Book •-H& WTTILILEi^ IE® ©AH. P P E R Y! AS IT ¥AS AID AS IT IS, AURICULAR CONFESSION; AND POPISH NUNNERIES BY WILLIAM HOGAN, ESQ., FORMERLY A ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST. FIFTY-SECOND THOUSAxND. WITH SEVERAL ILLUSTRATIONS HARTFORD: SILAS ANDRUS & SON. 1854. ^"A aG ^ V\^ ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN" THE YEAR 1345, BY WILLIAM HOGAN, ^N THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS. THE FOLLOWING PAGES RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED AMERICAN REPUBLICANS, THE AUTHOR, LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, F.vGE. Portrait of William Hogan, 1 Bishop of Pennsylvania blessing the Slicks, 115 A Young Lady confessing to the Priest, 255 Mother Abbess strangling the Infant, 2S5 The Father in pursuit of the Priest, 554 PREFACE. In submitting the following pages to the public, 1 can say, with truth, that 1 am actuated by no other motive than a sincere desire to promote the interest, and con tribute all in my power to perpetuate the free institutions, of this, my adopted country. It is many years since I have had any intercourse or connection with the church or priests of Rome; and I vainly imagined that, after the first outbreak of theii animosity, for repudiating their doctrines, it would suc- ceed into a calm indifference. I was aware of the cus torn, in that church, to defame and calumniate all who "went out from her;" but especially those who have held any distinguished position. Against such, appeals are immediately made to the peo- •ple by their priests, until, finally, maddened by sophistry, fanaticism, and falsehoods, they look upon the seceder as one whom it is their duty to destroy ; and in whose word^ honor, and virtue, no confidence is to be reposed. The object of the Romish church, in this, cannot be mistaken. It is too plain to escape even the least observant eye. A lawyer who can render legally valueless the testimony of opposing witnesses, seldom fails in establishing his case ; and hence it is that the Romish church never fails to de- stroy, if she can, the credibility of all who break loose from PREFACE. her, knowing them to be the best witnesses of her iniquities. But for some years back, and until recently, the violence of Popish priests against myself seemed to slumber. This was natural. In the body ecclesiastic, as well as in the natural body, a morbid excitement often succeeds a stupor; and recently these gentlemen have assailed me again. To apparent indifference succeeded a frantic zeal ; and from one end of this continent to the other, they have tried to injure me, by appeals to the public through their presses, and especially through the con- fessional. All this I would have disregarded, as usual, but I find that these priests have become politicians, and that every blow aimed at me, for the free exercise of my judgment as to the best mode of worshipping God, is aimed at the constitution of my adopted country, which grants this blessing, without let or hindrance, to all the children of men. Well aware that Americans are not acquainted with the designs of Popery against their country and its insti- tutions, I feel it my duty to lay before them the following pages. The perusal of them will satisfy every American that our country is in danger, not so much from enemies abroad as from foes within. They will find that Papists have reduced political, as well as religious corruption, to a system, and are, at this moment, practising it amongst us, upon a great and gigantic scale. SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. When this country renounced its allegiance to the British crown, and proclaimed itself independent Popery was on the wane in Europe ; it was there getting more sickly, more languid and feeble, until it had little more than a mere nominal existence ; but while its blossoms were fading, its thorns retained their vitality, inflicting pains and wounds on all who came in contact with them. The Jesuits, one of the most influential orders of friars belonging to the Roman church, continued still active as ever in their fiendish avocations ; they roamed about, like so many gnomes, from country to country, and from people to people, carrying with them, and strewing on their paths, the seeds of moral death on all that was precious and valu- able in the social system. Whatever they touched was blighted ; whatever they said or preached breathed treachery ; wheiever they went, vice, crime, and duplicity marked their track. But dark as the times were then, enshrouded as they had been in ignorance, and idolatrous as the people were, they began to manifest some dissatisfaction at the machinations of Jesuits in their eflbrts to acquire temporal power. They began to feel it in 8 SYNOPSIS or POPERY, the loss of their property, out of which they too late saw themselves gradually swindled ; they felt it in the loss of their liberty and civil rights, out of which they had been persuaded, all for the good OP THE CHURCH. Enduraucc became intolerable, and those unhallowed agents had to be partially suppressed. The Popish church, at this time, seeing the influence of her most active agents gradually diminishing, her ancient glories fading, and her power vanishing from her grasp ; and scarcely able to breathe any longer in the putrid atmos- phere which her own corruption and impurities had created, very naturally turned her eyes to- ward s this brilliant new world. It was then young and beautiful ; it abounded in all the luxu- ries of nature ; it promised all that was desirable to man. The holy church, seeing these irresistible temptations, thirsting with avarice, and yearning for the reestablishment of her falling greatness, soon commenced pouring in among its unsuspect- ing people hordes of Jesuits and other friars, with a view of forming among them institutions which were already found to be destructive to the peace and morals of all social and religious principles in Europe. We now see Popish colleges, and nun- neries, and monastic institutions, springing up in our hitherto happy republic ; and, if similar causes continue, as they have ever done, to produce similar effects, it needs no prophet's eye to see, nor inspired tongue to tell, what the consequences must be to posterity. Many suppose that Popery has been modified ; that it is different now from what it was in ancient times ; that the spirit which actuated Papists in those dark days ceases to influ- ence them now that the faggot, the rack, and vari- AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. ous Other modes of torture, are not still in use in the Roman church, and that it has long ceased to lay o'aim, by divine right, to temporal sovereignty, or to any other of those prerogatives wliich they formerly insisted upon. There are some so fastidiously liberal as to grant them ail immunities which may be with safety granted to other sects ; others there are, so patriotic as to hold at defiance all their power ; and others so self-conceited as to fancy themselves an over-match even for Jesuits, in religious chi- canery and political intrigue. All this arises, not from want of true zeal in American Protestants, but because they are unac- quainted with the canons of the Romish church. These canons are inaccessible to the majority of the American people, even of theologians, and with the purport and meaning of them none but those who have been educated Roman Catholic priests have much or any acquaintance. I hesitate not to say — although I do so with the utmost respect and deference — that there are but few American theologians who have much acquaintance with the doctrines or canons of the Romish church. They form no part of their studies ; a knowledge of them is not necessary in the legitimate discharge of their pastoral duties ; and hence it is, that m many of their controversies with Romish priests, they are not unfrequently browbeaten, bullied, and often almost ignominiously driven from the arena of controversy by men who, in point of general information, virtue, piety, zeal, and scriptural knowledge, are greatly their inferiors. He who argues with Catholic priests must have had his education with them ; he must be of them and from among them. He must know, from expe- rience, that they will stop at no falsehood whore 1* 10 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, the good Oi the church is concerned ; he must iCnow that the J' will scruple at no forgery when they desire to establish any point of doctrine, fundamental or not fundamental, which is taught by their church ; he must be aware that it is a standing rule with Popish priests, in all their con- troversies with Protestants, to admit nothing and deny every thing, and that, if still driven into diffi- culty, they will still have recourse to the archives of the church, where they keep piles of decretals, canons, rescripts, bulls, excommunications, inter- dicts, ifcc, ready for all such emergencies ; some of them dated from three hundred to a thousand years before they were written or even thought of ; showing more clearly, perhaps, than anything else, the extreme ignorance of mankind between the third and ninth centuries, when most of these forgeries were palmed upon the world. With the aid of these miserable forgeries, they attempt to prove, among other things, that the divine right of the Pope to the sovereignty of this world was acknowledged by the fathers of the church, in the earliest days of Christianity. There are to be found now, in the Vatican at Rome, canons and decretals which go to show that the Pope was considered "equal to God," as early as the third century. More of these impious forgeries attempt to show that some of the most pious fathers of the church, in the days of her unquestioned sanctity and piety, acknowledged *'Mary, the mother of Jesus, to be equal to God the Son, and deserved supreme adoration." With these forged instruments, they attempt to show that the primitive Christians believed in the real and actual presence of the whole body and blood of Christ, in the wafer which they call the Eucharist AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 11 Monstrous, horrible, and impions, as these absurdi-^ ties are, I once believed them myself. So much for the prejudices of education. The object of the following pages is to show, first, the origin of Papal power ; secondly, to call the attention of Americans to its rapid growth in many of the nations of the earth ; and, thirdly, to put my fellow citizens on their guard against giving it any countenance or support within the limits of the United States. ORIGIN OF THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPE. We have no authentic evidence that the bishops or presbyters of the primitive Christian church laid claims to temporal power, much less to uni- versal sovereignty, such as Popes have arrogated to themselves, in subsequent times, even down to the present day. Constantine, as we are informed by the best authorities, was the first to unite civil and ecclesiastical power. He introduced Christianity among the Romans by civil authority. This oc- curred between the years 272 and 337 ; but never during his reign, nor before it, was there an in- stance of a bishop or presbyter of the church aspiring to temporal jurisdiction. They were poor and persecuted ; they were meek and humble ; they were well content with the privilege of worshipping God in peace. The instructions of their divine Master were fresh in their minds — they almost still rung in their ears. They felt that they were sent into the world with speciat instructions to " preach the gospel to every crea- ture." Their heavenly Master told them that his 12 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, ^'kingdom was not of this world." They felt the full force of that high and holy admonition, " Ren- der to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." They cheerfully submitted to the civil authorities. They claimed not the right of giving away kingdoms, crowning em- perors, deposing princes, and absolving their sub- jects from their oaths of allegiance. These pure Christians and devout men asked for no distinctions, but those of virtue and zeal in the cause of Christ ; they sought for no wealth but that of Heaven ; they desired no crown but that of glory; they sought no tiara save that of martyrdom ; they were sur- rounded by no court but that of the poor ; no col- lege of cardinals waited on their pleasure ; there were no nu7icios sent from their court ; no foreign ambassadors passed between them and the powers of this earth. The only court with which they had business to transact, and in which their treas- ures were laid up, was the court of Heaven ; and their only ambassadors at that court were the angels of heaven, sent forth to minister unto them. But this state of things did not last long. As a modern writer beautifully expresses it, " the trail of the serpent is over us all." The Emperor Constantino, seeing the poverty of the primitive church, — her yast and progressive increase in num- bers and the consequent demand upon her charities, — -granted to her bishops permission to hold prop- erty, real and personal. This concession on the part of Constantino, simple and trifling as it seemed to be ; this commingling of the things of heaven and earth, was unnatural. It contained within Itself the principles of dissolution, or rather of entire destruction ; and became, in time, the source from which have sprung most of the wars, massacres, AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 13 and bloody strifes, that have desolated and divided into fragmentary sections, the richest, the fairest, and the finest portions ot the globe, during the last fif- teen hundred years ; and will continue to do so, unto the end of time, unless the advance of civili- zation, and the great progress which the human mind has made in ethics, morals, and metaphysics, on this continent, puts an immediate check to Popish interference with the policy of our country. Could we suppose an individual, who knew nothing of ancient times ; who was an entire stran- ger to the darkness which pervaded Europe during the middle ages ; who had no acquaintance with the pretensions, arrogance and insolence of Roman pontiffs ; who knew no other constitution and no other laws but those of our own country ; he could not but feel surprised at being first told, that there now lived in Rome, an upstart ecclesiastic, called a Pope^ who has the hardihood to assert that he is Sovereign Lord, and that too by divine right, of these United States, as well as of all other kingdoms of this world. He goes even further, and con- tends that his predecessors had similar divine rights, and that all the citizens and inhabitants of this country owed allegiance to him personally, and to no one else, unless delegated by him to receive it. But strange as this may appear, it is no less true, as I will show from authorities, which cannot be questioned, by those who claim such extravagant immunities. The Pope of Rome predicates his claim to uni- versal sovereignty upon the power of loosing and binding on earth and in heaven ; which, in the ex- uberance of their fancy, Roman Catholic writers contend was given to St. Peter. Their next step is to prove, that this supremacy was ar knowledged 14 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, by the primitive fathers of the church, and conse- quently their rights and claims are beyond dispute. But before I proceed to give any of the authori- ties, upon which Roman Cathohc writers rest the antiquity of the recognition of their Pope's tem- poral power, it may not be amiss to inform the reader that the very first on which they rely is one of the most unblushing forgeries on record; and is dated about six hundred years previous to the time at which it purports to have been written. It is taken from the words of a conveyance of certain temporal concessions, said to be made by tlie Em- peror Constantino to Pope Sylvester, some time between the second and third centuries. It is in the following words : " We attribute to the chair of St. Peter all impe- rial dignity, glory, and power. We give to Pope Sylvester, and to his successors, our palace of Late- ran, one of the finest palaces on earth ; we give him our crown, our mitre, our diadem, and all our im- perial vestments; we resign to him all our imperial dignity. We give the Holy Pontiff, as a free gift, the city of Rome, and all the western cities of Italy, as well as the western cities of other countries. To make room for him, we abdicate our sovereignty over all these provinces, and we withdraw from Rome, transferring the seat of our empire to Byzan- tium ; since it is not just that a terrestrial emperor shall retain any power where God has placed the head of the church." It would be a waste of time to show that no such donation as the above ever existed. No mention is made of it in any history of the Popes that has ever been written, or in any other document which had reference to them during the reign of Constantino. It is a forgery so shallow, unreal, and unsubstantial, AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 15 that there is no well-educated historian, and never has been one, who gave it any credence. The his- torian Fie wry pronounces it a falsehood ,• and he, being a Roman Catholic, must be considered good authority upon all matters relating to the lioly church. The quotation, however, from this supposed deed of concession, by Constantine to Pope Sylvester, is not without instruction to the citizens of this country. It should arouse them to a sense of the dangers which are hovering over them. It should remind them that every thing is perishable. The fairest flower must fade ; the love- liest lily must wither ; the laughing rose must droop ; even our fair republic may lose its bloom, and pass away. A state of things may arise in this country, when its executive may be a Papist, its ju- diciary Papists, and a majority of its population may be Papists. These things are not beyond the range of possibility ; and are you sure that your own de- scendants, and those of the pilgrim fathers, may not, one day or other, give this republic as a free gift to the head of the Papal church ? You are now strong — so was Rome. Your power is now irresistible — so was that of Rome and other countries. Your arms are invincible — so were those of Rome. You are now distinguished all over the world, for your progress in the arts and sciences ; the world looks to you as models of patriotism and pure republican- ism — so did the world once look to Rome. But what is Rome now, and what drove her from the high position she once occupied ? I will tell you ; — the intrigues of the Popish church. And a similar fate awaits you, unless you cut off all connection, of whatever name, between the citizens of the United States and the church of Rome. While this sink of iniquity breathes, it will carry with it destruction and death wherever it goeth. 16 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, We have had several histories of the Popes, and the first mention made of donations to them, at least of any comparative value, is by Anastasius, v/ho wrote about the beginning of the tenth century, or a little before the close of the ninth. He informs us that Charlemagne conferred upon the Holy See (as that hotbed of iniquity is impiously, even at the present day, called) whole provinces^ and ac- knowledged that they belonged to the Pope by divine right ; though it is well understood, and de- nied by no competent historian, that Charlemagne never even owned these provinces. It is well known to the readers of history, that there existed no empire of any extent, but that of the East, until the beginning of the eighth century. Charlemagne assumed the title of King of Italy, in the year eight hundred. He received homage from the Pope, and so far from being subject to him, he acknowledged no divine right in him ; but on the contrary, he held the Pope in strict subjection to himself. He even went so far as to prohibit the Holi/ See fvom receiv- ing donations of any kind, when given without the consent or to the prejudice of those who had just and equitable, claims to them. This, if there were no other proof, is sufficient to show that neither the Popes nor the Holy See had any pretensions to universal supremacy, or to supremacy of any kind, as far down as the eighth century. It will not be denied that the civil au- thorities of Rome were liberally disposed toward? the Popes or fathers of the church in the early days of Christianity. The Emperor Theodosius the Great, who died in the year three hundred and ninety five, recommended to all his subjects to pay '' a due respect to the See of Rome." Valentian III. commanded his subjects ^'not to depart from AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 17 the faith and customs of the Holy See.^^ It will however be borne in mind, that this Valentian was acknowledged emperor at the age of six, and his affairs were managed principally by his mother. So dissipated were his habits, that he finally fell a victim to them. But up to this period ftiere is no evidence whatever that the Popes either claimed or exercised temporal authority. About this time several councils met for the pur- pose of adjusting disputes that arose between the sons of the successor of Charlemagne, who unwisely, £is historians suppose, divided his empire into three equal parts anong them. It was at one of these councils, that the doctrine of the divine right of Popes to temporal authority was first broached by the production of some of those forged documents to which I have heretofore alluded. Pope Gregory the Fourth took an active part in fomenting the dissen- sions which necessarily arose from the division which the successor of Charlemagne had made of his em- pire among his sons. The Pope, with that craft peculiar to all ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic denominations, was active in widening the breach between father and sons, and having effected this to his content, his next move was to sow further dissensions between the sons themselves, and finally to create such a general confusion and dissatisfac- tion among all parties, as to render a mediator ne- cessary. Having attained his object, he offered his services to the Imperial Father, and it was accepted. He presented himself at his camp, obtained an entrance, and what were the consequences ? His- tory tells the tale — it was a tale of treachery. This serpent, clothed in his pontificals, enters the camp, tampers with the chief officers of the empe- ror's aimy, absolves them from all lurther allegiance 18 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, to him, and promises them forgiveness both here and hereafter. Some adherents of the emperor, indignant at this conduct of the Pope, remonstrated with him ; and what was his answer ? " Know you," said this insolent Pope, addressing himself to the people, " that my chair is above the chair of the emperor." But this Pope did no more than every succeeding one would have done under simi- lar circumstances. If we look back to the page of history, from the present period to the days of Char- lemagne, Louis Debonaire, and Gregory the Fourth, we shall find that it has been an invariable practice with the Roman See to sow dissensions and dis- union in every government where it has obtained a footing, with the ultimate view of its final over- throw and subjecting it to Popish vassalage. Americans will bear in mind that Roman Catho- lics believe their church to be infallible ; that she never changes ; that what was deemed right by her in the days of Gregory and those of his imme- diate successors, is right now, and, vice versa, what she deems right now was right then. In a word, the church of Rome is infallible. This is believed by every one of her members at the present day. It is taught by every Popish bishop and priest in the United States. The following curse is contained in the Roman Catholic Breviary, in which, every Romish priest , reads his prayers three times every day. " Qui dicit ecclesiani catholicam Roinana7n non esse infal- libilem, anathema sit — Whoever says that the Ro- man Catholic church is not infallible, let him be accursed." Such is the belief of every Roman Catholic. Will not Protestant Americans j)ause and reflect for a moment ? The population of the United States is about twenty millions, and about AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 19 two millions are Papists. Consequently, seventeen millions and a half of our people are accursed and damned^ according to the doctrine of the Romish ritual ; and yet we Protestants are called upon to ex- tend the hand of friendship to these Papists, and our legislators are asked to grant them charters to build colleges, churches, nunneries, and monk-houses, not for the purpose of teaching the growing genera- tion the revealed will of God, as read in the Scrip- tures, but to persuade them that all other religions, except that of Rome, are erroneous ; that their pa- rents, brothers, and sisters, are heretics, accursed forever, and by implication entitled to no allegiance from them. The Pope is now setting on foot a movement which is intended to embrace the whole world, and of which he desires Rome to be the sole representa- tive, centre, and circumference. The powers of the Pope have met with several severe shocks since the Reformation. His forces have been broken, his armies of Jesuits, his friars of all orders, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Capuchins, have been scattered and enfeebled. He determined to arm himself afresh, and this new world appeared to him as the safest ground on which he could unite his scattered forces in Europe. This he well knows cannot be done, without throwing some fire-brand of dissension among our people, which at this moment he is try- ing to effect ; and which nothing but the resistance offered to him by American Republicans can check or prevent. On the continuance, strength, and union of this party, depends the stability of our government. This the Romish priests and bisnops well know, and are begiiming to feel ; and hence they are de- nouncing them from their pulpits, and in all their 20 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, presses. But no Protestant opposes this party Why call it a party? It is no party. It is but the spontaneous move of the good and the virtuous of all parties who love their God, their Bibles, and their country, and upon whose strong arm and bold hearts rests the question whether Americans shall be free or the slaves of his royal holiness the Pope of Rome. Often have I lifted my voice, a feeble one, indeed, in favor of American Repuhlicaiis. I believe their cause is the cause of God and freedom, and upon them every American and every Protes- tant foreigner must rely for protection against the merciless spirit of Popery. It requires no stretch of imagination to fancy a difference of opinion, or even of interest, between the citizens of this country. Suppose, for instance, that the North and South were at variance ; suppose them actually at war with each other; what would be the course of the Pope's emissaries, hundreds of whom are now roaming through this land ? The safest course and the surest mode of ascertaining what they would do in such an event, is to look back and ascertain what they have invariably done under similar circumstances. It is seldom wrong, and as a general principle it is safe, to judge of the future from the past ; and if so, there can be nt) doubt of the course which Jesuits and Roman Catholics would pursue in the event of any difficulties or collisions between the people of the different sec- tions of this country. Would they try to reconcixe them ^ Did they ever do so in a like case ? What was the conduct of the Jesuits and Popes as early as the eleventh century, when the Roman people aiffered in opinion as to their form of government, and some points of religious faith ? The. Pope laid an interdict upon the whole people ; the weaker AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 21 party was overpowered by the Papal authorities ; and their leader, as Fie wry informs us, was burned alive by order of the Pope Adrian. Frederick, called Barbarossa, who was the tool of the Pope on this occasion, became the next victim to his bar- barity. And why ? what had he done ? what crime did he commit against the state ? His only crime was, — he refused to hold the Pope's stirrup. For this he incurred the displeasure of Adrian, nor did he ever enjoy a day's peace until the Pope seduced him into an expedition against Saladin; where, to- gether with thousands of others, who were per- suaded to undertake that religious crusade, he died after several hard fought victories. The history of the Popes, in all ages, shows that they never abandon any temporal or spiritual au- thority to which they lay claim ; and had they the power of enforcing it now, they would exact from this country the same obedience which they did in the most benighted days of the middle ages. Should a separation of these States take place ; should the chain that has bound us together for the last half cen- tury, in links of love and social happiness, be unfor- tunately broken, by any untoward circumstances ; think you, fellow citizens, that foreign Papists in this country would try to re weld it? Far from it. They would unite in breaking it, link by link, until not a particle of it remained. This they have done in every country where they obtained a footing ; this they are doing now, under various pretences, all over Europe ; and should this country escape the fate of others, where Jesuits and Popes dare to exercise their supposed authorities, it will stand prominent and proudly, though solitary and alone, amid the records of ages, and ruins of time. I have no such hope. The efforts which are now making to check 22 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, the progress of Popery, may, perhaps, retard the day of our downfall ; but come it mast, unless the allegiance, which is now demanded by the Pope of Rome from his subjects in the United States, is un- qualifiedly forbidden. The Pope is a temporal prince. Like other kings and princes, he should never be permitted to meddle, directly or indirectly, temporally or spiritually, with this country. He should not be permitted to appoint bishop or priest to any church, diocese, living, or office in the United States. The Pope's hulls, rescripts, letters, &c., &c., should not be published or read from any pulpit this side of the Atlantic ; and, though Roman Catholics should not be prevented from the free exercise of their religion, they should be compelled to do so without reference to foreign dictation. If they must have a Pope, let him be an American, and sworn to support our constitution. Let him, and all Roman Catholics, be denied the right of voting, or of holding any office of honor, profit, or trust, under the government of the United States, until they forswear all allegiance, in spiritual as well as temporal affairs, to all foreign potentates and Popes. Until this is done, an oath of allegiance to this government, by a Roman Catholic, is enti- tled to no credit, and should not be received. This will appear evident to Americans, if they will turn their attention for a moment to the following oath, which is taken by every Romish bishop, before he is permitted to officiate, as such, in any of these United States : — " I do solemnly swear, on the holy evangelist, and before Almighty God, to defend the domains of St. Peter against every aggressor ; to preserve, aug- ment, and extend, the rights, honors, privileges, and powers of the Lord Pope, and his successors ; to AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 23 observe, and with all my might to enforce, his de- crees, ordinances, reservations, provisions, and al. dispositions whatever, emanating from the court of Rome ; to persecute and combat^ to the last extremity, heretics, scismatics, and all loho will not pay to the sovereign pontiff all the obedience lohich the sove- reig7i shall require.'^ While this oath is obligatory upon Romish bish- ops, they are not to be trusted. They should not be permitted to interfere, directly nor indirectly, with the institutions, laws, or ordinances of any Protestant country. Their oaths should not be taken in courts of justice ; their followers, every one of whom is bound by a similar oath of alle- giance, should be excluded from our grand juries, from our petit juries, but more especially, from our halls of legislation ; for wherever and whenever the supposed interest of the Pope clashes with that of the civil authority, or even with the adminis- tration of reciprocal justice, a Papist, under the control of his bishop, will not hesitate to sacrifice the good of the country, the interest, life, and pros- perity of his fellow-being, for the good of the church. Of the truth of this, history abounds with examples, and Popish writers are replete with authorities. Thomas Aquinas, whose authority no Roman Catholic questions, says in his work de Regent., " The Pope, as supreme king of all the world, may impose taxes and destroy towns and castles for the preservation of Christianity." The American reader will bear in mind, that by Christianity, St. Thomas means Popery. Pope Gregory the Seventh, about the year one thousand and fifty, has made use of the following language, and proclaimed it as the doctrine of the Romish Church. " The Pope 24 ought to be called Universal Bishop. He alone ought to wear the tokens of imperial dignity ; all princes ought to kiss his feet ; he has power to depose emperors and kings, and is to be judged by none." Pope John the Twelfth, in the year nine hundred and fifty-six, announced the following to be the universal belief, that "Whosoever shall ven- ture to maintain that our lord the Pope cannot decree what he pleases, let him be accursed." Pope Bonifice the Eighth, in 1294, declares, ex cathedra^ " that God has set Popes over kings and kingdoms, and whoever thinks otherwise declares him accursed." The same Pope, in another place, says, " We therefore declare, say, define, and pro- nounce it to be necessa.ry to salvation, that every human creature should be obedient to the Roman pontiff." The Pope of the present day, as every Roman Catholic writer maintains and teaches the laity to believe, has the same power now that the Popes had at any period of church history. The council of Trent, the last held in the Popish church, declares that Pius the Fifth, who was then Pope of Rome, " was prince over all nations and kingdoms, having power to pluck up, destroy, scatter, ruin, plant, and build." Cardinal Zeba, a sound theologian according to Popish belief, maintains, with much ingenuity, " that the Pope can-do all things which he wishes, and is empowered by God to do many things which he himself cannot do." All writers upon canon law compliment the Pope by caUing him our Lord the Pope, and this title was confirmed to him by the council of Lateran. In the fourth session of that council, it is maintained "that all. mortals are to be judged by the Pope, and the Pope by nobody at all." Massonius, who wrote the life of Pope AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 25 John the Ninth, tells us that a bishop of Rome, namely, a Pope, cannot commit even sin witliout praise." Were there no other reproach upon the Romish church but the bare utterance of such blasphemy as this, it would be enough to ^disgust mankind ; it should raise every voice in her condemnation, and every hand to pull down this masterpiece of Satanic ingenuity. But strange as it may appear, the present Pope maintains similar claims, and enforces obedience ; nay, more ; — in this year of our Lord, 1S45, insists upon the right of deposing all in power, and of absolving their subjects from further allegiance. But, extravagant as Papal pretensions were be- tween the ninth and tenth centuries, it was only about the middle of the eleventh that they began to show themselves in the full blaze of their hide- ous deformity. Hildebrand, whom we have had oc- casion to mention as Gregory the Seventh, shook off all civil restraint, and proclaimed the universal and unbounded empire of the Popes over the rest of the world. As Shoberl expresses it, '' he caused to be drawn up a declaration of independence in all things, temporal and spiritual, expressly specifying the Pope's divine right of deposing all princes, giving away all kingdoms, abrogating existing laws, and substituting in their place such as the holy Pope for the time being may approve of" This declaration, or bill of rights, is correctly translated by Sho- berl, and published in his work, entitled, " The Rise and Progress of the Papal Power." Many, proba- bly, may read this volume, who have had no oppor- tunity of seeing Shoberl's work ; and others there are, who may refuse giving his statement that 2 26 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY; credence which circumstances compel them to give the writer. Having been educated a Roman Catholic priest, and the fact being well known that admission can- not be had into her priesthood without being well verged, at least in her own doctrines, it is fairly to be presumed that my statements are entitled to full credit, when those of Protestants may be denied by Romish priests, who, while united with that church, are compelled, under pain of being cursed, ro subscribe to any falsehood, however gross, pro- vided it subserves the interest of the Pope ; and deny any truth, however plain, rather than contra- dict or weaken the authorities by which the impi- ous follies and wicked pretensions of the church of Rome are supported. I will give this bill of rights to my readers. It should be in the hands of every American. It should find a place in every primary school in the United States. It should be among the first lessons of infancy, so that every child, when he grows up and sees a Roman Catholic bishop or priest, should pause and ask himself, Does that man believe those things? Are we called on to pass laws for the support and protection of churches, where such doctrines, as this hill contains, are promulgated? Can we trust the man who pro- mralgates them, or those who subscribe to them ? Is it safe to live in the same community with them ? Do they not endanger our civil institutions? Do they not jeopardize the morals of our children? Will it not, at some future day, be a blot upon the page of our history, and a foul stain upon our char- acter for intelligence, that we have ever sanctioned such doctrines, or that we had ever allowed men who professed them, any participation in our civil AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 27 rights ^ But let Pope Gregory's declaration of Papal divine rights speak for itself. " The Romish church is the only one that God has founded. " The title of universal belongs to the Roman pontiff alone. " He alone can depose and absolve bishops. ''His legate presides over all the bishops in ev- ery council, and may pronounce sentence of deposi- tion against them " The Pope can depose absent persons. " It is not lawfu.1 to live with such as have been excommunicated. " He has the power, according to circumstances, to make new laws, to create new churches, to trans- form a chapter into an abbey, and to divide a rich bishopric into two, or to unite two poor bishoprics. " He alone has a right to assume the attributes of empire. "All princes must kiss his feet. '' His name is the only one to be uttered in the churches. ^'' It is the only name in the world. '• He has a right to depose emperors. *' He has a right to remove bishops from one see to another. " He has a right to appoint a clerk [priest] in every church. '^ He, whom he has appointed, may govern an- other church, and cannot receive a higher benefice from any private bishop. " No council can call itself general without the order of the Pope. '' No chapter, no book, can be reputed canonical without his authority. »0 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, "No one can invalidate his sentences; he can abrogate those of all other persons. , " He cannot be judged by any one. ^' All persons whatsoever are forbidden to pre- sume to condemn him who is called to the apostol- ical chair. " To this chair must be brought the more impor- tant causes of all the churches. '' The Roman church is never wrong, and will never fall into error. " Every Roman pontiff, canonically ordained, be- comes holy. "It is lawful to accuse when he permits, or when he commands. '•' He may, without synod, depose and absolve bishops. " He is no Catholic who is not united to the Romish church. " The Pope can release the subjects of bad princes from all oaths of allegiance." Those who have not been educated Roman Cath- olics, or who have not lived in Catholic countries, will find it difficult to suppose that such pretensions as the above should ever have been entertained or submitted to : extravagant, absurd, wild, and wick- ed as they are, they have been acquiesced in by the court of Rome ; and are, at this day, contended for, and would be enforced, in this country, had that church the power to do so. She has never resigned the rights claimed in the above declaration; and there is not a Roman Catholic who dares assert the contrary, without a dispensation from his bishop oi his priest to tell a deliberate falsehood, with a view of deceiving Americans for the good of the church This, however, they can always obtain and grant to each other, as circumstances may require. AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 29 While a Roman Catholic priest, I have often re- ceived and given such indulgences myself; and there is not a period in the Christian world, since the days of Pope Gregory, when all the powers and prerogatives, enumerated in the above Papal bill of rights, were not claimed and acted upon by Popes of Rome, down to the hour at which I write. Let us test the truth of this assertion by the unerring rule of history, although it may seem unnecessary, as no Roman Catholic will deny it ; at any rate, it will not be questioned by those who have any ac- quaintance with the history of their own church. I am well aware that the majority of Roman Cath- olics in this country know nothing of the religion which they profess, and for which they are willing to fight, contend, and shed the blood of their fellow beings. I am not even hazarding an assertion, when I say there is not one of them who has read the gospels through, or who knows any more about the religion he professes, than he does about the Koran of Mohammed. He is told uj the priest, '' that Christ established a church on earth ; that it is infallible ; and that they must submit implicitly to what its popes, priests, and bishops teach, under pain of eternal damnation." This is all the great mass of R.Oman Catholics know of religion ; this is all they are required to learn ; and hence it is that these people are unacquainted with the pretensions of the Pope, the intrigues of Jesuits, or the impositions practised upon them by their bishops and priests. But to the history of Papal pretensions. As early as the year 1066, Gregory, who was then Pope, summoned William the Conqueror, king of Eng- land, to repair to Rome, prostrate himself upon hin knees, and do homage to his hohness. This William refused ; but his holiness deemed it expe- 30 dient to compromise the matter, though he did not yield a jot of his very modest pretensions. This humble follower of the Redeemer looked upon Sar- dinia and Russia as a portion of his dominions. The following extract of a letter of his, to the sove- reign of Russia, is a fair sample of the insolence of this man Pope, or rather this God Pope, as his subjects considered him. " We have given you a crown to your son, who is to come and to receive it at our hands on taking an oath of allegiance to us." He also commanded the emperor of Greece "to abdicate his crown," and he also deposed the king of Poland. This modest Pope wrote to the different princes of Spain, " that it would be much better ^'^ give up their country to the Saracens, than not pa homage to the See of Rome." He excom- municated Philip the First of France, because he refused to ''pay homage to him." Writing to the French bishops, he says, " Separate yourselves from the communion of Philip ; let the celebration of the holy mass be interdicted throughout all France; and know that, with the assistance of God, we will deliver that kingdom from such an oppressor." This same Pope excommunicated Henry the Fourth, " because he refused to acknowledge him as his superior," and absolved his subjects from their oath of allegiance to him : and what was the result ? Henry was obliged to submit. Having repaired to the Pope's court, he was stopped at the entrance, and before he was permitted to appear in the pres- ence of this ruffian Pope, who was then shut up with Matilda, countess of Tuscany, one of the numerous women with whom he lived on terms of intijnacy, he was compelled to undress and put on a hair shirt. The Pope then condescended to say, " that Henry should fast three days, before he AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 31 could be pormitted to kiss his holiness's toe ; and he would then absolve him upon promise of good behavior." Alexander the Third, about the year 1160, de- posed Frederic First, king of Denmark; and placing his foot upon liis neck, he impiously exclaimed, " Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder." This practice and these pretensions to sovereign power, continued down to the days of Elizabeth j and from thence down to the present moment. Pope Pius Y. excommunicated Elizabeth, and ab- solved her subjects from their oath of allegiance: and while doing so, addressed to himself the fol- lowing words from the Psalmist : " See, I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the king- doms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy, to build up, and to throw down." More of this here- after. Such were the doctrines of the Romish church in 1558. Such were the practices of that church for centuries previous ; nor is there one single in- stance on record of her having modified or abridged the extent or magnitude of her claims, unless when compelled to do so by coercion ; and even then she did not abandon her claim, but only ceased to ex- ercise it in obedience to the law of force. The Rom- ish church, in this country, as I shall show, claims the same temporal powers now which she has al- ways claimed and exercised for so many centuries. She would now depose the executive of this country, ai? she did Philip of France, if she dared do so. The Pope would absolve our citizens from their oath of allegiance, had he the power of carrying his dispensation into eifect ; and what is the duty of Americans under such circumstances ? Are you to submit passively ? Is it your duty to wait and 82 witness the growth of Popery among you, to nour- ish and feed it with the life blood of your existence as a nation, until the monster outgrows your own strength and strangles you, to satiate its inordinate appetite ? I lay it down as a sound principle in political as well as moral ethics, that if a govern- ment finds, within the limits of its jurisdiction, any sect or party, of whatever doctrine, creed, or denom- ination, professing principles incompatible with its permanency, or subversive of the unalienable right of self government, and worshipping God, according to the dictates of each and every man's conscience, that sect or party should be removed beyond its limits, or at least excluded from any participation in the formation or administration of its laws. Would it, for instance, be v/ise in our govern- ment to encourage the Mormons to introduce imong US; as the law of the land, the ravings and prophesies of Joe Smith ? Suppose that sect main- tained that Joe Smith was their Lord God ; that the kingdoms of this world were his; that he claimed and did actually exercise the right of dethroning kings, and was endeavoring, by every means in his pov/er, to place himself in a position to exercise, at no distant period, the right of deposing our presi- dents, state governors, and absolving oar people from their oaths of allegiance. Should not that sect, as such, be instantly crushed ? Should it not, at least, be forbidden to interfere, directly or indi- rectly, with our civil institutions ? Let us suppose the prophet Joe Smith to hold the seat of his gov- ernment in Europe, and that Europe was full to overflowing with Mormons ; Ave may further sup- pose this great high priest to have thousands and millions of subordinate officers, sworn and bound together by oaths cemented in blood, to sustain AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 33 him as their sovereign ruler, by every means which human ingenuity could devise, and at every sacri- fice of truth and honor. Suppose, further, that this high priest was annually sending thousands of his subjects to this country, with no other view but to possess your fertile lands and overthrow your government, and substituting in its place that of this foreign priest and tyrant ; would you per- mit them to land upon your shores ? Would you allow them to pollute the purity of your soil ? Would you allow their unclean hands to touch the altars of your liberty? Would you not first msist that they should purge themselves from the sins and slime of Mormonism, and free themselves from all further connection with this monster man, and would-be God, who impiously demanded blind obedience and unqualified homage ? I could an- swer for you, but I will not ; the history of your republic answers for you ; the movements, which are now going forth from one end of your country to the other, are answering for you, in tones too solemn and too loud to be drowned by the roaring of Popish bulls. But it is much to be feared that Americans do not yet fully understand the dangers to be apprehended from the existence of Popery in the United States. It is difficult to persuade a single-hearted and single-minded republican, whose lungs were first inflated by the breath of freedom, whose first thoughts were, that all men had a nat- ural right to worship God as they pleased — that any man could be found, so lost to reason, interest, and principle, as to desire to barter those high priv- ileges, which he may enjoy in this country, for oppression and blind submission to the dictates of a Pope, or even any body of men, civil or ecclesi- astic ; still less can an American believe, without 2* 34 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, difficulty, that he who sees the excellence and practical operation of our form of government, will try to overthrow it, by submitting to any creed, to any king or Pope, who requires from him alle- giance, incompatible with that which he has already sworn to maintain. Nor, generally speak- ing, will men do those things. While man believes in the moral obligations of an oath, he will not easily violate it. While he believes that there is an all-seeing Providence, to whom alone he is accountable for his actions, he will be cautious in committing oifences ; but once satisfy a man, that there is, within his reach, a power which can pardon his sins, even those of perjury ; which can change abstract evil into good, and he will stop at nothing. While the pardon of offences is a marketable article, it never will want for a purchaser, so prone are we to the commission of crime. Let man have an adviser, in whom he is taught to place unlimited confidence, on whom he looks as the representative of his God on earth, and he soon becomes his ready tool for good or for evil. Such precisely is the position in which ninety-nine out of a hundred Roman Catholics are placed. They are told by their priests, that, as members of society, the first allegiance they owe is to the head of their church, the Pope of Rome, and the next to the government, dt facto, under which they live ; but these well-practised ecclesiastical im- postors never forget to add, that the first alle- giance, being of a spiritual character, absorbs and supersedes the latter"; thus annulling, and render- ing the oath of allegiance, which they take to our government, something worse than even mere mockery ; and hence it is, that very few Catho- lics, particularly the Irish, ever read the constita- AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 35 tion of the United States, nor do they require it to be read for them. They know not, they care not what it is. It is enough for them to believe that the oath, wliich they take to support it, is not obli- gatory. Of this they are assured by their priests. Yet strange, these very priests tell them they com- mit mortal sin by becoming Freemasons, or uniting themselves with that excellent and benevolent association, the Odd Fellows. And why, reader, do they do this? Why prevent them from uniting with Odd Fellows or Freemasons? Why has the Pope recently cursed all Odd Fellows ? Why has he sent a bull to this country, cautioning Cath- olics against having any thing to do with them ? Why have the Romish priests, from one end of this country to the other, echoed these curses? Did the Pope discover any bad thing in the constitu- tion or rules of action of Freemasons or Odd Fel- lows? Are these institutions aiming at the over- throw of any fixed principles in morals, in religion, or in virtue ? No such allegation is made. Why then do Popes and priests forbid Roman Catholics from uniting with them? It is expressly because the Pope knows nothing about those excellent institutions. It is because he is aware he can make no use of them ; but let those societies beware, if they wish to keep their secrets. Th^ey should not allow any man to join them until he first swears that he is not a Roman Catholic ; otherwise some Jesuits will get among them, and the next packet will convey their doings to his royal holiness the Pope. I cannot illustrate more clearly the value which foreign Roman priests and their followers put upon an oath of allegiance to this government, than by stating a conversation which occurred between 36 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, myself and a Jesuit, the Rev. Dr. De Barth, then vicar-general of the diocese of Penns^^lvania, and residing in Philadelphia. It took place some years ago, and his opinion of the validity of an oath of allegiance to this government, is the same now that is lield by all Papists. 1 will give it by way of question and answer, just as it occurred. Question hy Mr. De Barth. Do you intend becoming a citizen of the United States ? A7isiDer. I believe not, sir. I don't think I could conscientiously take an oath of allegiance to this government, v/ithout violating that which I have taken at my ordination. Mr. De B. You are entirely mistaken. Any part of your oath of allegiance to this country, which may be incompatible with your first and greater allegiance to the head of your church, cannot be binding on you. Ans. I have doubts upon that subject. Mr. De B, What ! doubt your superior, sir ? This looks badly. It threatens heresy. Have you been conversing with any heretics of this coun- try? Declare your intentions, sir, to become a citizen. Take the oath ; it is necessary you should be empowered to hold real estate for the good of the church. The church must have her property out of the hands of trustees ; in this coun- try they are all heretics ; we must get rid of them in St. Mary's church. This led me into an examination of the alle- giance which I swore to the Pope at my ordination. I found that I owed him none ; that I was the dupe of an early education ; that I owed allegiance only to my God and the country which protected my life, my liberty, and my freedom of conscience ; and without further conversation with this intriguing AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 37 and debauched Jesuit — as I subsequently found him — I became a citizen of the United States as soon as possible ; renouncing all allegiance, tem- poral and spiritual, to his holiness the Pope; and firmly resolved to induce all others, who, like myself, bad been the dupes of Popish intrigue, to cut loose from them. I determined to support no civil con- stitution but that of the United States, and to have no one for my guidance in spiritual matters but my own conscience and the word of God. POPISH BISHOPS AKD PRIESTS ABSOLVE ALLEGIANCE TO PROTESTANT GOVERNMENTS. I am aware of the difficulty there is in persuad- ing Protestant Americans, that Roman Catholic bishops and priests teach their people to believe, that they, the priests, possess the power of absolv- ing them, either from their oath of allegiance or any other crime. It is, however, time to speak plainly to Americans. It is time to let them know that there exists in the midst of them a body of people, amounting in number to about two millions, who believe in this doctrine, so corrupt in itself, and so well calculated to disturb the peace and har- mony of society. There is not a priest or bishop in the United States who dares deny this ; they act upon it every day. It is customary with the priests to confess weekl}^, and to forgive each other's sins ; and I am sorry to say, from my knowedge of them, since my infancy to the present moment, that there is not a more corrupt, licentious body of men in the world. But I will not be judge, accuser, and witness, in this case. I know well that Americans 38 SYNOPSIS OF POPERT, will take the ipse dixit of no man. They are not hi the habit of lightly judging any individual or body of men, in any case. I will, therefore, lay before them the Roman Catholic doctri' - on the subject of penance and confession, as t? 5nt by the council of Trent, and now believed aid practised by Roman Catholics in the United States. I will only add, that I have taught these doctrines myself, when a Roman Catholic priest, and while groping my way through the darkness of Popery. There are many now living who heard and received them from me, and to whom I have no apology to make for the errors into which I led them, except that, like themselves, I was the dupe of early education. The following are some of the canons of the council of Trent concerning penance or confession ' " Whoever shall say, that those words of the Lord and Saviour : Receive the Holy Ghost ; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained ; are not to be understood of the power of remitting and retaining sins in the sacrament of penance, as the Catholic church has always understood, from the beginning ; but shall falsely apply them against the institution of this sacrament, to the authority of preaching the gospel ; let him be accursed ! '' Whoever shall deny that sacramental confession has either been instituted by divine command, or is necessary to salvation ; or shall say that the mode of secretly confessing to a priest alone, which the Catholic church always has observed from the beginning, and still observes, is foreign from the mstitution and command of Christ, and is a human mvention ; let him be accursed ! " Whoever shall affirm, that in the sacrament of penance, it is not necessary by divine command, for AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 39 the remission of sins, to confess all and every mortal sin, of which recollection may he had, with due and diligent premeditation, including secret offences, and those which are against the two last precepts of the decalogue, and the circumstances which change the species of sin : but that this confession is useful only for the instruction and consolation of the penitent, and was anciently ob- served, only as a canonical satisfaction imposed upon him ; or shall say, that they who endeavor to confess all their sins, wish to leave nothing for the divine mercy to pardon ; or finally, that it is not proper to confess venial sins ; let him be accursed ! " Whoever shall say, that the confession of all sins, such as the church observes, is impossible, and that it is a human tradition, to be abolished by the pious ; or that all and every one of Christ's faithful, of both sexes, are not bound to observe it once in the year, according to the constitution of the great Lateran council, and that for this reason, Christ's faithful should be advised not to confess in the time of Lent ; let him be accursed ! "Whoever shall say, that the sacramental abso- lution of the priest is not a judicial act, but a mere ministry to pronounce and declare, that sins are remitted to the person making confession, provided that he only believes that he is absolved, even though the priest should not absolve seriously, but m joke ; or shall say, that the confession of a peni- tent is not requisite, in order that the priest may absolve him ; let him be accursed ! " Whoever shall say, that priests who are livmg in mortal sin do not possess the power of binding and loosing ; or that the priests are not the only 40 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, ministers of absolution, but that it was said to ab and every one of Christ's faitliful : Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven ; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven ; and whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven, and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained: by virtue of which words, any one may forgive sin ; public sins, by reproof only, if the offender shall acquiesce ; and private sins, by voluntary confes- sion ; let him be accursed ! "Whoever shall say, that bishops have not the right of reserving cases to themselves, except such as relate to the external polity of the church, and therefore that the reservation of cases does not hin- der the priest from truly absolving from reserved cases ; let him be accursed ! " Whoever shall say, that the whole penalty, together with the guilt, is always remitted by God, and that the satisfaction of penitents is nothing else than the faith by which they apprehend that Christ has satisfied for them ; let him be accursed 1 " Whoever shall say, that satisfaction is by no means made to God, through Christ's merits, for sins as to their temporal penalty, by punishments inflicted by him, and patiently borne, or enjoined by the priests, though not undergone voluntarily, as fastings, prayers, alms, or also other works of piety, and therefore that the best penance is nothing more than a new life ; let him be ac- cursed 1 " Whoever shall say, that the satisfactions by which penitents redeem themstilves from sin through Jesus Christ, are no part of the service of God, but traditions of men, obscuring the doctrine AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 41 concerning grace, and the true worship of God, and the actual benefit of Christ's death ; let him be accursed ! '• Whoever shall say, that the keys of the church were given only for loosing, not also for binding, and that therefore the priests, when they impose punishments upon those who confess, act against the design of the keys, and contrary to the insti- tution of Christ ; and that it is a fiction, that when by virtue of the keys the eternal penalty has been removed, the temporal punishment may still often remain to be suffered : let him be accursed ! " I must be permitted here to remind Americans, that all Roman Catholics are taught lo believe, and distinctly to understand, that whatever they confess to their priests, is not to be revealed ; nor is the in- dividual, who confesses, permitted to reveal what- ever the priest says or does to him or her, except to another priest. For instance, should a priest in- sult or attempt to seduce a woman, and succeed in doing so, she dare not reveal it under pain of dam- nation, except to another priest in confession, who is bound also to secrecy ; and thus, priests, bishops, popes, and all females of that denomination, may be guilty of licentiousness, — the bare mention of which would pollute the pages of this or any other work, — with impunity. The priests can first par- don the woman, and then themselves, according to the doctrines of the infallible church of Rome. This is not all. It is not enough that the sanction of the church should be given to these enormities ; but priests also claim the right of concealing, from the civil authorities, any knowledge which they may have of crimes against the state as well as the power of forgiving them. The following is the language of the church upon that subject. Attend 4* 42 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, to it felloAv citizens, and tremble at the dangers that threaten the destruction of your republic, from the introduction of Popery among you. "Although the life or salvation of a man. or the ruin of the state, should depend upon it, what is discovered in confession cannot be revealed. The secret o( the seal — confession — is more binding than the obligation of an oath." If a confessor IS asked, what he knows of a fact communicated to him, he must answer that he does not know it ; and, if necessary, confirm it by an oath ; and '' this is no perjury," says the Popish church, " because he KNOWS it not as mail, but as GOD." There is Popery for you, in its naked beauty ! If a man wishes to murder, or to rob you, he may go to his priest, apprize him of his intention, confess to him that he will assuredly murder and rob you, or that he has done so already, and yet this priest may be your next door neighbor, and he will not make it known ; and why, reader ? Because he knows it as Godj and as God he tells the murderer to come to him and he will forgive him. It is not at all im- possible but the day may come when this country may be at war with Europe. We can easily fancy the despots of Europe forming another holy alli- ance^ for the laudable purpose of suppressing de- mocracy. France, Austria, Spain, Italy, and a large portion of Germany and Switzerland, together with the HOLY SEE, would necessarily constitute that holy junto ; and if so, and war were declared by them against this country, what would be the con- sequence ? Inevitable ruin ; certain defeat ; not caused by foes abroad, but by foes within, leagued by the most solemn ties, and bound by the most fearful oaths to sacrifice our country, and all we value, for the advancement of the Roman church. AS IT WAS AXD AS IT IS. 4^ That there is a foe in the midst of us, capable of doing so, no man acquainted with the doc- trines and statistics of the Roman Catholic church in this country can deny. It has now: — Dioceses, 21; apostoUc vicarate, 1 ; number of bishops, 17 ; bishops elect, 8 ; priests, 634; churches. 611 ; other stations, 461 ; ecclesias- tical seminaries, 19 ; clerical students. 261 ; literary institutions for young men, 16 : female academies, 48 ; elementary schools, passim, throughout most of the dioceses ; periodicals, 15 ; population, 1,300,- 000. Late accounts carry the population up to 2,000,000. The increase of the Romish church, in this country, since 1S36, amounts to 12 bishops, 293 priests, 772 churches and other stations, 1,400,000 individuals, and other things in proportion. Should the said church go on increasing for the next thirty years as she has done for the last eight years, the Papists would be a majority of the popu- lation of the United States, and the Pope our supreme temporal ruler. I have stated to you before what the doctrines of these two millions are in relation to the power of the Pope ; and I repeat it now, and most sol- emnly' assure you, that there is not a Roman Cath- olic in Europe or the United States Vv^ho does not believe that the Pope has as good a right to govern this country as he has to govern Italy ; and that he is, and of right ought to be, our king. Pope Gregory YII. has declared, '* that the Pope alone oiight to wear the tokens of imperial dignity, and that all princes ought to kiss his feet." There is not a Roman Catholic clergyman, whether bishop or priest, xA\o does not believe that it is the duty 44 of our president, our governors, and magistrates, to do the same. Bellarmine, one of the best authorities among Catholic writers, says, " The supremacy of the Pope over all persons and things is the main sub- stance of Christianity." Mark that, fellow-citi- zens ! That is the belief of Bishop Hughes, of New York ; that is the belief of Bishop Fenwick, of Boston, and of every other Roman Catholic bishop in the United States, as I will soon show. Pope Boniface VIII. says, ''It is necessary to salvation that all Christians be subject to the Pope." Bzovius, an orthodox Roman Catholic writer, whose authority no bishop or priest will venture to question, says of the Pope — ^ " He is judge in heaven, and in all earthly jurisdiction supreme ; he is the arbiter of the world." Mosco- vius, another eminent Popish writer, informs us that " God's tribunal and the Pope's tribunal are the same." Pope Paul lY., in one of his bulls, published in the year 1557, declares, that "all Protestants, be they kings or subjects, are cursed ; " and this doctrine is an integral portion of the law of the Roman Catholic church, as may be seen in the fifth book of the decretals of the council of Trent. This is not all. We find in the forty-third canon of the council of Lateran, that " all bishops and priests are forbidden from taking any oath of allegiance," except to the Pope. We find in another part of the decrees of the council of Lateran, held under Pope Innocent III., the following denunciation: — "All magistrates who interpose against priests in any criminal case, whether it be for murder or high treason, let him oe excommunicated." Bear that in mind, Ameri- AS IT VTAS AND AS IT IS. 4I» can Protestants ! If a priest murder one of yon, if he commit high treason against your government, your magistrates dare not interfere, under pain of being damned. So says the infallible Roman CHURCH ; and so will she act, should she ever ac- quire the power of doing so, in this country. It is said by Lessius, an eminent Jesuit writer, and professor of divinity in the Roman Catholic college of Louvaine, who wrote about the year 1620, and whose authority no Roman Catholic dare doubt, under pain of eternal damnation, that " the Pope can annul and cancel every possible obligation arising from ah oath." This he taught to his students in the college of Louvaine. This same doctrine has been taught in the college of Maynooth, Ireland, where I was educated myself. It is taught there at the present day. See the works of De La Hogue. Judge you, Americans, what safety there is for your republic, while you support and sustain among you a sect numbering two millions, who are sworn to uphold such doctrines as the fore- going. The very domestics in your houses are spies for the priests. Nothing transpires under your own roofs which is not immediately known to the bishop or priest to whom your servants confess. But you may say, " The confessor will not reveal it." Here you are partly right, and partly mistaken ; and it is proper to explain the course adopted by priests in such matters as con- fession. If it be the interest of the church, that what is confessed should be made public, the priest tells the party to make it known to him, " out of the confes- sional,^^ and then he uses it to suit his own views ; perhaps for the destruction of the reputation, or 46 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, fortune, of the very man, or family, employing this domestic. But it may be replied that Roman Catho- lics are good-natured people ; that they ar^ generous and industrious. Admitted : I will even go fur- ther : there is not a people in the world more so. Nature has done much for them, especially those of them who are nativ^es of Ireland ; but the want of a correct education has corrupted their hearts, and imbittered their feelhigs ; they are not to be trusted with the care or management of the affairs of Protestant families. It is not generally known, nor perhaps suspected, by Protestant parents, who employ Roman Catholic domestics, in nursing and taking care of their chil- dren, that these nurses are in the habit of taking their children privately to the houses of their priests, and bishops, and there getting them baptized, according to the Roman Catholic ritual. I state this as a fact, within my own knowledge. While I officiated as a Roman Catholic priest, in Phila- delphia, I baptized hundreds, I may say thousands, of Protestant children, without the knowledge or consent of their parents, brought to me secretly, by their Roman Catholic nurses ; and I should have continued to do so till this day, had not the Lord, in his mercy, been pleased to visit me, and show me the wiles, treachery, infamy, corruption, and intrigue of the church, of which the circumstances of birth and education caused me to be a member. It was usual with me in Philadelphia, in St. Mary's church, of which I was pastor, to have service every morning at seven o'clock ; and often when 1 returned home, between eight and eleven, have I found three, four, and sometimes six and eight children, whose parents were Protestants, waiting for me, in the arms of their Roman Catholic nurses, AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 47 to be baptized. This is a common practice in every Protestant country, where there are Roman Catholic priests; but as far as my experience goes, it prevails to a greater extent in the United States than elsewhere ; and I should not be in the least surprised, if at this time, in the city of Boston, nearly all the infants, nursed by Roman Catholic women, are baptized by their priests and bishops. Roman Catholic women are unwilling to come in contact, even with heretic infants. They believe them damned^ unless baptized by a Romish priest. There is another fact, iudnectly connected with this subject, which is not generally known. It is believed by Roman Catholics, that all mothers, after their confinement, are to be churched by some Romish priest or bishop. This churching is per- formed by the repetition of a few prayers, in Latin, a sprinkling of holy water, and the woman who does not submit to this mummery, is believed by any Roman Catholic nurse whom she may employ, to be eternally damned, together \/ith her child. They go so far as to say, that the very ground upon which the unchurched mother walks is ac- cursed ; that the very house in which she lives is accursed; and that all she says and does is accu7'sed. So firmly have the Romish priests and bishops fastened this belief upon the minds of their dupeSj that at this moment in Ireland, and I may venture to say in this city of Boston, no Catholic woman will leave her bed after confinement, without being churched y lest the ground on which she walks may be accursed. Until this ceremony is performed, none of her CathoHc neighbors will hold any inter- course with her. How then can Protestant mothers expect otherwise, than that Catholic nurses will 48 SYNOPSIS CH?-POPERYj have their children baptized by priests ! or what security can they have that they will not, under the direction of priests, try to turn the minds of their children from the contemplation of truth, and pure gospel light, to the foul sources of Popery and superstition ! Look to this, American mothers. It may not be amiss in this connection, to lay be- fore American Protestants, the doctrine of the Rom- ish church upon baptism ; and, lest I may be ac- cused of setting down aught in malice, I shall do so in the words of the council of Trent. Canons of the Council of Trent concerning Baptism. *' 1. Whoever shall say that the baptism of John had the same virtue as the baptism of Christ ; let him be accursed ! " 2. Whoever shall say that true and natural water is not absolutely necessary for baptism, and there- fore wrests those words of our Lord Jesus Christ, as though they had been a kind of metaphor : ' Ex- cept a man be born of water, and the Holy Spirit : ' let him be accursed ! " 3. Whoever shall say that in the Roman church, which is the mother and mistress of all churches, the doctrine concerning the sacrament of baptism is not true ; let him be accursed ! '' 4. Whoever shall ^y that the baptism which is also given by heretics, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, with the intention of doing what the church does, is not true baptism ; let him be accursed ! [Here is another of those rules, by Avhich the holy Romish church leaves herself room to impose upon the public. Can any man believe, can any one even suppose a case, where a heretic acts, or intends AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 4§ to act, according to the intention of the church of Rome ^ The very act of heresy was against that church and her doctrines ; and the truth is, if the church would speak honestly, or her priests and bishops do so for her, all who are not baptized in the Romish church, and who are baptized, are eternally damned. So thinks, and so teaches, the Popish church.] '' 5. Whoever shall say that baptism is optional, that is, not necessary to salvation ; let him be accursed ! '' 6. Whoever shall say that a baptized person cannot, even if he would, lose grace, how much soever he may sin, unless he is unwilling to believe ; let him be accursed ! ^' 7. Whoever shall say that baptized persons, by baptism itself, become debtors to preserve faith alone, and not the whole law of Christ ; let him be accursed ! " 8. Whoever shall say that baptized persons are free fr'om all precepts of holy church, which are °'the^' written or traditional, so that they are not bounu to observe them, unless they choose to sub- mit themselves lo them of their own accord ; let him be accursed ! '' 9. Whoever shall say that men are so to be re- called to the memory of the baptism wnich they have received, that they may regard all the vows which are made after baptism as null and void, by virtue of the promise already made in baptism itself, as if by it they detract from the faith which they have professed, and from the baptism itself; let him be accursed ! '' 10. Whoever shall say that all the sins which are committed after baptism, by the mere remem- brance ^nd faith of the baptism received, are 8 50 SYNOPSIS OF POPFRY, either dismissed or become venial ; let him be accursed ! "■11. Whoever shall say that a baptism, tiidy and with due ceremony conferred, is to be repeated on him who has denied the faith of Christ among infidels, when he is converted to repentance ; let him be accursed 1 '• 12. Whoever shall say that no one is to be. baptized, except at that age at which Christ was baptized, or in the article of death ; let him be accursed ! " 13. Whoever shall say that iofants, because they have not the act of faith, are not to be reck- oned among believers after having received bap- tism, and on this account are to be re-baptized when they arrive at years of discretion ; or that it is better that their baptism be omitted, than that they should be baptized in the faith only of the church, when they do not believe by their own act ; let him be accursed ! " 14. Whoever shall say that baptized children of this kind, when they have grown up, are to be asked whether they wish to have that ratified which their sponsors promised in their name when they were baptized ; and that when they reply that they are unwilling, they are to be left to their own choice ; and that they are not in the mean- time to be compelled by any other punishment, to a Christian hfe, except that they be prohibited the enjoyment of the Eucharist, and the other sacra- ments, until they repent; let him be accursed ! " This last canon, as the reader perceives, expla ns fully why Roman Catholics are so anxious for the baptism of Protestant children by their priests. It gives them the power of compelling those children, should they deem it expedient to do so, to profess AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 51 the Catholic faith, and thereby strengthening her power. They try to alienate the children from the parents ; or calculating upon that natural affection, with which a parent clings to a child, they hope to bring ov^er the parent also to the Catholic faith ; or, failing in this, they hope to break up those alliances of blood which nature has established, and that community of interest and feeling, which society has sanctioned, and religion and nature have blessed, between parent and child. A true Papist will stop at nothing to advance the power of the Pope, or the interest of the holy church. Heretics, by which the reader will under- stand all who do not belong to the Roman Catho- lic church, are to be destroyed, cost what it will. Death, and the destruction of heretics, is the watch- word of Popery. Down with Protestant govern- ments, kings, presidents, governors, judges, and all other civil and religious authorities, is the war-cry in Popish countries. They desire neither to live nor die with us. They refuse to be laid down in the same common earth with us. Need this be proved to Americans ? One would suppose not. Our intercourse with Roman Catholic countries is such., at present, that there can be no longer any doubt of this fact. Our commercial transactions with Spain, Portu- gal, South America, Mexico, and the neighboring Island of Cuba, enables many of our people to judge for themselves, and say what is now the con- dition of Protestants in those countries where Popery predominates. Can a Protestant worship God in those countries, according to the dictates of his own conscience ? He cannot. They are all told by their priests, that a Protestant is a thing too unclean to worship God until he is first baptizeil 52 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, and then shrived or confessed by their priests. A Protestant cannot even carry his Bible with him, into these countries. Many of my fellow-citizens, who may see this statement, will bear testimony to its truth. When a Protestant arrives at any port in a purely Catholic country, his trunks and his person are examined ; and if a bible is found in them, or about him, it is taken from him. The ministers of his religion dare not accompany him, or if he does, his lips are sealed, under pain of a lingering death. Should sickness lay its heavy hand upon him, there is no minister to attend him, no Bible allowed him, from which he may quench his thirst for the waters of life. Should death visit him, there is 710 one to close the eyes of the lonely Protes- tant stranger. A good Roman Catholic would not touch the accursed heretic, and when dead he is not allowed the rights of Christian interment ; he must be cast by the wayside, as suitable food for the hog, the dog, and the buzzard. How many a worthy American have I seen myself, in Cuba, cast away when dead, as you would a car- rion, not even a coffin to cover him ; and why all this ? Because he was a heretic ; because he did not believe in the supremacy of the Pope, and the infallibity of the Romish church ; and yet those inhuman wretches, those libels upon religion and humanity, come among us, ask you for lands on which to build churches and pulpits, from which they curse you and your children ; become citizens of your republic, inmates in your families, with smiles on their faces and curses in their hearts for you. Let not this language be deemed exaggera- tion. I have heard it, I have witnessed it, I have seen it. And yet Americans, heedlessly fancying 'hemselves and their institutions secure, refuse AS IT Was and as it is. 53 these, their sworn enemies, and foes of their religion, nothing they ask for. Such is the hstlessness and apathy of our people upon this subject, that, as far as I am acquainted, no appeal has ever been made to our government, to ask even for a modification of those barbarities, with which our Protestant citi- zens are treated, in Roman Catholic countries ; nor has there been any effort made to alter our free constitution, so as to enable us to retaliate upon those Popish monsters, and obtain from the blood- thirsty cowards, at the point of the bayonet, those common privileges, which are almost among the necessary appurtenances of humanity, and which even a Pagan would scarcely deny to a fellow- being. I hold it as undeniable, that even as Protestants, we are, at least by implication, entitled by our trea- ties of alliance with Popish countries, to far dif- ferent treatment from that which we receive ; and had the question been considered by our people, either in their primary meetings, or through their representatives, they would have long since, insist- ed upon due protection and respect for the natural rights of their citizens abroad. These natural rights can neither be sold nor exchanged; their free exercise is guaranteed by implication in every treaty we make with foreign nations, and cannot be violated by them without giving just cause of war. Let political casuists say what they please, there is no principle better established in political ethics, than that all international treaties of amity and commerce, should be formed, and if formed, should be kept, upon principles of justice and reciprocity. The same national amity and courtesy, which our Protestant country extends to Popish nations and 54 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, their people, should be extended by them to us By national friendship and comity, is not, I appre- hend, and should not, be meant or understood, the privilege of selling a bale of cotton here or a bag of cofiee there. It includes the free exercise of the rights of the parties thereto, so far, at least, as they are not incompatible with each other, or with the general principles of natural or national law. The Spaniard, the Portuguese, the Italian, the Mexican, or Cuban, may worship his God, the Vir- gin Mary, or any saint he pleases, and no American will disturb him ; no American will forbid him. If he dies, his priests may have him buried whero he will. This is as it should be. Man has a nat- ural right to worship God ; it is a right implanted in his very nature. As well may we say to a man, thou shalt not breathe the air of our country, as say, thou shalt not worship the God that gave thee birth ; and as well also may v/e say, thou sha.lt not worship that God except according to the mode which we prescribe, as forbid him doing so at all. The natural right of worshipping God, or a first cause, implies the right of doing so according to the dictates of each man's conscience, provided, in doing it, we interfere with none of those laws, which civilized nations should reverence. This is the principle on which we act with Popish coun- tries and people, and upon the principle of recip- rocal justice, we ought to demand similar treatment from them. We have friendly treaties with these people. Friendly, forsooth ! Can that man or that nation be friendly, who forbids us to read our Bibles within their territories, or to bury our dead among their dead, or to worship God according to the usages of our forefathers, or the dictates of our own con* AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 65 science? Such treaties should rather be termed treaties for the abrogation of natural rights of AmericcLiis within Popish dorairiions. We enjoy no rights there ; and if we have any by impUcation, under our treaties, they are impiously wrested from us by a wicked rabble of priests and bishops, dis- tinguished only for their ignorance, rapacity, and licentiousness. I solemnly call upon every American citizen, who reveres his God, respects his fellow-citizens, or values the happiness of his country, to submit no longer to Popish insolence abroad, and to allow them no rights in this country, which they are not willing to reciprocate. If our existing treaties of amity with Popish powers are not sufficient to pro- test us in the free exercise of our religion, when among them, let us break them, let us tear them asunder, and scatter them as chaff before the wind. They were never binding upon as. They were made in violation of natural rights, -which God alone could give, and man cannot take away. Call upon your government to protect you ; choose no man as your representative who will allow Popery to flourish in this free soil, and witness the religion of your forefathers trampled upon, with impurutyj by Papists iu a neighboring country ; and if you cannot obtain your rights by law, you will show the world that you have, at least, moral and phys- ical courage enough to redress your wrongs. Let not Papists, who, at the distance of a few days' sail from your ports, would deny your brother the rights of Christian interment, or the consolation of d}ang with his Bible in his hand, dare call up- on your aid, to propagate a religion, which incul- cates principles worse and more dangerous than were ever practised in Pagan lands. 66 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, Much sympathy is felt and expressed, particu- larly iii this state of Massachusetts, where 1 write, for some of her colored popiiiatioii, because it is deemed necessary, in slave states, to prevent them from commingling with their slaves, lest they may excite them to dissatisfaction with their condition, and uhimately to insurrection. It is deemed a matter of sucii magnitude that Massachusetts, iu the plenitude of its sympathy, felt herself called upon to send an ambassador to South Carolina, to protect her citizens, and demand redress for this supposed outrage upon her rights. It is not my in- tention to enter into the merits or demerits of the question at issue between the states of Massachu- setts and South Carolina. I will merely state, that the former consists in this, viz : by a law of the state of South Ca,rolina, every free person of color, entering that state, is liable to be imprisoned till he leaves the state. This is done by South Carolina and some other slave states, as a necessary measure of precaution ; but the prisoner is kindly treated ; at least, we hear nothing to the contrary ; no such complaint is made by Massachusetts. The prisoner is allowed the free exercise of his religion ; his friends may visit him almost at any hour ; his spiritual instructor is never denied access to him ; he may have his Bible with him, or any other books he may think proper. But this will not satisfy the sympathizing people of Massachusetts. They call public meetings of their citizens ; threaten to dissolve the union ; and declare they will raise a sufficient military force to invade South Carolina, ind redress this outrage upon a citizen's rights, at the point of the bayonet. Man is truly a strange being, and various indeed are the currents of his sympathies, but still more va« AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 57 rious and unaccountable are the causes which often set them in motion. It is comparatively but seldom, that a colored citizen of the North goes to slave states ; bat if there should be the least infraction of his civil rights, the whole North flies into a pas- sion ; and yet this very people of the North can see the citizens of their own country, kindred, and blood, in a neighboring Popish port of Havana, for instance, deprived of all their rights, both conven- tional and natural, without a murmur. Not a com- plaint is heard in New England, from the son, whose father is confined in the dungeons of Cuba, not because he is suspected of any intention to cre- ate insurrection, but simply because he refused to kneel to some wooden image, which a parcel of debauched priests are lugging about the streets ; or because he expresses his belief that such pro- cessions and mummeries are worse than Pagan idolatry. The American Protestant, who will dare worship his God publicly, or even in private, within the walls of his own house, unless with closed doors, and without the knowledge of the Popish spies of the Inquisition, is liable to imprisonment, from which, in all probability, he is never to be released. If a Bible be found in his house, it is burned, and he and his family are cast into jail. This is the case in every country where the Popish church has power enough to make its religion that of the state ; and yet we have treaties of amity with these countries. What a burlesque upon amity ! what a mockery of friendly relations, with a people who deny us the exercise of the natural right which every man has, to worship God as he pleases ! who compel our fathers, brothers, and our sons, to bow the knee, in idolatrous worship, to 3* 58 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, wooden images, and particles of bread, which are paraded as Gods, through the streets, in Roman Catholic countries. Friendly relations, forsooth, with a people who consider us damned, and already- consigned to perdition! And yet we hear no com- plaint in Massachusetts, of cruelties to our citizens; nothing is said of the violation of those friendly re- lations, secured to us by treaty, and annually de- clared by our presidents, in their messages, to exist and to be maintained between our people and those Popish countries. When we hear of an American citizen in Cuba, when we hear of his natural rights being trampled under foot, by Catholic governois, bishops, and priests, no complaint is made of a vio- lation of friendly alliance ; no meeting is called to express sympathy for the individual sufferer, or indignation against the treacherous government of Popery ; no act of our legislature has been passed, making appropriations to send ambassadors to these neighboring nations, for injuries done to our citi- zens ; and yet it is a well-known fact, that where one colored citizen of New England is imprisoned, for a few days, in South Carolina, there are a thou- sand of our enterprising seamen and merchants, con- fined in the dungeons of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Mexico, and Cuba, at our very door. How long will these outrages be tolerated ? A Popish captain comes here; the hands before the mast are Papists; the ship may have her chaplain, or may have as many little gods, and saints, indulgences, scapulas, beads, and rosaries, as they please ; they may land, captain, crew, sauits, and all, and no one molests them ; but it an Ameri-can ship arrives at the very port from which the other sailed, her captain and crew are forbidden even to carry their Bible on shore ; but should the ship have a Protestant chaplain, and that chaplain AS IT \^AS AND AS IT 13. 69 venture on shore, with his congregation of sailors — all American freemen — he dare not take his Bible with him, or hold religious worship on this Popish ,soil ; and should this captain, chaplain, or any of the crew die, he is not allowed Christian burial, unless he can buy the privilege from profligate priests, at an enormous, sacrifice of money, and after certain purifications effected by holy water, and smoking, which they call incense. This is what our government calls friendly relations. How long shall we be amused by the executive messages, annually informing us of receiving "as- surances of friendship from Popish countries?" Let the people take this subje.ct into their own hands ; let them have no alliance, no treaty, no commerce with a people, who will deny tfiem the right of worshipping God peaceably and respect- fully, or who will refuse them the right of burying their dead decently and with due solemnity. The treaties which are made with Papists begin, on their part, with the most solemn avowal of good faith, m the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They assure us of their friendly sentiments towards us under this solemn and awful sanction ; but no sooner is this promise made — no sooner have they pledged their honor, their faith, and all that is holy, to support it — than they disregard all those obliga- .tions, feeling and believing that they are already dispensed with by their church, which teaches them to hold no faith with heretics. The priests, however, and bishops, more crafty than the mass of their people, plead state necessity for withhold- ing from us privileges which we give them. This is a shallow pretext, and worthy only of the source from which it comes, Cafn any case be supposed, or any necessity arise, to violate the eternal princi* 60 SYNOPSIS or POPERY, pies of right and wrong, of justice and truth r Are moral and national obligations anything more than mere dead letters and leaden rules, which can be bent by hands strong enongh to do so. and to suit their own purposes and designs? Suppose a man in private life — suppose further, that man to be a Papist — he enters into a treaty of alliance and friendship with a Protestant; he calls God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to witness that he will fulfil his engagement: we can easily fancy the Protestant, within the jurisdiction of that Papist, reading his Bible, without interfering or any way molesting the individual within whose jurisdiction he is. Let us imagine this Protestant seized by the Papist, thrown into prison by him, while alive, and if dead, thrown away as food for the birds of pre}-. Would you call this fulfilling the obligations of friendship or friendly alliance r Would the Protestant ever enter into such a treaty of alliance again ? Would not every Protestant who witnessed this transaction look upon the Pa- pist who committed it, even though he be but a private individual, as a bad man, with whom no further intercourse ought to be had? Assuredly, he would. But let it be borne in mind, that ac- tions do not change their nature ; "immutable prin- ciples are always the same ; they do not change with the paucity or number of actors : what is bad in an individual will be wrong in a nation, and in every individual of that nation. The only differ- ence is, that an act of perfidy and bad faith in a nation is, if possible, worse in itself, and infinitely more mischievous, than if committed by an in- dividual. Our political sophists may deny this, and gloss over the ccuduct of Popish governments towards AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 61 our citizens while among them ; but they cannot long hide from our people that the eternal laws of truth cannot be violated : nor can their meaning be frittered away by the technicalities of treaties. Trnth, whether moral or political, is like the sun of heaven; it is but one — it is the' same every where. It is sometimes clouded, it is true, but these clouds are momentary ; they pass away, and it shines again in its native brilliancy. The day is fast coming, and I trust it has even arrived, when Americans will see, that by a treaty of amity is not meant the right of shipping our commodities to Popish countries, and receiving theirs in exchange ; reserving to one party the privilege of denying to the other a right dearer to him than all earthly considerations ; and which is guarantied to him by the eternal laws of God, while the other party is under no restraint as to the full and free enjoyment of those natural rights. And here, I beg leave to say to our legislators, that Protestant Americans, upon due reflection, will not long give their assent to any treaty, nor form an alliance with any coun- try, which shall deny them the free exercise of their religion. The American, who will enter into an alliance with the Pope, or a Popish country, explicitly agrees to deny his God, and forswear the religion of his forefathers. He virtually consents that the party with which he makes the agreement shall be privileged to curse and damn him, his country, his religion, and his rights. This needs no proof. Look around you, and see your citizens in Mexico denying their God by submitting to Popish laws, which forbid their worship according to the dic- tates of their conscience. Were your puritan fore- fathers to witness this, would they not exclaim, 62 SYNOPSIS OF POPERT, " Shame upon our degenerate sons, who will barter their religion and their birthright for the petty advantages of commerce ! " No wonder that Popish priests and Popish presses should call Americans coioards and the sons of cowards. Who but a coward, and what but a nation of cowards, would surrender that liberty of conscience which their forefathers purchased at the price of blood? This Americans do by assenting to a treaty with any country which does not guarantee to them the right of worshipping God without hindrance. Americans will not forget, though they cannot too often be reminded of the fact, that those coun- tries where their feelings are thus outraged are, de facto^ governed by the Pope and his vicegerents, whose actions for centuries back have provejj them to have been no other than conspirators against the improvement and happiness of the human race. What were the means by which they conducted their governments ? The very same that they are now in every Roman Catholic country, all over the globe ; craft, dissimulation, oppression, extortion, and above all, fire, faggot, and the sword. There is not an article of their faith, nor a sacrament of their church, which is not enforced by curses, as I shall show in the sequel. These vicegerents of the humble Redeemer have the insolence to ape the very thunders of heaven. Histor}'- informs us, that their robes have been crimsoned in blood. Their images of saints, some of which I have seen in Mexico, made of solid gold, and many of them six feet high and well-proportioned, were wrung from the poor. Many of those countries, which they now pos- sess, and where God and nature have scattered ;5lenty, have been made barren by Popish avarice AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 63 and the licentiousness of its priests. The fields, which laughed with plenty, they have watered with hunger and distress. They found the world gay with flowers, and with roses : they dyed it with Mood. They and their doctrines acted upon it like the blast of an east wind. Popery, since the eighth century in particular, has been what a pes- tilence or conflagration is to a city. Come with me, in imagination, to Italy, and judge for yourselves. Pass on with me, to Spain, Portugal, South America, and you will sec that I am not exaggerating. You will find that I have only told truth, but not the whole truth. No tongue can tell it. We have no language to express it. I will give you a few instances of the fruits of Popery in the neighboring island of Cuba. What I am about stating has come under my own observation ; and is, besides, a matter of record, and accessible to many. The natives of Cuba pay fifteen millions per annum to her most Christian Majesty, the queen of Spain. .They support an army of sixteen thousand men, every one of whom is a native of old Spain, kept there for the sole purpose of ex- torting this enormous annual tribute. The number of priests there is immense. They, too, must be supported at the point of the bayonet. These priests are known to be the most profligate vaga- bonds in creation. And why, it will naturally- be asked, should such men be tolerated? Why supply them with money to gamble at the faro table, at cock-fights and bull- fights ? The reason is plain ; they act as spies for the Pope, Avho, in reality, manages the government of old Spain, and con- trives to draw, from that already impoverished and distracted country, the last dollar of a people whom God has endowed with every virtue, and a capacity 64 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, of cultivratiiig them, had not the curse of Popery fallen upon them. Such is the avarice of the Popish church and Popish tyrants, that, if a farmer in Cuba kills even a beef for his own use, he must pay the govern- ment ten per cent, upon its value. When I was in Cuba, the farmer must pay ten and a half dollars duty upon every barrel of flour imported into the island ; when he might raise, in the field, before his own door, the finest wheat in the world, if the gov- ernment would let him. Such are but a few of the blessings of Popish goverments. Do Americans desire this republic reduced to such a state of vas- salage as this ? or will you profit by these lessons, which experience is daily teaching you ? Wherever you turn your eyes, and see Popery in the ascendant, you will find it the Pandora's box, out of which every curse has issued, without even leaving hope behind. It should, therefore, be suppressed on its appearance in any country. It should be the duty of every good man to extirpate it, and sweep it, if possible, from the face of the globe. It is nothing better than a political machine, cunningly devised, for the propagation of despotism. It is the mas terpiece of satanic wickedness. Execrated and exploded be this infernal machine ! and thanks forever be to that God, who has shown me its in- tricacies, in time to save me from becoming what, I know of my own knowledge, Roman Catholic priests are — hypocrites, infidels, and licentious debauchees, under the mask of sanctity and holi- ness. Their religion is supported by curses, as 1 have before stated, and will now prove from the doctrines of their own church. The reader has al- ready been told, that the Popish church maintains :he doctrines that a belief in seven sacraments is AS IT WAS AND AS lT IS. 65 necessary to salvation. These sacraments are desig- nated as follows : Baptism, Coiifinnaiion, Eucha- rist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. And she enforces this by curses. I have already enumerated the curses with which she en- forces her belief in baptism. The next sacrament is Confirmation, enforced by the following eloquent cnrses, pronounced by the infallible council of Trent : — " 1. Whoever shall say that the confirmation of baptized persons is a needless ceremony, and not rather a true and proper sacrament : or that ancient- ly it was nothing else than a kind of catechizing, by which the youth expressed the reason of their faith before the church ; let him be accursed ! "2. Whoever shall say that they do despite to the Holy Spirit who attributes any virtue to the holy chrism of confirmation ; let him be accursed ! "3. Whoever shall say, the ordinary minister of holy confirmation is not the bishop alone, but any mere priest whatsoever ; let him be accursed ! " The next sacrament is the Eucharist. The fol- lowing is the doctrine of the Romish church in re- lation to this : — Decree of the Council of Florence for the Instruc- tio7i of the Armenians. " The third is the sacrament of the Eucharist, the matter of which is wheaten bread, and wine from the vine ; with which, before the consecration, a very small quantity of water should be mixed. But water is thus mixed, since it is believed that the Lord himself instituted this sacrament in wine, mixed with water : besides, because this agrees with the representation of our Lord's passion : be- cause it is recorded that blood and water flowed 66 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, forth from the side of Christ : and also because this is proper to signify the effect of this sacrament, which is the union of Christian people with Christ : for water signifies the people, according to Rev. xvii. 15. Ajid he said to Tne, the waters, which thou saioestj where the harlot sittethj are peoples, and nations, and tongues. "The form of this- sacrament are the words of the Saviour, by which this sacrament is performed : for the priest, speaking in the person of Christ, per- forms this sacrament : for, by virtue of the words themselves, the substance of the bread is converted into the body, and the substance of the wine into the blood, of Christ ; yet so that Christ is con- tained entire under the form of bread, and entire under the form of wine : Christ is entire also under every part of the consecrated host, and of the con- secrated wine, after a separation has been made. The effect of this sacrament, which it produces in the soul of a worthy partaker, is the union of the person to Christ," &c. Canons of the Council of Trent, coiicerning the Most Holy Sacratnent of the Eucharist. '' 1. Whoever shall deny that, in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist are contained truly, re- ally, and substantially, the body and blood, togeth- er with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore the entire Christ, but shall say that he is in it only as in a sign, or figure, or virtue , let him be accursed ! "2 Whoever shall say that in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the substance of bread and wine remains together with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and shall deny that wonder- ful and singular conversion of the whole substanco AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 67 of the bread into the body, and of the whole sub- stance of the wine into the blood, only the forms of bread and wine remaining, which conversion indeed the Catholic church most aptly calls tran- substantiation ; let him be accursed ! "3 Whoever shall deny that in the adorable sacrament of the Eucharist, the entire Christ is contained under each kind, and under the single parts of each kind, when a separation is made ; let him be accursed ! " 4. Whoever shall say that the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are not present in the ad- mirable Eucharist so soon as the consecration is performed, but only in the use when it is received, and neither before nor after, and that the true body of our Lord does not remain in the hosts, or con- secrated morsels, which are reserved or left after the communion ; let him be accursed ! " 5, Whoever shall say either that remission of snis is the principal fruit of the most holy Eucha- rist, or that no other effects proceed from it ; let him be accursed ! " 6. Whoever shall affirm that in the holy sacra- ment of the Eucharist, Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, is not to be adored, even with the ex- ternal worship of latria, and therefore that the Eucharist is to be honored neither with peculiar festive celebration, nor to be solemnly carried about in processions according to the laudable and uni- versal rite and custom of the church, or that it is not to be held up publicly before the people that it may be adored, and that its worshippers are idolaters ; let him be accursed ! '' 7. Whoever shall say that it is not lav\rful that the holy Eucharist be reserved in the sacristy, but that it must necessarily be distributed to those who 68 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY. i are present immediately after the conf sec ration ; or j that it is not proper that it be carried in procession to the sick ; let him be accursed ! " 8. Whoever shall say that Christ, as exhibited in the Eucharist, is eaten only spiritually, and not also sacramentally and really; let him be accursed! " 9. Whoever shall deny that each and every one of Christ's faithful, of both sexes, when they have attained to years of discretion, are obliged, at least once every year, at Easter, to commune ac- cording to the precept of holy mother church ; let him be accursed ! " 10. Whoever shall say that it is not lawful for the officiating priest to administer the communion to himself; let him be accursed ! ''11. Whoever shall affirm that faith alone is a sufficient preparation for taking the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist ; let him be accursed ! And lest so great a sacrament be taken unworthily, and therefore to death and condemnation, the said holy synod doth decree and declare, that sacra- mental confession must necessarily precede in the case of those whom conscience accuses of mortal sin, if a confessor is at hand, however contrite they may suppose themselves to be. But if any one shall presume to teach, preach, or pertinaciously assert, or in publicly disputing, to defend the con- trary, let him by this very act be excommunicated." Canons of the same Council concerning the Com- munion of Children, and in both Kinds. '' 1. Whoever shall say that each and every one of Christ's faithful ought to take both kinds of the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, by the com- mand of God, or because necessary to salvation ; let him be accursed ! AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 69 " 2. Whoever shall say that the holy Catholic church has not been induced, by just causes and reasons, to administer the communion to the laity, and also to the clergy not officiating, only under the form of bread ; or that she has erred in this ; let him be accursed ! "3. Whoever shall deny that the whole and entire Christ, the fountain and author of all graces, is received under the one form of bread, because, as some falsely assert, he is not received under both kinds, according to the institution of Christ ; let him be accursed ! " 4. Whoever siiall say that the communion of the Eucharist is necessary for little children be- fore they have attained to years of discretion ; let him be accursed ! " &c. The next in order is Extreme Unction. Canons of the Council of Trent concerning Extreme Unction. " 1. Whoever shall say that extreme unction is not truly and properly a sacrament instituted by Christ our Lord, and promulgated by the blessed apostle James, but only a rite received from the fathers, or a human invention ; let him be accursed ! "2. Whoever shall say that the sacred anointing of the sick does not confer grace, nor remit sins, nor raise up the sick, but that it has now ceased, as if the gift of healing existed only in past ages ; let him be accursed ! '^ 3. Whoever shall say that the ceremony of extreme unction in the practice which the holy Roman church observes, are repugnant to the meaning of the blessed apostle James, and that, therefore, they are to be changed ; let him be accursed ! " The sixth sacrament is that of Orders. 70 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, Canons of the Council of Trent concerning Orders '' 1. Whoever shall say that in the New Testa- ment, there is not a visible and external priesthood : or that there is not any power of consecrating and offering the true body and blood of the Lord, and of remitting and retaining sins : but only the office and naked ministry of preaching the gospel ; or that they who do not preach are surel}c. ; and, suitably educated, whenever necessary, were ready to act their parts well. Thus no man was safe. No family, no lady, was safe. They dreaded the very air they breathed. They knew not when the officers of the inquisition would call them from their homes, their children, tlieir husbands, and their wives, to be cast into the dungeon of the inquisition, without knowing their offence, or who accused them. This was Popery in the twelfth century ; this was Popery in the fourth century : and this is Popery in the nineteenth century. Americans, are you aware that there are Jesuit nuns now in this country ? Are you aware of the reasons why they are so anxious to get Protestant rather than Catholic scholars into their schools ? The reason is this ; they are in this country spies upon your actions. Your thoughts, your designs, your influence, the probable amount of your wealth, and your political opinions, are known to your children. These Jes- uit nuns worm themselves into your confidence ; the young hearts of their pupils are soon laid bare to these artful hypocrites ; and before you scarcely notice the absence of your children, your domestic secrets are known to some Popish agent, who makes such use of them as the holy church may direct. This is done daily. I make this statement of my own knowledge, and I warn you, if you value your domestic happiness, or the peace and harmony of your children, never permit one of them, male or female, to enter a school kept by nuns or Jesuits. Prom these observations, the reader must have seen that Popery, in its teachings and actions, is, 94 and has been, the same always. What, then, be comes of the assertions, so frequently made by Ro- man Catholic priests and bishops, that the doctruies of the church, in relation to heretics, have been re- laxed ? Certain it is, at all events, that there has been no mitigation in the treatment of heretics down to the thirteenth century. Let us come down a little farther, and see if any had taken place during the thirteenth century. We discover none whatever. It was during this century, that the ^' Greater Excommunication," as it is called, was pronounced by the Pope, and the whole church, against all who should interfere with the clergy in the exer- cise of their temporal or spiritual rights. The curse was pronounced, by every parish priest, throughout the Papal world, four times a year, — Christmas^ E aster ^ Pentecost, and All-Halloics day. The curse is in the following words, and is now repeated on the same days, by the Pope and all the priests and bishops of the Romish church, not publicly, — that they dare not do, — but in private. " Let them be accursed, eating and drinking, walk- ing and sitting, speaking, and holding their peace, waking and sleeping, rowing and riding, laughing and weeping, in house and in field, in water and on land, in all places ; cursed be their heads and their thoughts, their eyes and their ears, their tongues and their lips, their teeth and their throats, their shoulders and their breasts, their feet and their legs, their thighs and their inward parts ; let them re- main accursed, from the sole of their foot to the crown of their heads ; and just as this candle (the curser has a lighted candle in his hand, which he extinguishes) is deprived of its present light, so let them be deprived of their souls in hell." AS IT WAa a^maj aS IT IS. 95 Such is the curse which the Pope pronounced against all heretics in the thirteenth century ! and however surprised you may be, a similar one is pronounced once a year against all Protestants. There are many Americans who cannot believe that such a curse as the above, has ever been pro- nounced against a fellow-being. I have conversed with some intelligent Protestants ia this city, who doubted whether such an anathema was ever uttered, and seemed struck with horror, as well as surprise, when I informed them that it was pro- nounced against myself in Philadelphia in presence of, at least, three thousand people. The reader must know, by this, that I am a heretic, and look upon the introduction of Popery into the United States, as the greatest evil which Providence has permitted to fall upon us. Arise, fellow-citizens, in the fulness of your power, — every Protestant in this country is a heretic, as well as myself. We are all annually cursed and damned by a set of Popish agents, bishops, and priests ; men who, from my own personal acquaintance with them, I know to be unworthy of your friendship or your support ; who walk your streets with apparent sanctimonious- ness, but whose lives in private are such as delicacy forbids me to mention. These men, under pretence of being democrat.^ are attacking your liberties with the club of Hei- cuies. They are acquiring gigantic force. You have recently witnessed the truth of this assertion ; they fancied they had strength enough to cut you down as the legate of Pope Innocent did the Al- bigenses in the twelfth century. They bid defiance to reason, argument, and the law of your land ; and it grieves me to see every thing yielding to their power, as chaff before the wind. But Providence yO SYNOPSIS OF lOPERY, interposed, and these miserable dupes of Romish priests received a check, which, if followed up, will have a salutary effect in future. But, I pray you, be on your guard ; watch the movements of Papists among you : have no confidence in them ; have as little as possible to do with them. Trust them in nothing which may either directly or in- directly involve their religion. I most solemnly appeal to our national and state legislatures, to ex- clude them from every office of honor, profit, or trust, while they have any connection whatever, spiritual or temporal^ with the Pope of Rome. Believe them not, when they tell you that their allegiance to the Pope is only spiritual. I under- stand what they mean by spiritual allegiance. From what has been stated, it is clear that no mod- ification had taken place in Popish pretensions dur- mg the thirteenth century, neither had the church relaxed one iota in her persecutions of heretics. On the contrary, her cruelties increased-the declarations of Popish priests to the contrary notwithstanding. Let us now see what has been the conduct of the Popish church towards heretics, from the latter end of the thirteenth century to the conclusion ot the fourteenth. How was the illustrious John Wickliffe, pro- fessor of divinity in Oxford, treated by the church of Rome, during the reign of Boniface IX. But let us first see what the crimes of Wickliffe were, for which he had been so severely punished by the holy Roman church. The illustrious and good Wickliffe, the founder of the Reformation, whose very name every Christian venerates, main- tained, 1st, That the Scriptures contain all truths necessary to salvation ; 2d, That in the Scriptures only, is to be found, a perfect rule of Christiari AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 97 practice ; 3d, He deuied the authority of the Pope in temporal matters ; 4th, He maintained that the Pope was the Man of Sin, the son of perdiiioji, to which St. Paal alluded, "sitting as God in the temple of God." As soon as the opinions of Wick- liffe were ascertained, Gregory XL, the ruling Pope, addressed a full to the primate of England, ordering him to have Wickiiffe arrested and impris- oned, until he received further instructions. The popularity of Wickiiffe was such, that this step was considered dangerous ; and we find that nothing further was done to this eminently pious man, than banishing him from the university of Oxford into private life, where he died in peace, and went to his grave with the blessings of the good and the virtuous. But this did not satisfy the Pope, nor the infallible church. O, no. The holy mother never forgives a heretic, dead or alive. As soon as Wickiiffe departed this life, in the sixty-first year of his age, the church and Papists exhibited the wildest symptoms of joy. One of their writ- ers, in giving an account of his death, uses the fol- lowing language : " On the day of St. Thomas, the martyr, that limb of the devil, enemy of the church, deceiver of the people, idol of heretics, mirror of hypocrites, author of schism, sower of hatred, and inventor of lies, John Wickiiffe, was, by the immediate judgment of God, suddenly struck with a palsy, which seized all the members of his body, when he was ready to vomit forth his bias phemies against the blessed St. Thomas, in a ser- mon which he had prepared to preach that day ! " But holy mother was not yet satisfied. She had not the felicity of hanging Wickiiffe ; her ears were not delighted with his groans upon the rack ; 5 98 SYNOPSIS or POPERT, she did not hear his flesh hissing amid the flames of the faggot, nor his bones breaking upon the wheel; she mast, however, have all the revenge left to satiate her malice. Thirty years after the death of Wickliff'e, the infallible council of Con- stance, at which the Pope presided, passed an order that the body and bones of John Wickliff'e, if they might be known and discerned from the bodies of faithful people — Papists — should be taken from the ground and thrown far away from the burial of any church, according to the canon laws and decrees. This decree was not put in execution for thirteen years afterwards. His grave was then opened and his body disinterred with great solemnity, and in the presence of the Catholic bishop of Lincoln, it was piTblicly burned, and the ashes thrown mto a neigh- bormg rivulet. But the indignities offered to Wickliff'e, while living, and after his death, were not sufficient to appease the malice of Papists. Blood, and blood alone, could satiate their thirst for revenge. His followers were hunted up and mer- cilessly put to death. Among the first of his fol- lowers, who suff'ered, was Lord Cobham, a noble- man, distinguished for his valor, devotion to his country, and true piety. His character was with- out blemish, and his morals and patriotism un- doubted ; but he was a heretic ; he was among the followers of Wickliff'e ; he believed in the Holy Scriptures. This was crime enough, and for this he was excommimicated. Cobham appealed to the Pope, but the appeal was refused : he was cited again ; he was offered absolution, if he would sue for it, and submit to the Popish church. This he refused ; the consequence was. he was thrown into AS IT WkS AND AS tT IS. 99 {..rison, from which he escaped and was not retaken for nearly four years, he was, however, finally cap- tured after a most heroic resistance. He might have escaped again, being an over- match for his captor, had not a, pious Roman Cath- olic wo7nanj while he was nobly defending him- self, taken up a stool, and with a desperate blow, broken both his legs. In this condition he was recommitted to prison until he was sentenced to death for his heresy. The sentence was, " that he should be drawn from his place of confinement through the city of London, to Temple Bar, there to be hanged, and burned hanging." The historian Bale gives a most affecting account of his exe- cution. '• On the day appointed," says Bale, "he was brought out of the Tower with his arms bound behind him, having a very cheerful countenance. Then he was laid upon a hurdle as though he had been a most heinous traitor to the crown, and so drawn forth into St. Giles's field, where they had set up a new gallows. When he arrived at the place of exe- cution, and taken from the hurdle, he fell down de- voutly on his knees, and prayed God to forgive his enemies.* Then he stood up and beheld the multi- tude, exhorting them, in the most godly manner, to follow the laws of God, written in the Scriptures, and to beware of such teachers as they see contrary to Christ, in their conversation and living, with many other special councils. Then was he hanged up there, by the middle, in chains of iron, and so con- sumed alive in the fire, praising the name of the Lord, so long as life lasted. In the end he com- mended his soul into the hands of God, and so, most Christianly, departed home, his body being re- ceived to ashes." 100 SYNOPSIS OF PUrF:RY, Thus was a nobleman, and a noble Cliristian, most barbarously put to death for believing that the Bible contained God'^s truth ; and therein diflering from the Roman church, which teaches that the traditions of the fathers, and dreams of monks, are of equ.al authority. FoUovA^ersof WicklifFe, — and there are many of you in this country, who- are an honor to his name, — have you ever reflected that there are nearly two millions of Papists in these United States, who entertain the same belief that the mur- derers of Cobhara did ; who believe that you are all e.vcommiinicated, as he was. and who, if they had the power, would consign yourselves, your wives, a.nd children, to the same fate ? and who are taught by their church, that, in so doing, they would be serving God? Romish priests may deny this. They do well. Otherwise, an indignant populace would tear them to pieces, or at least banish them from this land of freedom. But I tell the priest or bishop, who dares deny it, that they are liars, — wilful and deliberate liars. T too have been a priest, and I solemnly declare to the world, and to my fellow-citizens of the United States in particular, that to keep no faith with her- etics^ but to destroy them, is one of the most solemn duties of a Catholic ; and I go further, and state to you, that if a bishop or priest denies this, upon oath, you are not to believe him ; his church re- quires from him to keep no faith with heretics, but to destroy and extirpate them. It allows him also to deny, under oath, the existence of such an obli- gation. Do you, followers of WicklifTe, require any proof of this? It is a serious charge, and should not be lightly made. I therefore refer you to the letters of AS IT WAS ANO AS IT IS. 101 Martin lY., who was Pope iti the year 1417, and considered one of the best Popes the Romish church ever had. This Pope, in one of his letters to the Duke of Lithuania, makes use of the following strong and emphatic language. ^^ .Reassured, thou siniiest mortally, if thou keep thy faith loith here- tics.''^ St. Thomas Aquinas teaches the same doc- trine. Innocent VIII., who was Pope in 1484, de- clares " tha.t all persons who are hound by any con- tract whatever to heretics are at liberty to break it, even though they had sworn an oath to fulfil itJ^^ You here see, that I have done no injustice to Ro- man Catholics, in putting you on your guard against them, and charging them with a willingness to destroy yourselves, your wives and children, as heretics, had they power and opportunity of doing so. I am supported by the authority of Pope Martin V., and Pope Innocent VIII. ; and though in your estimation, those blood-thirsty vagabonds may give no weight to my testimony, still it cannot fail to be highly satisfactory^ to Papists. Some of the Catholics may tell you, that the followers of VVickliffe were a seditious people ; that they threat- ened to overthrow the civil institutions of the country ; that all law and order were set at defiance by them ; and that this was the cause of their per- secution. This is false in fact — it is historically false. If the followers of Wickliffe, or Lollards, as they were called, were disturbers of the peace ; if their lives were seditious, disorderly, and rebellions, why were they not indicted, under some statute of the realm, made and provided to take cognizance of such crimes? Why were they not even accused of such crimes? Was the meek, mild, and learned John Wickliffe, accused or indicted for disturbing the peace ? Wa? 102 it for distLirbiiig the peace, that his venerable bones were disinterred thirty years after being deposited in the cold grave ? Was it for disturbing the peace, and for riotous proceedings, his bones were subsequently burned, and their ashes thrown into the next river ' Was it for disturbing the peace, the learned and brave Cobham was hung in iron chains, by the middle. No such accusation has ever been brought against these great and good men, or against thousands who suffered with them. They were accused only of heresy. Papists were their accusers ; Papists were their judges; and Papists were their execu- tioners. But the malice of those blood-thirsty Catholics was not even then satiated. It is as fresh now^ as it was then. Papists are not content, that hundreds of years ago, Wickliffo and his followers should be persecuted, and the greater portion of them massa- cred and burned. Their memories, also, are objects of Popish hati'ed, even to this day on which I write. They represent them as enemies of the human race. As despisers of chastity and moral- ity. You will probably see these charges advanced against them in the Popish presses tlu'oughout the United States. But recollect, Americans, that age does not improve the piety of Papists. The older holy inother gets, the harder becomes her heart, and the more bitter her virulence. I might satisfy you, if necessary, on the testimony of the most respectable Protestant writers, that there lived not in the world, a people more simple, more pious, or virtuous than the Waldenses, or Wickliffites. It may be said of them, with truth, ••' qiialis pater tales filii.^'' But r will not refer to Protestant authority ; knavish, lying. Popish priests may question it ! I refer you, for the character of this persecuted AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. ll)3 people, to an early Popish historian, Florimond — History of Heresy, book vii. ch. 7. " They " — the Walcleiises — says this writer, *' have nothing in their mouths but Christ the Sav- iour — they kuow nothing else than Jesus Christ. These people read the Bible continually, in such a manner that they know all the books of it by heart." Horrid people these WickUffites must be, to read the Bible until they know it by heart! And as these Bible-readiug and Bible-loving people now constitute a vast majority'' of our citizens, I call up- on them to rise in the full force of their moral pow- er, and ward off from themselves and their children, the curse of Popery, or the fate of Wickliffe and his followers will assuredly be theirs. Many of you, Americans, are followers of Wickliffe. You believe as he believed ! You live as he lived ! Yon love peace as he loved it. Do you wish to con- tmue as you are now ? Or will you permit a flood ,of vile priests, monks, and nuns, to overrun your country, and seduce your children from the paths of virtue, in which your own example and the perusal of their Bibles have taught them to walk ? I now call your attention to the belief and prac- tice of the Romish church in the fifteenth century, and you Avill find that heresy and heretics were still persecuted by her. Witness the conduct of Pope Innocent VHI. toward the Yaudois. He sent one of his Jesuit legates amongst them, wiih instructions to prevail on Louis XH. to extirpate them from his dominions, without even hearing any deputies which they might send him. The answer of Louis did him much credit — " Though I were at war with a Turk or the devil, I would hear wliat he had to say for himself" They accordingly 104 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY. made their defence ; and, upon this, the good King Louis sent commissioners to examine the state of things among them. The following was their re- port, as history informs us : " Having made a strict inquiry into their mode of living, we cannot dis- cover the least shadow of the crimes imputed to them. On the contrary, it appears that they pious- ly observe the Sabbath, baptize their children after the manner of the primitive church, and are thor- oughly instructed in the doctrine of the apostles' creed, and in the law of God." On hearing this report, the king exclaimed, in a passion, addressing himself to the Pope's legate — " By the holy mother of God, these heretics, whom you and the Pope urge me to destroy, are better men than you or my- self." He, however, soon departed this life, and every man acquainted with history knows what their sufferings were from the time of his death down to the days of Cromwell, who, whatever his faults may have been, fired with indignation at the barbarities committed by the Romish church, inter- posed in behalf of those persecuted people, and called upon Protestant princes and sovereigns to aid him in protecting them. I will not burden the reader with a history of the sufferings of these people. It is familiar even to our schoolboys. I must, however, repeat the fact, that they were persecuted for no other reason than because they believed the Bible contained all the truths necessary to salvation, and because they did not believe in all the mummeries of Popery. Will Catholic bishops and priests still continue to assert that their church does not teach them to persecute heretics, and to hold no faith with them ? Will they continue to assert, that the Pope of Rome does not claim temporal as well as spiritual nirisdiction over AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 105 the kingdoms of the earth ? or if they do, are we compelled to listen to them ? There is scarcely any one who does not recollect the conduct of the holy see, as it is nicknamed, towards Q.aeen Elizabeth, on her ascension to the throne of England.^ The queen sent a messenger to the court of Rome, to inform the Pope of the event. This was an act of state courtesy ; but his holiness had the insolence to reply to the messen- ger who represented his sovereign : '• Tell your mistress that England was held in fief of the apos- tolic see ; that she could not succeed, being ille- gitimate ; nor could she contradict the declarations made in that matter by his predecessors, Clement VII. and Paul III., Tell your mistress," said this insolent ecclesiastic, " that it was great boldness in her to assume the crown without my consent, for which, in reason, she deserves no favor at my hands ; yet if fie will renounce her pretensions and refer herself wholly to me, I would show a fatherly affection to her, and do every thing for her that could consist with the dignity of the Roman see." Fellow-citizens, do you want any other proof to satisfy you that the Pope of Rome claims universal jurisdiction over kings, queens, nations, kingdoms, and all mankind? It is only about three hundred years since this occurred ; and is there evidence on record that the Pope has resigned the prerogative of universal dominion which he then claimed ? You may laugh at the idea of his claiming it over this country ; but, mark what I tell you, some suc- cessor of the present Pope will not only claim, but exercise it in less than half the time that has elapsed since the days of Elizabeth. Other objects may divert your attention from this subject ; you 5* 106 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, may sleep on in fancied secnrity, but your sleep may be fatal. " America," as a talented writer (Giustiniani) ex- presses it, "is the promised land, the land of the Jesuits' operations. To obtain the ascendency, they have no need of a mercenary Swiss guard, or the assistance of the holy alliance^ but a majori- ty of votes, which can easily be obtained by an importation of Roman Catholics from Ireland, Ba- varia, and Austria. Rome, viewed at a distance, is a colossus ; near at hand, its grandeur diminishes, its charm is lost. But the Jesuits are every where the same — cunning, immoral, and sneaking in- triguers, until they have obtained the ascendency. Rome feels her weakness at home ; she knows her- self to be a mere political institution, dressed in the garment of Christianity. She takes good care to uphold that holy militia, the Jesuits, in order «o appear what she is not. It is a s(Ke for existence. I am not a politician," says this writer, ". but know- ing the active spirit of Jesuitism, and the indif- ference of the generality of Protestants, I have no doubt whatever, that in ten years the Jesuits will have a mighty influence over the ballot-box, and in twenty they will direct it according to their own pleasure. Now they fawn, in ten years they will menace, and in twenty command." In this city they not only " fawn," but they have proceeded to "menace." Some of the knowing ones among the Catholics now boast that they have the power to govern this city, and they intend to exercise it. This is no. idle threat. Even now, though they are actually less in numerical strength in the aggregate, than the Protestants, and pay far less for the support of our fr?e schools, they, never- theless, have succeeded in depriving Protestant AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 107 children of the privilege of using ihe Bible i'o': a school-book, as they have been wont to do. Prot- estants may sleep on if they will, bat they may be assured that they are sleeping on the sides of a burning volcano, and that ere long they will be awakened, but too late, we fear, by tfie angry thmiders of the upheaving fires within, which shalj scathe and desolate the fair heritage they now enjoy. I entreat you, fellow-citizens, never to forget the solemn declaration of the father of your country : "Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake ; since history and experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of a republican government." This is the warning of the immortal Washington, and should not pass un- heeded. To th^ AS IT IS. 115 bello wings have been, ever since, comparative!}' harmless. But there seems a recuperative power in the BEAST. He is again attempting to plant his foot upon our soil, and establish his temporal power amongst us ; and how is he trying to accomplish this, fellow-citizens ? The Papists have united themselves together as a body, headed by their priests, and resolved to carry, through the ballot box, what they cannot otherwise accomplish, at least for the present. Popish priests have all be- come politicians ; they publicly preach peace, good order, and obedience to the " powers that be," but they tell the people in the confessional, to disre- gard those instructions, and stop at nothing which may promote the interests of the church. They have now, what they call " religious news- papers," under the supervision of their bishops, but in which not a word of pure religion, or Christian charity, is to be found. They are political presses, whose object is to overthrow our laws, our govern- ment, and introduce, in their stead, anarchy and confusion. These people — and here I allude to Irish Catholics and their priests in particular — have no regard for the obligations of an oath. Let the priest only tell them that it is for the good of the churchy and they will stop at no crime ; no, not even at murder ; and they are daily becoming more audacious, in consequence of the support which they receive from unprincipled politicians, and the mor- bid indifference of Protestants. I have shown you, in a former page, that the in- crease of Catholics, in this country, will soon give them a majority of voters : and who, think you, ' will they vote for? A Protestant is it ? Any man distinguished for virtue, and for love of republican principles? Assuredly nut. 1 16 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, • Will they select such a man as the virtuous and pious Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey? Will they choose such a man as the upright and honorable Archer, of Virginia ? Will they cast their votes for such a man as the honest John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina; than whom, whatever may be his politics, there is not a greater or a better man of tiie age. I might name hundreds, equally good and great men, who are disqualified, by their virtues, from receiving the votes of Popish vassals. None but mercenary demagogues, such as the Pope's tool, Daniel O'ConneU, who generously sacrifices five thousand pounds a year to obtain fifty-six thousand, the sum which he received last year in order to ameliorate the condition of the poor Irish. Give the power, and they will elect such a political desperado as this restless O'ConneU, a Jesuit by education, an intriguer by nature, and as great a coward as ever drew breath. This is the champion, and his followers — the Irish — are the people, who call Americans cowards, and their "pilgrim fathers." 'pirates and sanguinary wretches. These are the men, with Daniel O'ConneU at their head, number- ing nine millions of the " bravest men i^i the world,'^ who have been for centuries, and are now, on their knees, begging favors from the British government. Americans, too, once asked for favors, or rather their just rights, from that government, but not having obtained them, they drew their swords, threw away their scabbards, and, though the whole population of the United States did not, at that time, amount to two and a half millions, they fought for their rights, and they won them. Yet these Popish braggarts, but wretched slav^es, call you cowards^ AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 117 • and your fathers pirates. How long will you suf- fer this ? We know, from history, that Popery and liberty cannot coexist in the same country. A Popish government has never advanced human happiness. It never promotes any object truly great or philan- thropic. How deplorable would it be, did this country fall a prey to those who are trying to es- tablish it amongst us. The truth is, Popish glory, the trappings of its court, have been always the silly objects of the Roman church, while the mass of her people has ever been left in the recesses of want, obscurity, and ignorance. Americans, at present, seem sunk in a sort of po- litical lethargy ; and this is taken advantage of, by foreign priests and Jesuits ; but I would tell those disturbers of our peace, not to trust too much to this apparent sluggishness ; a calm often precedes a storm : the continued insolence, abuses, and threats of Papists, may arouse our young lion, and, if I mistake not — ^although, appearances are at present against it — his holiness and his minions, who are trying to set up a power in this country unknown to our constitution, and not enumerated in our bill of rights, may have occasion to tremble. To effect this, however, without the shedding of blood, it is necessary — indispensably necessary — that no Papist should hold office, or even vote, un- til he ceases to have any connection, or hold any alliance with the Pope, who is ^foreign potentate. as well as head of the church. Let them come amongst us, if they will, but let it be with healing on their wings, and not to disturb our peace and tranquillity. Let them prove themselves the friends of liberty, religion, and mankind, and Americans will receive them with open arms, admit them to a ititii 118 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY. full participation in all their own privileges, and ex- tend to them the hand of friendship ; but never let this be done, until they forswear expressly and without mental reservation^ all allegiance, of what- ever kind, and under whatever name, to the Pope of Rome, who is d. foreign potentate^ and acknowl- edged as such by the powers of Europe. When a Papist refuses to do this, trust him not. I repeat it, trust him not, Americans. He is a spy amongst you, a traitor to your country, and the sworn ene- my of your religion and your liberties. This, however, they do not. They come amongst you with different motives and far different characters. Though I know them well, it would be impossible for me to express to you the designs which mark their entrance into this country. They cross the Atlantic, under instructions from their priests, and bring nothing with them but their bigotry, intolerance, and ignorance. Their tastes, their passions, and their native hatred of Protestants are wafted over to us, and are al- ready corrupting the morals of our people. In their native country they feel, or pretend to feel, oppressed by British laws and British government. They are taught by their priests to despise their government, at home ; that its laws are all penal, and that there is no crime in evading them. There is not an Irish Catholic, who leaves that country, but feels it his duty to resist the laws of Protestant England, and evade, by perjury or otherwise, their execution. '' In no country in the world," says a modern writer. " are the rights of property so recklessly violated : amongst no people on the face of the earth are the obligations of an oath, or the discharge of the moral duties, so utterly disregarded. Any man, the greatest cul- AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 119 prit, can find persons to prove an alibi; the most atrocious assassin has but to seek protection, to obtain it. And why is this so ? Because the rebgious instruction of the people has been total- ly neglected ; because their priests have become politicians ; because their bishops, pitchforked from the potatoe-basket to the palace, have become drunk with the incense offered to their vanity ; and the patronage granted in return for their unprinci- pled support, instead of checking the misconduct of the subordinates, stimulate them to still further violence, and stop at nothing which can forward their objects. Because the opinions of the people are formed on the statements and advice of mendi- cant agitators, who have but one object in view — their own aggrandizement. Because a rabid and revolutionary press, concealing its ultimate designs under the motive of affording protection to the weak, seeks to overthrow all law and order, pandering to the worst passions of an ignorant and ferocious populace." Irish priests and Irish bishops complain of pov- erty and grievances at home. They complain that men of property leave their homes and spend their incomes abroad ; but as this writer, to whom I have alluded expresses it, " What encouragement do they give to such as return from their resi- dences abroad ? " Allow me, fellow-citizens, to give you an instance of the treatment which Protestants of fortune receive from Irish Roman priests, when they do return to reside upon their estates in Ireland. I quote from the same au- thor : — "The Marquis of Waterford, a sportsman. boundless in his charities, frank and cordial in his manners, not obnoxious on account of his politics, and admitted on all hands to be one of the best tj 120 SYNOPSIS OF POPEKlf, landlords in Ireland, comes to reside, and spend his eighty thousand sterhng per annum, in the coun- try. He gets up a splendid establishment in the county of Tipperary ; and how is he treated ? His hounds and horses were twice poisoned. There are scarcely any Protestants in the county of Tipperary. His offices were fired, and his ser- vants, with difficulty, saved their lives. Com- pelled to a,bandon Tipperary- — that sink of Popish iniquity, every nook and corner of which I am acquainted with — this generous and fine-hearted young nobleman retires to his family mansion, in Waterford ; and how is he received there ? I will not tell you ; let his parish priest tell the story. "Men of Portlan," says this holy Romish priest^ addressing the tenants and neighbors of the Mar- quis of Waterford, " you were the leading men who put down Beresford, in '26 (the marquis's father) ; I call on you now, having put down one set of tyrants, to put down another set of tyrants, the marquis himself." Many of the Romish priests, which we have in this country, are from that very county of Tippe- rary, and thousands of the poor Irish amongst us have had their education, such as it is, from such worthy apostolic successors as the parish priest of the Marquis of Waterford. Such are the people to whom you are yield- ing the destinies of this happy republic, by allow- ing them to vote at your elections, or to hold any office" of honor or trust, while they have any con- nection with the head of their church, the Pope of Rome. Let the reader pass on from Popish Tippe- rary to Protestant Ulster, and he will see that the crimes of the Irish, and the miseries which many of them sufier, are to be attributed almost solely to their religion and their priests. AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 121 Mr. Kohl, a fair and very impartial writer, at 'east, upon Ireland, and who is often quoted by the great agitator, O'Connell, says, — in passing from that part of the country, where the majority of the inhabitants profess the Roman Catholic re- ligion to that in which the great bulk of the popu- lation are Protestants or Presbyterians, — ''On the other side of these miserable hills, whose inhabi- tants are years before they can afford to get the holes mended in their potatoe kettles, (the most im- portant article of furniture in an Irish cabin,) the territory of Leinster and that of Munster begins. The coach rattled over the boundary line, and all at once we seemed to have entered a new world. I am not in the slightest degree exaggerating when [ say, that everything was as suddenly changed as if by an enchanter's wand. The dirty cabins by the road side were succeeded by neat, pretty cot- tages ; well cultivated fields and shady trees met the eye on every side. At first I could scarcely believe my own eyes, and thought the change must be merely local, caused by particular management of that particular state, but the improvement lasted, and continued to show me that I was among a to- tally different people, the Scottish settlers, and the industrious Presbj^terians." We see, in this country, the same difference of character and habits, between the Irish Protestants and the Irish Catholics. The Irish Protestant, wherever you find him, laboring on his loom in the north of Ireland, working in a factory in New England, keeping a shop in New York, or culti- vating a plantation in Carolina, values his home and integrity, as pearls of great price. He is gen- erally temperate, frugal, and industrious. We sel- dom, or never, hear him accused of disturbing the peace, or fraudulently voting at elections ; on the U 123 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, whole, he arrives amongst us a worthy man, and. in time, becomes a useful citizen ; and to what is this owing ? It is owing to his education. He lias been taught the Bible in his youth ; from this he learned to love his God, above all things, and his neighbor as himself But how is it with the Roman Catholic, who comes amongst you ? Scarce does he land on your shores, when he becomes more turbulent, more noisy, and more presumptuous, than when he left his native bogs. As soon as he confesses to his priest, he hurrahs for democracy, by which he means anarchy, confusion, and the downfall of heretics. He must vote ; if he cannot do so fairly, his priest tells him how to evade the obligations of an oath. He v/ill swear to support a constitution, which he never read, and never was read to him ; he goes again to the confessional, and leaves that sacred tribunal with an oath upon his lips, that " Americans shall not rule him." He soon hears the words, '• Pilgrim Fathers ; " he goes to his priest, and asks what these words mean ; he is told that they were vile wretches, pirates, who came to this country many years ago, and whose sons were all cowards^ and thus we see that, as far as it is in their power, they are trying to reduce this country, and its native inhabitants, to a level with that in which their vile religion — Popery — has placed them- selves. If we could cast our eyes over the history of the world, we should be struck with horror at the fatal consequences of Popery. Wherever its followers have had an ascendency, or wherever they have it now, they appear to be conspirators against the happiness of the human race. What v/ere the means by which Popish kings, emperors, and princes, conducted their gov- ernments — ivith the advice and consent of the AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 123 Pope of Rome, the vicegerent of heaven ? Craft, extortion, fire, and sword. What are the means by which those governments, which at this day are under the Pope and his priests, are conducted ? The Pope apes the very thunders of heaven, and such are the "imitative powers" of his priests and bishops, that they are equally as destructive as the original. I have alluded to the contrast be- tween the Catholic and Protestant people of Ire- land. The one prosperous and happy; the other poor, miserable, and degraded. Heaven's vice- gerent, as the bishops call the Pope, and the Pa- pists call the bishops, seldom bestow a thought upon their subjects, except to gull and inveigle them for the aggrandizement of their church ; and we now see Ireland, one of the fairest countries upon earth, a country over which God has scattered plenty, and to which nature is peculiarly bounti- ful, reduced to want by insolent, haughty bishops, and vile, profligate priests. That beautiful land which nature taught to smile with abundance, they have watered with tears, and with blood, all the result of Popery ; and this has been its effect every where. It operates like the east wind, causing blasting, barrenness, and desola- tion, wherever it goes, and nothing but the hercu- lean arm of this young and vigorous republic can check its progress among ourselves. But I may be told that nothing is to be dreaded in this country from Papists ; that they have neither numbers, nor means, to accomplish their designs upon our institutions. Let us see whether this is so. I have stated, in a former page, the number of bishops, priests, seminaries, and Papists, in this country. I have also shown yon, to a demonstra- tion, that if the number of emigrant Papists should continue to increase for the next thirty years, as \u SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, they have for the last eight, they will be a majority of the population of the United States, and the Pope onr supreme temporal ruler. Permit me, now, to give you some idea of what their means are, at least such portion of them as they derive from Europe, and you can judge for yourselves what they are in the United States. 1 will give you the amount sent from Europe, during the years 1841, 1842, and 1843. I quote from their own books and receipts. To Mr. Lefevre, coadjutor and ad- ministrator, at Detroit, . . Mr. Purcell, Bishop of Cincin- nati, Mr. Fenwick, Bishop of Boston, Mr. Kenrick, coadjutor and administrator, Philadelphia, Mr. Hughes, coadjutor and administrator, of New York, Mr. Miles, Bishop of Nashville, Mr. Flaget, Bishop of Bards- town, Mr. Hailandiere, Bishop of Vin- cennes, For the Congregation of the Eu- dists, in the Diocese of Vin- cennes, Mr. Rosati, Bishop of St. Louis, Mr. Chanels, Bishop of Natchez, Mr. Blanc, Bishop of New Or- leans, Mr. Portier, Bishop of Mobile, Mr.England, Bishop of Charles- ton, Mr. Whelan, Bishop of Rich- mond, The Missions of the Priests of Mercy in the United States, The Missions of the Lazarists in the United States, . . . The Missions of the Jesuits in the state of Missouri, . . . The Missions of the Jesuits in the state of Kentucky, . . 1841. 1842. $1,010 95 $1,97160 7,778 52 3,700 28 5,554 20 3,063 32 3,660 48 2,96856 8,236 08 4,575 60 10,885 72 4,452 84 8,676 06 8,291 88 12,245 87 3,720 00 10,519 88 4,775 40 3,463 32 10,21140 3,958 08 2,745 35 1,835 82 1,979 04 3,958 08 7,440 00 4,452 84 4,575 60 4,94760 4,575 60 2,720 GO 6,510 00 7,513 60 5,580 00 2,790 GO 3,348 00 103,891 75 85,799 82 1843. $7,44764 9,448 80 2,866 40 1,145 76 9,020 22 4,006 16 10,603 36 1,860 00 10,884 72 2,291 72 4,583 04 6,259 60 2,864 40 6,235 68 8,5.5600 5,95200 3,720 00 97,745 50 AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 125 With such an amount of funds annually, from abroad, in the hands of a body of men, who un- derstand how to manage and appropriate them, perhaps better than any other association in the world, with the majority of the population of these United States, and having but one single object in view, namely, the supremacy of their Pope and their church; what have Americans not to fear? They will avail themselves of a corrupt state of representation ; they will procure a majority in your national legislature, and then, I say, woe be to your liberties. Your school-houses, which now ring, at stated hours, with the praises and glories of God on high, wherein children are given to drink of the waters of life, will be converted into monk-houses, and lying-in-hospitals ; prayers to God will no longer be heard in them ; vagabond saints and wooden images will be the only objects of adoration ; ignorance and vice will take the place of intelH- gence and virtue ; idleness will take the place of industry ; and the free American who, heretofore, was taught to walk erect before God and man, will shrivel and dwindle into a thing fit only to crouch before a tyrant Pope, and become a hewer of wood and drawer of water, for lazy and gkittonous priests, Avho, for centuries, have been trying to extinguish the light of reason and science, and who, even at the present moment, aye, at our very doors, are trying to abolish some of the finest productions of genius. Witness the prohibition, recently, in France, of the publication of the Wandering Jew. Witness the prohibition of its circulation in Cuba ; and why is it prohibited? Because it exposes some of the trickery of Jesuitism — because it lays bare some 126 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, of the intrigues of that hellish association — and because holy mother church knows full well, that no honest or honorable man could see her in her native deformity, without a shudder of disgust — because she knows that herself and her priests are but whited sepulchres, filled not with dead men's bones, but with the living fires of despotism, ava- rice, lustj and treachery — because she knows that Eugene Sue, who has written the Wandering Jew, is a Roman Catholic, well acquainted with the practices of Jesuits, sanctioned by the church. A continuation of the Wandering Jew, and its circu- lation, might show the world, even if there were no better authority, that monasteries and nunneries, under the control of Jesuits, were but vast Sodoms and prisons, full of crime and pollution. Eugene Sue could, and I believe would, show the world, if his health had not failed him, that Roman Catholic priests and bishops, though for- bidden, under pain of ex communication ^ to marry, were allowed to keep concubines. I refer the reader to the memoirs of the Romish bishop, Scipio de Ricci, for the truth of this assertion. 1 also re- fer you to another valuable work, Binnii Concillia, first volume, page 737. You will find the same in a work called Corpus Juris Canojiici, page 47, to be had in the Philadelphia Library. You will find the same permission sanctioned by the council of Toledo, at which Pope Leo presided. The only restriction put upon the licentiousness of priests, by the council of Toledo, was to forbid them from "keeping more than one concubine at a time, at least in puhlic^ Cardinal Campeggio expressly says, " that a priest who marries commits a more grievous sin than if he kept many concubines." St. Bernard, who AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 127 died about the beginning of the twelfth century, and who must have been a very charitable man, as all Catholics now pray to him, tells the world that '' bishops and priests commit acts in secret, which it would be scandalous to express." Pope John XII., was convicted by a general council, oi fornication, murder, adultery, and in- cest, but these were not sufficient to depose him. He still believed in holy mother, the church, and his own infallibility. There is not an indi- vidual who reads these statements, and is at all ac- quainted with history, who does not know that Pope Paul III., who convened the council of Trent, had made large sums of money from li- censes given to houses of ill fame in that city. The holy church to this day, in the city of Mex- ico, to my own knowledge, receives large sums from the same sources, and these are supported principally by monks, friars and priests. No won- der, then, that the publication of the Wandering Jew should be prevented in Catholic countries. The writer, Mr. Sue, is a man of the world, he has read the book of nature with as much attention as he has those in his library. He is a well-read his- torian, and possesses an admirable faculty of com- municating his ideas. He clothes them with a sim- plicity and beauty, almost peculiar to himself. The man that could depict Rodin, the sanctimonious Jesuit, in his true character, as Mr. Sue has done, must necessarily be silenced in a Catholic country. It must not be known that Jesuits may come among us in the garb of merchants, or in any other disguise which they may please to assume ; no in- timation must be given, that the poisoned cup, the assassin's dagger, the desperate sea-captain, or the valiant soldier, could be concealed under a Jesuit'jB 6* 128 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, cow], or that he may throw off that cowl, at his pleasure, and exchange it for a pea-jacket, a dancing pump, the violin, the fencing foil, or even the cos- tume of a barber, or tamer of Avild beasts. It will not answer the purposes ol" the holy cnuRCH, that a man should live and write, who is capable of raising the curtain which hides its do- signs, and conceals the instruments, which she has ever used, and is now using, for the destruction of liberty. Such a man is the author of the Wan- dering Jew. No man can look at the picture w^hich he has drawn of Ignatius Morok, without recognizing, in its every feature, those of a Jesuit and a villain. He travelled about, in the assumed character of a "tamer of wild beasts," but in reality, he was a Jesuit missionary, and sent by that order, with full power to accomplish, by any means within his power, one of the most infamous acts of fraud that ever was committed by man. He was accompanied, (as the reader of Eugene Sue will find,) by a lay Jesuit, named Karl, and J cannot give my readers a better idea of Jesuitism, as it ever has been, and is nov7, than by requesting of them to observe the course adopted by those two villains in accomplishing the object of their errand. Look at their treatment of the honest and faithful Dagobert. Look at the cruelties which they in- flicted on the two innocent orphans, committed to his charge. See the schemes, by which they have made even the wife of Dagobert subservient to their designs. See the arts by which Jesuit priests crept into families, under various disguises, sowmg amongst them discord, hatred, and domestic strife. They have put the father against the son, and the son against the father : husband against wife, and AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 129 v\rife against husband ; brother against tister, and ^sister against brother. See how they have con- trived to filch from the poor and almost starving, the last sou they possessed, to have masses said for the repose of the souls of those who were actually living, to the knowledge of the priest, though rep- resented by him at the confessional, to have been long since dead ! See how one of those vagabond Jesuits, in the as- sumed character of a physician, aided by one of the sisters of that order. Madam de St. Dizier, imposed upon the heiress. Mademoiselle de Cardoville. He offered his services to accompany her to visit a friend of hers, but had a private understanding with a lay Jesuit^ in the disguise of a hack-driver, to take them to a lunatic asylum, where he deposited the heiress. I will not quote from the " Wandering Jew," it would be depriving my readers of much pleasure ; but I would recommend the perusal of it, in order to become acquainted with some of the prominent features of Jesuitism. The work ap- pears as a romance, but it contains many sad and serious facts. It is a compendium of Jesuitism, and should be looked upon as a warning to the citizens of this new world. Americans will scarcely believe that we have any such Jesuits in this coun- try, as are described in the Wandering Jew. I tell them they are mistaken ; we have them in every state in the Union, but especially in New York, Maryland, District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. I speak from my own knowledge. " Bred in the harem, all its ways 1 know." A word to those who have daughters, and for- tunes to give them ; and also to those young ladies, who have fortunes in their own right. 130 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, Jesuits will leave nothing undone, to form ac- quaintance with the children of such as are supposed to be wealthy. The Catholic bishops of the Uni- ted States, ill their annual and semiannual de- spatches to Rome, boast that they are peculiarly fortunate in gaining converts from such families, and I trust a word of caution from me will not prove useless. The mode which Jesuits have adopted, in ap- proaching such families, are various : but the most general, and. hitherto the most successful is, to in- duce their children to go to their colleges and schools. In these, every male and female teacher is to bend the minds of their scholars towards Popery, and to report progress twice a week to their supe- riors. But when parents do not send their children to Jesuit schools, the next expedient is to get Roman Catholic servants into the family, who are instructed in the confessional by the priests how to proceed, especially with their young daughters, in prepossessing their minds in favor of the Romish church, and the great beatitudes of a single life, I have known cases myself, where it was not deemed prudent to go so far as to say one word in favor of the Catholic church, or of a single life. The young ladies may be engaged, and their young hearts pledged. A different course must now be pursued, and the Popish domestic has her instructions accordingly. She must find out to whom the lady is, or is likely to be, engaged ; and it must be broken off, not abruptly — that is not the way Jesuits do things — it is to be done gradually. Their young minds must be poisoned, but the poi- son must be given in small quantities, until finally it produces the desired efiect : and then the happi- AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 131 theme of conversation, more or less, according to the instructions received in the confessional. It is not long since I met with a Protestant friend of mine, and in the course of conversation, some allusion was made to the subject of nunneries. He observed that their schools were excellent : that his daughter had just finished her education there, and had returned home in perfect ecstacy with her school, with the lady abbess who presided over it, and with all the nuns by whom she had been edu- cated. "It is said," observed this gentleman to me, " that nuns try to tamper with the religious opinions of their pupils, and endeavor to make ' nuns of them,' but there is no truth in this; they never interfered with my daughter's religious opinions, nor did they insinuate to her the most remote idea of taking the veil, or becoming a nunJ^ I made no reply — courtesy forbade it. I might easily have answered my friend, but I feared the answer, which truth compelled me to give, would hurt his feelings. I might have said to him, Sir, your daughter had not a dollar in her own right, neither had you one to give her, and you must know that Jesuits seldom covet penniless applicants for the black, or white veil. You should have also known that, although your daughter may have seemed very beautiful in your eyes, she was proba- bly devoid of those external charms which would attract the libidinou? eye of a Jesuit. When ladies are taken into a convent by Jesuits, they must be possessed of somethmg more than ordinary attrac- tions. These reverend Jesuits, having the liberty of choosing, are rather fastidious. Verbum sat. Truly, and from my heart, I pity the female, who risks herself in the school of Jesuit nuns. She hazards all that is dear to her. Though she may 132 SYNOPSIS OF porrBY, leave it, single-minded and innocent as she entered. — as I believe the)?' all do who do not become nuns^ — still the peril of going there at all is eminently hazardous and dangerous. But woe be to those who become nuns. I have been chaDlain to one J. of those nunneries ; and I assure my readers, on the honor of a man, who is entirely disinterested, and whose circumstances place him in an mdependent position, who wants neither favors nor patronage from any mdividual, that the very air we breathe, or the very ground upon which we walk, is not made more obedient or more subservient to our use, than a nun, who takes the black veil^ is to the use of Popish priests and Jesuits. The internal economy and abominations of a convent are horrible in the extreme. I dare not mention them, otherwise my book would, and ought to be, thrown out of every respectable house in the city. I will only call my reader's attention to the fact, that, in all Catholic countries, nunneries \\diVe foundling hospitals attached to them. This any man can see who goes to France, Spain, Portu- gal, or Mexico. It will be seen, even in this country, that thef have their private burying places and secret vaults. It is not more than five or six years, since a num- ber of Jesuits, in Baltimore, petitioned the legisla- ture of Maryland for leave to run a subterraneous passage from one of their chapels to a nunnery, dis- tant only about five hundred yards. The object of the petitioners was too plain. It was the most daring outrage ever offered any deliberative body of men ; but, much to the credit of the legislature of Maryland, they rejected the petition with undis- guised marks of indignant scorn. These statements will be rather unpalatable to AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 133 Jesuits, but my only regret is, that decency forbids a full development of the crimes committed, with perfect impunity, in Popish convents. In New York, every effort seems to be making, by the pres- ent legislature of that state, to suppress immorality. A bill is now before that body, making adultery a penitentiary offence ; yet Popish priests are build- ing nunneries there, and if Roman Catholic ladies think it proper to hold a fair to collect money for the building of those nunneries, these very New Yorkers will contribute their money freely; and thus, this ill-placed liberality, which Americans bestow, not only there but elsewhere, becomes the cause of evils which they seem desirous to crush. How is it with us in Massachusetts ? Look at our statute book, and if we are to judge from that, of the utter detestation with which our people look upon immorality of every kind, we deserve to be considered paragons of propriety. Should there be amongst us a house, even of equivocal fame^ our guardians of the night and civil officers are allowed to demand entrance into it at any hour, and if re- fused, they may use force. Yet we have convents amongst us, nunneries and nuns too. Poor help- less females are confined in them, but not an officer in the state will presume to enter. If admission is asked, it may or may not be given by the mother abbess or one of the reverend bullies of the insti- tution ; but no force must be used. The poor imprisoned victims, whether content or not with her station, must bear it without a groan or a murmur. This should not be m any civilized country ; and J will venture the assertion, rhat it could not con- tinue one hour, at least among the moral and chari- table people of Boston, were they not utterly un- 134 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, acquainted with ftie iniquities of the Roinish church. This fully explains the opposition to the circula- tion of the Wandering Jew by the infallible church. I have given the reader but a faint view of the persecutions of Popery, down to the close of the fifteenth century, and revolting as they are, there is no record to be found from which we can even infer, that the church has ever altered her doctrine or practice, on the subject of exterminating here- tics, namely, all who are not Roman Catholics. If there were any such record, it could not have escaped my notice. Some Pope or some council would, long since, have given it to the world. I was, as has been stated, born a Roman Catholic, and educated a priest in that church. I solemnly declare to you, fellow-citizens of my adopted coun- try, that nothing has been more forcibly impressed upon my mind, by my teachers, when a boy — by the priest to whom I confessed when young — by the professors under whom I read Popish theol- ogy — or by the bishop who ordained me, and with whom I lived subsequently as chaplain — than the obligation I was under of extirpating heresy, by argument, if possible ; and, if not, by any other means, even to the shedding of blood. And there is not now, in this country, an Irish priest nor an Irish* Roman Catholic, and true son of the church, who does not believe that, if he could collect all the heretics in the United States, and form them into one pile, he would be serving God in applying a torch to it. And, incredible as it may appear to you, their church teaches them that, in doing so, they would be serving you. The doctrine is taught now, as it was in past AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 135 age5, by their priests, that the hodij must he de- stroyed^ for the good of the soul. " It is a benefit." say the pious Popish priests, ''to heretics to he killed ; the fewer will he his sins, a7id the shorter will be his hell P^ You naturally shudder at this doctrine, but it is not many years since Leo XII. in one of his hulls of jubilee, or indulgence to the faithful, announces publicly, and without shame, or sorrow, proclaims to Catholics, his beloved sub- jects, that in order to obtain the indulgence granted by that bull of jubilee, there are two conditions, without which, they can derive no benefit from it, namely, the exaltation of the holy mother church, and the extirpation of heresy. This " blessed bulP^ was published in 1825, and directed to the archbishop of Baltimore, and all other Popish bish- ops in the United States, to be made such use of as their lordships may think proper ! Will you believe it, Americans, that this doctrine is taught, this very day, in the college of Maynooth, Ireland. You will find it in DeLaHogue's Tract. Theolog. ch. viii. p. 404, of the Dublin edition. No priest or bishop will question the authority of Dr. De La Hogue. He has been professor in that col- lege for nearly half a century. I must, however, add here, for the information of all who are unac- quainted with the doctrine of the pious frauds prac- tised by Rv)mish priests, that their respective bishops, or in his absence, the vicar-general, can give any of them a dispensation to deny any truth rr to tell any falsehood for the "exaltation of holy mother church." I have received such dispensations my- self, but, not having the fear of the Pope before my eyes, I took the liberty of disregarding them. Many will ask me, Why have you not made t ese things known before now? There were many reasons why I suppressed them. 136 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, I knew my motives, however disinterested, might then be questioned ; secondly, the pubUc mind was not prepared for the developments which I have made. Thirdly, my love of peace and quietness induced me to withdraw to a part of the country, distant from the scene of ray controversy, hoping that the miscreant priests and bishops of the Rom- ish church would permit me to pursue my new profession of the law, without interruption. But in this, as I ought to have known, I was disap- pointed. Although I have not, since I left Phila- delphia, until very recently, even replied to the cal- umnies which vagabond Irish priests who infest this country, and the still greater vagabond bishops who govern them, together with the tools which they keep in their employment, have heaped upon me ; still the)^ have, in the true spirit of their vocation^ never ceased to pursue me with their vengeance. No sooner had I abjured the Pope, disregarded his hulls, and thereby become a heretic, than they had me burnt in effigy ! But much more gratified would they be, had they my person in the place of the effigy. I still remained unmoved. Soon after this, Bishop England, of Charleston, South Carolina, es- tablished a press, called the '• Catholic Miscellany," Vv'hose columns teemed, for months, — almost foi years, — with the grossest and vilest abuse against me ; yet while this restless demagogue, who is now in his grave, was spewing forth his filthy abuse, 1 was prospering in my profession, and partially re- covering my health, which I thought was radically destroyed by the persecutions I suffered in Phila« delphia ; and thus, while the Pope in Rome, and the Romish bishops and priests of this country, were cursing me, Heaven was blessing my efforts and AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 137 gaining me the confidence of the virtuous and good, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in my inter- course with the world. Strange indeed are the practices of Papists ! Previous to my heresy in Philadelphia, there was not in that city a more popular man — not another more respected ; I may almost say, that there was no man, of any pursuit or calling, whose friendship was more courted. Yet the moment I committed the unpardonable sin of differing with the Pope of Rome, every one of his^ faithful children, not only there but throughout the world, was bound by his oath of allegiance to persecute me in every possible way. Never forget, Americans, that the same oath of allegiance, which binds them to persecute me, is also binding on them to persecute and destroy you. Some of you will say, this cannot be. A church, numbering among her priests such men as Massillon, Fenelon, Chevereux, and Taylor of Boston, can- not entertain, much less command, a spirit of perse- cution. True, as far as we can judge, these were godly men. They would be an honor to any reli- gion. But in the Popish church, they were like stars that strayed from their homes, and losing their way, fell, by accident, upon the dark firma- ment of sin and Popery ; but even there, their na- tive light could not be obscured ; on the contrary, the darker the clouds around them, the more beau- tiful and brilliant did their light appear. Poor Taylor, — " Peace be to thy memory, — we have been friends together." Methinks I can, even now, feel the warm pressure of thy hand, see the chari- ties of thy soul beaming in thy speaking eye and gentle countenance, yet thou too had been consid- ered almost a heretic in the city of New York, and 138 SYNOPSIS OF POPERYj would have been denounced as such by the rude and vulgar bishop of that diocese, had not the ami- able Chevereux interfered. Often have I regretted that this Mr. Taylor, who was my classmate, and companion of my youth, had not, in addition to his private virtues, more fortitude and decision of character. He was the Erasmus of his day, in the United States. He was born and educated a gentleman ; so was the amia- ble but timid Erasmus. He was educated a Ro- man Catholic ; so was Erasmus. He was a chaste and elegant classical scholar ; so ivas Erasmus. Taylor, knowing full well the corruptions of the Romish church, went from New York to Rome, about the year 1822, in order to induce the Pope to modify such of its doctrines as were objection- able in this country. But he wanted courage, and hastily retreated back, lest he should be consigned to the inquisition. Erasmus, too, wanted courage, a quality as necessary for a reformer as it is to a general in storming a city and hence it is ; that those two amiable men, similar in character and dispo- sition, though living in ages widely apart, have lived ostensibly members of a church, whose doc- trines they loathed from the very bottom of their souls. This might have been the temper, the character, and the cause, why such men as Massillon and Fenelon have lived and died Roman Catholics. They felt, probably, as Erasmus did, when he said, "It is dangerous to speak, and dangerous to be si- lent." " I fear," said he, in another place, " that if a tumult arose, I should be like Peter in his fall." It is not at all strange, that such men as we have spoken of, should have contented them- selves with having inculcated virtue, and de- AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 139 nounced vice. There were such men in all asfes, and, as a modern writer expresses it, '' in all great re- ligious movements there are undecided characteis." But let it be borne in mind, that even great and good as they seemed to be, and eloquent and pious as they apf)eared, still they are only excep- tions in the great body of the advocates of Popery. No wonder Americans look back to those lights in the dark and bloody wilderness of Popery. It is refreshing to see them. They are green spots in the deserts made barren and desolate, by Popish iniquities ; and long may their memories shine in unclouded lustre. It is pleasant to the historian, who is wearied and disgusted with contemplating the past and oresent horrors of Popery, to turn for a moment from the frightful spectacle, and rest in devout con- templation on the lives of those comparatively ex- cellent men. How mistaken are those would-be philanthropists, who, at the present time, teach Americans to infer, that, because those were good and holy men, possessing a pious and forgiving spirit, it follows that the Papist church, her bish- ops and priests, entertain a similar spirit. This is equivalent to telling them that all history, past and present, is false, a mere romance, the dream of madmen. It is equivalent to telling them that the very history and records of the lives of Fenelon, and Massillon, &c., were entitled to no credit. Who can read, and not see that Rome has spilt oceans of blood to enforce her cruel creed ! Who can read, and not see that she has squandered treasures enough to relieve the poor of civilized Europe, in establishing and keeping up a despotism inimical to man and hateful to God ! The Papists, even in this country, do not deny 140 SFNOPSIS OF POPERY, that they intend to eradicate heresy, and to uses every means which their church considers legitimate to effect that purpose. This the priests preach from their pulpits ; this they tell you to your beards. They admit their determination to bring these United States, if possible, under the spiritual con- trol of the court of Rome. They use the word spiritual, in utter contempt of your understanding, to deceive you, and while using it, they laugh at your credulity. Popish spiritual control, spiritual allegiance ! It is almost incredible that any body of men should have the impudence to come for- ward, in the nineteenth century, and talk of spir- itual allegiance to his royal holiness the King of Rome. They admit their determination to possess this country, and have the modesty to ask you to give them lands and churches, and means to accom- plish their object, and effectuate your destruction. Their next step will be to quarter upon you an ar- my of friars, Jesuits, or monks, who will carry at the point of the bayonet what is left undone by duplicity, treachery, and intrigue. This has been the fate of every country where Popery has found a resting place, and America is the only nation which, for the last three centuries, has giveri them such a footing. They tried what they could do in China. They succeeded in establishing sev- eral bishoprics, Jesuit convents, nunneries, monk- houses and churches, among the peaceable and quiet Chinese ; but happening to differ among themselves on the subject of their respective temporal rights, they, as in duty bound, referred their differences to the Pope. This movement came to the ears of the emperor of China, whom they had so long and so successfully deceived by the cant words, spirit' AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 141 ual allegiance to the Pope. The parties were summoned before his commissioner to ascertain what was meant by spiritual allegiance. They tried to explain it. but all their ingenuity, all their subtity, could not satisfy the commissioner that spiritual allegiance meant any thing else than what it fairly expressed, and as soon as he found that it meant, in the eyes of the Pope and the Romish church, things real and tangible, such as real estate, the conveying it from the rightful owner under the laws of the land, to another under the laws of the Pope, who lived in Rome, he satisfied him- self, that the spiritual supremacy of the Pope meant, among other things, the power to govern the kingdoms of the earth ; to give away, and take them away, to whom and from whom, his royal holiness pleased. The emperor instantly issued an order, directing that every Roman Catholic bishop, priest, friar, Jesuit, monk, and nun, within his em- pire, should quit, within a given time, on pain of losing their heads. Many of them disobeyed the order and were executed, and their churches lev- elled to the ground. The Chinese had no objection to Papists w^or- shipping God, according to the dictates of their own conscience ; but as soon as it was discovered that they owed spiritual allegiance to a foreign power, they deemed it prudent to remove them from the country. Bat the Chinese are barbarians ^ and it seems reserved for this new world of ours, to in- terpret properly the meaning of spiritual allegiance, and in all differences, between our citizens and the agents of the Pope, as to the temporalities of the Romish church, to lay the subject before his royal holiness^ and be governed by his decision. Witness the difference between Bishop Hughes 142 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, of New York, and the trustees of a Roman Catholic church in Buffalo, only a few weeks ago. Witness that in New Orleans, between the bishop and the trustees of the Romau Catholic church. All these were referred to the Pope, w^ho decided the matter, without any respect or regard to the laws of this gov- ernment. Call you this spiritual allegiance ? Call you this an exercise of spiritual power, on the part of his royal holiness the Pope ? Yes, you do ; and it would not much surprise me, if the Papists of this very city of Boston should recommend to its legis- lature, to lay the difficulties between themselves and the state of South Carolina, before the Pope of Rome for adjudication. Should the day ever arrive, when the Papists have a majority in your legislature, and a differ- ence should occur between these states," the Pope will be called in to decide it. I am at a loss to know how, even in these days of transcendental- ism, any other Tneaning can be given to spiritual allegiance^ than that w^hich the Roman Catholic gives it in practice. They consider the Pope, as the spiritual head of the church, has, a fortiori^ a divine right to be the head and sovereign of the world. This is the sense in which Catholics under- stand and act upon it, and swear to support the Pope, as the supreme arbiter of the destinies of the world. The Chinese understood this. The em- peror of Russia understands it at the present day; and though a Catholic himself, no priest or bishop, within his vast dominions, dare avow any allegiance, spiritual or temporal, to the king or Pope of Rome. The holy synod of St. Petersburg, Russia, have notified the Catholic missionaries, who have in- cited rebellion, and interfered with the civil author- ities in Georgia, to renounce their Intercourse with AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 143 the see of Rome, or quit the country. But Ameri- cans, in the alembic of their fertile brains, have manufactured a definition for spiritual allegiance, peculiarly their own. for whicii the Papists are so much obliged to them, that whenever an opportu- nity of knocking out the aforesaid brains occurs, they will do so. Witness in the Philadelphia riots. &c., &c., strong proofs of the spirituality of that allegiance which Catholics owe to the Pope. Permit me to give you another evidence of the nature of that allegiance to the Pope of Rome, to which, I have heretofore alluded. It is to be found in the massacre of the Huguenots, by Roman Catholics. There is no event in the history of France, with which the world is more familiar, than this. Several historians have related it with great minuteness and much elegance. To these I can add nothing of my own, and the reader is more indebted to them, for the following statement, than to myself. Massacre of the Huguenots. This bloody massacre took place immediately after the conclusion of the treaty of St. Germain, at which the hostilities which had so long existed between the Catholics and Protestants in France, were suspended, or, as the Protestants believed, were entirely terminated. The sufferings of the Protestants, up to the conclusion of that treaty, were truly great. Their property was wasted ; their beautiful chateaus were burned and levelled to the ground ; their flourishing vineyards were destroyed, and they themselves were left, reduced in property and numbers ; but great as were their calamities, the spirit which lived within them waa not quenched. Their hearts, though oppressed, 7 144 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, were not broken. The love of God bore them up against all their trials and privations. Among those who suffered most in the Protestant cause, was the brave and pious Admiral Coligny, who, after the treaty of St. Germain, and the destruction of his beautulii estates by order of the Popish and bloody Catharine, retired to Rochelle. Even here there was no safety for him. The licentious queen, and her paramours, consisting of priests, determined on his destruction. It is said of this woman, that she occupied t\vel\re years of her life in instructing her son Charles to swear, to blaspheme, to break his word, and to disguise his thoughts as well as face. We are told by contemporary historians, that this blessed dmio^hter of the holy church supplied him with small animals, when a child, and a sharp sword to cut off their heads, and shed their blood by stabbing them ; all this to familiarize him with the shedding of blood, and that at some future day he might indulge in the same amusement upon a larger scale, in cutting off the heads and stabbing heretics and Protestants. The persecutions of the Huguenots are known almost to all readers ; few there are, who are not familiar with them. The illustrious characters, who headed the Protestant cause in those days, are known to all Protestant Americans, but none of them, perhaps, more inti- mately than the great Coligny, who was one of the first martyrs to that wretched Popish thing, in the shape of a woman, Catharine de Medicis, regent of France. I trust, therefore, the reader will pardon me for giving a few incidents in the life of this nobleman and martyr, during one of the regencies of this Popish queen Catharine. After the marriage of Henry of Navarre, Coligny, as we are told, suddenly retired from the banquet given AS IT WAS AND AS II 13. 145 upon the occasion at the Louvre. It was remarked that he seemed sad and dejected. He retired to his hotel, which he would have gladly left and re- turned home, but dreading that he might alarm his wife, he preferred writing to her, explaining mat- ters as far as he could, under existing circumstances. The letter is so interesting, so affectionate, and altogether so worthy of the good man, that I can- not refrain from laying it before my readers. It was as follows : — ^' My very dear and much beloved wife : " This day, was performed the cere- mony of marriage between the king's sister and the king of Navarre. The ensuing three or four days will be spent in amusements, banquets, masks, and sham-fights. The king has assured me that, immediately afterwards, he will give me some days to hear the complaints, made in divers parts of the kingdom, touching the edict of pacification, which is violated there. It is with good reason that I attend to this matter as much as possible ; for, though I have a strong wish to see you, still you would be angry with me (as I think) if I were remiss in such an affair, and harm came of it from my neglect to do my duty. At any rate, this delay will not retard my departure from this place so long bat that I shall have leave to quit it next week. If I had regard to myself alone, I had much rather be with you than stay longer here, for reasons which I will tell you But we ought to consider the public welfare as far more important than our private benefit. I have some other things to tell you, as soon as I shall have the means to see you — :^vhich I desire, day and night. As for the news that I have to tell you, 146 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, they are these : This day, at four in the after- noon, the bells were rung, when tlie mass of the bride was chanted. The king of Navarre walked abont the while in an open place near the church, with some gentlemen of our religion who had ac- companied him. There are other little particulars which I omit, intending to tell you them when I see you. Whereupon I pray God, my most dear and beloved wife, to have you in his holy keeping. From Paris, this 18th of August, 1572. '' Three days back I was tormented with colic and pain in the loins. But this complaint lasted only eight or ten hours, thanks be to God, through whose goodness I am now delivered from those pains. Be assured on my part, that amidst these festivities and pastimes, I will not give offence to any one. Adieu, once more, " Your loving husband, " Chastillon." After having despatched the above letter, Coligny deemed it his duty to see the king before he left Paris. His sole object in so doing was to obtain, if possible, some concessions, or at least some guarantee for the future protection of the persecuted Protestants, of whom he was a member. The king received him well, promised him all he asked ; but the king consulted the Pope's nun- cio, who was then in the city, and that holy man advised him to keep no faith with that Protestant Coligny, but on the contrary, to make all the use he could of him, in order the more effectually to accomplish the destruction of the heretical band to 'vhich he belonged. After receiving this Christian advice, the king became apparently more friendly to Coligny, and went so far as to promise him a AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 147 safe escort on his way home. "If you approve of it," said the king to Cohgiiy, '• I will send for the guard of my Arquebusiers for the greater safety of all, for fear they miglit unawares do you a mis- chief; and they shall come under afficers who are known to you."^ The generous and unsuspecting Christian, Coligny, accepted the offer of the guards^ and tweNe hundred of them were ordered into the city. TbBre were many of the Protestants in the city, whc on seeing this array of troops, felt alarmed for the /afety of their friend Coligny ; theywhis- pered their fears to the brave warrior, who until then did not even dream of treachery. But now, fearing that something might be wrong, he re- solved to see the queen mother. She expected this, and granted him an inteiview with great appa- rent pleasure. As soon as he commenced to sug- gest any fears or apprehensions of treachery, this holi/ daughter of the church, suddenly interrupting him, exclaiming, "Good God, sir admiral," said she, "let us enjoy ourselves while these festivities con- tinue. I promise you on the faith of a queen, that in four day^ I will make you contented, and those of your religion." Coligny had now the word of a king, and the honor of a queen, as a guarantee for his own safety, and that of the' Protestants in France. Who could any longer doubt that they were safe ? Who could believe that a king would violate a solemn promise freely given? Who could question the honor of a lady and the promise of a queen? Who would venture to assert that a mother would not use her best effort to redeem the honor and plighted faith of a son, and that son a king ? No one but a Roman Catholic could doubt it. Charles was a Roman Catholic king. His church taught him, that Ro faith was to be kept with heretics. Coligny 148 SYN^PSiS OF POPERY, was a heretic. Catharine, the queen mother, was a Roman CathoHc ; hei church taught her to keep no faith with heretics, but to "destroy them, root and branch, under pain of eternal damnation." Heritici destruendi is the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church ; and accordingly, on the evening of that very day on which Coligny had an audi- ence with the queen, these distinguished and pious children of the holy Roman CathoUc church ap- pointed an interview with the Pope's nuncio, and after that holy man sung the Veni Creator Spiritus, (a hymn which they inv^ariably sing, when laying any plan for the destruction of heretics,) these three worthy children of the infallible church resolved to send for the " king's assassin," a man named Mau- reval, and ordered him to assassinate Coligny. It must be observed here, that the Pope's legate al- lowed Charles a.nd his mother to keep an assassin, to cut down such thistles or tares as the devil may plant in the vineyard of the holy see. Soon after this, Coligny had occasion to go out on some busi- ness. The Popish assassin pursued him at a distance, secreted himself in a house where he knew he could deliberately shoot at him ; he did so, but the Avound, though severe in the extreme, did not prove mortal. Among the first who visited him were the king and his mother ; and such was the apparent grief of Catharine, that she shed tears for the sufferings of the warrior. The good son of this good mother mingled his tears with hers, promising that the assassin, whoever he was, should be brought to condign punishment ; but need I now tell you, Americans, that the tears of this Popish queen, for the sufferings of this Protestant, were like those of the hyena, that moans in the most piteous strains, while sucking the life-blood of its AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 149 victim ? Need I tell you they were like those of the crocodile, which sheds them in abundance while devouring its prey ? Need I inform you that by her promises of future protection, she resembled the filthy buzzard, which spreads its wings over the body or carcass of its prey, while plunging its beak into its very entrails ? And such 1 tell you now, as I have told you before, Americans, and shall tell you while I live, is the sympathy, and such the protection which every good mother and son of the holy Roman Catholic church would extend to you, your Protestant religion and its followers, in these United States. We will now pass over the various meetings held by the king, his mother, queen Catharine, and the Pope's nuncio, for the purpose of devising ways and means, not for the death of Coligny, but for the destruction of all the Protestants in France. To detail these would be a tedious undertaking ; and not more tedious than revolting to the best feelings of humanity. Depravity was reduced to a science in the court of Catharine, and her son Charles. She employed even her ladies of honor for the seduction of her young nobility. They were ladies — I should say human things — select- ed for their beauty, and trained up by this royal mother in the Romish church, in habits of ut- ter abandonment to seduction and lasciviousness. Young men of honor, virtue, and patriotism, were introduced to them, by Catharine, especially those who were at all suspected of being favorable to Protestantism. These maids were required to ascertain from these young noblemen who, and how many of their young friends were friendly to the cause of Protestantism, with a view of marking them for extermination, as soon as herself and the 150 SYNOPSIS OF POPERYj Pope's legate should deem it expedient to do so. The hour at last arrived, when the holy trio deemed it expedient to order a general massacre of the Prot- estants. The order was issued. The bells of the Roman Catholic churches were rung, and the royal order '' Kill ! kill ! kill ! " all, was issued by the king, and repeated by his Roman Catholic mother. I coald. not if I would, nor would I if I could, describe the scene that followed. Suffice it to say, that particular orders were given not to spare Admiral Coligny. Blameless as was his life, and devoted as he v.^a-s to his king and government, yet he was a Protestant, and must die, and that by the hand of a Popish assassin. The holy church reserved to herself the glory of murdering this heretic. As soon as the order to murder was given, a rush was made towards the residence of Coligny. They entered his chamber, and to use the language of another, '• they found him sitting in an arm- chair, his arms folded, his eyes half upturned with angelic serenity towards heaven, looking the image of a righteous man falling asleep in the Lord. One of the murderers, a pious Catholic, called Bcsma, fixing his fiendish eye upon the admiral, asked him, ' Art thou the admiral ? ' pointing his sword at him at the same time. ' I am the admi- ral,' replied Coligny. 'Young man, thou shouldst have regard for my age and infirmities : ' " but the murderer plunged his sword into the Christian hero's breast, pulled it out, and thrust it in again. Thus died this noble Protestant ! Thus died the veteran Coligny, by the hands of a Popish boy ! And for what? He believed in the Bible — he was a Protestant. And thus, fellow Protestants of the United States, will your posterity be sacrificed, for .similar crimes, unless God in his mercy drive from AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 151 your land, and mine by adoption, every vestige of the Popish religion. No sooner was Coligny put to death, than his head was cut off and presented to Queen Catharine, who sent for her perfumer, and ordered it to be embahned and forwarded to the Pope, as a mark of her devotion to the holy see. But even this did not satisfy the queen. Her Popish bloodhounds, on hearing of Coligny's mur- der, rushed through the streets to his apartments, searching every where for his mangled body, and having found it, a general cry was raised, " The admiral! the admiral!" They tied his legs and his arms together, and dragged them through the streets shouting, "Here he comes, the admiral!" One cut off his ears, another his legs, another his nose, hands, &c. They abandoned the body, to let the boys amuse themselves by inspecting it, and then tumbled it into the river. But the zeal- ous Catharine was not satisfied yet. This good daughter of the Pope ordered the river to be dragged, until what remained of Coligny was found, and then ordered it to be hung in chains on a gibbet at a place called Mountfacon. A contem- porary writer, a Roman Catholic, speaking of this, says: " the road to Mountfacon was a scene of in- cessant bustle, created by the gentlemen of Catha- rine's court, who, in splendid dresses and perfumed with essences, went to insult the relics of Coligny. Catharine also went with her numerous retinue. Charles accompanied his mother. On arriving be- fore the gallows, the courtiers turned away their heads, and held their noses on account of the stench arising from the half putrefied remains. ' Poh .' ' said Charles and his mother, to their cour- tiers, ^ the dead body of a heretic always smells well.' " On returning home she -eonsulted with 7* J 52 her confessor, who advised her, now that the devil had the heretic's body, it would be well to have a solemn high mass for the occasion, to be said at the church of St. Germain, at which Charles and his mother attended, and a Te Deum was sung in honor of the glorious victory gained by the church, by the destruction of so many heretics. As soon as the Pope heard this news, his holi- ness despatched a special messenger to France, to congratulate the king on having " caught so many heretics in one net." So joyous and elated did his royal holiness appear, that he offered a high reward for the best engraving of the massacre ; having, on one side, as a motto, " the triumph of the CHURCH ; " and on the other, " the pontiff approves OF THE MURDER OF coLiGNY." This cngraviug is now to be seen in the Vatican of Rome. The number of those who were massacred on St. Bartholomew's day is variously stated. Mazary makes it thirty thousand ; others over sixty : but the Pope's nuncio, who was on the spot during the massacre, in a letter to the Pope, tells him, "the number was so great it loas iinpossible to esti- mate it ^ 9 Recollect, American Protestants, that this massa- cre, and others to which I have alluded, was net the work of a. few fanatics. It was the work of a nation, by their representative, the king, empowered to do so by the head of the Roman Catholic church. In vain is it for Papists to tell us that all this blood- shedding and destruction of human life was the work of a iQ\Y, with which the church was nei- ther chargeable nor accountable. Americans may be- lieve them if they will. Let them believe. " There are none so blind as those who will not see." If neither the testimony of historv. nor a statement AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 153 a of facts, bearing all the necessary evidence of truth, will convince them, vain indeed are my efforts to do so. But there is no impropriety in my earnestly and solemnly appealing to Americans, and suggest- ing one or two questions, which they should put to any Roman Catholic who may deny that the church ever sanctioned those evil deeds of which I have spoken. Have you any record of the fact, that the church ever discountenanced the destruction of heretics? Did the Popish authorities ever deliver up those whom they knew to have murdered her- etics to the civil tribunals ? Were there ever any heretics murdered, as such, except by the advice, counsel, and connivance of the Popish church and her priests ? If there were, in what country, in v/hat age, and in what reign ? Until these ques- tions can be truly answered, you are not to be satis- fied. But why will Americans, for a moment, en- tertain a doubt upon the subject ? Popish histori- ans never deny it. The actions of Papists all over the world proclaim it. The church of Rome has ever thirsted for the blood of heretics. She now yearns for an opportunity of shedding it again ; all for the purpose of " purifying the earth of heresy." Do you not see that her conduct, in all ages and all places where she had opportunities, confirms this? Do you not even see, that in this country, the members of that church can scarcely keep their hands off you ; and so bloody are the sentim.ents which they inherit, that, for want of other subjects, they will sometimes shed that of each other ? What would they not have done, a few weeks ago, in Philadelphia, had they the power ? What in New York ? What in Boston, or any where else in the United States ? Do you not see, in all your in- tercourse with them, the iU-concealed hatred which 154. SYX0PSi5 OF POPERY, they bear you ? If you have any charitable institu- tions for the support of Protestants, wiii they aid you ? If you hold a fair for the purpose of build- ing a church, or for an}' other Protestant purpose. will they attend it and purchase from you ? They will not. If they do, they commit a sin against the church, and the power of absolving from that sin is reserved for the bishop of the diocese. It is a reserved case, as the church terms it. It is only by virtue of a dispensation, granted by the Pope to this country, that a Roman Catholic is even allowed to attend the funeral of a Protestant ; and should he go into one of your churches, even though there was no service at the time, if he is a true son of the church, he will hasten to his priest and obtain absolution for that special crime. Yet, if they want churches built, you will furnish them with money. If they want land to build them upon, you will give it to them. Is this wise in you ? You are denounced in those churches as heretics; your religion ridi- culed, and yourselves laughed at. Your motives are undoubtedly good. You believe, because you do not know to the contrary, that, by your contribu- tions, you are advancing the cause of morality. You do not reflect — and perhaps the idea never occurred to you — that there is a wide difference between the religion of a Protestant and that of a Papist. That of the Protestant teaches him to be a moral and virtuous man ; whereas, that of the Pa- pist has not the remotest connection with virtue. A Catholic need not dream of virtue, and yet be a member of that church. The most atrocious villain, as an eminent writer expresses it, may be rigidly dev^out, and without any shock to public sentiment in Catholic countries, or even amon^ Roman Catholics in the United States AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 155 Religion, as the same writer says, and as we all know, at least as many of us as have been in those countries, and who are acquamted with Catholics in this, is a passion^ an excuse^ a refuge^ but never -^ check. It is called by Papists themselves refugium peccatorum. Hence ii is, that priests may bedrunk- ards, and their flocks never think the worse of them. I have known some of them, whose private rooms where they heard confessions, were sinks of de- baucheries, which a regard for public decency pre- vents me from mentioning. I have known females, who have been seduced by them, and who after- wards regularly went to confession, under the impression which every Catholic is taught to feel, that no matter what a priest does, provided he speaks the language of the church. Don't mind what he does, but mind luhat he speaks, is a proverb among the poor Irish Papists. None of them dare look me in the face and deny this, and yet these wretches talk of morals. But what think you, Protestants, of this kind of morality or of the church which does not even forbid it, and only requires to have it "concealed from JiereticsV^ Do you desire it propagated amongst you ? Do you wish your children to learn it ? No virtuous daughter or decent woman should ever venture under the same roof with those men. Paganism, in its worst stages, was a stronger check to the passions than Popery. I will give you one instance of the abominations of Popery. Pa- pists believe in the doctrine of the i^eal presence of Christ, in the sacrament of the Eucharist. It IS the duty of every priest in that church to admin- ister this sacrament to the dying, and for this pur- pose, they consecrate a number of small wafers, made of flour and water, each of which, they pre- 156 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, tend to believe, contains the body and bloody soul and divinity of our Lord and Saviour. Jesns Christ, or in other words, the Lord God himself. The priests carry with them, in a small box called pixis, anumber of them to be given to the sick and dying. There are but few of them in the United States, in whose breeches' pockets may not be found, at any hour of the day. at least a dozen of those gods. Can there be religion here ? Can there be morality among those men or their followers ? I would go further, and ask, Is there any thing in Paganism equally impious or more revolting to God or man? They know full well that such a creed cannot be sustained either by reason or Scripture, and hence it is, they want all power concentrated in the Pope of Rome, in order to extirpate their opponents, Protestant heretics. Papists understand the char- acter of Americans, and are well aware, that if suf- ficiently satisfied of the existence among them, of a sect who believed in a doctrine so absurd, and so impiously profane, as that of the real bodily pres- ence of Christ in the Eucharist^ they could not countenance them. My own impression is, that if the people of Boston, where I write, knew that Catholic priests taught their followers to believe, that they (the priests) could make god's by the dozen, carry them in their pockets, take them out when and where they pleased, and there kneel to them, in adoration, they would have them indicted under the statute against blasphemy. The Rev. Abner Kneeland was indicted because he denied the procession of the Holy Ghost, and found guilty of blasphemy. But what was his crime, when compared with that of Romish bishops and priests ! It was bad enough, to be sure, in the eyes of all Christian men, and few questioned the righteous- AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 157 ness of the verdict of his guilt. If a Pagan priest should arrive amongst us, bringing with him his gods, and worshipping them in our midst, should we sanction him ? I know not that our constitution forbids such a thing, but the reverence which v/e have for the one true God, our Jove of morality and good order, would forbid it. We would accuse and indict them for blasphemy. But is their blasphemy more hori-'d than that of the Romish church ? The Pagan priest hews his god out of wood; the Popish priest makes his out of flour and wa- ter. The Pagan priests convey their gods in some vehicle, from place to place, and stop to worship tl^em, wherever their inclination or devotion prompts them. The Romish priests carry theii^s in their pockets, or otherwise, as occasion or love of pomp may suggest. Where, Americans, is the difl'erence ? Which is the greater blasphemer ? Which is the bolder and more reckless violator of that great commandment, " / am the Lord thy God.^^ " Thou shalt have none other gods before me " ? You will not hesi- tate to decide. The Pagan may be honest in his belief: he may worship according to the light that is in him, or the knowledge that has reached him. He may never have seen the Gospel. The Day Star from on. high may never have arisen over him, or illumined his path ! " The morning upon the mountains " may perhaps never have gladdened his vision ; he may, to us at least, be excusable, and as far as we can see, without offence before God. But is the Romish priest, who makes his god out of flour and water, and worships it, sin- less ? Is he not an idolater ? What can be more blasphemous than to believe that a wafer, made of flour and water, can be changed, by the incanta- 158 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, tions of a Romish priest, into the God of heaven and earth ! The Popish church teaches that the flour, of which the wafer is made, loses its substance, and all its natural properties, and is changed by the words of consecration into the Almighty God ; that is, it is no longer flour and water ; it is changed, — not spiritually, as Protestants believe, — but actu- ally and really becomes the body and bloody soul a7id divinity of Jesus Christ, such as it was when nailed to the cross, and as such tiiey worship the wafer. If this is not idolatry, I cannot understand what idolatry is. If this is not blasphemy, I wish some New England gentleman of the ministry, or the bar, would explain it, and tell me what they mean by their statute against blasphemy. Does blasphemy, in their estimation^ mean noth- ing ? or is it something introduced into our laws, only for the purpose of exercising the ingenuity of legal and ecclesiastical casuists ? Surely, if the word has any meaning whatever, in law or morals, in church or state ; if it can be enforced at all, and there is such a crime as blasphemy, it should be en- forced against the Romish priest or bishop, who bows and teaches his followers to bow, in adoration, to a piece of bread and water, and thus blasphe- mously insult, as far as poor mortals can, the great and living God. Surely, the state authority, which would institute a criminal prosecution for blas- phemy against Kneeland, because he did not. be- lieve the Holy Ghost to proceed " from the Father and the Son," and does not prosecute for blasphemy Popish priests, who believe, and teach their follow- ers to believe, that they can create, or rather man- ufacture as many gods as they please, out of flour AS IT WAS ANr> AS IT IS. l59 and water, either neglects his duty, or his knowl- edge of it is very equivocal. Either this is the case, or the treatment of Knee- land originated in some cruel persecution. The lat- ter I am far from believing. As a citizen of this state, I would ask respect- fully, why proceedings, under the statute against blasphemy, are not immediately commenced against Popish priests ? Is it because Kneeland was friend- less and alone, that he was selected as a proper vic- tim ? and is it because Popish priests are supported by a large party, equally criminal with themselves, that they are spared? Not at all, say the sympathizers with Popery. Kneeland made a noise in his meet- ings; they were troublesome in the neighborhood where they were held. Be it so. I will not deny this, nor do I wish to be considered as the apologist of Kneeland, his blasphemies, or his meetings ; but 1 would ask the prosecuting officer of the state, whether Kneeland's meetings were more noisy than Popish repealers ? Were they even half so turbu- lent or uproarious ? Let those Avhose duty it is an- swer the question, and tell us why priests are not prosecuted for blasphemy. I contend that if there is one blasphemy under the sun more revolting than another, it is that of believing and teaching that a wafer can be changed from what God made it, in- to that same Almighty God, by mumbling over it a few Latin words. It makes me shudder at the weakness of man, and the un'accountable influence of early education, to think that I myself once be- lieved in this horribly blasphemous doctrine. The doctrine of Popish priests in adoring a wa- fer made of bread and water, and their mode of manufacturing the v/afer into God, is not only bias- phemous, but extremely ludicrous. 160 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, Has the reader ever seen a Popish priest in the- act of making, or metamorphosing bread and water into flesh and blood 1 If he has not, it would be well, if not profane, to witness it ; for never before has he seen such mountebank tricks. The priest, this great creator of flesh and blood out of flour and water, appears decked out in as many gew- gaws as would adorn a Pagan priestess, and about twice as many as would be necessary for a Jewish rabbi. Amid the ringing of small bells, dazzling lights, genuflections, crossings, incense, and a va- riety of other such " tricks before high Heaven," this clerical mountebank metamorphoses this wafer into God^ and exhibits it to his followers, whom he calls upon to go on their knees and adore it. This horrible practice should induce our philanthropists, who are sending vast sums abroad for the conver- sion ol the Pagan, to pause and ask themselves, whether there is, in the whole moral wilderness of Paganism, any thing worse, or half so bad, as that idolatry which we have at our own doors 1 If a being from some unknown world, and to whom this world of ours was as little known as the one from which he came was to us, should, by accident or otherwise, arrive among us, and we were to take him into a Roman Catholic church during the celebration of mass, and there tell him, that the great actor in the service was making flesh and blood out of bread and water, and could actu- ally accomplish that feat, he would unhesitatingly award to these United States the credit of having among them some of the most accomplished jug- glers in the world. W"hafc are your Eastern fire-eaters, sword-swal- lowers, and dervises, to a Popish priest ? Why, it would be easier to swallow a rapier, ten feet long, AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 161 or a ball of fire as large as the mountain Orizaba, than to metamorphose flour and water into the ^' great and holy God, who created the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein." Let me not be accused of levity, or want of rever- ence to that Almighty Being, to whom I am indebt- ed for my creation and preservation, and on whom alone, through the merits of the Saviour, my hopes of salvation are placed. My only object is, to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to the absurd and profane doctrines of Popery ; and that having seen them, in their true colors, it is to be hoped they will find little favor from a thinking and reflect- ing people. It is extremely unpleasant to my feelings, thus to expose the profanity of a religion which 1 once professed, and inculcated upon the minds of others ; but the best atonement I can make for my uncon- scious offence to my God and my fellow-beings is, to acknowledge my error, and caution others against falling into the snares which an early education, re- ceived from priests and Jesuits, had precipitated me. The reader will therefore pardon me if I lay before him a few more Popish extravagances. It is generally known, that Papists believe in the doctrines of miracles. So do I, and so do all Chris- tians. But it is not so well known that the mira- cles, in which Protestants believe, diff'er widely from those which the Romish church teaches her fol- lowers. We believe the miracles recorded in the Holy Scriptures ; to these, however, the infallible church pays little or no attention, but hands us down a catalogue of miracles, for the truth of which she herself vouches, and calls upon all to receive them as the '' genuine article." It maybe edifying, and if not, it caa ;ot fail to be amusing to American J 62 Protestants, to see a specimen or two of Popish miracles. I assure the reader, they are very fair ones, to my own personal knowledge, and consid- ered as such by every true Roman Catholic in this city of Boston as well as elsewhere. St. Hieronyinus, better known by the name Je- rome, who died early in the fifth century, relates the following miracle : — "After St. Hilary was ban- ished from France to Phrygia, he met in the wil- derness a huge Bactrian camel, and having seen, in a vision, that his camelship was possessed of the devil, he exorcised him, and the devil sprang out from him, running wild through the wilderness, leaving behind him a strong smell of brimstone." He tells us another miracle, with much gravity. "Paul the Hermit," says this saint, "happening to die in the wilderness, his body remained unburied, until discovered by St. Anthony. The saint being alone, and not having the means of digging a grave, nor strength enough to place in it the body of the hermit, prayed to the Virgin Mary to aid him in his difficulties. The result was, two lions, of the largest species, walked up to him, licked his hands, and told him that they would dig the grave them- selves with their feet, and place the body of Paul in it. They did so ; and having finished their busi- ness, went on their knees, asked the saint's blessing, and vanished in the woods. " Palladus, who lived in the fifth century, and was greatly distinguished in the Romish church, tells us of a hyena, which, in a certain wood in Greece, killed a sheep. The next day, a pious hermit, who happened to live in 'the neighbor- hood, was surprised at seeing this hyena at the door of his cave ; and on asking it what was the matter, the hyena addressed him in the following AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 163 language : '' Holy father,' the odor of thy sanctity reached me ; I killed a sheep last night, and I carne to ask your absolution." The saint granted it, and the hyena departed in peace. We find in Butler'? Lives of the Saints, which is for sale in almost ah Roman Catholic bookstores, an account of some most extraordinary miracles, for the truth of which, the infallible church pledges her veracity. For instance ; when heretics cut off the head of St. Dennis, the saint took it up, put it under his arm, and marched off some miles with it. Butler relates another extraordinary miracle, and if American Protestants presume to doubt it, they may expect a bull from the Pope of Rome. A certain lady in Wales, named Winnefride, was addressed by a young prince, named Caradoc. But she, being a nun^ could not listen to his addresses. The young prince got impatient, and finally, in a fit of rage and disappointment, he pursued her in one of her walks, and cut off her head. A saint, by the name of Beuno, hearing of this outrage, went in pursuit of Caradoc, and having come up with him, he caused the earth to open and swallow him. Upon his returning where the null's head fell, he found that a well had opened, emitting a stream of the purest water, the drinking of which, to this day, is believed to cast out devils. When the holy St. Beuno looked at the head of the niiiij he took it up and kissed it, placed it on a stump and said mass. No sooner was the mass finished, than the beheaded nun jumped up, with her head on, as if nothing had happened. Come forward, Americans, if you dare, and- deny this miracle. The holy church vouches for Us truth. St. Patrick, the great patron of Daniel O'Connell, whom his holiness the Pope calls the greatssi laym^an livings performed some very ex- 164 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, traordinary miracles, as we are told ; among them was the following : A poor boy strayed from home, and died of starvation, or something else, and the body was nearly devoured by hogs, when SJ;. Patrick, chancing to pass that way, discovered it in this mutilated condition. The holy saint touched it, and it instantly sprang into life, resuming its former shape and proportions. On another occa- sion, as we read in the Lives of the Saints, St. Patrick fed fourteen hundred people with the flesh of one cow, two wild boars, and two stags ; and what is more strange than all, the same old cow was seen, on the following morning, brisk and mer- rily grazing on the very same field where she was killed, cooked, and eaten by the multitude. We read of another very great miracle, which no Roman Catholic can doubt, without running the risk of being considered a heretic. St. Xavier, who is considered one of the most distinguished saints in the Romish church, had a valuable crucifix. On one of his journeys at sea, it fell overboard, much to his regret. When he arrived at his place of destination, he took a walk along shore, meditating on the power, grandeur, and infallibility of the mother of saints, and what was the first object that caught his eye ? Lo, and behold, he saw a crab moving towards him, bearing in its mouth the saint's crucifix, and continued to advance until he reverently laid it at his feet. No Roman Catholic writer, since the days of St. Xavier, questions the truth of this miracle. The Popish biographers of St. Xavier tell us of another . great miracle performed by him, the truth of which is attested by the infallible church. The devil tempted Xavier, and the ^^ old boy''' assumed the shape of a lovely female ; the sain» ordered her off, but she refused, and attacked him AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 1G5 again on the same day; but the saint^ unwiUing to be annoyed any longer, spit in the devil's face, and he instantly fled, I cannot dismiss this subject without relating a few more of those miracles which Roman Catfio- lics believe. They may be seen in Belarmine's Treatise on the Holy Eucharist^ book iii. ch. 8. St. Anthony, of Padua, got into an argument with a heretic, concerning the doctrine of trajisubstantia- tion, or the changing of bread and water, by Romish priests, into the tiesh and blood of Jesus Christ. After arguing the question for a long time, the heretic proposed to St. Anthony to settle their controversy in the following manner : "I have a horse," said the he7'etic, "which I will kee|) fasting for three days ; at the expiration of that time, come with your host (an image) and I will meet you with my horse. I will pour out some grain to my horse, and you will hold the host be- fore him; if he leave the grain, and adores the host, I shall believe." They met, and St. An- thony addressed the horse in the following words. 1 translate, literally, from that illustrious writer in the Roman church, Belarmine. " In virtue J and in the name of thy creator, whom I truly hold in my hand^ I command and enjoin thee. O horse ^ to come, and loith humility^ adore him.''^ The horse, instanter, left his corn, advanced totaards the host in the priesfs hand, and, devoutly kneeling, adored it as his God. St. Andrew, as we read in Romish history, was a man of great eminence and sanctity. Papists pray for his intercession daily. The infallible church informs us, that he performed some very great miracles I beg to give my readers one, as a sample of the many which he performed- 166 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, The devil, armed with an axe, and accompanied by several minor devils, with clubs in their hands, made an attack upon the saint, whereupon he called upon St. John, the apostle, to rescue him. St. John lost no time in making his appearance, and summoning, some holy angels to aid him, v\^ith chains in their hands, he rescued St. Andrew from these devils, and chained every one of them to the spot ; whereupon, as we are informed in the Acts of the Saints^ St. Andrew burst into laughter, and the devils fell to screaming and crying mercy. In the year 1796, a work, entitled Official Me- moirs^ was published in Ireland, under the authority of Dr. Bray, archbishop of Cushel, and Dr. Troy, archbishop of Dublin. In this work it is stated — and to doubt the fact in Ireland, would be heresy — that in the month of May, 1796, at Toricedi, tears were seen to flov/ from the eyes of a icooden image of the Virgin Mary. Impious as such doctrines are, they are nov7 believed by Roman Catholics. I was myself personally acquainted with arch- bishop Troy, and I remember, when young, that he and the priests by whom I was instructed, took much more pains in impressing upon my mind the truth of such miracles, as that of the wooden Vir- gin Mary, than they did the truths of the Gospel ; and, in fact, every Catholic is taught to rest his sal- vation^ almost entirely, upon the intercession of the virgin. Ninety-nine in a hundred of Irish Catho- lics rest all their hopes of salvation on the Virgin Mary. They adore her, they worship her, and what is worse. Popish bishops and priests teach them to do so. They even compel them to adore the virgin, though the miserable beings^ have the hardihood to deny it before Americans. But wil* they dare do it before me ? When a poor, ignorant AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 167 Catholic goes to confession, the usual penance im- posed by the priest, for minor offences, is the repe- tition of the following address to the Virgin Mary, two or three times a day, for a week or more, ac- cording to the heinousness of the sin committed : — '' Holy Mary, Holy mother of God, Holy virgin of virgins. Mother of Christ, Mother of divine grace, Mother most pure, Mother most chaste. Mother undefiled, Mother untouched, Mother most amiable. Mother most admirable. Mother of our Creator, Mother of our Redeemer, Virgin most prudent, Virgin most venerable, Virgin most renowned. Virgin most powerful. Virgin most merciful. Virgin most faithful, Mirror of justice. Seat of wisdom, Cause of our joy, Spiritual vessel, Vessel of honor, [tion, Vessel of singular devo- Mystical rose. Tower of David, Tower of ivory, House of gold. Ark of the covenant, Gate of heaven. Morning star. Health of the weak, Ilefuge of sinners, Comfort of the afflicted, Help of Christians, Glueen of angels, Glueen of patriarchs, dueen of prophets, Glueen of apostles, Q,ueen of martyrs, Q,ueen of confessors, Q,ueen of virgins, dueen of all saints^" The above tissue of blasphemy is dail)'-, nay, several times in a day, repeated by Catholic priests and their penitents ; and I am much mistaken, if there is upon the face of the globe, whether in Pagan, Mahometan, or Heathen countries or creeds, to be found any thing equally blasphemous, or more disgusting to the mind of any individual who believes in the pardon of sin through the 168 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, atonement of Christ ; and I hesitate not to say, that the Christian, who countenances such a doc- trine, or contributes, in any way, to its propaga- tion, denies his Saviour, and shows himself unworthy of the name he bears. To the professed infidel I have nothing to say. To him, who mocks and scoffs at the Triune God, I will attach no blame ; with him I have nothing in common, further than brotherhood of the same species ; but I must appeal to the Christian, and seriously ask him, Why do you encourage such blasphemy as this address to the Virgin Mary? Why do you encourage its propagation amongst your brethren ? Why do you hold communion with those who utter it ? Would the primitive Christians, if they now lived, hold any communion with idolaters ? Would they contribute their money to build temples for Isis and Dag07i ? Would they basely bend the knee to the golden calf of old ? No. Sooner — much sooner — would they lay their heads upon the block. They would look upon it as a denial of their God, and a recan- tation of their faith in him. Would your Puritan forefathers give the right hand of fellowship to the worshippers of a wooden image ? Would they give their money to a priest, to build churches, and teach his followers that they could hew out for them images of wood, posse-ssing power to work miracles, or in other words, to change the laws of nature, which the Eternal Law-Maker alone can change or suspend ? Custom, the point of the bayonet, or even that cruel tyrant, early education, may enforce such idolatry on the Old Vv^orld ; but the free-born Amer- ican, unbiassed by education — unawed by tyrants — has no apology. His submission to such doc- AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 169 irines is an unqualified surrender of his reason, his religion, and the liberties of his country. When the star of our independence first arose, it was hailed by the Christian philosophers of the old world, as a foreshadowing of the downfall of tyranny, superstition, and idolatry, They looked upon it as fatal to the bastard Paganism, taught in the Popish church ; but what must be their aston- ishment, if permitted at the present day to look down upon oar country, and see our people prac- tising that same Paganism, nicknamed Christianity, and asking from our government protection — a priv- ilege which the framers of our constitution never intended should be extended to tyrants or idolaters ! Here I would stop, and never more put pen to paper, for or against Popery, did I not see many of my fellow-citizens, possessing the finest minds and precious souls, falling victims to the sophistry, ingenuity, and quibbling casuistry of Popish priests and bishops. It is not long since I saw a letter from the Ro- man Catholic bishop Penwick, of the diocese of Massachusetts, in which he informs the authori- ties of Rome that he is making converts from some of the first families in his diocese. This, I pre- sume, is correct, and these are the very individ- uals most easily imposed upon. They know noth- ing of Popery. They are not aware that Papists ha\e two sides to the picture, which they exhibit of their church. One is fair, brilliant, dazzling, and seductive. Nothing is seen in their external forms of worship but showy vestments, dazzling lights, and the appearance of great devotion. Nothing is heard but the softest and most melting strains of music. No wonder these should capti- vate minds which are strangers to guilt ; nor is it 170 strange that they should bring into their church those who are most guihy, in the full assurance that their guilt shall be forgiven, and their crimes effaced from the records of heaven, by only con- fessing them to one of their priests. Will the heads of those respectable families, to whom Bishop Fenwick alludes, and from whom he is making so' many converts, permit me to ask them, whether they have ever reflected upon what they were doing, in permitting Romish priests to come among them ? I have myself been ^ Cath- olic priest, as I have more than once stated ; I am svithout any prejudice whatever. If I know myself, I would do an injustice to no man ; but I hesitate not to tell those heads of families, whether they are the parents or guardians of those converts to the Romish church, of whom mention is made, that if they have not used all their authority with which the laws of nature and of the land invests them, to prevent these co7iversio7is, they are highly culpable. If they are parents, they Iiave become the moral assassins of their own children, and pei- haps their own wives. Do any of those fathers know the questions which a Romish priest puts to those children, at confession ? Do husbands know the questions which piiests put to their wives, at confession ? Though a married man, I would blush to mention the least of them. Though not so fastidious as others, I cannot even think of them, much less name them, without a downcast eye and crimsoned cheek, and particularly those which are put to young and unmarried ladies. Fathers, mothers, guardians, and husbands of these converts^ fancy to yourselves the most indeli- cate, immodest, and libidinous questions which the most immoral and profligate mmd can conceive — AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. i< a fancy those ideas put into plain English, and that by way of question and answer — and you will then have a faint conception of the conversation which takes place between a pampered Romish priest and your hitherto pure-minded daughters. If, after two or three of these examinations, in that sacred tribunal, they still continue virtuous, they are rare exceptions. After an experience of some years in that church, sooner — far sooner — would I see my daughters consigned to the grave, than see them go to confession to a Romish priest or bishop. One is not a whit better than the other. They mutually confess to each other. It was not my intention, when I commenced this work, to enter into any thing like a discussion of the doctrines maintaitied by the Romish church. My sole object was to call the attention of Ameri- can Republicans to the dangers which were to be apprehended, and would inevitably follow, from the encouragement which they are giving to Popery amongst them. I have, however, deviated a little from my first intention, in more than one in- stance ; but I trust, not without some advantage to many of my readers. I am aware that I have exposed myself to the charge of carelessness and mdiiference to public opinion, in not paying more attention to the construction and order of my sen- tences. Did I write for fame, or the applause of this world, I would have been more careful; but, as my object is only to state facts, in language so plain that none can misunderstand it, I have no doubt the reader will pardon any defects which he may find in the language, or want of consecu- tiveness in the statements, which these pages contain. I will now ask the attention of the reader, for a 172 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, few moments, to the Popish doctrine of Indulgen^ ces ; and I do so because priests and bishops deny that such things as indulgences are now either taught or granted to Catholics. They say from their pulpits and altars that indulgences are neither bought nor sold by Catholics, and never were. It is an axiom in our courts of law — and should be one in every well-regulated court of conscience — that falsus in unOj falsus in omnibus. The meaning of this axiom is, that he who tells a false- hood in one case will do so in every other. If this be true — and it is as true as that two and two make four — I pronounce all Roman Catholic priests, bishops, Popes, monks, friars, and nuns, to be the most deliberate and wilful set of liars that ever in- fested this or any other country, or disgraced the name of religion. I assert, and defy contradic- tion, that there is not a Roman Catholic church, chapel, or house of worshipun any Catholic coun- try, where indulgences are not sold. I will even go further, and say, that there is not a Roman Cath- olic priest in the IJnited States, who has denied the fact, that does not sell indulgences himself; and yet these priests, and these bishops — these men of sin, falsehood, impiety, impurity, and immorality — talk of morals^ and preach morals^ while in their sleeves, and in their practices, they laugh at such ideas as moral obligations. Here I would appeal even to Irish Catholics who are in this country. I would ask all, or any of them, if ever they have heard mass in any Catholic chapel in Dublin, or any other city in Ireland, without hearing published from the altar, a notice in the following words, or words of similar import. " Take notice, that there will he an indulgence on day J in church. Confessions will AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 173 be heard on day, to prepare those who loish to fartake of. the indulgence^ I have published hundreds of such notices myself; and any Ameri- can, who may visit Ireland, or any Catholic country, and has the curiosity to enter any of the Romish chapels, can hear these notices read ; but when he returns to the United States, he will hear the Roman priests say that " there are no indulgences sold by the Romish Church." Beware, Americans ! How long will you be the dupes of Popish priests ? Will the reader permit me to take him back a few years, and show him in what light indulgences were viewed in the 16th century, under the imme- diate eye of the Pope and full sanction of the infal- lible church! The name Tetzel, is familiar to every reader. He was an authorized agent for the sale of indulgences. I will give you one of his speeches, as recorded on the authority of Roman Catholic writers, and re- cently published in this country in D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation. Indulgences — says this reverend delegate of the Pope — are the most precious and sublime of God's ffifts. Draw near, and I loill give you letters duly sealed, by tvhich even the sins you shall hereafter desire to commit shall be all forgiven you. I luould not exchange my privileges for those of St. Peter in heaven ; for I have saved more souls by my indulgences, than he by his sermo7is. There is no sin so great, that the indulgence can- not remit it, and even if any one should — lohich is impossible — ravish the holy .Mother of God, lei him pay, let him only pay largely, and it shall he forgiven him. The very moment the money 174 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, goes into the Pope's box, that moment even the con- demned soul of the sinner flies to heaven. Examine the history of Paganism, and you will not find in its darkest pages any thing more infa- mously blasphemous than the above extract, taken from a speech delivered by one of the Pope's auc- tioneers for the sale of indulgences. But even this would be almost pardonable, if priests did not try to persuade Americans that those sales have long since ceased. It is not more than twelve months since I was in the city of Principe, Cuba ; and I beg permission to relate to my readers what I have there personally witnessed ; or, as we would express it in our most homely language, seen with my own eyes. At an early hour in the morning, I was aroused from my slumbers by a simultaneous ringing of all the bells in the city. On looking cut, I witnessed the marching of troops, firing of cannons, field-of- ficers iu their full uniforms, all the city authorities wearing their oflicial robes, with innumerable priests and friars bustling about from one end of the city to the other. My first impression was, that a de- structive fire must have broken out somewhere, or that some frightful insurrection had taken place : but, on inquiry, what think you, reader, caused this simultaneous movement of the whole popula- tion of Principe, amounting in all to about sixty thousand ? " Tell it not in Gath ; publish it not in the streets of Askelon." A huge bull of indulgences had arrived from the Pope of Rome, and they turned out — troops and all — to pay it due hom- age^ and hear it read in the cathedral of Principe. A day was appointed for the sale of the indul gences contained in the aforesaid bull ! Accompa- nied by a Scotch gentleman, with whom I had the pleasure of forming an acquaintance, we went, with AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS 175 others, to the house of the spiritual auctioneer, and I there purchased of the priest, for two dollars and fifty cents, an indulgence for any sin I might com- mit, except four, which I will nof mention. These, I was told, could only be forgiven by the Pope, and would cost me a considerable sum of money. Many of our citizens are in the habit of visiting Havana, and can purchase those indulgences at any sum from twelve and a half cents to five hun- dred dollars. Will you still listen to Popish priests, who tell you that indulgences are neither sold nor bought now in the Komish church ? From Cuba I immediately proceeded in the Uni- ted States' ship Yandalia, to Vera Cruz, and from thence to the city of Mexico. I felt desirous of as- certaining the state of Popery in that exclusively Popish country, and availed myself of every oppor- tunity to do so. Accordingly, soon after my arrival in Mexico, I strolled into the cathedral, and saw in the centre aisle a large table, about forty feet long and four wide, covered with papers, resembling, at a distance, some of our bank checks. Curiosity in- duced me to examine them, and, instead of bank checks, I found checks on Heaven ; or, in other words, indulgences for sins of all descriptions. I resolved upon purchasing ; but, knowing full well that Americans, though the most intel- ligent people in the world, hut long the dupes of Roman Catholics, would scarcely believe me if I told them that I bought an indulgence in Mexico. I went back and requested of our consul there, Mr. Black, to come with me to the cathedral and witness the purchase of, and payment by me for an i?idul- gence. Will Catholic priests tell you there is no truth in this ? If they do, be not hasty in making up your minds on the question. There are two or 8* 176 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, three lines of packets running from New York to Vera Cruz, and you can easily ascertain, from Mr. Black, whether I am telling truth, or whether Pa- pists are humbugging you, as they have been for the last half century. But why go abroad for evidence to fix upon Ro- mish priests the indellible stigma of falsehood on the subject of indulgences ? I have sold them myself, in Philadelphia and in Europe ! The first year 1 officiated in Philadelphia as a Roman Catholic priest, I sold nearly three thousand of these indulgences, as the agent of holy mother, the infallible church ; and though several years have elapsed since, many of those who bought them are still living in that city. Some explanation is necessary here, as I cannot presume that Americans are yet acquainted with a doctrine called Pious Frauds, held and acted upon by the infallible church. The Pope of Rome and the Propaganda, taking into consideration the savage ignorance of Ameri- cans, deemed it prudent to substitute some other natne for the usual name indulgeiices, and some- thing else for the usual document specifying the na- ture of the indulgence which was given to pious sinners in " the New World: " they thought it joos- sible that Yankees might have the curiosity to read the loritten indulgences. This, said they in their wisdom, must be prevented ; and here is a case where our doctrine of pious frauds comes beauti- fully into play. After singing ihe ^^Veni Creator spiritus " — as usual in such cases — they resolved that indulgences should be in future called Scapu- las, and thus piously enable all Roman Catholic priests and bishops to swear on the Holy Evange- lists that no indulgences were ever sold in the A.S IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 177 United States. This is what holy ntoiher calls pieiis fraud. All the indulgences which I sold in Philadelphia were called scapulas. They are made of small pieces of cloth, with the letters I. H. S. written on the outside, and are worn on the breast. I will give you an idea of the revenue arising from the sale of those scapulas in the United States, by stating to you the price at which I sold them. The scapula costs the purchaser one dollar. The priest who sells it tells him that to make it thor- oughly efficacious, it is necessary that he should cause some masses to be said, and the poor dupe gives one, five, ten, or twenty dollars, according to his or her means, for those masses. I may safely say, that, on an average, every scapula or indul- gence sold in the United States costs at least five dollars. What think you now of the word, the honor, or the oath of a Popish priest ? Are you not ashamed to be so long their dupes ? Do you not blush at the reflection, that you have given so much of your money, your sympathy, and hospital- ity, to such arrant knaves ? Sad is the reflection to me, and dark are the thoughts, that I should have ever belonged to a church, which imbodies in its doctrines all that is degrading to humanity, and re- duces man, from being ''little lower than the an- gels," to a thing, such as a Papist priest, in full com- munion with the Pope, having nothing in common with his fellow-beings but the form of humanity. You, Americans, who have thoughtlessly united yourselves with these priests in their church, come out, 1 beseech you, from among them. Entail not upon your children the curse of Popery. Flee from them as Lot did from Sodom. To err is the 'ot of man. To fall and to trip in his passage 178 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, through life, is the lot of even the best of men. You have erred in joining the Romish church, but you will doubly err by continuing in member- ship with her. The country which gave you birth is a glorious one ; it has all the advantages of nature ; it is fertilized by salubrious seas, and its own beautiful lakes. There is nothing you want which the God of nature has not given, and blessed for your use. There is but one dark speck upon the horizon of your national prosperity and greatness, but that is a deep one. It is a sad one, and may be a bloody one. Popery hovers over it, iike some ill-omened bird, waiting only a favorable opportunity to pounce upon its prey ; or some foul exhalation, which, being checked in its soaring, turns to a fog, causing darkness and scattering disease, wherever It falls. Alas, fellow-citizens, it has already fallen amongst us, and is growing with fearful rapidity ; hke the more noxious weed, it loves a rich soil ; it cannot fail to flourish in ours. Take heed, Americans, lest you allow this weed to come to maturity. Eradicate it in time ; let it not ripen amongst you ; allow not its capsule to fill, blossom, and ripen ; if you do, mark what I tell you : it will burst, scattering its noxious, sickening, and poisonous odors amid the pure breezes of that religious and political freedom, which have so long, so gracefully and sweetly played over this beloved ''land of the free and home of the brave." If you will look around you, and visit our courts of law ; if you extend your visits to your prisons, your houses of industry and reformation ; if you go farther, and examine your penitentiaries, what will you find? Permit me to show you what you will behold in one single city, the city of New York. This, of itself, were there no other cause AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 179 of alarm, should be sufficient to arouse your patriot- ism, for you must not forget that nearly all the for- eigners, emmierated in the document which I here subjoin, are Roman Catholics, or reduced to their present condition while living in Catholic countries. But let the document speak for itself. It is official, and may be relied on. It came from a committee of the Board of Aldermen of the city of New York upon the subject of alien passengers. Taking this as your data, vou may be able to form some idea of what yon suffer in money, in virtue, and in vour morals, from the introduction of foreign Pa- pists among you. " The Foreign Poor in our Alms-Houses, AND THE Foreign Criminals in our Penitentia- ries. — We hasten to lay before our readers a high- ly interesting document, from a committee in the Board of Aldermen, upon the subject of bonding alien passengers in New York. From the docu- ment, it appears that the bonds of nine firms in this city exhibit the enormous liabilities of $16,000,000 ; that of the 602 children supported by the city, at the Farm Schools, 457 are the children (many, if not the most of them, illegitimate) of foreign pa- rents ; that of the latest-born infants at nurse, at the city's expense, 32 are foreign, and only two American, and ' that of the whole number of chil- dren, 626 have foreign parentagfe, and 195 Amer- can ; exhibiting the average of more than three for- eigners to one native, and an alarming increase of the ratio of foreigners in the more recent births.' " The whole number of inmates in our peniten- tiary is 1419, showing an increase of 400 since July last ; of these 333 are Americans, and 1198 foreign- ers. The number of prisoners and paupers, to sup- port whom we all pay taxes, is 4344, showing an increase, since July last, of nearly 1000. 180 SYNOPSIS OF POPERr, ''In view of these alarming facts, and remember- ing that over 60,000 immigrants were commuted and bonded here the last year, the committee make some forcible appeals to the comitry, which cannot be without their effect. The enormous taxation to which we are subject, in order to support foreign paupers and criminals, is a great and growing evil, which presses heavily upon industry, as well as upon the character, morals, and politics of the country." This is a frightful picture of things, especially in a country abounding and almost overflowing with the means of sustaining and abundantly supplying fifty times the population it contains. Examine well the results of Popery, in a reli- gious, moral, and political point of view, especially during the last thirty years, and you will find that there is no vice, no crime, no folly or absurdity, which time has brought into the old world, as Mil- ton expresses it, '' in its huge drag-net," that Pa- pists are not introducing among you ; and there is no consequence which followed it there which we shall not see here, unless you are to a man " up and doing," luitil this noxious weed is rooted from amongst you. I wish these unfortunate Papists no evil ; far be such a sentiment from my mind. 1 would be their best friend; but who can befriend them, while they permit themselves to be con- trolled and deluded by their priests. A Roman Catholic priest is, pro tanto, the worst enemy of man. He degrades his mind by render- ing him the slave of his church- He debauches his morals, and those of his wife and children, by withholding from them the word of God. He weakens his understanding, by filling his mind •vith absurd traditions. He evokes, and indirectly AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 181 invites, the indulgence of his worst passions, by , promising him the pardon of his sins. He checks the noblest aspirations and finest charities of his soul, by instilling into it the rankest hatred and animosity towards his fellow-being, whom God has commanded him to love as he loves himself, but whom the priest tells him to curse, hate, and ex- terminate. In a word, he almost degrades him to a level with the beast, by teaching him to lower that holy flag, on which should be written, Glory be to God on high, — and raising above it the blood- stained flag of Popery. This American Protestants know full well. They feel it. It is known and felt in every Protestant land; but it seems as "if some strange spirit was passing over people's dreams." Though found to be unsound, and even bad policy ; though destruc- tive to agricultural, commercial, and every other in- terest, yet we see no efl'orts made to arrest its ad- vance amongst us. Neither are there any means taken, as far as the writer knows, in other Protestant countries, to suppress this religious, political, and commercial nuisance ; on the contrary, we find that even in Great Britain further stimulants are being applied to Popish insolence. Sir Robert Peel, the premier of England, has, or is about introducing a bill into parliament, with a view of making further appropriations for the Ro- mish college of Maynooth, in Ireland; and, much to my surprise, as well I believe as to that of every man who correctly understands the spirit of Popery, he has some supporters. Even some of the British reviewers give him high praise. " The credit to which Sir Robert Peel is enti- tled," says one of the British Quarterlies, " is greatly increased by reason of the prejudices of some of his supporters; but (continues the same Quarterly) his 182 resolution is taken and his declaration made. This should read, in my humble apprehension his resolution is taken, and his infatuation complete I have been a student in that college ; I know what 'is taught and done in that institution. I am well acquainted with all the minutiae of its business and theological transactions ; and I could tell Sir Robert Peel that he either knows not what he is doing, or is a traitor to his government ! Does Sir Robert know that in that college are concocted all the plans and all the measures which O'Connell is proposing, and has been pursuing during the last thirty years, for emancipation, and now for the repeal of the Union ? Does he know that Maynooth is the focus from which radiate all the treasons, assassina- tions, and murders of Protestants, in Ireland ? Is he aware that this very Maynooth is the great Popish eccaleobion, in which most of those priests who infest Ireland, and are now infesting the United States, are hatched? Does he know that Daniel O'Connell and that college are the mutual tools of each other ? O'Connell, riding on the backs of the priests into power and into wealth, and they alternately mounted upon Dan, advancing the ^Zori/ of the infallible church ! It is not probably known to Mr. Peel that thirty years or more have elapsed since it was secretly resolved in Maynooth that none hut a Catholic should luear the British crown, and that he should receive it as a fief from the Pope of Rome. Every move and advance which O'Connell makes in re- peal is a step gained towards this object, and upon this his ambitious eye rests with intense avarice. For this, Maynooth and its priests thirst with insa- tiable desire. It is not many years since O'Connell and Maynooth asked for emancipation, and they obtained it. Protestants of England were duped AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 183 into the belief that Papists would now be satisfied, and unite in supporting the government ; but, scarcely was this granted, when the great agitator with the advice and consent of Maynooth, asked foi — what, think you, reader ? Nothing less than a dismemberment of the British government — noth- mg less than a repeal of the Union ; or, in other words, to permit one of the most turbulent dema- gogues that ever lived, Daniel O'Connell, to become king of Ireland, and to receive his crown from the Pope of Rome. This is now the avowed object of re'peal ; but there IS another object, not yet seen nor dreamed of by those who are not Roman Catholics ; and I beg the reader to keep it in his recollection. It is this. O'Connell, by agitating Ireland, and scattering firebrands throughout England, believes that he and the Cath- olics will ultimately succeed in dethroning the sovereign of England, and placing the crown on some Popish head. Were the college of Maynooth further endowed through the efforts or folly of Sir Robert Peel, does he believe, or can any man, ac- quainted with the genius of Popery believe, that this would satisfy O'Connell or the Pope's agents in Ire- land ? The very reverse would be the case. It would only imbolden them still further. It would only increase their insolence ; it would only add a new impetus to their treasonable demands, and give an in- creased momentum to their disorganizing meetings. Should the British Government grant all O'Con- nell asks, or should parliament pass a bill for the re- peal of the Union, is it to be supposed that O'Con- nell and the Irish bishops — the sworn allies of the king of Rome — would be satisfied ? Not they. The truth is — and I wish I could im- press it upon the minds of every Protestant in Eng- 184 ST!TbPSIS O? POPERY. land as well as in this country — nothing short of the total overthroiD of the government of Great Britain and the Protestant religion will content the Popish church, whose cats-paw Daniel O'Connell is. Should Providence, in his inscrutable designs, grant them this, our experiment in the science of self-government is at an end. We shall become an easy prey to any alliance which should be formed against our republican institutions. The jackals of Popery are amongst us : they have discovered us ; and Popish priests, the natural enemies of free in- stitutions and of the Protestant religion, will soon destroy our republic and our religion. It is useless to deny the fact. It cannot be de- nied. It were folly to conceal it. The extirpation of heresy^ or, in other words, of the Protestant re- ligion, is the grand object which O'Connell and the Pope have now in view ; and, to effect this, they have judiciously divided and advantageously posted all their forces. These forces are well ofiicered by Jesuits and priests, men without honor, principle, or religion ; whose time is spent in advancing Popery and the grossest indulgence of their own pas- sions. The Pope and O'Connell have, in this coun- try, an army of nearly two millions of reckless des- peradoes, who have given already strong evidences of their thirst for American Protestant blood. It is necessary to watch them well. Americans must recollect that these men receive their orders from Rome, through O'Connell, who, I sincerely be- lieve, is this moment the worst man living, though the Pope calls him the greatest layman living. He is upon earth what the pirate is upon the seas, in- imicus humani generis — the enemy of mankind. During the last thirty years he has kept the poor of Ireland in a state of poverty and excitement bor- AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 185 dering upon madness. He has filched from them the last farthing they possessed. He has withdrawn them by thousands from their ordinary pursuits of industry : he has sown amongst them mutual hatred and a general discontent with their situations in life. But that is not all. He has pursued the poor people even to this country. He robs them here of their lit- tle earnings. They make remittances to him of hundreds and thousands of dollars ; and this, while many of them, to my own knowledge, and not a hundred yards from where I write, are shivering in the cold blasts of winter, — all for their good^ while O'Connell himself is feasting in Ireland, and enjoy- ing the sports of the chase, on about three hundred thousand dollars a year. This is not all. The great agitator, this na- tional beggar, Daniel O'Connell, has recently dis- covered that there were some little glimmerings of Protestantism in France ; that Louis Phillippe was neither a Don Miguel, a Ferdinand, nor a very strong advocate of Popery, opens upon him a bat- tery of abuse. This foul-mouthed brawler was not content witli sowing discord among the poor Irish, and scattering treason among the people of Great Britain, he tries what he can do with the inflammable people of France, who are now in the enjoyment of more domestic happiness and national glory than they have had for the last century. But even this is not enough ; the genius of the great national beggar, fertile in schemes, treasons, rebellions, scurrillity, and Popery, must cross the Atlantic and denounce Americans, who, since the declaration of their independence, have been the best and warmest friends of his poor countrymen ; they have received them, employed them, giving them bread and clothing in abundance. They 186 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, permitted them to bring with them their priests and their reUgion ; they shielded and protected them in their lives and liberties. This country was to the Irish, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they might have enjoyed it, and been happy, had it not been for their accursed religion and its priests. The great Dan saw and felt this. A stop must be put to it. The holy church saw that this state of things, would not answer her purposes. The harmony, which existed for so long a time between the hospitable and generous Americans and the for- lorn Irish, must be broken, lest Papists should be- come Protestants and forget their allegiance to the Pope ; and accordingly, the great agitator, this enemy to order, to God, and to peace, commenced denouncing Americans, as usurers and infidels^ who had not even a national law of their own. He calls upon the Irish to come out from among them, and have nothing to do with them. Soon after this, the Pope sends over some bulls, making similar demands upon the Irish and all other Catholics, under pain of excommunication ; and what is the result ? The name of an Irishman is now a by-word, in the United States, especially if he is a Roman Catholic. It is associated with every thing that is low, vulgar, and bigoted. No longer do the Americans receive the Irish with open arms : no longer do they welcome them to their shores ; nor in fact is it safe for them longer to do so. And what occasioned this ? That dem- agogue, O'Connell, and the Pope of Rome. Does Mr. Peel reflect, when he is moving in parliament for an additional appropriation for the college of Maynooth, in Ireland, that he is only adding fuel to the political fire, which these men are trying to enkindle, and have actually enkindled AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 187 ill a great part of Europe, and in the United States? Has the fact escaped his notice, that the Pope and the GREATEST LAYMAN Uvhig^ as his royal holiness calls O'Connell, have no misunderstanding with Spain, Portugal, or any other government, strictly Popish ? They have no feeling of compassion for the de- graded Italian, the ignorant and half-starved Span- iard or Portuguese, or the wretched Mexican slave. O, no ! It is only for a Papist under a Protestant government, that their compassion is moved. Their condition must be ameliorated, or in plain English, these governments must be overthrown and Popery must reign supreme. Let Mr. Peel reflect upon this single fact, and he and his supporters cannot fail to see, that, in giving further aid to the Popish col- lege of Maynooth, he is but " sowing dragons' teeth, from which armed men will spring up." He is only throwing an additional force into that Tro- jan horse, which his predecessors had introduced into unfortunate Ireland, and which Popes and priests have secretly stolen into these United States. I know O'Connell well. I have had, in my younger days, some personal acquaintance with him ; and I can tell Mr. Peel, that with the college of Maynooth to back him, he, — Mr. Peel and his party — are no match for him in craft and intrigue. All O'Connell's plans for the extirpation of Prot- estanism are devised in Rome. They are submit- ted to the Propaganda, and from thence sent to Maynooth to be there revised and corrected. As soon as this is done, a copy is forwarded to each of the metropolitan bishops of Ireland, who return it with such observations as they deem necessary, and all things being prepared, secu7idum ordinem, the usual Vent, Creator, is sung ; the project, what- 188 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, ever it may be, is sanctioned ; every priest in Ireland is prepared to carry it into effect ; and all that now remains to be done is, to give the gieat beggar his secret orders. What can Peel, or his few supporters, do against such a party as this ? Nothing, unless the government changes its mode of proceeding against O'Connell. Maynooth, and the Irish bishops. But it is to be feared, that this will not be done while Peel is at the head of affairs. England, once indomitable, and always brave ; England, proud of her religion and of her laws, seems recently to forget her ancient glories. She is showing the white feather ; she is dallying with Popery, and singing lullabies to quiet and put asleep Daniel O'Connell and his Irish bishops, whose treason and political treachery can only be stopped, and should have been stopped long since, by con- signing the greatest layman that ever lived, and a few of his right reverend advisers, to transportation for life. Americans may think this wrong, but though I have not the least pretension to the faculty of pro- phesying, I think I can safely tell them, that, in less than twenty 3^ears, they will have to enact much severer laws against Roman Catholics than any which are now recorded against them on the statute book of Great Britain. It must be borne in mind, that Popery never bends, and therefore it should and must be broken. It was in this college of Maynooth, and from those bishops and priests, with whom Sir Robert Peel is dallying, I first learned that the king of England was an usurper. It was they, who first taught me that the Pope of Rome — virtute clavorutn, hy virtue of the keys — was the rightful sovereign of England, as well as of all the kingdoms of the earth. It was in the A? IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 189 college of Maynooth, I was taught to keep no faith with heretics, and that it was my solemn duty to exterminate them ; it was there I first learned, that any oath of allegiance, which I may take to a Prot- estant government, was null and void, and need not be kept. It was at this same college of Maynooth, that nine tenths of the priests in this country received their education ; and is it not deplorable to re- flect, that such men as Sir Robert Peel, in Eng- land, and several equally distinguished in this coun- try, should be so entirely blindfolded and unmindful of the interest of their respective countries, as to give any countenance, aid, or support to Popery, or Popish institutions among them? I trust, however, and fondly hope, that this imprudent, impolitic, and ill-advised scheme of Sir Robert Peel's, will be resisted and thrown out of parliament, with such marks of disapprobation as becomes every honest Protestant and true Briton. Will those who sympathize with Popery in the United States, look back to the page of history ? and if they will not take instruction from me, let them take it from the past. Let them listen to the voice of the dead, and learn a lesson from them. Let them read the history of France. Who urged on all the opposi- tions that have been made, from time to time, to the government and constituted authorities of that country ? What were the causes, remote or im- mediate, of all the blood that has been shed in France for centuries back ? The Pope of Rome and his agents. It is truly to be lamented, that Napoleon had not lived longer ; he might, it is true, have caused some disturbance, and hastened the fall of some of the tottering thrones of Europe. Spain, Italy, Portugal, 190 SYNOPSIS OF POPERYj and even Austria and Prussia, might have ceased to have kings, by divine right; but a far better order of things could not fail soon to have arisen. The Pope would have been hurled from his throne ; Napoleon would have stripped from him the trap- pings of royalty ; he would have taught him to feel, and reduce to practice the heavenly declaration of his Divine Master, v/liich his holiness now repeats in sol- emn mockery, regnum meiLin non est de hoc mundo. He would have confined him to his legitimate duty, in place of spending his time in dictating political despatches to foreign powers, and sending bulls of excommunication which are now become laughing- stocks to all intelligent men ; he might be devoted to the advancement of true Christianity, and the world saved from those contentions and disturb- ances, occasioned by this man of sin and his agents. Why will not our statesmen reflect upon these things, lest in some future contest with the powers of Europe the scales of victory may be turned against them by this man of sin, whose agents in this country, as I have heretofore remarked, amount to nearly two millions. The defeat or subv^ersion of the government of Great Britain, by Popish power, is equivalent to a victory gained by it over the United States. I tell the Protestants of Eng- land and of the United States, that their respective governments are doomed to fall, if Popery gains the ascendency over either ; and all those who try to foment or urge any difficulties between them, are not the friends of either, but the enemies of both. It is only by the combined efforts of Protestants, all over the world, that Popery can be crushed, and peace, and religion, and fraternal love, restored to mankind. AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 191 I have produced some facts that admit of- no de- nial, and I put the question, confidently, to every honest and sensible Protestant in England or Amer- ica, who is unv/arped by prejudice or interest, whether the cause of liberty is not in danger, and likely to decline, if we any longer submit to or acquiesce in the doctrines of Popery ! And I ask every reflecting American in particular, whether the influence which Popery has now in this country, is not likely to create anarchy, or even despotism amongst us, though we may preserve the forms of a free constitution ! I have alluded to the struggles in England with Popery ; I have mentioned the name of that dema- gogue, O'Connell, because he is the agent of the Pope for both countries, and because I beheve it is the mutual interest of the two to unite, and stand shoulder to shoulder in opposition to Popish in- trigues, evolved in the proceedings of this selfish and dangerous man, O'Connell. The designs of O'Connell and the Irish bishops, and those of the Pope and his Jesuit agents in the United States, are proved upon testimony which admits of no de- nial, viz : their own admissions. O'Connell, the niouthpiece of Popery in Ireland, avows publicly that Protestant England shall not govern Irish Pa- pists, and the Pope's agents in the United States declare and swear, that Americans shall not rule them. How are the English and Americans to treat this common enemy ? Let them go into the ene- my's armory, divest themselves of their mav/kish sympathy, buckle on the very armor which their enemy wears, and adopt the mode of warfare used by them. Give the common enemy no quarters, assail them from every point, and the subjects of his holiness the Pope, either in Great Britain or the 9 192 SYNOPSIS OF POPERYj United States, will not long remain insensible to the miseries, into which the great national rent beg- gar has plunged them. This, however, I find cannot be easily done in the United States. The difficulty with our people is this, they would find it much easier to assume the armor used by the common enemy, than to lay down that of sympa- thy and hospitality, which they have heretofore worn, and thus, although a moral and religious people, their zeal is but dim and sluggish, while that of their adversaries, the Pope and his agents, burijs higher and clearer every day. This must not be. God and freedom forbid it. The political contest, which has jusi ended, has tended greatly, at least for the moment, to im- bolden and encourage Popery. Each paarty courted the Papists, and they supported him from whom they expected most favors. They laid their meshes, nets, and traps for President Polk ; but I believe they have been '' caught in their own traps^ That gentleman is said to be a moral and religious man, and one of the last in the world to countenance idola- try, blasphemy, or treason amongst us. But now that the contest is over, and no further avowal of distinct party principles is necessary or profitable, it is to be hoped that the good and virtuous of both parties will unite in passing such laws, as will shield our country and our people from any further Popish in- terference with our government or our institutions. He, who shall bring about this desirable result, and those who aid him, will merit the gratitude of their country. In the present position of parties, much is ex- pected from the great •' American Republican " asso- ciation, which has recently been formed throughout the United States. Every eye is fixed upon its AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 193 movements, and the hopes of all Protestants hang upon its success. Do not disappoint us, American Republicans. You alone can save the Protestant foreigner from the persecutions of Popery, and we call upon you, bv the memory of your sires, to shield us from it. You have a great part to act ; you are young ; but the purity of your principles, and the justice of your cause, abundantly supply what is wanting in age. You are the mediators between two great politi- cal parties, whose extremes cannot meet, or if they did, would only tend to render their respective centres still more corrupt, by their internal powers of contamination. Neither of those parties will ever consent to be governed by the other ; nor has either of them the moral courage to come forth boldly and say to Popery^ Stand off, thou unclean thing. Thou hast polluted all Europe for ages past ; stand aloof from us ; wash thy polluted hands and blood- stained garments ; until then, thou art unfit to en- ter the temple of our liberties. Thou art, in thy very nature, impure, and hast already diffused amongst us too much of thy deadly poison before we took the alarm. Like an infected atmosphere, thou hast silently entered the abodes of moral health ; thou hast penetrated the strong holds of our free- dom, without giving us any warning ! Avaunt, thou SCARLET LADY OF BABYLON ! rcccdc to the Pon- tine marshes, whence thou camest. and no longer infect the pure air of freedom ! The foul stains of thy corruption shall no longer be permitted to spot the pure and unsullied insignia of independence ! I am aware that the sympathizers with Popery will say that such language as the above is rather harsh. They will tell us it is cruel. They will assert, in their usual mawkish style, that it was 194 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY. never the intention of the framers of our constitu- tion to treat those who come amongst us with un- kindness. > They themselves invited the oppressed of every land, creed, and people, to our shores. They extended the hand of friendship to all, with- out distinction of party, sect, or religion. So they did, and so do their descendants. Any and every man is welcome to this country. "Whether he comes from the banks of the Euphrates, shores of the Ganges, or bogs of Ireland, he is sure to re- ceive from Americans a warm and hospitable recep- tion. His person, his liberty, and his property, are protected; l3ut there is a condition under which this reception is given, and without which it never should be granted. The recipient of all these fa- vors is required to yield obedience to the mild and equitable laws of the United States ; forswearing at the same time, all allegiance to any other king, potentate, or power whatever. This condition, so just, so reasonable, and so politic, is generally complied with by all foreigners, who land in these United States, with the exception of Roman Cath- olics. All others come amongst us, and either re- fuse at once to become citizens, or honestly incor- porate themselves with us. The Papist alone re- fuses incorporation with Americans. He alone comes amongst us the avowed enemy of our insti- tutions, and the sworn subject of a foreign king, the Pope of Rome. Among all the foreigners who land upon the shores of this country, none but Pa- pists avow any hostility to its institutions. They alone would dare say, '' Americans sha^n^t rule us.^^ On them alone have Americans just cause to look as traitors to their government, and foes to their religion ; and they alone should be singled out as just objects of fear and jealousy. AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 195 I have, in the preceding pages, traced the origin of ihi Papal temporal power torts proper source ; and endeavored to follow the coarse of its turbid and muddy stream, through m.any of its sinuosities and canonical — if I may use such a term — gyrations, down to the middle of the 16th century. 1 freely admit that I have made many " short ciits,'^ and have been obliged to pass unnoticed several of its acute angles. Were I to proceed ^^ pari passu '^ with its course, taking all its bearings and accom- panying them with the necessary observations, it would require a volume at least ten times as large as that which I now respectfully present to the public. I shall, however, if Providence leaves me health, continue the subject of Popery as it was AND AS IT IS. I will dissect the Body Papal, so that every American, who honors me with the pe- rusal of my observations, will see its inmost struc- ture. I have studied its anatomy ; I understand all its minutiag ; and if any can view the skeleton without horror and shame for having so long con- tributed to feast and fatten the monster, it shall not be my fault. The performance of this operation will be, in every point of view, extremely unpleas- ant. Whichever way I look, the prospect must be disagreeable. Behind, I can only see an object in which I once felt an interest, and with which I was unfortunately connected : and before, nothing is to be seen but further persecutions and calum- nies. But, ^ost what it may, it shall not be said of me by friend or foe, that I have shrunk from the performance of a duty which I owe to the cause of morality, and to my adopted country. I have merely touched upon the persecuting and treacherous spirit of the Popish church. The profli- gacy of its priests are scarcely noticed by me as yet. Its idolatries and blasphemies axe barely allu- 196 SYNOPSIS OF POPERYj ded to. Indulgences, miracles, and the iniquities committed in nunneries, are scarcely glanced at. The twilight view, which I have given of these subjects, is only intended for a better observation of them, under the full light of some mid-day sun. Before I conclude this volmne, permit me to give you a brief view of Popery as it is at this very day on which I write. I have a double object in doing this. First, what I am about stating has perhaps escaped the notice of many of my fellow-citizens; and secondly, it will confirm one of the most serious charges which I have made against Papists ; and thirdly it will prove to a demonstration, that Roman Catholic priests and bishops, who surround us and live amongst us, are a set of barefaced liars, whose entire disregard for truth fits them for no other society than that of brigands and felons. The reader will bear in mind that Roman Cath- olics are the loudest advocates of religious freedom. He will also not forget that I have charged them with being its most inveterate enemies. The Pa- pists and myself are now fairly at issue. Either they are right and I am wrong, or vice versa. I have sustained my accusation against them by proofs derived from their own general coun- cils, and from their uniform practice for centuries back. Still, these Catholics will say and assert publicly, in their pulpits, and at their meetings, religious and political, that they were always and are now the advocates of religious toleration. Let the past for a moment be forgotten. I presume no one will question what the practices of the Ro- mish church have been in relation to religious toleration in former times. Let us rather see what it is now among our neighbors in Madeira ; and as all Roman Catholics are a unit in faith and AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 197 ■practice, wo may judge from what we see m Ma- deira, of what may be seen, and if not seen, is felt, in the United States. I submit the following let- ter to my readers. It is from one of the most re- spectable meu in Madeira. " Religious Persecution in Madeira. We have just had a sort of miniature civil war. Dr. Rally, who has been converting the natives, is the original cause of it. He converted the woman they sentenced to death here not long since. Having been imprisoned, for some time, the doctor was at last liberated, and resumed his habit of preaching to the people in his house ; and it was not generally known, until within a short time, that he had made several hundred converts. On ascertaining this fact, the Governor, Don Oliva de Correa, at the request of the priests of the estab- lished church, who feared that the people might throw off their allegiance to the Roman Catholic church, appointed a country police to prevent the Protestants from assembling together. On Sunday week, the converts of St. Antonia de Sierra, while engaged in prayer, were assailed by the police, who broke in the door, knocked down the person who was officiating in the service, broke the benches, and dispersed the people, except four or five whom they took prisoners, and then proceeded to town. After going two miles, the police were overtaken by the populace, armed with pitchforks, rusty mus- kets, hoes, &c. '' The police were overpowered, and after being ducked in the river by the mob, they were tied together by the hands and feet and left on the road ; the Protestants returning to the mountams with their rescued comrades. One of the police officers, who escaped from the mob, made his way 198 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, to town and a armed the government. Three hun- dred and fifty soldiers were immediately ordered out: the police were released from their confine- ment on the road-side, and the army marched to the villages of the '• Rallyites." The dwellings were fired indiscriminately ; several aged women, who could not fly to the mountains, were put to the torture, to make them reveal the places of con- cealment of the 'heretics.' The Catholic army then proceeded up the mountain to massacre the Protestants ; but in passing the foot of the hill they were assailed by the Protestants above, who threw down stones and rocks upon them, killing eight soldiers and wounded forty others severely. As soon as the troops could be gathered after their fright and alarm, they opened a deadly- fire upon the Protestants, chasing them five miles over the country, taking eighty or ninety prisoners, and kill- ing and woundiiig several of the unfortunate wretches. " The army marched their prisoners down to the sea-coast, to Machico, where they were put on board the Diana fifty gun frigate, and taken theiice to Funchal. The vessel of war, Don Pedro, Vv^as left at anchor on Machico to awe the countr3r, but another, the Youga, which had been despatched to Lisbon with official accounts of the battle, ran aground and had to return for repairs. The Don Pedro will therefore go to Lisbon. The captives will be sent to Lisbon, I suppose for trial, some time next week. Dr. Rally, the cause of the dis- turbance, remains at his house unmolested, which is singular. I don't think they will let him be quiet long. The Yorktown, American sloop-of-war, was here the other day. We have had a beautiful winter so far. About four hundred people have come here this year for the benefit of their health.'* AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 199 The above letter Avas received in New York a few weeks ago, and needs no con.ment. If any Pa- pist doubts it, he can easily write to Madeira and ascertain its truth or falsehood. Until then he has no reason to be surprised if American Pnote'stants shall refuse to hold any connection or communion with them. There is one feature in the letter to which I would call the attention of the reader. It shows not only the persecuting spirit of Popery, but the uniformity and consistency of their mode of opera- tion. Go back to the former persecutions of the Popish church against the followers of Wicklifle and the Huguenots. The Wickliffites had to fly to the mountains for shelter ; but they were hotly pur- sued and cut down by the swords of their fiendish persecutors. They v/ere massacred and butchered, even in the fissures and caves of their native rocks and mountains. The Protestants in Madeira, only a few weeks ago, had to fly to the mountains from a bloodthirsty, Popish soldiery, headed by their priests and monks. There, at our very doors, and in a country with which we have treaties of friend- ship and alliance, American Protestants are butch- ered and slaughtered by Popish savages, under the mask of religion ; and when the news of tliis trans- action reached our own shores, what action has been taken upon the subject ? Was there any in- dignation meeting called? Were there any resolu- tions passed ? Were there any ambassadors ap- pointed in New England or elsewhere to ascertain the cause of this bloody tragedy ? Did our govern- ment demand any explanation from the authorities at Madeira ? The writer is not aware of any. Our government is too much occupied with affairs of more importance, viz., Who shall he Secretary of 9* 200 State, ID no shall be Secretari/ of War. &c. The interest of morality seems a matter of minor im- portance with the "powers that be." The blood of our Protestant fellow-citizens, the cries of their widows and orphans cannot reach the eye or ear of our grave law-makers. The question with them seems, not what our country may become, by the treachery and persecutions of Popery, which are witnessed along the whole line and circumference of our own coast — a question of far more impor- tance to them seems to be, Who shall hold the fat- test office, or whether Massachusetts or South Caro- lina is in the right on the subject of the imprison- ment of a few citizens, belonging to the former, by the latter : while they witness all around, and in the very midst of them. Popish priests and bishops persecuting their fellow-citizens abroad, and gnawing at their very vitals at home. Fatal delu- sion this on the part of our government and people ! I have accused the Romish church and her priests of treachery, prevarication, and fraud, in all their dealings with Protestants. Their guilt has been established by proofs and evidences such as they cannot deny, viz., the canons of their church and their own admission. There is not a people in the world more anxious for correct information on all subjects than Americans ; and it is, therefore,, the more singular that the}^ should be so indifferent to the all-important subject of Popery. This, however, may be. accounted for, in some measure. The moral monstrosities — if 1 may use such language — of Popery, are such, that it requires something more than ordinary faith to believe them, and a greater power of vision than generally falls to the lot of man, even to look at them. There are objects on which the human eye rannot reft with- AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 201 out blinking, and upon which nothing bat force or fear can induce it to fix its gaze for any length of time. It will always gladly turn from them, and rest upon something else. This may account for the fact that my adopted countrymen and fellow Protestants pay so little attention to the subject of Popery, or the hideous crimes and revolting deeds wliich it has ever taught, and its priests have ever practised. I cannot otherwise account for the apparent in- difference and unconcern of our government and people on the subject of our relations with Catholic countries, and the encouragement given to Popish emissaries in the United States. I have myself seen so much of Popery, that my mind shrinks from the further contemplation of its iniquities. I can assure my Protestant friends, that nothing but an inherent love of liberty, and a desire, as far as in my power, to ward off that blow which I see Popery treacher- ously aiming at Protestants and the Protestant re- ligion in the United States, could ever have induced me* to publish these pages ; and, although I feel that I have already drawn too heavily on the indulgence of my readers, I cannot dismiss the subject without laying before them another evidence of Popish treachery, which occurred only a few weeks ago, on the island of Tahiti. It seems that in 1822, or thereabouts, an mdi- vidual, named M. Moerenhout, representing him- self a native of Belgium, arrived in Valparaiso, and obtained a situation as clerk from Mr. Duester, the Dutch consul in that city. After some time, he gains the confidence of his employer, on whom, to- gether with two more merchants, he prevailed to charter a vessel, and send a cargo by her to the So- cioty Islands, with himself as supercargo. They 202 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, did so accordingly in 1829, and the ^vorthy super- cargo appropriated to his own use the whole profits of the voyage, and continued for sometime longer upon the island, selling whisky, brandy, and other liquors. In 1834, (says the Q-uarteily Review, from which, together with other sources, I derived my information,) this gentleman departed for Europe, with a view of communicating with the French government ; or rather, as I am informed upon good authority, to confer with the order of Jesuits in that country. On his way to Europe, this Moerenhout came to the United States, obtained some letters of introduction in New York and Boston, with which he proceeded to Washington ; and on the strength of them, was appointed United States' consul for Tahiti. With the title of consul-general of theUnited States, this diplomatist proceeds to France, and im- mediately — no doubt according to previous arrange- ment — entered into all the plans of the Jesuits for the extirpation of Protestantism in the Society Islands. He became the agent of the Propaganda in France, an institution placed under the patron- age of St. Xavier. The duty of converting all the islands of tlie Pacific, from the South to the North Pole, is committed to this Propaganda, and a decretal to that effect was confirmed by the Pope on the 22d June, 1823. A bishop was appointed for Eastern Oceania, and several- priests preceded him to the islands. Among these priests was an Irish catechist, by the name of Murphy. The bishop, it seems, established himself at Valparaiso, while the priests proceeded to Tahiti. I here give an instance of the manner in which those Popish missionaries discharge their duties. You vvill find it the October number of the Foreign Quar- terly Review. You may rely upon the statement AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 203 The Popish missionaries have acted in the case just as 1 Should have done myself when a Romish priest, in ob'^dience to the instructions given by the infal- lihle church. " I always bear about me," says the, reverend Jesuit, Patailon, " a flask of holy water and another of perfume. I pour a little of the latter upon the child, and then, whilst its mother holds it out without suspicion, I change the flasks and sprinkle the water that regenerates, unknown to any one but myself." This is what the holy church calls a pious fraud ; and this is what the priests of Boston are doing, in a little different manner, to the chil- dren of Protestant mothers. In Tahiti, Popish priests make Christians by jugglery, under the very eye of the mother. In the United States they make Christians of Protestant children by ordering their Catholic nurses to bring them secretly to the priest's house to be baptized. But let us resume the subject of the Jesuit mis- sionaries from the Propaganda in Prance to Tahiti. The Jesuits, always wary and cautious, deemed it necessary, before they landed upon the island in a body, to send one of their number in advance, in order to ascertain " how the land lay," and what their prospects of success were ; and accordingly, in 1836, the Irish Jesuit, Murphy, proceeded alone, disguised as a carpenter, and landed safely at a place called Papeete. The unsuspecting inhabitants re- ceived the scoundrel among them just as Ameri- cans receive Jesuits in this country ; and while he was acting the traitor, and clandestinely writing to Jesuits, they shared with him the hospitality of their tables — precisely as Americans have done, for the last fifty years, to other Murphies, in this country 204 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY. During this whole time that Murphy was on the island, working as a carpenter, he had secret in- terviews with the American consul, Moerenhout, until he succeeded in bringing into the island his brother missionaries. They could not, however, remain on the island without permission from the queen, and the payment of a certain sum of money. The queen refused them permission to remain, un- der any circumstances, fearing, as she well might, that some treason was contemplated against her government. The Jesuits called a meeting, and, under the patronage of the American consul, they urged their demand to remain, comparing them- selves to St. Peter, and the Protestants to St. Simon, the magician. I use the language of the Quarterly. I must here observe, in justice to our government, that the conduct of Moerenhout, United States' consul at Tahiti, was promptly disavowed, and he was immediately removed from office. But, not- withstanding the improper interference of the American consul, they were ordered to leave the island. It is due to the Protestant missionaries to state, that they took no part whatever in the expulsion of these Jesuits ; nor could they, in justice to themselves or to the cause of morality, interf(;re in preventing it. A French writer, speaking of the occupation of Tahiti, says : " The Catholic priests, instead of going to civilize bar- barous nations and checking debauchery, seem, on the contrary, only desirous of becoming rivals -o the Protestant ministers, and decoying away '.heir proselytes." As soon as the expelled Jesuits arrived in France, one of them proceeded to Rome, to consult with his holiness the Pope ; the result of which was, an immediate order to a French AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 205 captain, named Dupetit Thouars, who was then stationed at Valparaiso, to proceed to Tahiti, and de- mand reparation for a supposed indignity to France. Here we see the influence of the Pope, and an evidence of Jesuit intrigue. In what consisted the alleged indignity to France ? Had not the queen of Tahiti the right to receive or refuse those Jesuit missionaries, if she had evidence that they were spies among her people ? If it appeared clear to her that the object of those reverend intriguers' visit was only to overthrow her government, and to decoy away from the path of virtue and re- ligion both herself and her subjects, what right had Louis Phillippe or the French government to look upon this as an indignity to the French na- tion ? The fact is, if the whole truth were known, Louis Phillippe knew but little of this aflTair, and his minister for foreign affairs, or some other mem- ber of his cabinet, was either imposed upon or bribed by Jesuits. A statement of the difficulties, into which the hitherto peaceful island of Tahiti has been thrown by Jesuits, could not fail to be interesting to my readers ; but, as the whole affair is to be found in the Foreign Quarterly, I refer the public to that work. I cannot, however, dismiss the subject, without asking the reader's particular attention to the Irish Jesuit^ Murphy, who figures so con- spicuously in the transaction. A brief view of the conduct of this reverend spy cannot fail to have a good effect, and must tend greatly to remove that delusion under which the Protestants of the United Stales have so long labored. I have been recently conversing with a very intel- .igent member of the Massachusetts legislature, on the subject of Jesuitical intrigue. I stated to him 206 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, that it was a common practice among them, ever since the formation of that society, to keep spies in all Protestant countries, under various disguises and in different occupations. But though I had given him such proofs as could scarcely fail to satisfy any man, yet he replied, as American Protestants gen- erally do, on all such occasions, " Those times are gone hy. The Romish church is not at all noio, lohatit was in the days you speak of.^^ But, when the fact was made plain to him — when he learned from authority, admitting of no doubt, that only a few weeks ago, a Jesuit, and an Irishman too, crept into Tahiti in the disguise of a carpenter, and con- tinued to work there, in that character, until iie laid a proper foundation for the overthrow of the Protes- tant religion on that island, his incredulity seemed to vanish; the cloud, which so long darkened his vision, evaporated into thin air; and my impression is, that he no longer thinks our country safe, unless something is done to exclude forever all Papists, without distinction, from any participation in the making and administration of our laws. This Murphy, to whom allusion is made, ap- peared in great distress when he arrived among the natives of Tahiti. He seemed entirely indifferent upon the subject of religion ; all he wanted, appar- ently, was employment. This was procured for him among the simple natives by the Aincrican consul, both of whom soon united themselves together, ac- cording to some previous arrangement ; and, while they were '^breaking bread " with the natives^ they were laying plans for their destruction. A blow was aimed at their national and moral existence, and the death of both has nearly been the result. Thus we see a harmless and inoffensive people, only just res- cued from a savage state by the laudable efibrts of AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 207 Protestant missionaries, partly thrown back again into their original condition by infidel Popish priests, whose ''god is their belly," whose religion \s alle- giance to their king, the Pope, and whose sports and pastimes consist in debauching the good and virtuous of every country. The flourishing condition of Tahiti, before the Jesuits found access to it, is well known in this country. Peace, plenty, and religion flourished among, its people — all produced by the efforts of our Protestant missionaries. But what sad changes have Jesuits effected among them ! By their intrigues they have caused a difficulty between Tahiti and France. The French government fancied itself insulted; false representations were made by the Jesuits; and, with the aid of their hrethreyi in France, the government was deceived and the isl- and blockaded, until reparation was made by the inoffensive queen, Pomare. I Avill quote an in- stance of the conduct of the French — all Roman Catholics, and under the advice of Jesuits — after they entered Tahiti. It is taken from the Foreign (Quarterly Review of October, and not denied by the French themselves. " After persuading four chiefs, who were author- ized to act in the absence of the queen, to affix their names to a document, asking ' French protection,' a boat was sent by the French captain, Dupetit Thouars, to a place called Eimeo, with 2, iper emptor y order for queen Pomare to sign it within twenty- four hours. "It was evening before the boat reached the place whither Pomare had retired with her family. Hei situation was one in which it is the custom for wo- men to receive the most anxious and respectful at- tention from all of the opposite sex, especially if i 208 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, tliey call themselves gentlemen. She was every moment expected to give birth to a child ; and, ac- cording to custom, had come to lie-in at Eimeo, leaving Paraita, who basely betrayed his trust, re gent in her absence. On learning the demand made by Thouars, the queen, surprised and alarmed, sent for Mr. Simpson, the missionary of the island, and a long and painful consultation ensued. Armed re- sistance was obviously impossible. The only al- ternative was between dethronement and protection. Pomare at first determined to choose the former, but her friends pressing round her, represented that Great Britain, the court of appeal whither all the grievances of the world are carried for redress, would certainly interfere ; that subjection would be but temporary, and that she would ultimately tri- umph. Stretched on her couch, in the first pangs of labor, the unfortunate queen withstood all sup- plications until near morning. Mr. Simpson ob- serves, that this was indeed 'a night of tears.' Many hours were passed in silence, interrupted only by the sobs of the suffering Pomare. " Let us leave her for a while, and turn to consider in what manner the French buccaneer and his crew passed the same night. We refer to no inimical statement. Our authority is a letter which went the round of all the Paris papers, written by an of- ficer on board the Reine Blanche, who did not seem to perceive any thing at all immoral in what he re- lated. His intention was merely to excite the envy of his fellow-countrymen by detailing the delights that were to be found in the new Cythera of Bou- gainville. We dare not follow him into his details. It will be enough to state that more than a hundred women were enticed on board the ship', and there compelled to remain all night, under pretence that AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 209 it would be dangerous to row them back in the dark. Some were taken to the officers' cabin, others were sent to the youthful midshipmen, the rest to the crew. When this account made its appearance, the government, alarmed at the effect it might produce, pubhshed an official declaration in the ' Moniteur,' (30 Mars,) addressed to ' French mothers,' deny- ing the truth of the statement. But M. Guizot, or whoever directed this disavowal, merely argued from the silence of his own despatches — if they were silent — and not long before, in the voyage of Dumont d'Urville, published by royal ' ordon- nance,' a description of conduct, still more atro- cious, had been given to the world. '^ Towards morning, the sufferings of Pomare in- creasing, her resolution began to fail her, and at length she signed the fatal document. Then burst- ing into a flood of tears, she took her eldest son, aged six years, in her arms, and exclaimed, ' My child, my child, I have signed away your birth- right ! ' In another hour, with almost indescriba- ble pangs, she was delivered of her fourth child. Meanwhile the boat which carried the news of her yielding, sped for the port of Papeete. The sea was rough, and the wind threatened every moment to shift. The white sail was beheld afar off by the look-out on the mast of the Reine Blanche, and it was thought impossible she could reach by the ap- pointed time. Thouars, however, troubled himself but little about all these things. He was fixed in his resolve, that if the answer did not arrive before twelve he would bombard Papeete. The guns were loaded, gun-boats stationed along the shore ; and whilst the frightened inhabitants crowded down to the beach, beseeching, with uplifted hands, that their dwellings might be spared, the ruthless pirate, 210 bearing the commission of the king of France, was giving his orders, and burning to emulate the ex- ploits of Stopford and Napier at St. Jean d'^Acre, by destroying a few white-washed cottages on the shore of a little island in the Pacific. Hero ! wor- thy the grand cross of the legion of honor which was bestowed on him for this achieveme-nt 1 Worthy the sword raised by farthing subscriptions among ' haters of the Enghsh,' which was presented to him for so distinguished an exploit! What exalta- tion must have filled his breast as he beheld the Avhite sail of the boat scud for a moment past the entrance of the port ; and what sorrow, when, by a skilful tack, it bore manfully along the very skirts of the breakers, and rushed through the hissing and boiling waters into the placid bay of Papeete, ex- actly one half hour before mid-day! " We must pass rapidly over the arrangements which followed. The treaty of protection pro- fessed to secure the external sovereignty to the French, but to leave the internal to the queen. The former, however, were em.powered ' to take whatever measures they might judge necessary for the preservation of harmony and peace.' When we learn that the ever recurring M. Moerenhout was appointed royal commissioner to carry out this treaty, we at once perceive that Pomare had in re- ality ceased to reign. How this base person em- ployed his power may be discovered from the fact, that it became his constant habit, when he desired to obtain the signature of the queen to any distaste- ful document, to vituperate her in the lowest lan- guage, and shake his fist in her face. " It has been asserted, in this country and else- where, that the passive resistance of the queen and people to the proper establishment of the protecto AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 211 rate, did not begin until the arrival of Mr. Pritch- ard on the 25th of February, 1843. The object of this has been to attribute all the subsequent dif- ficulties experienced by the French to him. But the fact is well known, that before he made his ap- pearance the queen had written to the principal European powers, stating that she had been com- pelled against her will to accept the protectorate of France. On the 9th of February also, a great pub- lic meeting, presided at by the queen, was held, in which speeches of the most violent description were made. It was resolved, however, that by no overt act the French should be furnished with an excuse for further arbitrary proceedings. The de- termination come to, was to write for the opinion of Great Britain. " The morning after this meeting Moerenhout went to the queen and acted in a manner so gross and in- sulting, that she determined to complain to Sir Thomas Thompson, of the Talbot frigate, who promised her protection. All this happened, as we have seen, before the arrival of Mr. Pritchard, who, in truth, instead of proving a firebrand, introduced moderation and caution into the councils of Po- mare. Sir Toup Nicolas, it is true, commanding the Yindictive, which brought our consul to Tahiti, did go so far, despising some of the forms which were perhaps necessary, as threaten that unless the French ceased to molest British subjects, he would use force to compel them. He is said even to have cleared for action. When we consider what was daily passing under his eyes, there was some ex- cuse for this gallant captain's warmth. Setting aside the insults offered to our own countrymen, he was the spectator of constant tyrannical conduct towards the queen. Messrs. Reme and Vrignaud, 212 under whose name all this was done, were but in- struments in the hands of the sagacious Moeren- hout. The following letter of queen Pomare, hitherto, we believe, unpublished, will throw some light on his conduct. It is addressed to Toup Nic- olas, who took measures to fulfil the wishes it contains. ' Paofae, March 5, 1844. * O Commodore, 'I make known unto you that I have oftentimes been troubled by the French consul, and on ac- count of his threatening language I have left my house. His angry words to me have been very strong. I have hitherto only verbally told you of his ill-actions towards me ; but now I clearly make these known to you, O Commodore, that the French consul may not trouble me again. I look to you to protect me now at the present time, and you will seek the way how to do it. ' This is my wish, that if M. Moerenhout, and all other foreigners, want to come to me, they must first make known to me their desire, that they may be informed whether it is, or is not, agreeable to me to see them. ' Health and peace to you, ' O servant of the Glueen of Britain, (Signed) 'Pomare, ' Q.ueen of Tahiti, Mourea, &c. &c.' *' During the time that elapsed between the estab- lishment of the protectorate and the third visit of Dupetit Thouars to Tahiti, the only overt act which the French could complain of was the hoist- mg of a fancy flag by the queen over her house. Whatever difficulties existed at the outset, had been in reality overcome in spite of the ' intriguing Mr. AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 21'^ Pritchard.' Even M. Guizot has declared in his place in the chamber of deputies : " There existed on the admiral's arrival none of those difficulties which are not to be surmounted by good conduct, by prudence, by perseverance, by time, or which requu'e the immediate application of force.' Nev- ertheless, on the first of November, 1843, our buc- caneering admiral entered the harbor of Papeete, and wrote immediately to inform the queen that unless she pulled down the flag she had hoisted, he would do so for her, and at the same time depose her. In spite of his threats, however, she refused compliance ; and Lieutenant D'Aubigny landed at the head of five hundred men, to occupy the island. The speech in which this person inaugurated French dominion in Tahiti was one of the richest speci- mens of bombast and braggadocia ever uttered. " Much merriment might be excited by its repeti- tion, but it has already caused the sides of Europe to ache, more than once. Suffice it to say, that the deposed queen fled on board the British ship of war, the Dublin, commanded by Capt. Tucker, and Papeete was, for many days, like a town taken by storm. Drunkenness, debauchery, rioting, filled its streets, and every means were taken to undo what the missionaries had, by half a century's labor, accomplished." The above is another, melancholy evidence of the spirit of Popery ; and if any thing can open the eyes of our people to a sense of danger from it, this evidence cannot fail to do so. I lay it down as a truth — though I may be censured for the boldness of such an assertion — that there is not a man of common sense, or ordinary penetration, who does not see, at a glance, that our danger as a nation, and our morals as a people, are eminently perilled 214 SYNUFSIS OF POPERTj by the continuance of Popery amongst us. There are certain truths which need not be proved ; they prove themselves. Like the sun, which is seen by tsown light, they carry with them their own evi- dence ; and, among those self-evident truths, I see none more clear or more lucid, than that Popery, which has taken root in this country, will" — if not torn up and totally uprooted before long — dash to pieces the whole frame of our republic. Sympa- thizers^ Puseyites, and all other such bastard Prot- estants, may think differently. Be it so. Valueless as my opinion may be, let it be herein recorded, that I entirely disagree with them. It seems that another speck of Popery is just making its appearance on the north-west horizon of our national firmament. It appears, by accounts very recently received from Oregon, that the Prop- aganda in Rome has sent out a company of Jesuits and nuns to that territory. Popish priests and Jesuits seldom travel without being accompanied by nuns : they add greatly to their comforts while on their pilgrimage for the advancements of mo'^' ' ,^ and chastity. Hitherto the occupants of Oregon have advanced quietly. They have adopted a temporary form of government, established courts of law, and such municipal regulations as they deemed best calculated to forward their common interest. But the modern serpent^ Jesuitism, has already entered their garden : the tree of Popery has been planted: it is now in blossom, and will soon be seen in full bearing. It is truly a melan- choly reflection to think that this pest^ Popery, should find access to all places and to all people. One year will not pass over us, before the aspect of things in Oregon will be entirely changed. These Jesuits who arrived there have been pre- AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 215 ceded b^ some Popish spy — some reverend Irish Murphy, in the capacity of carpenter, or perhaps horse-jockey, has gone before them, and has been laying plans for their reception. I venture to say, it will be discovered, at no distant day, that all the good which our Protestant missionaries have done there will soon be undone by Popish agents. They will commence, as they have done in Tahiti, by causing some panic among the resident settlers. They will find in Oregon, as well as in our United States, some functionary who may want their aid ; and he, like many of the unprincipled functionaries among ourselves, will give them his patronage in ex- change. Liberty has, in reality, but few votaries among officeholders, in comparison with Popery ; and this is one of the chief causes of the great advances which the latter is making, and has been making, especially for the last six or eight years. Look around you, fellow-citizens, and you will scarcely find an individual in office, from the President to the lowest office-holder, possessed of sufficient moral courage to raise his voice against Popery. Bat jus- tice to Americans requires me to say, that in this the great mass of the people are without blame — for 1 cannot call certain leading, unprincipled politicians, the people. The first steps which foreign priests and Jesuits have taken, in disturbing the harmony of our republican system of government, might have been easily checked ; but those who have repre- sented the people, and who held offices of honor and emolument, were not, and will not be, distxirb- ed by a moment's reflection on a proper sense of their duty. The whole responsibility of the gross outrages offered to our Protestant country, by Popish priests and Papal allies, rests upon our representa- tives in Congress. They could, if they would, have 10 216 SYNOPSIS OF POPEHY, long since checked Popery ; and it is now higa time tliat the people shonld take this matter into their own hands, and so aher the constitutions of their respective states, as to exclude Papists from any positive or negative participation [a the creation or execution of their laws. Jesuits calculate with great accuracy upon tlie selfishness of man : they know that, generally speaking, it is paramount to all other considerations. Artful, intriguing, avaricious, and more licentious themselves than any other body of men in the world, they^oon discover all that is vulnerable in the American character, and take advantage of it. They discover that popular applause is greatly coveted by Americans ; and this is the reason why we see established among us so many repeal asso- ciations. The writer understands that several -of those associations are now formed in Oregon ; and it was at their request that the Pope had sent out Jesuits and nuns amongst them. Repeal is looked upon as the great lever by which the whole political world can be turned upside down. Its members meet in large numbers, in order to show the gullible Americans the consequent extent of their power, 'and the great advantage which some officehunter may gain by bringing them over to his views. The bait has taken well hitherto ; but as we have — sol- emnly attested by the sign manual of the Pope him- self — seen his object in causing to be established repeal societies, the American, who continues here- after to encourage them, deserves the execration of every lover of freedom. The Pope tells Americans, through his agent, O'Connell, what the design and objects of all the movements of Papists in the United States are ; and I trust, when American? see them in their true colors, they will sink deeply into their hearts. AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 217 Hear, then, I entreat you, Americans, the lan- guage of O'Connell, as the Pope's agent, as uttered by him in the Loyal National Repeal Association in Dublin, Ireland. It is addressed to Irish Catholics in the United Slates. Where you have the electoral franchise^ give your votes to nojie but those who ■will assist you in so holy a struggle. You should do all in your power to carry out the pious inten- tions of his holiness the Pope. This is plain lan- guage ; there is no misunderstanding it. It is ad- dressed to Papists, whether in Oregon or the United States, and what are the pious intentions of the Pope ? I will tell you. I understand those matters probably better than you do. The object is, in the first place, to extirpate Protestantism ; a-nd^ secondly, to overthrow this republican government^ and -place in our executive chair a Popish king. This is the sole design of all the ramifications of the va- rious repeal clubs throughout the length and breadth of the United States and its territories. O'Con- nell — the greatest layman living — is the nuncio of the Pope for carrying this vast and holy design into execution. Will Americans submit to this? Will they again attend repeal associations ? Does not every meeting of the repeal party impliedly make an assault upon our constitution ? Is not this for- eign demagogue endeavoring to pollute our ballot- box ? and will you any longer trust an Irish Papist, who is the fettered slave of the Pope ? Aye ! a greater slave than the African, the Mussulman, or the Chinese. Never before was there such a com- bination formed for the destruction of American liberty, as that of Irish repealers^ and never before was such an insidious attempt made to pollute the morals of the wives and daughters of Americans, as that which Jesuits have for years made, and are 218 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, now makirig, by the introduction of priests and nun- neries among them. Repeal unchains the loud blasts of conspiracy, and opens the bloody gates of sedition ; yet this Re- peal lives in the very midst of us. I can almost hear, while I am writing these Hues, the wild shouts of its lawless members ; and to the shame and everlasting disgrace of Americans, the sons of free and noble sires, there are many of them, at the very repeal meetings to which I allude, aidirig and abetting them in aiming their mad and wild blows at liberty, while she sleeps sweetly, perhaps dreaming that she was safe, with the spirits of Washington, Warren, and others, watching over her slumbers. Sleep on, fair goddess ! Popish traitors cannot, shall not disturb thee. American Republi- cans will not let them ; and to you, Protestant for- eigners, I would most earnestly appeal. Let us stand by those noble patriots. We know what tyr- anny is 1 We felt many of its pains and penalties. We knoAV what Popery is ! It has desolated our na- tive land ! It has made barren our fairest fields ! It has sealed up from our parents, our brothers, sisters, and relatives, the eternal fountain of life ! It is drunk with the blood of the saints ! It has closed against us the gates of liberty ! It has rendered us strangers to its blessings, and it was not until we landed upon these shores, that we were first per- mitted to inhale its fragrance or taste its fruits. But now that we enjoy all these blessings, let us thank God for them. Let us be grateful to Ameri- cans for receiving us among them, and prove by our deeds that we are not unworthy of the kind and hospitable reception which they gave us, by being foremost amongst them in resisting and warding off the blows which that enemy of mankind, the Pope, AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 219 ^.nd his foul-mouthed nuncio, Daniel O'Connell, with his Irish repealers, are striking at American freedom! They shall not succeed. The slaves of a Pope cannot succeed. " The sensual and the dark rebel in vain, Slaves by their own compulsion ! In mad game They burst their manacles, and wear the name Of freedom, graven on a heavier chain O Liberty ! with profitless endeavor Have I pursued thee many a weary hour ; — But thou nor sweil'st the victor's strain, nor ever Didst breathe thy soul in forms of human power. Alike from all, howe'er they praise thee — Nor prayer, nor boastful name delays thee — Alike from priestcraft's harpy minions, -And factious blasphemy's obscener slaves. Thou speedcst on thy subtle pinions. The guide of homeless winds, and playmate of the waves! And there I felt thee ! — on that sea-clifTs verge, Whose pines, scarce travelled by the breeze above, Had made one murmur with the distant surge ; — Yea, while I stood and gazed, my temples bare, And shot my being through earth, sea, and air. Possessing all things with intensest love, O Liberty ! ray spirit felt thee there ! " AURICULAR CONFESSION AND POPISH NUNNERIES. BT WILLIAM HOGAN. POmiflALT &OMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, AKD AUTHOR OF 'POFKBT Al It WAS AND AS IT IS.' VOLUME f. HARTFORD: PUBLISHED BY SILAS ANDHUS AND SON 1SF4. tntored according to Ai>i of Congress, in the year 1S«, By W I h L 1 9 af H O O A N , lo the Clerk's O-^ne of the District v^ourt of the District of .MaaeuchesetU. TO THE PUBLIC. Tje readers of the following work, who have not any acquaint- Ance with the author, may wish to know who he is, in order to enable them to ascertain what degree of credit is due to his state- ments. We are permitted to publish the following documents, which show that the author is a member of the Georgia bar, and that his standing among his brethren is that of a moral, upright, and honorable gentleman. This is a high character— as high as any man can produce, or any American citizen require — and entitles Mr. Hogan's statements to full credit, in the estimation of every honest man and impartial reader of this work. [Certificate from Judge Wayne.] State of Georgia. At a Superior Court hoi den in and for the County of Effingham, at November Term, 1827. Know all men by these presents, that, at the present sitting of this Court. William HoaAN made his application for leave to plead and practise in the several Courts of Law and Equity in this Sta^e : Whereupon, the said William Hogan having given satisfactory cvi- '^.ence of good moral character, and having been examined in open Court, and being found well acquainted and skilled in the laws, he was admitted by the court to all the privileges of an Attorney Solicitor and Counsellor, in the several Courts of law and Equity m this State. In Testimony whereof the presiding Judge has hereunto set [L. S.] his hand, with his seal annexed, (there being no Seal of Court,) this first day of November, 1827. Jwo. Chas. Ston, Clerk. James M. Wayne. ICertificate from Judge Law.] I hereby certify that the within named William Hogan, has been at the bar of the Eastern Circuit of Georgia, since November Term, 1827, the date of his admission, and that he has conducted himself, during my acquaintance with him at this bar, as an Attorney and Counsellor at Law, with uprightness and integrity of character. "» William Law, Judge Sup. Courts, East District, Georgia. Savannah, 25th June, 1832. 10* Savannah, 25th June, 1832. Dear Sir, — ^Understanding from you that it is your intention to jeave the State, with a view to the practice of the law elsewhere ; it will, I apprehend, be necessary that the certificate of admission to our bar, furnished you by the Clerk, should be accompanied by a certificate from myself as the presiding Judge of the Couit in which yoa were admitted. This is necessary to give it authenticity in another State. It will afford me pleasure to append that verifica- tion to it, if you will be pleased to send me the certificate. Permit me, as you are about to leave us, to offer you my humble testimony to your correct and upright deportment as an advocate at the bar of the Superior Courts of the Eastern District of Georgia, since your admission to the practice of the law in the same. "Wishing you success and prosperity wherever you may settle, I am, dear sir, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, William Law. [Becommendation from the Georgia Bar.] Savannah, June, 1632. "We, the undersigned members of the bar of Savannah, having been informed that Wm. Hogan, Esq., in consequence of ill health, is about removing to a northern climate, take leave to state that he has been admitted to practise as Attorney, Solicitor and Counsellor in all the Courts of Law and Equity in this State. Mr. Hogan has been a resident of this city for some years, during which time, we further feel a pleasure in stating that his profes sional standing among us, has been that of a moral and honorable gentleman, and as such, recommend him to the professional atten- tions of the Honorable the Judges and members of the bar generally, wherever his health may induce him to locate himself. Thos. U. p. Charlton, Jno. C. Nicoll, W. W. Gordon, Rich. W. Habersham, K. li. CCVLER, Levi S. D'Lyoh. INTRODUCTION. " Three score years and ten," and those often full of care and anxiety, seem to constitute the space of human life. So it is said in that venerable volume, which never has been, and never can be equalled, in beauty of truth, wisdom, and instruction. This, it would seem, ought to check all the vain and inordinate aspirations of poor, weak man ; yet it has not, and probably never will do so. To a reflecting mind, nothing can appear stranger than this. Notwith- standing this solemn truth, such is the presumption of man, that he has often dared, — and does so at this mo- ment, — to set himself up as the viceroyal or vicegerent of the King of Heaven ; and fancies himself sent upon this earth for the purpose of rectifying or correcting any mi? takes or defects which might have escaped the vigilance of the great I Am, in the organization and fitness of things This is truly a serious and melancholy reflection. The population of this world of ours is supposed to amount to 812,553,712. Of this vast number, 137,000,000 are Roman Catholics, who now, on the 19th of July, 1S45, bend the knee and bow down in homage to a weak, help- less, and worthless being, the Pope of Rome ; and thus, if history does not deceive us, proving themselves conspir- ators against the happiness of the human race. To meliorate the condition of this almost countless mul- titude of our fellow-creatures, is among the first duties of every good man. No one is exempted from it; not the king nor the peasant; not the sage nor the philosopher; not the priest nor the layman; for there are as many modes of discharging this duty, as there are grades in the social system* 226 INTRODUCTION. As a. member of the human family, and be'tng once an nstructor myself, I feel that I have too Jong neglected this common duty. Many suns, and many shades, too, have passed over me, without doing much in the great work of promoting the happiness of my fellow-beings ; and if I can •nake any atonement for this omission, by devoting the necessarily short period of the remnant of my life for the benefit of others, I shall retire to my eternal home with feelings of happiness which I have not enjoyed for years. With a clear and full view of my duty, I have recently written a work entitled, " A Synopsis of Popery as it was, and as it is." It has been well received; it awakened Americans to a proper sense of their duty. Until then they saw not, they felt not, they dreamed not of the dan- gers which threatened their religion and their civil rights from the stealthy movements of the Church of Rome, and her priests and bishops, in this country. Americans have now a steady and watchful eye upon them. This was necessary, and so far, I have done my duty. The Popish presses, which, until then, had lulled Americans into fatal repose by their misrepresentations, have been, in a measure, silenced. No one, before me, dared to encounter their scurrilous abuse. I resolved to silence them ; and I have done so. The very mention of my name is a terror to them now; though, until the appearance of my book, there was not a Popish press in the United States, which did not weekly, almost daily, abuse me in the most scur- rilous manner; ar>d in my apprehension, a stronger evi- dence cannot be given of the iniquity of Popish priests and bishops who edit those presses, than tKis very fact. Protestant writers in the United States have long been kept in check by the bullying and vaporing of Popish priests, when some resolution and a little tact, might at all times have silenced them. I found no difficulty in muz- zling the whole body; and the mode of doing it was sug- INTRODUCTION. 0017 gesled to me by a little incident in my own life. "Will the reader allow me to relate it ? As soon as I was admitted to the practice of law, I wens^ into partnership with a Mr. Gray, a young gentleman of promising talents and gentlemanly manners. Our office was in one of the upper districts of South Carolina, sep- arated only by a narrow river, from the State of Georgia, where I have resided ever since. There was at the back of our office, a swamp, containing, — if we may judge from the noise they made, — myriads of frogs, ugly and filthy as the slime from which they sprung. As soon as the sun of heaven retired to its home in the west, and darkness cov- ered the face of the earth and the waters, these frogs set up a most hideous chorus, — ^just as Papists have done for more than twenty years, against myself. The noise be- came a perfect nuisance to me. I felt at a loss how to silence these filthy frogs. I purchased and borrowed every work I could get upon frogs, to see if any remedy had been discovered to abate this nuisance ; but all to no pur- pose. On they went, night after night ; nothing could be heard but croak, croak, croak. Finally, I became impa- tient, when necessity, which is properly called, "the mother of invention," suggested to me the following rem- edy, which, I believe, might have been tried before. I procured a well-lignted lantern, concealed it under a thick overcoat, went down to the pond, sat patiently on its bank until the frogs commenced their evening chorus ; but just as they were upon their highest notes, I uncovered my lantern, and threw its full blaze of light over the whole surface of the pond. Instantly, as if by magic, " Every frog was at rest, And I heard not a sound." It occurred to me, that a similar experiment might, with equal advantage, be made upon Popish priests and confes- sors. I knew no other living animal or creeping thing, so 228 INTRODUCTION. closely resembling these frogs in repulsiveness, as a Ro- mish priest or bishop who hears confessions. I resolved to throw light upon them, and show them to each other and to the world, in their native deformity. I published my book on Popery ; I threw the light of my experience as a Popish priest, upon the whole body. The result has been entirely satisfactory. Never, since then, has a Popish priest, Popish bishop, or Popish press, published a single sentence against me. How truly is it said in holy writ, " Resist the devil, and he "vvill flee from you." I have re- sisted Popish priests ; they have fled from me ; and if the reader will do me the honor of perusing the following pages, he will see that I am still pursuing them in full chase ; nor do I feel disposed to abandon my pursuit, until they renounce allegiance to the Pope of Rome, and become true, peaceable, moral, and well-behaved citizens of the United States. WILLIAM HOGAN. AURICULAR CONFESSION AND POPISH NUNNERIES. When a writer acknowledges, in advance, that he cannot relate the whole truth, his position is far from being enviable. It augurs badly for what he writes, and so far places him in a disadvantageous light before the public. This is, however, precisely the condition in which I now find myself Such is the nature of the subject on which I feel it my duty to write, that I shrink with native abhorrence from relating, at least, the whole truth. It is repugnant to my feelings, to my taste, and at variance with the general tone of my conversation, ever since the God of purity enabled me to disentangle myself from the society of Romish priests and bishops, — men whose private lives and conversation with each other and with their penitents in the confessional, breathe nothing but the grossest licentiousness and foetid impurities. I do not wantonly and without provocation make any expose of the iniquities of Popery. My entire life, since I left them, is evidence of this ; but they have pursued me with such persevering malignity and demoniac malice, that further silence would be criminal and disrespectful to my Protestant fellow- citizens, from whom, notAvithstanding the malice of papists towards me, I have always experienced kind 230 AURIOTTLAR CONFESSION AND attentions and hospitality. Nor should I, even now, allow the subject of Popery to occupy my mind, or taint the current of my thoughts, if I did not see it striding with fearful rapidity over the fair face of this my adopted country, infusing itself into ev^ery political nerve and artery of our government, vsrhile its members are asleep and dreaming of its future glories. It is not pleasant to me to contend with papists, who look upon it as a matter of duty, and as a fun- damental article of their faith, to persecute myself and all other heretics. That they should dislike me, is not a matter of surprise ; that men whose confes- sions I have heard, and who have heard mine, should even dread me, is not to be wondered at. Many of these men deserve (I speak of bishops and priests exclusively) not only public censure, but the gibbet, the dungeon and the gallows. I cannot blame men, under these circumstances, for detesting my very name. They are in my power — they tremble in my presence — and were I to blame them for some degree of opposition and dislike to me, I should be quarrel- ling with that instinct which teaches the profligate and debauchee to shun the society of a virtuous and upright man. While I live among papists they are naturally afraid that I should lift the veil, which conceals from the eyes of Americans the def )rmities of Popery. They are in momentary fear that I shall show to their American co7iverts, which Bishop Fen wick of Boston says he " is daily making from the first families," the Old Lady of Rome in her dishabille. They have long hidden from them her shrivelled, diseased, distorted, and disgusting POPISH NUNNERIES. '31 proportions, and they are unwilling that this painted harlot should be now seen by Americans. This is good policy, and hence much of their opposition to me. A curse seems to have rested upon Rome since its very foundation. Pagan, as well as modern Rome, seemed always to delight in deeds of dark- ness. We are told in history of a singular practice illus- trative of this in ancient Rome. I mention it merely to show the apparent natural fondness of Romanists, ancient as well as modern, for deeds of darkness. ItAs trifling in itself, and may be deemed, perhaps, irrelevant ; but it may be interesting to the historian, whose curiosity extends further than that of theo- logians or moralists. The ancient Romans were epicures. Some say they were greater gluttons than those of the present day. Poultry, of all kinds, was a favorite dish with them, and how to fatten fowl most expeditiously, became a question of vital importance with the phi- losophers of the Eternal City. After several experi- ments, it was found that the best plan was to close up the eyes of geese, turkeys, ducks, and all other kinds of poultry, and, in that condition, cram and stiiff them with food. This succeeded admirably. The fowls fattened in less than half the time. It seems that man was always, as well as now, a progressive animal, and accordingly, as soon as Popery fixed its head-quarters at Rome or at Antioch, no matter which for the present, popish bishops com- menced a similar experiment upon man. Anxious for his conversion to the iJtjallible church, they determined to cli)se his eyes and compel him to ^32 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND receive from themselves, as so many turkeys ana geese would from their feeders, such food as they pleased to give them. They were not to question its quality, hut, like so many hlinded geese, swallow all that was given them. The practice continues to the present day in the Romish church ; even Ameri- can converts to Romanism are not to question the quality of the food, or spiritual instructions, which popish priests please to give them. Blind obedience is a necessary article of spiritual diet for a convert to Popery ; and whether his priest tells him that he must worship God, the Virgin Mary, St. Peter and St. Paul, or the wafer which he carries in his pocket and calls the body and blood of Christ, he must obey without murmur or inquiry. This unreasonable, unscriptural, and impious doc- trine, is inculcated especially in the confessional. No man, not even a papist, dare preach in public such a dogma as bhnd obedience in anything, or to any man. I have always been instructed, while a Catholic priest, never to intimate in public that the Romish church ever required unconditional submis-' sion to her will, unless I was morally certain that all my hearers were by birth and education Roman Catholics; but my orders were positive, and under ^ain of losing my sacerdotal faculties, never to lose an opportunity of inculcating this in the con- fessional. There and there alone do Romish priests teach and fasten upon the minds of their penitents, all the iniquities which the church of Rome sanc- tions. If 1 can satisfy Americans that Atiricular Confess sion is dangerous to their liberties ; if I can show POPISH NUNNERIES. 233 them thai it is the source and fountain of many, if not all, those treasons, debaucheries, and other evils, which are now flooding this country, I shall feel that I have done an acceptable work, and some service to the State. I fear, however, that I shall fail in this ; not because what I state is not true, and even admitted to be so, but because Americans seem determined, — I would almost say fated, — to political and moral destruction. For twenty years I have warned them of ap- proaching danger, but their politicians were deaf, and their Protestant theologians remained religiously coiled up in fancied security, overrating their own powers and undervaluing that of Papists. Even though they see and feel, and often blush at the logical triumph, which popish controversialists have gained, and are gaining over them in every intellec- tual combat in which they engage ; yet such is their love of ease or love of money, or something else, that they cannot be roused until the enemy falls upon them with an annihilating force. It is painful to me to see this indifference upon their part. They are better able than I am to contend with Papists. They possess more talents, and have more friends than I have to sustain them. This is the land of their birth. It is not mine, but not the less dear to me. The religion of this country is the religion of their forefathers, and of the Bible; it is peculiarly their duty to defend both. Nothing could induce me to undertake the present work, but the universal approbation which my recent book on Popery has received from the political and religious journals of the country. I should 234 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND leave it to be done by Protestant theologians. The notices which my book on Popery has received were flattering. They gave me credit for talents, candor and frankness. But I am in reality entitled to no credit for that book. The utterance of the truths contained in it, was a spontaneous emotion. It was (if I may use such language) but the breaking loose of some moral iceberg, which for years lay heavily on my soul. It was a sort of inspiration fanned into a blaze, by an irresistible consciousness that I had too long neglected a duty which I owed to my God and my adopted country. But I now feel relieved, Aid willing to enlist in the cause of morals and civil rights. The following pages, I apprehend, will appear to some of rather a random and fugitive character. It will be said that much of the matter is irrelevant — that I fly too rapidly from one subject to another. To such men I will say, that they know very little of Romish intellectual tactics. A well trained reve- rend Romish soldier cares little about the polish of his armor, or whether he aims his blows according to the system of this or that commander. He steps into the battle arena in his lightest armor, and with his sharpest weapon. A Protestant theologian meets him, with a face as solemn as if he was accompanying to the grave all that was dear to him, wearing his heaviest coat of mail, and armed with claymores and battle-axes. While the latter is wasting his strength upon the desert air, and aiming his harmless blows at every spot but the right one, the papist goads him to death, and seldom fails to obtain the crown of victory from the spectators. Many Protestants POPISH NUNNERIES. 235 who are in the habit of contending with Papists in this manner, will disapprove of this book ; but I trust that in diifering from them in my mode of warfare with Papists, they will, on reflection, see that, although they may be right, I am not wrong. 1 shall therefore beg leave to pursue my own course. I will give my ideas to the public just as they strike me, fresh from my own mind, with no regard whatever to style, ornament or criticism ; and I am vain enough to wish that all controversialists, and even all Protestant and Popish writers, should pursue a similar course. We should then have more truth in controversy, more soul and more sterling morality in religion. All that is artistical and pedantic would be exploded, and truth, fresh and warm from the heart, would be substituted in their place. Every crime, as I have stated before, which the Romish church sanctions, and almost all the immor- alities of its members, either originate in or have some connection with Auricular Confession ; and in order to explain this to my readers, it will be neces- sary for me to go back and state the causes which first induced me to doubt the infalUbllity of the Romish church. I have often been asked the following question : Why did you leave the Roman Catholic church? Before I answer this question, I may well exclaim, in the language of the ancient poet, omitting only one word, "Oh! nefandum, jubes, renovare dolorem." But however painful the relation may be; however "flensive to the ears of the virtuous and chaste; however disgusting to the pions and moral portion of our commiiiiit^^ : however at variance with the 236 Aur:cuLAR confession and elegances and formalities of private life; however heavily such a narrative may fall upon Roman priests and bishops, and disreputable it may be to Nu?is and Nunneries, I will answer the above ques- tion, so often and so frankly put to me by many even of my personal friends. Several causes have contributed to induce me to doubt the infallibility of the Popish church, and to renounce its ministry altogether. Among the first was the following : When quite young and but just emerging from childhood, I became acquainted with a Protestant family living in the neighborhood of my birthplace. It consisted of a mother (a widow lady) and three interesting children, two sons and one daughter. The mother was a widow, a lady of great beauty and rare accomplishments. The husband, who had but recently died, one of the many victims of what is falsely called ho7ior^ left her, as he found her, in the possession of a large fortune, and, as far as worldly goods could make her so, in the enjoyment of perfect happiness. But his premature death threw a gloom over her future life, which neither riches nor wealth, nor all worldly comforts combined together, could efiectually dissipate. Her only plea- sure seemed to be placed in that of her children. They appeared — and I believe they really were — the centre and circumference of her earthly happi- ness. In the course of time the sons grew up, and their guardian purchased for both, in compliance with their wishes, and to gratify their youthful ambition, commissions in the army. The parting of these POPISH NUNNERIES. 237 cliildren. the breaking up of this fond trio of broth- ers and sister, was to the widowed mother anothei source of grief, and tended to concentrate, if possible, more closely all the fond affections of the mother upon her daughter. She became the joy of her heart. Her education while a child was an object of great soUcitude, and having a fortune at her com- mand, no expense was spared to render it suitable for that station in life, in which her high connec- tions entitled her to move when she should become of age. The whole family were members of the Protestant church, as the Episcopal church is called in that country. As soon as the sons left home to join their respective regiments, which were then on the continent, the mother and daughter were much alone, so much so, that the fond mother soon dis- covered that her too great affection for her child and the indulgence given to her were rather impeding than otherwise her education. She accordingly determined to remove her governess, who up to this period was her sole instructress, under the watch- ful eye of the fond and accomplished mother herself,^ and send her to a fashionable school for young ladies. There was then in the neighborhood, only about twenty miles from this family, a Nunnery of the order of Jesuits. To this nunnery was attached a school superintended by nuns of that order. The school was one of the most fashionable in the coun- try. The nuns who presided over it, were said to be the most accomplished teachers in Europe. The expenses of an education in it were extravagantly high, but not beyond the reach of wealth and fashion. The mother, though a Protestant, and strict ^^^ AURICULAR CONFESSION AND and conscientious in the discharge of all the duties of her church, and not without a struggle in parting with her child and consigning her to the charge of Jesuits, yielded in this case to the malign influence oi fashion^ as many a fond mother does even in this our own land of equal rights and far-famed, though mock equality — sent her beautiful daughter, her earthly idol, to the school of these nuns. Let the result speak for itself. Up to the departure of the sons for the army, and this daughter for the nunnery, 1 had been ever from myrinfancy acquainted with this family, and had for them the highest respect and warmest attachment. The elder brother was about my own age, and only a few years between the eldest and the youngest child. Soon after the daughter was sent to school, I entered the College of Maynooth as a theological student, and in due time was ordained a Roman Catholic priest by particular dispensation^ being two years under the canonical age. An interval of some years passed before I had an opportunity of meeting my young friend again; our interview was under peculiar circumstances. I was ordained a Romish priest, and located where she happened to be on a visit. There was a large party given, at which, among many others, I happened to be present ; and there meeting with my friend and interchanging the usual courtesies upon such occasions, she — sport- ively, as I then imagined — asked me whether I would preach her reception sermon^ as she intended becoming a nun and taking the lohite veil. Not even dreaming of such an event, I replied in the affirma- POPISH NUNNERIES. 239 live. 1 lieara no more of the affair for about two mouths, when I received a note from her designat- ing the chapel, the day and the hour she expected me to preach, I was then but a short time in the ministry, but sufficiently long to know that up to the hour of my commencing to read Popish theology, especially that of Dens and Antoiiie de Peccatis, I knew nothing of the iniquities taught and practised by Romish priests and bishops. On the receipt of my friend's note, a cold chill crept over me ; I anticipated, I feared, I trembled, 1 felt there must be foul play somewhere. However, 1 went according to proniise, preached her reception sermon at the request of the young lady, and with the special approbation of the Bishop, whom I had to consult on such occasions. The concourse of people that assembled on this occasion was very great. The interest created by the apparent voluntary retirement from the world of one so young, so wealthy and so beautiful, was intense, and accordingly the chapel in which I preaclied was filled to overflowing with the nobility and fashionables of that section of the country. Many and large were the tears which were shed, when this beautiful young lady cut oft' her rich and flowing tresses of hair. Reader, have you ever seen the description which Eugene Sue, in his Wander- ing Jew, gives of the lustrous, luxurious and rich head of hair worn by Charlotte De Cardoville, and shorn from her head by Jesuits, under the pretence that she was insane? If you have not, take the Wandering Jew, turn over its pages till you find it. and you will see a more accurate description of that 11 240 AUPwICULAR CONFESSION AND shorn from the head of the young lady to whom I allude, than 1 can possibly give. Turn back to the picture given by this same Eugene Sue, of the personal beauty, piety, charity, and many virtues of Mademoiselle De Cardoville, and you will have a correct portrait of this young lady of whom I speak. You may therefore easily judge, from her immolation upon the altar of fanati- cism, or, more properly speaking, her personal sacri- fice to the idol of Popish and Jesuit lust, the nature of that feeling which such an event must have pro- duced in the mind of every Christian believer. Having no clerical connection with the convent in which she was immured, I had not seen her for three months following. At the expiration of that time, one of the lay sisters of the convent delivered to me a note. I knew it contained something startling. These lay sisters among Jesuits, are spies belong- mg to that order, but are sometimes bribed by the nuns for certain purposes. As soon as I reached my apartments, I found that my young friend expressed a wish to see me on something important. I, of course, lost no time in calling on her, and being a priest, r was immediately admitted ; but never have I forgot, nor can I forget, the melancholy picture of lost beauty and fallen humanity, which met my aston- ished gaze in the person of my once beautiful and vir- tuous friend. I had been then about eighteen months a Romish priest, and was not without some knowledge of their profligate lives; and therefore I was the bet- ter prepared for and could more easily anticipate what was to come. After such preliminary conversation as may be expected upon occasions of tliis kind, the POPISH NUNNERIES. 241 young lady spoke to me to the following effect, if not literally so. I say literally^ because so deep, and strong, and lasting was the impression made upon my mind, that I believe I have not forgotten one let- ter of her words. "1 sent for you, my friend, to see you once more before my death. I have insulted my God, and disgraced my family ; I am in the family way^ and I must die." After a good deal of conversation, which it is needless to repeat, I discovered from her confession the parent of this pregnancy, and that the mother abbess of the convent advised her to take medicine which would effect abortion; but that she knew from the lay sister who delivered me the note, and who was a confidentieil servant in the convent, that the medicine which the mother abbess would give her should contain poison, and that the procuring abortion was a mere pretext. I gave her such advice as I could in the capacity of a Romish priest. I advised her to send for the bishop and consult him. " I cannot do it," said she. " My de- stroyer IS my confessor." I was silent. I had no more to say. I was bound by oath to be true to him. In vain did the noble sentiment even of the Pagan occur to me; a sentiment sanctioned almost by inspiration itself. It fled from my mind as smoke before the wind. I was one of the priests of the infallible churchy and what was honor, what was honesty to me, where the honor of that infallible church was concerned 7 They were of no account ; not worthy the consideration of a Rom,ish priest for a second. The almost heavenly sentiment of the no- ble Pagan, ^^ Fiat justitia^ mat cce/wm," let justice 242 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND be done even if the heavens were to fall, fled from my mmd. I retired, leaving my friend to her fate, but promising, at her request, to return in a fortnight. According to promise, I did return in a fortnight, but the foul deed was done. She was no more. The cold clay contained in its dread embrace all that now remained of that being, which, but a few months be- fore, lived, and moved in all the beauty and symme- try of proportion ; and that soul, once pure and spot- less as the dew-drop of heaven, ere its contact with the impurities of earth, which a fond mother con- fided to the care of Jesuit nuns, had been driven in its guilt and pollution into the presence of a just but merciful God. All, all, the work of Jesuits and Nuns ! This was the first check my Popish enthusiasm met with ; and now for the first time did a doubt of the infallibility of the church of Rome enter my mind. After witnessing these events I could not help asking myself, can a church which sanctions and countenances such flagitious iniquities as I have just witnessed, be a Christian church 7 Can a body of men, who individually practise such deeds of blood, treachery and crime as those which I have seen, be, collectively, infallible 7 Are these the men whom the Saviour commissioned, in a particular manner, to preach the gospel to every creature? Are these the men, as a body, with whom he prom- ised to be always, even to the consummation of the world? Are these the men who collectively con- stitute an infallible church? If so, unprofitable indeed has been my life. It is high time to come out from among them; and if I cannot live the life POPISH NUNNERIES. 243 of luxury and ease, of sin and crime which a Rom- ish priest can Hve, let me, at least, live that of an honorable man, and a useful member of society. These were some of my reflections; and accord- ingly, that evening, I called on the Right Reverend Protestant bishop of , with a view of making a public recantation of my belief in the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church. But as chance would have it, he was out of town that week, and when next I made an effort to see him I found that effort in vain. I had not properly weighed the chains that bound me to Popery. I knew not their length, nor their strength. They were stronger than ada- mant, than steel. They were chains woven for me, in some measure, by beings that I loved. They were thrown around me and fastened to me by hands that I reverenced. They were the chains of early education- I could not break them; they were too strong for me. The force which alone could do this was the grace of God. This I had not. Until then I went about without faith in the world. I soon fell back, in a measure, into my former belief, but not without a resolution to examine more fully the na- ture of Popery itself, and the practices of its priests. It is well said, a drowning man will catch at straws. It occurred to me that, perhaps, all the crimes and iniquities committed by popes, priests and bishops, and sanctioned by the church of Rome, might be confined only to the old countries, where '' use makes law," and that by leaving the old and com- ing to the new world, where the people made their own laws, and the human mind had its full swmg, and thought is only bounded by its own intermina- 244 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND T^le exteat, I might find a different state of things. I fancied, at any rate, that man might worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, without the interference, let or hindrance, save the inherent power and sovereignty of the people. I little supposed that a pure and enlightened people^ such as Americans boast themselves, would sanction such institutions as those in which the young friend of whom I have spoken, lost her virtue, her honor and her life. But alas ! how sadly have I been dis- appointed. Europe is not the only portion of the world that contains legalized Sodoms. Its people are not the only people that support them. Its lawgivers are not the only men, nor its lawmakers the only ones, that make laws for them and give them charters. Its people are not the only people who contribute their time, their lands, their moneys, and who take almost from the necessaries of life, to support monk houses and nunneries, Jesuits and Dominicans. No, no. The new world ^ the new people, if I may say so, who boast of being the most enlightened people on the face of the earth, — these are the people who, in proportion to their number, contribute most to the support of Popish brothels, modestly called nunne- ries. But it will be said that the young lady to whom 1 have alluded, has given no evidence of her being virtuous. As far as you tell us, she has made no resistance, and it is scarcely possible that one whom you have placed upon so high a prominence of virtue, could have so suddenly fallen into the depths of vice. This is all very plausible, and naturally to be ex- POPISH NUNNERIES. S45 pected from those who know nothing of auriculeur confession^ — a Popish institution, one of the most ingenious devices ever invented by the great enemy of man, for the destruction of the human soul. I am personally acquainted with several respecta- ble Protestant Americans, both male and female, whose ideas of confession in the Romish church have often amused me, though not unaccompanied with feelings of grief and sorrow, at their unac- quaintance with this, what may be called man- trap, or rather woman-trap in the Romish church. American Protestants suppose that Popish confes- sion means little more than that public confession of sin, which is made in all Protestant churches, or that which we individually make to Almighty God in our private chambers. Such may well inquire how this apparent sudden fall could have taken place. These inquiries will cease when I state that the young lady became a convert to Popery, and give my readers some idea of what auricular confession is, and how it is made. Every Roman Catholic believes that priests have power to forgive sins, by virtue of which power any crime, however heinous, may be remitted. But in order to effect this, the sinner must confess to a priest each and every sin, whether of thought, word or deed, with all the cir- cumstances leading to it, or following from it ; and every priest who hears confessions, is allowed to put such questions as he pleases to his penitent^ whether male or female, and he or she is bound to answer "under pain of eternal damnation. It is very difficult, I admit, to suppose that the daughter of a virtuous mother, and that mother a / 246 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND • Protestant too, brought up in the elegances of life, from her birth, breathing in no other atmosphere than that of the purest domestic morality, should be precipitated, in the short space of a year or two, from a state of unsullied virtue and innocence, to the veriest depth of crime ; and it is a melancholy reflec- tion to suppose a state of society, in which, by any combination of human events, the fond mother of a virtuous child could be made the instrument of that child's ruin. Such an event is scarcely possible in the eyes of Protestant Americans, and I feel a pride in believing, from my acquaintance with many of them, that if American mothers were aware of the existence of a society among them, whose object was to demoralize their children, shut out from them the noonday light of the gospel, and ultimately decoy them into the lecherous embraces of Romish priests and Jesuits ; they would, to a woman, rise in their appropriate strength, and deliver our land from those legalized Sodoms called nunneries. I will here take the liberty of showing them how the young friend to whom I have alluded, was debauched. The nunnery to which she was sent, as I have heretofore stated, had attached to it a fashionable school ; all nunneries have such. The nuns who instruct in those schools in Europe, are generally advanced in years, descendants from the first families, and highly accomplished. Most, if not all of them, at an early period of life met with some disappointment or other. One perhaps was the daughter of some decayed noble family, reduced by political revolutions to comparative poverty, and now having nothing but the pride nf birth, retired to POPISH NUNNERIES. 247 a convent. She could not work, and she wo aid not beg. Another, perhaps, was disappointed in love; the companion of her own choice was refused to her by some unfeeling, aristocratic parent. No alterna- tive was left but to unite her young person with the remains of some broken-down debauchee of the nobility. She prefers going into a convent with such means as she had in her own right. An- other, perhaps, like my young friend, — and this is the case with most of them, — was seduced, by some profligate priest while at school, degraded in her own eyes, unfitted even in her own mind to become the companion of an hono^ble man ; seeing no alternative but death or dishonor, she goes into a convent. These ladies, when properly disciplined by Jesuits and priests, become the best teachers. But before they are allowed to teach, there is no art, no craft, no species of cunning, no refinement in pri- vate personal indulgences, or no modes or means of seduction, in which they are not thoroughly initi- ated ; and I may say with safety, and from my own personal knowledge through the confessional, that there is scarcely one of them who has not been herself debauched by her confessor. The reader will understand that every nun has a confessor; and here I may as well add, for the truth must be told at once, that every confessor has a concu- bine, and there are very few of them who have not several. Let any American mother imagine her young daughter among these semi-reverend crones, called nuns, and she will have no difficulty in seeing the possibility of her immediate ruin. When your daughter comes among those women, 11* 248 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND they pretend to be the happiest set of beings upon earth. They would not exchange their situation for any other this side of heaven. They will pray. So do the devils. They will sing. So will the devils, for aught I know. Their language, their acts, their gestures, their whole conduct while in presence of the scholars, or their visitors, is irreproachable. The mother abbess, or superior of the convent, who invariably is the deepest in sin of the whole, and who, from her age and long practice, is almost constitutionally a hypocrite, appears in public the most meek^ the most bland, tSe most courteous, and the most humble Christian. She is peculiarly attentive to those who have any money in their own right : she tells them they are beautiful, fascinating, that they look like angels, that this world is not a fit residence for them, that they are too good for it, that they ought to become nuns, in order to fit them for a higher and better station in heaven. Nothing more is necessary than to become a Roman Catholic and go to confession. Such is the apparent happiness, cheerfulness, and unalloyed beatitudes of the nuns, that strangers are pleased with them. They invariably make a favorable impression on the minds of their visitors. The inference is that they must be truly pious and really virtuous. I had recently the honor of a conversation with a lady, who is herself one of the most accomplished and elegant women in the country, and who a few weeks previously had paid a visit to the Roman Catholic nunnery at , D. C. She spoke of the institution in the highest terms of commendation- POPISH NUNNERIES.