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'i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. \ 
 
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 | UNITED STATES OP AMERICA,. | 
 
MONKS, POPES, 
 
 AND 
 
 Their Political Intrigues, 
 
 BY 
 
 4 
 
 JOHN ALBERGER. 
 
 " Like lambs have we crept into pozuer ; like wolves have we 
 used it; like dogs have we been driven out/ like eagles shall we 
 renew our youth." — St. Francis Borgia. 
 
 li Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" — Washington. 
 
 
 IjST one volume. 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 
 1371. 
 
 a 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress In the year 1371, by 
 
 JOHX AI/BEKGEK, 
 
 In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 
 
PR E FA C E. 
 
 The object of the present work is to show the political 
 nature of the Catholic church, and its treasonable 
 designs with regard to the American republic. 
 
 In the course of the following pages the author has 
 endeavored to show that the Catholic Church is intrin- 
 sically a gigantic conspiracy against the liberties of the 
 world ; ingenious in its construction, opulent in its re- 
 sources, extensive in its ramifications, and formidable in 
 its character. In proof of this assertion he submits to 
 the consideration of the reader a mass of irrefragable 
 authority, and indisputable historical incidents. The 
 authorities on which he chiefly relies are papal bulls, 
 briefs, and encyclical letters ; the canons of Catholic 
 councils ; Catholic periodicals under the supervision of 
 priests, such as the Civita Cattolica, Bronsoris Review, 
 the Boston Pilot, the Tablet, the Rambler, the Shepherd 
 of the Valley, the Paris Univers ; also the works of 
 Dens, the author of the Catholic system of Divinity; 
 of Llorente, the secretary of the Spanish Inquisition; 
 of Bellarmine, the celebrated Catholic controversialist ; 
 of Ferraris, the author of the Catholic Ecclesiastical 
 
PKEFA-CE. 
 
 Dictionary ; of Fra Paola, the Catholic ecclesiastical 
 historian ; of St. Thomas Aquinas, entitled by the 
 church " the Angelic Doctor" " the Angel of the School," 
 " the Fifth Doctor ;" of St. Bernard, called " the Honeyed 
 Teacher" and his works " Streams from Paradise ;' r of 
 Labbeus, of St. Liquori, of Moscovius, and of a host of 
 other oracles of Catholicism. 
 
 By means of these authorities the veil of piety which 
 conceals and decorates the papal church is partly drawn 
 aside, and her monarchial character, political organiza- 
 tion, despotic nature, ambitious designs and treasonable 
 principles, are distinctly presented to view. 
 
 The author pretends to no originality. The diction 
 and logic are, of course his own, but the facts and prin- 
 ciples upon which he bases his charges are the avowals 
 of the church, the records of history, and the official 
 affirmations of civilized nations. 
 
 The Infidels, as faithful sentinels on the watch tower 
 of liberty, have often uttered the cry of warning ; the 
 Protestant pulpit has at intervals startled from its 
 drowsy slumbers, and echoed the same alarm* but nei- 
 ther the one nor the other has been able to arouse the 
 people from their profound slumber. Gavazzi has lec- 
 tured, Hogan, Colton, Hopkins have written, but so 
 profound and death-like is the torpidity which holds 
 the senses of Americans in indifference, that the warn- 
 ings of writers and speakers have died away with the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 tones in which they were uttered. But Americans must 
 awake — they will awake — if not soon enough to avert 
 the impending doom overhanging their country and 
 their posterity, yet soon enough ! alas, too soon ! to 
 weep in despair over their present apathy and indiffer- 
 ence, amid the ruins of their republic. 
 
 JOHN ALBERGER, 
 
 Baltimore, Md., July 4th, 1871, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Catholicism a Political Organization. * 6 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Political Machinery of the Papal Power, . .15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Monastic Vow of Perpetual Solitude, . . 22 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Monastic Vow of Perpetual Silence, . . 32 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Vow of Silent Contemplation. Part First, . 40 
 
 " Second, . 46 
 11 Third, . 35 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Monastic Vow of Poverty, . . .85 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Monastic Vow of Celibacy, . . . 106 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Monastic Vow of Unconditional Obedience, . 129 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Pagan Origin of the Monastic Orders, . . 136 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Popes — their Pretensions, Elections, Character 
 
 and Administrations, ... . . 153 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Papal Monarchy — Crown, Banner, Cabinet, 
 Court, Decrees, Jurisdiction, Coinage, Army 
 and Navy, Revenues, Oaths and Spies, . . 181 
 
 The Papal Monarchy. Section Two. The Pope's 
 Direct Authority ; his Opposition to Marriage ; 
 to Slavery ; his Claim to Temporal Power on 
 the Forged Decretal Letter of Constantine ; on 
 the Fictitious Gift of Pepin ; on the Pretended 
 Donation of Charlemagne ; on the Disputed 
 Bequest of Matilda, Duchess of Tuscany ; the 
 Title of Pope a Usurpation ; the Papal Artful 
 Policy ; the State of Italy under the Papal 
 Government, ..... 207 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Papal Political Intrigues in England — Papal ' 
 Machinery ; Intrigues under the Reigns of 
 Henry II. ; of King John ; of Henry VII. ; of 
 Charles I. ; of Charles II. ; of James II. ; of 
 William and Mary, . . . .226 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Papal Political Intrigues in France — During the 
 Reigns of Clovis ; of Childeric III. ; of Pepin ; 
 of Charlemagne ; of Hugh Capet ; of Philip 
 IV. ; of Louis XII. ; of Francis I. ; of Francis 
 II. ; of Charles IX. ; of Henry IV. ; of Louis 
 XIII. ; of Louis XIV., . . . .256 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Papal Political Intrigues in Germany — Under the 
 Reigns of Otho I.; of Henry IV.; of Henry 
 V. ; of Frederic I. ; of Frederic II. ; of Conrad 
 IV. ; of Albert I. ; of Henry VII. ; of Louis of 
 Bavaria; of Charles IV.; of Sigismund ; of 
 Charles V. ; of Ferdinand II.; Papal Intrigues 
 in Austria; in Prussia; and in the Nether- 
 lands, 289 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Papal Political Intrigues in Portugal and Spain — 
 Under the Reigns of Alphonso I. ; Sancho II. ; 
 Dionysus ; John II. ; Emanuel ; John III. ; 
 Sebastian ; Philip II. ; Joseph I. ; Maria Fran- 
 cesca Isabella ; John VI. ; Pedro VI. ; and 
 Dona Maria, - ... 323 
 
 In Spain — Under the Reigns of Recared L; 
 Charles V.; Philip II.: Philip III.; Charles 
 II. ; Charles III. ; Charles IV. ; and Ferdi- 
 nand VII, 336 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Papal Intrigues Respecting the United States ; 
 Catholic Persecution ; Protestant Persecution ; 
 Catholics in the Revolutionary War ; in the 
 late Rebellion ; Catholic Enmity to Civil and 
 Religious Liberty ; an Alliance formed for the 
 Subversion of the American Republic ; the 
 Duke of Richmond's Letter ; Catholic Immi- 
 gration ; Progress of Catholicism ; the Repub- 
 lic in Imminent Danger ; Union the Only Means 
 of Salvation; Conclusion, . , . 348 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Catholicism, a Political Organization. 
 
 Guizot, speaking of the Christian Church, says: "I say 
 the Christian Church, and not Christianity, between 
 which a broad distinction is to be made." (Gen. Hist. 
 Civilization, Lecture 11, p. 48.) The Catholic Church 
 has little except the name of Christianity, while it is 
 secretly a political organization to establish " the suprem- 
 acy of the Pope over all persons and things," which, 
 according to Bellarmine's view, "is the main substance 
 of Christianity." 
 
 If we have recourse to the lexicon to ascertain the 
 signification of the term religion, we may arrive at a 
 definite conclusion respecting its classical use : but if we 
 are guided in our inquiry by the popular acceptation, 
 we will discover that its definitions are as numerous as the 
 inhabitants of the globe, and as various as their fea- 
 tures. We have Natural religion, Pagan religion, Hin- 
 doo religion, Jewish religion, Christian religion, and 
 Mahometan religion. Among Christian sects some be- 
 lieve religion to consist in individual feeling, some in 
 baptism, some in reverence for the clergy, some in 
 problematical creeds and dogmas, some in observances 
 of church ordinations, some in rhapsodies, and some in a 
 species of sentimentalism. 
 
 The Boston Pilot says: "There can be no religion 
 
 without an Inquisition ;" but Thomas Paine, with nobler 
 
 philosophy, thinks "religious duties consist in doing 
 
 justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fel- 
 1* 
 
6 CATHOLICISM A 
 
 low creatures happy." The diversity and discordance 
 which have arisen respecting the import of this term, 
 originate from its compound nature adapting it to desig- 
 nate one idea, or a variety of ideas. But while we rarely 
 encounter two persons exactly concurring in an opinion 
 of what is religion, we find all readily admitting that it 
 essentially consists in just principles and correct conduct. 
 Principles are the fountains of thought and feeling; to 
 he just, they must be formed in accordance with truth 
 and reason. Conduct to he correct must he in harmony 
 with the rights of others, and the principles and designs 
 of the human organism. According to this definition, 
 religion may exist with or without ceremonial observ- 
 ances. All forms are merely external appendages, un- 
 essential to the nature of religion, and as distinct from 
 it as the casket is from the gem, or the body from the 
 vital principle. If this definition should be construed 
 into a definition of mere morality, it cannot invalidate 
 any objection founded on it to Catholicism, as every 
 such objection will then become demonstrative proof 
 that the Catholic Church is not only destitute of reli- 
 gion, but even of morality. 
 
 The signification of a corporate organization is well 
 understood, but how shall we ascertain its principles 
 and designs ? Not from the tenor of its professions ; but 
 from the nature of its constitution, the tendency of its 
 measures, the sanctions which it has given, the recogni- 
 tions which it has made in its official capacity ; and 
 above all, from the avowals it has uttered, under such 
 a prosperous condition of affairs as made disguise unne- 
 cessary. In courting popular favor, an organization 
 concocted to subvert the rights and interests of the 
 
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. t 
 
 people, would, from motives of policy, be prompted to 
 conceal its nature and design ; but when wealth and 
 power bad sufficiently fortified its security to enable it 
 to scorn arid defy public opinion, it would then as 
 naturally unfold its latent principles, as a summer's 
 sun would batch an innocently loooking cluster of eggs 
 into a nest of poisonous asps. 
 
 If among the members of an organization, which pro- 
 fesses to be of an exclusively religious character, men 
 should be found who are unquestionably religious or 
 moral, this fact would no more prove it to be a religious 
 or moral institution, than would the membership of the 
 same persons to a railroad or municipal corporation 
 prove such a corporation to be a religious and not a secu- 
 lar organization. But if at periods in its history, its most 
 irreproachable and credible members should denounce it 
 as a political power, and labor to transform it into a 
 purely religious institution, and for such a /'damna- 
 ble heresy" were burnt alive, and their ashes thrown 
 into a river to prevent the people from worshipping 
 them, what would be the legitimate inference from such 
 facts ? Would it not be that it claimed to be a political 
 organization ? that it was high treason in its estimation to 
 question its right to this character ? and that to utter 
 such a question in its domains was to provoke its 
 heaviest penalty? Did not all these facts occur in 
 Rome respecting Arnold of Brecia ? ' And in Catholic 
 history have not similar facts, from his time down to 
 the Reformation, been incarnadined in human blood, 
 too deeply for audacity to deny or time to obliterate ? 
 
 But what is a religious organization ? If religion is 
 moral goodness, a religious organization must be an em- 
 
8 CATHOLICISM A 
 
 bodiment of its principles, a practical exemplification 
 of its maxims, and a scheme in measures and policy 
 adapted to extend the observance of its obligations. 
 Such an organization must be consistent with itself, and 
 in harmony with the natural principles of man. In 
 integrity it must be invulnerable ; in adherence to right 
 inflexible; in hostility to wrong, uncompromising. It 
 must be the champion of the rights of human nature ; 
 the friend of freedom, equality and liberality ; the enemy 
 of bigotry, intolerance, and despotism. Its claims must 
 be commended by truth ; its measures sanctioned by 
 reason and conscience ; its triumphs won by argument 
 and persuasion. Its hands must be unstained with 
 blood. It must never perpetrate a fraud, nor descend 
 to intrigue, nor dissemble, nor cherish malice, nor slan- 
 der an opponent, nor traffic for self-aggrandizement, nor 
 prostitute its principles to political objects, nor accom- 
 modate itself to the vices of any age or country. Amid 
 general corruption it must always be pure, amid bigotry 
 it must always be tolerant, amid oppression it must 
 always advocate the cause of justice, and amid ignorance 
 the cause of education. 
 
 Such are some of the essential characteristics of a 
 religious or moral organization. Any departure from 
 them in an institution, proves its secularism. No church 
 in which they form not a distinguishing feature, has any 
 claims to be a religious or moral corporation. 
 
 Now when we see an institution, professing to be of 
 an exclusively religious character, organizing its depart- 
 ments upon a financial basis; enjoining on its members 
 the vow of unconditional obedience, in order to subject 
 them to its despotic domination; the vow of absolute 
 
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 9 
 
 poverty, in order to enable them more successfully to 
 administer to the increase of its wealth; the vow of 
 celibacy, in order to prevent them from having legiti- 
 mate heirs, to divert the ecclesiastical possessions from the 
 church ; when we see it establishing schools to select and 
 mould to its designs the most promising among youth, 
 instituting universities to enrich itself by the sale of 
 their honors, absolving sins for money, selling indul- 
 gences for the commission of premeditated crime, erect- 
 ing missionary stations among Pagans for the purpose of 
 traffic and emolument, manufacturing evidence, com- 
 mitting forgeries, and corrupting and interpolating the 
 text of ancient authors, denouncing reason, crushing 
 liberty, circumscribing knowledge, anathematizing those 
 who disbelieve in its arbitrary dogmas, torturing 
 those who question its supreme authority, burning 
 those who oppose its pretensions ; having a national cab- 
 inet, ministerial offices, accredited ambassadors, main- 
 
 9 
 
 taining a standing army, a naval force, religious military 
 orders to extend and enlarge its domains, carrying a 
 national banner, wearing a political crown, declaring 
 war, concluding national covenants, coining money, 
 and exercising all the rights of an acknowledged inde- 
 pendent monarchy, it is more than credulity can admit, 
 to concede that such an organization is not a corrupt, 
 cruel, despotic, and political institution. That such is 
 the constitution of the Catholic Church is a fact, attested 
 by the existing Papal Government, and by the spirit and 
 acts of its past history ; and that it is now what in the 
 past it has been, is established by the unanimous testi- 
 mony of its acknowledged expounders. 
 
 Simplicity has been amused by modern Catholic apol- 
 
10 CATHOLICISM A 
 
 ogists, who assert that the Papal monarch has resigned 
 his former pretensions to "universal temporal sovereignty, 
 and that he now merley maintains his right to supreme 
 spiritual authority. But this subterfuge can mislead only 
 a superficial, ignorant mind. As spiritual sovereignty is 
 absolute dominion over reason and conscience, it una- 
 voidably involves temporal sovereignty ; nay, temporal 
 sovereignty of the most despotic and unlimited authori- 
 ty. Reason and conscience lay at the foundation of all 
 political power ; and if Catholicism is adapted to govern 
 them, it transcends in despotism the most ingeniously 
 contrived monarchy that tyranny has ever elaborated, 
 or by which the faculties of man have ever been en- 
 thralled. Spain, Russia, or any other government is 
 less tyrannical in its constitution than is the Catholic 
 Church. He who would establish the contrary opinion, 
 must first obliterate the Papal bulls, the decrees of the 
 Councils, and the authorities of the Catholic Church; 
 he must go to Rome and convert the present Pope and 
 his college of Cardinals ; nay, he must attend the coming 
 (Ecumenical Council and induce it to annul the canons 
 of all the previous Councils, and to declare that all the 
 preceding Popes were " damnable heretics," and have 
 them accordingly excommunicated. These preliminary 
 steps must be taken before he can avoid absurdity or 
 the imputation of wilful prevarication. 
 
 But the Papal See has never resigned its preposterous 
 claim to universal temporal sovereignty. The bulls and 
 canons asserting this pretension have never been an- 
 nulled. They still form the canon law of the Church. 
 No official declaration has announced an abrogation of 
 them. The Pope's reiterated and blasphemous claim to 
 
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 1 1 
 
 infallibility precludes the possibility of such a sensible 
 act. Infallibility is inconsistent with change of prin- 
 ciple or error of conduct, and when the Church of Rome 
 arrogates such a divine attribute, she avers that her past 
 history indicates her present character and future in- 
 tentions. In this opinion all her authorities concur. 
 Bishop Kendrick says : " All doctrine of definitions 
 already made by general Councils and former Pontiffs 
 are marks which no Titian can remove!'' (Primacy, p. 
 356). Brownson says: "What the Church -has done, 
 what she has expressly or tacitly approved in the past, 
 is exactly what she will do, expressly or tacitly ajyprove, 
 in the future, if the same circumstances occur." (Re- 
 view, Jan. 1854). Again : " The Catholic dogma, in 
 regard to every subject whatever, has always been the 
 same from the beginning, remains always unchangeably 
 the same, and will always continue in every j^art of the 
 world immutable." (Review, Jan., 1850). • Again: 
 " Catholicity, as long as it continues Catholicity, cannot 
 be carried to excess. It will be all or nothing." (Re- 
 view, Jan., 1854). The editors of the Civilita Cattolica, 
 the Pope's organ at Rome, say : " From the darkness of 
 the catacombs she ( the Catholic Church ) dictated laws 
 to the subjects of Emperors, abrogating decrees, whether 
 plebeian, senatorial or imperial, when in conflict with 
 Catholic ordinances. To-day, as in all time, the Church 
 commands the spiritual part of man ; and, in ruling 
 over the spirit, she rules the body, rules over riches, 
 over science, over affections, over interests, over associ- 
 ations — rules, in fine, over monarchs and their minis- 
 ters." 
 
 The Dublin Tablet, Feb. 24, 1865, the accredited organ 
 
12 CATHOLICISM A 
 
 of Romanism in the British realm, says : " The Pope is 
 at this moment interfering in Piedmont, defending one 
 class of citizens against the government; and in the 
 House of Representatives (of the United States), a 
 Christian (Mr. Chandler, in his speech, Jan., 1865), 
 denies the right ! Governments may and do prohibit 
 good works, and the Pope interferes. They also com- 
 mit evil, and the Pope interferes; and good Christians 
 (Catholics) prefer the Popes authority to that of the 
 State. The godless ( non-Catholic ) colleges of Ireland, 
 the troubles of Piedmont, all bear witness against the 
 unchristian opinion." The Paris Univers says : "A 
 heretic examined and convicted by the Church, used to 
 be delivered over to the secular authority to be punished 
 with death. Nothing has appeared to us more neces- 
 sary. More than 100,000 persons perished in conse- 
 quence of the heresy of "Wickliffe, and a still greater 
 number for that of John Huss; and it would be im- 
 possible to count the bloodshed caused by Luther, and it 
 is not yet over." De Pratt, formerly an Abbe of the 
 Pope, says: "The Pope is chief of 150,000,000 of fol- 
 lowers. Catholicism cannot have less than 500,000 
 ministers. The Pope Commands more subjects than 
 any sovereign — more than many sovereigns together. 
 These have subjects only on their own territory, the 
 Pope commands subjects on the territory of all sovereigns' 
 (Flag of the Union.) But the testimony is voluminous, 
 and I forbear further quotations on this point. 
 
 To understand, then, the past history of the Catholic 
 
 Church, is of paramount importance to every freeman. 
 
 "What is it ? It is the development of her nature. It 
 
 is the unfolding of her treason to the world. It is un- 
 
 2 
 
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 13 
 
 covering the cruelty and despotism concealed under her 
 religious profession. It is the revelation of her animos- 
 ity to the rights of men, to the progress of society, and 
 to the exercise of reason and conscience. It shows her 
 to be a secret political organization, skilfully constructed 
 for the acquisition of supreme political power, and hypo- 
 critically disguised under the semblance of religion. If 
 in her infancy she did not always avow her ambitious 
 designs, she always secretly cherished them ; and, if in 
 her adversity she has moderated her tone, she has not 
 her natural thirst for secular power. As she grew in 
 strength, she grew in arrogance and despotism ; and 
 when, by a system of artful intrigues and bold usurpa- 
 tions, she had created a colossal power that overawed 
 the united monarchies of Christendom, she unsheathed 
 the double sword, the symbol of ecclesiastical and polit- 
 ical power, and asserted her right, as Vicar of Christ, 
 to rule with or in preference to Princes, invaded the 
 rights and liberties of independent nations, crowned 
 and uncrowned monarchs, destroyed freedom every- 
 where, anathematized, shackled, tortured and burnt all 
 who opposed her monarchical pretensions. Her trium- 
 phal processions have been the most magnificent when 
 her hands were the bloodiest, and her Te Deum was 
 chaunted with the most fervor when the smoke of her 
 stakes ascended in the thickest volumes, and the gore 
 shed by the double sword streamed in the broadest and 
 deepest currents. 
 
 "When Time, the avenger, hurled her from her des- 
 potic throne, she supplicated, because she could not 
 command, and moderated her pretensions, because she 
 dare not assert them. But if she presumes not now to 
 
14 CATHOLICISM A POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 
 
 tear the crown from the head of the mighty, who would 
 annihilate her for her audacious attempt; if she does 
 not now absolve subjects from allegiance to their gov- 
 ernments, whose artillery, to avenge the insult would 
 be marshalled against her ; if she does not now attempt 
 to burn at the stake those who reject her absurdities, 
 and who would burn her for an attempt — the reason of 
 the extraordinary change in her infallible holiness is 
 palpable. It is not because she has discarded the doc- 
 trines consecrated by so many bulls, battles and trea- 
 ties, but because she cannot carry them out without 
 peril to her existence. But let Brownson, whom Pope 
 Pius IX., in a letter dated April 29, 1854, blessed with 
 an apostolic benediction for services rendered, solve this 
 point. He says : " The Church, who possesses an ad- 
 mirable gift of discretion, has prudently judged that she 
 would not declare all things explicitly from the begin- 
 ning, but at a given time, and in suitable circumstances, 
 would bring into light something which was hitherto in 
 concealment, and covered with a certain obscurity. (Re- 
 view, January, 1854). 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Political Machinery of the Papal Power. 
 
 That the Holy Catholic Church is artfully constituted 
 to subjugate all secular and ecclesiastical power under 
 its authority, and that its object is not to advance the 
 interests of moral goodness, but to acquire temporal 
 dominion, must be admitted by every one that fully 
 comprehends the principles upon which its religious 
 Orders are organized. These Orders were founded by 
 Catholic saints and Bishops. They have been corf- 
 iirmed by Popes and Councils. And though they have 
 been suppressed, on account of their corrupt tendency 
 and political intrigues, in kingdom after kingdom, yet 
 in pontifical bulls they have been defended as being the 
 most useful and pious class of the Catholic community. 
 They may therefore be regarded as having been author- 
 atively acknowledged to be constituted in harmony with 
 the principles and designs of the Catholic Church. In 
 fact they form the body of its organization, as the Pope 
 does its head, and the Councils do its members. 
 
 In investigating the intrinsic nature of these orders, 
 we are naturally led back to that period of their history 
 which allowed them an unembarrassed development. 
 As they are sanctioned by a church which claims the 
 attribute of infallibility, whatever changes the advance 
 of civilization has effected in them, must be regarded 
 as a mere prudent accommodation to existing circum- 
 stances, to be tolerated no longer than they are impera- 
 tive. If in 1900 the Catholic Church gain the suprem- 
 
16 POLITICAL MACHINERY 
 
 acy in the United States which she hopes to gain, she 
 will restore the despotism and superstition which char- 
 acterized her domination during the dark ages. Pope 
 Gregory XVI. in his Encyclical Epistle of 1832, says : 
 " Ever bearing in mind, the universal church suffers 
 from every novelty, as well as the admonition of Pope 
 St. Agatho, that from what has been regularly defined 
 nothing can be taken away — no innovation introduced 
 there, no addition made, but that it must be preserved 
 untouched as to words and meaning." 
 
 The religious Orders consist of anchorites, monks, 
 nuns and knights. The anchorites in general lived separ- 
 ately, but sometimes in communities. The nuns lived 
 in perpetual solitude, as also did the monks, with the 
 exception of such as devoted themselves to the adminis- 
 tration of the public affairs of the church. The knights 
 were soldiers of the cross, instituted to defend and 
 propagate the Komish faith by the force of arms. The 
 orders differed from one another chiefly in the style of 
 their dress, in degrees of rigidness of discipline, and in 
 the assumption of additional vows. They all assumed 
 the vow of absolute poverty, of perpetual celibacy, and 
 of unconditional obedience to the rules of their Order, 
 and to the commands of their superior. Each member 
 was subject to the absolute authority of his superior, 
 who resided in the monastery ; each superior to the ab- 
 solute authority of his general, who resided at Rome, 
 and each general to the absolute authority of the Pope, 
 who was the head and the chief engineer of the whole 
 machine. By means of this machinery the monarchi- 
 cal power of the Pope has been, and is still, although 
 the machinery in some places is somewhat damaged, 
 
OF THE PAPAL POWER. 
 
 17 
 
 exerted in every kingdom, in every republic, in every 
 city, and over every Catholic mind in Christendom. 
 
 When a novice assumed the monastic vows, he be- 
 came the absolute property, or chattel, of the institution 
 which he entered, as irreversibly as if he had signed, 
 sealed, and delivered a deed conveying to it his soul 
 and body. By this act of piety he yielded up his 
 personal freedom, and became ironed with the shackles 
 of an eternal slavery. A culprit might hope for liberty 
 when his time would expire, but the recluse could only 
 expect disenthralment by death. If disappointed in 
 finding the holiness which he fancied to hallow the 
 place, or if, relieved of the misanthropic gloom, the 
 isolating superstition, or the delusive representations 
 which had induced him to enter the monastic walls, he 
 should escape, he was pursued, and if captured remanded 
 back by the civil authorities to the cold solitude of his 
 prison house. Not only have these cruel deeds been 
 perpetrated in the dark ages, but in this age of civiliz- 
 ation — not only in despotic Europe, but in free Amer- 
 ica. True, the civil authority in Protestant countries 
 has not interfered, but Catholic ingenuity has discov- 
 ered means equally efficacious. How many escaped 
 nuns have unaccountably disappeared from society? 
 What infamous means have Catholic priests adopted to 
 fill their nunneries ? A young girl in Baltimore, who 
 had just passed her sixteenth year, w T as carried to a 
 nunnery, and although her mother and relatives invoked 
 the interposition of the civil authorities, yet they were 
 unable to reclaim her, because she had arrived at age. 
 Who that has any conception of the numerous applica- 
 tions of distracted mothers at the police station-houses 
 2* 
 
18 POLITICAL MACHINERY 
 
 of some of our large cities, for their children, who have 
 mysteriously disappeared ; or that has read the account 
 recently published in the New York papers, (of the 
 recovery of the body of a young female who had been 
 drowned, when in one day eight mothers called at the 
 dead-bouse to see if the corpse was not that of a 
 daughter whom each had missed), can avoid believing 
 that if the nunneries were open to public inspection, 
 some of these mysteries might be resolved ? 
 
 After the ceremonies were concluded which sepulchred 
 the novice forever in his monastic cloister, his thoughts, 
 feelings, and desires were henceforth to be regulated, 
 not by the operations of the brain, but by the rules of 
 his Order. The most secret recesses of his mind were 
 to be opened to the inspection of his confessor. For 
 the intrusion of a natural thought he was liable to the 
 infliction of the severest penalty ; and the voice of the 
 superior was the only reason, the only conscience, the 
 only instinct he was at liberty to obey. Subjected to a 
 systematic course of rigid discipline adapted to paralyze 
 reason, suppress conscience and stifle instinct, he became 
 a passionless, soulless, mechanical automaton, as well 
 formed to bless, pray and preach, as to curse, forge and 
 murder, and equally ready to do either at the man- 
 date of his superior. 
 
 "When the superstition of the masses, the ignorance of 
 princes, the ambition of politicians, and the intrigues 
 of the priesthood had favored or cultivated the growth 
 of Catholicism until it was matured into a colossal mon- 
 archy, it was discovered that while its centre was in 
 Rome, its branches extended to every section of Chris- 
 tendom. Its monasteries conveniently and strategeti- 
 
OF THE PAPAL POWER. i9 
 
 cally located in different parts of the world, its confess- 
 ors penetrating the secret designs and wishes of states- 
 men and princes, its spiritual advisers scrutinizing the 
 conduct of opulent and distinguished personagas, its 
 spies, under the license of Papal indulgences, profess- 
 ing all opinions, and entering all associations and socie- 
 ties, and its agents in constant communication with 
 their superiors, their superiors with their generals, and 
 their generals with the Pope, and all acting in concert 
 in every part of Christendom toward the accomplishment 
 of one grand design ; the See of Rome became the recep- 
 tacle of accurate accounts of the condition, events and 
 characters of the various sections of the globe, and was 
 capable of improving every occurrence to its best advan- 
 tage, and of commanding in its support the power of 
 every locality. As nothing was too great to transcend 
 its aspirations, so nothing was too minute to escape its 
 scrutiny. Monarchs, legislators, judges, jurists, states- 
 men, generals, bankers, merchants, actors, schools, col- 
 leges, men, women, children — all were objects which its 
 spiritual machinery sought to control. Invisible, but' 
 omniscient, the Pope was seen nowhere, while his power 
 was felt everywhere. He touched the secret springs of 
 his machinery and the world was roused to arms or 
 silenced to submission; kings were astounded with ap- 
 plauding subjects, or sat powerless on their thrones; 
 armies rushed to battle or grounded their arms ; states- 
 men were blasted, none could tell for what crime ; mis- 
 creants were ennobled, none could tell for what virtue; 
 men's business or domestic affairs were disarranged, 
 none could tell for what cause. So sudden, secret and 
 terrible were the ' revolutions wrought in the fate of in- 
 
20 POLITICAL MACHINERY 
 
 dividuals and nations, that they seemed like the venge- 
 ful interposition of Providence, and the mystery which 
 concealed the hidden cause led the ignorant and stupe- 
 fied world to interpret them, under the instruction of a 
 crafty priesthood, as the manifestations of divine wrath. 
 When we calmly consider the disposition of the 
 Catholic organization, it seems that all the inventions of 
 ancient tyraDny were condensed in it with improved 
 malignancy. The ambition of Csesar, which hurried him 
 on to the destruction of the liberties of his country, 
 while he imagined the cold hand of his departed mother 
 clasped his heart ; the jealousy of Commodus, who never 
 spared what he could suspect ; the cruelty of Mithri- 
 dates, who fed on poison to escape the secret revenge of 
 his injured subjects; the inhumanity of Caligula, who 
 wished the world had but one neck, that he might cut 
 off its disobedient head at one blow, are, indeed, ter- 
 rible examples of despotism, but they were limited to 
 one nation, and left reason and conscience unshackled. 
 But in the Papal organization we find a scrutiny which 
 penetrated all secrets, a despotism that ironed reason 
 and conscience, an ambition that grasped heaven and 
 earth, a malignity that blasted for time and eternity — a 
 policy in which all the elements of bigotry, terror, mal- 
 ice, duplicity and obduracy were incorporated in their 
 most frightful proportion. Before this conception we 
 might well shudder, for its irons are secretly manacling 
 our own limbs. Its triumphs, written in the blood of 
 the millions it has butchered, commemorated by the 
 monuments of ecclesiastical rubbish which it has erected, 
 seen in the gloom of superstition it has cast upon the 
 world, utter a solemn admonition to the freemen of 
 
OF THE PAPAL POWER. 21 
 
 America. Think not that the present attainment in 
 civilization is proof against this boundless Upas — this 
 all-blasting tree, whose sap is poison and whose fruit is 
 death. Think of Egyptian, Asiatic, Grecian civiliza- 
 tion, and tremble lest their fate become your own. Let 
 not confidence beget an apathy that may close the eye 
 of vigilance, or enervate the powers of resistance. Lis- 
 ten to Pope Pius IX. when he declares that " the Cath- 
 olic religion, with its rights, ought to be exclusively 
 dominant, in such sort that every other worship shall 
 be banished and interdicted." Listen to Father Hecker, 
 who says : " The Catholic Church now numbers one- 
 third of the American population, and if its member- 
 ship increase for the next thirty years, as it has for the 
 thirty years past, in 1900 Rome will have a majority, and 
 be bound to take the country and keep it." Read the 
 statistics and learn the fearful probability of the ful- 
 fillment of Hecker's prophesy. Then dream no more 
 that your liberties are safe. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Monastic Vow of Perpetual Solitude. 
 
 The religious Orders were the fundamental principle of 
 the growth of the Papal monarchy. These orders as- 
 sumed certain vows, the nature and tendency of which 
 we will proceed to investigate in the spirit of candid 
 inquiry. The first vow to which we will invite atten- 
 tion, is the vow of perpetual solitude and seclusion. 
 Although at the first introduction of these monastic 
 orders into the church, this vow, and those which we 
 shall hereafter examine, were not formally assumed, yet 
 they were invariably observed ; and in the year 529, 
 under the auspices of St. Benedict, the express assump- 
 tion of them became an indispensable condition of 
 membership. Until the tenth century, the hermits and 
 the Benedictine monks and nuns were the only Catholic 
 Orders that existed ; the former generally, and the latter 
 entirely, lived in solitary seclusion. 
 
 The devout misanthropy of the hermits induced them 
 to select for their habitations the most gloomy, cheerless, 
 and inhospitable regions they could hunt up. Piously 
 scorning the salubrious and magnificent localities, so 
 prodigally furnished by nature, they constructed their 
 huts at the bottom of dismal pits, among the cliffs of 
 rugged rocks, in barren deserts, and in solitary wilder- 
 nesses. Some lived under trees, others under shelving 
 rocks, some on the top of poles, and others in the deserted 
 caverns of wild beasts. Some buried themselves in 
 the gloomy depth of trackless forests, isolated from hu- 
 
SOLITUDE AND SECLUSION. 23 
 
 man contiguity, and assimilated in aspect and habits 
 to the brute creation. Their bodies divested of decent 
 apparel, and covered with a profusion of hair, and their 
 aspect horrid and revolting beyond description, the 
 hermits sought to acquire the reputation of saints by 
 attaining the nearest possible approximation to wild 
 beasts. Another class of these eccentric devotees con- 
 structed a number of contiguous dungeons, and formed 
 themselves into a sort of monastic community. In 
 these vaults they imprisoned themselves for life, the 
 door being locked, and sometimes walled up, a small 
 window only was allowed, through which to receive 
 aliment and give pious advice. In these dungeons they 
 manacled their limbs with ponderous chains, encircled 
 their necks with massive collars, and clothed their 
 legs with heavy greaves. In the depth of winter they 
 would immerse themselves in icy water, and sing 
 psalms. To make themselves revolting ; to imitate the 
 habits of wild animals", until they became more horrible, 
 because more unnatural; to subject themselves to vol- 
 untary torture, severe and bloody flagellations, were 
 deemed the highest acts of piety. Whatever conspired 
 to comfort they considered profane ; whatever was pleas- 
 urable they avoided as sinful ; and whatever was ab- 
 surd, filthy, and disgusting, they imagined allied them 
 to gods and angels. St. Anthony, who was so holy that 
 he never washed himself, nor wore any apparel except 
 a shirt, was canonized by the Catholic Church for his 
 extraordinary attainment in sanctification. The appro- 
 bation which the church so readily conferred on oddity 
 and singularity might at the first appear surprising, 
 but when we recollect the immense pecuniary and 
 
24 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 political advantage she derived from them, we will no 
 longer doubt her motive, nor avaricious sagacity. A 
 singular custom suggested by this ludicrous institution 
 may be worthy of a passing notice. The abbots of the 
 monasteries, in order to dispose of a brother abbot, 
 whose celebrity surpassed their own, or whose circum- 
 ventive genius they feared, or who had excited their 
 suspicion, jealousy or revenge, would congregate 
 together, and declare that the fated brother had arrived 
 at a degree of sanctification that better qualified 
 him for the hermit's cell than for an abbotship of a 
 monastery, and that to protect him from the contamina- 
 tion of the world, and to enable him to perfect his holi- 
 ness, it was necessary to wall him up in eternal seclu- 
 sion. In accordance with this pious regard for their 
 brother's sanctity, they adopted summary measures for 
 its forcible execution. 
 
 Silence, gloom and solitude, according most congeni- 
 ally with the designs of the monastic institutions, they 
 were generally located in sterile wastes, dense and 
 trackless forests, and other localities adapted to excite 
 the sensation of loneliness, dreariness and desolation ; 
 but when secular considerations suggested they occu- 
 pied picturesque and luxuriant localities, commanding 
 the sublimest prospects of Nature. These edifices, 
 which often rivalled gorgeous palaces, were nothing 
 but religious penitentiaries, in which the inmates 
 endured all the privations, and were shackled with all 
 the irons with which criminals are punished in ordinary 
 penal institutions ; and though they were ostensibly 
 constructed for religious purposes, they were really de- 
 signed for the infliction of punishment, in accordance 
 
PERPETUAL SOLITUDE. 25 
 
 with the ecclesiastical code. "With regard to this code 
 Guizot says : " The Catholic Church did not draw up a 
 code like ours, which took account only of those crimes 
 that are at the same time offensive to morals and dan- 
 gerous to Society, and punishing them only because 
 they bore this two-fold character ; but prepared a cata- 
 logue of all those actions, criminal more particularly in 
 a moral point of view, and punished all under the 
 name of sins. (Gen. Hist. Civil., Lee. x., p. 118). In 
 what light these religious penitentiaries have been re- 
 garded by their inmates their eternal seclusion has pre- 
 vented them from publicly divulging, but the few who 
 have broken their enthralment, and the " heretics" 
 who have been confined in them, have described them 
 as the most intolerable of dungeons. In fact the mod- 
 ern penitentiary system has originated from them. 
 Guizot thinks this is one of the great blessings which 
 Catholicism has bestowed on society — (see Gen. Hist. 
 Civil., Lect. vi., p. 135). 
 
 The vow of perpetual seclusion comprises a renuncia- 
 tion of the pleasures and business of life, an abnegation 
 of the claims of consanguinity, friendship and society ; 
 and an abjuration of all filial, parental and natural 
 affection. This vow is in contravention of the obliga- 
 tions imposed on man by Nature, to improve society by 
 contributing to the advancement of its financial, social, 
 political and scientific welfare. It precludes the exer- 
 cise, and consequent development, of the varied powers 
 of the human organism. It surrenders the personal re- 
 finement and moral strength which may be acquired by 
 social intercourse, and conflict with opposing habits and 
 principles. It ignores the imperative duty of under- 
 3 
 
26 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 standing and judiciously relieving human want and 
 misery, and of aiding the execution of efficient schemes 
 of public utility and philanthropy. It is not only in 
 violation of the obligations of humanity, and the 
 noblest principles of human enjoyment, but it debars 
 the recluse from correcting any error into which he may 
 have been betrayed by false representations, or an over- 
 heated fancy ■ or, of modifying his condition according 
 to the change which experience and reflection may have 
 effected in his opinion and feelings. Yet, although such 
 are the absurd nature and injurious consequences of the 
 vow of perpetual seclusion, it is jiroposed by the church 
 of Rome, as the surest means of obtaining the saneti- 
 fication of the soul and the crown of eternal happiness. 
 If to bury our talents, to wall ourselves up in a 
 dungeon ; to sit for years upon a pole ; to scorn the soci- 
 ety of human beings ; to reject the comforts of civil- 
 ized life ; to retrograde into barbarism ; to assume the 
 habits, and acquire the aspect of wild animals ; to im- 
 prison ourselves where we can never respond to the 
 demands of consanguinity, society, friendship and pa- 
 triotism : where we can never contribute to the knowl- 
 edge, wealth or prosperity of the country of our nativ- 
 ity — if this is religion, then Catholicism has the honor 
 of confirming the most revolting condensation of these 
 monstrosities that has ever disgusted the spirit of civ- 
 ilization. But if religion really consists in fair dealing, 
 in noble deeds, in moral integrity amid moral turpi- 
 tude, in individual purity amid general corruption, in 
 unwavering virtue among the strongest incentives to 
 guilt, then the organization that sanctions vows subvers- 
 ive of these attainments cannot be admitted, con- 
 
PEKPETUAL SOLITUDE." 27 
 
 sistently with, the most indulgent liberality, to be of a 
 religious character. 
 
 - Thus far in our judgment, we have presumed that 
 the novices, in assuming their vow, were actuated by 
 the laudable desire of obtaining the highest degree of 
 -moral purity. This worthy ambition was doubtless the 
 governing motive of a proportion of them. Either 
 from the instigations of moral insanity, or from the va- 
 garies of a distempered fancy, or from the misrepresen- 
 tation of artful and designing priests, or from the des- 
 pondency which misfortune is apt to engender in weak, 
 or too sensitive minds, or from a misconception of the 
 natural tendency of solitude, men and women have at 
 times been led to assume the vows, and submit to the 
 penance prescribed by the religious orders. But there 
 were other motives equally, and perhaps more generally, 
 active. Ludicrous as were their holy isolation and pen- 
 ance, still the sanctity which the monks imitated, and 
 the tortures which they self-imposed, were rewarded by 
 a credulous and superstitious world with profound 
 homage and admiration. By undergoing sufferings 
 which appeared intolerable to human fortitude, they 
 acquired the reputation of being sustained by divine 
 agency ; and, as their popularity increased in propor- 
 tion to their wretchedness, they labored to extend their 
 fame by adding to their misery. Their sufferings and 
 fortitude alike incomprehensible to human reason, an 
 awe-struck fancy betrayed the public into the delusion 
 that what it beheld was the results of superhuman 
 sanctity ; of a sublime elevation above ordinary human- 
 ity ; and of the interposition of divine power. These 
 misconceptions, artfully cultivated by the priesthood, 
 
28 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 extended the fame of the self-tormentors beyond the 
 celebrity of heroes, poets and philosophers. Kings and 
 queens visited them with superstitious reverence ; states- 
 men consulted them on abstruse questions of govern- 
 mental policy ; peace and war were made at their 
 mandates ; and pilgrims from remote regions bowed at 
 their feet and begged their blessing. Thus favored by 
 the profound homage of all classes of Christendom, they 
 were enabled with more facility than any other profes- 
 sion to become opulent bishops, royal cardinals, or 
 monarchical popes. Such being their eligibility to the 
 honors and emoluments of the spiritual dignities of the 
 church, vanity was quick to perceive that the anchorite's 
 hut and the monk's cloister were the surest paths to 
 universal adulation ; religion, that they were the most 
 respectable methods of becoming honored in life, and 
 worshipped after death ; avarice, that they were " the 
 most available means of obtaining lucrative positions ; 
 and ambition, that thay were the shortest roads to dig- 
 nity and power. With these attractive facts glaring on 
 the eye of sacred aspirants, it requires but little knowl- 
 edge of human nature to conceive with what avidity 
 the ambitious would crowd into the most repulsive 
 cloisters ; with what eagerness they would adopt the 
 revolting habits and ludicrous privations of the recluse ; 
 and with what ingenuity they would indurate and tor- 
 ture the body, in order to win the applause of the 
 world, and the privilege of selecting its most advan- 
 geous positions. Accordingly, monastery after monas- 
 tery arose with sudden and astonishing rapidity, and 
 their cells became supplied- — not with aspirants after 
 holiness and heaven — but with aspirants after secular 
 
PERPETUAL SECLUSION, 29 
 
 and ecclesiastical dignities, and the indolence, luxury, 
 and licentiousness which they afforded. 
 
 The pious flattery that was lavished on voluntary 
 suffering, and the distinguished rewards which recom- 
 pensed it, strongly tempted the feeble conscience of 
 monks and hermits, to task their ingenuity in invent- 
 ing contrivances for magnifying the apparent and 
 diminishing the real sufferings of their self-imposed 
 torture. By the aid of an improved invention an 
 artful hypocrite could procure a greater reputation for 
 sanctity than a contrite penitent, and become more eli- 
 gible to the worldly honors and emoluments of the 
 church. St. Simeon Stylites, who sat upon a ^eie for 
 thirty years, convinced Christendom, by his wonderful 
 absurdity, that he was miraculously supported ; while 
 living he enjoyed its profoundest respect, and when 
 dead was canonized by the Catholic Church. But an 
 observer by describing the numerous gesticulations of 
 this sainted mountebank, diclosed the secret of his arti- 
 fice. By means of a system of gymnastics, he kept up 
 a vigorous circulation of blood through his frame, and 
 thus acqired a health and longevity which would have 
 been incompatible with a state of inactivity. But it 
 appears that he was tormented with an ulcer on the 
 thigh, inflicted by the devil, who had tempted him to 
 imitate Elijah in flying to heaven, but who maliciously 
 smote him upon his raising his foot to make the ascen- 
 sion. His mystical gesticulations not healing, but 
 probably inflaming the wound, may have shortened the 
 natural term of his miserable existence. As he had 
 gradually arisen from a -pore of seven feet high to one 
 
 of fifty feet high, if had not been for his vanity and 
 3* 
 
30 • MONASTIC, yow OF 
 
 his evil company he might have gained a still higher 
 position ; but whether by this means he would ever 
 have reached heaven may be questioned by astronomy 
 and heresy : but there is no doubt he acquired by his 
 folly and artifice the beatification of the Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 The apathy with which the self-tormenters endured 
 their excruciating penance and the severe rigors of the 
 seasons, was chiefly the effect of artificial callousness, 
 induced by an ingenious discipline, calculated to destroy 
 the susceptibility of the nervous system to the influence 
 of external agents. A similar course of training has 
 always been practiced by the religious orders of the 
 Hindoos and the Mohametans, who, like those of the 
 Catholic Church, endure self-imposed torture which 
 seems to surpass human fortitude, and acquire by this 
 species of ambition unbounded popularity. Even the 
 uncleanness of the holy brotherhood was an artifice. It 
 formed a protecting incrustation on the surface of the 
 skin, which, by covering the the papilla?, the sentient, 
 organs, or destroying their capacity for sensation, 
 enable the hermits to endure without apparent emotion 
 the cold winters and bleak winds of inhospitable for- 
 ests. This secret is known and practised by some 
 African tribes, upon whom washing is consequently in- 
 flicted as a penalty for crimes. To the eye of supersti- 
 tion, clouded with ignorance, and fascinated by the ignes 
 fatui of sacred fiction, the calmness of the monks and 
 hermits under torments and exposures which seemed 
 insufferable to humanity, appeared a palpable demon- 
 stration of miraculous interposition, and consecrated 
 them in its estimation. Their acts, however, were as 
 
PERPETUAL SECLUSION". 31 
 
 much tricks as are the mysterious capers of a conjurer. 
 As the more artful and callous could endure the sever- 
 ity of penitential acts with greater indifference than 
 the candid and sensitive they acquired a higher repu- 
 tation for holiness, advanced to the enjoyment of more 
 distinguished honors, and finally became canonized as 
 paragons of virtue and objects of adoration. 
 
 Such are the nature and consequences of the vow of 
 perpetual seclusion. Such is a portion of the " doc- 
 trinal definition already made by the general councils 
 and former pontiffs," which, according to Bishop Ken- 
 drick, "are landmarks which no man can remove." 
 (Primacy, p. 356). Such are some of the Catholic 
 dogmas, which, " in regard to every subject whatever,' 
 according to Brownson " have been always the same 
 from the beginning, remain always unchangeably the 
 same, and will always continue in every part of the 
 world immutable." (Review, January, 1850). Such 
 is in part " what the church has done, what she has 
 tacitly or expressly approved in the past," and accord- 
 ing to the same authority "is exactly what she will 
 tacitly or expressly approve in the future, if the same 
 circumstances occur." (Review, January, 1854). " The 
 same circumstances" is the universal church, which Je- 
 suit Hecker, in his recent speech in Chicago, thinks the 
 United States needs, and which the people (Catholics) 
 will at no distant day proclaim. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Monastic Vow of Perpetual Silence. 
 
 A vow of perpetual silence was assumed by several 
 religious orders ; but it was observed with different de- 
 grees of austerity. Some monks passed their whole 
 lives in profound silence ; others spoke on certain days 
 of the week ; and others at particular hours of speci- 
 fied days. The modern penitentiary regulations respect- 
 ing the conversation of prisoners seem to have been 
 derived from the singular customs of the dumb brother- 
 hood. 
 
 The members of the mute orders, perpetually con- 
 cealing their features with their cowls, and their 
 thoughts by their silence, appear to have concluded 
 that secrecy was the substance of religion. He who 
 could conceal the best, and preserve silence the longest, 
 obtained among the devout the useful credit of possess- 
 ing the most grace. The effusion of the Holy Ghost, 
 which, by a prodigal distribution of tongues, and their 
 clashing jargon, had set the primitive ecclesiastical 
 council in an uproar, and which, by its powerfully 
 stimulating qualities had turned so many cities up- 
 side down, had a very different effect on the silent 
 orders of the Catholic Church. While to the former it 
 communicated intuitive knowledge of all languages, to 
 the latter it interdicted as profane the use of any. To 
 pass an entire life without uttering a word, was consid- 
 ered by the dumb friars, as an unquestionable evidence 
 of their having received the unutterable fulness of the 
 
PERPETUAL SILENCE. 33 
 
 Holy Ghost. Whether the primitive church and the 
 Catholic orders were blest with the influence of the 
 same Holy Ghost, or whether the divine spirit politely 
 accommodates the nature of his unction to the demands 
 of particular ecclesiastical exigencies, seems to require 
 some proof, before it can be rationally admitted that 
 profound silence and distracting discord are effects of 
 the same cause. 
 
 But the question of truth and error is of a less intri- 
 cate nature. Truth is candid, open and fearless ; error 
 is hidden, intolerant and cowardly. The one challenges 
 investigation ; the other denounces it ; the one Opens its 
 breast to the scrutinizing gaze of the world ; the other 
 conceals its features from the most intimate associate. 
 If such is the fearlessness of truth, and such the 
 cowardice of error, the' secrecy of the silent orders 
 commends them less to the confidence which candor 
 inspires, than to the suspicion which secrecy begets. 
 
 Secrecy is most generally adopted to cover objection- 
 able designs ; and, the profounder the former is, the 
 more objectionable are the latter. I speak not of the 
 secret signs by which benevolent societies recognize 
 their members, but of those associations which, while 
 they are professedly designed for religious purposes, 
 conceal their principles and projects from public view. 
 Although in some other respects secrecy may sometimes 
 be suggested by discretion, yet it is often suggested by 
 guilt. All that offend against the natural sentiments 
 of propriety, shrink from the public gaze. Robbery, 
 murder, and every other infraction of civil ordinations 
 seek to shroud their intentions and machinations in the 
 greatest secrecy. The traitor and the highwayman, 
 
34 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 afar from the searching scrutiny of the inquisitive, re- 
 tire to solitary forests, inaccessible retreats, and dismal 
 caverns, to hold their conclaves and plot schemes of 
 blood and depredation. Evasion, prevarication and 
 disguise are the inseparable concomitants of guilt. So 
 secret is crime that its perpetration can generally only 
 be established by circumstantial evidence. Secrecy is, 
 therefore, naturally calculated to excite suspicion ; it 
 seldom means good ; it generally means evil ; some- 
 times robbery, frequently murder, often treason, always 
 some plot so antagonistical to reason and the welfare of 
 society that its projectors are conscious that publicity 
 would endanger, and perhaps defeat its execution. 
 
 The shocking crimes which the pious monasteries con- 
 cealed have frequently been divulged by those who 
 have escaped from their cloisters, but what unutter- 
 able deeds the taciturnity of the mute monks sanctioned 
 may not be so clearly proved as naturally imagined. 
 That it was exceedingly profitable will appear evident 
 upon a moment's reflection. These dumb friars were 
 confessors, and as they never uttered a word, they ac- 
 quired the confidence of the most desperate criminals. 
 The Jesuits, who could not disclose the startling secrets 
 of their order without alarming the fears of temporal 
 princes, confessed to none but to the silent monks. All 
 the devout who contemplated the commission of the 
 crimes of murder, sedition, or treason, preferred to un- 
 bosom their designs to the taciturn fraternity, and re- 
 ceive through their agency the absolution and indulg- 
 ence of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. But the 
 connivance cf the church at criminal deeds could be 
 commanded only by the power of gold; and the amount 
 
PERPETUAL SILENCE. 85 
 
 requisite for expiation was always in proportion to the 
 atrociousness of the crime. Now, as the commission of 
 the highest misdemeanors most imminently endangered 
 the life and liberty of the perpetrators; it is as easy to 
 see the munificent pecuniary advantages which perpet- 
 ual silence obtained for the monks, as it is to see that 
 the most flagitious criminals would prefer disclosing 
 their intentions to the most silent lips. 
 
 It may here be remarked, by way of explanation, 
 that confessors are not bound, as is generally supposed, 
 to inviolate secrecy. The secrets of the confessional 
 may be communicated from one priest to another ; and, 
 when a confessor desires to make public use of any in- 
 formation which has been confessed to him, he adopts 
 the artifice of requesting the informer to communicate 
 the matter to him out of the confessional. 
 
 The dumb friars, not less artful than secret, elabor- 
 ated a system of sacred gesticulations, by which they 
 managed to express their wants and desires with as 
 much force as they could have done with their tongues. 
 Although grimace and gesticulation were more clumsy 
 and less varied in their signs than is vocal articulation, 
 •yet by this means the dumb monks contrived, as occa- 
 sion suggested, to describe, command, supplicate, scorn, 
 imprecate, curse or bless. This odd device was well 
 adapted to the non-committal policy of the religious 
 orders, as it enabled them to affirm, deny, impugn, slan- 
 der ; to threaten any dignity, anathematize any power, 
 and commit any crime of which language is capable, 
 without incurring responsibility, violating any legal 
 enactment, rendering themselves amenable to any tribu- 
 nal, or answerable for the breach of any code of honor. 
 
36 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 The adoption of this ingenious device to avoid com- 
 pliance with unnatural obligations, affords an instance 
 of the singular duplicity into which the subtilty of pi- 
 ous craft may betray human nature. The misfortune 
 of being born a mute is justly classed among the most 
 deplorable calamities that can afflict a human being. 
 The natural privations of such a person elicit in his 
 favor the condoling sympathies of all considerate per- 
 sons. Yet in order to accomplish secret purposes of 
 ambition or cupidity, the dumb monks resigned the 
 most important advantages with which Nature had en- 
 riched them, and gratuitously assumed all the disad- 
 vantages that the greatest calamity could have imposed. 
 If there was nothing reprehensible in the taciturn fra- 
 ternity but this curious departure from the natural use 
 of the human faculties, it alone would be sufficient to 
 subject them to the suspicion of the candid, and the 
 aversion of the prudent. 
 
 The tongue, it must be confessed, is sometimes an un- 
 ruly member, but it is also the noblest blessing of the 
 human organism. It is among the most prominent 
 characteristics that distinguish the human from the 
 brute creation. It is mostly by the means of the judi- 
 cious employment of speech that the ignorant are in- 
 structed, the afflicted consoled, and the cause of truth 
 and freedom defended. It is by it that error is detected, 
 vice intimidated, and superstition and despotism are 
 exposed. The interchange of opinion, the animating 
 power of debate, the searching inquisition of truth, the 
 spontaneous sallies of wit, the exhilarating efFusions of 
 humor, the burst of eloquence, the lore of philosophy, 
 art, science, all the natural overflowing of the soul, find 
 
PERPETUAL SILENCE. 37 
 
 in the varied and expressive functions of speech their 
 most available avenues for the outlet of their respective 
 treasures. Speech is a reflective blessing ; it blesses 
 him who exercises it, and him upon whom it is ex- 
 ercised. None can use with propriety their vocal 
 powers without improving them; none can instruct 
 without being instructed; none can advocate truth 
 without being enlightened by its beams. It is a means 
 which all possess of imparting consolation ; which en- 
 riches the more prodigally it is dispensed ; which the 
 poorest may bestow on the richest ; which is always the 
 cheapest, often the most valuable, and sometimes the 
 only one that can avail. When speech is free and un- 
 trammeled by the fetters of intolerance, it is the most 
 efficacious mode of improving the moral and intellectual 
 tone of society. It is more powerful than legal enact- 
 ments, and has been more successful than dungeons, 
 racks, and all the prescriptions- of tyranny combined. 
 Laws may interdict and gibbets terrify, but neither can 
 convince the understanding, nor purify the sources of 
 action. But freedom of speech enters the soul, con- 
 verses with the intellect, sifts opinions, and moulds the 
 nature of man into order and justice. She enters the 
 halls of legislation and erects right into law. She 
 enters the court and gives equity to judicial proceed- 
 ings. She enters a community and breaks the irons of 
 slavery, bestows equality on all, and enthrones in power 
 public opinion. She enters a nation of slaves and 
 makes them a nation of sovereigns. She is the great 
 redeemer of the moral world. Her touch has healed 
 its disorders ; her voice has calmed its storms ; her 
 spirit has reanimated its dead. Such being her mission, 
 4 
 
38 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 none but impostors need fear her scrutiny ; none but 
 bigots need dread her vengeance ; none but tyrants 
 need tremble at her approach. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding the immense advantages the 
 power of speech confers on its possessors, the silent 
 monks have resigned all right to its use and sought 
 an equality with dumb brutes. Whatever motives 
 of religion may have mingled with the consumma- 
 tion of this atrocious folly, it atones not for the good it 
 has prohibited the monks from doing, nor the luxurious 
 pleasure it has obliged them to forego. If it is consist- 
 ent with the secret designs of any religious order to 
 iron the faculties of speech in eternal silence, it is not 
 consistent with the designs of Nature, the dictate of 
 reason, nor the progress of man. If it is consistent with 
 the obligations of any religious organization to prohibit 
 the exercise of those powers by which error is checked, 
 truth promoted, virtue fortified, and the world en- 
 lightened, it is not consistent with the obligations of 
 man, the purest instincts of his being, and the noblest 
 virtues of his nature. If it is consistent with the prin- 
 ciples of any version of religion to view with dumb in- 
 difference the errors it might correct, or the sorrows it 
 might heal, it is not consistent with the instinctive 
 prompting of knowledge or of natural sympathy. And 
 if such designs, obligations and principles are consistent 
 with the faith and practice of the Catholic Church, she 
 is a curse to the world, at variance with the general 
 interests of society, opposed to the most sacred rights of 
 man, an enemy to human knowledge, to human pro- 
 gress, and to human sympathy. A slavery so abject, 
 an absurdity so gross, and a despotism so monstrous, 
 
PERPETUAL SILENCE. 39 
 
 as that which she sanctions, should consign her rev- 
 erence to contempt, and her holiness to the scorn and 
 ridicule of all enlightened nations and ages. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 The Monastic Vow of Silent Contemplation. 
 
 PART FIRST 
 
 Meditation not the Source of Knowledge. 
 
 Similar in nature to the vow of seclusion and silence, 
 and equally incompatible with a fulfilment of the obli- 
 gations of reason and humanity, was the vow of silent 
 contemplation assumed by many of the religious orders. 
 Meditation, abstractly considered, is neither a virtue 
 nor a vice. It derives its merit or demerit from the 
 objects on which it dwells, and the manner in which it 
 employs its faculties. The mind receiving its impres- 
 sion from external objects, and their vividness and 
 profundity being in proportion to the constancy with 
 which they are contemplated, we as naturally become 
 enlightened by what is true, expanded by what is lib- 
 eral, and animated by what is pleasing, as we are 
 misguided by what is erroneous, contracted by what is 
 illiberal, and depressed by what is gloomy. Amid 
 objects of reality, amid scenes of grandeur, where the 
 subjects are the most numerous and varied, and where 
 the faculties are awakened to their severest and most 
 rigid scrutiny, is the great college in which the under- 
 standing is "invigorated and improved ; in which the 
 fancy is ennobled and chastened ; in which the mind 
 acquires those maxims of wisdom, and that ascend- 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 41 
 
 ency over impulse and illusion which enable it to act 
 in conformity with the principles of happiness and of 
 the human organism. 
 
 The process of meditation is the act of comparing 
 facts, deducing conclusions, analyzing compounds, and 
 tracing the chain of cause and effect. Knowledge is the 
 material with which it works ; and, in proportion to its 
 accuracy and extent, will be the value and greatness of 
 our elaborations. 
 
 But the processes of meditation are not adapted to 
 the acquisition of knowledge. None are so absurd as 
 to expect to obtain a knowledge of grammar, arithmetic, 
 history, astronomy, or of the laws and properties of 
 matter, by the mere exercise of the contemplative 
 powers. To retire into solitude, and endeavor by the 
 guess-work of meditation to acquire even a knowl- 
 edge of the alphabet, would be as ridiculous as to 
 attempt to make our feet perform the office of our 
 hands.- Not less absurd would it be, were we to im- 
 mure ourselves in the gloom and silence of perpetual 
 confinement, avoiding the objects of Nature and an in- 
 tercourse with society, with the expectation that by 
 such means, though we possessed the penetration of a 
 Locke, the intellect of a Gibbon, or the versatility of 
 a Voltaire, to acquire, anything but profound ignorance ; 
 or any ideas but what were unnatural, distorted and 
 misshapen. 
 
 To obtain knowledge we must exercise the perceptive 
 
 faculties. The senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, 
 
 tasting and touching are the only avenues by which 
 
 knowledge can reach the mind. He whose observation 
 
 has been the most comprehensive, and whose investiga- 
 4* 
 
42 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 tiong have been the most thorough and accurate, is 
 enabled to exercise the contemplative powers with the 
 greatest pleasure and advantage. The distinct and 
 graphic imagery of men, scenes, events, objects and their 
 properties, with which he has stored his mind, will give 
 correctness to his ideas, variety to his mental opera- 
 tions, comprehensiveness to his intellectual view, clear- 
 ness to his judgment, and truth to his conclusions. 
 Possessing the elements of correctness, he will also 
 possess the elements of happiness and success. He is 
 enabled to open the volume of Nature, and read, in her 
 pages of rocks and stars, sublimer periods than the pen 
 of superstition ever recorded. He stands perpetually 
 in the vestibule of truth, opening on the fields of im- 
 mensity, strewed with objects of reality, before the 
 blaze of whose overpowering grandeur the throne and 
 empire of fancy dwindle into insignificance. He is 
 enabled to imbibe the fervor, inhale the inspiration, 
 and enjoy the ecstatic delights which scientific truth 
 alone can confer, and which in intensity and purity so 
 far transcend the fanatic's wildest excitement. He is 
 inducted into the secret by which science has achieved 
 all her victories, and by which she has erected in such 
 solid grace and grandeur those literary and philosoph- 
 ical structures which stand like imperishable columns 
 amid the ruin of temples and kingdoms. 
 
 But the acquisition of these exalted attainments em- 
 braces the exercise of all the intellectual power on ap- 
 propriate objects. The mental, like the corporeal pow- 
 ers, are various ; they are differently organized and 
 adapted to deal with objects of different natures; and, 
 all require to be exercised judiciously, in order to be 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 43 
 
 kept in a healthy tone. If any member of the body 
 is disused, it will be deprived of its natural energy ; 
 if any faculty of the mind is disused, it will lose its 
 natural strength. It is only when each faculty of mind 
 and body is properly exercised that the health and 
 vigor of the whole organism can be maintained. The 
 physiological cause of the enervating effects of indo- 
 lence, and the invigorating consequences of exercise, are 
 found in those laws of the human organism, whereby 
 the blood is increased in a member by exercise, and de- 
 creased by inertia, and a proportionable degree of 
 strength imparted by one and, subtracted by the other. 
 Now, the faculties employed in the process of medita- 
 tion, comprehend but a small number of the mental 
 powers ; and if they are exclusively exercised, a super- 
 abundant volume of blood will be distributed to them, 
 and they will absorb the aliment necessary for the sub- 
 sistence of the others. The establishment of this in- 
 equality in the distribution of the blood will derange 
 the harmonious condition of the cerebral organs ; some 
 will be overcharged, and either inflamed or constipated, 
 and others impoverished or enervated. One class of 
 the mental powers thus becoming over-excited, another 
 class enfeebled, and a third paralyzed, the ideas which 
 the mind, in this condition, is capable of elaborating, 
 must necessarily be partial, defective, disjointed and 
 grotesque ; resembling those nightmares that flit in our 
 sleep," or those monsters which are born without limbs, 
 and marked with deformity and distortion. But when 
 all the moral faculties are properly employed, they will 
 all receive their appropriate nourishment and maintain 
 their natural vigor. In consequence of a harmony; 
 
44 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 equality, unity and reciprocity of mental action, thus 
 induced, all the powers will be preserved in healthy 
 action — the perceptives in furnishing the mind with 
 knowledge, memory in storing it up, order in classify- 
 ing it, analogy in comparing it, judgment in deducing 
 conclusions from it, taste iu selecting what is most 
 appropriate, fancy in adorning it ; and all proceeding 
 as naturally as the vital organ elaborates and vitalizes 
 the blood, and the reproductive system transforms it 
 into animal fluids and solids. 
 
 But the partial exercise of the mental faculties, em- 
 braced in the act of meditation, not only disproportion- 
 ately develops the cerebral organs ; but deranges those 
 which it labors to keep in incessant activity. A period 
 of rest after labor is indispensable to the maintenance 
 of the health and vigor of the cerebral organs. Exer- 
 cise increases the now of blood to their parts ; repose, 
 by inducing the process of recuperation, not only re- 
 stores their vigor but increases their healthy volume. 
 The invigorating effect of sleep is derived from the 
 profound slumber into which all the faculties are 
 calmed, except those whose functions are destined to 
 recuperate and vitalize the entire system. To labor 
 to keep the meditative facilities in constant action is to 
 interrupt the process of recuperation ; and, consequent- 
 ly, to prevent them from becoming vitalized. The man 
 who attempts to lift a weight beyond the capacity of his 
 muscular vigor, may never afterward be enabled to 
 raise the tenth part of what was within his former 
 ability ; and Sir Isaac Newton, whose powers of con- 
 templation seemed almost superhuman, after he had 
 enervated his faculties by impelling them to constant 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 45 
 
 and excessive exercise, lias furnished the world with an 
 illustration of the imbecility it engendered, by his 
 works on the prophecies. 
 
 But the principle of self-preservation inherent in the 
 human mind, rebels against the destruction of its facul- 
 ties. Habitually to exercise the contemplative faculties 
 on one class of objects is a superhuman task. In spite 
 of resistance the blood will pursue its natural course to 
 the different organs of the brain, and by virtue of this 
 fact, in conjunction with the natural condition of the 
 system, instinct will prompt, thought intrude, emotion 
 arise, appetite crave, passion yearn, distraction ensue ; 
 and under the external semblance of sanctity, a moral 
 volcano will burn and heave. "We may, by means of 
 the theological subterfuge that the involuntary actions 
 of the cerebral functions are the suggestion of impure 
 and malignant fiends, apologize to our conscience for 
 the intrusion of profane and worldly thoughts, but this 
 device will not exorcise them. We shall find that in 
 the effort to become automata, we are men ; and that in 
 the attempt to exercise one class of faculties and to con- 
 centrate :them' perpetually on one class of objects, we 
 have grappled with a giant, over whom, if we triumph 
 it will be in our death-struggle. 
 
 It' is impossible to think and feel by rule. Neither 
 particular trains of thought, nor particular kinds of 
 emotion are at the command of the will. Belief or 
 unbelief, the sensations of contrition, of devotion, of 
 hope, or any other sentiment or feeling can no more 
 be created by an act of volition, than can storms and 
 earthquakes.. There is a secret power acting on the 
 nervous system, over which the will has no control. 
 
46 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 The state of the atmosphere, the sanity of the system, 
 the unconscious power of imbibed principles, the recol- 
 lections of the past, the circumstances of the present, 
 and the prospects of the future, all like unseen spirits 
 stir the soul's depths with ideas and passions, always 
 involuntary, and sometimes as abruptly as an electri- 
 cal flash. To attempt to subject the laws by which 
 ideas and emotions are created to the power of the will, 
 so that they may be conjured and shaped by its mand- 
 ates, is to war, not only against the constitution of the 
 human mind, but against the powers and elements of 
 Nature. 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 The Natural Effects of the Monastic Vow of Silent Con- 
 templation. 
 
 Let us consider the character and products of the mind 
 which the monastic vow of silent contemplation is cal- 
 culated to create. " 
 
 "When liberal education has disciplined the intellectual 
 powers, and study has enriched the mind with the facts 
 and principles of science and literature, a philosopher 
 may find in solitude an influence congenial to his high 
 pursuits ; and with his scientific instruments enlarging 
 his field of vision, he may discover new secrets in the 
 realms of Nature, and come forth from retirement a 
 more useful member and a brighter ornament of society. 
 But if with distinguished abilities, and the valuable 
 results of an erudite industry, he should maintain per- 
 petual silence, and continue for life in a secluded abode, 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 47 
 
 he would be of no benefit to mankind, and neither win 
 nor deserve the homage which they accord to scientific 
 benefactors. 
 
 But the monks were very far from being philoso- 
 phers. They were in general exceedingly illiterate. 
 Some of their orders actually interdicted as profane any 
 attempt to cultivate the intellectual powers, or to ac- 
 quire either scientific or literary information. Filled 
 with abject and obscene pilgrims, with slaves who knew 
 of nothing but manual labor, with mechanics whose 
 scanty wages had precluded the possibility of a rudi- 
 mental education, with soldiers who had no knowledge 
 but that of war, and who had fled before the victorious 
 barbarian into obscurity for safety, it could not be ex- 
 pected that the monasteries with such material, im- 
 prisoned in solitude, deprived of social communion, 
 enervated in mental capacity, and restricted in the 
 exercise of their intellectual powers, could ever give 
 birth to philosophers, or to anything but mental imbe- 
 cility and moral monstrosities. 
 
 It has been alleged in favor of monastic institutions 
 that they have originated and were sustained from a 
 pious intention of affording the devout an asylum, 
 where, secluded from the distractions of life, and oc- 
 cupied in silent contemplation on death and judgment, 
 they might fit themselves for the society of God and an- 
 gels. That such a motive has at times mingled with the 
 causes which have induced individuals to assume the mo- 
 nastic vow, is undoubtedly true ; but had it been in 
 every instance the only incentive it would not have 
 made the act less irrational, unnatural and pernicious. 
 Such a plea, in fact, would only prove that monastic 
 
48 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 piety was identical with. Pagan piety. Long before the 
 origin of Christianity, religious orders existed in India, 
 which sought by means of the destruction of all corpore- 
 ality and intellectual activity, an incorporation with the 
 nature of God, and the realization of a state of perfect 
 happiness. 
 
 But an act may be absurd and pernicious, while its 
 motive is pure ; and it is always absurd when its objects 
 are imaginary, and pernicious when they are in viola- 
 tion of the dictate of reason. The monastic vows and 
 regulations were ill calculated to make men either 
 happy, enlightened, or useful. Encaverned in solitude, 
 the monks could not become extensively acquainted 
 with the objects of Nature ; preserving perpetual silence, 
 they could not materially enlarge each others' informa- 
 tion ; exercising but one class of the mental organs, 
 they could not form the numerous order of conceptions 
 perfected only by the review of all the faculties. Iso- 
 lated from human contiguity, walled up in a dungeon, 
 or incarcerated in a monastic cell, the mind overtasked 
 with labor, broken down by fatigue, prostrated yet 
 urged to action, one class of the faculties paralyzed, 
 another inflamed to frenzy, and all concentrated in 
 silent contemplation on terrible and incomprehensible 
 subjects, partial or complete insanity would ensue ; in- 
 congruity would become tasteful, exaggerations natu- 
 ral, impossibilities credible, shadows realities, and 
 visions, fiends, and angels take possession of the mind. 
 The productions of such a mind, being a transcript of its 
 impressions, would present nothing as real or symmet- 
 rical ; but everything as disfigured, indistinct, shadowy, 
 inharmoniously blended, or superlatively gigantic. Mis- 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 49 
 
 shapen dwarfs, huge giants, beings that were neither 
 men, nor beasts, nor birds, nor fishes, nor angels, nor 
 demons, but an incongruous mixture of them all, 
 would be its natural offspring. Men with birds' wings, 
 beasts with human heads, women with fishes' scales, and 
 animals variously compounded of the limbs, claws, and 
 beaks, all in violation of the natural order of Nature, 
 and incompatible with the laws of life, would spring 
 in horrible profusion from the distorted imagination of 
 the monks. 
 
 All ideas of proportion, adaptation and utility would 
 be transgressed in their creations. They might regale 
 credulity with an account of cities fifteen hundred miles 
 high, with asses reproving prophets, with snakes con- 
 versing with women, with immaterial beings fluttering 
 on ponderable pinions, and with angels whose heads 
 reached the stars, but whose forms were so hugely dispro- 
 portioned, that while one foot rested on an insignificant 
 portion of the isle of Patmos, the other would rest on a 
 like portion of the Mediterranean sea. The scenery, 
 caught from the gloom of forests, caves or cloisters, 
 would naturally wear an infernal aspect, where 
 there would be shape, but no symmetry; color but 
 no contrast nor harmony; where immaterial beings 
 would be represented as tormented with the flames and 
 suffocating effects of liquid brimstone ; where they 
 would shriek and groan without vocal organs, war and 
 wound with material swords, and where corporeality and 
 incorporeality would be compounded in every variety 
 and degree of inconsistency. If in the intervals of the 
 monk's gloomy ravings he should attempt a more 
 cheerful picture, the scene which he would probably 
 
50 • MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 portray might glitter with gold and gems where they 
 would be of no service ; but it would be pervaded by 
 an awfulness which would be depressing, and by a 
 splendor which would be terrifying. The music might 
 be loud enough to shake Nature to its foundation, but 
 it would naturally be monotonous, perhaps consisting of 
 one tone and one song, eternally sung by beings without 
 throats, assisted by the trumpets and harps invented 
 by mortals ; and had pianos, fiddles and accordians 
 been early enough invented, they too, would probably 
 have chimed in the grand chorus. Beside the music of 
 the operatic troupe, the other recreations would prob- 
 ably be so incompatible with the principles of human 
 enjoyment, and make the monk's very heaven so awfully 
 repulsive, that common sense would prudently shrink 
 from partaking of its glory. Thus the conceptions of 
 virtue and of vice, of perfect happiness and of perfect 
 misery, of metaphysical and of theological dogmas, 
 formed by the distempered brains of hermits and 
 monks, while they might be awfully effulgent or in- 
 supportably horrible, would be conflicting in their parts, 
 inconsistent with pure ideas of men, of phantoms, or 
 of things ; and such a strange commingling of incon- 
 gruities as might remind reflections of the huts and 
 palaces of Christian Rome, which are constructed of ihe 
 tombs, altors, temples and palaces of Pagan Rome. 
 
 What reason would naturally deduce from the char- 
 acter of the monastic vows, and rules, is amply con- 
 firmed by the facts of history. Housed with silent, 
 ignorant and gloomy companions, the monks con- 
 templated not the realities of truth, but the fictions of a 
 distempered fancy ; and while they scorned the first as 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION-. 51 
 
 profane, they trembled before the second as a dread 
 reality. Conceiving the deity as a monarch, they 
 thought of him as a tyrant ; and believing their nature 
 depraved, they punished themselves as criminals. As 
 they imagined freedom of thought sinful, they acquired 
 the temper of a slave ; and as they were incapable of 
 reasoning themselves, they accepted as truth whatever 
 their ecclesiastical tyrants dictated. Impressed with the 
 fancy that demons had taken possession of their bodies, 
 they attempted to dislodge them by making their 
 abode as uncomfortable as possible. 
 
 After having manacled their limbs with the heaviest 
 chains, and lacerated their bodies in the most horrible 
 manner, they were surprised at finding that they had 
 not yet destroyed their constitutional jDrinciples and 
 appetites ; and regarding themselves still as objects of 
 divine wrath, they trembled as if a fiery and bottom- 
 less pit yawned at their feet. While they labored by 
 monastic rules and exercises to fit themselves for the 
 society of God and angels, they rendered themselves 
 unfit for the society of human beings. The percep- 
 tive powers uninformed, and inflamed by disease, 
 furnishing nothing but extravagant and perverted 
 ideas, and the fancy combining them only into mon- 
 strous and hideous shapes, the mind became perpetually 
 filled with the most horrible images. The superabund- 
 ant volume of blood consequent on overwrought excite- 
 ment, distending the blood vessels of the visual and 
 auditory organs, and causing them unnaturally to 
 press against these organs, gave a vivid distinctness 
 to the impressions, and so brought out the mental 
 perspective as to give the complexion and dis- 
 
52 MONASTIC VOW OP 
 
 tinctness of reality. In consequence of the condi- 
 tion of mind thus induced, the sights and sounds con- 
 ceived by fancy were recognized as real by the per- 
 ceptive organs. The senses thus recognizing visions as 
 realities, the life of the recluse was doomed to become 
 an incessant struggle, not only with real disease, but 
 with imaginary demons. Less refined in their myth- 
 ology than the Pagans, who regarded the earth, air and 
 water as peopled with genii, naiads and fairies, they 
 conceived them inhabited by malignant fiends. 
 
 The monks often fancied that they saw the misshapen 
 forms of demons, and heard their diabolical whispers. 
 Too illiterate or obtuse to account for natural phenomena, 
 they supposed that they had a hand in regulating the 
 operations of Nature ; and, too unacquainted with the 
 habits of the brute creation to understand their me- 
 chanical capacity, they regarded the contrivances of 
 animals as the undoubted fruit of a nocturnal adven- 
 ture of the infernal inhabitants. They often conceived 
 that they saw His Satanic Majesty, with all his distin- 
 guishing appendages, such as his cloven foot, his sooty 
 aspect, his peculiar horns, and sulphurous odor. Al- 
 though his visitations were most formidable in the shape 
 of a woman, yet they frequently had the uncommon 
 fortitude of sustaining long conversations with him. 
 
 The more pious a monk was, the more frequently he 
 was honored with the company of demons. This fact 
 is not surprising, for it is certain that the more success- 
 fully he warred against nature and himself, the more 
 diseased would become his brain, the more extrava- 
 gant his conceptions, the more discordant his imagina- 
 tion, the more susceptible his senses to false impresions, 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 53 
 
 the more frequent and terrible would apparitions ap- 
 pear, and the better he would be suited for the com- 
 pany of fiends and spirits. If in the vigorous and 
 wholesome bustle of life, the visual organs may recog- 
 nize images which have no real existence, the auditory, 
 sounds which are imaginary, and the olfactory, odors 
 which are the mere products of fancy, how much more 
 vividly would analogous deceptions be likely to occur 
 in the minds of monks and anchorites, whose condi- 
 tion was replete with causes calculated to create them. 
 Such was the melancholy condition of those monks who, 
 aspiring after superhuman sanctification, had with sin- 
 cerity of purpose assumed the monastic obligation. 
 But there were others who, more ambitious of fame 
 than of internal purity, had assumed the same obliga- 
 tions. Professedly despising pleasure and fortune, but 
 secretly laboring to acquire their possession, they 
 manufactured with more facility diabolical apparitions, 
 than those whichs pontaneously psrang from the over- 
 wrought brain of the sincere. 
 
 Sanctification having become the passport to 
 worldly honors, and its degree orthodoxly estimated 
 by the degrees of personal familiarity with the Devil, 
 the aspiring were too frail to resist the temptation of 
 increasing their celebrity by multiplying the number of 
 satanic visits ; and as they could draw on an inexhaust- 
 ible mine of conscienceless inventions, and deliberately 
 adorn them with the terrific and interesting incidents of 
 romance, they far outstripped the reputation of the 
 sincere, and with greater facility obtained the emolur 
 ments of ecclesiastical sinecures. The sense of touch not 
 being equally susceptible of false impressions with the 
 
54 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 other senses, while the sincere might see demons and 
 hear their voices, they could not so well recognize them 
 by means of contact. But the hypocritical, untram- 
 meled by this limitation, would create by their invent- 
 ive faculties any number of personal encounters and 
 terrific battles with the armies of the infernal regions. 
 
 Although the monks sometimes relate how com- 
 pletely they, vanquished the Devil by their elo- 
 quence and the ingenuity of their arguments, yet they 
 oftener tell how valorously they triumphed over him 
 after a desperate struggle with his superhuman strength; 
 and not seldom, how alone and single-handed they en- 
 countered him in command of a battalion of fiends, in- 
 flicting on the spiritual bodies of the demons such deep 
 gashes, and cutting up their impalpable substances in 
 such a horrible manner that, wounded, bleeding and de- 
 moralized, they retreated in wild disorder. As the 
 monkish cell, like the human brain, could accomodate 
 any number of devils, it was as convenient a hall of 
 audience in which to receive His Satanic Majesty, as it 
 was an area for the scientific manceuvering of his le- 
 gions. The crown of sanctification being awarded to 
 the most unscrupulous inventor of pious ficitons, a hy- 
 pocrite was encouraged to labor to outrival the fame of 
 an antagonist by the boldness of his assertions, the ex- 
 travagance of his fables, and the incredibleness of his 
 fabrications. Under such circumstances we are not 
 astonished to find that some claimed to have obtained a 
 perfection in holiness that enabled them to see the 
 Devil anywhere, and to look upon hell at any time. 
 
 Even at the period of the Reformation, the popular 
 belief recognized the Devil and his imps as often vis- 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 55 
 
 ible. Martin Luther, while engaged in translating the 
 Bible, conceived that he saw the Devil enter his study, 
 for the purpose of embarrassing him in the execution of 
 his useful design. Annoyed at this unceremonious and 
 impertinent intrusion, he threw at His Satanic Majesty 
 an inkstand, which, passing through the dusky form 
 and striking the wall beyond, left a stain which is vis- 
 ible to this day. 
 
 PAR T THIRD . 
 
 The Ignorance and Corruption induced by the Monastic 
 Vow of Silent Contemplation. 
 
 The profound homage won by the monks from igno- 
 rance and superstition, gave such credit to their extrav- 
 agant productions, that history has sometimes been led 
 into the error of recording them as real events ; and 
 the craft or credulity of the church in incorporating 
 them in her devotional books has so deepened and per- 
 petuated reverence for them, that, even at the present 
 day, they continue still to govern in a measure the 
 superstition, and to contaminate the creed and ritual of 
 reformed churches. 
 
 It has been alleged, with apparent plausibility, in 
 favor of monastic institutions, that they were during 
 the middle ages the protectors of learning. But, un- 
 fortunately, this noble virtue can be justly claimed for 
 only a few of them ; and for that few in but a limited 
 sense. Some of the inmates being unfit for more remu- 
 
56 MONASTIC VOW OP 
 
 nerative employment were subjected to the drudgery of 
 copying manuscript ; sometimes the task was imposed 
 on others as a penance. The aged and infirm of the 
 Benedictine monks were thus employed ; and, as the 
 multiplication of manuscripts is the most efficient mode 
 of preserving what is written on the perishable mate- 
 rial of paper and parchment, these monks have con- 
 tributed to the preservation of learning. But invet- 
 erate prejudice, obstinate bigotry, gross ignorance, and 
 abject servitude were ill qualified to render correct 
 versions, while they were well adapted to the perpetra- 
 tion of fraud and corruption. Transcribing manu- 
 scripts, not to produce accurate copies, but to consume 
 time or do penance, and governed by the misleading 
 principles of their order, it is not as likely that the 
 monks would furnish authentic and reliable transcripts, 
 as that they would mar them with errors, embellish 
 them with fancies, and interpolate them with forgeries 
 and wilful corruptions. 
 
 "While such was the literary honesty of the religious 
 orders, and such likely to be the character of their 
 manuscripts, the ignorance and superstition of the age 
 favored rather than obstructed the perpetration of any 
 pious fraud they might contemplate. A few facts will 
 illustrate the incredible ignorance of the Catholic 
 clergy during the dark ages. A Jew, converted to 
 Christianity but not to truth, having persuaded the 
 Emperor Maximilian that the Hebrew works, the Old 
 Testament excepted, were all of pernicious tendency, 
 the latter, at the horrible revelatation, ordered them to 
 to be burnt. The learned Reuchlen earnestly remon- 
 strated against the imperial decree, and succeeded in 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 57 
 
 having its execution postponed until the matter of the 
 allegation could be critically examined. A controversy 
 of ten years ensued. So grossly ignorant were the 
 clergy that not one of them with whom Eeuchlen de- 
 bated had ever seen a Greek Testament, and as for the 
 Hebrew Bible, they denounced its alphabetical char- 
 acters as the diabolical invention of some profane 
 sorcerer. So obstinate was their opposition to Hebrew 
 literature that they declared their readiness to support 
 their cause at the point of the sword. Neither the Pope 
 nor the cardinals having sufficient learning to decide on 
 the merits of the question, the former was induced to 
 appoint as umpire the archbishop of Spires, whose de- 
 cision happily rescued oriental literature from the 
 flames of the stake. Pope Sylvester II., whose literary 
 attainments were superior to those of the clergy of his 
 age, was regarded as a magician who held unhallowed 
 converse with infernal demons. St. Augustin, who was 
 ignorant of the Greek tongue, and whose learning was 
 sufficiently superficial to prepare him for canonization, 
 pronounced the doctrine of the antipodes a blasphemous 
 heresy ; and Pope Zachariah degraded a friar for in- 
 dorsing it, and excommunicated all Catholics who should 
 believe it. The patriarch Cyrille declared that neither 
 he, nor the Vandal clergy, nor the African clergy un- 
 derstood the Latin language. St. Hilary asserts from 
 his personal knowledge that but few of the prelates in 
 the ten provinces of Asia preserved the knowledge of 
 the true god. (Hilar, de Synodis. c. 63, p. 1186). 
 It might reasonably be supposed that the ecclesiastical 
 councils, composed of the most influential bishops, 
 priests and abbots, would comprehend among their 
 
58 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 members many distinguished scholars, yet according to 
 the authority of Pope Gregory II., the councils at his 
 time were composed of men, not only ignorant of letters, 
 but of the scriptures. According to the testimony of 
 Sabinus, bishop of Heraclea, the Nicene bishops were 
 "a set of illiterate, simple creatures that understood 
 nothing," and Cassian charges the Egyptian monks of 
 having ignorantly preached Epicurean Paganism as the 
 gospel of Christ. Among the crowd of slaves, soldiers, 
 lords and priests that thronged the convents, the sign of 
 the cross, the sign of ignorance, was a general mode 
 of executing contracts, as all could make it, though few 
 could write their names. 
 
 That the literary progress of the church has not kept 
 pace with the progress of the world, will be attested by 
 a few extracts from a work written by William Hogan, 
 formerly a Catholic priest of Philadelphia, comprising 
 an essay entitled, " A Synopsis of Popery, as it was and 
 as it is," and another entitled, "Auricular Confession 
 and Popish Nunneries," published at Hartford, by Silas 
 Andrew and Son, in 1850 — a work that may be profit- 
 ably consulted by parents who educate their daughters 
 at nunnery schools, and by gentlemen who contemplate 
 forming matrimonial alliances with ladies who have 
 been accomplished at such institutions. Speaking of 
 the ecclesiastical canons the author says : " These 
 canons are inaccessible to the majority of the American 
 people, even of theologians, and with the purport or 
 meaning of them none but those who have been edu- 
 cated Catholic priests have much or any acquaintance. 
 He who argues with Catholic priests must have had his 
 education with them, he must be of them and from 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 59 
 
 among them. He must know from experience that 
 they will stop at no falsehood where the good of the 
 church is concerned ; he must know that they will 
 scruple at no forgery when they desire to establish any 
 point of doctrine, fundamentally or not fundamentally, 
 which is not taught by the church ; he must be aware 
 that it is a standing rule with the Popish priests, in all 
 their controversies with Protestants, to admit nothing 
 and deny everything, and that if still driven into diffi- 
 culty they will have recourse to the archives of the 
 church, where they keep piles of decretals, canons,, re- 
 ceipts, bulls, excommunications and interdicts, ready 
 for all such emergencies, some of them dated from 300 
 to 1000 years before they were written or thought of, 
 showing more clearly than perhaps anything else the 
 extreme ignorance of mankind between the third and 
 ninth century, when these forgeries were palmed on the 
 world." (Synopsis, p. 9, 10). Again, he observes: 
 " The majority of Catholics in this country know no- 
 thing of the religion which they profess, and for which 
 they are willing to fight, contend, and shed the blood of 
 their fellow beings. I am not even hazarding an asser- 
 tion when I say there is not one of them that has read 
 the gospel through, or that knows any more about the 
 religion he professes than he does about the Koran of 
 Mohammed. He Is told by the priest that Christ estab- 
 lished a church on earth ; that it is infallible, and that 
 he must submit implicitly to what its popes, priests and 
 bishops teach, under pain of ' damnation.' This is all 
 the great mass of Catholics know of religion ; this is all 
 they are required to learn ; and hence it is that these 
 people are unacquainted with the pretensions of the 
 
60 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 Pope, the intrigues of the Jesuits,, and the imposition 
 practised on them by their bishops and priests." (Sy- 
 nopsis, p. 29). Speaking of the theological education 
 of the priests, he says : " During the four years I spent 
 in the college of Maynooth, they (the scriptures) 
 formed no portion of the education of the students. It 
 is my firm conviction, that out of the large number of 
 students there for the ministry, there was not one who 
 read the gospels through, nor even portions of them, 
 except such as are found in detached passages, in works 
 of controversy between Catholics and Protestants. Un- 
 til I went to college I scarcely ever heard of a Bible. 
 I know not of one in any parish of Munster, except it 
 may be a Latin one, which each priest may or may not 
 have, as he pleases. But I studied closely the holy 
 fathers of the church ; so did most of the students. 
 Wc were taught to rely upon them as our sole guide in 
 morals, and the only correct interpreters of the Bible. 
 A right of private judgment was entirely denied us, 
 and represented as the source of multifarious errors. 
 The Bible, in fact, we had no veneration for. It was, 
 in truth, but a dead letter in the college ; it was a 
 sealed book to us, though there were not an equal num- 
 ber of students who were obliged to study more closely 
 the sayings, the sophistry, the metaphysics and mystic 
 doctrines of those raving dreamers called holy fathers ; 
 many of whom, if now living would be deemed mad, 
 and dealt with accordingly." (Auric. Confess., vol. 1, 
 p. 79, 80). 
 
 But to return to the consideration of the monks. 
 The pen of transcribers, so generally ignorant, and so 
 grossly superstitious, could not render authentic manu- 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 61 
 
 scripts even when actuated by the best intention ; and 
 when we recollect that the task which required the 
 exercise of an enlightened and vigorous intellect was 
 devolved on the most diseased and infirm of the re- 
 ligious orders, the impossibility of its effectual perform- 
 ance will appear without a doubt. As ignorance could 
 not transcribe masterly, so superstition would pervert 
 intentionally. Conscience paralyzed by bigotry, and 
 the love of truth supplanted by a careful regard to the 
 interests of the church, the copyists would esteem it a 
 Christian duty to omit such parts of a manuscript as 
 militated against the truth of their religion ; to corrupt 
 such parts as might by perversion be made to adminis- 
 ter to its support ; and to interpolate such parts 
 with occurrences and apparent incidental allusions to 
 events, the omission of which was fatal to its cred- 
 ibility ; and thus by a system of typographical frauds, 
 deliberate falsehoods and artful perversions, contrive to 
 make it appear that all Jewish and Pagan literature 
 concurred in establishing Catholicism. 
 
 The classics, unlike the canonical scriptures, have 
 been subjected to the purifying process of rigid criti- 
 cism, and the monkish corruptions w T hich once perverted 
 the meaning, are in a great measure eradicated from 
 modern editions. Had the New Testament been sub- 
 jected to a similar ordeal, such for instance as the 
 learned Strauss, in his Life of Christ, instituted, In- 
 fidels might have fewer objections to the gospels, and 
 the credit of these sacred books be far better sustained 
 than it has been by voluminous commentaries, declama- 
 tory sermons and conflicting polemical works, defending 
 
 the grossest frauds and the boldest interpolations. 
 6 
 
62 . MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 The bigotry or fear of the church, which induced it 
 to corrupt the works of ancient authors, led it also to 
 wage an exterminating war against those profane 
 productions which it could not satisfactorily answer. 
 For this purpose the secular power was invoked, and 
 laws were framed prescribing the severest penalty for 
 those who should read or possess a Pagan production. 
 The persecution against philosophers and their libraries 
 was carried on with such pious insanity that besides its 
 causing piles of manuscripts to be destroyed, men of 
 letters burned their elegant libraries, lest some vol- 
 ume contained in them should jeopardize their lives. 
 Young Chrysostom, happening once to find a proscribed 
 volume, gave himself up for lost. St'. Jerome, in order 
 to deter his readers from perusing any of the heathen 
 authors, declared he had been scourged by an angel for 
 reading the productions of Virgil. The Orthodox Theo- 
 dosius, in the destruction of the Alexandrian library, 
 consigned to the flames the literary treasures of an- 
 tiquity. The bare thought of the existence of works 
 which baffled the talent and learning of the church to 
 refute, irritated the sensitive piety of the monks beyond 
 endurance. They pursued the masterly productions of 
 Celsus and Porphery with an unscrupulousness which 
 seemed to indicate that the annihilation of them was in- 
 dispensable to the existence of Christianity. After 
 malice had ferreted every crevice where a proscribed 
 volume could be secreted, and vengence had not left a 
 vestige of any of them remaining, except what was 
 quoted or perverted in the works of Christian apolo- 
 gists, the Church boasted that God had not left a work 
 of hostile literature in existence. With not less bias- 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 63 
 
 phemy and "bigotry has the same absurdity been echoed 
 by dishonest, ignorant theologians of all ages. So wide 
 and unsparing was the monkish war against classic lit- 
 erature, that it has left no work in existence belonging 
 to the period of Christ ; and hence where knowledge is 
 the most needed the historian finds the least ; and where 
 the facts might be expected to be the most abundant 
 and of the clearest description, the wildest and most 
 ridiculous fancies are presented. The necessity for this 
 destruction proves the power of the works destroyed, 
 and the alarm and weakness of the faith that destroyed 
 them. 
 
 Beside the destructive hostility of the monks to the 
 formidable literary obstacles which embarrassed the 
 vindication of their theological subtleties, their zeal led 
 them to perpetrate the grossest forgeries in order to 
 manufacture historical data in their favor. Prominent 
 among the numerous instances of this disregard to truth, 
 are the following passages conceded by all scholars to 
 be entire fabrications. The passage in the works of 
 Phlegon, in which he is made to speak of a total eclipse 
 of the sun and a simultaneous earthquake ; a passage in 
 Macrobius, which represents the author as incidentally 
 referring to the death of a son of his as having occurred 
 in consequence of a jealous order issued by Herod for 
 the massacre of all children under two years old ; the 
 Epistle of Lentulus, prefect of Judsea at the time of 
 Christ, who is represented as describing the person and 
 character of Christ, in a governmental despatch, which 
 according to prefectorial custom was encumbent on him, 
 in transmitting to Rome a report of all important 
 events occurring within the limits of his jurisdiction ; 
 
64 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 the legend of the Veronica handkerchief in which it is 
 related how Abgarus, king of Edessa, sent ambassadors 
 to Christ to solicit the favor of his portrait, and how 
 wiping his face with a handkerchief, and thereby im- 
 pressing his features on it, politely accommodated the 
 legation ; the Epistle of Pontius Pilate to the Emperor 
 Tiberius, in which he is made to relate the alleged cir- 
 cumstances of the death and resurrection of Christ ; the 
 fabulous inscriptions on two fabulous columns, said to 
 be situated near Tangiers, relating to a robber called 
 Joshua, son of Nun ; and all the passages found in Jo- 
 sephus in reference to Christ. 
 
 Origen, who wrote in the second century, complains 
 that his own works had been altered ; and the practice of 
 this base species of dishonesty seems to have fearfully 
 increased with the growth of the Church. The monk 
 Jerome, in the fourth century, finding the versions of 
 the scriptures which were received by the churches as 
 authentic exceedingly conflicting, undertook to abate the 
 scandal it caused, by compiling a Bible with genuine 
 text. The product of this laborious exertion was, how- 
 ever, so unsatisfactory to the theological tastes of the 
 churches, or to the results of their critical examinations, 
 that but few of them adopted it. Although Jerome's 
 labors were but imperfectly appreciated during his life, 
 yet, as he had materially approximated toward furnish- 
 ing a catholic desideratum, the Vulgate, which is a 
 modification of his Bible, was declared by the Council 
 of Trent, in 1546, to be " authentic in all lectures, dis- 
 putations, sermons and expositions, and no one shall 
 presume to reject it under any pretence whatever." 
 But in attempting to execute this decree, the startling 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 65 
 
 fact became evident that the copies of the Vulgate, in 
 consequence of the liberty which translators had taken 
 with the text, essentially differed from one another ; 
 that each church believed in a different Bible ; that it 
 was impossible to determine which divine book was 
 the least corrupted ; and that as the Council, inspired 
 by the Holy Ghost, had forgotten to designate which 
 copy of the Vulgate was the genuine one, it only in- 
 creased the confusion it had attempted to remedy. If 
 disbelief in the Bible is infidelity, the greater number 
 of the churches were actually in a situation which made 
 them unconscious infidel conclaves. To relieve them 
 from this perilous predicament, the Pope appointed a 
 learned committee to prepare a Bible which should have 
 genuine text. But the Bible elaborated by this com- 
 mittee, not according with the Pope's theological 
 fancies or secret designs, was rejected. Pope Pius IV. 
 next tried his hand at perfecting and correcting the 
 scriptural text ; but the task exceeding his learning and 
 ingenuity, his efforts were alike unproductive of satisfac- 
 tory results. He was followed by Pope Pius V., who also 
 labored in vain. In 1590 Pope Sixtus V. made a Bible 
 which his judgment or prejudice pronounced to be au- 
 thentic. Determined that Christendom should be re- 
 duced to the alternative of accepting his version, or 
 having none, he anathematized all who should alter its 
 text or reject his authority. But Pope Clement VIIL, 
 not having the fear of his infallible predecessor's anath- 
 ema before his eyes, made another Bible, and promul- 
 gated it from his throne as genuine and authoritative, 
 amid a heavy storm of Vatican thunder, in which he 
 consigned to the care of the "Devil and his angels all 
 6* 
 
66 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 who should presume to correct the work of his infallible 
 hands. A year had, however, scarcely elapsed when he 
 was obliged to correct its glaring inconsistencies him- 
 self ; incurring the vengeance of his own anathemas. 
 Notwithstanding an incessant tinkering for ages by the 
 ablest theologians, to mend the numerous flaws in the 
 Catholic word of God, every well-informed Komanist 
 admits, that while all the previously received versions 
 of the Vulgate are too grossly corrupted to be defended, 
 the one in present use is far from being perfect. Cardi- 
 nal Bellarmine, who was deeply versed in Biblical erudi- 
 tion, and who in life had obtained such an eminent degree 
 of popularity for sanctity, that when he died a guard had 
 to be placed over his corpse, to prevent the devout from 
 robbing it of its garments — who wished to preserve or 
 vend them as relics — declares that the most that can be 
 said in favor of the received version is, that it is the 
 best that has been made. 
 
 The authorized English version of the holy scrip- 
 tures, known as James' Bible, is the product of forty- 
 seven celebrated Biblical scholars, after three years' 
 labor. The manuscripts from which they made their 
 translations being exceedingly corrupted and discordant, 
 the renderings consequently were so conflicting and 
 irreconcilable on any principle of philological or exe- 
 getical criticism, that in order to effect any agreement, 
 and prevent the production of as many Bibles as there 
 were translators, they put the question concerning a 
 disagreement to vote, and decided which was the cor- 
 rect rendering by the authority of a majority of suf- 
 frages. But this logic was not appreciated by Dr. Smith 
 and Bishop Belsori, to whose joint scrutiny the Bible 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 67 
 
 thus manufactured was afterwards submitted, and they 
 accordingly subjected it to a further process of purifica- 
 tion. 
 
 While philological criticism, and investigations con- 
 cerning the genuineness of the sacred text, have wrung 
 from Catholics the reluctant concession that the Vul- 
 gate needs a revision, they have equally extorted from 
 Protestants the unwilling admission that their version 
 is corrupted with undoubted forgeries. The doxology 
 at the conclusion of the Lord's prayer, the story cf the 
 pool of Bethsaida, the story cf the rich man and Laz- 
 arus, and the story of the adulteress, are universally 
 conceded by scholars to bo wilful fabrications. The 
 most distinguished among Biblical scholars go further. 
 Bretschneider, the friend and confident of Joseph II. of 
 Austria, rejects the Gospel of St. John. Dr. Lardner 
 rejects the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of St. 
 James, the Second Epistle of St. Peter, the Second 
 Epistle of St. John, the Epistle of St. Jude, and the 
 book of Revelations. Dr. Evanson rejects the Gospel 
 of St. Matthew, the Gospel of St. Mark, the Gospel of 
 St. Luke, the Epistle to the Ephesians, the Epistle to 
 the Colossians, the Epistle to the Romans, the Eirst 
 Epistle of St. Peter and the First Epistle of St. John. 
 
 The Greek Testament comprehends 181,253 words, 
 yet such is the number of mistakes, perversions, for- 
 geries and interpolations in the existing manuscripts, 
 that in comparing the documents together 130,000 va- 
 rious readings are detected ; showing that the manu- 
 scripts from which the New Testament is translated, 
 are not correct in one word out of six. These discrep- 
 ancies, affecting the mere spelling of a word in some in- 
 
68 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 stances, and, in others, the sense of a passage, are of all 
 degrees of importance. 
 
 In Teschendorf 's New Testament, published by Tauch- 
 nitz, at Leipzig, in English, and for sale by the New 
 York booksellers, we find the following: "But the 
 Greek text of the apostolic writings, since its origin in 
 the first century, has suffered many a mischance at the 
 hands of those who have used and studied it. . . . The 
 authorized version, like Luther's, was made from a 
 Greek text which Erasmus in 1516, and Eobert Steph- 
 ens in 1550, had formed from, manuscripts of later date 
 than the tenth century. . . . Since the sixteenth centu- 
 ry Greek manuscripts have been discovered, of far 
 greater antiquity than those of Erasmus and Stephens ; 
 as well as others in Latin, Syriac, Coptic and Gothic, 
 into which languages the sacred text was translated, 
 between the second and fourth centuries Schol- 
 ars are much divided in opinion as to the readings 
 which most exactly convey the word of God." {Intro- 
 duction, p. 1, 2). 
 
 When mistakes in a manuscript arise, from the ignor- 
 ance or incompetency of the copyist, they invalidate its 
 authority ; when they arise from his carelessness, they 
 are proofs that he entertained no reverence for it ; and 
 when they occur from a deliberate intention on his part 
 to corrupt and to interpolate it, they are demonstrations 
 that he did not believe in its divine inspiration. That 
 the religious orders did not believe in the divine in- 
 spiration of the holy scriptures, is as undeniable as 
 it is that they deliberately and intentionally marred all 
 the Biblical manuscripts that passed through their 
 hands. The conviction is equally irresistible that those 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 69 
 
 who sanction the corruptions of the sacred text by using 
 them as authority, and those who defend them in defi- 
 ance of the irrefragable proof of their spurious character, 
 forfeit all claim to a reputation of common honesty. 
 
 There is another class of forgeries perpetrated for the 
 good of the Church, to which I will briefly advert. Of 
 this description is the Decretal Epistle of Constantine 
 the Elder, addressed to Pope Sylvester — the foundation 
 of the Pope's claim to temporal sovereignty ; and also 
 the Creed of Athanasius, forged two hundred years 
 after his death, and which Gennadius, Patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople, upon first reading, pronounced to be the 
 work of a drunken man. All ranks of the Church 
 seemed to have become infatuated with an ambition to 
 be forgers. Pope Stephen II. forged a letter, and 
 attributed its authorship to the spirit of St. Peter. In 
 this document, according to Gibbon, " The apostle assures 
 his adopted sons, the King, the clergy, and the nobles 
 of France, that dead in the flesh, he is still active in the 
 spirit ; that they now hear and must obey the voice of 
 the founder and guardian of the Roman Church ; that 
 the virgins, the saints, and all the host of heaven, unan- 
 imously urge the request, and will confess the obliga- 
 tion ; that riches, victory and paradise will crown their 
 pious enterprise, and that eternal damnation will be the 
 penalty if they suffer his tomb, his temple, and his 
 people to fall into the hands of the perfidious Saracens. 
 ( Dec. vol. v., chap, xlix., p. 26. ) The evidences of 
 similar frauds are numerous. All the letters and de- 
 cretals of Clementine are spurious. But few of the nu- 
 merous works ascribed to Pope Gregory the Great are 
 genuine. The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinth- 
 
70 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 ians is egregeously corrupted and interpolated ; his 
 second Epistle to the Corinthians, is so much mutilated 
 that but a fragment of it remains ; his autobiography, 
 in which he is made to take a j ourney with St. Peter ; 
 and all his apostolic canons, are entire fabrications. The 
 Apocalypse was rejected as spurious at the Council of 
 Laodicea, by the seven churches to which it was ad- 
 dressed, and the sentence was almost universally con- 
 firmed by the churches of Christendom. Sirmund shows 
 that the Nicene canons have been corrupted, altered, 
 abridged, and forged to accommodate them to the 
 designs of the church. {Tom. iv., p. 1-234). To es- 
 tablish a historical basis for some pious imposition, the 
 the letters of bishops, decrees of councils, and bulls of 
 Popes have been forged, distorted, marred, interpolated 
 or destroyed. Volume after volume has been written 
 aud falsely attributed to the pen of some distinguished 
 author, in order to obtain respect and authority for an 
 absurd ecclesiastical claim or arbitrary usurpation. 
 Without moral principle, and intent only on supporting 
 the ambitious pretentions of the Pope, the religious 
 orders, at the suggestion of interest, scrupled not to 
 destroy the finest models of literary taste, and to per- 
 petrate the most audacious forgeries. "What could not 
 militate against the credit of their dogmas, or obstruct 
 the consummation of their designs, or what might, by 
 an artful adulteration be made accessory to them, they 
 might piously spare ; but whatever was in its nature 
 too inflexibly inimical to the success of them, they la- 
 bored to annihilate. The unavoidable deduction from 
 the existence of the monkish forgeries is, that every 
 doctrine for which they have been fabricated to prove, 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 71 
 
 is false ; and that every doctrine and event for which 
 they have been manufactured to disprove, is true. 
 The mutilation and destruction of ancient authors by 
 the religious orders is a positive admission that such 
 works were fatal to their claims ; the attempt to manu- 
 facture artificial proof by corrupting and interpolating 
 them, is an acknowledgment that the successful 
 vindication of their creed and pretensions required 
 proof which did not exist ; and the cargoes of their 
 forgeries, each instance of which being a demonstration 
 of these assertions, and consequently an undeniable ob- 
 jection to the validity of the authority upon which they 
 rest their claims, show the vast amount of labor the 
 monks have undergone to disprove their own doctrines, 
 and destroy their own credibility. 
 
 In the revival of learning, inaugurated. by profane 
 genius, the monastic orders, which possessed the trea- 
 sures of classic literature, took, in general, no active 
 part. The literary fires which smouldered in their in- 
 stitutions cast but a sickly glare upon the darkness 
 within, and the feeble rays could not be expected to 
 penetrate the massive walls of these huge castles of 
 ignorance. Resembling more a taper placed uuder a 
 bushel than a light set upon a hill, they left the sur- 
 rounding region enveloped in midnight gloom. The 
 manuscripts transcribed or perverted by the monks 
 were stowed away as useless rubbish. At length the 
 holy charm which, for ages, had bound the church in 
 stupid ignorance, was happily dissolved. Pope Nicho- 
 las V., catching a spark of the fire which burned in the 
 breast of his lay associates, such as Cosmo Medici, his 
 own, too, became ignited. Unconscious or regardless of 
 
72 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 the liberalizing tendency of classical literature, he be- 
 came enthusiastic in its cause, and inaugurated a pur- 
 suit which has exposed the forgeries and legends of the 
 Catholic Church to scorn and contempt. Whatever 
 were his private views, his public example and asser- 
 tions indicate that he had arrived at a firm conviction 
 that the papal chair would not soon again be filled with 
 another friend to the classics. Diligently improving the 
 auspicious moment, he collected the dusky and moulder- 
 ing manuscripts from the monasteries, while his coadju- 
 tors sent vessels to gather them from abroad. By the 
 united labors of the Pope and his opulent laymen, 
 respectable libraries were formed, and the world was 
 enlightened by recovered versions of Xenophon, Diodo- 
 rus, Polybius, Thuycidides and other eminent authors. 
 
 The apprehensions of Nicholas, suggested probably by 
 his knowledge of the nature and past conduct of the 
 church, were too well founded not to be confirmed by 
 subsequent history. The Pagan authors of Greece and 
 Eome, speaking in the clear tones of reason and philo- 
 sophy, could not subserve the purposes of ecclesiastical 
 fraud and intolerance. The dark conspiracy to deceive 
 and enslave mankind, and the systematized measures 
 to keep the world in ignorance, which constitutes a per- 
 manent feature of Catholic polity, could derive no aid 
 from a liberal diffusion of Pagan erudition. Hence 
 Leo X., who is ranked among the most generous of the 
 pontifical patrons of the classics, prohibited the transla- 
 tion of them into the vernacular language. 
 
 But it may be alleged as an exception to the usual 
 hatred manifested by the church to the cause of educa- 
 tion, that the Pope did, at times, establish colleges and 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 73 
 
 universities. This fact is undeniably true. Pope Six- 
 tus IV. established several universities ; but he required 
 from each, for a charter, 10,000 ducats ; and for each 
 collegiate title and office, from 10,000 to 20,000 ducats. 
 Pope Innocent III. also founded a university ; but it 
 was on condition that he received 50,000 scudi for its 
 charter. He also very generously created twenty-six 
 secretaryships, and a host of other offices, to assist the 
 labors of education, but he sold appointments to them 
 at very exorbitant prices. Pope Alexander VI. also 
 founded a university, but it was in consideration of a 
 magnificent bonus ; and he even further displayed his 
 magnanimity by nominating eighty writers of popish 
 briefs, and selling the appointments at 850 scudi each. 
 But after all what was the object of these institutions? 
 Was it to advance the capacities of individual man? 
 "Was it to enlighten society at large ? Not at all. Gui- 
 zot says : " For the development of the clergy, for the 
 instruction of the priesthood, she [the church] was 
 actively alive ; to promote these she had her schools, 
 her colleges, and all other institutions which, the de- 
 plorable state of society would permit. These schools 
 and colleges, it is true, were all theological, and des- 
 tined for the clergy; and, though from the intimacy 
 between the civil and religious orders they could not 
 but have some influence on the rest of the world, it 
 was very slow and indirect." (Gen. Hist. Civ., Sect, vi., 
 p. 132). Guizot might have added with truth, that 
 even for her own clergy the churcb never tolerated an 
 educational institution without receiving an exorbitant 
 pecuniary consideration, nor appointed a professor, or 
 any other officer, without receiving pay for it. 
 7* 
 
74 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 Dens, in his "Systematic Theology," reasons thus: 
 " Because forgers of money, and other disturbers of the 
 State, are justly punished with death, therefore also are 
 heretics, who are forgers of the faith, and, as experience 
 shows, greatly disturb the State." ( Dens, 2, 88, 89 ). 
 If this logic is sound, it is difficult to perceive how 
 Popes, cardinals, monks and priests can avoid conceding 
 justice the right of putting them to death, as by the uni- 
 versal testimony of history and the acknowledgment of 
 the ablest Catholic authors, they have been forgers of 
 the faith ; and, as they have been greater forgers than 
 Protestants, they may, according to their own logic, be 
 more justly put to death. But this we should be sorry 
 to witness. 
 
 The efforts of the church to manufacture evidence in 
 support of gratuitous assumptions, which so clearly dis- 
 proves what it asserts at every step ; sinks its character 
 and authority into such utter insignificance ; and 
 in proportion to the warmth of its zeal adds weight to 
 the contempt it has earned, might be considered un- 
 worthy the notice of sober reason, and left to the 
 crushing jeer of its own ludicrousness. Yet when its 
 polluting finger presumes to touch the sacred page of 
 history ; when it would annihilate all historical author- 
 ity by base interpolations, and load the shelves of libra- 
 ries with its spurious trash, it has invaded a province 
 sacred to the rights of the world ; a province in which 
 truth, reason, and human progress have a deep inter- 
 est, and which must be protected against the intrusion 
 of malignant feet. 
 
 From the monastic vows and regulations, we might be 
 agreeably surprised if the literary productions of those 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 75 
 
 who were governed by them were anything but models 
 of absurdity and puerility. It would naturally be sus- 
 pected that the ideas of the monks would be shaded by 
 the gloom of their melancholy abode, contracted by the 
 influence of their solitary confinement, and rendered 
 misshapen by the habit of conversing exclusively with 
 their own meditations ; and that their literary produc- 
 tions would be rife with all the inventions to which 
 bigotry and superstition could prompt, and with all the 
 craft and unscrupulousness that could serve the pur- 
 poses of unpolished and unnatural fraternities, isolated 
 from society, absolved from the ties and obligations of 
 humanity, and exclusively devoted to the defense and 
 aggrandizement of an organization which aimed at mo- 
 nopolizing all secular rights, immunities and privileges, 
 in order to command the dominion and luxuries of the 
 world. This reasonable presumption we shall find too 
 well confirmed for the credit of human nature, in those 
 legends and theological disquisitions which have often 
 puzzled the credulous, but much oftener curled the lips 
 of the more enlightened into a smile of philosophical 
 contempt. Palpably fictitious, rarely possessing the 
 merit of ingenuity, and, in general, absolutely puerile, 
 yet have the monkish legends been consecrated as di- 
 vine in the Catholic Mass-book, enforced upon the ac- 
 ceptance of the obstinate by the terrors of the Inquisi- 
 tion, and sometimes mistaken by history for actual 
 events. 
 
 This ludicrous mass consists in part of magnified and 
 distorted events of true history, and in part of person- 
 ages and details entirely spurious. It is elaborately 
 ornamented, or degraded with circumstancial accounts 
 
76 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 of miracles which were never performed, with reports 
 of debates which never took place, and with details of 
 battles which were never fought. Faithful only in 
 transcribing their own vitiated taste and unscrupulous 
 conscience ; and decorating their narratives with coarse 
 scenes of blood and bigotry, of death and horror, of hell 
 anddemons, they have furnished a record of absurdities, 
 of a depth of hypocrisy, of an audacity in fabrication, 
 and of a total depravity in principle unparalleled in the 
 history of deception and imposition. Had they, like 
 Sir Thomas Moore, in his description of Eutopia, or no 
 place, described a people which were no people, a city 
 which was invisible, and a river which was waterless, 
 they could scarcely have been less imaginary, though it 
 must be conceded that they are less entertaining and 
 instructive. 
 
 Passing over the polemical rubbish, the absurd topics 
 of discussion and the ludicrous logic of the monastic 
 orders, which would be too tedious for a reader of the 
 nineteenth century, we will briefly allude to some of 
 their amusing legends, which have been consecrated as 
 sacred history in the devotional books of the church. 
 The actual sufferings and deaths of the primitive Chris- 
 tians, they have grotesquely magnified, and invented 
 fanciful modes of torture, which never could have en- 
 tered the more cultivated brain of a Roman emperor. 
 
 According to the story of these visionists, when a Pa- 
 gan female embraced Christianity, she was often com- 
 pelled to decide whether she valued her virtue higher 
 than she did her religion ; and, when the inflexibility of 
 her faith imperiled her innocence, a divine power 
 always interposed, and miraculously rescued her from a 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 77 
 
 dangerous predicament. The male converts were sub- 
 jected to similar modes of ingenious torture. A young 
 saint, in the passion of his first love, according to their 
 authority, was once chained naked to a bed of flowers, 
 and in this hapless and exposed condition, wontonly 
 assaulted by a beautif nl courtezan ; but he saved his 
 chastity by biting off his tongue. St. Cecilia made a 
 vow of perpetual virginity, but her father disregarding 
 the unnatural obligation, betrothed her to a prince. In 
 spite of all remonstrances to the contrary, the marriage 
 was on the eve of being consummated, when an angel 
 interposed, and, after satisfactorily adjusting matters 
 between the nuptial parties, rewarded the groom for the 
 relinquishment of his bride, and the virgin for the ob- 
 stinacy of her resolution, by crowning them both with 
 wreaths of spiritual roses and lilies, culled from heaven's 
 flower garden. Sometime after the eventful occurences 
 of this wedding party, Amachius, a Eoman prefect, 
 commanded Cecilia to sacrifice to the gods. Her piety 
 obliging her to disobey the royal injunction, it was de- 
 termined that the majesty of the law should be vindi- 
 cated by having her boiled three days and three nights 
 in a pot of water. The coldness of divine grace how- 
 ever sufficiently impregnated her body to protect it 
 from injury. As her piety had rendered her invulner- 
 able to the effects of boiling water, the emperor ordered 
 the executioner to try the virtue of a ponderous axe. 
 Accordingly she was laid upon the block ; the execu-r 
 tioner gave her neck three scientific strokes, but per 5 
 ceiving her head still attached by its integuments, 
 desisted from further effort convinced that the accom- 
 plishment of the task exceeded his constitutional vigor. 
 
 7* 
 
78 MONASTIC VOW OP 
 
 The miraculous feat of this saint in inventing music, a 
 long time after all nations had acquired some proficien- 
 cy, at least, in its principles, has often been the theme of 
 pious historians, orators and poets. St. George slew a 
 dragon ( a lizard ), which was about to swallow a king's 
 daughter. St. Dennis walked two miles after his head 
 had been cut off. St. John of God displayed so much 
 whimsical zeal that he was supposed to be demented, 
 and was placed in a lunatic asylum. St. Hubert went 
 on a hunting excursion, and seeing a stag with a cross 
 between its antlers, became converted by the vision into 
 a bishop. He received a key from St. Peter, which is 
 still preserved in St. Hubert's monastery, at Ardennes, 
 and is regarded as an infallible remedy for the hydro- 
 phobia. St. Patrick found a lost boy, whom the hogs 
 had nearly devoured. On touching the mutilated frame 
 with his holy hand, it recovered the lost flesh which 
 had been digested by the swine, and stood before the 
 saint perfectly proportioned in all its parts, and with- 
 out a wound. This charitable saint once fed 1,400 per- 
 sons on one cow, two stags, and two wild boars. 
 Respecting, however, the rights of property, and per- 
 ceiving that to be benevolent at another's expense was 
 a suspicious species of morality, he so adroitly con- 
 trived the management of his miracle that the cow 
 which had been eaten up by the people, and which 
 belonged to a poor widow, was seen the next day well 
 and hearty, and as comfortably grazing in her usual 
 pastures as if nothing had happened. St. Xavier, 
 while traversing the ocean, lost overboard a crucifix. 
 On landing, a crab brought it in his claw, and rever- 
 ently laid it at his feet. The Devil, assuming the 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 79 
 
 shape of a charming woman, once made indelicate pro- 
 posals to him. This piece of impudence so enraged the 
 saint that he spit into His Satanic Majesty's angelic 
 face. The Devil, being a gentleman, was so disgusted 
 at this coarse vulgarity, that he ever afterward shunned 
 Xavier's society. St. Anthony of Padua, after exhaust- 
 ing the strength of the Catholic arguments in favor of 
 consubstantiation, in a debate with a heretic, finally 
 converted his antagonist by an appeal to the under- 
 standing of a horse. Holding up the host before the an- 
 imal, he addressed it thus : "In virtue and in the name 
 of thy creator, I command thee, horse to come, and 
 with humility adore thy God." The horse, at the re- 
 quest of the saint, instantly left the corn which it was 
 eating, advanced to the host and fell upon its knees be- 
 fore it. 
 
 St. Andrew being assaulted by the devil with an axe, 
 and by a company of imps with clubs, called for assist- 
 ance on St. John, who responded with a regiment of 
 angels ; and capturing the devils, chained them to the 
 ground. At this exploit St. Andrew laughed. The 
 Emperor Maximus, having cut St. Apia Tell into ten 
 pieces, the angel Gabriel put him together again. This 
 contest of disintegration and recomposition was carried 
 on with much spirit between Maximus and Gabriel. 
 Ten times a day for ten consecutive days was the saint 
 cut into ten pieces by the malice of the one, and put to- 
 gether again by the anatomical skill of the other. St. 
 Martin of Tours, the patron saint of drunkards, whose 
 festival was formerly celebrated by the devout with 
 banqueting, hilarity and carousals, once, on a drunken 
 frolic, divided his garments with a poor soldier. At 
 
80 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 night, in a dream, lie beheld Christ wearing the identi- 
 cal garment he had given away. His mind became so 
 impressed, probably deranged, that he turned Catholic. 
 The face of this saint was so sanctimonious that it once 
 paralyzed the arm of a robber, which was raised to give 
 him a death blow. He wrought many miracles ; could 
 raise the dead to life. Clovis, after his Gothic victory, 
 made him a rich donation ; and as the hero's war steed 
 was in the saint's stable, he proposed besides, to redeem 
 it w T ith the generous sum of 100 ducats, but the pious 
 horse refused to move until the sum was doubled. St. 
 Anthony saw a centaur in the desert. Finding the 
 corpse of the hermit Paul in the wilderness, and being 
 too much prostrated through fasting to bury it, two 
 lions seeing his difficulty, politely offered their assist- 
 ance ; and after digging a grave and depositing in it 
 the hermit's corpse, respectfully vanished away. St. 
 Athanasius compliments him on account of his holy ab- 
 horence of clean water, and for not having suffered his 
 feet to be contaminated with it except in cases of una- 
 voidable necessity. ( Vet. Ant., c. 47 ), St. Palladus, 
 seeing a hyena standing near his cave, addressing it, 
 asked : " What's the matter ?" " Holy father," replied 
 the beast, " the odor of thy sanctity has reached me. 
 I killed a sheep last night, and want to confess and 
 get absolution." St. Beuno caused the earth to open and 
 swallow a disappointed lover, who had cut off the head 
 of his mistress for her having refused to marry him. 
 He then, by saying mass over the remains of the unfortu- 
 nate lady, caused her head and body to reunite, and life 
 to reanimate her frame. St. Nepomuk, refusing to dis- 
 close the secret confessions of a queen, to her husband 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 81 
 
 who suspected her of infidelity, was doomed to suffer 
 death by drowning. This saint was canonized by Pope 
 Innocent III., and his tomb is shown to this day. But 
 Unfortunately for the infallibility of His Holines, it has 
 been indisputably proved that no such person as St. 
 Nepomuk ever existed. A priest once travelling along 
 a solitary road, heard a most harmonious sound pro- 
 ceeding from a beehive. On approaching it he discov- 
 ered that the bees were adoring the eucharist, and sing- 
 ing psalms to its honor. A monk residing at the mon- 
 astery of Tebenoe was visited by an angel who dictated 
 to him a liturgy. This divine work is preferred by the 
 learned Oassion. St. Ambrose, piously inhuman, care- 
 fully instilled into the youthful minds of Theodosius and 
 Gratian the spirit and maxims of religious persecution. 
 He taught them that the worship of idols was a crime 
 against God, and that an emperor is guilty of the crime 
 he neglects to punish. All the intolerant laws and 
 horrible religious butcheries which disgraced the ad- 
 ministrations of these princes, and their successors, 
 originated in their Catholic education. The same saint 
 justified the conduct of a bishop who had been convicted 
 by the court of setting fire to a Jewish Synagogue. 
 ( Tom. ii. Epistle xl. p. 946 ). St. Augustine, whose 
 most conspicuous virtue was an uncompomising hatred 
 of heretics, warmly commended the inhuman edicts of 
 Honorius against the Donatists, which proscribed and 
 banished several thousands of their priests, stripped 
 them of their possessions, deprived their laymen of the 
 rights of citizens, distracted the land with tumult and 
 blood, and drove a large number of them to seek relief 
 by invoking martyrdom. The inhuman saint rejoiced 
 
82 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 at the despair and madness which shortened the lives of 
 these unfortunate persons, as it would hereafter lessen 
 their torments in hell. St. Jerome justly denounced 
 the disgraceful practice of the clergy in defrauding the 
 natural heirs out of their inheritance, and vindicated 
 the governmental edicts to obstruct this systematic 
 plunder. But his brother monks recriminated ; charged 
 him with being the lover of Paula, of profanely bestow- 
 ing on her the title of mother-in-law of God, of assign- 
 ing himself the chief place in her will, of inducing her 
 to abandon her infant son at Rome, of exercising an un- 
 due influence on her beautiful daughter, and of induc- 
 ing the mother to consecrate her to perpetual virginity, 
 so that he might encounter no obstacles in inheriting 
 her immense possessions, in which was comprehended 
 the city of Necropolis. To these charges he replied 
 that he was merely the steward of the poor. With the 
 fortune of Paula he built four monasteries. He was 
 bitterly opposed to St Chrysostom, who boldly de- 
 nounced the corruption and licentiousness of the clergy 
 and imperial court. Readily and maliciously he coin- 
 cided with the opinion of Theophilus, that Chrysostom 
 had delivered his soul to the Devil to be adulter- 
 ated ; and when zeal in the cause of virtue had brought 
 upon the head of Chrysostom the wrath of the emperor 
 and the court, and he was incarcerated in a dungeon, 
 these two lights of the church had the decency to re- 
 gret that some punishment more adequate to his guilt 
 was not inflicted. St. Cyril, of Alexandria, piously 
 lusted after temporal power, and, as the patriotic No- 
 vitians obstructed his designs, he closed their churches, 
 took forcible possession of their sacred utensils, plun- 
 
SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 83 
 
 dered the dwelling of Theapentus, their bishop ; and 
 then seizing on the Jewish synagogue, drove the Jews 
 from the city and pillaged their houses. The governor 
 interposed ; hut five hundred armed monks surrounded 
 him and attempted to murder him. Hypatia, a lady 
 celebrated for her personal charms, unblemished char- 
 acter, and extraordinary literary acquirements, was, on 
 account of her Novitian proclivities, assaulted by the 
 holy forces of St. Cyril, dragged from her carriage, 
 and punctured to death with tiles. 
 
 The enumeration of the fables of the monks, and of 
 the atrocious acts of canonized saints, might be con- 
 tinued until it filled huge volumes ; but well-informed 
 "Catholics will be thankful that this notice is so brief. 
 The Missil, the Glories of Mary and other Catholic com- 
 pendia, some of which consist of fifty folio volumes, will 
 satisfy the more curious. The profound homage paid to 
 the monks for supposed sanctity, and the inquisitorial 
 terrors which were brought to bear in favor of their 
 frauds, so blunted public perception to truth that the 
 fictitious events and personages invented by one age 
 were believed by the succeeding, until the church be- 
 came the simple dupe of its own forgeries, and self- 
 cursed by accepting, as matters of fact, the fables and 
 impositions with which it had humbugged former ages. 
 Meldegg, Catholic Professor of the Theological Faculty 
 of Freiburg, affords the following testimony in favorof 
 what has been stated : " The old breviary," says he, 
 "crammed full of fictitious or much-colored anecdotes 
 of saints, with passages of indecorous import, requires a 
 
 thorough revision Some Masses are founded on 
 
 stories not sufficiently proved, or palpably ficttcious, as 
 
84 MONASTIC VOW OF SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 
 
 the Mass of the Lancea Christi, the Inventio Crusis, &c." 
 The ludicrousness of the monastic vow of silent con- 
 templation is visible in the misshapen ideas of the 
 monks ; its pernicious tendency, in the frauds, perver- 
 sions, distortions and interpolation which it has led 
 them to perpetrate ; its bigotry, in the wide destruction 
 of ancient literature to which it has incited them ; its 
 absurdness, in the puerile and contemptible productions 
 which it has induced them to elaborate ; and its immor- 
 ality, in that coarseness and vulgarity in their literature, 
 so offensive to a sense of propriety, and which some- 
 times makes an allusion to their works a matter of re- 
 luctance. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 The Monastic Vow of Poverty. 
 
 The monachal vows which we have considered in the 
 foregoing chapters were assumed by all the religious 
 orders prior to the thirteenth century. At that period 
 orders were inaugurated to assist in the administration of 
 the public affairs of the church. As these orders as- 
 sumed obligations incompatible with the observance of 
 silence and seclusion, the vows imposing them were not 
 enjoined. But the vow of poverty, which will be the 
 subject of the present chapter, and the vow of celibacy 
 and obedience, which will hereafter be considered, were 
 assumed by all the religious orders, both antecedent and 
 subsequent to the thirteenth century. 
 
 The vow of poverty embraced an unqualified abjura- 
 tion of all right to acquire or hold individual property, 
 but granted the privilege of owning property in a cor- 
 porate capacity. This privilege was, however, variously 
 restricted by the terms of different monastic charters. 
 The Carmelites and the Augustines were permitted to 
 hold such an amount of real estate as would be sufficient 
 for their support ; the Dominicans were limited to the 
 possession of personal property ; while the Franciscans 
 were not allowed to hold either real estate or personal 
 property. 
 
 The vow of poverty assumed by tha monks was 
 
 adopted either from the instigations of an artful policy, 
 
 to acquire wealth with the reputation of despising it, or 
 
 from a conviction that poverty was a blessing and 
 8 
 
86 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 wealth an evil. If the first hypothesis is correct, the 
 assumption of the vow was exceedingly reprehensible ; 
 if the second, it was absolutely absurd. 
 
 A condition of poverty, abstractly considered, is a 
 matter of neither praise nor censure. It is sometimes a 
 source of degredation ; often of crime, and always of in- 
 convenience and embarrassment. Its general tendency 
 is to weaken in man his inborn sense of personal inde- 
 pendence ; to debase his mind with notions of fictitious 
 inferiority ; to degrade his social dignity by inducing 
 sycophantic and obsequious habits ; and to lead him to 
 sacrifice his conscious equality to the demands of arti- 
 ficial rank. The incessant toil imposed by poverty on 
 the energies of the poor obdurates their nature ; and, 
 allowing no interval for mental culture, permits nothing 
 to interrupt or soften its tendency. The mortifying 
 difficulties experienced by this class of society to obtain, 
 by honest labor, a subsistence for themselves and their 
 natural dependents, have sometimes led them to become 
 depredators upon society, when their constitutional 
 principles, unwarped by indigence, would have secured 
 their obedience to law and their labors for the public 
 good. Graces have been lost in brothels, and talents 
 extinguished on scaffolds, which, had tolerable means 
 protected against the cravings of hunger, might have 
 added lustre to the female character, and heroes, states- 
 men and scholars to the scroll of fame. Poverty beget- 
 ting despair, and despair destroying hope, the incentive 
 to action, the powers of genius sunk into the torpidity 
 of stupefaction, and the strength of a lion slumbered in 
 the inactivity of a sloth. The chill which poverty 
 breathes over the mind is as unfriendly to the unfold- 
 
POVERTY.' 87 
 
 ing of the intellectual germs, as the icy atmosphere of 
 winter is to the fructification of vegetable seed. The 
 poet or philosopher, hoveled in penury, without 
 books or scientific instruments, with spare meals and 
 gloomy forebodings, never creates his brightest gem, 
 nor solves his profoundest problem. However sweetly 
 Burns may sing or Otway melt, or however importantly 
 other sons of indigence may have contributed to the 
 augmentation of the volume of science and literature, 
 yet the world has never heard their sweetest song, nor 
 read their brightest period ; for the groan of penury has 
 marred the harmony of the one, and the tear of want 
 has dimmed the lustre of the other. 
 
 As a condition of poverty is, in the abstract, a subject 
 of neither praise nor blame, so also is a condition of 
 wealth. "Wealth, however, is the ablest means of ad- 
 vancing individual and social progress, as well as the 
 sole remedy for the evils of poverty. If it cannot be 
 adduced as a ground of esteem or of respectability, or 
 as an apology for the ignorance, stupidity, pomposity, 
 vanity and vulgarity with which it may adventitiously 
 be associated, yet, as it amplifies the means of ben- 
 eficence, and protects the weakness of human nature 
 against temptation arising from indigence, its honest 
 acquisition is always consistent with the severest prin- 
 ciples of rectitude ; and its pursuit is recommended by 
 the honorable pride of personal responsibility, the mo- 
 tives of prudence and forecast, and the consideration of 
 every domestic and social obligation. Without its aid 
 the world would have remained in a state of primal 
 barbarism ; the commercial intercourse of nations, the 
 first element of civilization and the principal source of 
 
88 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 national prosperity, power and greatness, would never 
 have been known ; agricultural, manufacturing, mechan- 
 ical and mining interests, unstimulated by the lucrative 
 traffic of supplying a foreign demand for surplus domes- 
 tic production, would never have been extensively de- 
 veloped; the knowledge, the exotic luxuries, and the 
 improvments in the comforts and conveniences of civil- 
 ized life derived from international trade, could never 
 have been obtained ; the great bond of the amity of na- 
 tions, and the power created by the pecuniary advan- 
 tages of exchanging with one-another the products of 
 their different climates, and which, by dissipating mu- 
 tual prejudices, suspicion, vanity and self-conceit, has 
 united them in friendly and beneficial intercourse, would 
 never have existed ; and, as the first altars were erected 
 for the exposure of merchandise for sale, as the first 
 offerings were the currency by which goods were pur- 
 chased, penalties satisfied, salaries paid, and amity and 
 friendship expressed ; and, as the first temples were 
 market-houses built for the accommodation of the traffic 
 of the caravans, and to protect the goods against plun- 
 dering barbarians, who understood not the conventional 
 rights of property, had it not been for the fact that in 
 the pursuit of wealth, communities felt the importance 
 of establishing convenient centres of trade and modes 
 of exchange, the ceremonies of religion would never 
 have been invented. ( See Heeron's Historical Re- 
 searches, translated by Bancroft). 
 
 As neither a condition of poverty nor a condition of 
 wealth is a subject of praise nor censure ; but, as the 
 former inflicts on humanity its worst evils, and the lat- 
 ter confers on it incalculable advantages, a vow of pov- 
 
POVERTY. 89 
 
 erty can have no innate sanctity to commend it, but must 
 have all constituents that can render it objectionable. 
 When it is further considered that there is a modifying 
 reciprocity incessantly acting between the conditions of 
 the different members of the human family, making the 
 prosperity of one advantageous to all, and the indi- 
 gence of one disadvantageous to all, we may find not 
 only a selfish, but also a patriotic incentive in availing 
 ourselves of any pecuniary right of our being. No one 
 can be indigent without decreasing the wealth of ano- 
 ther, nor opulent without contributing to the subsistence 
 of others, nor industrious without adding to the sum of 
 national wealth, nor indolent without consuming that 
 for which he renders no equivalent. Now, as the vow 
 of poverty is inconsistent with the virtues and obliga- 
 tions created by the mutual dependence and reciprocal 
 influence of the condition and circumstances of man- 
 kind on each other; as it fosters all the evils that 
 demoralize the social state ; as it multiplies the number 
 of paupers, discourages industry, sanctifies pernicious 
 influences, and burdens society with the support of in- 
 dolent and useless members, it is at variance with the 
 interests of man and the prosperity of government. 
 
 National wealth is the aggregate of individual 
 wealth. The greater is the amount of individual 
 wealth in a nation, and the more equally it is distri- 
 buted among the inhabitants, the less are the evils of 
 poverty, the more independent and responsible are the 
 citizens, the more energetically are the agricultural, 
 mineral, manufacturing, and commercial interests devel- 
 oped, the more generally and intimately are the inter- 
 ests of the people interwoven with the fabric of the 
 8* 
 
90 MONASTIC VOW OP 
 
 government, the greater will be the nation s prosperity, 
 the more formidable its arms, the more peaceful its in- 
 ternal condition, and the more durable its prosperity. 
 
 A reformatory institution, to be efficacious, must 
 be adapted to the nature of man and his socia 
 condition. Its principles must be his principles. 
 Its measures must tend to aid his fullest development. 
 To accomplish this object it must seek to abolish all re- 
 strictions on his rights, to remove whatever vitiates his 
 sense of independence, to incite his industry by making 
 labor honorable and its rewards certain, and to annul 
 the immunities, exemptions, privileges and monopolies 
 which degrade the masses by indigence and invidious 
 distinctions, and corrupt the few by luxury and ficti- 
 tious dignity. But the monachal institution, which 
 sanctions poverty, the most prolific source of crime ; 
 which denounces individual wealth, the great element 
 of civilization, and of individual and national improve- 
 ment ; which inculcates indolence, the parasite that 
 feeds on the vitals of society ; which discourages the 
 avocations of industry, the parent of personal inde- 
 pendence and responsibility ; and which aims at a mo- 
 nopoly of wealth, itself the source of political inequal- 
 ity, of despotic government and of popular servitude — 
 can advance no claim to a magnanimous mission. To 
 es-teem it a virtue to be poor, pleasing to infinite intel- 
 ligence to renounce the best means of self- improvement, 
 criminal to protect human integrity against the assaults 
 originating in a condition of poverty, are ideas of such 
 an absurd nature that the inference can scarcely be 
 avoided, that the source whence they originated must 
 have been utterly destitute, not only of moral principle, 
 but of common sense. 
 
POVERTY. 91 
 
 But whenever conduct becomes enigmatical, and prin- 
 ciples are avowed contradictory to human reason, pas- 
 sion and interests, an ordinary knowledge of the craft 
 of ambition is apt to suggest a suspicion, that these 
 singular abnegations have not sprung from a sanctity 
 that has elevated the avowers above human nature, but 
 from the injustice of their designs and the profundity of 
 their dissimulation. Conscious that candor would be de- 
 feat, they have endeavored to accomplish objects by 
 pretending to oppose them. The church never being 
 too strongly fortified in holiness not to practise the ad- 
 vantageous vices of the world, has invariably been 
 betrayed into the adoption of this crafty policy ; but, 
 always fanatical, she has never been discreet. Not 
 only has she denied her real designs, but, in order to 
 conceal them, has imposed vows of such an absurd 
 and inconsistent import, as could not fail to reveal the 
 hypocrisy and craft that dictated them. The vow of 
 poverty was not assumed to become indigent, but to 
 become opulent. It was a financial manoeuvre, designed 
 to facilitate the routine of business ; and it proved a 
 very efficacious means of self-emolument. It won a 
 reputation for the holy beggars, that humbled imperial 
 dignity at their feet. Theodosius refused sustenance 
 until a monk who had anathematized him, nullified it 
 by absolution. The Empress of Maximus, in her own 
 palace, at her own table, esteemed it a high honor to be 
 permitted to wait as a servant on St. Martin of Tours. 
 While the assumption of unnatural vows invested the 
 mendicant monks with the credit and importance of 
 supernatural beings, and elevated them above the dig- 
 nity of emperors and empresses, it opened to their 
 
92 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 avarice the treasures of the world, and enabled them 
 not only to fill their coffers with the people's money* 
 but to win their blessing in the act of defrauding them. 
 Such was the haughty indifference of the Abbot Pambo, 
 who seemed to imagine, with his church, that he was 
 the owner of the wealth of the world, that when Mala- 
 ria, a rich sinner, presented him a donation of plate for 
 his monastery, and intimated that its weight was about 
 three hundred pounds, replied : " Offer you this to me 
 or to God ? If to God, who weighs the mountains in a 
 balance, he need not be informed of the weight of your 
 plate." The real design and value of the monastic vows 
 was once forcibly expressed by a Benedictine monk, 
 who remarked : " My vow of poverty has given me 
 one hundred thousand crowns a year ; my vow of obe- 
 dience has raised me to the rank of a sovereign prince." 
 An incident occurred in Paris, in relation to two eccle- 
 siastical dignitaries which illustrates the cupidity and 
 unapostolic character of the church. Innocent IX. and 
 St. Thomas Aquinas having met together in Paris, and 
 a capacious plate, piled with gold, the proceeds of the 
 sale of indulgences, being brought into the room in 
 which they were seated, the enraptured Pope exclaimed : 
 '■ Behold, the days are past when the church could say, 
 gold and silver have I none." But the saint truthfully 
 remarked: "The days are also past when the church 
 could say to the paralytic, arise and walk." Praetaxta- 
 tus, a Pagan philosopher, viewing the princely rev- 
 enues of the church, declared that if he could become 
 bishop of Home, it might even remove his scruples 
 about believing in Christianity. 
 
 Assuming the strongest possible obligations to main- 
 
POVERTY. 93 
 
 tain a perpetual condition of absolute poverty, the 
 monks yet found it compatible with the principles and 
 teachings of the church, to convert their religious or- 
 ganizations into a financial corporation, and to conceal 
 its character and design under a veil of angelic piety. 
 The wealth which they apparently scorned, they unscru- 
 pulously amassed ; the power which they scoffed at 
 as profane, they attempted to monopolize ; to whatever 
 they seemed the most indifferent, they the most sedu- 
 lously labored to acquire ; and whatever they professed 
 with their lips they violated in their practice. This 
 consummate hypocrisy might be condemned by the pro- 
 fane sceptic, but the means crowned the end with too 
 high a degree of success not to be justified by the piety 
 of the religious orders. 
 
 The measures and designs of this false and crafty 
 policy harmonized too well with the pretensions of the 
 Pope, and furnished his purposes with too able and in- 
 genious an auxiliary, not to command his fostering care 
 and protection. Equal in duplicity and rapaciousness, 
 he exempted the mendicant orders from all secular 
 and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, privileged them to de- 
 mand alms without restriction, invested them with the 
 exclusive power of selling indulgences, and conferred 
 on them the lucrative prerogative of accepting legacies 
 under the evasive name of offerings. By this munifi- 
 cent lavishment of spiritual favors, the mendicant or- 
 ders soon found themselves transported from an apparent 
 condition of pauperism to a real condition of princely 
 wealth and power; enjoying at the same time all the 
 sympathy that indigence could excite, and all the lux- 
 ury that money could purchase. Exempted from secu- 
 
94 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 lar jurisdiction, they were empowered to plunder, ravish 
 and murder with impunity ; privileged to demand alms 
 of all, they were the masters of the fortunes of all ; 
 endowed with the exclusive power of vending indulg- 
 ences, they enjoyed a monopoly of the most lucrative 
 trade that was ever projected; and, allowed to receive 
 legacies, they were enabled, after having wheedled the 
 devout out of their treasure while in health, to take 
 advantage of their dotage, and to stand over their 
 dying pillow, and dictate the terms of their last testa- 
 ment to the advantage of the church, and to the disad- 
 vantage of natural heirs. 
 
 Avarice, like the cormorant, is insatiable ; the more 
 it is gorged, the keener is its appetite ; and this rapa- 
 cious demon having taken complete possession of the 
 monastic body, every dollar that its craft wrung from 
 the devout only inflamed its greediness the more. 
 When it had exhausted the gold of a penitent, its cove- 
 tous eye became fascinated by his land ; and, what 
 avarice craved, financial sagacity quickly perceived an 
 available method of obtaining. 
 
 The church possessing no inherent moral vitality, 
 sank with the middle ages into barbarism ; her power 
 was then supreme, but insecurity of life and property 
 prevailed, and under her auspices temporal power de- 
 generated to a system of rapine and plunder. Had she 
 been divine, she would then have beamed as a lone star 
 on a tempestuous ocean ; but being earthy, she resem- 
 bled the other earthy compounds ; nor could she well 
 be distinguished from the barbarians and savages with 
 whom she mingled, except by her imperfect notions of 
 morality and justice, and her superior financial skill 
 
POVERTY. 95 
 
 in speculating on public calamity. The barons, in the 
 support of their interminable wars, had taxed their 
 subjects to an extent which produced general dissatis- 
 faction. As the monasteries enjoyed inviolability and 
 freedom from taxation, they offered the disaffected a 
 refuge from an oppressive taxation, if they would be- 
 come lay monastic members, and convey their worldly 
 goods to the church. A wish to inhale the supposed 
 holy atmosphere of the monasteries, to partake of their 
 luxuries, to enjoy the indulgence they accorded to the 
 commission of sin, to evade an impoverishing taxation, 
 and at the same time to retain some degree of personal 
 freedom, induced wealthy persons of both sexes to con- 
 clude contracts with the monasteries, by which they be- 
 came penniless, wholly dependent for subsistence on 
 them, and irrevocably subjected to their despotic domi- 
 nation. 
 
 Beside this shrewd speculation on public calamity, 
 the excitement and irruption of the crusades afforded 
 the monks another opportunity for the exercise of their 
 financial skill. With the instinctive foresight of cupid- 
 ity, they had perceived the pecuniary advantages which 
 would accrue to their order in the course of the holy 
 war about to be inaugurated ; and as they had fanned 
 its first sparks into a general conflagration, they could 
 hardly have any conscientious scruples in remunerating 
 themselves, by concluding such sharp and profitable 
 bargains as occasion presented and vows facilitated. 
 They well knew the commercial art of bartering that 
 which was worthless for that which was valuable ; and 
 of advancing the market price of an article by a mo- 
 nopoly of it, or depressing its value by increasing the 
 
96 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 supply beyond the demand. In consequence of the 
 public excitement real estate became greatly depressed 
 in value, and holy war-horses, clubs, lances, battle- 
 axes, and other sacred instruments of destruction, pro- 
 portionally advanced in price. The sagacious provi- 
 dence of the monks having in advance accomulated 
 vast military stores, very obligingly accommodated the 
 devout crusader, by exchanging an inconsiderable por- 
 tion of them for a very considerable tract of his land. 
 By such operations the church obtained very extensive 
 domains in exchange for objects of trifling value, or for 
 very inadequate sums of money. The success of the 
 sacerdotal financiers becoming notorious, land specu- 
 lation grew into a contagious mania. Even kings came 
 into the market to buy up the domains of their deluded 
 vassels. The competition between monks and mon- 
 archs was as great as it was amusing ; but sacerdotal 
 craft was the more successful negotiator. The oil 
 with which the priests had been anointed at their ordi- 
 nation was supposed to endow them with the power of 
 bestowing blessings and curses at will, and the high rep- 
 utation for sanctity which they had acquired by vows 
 'of absolute poverty, conferred advantages of trade on 
 them which crowns and sceptres could not command. 
 Kings could purchase only with money ; but the mon- 
 asteries had an exhaustless bank of indulgences, of part- 
 ing blessings, of promised prayers, and of promised 
 masses for departed souls. This bogus currency may 
 provoke the levity of the profane, but it was, neverthe- 
 less, prized by the saints above the value of silver or 
 gold, and held by the monasteries at its highest market- 
 able price. With the command of such unlimited re- 
 
POVERTY. 97 
 
 sources, the monasteries could successfully outbid 
 princes, and purchase without impoverishment what 
 monarchs could not without bankruptcy. 
 
 With an air of piety and benevolence, but with an 
 unscrupulousness that regarded neither truth nor prin- 
 ciple, the monks invented every fiction, and adopted 
 every possible method of augmenting the stores of their 
 wealth. Well aware that human piety is more easily 
 inflamed by the prospect of gold than by the prospect 
 of heaven, they manufactured extravagant reports of 
 the wealth of Jerusalem ; representing it as a vast 
 storehouse of gems and precious metal. So glowing 
 were these descriptions that the piety of the crusaders 
 became excited into frenzy, and their devotion into irre- 
 pressible vociferousness ; a delightful anticipation rapt 
 them into heavenly ecstacies ; and impatience for the 
 glorious results of the coming combat appeared to be 
 the only unpleasant ingredient that marred their hap- 
 piness. On huts and farms, on palaces and domains, 
 they looked down with scornful indifference; for they 
 felt that wealth surpassing the treasures of the Indies, 
 and palaces more gorgeous than Europe could build, 
 would inevitably raward their pious adventure. The 
 cool-headed priest, too well informed to partake of the^ 
 general delusion, deliberately viewed the enthusiasm, 
 and calmly calculated by what means it might be sus- 
 tained and augmented, and how it could most judi- 
 ciously be made to administer to the pecuniary advan- 
 tage of the church. While the coldness with which the 
 reason and conscience of priests secretly regarded the 
 general lunacy, was well disguised, the masses, on 
 
 the contrary, were all flame and fury, and wrought up 
 9 
 
93 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 to such, a pitch of anxiety to wrest the holy land from 
 the Infidels and appropriate it to themselves, that they 
 became indifferent to the treasure and land that they 
 already possessed. In this unhealthy state of the pub- 
 lic mind, it was an easy task for spiritual advisers to 
 relieve their confiding pupils of their revenues, and ul- 
 timately to become the proprietors of many of their 
 domains. 
 
 The method by which this magnificent object was ac- 
 complished, was not only by the treachery of exchang- 
 ing trumpery for valuables, but also by inducing the 
 soldiers of the cross to devolve, during their absence, 
 .the care of their land and revenues on the monasteries, 
 and to make them their heirs-at-law in case of death 
 abroad. As but few of the crusaders of some of the 
 expeditions ever returned, as many of all of them per- 
 ished abroad, we must accord the credit of extraordi- 
 nary shrewdness to the calculating cupidity of the 
 monks, who could make the love, devotion, lunacy and 
 enthusiasm of the devout, their life at home and death 
 abroad, equally advantageous to the monastic coffers. 
 As the infatuation, so beneficial to the church, was gen- 
 eral ; as the convulsions of the times rendered property 
 of all descriptions exceedingly insecure ; and, as many 
 of the devout, equally frantic with the crusaders, were 
 restrained, either by infirmity or other circumstances, 
 from embarking in the holy enterprise, it was not diffi- 
 cult for the monks, amid the general frenzy, to induce 
 such persons to become lay members of the monasteries, 
 and to place their domains under the protection of 
 those powerful institutions ; an advantageous encum- 
 brance which they always assumed with obliging avidity. 
 
POVEKTY. 99 
 
 "With such, money-making devices and sharp prac- 
 tices, and many others of a similar nature, the mendi- 
 cant orders, united in an avaricious and arrogant con- 
 federacy, enjoying the protection of the Pope, and the 
 confidence and homage of Christendom, and released 
 from all secular and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, seemed, 
 while abjuring the possession of property as a crime, 
 and professing poverty as a virtue, to be rapidly mo- 
 nopolizing the wealth of the world — the domains of 
 princes, the traffic of merchants, and the political power 
 of governments. Under such circumstances monastic 
 opulence, without the intervention of a miracle, must 
 have prodigiously increased, and their domains aug- 
 mented to provinces. 
 
 From the fifth century, in every section of Chris- 
 tendom, monastery after monastery .continued to rise, 
 generally constructed with stupendous proportions, and 
 in sumptuous style ; furnished with every species of 
 luxury, and polluted by every description of vice. 
 St. Bernard, who, by the assumption of the vow of 
 absolute poverty, renounced a considerable private in- 
 heritance, and who subsequently scorned the proffers of 
 lucrative dignities, could, nevertheless, by means of his 
 monachal power and opulence erect ten monasteries, 
 make nobles and Popes tremble at his authority, and 
 even kings submit to his dictation. 
 
 The Jesuits, who enjoyed all the privileges of the 
 mendicant and secular orders, excelled them both in 
 duplicity and rapaciousnes. Animated by a crafty and 
 unprincipled zeal for the emolument of their order, 
 they established mission-houses among savage nations, 
 under the pretext of civilizing them and saving their 
 
100 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 souls. But this specious pretext was but a pious mask, 
 under which was concealed an infamous scheme of 
 swindling the natives abroad out of property, and 
 Wheedling the devout at home out of liberal donations, 
 and splendid legacies. Their extensive mission-houses 
 were neither designed for temples of devotion, nor for 
 converting idolaters; their walls less frequently wit- 
 nessed the monks at devotion, than they did at plotting 
 schemes of plunder. Like ancient temples, and more 
 recent churches, mosques and fairs, they were designed 
 as centres of trade to facilitate commercial transactions ; 
 and, as they were the grand resort of the people for ex- 
 change of commodities, they, like the former, gave rise 
 to the numerous villages, towns and cities, whose names 
 they bear. Pagan simplicity has never been a match 
 for monkish craft; and no sooner had the gold and 
 gems of the natives inflamed the zeal and sharpened 
 the shrewdness of the monks, than they were wrung 
 from them by some swindling transaction. Possess- 
 ing the arts of civilized society, they were enabled 
 to astonish the natives with miracles, and success- 
 fully to impose on their ignorance and simplicity. They 
 boasted of having induced multitudes to embrace Chris- 
 tianity ; but as their object was not to convert Pagans 
 from idolatry, but to defraud them out of their land 
 and gold, they were careful not to offend them by de- 
 manding a renunciation of the practice of idolatry, but 
 contented themselves with entreating their converts 
 simply to adore Christ and his mother when worship- 
 ing the images of their gods. With this ambiguous, but 
 insinuating modification of Christianity, they made for- 
 tunes out of the devout at home and savages abroad. 
 
POVERTY. 101 
 
 In 1743, this avaricious sacerdotal order established 
 a mission-house at the island Martinique ; and so adroitly 
 did they manage their Christianizing business opera- 
 tions, that in a short time they monopolized the trade 
 of that island, and of the surrounding islands. Their 
 success naturally excited the jealousy of the secular 
 merchants; and as they were generally regarded as 
 destitute of commercial honor, and unprincipled in their 
 ambition, a formidable opposition was easily fomented 
 against them. This opposition, apparently justified by 
 self-preservation, and the necessity of inaugurating a 
 more liberal and enlightened commercial policy, im- 
 paired to a considerable extent the interest and popu- 
 larity of the sacerdotal establishments. At this stage 
 of their history, a circumstance occured which culmin- 
 ated in their disgrace. Two valuable cargoes had been 
 consigned to them by their French correspondents. 
 These cargoes were captured by the English, with 
 whom the French were at war. In conformity with 
 maritime usage, the consignors demanded indemnity of 
 the Jesuits. The Jesuits denied the legality of the de- 
 mand, and refused to give the satisfaction asked. An 
 appeal was consequently taken to the King of France, 
 who, deciding in favor of the consignors, demanded the 
 Jesuits to make the required restitution. But their 
 presumptuous piety led them to scorn his authority in 
 the same temper in which they had rejected the prayer 
 of his mercantile subjects. This insolent and treason- 
 able conduct led the king to investigate the principles 
 of their order ; and finally to abrogate it in all the 
 states of France, as a political organization projected for 
 
 the acquisition of power and riches. 
 9* 
 
102 MONASTIC VOW OP 
 
 By means of their Christianizing establishments in 
 Paraguay and Uruguay, the Jesuits ruled the natives 
 with despotic power, and acquired an immense amount 
 of wealth. In 1750, Spain having by a commercial 
 treaty ceded to Portugal seven districts of these do- 
 mains, the monks at the head of an army of fourteen 
 thousand men, compelled the contracting nations to an- 
 nul the treaty ; but an attempt being afterwards made 
 to assassinate the King of Portugal, the government 
 declared the order of the Jesuits to be a treasonable 
 organization, and confiscated all their posssessions in 
 the dominion. The order of the Catholic Knights, in- 
 corporated for the defense and propagation of the true 
 faith, by the force of arms, like the monks, rapaciously 
 acquired an incredible amount of riches while under 
 the solemnest obligation to maintain a perpetual con- 
 dition of absolute poverty. These holy organizations 
 were exclusively military ; the sword was the only ar- 
 gument they used. The Knights of St. John, with the 
 vow of poverty on their lips, but with the sword of con- 
 quest in their hand, amassed such extensive domains, 
 that they gave their chief an annual salary of one 
 million guilders. The Knights Templars, while they 
 vowed absolute poverty, acquired by arms, forced loans, 
 donations, bequests and other means, such a prodigious 
 amount of wealth that they erected nine thousand vast 
 and princely palaces, each enriched with extensive 
 territory, and all powerful enough to maintain immu- 
 nity from the jurisdiction of the savereign in whose 
 kingdom they were located. The Teutonic Knights, 
 while they abjured the rights of property, and swore 
 never to allow its possession to tarnish their sanctity, 
 
POVEETY. 103 
 
 wrung from Sweden all the territory that extends from 
 the Oder along its banks to the Gulf of Finland. It is 
 reported by travellers that the Shaggians, a barbarous 
 tribe of Egypt, when meeting a foe, will exclaim: 
 " Peace be with you," and thrust a lance in his heart. 
 The wild mockery of these uncouth savages at avowed 
 principles has been far exceeded by the conduct and 
 profession of the monachal and military orders of the 
 Catholic Church, whose vows were meant for imposition, 
 and whose life was a scene of perjury. 
 
 By the aid of magnificent revenues, the various 
 orders of the religious paupers were enabled success- 
 fully to negotiate for the most lucrative dignities of the 
 church, and enjoyed the fairest prospects of becoming 
 either bishops, cardinals or popes, and of obtaining the 
 luxurious indolence, idolatrous reverence, and impious 
 adulation they secured. The hypocritical devices of 
 the ancient and modern Brahmins, of the Hindoo and 
 Mohammedan monks, and of the priests and prophets of 
 ancient Pagan nations have, in Christian countries, 
 where no prejudice pleads in their favor, and where 
 their origin and claims are candidly investigated, been 
 justly' exposed to the scoffs and contempt of common 
 sense ; and it is possible that under the same circum- 
 stances, the monks, priests, ceremonies and dogmas of 
 Catholicism, which resemble them as nearly as a type 
 can its prototype, would sink to the same level. 
 
 "When we calmly reflect on the monastic institution, 
 and observe the financial principles on which it is organ- 
 ized, the variety and prodigious traffic which has dis- 
 tinguished its career, the immense treasure and domains 
 it has acquired by fraud and artifice, it seems like some 
 
104 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 gigantic financial corporation, projected for speculating 
 in land, and for making money by the tricks of trade. 
 "When we call to mind the avarice by which it has been 
 actuated, the duplicity it has practised, and the impo- 
 sitions of which it has been guilty, it appears to be a 
 corporation organized to make money, regardless of 
 every maxim of justice, and every principle of honor. 
 When we consider how basely it has prostituted its 
 privileges and immunities ; becoming superior to law to 
 violate the principles of rectitude ; professing absolute 
 indigence to demand, like a highwayman, a tribute of 
 every one it chanced to meet, if not with a pistol in its 
 hand, yet with an anathema at its disposal more dreaded 
 by the superstitious than thousands of pistols, it looms 
 up before the imagination as a corporation of outlaws, 
 whose right is might, whose object is money, and whose 
 profession is to plunder. "When we reflect on its pre- 
 tention of vending for gold the pardon of sin, the favor 
 of God, immunity for guilt, and protection against the 
 future retribution of heaven, it appears like a corpora- 
 tion of fiends which arrogates the prerogatives of deity, 
 traffic in the hearts and souls of men, sport with their 
 hopes and fears, and merchandise heaven and hell, time 
 and eternity. And when we remember that the Eoman 
 Catholic Church has incorporated these infamous relig- 
 ious orders in her constitution, and has officially pro- 
 nounced them to be her most useful members, and has 
 thus sanctioned and made her own, all their duplicity, 
 all their rapacity, all their swindling operations, all 
 their highway robbery, and all their profanity, immo- 
 rality and blasphemy, she seems like some black and 
 midnight monster, dripping with human gore, an em- 
 
POVERTY. 105 
 
 bodiment of every deformity, an incarnation of every 
 loathsome, hideous and unsightly demon, and a just rep- 
 resentation of the character and principles of the arch- 
 fiend. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Monastic Vow of Celibacy,. 
 
 Nature has organized man for the conjugal union. 
 She has endowed him with powers adapted to its 
 requirements ; with passions that aspire after its plea- 
 sures and benefits, and with sensibilities that can be 
 gratified only by the performance of its obligations. 
 By the reciprocal relations, and the amiable intercourse 
 which it establishes between the sexes, it furnishes an 
 attractive means of mutual improvement, refining the 
 grossness of the sensual propensities, and developing 
 the noblest graces of the human character. By blend- 
 ing masculine boldness with feminine delicacy, it takes 
 rudeness from the one, and imparts energy to the other ; 
 and thus contributes, in an eminent degree, to the form- 
 ation of that equanimity of character which is the 
 happy medium between extremes, and of that agree- 
 able association of strength and urbanity which is best 
 fitted to cope with the difficulties ncident to life. 
 
 By 'an alliance of mutual affection and interests for 
 life, it secures their highest development, and the most 
 complete and undisturbed enjoyment of their benefits. 
 It identifies the honor and interests of parents and 
 children, securing affectionate protectors for helpless 
 infancy, faithful guardians for inexperienced youth, and 
 interested tutors for fitting the rising generation for 
 the useful and noble stations of society ; and while it 
 thus provides for children, it rewards the solicitude 
 
CELIBACY. 107 
 
 of parents with a shelter in adversity, a support in de- 
 clining age, and a name in posterity. 
 
 But while such are the inducements of marriage, yet 
 a regard to personal interest and happiness might deter 
 a considerate person from assuming its obligations, when 
 either a suitable companion has not been found, or 
 pecuniary resources are insufficient to meet the domestic 
 demands in a satisfactory manner. Pecuniary compe- 
 tency and similarity of taste and disposition are requi- 
 sites indispensable to connubial felicity. Without them 
 marriage would be a source of privation, difficulty and 
 alienation ; and family a painful encumbrance. When, 
 therefore, fortune has withheld these essentials of con- 
 jugal happiness, celibacy, in either sex, is more honor- 
 able than matrimony. 
 
 But to stifle the instincts that prompt to this union, 
 and ungraciously to spurn the incalculable benefits it 
 proffers, unrestrained by any prudential consideration, 
 is to violate, without motive, the laws of human happi- 
 ness, and neglect the fulfilment of the most important 
 design of the organism of man. An act so unnatural 
 is, perhaps, seldom contemplated, except under extreme 
 mental depression, or under the singular delusions of 
 which religious fanaticism is so prolific. Disappointed 
 love, reverses of fortune, or the hope of becoming in- 
 sensible to the wants of humanity by acquiring super- 
 natural perfection, has sometimes induced the weak and 
 superstitious to assume the monastic vow of perpetual 
 celibacy. The motive of such conduct has always ori- 
 ginated in emotion ; and though emotion is alwaya sin- 
 cere, it is always fluctuating. A cloud that obscures 
 the sun and casts a gloom over earth, soon passes away, 
 
108 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 leaving the former in its natural brightness, and the lat- 
 ter in its usual attractiveness. Not less ephemeral is 
 the mental gloom which adversity or superstition may 
 throw over the human mind. When the energies of 
 acquisitiveness have been prostrated by repeated pecu- 
 niary misfortunes ; when the warmth of ambition has 
 been chilled by the wounds of reputation ; when the 
 currents of love have been frozen by the cold breath of 
 disappointment; the desolated heart may feel that its 
 struggle for subsistence is vain, that its hopes of dis- 
 tinction have perished, and that its ties of love are 
 broken forever. But these despondent sensations are 
 ephemeral ; they are the results of a temporary repose 
 of passions which are rooted in the constitution of our 
 nature, and which can be destroyed only with our being. 
 Though despair may for a time throw a wintry gloom 
 over the mind, yet hope will again bud and bloom, 
 avarice will again sigh for wealth, ambition will again 
 thirst for distinction, love will again yearn for com- 
 panionship, and every passion resuming its natural 
 energy will again create the emotions for which it was 
 organized, and compel us to seek its appropriate gratifi- 
 cation in the social, conjugal, or political relations which 
 subsist in society. 
 
 This revulsion is inevitable. It is as certain as the 
 subsidence of a tempestuous torrent after having ex- 
 hausted its energy, into its ordinary peaceful roll. As 
 all emotions are ephemeral, so must be all the vows and 
 resolutions which they generate. Each day brings 
 with it new and unexpected events, which abrogate or 
 modify the emotions and resolves which the circum- 
 stances of the preceding day had suggested ; nay, more, 
 
CELIBACY. 109 
 
 the antithetical emotions thus created are always pro- 
 portionally strong to those which they supplant. Hence 
 vows assumed by any person under extraordinary men- 
 tal excitement, will be repudiated when he is under 
 extraordinary mental depression ; and obligations as- 
 sumed under either of these conditions of mind, will 
 be found inconsistent with the ordinary obligations of 
 life, when that usual current of thought and emotion 
 shall set in, which always flows in harmony with human 
 reason, philosophy and happiness, and the regular course 
 of things. If when this condition shall supervene ; if 
 when hope shall succeed to despair, and reason and re- 
 flection to impulse and fanaticism, and when all the 
 passions and powers of our nature shall resume their 
 natural operation — if then, we shall have placed our- 
 selves by any mistake, however innocently committed, 
 in a situation where we cannot respond to the demands 
 of our nature, we will find that we have doomed our- 
 selves to perpetual misery. 
 
 Nor will any degree of purity or sanctity of motive 
 arrest the evils of mistaken conduct. Nature is inex- 
 orable ; she inflicts punishment on the violators of her 
 laws without regard to the motives by which they have 
 been actuated. She admits no apology ; she knows no 
 forgiveness. Neither tears nor penitence can mitigate 
 her vengeance ; neither pleas of conscientious motives, 
 nor of ignorance of her ordinations, can soften the 
 rigor of her justice. Although the desire of perfection 
 is a natural and noble one, yet she has established laws 
 by which alone it is to be obtained, and punishes the 
 aggressors of them with deformity and imbecility. 
 
 These laws are intelligible. Human perfection clearly 
 10 
 
110 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 comprehends the perfect development of all the physical, 
 mental and moral powers of man. Exercise is the only 
 means by which these faculties can be developed. The 
 system of exercise adapted to the attainment of this 
 end must embrace a judicious employment of every 
 acuity belonging to the human organism ; allowing 
 none to depreciate by indolence ; none to become ener- 
 vated by incessant or overstrained exertion ; but to 
 maintain all in that natural and reasonable condition in 
 which, while they are alternately relieved they are mu- 
 tually strengthened. By the discipline of such a sys- 
 tem of exercise knowledge will gradually become the 
 foundation of reason, judgment the guide of fancy, 
 conscience the controller of the passions, the vital or- 
 gains the recuperator of the physical and mental facul- 
 ties ; a healthy reciprocity and modifying action will be 
 maintained between all the powers, and that equili- 
 brium engendered which is peace ; that condensation 
 which is energy ; and that perfection which is essential 
 to genius. 
 
 The monastic vow of perpetual celibacy is clearly un- 
 favorable to this general exercise of the powers of hu- 
 man nature. It permits the exercise of only a limited 
 number of these powers, and thereby obtrudes an insu- 
 perable obstacle to the full development of the human 
 character. It stimulates those which it cultivates to 
 incessant activity, and thereby distorts and deforms their 
 organisms by an abnormal development. It fetters in 
 inactivity the bulk of the human faculties, and thereby 
 lessens the number and variety of the natural sources 
 of the pleasures of life. It reduces activity in the 
 vital system, and thereby saps the fundamenta' trength 
 
CELIBACY. Ill 
 
 of the whole organization, engendering those physical 
 and moral diseases, which render life joyless, and death 
 often the only remedy. It prohibits the exercise of 
 those faculties by which alone the design of the human 
 organism can be accomplished, and permits but a few of 
 them to be exercised in order to attain the highest 
 degree of perfection. It would dry up the springs of a 
 river, in order to increase the volume of its current ; it 
 would weaken the foundation of an edifice, in order to 
 protect it against the shocks of earthquakes. But wheth- 
 er these ecclesiastical absurdities are more insane than 
 idiotical, we respectfully submit to the acumen of the 
 (Ecumenical Council, whenever it shall resume its 
 session at Rome. 
 
 The monastic vow of celibacy, is as weak in its funda- 
 mental principles, as it is absurd in its discipline. It is 
 founded on the ascetic delusion, that the sensual passions 
 are evils ; and that human perfection and happiness 
 consist in the attainment of a passive state of mind, un- 
 troubled by desire, thought or action. But this is a 
 Brahminical absurdity, rusted to its core by tha abra- 
 sion of ages. Fven if the propensities were evils, yet 
 wisdom would teach us that as they are a result of our 
 organism, they should be regulated ; especially if by a 
 judicious regulation, they can be made to administer to 
 the pleasures of existence. But they are not evils ; on 
 the contrary, they are unmeasurable benefits. If they 
 are ever tormentors, it is when prudence has not regu- 
 lated their gratification, or when abuse has made their 
 cravings unnatural. If they are ever sources of dis- 
 ease, it is when they are exercised in violation of the 
 laws of human nature. If they ever become impotent 
 
112 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 in the production of pleasure, it is when their possess- 
 ors have become gluttons, sots, debauchees, misers, or 
 some similar compound of human depravity. But 
 when the animal passions are refined by knowledge, 
 chastened by virtue, directed by reason, governed by 
 conscience, and exercised with a considerate regard to 
 the integrity of the other powers, they become sources 
 of pleasure and vigor, incentives to industry and enter- 
 prise, and eminently contribute towards the advance- 
 ment of the perfection and happiness of our being. 
 
 Another fundamental error of the vow of celibacy, 
 is the delusion that man may by means of solitude and 
 resolution arrest the natural promptings of the propen- 
 sities. The propensities are constituted by nature 
 essential portions of our being ; and accordingly we 
 must carry them with us into whatever solitude we may 
 retire ; aud as their emotions are naturally irrepres- 
 sible, their powers must be felt under whatever obliga- 
 tion we may assume. Vows, resolutions and solitude 
 are as incapable of arresting the progress of the pas- 
 sions, as they are of stopping the pulsations of the 
 heart. Amid the deepest silence and solitude they will 
 still yearn for expression, and yearn the more the 
 deeper is the stillness. Amid the bustle and tumult of 
 the world they are excited by innumerable different 
 objects; their attention is divided among a variety of 
 attractions ; and each finds its appropriate gratification 
 constantly offered to its taste. But in solitude there is 
 every thing to concentrate, and nothing to divide their 
 power ; every thing to inflame, and nothing to appease 
 their appetites ; and consequently, under such circum- 
 stances, their powers must be the most ungovernable, 
 
CELIBACY. 113 
 
 and the torments of their craving the most unsupport- 
 able. 
 
 The foregoing observations were made on the pre- 
 sumption, that the vow of perpetual chastity was as- 
 sumed by the Catholic orders with sincere intentions of 
 conforming to its requirements ; but this was hot always 
 the case. Whatever sincerity or sanctity may have 
 mingled, in some cases, with the motives that prompted 
 its assumption, neither monks nor nuns, nor priests, nor 
 bishops, nor popes, have in general furnished a reason- 
 able amount of evidence in favor of their chastity. 
 
 The natural and efficient regulator of the animal 
 passions is marriage. The conjugal union, judiciously 
 formed, is invaluable to man, but almost indispens- 
 able to woman. Her organization preeminently qual- 
 ifies her for its conditions and relations. The sen- 
 sitiveness peculiar to her nervous system, obliges her to 
 shrink from the rude battle of public life ; her weakness 
 instructs her in the importance of placing herself under 
 the guardianship of the more muscular power of man, 
 which is noblest employed when it best protects the 
 weak ; and her characteristic instincts and capacities 
 lead her to seek her chief employment and happiness 
 in the modest retirement of domestic life, where she 
 finds the temple of which she alone is priestess ; the 
 idols which excite her purest devotion ; the altars on 
 which she lavishes her choicest gifts ; and where, in ad- 
 ministering her sacred profession, in dispensing instruc- 
 tion to her children, care to her household, and conso- 
 lation to the sick and dying, her true dignity and 
 beauty acquires the deepest enchantment. "Whatever 
 the mental and personal charms of a female may be, 
 10* 
 
114 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 the true excellence of her character can never be seen 
 or appreciated, except in the practice of the amiable 
 virtues which constitute the wife and the mother. This, 
 woman knows ; this she feels ; and to obtain this end 
 the rights of her nature, and the interests of society, 
 concur in authorizing her to adopt every available 
 means. Yet, notwithstanding these plain facts, the Cath- 
 olic Church has the unpardonable presumption to pro- 
 nounce a curse on her, if she should prefer a union so 
 essential to her happiness and usefulness to a state of 
 perpetual virginity. Every time her common sense 
 teaches her to say that marriage is preferable to virgin- 
 ity, this religious monster, in the name of the Holy Trin- 
 ity and all the saints and angels, answers " Let her be 
 accursed." Every time her nature prompts her to say, 
 that, to be joined in marriage is more blessed than to 
 remain in a state of virginity, this monster in horror at 
 the profane and unorthodox expressions, responds, "Let 
 her be accursed." Hear it from the lips of the holy 
 mother herself: 
 
 l( Whosoever shall say, that the church could not in- 
 stitute impediments annulling marriage, or that in 
 instituting them she has erred, let him be acursed." 
 
 " Whosoever shall say, that the marriage state is 
 preferable to a state of virginity, or celibacy, or that it 
 is not more blessed to remain in a state of virginity or 
 celibacy, than to be joined in matrimony, let him be 
 accursed." 
 
 11 Whosoever shall affirm, that matrimonial causes do 
 not belong to the ecclesiastical judges, let him be ac- 
 cursed." ( Canon of the Council of Trent ). 
 
 Atrocious as is this decree, it expresses not the full 
 
CELIBACY. 115 
 
 measure of Catholic arrogance. For while with pal- 
 pable inconsistency, the church solemnizes among Cath- 
 olics the rites which she anathematizes them for prefer- 
 ing, she declares that all those whose marriage cere- 
 monies have not been celebrated according to her 
 fantastic requirements, are living in a, state of " shame- 
 ful concubinage." It would seem that by consummat- 
 ing the union which she holds men and women accursed 
 for desiring, she incurs on her own soul the curse she 
 pronounces on others. She requires no foe for her mat- 
 rimonial services, but accepts marriage presents, which 
 may perhaps have softened her malignity to this product 
 of civilization with regard to Catholics ; but non-Cath- 
 olics who do not conciliate her holy aversion to it by 
 such presents, she pronounces them profligates, their 
 wives prostitutes, and their children bastards. Hear 
 this from the lips of Pope Pius IX. 
 
 " Marriage cannot be given, unless there be, one and 
 at the same time a sacrement, consequently that any 
 ether union between man and woman among Christians, 
 made in virtue of what civil law soever, is nothing else 
 than a shameful and miserable concubinage, so often 
 condemned by the church.' 1 (Allocution on the State 
 of Affairs in New Grenada ). 
 
 So in the j udgment of the present Pope, the non-Cath- 
 olics in the United States consist of strumpets and 
 bastards. According to the principles of the Catholic 
 Church, thus officially enunciated, every person, the 
 marriage rites of whose parents have not been per- 
 formed by a Catholic priest, is an illegitimate offspring 
 divested of all legal right to inherit property of his 
 parents. If the church shall ever gain in America the 
 
116 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 numerical strength for which she is striving, what will 
 he the consequence to non-Catholics ? Will she declare 
 them legitimate, or respect their property titles ? Have 
 not her priests made this land ring with the assertion, 
 that Infidels and Protestants have no right where Cath- 
 olicism is triumphant. 
 
 But who is she that has the audacity to proclaim such 
 principles ? A church, which has been dripping with 
 the blood of innocence for ages, yet is thirsting for more. 
 ■ Who are they that prate about chastity? A body of 
 the most corrupt, unprincipled, and licentious priests 
 that ever disgraced the name of religion. The cold 
 dissoluteness of the Catholic orders is not only undeni- 
 able, but it is even frightful. Had history been silent, 
 and the real conduct of Catholic priests, and the inte- 
 rior of Catholic nunneries remained a profound secret, 
 yet, an ordinary knowledge of human nature would 
 have warranted the suspicion that the priests were 
 not models of chastity, nor the nunneries asylums of 
 innocence, f But history has not been silent; she has 
 spoken distinctly, and spoken often. A nun escaped 
 from her prison-house, or a priest not yet steeled by 
 hypocrisy to all the pleadings of virtue, or who was 
 disgusted beyond endurance at the corruption that fes- 
 ters in the heart of the Catholic Church, has furnished 
 history with startling records, and raised the sacred 
 veil, that the superstitious might behold the horrible 
 compound of duplicity, lust, and murder which secretly 
 pollutes the interior of the institutions which they rev- 
 erence. But these fitful revelations, although appeal- 
 ing to the noblest sympathies of mankind, have seldom 
 produced an effect equal to the exigency. Like bursts 
 
CELIBACY. 117 
 
 of unexpected thunder, they have startled for a moment, 
 but soon rumbled into silence and forgetfulness. 
 
 Such is the general infatuation, that people seldom 
 question that around which the sanctions of religion 
 are thrown, and when they do the doubt is soon obliter- 
 ated. ( They will reverently bow to a priest without 
 thinking it is possible that under the guise of his chaste 
 and holy profession, avarice, lust and murder may reign 
 supreme. They will heedlessly pass a nunnery without 
 thinking how many broken hearts may there be hope- 
 lessly imprisoned ; how many gifted and accomplished 
 females may there be pining in anguish and despair, 
 who, while they sought an abode of unsullied chastity, 
 foundthemselves entrapped in a den of infamy, to be 
 profaned by holy confessors \J But reluctantly as char- 
 ity would believe these statements, they are substanti- 
 ated beyond the possibility of doubt or denial, by the 
 records of Catholic authority of the highest order. 
 
 An insight into the mysteries of Catholicism, and the 
 mode by which priests conceal from publicity their acts 
 of seduction and adultery, may be learned from the 
 following extract from Hogan's "Auricular Confession." 
 " The secular orders," says he, " are composed chiefly 
 of parish priests and their curates, whose duty it is to 
 hear their parishioners. The orders of regulars are com- 
 posed of friars, who are subdivided into several minor 
 orders, and who have no particular duties to dis- 
 charge, unless especially deputed to do so by the bishop, 
 or the deputy of the diocese into which they may be 
 divided. It is so managed by the secular priests, that 
 whenever they fail in seducing their penitents, and are 
 detected by them that one of those friars shall immedi- 
 
118 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 ately be at hand to hear the confessions of all such 
 females, and forgive their sins, on condition that they 
 shall never reveal to moral being the thoughtless pecca- 
 dillos of their parish priest, who for the moment forgot 
 himself, and whose tears of penitence now moisten the 
 ground on which he walks." ( Auric. Confess, vol. ii. 
 p. 168 ). 
 
 The adaptation of the confessional to prepare the way 
 for seduction and adultery may be comprehended by 
 the following extract from the ' Synopsis of Popery" by 
 the same author. " Do any of these families," asks he, 
 " know the questions which a priest puts to their fam- 
 ilies at the confessional? Do husbands know the ques- 
 tions which priests put to their wives at the confession ? 
 .... Fathers, mothers, guardians and husbands fancy 
 to yourself the most indelicate, immodest, libidinous 
 questions which the most immoral and profligate mind 
 can conceive, — fancy those ideas put into plain lan- 
 guage, and that by way of questions and answers, and 
 you will then have a faint conception of the conversa- 
 tion which takes place between a priest and your 
 hitherto pure daughter. If after two or three examina- 
 tions, in that sacred tribunal, they still continue vir- 
 tuous, they are rare examples." ( Synopsis, p. 170, 
 171). 
 
 While the Catholic Church imposes on the priests and 
 monks the vow of celibacy, it accords them the priv- 
 ilege of acting licentiously with impunity. In the life 
 of Bishop Scipio de Eicci, written by an eminent Cath- 
 olic, the practice of the church in allowing bishops and 
 priests to keep concubines, while it forbids them to 
 marry under pain of excommunication, is asserted and 
 
CELIBACY. 119 
 
 defended. The Council of Toledo passed a canon for- 
 bidding priests to keep more than one concubine in 
 public. William Hogan asserts that every priest keeps 
 a concubine, and every teacher in a school attached to 
 a Catholic nunnery, has been seduced by her teacher. 
 Chamancis says: " The adultery, obscenity and impiety 
 of the priests are beyond description. St. Chrysostom 
 thinks the number of them that will be saved, bears a 
 very small proportion to those who will be damned. 
 Cardinal CoDpaggio asserts that " the priest who marries 
 commits a more grievous sin than if he kept many con- 
 cubines." Pope Paul protected houses of ill-fame, and 
 acquired great riches by selling them licenses. The 
 Council of Augsburg ordered that all suspected females 
 should be driven by whips from the dwellings of the 
 clergy, and have their hair cut off. A monk relates 
 that he once made a contract with the Devil that if he 
 would cease to fill his mind with lascivious ideas, he 
 would omit some prayers to the saints whose pictures 
 decorated the walls of his cloister, but upon communi- 
 cating the substance of the agreement to the bishop, he 
 was informed by him, that " rather than abstain from 
 adoring Christ and mother in their holy images it would 
 be better to enter every brothel and visit every pros- 
 titute in the city." Eichard of England replied to 
 Fulk Nuelly, the legate of Pope Innocent III., commis- 
 sioned to blow the trumpet of another crusade : " You 
 advise me to dismiss my three daughters, Pride, Av- 
 arice and Incontinence. I bequeath them to the most 
 deserving : my pride to the Knights Templars ; my av- 
 arice to the monks of Ciste ; and, my incontinence to 
 the prelates." Pope John XXIII. was deposed by the 
 
120 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 Council of Constance for having committed seventy 
 different sorts of crimes, among the number of which 
 was illicit commerce with three hundred nuns. The 
 Trappists, a menkish order of highway robbers, were 
 constantly employed in abducting females, confining 
 them in their monastery, and perpetrating the most 
 atrocious rapes./ At the Council of Canterbury King 
 Edgar declared that the houses of the clergy were 
 nothing but brothels. Petrarch laments over the fact 
 that the clergy at the papal court were shamefully 
 licentious. Cardinals lived openly with their concu- 
 bines ; and it became a question of etiquette whether a 
 bishop's concubine should not, at the court of His Holi- 
 ness, precede other ladies. Llorente, chief secretary 
 of the Spanish Inquisition in 1789, relates that the in- 
 quisitors having granted permission to the females of a 
 certain locality to denounce their guilty confessors, the 
 number of priests denounced was so great that thirty 
 secretaries were employed for sixty days in taking down 
 depositions, and that the profligacy of the clergy so far 
 exceeded all calculation that it was concluded to sus- 
 pend investigation, and to destroy the records of the 
 proceedings. The extent and depth of clerical deprav- 
 ity can never be divulged by those who know it, 
 for St. Bernard asserts that " Bishops and priests com- 
 mit acts in private which it would be scandalous to ex- 
 press." 
 
 « From nunneries governed and visited by priests of 
 such a character, what is the logical inference ? Cha- 
 mancis, an unimpeachable Catholic authority, answers 
 this question when he says : " To veil a woman in these 
 convents is synonymous to prostituting her." ' The sev- 
 
CELIBACY. 121 
 
 enth General Council of Nice prohibited the erection of 
 double convents for the accommodation of both sexes ; 
 but the prohibition was not regarded. < In Europe 
 every nunnery has attached to it a foundling asylum; 
 in the United States, a grave-yard.; Llorente relates a 
 curious account of Aquida, an abbess of a Carmelite 
 nunnery at Liemo. It appears that this female had, on 
 several occasions, professed to have become pregnant 
 with stones, and to have retired for the purpose of giv- 
 ing them birth. She had often exhibited her miracu- 
 lous progeny to the credulous, and pretended to be 
 enabled, by their divine nature, to cure diseases with 
 them. Her success in working miracles by them pro- 
 cured for her the reputation of a saint. But unfortun- 
 ate for her eventual canonization, a rumor became cur- 
 rent that instead of having given birth to stones, she 
 had given birth to children, and strangled them ; and 
 that she had obliged the holy nuns under her super- 
 vision to practise the same iniquity. The informant, 
 an inmate of the nunnery, pointed out the place where 
 the murdered babes were buried ; and subsequent exca- 
 vation revealed the horrible fact, that half the tale of 
 blood had not been told. 
 
 The following additional facts, related by William 
 Hogan, as having transpired under his personal cogniz- 
 ance, afford further confirmative proof of the general 
 character of priests and nuns, and that it remains as it 
 has always been, in all countries, and at all periods of 
 civilization : 
 
 " The Roman Catholics of Albany," says he, " had, 
 about three years previous to my coming among them, 
 three Irish priests anrong then, occasion^ preaching, 
 
122 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 but always hearing confessions As soon as I 
 
 got settled in Albany I bad, of course, to attend to the 
 duty of auricular confession, and in less than two 
 months found that the priests, during the time they 
 were there, were the fathers of between sixty and one 
 hundred children, besides having debauched many who 
 had left the place previous to their confinement." (Au- 
 ricular Confession, p. 46). 
 
 "A short time previous to my coming to this coun- 
 try, and soon after my being installed as confessor in 
 the Romish Church, I became intimately acquainted 
 with a family of great respectability. This family con- 
 sisted of a widowed father and two daughters, and never 
 in my life have I met with more interesting young 
 
 ladies than the daughters were In less than 
 
 two months after my first visit to this family, at their 
 peaceful and respectable breakfast table, I observed the 
 chair which had been usually occupied by the elder of 
 the two ladies occupied by the younger, and that of the 
 latter to be vacant. I inquired the cause, and was in- 
 formed by the father that he had just accompanied her 
 to the coach, which had left that morning for Dublin, 
 and that she went on a visit to the Rev. B. K. It seems 
 that both of the daughters of whom I have spoken went 
 to the school attached to the nunnery of the city of 
 
 . The confessor whose duty it was to hear the 
 
 duty of the pupils of the institute, was one Rev. B. K., 
 a friar of the Franciscan order, who, as soon as his 
 plans were properly laid, and circumstances rendered 
 them ripe for execution, seduced the elder lady ;. and 
 finding the fact could no longer be concealed, arranged 
 matters with a Dublin friend She was con- 
 fined at the house of his friend, and her illicit offspring 
 given to the managers of the foundling hospital in 
 
 Dublin No sooner was this elder lady provided 
 
 for, than this incarnate demon, B. K., commenced the 
 seduction of the younger lady. He succeeded, and 
 ruined her too. But there was no difficulty in provid- 
 
CELIBACY. 123 
 
 ing for them. They both became nuns I saw 
 
 them in the convent at Mount Benedict. They were 
 great favorites of Bishop Fenton. They were spoken 
 of by some of the females of Boston as models of 
 piety." (Auricular Confession, p. 100-106). 
 
 " Soon after my arrival in Philadelphia, ... a Ro- 
 man Catholic priest by the name of 0. S. called on me, 
 and showed me letters of recommendation which he 
 had from Bishop T., of Ireland, and countersigned by 
 the Roman Catholic bishop of New York, to Bishop 
 
 England, of South Carolina He arrived at 
 
 Charleston, and was well received by Bishop England. 
 There lived in the parish to which this reverend con- 
 fessor was appointed, a gentleman of respectability and 
 wealth. Bishop England supplied this new missionary 
 with letters of strong recommendation to this gentle- 
 man, advising him to place his children under his 
 charge, assuring him they would be brought up in the 
 
 fear of God and love of religion The Rev. 
 
 Popish wretch seduced the eldest daughter of his bene- 
 factor-, and the father becoming aware of the fact, 
 armed himself with a case of pistols, and determined to 
 shoot the seducer. But there was in the house a good 
 Catholic sevant [ a spy ] who advised the seducer to 
 fly. He soon arrived in Charleston ; the right reverend 
 bishop understood his case, advised him to go to confes- 
 sion, and absolved him from his sins ; . . . . sent him 
 
 on his way to New York His victim after a 
 
 little time, having given birth to a fine boy, goes to 
 confession herself, and sends the child of sin to the Sis- 
 ters of Charity residing in — , to be taken care of 
 
 as a nullius filius. As soon as the child was able to 
 walk a Roman Catholic lady adopted it as her own. 
 The real mother of the child soon removed to the city 
 
 of , told the whole transaction to the Roman 
 
 Catholic bishop of , who knowing that she had 
 
 a handsome property, introduced her to a highly res- 
 pectable Protestant gentleman, who soon married her. 
 He ( the bishop ) soon after introduced the gentleman 
 
124 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 to the Sisters of Charity who had provided for the illicit 
 offspring of the priest, concealing its parentage, and 
 representing it as having no father living. The gentle- 
 man was pleased with the boy, and the holy bishop 
 finally prevailed on him and his wife to adopt it as his 
 own." (Auric. Confess, p. 111-115). 
 
 "When quite young and just emerging from child- 
 hood, I became acquainted with a Protestant family, re- 
 siding in the neighborhood of my birthplace. It con- 
 sisted of a mother (a widow), and three interesting 
 
 children, two sons and one daughter In the 
 
 course of time the sons grew up, and their guardian in 
 compliance with their wishes, and to gratify their am- 
 bition, procured them commissions in the army 
 
 As soon as the sons left to join their respective regi- 
 ments, which were then on the Continent, the mother 
 
 and daughter were much alone There was then 
 
 in the neighborhood only twenty miles from this family, 
 a nunnery of the order of Jesuits. To this nunnery was 
 attached a school superintended by the nuns of that 
 
 order The mother yielded, in this case, to the 
 
 malign influence of fashion ; . . . . sent her beautiful 
 daughter, her earthly treasure, to the school of these 
 nuns. . , . . Soon after the daughter was sent to school, 
 I entered the college of Manooth as a theological stu- 
 dent, and in due time was ordained a Catholic priest. 
 
 An interval of some years passed There was a 
 
 large party given, at which among others I happened to 
 be present; and there meeting with my friends and 
 interchanging the usual courtesies on such occasions, 
 she sportingly, as I then imagined, asked me whether I 
 would preach her reception sermon, as she intended 
 
 becoming a nun and taking the veil I heard no 
 
 more of the affair until about two months, when I re- 
 ceived a note from her designating the chapel in which 
 
 she expected my services On the reception of 
 
 my friend's note a cold chill crept over me, I antici- 
 pated and trembled, and felt there must be foul play. . 
 . . . Having no connection with the convent in which 
 
CELIBACY, 125 
 
 she was immured, I did not see her for three months 
 following. At the expiration of that time one of the 
 
 lay sisters delivered me a note I found my 
 
 young friend wished to see me on something important. 
 I of course lost no time in calling on her, and being a 
 priest, I was immediately admitted ; but never have I 
 forgotten, never can I forget, the melancholy picture of 
 lost beauty and fallen humanity which met my aston- 
 ished gaze in the person of my once beautiful and vir- 
 tuous friend 'I sent for you, my friend, to 
 
 see you once before my death I am in the 
 
 family- way and must die.' " 
 
 He then proceeds to relate, that in the course of a 
 conversation which ensued he learned from the nun 
 that she had been seduced by her confessor, (which fact 
 precluded any appeal or redress), and that the lady ab- 
 bess had proposed to procure an abortion, but that an 
 inmate had informed her that the medicine which the 
 lady abbess would give would contain poison. He 
 promised to renew his visit within a few days ; he did 
 so, but the foul deed was done. 
 
 Fiends ! Monsters ! Does not the blood curdle in 
 every vein at such recitals ? Does not man and woman 
 blush at their dishonored nature ? Is there a God that 
 can allow the use of his name to sanction such execrable 
 depravity ; that can look with indifference on women 
 avowing chastity in his name in order to allure the 
 purest of their sex to destruction ; or that can be in- 
 sensible to the imprecations of injured innocence, pro- 
 faned in holy houses? Is God a fiction, or divine 
 retribution a dream ? No ! While a thunderbolt leaves 
 a monastery or a nunnery in existence, lightning has no 
 
 avenging power ! While either of them exists man 
 11* 
 
126 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 may well doubt the existence of retributive justice in 
 human affairs. 
 
 But it may be said, that God has delegated to society 
 the power to punish offences committed against its moral 
 interests, and therefore does not himself interfere in the 
 matter. But does society exercise its authority in the 
 matter any more visibly than deity ? Society enacts laws 
 and prescribes penalties respecting murder, rape, broth- 
 els, false imprisonment, and irregular interments. She 
 also investigates all alleged infractions of these laws, 
 except when they involve the honor of monastic insti- 
 tutions. But why are these dens exempted from the 
 common law of the land ? Why are they allowed to 
 bar their doors against the authority which all others 
 must respect? "Why are they allowed to organize 
 within a government an independent government, nul- 
 lifying its jurisdiction over them? Why are not the 
 interior of monastic institutions constantly and thor- 
 oughly inspected, and the authority of the common law 
 maintained over them? Is it because they are too 
 pious to violate the law of the land ? If this were so, 
 it would do them no harm, but much good, to have the 
 fact week after week attested by an investigating com- 
 mittee composed of their opponents. But is not the 
 contrary the fact ? Do they not deprive their inmates 
 of personal liberty ? Do they not imprison them m 
 dungeons ? Do they not punish them ? Do they not 
 inflict on them barbarous chastisements? Are they not 
 sacerdotal brothels? Has not every age and country 
 given its testimony to show that kidnapped men and 
 women have been imprisoned for life in their cells ; 
 that there nuns have been poisoned, abortions procured, 
 
CELIBACY. 127 
 
 babes murdered, women outraged by priests, and every 
 law, human or divine violated with impunity ? 
 
 Are these sensational declamations ? Would for the 
 credit of human nature they were. No ! They are 
 the true records of monastic history, alleged by kings 
 and statesmen, proved before councils, and acknowledged 
 by monks, nuns, priests, pishops, and popes. With 
 such an array of evidence before society, why does it 
 allow institutions among it where every crime may. be 
 committed secretly, and with impunity ? Why do 
 not grand juries, who visit other jails, penitentiaries, 
 and asylums, inspect also the more secret and sus- 
 picious nunneries ? 
 
 We have now described the nature and consequences 
 of the monastic vow of celibacy. This obligation is 
 opposed to the nature, and defeats the object of the hu- 
 man organism. It extinguishes conjugal, filial, and 
 parental affection. It severs the ties that bind the in- 
 terests of society together. It injures both the present 
 and the future, by abrogating their mutual connection. 
 It strikes at the root of national greatness, by arresting 
 the tide of population. It degrades the dignity of the 
 community, by increasing the number of illegitimate 
 children. It wars against marriage, the noblest incen- 
 tive to social refinement and civilization ; the basis of 
 woman's hope and happiness; the impulse and gratifi- 
 cation of her pride of family, love of parental control, 
 and desire to live in posterity. It anathematizes wo- 
 man's purest aspirations, and man's holiest ties. It 
 converts the ardor of chastity into snares for its seduc- 
 tion. It sanctifies prostitution and adultery. It vio- 
 lates the law of the land. It erects in the most magni- 
 
128 MONASTIC VOW OF CELIBACY. 
 
 ficent parts of a city its spacious brothels, with massive 
 walls, secret doors, false floors, guarded windows, grated 
 cloisters, inaccessible to the inspection of law, but acces- 
 sible at all hours of night or day by priests. Within 
 these walls it allures beauty, virtue, and talent, and 
 while pretending to fit them for the society of infinite 
 purity, betrays them into the power of unprincipled 
 priests, and imprisons them in eternal seclusion, where 
 no groan can meet the public ear, where they can never 
 tell the story of their wrong, nor appeal to a heart for 
 sympathy, nor to a law for redress. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Monastic Vow of Unconditional Obedience. 
 
 Another vow which was universally assumed by the 
 religious orders, was the vow of uncouditional obe- 
 dience. By the obligation of this vow the members of 
 the convents were subjected to the absolute authority 
 of the superiors ; the superiors to the absolute au- 
 thority of the generals ; the generals to the absolute 
 authority of the pope. The authority of these holy 
 officials strongly resembled that of the oriental despot, 
 who, on being informed by his general that it was im- 
 possible to build the bridge over the river, as he had 
 ordered, replied: "I inquired not of thee whether it 
 was impossible or not ; I commanded thee to build it ; 
 if thou failest thou shalt be strangled." Accordingly, 
 at the mandate of a superior a subordinate was obliged 
 to go on any errand, for any purpose, criminal or not, 
 to depart on any mission, to perform any work, to un- 
 dertake any enterprise, or to occupy any station that he 
 required • of him. The superior's decision was final, 
 and from it there was no appeal. The Jesuit's general 
 was empowered to inflict and remit punishment at op- 
 tion, and to expel any member of the order without 
 the form of charge or trial. It mattered not whether 
 the task assigned the recluse exceeded, or not, his mental 
 or physical capacity, he was bound to obey the order 
 immediately, and fully ; to hesitate, or seem to hesitate 
 was a crime, and by the penal code of some of the 
 
130 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 monasteries punished by the infliction of one hundred 
 ]ashes. 
 
 But to reduce a human being to such an absolute servi- 
 tude was no easy task. To transform an active being 
 into a spiritless automaton ; a sensitive being into a 
 senseless machine ; a rational being into an irrational 
 brute, was not the work of a moment, but of years and 
 discipline. In order to subdue and habituate the will 
 to implicit and mechanical obedience, recourse had to 
 be had to penance, to trials, to all that could stifle 
 doubt and inquiry, debilitate the power of resistance, 
 and degrade conscious dignity in the dust. The most 
 menial services, the most loathsome, disgusting, and 
 absurd offices were consequently asssigned to the proba- 
 tionists. They were required to suck the. putrid sores 
 of invalids, to remove enormous rocks, to walk un- 
 flinchingly into fiery furnaces, to cast their infants into 
 ponds of water, to plant staffs in the ground and to 
 water them until they should grow. They were never 
 allowed to be alone , two were always to be together ; 
 the one a constant and conscious spy on the emotions 
 of the other. The faithful son who could harden him- 
 self into a cold, cruel, and remorseless statue, was com- 
 mended for his attainments in piety ; but the unfaith- 
 ful son who could not but betray some emotion, or re- 
 maining consciousness of the independence of his na- 
 ture, in defiance of his circumspection, was doomed to 
 suffer the torments of an excruciating penance. 
 
 The vow of solitude had stifled the social instincts ; 
 the vow of silence had paralyzed the powers of speech, 
 and sealed up the lips of wisdom, knowledge and elo- 
 quence ; ihe vow of contemplation had subjugated the 
 
UNCONDITIONAL OBEDIENCE. 131 
 
 intellectual faculties to the domination of fancy, and 
 the bewilderments of ignorance ; the vow of poverty 
 had shackled the faculties of improvement and enter- 
 prise ; the vow of celibacy had extinguished connubial 
 and parental affection ; and now the vow of uncondi- 
 tional obedience, by subjugating reason, conscience, and 
 the executive powers to the absolute control of a supe- 
 rior, had completed the monk's slavery in the ruin of 
 every noble and valuable attribute of his nature. Atro- 
 cious as were the other vows, the last exceeded the 
 combined atrocity of them all. It consummated the 
 destruction of his nature. It was the grave of his man- 
 hood ; the tomb in which he buried himself alive. 
 After its assumption his reason was not to guide him ; 
 his knowledge was not to direct him ; his conscience 
 was not to admonish him; but in defiance of them all, 
 and even at the risk of his life, he was to tremble, and 
 obey a spiritual despot. His perceptive faculties, his 
 conscious independence, his love of liberty and justice, 
 his sense of obligation and accountability, all the men- 
 tal, moral, and physical powers which constitute his 
 being, were by this vow, basely surrendered to an 
 absolute lord, to whom he became a slave in mind and 
 body, — and forever. 
 
 The blind obedience which the pope demands to his 
 despotic will, is antagonistical to the Jewish religion, to 
 the Christian religion, and to Natural religion. It is a 
 nullification of all religion ; an abrogation of the au- 
 thority of the deity ; a usurpation of the throne of 
 Heaven. The Jewish and the Christian religion require 
 unconditional obedience to God alone. In their sacred 
 books, the pope is nowhere mentioned, nor is any power 
 
132 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 referred to analagous to what lie claims. Natural re- 
 ligion prescribes reason and conscience as the supreme 
 guide of man; and reason and conscience reject the 
 papal authority as absurd and unjust. In the Hiero- 
 phant of the Elysian mysteries, in the Apostolic Suc- 
 cessor of Buddha, in the Grand Lama, in the Egyptian 
 and Persian High Priest we may find something anal- 
 agous to the claims of the Pope of Borne, but nowhere 
 else. 
 
 The unconditional obedience required by the pope is 
 inconsistent with all ideas of merit and demerit in 
 human conduct. If man acts not from the independ- 
 ent suggestion of his. reason and conscience, but from 
 the secret orders of another, he is no more deserving of 
 commendation for uesful acts, than a locomotive is for 
 its obedience to the will of an engineer. 
 
 The unconditional obedience demanded by the pope 
 is inconsistent with human accountability. It is an 
 abrogation of all obligation, and all law. It assumes 
 that the pope is above all authority ; accountable to 
 none ; and that he is capable of nullifying all obliga- 
 tions between man and man, between government and 
 subjects, between mankind and their creator. It ob- 
 trudes between man and his reason, and forbids him to 
 listen to its voice. It obtrudes between man and his 
 conscience, and forbids him to obey its dictates. It ob- 
 trudes between man and his civil obligations, and for- 
 bids him to obey the laws of his country. It leaves no 
 sense of duty or obligation existing in the constitution 
 of man. According to it, man is not accountable to 
 reason, nor conscience, nor society, nor God, but to the 
 pope alone. The pope is therefore " more than God," 
 
UNCONDITIONAL OBEDIENCE. 133 
 
 as one of his titles asserts ; and God is no God or an 
 inferior one to him. 
 
 The unconditional obedience enforced by the pope is 
 subversive of the rights of the world. For one man, 
 however good or great, to require the united intelli- 
 gence of the human family to submit to his arbitrary 
 dictation, is to deny their right to an independent 
 will, reason, conscience, or principle of action, or 
 the privilege of exercising the powers which they have 
 inherited with their being. It is to declare that all 
 men are abject slaves to the pope. It is to deny that 
 any has a right above a brute that is bridled, har- 
 nessed, or yoked, to be driven by the spurs and whips 
 of its owner. In short, it is to crush all liberty and the 
 rights of human nature. 
 
 A claim of absolute authority is always absurd ; but 
 the papal claim of absolute dominion over human con- 
 science and reason, surpasses all absurdity recorded in 
 the annals of tyranny and arrogance. Even were su- 
 periors, generals, and popes as wise and virtuous as 
 humanity permitted, yet such a degree of power en- 
 trusted to them would be detrimental to the interests of 
 society. Parents whose welfare and honor are so inti- 
 mately interwoven with the welfare and honor of their 
 children, often regret over the mistakes which they 
 have committed in giving counsel. For a spiritual des- 
 pot, whose nature has been religiously pruned of human 
 sensibilities, whose mind has been contracted within the 
 bigoted circle of spiritual ideas, whose interest is antag- 
 onistical to those of his subjects, and who owns no ac- 
 countability for the proper exercise of his functions, for 
 
 such an inhuman monster to be entrusted with exclusive 
 12 
 
134 MONASTIC VOW OF 
 
 control over the reason, conscience, and interests of 
 another, would as inevitably complete his arrogance 
 and tyranny as it would the misery and slavery of his 
 subordinate. Less than such a result could not be ex- 
 pected from the best of superiors, generals, or monks. 
 But when the past history of these holy men has 
 shown that they have invariably labored for their self- 
 aggrandizement, and that as a class, they have been 
 ignorant, immoral, cruel and intriguing, such power, in 
 the hands of such men, would not only extinguish all 
 virtue in the breast of the governed, but render them 
 instruments of the most flagitious purposes. When by 
 means of an ecclesiastical despotism, learning was gov- 
 erned by ignorance, wisdom by folly, virtue by vice, can 
 we wonder that monks, superiors, generals and popes 
 were the basest and most licentious of men ; that the 
 convents were rife with prostitution and murder ; that 
 the papal court was the most profligate in the world ; 
 and that the most prosperous period of Catholicism was 
 the darkest age of mankind. 
 
 But the papal claim of absolute control over reason 
 and conscience refutes itself. It suggests a strong pre- 
 sumption that he is conscious that he can make no 
 successful appeal to either reason or conscience. Had 
 it been otherwise would he have denied their author- 
 ity ? Were he confident that his pretensions are founded 
 in truth, would he have prohibited investigation ? Is 
 not reason the clearest guide to truth, conscience its 
 most powerful advocate, investigation its most formid- 
 able ally ? And had these noble principles been avail- 
 able in supporting the pretension of the pope, would 
 he have had the stupidity to denounce them ? 
 
UNCONDITIONAL OBEDIENCE. 135 
 
 If it is consistent with religion to make automata 
 of human beings, slaves of men, a machine of the world ; 
 to harness mankind in the gears of an ecclesiastical 
 despot, that they may be driven under his lash whither- 
 soever his pleasure or interest may require ; to obliter- 
 ate the faculties that distinguish men from brutes ; to 
 deny the existence of a God by abrogating his attributes, 
 and blaspheme Omnipotence by the ridicule of assuming 
 his prerogatives ; then the absolute, implicit, and un- 
 hesitating obedience enjoined on the religious orders by 
 the Catholic Church is in accordance with its spirit and 
 design. But if religion is morality in its highest devel- 
 opment, humanity in its purest character, and reason 
 in its freest exercise, then is the papal despotism not 
 only subversive of religion, but destructive of the rights 
 of man, of the obligations of virtue, and dangerous to the 
 liberty and interests of the world. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Pagan Origin of the Monastic Orders. — Concluding 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 We have shown in the previous chapters that the mo- 
 nastic vows are in conflict, not only with the require- 
 ments of moral goodness, but with the dictates of rea- 
 son, the principles of personal improvement, and the 
 interests and progress of society. "We have shown, 
 also, that they were assumed not for the humble pur- 
 pose of acquiring spiritual perfection, but for the am- 
 bitious purpose of obtaining riches, power, and domin- 
 ion. From these considerations, and from the fact that 
 the monachal orders form an elementary part of the 
 constitution of the Catholic Church, we have inferred 
 that she is rather a political than a religious institution ; 
 and that while politics form her nature and principles, 
 religion is assumed as an ornament and disguise. 
 
 We will now adduce a few facts tending to show that 
 monkish orders originated, not from Christianity ; that 
 they existed in pre-historic ages ; and that so far as 
 they constitute the Catholic Church, she is a heathen, 
 and not a Christian institution. 
 
 It is well known that the Carmelite monks claim 
 Elijah, the prophet, as their founder. Among the an- 
 cient personages whom they assert belonged to their 
 order, they enumerate Pythagoras, the Gallic Druids, 
 all the prophets and holy men mentioned in the Old 
 and New Testament, the Apostles, the Essenes, and the 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 137 
 
 ancient hermits, Although, amid the wrangling of the 
 monastic orders for preeminence, this claim has rigor- 
 ously been contested, yet Pope Benedict III. allowed 
 the Carmelites to erect in the Vatican the statue of 
 Elijah as the founder of their order. This permission, 
 so far as the concession of the infallible father is author- 
 ity, places the antiquity of the monachal order remotely 
 beyond that of Christianity ; acknowledges its institu- 
 tion to have originated from Judaism ; and grants that 
 its rules and principles were adopted by ancient Pagan 
 fraternities. 
 
 That identical institutions have flourished in Asia 
 from the remotest historical periods, admits not of a 
 question. The present Sufism of Arabia is but a modi- 
 fied form of an ancient system of pantheistical mysti- 
 cism, which taught that through the observance of ascetic 
 practices the animal passions could be destroyed, the 
 soul purified and assimilated to God, and a beatific state 
 attained whose tranquility nothing could disturb. The 
 Gymnosophists, the naked philosophers of India, were 
 an order of monks, who practised the most excruciat- 
 ing penance ; and who, in their eagerness to become 
 pure, sometimes burnt themselves alive. The God Fo, 
 born in Cashmere B. C. 1027, the author of the Bram- 
 inical religion, strenuously advocated monachal insti- 
 tutions. The different orders of the monks and her- 
 mits which originated from his allegorical and mystical 
 teaching, assumed the vows of unconditional obedience 
 and absolute poverty. The monks resided in monas- 
 teries, and the hermits in deserts. They both practised 
 the most rigorous penance, professed to aspire after ab- 
 solute purity, but in their conduct and principles they 
 12* 
 
138 PAGAN OEIGIN OF THE 
 
 were grovelling, intriguing, profligate and ambitious. 
 Buddha, born B. C. 1029, two years after Fo, found- 
 ed the monastic order of the Buddhists. His con- 
 vents were governed by superiors who were subject to 
 the absolute authority of the patriarch, or, as he was 
 officially styled, the Apostolic Successor. The func- 
 tions and authority of the Buddhistic superiors were 
 similar to those of the Catholic orders ; and the preten- 
 sions and dignity of the patriarch were one and the 
 same with those of the Pope of Rome. The monks 
 lived in monasteries, assumed the vows of obedience, 
 poverty and celibacy, and admitted virgins to social in- 
 tercourse. Jeseus Christna, born B. C. 3,500, the incar- 
 nate redeemer of the Hindoos, whose birth, life, aud 
 miracles resemble those of Jesus Christ, (see "Bible in 
 India,") alludes in his discourses to monks and her- 
 mits as being at his time ancient, flourishing and ven- 
 erated orders. The Hindoo and Mohammedan Fakirs 
 are classes of monks who vow obedience, poverty and 
 celibacy, retire from the world, pass their time in silent 
 contemplation, and acquire the veneration of the pop- 
 ulace by the practice of absurd and cruel penance. 
 The Essenes, who flourished in Egypt and Palestine be- 
 fore the Christian era, were an organization of monks 
 who derived their theological principles from the God 
 Theuth, the founder of the Egyptian religious ceremonies. 
 
 From the above enumerated facts the conclusion is 
 irresistable, that the Catholic monastic orders are neither 
 of Christian origin, nor inconsistent with the doctrines 
 and worship of Paganism. 
 
 A Romish missionary who visited China, observing 
 the similarity which subsisted between the Chinese and 
 
MONASTIC ORDERS. 139 
 
 the Catholic religion, declared that the devil must have 
 preceded him, and converted the nation to Christianity, 
 in order to cheat the church out of the credit of the 
 enterprise. A more learned but less pious authority 
 concluded from the same analogy, that Catholicism did 
 not convert Paganism, but that Paganism converted 
 Catholicism. 
 
 We will now conclude our examination of the Cath- 
 olic monastic orders, with a few general remarks. 
 
 The monastic vows are not only a bold abnegation of 
 the authority of reason and conscience, but a crafty de- 
 vice to delude the credulous, and secretly to acquire 
 riches, power and influence. Although they were as- 
 sumed by the monks as perpetual obligations, yet they 
 were evaded, modified, or abrogated as interest and pol- 
 icy suggested. The mendicant orders, which assumed 
 the vow of perpetual and absolute poverty, artfully la- 
 bored to amass fortunes; and soon betrayed a secret 
 design of acquiring hierachal importance and suprem- 
 acy. The Franciscans, who solemnly obligated them- 
 selves to remain forever poor, incessantly grasped after 
 riches. "When they had built nunneries, convents, and 
 became the proprietors of extensive domains, they abro- 
 gated their vow of perpetual poverty, lest it should in- 
 validate their title to vast possessions which they held. 
 "With equal duplicity and ambition, they assumed, upon 
 their first organization, a vow of perpetual ignorance; 
 abjuring the acquisition of any intellectual accomplish- 
 ment, and consecrating themselves strict] y to the 
 preaching of the gospel. But becoming enchanted with 
 the magnificence of the papal crown, and wishing to 
 wield its immense power and lucrative patronage in be- 
 
140 PAGAN ORIGIN GF THE 
 
 half of their order, and perceiving that literary ac- 
 quirements would facilitate the accomplishment of this 
 object, they annulled their vow of perpetual ignorance, 
 and began to devote themselves to the acquisition of 
 some degree of profane erudition. Having acquired 
 immense wealth and popularity, and removed by art or 
 bribery every obstacle to the success of their ambition, 
 they placed on the apostolic throne, from their own 
 order, Nicholas V., Alexander V. r Sixtus IV., and 
 Clement XIV. The Dominicans, who were established 
 to preach against infidels and heretics, adopted at the 
 commencement of their career the money-making de- 
 vices of the mendicant orders ; but when their reven- 
 ues had become so great, and their domains so exten- 
 sive that they had attracted a covetous glance from the 
 secular power, they prudently annulled the vows by 
 which they had been acquired, lest the profane avari- 
 ciousness of princes should cause their sequestration. 
 
 The Jesuits professed to have a holy abhorrence of 
 riches, but thankfully accepted costly presents, opulent 
 legacies, vast tracts of land, and the pecuniary means 
 of erecting numerous stately structures. While this 
 pious fraternity resolved not to accept any ecclesiasti- 
 cal dignity, it secretly and artfully labored to acquire 
 all the privileges of the mendicant orders, all the ad- 
 vantages of the secular clergy, and to make the mem- 
 bers of its order superior to those of any other, and its 
 general next in power and importance to the pope. By 
 hypocrisy, intrigue, and cringing sycophancy, these un- 
 scrupulous monks obtained rights and privileges enjoyed 
 by no other ecclesiastical corporation. They not only 
 obtained exemption from all civil and episcopal taxes, 
 
MONASTIC ORDERS. 141 
 
 and from all amenability to any other power than that 
 of the pope ; but also the authority of absolving from 
 all sins and ecclesiastical penalties ; of changing the 
 object of the vows of the laity; and of acquiring 
 churches and domains without restriction. They were 
 privileged also to suit their dress to circumstances, their 
 conduct to peculiarities, their profession to the views of 
 others ; to be accommodating and complaisant while 
 pursuing a political enterprise, and under the mask of 
 any external appearance to prosecute in secret what 
 might excite opposition if openly avowed. They were 
 allowed to become actual merchants, mechanics, show- 
 men, actors, and to adopt any profession calculated to 
 facilitate the accomplishment of a design, and to throw 
 off the mask whenever they thought expedient. Organ- 
 ized on the principles of deception, and unrestricted in 
 their privileges, they secretly labored for their own 
 aggrandizement, while they publicly professed to be 
 sacrificing their interests to the salvation of mankind. 
 They became professors of universities and tutors of 
 schools, that they might select the brightest minds of 
 the rising generation, and mould them to their pur- 
 poses. They became the spiritual guides of females of 
 rank and opulence, that they might avail themselves of 
 their influence and control their wealth. They became 
 the confessors of princes, that they might penetrate 
 their intentions, ferret out their secrets, w T atch over 
 their conduct, and enslave and govern their minds. 
 They became the governors of colonies, in order to 
 grasp secular revenues, and to exercise the political 
 power in behalf of their interests. They established 
 seminaries and boarding schools for both sexes, in 
 
142 PAGAN OEIGIN OF THE 
 
 order to acquire dominion over the young; they 
 sought to occupy the confessional, in order to dis- 
 cover all domestic and governmental secrets ; and they 
 labored to monopolize the pulpit, in order to manufac- 
 ture public opinion, and influence the general tone of 
 society in their favor. 
 
 The numerous divisions into which the religious or- 
 ders were divided, and their different degrees of aus- 
 terity, enabled the church to suit its policy to the cor- 
 ruption or purity, the ignorance or learning of the 
 nation it sought to proselyte and govern. Under its 
 direction the monks flattered every power they were 
 ordered to subvert, and blushed at no sycophancy that 
 facilitated the accomplishment of an object. Governed 
 by unnatural vows, they sacrificed freedom, the source 
 of natural sentiment, to credulity and blind submis- 
 sion The most absurd and criminal injunctions of a 
 superior or general were obeyed without compunction 
 or remorse. If they aspired after perfection, it was by 
 sacrificing the virtues of life. If they strove to obtain 
 personal purity, it was by violating the laws of their 
 being. They sought to atone for offences by scourging 
 their backs, ironing their limbs, chaining themselves to 
 rocks, passing their lives in caves, in days without food, 
 in nights without sleep, in years without speaking ; sub- 
 sisting without money, propagating without women, 
 acquiring the respect of the world they despised, the 
 riches they contemned, and the dignity they abjured. 
 They were a palpable deception, yet an object of uni- 
 versal veneration. By cunning and obsequiousness 
 they sought and obtained power ; by duplicity and 
 fraud they amassed fortunes; by luxury and tyranny 
 
MONASTIC OBDEES. 143 
 
 they oppressed the world. Every species of absurdity, 
 art, hypocrisy, avarice, ambition and despotism, under 
 the guise of sanctity was embodied in their organiza- 
 tion, and illustrated in their conduct. 
 
 The doctrines which they taught were often as per- 
 nicious as their professions were false, and their con- 
 duct crafty. As the accommodating morality of their 
 religion allowed them to adopt any profession, or any 
 mode of life that would favor the success of a design, 
 so the license of their sophistry enabled them to con- 
 strue the maxims of virtue according to any standard 
 that would justify the conduct dictated by their interest 
 or sycophancy.. By the pliancy of their moral code 
 they consecrated the basest means to pious ends. By 
 the subterfuge of perplexing interpretations, mental 
 reservations, and an artful ambiguity of language, they 
 excused and sanctioned perjury and every other crime. 
 They taught that offences were justified, if, when com- 
 mitted, the criminal thought differently from what he 
 said or done ; and that a mental reservation nullified 
 the obligation of any promise, of any contract, or of 
 any treaty. The perversions of the maxims of virtue 
 by which they sought to justify the crimes of others, 
 they applied to their own conduct in the broadest sense. 
 In 1809, when the papal archives were brought to 
 France, the startling fact became public that the holy 
 fathers had been in the habit of availing themselves of 
 pious subterfuges. It then appeared that while they 
 had made contracts, and issued bulls in conformity with 
 the demands of temporal princes, they had at the same 
 time nullified, by virtue of mental reservations, such of 
 them as were obnoxious. 
 
144 IMMORALITY OF THE 
 
 The absurdities and perniciousness of their moral 
 code were not exceeded by those of their penal code. 
 According to the doctrines of Catholicity the guilt of 
 every crime may be expiated by the performance of 
 penance. To regulate the priest in prescribing this 
 mode of punishment, the church furnished him with an 
 ecclesiastical body of laws, which he as carefully as pru- 
 dently concealed from the eyes of the intelligent. All 
 priests were enabled, by the use of this code, to under- 
 stand the true orthodox degree of punishment which 
 had been authoratively decided should be inflicted on 
 penitents, for the commission of any offence of word, 
 thought or deed ; and a uniformity in the administra- 
 tion of penal prescriptions was maintained, which har- 
 monized with the divine inspiration by which the con- 
 fessor pretended to be guided in the matter. Fasts, 
 prayers, self-torture, abstinence from business, were, 
 by the authority of the ecclesiastical code, declared to 
 be the divinely appointed methods of expiating the 
 guilt of rape, of fornication, of adultery, of robbery, 
 of murder, and of every degree and species of crime. 
 These offences being very henious in their nature, and 
 very frequently committed by those who believed in the 
 ability of the church to absolve them from their guilt, 
 and time being required for the performance of the 
 atoning penance, it is easy to see that an ordinary Cath- 
 olic sinner was in eminent danger of incurring a debt 
 which would require several centuries of penance to 
 liquidate. Here was a dilemma. Long fasting would 
 starve him ; long abstinence from business would em- 
 poverish him ; and either expedient would prevent him 
 from being a source of revenue to the church ; and, in 
 
MONASTIC ORDERS. 145 
 
 fact, defeat the object of the holy sacrament of pen- 
 ance. To obviate this difficulty the ingenious method 
 of indulgences was adopted. By this happy expedient 
 provision was made for the relief of all criminals at 
 stipulated prices, graduated according to their pecuni- 
 ary circumstances. A penance imposed on a rich sinner 
 for one year's indulgence in the commission of a par- 
 ticular offence, was, by this crafty device, allowed to 
 be cancelled by the payment of twenty shillings to the 
 priest ; and if the sinner was poor, by the payment of 
 nine shillings Yet even by this indulgence and char- 
 itable discrimination, as every separate offence required 
 the atonement of a separate penance, few sinners 
 escaped incurring less than a debt of three hundred 
 years, or of two hundred pounds sterling. The liqui- 
 dation of such an obligation during the dark ages would 
 consume a small fortune ; but the expansive benevolence 
 of the church, touched at the sorrows of her contrite 
 members, graciously accepted their land after she had 
 exhausted their purse. 
 
 As crime had its degrees of turpitude, the ecclesias- 
 tical code prescribed degrees of severity in punishing 
 it. Whoever could not pay with their purse had to pay 
 with their body. Three thousand lashes, and the repe- 
 tition of a portion of the Psalter, were prescribed as an 
 indispensable satisfaction for any crime whose penance 
 required a year to discharge ; and fifteen thousand 
 lashes and the repetition of the whole Psalter, for 
 any crime whose penance required five years to dis- 
 charge. A year's penance was taxed at three thousand 
 lashes, a century's at three hundred thousand lashes, 
 
 and five centuries at fifteen hundred thousand lashes. 
 13 
 
146 IMMOEALITY OF THE 
 
 These scourgings were always sanctified by the repeti- 
 tion of psalms. As vicarious flagellation did not im- 
 pair the revenues of the church, it was not objected to; 
 and a sinner would often expiate his guilt by vigor- 
 ously laying the stripes it demanded on the back of an 
 accommodating friend. The skill and hardihood of St. 
 Dominic was able to discharge the penitential lashes of 
 a century in six days ; and his pious example was at- 
 tempted to be imitated even by ladies of fashion and 
 quality. 
 
 The monasteries were ambiguous, oppressive corpora- 
 tions. If they have at times preserved the literary 
 treasures of the ancients, they have impaired their au- 
 thority by numerous corruptions and interpolations. 
 If they have sometimes established institutions for the 
 education of youth r they have generally usurped the 
 fortunes of their patrons. If they have ever been 
 places of refuge for the proscribed, they have always 
 been the means of oppressing industry, and restricting 
 freedom. If they have been schools for the correction 
 of error, and improvement in virtue, yet the absurdities 
 and immoralities taught within their sanctuaries, and 
 the crimes notoriously practised therein, have in- 
 flicted deeper injury on the cause of truth, and on the 
 interest of public morals, than can be atoned for by 
 any usefulness or virtue which they could possess, or 
 can pretend to claim. Their virtues were accidents ; 
 their vices natural offsprings. They were financial in- 
 stitutions. The labor performed by their inmates as a 
 penance, was made a lucrative source of revenue. The 
 articles which they manufactured were represented as 
 capable of imparting a peculiar blessing to the pur- 
 
MONASTIC OEDEKS. 147 
 
 chaser, making them cheap at any price. A simple 
 badge of a religious order, to which were ascribed di- 
 vine virtue, and an unlimited amount of indulgences, 
 was sold to lay members at the price of a respectable 
 fortune. The tutors with which the monasteries fur- 
 nished schools, the professors which they gave to col- 
 leges, the confessors with which they supplied princes, 
 and the spiritual guides with which they provided the 
 affluent of both sexes, were benevolently granted upon 
 the payment of exorbitant sums of money. Gold being 
 the source of power and luxury, it became the govern- 
 ing principle of the church. For it she granted in- 
 dulgences to violate the laws of heaven and earth ; 
 threatened and repealed excommunications ; and mer- 
 chandised every spiritual blessing, all the prerogatives 
 of heaven, and all the privileges of earth. Gold sup- 
 plied the place of contrition, atoned for the offences of 
 criminals, released sinners from purgatory, and opened 
 to guilt the gates of Paradise. As it more ably than 
 any thing else increased the power and dominion of 
 the church, it was a more adorable object than the 
 deity, a more precious savior than Christ, a more sanc- 
 tifying possession than the Holy Ghost. As all had 
 sinned, all had to pay ; and as all were totally depraved, 
 all had to be liberal. The confessor was judge ; and as 
 he was interested in the amount, he was likely to be ex- 
 orbitant in the demand. The sin of total depravity, 
 which all had inherited from the forbidden fruit which 
 Adam had eaten, empowered a priest to demand of a 
 penitent the surrender of the whole of his fortune. 
 
 With extraordinary financial ingenuity, the church 
 converted not only the crimes of her members, but the 
 
148 IMMOEALITY OF THE 
 
 virtues of her departed saints, into a lucrative source 
 of revenue. Happily conceiving that the saints, some 
 of whom had been executed as malefactors, had per- 
 formed more good works than was necessary for the 
 salvation of their souls, she inferred that the supera- 
 bundant quantity of their goodness might be dealt out 
 to the destitute without detriment to the owners. With 
 more cupidity than reason, the church laid claim to 
 these works of supererogation, and began to vend them 
 at exorbitant prices. . The exhaustlessness of the store, 
 and the scarcity of the article among her members, 
 made the enterprise a very profitable speculation. 
 
 After disposing of a great portion of heaven, and 
 finding it exceedingly remunerative, her inveterate 
 disposition to traffic led her to examine the saints 
 more carefully, and see if they had not other disposable 
 material for the exercise of her commercial ingenuity. 
 She was not long in discovering that the bones of the 
 saints were likely to be deemed as valuable as their vir- 
 tues had been, and might prove as marketable. This 
 discovery induced an industrious search for their graves, 
 and a careful excavation of them. The bones of Sam- 
 uel, the judge of Isreal, which had slept for five hun- 
 dred years in Palestine, were exhumed and transported 
 to Rome. St. Stephen having appeared in a dream to 
 a pious man, and informed him where his corpse reposed, 
 the locality was immediately examined by bishops and 
 priests in company with the dreamer. Unmistakable 
 proofs appeared as to the existence of a grave, but 
 some honest doubts arose as to it being the identical one 
 in which St. Stephen had been deposited ; yet they all 
 vanished upon opening the coffin, for such celestial 
 
MONASTIC ORDERS. 149 
 
 odors arose from the corpse, and such, devout reverence 
 was manifested by the trees and rocks in the vicinity, 
 that; the most sceptical was satisfied of the genuineness 
 of the relics. A saint's tomb being equal in value to a 
 gold mine, it was natural for the church to seek for it 
 with great eagerness. But the deep earnestness of her 
 enthusiasm blunted the acuteness of her judgment. It 
 sometimes led her to mistake the bones of cats, of dogs, 
 and of jackals for those of saints; and as there is no 
 difference between the bones of thieves and murderers 
 and those of saints, and as both classes have often been 
 regarded by law as synonymous, and interred together 
 in the same field, the former were frequently gathered 
 up in mistake for the latter. But however mortifying 
 were such errors, they did not prove as unfortunate as 
 might have been expected ; for until anatomy and his- 
 tory had rectified them, the bones of pigs, of jack- 
 als, and of malefactors, brought as good prices as the 
 veritable bones of saints, were as eagerly sought after ; 
 and what is very remarkable, performed as many and 
 as great miracles. 
 
 We dp not pretend to assert that the religious orders, 
 even the most objectionable of them, did not in some 
 instances render valuable aid to the cause of education 
 and humanity The sanctity and disinterestedness with 
 which their profession was invested, though generally 
 assumed, were sometimes real. But the corrupt and 
 pernicious principles which entered into their constitu- 
 tion, were too self-evident to be concealed from the 
 eyes of mankind ; and too revolting to escape the anim- 
 adversion of some of the more noble and courageous 
 
 members of their fraternitv. Some of the clergv, and 
 13* 
 
150 ABROGATION OF THE 
 
 many of the learned men of the age boldly complained 
 of their base immorality. Their aversion to reform, 
 and the worldly policy which characterized their relig- 
 ious profession, sunk them in the estimation of the en- 
 lightened and philanthropic. Their pernicious inter- 
 meddling in political affairs, their cunning and obse- 
 quiousness, their busy and intriguing spirit, and the 
 powerful confederacy of their orders, made them ob- 
 jects of suspicion to jurists and statesmen. The nu- 
 merous exemptions which they enjoyed under the pro- 
 tection of the laws, their privileges nullifying the 
 jurisdiction of the civil authority over them, their 
 overgrown power, and the base accommodation of prin- 
 ciple to circumstances, by which they labored to advance 
 the pope's pretension to supreme dominion, rendered 
 their existence in a government a political solecism. 
 But notwithstanding these palpable facts, the force of 
 habit and of education, the deep-rooted reverence which 
 existed in the public mind for the spiritual guides, the 
 superstitious dread of their anathemas, and the servile 
 temper which monarchical government engenders in the 
 minds of subjects, all conspired to conciliate Christen- 
 dom to the deep degradation inflicted on society by the 
 monastic orders, until their arrogant conduct towards 
 some powerful monarch had surpassed the limits of his 
 forbearance. It was then that the discontent and in- 
 dignation which their outrageous conduct had cre-» 
 ated in the public mind, but which superstition had 
 held in check, broke forth in bold and explicit demands 
 for reformation. Keforms, consequently, were not only 
 projected, but peremptorily enforced. The temporal 
 and spiritual powers of the monastic orders were re- 
 
MONASTIC ORDERS. 151 
 
 stricted by the abolishment of their exemptions. Sov- 
 reigns appropriated many of their rich estates to educa- 
 tion and charitable purposes ; and sometimes to their 
 own use. Even Catholic princes obliged the monks to 
 submit to unpleasant restrictions, or to purchase exemp- 
 tion at an enormous rate. The different orders, one 
 after the other, were abrogated on account of some in- 
 tolerable conduct. The Jesuists were abolished in Eng- 
 land on account of the political plotting of its members ; 
 in Holland for having caused the assassination of 
 Maurice de Nassau ; in Portugal for an attempt to mur- 
 der Joseph I.; in Spain, and its colonies, for conspir- 
 ing against the government ; in Italy for licentious- 
 ness ; and in France, as the decree expresses, because 
 11 Their doctrine destroys the law of nature, that rule 
 of morals which God has inscribed on the heart of 
 man. Their dogmas break all bounds of civil society, 
 authorizing theft, perjury, falsehood, the most inordi- 
 nate and criminal impiety, and generally all passions 
 and wickedness ; teaching the nefarious principle of 
 secret compensation, equivocation and mental reserva- 
 tion ; extirpating every sentiment of humanity in 
 their sanction of homicide and parracide ; subverting 
 the authority of government, and, in fine, overthrowing 
 the practice and foundation of religion, and substitut- 
 ing in their stead all sorts of superstition, with magic, 
 blasphemy, and adultery." That their conduct and 
 principles are of the most execrable description, the 
 history of. all nations affords melancholy evidence. 
 They attempted to dethrone Queen Elizabeth, but de- 
 feated in that, sought to murder her. They caused the 
 assassination of the Prince of Orange. They endea- 
 
152 ABROGATION OF MONASTIC ORDERS. 
 
 vored to poison Maximillion I., King of Austria. They 
 attempted to murder Henry IV., and Louis XV. They 
 poisoned Pope Clement XIII., for having attempted to 
 abolish them, and Pope Clement XIX., -for having ab- 
 rogated their order, although he did it with mental 
 reservations. Loaded with the crimes of ages, and the 
 curses of nations, they were abolished with different 
 limitations in every part of Europe ; and as they were 
 the most powerful of the monastic orders, the others 
 rapidly incurred the sentence of the same degradation. 
 But notwithstanding all this, the Jesuistical order, so 
 execrable in its principles, so dangerous to public peace 
 and morals, and so justly reprobated by all enlightened 
 men and governments, was restored by Pope Pius VIL, 
 who intimated that it would reappear in the same au- 
 thority in which it fell. Again these monks are trav- 
 ersing the world, arresting the progress of science, 
 demoralizing society, and plotting treason and rebel- 
 lion in the advancement of the pope's claims to su- 
 preme temporal and spiritual dominion, until the foun- 
 dation of independent government begins to quake ; 
 until the pillars of constitutional liberty begin to tot- 
 ter ; until despotism dares insult the ears of freemen 
 with the boldness of its prophecies ; and until states- 
 men and patriots turn pale as they view the portentous 
 vapors darkling the political horizon, which may 
 gather into a storm, whose rain will be the blood of 
 nations, and whose thunder will shake governments to 
 atoms. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 JPopes, their Pretensions, Elections, Character, and 
 A administrations. 
 
 That we may not commit the error of attributing to 
 the holy mother absurdities which she repudiates, we 
 will inquire what are her pretensions before arraigning 
 her reason or justice in making them. An unequivo- 
 cal answer to this inquiry may ba obtained from the 
 import of her titles, from the bulls of her popes, from 
 the canons of her councils, and from the assertions of 
 her acknowledged authorities. Some of the pope's ac- 
 credited titles are the following : " The Father of all 
 Fathers;" "The Chief High Priest and Prince of 
 God;" "The Regent of the House of the Lord;" "The 
 Oracle of Religion;" "Our Most Holy Lord God;" 
 "Our Lord God the Pope;" "The Divine Majesty;" 
 " The Victorious God and Man in the See of Rome;" 
 " The Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the 
 world;" "The Bearer of Eternal Life;" "The Most 
 Holy Father;" "Priest of the World;" "God's Vicar 
 General on Earth;" "The Most High and Mighty God 
 on Earth;" "More than God," &c, &c. 
 
 " Pius V., our reigning pope, is prince over all na- 
 tions and kingdoms; and he has power to pluck up, scat- 
 ter, plant, ruin and build." — Canon of the Council of 
 Trent. 
 
 " All mortals are judged by the pope, and the pope 
 by nobody." — Lateran Canon. 
 T 13* 
 
154 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 
 
 "It is necessary to salvation that all Christians be 
 subject to the pope." — Pope Boniface VIII. 
 
 " Ireland, and all the isles on which Christ, the holy 
 sun of righteousness hath shone, do belong to the patri- 
 mony of St. Peter and the holy Catholic Church" — Bull 
 of Pope Adrian. 
 
 11 He (the pope) alone has the right to assume em- 
 pire. All nations must kiss his feet. His name is the 
 only one to be uttered in the churches. It is the only 
 name in the world. He has the right to depose empe- 
 rors. No council can call itself general without the 
 consent of the pope. No chapter, no book can be re- 
 puted canonical without his authority. No one can in- 
 validate his sentence ; he can abrogate those of all 
 others. He cannot be judged by any. All persons 
 whatsoever are forbidden to condemn him who is called 
 to the apostolic chair. The Church of Rome is never 
 wrong, and will never fall into error. Every Roman 
 pontiff when ordained becomes holy." — Bull of Gre- 
 gory VII. 
 
 ". The pope is supreme over all the world, may im- 
 pose taxes, and destroy crowns and castles for the pre- 
 servation of Christianity." — St. Thomas Aquinas. 
 
 " The supremacy of the pope over all persons and 
 things is the main substance of Christianity." — Bellar- 
 minc. 
 
 " The pope is crowned with a triple crown, and is 
 constituted over his (God's) hand to regulate concern- 
 ing all inferiors ; he opens heaven, sends the guilty to 
 hell, confirms emperors, and orders the clerical or- 
 ders." — Antonius of Florence, Dist. 40, Si Papa. 
 
 " The pope is the only Vicar of God ; his power is 
 over all the world, Pagan as well as Christian, the only 
 Vicar of God, who has supreme power and empire over 
 
ELECIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 155 
 
 all princes and kings of the earth." — Blareus, Be Bom. 
 Bed., Art. 5, sec. 19. 
 
 " The pope has supreme power over kings and Chris- 
 tian princes ; he may remove them from office, and in 
 their place put others." — Brovius, De Bom. Pontiff, 
 Cap. 46, p. 62. 
 
 " The pope is the Lord of the whole world. The 
 pope has temporal power; his temporal power is most 
 eminent. All other powers depend on the pope." — Mar- 
 cinus, Jure Brincep. Bom., Lib. 2, cap. 1, 2. 
 
 " The pope is divine monarch, supreme emperor and 
 king. Hence the pope is crowned with a triple crown, 
 as king of heaven, of_ earth, and of hell. He is also 
 above angels ; so that if it were possible that angels 
 could err from the faith, they could be judged and ex- 
 communicated by the pope." — Feraris in Bapa, Art. 
 11, M. 10. 
 
 " The vicar of God in the place of God, remits to man 
 the debt of a plighted promise." — Bens. 4, 134. 
 
 " The pope can do all things that he wishes to do, 
 and is empowered by God to do all things that he him- 
 self can." — Tib<g. 
 
 " The pope can transubstantiate sin into duty, and 
 duty into sin." — Bur and. 
 
 " The bishop of Rome cannot even sin without being 
 praised." — Moscovius. 
 
 " God's tribunal and the pope's tribunal are the 
 same." — Moscovius. 
 
 From the loftiness of these pretensions, we are invol- 
 untarily impelled to look to the holy fathers for cor- 
 responding principles, character and conduct. If they 
 possess the moral attributes of the deity, they must 
 
156 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 
 
 possess also ■ his physical attributes ; and if they pos- 
 sess his physical attributes, they can much easier create 
 some world out of nothing over which to domineer, 
 than they can create a claim to all the crowns, riches, 
 and territory of the earth, out of the patrimony of St. 
 Peter, who was never worth a cent. If, indeed, the 
 pope's tribunal and God's tribunal are the same ; if he 
 above all in heaven would be the proper judge, and 
 anathematizer of angels, should any of them fall ; if he 
 can annul the obligation of any oath which man is un- 
 der to his maker, then he must be the associate judge 
 of God Almighty, equal to him in dignity, superior to 
 him in jurisdiction, and supereminent to him in author- 
 ity. If the pope can transubstantiate sin into duty and 
 duty into sin, he can annihilate all distinction between 
 right and wrong, and convert the worship of God into 
 a sin, and the adoration of himself into a duty. But 
 these extraordinary pretensions, if unsupported by ir- 
 refragable proofs of divine power and virtue ; if the 
 administrative abilitiesof the popes have not transcended 
 those of infinite wisdom and goodness ; and if their 
 monarchy is not such a just embodiment of unquestion- 
 able and universally accepted principles as has produced 
 and maintained among their subjects on earth a degree 
 of peace, order, and concord superior to that which 
 subsists among the angels in heaven, then are their 
 pretensions not only presumptous but ridiculous, not 
 only arrogant but blasphemous ; denying the existence 
 of God by claiming equality with him, contemning his 
 authority by usurping his prerogatives, and trampling 
 under foot his name and character, by presuming to 
 exercise a superior degree of executive . and judicial 
 authority. 
 
ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 157 
 
 In selecting a person among mortals capable of fill- 
 ing a throne so exalted above the thrones of earth and 
 heaven, we perceive the great embarrassment nnder 
 which those must have labored on whom the difficult 
 task was devolved. They claim, however to have suc- 
 ceeded by the aid of divine inspiration, although it 
 cannot be denied that the persons whom they have se- 
 lected were in general the weakest and most corrupt 
 men of their age. 
 
 In the course of time and experience it became the 
 custom of the bishops, on the demise of a pope, to re- 
 commend to the suffrages of the college of cardinals a 
 suitable person for his successor. As the populace 
 claimed and enjoyed the prerogative of confirming or 
 rejecting the choice of the bishops, and as nobles, from 
 selfish and ambitious motives, often interfered in the 
 proceedings, the papal elections were always scenes of 
 excitement, and sometimes of disorder. The jealousy 
 of emperors interfered in the matter, also, claiming the 
 right to arbitrate between rival candidates, to interdict 
 the consecration of any pope elect until the forms of 
 his election should be inspected by their deputies, and 
 approved by themselves, and to convene synods for the 
 purpose of trying any of the holy fathers who should 
 be charged with criminal conduct, and to punishing 
 such of them as should be found guilty. But the des- 
 potism of the church, naturally increasing with her 
 power, enabled her eventually to relieve herself of 
 these unpleasant restrictions, to assert independence of 
 the secular powers, and to maintain it by force of 
 arms. This papal triumph removing the wholesome 
 
 check which had hitherto restrained and softened the 
 14 
 
158 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 
 
 violence of episcopal ambition, left the claims of rival 
 candidates for the vicarship of Christ to be disputed by 
 the anathemas of the clergy and the frenzy of the 
 mob. The knell of a pope's death became the tocsin of 
 war, and the election of his successor a bloody struggle 
 for political interest. Rival aspirants appeared in the 
 ecclesiastical arena ; acrimonious contests ensued ; ad- 
 herents were bought ; competitors insulted ; votes ex- 
 torted by threats ; Rome polluted with blood ; and the 
 peace of Christendom endangered. To defeat a hostile 
 or elect a friendly candidate, nobles and princes would 
 appeal to the passions of the mob, and excite them to 
 ungovernable fury. Emperors would interpose not only 
 in the election, but in the administration of a pope. 
 They often obliged the inspired college to select such a 
 candidate as suited their interest ; sometimes they pre- 
 vented, and at other times anticipated its action. 
 Through the influence and intrigues of two royal harlots, 
 Theodora and Marozia, the chair of St. Peter was 
 filled With, their lovers. Pope John XII. , when he was 
 eighteen years old, and Pope Benedict IX., when he 
 was twelve years, were, through the wealth and power 
 of those prostitutes, elevated to the papal dignity. 
 Pope John XII was deposed for ingratitude and trea- 
 chery by the Emperor Otho I., who caused the inspired 
 college to elect Leo VII., and placed him by military 
 force on the apostolic throne. Pope John XIII. was 
 elected by the inspired college at the command of Otho 
 II., Pope Clement II. at the command of Henry III., 
 and Pope Clement III. at the Command of Henry IV. 
 Clement II. was elected to displace Benedict IX., Clem- 
 ent III. to displace Gregory VII., Boniface I. to dis- 
 
ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 159 
 
 place Dioscorus, and Martin V. to displace. John XXIL, 
 Gregory XII. and Benedict XII. three cotemporaneous 
 holy fathers. The antagonistic al popes would mutu- 
 ally denounce each other as anti-popes, and tax their 
 ingenuity to effect each other's destruction. Benedict 
 XII. disposed of his rival by violence ; John XIV. in- 
 carcerated his in a dungeon, in which he starved to 
 death. 
 
 Besides the rivalship which infuriated opposing candi- 
 dates, and the intermeddling of princes in their elec- 
 tions in order to secure a pliant instrument for their 
 political designs, the inspired college itself was often 
 rent into revengeful and irreconcilable factions. So 
 violent sometimes wero these conflicts, that the col- 
 lege became divided into two parties, each of which 
 proceeded to separate' churches, and electing its favor- 
 ite, presented him to the people as having been chosen 
 by divine inspiration. Two antagonistical popes thus 
 being elected in accordance with papal usages, divine 
 inspiration, and canonical law, it became difficult, with- 
 out the aid of another inspired college, to determine 
 which of the two popes was the genuine holy 
 father. Sometimes this question was decided by prior- 
 ity in the moment of an election ; sometimes popular 
 sanction or imperial preference resolved the difficulty ; 
 and at other times different sections of Christendom 
 arriving at opposite conclusions, supported different 
 popes. At one period two popes divided the patrimony 
 of St. Peter, the one reigning over one portion of it, 
 and the other over another ; and at another time three 
 popes asserted jurisdiction over it. These rival holy 
 fathers would incessantly encounter ono another with 
 
160 POPES— THEIR PRETENSIONS, 
 
 bulls, anathemas, and swords ; and invoking foreign 
 arms in their support would distract, not only Rome, 
 but all Europe, with their irreconcilable controversies. 
 
 In order to abate the calamity of the papal elections, 
 Pope Alexander III., chosen in 1179, abolished the 
 mode of electing a pope in which the clergy and 
 people participated, and invested the sole right in 
 the college of cardinals. This expedient prevented 
 the frequency of double elections, and their tumultuous 
 and bloody schisms. But still the disorderly elements 
 which shook the church could not be entirely eradicated 
 without the abolishment of the papal throne. The pas- 
 sions and private interests of the members of the sacred 
 college ; their wish to secure the honors and emoluments 
 of an independent reign ; their insidious machinations 
 to become popes themselves ; often deprived the church, 
 under the new electoral method, of the benefits of a 
 holy father. An interregnum of months, sometimes of 
 years, would ensue between the death of a pope and 
 the election of his successor, while disgraceful negotia- 
 tions were always visible. Pope Clement IV. promised 
 the crown of both of the Sicilies to Charles of Anjou, 
 on condition that he would use his influence with the 
 inspired college in favor of his election to the papal 
 throne ; and Pope Boniface VIII. , after expending large 
 sums of money on an election, excommunicated the 
 obstinate cardinals who had refused to vote for him. 
 
 The ambition and corruption of the cardinals having 
 kept the papal throne vacant for three years previous 
 to the election of Gregory X., he issued a bull in 1265, 
 requiring the members of the college to assemble in 
 Rome nine days after the demise of a pope, and after 
 
ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 161 
 
 taking an oath to abjure all previous understanding, to 
 retire with a single attendant into a common apart- 
 ment, and to remain there until they should be able to 
 agree on a choice. If within three days the influence 
 of the Holy Ghost should not be sufficiently powerful 
 to enable them to arrive at a canonical agreement, the 
 luxury of their repast was to be abridged to a single 
 dish at dinner and supper; and if within eight days 
 these privations should still be insufficient to quicken 
 the divine influence on the grossness of human nature, 
 the cardinals were then condemned to subsist on a small 
 allowance of bread, water and wine. The stimulus of 
 this regimen has seldom failed to produce a speedy and 
 harmonious agreement. 
 
 But the corruption of the Holy See was the growth of 
 ages, and had carefully been systematized by the hand 
 of experienced craft. It could not therefore be entirely 
 eradicated by any modification in the papal electoral 
 forms ; although improvements might be introduced, 
 making them the occasion of less scandal. The fact 
 that an attendant on a cardinal during the session of an 
 electoral college is worth an independent fortune, is 
 significant of the corrupt machinations by which the 
 holy fathers continue still to be elected. The bull of 
 Pope Gregory X. has, ineed, prevented the former fre- 
 quency of schisms, but it was insufficient to prevent one 
 of seventy years' duration, which occurred on the 
 death of Pope Benedict XI, in 1348. The inspired 
 college having assembled in accordance with the re- 
 quirements of the canon, sworn to abjure all pre- 
 vious understanding, became, nevertheless, divided on 
 
 the question whether a Frenchman or an Italian should 
 14* 
 
162 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 
 
 be elected as the vicar of Christ. Two-thirds of the 
 cardinals were in favor of a Frenchman, but a mob of 
 thirty thousand Romans preferred an Italian. " Death 
 or an Italian Pope/' shouted an infuriated crowd, as 
 it gathered around the Vatican, and made preparations 
 for burning any of the inspired college who should vote 
 for a French candidate ; while the cathedral bells, in 
 harmony with the discordant clamor of the mo~b, pealed 
 forth an ominous warning. Under the terror of these 
 intimidations, the inspired college submitted to the 
 wishes of the mob ; and electing Urban VI., an Italian, 
 and presenting him to the populace declared, according 
 to usage, that they had been inspired to choose him 
 through the influence of the Holy Gho&t. The disap- 
 pointed cardinals disguised their mortification under 
 the warmest congratulations to the newly elected pope, 
 but gratified their secret malice by entering into clan- 
 destine negotiation with Philip IV., King of France, 
 and stipulating with him to accommodate his interest 
 by electing a pope in the place of Urban, who should 
 conform to his wishes in all things. After having by 
 flattery, and professions of friendship and allegiance, 
 sufficiently deceived the vicar of Christ, they retired 
 to Fundi, and, excommunicating him, elected Pope 
 Clement in his place. The papal monarchy hence be- 
 came divided into two antagonistical bodies, the one 
 having its capitol at Rome, the other at Avignon in 
 France. 
 
 The aspirants to the dignity of the vicarship of 
 Christ endeavored, in general, to obtain its holy honors 
 by the employment of artifice and intrigue. They were 
 ready to flatter any power, assume any semblance, agree 
 
ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. I6S 
 
 to any terras, and profess any sentiment that promised 
 to favor their design. At the council of Constance, 
 Pope Martin V. advocated the most liberal ecclesiasti- 
 cal reforms, but recanted his heresy as soon as he ob- 
 tained the triple -crown. Pope Alexander VI. was 
 elected by bribing Cardinals Cibo, Spozza and Rearis. 
 Pope Alexander VII., while a cardinal, assumed the 
 semblance of great humility and sanctity, but no sooner 
 had he become a successor of St. Peter, than he threw 
 off the cumbrous mask by which he gained the honor; 
 and openly began a course of dissipation and luxurious 
 indulgence. Sixtus VI. played a deep and crafty game 
 to win the papal crown. In order to deceive the car- 
 dinals he assumed the appearance of an infirm old man, 
 deaf, blind, and scarcely able to hobble on a crutch; 
 and who desired nothing but obscurity, devotion and 
 repose. By the agency of the confessional he correctly 
 informed himself of the wishes of princes and the secret 
 designs of cardinals. Under a mask of profound dis- 
 simulation he gained the confidence of kings and nobles, 
 and evaded the scrutiny of cardinals. Having trans- 
 formed himself into the semblance of such a convenient 
 tool as the members of the college desired to place on 
 the apostolic throne, they chose him unanimously-; 
 but repented of it unanimously immediately afterwards. 
 No sooner had the electoral formalities been con- 
 concluded than, in the presence of the cardinals, he 
 raised himself from his former stooping position, con- 
 temptuously threw away his crutch, and with a 
 bounding and vigorous step displayed to the horror 
 consternation of the sacred college that it had chosen 
 for a holy father, not : a pliant simpleton-,- but -a man of 
 
164 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 
 
 authority, determination, and sagacity. Pope Celes- 
 tine was elected solely on account of his ignorance 
 and mental imbecility. For twenty-seven months 
 the disputes of the cardinals had kept the papal 
 throne without an incumbent. To conciliate their 
 differences they finally agreed to elect Celestine, 
 who was celebrated for his intellectual deficiency 
 and profound ignorance of the world. When this 
 holy father entered Apulea after his consecration, 
 he symbolically rode upon an ass. But his incapabil- 
 ity of transacting the ordinary business the Holy See, 
 obliged the sacred college to reassemble, and endeavor 
 by the aid of the Holy Ghost to select a more suitable 
 vicar of Christ. It succeeded in electing Boniface 
 VIII. , who possessed more business capacity, but less 
 moral integrity ; and who, standing in mortal dread of 
 his simple and unaspiring predecessor, and fearing the 
 instability of the apostolic throne while he was at 
 large, pusillanimously imprisoned him for life. 
 
 It is a singular fact that while distant potentates 
 trembled at the thunders of the Vatican, the subjects 
 of Rome scoffed with impunity at its insolent preten- 
 sions. The tyranny and corruption of the holy fathers 
 have frequently been met with contempt and insurrec- 
 tion by the populace. The cardinals have at times 
 been stripped, beaten, and trodden under foot. The 
 priests have been caught by mobs, which, after digging 
 out their eyes, and crowning their heads with ludicrous 
 mitres, have sent them as admonitions to the pope. 
 The sacred processions, headed by the holy fathers, 
 have been saluted with showers of stones. The vice- 
 gerents of God, while on the apostolic throne, have 
 
ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 165 
 
 been seized by the throat, rudely buffeted, torn from 
 their chair and incarcerated in dungeons. Laudislaus, 
 King of Naples, whom the 'pope had entitled " Gen- 
 eral of the Church" in consideration of services ren- 
 dered, thrice afterwards entered Rome as a master, 
 profaned the churches, violated the virgins, plundered 
 the citizens, and worshipped at the shrine of St. Peter. 
 The holy fathers, assailed by subjects at home and 
 princes abroad, were constantly fleeing from the inse- 
 cure patrimony of St. Peter to find refuge in France, 
 Anangni, Perugia, Viterbo, or some other locality. 
 Sometimes they retaliated the insults of their Catholic 
 subjects, and levied armies to chastise them; and, on 
 one occasion they had, in a friendly conference, eleven 
 deputies of the people murdered in cold blood, and 
 their bodies cast into the streets. 
 
 "When the Holy See was transplanted from Rome to 
 Avignon, the vices, corruption, and tumults which were 
 characteristic were transplanted along with it. The 
 same popular insubordination and papal insecurity pre- 
 vailed ; the people were seditious and the popes in- 
 sulted. A Catholic freebooter at the head of his band, 
 once entered Avignon, plundered the people and 
 churches, compelled the pope and cardinals to ransom 
 themselves by the payment of an enormous sum of 
 gold, and to absolve him and his fellow robbers from 
 the guilt of the transaction, and from all their crime. 
 
 Notwithstanding the ostentatious sanctity and gor- 
 geous show with which the church invests her external 
 form, her throne has never been occupied by a distin- 
 guised paragon of virtue ; nor has it, notwithstanding 
 her liberal indulgence to moral turpiturd, often been 
 
166 . POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 
 
 graced by those whom she dared to canonize for the 
 purity of their conduct. High principled and lofty 
 minded men have scorned to aspire to her dignities ; 
 and had they not, they still could not have stooped to 
 the dishonorable means by which they are to be ob- 
 tained. With pretensions demoralizing her officials by 
 destroying their sense of moral accountability, fostering 
 their vanity, pride and superciliousness, and dissolving 
 all restraints on the instigations of malice, revenge, 
 cupidity, licentiousness, duplicity and tyranny, it would 
 be absurdity to expect to find in their character any 
 exalted degree of moral excellence. Look at those 
 whom the inspired college has chosen vicegerent of 
 God. Where we might expect to see the Solons, 
 Cimons, and Catos of the age, we always see despotism, 
 generally duplicity, and often profligacy and cruelty. 
 Look at Pope Gregory, the Great. Was he not an as- 
 piring and unscrupulous despot ? While pretending to 
 wish to be unknown, did he not employ every device to 
 become the most notorious man of his age. To pave 
 his way to the pontifical throne, ho devoted his patri- 
 mony to the use of convents, and immured himself in 
 them. By seeming to resist, he secured his election ; 
 and by addressing an artful remonstrance against its 
 confirmation to the emperor, he removed every obstacle 
 in the way of his consecration. To disguise more 
 deeply his ambition, he solicited a merchant, whom he 
 knew could not accommodate him, to convey him 
 secretly from Borne ; and, finally, overacted his part by 
 secreting himself in a wilderness, and building a fire 
 that his retreat might be discovered. His financial 
 skill was unquestioned. He induced Becared, King of 
 
ELECIONS AND /ADMINISTRATIONS. 16? 
 
 Spain, to exchange a great amount of gold and a valu- 
 able collection of jewels for a few hairs of St. John 
 the Baptist, a piece of the true cross, a key which, it 
 was alleged, contained some grains of a chain with 
 which St. Peter had been shackled while in a dungeon. 
 He also sanctified the most atrocious assassination that 
 was, perhaps, ever perpetrated. The Koman legions 
 having become demoralized, the Emperor Maurice at- 
 tempted to reduce them to order by the enforcement of 
 rigorous military discipline. This effort produced a 
 general dissatisfaction among the troops, which culmi- 
 nated in the election of Phocus, an obscure soldier, in 
 the place of Maurice. The emperor, desirous of restor- 
 ing tranquility to the nation, magnanimously abdicated 
 the purple. Never having heard of the name of 
 Phocus before, he inquired of his general who he was. 
 "Alas," replied he, " a great coward, and I fear will 
 be a murderer." This prophecy was soon fulfilled. 
 Phocus sent to the private dwelling of Maurice assas- 
 sins, who, before the eyes of their father coldly butch- 
 ered his five sons, and then consummated the horrible 
 tragedy with the murder of the emperor himself. After 
 this barbarous act had been perpetrated, Pope Gregory, 
 although he owed his elevation to the indulgence of 
 Maurice, complimented Phocus on his good fortune, and 
 rejoiced that his piety and benignity had raised him to 
 the imperial throne. 
 
 From this model pope let us turn to Pope John XII., 
 elected in 956. In ambition unprincipled, in cruelty 
 inexorable, in dissoluteness cold and calculating ; the 
 annals of history scarcely furnish an equal compound of 
 moral deformity. Elevated to the papal throne through 
 
168 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 
 
 the influence of a prostitute, he made the principles of 
 his patroness the maxims of his conduct. He was a 
 drunkard, a profligate, a blasphemer, and a murderer. 
 He passed his time in hunting and gambling. Ho 
 swore by the Pagan Gods and Goddesses. He lived in 
 public adultery with Roman matrons. He converted 
 the papal palace into a brothel, and made it a school for 
 education in the arts of prostitution. His rapes of 
 widows, wives, and virgins were so frequent, that fe- 
 male pilgrims were deterred from visiting the tomb of 
 St. Peter, for fear of being violated by the holy father 
 while kneeling at his shrine, to invoke' his aid in the 
 practice of chastity and piety. 
 
 Now advert to Gregory VII., elected in 1075, and 
 see what baseness, trickery, avarice, and insolence have 
 been consecrated as holy in the character of a vicar of 
 Christ. Protected from reproach by his claim to infal- 
 libility, he presumed to outrage the sense of common 
 decency by living with the Countess Matilda under sus- 
 picious circumstances ; and conceiting that he was en- 
 dowed with supreme power over all kings and govern- 
 ments, and that if they resist his authority he must 
 punish them, he undertook to dethrone Henry IV., Em- 
 peror of Germany and Italy, because that prince had 
 exercised the right of investiture contrary to the inter- 
 diction of the papal bulls. For this insolent proceed- 
 ure the emperor determined to depose him, and drive 
 him from Pome. Penetrating the emperor's design, he 
 attempted to defeat it by buying the adherence of the 
 Italian populace; but this movement was effectually 
 counterpoised by the emperor's purchasing the support 
 of the Italian nobility. He also convened aj)ouncil at 
 
ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTEATIONS. 169 
 
 by which Gregory was deposed ; and another at Brisen 
 at which Clement IIL was elected. To place Clement 
 in possession of the papal dignity, Henry formed a 
 coalition with the Emperor Alexius : to defeat this pro- 
 ject Gregory formed an alliance with Robert Guiscard, 
 Duke of Apulia. The arms of Robert were victorious, 
 and Gregory was delivered from his perilous situation. 
 But victory sometimes is as disastrous as defeat. The 
 formidable allies of the holy father, which success had 
 introduced into the city of Borne, comprehended a nu- 
 merous band of Saracens who hated the Christian name 
 and capital, although they had for money and the 
 license of war been induced to take up arms in defence 
 of the sacerdotal monarch. A furious sedition happen- 
 ing to arise in the city among the inhabitants, the Sara- 
 cens eagerly availed themselves of the occasion to 
 gratify their hatred of Borne and of Christianity. They 
 commenced murdering the citizens, plundering dwel- 
 lings, profaning churches, and firing buildings; nor 
 was their revenge satiated until they had, not only de- 
 populated the city, but reduced the greater portion of 
 it to ashes. This catastrophe completed the disgrace 
 of Gregory. Finding himself universally detested as 
 its author, he had to flee for safety to Salerno, leaving 
 Henry to consummate, without opposition, his design of 
 placing Clement IIL upon the apostolic throne. 
 
 From the conduct of this crafty and talented sacerdo- 
 tal despot, let us turn a glance at pope Innocent II., 
 elected in 1130. The elevation of this Bope was the 
 tocsin of a war which, during his administration, kept 
 Borne and Italy in a state of violent convulsion. The 
 
 sacred college not being able canonically to concur in 
 15 
 
179 ..--POPES— THEIR PRETENSIONS,.,.. 
 
 his election, became divided into two obstinate factions-, 
 each of which elected a vicegerent of God ; the one 
 being Pope Innocent II., and the other Pope Anaclitus. 
 Two implacable despots being thus authorized to claim 
 the papal throne, a furious holy war was inevitable. 
 Anaclitus having the heavier artillery drove Innocent 
 from Rome ; but France and Germany espousing the 
 cause of the fugitive, enabled him to secure a sufficient 
 army to effect his return. He was, nevertheless, obliged 
 to limit his papal jurisdiction to one portion of the 
 city ; his antagonist being too strongly entrenched in 
 the other to be dislodged. But even from this limited 
 domain he was again driven by the arms of his formid- 
 able rival, and again reinstated by the forces of the 
 temporal power. The two holy fathers continued to 
 hate, persecute and anathematize each other, until 
 death settled the sanguinary controversy by the removal 
 of Anaclitus. Relieved of the terrors of a powerful 
 adversary, Innocent II. convoked the Lateran Council, 
 in which one thousand bishops condemned the soul of 
 Anaclitus, and excommunicated Rogers of Sicily for 
 having supported the schismatic. On account of this 
 papal insolence, Robert declared war against Pope In- 
 nocent ; and taking him prisoner, obliged him to ab- 
 solve him from the sentence of the excommunication, 
 and to invest him with the papal provinces of Apulia, 
 Capua, and Calibria. 
 
 Let us now direct a moment's attention to Pope Inno- 
 cent III, elected in 1198, who, when receiving the 
 triple crown exclaimed : " The church has given me a 
 crown as a symbol of temporalities she has conferred 
 on me a mitre in token of spiritual power ; — a mitre for 
 
' ELECIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. ' 171 
 
 the priesthood ; a crown for the kingdom ; making me 
 the vicar of him who bears on his garments and 
 thighs, ' The King of Kings, and Lord of Lords."' 
 Inflated with this popular conceit he imagined that he 
 was supreme prince over all nations and kingdoms, and 
 that he had a divine light to pluck up, destroy, scatter, 
 ruin, plant and build whenever a notion happened to in- 
 spire his presumptuous brain. He arbitrarily obliged 
 the prefect of Rome to swear allegiance to him, de- 
 manded royal homage of Marguard of Romagna, and 
 upon the refusal of that prince to compromise his sov- 
 reignty by submitting to such unwarrantable dictations, 
 deprived him of the duchy of Mark Ancona. With 
 a despotic hand he wrung Spoleto from Duke Conrad. 
 He excommunicated Philip of France for having repu- 
 diated his wife, and obliged him to sue for mercy at his 
 feet. He deposed King John, of England, for refusing 
 to confirm the election of a bishop ; instigated France 
 to declare war against him, obliged him to resign his 
 kingdom to the See of Rome, to pay large sums of 
 money for absolution, and to hold his throne as a papal 
 .fief. He exercised an oppressive despotism over the 
 temporal provinces of Christendom, established inqisi- 
 sitorial tribunals, suspended religious worship by inter- 
 dicts, and urged the cruel persecution of the Albigen- 
 ses. When his military forces were ready for combat, 
 he is said to have exclaimed : " Sword, sword, whet 
 thyself for vengeance." 
 
 Turn from this ornament of the papal throne, and con- 
 sider the character and administration of Pope Boni- 
 face VIII., elected in 1295. Pliable and revengeful, 
 presumptuous and ambitious, he sought to make tools of 
 
172 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 
 
 princes, and slaves of subjects. On his way to the 
 Lateran palace, after his election, the King of Hungary 
 and the King of Sicily, in token of their inferior rank, 
 held the bridle of his horse ; and with crowns on their 
 heads waited on him at table as menials. He boldly 
 excommunicated Philip IV., of France, but cowardly 
 sought to escape the penalty by taking refuge in the 
 fortress of Anangni. While luxuriating in this sumpu- 
 ous retreat, in fancied security, William of Nosgeret sur- 
 rounded the palace with three hundred horse, and a 
 scuffle ensued in which the vicegerent of God was 
 rudely seized by the throat, severely kicked and cuffed, 
 and cast into prison. A mob, however, soon released 
 him from confinement. In view of his flagitious and 
 undeniable acts of duplicity, simony, usurpation and 
 profligacy, King Philip had resolved to summon a coun- 
 cil at Lyons for the purpose of deposing him ; but the 
 chastisement of incarceration which he had undergone 
 so mortified his pride, that within three days after his 
 liberation he died in a paroxysm of rage and fury. 
 
 Look at the character of Pope Alexander III., elected 
 in 1159, who, demoralized and misled by papal preten- 
 sions, distracted all Europe, and kept the Holy See in a 
 state of perpetual insurrection. Under the protection 
 of Frederic I. the anti-popes Victor III., Pascal III., 
 and Calaxtus III., successively arose against him ; re- 
 peatedly driving him from Rome ; sometimes to France ; 
 sometimes to Anangni ; and sometimes to Venice. But 
 fortune eventually favoring him, he wreaked the heavi- 
 est vengeance on the heads of his antagonists. He 
 obliged Frederic to kiss his feet, and to hold the stirrup 
 of his horse. He laid Scotland under an interdict. 
 
ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS, 173 
 
 He restored the thrones of England and Germany on 
 conditions that augmented his power. And in the ex- 
 ercise of his apostolic authority gave the world calami- 
 tous proof that ecclesiastical supremacy is incompatible 
 with the peace of the world. 
 
 Regard for an instant the character of Pope Alex- 
 ander VI., elected in 1523, who perfected in his papal 
 character the dissipation which had disgraced his youth. 
 His policy, both domestic and foreign, was base, treach- 
 erous and execrable. He undertook to seize on the 
 Italian provinces by the most cruel and dishonorable 
 methods. He attempted to extort money from the 
 different sections of Christendom by fraud and force. 
 He seduced his own daughter ; and gave notorious evi- 
 dence of the profligacy of his life by five illegitimate 
 children. He conspired with his son, Cardinal Caesar 
 Borgia, to poison four cardinals, but the conspirators 
 drinking the poison themselves, became the victims of 
 their own treachery. 
 
 Look at Pope Julius II., elected in 1505, and mark 
 his savage, ferocious, and warlike character. Ambi- 
 tious of military renown, he commanded his army in 
 person, and without regard to the rights of nations or 
 individuals gratified his lust of power and dominion. 
 In the prosecution of the interests of the Holy See, he 
 excommunicated the Duke of Ferrara, gave Navara to 
 Spain, besieged Muandolo, colleagued against the repub- 
 lic of Venice, and made war upon Louis XII., King of 
 France. 
 
 Behold Clement V., elected in 1305, and mark the 
 gross simony, nepotism, and arrogance which disgraced 
 his administration. Hear him excommunicating Henry 
 15* 
 
174 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 
 
 VII. of Germany, and his allies, for his refusing to me- 
 diate between him and Kobert ; and hear him pro- 
 nouncing a curse on the Venitians for their refusing to 
 submit to his dictation ; declaring them infamous, con- 
 fiscating their gold and war vessels, abolishing their 
 governmental offices, and absolving the subjects from 
 obedience to the laws. 
 
 Turn to John XXII., elected in 1410, and see if any 
 vice, public or private, debarred a candidate from the 
 papal throne. In his youth a pirate, the sanctity of his 
 pontifical character neither restrained nor concealed the 
 precocious viciousness which he had manifested. 
 Although he may have amused himself with the popish 
 conceit that a holy father cannot sin without being 
 praised, yet the Council of Constance, on the testimony 
 of thirty-seven good Catholic witnesses, found seventy 
 indictments against him, and degraded him from the 
 papal dignity. Among the crimes for which he was 
 deposed were simony, murder, rape, sodomy, and illicit 
 intercourse with his brother's wife, and with three hun- 
 dred nuns. This holy father died in jail. 
 
 Look at Julius III., elected in 1550, whose unnatural 
 licentiousness transcending all bounds of decency, 
 sought its gratification with boys, men, and even cardi- 
 nals. Hear Sixtus V., in the college of cardinals, pro- 
 nouncing a eulogy on the assassinators of Henry III. 
 King of France, and comparing them with Judith and 
 Eleazer. Hear Alexander I., as he placed his foot on 
 Frederic, King, of Denmark, exclaim : " Thus shalt 
 thou tread upon the lion and the adder." Hear Pius 
 V., as he excommunicated Queen Elizabeth, exclaim : 
 " I have this day set thee over the nations, over the 
 
ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 175 
 
 kingdoms, to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to build 
 up and to throw down." Witness Pope Leo III. ab- 
 ruptly crowning Charlemagne, and to the astonish- 
 ment of the worl investing him with all the titles, hon- 
 ors, and regal ornaments of the Caesars. Witness 
 Gregory IV. fomenting discord between Charlemagne 
 and his sons, then between the sons themselves, then 
 tampering with the officers of the imperial army, then 
 absolving them from their oath of allegiance, then ut- 
 tering to Louis I., son and successor of Charlemagne, 
 that arrogant assertion : " Know my chair is above the 
 emperor's throne ;" and ultimately see the design of 
 these atrocious acts, in the claim of the subsequent 
 popes to the dominion of the Ceesars, by virtue of the 
 donation of Charlemagne. 
 
 Look at the two hundred and ninety-seven popes 
 that have filled the papal chair : Twenty-four of them 
 were anti-popes ; twenty-six were deposed ; nineteen 
 were compelled to abandon Kome ; twenty-eight were 
 kept on their throne only by foreign intervention ; fifty- 
 four were obliged to rule over foreign parts ; sixty-four 
 died by violence; eighteen were poisoned; one was 
 shut up in a cage ; one was strangled; one smothered ; 
 one died by having nails driven in his temples ; one by 
 a noose around his neck ; and only one hundred and 
 fifty-three out of the whole number have proved them- 
 selves at all worthy. Read the papal annals ; hear the 
 frequent and atrocious anathemas of the popes ; mark 
 the vices that have continued century after century to 
 disgrace the administrations of the holy fathers, and 
 say if prrofane history affords a catalogue of monarchs 
 so black with crime, so unprincipled in ambition, so 
 
176 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 
 
 remorseless in revenge. Their pretensions were made 
 not from conscious right, but to justify intended usur- 
 pations. They claimed to be endowed with power to 
 do whatever God himself could do, in order to forge a 
 plea for governing the world as despots. They claimed 
 the prerogative of absolving subjects from their oaths 
 of allegiance, that they might rule kings with abso- 
 lute authority. They claimed that they could not sin 
 without being praised, that they might commit any 
 crime without being censured. They claimed the abil- 
 ity of transubstantiating sin into duty, and duty into 
 sin, that they might justify themselves in adopting any 
 means to obtain an end. They claimed all the author- 
 ity and holiness of heaven, that they might be wor- 
 shipped and feared as Gods. But while they had the 
 audacity to prefer these claims, it is not a supposable 
 case that the dullest of them was such a stupendous 
 fool as to believe in the validity of his own pretensions. 
 With a triple crown on their heads, with the keys of 
 heaven and hell in their hands, with an assertion on 
 their lips that they are the king of kings, and the pro- 
 prietors of all the thrones, domains, revenues, gold and. 
 gems of the earth, they seriously pretend that they are 
 the successors of St. Peter, an humble fisherman, who 
 like his master, had not where to lay his head, and 
 whose patrimony, which they claim to inherit, must 
 have consisted at most of but an empty purse, a staff, a 
 suit of unfashionable garments, and, perhaps, some old 
 fishing nets. And while they have been elected by 
 emperors, by mobs, by arms and clubs, by bribery, and 
 by every species of corruption, they affirm that they 
 have been chosen by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. 
 
ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 177 
 
 The papal monarchy was neither designed nor calcu- 
 lated to foster the growth of either truth, reason or 
 virtue. The policy and measures which it adopted 
 were never intended to correct vice, hut to make it ad- 
 minister to the importance of its power, and the wealth 
 of its coffers. Its design has always been to reign su- 
 preme ; and in conformity with a policy dictated by 
 this design, it has destroyed every virtue that obtruded 
 an obstacle to the accomplishment of its purposes, and 
 protected every vice that appeared to favor their suc- 
 cess. 
 
 Such being the principles of the papal government, it 
 could not be hoped that the holy fathers would be the 
 friends of truth and reform. In fact they must have 
 been conscious that a rigid system of reform would have 
 swept them from their thrones, and doomed many of 
 them to confinement in the dungeons of a penitentiary. 
 Accordingly we see that while temporal princes, some 
 clergymen, and numerous laymen loudly demanded re- 
 form in the head and body of the church, the popes 
 strenuously opposed the project as a dangerous innova- 
 tion. "When summons had been issued by temporal 
 princes for the assembling of councils for purposes of 
 reformation, the pontiffs frequently forbid obedience 
 to them. When circumstances have obliged popes to 
 issue orders for the convocation of such assemblages, 
 they have rendered them nugatory by neglecting to fix 
 the time and place to their meeting. "When compelled 
 to be more definite in their conduct and language, they 
 have endeavored, by changing the time and place for 
 holding a proposed council, to defeat the object which 
 they were obliged to sanction. When their cautious 
 
178 __ POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 
 
 vacillations have been summarily airested, and all the 
 obstacles they had obtruded removed, and a council for 
 reform had been assembled, they edeavored by base and 
 corrupt means to control its action, and defeat its use- 
 fulness. When in defiance of papal remonstrances, 
 threats and intrigues, reformatory decrees have been 
 passed by councils, the popes have, nevertheless, at- 
 tempted to nullify them by evasion, trickery or ne- 
 glect. 
 
 Pope Gregory declared that a council could be useful 
 only under a Catholic prince. Pius II. forbid an ap- 
 peal to a council. Julius II. interdicted the assembling 
 of one after it had been summoned. When the united 
 voice of princes and subjects compelled Pius VII. to 
 call a council, he nullified his own summons by ne- 
 glecting to fit the time for its meeting. When a crit- 
 ical state of public affairs had led Pope Paul to imagine 
 that he could shape the proceedings of an inspired 
 council according to his private interest, he convoked 
 the Council of Trent ; but finding his intrigues inade- 
 quate to his ambition, he induced his legates to exhaust 
 its time in frivolous ceremonies and useless excursions. 
 When the Council of Pisa obliged Alexander VII. to 
 pledge his word to prosecute certain specified reforms, 
 he adopted no measure in compliance with his word. 
 When the Council of Basle enacted decrees of reform, 
 the artifice of Pope Eugenius rendered them of no 
 avail. When the Council of Constance, after deposing 
 three rival popes, elected Martin V. in consideration of 
 the zeal with which he had advocated church reform, 
 it was soon apparent that his zeal for reform was his 
 ambition to be elevated to the papal throne, and 
 
ELECTIONS. ..AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 179 
 
 that it all had expired as soon as his election was se- 
 cure. Pope Pius denounced the reforms which Joseph 
 II., of Austria, proposed to introduce into his kingdom, 
 and adopted every expedient to counteract them. 
 When the tyranny and profligacy of the monastic or- 
 ders had awakened the indignation of all Christendom, 
 the vicar of Christ, by means of bulls, anathemas and 
 intrigues, defended them with ferocious zeal. When 
 the Jesuists were banished from England for treason- 
 able machinations, from Italy for profligacy, from 
 Portugal for attempts at assassination, and from the 
 other parts of Europe for execrable conduct, the popes 
 not only defended, but recommended them as the most 
 pious and useful members of the church. When the 
 papal throne was restored by England, a heretic, and 
 Russia, a schismatic, in conjunction with the Catholic 
 powers, after it had been abolished by France, the 
 pope, in defiance of the wishes and resolutions of his 
 liberators, ahd in violation of the obligations of honor 
 and gratitude, restored the barbarous inquisition, the 
 obnoxious order of the Jesuists, and the superstitious 
 practices of the dark ages. 
 
 The holy mother, indeed, has given birth to little be- 
 sides monstosities. The features and principles of her 
 offspring cast a dark suspicion on her chastity. They 
 usually wear the lineament, if not the cloven foot of 
 the arch-fiend. Ambition, duplicity, treachery, vicious- 
 ness, arid immorality are deeply featured in their 
 countenances, and some of them seem to be an incarna- 
 tion of every crime that could entitle a human being to 
 be considered as the offspring and heir ' of hell. If 
 there were some honorable exceptions, they were like 
 
180 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 
 
 stars on a stormy night, obscured by the heavy mist 
 through which they shone. Some popes, it is true, 
 have been great governors ; men of great foresight and 
 enterprise ; men who, looking beyond their age, have 
 prepared measures that have successfully met future 
 exegencies ; but their sagacity has been quickened by 
 ambition and avarice ; and their great talents have 
 been wasted on duplicity and intrigue. The less ex- 
 ceptionable of them have acknowledged and deplored 
 the corruption of the Ho]y See ; but they seem to think 
 it is incurable, for their hopes of the future are always 
 darkened by the recollection of the past. Hence we 
 hear Nicholas V., as he bestowed an office on the 
 worthy, say : " Take this, you will not always have a 
 Nicholas to bestow a gift on the ground of merit." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 THE PAPAL MONARCHY. 
 
 SECTION ONE. 
 
 The Papal Crown — Banner—Cabinet — Court — Decrees 
 — Jurisprudence — Coinage — Army and Navy — Re- 
 venues — Oaths — and Spies, 
 
 Whatever plausibility the creed and ritual of the 
 Catholic church may throw around her religious preten- 
 sions, the fact is undeniable that she is a temporal 
 power, claiming to be the only legitimate sovereignty 
 on earth, and the right to reduce all governments, by 
 fair or foul means, under her absolute authority. The 
 pope, the head of this unlimited monarchy, is a polit- 
 ical prince ; his capital is the city of Rome, and his do- 
 mains, until recently, were the States of the Church. 
 According to a practice observed at the coronation of 
 princes, the pope is invested with national authority by 
 ascending the Chair of State, and receiving a head- 
 dress emblematical of temporal sovereignty. These 
 symbolical headdresses were originally garlands, in- 
 vented by Prometheus in imitation of the chains which 
 he had worn for the redemption of mankind, but 
 which in the course of time became applied, by the 
 Uranian priestesses to decorate themselves aud their 
 altars ; by lovers, to adorn the doors of their mis- 
 
 tressees : by the devout, to deck the animals which they 
 16 
 
182 THE PAPAL 
 
 devoted to sacrifice ; by slave owners, to attract atten- 
 tion to the slaves whom the exposed for sale ; by rela- 
 tives, to embellish the corpse of a deceased friend ; and 
 finally, in the dark ages, when they were transformed 
 into a variety of fantastical shapes, profusely decorated 
 with gold, gems and pearls, and had become associated 
 w T ith ideas of greatness, power and authority, they 
 were exclusively appropriated by kings to symbolize 
 the regal authority. In the ninth century, this practice 
 having become fashionable among the royal classes, 
 Pope Alexander III., who was elected in 1159, aspiring 
 to be considered rather as the successor of kings than 
 of a fisherman, ventured to encircle his sacerdotal 
 mitre with a regal diadem, emblematical of universal 
 spiritual sovereignty. To this crown Pope Boniface 
 VIII., elected in 1295, added a second, to symbolize the 
 pope's universal temporal power ; and to this crown 
 Pope Urban V., elected in 1363, added a third, to de- 
 note the pope's supreme spiritual and temporal power 
 over Europe, Asia and Africa. The adoption of these 
 regal emblems by the holy fathers may seem in the 
 eyes of the profane to represent not their rights, but 
 their ambition. They claim, however, to have been moved 
 by the Holy Ghost in adopting their head decorations ; 
 but if this pretension absolves them from the vice of 
 ambition, it limits at the same time their authority to 
 Europe, Asia and Africa. The Holy Ghost not having 
 intimated the existence of America in his social inter- 
 course with the papal monarchs, nor prescribed to them 
 the adoption of a fourth crown to symbolize their 
 authority over it, it is rational to infer from these facts 
 that he intended to infer by his silence, that the popes 
 
monaeohy; 183 
 
 have no right whatever of exercising any jurisdiction 
 over its territory. If the pope's regalia have any sig- 
 nificance, it is that his government is restricted to 
 Europe, Asia and Africa; and that he has no right to 
 exercise either temporal or spiritual authority over any 
 church, society or institution, on the American conti- 
 nent. But in sight of the pope's monarchical palace, 
 triple crown, and regal ornaments, the statue of St. 
 Peter, erected in the seventh century, wearing a simple 
 mitre, stands scoffing at them in eternal derision. 
 
 The pope as an independent sovereign has not only 
 a temporal crown, but a political banner. This ensign 
 consists of a white flag with a device of cross-keys ; its 
 white color may signify peace ; the cross-keys the pos- 
 session of earth and heaven ; and, conjointly, these em- 
 blems may intimate that there is to be no peace until 
 the claims of the pope to universal spiritual and tem- 
 poral sovereignty is acknowledged by all nations. 
 Apollo, the symbol of the rising sun, and Pluto, the 
 symbol of the closing day, are represented with keys in 
 their hands, to denote their office of opening and shut- 
 ting the gates of day. It is thought by some that the 
 idea of the papal keys was borrowed from these em- 
 blems of the Pagan Gods. But it was the custom of a 
 conquered city to present to the victor the keys of its 
 gates, through its , officials, in token of the submission 
 of the inhabitants to his authority. In conformity: 
 with this ancient custom, it is affirmed by the popes 
 that Pepin, King of France, after he had wrested the 
 Exarcate from the possession of the Lombards, pre- 
 sented the keys of the subjugated cities to the Holy 
 See on the .tomb of /St. Peter. . They assert- also, that 
 
184 THE PAPAL 
 
 Charlemagne presented the pope with a banner, and 
 authorized him to unfurl it in the cause of the church. 
 But if the story of Pepin's gift is as empty as the tomb 
 of St. Peter, at Rome, is and always has been, of the 
 corpse of the apostle ; and if Charlemagne's donation 
 of cities, most of which he never pessessed, and the 
 remainder of which he governed as his own with the 
 most jealous scrupulosity until the day of his death, it 
 is difficult to perceive how the popes, by virtue of these 
 gifts, can have any claim to either keys or banners. 
 
 The pope, as an independent sovereign, has also a 
 national cabinet. His privy council is the college of 
 cardinals ; his minister of internal and foreign affairs 
 is the cardinal secretary ; his viceroys are the legates 
 and nuncios which he accredits to foreign powers ; his 
 governors and lieutenant-governors are the Catholic 
 bishops and archbishops, which are located in different 
 parts of the world ; and his ministers of finance and 
 police are the priests of different grades and orders. 
 The civil offices of the papal monarchy have always 
 been filled by members of the sacerdotal orders, and 
 disposed of by the holy father for money. 
 
 As an independent sovereign the pope has an impe- 
 rial court. In the grades of this court he himself en- 
 joys the first rank, being placed on an equality with 
 God, and in some respects above him. The cardinals 
 stand next to princes ; they wear a purple mantle, the 
 emblem of royalty ; formerly they ranked in Chris- 
 tendom equal with kings, preceded princes of blood, 
 and sat on the right of kings, or near the throne. The 
 generals of the Catholic orders, the abbots, archbish- 
 ops, bishops and priests, consider their titles as royal, 
 
MONARCHY. 185 
 
 and maintain that in consideration of them they should 
 be exempted from the jurisdiction of civil magistrates. 
 
 As an independent sovereign the pope has the power 
 to issue absolute decrees. The papal bulls, apostolic 
 briefs, and encyclical letters, are the exercise of sov- 
 ereign power. From the despotic tone of these docu- 
 ments, sometimes moderated by fear, but never from 
 inclination, the pope evidently claims the right of inter- 
 fering not only in the ecclesiastical, but also in the 
 political affairs of all nations. 
 
 As an independent sovereign the pope has a system 
 of jurisprudence and administrative justice. The canon- 
 ical law by which he governs his monarchy consists of 
 the Concordantia Discordantium or Decretium Gratiani ; 
 the Decratales Gregorii Noni ; the Liber JSextus, by 
 Boniface VIII ; the Extravagantes Johannis XXII ; 
 the Extravagantes Communes, and the Clementinas; 
 all of which are known under the general name of Cor- 
 pus Juris Canonica ; and all except the Extravagantes 
 have the full authority of ''law. The papal system of 
 administrative justice consists of a chief court, a civil 
 court, and an apostolical court. The apostolical court 
 regulates the pope's domains and collects the taxes. 
 The members of the court are always bishops, and the 
 presiding officer is generally a cardinal. 
 
 As an independent sovereign the pope has exercised 
 the governmental prerogative of coining money. The 
 papal coins have various devices. They all have the 
 cross-keys ; most of them the triple crown ; and some 
 of them are inscribed with the word Dominus. 
 
 As an independent sovereign the pope has always 
 
 maintained, when possible, an army and a navy. Pope 
 16* 
 
186 THE PAPAL 
 
 Clement VIII. elected in 1523, raised an army of regu- 
 lars and volunteers of thirty thousand foot and three 
 thousand cavalry. Pope Leo IX. commanded an army 
 consisting of Italian volunteers, several bands of rob- 
 bers, and seven hundred Suabians. Pope Alexander 
 VI. at the head of a powerful army conquered Bo- 
 logna, Ancona, Eavenna and Ferrara. After the re- 
 turn of the pope to Rome from Avignon, in 1577, a 
 standing army was formed consisting of cavalry and 
 infantry. 
 
 The papal military organizations have been of the 
 most formidable description. The Dominican Knights, 
 the Teutonic Knights, the Knights of St. John, and the 
 Knight Templars, instituted for the defence and prop- 
 agation of Catholicism by the force of arms, w T ere skil- 
 fully organized and rigorously disciplined. They as- 
 sumed the vows of celibacy, poverty and unconditional 
 obedience. They were interdicted, by the terms of their 
 charter, from acknowledging any protector but the 
 pope, and were made independent of any other author- 
 ity. Upon becoming initiated into their orders, the 
 pope absolved them from all human obligations, and 
 they were required to sunder all human ties. They 
 enjoyed all the immunities and privileges of the religious 
 orders ; and in conjunction with them formed a standing 
 army of three hundred thousand men, fully equipped 
 for war, exclusively devoted to the pope's interest, and 
 ready at his call to serve him by land or sea. 
 
 As an independent sovereign the pope has a national 
 revenue. This revenue is domestic and foreign. From 
 official reports the pope's domestic revenue, in 1853, 
 amounted to 13,000,000 florins; his foreign revenue is" 
 
MONARCHY. 187 
 
 not publicly known. In the dark ages half of the 
 ecclesiastical revenues of Europe flowed into the church 
 treasury at Kome ; but at present the various streams 
 of wealth destined for the church, are diverted to con- 
 venient localities, situated in different parts of the 
 world, to be disbursed according to regulations pre- 
 scribed by the holy father. As the subject is somewhat 
 curious, we are tempted to inquire into some of the 
 sources of the papal revenue. 
 
 One source of the pope's revenue is the sale of indul- 
 gences. St. Peter's Church, at Rome, which cost 
 45,000,000 crowns, was chiefly built from the proceeds of 
 this species of traffic. William Hogan furnishes some 
 singular facts respecting this ingenious device, by which 
 the church accommodates the wishes of the members 
 in the commission of sin, to her pecuniary advantage. 
 He says : 
 
 11 They (the pope and the propagandi) resolved that 
 indulgences should, in the future, be called scapulus, 
 and thus piously enable all Catholic priests and bishops 
 to swear on the Holy Evangelists that no indulgences 
 
 were sold in the United States The scapula 
 
 costs the purchaser one dollar. The priest who sells it 
 tells him that in order to make it thoroughly efficacious, 
 it is necessary that he should cause some masses to be 
 
 said I may safely say that, on an average, 
 
 every scapula sold in the United States costs at least 
 five dollars." — Synopsis, pp. 176, 177. 
 
 The number of Catholics in the world is computed, 
 by Catholic authority, at 150,000,000. Some of the 
 papal subjects would not, perhaps, purchase a scapula 
 in a year, while others might purchase a hundred ; but 
 at the moderate estimate of one scapula annually to 
 
188 THE PAPA!/ 
 
 each Catholic, the pope would derive from this source 
 an annual revenue of 750,000,000 dollars. The sale of 
 the scapula would, of course, be in proportion to the 
 wickedness of the church members ; the more virtuous 
 they were the less would they be necessitated to con- 
 tribute to the coffers of the church ; and as merchants 
 and traders always scheme to create a demand for their 
 goods, it is not reasonable that either the pope or his 
 priests would encourage their Catholic subjects in con- 
 duct that would render them of no value to them ; and 
 that would injure the sale and lessen the demand of 
 their articles of trade, by which their treasure and 
 luxuries are so much augmented. 
 
 Another source of the pope's revenue are the masses 
 which the church requires to be said for the deliver- 
 ance of the souls of deceased Catholics out of purga- 
 tory. These masses were sold before the rebellion at 
 fifty cents a piece ; whether they have since risen in 
 value in proportion to other articles, I have not the 
 means of ascertaining. What number of masses are 
 requisite for conjuring a Cotholic layman's soul up from 
 purgatory, I am not informed ; but there is a will of a 
 priest recorded in Towsontown, Md.. which bequeaths 
 to a brother priest the sum of one hundred dollars to 
 pay for two hundred masses, " to be said for the bene- 
 fit of his poor soul." If the church will not release the 
 soul of a priest from purgatory for less than one hun- 
 dred dollars, how much does she demand of a layman 
 for a similar purpose ? It would seem that the sanctity 
 of a priest ought enable her to get him out of the pur- 
 gatorial fire, and release him from the clutches of the 
 devil for a much less sum of money than would be 
 
MONARCHY. 189 
 
 requisite for the same purpose in the case of an un- 
 anointed layman. This traffic in the souls of dead 
 men by the church, has been prosecuted in such an 
 oppressive manner that her members have sometimes 
 been provoked to remonstrate. I once knew of a 
 young Catholic who charged his priest with having 
 forged a will in order to swindle him out of a great 
 portion of his maternal inheritance. The pretext on 
 which this pious fraud was attempted to be based was 
 a plea that the mother of the youth had bequeathed to 
 the priest a house of hers, in payment, of a sufficient 
 number of masses for the release of her soul from pur- 
 gatory. The annual revenue derived by the pope for 
 his service in opening the gates of purgatory to the 
 devout must be prodigious ; but the secrecy with which 
 it is veiled renders a reliable computation exceedingly 
 difficult. If we consider the number of Catholics that 
 are in the world, and the probable annual number of 
 deaths that occur among them, and calculate the sum 
 of money which would be necessary to deliver the 
 average number that die yearly out of the flames of 
 purgatory, we may form some conception of the vast- 
 ness of this resource of papal revenue. Wars, pesti- 
 lence, bereavements of friends, which are calamities to 
 families and nations, are pecuniary advantages to the 
 church; and in proportion to the mortality of her 
 members, she has cause to rejoice over the improvement 
 of her finances. 
 
 Another source of the pope's revenue are the pro- 
 ceeds derived from the sale of crosses, amulets, relics, 
 pictures, beads, and articles made by monks and nuns. 
 These articles of pious merchandise are blest by the 
 
190 THE PAPAL 
 
 bishop, and sold sometimes privately, and sometimes at 
 Catholic fairs. They are supposed bythe purchaser to 
 insure him good luck, and to keep evil from his dwel- 
 ling ; and although they are often an unsightly set of 
 trumpery ; yet as they are consecrated by the bishop's 
 blessing, which, however, rather depreciates their in- 
 trinsic value, they are prized by the cajoled Catholics 
 as exceeding in value either gold or gems. We have 
 no data enabling us to calculate the amount of 
 revenue derived by the pope from this source of in- 
 come ; but we may be allowed to conclude from the 
 fact that, as the church has availed herself of its ad- 
 vantages in all countries and ages, it has proved ex- 
 ceedingly remunerative. 
 
 Another source of the papal revenue are the contri- 
 butions extorted from laborers, female servants, and 
 others of the industrial classes. I know of a servant 
 girl who paid one dollar every autumn towards furnish- 
 ing the church with winter fuel. What fuel costs the 
 church, I do not know ; perhaps little or nothing. 
 The number of Catholics in the United States are com- 
 puted by Catholic authority to amount to 10,000,0000 ; 
 and if each one contributes one dollar annually for the 
 benefit he derives from the church furnaces, (and I am 
 credibly informed he does), the pope receives from this 
 source an annual income of 10,000,000 dollars. But 
 this is not the only method by which the laboring 
 classes are filched out of their honest gains by the holy 
 mother. On the regular monthly pay-day of contract- 
 ors for public works, and of mining, manufacturing and 
 mechanical companies, the priest makes his appearance, 
 and exacts a dollar a month from each of the faithful. 
 
MONARCHY. 191 
 
 If there are non-Catholics among the employes, who 
 hesitate to contribute the monthly donation, they are 
 insulted, intimidated, and their life threatened to such 
 a degree that they consider it prudent to yield to the 
 demand, or seek employment elsewhere. This system 
 of extortion is engineered among the workmen by some 
 favorite of the Catholic priest, who makes it his busi- 
 ness to see that he is not disappointed in getting 
 his dollar a month. An engineer of this description, 
 employed on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, in his 
 avidity to accommodate the priesthood narrowly escaped 
 being victimized by a secular sharper. A stranger, 
 professing to be a Catholic priest, solicited in behalf of 
 his necessities, his charity and influence. Promptly 
 heading a subscription list with the generous sum of 
 two dollars and fifty cents, he was soon enabled to exult 
 in the subscription of a very respectable amount by his 
 fellow workmen. The list was, in accordance with 
 usage, handed to the cashier of the establishment ; but 
 before any money was paid on its account it was dis- 
 covered that the priest was a spurious one, and 
 that the money he solicited was not intended for the 
 treasury of the pope, but for the pocket of an uncon- 
 secrated impostor. Catholic periodicals, with com- 
 mendable regard to their patrons' interest, have fre- 
 quently published instances in which pretended priests 
 and monks have successfully gulled the faithful. When 
 we consider the vast proportion of poor to rich Catho- 
 lics in the world, it seems evident that this branch of 
 the pope's financial machinery, by which he wins a dol- 
 tar a month from each of the industrial classes of the 
 Catholic church, must furnish his coffers with an 
 
192 THE PAPAL 
 
 annual revenue exceeding that of any other government. 
 
 Another source of the pope's revenue are alms col- 
 lected by an order of lay mendicants. The church, in- 
 structed by the practice of mendication among all na- 
 tions and classes, at all periods of history, and under 
 all circumstances, has been enabled to perfect a system 
 of extraordinary comprehensiveness, sharpness and effi- 
 ciency. Organ grinders, bead counters, children, mo- 
 thers with babes in their arms, men without legs, the 
 blind, the deaf, the cripple, any object that can touch 
 the tender or religious sympathies of the community, 
 are employed as beggars for the pope of Rome. This 
 description of medicants sometimes openly solicit alms 
 for the holy father, but at other times endeavor to 
 conceal their mission under a mask of profound dissim- 
 ulation. The eloquence of broken noses, distorted 
 forms, mutilated limbs, and tattered garments, are 
 made to plead with touching pathos in behalf of the 
 papal monarch. The revenue which he derives from 
 his numerous crowd of professional beggars, is one of 
 the secrets of the Holy See; but from the liberality 
 with which Catholics respond, from a sense of religious 
 duty, and Protestants from prudential motives, it may 
 reasonably be presumed that it is not inconsiderable. 
 
 Another source of the pope's revenue is derived from 
 his foreign possessions. These possessions consist of 
 churches, monasteries, nunneries, mission houses, edifi- 
 ces for schools, colleges, hospitals, asylums, private 
 dwellings, tracts of land, and every other species of 
 property. The papal foreign property is sometimes 
 held in the name of the pope, sometimes in that of a 
 priest, and sometimes in that of a corporation, real or 
 
Monarchy 193 
 
 pretended. Every priest coming to the United States, 
 in order that he may legally be qualified to hold prop- 
 erty for the benefit of the church, is required to take 
 the oath of allegiance, whether he considers it consistent 
 or not with his ordination oath. ( See Hogan's Synop- 
 sis, p. 36). In 1822 the pope claiming to be the pro- 
 prietor of St. Mary's Church at Philadelphia, leased it 
 to a foreign priest, and sent him over to take charge of 
 it. The trustees, and William Hogan, the recognized 
 encumbent, refusing to obey the order of the pope's 
 agents, a suit of ejectment was brought against them in 
 the Supreme Court of Pensylvania. Judge Tilghman 
 presided at the trial. He decided that the pope could 
 legally hold no property in the United States, and sus- 
 tained the action of the defendants. (See Hogan's 
 Synopsis, pp. 113, 114). In a suit brought by the broth- 
 ers of the order of Hermits of St. Augustine, against the 
 county of Philadelphia, for the destruction of St. Augus- 
 tine's Church by a mob of the American party, it was 
 discovered that the alleged corporation was entirely 
 spurious. The pretended corporators consisted of Mi- 
 cheal Hurly, pastor of St. Augustine's Church at Phila- 
 delphia, Prince Gallager, pastor at Bedford, Pa., Lewis 
 de Barth, pastor of St. Mary's Church at Philadelphia, 
 Patrick Henry, pastor at Coffee Run, Chester County, 
 Pa., and J. B. Holland, pastor at Lancaster, Pa. So pro- 
 foundly secret was the existence of this company kept, 
 that no laymen or priest outside of the pretended cor- 
 porators had ever heard of it before the trial, and as 
 the public documents contained no enrolment of it in 
 accordance with the requirement of law, it was pro- 
 nounced entirely spurious and invalid. The value of 
 17 
 
194 THE PAPAL 
 
 the property held in the name of this pretended corpo- 
 ration, in evasion of the laws of the United States, was 
 computed at 5,000,000 dollars. Even in cities where 
 the Catholic population is deemed numerically insigni- 
 ficant, millions worth of property of which the inhab- 
 itants have not the slightest conception is owned by 
 the pope, under cover of fictitious names or otherwise. 
 (See Hogan's Auric. Confess., vol. 2, p. 204, &c). 
 Whenever the church has obtained sufficient power she 
 has made a bequest to the coffers of the church a con- 
 dition to the validity of a w r ill ; and where she has 
 failed to acquire this power, she has still exacted a com- 
 pliance with it from her members, under pain of her 
 penalties. Splendid palaces and gorgeous church edi- 
 fices alone are not adequate to satisfy the cravings of 
 her avarice, she must have lands and every species of 
 wealth. Wherever her priests have effected a pious 
 entering wedge in a block of buildings, by means of a 
 church or an asylum, they must scheme to work out the 
 other proprietors, and monopolize the whole themselves. 
 Their covetous eye is always fixed on some magnificent 
 farm, and their active speculation, or deeper craft, has 
 enabled them to become in possession of very desirable 
 tracts of land. I know of a priest who netted ten 
 thousand dollars by a single land speculation. The 
 priests, by means of the confessional, become accurately 
 acquainted with all secrets, with every contemplative 
 movement in the general or State government, or in 
 financial corporations, that can effect the market value 
 of lands or stocks ; and it would be exceedingly aston- 
 ishing if, with this advantage, their speculations should 
 not invariably be successful. In possession of such 
 
MONARCHY. 195" 
 
 means, the church has in every age accumulated pro- 
 digious wealth. Before the secularization of the monas- 
 tic property in Europe, the ecclesiastical domains and 
 revenues were so great that the benefices were bestowed 
 by kings on royal heirs. In California and Mexico, 
 previous to the revolution that caused the sequestra- 
 tion of the church domains, her mission-houses owned 
 nearly all the territory of the State. In China, even at 
 this day, there are three bishoprics endowed by the 
 crown of Portugal, which hold seven provinces ; and 
 the bishops of the Apostolic Vicars hold several others. 
 The possessions of the Catholic priests render them the 
 wealthiest citizens of the country in which they reside ; 
 and as no heir can inherit their estates, each succeeding 
 generation is destined to see them augmented until 
 every bishopric, however poor now, has become a princely 
 domain, with a princely revenue, governed by a titled 
 priest. 
 
 Every Catholic edifice in the world, and every de- 
 scription of property held by a priest, belongs to the 
 pope ; the real title, as lord paramount, being vested 
 in him, whatever ostensible title policy or necessity 
 may have induced the church to adopt. Over these 
 possessions he exercises supreme, despotic dominion, 
 sometimes directly, and sometimes indirectly. 
 
 We have now enumerated some of the sources of the 
 pope's revenue ; but we have mentioned but a few of 
 them. In fact the rites of the Catholic church partake 
 so plainly of a financial character, that they seem to 
 have been instituted for purposes of ecclesiastical rev- 
 enue. With a fiscal system principally based on them, 
 extending over Christendom, rigorous in its exactions 
 
196 * THE PAPAL 
 
 on all ciasses, the church unites a rapacity so unprin- 
 cipled, measures so oppressive and unjustifiable, deeds 
 so horrible and arrogations so presumptuous, that were 
 it not for her religious aspect she might be mistaken for 
 the demon of avarice. While rolling in opulence and 
 luxury, she stoops to the basest trickery to filch from 
 laborers and servant girls their wages; to disinherit 
 lawful heirs ; taking advantage of ignorance and su- 
 perstition, and pretending to regulate the condition of 
 the soul in the eternal world. The immense sum of 
 gold which she has, by means of her fiscal system, been 
 piling up in her coffers for ages, has had no visible out- 
 let except what has been expended in the support of 
 her officials, and on bribery, corruption, and political 
 intrigue. The policy that dictates the accumulation 
 and reservation of this vast amount of treasure, must 
 contemplate the undertaking of some gigantic enter- 
 prise ; and the world may yet be startled from its 
 slumber by the martial assertion of the church to her 
 pretensions of supreme dominion over the world ; and 
 by the fact that she is better organized for war, and 
 better furnished with its sinews than any other power. 
 
 As an independent sovereign the pope has oaths of 
 allegiance which he prescribes to such of his subjects 
 as he judges proper. According to the authority of 
 "William Hogan, the consecration oath of the Jesuistical 
 bishops is as follows : 
 
 " Therefore, to the utmost of my power I shall and 
 " will defend this doctrine, and his holiness's rights and 
 11 customs against all usurpers, and heretical and Pro- 
 " testant authority whatsoever ; especially against the 
 " new pretended authority of the Church of England, 
 
MONARCHY, 197 
 
 " and all adherents, in regard that they and she be 
 " usurpal and heretical, opposing the true mother church 
 " of Rome. I do renounce and disown my allegiance 
 " as due to any heretical king, prince, or State named 
 " Protestant, or of obedience to any of their inferior 
 " magistrates or officers. I do further declare the doc- 
 " trine of the Church of England, and of Calvinists, 
 11 Huguenots, and of the other named Potestants to be 
 " damnable, and they themselves are damned, and to be 
 ." damned, that will not forsake them. I do further de- 
 " clare that I will help, assist, advise all wherever I 
 " shall be, in England, Scotland, Ireland, or in any 
 " other kingdom I shall come to, and do my best to ex- 
 11 tirpate the heretical Protestant doctrines, and destroy 
 " all their pretending powers, regal or otherwise. I 
 " do further promise and declare, that notwithstanding 
 " I am dispensed with, to assume any other religion 
 11 heretical for the propagation of the mother church's 
 " interest, to keep secret and private all her agent's 
 " councils from time to time, as they entrust me, and 
 " not to divulge, directly or indirectly, by word, writ- 
 " ing, or circumstance whatever, but to execute all 
 11 that shall be proposed, .given in charge, or discovered 
 " unto me, by you my ghostly father, or by any of his 
 11 sacred convents. All which I, A. B. do swear by the 
 " blessed Trinity, and blessed Sacraments which I am 
 " now to receive, to perform, and on my part to keep 
 " inviolably, and do call all the heavenly and glorious 
 " hosts to witness these my real intentions to keep this 
 " my oath." 
 
 The consecration oath of a Catholic bishop is as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 "I do solemnly swear on the Holy Evangelists, and 
 " before Almighty God, to defend the domains of St. 
 "Peter against every aggressor ; to preserve* augment 
 " and extend the rights, honors, and privileges of the 
 " Lord Pope and his successors ; to observe, and with all 
 17* 
 
198 THE PAPAL 
 
 " my might to enforce his decrees, ordinances, reserva- 
 tions, provisions, and all dispositions whatsoever; 
 " to persecute and combat, to the last extremity 
 "heretics and schismatics, and all who will not pay 
 " the sovereign Pope all the obedience which he shall 
 "require." 
 
 The remainder of this oath is similar to the foregoing 
 Jesuistical oath. 
 
 The priests cf Maynooth, who form the vast majority 
 of Catholic priests in this country, assume the follow- 
 ing obligation to the church : 
 
 " I, A. B., do declare not to act or conduct any mat- 
 " ter or thing prejudicial to her, in her sacred orders, 
 11 doctrines, tenets, or commands, without leave of its 
 *' supreme power, or its authority under her appoint- 
 " ment ; being so permitted, then to act, and further 
 " her interests, more than my own earthly good and 
 " earthly pleasures ; as she and her head, His Holiness 
 " and his successors, have, or ought to have, the su- 
 " premacy over all kings, princes, estates, or powers 
 "whatsoever, either to deprive them of their crowns, 
 " or governments, or to set up others in lieu thereof, 
 " they dissenting from the mother chuich and her com- 
 "mands." 
 
 It is said that by rescript of Pope Pius VII., in 
 1818, the clause relating to " heretics" in the bishop's 
 oath, is omitted by the bishops subject to the British 
 crown. It is also omitted in the following oath, pub- 
 lished by the Nashville American Union, April 6, 1856 : 
 
 " I, N., elect of the church N., shall be from this 
 " hour henceforward obedient to Blessed Peter the 
 " Apostle, and to the holy Roman Catholic Church, and 
 " to the most blessed father Pope N., and to his succes- 
 " sors canonically chosen. I shall assist them to retain 
 " and defend, against any man whatever, the Roman 
 
MONARCHY. 199 
 
 " Popedom, without prejudice to my rank ; and snail 
 " take care to preserve, defend and promote the rights, 
 " honors, privileges, and authority of the holy Koman 
 " Church, of the Pope, and his successors aforesaid. 
 " With my whole strength I shall observe, and cause to 
 " be observed by others, the rules of the Holy Fathers, 
 11 the decrees, ordinances, or dispositions and mandates 
 " of the Apostolic See." 
 
 The next clause declares the willingness of the 
 bishop to attend synods, give an account to the pope of 
 every thing appertaining to the church and his flock, 
 and obey such apostolic mandate as he shall receive. 
 The oath concludes thus : 
 
 " I shall not sell, nor give away, nor mortgage, 
 " enfeoff anew, nor in any way alienate the possessions 
 " belonging to my table, without the leave of the Eo- 
 " man Pontiff. And should I proceed to any alienation 
 " of them, I am willing to contract, by the very fact, 
 " the penalties specified in the constitutions published 
 "- on this subject." 
 
 The Sanfideste's oath, exacted by Pope Gregory of 
 his military forces, w T as as follows : 
 
 " I swear to elevate the altar and the throne upon the 
 " infamous Liberals, and to exterminate them without 
 " pity for the cries of their children, or the tears of 
 " their old men." 
 
 William Hogan, speaking of the instructions given him 
 previous to his embarkation for America, by his bishop, 
 describes it as follows : 
 
 " Let it be your first duty to extirpate heretics, but 
 be cautious as to the manner of doing it. Do nothing 
 without consulting the bishop of the diocese in which 
 you may be located, and if there be no bishop there, 
 
200 THE PAPAL 
 
 advise with, the metropolitan bishop. He has instruc- 
 tions from Borne, and he understands the character of 
 the people. Be sure not to permit the members of the 
 holy church who may be under your charge to read the 
 Bible. It is the source of all heresy. Wherever you 
 see an opportunity of building a church, make it 
 known to your bishop. Let the land be purchased for 
 the Pope, and his successors in office. Never yield or 
 give up the divine right which the head of the church 
 has, by virtue of the keys, to the command of North 
 America, as well as every other country. The confes- 
 sional will enable you to know the people by degrees ; 
 with the aid of that holy tribunal, and the bishops, who 
 are guided by the spirit of God, we may expect at no 
 distant day, to bring over North America to our holy 
 church." — Synopsis, pp. 110, 111. 
 
 The atrocious doctrine that it is proper to equivocate, 
 to dissimulate, and to deceive by mental reservations, 
 is boldly defended by the highest authorities of the 
 Catholic church. Dens says : " Notwithstanding it is 
 not lawful to lie, or to feign what is not, however, it is 
 lawful to dissemble what is, or to cover the truth with 
 words, or other ambiguous or doubtful signs, for a just 
 cause, and when there is not a necessity of confessing." — ■ 
 (Theol., vol. 2, p. 116). Again, he says: " The Vicar 
 of God, in the place of God, remits to man the debt of 
 a plighted promise." — {lb., 4 : 134, 135). St. Liqnori 
 says : " It is certain, and a common opinion among all 
 divines, that for a just cause it is lawful to use equivo- 
 cation, and to confirm it with an oath." — (Less. 1, 2, ch. 
 41, n. 47). 
 
 The obligation of all oaths of allegiance in conflict 
 with the papal clerical oaths, or the interests of the 
 pope, are declared by the universal authority of the 
 
MONARCHY. 201 
 
 church to be null and void. Dens says : " All the faith- 
 ful, also bishops and patriarchs, are bound to obey the 
 Roman pontiff. The pope hath also not only directive, 
 but coactive power over the faithful." — (De Eccles. No. 
 94, p. 439). Pope Urban, elected in 1087, says : " Sub- 
 jects are not bound to observe the fealty which they 
 swear to a Christian prince, who withstands God and 
 the saints, and condemns the precepts." — (Pithon, p. 
 260). Pope Gregory IX says : " The fealty which 
 subjects have sworn to a Christian king, who opposes 
 God and his saints, they are not bound by any author- 
 ity to perform." — Decret., vol. 1, p. 648). Again he 
 says : " An oath contrary to the utility of the church 
 is not to be observed."— Vol. 2, p. 358.) And again he 
 asserts : " You are not bound by an oath of this 
 kind, but on the contrary you are freely bid Good-speed 
 in standing against kings for the rights and honors of 
 that very church, and even in legislatively defending 
 your own peculiar privileges." — Vol. 2.. p. 360). Bron- 
 son, speaking of the church says : " As the guardian and 
 judge of law she must have power to take cognizance of 
 the State, and to judge whether or not it does conform 
 to the condition and requirement of its trust, and to 
 pronounce sentence accordingly."— (Rev. Jan. 1854). 
 Pope Pius V., in relation to Queen Elizabeth, said : 
 " We do declare her to be deprived of her pretended 
 right to the kingdom, and of all dominion whatsoever ; 
 and also the subjects sworn to her to be forever dis- 
 solved from any such oath." Pope Innocent III., 
 elected in 1198, "Freed all that were bound to those who 
 had fallen into heresy, from all fealty, homage, and obe- 
 dience." — (Pithon, p. 241). Bronson says : " Rome 
 17 
 
202 THE PAPAL 
 
 divided her British territory into dioceses, and sends 
 cardinals to London, notwithstanding the laws that 
 England shall not thus be divided." — Kev., April, 
 1854). The trustees of the church of St. Louis, at 
 Buffalo, N. Y., having refused to comply with the 
 canons of the Council of Trent in violating the trust 
 laws of the* State of New York, the bishop proceeded 
 to excommunicate them. In consequence of this con- 
 duct, the legislature of 1855 passed an act denning 
 ecclesiastical tenure. In a letter of Bishop Hughes, 
 dated March 28th, 1855, and published in the Free- 
 man s Journal, respecting this law, he says : " Now in 
 this it seems to meddle with our religion, as well as our 
 civil rights ; and we shall find twenty ways outside the 
 intricate web of its prohibitions for doing, and doing 
 more largely still, the very thing it wishes us not to 
 do." 
 
 A curious and very objectionable feature of the 
 papal monarchy is, a system of searching espionage 
 which it attempts to establish over society. In addi- 
 tion to the confessors and spiritual guides by which the 
 pope seeks to discover the thoughts, and direct the con- 
 duct of his Catholic subjects, he employs a set of men 
 and women who, in the capacity of servants scrutinize 
 the domestic affairs of non-Catholics, mark their con- 
 versation, and communicate all important facts through 
 their superior, to him at Eome. As an illustration of 
 the disrespectful inquisitiveness, and base incivility of 
 this department of the papal government, we submit 
 the following facts furnished by William Hogan : 
 
 " Soon after my arrival in Philadelphia," says he, "I 
 became acqainted with a Protestant family. I had the 
 
MONARCHY. 203 
 
 pleasure of dining occasionally with them, and could 
 not help noticing a seemingly delicate young man, who 
 waited at the table Not long after this a mes- 
 senger called at my room to say that Theodore was 
 taken ill,, and wished to see me. I was then officiating 
 a? a Romish priest, and calling to see him was shown 
 Tip stairs to a garret room, into which, after a loud rap, 
 
 and announcement of my name, I was admitted 
 
 He deliberately turned out of his bed, locked the door, 
 and very respectfully handed me a chair, and asked me 
 to sit down as he had something very important to tell 
 
 me ' Sir, you have taken me for a young man, 
 
 but you are mistaken ; I am a girl, but not so young as 
 I appeared in my boy's dress. I sent for you because I 
 want to get a character, and confess to you before I 
 leave the city.' I answered, ' You must explain your- 
 self more fully before you can do either.' I moved my 
 chair farther from the bed, and tightened my grasp on 
 a sword-cane which I carried in my hand. ' Feel no 
 alarm,' said the now young woman, ' I am armed as 
 well as you are,' taking from under her jacket an ele- 
 gant poignard. ' I will not hurt you. I am a lay sis- 
 ter belonging to the order of Jesuists in Stonyhurst, 
 England, and wear this dagger to protect myself. 
 There was no longer any mystery in the matter. I 
 knew now where I was, and the character of the being 
 that stood before me. I discovered from her that she 
 had arrived in New Orleans some time previous, with 
 all due recommendation to the priests and nuns of that 
 
 city They received her with all due caution 
 
 as far as could be seen by the public ; but privately in 
 the warmest manner. Jesuists are active and diligent 
 in the discharge of duties to their superiors., and of 
 course this lay sister, who was chosen from among many 
 for her zeal and craft, lost no time in entering on her 
 mission. The Sisters of Charity took immediate charge 
 of her, recommended her as a chambermaid to one of 
 the most respectable Protestant families in that city, 
 and having clothed her in an appropriate dress, she en- 
 
204 THE PAPAL 
 
 tered on lier employment So great a 
 
 favorite did she become in the family, that in a short 
 time she became acquainted with all the circumstances 
 and secrets, from those of the father to those of the 
 smallest child. 
 
 " According to the custom universally in vogue, she 
 kept notes of every circumstance which may tend to 
 elucidate the character of the family, never carrying 
 them about her, but depositing them with the mother 
 
 abbess especially deputed to take charge of them 
 
 Thus did this lay sister continue to go from place to 
 place, from family to family, until she became better 
 acquainted with the politics, the pecuniary means, re- 
 ligious opinions, and whether favorable or not to the 
 propagation of popery in this country, than even the 
 
 very individuls with whom she associated This 
 
 lay sistr, this excellent chambermaid, or lay Jesuist sis- 
 ter, wished to come North to a better climate 
 
 Americans can be gulled. The /Sisters of Charity have al- 
 ways in readiness some friend to supply them with the 
 means of performing corporeal acts of mercy. This 
 friend went around to the American families where this 
 chambermaid had lived from time to time, told them 
 she wanted to come as far as Baltimore, that it was a 
 pity to have her travel as a steerage passenger ; a per- 
 son of her virtue and correct deportment should not be 
 placed in a situation where she might be liable to insult 
 
 and rude treatment A handsome purse was 
 
 soon made up, a cabin passage was engaged, and the 
 young ladies on whom she waited made her presents of 
 every article of dress necessary for her comfort and 
 convenience. She was the depository of all their love 
 stories ; she knew the names of their lovers, . . . and 
 if there were secrets among them they were known to 
 her ; and, having made herself acquainted with the 
 secrets of New Orleans, she arrived in Baltimore. . . . 
 She took possession of a place as soon as convenient, 
 and spent several months in that city. . . . Having 
 now become acquainted with the secret circumstances of 
 
MONARCHY. 205 
 
 almost every Protestant family of note in Baltimore, 
 and made her report to the mother abbess of the nun- 
 nery of her order in that city, she returned to the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, and after advising with the mother ab- 
 bess of the convent, she determined to change her ap- 
 parent character and apparel. 
 
 " By advice of this venerable lady and holy prioress, 
 on whom many of the wives of our national represent- 
 atives, and even grave senators, looked as an example 
 of piety and chastity, she cut her hair, dressed her in a 
 smart looking waiter's jacket and trowsers, and with the 
 best recommendations for intelligence and capacity, ap- 
 plied for a situation as Waiter in Gadsby's Hotel, in 
 Washington city. This smart and tidy looking young 
 
 man got instant employment Those senators 
 
 on whom he waited, not suspecting that he had the or- 
 dinary curiosity of servants in general, were entirely 
 thrown off their guard, and in their conversations with 
 one another seemed to forget their usual caution. Such, 
 in» short, was their confidence in him, that their most 
 important papers and letters were left loose upon the 
 table, satisfied by saying, as they went out : ' Theodore, 
 take care of my room and papers.' .... Now it was 
 known whether Henry Clay was a gambler ; whether 
 Daniel Webster was a libertine ; whether John C. Cal- 
 houn was an honest but credulous man In fact 
 
 this lay sister in male uniform, but a waiter in Gadsby's 
 Hotel, was enabled to give more correct information of 
 the actual state of things in this country, through the 
 general of the Jesuist order in Rome, than the whole 
 corpse of diplomats from foreign countries then residing 
 
 at our seat of government 'I want a written 
 
 character from you. You must state in it that I have 
 complied with my duty, and as it is necessary that I 
 should wear a cap for a while, you must say that you 
 visited me in my sick room, that I confessed to you, re- 
 ceived the viaticum, and had just recovered from a vio- 
 lent fever. My business is not done yet. I must go 
 to New York, where the Sisters of Charity will find a 
 17* 
 
206 THE PAPAL 
 
 place for me as a waiting maid." — Auricular Confes- 
 sion, volume 2 : pp. 99-108. 
 
 Through the instrumentality of this execrable sys- 
 tem of espionage, the pope becomes acquainted with 
 the character, intentions, and acts of every important 
 private and public personage ; with the nature and ob- 
 ject of every secret society; with the private inten- 
 tions of every government ; with the incipiency and 
 progress of every seditious and treasonable project ; and 
 is prepared at all times, by the accuracy and compre- 
 hensiveness of his information, to instruct his generals 
 in the actual state of affairs existing in any part of the 
 world, and to direct their conduct in the advancement 
 of his interest, by the most prudent and enlightened 
 council. 
 
MONARCHY. 207 
 
 TEE PAPAL MONARCHY. 
 
 o 
 
 SECTION TWO. 
 
 The Popes Direct Authority — His Opposition to Mar- 
 riage — To Slavery — His Claim to Temporal Power on 
 the forged Decretal Letter of Constantine — On the Fic- 
 titious Gift of Pepin — On the Pretended Donation of 
 Charlemagne — on the Disputed Bequest of Matilda? 
 Duchess of Tuscany — The Title of Pope a Usurpa- 
 tion — The Papal Artful Policy — The State of Italy 
 under the Papal Government. 
 
 "We have now sketched the pope's temporal mon- 
 archy, which has its seat in Borne, and its subjects in 
 every part of the world. He claims to be invested by 
 divine right with supreme sovereignty over earth, hea- 
 ven and hell. To question the legitimacy of this claim 
 is condemned, and has been punished as blasphemous 
 by his authority. Joseph Wolf, of Halle, a Jew who 
 had been converted to the Catholic faith, was, while 
 studying divinity at the Seminarium Romanum, impris- 
 oned for blasphemy for having expressed a doubt of the 
 pope's infallibility. Fra Paola, who had expressed in a 
 private letter that so far from coveting the dignities of 
 Rome he held them in abomination, and who had advo- 
 cated liberty in a dispute which had occurred between 
 the pope and the Venitian government, was summoned 
 to Borne to answer for his criminal assertions and con- 
 
208 THE PAPAL 
 
 duct ; and though acquitted of the allegations preferred 
 against him, narrowly escaped the assassin's dagger. 
 
 But the " More than God," the Pope, is a very jeal- 
 ous "more than God." He allows no master to stand 
 between him and his subjects. His authority over mind 
 and body must be direct, and all influences or institu- 
 tions that obstruct it must be annihilated. Hence Car- 
 dinal Ballarmine, the distinguished papal controvesial- 
 ist, who was so devout a Catholic that when he died he 
 bequeathed one half of his soul to Jesus Christ and the 
 other half to the Virgin Mary, provoked the censure of 
 the holy father by asserting in a publication that the 
 pope's influence in temporal matters was not direct but 
 indirect. As husbands obstruct the direct influence of 
 popes on wives, parents on children, and friends on 
 friends, he would nullify the conjugal, parental, filial 
 and social relations. Hence in a canon of the Council 
 of Trent, he pronounces a curse on all who say that 
 marriage is preferable to celibacy. Should the prompt- 
 ing of the social instincts be too strong to be repressed 
 by the terrors of canonical anathemas, and should they 
 in natural indifference to them still create the bonds, 
 connections, and institutions of friendship and families, 
 he has a clerical machinery skilfully adapted to moder- 
 ate their influences and reciprocities, and to maintain 
 the predominence of his direct authority. Michelet, 
 the philosophical historian and celebrated controversial- 
 ist, in a work entitled " Priests, Women and Children," 
 has explained the ingenious method by which this ob- 
 ject is effected. By separating as much as possible the 
 husband from the wife, and the children from their pa- 
 rents, the direct papal influence, through the priest, is 
 
MONARCHY. 209 
 
 exerted on the isolated husband abroad, on the lonely 
 wife at home, and the defenceless children in nunnery 
 schools and Catholic asylums. Examples of a similar 
 policy are portrayed by Eugene Sue, a Catholic, in his 
 "Wandering Jew." The logical consequence of the 
 dogma of the pope's direct authority has, in fact, made 
 the Catholic church a " free love" institution. Chas- 
 tity and marriage she tolerates because she cannot do 
 otherwise ; but in the lives of her monks, her priests, 
 her popes, and her saints, she as practically ignores as 
 she consistently hates them. 
 
 The jealous claim of the pope to a direct influence on 
 the mind of his subjects, has unavoidably made the 
 church an inveterate enemy of human slavery. The 
 pope hates slavery, not because he wishes men free, 
 but because he wishes to exercise a direct authority 
 over their minds. The master nullifies the pope's influ- 
 ence on the slave, and therefore he wishes him removed. 
 No influence is equal to that of a master. The whip 
 he holds over the back of his slave, and the power he 
 has over his life, annihilates all other influences. Hence 
 the Catholic church has always been opposed to slavery. 
 Guizot remarks, respecting feudal slavery : "It cannot 
 be denied, however, that the church has used its influ- 
 ence to restrain it ; the clergy in general, and especially 
 several popes, enforced the manumission of slaves as a 
 duty incumbent on laymen, and loudly enveighed 
 against keeping Christians in bondage." — (Gen. Hist., 
 Lect. VI., p. 132). Pope Pius II., in 1462, in a letter 
 addressed to the bishops of Kubi ; Pope Paul III., in 
 1537, in his apostolic letter to the cardinal bishops of 
 
 Toledo ;■ Pope Urban VII., in 1590, in an apostolic Jetter 
 18* 
 
210 THE PAPAL 
 
 to the Collector Jurium of the apostolic churches of Por- 
 tugal ; Pope Benedict XIV., in 1731, in his apostolic 
 letter to the clergy of Brazil ; and Pope Pius VII., in 
 his official address to his clergy, all denounced the 
 traffic in blacks, and demanded that every species of 
 slavery should cease among Christians. Pope Gregory, 
 in his apostolic letter of 1839 says : " We, then, by 
 virtue of our apostolic authority, censure all the afore- 
 said practices as unworthy the Christian name, and by 
 that same authority we strictly prohibit and interdict 
 any ecclesiastic or layman from presuming to uphold, 
 under any pretext or color whatever, that same traffic 
 in blacks, as if it were lawful in its nature, or other- 
 wise to preach, or in any way whatever publicly or 
 privately to teach in opposition to these things which 
 we have made the subject of our admonition in this our 
 apostolic letter." We are aware that African slavery 
 owes its origin to a Catholic priest, who, perceiving that 
 the demand for laborers in the W T est India was likely 
 to subject the Indians to bondage, suggested as a less 
 wrong that negroes should be purchased of the Portu- 
 guese settlements in Africa, and held as slaves for life ; 
 but whatever were his private opinions respecting the 
 propriety of African slavery, his church has never re- 
 cognized it as legal. 
 
 The perversion of public opinion by the Catholic 
 church, and the practical beguilement of her warmest 
 friends, effected by the consummate craft with which 
 she plots to achieve her objects, have presented fresh 
 evidence to the world in the singular fact, that while 
 she is radically the most efficient abolition society that 
 ever was projected, and that while in her official man- 
 
MONARCHY, 211 
 
 dates to tlie clergy she lias invariably denounced tbe 
 traffic in human beings as infamous, yet has she com- 
 manded the homage of the American slave-holder for 
 her friendly disposition towards the Southern institu- 
 tion ; and induced her members, while using them as 
 instruments in the accomplishment of her projects for 
 the abolishment of slavery, to hate, denounce, and to 
 anathematize the North for its abolition proclivities. 
 
 But there were other considerations which probably 
 stimulated the humanity of the church in her labors for 
 the abolition of slavery. The condition of the slave 
 precludes the possibility of his serving her in the capa- 
 city of a spy on the opinions and conduct of his master ; 
 and as he received no wages she could not assess him 
 for her benefit. The perfection of the pope's system of 
 espionage, and the augmentation of his revenue, were 
 both connected with the slave's disenthralment. These 
 advantages could not be undesirable to the church, and 
 the avidity with which she has improved them, shows 
 how clearly she foresaw them. Through accident or 
 Jesuistical craft, it has happened, that colored servants 
 have been supplanted to an incredible extent by white 
 Catholic servants, who as serviceable spies far excel 
 them. I regret not the abolishment of the revolting 
 traffic in human beings, nor do I censure the Catholic 
 church for the important aid she rendered in its achieve- 
 ment ; but I hope American freemen will not want the 
 vigilance to prevent her from improving the new con- 
 dition of things, so much to her advantage as to endan- 
 ger the liberty of the country. 
 
 But the " Lord God, the Pope," who claims by divine 
 right to be lord paramount of the world, has unwarily 
 
212 THE PAPAL 
 
 invalidated Lis title even to the "patrimony of St. Pe- 
 ter," by an attempt to establish it by forged decretal 
 letters. Forgeries are criminal acts, and punished by 
 all nations as high misdemeanors. They are prejudi- 
 cial to the ground of action of a claimant, and as evi- 
 dent proof of an intent to swindle, as they are of a 
 base and contemptible origin. When successful, they 
 may overhang the mind for a while, as clouds in a dead 
 still atmosphere do the earth; but at the slightest 
 breeze they are dissipated, and the superstructure based 
 upon them, though gorgeous as the setting sun, will, 
 like its areal enchantment, break up and dissolve away. 
 Yet of such base and flimsy material are the pope's 
 claim to temporal power constructed. Innumerable 
 bulls, decretals, receipts, briefs, canons, letters, inter- 
 dicts, and other documents, have been forged, altered 
 and interpolated by the holy brotherhood, to furnish a 
 legal basis for the pope's temporal power. These docu- 
 ments were prepared between the third and ninth cen- 
 turies, and carefully treasured up in the papal archives, 
 ready for use as occasion might require. One of the 
 boldest of these pious forgeries is the decretal letter at- 
 tributed to Constantine the Great, forged probably by 
 Benedict of Mentz, in the ninth century. It reads as 
 follows : 
 
 11 We attribute to the Chair of St. Peter all imperial 
 dignity, and power and glory. We give to Pope Syl- 
 vester, and to his successors, our palace of Lateran, one 
 of the finest in the world ; we give to him our crown, 
 our mitre, our diadem, all our imperial vestments. We 
 give to the Holy Pontiff as a free gift the city of Kome, 
 and all the cities of Western Italy, as well as all the 
 cities of other countries. To make room for him we 
 
MONARCHY. 213 
 
 abdicate our authority over these provinces, transferr- 
 ing the seat of our empire to Byzantium, since it is not 
 just that a temporal emperor shall retain any power 
 where God has set the head of his church." 
 
 The reason assigned for the bestowal of this magnifi- 
 cent donation was gratitude on the part of Constantine, 
 for having been cured of leprosy through the adminis- 
 tration of the rite of baptism at the hands of Pope 
 Sylvester. But it is historically established that Con- 
 stantine did not receive the rite of baptism until a 
 ]ate hour in his last sickness ; that when he did receive 
 it, it did not cure his malady ; and that the rite was ad- 
 ministered, not by the Pope of Rome, but by an Arian 
 bishop. Whatever donations of crowns, kingdoms and 
 cities were bestowed on the bishop who officiated on the 
 occasion, were unquestionably granted to a heretical 
 sectary ; and if Rome does not wish to confess herself 
 an Arian, she cannot consistently claim their gifts. 
 But even had the case been otherwise, how could Con- 
 stantine bestow on the pope all the cities of Western 
 Italy, and of all other countries, when he did not pos- 
 sess them himself ? As the gift of a donor is worthless 
 unless he has an actual right in what he bestows, the 
 pretensions of the pope on the ground of Constantine's 
 gift, are an actual nullification of all his claims to tem- 
 poral sovereignty. It is generally conceded that Con- 
 stantine allowed the pope the use of some buildings in 
 Rome ; but it is denied that he ever invested him with 
 a title to them as lord paramount. This limited indul- 
 gence was the pope's precedent for holding real estate, 
 and formed the basis of his claim to all the crowns and 
 kingdoms Of the world. But like the rapacious dog, 
 
214 THE PAPAL 
 
 who, with his mouth full of meat, lost all he had by 
 snapping at the shadow of more in a river, the pope, 
 by attempting through forged documents to grasp at all 
 the world, has lost his title to any part of it. 
 
 Although the decretal letter attributed to Constan- 
 tine was palpably spurious, yet such was the general 
 ignorance of the times, the respect for the sanctity and 
 infallibility of the pope, and the danger of provoking 
 the wrath of the inquisition by questioning a dogma of 
 the church, that its validity was not called into ques- 
 tion. At length, however, in a legal proceedings of a 
 monastery at Sabine, its fraudulent character was at- 
 tempted to be substantiated. The bold criticisms of 
 Laurentius Valla, in the fifteenth century, gave the 
 first decisive blow to its credibility, and in the succeed- 
 ing age it sunk into public contempt, beneath the scorn 
 of historians, the ridicule of poets, and the concessions 
 of theologians. But notwithstanding its universally 
 acknowledged spurious character, such is the reluctance 
 of the popes to yield a point, that it still continues to 
 remain a portion of the canon law of the holy Catholic 
 church. 
 
 The alleged gift of Pepin to the Roman See forms 
 another pretext by which the popes have endeavored 
 to lay a basis for their claim to the right of temporal 
 sovereignty. Pope Gregory excited a rebellion against 
 the authority of the Emperor Leo III., in the course of 
 which the Italian Exarcate was dismembered from the 
 empire. It was decided by the victors that the gov- 
 ernment should be administered by two Consuls, in 
 which the pope should participate, not in a secular, but 
 in a paternal capacity. For a monarch claiming the 
 
MONARCHY. 215 
 
 world as a just inheritance, and all princes and govern- 
 ors as his menials, to accept such a humble concession 
 to his unlimited authority, and such an ambiguous 
 office, is the most remarkable instance on record of a 
 monarchial condescension. He, however, not only ac- 
 cepted it, but what is still more surprising, accepted it 
 with eagerness and gratitude ; and even intrigued to 
 obtain it. But during the administration of Pope 
 Stephen II. the victorious sword of the Lombards 
 wrung the Exercate from the Consular government of 
 Rome. The pope, to retrieve his fortunes applied to 
 Pepin, Mayor of France, who, responding with an 
 adequate force, reconquered the Exercate, and expelled 
 the barbarians. Grateful for the martial services of 
 Pepin, the pope solicited of the civil authority the pri- 
 vilege of appointing him Patriarch of Rome, a title 
 which was borne by the former Exarchs ; and by this 
 innocent method initiated a precedent which soon 
 ripened into a prerogative of appointing civil magis- 
 trates. Having thus advanced the interests of the 
 Holy See by complimenting its deliverer, he next ven- 
 tured to anoint his head with oil, in hopes that in thus 
 imitating the example of Samuel in anointing kings, 
 future popes might have a pretext for usurping his pre- 
 rogatives in acknowledging their right to reign. Pepin, 
 who ruled france under the title of Mayor, wished to 
 imprison the heir to the throne and usurp the govern- 
 ment, and the pope gave him his opinion that it was 
 best for him to do so. In grateful consideration of 
 these extraordinary favors, it is alleged by the popes 
 that Pepin bestowed the conquered domains, consisting 
 of the Exercate and the Pentopolis (five cities) on the 
 
216 THE PAPAL 
 
 See of Rome, as supreme absolute lord. It is, never- 
 theless, certain, that Pepin's donations to the Holy See 
 were on condition of its vassalage to the Frank ish power, 
 and that during his life he exercised absolute sovereignty 
 over Rome, and over all his conquests, and allowed no 
 pope to be either elected or consecrated without his 
 permission. 
 
 The right of the monarch of the world to temporal 
 power, which was first founded upon the usurpation of 
 Constantine, and next upon the conquests of Pepin, 
 was annihilated by the conquests of the Lombards. 
 Desiderious, their king, wrested the Exercate from 
 Rome; and wishing to subjugate Charlemagne under 
 his authority, proposed to Pope Adrian I. that he should 
 excite the subjects of that prince to rebellion, de- 
 clare him a usurper, and crown his nephews in his 
 place. Adrian listened to these overtures with seeming 
 friendship, but with malignant delight, and secretly 
 communicating their substance to Charlemagne, the 
 sword of the latter was immediately drawn in behalf of 
 the church ; the pope revenged ; Desiderius imprisoned 
 for life in a monastery ; and all Italy, except the Duchy 
 of Benevento and the lower Italian republics, were re- 
 conquered. Upon this signal success of his arms, it is 
 alleged by the popes that the blood-stained warrior, 
 to purchase masses for the benefit of his soul, confirmed 
 the Holy See in the absolute possession of the former 
 grants of Pepin. The only copy ever known of these 
 pretended donations is one received by Cancio, the 
 pope's chamberlain, in the twelfth century. The unde- 
 niable historical fact that Charlemagne asserted, and 
 maintained during his whole life, a jealous and inalian- 
 
MONAPwCHY. 217 
 
 able right to Rome, and to every other portion of his 
 dominions, casts a dark shade of suspicion upon the 
 genuineness of these documents. Even were they au- 
 thenticated, yet as the right of a monarch to annul is 
 equal to his right to grant, and as his practice is the 
 evidence of what he surrenders or annuls, the exclu- 
 sive sovereignty which Charlemagne maintained over 
 his Italian conquests, until the day of his death, is a 
 complete nullification of any grant that he had made 
 to the pope, and positive proof that any right or title 
 to Home, or to temporal power, constructed upon them 
 by the holy fathers, is as invalid, futile and ludicrous, 
 as if they were based on a grant from the man in the 
 moon ; in whose place of abode a traveller, according 
 to Ariosto, once found some of the lost documents upon 
 which the popes base their claim to temporal dominion. 
 Besides these laborious but ineifectual efforts to fab- 
 ricate historical data in support of the papal pretension 
 to temporal sovereignty, Gregory VII., in 1075 asserted 
 that Matilda, Duchess of Tuscany, had bequeathed to 
 the church her domains. These possessions consisted of 
 Tuscany, a part of Umbria, a part of Mark Ancona, 
 and the Duchies of Spoleto and Verona. The validity 
 of these bequests was disputed by the natural heirs; 
 the contest lasted three hundred years, during which 
 Italy was distracted, and Germany depopulated. Fred- 
 eric I., in vindication of his claims against the preten- 
 sions of the pope, invaded Italy on three different occa- 
 sions. Henry IV. emperor of Germany, thrice crossed 
 the Alps to chastise the. popes for aggressions on the 
 Germanic possessions in Italy. During the first cam- 
 paign pope Paschal was made a prisoner ; but on the ap- 
 19 
 
218 THE PAPAL 
 
 proach of the imperial army a second time lie fled! from 
 Home. Yet amid the disputes of the Germanic succes- 
 sion,- and during the minority of Frederic IL r the arms 
 and intrigues of the pope won the concession of Europe 
 to his claim of Matilda's estates. 
 
 The spurious character of the pope's title to temporal 
 power has been exposed by the ablest Catholic authors, 
 and rejected with impatient contempt by history. But 
 the arguments which have converted a world, have 
 never been able to convert the popes. They still main- 
 tain that the reputed donations of Constantine r of Pepin, 
 of Charlemagne and of Matilda, are real and valid. 
 This assertion may appear incredible, but in 1822 Ma- 
 rino Malini, the pope's chamberlain,, endeavored to 
 establish the genuineness of the fictitious charters of 
 Louis-de-Debonnaire, of Otho L, and of Henry IL r in 
 vindication of the pope's titles of the alleged grants 
 to the See of Eome. 
 
 If the apostolic chair of St. Peter is endowed with a 
 divine title to universal temporal sovereignty,, a human 
 title is supefluous. The indefatigable exertions of the 
 popes to establish a human title to their temporal pos- 
 sessions, is a concession that they have no divine title 
 to them, and that a human title is necessary to the 
 validity of their claim. But as they have based their 
 title on the authority of forged documents, and endea- 
 vored to fortify and maintain it by successive fabrica- 
 tions of the same nature, it is evident that they are 
 fully and alarmingly conscious that they have no 
 title, either by virtue of their office, or ~by that of 
 any donation whatever, to temporal possession or 
 authority., 
 
MONAECHY. 219 
 
 Not only is the holy father's temporal power a usur- 
 pation, but so is also his exclusive claim to the use of 
 the title of pope. Every bishop, and even some lay- 
 men, in the first centuries of Christianity, bore this 
 title. In the ancient Greek church it was bestowed 
 upon every clergyman. At the General Council of 
 Constantinople, in 869, its adoption was first limited 
 to the four patriarchs. And in the course of the usur- 
 pations of the holy fathers, pope Gregory VII., by au- 
 thority of an Italian Council, finally assumed it as the 
 exclusive title of the bishops of Rome. 
 
 The popes, the monarchs of the world, in vindicating 
 their title to the States of the Church, had to maintain 
 a long, bloody and desperate struggle, during which 
 their domains were abridged or enlarged, lost or won* 
 according to the varying fortunes of their arms and in- 
 trigues. But as these warlike enterprises of the holy 
 fathers were intimately connected with the convulsions 
 and revolutions of Europe, it will prevent repetition by 
 deferring further allusion to them until we arrive at 
 the subsequent chapters, in which we shall consider the 
 papal political intrigues in general. 
 
 The papal monarchy is certainly one of the most 
 crafty, demoralizing, and oppressive despotisms that 
 has ever disgraced the name of government. Its am- 
 bition is insatiable, its duplicity inscrutible, and its 
 policy and measures are disgraceful and unprincipled. 
 The popes have converted the courteous indulgence of 
 friendship into inviolable rights, and from the feeblest 
 concession have manufactured the most exorbitant 
 claim. Pretending to be spiritual advisers, they be- 
 came temporal despots. Soon as they had acquired the 
 
220 THE PAPAL 
 
 right of owning a farm, they asserted the right of own- 
 ing a kingdom ; and when the right was conceded of 
 owning a single kingdom, they claimed the right of 
 owning all the kingdoms of the earth. A church, a 
 mission-house, an acre of land they construed into an 
 implication that they had a right to all power, temporal 
 or spiritual, for which their capacious maw could crave. 
 They first founded mission-houses in different parts of 
 the world ; next they claimed absolute jurisdiction over 
 them. Disputes respecting property arising between 
 the citizens of Eome and these foreign mission-houses 
 of the church, the popes claimed the exlusive right to 
 arbitrate between them. The right to arbitrate gave 
 them the power to judge, and tho opportunity of ad- 
 justing disputes according to their advantage. As 
 ecclesiastical litigation conduced to the extension of 
 their authority, pontiffs were not always too honorable to 
 discourage the causes which favored their mediatorial 
 interposition. From the right to arbitrate between 
 churches, they next claimed the right to arbitrate be- 
 tween subjects, then between cities, then between 
 nobles, and then between monarchs. As their media- 
 tion in church or state affairs enabled them to adjust 
 disputes according to their policy, they insidiously la- 
 bored to multiply the causes which favored their 
 friendly intervention. 
 
 By a succession of forgeries, usurpations, and skiiful 
 manoeuvres the papal government advanced, in the pro- 
 gress of events, from an obscure origin to supreme 
 secular and spiritual jurisdiction. By gradual steps 
 the popes acquired the right to decide on ecclesiastical 
 and matrimonial questions ; to dispose of church dig- 
 
MONARCHY. 221 
 
 nities and benefices ; to protect their temporal acquisi- 
 tions from alianation by the interdiction of the mar- 
 riage of the clergy ; to abridge the investiture of bish- 
 oprics by the princes ; to reduce the clergy to absolute 
 dependence on their favor by dissolving all bonds of 
 interest which subsisted between the bishops and the 
 princes; to convene at option synods and councils, 
 and to exercise the prerogative of ratifying their de- 
 crees ; to command the concession of their infallibility ; 
 to enforce confessors on princes and statesmen ; to in- 
 troduce the inquisition into kingdoms ; and to regulate 
 and superintend schools and colleges. The attainment 
 of these objects was the work of centuries. Conceiving 
 a desire in one age, they plotted for its accomplishment 
 through the events and discords of succeeding ages; 
 and when machinations had matured their plan, they 
 consummated their wishes by usurpation. The preten- 
 sions to the alleged donation of Pepin, of Charlemagne, 
 of Matilda, and of the Gothic princes, were not asserted 
 until long after the death of the pretended donors, nor 
 until art and intrigue had prepared the way for it. 
 The alleged grant of Constantino was first announced 
 in 765 by Pope Adrian I., in an epistle to Charlemagne. 
 The claim to the estates of Matilda was first made by 
 Pope Paschal, on the ground that they were granted to 
 the Holy See as a fief; and next by pope Innocent II., 
 on the ground that they had been granted to it as lord 
 paramount. The participation of Pope Leo III. in the 
 Consular government of Rome, in a paternal capacity, 
 was the first instance of a pope's exercising temporal 
 authority. The anointing of Pepin by Pope Adrian L, 
 in imitation of the example of Samuel, was the first 
 
 - 
 
222 THE PAPAL 
 
 semblance of the pope's usurpation of the prerogatives 
 of that official in acknowledging the right of kings. 
 The victory of Nicholas I. over the Emperor Lothair r 
 was the first papal triumph over the secular authority. 
 The coronation of Charles the Bold r in 875, by Pope 
 John VIII., was the first act of the papal monarch in 
 disposing of crowns. The conquests of Robert Guis- 
 card, instigated by promises of the popes, furnished the 
 first ground of their feudal claims. The fear of the 
 terrible consequences of their anathemas and interdic- 
 tions, the ill regulated constitution of the European 
 States, the imperfection of domestic and international 
 law, and the efficient operation of the papal machinery, 
 enabled them to render kingdom after kingdom tribu- 
 tary to the Holy See. England, from the period of the 
 introduction of the Catholic church into her realm; 
 Belgaria and Aragon, from the eleventh century ; Po- 
 land and Hungary from the thirteenth century ; and 
 the kingdom of the two Sicilies, from 1265, had been 
 reduced to dependency on the sacerdotal monarchy ; 
 and had the crusades been successful, favored by the 
 confusion which it had universally produced with 
 regard to the rights of citizens and the titles of prop- 
 erty, it would have, under the pretext of a zeal to wrest 
 the sepulchre of Christ from the possession of the Infi- 
 dels, reduced the world to a state of vassalage. 
 The success of the political measures and intrigues 
 of the Holy See having, at the time of Gregory 
 VII., raised it to a high degree of power and 
 importance, he attempted to convert it into a theo- 
 cratical government, with the pope for its head, 
 the priests for its officials, the people for its sub- 
 
MONARCHY. 223 
 
 jects, and the world for its dominion. Under Innocent 
 III., elected in 1195, it acquired almost unlimited spir- 
 itual and temporal authority. Under Sixtus V., in 
 1585, it contemplated the subjugation of Eussia and 
 Egypt, hut the death of Bathore, Duke of Tuscany, 
 frustrated the design. But under Pope Clement XII., 
 in 1652, its power began to decline. He was obliged 
 to cede Naples to Germany, the quarters of the pope's 
 embassadors in Venice to the Venitian government, and 
 the right of investiture in Savoy to the secular author- 
 ity. Pope Pius VI., elected in 1775, beheld the church 
 property in France confiscated, and the religious orders 
 suppressed ; in Naples the abolition of the customary 
 tribute of a horse ; in Germany the interdiction of the 
 nunciature ; in Italy the dismemberment of Eomagna, 
 Bologna and Ferrara ; and finally, the French troops 
 entering Eome and declaring it a republic. 
 
 It is evident from the facts that have been adduced, 
 that the Catholic church, or the papal monarchy, desig- 
 nates an institution which has politics for its principles, 
 monarchy for its object, and religion for its garb. It is 
 not only political in its nature and design, but it is a 
 political despotism, insulting in its pretensions to the 
 common sense of mankind, and dangerous in its prin- 
 ciples to the rights of independent governments. 
 When we consider the monarchial principles with which 
 it is constituted ; its blasphemous arrogation of the at- 
 tributes and prerogatives of the deity ; its presumptu- 
 ous claim to supreme jurisdiction over all other gov- 
 ernments ; the base forgeries which it has committed in 
 the support of its arbitrary pretensions ; its impious 
 scoff at secular promises, contracts, laws, oaths and con- 
 
224 THE PAPAL 
 
 stitutions ; its atrocious sanctions of prevarication, of 
 evasion, and of mental reservation ; its disgraceful sys- 
 tem of espionage ; its system of finance, by which it 
 wrings from beggars their pittance, from the laborer the 
 reward of his toil, from the dying the inheritance of 
 heirs ; that it may pile the wealth of the world in secret 
 coffers, to be lavished on bribery, on corruption, on po- 
 litical intermeddling, on fomenting sedition and con- 
 spiracies, and ultimately, through the means of their dis- 
 organizing agencies, for the subjugation of all govern- 
 ments under its absolute authority. When we behold 
 the blood-stained sword which it has drawn in the sup- 
 port of its frauds and usurpations ; the frequent con- 
 vulsions with which its unprincipled ambition has 
 shaken the world ; its triumphs over science, freedom 
 and human right; the rapine, devastated fields, and 
 burning cities which has marked the progress of its 
 career ; or when we turn our eyes to its late condition 
 in Italy, and see, in the nineteenth century, under its 
 authority, the inquisition at its bloody work ; the study 
 of philosophy banished from universities; no book al- 
 lowed to be published, or imported, except such as meet 
 the approval of bigoted censors ; the government sus- 
 tained only by suppressing insurrection ; the prisons 
 crowded with heretics ; political offenders cruelly put 
 to death ; the nation struggling for freedom, but bound 
 in the fetters of despotism — good heavens ! what a 
 scourge is it, and has it been to mankind. Bigotry and 
 superstition may chaunt its victories ; but a land once 
 prosperous, now choaked up and oppressed with the ru- 
 ins of its former greatness ; fields once fertile now 
 turned into barren wastes ; a people once the most 
 
MONAECHY. 225 
 
 valiant, polished and civilized, now the most debased, 
 rude and imbecile — with ancestors that governed the 
 world, now not able to govern themselves ; a common- 
 wealth of kings, now a commonwealth of slaves ; where 
 for liberty Cicero plead, Brutus stabbed and Cato died, 
 now a. pope curses, an inquisition murders, and prisons 
 reverberate with the groans of patriots and freemen. 
 These, oh patriots ! are the eternal monuments that 
 commemorate the progress and achievements of the 
 papal monarchy. The usurper of all rights, the sancti- 
 fier of all wrongs, the shrine of bigotry, the model of 
 despotism : the church now stands reaffirming the 
 crimes and errors of centuries, and is thirsting for an 
 opportunity of repeating its past horrible history. Such 
 is the papal monarchy ; such is the Catholic church ; 
 such is the political institution which she claims the 
 divine authority to obtrude, by any means, on the 
 world ; and such are the demoralizing, seditious and 
 treasonable principles which she carries in her bosom, 
 scatters in her pathway, and is laboring to implant in 
 the American republic, in order that" she may overthrow 
 its structure, that monarchy may supplant its lib- 
 eral principles, despotic decrees its legislative enact- 
 ments, arbitrary appointments its popular elections, 
 aristocracy its equality, slavery its freedom, usurpa- 
 tion its guarantees of natural rights, and bigotry, vio- 
 lence, and superstition its tolerance, order and science. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES IN 
 ENGLAND, 
 
 Papal Political Machinery — Papal Political Intrigues 
 in England, under the Peigns of Henry II — of King 
 John — of Henry VII — of Charles I — of Charles 
 II — of James II — of William and Mary. 
 
 The design of ruling nations was clearly indicated by 
 the principles upon which the monastic orders were 
 founded. Regarding supremacy to the pope as the 
 main substance of Christianity, and obedience to his 
 will as necessary to salvation, their doctrines har- 
 monized with his claim to supreme temporal and spir- 
 itual power ; and their organization, based strictly on 
 monarchial principles, skilfully adapted to secure 
 unity and concentration of action, formed, together with 
 the military knights, a political machinery in the ad- 
 vancement of the papal interests, which was capable of 
 intimidating the boldest antagonist, and of shaking the 
 power of the strongest government. With the knowl- 
 edge of this fact we may perceive the origin of some of 
 those mysterious seditions and rebellions which have 
 arisen apparently from trifling causes, and which, from 
 insignificant beginnings have gained such strength and 
 dimensions as to dismay the valor of disciplined arms, 
 and distract every section of the land, and every de- 
 partment of the government. We may also perceive 
 
IN ENGLAND. 227 
 
 from the same fact, why the struggle of civil and reli- 
 gious liberty has been such a long, bloody, and inter- 
 minable conflict. That rational beings should trample 
 upon their rights, surrender up their personal sover- 
 eignty, kneel in adoration at the feet of a despot, delib- 
 erately rivet on their own limbs the irons of slavery, 
 crucify their champions, and deify their enemies, is cer- 
 tainly strange; and without the supposition of the 
 intervention of some secret power by which reason was 
 unseated in such instances, it is not conceivable. But 
 that the pope, by means of his political machinery, is 
 capable of producing identical extraordinary effects, is 
 a fact supported by the irrefragable testimony of history; 
 and that he has never scrupled to exercise his terrible 
 power whenever his ambitious projects required it, un- 
 awed by the magnitude of the public calamity which it 
 threatened to entail, is a fact written with the blood 
 and tears of nations. The secrecy, extent, and irresist- 
 ible energy of his power, have sometimes led his unsus- 
 pecting subjects to regard him as a magician ; and 
 sometimes they have been the cause of his arraignment 
 before councils on the charge of practising magic, and 
 of having dealings with the devil. But although the 
 effects which he produced were as malignant and sur- 
 prising as those which have been ascribed to the super- 
 natural power of the arch-fiend, yet the only magic he 
 ever had the necessity of using was his political ma- 
 chinery ; through which he could charm like the poi- 
 sonous adder ; mislead like the fabled sirens ; pervert 
 the public judgment ; calm or distract a nation ; excite 
 it to rebel against its best governor, or to enthrone in 
 power its bitterest foe. 
 
228 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 From the hour when first the Catholic church planted 
 her foot on the soil of England until the present mo- 
 ment, her emissaries have labored as far as practicable, 
 by every available means, under every garb, in all 
 departments of the government, and at all periods of 
 its history, to subject the nation to the despotism of 
 Rome. For a long period the priests were the instruct- 
 ors of her princes, the advisers of her kings, and under 
 the semblance of spiritual guides, the spies on their 
 thoughts and actions. 
 
 Passing by the numerous instances of papal political 
 intrigue in the history of England, we will glance at a 
 few of those which have taken place since the corona- 
 tion of Henry II., in 1154. The most accomplished 
 prince of his time, and celebrated for the acuteness of his 
 judgment and the equitableness of his decisions, he re- 
 ceived at the hands of his regal cotemporaries the dis- 
 tinguished honor of being chosen by them as their arbi- 
 ter, to settle their matters of dispute. He received 
 also, from the policy or generosity of Pope Adrian IV., 
 a gift of the kingdom of Ireland. The following extract 
 from Adrian's bull on that occasion will explain the na- 
 ture and object of the donation : " No one doubts, and 
 you know the fact yourself, that Ireland, and all the 
 isles that have received the Christian faith belong to the 
 church of Rome. And you have signified to us that 
 you wish to enter this island, in order to subject the 
 people to the laws, and extirpate their vices ; to make 
 them pay to St. Peter a penny a year for each house, 
 and preserve in all things the rights of the church ; 
 which we grant to you with pleasure for the increase of 
 the Christian religion." — (Labb. 13, 14, 15). At the 
 
IN ENGLAND. 229 
 
 dictation of the pope, the Irish, clergy met at Water- 
 ford and took the oath of allegiance to Henry and his 
 successors. Thus by a pretended prerogative of popery, 
 " Ireland was blotted from the map, and consigned to 
 the loss of freedom, without a tribunal and without a 
 crime." — (McGeoghegan, 1 : 440). But notwithstand- 
 ing the munificent bounty of the pope, yet the growing 
 weight of the ecclesiastical establishments — so oppres- 
 sive to the industry and enterprize of the people — and 
 the continual and insidious encroachments of the 
 clergy on the prerogatives of the crown, determined 
 Henry, under the administration of Pope Alexander 
 III., to summon a council of nobles and clergy at 
 Clarendon, to frame such a constitution as would be 
 adequate for the protection of the prerogatives of the 
 crown and the rights of the subjects. The principles of 
 this constitution, like seeds sown among thorns and 
 brambles, were in danger of being oppressed in their 
 early growth by a heavy encumbrance of Catholic ig- 
 norance and superstition ; and not until intelligence 
 and public spirit had removed the obstruction did they 
 show their native benificent vigor. Under the stormy 
 reign of Henry II, they were checked, thwarted, and 
 at times almost extirpated ; but under that of King 
 John they produced the " Magna Charta," under that 
 of Charles II. the " Habeas Corpus," and under those 
 of succeding princes the various liberal acts which con- 
 stitute English liberty. 
 
 Although this liberal and judicious constitution had 
 
 received the sanction of the Council of Clarendon, yet 
 
 it was violently opposed by Thomas-a-Becket, the oracle 
 
 of the pope, and the chief engineer of his political ma- 
 
 19* 
 
230 PAPEL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 chinery in England. Denouncing it as a profane in- 
 fraction of the privileges and immunities of the church, 
 he proceeded to excommunicate all persons who had 
 acquired, or should acquire ecclesiastical property under 
 the authority of its provisions. In savage zeal in be- 
 half of the pope, he had violated his oath of allegiance 
 to the king ; and thus imprudently furnished his antag- 
 onists with legal authority to retaliate the mischief of 
 revenge by the confiscation of all his property. Chag- 
 rined at the triumph of his foes, and exasperated at the 
 loss of his temporal possessions, he sought to solace his 
 wounded pride, and vent the ebullitions of his despair 
 and rage in excommunicating the principal officers of 
 the crown, and all who should presume to violate the 
 church prerogatives. But duly impressed with the in- 
 trinsic impotence of his own curses, and that neither 
 their sanctity nor potency could protect his insolent 
 tongue from punishment even while uttering them, he 
 fled to France, that he might exercise with impunity 
 his sacred functions in cursing his foes. By the man- 
 dates of his anathema the papal machinery was, of 
 course, set in violent operation to destroy the king for 
 the benefit of the church, and to invoke in its cause the 
 insidious but formidable aid of scandal, vituperation 
 and defamation. The brilliant qualities of Henry were 
 unfortunately overshaded with the dark vice of un- 
 chastity. As greater rakes are often horrified at the 
 peccadillos of lesser ones, so in this case, the more 
 profligate clergy became exceedingly exasperated upon 
 discovering in the conduct of Henry the practice of 
 their own irregularities, modified by less grossness and 
 more refinement. Not possessing that charity which 
 
IN ENGLAND. 
 
 231 
 
 covereth a multitude of sins, but that religion which 
 magnifies, distorts and publishes them, they soon man- 
 aged to startle the sobriety of every hamlet with whis- 
 pers of the king's incredible depravity. To secure the 
 visitation of divine justice on the head of Henry, they 
 profaned the sanctity of his domestic circle by the dis- 
 semination of treacherous and extravagant inventions, 
 until the queen was frenzied with jealousy, and GeofTry 
 and Richaid, two sons of Henry, were incited to rebel- 
 lion. The prudence and martial abilities of the king 
 enabled him, however, soon to suppress these afflictive 
 and unnatural seditions. But the papal machinery, 
 more tremendous and pestiferious than the fabled mon- 
 sters of antiquity, with their poisonous breath, their 
 hundred heads and thousand hands, was still in action 
 in every part of the empire. Hence Henry's son Louis, 
 whom he had crowned as his successor, was induced to 
 demand of him the surrender of the diadem. In anti- 
 cipation of this demand papal intrigue had secured the 
 support of France and Scotland in its favor; and con- 
 sequently England was suddenly involved in the hor- 
 rors of a civil and a foreign war. But the coolness and 
 extraordinary military genius of Henry was adequate 
 to the terrible emergency. After a desperate contest he 
 repelled the invaders, and restored order to his king- 
 dom. But the moral effluvia which was produced by 
 the action of the papal political machinery, continued 
 still to generate those noxious vapors which had so fre- 
 quently overclouded the atmosphere of England, and 
 broke in storms of pestilence, blood and death. The 
 peace of his kingdom was consequently again disturbed 
 by the discovery of a conspiracy, at the head of which 
 
232 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES. 
 
 was Richard, Henry's third son, and complicated with 
 which was John, his favorite and youngest son. Upon 
 the disclosure of this mortifying fact, the king pro- 
 nounced a curse upon his rebellious children, which 
 was more properly merited by the pope and the father 
 confessors of the princes, to whom the first conception 
 of their treason was known ; and if they did not origi- 
 nate, might have blasted it in its bud. But Henry was 
 unconsciously dealing with an invisible monster, that 
 in the garb of a holy father was commanding his hom- 
 age and reverence, while it was profaning his domestic 
 hearth, exciting his subjects to sedition, his chil- 
 dren to rebellion, and at the same time inducing him 
 to attribute to his family and subjects the dreadful 
 calamities that had been conjured by the machinations 
 of the monster himself. Had Henry had the sagacity 
 to penetrate the secrets of the Holy See, and had he 
 been able, in defiance of a papal alliance with the 
 united crowned heads of Christendom, to have annulled 
 the authority of the pope in his relm, and broken up 
 the machinery of his treasonable machinations, how 
 effectually might he have suppressed the rebellion of 
 his sons, and the disorders of his kingdom ; and what 
 a blessing he would have been to England and to man- 
 kind. Freedom will, however, ever be grateful to the 
 king, who laid the foundation of England's liberty. 
 The cost at which he purchased this invaluable legacy 
 for posterity was as tremendous as are the obligations 
 of gratitude which it imposes. His family converted 
 into a nest of venomous reptiles; his sons, around 
 whom his fondest hopes had clustered, transformed into 
 treacherous foes; his laborious efforts to elevate the 
 
MONARCHY. 233 
 
 importance and improve the condition of his subjects, 
 converted into sources of the deepest of misfortunes; 
 these were the papal demands, outweighing the wealth 
 of worlds, which were imposed on him for having 
 served the cause of justice, of humanity, and of his 
 country ; and under the rigorous exactions of these de- 
 mands, three days after the disclosure of the last con- 
 spiracy of his sons, he sunk into an unconsecrated 
 grave, ruined and broken hearted. 
 
 The Papal See governed by an unscrupulous ambi- 
 tion to realize the success of its projects for acquiring 
 unbounded territorial aggrandizement, has, with equal 
 craft and baseness, endeavored to make the vices as well 
 as the power of princes administer to its interests. This 
 policy is illustrated in the schemes of papal policy and 
 intrigue concocted under the reign of King John, 
 youngest son of Henry II., who on the decease of his 
 father in 1199 ascended the English throne. This 
 prince had conspired against the most indulgent of 
 fathers, had warred against his brother Kichard, had 
 murdered his brother Arthur, had repudiated his wives, 
 and had exercised regal authority with insolence and 
 tyranny, without provoking the maledictions or inter- 
 ference of the Holy See. But as these enormities de- 
 prived him of the affections of his subjects, a ruler's 
 chief support ; exhausted his coffers, the sinews of war 
 and opposition ; made him more dependent on the 
 favor of Rome, more entangled in the network of its 
 policy, and admirably prepared the way for the accom- 
 plishment of its ulterior designs, its indulgence, and 
 perhaps connivance may be reasonably accounted for. 
 
 But after a war with France exhausted the resources 
 20* 
 
234 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 of John, rendered him less popular, and more irascible 
 and impatient, Pope Innocent III. improved the flatter- 
 ing opportunity which crime and misfortune had pre- 
 sented, to provoke a collision with him favorable to the 
 success of the papal designs. John claimed the right 
 of investiture ; and in making this claim seems to have 
 been supported by the cooperation of the papal politi- 
 cal machinery. The See of Canterbury having become 
 vacant, the pope appointed Cardinal Langston to fill 
 the vacancy. This act John resisted as an unjustifiable 
 encroachment on the prerogatives of the crown. But 
 the arts of the pope had involved the king in a snare ; 
 and now having fairly entangled him, proceeded to 
 prepare the way for realizing his temporal project by 
 exercising his spiritual functions. Accordingly he sus- 
 pended the performance of religious worship in the 
 king's dominions, excommunicated him, and absolved 
 his subjects from their allegiance to him. The papal 
 political machinery acting in harmony with the male- 
 dictions of the pope, the wildest disorders were excited 
 among the people ; anarchy suspended all law ; the 
 army refused to obey the king's orders ; his friends de- 
 serted him ; and he found himself without domestics, 
 without alliances, and without the means of resistance. 
 It is an invariable practice of the holy fathers, who 
 claim a right to all the world by virtue of their office, 
 to endeavor to supersede the necessity of this title by 
 acquiring a legal one. Hence, Innocent III., seeing the 
 helpless condition to which he had reduced John, and 
 touched at the cruel misfortunes in which he had in- 
 volved him, now graciously proposed to mitigate the 
 rigors of his adversities, and to restore him to his for- 
 
IN ENGLAND. 235 
 
 mer authority, if he would cede his kingdom to the Pope 
 of Rome, and consent to rule it as a vassal of the pope. 
 Divested of adherents, arms or alliances, the king sub- 
 mitted unconditionally to the terms dictated by the sa- 
 cerdotal despot. The design of the papal See of 
 reducing England to a state of vassalage, conceived in 
 ambition, pursued by craft and cruelty, was thus con- 
 summated by the most execrable tyranny. This empty 
 title to England and Ireland, so full of trick and fraud, 
 is nevertheless still mentioned by the Holy See as valid 
 and indisputable. 
 
 But the benefits of the statesmanship, and of the 
 divinely inspired council of the holy father, by which 
 John was bound in future to fae governed in the admin- 
 istration of his kingdom, did not prevent him from ex- 
 citing the indignation of his subjects, by encroachments 
 on their rights ; nor restrain him from the perpetration 
 of such unwarrantable acts as created a popular hat- 
 red of him, which finally culminated in open resist- 
 ance to his authority. So violent were the conflicts 
 that arose between him and his subjects, that in order 
 to save his crown he had to yield to their demand the 
 act of the " Magna Charta." The pope, however, the 
 natural foe of all constitutional guarantees of popular 
 right and liberty, benevolently interposed in behalf of 
 the imbecile and overawed prince, and absolved him 
 from all obligations to comply with any of the unplea- 
 sant concessions which he had made ; declaring the 
 Magna Charta antagonistical to the Catholic religion ; 
 forbidding the king to observe any of its provisions ; 
 and pronouncing sentence of excommunication on all 
 who should obey, or attempt to enforce the heretical 
 
236 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 act. Again the papal machinery was set in violent 
 operation. Spies watched, confessors reported, abbots 
 schemed, bishops predicted, priests thundered, monks 
 prowled and assassins murdered, until every city, vil- 
 lage and house, was distracted with alarm. In the 
 midst of the consternation which stupefied the public 
 mind the king, through the instrumentality of the 
 papal machinery, suddenly appeared at the head of a 
 formidable army ; and as if he were a foreign enemy, 
 commenced butchering his subjects, firing their dwell- 
 ings and carrying terror and devastation through his 
 own kingdom. So profoundly secret were the papal 
 machinations carried on, and so suddenly and unex- 
 pectedly had John appeared with an army fully 
 equipped for war that — no suspicion of such a design hav- 
 ing been excited in the minds of the military barons — 
 no preparations were made to meet the emergency. As 
 suddenly, mysteriously, and adroitly as King John's army 
 had sprung into existence, so did the barons resolve, 
 in order to defeat its object, to tender the crown of the 
 realm to France ; which proffer being accepted, the in- 
 trigues of the pope were thwarted, and Philip of 
 France became sovereign of England. 
 
 The popes claim the divine attribute of infallibility, 
 yet in changing their policy and practice to suit the 
 variations of time, place and circumstance, they seem 
 generally to have descended to the common level of 
 humanity. In order, however, to reconcile the irrecon- 
 cilable, while they profess to have had communicated to 
 them the incommunicable, they claim to have been en- 
 dowed with power to change the unchangeable. Should 
 a prince resolve to do that which the pope's infallible 
 
IN ENGLAND. 237 
 
 holiness has declared to be criminal, and should that 
 prince happen to be too powerful to be intimidated, 
 and too dangerous to be provoked into rebellion, in 
 such delicate cases the pope, with his facilities to ac- 
 commodate all difficulties, grants a dispensation, where- 
 by the applicant is empowered to violate all the infal- 
 lible laws of the church without incurring any of their 
 penalties. 
 
 In the reign of Henry VII., who became king of 
 England in 1485, we find an illustration of this policy. 
 That sovereign had married Arthur, his eldest son, to 
 Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand, king of Arragon. Gn 
 the decease of Arthur, the king, with the view of retaining 
 the opulent Spanish dowery in his family, desired to 
 marry the widow of Arthur to his next son. The 
 young prince Henry, but fifteen years old, protested 
 against marrying a lady for whom he had no affection, 
 and who was so much his senior. Besides this diffi- 
 culty the contemplated alliance was in violation of the 
 laws of consanguinity, so solemnly established by the 
 authority of the infallible church, and so terriffically 
 armed with all the terrors of anathemas and excommu- 
 nication. To silence the objection of his son, and the 
 thunders of the Vatican, Henry applied to the pope for 
 permission to execute his purposes, in violation of the 
 established laws of the church ; and the pope, not 
 deeming it prudent to offend so powerful a potentate, 
 granted his request But vain are the pope's preten- 
 sions to be able to change the moral law of heaven un- 
 less he can also change the natural course of events. 
 In this attempt to accommodate principle to interest, 
 and the infallible laws of the church to the changing 
 
238 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 wliim of an avaricious monarch, he laid the foundation 
 for the final separation of the kingdom of England from 
 the See of Rome. 
 
 After the death of Henry VII. his son, under the 
 title of Henry VIII., succeeded to the British throne. 
 Frank and vain, he became at an early period of his 
 life an object of the subtle policy of Rome. Naturally 
 generous, his indomitable love of power and dominion 
 often led him to violate the obligations of humanity ; 
 and impetuous in passion, and impatient of" restraint, 
 he was tempted to annihilate the constitutional restraints 
 which conflicted with his designs, and to make the forms 
 of justice subservient to the gratification of his ambi- 
 tion and interest. 
 
 Happening to become enamored of Anne Bolyne, he 
 began to suspect the legality of his marriage with 
 Catherine ; and though he had recognized its obliga- 
 tions by a union of twenty years, yet the oftener he 
 saw his mistress the stronger became his convictions of 
 the heterodoxy and unlawfulness of his matrimonial 
 relations, and the more scrupulous he became about his 
 chastity. The want of male issue, and the disparity of 
 years between him and his wife mingled reflections with 
 these legal and religious scruples, and made them so 
 pungent that Henry, in order to get rid of the torment 
 thus inflicted, finally applied to the pope for a divorce. 
 The pope promised to grant his request ; but the fear of 
 offending Charles V., Catherine's nephew, produced 
 strange vacillation in the mind of the infallible holy 
 father. Two powerful and crafty princes dictated to 
 him opposite courses ; to offend either would be disas- 
 trous ; he therefore pretended to favor the wishes of 
 
IN ENGLAND. 239 
 
 both. Aware of papal artifice, however, Henry became 
 imperious in bis demands. The pope appeared to yield, 
 and to soothe the impatient prince with a semblance of 
 compliance, but a means of procrastination, he commis- 
 sioned Cardinals Wolsey and Campaggio to adjust the 
 difficulty. They cited the queen to appear before them ; 
 she appealed to the pope ; they declared her contuma- 
 cious. By these proceedings the controversy becom- 
 ing more embarrassed than before, and less capable of a 
 speedy solution, Henry peremptorily decided the mat- 
 ter by consummating his marriage with Anne Bolyne. 
 This act astonished the pope, and enraged Charles Y. 
 To gratify Charles, and to punish Henry, the holy 
 father proceeded to excommunicate the latter. The 
 despotic character of Henry, however, had too much 
 overawed his subjects to allow the papal machinery to 
 give much efficacy to the manifestos of its prime en- 
 gineer ; and placing himself at the head of the Catho- 
 lic church in England, he released his subjects from al- 
 legiance to the See of Rome, effected a separation from 
 it, and nullified its temporal authority over his do- 
 minions. 
 
 Discarding the dogma of the pope's temporal power, 
 Henry still strictly adhered to the standard of Catholic 
 theology in all other respects ; and the pope, at the 
 same time, through the medium of Cardinal Wolsey, 
 continued to exert considerable indirect influence on 
 his mind. This prelate who, while he was a preacher 
 at Limington was put into the stocks for disorderly 
 conduct in a drunken frolic ; who afterwards was made 
 domestic chaplain by Dean, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 and who was finally created cardinal by the pope, ob- 
 
240 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 tained sucn unlimited power over the mind of Henry 
 that the pope pensioned him to keep him in his inter- 
 est. It is not a matter of much surprise that Henry's 
 aversion to the reformers, inflamed by the arts of such 
 a vicious counsellor, should have brought so many of 
 them to the stake ; nor that the bigotry and intoler- 
 ance of Catholicism should have survived the destruc- 
 tion of its political engine. Henry VIII. condemned 
 to death Lambert, a school teacher, for denying the real 
 presence At intervals during his reign he rigorously 
 persecuted the Protestants Catherine Parr, his last 
 wife, barely escaped execution for having encouraged the 
 reformers. A warrant had been wrung from the king 
 by the Bishop of Winchester, for her committal to the 
 Tower on the charge of heretical opinions ; but having 
 become secretly apprised of the fact in time she sought 
 the king, and satisfied him that when she had objected 
 to his opinions it was from a desire to become enlight- 
 ened by his superior knowledge and intelligence. 
 While he employed violent means to enforce con- 
 formity to the Catholic theology, he visited equal 
 vengeance on those who advocated the pope's tem- 
 poral authority. When he discovered that the monks 
 and friars were guilty of defending the obnoxious 
 heresy of the pope's temporal power, he suppressed their 
 houses ; but not wishing to destroy the monastic 
 orders, he applied the sequestered funds to the estab- 
 lishment of other similar institutions ; but on perceiv- 
 ing these also to be secretly engaged in machinations to 
 restore the pope's temporal authority, he abolished the 
 religious orders altogether. Even Cardinal Wolsey fell 
 under his suspicion, and was executed for treason by 
 
IN ENGLAND. 241 
 
 Ms order. After he had beheaded his wife, Catherine 
 Howard for unchastity, his severity against those who 
 advocated the pope's temporal sovereignty, and against 
 those who denied the Romish theology, was cruel in the 
 highest degree. 
 
 What papal rapaciousness cannot boldly grasp, it will 
 secretly plot to obtain. Kings who control nations, 
 women who may perhaps control kings, and children 
 who are presumptive heirs of empires, are powerful in- 
 struments in the accomplishment of political designs, 
 and especial objects of papal intrigue. 
 
 The inveterate opposition to Catholics in England 
 rendered it almost impossible for a Catholic to ascend 
 the throne, and eventually interdicted it by positive 
 enactments. To counteract the consequences of this 
 spirit, a scheme was projected by papal craft to have 
 the heirs of the throne educated by Catholic mothers, 
 so that future kings might rule as Protestants with 
 Catholic proclivities, and in course of time, through the 
 demoralization, dissatisfaction, discord and blood effected 
 by the cooperation of its adherents, the suprem- 
 acy of the pope might be reestablished in England. 
 James I., who on the death of Elizabeth succeeded to 
 the crown of England and Scotland, a ruler devoid of 
 statesmen-like abilities, without firmness or stability, 
 and bloated up with fanciful notions of royal preroga- 
 tives, was the pliant instrument of this subtle policy. 
 An amorous flame having been kindled in him and in 
 Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV., of France, it 
 was stipulated that the union should be consummated, 
 on condition that the heirs which should issue should 
 
 be subject to the exclusive control of their mother un- 
 - - 21 
 
242 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 til they were thirteen years of age. This contract 
 secured a Catholic education to the heirs of the British 
 throne, and laid the foundations for the dreadful calam- 
 ities which afflicted the nation during the reigns of 
 Charles II. and James II. 
 
 The abolition of papal despotism over the English 
 mind giving freedom to thought and inquiry, could not 
 but enlarge its conceptions of civil and religious liberty. 
 The old system of prerogatives sunk into contempt, and 
 the new system of representative government became 
 more popular as the mind became more comprehensive 
 in its grasp, and more profound in its investigation. 
 Hence the Puritans, who originally were Catholics, and 
 merely advocated a simpler form of worship ; the 
 Presbyterians and the Independents, who at first ques- 
 tioned only the temporal power of the pope, yet driven 
 from those whom they had venerated by the hate which 
 persecution engenders, and disenthralled from the 
 shackles with which custom and superstition enslaves 
 the mind, began fearlessly and candidly to investigate 
 the fundamental principles of faith and practice, and 
 to elaborate theological creeds totally different from 
 those of Catholicism, and vastly superior to them. 
 "While the people were rapidly advancing in liberal 
 views of religion and government, the heir of the throne 
 was too much absorbed in magnifying his visionary 
 prerogatives to share in the progress of the age, or 
 to study the character of the people over whom he was 
 destined to reign. When in 1625 he ascended tho 
 English throne, under the title of Charles I., the new 
 order of popular sentiment had become an impetuous 
 torrent. Common sagacity might have perceived the 
 
IN ENGLAND. 243 
 
 inevitable destruction that would await him if he should 
 attempt to stem the popular tide of thought ; and pru- 
 dence would have dictated a practicable compromise of 
 differences rather than the certain alternative of civil 
 war. But Archbishop Laud, a Catholic under the dis- 
 guise of Protestantism, and who was the medium of the 
 pope's influence, exercised a despotism over the king's 
 mind too absolute to allow his reason to instruct, or his 
 conscience to admonish him. The religious views and 
 secret designs of this professed Protestant bishop can- 
 not be misunderstood. He maintained that the papal 
 authority had always been visible in the realm. He 
 furnished the king with a significant list of the names 
 of all his Catholic and Protestant subjects. He was 
 also the principal actor in the Star Chamber, and Court 
 of High Commission. So well was the pope satisfied 
 with the orthodoxy of this sacerdotal miscreant that he 
 sent him a cardinal's hat, which he declined for the am- 
 biguous reason that the " Church of Rome was no other 
 than it was !" The king, controlled and ill-advised by 
 such a counsellor, blinded by his own bigotry, and elated 
 with self-conceit, was led to scorn the rising spirit of 
 the nation, and to adopt measures for its suppression. 
 But parliament with prudent foresight, and patriotic 
 boldness, taught him that the Commons were the con- 
 stitutional dispensers and guardians of the public trea- 
 sury. He next resolved to oblige Scotland to conform 
 to the ritual prescribed by the Church of England ; 
 and as parliament had refused to allow him the use of 
 the public funds for that and other purposes, he at- 
 tempted to raise means for their accomplishment by 
 unconstitutional methods. By this impolitic course he 
 
244 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 aroused a lion from its den, with whose strength and 
 fury he could not well cope. The Scotch formed a 
 league of Covenanters, composed of all classes and fac- 
 tions, for the defence of their religious liberty ; and as 
 the king viewed their enthusiastic and formidable array, 
 and compared it with the suspicious material of his own 
 army, he prudently concluded terms of pacification. 
 
 Having frequently called the Commons together in 
 parliament, and finding them more disposed to dictate 
 than to obey, and inflexible in their refusal to furnish him 
 with the pecuniary aid necessary to the accomplishment 
 of his design, he finally determined to rule without a 
 parliament, and by a liberal construction of his prerog- 
 atives to arrogate monarchial power. An object so 
 consistent with the dogmas of Catholicism, and so flat- 
 tering to the vanity of the Episcopal royalists, equally 
 betrayed them into acquiescence. To aid the king in 
 his despotic design the royalists extolled his preroga- 
 tives, asserted their divine origin, declared it impious 
 to prescribe any limits to them, and inculcated passive 
 obedience as a Christian virtue and imperative duty. 
 The terror of the Star Chamber, and of the Court of 
 High Commission, was also called into requisition. But 
 neither the eloquent encomiums lavished on the king's 
 prerogative, nor the atrocities of the Star Chamber, 
 nor the severity of the Court of High Commission, nor 
 a rebellion excited in Ireland against parliament, nor 
 the arms of the royal troops, produced anything for the 
 king's prerogatives but disgrace and ridicule. 
 
 Dreading the liberalism and inflexibility of the Com- 
 mons, and the uncompromising hostility against his 
 person and measures which his persecution of non-con- 
 
MONARCHY. 245 
 
 formists had excited in the majority of them, yet he 
 was obliged, by the critical state of public affairs, to 
 call them together. This parliament proved the mem- 
 orable " long parliament." As might have been ex- 
 pected, its embittered and exasperated members opened 
 the session with torrents of scorn and contempt poured 
 on the king and his prerogatives. They also adopted 
 every expedient to inflame the public mind, and to 
 make it accessory to their design of reducing the king 
 to unresisting helplessness. They denounced the Epis- 
 copalians, and other advocates of the king's preroga- 
 tives, in whom Catholicism and monarchy had dis- 
 guised themselves under the semblance of Protestant- 
 ism. They attempted to exclude the bishops from the 
 House of Lords. They so intimidated the royalists of 
 the House that many of them absented themselves from 
 their seats. They restricted the king's prerogatives, 
 abolished the Star Chamber, and the Court of High 
 Commission, passed acts against superstitious practices, 
 executed Laud and Stafford, and as the king had set the 
 dangerous precedent of liberal construction of law and 
 prerogatives, they availed themselves of the same 
 means to justify their measures. The impetuous tor- 
 nado of their zeal and wrath swept away all the king's 
 elaborate schemes for the acquisition of monarchial 
 power, and poured upon his unprotected head a pitiless 
 storm of wrath. Condemned to be the helpless specta- 
 tor of the destruction of his hopes of absolute power, 
 which art, tyranny, and usurpation had enabled him to 
 build, he became wild with despair and rage, and, in a 
 desperate attempt to retrieve his fortune by asserting in 
 his extremity his empty prerogatives, he brought his 
 21* 
 
246 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 precarious condition to an unfortunate close. Entering 
 the House of Commons, lie personally attempted to ar- 
 rest some of its members. The House, consequently, 
 broke up in disorder ; the king saw his error, but too 
 late ; he fled from his capitol in terror ; two armies 
 arose ; the one under the king, the other under parlia- 
 ment: after several bloody battles, the king lost his 
 crown, and finally his life. 
 
 Parliament now resolved to rule without a king as 
 the king had resolved to rule without a parliament. 
 The spirit of despotism under the form of freedom, still, 
 however, predominated in the national councils. Crom- 
 well, a professed republican, but a secret monarchist ; as 
 intolerant as he was religious, and crafty as he was am- 
 bitious ; who, as interest instigated, favored or perse- 
 cuted Catholics, Protestants, Puritans, and Republicans, 
 was this despotic spirit which desecrated the form of 
 Freedom, and which induced him while he governed 
 England as a protector, to seek to govern her as a king, 
 and to plot in secret to reestablish her throne. After 
 the termination of his eventful career, and the resigna- 
 tion of his appointed successor, Charles II., son of James 
 I., in 1660 was crowned King of England. 
 
 Illiberal in mind, intolerant in disposition, defective 
 in sensibility, and destitute of honor and generosity, he 
 was base as a man, dishonorable as a prince, and a pli- 
 able instrument of the papal intrigues. A hypocrite 
 from his birth, he was capable of assuming any guise ; 
 and supremely selfish, he tolerated vice and corruption 
 whenever it administered to his interests. By the licen- 
 tiousness of his court he degraded the moral standing 
 of the British nation in the eyes of the world and of 
 
IN ENGLAND. 247 
 
 history, and with a despotic and unprincipled set of 
 measures, arrogated power in defiance of constitutional 
 obstructions, and reduced the people to slavery in con- 
 tempt of their hereditary valor and independence, and 
 the safeguards with which they had protected their 
 liberty. 
 
 The pathway to his elevation to the throne having 
 been prepared by General Monk, he was received with 
 frantic acclamations by conflicting civil and religious 
 sects, and without a struggle succeeded to those danger- 
 our prerogatives which had cost the nation so much 
 blood and treasure. The admonition of past occurren- 
 ces had induced him to disguise under the cloak of a 
 pacific and accommodating policy, his secret and ulterior 
 designs. But the specious mask fell from his brow 
 when he passed the intolerent act of non-conformity, by 
 which the Presbyterians were peremptorily driven from 
 their livings. 
 
 Profligacy, which enfeebles the intellectual powers, 
 and destroys the foundation of public respect, has ever 
 been encouraged in princes or people by the artifice of 
 those whose ambition has plotted to make them subser- 
 vient to their interest, or dependent on their power. 
 The disgracefnlness of this policy has never been too 
 abhorrent to the Koman See to cause it to forego the 
 advantages of its adoption. The profligate character 
 of Charles II., and the dissolute manners which he in- 
 troduced into his court, ably aided the papal machin- 
 ery in alienating from him the respect and affection of 
 his subjects, and in making him more dependent on the 
 favor of the pope. His extravagance involved him 
 eventually in such pecuniary embarrassments that he 
 
248 PAPAL POLITICAL INTKIGUES 
 
 became a pensioner on Louis, king of France ; and in 
 consequence became doubly ironed with the papal 
 shackles — the king of France forming one set of man- 
 acles, the priests of England another — and both were 
 equally bound to the interests of the papal monarchy. 
 That every thought and action might be discovered in 
 its incipiency, he was furnished with a French lady to 
 amuse him in his retirement This accomplished but 
 abandoned female obtained such ascendency over his 
 mind, that she induced him to make her a duchess. 
 Thus watched, debased and controlled, he became the 
 unconscious tool of the designs of others, and was led 
 to alarm the public mind by forming a disgraceful cabal, 
 by which to concert measures for making himself inde- 
 pendent of parliament. 
 
 To add to the public dissatisfaction the Duke of 
 York, the heir presumptive to the throne, openly es- 
 poused the cause of Catholicism. Strong measures 
 were consequently adopted to remove him from his post, 
 as admiral of the navy, and eventually to exclude him 
 from the throne. The violent factions, and fierce crim- 
 inations and recriminations to which these measures 
 gave rise kept the people in a state of feverish excite- 
 ment. In the midst of these wild alarms a pretended 
 popish plot was reported to have been discovered/ which 
 received universal credence. The design of this plot 
 was said to be to destroy parliament and assassinate the 
 king. A secret Catholic faction was supposed to exist 
 in the nation, the object of which was to restore the 
 authority of the pope ; and circumstances lending credi- 
 bility to the supposition, the most intense excitement 
 seized the public mind. Parliament was terrific in its 
 
IN ENGLAND. 249 
 
 denunciations, and the people clamorous for vengeance. 
 Lords were arrested, priests hung, the Duke of York 
 fled from the country in terror, the Earl of Stafford 
 was beheaded, and the king, filled with consternation, 
 yielded to the popular demand the Habeas Corpus act, 
 to avert the storm that was muttering destruction over 
 his head. Fortified with this new safeguard to public free- 
 dom, the people became tranquil once more ; but the king 
 perceiving the formidable obstacle which parliament 
 obtruded in the way of his acquisition of despotic 
 power, resolved to get rid of it by making it the instru- 
 ment of its own destruction. After having assem- 
 bled it severel times for this purpose, and finding 
 it inflexibly opposed to his measures, he determined 
 to dispense with it altogether, and to substitute 
 his prerogatives in the place of its authority. In order 
 to reduce the corporations to an absolute depend- 
 ence on his will, he employed with as much base- 
 ness as tyranny, intimidations to induce them to sur- 
 render their charters, so that they might be remodelled 
 in accordance with the claims of the absolute power of 
 his prerogatives. In order to deplete the ranks of non- 
 Catholics, he had recourse to gross and unfounded 
 charges of plots and conspiracies. Lord Shaftsbury, 
 the author of the Habeas Corpus act, was arrested, im- 
 prisoned in the Tower and tried for high treason ; but 
 acquitted. Dungeons were overcrowded with subjects 
 against whom no allegation laid, except that of love of 
 liberty and opposition to tyranny. But while he was 
 wading through the innocent blood of his subjects to a 
 crown of unlimited monarchy, some desperate spirits 
 were secretly concocting a plot to arrest his atrocious 
 
250 PAPAL POLITICAL INTKIGUES 
 
 career by the deplorable means of the assassin's dag- 
 ger. This unsuccessful conspiracy, known as the Rhy- 
 house plot, which could not escape the omniscient eye 
 of the Catholic machinery, was, of course, discovered 
 before it had matured its plans, and only gave the king 
 a plausible pretence for gratifying his malignancy 
 against the ablest advocates of constitutional liberty. 
 William Russell, who had with undaunted firmness 
 maintained the fundamental principle of free govern- 
 ment, was the first victim through this unfortunate af- 
 fair, to the eagerness of the king's bloodthirsty revenge. 
 Foredoomed, he was tried by a packed jury, and con- 
 demned against conclusive proof of his innocence. 
 Alerngon Sidney, another apostle of liberty, was un- 
 justly charged with high treason. The law requiring 
 two witnesses to substantiate allegations of this nature, 
 and but one having appeared, and he as unreliable as he 
 was promptly received, the infamous Jeffrey summoned 
 into court a manuscript which had been found in the 
 closet of the defend ent. In this manuscript the author 
 expressed a preference for a free to an arbitrary gov- 
 ernment. The judge deciding that the document 
 was a competent witness in his court, (although he did 
 not swear it), and that it supplied the want of the other 
 witness required by the law of treason, proceeded to 
 pass sentence of death on the accused. 
 
 By means of similar unwarrantable proceedings, and 
 the co-operation of the papal machinery, the king suc- 
 ceeded in dragooning Scotland into conformity, in sup- 
 pressing the bold Covenanters, and in amassing almost 
 sufficient power for the accomplishment of any purpose. 
 After he had, in defiance of parliament and the laws, 
 
IN ENGLAND. 251 
 
 and by means of tyrannical measures and execrable 
 usurpations, rendered himself as absolute in power as 
 any despot in Europe, death interposed in the midst of 
 his success, and removed him from a throne which he 
 had disgraced, and a people whom he had oppressed. 
 Had his conduct during his life left a doubt of his genuine 
 Catholicism, and hypocritical profession of Protestant- 
 ism, the last moments of his existence were sufficient to 
 dispel them. Just before his death he received the 
 sacrament according to the rites of the Catholic church, 
 and having no further need of deception, openly pro- 
 fessed himself a Catholic. 
 
 James II., brother of Charles II., in 1685 succeeded 
 to the throne of England and Scotland. Educated 
 like his brother, he had imbibed similar religious and 
 political sentiments. While Duke of York he at first 
 secretly, but afterwards openly, professed the Catholic 
 faith. When, in the course of intrigue and conflict, the 
 royal party had gained the ascendency in Scotland, he 
 retired thither ; and manifested his barbarous ferocity 
 by personally assisting at the torturing of the Cove- 
 nanters. The rapid strides which his brother had made 
 towards the acquisition of absolute power, and the par- 
 alyzing dread which cruelty and tyranny had cast over 
 the public mind, enabled James II. to succeed to the 
 British throne without opposition. From the hour he 
 became invested with the royal dignity, he adopted 
 every expedient that craft could devise to convert his 
 royal prerogatives into monarchial authority, and to se- 
 cure the restoration of Catholicism as the religion of 
 the kingdom. As virtue scorns to be the tool of vice, 
 and as sycophants are the most pliable instruments of 
 
252 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 despotism, lie adopted the policy of investing the most 
 unscrupulous with official authority. Supreme among 
 his base and cringing creatures stood Judge Jeffrey. 
 The chief engineer of the papal machinery — the con- 
 trolling spirit of the king and his councils ; insolent, 
 imperious, arbitrary and oppressive, this man was ready 
 for any work that furnished sufficient blood and plun- 
 der. By barbarous and inhuman acts, and by the arbi- 
 trary execution of innocent subjects, this monster in 
 human form succeeded in casting a deep gloom over tho 
 public mind, and in annihilating all apparent opposi- 
 tion to the tyrannical proceedure of the king. Amid 
 the death-like silence which hung on the lips of the 
 people the king threw off his disguise, entered into ne- 
 gotiation with the pope for the reception of England 
 into the papal church, celebrated mass invested with 
 the royal paraphernalia, assumed the power of parlia- 
 ment, nullified all test oaths, filled the councils and 
 army with Catholics, governed Scotland and Ireland 
 by his creatures, organized ecclesiastical tribunals to 
 try such clergy as were suspected of holding liberal 
 sentiments, committed bishops to the Tower for having 
 remonstrated against the propriety of reading a docu- 
 ment concerning a popish indulgence which he had 
 commanded to be read in all the churches, and adopted 
 every possible method to subvert civil and religious 
 liberty, and to bind on his subjects the shackles of papal 
 despotism. Towards the final consummation of his 
 calamitous design he appeared to be making rapid 
 strides ; but, though the papal machinery was formid- 
 able, yet there was another power more formidable still ; 
 as wily and as secret : which was ouietly maturing its 
 
IN ENGLAND. 253 
 
 strength for the hour of retribution. The oppressive 
 measures of the king and the failure of every attempt 
 at compromise and conciliation, had created a stern 
 opposition in the mind of the people, of the gentry, and 
 of some lords. Silent but powerful, though this opposi- 
 tion seemed to slumber, yet it was but calmly waiting the 
 destined hour, when it would arise and annihilate dynas- 
 ties and prerogatives. While the king, deceived by the 
 treacherous calm, was trampling in insolent contempt 
 on the people's rights ; while sycophantic priests were 
 chaunting his song of triumph ; and while the pope 
 was congratulating him on his success, and stretching 
 forth his hand to receive the kingdom, William of 
 Orange suddenly appeared on the coast of England 
 with a formidable navy and army, and, as with the 
 stroke of an enchanter's wand, changed the calm and 
 brilliant prospects of the king into storms and sights of 
 horror, and the peans of his sycophants into howling 
 and lamentations. Terrified at the sight, the king re- 
 pealed his unpopular acts, and proffered to his subjects 
 all the rights which they had in vain plead for before. 
 Conscious of their strength, and irreconcilable in the me- 
 mory of their wrongs, they rejected with scorn and indig- 
 nation all his generous overtures. As he had ruled as a 
 tyrant, he now absconded as a coward. The throne 
 was declared abdicated, and William and Mary pro- 
 claimed sovereigns of England and Scotland. After 
 some fruitless attempts to regain his kingdom, James 
 II. turned Jesuist, and passed the remainder of his 
 life in doing penance. 
 
 Edward, the Pretender, grandson of James I., edu- 
 cated at Rome, was another instrument which the pope 
 22 
 
254 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES. 
 
 adopted to establish his authority over the crown of 
 England. This treasonable plot was unanimously sup- 
 ported by the tory party. This faction had ever been 
 a prominent branch of the papal machinery. Under 
 the disguise of Protestantism, in 1680, the tories made 
 vigorous efforts for the subjugation of England to the 
 papal dominion. They were the most strenuous sup- 
 porters of Charles II. In every scheme of oppression 
 and violence — in the persecution of dissenters, in the 
 banishment of patriots, in the murder of the advocates 
 of popular freedom — in every project of the king to 
 grasp monarchial power, in the abrogation of the free 
 charters, in the assumption of despotic prerogatives, in 
 the efforts to abolish parliament, they were the bold and 
 unequivocal supporters. It was, therefore, consistent 
 with their historic tradition that they should welcome 
 as allies of the pope the invasion of Edward, and be 
 ready to repeat their former atrocities in his cause. 
 England's vigilance, however, defeated Edward's first 
 attempt, in 1742, but he made another in 1745 which 
 was more successful. Landing secretly in Scotland with 
 but seven trusty officers, yet such was the efficiency of 
 the papal machinery, that it soon enabled him to com- 
 mand an army which made England tremble. But the 
 contest was short and decisive. Although he gained 
 some important advantages, yet the signal victory over 
 his forces at Culloden, in 1746, effectually checked his 
 career. Despairing of success, he fled to France, where, 
 through the intercession of the king's mistress, he re- 
 ceived a pension. He finally returned to Borne, where 
 •he died of diseases engendered by habits of intem- 
 perance. 
 
IN ENGLAND. 255 
 
 We have now alluded, in this chapter to some of 
 those popish intermeddlings in the political concerns of 
 England, so grossly in violation of international law, 
 and which have been so prolific of treason, of popular 
 insurrection, of civil war, and of all that can empover- 
 ish a nation and impede its progress ; but we have men- 
 tioned but few of them. The limits we have prescribed 
 to this work will not allow us to trace the wily and 
 deadly serpent of papal intrigue in all its secret wind- 
 ings, nor dwell upon the important admonitory les- 
 sons its history furnishes to patriots, to rulers, and to 
 mankind : these we must leave to the reflection of the 
 reader. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES IN 
 FRANCE. 
 
 Papal Intrigues in France during the Reign of Clovis — of 
 Childeric III. — of Pepin — of Charlemagne — of Hugh 
 Capet — of Philip IV. — of Louis , XII — of Francis 
 I. — of Francis II — of Charles IX. — of Henry IV. — 
 of Louis XIII — of Louis XIV. 
 
 The subtile poison of Catholicism was instilled into the 
 French government under the reign of Clovis, the 
 Great, who succeeded his father Childeric, King of the 
 Franks, in 481. Aspiring to extend the territory of his 
 kingdom, which was confined within the sea and the 
 Scheldt, he made war upon Syagrius, the Roman gov- 
 ernor at Soissons ; captured and put him to death ; 
 subjugated Paris, and the cities of Belgia Secunda-; and 
 to obtain assistance in conquering the Allemanni ; es- 
 poused Clotilda, neice of Gundebald, King of Burgundy. 
 Clotilda, who had been educated by the Catholic priests, 
 became in their hands an instrument for the conver- 
 sion of her royal husband. Conceiving that the God 
 and religion of Catholicism were better able to aid 
 him in completing his intended conquests than were 
 the God and religious contrivances of Paganism, Clovis 
 submitted to be baptized by St. Remigius, and anointed 
 with some holy oil which the bishop affirmed had been 
 brought by a dove from heaven. The crimes and devo- 
 
IN FRANCE. 257 
 
 tion of the king, in the cause of the church, were re- 
 warded with numberless miracles and instances of di- 
 vine interposition. A white hart of singular statue and 
 brilliancy became the conductor of his army through 
 secret passes, a dazzling meteor blazed forth as his 
 forces approached the cathedral at Poitiers, and the 
 walls of Angouleme fell down at the blast of his war- 
 like bugle. Imbibing the orthodoxy of the bishops, 
 he imbibed also their hatred to the heretics. " It grieves 
 me," said he to a company of princes and warriors as- 
 sembled at Paris, " to see the Arians still possess the 
 fairest portions of Gaul. Let us march against them 
 with the aid of God ; and, having vanquished the here- 
 tics we will possess and divide their fertile provinces." 
 His savage piety led him to declare that had he been at 
 the trial of Christ he would have prevented his cruci- 
 fixion. He summoned and dismissed a council of Gaulic 
 bishops ; and then deliberately assassinated all the 
 princes belonging to his family. After having removed, 
 by violence or treachery, the princes of the different 
 Frankish tribes, incorporated their government into his 
 own, stained the soil with the blood of its proprietors 
 and defenders, bowed in abject reverence before the 
 clergy, and committed the most fiendish and heartrend- 
 ing atrocities, the pope of Rome, in consideration of his 
 piety and usefulness, bestowed upon him the title 
 of " The most Christian King and Eldest Son of the 
 Church." 
 
 While the pope professed to be the humble successor 
 
 of St. Peter, the fisherman, he was secretly laboring to 
 
 become the successor of the Csesars, the masters of the 
 
 world. With this end in view he had scattered his 
 
 22* 
 
258 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 monks throughout Europe to preach the doctrines of 
 humility, of passive obedience, of reverence for the 
 clergy, and of absolute submission to himself. The 
 support which these doctrines gave to despotism ren- 
 dered them acceptable to kings, and the conveniency 
 with which they supplied the want of morality made 
 them popular with the multitude. The arts and mir- 
 acles of the holy brotherhood excited the wonder, and 
 commanded the reverence of the crowd ; and their tact 
 and sycophancy enabled them to become the com- 
 panions of kings, the instructors of princes, the con- 
 fessors of all classes, and the spies upon the most secret 
 recesses of their thoughts. The avaricious character of 
 their religious principles enabled them to accept with- 
 out scruple the spoils of plundering expeditions, and to 
 augment the stores of their wealth by artful tricks and 
 pious frauds. The success of their missionary rapacity 
 enabled them to build spacious convents, sufficiently 
 sumptuous for the accommodation of pious kings who 
 wished to abdicate their thrones. The dungeons of 
 these sanctuaries sometimes contained a monarch, an 
 heir to a throne, or some distinguished personage whom 
 usurpation, jealousy, ambition or tyranny had there 
 confined ; and sometimes their halls afforded a hospit- 
 able asylum for the sick, the indigent, or the refugee 
 from oppression. 
 
 The popes having, with their usual skill and pru- 
 dence, established the various parts of their political 
 machinery in different sections of Europe, and sancti- 
 fied them in the eyes of princes and people, eagerly 
 watched every opportunity to set them in motion in fa- 
 vor of their cherished design. The Saracens, however, 
 
i: IN FRANCE. ' '259 
 
 entered Europe, and threatened to subjugate It to the 
 authority of the religion of Mahomet ; but the hammer 
 of Charles Martel, Mayor of France, which alone crushed 
 375,000 of the invaders, checked the career of their tri- 
 umphant arms. But as the warrior had applied the 
 riches of the church to the necessities of the state and 
 the relief of his soldiers, a synod of Catholic bishops 
 declared that the man who had saved the Catholic 
 church from extinction, was doomed to the flames of 
 hell on account of his sacrilege. The inspired synod, 
 in arriving at this orthodox conclusion was assisted by 
 the reported facts, that a. saint while dreaming had seen 
 the soul of the savior of Europe, and of Christianity, 
 burning in hell, and that upon opening his coffin a 
 strong odor of fire and brimstone had been perceived. 
 The pope entertained a better opinion of his son Carlo- 
 man, whose superstition strikingly resembled the mal- 
 ady of insanity. This Mayor of France, while exercis- 
 ing the regal authority of his office, was induced by his 
 spiritual advisers to resign his dignity ; to consecrate 
 the remainder of his life to God by shutting himself up 
 in a convent; and to give all his private possessions 
 and valuables to the church. The design which 
 prompted this intrigue seems to have been, to prepar 
 the w r ay for the usurpation of the crown of the Franks, 
 by Pepin, the Short. The pope well knew Pepin was 
 ambitious of the diadem, and had only been deterred 
 from supplanting Childeric III., the King of France, 
 — who was but a youth — by fear of Carloman. This ob- 
 stacle being removed by the retirement of the devout 
 warrior, Pepin consulted Pope Zachary about his inten- 
 sions, who replied : !•* He only ought -to ■ be king" who 
 
260 PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIGUES 
 
 exercised the royal power." Encouraged "by this papal 
 sanction of prospective treason and usurpation, he had 
 the office of Mais du Palais abolished, himself pro- 
 claimed King of France, and Childeric imprisoned in a 
 monastic dungeon, in which he was obliged to pass the 
 remainder of his life. 
 
 The interests of the pope and Pepin,, by these art- 
 ful machinations, became deeply interwoven. The crit- 
 ical state of the Holy See soon developed the sagacity 
 and good policy of the pope. The Lombards entered 
 Italy, conquered the Exarchate, and threatened the re- 
 duction of Rome. Oppressed with these misfortunes, 
 the holy father appeared in the camp of Pepin, dressed 
 in mourning and covered with ashes, soliciting the as- 
 sistance of his arms in the defence of the church, and of 
 the Consulate government of Rome. But Pepin was 
 more ready to speculate on the misfortunes of the pope 
 than to assist him in his distress. The cruelties which 
 stained the usurper's crown made him -apprehensive 
 of insecurity. He therefore signified to the supplicant 
 a willingness to comply with his wishes, if he would 
 officially sanction all the acts of usurpation of which he 
 had been guilty, crown his two sons, and anoint them 
 with the holy oil which the dove had brought from 
 heaven. Terms being satisfactorily arranged between 
 the two parties, Pepin drew his sword and reconquered 
 the greater part of Italy. 
 
 The tricks, sophistry, and eloquence of the monks 
 having failed to convert the Saxons to the church, the 
 pope was disposed to try the efficacy of the sword. 
 Charlemagne, Pepin's son, having succeeded to the 
 Frankish throne, and papal influence having gained the 
 
IN FRANCE. 261 
 
 ascendency in his councils, he was without difficulty 
 tempted to unfurl his banner in the cause of the church. 
 But the Saxons were courageous warriors, full of the 
 love of independence and of liberty ; and when the al- 
 ternative of extinction or Catholicism was presented to 
 their choice, their proud spirit gave a desperate valor 
 to their arms, in the maintenance of their rights of 
 existence and of religious liberty. Against superior 
 numbers, they defended the integrity of their empire 
 for thirty-three years ; and had not their chief advised 
 to the contrary, would rather have suffered extermina- 
 tion than to have submitted to a religion baptized in 
 blood, founded upon fraud and treachery, and forced 
 upon their acceptance against their reason and con- 
 science, and by a sword reeking with the blood of their 
 fellow countrymen. The arms of Charlemagne, and 
 the religion and policy of the pope triumphed ; but 
 not until the land was depopulated, the country con- 
 verted into a desert, and the cost of subjugation out- 
 balanced the value of the victory. 
 
 The competition between aspiring candidates for the 
 opulent bishopric of Rome had often been productive 
 of turmoil and bloodshed. The favorite and intended 
 successor of Adrian I. having been disappointed by the 
 unexpected election of Leo III., his exasperated adher- 
 ents attacked the sacred procession on the occasion, as- 
 saulted the chosen vicar of Christ, and, as it is alleged, 
 cut out his tongue, dug out his eyes, and left him dead 
 on the ground. But a miracle, it is averred, inter- 
 posed in his behalf ; restored his life, eyes and tongue ; 
 and enabled him to escape a repetition of the outrage 
 by gaining the invisible precincts of the Vatican. 
 
262 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 After having received this' assistance from heaven he 
 invoked the temporal aid of the Duke of Spoleto, and 
 of the friendly interposition of Charlemagne in his 
 favor. By the influence of these secular princes he 
 was enabled to ascend the sacerdotal throne, and to ex- 
 ercise his spiritual authority in banishing his competi- 
 tors and their adherents. 
 
 On a visit of Charlemagne to Eome, after these events, 
 the pope abruptly crowned him with a diadem, invested 
 him with the regalia of the Caesars, anointed him with 
 the holy oil which the dove had conveyed from Para- 
 adise, and pronounced him the pious Caesar crowned by 
 God. The emperor who, professing to have been aston- 
 ished at the pope's singular conduct, nevertheless took 
 an oath to preserve the faith and privileges of the 
 church. Agreeably to this oath he entrusted the clergy 
 with temporal and civil jurisdiction, expended more 
 cost and labor in the construction of cathedrals than on 
 useful undertakings, and as the demons of the air had 
 admonished the payment of tithes he enforced their 
 exaction with extreme rigor. The favor and liberal 
 indulgence of the pope enabled the emperor, consist- 
 ently with his Catholicism to enjoy the possession of nine 
 wives, to divert his capricious fancy with numberless 
 mistresses, to prolong the celibacy of his daughters that 
 it might extend the period of an illicit commerce, and 
 to become the father of numerous illegitimate children, 
 whom, however, in atonement for his indiscretions, he 
 consecrated to the priesthood. 
 
 The barbarity and usurpations of which Charlemagne 
 was guilty, in the enlargement of his vast empire, 
 naturally made him suspicious of the loyalty of his 
 
. .; IN FRANCE. 263 
 
 subjects ; and the frequent outbursts which disturbed 
 the peace of certain sections excited his most painful 
 fears for the stability of his throne. To prevent the 
 disorganization of a power which he had constructed 
 with so much labor, but endangered with so much 
 crime, he imprudently scorned the wisdom of adopting 
 concessionary measures, and had recourse to the artifices, 
 of priestcraft. Dividing the empire between two of 
 his sons, he had them crowned and anointed with the. 
 celestial oil, in expectation that these superstitious cere- 
 monies would excite in the minds of his subjects such 
 reverence for the imperial dignity as would secure in 
 its favor their devout allegiance. But this arrange- 
 ment excluding his eldest son — the issue of a divorced 
 wife — from an equal participation with his brothers in 
 the administration of the government, excited him to 
 rebel against the authority of his father. His attempt 
 to obtain by arms the justice denied by parental author- 
 ity was, in consequence of the loyalty of the papal 
 political machinery, unsuccessful ; and the injured son 
 was obliged to expiate the guilt of his unfilial insubor- 
 dination by serving the church in the capacity of a 
 monk, and passing the remainder of his days in a 
 monastic dungeon. 
 
 This conspiracy was not the only result that was pro- 
 duced by the policy of Charlemagne, in substituting 
 superstition in the place of justice in his efforts to con- 
 ciliate popular dissatisfaction. While it lent a prop to 
 the governmental structure, it furnished an instrument 
 for undermining its foundation. The division of the 
 monarchy gave occasion, after Charlemagne's death, to 
 fraternal disputes and civil conflicts ; and as these dis- 
 
26£ PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 orders favored the pope's ambitious desire to succeed to 
 the crown and dominion of the Caesars, they were kept 
 active by his machinery until the empire was disinte- 
 grated. 
 
 The last survivor of the Carlovingian dynasty was 
 Charles, Duke of Lorraine. The subjects of the realm 
 at that period had become greatly dissatisfied concern- 
 ing the oppressive privileges which the clergy enjoyed, 
 as well as with the impoverishing exactions which they 
 extorted from their industry. With these popular 
 grievances the temper and disposition of Charles en- 
 gaged his warmest sympathies. Pope John XVI., 
 elected in 986, perceiving that the heir presumptive to 
 the throne would, when he acceded to power, listen to 
 the complaints and lessen the burdens of his subjects ; 
 and acting on the 'historic motive of the Holy See, in 
 making rulers its tools, and changing dynasties to suit 
 its purposes, induced the Frankish nobility to proclaim 
 Hugh Capet King of France. But before this syco- 
 phantic papal favorite could be crowned king, and 
 anointed with the holy oil, he was obliged to swear to 
 preserve the clergy in all the privileges and immuni- 
 ties which they enjoyed. Against this formidable con- 
 spiracy Charles found himself powerless ; and after 
 making some demonstrations against the usurper, retired 
 to Lyons, which place was capable of withstanding a 
 vigorous siege. With great skill and energy, but with- 
 out any nattering success, his adversary assailed the 
 strong-built fortifications. The success which valor de- 
 nied was, however, accorded by treachery. The bishop 
 of the city having entered into secret negotiations w T ith 
 Capet, the gates were thrown open at midnight ; and 
 
IN FRANCE. 265 
 
 the usurper entering the precincts amid the stillness of 
 the hour captured the royal family, surprised Charles 
 in bed and threw him into prison, from which he was 
 never liberated. The Capitiaa dynasty, thus founded 
 in fraud, violence and usurpation, and unsupported by 
 a shadow of legal right, stands forth in history as the 
 grand champion of the legitimacy of kings, or their di- 
 vine right to rule by virtue of their descent, independ- 
 ent of the consent of the governed. 
 
 The dynasties of empire's and the political events of 
 nations are so intimately connected with the domestic 
 affairs of royal families, that in order to control the one, 
 papal intrigue has constantly intermeddled with the 
 other. Robert IL, who became king of France in 997, 
 married Bertha, his cousin, a lady of inestimable qual- 
 ities. The royal pair were a model of connubial love- 
 liness and felicity ; but when an heir had completed the 
 perfection of their happiness the pope interfered, and by 
 the exercise of his sacred authority, embittered the re- 
 mainder of their existence. Robert not having pur- 
 chased of the church an indulgence for marrying a 
 cousin, Pope Sylvester IL pronounced the conjugal 
 union illegal, and commanded the king to abandon his 
 wife. To be guilty of an offence of such a henious 
 character against the most amiable of women ; to act 
 in violation of all his matrimonial vows and obligations ; 
 to spurn his lawful wife as a prostitute, and to declare 
 his children bastards, was a complication of iniquity 
 which Robert declared to the pope that he would rather 
 die than commit. But the obdurate and savage-hearted 
 holy father, whom the view of no misfortune could 
 move, in order to reduce the king to obedience pro- 
 23 
 
26$ PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIGUES 
 
 ceeded to pronounce a sentence of excommunication 
 against him. This act was designed to call into requi- 
 sition all the appliances of the pope's machinery in 
 Hasting the happiness of two persons, whose worth was 
 unequaled in the kingdom, and perhaps unsurpassed in 
 the records of history. Accordingly the churches were 
 draped in mourning ; the picures of the images of the 
 saints shrouded in black ; the bells were tolled night 
 arid day ; religious worship was suspended in the king- 
 dom ; and no funeral ceremony allowed to be per- 
 formed. The immaculate Bertha was declared polluted ; 
 stories were circulated that she had given birth to a 
 monster, which had the head of a savage and the tail 
 of a serpent j the poor, on whom she had been accus- 
 tomed to bestow charity, now fled at her approach ; her 
 domestics broke the costly vases which adorned the 
 palace, and taking the viands from the royal table 
 dashed them into the fire. Consternation seized the 
 populace ; and priests, courtiers and people fled alike 
 from the sight of the amiable couple, as if they were 
 destructive monsters. At length, through the repeated 
 requests of Bertha, Robert agreed to a separation, and 
 allowed her to retire to a convent. This act, by which 
 he placed his wife at the mercy of licentious priests, 
 conciliated the vengeance of the sacerdotal monster. 
 
 During the reign of Philip II., who became king of 
 France in 1180, the province of Languedoc enjoyed an 
 eminent degree of liberty and prosperity. The char- 
 ters which the subjects had obtained from their princes 
 secured them in the enjoyment of many important 
 civil rights, fortified by such jealous guards as effectu- 
 ally protected them against the encroachments of exe- 
 
IN FRANCE. 267 
 
 cutive power. This liberality in their political consti- 
 tution encouraged liberality in religious inquiry, which 
 consequently led to doubts of the pope's right to tem- 
 poral power. At the flourishing city of Albi these 
 progressive ideas assumed a definite shape in an organ- 
 ization of the people, which received the appellation of 
 the Albigenses. The pope finding this sectary increas- 
 ing in numbers and popularity, in spite of the vigor- 
 ous counteracting efforts of his appliances of bishops, 
 priests and monks, ordered Raymond VI., Count of 
 Toulouse, to compel the Albigenses, by force of arms, 
 to change their religious views. As Raymond of Rogers, 
 Count of Beziers, nephew of Raymond VI., had de- 
 clared in favor of the reformer, the Count of Toulouse 
 refuse to oblige the pope by taking up arms against the 
 Count of Beziers. On account of this determination, 
 dictated by a high and delicate sense of duty and honor, 
 the pope pronounced sentence of excommunication 
 against him. In addition to this insulting manifesto, 
 he commissioned his legate to raise an army of the cross, 
 for the purpose of exterminating the reformers and 
 their allies. This authorized desperado, through the 
 energetic co-operation of the pope's political machinery, 
 soon collected a numerous army of crusaders; and im- 
 posing on them a horrible oath that they would exter- 
 minate the Albigenses without pity for the cries or tears 
 of their wives or children, immediately commenced the 
 work of blood and devastation. As this army of mur- 
 derers approached the city of Carcassonne, an order 
 was given not to leave one stone upon another, and to 
 put to death every man, woman, youth and infant. 
 The butchery was frightful, and mixed with the most 
 
268 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 fiendish acts. To arrest the horrible work Raymond of 
 Rogers offered to resign his authority. With execrable 
 treachery the legate pretended to be willing to negoti- 
 ate ; but no sooner had he betrayed the Count into his 
 power than he incarcerated him in a dungeon, where 
 he died after experiencing years of suffering. After 
 the removal of Raymond by this base treachery, Caros- 
 sonne fell; and thirty thousand men, women and chil- 
 dren were butchered in one day. Tired of the terrible 
 carnage, or disgusted at its atrociousness, the chiefs of 
 the army of the cross declared to the legate, that among 
 the crowd they could not distinguish the heretic from 
 the Catholic. " Kill on," replied the holy legate, " God 
 will know those which are his." The murderous army 
 moved on ; blood flowed at every step ; at Beziers 
 sixty thousand were put to death ; nor did the car- 
 nage cease until the inhabitants of almost every town 
 in Languedoc, without distinction of age, sex or 
 creed, were weltering in their gore. As an express 
 reward to Simon de Monfort for having surpassed 
 all others in hardihood and cruelty on those days of 
 blood, the pope bestowed upon him the devastated do- 
 mains as a fief of the church. But the soil sown with 
 the bones of heroes, and enriched with the blood of pa- 
 triots, was prolific of formidable avengers ; who con- 
 stantly shook the throne, and rendered it a calamity to 
 its blood-stained occupant. His son succeeded him ; 
 but not being able to defend it against the uprising of 
 the people, it was incorporated into the French empire ; 
 but still the war raged, until 1226, when a peace was 
 concluded with Raymond IV., upon condition of his 
 purchasing absolution at an enormous price, and ceding 
 the greater portion of his domains to France. 
 
IN FRANCE. 269 
 
 In 1285, when Philip IV. ascended the throne of 
 France, the despotism of Rome had perpetually en- 
 croached on the rights of the sovereignty of the gov- 
 ernment, and by an insidious policy subjected it more 
 and more to its influence. Among the privileges which 
 the popes arrogated was the right to arbitrate the contro- 
 versies which arose between independent sovereignties. 
 A dispute having sprung up between Philip IV-., of 
 France, and Edward I., of England, Pope Boniface 
 VIII., wishing to enjoy the advantage of dictating the 
 terms of adjustment, arbitrarily attempted to interfere 
 in the controversy. This officious intermeddling in the 
 affairs of a sovereign state was resisted by Philip with 
 patriotic firmness. The irascible pope, transported with 
 rage at the irreverence and independence of Philip, 
 and at the recollection of his liberal governmental 
 views and measures, interdicted all religious worship in 
 his dominions, and suspended the dispensation of the 
 means of grace. But the policy of Philip, in introduc- 
 ing the "third estates," or deputies of the people, which 
 had been instituted by Charlemagne, but discontinued by 
 Hugh Capet, and in his extending the jurisdiction 
 of parliament over the crowned heals, had fortified 
 him in the affections of his subjects, while the papal 
 establishments, in extracting the life-blood from the in- 
 dustrial classes, had weakened popular attachment to 
 the Holy See. The liberality of the king nullified 
 the virtue of the Vatican thunder ; and the generous sup- 
 port which he commanded from the people, and from a 
 faction of the priests, enabled him to resist the inter- 
 meddling of the pope with the rights of the crown • 
 
 nay more, as the tyranny of the holy father had ren- 
 23* 
 
270 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 dered him. unpopular in Italy, it placed him at the mer- 
 cy of a prince whom he had insulted and exasperated," 
 and who was capable of taking revenge. Accordingly, 
 emissaries were sent to Rome who, seizing the holy 
 father while he was defiantly seated in the apostolic 
 chair, dragged him from his despotic throne, and cast 
 him into prison. From this ignominious predicament 
 he was, however, shortly afterwards released ; but as 
 his character was black with crime, it was determined 
 to summon a council for his deposition. Depressed 
 with the expectation of certain degradation, chagrined 
 and mortified at the loss of his dignity and the insults 
 to his holiness, and having refused all sustenance in 
 confinement for fear of being poisoned, his constitution 
 broke down, and he died in a paroxysm of rage and fear 
 before arrangements could be completed for his trial. 
 According to Catholic authority, " he entered like a 
 fox, reigned like a tiger, and died like a dog." His 
 condition after his death may be variously conjectured 
 by theologians according to their different creeds ; but 
 Dante, who was a Catholic, places him in hell between 
 Pope Nicholas III. and Pope Clement V. 
 
 During the reign of Louis XII., who became King of 
 France in 1498, the duplicity and treachery which has 
 in general characterized the history of the papal in- 
 trigues obtained an illustration in the conduct of the 
 popes, which would have disgraced the chiefs of bar- 
 baric nations. Louis, upon receiving the royal diadem, 
 pardoned the wrongs which had been done to him 
 while he was duke, relieved the industry of his sub- 
 jects by reducing the burden of their taxation, elevated 
 the literary standard of the nation by the introduction 
 
IN FRANCE. 271 
 
 of scientific collections, and displayed a nobleness of 
 disposition, and a capacity for the exercise of the gov- 
 ernmental functions prophetic of the highest degree of 
 national prosperity and greatness. Pope Julius II. 
 before his election, had professed the warmest friend- 
 ship for Louis, and secured his influence in gaining the 
 sacerdotal crown. Having succeeded in this strategic 
 measure, his ambition led him to grasp at another object 
 which he conceived Louis's friendship might be made 
 accessory in realizing. That object was the oblitera- 
 tion of the Venitian republic. He accordingly formed 
 a holy league, called the " League of Cambray," with 
 France, Spain and Germany, for the accomplishment of 
 his object. Faithful to his obligations, Louis fought 
 with distinguished bravery in the pope's cause. His 
 heroism won encomiums from all but from the holy 
 father, who was too jealous not to hate superiority, too 
 selfish for sincere friendship, and too sagacious not to 
 perceive that in the further developments of his aggres- 
 sive designs he was bound to encounter in the heroism 
 and honor of Louis a powerful antagonist. The form- 
 idable valor of the Venitian republicans in the defence 
 of their government, the mutual distrust among the 
 allies, which they managed to excite, and the con- 
 flicting interpretations of the terms of the compact 
 eventually dissolved the holy league. But the finesse 
 of the pope, and the adroitness with which he engineered 
 his machinery, gave him the ability to conciliate his 
 difficulties with the republicans, and of inducing that 
 republic to unite with him in a league with Spain, 
 England and Switzerland, against France. Germany 
 and France then called a council at Pisa, for reforma- 
 
272 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 tion in the head and body of the church ; at the bar 
 of which they summoned the pope, to explain his con- 
 duct. But scorning the mandate of the synod, he con- 
 vened a council at the Lateran ; and causing a decree 
 to be passed declaring Louis to have forfeited his crown, 
 excommunicated him, and interdicted the celebration of 
 religious worship in his kingdom. Louis was now as- 
 saulted by the English at Guingate, by the Spanish at 
 Navarre, by the Swiss at Dijon, while his kingdom was 
 internally convulsed by treacherous priests, crafty 
 spies, false friends, and unpatriotic Catholics. Unable 
 to contend against these formidable antagonists, he had 
 to surrendered all his possessions beyond the Alps 
 and the Pyrenees. 
 
 Pope Leo X., who succeeded Julius II., governed by 
 motives of nepotism and ambition, concocted a scheme 
 for obtaining for his family the kingdom of Naples and 
 the duchies of Ferrara and Urbino. At the same time 
 Louis entertained a design of reconquering Milan, 
 which he inherited from his grandmother, Valentina 
 Visconti. The success of these schemes depended on 
 the mutual friendship of the projectors. The pope, in 
 order to secure the confidence of Louis, entered into a 
 secret alliance with him, and pretended to favor all his 
 plans. But while he was nattering his hopes, he was 
 preparing to ruin his cause. To weaken his resources 
 he secretly sent Bambo, his legate, to Venice to de- 
 tach its alliance from France ; and though this treach- 
 erous mission was unsuccessful, yet when the French 
 appeared on the confines of Italy, he increased his 
 power by the purchase of Modena, and finally reduced 
 Louis to a formal submission. 
 
IN FRANCE. 273 
 
 In 1515 Francis I, ascended the throne, and immedi- 
 ately commenced preparations for the re-conquest of 
 Milan. Pope Leo X., to defeat this enterprise formed 
 an alliance with Milan, Florence, Artois, Germany and 
 Switzerland. A bloody battle ensued in which tigers 
 and giants seemed to struggle with each other, and 
 which was protracted without intermission for two 
 days and nights. France recovered Milan ; the pope 
 was reduced to the last extremity ; yet the pru- 
 dence or superstition of Francis concluded a con- 
 cordat with him, upon such liberal terms as excited 
 the dissatisfaction of France, and the surprise of the 
 world. 
 
 After this signal and generous triumph the bellige- 
 rant powers became reconciled. This event was hailed 
 by the friends of humanity with united acclamations. 
 But the Holy See, whose policy has ever been to foster 
 wars and controversies between governments, that it 
 might improve the consequent confusion and disorder 
 in aggrandizing its power, received the news of pacifi- 
 cation with chagrin and disappointment. 
 
 But Milan, which had cost France so much to win, 
 was soon lost by the conquest of Charles V., Emperor 
 of Germany and King of Spain. This prince having 
 formed a league with Pope Leo X. against Francis I., 
 i — which league was afterwards joined by Henry VIII., 
 of England — active hostilities were soon commenced. 
 After a war of four disastrous years, the emperor cap- 
 tured Francis, obliged him to relinquish his claims to 
 Naples, Milan, Genoa, Asti, Flanders and Artois; to 
 dismember his kingdom by surrendering Burgundy; 
 and to ransom himself by the payment of 2,000,000 
 
274 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 crowns. The popularity and victorious march of the 
 German emperor now alarmed the jealous fears of the 
 holy father, Pope Clement VII., who, apprehending in 
 them his own subjugation, united in an alliance with 
 Francis I., the former antagonist of the Roman See, and 
 with all the Italian powers, to arrest the dangerous tri- 
 umphs of his new rival. The allies succeeded in 
 humbling the pride of Charles ; but in the midst of 
 their victories a plague, more fearful than their foes, 
 broke out in the French army, and thinned its ranks 
 with fearful mortality. This circumstance led to the 
 peace of Cambray. But the ambition of Francis, and 
 his indomitable thirst for the reconquest of Milan, soon 
 led him to violate the terms of this covenant. Confed- 
 erating with Solyman II., Sultan of the Ottoman em- 
 pire, he drove Charles before his forces. The interest 
 of the Holy See being threatened by the successes of 
 the allied army, and perhaps in the event of the tri- 
 umph of Charles not perfectly secure, Pope Paul III. 
 interposed his friendly mediation, and induced the bel- 
 ligerents to conclude a truce of ten years. 
 
 In 1559 Francis II., son of Francis I., succeeded to 
 the crown of France. Amid the nattering successes of 
 the papal intrigues, the rapid progress of Protestantism 
 in Europe, and the fearless boldness of its advocates, 
 occasioned great uneasiness to the Holy See. Scorning 
 the mild but able services of reason and concili-ation, it 
 counselled the most sanguinary measures. The records 
 of the times are consequently filled with accounts of 
 disorders, assassinations, massacres, and the most deplor- 
 able conflicts. The French nation was divided into 
 two great factions ; the one in favor of Catholicism, the 
 
IN FRANCE. 
 
 275 
 
 other in favor of Protestantism. By means of the 
 papal machinery of bishops, abbots, priests, monks and 
 spies, the Catholics were made to believe that the relig- 
 ious disorders which had convulsed the empire were 
 but a prelude to an intended extermination of all 
 Bomanists. To narrow-minded bigots, who absurdly 
 believed that their church afforded the only possible 
 method of escaping the pangs of purgatory, and of ob- 
 taining eternal happiness, all the zeal which their hopes 
 and fears of eternity could inspire was awakened in 
 the defence of their religion. "While the Protestants 
 who, on the other hand, believed that Catholicism was 
 idolatry, subversive of Christianity, demoralizing in its 
 tendency, and destructive of the rights of conscience, 
 reason and religious liberty, became equally heated in 
 the defence of their faith. Both factions had been edu- 
 cated in intolerent principles ; in the belief that error 
 of opinion was perilous to the soul ; that it rendered a 
 person a proper object of aversion and denunciation; 
 and, that a difference of opinion was a sufficient justifi- 
 cation of hatred and persecution. Both factions being 
 educated in the principles of bigotry and intolerance, 
 nursed amid convulsions and barbarity, embittered 
 against each other by mutual provocations and injury, 
 were incapable of pacification by just and reasonable 
 concession. The Catholics, having the power, were 
 enabled to inflict on the Protestants the deeper injuries ; 
 and, to the credit of the Protestants it will ever be, re- 
 membered, that they sought not to exterminate their 
 foes, but to obtain equal rights with them. 
 
 The Cardinal of Lorraine, who had supervision of the 
 clergy, and Henry, Duke of Guise, the uncle of the 
 
276 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 king, who directed the military affairs, were both un- 
 compromising in their hostility to the Protestants. 
 Antony of Bourbon, King of Navarre, and his brother 
 Louis, Prince of Conde, being excluded from the gov- 
 ernmental administration, united with the Calvinists for 
 the overthrow of the regime, under pretext of religious 
 zeal. Catherine de Medici, mother of the king, and 
 niece of Pope Clement VIL, jealous of a power in 
 which she could not participate, favored the designs of 
 Louis, and employed her art in stimulating the opposi- 
 tion of the reformers to the administration of the Duke 
 of Guise. Under these circumstances a conspiracy 
 against the duke was formed at Amboise, which led to 
 a murderous onslaught, and inaugurated civil war. 
 Louis was captured and condemned to death. 
 
 In the midst of the distraction of conflicting parties 
 Francis I. died, and Charles IX., in 1560, succeeded to 
 the throne at the age of ten years. Catherine de Medici, 
 his mother, with the acquiesence of parliament, admin- 
 istered the affairs of government. Although a bigoted 
 Catholic, yet having no principle but the love of sway, 
 she was ready to support any faction or creed that ad- 
 ministered to her power, or removed an obstacle to her 
 ambition. Without profound views of policy, she was 
 incapable of either originating a great national object, 
 or of supporting it by adequate measures. So indomit- 
 able was her passion for dominion, that it as much ob- 
 durated her maternal feelings as it disqualified her for 
 a judicious regent. She even studied to incapacitate 
 her sons for the exercise of the governmental functions, 
 and to divert their attention from the state of national 
 affairs. With this end in view she involved them in 
 
Itf FRANCE. 277 
 
 the grossest dissipation, and strove to keep them in a 
 perpetual whirl of voluptuous intoxication. Perfect in 
 the art of dissimulation, she cajoled Catholics and 
 Protestants. Anxious to obtain the support of all par- 
 ties, she alternately favored the one and the other. To 
 embarrass the Duke of Guise she threw everything into 
 confusion ; but to conciliate the Protestants she had to 
 redeem her pledges ; and in spite of the opposition of 
 the court, to issue an act of toleration in their favor. 
 
 The lines of party became now distinctly drawn. 
 The Protestant faction, headed by the Prince of Conde, 
 and Coligny, admiral of France, was assisted by the 
 English ; and the Catholic faction^ headed by Francis, 
 Duke of Guise, was assisted by Spain. At a season of 
 intense public excitement the Duke of Guise, with a 
 band of adherents, was passing a barn in which some 
 Calvinists were singing psalms. Irritating taunts were 
 mutually exchanged between the two parties. This 
 exasperating conduct brought on a collision, in which 
 sixty Calvinists were killed, the flames of civil war ig- 
 nited, and the empire divided and distracted by the 
 hostile conflicts of the two religious parties. The duke, 
 at the head of his forces, pursued the Protestants with 
 pitiless revenge, and the Protestants retaliated his cru- 
 elties with fearful retribution. Desperate conflicts per- 
 petually took place, and the land was drenched with 
 blood. The bigotry of both factions stained their cause 
 with deplorable excesses. At the battle of Dreux the 
 belligerents came to a decisive engagement. The 
 Protestants were defeated, and Conde captured. The 
 Duke of Guise designing to crush Protestantism by 
 striking a blow at Orleans, its centre, commenced ac- 
 24 
 
278 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 tive preparations for the enterprise ; but while he was 
 engaged in them he was shot by Poltrot de Mercy, a 
 Huguenot nobleman. Advising peace in his last mo- 
 ments, terms of conciliation were accordingly offered 
 the Protestants, which being accepted, tranquillity was 
 restored to the empire. 
 
 The arts of Catherine, the intolerance of Catholicism, 
 and the suspicion and fervor of Protestantism, soon 
 convulsed the nation again with the disorders of civil 
 war. Aspiring to rule with more absolute power than 
 she had hitherto been able, Catherine conceived the 
 idea of having the king, whom she held helplessly under 
 her control, declared to be of competent age for the 
 exercise of the royal functions. This accomplished, 
 she made a tour through the empire in company with, 
 him. At Bayonne the young king had an interview with 
 his sister, wife of Philip II., King of Spain. The sus- 
 picions of the Caivinists were immediately excited ; 
 they precipitately armed themselves for defence, and 
 formed a conspiracy to assassinate the king. Civil war 
 consequently broke out. A severe and bloody engage- 
 ment took place at St. Dennis. The losses were heavy 
 on both sides ; but Montmorency, a prominent Catholic 
 leader being killed, another treaty of peace was con- 
 cluded. But the artifice and dissimulation of Catherine 
 only made treaties which contained the elements of fu- 
 ture wars. They satisfied neither the Catholics nor the 
 Protestants ; and were evaded by both. Contrary to 
 the stipulations of the treaty of St. Dennis, the Caivin- 
 ists still continued to hold places which they had con- 
 tracted to surrender, and to continue correspondence 
 with England and Holland, which they had agreed to 
 
• IN FRANCE. ' '279 
 
 "break off. The inflammable material of religious 
 bigotry, together with these circumstances, provoked 
 another intestine war. The Duke of Anjou, afterwards 
 Henry III., commanded the Catholic faction ; and 
 Conde, and Admiral Coligny headed the Protest- 
 ant faction. At the battle of Jarnac, Conde was cap- 
 tured and shot; and at the battle of Montcontour 
 Coligny was defeated. Amid these discomfitures of the 
 Protestants a peace was offered them on terms of such 
 extraordinary generosity by the Catholics, that they 
 were unconditionally accepted. 
 
 Henry of Navarre, Conde's son, subsequently Henry 
 IV., on hearing of his father's death swore to revenge 
 his murder; but the peace which had just been con- 
 cluded rendered him destitute of means and arms. His 
 mother, Queen Jeanne d'Albret, after the death of her 
 husband, Conde, King of Navarre, had, in order to 
 avoid the intrigues of Catherine, retired from the 
 French court to Beam, her hereditary possessions. In 
 this retreat she declared herself in favor of the Hugue- 
 nots. When her son was but eleven years old the 
 Guises, in conjunction with Philip II., King of Spain, 
 devised a plot for depriving the young prince of his 
 hereditary possessions in lower Navarre, and of placing 
 him in the hands of the latter tyrant. The sagacity of 
 Elizabeth, Queen of England, however, detected this 
 conspiracy in time to frustrate it. In consequence of 
 this base machination, Queen Jeanne d' Albert placed 
 -her son Henry, when he was but sixteen years old, at 
 the head of a Protestant army, and caused him to take 
 an oath to shed the last drop of his blood in the defence 
 of his -kingdom and religion. ' 
 
280 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 Henry Guise, son of Francis Guise, Duke of Lorraine, 
 became the commander of the royal army. The bloody 
 Catherine, in collusion with this ambitious and bigoted 
 duke, concocted a plot for the total extermination of all 
 the Protestants in the French empire. The peace which 
 had been concluded with the Protestants at Jarnac and 
 Montcontour was but the preliminary measure in the 
 accomplishment of this horrible project. The terms it 
 accorded were so surprisingly advantageous to the con- 
 quered forces, that the more cautious Protestants re- 
 garded it with suspicion. The next device in this insid- 
 ious plot, was a specious pretence of uniting all parties 
 in interest and harmony by the bonds of two mar- 
 riages, the one between the king, Charles IX., and 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Maximilian II., Emperor of Ger- 
 many, and the other between Margaret, the queen's sis- 
 ter, and Henry, Prince of Navarre. All the distin- 
 guished Protestant leaders were earnestly invited to be 
 present at the celebration of the royal nuptials. Fear- 
 ing treachery many of them, however, declined the 
 honor. Amid the magnificence and festivity of the 
 occasion Queen Jeanne d' Albert was poisoned. Shortly 
 after Coligny was wounded by a shot from a window. 
 The king swore to punish the villain who had attempted 
 the assassination. His mother assured him Coligny had 
 the same designs on his life. Bursting into rage he 
 exclaimed : " Kill every Protestant — kill Coligny." 
 Catherine then held her council of blood. All having 
 been concerted for a general massacre, on Bartholomew's 
 eve, at midnight of the day fixed, the church bells an- 
 nounced the signal for commencing the horrible butch- 
 ery. Wild shrieks and murderous clamor immediately 
 
IN FRANCE. 281 
 
 shook the air. "Spare none; it is God's, it is Cathe- 
 rine's it is the king's order." shouted the Catholic 
 leaders as they led on their gangs of remorseless bigots. 
 In the red glare of terrifying flambeaux, were seen 
 daggers dripping with the blood of men, women, and 
 even babes. The people without means of defence or 
 flight saw they were doomed to perish without mercy 
 or revenge. Coligny awakened from his sleep by the 
 terrific yells and screams that filled the air, arose from 
 his bed and opened the door of his mansion. Meeting 
 the assassins, he courteously invited them into his 
 chamber. "Companions," said he, " finish your work. 
 Take the blood sixty years of war have respected : 
 Coligny will forgive you. My life is of little conse- 
 quence, and though I would rather lose it in defending 
 you, yet take it." Touched at these words, and his 
 calm, majestic countenance, the ruffians fell upon their 
 knees ; one of them threw away his dagger ; another 
 embraced the knees of his intended victim, and the 
 courage of all dissolved into tears. Besme, the com- 
 mander of the gang, who had waited in the court for 
 Coligny's head, becoming impatient entered the cham- 
 ber, and seeing the assassins overcome by humanity de- 
 nounced them as traitors to Catherine. At this denun- 
 ciation one of them averting his head, drew his sword 
 and plunged it into Coligny's breast. For thirty days 
 in every part of the kingdom the most atrocious acts 
 were perpetrated. Doors were burst open ; men and 
 women assassinated night and day ; babes torn from 
 their mother's arms were murdered before their parents' 
 eyes. Over this dreadful calamity the friends and foes 
 of France might have together wept; but Rome was 
 24* 
 
282 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 illuminated, cannons were fired in its honor, churches 
 were shaken with the peals of thanksgiving, priests 
 formed themselves into holy processions to testify their 
 joy, jubilees were proclaimed, and the pope, jealous of 
 the authorship of atrocities that shook the world with 
 horror, had medals prepared to immortalize his right to 
 the honor of having originated the most horrible mas- 
 sacre on record. When we consider the atrociousness 
 of the massacre, and the exultations of the holy father, we 
 are at a loss which most to pity, the victims of the catas- 
 trophe, or the fiend that rejoiced over it. After the in- 
 cidents of that day Henry of Navarre and the Prince 
 of Conde had to profess Catholicism in order to save 
 their lives. This device defeating the designs of Cath- 
 erine on the life of Henry, she next added to the 
 ignominy of her character by attempting to dissolve 
 the marriage which, through her influence, had just 
 been consummated. Foiled in this scheme, she then 
 sought to poison the happiness of the royal pair. To 
 hold Henry spell-bound in the power of her fascinations, 
 she spread around him all the voluptuous allurements 
 of sensual pleasure. But the native magnanimity of 
 his spirit broke the thralls of her enchantment; and 
 secretly escaping from a corrupt and besotted court, he 
 recanted his Catholicism, and placed himself at the 
 head of the Protestant League as King of Navarre ; a 
 title which he had rightfully assumed since his mother's 
 death. The revenge which was now rife on the lips of 
 thousands, for slaughtered relatives and citizens, and 
 the portentous disasters which overhung the empire, con- 
 vinced Catherine of her error ; and Charles, tracing the 
 'calamities of the nation to her ambition, resolved. to 
 
IN FRANCE, 283 
 
 atone for his past neglect by governing the empire 
 himself: hut death too soon deprived him of an oppor- 
 tunity to make this atonement. 
 
 On the death of Charles IX., Henry IIL, his brother, 
 succeeded to the throne. But being then King of 
 Poland, Catherine, his mother, was permitted to govern 
 in his name until he should be able to assume the ad- 
 ministration himself. Catherine immediately concluded 
 a peace with the Huguenots, which granted them relig- 
 ious liberty But this liberal concession exasperated 
 the Catholics, and afforded Henry Guise a pretext for 
 perfecting a league which had been projected by Car- 
 dinal Lorraine, The professed object of this league was 
 to defend Catholicism, and extirpate religious liberty;- 
 but it had also a secret object, which was to usurp the 
 throne. After Henry IIL had returned to his domains, 
 his profligate disposition, and his want of decision and 
 firmness made him the dupe of his mother's intrigues. 
 By her machinations he was kept imprisoned in the 
 royal palace, occupied with frivolous intrigues and stu- 
 pefied with debauch, even while dissension was shaking 
 his government, and treason plotting his downfall. Be- 
 sides the unpopularity which his neglect of national 
 affairs engendered in the minds of his subjects, his 
 marriage with the Countess of Lorraine, giving the 
 Guises increased influence in the government, added 
 suspicion to the popular discontent. 
 
 By the support of the papal machinery, Henry 
 Guise became sufficiently powerful to dictate laws to the 
 king. He obliged him to annul all provisions in favor 
 of the reformers, and carried his insolence so far that 
 the king forbid him to approach the capitol. It was 
 
284 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 now discovered that the duke intended to kidnap the 
 king, imprison him in a monastic dungeon , and usurp 
 the imperial authority. Conscious of his power, the 
 duke boldly violated the king's command, that he should 
 not enter Paris. At this defiance the king called on 
 his troops for assistance ; hut so effectively had the 
 pope's machinery operated, that the people attacked the 
 royal troops, drove them away, and thirty thousand pa- 
 pists sprung to arms in the defence of the duke. Such 
 was the helplessness of the king that he had to fly for 
 safety to Chartres r and to conclude a treaty with his 
 enemy. Upon the assembling of the Estates of Blois, 
 they decided that the duke was too powerful to be 
 brought to trial, but that his open treason would justify 
 the king in having him assassinated. Appearing to be 
 reconciled to him he then partook of the eucharist in 
 company with him ; but while he did so, gave secret 
 orders for his assassination. In a few days after this event 
 the duke was stabbed as he entered the royal palace,, 
 and Cardinal Lorraine met the same fate in a dungeon. 
 The severe disappointments which these melancholy 
 events occasioned to the hopes of the Papal See, gave 
 rise to a holy league against Henry III., headed by the 
 Duke of Mayenne, brother of the Duke of Guise, 
 which league was supported by all the resources of 
 Kome. Every department of the papal machinery was 
 now set in the most vigorous action. Paris and the 
 principal cities of France were incited to declare against 
 the king. The Serbonne, the highest Catholic university 
 in the empire, absolved the subjects from their alle- 
 giance to him ; the pope threatened him with excom- 
 munication ; and his assassination was publicly preached 
 
IN FRANCE. 285 
 
 in the churches. But by a fortunate coalition with 
 Henry of Navarre the king defeated the pope and his 
 league, re-captured Paris, and established again his 
 authority in the empire. Yet the Catholic church, 
 which never forgives an offence, and scruples at no 
 means to remove an obstacle, found a Dominican monk 
 who executed her vengeance by the assassination of 
 the king. 
 
 Henry III. left no male heirs ; consequently Henry 
 of Navarre became the legitimate inheritor of the 
 throne of France. The papal machinery which in vain 
 had been called into requisition to destroy him, was 
 now set in vigorous operation to prevent him from 
 establishing a legal right to his heritage. The Duke 
 of Mayenne, at the head of the Catholics, declared 
 against him ; Philip II., king of Spain, claimed the 
 crown ; and several unsuccessful attempts were made to 
 assassinate him. But the valor and sagacity of Henry 
 defeated his enemies, and triumphed over all difficul- 
 ties. The papal machinery was, however, still formid- 
 able; and Henry IV., convinced that the blood of his 
 subjects must continue to flow as long as they were 
 governed by a Protestant sovereign, decided to profess 
 the Catholic faith, which of all others he must have 
 sincerely detested. By this politic act of humiliation 
 he acquired for his subjects political security and entire 
 religious liberty, and obtained from the pope a conces- 
 sion to his right to the crown. But in sacrificing prin- 
 ciple to expediency he did not conciliate papal malice, 
 nor secure tranquillity to his reign. Conspiracies were 
 rife, female intrigue abounded, bigotry and intolerance 
 gave birth to much violence and disorder, and finally, 
 
286 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 the long-premeditated assassination of Henry IV. was 
 accomplished by Eavaillac, who stabbed him to the 
 heart with a double-edged sword, the papal symbol of 
 spiritual and temporal power. 
 
 The papal machinery during the past reigns had de- 
 moralized the nation. The national policy was charac- 
 terized by a system of falsehood, corruption and intrigue. 
 Princes of the blood were excluded from the throne, on 
 account of their liberal proclivities. Innocent men, 
 women and children were imprisoned, murdered and 
 burnt. Female intrigue, the bane of national peace 
 and virtue predominated in political circles ; and pub- 
 lic robbery and extravagance laid the foundation of a 
 debt which ultimately broke down the government. 
 
 Under Louis XIII., who became King of France in 
 1610, the papal machinery was directed by Cardinal 
 Richelieu, who governed the king ; by M. Tellier, 
 his confessor, and Madame Maitenon, his prostitute, 
 who governed the cabinet. Richelieu gave boldness 
 and craft to the national policy, and consummated the 
 governmental absoluteness which had been initiated by 
 Louis XI. Division of power being more friendly to 
 justice and republicanism than consolidation, the papal 
 political machinery has always vigorously, as well as 
 universally, labored to defeat the first and encourage 
 the second. But what is unfriendly to republicanism is 
 destructive to national prosperity ; and consequently 
 the papal intrigues and appliances in favor of absolute- 
 ness in France destroyed the greatness of the nation. 
 
 The political security and religious liberty which 
 Henry IV. had secured to the subjects were annulled 
 by the repeal of the Edict of Nantes, and Catholic in- 
 
IN FRANCE. 287 
 
 tolerance again domineered over the lives and fortunes 
 of Protestants. Kings had been taught by their teach- 
 ers and spiritual guides that " to dissemble was to reign," 
 and that " to become a great man it was necessary to 
 become a great villain." The consequence was national 
 weakness and demoralization. Mock treaties were 
 made to conceal real ones, and kings, to disguise their 
 intentions, acted differently from what they thought. 
 A succession of weak, bigoted, tyrannical, and criminal 
 rulers had oppressed the industry of the country, and 
 drove thousands of subjects to seek a livelihood under 
 less oppressive government. Despotic ministers, rapa- 
 cious favorites, intriguing prostitutes, foolish enter- 
 prises absurd laws, professed rakes in the garb of 
 priests and cardinals, prodigality, corruption and 
 tyranny withering the vitality of the nation, and accu- 
 mulating on the heads of the people an insupportable 
 load of taxation and misery, were the deplorable results 
 of the operation of the pope and his political engine. 
 But while such were the calamities which Catholicism 
 was maturing, the eloquent writings of Voltaire, of Ros- 
 seau, and other liberal authors were awakening a spirit 
 of inquiry in the public mind, and preparing the way 
 for political regeneration. The smouldering fires of 
 freedom which burned in the breast of the nation, ren- 
 dered the conflict between monarchy and republicanism 
 inevitable. It finally took place; the majesty of the 
 people was vindicated ; and, a national assembly con- 
 vened consisting of three hundred and seventeen cler- 
 gymen, three hundred and seventeen nobles, and six 
 hundred and seventeen deputies of the people ; all of 
 whom took an oath never to separate until they had 
 given France a free constitution. From the ruins of the 
 
288 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES. 
 
 monarchy a republic arose in majesty and power. The 
 feudal estates were abolished without indemnifica- 
 tion. The invidious game laws, the feudal tribunals, 
 the church tithes, the ecclesiastical revenues, the hered- 
 itary descent of officers, the exemption of church dig- 
 nities from military taxation, the laws excluding Pro- 
 testants from offices of trust or profit, and denying them 
 the right of inheriting, acquiring or bequeathing prop- 
 erty, and all that the toil of the papal machinery had 
 accumulated on the heads of the people, were swept 
 away by the spirit of liberal government. To obtain 
 this freedom the nation had poured out its blood. But 
 •the nation had been educated in Catholic bigotry and 
 intolerance ; and now it visited on the heads of its 
 tutors the lessons which they had taught. The people 
 swept away the despotism of the throne, but left it 
 remaining in the national councils ; and, while they 
 made a wreck of oppression, they preserved its elements 
 to be reconstructed in another form. It is not, then, 
 surprising, that hard as their freedom was won, it was 
 so easily betrayed by the genius of Napoleon Bonaparte, 
 once its advocate, but always its foe ; who hated repub- 
 licanism as much as he hated papacy, for they both 
 were in conflict with his designs ; and who loved 
 nothing but himself and supreme dominion. But the 
 boon he sought his ambition defeated. While he stood 
 at the height of his fortune, with the conquest of 
 Europe in his grasp, the mask fell from his brow. The 
 confidence of freemen forsook him ; and his glory, which 
 else might have outrivalled the splendor of the greatest, 
 flickered, grew dim, and soon vanished away ; leaving 
 the world as much astonished at the obscurity it left as it 
 had been at the effulgence it had emitted. 
 
CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES IN 
 GERMANY. 
 
 Papal Intrigues in Germany under the reigns of Otho 
 I — of Henry IV. — of Henry V. — of Frederic I — of 
 Frederic II — of Conrad IV. — of Albert I — of Henry 
 VII — of Louis -of Bavaria — of Charles IV. — of Sigis- 
 mund — of Charles V. — of Ferdinand II — Papal In- 
 trigues in Austria — in Prussia — and in the Nether- 
 lands. 
 
 Wittixind the Great, King of Saxony, after a vigorous 
 resistance for thirty-three years against the arms of 
 Charlemagne, the confederate of the pope, submitted to 
 be baptized to spare the further effusion of the blood of 
 his subjects. But in the events of one hundred years, 
 the conquered became the emperors, and the Franks 
 were supplanted on the throne by the Saxons. From 
 the time that the Carlovingian dynasty was established 
 until the dissolution of the empire in 1806, the secular 
 power had to continually struggle against the intrigues 
 and usurpations of the Papal See. 
 
 The pope's claim of being the disposer of crowns, and 
 the source of secular power, acheived something of a 
 triumph in 962, when through a crafty policy the pon- 
 tiff bestowed the diadem on Otho. From motives of 
 policy the emperor conceded the spiritual claims of the 
 pope, but prudently nullified them by placing him 
 25 
 
290 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 Tinder his authority. While Otho acknowledged that 
 he was emperor by the grace of God and the pope, he 
 required the latter, who was John XII. ? to swear allegi- 
 ance to him, and the Roman See to enter into a solemn 
 agreement with him that henceforth no pope should he 
 chosen except in the presence of a Germanic imperial 
 commission. This judicious check on the intriguing 
 policy of the Papal See, was too unpleasant to he toler- 
 ated longer than weakness made it unavoidable. Pre- 
 sumptuous as false, Pope John XII. was led to violate 
 his oath of allegiance, and to take up arms to acquire 
 inependence of secular authority. For this act of per- 
 jury, treason, and violation of a solemn treaty — which 
 in a layman would have been a capital offence, but in a 
 priest was aggravated by the additional crime of hypoc- 
 risy — the emperor could not do less than depose him. 
 
 In the papal monarchy virtue and ability were sel- 
 dom conspicuous, and generally when either appeared 
 in its administration, it was less the offspring of Cathol- 
 icism than of the Germanic authority. The emperors 
 of Germany were far better men than the popes of Rome. 
 "While the first labored to reform the church, the latter 
 did little else than corrupt it. Virtue, the foundation 
 of public order and concord, could not but be encour- 
 aged in the subjects by a sagacious monarch ; and vice, 
 the indulgent mother of fraud and imposition, could not 
 but be cultivated by a crafty and ambitious priest. In 
 the progress of the conduct of the papal and the impe- 
 rial policy, so mutually antagonistical, Henry III., who 
 became Emperor of Germany in 1046, had to depose 
 three popes, and to fill the papal chair during his life 
 with men of his own choice. He also held the papal 
 
IN GERMANY. 291 
 
 monarchy under strict surveilance, and forbade the be- 
 stowal of any spiritual dignity, or the appropriation of 
 any church property without his sanction. The whole- 
 some effects of his severity won commendations even 
 from those upon whom they were most rigorously en- 
 forced ; in proof of which it may be stated that the 
 clergy spontaneously bestowed on him the title of " The 
 Pious," which he condescended to accept. 
 
 In 1056 Henry IV. ascended the throne of Germany. 
 The Papal See, bitterly groaning under the jealous re- 
 straint which had been imposed on it by the secular 
 authority, eagerly w T atched, and artfully intrigued for 
 an opportunity to remove them. The impolitic and ty- 
 rannical conduct of Henry IV. appeared, perhaps in 
 its eye, as a providential circumstance designed to aid 
 the success of its long cherished design. The emperor, 
 governed by the advice of Archbishop Adelbert, at- 
 tempted, by building castles, and committing brutal and 
 violent acts, to rule his people through the terror of his 
 authority. Neglecting to guard popular interests, which 
 alone can secure popular attachment, his efforts to over- 
 awe his subjects produced only dissatisfaction and in- 
 surrection. In an outburst of popular violence pro- 
 voked by his . imprudence, considerable damage was 
 done to some churches in Saxony and Thuringia. These 
 disorders gave Henry the opportunity of gratifying his 
 revengeful feelings in accusing the inhabitants before 
 the pope of sacrilege, and of entering their territory and 
 perpetrating the most barbarous cruelty. The conse- 
 quences of this proceeding eventuated in such a favor- 
 able crisis to the papal designs, that, had the ablest 
 pope projected and engineered them they could not 
 
292 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 have culminated more propitiously. The injured and 
 exasperated inhabitants appealed to the pope. Pope 
 Gregory VII., having ascended the papal throne with- 
 out the consent of the German court, eagerly embraced a 
 cause which enabled him to assert his claim claim to in- 
 dependent sovereignty, and supremacy over all secular 
 authority. Fully aware that the tyranny of Henry 
 had deprived him of the affections and support of his 
 subjects, he commanded the unpopular monarch to 
 appear before him, under pain of excommunication. In 
 punishment for this ferocious warrant the emperor sum- 
 moned a council of bishops at Worms, and obliged them 
 to renounce their allegiance to Gregory. This daring 
 act so irritated the pope that he began to lavish, with un- 
 sparing liberality, anathemas on the head of the mon- 
 arch. Henry at first treated this display of arrogated 
 divinity with scornful indifference, but his vices had 
 too much disembarrassed the action of the papal ma- 
 chinery not to allow it to disable his power and revenge. 
 His subjects disowned their allegiance to him ; his friends 
 deserted him ; his soldiers disobeyed his orders ; and 
 he found himself helplessly at the mercy of a revenge- 
 ful and irritated priest. With a refinement of malice 
 that seems to do credit to papal ingenuity, at least, the 
 emperor was required to dress in penitential robes, for- 
 mally to solicit for three days an interview with the 
 sacerdotal despot, and then to promise unconditional 
 obedience to him in all things. But the acts of tyranny 
 carry with them the seeds of retribution. The tyrant 
 who could impose such conditions on a fallen foe, 
 could also have been guilty, in the exercise of his 
 power, of inflicting injuries on his subjects which would 
 
IN GERMANY. 293 
 
 be calculated to excite a disposition to revolt and retal- 
 iation. This was precisely the case with Pope Gre- 
 gory VII. He had oppressed the Italian provinces to 
 such a degree that the inhabitants longed for an oppor- 
 tunity to depose him; and now the misfortunes of 
 Henry appearing to render him an available agent in 
 the accomplishment of their designs, they proposed a 
 coalition with him. The pope becoming acquainted 
 with this secret machination, set about to counteract it. 
 By the operation of his skilful machinery he was en- 
 abled suddenly to create a conspiracy in the heart of 
 Germany, for the deposition of the emperor ; but the 
 vigilance and valor of the latter defeated the revolu- 
 tionary movement. Having in vain exhausted all re- 
 sources to subject the incorrigable monarch to his abso- 
 lute authority, lie now sought to beguile the mortifica- 
 tion of his defeat by hurling anathemas at his obsti- 
 nate head. But the temper of Henry not disposing 
 him to indulge the chagrined pope in insolent sports, 
 summoned a council of German and Italian bishops at 
 Brixen, and by proving to their satisfaction that Pope 
 Gregory VII. was a heretic, a sorcerer, and had dealings 
 with the devil, effected his degradation, and placed 
 Clement III. in the papal chair. 
 
 The spirit and pretensions of Catholicism are so inim- 
 ical to secular authority that, to whatever extent they 
 obtain a controlling influence in a government they tend 
 to abridge its sovereignty, and threaten its subversion. 
 This tendency, so clearly indicated by the principles of 
 the papal monarchy, and so fearfully illustrated in 
 its history, is incapable of being restrained by any sense 
 
 of gratitude, or by any obligation of oaths. A knowl- 
 35* 
 
294 PAPAL POLITICAL INTKIGTJES 
 
 edge of this unhappy truth will prevent surprise that 
 the munificont favors which Henry bestowed on Pope 
 Clement III., in elevating him to the papal dig- 
 nity, should not have caused the repeal of the anathe- 
 mas orid excommunications which had been pronounced 
 against him, nor arrested the papal machinery in its 
 insidious and treacherous operations, in fostering the 
 elements of discord which existed in the empire. No- 
 thing but the surrender of the principles of sovereignty 
 will ever conciliate a pope to the authority of a secular 
 government. The prudence, courage, and talents of the 
 king were hence constantly called into requisition to 
 defeat the secret machinations of his enemies. His 
 eldest son was instigated to rebel against him. After 
 he had subdued him, his second son, whom he had 
 crowned as his successor, obliged him to surrender into 
 his hands the imperial authority. By the implacable 
 revenge of the Papal See, operating through its varied 
 machinery, he was deprived of power, reduced to scorn 
 and neglect, and after it had murdered him by degrees, 
 prohibited the interment of his anathematized corpse 
 in consecrated ground. 
 
 After Henry V., in 1106, had wrung from his father's 
 hand the imperial sceptre, he sought to have this atro- 
 cious act sanctified in the eyes of his subjects by being 
 crowned at Rome by the pope — Paschal II. This 
 sanction of unfilial conduct the pope was willing to ac- 
 cord ; but as it seemed to present an opportunity for 
 making a good speculation, he exacted, as the only con- 
 dition on which the favor could be granted, a conces- 
 sion to the Holy See of all the rights and privileges 
 which had been claimed for it by Pope Gregory VII. 
 
IN GERMANY. 295 
 
 This proposition startled Henry ; he saw the ambitious 
 designs of the pope, and he felt the importance of check- 
 ing them. Boldly denying the papal pretensions, and 
 rejecting with indignant contempt the proposition of 
 Paschal, he marched his army on Rome, dragged the 
 pope from the altar while he was celebrating mass, and 
 casting him into prison, determined that he should 
 there remain until he consented to crown him without 
 any condition. To be restored to liberty and luxury 
 the pope acceded to all the terms dictated to him by 
 the emperor, but with a secret disposition to render 
 them nugatory at the first opportunity. Disturbances 
 occurring in Germany, the pope was agreeably relieved 
 of the embarrassing restraints of the emperor's pres- 
 ence. To suppress the Germanic revolution the skill 
 and valor of Henry was occupied for two years. In 
 the meantime the pope, in order to nullify the conces- 
 sions which he had made, organized an Italian conspi- 
 racy against the emperor. Soon as Henry had quelled 
 the insubordination in Germany, he therefore returned 
 to Italy to punish the author of the calamities of his 
 reign. But Pope Paschal evaded the designed chas- 
 tisement by absconding to Apulea, where he shortly af- 
 terwards died. 
 
 Pope Galatius II., an enemy of Henry, having ob- 
 tained the papal dignity, the latter deposed him, 
 and caused Bourden, under the name of Gregory 
 VIII. , to be substituted in his place. The deposed 
 pope and his cardinals, having the control of the papal 
 machinery, were enabled to oppose, with great success, 
 the policy of Henry in every part of his dominion. 
 Galatius assembled a council of bishops at Vienna and 
 
296 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 excommunicated him ; Calaxtus II. convened one at 
 Rheims, and repeated the sentence ; the nobles broke 
 out in frequent rebellion ; and finally such insubordi- 
 nation prevailed in the empire, and such violent out- 
 bursts so frequently disturbed the public peace, that 
 in order to restore tranquillity Henry was compelled to 
 subscribe to a concordat at Worms, in which he re- 
 nounced the right of investiture, and to any interfer- 
 ence in the consecration of bishops. 
 
 Frederic I. succeeded to the imperial throne in 1152. 
 The increasing opulence and power of the Italian and 
 Lombardine cities owing allegience to Germanic author- 
 ity, the ambitious aspirations of the Papal See for 
 illimitable dominion, and the insidious operations of 
 its machinery in producing public taste and opinion in 
 harmony with its desires, had, at the beginning of the 
 reign of Frederic I., produced revolts and usurpations 
 in Lombardy and Italy, which obliged the emperor to 
 visit and chastise the insurrectionary districts. Pope 
 Alexander III., the chief source of the public discord, 
 fled on the approach of Frederic to France, and 
 excommunicated him. A league was then formed be- 
 tween the pope, Venice, and the Greek empire against 
 Frederic ; and for twenty years the calamities of war 
 were protracted. The cruelty which the emperor had 
 exercised towards the rebellious cities created a des- 
 perate opposition to his authority, and exercised an 
 important influence in stimulating the valor and energy 
 of the people, by which their freedom was finally 
 achieved in the treaty of Venice in 1177. 
 
 The spiritual and temporal crown of the world which 
 the Roman See attempted to manufacture out of the 
 
IN GERMANY. 297 
 
 fishhooks of St. Peter, however visionary it might orig- 
 inally have appeared, assumed in the progress of the 
 papal political intrigues, the appearance of a stubborn, 
 formidable and frightful reality. With the profound 
 policy which it elaborated, and the systematic course of 
 measures which it adopted, accommodated to all exi- 
 gencies and pursued through all periods, and at all 
 places; with its machinery ramifying the political, so- 
 cial, and literary institutions of Christendom ; with its 
 confessors transmitting to Rome every important fact ; 
 with its inquisition extorting from victims an admis- 
 sion of every false charge of which ecclesiastical interests 
 required the establishment ; with its preachers and spir- 
 itual guides manufacturing, private and public opinion 
 suitable to its demands by perverted facts and false state- 
 ments ; and with its army of monks, knights, sycophant 
 princes, servile kings, and deluded devotees ; it had at 
 the period of Pope Innocent III. subjugated Christen- 
 dom under its despotic authority. During the progress 
 of its aggressive course the voice of reason and patri- 
 otism had often lifted up remonstrances against its 
 advancement ; but the eloquent tones died away un- 
 heeded amid the clamorous chaunts of superstitious 
 rites. But now, after supineness had allowed it to amass 
 supreme and despotic power, and fortify itself by every 
 means of defence, the antagonism of the people began 
 to be energetically manifested. It is the fate of des- 
 potism of every form, when it has developed the full 
 strength of its all-blasting power, to awaken another 
 power destined to trample it in the dust. That power 
 is the strength which slumbers in the popular arm. 
 When the papal despotism was no more a pretension, 
 
298 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 but a fact, when it stood distinctly before the world 
 clotted with the blood of generations, surrounded by 
 broken sceptres and crushed thrones, with its feet on the 
 neck of kings and people, and its usurping hand grasping 
 at the crowns of earth, heaven and hell, a murmur of 
 horror broke from the lips of the world. Then learn- 
 ing began to scoff at its claims, research to expose its 
 frauds, wit to ridicule its pretensions ; and then religious 
 liberty, through the Albigenses and Waldenses uttered 
 that memorable peal, which is destined to reverberate 
 as an undying tone through all future ages. Then arose 
 the free cities from their long degradation, and began 
 to perfect their internal organizations by the establish- 
 ment of corporations ; then appeared the first universi- 
 ties, arousing the dormant spirit of free inquiry and 
 investigation ; then the abrogation of the system of 
 violence began to restore public security ; and then the 
 separate members of the empire began to be assembled 
 and deliberate on public affairs, originating the principle 
 of the provincial diets. 
 
 Frederic II., son of the emperor Henry VI., was 
 born at this illustrious period of German history. 
 Philip, Duke of Suabia, was nominated regent during 
 Frederic's minority, but the pope, wishing a more pli- 
 ant instrument, substituted Berthold. Finding this 
 scheme impracticable he recommended Otho, and Philip 
 being murdered, the papal policy succeeded. But the 
 pope soon found that his intrigue had vested with power 
 a mortal foe to the Papal See. For Otho clearly mani- 
 fested a design of not only wresting Sicily from Fred- 
 eric, which the latter inherited from his mother, princess 
 of Constance, but of establishing the authority of Ger- 
 
IN GERMANY 299 
 
 many over certain possessions of Italy which it claimed 
 as an inheritance. To counteract the mistake of his policy 
 the pope took Frederic under his protectson, and called 
 into requisition all the power of his machinery. At the 
 age of twenty-one years he crowned his protege Empe- 
 ror of Germany ; but in order to bind him to his inter- 
 ests he exacted a coronation oath that he would under- 
 take a crusade in behalf of the church. Frederic, enjoy- 
 ing the favor and influence of the pope, and the advan- 
 tageous co-operation of his machinery, soon defeated 
 Otho, and became sole sovereign of the empire. 
 
 With a grasp of intellect, and versatility of talent 
 that rarely have sprung from a royal cradle, Frederic 
 II. elaborated projects which, although they transcended 
 the liberality and enlightenment of his age, yet laid 
 the foundation for their development in a future period. 
 The possession of the German and Sicilian crowns led 
 him to hope that he would be able to repress the power- 
 ful hierarchy of Home, and reduce the pope to the dig- 
 nity of a bishop. Impressed with the importance of 
 this object, and the difficulty of its accomplishment, he 
 slowly and cautiously removed obstacle after obstacle, 
 and selected the elements for his great enterprise. As 
 a preliminary measute he caused his son to be crowned 
 King of Rome. This act alarmed the jealousy of Pope 
 Honorious III., who desired to be acquainted with the 
 motive of it. The emperor replied that his coronation 
 oath required him to undertake a crusade, and the 
 fulfilment of it rendered it necessary to invest his 
 son with regal authority. However ungratifying this 
 reasoning was to the pope, he could not refute it, and 
 as the emperor promised to deal severely with the her- 
 
300 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 etics, and to exclude them from offices of trust or profit, 
 he became greatly pacified. In maturing his measures 
 for the restoration of the Italian empire, the emperor 
 procrastinated for twelve years the fulfilment of his un- 
 dertaking, a crusade ; and though the pope frequently 
 reminded him of the solemnity of his obligation, yet his 
 apologies were so plausible that they seemed fully to 
 justify the delay. The inexplicable mystery of Fred- 
 eric's conduct, however, excited the apprehensions of 
 Pope Gregory IX. — and to get rid of his presence 
 in Europe he peremptorily demanded that he should 
 undertake the promised crusade. With a show of obe- 
 dience to the pope's injunction, he commenced prepar- 
 ing for the enterprise, but upon such an extensive scale, 
 and so interruptedly and slowly that it damped the 
 fire, consumed the provisions, and thinned the ranks of 
 the pilgrims. At length he set sail with his fleet, but 
 becoming indisposed after three days' voyage returned 
 home. The return of his formidable army alarmed 
 the fears of the pope, who appears to have equally 
 dreaded the success of his arms abroad and of his pres- 
 ence at home. Adopting the customary policy of the 
 popes in their emergency, he endeavored to embarrass 
 the designs of Frederic by pronouncing sentence of 
 excommunication on him, and suspending all religious 
 services in his dominions. The justice of this sentence 
 being attempted to be supported by the failure of the 
 emperor to fulfil his coronation oath, Frederic endea- 
 vored to nullify it, if not in the eyes of the pope, yet 
 in those of the people, by undertaking a vigorous cru- 
 sade. But the infallible pope who had excommunicated 
 him for not becoming a crusader, now excommunicated 
 
IN GEUMANY. 301 
 
 him for becoming one. During the emperor's absence 
 the pope preached a crusade against him in his own do- 
 minions, organized a conspiracy against him, and devas- 
 tated his empire with his own troops. That he might 
 weaken the power and popularity of the emperor 
 abroad, he ordered the bishops and knights of the army 
 of the cross in Palestine to dispute his command and 
 oppose his designs. But the remarkable genius of 
 Frederic, undaunted by difficulties, and unimpressible 
 by discouragement and reverses, made him victorious, 
 as well over the arms of the Turks as over the intrigues 
 of the pope. He entered Jerusalem in triumph ; and, 
 not finding a bishop who would incur the papal ana- 
 themas by crowning him, he performed the ceremony 
 himself. The success of Frederic filled Christendom 
 with joy, but the pope with indignation. He declared 
 every church into which he entered profaned ; inter- 
 dicted the celebration of divine worship in Jerusalem ; 
 and such was his influence with the chivalrous knight- 
 hood, that among its members were found persons base 
 enough to secretly inform the Sultan how he might dis- 
 pose of his victor, by assassination, in his customary 
 visits to the river Jordan. But the magnanimity of the 
 Sultan rejected the proposition with contempt, and 
 communicated the matter to the emperor to place him 
 on his guard. 
 
 While Frederic exacted from the pope what justice 
 and self respect demanded, he was so far from being 
 disposed to treat him with unnecessary rigor that, when 
 his vices and tyranny had excited his subjects into a re- 
 bellion, he interposed in his behalf and restored tranquil- 
 lity. An act so generous in the emperor should have 
 26 
 
302 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 awakened in the pope an equal degree of magnanimity, 
 but so far was he incapable of any sense of gratitude, 
 that he instigated the emperor's son to conspire against 
 him, and assured him of the assistance of the Lom- 
 bards. This conspiracy was detected, and defeated 
 in its bud ; and, the emperor regarding his son more as 
 the victim of sacerdotal craft than as a real foe to his 
 authority, pardoned his disloyalty. The sense of grati- 
 tude naturally arising from this act of clemency, 
 added to the weight of filial affection, should have 
 been sufficient to form a disposition which would 
 have subjected the son to the most affectionate subor- 
 dination to the father. But the dispensations and 
 absolutions with which the church pretends to nullify 
 social and civil obligations, unhappily interfered with 
 the natural instincts of the son's mind, and led him to 
 add to the guilt of his treason, the ignominy of attempt- 
 ing to assassinate his father. This atrocious act can- 
 celling every obligation of nature, would have justified 
 the emperor in proceeding to extremes ; but his native 
 magnanimity prevailed, and he sentenced his son to per- 
 petual banishment. 
 
 The success of the policy of Frederic comprehended 
 a union of the hostile elements of his southern territory, 
 the subjugation of the Germanic aristocracy, and of the 
 Italian cities in alliance with the pope. Preparatory to 
 the execution of this policy he made some conquests in 
 Lombardy These successes excited the revenge of the 
 pope, who accordingly visited on his head another 
 excommunication. But the Vatican thunder was 
 allowed to roll on, as amid its music the emperor 
 marched on from victory to victory. At length, in the 
 
IN GERMANY. 303 
 
 development of the policy of Frederic, the time arrived 
 for striking a decisive blow at the heart of the public 
 disorder. By a sudden movement he entered the papal 
 dominions. The pope trembled on his throne. He saw 
 his monarchy at the mercy of an emperor, whom he had 
 anathematized, whose son he had taught to rebel, whose 
 subjects he had corrupted, and whose downfall he had 
 labored to effect. The consummation of the policy of 
 Frederic was in his grasp ; but the magnificent prospect 
 which skill and valor had obtained, superstition blasted. 
 Having some reverence for the office, though none for 
 the character of the pope, and conscious of the powerful 
 influence it wielded over the superstitious, he ventured 
 to listen to the papal monarch, who professed a willing- 
 ness to concede all his demands, but proposed that they 
 should first be sanctioned by a council of the bishops of 
 the church. The emperor soon perceived, but too late, 
 that this specious proposition was but a popish device. 
 The preliminaries for holding the proposed council 
 established the fact, that the pope intended to have it 
 chiefly composed of the most inveterate enemies of the 
 emperor ; in fact none but such were invited to partici- 
 pate in its proceedings. Frederic felt justified, there- 
 fore, in forbidding the convention to assemble. As his 
 prohibition was disregarded, he intercepted a Genoese 
 fleet of one hundred bishops, and brought them captive 
 to Naples. This manoeuvre broke up the council, and 
 perhaps broke the pope's heart, as he shortly afterwards 
 died. 
 
 Cardinal Fiesco, a warm friend of the emperor, be- 
 came Pope Innocent IV. ; but the dignity of pope 
 making him regard the emperor as hostile to his mon- 
 
304 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 archial pretensions, converted his former friendship into 
 bitter annimosity. Returning to Lyons, he confirmed 
 all the aathemas that had been pronounced against 
 Frederic, and summoned him to appear at the bar of a 
 grand council to be convened at that place. In the 
 proceedings of this council the most ridiculous and 
 groundless charges were preferred against Frederic, and 
 though completely refuted by his deputies, yet as the 
 proceedure was merely the semblance of a judicial trial, 
 to sanction preconcerted malice and revenge by forms 
 of lagality, the council did not hesitate to declare 
 him guilty, any proof of innocence to the contrary, 
 It seems to have concentrated its ingenuity in devising 
 new and unheardof methods to give terrific importance 
 to the ventilation of its hate. An anathema was pro- 
 nounced on the body and soul of the emperor, and on 
 all his interests, friends and allies. While pronouncing 
 these religious curses, the priests, like fiends administer- 
 ing at some infernal ceremonies, held in their hands 
 lighted torches, and upon its conclusion suddenly ex- 
 tinguished them ; and by the theatrical trick of uttering 
 discordant shrieks and howls, seemed in the daikness of 
 the cathedral to have converted the holy place into the 
 lower regions, peopled with the arch-fiend and his 
 agents. Though these artistical elaborations were not 
 without some effect, yet the vigor of the emperor's 
 genius, the magnanimity which he constantly displayed, 
 his vast popularity, and the triumph of his arms — which 
 continued to his death — demonstrated to the intelligent 
 that there was no real curse in the papal anathemas. 
 
 Conrad IV., son of Frederic II., became emperor of 
 Germany in 1250. Innocent IV., whose policy it was 
 
IN GERMANY. 305 
 
 to profess any friendship, and violate any obligation 
 that contributed to his interests, determined to com- 
 plete on the son the vengeance he had commenced on 
 the father. Presumptuous as vindictive he declared 
 that inasmuch as Frederic II. had been excommun- 
 icated, his son could not inherit the throne. On the 
 ground of this ridiculous pretext, he pronounced him 
 dispossessed of all his inheritance ; laid on him an in- 
 terdict ; and persecuted him by all the means which his 
 power and influence afforded. But notwithstanding 
 a revengeful pope, whose malice through his machinery 
 operated everywhere, yet, he had more than his equal 
 to contend with. The courage and heroism of Conrad 
 defeated the papal army, kept the pope's allies in check, 
 and was about to enter Lombardy with the fairest pros- 
 pects of success when his illegitimate brother, by admin- 
 istering poison to him, relieved the pope of a formidable 
 adversary. 
 
 Conradin, son of Conrad IV., the last of the noble 
 house of Hohenstaufen, was the heir to the throne. 
 The pope refused to acknowledge his right to succes- 
 sion, because his father had been excommunicated. He 
 declared also that Conradin had forfeited his right of 
 inheritance to the crown of Naples and Sicily, and un- 
 dertook to bestow it on Charles of Anjou. But Conradin 
 entered Italy and defeated the usurper ; but while he 
 was pursuing the flying enemy with too much reckless- 
 ness, he was captured by the vanquished. The world 
 expected that his youth and valor could not but win 
 compassion even from the iron-hearted pope, but the in- 
 tense hatred of the papal monarch to the noble house 
 
 of which this intrepid lad was the last scion, would not 
 26* 
 
306 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 permit him to allow an opportunity to escape of extin- 
 guishing it forever. Conradin was therefore, though 
 but sixteen years old, publicly executed as a criminal ; 
 but his heroism, and the circumstances under which he 
 met death, crowned his memory with immortal honor, 
 while it cast a deeper tinge of ignominy on the already 
 blackened character of the pope. 
 
 The usurpation of territory, and interference in 
 political affairs, which are so strongly characteristic 
 of the papal policy, originate from the consti- 
 tutional principles of the Roman See. In conformity 
 with them Pope Boniface VIII. proclaimed him- 
 self King of Eome ; and declared that the Roman 
 See was the source whence the Germanic electors 
 derived their rights. Albert I. being chosen em- 
 peror by the electors in 1298, was summoned by the 
 pope to appear before him and apologize for having ac- 
 cepted the crown without consulting his pleasure, and 
 to expiate the guilt of his offence by the performance 
 of such penance as should be prescribed. To en- 
 force compliance with this injunction the pope formed 
 an allegiance with the archbishop of Mentz, a powerful 
 military bishop, and a former friend of Albert. To re- 
 sist the belligerent pope Albert effected an alliance with 
 Philip la Belle, of France. . Making a sudden diversion 
 into the electorate of Mentz, Albert obliged the bishop 
 to form a league with him for five years. The pope 
 then suggested peaceful negotiation rather than disas- 
 trous war. It was finally agreed between the two con- 
 tracting parties that the pope should give to Albert the 
 possessions of his ally, and that Albert should acknowl- 
 edge that the western empire was a grant as a fief from 
 
IN GERMANY, 307 
 
 the pope, that the electors derived their right from the 
 Roman See, and that he would defend the papal inter- 
 ests with his arms. The pope then proceeded, by vir- 
 tue of an excommunication, to invalidate the title of 
 Louis la Belle, of France, to his kingdom, and officially 
 to transfer it to Albert L 
 
 During the reign of Henry YIL, who beeame empe- 
 ror of Germany in 1308, the tyranny and ambition of 
 the pope were held in decent check, and the Papal See 
 was unusually quiet and respectable. The emperor, 
 whom the pope hated, but whom he dared not anathe- 
 matize, was finally removed by poison administered in 
 the sacramental wine, by Moltipulcian, a Dominican 
 monk. Soon as this event occurred the pope's ven- 
 geance, which had been accumulating in fury for years, 
 but which was too much overawed to utter a murmur, 
 now burst forth with the most impetuous and indecent 
 violence in anathemas on the soul, the corpse, the coffin, 
 and the tomb of the dead emperor ; but it is not sup- 
 posed that they done any damage, except to the charac- 
 ter and good sense of the Roman See, 
 
 Louis IV., of Bavaria, became emperor of Germany 
 in 1330, To arrest the encroachments of the Papal See 
 on the rights of the sovereignty of the empire, the diet 
 of Rense framed a constitution, in 1338, which provided 
 that the choice of the electors of the union should be 
 final in its decision, and independent of the Pope of 
 Rome. These patriotic proceedings seemed to the pope 
 to be interfering with his rights ; and John XXI. ac- 
 cordingly prohibited the performance of divine worship 
 in the empire, until the obnoxious constitution should 
 be annulled. But Louis soon repaired this calamity by 
 
308 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 the creation of Pope Nicholas V., who, having equal 
 authority with Pope John XXI., nullified ail his acts. 
 Pope Clement VIL, who succeeded to the papal throne 
 in 1342, excommunicated Louis, and by his intrigues 
 caused five electors to declare in favor of Charles of 
 Luxemburg. This violation of the celebrated constitu- 
 tion of 1338 induced three electors to assemble at 
 Lahstein, and declare the choice of Charles null and 
 void ; and as Louis had died, they elected Edward of 
 England, but he declining, they elected Frederic the 
 Severe ; he also declining, the crown was finally settled 
 on Gunter of Schwarzburg. But Gunter being removed 
 by poison, the papal policy triumphed in the coronation 
 of Charles of Luxemburg. 
 
 Charles IV., in 1346, wishing to be crowned by the 
 pope at Rome, visited Italy to negotiate for that favor. 
 Pope Innocent VI., always inclined to make the vanity 
 and ambition of his subjects administer to his aggran- 
 dizement, signified a disposition to accommodate the em- 
 peror, but on such disgraceful conditions that, by 
 accepting them he subjected himself to the scorn 
 and derision of the world. This self-degradation was 
 much aggravated by the fact that many distinguished 
 Romans, oppressed by the papal administration, united 
 in requesting Charles to claim the city of Rome as a por- 
 tion of his empire. Instead of improving this opportunity 
 to extend the limits of his government, he renounced 
 all rights, not only to the city of Rome, but to the States 
 of the Church, to Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and Cor- 
 sica. He also consented to impose a tax on the empire 
 for the benefit of the Papal See, equal to one-tenth of 
 the ecclesiastical revenues ; and further added to his 
 
IN GERMANY. 309 
 
 disgrace by taking an oath, never to enter Italy without 
 the pope's sanction. For this base sycophancy he was 
 assailed by princes and people with a storm of indigna- 
 tion. To allay the fury of this tempest he announced 
 an intention of convening a council for the reformation 
 of the clergy, and for making liberal concessions to the 
 popular demands. But this attempt to calm the people 
 aroused the indignation of the Papal See. The pope 
 exhorted the electors to depose him instantly. Assailed 
 on all sides, dangers thickening around him from all 
 quarters, but dreading less the indignation of the em- 
 pire than the anathema of the Roman See, he yielded 
 to the dictation of the pope, and confirmed the clergy 
 in a]l their jDrivileges, sanctioned all their abuses, pro- 
 tected them in all their possessions, and made them en- 
 tirely independent of the secular power. 
 
 The papal power, at the period of Frederic II., 
 seemed to tremble on the verge of inevitable de- 
 struction ; but by a profound and unscrupulous policy, 
 and a system of crafty intrigues, aided by a political 
 machinery whose various parts ramified every portion 
 of the empire, and acted in concert through all ages and 
 dynasties, it had steadily carried its advancements 
 through the blood of millions and the ruins of thrones, 
 until, at the time of Charles, it had regained its supremacy 
 in the empire ; and dictated treaties to the emperors, 
 measures to the diets, and laws to the people. A power 
 that could at its option excite or quell a popular out- 
 burst, create or destroy a dynasty, might be an object 
 of terror to people and princes, but never an object of 
 reverence. The dread it cast on the mind was always 
 unpleasant, and in proportion as its power became op- 
 
*» 
 
 310 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 pressive and disadvantageous, opposition and resistance 
 were inevitably excited. The love of independence, 
 the native individualism of the Germanic character, 
 was always a mortal foe to papal despotism. It might 
 be cowered into silence, but it still grew in vigor, be- 
 came more impatient as the pope became more despotic, 
 and bolder as it became more conscious of its numeri- 
 cal strength. This spirit, in 1411, when Sigismund be- 
 came Emperor of Germany, displayed an energy pro- 
 phetic of stirring events and important consequences. 
 The spirit of Germanic individualism led distinguished 
 men of the nation to deny, with emphatic boldness, the 
 pretensions of the pope ; to denounce the profligacy of 
 the clergy ; and to demand in the body and head of 
 the church a thorough reformation. Prominent among 
 the apostles of religious freedom, which rose into con- 
 sequence at that time, was John Huss, and his disciples. 
 The success of these reformers excited and alarmed the 
 pope. Hating any semblance of a right to participate 
 in his authority, or to assume any approach to an 
 equality with him, he was strongly averse to the assembl- 
 ing of a deliberative council ; but conscious that his 
 divine attributes and prerogatives were not adequate 
 to the existing emergency, he consented that the Coun- 
 cil of Constance should be called, on condition that it 
 should adopt the most energetic means for the extirpa- 
 tion of the heretics. With the secret design of betry- 
 ing the amiable reformer, John Huss, he was invited to 
 respond in person to a summons of the council. To 
 quiet his apprehensions of danger, the emperor fur- 
 nished him with a safe conduct, and the pope pledged 
 his honor to protect him from harm. Thus guarded by 
 
IN GERMANY. 311 
 
 the honor of the state and the church, he was, notwith- 
 standing, perfidiously betrayed, and condemned to be 
 burnt alive. The perfidy of the infallible pope is justi- 
 fied by the saints and authorities of the Catholic church, 
 on the ground that no pledge, assurance, or oath, can 
 rightfully protect a heretic from punishment. Sigis- 
 mund attended the horrid ceremonies ; and being re- 
 minded by a by-stander that the course of the wind 
 might bear an offensive effluvia to the position he occu- 
 pied, answered : " The odor of a burning heretic can 
 never be offensive to Sigismund." 
 
 The death of John Huss was terribly revenged. The 
 stake became the watchword of union. The hitherto mild 
 and submissive reformers became desperate revengers. 
 Churches and convents were burnt; monks and priests 
 slaughtered without mercy. The insurgents met and 
 defeated the imperial forces. The strongest armies of 
 the cross withered before their ferocity. For fifteen 
 years they devastated the Papal dominions, and shook 
 the government with the violence of their retribution. 
 Seeing it impossible to restrain their rage, Sigismund 
 obliged the Council of Basle to negotiate with them for 
 the adjustment of their difficulties. This politic mea- 
 sure so incensed Pope Eugenius IV., whose uncompro- 
 mising vengeance longed for the extermination of every 
 opponent to papal despotism, that he ordered his legates 
 to dissolve the obnoxious assembly. But the laity had 
 advanced in liberality and knowledge far beyond the 
 possible attainment of a papal despot, and in defiance 
 of his maledictions and intrigues, continued their useful 
 session, and terminated, by peaceful concessions, the 
 war with the Hussites. 
 
312 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 The grand struggle between religious freedom and 
 Catholic despotism was visibly approaching when Char- 
 les V., King of Spain, in 1519 became Emperor of 
 Germany. His design was to conquer the world, and 
 his policy was to unite all parties in augmenting the 
 national strength. To secure the favor of the pope, and 
 the co-operation of his extensive and effective machin- 
 ery, he declared himself the defender of the Catholic 
 faith. To conciliate the Protestants he convened a 
 diet at Worms, at which, under a plausible show of 
 toleration he allowed Luther, in his presence, to defend 
 the principles of the reformation. But his ambigu- 
 ous policy becoming offensive to the Koman See, he 
 issued an edict against the Protestants. A Catholic 
 from interest, he was more disposed to make the pope 
 auxiliary to the success of his designs than to be gov- 
 erned by him. ITence, when Francis I. preferred claims 
 to certain portions of the Germanic empire, he leagued 
 with the pope and accomplished the defeat of the king ; 
 but he was equally disposed to defend his interests 
 against the pope. The papal monarch, always appre- 
 hensive of the political power of friend or foe, seeing 
 that his confederacy with Charles had vastly augmented 
 the latter's preponderating power, and placed the 
 papal interests at his disposal, formed against him a 
 counter league with the Italian States. This effort to 
 retrieve the errors of his policy only aggravated his 
 misfortune. The forces of the Holy League were de- 
 feated by the arms of Charles, Rome taken by storm, 
 the city plundered, the pope imprisoned, and four hun- 
 dred thousand crowns of gold demanded for his ran- 
 som. When Charles heard of the success of his arms, 
 
IN GERMANY. 313 
 
 in evident mockery he dressed himself in mourning for 
 the pope, ordered masses to be said in all the churches 
 for his deliverance from prison, and in alleviation of his 
 misfortune reduced the ransom to 100, 000 crowns. 
 The power of Charles overawing the papal throne, 
 it prudently refrained from venting in insulting anathe- 
 mas the ebullitions of its wrath. Pope Clement VII., 
 after the peace of Cambray in 1592, crowned Charles 
 as King of Lombardy and Borne. 
 
 On this occasion the emperor dutifully kissed 
 the feet of the papal monarch. The cause of this 
 affection and harmony was shortly afterwards man- 
 ifested in an intolerant edict against the Protest- 
 ants. This significant menace led the Protestant 
 princes to form the Smalkalden League for the pro- 
 tection of Protestantism. Two years afterwards a holy 
 league was formed by the Catholic princes for the pro- 
 tection of Catholicism. After some abortive attempts 
 at negotiation, the Protestant league raised the stand- 
 ard of war. The emperor by strategetic movements, 
 and by creating jealousy and divisions among the Pro- 
 testant confederates, obtained important advantages 
 over their arms, and finally succeeded in dissolving the 
 league. But Maurice of Saxony had secretly formed 
 another league, which was joined by Henry II., King of 
 France. While Charles was at Innspruck, attending the 
 Council of Trent, Maurice suddenly appeared at the 
 head of an army, and the emperor barely escaped 
 amid the darkness of a stormy night from being cap- 
 tured. The council was consequently dissolved, and 
 the Protestants dictated the terms of peace at Passau ; 
 which the emperor ratified at Augsburg. By the terms 
 27 
 
314 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 of this treaty it was agreed that no one should he 
 attacked on account of his religious helief ; that no one 
 should he molested in the enjoyment of his property or 
 mode .of worship ; that religious disputes should he ad- 
 justed by pacific means ; that persons for religious rea- 
 sons should he allowed to change their residences ; that 
 bishops on becoming Protestants should forfeit their 
 ofBce and salary ; and that every Protestant should en- 
 joy his faith until a religious compromise should be 
 established. 
 
 Charles, broken down in health and constitution, 
 enfeebled in mind, and conceiving that he was haunted 
 by some invisible power which blasted all his prospects, 
 abdicated the throne and retired to a monastery, where 
 he passed the remainder of his life in making wooden 
 clocks, and in performing his funeral ceremonies. 
 
 Ferdinand II., King of Spain, succeeded to the crown 
 of Germany in 1619. He was by nature of a morose 
 and revengeful disposition, and the bigotry and preju- 
 dice which had been instilled into his mind by Catholic 
 preceptors made him an accomplished instrument in 
 the hands of the church,, in executing its exterminating 
 vengeance on the heretics. During the course of his 
 tutelage he made a pilgrimage to Borne, where an oath 
 was administered to him by the pope r that if he should 
 ever become emperor he would exterminate heresy in 
 his dominions. When he ascended the throne Germany 
 was divided into two factions. The one was known as 
 the "Catholic League/' and the other as the " Evan- 
 gelical Union."' The Catholic League was headed by 
 Maximilian, elector of Bavaria, and comprised the 
 bishops and princes attached to the house of Austria. 
 
IN GERMANY. 315 
 
 The Evangelical Union was headed by the Duke of 
 "Wittenberg, the elector of Saxony and Brandenburg, 
 and composed of Lutheran and Calvinistic princes and 
 knights. A number of the princes of Bavaria assem- 
 bled at Prague, and declaring that they would not sub- 
 mit to Maximilian, chose for their king Frederic, 
 elector of the Palatina, a member of the Evangelical 
 Union. This revolt benefited the Evangelical Union 
 by a powerful accession. A desperate and bloody 
 struggle was imminent between these two parties. 
 Notwithstanding the Protestant influence in Bavaria, 
 Ferdinand succeeded in having himself elected king. 
 After this event he tore up in a violent rage the 
 charter which Rudolph II. had granted the Bohemians, 
 because it allowed them to build churches and school- 
 houses. He then showed his remembrance of his pop- 
 ish oath by persecuting the Protestants, banishing their 
 preachers, and depopulating the kingdom by an intoler- 
 ance which caused emigrations of whole sections from 
 his dominions. The victory of his troops near Prague 
 enabling him to dictate a treaty which crushed the 
 Protestant cause, and dissolved the Evangelical Union, 
 he proceeded to restore the ecclesiastical institutions 
 which had been abolished by the Protestants, to ex- 
 clude Calvinists from the benefits of the religious peace 
 of Augsburg, and to require Protestants living under 
 Catholic princes to believe in Catholicism. Besides 
 these decrees, enforced by the military power, the con- 
 quest of the Palatinate of Frederic, the bestowal of 
 that dignity on Maximilian, the emperor's favorite, 
 giving the Catholics the ascendency in the electoral 
 college, the army of Tilly in Lower Saxony, where no 
 
316 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 existing enemy made it excusable, depriving the Pro- 
 testants of their churches, committing wanton violence 
 on the Lutherans, and compelling thousands to abandon 
 their homes, property and country, were such gross 
 violations of treaties, and such strong incentives to 
 resistance, that the Protestant princes were impelled to 
 unite in a league with the King of Denmark and 
 the Duke of Holstein, determining to exhaust every 
 resource in the defence of religious liberty. After 
 some successes the confederated forces were defeated, 
 and the Protestants lost all that they had acquired 
 since the peace of Augsburg. At this dark hour in the 
 fortunes of the league, Gustavus Adolphus, with an 
 army of thirty thousand veterans, espoused its cause. 
 His heroism, strategetic skill, and indomitable valor 
 soon annihilated Tilly's army, reduced the imperial 
 allies to extreme distress, conquered Lower Saxony and 
 Bavaria,* and delivered the Protestants from their per- 
 ilous situation. Tilly having died, Wallenstein assumed 
 command. Having raised an immense and formidable 
 army, the new general was enabled to attack Adolphus 
 with such overwhelming force that he compelled him to 
 retire from Bavaria. In 1642, at Lutzen, the two pow- 
 erful armies came to a general and decisive engagement ; 
 the genius of Adolphus crowned his arms with victory, 
 but his intrepidity cost him his life. Through a wise 
 policy the Swedes still continued a triumphant career, 
 victoriously marching through the empire with incred- 
 ible rapidity, and finally, after the battle of Prague, 
 dictating the peace of Westphalia. 
 
 By the terms of the peace of Westphalia Calvinists 
 acquired the same rights with Lutherans ; princes were 
 
IN GERMANY. 317 
 
 bound not to persecute subjects on account of religious 
 differences ; all acquisitions of Protestants since the 
 peace of Augsburg were confirmed ; entire equality of 
 sect, liberty of conscience, and the exercise of all modes 
 of religion were guaranteed, and the independence of 
 Switzerland and of the Netherlands acknowledged. 
 
 Pope Innocent X. strenuously protested against this 
 peace, complaining in bitter terms of the deep injury 
 it inflicted on the church. Though the consequences of 
 the treaty have been of the most benignant nature to 
 Europe, still the Papal See has, through all periods 
 maintained, with unabated animosity, its original oppo- 
 sition to the invaluable treaty. 
 
 The papal intrigues, so prolific of disastrous wars, 
 were no less pernicious to Austria than they had been 
 to other powers. Upon the death of Duke Frederic, 
 its ruler, Frederic II., of Germany, declared the duchy 
 a vacant fief of his empire, and appointed over it a 
 governor. Pope Innocent V. persuaded Margaret, the 
 sister of the deceased duke, and Gertrude, his neice, to 
 claim the duchy as their inheritance. The Margrave 
 Hermann, by the aid of the pope and his machinery, 
 was enabled to command a strong party in support of 
 the project. After a war of thirty-six years the dis- 
 pute was settled by the interference of the emperor 
 Eodolph, who gave it to his two sons, Albert and Eo- 
 dolph. 
 
 On the death of Maria Theresa, Joseph, her son, 
 succeeded to the throne of Austria. Maria Theresa 
 was a very devout and superstitious princess, a circum- 
 stance which enabled the sacerdotal fraternity to gain 
 and betray her confidence. But in making her an ob- 
 
318 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 ject of their craft they made her son their enemy. Their 
 duplicity having excited in the mind of Joseph a strong 
 aversion to the intermeddling and intriguing profession, 
 he no sooner ascended the throne than he manifest- 
 ed a disposition to adopt a policy more in accordance 
 with the enlightenment of the age than was agreeable 
 to the pope and the clergy. The world with pleasure, 
 but the church with consternation,, beheld him enlarg- 
 ing the liberty of the press, tolerating the Protestants, 
 treating the Jews with moderation, annulling ecclesi- 
 astical sinecures, and abolishing such monasteries and 
 nunneries as were not useful as schools or hospitals. 
 Uneasy at these useful reforms, yet not daring to mut- 
 ter his Vatican thunder, and finding his machinery un- 
 able to stop their progress, Pope Pius IV. sought a per- 
 sonal interview with the liberal minded emperor, to 
 dissuade him from the further prosecution of his bene- 
 ficent intentions. But notwithstanding the earnest re- 
 monstrances of the vicar of Christ, the emperor still 
 continued to reduce the number of the monasteries, and 
 to effect reforms in the churches, and in the various de- 
 partments of the government. This wise and saga- 
 cious policy, which relieved the people of the oppres- 
 sion of spiritual despotism, and renewed the vigor 
 of national energy, was not appreciated by the masses 
 -through the ignorance and superstition of the age. 
 The emperor not only had to contend with opposition 
 from those for whose moral advancement he was labor- 
 ing, but also with the disguised hostility of the pope, 
 and the subtle operation of his treacherous machinery. 
 But still, amid wars, seditions and rebellions, he pur- 
 sued his magnanimous policy ; and if he did not effect 
 
IN GERMANY. 319 
 
 all the reforms in the church, and in his government, 
 that he had contemplated, it was more through the in- 
 trigues of the pope than through any want of disposi- 
 tion, skill and energy on his part. 
 
 The various orders of knights, whose avocation it 
 was to enforce conformity to the demands of Catholi- 
 cism by the vengeance of the sword, was an important 
 part of the papal machinery. All who yielded not to 
 this argument were threatened with extermination ; all 
 who did, became the slaves of spiritual despotism. 
 Under pretext of protecting Poland from the ravages of 
 Prussian heathen, the Teutonic Knights, in 1226, won 
 from Conrad of Masovia a small strip of land on the 
 Vistula. For fifty-three years they carried on a war 
 against the Persian tribes, and finally obliged them 
 to embrace Catholicism. This war, suggested by papal 
 craft, continued by incredible barbarity, culminated in 
 the grossest perfidy. In their protection of Poland 
 they inflicted deeper injuries on her than the savages of 
 Prussia had ever contemplated, or in fact had the abil- 
 ity to inflict. They subjugated the Baltic seaboard, 
 from the Oder to the Gulf of Finland, and wrung from 
 her her maritime commerce, and her northern line of 
 defence. Poland and Prussia having both been plun- 
 dered and oppressed by the knights, united in a bond 
 of union against their common enemy, and a ferocious 
 war was inaugurated, during which the knights lost a 
 great portion of their territory, and finally their power 
 was broken. In the various vicissitudes of the suc- 
 ceeding fifty years the knights became abolished in 
 Prussia, and their possessions converted into a heredi- 
 tary duchy, under the male line of Prince Albert, 
 
320 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 which, under Francis III. became the kingdom of 
 Prussia. 
 
 The papal intrigues with regard to the Netherlands, 
 were fruitful of sanguinary and deplorable conse- 
 quences. Under the reign of Charles V. one hundred 
 thousand Protestants fell a sacrifice to the papal intol- 
 erance. Philip, his son and successor, narrow in his 
 views, irritable in his temper, and implacable in his 
 hate, transcended even Charles in the inhumanity of 
 his measures towards his Protestant subjects. Cardinal 
 Granvella having introduced into the Netherlands the 
 inquisition, for the extirpation of religious freedom, the 
 Prince of Orange, in conjunction with other distin- 
 guished personages, remonstrated against the measure. 
 This remonstrance was regarded by the government as 
 an act of treason. The haughtiness of the cardinal, and 
 the severe measures he introduced to intimidate the 
 people, produced great disorder and alarm. The nobles 
 conspired to defend their rights ; the Protestants boldly 
 celebrated their religious ceremonies, and the people 
 fled in crowds to England and Saxony. In spite of in- 
 tolerant edicts and excruciating torture, a bold spirit 
 of resistance was excited in the provinces. Philip re- 
 called Cardinal Granvella, but appointed in his place 
 Alva, a more cruel and implacable tyrant. Proud, 
 fierce and imperious, this man knew of nothing but to 
 command in a despotic tone, and expect his subjects to 
 tremble and obey. Sixty years of warfare always suc- 
 cessful, had familiarized him to deeds of blood, without 
 humbling him by the salutary lessons of misfortune. 
 Death, the usual penalty of disobedience to his com- 
 mands, gave his mandate a terrific importance. As 
 
. IN GERMANY. oZL 
 
 soon as he had assumed the direction of the Netherland 
 provinces, he established a council of blood by means of 
 which he condemned all whom he suspected of heresy, or 
 whose fortunes excited a prospect of increasing his own. 
 The noblest of the nation fell under the axe of his exe- 
 cutioner ; and as avarice had always been a prominent 
 trait of his character, he now illustrated the obduracy 
 with which it is capable of debasing humanity, by con- 
 fiscating the property, not only of the present but of 
 the absent ; not only of the living but of the dead. 
 Having cited the Prince of Orange to appear before his 
 council, and that prince having refused on the ground 
 of his exemption by privilege, law and usage, he de- 
 clared him dispossessed of all property, and seizing on his 
 son, sent him to Spain as a hostage. The prince, here- 
 tofore a liberal-minded Catholic, now declared himself 
 a Protestant, and drew his sword in favor of religious 
 freedom. By a perseverance which no difficulties could 
 prostrate, a sagacity which no subterfuge could deceive, 
 a heroism which no danger could appall, and a magnan- 
 imity which commanded the admiration of the world, 
 he struggled through discouragement, vexation and de- 
 feat until he had laid a solid foundation for the freedom 
 of the provinces, by reconstructing them in a judicious 
 confederacy, under the name of the United Provinces of 
 the Netherlands, and inducing them to renounce alle- 
 giance to Spain. Philip hence declared the prince an 
 outlaw, and offered a reward of two hundred and fifty 
 thousand dollars for either his apprehension or his 
 assassination. In 1584 the noble prince was shot dead 
 by Balthazar Gerard, who confessed that he had been 
 instigated to the deed by a Franciscan monk and a 
 
322 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES. 
 
 Jesuist priest. But though the founder of the republic 
 fell a victim to Romish treachery, its defence was con- 
 tinued with insuperable skill and valor. Army after 
 army sent against the republic was annihilated by the 
 indomitable bravery of its troops, until its soil became 
 the cemetery of the military strength of Spain. Its 
 tolerance gave it population ; its freedom, energy ; its 
 maritime contests, a knowledge of navigation ; and its 
 enterprise, commerce trade and prosperity. After a 
 war of thirty years, replete with heroism and magnan- 
 imity, it wrung from Spain, in the Westphalia treaty, a 
 full recognition of independence. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES IN POP- 
 TUGAL AND SPAIN. 
 
 In Portugal, under the reign of Alphonso I — SancTio 
 II — Dionysus — lohn II — Emanuel — John III, 
 — Sebastian — Philip II — Joseph I — Maria Fran- 
 cesca Isabella — John VI — Pedro VI — and Dona 
 Maria. 
 
 In Spain, under the reign of Peccarred I — Charles V. — 
 Philip II— Philip III— Charles II— Charles III. 
 Charles IV. — and Ferdinand VII. 
 
 Alphonso, in 1139, in the cause of the church and of 
 national independence, subjugated the Moots of Por- 
 tugal. The victor was saluted on the field by his army 
 as king of the conquered dominion ; the Cortes Lamego 
 invested him with regel authority ; and Pope Alexander 
 III. acknowledged his legitimacy, the independence of 
 the nation, and the laws and constitution which were 
 prescribed. By a provision of the constitution, which 
 probably sprung from the religious tolerance of the 
 Moorish regime, the king was prohibited under forfeit- 
 ure of the crown, from becoming tributary to any 
 foreign power. But notwithstanding this proud inter- 
 diction, Alphonso in the course of severe conflicts which 
 afterwards took place between him and the kings of 
 Castile and Leon, made his kingdom, in violation of 
 his own constitution, a fief of Rome, in order to secure 
 the papal support. 
 
324 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 In consequence of this concession to papal supremacy, 
 Sancho II., in 1245, became involved in a dispute with. 
 the clergy ; and upon appealing to Pope Innocent IV., 
 had the misfortune to lose his crown. 
 
 Alphonso III. succeeded to the regal dignity. Jealous 
 of the rights of sovereignty, and determined to transmit 
 them unimpaired to his successor, his reign was, in con- 
 sequence, a perpetual contest with the intrigues of the 
 clergy. Inflexibly firm and resolute, he defeated their 
 artful attempts to extend their landed estates ; to obtain 
 exemption from taxation ; to acquire for their persons 
 and possessions an independence of secular jurisdiction ; 
 and to subject the temporal to the spiritual authority 
 by an insidious and gradual encroachment on the 
 rights of the crown. 
 
 Dionysus, who succeeded Alphonso III., opposed 
 with prudence and firmness the papal intrigues, which 
 had disturbed the peace of the kingdom from its foun- 
 dation. In order to moderate the selfishness and tyran- 
 ny of the first and second estates, composed of the 
 clergy and nobility, he erected the cities into a third 
 estate, of equal legislative authority. By elevating the 
 dignity of the commonality, and taking advantage of 
 the commercial resources which the geography of the 
 country afforded, he awakened in the nation a spirit of 
 indomitable enterprise which laid the foundation of its 
 subsequent greatness. This liberal and enlightened 
 policy cost him the friendship of the papal court, but he 
 disarmed its malice by an admirable course of prudence 
 and courtesy. 
 
 John II. became King of Portugal in 1450. During 
 his administration Ferdinand and Isabella, of Spain, 
 
IN PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. S25 
 
 governed by the spirit of Catholic intolerance, insti- 
 tuted a rigorous prosecution against the Jews, by which 
 thousands of them were deprived of their fortunes, and 
 driven into exile. The Jews had arisen in Spain into 
 considerable political influence ; they had become farm- 
 ers of the revenue ; and their characteristic avarice had 
 rendered them obnoxious to the people. Instead of 
 rectifying the evil by adequate measures, the crown and 
 people, influenced by the church, were made instru- 
 mental in gratifying its hatred against the Hebrew 
 race, by a persecution as unjust as it was impolitic. 
 John II., with more liberal views of government, im- 
 proved the injudicious measures of Spain, to the advan- 
 tage of his own kingdom. Discarding the intolerance of 
 his religion, he invited the persecuted Jews to his do- 
 minion ; and by affording them a peaceful asylum, added 
 largely to the wealth, population, prosperity and im- 
 portance of the nation. 
 
 EmSnuel, son of John II., succeeded to the throne of 
 Portugal in 1495. He married Elenora, sister of Char- 
 les V., of Germany. He had imbibed the beneficent 
 toleration of his sire, which had been so advantageous 
 to the nation, but which was too antagonistical to the 
 .spirit of Catholicism, to command its support. . The 
 craft of priestly policy might conceal its hostility to 
 tolerance from public perception, but machinations for 
 its subversion would be no less incessantly at work. 
 In the pious system of sacerdotal intrigue the amiable 
 qualities of human nature are the most available, as they 
 are the most insidious, and least liable to be suspected. 
 Devoid of the finer sentiments of honor, the priests, in 
 
 their capacity of spiritual advisers, scruple not to abuse 
 28 
 
326 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 the privileges accorded them, in making the influence 
 which a female may exercise over a husband, lover or 
 parent, subservient to their own purposes. This species 
 of ecclesiastical intrigue is illustrated m the conduct of 
 Queen Elenora. Having acquired a controlling ascend- 
 ancy over the king's mind, she was induced by her 
 spiritual advisers to extort from him a promise that he 
 would require the Jews to embrace Christianity under 
 pain of being reduced to slavery for life. By whatever 
 considerations, Emanuel was led to promulgate a decree 
 so injurious to the national welfare, and so inconsistent 
 with the tolerant spirit he had manifested, yet he had 
 the humanity or sagacity to procrastinate its execution 
 for twenty years, and thus to ameliorate the horrors 
 with which it was fraught ; and to place the develop- 
 ment of the catastrophe beyond the period of his 
 administration. 
 
 John III., son of Emanuel, was crowned King of 
 Portugal in 1521. A pliant tool in the hand of papal 
 intrigue, he gave a fatal blow to the tolerance and 
 prosperity of his kingdom. The implacable hatred of 
 the church towards the Jews, hoarded for so many 
 years, now relieved of all restraint, exhibited its fiend- 
 ish barbarism in deeds of exterminating cruelty. To 
 escape the persecution to which they were exposed, the 
 Jews practised the externals of Catholicism, while they 
 secretly observed their ancient rites. The vigilance of 
 the papal machinery, like a monster with a thousand 
 eyes, penetrating all secrets, soon detected this evasion. 
 In order to discover the persons who thus consulted 
 self-preservation and the dictates of consciences, the 
 inquisition was introduced, and a crusade of blood and 
 
IN PURTUGAL AND SPAIN. 327 
 
 devastation preached against the whole Hebrew race. 
 Their property was confiscated ; their children were 
 torn from them and placed nnder Catholic control ; 
 aad they themselve reduced to slavery, or subjected to 
 the tortures of the inquisition. 
 
 "While John III., during his reign, was the wretched 
 instrument of Catholicism for the accomplishment of 
 its atrocious designs, his grandson, Sebastian, who in 
 1557, at the age of three years succeeded to the throne, 
 was educated, by the express injunction of his father's 
 will, by the Jesuists, and consequently was moulded to 
 the same purposes, and reduced to the same flexible 
 subserviency. Inclined to extravagance by temper and 
 disposition, and educated by bigotry and craft, his am- 
 bition became singularly whimsical ; his devotion to 
 the pope absolute ; and his thirst indomitable and un- 
 quenckable to engage in some enterprise in which he 
 might shed the blood of infidels and heretics. When he 
 arrived at majority, in order to express his devotion to 
 the pope, he assumed the title of " Most Obedient 
 King." At the age of twenty years his restless fanati- 
 cism led him to undertake an expedition against the 
 unoffending infidels of Tangiers ; and suddenly falling 
 on the astonished inhabitants, gained an easy victory 
 over them. The success of his forces against these 
 defenceless mountaineers led him to imagine that his 
 arms were invincible. Muley Mohammed having con- 
 spired against his uncle Muley Moloch, the governor of 
 Moroco, Sebastian conceived that by aiding the con- 
 spirators with his personal valor and military forces, he 
 might acquire some distinction for his name, and some 
 advantages for the church. The dictates of prudence 
 
328 PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIGUES 
 
 and sound policy, the protestations of his ablest coun- 
 sellors, and the munificent offer of Muley Moloch to 
 purchase his neutrality by the cession of five fortified 
 places on the coast of Africa, were feeble remonstrances 
 to a mind like that of Sebastian's, in which fanaticism 
 had supplanted principle, and despotism humanity. To 
 popularize the hazardous undertaking, the papal ma- 
 chinery began to work industriously in its favor. Col- 
 lecting an army of twenty-one thousand three hundred 
 men, comprised of Portuguese, Germans, Spaniards, 
 Frenchmen and Italians, and a fleet of one hundred 
 vessels, he sailed for Africa, and landed with safety at 
 the port of Alzira. Although the number and skilful 
 disposition of the Moorish troops left little doubt of 
 their triumph; although Sebastian's provisions were 
 nearly exhausted ; although Muley Moloch, more con- 
 cerned for the safety of the misguided fanatic than 
 from any apprehension of the success of his arms, 
 again attempted to negotiate a peace ; although some of 
 the Portuguese commanders advised a. retreat, and all 
 of those of the conspirators a retreat to the coast, yet 
 so confident was Sebastian of the interposition of divine 
 providence in aiding him to butcher the infidels, that 
 he even refused to defer the engagement until the after- 
 noon, in order that he might have the darkness of the 
 night to cover a retreat, should such a measure become 
 inevitable. Sebastian fought with distinguished brav- 
 ery, yet his desperate fanaticism was equalled, if not 
 surpassed, by the heroic courage of those who had been 
 tortured, outraged, and exiled by his intolerance. The 
 martial semicircle of the Moors enclosed his forces in a 
 volume of destructive flame, and their disciplined valor 
 
IN PORTUGAL. 329 
 
 and skilful manoeuvres completely annihilated them. 
 The bodies of the vanquished that strewed the battle- 
 field were, in general, too horribly disfigured with 
 wounds to admit of their persons being identified ; and 
 Sebastian's corpse being among the number, his actual 
 death became doubtful. This circumstance, twenty 
 years afterwards furnished the papal machinery with a 
 convenient opportunity for manufacturing a bogus Se- 
 bastian. But although Joseph Taxera, a Dominican 
 monk, traversed Europe to enlist the imperial courts in 
 its favor, yet the numerous spurious Sebastians that had 
 sprung up, and the eagerness of several crowned heads 
 to seize the kingdom, defeated the object of his mission. 
 The controversy was finally settled by the battle of 
 Alancatura, which, crowning with victory the arms of 
 Philip II., of Spain, one of the claimants, subjugated 
 Portugal to the dominion of Spain. 
 
 The religious frenzy and whimsical ambition of Se- 
 bastian, the result of his Catholic education, cost Portu- 
 gal the flower of her nobility, the strength of her army, 
 and her national independence ; overloaded her with 
 debt, and degraded her under the dominion of a gov- 
 ernment distracted by unsuccessful wars, and governed 
 by a rapacious and unprincipled administration. "When 
 John III., in 1540, introduced the Jesuists into his 
 kingdom, the doom of Portugal was sealed. From 
 that period, under the intolerant measures of his 
 administration, its power Jpegan rapidly to decline, 
 until its disastrous connection with Spain secured 
 its downfall. Guinea, Brazil, the Molluccas, and all 
 the fairest dominions of Portugal were wrung from 
 
 her grasp. Spain oppressed her with rapacious tyranny ; 
 28* 
 
330 PAPAL POLITICAL INTKIGUES 
 
 England and the Jesuists monopolized her trade, and 
 the calamities which had visited her in such frightful 
 succession exhausted her resources. 
 
 The capacity of the nation for greatness, notwith- 
 standing the degradation into which she had sunk, still 
 animated the patriotic Portuguese with the hopes of a 
 national redenrption. In 1640 a powerful conspiracy 
 was formed against the Spanish regime, and in 1750 the 
 political independence of Portugal was achieved, and 
 Joseph I. elevated to the throne. Duke Pombal, an 
 able statesman, and the prime minister of the gov- 
 ernment, regarding the Jesuists as the origin of the 
 weakness and disgraces of the government, and believ- 
 ing that their secrecy, dissimulation and treachery, 
 absolved him from any obligation he might assume with 
 regard to them, inconsistent with the public good, became 
 a member of their order that he might acquire a correct 
 knowledge of their principles and mode of operation, 
 and be qualified to counteract their pernicious ma- 
 chinations. With profound dissimulation, he so com- 
 pletely deceived them that they admitted him to an in- 
 timate knowledge of all their secrets, plans and de- 
 signs. After having fully obtained his object he made 
 a public exposition of their secrets. He disclosed 
 the dangerous principles of their constitution, their po- 
 litical objects, the oaths by which they were bound, 
 the baseness of their intrigues, their false professions, 
 their horrible deeds, and their disgraceful rapacity and 
 profligacy. By the exposure which he was enabled to 
 make he succeeded in having them removed from the 
 important position of confessors to the king, and in- 
 structors of youth in colleges. He also induced Joseph 
 
„ . IN /PORTUGAL. ~ '• ~ ; ' 33 1 
 
 to expel them from the missions of Paraguay ; to 
 abridge the power of the bishops ; and to prohibit the 
 celebration of the " auto-da-fe" of the inquisition. 
 The Jesuists not being able successfully to arrest the 
 progress of reform determined to assassinate the king ; 
 but failing in this attempt, the whole order fell under 
 the ban of the kingdom, and were officially declared a 
 political organization under the mask of religion, and 
 . its members expelled from the kingdom as enemies of 
 the public peace, and traitors to the government. Pope 
 Clement XIII., enraged at this summary destruction of 
 -the most efficient department of his machinery, endea- 
 vored to intimidate the reformers by threats of excom- 
 munication, and commissioned a legate to adopt any 
 means to arrest proceedings against the Jesuists. But 
 his legate was promptly escorted out of the kingdom; 
 and as the conduct of the holy father in protecting and 
 defending an organization of traitors and assassins, im- 
 plicated him in the guilt of an accessory, all connection 
 with the See of Eome was declared dissolved until the 
 imputation should be removed by the abolishment of 
 the Jesuistical order. The vanity of Pope Clement 
 could not permit him to suffer such a mortification, and 
 the decree of dissolution was rigorously enforced; but 
 his successor, at the hazard of disproving the papal in- 
 fallibility, complying with the demands of Portugal, 
 amicable relations were re-established. . -- " 
 
 On the death of Joseph I., in 1777, Maria Francesca 
 Isabella, his eldest daughter, succeeded to the royal 
 dignity. The superstitious temperament of this queen, 
 and her natural infirmity, which terminated in con- 
 firmed mental alienation; disqualified her for the' admin- 
 
332 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 istration of the governmental powers on sound prin- 
 ciples of public policy,, and surrendered her to the 
 selfish- control of a corrupt priesthood and ambitious 
 nobility. By the intrigues of these two classes,, which 
 seldom scruple to sacrifice the popular interest to their 
 personal advantage, Pombal was deprived of his useful 
 political influence, most of his regulations were abol- 
 ished, and Portugal, from the dawn of a magnificent 
 future, sunk into the obscurity and lethargy of her 
 former condition. 
 
 In 1817 John VI,, who had been regent during the 
 imbecility of the queen, from 1795 to her death, ascended 
 the throne. The spirit of French republicanism ex- 
 erted a liberalizing influence over Europe generally, 
 and had apparently a similar effect on the pope and his 
 machinery. 
 
 Those who did not understand the profoundity of 
 sacerdotal craft might have been stupefied with as- 
 tonishment to see a pope, while professing to be in- 
 fallible, discarding principles and policies which had 
 been approved by the practice, and defended by the 
 anathemas of his predecessors. He not only sanctioned 
 the prohibition of Portugal forbidding Jesuists from 
 entering the kingdom, and consented to the aboli- 
 tion of the inquisition, but even requested that all 
 persecution against the Jews should cease, and that they 
 should be admitted to greater rights and privileges. 
 The popular current had set in too strongly in favor of 
 change in the constitution and administration of the 
 government for papal sagacity to oppose, and unob- 
 structed by the sacerdotal machinery, it became daily 
 augmented in volume and impetuosity. The liberal 
 
IN PORTUGAL. 333 
 
 feeling of the nation, allowed spontaneously to flow, 
 culminated in 1820 in establishing, without violence or 
 bloodshed, a provisional government and a new cortes. 
 Tolerance on the lips of a Catholic priest is treason to 
 Borne ; and, though this circumstance might have cau- 
 tioned prudence against investing any of them with 
 power, yet as they had warmly espoused the liberal 
 .cause, they were elected by the people as members to 
 the cortes, with the exception of a few lawyers and 
 governmental officers. At the assemblage of the cortes, 
 under the presidency of the archbishop of Braga, the 
 Tevolutionary measures were sanctioned, the inquisition 
 forever interdicted, and a constitution framed which 
 secured freedom of person and property, the liberty of 
 the press, and legal equality. The king approved the 
 provisions of this constitution, and swore to support 
 it. But under this prosperous appearance of repub- 
 lican progress, the demon of religious intolerance was 
 secretly at work ; availing itself of every means to 
 arrest the popular current. The portentous mutterings 
 of an approaching storm were frequently heard ; and 
 it was not, therefore, a matter of surprise to the friends 
 of freedom, that in 1832, a regency was established at 
 Valladolid, under the bishop of Lisbon, with the avowed 
 object of subverting the constitution, and inviting the 
 people to rally under the standard of monarchy ; nor 
 that this regency was supported by the queen, Don 
 Miguel, the clergy and the nobility. The machinations 
 of the papal machinery had so successfully extinguished 
 the popular enthusiasm which had won such important 
 concessions to natural right, that no sooner was the 
 standard of royalty raised, than an enormous reduction 
 
334 PAPAL .POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 took place in the ranks of the liberal party. So many 
 priests, noblemen, soldiers and people espoused the 
 royal cause, that John VI. found no difficulty in declar- 
 ing the constitution of 1822, which he had sworn to 
 support, null and void, and to protect his perjury and 
 his treason to the freedom of the people, by disarming 
 the military and the national guards. The absolutists 
 then proceeded to annul all the concessions that had 
 been made, in accommodation to the popular feeling ; 
 they restored the church confiscated property, estab- 
 lished a censorship over the press, imprisoned or ban- 
 ished the liberal members of the cortes, and organized 
 a junta for the purpose of framing a monarchial con- 
 stitution. But Don Migual, aspiring to become absolute 
 king, could not submit to the restriction of a constitu- 
 tion ; and, being commander-in-chief, and exercising 
 the governmental powers, excited an insurrection against 
 the Lisbon cortes, and arbitrarily proceeded to banish 
 all liberals, constitutionalists, freemasons, and members 
 of other secret societies. That he might successfully 
 remove every obstacle that imperiled his ultimate de- 
 signs, he forbade all appeals to the king. But the acts 
 which his ambition dictated were too reprehensible not 
 to acqure for his administration a dangerous and preju- 
 dicial notoriety. In spite of all precaution the rumor 
 of .his tyranny penetrated the royal palace, and Don 
 Miguel was summoned into the presence of the king to 
 explain the reasons for his arbitrary conduct. Candidly 
 acknowledging or artfully assuming that he had been 
 the innocent victim of craft and misrepresentation, he 
 succeeded in obtaining the king's pardon. 
 - In 1826 John VI. died, and Isabella becoming regent, 
 
;..-. IN PURTUGAL 335 
 
 administered the government until Pedro IV. of Brazil, 
 the brother of the deceased king, could make it conve- 
 nient to visit Portugal, and assume the reigns of gov- 
 ernment. After having done so he established a con- 
 stitution, providing two legislative chambers, and then 
 abdicated in favor of his eldest daughter, Dona Maria 
 da Gloria. Don Miguel, his brother, the chamberlains, 
 and the magistrates swore to support the constitution. 
 But the first, in violation of his oath of allegiance, 
 and of his fraternal obligations, entered into a con- 
 spiracy for its overthrow. With this object in view 
 he organized an apostolic party, and abusing the 
 power and confidence with which he was honored, 
 secretly filled the army, navy, and civil offices 
 with his adherents. Having matured his plans he 
 caused an insurrection to break out against the queen, 
 in order to enable him to seize the royal authority 
 under pretense of restoring public tranquillity. Eng- 
 land, however, interfering, the revolution was checked, 
 and the project of usurpation frustrated. But the trea- 
 sonable plot was skilfully and comprehensively laid, 
 and the zealous support which it derived from the papal 
 machinery soon rendered it popular with the masses. 
 As if enamored of slavery and despotism, the people 
 began to crowd into the ranks of the apostolic party, to 
 second its declaration in favor of Don Miguel as kiug, 
 to unite in its shouts of " Long live the absolute king," 
 " Down with the constitutions," and to denounce, abuse 
 and assault those who refused to echo its suicidal accla- 
 mations. A few military garrisons which still with- 
 stood the popular frenzy, and adhered to the cause of 
 constitutional government, raised the standard of revolt; 
 
336^ PAPAL POLITICAL' INTKIGUES 
 
 and being joined by other troops, an army was organ- 
 ized which marched against Lisbon. It was met by the 
 apostolic army, which greatly outnumbered it ; and be- 
 ing defeated, the liberal junta was dissolved and Bon 
 Miguel proclaimed absolute king. In 1834 Don Miguel 
 was defeated by Don Pedro IV., and the constitution of 
 1826 was re-established by the cortes. 
 
 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES IN 
 SPAIN 
 
 "We will conclude our history of Papal Political In- 
 trigues, by a cursory glance at a few of its instances 
 w T ith regard to the government of Spain. 
 
 Catholicism was introduced into Spain in 586, under 
 the reign of Eeccared I. ; and from that period the 
 governmental affairs were controlled by the political 
 intrigues of the clergy, until 711, when the kingdom 
 became a province of the Caliph of Bagdad. 
 
 The Moorish government adopted a more liberal pol- 
 icy than was consistent with the spirit of Catholicism. 
 It tolerated the free exercise of all religions. It per- 
 mitted the subjugated to retain their laws and magis- 
 trates. Agriculture, commerce, arts and science flour- 
 ished under its auspices. It established libraries and 
 universities ; and, from the hand of its civilization 
 Europe has received the knowledge of arithmetical 
 characters, of gunpowder, and of the art of manufac- 
 turing rags into paper. But the Infidels who conferred 
 these advantages could not conciliate the proud spirit 
 
IN SPAIN. * 337^ 
 
 of the Spaniard to subjugation under foreign rule, nor 
 the pope to the loss of revenues derivable from an opu- 
 lent kingdom. A national struggle for indevisibility of 
 empire, and primogenitureship in succession was conse- 
 quently inaugurated ; and a succession of conquests, 
 from 1220 to 1491, ultimated in the reduction of the 
 Moors under Castellian supremacy. With the achieve- 
 ment of nationality, and the discovery of South Amer- 
 ica, Spain began to rank with the first powers of Europe. 
 But her decline was as rapid as her elevation. Besides 
 the conflicting laws and customs which prevented na- 
 tional unity, and the political tyranny which oppressed 
 the masses, a rigorous persecution was inaugurated 
 against the Moors and Jews, compelling such as refused 
 to be baptized to leave the kingdom. 
 
 In 1520 Charles V. became king of Spain, and subse- 
 quently, also Emperor of Germany. After suppressing 
 an insurrection of his Spanish subjects, who demanded 
 a liberal constitution, and annihilating the last vestige 
 of civil liberty by separating the deliberative estates, 
 he established over the kingdom a military, religious, 
 and political despotism. So oppressive was his admin- 
 istration, and so reckless were his expenditures, that 
 although Mexico, Peru, and Chili poured a continual 
 stream of wealth into the public treasury, yet excessive 
 taxes had to be imposed, and enormous loans negotiated 
 to satisfy the demands of the rapacious monarch. 
 
 In 1555 Philip II. ascended the throne of Spain. 
 The Catholic education of this prince fitted him bet- 
 ter for a cloister than a throne. His rapacity empov- 
 erished the nation, and his religious intolerance perpet- 
 ually convulsed it with sedition and war. His devout- 
 29 
 
338: PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 est wish, was to extirpate heretics, and his most pleasing 
 sight was an auto-da-fe, in which he could behold his 
 subjects expiring in the flames. Like Sigismund, the 
 smell of burning heretics was never offensive to his 
 nostrils. His inhuman and impolitic course having led 
 his minister to intimate that he was depopulating his 
 kingdom by his frequent massacres, he replied : "Bet- 
 ter be without subjects than to reign over heretics." 
 As cowardly as he was blood-thirsty, it was his custom 
 when his army was engaged in battle, to retire to a safe 
 retreat and pray for its success ; and whenever a victory 
 was achieved to assume the head of the command, as if 
 the triumph was the result of his valor and military 
 skill. 
 
 Although his Catholicism had transformed him into 
 merely mechanical part of the papal machinery, without 
 feeling or reason, yet when 'his truce with France was 
 broken by the interference of Pope Paul IV., and his 
 right to the kingdom of Naples was declared forfeited, 
 he awoke from his lethargic slumbers, and commissioned 
 the bloody Alva to proceed with an army to Rome and 
 chastise the holy father for his insulting political in- 
 trigues. The pope alarmed, and, perhaps surprised at 
 the belligerent attitude of a king once so remarkably 
 obedient, thought it better to consult prudence than 
 the divine prerogatives of his office, and to avert the 
 impending chastisement by subscribing to articles of 
 peace. 
 
 In 1169 Philip III. became invested with the royal 
 dignity. By nature a tyrant, by temper a bigot, with- 
 out any administrative capacity, and educated in su- 
 perstition and intolerance, he seems to have been born 
 
IN SPAIN. 339 
 
 for the the disgrace and destruction of the throne he 
 inherited. In the most brilliant period of Spanish his- 
 tory her religious despotism was prophetic of her pre- 
 mature decay, and each succeeding reign verifying 
 the prophecy, she now tottered on the verge of 
 ruin. Favorites were allowed to waste the national 
 revenues, England and Holland destroyed the Spanish 
 commerce, frequent insurrections destroyed the public 
 peace ; eight hundred thousand Jews, and two million 
 Moors were, during this and the preceding administra- 
 tion driven from the country ; and to complete the na- 
 tional degradation Spain had to submit to the suprem- ' 
 acy of England. 
 
 In 1665 Charles II. succeeded to the regal authority. 
 At his death, which occurred in 1700, he made Philip of 
 Anjou, grandson of his sister, consort of Louis XIV., 
 the sole heir of his dominion, in order to prevent the 
 division of the empire, which had been resolved upon by 
 France, England and Holland. This will led to the war 
 of the Spanish succession, notwithstanding which the 
 Bourbon, Philip V., maintained himself on the Spanish 
 throne. 
 
 In 1759 Charles III. succeeded to the tnrone of the 
 Spanish, monarchy. The decaying embers of liberalism 
 which had began to scintillate amid the gloom of des- 
 potism, now shone forth with renewed brilliancy. Ge- 
 nius and intelligence, which alone are capable of grap- 
 pling with the astute principles of government, and of 
 developing the latent greatness of a people, were for- 
 tunately exhibited in the favorite publicists and states- 
 men of the monarch. Profound and elevated views of 
 political economy began to characterize the administra- 
 
340 PAPAL POLITICAL I-NTEIGUES 
 
 tion ; and the true principles of commerce, the national 
 importance of agriculture, arts and manufacture, and 
 the best means for their development, became more 
 generally understood by the government and the people. 
 "With Count Florida Blanca, a man of extraordinary 
 ability and activity, as ambassador at Rome, holding 
 the pope in check ; with Aranda, a man of penetrating 
 genius, occupying the most influential position of the 
 state ; with Olavides enjoying the confidence of the 
 monarch, and elaborating laws for public improve- 
 ment ; and with Campomanes, a scholar of varied and 
 .profound erudition, as fiscal gaent of the royal council of 
 Castile, defending the enlightened policy of the govern- 
 ment against the attacks of bishops ; equalizing taxa- 
 tion ; and reducing the number of mendicants, the 
 nation could not but increase in splendor and pros- 
 perity, notwithstanding it had became involved in a 
 formidable war which raged between France and Eng- 
 land. By the co-operation of these patriotic statesmen, 
 whose lofty spirit scowled on despotism and religious 
 bigotry, a pragmatic sanction was obtained from the 
 government which restricted the inquisition, banished 
 the Jesuists from the Spanish dominions, and confiscated 
 their property. 
 
 But Rome and her priests could not forgive these 
 benefactors of the nation, although their liberal policy 
 had improved every department of government, and 
 had added, amid the disasters of war, wealth to the 
 treasury, and a million men to the population. Florida 
 Blanca was disgraced, imprisoned, and finally banished 
 to his estates. Campomanes was removed from office, 
 and disgraced. Aranda, who so greatly contributed to 
 
IN SPAIN. 341 
 
 public security, good order, and the abolition of abuses, 
 after passing through several trying vicissitudes, was 
 banished to Arragon. And Olavides, in the midst of 
 his beneficent and patriotic labors was arrested for her- 
 esy, and imprisoned in a monastic dungeon, 
 
 For the better protection, perhaps, of the monarchy 
 from, aggressions from without, and from insubordina-. 
 lion from within, the pope, at the request of Charles 
 III,, declared the Spanish monarchy to be under the su- 
 pervision of the Immaculate Conception, St, James, the 
 former protecting genius of Spain, was formally deposed 
 from office, and the Virgin Mary duly invested with 
 his authority and jurisdiction. The truth of the Im- 
 maculate Conception was demonstrated beyond prudent 
 dispute by the oaths of the emperor and the estates ; 
 and similar oaths were made the indispensable condi- 
 tion of all who should henceforth receive a university 
 degree, or become a member of any corporation or as- 
 sociation. As reverence for the clergy had become the 
 substance of the Catholic religion, so now invocations 
 to the Virgin Mary became the principal act of 
 devotion. 
 
 In 1788 Charles IV. was invested with the imperial 
 dignity. In 1808 the troops of Bonaparte having en- 
 tered his dominions, he welcomed them as allies, and 
 shortly aftewards resigned the crown in favor of his 
 son, Ferdinand VII. A month had not elapsed before 
 lie secretly revoked his resignation, and finally ceded 
 his right to the crown to Napoleon, who placed Joseph 
 Bonaparte on the throne. Although the ministers of 
 Ferdinand VII., and the greater part of the educated 
 
 classes of Spaniards, acknowledged without hesitation 
 29* 
 
342 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 the authority of Joseph, yet the monks and priests, 
 whose principles and interests are identified with des- 
 potism, in conjunction with the absolutists, and sup- 
 ported by England, found sufficient available material 
 in the change of dynasty, in the arrogance of the 
 French, and in the national hostility to foreign domina- 
 tion, to excite a general insurrection against the French 
 regime, and in favor of Ferdinand VII. as king. A 
 junta was established at Seville which proclaimed war 
 against France, and announced an alliance between 
 England and Spain. A desperate struggle was now 
 inaugurated, which, through six bloody campaigns, 
 rar^d from 1808 to 1814 ; during which every import- 
 ant city was successively taken and lost, and every 
 province was desolated and drenched in blood. Ar- 
 mies after armies, on both sides, were created and de- 
 stroyed with melancholy rapidity. The papal machin- 
 ery held the people in such absolute control that, though 
 the French gained victory after victory, abolishing as 
 they triumphed the feudal privileges, the inquisition, 
 the monkish order, and endeavored by the most liberal 
 concessions to conciliate the popular prejudices, yet they 
 retained no place which they did not garrison. Their 
 ranks were constantly thinned by the secret dagger, 
 their communications cut off by guerillas, and their 
 wounded murdered in cold blood. Insurgent bands 
 everywhere carried on the bloodiest struggles, and wo- 
 men took a fiendish delight in torturing and assassinat- 
 ing - the captives of war. A length the dreadful trag- 
 edy was closed, by the victory of the English at 
 Toulouse. 
 
 Peace being restored to the nation the cortes assemb- 
 
in Spain. 343 
 
 led, and shortly afterwards passed a resolution, declar- 
 ing that before Ferdinand should be acknowledged as 
 king, he should be required to swear to support 
 the constitution which had been drawn up by the 
 cortes of 1812, and which had been acknowledged 
 by the allies of Spain. "When interrogated as to his 
 disposition of complying with the demands of the 
 cortes, he replied in a tone of insolent indifference : 
 " I have not thought about it," To fortify the abso- 
 lute power he intended to usurp he professed to abhor 
 despotism, and solemnly pledged his honor to grant the 
 people a new constitution, founded on liberal principles, 
 and which would afford ample protection to the rights of 
 person and property, and to the freedom of the press. 
 But the motives which induced, him to make these 
 promises did not urge him to fulfil them. While he 
 nullified the old constitution, he did not restrict his 
 authority by a new one ; but in the exercise of abso- 
 lute power arrested the officers who served under Jo- 
 seph Bonaparte, and banished them with their wives 
 and children ; abolished freemasonry ; restored the Je- 
 suists ; re-established the inquisition ; put liberals to 
 the rack ; executed all who opposed the domineering 
 pretensions of the priests ; imprisoned those who ven- 
 tured to remonstrate against his measures ; incarcerated 
 in monastic dungeons the members of the cortes ; and 
 domineered with absolute despotism over the lives and 
 fortunes of his subjects. These severe proceedings, in- 
 tended to intimidate insurgents, produced disloyalty, 
 confusion and anarchy. The army became dissatisfied ; 
 the people insubordinate ; the country infested with 
 plundering and murdering guerillas ; and, encouraged 
 
344 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 "by this turbulent state of affairs, four battalions, in 
 1819, under Eiago, declared for the constitution of 1812. 
 The progress of this revolution was strenuously opposed 
 by the allied forces of the monks, the priests, and the 
 absolutists. The bishop of Cienfuegos defeated it at 
 Cadiz. But the people inhaling the patriotic enthusi- 
 asm, arose in masses in its favor, and even the apostolics 
 deserted their commanders. Ferdinand deprived of 
 troops, and almost of adherents, found himself obliged 
 to submit to the demands of the people. A provisional 
 junta was established to conduct the public affairs, 
 before which Ferdinand appeared and swore to support 
 the constitution of 1812. The inquisition was abolished. 
 The cortes assembled, and in a session of four months, 
 endeavored by the means of moderate measures to con- 
 ciliate the prejudices and interests of contending fac- 
 tions, and to restore harmony and vigor to the nation. 
 The clergy and absolutists, whom no concession could 
 satisfy, except that of unrestricted monarchy, organ- 
 ized a conspiracy for the overthrow of the constitution ; 
 and as the cortes had in their reformatory measures 
 abolished some convents, and banished all non-juring 
 priests, they appealed to the religious frenzy of the 
 people, and succeeded in creating considerable opposi- 
 tion to the constitutions. In the interest of this coun- 
 ter revolution an apostolic junta was established on the 
 frontiers of Portugal, for the avowed design of destroy- 
 ing the privileges of the crown and the clergy. Nu- 
 merous bands of armed monks and peasants appeared 
 in the different provinces ; and their bold assassinations 
 and barbarous acts produced such universal consterna- 
 tion, that the cortes declared the whole country in a 
 
IN SPAIN. 345' 
 
 state of siege. It was now evident that the priests 
 and monks who had stimulated the peasants to insur- 
 rection had been instigated by the French government. 
 But the cortes met the conspirators with skilful and 
 vigorous measures, and having vanquished them in 
 every engagement, succeeded finally in effecting the 
 disbandment of their forces. 
 
 In 1822 another attempt was made to subvert the 
 constitution. At Soi d'Urgel, on the confines of France, 
 the absolutists established a regency under the Marquis 
 Mataflounda. France was the instigator of this regen- 
 cy, and supported it with her influence and money. 
 The army of the absolutists, composed of apostolic 
 soldiers, and soldiers of the faith, were. met by the 
 united strength of the nation, and overwhelmed with 
 defeat. The regency fled to France. But this evidence 
 of the capability and determination of Spain to main- 
 tain a constitutional government, awakened into oppo- 
 sition every element of despotism, not only within her 
 borders, but within all Europe. The pope refused to 
 receive the Spanish ambassadors. The nuncio left 
 Madrid; France, Austria, and Prussia demanded of 
 the cortes that they should restore to Ferdinand 
 full sovereign powers, and England advised acom- 
 pliance with the demand. The Duke Angouleme, 
 the commander of the French forces, established a 
 junta which formed a provisional government on abso- 
 lute principles, and declared the acts of the cortes null 
 and void. France raised an army of the soldiers of 
 the faith, who were received by the Spanish clergy with 
 acclamations of joy, and termed by them "Good 
 Christians." The peasantry, controlled by the priests, 
 
346 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 espoused the cause of the absolutists, hut the army, the 
 educated classes, and the people residing in cities gen- 
 erally adhered to the party of the constitutionalists. 
 
 The dictatorial interference of foreign powers in the 
 internal affairs of a sovereign nation, and their attempts 
 to defeat a governmental reform which they had sanc- 
 tioned, and which, to achieve had cost the nation so 
 much treasure, and so many valuable lives, fired the na- 
 tive pride and heroism of the Spanish character, and 
 united the different factions of the constitutionalists in 
 a solid body in favor of their country and its liberty. 
 Though few in number, without allies, and without pe- 
 cuniary resources, yet they were full of energy and he- 
 roic courage. The cortes repelled with patriotic indig- 
 nation the insolent interposition of foreign powers, and 
 prepared for the doubtful contest with consummate 
 skill. As the church had been the chief cause of the 
 national calamity, they appropriated its surplus plate 
 to the necessity of the public treasury. "The soldiers of 
 the faith, and their guerilla bands, exclusively requir- 
 ing the attention of the national guards and of the 
 soldiers of the line, the cortes found themselves with- 
 out an efficient army to oppose the march of the French 
 troops, and the apostolic forces. This serious disadvan- 
 tage enabled the absolutists to march on from victory 
 to victory; and though some places made a good de- 
 fence, and others a stubborn and desperate resistance, 
 yet others submitted with scarcely a struggle. The 
 gloom which now overshadowed the prospects of the 
 constitutionalists, was ominously deepened by the de- 
 fection of some of their generals. But the undaunted 
 firmness of the remaining leaders, and the unequalled 
 
p 4 7 
 
 IN SPAIN. o 
 
 boldness and skill which characterized their manoeuvres, 
 desperately disputed inch by inch the progress of the 
 monarchists, until the fall of Valencia terminated the 
 eventful struggle, so honorable to the constitutionalists, 
 so disgraceful to Europe, and so full of admonition to 
 freemen. The bloody contests in which the liberals 
 had been engaged greatly depleted their ranks, and 
 now dungeons, exile, and the secret dagger nearly com- 
 pleted their annihilation. Under these depressing cir- 
 cumstances, the cortes invested Ferdinand with abso- 
 lute power. The apostolics, the soldiers of the faith, 
 the clergy and the uneducated classes, hailed him with 
 acclamations of " Long live the absolute king ;" " Long 
 live religion;" " Death to the nation;" "Death to the 
 negroes." Ferdinand then declared null and void all 
 the acts of the constitutional government, and all the 
 public approvals by which he had sanctioned them. 
 An attempt was made to introduce the inquisition, but 
 the liberals, supported by France, and even approv- 
 ed by the pope, successfully resisted the obnoxious 
 measure. In 1832, the infirmities of Ferdinand having 
 rendered him the dupe of designing favorites, he cre- 
 ated Christina, the queen, regent for the infanta Isa- 
 bella, his daughter. In 1837 the regent was obliged, 
 by an insurrection, to proclaim the constitution of 
 1812. In 1843, Isabella having attained her majority, 
 was declared queen. The constitution, revised and 
 deprived of its democratic provisions, was substituted 
 for that of 1837. After the adoption of this constitu- 
 tion the municipal privileges were abridged, the sale of 
 the sequestered church property suspended, and extra- 
 ordinary provisions devised for the support of the clergy. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PAPAL INTRIGUES RESPECTING THE 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 Papal Intrigues — Catholic Persecution — Protestant Per- 
 secution — Catholics in the Pevolutionary War — In 
 the late Rebellion — Catholic Enmity to Civil and Re- 
 ligious Liberty — An Alliance formed for the Subver- 
 sion of the American Republic — The Duke of Rich- 
 mond's Letter — Catholic Immigration — Progress of 
 Catholicism — Its Consequences — The Republic in Im- 
 minent Danger — Union Only Means of Salvation — 
 Conclusion. 
 
 That the papal pretensions have been a fruitful source 
 of the seditions and wars which, like successive tor- 
 nadoes, have swept in fearful rapidity over Christendom, 
 the records of history furnish the most unquestionable 
 evidence ; yet still no one will venture the assertion 
 that popish machinations have been the sole cause of 
 political discords. Treason and popular disaffection 
 have revolutionized and annihilated government after 
 government long before the throne of St. Peter was 
 established ; yet since that unfortunate period it cannot 
 be denied, that whenever the causes of civil or foreign 
 war became active, the sacerdotal monarchs have 
 inflamed or soothed them according to the dictates of 
 their interests. Through their intrigues the extermin- 
 ating sword of Charlemagne compelled the Saxons to be 
 baptized ; and that of Otho I. compelled the Danes to 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. - 349 
 
 accept the same rite. Through, their intrigues Clovis 
 was induced, by his Catholic wife, to consent to be bap- 
 tized ; and his troops who had followed him to the field 
 of slaughter, were led to follow him also to the baptismal 
 fount. By the same means Ethelbert, who wished to 
 marry Bertha, daughter of Carobert, King of Paris, 
 was persuaded to agree to matrimonial stipulations 
 allowing her, upon becoming his wife, to bring her 
 bishop with her, and permitting him to establish a Cath- 
 olic church in the kingdom for her convenience. By 
 the same artful means Ethelwolf was led to confer on 
 the clergy the tithes of all the produce of the land ; 
 Alfred the Great, to expel from his kingdom all the 
 Danes that refused to be baptized ; Edward to accept 
 the title of saint and confessor in lien of an heir to his 
 throne, and to consent to abstain from nuptial congress 
 with his queen ; Edward IV. to promulgate a law com- 
 mitting to the flames all persons convicted of the her- 
 esy of the Lollards ; and Mary L, a person of good 
 natural qualities and administrative abilities, to imprison 
 Protestant bishops for high treason, to confine princess 
 Elizabeth in the tower, to execute Lady Jane Gray and 
 her husband Guilford Dudley, to provoke the insurrec- 
 tions of Cave and "Wyat, to commit to the flames two 
 hundred and twenty-seven of her innocent subjects, 
 and to render herself a terror to her nation. By the 
 same disgraceful and impertinent intrigues the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth was perpetually disturbed with efforts 
 to overthrow her government. The pop'es excommuni- 
 cated her ; denied her legitimacy ; endeavored to sup- 
 plant her with Mary Queen of Scots; induced the 
 
 French to support Scotland in a rebellion against her 
 30 
 
350 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 government; created a sedition in the north; incited 
 Spain to promote a conspiracy against her, assisted by 
 Florentine merchants, the Bishop of Boss, and the 
 Scotchmen residing in England ; and when all these 
 efforts proved abortive, to organize a conspiracy to have 
 her assassinated by Anthony Babington. By the same 
 disastrous intermeddling the reign of Queen Ann was 
 disturbed with efforts to restore the succession to James 
 the Pretender, the pope's tool for the recovery of Eng- 
 land; under that of George I. the Duke of Marie- 
 borough was led to proclaim the Pretender in Scotland ; 
 Cardinal Alberoni, minister of Spain, to form an alli- 
 ance in his favor with Russia, Sweden, France and 
 Spain ; and Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, to engage 
 in a conspiracy for the same object. Similar papal 
 machinations have interfered with the peace of France, 
 Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, Russia, 
 Poland, China, Japan, Egypt, Abyssinia, and of many 
 other governments, all of which were fearfully pro- 
 ductive of sedition, anarchy, war and revolutions. 
 
 Besides these intermeddlings with the national affairs 
 of all governments, the Catholic church assails all non- 
 Catholics with the most execrable persecution, openly 
 when she dares, secretly when she must. In her fiend- 
 ish malice she counsels the violation of every principle 
 of justice, of every obligation of humanity, of all con- 
 tracts, of all pecuniary engagements, of all oaths, and 
 urges as a duty the persecution and extermination 
 of all unbelievers, by means of corporeal punishment, 
 by imprisonment, banishment, murder, fire, swords, 
 racks, stakes and scaffolds. Hear the truth of these 
 assertions from the sanctified lips of the holy mother 
 herself: 
 
.. IN THE UNITED STATES.- "351 
 
 <( The Catholics believe that the Pope's authority is 
 not only ministerial but supreme, so that he has the 
 right to direct and compel, with the power of life and 
 death." — Pec. Jacob. Mag., But. Peg. Oppos. c. 138. 
 
 " Two swords were given to Peter, the one temporal, 
 the other spiritual." — Bernard de Consed. Lib. 4 : c. 3. 
 
 " She (the church) bears, by divine right, both 
 swords, but she exercises the temporal sword by the 
 hand of the prince, or the magistrate. The temporal 
 magistrate holds it subject to her order, to be exercised 
 in her service, and under her direction." — Bronsoris 
 Rev., Jan., 1854. 
 
 11 Both swords are in the power of the Pope, namely, 
 the spiritual and the temporal sword ; but the one is to 
 be- exercised by the church, the other for the church ; 
 the one by the hands of the priest, the other by the 
 hands of the king and the soldiers, but as the sword of 
 the priest." — Pope Boniface, Corp. Jur. Con. ed. Bocher, 
 tome 11 : p. 1139. 
 
 "Civil contracts, promises, or oaths of Catholics with 
 heretics, because they are heretics, may be dissolved by 
 the Pontiff." — Pope Innocent X., Caron. 14. 
 
 Engagements made with heretics and schismatics of 
 this kind, after such have been consummated, are incon- 
 siderate, illegal, and in law itself is of no importance, 
 (although made, per chance, by the lapse of those per- 
 sons into schism, or before the beginning of their heresy), 
 even if confirmed by an oath, or one's honor being 
 'pledged."— Pope Urban VI., Bymer 7: 352. 
 
 " Though sworn to pay he may refuse the claims of 
 a debtor who falls into error or under excommunication. 
 The debtor's oath implied the tacit condition that the 
 creditor, to be entitled to payment, should remain in a 
 state in which communication would .be lawful. "—8t, 
 Bernard, Maynooth. Report, 26Q. .... 
 
352 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 "There are various punishments with which ecclesi- 
 astical sanctions and imperial laws order heretics to be 
 punished. Some are spiritual, and effect the soul alone ; 
 others are corporeal, and effect the body. . . Among 
 the corporeal punishments, one which very much annoys 
 heretics is the proscription and confiscation of their 
 property." — Alphonso de Castro, cap. 5 : p. 98. 
 
 "Another punishment,"' says he, "is the deprival of 
 every sort of preeminence, jurisdiction and government, 
 which they previously had over all persons of all con- 
 ditions ; for he who is a heretic is, ipso jure, deprived of 
 all things." — lb., cap. 7 : p. 1055. 
 
 " The last punishment of the body for heretics," he 
 informs us, " is death, with which we will prove, by 
 God's assistance, heretics ought to be punished." — lb., 
 cap. 12 : p. 123. 
 
 But it will be said that Protestants have been guilty 
 of persecution as well as Catholics. This assertion is 
 unquestionably true. We confess, with regret, that 
 Protestantism, although she admits the right of private 
 judgment, has proved a foe to civil and religious liberty. 
 But unlike Catholicism, she has made concessions; reluct- 
 antly, indeed, but still she has made them. Guizot con- 
 fesses that her practice has necessarily been inconsist- 
 ent with her profession of toleration. She, however, 
 claims not, like Catholicism, to be the source and su- 
 preme controller of all political power ; nor to be the 
 sole disposer of crowns and kingdoms ; nor has she 
 elaborated a policy, adopted a systematic course of 
 measures, and organized a clerical force for the acqui- 
 sition of supreme and universal temporal and spiritual 
 dominion. She has no central head, With spies penetrat- 
 ing all domestic and national secrets, and communicat- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES.' 353 
 
 ing to it the information they have acquired. She has 
 no political machinery ramifying every part of Chris- 
 tendom, and acting in concert for the promotion of 
 her interests. She has no convents, nor nunneries ; 
 nor monastic vows ; no father confessors ; no religious 
 confessional; no religious orders, no military knights; 
 and no spiritual guides. She imposes no oaths of alle- 
 giance on her priests, requiring them to adopt every 
 available method of subjugating all government under 
 her authority. She has no inquisition, no rack and tor- 
 ture for her opponents ; no pretensions to absolve sub- 
 jects from their oaths of allegiance; no interdicts to 
 alarm superstitious minds by the suspension of religious 
 worship in disaffected kingdoms. She has never inter- 
 fered between rulers and their subjects, concocting trea- 
 son, fomenting sedition, and producing anarchy. She 
 has never organized armies for the extension of her do- 
 minion, and for the subjugation of kingdoms to her au- 
 thority. She has never butchered whole cities for 
 unbelief, nor in one day put one hundred thousand 
 heretics to death. She has done none of these things, 
 yet her hands are not unstained with innocent blood. 
 "Would they w T ere. Henry VIII., of England, perse- 
 cuted with equal severity those who believed in the 
 pope's right to temporal power, and those who disbe- 
 lieved the other dogmas of . Catholicism. The Church 
 of England, under Charles L, inflicted the most atro- 
 cious punishment on the Irish Catholics ; under James 
 I., on tho Puritans ; and under Elizabeth, it oppressed 
 both Catholics and dissenters with tyrannical measures, 
 and illiberal disabilities. The Puritan Cromwell perse- 
 cuted both Catholics and Episcopalians. In Ireland he 
 31* 
 
354 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 wasted the Catholics with fire and sword ; in Scotland 
 he put whole garrisons of dissenters to death ; and as 
 his schemes for obtaining the royal dignity suggested, 
 persecuted Covenanters, Republicans, and Puritans. 
 When Charles II. was elevated to the throne he deprived 
 2000 dissenting clergymen of their livings ; and by his 
 five-mile act prohibited them from approaching within 
 five miles of their former parishes. But the rigor of 
 Protestantism eventually relaxed its severity. Un- 
 der William III. some of the disabilities which oppressed 
 the dissenters were removed ; and under that of George 
 III. additional toleration was accorded. Still it must 
 be admitted that the ablest agents in extorting these 
 concessions to religious liberty were the Free Thinkers 
 of that age. Yet the Quakers, always the most respect- 
 able body of citizens, and the professors of the most 
 harmless of all creeds, were still punished with fines, 
 confiscation, imprisonment and death. All who disbe- 
 lieved in the holy trinity were also subject to similar 
 persecutions. Not until 1813 did Protestant England 
 cease to punish a belief in Unitarianism with imprison- 
 ment, and legal disabilities. John Calvin, at the head 
 of the Consistory of Geneva, had John Guet beheaded 
 on a charge of attempting to overthrow the doctrines of 
 the Calvinistic church ; and Micheal Servetus arrested 
 and burnt alive for having attacked the doctrine of the 
 holy trinity. Even in republic America, under the ele- 
 vating influence of liberal institutions, the intolerant 
 spirit of religious bigotry predominates more or less 
 over the mind of the Christian republic. In Massachu- 
 setts Baptists and Quakers were once fined, imprisoned, 
 and burnt alive. - In Virginia all -Quakers that disbd- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 355 
 
 lieved in the holy trinity, and all persons that refused 
 to have their children baptized were scourged, confined, 
 banished or put to death. In Pennsylvania, under the 
 charter of William Penn, all Atheists were excluded 
 from official position. In Maryland disbelief in the 
 holy trinity was declared to be a capital offence ; and 
 not until recently was any person, who professed not to 
 believe in Christianity, unless a Jew, eligible to any 
 ■office of trust or profit in the State ; nor even to this 
 day Is any person eligible who disbelieves in a God. 
 The statute books of every Protestant -country bear 
 testimony to the same illiberality. Humboldt, Cuvier, 
 Buffon, La Place, Gibbon, Voltaire, Hume, Jefferson, 
 and other eminent scholars and patriots would, by the 
 provisions of almost every State constitution in the 
 Union, be debarred from filling the lowest office that 
 they create. In fact the history of no religious sectary 
 indicates it to be a bond of love, union, or concord. 
 Every Protestant creed, sectary or conclave, is a per- 
 petual source of mutual jealousy, animosity and perse- 
 cution. The same intolerant spirit breathes its malig- 
 nancy over the pages of the religious press. " If we 
 are not Christians," says the Church Union, " let us 
 make no hypocritical pretensions of founding govern- 
 ments on Christian principles. If we are, I believe 
 that they should predominate over our whole life ; let 
 us have them incorporated in the basis of our govern- 
 ment, and the national policy shaped by them. Let no 
 one hold an office of trust or profit whose life is not 
 conformably thereto." These holy ravings remind us 
 of an attempt once made by the Puritans to incorporate 
 the Bible into the British constitution. " The wrestlers 
 
356 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 with God/' as they called themselves were, deliberating 
 upon a motion to repeal the laws of England, and sub- 
 stitute in their place the laws of Moses and the proph- 
 ets. But Cromwell averted the calamity by a peremp- 
 tory dissolution of parliament, and a command to " the 
 wrestlers" to go home ; nor did he think it prudent to 
 call them together again. The religious politics of the 
 Methodist Home Journal are similar in tone with that 
 of the Church Union. This infuriated orthodox theo- 
 logian says : "They that deny the doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity, ignore the basis on which our government is 
 founded. Can they be regarded as citizens? Ought 
 any man who holds to this position be admitted to — or 
 permitted to hold Christian citizenship under this gov- 
 ernment ? We hold that to be consistent with our- 
 selves Infidelity should not be tolerated in our country, 
 much less encouraged by those who openly profess and 
 teach its doctrines." These assertions are the evident 
 irrepressible ebullitions of innate treason to the repub- 
 lic. They ingore the basis on which our government is 
 founded, and, according to the logic of this fanatic the 
 sect that holds them ought not to be regarded as citi- 
 zens, nor permitted to hold Christian citizenship under 
 this government. But the knife with which this mad- 
 man would cut his own throat Infidelity would wrest 
 from him. The sacred basis of our government is 
 equal political and religious rights. Had Methodism 
 been chosen as the basis of our government, would a 
 republic have been thought of? Never! Did not 
 John Wesley, its founder and spirit, oppose the Ameri- 
 can revolution ? Did he not write against it, preach 
 against it, and labor publicly and privately to arrest its 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 357 
 
 progress ? Was there a man in England that inflicted 
 deeper injury on the American cause? While English 
 Infidels aided the struggle for independence with their 
 pens, money and valor, — while English statesmen 
 blushed at the barbarous conduct of their government, — 
 this bigoted priest, a fugitive of justice from the State 
 of North Carolina, defended it without shame or com- 
 punction. Even at this day Potestant priests have 
 dared to assert that Infidels have no rights which they 
 are bound to respect ; but such miscreants have no 
 rights, (for they surrender them by their assertions,) 
 which any person is bound to respect. Such self- 
 accursed, self-outlawed bigots, in conjunction with un- 
 principled demagogues and political aspiring judges, 
 are to-day laboring to incorporate in the national con- 
 stitution the fanaticism of the Church Union and of 
 the Methodist Some Journal. When their holy trea- 
 son shall have become a success, liberty will forsake 
 her desecrated abode ; despotism will occupy her 
 temple ; and, we fondly hope that, in the course of 
 coming events the fanatics will not discover that they 
 have legalized their own extermination. Had Constan- 
 tine the Great, thongh frenzied with ambition and 
 crimsoned with guilt, beheld the boundless ocean of 
 gore which was destined to flow from an incorporation 
 of Christianity with the civil power, and to roll its 
 heavy surge over all future time, he would have been 
 more obdurate than a fiend had he not cowled his head 
 in horror at the frightful vision, and dropped in mercy 
 the pen already inked to inaugurate the tremendous 
 catastrophe. Yet how sickening is the thought that the 
 example of this ambitious tyrant, loaded with the curses 
 
358 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 of ages, is now attempted to be imitated by Protestant 
 priests, political judges, and United States officials. 
 But thanks to nature, the play of the natural principles 
 of liberty in the minds of some priests, have been too 
 strong to be repressed by dogmatic creeds. Gloriously 
 inconsistent with their principles, they have inscribed 
 their names in imperishable honor on the scroll of lib- 
 erty. Thankful for the few names blazoned there, 
 freedom must drop a tear over the smallness of the 
 number. 
 
 It will be asked, perhaps, notwithstanding the facts 
 which have been adduced showing the political nature 
 and designs of the Catholic church, what has the Amer- 
 ican republic to apprehend from it ? It will be asked, 
 Did not Catholics fight for the establishment of a free 
 government in the revolutionary war ? Did they not 
 fight to defend it in the war of 1812 ? Did they not 
 fight to preserve its unity in the late rebellion? No 
 well informed person will answer these questions in the 
 negative ; and no candid person will fail to acknowledge 
 the distinguished valor and liberality which they dis- 
 played on these occasions. Catholics are men ; and the 
 love of liberty is a natural principle of the human con- 
 stitution. Ignorance may blind it ; prejudice mislead 
 it ; and superstition overawe it ; but when the natural 
 vigor of its disposition is aroused it will assert its rights 
 in defiance of creeds, shackles and stakes. It is not the 
 nature, but the education of Catholics, and the religious 
 despotism with which they are enthralled, that has so 
 often deprived freedom of their homage and allegiance. 
 The frequent opposition of Catholic princes to ihe 
 policy and measures of the popes, the numerous leagues 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 359 
 
 which they have formed, and the vast armies which 
 they have raised in their support, abundantly show how 
 often their reverence for the pope has been displaced 
 by defiance to his authority, and contempt for his pre- 
 tensions. The liberal minded people of France have, 
 from an early date, boldly opposed the pope's claim to 
 temporal power. St. Louis IX., in 1269, declared in a 
 pragmatic sanction, that the temporal power of France 
 was independent of the jurisdiction of Rome. Charles 
 VIII., of France, in a pragmatic sanction issued in 
 1433, asserted for France, in conformity with the canons 
 of the Council of Basle, independence of Rome in all 
 temporal matters. Louis XIV., in 1682 convened a 
 national council of the clergy at Paris, which decided 
 that the Pope of Rome had no power to interfere, directly 
 or indirectly, in the temporal concerns of princes and 
 sovereigns ; that the usages of the French church are 
 inviolable ; that the authority of the general councils 
 is superior to that of the pope ; and that the pope is n.ot 
 infallible in matters of faith. The popes, by the means 
 of bulls, have attempted to nullify these acts, but nev- 
 ertheless they form the distinctive principles of the 
 Gallican Church, and also of other Catholic churches in 
 different kingdoms of Europe. Thje Fenian order is 
 another happy instance of the predominance which pa- 
 triotism may gain, in the minds of Catholics, .over their 
 reverence for the church and its despotism. 
 
 If Catholics have at various times chastised the pope, 
 deprived him of temporal authority, assaulted his per- 
 son, imprisoned and deposed him, it is not surpris- 
 ing that they fought in the defence of the independ- 
 ence and freedom of America, No one that has an 
 
360 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 adequate conception of the papal policy, will be much 
 astonished that the Catholics were prominent leaders in 
 the revolutionary war. It was a cause in which the 
 pope himself, in perfect consistency with his pretensions, 
 might have personally engaged. The pope claims Eng- 
 land as his fief, and denounces her kings as usurpers. 
 The success of a revolt intended to deprive England of 
 her colonies was as gratifying to his revenge as it was 
 flattering to his ulterior designs on the colonies them- 
 selves. In a republic he could plant his machinery, 
 build up at will his monastic penitentiaries, erect his 
 strong castle-like and secret-celled churches, leisurely 
 select and occupy eligible and strategic points for cita- 
 dels, and collect from every kingdom his most faithful 
 and reliable subjects. Bishop Hughes asserted that 
 Catholicism was friendly to republics, for they allowed 
 its free development. But the development of Cathol- 
 icism involves the subversion of republics, and the 
 establishment in their place of political and religious 
 despotism. 
 
 The insincerity of any proposed attachment to the 
 American republic by popes or priests, is attested by 
 the very occurrence of the Southern rebellion. Had 
 the pope and priests been opposed to it a Catholic rebel 
 would scarcely have been known ; and had not the 
 Catholics North and South been in favor of the rebel- 
 lion, it could not have taken place. That singular and 
 unnecessary intestine collision, in which the South 
 gained nothing but disgrace, the North nothing but 
 depopulation and empoverishment, and at the mystery 
 of which leading secessionists were so much puzzled 
 that they declared it to be the effects of a general 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 361 
 
 lunacy, was nevertheless in perfect harmony with the 
 profound and masterly policy of the Eoman See, which 
 comprehends in its toils the events of ages, and from 
 the first projection of a plot to its final consummation, 
 shapes every intervening circumstance to the fulfilment 
 of its grand design. The Catholics North supported 
 the cause of the Union, and the Catholics South the 
 cause of the rebellion with votes, money and men ; the 
 rebellion, therefore, was not contrary to the teachings 
 of the church. The depopulation of the native element 
 of the North, the influx of foreign Catholics, the crea- 
 tion of an oppressive national debt, the demoralization 
 consequent on civil war, the engenderment of civil an- 
 tipathies, and the supplanting of colored servants by 
 white Catholic servants, were all known prospective re- 
 sults of the rebellion ; were all in harmony with the 
 papal designs ; and to realize which the Catholics of the 
 North, and the Catholics of the South were stimulated 
 by their priests to meet each in deadly conflict. 
 
 But dismemberment could not possibly have been in- 
 tended by the secret projectors of the rebellion. It 
 was an impracticable idea. The geography of the coun- 
 try interposed to its success an insurmountable obstacle. 
 It was also inconsistent with the papal designs. But 
 monarchy was not an impracticable idea. It encoun- 
 tered no difficulty in the country's geography. It was 
 in harmony with the policy of the Roman See. The 
 Catholic blood which was poured out in such torrents 
 in the civil conflicts was not intended to effect dis- 
 memberment, but to create the elements conducive to 
 the establishment of a monarchial government. Shortly 
 
 after the close of the rebellion this soil, hallowed by the 
 31 
 
362 PAPAL POLITICAL INTBIGUES 
 
 blood, and consecrated by the sepulture of millions of 
 freemen, Catholic as well as non-Catholic, was attempted 
 to be desecrated by the establishment of presses for 
 openly advocating that execrable treason ; and it has 
 been asserted by the leaders of the late rebellion, that 
 the civil war is not at an end ; but that it will again 
 break out, and then the battle field will not be the 
 South, but every State, city and village in the Union. 
 Perhaps they mean to intimate that it will be a repeti- 
 tion of the massacre on St. Bartholomew's eve. 
 
 To those who fondly dream that the republic of 
 America has nothing to fear from the pretensions of 
 the Pope of Pome, and his loyal subjects, we submit 
 the following extracts : 
 
 " Heresy (Protestantism) and Infidelity have not, 
 and never had, and never can have any right, being, as 
 they undoubtedly are, contrary to the law of God." — 
 Bronsons Rev., Jan., 1852. 
 
 " Heresy (Protestantism) and unbelief are crimes, 
 and in Christian countries, as in Italy and Spain for in- 
 stance, where the Catholic religion is .the essential law 
 of the land, they are punished as other crimes." — Bishop 
 Kendrick. 
 
 " Protestantism of every form has not, and never can 
 have any right, where Catholicism is triumphant ; and 
 therefore we lose all the breath we expend in declaim- 
 ing against bigotry and intolerance, and in favor of re- 
 ligious liberty, or the right of any one to be of any 
 religion, cr of no religion, as best pleases him." — 
 Catholic Iicv. y Jan., 1852. 
 
 " Religious liberty is merely endured until the oppo- 
 site can be carried into effect without peril to the 
 Catholic world." — Bishop 0" Connor, of BitUburg. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 363 
 
 11 If the Catholics ever gain, which they surely will, 
 an immense numerical majority, religious freedom in 
 this country will be at an end." — Archbishop of St. 
 Louis. 
 
 11 Catholicity will one day rule America, and religious 
 freedom will be at an end." — Bishop of St. Louis. 
 
 ** The Catholic church numbers one-third of the 
 American population ; and if its membership shall in- 
 crease for the next thirty years as it has for the thirty 
 years past, in 1900 Rome will have a majority, and be 
 bound to take the country and keep it." — Seeker. 
 
 11 Should the said church go on increasing for the 
 next twenty years, the papists will be in a majority of 
 the people of the United States." — William Hogan. 
 
 " St. Thomas Aquinas, in his second book, chapter 3, 
 page 58, says: * Heretics (non-Catholics) may justly be 
 killed.' But you will answer, there is no danger of 
 this. They can never acquire the power in this coun- 
 try to sanction that doctrine. How sadly mistaken 
 are you ! How lamentably unacquainted with the se- 
 cret springs or machinery of popery." — William Hogan. 
 
 Quoting from an author Hogan writes : 
 
 " America is the promised land of the Jesuists. To 
 obtain the ascendency they have no need of Swiss 
 guards, or the assistance of the holy alliance, but a ma- 
 jority of votes, which can easily be obtained by the 
 importation of Catholic voters from Ireland, Austria, 
 and Bavaria. ... I am not a politician, but knowing 
 the active spirit of Jesuitism, and the indifference of 
 the generality of Protestants, I have no doubt that in 
 ten years the Jesuists will have a mighty influence 
 over the ballot box, and in twenty will direct it accord- 
 ing to pleasure. Now they fawn, in ten years they will 
 menace, in twenty command." — Synopsis, p. 106. 
 
364 PAPAL POLITICAL NTEIGUES 
 
 In the above quoted authorities we have a unanimous 
 declaration of Catholic bishops, priests and periodicals, 
 that the Catholic church is radically opposed to reli- 
 gious liberty ; that she regards Protestants and Infidels 
 as criminals ; that whenever she obtains the political 
 power she punishes them as such ; and that the success 
 of her policy and measures in this country has been 
 sufficient to justify her expectation, that in 1900 she 
 will be enabled to accomplish all her bloody and trea- 
 sonable designs. That these hopes are not altogether 
 chimerical, we have also the reluctant and alarming 
 concessions of her opponents. Those who abuse liberty 
 should be deprived of its benefits ; and those abuse it 
 most who take advantage of its generous indulgence to 
 plot for its destruction. The rights of toleration sub- 
 sist only by mutual consent ; their obligations are re- 
 ciprocal ; and whenever the silent compact is violated 
 by one party, the other is exonerated from its obliga- 
 tions. No man possesses a right which is not possessed 
 by another ; nor has he any authority for claiming for 
 himself that which he does not concede to others. 
 When, therefore, the Catholic priests proclaim that 
 Protestantism in any form has no right where Cathol- 
 icism is triumphant, they surrender their rights where 
 Protestantism in any form is triumphant. When they 
 assert heresy and unbelief are crimes, and where the 
 Catholic religion is the essential law of the land, are 
 punished as crimes, they authorize heretics and unbe- 
 lievers to consider Catholicism a crime, and where her- 
 esy and unbelief are the essential law of the land, to 
 punish Catholics as criminals. When they say that 
 Catholicity will one day rule America, and then religious 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES, 365 
 
 liberty will be at an end, they appeal to the instincts of 
 self-preservation, and justify freemen in adopting any 
 measure that is necessary to render their avowed trea- 
 son and destructive ^ designs abortive. They assail the 
 fundamental principles of the Constitution, and forfeit 
 all right to its protection. Neither Protestants nor In- 
 fidels may be disposed to avail themselves of the privi- 
 leges of these concessions, while forbearanc e is a virtue ; 
 but they may be provoked to consider the further tol- 
 erance of the Jesuists in this country as inconsistent 
 with the peace and stability of the republic. 
 
 As the treasonable designs of the Catholic priests are 
 undeniable, it is important to understand by what 
 means they expect to accomplish their infamous pur- 
 poses. The subjoined letter of the Duke of Eichmond, 
 formerly Governor-General of Canada, will explain 
 their policy, their system of measures, and the co-opera- 
 tion which they are to receive from the sovereigns of 
 Europe. " It (the American republic) will be destroyed" 
 says he, " it ought not, and will not be permitted to exist. 
 The curse of the French revolution, and subsequent 
 wars and commotions of Europe, are to be attributed 
 to its example, and so long as it exists no prince will be 
 safe on his throne, and the sovereigns of Europe are 
 aware of it, and they are determined on its destruction, 
 and they have come to an understanding on the subject, 
 and have decided on the means to accomplish it; and 
 they will eventually succeed, by subversion rather than 
 by conquest. All the low and surplus population of 
 the different nations of Europe will be carried into that 
 country. It is, and will be, the receptacle of the bad 
 
 and disaffected population of Europe, when they are 
 31* 
 
366 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 not wanted for soldiers or to supply navies ; and the 
 governments of Europe will favor such a cause. This 
 will create a surplus majority of low population, who are 
 so very easily excited, and they will "bring with them their 
 principles, and in nine cases out of ten adhere to their 
 ancient and former governments, laws, manners, cus- 
 toms and religion, and will transmit them to their pos- 
 terity, and in many cases propagate them among the 
 natives. These men will become citizens, and by the 
 constitution and kws be invested with the right of 
 suffrage. Hence discord, dissension, anarchy and civil 
 war will ensue, and some popular individual will assume 
 the government, restore order, and the sovereigns of 
 Europe, the immigrants, and many of the natives will 
 sustain him. The church of Rome has a design on this 
 country, audit will in time he the established religion, and 
 it will aid in the destruction of the republic. I have 
 conversed with many sovereigns and princes of Europe, 
 and they have unanimously expressed their opinion 
 relative to the government of the United States, and 
 their determination to subvert it." According to this 
 admonitory letter an alliance has been formed by the 
 European powers and the Pope of Eome, for the sub- 
 version of the American republic, the substitution of a 
 manarchy in its place, and the establishment of Cathol- 
 icism as the national religion. Had the Duke of Rich- 
 mond been silent, still no well informed person could 
 doubt that all the European sovereigns, whether Pro- 
 testant or Catholic, would act upon the avowed prin- 
 ciple of the Holy Alliance in their conduct with regard 
 to North America. Would England consent, it may be 
 asked, to ally herself with the papal despot ? Why 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 367 
 
 not ? She has done so before ; in the recent troubles of 
 the Roman See she sent her war vessels to protect the 
 pope ; and she assented to the principles of the Holy 
 Alliance, which was for the extinguishment of all free- 
 dom in Europe. The good sense of the English people 
 would never have recognized a policy which inevitably 
 involved their own destruction ; but they are a cypher 
 in the great account of the short-sighted government. 
 That England heartily co-operates with the papal 
 priests in their infamous work, may be learned from the 
 subjoined extract of the Dublin Evening Mail, elicited 
 by the news from America that certain teachers had 
 been dismissed from a school of the West on account of 
 their foreign birth. &c. : " The foreign birth and Roman 
 Catholic proclivities of the teachers thus dismissed," 
 says he, " are sufficient evidence that they have been 
 imported into the United States by the Church of Rome, 
 with a view to pervert the secular education of the 
 country to the purposes of proselytism. They are, in 
 fact, emissaries of the College de Propaganda Fide, and 
 have been trained and qualified, no doubt, by its edu- 
 cation, to carry out abroad the principles it has been so 
 successful in disseminating here in Dublin. The pope 
 has not a more efficient free-handed institution at his bach 
 than the imperial parliament of the united kingdom, 
 which spares no expense to furnish his holiness with 
 zealous and well informed agents for the spreading of 
 his dominion over the face of the globe. Does he re- 
 quire priests to publish and extend it wherever the 
 English language is spoken, the halls and dormitories 
 of Maynooth are enlarged, and their larder abundantly 
 replenished to keep a constant supply of young ecclesi- 
 
368 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 astics for his service. Do these in turn send home a 
 requisition for more teachers to assist them in their 
 work, the Chancellor of the Exchequer adds some ten 
 thousand pounds for his yearlg estimate for national edu- 
 cation in Ireland, and continued re-enforcements of 
 propagandists are thus maintained, in readiness to move 
 in obedience to the call, whenever Rome may need their 
 service." 
 
 According to the Duke of Richmond's letter, one of 
 the means by which the tyrant of Rome and his col- 
 leagues have adopted for accomplishing the downfall of 
 the government of the United States, is that of foreign 
 immigration. Let us examine the operation of this 
 device. The editor of the Louisville Journal, in dis- 
 cussing the question of foreign immigration, makes the 
 following statement : " In 1850 our native white popu- 
 lation was about 17,300,000. In the same year our 
 foreign population was about 2,300,000. In 1852 the 
 immigration was about 398,170. At that rate it would 
 take only about six years to double the foreign popula- 
 tion here in 1850. This is about five times our popula- 
 tion's increase, which is in a ratio of three or four per 
 cent, per annum, while the increase of foreigners is from 
 fourteen to sixteen per cent, on the census of 1830, 
 1840, and 1850. 
 
 " In 1852 our presidential vote was about 3,300,000. 
 In 1848 it was about 2,880,000. In 1852 our foreign 
 arrivals, as shown, were about 400,000, and 240,000 of 
 these were males, thus showing that in one year, the 
 arrivals of foreign males into this country, was nearly as 
 great as the increase of our whole voting population 
 during four years." 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 369 
 
 The foreign arrivals by sea alone were — 
 
 In 1850 
 
 315,333 
 
 " 1851 
 
 403,828 
 
 11 1852 
 
 398,470 
 
 " 1853 
 
 400,777 
 
 From Canada and Mexico during the same 
 
 period about 
 
 700,408 
 
 2,118,408 
 
 It appears from the census of 1850 that the total ag- 
 gregate of foreign population of the United States in 
 1849 was 2,210,829. If the tide of immigration has 
 added but two millions to the number of the foreign 
 population every four years since 1849, it must have 
 amounted, in 1869, to 7,210,829. 
 
 All the immigrants are not, however, Catholics. Some 
 are Protestants, some Infidels, and some Kadical Repub- 
 licans. The Turners, the Free Germans, and the mem- 
 bers of the Eevolutionary League are all firm friends of 
 free governments. The proportion of Catholics among 
 the immigrants, at a fair computation, is presumed to be 
 about three-fourths of the entire number. They must, 
 therefore, add to the Catholic^ numerical strength about 
 3,750,000 at every decade 
 
 Besides the numerical augmentation of the Catholic 
 church through the medium of foreign immigration, 
 there are other appliances acting powerfully in its favor. 
 ''It is not long," says William Hogan, " since I saw a 
 letter from the Catholic bishop Kendrick, of the diocese 
 of Massachusetts, in which he informs the authorities 
 of Rome that he is making converts of some of the first 
 
370 PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIGUES 
 
 families in the diocese." — Synopsis, p. 169. " I have 
 often conversed," says he, "with American Protestants 
 on this subject, and regret finding many of them — espe- 
 cially those of the Unitarian creed — are strong advo- 
 cates of popery, and in favor of its introduction among 
 the people." John L. Chapman, a. Methodist clergy- 
 man, in a work written before the Southern outbreak, 
 says in substance, according to my recollection, that a 
 Methodist j^reacher cannot now address his congrega- 
 tion upon the subject of Catholicism with the same 
 freedom he could formerly ; that those who imagine a 
 Methodist preacher can now utter in the pulpit, or at a 
 tract or bible meeting, the sentiments of John Wesley 
 respecting popery, are entirely mistaken ; and that 
 those who suppose that an editor of a Methodist peri- 
 odical can now assail the errors of Catholicism without 
 the loss of subscribers, are laboring under a great delu- 
 ions. While the pulpits, revivals, and evangelical en- 
 terprises are making no converts of any account among 
 Catholics, the confirmation services of the Catholic 
 bishops show the great number of adult non-Catholics 
 which they are adding to their church. The number 
 of children kidnapped, and the extraordinary number 
 confirmed by Catholic bishops, might suggest a suspi- 
 cion that the church has not abandoned its historic 
 mode of adding to its members. Every non-Catholic 
 child educated in a Catholic school becomes a Catholic, 
 or strongly biassed in favor of that church. We hear of 
 Protestant priests, and sometimes of Protestant bishops, 
 and of whole bodies of theological students becoming 
 Eoman Catholics. 
 
 It is an undeniable fact that the annual increase of 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 371 
 
 the Catholic population far outstrips that of the non- 
 Catholic population ; and that at some future period its 
 numerical strength will be capable of deciding in favor 
 of the church every election that takes place. When 
 that unfortunate hour arrives every policeman, council- 
 man, mayor, judge, governor, delegate, congressman, 
 senator, president, civil official, army or naval officer 
 will be a Catholic. Then the non-Catholics wiiV be 
 powerless, and at the mercy of those who believe they 
 have no rights. Then, by the secret operation of the 
 papal machinery, one faction will be inflamed against 
 another, and one section of the land against another. 
 Then rapine, violence, assassination, sedition, massacre — 
 everything that can render life and property insecure — 
 will distract every state, city and village in the Union. 
 Then, amid the anarchy and confusion thus produced, 
 some Catholic tyrant will arise, and — the civil disorders 
 subsiding at the bidding of the pope — will be pro- 
 claimed dictator. Supported by the Catholic and Pro- 
 testant kings of Europe, he will abolish the republic, 
 and establish in. its place a Catholic monarchial gov- 
 ernment. Then, according to Bronson, heresy and 
 Infidelity will be declared to have no rights. Then, 
 according to Archbishop Kendrick, Protestantism will 
 be declared to be a crime, and punished as such. Then, 
 according to the archbishop of St. Louis, religious lib- 
 erty will no longer be endured. Then, according to 
 Hecker, the Catholic church will be bound to take the 
 country, and keep ifc. Then inquisitions will be intro- 
 duced, and stakes erected. Then the darkness of the 
 middle ages will settle over the land. Then the school- 
 houses, the colleges, the asylums, and the churches built 
 
372 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 with Protestant funds will be applied to Catholic pur- 
 poses. Then the fortunes which non-Catholics have 
 amassed will be confiscated. Then the territorial acqui- 
 sitions of the Government, all its resources, all the ad- 
 vantages it has acquired by arms and treaties, its navy 
 and its army, will become the property of the papal 
 monarchy, and applied to its defence and extension. 
 Then it will be the business of Americans, not to create 
 magistrates, but to obey despots ; not to share in the 
 sovereignty of the government, but to toil in slavery to 
 support an execrable despotism. Then liberty of speech 
 and freedom of the press will be no more. Then the 
 ecclesiastical dungeons, which the supineness of Amer- 
 icans have allowed Catholicism to erect among them, will 
 be the homes and graves of freemen. Then will arise a 
 government constructed of schemes for public plunder ; 
 where an aristocracy are privileged robbers ; where 
 moral worth and dignity are the helpless victims of 
 power and injustice; where laws are made for subjects, 
 not for rulers ; and where the people are inherited by 
 royal heirs, like so much land and cattle. Then will 
 the monarchial demon, the God of slaves and aristocrats, 
 seated on the people's throne, with his feet on the 
 people's neck, quaff blood like water ; and eye with 
 scornful indifference the squalid millions whom he has 
 doomed by an enormous taxation to huddle in hovels, 
 without light or air, with cloathing scarcely enough to 
 hide their nakedness, with food scarcely enough to sus- 
 tain life, or nre scarcely enough to keep them from 
 freezing. 
 
 When the pope shall have succeeded in his attempts 
 to establish such a monarchy over the American people, 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 373 
 
 lie will next proceed to enlarge its dominions by the 
 annexation of Canada, Mexico, all South America, and 
 all the Pacific and Atlantic islands. With such a do- 
 minion, such resources, such an army and navy, he will 
 be master of the land and the ocean. He will then 
 proceed to plunder and discrown the very kings that 
 had assisted him in erecting his colossal power. He 
 will then enforce, by the thunders of American moni- 
 tors and war steamers, his claim to the crowns of Eng- 
 land and Russia ; his claim to be the disposer of all 
 crowns ; his claim to be the only monarch that ought 
 to wear the token of royalty ; in fine, his claim to the 
 supreme temporal and spiritual monarchy of the world. 
 Then England will awake, but it will be in the vengeful 
 folds of a serpent crushing out her life. Then the Euro- 
 pean despots will awake, but it will be amid the crumb- 
 ling of their thrones. Then the papal allies will awake, 
 but it will be to find their limbs fettered, and the foot 
 of the sacerdotal monarch placed in malignant triumph 
 upon their necks. Then the world will awake, but it 
 will be to find that it has suffered the extinction of the 
 last star of liberty, and involved itself in a night of 
 despotism without the hope of a morn. 
 
 But the spirit of freedom is immortal ; its conflict 
 with despotism will be eternal. Bolts, dungeons, 
 shackles cannot confine it ; racks, flames and gibbets 
 cannot extinguish it. To annihilate it, the most formid- 
 able efforts of bigotry, the most ingenious arts of states- 
 men, the combined power of church and state, have 
 been applied in vain. Though the blood of freedom's 
 sons have streamed in torrents, and the smoke of their 
 
 stakes have darkened the face of heaven, yet their 
 32 
 
374 PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIGUES 
 
 spirit has still walked abroad over the world. "So it has 
 been in the past ; so it will be in the future. If the 
 Catholic demon should massacre all the freemen in one 
 age, they will rise up more powerful in the next; and 
 successively as time rolls on, shake with their energy the 
 accursed throne. Hence civil war will never cease, 
 fields will eternally reek with gore, burning cathedrals 
 and convents will illuminate the night, till the world, 
 instructed by its past errors, will unite in a natural 
 union for the extinguishment of Catholicism. 
 
 "We have now alluded to the dangers which begin to 
 'blacken our political firmament. Can the storm be 
 averted? We believe it can. A union of the Protest- 
 ants, Jews, Spiritualists, Free Religionists, Infidels, 
 Atheists, Turners, Free Germans, and of all non-Catho- 
 lics, without regard to creed, race or color, on a basis of 
 universal civil and religious liberty, with a judicious 
 policy, and a corresponding system of measures, will 
 prove adequate to the emergency. Such an organization, 
 if sufficiently liberally constituted, might command the 
 support of Gallic and Fenian Catholics. The life, lib- 
 erty and welfare of all non-Catholics, if not, indeed, of 
 the Fenians and Gallicans themselves, are in equal dan- 
 ger, and why should they not organize for mutual 
 safety? Does prejudice forbid it? Millions of lives 
 must be sacrificed if a union be not effected. Who 
 would, then, hesitate to sacrifice a prejudice that it may 
 be effected ? A tyrant may demand concessions with- 
 out rendering an equivalent, but freemen can not. 
 Can Americans sleep in peace, while the clang of the 
 hammers that are forging their chains are sounding in 
 their ears, and the pillars which support their govern- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 375 
 
 ment are tottering over their heads ? It seems impos- 
 sible. Their obligations to their country, to posterity, 
 to the world, demand union. Union or slavery ; union 
 or confiscation ; union or the rack, the stake, the gibbet. 
 One or the other is inevitable. Which do you now 
 chose ? A few more years hence you will have no 
 choice. 
 
 Every citizen knows that under the present form of 
 government his merits have rewards, and his industry 
 has encouragements enjoyed by no people in any 
 country, or under any other form of government. The 
 poorest and the richest are here accorded equal chances, 
 equal privileges ; and an equal voice in selecting 
 legislators, judges and rulers. They are equally un- 
 trammelled by legal impediments in seeking the highest 
 positions in the government. Each citizen is an inte- 
 gral part of the sovereignty of the nation ; he partici- 
 pates in its management, and shares its greatness and 
 glory. It is a consolation enjoyed only by an Ameri- 
 can, that if fame nor fortune should gratify his ambi- 
 tion, he can still bequeath to his children a richer 
 inheritance than that of either fame or fortune, the 
 inheritance of a free government. Judging of the 
 future by the past, it is his privilege to believe that the 
 republic will continue to grow in power and greatness 
 with each succeeding age, until the light of her glory 
 shall fill the earth ; until despots shall tremble before 
 the majesty of the people ; until the clank of slavery, 
 and the groan of the oppressed shall no more be heard ; 
 and until the united world shall rise to the majesty 
 and greatness of equal privileges, equal rights and 
 equal laws. 
 
376 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 
 
 Such are the blessings guaranteed, and the expecta- 
 tions warranted by the continuance of the republic ; but 
 monarchy, like a deadly blast, annihilates them. all. 
 With the liberty, it lays the greatness and glory of the 
 nation in the grave. Intolerance will then re-establish 
 its racks and torture. Industry will then be oppressed, 
 and enterprise annihilated. This land, which has so 
 long resounded with the song of liberty, will then re- 
 verberate with the clanking irons of servitude. This 
 nation, which is now the wonder and glory of the earth ; 
 which is so powerful and prosperous ; this nation will 
 be no more. Her life and splendor will have departed 
 with her freedom. History may record her eventful 
 story ; her sons may clank in chains around her tomb ; 
 future freemen may curse the degenerate sons who 
 wanted the valor or unanimity to transmit to their pos- 
 terity the government which they inherited from their 
 ancestors ; but these will not call her to life and glory 
 again. Like a wave she will have rolled away ; like a 
 dream, she will have departed ; like a thunder peal, 
 she will have muttered into eternal silence. Like 
 these she had but one existence, and that will then 
 have ended. 
 
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