m; lilt inijili IP Pif • ii til ;ii ill: mi. ill i i ■If m !P I m m T i i m PRACTICAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE AGAIKST WITH OCCASIONAL STRICTURES ON MR. BUTLER'S BOOK OP THE ROMAN CATHOUC CHURCH: IK SIX IiETTZSS, ADDRESSED TO THE IMPARTIAL AMONG THE IXomm eatplf en of ©reat iSvitain $^ Ktf lantr. REV. JOSEPH BLANCO WHITE, M.A. B.D. if In the Umversity of Seville; Licentiate of Divinity in the University of Osuna; formerly Chaplain JMa^istral f Preacher J to the King" of Spain, in the Royal Chapel at Seville; Fellow, and once Rector^ of the College of St. J[Iary a Jesu of the same totun; Synodal Ex" arrdner of the Diocess of Cadiz; JMember of the Royal Academy of Belles^ LettreSy of Seville, &c. &c.; now a Clergyman of the Church of England: — Author o/Doblado's Letters from Spain. Ea dicam, quse mihi sunt in promptu; quod ista ipsa de re multum ».et diu cogitavi. Cicero. FIRST AMERICAN EDITXQJfr; PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JAMES C. DUNN, 1826. .t> TO THE REV. EDWARD COPLESTON, D-D. Provost of Oriel College^ Oxford; Prebendary of Rochester^ Sfc. Sfc. Sfc. MY DEAR SIR, You have allowed me to inscribe this work to you, and I feel proud thus to associate it with your name before the public. As the subject, however, on which I have ven- tured, is one which violently agitates men's minds at this moment, it would be selfish and ungrate- ful in me, if, while I enjoyed the benefit of an im- plied approbation from an authority so highly and so deservedly respected, I were not as anxious to save you from misrepresentation, as I am with regard to myself. To^conceal that, upon the view of part of my manuscript, you have, with the greatest kindness, encouraged me to proceed; would require a degree of self-denial at which I shall never aim. But the hurry in which, from the pressure of other literary engagements, I have been obliged to prepare the ensuing pages, pre- IV vented my having the same advantage for the whole of the work; and that circumstance mars the pleasure which I should have derived from your complete sanction. Disappointed of that satisfaction, I am happy that another is left me in the similarity of our Adews, as to what is called the Catholic Question. From the friendly intercourse with which you have honoured me, I know that you hold it wrong to put down religious error by force, or to pro- pagate religious truth by degrading and brand- ing those who do not think with us. — I have suf- fered too much from religious despotism, not ful- ly and cordially to hold the same doctrine. The fetters which, by God's mercy, I have been ena- bled to break, I would rather die than help to ri- vet upon a fellow- Christian: but the Power which made me groan in protracted bondage, is striving to obtain a direct influence in this Government; and I cannot regard such efforts with apathy. For myself — ^thanks to the generous country which has adopted me — I have nothing to fear; but I deem it a debt of gratitude to volunteer my testimony in the great pending cause, that it may be weigh- ed against the studied and ctdoured evidence of such writers, as would disguise the true charac- ter of the spiritual tyranny, whose fierce grasp I have eluded. Indeed I would never have shown myself in the field of controversy, but for the appearance of a book evidently intended to divert the public from the important, and, to me, indubitable fact, that sincere Roman Catholics cannot conscientiously be tolerant. How far, my dear Sir, you are convinced of this, I cannot take upon myself to say; but I am sure you will allow, that if such be the real character of Ca- tholicism, the only security of Toleration must be a certain degree of intolerance, in regard to its enemies; as prisons in the freest governments are necessary for the preservation of freedom. I have thus far thought it necessary to touch upon the political question with which my work is indirectly connected, I say indirectly j because the parliamentary question about the claims of the Roman Catholics is by no means the object which I have had in view while writing. I will not deny that I should be glad if my humble per- formance could throw any light on a question in which the welfare of this country is so deeply con- cerned; but it is probable that it will not appear VI till after the decision of Parliament. Let this, however, be as it may, still I humbly hope that, whether the Roman Catholics are admitted into Parliament, or allowed to continue under the dis- abilities which their honest opponents lament, my labour will not have been thrown away. For as the danger which may threaten this country in the admission of Roman Catholic legislators, de- pends entirely upon their religious sincerity; I shall not have troubled the public in vain if, ei- ther I can convince the conscientious of the papal communion, that a Roman Catholic cannot ho- nestly do his duty as a member of the British Parliament without moral guiltj or, what I ar- dently wish, my arguments should open theii' eyes to the errors of their churcli. A work written with these views cannot, I trust, however imperfect in the execution, be an unworthy testimony of the great respect with which I am. My dear sir, Your most obedient servant, JOSEPH BLANCO WHITE. Chelsea^ April 30, 1825. CONTENTS. LETTER I. Page The Jiuthorh account of himself - - 13 LETTER IL Real and practical extent of the authority of the Popcj according to the Roman Catholic Faith. Intolerance^ its natural conseqiience^ 4 1 LETTER IIL Examination of the title to infallibility ^ spiri- tiial supremacy^ and exclusive salvation^ claimed by the Roman Catholic Church. Internal evidence against Rome^ in the 2ise she has made of her assumed prerogative. Short method of determining the question^ 81 LETTER IV. d specimen of the unity exhibited by Rome. Roman Catholic distinction between infalli- bility in doctrine and liability to misconduct. Consequences of this distinction. Roman Catholic unity and invariableness of Faithj a delusion. Scriptural unity of Faithj 103 TIU LETTER V. MorMcharacier of the Roman Church. Celt- hacy* Mmneriesj ... 125 LETTER VL Rome the enemy of mental improvement: the direct tendency of her Prayer-book^ the Bre- viary^ to cherish credulity and adulterate Christian virtue^ - ' - - 153 PRACTICAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE M^^U m®mE<&E^Wi ETC. LETTER L The Jliithor^s account of himself. If a man be at any time excusable in speaking of himself, it must be when he finds it necessary to address those to whom he is unknown. The name and designation of a writer are, indeed, suf- ficient in most cases, and even unnecessary in some, for the purposes to which the press is com- monly made an instrument; but the occasion of this address requires a more intimate acquaintance with my personal circumstances. Before I proceed, however, I beg you to observe ttie word impartial^ by which I have qualified Roman Catholics.^^Fvom such RQmaa Catholics A 14* as renounce their intellectual rights, and leave the trouble of thinking to others, I cannot expect a hearing. To the professed champions, in whom the mere name of discussion kindles the keen spi- rit of controversy, I can say nothing which they ^re not predetermined to find groundless and fu- tile. Among those who, bound to Catholicism by the ties of blood and friendship, make consistency in religious profession a point of honour, I am prepared to meet only with disdain. But there must be not a few, in whom the prepossessions of education and parentage have failed to smother a natural passion for truth, which all the witchery of kindred, wealth, and honour, cannot allure from its object. To such, among the British and Irish Roman Catholics, I direct these letters; for, tho' the final result of their religious inquiries may be diametrically opposite to that which has separated me from my country, my kindred, my honours, emoluments, and prospects; I trust that in the fol» lowing account of myself they will readily recog- nise an intellectual temper, for which no differ- ence of opinion can prevent their feeling some sympathy. I am descended from an Irish family, who^ 15 attachment to the Roman Catholic religion was often proved by their endurance of the persecu- tion which, for a long period, afflicted the mem- bers of their persuasion in Ireland. My grand- father was the eldest of three brothers, whose vo- luntary banishment from their native land, rooted out my family from the county of Waterford. A considerable fortune enabled my ancestor to set- tle at Seville, where he was inscribed on the roll of the privileged gentry, and carried on extensive business as a merchant. But the love of his na- tive land could not be impaired by his foreign re- sidence; and as his eldest son (my father) could not but grow attached to Spain, by reason of his birth, he sent him in his childhood to Ireland, that he might also cling to that country by early feelings of kindness. It was thus that my father combined in his person the two most powerful and genuine elements of a religionist — ^the unhesita- ting faith of persecuting Spain; the impassioned belief of persecuted Ireland. My father was the first of his kindred that mar- ried into a Spanish family; and his early habits of exalted piety made him choose a wife whom few can equal in religious sincerity. I have hal- 16 loMed the pages of another work^ with the char racter of my parents: yet affection would readily furnish me with new portraits, were I not anxious to get over this preliminary egotism. It is enough to say that such were the purity, the benevolence, the angelic piety of my father's life, that at hii^ death, multitudes of people thronged the house to indulge a last view of the dead body. Nor was the wife of his bosom at all behind him, either in iulness of faith or sanctity of manners. The en- deavours of such parents to bring up their chil* dren in conformity with their religious notions may, therefore, be fully conceived without the iielp of description. No w aywardness of disposition appeared in me to defeat or obstruct their labours. At the age of fourteen all the seeds of devotion, which had been assidiously sown in my heart, sprung up as it were spontaneously. The pious practices, which had hitherto been a task, were now the effect of my own choice. I became a constant attendant at the Congregation of the Oratory, where pious young men, intended for the Church, generally * Letters from Spain, by Don Leucadio Doblado. ly had their spiritual directors. Dividing my time between study and devotion, I went through a course of philosophy and divinity at the Univer- sity of Seville; at the end of which I received the Roman Catholic order of sub-deacon. By that time I had obtained the degrees of Master of xirts and Bachelor of Divinity. Being elected a Fel- low of the College of St. Mary a Jesu of Seville, when I was not of suflScient standing for the su- perior degree of Licentiate of DiAinity,^ which the Fellowship required, I took that degree at Osuna, where the statutes demand no interval be- tween these academical honours. A year had scarcely elapsed since I had received priest's or- ders, when, after a public examination, in com- petition with other candidates, I obtained the stall of Magistral or Preacher, in the chapter of king's chaplains, at Se\ille. Placed, so young, in a situation w hich my predecessor had obtained after many years' service as a vicar, in the same • Previous to the degree of Doctor of Divinity, a severe examination takes place, which gives to the Licentiate all the rights, though not the honours of Doctorship. These may- be obtained by a Licentiate at any time, by the payment of some fees. A 9 18 town, I conceived myself bound to devote my whole leisure to the study of religion. I need not say that I was fully conversant with the system of Catholic Divinity; for I owed my preferment to a public display of theological knowledge: yet I wished to become acquainted with all kinds of works which might increase and perfect that knowledge. My religious belief had hitherto been undis- turbed: but light clouds of doubt began now to pass over my mind, w^hich the w armth of devo- tion soon dissipated. Yet they would gather again and again, with an increased darkness, which prayer could scarcely dispel.— That immo- rality and levity are always the source of unbe- lief, the experience of my ow^n case, and my inti- mate acquaintance with many others, enable me most positively to deny. As to myself, I declare most solemnly that my rejection of Christianity took place at a period when my conscience could not reproach me with any open breach of duty, but those committed several years before: that during the transition from religious belief to in- credulity, the horror of sins against the faith, deeply implanted by education in my soul, haunt- 19 ed me night and day; and that I exerted all the powers of my mind to counteract the involuntary doubts which were daily acquiring an irresistible sti'ength. In this distress, I brought to remem- brance all the arguments for the truth of the Christian religion, which I had studied in the French apologists. I read other works of the same kind; and having to preach, in the execution of my office, to the royal brigade of carabineers, who came to worship the body of St. Ferdinand preserved in the king's chapel, I chose the subject of infidelity, on which I delivered an elaborate discourse.^ But the fatal crisis was at hand. — At the end of a year, from the preaching of this sermon — the confession is painful, indeed, yet due to religion itself — I was bo^'dering on atheism. If my case were singular, if my knowledge of the most enlightened classes of Spain did not fur- nish me with a multitude of sudden ti'ansitions from sincere faith and piety to the most outrage- ous infidelity, I would submit to the humbling conviction, that either weakness of judgment or fickleness of character, had been the only source • This sermon was published at Serille, at the expense of the brigade. 20 of my errors. But though I am not at liberty to mention individual cases, I do attest, from the most certain knowledge, that the history of my own mind is, with little variation, that of a great portion of the Spanish clergy. The fact is cer- tain: I make no individual charge: every one who comes within this general description may still wear the mask, which no Spaniard can throw off without bidding an eternal farewell to his country. Now, let us pause to examine this moral phe- nomenon: and, since I am one of the class which exhibits it, I will proceed with the moral dissec- tion of myself, however unpleasant the task may- be. Many, indeed, will dismiss the case with the trite observation that extremes generally pro- duce their opposites. But an impartial mind will not turn to a common-place evasion, to save it- self the labour of thinking. When I examine the state of my mind previous to my rejecting the Christian faith, I cannot re- collect any thing in it but what is in perfect ac- cordance with that form of religion in which I w^as educated. I revered the Scriptures as the w ord of God; hut was also persuaded that without a living-^ infallible interpreter, the Bible was a SI dead letter, which could not convey its meaning with any certainty. I grounded, therefore, my Christian faith upon the infallibility of the church. No Roman Catholic pretends to a better founda- tion. ^^I believe whatever the holy mother church holds and believes/' is the compendious creed of every member of the Roman communion. Had my donbts affected any particular doctrine, I should have clung to the decisions of a church which claims exemption from error; but my first doubts attacked the very basis of Catholicism. I believe that the reasoning which shook my faith is not new in the vast field of theological controversy. But I protest that, if such be the case, the coinci- dence adds weight to the argument, for I am per- fectly certain that it was the spontaneous sugges- tion of my own mind. I thought within myself that the certainty of the Roman Catholic faith had no better ground than a fallacy of that kind which is called reasoning in a circle; for I believed the infallibility of the church because the Scripture said she was infallible; while I had no better proof tliat the Scripture said so, than the assertion of the church, that she could not mistake the Scrip- ture, la vain did 1 endeavour to evade the force 3® of this argument; indeed I still believe it unan- swerable. Was, then, Cliristianity nothing but a groundless fabric, the world supported by the elephant, the elephant standing on the tortoise? Such was the conclusion to which I was led by a system which impresses the mind with the obscu- rity and insufficiency of the written word of Grod. Why should I consult the Scriptures? My only choice was between revelation explained by the ehurch of Rome, and no revelation. Catholics tvlio live in Protestant countries may, in spite of the direct tendency of their system, practically perceive the unreal nature of this dilemma. But wherever the religion of Rome reigns absolute, there is but one step between it and infidelity. To describe the state of my feelings, when, be- lieving religion a fable, I still found myself com- pelled daily to act as a minister and promoter of imposture, is certainly beyond my powers. An ardent wish seized me to fly from a country where the law left me no choice between death and hy- pocrisy. But my flight would have brought my parents with sorrow to the grave; and I thank God that he gave me a heart which, though long ^^vithoutlaw,'' was often, as in this case, a ^^law^ ds to myself.'* Ten years, the best of my life, wei»e passed in this insufferable state, when the approach of Buonaparte^s troops to Seville enabled me to quit Spain, without exciting suspicion as to the real motive which tore me for ever from every thing I loved. I was too well aware of the firm- ness of my resolutions, not to endure the most agonizing pain when I irrevocably crossed the threshold of my father's house, and when his bending figure disappeared from my eyes, at the first winding of the Guadalquivir, down which I sailed. Heaven knows that time has not had power to heal the wounds which this separation inflicted on my heart; but, such was the misery of my mental slavery, that not a shadow of regret for my determination to expatriate myself, has ever exasperated the evils inseparable from the violent step by which I obtained my freedom. Having described the fatal effects of Catholicisna on my mind, I will, with equal candour, relate the changes operated upon it, by my residence in England. It was the general opinion in Spain, that Pro- testants, though often adorned with moral vir- tues, were totally deficient in true religious foel- 24 ings. This was the opinion of Spanish Catho- lics. Spanish unhelievers, like myself, were most firmly convinced that men, enlightened as the English, could only regard religion as a po- litical engine. Our greater acquaintance with French books, and with Frenchmen, strongly supported us in the idea that belief in Christiani- ty decreased in proportion to the progress of knowledge, in every part of the w orld. As to myself, I declare that I did not expect to find a sincere Christian among educated Englishmen. Providence, however, so directed events, that some of my first acquaintance in London were persons whose piety was adorned with every good quality of the heart and mind. It was among these excellent friends, and under the protection of British liberty, that the soreness and irritation produced by ten years' endurance of the most watchful religious tyranny, began to subside I was too much ashamed of being supposed a Ro- man Catholic, to disguise the character of my re- ligious opinions^ but the mildness and toleration \Aith which my sentiments were received, made me perceive, for the first time, that a Christian 15 noi necessarily a bigot. The mere throwing away 25 the hated mask which the Inquisition had forced me to wear, refreshed my soul: and the excellent man to whom, for the first time in my life, I ac- knowledged my unbelief without fear, was able to perceive that I might yet be a Christian, pro- vided I saw religion divested of all force but that of persuasion* An accident (if any thing which leads to results so important, can be so called,) made me, in an idle moment, look into Paley's Natural Theology, wliich lay upon a table. I was struck by the author's peculiar manner and style: I borrowed the book, and read it with great interest. Feel« ings of piety towards the great author of Nature began to thaw the unnatural frost which misery, inflicted in his name, had produced in a heart not formed to be ungrateful. It was in this state of mind that, being desirous of seeing every thing worthy of observation in England, I went one Sunday to St. James's church. A foreigner, ig- norant of the language, w ould have brought away nothing but an unpleasant recollection of the length of the service; but I had learnt English in my childhood, and could understand it, at this time, without difficulty. The prayers, though B ^v S6 containing what I did not believe, appeared to me solemn and affecting. I had not for many years entered a church without feelings of irrita- tion and hostility, arising from'' the ideas of op- pressive tyranny which it called up in my mind; but here was nothing that could check sympathy, or smother the reviving sentiments of natural re- ligion, which Paley had awakened. It happened tliat, before the sermon, was given Addison's beautiful hymn, When all thy mercies, O my God 1 My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view, I'm lost In wonder, love and praise. At the end of the second verse, my eyes werr streaming with tears; and I believe that from that day, I never passed one without some ardent aspirations towards the author of my life and ex- istence. This was all the change that for a year or more, took place in my religious notions. Obliged to support myself chiefly by my pen, and anxious at the same time to acquire some branches of learn- ing which Spanish education neglects, my days 27 and nights were employed in study: yet religion had daily some share of my attention. I learnt that the author of the Natural Theology had also written a work on the Evidences of Christianity, and curiosity lead me to read it. His arguments appeared to me very strong; hut I found an in- trinsic incredibility in the facts of revealed his- tory, which no general evidence seemed able to remove. I was indeed labouring under what I believe to be a very common error in this matter — an error which I have not been able completely to correct, without a very long study of the subject and myself. I expected that general evidence would remove the natural inverisimilitude of mi- raculous events: that, being convinced by unan- swerable arguments that Christ and his disciples could be neither impostors nor enthusiasts, and that the narrative of their ministry is genuine and true, the imagination would not shrink from forms of things so dissimilar to its own represen- tations of real objects, and so conformable in ap- pearance with the tricks of jugglers and impos- tors. Now the fact is, that probable and likely ^ though used as synonimous in common language, are perfectly distinct in philosophy. The prjoba- 28 ble is that for the reality of which we can allege some reason: the likebj^ that which bears in its face a semblance or analogy to what is classed in our minds under the predicament of existence.* This association is made early in life, among Christians, in favour of the miraculous events recorded in the Holy Scriptures^ and, if not bro- ken by infidelity in after-life, the study of the Gos- pel evidence gives those events a character of reality which leaves the mind satisfied and at rest; because it finds the history of revealed religion not only probablej but likeltj. It is much other- wise with a man** who rejects the Gospel for a considerable period, and accustoms his mind to rank the supernatural works recorded by Reve- lation, with falsehood and imposture. Likeli- * Likely is the adjective of the phrase like the truth, simile "vero. It is strange that the English language should not possess a substantive answering to le vraiaemblable of the French. The use of improbable to denote what in that lan- guage is meant by invraisemblable, is incorrect. When the French critics reject some indubitable historical facts from the stage, because they want vraisemblance (likelihood), they do not mean to say that they are improbable, or deficient in proofs of their reality; but that the imagination finds them unlike to what in the common opinion is held to be the usual course of events. 29 hoodj in this case, becomes the strongest gFOund of unbelief; and probability, though it may con- vince the understanding, has but little influence over the imagination. A sceptic who yields to the powerful proofs of Revelation, will, for a long time, experience a most painful discordance between his judgment and the associations which unbelief has produc- ed. When most earnest in the contemplation of Christian truth, when endeavouring to bring liome its comforts to the heart, the imagination will suddenly revolt, and cast the whole, at a ^weep, among the rejected notions. This is, in- deed, a natural consequence of infidelity^, which mere reasoning is not able to remove. Nothing but humble prayer can, indeed, obtain that faith which, wlien reason and sound judgment have led us to supernatural truth, gives to unseen things the body and substance of reality. But of this I shall have occasion to speak again. The degree of conviction produced by Paley^s Evidences was, however, sufficiently powerful to make me pray daily for divine assistance. This was done in a very simple manner. Every morn- ing I repeated the Lord's Prayer seriously an# B 3 30 attentively, offering up to my Maker a sincere desire of the true knowledge of him. This prac- tice I continued three years; my persuasion that Christianity was not one and the same thing with the Roman Catholic religion, growing stronger all the while. As my rejection of revealed reli- gion had heen the effect^ not of direct objection to its evidences, but of weighing tenets against them, which they were not intended to support; the ba- lance inclined in favour of the truth of the Gos- pel, in proportion as I struck out dogmas, which I had been taught to identify with the docti'ines of Christ. =^ The day arrived, at length, when convinced of the substantial truth of Christianity^ * Paley, with his usual penetration, has pointed out this most important result of the Reformation: "When the doc- trine of Transubstantiation (he says in his address to Dr. Law, Bishop of Carlisle, prefixed to the Principles of Moral Phi- losophy) had taken possession of the Christian world, it was not without the industry of learned men that it came at length to be discovered that no such doctrine was contained in the New Testament. But had those excellent persons done nothing more hy their discovery than abolished an in- nocent superstition, or changed some directions in the cere- monial of public worship, they had merited little of that ve- neration with which the gratitude of Protestant churches remembers their services. What they did for mankind was this-^Mey exonerated Chmtianity of a -weight that sunk iti^ u no question remained before me, but that of choo* sing the form under which I was to profess it.— The deliberation which preceded this choice was one of no great difficulty to me. The points of difference between the church of England and Rome, though important^ are comparatively few: they were, besides, the very points which had produced my general unbelief. That the doc- trines common to both churches were found in the Scriptures, my early studies and professional knowledge, left me no room to doubtj and as the Evidences of Revelation had brought me to ack« nowledge the authority of the Scriptures, I could find no objection to the resumption of tenets which had so long possessed my belief. The communion in which I was inclined to procure admission was not, indeed, that in which I was educated^ but I had so long wandered away from the Roman fold^ that, when approaching the church of England, both the absence of what had driven me from Ca- tholicism, and the existence of all the other parts of that system, made me feel as if I were return^ ing to the repaired home of my youth. Upon receiving the sacrament for the first time according to the form of the English churchy 33 my early feelings of devotion rcvivctl; yet by no means, as it might be feared in a common case, with some secret leaning to what I had left; for Catholicism was thoroughly blended with my bitterest recollections. It w as a devotion more calm and more rational; if not quite strong in faith, yet decided as to practice. The religious act I performed I considered as a most solemn engagement to obey the laws of the Gospel; and I thank God, that since that period, whatever clouds have obscured my religious views, no de- liberate breach of the sacred law, has increased the sting of remorse which the unbelieving part of my life left in my breast. The renovated influence of religion, cherished by meditation and study, induced me, after a period of a year and a half, to resume my priestly cha- racter; a step without which I thought I had not completed the re-acknowledgment I owed to the truth of Christianity. If any one unacquainted with my circumstances should be inclined to sus- pect my motives, he may easily ascertain his mis- take, by inquiring into the uniform tenour of my conduct since, in 18i4, 1 subscribed the ai'ticles of the chiu'ch of Englandi 33 Having now done what I conceived to be a public duty, I retired to Oxford, not to procure admission into the university, which my age would have rendered preposterous; but to live privately in that great seat of learning, devoting my time exclusively to the study of the Scriptures. I had resided a year in that place, when an En- glish nobleman, who since he knew me in Spain has ever honoured me with his friendvship, gave me the highest proof of esteem by inviting me to become tutor to his son. I accepted the charge^, though with fears that the declining state of my health would greatly disqualify me for the im- portant duties to which I was called; and which I discharged for two years to the best of my power, till my grow ing infirmities compelled me to resign. Neither the duties of the tutorsliip, nor the con- tinual sufferings which I have endured ever since, could damp my eagerness in the search of religious truth. Shall I be suspected of cant in this de- claration? Alas! let the confession which I am going to make, be the unquestionable, though me- lancholy proof of my sincerity. For more than three years my studies in divinity were to me a source of increasing attachment to 3* Christian faith and practice. When I quitted my charge as tutor, I had begun a series of short lectures on religion, the first part of which I de- livered to the young members of the family. =^ Having retired to private lodgings in London, it was my intention to prosecute that work for the benefit of young persons; but there was by this time a mental phenomenon ready to appear in me, to which I cannot now look back without a strong sense of my own weakness. My vehement desire of knowledge not allowing me to neglect any op- portunity of reading whatever books on divinity came to my hands, I studied the small work on the Atonement, by Taylor of Norwich. The confirm- ed habits of my mind were too much in accordance with every thing that promised to remo\e mystery from Christianity, and I adopted Taylor's views without in the least suspecting the consequences. It was not long, however, before I found myself beset with great doubts on the divinity of Christ. My state became now exceedingly painful; for, though greatly wanting religious comfort in the * These Lectures were published at Oxford, in 18ir, with the title of Preparatory Observations on the Study or Rbli&ion, by a CLEitoTMly ofthil chubch of Enolafd. 35 solitude of a sick room, where I was a prey to paiu and extreme weakness, I perceived that religious practices had lost their power of soothing me. But no danger or suffering has, in the course of my life, deterred me from the pursuit of truth. Having now suspected that it might be found in the Unitarian system, I boldly set out upon the search; but there I did not find it. AVhatever in- dustry and attention could do, all was performed with candour and earnestness; but, in length of time, Christianity, in the light of Unitarianism, appeared to me a mighty work to little purpose: and I lost all hope of quieting my mind. With doubts unsatisfied wherever I turned, I found my- self rapidly sliding into the gulf of Scepticism: but it pleased God to prevent my complete relapse. I knew too well the map of infidelitj^ to be deluded a second time by the hope of finding a resting- place to the sole of my foot, throughout its wide domains: and now I took and kept a determination to give my mind some rest from the studies, which, owing to my peculiar circumstances, had evidently occasioned the moral fever under which I labour- ed. What was the real state of my faith in this period of darkness, God alone can judge. This 36 only can I state with confidence, — ^that I prayed daily for light; that I invariably considered my- self bound to obey the precepts of the Gospel; and that, when harassed with fresh doubts, and tempt- ed to turn away from Christ, I often repeated from my heart the affecting exclamation of the apostle Peter — ^Ho whom shall I go? thou hast the words of eternal life." For some time I thought it an act of criminal insincerity to approach, with these doubts, the sacramental table; but the consciousness that it was not in my power to alter my state of mind, and that, if death, as it appeared very probable, should overtake me as I was, I could only throw myself with all my doubts upon the mercy of my Maker! induced me to do the same in the per- formance of the most solemn act of religion. But I had not often to undergo this awi'ul trial. Ob- jections which, during this struggle, had appeared to me unanswerable, began gradually to lose their weight on my mind. The Christian Evidences which, at the period of my change from infidelity, struck me as powerful in detail^ now presenting themselves collectively ^ acquired a strength which no detached difficulties (and all the arguments of 37 infidelity are so) could shake. '^^^ My mind, in fact, found rest in that kind of conviction which belongs peculiarly to moral subjects, and seems to depend on an intuitive perception of the truth through broken clouds of doubt, which it is not in the power of mortal man completely to dispeL Let no one suppose that I allude to either mys- terious or enthusiastic feelings; I speak of con- viction arising from examination. But any man, accustomed to observe the workings of the mind, will agree, that conviction, in intricate moral questions, comes finally in the shape of internal £eelmg—2i perception perfectly distinct from syllo- gistic conviction, but which exerts the strongest power over our moral nature. Such perception of the truth is, indeed, the spring of our most im- portant actions, the common bond of social life, the ground of retributive justice, the parent of all human laws. Yet, it is inseparable from more or * I believe it a duty to mention a work which, under Provi- dence, contributed to put an end to my trial, I mean the In- ternal Evidences of ChHstianity, by the Rev. John Bird Sum- ner;— a book which I would strongly recommend to every candid inquirer into religious truth, as containing one of the most luminous views, not only of the proofs, but the doctrines of the Gospel, which it was ever xny good fortune to peruse- C 38 less doubt; for doubtless conviction is only to be found about objects of sense, or those abstract citations of the mind, pure number and dimen- sion, which employ the ingenuity of mathemati- cians. That assurance respecting things not seen, which the Scriptures call Faithy is a super- natural gift, which reasoning can never produce. This difference between the conviction resulting from the examination of the Christian Evidences, and Faithf in the Scriptural sense of the word, appears to me of vital importance, and much to be attended to by such as, having renounced the Gospel, are yet disposed to give a candid hear- ing to its advocates. The pow er of tlie Christian Evidences, is that of leading any considerate mind, unobstructed by prejudice, to the records of Revelation, and making it ready to derive in- struction from that source of supernatural truth; but it is the Spirit of truth alone, that can impart the internal conviction of Faith. I have now gone through the religious history of my mind, in which I request you to notice the result of my various situations. Under the in- fluence of that mental despotism, which would , prevent investigation by the fear of eternal ruin, 3B or which mocks reason by granting the examina- tion of premises, while it reserves to itself the riglit of drawing conclusions; I was irresistibly urged into a denial of Revelation: but no sooner did I obtain freedom than, instead of my mind running riot in the enjoyment of the long-delayed boon, it opened to conviction, and acknowledged tlie truth of Christianity. The temper of that mind shows, I believe, the general character of the age to which it belongs- I have been enabled to make an estimate of the moral and intellectual state of Spain, which few who know me and that country, will, I trust, be inclined to discredit. Upon the strength of this knowledge, I declare again and again that very few among my own class (I comprehend clergy and laity) think other- wise than I did before my removal to England. The testimony of all who frequent the Continent — a testimony which every one's knowledge of fo- reigners supports — ^represents all Catholic coun- tries in a similar condition. Will it, then, be unreasonable to suppose, that if a fair choice was given between the religion of Rome and other forms of Christianity, many would, like myself, embrace the Gospel which they have rejected? 40 Is there not some pi*esuniption of error against a system which every where revolts an improving age from Christianity ? Let us examine that sys- tem itself. LETTER IL Real and practical extent of the Jtuthority of the PopCj according to the Roman Catholic Faith* Intolerance^ its natural consequence. Were I addressing Catholics, who live under the full and unchecked influence of the church of Rome, it would be unnecessary to come to a pre- vious understanding of the true nature of their tenets; for even persons who have never looked into a theological treatise, are fully aware, in such countri^es, of the difference between some dis- puted points, and the doctrines which their church holds as immutable articles of faith. The case is, I perceive, much otherwise in England. — From the attention which I have of late given to the books which issue out of the English Roman Catholic press, I am convinced that there exist two kindsof writers of your persuasion; one, who WTite for the Protestant public, and for such among yourselves as cannot well digest the real unsophisticated system of their Roman head; the C 2 42 otter, for the mass of their Britisli and Irisli church, who still adhere to the Roman Catholic system, such as it is professed in countries where all other religions are condemned by law. In your devotional books, and in such works as are intended to keep up the warmth of attachment to your religious party, I recognise every feature of the religion in which I was educated; in those in- tended for the public at large, I only find a flat- tered and almost ideal portrait of those to me well-known features, which, unchanged and un- softened by age, the writers are conscious, can- not be seen without disgust by any of those to whom custom has not made them familiar. The most artful picture of this kind which has come to my hands, is the Book of the Roman Ca- tholic Churchy by Charles Butler, Esquire, of Lincoln's Inn. The high character which the author bears for learning and probity makes me desirous to avoid even the shadow of a charge im- plying any thing derogatory to those qualities; but I cannot hesitate to declare that his statement of the Roman Catholic doctrines, since it must be believed to have been drawn with sincerity, pre- sents a straiige instance of the power of prejudice 48 in distorting the clearest objects. In another part of this book^ you will find a striking proof that the vehemence of his party spirit goes even to impair his knowledge of the Latin language, and makes a man, whom report classes among your best scholars, render a passage into En- glish, in a manner so far from giving the mean- ing of the original, that it contradicts itself in the translation. Had such inaccuracies affected only points of secondary importance, or related exclusively to the many historical facts to which Mr. Butler's book refers, I would leave them to more learned and experienced critics; but as he has besides, given an incorrect view^ of your most essential duties as Catholics; I must beg your attention to some remarks on that part of his book which treats of the authority of the Pope. He that, fully aware of the nature of his engagements to the Church of Rome, is still determined to obey her, should not be disturbed in the use of his dis- cretion; but varnished accounts of religious sys- tems must not be allowed to rivet religious preju- dice, or stand as a lure to the unwary. • See Note A, 44 The book of the Roman Catholic Church labours to persuade the world that the authority of the Pope over the Catholics is of so spiritual a na- ture, as, if strictly reduced to what the creed of that church requires, can never interfere with the civil duties of those who own that authority. — That the supreme head of the Catholics has, for a long series of centuries, actually claimed a paramount obedience, and thus actually interfer- ed with the civil allegiance of his spiritual sub- jects; is as notorious as the existence of the Ro- man See. The question then, is, whether this was a mere abuse, the effect of human passion!^ encouraged by the ignorance of those ages, or a fair consequence of doctrines held by the Roman church as of divine origin, and consequently im- mutable. I will proceed in this inquiry upon Mr. Butler's own statement of the Roman Catho- lic articles of faith, which is found p. 118 of the first edition of his work. *^A chain of Roman Catholic writers on papal power might be supposed: on the first link we might place the Roman Catholic writers who have immoderately exalted the prerogative of the Pope; on the last we might place the Roman Catholic r 45 wTiters^ who have unduly depressed itj and the centre link might be considered to represent the canon of the 10th session of the council of Florence, which defined that ^full power was delegated to the bishop of Rome in the person of St Peter, to feed, regulate and govern the universal church, as expressed in the general councils and holy canons.' This (adds the author, in capitals) is the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church ON THE authority OF THE POPE, and bcyond it no Roman Catholic is required to believe/' When I examine the vague comprehensiveness of this decree, I can hardly conceive what else the Roman Catholics could be required to believe. Full power to feed J regulate and govern the uni- versal churchy can convey to the mind of the sincere Catholic no idea of limitation. Whatever be the extent of the chain imagined by our author, the decree appears to have been framed wide enough not to exclude the link containing the wvi- ters who have most exalted the papal power. The task of those on the other extremity of the chain, is certainly more difficulty for it cannot well be conceived why mere human rights should be ano\\'ed to limit a/wM power to govern the minds 46 of men, derived from a direct injunction of Christ. Let this be, however, as it may, one thing is cer- tain, that a true Catholic may understand the /w!i Tpower of feedings regulating and governing the universal church according to either the Trans- alpine or Cisalpine explanation of the doctrine declared by the council of Florence. He may consequently believe, that the Pope has, <*atthe least, an indirect temporal power for effecting a. spiritual good in any kingdom to which the uni- versal church extends;'' and ^Hhat every state is so far subject to the Pope, that when he deems that the bad conduct of the sovereign renders iti essential to the good of the church that he shall I reign no longer, the Pope is authorised by his divine commission to deprive him of his sovereign- ty, and absolve his subjects from their obligation of allegiance.*'^ A Catholic may, on the other hand, with the divines of the Gallican church,, deny to the Pope this power of deposing princes.. Of these two explanations of the infallible doctrine? on the Pope's supremacy, Mr. Butler says, thatt * ^neither speaks the church's faith." This is, in- * Book of the Roman Catholic Church, p. 121. 47 deed, a remarkable fact. It is a fact from which we may infer, either that the Pope and his church do not understand the meaning of the inspiration on which they build the claim to infallibility, or that they receive that inspiration under a kind of political cipher, which, though laid before the eyes of the world, still leaves us in perfect ob- scurity as to its contents. Can any one doubt that the Pope, in the face of Christendom, issued a sentence of deposition against Queen Elizabeth? Had not a similar practice prevailed for many centuries before? Was this not done by virtue of what Popes conceived to be their divine preroga- tive, declared in the council of Florence? Did not tlie greatest part of the Catholic bishops allow, by their tacit or express consent, that the head of their church was acting in conformity with the inspired definition of his power? Were I not too well acquainted with the extreme flexibility, the deluding slipperiness of Roman Catholic theology^ I should contend that the sense of the council of Florence had, on these occasions, been fixed by infallible authority; for the Pope ^^may promul- gate definitions and formularies of faith to the universal church, and when the general body, or 48 a great majority of her prelates have assented to them, either by formal consent or tacit consent^ all are bound to acquiesce in them/'=^ But alas for those Avho will not be convinced! The bulls of deposition, though always prefaced by a declara- tion of doctrine concerning the power of the Ro- man see^ though issued with all possible solemni- ty; though assented to by all the bishops, except, perhaps, a few among the subjects of the monarch so deposed and condemned — these bulls will be. found not to be definitions and formularies of faith. They express a doctrine tolerated in the church of Rome, but not her faith: ^^this (says Mr. Butler) is contained in the canon of the coun- cil of Florence. Ml the doctrine of that canon an the point in question^ and nothing but that doctrine, is propounded by the Roman Catholic church to be believed by the faithful. '^f But will Mr. But- ler tell us how the faithful are to ascertain what it is this ALL contains? No, he certainly cannot. His church tolerates the opinion which in this ALL, comprehends the authority to depose princesj nay, the Popes have acted according to that opi- * Book of the Roman Catholic Church, p. 120, Isted. t Book of the Roman Catholic Church, p. 124, Isted. 49 nion, till the consolidation of the European powers tied their hands; but she also tolerates (the word is here in its place) the opinion of those who strike off from that all, no less a part than the Pope's supremacy over the sovereigns of the earth. Little indeed has the inspiration of the Floren- tine fathers done for you, who, sincerely attached to the Roman Catholic church, are desirous to perform all your duty to its head. You might indeed, have expected that, former Popes having unfortunately increased the obscurity of this im- portant point of your faith by their political claims, those who have filled the Roman see in later times would have put an end to these doubts, by tolerating no longer, but publicly and positively disclaiming, the doctrines of supremacy embraced by their predecessors. Instead of allowing the English and Irish Catholics to apply to Catholic universities for declarations, which these bodies are not authorised to give, the Pope himself might at once have removed the doubt, as ta the obe- dience which he claims from you. Why, then, this silence? why this toleration of soi opinion which casts a suspicion upon your loyality; which if adopted, as you certainly may adopt it so long as D 50 it is tolerated^ must more than divide your alle- giance? I think I can explain the cause of this conduct. If either of the two systems concerning the authority of the Pope were considered hy the Roman Catholic church as absolutely false, she could not tolerate it consistently with her claims to infallibility: she must therefore believe them both partially true. This, however, could not take place if she understood the council of Florence (as Mr. Butler contends) in a sense equally dis- tant from the two extreme theological opinions. If both express partially her own sense, that sense must be broad enough to embrace a sub- stantial part of the two; and such is really the case. The Transalpine^ divines regard the grant supposed to have been made by Christ to the Pope, abstractedly from the external circumstances of * Transalpine and Cisalpine are used here in a very un- classical sense; but as these denominations prevail among* Ro- man Catholic divines, I am in a certain degree compeUed to use them. If the reader imagines himself in France, where they were first used, the mistake into which they are apt to lead, will easily be avoided. Transalpine writers are those who scarcely set any bounds to the authority of the Pope; Cisalpine those who, with Bossuetj contend for the privileges of the Galilean church. 51 the Roman church,- and, considering that he who h2iS full authority to feed the flock, must also have it to preserve the pasturage safe and unobstruct- ed, assert that the deposition of a heretical prince falls within the divine prerogative of the head of the Roman Catholics. The Cisalpine writers, on the other hand, perceiving that the assertion of this doctrine, and any attempt to put it into prac- tice, would defeat the object of the Pope's autho- rity, by raising political opposition to the chu^chj deny that such a specific power against secular princes, was ever intended by Christ. The Ro- man see allows these two opinions to be held, be- cause, as it believes that the Pope's power, to be full^ must extend to every act which circumstan- ces may make advantageous to the church; it will not restrain his hands in any possible emergency from checking political opposition to the prospe- rity of the Roman Catholic religion. But as it inatj be true that under the circumstances of the civilized world, it will never be expedient to call upon Catholics to refuse theii' allegiance to an enemy of the Roman Catholic church, the Cisal^ pine opinions, which at first were strongly oppo- sed by Rome, are at present tolerated. 92 I have hitherto examined the Roman Catholic iloctrine concerning the Pope's supremacy, not because I conceive it to have any practical effect in this country, but in order to expose the vague- ness, obscurity, and doubt in which the declara- tion of one of your infallible councils — a declara- tion, too, relating to so important a subject as the divi7ie power of your spiritual head — is involved. The days, however, are no more when the Pope, in virtue of his full power to feed^ regulatej and govern youy might endeavour to remove a Protest- ant king from the throne. The trial to which, as JBritish subjects and Roman Catholics, you are 3till exposed, is perfectly unconnected with the temporal claims of your . ecclesiastical head; it flows directly from the spiritual. Hence the con- stant efforts of your political advocates to fix the attention of the public on the question of temporal supremacy, in which they make a show of inde- pendence. Hence the irrelevant questions pro- posed to the Catholic universities, which, as their object was known, gave ample scope to the ver- satile casuistry of those bodies. Their task, in assisting their brethren of England and Ireland, would have certainly required a greater degree 53 of ingenuity, had the following question been sub- stituted for the three which were actually pro- posed: — Can the Pope^ in virtue of what Roman Catholics believe his divine aitthorittfy command the assistance of the faithful in checking the pro- gress of heresy^ by any means not likely to produce loss or danger to the Roman Catholic church; and can that church acknmvledge the validity of any engagement to disobey the Pope in such cases? This is a question of great practical importance to all sincere Catholics in these kingdoms. Al- low me, therefore, to canvass it according to the settled principles of your faith and practice, since political views prevent your own winters from placing it in its true light. At the time when I am writing this, one branch of the legislature has declared itself favourable to what is called Catholic emancipation^ and, for any thing I can conjecture, Roman Catholics may be allowed to sit in parliament before these Let- ters appear in public A Roman Catholic legis- lator of Protestant England would, indeed, feel the weight of the dijEculty to which my suggested question alludes, provided his attachment to the Roman Catholic faith were sincere. A real Ro* D £ 54 uian Catholic once filled the throne of these realms, under similar circumstances^ and neither the strong bias which a crown at stake must have given to his mind, nor all the ingenious evasions proposed to him by the ablest divine of the court of Louis XIV. could remove or disguise the ob- stacles which his faith opposed to his political duties. The source of the religious scruples which deprived James II. of his regal dignity, is expressed in one of the questions which he pro- posed to several divines of his persuasion. It comprises, in a few words, what every candid mind must perceive to be the true and only diffi- culty in the admission of Roman Catholics to the parliament of these kingdoms. What James doubted respecting the regal sanction, a member of either house may apply to the more limited in- fluence of his vote. He asked ^^ Whether the king could promise to give his assent to all the laws which might be proposed for the greater se- curity of the church of England ?'* Four English divines, who attended James in his exile, answer- ed without hesitation in the negative. The casu- istry of the French court was certainly less ab- rupt. Loui« XIV. observed to Jamesi^ that ^^a$ 55 'the exercise of the Catholic religion could not he re- established in Englandj save by removing from the people the impression that the king was resolved to make it triumph^ he must dissuade him from saying or doing any thing which might authorise or augment this fearJ^ The powerful talents of Bossuet were engaged to support the political riews of the French monarch. His answer is a striking specimen of casuistic subtlety. He be- gins by establishing a distinction between adher- ing to the erroneous principles professed by a church, and the protection given to it "ostensibly , to preserve public tranquility.^^ He calls the Edict of Nantes, by which the Huguenots were, for a time, tolerated, "a kind of protection to the reformed^ shielding them from the insults of those who would trouble them in the exercise of their re- ligion. It never was thought (adds Bossuet) that the conscience of the monarch was interested in these concessions, except so far as they were judged necessary for public tranquility. The same may be said of the king of England; and if he grant great- er advantages to his Protestant subjects, it is be- cause the state in which they are in his kingdoms^ and the object of public reposcy require if.*' Speak- 56 ing ef the Articles, the Liturgy, and the Homiliesr **it is not asked (he says) that the king should he- come the promoter of these three things, but only that he shall ostensibly leave them a free course^ for the peace of his subjects.'' ^^The Catholics (he concludes) ought to consider the state in which they are, and the small portion they form of the population of England; which obliges them not to ask what is impossible of their king, but on the contrary, to sacrifice all the advantages with which they might vainly flatter themselves, to the real and solid good of having a king of their re- ligion, and securing his family on the throne, though Catholic; which may lead them naturally to expect^ in time, the entire establishment of their church andfaith.^'^ Such is the utmost stretch which can be given to the Roman Catholic principles in the toleration i of a church which dissents from the Roman faith. A conscientious Roman Catholic may, for the sake of public peace, and in the hope of finally servings the cause of his church, ostensibly give a free course to heresy. But, if it may be done without sucki * See the whole of Bossuet's answer in note R.. dangers, it is his unquestionable duty to under- mine a system of which the direct tendency is, in his opinion, the spiritual and final ruin of men* Is there a Catholic divine who can dispute this doctrine? Is there a learned and conscientious priest among you, who would give absolution to such a person as, having it in his power so to di- rect his votes and conduct in parliament as to di- minish the influence of Protestant principles, without disturbing or alarming the countiy, would still heartily and steadfastly join in prfimoting the interest of the English chiirrh ? Let the question be proposed to any Catholic university; and, though I am fully aware of the inexhaustible re- sources of casuistry, I should not fear to stake the force of my argument upon its honest and con- scientious answer. The author of the Book of the Roman Catholic Church rejects as a gratuitous imputation what- ever is attributed to that church, without the ex- press authority of one of her definitions of faith. I will only remind those who are well acquainted with the Roman Catholic system of divinity, that in w hat relates to moral and practical principles, such ;referenccs cannot fairly be demanded. The 38 definitions of your church upon such points are very few. Some moral doctrines have been cen- sured as lax, some as being of a depraving tend- ency; but the consciences of Catholics are guided by the broad rules of action acknowledged by all Christians. In the application of these rules there is, indeed, some variety of opinion among your moralists; for as they often dwell upon imaginary cases, an ample field is left to ingenuity for all the shifts and turns of expediency. The doctrine, however, *hat he, who being able to prevent a sin allows its commission^ is guilty of that sin and its consequences, requii^es no sanction from Pope or council. No Christian will ever deny this position; and even a deist, if he is to preserve consistency, will be obliged to admit its justness. This being so, it follows with unquestionable cer- tainty that a Roman Catholic cannot, without guilt, lend his support to a Protestant establish- ment, but is bound, as he wishes to save his soul, to miss no opportunity of checking the progress of heresy: the most grievous of all moral offences, according to the doctrines of the Roman Catholic church. Murder itself is less sinful, in the judg- ment of the Roman see, than a deliberate separa- 58 tion from her communion and creed. I need* not prove this to those who are disposed to recognize the Roman Catholic doctrines in the face of the world; but if any one still doubts the place which heresy holds in the Roman Catholic scale of crim- inal guilt, let him explain away, if he can, the following passage of the papal bull which is every year published in the Spanish dominions, under the title of The Cruzade. By that bull, every person who pays a small sum towards an imagi- nary war against infidels, is privileged to be re- leased from all ecclesiastical censures and receive absolution at the hands of any priest, of all, what- ever sins, he may have committed, ''even of those censures and sins which are reserved to the apos- tolic see, the crime of heresy excepted."* Is it then to cherish, foment, and defend this heinous crime— the crime which the Pope exempts from the easy and plenary remission granted to the long list of abominations left for the ear of a common priest— is it this crime, as established, * "Que puedan elegir Confesor Secular o Regular, de los aprobados por el ordinario, y obtener de el plenaria indul- gencia, y retnision de qualquiera pecados y censuras, aun de los reservados, y reservadas a la Silla Apostolica, ecepto el crimen de heregia." Bula de la Cruzada. 80 honoured, and endowed by the law of England, that you are anxious to sanction with your votes in p|,jrli2|,5jient? Suppose, for a moment, that it were possible for such a state as that of the Old Man of the Moun- tain or Prince of the Assassins, to have grown into a powerful nation, and reduced a Christian people under its dominion, without extinguish- ing their faith: the condition of these Christians would have greatly differed at two different periods. Before a sad experience had convinced them of the inadequacy of their power to overcome those enemies of God and man, they would natural- ly have fought openly and manfully against the assassin establishment, or died martyrs in passive resistance. When finally subdued, two courses alone would be left open: either to keep their hands clean from blood, by declining all participa- tion in the acts of the government, or join it with the intention of checking, by indirect means, the commission of an interminable series of crimes, secured by the constitutional laws of the state. Is there, I ask, any difference between this case and that of real Roman Catholics under a Protestant government, whose very essence is to maintain a 61 sepaTation from the communion of Rome, thereby placing millions of souls in a state which, you are bound to believe, cancels their title to salvation as Christians? I am awai^e that a practical sense of the ab* surdity of this tenet of your church has forced many of you to avert their eyes from it, and persuade themselves that it is possible to be a Roman Catholic without holding the absolute ex- clusion of heretics from the benefits of Christ's redemption. This, believe me, is an error. Ex- amine that profession of faith in which your church has set forth her fundamental doctrines, and you will find that she positively confines sal- vation to her members, and makes this very ar- ticle a necessary condition for reception within her pale.^ Your English catechisms endeavour to throw a sort of veil on this docti'ine, by stating that Protestants may be saved if they labour un- der invincible ignorance of the true Roman Ca- tholic faith: leaving such as are unacquainted * « This true Catholic faith, out of which noxe cait be SAVED, which I now freely profess and truly hold, /. •?V*. promise, vow, and swear, most constantly to hold," &c. &Cr Creed e/Pius IV. E 62 with their theological language to understand that by invincible ignorance^ is meant unconquerable conviction* But has the church of Rome ever modified her declarations against heretics, even with that poor and degrading exemption of igno- rance? Will the learned conviction of a Melanc- thon, a Calvin, a Grotius, an Usher, and the innumerable host of Protestant luminaries, pass under the humble denomination of that ignorancCy on which Catholic divines allow a chance of eter- nal happiness to pagans and savages? I{ sincere conviction is a valid plea with the Roman Catho- lic Church, why has she scattered to tlie winds the ashes of those who allowed that conviction to be tried in her inquisitorial fires? I rejoice to find the dogma of intolerance brand- ed in the Book of the Roman Catholic Church with the epithet of detestable;^ but cannot help wondering that a man who thus openly expresses his detestation of that doctrine should still profess obedience to a see, under whose authority the in- quisition of Spain was re-established in 1814. If Catholics are so far improved under the Pi*o- testant government of England as to be able to * Book of the Roman Catholic Churchy p. 303, 1st ed» 63 detest persecution, by what intelligible distinction do they still find it consistent to cling to the source of the intolerance which has inundated Europe w ith blood, and still shows its old disposition un- changed, wherever it preserves an exclusive in- fluence? In what church did Spain learn the ne- cessity of forbidding her subjects, for ever^ the right of choosing their religious tenets, and that at the very moment when she w as proclaiming a free constitution? Who has induced the republi- can governments of Spanish America to copy the same odious law in their new codes ? — That church, no doubt, who looks complacently on such acts and declarations, in countries where even her silence stamps public doctrines with the cha- racter of truth. Yesj the *^ detestable dogma of religious intolerance^^ is publicly and solemnly proclaimed in the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church, without a single observation against it from the Pope or bishops of that churchj nay, the legislators themselves are forced to proclaim and sanction it against their own conviction, because the mass of the people are allowed by the churcb to understand that such are their duty and her belief. 64< If the Roman Catholic Church can thus allow detestable dogmas to act in full force within the inmost recesses of her hosom, those Catholics who differ from her notions, so far as her apologist^ Mr. Butler, might guide themselves in religious matters without the assistance of her infallibility. That able writer allows himself to be blinded by the spirit of party, when he labours to prov€ that intolerance does not belong exclusively to his Church; and charges Protestants with persecu- tion. That Protestants did not at once perceive the full extent of the fundamental principle of the Reformation — ^the inherent right of every man to judge for himself on matters of faith— can neither invalidate the truth of that luminous principle, nor bind subsequent Protestants to limit its ap- plication. It is a melancholy truth, that Protes- tants did persecute at one time; but it is a truth which rivets the accusation of inherent and essen- tial intolerance upon that Church, whose errone- ous doctrines the patriarchs of the reformation could not cast off at once. Thanks be to the pro- tecting care of that Providence, which, through them, prepared the complete emancipation from religious tyranny which Protestants enjoy at this 65 moment^ the infallibility of their churches made no part of the common belief on which they agreed from the beginning, or the spirit of intolerance would only have changed its name among us. The dogma of an infallible judge of religious sub- jects is the true source of bigotry; and whoever believes it in his heart, is necessarily and consci- entiously a persecutor. A fallible Church can use no compulsion. If she claim ^ ^authority on matters of faith, it is to declare her own creed to those who are willing to be her members. The infallible judge^ on the contrary, looks on his pre- tended gift as a miraculous, divine commission, to stop the progress of what he condemns as an error. He persecutes and punishes dissenters, not because they cannot be convinced by his rea- sons, but for obstinate resistance to his superna- tural authority. Rome never doomed her oppo- nents to the flames for their errors, but their con- titmacy. It is by this means that she has been able so often to extinguish sympathy in the breasts of her foUowersj for error excites compassion, while rebellion never fails to kindle indignation. The Roman Catholics have been accused of holding a doctrine which justifies them in not E 2 66 keeping faith with heretics. This charge is false as it stands; but it has a foundation in truth, which I will lay before you, as an important con- sequence of the claims of your church to infal- libility. The constant intercourse with those whom you call heretics, has blunted the feeling of horror which the Roman Church has assiduously fomented against Christians who dissent from her. It is, indeed, a happy result of the Refor- mation, that some of the strongest prejudices of the Roman Catholics have been softened where- ver the Protestant religion has obtained a footing. Where this mixture has never taken place, tru^ Roman Catholics remain nearly what they were in the time when Christendom rejoiced at the breach of faith, .which committed Huss to the flames by the sentence of a general council. In England, however, far from pretending to such unfair advantages, the Roman Catholics resent the suspicion that their oaths, not to interfere with the Protestant establishment, may be annuls led by the Pope. The settled and sincere deter- mination to keep such oaths, in those who appear ready to take them, I will not question for a mo- mentj but I cannot conceal my persuasion, that it 67 is the duty of every Roman Catholic pastor to dissuade the members of his flock from taking oaths which, if not allowed in a spirit of the most treacherous policy, would imply a separation from the communion of the Church of Rome. Let me lay down the doctrine of that church on this im- portant point. I will assume the most liberal opinion of the Catholic divines, and grant that the Pope cannot annul an oath in virtue of his dispensing power. ^ But this can only be said of a lawful oath; a quality which no human law can confer upon an engagement to perform a sinful act. A promise under oath, to execute an immoral deed, is in itself a monstrous offence against the divine law; and the performance of such a promise would only aggravate the crime of having made it. There are, however, cases where the lawfulness of the * Thomas Aquinas, whose authority is most highly re- verenced in these matters, maintains, however, that there exists a power in the church to dispense both with a vow, which, according to him, is the most sacred of aU engagements, and, consequently, with an oath. Sicut in voto aliqua neces- sitatis seu honestatis causa potest fieri dispensation ita et in Juramento, Secunda Secundac Quest. Ixxxix. Art. tx. The popes, in fact, have frequently exercised this dispensing power with the tacit consent of the church. 68 engagement is doubtful, and the obligation bur- densome, or, by a change of circumstances, inex- pedient and preposterous. The interference of the Pope, in such cases, is, according to the liberal opinion which I am stating, improperly called dispensation. The Pope only declares that the original oath, or vow, was null and void, either from the nature of the thing promised, or from some circumstances in the manner and form of the promise; when, by virtue of his authority, the head of the church removes all spiritual re- sponsibility from the person who submits himself to his decision. I do not consider myself bound to confirm the accuracy of this statement by written authorities, as I do not conceive the pos- sibility of any Roman Catholic divine bringing it into question. The Roman Catholic doctrine on the obligation of oaths being clearly understood, smcere members of that church can find no difficulty in applying it to any existing test, or to any oath which may be tendered, in future, with a view to define the limits of tlieir opposition to doctrines and practices condemned by Rome. In the first place, they can- not but see that an oath binding them to lend a 69 dii'ect support to any Protestant establishment, or to omit such measures as may, without finally in- juring the cause of Catholicism, check and disturb the spread and ascendency of error; is in itself sinful, and cannot, therefore, be obligatory. In the second place it must be evident that if, for the advantage of the Catholic religion suffering under an heterodox ascendancy, some oaths of this kind may be tolerated by Catholic divines, the head of that church will find it his duty to de- clare their nullity upon any change of circum- stances. The persevering silence of the Papal see in regard to this point, notwithstanding the advan- tages which an authorized declaration would give to the Roman Catholics of Great Britain avd Ire- land, is an indubitable proof that the Pope cannot give his sanction to engagements made in favour of a Protestant establishment. Of this, Bossuet himself was aware, when to his guarded opinion upon the scruples of James II. against the corona- tion oath, he subjoined the salvo; — ^^I nevertheless submit with all my heart to the supreme decision of his Holiness. ^^ If that decision, however, was then, and is now, withheld, notwithstanding the disadvantages to which the silence of Rome sub- 70 jects the Roman Catholics, it cannot be supposed that it would at all tend to remove them. To such as are intimately acquainted with the Ca- tholic doctrines, which I have just laid before you, the conduct of the Roman see is in no way mysterious. It would be much more difficult to explain upon what creditable principle of their church, the Ca- tholic divines of these kingdoms can give their approbation to oaths tendered for the security of the Protestant establishment. The clergy of the church of England have been involved in a ge- neral and indiscriminate charge of hypocrisy and simulation, upon religious matters. It would ill become one in my peculiar circumstances to take up the defence of that venerable body;^ yet I cannot dismiss this subject without most solemnly attesting, that the strongest impressions which enliven and support my Christian faith, are de- rived from my friendly intercourse with members of that insulted clergy; while, on the contrary, i knew but very few Spanish priests whose * since writing this passage, a most spirited and modest de- fence of the church of England clergy has been published by Doctor Blomfield, Lord Bishop of- Chester. 71 talents or acquirements were above contempt, who had not secretly renounced their religion. Wliether something similar to the state of the Spanish clergy may not explain the support which the Catholic priesthood of these kingdoms, seem to give to oaths so abhorrent from the be- lief of their church, as those which must precede the admission of members of that church into parliament; I will not undertake to say. If there be conscientious believers among them, which I will not doubt for a moment, and they are not forced into silence, as I suspect it is done in similar cases'^, I feel assured that they will earnestly deprecate, and condemn all engagements on the part of the Roman Catholics, to support and defend the church of England. Such an engage- ment implies either a renunciation of the tenet excluding Protestants from the benefits of the • I recollect something" about the persecution of one Mr. Gandolphy, a London priest, who was obliged to appeal per- sonally to Rome ag-ainst the persecution of his brethren, for exposing too freely the doctrines which might increase the difficulties of Catholic emancipation. The Pope did not con» demn him. — Since writing this note I have seen the case of Mr. Gandolphy stated in an able publication of the Rer. George Croly, entitled Popery and the Popish Qu€Stion» Mr» O.'s doctrines were highly approved at Romet 7® Gospel promises, or a shocking indifference to the eternal welfare of men. If your leaders, whom it would be uncharitable to suspect of the latter feeling, have so far receded fi'om the Roman creed as to allow us the common privileges of Christianity, and can conscientious- ly swear to protect and encourage the interests of the church of England, let them, in the name of truth, speak openly befoi^e the world, and be the first to remove that obstacle to mutual benevo- lence, and perfect community of political pri- vileges — the doctrine of exclusive salvation in your church. Cancel but that one article from your creed, and all liberal men in Europe will offer you the right hand of fellowship. Your other doctrines concern but yourselves; this en- dangers the peace and freedom of every man living, and that in proportion to your goodness: it makes your very benevolence a curse. Believe a man w'ho has spent the best years of his life where Catholicism is professed without the check of dissenting opinions; where it luxuriates on the soil, w^hich fire and sword have cleared of what- ever might stunt its natural and genuine growth; a growth incessantly watched over by the head of 78 your church, and his authorized representatives^ the Inquisitors. Alas! ''I have a mother^^^ out- weighed all other reasons for a change, in a man of genius, ^ who yet cared not to show his indiffer- ence to the religious system under which he was born. I, too, ^^had a mother,'' and such a mother as, did I possess the talents of your great poet, tenfold, they would have been honoured in doing homage to the powers of her mind and the good- ness of her heart. No woman could love her children more ardently, and none of those chil- dren was more vehemently loved than myself. — But the Roman Catholic creed had poisoned in her the purest source of affection. I saw her, during a long period, unable to restrain her tears in my presence. I perceived that she shunned my conversation, especially when my university friends drew me into topics above those of domes- tic talk. I loved her; and this behaviour cut me to the heart. In my distress I applied to a friend to whom she used to communicate all her sor- rows; and, to my utter horror, I learnt that, sus- pecting me of anti-catholic principles, my mother ** Pope: see his letter to Atterbury on this subject. F 74 was distracted by the fear that she might be obliged to accuse me to the Inquisition, if I in^ cautiously uttered some condemned proposition in her presence. To avoid the barbarous neces- sity of being the instrument of my ruin, she could find no other means but that of shunning my presence. Did this unfortunate mother over- rate or mistake the nature of her Roman Catho- lic duties? By no means. The Inquisition was established by the supreme authority of her church; and, under that authority, she was en- joined to accuse any person whatever, whom she might overhear uttering heretical opinions. No exception was made in favour of fathers, children, husbands, wives: to conceal was to abet their er- rors, and doom two souls to eternal perdition. — A sentence of excommunication, to be incurred in the fact, was annually published against all persons, who having heard a proposition directly or indirectly contrary to the Catholic Faith^ omitted to inform the inquisitors upon it. Could any sincere Catholic slight such a command? Such is the spirit of the ecclesiastical power to which you submit. The monstrous laws of which I speak, do not belong to a remote pei'iod: they 75 existed ill full force fifteen years ago: they were republished, under the authority of the Pope, at a later period. If some of your writers assume the tone of freedom which belongs to this age and country; if you profess your Faith without compulsion; you may thank the Protestant laws which protect you. Is there a spot in the uni- verse where a Roman Catholic may throw off his mental allegiance, except where Protestants have contended for that right, and sealed it with their blood? I know that your church modifies her intolerance according to circumstances, and that she tolerates in France, after the revolution, the Hugonots, whom she would have burnt in Spain a few years ago, and whom she would doom to some indefinite punishment, little short of the stake, at this present moment* Such conduct is unworthy of the claims which Rome contends for, and would disgrace the most obscure leader of a paltry sect If she still claims the right of wield- ing ^^the sword of Peter, '^ why does she conceal it under her mantle? If not, why does she not put an end to more than half the miseries and degradation of Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Span- ish America, by at once declaring that men are 76 accountable only to God for their religious belief ^ and that sincere and conscientimis persuasion must both in this and the next worlds be a valid plea for the pardon of error? Does the Church of Rome really profess this doctrine? — It is then a sacred duty for her to remove at once that scan- dal of Christianity, that intolerance which the conduct of Popes and councils has invariably up- held.^ But if, as I am persuaded, Rome still thinks in conformity Avith her former conduct, and yet the Roman Catholics of these kingdoms dissent from her on this point, they have already begun to use the Protestant right of private judg- ment upon ONE of the articles of their faith; and I may hope that they will follow me in the exami- nation of that alleged divine authority by which they are prevented from extending it to all* POSTSCRIPT- Want of books, or rather want of sufficient health to undergo the fatigue and discomfort of consulting them in public libraries, had made me proceed in the composition of these Letters, de- * Note C. 77 riving the materials from my own stores, and from the book itself against the general tendency of which I was induced to take up the pen. My knowledge of the Roman Catholic doctrines led me soon to conclude that Mr. Butler was a wri- ter who, on the fairest consti'uction, knew how to divert his adversaries from all the weak points of his cause. Yet I trusted that the accuracy of his quotations might be depended upon, especially when he gave us authorized statements of the Roman Catholic tenets. The translation of the creed of Pius IV., which Mr. Butler inserted in his Book of the Roman Catholic Church, was, therefore, the only document of that kind from which I deduced my arguments to prove the duty incumbent on Roman Catholics to propagate their religion by every means in their power. Whether I have succeeded or failed in proving that fact by inference, my readers will decide. But upon a revision of my arguments, I do not regret that an omission which I subsequently discovered in Mr. Butler's translation of that creed deprived me, at first, of the easiest and most direct proof which I could wish to support my assertion. For had I consulted the original at once, the positive 78 tonfirmation which that document gives it, and my own familiar conviction of its truth, would have induced me to save myself the exertion of fully developing my argument. As it now hap- pens, I flatter myself that my readers will give me some credit for accuracy in the knowledge of the Roman Catholic doctrines, when they shall see that a theoretical reasoning from her estab- lished general principles, fully and accurately agrees with a positive injunction of the Church of Rome, of which lapse of time had made me forget the existence. Let us, then, compare the last article in Mr. Butler's translation of the creed, with the original. Mr. Butler's translation: ^^This true Catholic faith, out of which none can be saved, which I now freely profess, and truly hold, I, JV., promise, vow, and swear most constantly to hold and pro- fess the same whole and entire, with God's as- sistance, to the end of my life. Amen." The latin original: — ^^Hanc veram catholicam fidem, extra quam nemo salvus esse potest, quam in prsesenti sponte profiteor, et veraciter teneo^ candem integram, et inviolatam, usque ad extre- mum vitse spatium constantissime (Deo adju- 79 vante) retinere et confiteri, atque a meissub« DtTIS, VEL ILLIS QUORUM CURA AD ME IN MU- NERE MEO SPECTABIT, TENERI, DOCERI, ET PR^DICARI, QUANTUM IN ME ERIT, CURATU- RUM EGO IDEM N. SPONDEO, VOVEO, AC JURO.'^ Now, the words in small capitals, omitted by Mr. Butler, contain the very pith and marrow of the strongest argument against the admissibility of Roman Catholics to parliament. For if the most solemn profession of their faith lays on eve- ry one of her members who enjoys a place of in- fluence, the duty of ^ ^procuring j that all under him^ by virtue of his office, shall hold, teach^ and preach the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, and this under an oath and vow; how can such men engage to preserve the ascendancy of the Church of England in these realms? When, in the New Times of the 5th of April, I exposed this important omission before the pub- lic, I thought that Mr. Butler would have ex- plained the origin of it. But I am not aware of liis having given any explanation. Neither on that, nor on the present occasion, is it my inten- tion to cast a suspicion on that gentleman^s good faith. He probably copied from some garbled 80 translation, prepared by less scrupulous mem- bers of his communion, who wished to conceal the real tenets of their church from a Protestant public. At all events, this fresh instance of in- accuracy on a most important point, gives addi- tional propriety to caution in reading Mr. But- ler's defences of Catholicism. LETTER III. Examination of the title to infallibility^ spiruuui supremacy, and exclusive salvation, claimed by the Roman Catholic Church* Internal evidence against Rome, in the use she has made of her as- sumed prerogative* Short method of determining the question* At the conclusion of my preceding Letter, I entreated you to examine the title by which your church deprives her members of the right of private judgment on religious matters, and denies salvation to those who venture to think for them- selves. In making this request I may appear to have overlooked the very essence of your religious allegiance, and to demand a concession which would at once put you out of the pale of the Ro- man church. But I beg you to observe, that whatever be the extent of the authority of that church over you, there is one point which it can- not withhold from the judgment and verdict of your reason. The reality of her title to be the guide and rule of your faith, must be a matter. 82 not of authority, but of proof. He that claims obedience in virtue of delegated power, is bound to prove his appointment. Any attempt to de- prive those who without that appointment would be%iis equals, of the liberty to examine the au- thority, nature, and extent of the decree which constitutes the delegate above them; is an in- vasion of men's natural liberty, as well as a strong indication of imposture. If before we come to God we must, through nature, believe that he is, surely before we yield our reason to one who calls himself God^s Vicar, our reason should be satisfied that God has truly appointed him to that supereminent post. How then stands the case between the church of Rome and the world? The church of Rome proclaims that Jesus Christ, both God and man, having appeared on earth for the salvation of mankind, appointed the apostle Peter to be his representative; made him the head of all the members of his church then existing; and granted a similar privilege to Petei'^s successors, without limitation of time. To this she adds, that, to the church, united under Peter ajid liis successors, Christ ensured an infallible 83 knowledge of the sense of the Scriptures, and an equally infallible knowledge of certain traditions, and their true meaning. On the strength of this divine appointment, the church of Rome demands the same faith in the decisions of her head, when approved "hj the tacit assent or open consent of the greatest part of her bishops/^ as if they pro- ceeded from the mouth of Christ himself. The divine commission, on which she grounds these claims, runs in these words of Christ to the chief of his apostles: ^^Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my churchy- and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it: And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and what- soever thou Shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. ^^ It will not be denied that, between this un- questionable authority and the statement which precedes it, there is no verbal agreement. A man unacquainted with the system of divinity sup- ported by the church of Rome, would, probably, perceive no connexion betw een the alleged passage and the commentary. But let us suppose that these words of our Saviour contain the meaning 84 111 qiiestiou: yet no man will deny, that if they do contain it, it is in an indirect and obscure manner. The fact then is, that even if the church of Rome should be really endowed with the supernatural assistance which she asserts, the divine founder of Christianity was pleased to make the existence of that extraordinary gift one of the least obvious truths contained in the Gospels. It might have been expected, however, that Peter, in his Epistles, or in the addresses to the first Christians which the Acts record, would have removed the ob- scurity; and that, since the grant of infallibility to him, to his peculiar church, and to his suc- cessors in the see of that church (either inde- pendently of the infallibility of others, or in com- bination with other privileged persons,— for this is also left in great obscurity) was made the only security against the attacks of hell; he would have taken care to explain the secret sense of Christ's address to him, Peter, however, does not make the slightest allusion to his privileges. His suc- cessors being not named in the supposed original grant of supremacy, it was in course that, by an express declaration, Peter would obviate the na- tural inference, that they were excluded fi*om his 85 ^wn personal prerogatives. But Peter is equally silent about his successors; and to add to the ori- ginal mysteriousness of the subject, he never men- tions Rome, and dates his epistles from Babylon. Babylon may figuratively mean Rome; the silence of both our Saviour and his apostle may, by some strange rule of interpretation, be proved to denote those successors: the whole system, in fine, of the Roman Catholic church may be contained in the alleged passage; but, if so, it is contained like a diamond in a mountain. The plainest sense of any one passage of the Scriptures cannot be so palpable as the obscurity of the present. It fol- lows, therefore, with all the force of demonstra- tion, that the divine right claimed by the Pope and his church to be the infallible rule of faith having no other than an obscure and doubtful foundation, the belief in it cannot be obligatory on all Christians; who are left to follow the sug- gestions of their individual judgment as to the obscure meaning of the Scriptures, till the Scrip- tures themselves shall be found to demand the resignation of that judgment. I request you to observe, that the force of my argument does not depend upon the erroneous- G 86 ness of the Roman interpretation of the passages alleged for the spiritual supremacy; all I contend for is the doubtf^dness of their meaning: for to suppose that the divine founder of Christianity, while providing against doubt in his future fol- lowers, would miss his aim by overlooking the obscurity in which he left the remedy he wished to appoint; is a notion from which Christians must shrink. It follows, therefore, either that Christ did not intend what the Romanists believe about Peter and his church; or that, since he concealed his meaning, an obedience to the Roman church cannot be a necessary condition in his disciples. The liberty which, upon the supposition most favourable to Rome, Christ has granted to be- lievers in his Gospel, the Pope and his church most positively deny them. Placing themselves between mankind and the Redeemer, they allow those only to approach him, who first make a full surrender of tlieir judgment to Popes and councils. A belief in Christ and his work of redemption, grounded on the Scriptures and their evidences, is thus made useless, unless it is preceded by a belief in Roman suprcmacy, grounded on mere 87 surmises. Christianity is removed from its broad foundation, to place the mighty fabric upon the moveable sand of a conjectural meaning. This looks more like love ofselfthanof Christj more like ambition than charity. The title to in- fallibility and supremacy being at the best doubt- ful, the benefit of the doubt should have been left to Christian liberty. — But may not the opposite conduct of the Roman church have arisen* from sincere zeal for what she conceived to be the true intention of Christ? Christian candour would de- mand this construction, were it not for the use she has made of the assumed privilege: yet if we find that, having erected herself into an organ of Heaven, all her oracular decisions have invariably tended towards the increase of her own power; it will be difficult to admit the purity of her inten- tions. By comparing the articles of the church of Rome with those of the church of England, we shall find that the points of difference are chiefly these: tradition, transubstantiation, the number of sacraments, purgatory, indulgences, and the in- vocation of saints. Such are the main questions on doctrine, at issue between the two churches; for 88 the differences about free-will and justification might, I believe, be settled without much dif- ficulty, by accurately defining the language on both sides. Now, I will not assume the truth of the Protestant tenets on these points, nor enter into arguments against those of the Roman church; my present concern is with their tendency. To begin with tradition: let us observe how broaS a field is opened to the exercise of infalli- bility, by the supposition that an indefinite number of revealed truths, were floating down thesti^eam of ages, unconsigned to the inspired records of Christianity. The po wer of interpreting the word of God by a continual light from above, might be confined by the Scriptures themselves, as it would be diflicult to force doctrines on the belief of Christians, of which the very name and subject seem to have been unknown to the inspired writers. Divine tradition, the first-born of infallibility , re- moves this obstacle; and, so doing, increases the influence of Rome to an indefinite extent. I do not here contend that to place tradition upon the same footing with the Scriptures, is an error; but whether error or truth, it is certainly power in the hands of the Roman church. 89 By the combined influence of tradition and in- /allibilityj the church of Rome established the doc- trine of Transiibstantiation. From the moment that people are made to believe that a man has the power of w orking, at all times, the stupendous miracle of converting bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ; that man is raised to a dignity above all which kings are able to confer. What, then, must be the honour due to a bishop, who can bestow the power of performing the mi- racle of transubstantiation ? What the rank of the Pope, who is the head of the bishops themselves? The world beheld for centuries, the natural conse- quences of the surprising belief in the power of priests to convert bread and wine into the incar- nate Deity. ^ Kings and emperors were forced to kiss the Pope's foot, because their subjects were in the daily habit of kissing the hands of priests — those hands which were believed to come in fre- quent contact with the body of Christ. The abundance of ceremonies supposed to pro- duce supernatural effects, must magnify the cha- racter of the privileged ministers of those ceremo- * Note D. G 2 90 nies. Hence a church possessing seven sacraments, is far superior in influence to one who acknow- ledges but two. Add to this the nature of four out of the five Roman sacraments — penance, ex- treme unction, ordination, and matrimony — and the extent of power w^hich she thereby obtains, will appear. Penance, i. c. auricular confession, puts the consciences of the laity under the direc- tion of the priesthood. Extreme unction is one of her means to allay fear and remorse. Ordina- tion is intimately connected with the influence which the Roman church derives from transub- stantiation, and its being made a sacrament adds probability to the miraculous powers which it is supposed to confer. Finally, by giving the sacra- mental character to matrimony, the source and bond of civil society is directly and primarily sub- jected to the church. There still remain three exclusive offsprings of tradition, explained and defined by infallibility, which yield to none in happy consequences to the Roman church, — indulgences, purgatory, and the worship of saints, relics, and images. The wealth which has flowed into the lap of Rome, in exchange for indulgences, is incalcula- 91 ble. Even in the decline of her influence, she still looks for a considerable part of her revenues from this source: to which also she owes the de- gree of subjection in which she keeps the Roman Catholic governments. My unfortunate native country shows the nature and extent of this influ- ence in a striking light. I have already mention- ed the Bull of the Criixade^ through which the bar- ter of indulgences and dispensations for money, is carried on, in a manner worthy of the darkest ages. The Spanish government has two or three paltry fortresses on the coast of Africa, which are employed as places of punishment for criminals. The existence of a few soldiers in these garrisons is construed into a perpetual war against the In- jidelSj with whom, in the mean time, the King of Spain is mostly at peace, from inability to oppose to them an effectual resistance. The see of Rome, which wants but a slight pretext to spiritualize whatever may open a market for its wares, calls this state of things between the Spaniards and the Africans a perpetual war against inJidelSf which being, according to the principles of that see, a meritorious Christian act, deserves its pastoral encouragement For this purpose, every year 92 are printed summaries of a Papal bull, which the Spaniards purchase at different prices, according to their rank and wealth, in order to enjoy the indulgences and privileges granted by the Pope in exchange for their alms. The benefits to be de-. rived from the possession of one of these bulls, are several plenary indulgences, and leave to eat, during Lent, milk, eggs, and butter, which are otherwise forbidden, under pain of mortal sin, at that season. The sale of these privileges having been found most valuable and extensive, a second, third, and even a fourth bull, of a similar kind, were devised. The Jiesh bull, as it is called in Spain, allows the purchasers to eat meat during Lent, every Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, except in Passion Week. The third bull is called the compounding bull. By posses- sing one of these documents, and giving a certain sum, at the discretion of any piiest authorised to hear confessions, to the fund of the holy cru%ade$ and property may be kept, which, having been obtained by robbery and extortion, cannot be traced to its right ow ners for restitution. This composition with the Pope and the King, is made by depositing the sum appointed by the confessor 93 in an iron chest fixed outside the doors of church- es: a comfortahle resource indeed for the tender consciences of peculators and extortioners, two very numeraus classes in Spain. The fourth bull is to be purchased for the benefit of the deceased, and is called the defunct bull. The name of any dead person being entered on the bull, a plenary indulgence is, by this means, believed to be con- veyed to his soul, if suffering in purgatory. To secure, however, a double sale, the three latter bulls are made of no effect, unless the original summarij of the cruzade be possessed by the per- son who wishes to enjoy the dispensations and privileges therein set forth. It is also a very common practice to bury these bulls with the corpses of those whom they are intended to bene- fit. The tax thus levied upon the people of Spain, is divided between the King and the Pope: yet it is not the money which, in this and similar trans- actions, proves most beneficial to Rome; the ha- bit of spiritual dependence which it supports among the Spaniards is, no doubt, its most valu- able result to that see. The Spanish Cortes, who were bold enough to reduce the tithes by one half^ when struggling hard to shake off the silent yet 94 formidable influence of the Pope, found theii* power inadequate to the task: well knowing that were he to w ithdraw one of these bulls, the mass of the people would instantly rise against them. I have selected this fact among thousands, that prove the accession of power which the doctrine of indulgences produces to the see of Rome. The belief in purgatory is so inseparable from the former tenet, that I need not enlarge on the peculiar advantages which Rome has derived from it. I will only observe how fortunately for the interests of the church of Rome, not only the ex- istence, but even the mutual help and connexion of her peculiar doctrines, have happened. The power of remitting canonical penance would have been useless on the cessation of penitential disci- pline: but TRADITION having about the Same time brought purgatory to light, offered an ample scope to the power of the Roman keys. Transub- stantiation now presented the means of repeating the sacrifice of the cross for those who were sup- posed to be undergoing the purification by fire. The whole system, indeed, is surprisingly linked together, and the very connexion of its parts, finding to secure the influence and power of the 95 source from ^vhence it flows, gives it the appear-^ ance of an original invention, enlarged from the gradual suggestions of previous advantages. The worship of saints, relics, and images might, when tradition hegan to spread it, have appeared less connected with the wealth and power of the church of Romej yet none of its spiritual resources has proved more productive of both. Europe is covered with sanctuaries and churches, which owe their existence and revenues to some report- ed miraculous appearance of an image, or the pre- sence, real or pretended, of some relic. To form a correct notion of the influence which such pla- ces have upon the people, it is necessary to have lived where they exist. But the house of Loretto alone, would be sufficient to give some idea of the power and wealth which the church must have derived from similar sources, when the whole of Christendom was more ignorant and superstitious than the most degraded portions of it are at pre- sent. Of this fact, however, I am perfectly con- vinced by long observation, that were it possible to abolish sanctuaries, properly so called, and leave the same number of churches without the favourite virgins and saints which give them both 96 that peculiar denomination and their populav charm; more than lialf the blind deference which the multitude pay to the clergy, and through the clergy to Rome, would quickly disappear. The advantages resulting to Rome from the Qpmbined effect of indulgences, relics, saints and their images, are not, however, derived only in- directly through the deference enjoyed by her clergy. The bond thereby created between the Pope and the most distant regions which acknow- ledge his spiritual dominion, is direct. The Mexican and the Peruvian expects the publication of the annual bull, which allows him to eat eggs and milk in Lent, enables him to liberate, by name, a certain number of his relations from pur- gatory, and enlarges the power of his confessor, for the absolution of the most hideous crimes. Wher- ever he turns, he sees a protecting saint, whose power and willingness to defend him, could not be ascertained w ithout the supernatural and unques- tionable authority of the Pope. It is the Holy Father who, by a solemn declaration, allots every district to the peculiar patronage of a saint^ it is he who, by grants of indulgences, encourages the worship of those miraculous images wliicli form 97 central points of devotion over all the Roman Catholic world: it is he who warrants the super- natural state of incorruption of the body of one saint, and traces, with unerring certainty, some straggling limb to another. It is, finally, he who alone has the undoubted power ofvirUially furnish- ing the faithful with the relics of the most ancient or unknown patriarchs and martyrs, by bidding the fragment of any skeleton in the catacombs, be part of the body in request* I do not intend to cast any part of your re- ligious system into ridicule^ though, I confess, it is difficult to mention facts like these, without some danger of exciting a smile. These and similar practices you will, perhaps, construe into innocent means of keeping up a sense of religion among the lower classes; but without insisting, at present, upon their demoralizing and degrading tendency, I only present them in conjunction with all the other means of power and influence which the church of Rome has draw n from the, at least, * This IS called christening relics. The persuasion that bones so christened are as good as those of the favourite saint to whom they are attributed, is certainly general in my country. I have no doubt that it is common to all Catho^ lies. H 9b doubtful title, on which she grounds her spiritual supremacy. It is, indeed, of great importance in the question between Rome and the Protestants, to observe the consequences of their respective interpretation of scripture, in regard to their own interests. The mass of Christians who, unable to weigh the theological arguments urged by the controversialists of both parties, content them- selves with an implicit, and often an indifferent, acquiescence inthe tenets which educationchanced to impress on their minds; might form a pretty accurate notion of the whole case by the following easy and compendious method. They should, in the first place, endeavour to become familiar with the reasoning which shows the absurdity of settling the question of papal supremacy on other than Scriptural grounds. Let them remember, what cannot be too much repeated, the necessity of de- riving the knowledge of any infallible expounder of the Scriptures from the testimony of those Scriptures, perused and understood without the aid of that expounder. To appeal to diviiui tra- dition as a rnle for the interpretation of Scripture in this state of the question, is equally unreason- able jiHd preposterousj since, from the nature of 99 the case, there is, as yet , no iiifallihle rule to dis- tinguish divine tradition ft^om human and fallible report. The next step in this momentous in- quiry, is to ascertain, by human means, the true sense of such passages of the Scriptures as are said to contain the appointment of a living su- preme authority in matters of faith. Here, two sets of men, deeply learned in all the branches of divinity, present themselves as interpreters. These affirm that the passages in question, contain the rights and privileges which the church of Rome and her head, claim for themselves: those posi- tively deny that the passages can bear such mean- ing* Remember again, I request you, that the decision must depend exclusively on the reasoning faculties of mankind. Which, now, of these two opposed masses of intellect, is most likely to catch the true meaning of the texts? Which of the two interpretations have we most reason to suppose free from the distortions of prejudice? Common sense answers the question: that which is directly against tiie interests of the intei'preters. Europe lay prostrate at the feet of the Pope, and every member of his clergy was raised by the common opinion, to a rank and dignity to which eveii 100 kijigs bowed their head. The meanest priest claimed and enjoyed exemptions which were often denied to the first nobles of the land. Wealth and honours were theirs; the law shrunk before them when guilty, and piety was ready to throw a cloak on their vices. The church had, for many ages, been in possession of unrivalled power on earth, when, at the rousing voice of a few obscure men, who questioned the foundation of that mighty structure, a large portion of those that might have continued under its shelter, unani- mously declared that the whole was a work of delusion, which had sprung from an original, un- examined error. Such was the unanimous con- viction of all the Protestants, when no bias but that of a contrary tendency could exist in their minds. If common sense, therefore, must be the interpreter of divine authority, conveyed to us in human language; this fact alone suffices to point the side to which that plain and faithful guide gives its sanction. The Reformed churches are taxed with their variations, as if, like Rome, they had pledged their existence upon infallibility. They have, indeed, varied and dissented from each other; 101 with this difference from the oracular church of the Vatican, that they have not disguised their proceedings, nor set up an Inquisition as the guard of their unity. But while the love of truth com- pelled the Reformers to expose themselves to the insults and raillery of their mortal enemies, hy breaking into parties upon the more abstruse points of divinity; not even a doubt has disturbed their unanimity as to the insufficiency of the title to divine supremacy, by which Roin# commands intellectual homage. That, indeed, was the only point of controversy which common sense could decide; and the renunciation of all the worldly advantages to which the Roman church invited the Reformers, had left their judgment unbiassed. Other disputes in divinity must be settled by a long, difficult, and laborious process of inquiry; but a privilege is a matter of fact which, if not evidently proved, becomes a nonentity. Now, the peculiar privilege claimed by Rome, essentially precludes doubtful proofs of its existence. A doubtfd gift from God with a view to remove dmibty is a mockery of his w isdom. If the common sense of many learned and unbiassed minds is found to agree in denying that the Scripture pas- EC 2 103 sages alleged by Rome, in favour of her mira- culous infallibility, contain a clear promise of that gift, or describe in whom, and how it was to exist after the decease of the apostlesj the pretensions of the Pope and his church must be visionary. The negative proof, in such cases, — the absence of a clear title — has the strength of demonstra- tion. Nothing can weaken its force upon a candid mind, but the^reiy common habit of starting away from newly^discovered truth in fear of its conse- quences, which we have previously condemned. I am aware that, unable as you must be to find a direct and sufficient answer to this argument, and inclined to admit its truth, as an honest mind will make you; yet a crowd of such consequences will deter you from the path into which reason is ready to lead you. — A church subject to error and division! — You shrink from such an inference, without remarking that the preco?imre(i and un- proved necessity of having an infallible church, is the true and only source of that illogical process, by which you have endeavoured to establish the rertain existence of infallibility, upon the uncer- tain sense of a few words of the Gospel. LETTER IV. A spedmeii of the unity exhibited by Rome. Somafi Catholic distinction between infallibility in doc- trinCj and liability to misconduct. Consequences of this distinction. Roman Catholic unity and invariableness of Faiths a delusion. Scriptiiral unity of Faith. **So long since as the council of Vienne (I quote the words of your great champion Bossuet, trans- lated by your apologist Mr. Butler^) a great pre* late, commissioned by the Pope to prepare matters I to be treated upon, laid it down for a ground- work to the whole assembly, that they ought to reform the church in the head and members. The great schism which happened soon after, made this saying current, not among particular doctors only, as Gersen, Peter dMilly, and other great men of those times, but in councils too; and nothing' was more frequently repeated in those of Fisa and Constance. What happened in the council of * Book of the Roman Catholic Church, p. 156, 1st ed» 104 'Basil, where a reformation teas unfortunately eluded, and the church re-involved in new divi- sions, is well known." Such is the picture of the Roman Catholic church at the heginning of the fifteenth century, drawn by the most able as well as cautious of her divines. The distinct mention of the unfortunate cause whicli prevented the pro- posed Reformation, would have given more colour and individuality to the picture. It was, in fact a revival of the great schism^ which for fifty years had lately kept the Roman Catholic church divi- ded between two or thre'e Popes, who at one and the same time, claimed the prerogative of vicars of Christ: it was a fierce contest between the council of Constance and Eugenius IV., the Pope who had convened it, and whom the assembled bishops wished to reform: it was a sentence of ex- communication issued by the council against Eu- genius: it was a rival council convoked atFerra- ra by the excommunicated Pope, where he em- ployed the same arms against the fathers assem- bled at Basil: it was the deposition of Eugenius and the installation of Felix V. by the offended council: it was, in fine, the triumph of Rome against the spirit which had attempted to execute 105 the work, of which ^'^great prelates/' ^^particulai* doctors/V and ^•councils too/' spoke so frequent- ly, as to establish it into a ^ ^current saying/' that the church needed reform in head and members. The head, unwilling to be reformed, imprecated the curse of Heaven upon tlie members; and the members finding that head incurable, chose for themselves another, when they had duly devoted the refractory one to the unquenchable fire. Such are the * ^well-known" events which took place in *^the council of Basil, where a reformation was un- fortunately eluded, and the church re^nvolved in new dirisions.^^ And now, I will ask, is this the unity, the harmony, without which your writers contend that the church of Christ cannot exist? Is it tlms that the necessity of your interpretation of the Scripture passages, on which the system of infallibility has been erected, is sanctioned by ex- perience? Can you still close your eyes against the demonstration contained in my preceding letter, because variations and dissent are in the train of its consequences ? ^^Our troubles and dissentions, however, (you are tawght to answer) are limited to externals^ 106 those of the Protestants affect the unity of the faith/* Such is the last shelter, the citadel, of your infallible-church theory. See, then, the series of assumptions, doubts, and evasions of which that theory consists, and observe its in- evitable consequences. 1st. You assume that which is in question, the necessity of an infallible judge of faith. 2dly. Upon the sti'ength of that assumption, you interpret certain passages of Scripture, so that they are made to prove the existence of such a judge. 3dly. You are then in doubt as to the identity of the judge himself, without being able to determine by any fixed rule, whether the supernatural gift of infallibility belongs to the Pope alone, or to the Pope and the general council.^ 4thly. When, to evade this difficulty, you avail yourselves of the term church, as embracing the privileges of the Pope and councilj you are still obliged to contrive another method, which may meet the objections arising from such dissentions between the assembled bishops and their head, as took place in the in- stances above mentioned. This you do by allow- ^ Note F. lor ing no council to be infallible till it has been approved by the Pope, and thus resolve church infallibility into the opinion of the Roman see. othly, and finally, You intrench yourselves w ithin the distinction of infallibility on abstract doctrines of faith, and liability to practical error. Now, ob- serve, I entreat you, the consequences to which the whole system leads. The only sensible mark of a legitimate council, being the approbation of the Pope; and the only sensible mark of a legiti- mate Pope, being his undisputed possession of the see of Rome; you have, in the first place, entailed the gift of infallibility upon the strongest of the rival candidates for that see; and, as moral worth is, by the last distinction, denied to be a necessary characteiistic of the vicar and representative of Christ, you have added, in the second place, one chance more of having for your living ride of faith that candidate who shall contend for the visible badge of his spiritual and supernatural office, under the least restraint of moral obliga- tion. If we find, therefore, upon consulting the history of the Popes, that no episcopal see has oftener been polluted by wickedness and profligacy, fte fact is explained by the preceding statement 108 What chance of success to be head of the Christian church could attend a true disciple of Jesus, when a Borgia was bent upon filling that post? Gold, steel, and poison^ w ere the familiar instruments of his wisiies; whilst the belief that faith was still safe in the custody of such a monster, prevented opposition from the force of public opinion. The faithful still revered in Alexander VI. (be the blasphemy far from me!) the true representative of Christ on earth. The strength of mind which enables the refor- mers to disregard the generally received distinc- tion between exemption from doctrinal errors, and liability to misconduct, cannot be adequately va- lued by those who have never imbibed that scho- lastic prejudice. When a distinction of this kind has once become incorporated with common lan- guage, men seem to be placed out of the reach of conviction on the points it affects. If my obser- vation of intellectual phenomena do not deceive me, the mass of those who may be said to think at all can go no farther in a reasoning process, than just to perceive one difficulty against their settled notions, and to catch some verbal quibble which removes the difficulty from theii- sight. The pro- 109 cess of examining the usual fallacies of such an- swers is, to most men, so painful that any serious attempt to urge them upon it, seldom fails to rouse their anger. There are, indeed, but few who can take a true second step in reasoning. The stand which is generally made at the- first stage of an argument, is more resolutely taken when arguments are brought against a system which is itself a palliative of some previous ob- jection. The case now before us is perhaps the best illustration of my view of popular intellect. Christianity was at an early period systema- tized according to the notions and habits which some of its learned converts had acquired in the philosophical schools. It was soon presented to the world in the shape of a new theory, where the links which appeared to be wanting between the clearly revealed doctrines were supplied by the ingenuity of inference. Nothing, we know, is so opposed to this vulgar systematic spirit as taking facts as they are. The chasm between what is, and an assumed standard of what should be, must be filled up. Few men refuse to grant what is demanded with this objectj for fragments of real knowledge are not to the taste of the mul- 110 titude. Having agreed that the Gospel was a revelation from Grod, they could not conceive the possibility of doubt affecting it directly or indi- rectly. Optimism is the system of the many: a revelation which could not remove every doubt, and silence every objection, must certainly fail to suit their previous notions. Had these Christians, however, studied the Scriptures without the bias of such notions, they would have found that the divine author of Chris- tianity has nowhere provided a remedy against doubt and dissent. There were heretics when the church was still under the personal guidance of the Apostles; yet the New Testament mentions them without allusion to any infallible method of ending these first disputes on doctrines. On a practical question, indeed, we find that St. Paul was sent to ask the opinion of the church of Jeru- salem; yet, that very opinion was, in part, set aside and neglected, soon after, by the tacit con- sent of most other churches. ^ The natural infer- * The injunction against eating blood and suffocated ani- mals, though given as from the Holy Ghost, was considered as of mere temporary expediency, and set aside as soon as heathen converts formed the majority of Christians, Ill ence from such facts is, that the analogy of God^s moral government was not broken in the direct revelation which he made to the world through his own son; but, having granted us convincing proofs that the Scriptures contain the knowledge supernaturally vouchsafed to man, he has left the search thereof to human industry. Industry sup- poses difficulty, and difficulty implies danger. — The field of moral discipline does not appear to have been changed by Christianity: the light, in- deed, thrown upon it is clearer, and ^Hhe high prize of our calling'^ is made fully to shine in our eyes; but it nowhere appears that we ai'e therefore to close them, and run blindly after cer- tain men endowed with supernatural vision. Such sober reasoning upon /ac^5, could not be popular in the Christian church. An infallible judge of abstract questions was wanting, and one was soon found; for St Peter was the chief of the Apostles, and Rome the chief of cities. No- thing, therefore appeared more natural^ than that Peter should be bishop of Rome; and little proof of this fact was demanded: tradition, a mere re- port, was sufficient for those who wished it to be so. Yet something more was necessary to fulfil lis the object of the first theory or supposition; for Peter could not live for ever, and the judge of faith was to exist till the end of the world. But what could be more natural than that Petei'^s successors should inherit his supernatural gifts? In popular logic^ wliat is natural^ i. e. what agrees with some original supposition, is certain. Subsequent doubts, arising from a system so naturalj must be settled any way, or left unset- tled. Whetiier infallibility belonged to the Pope alone, or to the Pope and the church, and who was to be considered the church — these minutiae were left for the ingenuity of divines. The Pope and Rome were all in all for the mass of Chris- tians. The effects of uncontrolled power, howe- ver, soon became visible in the monstrous cor- ruptions of Rome herself. Here the second step of popular intellect was required, viz. to seize the happy distinction of infallibility in doctrine, and profligacy in morals. Who that loves wealth, power, and pleasure, would wish to be a sinless oracle? No: the systelh of spiritual supremacy was now complete: the original supposition, that the church could not resist the attacks of hell without an unerring judge of abstract questions. 113 had been followed to its remotest consequencesj he that ventui*ed to doubt the accuracy of the whole theory was declared a heretic. The Pope might be, in his conduct, an enemy of Christ and his Gospel, and nevertheless succeed in the en- joyment of whatever privileges were granted to Peter, in consequence of the love which, above the other Apostles, he bore to his divine master.* He might be a monster of vice, yet he did not cease to be vicar of him who did no sin. The church, under his guidance, might be corrupt in ^^head and members;^' but still she must be infal- lible in matters of faith. To the solidity of this structure have your di- vines committed the stability of the church of Christ: unless all this be true, the gates of hell have actually prevailed against her. A moral corruption in head and members; a system wliich ensured the continuance of this corruption, by repeatedly defeating the efforts of those who wish- ed for a reformation, were, if we believe them, no subject of triumph to the enemy of God and • Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him. Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee^ He saith unto him^ Feed my lambs. — John xxi. 15. et seq, I 2 114 man* As long as the authority of Rome was safe, the gates of hell had still the worst of the contest: let the Pope possess the heads of Chris- tians, and Satan was welcome to their hearts. — '^The followers of Luther/' says Bossuet,^ ^ ^as- suming the title of reformers, gloried that they had fulfilled all Christendom's desires, inasmuch as a reformation had been long the desire of Catholics, people, doctors, and prelates. In or- der, therefore, to authorise this pretended refor- matiorij whatsoever church-writers had said against the disorders, both of the people and even of the clergy, was collected with great industry. But in this lay a manifest conceit, there not be- ing so much as one of all the passages alleged, wherein these doctors ever dreamt of altering the church's faithj of correcting her worship, which chiefly consisted in the sacrifice of the altar; of subverting the authority of her prelates, that of the Pope especially— the very scope which this whole reformation, introduced by Luther, tended to." If there be any conceit in the matter, it is that of admitting the extreme corruption of the Chris- • Ubi supra: 115 tian church, with the unavailing efforts of the advocates of reform, who preceded Luther; and yet blaming the Protestants because, by making the Pope^s supremacy the ^^very scope'' of their reformation, they took the only effectual method of putting an end to the evil. The absurd notion that the unity of the church of Christ depended on unity with the bishop of Rome, tied the hands of all Christians who wanted either the knowledge or the courage to examine the airy basis of that system. The sword and thefaggoU besides, stood in the way of approach to that delicate point; else the invectives so carefully restricted to morals would not have always left the doctrines untouched. Submit your understanding to Rome; confess that you cannot hope for salvation out of the Pope's communion; acknowledge that immorality and wickedness do not detract from his supernatural privileges; and, on these conditions, you are at liberty to oppose the corruptions of the church of Christ. Conceit is not, indeed, a word which I should apply to such advice: deceit would seem more appropriate. Invariableness in doctrine is Bossuet's criterion 116 of tlie Christian characteristic oitinity; but surely any set of men, who agreed on a system similar to that on which Roman unity depends, might equally boast of invariableness and unity: surely there cannot be, at least there cannot appeal*, any dif- ference of opinion in a society which excludes every member who does not submit his owti views to those of one individual, placed at its headj and which lays dow^n, as an indubitable fact, that that individual, whoever he may happen to be, and whatever he may add to the common doctrines of the society, always speaks the mind of his predecessors, and only gives explicitness to things implied in former decisions. Such is the artful contrivance which the author of the Varia- ations of the Protestant Churches disguises into a miraculous unity of doctrine and belief; the effect, as he pretends, of Christ^s promise of support to his church against the gates of hell. Raking up, besides, all the calumnies and atrocious reports with which the character of the oppo^ers of Rome has been blackened at all times, and setting in the strongest light of mutual opposition the theolo- gical disputes which divided the reformers, he gives the whole w^eight of his authority and talents 117 to a delusion^ w hich nothing but an overwhelming combination of interest and prejudice could pre- vent his acute mind from perceiving. Had the Bishop of Meaux bestowed the ten-thousandth part of the perverse industry with which he fol- lowed that argument, in examining the gratuitous assumption on which it is founded, we may hope that his honesty would have directed his pen to some other topic. Instead of availing himself of the inveterate notion that Christ had established an infallible judge in his church, lest, by the exist- ence of doubt as to the sense of the Scriptures, there should be diversity of opinion among his followers — instead of taking it for granted, that the victory of hell depended on the diversity of abstract doctrines among Christians, and not in the prevalence of dark works of wickedness, pro- vided they were wrought in the unity of Papal faith — ^he should, in the spirit of philosophical reasoning, have penetrated to that part of the argument which conceals the gratuitous assump- tions whence the whole Roman Catholic theory has sprung. When Catholics have proved, with- out the aid of church authority j that the church of Christ must be infallible, then, and not before, 118 they may object their variations to the Protes- tants. The Protestants have varied in seaixh of the divine simplicity of the Gospel, which Rome had buried under a mountain of metaphysical notions. The Protestants have varied^ because they could not at once divest themselves of the habits of thinking which they had acquired in the Roman Catholic schools. The Protestants have varied^ because they had the honesty not to imitate the contrivances by which the Roman church gives to her new decisions the appearance of unity with the preceding. The Protestants have varied^ be- cause they would not, upon the fanciful notion of a perpetual miracle^ claim for any of their churches the supernatural gift of unerring wisdom, nor coun- terfeit by obstinacy in error, the conscious cer- tainty of inspiration. The Protestants, in fine, have varied^ because, by restoring the Scriptures to their full and unrivalled authority, they per- ceived the intrinsic power of settled, recorded, in- variable revelation; and were aware that, in spite of doubts and divisions, the light of those divine records needed no help to withstand the attacks of the gates of hell. 419 If mere controversy were my object, I should feel satisfied with having demonstrated that the system of Roman Catholic unity is but an arbi- trary contrivance; a gratuitous assumption of a supernatural privilege, w hich is nowhere clearly asserted in the Scriptures; an endeavour to pro- duce certainty by a standard conceived and plan- ned upon conjecture. A more Christian feeling, however, induces me to dwell still on this subject, and propose to you what I conceive to be the true scriptural notions on the unity of the church of Christ In reading the New Testament with a mind carefully freed from the prejudices of school- divinity, it is impossible not to perceive that the assemblies of men who are called to obtain salva- tion through Christ, cannot either singly or col- lectively constitute the church, whereof the Ro- man see has tried to appropriate the qualities and privileges to herself. Wherever men assemble in the name of Jesus, there he has promised to be by means of his spirit; and certainly the works of that spirit are more or less visible in the Chris- tian virtues, which never yet failed to spring up in these particular churches, though mixed ISO with the tares, and otlier evils, which are not sepa- rable from ^Hhe kingdom of heaven" in this world. But there is a structure of sanctity in perpetual progress, towards the completion of which the Christian churches, on earth, are only made to contribute as different quarries do towards the raising of some glorious building. The churches on earth partake, in various proportions, of the attributes of the great church of Christ, ^^ which is his body, the fulness of him that fiUeth all in all."^ But the church to which the great privi- leges and graces belong, has characteristic marks which cannot be claimed by any one of the church- es on earth; for it is that church ^^vhich Christ loved, and gave himself for it; that he might sanc- tify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."! "To become members of that church we should, indeed, ^^endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace;";}: but such unity is proposed as the effect of endeavour ^ and conse- * Rphes. i. 23. t Ephes. v. 25—27. * lb. iv. 3. 121 qiiently of choice and judgment, not of blind sub- mission to a silencing authority, which is the Ro- man bond of union. The true unity of Christians must arise from the <^one hope of our calling.^* There is indeed for us ^^one Lord, one faith, one baptism;'' but that faith is a faith of trust, a ^^con- fidence, which hath great recompense of reward,''^ not an implicit belief in the assumed infallibility of men, who make a monopoly of the wTitteu word of God, prescribe the sense in which it must be understood, and with a refined tyranny, which tramples equally upon Christian liberty, and the natural rights of the human mind, insult even silent dissent, and threaten bodily punishment to such as, in silence and privacy, may have indulged the freedom of their minds, f * Heb. X. 35. t Praeterca ad coercenda petulantia ing-enia, decernit (eadem sacrosancta synodus) ut nemosuce prudentioe innixus, in rebus fidei et morum, ad acdificationem doctrine Christians pertmentium, sacram Scripturam ad suossensus contorquens, contra eum sensura quern tenuit et tenet sancta mater ecclc- sia, cujus est judicare de vero sensu et interpretation e Scrip- turarum sanctarum, aut etiam contra unanimem consensum sanctorum patrum, ipsam Scripturam sacram interpretari au- deat, etiamsi hujuumodi interpretationes nullo unquam tempore in lucem edendx forent. Qui contravenerint per ordinarios dcclarentp et p<,nU a jure statutis pumantur.^BtQTetum 122 Such is the saving faith of the council of Trent! How different from that proposed by St. Paul, when he says, ^^if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved,''^ ^^That is the word of faith which we preach,'' says St Paul; and well might that faith be made the bond of union be- tween all the churches which the Apostles salut- ed, without requiring a previous proof of their im- plicit submission. ^* Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity,'' is St. Paul's language. Cursed be they who, whatever be their love of Christ and veneration for the Scriptures, yield not obedience to the church of Rome; is the spirit of every page which has been published by Popes or councils. Whatever might be the effect of the prejudices which the first reformers brought away from their Raman captivity; whatever the necessity which Protestant churches still acknowledge of prevent- ing internal feuds, by proposing formularies of Concilii Trident, de editione et usu sacrorum Ubrorum, Sessionc IV. 133 faith to their memhers, they have never so mis- understood ^^vhat spirit they are of as to deny salvation to those who love their common Lord and Redeemer. Their churches, indeed, may differ on points which the subtilty of metaphy- sics had unfortunately started long before the reformation, and even before the publication of Christianity: they may observe different ceremo- nies, and adopt different views of church hierar- chy aYid discipline^ but their spirit is the only one which deserves the name of Catholic in the genuine sense of that wordj the only spirit, in- deed, which can produce, even on earth, an image of the glorious church which will exist for ever in onefold, and under one shepherd. LETTER V. Moral character of the Roman Church. Celebacy: JVimneries. The attempt to describe the moral character o£ a collective body, which, constantly changing its composition, can seldom consist of the same elements for any considerable portion of time, will probably appear rash and invidious. A long familiarity with the subject which I have in hand, has, however, convinced me, that if there be any truth in the general observation, that men who act under certain laws and interests, in collective bodies, are swayed by a peculiar influence, which, without borrowing a foreign phrase, might be called Corporation Spirit; the church of Rome presents the strongest and most marked instance of that moral phenomenon. Its great antiquity, and the gigantic power which it has enjoyed for ages, are the natural and intelligible causes of those fixed views and purposes which, existing at all times in the mass of its living members, must J 2 136 inevitably be imparted to its successive recruits- The character of no one man can be more indel- libly stamped by a long life of consistent, syste- matic conduct, than that of a collective body which, for many centuries, has practically learnt the true source of its power. If, on the other hand, it should appear that, in describing the moral character of that body which Catholics consider as the only depositary of divine authori- ty on earth, I bring a charge of guilt against the whole succession of men who have composed, and compose it at present; I must observe, that indi- vidual conduct, modified by corporate influence, cannot be judged by the common rules which guide us in estimating private character* That every inie Roman Catholic, every man whose religious tenets are in strict conformity with those of Rontie, must partake the spirit of his standard of faith, in proportion to his sincerity; my own experience would compel me to aver, in- dependently of any theoretical conviction. But the same experience teaches me that the natural disposition of every person, has a certain degree of power to modify, though not to neutralize, the Roman Catholic religious influence. — ^This being 127 premised, I will openly, before God and man, declare my conviction, that the necessity of keep- ing up the appearance of infallibility, makes the church of Rome, essentially and invariably, ty- rannicalj that it leads that church to hazard both the temporal and the eternal happiness of men, rather than alter what has once received the sanc- tion of her authority; and that, in the prosecution of her object, she overlooks the rights of truth, and the improvement of the human understand- ing. In the proof and substantiation of these charges I will strictly observe the conditions proposed for similar cases by the author of the Book of the Roman Catholic Church. ^'I beg leave to sug- gest,'' says Mr. Butler, ^^that, in every religious controversy between Protestants and Roman Ca- tholics, the following rule should be observed: — That no doctrine should be ascribed to THE Roman Catholics as a body, except 6UCH AS IS AN ARX-ICLE OF THEIR FAITH.'^^ Now, it is agreed on all hands, that a canon of a general council, approved by the Pope — i. e. a rule of belief delivered to the people, under the * Book of the Roman Catholic Church, p, 9. .128 fearful sanction of an miatheniay leaves no other alternative to a Roman Catholic but embracing the doctrine it contains, or being excluded from his church by excommunication. By one, then, of such canons, every member of the church of Rome is bound to believe that all baptized per- sons are liable to be compelled, by punishment^ to be Christians, or what is the same in Roman Catholic divinity, spiritual subjects of the Pope. It is, indeed, curious to see the council of Trent, who passed that law, prepare the free and ex- tended action of its claims, by an unexpected stroke of liberality. In the Session on Baptism^ the Trent Fathers are observed anxiously secur- ing to Protestants the privileges of true baptism. The fourth canon of that Session fulminates an anathema or curse against any one who should say that baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, conferred by a heretic, with an intention to do that which the church in- tends in that sacrament, is not time baptism. =^ — * Si quis dixerit baptismum, qui etiam datur ab hscreticis in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, cum intentione faciendi quod facit ecclesia, non esse verum baptismum, ana- thema sit.— Concil. Trident. Sess. VU. Can. IV. 129 Observe, now, the consequences of this enlarged spirit of concession in the two subjoined canons. ^^Ifany one should say that those who have been baptized are free from all the precepts of the holy church, either WTitten or delivered by tradition, so that they are not obliged to observe them, unless they will submit to them of their own accord, let him be accursed.^'^ Having soon after declared the lawfulness of infant baptism, they proceed to lay down the XIV. Canon. <*If any one should say that these baptised children, when they grow up, are to be asked whether they will confirm what their godfathers promised in their name; and that if they say they will not, they are to be left to their own discre- tion, and not to be forced, in the mean time, into the observance of a Christian life btj any other punishment than that of keeping them from the reception of the eucharist and the other sacraments till they repent, let him be AccuRSED.'^t * Si quis dixerit, baptizatosliberos esse ab oinnibus sanctae Romanse ecclesiae prseceptis, qua vel scripta vel tradita sunt, ita ut ea observare non teneatur, nisi se sua sponte illis sub- mittere voluerint, anathema sit. t Si quis dixerit hujusmodi parvulos baptizatos, cum ado^ 130 Now, ^'it is most true/' says the author of the Book of the Roman Catholic Church, ^^that the Roman Catholics believe the doctrines of their church to be unchangeable; and that it is a tenet of their creed, that what their faith ever has been, such it was from the beginning, such it now is, and such it will ever be." Let him, therefore, choose between this boasted consistency of doc- trine, and the curse of his church. The council of Trent, that council whose decrees are, by the creed of Pius IV., declared to be obligatory above all othersj=^ that council has converted the sa- crament of Baptism into an indelible brand of slavery: whoever has received the waters of re- generation, is the thrall of her who declares that leverint, interrogandos esse, an ratum habere vellnt quodpa- trini, eorum nomine, dum baptizarentur, poUiciti sunt, et, ubi se noUe responderint, suo esse arbitrio relinquendos, nee alia interim pdsna ad Christianam vitajn cogtndosy nisi ut ab eucharistiae, aliorumque sacramentorum perceptione arcean- tur donee resipiscant, anathema sit. Can. VIII. et XIV. de Baptismo. * "I also profess and undoubtedly receive all other things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and general councils, particularly by the holy council of Trent, &c. &c." Creed of Pius IV. in the Book of the Roman Ca- tholic Church, p. 8. 131 there is no other church of Christ. She claims her slaves wherever they may be found, declares them subject to her laws, both written and tra- ditional, and, by her infallible sanction, dooms them to indefinite punishment, till they shall ac- knowledge her authority and bend their necks to her yoke. Such is^ has been^ and will ever 6e, the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church; such is the belief of her true and sincere members; such the spirit that actuates her views, and which, by every possible means, she has always spread among her children. Him that denies this doc- trine, Rome devotes to perdition. The principle of religious tyranny, supported by persecution, is a necessary condition of true Catholicism: he who revolts at the idea of compelling belief by punish- ment, is severed at once from the communion of Rome. What a striking commentary on these canons of the Council of Trent have we in the history of the Inquisition! Refractory Catholics born under the spiritual dominion of Rome, and Protestants originally baptized out of her pale, have equally tasted her flames and her racks. =^ Nothing, in ♦ Llorente mentions the punishments inflicted by the Spa- nish Inqiusition on English and French subjects. 13S deed, but want of power, nothing but the much- lamented ascendancy oiheresy^ compels the church of Rome to keep her infallible, immutable decrees in silent abeyance. But the divine authority of those decrees, the truth of their inspiration, must for ever be asserted by every individual who sin- cerely embraces the Roman C atholic faith. Reason and humanity must, in them, yield to the infallible decree in favour of compulsion on religious mat- ters. The human ashes, indeed, are scarcely cold which, at the end of three centuries of persecution and massacre, these decrees scattered over the soil of Spain. I myself saw^ the pile on which the last victim was sacrificed to Roman infallibility. It was an unhappy woman, whom the Inquisition of Seville committed to tlie flames under the charge of heresy, about forty years ago: she perished on a spot where thousands had met the same fate. I lament from my heart that the structure which supported their melting limbs, was destroyed dur- ing the late convulsions. It should have been pre- served, with the infallible and immutable canon of the Council of Trent over it, for tlie detestation of future ages. How far, to preserve consistency, Rome, in the 183 present time, would carry the right of punishing dissent, which her last general council confirmed with its most solemn sanction; it is not in my power to tell. It may be hoped that the spirit of the age has extinguished her fires for ever:=^ but the period I fear is still remote when she will change another part of her system, by which she ruins the happiness and morals of numbers, — I mean her monastic vows, and the laws which bind Catholic clergy to perpetual celibacy. Where church infallibility is concerned, I can readily understand the necessity imposed on the most liberal individuals who have filled the Roman see, to adhere strictly to former decrees and de- clarations; but nothing can excuse or palliate the proud obstinacy which Rome has always shown on such points of discipline, as might be altered for the benefit of public morals, without compro- mising her claims. Such are the laws which annul and punish the marriages of secular clergymen, and those which demand perpetual vows from them who profess any of the numerous monastic rules approved by the Roman church, both for males and females. ♦ Note F. K 134 I will not discuss the question, whether a life of celibacy is recommended in the New Testament as preferable to matrimony at all periods, and in all circumstances of the church. I will suppose, what I do not believe, that virginity, by its own intrinsic merit, and without reference to some vir- tuous purpose, which may not be attainable other- wise than by the sacrifice of the soft passions of the heart; has a mysterious value in the eyes of God: a supposition which can hardly be made without advantage to some part of the ancient Manichsean system — without some suspicion that the law, by which the human race is preserved, is not the pure effect of the will of God. I will not assail such views, which, more or less, might be inferred from the writings of the Roman Catholic mystics. I will take up the subject on their own terms. Let virginity be the virtue^ not (as I be- lieve) the condition of angels: let it be desirable, as St. Augustine expresses himself somewhere^ that mankind were blotted from the face of the earth by the operation of celibacy.* Let all * T cannot tax my memory with the words, nor is the object worth the labour of a long- search. 1 believe that St, Aug^ustine, in answering the objection that, if all the world 135 this be so; yet are not celibacy and virginity des- cribed in the New Testament as peculiar and un- common gifts, as perilous trials, and likely to place human beings in a state which St. Paul compares to burning? Are not the warnings and cautions given by our Saviour and his Apos- tles, as frequent as the allusions to it? Did not St. Paul fear that the very mention of this topic might become a snare to his converts? — But how is the subject of virginity and celibacy treated by the Roman Catholic church? The world rings with the praises of the unmarried state, which her writers, her fathers, her Popes, her councils, have sounded from age to age. Not satisfied with placing it at the very summit of the scale of Christian virtue, they contrived the most cruel and insidious of all moral snares^ in the perpetual vows with which they secured the profession^ not the observance, of the virtue they extolled. St. Paul lamented that young widows, after devoting themselves to the service of the church, and living at the expense of her mem- followed the principle he recommended, the earth would soon be a desert, says, with an fiir of triumph — Oh felix mundi exitium! 136 bers, grew disorderly, and married, incurring Mavfie^ from the enemies of the Christian name, who scoflTed at their fickleness of purpose. Against this evil he provided the most rational remedy — that of receiving no widow to the service of the chut*ch, who was not threescore years old. The church of Rome, on the contrary, allures boys and girls of sixteen to bind themselves with per- petual vows: the latter are confined in prisons, because their frailties could not be concealed; the former are let loose upon the people, trusting that a superstitious reverence will close the eyes, or seal up the lips of men, on their misconduct. '^Christian clemency,'' says Erasmus, ^^has, for the most part, abolished the servitude of the an- cients, leaving but vestiges of it in a few coun- tries. But under the cloak of religion a new kind of slavery has been invented, which now prevails in a multitude of monasteries. Nothing there is lawful but what is commanded: whatever may accrue to the professed becomes the proper- ty of the community: if you stir a foot, you are brought backy as if flying after murdering your * The word damnation is, in its present sense, quite in- appropriate in this and several other passages. 137 father and mother.^ The Council of Trent en- joins all bishops to enforce the close confinement of mms, by every means, and even to engage the assistance of the secular arm for that purpose^ entreats all Princes to protect the inclosure of the convents; and threatens instant excommuni- cation on all civil magisti'ates who withhold their aid when the bishops call for it ^^Let no pro- fessed nun (say the fathers of the Council of Trent) come out of her monastery under any pre- text whatever^ not even for a moment." ^^If any of the regulars (men and women under per- petual vows) pretend that fear or force compelled them to enter the cloister, or that the profession took place before the appointed age; let them not be heard, except within five years of their pro- fession. But if they put off the frock, of their own accord, no allegation of such should be heard; but, being compelled to return to tlie con- vent, they must be punished as apostates^ being, in the mean time, deprived of all the privileges of their order.''! Such is the Christian lenity of Rome; such the fences that guard her virgin- * See the whole dialogue, Vir^ro MtGroyaftos*, Note H. f See the laws on this subject. Note I. K 2. 138 plots; such were the laws confirmed at Trent by the wild uproar of six hundred bishops, of whom but few could have cast the first stone at the adul- teress, dismissed to sin no more by the Saviour. ^ ^Accursed, accursed be all heretics/' exclaim the legates: ^^Accursed, accursed,'' answer, with one voice, the mitred tyrants. =^ The blood, indeed, boils in one's veins, and the mouth fills with re- taliating curses, at the contemplation of that odi- ous scene: yet, I thank God, the feelings of in- dignation which I cannot wholly suppress, leave me completely free to obey the divine precept respecting those that ^^curse us, and despitefuUy use us." That my feelings are painfully vehement when I dwell upon this subject; that neither the free- dom I have enjoyed so many years, nor the last repose of the victims, the remembrance of whom still wrings tears from my eyes, can allay the bit- ter pangs of my youth; are proofs that my views arise from a real, painful, and protracted experi- ence. Of monks and friars I know comparative- *See the Acclamations in the last sessions of the Council of Trent. See also the state of morals among- the clergy^ ac- cording to tte avowal of the first legates. Note I. 139 ly little, because the vague suspicions, of which even the most pious Spanish parents cannot di- vest themselves, prevented my frequenting the interior of monasteries during boyhood. My own judgment, and the general disgust which the prevailing grossness and vulgarity of the regu- lars, create in those who daily see themj kept me subsequently away from all friendly inter- course with the cowled tribes: but of the secular clergy, and the amiable life-prisoners of the church of Rome, few, if any, can possess a more intimate knowledge than myself* Devoted to the ecclesiastical profession since the age of fif- teen, when I received the minor orders, I lived in constant friendship with the most distinguish- ed youths who, in my town, were preparing for the priesthood. Men of the first eminence in the church were the old friends of my family — ^my parents' and my own spiritual directors. Thus I grew up, thus I continued in manhood, till, at the age of five-and-thirty, religion, and religion alone, tore me away from kindred and country. The intimacy of friendship, the undisguised con- verse of sacramental confession, opened to me the hearts of many, whose exterior conduct might 140 have deceived a common observer. The coarse frankness of associate dissohiteness, left no se- crets among the spiritual slaves, who, unable to separate the laws of God from those of their tyrannical church, trampled both under foot, in riotous despair. Such are the sources of the knowledge I possess: God, sorrow, and remorse^ are my witnesses. A more blameless, ingenuous, religious set of youths than that in the enjoyment of whose friend- ship I passed the best years of my life, the world cannot boast of. Eight of us, all nearly of the same age, lived in the closest bond of affection, from sixteen till one-and-twenty; and four, at least, continued in the same intimacy till that of about thirty-five. Of this knot of friends not one was tainted by the breath of gross vice till the church had doomed them to a life of celibacy, and turned the best affections of their hearts into crime. It is the very refinement of church cruelty to say they were fi^ee when they deprived them- selves of their natural rights. Less, indeed, would be the unfeelingness of a parent who, watching a moment of generous excitement, would deprive a son of his birtliright, and doom him, by a volun- 141 tary act, to pine away through life in want and misery. A virtuous youth of one-and-twenty, who is made to believe Christian perfection inseparable from a life of celibacy, will easily overlook the dangers which beset that state of life. Those who made, and those who still support the unnatural law, which turns the mistaken piety of youth into a source of future vice; ought to have learnt mercy from their own experience: but a priest who has waded (as most do) through the miry slough of a life of incessant temptation — ^falling, and rising, stumbling, struggling, and falling again, without at once casting off Catholicism with Christianity; contracts, generally, habits of mind not unlike those of the guards of oriental beauty* Their hearts have been seared with envy. I cannot think on the wanderings of the friends of my youth without heart-rending pain. One, now no more, whose talents raised him to one of the highest dignities of the church of Spain, was for many years a model of Christian purity. When, by the powerful influence of his mind and the warmth of his devotion, this man had drawn many into the clerical, and the religious life (my youngest sister among the latter,) he sunk at once 14S into the grossest and most daring profligacy. I heard him boast that the night before the solemn procession of Corpus Christie where he appeared nearly at the head of his chapter, one of two child- ren had been born, which his two concubines brought to light within a few days of each other. The intrigues of ambition soon shared his mind with the pursuit of pleasure; and the fall of a po- tentate, whom he took the trouble to instruct in the policy of Machiavel, involved him in danger and distress for a time. He had risen again into court influence, when death cut him off' in the flower of life. I had loved him when both our minds were pure: I loved him when Catholicism had driven us both from the path of virtue: I still love, and will love his memory, and hope that God^s mercy has pardoned his life of sin, with- out imputing it to the abetters of the barbarous laws which occasioned his spiritual ruin. Such, more or less, has been the fate of my early friends, whose minds and hearts were much above the common standard of the Spanish clergy. What, then, need I say of the vulgar crowd of priests, who, coming, as the Spanish phrase has it, from coarse swaddling clothes^ and raised by ordi- 143 nation to a rank of life for which they have not been prepared; mingle vice and superstition, gross- ness of feeling, and pride of office, in their charac- ter? I have known the best among them: I have heard their confessions; I have heard the con-, fessions of young persons of both sexes, who fell under the influence of their suggestions and ex- ample; and I do declare that nothing can be more dangerous to youthful virtue than their company. How many souls would be saved from crime, but for the vain display of pretended superior virtue, which Rome demands of her clergy! The cares of a married life, it is said, interfere with the duties of the clergy. Do not the cares of a vicious life, the anxieties of stolen love, the contrivances of adulterous intercourse, the pains, the jealousies, the remorse, attached to a conduct in perfect contradiction with a public and solemn profession of superior virtue — do not these cares, these bitter feelings, interfere with the duties of the priesthood? I have seen the most promising men of my university obtain country vicarages, with characters unimpeached, and hearts overflowing with hopes of usefulness. A virtuous wife would have confirmed and strengthened their purposes; 444 but they were to live a life of angels in celibacy. They were, however, men, and their duties con- nected them with beings of no higher description. Young women knelt before them, in all the inti- macy and openness of confession. A solitary house made them go abroad in search of social converse. Love, long resisted, seized them, at length, like madness. Two I knew who died insane: hun- dreds might be found who avoid that fate by a life of settled, systematic vice. The picture of female convents requires a moi^ delicate pencil: yet I cannot find tints sufficiently dark and gloomy to pourtray the miseries which I have witnessed in their inmates. Crime, indeed, makes its way into those recesses, in spite of the spiked walls and prison grates, which protect the ' inhabitants. This I know with all the certainty which the self-accusation of the guilty can give. It is, besides, a notorious fact, that the nunneries in Estremadura and Portugal are frequently in- fected with vice of the grossest kind. But I will not dwell on this revolting part of the picture. F The greater part of the nuns, whom I have known were beings of a much higher description — ^females whose purity owed nothing to tlie strong gates 145 and high walls of the cloisterf but who still had a human heart, and felt, in many instances, and during a great portion of their lives, the weight of the vows which had deprived them of their liberty. Some there are, I confess, among tlie nuns, who, like birds hatched in a cage, never seem to long for freedom: but the happiness boast- ed of in convents, is generally the effect of an ho- nourable pride of purpose, supported by a sense of utter hopelessness. The gates of the holy prison have been for ever closed upon the professed in- habitants^ force and shame await them wherever they might fly: the short words of theii^ profes- sion have, like a potent charm, bound them to one spot of earth, and fixed their dwelling upon their grave. The great poet who boasted that ^ ^slaves cannot lire in England,'' forgot that superstition may baffle the most sacred laws of freedom: slaves do live in England, and, I fear, multiply daily by the same arts which fill the convents abroad. In vain does the law of the land stretch a friendly hand to the repentant victim: the unhappy slave may be dying to break her fetters; yet death would be preferable to the shame and reproach that await her among relatives and friends. It 146 will not avail her to keep the vow which dooms her to live single: she has renounced her will, and made herself a passive mass of clay in the hands of a superior. Perhaps she has promised to prac- tise austerities which cannot be performed out of the convent — never to taste meat, if her life were to depend on the use of substantial food — to wear no linen — to go unhosed and unshod for life; — all these and many other hardships make part of the various rules which Rome has confirmed with her ' sanction. Bitter harrassing remorse seizes the wavering mind of the recluse, and even a yielding thought towards liberty, assumes the character of sacrilege. Nothing short of rebellion against the church that has burnt the mark of slavery into her soul, can liberate an English nun. Whereto could she turn her eyes? Her own parents would dis- own her; her friends would shrink from her as if her breath wafted leprosy: she would be haunted by priests and their zealous emissaries; and, like her sister victims of superstition in India, be made to die of a broken heart, if she refused to return to the burning pile from which she had fled in fran- tic fear. Suppose that the case I have described were of the rarest occurrence: suppose that but one nun 147 ill ten thousand wished vehemently for that libei - ty which she had forfeited, by a few words, in one moment: what law of God (I will ask) has entitled the Roman church thus to expose even one hu- man creature to dark despair in this life, and a darker prospect in the next? Has the Gospel re- commended perpetual vows? Could any thing but a clea^' and positive injunction of Christ or his apostles justify a practice beset with dangers of this magnitude? Is not the mere possibility of repenting such vows a reason why they should be strictly forbidden? And yet they are laid on al- most infants of both sexes. Innocent girls of six- teen are lured by the image of heroic virtue, and a pretended call of their Saviour, to promise they know not what, and make engagements for a whole life of which they have seen but the dawn! To what paltry shifts and quibbles will not Ro- man Catholic writers resort to disguise the cruelty of this practice! Nuns are described as super-hu- man beings, as angels on earth, without a thought or wish beyond the walls of their convents. The effects of habit, of religious fear, of decorum, which prevented many of the French nuns from rasting off the veil, at a period when the revolu- 148 tionary storm had struck awe into every breast; are construed into a proof of the unvariableness of purpose which follows the religious profession. Are nuns, indeed, so invariably happy ? Why, then, are they insulted by their spiritual rulers by keeping them under the very guards and pre- cautions, which magistrates employ to secure ex- ternal good behaviour among the female inmates of prisons and penitentiaries? — Would the nuns continue, during their lives, under the same pri- vations, were they at liberty to resume the laical state? Why, then, are they bound fast with awful vows? Why are they not allowed to offer up, day by day, the free-Mill offering of their souls and bodies? The reluctant nuns, you say, are few. — ^Vain, unfeeling sophistry! First prove that vows are recommended on divine authority, that Christ has authorized the use of force and compulsion to ratify them when they are made; and then you may stop your ears against the complaints of a few sufferers. But can millions of submissive, or even willing recluses; atone for the despair of those few? You reckon, in indefinite numbers, those that in France did not avail themselves of the 149 revolutionary laws. You should rather inquire how many, who, before the revolution, appeared perfectly contented in their cloistral slavery, over- came every religious fear, and flew into the arms of a husband as soon as they could do it with im- punity. Twa hundred and ten nuns were secu- larized in Spain during the short-lived reign of the Cortes.^ Were these helpless beings happy in their former durance? What an appalling number of less fortunate victims might not be made out by averaging, in the same proportion, the millions of females w ho, since the establish- ment of convents, have surrendered their liberty into the hands of Rome! Cruel and barbarous, indeed, must be the bi- gotry or the policy which, rather than yield on a point of discipline, sees with indifference even the chance, not to say the existence, of such evils. To place the most sensitive, innocent, and ardent minds under the most horrible apprehensions of spiritual and temporal punishment, without the clearest necessity; is a refinement of cruelty which has few examples among civilized nations. Yet ♦ Report of the minister Garelli, laid before the Cortes^ 1st of March, 1822. L 2 150 ihe scandal of defection is guarded against by fears that would crush stouter hearts, and distract less vivid imaginations, than those of timid and sensitive females. Even a temporary leave to quit the convent for the restoration of decaying health is seldom given, and never applied for but by such nuns as unhappiness drives into a dis- regard of public opinion. I saw my eldest sister, at the age of two-and-twenty, slowly sink into the grave within the walls of a convent; whereas, had she not been a slave to that church which has been a curse to me; air, amusement, and exercise might have saved her. I saw her on her deathbed. I obtained that melancholy sight at the risk of bursting my heart, when, in my ca- pacity of priest, and at her own request, I heard her last confession. Ah! when shall I forget the mortal agony with which, not to disturb the dying moments of that truly angelic being, I sup- pressed my gushing tears in her presence; the choking sensation with which I forced the words of absolution through my convulsed lips; the faltering steps with which I left the convent alone, making the solitary street where it stood re-echo the sobs I could no longer contain! 151 I saw my dear sister no more; but another was left me, if not equal in talents to the eldest (for I have known few that could be considered her equals), amiable and good in no inferior degree. To her I looked up as a companion for life. But she had a heart open to every noble impression — and such, among Catholics, are apt to be misled from the path of practical usefulness, into the wilderness of visionary perfection. At the age of twenty she left an infirm mother to the care of servants and strangers, and shut herself up in a convent, where she was not allowad. to see even the nearest relations. With a delicate frame, requiring every indulgence to support it in health, she embraced a rule which denied her the com- forts of the lowest class of society. A coarse woollen frock fretted her skin; her feet had no covering but that of shoes open at the toes, that they might expose them to the cold of a brick floor; a couch of bare planks was her bed, and an unfurnished cell her dwelling. Disease soon filled her conscience with fears; and I had often to endure the torture of witnessing her agonies at the confessional. I left her, when I quitted Spain, dying much too slowly for her only chance 153 of relief. I wept bitterly for her loss two years afterj yet I could not be so cruel as to wish her alive* LETTER VL Romey the enemy of mental improvement: the direct tendencij of her Prayer-book^ the Breviary, to cherish credulity and adulterate Christian virtue. I COULD not connect the subject of my prece- ding Letter with any other, without doing the greatest violence to the overpowering feelings which the recollection of celibacy and monachism, never fail to raise in me. I now proceed to show the natural opposition which exist between the spiritual power assumed by the church of Rome^ and the improvement of the human understand- ing. After this, I shall close my subject with numerous proofs of her disregard of truth, in the dissemination of a timid, superstitious, and cre- dulous spirit, the best security of her influence among mankind. The long list of illustrious writers, members of the Roman Catholic communion, with which the first part of my charge will be met, is well known to me. I would allow that list to be 154 doubled: I would grant every one of your boasted authors the whole weight of learning and abili- ties which you allot to them by your own scale of merit; yet it would remain to be proved, that vigour of mind and comprehensiveness of knowl- edge were, in such instances, attained in accord- ance with the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, and not, as I am ready to show, in the very teeth of its spirit. The resources of the human mind, when once in motion after knowl- edge, are innumerable. Fear and resti'aint may force it into devious and crooked paths, but not without injury to its moral qualities; but no power on earth can prevent the exertion of its activity. It is curious to observe the invariable accura- cy with which certain principles, true or false, will work; and how perfectly analogous their ef- fects will be when applied to the most different objects. We see the assumption of supernatural infallibility, gradually leading the Popes to at- tempt the subjection of all Christian powers. A criminal ambition might often mix in their po- litical plans and views; but the impulse which threatened the thrones of Europe, was indepen- 155 dent of the individual temper of the popes. The mildest, humblest individual, believing himself an infallible guide to salvation, must have consi- dered the removal of every obstacle to that paramount object, a part, not only of his pri- vilege, but his duty. He would, therefore, strive to reduce all human power, so as to suit his views of spiritual rule. The declaration that Christ's kingdom is not of this world, would not prevent a conscientious Pope from checking any temporal power, which he conceived to oppose the interests of the next. On the same grounds, and from the very same principle, has Rome been, at all times, the declared enemy of mental inde- pendence. She, it is true, confines her open claims, in this case, to i)oints of Christian faith, as to spiritual supremacy in the former. But re- move opposition in both, and you will see her become as great a tyrant over the human intel- lect, as she was at one time over the governments of Christendom. There is, in fact, a greater connexion between the learned and scientific opinions of men and their religious tenets, than between moral practice and civil allegiance. — Hence, the rights of the Roman Catholic church 156 to prescribe limits to the mind are still openly contended for, while the indirect dominion of the popes over Christian kings and their people, is only timidly whispered within the walls of the Vatican. But how does it happen that Italy and France have produced men of extraordinary eminence, notwithstanding their mental subjection to Rome? — I might answer this question by another: How is it that the talent of Spain and Portugal has been rendered aboi'tiAC? — The tendency of moral as well as pliysical agents must be estimated, not by tliat which they fail to affect, but by the con- dition of what is faii'ly submitted to their action. Will you have an adequate notion of the fetters laid by Rome upon the human mind? examine the intellect of such as wear them really, not osten- sibly. Would you ascertain the true practical consequences of any law? observe its results, where it is not eluded. The Roman Catholic re- straints on the understanding, have been and are still actively enforced in Spain; whereas the weakness of the papal government has never been able to put the Italian inquisitions into fiill activity. France was always free from that 157 scourge; and the confinement of a few authors to the Bastille, was a poor substitute for the Autos- da-Fe of tlie unfortunate Spanish Peninsula. But has not the influence of Roman Catholic infallibility, even in those less oppressed coun- tries, disturbed the best efforts of the human in- tellect, closed up many of the direct roads to knowledge, and forced ingenuity to skulk in the pursuit of it like a thief? Sound the antiquari- an, the astronomer, the natural philosopher of Italy; and the characteristic shrug of their shoul- ders Avill soon tell you that tliey have gone the full stretch of the chain they are forced to wear. — W hat if the chain be already snapt at every link, and kept together by threads? Reckon, if you can, the struggles, the sighs, the artifices, the perjuries which have brought it to that state. — Look at Galileo on his knees: see the commenta- tors of Newton prefixing a declai'ation to his im- mortal Prindpia^ in which, by a solemn false- hood, they avoid the fate of the unhappy Floren- tine astronomer. < ^Newton, ^' say the great ma- thematicians, Le Seur and Jacquier, assumes, in his thii'd book, the hypothesis of the eartli's mo- tion. The propositions of that author could not 158 be explained except through the same hypothe- sis- We have, therefore, been forced to act a character not our own. But we declare our sub- mission to the decrees of the Roman Pontiffs against the motion of the earth/^^ The samje sacrifice of sincerity is required at the Spanish universities. Science, indeed, has scarcely ever made a step without bowing, with a lie in her mouth, to Roman infallibility. Mankind has to thank Lord Bacon, as he might thank the intel- lectual liberty which the Reformation allowed him, for that burst of light which at once broke out from his writings, and spread the seeds of true knowledge, too thick and wide for Rome to smother them. She had been able, at former periods, to decide the fate of philosophical sys- tems according as they appeared to favour or op- pose her notions. In this case, however, she was both unable to perceive the extent of her danger, * Newtoaus,, in hoc tertio libro, tellurls inotac hypothesira assumit. Autoris propositiones aliter explicari non poterant, nisi eadem quoque facta hypothesi. Hinc alienam coacti sumus gerere personam. Caeterum latis a summis pontifici- bus contra telluris motum decretis, nos obsequi profitemur. — Newtoni Principia, vol. III. Colonix Allobrogum, 176Q, — This declarRtion was made in 1742. 159 and to check the simultaneous impulse of the awakened mind of Europe. The Council of Trent, however, had, a short time before, done every thing in its power, to keep mankind in subjection to the church upon every branch of knowledge. By a solemn decree of that Coun- cil, the press was subjected to the previous cen- sure of the bishops or the inquisitors in every part of Christendom. It is not difficult to con- ceive the use which these holy umpires of knowl- edge, would make of their autliority to check and subdue the petulent minds^^ who dared to broach any thing which jarred with the principles of school philosophy or divinity. But we need not leave this to conjecture: the censures attached to the long list of books condemned in the Index Expurgatorms of Rome, accurately describe the extent of intellectual freedom, which Rome grants to the faithful subjects of her spiritual empire. The fact that both popes and bishops of the Roman Catholic communion have often patroniz- ed knowledge, is anxiously brought forward to * Ad coercenda petulantia ingenia, — The Council of Trent confirmed the decree of the Council of Lateran, which exr tends the censure to all kinds of books. 160 prove the existence of a liberal and enlightened spirit in the Roman church. Now, if tlie conduct of individuals were admitted as a criterion of the temper of their church, it would be easy to pro- duce thousands who have opposed real knowledge for every one that has promoted its interests.^ — Besides, a pope may be a patron of the fine arts, and a determined enemy to philosophical studies. A cardinal or a bishop may spend his savings and fortune in the erection of a college, witli a view to perpetuate the metaphysics of the thir- teenth century. Such will be found to be the bene- factions which learning has generally received from the members of the church of Rome. It is true we owe the preservation of manuscripts to the monks, though it would be difficult to enume- rate the multitude of works which were destroy- ed by their sloth and ignorance. The public schools of Europe were endowed by the liberali- ty of Roman Catholics; but if either those that preserved the treasures of ancient literature, or those who founded our universities, had suspect- ed the dii'ection which the human mind would * Note K. 16| take from the excitement of these mental stimuli; they would have doomed poets, orators, and phi- losophers to the flames, and flung their endowing nicney into the sea. I do not blame individuals for partaking the spirit of their age, hut protest against a church which, having attained the ful- ness of strength under the influence of the most ignorant ages, would, for the sake of that strength, stop the progress of time, and reduce the nineteenth century to the intellectual stand- ard of the thirteenth.^ Moral as well as physi- cal beings must love their native atmosphere; and Rome being no exception to this law> is still dai- ly employed in renovating and spreading credu- lity, enthusiasm, and superstition — ^the elements in which she thrives. The charge is strong, and expressed in strong language; but, I believe, not stronger than the following proofs will warrant. * The inveterate enmity of a sincere Roman Catholic against books which directly or indirectly dissent from his church, is unconquerable. There is a family in E?) gland who having inherited a copious library under circumstances which make it a kind of heir-loom, have torn out every leaf of the Protestant works, leaving nothing in the shelves but the covers. This fact I know from the most unquestionable authority. M 2 162 A Christian church cannot employ a more effectual instrument to fashion and mould the minds of her members, than the form of prayer and worship which she sanctions for daily use. — Such is the Breviary or Prayer-book of the Ro- man Catholic clergy, which, as it stands in the present day, is the most authentic w^ork of that kind. In consequence of a decree of the Council of Trent, Pope Pius V. ordered a number of learned and able men to compile the Breviary and by his bull, ^uod a nobisy July, 1566, sanctioned it, and commanded the use thereof to the clergy of the Roman Catholic church, all over the world. Clement VIII., in 1602, finding that the Brevia- ry of Pius V. had been altered and depraved; restored it to its pristine state, and ordered, under pain of excommunication, that all future editions should strictly follow that which he then printed at the Vatican. Lastly, Urban VIII., in 1631, had the language of the whole work, and the metres of the hymns revised. The value which the church of Rome sets upon the Brevia- ry, may be known from the strictness witli which she demands the perusal of it. Whoever enjoys any ecclesiastical revenue; all persons of both 163 sexes who have professed in any of the regular or- ders;=^ all sub -deacons, deacons and priests, are bound to repeat, either in public or private, the whole service of the day, out of the Breviary. The omission of any one of the eight portions of which that service consists, is declared to be a mortal sin, i. e. a sin that, unrepented, would be suffi- cient to exclude from salvation. The person guilty of such an omission, loses all legal right to whatever portion of his clerical emoluments is due for the day or days wherein he neglected that duty, and cannot be absolved till he has giv- en the forfeited sums to the poor, or redeemed the greatest part by a certain donation to the Spanish crusade. Such are the sanctions and penalties by which the reading of the Breviary is enforced. The scrupulous exactness with which this duty is performed by all who have not se- cretly cast off their spiritual allegiance, is quite surprising. For more than twelve years of my life, at a period when my university studies re- * Some orders have a peculiar Breviary, with the appro* bation of the pope. There is no substantial difference be* tween these monkish Prayer-books and the JBreviart^f which is used by the great body of Romau CathuUc clergy. 161 qtiired uninterrupted attention, I believed myself bound to repeat the appointed prayers and les- sons: a task whicli, in spite of a rapid enuncia- tion, took up an hour and a half daily. A dispen- sation of tliis duty is not to be obtained from Rome without the utmost difficulty.^ I never, indeed, knew or heard of any one who had ob- tained it. The Breviary, therefore, must be reckoned the true standard to which the church of Rome wish- es to reduce the minds and hearts of her clergyy from the highest dignitary to the most obscure priest. It is in the Breviary that we may be sure to find the full extent of the pious belief, to which she trains the pastors of her flock; and the true Stamp of those virtues which she boasts of in her models of Christian perfection. By making the daily repetition of the Breviary a paramount du- ty of the clergy, Rome evidently gives it the * Among the many charges made in the name of the Pope by Cardinal Gonsalvi, against Baron von Wessenberg, Vicar General of Constance, is that he had granted dispensations of this kind, to many clergymen in his diocess. This curi- ous correspondence was published in London, by Acker- mann, in 1819. It deserves the attention of such as wish to ascertain the temper of the court of Rome in our own days,. 165 preference over all other works; and as far as she is concerned, provided the appointed teachers of her laity read her own hook, they may troiihle themselves very little about others. Nay, should a Roman Catholic clergyman, as is often the case, be unable to devote more than an hd^ir and a half a day, to reading; his church places him under the necessity of deriving his whole knowledge from the Breviary. Precious, indeed, must be the contents of that privileged volume, if we trust the authority which so decidedly enforces its perusal. There was a time when I knew it by heart; but long neglect of that store of knowledge, had lately left but faint traces of the most exquisite passages con- tained therein. The present occasion, however, has forced me to take my old task-book in hand; and it shall now be my endeavour to arrange and condense the copious extracts made in my last revision. The office of the Roman Catholic church was originally so contrived as to divide the Psaltery between the seven days of the week. Portions of the Old Scriptures were also read alternately with extracts from the legends of the saints, and the 166 works of the fathers. But as the calendar be- came crowded with saints, whose festivals take precedence of the regular church service; little room is left for any thing but a few psalms, which are constantly repeated, a very small part of the Old Testament, and mere fragments of the Gospels and Epistles. The great and never-end- ing variety consists in the compendious lives of the saints, of which I will here give some speci- mens. In the first place, I shall speak of the early martyrs, the spurious records of whose sufferings have been made to contribute most copiously to the composition of the Breviary. The variety and ingenuity of the tortures described, are only equalled by the innumerable miracles which baffled the tyrants, whenever they attempted to injure the Christians by any method but cutting their throats. Houses were set on fire to burn the martyrs within; but the Breviary informs us that the flames raged for a whole day and a night without molesting them. Often do we hear of idols tumbling from their pedestals at the approach of the persecuted Christians; and even the judges themselves dropt dead when they attempted to 167 pass sentence. The wild beasts seldom devour a martyr without prostrating themselves before him; and lions follow young virgins to protect them from insult. The sea refuses to drown those who are committed to its waters; and when com- pelled to do that odious service, the waves general- ly convey the dead bodies where the Christians may preserve them as relics. On one occasion a pope is thrown into the Lake Moeotis, with an anchor which the cautious infidels had tied round his neck, for fear of the usual miraculous floating: the plan succeeded, and the pope was drowned. But the sea was soon after observed to recede three miles from the shore, where a temple appear- ed, in which the body of the martyr had been pro- vided with a marble sarcophagus. =^ * "Clemens.. ..a Trajano imperatore releg*atus est trans Mare Ponticum in solitudinem urbis Chersonx, in qua duo millia Christianorura reperit. .qui cum in eruendis et secandis marmoribus aquae penuria laborarent, Clemens facta orationei in vicinum collem ascendit; in cujus jugo vidit Agnum dextro pede fontem aquae dulcls, qui inde scaturiebat attingentem, ubi omnes sitim expleverunt; eoque miraculo multi infideles ad Christi fidem conversi, dementis etiam sanctitatem vene- rare coeperunt: quibus concitatus Trajanus, misit illuc qui Clementem, alligata ad ejus collum anchora, in profundum de- jicerent, Quod cum factum esset, Chfistianis ad littus 168 There is a good deal of romantic interest in the history of Cyprian and Justina. The former be- ing a heathen majician, who to that detestable art joined a still more infamous occupation; engaged to put a young man in possession of Justina, a Christian virgin. For this purpose he employed the most potent incantations, till the devil was forced to confess that he had no power over Chris- tians. Upon this, Cypi^an very sensibly conclu- ded, that it w as better to be a Christian than a sorcerer. The readers of romance may, after this, expect every sort of incident except a mar- riage, which none but inferior saints ever con- tract; and from which all must extricate them- selves before they can be in a fair way of obtain- ing a place in the calender. Cyprian and Justina being accused before the Roman judge, are, Jiowever, fried together, in a caldron of melted *^pitch, fat, and wax,'' from which they come out quite able to be carried to Nicomedia, where they are put to death by the almost infallible orantibus, mare ad tria milliaria recessit; eoque illi acce- dentes, acdiculam marmoream in templi formam, etintusarcam lapideam, ubi Marty ris corpus conditum erat, et, juxta illud, anchoram qua mersus fuerat, invenerunt," 169 means of the sword or the axe. I say almost^ because I find an instance where even this method had nearly disappointed the persecutors. That happened in the case of St. Cecilia. This saint, of musical celebrity, having been forced to marry a certain Valerius, cautioned most earnestly her bridegroom to avert from himself the vengeance of an angel who had the charge of her purity. The good-natured Valerius agreed to forego his rights, provided he was allowed to see his heaven- ly rival; and for this purpose submitted to be bap- tized. After the ceremony the angel showed himself to Valerius, and subsequently to a brother of his, who had been let into the secret. This JDecilia is the martyr on whom, as I mention- ed before, a whole house flaming about her for a natural day, had not the smallest effect. Even when the axe was employed, the lictor exerted his strength in vain on the delicate neck of his victim,, which being but half divided, yet allowed her miraculously to live for three days more, at the end of which she faii'ly died.^ * "Cyprianus primum magus, postea martyr cum Justinam Christianum virginem, quam juvenis quidem ardenter amabat, cantionibus ac veneficiis add ejus libidinis assensum allicere CDnaretur, dsemonem consuluit, quanam id re consequi posset* 170 After the romantic miracles of the early mar- tyrs, I have to mention the stories by which the Cui daemon respondit, nullam illi artem processuram adversus eos, qui vere Christum colerent. Quo response conmotus Cy- prianus, vehementer dolere coepit vitae superioris institutura. Itaque relictis mag-icis artibus, se totum ad C:hristi domini fidem convertit. Quam ob causam una cum virgine Justina comprehensus est, et ambo colaphis flagellisque caesi, moxin carcerem conjecti in sartaginem plenam ferventis picis, adipis et cerx injecti sunt. Demum Nicomediae securi feri- untur. "Caecilia virgo Romana, nobili genere nata, a prima setate Christians fidei praeceptis instituta, virginitatem suam Deo vovit. Sed cum postea contra suam voluntatem data esset in matrimonium Valeriano, prima nuptiarum nocte hunc cum eo sermonem habuit: Ego Valeriana, in Angeli tutela sum, qui virginitatem meum custodit: quare ne quid in me committas, quo ira Dei in te concitetur. Quibus verbis commotus Valerianus, illam attingere non est ausus: quin etiam addidit, se in Christum crediturum, si eum Angelum videret. Cui* Caecilia cum sine baptismo negaret id fieri posse, incensus cupiditate videndi Angelum, se baptizari velle respondet..., (Baptizatus, et) ad Caeciliam re versus, orantem et cum ea Angelum divino splendore fulgentem, invenit. Quoaspectu obstupefactus, ut primum ex timore confirmatus est, Tibur- tium f'ratrem suum accersit qui a Caecilia Christi fide imbutus ipse etiam ejusdem Angeli quern frater ejus viderat, as- pectu dignatus est. Uterque autem paulo post Almachi* Prxfecto, constant er martyrium subit. Qui mox Caeciliam comprehendi imperat....eamque in ipsius aedes reductam, in balneo comhuvijussit. Quo in loco cum diem noctemque it* fuisset, ut ne flamma quidem illam attingeret; eo immissus est carnifex, qui ter securi ictam, cum caput abscLndere noa potuisset, semivivatn reliquit> &c» &c/* 171 Bre^'iary endeavours to support the extravagant veneration for the Popes and their see, which at all times has been the leading aim of the Ro- man court. The most notorious forgeries are, for this purpose, sanctioned and consecrated in her Prayer-book. That these legends are often given in the words of those whom the church of Rome cMsfatherSy shows the weakness both of the Popish structure, and of the props that support it. We thus find the fable about the contest be- tween St. Peter and Simon Magus, before Nero, gravely repeated in the words of St. Maximus. ^*The holy apostles (Peter and Paul) lost their lives, he says, because, among other miracles, they also, by their prayers, precipitated Simon from the vacuity of the air. For Simon calling himself Christ, and engaging to ascend to the Father, was suddenly raised in flight, by means of his majic art. At this moment Peter, bend- ing his knees, prayed to the Lord, and by his holy prayer defeated the magician^s lightness; for the prayer reached the Lord sooner than the flight,' the right petition outstripped the unjust presumption. Peter, on earth, obtained what he asked, much before Simon could reach the hea- irs iFens to which he was making his way. Peter, therefore, brought down his rival from the air as if he had held him by a rope, and dashing him against a stone, in a precipice, broke his legs : doing this in scorn of the fact itself, so that he who but a moment before, had attempted to fly, should not now be able to walk; and having affect- ed wings,* should want the use of his heels. ''^ The use which the Breviary makes of the forged epistles of the early Popes, known by the name of false Decretals, is frequently obvious to those who are acquainted with both. As these * "Hodierna ig-itur die beati Apostoli sanguinem profude- runt. Sed videamus causam quare ista perpessi sunt; scilicet, quod inter cetera mirabilia etiam magum ilium SimoneA orationibus suis de aeris vacuo praecipiti ruina prostraverunt* Cum enim idem Simon se Christum dicerit, et tanquamfilium ad patrem assereret volando se posse conscendere, atque ela- tus subito magicis artibus volare coepisset; tunc Petrus fixis genibus precatus est Dominum, et precatione sancta vicit magicam levitatem. Prior enim ascendit ad Dominum oratio quam volatus; et ante pervenit justa petitio, quam iniqua prsc- sumptio: ante Petrus in terris positus obtinuit quod petebat, quam Simon perveniret in coelestibus, quo tendebat. Tunc igitur Petrus velut vinctum ilium de sublimi acre deposuit, et quodam prxcipitio in saxo elidens, ejus crura confregit; et hoc in opprobrio facti illius, ut qui paulo ante volare ten- taverat, subito ambulare non posset; et qui pennas assump» serat, plantas amitteret.'* Septima die infra Octavam S?i Apost. Petri et Pauli. 173 Decretals were forged about the eighth century, with a view to magnify the power of the Roman see, nothing in their contents is more prominent than that object. The Breviary, therefore, never omits an opportunity ofestablishing the Papal su- premacy by tacit reference to these spurious docu- ments. Yet as this would have but a slight effect upon the mass of the faithful, a more pic- turesque story is related in the life of Pope SU John. His Holiness being on a journey to Corinth^ and in want of a quiet and comfortable horse^ borrowed one, which the lady of a certain noble- man used to ride. The animal carried the Pope with the greatest ease and docility: and, when the journey was over, was returned to his mis- tress,- but in vain did she attempt to enjoy the accustomed services of her favourite. The horse had become fierce, and gave the lady many an unseemly fall: ^^as if (says the authorized record) feeling indignant at having to carry a woman, since the Vicar of Christ had been on his back.^^=^ * **Cum ei nob ills vir ad Corinthunn, equum, quo ejus uxor mansueto utebatur, itineris causa commodasset; factum est u^ Domino postea remissus equus ita ferox evaderet, ut fpe» N £ 174 The horse was accordingly presented to the Pope,, as unfit to be ridden by a less dignified person- age. The standing miracles of the city of Rome; those miraculous relics which even at this moment are drawing crowds of pilgrims within its walls, and which, in former times, made the whole of Europe support the idleness of the Romans at the expense of their devout curiosity; are not over- looked in the Prayer-book of her church. Let me mention the account it gives of St. Peter's chains, such as they are now venerated at Rome. Eu- doxia, the wife of Theodosius the younger, being mitu, et totius corporis agitatlone, semper deinceps dominam expulerit: tanquam indignaretur mulieretn recipere ex quo sedisset in eo Christi vicarius.'* Brev. Rom. die 27 Maii. The Breviaiy, true to its plan of giving the substance of every story that ever sprang from the fertile imagination of the idle monks, concludes the life by stating the vision of a certain hermit, who saw the soul of Theodoric the Goth; carried to hell by Pope John and Symmachus, through one >of the volcanos of the Lipari Islands. "Paulo post moritur Theodoricus: quem quidam eremita, ut scribit Sanctus Gregorius, vidit inter Joannem Pontificem, et Symmachum Patricium, quem idem occiderat, demergi in igTiem Liparita" num." — This legend (says Gibbon) is related by Gregory I. and approved by Baronius; and both the Pope and Cardinal are grave doctors, sufficient to establish a probable opinion.** Chap, xxxix. Note 108. 175 on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, received as a pre* sent the chain with which St. Peter was bound in prison, when he was liberated by an angel. This chain, set with jewels, was forwai*ded by the pious empress to her daughter, then at Rome. The young princess, rejoiced with the gift, showed the chain to the Pope, who repaid the compli- ment by exhibiting another chain, which the holy apostle had borne under Nero. As, to compare their structure, the two chains were brought into contact, the links at the extremities of each joined together, and the two pieces became one uniform chain. =^ After these samples, no one will be surprised to find in the same authorized record, all the other supposed miracles which, in different parts of Italy, move daily the enlightened traveller to laughter or disgust. The translation of the house of Loretto from Palestine to the Papal States, is • "Cum igitur Pontifex Romanam catenam cum ea, quae lerosolymis allata fuerat, contulisset, factum est, ut illae inter se sic connecterentur ut non dux sed una catena ab eodem artifice confecta, esse videretur.*' In Festo St. Petri ad Vincula. The present Pope mentions this chain as one of the inducements for the faithful to visit Rome this year of Jubilee. See the translation of the Proclamation, Note L, 176 asserted in the collect for that festival; which be- ing a direct address to the Deity, cannot he sup^ posed to have been carelessly compiled.^ The two removals of that house by the hands of an- gels, first to the coast of Dalmatia, and thence, over the Adriatic, to the opposite shore, are gravely related in the Lessons; where the mem- bers of the Roman Catholic church are reminded that the identity of the house is warranted by papal bulls, and a proper mass and service pub- lished by the same authority for the annual com- memoration of that event. * "Deus, qui beatse MaricC Virginls domum per incarnati Verbi mysterium misericorditer consecrasti, eamque in sinu ecclesia tuse mlrabiliter collocastl,*'' &c. &c. The account of the pretended miraculous conveyance of the house by the hands of the ang-els is given in the lessons: "Ipsius autem Tirginis natalis domus divinis mysteriis consecrata, Angelo- rum ministerio ab Infidelium potestate, in Dalmatiam prius, deinde in Agrum Lauretanum Picenae Provincise translata fuit, sedente sancto Coelestino quinto: eandemque ipsam esse in qua Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis, turn Pontificis diplomatibus, et celeberrima totius Orbis venera- tione, turn continua miraculorum virtute, et coelestium bene- ficiorum gratia, comprobatur. Quibus permotus Innocentius Duodecimus, quo ferventius erga Matris amantissimae cultum Fidelium memoria excitaretur, ejusdem Sanctae Domus Translationem anniversaria solemnitate in totaPiceni Provin- cia veneratam, Missa etiam et Officio proprio celebrari prx- cepit/* It is rather curious to observe the difference in the assertion of Italian and of French miracles: the unhesitating confidence with which the for- mer are stated, the hypercritical jealousy which appears in the narrative of the latter. The walk of St. Dionysius, with his own head in his hands, from Paris to the site of the present abbey of St. ^ Denis, is given only as a credible report. ^'De quo illud memoriae proditum esty abscissum suum caput sustulisse, et progressum ad duo millia passuum in manibus gestasse.^^^^ The French, indeed, with their liberties of the Gallican church, have never been favourites at Rome; but all is certainty in the accounts of Italian worthies.-— Witness the renowned St. Januarius, whose e^x- traordinary miracles, both during his life under Diocletian, and in our own days, are stated with equal confidence and precision. The Saint, we are told, being thrown into a burning furnace, came out so perfectly unhurt, that not even his • The Breviary, however, does not betray such hesitation as to the works of the said Dionysius, the Areopagite — the most barefaced forgery which ever was foisted on the credu- lity of the world. Libros scripsit admirabiles, ac plane coeleS' tes^ de divinis nominibus, de calesti et Ecclesiastica Hierarchia^ de mystica Theologian et alios quosdam. 179 clotlies or hair were singed. The next day all the wild beasts in the amphitheatre came crouch- ing to his feet. I pass over the other ancient performances of Januariiis, to show the style in which his wonderful works, after death, are giv- en. His body, for instance, on one occasion, ex- tinguished the flames of Vesuvius.^ This is no miracle upon vague report, but one which, ac- cording to the Breviary, deserves a peculiar re- membrance. Next comes that ^^noble miracle'' — prsedarum ilhid — ^the liquefaction of Januarius's blood, which takes place every year at Naples. The usual state of the blood, as a coagulated mass, and its change into a bubbling fluid, are circumstantially described, as might be expected, from historians, who convey the most minute in- * "In ardentem fomacem conjectus ita illaesus evasit ut nc Testimentum aiit capillum quidem flamma violaverit. (Ferse) Naturalis feritatis oblitae, ad Januarii pedes se prostravere. — In primis memorandum quod erampentes olim e monte Vesuvio flammarum g-lobos, nee vicinis modo, sed long'mquis etiam regionibus vastitatis metum afferentes, extinxit. — Praeclarum illud quoque, quod ejus sang-uis, qui in ampulla vitrea concretusasservatur, cum in conspeclu capitis ejusdem martyris ponitur, admirandum in modum colliquefieri, et ebullire, perinde atque recens effusus, ad haec usque tempo- ra cernitur." i79 formation, even about the clothes and hair of a martyr that died fifteen hundred years ago. The liquefaction, indeed, with all its circumstances, they must have witnessed themselves, or derived their information concerning it from thousands of Neapolitan witnesses. And here let me observe by the w ay, the ex- traordinary liberality of his church upon these points, which Mr. Butler sets forth to the admi- ration of the world. ^^A person," he tells us, ^^may disbelieve every other miracle (except those which are related in the Old or the New Testa- ment,) and may even disbelieve the existence of the persons through w hose intercession they are related to have been wrought, w ithout ceasing ta be a Roman Catholic.''* We must, however, exempt from this very ample privilege those whd thus solemnly publish the miracles themselves, or their honesty would certainly be placed in a strange predicament. Still, by a stronger rea- son, we must suppose them perfectly convinced of the reality of that annual wonder, which for ages has been repeated under their eyes. How , then, • Book of the Roman Catholic Church, p. 4^ 180 can they be so insensible to the forlorn condition of heretics and unbelievers, as not to allow a close inspection of that undeniable proof of the Roman C atholic faith ? The present Pope invites us to see the manger where the infant Saviour lay at Bethlehem. Would it not be more charitable to allow one of our chemists to view the blood of St. Januarius, and observe its change — not sur- rounded by priests, candles, and the smoke of frankincense, — and thus convert us all at one stroke? The world is full of Roman Catholic miracles, in the incorrupt bodies of saints, which lie on the altars, inclosed in gold and silver cases. I have often performed high mass before that of St. Ferdinand, which is preserved in the royal chapel at Seville; and, though a member of the chapter to whose charge the Spanish kings have intrust- ed their holy ancestor, I could never obtain a dis- tinct view of the body, which the church of Rome declares to be incorrupt.^ On certain days the front of a massive silver sarcophagus is removed, * "Jacet ejus corpus incorruptum adhuc post quatuor saecu* la in templo maximo Hispalensi, honorificentissimo inclusum sepulchro.** Breviarum Rom. in festo Sancti Ferdinandi. 181 when a gold and glass chest is seen, containing something like a man covered with splendid robes. But the multitude of candles on the altar, and the want of light from behind, prevent a distinct view of the objects within- Once, when the mul- titude was thronging the chapel, a lady of high rank, who had applied to me for a closer view than was allowed to the crowd, was furnished with a stool to stand upon a level with the body. To gratify at once her and my own curiosity, I took a candle from the altar, and endeavoured to counteract the reflection of the glass, by throwing in the light obliquely. One of our inferior cler- gy, the sacristan, whose duty it was to stand near the saint in his surplice, seeing what I was about, snatched the candle from my hand, with a rudeness which nothing but his half roguish, half holy zeal, could have prompted. He pretended to be alarmed for the pane of glass; but I more than suspect that he knew the incorruptibility of the saint could not bear inspection. The head^ which I distinctly saw, was a mere skull, with something like painted parchment holding up the lewer jaw. A similar covering seems to have O 183 been laid on the right foot, which projects out of the royal robes. When the greatest miracle of Christianity, the resurrection of Christ, was performed for the con- version of men to the gospel, the Saviour himself offered the marks of his wounds to the close in- spection of a doubting disciple. The church of Rome follows a different plan in the use of the multiplied miracles of which she boasts. She has no compassion for men who w ill credit only theii' sight and touch. Historical miracles are safe from this ti'ouble- some curiosity; and to these I must return after my digression. Let us take a few specimens from those of the early ages of monachism. Among these hardly any narrative will be found more curious than that which the Breviary copies from Saint Jerome, as a record of the life of Paul, the first Hermit. Paul, we are told, retired to a cave in the desert parts of the Thebais, where he lived from early youth to the age of one hundred and ten. Being near his death, Anthony, another Egyptian Anchorite, paid him a visit by a super- natural command from heaven. Their nameg being, in the same manner, revealed to each other, 183 rhey met, for the first time, with the familiarity of old acquaintance. W'hile they were talking ahout spiritual matters, a raven dropped a loaf of bread at the feet of Paul. ^ ^Thanks be to heaven," exclaimed the father of hermits; ^^it is now sixty years since I received half a loaf daily in this manner: to-day my allowance has been doubled.*^ On the morrow Paul requested his friend Anthony to return for a cloak, which, having belonged to Saint Athanasius, he wished to have as his wind- ing-sheets Anthony was combig back with the cloak, when he saw the soul of Paul going up into heaven surrounded by the holy company of the prophets and apostles. In the cave he found the corpse with crossed legs, erected head, and the arms raised above it. He was, however, at a loss how to dig a grave, being also an old man of ninety, and having no spade or any instrument of that kind. In this distress he saw two lions hurrying towards him from the interior of the desert. The lions, in the best manner they could, gave him to understand that they meant him no harm, but, on the contrary, were much affected by the death of Paul. They then set to work with their claws, and having made a hole of suf- 184- iicient size to contain the dead body, quietly and decently retired to their fastnesses. Anthony took possession of PauPs coat, which was made of palm leaves like a basket, and wore it regularly as a holiday-dress on Easter and Whitsunday. =^ The life of Saint Benedict, the great propagator of monastic life in the sixth century, has fur- nished the Breviary with several curious miracles. One of the first among the wonders he wrought, does not give a favourable idea of the character of religious associations at that period. Saint Bene- dict, having undertaken the government of a cer- tain monastery, where he wished to introduce a * "Cumque ad ejus cellani pervenisset, invenit genibus complicatis, erecta cervice, extensisque in altum manibus, corpus exanime: quod pallio obvolvens, hymnosque et psalmos ex Christiana traditionedecantans, cum sarculum, quo terrain foderet non haberet, duo leones ex interiore eremo, rapido cursu ad beati senis corpus ferunter: ut facile intellig-eretur, cos, quo modo poterant, ploratum edere; qui certatim terram pedibus efFodientes, foveam, quae hominem commode caperet, effecerunt. Qui cum abiissent, Antonius sanctum corpus in eum locum intulit: et injecta humo, tumulum ex Christiano more composuit; tunicam vero Pauli, quam in sportae modum ex palmx foliis ille sibicontexuerat secum auferens, eo vestitu diebus solemnibus Paschae et Pentecostes, quoad vixit, usus est," Die xv. Januarii.— I give the original words only far the passages which might appear exaggerated in my own descriptions. 185 moi'e severe discipline than the innuites were dis- posed to follow, had a poisoned cup presented by the monks. He would have fallen a victim to their wickedness but for the habit of making tlie sign of the cross overevery thing he eat or drank. The sign was no sooner made than the cup burst into pieces and spilt the deadly contents on the table. Saint Benedict is inseparably coupled in my re- collection with his sister, Saint Scholastica, who had the gift of working a peculiar kind of lights playful miracles, which our neighbours, tlie French, would probably denominate mirades de famille. By one of these, the holy nun Scholasti- ca, who paid a yearly visit to her brother in an outhouse of his monastery, wishing to keep him a whole night in conversationp|fcd not being able to persuade him, forced him to break the rule which bound him to sleep in his cell. The manner of carrying her point was simple enough. On hear- ing a positive refusal, she crossed her hands, laid them upon the table, then reclined her head upon them, and wept profusely. Her tears disturbed the state of the atmosphere, which, at that moment, was beautiful; and a violent storm of thunder and 2 186 min instantly ensued. In a few minutes the rivers overflowed their banks, and the whole country around was like a sea. Benedict, who was fa- miliar with miracles, could not mistake the cause of the storm, and goodnaturedly reproached his sister. ^^What could I do?'^ said she with a saintly archness, of which none but readers of Ihe Breviary could ever suspect the existence: ^'I entreated you, and was refused; I therefore asked my God, and he beared me. Now, brother, go if you can: leave me and run away to your monastery." This playfulness is the more sur- prising as the good lady Scholastica had then a certainty of her approaching death. Benedict saw her soul, in the shape of a dove, wing up her way to heaven only three days after this miracle. — The instructive flfcsons in which this is related eome from no vulgar pen. They are portions of the Dialogues of Pope Gregory the Grmt^ ♦ Scholastica, venerabilis Patris Benedict! soror,....ad eum semel per annum venire consueverat: ad quam vir Dei non longe extra januam in possessione monasterii descendebat, Quadam vero die venit ex more, atque ad earn cum discipulis, venerabilis ejus descendit frater, qui totum diem in Dei lau* dibus, sanctisque colloquiis ducentes, incumbentibus jam noc-! ti% tenebris, simul acceperunt clbum. Cumque adhuc ad 187 No one, however, who observes the profusion of wonders recorded in the Breviary, can be sur- mensam sederent, et inter sacra colloquia tardior se hora pro* traheret, eadem sanctimonialis faemina soror ejus eum rogavit, dicens: "Quxso te, ut ista nocte me non deseras, ut usque mane de cxlestis vitae gaudiis loquamur." Gui ille respon- dit: "Quid est quod loqueris, sororp manere extra cellam nullatenus possum." Tanta vero erat coeli serenitas, ut nulla in acre nubes appareret. Sanctimonialis autem faemina, cum verba fratris negantis audivisset, insertas digitis manus super mensam posuit; et caput in manibus, omnipotentem Dominum rogatura, declinavit. Cumqiie levaret de mensa caput, tanta oorruscationis et tonitrui virtus, tantaqce inundatio pluvise erupit, ut neque venerabilis Benedictus, neque fratres qui cum 60 aderant, extra loci limen, quo consederant, pedem movere potuerint. Sanctimonialis quippe faemina camit in manibus declinans, lacrymarum fluvium in mensam fuderat, per quas serenitatem aeris ad pluviam traxit. Nee paulo tardius post orationem inundatio ilia secuta est: sed tanta fuit convenien- tia orationis, et inundationis, ut de mensa caput jam cum tonitru levaret: quatenus unum idemque esset momentum, et l€^tfkie caput, et pluviam deponere. Tunc vir Dei, inter corruscos, et tonitruos, atque ingentis pluviac inundationem, videns se ad monasterium non posse remeare, coepit conqueri contristatus dicens: "Parcat tibi omnipotens Deus, soror, quid est quod fecisti?*' Cui ilia respondit; "Ecce rogavi te, etaudire me noluisti; rogavi Dominum meum, et audivit me: modo ergo, si potes, egredere, et me dimissa ad monasteri- um recede," &c. Dei 10 Februarii. The collect for the feast of Scholastica is both a specimen of the assurance with which the church of Rome circulates her legends, and of her tenets concerning the intercession of gaints. "Deus, qui animam beats Virginis tuae Scholastics 188 prised at these sportful displays of supernatural power. There is scarcely a saint who has not been honoured by miracles, which I would call ornamental. Celestial meteors have generally shone over the houses vdiere a future saint w as born, and the bells have rung of their own accord on the infant's coming to light:^ swarms of beas settled on their mouths, and even built a honey- comb in their hands, while lying in the cradle, f A baby saint had her face changed into a rose immediately after birth, that she might be called after that flower. :|: An angel in a bishop's robes, appeared ujpon the baptismal font, w here a future prelate was to be baptized. § The mothers of these extraordinary beings seldom were without ad ostendendam innocentiae viaro, in columbac specie coelum penetrare fecisti, da nobis, ejus mentis et precibus, itai|g|^en« ter vivere, ut ad aeternamereamur gaudia pervenire.*^^hi9 IS almost an invariable form of words in the Roman Catholic collects. * St, John a Deo; St. Peter Celestinus, and many others. t St. Ambrose, St. Peter Nolascus, St. Isidore, and many others. ± St. Rose a Sancta Maria. — "Vultus infantis, mirabiliter in ros?e effigiem transfiguratus, huic nomini occasionem de- dit." Die 30 Augusti. § St Julian of Caenca. 189 prophetic dreams during the time of gestation.'^ Some saints performed miracles while yet in the womb; and it is asserted of St. Bridget that, in that invisible state, she saved her mother from shipwreck, f These holy children have not un- frequently spoken when scarcely five months oldj though the object of their speeches was seldom so important as that of St. Philip Beniti, when, at that age, he chid his mother for sending some begging monks empty from her door.ij: Nor was this wonder exhibited only in the embryo-saints; common every-day babes have often spoken, to discover the hiding-places of that nearly extinct generation of men, whom an impending mitre drove with affright into the fastnesses of deserts. St. Andrew Avellini, for instance, could not have been consecrated Bishop of Fiesole, unless he had been actually betrayed by the voice of an infant. § The apostles, who had received the power of * See the life of St. Andrew Avellini, and others passim. f " Cum adhuc in utero gestaretur, e naufragio, propter cam, mater erepta est.'* t ** Vix enim quintum setatis mensem ingressus, linguam in voces mirifice solvit, hortatusque fuit matrem, ut Deiparie servis eleemosynam impertiret." Die 23 Augusti. ^ " Pueri voce mirab^iter loquentis proditus." 190 ^vo^king miracles from Christ himself, for the great object of establishing his religion, appear to have been very limited in the use of their su- pernatural gifts; and never to have controlled the order of nature, except under the influence of that supernatural impulse, that unhesitating faith, which being in itself a miracle, was, in the strong and figiu'ative language of their divine Master, said to be able to move mountains. It is far otherwise with the wonder-workers of the Brevi- ary. While these modern saints lived on earth, nature suffered a daily interruption of her laws, and that often for their own personal convenience. With the exception of St. Paul's preservation from the bite of the viper, we do not find miracu- lous interpositions in his favour. Indeed the ac- count he gives of the hardships, dangers, and nar- row escapes during his ministry, shows that mi- racles were not wl'ought for his comfort. Mo- dern saints are more fortunate: Frances, a Ro- man widow, who enjoyed the familiar view and conversation of her guardian angel, once multi- plied a few crusts of bread, so as to afford a sub- stantial meal to fifteen nuns, and fill up a basket with the fragments. On another occasion she 191 allayed their thirst with a bunch of miraculous grapes; and more than once was preserved by su- pernatural influence, from the inconvenience of getting wet in the rain, or even from the sti^am of a river. ^ St. Andrew Avellini, retiring home in a storm, was equally preserved from the effects of rain. The benefit of this miracle was not only extended to his companions, but the whole com- pany had the advantage of seeing their way in a pitch-dark night, by the radiancy of the saint'g person, f These phosphoric appearances, as well as a * " Deus, qui beatam Franciscam famulam tuam, inter C2e* tera gratiae tuse dona, familiari ang"eli consuetudine decoras- ti," &c. Collect. " Non semel aquae, vel e coelo labentes, intactam prorsus, dum Deo vacaret reliquerunt. Modica panis frag-menta, qua vix tribus sororibus reficiendis fuissent satis, sic ejus preci- bus Dominus multiplicavit, ut quindecim inde exsaturatis, tantutn superfuerit, ut canislrum impleverit: et aliquando earumdem sororum extra urbem, mense Januario ligna pa- rantium, sitim, recentis uvae racemis ex vite in arbore pen- dentibus mirabiliter obtentis, abunde expleverit," Die 9 IMartis. f "Cum enim intempesta nocte ab audita segri confessione domum rediret, ac pluviae ventorumque vis praelucentem fa- cem extinxisset, non solum ipse, cum sociis, inter effusissi- mos irabres nihil madefactus est, verum etiam inusitato splen- dore, e suo corpore mirabiliter emicante, sociis inter densis- simas teaebras iter monsti-avit." Die 10 Novembris. 19% supernatural tendency to fly upwards, ai^ so com-* mon among saints of the last four or five centu- ries, that it would he tedious to mention indivi- dual instances. St. Peter of Alcantara, a saint very remarkable for antigravitating qualities, =* exhibited a very curious phenomenon in another storm. A tremendous fall of snow came on as he was returning at night to the convent. Dis- tressed for shelter, he entered a building, the most unfit for the occasion, as it wanted a roof to stop the snow. But the walls which still remained saved half the trouble to the miraculous agent em- ployed on this occasion. The snow congealed in- to a solid roof, and completed the building in which Peter passed the night, f The cooling properties of this structure must have been highly welcome to a man, whose charity (I relate what I find in the Breviary) so used to raise the temperature of his blood, that it obliged him to break out from his cell and run distracted into the fields. :}: * ^* In aera frequenter sublatus, miro fulgore corruscare visus est." ■j- " Cum noctu iter ageret, densa nive cadente, dirutam domum sine tecto ingressus est, eique nix in acre pendula pro tecto fuit, ne illius copia suffocaretur.** ^ " Charitas Dei et proximi in ejus corde diffusa, tantum quandoque excitabat incendium, ut e celiac augustiis m aper- ■* 198 The repetition of miracles is a mattei^ of some curiosity, as it might be expected that powers which baffle the laws of nature, would display an inexhaustible variety. Yet we find the earliest miracles repeated, and many occur regularly in the life of every saint. Of the latter kind are the luminous appearance of their faces; the mul- tiplication or creation of food; living without sus- tenance; conversing with angels; emitting sweet effluvia from their dead bodies. More peculiar displays of supernatural interference appear, sometimes, at distant periods. St. Gregory, the wonder-worker of the fourth century, fixed his staff in the ground, and it instantly grew up into a tree which stopt the floods of the river Lycus. The lately mentioned Peter of Alcantara made also his staff grow into a fig tree, which the friars of his order have propagated by cuts, in every turn campum prosilire, aerisque refrigerio conceptum ardo- rem temperare cogeretur." — Another physical effect of chari- ty is recorded in the life of St. Philip Neri, whose chest be- ing too confined for the expansive ardour of that virtue, was miraculously enlarged by the fracture of two ribs. — "Chari- tate Dei vulneratus, languebat jugiter; tantoque cor ejus sestuabat ardore, ut cum inter fines suos contineri non posset, illius sinum, confractis atque elatis duabus CDStulis, mirabili- ter Dominus ampliaverit." Die 26 Mail. 194 part of Spain. This happened only in the six- teenth century, A raven provided Paul the her- mit with hread: a wild doe presented herself dai- ly to be milked by St. iEgidius. St. Eustachius, a martyr, said to have been a general under Tra- jan, was converted by seeing, in the chase, a stag bearing a crucifix between his antlers. St John of Matha founded the order of the Trini- ty, in consequence of seeing a similar animal with a tri-colour cross in the same position. — There are also certain miraculous feats, for which saints have shown a peculiar fondness. Three navigations on a mantle are recorded in the Breviary. St. Francis de Paula crossed the strait of Sicily on his own cloak, taking another monk as a passenger. St. Raymond de Penna- fort sailed in the same manner, from Majorca to Barcelona. St. Hyacinth, a Pole, though only a fresh water sailor, deserves no less credit for the management of his cloth vessel across the flooded Vistula, notwithstanding a heavy carga of monks. "^ • St. Francis de Paula. "Multis tniraculis servi sui sancti- tatem Deus testari volait, quorum illud in primis celebre, quod a nautis rejectus, Sicilise fretum, strato super fluctibus pallio, cum socio transmisit.'* Die 2 Aprili. 195 The mention of a Polish saint reminds me^ however, of a miracle performed by St. Stanis- laus, bishop of Cracow, which is not likely to have been often repeated. Stanislaus was on the point of being deprived of some lands, which he had purchased for his church. He could not show the title deeds; and the person to whom they formerly belonged, had been dead three years.— The king being a decided enemy of the bishop, no witness would come forward in his favour. — The diet of Poland was on the point of punishing Stanislaus for his supposed fraud^ when, to the no small amusement of the noblemen present, he engaged, within three days, to present the late possessor of the estate. On the third the saint called the dead man out of the grave. Peter (that was his name) rose without delay, and fol- lowed the bishop to the diet; where having duly St. Raymond de Pennafort. "Multa patravit miraculaj inter quae illud clarissimum, quod ex insula Baleari Majori Barcinonem reversurus, strato super aquas pallio, centum sexaginta milliaria sex horis confecerit; et suum coenobium januis clausis fuerit ingressus." Die 23 Januarii. St. Hyacinth. "Vandalum fluvium prope Visogradum aquis redundantem, nullo navigio usus trajecit, sociis quoque expanso super undas pallio, traductis." Die 16j(Augusti, 196 given his deposition in support of the bishop's right, he begged to be allowed to die again. ^ — The king was, however, too hardened to profit by this great miracle; and being enraged at the sentence of excommunication which the bishop soon after fulminated against him; killed him with his own hand, and ordered his body to be quartered and scattered about the fields. The wild beasts would have made a repast on the holy relics, but for the watchfulness of some eagles, which never allowed any one to touch them, till the canons of Cracow, led by the light thrown out by the scattered limbs, collected them the ensuing night. The different parts of the body^ when properly adjusted together, united as close- ly as kindred drops, and not a mark was left of the effects of the knife, f * "Spondet episcopus se Petrum, pagi venditorem, qui triennio ante obierat, intra dies tresin judicium adducturum. Conditione cum risu accepta, vir Dei . . . ipso sponsionis die, post oblatum Missae sacrificium, Petrum e sepulchro surgere jubet, qui statim redivivus, episcopum ad regium tribunal euntem sequitur, ibique rege, et caeteris stupore attonitis, de argo a se vendito, et pretio rite sibi ab episcopo persoluto testimonium dicit, atque iterum in Domino obdormivit." f "Corpus membratim concisum, et per agros projectum, aquilac a feris mirabiliter defendunt. Mox Canonici Cra- 197 Novel and singular as the history of Stanislaus appears, I have a suspicion that another dead witness has somewhere else, appeared before a court of justice; but I defy hagiography to match the miracles I am going to relate from the life of a Spanish saint recorded in the Breviary. St. Peter Armengaud, of the family of the counts of Urgel, had entered the Order of Mercy, and made some visits to Barbary for the libera- tion of Christian captives. The money collect- ed for that purpose being exhausted before he could ransom some boys, whose faith appeared to be wavering: he sent them away with his com- panion, and remained as a hostage for the full amount of the debt. Charity like this, exerted by a free choice, and without the dangerous and oppressive system of religious vows, would be worth all the miracles of the Breviary* But the marvellous is a necessary element in every saint's life; and the good friars of the Mercy, have mixed it here in a rather undue proportion* Goviences sparsa membra, nocturni de coelo splendorls Indi- cio colligunt, et suis locis apte disponunt, quae subito ita inter se copulata sunt, ut nulla vulnerum vestigia extarent." Die 7 Maii. P 2 198 Peter waited for his companion with a very natural anxiety; but the expected money did not come on the appointed day, and the barbarians settled the account by hanging their hostage. — Great indeed was the distress of Father William, on learning the sad consequences of his delay: yet the body of a martyr was worth having, and he insisted upon carrying it back to Spain. The Moors had no objection to part with it, and willingly led the monk to the place where Peter was still hanging by the neck. Three days in that posture would have closed a wind-pipe of brass; but Peter^s was sufficiently free to address his religious brother, as soon as he saw him within hearing. The Virgin Mary, he informed him, had, since his execution, supported the weight of his body, and was still holding him up at that ^moment. Ndt to prolong the neces- sity of supernatural assistance, Peter was cut down without delay. Of the pleasures he had experienced while hanging, he used always to speak in raptures; notwithstanding a wry neck and habitual paleness for life, which the Virgin allowed him to keep, in remembrance of her assist- ance. It seems that, omitting the rope and beam,. 199 the scene of suspension was often repeated between Peter and his glorious prop; for the Breviary informs us that he frequently was seen raisAin the air, uttering ^^the sweetest words'' in answer to questions which the bystanders heard not, but conjectured, most rationally, to proceed from the Virgin. =^ ^^May I not ask (says the author of the Book of the Roman Catholic Church}, if it be either ♦ "Ipse interim compedibus detentus, cum ad statutam diem parta pro redemptione merces non fuisset allata, et Ma- hometicae siiperstitionis haberetur contemptor, collo ad lig-num suspenditur. Ex Hispania ejgs socius Guillelmus cum re- demptionis pretio in Africam interea revertitur, et graviter beati viri amissionem deflens, ad locum ubi suspensus mane- bat, accessit; quem viventem reperit, sibique dicentem audi- Vit: *Charissime frater, ne fleveris; ecce enim sanctissimae Vir- ginis manibus sustentatus vivo, quae mihi his diebus hilariter adfuit." Inenarrabili itaque gaudio ilium e suspendio depo- suit, et, cunctis demirantibus, ac barbaris non credentibus, una cum aliis libertate donatis, laeti in patriam reversi sunt. Ex illo autem tempore beatus Petrus coUum e supplicio obtor- tum, et vultum squalore marcidum, quoad vixit, retinuit.... Frequenter alienatus a sensibus in aerem sublatus, suavissima verba proferre auditus est, quibus, ut adstantibus videbatur, beatissimae Virgini interroganti respondebat; suique martyrii memor, hsec fratribus dicere erat solitus: *Ego, credite mihi, nullos reputo me vixisse dies, przeter felicissimos illos paucos, quibus ligno suspensus, mundo putabar jam mortuus. Officia propria SS, Hispanorum, die 27 Aprilis/ ** 300 just or generous to harass the present Catholics Vv'ith the weakness of the ancient writers of thjfl| communion; and to attempt to render their religion and themselves odious hy these unceasing and offensive repititions V^ This complaint should be addressed to the Pope and the Roman Catholic bishops, by whose authority, consent, and practice, these weaknesses ai^e unceasingly repeated for the instruction of the members of their communion. I can sympathise with the feelings of the author: I can easily conceive how galling it must be for a moderniz>edRoui2in Catholic, in this country, to be constantly suspected of being a Roman Catholic, indeed, and according to the Pope's heart. His case is as deplorable as that of a man of fashion, who should be compelled to fi^equent the higher circles in company with an old, fantastic, half- crazed mother, who daily and hourly exposed her- self to contempt and ridicule, in spite of his filial efforts to hide her absurdities. The truth is, that the Protestants have nearly forgotten the mon- strous heap of falsehood and imposture from which Rome daily feeds her flock. But the offensive repetitions resound on the ears of your harassed apologist from the lips of every bishop, priest. 201 deacon and subdeacon of his communion: they are chanted incessantly in every Roman Catholic ca- thedral, in every convent of males or females: they are translated into popular tracts:^ they are heard and read with avidity by the mass of straight-for- w^ard, uncompromising Catholics, and cannot be scouted by the more fastidious, without a direct reproach on the most constant, solemn, and author- ized practice of their church. In vain would the suffering scholar, the harassed man of refinement, attempt a distinction between the miracles of dark ages, and those of more modern times: in vain would he venture a smile on the ^^ Golden Legend, and the patrician Metaphrastes.'' His mother church has thrown her mantle over them, by borrowing from them all for her own peculiar book, her own corrected work, the task-book of all her clergy. He must remember that the weak* * 1 believe that these stories are much circulated among the Roman Catholics of these kingdoms in the shape of popu- lar pamphlets. I have not, however, been able to procure a copy, owing to the unwillingness of Roman Catholic booksel- lers to furnish unknown purchasers with a certain peculiar produce of their press. I had strong reasons to suspect the existence of this policy, when it was confirmed to me by the personal experience of a clerical friend. 203 nesses for which he implores the benefit of obliviou are no more imputable to their original and ancient sources, btit to the Popes who republished them at the Vatican, in 16S1; to the church, who with one accordant voice repeats them to the faithful of all climates and languages. It were w ell, how^ever, for the happiness and virtue of the spiritual subjects of Rome, if their church had sanctioned weaknesses only— absurdi- ties which degrade the understanding — and had left the rules of Christian conduct undisturbed. But the Breviary is not more absurd in matters of fact than depraved in the views of moral per* fection, which it disseminates. I will not, how- ever, dwell long upon this topic, since the attach- ment of the church of Rome to monastic virtue, has at all times betrayed her distorted views of evangelical perfection. The specimens which I am about to select from the multitude of her saintly models, are not intended to convict her of errors which she glories in, but to impress their consequences on those that seldom or never dwell upon these important topics. As I cannot se- parate, in these specimens, what strictly belongs to the subject on which I am going to touch% 208 from the miraculous ornaments with ^iiich the^e legends are crowded, I beg you to keep this in mind, that the progress and course of my argu- ment may he perceived. Whatever may be the freedom which Rome allows in the belief or rejection of her miracles whatever be the unfairness of asserting and pro- pagating absurdities, under the excuse that no force is employed to ensure their reception — whe- ther the church that sanctions and uses the Bre- viary believes the accounts it contains, or secretly smiles at tlie credulity of those who credit them; it might be hoped that the models proposed for imitation would have been safe in regard of Chris- tian practice. This is certainly not the case. There is, indeed, in most of the Roman Catholic saints much of that benevolent spirit of the Grospel, which must always be found in every heart which opens itself to the divine influence of its leading truths; but Christian charity is in them so mixed with substantial and pervading errors, that it is seldom unproductive of evil. The first noxious ingredient which poisons cha- rity in the Roman Catholic system of sanctity, is intolerance. The seeds of this bitter plant are, in- deed, inseparable from a hearty reception of her doctrines, as I have proved before; but its mature fruit, persecution, is praised among the virtues of saints whose circumstances enabled them to use force against pagans or heretics. Thus, in the life of Canute the Dane, his donations to the church are hardly more commended than the zeal with which he conquered the barbarians, with the pur- pose of making them Christians.-^ St. Ferdi- nand, King of Castille, is represented as an emi- jient sample of that peculiar Roman Catholic vir- tue which visits dissent from the faith of Rome witli the mild correctives of sword and fire. "In alliance with the cares of government, the regal virtues (says the Breviary) shone in him— mag- nanimity, clemency, justice, and above all zeal for the Catholic faith, and an ardent determination to defend and propagate its worship. This he per- formed, in the first place, by persecuting heretics, to whom he allowed no repose in any part of his kingdom; and for whose execution, when^con- * "Religioni promo vendse sedulo incumbens, ecclesias red- ditibus augere, et pretiosa snpellectili ornare coepit Turn zelo propagandse fidei succensus, barbara regna justo certa- mine ag-gressas, devictas, subditasque nationes Christians fidei subjugavit." Die 19 Januarii. 20S demned to be burnt, he used to carry the w^d with his own hands/'=^ Who then shall be sur- prised to find inquisitors canonized by Rome, or to hear her addressing a daily prayer to the great and merciful Father of mankind, ^^that he would be pleased to bruise, by the power of his right hand, all pagan and heretical nations ?'' Such are the words which Rome puts in the mouth of every Spanish priest who celebrates high mass.f The power of persecuting othei^ upon the grand scale, which the Church of Rome exalts into a kingly virtue, is given but to very few among mankind: whilst every individual may be made his own tormentor by adopting the practices which that church represents as the means to * "In eo, adjunctis regni curls, regiae virtutes emicuere, magnanimitas, dementia, justitia, et prae caeteris Catholicae Fidei zelus, ejusque religiosi cultus propagandi ardens stu- dium. Id praestitit in primis haereticos insectando, quos nuUi- bi regnorum suorum consistere passus, propriis ipse manibus ligna comburendis damnatis adrogum, advehebat." Propria Ss. Hispan. Die 30 Maii. t The concluding collect contains a prayer for the Pope in the first, for the bishop of the diocess in the second, and for the royal family in the third place; it then proceeds to pray for peace and health, and concludes; "et ab ecclesia tua cunc* tarn repelle nequitiam, et gextes Paganorum et Hjebeticc^- R17M DEXTERiE TVM PQTENTIA C02rT£RANTUB» &C. &C, Q 206 arrive at C hristian perfection. Zeal and sincerity, are equally dangerous under the tuition of Rome. The Catholic nunneries rob society of the most amiable and virtuous female minds — ^those viho in the practice of the social duties, would be a blessing to their relatives and friends, and pat- terns of virtue to the community — to make their lives, at the best, a perpetual succession of toil- some and useless practices. The quiet and sober- minded are made the slaves of outward ceremo- nies; the ardent and sensitive are doomed to en- thusiasm or madness. Such are the invariable results of the models which Rome presents them daily for imitation. The love of external ceremonies is notorious in the Roman Catholic church; but few, even among the persons whom I address, will probably have given a distinct and separate consideration to the special models, by which their church sanctions and recommends this peculiar manner of sanctity. Let them, therefore, conceive themselves as con- temporaries of Saint Patrick, and imagine they see him pursuing the regular and daily employ- ment of his time. The holy saint rises before daylight, and, under the snows and rainirof a 207 northern winter, begins his usual task of praying one hundred times in a day^ and again one hun- dred times in the night. Such, the Breviary in- forms, was his daily practice while still a layman and a slave. When raised to the see of Armagh, his activity in the external practice of prayer ap- pears quite prodigious. In the first place he re- peated, daily, the one hundred and fifty psalms of the Psaltery, with a collection of canticles and hymns, and two hundred collects. The tw'o hun- dred genuflexions of his youth were now increased to three hundred. The ecclesiastical day being divided into eight canonical hours, and each of these having one hundred blessings with the sign of the cross allotted by Saint Patrick, his right hand must have performed that motion eight hun- dred times a day. After this distracting stir and hurry, the night brought but little repose to the saint. He divided it into three portions: in the first he recited one hundred psalms, and knelt two hundred times; during the second he stood im- mersed in cold water repeating ^/^i/ psalms more, ^*with his heart, eyes, and hands raised towards heaven;'' the third he gave up to sleep, upon a a08 stone pavement. * Imagine to yourselves, I agaiu request, the patron saint of Ireland, not as au ideal and indistinct personage of legend; but as a real man of jflesh and blood. Depict, in the vivid colours of fancy, the bustle, the perpetual motion, the eternal gabbling, the plunging into w ater for prayer, the waving of the hands for benedictions, the constant falling upon the knees, the stretching of hands, the turning up of eyes, required for the ascetic practices of his life; and then repeat the memorable words of our Saviour — The hour Cometh^ and now iSj when the true worshippers shall worship the Father^ in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit} and they that worship him must wor^ * "Antelucano tempore per nives, gelu, ac pluvias ad pre- cfes Deo fiindendas, impiger consurgebat; solitus centies inter- diu, centiesque noctu Deum orare...Aiunt enim integrum quo- tidie Psalterium, una cum canticis et hyranis, ducentisqae orationibus consuevisse recilare: ter centies per dies singulos flexis genibus Deum adorare, ac in qualibet Hora Canonica, centies se crucis signo munire. Noctem tria in spatia dis- tribuens, primum in centum psalmis percurrendis, et bis cen- ties genuflectendo, alterum in reliquis quinquaginta psalmis, algidis aquis immersus, ac corde, oculis, manibusque ad coelum erectus, absolvendis insumebat: tertium vero super nudum lap idem stratus, tenui dabat quieti. Die 17 Martii. 209 skip him in spirit and in tnith.^ Compare the sublime simplicity of this description of Christian piety, with the models which your church sets be- fore you: and tell me whether they agree. I will not dispute whether the list of devotional practices attributed to Saint Patrick, be authentic or fic- titious, accurate or exaggerated. The church of Rome would not have recorded it in her authorized book of spiritual instruction, if, in her opinion, it did not exalt the piety of her saint. The worthies of the Breviary, whether sketched from nature or pictured from fancy, must be a faithful tanscript of Rome's ideal models of Christian perfection. The practices attributed to Saint Patrick are, therefore, made an object of imitation to all the sons of the church of Rome, according to their strength and circumstances^ and the principle that such practices are a part of Evangelical virtue, will not be questioned by a sincere Roman Catholic. Indeed, among the saints of the Bre- viary, most will be found commended for similar practices; and not a book of devotion, by writers of that communion exists, which does not repre-^ ♦ John iv. 23, 24. 0.2 310 ^ent some bodily exercise or distortion, as an ef- fectual method of pleasing God.^ All this, however, is intimately connected with the Roman Catholic notions on penance — a subject which well deserves the dispassionate considera- tion of every impartial member of that communion. If it be once settled that self-inflicted suffering is, by itself, a virtue; the progress between a simple fast and the tortures voluntarily endured by the Indian fanatics, is natural and unbroken. The * The least morose of all Roman Catholic saints, Saint Francis de Sales, though not carrying these practices to the degree usual among professed saints, strongly recommends tliis kind of spiritual gymnastics to his friends. The follow- ing are his directions to a gentleman *'gui vouloit se retirer du "Je vous conseille de pratiquer ces exercises pour cestrois mois suivans....que vous vous leviez toujours a six heures matin, soit que vous ayez bien dormi, ou mal dormi, pourvu que vous ne soyez pas malade (car alors il faut condescendre %\x mal) et pour faire quelque chose de plus les vendredis, vous vous leviez a cinq heures.. ..Item, que vous vous accout- iimiez a dire tous les jours, apres ou devant roraison; quinze I*ater noster et quinze Ave, Maria, les bras etendus en guise de crucifix.. .Encore, voudrois-je quelquefois la semaine vous couchassiez vetu....et ces jours-la de fete, vous pourrez bien visiter par maniere d'exercice les lieux saints des capucins, S. Bernard, les Chartreux." — Lettres de Saint Francois de Mil practice of Roman Catholic saints, approaches very nearly indeed to that of the Eastern worship- pers of the evil principle. Open the Breviary at any of the pages containing the lives of saints, males or females, and you will find uninterrupted absti- nence from food (whether real or not, certainly held out to admii^ation, and sanctioned by the assertion of miracles in its favour) since Ash Wednesday till Whitsunday:^ living one half of the year on bread and water :f confinement for four years to a niche excavated in a rock;:j: and every where the constant use of flagellation, lacerating bandages, and iron chains bound con- stantly about the body, immersions in freezing water, and every method of gradually and pain- fully destroying life. The Roman Catholics will talk of penance in moderation; but where is the line drawn, where, indeed, can it be drawn^ to point th^ beginning of excess? Must I again revive the memory of the victims whom I have seen perish in their youth^ from the absolute im- * Life of St. Catherine of Sienna. 7 St. Elizabeth of Portugal. 4: The blessed Daimatius Monerius, in ti^e Propria SS. Hispan, 2i2 possibility of moderating the entliusiam whieh their church thus encourages? It is chiefly among the tender and delicate of the female sex^ that the full effects of these examples are seen. — How can a confessor prescribe limits to the zeal of an ardent mind, which is taught to please God by tormenting a frail body ? Teach an enthusias- tic female that self-inflicted death will endear her to her heavenly bridegroom, and she will press the rope or the knife to her lips. Distant danger is lighter than a feather to hearts once swollen with the insane affections of religious enthusiasm. Talk to them about the duty of preserving life, and they will smile at the good natured casuis- try, which w^ould moderate their pursuit of a more noble and more disinterested duty — ^that of loving their God above their own lives. Their church has besides, practically dispensed the du- ty of self-preservation in favour of penance. — Does not the young victim read of her model Saint Theresa, that ^ 'her ardour in punishing the body was so vehement as to make her use hair- shirts, chains, nettles, scourges, and even to roll herself among thorns, regardless of a diseased constitution?'* — Is she not told that St. Rosc^ S13 "from a desire to imitate St. Catharine,^ wore, day and night, three folds of an iron chain round her waist; a belt set w ith small needles, and an iron crown armed inside with points? That she made to herself a bed of the unpolished trunks of trees, and that she filled up the interstices with pieces of broken pottery?'^ She did all this in spite of her ^ ^tortures fi-om sickness,'^ and by this means she obtained the frequent visits of saints and angels; and heard Christ himself utter- ing the words, ''Rose of my hearty be thou my hride.^^ Can the poor, weak, visionary recluse doubt the reality of scenes attested by her church, or question the lawfulness of slow self-murder, supported by the brightest of her commended models?! * observe the effect of the proposed models. The Bre- viary records a number of similar imitations: every one ac- quainted with Roman Catholics must have seen them repeat- ed every day. f St. Theresa .... "Per duodeviginti annos gravissimis morbis et variis tentationibus vexata, constantissime meruit in castris Christianae poenitentix . . . Infidelium et haareticorum tenebras perpetuis deflebat lacrymis, atque ad plaeandam divinae ultionis iram, voluntaries proprii corporis cruciatus Deo, pro eorum salute dicabat . . . Tam anxio castigandi cor- poris desiderio sestuabat, ut quamvis secus suaderent morb^ S14 The only rational principle which can regu- late self-denial, and give it the stamp of a Chris- tian virtue, would condemn the whole of the monkish system at once: Rome, therefore, can- not, will not admit it. Make the good of man- kind the only ground for voluntary endurance of pain,' make the habit of rational self-denial (with- out which extensive usefulness is impossible) the quibus affllctabatur, corpus ciliciis, catenis, urticarum mani- pulis, aliisque asperrimis flagellis ssepe cruciaret, et aliquan- do inter spinas volutaret, sic Deum alloqui solita: *Domine, aut pati aut mori' . . . Ei morienti adesse visas est inter an- gelorum agmina Christus Jesus: et arbor arida celix proxinia statim effloruit/* Die 15 Octobris. St. Rose of Lima . . , "Oblongo asperrimoque cilicio spar- sim minusculas acus intexuit; sub velo coronam densis acu- leis introrsus obarmatam, interdiu noctuque gestavit. Sanc- tae Catherinae Senensis ardua premens vestigia, catena ferrea, triplici nexu circumducta, lumbos cinxit. Lectulum sibi e truncis nodosis composuit, horumque vacuas commissuras frag-minibus testarum implevit. Cellulam sibi angustissiman struxit in extreme horti angulo, ubi caelestium contemplation! dedita, crebis disciplinis, inedia, vigiliis corpusculum ex- tenuans, at spiritu, vegetata, larvas dxmonum frequenti cer- tamine victrix, impavide protrivit ac superavit . . . Exinde coepit supernis abundare deliciis, iliustrari visionibus, coUU quescere Seraphicis ardoribus. Angelo tutelari, sanctx Catbarinae Senensi, Virgini Deiparae inter assiduas apparitio- nes mire familiaris, a Christo has voces audire meruit: *Kosa cordis mei, tu mihi sponsa esto.' " Die 30 Augusti. gl5 object of certain slight privations, used as a dis- cipline of mind and body; and a convent assumes the character of a mad-house. Penance is, con- sequently, erected into an independent virtue, and saints are made to appear after death, in glory, to proclaim the Indian doctrine of heaven- ly enjoyments purchased by bodily sufferings.^ The models which Rome presents for imitation, are not more removed from the spiritual simpli- city of the Gospel, than they are from that sober- ness of devotional feeling which pervades the whole of the New Testament. Read the lives of saints who have lived since the beginning of the sixteeeth century; and, whether male or female, you will find a sentimentality of devotion, a sus- picious kind of tenderness, which from time to time, has alarmed the truly sincere sons of Rome, under the grosser shape of devotional sensuality. There is, I am aware, a distinction between the raptures of St. Theresa, and the ecstatic reveries of the quietists; but on reading her own account of her feelings, and hearing the description which * St. Peter of Alcantara is said to have appeared after death to St. Theresa, and exclaimed: O felix pxnitenHat qum tantammihipromeruit gloriam! Die 31 Octobris. ai6 the church of Rome gives of her visions, it is im- possible not to observe that both have some moral elements in common. The picture of St. The- resa fainting under the wound which an angel in- flicts on her heart with a fiery spear, were it not for the nun's weeds worn by the principal figure; might easily be mistaken for a votive tablet in- tended for some heathen temple: and her dying ^ ^rather of love than disease'' is more worthy of a novel of doubtful tendency, than of a collection of lives prepared by a Christian church, to exem- plify the moral effects of the Gospel. =^ * "Tanto autem divlni amoris incendio cor ejus conflagra- VI t, ut merito viderit angelum ignito jaculo sibi praccordia transverberantem; et audierit Christum data dextera dicen- tem sibi: *Deinceps ut vera sponsa meum zelabis honorem.' " (I cannot venture any remarks on the apposition of these emblems.) "Intolerabili igitur divini amoris incendio potius^ quam vi morbi....sub columbae specie purissimum animum Deo reddidit." Ubi supra. — I must observe, without howe- ver insinuating any things more than the dangerous nature of this kind of devotion, that in male saints it generally has the Virgin for its object. The life of St. Bernard contains de- scriptions of visions, which would be unfit for the eye of the public in any other book. Hagiography, however, gives great liberty both to writers and painters. The picture of the vision I allude to, I have seen in a convent of Cistercian Nuns. The Breviary, however, omits the story which forms its subject. 217 Does the Breviary produce effects analogous to the character of its contents/ and commensurate to the extent of the use of it by the Roman Ca- tholics? Does it everywhere degrade faith into credulity, and devotion into sentimentality? That it does so among Roman Catholics, in Italy, in Spain, in Portugal, and in all other countries where the religion of Rome predominates; is a matter of general notoriety. It would afford an additional praise of the reformed religion, if it could be proved that the Roman Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland, had been preserved from the injurious effects which the true book of their church, has so widely produced among their foreign brethren. It is possible that the class of Roman Catholics to whom I have addressed my- self in these letters, and who alone are likely to read them, have never since their childhood exa- mined the devotional books published in England for the use of the sincerely pious among them. If they should be well acquainted with such books, they will not require any further proof of the per- fect agreement between the minds and feelings of such persons, and those which I have instanced from the Breviary. Such as may have forgotten. R 318 the character of their devotional books would do well to re-peruse them. I will, however, in the mean time, give one or two specimens, from the TWELFTH London edition, of the Devotion and Office of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.^ I have so much exceeded the length which I pro- posed to give this letter, that I will not detain my readers much longer upon this subject. The ostensible Roman Catholics of England, I mean such as appear in the character of speci- mens of their religious communion, are so dex- terous in the use of theological distinctions, so practised in the pious work of throwing a cloak over the nakedness of their spiritual parent, that the Protestant public will hardly expect the fol- lowing rule of belief, upon matters not strictly of dogmatic faith, prevalent among the pious and sincere Roman Catholics of these realms. The rule applies to the subject of revelations and miracles, such as the Roman Church records in her Breviary. ^^The public is in possession of many writings of holy women, who have yielded to advice and • Extracts from this book will beibuiid in an appendix, om the definition which Aristotle gives of matter, it is evident that he considered that word as the sign of an abstraction. "Materia est neque quid, neque quantum, nee aliud eorum quibus ens denomi- natur." I quote the translation used among the schoolmen 243 the words in which the school philosophers ex- pressed them, have been incorporated with all the European languages.* That the doctrine of transubstantiaiion could not have been established without the aid of Aristotle, any one who examines the technical words of the Roman Catholic divines upon that question, will readily perceive. Of this they were so fully con- vinced but a short time ago, that I recollect the opposition to which the modern system of natural philosophy was still subject in my youth, as de- priving the Roman Catholic faith of its chief sup- port, by the rejection of the substantial forms. In- deed transubstantiation conveys either no meaning at all, or one entirely the reverse of what Rome in- tends; unless we suppose the separableness oi sub- stance^ and forms or qualities. The substance of the bread and wine, it is said, is converted into the body and blood of Christ; which, translated into any language but that of the schools means that the body of Christ (I wish to speak reverently,) * It is curious to trace to the same source even the word elements^ which seems to have been chosen by the Protes- tants as the most independent from the theory of transub- stantiation. Elemerits is another scholastic name for that substratum which is conceived to bear the qualities of things. "Omnium elementa possunt invicem in se transmutari, non generatione, sed alteratione." The bread and wine were elements, because they were supposed to be changed into the body and blood of Christ. See Brucker, Hist. Fhilos, Part II. Lib. II. c. vii. T 2 246 chemically analyzed in the consecrated bread and wine, will be found to consist of every thin^ that constitutes bread and wine: z. e. the body and blood of Christ will be found to have been converted into real bread and wine. What else do we designate by bread and by wine, but two aggregates of quali- ties, identical to what the analytical process will show after consecration? Substance without quali- ties is a mere abstraction of the mind; with quali- ties, it is that which the qualities make it. So here we have a mighty -miracle to convert Christ into bread and wine; for such" would be the sub- stance of his body and blood if it changed its quali- ties for those of the two well known compounds Which the Roman Catholics adore. If it is said that Christ occupies the place of the bread and wine, and produces the impressions peculiar to them on the senses, the supposed miracle should change the name of transubstantiation into that of delusion.-^' Surely transubstantiation has for its basis the most absurd philosophical system which ever disgraced the schools of a barbarous age! E.— Page 106- I3^NCERTAIx\TY OF ROMAN CATHOLIC INFALLIBILITY, Nothing can be more certain than the uncer- tainty of the Roman Catholic Church, as to the seat S47 and source of her pretended infallibility. If any thijTg can be deduced from the vague and unsettled principles of her divines, on this subject, it would appear that infallibility finally resolves itself into the authority of the Pope. For, as no council whatever is deemed infallible till the Pope has sanctioned its decrees, the pretended assistance from heaven must apply to that discriminating oracle, on whose de- cision the supernatural authority of the councils de- pends. The opening speech of the papal legates who pre- sided at the council of Trent represents the expect- ed inspiration as conditional; a very natural caution in the representatives of that see, which has always most strenuously opposed the notion that the Pope is inferior to a general council. After a candid acknowledgment of the enormous corruptions of the Roman Catholic clergy, which the reader will find hereafter, the legates speak of the expected in- spiration in the following words: — "Quare nisi ille spiritus nos apud nos metipsos primum condemnaverit, nondum ilium ingressum esse ad nos afiirmare possumus, ac ne ingressurum quidem, si peccata nostra audire recusamus. Idem enim dicetur nobis, quod populo veteri per prophe- tam Ezechielem est dictum, cum nondum agnitis suis sceleribus, Dominum per prophetam interro- gare vellent. Venerunt viri Israel ad interrogandum Dominum^ et sederunt coram me, Hcec autem dicit Dominus: numquid ad i7iterrogandum me venistis? Vivo egOy dicit Dominus^ quia non resfiondebo vobis. 248 Sequitur autem, sijudicas eos^ abominationes fiatrum illorum ostende illis. In quibus verbis ostendit Deus, quarc noluerit respondere illis, quia nondum scilicet abominationes suas et patrunn suorum audierant. Quare cum idem Dei Spiritus sit, qui tunc dabat responsa, et quern nunc nos sedentes coram Domino invocamus, quid nobis faciendum sit, ut propria re- sponsa habeamus, ex his videtis Quia vero non- nullos nunc videmus, sua primum peccata, et nostri ordinis graviter deflentes, atque Dei misericordiam omnibus votis implorantes, ideo quidem in maxima afie 5wm«5, advenisse, quem invocamus, Dei Spirit- um/' — Concilia per Labbeum et Gossartium, Tom. XIV. p. 738. It is clear that the legates grounded their hopes of inspiration for the Council, on the marks of re- pentance which they perceived in some of its mem- bers. Must then Roman Catholics ascertain the spiritual condition of their oracles, before they ad- mit them to the privilege of infallibility? It should seem, however, that the Popes are not subject to such restrictions in the use of their infallible sanc- tion; else, a man with the moral tact of Alexander VI. would have been subject to strange mistakes, in calculating the fitness of the bishops in council, to receive an inspiration totally dependent on moral character. 249 F — Page 133. CASE OF A SPANISH PROTESTANT PRIEST, IMPRISONED BY THE INQUISITION IN 1802. Since the execution of the unhappy woman whose death I mention in the 5th Letter, the Spanish In- quisitors seemed less disposed to shed blood. It is also true that men were also much more averse to sacrifice their lives to their relig'ious views, than at the time of the Reformation. Spain, which in the 16th century gave a host of martyrs to Protestant Christianity*, has, of late, produced but one instance of the power of the Scriptures "in an honest and good heart." This most interesting case is related by the secretary of the Inquisition of Madrid, Llo- rente, in his History of the Spanish Inquisition, Vol. IV. p. 127. Don Miguel Juan Antonio Solano, a native of Verdun, in Arragon, was vicar of Esco, in the dio- cess of Jaca. His benevolence and exemplary con- duct endeared him to his parishioners. Though educated according to the Aristotelian system, and the school divinity, which was very lately preva^ lent at many of the Spanish universities; the natur- al strength of his mind led him to study pure ma^ * See Art. 9 of No. 57 of the Quarterly Bevieiv, in which the author of the present work ^^ave an account of the Span- ish Reformers, knd their sufferings. 350 ihematics, and mechanics, by himself. The good- ness of his heart combined with his inventive tal- ents in the work of fertilizing a dale, or rather a mere ravine, belonging to the inhabitants of his parish, which lay waste for want of irrigation.— Without any help from the government, and with no mechanical means but the spades of the pea- sants, he succeeded in diverting the waters of a mountain streamlet upon the slip of vegetable soil which had been deposited in the glen. A long and severe illness, which made him a t:ripple for life, withdrew the good vicar of Esco from these active pursuits, and limited his employ- ment to the perusal of the few books which his lit- tle library afforded. Fortunately the Bible was one of them. Solano read the records of revelation with a sincere desire to embrace religious truth, as he found it there; and having gradually cleared and arranged his views, drew up a little system of divinity, which agreed in the main points with the fundamental tenets of the Protestant churches. His conviction of the Roman Catholic errors became so strong, that he determined to lay his book be- fore the bishop of the diocess, asking his pastoral help and advice upon that most important subject. An answer to his arguments was promised; but despairing after a lapse of time to obtain it, Solano applied to the faculty of divinity of the University of Saragossa. The reverend doctors sent the book to the Inquisition, and the infirm vicar of Esco was lodged in the prisons of the holy tribunal of Sara- 25i gossa. This happened in 1802. It seems that some humane persons contrived his escape soon after, and conveyed him to Oleron, the nearest French town. But Solano, having taken time to consider his case, came to the heroic resolution of asserting the truth in the very face of death; and returned of his own accord to the inquisitorial pri- sons. The Inquisitor General, at that time, was Arce, archbishop of Santiago, an intimate friend of the Prince of Peace; and one strongly suspected of se- cret infidelity. When the sentence of the Arago- nese tribunal, condemning Solano to die by fire, was presented to the supreme court for confirma- tion, Arce, shocked at the idea of an auto-da-fe, contrived every method to delay the execution. A fresh examination of witnesses was ordered; during which the inquisitors entreated Solano to avert his now imminent danger. Nothing, however, could move him. He said he well knew the death that awaited him; but no human fear would ever make him swerve from the truth. The first sentence be- ing confirmed, nothing remained but iht exequatur of the sufireme, Arce, however, suspended it, and ordered an inquiry into the mental sanity of the pri- soner. As nothing appeared to support this plea, Solano would have died at the stake, had not Pro- vidence snatched him from the hands of the papal defenders of the faith. A dangerous illness seized him in the prison, where he had lingered three years. The efforts to convert him were, on this oc- casioTi, renewed with increased ardour. "The in- quisitors," says Llorente, "gave it in charge to the most able divines of Saragossa to reclaim Solano; and even requested Don Miguel Suarez de Santan- der, auxiliary bishop of that town, and apostolic missionary (now, like myself, a refugee in France), to exhort him, with all the tenderness and goodness of a Christian nninister, which are so natural to that worthy prelate. The vicar showed a grateful sense of all that was done for him; but declared that he could not renounce his religious persuasion without offending God by acting treacherously against the truth. On the twenty-first day of his illness, the physician warned him of approaching death, urg- ing him to improve the short time which he had to live. 'I am in the hands of God," answered Solano, ^and have nothing else to do.' Thus died, in 1805, the vicar of Esco. He was denied Christian burial, and his body privately interred within the inclosure of the Inquisition, near the back gate of the build- ing, towards the Ebro. The inquisitors reported all that had taken place to the supreme tribunal, whose members approved their conduct, and stopt further proceedings, in order to avoid the necessity <^f burning the deceased, in effigy." H — Page 137. The account of nuns and friars which Erasmus gives in the dialogue from which I borrowed the S53 passage in the text, so perfectly agrees with all I know of them — the arts by which girls are now drawn into monasteries are so similar to those which he describes — and the reasons he uses to dissuade the young enthusiast from sacrificing her liberty, are so applicable to every case of that kind in our days, that I hope the reader will pardon me for inserting the whole dialogue, in the elegant translation of my excellent friend the Rev. Robert Butler; to whom I am also indebted for the follow- ing notice of the alarm which those delightful compositions, the Colloquies, excited in the Uni- versity of Paris. "The faculty of theology passed a general cen- sure in 1526 upon the Colloquies of Erasmus, as upon a work in which the fasts and abstinences of the Church of Rome are slighted, the suffrages of the Holy Virgin and of the saints are derided, vir- ginity is set below matrimony. Christians are dis- couraged from monkery, and grammatical is pre- ferred to theological erudition. Therefore, it is decreed that the perusal of this wicked book be forbidden to all, more especially to young folks; and that it be entirely suppressed if it be possible.** From Dufiin^ as quoted in Jortin^s History of Erasm mus, Fol. Lfi. 298. u 234 Erasmus's dialogue, entitled virgo MiSOFAMOS, or the marriage-hating maiden. £ubulus.'^ Catharine, Eu. I rejoice that dinner is at last over, and that we are at leisure to enjoy this delightful walk. Ca. It was quite wearisome to sit so long at ta- ble. Eu. How every thing smiles around us! Truly this is the very youth and spring-time of the world. Ca. It is so, indeed! Eu. And why is it not with thee also the spring- time of smiles and joy? Ca. Wherefore do you ask such a question? Eu. Because I perceive a sadness in your coun- tenance. Ca. Are my looks then different from what they are wont to be? Eu. Would you like me to show you to yourself? Ca. Of all things. Eu. You see this rose. Observe how, as the night approaches, it contracts its leaves. Ca. Well ! and what then ? Eu. It thus presents you with an image of your own countenance. Ca. a most excellent comparison! Eu. If you will not believe me, look at yourself in this little fountain. Those frequent sighs, too, during dinner*— tell me what could be the meaning oC them? 255 Ca. Question me no farther. The subject is one in which you are not concerned. Eu. Nay, Catharine: it cannot but concern one whose happiness is bound up in thine. Another sigh? Alas! how deeply drawn! Ca. My mind is in a state of great anxiety; but I cannot safely mention the cause. Eu. What! not even to him who loves thee better than he loves his own sister? Fear not, dearest Ca- tharine; let the secret of thy affliction be what it may, rest assured that it is safe in my keeping. Ca. That may be; but I should tell it to one who would give me no assistance. Eu. How know you that? I might, at least, have it in my power to aid you by advice and consolation. Ca. I cannot tell. Eu. How is this? You hate me, then, Catharine; Ca* Yes; if I can hate my own brother; and yet I cannot bring myself to tell thee. Eu. Should I be able to guess the cause of your suffering, will you confess it? Nay, do not turn away: promise me, or else I will never cease to im- portune thee. Ca, Well, I promise. Eu. I do not at all understand what can be want- ing to make you perfectly happy. Ca. O that my condition were really such as you conceive it to be! Eu. In the first place, you are in the flower of your age; for if I mistake not, you are now in your seventeenth year. 256 Ca. Just so. Eu. The apprehension, then, of old age cannot, 1 suppose, be the source of your trouble? Ca. Nothing in the world troubles me less. Eu. You have a form that is perfect in every part; and this is one of God's chief gifts. Ca. Of my form, such as it is, I neither boast nor complain. Ev. Then your colour and habit of body indicate that you are in sound health — unless indeed you carry about you some secret disease. Ca. Nothing of the kind, I thank God. Eu. Your character, moreover, is unspotted. Ca. I trust so. Eu. You have a mind also worthy of the body wherein it dwells; a mind of the happiest disposi- tion, and as apt as I could desire for every liberal pursuit and study. Ca. Whatever it may be, it is the gift of God. Eu. Neither is there any want of that loveliest grace of moral excellence, the absence of which is too often to be regretted in forms of the most per- fect beauty. Ca. It is certainly my desire that my behaviour should be such as becomes my situation, Eu. Many are dejected in mind on account of the infelicity of their birth; but you, on the contrary, have parents of honourable descent and of virtuous manners — possessed also of an ample fortune, and attached to you with the fondest affection. Ca. I have nothing, in this respect, to complain of. 257 Eu. In a word, of all the maidens in this neigh- bourhood there is not one (were some propitioirs star to shine upon me) whom I would choose for a wife hut thee. Ca. And I, if I had any wish to marry, would de- sire no other husband than thyself. Eu. Surely then it must be something very extra- ordinary which can occasion you so much trouble? Ca. Something of no light moment, be assured. Eu. Will you not take it ill if I divine what it is? Ca. I have already promised not to do so. Eu. Well then, experience has taught me what pain there is in love. Come, confess, according to your promise. Ca. To say the truth, love is the cause; but not the kind of love you mean, Eu. What kind then? Ca. Divine love. Eu. I have done; my stock of conjecture is ex«^ hausted: and yet I will not let go this hand of thine till I wrest thy secret from thee. Ca. How violent you are! Eu. Only confide it ta me, whatever it may be. Ca. Well, since you are so very urgent about it, I will tell you. Know then, that from my tenderest years a passion of an extraordinary nature has pos^ sessed me. Eu. What can it be? to become a nun? Ca. Just so* Eu. Hem! I have gained a loss! Ca. What is it you say, Eubulus? U2 258 Eu. Nothing, my love: I only coughed. Go on, I pray you. Ca. The desire I have mentioned to you was al- ways opposed by my parents with the greatest per- tinacity. Eu. I understand. Ca. On the other hand, I for my part, never ceas- ed to besiege their affection with entreaties, cares- ses, and tears. Eu. You surprise me. Ca. At length my perseverance in this course so far prevailed upon them, that they promised that, if I should continue in the same mind upon my en- tering into my seventeenth year, they would then yield to my wishes: that year is now arrived; my desire remains unchanged; and yet, in opposition to their promise, they positively refuse to gratify it: this it is that troubles me. I have now disclos- ed to you the nature of my disease: prescribe the remedy, if you have any. Eu. In the first place, let me counsel you, sweet- est maiden, to moderate your desires; and if you cannot obtain what you would, to wish for no more than what may be in your power to obtain. Ca, I shall die if I do not obtain the present ob- ject of my wishes. Eu. But what could have given rise to this fatal passion? Ca. Some years ago, when quite a girl, I was ta- ken into a convent, where they led me about and showed me every thing. I was charmed with the 259 sweet looks of the nuns, who seemed to me like so many angels; and was delighted with the beautiful appearance of every thing in the chapel, and with the fragrance and pleasantness of gardens dressed and cultivated with the nicest art. In short, which- ever way I turned my eyes, every thing smiled up- on me. Add to this, the pleasant conversation I had with the nuns themselves, some of whom I dis- covered to have been my playfellows during my childhood. From this period it was that I conceiv- ed the ardent desire I have to adopt the same kind of life. Eu. It certainly is not my intention to reprobate the institution of nunneries,* though the same things are not of equal advantage to all; and yet, from my opinion of the nature of your disposition, iSuch as it appears to me from your countenance and manners, my advice to you would be, to marry a husband of a character similar to your own, and thus give rise to a new society at home, of which your husband should be the father, and yourself the mother. Ca. I will rather die than give up my purpose. Eu. A virgin life, if purity attend it, is no doubt an excellent thing; but it does not require you so to bind yourself to a particular convent, as to be una- ble afterwards to leave it. Surely, you may live at * "... Mihi aliud dictabat animus, aliud scribebat calamus," is the melancholy acknowledgment which Erasmus made of his own want of courage. 260 home with your parents, and preserve at the san>e time your virgin honour? Ca. True; but not with equal safety. Eu. In my opinion you will preserve it there much more securely than amongst so many fat and bloated monks: — fathers they are called, and fathers they not unfrequently are, in more senses than one. Remember also, that in former tim.es young maid- ens were considered to live nowhere more honour- ably than at home with their parents; nor had they any father, according to the religious sense of the word, except the bishop. But tell me, I beseech you, what nunnery is it that you have fixed upon as the place of your servitude and seclusion? Ca. The Chrysertian, Eu. I know it. It is close to your father's house» Ca. Just so. Eu. And well, too, do I know the whole of the worthy fraternity for which you would give up fa- ther and mother and the excellent family to which you are related. As for the patriarch of this venerable society, he has long been foolish, both from infirmities of age and nature, and from indul- gence in the pleasures of the table. His knowl- edge is now confined to his bottle. He has two companions, John and Jodocus, both warthy of him. John, though not perhaps a bad man, has nevertheless nothing of the man about him but his beard — not one grain of learning, and a very slen- der stock of prudence. As for Jodocus, he is so stupid, that, if it were not for the recommendation ^61 of his sacred dress, he might walk about in public, in the cap and bells of a fool. Ca. They seem to me, however, to be very good men. Eu. My dear Catharine, I know them better than you can do. But I suppose that these are your patrons with your father and mother; — the persons who would make you their proselyte? Ca. Jodocus is very favourable to my wishes. Eu. Oh! worthy patron! But let it be granted that these men are now both learned and good, it will not be long before you will find them both ig- norant and wicked; and you will, moreover, have to bear with every one that meets you. Ca. The frequent entertainments that are given at home are very disagreeable to me; nor is every thing that is spoken there between those who are married, such as is suitable to a maiden's ear: be- sides, I cannot sometimes refuse a kiss. Eu. They, who would avoid every thing thai can give offence, must needs depart out of this life altogether. Our ears must be accustomed to hear every thing, but transmit to the mind only what is good. Your parents, I suppose, allow you a pri- vate chamber? Ca. Certainly. Eu. Thither, then, you may retire, if any enter- tainment should happen to become disorderly. — There, while the rest are drinking and trifling, do you hold holy converse with Christ, your spouse; prE^ying, singing, and giving thanks. Your father's sea house cannot defile you; while you, on the contra- ry, may impart to it a character of greater sanctity, Ca. Yet, it is safer to he in a convent of nuns. Eu. I say nothing against a society of such nuns as are truly virgins; but I wish you not to be de- ceived hy your imagination, and take appearan- ces for realites. Were you to remain for some time in the convent you wish to retire to, and ac- quire a nearer insight into what is going forward there, possibly you might not think every thing quite so correct and charming as you did at first. Take my word for it, Catharine, all are not virgins who wear a veil. Ca. Use proper language, Eubulus! Eu. Nay, if there be propriety in truth, I do so; unless, perhaps, the praise which we have hitherto been in the habit of considering as peculiar to the Virgin Mother be transferred to other females also. Ca. Mention not such an abomination. Eu, In no other way, however, can the virgins you speak of be altogether sucL as you take them to be. Ca, No? and why not, 1 pray you? feu. Because there are more amongst them who will be found to rival Sappho in her morals, than to resemble her in her genius. Ca. I do not exactly comprehend the meaning of your words. Eu. My dear Catharine, I do not wish that you should; and therefore I talk in the way you hear me. Ca. My wishes still point in the same direction. S68 and I cannot but conclude that the spirit by which I am actuated on this subject comes from God, inasmuch as it has continued for so many years, and .still gathers strength from day to day. Eu. For my part, I regard this spirit of thine with no small degree of suspicion, on account of its being opposed with so much earnestness by your excellent parents. Were the object you have in view really a pious one, God would no doubt breathe into their hearts an acquiescence in your wishes. The fact is, that the spirit you talk of took its rise from the splendid things which affect- ed your imagination as a girl, from the soft lan- guage of the nuns, from revived affection towards your old companions, from the celebration of di- vine worship, the specious pomp of ceremonies, and the vile exhortations of a set of stupid monks, who court you in order that they may have the miore to drink. They are well aware that your fa- ther is of a kind and liberal disposition, and that they shall either have him for their guest, (on con- dition that he bring with him wine enough for ten potent drinkers,) or that they shall be able to ca- rouse, as they please at his table. Wherefore, my advite to you is, not to think any farther of ventur- ing upon a new course of life in opposition to the wishes of your parents. Remember that the au- thority of our parents is that under which it is God's will that we should remain. Ca. But in a case of this kind, it is no want of piety to disregard both father and mother. 364 Eu. I grant that it is piety to do so on some oc- casions, for Christ's sake; though if a Christian have a father who is a heathen, and whose whole subsiiitence depends upon him, it certainly is no mark of piety in the son to desert him, and allow him to perish of hunger. Supposing that you had not already professed yourself a Christian at your baptism, and that your parents were to forbid you to be baptized, you would certainly act a pious part in preferring Christ to impious parents: or, even now, if your parents were to endeavour to force you to the commission of any loose or impious act, you ^vould undoubtedly do right, in such a case, to dis- regard their authority. But what has this to do with a convent? Christ is with you equally at home. It is the dictate of nature that children should obey their parents-^a dictate ratified by the approbation of God, by the exhortations of St. Paul, and by the sanction of human laws: and will you then withdraw yourself from the authority of the excellent parents you possess, in order to deliver yourself up to those who can be father and mother to you only in name, or who, to speak more truly, will rule you rather as tyrants than as parents? At present, your situa- tion with your parents is such, that they still wish you to be free; but you, of your own accord, would make yourself a slave. The merciful nature of the Christian religion has, to a great degree, abolished the ancient state of servitude, except in a few coun- tries, in which some traces of it still remain. But now, under the pretext of religion, a new kind of 265 servitude according to the mode of living that at present prevails in many convents, has been invent- ed. In these places nothing is lawful but what is commanded: whatever wealth may fall to you will accrue to the community; and should you attempt to stir a step beyond your bounds, you will be drag- ged back again, as if you had murdered your parents. And, that this slavery may be still more conspicuous, their proselytes are clothed in a dress different from that which was given to them by their parents, while, in imitation of the ancient custom of those who formerly made a traffic in slaves, a change also is made in the baptismal name; so that he who was baptized into the service of Christ under the name of Peter, is called Thomas on being enlisted in the service of St. Dominic. If a soldier in the army cast away the uniform given him by his comnvander, he is looked upon as having renounced the authority of his commander; and yet we applaud those w^ho put on a dress not given by Christ, the Lord of all; while the punishment inflicted upon them, should they change it afterwards, is far greater than would be experienced were they to cast off, ever so frequent- ly, the dress of their great Leader and Master — I mean, innocence of mind. Ca. They make a great merit, however, of thus voluntarily submitting to this kind of servitude. Eu. They who do so, preach a doctrine worthy of the Pharisees. St. Paul's doctrine is a very differ- ent one; for he teaches that whoever becomes a Christian when in a state of freedom, should not \ 266 willingly be made a slave: while, oh the other hand,' the slave who becomes a Christian, should, if an opportunity of freedom present itself, avail him- self of it. But, farther, the servitude we are speak- ing of is the more galling from your having to sub- mit to more masters than one, and these, too, for the most part fools and profligates; while, in addi- tion to this, you are kept in a state of continual un- certainty from the changes that occur amongst them from time to time. Now, answer me a ques- tion, — Do the laws release you from the authority of your parents? Ca. By no means. Eu. Are you at liberty to buy or sell a farm against their will? Ca. Certainly not. Eu. What right, then, can you have to give your- self to I know not whom, in express opposition to the will of your parents? Are you not their most valuable possession — that which is in a peculiar sense their own? Ca. Where religion is concerned, the laws of nature cease. Eu. Religion has respect chiefly to baptism; the present question relates merely to a change of dress, and to a mode of life which in itself is neither good tior bad. Consider, also, how many advantages you part with when you lose your liberty. You are now free to read, pray, or sing, in your own chamber, as much and as long as may be agreeable to you; or, when you become weary of the privacy of your 2Q7 chamber, you have it in your power to hear sacred songs, attend divine worship, and listen to discourses on heavenly themes. Moreover, should you meet with any one remarkable for his piety and wisdom, or with any matron or maiden of superior virtues and endowments, you can enjoy the advantage of their conversation and instructions, for improve- ment in all those graces that become the female character. You are free, besides, to esteem and love the preacher who teaches in sincerity the pure doctrines of Christ. But if once you retire into a' convent, all these superior opportunities of improve- ment in a sound and rational piety are lost to you for ever. Ca. But, in the mean time, I shall not be a nun. Eu. Is it possible that you can still be influenced by the sound of a mere name? Consider the sub- ject with attention. Much is said about the merit of obedience; but will there be any want of this merit if you obey those parents whom the ordinance of God himself has made it your duty to obey — if you obey also your bishop and your pastor? Or will you be deficient in the merit of poverty, where every thing belongs to your parents? In former times, indeed, holy men thought it highly praiseworthy in females, dedicated to the service of God, to be liberal towards the poor; yet I do not very well per- ceive, how they were to exercise this virtue of liber- ' ality, if they had nothing themselves to give. Fur- ther, the jewel of your chastity can suffer no dimi- nution in its lustre by your remaining under the 268 same roof with your parents. In what, then, con- sists the superiority of the state for which you are ^o eager to leave your own home? truly, in nothing but a veil, a linen dress worn outside instead of in- side, and a few ceremonies which of themselves make nothing for piety, and commend no one in the sight of Him with whom favour can be obtained only by purity of heart and life. Ca. You preach strange doctrine. Eu. Not the less true, however, for being strange. But, tell me, since you are not released from the authority of your parents, and you have not a right to sell either a dress or a field, how can you prove that you have a right to put yourself under the per- petual control of strangers? Ca. The authority of parents, they say, cannot prevent the claims of religion. Eu. Did you not make profession of your faith in your baptism? Ca. Yes. Eu. And are not they religious persons who fol- low the precepts of Jesus Christ? Ca. Undoubtedly. Eu. Then what, I pray you, is this new religion which makes void what the law of nature has sanc- tioned, — what the ancient law has taught, what the gospel has approved, and the doctrine of the apostles established and confirmed? I tell you, that such a religion is the invention of a parcel of monks, not the decree of God. Ca. Do vou then think it unlawful for me to be- 269 come the spouse of Christ without the consent of my parents? Eu. You are ah^eady espoused to Christ — we have all been espoused to him; and who, I pray you, ever thinks of being married twice to the same per- son? The subject in debate is merely a question of place, dress, and ceremony; and certainly I cannot think that the authority of parents is to be slighted and set at nought for things like these. Ca. But the persons I speak of affirm, that there cannot be an act of greater piety than to disregard one's parents on such an occasion. Eu. Demand, then, of those doctors, to produce you a single passage out of the holy scriptures in in which any such doctrine is taught. If they can- not do this, then require of them to quaff of a cup of good Burgundy — you will find them at no loss on such a subject. It is the part of true piety to fly to Christ for succour from wicked parents; but what piety can there be in flying from virtuous parents to a convent, — when to do this (as experience often shows) is but to fly from the good to the bad? In- deed, in former times, when a person was converted to the Christian faith, his parents, though idolaters, were still considered to have a claim on his obedi- ence, as long as that obedience involved no conx- promise of his conscience and his faith. Ca. Do you then condemn the life of a nun altogether? Eu. By no means: but as I should not willingly advise any who have entered upon such a mode of V 2 270 life to seek a release from it, so I have no hesitation in earnestly exhorting every maiden, especially such as are of a noble and generous nature, to take care how they heedlessly place themselves in a state from which it will be impossible for them afterwards to retreat: more particularly as, in the places I allude to, a virgin's honour is not unfrequently exposed to the greatest danger; and as nothing, moreover, is done there, but what can be as well accomplished at- home. Ca. I cannot but confess that the arguments with which you have pressed your point are both nume- rous and weighty; yet my desire continues unchang- ed and unchangeable. Eu. Well, if I cannot succeed in persuading you to act as I wish, bear this at least in mind, that Eubulus gave you good counsel. In the mean while I will pray, from the love I hear you, that this pas- sion of yours may be attended with better fortune than my advice. I. — Page 137. TYRANNICAL CONDUCT OF THE CHURCH OF ROME TO- WARDS PERSONS OF BOTH SEXES BOUND BY RELIGIOUS vows. The history of religious oppression under the Church of Rome is far from being well known. That, under her spiritual government, Christianity has at all times contributed towards the happiness 271 of mankind, I am ready to acknowledge; because no human power can completely quench the heal- ing spirit of the Gospel. But it would be difficult, indeed, to ascertain whether the at once gloomy and pompous superstition which, under the guidance of the popes, has been so intimately blended with Christianity, has not produced more bitterness of suffering in the human breast, than even the hope of immortality can allay. Woe to the ardent and sincere, amongst the spiritual subjects of Rome! for she will sacrifice them, body and soul, to a mere display of her spiritual dominion. Nothing, however, is more difficult than to col- lect the evidence of individual suffering, produced by Roman Catholic tyranny. Enough transpires in the monasteries of both sexes, to form an esti- mate of the wretchedness that dwells in them. But hopelessness and shame smother the sighs of their female inhabitants. Yet knowledge of human na- ture, a moderate degree of candour, and the con- sideration of the laws which have enforced, and still ensure, an internal compliance with the en- gagements of the religious profession; are sufficient to give an awful, though momentary view, of the mass of misery which perpetual vows have pro- duced. There was a time when the will of a parent could bind a child for ever to the monastic life. That liberal Council of Toledo, whose laws about the Jews have been inserted in a preceding note, de? dares that "a monk is made either by paternal de- 27^ votion, or personal profession. Whatever is bound in this manner, will hold fast. We therefore, shut up, in regard to these, all access to the world, and forbid all return to a secular life.'' Monachum aut paterna devotio, aut propria professio facit. Quic- quid horum fuerit alligatum tenebit. Proinde his ad mundum revertendi intercludimus aditura, et omnem ad saeculum interdicimus regressum. (Con- cil. Tolet. IV. Can. 48.) By the more modern discipline of the Church of Rome, this practice has been abolished; but, as it happens in all palliations of essential evils, the abolition of the barbarous power granted to parents, by removing that which shocked at first sight, only makes the remaining grievance more hopeless, — There is, indeed, little difference in allowing boys and girls of sixteen to bind themselves with perpetu- al vows, and devoting them irrevocably to the clois- ter from the cradle. The Church of Rome, in her present regulations, only adds the artfulness of se- duction to the unfeelingness of cruelty. I will here give her laws upon this subject, in the original lan- guage of the Council of Trent; and subjoin the brief statement of two cases, as instances of their practical operation. Can. 9. De Matri7nonio, — "Si quis dixerit, cleri- cos in sacris ordinibus constitutos, vel regulares cas- titatem solemniter professos,* posse matrimonium * The reader will here observe the difference between the secular and the regular clergy. The former do not bind themselves with vows: their celibacy is enforced only by the law which renders their marriag'es null and void. 27S contrahere contractumque validum esse, non ob- stante lege ecclesiastica, vel voto; posseque omnes contrahere matrimonium, qui non sentiunt se casti- tatis, etiamsi earn voverint, habere dfemum, anathe- ma sit, cum Deus id recte petentibus non deneget, nee patiatur nos supra id quos possumus, tentari.'* Sessio XXV. cap. 5. — "Bonifacii octavi constitu- tionem, quae incipit: Fericuloso^ renovans sancta synodus, universis episcopis, sub obtestatione divi- ni judicii, et interminatione maledictionis aeternse, praecipit, ut in omnibus monasteriis sibi subjectis, ordinaria, in aliis vero, sedis apostolica auctoritate, clausuram sanctimonialiura, ubi violata fuerit, dili- genler restitui, et ubi inviolata est, conservari maxime procurent: inobedientes atque contradic- tores per censuras ecclesiasticas, aliasque poenas, quacumque appellatione postposita, compescentes, invocato ad hoc, si opus fuerit, auxilio brachii saecularis. Quod auxilium ut praebeatur, omnes Christianos principes hortatur sancta synodus, et sub poena excommunicationis, ipso facto incurren- da, omnibus magistratibus saecularibus injungit. — Nemini autem sanctimonialium liceat post profes- sionem exire a monasterio etiam ad breve tempus, quocumque praetentur." lb. cap. 19. — "Quicumque regularis praetendat se per yim et metum ingressum esse religionem, aut etiam dicat ante aetatem debitam professum fuisse, aut quid simile, velitqiie habitum dimittere, quacumque de causa, aut etiam cum habitu disce- dere sine licentia superiorum, non audiatnr, nisi S74 intra quinquennium tantum, a die professionis, et tunc, non aliter nisi causas quas pr3etenderit de- duxerit coram superiore suo et ordinario. Quod si antea habitum sponte dimiserit, nullatenus ad allegandum quamcumque causam admittatur; sed ad monasterium redire cogatur, et tamquam apos- tata puniatur; interim nuHo privilegio su9e religio- nis juvetur," How strictly these laws are preserved in vigour by the proud tyranny of the Church of Rome, and the blind subserviency of every government and people who acknowledge her, I will instance in two cases. The first I have on the authority of Don Andres Bello, Secretary to the Colombian Lega- tion in this country: a gentleman whose great worth, talents and learning, I have had many an opportunity to know and admire, during an ac- quaintance of nearly fifteen years. The second is one of the many cases which I can attest from my personal knowledge. The desertion of monks, according to the infor- mation which my friend Mr. Bello has given me on this point, has been at all times frequent in the territories of Spanish America. Their general conduct, I have been assured by everyone acquaint- ed with that country, is openly and outrageously profligate. One of the unfortunate slaves of Rome, *'a man who (to use my friend's own expression) having been his own instructor, lived miserable be- cause his mind was far above all that surrounded him," took the determination of absconding from 275 his cowled masters, and sought for liberty in exile. His real name was Father Christoval de Quesada, a native of Cumana, and Friar of the Order of Mer- cy. Under the assumed designation of Don Carlos de Sucre, he travelled in different countries of Eu- rope, and was everywhere admired for his accom- plishments and agreeable manners. The love of his country betrayed him, at length, into the rash step of venturing back, — yet at a sufficient distance from his native town to imagine himself safe from detection. His abilities recommended him to the archbishop of Caracas, who made him his secreta- ry. Some years had elapsed, when a person, hav- ing desired to speak privately to the supposed Su- cre, showed him that he was in possession of his secret; but engaged to keep it — probably in con- sideration of some pecuniary reward. The unfor- tunate runaway knew too well the nature of his cir- cumstances, and danger; and only thought of sur- rendering on the most favourable conditions. He disclosed his case to the archbishop, who engaged the head of the Order of Mercy to receive the un- fortunate Father Christoval, without inflicting any punishment for his flight. "It was in these circum- stances (says my friend, in an interesting letter to me) that he taught me Latin, a language which he possessed in perfection. He was a man of uncom- mon good nature; plain and unaffected in his man- ners, and rather slovenly in his dress. To classi- cal knowledge he added that of mathematics, and a considerable taste for Spanish poetry. His ser- S76 Hions were excellent whenever he took the pains to write them, which was seldom the case. He volun- tarily took charge of the library of the convent; which he enriched with many excellent works, un- known till then in my town. He also devoted part of his time to the garden of the convent, which had hitherto been allowed to overrun with weeds. Part of the ground he allotted to a numerous breed of ducks, fowls, and other domestic animals; but from this he was obliged to desist, for the friars whose siesta was disturbed by the cackling, contrived to poison their brother's favourites." — "Such (he con- cludes) is the history of Father Quesada, who gave to his return to the convent the appearance of a voluntary act, and donned his frock with the best good humour in the world; well aware that in his circumstances any thing else would have been most imprudent. I have heard in South America a thousand other cases of runaway friars, who have been forced back to their convents; but I am not in possession of the individual circumstances." A strong mind, and a natural good temper, di- vested the preceding instance of the horrors which generally attend the capture of the spiritual slaves who seek liberty by flight. That which I am about to relate is of a much more melancholy cast. I have laid it already before the public, in Doblado's Letters from Spain; but though that work contains no other fiction but a few changes of names, I deem it necessary to record, with all the solemnity ejf history, the fate of the unfortunate nun whom I there introduced to mv readers. The eldest daughter of a family, intimately ac- quainted with mine, was brought up in the convent of Saint Agness at Seville, under the care of her mo- ther's sister, the abbess of that female community. The circumstances of the whole transaction were so public at Seville, and the subsequent judicial proceedings have given them such notoriety, that I do not feel bound to conceal names. Maria Fran* cisca Barreiro^ the unfortunate subject of this ac- count, grew up, a lively and interesting girl, in the convent; while a younger sister enjoyed the advan- tages of an education at home. The mother form- ed an early design of devoting her eldest daughter to religion, in order to give to her less attractive favourite a better chance of getting a husband. — The distant and harsh manner with which she constantly treated Maria Francisca, attached the unhappy girl to her aunt by the ties of the most ar- dent affection. The time, however, arrived when it was necessary that she should either leave her, and endure the consequences of her mother's aver- sion at home, or take the vows, and thus close the gates of the convent upon herself for ever. She preferred the latter course; and came out to pay the last visit to her friends. I met her, almost daily, at the house of one of her relations; where her words and manner soon convinced me that she was a victim of her mother's designing and unfeel- ing disposition. The father was an excellent man, though timid and undecided. He feared his wife, and was in awe of the monks; who, as usual, were W 378 extremely anxious to increase the number of their female prisoners. Though I was aware of the dan- ger which a man incurs in Spain, who tries to dis- suade a young woman from being a nun, humanity impelled me to speak seriously to the father, entreat- ing him not to expose a beloved child to spend her life in hopeless regret for lost liberty. He was greatly moved by my reasons; but the impression I miade was soon obliterated. The day for Maria Francisca's taking the veil was at length fixed; and though I had a most pressing invitation to be pre- sent at the ceremony, I determined not to see the wretched victim at the altar. On the preceding day, I was called from my stall at the Royal Chapel, to the confessional. A lady, quite covered by her black veil, was kneeling at the grate through which females speak to the confessor. As soon as I took my seat, the well-known voice of Maria Francisca made me start with surprise. Bathed in tears, and scarcely able to speak without betraying her state to the people who knelt near the confessional box, by the sobs which interrupted her words; she told me she wished only to unburden her heart to me, before she shut up herself for life. Assistance, she assured me, she would not receive; for rather than live with her mother, and endure the obloquy to which her swerving from her announced determi- nation would expose her, she "would risk the sal- vation of her soul.'* All my remonstrances were in vain. I offered to obtain the protection of the s^rchbishop, and thereby to extricate her from the 279 difficulties in which she was involved. She declin- ed my offer, and appeared as resolute as she was wretched. The next morning she took the veil; and professed at the end of the following year. — Her good aunt died soon after; and the nuns, who had allured her into the convent by their caresses, when they perceived that she was not able to dis- guise her misery, and feared that the existence of a reluctant nun might by her means transpire, be- came her daily tormentors. After an absence of three years from Seville, I found that Maria Francisca had openly declared her aversion to a state, from which nothing but death could save her. She often changed her con- fessors, expecting comfort from their advice. At last she found a friend in one of the companions of my youth; a man whose benevolence surpasses even the bright genius with which nature has gifted him: though neither has been able to exempt him from the evils to which Spaniards seem to be fated in proportion to their worth. He became her con- fessor, and in that capacity spoke to her daily,'— But what could he do against the inflexible tyran- ny in whose grasp she languished! About this time the approach of Napoleon's ar- my threw the town into a general consternation, and the convents were opened to such of the nuns as wished to fly. Maria Francisca, whose parents were absent, put herself under the protection of a young prebendary of the Cathedral, and by his means reached Cadiz, where I saw her, on my way S80 to England. I shall never forget the anguish with which, after a long conversation, wherein she dis- closed to me the whole extent of her wretchedness, she exclaimed. There is no ho/iefor me! and fell in- to convulsions. The liberty of Spain from the French invaders was the signal for the fresh confinement of this helpless young woman to her former prison. Here she attempted to put an end to her sufferings by throwing herself into a deep well; but was taken out alive. Her mother was now dead, and her friends instituted a suit of nullity of profession^ be^ fore the ecclesiastical court. But the laws of the Council of Trent were positive; and she was cast in the trial. Her despair, however, exhausted the lit- tle strength which her protracted sufferings had left her, and the unhappy Maria Francisca died soon after, having scarcely reached her twenty-fifth year. OORRUPTION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY AT THE PERIOD O? THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. The corrupt morals which prevailed among the Roman Catholic bishops and higher clergy, are at- tested by the legates who presided at the first ses- sions of the Council of Trent. "Hoc enim summatim dicimus de omni genere armorum si, qui ilia contra nos tractarunt, a suis ecclesiis pastores fugarunt, ordines confuderunt, 381 liaicos in episcoporum locum suffecerunt, ecclesiae bona diripuerunt, cursum verbi Dei impediverunt: hie, inquam, dicimus, nihil horum esse, quod in libro abusuum pastorum, maxima illorum fiars^ qui hoc nomen sibi vendicant, per se factum esse, si legere libuerint, non scriptum aperlis verbis inve- iiiant. JVostram enim ambitionem^ nostrum avari- iiamj nostras cufiiditates^ his omnibus malis populum Dei prius affecisse statim inveniet alque harum vi ab ecclesiis pastores fugari, easque pabulo verbi privari, bona ecclesiarum, quae sunt bona paupe- rum ab illis tolli, indignis sacerdotia conferri, et illis qui nihil a laicis praeterquam in vestis genere, ac ne in hoc quidem differunt, dari. Quid enim, horum est, quod negare fiossimus fier hos annos a no- bis factum esse,'' — Concione ad Concilium, pp. 736, 737. Collect Labbei et Gossartii. K — Page 160. REAL INFLUENCE OF ROME AND THE MONKS UPON LEARNING. Opinion is no less subject than taste to the peri* odical turns and changes of fashion. The love of the romantic has lately raised every thing belong- ing to the middle ages in the estimation of the reading public, and monks and monasteries share the favour into which the period of their full pros- perity has grown. We constantly hear of the ser- vices which the monks and their church have refi- W 2 282 dered to religion and learning; and men seem wil- ling either to disbelieve or forget the deep wounds which their gross ignorance, and still grosser im- morality, gave to both. These alternate turns of the public attention to the favourable and unfavourable side of historical subjects deprive us of the benefits of experience, as we might derive them from the records of former times. To judge of the utility of old institutions, we should be careful not to mistake the accidental effects which they may have produced, for the pre- dominant and decided tendency of their moral opera- tion. There is no human establishment unmixed with evil: of this we are well aware; but few men are fully impressed with the fact, that no pure and unmixed evil can long exist, except by open vio- lence. When, therefore, we see any law, custom, or establishment supported and cherished for a length of time, we may be sure that its existence is con- nected with some real, though partial, advantages. The philosopher, in such cases, should not confine his observation to the partial operation on either side, good or evil; but examine in the first place, whether the original rise of the institution took place at the expense of social prosperity; and next, whether, upon the whole, it was calculated eventual- ly to improve or degrade society. The epigram made upon the usurer who, having impoverished a district, founded an extensive alms- house to keefi the floor he had tnade^ is, I believe, per- fectly applicable to the monks and their peculiar 283 church, in regard to the mental interests of man- kind. They first barbarized the polished subjects of imperial Rome, and then fed them with the in- tellectual garbage of their schools. A number of circumstances made the Christians of the primitive ages extremely averse to profane literature. The first cause of this was their general want of education; for it pleased God to change the moral face of the world by the instrumentality of the poor and ignorant, that the supernatural work of his grace in the conversion of mankind might be evident. "Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to eon- found the wise, that no flesh should glory in his presence."* The abuse of the name of science was, in the second place, a source of strong dislike to knowledge among the early Christians, Abomi- nable practices of sortilege and imposture were common among those men, who under the name of mathematicians, Chaldeans, and astrologers, were known all over the empire in the first century of the Christian sera. The prevalence of these abuses may be conceived by the multitude of books on magic which were burnt at Ephesus, in consequence of the preaching of Paul.t * 1 Cor. i. 27, 29. f "Many of them also which used curious arts brought theii* books together, and burned them before all men; and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.'* Acts xix. 19, 284 But nothing appears to have so much prepared the darkness of the middle ages, as the prevalence of monkery in the Christian church. The extraor- dinary reverence paid to the grossly ignorant mul- titudes who inhabited the Egyptian deserts* must naturally have tended to the discredit of study and acquirements. When the monastic institution was introduced into the West, and became widely spread under the patronage of the Popes, a spirit of oppo- sition to every thing that can refine and enlighten the mind became visible. As both literature and the arts had flourished among the heathen, zeal and piety conspired to render them odious to the gene- rality of Christians. If, as there is reason to sus- pect it, the Christians joined the barbarians in the destruction of the works of art, the charge falls es- pecially upon the monks, who appear to have court- ed and gained the favour of the invaders.f * There were 76,000 monks in Egypt at the end of the 4tlji century. f Dr. Clarke, in his work on Greek Marbles^ seems to un- derstand two passages from Eunapius in this sense. I con- fess that, considering the circumstances of the case, the fact is extremely probable to me; but the words of Eunapius may be understood, not of direct, but indirect co-operation with the irruption of the barbarians into Greece. Eunapius says, **that the impiety of those who wore black garments (the monks) had opened the passage of the Thermopylae to Alaric and his barbarians.** This may be understood in the same sense as it is said that the weakness of the Koman govern- ment invited the invasion of the northean tribes. The Latin translation is too definite for the original, and does not render 285 But nothing is more certain than that the neglect of ancient literature, and the substitution of scholas- tic learning, was chiefly the work of hina who, as it were in mockery of titles bestowed by men, is called the Great among the Popes who bore the name of Gregory. That his zeal in the propaga- tion of Christianity was extraordinary and sincere, it would be injustice to doubt; but it is equally in- dubitable, that, to a mind grossly superstitious and ignorant, he joined a shocking indifference to moral character in those who felt disposed to favour the Roman see, and her then maturing plans of supre- macy. His flattery of the monster Phocas is a dis- grace "both to Gregory and to his see, and shows the character of papal ambition in its true colours.* Gregory enjoyed a most extraordinary moral in- fluence in his time, which he wholly directed to the object of effacing the few remaining traces of an- cient literature, and introducing monkish learning in its worst shape. "A report has reached our ears," he writes to a professor of grammar, "which I cannot mention without shame, that your fraterni- ty expounds grammar to some persons: this is so painful to us, and it so vehemently raises our scorn, that it has changed all I have previously said into wailing and sorrow — the same mouth, indeed, can- not hold the praises of Jupiter and of Christ." it strictly. Instead of the abstract word acff j3f ta, it has i7npia gens. See Eunapius De Vit. Philos. in JHaximo, * See the article under Greg'ory's name in Bayle's Diction- arv.. See also Gibbon, 286 Gregory made a public boast of his ignorance, and inveighed with such vehemence against all polite literature, that the report of his having burnt the Palatine library, collected at Rome by the emperors, though doubted by modern critics, receives a strong confirmation from his character. *'I scorn," he says, "that art of speaking which is conveyed by external teaching. The very tenor of this epistle shows that I do not avoid the clashing of metacism, nor the obscurity of barbarism: I despise all trouble about prepositions and cases, because I hold it most unworthy to put the heavenly oracles under the restraint of a grammarian."* With such a pattern of elegance and learning be- fore them, the Christian world had no fair chance at the beginning of the seventh century to escape the intellectual darkness which was settling on Europe. Gregory's books on morals were general- ly substituted in the room of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Pope Theodore 1st. gave out that he had recovered the lost copy of that work by a revela- tion of St. Peter and St. Paul, and thus enhanced its value to those who, from distant countries, sent for ii to Rome, to make it the source and standard of their knov/ledgc.f Abstracts and digests of it * Non metacismi coUisionem effugio, non barbarismi con- fusionem devito: situs, motu^que praepositionum casusque ser- vare contemno, quia indig'ns'm vehementer existimo, ut verba ccElestis oraculi restring-am sub r^g-ulis Doiiatl. t Mariana claims the honour of the revelation for T&jon, bishop of Saragossa. Hist, de Espana, L. vi. c. viii. ^87 were industriously compiled for the use of students, and Gregory became the founder, master, and lead- er of the barbarous schools of the middle ages. The limits of a note oblige me to refer my read- ers to the interesting history of the rise of school philosophy, given by Brucker, Period. II. Pars II. cap. ii. de Philos. Christ. Occident, torn. iii. On the moral character of the monks, Fleury, a Roman Catholic, gives considerable information in his eighth discourse, prefixed to Vol. XX. of his Histoire Ecclesiastique. L. — Page 175. PKOOLAMATION OF THE JUBILEE FOR THE PRESENT YEAR OF 1825. The Bull by which the present Pope has proclaim- ed the jubilee is so curious a document, that pos- terity will hardly believe it was really published in the last year of the first quarter of the nineteenth century. I wish to increase its circulation as much as it may be in my power; for I am persuaded no arguments are so powerful against Rome as the au- thentic documents in which she breathes out her genuine spirit. I beg the attention of the reader to the catalogue of curious relics, by which the Pope tries to draw pilgrims to his capital; and to that part of the Bull where he addresses all Protes- 288 lants, inviting them "to have one consentient mind with this (the Roman) Church, the mother and mistress of all others^ out of to hie h there is no salva^ tionj' The translation which I use is taken from the Ro- man Catholic Laity's Directory for 1825. LEO BISHOP, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD, To all the faithful of Christ who shall see these fir esents^ health and ajiostolical benediction. In the merciful dispensations of the Lord, it is at length granted to our humility, to announce to you with joy, that the period is at hand, when what we regretted was omitted at the commencement of the present century, in consequence of the direful calamities of the times, is to be happily observed ac- cording to the established custom of our forefathers; for that most propitious year, entitled to the utmost religious veneration, is approaching, when christians from every region of the earth will resort to this our holy city and the chair of blessed Peter, and when the most abundant treasures of reconciliation and grace will be offered as means of salvation to all the faithful disposed to perform the exercises of piety which are prescribed. During this year, which we truly call the acceptable time and the time of sal- vation, we congratulate you that a favourable oc- casion is presented, when, after the miserable accu- 289 mulation of disasters under which we have groan- ed, we may strive to renew all things in Christ, by the salutary atonement of all christian people. We have therefore resolved, in virtue of the authority given to us by Heaven, fully to unlock that sacred treasure, composed of the merits, sufferings, and virtues of Christ our Lord, and of his Virgin Mo- ther, and of all the saints, which the Author of hu- man salvation has intrusted to our dispensation. In this it becomes us to magnify the abundant riches of the divine clemency, by which Christ, pre- venting us with the blessings of sweetness, so willed the infinite power of his merits to be diffused through the parts of his mystical body, that they by reciprocal co-operation, and by the most whole- some communication of advantages flowing from faith, which worketh by charity, might mutually assist each other: and by the immense price of the blood of the Lord, and for his sake and virtue, as also by the merits and suffrages of the saints, might gain the remission of the temporal punishment, which the fathers of the Council of Trent have taught is not always entirely remitted, as is the case in baptism, by the sacrament of penance. Let the earth, therefore, hear the words of our mouth, and let the whole world joyfully hearken to the voice of the priestly trumpet sounding forth to God's people the sacred Jubilee. We proclaim that the year of atonement and pardon, of redemption and grace, of remission and indulgence, is arrived; in which we know that those benefits which the old X 290 law, the messenger of things to come, brought every fiftieth year to the Jewish people, are renewed in a much more sacred manner by the accumulation of spiritual blessing through Him by whom came peace and truth. For if the lands that had been sold, and property that had passed into other hands, were re- claimed in that salutary year, so we recover wow, by the infinite liberality of God, the virtues, and merits, and gifts, of which we are despoiled by sin. If then the chains of human bondage ceased to exist, — so at present, by shaking off the most galling yoke of diabolical subjection, we are called to the liberty of God's children, to that liberty which Christ has granted us. If, in fine, by the precept of the law, pecuniary debts were then pardoned to debtors, and they became discharged from every bond, — we are also exonerated from a much heavier debt of sins, and are released by the divine mercy from the punishments incurred by them. Eagerly wishing that so many and such great ad- vantages may accrue to your souls, and confidently invoking God, the giver of all good gifts, through the bowels of his mercy, in conformity to the exi- gency of the prescribed period, and the pious insti- tutes of the Roman pontiffs, our predecessors, and walking in their footsteps, — we, with the assent of our venerable brethren, the cardinals of the holjr Roman church, do, by the authority of Almighty God, and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own, for the glory of God himself, the exal- tation of the Catholic churchi and the sanctification S91 of all Christian people, ordain and publish the uni- versal and most solemn Jubilee to commence in this holy city from the first vespers of the Nativity of our most holy Saviour Jesus Christ, next ensuing, and to continue during the whole year 1825; during which year of the Jubilee we mercifully give and grant in the Lord a plenary indulgence, remission, and pardon of all their sins, to all the faithful of Christ of both sexes, truly penitent and confessing their sins, and receiving the holy communion, who shall devoutly visit the churches of blessed Peter and Paul, as also of St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major, of this city, for thirty successive or uninter- rupted (whether natural or ecclesiastical) days, to be counted, to wit, from the first vespers of one day until the evening twilight of the day following, pro- vided they be Romans or inhabitants of this city; but if they be pilgrims or otherwise strangers, if they shall do the same for fifteen days, and shall pour fourth their pious prayers to God for the ex- altation of the holy church, the extirpation of here- sies, concord of Catholic princes, and the safety and tranquillity of christian people. And because it may happen that some persons who shall set out on their journey, or shall arrive in this city, may be detained in their way, or even in the city itself, by illness or other lawful excuse, or be prevented by death from completing the pre- scribed number of days, or perhaps even beginning them, and may be unable to comply with the premi- ses, and visit the said churches, we will, in our de- 293 sire of graciously favouring their pious and ready disposition as far as we can in the Lord, that the same, being truly penitent and confessing their sins, and receiving the holy communion, become par- takers of the aforesaid indulgence and remission as fully as if they had actually visited the said church- es on the days by us appointed; so that, though, hindered by the necessities aforesaid, they may, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, obtain the effect of their desires. These things we announce to you, beloved child- ren, with a fatherly affection, that you, who labour and are burthened, may hasten thither, where you know for certain that refreshment awaits you. Neither is it allowable to remain indifferent and heartless about acquiring these salutary riches from the eternal treasures of divine grace which the most holy and indulgent mother, the church, throws open to you, whilst men are so eagerly intent on amass* ing earthly possessions, which the moth consumes or the rust eats away. And w hen, from the earliest times, there has been great and constant concourse of people, of every station, flocking from all parts of the globe, in defiance of the length and the dangers of the journey, to visit this principal resi- dence of the fine arts, which they admire like a brilliant prodigy, for the magnificence of its build- ings, and the majesty of the place, and the beauty of its monuments, — it would indeed be base, and most foreign to the desire of never-ending happiness, to pretend the difficulty or dangers of the journey, 393 and similar excuses, to decline the pilgrimage to Rome. There is, beloved brethren, there is in re- serve what will most amply remunerate you for every inconvenience and hardship: yes, these suffer- ings, if any such occur, are not fit to be compared to the weight of glory to come, which, with God's assistance, will be secured to you by the means pre- pared for the sanctification of your souls. For you will here reap the most abundant fruits of penance, '^y which you may offer to God the sacrifice of your bodies, chastised by continued acts of self-denial; may religiously perform the works of piety pre- scribed by the conditions of the indulgence; and may add a new force to your fixed and persevering resolution to satisfy for your past crimes by peni* tential austerities, and to avoid all sin for the time to come. Therefore ascend with loins girt up to this holy Jerusalem, this priestly and royal city, which, by the sacred chair of the blessed Peter, become the capital of the world, is seen to maintain more ex- tensive dominion by the divine influence of religion than by earthly authority. "For this is the city,'* said St. Charles, exhorting his people to visit Rome in the holy year, "this is the city whose soil, walls, altars, churches, tombs of the martyrs, and every, visible object, suggest something religious to the mind, as ihey experience and feel, who approach these sacred abodes with proper dispositions.** Consider how much it conduces to excite faith and charity, to proceed round those ancient places, by X 2 294 : which the majesty of religion is wonderfqlly recom- mended; then to place before one's eyes so many thousand martyrs, who have consecrated this very soil with their blood — to enter their churches, to "witness their honours, and venerate their shrines. Now, "if heaven is not so resplendent, when the sun darts forth its rays, as is the city of the Romans, possessing those two luminaries, Peter and Paul, diffusing their light through the universe," as St. John Chrysostome said, who will dare, without tlv. affection of the tenderest devotion, to approach their CONFESSIONS, to prostratc before their tombs, and kiss their chains, more precious than gold and gems. Who, in fine, can refrain from tears, when, per- ceiving the cradle of Christ, he shall recollect the infant Jesus crying in the manger; or, saluting the most sacred instruments of our Lord's passion, shall meditate on the Redeemer of the world hanging on the cross? Since these venerable monuments of religion, by the singularbounty of divine Providence, are collect- ed in this city alone, they are truly the sweetest pledges of love,— that the Lord laveth the gates of Sion above all the tents of Jacob; and they affection- ately invite you all, dearest children, without delay, to ascend the mountain, where it has pleased the Lord to dwell. But here our solicitude demands that we especial- ly address all ranks in this holy city; reminding them that the eyes of the faithful, arriving from every part of the world, are fixed upon themj that^ S95 therefore, nothing but what is grave, moderate, and becoming the Christian, ought to appear in them; so that all may seek from their conduct an example of modesty, innocence, and of every kind of virtue. Hence, from this chosen people, among whom the Prince of pastors has pleased that the chair of the most blessed Peter should be fixed, let the rest of mankind learn how to reverence the Catholic church and ecclesiastical authority, to obey its precepts, and always to render great honour to ecclesiastical things and persons. Let the respect that is due to churches be con- spicuous in them, so that nothing may be observed by strangers of a nature to bring the sacred rights of religion or holy places into contempt or disrepute; nothing that can offend decency, purity, or modesty; nothing but what will excite admiration and edifica- tion. Let all be correct and regular in their con- duct; let them show by their external behaviour that they attend the duties of religion, not merely by their corporeal presence, but in the true spirit of piety and devotion. We also press on their attention, not to appear en- gaged, on the days appointed for sacred offices and the honour of God and his saints, in the celebra- tion of feasting, and amusements, and unseasonable mirth, and wanton licentiousness. In fine, "whatever things are true, whatever are modest, whatever are just, whatever are holy, whatever are lovely, what- ever are of good fame,"— let these shine forth in the Roman people, so that we may congratulate 2iiG ihem that the glory of faith and piety, for which they were recommended as an example by the apos- tle Paul, and which have been transmitted to them by their ancestors as their best inheritance, has received no tarnish, but has even been illustrated in their zeal and edifying conduct. We are indeed refreshed with this consoling hope, that each one will be zealous for the better gifts, that the sheep of the I^ord's flock will run to the embraces of the Shepherd, and that all will be as an army in battle array, having charity for their banner. Therefore, "Jerusalem, lift up thine eyes round about, and see: thy sons from far shall come to thee, and thy heart shall wonder and be enlarg- ed." But would to God "that the children of them that aiRicted thee would come bowing down to thee, and all that slander thee would worship the steps of thy feet." To you, to you we address ourselves with the entire affection of our apos- tolic heart, whom we bewail as separated from the true church of Christ and the road of salvation. — In this common exultation, this alone is wanted: grant it to your most loving parent, that at length, called by the inspiration of the Spirit from above into his admirable light, and bursting asunder eve- ry snare of division, you may have one consentient mind with this church, the mother and mistress of all others, out of which there is no salvation. En- larging our heart, we will joyfully receive you into our fatherly bosom, and will bless the God of all consolation, who, in this greatest triumph of Ca- tholic faith, shall enrich us with these riches of his mercy. But you, venerable brethren, patriarchs, pri- mates, archbishops, bishops, co-operate with these our cares and desires; call a solemn assembly, ga- ther the people, that your children may be prompt- ed to receive those gifts which the Father of mer- cies has entrusted for distribution amongst the children of his love, through the ministry of our humility; remind them, that short are the days of this our pilgrimage; and since we know not at what hour the Father of the household may come, that we must therefore be on the watch, and bear in our hands burning lamps full of the oil of charity, so that we may readily and cheerfully meet the Lord's arrival. To you it belongs to explain with perspicuity the power of indulgences; what is their efficacy, not only in the remission of the canonical penance, but also of the temporal punishment due to the divine justice for past sin; and what succour is afforded out of this heavenly treasure, from the merits of Christ and his skints, to such as have de- parted real penitents in God's love, yet before they had duly satisfied by fruits w^orthy of penance for sin of commission and omission, and are now puri- fying in the fire of purgatory, that an entrance may be opened for them into their eternal country, where nothing defiled is admitted. Courage and attention, venerable brethren! for some there are, following that wisdom which is not from God, and covering themselves with the clothing of sheep, — under the usual pretence of a more refined piety, are now sowing amongst the people erroneous com- ments on this subject. Do you teach ihe flock iS98 fheir several duties; in what deeds of piety and charity they ought to employ themselves; with what diligence, with what sense of sorrow, they ought to examine themselves and their past life; that they should remove and correct what is per- nicious in their conduct, so that they may obtain the most abundant and proper fruit of this most sacred indulgence. But it becomes you, venerable brethren, princi- pally to attend to this, that the members of your respective flocks, who undertake the pilgrimage, may perform it with a religious spirit; that they should avoid every thing on the journey which can disturb their pious purpose, or withdraw them from their holy resolutions; and that they should dili- gently follow up whatever is conducive to animate and inflame devotion. If, taking into consideration your persons and places, you be at liberty to visit this capital of religion, much splendour will be re- flected by your presence on this solemnity; you will accumulate the most abundant riches of the divine mercy, and on your return will delightfully share the same, as most valuable treasures, amongst your people. Nor can we doubt but that all our dearest chil- dren in Christ, the Catholic princes, will assist us on this great occasion with theu' powerful concur- rence; that these our views, so beneficial to souls, may have the desired effect, For this purpose, we entreat and exhort them, by their commendable zeal for religion, to second the ardour of our vene- rable Episcopal brethren, to co-operate diligently g99 with their exertions, and to provide safe conduct and protection, and houses of hospitable reception, along the roads throughout their several domin- ions, that they may not be exposed to any injury ia the performance of this most pious work. They must be fully aware what a general conspiracy was formed to root up the most sacred rights of the altar and the throne, and what wonders the Lord has wrought, who, stretching forth his hand, has humbled the arrogance of the strong. Let them reflect, that constant and suitable thanks ought to be rendered to the Lord of lords, to whom we are indebted for the victory; that the succour of the divine mercy is to be obtained by humble and fre- quent prayer; and that, as the wickedness of the impious is still creeping like a cancer, He may ac- cojHplish, in his clemency towards us, that work which he himself has begun. This, truly, we had chiefly in view, when we deliberated on the cele- bration of the Jubilee; well persuaded of the impor- tance of such a sacrifice of praise to the Lord, in this common consent of all Christian people, for obtaining those heavenly gifts, all the treasures of which we now throw open. Let, therefore, the Ca- tholic princes, labour for this purpose; and as they are endowed with great and generous minds, let them protect this most sacred work with earnest zeal and perpetual care. Assuredly they will learn, by experience, that by this means particularly they will secure to themselves the mercies of God; and that they certainly add to the support of their own government by whatever they do for the protection 360 of religion and the encouragement of piety; so that having destroyed every seed of vice, a delightful crop of virtues may succeed. But in order that all may prosper to our wishes, we entreat your prayers v^ith God, dear children, \vho are of the fold of Christ; for we confide in your common vows and supplications; which you put forth to the divine mercy, for the welfare oi the Ca- tholic religion, and for the return of those that err to the truth, and for the happiness of princes; and that you will hereby powerfully assist our infirmity in supporting our most weighty functions. And that these presents may more easily come to the knowledge of all the faithful in every place, we will, that precisely the same credit be paid even to printed copies, signed nevertheless by the hand of some public notary, and certified by the seal of a person invested with ecclesiastical dignity, as would be paid to these presents, if they should be produc- ed or shown. Be it, therefore, utterly unlawful for any man to infringe, or by any rash attempt to gainsay, this page of our ordinance, promulgation, grant, exhor- tation, dgnand, and will. But if any one shall pre- sume to attempt it, let him know, that he shall in- cur the indignation of Almighty God, and of his blessed apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, in the year of our Lord's Incarnation, 1824, on the 24th May, in the first year of our Pontificate. j1, G. Cardinal^ Pro-JDatary. J, Cardinal Albani, X APPENDIX. Extracts from the Devotion and office of the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ; with its J^Tature^ Oi'igin^ Progress^ Sec. Sec. including the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of the B. V. Mary, &;c. Sec. Sec, and the Reconnmendatory Pastoral Letter of the Bp. of Boulogne to the Faithful in his Diocess. Twelfth Edition: with an Appendix, on the Devotion of the S. H. of Jesus; — Prayers for the Exercise of that Devotion; and the Indult of his Holiness P. Pius VH. in favour of it: for the Use of the Midland District. London, by Keating and Brown, 1821.* "What is the corporeal and sensible object of this devotion? It is the material heart of the Son of God, who was made man out of his pure love for us; it is the most noble part of his adorable bo- dy; it is the principal organ of all the affections, and consequently of all the virtues of his blessed • As it is impossible to give an adequate idea of the con- tents of this book without making extracts that would ex- ceed all reasonable limits, I strongly recommend the peru- sal of it to those who wish to form a correct opinion of the ttue character of Roman Catholic devotion, X 303 humanity; it is the seat and centre wherein corfio* really dwells all the filenitude of his divinity^ and which becoming by virtue of the hypostatical union the heart of the King of kings, of the Holy of holies, of the God of majesty, is raised to an infinite digni- ty, which makes it worthy of our profound homage and adoration." — Pages 10, 11. "In a small town called Paroy le Monial, in the province of Burgundy, and diocess of Autun, there is a convent of the Visitation of the blessed Virgin Mary. Here a holy nun named Mary Margaret was consecrated to Jesus Christ at the age of twen- ty, and lived in retirement unknown. She died there in the odour of sanctity, aged forty, on the 17th of October, 1690. Her virtues are attested by her superiors, and we learn by a writing she gave in obedience to her director, how eminently she was favoured by Almighty God. "This holy virgin was chosen by Jesus Christ to give a beginning to the devotion to his sacred heart. To dispose her to accomplish his design, he infus- ed into her a perfect knowledge of the excellence, the perfections, and the sufferings of this heart. — This gave her an ardent desire to see it known, honoured, and glorified by all creatures. When she was thus prepared, Jesus Christ one day ap- peared to her, and declared his intention of estab- lishing a solemnity in honour of his sacred heart, adding that he chose her to be the instrument of 303 carrying it into execution. Happy to find that the devotion was to be established, she trembled ^t the thought of being employed in it. Her youth, her natural diffidence, and her retirement from creatures, made her conclude that the execution of the design must in her hands be impossible. Un- der this impression she studiously concealed the revelation. But God still urging her to obey, she at length conceived that she could no longer re- sist without guilt. Father Claude la Colombiere, of the Society of Jesus, coming providentially to Paroy, she determined to open herself fully to him* This holy man, whose eminent sanctity and excel- lent writings still preserve his memory fresh in the minds of the faithful, full of the spirit of God, not content with hearing from her mouth all that had passed as above mentioned, obliged her moreover TO deliver in writing a circumstantial account of the revelation she had received and so long con- cealed, concerning this devotion to the sacred heart. We have in the foregoing chapter quoted and explained it. "He was too well acquainted with the eminent sanctity of his penitent to doubt her sincerity, and he considered the concluding injunction as an or- der of Jesus Christ, obliging him to use all his en- deavours to promote the design. But his absence from France, his infirmities, and the shortness of his remaining existence, prevented his making any considerable progress at the time. But we shall soon see that he was an instrument in the hands of Providence even after his death." — Page 58, 61. 304 "In 1720, when Provence was afflicted with the plague, and saw its most flourishing cities fall a prey to the scourge; when a general consternation pervaded the whole kingdom, God inspiring the suffering victims with a hope of safety from a de- vout address to his sacred heart, they had recourse to it to appease the vengeance of offended Heaven. One town followed another in adopting the means of delivery. Bishops and magistrates consecrated their respective people to the sacred heart, and en- gaged themselves by oath to celebrate the feast an- nually to the end of time. It may be said with truth, that God employed this visitation as a means to promote the glory of his sacred heart, which was the fruit of it. Happy they who wait not for the scourge, but apply to this amiable heart in order to prevent the punishment which their sins have de- served!'* — Pages 64, 65. "Objection.-— If the church approves a feast in honour of the divine heart of Jesus Christ, why not approve of other feasts to honour every part of his sacred body? Why a particular feast in honour of his divine heart? Moreover, the feasts are already so numerous in the church, that it seems improper to multiply them; new offices interrupt those which the church has formerly instituted. "As this objection has made great impression on many who have taken no pains to examine it, I have thought it necessary to mention it in a separate article, and to show the weakness of it. 305 "The numerous confraternities who celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart with great solemnity, the number of bishops w^ho have approved them, the number of briefs of indulgences granted to them by the holy see, are a great proof that the above ob- jection has nothing solid. It is of little purpose to dispute whether the feast of the sacred heart de- serves to be approved. In a point of this nature, a great part of the church, authorized by so many bishops and the holy see, cannot mistake; for which reason, the objection \yhich opposes the institution of this feast can make no impression on a faithful, and devout soul." — Pages 115, 116. LETTERS PATENT OF AGGREGATION^. We, Brother Francis of S. Reginald, Prior of the venerable Arch-confraternity of the sacred heart of Jesus at RoxME, To our beloved in Christy the associates in the sacred heart of Jesus^ the faithful of either sex^ who are any ways British subjects^ or descended from them^ wheresoever they dwell; greeting in our Lord. Whereas his holiness of pious memory, Clement the XII. has by sundry decrees, viz. by one of the 7th of March, 1732, another of the 28th of February, ditto, and a third of the 12th of June, 1736, granted many favours and privileges to our arch-confrater- nity of the sacred heart; and among the rest has em- powered it to unite and associate to itself any par- ticular confraternity of the sacred heart, extant any Y 2 306 where out of Rome, and to impart to it all and every indulgence, grant, or release of the canonical pen- ance due to sins, that has at any time been hereto- fore granted to this our arch-confraternity by his said holiness. And whereas a confraternity of the sacred heart, erected in the church or domestic chapel of the English fathers of the society of Jesus at Bruges, has applied to us, through its solicitor in Rome, Signor Joseph Monionelli, in order to obtain leave to be thus associated to ours, and to share in all its pri- vileges and grants: we have thought fit, considering the many good works of piety, penance and charity performed in that confraternity at Bruges, (which as to all essentials is modelled upon the same plan as ours) to unite and associate to it our arch-confra- ternity, pursuant to the power given us for this pur- pose by the holy see; and we grant to it and its mem- bers all the indulgences and particular favours men- tioned in the Popes' briefs; still keeping within the terms of the decree of Clement VIII. which directs such associations and communications of spiritual treasures. Moreover, besides the indulgence and special fa- vours set down in the above-mentioned papal grant, we impart to the said confraternity a share in all the masses, prayers, mortifications, pilgrimages, and other good works performed throughout the whole world by the several religious orders of Benedictins, Bernardins, Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, Theatins, and Fathers of the Society of Jesus, pur- suant to the power we have received thereunto from 307 the superiors of the said orders; as may be seen ii> the authentic deeds belonging to our arch-confrater« nity, and lodged in our archives. For the proof whereof we have caused the pre- sent deed> signed by our own hand, to be underwrit- ten and published by the secretary of our arch-con- fraternity, and to be sealed with the seal thereof. Given at Rome, in the usual place of our congre^ gation, the 30th of January 1767, in the 9th year of his present holiness Clement the Xlllth's pontifi- cate, formerly our fellow associate, and now our most liberal father and protector. JBr. Francis of St. Reginald^ Prior. Br, Philip, of St. Joseph of Callassantio^ Secretary, Registered, book the first, page 63, No. 38. THE APPROBATION OF THE BISHOP OF BRUGES. We permit the publishing of these letters of ag- gregation, still with due regard to be paid to the de- cree of Clement the VIII. Qusecumque a sedc Ap,oa^ ^o/ica, and we approve of the choice made by the as- sociates, of the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christie for the principal feast of the association, in order to gain the plenary indulgence, and of the first Sunday in Advent, the second Sunday after the Epiphany, the third after Easter, and the first Sun- day of October, to gain the indulgence of seven years, and of so many quarantines, or forty days. Given at Bruges, in our episcopal Palace, the 20th of March 1767. By the order of his lordship the bishop of Bruges. C, Beerenbrocky Secretary. 308 A petition that British Subjects might fiartake of the advantages of this institution,^ though remote from and unable to attend in the chafiels afifiointcd for the Association, Holy Father, The president, and the members of the confrater* nity of the most holy heart of Jesus, instituted for the subjects of Great Britain, of both sexes, in the chapel of the English seminary at Bruges, in Flan- ders, and associated to the arch-confraternity of the same title erected in the church of St. Theodore, at Rome, prostrate themselves at your Holiness's feet, and dutifully represent the signal advantages arising from the said confraternity in the increase of spiritual fervour among the faithful, and desirous to transmit these religious fruits to the latest pos- terity, humbly supplicate your Holiness to grant, that the members of the said confraternity of both sexes, who are not at liberty to visit the aforesaid chapel on the days appointed for obtaining the in- dulgences granted to the confraternity, may obtain all and every one of them, as if they had personally attended, provided they perform all the other good works prescribed for obtaining the said indulgen- ces. THE GRANT. At the audience of his Holiness^ Feb, 23(/, 1768. Our Holy Father Pope Clement XHI. is gracious- ly pleased to grant the prayer of the petition, and 809 enacts^ that such members of the confraternity as have it not in their power to visit the aforesaid chapel on the days appointed for obtaining the in- dulgences granted to the same, may have the benefit of all and every one of them, provided they perform all the other religious duties prescribed on that oc- casion; and his Holiness was pleased to order, that this his concession should be at all times considered as valid without the expedition of a brief. Dated^ Ro?ne^ from the office of the Secretary of the holy Congregation of Indulgences, Cardinal Calani, Prefect, Borgia, Secretary of the sacred Congregation of hi- dulgences, — Page 188 — 195. THE devotion TO THE SACRED HEART OF MARY, , SECTION I. As the adorable heart of Jesus was formed in the chaste womb of the blessed Virgin, and of her blood and substance, so we cannot in a more proper and agreeable manner show our devotion to the sacred heart of the Son, than by dedicating, some part of the said devotion to the ever pure heart of the Mother. For you have two hearts here united in the most strict alliance and tender conformity of sentiments, so that it is not in nature to please the one without making yourself agreeable to the other 310 and acceptable to both. Go then, devout client, go to the heart of Jesus, but let your way be through the heart of Mary. The sword of grief which pierced her soul, opens you a passage: enter by the wound love has made; advance to the heart of Jesus, and rest there even to death itself. Presume not to separate and divide two objects so intimately one, or united together, but ask redress in all your exi- gencies from the heart of Jesus, and ask this redress through the heart of Mary. This form and method of worship is the doctrine and the very spirit of God's church: it is what she teaches us in the unanimous voice and practice of the faithful, who will by no means that Jesus and Mary should be separated from each other in our prayers, praises, and affections. This considera- tion has engaged the sovereign pontiffs and head p«,ators 01 the church to give iheself-same sanction to the pious practices instituted in honour of the sacred heart of Mary, as they give to those of the adorable heart of Jesus, both within their proper limits. They both have equally their feasts and solemnities, both their associations, and those too equally enriched with the treasures of the church, under the liberal dispensation of its governors. Many are the pious and virtuous souls who have drawn most signal fruit and advantages from these devotions. — Page 198 — 200. 311 A NOYENA, OR NINE DAYS* DEVOTION TO THE EVER BLESSED VIRGIN. Having, out of devotion, lighted up a wax candle, either in your private oratory or in the church, re- cite each day the following prayer. The intent is for the obtaining some particular favour. "Incomparable Virgin! chosen by the ever ador- able Trinity, from all eternity, to be the most pure mother of Jesus, allow thy servant to remind thee of that ineffable joy thou receivedst in the instant of the most sacred incarnation of our divine Lord, and during the nine months thou carriedst him in thy most chaste bowels. O! that I could but renew, or if possible increase this thy joy by the fervor of my prayers; at least, most tender Mother of the afflict- ed! grant me, under the present pressure, those ma- ternal consolations and that peculiar protection, thou hast promised to such as shall devoutly com- memorate this ineffable joy. Relying on thy sacred word, and trusting in thy promises, I humbly en- treat thee to obtain from Jesus Christ, thy dearly beloved Son, my request." Having specified it^ say^ "May this light I burn before thy image, stand as a memorial of the lively confidence I repose in thy bounty. May it consume in honour of that in- flamed and supernatural love and joy with which thy sacred heart was replenished during the abode of thy blessed Son in thy womb: in veneration of which I offer to thee the sentiments of my heart, ancl the following salutations/* SIS Say nine Hail Marys^ and then the following Prayers. "Mother of my God most merciful ! to thee I of- fer these Hail Marys: they are so many brilliant jewels in the diadem of thy accidental glory, which will remain increasing to the end of the world. I beseech thee, Comforter of the afflicted! by the joy thou receivedst in the nine months of thy pregnan- cy, to comfort my afflicted heart, and to obtain for me, from thy Son, a favourable answer to the peti- tion I make to thy compassionate mercy and bene- volence. To this effect I offer to thee all the good works that have ever been performed in the confra- ternities of thy sacred heart, and other associations in thy honour. I most humbly entreat thee, on this consideration, and for the love of the sacred heart of Jesus, with which thy own was ever so inflamed, to hear my humble suit and grant my request. Jmen," — Page 208—211. Jin Exam file. "A nobleman, who for sixty years of his life past had never had access to the sacraments, and who had given loose to the passions of his body and mind, and abandoned himself to the slavery of his spiritual enemy, fell sick, and was in the utmost danger of death. Hopes of salvation he had none, and so desperate was his case, that he would not give ear to the salutary advice of his director, or admit into his mind the thoughts of reconciling 313 himself to his Creator, by means of the sacrament of penance. Nevertheless, in the midst of the ex- cesses of so profligate a life, he had never entirely lost sight of some small devotion and regard to the ever blessed Mother of God. Jesus Christ, who manifests the riches of his mercy particularly to such as cast a favourable eye towards her, raised in him so great a compunction for his sins, that, enter- ing into himself, and in the utmost contrition of his heart, he three several times in the same day made a general confession of his whole life, received the holy eucharist, and the sixth day after died in all peace and quiet of mind, and with the sentiments of joy which flow from a well-grounded confidence in the mercies and bounty of our sufl*ering Redeem- er and his sacred passion. In effect, our blessed Saviour revealed, soon after his death, to the holy St. Bridget, that the said penitent died in a state of grace, was a blessed soul, and owed his happiness in great measure to the tender, affectionate compas- sion which he had ever found and nourished in his heart, so often as he heard others speak of the sa- cred dolours of our blessed Lady, or happened to entertain the memory of them in his mind." — Page 234—236. Jn Angelical Exercise in Honour of our Blessed Lady . Whosoever is devoted to this exercise in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary, in reading over every Z 314 point, may meditate upon it for the space of one Hail Mary or more, and by God's grace, he will in a short time find himself greatly increase in love to- wards that blessed Queen of Heaven; and at the hour of death will, by so pious a mother, be received as her dearest child. Nor can such a one, according to St. Anselm and St. Bernard, possibly perish, but shall find life everlasting, and taste of the joys of eternal bliss.* — Page 275, 276. Of Agnus Dei^s, All Agnu8 Dei (so called from the image of the Lamb of God impressed on the face of it) is made of virgin wax, balsam, and chrism, blessed accord- ing to the form prescribed in the Roman ritual. * A specimen of this ^^ngelical Exercise will be found in Letter VI. It is a kind of dialogue between the Virgin and her worshipper; the language used by the former is often ludicrous, and now and then any thing but delicate. She always illustrates her advice by the example of saints; and in one instance recommends the caution of St. Aloysius Gonza- ga, who "would not even speak alone with his own mother, for fear of the least danger of offence.'* "I assure you,'' says the Virgin, on another occasion, "Ii\ the sincerity of a mother, that it were better to sleep among serpents, dragons, basi- lisks, and even the very devils themselves, than to rest one night in mortal sin." Again, "My blessed servant Ignatius gave me one day power over his heart, and I did render it sa chaste and strong, that he never after felt any motion of the flesh all his life." 315 The spiritual efficacy, or virtue of it, is gathered from the prayers that the church makes use of in the blessing of it, which is to preserve him who carries an Agnus Dei, or any particle of it, about him, from any attempts of his spiritual or temporal enemies; from the dangers of fire, of water, of storms and tempests, of thunder and lightning, and from a sudden and unprovided death. It puts the devils to flight, succours women in childbed, takes away the stains of past sins, and furnishes us with new grace for the future, that we may be preserved from all adversities and perils, both in life and death, through the cross and merits of the Lamb, who redeemed and washed us in his blood. The Pope consecrates the Agnus Dei's the first year of his pontificate, and afterwards every seventh year on Saturday before Low-Sunday, with many solemn ceremonies and devout prayers. Franc, Cost, Lib. 4. Christian Institut. cap, 12. The use of the Agnus Dei is so ancient, that it is now above 960 years since Pope Leo, the third of that name, made a present of one to the emperor Charles the Great, who received it from the hands of his Holiness, as a treasure sent him from heaven^ and reverenced it with a singular piety and devotion^, as it is recounted in the book intituled, Registr. Sum. Pontif.-^PsL^e 375—377. THE END* Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Jan. 2006 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATfON 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township. PA 16066 (724)779-2111