jesus 
 Christ is there in a miraculous manner, whole and entire under 
 each of the tw^o species, and under every particle, as under the 
 whole without being^ multiplied and without ceasing to be in 
 in heaven.'^ Creed of Pius the IV. 
 
 I searched the whole New Testament, but found not an idea, 
 not even an indication of any thing which would suggest the 
 least thought of such an extraordinary change in the sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 The only passage which I found in my Bible, and upon which 
 the w^hole fabric of transubstantiation is built, is the expression 
 of our Saviour in the institution, saying, " Take^ cat^ this is my 
 body :'^ and giving the cup, saying, ^^ This is my blood J^ Our 
 Lord has not said, this represents my body and blood, but this is 
 really and actually my body and blood. 
 
 I thought it absurd lo take that passage literally and others 
 spiritually • when every man of good sense, who possesses only 
 the least knowledge of the Oriental languages, knows that figu- 
 rative speech is common among them • and that the disciples un- 
 derstood it in the same figurative way. When Joseph was inter- 
 preting: the dream of the chief butler and the baker in the prison, 
 he told them : ^^ the three branches of the vine are three days, and 
 the three baskets are three days." They did not uiiderstand that 
 the branches and the baskets were really, actually, and truly 
 days of twenty-four hours, but that they represented them. 
 And when he interpreted the dream of Pharaoh he said, " the 
 seven kine are seven years." Pharaoh never thought that they 
 are really, truly years, but that they represent the seven years. 
 Daniel, when he interpreted the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, 
 said : -^ Thou [0 King] art this head of gold?^ He meant not 
 that the king is really, truly, and actually transubstantiated into 
 a head of gold, and at the same time had the figure of a man, 
 but that the head of gold represents the king. Even in our 
 phraseology, w^hen an instructor teaches his pupils geography, 
 he shows them a map, and says : " that is the State of JVew 
 
TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 3i 
 
 York, he does not mean that this is truly, really, and actually 
 transubstantiated into the State of New York, but that it repre- 
 sents it. Without multiplying the examples, I found that our 
 Saviour used in many instances a figurative language, saying: 
 ^' I am the way; I am the door; / am the vine." He never 
 thought to convey the idea, to be really and truly transub- 
 stantiated into a vine, or door, but that he represents it. 
 
 My mind was deeply impressed at that time with some pas- 
 sages of the Scripture, Matt. chap. 5, v. 28 — 30. '-I say unto 
 you. That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath 
 committed adultery already with her in his heart. And if thy 
 right eye offend thee pluck it out, and cast it from thee, for it 
 is profitable for thee, that one of thy members should perish, 
 and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if 
 thy right hand ofiend thee, cut it ofi", and cast it from thee, 
 &c." If one passage is to be taken literally and not figuratively, 
 all of them ought to be taken in the same sense. '• If thy right 
 eye ofi^end thee pluck it out ; if thy right hand ofiend thee, cut 
 it off*, and cast it from thee, &c." It struck me if these pas- 
 sages should be taken literally too, all the Popes, Cardinals, 
 and Confessors of Rome, would certainly go to heaven with one 
 eye, and w^ithout a right arm. 
 
 Having found no substantial proof in the Bible to support such 
 a doctrine, I took my refuge to reason. I asked what is taught 
 in that article of faith? 
 
 1st. That the wafer is changed into the body, soul, and di- 
 vinity of Jesus Christ, and still remains in every respect a 
 wafer. I reasoned with myself in the following manner ; that 
 God can change one substance into another substance is no 
 doubt true, but that it should be in the same time changed, and 
 entirely unchanged, is an absurdity above all absurdities ; what 
 would the Pope say if Protestants would teach that Lot's w^ife, 
 who was changed into a pillar of salt, that she stopped there 
 and in the same time remained a living woman, continuing her 
 way with her husband and still being salt. Would the Pope 
 not justly say, the Protestants are crazy? and still that would 
 only be a matter of opinion ; it would not involve an article of 
 faith as transubstantiation does. Have the Protestants not the 
 same right in their turn to call us infidels^ by putting forth such 
 an arch-absurdity as an article of faith ? 
 
 2d . We must deny the testimony of our own senses ; we see^ 
 smelly and taste the wafer, yet we must believe it to be the flesh 
 and blood, soul and divinity of Christ. And vice versa : we 
 eat and drink the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, 
 though we see and taste a wafer. That Avas really too strong 
 
36 TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 food for my weak faith and too puzzling for my ordinary talents, 
 I left therefore the enigma untouched. 
 
 3d. That, when Christ said : ^' This is my body^^^ we must 
 believe, that he held his own body in his own hand, and yet 
 had not two bodies or two right hands, but only one body and 
 one right hand ', and that his body was visible and invisible at 
 the same moment. I could not comprehend it, and even now, 
 I def;^ Ignazio Lojola to be able to shed a ray of light upon that 
 chaotic darkness. 
 
 4th. We must believe that each of the twelve apostles in suc- 
 cession, really, truly, and substantially eat their Lord and master, 
 who was visibly reposing at the supper table before them, with- 
 out visibly entering into their mouths, but the bread only or 
 the appearance of the bread, which they held in their hands, 
 being visibly and in the same time apparently eaten by them. 
 That w^as a labyrinth out of which none but God could guide me. 
 
 To believe such arch absurdities one must indeed have great 
 faith. 
 
 After all this it struck me that tran substantiation was not 
 known in the primitive churches. Many reasons led me to this 
 conclusion, of which my mind was easily persuaded by the fol- 
 lowing proofs. 
 
 1st. The advantages which the first Christians had over the 
 heathen by reproving them: ^-That their gods have eyes and 
 see not, ears and hear not, mouths and speak not," is an evi- 
 dence that they knew nothing of transubstantiation. Is it pro- 
 bable, that people who reproach the heathen of such an absurd 
 idolatry, will worship a wafer in the shape of the real body, 
 soul and divinity of Christ ? Would the heathen not have re- 
 torted the argument by saying : " your God is subject to the 
 same vicissitudes as ours ? He can decay, he can be carried 
 away by the wind ; he can be stolen or be consumed by the 
 flames. Moreover, your God is shut up in a little box, which 
 priests carry in their pockets. As it was really the case in 
 Paris, in the church of St. Sulpice, w^here the golden box, in 
 which the consecrated wafers were preserved, was stolen^ and 
 the body, blood, and soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ with it. 
 To strengthen the argument of the heathen, we find in the 
 mass-book the rules, how the priests shall act, if the hostia 
 should fall on the ground, or the priest should vomit it out ; or 
 should be eaten by a mouse, &c. St. Thomas d' Aquinas, the 
 Seraphic Father, treats on the same subject.* Could a Roman 
 theologian, who maintains such doctrines, in the face of snch 
 facts, reproach the heathen for idolatry, that their gods cannot 
 
 * Thorn. d'Acquinas, lib. 3, quest. 77, art. 4. 
 
f 
 
 ABSURDITIES OF THE MASS. 37 
 
 move and are subject to destruction^ as the primitive Christians 
 did ? What astonished me more was, that in the face of the 
 numerous historical facts, which are known to every Roman 
 Catholic, the scandal and horrible acts committed through the 
 sacrament of the Eucharist, (as the death of Pope Victor the 
 3d, who was poisoned with the cup. The Emperor Henry the 
 VII . with a hostia. The Arch-bishop of York, who had the 
 same doom in the year 1154,) they can still believe in and 
 adore it. 
 
 2d. Another proof that transubstantiation was unknown in the 
 primitive age. I deduced from the fathers against the heretics 
 of their time, who denied the assumption of the humanity of 
 Christ. Tertulius^ says: "Jesus Christ took bread and gave 
 it his disciples, saying, this is my body, or the figure of my body; 
 if he would not have had a real body, he could not say, this is 
 my body, for a phantom cannot be a representation of a body.'' 
 
 Ireneusf says: ^-If that would be true, that Christ had not an 
 assumed human nature, the Saviour has not redeemed us with 
 his blood, the cup is not the communion in his blood, and the 
 bread not the communion in his body' for blood can only come 
 from veinsj fleshy and other substances of man." If these fathers 
 would have believed in the real presence of Christ in the hostia, 
 would they have argued in that way ? Would they not have 
 rather said: "the Eucharist contains the body, blood, sou], and 
 divinity of Jesus Christ, consequently he was not a phantom, 
 because we have his real body and blood in the sacrament V^ 
 Would this not have been more convincing than to prove that 
 Jesus Christ assumed humanity, because the sacrament is a 
 figure of his body ? From these and other authorities I could 
 easily see, that transubstantiation w^as not known in the primi- 
 tive churches, and is a new thing in the church, being the fruit 
 of the dark age of the twelfth century and the growing power 
 of the Pope. 
 
 ABSURDITIES AND DELUSIONS OF THE MASS. 
 
 It is with great reluctance that I bring forward these charges, 
 as I can testify before God, that I have no pleasure in wound- 
 ing the feelings of any man, but faithfulness to my Divine 
 
 * Tertul. adv. Marc. lib. 4, chap. 40, circa ann. 215. 
 t Iren. adv. heretic. 
 
 D 
 
38 ABSURDITIES OF THE MASS. 
 
 Master, and love to the souls of my Eoman Catholic brethren 
 constmin me to consider it a necessary duty. 
 
 What can be a greater absurdity than, that the priest is 
 MADE SUPERIOR TO Christ? For uot Only is he made the creator 
 of the Son of God. but he is so, when and where he pleases. It 
 is sufficient that the priest puts on an a/6, a stole and a manipu- 
 lum and repeats the words of consecration over any piece of 
 bread and it is changed into the body, soul and divinity of Christ. 
 And as the offering up of the sacrifice depends on the intention 
 of the priest, so Christ may or may not be presented to God for 
 the living and the dead, just as the priest decides. Thus, in 
 both points of view, the priest is made much superior to Christ; 
 and if this is regarded as the calumny of a Protestant, I Avill 
 cite the words of their own writers. Thus Gabriel Bielj says, 
 "whoever saw any ihing like this? He that created me (if I 
 may say so) hath given me power to create him, and he that 
 hath created me, is created by my means. "^ Hence he tells 
 us of the great dignity of the priesthood. "Passing by the 
 bands of angels, let us come to the queen of heaven and lady 
 of the world. The same, though in plenitude of grace, goes 
 beyond all the creatures, yet she yields to the hierarchs of the 
 church, (i. e. the priests,) in the execution of the mystery com- 
 mitted unto them."t 
 
 "Incredible things! (says Peter de Besse,) but yet true, that 
 the power of priests is so great and their excellency so noble, 
 that heaven depends on them. Joshua stopped the sun, but 
 these stop Christ, being in heaven, in the midst of an altar. The 
 creature obeyed the first, but the Creator obeys the last. The 
 sun obeyed the one, and God the others, as often as they pro- 
 nounce the sacred words. "J 
 
 This indeed is very strange language for the ear of a Pro- 
 testant ; but the Roman Catholics look upon the priests as some- 
 thing like God. Yea, they refer to him much more than to the 
 true God. 
 
 Under this head I will refer to some of the absurdities of the 
 missal used by the priests, some of w^hich I now cite. 
 
 " Si Hostia consacrata despareat, vel casu aliqao ut vento, aut 
 miraculo, vel ab aliquo animali accepta et nequeat reperiri, 
 tunc altera consecretur ab eo loco incipiendo qui, &c. 
 
 "If the consecrated host should disappear, either by some 
 accident, or by the wind, or by a miracle, or be taken by some 
 
 * Lect. de Missa (citante Du Moulin.) 
 
 f Fourth Lesson upon the Canon of the Mass. 
 
 t Besse, chap. II. am the Royal Priesthood. 
 
DELUSION OF THE MASS. 39 
 
 animal, &c., cannot be found ] then let another be consecrated, 
 beo'inning- from the same place," &c. Sect. iii. 7. 
 
 It is horrible even to think, that such an abominable doctrine 
 should be taught and considered an article of faith. That Christ, 
 who is now in a glorified state, may be at any time carried 
 about by the winds of heaven, or even eaten up by some animal. 
 
 '•Si musca vel aranea. vel aliquid aliud ceciderit in calicem 
 ante consacrationem, projiciat vinum in locum et aliud ponat 
 in calice, misceat parum aquae, offerat ut supra et prorequater 
 missam; si post consacrationem ceciderit musca aut aliquid 
 ejusmodi et fiat nausea sacerdoti, extrahat eam et lavet cum 
 vino, finita missa cumburat, et combustio ac lotio hujusmodi in 
 sacrarum projiciatur. Si autem non fuerit ei nausea, nee uilum 
 periculum timeat. sumat cum sanguine." — Sect. x. 5. 
 
 '^ If a fly, or a spider, or any other thing should fall into the 
 cup, let him cast the wine into a proper place, and let him place 
 some more in the cup, mix a little water, ofler it as before, and 
 proceed with the mass. If a fly, or any thing of this kind, should 
 fall into it after consecration, and the priest should feel a nau- 
 sea, let him. take it out and wash it with wine, and the mass 
 being finished, let him burn it and let the ashes and refuse be 
 cast into the sacristy. If, however, he does not feel sick, or fear 
 any danger, let him take it with the blood." 
 
 I will refrain from any remarks on the above section, they 
 are abhorrent to every idea we have of the Saviour's present ex- 
 alted state. I bring them only forward as the melancholy eflects 
 of human traditions. I shall cite only one more. 
 
 " Si aliquod venenatum contingerit Hostiam consacratam, tunc 
 alteram consecret, et sumat mode quo dictum est, et ilia serve- 
 tur in tabernaculo loco seperato, donee species eorum pantu* 
 et corruptae delude mittantur in sacraiTim." 
 
 ^•If any poisoned thing should touch the consecrated Host, 
 then let him consecrate another, and let him take it in the same 
 way as was mentioned^ and let the former be kept in a separate 
 place until the species corrupt, and so corrupted, let them be 
 cast in the sacristy." Sect. x. 7. 
 
 The priests themselves are ashamed of their own articles of 
 faith ; for in the Roman Missal translated into English for the 
 use of the laity, they are altogether omitted; and well they 
 might be ashamed of such absurdities. 
 
 Delusion is equally a fniit of the mass. If our hopes of God's 
 favour on earth and of his glory in the w^orld to come, be placed 
 on a false foundation, then we must be deceived, and delusion 
 alone can be our portion. What benefit does a Roman Catholic 
 derive from the mass ? Comfort for their immortal souls and 
 
40 THE PANTHEON. 
 
 remission of their sins, on the ground that Christ has been 
 offered up for their sins. The question is whether this be true 
 or false comfort. If the first, we should be sorry to deprive any 
 of it; but if the latter, we must say, '^ let no man beguile you.'' 
 
 '^ Be not deceived^ With regard to the remission of sins 
 through the sacrifice of the mass, we cannot but believe that it 
 is a gross deception, because this work was finished eighteen 
 hundred years ago upon the cross. Jesus died once, and he 
 dieth no more ] and by his death he atoned for sin, and there- 
 fore the mass cannot be required. Moreover, it is a useless 
 sacrifice, because the priests repeat it often, yea, daily, and be- 
 cause it is nothing but bread and wine and without the shed- 
 ding of blood, which is essential to a propitiatory sacrifice : and 
 for all these delusions we must nay money I What merchandize 
 of souls is this 1 What a painful deception ! 
 
 Let Roman Catholics seek comfort in the mass — I am satisfied 
 with the glories of Calvary. Let them bow down and adore the 
 wafer raised by the priests — ^I will cling to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who died on the cross. Let papists trust in the daily 
 repeated sacrifice of the mass for the remission of their sins — 
 I am content with the finished work and the all-prevailing inter- 
 cession of Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father. 
 Thither I will go for comfort ; he shall be my hope in life and 
 in death ] in him I shall not be disappointed, for his blood is 
 most precious, and cleanseth from all sin. The name of Jesus 
 shall be my strong tower, and in it I shall find safety. — Let 
 Roman Catholics fly to their queen of heaven, the Virgin Mary ; 
 I will fly to the rock, Jesus Christ, the only anchor of my hope, 
 and then I shall be enabled to sing with all the redeemed, 
 
 " Jesus thy blood and righteousness, 
 My beauty are, my glorious dress : 
 'Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, 
 With joy shall I lift up my head." 
 
 HEATHEN ROME AND PAPAL ROME. 
 
 After this result of my Biblical researches as detailed in the 
 preceding chapter, my eyes were opened ; my mind became 
 unbiased. I celebrated the mass because it was a source of in- 
 come; I considered the Breviary a humbug and never repeated 
 it; I practised every form because I was obliged to do it; in 
 one word, I did as others did. Every ecclesiastical event which 
 I considered before as a matter of established rule in the 
 
THE PANTHEON. 41 
 
 church, became now a subject of doubt and investigation; 
 every day I detected new corruptions ; in the sacred college I 
 saw spiritual tyrants, and in every priest a spy whom I dreaded 
 and fled as from a pest. Whenever an opportunity was offered 
 I opened my mind to some friend, who feJt the papal yoke as 
 heavy as myself; but of what use'? the evil was without a 
 remedy : a word, a sigh, is a mortal sin, and the result would be 
 fatal to my future happiness. The reading of the Bible w^as no 
 consolation for nie. I read it to my own damnation, for I read it 
 without prayer, without self-examination. As my intention is to 
 institute a comparison between heathen Rome and papal Rome, 
 I will at once proceed. 
 
 The Pantheon is one of the oldest churches and of the most 
 classical architecture in the city of Rome. In the time of 
 heathen Rome it w^as a temple dedicated to all the gods. 
 Papal Rome has dedicated it to no god at all, but to the Virgin 
 Mary only. The niches of that church in the time of heathen 
 Rome were filled with the finest bronze statues, which repre- 
 sented — the dii majores — the chief gods. Papal Rome turned 
 them out, and placed tutelar gods in their places, as St. Peter, 
 John, and James, &c. Heathen Rome filled the niches of their 
 temples with bronze gods, papal Rome with wooden saints. 
 
 The reader will be curious to know what papal Rome did 
 w^ith these idols '? Whether they were burned, destroyed, or 
 placed in the museum as relics of antiquity'? No! Pope 
 Barharini (called Urban VIII.) the Vicar of God, melted all the 
 gods together, and metamorphosed them into four colossal pil- 
 lars of the Corinthian order, which raised their gigantic heads 
 even with the cupola of St. Peter's, and adorn the high altar 
 where the pope celebrates the mass. Poor gods ! poor Rome !^ 
 
 Returning to the Pantheon, I must observe that in the church 
 
 * The Pantheon is the most interesting antiquity in Rome. Its elegance and 
 grandeur exhibit the taste of the ancient Romans. This temple was erected 
 by Jigrippa, son-in-law of Augustus, and repaired by Septimus Severus and 
 Caracalla. The vestibulum is supported by sixteen Corinthian columns of 
 oriental granite, fifteen feet in circumference and forty-two high. The origi- 
 nal doors were Vandalized by Genseric, and lost in the Sicilian sea. The inte- 
 rior of the Pantheon is circular, with one window only, and that in the 
 centre of the dome. By this opening, which is on the roof, the edifice receives 
 its only light. The diameter of the temple is one hundred and forty-three feet, 
 exclusive of the walls, which are twenty feet in thickness. The height was 
 originally equal to the diameter, until the pavement was elevated to corres- 
 pond with the new portico, which was made higher than the original one. It 
 would afford me great pleasure if I could describe the splendor of that temple 
 before it was robbed by Urban VIII. from the family Barbarini. 
 
 The Pantheon was dedicated to all gods. A statue of Jupiter Tonans, or 
 the Avenger, stood in the centre of the tribuna ; the infernal deities on the 
 pavement ; the terrestrial on the lower niches in the walls ; and the celestial in 
 the upper niches. The walls were once adorned with busts, inscriptions, and 
 monuments in the memory of great men. Among the statues of the Pantheon, 
 
 d2 
 
42 THE VIRGIN OF PARTURITION. 
 
 there is a statue, which is called. ^^ La Madonna del Sasso,'^ in 
 plain English, The Lady of the Stone. Why she is called so, 
 and how she came there-— whether she entered the church by 
 a miracle or was carried there, I cannot say, because I never 
 troubled myself about her origin; but one thing I know, be- 
 cause all the priests in Rome say so, and all the devotees in the 
 city testify to it, that she is a great miracle-working lady. She 
 however never wrought one for me, though I said many Ave 
 Marias upon bended knees to her* but others who have been 
 lame, blind, or paralytic, or laboring under some other chronical 
 disease, were (as they say) cured by her ; so that the weekly 
 income of the offerings were over a hundred dollars, without 
 the silver hands and feet, golden pins and chains, or other 
 costly ornaments, which those so cured bring to adorn her, as 
 an act of pious, gratitude. I have seen that Stone Lady dressed 
 more elegantly and 'more costly than any queen or empress 
 upon the earth can ever be. It shows that the priests of Rome 
 have much taste in dressing ladies. 
 
 As the pleasures of this world are transitory, so was the 
 greatness of the blessed Stone Lady destined to be evanescent. 
 It was a bright day, bright in every respect for the monks of 
 St. Augustine, when the ladies and persons of all classes in the 
 city of Rome directed their steps to the church of the Augiis- 
 tine friars : even the less devotional would not remain at home, 
 but would kneel at the foot — I should say before — the pedestal 
 of the immaculate Virgine del Parto^ in English. '^ Virgin of 
 Parturition.^^ To make the history short ] the monks of the 
 AugTistine order envying the canons of the Pantheon of the 
 great income which the Lady of Stone brought, they devised a 
 plan to draw the revenues of the Pantheon into the treasury of 
 their convent. Having an old rough statue of a Madonna in the 
 corridor of the convent, for many years covered with dust, they 
 thought that lady would be more comfortably situated in the 
 church; they appointed a day, which was extensively pub- 
 lished and widely circulated, that the Lady of Parturition, who 
 performed so many miracles upon several females in time of 
 need, would be carried in procession to the church. The vanity 
 of the ladies having been touched, they collected from all parts, 
 and the Lady of Parturition became the lady of the ladies. 
 
 The canons of the Pantheon were alaimed at that trick, be- 
 cause the Lady of the Stone lost a great many customerf^; and 
 the canons felt that loss in their pockets too, much more so as 
 
 Pliny mentions one, which had ear-rings made of a pearl cut in two, being 
 the fellow of that which Cleopatra dissolved in vinegar, and drank to the 
 health of Mark Anthony. 
 
THE STONE LADY, 43 
 
 the monks carried on business in a more skilful manner, and 
 their revenues became incalculable. 
 
 Three monks were constantly engaged — one with a stele over 
 his neck and a maniple on his hand, who blessed the wax can- 
 dles; the other sold them to the devoted women, and lighted 
 them before the Virgin of Parturition 3 the third was walking 
 round w^ith the purgatory box, and received the offerings. The 
 great concourse of people brought as a matter of course a great 
 number of female penitents to the confessionals, who procured 
 a great many masses to be said to the Lady of the Ladies who 
 paid lady-like for it. The gifts which the Roman ladies 
 (who are generally very liberal to monks) brought her, w^ere so 
 great, that in a short time half of the church was garnished 
 with jewels and ladies' ornaments, so that it seemed more like 
 entering the shop of a jeweller, rather than a temple of the 
 living God. Even the young ladies gathered at all times in a 
 large number before the Lady of Ladies, to try her miracu- 
 lous virtues, praying her to procure for them husbands. The 
 young gentlemen being sure to find the young ladies upon their 
 knees in the AugTJStine church, became adorers of the lady as 
 a matter of courtesy. So at every hour of the day, but espe- 
 cially in the evening until late in the night, the adorers orboth 
 sexes filled the church. 
 
 The poor Stone Lady in the Pantheon was placed in the most 
 critical pecuniary state. Her income (as I have been informed 
 by a canon of that church) w^as not more than twenty dollars a 
 month. The canons being in a desperate financial state, they 
 brought an action of irregularity against the Lady of Parturi- 
 tion : '' being not canonized, she has no right, nor power to work 
 miracles : moreover, the miracles she had performed already, 
 were no miracles at all, not having received the sanction of the 
 Pope, the head of the church — consequently cannot have the 
 approval of her beloved Son.'' 
 
 Scarcely had this transpired, before it spread like fire through 
 the whole city, and became the subject of conversation in every 
 circle : the railings against the priests and monks, the laughing 
 of the young people, the mockings at the ladies, the pasqui- 
 nades and scandals, are not to be described. Every one was 
 anxious to see the end of the trial. Some avowed that the lady 
 of the m.onks must shut her counting-house ; for if the church 
 would sanction such an abuse, every stone could be adored and 
 worshiped. The church only (said the priests) is the judge of 
 a true miracle, and not the person who pretends to have been 
 the subject of it. Others argued the contrary : they believed 
 that the power of the queen of heaven cannot be limited : she 
 can manifest it where and when she likes. The church in 
 
44 THE STONE LADY. 
 
 canonizing a Madonna does not authorize or sanciionj but re- 
 cognizes it as an act of free mercy of the heavenly queen. 
 
 The retired monks troubled themselves very little about the 
 corruptions of the world, or the avariciousness of the canons, 
 not even about the destitute state of the Stone Lady in the Pan- 
 theon, and continued to light and to sell their wax candles, to 
 sing litanies, and to spread abroad new miracles of the great 
 lady. The monks whispered it in the confessionals, proclaimed 
 it at the altar, cried about it from the pulpits. Nothing had 
 been neglected on the part of the monks. The confessors gave 
 no other penance than so many Ave Marias to the holy Virgin 
 Lady ] the preachers extolled her perfections. They edified 
 the people m their masses with commemorations to the mercies 
 of the Virgin Mary. The people of good sense understood it, 
 and valued it as much as it was worth. The Roman ladies felt 
 themselves grossly offended at this insult on their protectress 
 in the hour of need, and sympathized with the humble monks. 
 Even the young ladies blushingly said — ^' in spite of the canons 
 w^e wull visit the Madonna del Parte, ^' and agreed to meet their 
 beaux at the Augustine church. 
 
 I cannot tell how things went at the secret council of the 
 Curia ] but the result, which was propagated with the celerity 
 of lightning was, as many had expected : namely, That his 
 Holiness the Pope, Leo XII., decided in favour of the Virgin of 
 the Parturition, and granted, to the greater encouragment of the 
 faithful, 'plenary indulgence of so many days, &c. 
 
 My readers will think this a romance — I guarantee the truth 
 of the narrative ] and assure them, that for the sake of decorum 
 I have not told the half. Every traveller who has been in Rome, 
 can attest the fact, that even at this day^ the un canonized lady 
 in the Augustine church is worshipped by all classes of the in- 
 habitants of Rome. 
 
 Now what is the dilTerence between heathen Rome and Pa- 
 pal Rome ? The first brought offerings to Minerva and sacri- 
 ficed to Diana. The second offers donations to the Stone Lady, 
 and says masses to the Lady of the Parturition. The first bowed 
 down and worshipped their goddesses. Papal Rome gives the 
 same adoration, and performs the same devotional acts to their 
 female god, which they style the Queen of Heaven. 
 
 That Rome lost the faith of the primitive church, there is no 
 doubt ] that the practices of -that church are heathenish, none 
 can deny. In Rimini, the principal city of the Romagna, or pa- 
 pal province, there was an old custom, that a certain miraculous 
 statue of the Virgin Mary (I do not remember her name) was 
 carried in procession every Corpus Domini with a crown upon 
 her head; being considered the protectress of that city; she 
 
CARDINAL GIUSTINIANI AT RIMINI. 45 
 
 was adored by all the citizens. The Cardinal Giustiniani, who 
 was appointed archbishop of Rimini, forbad that the Virgin 
 Mary should have a crown any longer upon her head. The 
 reason he gave was, simply, that — ^' she is not yet canonizedJ^ 
 He had no other object iu. view, than that the citizens should 
 promise to collect a hundred thousand dollars as a fee for the 
 canonization ] he would write in the mean time to Rome for a 
 dispensation (which would be another source of revenue for the 
 Vatican) until the sum could be collected, which would entitle 
 her to wear a crown. But the magistrates of that city would 
 enter into no agreement whatever, requesting his eminence to 
 grant their protectress the privilege to wear a crown — a privi- 
 lege which she enjoyed for a long series of years. But all was 
 in vain. The cardinal would not grant it, except they applied 
 for a dispensation to the pope. 
 
 The day of the procession arrived ; the circumstances were 
 known in the neighbourhood ; the people came from all parts, 
 some to revenge the wrong which had been inflicted upon the 
 miraculous lady : others out of curiosity. But it is sufficient to 
 say, that the city of Rimini never witnessed such a spectacle 
 before, and I trust it never will again. 
 
 The procession began. The friars of all colours marched on in 
 their ranks; the respective companies in their masquerades 
 followed the monks and friars ; soldiers in arms accompanied 
 the train ] the priests and canons of the cathedral joined in the 
 procession ] then, alas ! the Virgin Lady Mary was carried out 
 of the church without a crown, but had seven stars in a half 
 circle over her head. Why the number seven had been chosen 
 I do not know, but that twelve thousand dollars had been staked 
 in the lottery upon the number seven, is a melancholy fact. 
 
 Scarcely had the statue appeared in the street^ when the 
 people stopped the man who carried her, and would not allow 
 that she should be carried in such a dishonoured manner in 
 procession. The soldiers tried to disperse the crowd Avith their 
 muskets, but all in vain. The enraged multitude wounding a 
 soldier, it was found necessary to make use of bayonets, by 
 which means they, in their turn, wounded some of the citizens, 
 and in the crowd injured also some females ; the mob became 
 furious, throwing stones upon the soldiers, and crying vengeance 
 against the priests. The commander ordered them to fire upon 
 the people, many of whom were mortally wounded, even un- 
 offensive women and children ; then the cry — " Morte ai preti," 
 death to the jiriests ! was heard in all directions. The priests 
 with their stoles escaped from their ranks ; the screams of the 
 children, the lamentations of the wives in behalf of their hus- 
 bands 3 the running of the monks, the explosion of the muskets, 
 
46 THE HOLY STAIRS. 
 
 was a melancnoly sight. At the time that the tragedy was go- 
 ing on, a part of the moKran to the episcopal palace, where the 
 cardinal resided, rushed like a flood into the palace : ^- Morte 
 al tiraniiOj^^ death to the tyrant^ was heard from every mouth; 
 fortunately he had time to save himself through the garden. 
 Not finding the cardinal, they broke all the furniture, dashed 
 it through the windows, and burned it in the middle of the street. 
 
 The news went to Rome 3 the panic was exceedingly great ; 
 the pope feared a revolution ; soldiers were ordered in the same 
 night to leave Rome for Rimini, to terrify the agitated spirits 
 of the mob. The pope, by a special decree, graciously ordered, 
 that the authors of that tragic scene, who had disturbed the 
 public peace, should be severely punished, and a plenary indul- 
 gence to all who say so many Ave Marias to the Virgin Mary, 
 who shall henceforth have the privilege to wear a crown. 
 Here we, must say wijh Virgil : '^Magnum Jovisincrementum:'' 
 or with the inhabitants of Ephesus, '-great is Diana of the 
 Ephesians.'^ 
 
 If I could accompany my readers through the city of Rome, 
 I would lead them upon mount Janicidum^ now called St. John 
 of Lateran ] there they would find a chapel, where they would 
 see thousands of people crawling up a high flight of stairs upon 
 their knees, and kissing every step, with the rosaries in their 
 hands, until they arrive upon the last step. Thje priests tell us 
 that this is the holy stair-case which Christ ascended when he 
 appeared before Pilate, which has been carried by angels from 
 Jerusalem to Rome.^ But I must not forget to mention, that 
 
 * The celebrated scala santa, or holy stairs, contains twenty-eight white 
 marble steps; it is said to have belonged to the palace of Pilate, at Jerusa- 
 lem, and to have been trodden by Jesus Christ. They were covered with 
 wooden boards by order of Clement XII., to prevent their being worn out by 
 the multitudes of devotees ascending them on their knees. There is a great 
 deal of mysteriousness and false sacredness thrown about the whole editice 
 which contains these stairs; there are several secret apartments, which are 
 kept constantly locked. One of them (the priests say) "contains the most 
 precious and most sacred relic of Christianity. Some say, it contains the 
 feather of the seraphic doctor, with which he wrote his works, which an 
 angel brought him in his study." Others say, "the feather of a wing of 
 the arch angel Gabriel, which he left when he saluted the Virgin Mary — a 
 bottle of the Virgin Mary's milk — a bottle with tears of our Saviour, shed at 
 the grave of Lazarus — the cord with which our Saviour was bound at the 
 pillar when scourged," &c.; the fact is, no body knows what that edifice con- 
 tains; you will not find even the oldest of the priests, who ever troubled him- 
 self about it; still he maintains, that some holy thing is in it. There Lvther^ 
 the glorious reformer, once basely crawled upon his knees to purchase an 
 absolution ; but the light of eternal truth had previously dawned upon his 
 mind, and the words, "<Ae just shall live by faith,'^ sounded like thunder in 
 his ears while he was on the very stairs. He arose in horror from his servile 
 debasement, and from that moment walked forth a free man, vowed to ex- 
 hibit the fraud and wickedness of exacting such penances, and to publish the 
 truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
THE FLYING STONE. 47 
 
 the crawling upon the knees must be accompanied with some 
 alms for the souls in purgatory. The apostle Paul said to the 
 Romans of his time, that not through the works of the law, nor 
 through our own righteousness are we saved, but through faith 
 in Jesus Christ. The so-called Vicar of Christ, says the con- 
 trary : we are saved by crawling upon our knees, or by per- 
 forming some other works of self-righteousness. 
 
 I would lead my readers into a church near St. Sebastian: 
 there they will find a square stone of white marble, upon which the 
 impression of two feet are seen, to which the people pray and 
 cover with kisses, being (as we are told) the stone where our 
 Lord was standing, when he met the apostles after his glorious 
 resurrection. We are informed by the priests at Rome, that 
 the stone came flying in the air from Jerusalem to Rome, and 
 remained where it is now. Plenary indulgence is granted to 
 every one who says certain prayers to that flying stone. 
 
 I would continue to lead my readers into a cellar of a chapel 
 near the mount Tarpea, which is said to be the prison of the 
 apostle Paul, the very place where the jailor was converted 5 
 there they will see a spring in the middle of the cellar, which 
 sprung up in a miraculous way in order to baptize him and his 
 family. That water has great healing virtues ; Brandreth's and 
 Morrison's pills are mere quackery compared with it. It is 
 good for the inflammation of the eyes if washed w^th it ; also for 
 pulmonea if regularly taken, and some prayers be repeated at 
 the time. That water is bottled and sold for the spiritual and 
 temporal welfare of the faithful. 
 
 I would continue to lead my readers into a church, not far 
 from the ancient Forum Romanum^ called St. Peter in Vinculisy 
 where the priests assure us that they are in the possession of 
 the identical chain with which the apostle Peter was fettered 
 before his crucifixion in Rome. There is a discrepancy of his- 
 torical tradition w^ith regard to the manner in which that chain 
 came into that church; it would, however, be too ridiculous to 
 relate all those legends which are afloat. 
 
 In the same church is to be seen the pillar to which our 
 Saviour was bound, when he was scourged before his cruci- 
 fixion. One of the Catholic sovereigns asked Gregory the VII. 
 for some holy relic, and the pope caused a piece of the pillar to 
 be broken off and sent it to his majesty * but the fragment dis- 
 appeared, and in the morning the pillar was entire ; it had re- 
 turned of its own accord, and joined itself ag-ain in such an art- 
 ful manner that it can scarcely be seen. This chain and pillar 
 are adored, kissed, prayed to by the people of Rome, who 
 receive plenary indulgence for their devotion to it. 
 
 If my readers are not tired, I will accompany them to the 
 
4S COLOSSEUM ROMANUM. 
 
 ^^amphitheatre Flavianum,^^ now called ^4he Colosseum Roma- 
 num.''' a building which was erected by the emperor Flavian, 
 by 60,000 Jews which he brought captive from Jerusalem. It 
 is properly called Colosseum, for it is colossal in its dimensions, 
 colossal as a living monument of the fulfilment of the prophe- 
 cies. A theatre, in which the first martyrs of the cross were 
 exposed to the fury of wild beasts, and sealed with their 
 blood the truth 'as it is in Jesus, in the presence of a hundred 
 thousand spectators, which that buildiug could conveniently 
 contain. Now my readers will find in that splendid relic of 
 antiquity and Christianity a miserable hermit with a box in his 
 hand, to the annoyance of the passengers, begging for souls in 
 purgatory. 
 
 I shall not leave the Colosseum, without showing my readers 
 another, not less barbarous act of the infallible pope of Home. 
 The pope Barbarini-had a nephew, who asked from his holiness, 
 his uncle, the permission to carry off some stones from the Co- 
 losseum. The pope (as it is historically reported) did not at 
 first give his permission, for three strong reasons. First. It was 
 not his property, it belongs to the state. Secondly. It is too 
 holy to make use of it for any profane object. Thirdly. It is 
 such a splendid piece of antiquity that it cannot be equalled in 
 the world. But his nephew giving him no rest until the pope 
 (in spite of all these sound reasons) gave him the permission to 
 take as many as he could carry off in one night. That wretch 
 demolished in one night a third part of that relic, which the 
 tooth of time could not destroy, and the hand of the northern 
 barbarian dared not touch, and carried off in one night as many 
 as were required to build that splendid palace Barbarini, one 
 of the most magnificent in Rome. Let us turn our eyes from 
 that scene of which the barbarians were ashamed, but which 
 the pope Barbarini (the little barbarian) was able to perpetrate, 
 and direct our steps to the Roman capital. Let us traverse the 
 Forum Romanum, now called, ^^ Campo Vaccine,*^ the field of the 
 cattle^ where Cicero harangued the Roman citizens. In passing 
 the Via Apia, the road where the Roman conquerors entered in 
 triumph, we shall leave at our right the ruins of the most splen- 
 did Temple of Feace^ in which the riches of heathen Rome were 
 preserved, and from which, when in flames, the melted gold 
 flowed in streams into the streets ; but as the Virgin Mary 
 has wrought no miracle in that temple, it was left to its own 
 destruction, and scarcely a vestige of the beautiful architecture 
 is to be seen. At our left we shall leave the mount Palatinum, 
 where the ruins of the palaces of the Roman emperors are yet 
 to be seen, in which the begging hermits have made their nests, 
 
THE CAPITAL UF ROME. 4f 
 
 and trouble the visitors with their Purgatory box, fabulous le- 
 gendsj and miraculous stories. 
 
 But let us ascend the capital of the city of the world ; the 
 place where the voice of the Roman senators caused the inhabi- 
 tants of the earth to tremble^ is now changed into a mournful 
 and nasal sing-song of Franciscan friars. Look at that high 
 stair-case (with forty steps) leading to the Franciscan convent; 
 see those fanatics who ascend upon their knees^ and at every 
 step say an Ave Maria to the Virgin Mary, that she might tell 
 them in a dream^ what numbers they shall take in the lottery ^ that 
 they might gain a terno. In the face of the nineteenth century^ in 
 the presence of the sacred college and infallible pope, such 
 heathenish devotions^ absurd adorationSj and foolish religious 
 acts, should be tolerated, of which we have no example in the 
 history of heathen Rome. Encouraged by the monks and friars, 
 tolerated by the sacred college, in order to draw the last pence 
 from the pockets of the poor into the treasury of the Camera 
 Apostolica, by a false hope, that the Virgin Mary will tell them 
 the numbers which will be drawn in the next lottery! 
 
 The spectacle is too shocking — the principle too bad to dwell 
 longer upon. We shall turn our steps towards the sanctum 
 sanctorum ; in the place where no profane foot can enter — no 
 profane eye penetrate; it is the manufactory of ignorance and 
 superstition ; it is the machinery of popery, to draw the wealth 
 of the faithful dispersed in the world, into the pocket of the 
 pope. You are anxious to know what it is ? It is the place 
 where the relics of saints are manufactured. As I cannot in- 
 troduce you into the secret walls of that unhallowed place, and 
 show you the bones of dogs and cats, heads of old Roman 
 soldiers, which have been excavated in the different parts of 
 Rome, and rags of all sorts and colors, which are sold for relics 
 of saints. 
 
 I will give some specimens of Papal deceitfulness, which are 
 known to every Roman inhabitant. You must know, that a 
 tooth of the holy Agatha^ if carried about the body, or adored 
 upon the altar, is a preventive of tooth-ache. — Pius VII. ordered 
 by a special decree, (I do not know if it w^as because some 
 abuses were made of it, or to make the article more valuable,) 
 that all the relics of St. Agatha, in every part of the world 
 should return to Rome, and in the space of eight months, two 
 bushels of teeth, all of the holy Agatha, were restored to the 
 Relic Chambers in Rome. 
 
 The relics of the cross and spears, with which our Saviour 
 was pierced, are so numerously scattered throughout the world, 
 that if all were gathered and joined together, a house might be 
 built with them ; and if the heads of John the Baptist j the nails 
 
 E 
 
60 CONFESSIONAL. 
 
 and haminerss scattered upon the globe, which the priests give 
 out as genuine, — were gathered upon a vessel to bring them to 
 Rome, it would have a very good cargo, and would need no 
 ballast. 
 
 If I were to lead my readers to the confessionals, where the 
 confessors are surrounded by innocent youths of both sexes, 
 who think not of flying from sin, but how to commit it, they 
 would be astonished. If the confessor were only a judge of 
 that which the penitent accuses himself, I would say nothing, 
 but the confessors are like lawyers before the bar of justice, 
 who cross examine and confound the witnesses in order that 
 they might commit themselves. Such is the conduct of the 
 confessors in the wooden tribunal. 
 
 To give an authentic proof of what is taught to students of 
 divinity, who are obliged to lead a life of chastity and perpetual 
 celibacy, I will quote from the standard work of Dens^ Theo- 
 logy, taught in Emmittsburgj a seminary in Maryland, in the 
 United States.'^ 
 
 I. ^'Quinta species luxuriae contra naturam commit titur^i/a^itio 
 quidem copula masculi Jit in vase feinince naturali. sed indebito 
 modoj V. g. stando, aut dum vir succumbit, vel a retro feminam 
 cognoscit, sicuit equi congredinutur, quamvis in vase femineo."' 
 
 IL ^-'Possunt autem he modi inducere peccatum mortale 
 juxta periculum perdendi semen, eo quod scilicet semen viri 
 communiter non possit effundi usque in matricem feminae.'' 
 
 III. '• Et quamvis forte conjuges dicant, quod periculum dili- 
 genter prsecaveant. illi interim lascivi modi a gravi veniali ex- 
 cusari non debent, nisi forte propter impotentiam, v. g. ob cur- 
 vitatem uxoris, nequeat servari naturalis situs, et modus, qui 
 est ut mulier succumbat viro.'' 
 
 Qiieritur. '-Quid agere debet is qui sub pollutione in somno 
 inchoata evigelat?'*t 
 
 R. ^' Evigilans non potest ei ullum consensum pragbere, sed 
 potius dissensum, sen displicentiam voluntatis formare debet."' 
 
 Q. ^' An tenetur illam poUiUionem in somno inceptom, mox it 
 visilaty vi cohibere suumque corpus comprimere. ne continuatiir in 
 vigilia?'^ 
 
 K. '^ Cum Antoin : tenetur, saltem ut pollutio non continuetur 
 per effusionem seminis nee dum e lumbis, vel ex testiculis ex- 
 travasati. SaTichez. Billvartj aliique videntur permittere con- 
 tinuationem ob periculum infirmitatis ; sed omnio puto, eos 
 dicere solummodo de semine jam extravassato, nimirum ut 
 exterius efHuat : alioquin non licet promovere formalem, nequi- 
 dera ad evadendam mortem." 
 
 * Peter Dens. De modo contra nataram No. 295. 
 ■{■ Ibid. J)c* polUuion«. No '^06. 
 
CONFESSIONAL. M 
 
 ^'^'Confessarius prudens omiiem evaded invidiam hac methodo : 
 dum puella confitetur se esse fornicatem. confessarius petat^ aii 
 prima vice, qua simile peccatum comisit, exposuerit circum- 
 stantiam amissae virginitatis.'' 
 
 " Si respondeat categorice, ita, vel non, cessat difficultas ; et 
 quidem si jam sint primes vices statim reponet, jam fuisse pri- 
 mas vicesj adeoque solum ei dici debet, ut conteratur de ilia 
 circumstantia, et eam confiteatur; si taceat, instruatuv iilam 
 circumstantiam totius semel exprimendam, adeoque si it nun- 
 quam fecerit jam desuper doleat, et se accuset."* 
 
 My female readers will excuse me for inserting the authori- 
 ties in Latin • I hope they will attribute it to the esteem which 
 I have for their virtue, and also to self respect, that I do not 
 discuss in my pages such principles, which will and must injure 
 the morality of my young readers. 
 
 Every honest Roman Catholic, who has frequented the con- 
 fessional, must have experienced its immoral tendency for 
 youth, especially females : and I am astonished, that in this free 
 country, husbands can see their wives and daughters frequent 
 the confessional, without trembling for their virtue. The above 
 details should be sufficient to compel every father of a family 
 to abhor the confessional, as obnoxious to morality. If decency 
 would allow it, I could write a volume, of which I have had 
 personal experience, and of what I have been informed by 
 others, who had the same melancholy experience. One instance 
 I will relate, though with great reluctance ; but being of a cha- 
 racter which can be related without grossly offending the ears 
 of my readers, I will mention it. 
 
 In the family where I boarded in Florence, was a young lady, 
 about seventeen years of age. Her parents gave her a good, 
 but above all, a religious education. One day the mother told 
 her daughter to prepare to go with her to-morrow to confess 
 and to commune. The mother unfortunately, feeling unwell 
 the next morning, the young lady had to go by herself ', when she 
 returned, her eyes showed that she had wept, and her counte- 
 nance indicated that something unusual had happened. The 
 mother, as a matter of course, inquired the cause, but she wept 
 bitterly, and said she was ashamed to tell it. Then the mother 
 insisted ; so the daughter told her that the parish priest to 
 whom she constantly confessed, asked her questions this .time 
 which she could not repeat without a blush. She, however, 
 repeated some of them, which were of the most licentious and 
 corrupting tendency, which were better suited to the lowest 
 sink of debauchery than the confessional. Then he gave her 
 
 * Ibidem, No. 2Sr. 
 
62 ST. ANTONY IN ROME. 
 
 some instructions, which decency forbids me to repeat 3 gave 
 her absolution, and told her before she communed, she must 
 come into his house, which was contiguous to the church; the 
 unsuspecting young creature did as the father confessor told 
 her. The rest, the reader can imagine. The parents furious, 
 would immediately have gone to the archbishop, and laid be- 
 fore him the complaint ; but I advised them to let it be as it 
 was, because they would injure the character of their daughter 
 more than the priest. All the punishment he would have 
 received, is a suspension for a month or two, and then be 
 placed in another parish, or even remain where he is. With 
 such brutal acts, the history of the confessional is full. 
 
 If I could lead my readers on the 17th of January to the 
 church of St. Antoin in Rome, I am convinced, they would iiot 
 know whether they should laugh at the ridiculous rehgious 
 performances, or weep over the heathenish practices of the 
 church of Rome. He w^ould see a priest in his sacerdotal gar- 
 ments, with a stole over his neck, a brush in the right hand, 
 and sprinkling the mules, asses, and horses with holy water, and 
 praying for them and with them, and blessing them in order to 
 be preserved the whole year from sickness and death, famine 
 and danger, for the sake and merits of the holy Antony. All 
 this is a grotesque scene, so grotesque that no American can 
 have any idea of it, and heathen priests would never have 
 thought of it. Add to that the great mass of people, the kick- 
 ings of the mules, the meetings of the lovers, the neighings of 
 the horses, the melodious voices of the asses, the shoutings of 
 the multitude, and mockings of the protestants, who reside in 
 Rome, and you have a spectacle, which w^ould be new, entirely 
 new, not only for American protestants, but for the heathen 
 themselves, and must be abominable in the eye of God. The 
 reason why cows, calves, and oxen are excluded from the pri- 
 vilege of being sprinkled with holy water, and receiving the 
 prayers of the priest, and the protection of St. Antony, I never 
 inquired ', and why these gentlemen, viz. the horses, asses and 
 mules, are so highly distinguished among all the quadrupeds, 
 I can not say ; perhaps those who are more versed in the ca- 
 nons of the councils, will be able to give the reader light on 
 that subject. But enough; the subject is too serious; it is a 
 religious exercise, practised by the priests of Rome, in the so- 
 called metropolis of the Christian w^orld, sanctioned by the self- 
 styled infallible head of the church of Rome. All w^e can say 
 is : "Ichabod, thy glory is departed.'' The priests of heathen 
 Rome would be ashamed of such a religious display in the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
53 ) 
 
 THE OPENING OF THE EYES OF THE 
 VIRGIN MARY. 
 
 In Rome there is preserved a gigantic mask of the face of a 
 man, in the church of Sta. Maria in Cosmodin : according to the 
 declaration of the most scientific antiquaries, it is called, "La 
 bocca della verita," the mouth of truth. In heathen Rome, when 
 a man swore, he was obliged to put his right hand into the 
 mouth of that gigantic mask ; if what he swore was tme, he 
 could withdraw his hand ; if false, his hand was bitten off by 
 that monstrous mouth. * There is no doubt, that the priests 
 had some cutting machine in the inside, or some person hidden 
 in it, who performed the operation, and cut off the hand of the 
 perjurer. Papal Rome is worse • it is more intriguing, and far 
 more cruel than the heathen priests ; it cuts off not only one 
 hand, but millions of souls, as the following fact will suffi- 
 ciently show: 
 
 The people of Rome are not so dull and stupid as the priests 
 desii-e to have them. The secret police in the confessional, the 
 paid spies in the public establishments, and the multitude of 
 gens d'arms, can terrify them, but can not enchain their minds, 
 nor fetter their intellects. Satires against the canons of the 
 Pantheon, pasquinades against the pope, and publicly ridiculing 
 the monks, were the order of the day. If the Inquisition would 
 have attempted to imprison all the violators of the priestly 
 laws, they might as well have made a roof over the whole city, 
 and written upon the doors of it: "Career Romanorum." ^^« 
 prison of the Romam. But soon they found a remedy \o divert 
 the minds of the people, and draw their attention to fiome other 
 
 *The church of Santa Maria in Cosmodin, stands in the Porum Boarium. 
 It received this epithet, Cosmodin, from its haviuir been overcharjred with 
 ornaments when Adrian rebuilt it in the year 72^- This edifice stands on the 
 ruins of tlie ancient temple of Pudicitia Patricia, or Chastity. Plebeians were 
 excluded from this temple. On account p^this /"act Virginia, the wife of Vo- 
 lumnius, erected the temple of Pudicit^ PieUia, at her own home. She was 
 herself of noble birth, but had to adopt the station of her husband, who was 
 a Plebeian. The pavement is oC beautiful porphyry, and the high altar of 
 red Egyptian granite; the columns of the interior are of antique marble. 
 There is a discrepancy of opinion among the antiquarians, with regard to the 
 use of the ugly mask of marble, v/hich stands in the porch. Some say, "It 
 served as the mouth oT an ancient fountain." Others suppose, that oracles 
 issued from this mouth, therefore it is called, "Za hocca della verita,'' (the 
 mouth of truth.) But it is generally supoosed that it represents Jupiter, and 
 that persons put their hands in the mouth of it when they made oath in court, 
 and that the mouth closed upon all perjured persons. There is a common 
 saying in Rome, "that women never put their hands into it, for it was sure 
 fo close." That is no compliment to the ancient Roman ladies. 
 
 E 2 
 
54 OPENING OF THE EYES OF THE VIRGIN MARY. 
 
 object; though not less absurd and heathenish than the above; 
 but that is immaterial; only if it serves to accomplish the de- 
 sired object. 
 
 A great rumour was sounded abroad^ ^4hat in a certain 
 church; situated in the parish of the Madonna di MontO; an 
 image of the Virgin Mary had opened its eyes.*' The story 
 originated in the following manner. An old. but pious woman, 
 praying fervently to that image, and looking steadily at it, she 
 observed; that the image was moving its eyes toward her * she 
 immediately informed the father confessor of it, who approached 
 the altar to ascertain the truth of the miracle, and he saw it 
 also, so clear, that there remained no doubt whatever, that the 
 image did open its eyes, and moved them about in all directions. 
 
 The reader must know^, that the church where that miracu- 
 lous image was to be found, is situated in the darkest corner 
 of the city, where the lowest populace are crowded together. 
 It lies in the valley between the two mounts, Quirinum and 
 Janiculum. It w^as not difficult to make them swallow any 
 absurdity, which they are ready to defend with their blood. 
 The mass of people who assembled in that section of the city 
 was immense. Day and night the church was crowded. I 
 saw it, when hundreds of sick folks were carried upon couches 
 into the church ; one of them particularly attracted my atten- 
 tion 3 he was a tall, consumptive man, more like a skeleton 
 than a living being, supported by two friends. As soon as he 
 was placed in the middle of the church, all the people cried as 
 with one voice, "Abbiate fede ! abbiate fede!-' have faith! 
 have faith ? and the skeleton left the shoulders of his friends, 
 who supported him; and advanced with a firm step towards 
 tho altar, where he sunk exhausted to the ground. The shouts, 
 ^'have faith in the mercy of the holy Virgin! rise, walk! be not 
 discouraged / and similar expressions were heard; but all was 
 useless. It vas not diffi.cult; as I stated before, to make people 
 like these believe every absurdity. One thing was worthy of 
 notice; that no x^spoctable and enlightened person saw the 
 miracle; not even all iLg priests; but they said: ^'That men 
 of bad dispositions; or the sceptiC; or those who had not sin- 
 cerely confessed, or had no fahh, could not see it. ^^l have 
 been one of those, whom the Virgin Mary would not look at, 
 though I w^as anxious to see the miraculous movements of the 
 eyes of the painted picture. Every movement of the Virgin 
 Mary's eyes had its signification. From the pulpit, like sounds 
 of thunder in a dark night, the most frightful events were pre- 
 dicted. ^^ Prodigium canity et tristes denunciat iras.^^ Pestilence, 
 famine; and destruction were the indication of the moving of 
 the eyes. Penance ! penance ! was the watchword of the 
 
BEATIFICATION. 55 
 
 priests and monks, as the only panacea for the great evil ; 1 
 asked myself, what is the difference between heathen Rome 
 and papal Rome ? The first used intrigues to purify the com- 
 munity of perjurers; the second uses it to establish a lie. 
 Heathen Rome had its temple of Apollo, in w^hich the oracle 
 of Delphis prophesied. Papal Rome has its images which fore- 
 tell future events. 
 
 BEATIFICATION OF A FRANCISCAN FRIAR, 
 
 Like children who must be amused and delighted in the 
 daily change of play things, so Romanists are entertained by 
 their priests, by a daily change of new amusements. I say 
 amusements, for the papal worship is nothing but that. We 
 read in history, that before the fall of heathen Rome one could 
 easier find a god than a man in the streets. In papal Rome, 
 there are more saints than inhabitants, and their number is 
 daily augmenting. 
 
 Scarcely had the frolic of the moving of the eyes of the image 
 ceased, when another ecclesiastical entertaimnent was pro- 
 duced. The Franciscans had a friar, who had been living 
 among them a hundred years ago^ and who, at that time^ per- 
 formed a great number of miracles. His order begged the 
 sum of one hundred thousand dollars, to have their brother friar 
 beatified, which his holiness Leo XIL granted, after having 
 received this sum as a fee. At the same time we must do 
 justice to the friars ', they w^ere very careful not to collect the 
 money in the papal state, but in Spain where the friar was born. 
 
 A beatification is not a daily nor even an annual occurrence, 
 because it is very expensive. Protestants must not think that 
 saints grow like mushrooms after a rainy reason, no! they 
 must be at least a hundred years old. They must not think 
 that a saint is some upstart or pauper • by no means ] he must 
 be able to pay the minimum /ee of a hundred thousand dollars, 
 before he receives permission to be a saint. Being therefore 
 such a rare occurrence, it is no w^onder that young and old, rich 
 and poor turned out to witness the exhibition. 
 
 The day on w^hich the beatification was to take place, the 
 pope descended from the Vatican into the church of St. Peter's, 
 followed by the w^hole sacred college, in great pomp and mag- 
 nificence ] nothing was spared which was calculated to impress 
 the senses of the immense multitude. The bishops were in 
 their pontifical garments and covered with their mitres : the 
 
66 BEATIFICATION. 
 
 pope himself presiding as the supremus episcopus, or the bishop 
 of bishops^ had only the mitre upon his head ; in that pompous 
 manner the mass was celebrated by the pope, and when he 
 arrived at that part where the collects of the saints are said, 
 the pope (by a special bull) declared the friar, of whom three 
 miracles had been scrupulously investigated, to be a saint^ with 
 all the privileges to work miracles when and wherever he 
 pleases. '^ At the same time the cooks and friars were very 
 busy in preparing a good dinner for the cardinals, prelates, and 
 other illustrious guests. In the afternoon his holiness went in 
 great pomp to the church of the Franciscan convent, where the 
 painting of the new saint was exposed for the adoration of the 
 people. He kneeled before that very being whom he had cre- 
 ated a saint, and adored that very painting, to the original of 
 which he had a few hours before granted the privileges of 
 saintship and the permission to perform miracles. After the 
 invocation of his new manufactured saint, his holiness gra- 
 ciously entered the convent and admitted the whole family to 
 kiss his holy footj or rather his holy slipper. 
 
 To satisfy the great mass of the people who do not under- 
 stand Latin, the three approved miracles were exhibited in 
 painting at the facade of St. Peter's, in order that they might 
 see what had been the miracles for which he was elevated 
 to the glory of being saint. Among the largest and most 
 conspicuous, was the one which represents the sainted friar 
 seated in the kitchen of a tavern, and warming himself at the 
 lire, at which the land-lady, who had the reputation of being a 
 very uncharitable woman, was roasting birds for her guests. 
 After an interval of a short time, the lady was obliged to leave 
 the kitchen, when the friar (not being as yet a saint) took the 
 roasted birds from the fire, and after holding them one by one 
 up in the air, they immediately received life, became covered 
 with feathers, and flew about in the kitchen. The woman 
 entering and seeing that spectacle, fell upon her knees and 
 would have worshipped him; but the friar said unto her: 
 ^' Woman, give all the glory to the Virgin Mary.'' 
 
 As a narrator I will make no remarks on this peculiar case ; 
 my object is only to show the spirit of the Roman population, 
 that they are not so ignorant as some travellers have described 
 them, and not so bigoted as they appear. 
 
 Scarcely was the painting displayed to the eyes of the people, 
 when a general burst of laughter filled the air; even the ladies, 
 who are not averse to the miracles of friars, considered it very 
 
 * Before the canonization takes place, th^-ee miracles are brousrht before the 
 curia in trial, where a prelate, called '■'the DeviVs Advocate.'^ pleads against 
 Ihenij and examines the evidences of the miracles. 
 
BEATIFlCATlOxN. 57 
 
 puerile. Their disapproval was not expressed in secret, but in 
 the presence of the spies^ and openly in broad day to the mor- 
 tification of the priCvSts. I heard it said : '•' the friar has eaten 
 the roasted birds and left fly some living ones which he had in 
 his large sleeves,** Others more serious asked: '-What benefit 
 has that miracle conferred on the human family, for Christianityj 
 or even for the tavern-keeper ?" A great many in a joking man- 
 ner said — ^^that miracle resembled very much tlhose of the 
 Jesuits at St. Domingo, when they asked only (foi the love of 
 the holy Virgin) a little boiled water, which they poured upon 
 toasted bread, and soon the fragrance of that dish filled the 
 house. The people were astonished, that the water should be 
 changed into such delicious food. They (the Jesuits) told them: 
 * give all the glory to the holy Virgin who performed the mi- 
 racle ;' and in secret the good fathers put preserved meat and 
 concentrated broth, as ino'redients of the miracle, into it." Similar 
 anecdotes, abounding in facetiousness and wit, were publicly 
 related. I trembled for them; I was apprehensive that the 
 gens d'arms would lay hands on them. But the disapprobation 
 being general, the police were overawed and dared not touch 
 them • otherwise they would have been massacred on the spot. 
 
 The result of that censure was not less humiliating than the 
 censure itself. The next day another painting was placed in 
 its stead. But for all that the effect of the blunder was not 
 removed. Like the ass in the fable, who clothed himself in 
 the dress of the shepherd, whose long ears betrayed him, that 
 he was, even in the cloak of the shepherd, nothing but an ass. 
 Such was the effect which the change of the picture produced. 
 
 We read in history many deceptions practised by the heathen 
 priests : but that, in papal Rome, under tlie garb of Christianity, 
 such intrigues should be perpetrated in the nineteenth century, 
 is too revolting even to narrate. If the apostle Paul, who with- 
 stood Peter to his face in Antioch because he was blamed of 
 having dissimulated and walked not uprightly, according to the 
 gospel* — what would that apostle say, if he could appear ag-ain 
 upon the palatinum, and see the intrigues, deceptions, and cor- 
 ruptions of the so-called Vicar of Christ in the so-styled chair 
 of Peter ? 
 
 * Galat. c. 2, v. 11—14. 
 
(58) 
 
 THE PATRIARCH OF EGYPT AND THE 
 HORNED PRIEST. 
 
 The following is a narrative which I published in the Lu- 
 theran Observer during the last year; but as that journal is 
 not read by Roman CatholicSj I will insert it here, that ihey 
 may hear something of the infallibility of their supreme pontiff. 
 
 The blunder of the miraculous birds was too great ] the im- 
 pression it left too strong to be easily effaced : they immediately 
 put forth a new spectacle — new in every respect in the history 
 of Popes, and, I may safely say, neio in the history of heathen 
 Rome. 
 
 In the Propaganda Fide are educated missionaries for the 
 countries of the East : there are usually from seven to eight 
 hundred pupils in it, many of whom are taken when nine years 
 old, and educated until they reach their twenty-fourth year. 
 Among the boys there educated was an Arabian youth, fifteen 
 years of age, whose talents were not of a very superior order. 
 One day a letter arrived by mail, directed to the Prefect of the 
 Propag-anda, sealed with the state seal of the Pasha of Egypt, 
 in which his highness, in a very friendly manner, complimented 
 his holiness. Pope Leo XIL, requesting him to consecrate the 
 Arabian boy Bishop of Alexandria. The Prefect of the Pro- 
 paganda as soon as he read the letter, ordered his state carriage 
 to the Quirinal palace, where the Pope was at that time resid- 
 ing. Leo received the message with delight ; he thought the 
 riches of Egypt were already hoarded in the treasury of the 
 Vatican ; he immediately convoked the Sacred College and de- 
 sired their counsel on that important subject. Some of the car- 
 dinals argued in favour of the consecration, believing that the 
 Arabian boy must be an illegitimate child of the Pasha, otherwise 
 he would not thus distinguish a Christian and a youth with 
 such honours. Others argued the contrary on the same ground, 
 as the councils and canonical laws strictly forbid that the dig- 
 nity of a bishop should be enjoyed by a bastard. Another irre- 
 gularity was in the way — the boy was not even of age ; and 
 still more, that he was ignorant. But Pontifex omnia potest — 
 the pope can do all things — even metamorphose ignorant heads 
 into wise ones. The boy was, in spite of all the illegalities and 
 irregularities, declared by Leo XIL not only Bishop, but Pa- 
 triarch of Egypt. 
 
 The priests promulgated it with great joy. The triumph of 
 Christianity, the advantages of the church of Rome, and the 
 
THE PATRIARCH AND THE HORNED PRIEST. 59 
 
 pecuniary profits to the holy see — all was mentioned that could 
 swell the song of gladness. They had the audacity to say pub- 
 licly, in the presence of ladies. '■' that the Arabian boy was an 
 illegitimate child of the Pasha.'' And many Roman mothers, 
 (not heathen^ but Christian Roman mothers,) envied the Arabian 
 lady the honour of having such a distinguished lover. In short, 
 I was an eye-witness of the consecration as performed by Pope 
 Leo XII. ; I saw that pope kneeling upon the first step of the 
 altar in St. Peter's church to receive the blessing of the boy 
 celebransj or as he was called the "Boy Patriarch," at the end 
 of the ceremony of the consecration. In the history of popes, 
 we never find a similar occurrence, that the pope himself should 
 have consecrated a bishop. 
 
 The pope gave the boy patriarch a monk of the Paolotti as a 
 secretary, who was also to be his Uitor^ under whom he had to 
 finish his education. He wrote also through the secretary of 
 state, a complimentary letter to the Pasha of Egypt, to inform 
 his highness that his wishes were all punctually fulfilled, and 
 that the new Patriarch of Egypt would soon leave the papal 
 shore for his new destination. The propaganda fitted out the 
 patriarch in the best style ; sacred vases, episcopal ornamxents, 
 and gifts for the pasha were prepared ; a vessel was chartered 
 in Civita Vecchia upon which the boy patriarch and whole suit 
 were embarked. 
 
 We shall leave the young patriarch on his voyage, and direct 
 the attention of the reader towards Egypt. The pasha received 
 the despatches of the pope, and could scarcely understand their 
 contents. After a due examination of the documents, the pasha 
 > became furious : he immediately ordered the father of the boy 
 patriarch to be imprisoned, who, as it was supposed, had forged 
 the sigaature of the pasha, and was without any further inquiry 
 decapitated ; and an order was issued that the patriarch, with 
 his whole suit, should meet with the same fate, as soon as they 
 landed on the shores of Egypt. 
 
 The ambassadors and consuls of the Christian courts wrote 
 to all the ports to inform the mitred voyager of the danger 
 which awaited him. The merchants did the same. Fortu- 
 nately a contrary wind drove them (I do not exactly remember 
 if it was on the island of Malta, or on one of the Ionian islands) 
 where they received information of the predicament into which 
 they were placed. The monk of the Paolotti immediately re- 
 sumed the authority of the master instead of secretary ', he 
 ordered the captain to return, and treated the poor youth, not as 
 a boy patriarch, but as a school-boy. On one occasion the 
 poor creature resented the tyrannical treatment of the monk, 
 who gave him a slap in the face : the servants who saw it, lost 
 
60 THE PATRIARCH AND THE HORNED PRIEST. 
 
 their respect for him^ so that the poor young manj in a short 
 time, was driven to despair. In that state of mind, he deter- 
 mined to escape upon an English vessel, and to place himself 
 under the protection of the British flag. If he would have done 
 that openly, he might have saved himself^ but being inexperi- 
 enced in the world, (in addition to this the fear of his monkish 
 tyrant,) he resolved to escape at night, and take with him the 
 sacred vessels, and the gifts which he had for the Pasha of 
 of Egypt. But a servant, whom he thought faithful, betrayed 
 him, and in the act of his escape he was taken, and wishing 
 to hide his guilt, concealed the sacred vessels. 
 
 Now the monk, who envied the mitre of the boy, became the 
 mastery he put the poor patriarch in confinement, chained him 
 in the cabin, until they reached the port of Civita Vecchia, 
 where the monk wrote to the cardinal Zurla, the vicar of the 
 pope, intimating to- him that he w^ould not leave the vessel, 
 until his holiness recompensed him for the faithful services he 
 had performed, and the dangers he had encotfntered for the 
 welfare of the church. The pope was obliged to give him the 
 mitre, in order to stop the mouth of the monk. 
 
 Now in order to bring the victim to Rome, without incurring 
 the ridicule of the people, the pope, and the sacred college, 
 to cover their blunder and ignorance, invented a story of 
 which Satan himself would be ashamed. It was related as a 
 positive fact, by the priests in the confessional, as w^ell as in 
 society, in the pulpit, as well as in the streets: '^That in a cer- 
 tain village, a poor woman was to be buried, but that the parish 
 priest, who was very avaricious, w^ould not perform the burial, 
 because her children could not pay the fee. Two of her sons 
 were obhged to dig the grave in the night, where they found a 
 treasure • the next day they came to the priest paying him 
 the fee, and also a sum for a number of masses, which the 
 priest was to celebrate for the soul of the deceased, to be de- 
 livered from the pains of purgatory. The priest asked them 
 from w^hence they received the money ; they revealed to him 
 the fact of having found a treasure. The priest, wishing to rob 
 them of it, took the fresh hide of an ox, and covered himself 
 with it, so as to appear as the devil, in order to frighten the 
 poor boys. But when he returned with the treasure, and was 
 about to undress himself, lo ! the horns of the ox's hide re- 
 mained fixed upon his head, and that on the morrow^ night, the 
 horned priest would be brought into the city, and placed in the 
 prison of the inquisition. So it was* a close carriage accompa- 
 nied by gens d' arms, in which the poor boy patriarch was 
 placed, and was brought into the prison of the inquisition, 
 under the name of the horned priest, drove into the city. 
 
INFALLIBILITY. 61 
 
 There he was tortured, in the presence of the students of the 
 Propaganda, dispatriarchized and condemned to death; but 
 Pope Leo XII. graciously commuted the sentence of death into 
 imprisonment for life, in the Fort of St. Leo. 
 
 If my Roman Catholic brethren could know all the intrigues 
 and stratagems which are resorted to in the cHurch of Rome 
 in order to be made prelates, they would blush to call them 
 shepherds. It is a proverbial saying in Rome — •• To become a 
 prelate you must have one of the three devils to aid you. You 
 must have a white devil, or a yellow devil, or a red devil. The 
 white devil is the protection of a woman ; the yellow is gold : 
 and the red, the protection of a cardinal." The narrative of the 
 above stated fact, needs no comment: no parallel even in 
 heathen history is to be found. The council of the infernal 
 recesses could not produce, nor invent a more execrable false- 
 hood, to blindfold the eyes of men in order to destroy their 
 souls. 
 
 INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 
 
 In the face of such inconsistencies of the pope, blunders of 
 the sacred college, corruptions of the priests, and intrig-ues of 
 the monks, it was no wonder that I began to doubt the infalli- 
 bility of the pope, and to inquire upon what grounds the pre- 
 tended infallibility is based. Tlie pope legitimated the Arabian 
 boy, and removed all the disabilities arising from his unfitness 
 on account of his presumed ignoble birth, by a special dispensa- 
 tion ; ordained the boy, who had not yet arrived at the canoni- 
 cal age, and invested him with the power to confer sacred 
 orders on others. He dispenses the monastic orders from sub- 
 mission to the diocesan bishops, absolving faithful subjects from 
 the obedience to their legitimate sovereign — children from all 
 obligations towards their parents. These were the subjects 
 which occupied my mind, and became a matter of close 
 investigation. How can the pope dispense children from sub- 
 mission to their parents, without annulling the ten command- 
 ments of God ? How can he dispense the servant from obedi- 
 ence to his master, without subverting social order '? How can 
 he authorize subjects to break the sacred ties which bind them 
 to their sovereign, with impunity ? How can he withdraw the 
 sheep from the flock, without exposing them to the danger of 
 being destroyed by the wolf ? How can he dispense the mem- 
 bers of the monastic orders from their obedience to the diocesan 
 
 F 
 
62 INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 bishops, without destroying the order of the hierarchy ? These 
 and similar contradictory acts, which have been the cause of so 
 much blood-shed, gave rise in my mind to the inquiry of the 
 assumed infallibility of the pope. 
 
 I took the Bible, searched the whole New Testament, in 
 order to support the papal power — I say support, because my 
 intention was not to leave the church of Rome. The infallible 
 power of the church through her head, the pope, was the only 
 link which chained me to it, and it is a very powerful one. 
 
 The passage — •' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will 
 build my church, and the g-ates of hell shall not prevail against 
 it;" and that passage. ^'Lo, I am with you always, even to the 
 end of the world;'' were not sufficient for me, upon which to 
 base such an unlimited powder; I could not see in them that the 
 Lord spoke of popes : because Peter had the privilege of being 
 the first of the apostles, he was not thereby appointed a pope, 
 nor had he a successor. To satisfy my conscience by exam- 
 ining the direct line of apostolical succession was too delicate, 
 and even superfluous, for a Roman who had been acquainted 
 with the son of Pius VII., and read the letters which he had 
 received from his father, written to his mother when he w^as 
 cardinal Chiara Monte — a Roman, w^ho had a personal acquaint- 
 ance with the Pope Leo XII. when a cardinal, knowing him to 
 be a gambler, licentious, and even debauched. One w^ho was 
 acquainted wuth the scandalous history of immoral succession 
 in the papal seat, was not much disposed, nor did not feel it so 
 necessary to investigate that subject. 
 
 As my intention is not to reveal, but to give only the grounds 
 of my doubts of the apostolical succession at that time, I will 
 state that I examined the fathers of the church and viewed the 
 matter in the light of sound reason. 
 
 In that conflict I sought for the opinions of enlightened au- 
 thors, as Origin, Eusebius, Hieronimus, Chrisostomus, Isidor, 
 Baronius, and Tertulian, which I carefully read and studied on 
 that subject. I found that after the Holy Spirit had descended 
 upon the apostles, they dispersed into all parts of the world, 
 and preached the gospel to all nations. St. Peter preached in 
 Judea, in Antioch, in Cappadocia, in Bithynia, and, according 
 to the tradition of the papal church, also in Rome. St. James, 
 son of Zebedee, preached also in Judea and in Spain. St. John 
 in Asia Minor. St. Andrew in Scythia, in Thrace, and in Achaia. 
 St. James, the brother of our Lord, preached in Jerusalem. St. 
 Philip also in Scythia and Phrygia. St. Bartholomew in Judea 
 and Armenia. St. Matthew in Ethiopia. St. Thomas preached 
 in Parthia, Medea, in Persia, and among the Brachmans, Hir- 
 caniens, and other nations. St. Simon preached also in Persia 
 
ANTIQLITY. 63 
 
 and Mesopotamia. St. Jude in Egypt. St. Matthew in the 
 upper part of Ethiopia. The apostles Paul and Barnabas in 
 different parts of Europe and Asia ; none of them had been 
 subject to the others, not even under the direction of one another, 
 much less under the jurisdiction of the apostle Peter. 
 
 As the church of Rome bases her infallible power upon her 
 aiitiquity, catholicity j*and apostolical succession^ I purpose ex- 
 amining each of them separately. 
 
 If the authority of antiquity be conceded as a test of its infal- 
 libility to any church, it ought to be to that of Jerusalem , be- 
 cause that church was founded by our Saviour himself. There the 
 everlasting gospel was heard from the lips which spake as never 
 man spake; there he exercised his high sacerdotal power and 
 episcopal office; there he offered himself up as a ransom, for 
 our sins and for the sins of the world. There the operations 
 of the Holy Spirit were manifested on the first day of Pentecost. 
 Jerusalem was called by the ancient writers, '^the mother of all 
 other churches'''^ Even Antioch has greater claims than Rome 
 for the primacy, if ever a primacy should exist, being the first 
 church the apostle Peter governed, and where the disciples 
 were called Christians for the first time;t which Chrisostomus 
 calls — ^^ the capital of the Christian world.' 't 
 
 If the mother is older than the daughter ] the source older 
 than the stream from which it flows ] the Greek church has 
 certainly the claim to he the oldest ; being founded by the 
 apostle Paul and St. Andrew, from which the spirit of Chris- 
 tianity flowed as from a sacred fountain, and extended over 
 many nations and kingdoms. Another very important historical 
 consideration convinced me that Rome has no claim of primacy 
 upon the ground of her antiquity, because the history of the 
 councils themselves testify that the church of Rome received 
 the New Testament, the creed of the apostles, that of Nice and 
 that of Athanasius from the Greek church; and that until the 
 time of Bishop Britontius.§ The council of Trent itself recog- 
 nized her as the mother of the church of Rome. 
 
 Having found nothing in the writings of the fathers and an- 
 cient historians which gave the church of Rome any title to 
 that boasted antiquity of which she vaunts so much, I began 
 to reason \vith myself in this way. If the doctrines and the 
 practices of the church of Rome are antiscriptural, will they be- 
 come better when they number five hundred or more years 
 
 * Theod. Hist. lib. v. chap. 9, atque in lib. 4, ann. 382, etiam Baronius ad 
 annum 382. 
 t Acts of the Apost. chap. 11, v. 26. 
 t Chrisost. Horn. 3 ad populum Antioch. 
 i Hist. Concilii. 
 
64 ANTIQUITY. 
 
 existence ? Or is the truth less truth, because it cannot show 
 that it has been acknowledged centuries ago ? If a man would 
 build a house upon the land of his neighbouFj without having 
 any title to that land, can he claim that property as his own, be- 
 cause he intruded upon the rights of his neighbour for many 
 years? So it is with the truth. If an error is received and 
 accredited from the beginning of the wofld, will a long series 
 of years give any advantage and weight to that error ? or give 
 a right to those who believe it, to remain in that error for no 
 other reason than because it is an old established error ? Cer- 
 tainly not. Error can never change into truth even though it 
 exists until the end of the world, but rather crescit eundo^ like a 
 chronic disease which increases in malignity in proportion as 
 it approximates to its consummation ] thus it is with the pre- 
 tended antiquity of the church of Rome. 
 
 It is certain that the heathen are the most ancient worship- 
 pers of their idols j who will contend that because their idola- 
 trous worship is the most ancient; it is the most true and in- 
 fallible ? Is it probable that the primitive Christians ever ad- 
 vanced such an argument to the heathen, that the most ancient 
 religion is the most true ? Would the heathen not have boasted 
 of the antiquity of their worship 1 But we read the contrary. 
 St. Cyprian says — " that antiquity has no influence in religious 
 matters if it is not accompanied with the truth.''^* To show that 
 the ancient prevalence of idolatry is nothing but an error of an- 
 tiquity, he adds — " if an error would be sanctioned because it 
 claims antiquity, no crime would be too little which could be 
 committed without impunity, for the thief would say that my 
 ancestors were also thieves and corrupt.'^ 
 
 That such a doctrine upon which the church of Rome builds 
 her infallibility was not known to the prophets, is evident from 
 the words of the prophet Jeremiah,t when he reproached the 
 Jews for their sinfulness, and called them to repentance, he 
 says — '•^ thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon ] yet 
 surely I will make thee a wilderness and cities which are not 
 inhabited. And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every 
 one with his weapons, and they shall cut down thy choice 
 cedars and cast them into the fire. And many nations shall 
 pass by this city; and they shall say every man to his neigh- 
 bour, wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great city ? 
 Then they shall answer, because they have forsaken the con- 
 venant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and 
 served them.'' This clearly shows that the kings, priests, and 
 
 ♦ Cyprian Epist. 74, cont. idolatr. 
 
 t Jeremiah, chap. 22, v. 6. Ibid. chap. 32, v. 30—35. 
 
ANTIQUITY. 65 
 
 the people had no right to continue in sin, to despise God and 
 his holy word, because they had despised it for a long time. 
 Our Saviour himself preached against that principle, and main- 
 tained that the antiquity of a thing is no proof of its being truth. 
 For when the scribes and pharisees gloried in Abraham, who 
 was their father, he told them that their genealogy extends still 
 further back — that they are children of the devil. 
 
 The church of Rome condemns my reasoning. She says — 
 ^' The infallibility of the church of Rome is a doctrine of faith.' ^ 
 I must believe it, because the church says it, and because the 
 church who is the oldest of all other churches, believes it. Here 
 I must confess, that, on that point, I am a rationalist. Suppose 
 some one has to make a payment to a merchant, and gives him 
 certain coins, of which the merchant knows not the value, can 
 that man condemn the merchant if he endeavours to find out the 
 intrinsic value, by weighing the gold pieces ? Or if he tries it, 
 in order to assure himself if it be pure gold ? Would that be 
 sufficient reason for the merchant, if the other would say — ^-Tt 
 is a very ancient coin ; it has been preserved in the family for 
 several centuries?"' Certainly not. The merchant would say, 
 ^- This may be all true : but there are many ancient coins which 
 are false.'' Suppose that man would insist, and condemn the 
 merchant for not believing in his word and trusting in his in- 
 tegrity. Would the merchant not have good reason to suspect 
 the sincerity of such a man'? Thus it was with me when I 
 read the canons of the council of Trent, and they said, ^'That 
 whosoever denies the infallibility of the church of Rome, let 
 him be accursed.^' I suspected the truth of that doctrine, and 
 had good reason to doubt it. 
 
 But the church of Rome teaches — ^-That the bishops, who 
 are the legitimate pastors of the church, receive the Holy Ghost, 
 who is the spirit of truth, therefore they can not err.'' I will 
 not employ my reason with regard to the Holy Spirit, but sub- 
 mit my reavson to the living Word of God, w^hich teaches me 
 that the doctrine of the church of Rome, by limiting the Spirit 
 of God only to the bishops, is false ; because St. James says :* 
 ^•If ANY OF YOU lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth 
 TO ALL MEN liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given 
 him." That again shows that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of w^is- 
 dom is given not onlW to the bishops, but also to all men, who 
 will ask for it. My dear Roman Catholic brethren see that it 
 was not, and is not the spirit of protestantism which directs my 
 pen, but the love of truth and of your immortal souls, and above 
 all to show you how the Spirit of God enlightened my mind. 
 
 * Ep. James c. i. v. 5. 
 F 2 
 
(66 
 
 CATHOLICITY OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 
 
 The church of Rome glories in the name, Catholic (universal) 
 church. She boasts of the multitude of believers in her doc- 
 trine. I heard from my youth the loudest panegyrics upon the 
 numerous conversions, and believers in her doctrines. I thought 
 if that is really the case, it would show, that it is accompanied 
 by the outpouring of the Spirit of God. With these feelings I 
 searched the statistics of the world, to see if that boasted mul- 
 titude be really so great. 
 
 I found that the population of the world is eight hundred and 
 five millions of souls, of which those who profess Christianity, 
 taking all denominations together, are two hundred and twenty 
 millions of souls. J separated the chaff from the wheat — the 
 heretics and schismatics from the papists, and found that the 
 numbers of the Papal church are much smaller, than those of 
 the Greek church, and not as much as those of the Protestants 
 in the world. 
 
 In Asia the Christians are numerous, but few recognize the 
 authority of the pope. The Christians in Palestine are under 
 the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Jerusalem. The Armenians 
 and Georgians, have their own patriarch. The Circassians, and 
 those of Asia Minor are under the jurisdiction of the patriarch 
 of Constantinople. The Jacobites, and all the other tribes this 
 side, and on the other side of the Caucasus have their own pa- 
 triarch, and are by no means under the power of the pope. 
 
 The South of Africa belongs to the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church of England. The Christians of Egypt, and the Cophts 
 are under the patriarch of Alexandria. The Ethiopians, and 
 Abyssinians have their own patriarch, and have not submitted 
 to the authority of the pope. of Rome. 
 
 America. The north of it is nearly all Protestants, though 
 the immigration from Ireland and Austria overflows the Union, 
 still the Protestant immigration overbalances it, and it can with 
 certainty be styled a Protestant country. 
 
 Europe; where Rome once deposed kings, and obliged them 
 to come barefooted, and with uncovered heads to the door of 
 the Vatican, has nearly deserted her. B^sia has not recognized 
 her. Moldavia, Croatia, and Valachia belong to the Greek 
 church, England, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Prussia, Darm- 
 stadt, Curhessen, and all the other small principalities are Pro- 
 testants. France rejected the authority of tne pope, and assumed 
 the name Gallican church. We see that Rome has no more to 
 boast of her catholicity, than she has of her antiquity. 
 
CATHOLICITY OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 67 
 
 The above facts, strong as the)^ are, were not sufficient to 
 obliterate an impression, which had been made from my youth; 
 I thought it my duty to examine the fathers, and make use of 
 my own reason and judgment. 
 
 If we establish the principle, that the multitude is a sign of 
 an infallible and true church of God, we must conclude, that 
 in the time of Enoch and Abraham, there was no true church 
 upon the earth; that in the time of our Saviour and his apos- 
 tles, there was no true church in existence: and even when 
 Antichrist shall come, there will be no true church, and what 
 is more horrible to think, that the church of Antichrist will be 
 the only true one ; and in the time of the persecution, the 
 martyrs and confessors did not constitute the true church, but 
 the Jews did, who crucified our Saviour. This would be the 
 natural consequence if we receive the principle, upon which 
 the church of Rome bases her infallibility. 
 
 St. Augustine says:^ -^That there was a time when the true 
 church had been included in the person of Abel ; and in an- 
 other period in the family of Noah.'^ 
 
 In the time of the Arians, Theodosius says,t That the Em- 
 peror Constantinus spoke of Athanasius as being one of the 
 greatest wretches upon the earth. -^Who art thou (said the 
 Emperor to Liberius) that thou comest with that wretch, to 
 trouble the rest of the earth?"' 
 
 St. Hilarius reports,! That in the whole Province of Asia, 
 there was only the bishop Eleusius with a very small number 
 of persons, who remained firm in the truth. 
 
 St. Hieronimus affirms. § That in the whole of Orient, there 
 was only Athanasius, and Paulinus, Avith very few who have 
 not followed the heresy of Arius; that the true church has not 
 been composed by Arius; and the multitude of his followers, 
 but by the very few j viz. Athanasius and Paulirms. The an- 
 swer of Liberius to the Emperor Constantinus will settle the 
 whole controversy. ^- The word of faith (says Liberius) is not 
 diminished by the small number who profess it, even if it 
 would be limited to one person. "il And according to the tes- 
 timony of Tertulius, who saysilT --It is not the great number 
 of bishops who form the church, because the church can be 
 contained in one person." 
 
 St. Gregorius adds,^* -^ Who are those who define the true church 
 by the multitude? They have the multitude^ we have the faith; 
 they have the gold and silver in abundance, but we have the true 
 
 * Augustin. Enaratio in ps. 128. |I Theod. unde supra. 
 
 f Theodosius Hist. Lib. II. 1[ Tertul. Lib. de poenit, chap. x. 
 
 t Hilar, cont. Auxent. ** Gregor. Oratio 25, Cont. Arianum. 
 
 $ Hieron. cap. 58, adv. Lucif. 
 
68 APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 doctrine.'' It is evident, that the true church at that time was 
 not composed of the rauUitude. And when Antichrist shall 
 come, (according to the testimony of our Saviour,) who says 
 in the Gospel of Luke, chap, xviii. 8, '-When the Son of man 
 cometh shall he find faith]" — That convinces me, that when 
 the impious heresy of Antichrist shall reign in the church, there 
 will be no other proof of Christianity, no other refuge for the 
 Christian, than the Bible, w^hich is the Word of God. That 
 the multitude will follow error, and the true church will be 
 limited to a small flock, who will have no other arms against 
 the stratagems and persecutions of Antichrist, than the arms 
 of God. 
 
 THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION 
 
 AS A PROOF OF THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 OF ROME. 
 
 • 
 
 I must confess, that at the time, with all these evidences 
 before me, w^ith all these proofs of anti-scriptural practices, 
 and heathenish worship before my eyes, I could not divest 
 myself of a strong attachment to the church of Rome ; having 
 the strong impression of the apostolical succession, I thought 
 she must be infallible. But how different were my feelings 
 after a strict examination of my Bible, and the fathers on that 
 important point. 
 
 Admitting that the church of Rome has really an apostolical 
 succession, would that give her a right to the assumption of 
 infallible power ? For if any church in the world has a right 
 to boast of an apostolical succession, it is the church of Jerusa- 
 lem. We read in the Psalms,* ^^ As the mountains are round 
 about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from 
 henceforth, even for ever.'^ These were the promises upon 
 which the priests in the Old Testament relied, and these very 
 promises g-ave rise to prejudices, so that every moment they 
 exclaimed — ^^ the people of the Lord ^ the temple of the Lord 
 are we," &c. But the Lord answered them,t ^' Trust ye not 
 in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of 
 the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we. For if you truly amend 
 your ways and your doings; if you truly execute judg-ment be- 
 tween a man and his neighbour; if ye oppress not the stranger, 
 the fatherless and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in 
 
 * Ps. 125, V. 2. f Jeremiah, chap. 7, v. 4-15. 
 
APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 69 
 
 this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt; then 
 .vill I cause you to dwell in this place^ in the land that I gave 
 to youi fathers, for ever and ever. Behold ye trust in lying 
 words that cannot profit/' &c. Though Jerusalem has been 
 favoured by God as a tabernacle of his ow^n dwelling, the 
 judgment of the Lord has been notwithstanding executed, 
 because of their abominations/'^ 
 
 If Zion has ceased to be the house of God , if Jerusalem^ the 
 city of the Lord, has been reduced to a solitude, the altars laid 
 waste and made desolate • what has the church of Rome to 
 boast of, being the cradle of martyrs, and the nurse of con- 
 fessors and saints? She ought rather to tremble at the abomi- 
 nations with which vshe is filled, the errors with which she is 
 infected, the scandals which their popes have been to the uni- 
 verse ; is it not a wonder, that long ere this it has not been re- 
 duced to the dust like Jerusalem, and become a den of thieves 
 and robbers, a horrible Babylon, a terrible solitude ? Is it not 
 a wonder that Rome, which has been founded with fratricide ^t 
 populated by rapine 'jt whose morals are filthy like her streets, 
 and in her avarice selling the cross of Christ, wherever she 
 finds a purchaser,^ yet exists upon the surface of the earth *? 
 
 I remember when I resided in Florence, the capital of Tus- 
 cany, w^here I had nothing to fear from the holy inquisition, I 
 had a friendly controversy w4th an enlightened priest of the 
 church of Rome ; I showed him the anti-evangelical doctrines 
 and practices of the church, the immorality of the cardinals 
 and popes, of whom we must blush, when we think that sach 
 men pretended to bind and to loose our conscience. He said — 
 ^^all that you say is truth; and as a reply to your arguments, I 
 will read a novel of Bocaccio." The contents of the novel are 
 as follows : 
 
 A Christian had a bosom friend, who was jf Jew; the latter 
 was a just and an upright man ; but the Christian constantly 
 urged his friend to become a Christian, the Jew always refused 
 to consent, until one day, he said : •• I will go to Rome and see 
 how your cardinals and popes act and live ; if their life corres- 
 pond with the doctrine they preach, I will become a Chris- 
 tian." The Christian instead of rejoicing lost all his hope ; for 
 he thought, if he went to Rome and saw all those corruptions, 
 he never would become a Christian, and persuaded him not to 
 
 * Jeremiah, chap. 5 and 6, 
 
 \Hist. of Rovie^ where Romulus killed his brother Remus, after having 
 founded the city of the world, in order to be the sole governor of it. 
 
 % Ibid. The stratagem of the Romans, of making a feast, and inviting the 
 Sabine ID omen, and then shutting the gates of the city against their husbands 
 and lovers, in order to populate the city. 
 
 $ The relic of the cross is very dear. That is the reason that it is not to be 
 found in the poor man's house, as the rags and bones of the saints are. 
 
70 APOSTOLICAL DOCTRINES. 
 
 go SO far, as he might have an opportunity to do it at the place 
 w^here he was; but all in vain. He undertook the journey, and 
 in a short time the Christian received a letter from his friend, 
 that he had been already baptized. He could not imagine 
 what it was that induced him to take that step, as he knew the 
 integrity of his friend, and the strict morality of his sentiments, 
 and was acquainted with the corruptions of the priests. As 
 soon as his friend returned, he asked him the particulars, who 
 told him, saying — '^ I saw all the corruptions and abominations 
 which ever an eye can see, and still your religion exists ] it 
 must be of God.^^ Such are the arguments which the Roman 
 priests use, when the truth is forcibly presented to them. Such 
 are the grounds upon which they build the infallibility of their 
 church. ' 
 
 Let us now recur again to history and reason. If an apostoli- 
 cal succession can confer the privilege of infallibility upon a 
 church, as the church of Rome maintains, the heretics of the 
 third century had the same claim ; for Paul of Samosate, was 
 the legitimate bishop and patriarch of Antioch. He was suc- 
 ceeded by Demetrius; then followed Fabius, then Babilas; 
 Babilas was succeeded by Zebidus, then by Philetus, then 
 Aselpiades, then Serapion ; Serapion by Maximin, Theophile ] 
 then followed Cornelius, then Hero; then succeeded Ignatio, 
 then Evodius, all of whom have been legitimate successors of 
 Peter. We may as well say, that in the 0th century (according 
 to the reasonings and pretensions of Rome) all those who em- 
 braced the heresy of Nestorius, were under an infallible head; 
 because their heresiarch was a legitimate successor of Sisinus; 
 successor of Attique; of Arsace; of St. Chrisostome; of Necta- 
 rius; of Gregory Nazianzeno; and according to the chronicle 
 of Nicefore, Nestorius was the thirty-sixth bishop of those who 
 successively occupied the episcopal chair after the apostle St. 
 Andrew. After such historical grounds, who can receive an 
 apostolical succession as a proof of its infallibility ? 
 
 THE APOSTOLICAL DOCTRINES, 
 
 AND NOT THE CHAIR, ARE REQUIRED AS A MARK OF A 
 TRUE CHURCH. 
 
 It is true that the fathers often used the arguments of an 
 uninterrupted succession against heretics, but that of doctrine 
 and not of persons. So did Tertulius in his time. So did Optat 
 
APOSTOLICAL DOCTRINES. 71 
 
 against the Donatists. St. Augustine against the Manicheans, 
 Pelagians, and the Arians. Tertulius calls the apostolical suc- 
 cession : ^^ a consanguinity or an affinity of doctrines.''''* He uses 
 the following language : " They (speaking of the heretics) naay 
 show a succession of bishops from the beginning of Christianity, 
 but cannot show a succession of doctrine in conformity with 
 that of the apostles ; the succession of persons is no other proof, 
 except that they are neither apostles nor having been taught 
 by them, have no consanguinity of doctrine with the apostles." 
 
 St. Gregorius Nazianzenus, says,t " The succession of piety 
 and not of the chair is required ) for those who make profession 
 of the same faith are participating in the same chair ; the suc- 
 cession of faith being the true succession; the others, who 
 glory in the chair without the truth, have only the appearance 
 of a true succession." From these authorities we see that it 
 requires a succession of doctrine, of which the church of Rome 
 boasts, but cannot show a proof. 
 
 St. Hieronimus equally affirms, t "The church is not in walls 
 and splendid buildings, but in the true doctrine of Christ. The 
 buildings having been for a space of twenty-five years in the 
 possession of heretics, but the true church has been where the 
 true faith was." 
 
 The same we can say, if we look to Germany, Holland, and 
 England, that whilst these beautiful edifices, which before the 
 reformation were in the possession of the Roman church, the 
 true church was among the Waldenses and the real followers of 
 the cross. Let Rome cease to boast of the apostolical succes- 
 sion to prove her unlimited powder of infallibility, for Nero also 
 was the legitimate successor of Augustus, and still was a tyrant. 
 Manasse succeeded Hezekiah, and was notwithstanding an un- 
 godly king. And finally we will tell Rome, that the Arian 
 bishops have equally succeeded the faithful bishops ; the im- 
 pious Nestorius was a legitimate successor of St. Andrew in 
 the chair of Constantinople, as weU as Pope Gregory the XVI. 
 in the chair of St. Peter. As the dark night w^hich succeeds 
 the splendor of the day; as sickness and death which succeeds 
 health, so is the succession of persons without the truth of the 
 gospel. 
 
 * Tertul. de piffiscript. Haeret. 
 
 t Gregorius Nazianzenus de laude Athanas. 
 
 X Hieronimus Contra Haret. 
 
(72) 
 
 ADORATION OF SAINTS. 
 
 In one of my preceding articles^ I showed sufficiently the 
 corruptions, the deceit, the heathenish adoration of the Virgin 
 Mary, and the manner in which saints are manufactured ; but 
 having only given an historical account, I resume the subject 
 in a separate section, to show the light I received after an at- 
 tentive examination of the scriptures with regard to the invoca- 
 tion of saints. 
 
 Having been taught to venerate and adore the saints, I felt 
 the great importance of that subject, and it was not a matter of 
 trifling or small moment for my conscience whether it was true 
 or false. The scriptures teach, that — God is a spirit, and they 
 that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. ^' 
 Consequently it was a practical question in which every man, 
 layman as well as priest, must be interested. 
 
 How am I to approach God with acceptance ] How am I to 
 present my prayers unto Him? Is it through the Lord Jesus 
 as the only and perfect mediator, or through him and the saints 
 with him in heaven ? Through one mediator and advocate, or 
 through many? were naturally the thoughts which rose in my 
 mind. If I would give my views on the subject with the light 
 I have now, I would certainly treat it diiferently. But I will 
 in the plainest and most concise manner, give the views I had 
 at that time. Two points presented themselves to my mind. 
 
 1st. Whether the saints pray in heaven for man ; and 
 
 2dly. Whether men should pray to God through the saints. 
 On the first point I could not decide, because I found nothing 
 revealed in the scriptures to make it a matter of faith. 
 
 It was the second point — whether it is the duty of making 
 saints in heaven our mediators with God '? This it was my de- 
 sire to verify. 
 
 Before I enter upon the inquiry, I w^ill see if the Roman Ca- 
 tholics ofl'er really a regular and unequivocal worship to the 
 saints, and if they adore them as mediators between God and 
 man ; then examine if it is right or wrong. 
 
 The following prayers are addressed to the Virgin Mary and 
 to other saints. As the Roman Catholics are not much versed 
 in the Bible, I will for their convenience give also the passages 
 from scripture as a parallel to their prayers. 
 
ADORATION OF SAINTS. 
 
 73 
 
 The Church of Rome. 
 
 ^^ Heart of Mary, illustrious 
 throne of glory. 
 
 " Heart of Mary, comfort of 
 the afflicted. 
 
 ^- Heart of Mary, refuge of 
 sinners. 
 
 ^' Heart of Mary, hope of the 
 agonizing. 
 
 ^* Heart of Mary, seat of 
 mercy. 
 
 "Hail Mary, lady and mis- 
 tress of the woi-ld, to whom all 
 power has been given, both in 
 neaven and earth.' '^ 
 
 "Come then^ hardened and 
 inveterate sinner, how great so- 
 ever your crimes may be ! come 
 and behold ! Mary stretches 
 out her hand, opens her breast 
 to receive you. Though invi- 
 sible to the great concerns of 
 your salvation, though unfor- 
 tunately, proof against the most 
 engaging invitations of the Holy 
 Ghost • fling yourself at the feet 
 of this powerful advocate. Her 
 throne, though so exalted, has 
 nothing forbidding.'^ 
 
 "Hail Mary, queen of my 
 life, my sweetness, and my 
 love,'"t 
 
 "' thou, whosoever thou art, 
 who understand est that thou 
 dost rather fluctuate in the 
 streams of this life, amidst 
 storms and tempests, than walk 
 over the earth, turn not thine 
 eyes away from the splendor 
 of this ^tar, if thou desirest not 
 
 The Bible, 
 
 " I sought the Lord, and he 
 heard me, and delivered me 
 from all my fears."t 
 
 "God is our refuge and 
 strength, a very present Help 
 in trouble. "§ 
 
 "Look unto me, and be 
 saved, all the ends of the earth ; 
 for I am God, and there is none 
 
 else."ll 
 
 " To whom then will ye liken 
 God ? or what likeness will ye 
 compare unto him ? The work- 
 man melteth a graven image, 
 and the goldsmith spreadeth it 
 over with gold, and casteth sil- 
 ver chains. He that is so im- 
 poverished, that he hath no 
 
 -^ Litany of the Heart of Mary, p. 206. 
 t Ibid. p. 293. 
 
 G 
 
 X Ps. xxxiv. V. 4. 
 
 § Ps. xlvi. V. 1. 
 
 II Isaiah ch.xlv.v.22. 
 
74 
 
 ADORATION OF SAINTS. 
 
 The Church of Rome, 
 
 to be overwhelmed with storms. 
 If the winds of temptations 
 arise against thee ] if you run 
 upon the rocks of tribulations, 
 look to this star, call upon Mary. 
 If you are cast upon the waves 
 of pride, ambition, detraction, 
 and emulation, look to this star, 
 call upon Mary. If anger, or 
 avarice, or the enticements of 
 the fiesn strike against the ves- 
 sel of the mind, look to Mary. 
 If disturbed by the immensity 
 of your crimes, confounded by 
 the pollution of your conscience, 
 and terrified with the horrors of 
 the judgment, you begin to be 
 absorbed in the gulf of sorrow, 
 in the abyss of despair, think 
 of Mary.'"* 
 
 '' God, who hast crowned 
 the blest king, Edward thy con- 
 fessor with the diadem of glory, 
 grant that we may honour him 
 in such a manner on earth, as 
 to hereafter reign with him in 
 heaven, through, &c."t 
 
 ''^And I reverence you, 
 sacred Virgin Mary, the holy 
 ark of the covenant, and to- 
 gether with all the thoughts of 
 all the blessed spirits in hea- 
 ven, do bless and praise you 
 infinitely, for you are the great 
 Mediatrix between God and 
 man, obtaining for sinners all 
 they can ask and demand of 
 the blessed Trinity. Hail Ma- 
 ry."! 
 
 The Bible. 
 
 oblation, chooseth a tree that 
 will not rot 5 he seeketh unto 
 him a cunning workman to pre- 
 pare a graven image that shall 
 not be moved. Have ye not 
 known'? have ye not heard? 
 hath it not been told you from 
 the beginning? have ye not 
 understood from the foundation 
 of the earth ? It is he that sit- 
 teth upon the circle of the earth, 
 and the inhabitants thereof are 
 as grass-hoppers; that stretched 
 out the heavens as a curtain, 
 and spreadeth them out as a 
 tent to dwell in. That bringeth 
 the princes to nothing; he mak- 
 eth the judges of the earth as 
 vanity, "§ &c. 
 
 " Whatsoever ye shall ask in 
 my namej that will I do, that the 
 Father may be glorified in the 
 
 Son.^'ll 
 
 "•Thou shalt not make unto 
 thee any graven image or any 
 likeness of any thing that is in 
 heaven above, or that is in the 
 earth beneath, or that is in the 
 water, under the earth. Thou 
 shalt not bow down thyself to 
 them, nor serve them," &c.l 
 
 * Breviary Roman. Autumn. Fest. 
 Sppt. lect. 5, Sernio St. Bernard!, 
 t Missal. Rom. p. 672. 
 i Sacred Heart of Mary, p. 200. 
 
 ^ Isaiah xl. v. 18—23. 
 
 II John ch. liv. v. 13. 
 
 il Exod. chap. xx. v. 4, 5. 
 
ADORATION OF SAINTS. 
 
 75 
 
 The Church of Rome. 
 
 "0 God, who didst teach 
 blessed Hedwigs to fly from 
 the pomps of the world, and 
 with her whole heart to em- 
 brace the humility of the cross* 
 grant by her merits and exam- 
 ple, that we may also learn to 
 tread under our feet, the fading 
 pleasures of this world, and to 
 overcome all that stand eth in 
 the way of our salvation, by 
 embracing the cross. '^=^ 
 
 Hymn. 
 
 ^' Hail star of the sea, sweet 
 mother of God, and ever Virgin. 
 The blessed gate of heaven re- 
 ceiving that salutation, from 
 the mouth of Gabriel 3 establish 
 us in peace * change the name 
 Eve: loose the chains of the 
 guilty ; bring light to the blind ; 
 drive away our ills 3 give all 
 good things ; show that you art 
 a mother ; and let him receive 
 through thee our prayers, who 
 was born for us, and conde- 
 scended to be your son.'' 
 
 May the Lord conduct us to 
 the kingdom of heaven by the 
 prayers and m£rits of the bles- 
 sed ever Virgin Mary, and of 
 all the saints. — Amen.''t 
 
 "0 blessed mother, and im- 
 maculate Virgin, glorious 
 queen of the world, intercede 
 for us with the Lord. "J 
 
 "We fly beneath thy pro- 
 tection, holy mother of God ; 
 
 The Bible. 
 
 " Little children, keep your- 
 selves from idols. Amen."§ 
 
 "They that make a graven 
 image are all of them vanity ; 
 and^heir delectable things shalJ 
 not profit," &c. 
 
 " Shall I fall down to the stock 
 ofatreeV^i 
 
 " This is the stone which was 
 set at naught of your builders, 
 which is become the head of 
 the corner. Neither is there 
 salvation in any other ; for there 
 is none other name under heaven 
 given among men, v/hereby we 
 must be saved.' 'IF 
 
 Every man is brutish in his 
 knowledge; every founder is 
 confounded by the graven im- 
 age ] for his molten image is 
 falsehood, and there is no breath 
 in them. They are vanity, and 
 the work of errors ; in the time 
 of their visitation they shall 
 perish.** 
 
 "This is a faithful saying, 
 and worthy of all acceptation. 
 
 * Missal. Rom. p. 677. 
 f Breviar. Rom. p. 137. 
 X Brev. Rom. Ibid. 
 
 $ 1 Ep. of John ch. v. 21. 
 II Isaiah xliv. v. 9 and 19. 
 ^ Acts iv.v. 11, 12. 
 ** Jerm. x. v. 14, 15. 
 
n 
 
 ADORATION OF SAINTS. 
 
 The Church of Rome, 
 
 do not depise our supplications 
 in necessity, but ever deliver 
 us from all dangers, glorious 
 and blessed Virgin."* 
 
 " We pray theCj Lord, that 
 the glorious intercession of the 
 blessed, ever glorious Virgin 
 Mary, may protect us, and con- 
 duct us to life eternal, through 
 the Lord.^t 
 
 ^^ God, who didst adorn the 
 blessed bishop Nicholas v^ith 
 innumerable miracles, grant, 
 we pray thee, that we may be 
 delivered from the burnings of 
 hell by his merits and prayers, 
 through the Lord."t 
 
 The Bible. 
 that Christ Jesus came into the 
 world to save sinners."§ 
 
 ^' This is good, and accepta- 
 ble in the sight of God our Sa- 
 viour, who will have all men 
 to be saved, and to come unto 
 the knowledge of the truth. 
 For there is one God, and one 
 mediator between God and man, 
 Christ Jesus."ll 
 
 " Let no man beguile you of 
 your reward, in a voluntary 
 humility, and worshipping of 
 angels, intruding into those 
 things which he hath not seen, 
 vainly puffed up in his fleshly 
 mind, and not holding the 
 head.'^IF 
 
 That to the Virgin Mary is ascribed power, utterly incon- 
 sistent with her condition as a creature, I shall give another 
 specimen of the writings of our present pope, Gregory XVL, 
 who closes his pastoral address in the following manner: 
 "Now that all these events may come to pass happily and suc- 
 cessfully, let us lift up our eyes and our hands to the most holy 
 Virgin Mary^ who alone has destroyed all heresies, and is our 
 
 GREATEST CONFIDENCE, EVEN THE WHOLE FOUNDATION OF OUR 
 
 HOPE.'' These quotations sufficiently prove, 
 
 1st. That a religious worship, of the most decided character, 
 is offered to the saints. 
 
 2dly. That God is addressed through their merits. 
 
 3dly. That to the Virgin are ascribed the prerogatives and 
 titles of Deity. 
 
 4thly. That saints are held to make satisfaction for sinners, 
 and are therefore not only mediators of intercession, but also 
 mediators of atonement. 
 
 I examined further the scriptural grounds, upon which the 
 
 * Officium parvum V. Marine. 
 
 •f Ibid. 
 
 i Brev. Rom. Dec. 6, Fest. hiemalis. 
 
 $ 1 Ep. of Timothy i. v. 15. 
 
 II Ibid. chap. ii. v. 3—6. 
 
 IF Ep. Coloss. chap. ii. v. 18. 
 
ADORATION OF SAINTS. 77 
 
 church of Rome bases that worship, and those practices. Three 
 reasons are adduced as proof: 
 
 1st. The nature of Christian charity. 
 
 2dly. The Scriptures. 
 
 3dly. The practices of the primitive church. 
 
 With regard to the excellence of Christian love or charity, I 
 perfectly agree with them, knowing full well, that it is the 
 bond of perfectnessj and that it will live for ever in the king- 
 dom of glory J or those who die in the faith of Jesus, feel a 
 living charity for the church on earth } but it has not been re- 
 vealed unto us to what extent, or in what manner, much less 
 that the saints in heaven pray for us. To call on them to ex- 
 ercise this love in our behalf, as intercessors for God, is in 
 opposition to the whole tenor of scripture. I perfectly coincide 
 with my beloved Roman Catholic brethren, that the church of 
 heaven is filled with love towards the church yet militant. As 
 the body of Christ shall not be seen in its glorified state, until 
 all God's people shall be gathered together ; so it is reasonable 
 to think, that this feeling of love towards those on earth, is 
 found among the blessed above. But to establish it as an arti- 
 cle of faith, would be absurd, much more so to assert, that we 
 are authorized to call on them to exercise this charity by praying 
 for us, or in other words to ask them to intercede with God for 
 us. Such a doctrine I could not receive ; because the word of 
 God declares, that none in heaven is to be invoked as an inter- 
 cessor, save the Lord Jesus Christ. To call on the saints in 
 glory to pray for us, is not to invite them to a work of charity, 
 but an act of great presumption. For God has revealed this 
 truth unto us, that we are to apply to Jesus our only Mediator, 
 and not to the saints, to exercise their charity in this way. 
 
 2dly. The passages of the scriptures which the church of 
 Rome brings to support her doctrine of the invocatian of saints, 
 I carefully examined, and are as follows. In the gospel accord- 
 ing to St. Luke we read,* •' There is joy in the presence of the 
 angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.'' Consequently 
 the angels know our state on earth, and therefore can pray for 
 us. I firmly believe that they do not know every thing con- 
 cerning man ; but how can they know when a sinner repents ? 
 The parable from which the above passages are taken explains 
 the matter. The man goes into the wilderness, seeks his lost 
 sheep, finds it, carries it home, and tells his friends, saying — 
 " rejoice with me for I have found the sheep that was lost/'^f Jesus 
 comes to this wilderness of sin, seeks and saves that which 
 was lost, proclaims the triumphs of his grace to the angels who 
 
 * Luke, chap. 15, v. 10. | Luke, chap. 15, v. 5. 
 
 G 2 
 
78 ADOBATION OF SAINTS. 
 
 surround his throne^ saying — "rejoice with me, &c." How 
 simple and how instructive this passage is, when left to its ge- 
 nuine meaning and bearing, and how dangerous it is, when 
 perverted to support the error of the intercession of saints and 
 angels. The simple fact is, that Jesus the good shepherd, in- 
 forms the angels of the sinner's, conversion, and therefore they 
 know it. 
 
 Another passage from Job* is the next quotation. The com- 
 mand of God to Job's three friends to seek an interest in his 
 prayers and their obedience thereto. There is no doubt, that 
 God commanded them to seek an interest in the prayers of Job, 
 and he did plead for them ; so did the people of God at Rome 
 in Paul's time plead for him, according to his request. t But 
 he has not commanded us to ask the prayers of the saints in 
 heaven ] the first is a precept, the second is the invention of 
 man. 
 
 The difference is as great as heaven is above the earth. Job 
 was not in heaven, but a child of God upon the earthy and Job's 
 friends did not pay to him religious honour but recommended 
 themselves to his prayers, as every Christian's duty is to pray 
 for his friends. 
 
 Another text from Zechariah is taken as a supports " OLord 
 of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jeruralem and 
 on the cities of Judea, with which thou hast been angry, this 
 is now the seventieth year." These were the words of an an- 
 gel, who prayed for Jerusalem and the cities of Judea. May 
 that or any other angel not pray also now for us ?" I was very 
 much surprised at such an interpretation ] though my biblical 
 knowledge was at that tim.e not very extensive, still I could see 
 the real meaning of that text ; the angel who uttered that prayer 
 was not in heaven, but upon the earth with the prophet. § There- 
 fore it could not prove any thing for the intercession of saints 
 or angels in heaven ] another point which is evident from the 
 original^ is that the angel was our Lord, the mediator Jesus 
 Christ. For the true translation would be: ^'-the angel, the 
 Lord/^ and not the angel of the Lord. 
 
 Another passage is quoted by the Romish divines from Exod. 
 chap. 3, V. 5, where a voice was heard by Moses, at Horeb. 
 " Loose thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou 
 standest is holy." This he did ; thus it was with Joshua, who 
 fell down upon his face at the appearance of the angel. Here 
 I was somewhat embarrassed ; but St. Thomas d' Aquinas gave 
 me light ou the subject, saying, II "The angel, to wit Christ, 
 
 * Job, chap. 43, v. 7—10. t Zechar. chap. 1, v. 12. 
 
 I Romans, chap. 15, v. 30. $ Ibid. v. 9. 
 
 II Thorn. d'Aquinus, Apoc. Sect. 2, caput 8. • 
 
ADORATION OF SAINTS. 7§ 
 
 who is called an angel, because sent by the Father into the 
 world. This angel is the mediator Jesus Christ; because of 
 no other can it be said, that he offers up to the Father after so 
 glorious and majestic a manner the incense, that is, the prayers 
 of all the saints upon the golden altar.'' 
 
 Again, a passage from Revelation,^ where it reads — " The 
 four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the 
 lamb, having every one odours, w^hich are the prayers of the 
 saints." As plausible as it appears, still the fathers interpret 
 it in a more rational way than the present Roman divines. They 
 consider it figuratively, referring either to the church on earthy 
 or to the church in heaven : if the former, the four beasts and 
 the four and twenty elders represent the ministers and the peo- 
 ple of Christ's church : the harps, their songs of praise or thanks- 
 giving ] and the odour or incense their prayers, relates to the 
 service of God's people on earth. But if taken in reference to 
 the church of heaven^ it can only prove one thing ; and that is, 
 that they pray even there. Now reason asks where does it ap- 
 pear that they offer our prayers, or even that they pray for us ? 
 but any prayers that may be offered up are for themselves, or 
 of a general nature. 
 
 3dly. I examined the assertion of the church of Rome, that 
 it was the constant practice of the primitive church. I carefully 
 read the fathers, and I defy any man under heaven to show me 
 one of the fathers who lived in the first two centuries, who has 
 even hinted at this doctrine in any shape or form, that is even 
 acknowledged by the Roman CathoHc advocates : " That to the 
 Gentiles no occasion should be given to think that many gods 
 were offered them, instead of the multitude of gods which they 
 had forsaken." Even Origen, who lived in the third century, 
 makes no reference to the duty of praying to the saints. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that the fathers brought forward the 
 same arguments against the gods of the heathens, as the Pro- 
 testants against the invocation of the canonized saints of the 
 pope of Rome ] and ever maintained the truth, that we must 
 come to God through Christ, the true and only mediator with 
 God. 
 
 Having shown what the church of Rome teaches upon this 
 topic, I will give the doctrines of the Bible as I understand 
 them now. There is an infinite distance between God and 
 man. ^* Your iniquities (says the prophet Isaiah) t have separated 
 between you and your God/' These have caused the breach 
 which the sinner could not by any exertion heal . Hence our 
 sins expose us to the condemnation of God's law here, and 
 
 ^ * Rev. chap. 5, v. 8. | Isaiah, chap. 59, v. 2. 
 
80 THREE MONTHS IN THE CONVENT. 
 
 eternal misery hereafter.=^ God in liis love and pity, provided a 
 way for the sinner to come to him, v^^hich is thus plainly ex- 
 pressed by the Saviour : " I am the way, the truth, and the 
 life ] no man cometh unto the father, but by me."t The barrier 
 to our approach to God was sin, but this Jesus has removed by 
 the sacrifice of himself.t And as God the Father was fully 
 satisfied with the ransom which he paid for the sinner, so it is 
 through Him alone the sinner must go to God, present his peti- 
 tions through him, and expect an answer to prayer in the same 
 way. Hence the great stress laid upon the intercession of 
 Christ in heaven, § and the constant reference to him as our 
 mediator and advocate with the Father. 
 
 There are three features in his mediation, which give us 
 boldness to approach in his name. 1st. It is single; that is. He 
 exercises it alone, and none shares it with him. No man 
 cometh unto the Father, but by me." II There is one God and 
 one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ, who gave 
 himself a ransom for a/Z.IT 2dly. This intercession is suitable to 
 man^s ivants and conditions^ for he is omnipotent, he is full of ten- 
 derness and power. He feels our miseries and enters deeply into 
 our condition.*^ 3dly. His inteTcession is perfectly efficacious ; he 
 never can plead in vain. He is our advocate with the Father,tt 
 and prevails with God. "Him thou hearest always.*^ What more 
 does the Father require than the mediation of his dear son ? And 
 why should the sinner seek further than the aid of the beloved ? 
 Can the voice of many be required here? Surely not. 
 
 If the church of Rome contends for the supremacy of the 
 popej I will uphold the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 If the church of Rome clings to the tradition of men 3 I will 
 receive nothing but the written word of God, as the rule of my 
 faith. And if she teaches the intercession of saints, I will 
 direct my heart and my mind to the perfect mediator of Christ. 
 
 THREE MONTHS IN THE CONVENT OF THE 
 CORDELIERS. 
 
 After this result of my inquiries, my readers may easily 
 imagine the perplexity of my mind. No friend in whose bosom 
 I could pour the distress of my troubled spirit * no prospect of 
 
 * Rom. chap. 3, v. 9. || John, chap. 14, v. 1. 
 
 + John, chap. 14, v. 6. i\ Tim. chap. 2, v. 5 and 6. 
 
 i lleb. chap. 9, v. 20. ** Ileh. cliap. 4, v. 15. 
 
 $ Rom. chap. 8, v. 34, and lleb. chap. 7, v. 27. ff 1 Ep. of John 20. 
 
THREE MONTHS IN THE CONVENT. 81 
 
 any relief for the anguish of my heart, no refuge against the 
 wrath to come ] and if the true state of my feelings became 
 known among the Catholic clergy, whither should I fly to avoid 
 the fiendish tortures of the Inquisition? The Bible, which 
 should have been my consolation, only augmented my sorrows, 
 and was as a worm constantly preying upon my heart * for the 
 more I read it, the stronger became my convictions, that the 
 church of Rome had deserted from the doctrines and practices 
 of the primitive church of Christ. In the midst of this per- 
 plexing state of mind, I saw also the impossibility of leaving 
 the church. For in what church should I take refuge ? I had 
 no chance in Rome. Should I leave Rome and join a Protestant 
 heretic church ? I hated even the idea ; for my intention was 
 not to become a Protestant, but a faithful believer in Christ. 
 The meditations of Thomas a Kempis were, next to the Bible, 
 my companion ] I also procured several French works of the 
 Jansenists, in order to instruct myself better in the truth of 
 the gospel ; these strengthened my determination not to leave 
 the church, but labour for its reformation. Inspired with this 
 idea, I resolved to separate myself entirely from the world, and 
 live a monastic life. I consulted with my friends, who repre- 
 sented to me all the difficulties of such a change. My habits, 
 temperament, and health were taken into consideration. I both 
 acknowledged and felt the force of these objections ; but be- 
 lieving, as I did, that cloisters are the residences of holiness 
 and science, and looking upon monks as perfect, and the only 
 godly men in the church, I entertained no doubt, that I should 
 be able to overcome all these difficulties, by the superabun- 
 dance of spiritual good I should receive. So I resolved to be- 
 come a Capucin friar. My mother was greatly displeased with 
 this change ; my sisters ridiculed me ] they called me a crazy, 
 lazy, and ignorant friar, and did all in their power to prevent 
 such a step. But I had been seeking that peace for my troubled 
 conscience which the world could not give me ; the confes- 
 sional was not sufficient to bind up my broken heart ] the me- 
 diation of the Virgin Mary I considered only a trick of the 
 priests to get money. I had no one to direct me to the foun- 
 tain of life, to the mediation of the crucified Redeemer as the only 
 refuge ; I sought refuge in the cloister, and entered not the con- 
 vent of the Capucins, but the minor order of St. FranciscuSj 
 whose manner of living, is not as austere as that of the other 
 orders of St. Franciscus, and who are also men of learning. 
 
 Towards the end of the year 1826, I entered the convent of 
 the Minorites, the so-called Cordeliers, as a novice. The supe- 
 rior of the convent treated me in a very gentlemanly manner, 
 as a grown up person ; and being in sacerdotal orders, I had no 
 
82 THREE MONTHS IN THE CONVENT. 
 
 communication with the other novices; I had more liberty, 
 being only placed under the direction of the father professor 
 of theology, and saw them only in the choir. As a novice, I 
 had no intercourse with any of the fathers of the convent, with- 
 out the permission of the father professor. My cell was plain 
 and neat, my bed much better than I had expected ] I was 
 obliged for my health's sake, to make a promenade twice a 
 week w^ith some of the fathers, in the city or elsewhere, as 
 it pleased my conductor. Nearly every day after dinner, I had 
 permission to frequent society with the father students of the- 
 ology, who met in a large saloon in the garden, where a billiard 
 table was standing, and other games were played, according to 
 the fancy of the students, until the bell rang for vesper. J 
 might have been happy with regard to my temporal welfare, 
 but it was not that w^hich I was seeking; it was something of 
 a higher order. I Avas much surprised, that I never heard the 
 monks speak on the subject of religion among themselves ; they 
 backbited and censured each other behind their backs, while 
 they preserved the most friendly exterior when in each other's 
 presence ; cabals and intrigues were used in order to gain the 
 good will of the superior, or to be promoted to some little office ; 
 and so zealous were they in this, that one would think they 
 aspired to obtain a crown. I was horror-struck w^ith one cir- 
 cumstance, which troubled me not a little ; we had an old father 
 in the convent about eighty years of age, who occupied all 
 the high offices in the order; in his old age he retired within 
 the same convent, where he had once been a novice, and had 
 made his vow, when he w^as seventeen years old . I loved the old 
 man very much ; I never saw him pass the corridor without being 
 engaged in mumbling some prayer, or without the rosary in his 
 hand. Old and infirm as he was, he was ever the first in the 
 choir and the last to leave it. He invited me often to his cell, 
 and recounted his sufferings when Napoleon suppressed the 
 convents, and when he was imprisoned ; but what appeared to 
 afflict him most, was the almost unbounded liberty now en- 
 joyed by the friars. They had been much more restricted at 
 the time when he was a student. He repeated that history 
 every time we met, and complained as often as we saw each 
 other. 
 
 One morning the news came that father P. had been found 
 dead in his bed. This was sad intelligence for me — he being 
 the only one whose cell I could visit without permisson. But 
 the other fathers passed by this circumstance with light indif- 
 ference; scarcely was the office which is said for the dead 
 performed at church, when many of them ran away, while 
 some did not even accompany the funeral to the grave. I saw* 
 
THREE MONTHS IN THE CONVJJNT. SS 
 
 evidently that these men came together without knowing each 
 other — Hved together without loving each other, and died with- 
 out mourning over each other. 
 
 All this I would have overlooked, because I thought my cell 
 was my world : for as soon as I had once made the profession. 
 I was no more under any direction, except under that of the 
 prior of the convent j and as I aspired to no honours, nor pro- 
 motion, I felt rather indifferent about the conduct of others. 
 Such were my calculations ] but two things troubled me, and 
 contributed not a little towards increasing the miseries of my 
 situation . 
 
 1st. As a novice I could read no book, without the permission 
 of the superior; they gave me the constitution and Breviary of 
 the Franciscan order; the office of the Virgin Mary; the lives 
 of St. Franciscus, St. Bernardus, St. Antcnius of Padua, and all 
 such old, miserable, insipid productions, which were calculated 
 to create disgust, instead of imparting a taste for reading. 
 
 2dly. I once asked for a Bible, and the father professor pro- 
 mised me one; but as he never attended to his promises, I re- 
 newed my request after a few days, when he refused, saying — 
 ^' That I must read such books which edify ^ and make a good 
 Franciscan friar, and not the Bible^ which would only satisfy my 
 pride and carnal mind?'' 
 
 The following Saturday evening I confessed as usual, when 
 the father confessor put questions to me quite different from 
 those which had reference to my confession. He asked me, 
 •*' whether I believed that the pope is the infallible head of the 
 church ? That the pope and bishops in council are the only 
 interpreters of the Bible V^ and similar questions. I perceived 
 immediately that I was surrounded by spies. I considered the 
 father professor no more as my superior, but as my jailor, and 
 my cell a jail ; and from that hour I studied how to get out of 
 the convent, but was ashamed on account of my own relations, 
 who had warned me, and predicted to me all that had occurred. 
 In such a state of mind, I neglected that little biblical know- 
 ledge which I had acquired ; my mind was too much perplexed 
 to think of the one thing needful, and if I had remained in that 
 den of corruption, my soul must certainly have perished for ever. 
 
 One day after dinner I visited, as usual, the company of the 
 students, where I heard that one of the novices, a boy, aged 
 sixteen years, was missing ; it was a mystery how he could 
 have escaped, as the door of the novitiate was locked. The 
 whole convent was searched, but nothing could be found of 
 him. The following day a toga was seen hanging out of a 
 window on the roof of the convent. The father director of the 
 novitiate recognized it to be that of his novice, and imme- 
 
84 THREE MONTHS IN THE CONVENT. 
 
 diately ascended the garret with some friars, where they found 
 the poor creature lying helpless. 
 
 His melancholy history is as follows : Some of the monks 
 opened the door of the novitiate with the general key, and per- 
 suaded the boy, through promises, to go with them, when they 
 conducted him up into the garret, where, after having abused 
 him in a manner too beastly to be told, they left him nearly 
 lifeless. The boy remained there two nights and one day, 
 without eating and drinking 3 during which time, having so 
 much recovered as to become sensible of his situation, he hung 
 his toga out of a window for the purpose, no doubt, of drawing 
 the attention of some one to the place of his solitary confine- 
 ment. The boy on being examined revealed the names of the 
 individuals who had first induced him to leave the novitiate, 
 and then after having satisfied their worse than beastly appe- 
 tites, left him half dead in a lonely unfrequented garret, to 
 perish as best he might. These monsters in human shape 
 were found to be three of the fathers ; who, on the same day, 
 after having perpetrated this shocking crime, celebrated mass ! 
 Yes, reader, three holy fathers of the Roman Catholic church, 
 in sight of the papal throne, not only outraged humanity in a 
 manner to which the history of the most degraded savage 
 presents no parallel, but having scarcely wiped the stains of 
 pollution from off their hands, you see them also standing in 
 the sanctuary of the Most High, before the sacred altar, ele- 
 vating the host, celebrating the atoning sacrifice of the mass, 
 and in short performing the functions of pretended ministers 
 of Christ. Is it not astonishing, that men, wallowing in the 
 deepest mire of moral pollution, should presume to minister in 
 the holy temple of God ? Should they not rather be denied a 
 place among human beings? But, reader, degraded as they 
 were, they suffered no punishment. Atrocious as their crime 
 appears to every lover of virtue, it fell far short of shocking the 
 moral sensibility of papal Rome. She did not blush to own 
 even these. — All the anxiety that was manifested upon the 
 subject, consisted in an effort to keep the transaction hid from 
 public notice, and prevent scandal j and to do this it was only 
 necessary to remove these holy fathers to another convent, 
 which was done. 
 
 This was enough for me. I saw that that perfection which 
 I sought was not to be found in convents, which are, after all, 
 but nests of abomination and dens of corruption so atrocious 
 and shocking, that even hell itself would blush to own them. 
 I immediately wrote a letter to one of my friends, and handed 
 it to my jailor, the father professor, for the purpose of having 
 it sent off, who, however, on finding it sealed, would open it, 
 
THREE MONTHS IN THE CONVENT. 85 
 
 saying, " no novice can send or receive any letter virithout the 
 superior first inspecting it ] for the novice ought to have no in-, 
 tercourse w^ith the world." ^' The world! I exclaimed. The 
 world w^ould never be guilty of that, which I saw in the space 
 of these three months in your convent. '^ I took the letter from 
 his hand and opened it myself, showing him, that there was 
 nothing more in it, than that my friend should come the same 
 evening with his carriage, and take me away, for I intended to 
 remain no longer in the convent. At this news, the friar 
 changed immediately his commanding voice into a placid and 
 friendly one, without even changing his countenance in the 
 least, (Lavater might have learned something, if he had been 
 present,) and said, ^^dear Don Luigi, have you well considered 
 the step which you are taking ? entering again the wicked and 
 troublesome world." He called me no more Fra. Eugen, which 
 was my monastic name, but Don Luigi, which was my civil 
 name. He insisted that I should come into his cell and con- 
 tinue to be his friend, endeavoring to dissuade me from my 
 purpose by many monkish flatteries, worthy only of the devil, 
 but not of one who left all things for Christ's sake. I excused 
 myself, not being in a state of mind to visit ] begging him to 
 send my letter to its destiny, and if he had no messenger, he 
 should send it per city post, in order that my friend might re- 
 ceive it before dark. He promised compliance with my wishes, 
 but deceived me. In a few hours the prior came, and knocked 
 at my door ; this was something new, for before, the father pro- 
 fessor and prior entered my room without any ceremony, as in 
 their own rooms, in order to surprise me ; now they used all 
 the civilities of worldly men, and invited me into their cells. 
 I went, and he received me in the most civil manner ; our con- 
 versation was more philosophical than religious; at the end, he 
 wished me to consider, that even in the sacred walls of the 
 convent there are some who do not live up to the holy promises 
 which the vow before the altar had enjoined, and exhorted me 
 to live a religious life, even in the midst of the corruptions of 
 the world. He assured me that my conduct in the convent had 
 been exemplary, and expressed his sorrow for my leaving the 
 order. He added, that he would not allow my letter to be sent 
 off, for he would have the pleasure to have me conveyed to 
 my home, for as he hired a carriage by the month, at the livery 
 stable, it would be no extra expense to him. I accepted his 
 kind offer, and on the same evening threw of the Franciscan 
 toga, and deserted that sink of iniquity. 
 
 H 
 
(86) 
 
 PERSECUTION. 
 
 My mind was excited by this unexpected change in my life ; 
 my heart indignantly inflamed against the corruptions which 
 are committed under the religious garb of holiness and Christian 
 perfection ; the Bible was again my daily food, I felt that the 
 word of God became a comfort to my soul; and a soothing to 
 my broken spirit • especially did the Epistle to the Romans 
 aflbrd me light on the subject of self-righteousness ] it taught 
 me that it is through faith in the atoning blood of Christ, that 
 we are saved, and have access to the throne of grace, where 
 mercy is found. But how was I to practise it ? I was obliged 
 daily to perform the anti-scriptural and idolatrous ceremonies. 
 How to escape th6 abominations of popery ? ! if I had had 
 a Christian friend in these trials, who could have directed, and 
 counselled me what to do, what a blessing would it have been 
 for me ! Under such insurmountable difficulties, I resolved to 
 remain in communion with the church of Rome, as though I 
 were not in it, like the saints living in the world, as though 
 they were out of it ; using this world as not abusing it.^ 
 
 I resolved to profess the pure gospel of Christ in my heart, 
 for God is a Spirit, and in spirit and in truth he must be adored, 
 and He who is the great Searcher of all hearts, will consider 
 the disposition of my heart, and not the outward performances 
 of my body. Every day I made a new profession in the secrecy 
 of my conscience, entered a protest ag-ainst the errors of the 
 church of Rome * and denounced all other anti-scriptural prac- 
 tices, as human inventions, of which I wished to be no par- 
 taker. When 1 was obliged to kneel before the host, I raised 
 my spirit towards heaven, and adored my Redeemer, who was 
 slain once for ever, for the sins of the world. My conscience 
 told me, that I should proclaim the gospel of Christ unto those 
 around me ) but another voice stronger than the first asked me 
 — "Will you die by the torments of the Inquisition ? If the peo- 
 ple will be deceived, if they voluntarily harden their hearts 
 against the truth of the gospel, what business is it of yours? Is 
 it possible that God will demand an account of me, for the sal- 
 vation of a people, who wish to live in error, and persecute, and 
 even torture and murder the saints, and any one w^ho announces 
 to them the truth? Are there not many priests and learned 
 men, who are equally persuaded of the errors, and superstitions 
 of the church of Rome yet remain still in communion with her? 
 
 * 1 Cor. chap. vii. v. 31. 
 
PERSECUTION. 87 
 
 How is it with the bishops and clergy of France, who do not 
 recognize the primacy of the pope of Rome, neither beheve in 
 the infallibility of his decrees, still they do not separate them- 
 selves from the church of Rome ? The Jansenists also, who 
 have ever been the most learned of the University of Sorbonne 
 in France, did not separate themselves from the communion of 
 the Roman church/' Such were my reasonings, and according 
 to this principle I acted for the space of a year and a half- but 
 now and then, when an opportunity presented itself, I preached 
 the truth publicly, communicated it in private to my friends, 
 gave them Father Clement, the Provincial letters of Paschal, 
 and other useful books to enlighten them, so that I became sus- 
 pected of heresy, and was at once surrounded by false, priestly 
 friends, who were hired spies of the ecclesiastical tribunal, and 
 of course informed against me as a heretic. 
 
 One afternoon I received a letter from a friend, the cardinal 
 
 del G 20, (may the Lord prosper him ! ) who urged me to 
 
 leave the city before midnight. I understood the hint, and 
 only those who have felt the tyrannical yoke of priests, can 
 enter into my feelings. I had no passport to leave the papal 
 states, nor was I provided with money for a journey in a foreign 
 country • and a few hours would seal my doom, and deprive 
 me of my liberty for ever. I had no alternative, either to re- 
 main and. become a victim of the gospel truth, in the grasp of 
 the inquisition, or to leave Rome, and with it all that was dear 
 to my heart, this side of the grave. 
 
 The difficulty, how to leave the city without being observed 
 at the gate, was the first which presented itself to my mind. 
 The fear of being surrounded by secret spies, was another pain- 
 ful idea. Having, however, no time to lose, I w^rote a letter to 
 my dear mother, informing her that I was about to undertake 
 a journey to Naples. I, how^ever, did not tell the truth, for I 
 intended to go to Florence, for fear she might unwillingly be- 
 tray me, or the priests might, in a subtle manner, get it out of 
 her, and the inquisition might lay hold of me before I could 
 have passed the frontier of the papal dominion. I dressed 
 myself as if I intended to go to an evening party and was going 
 on a promenade out of the g:ate of the city, called '^St. John of 
 Lateran," the ancient via apia^ which leads to Alhana^ called by 
 Cicero, Alba longum, which road leads direct to Naples. After 
 having walked a certain distance, I turned to the left and pur- 
 sued my way among fields and gardens, until I came into the 
 road which leads towards Tuscany. I walked during the whole 
 night ; in the morning I rested in a common inn on the road 
 side, where I took breakfast. Four piastres formed my only 
 capital, nor had I any other clothing than what I had upon my 
 
88 PERSECUTION. 
 
 body j but my anxiety how to pasvS the papal frontier, and enter 
 the other without a passport, was so great, that I entirely forgot 
 my external circumstances. 
 
 After having rested about two hours, in a place where I 
 would have before considered it a disgrace to enter, I continued 
 my joumey, and at 3 o'clock reached Moniefiascone. I did 
 not enter the town, for it lies upon a hill, but stopped at the 
 hotel on the turnpike. I ordered a dinner, and providentially 
 saw there a carriage belonging to an acquaintance of mine, 
 who came from Bologna on his way to Eome. I opened my 
 mind to him, knowing him to be a true liberal.^ Telling him 
 my circumstances, I offered him my gold repeater as a security, 
 if he would lend me fifty piastres, which he would not accept, 
 being satisfied with my note. He appeared to be more afraid 
 than myself, and told me to leave the turnpike, and thus pass 
 the papal frontier wjiere no police is stationed, so that in case 
 they should have an order to stop me, I might elude them. 
 But I knew that I had nothing to fear, for the friend who had 
 advised me of my danger, was sure that no step had as yet 
 been taken to prevent my escape ] I was also certain that no 
 living being knew the direction I had taken, for I deceived them 
 by leaving the city by an opposite gate. The same night I 
 passed the papal frontier, and entered the territory of Tuscany. 
 I cannot describe my feelings when I saw the yellow cockade 
 upon the hat of the soldiery I breathed more neely, and my 
 knees trembled as if they would have indicated that I should 
 bow down in prayer and thanksgiving ; I raised my heart to the 
 God of mercies, who protected and delivei^ed me from the 
 wicked hands of the Roman priests. 
 
 The Ducal soldier asked me for my passport ] I told him — 
 "I have none." Then he invited me to appear before the 
 officer, to whom I said — ^'That ecclesiastical offences obliged 
 me to leave Rome, and that I would relate the circumstances 
 in Florence to the chief director of the police. '^ He smiled and 
 said: '^11 Signore Abbate amava forse piu le Signorine che il 
 suo Breviaro," (the Abbe loved perhaps more the ladies than 
 his Breviary,) and gave me a temporary passport, in which he 
 specified the towns and cities through which I was to pass, and 
 directed me to show it to the police to be signed, adding: "I 
 rely upon you as a gentleman, that you will be careful in 
 keeping the road, and in observing my instruction, else you 
 might bring both of us into great difficulties." After an assu- 
 rance upon my honour, I left him, and at the distance of about 
 
 * Liberals are all those who oppose the temporal, as well as spiritual 
 tyranny of the pope of Rome. 
 
PERSECUTION. 89 
 
 a mile from that place, there is a village; where I remained over 
 night. 
 
 My present safety and timely deliverance from the vengeance 
 of a merciless inquisition, together with that pecuniary aid 
 which a kind Providence had so unexpectedly sent me, directed 
 my thoughts to the Giver of all good, and caused my heart to 
 overflow with gratitude for his unbounded love. The following 
 Sunday was Pentecost. I asked permission to remain three 
 days in Sienna, which the police director cheerfully granted. 
 During that time I provided myself with some linen, and other 
 indispensable things for my comfort. The next w^eek on Wed- 
 nesday, in the afternoon, I arrived at Florence. At the gate 
 when I gave up my temporary passport, I heard one of the offi- 
 cers say: ^'Ecco il Signer Abbate." (Here is the Abbe. J This 
 was a sufficient indication that they expected me, and tnat my 
 delay in Sienna had already created suspicion. 
 
 The next day I presented myself to the police with the ticket 
 I had received at the gate of the city. The director of the po- 
 lice called me into a private room, and inquired into the cause 
 of my leaving Rome without a passport. I showed him the 
 
 letter from the cardinal del G io, and told him that I had 
 
 committed no other crime than that I read the Bible, and took 
 it as the only rule of faith. He in a very friendly maimer told 
 me : ^* If that is really the case you may remain here and read 
 the Bible as much as you like ;" he gave me a ticket of per- 
 mission for eight days* after that for a fortnight; then for a 
 month, and after that for three months, and so after a renewal 
 of the permission every three months, I remained in Florence 
 two years and six months. 
 
 I passed my time in literary occupations and openly professed 
 my sentiments; I often had the pleasure of reading the Bible 
 and conversing on the subject of vital religion with numerous 
 priests and several young abbots, and discussed the anti-biblical 
 doctrines of the church of Rome, and received not only a hearty 
 approbation from many of them, but also a hearty Amen to the 
 truth, I was invited twice to the archbishop of Florence, who 
 had a friendly interview with me ; but as I performed no ec- 
 clesiastical duty, I cared little about his smiles or his frowms. 
 
 I cannot exactly say how, but it was in a providential man- 
 ner I made the acquaintance of the chaplain of the Swiss am- 
 bassador, the Rev. Mr. Colomb, who was the first Protestant 
 minister with whom I had a religious interview ; but as he 
 was about leaving Florence, he gave me a letter of introduction 
 to his successor the Rev. Mr. Recordon, who arrived shortly 
 after his leaving the station. I enjoyed the company of the 
 Rev. Mr. R. frequently, and was much edified with it, and I 
 
 H 2 
 
90 PERSECUTION. 
 
 must say to him, (if thivS book should ever find its way into his 
 handsj) that he was the first Christian who prayed with me, 
 and showed me that a biblical knowledge without having ex- 
 perienced the power of God unto salvation in the heart, is in- 
 sufficient for salvation. 
 
 One day I was called to the Prefect of the police, who in- 
 formed me that they had received a letter from the Secretary 
 of State, stating : " that the court of Rome reclaimed me as a 
 Roman subject, and that they were obhged to send me back 
 into the papal State.'' I showed him how dangerous it would 
 be to my personal liberty and even life, if I was to return to 
 Rome, I made an appeal to the right of hospitality, which every 
 nation observes, if the subject who is demanded has committed 
 no crime. He told me — ^-I know all about the priests' doings. 
 I would give you a piece of advice if you are willing to take it. 
 I will delay answering the letter of the Secretary of State ten 
 days I in the m^ean Jime you will take your passport and leave 
 the city of Florence ; after which I will make my report, that 
 you are no more here, so you will be released from all priestly 
 vexations. For, added he, whatever answer we may give, Rome 
 will insist on having her subject ; the Secretary of State will 
 be obliged, though with reluctance, for the sake of etiquette 
 and peace, to surrender you to the papal power. But if you 
 are not here, the diplomatical correspondence on that subject 
 must of course cease. '^ 
 
 I advised with my Protestant friend, the Rev. Mr. Recordon, 
 who was of the same opinion 3 he gave me a letter of introduc- 
 tion to the brethren in Lausanne in Switzerland j so I left Italy, 
 the garden of the world, the seat of arts and sciences, my sweet 
 home, for ever j yes it is sweet ; and even now after a long se- 
 paration, distance, years, and vicissitudes, my affection is not 
 diminished, but rather increased. Though I have spent thirteen 
 years in various climates since I left Italy, yet no change of 
 scene, no tropical sun, nor northern ice has yet and never will 
 extinguish my ardent love for my native land. The reader who 
 never felt the anguish of being an exile from the land of his 
 birth, will excuse me if I for a moment transmit myself to that 
 land, where I first opened my eyes to salute the sun, where it 
 shines brighter than in any latitude in this hemisphere ; I seem 
 to feel it even now ; it pours its genial rays upon my head, and 
 from the head they descend into my heart and extend through 
 all my veins ; and when my eyes shall be dim in death, my 
 tongue paralyzed and speechless, I shall not cease to love thee, 
 Italy. 
 
 M I 
 
(91) 
 
 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 I arrived in Switzerland towards the middle of the year 1829, 
 where I was received very kindly, and with much Christian 
 affection, by the Protestants of that country. It is necessary 
 that I give a short sketch of the religious state of Switzerland, and 
 of my personal progress in vital religion while in that country. 
 
 With regard to my temporal affairs, I took great care so as 
 not to require assistance from the Protestants, in order that 
 none should have reason to think that my leaving Rome had 
 been induced by sinister motives ; I lectured in the College of 
 Lausanne on the Oriental langTiages, preparing the students 
 who were in the last year of the philosophical faculty for the 
 preparatory examination of the theological faculty, and thus 
 procured an honourable subsistence, even without using my 
 own pecuniary resources. 
 
 The religious state of the Helvetic church was at that period 
 highly interesting ] the spirit of God worked wonderfully upon 
 the hearts of men ; some of the ministers of the established 
 church had been aw^akened from their spiritual lethargy, and 
 preached not only the living gospel of Christ, but preached also 
 against Socinianism, which was the leading doctrine of the 
 established church. Many men and women had been brought 
 to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, and united in 
 prayer and supplications for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit 
 with those faithful ministers. These the ministerium turned 
 out from their communion, persecuting the faithful ministers 
 with exile, and lay-members with imprisonment and pecuniary 
 punishments. But in spite of ail opposition, that little perse- 
 cuted flock daily augmented, not only in number, but also in 
 zeal and godliness. In the mean time the French revolution 
 of the so-called three glorious days of July, 1830, had taken 
 place ] the spirit of freedom inflamed the noble hearts of the 
 inhabitants of the Canton de Vaud^ w^ho, uniting like one man, 
 dissolving the house of assembly, elected delegates to frame a 
 new constitution, which, as it made ample provision for the en- 
 joyment of religious liberty w^as adopted by an overwhelming 
 majority. Now that little flock worshiped their God according 
 to the dictates of their own consciences, without being molested 
 by the ministerium of the established church. In the Canton 
 of Geneva, the spirit of vital Christianity spread also with the 
 rapidity of lightning ; but the spirit of aristocracy among the 
 worldly, and Socinianism among the clergy, opposed it with all 
 their might 3 they expelled three of the most learned and re- 
 
92 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 spectable ministers from their commmiion ) then the gantlet 
 was thrown clown ] the Christians took it up, and continued to 
 light the good battle of Christ. They formed themselves into 
 a chm'ch; established a seminary, and at this day if not the ma- 
 jority in the Canton of Geneva, they can at least boast of a 
 number of flourishing congregations in the different cantons. 
 
 Roman Catholics after having thrown off the yoke of papal 
 superstition, are sometimes deterred from an immediate union 
 with Protestants, and that principally on account of that sys- 
 tematic order and strict union to which they were accustomed 
 in the church of Rome. The circumstance at least perplexed 
 me • I was at a loss what to do, whether I should unite with 
 the established church, or with the few persecuted Christians. 
 However, after a rigid examination of the doctrines of both 
 parties, I resolved to unite my destiny with the few despised 
 Gallileans, and share wdth them persecution for Christ's sake. 
 I should have beerf very sorry to have exchanged the errors of 
 the Roman church for the Socinian heresy. So I remained two 
 years in Lausanne, and eight months in Geneva, where I not 
 only acquainted myself more fully w^ith the doctrines of the 
 gospel, but also learned how to live as a Christian; how to 
 pray for the conversion of the church of Rome ] how to love 
 my persecutors as well as my friends. 
 
 Entertaining now an ardent desire to sound the same clarion 
 of grace, mercy and peace, which had saluted my ears, and 
 called me from the sable gloom of Roman idolatry to the clear 
 light of gospel truth, also to others ; the brethren advised me 
 to make a public profession of my faith, to show that I was not 
 ashamed of that gospel which is the power of God unto salva- 
 tion to every one that believeth. This I did in Geneva before 
 the whole consistory and a large assemblage of people ; in proof 
 of which I annex my certificate from the consistory of the Canton 
 of Geneva, declaring my reception as a member of the Helvetic 
 confession, and my admission to all the privileges of that church. 
 
 Nous Sousjgne Secretaire du Consistoire de PEglise Chre- 
 tienne Reformee de Geneve certifions, que Monsieur Louis 
 Giustiniani a Solemnellement declare, qu'apres avoir pris con- 
 naissance de la doctrine et du culte de I'Eglise Chrelienne 
 Reformee, choisissait liberement cette Eglise pour la sienne, et 
 qu'il voulait vivre et mourir dans sa communion. En conse- 
 quence le Consistoire l?a admis, selon les formes voulues par le 
 reglement au nombre des fideles de notre communion pour par- 
 ticiper avec nous a la Ste. Cene. 
 
 Fait a Geneve le premier Juillet mil huit cent trente un. 
 [l.s.] Le secretaire cfu Verner Consist. Bourdillon. 
 
(93) 
 
 THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH OF 
 
 ROME. 
 
 I cannot conclude without giving some historical facts of the 
 foundation of the church of Rome, in order that the Roman 
 Catholics may see upon what basis their church is built, and 
 upon what ground their souls' salvation rests. Our Saviour 
 calls the man who has built his house upon a rock wise. For 
 he says : " The rain descended and the floods came, and the 
 winds blewj and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was 
 founded upon a rock.'^ The apostle Paul, speaking to the 
 Corinthians of that rock, which must be the only foundation 
 of the Christian, says: ^'That rock is Christ. "t 
 
 If I read the history of the inquisition and compare it with 
 that of the reformation, I cannot believe that the church of 
 Rome is built upon the rock which is Christ. I will not speak 
 of the tens and hundreds of thousands who have perished at 
 the stake, neither of the slaughtered Huguenots in France, nor 
 of the noble army of martyrs in Germany, neither of the strewed 
 ashes of the many Auto da Fe, of which the church of Rome is 
 guilty, and with which she defiled her garments as a testimony 
 of her crimes. But I will only state, that if the church was 
 founded upon Christ the Rock, she could have withstood the 
 flood of the reformation, resisted the heavenly I'ain of gospel 
 truth without injury, and remained unshaken like a rock amidst 
 the agitations and civil convulsions of the sixteenth century. 
 Her proud vessel of Catholicism and infallibility could never 
 have been wrecked by the adverse wind of Luther's protes- 
 tations. 
 
 But having promised to give historical proofs of her foundation, 
 I will at once proceed. There are : 1st ^ Ambition. 2d, Usurpa- 
 tion. 3d, Avarice; and 4th, Moral corruption. 
 
 To prove the ambition of the church of Rome, the decree of 
 Gregory VII. in a council assembled in Rome, J the so-called 
 ^' Bictatura Fontijicis'' will be sufficient; in which he says — 
 '^ That the pope has the power to depose kings and emperors, 
 and absolve subjects from their fidelity and obedience due to 
 their sovereign.''^ 
 
 To carry out this principle, the same Gregory VII. dethroned 
 emperor Henry IV. and Boleslaus II., King of Poland. 
 
 To be faithfCil to that ambitious dictatura, pope Zacharias 
 
 * Matt. chap. 7, v. 24. t Anno. 1070. 
 
 1 1 Ep. to Cor. chap. 10, v. 4. $ Greg. Septimus, lib. ii. Ep. 30, 
 
94 FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 
 
 deposed Childrique^ King of France, and absolved the French 
 from their allegiance to their legitimate sovereign, and placed 
 Pepin upon the throne in his stead. 
 
 Upon the same gromid, Boniface VIII. deposed Philip le 
 Belle^^ and hurled the thunders of excommunication against 
 him, declaring — •' That it is necessary for the salvation of all 
 men to be subject to the pope." 
 
 Pope Innocent III. dethroned the Emperor Othon IV. 
 
 Pope Innocent IV. deposed Emperor Frederic II., and Pope 
 Julius II. took the kingdom of Navarre from its legitimate 
 sovereign and gave it to Spain. 
 
 That such an ambition animated all the popes, is abundantly 
 evident from the fact, that in all ages it has been displayed 
 with the greatest arrogance. We find that Innocent III., v^^ho 
 dethroned the Emperor Othon, did the same to king John of 
 England, and declared him incapable of governing, and ab- 
 solved the English subjects from their oath of allegiance to 
 their legitimate prince, and gave the kingdom to Philip Au- 
 guste, king of France. 
 
 Pope Paul III. excommunicated Henry VIIT., and PiusV., the 
 Queen Elizabeth of England.! 
 
 None can deny that the Dictatura Pontificis of Gregory VII., 
 had its desired effect ] and the above fads show, that his suc- 
 cessors have been faithful to his principles, though contrary to 
 the will of the Lord, who expressly commands — ^^ To give to 
 Cassar what belongs to Csesar, and to God what belongs to God." 
 The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans,; says, "Let 
 every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no 
 power but of God ] the powers that be are ordained of God. Who- 
 soever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of 
 God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damna- 
 tion." The Apostle Paul cannot speak of popes, for in his time 
 there were none, and he never declared himself to be one. 
 
 The ambitious power which the popes assume, is not only 
 contrary to scripture, but also to the practice of the primitive 
 church, until the year of our Lord 1076, when the ambitious 
 Gregory VII. established his Dictatura. The emperors had a 
 right to choose and to depose the bishops, patriarchs, and popes. 
 The following historical facts will plainly show it. The Em- 
 peror Othon deposed Pope John XII. for several crimes, but 
 especially for debauchery. The Emperor, Henry III., deposed 
 in a short period three popes, viz : Benedict IX., Sylvester III., 
 and Gregory VI., not only on account of their arrogance in as- 
 suming an ecclesiastical power belonging to the civil authori- 
 ties, but also on account of their avarice. ^ 
 
 * Anno 1302. f Anno 1534. % Ep. Rom. xiii. 1, 2. 
 
(95) 
 
 USURPATION IS ANOTHER FOUNDATION OF 
 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 That the church of Rome has usurped a power over the other 
 bishops, I have sufficiently proved in a preceding chapter on 
 infallibiHty. That these pretensions are neither founded upon 
 the word of God, nor upon the practice of the primitive church, 
 has been clearly shown ; for the single fact, that neither Peter, 
 nor any other apostle, did ever exercise such a jurisdiction over 
 their brother apostles, is sufficient. That the apostle did not 
 preside at the council of Jerusalem, but St. James, the bishop 
 of Jerusalem, is another proof. 
 
 According to the doctrines of the church of Rome, the univer- 
 sal bishop or pope has a right to preside over all the councils, or 
 to appoint another bishop in his place. Can any Roman Catho- 
 lic show, that Peter ever presided at, or appointed any other 
 apostle to preside in his place at any council ? Certainly not. 
 The horror against any one assuming supremacy was so great, 
 that when John^ the patriarch of Constantinople, desired to as- 
 sume the title of Universal Bishop, supported by the Emperor 
 Maurice,* the whole Christian world was so shocked at such 
 an innovation, that they called it a doctrine of hell; and pope 
 Gregory the Great, vras so animated with a holy zeal for the 
 glory of God, that lie opposed it with great vigor, and de- 
 nounced it as a temerity never before heard of. He wrote to 
 Athanasius, patriarch of Antioch, in the following terms : ^^ May 
 it please God not to permit, that the spirit of Christianity should 
 be so infected with the opinion, that there exists a bishop who 
 can be called Universal.'''^ 
 
 To the Emperor Maurice he declared, ^* That any bishop, who 
 assumes the title of universal^ is the forerunner of Antichrist.'' t 
 And to John^ the bishop of Constantinople himself, he wrote in 
 beseeching terms, and exhorted him not to consent to that spirit 
 of pride, folly and error : he represented it as a temptation of 
 the devil, against which he warned him. These were the last 
 dying words of the truth in the church of Rome. 
 
 Alas ! it happened in that dark and unfortunate period, when 
 the Emperor Maurice had been assassinated by Phocusj who 
 usurped the empire, and who gave, in order to fortify himself 
 in his tyranny, the title of Universal Bishop to Boniface III. 
 In that way the popes obtained the supremacy, and gradually 
 usurped the authority over the other bishops. To execute this 
 
 * Anno 600. t Greg. Magn. Lib. vi. Ep. x. 
 
96 USURPATION OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 
 
 scheme; they addressed to Pope Theodore,* letters with the 
 superscription: ^^Holy Father oi fathers, sovereign Pontiff of 
 bishops. '^t 
 
 The churches of Lacia and Illyria, strongly opposed that 
 monstrous usurpation, which they considered both blasphemy 
 and apostacy. France, as well as Spain and England, protested 
 against it* and it was not till a long time after Ihis event, that 
 they submitted to the yoke of the so-called universal bishop of 
 Rome. 
 
 Such is the short history of the usurpation of the title of 
 Universal Bishop. Such is the history of the birth and progress 
 of papal pretensions. Such is the foundation upon which the 
 infallible power of the pope, and the hope of Roman Catholics' 
 salvation rest. 
 
 The usurpation of authority over men, is not the only crime 
 of which the church of Rome is guilty, but their popes have 
 tried also to rob God of his glory, and make themselves equal 
 with God. If they would only limit their ambition to rule over 
 the bishops, it would be impiety enough; but they extend even 
 their ungodly principles so far as to officiate as the vicars of 
 Christ, the Old and Neiu Testaments^ and usurp the right of being 
 the sole interpreters of the living word of God .% Is it a wonder 
 that Luther resisted the ambition of Leo X. ? Is it a wonder 
 that Pope Leo condemned Luther ? Is it surprising that we 
 read the abominable bull, full of curses against the Protestants, 
 called, ''Exurge Domine.''§ ^ 
 
 Will Roman Catholics deny, that the pope styles himself 
 '^God on earth ?^^ Let them go to Rome, they will read on the 
 gate of the city — ^' Faulus III. Pontifex Opt. Maxim, in terris 
 Deus.^^ (Paul III. High priest, the best, the greatest, and God 
 on earth.) Without going to Rome, we find papal arrogance in 
 every decree which comes from the Vatican. The reader will 
 kindly examine the conclusion of the ordination letter, which I 
 have prefixed at the beginning of this volume, and he will find 
 as follows. Page 16, line 9. 
 
 ^^Datur Romse ex aedibus nostris hac die primam mensis 
 Februarii anno 1827, Jurisdict. XIV. Pontificatus S. S. in Christo 
 Patris, et D. n. D. Leonis, Divina Providentia Papse XII., anno 
 ejus IV.,'' &c. &c. 
 
 ^* Given in Rome from our Palace, the first of February, 1817, 
 the XIV. jurisdiction of the most holy Pontiff and Father in 
 Christj and Lord our God, the Pope Leo XII., through the Divine 
 Providence, the IV year of his reign," &c. 
 
 Pope Martin V. wrote in the despatches which he furnished 
 
 * Anno 642. t Siegehert Hist. Anno 645. 
 
 t Bellarmine Lib. adversus Barkl. chap 31. 
 $ Concil Lateran. V. Bulla Exurge Domine. 
 
USURPATION OF ROME. 97 
 
 his ambassador to Constantinople : ^- SanctissimuSj et Beatissi- 
 mus, qui habet cceleste arbitrium, qui est Dominus in terris, 
 successor Petri, Christus Dominij Dominus Universi, Regum 
 Pater, orbis Lumen." &c. In plain English it reads simply 
 thus : ^' The most Holy and most happy, who is the arbiter of 
 heaven^ and the Lord of the earthy the successor of St. Peter, the 
 anointed of the Lord, the Master of the universe, the father of 
 kings, the light of the world,^^ &c. What will the Emperor of 
 China say, who pretends to be the Lord of the Sun, when the 
 British officers tell him that the pope is the arbiter of heaven, 
 and the master of the universe ? What must the Grand Sultan 
 think, who declares himself emperor of the moon and stars, 
 when he hears that the pope is not only the arbiter of heaven, 
 but also the light of the world ? How must it tickle the em- 
 peror of Russia, and the fair queen of England, when they are 
 told that the pope calls himself, •• the father of kings V Is it not 
 painful to hear, in the light of the nineteenth century, such 
 absurd doctrines as these '? and even more painful to see people 
 with minds so totally shrouded in ignorance, as to be capable 
 of believing such abominable dogmas ? 
 
 To call a man, ^'-God on earth, Vicar of Christ, most Holy 
 Father, Arbiter of heaven, and Lord of the Universe,'^^ is this not 
 virtually making him equal with God Almighty? Is it not 
 giving God a competitor % To call the pope " the anointed of the 
 Lord, the father of kings, and the light of the world,^^ is it not 
 blasphemous ? can such titles be applied to any other, except 
 to Christ himself, without the profanation of the word of God. 
 or without committing sacrilege against his most holy Sonf 
 Such is the foundation upon which the infallible authority of 
 the self-styled universal bishop of Rome is based. I ask, is it 
 not founded upon the sand, of which our Saviour speaks in his 
 gospel '? I repeat it, to call the pope, ^^ God on earth,'^ is blas- 
 phemy so monstrous, that even Satan himself, cunning as he 
 is, could not invent a greater profanation of the name of God, or 
 assume greater pretensions, or manifest a more infernal spirit, 
 or teach a more obnoxious and criminal doctrine than this! 
 
 AVARICE THE CORNER STONE OF THE 
 CHURCH OF ROME, 
 
 That avarice is another foundation of the church of Rome, 
 and the corner stone of the whole popish edifice, is not difficult 
 to prove. It was Boniface VIII. who beg-an the traffic of in^ 
 
98 MORAL CORRUPTION. 
 
 tlulgences and forgiveness of sins. It was he, who declared 
 that his bulls had the power of law, and were received in Pur- 
 gatory in favour of souls. To amass greater treasures, the 
 pope sells dispensations of degrees (forbidden by the law of 
 God), and sanctions marriage even amongst the nearest rela- 
 tions. The bulls of bishops, archbishops, and cardinal hats 
 are dearly sold. Is it surprising, that Sixtus IV. usually said, 
 '^ As long as we have a pen and ink to write ^ money will not fail. ^^ 
 
 Let us only open the volumes of the history of papal Rome, 
 and we will find that at the time, when England was yet under 
 her yoke, the preaching of crusades against the infidels, and the 
 promises of the remission oi all sins, was the order of the day; 
 the draining of England's money w^as carried on as voraciously 
 as a leech drawing blood from the veins ; such was the con- 
 stant practice of the popes. Justly, therefore, did Pope Boni- 
 iace call England ^^his inexhaustible treasury. ^^ 
 
 Let us look to Germany, where Tetzel peddled indulgences 
 by order of the Pope Leo X. The avarice of the Roman pon- 
 tiffs reached such a height, that the princes in Germany could 
 no longer endure, and the monarchs no longer countenance it. 
 It was not Luther who caused the protestations against the cor- 
 ruptions of the church of Rome: it was the avarice of Leo X. 
 v\rhich provoked it, and accelerated the glorious Reformation . 
 With all these historical facts before him, will an enlightened 
 Roman Catholic buy indulgences'? Will he continue to shut 
 ills eyes against the gospel truth ? Will he make the avarice of 
 the court of Rome the foundation of his soul's salvation ? "O, 
 how are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished !"=* 
 
 MORAL CORRUPTION OF THE CHURCH OF 
 
 ROME. 
 
 What can be expected of a church which is founded upon 
 ambition, usurpation, and avarice ? Is it not certain, that she 
 will even fall deeper into the abyss of error, and abandon her- 
 self to all manner of corruption ? Such is the actual state of 
 the church of Rome. 
 
 Let us examine the lives of the popes who governed that 
 church from the moment she began to degenerate from her an- 
 cient purity, and we shall find events which scarcely have a 
 
 * Samuel chap. i. v. 27. 
 
MORAL CORRUPTION. 99 
 
 parallel in the history of heathen Rome, and which must fill 
 every moral mind with disgust and horror. 
 
 John XI. governed the church of Rome towards the teyith 
 century,* and was the natural son of pope Sergius. His de- 
 bauched life corresponded with his illegitimate origin. Baronius 
 calls him, '^a monster of iniquity P 
 
 John XII. who succeeded that monster, was not more thaii 
 eighteen years of age when he occupied his place, and was in 
 no respect better than his predecessor; and even Baronius^ 
 speaks of him with execration and horror. As my object ie, 
 however, not to oifer at present any extensive work on Popery^ 
 I can only refer my readers to those authors who have written 
 the lives of the Popes, as Liiitprand^ Siegbert, Plotina^ Onuphrc 
 and Baroniits. The latter characterizes John XII. as a gambler^ 
 whoremonger, swearer. Sabbath-breaker, bloodthirsty, and a 
 man capable of all iniquities. That great historian assures u.i 
 that his death was in conformity with his life ; that he died in 
 the midst of debauchery and violent agitations of the devil. It 
 is really presumptuous to attempt to prove, that such men were 
 chosen by the Holy Spirit, as infallible heads of his blood-bought 
 church. 
 
 A certain Boniface poisoned two others, in order to become* 
 their successor , and Benedict IX. was not more than ten years 
 old when he was raised to the seat of Peter, by the bloody 
 faction of his father, who (as Baronius says) was a monster sit- 
 ting upon the chair of St. Peter. — There were periods when 
 we had three popes at the same time, and each excommunicat- 
 ing the others. Some (as we learn from history) have been 
 murderers, adulterers, simoniacs, perjurers, and guilty of every 
 crime imaginable. To say, that these were chosen by the Holy 
 Ghost to be the infallible heads of his true church, is in reality 
 saying, that Jesus Christ had chosen the infernal princes to an- 
 nounce his gospel, and appointed his Satanic majesty as his 
 successor to dispense the truth of his church. 
 
 Who can persuade himself that God had chosen pope Hikk - 
 brand, and such like profligates, who had been sold to iniquit} , 
 as organs of the Holy Spirit and Vicars of Christ ? But wliy 
 need I speak of a period before the reformation ? Go, readei, 
 go to Rome now : enter within the so-called metropolis of the 
 Catholic church, and you will find every evening, (as soon as 
 it is dark) carriages of cardinals and bishops before different 
 houses, not indeed before palaces, wl^ere the noble lady re- 
 sides, but before the humble dwelling of the citizens, where 
 their eminences and my lord bishops spend the evening with 
 
 * Baronius vita Pontificis ad annum 931. f Baronius vita pontiff ann . 955. 
 
100 MORAL CORRUPTION. 
 
 their respective ladies^ at the card tables or other games of 
 Italian lovers; even the humble confessor has his house, where 
 he spends his evenings with his fair penitent at some game. 
 You will see at ten o'clock, when the husband arrives, his 
 eminence or my lord bishop preparing to leave, and accompanied 
 by the husband with a lighted candle in one hand, and with 
 the other pressing the consecrated hand of the purple-clothed 
 jDriest to his lips, and kissing it as an act of veneration and gra- 
 titude for having spent the evening at a game with his wife. 
 
 Only go to Rome, and you will see the indisposed fair peni- 
 tent remain in her bed, and the Franciscan friar leaving his 
 sandals before the door of her bed-chamber, as an indication 
 that he is performing some ecclesiastical act; then nonej not even 
 the husbandj can enter the chamber of his wife until the Fran- 
 ciscan friar has finished his business and leaves the chamber ', 
 then the husband with reverence ready waiting at the door, 
 kisses the hand of the father Franciscan for his kindness for 
 having administered spiritual comfort to his wife, and very 
 often he gives him a dollar to say a mass for his indisposed 
 spouse. 
 
 But why shall I speak of the moral corruption of popery in 
 Rome ? it is every where the same 3 it appears differently, but 
 never changes its character. In America, where female virtue 
 is the characteristic of the nation, the only strong hold of the 
 American republic, it is under the control of the papal priest. 
 If a Roman Catholic lady, the wife of a free American, should 
 choose to have the priest in her bed-room, she has only to pre- 
 tend to be indisposed, and asking for the spiritual father, the 
 confessor ; no other person, not even the husband, dare enter. 
 In Rome it would be at the risk of his life ; in America at the 
 risk of being excommunicated, and deprived of all spiritual 
 privileges of the church, even excluded from heaven. 
 
 But enough. I will no longer bespatter my pages with the 
 immorality of the priests of the city of Rome; I will finish in 
 the language of the celebrated speaker in the council of Trent, 
 Father Antonius Paganus, a minorite.of the order of St. Fran- 
 ciscus. ^' I am silent (says that orator) respecting public adulte- 
 ries, rapes, and robberies; I pass over the great effusion of 
 Christian blood, unlawful exactions, impositions gratuitously 
 accumulated, and for whatsoever cause they were introduced 
 persevered in without cause, and innumerable oppressions of 
 this kind; I pass over .the proud pomp of clothing, extraordi- 
 nary expenses beyond the requirements of their station in life, 
 drunkenness, surfeits, and the inordinate filthiness of luxury, 
 such as never took place before. Women were never less 
 modest and bashful ; young men were never more unbridled 
 
MORAL CORRUPTION. 101 
 
 and undisciplined; the old were never more irreligious and 
 foolish; in fine, never was there in any person less fear of God, 
 honour, virtue, and modesty ; and never did carnal licentious- 
 ness, abuse, and irregularity prevail to such an extent. For 
 what greater abuse and irregularity can be imagined than a 
 pastor without watchfulness, a preacher without works, a judge 
 without equity, a lawyer without honesty, a magistrate without 
 decorum, laws without observance, a people without obedience, 
 religious professors without devotion, the rich without shame, 
 the poor without humility, women without pity, the young 
 without discipline, the old without prudence, and every Christian 
 without religion ? It was for a ^similar reason that David said — 
 ' God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see 
 if there was anyone who was wise, and sought Grod. All had 
 gone out of the way, all were become unprofitable, there was 
 no one that did good, not one.' And Jeremiah says — ^They 
 all, from the least to the greatest, seek covetousness, and from 
 the prophet even unto the priest, every one dealeth falsely.' "* 
 I will continue to show the moral corruptions of the church 
 of Rome by their own writers ; and next I refer my readers 
 to a witness whom no Roman Catholic can repudiate — she not 
 only being a canonized saint, but also her book of revelations, 
 from which I quote, has been sanctioned by two councils and 
 three popes^ viz : by the councils of Constance and Basilea^ and 
 Popes Urban VI., Martin V., and Paul V. — I allude to the reve- 
 lations of Santa. Bridget^ a most devoted member and canonized 
 saint of the church oi Rome. Christ is represented by her as 
 expressing himself, respecting the popes, in the following 
 terms : ^* Now, therefore, I complain of thee, the head of my 
 church, who sittest in my seat, which I delivered to Peter and 
 his successors, to sit thereon with a triple dignity and authority. 
 First^ that they should have the power of binding and loosing 
 souls from sin ; secondly j that they should open heaven to the 
 penitent; thirdly^ that they should shut heaven against the 
 accursed and the blasphemous. But you who ought to loosen 
 souls, and to present them to me, you truly are slayers of souls. 
 For I appointed Peter the pastor and preserver of my sheep. 
 But you are their dispersers and tormentors. You are tvorse 
 than Lucifer. For he envied me, and desired to slay me only^ 
 in order that he might rule in my stead ; but you are worse 
 than him, for as much as you not only slay me, by removing 
 me from thee by your evil works, but you also slay souls by 
 your bad example. I have redeemed the souls with my blood, 
 and have committed them to you as to a faithful friend ; but 
 
 ♦ See Labbaei. 20, 1219—1223. 
 I 2 
 
lOSr MORAL CORRUPTION. 
 
 you betray them to the inveterate enemy from whom I re- 
 deemed them. You are more unjust than Pilate j who sentenced 
 no one beside me to death. But you not only condemn me, as 
 if Lord of no one, and worthy of no good thing, you also con- 
 demn innocent souls and dismiss the guilty. You are more 
 merciless than Judas, who sold me only ; but you not only sell 
 me, but also the souls of my elect, for vile gain, and for an 
 empty name. You are more abominahle than the Jews : they cru- 
 cified only my body ; but you crucify and punish the souls of 
 my elect, to whom your malice and wrong is more bitter than 
 any sword. Therefore, because you are like Lucifer, more 
 unjust than Pilate, more cruel than Judas, and more abominable 
 than the Jews, I properly complain of you.'^'^ 
 
 Among the many authorities, I shall adduce only another 
 impartial evidence of Honorius Augusiodunensisy a celebrated 
 scholastic divine of Autun, who lived in the twelfth century. 
 ^^Tum to the citizens of Babylon; and observe what manner 
 of people they be, and by what ways they walk } come hither, 
 to the top of the mountain, that thou mayest behold all the 
 habitations of the damned city. Look upon her princes and 
 judges, cardinals and archbishops ; the very seal of the beast is 
 placed upon them. All day they are intent to do evil 3 ever 
 insatiably occupied in the works of iniquity. They not only 
 themselves perform, but instruct others in flagitious wicked- 
 ness. They offer things sacred for sale, and labor with all their 
 might that they may not descend alone into hell."t 
 
 Such are the pictures of papal Rome by their own divines and 
 saints. Will Roman Catholics yet shut their eyes to the truth? 
 Will they longer continue in error without examining and inves- 
 tigating the foundation of their souFs salvation, or rely upon the 
 ipse dixit, the words of the priests ? In Italy where the paid 
 spies listen to every sigh, where the inquisition interprets every 
 word, and punishes it as heresy, Roman Catholics are in a 
 measure excusable; but in a Protestant country, in America, 
 the land of freedom, the country of the Bible, among an en- 
 lightened and progressive nation, it will be to the greater dam- 
 nation of those who neglect their souPs salvation. 
 
 * Revelation Sanctas Brig. lib. i. chap. 41, Colonise. 
 
 + Dial, de Praedest. et lib. arbit. cited by White in his reply to the Jesuit 
 
 Fisher. 
 
(103) 
 
 THE HOLY COUNCILS OF THE CHURCH 
 OF ROME. 
 
 I am an enemy of every thing which has only the appearance 
 of acrimony^ much more of hostility: but when I think of the 
 soul-destroying doctrines of the church of RomCj and that even 
 after the clear demonstration of the corruptions of the heads of 
 their church, (the popes,) some will still be guided by preju- 
 dices, saying — •' It is undeniable (so it is indeed) that there were 
 popes, who have been immoral and corrupt ; but that does not af- 
 fect the church and its principles. If any man can show us that 
 the church of Rome itself in its principles is corrupt and immo- 
 ral, then we shall abandon it as an incurable system of error. '^ 
 
 The definition of the church of Rome is quite diiFerent from 
 the general acceptation of the word, and the Biblical conception 
 which Protestant theologians have formed. The Protestant 
 divines divide the church into visible and invisible ; each of 
 them foi-ms a separate body. A person may be a member of 
 the visible Protestant church, without being a living member 
 of the mystical body of Christ ', and vice versa, a person may 
 be a child of God w^ithout ever having joined a visible church. 
 That is not the case in the papal church } for in that church the 
 members and professors of the Roman faith do not constitute 
 the church: but the bishops in council, with the infallible pope, 
 at the head, guided by the Holy Ghost, constitute the visible 
 and invisible church. For the councils being the sole interpre- 
 ters of the word of God, and the pope being the infallible head, 
 expresses through the Holy Spirit the sentiments of the church, 
 (viz : of the councils,) and whosoever denies that authority, they 
 without any hesitation anathematize in their usual phraseology: 
 '• Let him be cursed." I will therefore prove that the councils 
 have been corrupt in doctrines, immoral in principles, and contra- 
 dictory in their proceedings. 
 
 Not only the popes as private individuals were corrupt and 
 immoral, but the General Councils have been, like the Roman 
 pontiffs, a stigma on religion and a disgrace to humanity. What 
 were these conventions in point of respectability T They un- 
 happily were inferior to an assembly of the lowest plebeians^ 
 yes ! inferior to a modern cock-fight or a bull-baiting in a circus 
 of the city of Rome.* 
 
 * This barbarous custom is even yet kept up in the city of Rome, consti- 
 tuting one of the summer amusements of that city. 
 
104 HOLY COUNCILS. 
 
 St. Gregory Nazianzen, who stands high in the estimation of 
 the church of Rome for nis learning and virtue 3 who is adored 
 as a saintj and whose writings are adopted as a standard by all 
 their theologians, describes the councils with the pencil of truth 
 and with the hand of a master. "I never (says the Grecian 
 bishop) saw a synod which had a happy termination. These 
 conventions instead of diminishingj unfortunately augmented 
 the evil which they were intended to remedy. Passion, 
 jealousy, envy, prejudice, and the ambition of victory prevail 
 and surpass all description. Zeal is actuated rather by ma- 
 lignancy to the criminal than aversion to the crime.'' 
 
 He farther compares the dissensions and wrangling exhibited 
 in the councils, to the quarrels of geese and cranes, gabbling 
 and contending in confusion ; and represents such disputation 
 and vain jangling as calculated to demoralize the spectator, 
 rather than to correcj; or reform. This portrait, which is taken 
 from life, exhibits in graphic delineation «ind in true colours, the 
 genuine features of all the general, infallible, apostolic councils 
 of Holy Rome. Let us take a glance at the general synods of 
 Constantinople J Nice^ Lyons. Constance and Easily Avhich are in 
 a particular manner worthy of our observation. These con- 
 ventions we shall show have been composed of the lowest rab- 
 ble, and patronized the vilest abominations. 
 
 The Bizantine assembly, which was the second general coun- 
 cil, has been faithfully described by St. Gregory Nazianzen. 
 This convention the saint characterizes as a cabal of wretches 
 Jit for the house of correction ', fellows taken newly from the 
 plough, the spade, the oar, and the army. Such is a Roman 
 saint's sketch of that most holy, apostolic, and unerring council. 
 I will give it in a note in his own words, in his own language, 
 and the reader will see that I have not exaggerated in the 
 description.^ 
 
 The second Niccean council, without any reg*ard of their sacred 
 office, unblushingly approved of perjury and fornication. The 
 holy infallible synod, in loud acclamation, approved of a most 
 disgusting and filthy tale, taken from ^'the Spiritual Meadow./^ 
 sanctioning such sins. I will give an outline of the tale, re- 
 counting only those parts which can be related with propriety. 
 
 A monk (according to the story) had been haunted with the 
 spirit of fornication from early life till hoary age. The las- 
 civious propensity, which is all that could be meant by the 
 demon of sensuality, had seized the solitary in the fervour of 
 
 * "Alii ah aratris venerant adusti a sole; alii a ligone, vel bidente totam 
 diem non quiescente ; alii remos exercitus ve reliquerant, redolentes adhuc 
 senlinaiij vel corpus (\edatuin cicatricibus habentes iii riagrioues, et pijstrinis 
 digni." fcJt. Greg. Ep. labb. 2, 1158. Du Pin 1, 259. 
 
HOLY COUNCILS. 105 
 
 youth, and continued its temptations even in the decline of 
 years. One day. when the spirit (or more probably the flesh) 
 had made an extraordinary^ttack on the anchorite, he begged 
 the foul fiend to depart, as he was now arrived at the years of 
 advanced age, (when such allurements through attendant de- 
 bility should cease.) The devil appearing in his proper form, 
 promised a cessation of arms, if the hermit would swear to tell 
 no person what he w^as going to say.=* The monk without 
 hesitation obeyed the devil, and bound himself by oath to 
 secrecy. The devil administered, and the monk swore. He 
 swore by the Most High never to divulge what Belial would 
 tell. The solitary, it appears, was sufficiently acquainted and 
 on very good terms with Beelzebub, who as an act of intimate 
 friendship, promised to withdraw his temptations if the monk 
 would quit worshipping a statue of Lady Mary, carrying her 
 son in her arms. 
 
 The monk, though decrepit, it seems, did not reject the 
 temptation with becoming resolution. He requested time for 
 consideration. And next day, notwithstanding his oath, he 
 revealed the whole circumstance to the Abbot Theodorus^ who 
 lived in Pharan. The holy Abbot (who was, as the reader can 
 easily perceive, a Roman Catholic theologian,) called the oath 
 a delusion, at the same time he approved of the confession, and 
 in consequence (notwithstanding his sanctity,) approved of the 
 perjury too. 
 
 The devil, it appears, according to popish divinity, is consi- 
 dered a heretic, which, as a matter of course, warranted the 
 violation of faith with his infernal majesty. St. Theodoras told 
 the monk, ^* you ought rather to visit all the brothels in the 
 city, than omit worshipping Imrhanuel and his mother in their 
 images.'^t What a blasphemy; not to speak of the immoral 
 inculcation, but only of the heresy, the anti- scriptural senti- 
 ments which are expressed in his words. To be called a heretic 
 by such men, and excommunicated by such pontiffs, is a great 
 honour — it is a great blessing. The manner in which that 
 saint solved a case of conscience, showed that his ability as a 
 casuist, exceeded his morality as a man. 
 
 Returning to the tale of ^' the Spiritual Meadow,'' we find, 
 that Satan afterward appeared to the monk, indignant, and ac- 
 cused him of perjury, and pronounced his doom at the day of 
 judgment. It strikes me that the devil had felt a greater hor- 
 
 * " Jura mihi, quod ea quae tibi dicam nemini significabis, et nou amplius 
 tecum pugnabo.'* Crab. 2, 520. Bin. 5, 642. 
 
 t " Expedit tibi potius, ut non dimittas in civitate ista lupinar, in quod non 
 introeas, quam ut recuses adorare Dominum et Deum nostrum Jesum Chris- 
 tum, cum propria matre sua in immagine." Labbeus 8, 902. 
 
106 HOLY COUNCILS. 
 
 ror of perjury Ihan the papal monk, and preached better morality 
 than Saint Theodorus, or the Holy General Council. The 
 anchorite, in his reply to the fiend, admitted that he had per- 
 jured himself, but declared that he had not abjured his God. 
 
 Such is the tale as related in the Sacred Synod, from '^ the 
 Spiritual Meadow." The holy fathers of the council with una- 
 nimous consent, approved of the conduct of the monk, as well 
 as of the saint Theodorus ,' and by their approbation, showed 
 the refinement of their taste for debauchery, by sanctioning the 
 advice rather to visit all the brothels in the city, than omit wor- 
 shiping their goddess : or in other w^ords, it is better to be a 
 perjurer, a profligate, and debauchee, than to forsake the adora- 
 tion of the holy Virgin Lady Mary. 
 
 Theodorus' sermon, which is so warmly recommended by 
 the Sacred Synod, encouraged the monk, rather than forsake 
 his idol, which in ^11 probability, was a parcel of worthless 
 lumber, to launch into the troubled waters of prostitution, and 
 with crowded canvas and swelling sail, to sweep the wide 
 ocean of licentiousness. 
 
 The picture of sensuality as presented in the abbot\s holy 
 advice, seems to have tickled the fancy and feeling of the holy 
 fathers of the apostolical council, who appeared to have been 
 actuated with the same spirit in the council, as the monk in his 
 cell. The old sensualists gloated over the scene of voluptuous- 
 ness which the Theodorian theology had presented to their 
 view. — The aged libertines seemed to be entirely enamored of 
 the tale, caused it to be repeated in the fifth session, for the 
 laudable purpose of once more glutting their libidinous imagina- 
 tion with its filthiness. 
 
 Even the Caroline books^ (the production of the French king 
 and prelacy,) deprecated tne story as an unprecedented ab- 
 surdity and pestilential evil. Du Pin^ the great Roman Catholic 
 historian, actuated with the sentiments of a man and a Christian, 
 condemns the synod, equally deprecates the whole transaction, 
 and even refuses to translate the Abbot of Pharan's holy homily. 
 
 Using the language of a modern writer, =^ who says, ^^The 
 Nicaeans nevertheless, boasted of their inspiration. The sacred 
 synod, amid all its atrocities, pretended to the immediate in- 
 fluence of heaven. The divine afflatus, forsooth, passed through 
 these sinks of pollution, and made the consecrated ruffians the 
 channels of supernatural communications to man. The source 
 of their inspiration, if the holy fathers felt such an impulse, is 
 'easy to tell. The spirit which influenced the secluded monk, 
 seems to have been busy with the worthy bishops, and to have 
 
 * Sam. Edger, of the Infallibility. Page 169. 
 
HOLY COUNCILS. 107 
 
 stimulated their imaginations to the enjoyment of the obscene 
 storyj and the approbation of its foul criminality." 
 
 The holy infallible council of Lyons, has been delineated in 
 a portrait taken from life by Matheus Paris, a contemporary 
 historian, who recounts that, "Pope Innocent, retiring from the 
 General Council of Lyons, in which he had presided, cardinal 
 Hugo made a farewell speech for his holiness, and the whole 
 court, to the citizens w^ho had assembled on the occasion, to 
 witness the departure of his mfallible lordship. " Friends, 
 (said the cardinal,) we have effected a work of great utility and 
 charity in this city. When w^e came to Lyons, we found three 
 or four brothels in it, and we have left at our departure only 
 one. But this one extends from the eastern to the western gate 
 of the city."** 
 
 The inspired fathers of that council w^ho should have been 
 patrons of purity, seem on this occasion to have been the agents 
 of demoralization throughout the cityinw^hich they assembled. 
 The same historian, (cardinal Hugo,) speaking in the name of 
 his holiness, gloried in his shame, and talked of the abomina- 
 tions of himself and his companions in a strain of railery and 
 unblushing effrontery. 
 
 The Constantino council was characterized by father Paptiza, 
 one of its own members, as the most infernal. His portrait is 
 frightful. The clergy, he declared, were nearly all under the 
 power of the devil, and mocked all religion by external devo- 
 tion, and pharisaic hypocrisy. The prelacy, actuated only by 
 malice, iniquity, pride, vanity, ignorance, lasciviousness, avarice, 
 pomp, simony, and dissimulation, had exterminated Catholicism, 
 and extinguished piety.t 
 
 The character of the holy bishops appeared, from their com- 
 pany, to be the most destitute and wretched. More than seven 
 hundred public women, according to Dachery's account, attended 
 to the sacred synod. Though the Vienna manuscript reckons 
 the number of these female attendants, w^hom it calls vagrant 
 prostitutes at fifteen hundred. 
 
 "This was a fair supply, (says Samuel Edger, page 170,) 
 for the thousand holy fathers, who constituted the Constantine 
 council." 
 
 Bruys, another Roman Catholic writer, adds : " These courte- 
 sans were in appearance intended to exercise the chastity of 
 the clergy." As far as my knowledge extends of priestly chas- 
 tity, I have no doubt whatever, that their company contributed 
 
 "* Tria vel quotuor prostibula invenimus. Unum solum relinquimus. Verum 
 ipHum durat continuatum ab orientali porta civitatis usque occidentalem. 
 Mat. Paris, page 792. t Baptiza 2, page 95. 
 
10& HOLY COUNCILS. 
 
 no little to the entertainment of the learned divines^ and intro- 
 duced great variety into their amusements. 
 
 The Council of Basil taught the theory of filthinesSj as that 
 of Constance had exhibited the practice. CarleriuSj the cham- 
 pion of the Roman church in the Basilian assembly against 
 Nicolasj the Bohemian heretic, advocated the propriety of toler- 
 ating stews in the city.* This hopeful, and to the fathers of 
 the council pleasing thesis, the hero of the faith supported by 
 the authority of St. Augustine and Aquinas. "Remove prosti- 
 tutes, (says Augustine as cited by Calerius,) and you will dis- 
 turb all things with licentiousness. Human government should 
 (says the saint) imitate the divine ; but God (according to the 
 saint) permits some evils in the universe, and therefore so 
 should man."t 
 
 His saintship speaks by experience, and shows that his logic 
 is as good as his moi-ality. For simple fornication is to be per- 
 mitted to avoid a greater evil. The Roman population at large, 
 and especially the husbands, experienced the effects of that 
 holy decision of the council of Basil. 
 
 I will say nothing of the hateful and degrading doctrine of 
 materialism, patronized in the councils of Nice, Vienna and La- 
 teran^ I will only state that it is no wonder that the purgatory 
 box is kept as the only panacea for the soul's salvation. It is 
 not astonishing that transubstantiation is taught as an article 
 of faith, and the wafer-god elevated for the adoration of the 
 Christians. It is not surprising that a rosary is substituted for 
 the atoning blood of the Redeemer of the world ; that bones 
 and rags of all kinds are adored instead of the Lamb of God 
 that taketh away the sins of the w^orld. It is not astonishing 
 that ignorance, prejudice, and superstition cover, like dark 
 clouds, the mind of papists , and that inquisitions, tortures, and 
 blood have been the means of aggrandizement to the church 
 of Rome, when the Roman pontiffs and the general councils 
 were (according to the accounts of their own historians) sunk 
 into the lowest depths of vice and abomination. A rapid view 
 of the six centuries that preceded the reformation, sketched by 
 the w^armest partisans of the papacy, will show the correctnesSj 
 truth, and justice of this imputation. 
 
 The tenth century has been portrayed by the pencil of Sabel- 
 licus, Stella, Baronius, Gianone and Du Pin. No man can read 
 them without shedding tears over the church of Christ. Stupor 
 and forgetfulness of morals invaded the minds of men. All 
 virtue fled from the pontiff and the people. This whole period 
 
 * Haec pestis maneat in urbibus. Canisius 4, 457. 
 
 f Aufer meretrices de rebus humanis, turbaveris omnia libidinibus. Labb. 
 17, 986. Dcus permittit aliqua mala fieri in universo. Aquinas ii. 10, 11. 
 
HOLY COUNCILS. 109 
 
 was characterized by obduracy, and an inundation of overflow- 
 ing wickedness. The Roman church was fihhy and deformed, 
 and the abomination of desolation was erected in the temple of 
 God. Holiness had escaped from the world, and God seemed 
 to have forgotten his church, which was buried in a chaos of 
 impiety. I will let their own faithful historians speak in the 
 note below, and the reader will be convinced of the immorality 
 and open corruption of the church of Rome."^ 
 
 The eleventh century has been described by Gulielmus, Paris, 
 Spondanus and Baronius. Gulielmus portrays the scene in dark 
 and frightful colours. ^' Faith was not found on earth, all flesh 
 had corrupted its way. Justice, equity, virtue, sobriety and 
 the fear of God perished, and were succeeded by violence, fraud, 
 stratagem, malevolence, circumvention, luxury, drunkenness 
 and debauchery. All kinds of abomination and incest were 
 committed without shame or punishment.'' The colours used 
 by Paris, are equally black and shocking. '^The^nobility (says 
 the English historian) were the slaves of gluttony and sensu- 
 ality. All in common passed their days and nights in protracted 
 drunkenness and sensual entertainments. They provoked sur- 
 feit by voraciousness and vomit by inebriety." The outlines 
 of Spondanus and Baronius correspond with those of Gulielmus 
 and Paris. Piety and holiness (these historians are obliged to 
 confess) had fled from the earth, whilst irregularity and iniquity 
 among all, and in an especial manner among the clergy, every 
 where reigned. The sacraments in many parts of Christendom, 
 ceased to be dispensed. The few men of piety, from the un- 
 paralleled atrocity of the times, thought that the reign of Anti- 
 christ had commenced, and that the world was hastening to its 
 end.^'t 
 
 The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were similar in their 
 morals, and have been faithfully described by Morlaix, Hono- 
 rius, and St. Bernard. According to the two former, the pic- 
 ture is a melancholy one. Piety and religion seemed to bid 
 
 * Stupor et amentia quaedam oblivioque morum invaserat hominum ani- 
 mos. Sabellicus II. 
 
 Q,uis non puterit Deum oblitum ecclesice suae. Spon iii. p. 908. 
 
 Contingerit abominationem desolationis in templo. Baron, i. p. 900. 
 
 L'eglise etait dans un etat pitoyable, defiguree par les plus grands desor- 
 deres, et plongee dans un chaos d'impietes. Gionnon vii. 5. Du Pin 2, p. 
 156. Bruy 2, p. 316. 
 
 t Fides deficerit, et domini timor erat de medio sublatus. Perierat de rebus, 
 justicia et aequitate subacta, violentia dominabatur in populis. Fraus, dolus, 
 et circumventio late involverant universa. Fides non inveniebatur super ter- 
 ram, omnis caro corrumperat viam suam. Bell. Sacram. i. 8. 
 
 Optimates gulte et veneri servientes, in cubiculis, et inter uxores complexus. 
 Potabatur ab omnibus in commune, et tarn dies quam noctes, in hoc studio 
 productflB sunt. In cibis urgebant crapulam, in potibus vomicam irritabant. 
 Paris 5, 1001. Spontanus ii. p. 1001. Bruy 2, 316. 
 
 K 
 
110 HOLY COUNCILS. 
 
 adieu to man, and for these were substituted treachery, fraud, 
 impurity, rapine, schism, quarrels, war, and assassination. The 
 throne of the beast seemed to be fixed among the clergy who 
 neglected God, stained the priesthood with impurity, demo- 
 ralized the people with their hypocrisy, denied the Lord by 
 their works, and rejected the revelation which God gave for 
 the salvation of man.^' 
 
 St. Bernard^ picture of the priesthood is certainly not com- 
 plimentary, and his character of the laity is of the same un- 
 favourable description. According to this saint, the putrid con- 
 tagion had, in his day, crept through the whole body of the 
 church, and the malady was internal, and could not be healed. 
 The conduct of the prelacy in secret, was too gross for expres- 
 sion. Therefore, the saint left the midnight monstrosity in its 
 native and congenial darkness. t 
 
 And when he addressed himself to the clergy of his time, he 
 gives a full, but the most hideous sketch of the moral depravity 
 of his brethren and the church in general. He loads the can- 
 vass with the darkest colours. '^ The clergy, (said the monk 
 of Clairvaux,) are called pastors, but in reality are plunderers • 
 who, unsatisfied with the fleece, thirst for the blood of the flock, 
 and merit the appellation, not of shepherds, but of traitors, who 
 do not feed, but slay and devour the sheep. The Saviour's re- 
 proach, scourges, nails, spear, and cross, all these, his ministers 
 who serve Antichrist, melt in the furnace of covetousness, and 
 expend for the acquisition of filthy gain, diflering from Judas 
 only in the magnitude of the sum for which they sell their 
 master. The degenerate ecclesiastics, prompted by avarice, 
 dare, for gain, even to barter assassination, adultery, incest, 
 fornication, sacrilege, and perjury. Their extortions they lavish 
 on pomp and folly. These patrons of humility, appear at home 
 amid royal furniture, and exhibit abroad in meretricious finery 
 and theatrical dress. Sumptuous food, splendid cups, over- 
 flowing cellars, drunken banquets, accompanied with the lyre 
 and the violin, are means by which these ministers of the cross 
 evince their self-denial and indiflerence to the world. "I 
 
 * La fraude, I'impurete, les rapines, les schismes, les querelles, les guerres, 
 les trahisons, les homicides sont en vogue. Adieu la piete et la religion. Mor- 
 laix in Bruy, 2, 547. 
 
 Toarn toi vers le clerge, tu y verra la tente de la Bete. lis negligent le ser- 
 vice divin. lis souillent le sacerdoce par leur impuretez, seduisent le peuple 
 par leur hypocresie, renient Dieu par leurs CBUvres. Honoring in Bruy 2, 547. 
 
 t Serpit hodie putrida tabes per omne corpus Ecclesiau. Intestina et in- 
 sanabilis est plaga Ecclesiae, quae enim in occulto facta ab episcopis, turpe 
 sunt dicere. St. Bernard, 1728. 
 
 X Dicemini pastores cum sitis raptores, sitiis enim sanguinem. Non sunt pas- 
 tores sed traditores. Ministri Cliristi sunt, et serviunt Antichrist© ; vendunt 
 homicidia, adulteria, fornicationes, sacrilegia, perjuria. St. Bernard, page 
 1725—1728. 
 
HOLY COUNCILS. Ill 
 
 The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries have been delmeated 
 by the bo]d. but faithful pens of AlHaCj Petrarch, Aegidius, 
 Mirandula, and Fordum. 
 
 Alliaco's description is very striking and significant. ^^The 
 church, (said the cardinal,) is come to such a state, that it is 
 worthy of being governed only by reprobates.'' Petrarch, with- 
 out any hesitation, calls Rome, ''Babylon the great whore, the 
 school of error, and the temple of heresy." The court of Avig- 
 non he pronounced, "The sink, and sewer of all vice, and the 
 house of hardship and misery." 
 
 Marian^ that celebrated historian, complains, as every Chris- 
 tian would do, who loves his church : he sheds tears over the 
 destitute state of the church of Rome, which he loves with his 
 whole heart. " Every enormity had passed into custom and 
 law, and was committed without fear; shame and modesty 
 were banished ; while, by a monstrous irregularity, the most 
 dreadful outrages — perfidy and treason — were better recom- 
 pensed than the brightest virtue. The wickedness of the pon- 
 tiff', and the corruptions of the fathers of the councils, descended 
 to the people."^ A book of three hundred pages is not ample 
 enough to contain all the historical facts of the degraded state, 
 anti-biblical decisions, and moral corruptions of the most holy, 
 apostolic, and infallible councils of the papal religion. I will 
 conclude with the lofty sentiments of the zealous Roman Catho- 
 lic writer, the never-dying Italian poet, Petrarch. 
 
 ''Gia Roma, or Babilonia, falsa, e ria," &c. 
 
 "Formerly Rome, now Babylon, false and guilty — hell of the 
 living I It will be a great miracle, if Christ is not angry with 
 thee at last !"t 
 
 I ask every man of sincerity, I make an appeal to every 
 Christian, without any distinction of religious party, to tell me 
 where the Roman church is : if she is not to be found in the 
 holy apostolic and unerring councils, where shall we look for 
 her ? In the priests ? They are subject to the direction and 
 obedience of the popes, and have no other authority than that 
 which is conferred upon them by the supreme pontiff*, the most 
 hoi J, infallible head, the pope. ' When Luther interpreted the 
 scriptures according to his own conscience, the pope e:£Com- 
 municated him as a heretic. 
 
 Shall we seek the church in the corrupt power of the so-called 
 
 * Les plus grand crimes etaient presque poussez en contume eten loi, on les 
 commitoit sans crainte, la bonte et la poudeur etaient banies, et par un de- 
 reglement monstrueux, les plus noirs attentats, les perfidies, les trahisona 
 etait meux recoinpens^es que ne Tetaient les vertus les plus ecclatants. 
 Marian, 6, 718. 
 
 Petrarch, vol. 4, p. 149. 
 
112 HOLY COUNCILS. 
 
 vicar of Christ ? Roman Catholics say, ^^The popes have been 
 men like others, (and they were bad men indeed,) who had 
 their faults, whom we consider as the head of the church, but 
 not the church itself.'^ 
 
 Shall we seek the church in the people, which would be the 
 very place according to the word of God % The pope of Rome 
 would say, ^- That is heresy. They have no right to interpret 
 the Bible by themselves; that is Lutheranism. Let it be ac- 
 cursed." For as soon as the people begin to be the church, 
 they have a right to decide in matters of faith, and make the 
 Bible their rule of faith if they choose. That, according to the 
 present statutes of the papal church, is a prerogative which 
 belongs exclusively to the sacred councils, presided over by the 
 pope as the head of the church. 
 
 The reader sees that the councils^ or in other words, the 
 bishops controlled by the pope, are the church of Rome. That 
 is the reason that they conclude every article of faith, (I say 
 every article without exception,) with the words, ^'■Whosoever 
 denies it^ let him he accursed.'^ 
 
 Roman Catholics ! 4e sincere, let sound reason, rectitude of 
 mind, purity of conscience prevail for an hour ; listen not to 
 me,. but to the history of your own writers. Read the bloody 
 history of your church; examine the corrupt decisions of your 
 councils; number (if you can,) the immoral acts of those fathers, 
 who wrote the articles of your faith. Inquire into the truth, if 
 it is to be found in those polluted channels of the councils, or 
 in the pure fountain of the living word of God. Search the 
 Scriptures, for in them you will find eternal life. 
 
 Look to the deplorable state of Mexico : enter into the exami- 
 nation of the state of Yucatan. — You will see that those palaces, 
 now in ruins, have been inhabited by a civilized people ; and 
 judging from the architecture of the ruins, it was a nation of 
 taste, in the possession of arts and sciences, as the Chinese and 
 other nations, who had not been in contact wuth the civilization 
 of Europe. 
 
 It is not yet three hundred years, that the Spaniards took pos- 
 session of it — that they came under the iron rod of priestly 
 government and papal influence. '^ They are no more.''' Their 
 palaces lie in ruins; arts and sciences are lost; the nation 
 perished, and the wild ruins are living monuments of the 
 melancholy effects of papal influence. Study the progressive 
 spirit of the nineteenth century, and you will find in all the 
 Protestant countries, commerce (if not flourishing) at least 
 not languishing; steam-boats, manufactories, rail-roads for the 
 facility of their communication; arts and sciences generally 
 encouraged; and liberty of conscience and of the press as the 
 
JESUITISM. 113 
 
 vehicle of social actions. Go to Italy, Spain, and Portugal, to 
 our neighbours of South America, you will find misery, igno- 
 rance, oppression, and a convulsive struggle between the prin- 
 ciples of liberty and papal tymnny. 
 
 Columbia ! thou land of freedom, asylum of the oppressed ; 
 the tyrant's scourge and freeman's joy^ pattern of all nations 
 and the people's country. Shall Yucatan^s doom be thine '? 
 Wilt thou allow thy cherished sons to become slaves of Jesuits, 
 and thy lovely daughters demoralized by priests and monks, as 
 those in Italy 1: Wilt thou permit that thy political institutions, 
 which have been dearly bought with the blood of thy first-born 
 heroes, to be efiaced by the coward hand of a priest, who 
 sways his bloody sceptre in Rome '? No. That cannot be. Thou 
 art young, it is true, but wise enough. Thou art inexperienced 
 in the stratagems of Jesuits, intrigues of monks, and finesse of 
 popery, but thou art strong enough to strike the blow in time. 
 ! Italy ! Italy ! why art thou not stronger or less beautiful ! 
 Conquered, or conqueror, thou art always a slave ! 
 
 Roman Catholics ! freedom of thought, liberty of conscience, 
 is my aim, happiness of mind, peace of heart is my principal 
 desire, and the salvation of your souls, my only prayer; w^hich 
 the adoration of images, the kissing of relics, the kneeling be- 
 fore the host, the money for purgatory, the hearing of a Latin 
 mass which you do not understand, or the counting of the 
 beads of the Rosary, will not, and can not give. None but 
 Jesus Christ, the only Mediator between God and man, can 
 save ; if He make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 
 
 JESUITISM. 
 
 My intention is not to write what I have heard from others 
 respecting those devoted children of the zealous Ignazius Loyola^ 
 but what i have seen and observed by my frequent intercourse 
 with them. Having been a pupil in the college of the Jesuits, 
 I must confess, that from w^hat I know and have seen of them, 
 they are worthy sons of such a father. 
 
 The name Jesuit is one of reproach among Protestants: in 
 Rome it commands respect, mingled with fear. In Protestant 
 countries, they (though numerous) are never apparently seen ] 
 but. in Rome, they are every w^here present. Protestants ab- 
 hor Jesuitism, (and w^ell they might,) for the name Jesuit is 
 associated witK regicide and the gunpowder plot, with the 
 bloody night of St. Bartholomew and the desolation of Europe. 
 
 k2 
 
114 JESUITISM. 
 
 In Rome they are not only the chief counsellors of every pro- 
 ject, but the executors of every plan framed by the secret 
 council of the Vatican. To kill kings is out of the question, 
 for they know that without the assistance of kings they will 
 never succeed in oppressing liberty, and opposing the progres- 
 sive spirit of the nineteenth century. Neither is there danger 
 that modern Jesuitism will teach molinism and prohabilism; for 
 the present generation is too virtuous, and science has found its 
 Avay out of their doors. With all these, it is still the ever- 
 living spirit of Jesuitism. 
 
 A Jesuit is an amphibians being ; he is (according to his con- 
 stitution) neither a monk nor a secular priest j still he is both 
 when required. The spirit of domination is the foundation of 
 his order, and at the same time you see him creeping like a 
 worm in the dust to be (apparently) crushed by every foot that 
 passes by. He is «, monarchist in Austria, a revolutionist in 
 France, an autocrat in Italy, and a republican in the United 
 States. In one word he is every thing, in order to obtain his 
 aim, for the end sanctifies the means. A Jesuit is like a bat ; 
 when the cat comes, it says: ^'I am a bird,'' extending its 
 wings and flies ; if the hawk appears, it creeps in the darkest 
 holes and exclaims: '4 am a mouse." Such is the character 
 of Jesuitism. 
 
 To become a Jesuit and to be welcomed at their doors, a 
 person must have one of the three requisites — talents^ nobility^ or 
 money. Talent is the chief object ] nobility is preferred before 
 money. 
 
 The bull of restoration by Pius VII. in the year 1814, was an 
 unfortunate event for the church of Rome ; not only because it 
 has restored the Jesuits, but because it gave a tremendous 
 blow to the infallible authority of the pope ] it showed that the 
 bull of Clement XIV. in which that pontiff suppressed and an- 
 nulled the order of the Jesuits was wrongs and how can we 
 know that his bull of restoration is right ? Popery boasts loudly 
 of its uniformity of creed, unity of action, and infallibility of 
 authority; but is it not surprising to see the same authority in 
 contradiction with itself? The house is divided and it must 
 fall. But as there is no effect without a cause, so the soi dis- 
 ant infallible heads did nothing without a good cause, and that 
 cause was self-interest. In the year 1773, Clement XIV. saw 
 his interest in the destruction of the Jesuits; Pius VII. restored 
 it for the same reason. Clement acted before the revolution; 
 Pius after it. The revolution was the line of demarcation. 
 
 Jesuitism and the reformation are contemi^raneous ; like 
 cause and effect, so was one the effect of the other. The light 
 of reformation broke through the dense darkness of papal super- 
 
JESUITISM. 115 
 
 stilion ] the so-called seat of Peter was shaken ; the thunders of 
 the Vatican were rendered powerless ] the church was attacked 
 and wounded in the most vital part : nothing but a holy militia 
 could save her from entire destruction. The period of reforma- 
 tion was short, the spirit of Luther was soon spent, and the 
 period of Protestantism and the spirit of polemics unfortunately 
 took its place ; instead of uniting the common enemy, the 
 children of the reformation disagreed in doctrinal points, and 
 divided on the same ground. Germany and Switzerland were 
 the theatre, and the Jesuits not inactive spectators of those try- 
 ing times. The Bible and reason were the greatest enemies to 
 papal darkness and were evaded by the Jesuits, whilst the 
 banner of science and erudition was unfurled in their stead. 
 During the time that the sons of the glorious reformation dis- 
 cussed their dogmatical points, the Jesuits fought in the fore- 
 most ranks for popery, raised again the beaten down standard 
 of Rome and tried to give new lustre to the ancient honours of 
 the triple crown. 
 
 It would be ridiculous if I were to make any distinction be- 
 tween ancient and modern Jesuitism ] for that sect never 
 changes. The leopard may change its spots and the Ethiopian 
 his colour, but Jesuits will remain always the same. They are 
 as in time of old, cunning and sagacious in gaining the favour 
 of the great and the heart of youth. Jesuitism is all activity 
 as in the day of its origin ; having determined to go, they ad- 
 vance, they resolve to accomplish an object and succeed. To 
 realize a project they evade all laws • they clear them by a 
 leap or trample them under foot as they did before their sup- 
 pression. If they aim at an object, they exert all these in- 
 fluences ; resort to stratagems, equivocations, and intrigues to 
 obtain it : for conscientious scruples are trifles. The evil has 
 risen to a point where concealment is criminal. Charity is 
 due to the righteous, not to men who are guilty of delinquencies 
 against righteousness to such a high degree. 
 
 It is not more than twenty-eight years since they have been 
 restored by the good but imbecile Pius VIL, and they have 
 their foot upon every kingdom and empire in both hemispheres 
 of the globe. In Europe the people had a severe lesson of the 
 past, and their progress is slow, though their influence great. 
 In the United States^ the free political institutions and the se- 
 paration between church and state are favourable for the pro- 
 gress of Jesuitism^ North America is the chosen land, the 
 second Paraguay. In Europe the Jesuits are under the direc- 
 tion of the Secretary of State; under the vigilance of the police; 
 only as long as they promote the interest of the State in the 
 kingdom in which they live, they are tolerated ; but in America 
 
116 JESUITISM. 
 
 they are under the entire direction of the pope. The poUtical 
 prosperity of the United States and the promotion of their in- 
 terest are not the interest of a foreign Jesuit; who is the citizen 
 of Rome, and is obliged by oa(h^ without mental reservation, 
 not to become a citizen of any heretical or Protestant power ; 
 7iot to recognize any other head but the pope residing in Rome 
 as the oath of the Jesuits will show. 
 
 JESUIT'S OATH. 
 
 ^•I, A. B., now in the presence of Almighty God, the blessed 
 Virgin Mary, the blessed Michael the archangel, the blessed 
 St. John the Baptist, the holy apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, 
 and the saints, and the sacred host of heaven, and to you my 
 ghostly father do declare from my heart, without mental reser- 
 vation, that His Holiness Pope Gregory XVI. is Christ's Vicar 
 General, and is the true and holy Head of the Catholic or Uni- 
 versal Church, throughout the earth 3 and that by the virtue of 
 the keys of binding and loosing given to his holiness by Jesus 
 Christ, he hath power to depose heretical kings^ princes^ states^ com- 
 monwealthsj and governments, all being illegal, without his sacred 
 confirmation, and that they may safely be destroyed ; there- 
 fore, to the utmost of my power, I shall and will defend this 
 doctrine and his holiness' s rights and customs against all usurp- 
 ers of the heretical or Protestant authority w^hatsoever, espe- 
 cially against the new pretended authority and church of Eng- 
 land, and all adherents, in regard that they and she be usurpal 
 and heretical, opposing the sacred mother church of Rome. 
 / do renounce and disown my allegiance as due to any heretical 
 king, prince, or state, named Protestants, or obedience to any of 
 their inferior magistrates or officers. I do further declare the 
 doctrine of the church of England, of the Calvinists, Huguenots, 
 and other Protestants, to be damnable, and those to be damned who 
 will not forsake the same. I do further declare, that I will help, 
 assist, and advise all, or any of his holiness's agents in any place 
 wherever I shall be ; and do my utmost to extirpate the he- 
 retical Protestants' doctrine, and to destroy all their pretended 
 powers, regal or otherw^ise. I do further promise and declare, 
 that notwithstanding I am dispensed to assume any religion 
 heretical, for the propagating of the mother church's interest, 
 to keep secret and private all her agents' counsels, as they en- 
 trust me, and not to divulge, directly or indirect!}^, by w^ord, 
 writing, or circumstances whatsoever, but shall execute all 
 which shall be proposed, given in charge, or discovered unto 
 me, by you my ghostly father, or by any of this sacred convent. 
 All which, I, A. B., do swear by the blessed Trinity and bless- 
 
JESUITISM. 117 
 
 ed sacrament, \vhich I am now to receive, to performj and on 
 my part to keep inviolably; and do call all the heavenly and 
 glorious host of heaven, to witness these my real intentions to 
 keep this, my oath. In testimony hereof, I take this most holy 
 and blessed sacrament of the Eucharist, and witness the same 
 further wuth my hand and seal, in the face of this holy convent, 
 this — day — An. Dom." &c. 
 
 America is the promised land, the land of the Jesuits' opera- 
 tions to obtain the ascendency. They have no need of a mer- 
 cenary Swiss guard, or the assistance of the mighty bayonets 
 of the holy alliance^ but a majority of votes, which can easily be 
 obtained by an importation of Roman Catholic voters from Ire- 
 land, Bavaria, and Austria. Rome, viewed at a distance, is a 
 Colossus; near at hand its grandeur diminishes, its charm is 
 lost. But the Jesuits are every where the same, cunning, im- 
 moral, and sneaking intriguers until they have obtained the as- 
 cendancy. Rome feels her weakness at home, she knows 
 herself to be a mere poliiical institution, dressed in the garment 
 of Christianity; she takes good care to uphold that holy militia^ 
 the Jesuits, in order to appear what she is not. It is a strife 
 for existence. 
 
 I am not a politician ; but knowing the active spirit of Jesuit- 
 ism, and the indifference of the generality of Protestants, I have 
 no doubt whatever, that in ten years the Jesuits will have a 
 mighty influence over the ballot box; and in ticenty^ they will 
 direct it according to their own pleasure. Now they fawn; in 
 ten years they will menace ; and in twenty, command. 
 
 Protestants are divided; they have no other common centre 
 than the Bible ; they have no exclusive source from whence 
 power flows in every religious society, but the Bible. They 
 have no Rome, no predecessor of Rome. Nor the pretensions 
 of Rome. Protestants have (through the grace of God,) no 
 visible head, to whom a special deference from all parties is 
 paid, and from whom honours and power are to be expected ; 
 in one word, they have no Rome. 
 
 Religion has nothing to do with the political institutions of 
 America. The exaltation or depression, the triumph or defeat 
 of rehgious denominations, is of no importance in the political 
 order of the United States. It is not so with Rome ; every 
 thing in popery tends to Rome. She exercises an immense 
 power over her ministers, and through them over her faithful 
 adherents; consequently the chief of these mililia every where 
 to be found, is the pope. 
 
 A Roman Catholic bishop in France, Mr. De Prat, says — 
 ^- The pope counts more subjects than a sovereign ; more even than 
 many sovereigns together.'^ That is very natural : for the sove- 
 reigns have subjects only in their territory — the pope counts 
 
118 JESUITISM. 
 
 subjects upon the territory of all sovereigns. They maintain 
 soldiers only in the space of their dominions — the pope has his 
 faithful militia, the Jesuits^ in all their dominions. The king's 
 authority extends only to the exterior, and regulates the exte- 
 rior social life. The pope's penetrates deeper — he commands 
 the interior; his empire is in the conscience. 
 
 What an immense power ! what an inconceivable influence I 
 If the whole world were Roman Catholics, the pope would 
 command the world, and all the millions of ministers would be 
 under his authority, directed by his will, and all would be 
 obliged to promote the interest of Rome. If the whole world, 
 (I repeat,) would be Roman Catholic, it would shake, subjug-ate, 
 and corrupt the world, as it did for ages, and is now actually 
 doing in Europe. 
 
 Americans ! Protestants ! not to know how to foresee, is not 
 to know how to govern, or how to profit by the past, or to judge 
 the world. Have you no apostolical vicars in the United 
 States, who have no other mission than to promote the private 
 interest of Rome ? Have you a right to choose bishops for your 
 country, as is the case in Europe '? No ! In France, Prussia, 
 Bavaria, Saxony, and even in Austria^ the kings and the emperor 
 choose their own bishops 3 no government or power would 
 accept a bishop in its dominion, who was not elected by them. 
 The pope must sanction it ; I say, the pope must sanction their 
 choice ; and if he refuses to give his consent, they compel his 
 holiness to do so, as it was in Prussia with the archbishop of 
 Cologne,* and in Hungaria with the Primate of that country.! 
 But, for the wants of America, the pope graciously provides ; 
 he sends his minions, who serve under his holiness' s banner, 
 and not under the starred flag of the Union. 
 
 In Austria, no priest can regularly officiate without being a 
 native Austrian, or having obtained the imperial permission to 
 do so. In Prussia, no Roman Catholic priest can take charge 
 of a parish without being a native Prussian, or obtaining a 
 special royal permission, which is not so easily obtained. The 
 same cautious state policy is adopted in France, and in every 
 other kingdom and principality of Europe, to prevent the fatal 
 influence of Jesuitism, which convulsed the peace of Europe ; 
 
 * The bishop of Cologne introduced the anti-social order of Gregory XVI. 
 in his diocese, viz : not to celebrate the ceremony of marriage in case of 
 mixed marriages ; the king of Prussia ordered him to change his course ; and 
 as the bishop of Cologne would not obey his majesty's command, he was put 
 into prison, and in spite of the pope he was unbishoped by the king of Prus- 
 sia. The same course did the king pursue with the bishop of Posen in Silesia. 
 
 f Mr. Rudnay, bishop of Weszprim, in Hungary, is a very liberal man, and 
 advocated at the Diet the cause of the Protestants, and obtained many privi- 
 leges for them. Bishop Rudnay was elected Primate of Hungary by His Ca- 
 tholic and Apostolic Majesty the Emperor of Austria ; but the pope would 
 not sanction the election of a friend of heretics. But His Catholic Majesty 
 said, it is his will, and the pope was obliged to say— Amen. 
 
'4 
 
 JESUITISM. 119 
 
 ■which was the cause of so many wars and bloodshed, of which 
 the history of Europe is so unhappily full. America is the 
 only land where Rome can work without impediment. Ame- 
 rica is the stage of papal action, where her hired servants, a 
 swarm of Irish priests, German monks, Italian friars, and Ro- 
 man Jesuits overflow the country, in order to promote Pope 
 Gregory's interest, and oppress religious and political liberty. 
 
 Protestants ! the political regime of the United States pleases 
 Rome 3 it gives her means of hoping soon to become the mis- 
 tress of Northj as she is of South America. The Roman clergy 
 of the United States, like that of Ireland, is very devoted to the 
 pope I very rigorous and submissive to Rome's orders ; soon she 
 will (may the Lord prevent it), occasion embarrassment to the 
 United States, as that of Ireland does to the British government. 
 
 The recent revival of this subtle and dangerous order, to- 
 gether with its widely diffused and increasing influence in the 
 United States, makes it desirable to give as full a view of its 
 character and history, as the limited space of this article w^ll 
 allow. 
 
 The Jesuits, or society of Jesus, is one of the most celebrated 
 monastic orders in the church of Rome. It was founded in the 
 year 1540, by Ignazius Loyola, sanctioned, and afterwards con- 
 firmed, by Pope Paul III., granting unto them the most ample 
 privileges, and appointing Loyola the first General of the order. 
 
 It was, indeed, a fundamental maxim with the Jesuits, from 
 their first institution, not to publish the rules of their order ; 
 these they kept concealed as an impenetrable mystery. Their 
 constitution and laws were concealed with such solicitude 
 that this alone was a good reason for having excluded them. 
 Through the opposition, however, which they encountered in 
 Portugal, and in France, the Jesuits were obliged to produce 
 the [Monita Sacra) mysterious volumes of their institute. 
 
 The primary object of the society was to establish a spiritual 
 dominion over the minds of men, of w^hich the pope should ap- 
 pear as the ostensible head, w^hile the real power should reside 
 with themselves. To accomplish this object, the plan of the 
 constitution was differently shaped from all other monastic 
 orders. The immediate design of every other religious society 
 was to separate its members from the world ] that of the Jesuits, 
 to render them masters of the world. The inmates of other 
 monastic convents devoted themselves to work out their own 
 soul's salvation by extraordinary acts of devotion and self- 
 denial; the followers of Loyola plunged themselves into the 
 bustle of secular affairs to maintain the interests of Rome. The 
 monk was a retired devotee of heaven ] the Jesuit a chosen 
 soldier of the pope. That the members of the new order might 
 have full leisure for this active service, they were exempted 
 
120 JESUITISM. 
 
 from the usual functions of other monks. They were not re- 
 quired to spend their time in the long ceremonial offices and 
 numberless mummeries of the Roman worship. They attended 
 no processions and practised no austerities. They neither 
 chanted nor prayed. Their antagonists said — '' they cannot sing, 
 for birds of prey never do." They were sent forth to watch 
 every transaction of the world which might appear to affect the 
 interests of papal Rome, and were especially enjoined to study 
 the dispositions and cultivate the friendship of persons in the 
 higher ranks. Jesuits are open and liberal in the external as- 
 pect of their institution, yet nothing can be more strict and 
 secret than its internal org-anization. Loyola, influenced per- 
 haps by the notions of implicit obedience which he had derived 
 from his military profession, resolved that the government of 
 the Jesuits should be absolutely monarchical under a general 
 at Rome, w^ho governs as he pleases. To accomplish the vast 
 designs of this society, it was indispensably necessary that the 
 whole body should have one mind; that all its members should 
 be indissolubly united to the head, and this by the oblig-ation 
 of unreserved obedience. Ignazius goes so far in a letter of his^ 
 directed to his associates in 1553, on the subject of obedience, 
 that he commands them to receive any and every order given 
 by a superior without distinction, and to receive it as a divine 
 precept^ to be observed without discussion. The general has the 
 direction of all missions, and the control of the property of the 
 society; as it is necessary that he should know the character 
 of those whom he sends out, the confession is no secrecy ; the 
 very desires of the heart are made known and recorded, so that 
 they can be at any time reported to the general ] the talents of 
 each are also noticed with care, that a man unfit for the station 
 may not be sent. A constant communication is kept up be- 
 tween the different branches of the order, of the most minute 
 character; to effect which, and for the better regulating the 
 concerns, a provincial is placed over a certain district as over- 
 seer, who inspects and reports all things to the general at Rome. 
 For fear that the provijicial should prove unfaithful, or fail to 
 communicate, the superiors of the houses, colleges, convents, 
 and tiie masters of novices are compelled to write every three 
 months to the general ; the provincials monthly ; in return he 
 must write to the provincials every two months, and to the su- 
 periors every six. The provincial has the power over the supe- 
 riors ; directs, commands, controls without being responsible to 
 any man, except to the general. In order to render these cor- 
 respondences secret and certain, the general can withdraw any 
 Jesuit from under the power of a rector or provincial, and bring 
 him near himself. Every Jesuit can correspond with the gene- 
 ral on things pertaining to the interest of the society. In certain 
 
JESUITISM. 121 
 
 matters which require great secrecy, the correspondence is in 
 ciphers, of which the general has the key. 
 
 Extensive as their missions and numerous as their colleges 
 are, the boast of a general in the seventeenth century might be 
 considered true — " that he from his closet governed not only 
 Paris, but China ] and not only China, but the world, without 
 any one knowing how it was done." The general is served by 
 a cabinet of faithful minions who communicate to him informa- 
 tion on every subject connected with the advantage or injury 
 of their order, the civil and religious concerns of every country, 
 the friends and foes in every court. 
 
 The maxims of policy adopted by this celebrated society 
 were, like its constitution, remarkable for their union of laxity 
 and rigor. Nothing could divert them from their original object, 
 and no means were ever scrupled which promised to aid its 
 accomplishment. They were in no degree shackled by pre- 
 judice, superstition, or real religion. Expediency in its most 
 simple and licentious form was the basis of their morals, and 
 their principles and practices were uniformly accommodated to 
 the circumstances in which they w^ere placed ; and even their 
 bigotry, obdurate as it was^ never appears to have interfered 
 with their interests. The paramount and characteristic principle 
 of the order, from which none of its members ever swerved, 
 was simply this — that their interests were to be promoted by 
 all possible means, at all possible expense. In order to acquire 
 more easily an ascendency over persons of rank and power, 
 they propagated a system of the most relaxed morality, which 
 accommodated itself to the passions of men, justified their 
 vices, tolerated their imperfections, and authorized almost every 
 action which the most audacious or crafty politician would 
 wish to perpetrate. To persons of stricter principles, they 
 studied to recommend themselves by the purity of their lives 
 and sometimes by the austerity of their doctrines. While suf- 
 ficiently compliant in the treatment of immoral practices, they 
 were generally rigidly severe in exacting a strict orthodoxy in 
 opinions. -^ They are a sort of people (says the Abbe Boileau) 
 who lengthen the creed and shorten the decalogue.''' They adopted 
 the same spirit of accommodation in their missionary under- 
 takings : and their Christianity assumed the colour of every reli- 
 gion where it happened to be introduced, except that of real 
 Christianit)^ They freely permitted their converts to retain a 
 full proportion of the old superstitions, and suppressed without 
 hesitation any point in the new faith which was likely to bear 
 hard on their prejudices or propensities. They proceeded to 
 still greater lengths ; and besides suppressing the truths of 
 revelation, devised the most absurd falsehoods, to be used for 
 attracting disciples, or even to be taught as part of Christianity. 
 
122 JESUITISM. 
 
 One of them in India produced a pedigree to prove his own 
 descent from Brama; and another in America assured a native 
 chief that Christ had been a valiant and victorious warrior, who 
 in the space of three years, had scalped an incredible number 
 of men, women, and children. It w^as, in fact, their own 
 authority, not the authority of true religion which they wished 
 to establish; and Christianity was generally as little known 
 when they quitted the foreign scenes of their labours as when 
 they entered them. 
 
 To carry such principles into practice, morality and religion 
 they must have forgotten. No man could have acted upon 
 them who took the Bible for his standard of morals; anew 
 code was necessary, and such we find among them ] one w^hich 
 any man possessing the least principle of morality would blush 
 at, and be ashamed to acknowledge. The world, the whole 
 world has fixed such an indelible stigma upon them for their 
 principles, that they will not own them ] and they never 
 attempted to reply to all the accusations of which the order has 
 been the subject ] they never could exculpate themselves, for 
 their own writers have exhibited their doctrines and morals, 
 and from them I will give some specimens in order to show 
 what they have been and what they are, and would be if they 
 could. I w^ill give not only the names of the authors, but the 
 chapters, and even the pages containing these corrupt principles, 
 taught by the Jesuits as doctrinal points. 
 
 Pascal, a Jansenist, a man of piety, but who never separated 
 from the church, and died in the pale of the church of Rome, 
 says. Let. 5, p. 76. 77 — '-An opinion is probahUj if only one 
 author, or one single divine, or one reason which we think good, 
 maintains it.'^ ''Of two probable opinions we may choose the 
 one w^e like best, though it may be the least probable.'^ This 
 is acting according to the declaration of a Jesuit, mentioned by 
 Pascal — '• Finding their morals too strict for the people, they had 
 brought them down to suit every one." In the Let. 7, p. 101 
 and 102, '^you may kill false witnesses, or a judge, who is go- 
 ing to decide against you.'^ In page 107, ''you may kill one 
 who is going to calumniate you, so that you may hinder the 
 calumny from circulating."' In Let. 8, p. 113, "Judges (though 
 positively prohibited by the law of God, and the laws of the 
 land) may receive bribes." Sanchez the standard of moral 
 theology of the order of Jesus, one of their greatest theologians, 
 says. Book I. chap. 10, no. 12, 13, p. 46. "An oath obliges not 
 beyond the intention of him who takes it, because he who 
 hath no intention to swear^ cannot be obliged in conscience to 
 any thing." See Pascal, p. 135, on mental reservation. Saurez 
 another prominent writer of the Jesuits, and chief moral theo- 
 logian, says, in the practice of the love of God — "It is enough 
 
JESUITlSxM. 123 
 
 to love him a little before we die.*' Ibid. Let. 10, p. 154. Vas- 
 quez, also a standard writer of the order of Loyola adds : ^' it is 
 enough to love him at the point of death ] we are not so much 
 commanded to love God. as not to hate him.''* Others teach, 
 ^•That to love God at baptism is enough." The last I shall 
 allude to is on Calumny, p. 238. '-To calumniate any man 
 who is obnoxious to the order, is no sin." According to their 
 doctrines, they were permitted to caluminate and slander every 
 one who differs from them. These are the doctrines of the 
 foilovv-ers of Ignazms Loyala, who style themselves the Order 
 of Jesus ! Paganism would blush. 
 
 Is it a wonder, that men without any moral principle, with 
 vigorous efforts, trained and disciplined men, the end always 
 sanctifying the means, no barrier hindering, no law which they 
 would not evade, no artifice to which they would not resort, 
 nothing too low or base, nothing so dangerous but they were 
 bound by oath to attempt, if ordered by their general — is it 
 any wonder that such men would not stop at any thing'? What 
 have they not accomplished ? How numerous have their col- 
 leges become ? How great their wealth, and their power ! their 
 licentiousness and corruption ! IntrigTie, usurpation, and tyranny 
 have followed, wherever they have bent their course. George 
 *Bronsweli, the Catholic archbishop of Dublin, in 1558, from a 
 knowledge of their principles, prophesied of them as follows : 
 "There is a fraternity which has lately risen, called the Jesuits, 
 who will seduce many; who, acting for the most part like 
 scribes and pharisees, will strive to overturn the truth : they 
 will go near to accomplish their object, for they transform them- 
 selves into various shapes ; among pagans, they will be pagans ', 
 among atheists, atheists; among Jews, Jews; among reform- 
 ers, reformers, for the sole purpose of discovering your inten- 
 tions, your hearts, and your desires. These persons are spread 
 over the whole earth. They will be admitted into the councils 
 of princes, who w^ill, however, be no wiser for their introduc- 
 tion ; they will infatuate them so far as to induce them to 
 reveal the greatest secrets of their hearts: they will in no way 
 be aware of them. This will be the consequence of their ad- 
 visers neglecting to observe the laws of God and his gospel, and 
 conniving at the sins of princes. Notwithstanding, God will in 
 the end, in order to avenge his law, cut off this society, even 
 by those who have most supported and employed it ; so that at 
 last, they will become odious to all nations. "=^ 
 
 The following historical facts have confirmed the above. In 
 the year 1540, when they ''petitioned Paul III. to establish or 
 sanction their order, they were only ten in number. In 1543, 
 
 * Varan's Annals of Ireland. -. 
 
124 JESUITISM. 
 
 they were not more than twenty-four. In 1545, they had only 
 ten houses; but, in 1549, they had two provinces ; one in Spain, 
 the other in Portugal, and also twenty-two houses. At the 
 death of Ignazius Loyola, in 1556, they had twelve large pro- 
 vinces. In 1608, there were reckoned twenty-nine provinces, 
 and two vice provinces, twenty-one houses of professions, two 
 hundred and ninety-three colleges, thirty-three houses of pro- 
 bation, ninety-three other residences, and ten thousand five 
 hundred and eighty-one Jesuits. In the catalogue, printed at 
 Rome in 1629, are found thirty-five provinces, two vice pro- 
 vinces, thirty-three houses of profession, five hundred and se- 
 venty-eight colleges, forty-eight houses of probation, eighty- 
 eight ^seminaries, one hundred and sLxty residences, one hun- 
 dred and six mission stations, and in all seventeen thousand 
 six hundred and fifty-five Jesuits, of whom seven thousand eight 
 hundred and seventy were priests. At last, in 1710, they had 
 twenty-four houses of profession, fifty-nine houses of probation, 
 three hundred and forty residences, six hundred and twelve 
 colleges, of which about eighty were in France i two hundred 
 mission stations, one hundred and fifty-seven seminaries and 
 boarding houses, and nineteen thousand nine hundred and 
 ninety-eight Jesuits. The houses of profession were for Jesuits^ 
 of the first order, who could hold no property, but were de- 
 pendent on charity. The houses of residence or probation 
 were for those of the second order, who could hold any amount. 
 Many of these houses are said to have equalled in splendour 
 the palaces of the kings and princes of France. A late writer 
 says — -'At the abolition of this order, their property was found 
 to exceed ten times the papal treasury, at its most flourishing 
 and affluent period, and yet no money scarcely was found in 
 their estabhshment, owing no doubt to their precaution to secrete 
 it for future purposes." 
 
 American Protestants, you are the most favoured nation upon 
 this hemisphere ; having the privilege to breathe the free air 
 of republicanism, and enjoy the blessings of a sound political 
 constitution ', let the history of the past be the guide for the 
 future — let the experience of the past not be lost, but be a les- 
 son for the future. Read the plots, intrigues, and assassina- 
 tions, which occupy no small part of the history of Jesuits. 
 They were implicated in the assassination of Henry III. of 
 France; ihey planned the Spanish armada; often attempted 
 the life of Elizabeth of England ; devised the gunpowder plot ; 
 instigated the murder of Henry IV. of France ; efl'ected the 
 revocation of the edict of Nantz, and the persecution of Pro- 
 testants following on it, (one of the most bloody and disgrace- 
 ful pictures in the history of the world,) ruined James II., and, 
 Ui short, were deeply engaged in all the atrocities and miseries 
 
JESUITISM. 125 
 
 which desolated Europe during nearly two hundred years. So 
 atrociouSj extensive, and continual were their crimes, that they 
 were expelled, either partially or wholly from all the different 
 countries of Europe. They w^ere expelled from England, by 
 proclamation of James I. in 1604. The king of Portugal was 
 assassinated, and Malagrida and a few more of those holy 
 fathers were charged with advising and absolving the assassins, 
 and having been found guilty, w^ere condemned to the stake. 
 The rest were banished with infamy, and even treated with 
 the most iniquitous cruelty. On the sixth of August, 1752, 
 their institute was condemned by the parliament of France, as 
 contrary to the lavrs of the state, to the obedience due to the 
 sovereign, and to the w^elfare of the kingdom. The order was 
 dissolved, and their effects alienated. But, in certain quarters, 
 where the provincial parhaments had not decided against them, 
 Jesuits still existed, and a royal edict w^as afterw^ards promul- 
 gated, which formally abolished the society in France. 
 
 In Spain, where they conceived their establishment to be 
 perfectly secure, they experienced an overthrow equally com- 
 plete, and much more unexpected. At midnight, March 31, in 
 the year 1767, large bodies of military surrounded the six col- 
 leges of the Jesuits in Madrid, forced the gates, secured the 
 bells, collected the fathers in the refectory, and read to them 
 the king's order for their instant transportation. They w^ere 
 immediately put into carriages, previously placed at proper 
 stations, and were on their way to Carthagena before the inha- 
 bitants of the city had any intelligence of the transaction. Three 
 days after, the same measures were adopted with regard to 
 every other college of the order in the kingdom; and ships 
 having been provided at the different sea-ports, they were all 
 embarked for the ecclesiastical states of Italy. All their pro- 
 perty was confiscated, and a small pension assigned to each 
 individual, as long as he should reside in a place appointed, 
 and satisfy the Spanish court as to his peaceable demeanour. 
 All correspondence with the Jesuits was prohibited, and the 
 strictest silence on the subject of their expulsion was enjoined 
 under penalties of high treason. A similar seizure and de- 
 portation took place in the Indies, and an immense property 
 was acquired by the government. The example of the kii.j 
 of Spain was immediately followed by Ferdinand VI. of Na- 
 ples, and soon after by the prince of Parma and Piacenza. 
 They were expelled from Venice in 1606 j from Antw^erp in 
 1518; from Hungary and Germany their banishment was de- 
 manded above all other things. At Vienna they were ex- 
 pelled without judicial forms, and in Bordeaux for conspiracy. 
 The same from Bohemia, in the year 1618. Mr. Be Prat, a 
 
 L 2 ^ 
 
1S6 JESUITISM. 
 
 Roman archbishop of MalineSj says: ^^Thirty-nine times they 
 have been banished and expelled, prior to their abolition in the 
 year 1773, by Ganganelli, (Clement XIY.)'' 
 
 Their abolition was not a work of haste. According to the 
 life of this pope, published in the year 1776, he spent four 
 years deliberately examining the history of this order. He 
 searched the archives of the Propaganda, for the documents 
 relating to their missions, the accusations against, and apolo- 
 gies for them ] desirous of being correct in the matter of his 
 condemnation, he communicated his brief privately to several 
 cardinals and theologians, as well as to some sovereigns, &c., 
 before he promulgated it. He then decided on the abolition, 
 but not without considering the consequences to himself. He 
 believed it would be death to him. When he signed the instru- 
 ment, he is reported to have said — '' The suppression is accom- 
 plished. I do not r&pent of it^ having only resolved on it after 
 examining and weighing every thiyig^ and because 1 thought it ne- 
 cessary for the church. If it ivere not done. I tuould do it notv ; 
 BUT THIS SUPPRESSION WILL BE MY DEATH." The initial letters 
 of a pasquinade appeared on St. Peter's church, which he in- 
 terpreted — ^^ The Holy See icill he vacant in September,''' which 
 was verified in his death, on the twenty-second of that month, 
 1774, attended with every symptom of poison. Thus ended, 
 for the time being, the order of Jesuits, and thus too the man 
 that dared to stop them in their course of iniquity. It is not 
 saying too much, if w^e consult history and experience, that 
 another so infamous a class of men never lived. 
 
 To show the reader that this is not my private opinion, or the 
 opinion of their enemies, or of the Protestant heretics (as they 
 call us) but that of the secret college in conclave, who have 
 ever entertained the same opinion of that pernicious order ] it is 
 well known to the reader, as well as to the world at large, that 
 the Jesuits had the most learned cardinals in the church of 
 Rorpe, more than any other monastic order, and with all their 
 intrigues they could never get a pope in their order as others 
 had, and never will obtain one. It is a common saying in Rome 3 
 
 " Non date le chiavi a Jesu, 
 Perche non vi le rendera piu." 
 
 In plain English, it is : -^ Give not the keys to a Jesuit, for he 
 will never return them again.'' 
 
 Before I conclude, I will give a short description of the essen- 
 tial evils of the society of Igiiazius Loyola. Their essential 
 principles are, that their order is to be maintained at the ex- 
 pense of society at large, and that the end sanctilies the means. 
 
 These principles are utterly incompatible with the welfare of 
 any community of men. Their system of lax and pliant mo- 
 rality, justifying every vice, and authorizing every atrocity, has 
 
MIRACLES. 127 
 
 left deep and lasting ravages on the face of the moral world. 
 Their zeal to extend the jurisdiction of the court of Eome over 
 every civil governmentj gave currency to tenets respecting the 
 duty of opposing princes who were hostile to the papal creed, 
 which shook the basis of all political allegiance, and loosened 
 the obligations of every human law. Their indefatigable in- 
 dustry and countless artifices in resisting the progress of the 
 Protestant religion, perpetuated the most pernicious errors of 
 popery, and postponed the triumph of tolerant and Chris- 
 tian principles. Whence, then, it may well be asked, whence 
 the recent restoration? What long-latent proof has been disco- 
 vered of the excellence, or even the expedience of such an in- 
 stitution ? The sentence of their abolition, as we saw, was 
 passed by the senates and monarchs, statesmen and divines of 
 the church of Rome — by the pope, and of almost every civilized 
 country in the world. Almost every land has been stained and 
 torn by their crimes ] and almost every land bears on its public 
 records the most solemn protest against their existence. The 
 evils of Jesuitism arise not from the violation of the principles 
 ^f the order: on the contrary, they are natural and necessary 
 fruits of the system; they are confined to no age, place, or per- 
 son ] they follow, like the tail of the comet, the samie disas- 
 trous course with the luminary itself 3 and in consequence, not 
 this or that nation, but humanity, is startled at the reappearance 
 of this common enemy of man."^ 
 
 MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 
 
 I cannot conclude my volume without saying something for 
 the edification of the Roman Catholics; I say for their edifica- 
 tion^^ for nothing is more edif5ing to them than the miracles of 
 their saints, as a display of the holiness of the church of Rome. 
 They, I trust, will not think that I speak in irony or ridicule; 
 by no means; I will merely state them as they are. There- 
 fore, T will say nothing of the feather of the angel Gabriel : nei- 
 ther of the bottle of the Virgin Mary's milk: nor of the tears of 
 our Saviour^ which are preserved in the chapel of the ScoJa 
 Santa in RomxC. I will say nothing of the holy house of Loretto, 
 where the Virgin Mary was born and brought up, and in spite 
 of its dimensions of thirty-two feet long, thirteen broad, and 
 
 * I would recommer:d to the reader, who wishes to have all the minute 
 particulars of the Jesuits and Jesuitism, Edinb. British Encyclopsedia ; and 
 EncyclopjEdia Americana; Mosheim Eccl. History; Harlapian Misc., vol. v., 
 page 566 ; Broughton's Diet.; Works of Robert Hall ; New York Evangelist 
 for 1831 ; British Beview, &c. But above all I would intreai every Roman 
 Catholic to read PascaVs Provincial Letters, American edition, and he will 
 learn the doctrines of his church; and the Protestants ought to read it in 
 order to know what thev are. 
 
128 MIRACLES. 
 
 eighteen high, it was in a miraculous manner transported in the 
 air with its chimney and belfry; and according to its history, 
 it was several times borne aloft through the air. and deposited 
 in one place after another, until it was finally located on the 
 spot where it now stands, and remained for the last six hundred 
 years without a foundation ] for the account of it is sold in 
 Philadelphia, and can be read by every pious papist to the edi- 
 fication of his immortal soul. 
 
 Neither will I speak of St. ViaVj whom the Spaniards vene- 
 rate and invoke, and whom the pope has canonized for the 
 usual fee of a hundred thousand dollars, and at the end it 
 turned out that St. Viar never existed — that the grave-stone 
 which w^as found with the inscription, S. Viar, does not say St. 
 Viar, but Prefectus Viarum, overseer of the high ways. 
 
 Nor do I intend to make any remark on the holy relic of the 
 handkerchief of Sta. Veronica^ in St. Peter's in Rome, upon 
 which the original impression of our Saviour's face is seen, or 
 of the numerous Ave Marias^ and other prayers which I once 
 said to that handkerchief: I am only sorry to say, that I have 
 at last found out that all my Ave Marias were for nothing, for 
 Sta. Veronica never existed ; that her name was formed by 
 blundering and confounding the two words vera icon, (true 
 image.) which the first contrivers and impostors usually wrote 
 on the paintings of the Saviour's image. 
 
 Neither will I speak of St. Amphiholis^ who, according to the 
 catalogue of saints in the breviary, was bishop of the Isle of 
 Man, and fellow martyr and disciple of St. Alban. I am happy 
 to state, for the consolation of the Roman Catholics, that St. 
 Amphibolis did not suffer martyrdom, for he never existed; he 
 is a saint risen by mistake. This Amphibolis, though reverenced 
 as a saint, is nothing more than a cloak, which Alban happened 
 to have at the time of his execution : Amphibolis being the 
 Greek word for a rough cloak, which ecclesiastical persons 
 usually wore in that age, just as the Romans called the cloak 
 of senators and other distinguished persons toga. (See arch- 
 bishop Usher.) 
 
 To show the Roman Catholic brethren that I do not intend to 
 ridicule, I will say nothing of Sta. Ursula^ and the eleven thou- 
 sand virgins, who, on the twenty-first of October, are adored in 
 the following manner: ^-Permit us, we pray thee, Lord our 
 God, to venerate, with unceasing devotion, the triumphs of the 
 holy virgins and martyrs, Ursula and her companions, &c."* 
 
 Nor will I relate all the adventures of the seven holy sleepers, 
 and accidents happening unto them during the time of their 
 long rest, w^ho slept in a cave for a period of three hundred and 
 sixty-two years, from the time of Decius to the reign of Theo- 
 
 * IJrevariuiii Moiinsticum of Pope Pa>il V., pnge 676, Paris 1671. 
 
MIRACLES. 129 
 
 dosiuS; nor of ihe worship which is offered unto them the 
 twenty-seventh of July. 
 
 I will at once select some miracles, not of Italian or Portuguese 
 saints, which the reader might suspect, but such which Bede 
 and Souihey have declared as true and authentic. 
 
 "King Oswald set up a cross at Heofenpeld, (or Heavenfield,) 
 and after the battle fought there, pieces of this cross were car- 
 ried away; they were supposed to be perfectly efficacious in 
 curing men and cattle, and of course imparting miraculous vir- 
 tue to the water wherein they were dipt. The moss which 
 grew upon it possessed equal efficacy ; and a brother in the 
 monastery at Hagulstad, who had lost th§ use of his arm in 
 consequence of a fracture, found it restored by sleeping with 
 some of this moss in his bosom. Earth taken from the spot 
 where Oswald was slain, to be administered in water, was in 
 such request, that a pit had been excavated there five or six 
 feet deep, by persons who came from all parts to obtain it. A 
 horse recovered from a fit by falling upon the sacred spot, and 
 the owner of the horse consequently carried a paralytic girl 
 thither, who fell asleep when she was laid upon the miraculous 
 ground, and awoke in perfect health. A bag containing some 
 of this earth was hung upon one of the posts in the wall of a 
 house which took fire, the house was burned to the ground and 
 that post alone remained unconsumed. When Oswald's bones 
 were removed they were washed before they were deposited 
 in their shrine : and the earth upon which the water was poured 
 out, proved of sovereign efficacy in expelling evil spirits from 
 possessed persons. A boy, who had an intermittent fever, was 
 assured, that if he went to the shrine and remained there till 
 the hour for the regular paroxysm was past, the disease would 
 leave him; he went in faith; the paroxysm did not come at 
 the usual time, and it returned no more.*' 
 
 '•The dust from St. Chadh coffin was an approved remedy 
 for man and beast. Sick persons were healed by being placed 
 in the horse-litter wherein Sir Erkenwal used to be carried ; 
 but if they were too far away to be taken to it. a piece cut from 
 the litter was taken to them, and the effect was the same."^' 
 
 ^'St. Fursey\\'3.s conducted by the angels, who, in one of his 
 ffights, commanded him to look down upon the earth. He dis- 
 covered in the air /our fires at a little distance from each other; 
 these v^ere kindled for the punishment of the wicked and 
 finally for the destruction of the world. The first was the fire 
 of lying, where men are punished who break their baptismal 
 vow ; the second^ that of covetousness; the third, that of dissen- 
 sion; the fourth, that of iniquity, especially the sin of defraud- 
 
 * Southey VindicaB Ecclesise Anglicanae, p. 133, who quotes from Bede's 
 History, lib. iii. cap. 4. 
 
130 MIRACLES. 
 
 ing others. Fursey was much alarmed at beholding the increase 
 of these fires, and that they gradually approached him. The 
 angels, however, silenced his fears by informing him that they 
 were only intended for those who had kindled them by the 
 sins above mentioned. Accordingly, when it reached them, 
 one of the angels went before him and divided the flames; the 
 two others, one on each side, warded them off to the right and 
 left, and he passed through unhurt, seeing on the w^ay many de- 
 vils flying about, some of whom pursued him. with accusations. 
 From thence he passed into the regions of bliss and found many 
 of his friends there. On his way back, he was obliged to go 
 again through the fire, and as he was passing ag-ain through 
 the flames, the devils snatched up a soul ivhich they were tor- 
 rnenting and flung it at him. This unhappy soul was so burning 
 hot that it scorched his shoulder and his cheek ivhere it touched 
 him,?^^ That is a little too tough to digest. 
 
 ^^ Touama, who fell in a battle, fought near Trent, and though 
 left as dead, he revived, and w^as taken prisoner, whose chains 
 fell ofl" every night to the great surprise of all. The cause of 
 which was, that his brother, an abbot of Tunnacaster, supposing 
 that he wa« dead, had said masses for his soul ! Touama sus- 
 pected the reason, and explained the matter in this way : 
 ^^When, however, it was ascertained that the chains fell ofl' just 
 at the time that the masses were said for his soul : it had a 
 marvellous efl'ect in inducing many to bespeak masses for their 
 deceased friends. t 
 
 I forbear any comment, except a question which Sou they 
 thus put to Mr. Butler : ''Would you desire, sir. a prettier sam- 
 ple of priestcraft and importance, than this scheme for bring- 
 ing custom to the mass-mongers at Tunnacaster'?"! Such are 
 a few specimens of the miracles related by Bede, trusting that 
 they have sufficiently edified my Roman Catholic brethren. But 
 should that not be the case. I Avill earnestly recommend them 
 '' the Golden Legend'^ of Jacobius de Voragine ; those related in 
 the '-Speculum" of Vicentius Belluacensis ; and those related 
 in the ^^ Saints^ Lives'^ of the patrician Meiaphiastes ; those re- 
 lated by Surius and Monhritius^ where they will find the most 
 absurd and ridiculous stories, which will afford them much 
 pleasure, and great edification. 
 
 Having thus edified the Roman Catholics, I will also amuse 
 my Protestant readers, by relating some miracles. St. Genajo, 
 is the protector of Naples in Italy; his blood is preserved in a 
 small bottle at the altar of the church of the same name. It 
 is believed by every Neapolitan, and well known by every tra- 
 
 * Bede, lib. 3, c. 19. f Ibid. lib. 4, c. 122. 
 
 X Southcy Vindiciae Ecclesiae Angl. p. 211. 
 
MIRACLES. 131 
 
 veller, that the liquefaction of that blood is an indication of 
 grace and mercy to the inhabitants of the city, as well as to 
 private individuals, who approach in faith to the saint. At the 
 time when Napoleon invaded Italy, suppressing the convents 
 and nunneries, carrying the priests and their riches to France, 
 the few who remained were, as a matter of course, not very 
 loyal to the emperor ; they agitated in secret, whispered in the 
 confessionals, into the ears of the Lazzaronies, that '' St. Genajo 
 is displeased with the conduct of the invaders — that his blood 
 did not boil during the whole time the ungodly French soldiers 
 occupied the kingdom of Naples.'' The reader can imagine 
 the fermentation of the populace, the acrimony of the devotees, 
 the fears of the peaceful citizens, and satisfaction of the priests. 
 The complot was organized, and the time of a second Sicilian 
 vesper was appointed, at the procession with the blood of St. 
 Genajo, (when all the populace, and Lazzaronies are gathered,) 
 then the signal of the slaughter should be given. The day 
 arrived ; the high mass was celebrated, the blood of Genajo 
 exposed to the adoration of the people • but it would not boil, 
 not even liquefy. The spies of the French immediately in- 
 formed the commander of the troop, of the imminent danger ] 
 who, without delay, gave orders that the whole army should 
 occupy the principal streets of the city; two cannons were 
 planted before the door of the church of St. Genajo, and at the 
 different corners of the streets with lighted matches, and a 
 special order to the vicar of the bishops, who celebrated the 
 mass — '• That if in ten minutes St. Genajo should not perform his 
 usual miracle, the whole city would be reduced to ruins ;'^ and in 
 five minutes the saint was pacified — his blood liquefied and 
 boiled. The ^^ gloria in excelsis" was sung, the shouts of joy 
 re-echoed in the air, and the French rejoiced with them, but 
 not the disappointed priests. 
 
 The house of Loretto is one of the richest establishments of 
 the pope, and the surest source to get money. As soon as the 
 French troops occupied the papal dominions. Napoleon ordered, 
 "that the silver statues representing the apostles, should be 
 taken from that house and melted, and coined, with his bust on 
 it, in order that they might be faithful to the command of their 
 Master, who ordered them "to go into all the world," but not 
 to remain inactive in the house of Loretto, and court the lady. 
 His messengers came to the house, but the twelve apostles 
 were already gone. When Napoleon was informed that the 
 silver apostles undertook the voyage before his messengers 
 arrived, he said — "Never mind the apostles; I have the Vicar of 
 Christ, and he shall not escape :" and carried the pope Pius VIL 
 to France. 
 
 St. Anthony, the Stylite of Egypt, who lived upwards of 
 
132 MIRACLES. 
 
 thirty years on the top of a pillar, was considered lo have at- 
 tained the highest degree of holiness/'' =^ 
 
 *^ A man who returned from the fiery regions, sa\T the mise- 
 rable wretches there, unable to endure the heat en the right 
 hand, throwing themselves into the equal torment of cold on 
 the other.'^t 
 
 ^' St. Dominick, (the author and finisher of the Holy Inquisi- 
 tion,) was such a holy man, that he made the fiend, in the 
 shape of a monkey, hold a candle for him till he burnt his 
 fingers." 
 
 '•At another time, St. Dominick fastened the devil, in the 
 shape of a flea, to a book which he was reading, and only 
 allowed him to skip from one page to another, as the saint 
 turned over the leaves. '^ 
 
 '-St. Dennis and St.Alhan carried their heads in their hands 
 after they were behea'ded.^'l 
 
 ''St. Anthony of Padua, preached on the same day and hour 
 in Padua, in Italy; in Madrid, the capital of Spain; in Lisbon, 
 the capital of Portugal, and in Rome. The apostles, on the day 
 of Pentecost, preached in their own language, and were under- 
 stood by all the nations at Jerusalem, or as some say, they 
 preached in the different languages of the people who were at 
 Jerusalem." St. Anthony of Padua, spoke not only Italian, 
 Spanish, and Portuguese at the same time, but was also orani- 
 present in the different parts of Europe. 
 
 If I would continue to relate the absurd miracles which are 
 authenticated by the church of Rome, and believed by the 
 papists as facts^ I could write a volume in folio ; but as this 
 would be a useless expense for myself, and of no profit for my 
 readers, I will make an appeal to the Roman Catholics, as well 
 as to Protestants. The first I entreat not to trifle with their 
 souPs salvation, but to inquire into the truth : to read the Bible, 
 for in that only they will find the hidden treasure, the pearl of 
 great price, the truth as it is in Jesus. And if I have said any 
 thing which might have wounded their feelings, I can assure 
 them that it was not my intention to attack any person, or 
 wound any man's feelings, but enlighten those who know little 
 of the intrigues of the church of Rome, and lead them to the 
 pure fountain of life, Jesus Christ. And the Protestants I be- 
 seech to pray without ceasing for the conversion of;' the church 
 of Rome. May God grant it in his tender merciea. 
 
 * Omicron's third letter, p. 58. f See Release from Purg itory, p. 309. 
 
 X Omicron's third letter, p 64. 
 
 THE END. 
 
JAMES M. CAMPBELL, 
 
 No. 98 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 PUBLISHES THE FOLLOWING WORKS. 
 
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 1 
 
( 2 ) 
 
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 HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION OF SPAIN, from the time of 
 
 ITS ESTABLISHMENT TO THE REIGN OF Ferdinand VIL Com- 
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( 5 ) 
 
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( ) 
 
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 •• < » • — » 
 
 A NARRATIVE OF THE INIQUITIES AND BAReARITIES PRAC- 
 TISED AT ROME IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, By Raf- 
 
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 the United States. l2mo. Paper cover, 25 cents. 
 
 *' Among the authentic narratives of modern Jesuit colleges, semi- 
 naries, and monastic institutions, this history is one of the highest 
 rank and value ; for it is a development of their true character, as is 
 proved by two facts — American youth, male and female, are prohibit- 
 ed from seeing their family relatives and friends ; and letters are rob- 
 bed and forged in every papist school and college in the United States, 
 exactly as Ciocci describes the felonious practices in Rome. Every 
 citizen should read and ponder this affecting volume. We earnestly, 
 call upon all the lovers of the Bible, and the friends of our public 
 schools, to study this narrative." — Christian InteUigeiicer. 
 
 '* We invite attention to this work as an exceeding interesting and 
 important narrative. We have here unveiled the machinations of 
 Jesuit priests in the nineteenth century. It is a dark picture of fraud 
 and cruelty, and shows that the historic mirror yet reveals Rome as 
 she is." — Episcopal Recorder. 
 
 '*It abounds with startling revelations on the subject indicated by 
 its title. The book ought to be read by every Protestant." — JV. Y, 
 Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 "'A narrative of thrilling interest, detailing numerous instances of 
 deceit, falsehood, and fiendish cruelty, practised by the Jesuits and 
 monks of Rome at the present time. Romanists will no doubt accuse 
 him of falsehood ; but his narrative carries internal evidence of its 
 truth, in the record of his own errors, and his numerous references to 
 persons of distinction now living." — Christian Observer. 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 ** A simple, truth-like narrative, which makes the blood of an 
 American boil. It cannot be read but with strong emotion." 
 
 '' This * Narrative' contains an account of the most outrageous de- 
 ceptions and atrocious cruelties practised at Rome on the author him- 
 self from his thirteenth year, when he entered the Pontifical College. 
 It should be read by every one who imagines that the character of 
 the Church of Rome has essentially changed, and that the bloody per- 
 secutions of the Vatican have ceased — and by all who need any testi- 
 mony 10 the barbarity and tyranny of the religious system of that 
 church at the ]wesent time, where it is allowed to develop iiself un- 
 trammeled by the restraints of public opinion or legislative enact- 
 ments.^ ^-^^SQuthern Churchman. 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE SiEGE OF LONDONDERRY, and Defence 
 
 OF EnmskillEx\ in 1688 and 1689. By the Rev. John 
 Grahaviy A. Jlf., Rector of Tamlaghtard^ iTt the Diocese of 
 Dcrrij. V2mo. Cloth, 62|- cents. 
 
 "This is a thrilling narrative of an event in the history of the un- 
 happy times of Ireland, when religious and civil animosities engen- 
 dered feuds of the most savage character. There is much at the 
 present time to revive interest in the perusal of a book of this sort, 
 and we doubt not it will have an extensive sale." — Phila. Gazette. 
 
 '' It is full of interest. The sufferings of the Protestants during the 
 siege are almost incredible. The enumeration is sickening, yet it is 
 true. It shows how much human nature can endure when conscience 
 and religion demand the sacrifice." — Richmond Christ. Advocate. 
 
 THE HUGUENOT CAPTAIN; or, The Life of Theodore Agrip- 
 PA D'AuBiGNE, ^?irm^ the Civil Wars of France^ in the reigns 
 of Charles /X, Henry III.^ Henry /F., and the minority of 
 Louis XIII. One volume^ Svo. Paper cover, 25 cents. 
 
 "This is a handsome pamphlet of 120 octavo pages. It contains 
 the autobiography of Theodore iVgrippa D'Aubigne, with an account 
 of the most remarkable occurrences during the civil wars of France, 
 in the reigns of Charles IX., Henry III., Henry IV., and the minority 
 of Louis XIII. It forms a highly interesting narrative, which, by 
 those who can appreciate the character of a brave and honest man, 
 maintaining his integrity and his principles of piety, amid conten- 
 tions, in the face of all the arts and blandishments of courts, and at 
 the hazard of every interest and life itself, will be read with pleasure. 
 D'Aubigne was one of the heroic Huguenots, whose memory it is 
 but an act of justice to rescue from oblivion. Their character and 
 deeds are worthy of an imperishable record. Many of their descend- 
 ants, in the Southern States, are distinguished for inteUigence and 
 piety, and exert an important influence in sustaining the best interests 
 of society.'' — Cliristian Observer. 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 NEANDER'S HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION during 
 
 THE First Three Centuries. 8vo, 48 pp. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 **This is a work of established and high reputation. Neander has 
 been termed the great ecclesiastical historian of the age." — Christian 
 Intelligencer. 
 
 *' We are gratified to find that this valuable and cheap publication 
 is presented to the public on good paper and legible type 3 thus proving 
 that convenience and cheapness may be combined. 
 
 ** We commend this work to our readers of all ages: it is a subject 
 of which none should be ignorant. Who does not wish for accurate 
 knowledge of the history of the Christian religion and church, during 
 the first three centuries? The grain of mustard-seed, planted in the 
 apostolic age, has become a mighty tree, on whose fruit the nations 
 live, and by whose branches they are sheltered. The reader will find, 
 in the recital of the early history of the Christian Church, an argument 
 in support of the divinity of its origin. It was introduced into the 
 world without the attractions of pomp, or the support of power; and 
 did not constrain the judgment of men by offering them *^the tribute 
 or the sword.'^ Wrapped at first in swaddling-clothes and laid in a 
 manger, it gradually developed the vigour of manhood, and the purity 
 of heaven. 
 
 The worshippers of the late false gods of Greece and Rome opposed 
 the progress of the new religion. But the results of every succeeding 
 persecution, armed with imperial power, affording additional proof 
 that the blood of the martyrs became ihe seed of the church, the religion 
 of Greece and Rome were buried beneath the ruins of their civil and 
 political institutions. The religion of Jesus of Nazareth survived ; and 
 when the sign appeared in Heaven, 'By this thou shalt conquer,' 
 it ascended the throne of the Csesars. Genius and learning have con- 
 spired for its overthrow; and the rock remains unshaken. The insidi- 
 ous pen of the historian has seemed to praise while it aimed to destroy; 
 but the simple histories of the 'Fishermen of Galilee' will be received 
 by the world, after existing empires shall have declined and fallen, 
 and new dynasties shall have arisen. In vain did Voltaire proclaim 
 to the world, * Crush the wretch.' Every opposer of this Divine 
 Teacher shall be brought to acknowledge, with the dying apostate 
 Julian, *0 Galilean! thou hast conquered.' 
 
 *' The work of Dr. Neander, which is translated from the German, 
 has never before been republished in the United States, and is very 
 rare. Its character may be inferred from a general view of its con 
 tent, viz. the introduction ; the history of the persecution of Christi- 
 anity ; the history of church discipline and of Christian life and 
 worship ; the history of Christian sects and doctrines, and an account 
 of the chief fathers of the church. Dr. Neander has attained high re- 
 putation as a scholar; and the discussion of such subjects by an emi- 
 nent writer cannot fail to possess high interest, and to contain valuable 
 information." — Baltimore American, 
 
' ( ) 
 
 NEANDER'S HISTORY OF THE PLANTING AND TRAINING OF IHE 
 
 CHRISTIAN CHURCH BY THE APOSTLES. Translated fro?. 
 
 the third German Edition^ by J. JS. Ryland, Svo, 335 pp. 
 
 Cloth, $1.50; sheep, ^1.75. 
 
 '^The author has gained so high a reputation for his learning in 
 the History of the Church, that it is needless to say his works may al- 
 ways be read with interest and profit. His peculiar notions as to 
 Church government, though hostile ta Episcopacy, should not deter 
 from the perusal of a treatise which contains much sound Biblical 
 criticism, and presents the history of the i\postolic age in that full 
 detail which is so necessary to its just comprehension. Almost every 
 page bears the mark of unwearied research, careful thought, and pro- 
 found piety, and while it can be expected of few that they will acqui- 
 esce in the correctness of all his conclusions, yet it will be hard to rise 
 from its perusal without having exercised useful reflections on the 
 history of the development of Christianity — an unbounded theme for 
 philosophical and religious contemplation." — Protestant Churchman. 
 
 ''This is the true history of a very important period in the Church. 
 Its author is one of the most celebrated of living theologians, and his 
 book will doubtless be heartily welcomed by theological readers." — 
 JV. Y. Courier. 
 
 *' In issuing an American edition of this celebrated work, the enter- 
 prising publishers have rendered an important service to the public, 
 the value of which is enhanced by the excellent style in which it ap- 
 pears." — Christian Ohsei^er. 
 
 "Some of the author's views do not accord with our own, but, in 
 the main, we are much pleased with the work, and cheerfully recom- 
 mend it." — Baptist Advocate. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, to the Revolu- 
 
 TioN OF 1688. By the Rt. Rev. Thomas Fowler Short, D, D.^ 
 Bishop of Sodor and Man. First American, from the third 
 London edition. Svo. pp. 380. Cloth, ^1.50. 
 
 "This is a book as interesting to the general reader as to one spe- 
 cially interested in the remarkable history it develops and extends. 
 It is written, as far as we can judge from a hasly glance at it, in a 
 liberal, comprehensive, and Christian spirit, not sparing the defects 
 of the Church of England, and not failing to give credit to other sects 
 Avhere the writer has thought it was due to them. The typography 
 and general appearance of the book are creditable to the taste of the 
 enterprising publisher." — Philadelphia Gazette. 
 
 "' We welcome this elaborate and valuable work as a most import- 
 ant addition to the series of Protestant pubhcations from the press of 
 J. M. Campbell. — JVorth American. 
 
 " We feel grateful to Mr. Campbell for his handsome reprint of 
 this learned, impartial, and valuable work. The publisher of such 
 books deserves to be liberally sustained and encouraged by the Chris- 
 tian public, and especially by churchmen. It is the fruit of many 
 years' reading and immense labour 'and research; and, though its 
 professed object is ' to facihtate the studies of young men who are 
 
( 10 ; 
 
 preparing themselves for the offices of the church,' there is no class 
 of readers who will not find in it pleasure and profit. '^ — Banner of the 
 Cross, 
 
 "There is a degree of candour and impartiality in this work which, 
 for a churchman, is as unusual as it is commendable. The author 
 has a justifiable partiality for his own church and the tory party, of 
 which it has been a prominent section in all periods of English his- 
 tory ; but this preference is not allowed to interfere with a candid and 
 honest statement of facts, whether they bear against the interest and 
 character of his friends, or are favourable to that of his opponents. 
 With a just admiration of excellence, wherever found, and a love of 
 freedom and popular rights, he looks upon the whole field of history 
 with the impartial comprehensiveness of an historian, rather than 
 with the jealous zeal of a partisan, or the exclusiveness of a sectary. 
 He eulogizes the Reformation; does something like justice to the 
 character of the Puritans, of Cromwell, and the Presbyterians : ad- 
 mits the tyranny of Laud, the weakness and selfishness of Charles, 
 and the violence and irreligion of the royalists at the period of the 
 revolution." — JV, Y. 3vangelist. 
 
 "An octavo volume of 352 pages, accompanied by a chronological 
 and genealogical table and very full index. It is a work of real merit, 
 written by one strongly attached, of course, to the church of which 
 he is a member, but apparently no bigot. We will not pretend to 
 vouch for all his opinions; but such a perusal as we have been enabled 
 to give to his writings, convinces us that he is sincere in them, and 
 that he is honest in the statement of facts. His references are numer- 
 ous. The religious sentiments which he expresses in the progress 
 of the work are evangelical in their character; and the views which 
 he entertains of Christians of other persuasions evince a charitable 
 spirit." — Baptist Advocate. 
 
 "This book has particular claims on the attention of the intelligent 
 laity, theological students, and the younger members of the clergy, 
 and will not be without claims on the elder members of that honour- 
 able profession. 
 
 " The fact that this work embraces the history of the Enghsh church 
 from the earliest period of English history down to the glorious revo- 
 lution of 1688, is all that need be urged in favour of its importance. 
 The style is easy and chaste; and the arrangement of numerical sec- 
 tions enables the reader, by looking over the contents of a chapter, 
 to find at once the particular subject of his inquiry. As a book of 
 reference, its value is much increased by chronological tables and a 
 copious index. The spirit of the author is liberal and Christian. It 
 is printed in double columns; and the paper, type, &c., are in the 
 best style of the publisher." — Baltimore American. 
 
 MILNER'S CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
 The History of the Churcpi of Christ. By the late Rev, 
 Joseph Milner^ JJ. M. ; with Additions and Corrections^ by the 
 late Rev. Isaac MiJner^ D. Z)., F. R. <S., Dean of Carlisle^ 
 and President of Que en'* s College^ Cambridge. From the 
 last London edillon. Two volumes^ Svo. Sheep, ^4.50. 
 
( 11 ) 
 
 THE LITTLE STONE AND THE GREAT IMAGE; or, Lectures or* 
 
 THE PrOPTIECIF-S SYMBOLIZED IN NeBUCHADNE ZZAR's ViSIOJV 
 
 OF THE Golden-iieaded Monster. By Rev, George Junkln^ 
 JD.D.^ President of Miami University^ Ohio, 8vo, In cloth^ 
 $1.50. 
 
 A CHARGE, delivered to the Clergy of the United Dio- 
 ceses of Ossory, Ferns, and Leighlin, at his Primary 
 Visitation in September, 1842. By James Thomas O'^Brien^ 
 D. J9., Bishop of Ossory^ S^c, Svo. 25 cents. 
 
 ** To all interested in theTractarian Controversy — and what intelli- 
 gent Protestant is not? — this charge of Dr. O'Brien will be invaluable. 
 The nuihor is well known to be one of the most learned divines of the 
 dav, and Mhe charge' fully sustains the high reputation which Dr. 
 O'Brien had acquired by his earlier publications. It is a standard 
 work, and is worthy of the careful examination of all who are inte- 
 rested in the diiTusion and success of Protestant or Scriptural prin- 
 ciples." — Protestant Banner 
 
 '•'Charge TO THE Clergy. — We have received from James M. 
 Campbell, of Philadelphia, a lucid and elaborate exposition of the na- 
 ture and dangerous tendencies of Puseyism, in a charge delivered by 
 James Thomas O'Brien, Bishop of Ossory, Ferns, and Leighlin. The 
 publisher deserves the thanks of the community for republishing this 
 pamphlet. The Bishop speaks like an Episcopalian — but he never- 
 theless adopts the language of our common Christianity, not that of 
 the bigoted Puseyite and Papist. This work contains the best history 
 of the gradual and stealthy introduction of Puseyism, which we have 
 seen. Its advocates seem to have deeply studied the 'pious frauds' 
 of Jesuitism." — Presbyterian Advocate. 
 
 THE NOVELTIES WHICH DISTURB OUR PEACE. Letters address- 
 ed to the Bishops^ Clergy^ and Laity of the Protestant Epis- 
 copal Church, By John Henry Hopkins^ D, !>., Bishop of the 
 Diocese of Vermont, One volume^ \2mo. Half cloth, 62 j cts. 
 
 LETTERS TO THE LAITY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 By a Protestant Episcopalian. Svo, Paper cover, 12| cts. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST DELINEATED, ix Two Essays. By 
 Archbishop Whalely. Smo. Paper cover, 25 cents. 
 
 DR. PUSEY'S SERMON. Paper cover, 6^ cents. 
 
( 12 ; 
 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 
 
 A Sermon, By fhe Rev. W. W, Spear ^ Rector of St. Luke^s 
 Church., Philadelphia, ''There is one Body^ and one Spirit?'* 
 Svo. 12| cents. 
 
 CONVERSATIONS ON THE PARABLES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 By the Rt. Hon. Lord Stanley. From the Fifth London Edi- 
 tion. In cloth, 37| cents. 
 
 '' This is a small work designed to assist parents in the religious 
 education of their children. It is written in a free and easy style, and 
 contains a very just delineation of the parables of Christ, happily 
 adapted to the capacity of children. It is related as a singular evidence 
 of the general appreciation of the book, that it passed through several 
 editions before the public knew any thing of its author." — Richmond 
 Christian Advocate. 
 
 THE BIBLE IN SPAIN; or, the Journeys, Adventures, and 
 Imprisonments of an Englishman, in an attempt to cir- 
 culate THE Scriptures in the Peninsula. By George 
 Borrow. One volume^ ^vo. In cloth, 62| cents ; paper cover, 
 37| cents. 
 
 ^^So great has been the demand for this work, that the present edi- 
 tion has been stereotyped. It has been pronounced by all the review- 
 ers as one of the most charming books of the day ; and we must cer- 
 tainly agree with them in this particular. It is written in a style of 
 the most perfect ease and elegance, and is full of recountals of thriUing 
 adventures and picturesque descriptions. Though imbued with ge- 
 nuine religious feeling, there is nothing of a sectarian character in 
 this work ; but it is rather a narration of the author's residence and 
 travels in all parts of Spain, during the five years in which he was the 
 agent of the English Bible Society for the circulation of the Scriptures 
 in the Spanish Peninsula. 
 
 •^* We consider Mr. Borrow as an author of the highest rank, and 
 not merely as an adventurer. His book seems to us to be one of the 
 most extraordinary that»has appeared in our own or any other lan- 
 guage for a lon|^ time past. Indeed, we are more frequently reminded 
 of ^ Gil Bias,' in the narrative of this pious, single-hearted man, 
 than in the perusal of almost any modern novelist's pages. We may 
 add, that Mr. Borrow has an almost irrepressible love of humour, 
 great enjoyment in the observation of character, and a liking for ad- 
 venture approached only by the knights of fairy tale. Thus gifted, 
 armed and accomplished, he wanders through the wildest scenery of 
 the most romantic of all lands, Spain; living with such as he may 
 chance to meet in the village or forest — or on barren sierra, on lonely 
 heath, or in her Moorish halls — and amid the lowest grades of her 
 crowded but impoverished cities : and gathering from all, he brings 
 before us surh living groups as few of ns have scrn.pv^^n in pictures. 
 
^ 
 
 <0 
 
 JAMES M. CAMPBELL, 
 
 No. 98 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA, 
 Publishes the following Works : 
 
 ^mS¥SSSl%b™^ reformation in ger. 
 
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 ILT Ihese Editions contain all the Notf=i n„rl P^,- „ 
 
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 sions" or ^^ alterations ■" Authors hand, wtthout '^ omis- 
 
 llorente-s history of the inquisition. 
 
 1 Vol. 8vo, Half cloth, 60 cents ; paper, 37^ cents. 
 ''^M^l^L^lr'^ ALEXANDER VI., AND HIS SON 
 
 By George Gordon. 1 Vol., 8vo. Paper, 37J cents. 
 FATHER CLEMENT. 
 
 A Roman Catholic Story. Duodecimo. Paper, 25 cents 
 
 ^cItSIn.^^^^ ^''^^' ^^SWERED BY AN AMERICAN 
 Price 12| cents. 
 
 TheTbZ^'''^ ™^^ ROME-ROME'S POLICY TOWARDS 
 
 tuHe^XS"*' '° '""""" ''" '"'''*""^ '" '"^^ '^' F-e Cen- 
 Prfce Is teX"'" ^'*'''"' ""*''°'^ °^" '^"'^ f^°™ ^^^- &«. 
 FOX'S BOOK OF MARTYRS 
 
 THE ERRORS OF ROMANISM 
 Oclr' Pa^So^R^ce^tr " ''^^"^' ''^ ^"=''^'«''°P ^^^^^r- 
 
 ''IfVapIcy'''''^^'' DISCOURSE ON THE RISE AND FALL 
 
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 A HISTORY OF THE SIEGE OF LONDONDFRRV »n,l n <• ' 
 
 Ulotn, 62| cents. ^ 
 
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