Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/analyticalhistorOOanicrich AN ANALYTICAL AND POLITICAL VIEW OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION, WITH REFERENCE TO POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. ETiW I AN ANALYTICAL AND HISTORICAL V I EW OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION, WITH REFERENCE TO POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. BY AN AUSONIAN. " Consdentia potest adumbrari quia non est Deus, extingui non potest quia k Deo est." Tertnll. Quseque ipse miserrima vidi, £t quorum pars ma^a . JEn. lib. 2. LONDON: . PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY S. AND ». BENTLEY, DORSET STREET, FLEET STREET. 1826. ^6 ^/>/^ TO THE TRIUMPHANT MAJOIIITY IN THE HOUSE OF LOUDS, AND TO THE MERITORIOUS MINORITY IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, ERRATA- P. xxxiv. line 19, for Irving, read Unvin. P. 3, line 10, /or For what should we say, read But what should we say. P. 160, line 12 from bottom, read I shoiild prefer to be a follower of the faith of Moses, rather than a believer, &G. P. 213, line 6 from bottom, /or conversation, read paroxysm. IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. INTRODUCTION Denique Inspicere^ tamquam in speculum, in vitas omnium Jubeo, atque ex aliis sumere exemplum sibi. Ter. Adelphi. Nations blessed with free institutions are often convulsed by the ambitious designs of false patriots, who possess the art of stirring up the passions of the people, by holding up to their restless cupidity the attainment of some favourite object, spuriously iden- tified with their supreme felicity.* These dema- gogues, who have no other plan in view than to change the rags with which they are covered, for costly garments ; and an obscure name, for a name of celebrity ; endeavour to create confusion in order to bury in it their criminal attempts, and screen themselves from the severity of the laws. Of the * " Patriotism is a scandalous game, played by public men for private ends, and frequently little better than a selfish struggle for power."— J5«>Aop of Llandaff's Speech in the House of Lords on the Treaty of Comftierce with France. b2 ii INTUODUCTION. many instances which history affords of the correct- ness of this remark, I select the two most striking, although each separated from the other by a distance of twenty centuries. The first I am alluding to is the Agrarian Law, which originated with a factious tribune, under the plausible pretext of relieving the mob from the pressure of wants, and of putting a stop to the torrent of patrician tyranny." The genuine intentions of this misled patriot became soon apparent, in the vast increase of the authority of the Tribunes, and in the dangerous commotions by which Rome was agitated, whenever that mis- chievous law was reproduced.* The firmness, both of the Consuls and the Senate, in opposing at dif- ferent periods the storm of popular madness, proved the salvation of the Republic ; and by the w^ell- timed punishment of its authors, they buried in a perpetual oblivion that same Agrarian Law, whose announce- ment had been hailed by the people of Rome with a rapturous enthusiasm, and supported by the aid of their exalted passions. The other subject, both in principle and anticipated result akin to the Agrarian Law, is Catholic Emancipation ; the first promoters of which were men, who, for their restless ambition, * Tit, Liv. '' Qui agrariam rem tentant, ut possessores suis se- dibus pellantur ; ii labefactant fundamenta reipublicse ; concor- diamprimum, quae esse non potest, quum aliis adimunturj aliis condonantur pecuniae ; deinde aequitatem^ quae toUitur omnis, si habere suum cuique non licet. Id enim est proprium civitatis atque urbis, ut sit libera et non soUicita suae rei cuique custodia. Quam habet aequitatem, ut agrum multis annis aut etiam seculis ante possessum, qui nullum habuit, habeat, qui autem liabuit, amittat."— C?*c. (/e Off. 78, 79. INTRODUCTION. Ill their unquenchable thirst of power, and their cor- rupted morals, bore more resemblance to the Satur- nines than to the illustrious nephews of the Scipios. Aware that superstition is a powerful arm to con- quer the credulity of an ignorant nation, they suc- ceeded in making the Irish believe, that the complete recovery of their political rights, and the total banishment of their evils, were identified with the re-conquest of their religious privileges.* The lively passions of the Irish soon caught the infection of fanaticism, and, thus strengthened and accoutred, surrendered themselves up to the dictatorship of their leaders. Clothed with such commanding au- thority (the authority of despots), these ill-design- ing men uttered the magic word Emancipation, and Ireland, the fertile, interesting Ireland, was soon transformed into a sanguinary area, where the gla- diators of both parties exhibited the inhuman sport of mutual destruction. The reign of laws being thus superseded by the reign of the mob, the mis- fortunes of Ireland are become hereditary, because the power of the demagogues is become hereditary .f * ^'Csetenim^libertas, et speciosa nomina, nee quisquam alie- num servitium et dominationem sibi concupivit ut non eadem ista vocabula usurparet." — Tac. t When the Republican armies first invaded Italy, they were preceded by tricoloured flags, inscribed with the pompous words of Liberty and Equality. The grateful Italians thought that the day was finally arrived, when property and ranks were to be distributed in equal shares ; and that they had acquired the liberty of doing whatever they pleased. They accordingly indulged in all kinds of excesses, which the sword of the law being unable to repress, produced a general overthrow of public iV INTRODUCTION. A few privileged families, privileged in doing mis- chief, have succeeded in not only recruiting to their banners some of the most illustrious individuals, both in parliament and out, but have even trespassed on the manner of government, and gained the support of some of the leading ministers. Threats have been held out, of a separation of the sister island from the British empire ; of the determined inten- tion of the Irish to refuse the King the assistance of their arms and of their fortunes, in case of war; and lastly, of spreading the infection of disloyalty to the rest of the Catholics of England. The Tribunes of Rome, in like manner, tried to overawe the Senate and the Consuls into the adoption of the Agrarian Law, not only by threatening the horrors of a civil war and desertion to the enemy : but, in the moments of the utmost peril, when Rome was besieged by powerful armies, they actually forced the people to withdraw to the sacred mount, and thus deprive the republic of their necessary aid. And what did the Consuls and the Senate do in that eventful emergency? Did they in treat ? — No. Did they negotiate ? — No. Did they make concessions ? — No ! They preserved the stern dignity of magistrates, and merely pointed out to the deluded multitude the post which their duty called them to. Danger soon reconciled them to the interests of the Senate, which were their own ; and morality. In like manner the Irishj who have interpreted Emancipation as an absolution from all social shackles^, have let loose all the ties of morality and religion^ and literally transformed their fine island into a field of war. Thanks to their ignorant demagogues ! INTRODUCTION. V the fable of the stomach rebelling from the rest of the body, and finally returning to its organic duties, was thus exemplified in the revival of national patriotism, lulled into inactivity by the intrigues of demagogues, but not ultimately extinguished. Thus far I have brought into contact the two most extraordinary specimens of popular delu- sion, and of the pernicious influence of crafty ad- visers, that ancient and modern history records. Many years have elapsed since this mischievous Ca- tholic Emancipation was first mentioned, and for as many years have the calamities of Ireland been on a gradual increase. In vain has the coalesced wisdom of the legislative and the executive ex- hausted itself in devising the means of putting a stop to this unnatural state of national irritation ; like the sea agitated by winds, Ireland has op- posed resistance to aU the measures of government. The disabilities under which the Catholics labour, have been made the theme of the violent censures of their supporters, and of the anxious solicitude of the true friends of Ireland. The one party has loudly exclaimed against any undue exclusion of the Catholics from the privileges which the Constitution of England confers on all Englishmen ; urging the undeniable right that all men possess of worshipping God in the manner most congenial to the feelings of their consciences : while the other has, with be- coming firmness, contended that the implicit obe- dience which the Catholics pay, in all matters, to the Pope, is irreconcilable with the supremacy over all religions and sects, which the Constitution has VI INTRODUCTION. vested in the King. The conflict between the two parties has been protracted, not only by the obsti- nate dogmatism of the Catholics, and (through their leaders) by the baneful influence of the Court of Rome, but chiefly by the wrong source to which government has traced the evils which afflict Ireland. The Irish are a very lively nation, extremely vola- tile and ignorant, and second to no other nation in vanity. Like the people of southern countries, their imaginations delight in the romantic and marvellous, and spurn at the sober notions of evidence and reality. A religion, therefore, resting on surmises and miracles, and singularly rich in theatrical effect, was more calculated to lay hold of the restless minds of such a people, than any other sect, solely supported by a few plain rules of morality, and recommended by no external display of magnificence and pomp.* Thus the Irish became strongly attached to the Ca- tholic religion, not only from a similarity in their feelings, and from a mutual sympathy, but from that reverence which ignorant minds feel for objects much above the sphere of their comprehension. As long as the presence of a parliament (Irish in its composition, in its discussions, in its measures,) and the bustle resulting from the conflict of so many local interests, gave occupation to the vanity of the Irish, religious fanaticism was solely confined to the passive class of the people. But when, by the bold * " Une religion chargee de beaucoup des pratiques attache plus a elle qu'une autre qui Test moins: on tient beaucoup aux choses dont on est continuellement occupes." — Montesq. Esprit des LoLvy liv. 25, chap. ii. INTRODUCTION. VU act of the Union, Ireland had lost that independence for which she had, during so many centuries, con- tended, and was degraded into a province of a rival kingdom, governed by a lieutenant, and by English magistrates ; when, partly called by parliamentary duties, and partly by the contracted habits of bask- ing in the sun of grandeur, the Irish nobility and the rich tenantry came to England, and left their own country widowed in luxury, rapidly decaying in arts, and altogether threatening a political dissolu- tion, the irritated minds of the Irish became an easy prey to certain seditious characters, who sought, in the introduction of a new sort of national dissen- sion, to recover that consequence, and that road to riches, which they had lost in the subversion of the local government. They, therefore, touched the two most sensitive springs of national resentment, wound- ed pride and religious superstition ; and the vibra- tion did certainly correspond with the degree of pressure they received. They represented to the people, that the extinction of their national privi- leges was a continuation of those systems of relent- less despotism and unnatural cruelty, to which, since the introduction of Protestantism in England, they were made subject, as a punishment for their faithful adherence to the religion of their ancestors. They painted in gloomy colours the evils to which the measures lately adopted by the Parliament of Eng- land, were likely to give rise, and concluded by calling upon the nation to assert its political rights, by urging the Emancipation from religious disabilities, which alone could enable them efficiently to protect viii INTRODUCTION. their own interests, by sharing in the administration of the whole Empire. This language, spoken with Irish enthusiasm to Irish minds, soon gave rise to that wretched state of misery and protracted hos- tilities which we have witnessed, and do witness every day. Thus the people, hurried on by their leaders to all sorts of excesses, soon lost their habits of industry and sobriety ; and, under the direction of the alle- gorical but sanguinary Captain Rock, surpassed the fanaticism and the cruelties of the Crusaders.* To these, and no other causes, we owe that rapid relaxa- tion in the energies of the lively Irish, and that in- crease of vis inei^tice which pervades the frame of that interesting nation, and cramps its vitality. From the evidence at different times given before a Committee of both Houses, by men of all parties, warmly in the interest of Ireland, it has been proved, J,, that religious disputes are not the cause, but the ^^ effects, of that moral disease, under which she labours ; and that the germs of that disease lie in a * A regular system of hostilities against, and challenge to, the authority of government, was adopted (and which had lately in- creased to an alarming extent) by associations all over Ireland, consisting of the most leading characters among the nobility, gentry, lawyers, and even among the clergy ; and these associa- tions, which very imprudently have assumed the obnoxious name of Catholics, are governed by that spirit of violent fanaticism and dark superstition, which formed one of the disgusting fea- tures of the middle age, and which is a complete contradiction to the mild religion of the Gospel, for which those champions of sedition pretend to struggle. And such has been the pernicious tendency of the doctrines broached by those Amphictyons of Ireland, and such the animosity with which they have asserted them, as to call for the prompt interference of the legislature, which, very properly, has dissolved them. INTRODUCTION. IX general decay of her system, in the want of harmony among the people, in the pernicious rage for Absen- teeism so perseveringly indulged in by the nobility and by men of fortune,* and, above every thing, in the absolute want of education. It is not my task to travel through the labyrinth of those voluminous parliamentary reports, and at- tempt to unravel the contradictory opinions, with which the world is but too well acquainted. But as a preliminary, or rather, as an auxiliary step. Govern- ment should strain all its nerves in order to encou- rage education, and dispel that brutal ignorance so ^ zealously inculcated by the Catholic Religion, and in my opinion the chief cause of the misfortunes of Ireland. And if the advantages of disseminating education among nations did stand in need of illus- tration, we might safely find them among the Scotch, a people to whom no other people in the world are superior for popular education. Some of our ministers, among whom stands prominent the illustrious individual at the head of the foreign de- partment, have so far imbibed the spirit of the leaders of the Catholics, as to urge Emancipation as the only measure, which, not unlike Hohenlohe's miracles, can work the speedy cure of diseased Ireland. f They * It appears from the registers kept at the Prefecture of the Police, that there are at this time (18th Nov. 1825), thirty thou- sand natives of England and Ireland in Paris. t This absurd coalition of some of the ministers and staunch Protestants with the leaders of the Irish Catholics appears to me to be an identical reproduction of the confederacy of the violent Puritans with the no less violent Papists of Scotland ii^ ' the year 1680. The result can be easily anticipated ! X INTRODUCTION. recommend this concession to Catholics, not as an act of clemency, but as an act of justice, and con- sequently as an atonement for injuries committed by the present and the preceding governments ; and moreover, as the only measure which can prevent the seeds of discontent from ripening into national re- bellion, and ultimately causing the loss of that most interesting island. No man appreciates more than I do, the splendid talents of the right honourable secretary, and the eminent services which he has lately rendered to the sacred cause of liberty, by snatching with one hand, from the grasp of the Holy Alliance, the stolen sceptre of autocracy, and by raising, with the other, to the rank of nations, the heroic people of South America.* But my faith in that great statesman's opinions is not so far tinged with fanaticism as to suppose them infallible. As a man he is liable to err ; and I apprehend that the truth of this remark is completely borne out, by the recollection of the over-rated value which he set on the purity of the morals of an illustrious female, many years since deceased.f The ingenious biogra- * My opinion of Mr. Canning's extraordinary genius is not an echo of the praises daily lavished on the altar of ministerial power, but a most intimate and disinterested conviction of that great statesman's transcendant abilities. He is the enemy of half measures, of hesitations, of delays. His plans strike like thunder the object immediately in view, and his thoughts boldly poach on the manors of futurity. He is not the man of Down- ing Street, but the man of posterity. t The purity of the snow of that lady's virtue proved, on an accurate analysis, to be of the same species as that described by the intrepid Parry, (and of which he brought a specimen from INTRODUCTION. XI pher of Captain Rock, with a studied deviation from the philosophical principle of tracing to the general nature of man the episodic events of a nation, has embodied, in the life of that allegorical assassin, a summary of the sufferings of the Irish people, and studiously unconnected them with the causes which have given rise to them. And in this manner he has presented us with a picture destitute of truth, because deficient in shades. In the witty pages of that eccentric book, we see chronicled the misfortunes of Ireland, as wantonly inflicted by the bigoted persecutors of Catholicism ; but we do not equally perceive upon what principles those hosti- lities against it have commenced : namely, whether from the sacred right of retaliation, or otherwise. The old precept of audi alteram partem, which ought to be the guide of an historian, has been purposely disregarded by that Irish writer ; who, throwing the whole blame on the side of the Protestants, has con- trived to hold up to the commiserating feelings of mankind, a nation groaning under the most obdurate tyranny. But he has neglected to tell us that the Irish are the most ignorant people in Europe, be- cause they are under the influence of a religion which strictly forbids instruction ; that, for these same motives, they are excessively addicted to cru- elty, and no less fond of rioting both at home and abroad;* that when their religion (unfortunately the Northern Regions,) which was found to possess any other prerogative but whiteness. * The riots and murders which are continually committed in St. Giles's, Whitechapel, and the other quarters of London chiefly XU INTRODUCTION. for humanity) was under the shelter of royal favour, and they could thus unbridle their appetites for revenge, they emulated, and even surpassed, the cruelties and bloody deeds of the most bigoted Ca- tholic people in the world ; that, by their recent destruction by fire of the numerous Shea family, they have thrown into shade the autos da fe of Spain and Portugal, and the massacres of St. Bar- tholomew — because those were effects of the cruel superstition of governments, whereas the others are ebullitions of popular resentment. That the weapon so dexterously and so effectively handled by the pre- ceding and the present Captain Rock, is the same instrument of revenge which, like Tieste's dagger, or Sixtus IV.'s knife, has, for ages, been transmitted as a sacred inheritance by one family to another. These and many other precedents of the brutal cruelty of the Irish Catholics, ought to have been frankly avowed by the biographer of Sheridan ; and in extenuation of such sanguinary proceedings, he might have pleaded the ignorance of the people, who are become the passive instruments of a few cunning demagogues, as much alive to the progress of their personal interest, as callous to the sufferings of their misguided victims. Against such an agonizing state of ignorance, the real source of the misfortunes of Ireland, he should have pointed the arrows of his powerful mind, and strongly enforced the necessity of a national education ; and, by adverting not only inhabited by Irish, are a sad but true illustration of this as- sertion. INTRODUCTION. XUI to himself, but to that galaxy of illustrious charac- ters, both living and dead, who reflect such effulgent brilliancy upon the mental firmament of Ireland, he would have at once shown the undeniable advan- tage of such education, if applied to the Irish. Thus, by analyzing the principles of the moral dis- ease of his country, he would have proved himself skilfully prominent in the anatomy of philosophy ; whereas, by taking up in a lump the grievances of his countrymen, and pointing out the nostrum of Emancipation as a thorough and expeditious cure, he has displayed the self-sufficiency of a quack doctor. To point out the seat and quality of the disease, and suggest the remedies, is the office of a learned and prudent pliysician, but what shall we say of a doctor, who, by the application of strong stimulants to the wounded limb, increases the irri- tation, and thus paves the way for a mortification ? Much obloquy has been cast on an illustrious branch of the royal family, who, by a timely and spirited declaration of his religious and political principles, has anticipated the knowledge of his future conduct, when, some day or other, he shall be called to rule the sceptre of this mighty empire. To men who set a value upon the hypocrisy of the King of Spain, and of the late King of Naples, who treacherously destroyed, with the constitution they had sworn to, its most illustrious supporters, the courageous decla- ration of the Duke of York (and courageous indeed it was) must appear an excess of imprudence and of illiberality. But for those enlightened minds, who, even more than the shining endowments of genius. XIV INTRODUCTION. appreciate in a prince a steady consistency of cha- racter, the honest, though perhaps too open, conduct of the heir-apparent to a constitutional crown, must prove a source of sincere satisfaction and a guarantee for future security. The most celebrated philoso- phers and steady supporters of popular rights, have unequivocally asserted the principle that a king, or chief of a nation, is, by the duties of his station, bound to maintain, by all means in his power, un- impaired, the religion of the state, and repress any attempt to diminish its influence.* The late King of Sardinia, when requested by his subjects to sanction with his oath the constitution which they had given themselves, replied, that had he not been forced by the Holy Alliance to take a previous oath that he never would suffer the existence of a con- stitution in his kingdom, he would unhesitatingly accede to a measure which, both in its principles and in its connexion with the spirit of the age, was in unison with his own wishes ; but that, situated as his conscience was, rather than perjure himself, he would abdicate : — and abdicate he did. Peace to his illustrious memory ! — Napoleon, after having repeat- edly infringed the oath which he had taken to the * Vidje Grotius, de Imperio Summarium Potestatum circa Sacra, et PuffendorfF, le Droit de la Nature & des Gens, livre vii. cli. iv. Sect. 11. — " Le prince, le conducteur, h. qui Ja nation a confix le soin du gouvernement, et I'exercice du souverain pou- voir, est oblige de veiller a la conservation de la religion repue, du culte etabli par les loix, et en droit de reprimer ceux qui entreprennent de les d^truire ou de les troubler."— F«//e/, le Droit des Gens, livre i. chap. xii. INTRODUCTION. XV * Republican Government of France, and caused him- self to be appointed Emperor, — on his return from Elba, swore again that he would give a constitution to his subjects, and again scandalously broke this new oath in the Champs de Mai. Posterity will not hesitate in giving a distinguished place, for con- sistency of principles, in the records of history, to either of those two so much opposed characters. The late majority in the House of Commons in fa- vour of Emancipation, is triumphantly quoted by the friends to that measure, as an epitome of the sentiments of the English nation at large. But, without alluding to the construction and quality of such majority, and to the springs which have set it in motion, I must be permitted to observe that, in a free country like England, where the suffrages by which the people confer a dignity on the aspiring candidate, are in many instances obtained through manoeuvres, family connexions, and above all through money ;* people are often raised to the rank of se- nators, who have not even gone through the or- deal of an ordinary education ; — That, therefore, * Si fortuna volet, iies de rethore consul. Si volet liaec eadem, lies de consule rethor. Juven. vii. vers. 197. The instances of linen-drapers, brewers, bakers, ironmongers, farmers, and other successful tradesmen, raised by the favour of fortune to the dignity of senators, are not scarce ; and those individuals to whom, from the assiduity they have given to bu- siness, we are entitled to presume that the ledger is more familiar than the works of Demosthenes or Cicero, are, in my opinion, incompetent judges of the rights of the Catholics, and of the dangers of emancipating them. C xvi inI'roduction. to those individuals, who, like the cynic who despised riches, undervalue the splendid ore of Messrs. Can- ning's and Brougham's eloquence, the subject of Emancipation must unquestionably prove unintel- ligible in all its details, especially with reference to its connexion with political institutions* Those individuals, who, like men labouring under blindness, are afraid of venturing in the thorny path of contro- versy, must be contented with the power of approv- ing and disapproving ; and this right of denegation, or approbation, is often governed by the thermo- meter of family connexions and parliamentary in- terests. In the momentuous question of Catholic Emancipation, a new accession of supporters is added to the friends of the measure, consisting not only of the Irish members, but of members connected by a variety of interests with Catholic families.f It is from a conviction that the greatest part of the supporters of Emancipation are wholly unacquainted with the history of the Catholic religion, especially with reference to the baneful effects which it has produced on the liberty and happiness of mankind, that, in writing these few observations, I have thought * I have often read in the Reports of Parliamentary Debates, Honourable Members complaining that the question at issue was above the sphere of their comprehension ; and that the Latin quotations were unintelligible to them ; for which reason they re- quested the Honourable Member on his legs to discontinue them, t This love of brotherhood, or, to use a military term, this esprit du corps j is no where so rigid, and so pertinaciously en- forced, as among the Catholics of Ireland, from the generalissimo O'C 11, down to the drum-major C 1. INTRODUCTION. XVli proper to give a rapid but faithful sketch of the rise and progress of Catholicism, and of the changes which it has brought in the social habits of man- kind : and in so doing, I beg distinctly to disclaim the least intention of making a vain parade of a stale erudition, which, I am aware, is an exotic in- gredient in the texture of an argument. My book is, moreover, intended for the instruction of those nations who groan under papal despotism, and who, from the want of a proper notion of the religious history of that sect, do not attempt to relieve their minds from the bondage of superstition. But before I close this introduction, I feel disposed to go more deeply into the popular topic of Catholic Emanci- pation, and to try to establish the real causes which* in my opinion, contribute to keep up the irritation of public feeling in Ireland, and perpetuate the miseries of that truly interesting country. That the population of that portion of the kingdom is overabundant, and not proportionate to its resources, is a fact illustrated by the daily emigrations of the lower class, who are forced to expatriate, and seek elsewhere a remedy for their tormenting poverty. Absenteeism, as I have already mentioned, is one of the mightiest causes of that poverty ; since it con- tributes to empty the veins of public prosperity, which luxury and the circulation of property are otherwise calculated to replenish. The oppressive system of tithes, fatally so much disregarded by English statesmen, and so intimately connected with the individual welfare of the Irish, is another active cause of the poverty of that country, and a power- c 2 Xviii INTRODUCTION. ful stimulant of national irritation ; since it is very cruel and very oppressive for the feelings of the dis- qualified Irish, to reflect that the money which is wrested from their purses, and the bread which is torn from their mouths, should be appropriated to increase the comforts of their tyrants, the established clergy : and the bitterness of this remark is mate- rially increased by the consciousness of the fact, that, from the intimacy between church and state, the evil is not susceptible of an easy alteration ; this sys- tem, therefore, should have the early attention of government. But it is not only distress and poverty which fill the volatile, exasperated minds of the Irish with the gall of revenge; it is that impolitic and ill-designed pride, which the Protestants, on every occasion, study to display towards the Catholics ; it is the obnoxious Orangeism, which adds fuel to the already burning feelings of a people conscious of groaning under humiliations and poverty. Let the wretched statue of William III. be pulled down ; let those repeated exhibitions of idolatry towards the memory of a king who consented to become a staunch Protestant merely from motives of interest, be discontinued ; let those yearly masquerades, and those indecent performances round the idol, be for ever abolished ; let the name of Protestant be sub- stituted for that of Orangeist, and let, in short, every cause of irritation and discontent be removed from the morbid minds of the Irish. Poverty proves often an easier burthen for the mind than humiliation; and many a man may compound with want, but be inflexible against shame. To an individual, therefore, INTRODUCTION. XIX conscious of being covered with the livery of servi- tude, the repeated sarcasms and cruel boasts of his oppressors must prove an everlasting source of irrita- tion.* But it is not only private vexations which bear heavily on the minds of the Irish ; it is those cruel ordinances, the restoration of an obsolete statute, quite at variance with the nature of our modern insti- tutions, which create discontent and feed revenge.f * " With that class of Protestants I confess that I am unable to deal. Their prejudices, I must be allowed to say, are not such as to be counteracted by any progress of reasoning." Letter to the Duke of Norfolk , by Wilmot Horton, Esq. M. P. p. 13. The Protestant clergy ought to be peremptorily commanded to pay more attention to the precepts of the gospel, and become the instruments of peace, instead of being the firebrands of dis- cord. f The following is a specimen of the cruelty of some laws in Ireland affecting private property, the baneful effects of which not even unrestrained Emancipation could counteract. " The following letter, written by a private gentleman from Waterford, is, perhaps, not unworthy of notice, as it shows how safely the law can be vigorously executed, even in the most wild and remote parts of the country : — * The mountain district of Slivegrine was claimed some time since by Mr. Stewart, as part of his inheritance, and an eject- ment on the title was brought by that gentleman against a per- son of the name of Farrell, and others. The case was tried at last Waterford Assizes ; and after a long investigation there was a verdict for Mr. Stewart. The habere to take possession, was issued; and on Thursday last the High Sheriff proceeded to execute the writ. On repairing to the mountain, the Sheriff, who had a strong party to support him on this dangerous duty, perceived that the people of the neighbourhood were drawn up as if to make resistance ; and certainly resistance might have been well expected from those who had their homes, their fields, the cultivation of their lands — in a word, their all to fight for. XX INTRODUCTION. To pretend to render palatable to every age, to every people, to every circumstance, those laws which were framed for other times, for other nations, for other eras, is an anomaly in political wisdom. The Irish nation, so much differing in constitutional tem- per, in manners, in passions, from the sober Scots and the grave Englishmen, should be governed by local laws, quite different from those which rule these latter, and more in harmony with their own charac- ter. The idea of educating Catholics and Protestants in the same school, and under teachers of their own religion, is an absurd plan ; as it powerfully tends to keep up the spirit of discord and re-invigorate re- ligious animosities, by maintaining in constant col- lision the jarring opinions of the two parties.* It is like an area, where factions are instructed and But as the Sheriff approached, the line broke asunder, and all notion of resistance to the laws was given up. The Sheriff then proceeded to execute the writ — it was a painful duty. There wer several houses, some comparatively comfortable, built upon the mountain. The lands were cultivated — the fields were sown with corn and with potatoes, and their gardens were planted. The Sheriff, according to the orders which he had received, razed the houses to the ground, demolished the fences, and ploughed up the land; thus turning the whole into a naked common. This proceeding could not be witnessed without some feeling of sympathy for the unfortunate men, who were thus rendered house- less and their families desolate; but it is but just to add that they resisted a clear case of right, and that Mr. Stewart has not taken the land to his own use, but has thrown the whole open for the benefit of the people who have a common right to the mountain." * See the Speech delivered by the Rev. E. Irvine, at the London, Hibernian Society in Free-Masons' Hall. INTRODUCTION. XXl drilled for future achievements in much wider fields. After having, therefore, improved the condition of the suffering Irish, by a well-directed and judicious emi- gration to healthy colonies, and by the removal of those taxes which immediately weigh on the needy class ; after having adopted permanent and well-dis- cussed measures for the improvement of agriculture, especially by the seasonable supplies of capital ; after having raised on absentees heavy fines, and appro- priated them to the local amelioration of the island ; after having finally secured an equal distribution of justice, without reference to parties or religion, let the formidable unconditional Emancipation, arrayed in the awful pomp of sedition, come forward : the people, revelling in a comparative state of luxury, and grate- ful for the friendly affection of government, will turn a deaf ear to the treasonable exhortations of their leaders, and consign them to well-deserved obscurity, and no less merited punishment. But as long as the Protestants shall be permitted to insult the wounded pride of the Irish Catholics, as long as the scales of justice shall be influenced by politi- cal and religious considerations, as long as taxes shall be indiscriminately levied upon those who en- joy national privileges and immunities, and those who are debarred from them — the Irish will be in- duced to seek redress under the banners of sedition ; or, to speak more plainly, of unconditional Eman- cipation. No ! Ireland is no longer under the con- stitutional sway of the British monarch ; she is virtually governed by a sanguinary junto of de- cemvirs, who, after having upset the majestic XXll INTRODUCTION. temple of the laws, wield the sword of destruction against those who oppose their designs, and fill their ordinances with Syllan proscriptions.'^ It is under the illusory badge of unconditional Emancipation, that the Irish (as we have already observed) have extinguished in their minds the lights of reason ; inflamed their passions with the firebrand of fana- ticism ; filled their hearts with the poison of revenge : as in Corsica and Sardinia, this execrable right of revenge is transmitted from fathers to sons as the * " At the Catholic Meeting in Dublin, on Wednesday last, Mr. Shiel described, in strong language certainly, but in lan- guage justified by events, the force of the revolutionary move- ment which has taken place in Ireland. ' It is not with any feeling of shame that I confess, but I own with a lofty pride, that we have kindled this great, wide — this extensive flame, which envelopes the country. We have applied the torch which has set the popular passions on fire, [^cheers.] Let them, if they will, snatch the torch from our hands — let them take from us the means of exciting the na- tional mind — let them pass Catholic Emancipation, [cheers.] It is from the penal code that all our power is derived. We draw our political influence from those passions which the sys- tem of disqualification has prepared, and which it requires so little art to kindle. The agitators, the incendiaries, or what- ever else they please to term the men who have manifested such an indefatigable zeal, and such an indefatigable alacrity in the work of national excitement, would be flung into instantaneous insignificance, and be not only deprived of the faculty, but be cured of the inclination, of rousing the passions of the people. Catholic Emancipation will sentence every demagogue to poli- tical annihilation. But if the legislature have not the wisdom to see this, and persevere in the system of disqualification, which has had the efi«ct of marshalling and confederating seven mil- lions of the Irish people, the consequence will be, that instead of confirming the ascendancy of the Protestant, the superiority of INTRODUCTION. XXlU palladium of national happiness.* Amidst this state of general ferment, of anarchy, of forgetfulness of all social duties, the leaders of the Catholics have un- furled the standard of Emancipation, and, no longer willing to conciliate the interests of the Irish with the safety of the British Empire, encroach upon fu- the Catholic will be ultimately produced. We shall be masters of the Representation of Ireland /' " See Morn. Chron. July 10. * This picture is not at all overcharged with colours ; the following few instances, which I have selected from among a crowd of facts, will bear me out in my assertion : — '^ On Friday last, Lord Forbes, accompanied by a friend, went to dine at Lord Westmeath's, and was waylaid by a mob of several hundred persons on his return home, who commenced a furious attack, by throwing stones and other missiles at his Lordship, who was driving in an open gig. He was ultimately compelled to seek protection in the demesne of Richard Levinge, the wall of which he was obliged to scale, and from thence find his way across the country to his own home, as it was impos- sible for him again to venture on the road, which was narrow, and literally lined with his savage and blood-thirsty assassins. The only cause which can be assigned for this brutal and un- grateful outrage is, the fact of his having given some of his second votes to a Protestant candidate ! Emancipate these fine fellows, my Lord Forbes — by all means emancipate them ! They deserve to have a participation in all the privileges of the Pro- testant Constitution." — Dublin Mail. — Times, 8th July, 1826. " A Roman Catholic clergyman has been compelled to abandon his parish in the county of Clare, and must eventually fly the country, for uniting in marriage a Catholic and a Protestant, within the last month. Informations have been sworn, and a warrant issued for this infringement of an old penal statute." — Limerick Chronicle. "Mr. Mahon's impeachment comes on to-day ; he is to be tried for having pronounced a speech which proved displeasing to Mr. O'Connell; an ofl^ence, doubtless, of a very grave nature, and which it may prove dangerous to overlook." — Courier, 9th June. XXIV INTRODUCTION. ture events, and dare even dictate the conditions upon which they will condescend to receive the long-con- tested boon. They have boldly declared, that they will not accept Emancipation, unless it is united with the forty-shilling freehold ; that is to say, with the right of intrusting the election to the rabble, who will readily sell themselves to the perfidious agents of Rome, and to the emissaries of the Holy Alliance.* And can ministers really consent to capitulate with an infuriated mob, and thus surrender into their hands the noble monument of human wisdom, — the constitution ? And can they think of trusting into the power of the fanatical myrmidons of Rome the Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, and the Habeas Corpus, which, under the abominable Stuarts, it has been the constant effort of the Popes to destroy ? Can they lend themselves to fill Parliament with a majority of Catholics, who will speedily undermine the safety of the British empire ? And have they so soon forgotten the scandalous intrigues of the election of the county of Waterford, and the per- severing and successful exertions of the Catholic clergy during the last electioneering contests ? No ! no! this is not the time to make concessions to Ca- tholics : this is not the time to open the portal of Parliament to an infuriated mob of Papists, while the stern, bigoted Leo XII. governs Catholic minds with the iron sceptre of Innocent III. and Boniface VIII. No ! no ! my voice shall not be put down by * See Mr. O'Connell's letter to the Catholics of Ireland, on the subject of the collection of another rent, to reward the forty- shilling freeholders. INTRODUCTION. XXV the clamours of the factious or the casuistry of states- men. I boldly maintain, that if ministers grant to the Catholics Emancipation without strong permanent securities, they sign the death-warrant of the liberty of England, and of the whole world, to which she has always been the intrepid leader, in the struggles for independence. The friends of the Catholics urge, in support of their claims to Emancipation, the many securities offered by them at different times, in the vague, indefinite, shapeless declarations made by their most eminent leaders, the tendency of which is to lull the vigilance of government into a fatal security, and dazzle the minds of the Protestants with a false splendour of generosity. Of all the numerous writers, who, since the fatal moment that this measure was first agitated, have entered the lists of controversy, none in my opinion has deserved more credit than Mr. R. Wilmot Horton, in his two letters addressed to the Duke of Norfolk and to the electors of Newcastle-under-Lyne. The spirit of conciliation which those eloquent pages breathe, clearly betrays the embarrassment of their author in trying to reconcile interests, in his own belief too much jarring to be susceptible of amalgamation, since the question is simply reduced to this point — whether it would be expedient for the dignity of the Protestant Religion and the security of the con- stitution, to admit the Catholics in Parliament with- out exacting from them strong and durable guaran- tees, which would set at nought the despotic influence of the Court of Rome ; and whether such concessions on the part of the Catholics would be consistent XXvi INTRODUCTION. with the doctrines they so perseveringly maintain. The strenuous efforts of the leaders of the Catholics have, therefore, been to evade this question, and way- lay the minds of their antagonists into a labyrinth of casuistry and sophism, from which they could not possibly extricate themselves. In the year 1817, Mr. Grattan, the steady champion of the privileges of Ireland, delivered in Parliament a speech of which the following is the principal feature — " With re- spect to safeguards, I think it is clear that there is no man, when he procures rights which he considers inestimable, that ought not to give you those se- curities which, while they do not trench on the Catholic Church, afford strength and safety to the Protestant religion." With all due deference for the merits of that great orator, I must be permitted to quahfy his speech, delivered in a cause, of the injustice of which I have no doubt he was aware, as a verbose, ill-weaved, texture of paradox. For what could be those securities " which afford strength and safety to the Protestant religion, without trenching on the Ca- tholic Church?" Is it the disclaiming of Popish supremacy in temporal matters? Is it the volun- tary renunciation of the Canon Law ? Is it the rejec- tion of the detestable Bulls In Coena Domini and Unam Sanctam, that constitute those securities ? That excellent scholar and upright senator, Sir Fran- cis Burdett, than whom there does not exist a more consistent character perhaps in the whole world, in- troduced some time ago a Bill, which, without sti- pulating in a clear, definite manner for the interests INTRODUCTION. XXVll of Protestants, v/ent a great deal farther than any- other preceding measure proposed in Parliament ; and if a Catholic should conscientiously take the oath in the manner prescribed by that Bill, the Pro- testant, according to Mr. Horton, would have every security that he could reasonably require.* But this Bill, which might, through calm discussions and cool analyses, have undergone considerable improve- ment, and been, perhaps, brought to the level of the pretensions of the two opposite interests, was re- ceived by the one with distrust, and by the other with ingratitude ; and whenever the Catholics have been challenged to confute the arguments of their antagonists by the dignity of reason, they have invoked the aid of Captain Rock, and answered them by murders, assassinations, and plunder s.f They do not want to gain this long-contended boon by persuasions, but they wish to wrest it from the Protestants by violence and threats. Mi'. Horton, in his letter addressed, the 4th October of, last year, to his constituents, enumerates the many disabili- ties which have been removed from the Catholics under the reign of George III., and endeavours to prove that almost the sole concessions to be made now to them are the privilege of sitting in Parlia- * Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, p. 1 7- + " Those gentlemen have satisfied their own judgments, that the true mode of accomplishing the object of Catholic Eman- cipation is to ransack the English language for expressions of contempt, of menace, and of revengeful feelings, instead of applying to it for terms of dignified conciliation, and of calm and reasonable remonstrance." — Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, p» 16. XXviii INTRODUCTION. ment, and of becoming eligible to a few designated offices. I am unable to appreciate the tendency of that gentleman's remark, which may, however, be construed in two different ways ; namely, of ex- horting the Catholics to rest upon their glorious laurels, and of persuading the Protestants to add to the many important concessions already made, the apple of national discord, Catholic Emancipation. But have the stubborn Catholics advanced a single step towards reconciliation ? Have they, in any in- stance, deviated from the cruel legislation of Rome ? No : they are now as firm in upholding their claims against the Protestants, as they were on the first onset of this ill-ominous Emancipation. The ser- mon preached at the dedication of the Roman Ca- tholic Chapel at Bradford, on the 27th July, 1825, by Doctor Baines, Bishop of Siga, is certainly a monument of Christian meekness and religious re- signation : but he does not in any way tend to advance the cause of Catholic Emancipation, by exhorting his flock to consult the spirit of the age and the interests of the British empire, by sur- rendering on the altar of domestic harmony, a few obsolete doctrines, equally opposite to the morals of the Gospel and to the cause of justice. The worthy Bishop, whose mild eloquence seems to have raised the sympathy of the writer of the letter to which I have alluded, labours to justify the absurd tenets of the Court of Rome, and establish in this manner the justice of the claims of the Catholics. The argument to which he has resorted, in order to sanction the improper use which the Church of INTRODUCTION. Xxix Rome makes of the Latin in her liturgy, is very amusing, and may be condensed in the following remark : " that the Church did not think proper to alter the languages she had ever used in the cele- bration of the holy sacrifices." The parallel which the reverend doctor has drawn of the Catholic and Protestant religions is very striking ; since he, bona Jide, maintains that they profess the same doctrines, and worship the same God, whilst they inculcate, in a like manner, universal charity and fraternal love. But has the Bishop of Siga forgotten the In- quisition, the Autos da fe, the St. Bartholomew, and the Barricades ? The Doctor's attempts to jus- tify proselytism, on the score of the perfection of the Catholic religion, is a total failure ; and I must beg leave to refer him to Leo XII., the Jesuits, and Fer- dinand VII. But the most unsuccessful of that reve- rend gentleman's remarks is his astonishment when he reflects " on the misrepresentations of the Catho- lic religion, which so universally prevail in this country ;" and as I am convinced that the reverend orator was led astray by the tide of his ideas, and for a moment lost sight of the beacon of reason, I shall take leave of him, especially as his sermon does not contain any allusion to the political state of this country, and shall say a few words on the declara- tion of the Catholic Bishops, the Vicars Apostolic, and their coadjutor's in Great Britain. This docu- ment, which has been so pompously ushered into the world, and so studiously circulated, is written in the style of the gloomiest despotism of Rome, and for its self-sufficiency, the dogmatism of its doctrines, and XXX INTRODUCTION. the despotism of its assertions, ought alone to be sufficient to inspire the Protestants with a salutary terror of, and an unconquerable aversion to, any compromise with the worshippers of the Church of Rome. After making the analysis of the principal doctrines of that religion, and identifying them with the morals of the Gospel, and the primitive institu- tions of Christianity ; after having attempted to trace the omnipotence of the Pope to the all-ruling authority of God ; after having eulogised the Canon Law, and the many profligate ordinances of the pon- tiffs, the tendency of which, as I shall prove in the course of this work, is to establish an universal domi- nion all over the world, and to enforce a relentless spirit of persecution against dissenters ; — the bishops who have signed that extraordinary document, con- clude by the following ludicrous declaration :— " Bri- tish Catholics have solemnly sworn that they reject and detest that unchristian and impious principle, that faith is not to be kept with heretics or infidels." They likewise distinctly declare, " That neither the Pope, nor any other prelate, or ecclesiastical person of the Roman Catholic Church, has, in virtue of his spiritual or ecclesiastical character, any right, directly or indirectly, to any civil or temporal jurisdiction ;'* thus virtually stripping the Pope of his universal authority in all temporal matters. This declaration of the bishops, which, if it were sincere and sponta- neous, might, notwithstanding its absurdities, be construed into a spirited and resolute determination to shake off the degrading bondage of Rome, might serve as a preliminary to an everlasting treaty of INTRODUCTION. XXXI peace with the Catholics and their brothers the Pro- testants. But, after the resolute and bold defence which they have made of the doctrines of the Catholic religion, this declaration, which entirely clashes with the professed tenets of that Church, must be received with caution, and looked upon as only a temporary concession to the determined firmness of the Pro- testants. The contradictions are too palpable not to raise a suspicion in our minds, that this is one of the usual schemes of the Catholics to gain their point, by assuming, for the moment, a spurious humility, which they condemn in their hearts. If they sin- cerely deny the Pope the right of interfering in tem- poral objects, there is an end to their allegiance to the Church of Rome, and they become ipso facto Pro- testants. " The address from the British Roman Catholics to their Protestant fellow-countrymen" is written in the same spirit as the Declaration of the Catholic Bishops ; and after trying to justify the tenets of the Church of Rome, and the spirit of in- tolerance by which she is governed, they draw the anomalous inference, that " the principles of religious liberty are fully as well practised in Catholic as in Protestant states." Without dwelling any longer on the want of consistency between the tenets so strongly supported by the Catholics, and their allegiance to the temporal power of the king, I am willing to conciliate these jarring interests, and put the sincerity of the decla- ration of the bishops and the nobility to an unequi- vocal test. Let the Catholic clergy, and the heads ' • d XXxil INTRODUCTION. of the aristocracy form themselves into a synod, and distinctly and unequivocally admit the following principles, which are conformable to those professed by them in the two documents alluded to : — 1. That they acknowledge the Pope simply as their spiritual chief. 2. That they reject and disavow the jurisdiction hitherto maintained by the Church of Rome upon temporal matters. 3. That they repel, as insidious, and subversive of the laws of society, and of the duties of faithful subjects, the canon laws, the bulls, and the other ordinances, promulgated at different times by the Pontiffs, all tending to relieve them from the oath of allegiance they may take, or have taken, to their government. 4. That they look upon dissenters as their own brethren, and pot in any circumstance, or by any bull or mandate of the Pope's, deserving their indig- nation, and much less their persecutions. 5. That they detest and abhor the sanguinary persecutions of Dissenters, which, at different eras of the Catholic church, have been committed, under the special direction of the Popes. 6. That in no circumstance whatsoever they shall infringe the oath which they shall be called upon to take to their government, either as magistrates, pub- lic functionaries, or private individuals. These resolutions, approved by the Catholic sy- nod, they shall not only cause to be read by the curates to their parishioners, every Sunday during the service ; but shall be presented to the Pope as INTRODUCTION. XXXlli the voluntary concession of the Catholics of Great Britain to the spirit of the times and the tranquiUity of the empire. This, in my opinion, is the only measure which can at once cure the long-reigning evil, and restore between the Catholics and the Pro- testants, that sincere confidence which is the bond of the general union of a people subject to the same laws. The expedient is not unreasonable, as it rests on the declarations so often and so pompously made by the Catholic leaders. It is time that an end should be put to casuistry and sophistry ; it is time that the tranquillity of the British empire should cease to be the sport of designing dema- gogues, who, by leading astray the Catholics, labour to erect their fortunes and their names upon the ruins of national prosperity. I am by no means an enemy to the Catholics, and much less to the Irish, for whom I feel a friendship of a quite different na- ture from what their perverse friends feel ; but I know the church of Rome, gentemque togatam, and can foresee the frightful consequences of which a prolonged collision between the Catholics and the Protestants will unavoidably be productive. If the clergy and the nobility decline to act consistently with their repeated declarations, and assemble the synod, government will be justified, not only in the face of the world, but in the face of posterity, in the measures of precaution which they shall be com- pelled to adopt, in order to separate the healthy from the diseased portion of the empire ; and by lending an assiduous and efficient assistance to the miseries and poverty of the Irish, will certainly re- XXXiv INTRODUCTION. store tranqviillity in that beautiful country, in spite of the criminal designs of demagogues and the plots of Papists. The Irish want bread and work, and not Emancipation ; and were they ever favoured with the republican institutions of Lycurgus, they could not appreciate those civil blessings without freeing themselves from that dreadful monster — Want. I have exposed, and shall continue to ex- pose, with courageous firmness, my opinion, without fear of incurring public censure. My conscience is the guide of my actions. I am, however, aware that my independent language will excite the bile of many a person afflicted with the disease of Catholic fanaticism; and should any person do me the honour to criticise my opinions, and call me to account for want of correctness in my historical quotations and religious authorities, I beg distinctly to declare that I shall take no notice of their strictures, being unwilling to imitate the Rev. Mr. Irving,* and enter into " that labyrinth of disputes and contra- dictions, wherein even the most orthodox Jews and Christians have wandered so many ages, and still wander."! Of the literary merits of this work, I have very little to say. It is written by a foreigner, who never submits his productions to the opinion or corrections of others. This foreigner is, moreover, a merchant, who has composed the book during the frightful convulsions of the preceding twelve months, when * Observer, 16th October, 1825. t Bolingbroke's Essay on the Study of History, vol. ii. INTKODUCTION. XXXV private fortunes were threatened with an imminent destruction. I must, therefore, throw myself upon the indulgence of my readers, and intreat them to look at the ore of truths which my book contains, and overlook the manufactory. 33, Stamford Street, Blackfriars, September "Jth, 1826. CONTENTS. re. Cbap. I. Origin of Religion 1 II. Origin of Christianity .... 9 III, Origin and Progress of Popery ; its Usurpations 23 IV. The Crusades 30 V. Indulgences 44 VI. Luther : Origin of the Reformation . . 48 VII. Origin of the Temporal Power of the Popes . 55 VIII. Temporal Power of the Popes, continued . 66 IX. Temporal Power of the Popes, continued . 81 X. Councils 120 XI. Concordats ...... 129 XII. The Jews 135 XIII. Catholic Superstition 161 XIV. BuUs 168 XV. Actual State of the Catholic Religion : Miracles 174 XVI. The Catholic Clergy 192 XVII. Monastic Orders 206 XVIII. Catholic Clergy, continued . . . .217 XIX. Conclusion 222 Appendix of Notes ....... 243 AN ANALYTICAL AND HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION WITH RE¥ERENGfPm^CKR^¥hCX^l!^TlTVT10f^S. ORIGIN OF RELIGION. Religion is that feeling of reverence and grati- tude towards an invisible Being, which man carries in his heart at his birth. It is irresistible, because spontaneous ; it is imperishable, because arising from immortal causes ; and while the gradual deve- lopement of our faculties is unavoidably left to the tutorship of time, Religion, like the chief of the dynasty of our feelings, rises in our bosom in all the vigour of manhood.* Locke admits the possibility of innate ideas only as necessarily connected with the idea of God ; " since it is hard to conceive how there should be innate moral principles without an innate idea of a Deity ."f As soon as the rays of reason begin to beam on our minds, and our faculties acquire the energy of discrimination, we behold * I am aware that I cannot claim English nationality for this sentence, the meaning of which I could not express in all its truth without borrowing foreign expressions. t Book ] , chap. iv. Sect. 8. Itaque inter omnes omnium gentium summa constat : omnibus enim innatum est et in animo quasi insculptum, esse Deos. — Cic. de Nat. Deo7\ lib. 2, cap. iv. B 2 ORIGIN OF RELIGION. with amazement the structure of the universe, the laws by which it is governed, the course of the sea- sons, the presence of the sun and the stars, the miracles of vegetation, the orderly developement of the functions of life, and finally, the end of all that exists — Death. We ask ourselves questions upon questions ; and, unable to trace to any earthly power the origin of so many stupendous works, we are compelled to ascribe it to a supernatural Being, at once the author and the ruler of the whole. The idea of God* is, therefore, not only the result of the wanderings of our minds, but the intuitive convic- tion of our hearts : and as the effect of authority is to command respect and fear, we are constrained to extend these feelings to the supernatural Being, to whom we attribute the source of all invisible and visible power, in that immensurable ratio which dis- tinguishes the authority of man from that of God. This intercourse of our feelings with the Divinity is called Religion : and as the discrepancy in the mode of addressing and worshipping him (unavoidably arising from the various constructions which our mortal minds put on all objects at large, but more pecu- liarly on those which do not fall under the immediate control of our senses) constitutes the various classes of religions or sects, i^ and as these, however they may differ in minor points, unanimously agree in the main principle of acknowledging God as the Supreme Ruler of the whole creation, and the dis- * Primum decent esse Deos ; deinde, quales sint ; turn mun- dum ab his administrari ; postremo, consulere eos rebus huma- nis. — Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. 2, cap. i. t Le culte consiste dans certaines actions, que Ton fait directe- ment en vue d'honorer Dieu. II ne peut done y avoir de culte pour chaque homme, que celui qu'il croira propre a cette fin. — Fait el, liv. 1, ch. xii. ORIGIN OF RELIGION. 3 penser of good; their tendency to improve the morals of society is alike and equally efficient, and they are therefore indiscriminately entitled to the same re- spect and to the same protection. I look upon the various religions* as so many roads, which lead to the same point : one may be more tedious, more in- tricate, more fatiguing than another ; but to the individual who stands on an eminence, and sur- veys them all at the same time, it is alone given to determine which of them all is preferable. For what should we say of a traveller, who, with no previous knowledge of any of these roads, should boldly assert, that the one which he has selected is the only one which affords security and expedition for the performance of his journey, and should reject all the others as unsafe, and leading to perdition ? The primitive worship was simple ; and, according to Porphyrins, men sacrificed to grass ;-|- but when, led by their natural instinct, they formed themselves into a society, and imposed restrictions on their own appetites by the voluntary adoption of laws, they felt the necessity of propitiating the Divinity by extending his worship, and giving it a more im- posing and more consistent form. ^ Accordingly, certain spots were consecrated, and ministers ap- * Je les regarde comme des langues plus ou moins parfaites, qui invoquent la divinite dans les dialectes differens. — St Pierre^ Harmonies de la Nature, vol. Ill, page 225. Vide Fila?i' gierij Scienza della Legislazione, lib. 5, cap. i. t Cic. de Nat. Deor. '' Nell' infanzia delle nazioni, presso i popoli nascenti, la religione h stata piuttosto un culto, che un aggregate di dogmi. Si erigeva _^uii altare, s' immolava una vittima, si spargevano alcune libazioni per ottenere qualche favore da' Numi, o per placarli ; e questo era quelle che si chia- mava avere una religione." — Filangieri, lib. 1. cap. xvii. + Puffendorf, lib. vii. ch. 1. sect. 4. B 2 4 ORIGIN OF llELIGION. pointed to take charge of them, in the same manner as every member of the community takes care of his house and of his domestic affairs. These indi- viduals, entrusted with the discharge of religious duties, and of the various instituted ceremonies, formed a body distinct from the rest of the citizens, and were exonerated from the obligation of every sort of worldly cares, in order that the energy of their minds might be solely dedicated to the ser- vice of the Deity.* They therefore grew in high honour among nations, and conferred a high dis- tinction on the families to which they belonged. The Egyptians, the Jews, and the Persians, selected certain families, which they consecrated to religion, whose duties were rendered hereditary in them. | The ascendancy which these ministers or priests (in a certain manner constituted interpreters be- tween the Divinity and man) gained over the minds of mankind, became so formidable as to en- danger, but in too many instances, the safety of the institutions of nations.:]: Homer, one of the oldest * Even celibacy was, in many instances, strictly enforced, with the view of preventing a waste of their attention on sub- jects unconnected with religion. t Dupouy, Orig. de tous les Cultes, vol. I. :}: The Druids were the priests of the ancient Gauls, the only depositaries of knowledge, and consequently the tyrants of the people, whose ignorance they attempted to perpetuate by every means in their power. No magistrate, not excepting even the king, equalled their authority. Under the cover of the most refined hypocrisy, they committed with impunity the most atro- cious crimes. They affected to live in the depth of woods, and to excel in prophecies : they were exempted from imposts and military service, and were held in the highest veneration. — The reverend father Loyola has formed the legion of his Jesuits upon these unholy patterns. See Julius Cesar's Commentaries^ ORIGIN OF RELIGION. 5 chroniclers of the customs of the primitive ages, has, in the ferocious despotism of Chalcas, given us a specimen of the bondage under which the priest- hood of Greece held, not only nations, but even their chiefs. Alas ! how faithfully this fatal inherit- ance of sacerdotal power has been transmitted from age to age ! Legislators felt the necessity of re- straining this growing evil, and by subjecting reli- gion to the all-ruling authority of the laws, restored that heavenly institution to the sweet office of im- proving, instead of corrupting, the morals of the people. Numa, who, through the instrumentality of religion, transformed a horde of ferocious ad- venturers into a nation of heroes, constituted him- self the supreme priest ; and by blending religious with political power, was enabled to retain an un- disturbed control over the wild passions of the Romans.* Of the advantages which religion con- fers on the character of a people, it would be idle to attempt to speak. They stand not only re- corded in the pages of history, but are perceptible in the more or less perfect state of civilization of modern nation s.f But I may be permitted to ob- * Filangieri, lib. 1, ch. vii. Romolo e Numa seppero trovare la moneta, onde comprare I'opinione dal popolo nascente. t By religion, I do not mean the authority improperly as- sumed by a small proportion of a community, calling itself pri- vileged, over the largest proportion ; and the right of justifying any undue stretch of power by producing a forged delegacy from Heaven : but by religion, I understand that unaffected display of all kinds of virtue and self-denial, which, from their purity, are supposed to emanate from God, and are like him dispensers of happiness and peace. L'oubli de toute religion conduit h Toubli de tons les devoirs de I'homme. Des combiens des douceurs n'est-ce pas prive celui a 6 OKIOIN OF RELIGION. serve, that the effects* which reHgion produces on the feelings of men, are to bring them as near, as human affections will permit, to that perfection, which is undeniably identified with the nature of God. The primitive inhabitants of the world, before they had assembled in a constituted society, and sub- mitted their actions to the control of a few indivi- duals among them, might have dispensed with a code of religious laws : but when, by the voluntary coali- tion of their passions, of their interests, of their lives, they had created a new source of dissensions before unknown to them — they were compelled to streng- then the authority of the laws, by identifying them with the authority of Heaven, and to supply in many cases by the magic power of religion, the inefficacy of the laws themselves. f I have willingly admitted the principle, so strenuously advocated by philoso- phers, that, as the tendency of all religions is unde- niably that of promoting the improvement of the morals of society, and discountenancing the influ- ence of evil passions, they have, in common, and without distinction, the right of being protected and encouraged ; ^ but in upholding the privilege which every man possesses, of worshipping God in the man- qui la religion manque ! Quel sentiment pour le consoler dans ses peines ! Rousseau^ Esprit des Maximes. * See Filangieri, lib. I. cap. xvii. lib. 3, cap. xxxvi. t Vetustissimi mortalium^ nulla adhuc mala libidine, sine pro- bro, scelere, eoque sine poena, aut coercitionibus agebant : neque praemiis opus erat, cum honesta suopte ingenio peterentur ; et ubi nihil contra morem cuperent, nihil per metu vetabatur. Tacit. X Concluons done que la liberte des consciences est de droit naturel et inviolable. II est honteux pour Thumanite, qu'une verite de cette nature ait besoin d'etre prouvee. Vatjel. lib. 1. chap. xii. f ORIGIN OF RELIGION, ner most congenial to his own conscience, I do not mean to insinuate that lie may with impunity set the security of the laws at defiance, and bring his religious tenets to clash with the institutions esta- blished in his country. No ! he may retain the in- tuitive conviction of belief; but in the adoption and display of religious doctrines, he is bound to consult the nature of the existing government, and promote a regular harmony between them . The origin of the dogma is divine, the application is merely political ; and a religion or sect, which, by the nature of its tenets, diametric^ally opposite to the existing institu- tions of a nation, should put them in jeopardy, or even create and nourish dissensions, would unavoid- ably forfeit its claim to protection; because, by fo- menting evils, instead of promoting good, it would abjure its connection with God, and become a pas- sive instrument of the wicked passions of men. Re- ligion, in its intercourse with society being a pow- erful auxiliary to the laws, which are checks on the unruly appetites of men, must not only harmonize with, but be subjected to the nature of those laws ; and hence it follows, that the right of conferring national privileges on a religion, entirely rests with governments ; who, as the responsible guardians of the prosperity and tranquillity of a people, are strictly bound to analyze its affinity with their political institutions. Not unlike individuals, who, previous to their being admitted into a temple, or any other place, which is governed by certain local regulations, must engage to conform to the same, a sect or religion must produce its qualifications be- fore it is received into that sanctuary where laws are framed, for fear that it should impede their- 8 ORIGIN OF RELIGION, regular course. The admission of a Roman returned from war into the Temple of God, was (as the law directed) preceded by certain ceremonies, called lustrations, or recantations of all those acts and thoughts which were deemed prejudicial to the in- stitutions of the abode of the Gods.* A religion, therefore, which, in defiance of the ruling laws of a nation, acknowledges for its su- preme guide the heterogeneous authority of a spi- ritual power, stripping in this manner the local go- vernment of one of its most important prerogatives, (the supremacy over spiritual matters,) must on no consideration be admitted within the pale of the pri- vileges of the nation ; but be watched as an invete- rate enemy, ready to avail himself of any opportu- nity in order to overthrow its existing institutions. And I purpose to prove, both by a reference to the Holy Scriptures, and to the testimony of history, that the Catholic religion, for its base subserviency to the Chief of Rome, and for its spirit of rebellion against any authority which is not sanctioned by that priestly despot, is at variance with t he free * L'extreme influence de la religion sur le bien et la tran- quillite de la societe, prouve invinciblement, que le conducteur de I'etat doit avoir inspections sur les matieres qui la con- cernentj et autorite sur ceux qui I'enseignent, sur ses ministres. La fin de la soci^te et du gouvernement civil exige necessaire- ment que celui qui exerce I'empire soit revetu de tons les droits sans lesquels il ne pent I'exercer de la mani^re la plus avan- tageuse. Vattel, lib. 1. chap. xii. And again — L'inspection sur les matieres de la religion^ et I'autorite sur ses ministres, forment done I'un des plus importans de ces droits ; puisque sans ce pouvoir le souverain ne sera jamais en etat de prevenir les troubles que la religion pent occasionner dans I'etat, ni d'appliquer ce puissant ressort au bien et au salut de la societe. Ibid. ORIGIN OF RELIGIOy. W^'/n^ '> ^^I^ >^.<>^^. institutions of a representative Government ; atid that any attempt to bring it in contact with them should be resisted with energy, and with a deci- ded disregard to the threats of factions. But in so doing, I apprehend that I must retrace my steps to the history of the remotest religions, and by tra- velling back through the different vicissitudes which they have undergone, show the inestimable blessings which Christianity has conferred on mankind, by emancipating it from the thraldom of the absurd and cruel doctrines of Paganism. But the most im- portant of my efforts will be, to establish the seces- sion of the Church of Rome from the primitive Church, which, like all spurious descents, carries with it the ignominy of bastardy and the stamp of usurpation. CHAPTER II. ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY. Independent of divine revelation, Christianity owes its general success to the mildness of its pre- cepts ; which, when contrasted with the sanguinary and revengeful institutions of Polytheism, and with the absurdities of its doctrines, will surprise us, as Gibbon rightly observes, that, " its success was not still more rapid, and still more universal"* The sight of the announced Son of God, who, after consecrating his sublime tenets by the testimony ♦ (ribbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. II. chap. xv. 10 ORIGIN OF of his actions, voluntarily encounters, nay eagerly courts, excruciating torments, and a no less ex- cruciating death ; who, in the very moment of yielding up his last breath, is heard fervently to pray for the forgiveness of his executioners ;* who bequeaths to his disciples, as the pledge of the happiness of mankind, a code of religious laws, fraught with the purest benevolence ; — the sight of this heroic Being must have carried into the minds of the people of those ages an easy con- viction of his being the Son of God, because his actions were godlike, and so far outshone the false splendour of those mock deities of the Pagans, who, to the disgrace of Greece and Rome, had for so many centuries kept in bondage the sublime spirits of the Academy, and of the Tusculum.j No won- der, therefore, if the annals of Christianity abound in instances of self-immolation to the sublimity of its doctrines, by those heroes styled Martyrs, who, as the illustrious Alfieri judiciously observes, have far surpassed those deeds of fortitude and stoic firm- ness so often exhibited in the glorious eras of Greece and Rome.l Martyrdom rests on the firm basis of faith, and faith is the offspring of respect. And * Jesus, ail milieu d'un supplice afFreux, priait pour ses bour- reaux acharnes. Oui, si la vie et la mort de Socrate sont d'un sage, la vie et la mort de Jesus sont d'un Dieu. Rousseau^ Esprit des Maximes. t He endured the cruelest insults from his enemies with the utmost composure, meekness, patience, and resignation ; dis- played astonishing fortitude under a most painful and ignomi- nious death ; and, to crown all, in the very midst of his tor- ments on the Cross, implored forgiveness for his murderers, in that divinely charitable prayer, " Father forgive them, for they know not what they do !" — Bishop Beilby Porteus. X Del Principe, e delle Lettere, lib. 1. cap. v. CHRISTIANITY. 11 what respect could men have for gods exhibituig in their actions the vulgarity of the mob of human passions ? What confidence could people have in the oracles of a God spoken through the mercenary lips of an inebriated priestess ? Jupiter, the obscene God of Polytheism, compelled obedience by his thun- der.* Christ, the immaculate author of Christianity, obtained worship by his Cross. The love of the mar- vellous, which takes such a tenacious hold of the minds of men, could alone maintain alive the worship of Polytheism. But in proportion as those impressions grew faint, confidence disappeared, and in its stead arose an ardent thirst for novelties, and an increas- ing desire of a change ; so that if revelation had not announced the speedy appearance of Christianity, an- other sect, more humane in its principles, more ra- tional in its tenets, and more congenial to those enlightened ages, must undoubtedly h^ve sprung up on the ruins of Paganism. The correctness of this remark is completely borne out by the unequivocal opinions so undauntedly asserted by those two con- stellations of ancient times, Socrates and Plato, three hundred-and-sixty years before the birth of our Sa- viour ; — opinions which not only demonstrate the growing unpopularity of Paganism, but which, by their affinity in many points with the main tenets of Christianity, might convince the sceptic that the religion of Christ was not only announced by reve- lation, but had in a certain measure been foreseen by the acute minds of these two Greek philosophers. Socrates was the first, who, braving the storm of po- pular fanaticism, dared to outlaw the spurious Deities * Fulmeu ab ore veiiit, frondes afflatibus ardent. — Ovid. Met. lib. 8. 12 ORIGIN OF > of Mythology ; and, proclaiming in their stead a sole ruling God of the creation, led the way to those legions of martyrs, who, in the succeeding ages, threw such unequivocal lustre on the pages of Christianity. Plato, his disciple, went a great deal farther, and foresaw Christianity ; — a notion, which, according to many writers, both ancient and modern, he had ac- quired not only through the mediation of his own genius, but by the traditional knowledge of the priest? of Egypt, whither he had travelled on purpose, ' search of the confirmation of his own opinion^. His elevated mind soared to the regions of immorta- lity, and attempted to explore the incomprehensible nature of God ; but, being cast in an earthly mould, it was wrecked on the rocks of Mystery. After, however, wandering in a maze of conjectures and arguments, it fixed on the existence of a Being quite !vicorporeal, without beginning and without end ; * •. ?' sole Creator and the sole Ruler of the world. ^^ i, unable to comprehend how a Being purely incor- ^tireal could execute, from the imperfect chaos, the perfect model of creation, it appears that the Athe- nian philosopher was induced to consider the divine nature under a threefold modification : of the first cause, the reason or Logos, and the soul or spirit of the universe.'!' These three original principles were represented as three Gods, " united with each other by a mysterious and ineffable generation, and the Logos was particularly considered under the more accessible character of the Son of an eternal Father, and the Creator and Governor of the world^X ♦ Plato Egyptum peregrinavit, ut a sacerdotibus barbaris nu- ros et coelestia acciperet. — Ctc. de Fin. 5. xxv. ; Gibbon, vol. III. ch. xxi. t Gibbon, vol. II I, ch. xxi. J Gibbon, ibid. CHRISTIAN IT V, 13 This theory, which hears such strict resemblance to the mystery of the Trinity, constitutes one of the principal features of the Platonic system, which I should travel out of the province prefixed to the pere- grinations of my mind, were I to attempt to follow in all the intricacies and subtleties of its theology. Pla- to's doctrine followed the triumphant progress of the Macedonian arms, and was without reserve taught in the celebrated school of Alexandria. The illus- rmous Ptolemies encouraged a numerous colony of *.^ws to settle in Egypt, whose principal vocations -were commerce. A small number, however, among them devoted themselves to religious studies, and eagerly adopted the theology of Plato ; and, one hundred years before Christ, some Jews of Alex- andria produced a ])hilosophical treatise, breathing the opinions of that philosopher, which "was re^^ ' ::,^ as a well preserved relic of the inspiK lertiiW/<«.3fi Solomon.* nnrM-« of the Saint John the Evangelist, in the year 9>ora- Christ, confirmed with the seal of revelation ti , theology of Plato ; which, but for that supernatural event, would have vanished away along with the numberless systems in which the minds of the an- cient philosophers were so fertile. The amazing secret was finally explained, that the Logos, who was with God from the beginning, and was God him- self, the Author of the whole creation, was incarnate in the person of Christ, born of a virgin, and who suffered on a cross. f The Christian religion was in this manner not only hailed as the gift of a superna- * Brucker, Hist. Pliilog. vol. i. ; Joseph. Antiquit. ; Euse- bius ; Calmet, Dissert, sur la Bible, and others, t Aug. de Civ, Dei, and others. 14 ORIGIN OF tural Being, but was respected as the offspring of the profound meditations of the two most virtuous and most learned philosophers of antiquity. Rest- ing on the twofold authority of divine revelation and philosophical knowledge, it held out faith to the religious, and conviction to the sceptic. The contrast between the mock gods of Mythology and the divine Founder of Christianity was too striking not to operate an instantaneous change in the feelings of men. The one appeared wrapped up in the terrific pomp of military autocracy, trying to legitimatize the hideousness of his vices by the privileges of his ex- alted station, commanding the indiscriminate but- chery of human and brute victims, selling justice with the scale of worldly corruption, casting frowns of disdain and pride on the minor class of gods and demi-gods, and, in short, displaying the supercilious- ^^*%f&)real, iblunary despots.* The divine Founder j^ .;^ .ftrthaftiCWtty was ushered into the world by the "^.fa, jur of God as the long-promised Angel of Re- demption : his actions emanated from his words, like light from the sun : his morals were as pure as his charity was universal : his humility was as unaffect- * Gli Dei viziosi del paganesimo non potevano sicuramente prescrivere a mortali una morale clie le loro pretese azioni avrebbono contradetta, ne un culto che si risentisse delle loro foUie e di que' loro delitti istessi, che la cieca e stupida credulita avea imparato a venerare insieme coi sognati mostri che gli aveano commessi. — Filangieri, Storia della Legislazione, lib. I. cap. xvii. See Concilia degli Deiy by Boccalini. This illustrious author enumerates, with his accustomed elo- quence, the crimes and the irregularities of each god and demi- god of the Pagans, concluding that such impure and vicious cha- racters were not fit to inspire devotion in the breasts of men. CHRISTIANITY. 16 ed as his origin was exalted; his love of mankind was as disinterested as his mission was sublime. Despising ambition, and inculcating obedience to the existing governments ; preaching equality among men, and living with his disciples with the familia- rity of a friend ; mild in reproving, sparing in cor- recting ; he lived like a saint, and died like a hero. What a sweet relief Christianity afforded to the feel- ings of mankind, after so many centuries groaning under the terrors of the Pagan theocracy ! What an unexpected change in the atmosphere of the mind ! What human heart could resist the fasci- nations of such a lovely worship ! What obdurate soul could hold out against virtue supported by example !* Nations became converted to the tenets of Christianity, because it rested on the basis of the purest morality. f Its progress was placid, and like the river whose overflow spreads fertility on the fields of Egypt, it left on the manors of the heart the fruitfulness of virtue. No threats accom- panied the offer of the new doctrines ; no punish- ment was held out to the obstinate unbeliever ; no destruction was brandished over the heads of dissent- ers : all minds were left open to conviction ; all hearts were left in possession of their feelings ; but those feelings, like some minor stars, which, impelled by an irresistible attraction, sink into the main planet, joined the sublime feeling of Christianity. Thus the bloody hands of the centurion, which had grown old * Longum est iter per praecepta, sed breve et efficax per ex- emplum. Sen. f Pourquoi une religion nous attache, il faut qu'elle est une morale pure. Montesq. Esp. des Loix, xxv. ch. 2. IG ORIGIN OF in the work of destruction, were seen to drop the instrument of death, and to assume the attitude of penitence. The proud magistrate, forgetting the dig- nity of his rank, was seen shedding tears of com- punction upon the same parchment which contained the death-warrant of the guilty ; and the feelings of piety were no longer strangers even to the stern frowns of Pilate.* Even the felon, while in the act of expiating his crimes on the cross, turned his penitent heart to the divine sufferer, and craved from that Beacon of Salvation a protecting ray for his awful voyage to eternity. Ah ! yes, Chris- tianity in its original institution, such as it came forth from its divine Founder, is the only reli- gion which, since the remotest commencement of society, has conferred real blessings upon mankind.f It is the religion of liberty, because it rests on truth ; it is the religion of virtue, because it breathes in- nocence. Degraded from its origin, polluted in its * St. John, chap. xix. t The law of Jesus Christ, observes an illustrious statesman, would supersede the necessity of laws and kings in all climates, if it were strictly observed : — " La sola legge di Gesu Christo e una costituzione che pub con- venire a tutti gli uomini, a tutti i climi ; e se si osservasse quella generalmente, basterebbe a far godere agli uomini la piCi vera felicita terrena, senza bisogno di regi, ne di legislatori." Note ^ by Senator Gianni, the minister of Leopold, in De Potter s Life of Scipio de Ricci, vol. i. p. 246. " II solo decalogo contiene in pochi precetti quello che appena cento codici di morale potrebbero racchiudere." Filangieri^ lib. I. cap. iv. *' Mais rien n'est plus propre a former des bons citoyens, que de leur inspirer de bonne heure la Religion Chretienne ; j'entends celle qui est epuree de toutes les inventions humaines," &c. Puffendorf, fe Droit de Ja Nature el des Gens, lib. vii. ch. ix. sect. 4. CHJftlSTlANITY. 17 principles, libelled, misrepresented by the mercenary plots of Popery, it is become the shelter for crimes, the text for falsehoods, the supporter of tyranny, the religion of the Holy Alliance.* * A very striking specimen of the pliancy of Catholicism to the interests of despotism, appears conspicuous in the fulsome eulogy which that champion of Popery, Mr. Daniel O'C 1, made of the excellent family which presides over that fortu- nate country, France^ in his opening speech at the fourth Catho- lic Meeting, held in Dublin, the 17th January, 1826. The next subject of panegyric for that gentleman's oratory may be expected to be the pious Ferdinand VII. and perhaps the charitable Red- schid Pacha, or the CheValier sans pcur et sans reproche Ibra- him Pacha. They all serve the same sacred cause, legitimacy, and are entitled to the same oratorial ovations. The one has restored the Inquisition in Spain ; the others are endeavouring to re-establish in Greece the liberal and humane institutions of the Seraglio. But, before I dismiss the subject, I must call upon his Most Christian Majesty the King of France, and his Apostolic Ma- jesty the Emperor of Austria, to reconcile the blasphemous ano- maly of sty ling themselves the Champions of the Catholic Church, and the" zealous Confederates of the Worshippers of Mahomet. I call upon them to prove by what impious contrivance they can imbrue the same hands which support the Cross, in the blood of the intrepid Greeks, who worship that emblem of the Catholic religion : — I call upon those perjured officers of the French army, who, after having chanted hymns to the Goddess of Reason, and sung the praises of the Son of God, now worship the Prophet of Mecca: — I call upon them, I say, to show with what right they can now retain the laurels of Hohenlinden, of Marengo, of Jena, of Wagram, blasted with the salary of prostitution : — I call upon the self-styled Vicegerent of Christ, to justify his criminal apathy at the excruciating tortures and the dreadful but- cheries which the soldiers of Mahomet inflict upon the brave people of Greece. I defy that Vizier of the Vatican to re- concile the oppressions and ignominies to which he has sub- jected the harmless Jews, with the powerful help which, by his supineness, he lends to the Turks. Where are now the thun- ders of the Vatican ? where are the legions of saints ready to 18 ORIGIN OF Many days after the resurrection of Christ, the Holy Ghost, on the day of Pentecost, appeared to the Apos- tles, and spoke to them on the subject of religion in various idioms.* Christ delegated his power to Peter of Bethsaida, promised to give him the keys of hea- ven, and to confer upon him the right of denying and absolving.! This is the main point on which the Popes afterwards rested the legitimacy of their claims, to the inheritance of Christ's holy authority ; and upon the stone on which the Saviour promised to erect his Church, they have built the spurious Temple of Babylon, dedicated it to idols, and thus, rnutato nomine^ restored Paganism. Let us now examine, how faithfully the successors of Peter have executed the terms of the cov^enant, under which, and no other, the power of that apostle and pontiff was delegated to them. The divine Au- thor of the Christian religion inculcated in all his fight with the weapons of miracles in behalf of the Christian Church? where are those mitred myrmidons who profess to extirpate heresy X No ! It is not for the Divan that the Pope, the Bourbons, and Metternich, pray, arm, and fight : no ; it is not for the glory of the Crescent, but for the support of legitimacy, that Christians are arrayed against Christians. It is against the holy dogmas of liberty, it is against'the cause of mankind, that the mercenary soldiers of France and Austria now fight in Greece, as they latterly fought in Spain and Naples. England alone, free England, abhors the conspiracy. The glories of Trafalgar and Waterloo are untarnished ; not a single individual has joined the banners of Impiety and Despotism Her riches, her strength, her vows, have supported the cause of Greece. Gratitude will point out to the remotest posterity the Island of true Liberty and of genuine justice ; while the finger of revenge will be directed to the land of St. Bartholomew, Ravaillac, and the Clements, and to the country where the bigoted tyrant Charles V. was born. * The Acts of the Apostles, 1, 2,3, 4, e/ seq. t Ibid. CHRISTIANITY. 19 words, and recommended in all his precepts, an absolute love of poverty, an absence of superflui- ties, an aversion to the vanities of the world, a genuine spirit of charity and universal brotherhood, and above all, a passive obedience to the consti- tuted authorities of the country ; repeatedly de- claring that his kingdom was in heaven, and not on earth. The apostles strictly adhered to the precepts of their Master : and the pious Platina tells us, that their whole lives were spent in promot- ing the happiness of mankind at the expense of their own ; that they possessed no property ; but that whatever was given them by the hands of charity, after having administered to their bare necessities, they dispensed to the poor.* In confer- ring on Peter and his successors the supremacy of the Christian Church, its divine Author intended to bind them to the strict observance of the rules and discipline which he had so perseveringly maintained, during his glorious life ; nor did he at any future period hint the least necessity for a deviation from such laws. Peter, therefore, received the delega- cy of the Christian Church under certain restric- tions, set forth in a covenant, the least aberration from which, even in the sense of the ordinary occur- rences of life, must inevitably have been followed by the loss of that sacred magistracy. This covenant is the New Testament or Gospel, the witnesses are the apostles, the authority the blood of our Saviour. This eternal monument of divine charity is at this moment before me; its pages are familiar to me since my earliest days ; and it is to the salutary rudiments which I have derived from them, that * Istoria de* Pontefici, torn. 1. C 2 20 ORIGIN OF I owe my self-rescue from those insidious systems of deception, profligacy, and idolatry, which the Church of Rome has so strenuously fostered, and does with an equal obstinacy still support; and whose bane- ful influence destroys the seeds of the peace of the mind, blasts the blossoms of virtue, and promotes the reign of tyranny. I do not find written in that subHme Book that the Successor of Peter the chief of the Church, shall at certain future periods lay aside his poverty, and assume an Asiatic luxury ; that through extortions and threats he shall become possessed of immense wealth ; that by means of those riches he shall raise armies, conquer king- doms, disturb the peace of mankind, and by the anomalous union of the cross and the sword, shall constitute himself the Successor of Peter the poor, and the rich sovereign of Rome : that as soon as he shall be seated on that self- erected throne, he shall frame a code of laws not only diametrically opposite to the holy doctrines of his divine Master, but so cruel and so much besmeared with blood, that it will throw into shade all those fantastically fero- cious ordinances of the tyrants of Greece and Rome : that, instead of reclaiming dissenters to the banner of the Cross by the mildness of persuasion, and the balm of charity, he shall imprison them, murder them, nay, burn them alive, and possess himself of their properties ; that instead of encouraging the propagation of knowledge, in imitation of the holy institution of his religion, he shall dry up every source of instruction, stop the circulation of books, and only permit in their stead a collection of wretched legends, whose only doctrine is to incul- cate passive obedience to the desires of the mitred CHRISTIANITY. 21 despot ; that in opposition to the spirit of the age, and the true interests of mankind, he shall cause a forged translation of the covenant itself to be cir- culated, wherein the sense of the holy Author's discipline is entirely distorted, and made subservient to the Roman Peter's new doctrines ; that in order to render the emancipation of the modern from the primitive Church more complete, the original cove- nant itself shall be laid under interdiction, and the reading of it prohibited by the most severe punish- ments both in this world and the next ; that, instead of seeking in the holy bond of marriage the example of social virtues, and a screen against impure appe- tites, he shall proclaim the unnatural doctrine of celibacy, and make that doctrine the lawn, under which he shall commit with impunity the most re- volting and criminal debaucheries.* These flagitious deviations from the path marked out by the divine Founder of Christianity, cannot be accounted for in any other way, than by supposing that the virtuous * Marriage among bishops and ecclesiastics was a discipline of the primitive Church, strongly recommended by our Saviour in the following chapter of the first letter of Paul to Timothy, ver. 2, — A bishop must then he blameless, the husband of one rvifej vigilant^ sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach. 4. One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. 5. For if a man knows not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God.—ThQ reformers of Christianity, the Popes, ap- prehending that hearts breathing the innocence of domestic virtues, could not be fit instruments for their perfidious policy, overthrew the doctrine of the divine Founder, abolished marriage among ecclesiastics, and substituted in its stead the unnatural state of celibacy. The Council of Saragossa, held at the begin- ning of the fifth century, was the instrument of the perversion of the commands left by our Saviour. 22 ORIGIN OF simplicity of the primitive Church was not calculated to promote the interests of her spurious daughter, as much differing from her parent as vice differs from virtue, and guilt from innocence. The legacy bequeathed by Peter to his successors possessed such elements of intrinsic power, as to raise the ambition of any cunning priest to forward his plans of universal dominion. An authority which ema- nated from the Son of God could not be resisted with impunity, and the trustee of that omnipo- tence was entitled to the same blind obedience which was paid to the original dispenser. But in order to render these splendid advantages still more available to his interests, the trustee re- jected all those clauses which might have opposed the success of his views, retaining only the formi- dable right of inheritance. It is on this right, poisoned at its original source, and separated from the rest of its kindred restrictions, that the Popes rest the invulnerable privilege of doing whatever their passions suggest, without being amenable to any other tribunal than to that of God ; and in this manner a prima facie case of forgery of the original Testament is made out against them, and an unjustifiable usurpation of temporal power es- tablished, which the divine Author of Christianity most explicitly rej^robated. The advocates of Po- pery have attempted to set up a defence of these usurpations and encroachments, as base in its princi- ples as it is crooked in its results. They have boldly asserted that the Holy Testament is written in a peculiar style of allegory, and that the power of decyphering this mysterious language rests only with the Pope, on whom the Holy Ghost has conferred CHRISTIANITY. 23 this privileged talent. If the language in which the sublime morals of the Gospel is expressed, were really wrapped in mystery, and only intended for the advantage of certain favoured individuals, still from an undeniable analogy we are bound to interpret it in a manner quite harmonizing with the actions of its divine prototype ; since it would be impious to suppose that our Saviour has be- queathed to mankind a legacy of discipline quite at variance with the doctrines broached during his illustrious life, and the authenticity of which he sealed with his precious blood. The chief of the Church of Rome shows, therefore, no claims to vera- city, when he attempts to establish the sanctity of his actions by the production of forged authori- ties, as profligate in their meaning as they are fatal in their effects. And this daring forgery is easily detected by a comparison of the numerous trans- lations of the original Bible, made by individuals of different sects, with the versions effected by the fol- lowers of the Catholic Church. CHAPTER III. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF POPERY ; ITS USURPATIONS. The history of the primitive Church is so much involved in obscurity, that we can scarcely perceive a beacon to guide us in our excursions through that immeasurable sea, agitated by so many passions, and directed by so many interests. From the absence of positive historical records, we are obli- 24 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS ged to seek for information among a confused mass of contradictory reports, scarcely rendered intelligible by the persevering ingenuity of some of the chro- niclers of the middle ages. But, howsoever scanty and uncertain our means of instruction may be, still we possess in the annals and fragments of those ages, but more especially in the fearless depositions of contemporary writers, sufficient means to gain access to the remotest origin of the power of the Popes, and to follow its rapid and surprising progress through the succeeding ages, until it attained that formidable ascendancy over temporal and spiritual thrones, which rendered the whole world tributary to its magic strength. The painful task will often devolve upon us, of representing with what cunning and persevering boldness, though disguised under the features of a spurious meekness, the hand of priestly ambition has demolished the humble seat of Peter, and erected in its stead that lofty throne, which, like a volcano, has poured forth destruction on every succeeding generation. It will be lamentable to contemplate how quickly those sublime institutions have disappeared, bequeathed by our Saviour to mankind as the palladium of its felicity, hunted and persecuted by the relentless wickedness of the Bishop of Rome. It will be oppressive for our minds to see the hydra of Popery, scattering about its desolating doctrines, until checked in its career by the vigorous efforts of Luther ; but it will ultimately prove refreshing to our terri- fied feelings, to behold the world once more res- cued from idolatry by divine interposition, and through the humble instrumentality of a German monk. , , . . ,. ,., ,^^^ OF POPEllY. 'The title of Pope was, in the early period Christian Church, indiscriminately given to bishops, and their pride was moreover indulged with the accession of holiness and beatitude. But it was reserved for the ambitious mind of Gregory VII. in a synod held at Rome in the eleventh cen- tury, to monopolize that dignity exclusively for the bishop of that proud city, who, in addition to his other titles, assumed that of Pontiff.* It appears that to- wards the close of the third century, the bishops of Rome, in common with those of Antioch and Alex- andria, enjoyed a kind of pre-eminence over the rest of the bishops, as they were looked upon as the rulers of primitive and apostolic Churches ; but this pre-emi- nence was solely confined to the right of convening and presiding over Councils, and collecting voices ; but did not imply any species of superior authority on spiritual, and much less on temporal matters : it was of the same nature as that which the Bishop * Father Lecointe's Annals. Pontiffs were priests instituted by Numa : some say that they took the name of Pontifex be- cause they were powerful, or potens, as ministers of the Gods. But the most probable derivation of this word is from the nature of their employments, they being charged with the performance of sacrifices upon bridges or pontes, the restoration and guardian- ship of which belonged to them. Plutarch does not believe it : but Varro and Dionysius of Halicarnassus strongly supported that presumption. The first says : '* Pontifex ego a ponte arbitror." (lib. 2.) And again, " Nam ab iis sublicius est factus primum, et restituisse saepe de lingua Latina. (lib. 14.) It strikes me that the Roman Pontiffs, as self-appointed guardians of the bridges which connect this with a future life, have acquitted themselves with ability and zeal of the several functions which they have assigned to themselves ; and in the rigid exaction of the tolls, they have even surpassed the rapacity and brutality of our mo- dem toll-keepers. 26 OUIGIN AND PJIOGIIESS of Carthage had over the Arian Church. Ahout the close of the fourth century, this pre-eminence of the Bishop of Rome over his brother bishops be- gan to assume more alarming features ; since he surpassed them all, not only in the splendour and magnificence of the choir over which he presided, and in the richness of his revenues, but in the num- ber and retinue of his ministers, his costly dress, his unbounded luxury in every department of life, and, in short, in that early display of Eastern pomp and povrer which, in the succeeding centuries, condensated itself into the colossal despotism of the sovereign of the Vatican. But, notwithstanding the supineness with which the Emperors viewed this sudden and sensible alteration in the conduct of the Bishops of Rome, and their growing influence and sacred veneration over the people, they continued to retain with jea- lousy the sovereignty upon all ecclesiastical matters, to enact religious laws, and to preside over councils ; to appoint bishops, and, in short, to wield an un- rivalled sceptre over the Christian Church. Now, it does not by any means appear, that the bishops of the several provinces of the empire intimated that they owed allegiance to the Pope, or Bishop of Rome ; nor much less, that they held their appointment from the Apostolic See. The Emperors were alive to the dangers of relieving the aspiring ambition of the chiefs of the Church from the salutary trammels which had been imposed upon them, and foresaw that a deviation from such wise precautions would be attended with consequences far more fatal to the prosperity of the empire than human foresight could possibly apprehend. Happy would it have been for the succeeding generations if those systems of re- OF POPERY. 27 striction had been always adhered to by the rulers of nations ! We should not have now to transmit to our children the wretched inheritance of the tears of our forefathers, vainly offered up to the unrelent- ing tyranny of the Sovereign of Rome. But this salutary jealousy of the Emperors gradually relaxed, and a variety of events soon sprung up, which has- tened the consummation of the favourite plans of universal domination so deeply traced and firmly persevered in by the Bishop of Rome. The in- triguing spirit of the prelates ; the scandalous dis- putes of the clergy ; the commotions and seditions of the Empires, arising not only from ordinary causes, and from the clashing of so many new interests, but chiefly promoted and fostered by the superior clergy, coupled with the fatiguing cares of the Eastern wars ; so powerfully harassed the mind of the then reign- ing emperor, Valentinian, that, in the year 372, at the instigation of that crafty Pontiff, Leo II., he enacted a law by which he invested the chief of the Roman Church with the right not only of examining and judging the bishops, but of pronouncing on all religious disputes without the interference of pro- fane and regular judges. This fatal measure, preg- nant with the most alarming consequences for the destinies of mankind, was, by the arts of the Pope, confirmed in a Council held at Rome in the year 378. The same causes were productive of more important effects in the fifth century, when both the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch being unable to make head against the vexations of the lordly Prelate of Constantinople, often fled to the Bishop of Rome for succour ; an example which was imi- tated by other bishops, whose rights were equally 28 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS invaded by their superior prelates. In this manner the influence and authority of the Bishop of Rome grew formidable in the East ; while, in the West, the vices and degrading effeminacy of the Emperor, coupled with his declining power, necessarily invest- ed with an authority without control, the supreme bishop of that imperial city.* The incursions of the barbarians into the Empire, and the triumphs which attended their arms, made their kings de- sirous of acquiring popularity among the vanquished nations ; and they rendered their usurpation palat- able by associating with their own power the ghostly authority of the chief of the Church : an instance, if precedents were wanting, of the flagitious pro- stitution to which the Court of Rome subjected in every age the Christian religion, by the conse- cration of usurped power and unrelenting despotism. The kings, therefore, loaded with all species of honours and generous benefits the Bishop of Rome, because they saw other bishops pay to him that impli- cit obedience which the multitude paid to the latter. This obsequiousness of the barbarian kings towards the Pope, which rested on the feeble basis of interest, increased to such degree the arrogance of that pre- late, and of his spiritual militia, that it rendered the former no longer able to bear the self-imposed yoke. Accordingly, towards the close of the sixth century, they curtailed the rapidly growing despotism of the Bishop of Rome, by decreeing that in futui-e none * Giannone, 1st. di Napoli. Gibbon. Fra Paolo^ 1st. del Concilio di Trento, and Uallam's History of the Middle Age ; to which latter very able work I confess myself extremely in- debted for the little order which I have been able to observe in the texture of these historical observations. OF POPERY, &C. 29 should be raised to the Pontificate without their pre- liminary approval, and reserving for themselves the right of judging of the legality of every election. Nor did the salutary work of reform stop here ; as they assumed the exclusive right of enacting spiri- tual laws, calling the religious orders before their tribunal, summoning Councils by regal authority, and, in short, arrogating to themselves a supreme authority in all sorts of spiritual concerns. This unexpected check dismayed the Bishop of Rome, who, unable to give vent to his resentment with any chance of success, submitted to his fate without murmuring; and, under the cover of a saintly resig- nation, watched the opportunity of not only recover- ing his lost authority, but of extending and estab- lishing it on such a firm basis, as to set at defiance at a future period any probabiUty of a relapse. This favourable opportunity rose under the ponti- ficate of Boniface III., towards the year 606,* when that intriguing priest prevailed upon the Em- peror Phocas, to strip the patriarch of Constanti- nople of the title of (Ecumenic, or universal Bishop, and to confer it upon him and his successors. So far the schemes of the Prince of the Vatican pros- pered. But public opinion was too much impressed with the excellence of the doctrines of the primi- tive Church, and with the benevolent simplicity of the morals of the Gospel, to yield without strug- gling to the bold usurpation of the Popes. And in this belief readily (although from different motives) the succeeding Emperors concurred, who laying aside the interests of the Christian religion, thought of nothing else but of protecting their own interests, ;. * Baronius ; Gibbon. 30 USURPATIONS OF POPERY. SO vigorously threatened by the encroachments of the Court of Rome, In consequence, they at differ- ent times forced an implicit obedience, even in all sorts of religious matters, upon the schismatic suc- cessor of St. Peter, and reduced him to that state of vassalage which both the avocations of religion, the safety of the Empire, and the interests of man- kind loudly claimed. These struggles at different stages of society, between the tiara and the tem- poral crowns, evidently show the lust of universal dominion which the Court of Rome so perseveringly coveted ; while it makes evident the consciousness of the dangers which princes apprehended from an undue association of any religious power with their temporal authority. But times were fast approach- ing when nations, corrupted by their intercourse with the barbarians, degraded by a long period of servitude, and rendered famiUar with scenes of bloodshed and carnage, became the easy prey of art- fuP despots ; and, losing sight of the light of the Gospel, fell headlong into those profound abysses of ignorance, both religious and political, from which neither the incessant labours of philosophy, nor the various events of the succeeding ages, have been able to extricate them. CHAPTER IV. THE CRUSADES. The growing despotism of the Popes, their con- tinual struggles for power, and, above all, their li- centious and corrupt manners, of which, under the THE CRUSADES. 31 specious plea of princely pomp, they delighted in making an ambitious display, had rendered a con- trast with the conduct and life of the primitive in- stitutors of Christianity, too striking not to threaten the most fatal results to the stability of the Trireg- num, and to the invulnerable sanctity of the Popes. To prevent, therefore, the zeal of their credulous followers from cooling, and the enmity of dissenters from acquiring fresh vigour, they contrived to set afloat a great popular interest, which, by kindling in the minds of all parties the sacred enthu- siasm of religion, could effectually divert their attention from the cherished object of their pur- suits — an universal dominion, and an uncontrolled enjoyment of all sorts of worldly pleasures. They soon found, in the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the Saracens, a subject sublime in itself, and apt to stir up to a supreme degree of enthusiasm the passions of the worshippers of the Cross, by blending the interests of religion with the chivalrous spirit of the age. A war of religion is a war of necessity, and as such, commands, without appeal to any other authority the coalesced power of all interests. Besides this, the exhibition of so many mighty monarchs humbly submitting to the supreme will of the self-styled Vicar of Christ, would in no way fail to strengthen the wavering faith of the devotee, and to strike dumb with terror the aspiring energies of the unbeliever. Another ad- vantage likely to arise from the consummation of such a gigantic plan would be the removal to dis- tant regions of numerous bands of restless and enter- prising adventurers, who, if suffered to pine away amidst the inactivity of domestic life, would un- 32 THE CRUSADES. questionably prove invincible obstacles to thfe gra- dual developement of the Pope's long digested plans ; while, on the other side, a war of all Christian na- tions against the infidels, undertaken for the sub^ lime object alluded to, would tend to sharpen the animosity of the followers of Popery against its opponents ; and by the submissive obedience of so many illustrious sovereigns to the absolute will of the Chief of Rome, accustom (as we have already observed) the people to behold in him the true Vice- gerent of God. And here it will not be, perhaps, amiss to observe, that at any period of society, when- ever some powerful citizen conceived the criminal plan of enslaving the liberties of his own country, his first step was to excite the vanity of its inhabi- tants, and direct the energies of their minds to some great warlike enterprise, in order that, inebriated with a false glory, they might leave him at liberty to prosecute his mischievous schemes of tyranny : — witness, that lovely despot Caesar, that dissipated bigot Louis XIV., the hypocrite Charles V., and the illustrious teacher of all sorts of despotism. Napoleon. This great engine of the restoration of the Papal autocracy, was designed to be a holy war of all Christian nations confederated against the Turks, in whose hands remained the palladium of their reli- gious faith ; an event which, for the importance of its results, was only second to the institution of the Jesuits by the sanguinary Loyola, at a time when the destinies of Popery were overcast with gloom, and its throne was tottering under the vigorous attacks of Luther's doctrines. This, and the succeeding holy wars, were called Crusades, from the cross which every warrior was obliged THE CRUSADES. 33 to assume on his garments, and on the most con- spicuous part of his breast, with the formalities pre- scribed by the ceremonial : and some ultra-devotees pushed their zeal so far as to have the cross in- scribed on their skin, either by a hot iron or some indelible liquor. The idea of this gigantic under- taking, whose results have had so much influence on the improvement of the manners of succeeding ages, arose from a very obscure cause, and may serve to justify the trivial observation, that when great events have been long prepared by a vast com- bination of unknown causes, the most ordinary occur- rence can set them in motion, in the same manner as the most diminutive particle of fire can produce the overthrow of a solid mass, by the explosion of a mine long worked by human industry. The French Re- volution, that frightful, but, in many of its features, salutary episode of the history of man, has been, by those who are accustomed to judge of events by trifling appearances, falsely attributed to some local circumstances connected with the life of the weak, but excellent Lewis XVI. and with the misconduct of some branches of his family. By retracing our thoughts back to the remotest periods of the French history, from the bigoted Clovis down to the liber- tine Lewis XV. those numerous and powerful ele- ments which gave birth to the French Revolution, will soon become apparent. They will show them- selves, in the cunning despotism of priestcraft, en- couraged and fostered by the imprudent concessions of the Carlo vingians ; — in the proud ascendancy of the nobility over the King's councils, and in the privi- leges which they monopolized at the expense of merit and justice ; — in the baneful presence of some D 34 THE CRUSADES. of the feudal laws and worn out institutions of the middle age, which, in opposition to the spirit of the times, had been suffered to exist ; — ^in those engines of private revenge, the abominable let t res de cachet, which, like invisible snares, kept in a continual state of alarm the liberty of the subject, and which, like the Pope's indulgences, were sold to the best bid- der ; — in those sordid lolv de mainmortes and corvees, which made the farmer curse the fertility of the soil which he bathed with the sweat of his brows, and the artist weep over the fruit of his genius ; — in that stern absolutism of the monarch, reinvi- gorated by the flattery of the aristocracy and the clergy, and blasted with the poison of favoritism ; — in those capricious ordinances framed by the Ninons, the Maintenons, the Montespans, the effects of which were to screen bold crime from the severity of the law.* These were the combustibles, which, by * The immortal author of the Science of Legislation men- tions a striking fact which illustrates my observations. A young woman was delivered of a still-born child, and had con- cealed that circumstance from the magistrate. For this crime, perhaps suggested by a feeble remain of modesty, she was tried and condemned to death. The sentence had been con- firmed by the French Parliament, and left therefore no alter- native. A gentleman of the Guards, named M. de Mandeville, moved by the laudable impulse of trying to save her life, ad- dressed himself to the Countess Dubarry (the favourite of Lewis XV.) who immediately wrote a most eloquent letter to the Chancellor of France, in which she requested the liberty of the young woman. That timid magistrate, in opposition to justice and to the laws, set her at liberty. " Who, after this exposition, shall forbid me" adds the above-quoted author, *' a feeling of compassion for a nation, where a secret suggested hy natural modesty is punished with death, and where a simple letter of a favourite is sufficient to annul a sentence confirmed by a whole Parliament ? Both the punishment and the absolution revolt me. — Lib. 1. chap. iv. THE CRUSADES. SS ages condensated into a solid mass, exploded at the first excitement given them. This excitement was the American Revolution, the legitimate offspring of the irritated passions of an untutored people, mad- dened with the tyrannical measures enacted by the Parliament of England, and rigidly enforced by the King's lieutenants. The court of Lewis XVI., happy in an opportunity of giving an efficient vent to their long-cherished rivalship against Eng- land, and anxious to wash off the recent humi- liations of Malplaquet and La Hogue, eagerly es- poused the cause of the American revolters ; and, in addition to arms and help of every kind, sent to the school of Washington and Jefferson, some young members of the most illustrious families in France, who, on their return home, inoculated with the notions of liberty, established firmly in America, the minds of the aristocracy of their own country, cloth- ing their tales with the fascinations of romantic glory. Upon the same principles, it will not excite surprise, if, some day or other (and indeed the time is not far distant) we shall behold the anomalous Empire of Russia, that speck in the map of civili- zation, undergo through the usual ordeal of a revo- lution, a total change in its political institutions, and assume an eminent attitude in the congress of free nations. In addition to the ordinary causes which give rise to such alterations in the internal state of a people, Russia possesses a powerful stimulus in the moral composition and temper of her armies, who, during their presence in Germany and France, must have by their own intuition been taught to contrast the comparatively happy condition of those nations, with the wretched and degrading slavery of their own, and D 2 36 THE CRUSADES. thus have brought home feelings of a quite different species from those which they formerly possessed. In confutation of our observations,it would be idle to plead the uncultivated state of the minds of the Russian peo- ple, scarcely endowed with the power of discrimina- tion. This absurd, nay blasphemous doctrine, would tend to impeach the impartial justice of God, who has granted to all men in general that beacon of in- tellect, Reason ; the more or less effulgence of which is increased or depressed by the tutorship, more or less efficient, of education. A field which has not been much worked is likely to yield a more easy and more abundant harvest than another which has for a long series of years indulged the avaricious expec- tations of the labourer. The minds of a people nearly approaching the original state of nature, are more apt to receive and retain the holy notions of liberty, than those of another already worn out with experiments and disgusted with events. But let us revert to our original subject. About twenty years after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Turks (1096), a pious hermit, called Peter of Amiens, visited the Holy Sepulchre, and brought back to Europe at the feet of the Pontiff, Urban II., feelings of indignation and holy commiseration which he had conceived on beholding such a valuable treasure in the hands of the infidels. That crafty Pope soon understood the high importance of such a discovery, and seeming to partake of the warm zeal manifested by the hermit for the prompt deli- verance of the Holy Sepulchre from the power of the Saracens, immediately determined on convening a Council, and discussing in its presence the expe- diency of adopting the plan proposed by the hermit. THE CRUSADES. 37 The Council assembled at Clermont in the year ] 095, and after some short discussions determined that a powerful army should forthwith assemble and depart for the Holy Land on the 1 5th of August of the en- suing year. Peter, inebriated with the success of his plans, and spurred on by an immense populace, com- posed of both sexes, resolved to partake of the toils of the holy war, and undertook to lead them on in person. This ferocious rabble, breathing a spirit of the most sanguinary revenge, swelled like an infuriated tor- rent in proportion as they marched on : and the first undertaking which signalized their holy devo- tion, was the destruction of many thousands of peaceful and harmless Jews, in the principal trading cities of the Moselle and the Rhine, where those well-constituted colonies were guilty of the atrocious offence of having acquired prodigious riches.* In Hungary and Bulgaria they spread desolation and ruin, by not only forcibly possessing themselves of all sorts of property, but by destroying the cities and villages, and inhumanly butchering their inhabitants. They, however, received a condign punishment, be- ing entirely defeated by those warlike inhabitants, and nearly all taken prisoners, not excluding the en- thusiast Peter.f The horrors which these armies of pious blood-hunters uniformly spread through the desolated world at the different periods when those expeditions were effected ; the countenance and the blessings which they received from the Popes ; and even the crowns of martyrdom which were awarded to those who had perished in battle ; clearly demon- strate the unjustifiable and guilty intentions of the pseudo-successors of St. Peter, who dared to substi- *• Gibbon, chap. xi. Hallam, chap. vi. f Ibid. 38 THE CRUSADES. tute for the peaceful harmony of the Gospel the frightful yells of war, and for the humility of the Cross the expiatory and sanguinary revenge of the sword. What a blasphemous perversion of the purity of God's merciful designs ! To immolate at the foot of the Sepulchre of the God of Peace millions of human beings ! to inundate the holy corpse of him who never shed a drop of blood, with torrents of human blood ! Is this the moral of the reli- gion of Christ ? Hume, adverting to the sanguinary and profligate conduct of the Crusaders under Ri- chard the First, in the year 1191, very properly ex- claims, " Such were the libertine character and con- duct of the heroes engaged in this pious undertaking T^ Nor did the Popes and the clergy confine their un- holy exertions to keep alive the enthusiasm of war by exhortations, by threats, and by all the usual tricks of their deceitful sect ; but, in many instances, they exchanged the peaceful breviary for the sword, and joined those ferocious robbers in the anti-chris- tian work of slaughtering their own brethren. Such was the case with Honorius III., who, after having by his spiritual authority organized and assem- bled under the Labarum an immense army of adventurers of different nations, among whom were a body of Germans commanded by Cardinal Albano, ordered the chiefs who had applied to him for instructions to confer the supreme command on Cardinal John de Brienne.f And such was the blind * Vol. II, chap. X. " Up to the time of Charlemagne, the clergy were not ex- empted from military service ; but the practice of ecclesiastics appearing in war was renewed in succeeding ages. In the year 1127, I'eo IX. led in person an army of German mercena- THE CKUSADES. 39 fanaticism of those barbarians, that, although con- scious of the inadequacy of the stupid prelate for ries against Robert Guiscard, whose father, Roger, after many years of hard fighting, had conquered Sicily, and become the sole master of that island under the modest title of Count. The Pope was defeated, and made prisoner by the people, who im- plored, upon their knees, absolution from the enormous sin of having defended the liberty of their country. — See HaU lanij vol. i. page 337- Cardinal John de' Medici, (afterwards Leo X.) a legate in Tuscany of the ambitious Julius II., commanded the troops which that ferocious Pope sent against Prato, and which pillaged and destroyed that beautiful town. The Cardinal, a native of Tuscany, but an inveterate enemy to his country, was nearly killed by a shot, which struck the window where, like his pre- decessor Nero, he was standing feasting his brutal feelings on such an atrocious spectacle. More than six hundred individuals of both sexes, among whom were many children, fell the vic- tims of priestly revenge. — See a note by Bishop Scipio de Ricci to the Life of that virtuous prelate, by De Potter, vol. i. page 325. Amidst the convulsions which had agitated Italy, Ancona preserved a republican government until the year 1532, when Clement VII. determined to annex it to his dominions. Ac- cordingly, having succeeded in making the inhabitants believe that a fleet which Soliman had sent to the Adriatic meditated the conquest of their city, he prevailed upon them to accept the assistance of his small army, commanded by Lewis Gonzaga. The soldiers were admitted without distrust, and, as soon as they had possessed themselves of the gates and principal posts, arrested their magistrates, cut off the heads of six of them, dis- armed the inhabitants, built a fortress upon the Mount Siriaco, and stripped the town of all its ancient privileges.— See Sis- mondi, Histoire des Republiques Italiennes du Moyen Age, ch. xxii. I have selected from the bulky records of history these few instances of the warlike dispositions of the clergy, in order to show how far they had deviated from the path traced out by the divine Founder of Christianity, and how far their claims to the legitimate possession of his holy power are supported by justice. 40 THE CRUSADES. such an arduous task, they submitted with cheerful- ness, and partook of the general ruin of the army, which, to a single man, perished on the banks of the Nile, the dykes of which the Sultan Malacide had caused to be destroyed * The subject of the Cru- sades, not only for the folly of their institution, and the cruelty which their votaries uniformly displayed, but more particularly for the important revolution which they produced in the manners and in the happiness of the world, has nearly exhausted the attention of historians, and the observations of philo- sophers. And any fresh attempt on my part to amplify what has been so ably expounded by those who have preceded me in the discussion of such a fertile topic, would, I apprehend, be construed into a servile repetition of the opinions of others ; but I cannot abstain from briefly remarking, that the ob- ject which the Popes seemed to have had in view in instituting these so miscalled holy wars, namely, the assumption of an universal dictatorship, both spiritual and temporal, were ultimately defeated by the very means which they had employed in pro- moting it.f Those immense masses, consisting of so many heterogeneous interests, and retained under the banners of the Cross by the ephemeral authority of enthusiasm, and by an ungovernable desire of plunder, soon renounced their general bond of har- mony, when they perceived that the one had begun * Gibbon, Hume, Hallam, and Robertson. t A very learned historian properly observes, that the prin- cipal object which the Pontiffs had in view, in encouraging the Crusades, was to weaken the strength of those princes who might have dared to make head against their exorbitant despo- tism. — Nicol. Gurtler, Hist. Tempi, sect. xii. p. 13. THE CRUSADES. 41 to cool, and that they had been deprived of the other. Foiled in their expectations of victory, ha- rassed with unforeseen toils and fatigues, and even repressed by their leaders in their licentious course of rapine and murder, we see the soldiers of the Church, not unlike the numerous armies which Xerxes led in Greece, and Napoleon in Russia, recriminate against each other, and accuse of their miseries and sufferings that very holy Chief, whose power had hitherto governed their minds as the delegated au- thority of God. The first symptoms of discontent among the soldiers were greatly increased by the licentious behaviour of the clergy, and the revolting despotism of their chiefs, who seemed to feast amidst the desperate gloom which pervaded the field. The ill success of those holy wars, whose triumphant and speedy termination had been predicted by the Popes, with a degree of assurance more than prophetic, had strongly shook the superstitious confidence of the Crusaders, who now perceived that the infallibility of the Popes, and the genuineness of their claims to the viceroy alty of heaven, were mere phantoms re- verberated by their terrified imaginations. In this opinion they became strengthened, partly by their contact with the infidels, and partly by that febrile impatience of restraint which disappointment raises in the breasts of soldiers led to distant regions, and pining away under all sorts of distress. This salu- tary distaste for the spurious sanctity of the Chief of Rome, was not the only or the least advantage which the Crusaders imparted to Europe, from their ro- mantic expeditions. It was followed by the more solid gift of knowledge, which they had treasured up in their minds during their excursions in so many 42 THE CRUSADES. different regions. They had to march through countries much more civilized, and much better cul- tivated, than their own ; a contrast which must have made them feel how distant their rude unpolished manners were from the excellence of those of other nations. Such were Genoa, Pisa, and other princi- pal cities in Italy, which, under the tuition of liberal institutions, had attained the summit of glory, both in commerce, arts, and sciences ; Constantinople, which, from never having felt the desolating rage of the barbarous nations, was the finest city in Europe, which retained any image of the elegance and man- ners of the ancient times :* and Arabia, the seat of classical knowledge, and the cradle of the beau.v arts. In those countries they recruited their minds with new ideas, and enriched their hearts with new feel- ings, which, superseding their inveterate prejudices, created a new era in their intellects. These newly acquired impressions, which were not so light as to be effaced on their return to their native coun- tries, became visible immediately after the com- mencement of the first two Crusades, by the intro- duction in Europe of luxury and refined manners.f Such a sudden burst of glaring light upon the dark horizon of the middle age, powerfully tended to dispel barbarity and ignorance, and paved the way for that blessed reformation in religion which proved a mortal check to the tyrannical supremacy of the Popes. We, therefore, are indebted to superstition and folly for the means which emancipated us from such long-reigning evils. ± The continual exhaus- * Robertson's Introduction to Hist, of Charles V, t Ibid. X '' Nullum sine auctoramento malum est." — Sen. Ep. 69. THE CRUSADES. 43 tion of money which, notwithstanding the supplies acquired through rapine and extortions, the finances of the governments engaged in those gigantic un- dertakings must inevitably have experienced, tended more than any other cause to the immediate relaxa- tion of some of the most obnoxious ordinances of feudalism, and to the ultimate annihilation of vas- salage ; because, in proportion as botli princes and nobles felt the urgent pressure of want, and called on their vassals for contributions, they were com- pelled to submit to the bold demands of these latter, and divest themselves in their favour of some share of their ill-acquired poAver ; a circumstance which, in process of time, if it did not absolutely promote the amelioration of the destinies of mankind, powerfully tended to instil the minds of men with that salutary spirit of resistance against despotism which, kept in store for many centuries, burst at last into revolu- tions, and nearly accomplished the total overthrow of both spiritual and temporal despotism. Happily for the world, this penury of money was more severely felt by the Court of Rome, which was at the head of the holy confederacy of princes, than by any other government ; and as its ambition grew more enterprizing in proportion as it proved suc- cessful, the necessity of gratifying it became like- wise more urgent. Accordingly, under the specious names of privileges, immunities, and concessions, taxes of every kind were levied by the Popes, not only upon their own immediate subjects, but through the instrumentality of their spiritual power upon the subjects of other governments : and, as the advantages of these privileges were only felt by those who were able to buy them, the majority of 44 THE CRUSADES. the people were thus forcibly subjected to a class of petty despots, to whom, not unlike our tax- gatherers, the liberties of the people had been farmed. The revolting abuses which, in the pro- gress of time, crept into the disposal of these privi- leges, and the heinousness which their effects must unquestionably have propagated among the followers of the Christian religion, are energetically depicted by Luther in those immortal writings on which the destroying hand of time has had no power, because they are entrusted to the guardianship of the gra- titude of mankind.* CHAPTER V. INDULGENCES. AMONa the taxes which the court of the Vatican contrived to raise on the credulity of the vulgar, — such as dispensations from duties rigidly enforced by the discipline of the Christian Church, the autho- rity of intermarrying among relations, and the ab- solutions from almost every sin, the most conspi- cuous not only for the boldness of their conception, but for their iniquitous and blasphemous tendency, were — Indulgences. They were first invented in the eleventh century by Urban II., as a reward for those who volunteered their services in the war of the Crusades. f The administration of the two profligate pontiffs Alexander VI. and Julius II., had reduced the finances of the state to a * Chennitus' Edit, of Luther's Works. + Robertson's Charles V., vol. ii, book 2. INDULGENCES. 45 decided bankruptcy. Their immediate successor, Leo X., a prince endowed with a generous dispo- sition, an enterprising mind, an unconquerable am- bition, and an extraordinary share of talents, was obliged to resort to all kinds of measures in order to recruit his exhausted treasury, maintain his su- preme preponderance in the councils of nations, and indulge in the favourite exertions of all Popes to aggrandize their own families :* a propensity in which certainly none of his predecessors has sur- passed him. Among the various schemes which crowded round his febrile mind, the sale of Indul- gences became his child of adoption : a traffic, than which a more impious, and one more derogatory from the principles of every religion, was not even devised by the visionary and fertile brains of Paganism. These indulgences are atonements not only for crimes actually committed, but for crimes which are in the womb of futurity. According to the Romish doc- trines, a stock of good works of the saints, or, to talk in a financial language, a sinking fund, together with the merits of Jesus Christ, had accumulated in heaven, the disposal of which is vested in the Pope, who, for a certain sum of money, can appropriate it to the relief of guilty consciences, and to the obli- teration of sins. A share of this heavenly fund is thus transferred into the name of any criminal, without any regard to his enormities, who will agree to pay the * Become da questi tempi indietro non si e mai fatta men- zione di nipoti, o di parenti di alcuno Pontefice cosi per I'av- venire ne fia piena I'istoria, tanto che noi ci condurremo a figli- uoli ; ne manca altro a tentare ai Pontefici, se non che come eglino hanno disegnato in fine a tempi nostri di lasciarli prin- cipij cosi per 1' avvenire pensino lasciar loro il papato ereditario. Machiavellif 1st. Fior. lib. 1 . 46 INDULGENCES. price stipulated in a classified tarif. This execra- ble doctrine, the immediate tendency of which is to sap the foundations of virtue, and tear asunder all the ties of society by the encouragement of crime, is the greatest insult which atheism could devise against the Majesty of God : since it degrades the Supreme Being into a cunning usurer, who, for a small remu- neration, not only consents to repeal his own laws, and grant an amnesty to convicted felons, but holds out with the privilege of impunity an encouragement to the perpetration of crimes. This specimen of ex- ecrable blasphemy ought alone to have been suffi- cient to raise the whole world against a sect, whose principles are not only opposite to the morality of every religion, but are a most impious libel upon the Essence of God. The support which Indul- gences offered to crime, and the relief which they afforded to the conscience of the criminal, soon ren- dered that trade a most profitable source of wealth for the exhausted finances of Leo ; and, as success increases confidence, he became more enterprising in proportion as his measures proved successful. He therefore established in every part of Europe mar- kets for the sale of Indulgences, which he trusted chiefly to monks, or, generally, to ecclesiastics of known depravity.* The exclusive privilege of cir- culating these Indulgences in Geimany, together with a share in the profits (since among robbers in- terest is always the strongest bond of fidelity), was given to Albert, Elector of Mentz, and Archbishop of Magdeburgh, who employed a Dominican friar, of an infamous and intriguing character, named * Vide the excellent work of Frk Paolo Sarpi, 1st. del Concilio di Trento, pars 4. INDULGENCES. 47 Tetzel.* All the means which the mast sordid de- sire of gain could devise were employed by that degenerate Christian in order to render this traffic profitable : and Indulgences were accordingly hawked about the streets with the same indifference with which ordinary commodities are sold. Tetzel, the atheist Tetzel, with the assurance of an auctioneer, and practising that kind of quackery and those various tricks for which that trade is so conspicuous all over the world, extolled the efficacy of every Indulgence individually, which, he said, extended to the most enormous crimes, and even to exonerate from every shade of guilt and punishment the per- son who, if it were possible, should violate the Mo- ther of God! f The devastations which the intro- duction among nations of this execrable doctrines sanctioned by the Pontiffs, produced in Germany, soon became visible in the rapidly-growing immo- rality of society, and in the no less rapid increase of crime. Those hearts which did not catch the con- tamination of such blasphemies, bewailed in secret the last extinction of Christianity, and offered up to God prayers for the speedy deliverance of mankind from this severe visitation. These warm supplica- tions soon reached the throne of the Almighty, who, through the mediation of an humble individual, effected, for the second time, the deliverance of Christianity from the yoke of Paganism. • Robertson, vol. ii. book 2 t Robertson, vol. ii. book 2 ; Chemnitus, editor of Luther's works ; Gibbon, vol. xi. ch. 58. 48 CHAPTER VI. LUTHEU: ORIGIN OF THE REFORMATION. Luther, an Augustine friar, possessing an ar- dent mind stored with the treasures of classical knowledge, a spirit bent on contemplation and soli- tude, and a courage of no ordinary temper, found during his solitary studies a copy of the Bible, writ- ten in the original language, which lay neglected in an obscure part of the library of his monastery.* Laying aside all his other studies, he devoted his attention wholly to the study of the Bible, which he soon translated into the German idiom. This was the engine which he boldly used in battering down the proud bulwark of Popery, which, although en- trenched within the walls of centuries, and guarded by the legions of fanaticism, he soon succeeded in levelling to the ground. A book now entered the field against the gigantic power of the Popes : the struggle was long and obstinate, but the victory not dubious, because that book contained the essence of Christianity, pure as it proceeded from its Divine Moulder. It was the mandate of a master, who claims the restitution of his property from the grasp of perjured administrators. Lu- ther ascended the pulpit, and, first attacking the execrable doctrine of Indulgences, arraigned in all its hideousness before the tribunal of God the vete- ran perfidy of the Court of Rome. The spell broke on a sudden, and the sun of divine truth once more irradiated the hemisphere of intellect. Amidst a * Robertson, vol. ii. book 2. LUTHER. 49 ^torm of jarring interests raised by the dying ven- geance of the Court of Rome, the purification of Christianity was completely effected, and the re- formation of the hitherto existing religion became the standard of the true believers in the Gospel. The thunders vi^hich Leo X., Clement VII., Adrian II., and Paul IV. launched forth from the Vatican against the Reformation, vanished before that book of truths, and the scattered fragments of Papal despotism could only rally under the banners of the ignorant but wicked Loyola.* Luther perceived that the human mind, wearied with the many jarring theories which had been en- * Of all the monastic orders, the two most conspicuous for the power which they attained, for the riches they acquired, and for the signal services which they rendered to Popery, are the Dominicans and the Jesuits. The founder of the lirst was the sanguinary Dominick, to whose evil genius the world owes the existence of the tribunal of the Inquisition. The institutor of the Jesuits was Ignatius Loyola, a Biscayan gentleman ; who, having been dangerously wounded at the siege of Pampeluna, gave himself up with eagerness to the reading of the lives of saints, in order to beguile the tedious hours of his confinement. His imagination, heated with religious enthusiasm, formed the plan of the society of the Jesuits ; and on his recovery he sub- mitted the well-digested plan to Pope Paul III., at a period when the spiritual power of the Church of Rome had nearly expired under Luther's unrelenting hostilities. The Pope eagerly embraced this unexpected assistance ; and his interests, and those of his successors, became from that moment identified with Jesuitism — See Robertson, vol. ii. book 2, and Voltaire's Questions, Encyclop. The ravages which this monster of super- stition has committed, and, alas ! still commits on the manors of civilization, are too numerous to be recorded in a note. His^- tory has done justice to this company of scholastic banditti, who, by the help of the most refined casuistry, have constituted them- selves the unblushing supporters of prevarication, perjury, ig' norance, despotism, and, in short, of all sorts of crimes. E 50 - ORIGIN OF grafted upon them by the absolutism of religion, had now reached that point when examination must pre- cede belief. He therefore, with the light of analysis, boldly entered the gloomy labyrinth of controversy, and separating paradoxes from truths, and interests from morals, established his religion upon the solid principle of examining before believing. The subtle- ties of Peripateticism, which for so many centuries had ruled the intellectual world, began now to yield to simple straight-forward doctrines, derived from the Gospel ; until, a short time afterwards, they entirely vanished on the appearance of those two luminous planets — Locke and Newton. It was then that thought, relieved from the terrors of a sanguinary sect, dared to soar to the lofty regions of the firma- ment, and entering the august abode of the Deity, behold the genuine principle of connection between the Creator and the creature. It was there that the mind could contemplate Majesty, divested of the low attributes of revenge, stretching out the hand of mercy to the true believer. But the advantages which men derived from the Reformation were not solely confined to the redemption of their minds from the terrors of a spurious religion : by the establishment of the system of free discussion, Luther revived once more a love for the study of classic literature, and thus contributed to rescue from oblivion the holy monuments of Roman and Grecian knowledge.* The ardent desire of drinking the salutary balm of the Bible at the original source, introduced the necessity of studying the ancient languages, in which that precious book was origin- * C'est lui qui a donne Fimpulse a I'etude de Tantiquite. Stael, de rAUemagne, vol. HI. THE REFORMATION. 51 ally written ; and this study of the languages of antiquity gradually promoted the diffusion of know- ledge, and knowledge taught men how to recover their lost privileges ; because, as the Reformation had sprung out of the violent stretches of authority, and abuses of every description on the part of the Ro- man Church, princes were now made sensible of the necessity of relaxing from their severe doctrines of des- potism, and of adopting towards their subjects a more temperate and liberal policy, lest the same revolu- tion should happen in politics, to which the tyranny of the Popes had given rise in religion. At any rate, Luther pointed out to oppressed nations the way to obtain redress, and at once and for ever broke that spell of infallibility which had become one of the brightest gems of temporal and spiritual diadems.* From the era of the Reformation, we may equally date a change in the policy of the Court of Rome, which, previous to that event, enacted its laws with the bold confidence of supremacy, and with the con- sciousness of having no opponents to contend with ; whereas it was now compelled to resort to the cau- tious theory of experiments, and to substitute cun- ning for power, and address for decision. Being no longer able to intimidate, the Popes were now obliged to attempt to mislead ; and hence the Court of the Vatican became the classical school for skilful diplo- * " The Reformation taught them, by a fatal example, what they seem not before to have apprehended, that the credulity and patience of mankind might be overburdened and exhausted." Robertson, vol. iv. book 12. " Luther en decidant la reforme religieuse, a prelude a la re- forme politique. Le jour ou le doute a ^te permis sur les Papes, I'infallibilite des Roisacesse d'etre un dogme." — Mi?ierve Fran- ^aise, torn vii. page 469. E 2 52 ORIGIN OF inacy, or rather the focus of all species of political perfidy. Before the sixteenth century, the Popes were at the head of the diplomacy of the world, which they swayed with an unlimited authority. The Reformation put an end to their political con- sequence, and forced it once more within the original boundaries of spirituality. A few Bulls were from time to time issued ; but they were in effect like spent balls, or like those shots which at the end of an obstinate contest are fired at random, or by some other casualty. It is, therefore, to the Reformation that we owe our emanci])ation from the abject sla- very under which we had groaned since the extinc- tion of Christianity. The divine right, that dreadful scourge, which the Popes had long wielded to the utter ruin of the interests of mankind, now began to give away to the wholesome doctrine of the sovereignty of the people ; and kings were now taught to hold their crowns in trust, not from the mercenary concessions of a priest, but from the regular institutions of society."* We saw, therefore, one of the heroes of the sacred league of Sm alcalde, * It could not be expected that the impulse given by Lu- ther's doctrines to the minds of men would, on a sudden, nerve them to the noble undertaking of rescuing their own rights from the grasp of despotism That work could only be the con- sequence of their political education, of which the progress is always as tardy as the results are sure. But, although no im- portant attempt, deserving the dignified name of revolution, was made before that of the North Americans, still between the Reformation and that auspicious event, strong symptoms of the febrile impatience of nations now and then showed themselves to discompose the symmetry of despotism, and, like thunders, the heralds of an approaching storm, foretold at no great distance the American and French Revolutions. THE REFOKMATION. 53 a petty prince of Germany, tear from the veteran brows of the hypocrite despot of Germany and Spain, the ill-earned laurels, steeped in the blood of so many thousand victims of his ambition. People now began to doubt ; and doubt, especially in religious faith, is the parent of unbelief. The con- duct of the Popes, their vices, their follies, their frailties, the errors of their administration, the im- posture with which they supported their religious mysteries, the luxury which they displayed in all their actions, and the sanguinary despotism with which they ruled the Church of Christ, were freely canvassed, and boldly contrasted with the innocence and simplicity of the primitive Church. The re- sult could not be equivocal ; minds took a new direction, and those who, after abjuring the errors of Popery, felt not a full confidence in the new doctrines, remained for some time in a state of sus- pense, and ultimately embraced the dogmas of other reformers, who did not fail to show themselves on the then open stage of religion. The cruelty with which the Popes treated the new sectarians, instead of calling forth the gratitude of the Catholics, ex- cited in many instances their indignation, as its tendency was to render that sect hated and detest- ed ; a feeling which appeared conspicuous in Rome at the death of that violent priest, Adrian II.* • Immediately on the news of his demise being made public, the door of the house of his physician, Giovanni Ambracino, was found decorated with wreaths of laurels ; in the centre of the principal of which shone conspicuously the following la- conic but eloquent tribute of national gratitude: — "Patrije liberatori S P Q R ;" — To his country's Liberator. — Fide Juvio, Vita Adriani ; Rohertson ; Pignotti ; and many other historians* 54 ORIGIN OF They could not bring themselves to believe that a religion which courted inquiry, recommended sim- plicity, proscribed luxury, inculcated charity, and disclaimed violence, should be confused by stern mysteries, by tortures, by murders, by confiscations, and even by eternal damnation. The Pontiffs early perceived the fast-increasing influence of Luther's doctrines, and, instead of putting themselves at the head of public opinion, and, by a timely surrender of a part of their usurped dictatorship, striving to retain the remainder, they assumed a military appearance, and entered the field against their formidable oppo- nent ; — an error into which, not many centuries after, their worthy supporters, the Bourbons, have fallen, who strenuously opposed the march of the French revolution, which had sprung out of the abuse of temporal power, as the Reformation had arisen from the abuse of spiritual authority. They accord- ingly drew more and more tight their bonds of inti- macy with kingly despots, and, confederating spiri- tual with political tyranny, vowed destruction to all species of principles which bore the appearance of liberalism. Their infatuation and their madness went so far as to enact, that any person found in possession of a copy of the Bible translated by Lu- ther, or by his followers, should be burned alive.* This ill-conceived and worse-timed spirit of per- secution, threw a lustre of sanctity upon the fol- lowers of Luther's doctrines, who were now com- pared to those noble champions of the primitive Church, who preferred a glorious martyrdom to the * Robertson ; Gibbon ; Fra Paolo ; and every other writer of that aera ; and especially Bossuet's Defensio Eccl. Gallic. THE REFOIIMATION. V\ ^' violation of their principles. Anathemas folio w©^;^^^;^^ anathemas in rapid succession, and this once formi-^^^5i-^K dable engine, which ought to have been brandished, but never actually used, hastened the downfal of papal authority : because, both those who believed in the infallibility of the Pope, and those who did not, perceiving that the effects of those anathemas did not correspond with the formidable destruction with which they were represented to be pregnant, now felt disposed to distrust the efficacy of any other mandate of the Court of Rome. And this feeling of distrust, blended with jealousy, became more consi- derable, in proportion as people beheld the Bishop of Rome become instrumental in the usurpation, by powerful citizens, of the liberty of their own country, and receiving the profligate wages of its prostitution. But from this base traffic of his holy services with despots, sprung out his tem- poral power, and the assumption of the royal pur- ple, as will be more evidently proved in the fol- lowing Chapter. CHAPTER VII. ORIGIN OF THE TEMPORAL POWER OB^ THE POPES. The sudden conversion of Constantine from Pa- ganism to the Catholic religion, (which proved so fatal to the destinies of Italy,) and his ill-conceived and worse-expressed devotion towards the Bishops of Rome, gave the latter room for forging in suc- ceeding reigns, those famous donations, upon which 56 i'EMPORAL POWER those holy despots erected the mischievous building of temporal power. The following events justify my assertions.* During the reign of the imbecile Childeric III. King of the Franks, Charles Martel, and, after him, his son Pepin, held, imder the modest name of Mayor of the Palace, the chief command of the ar- mies, and the supreme authority over all matters of state. His splendid talents, both in the cabinet and in the field, supported by those not less eminent of his son Charlemagne ; his liberalities and his other personal accomplishments, soon gained him the affec- tion of the army, and the esteem of the nation : advan- tages of which he availed himself in order to dethrone the weak Childeric, and usurp his sceptre.f Ac- cordingly, having, both by his accustomed liberalities and by using the authority of the Pope, easily suc- ceeded in gaining over to his interests the armies, and the principal chiefs of the kingdom, he was raised on the shields of the soldiers, and proclaimed King of the Franks, after having shav,ed and confined in a monastery for life the ill-fated Childeric. Pope Zachary, the successor of the two Gregories, having, both by the chiefs of the armies and of the State, been requested to relieve them from their previous oaths of allegiance (before they had attempted the * Dante in the 19th canto of the Inferno, alludes to the fatal effects of such supposed donation by Constantine, in the fol- lowing stanza : — *' Ahi Costantin di quanto mal fu matre, Non la tua converzion ma quella dote, Che da te prese il primo ricco patre." t Le premier qui fut Roi, fut un soldat heureux, Qui sert bien son pays, n'a pas besoin d'ayeux. Merope, par Voltaire. OF THE POPES. 57 dethronement of their former master) he being in the interest of Pepin and Charlemagne, very promptly decided the question, and without hesi- tation absolved them all from the oath of allegiance to the fallen King, and transferred it to his more fortunate successor. The coronation of Pepin was planned by St. Boniface, and performed by Stephen III. in the monastery of St. Denis, with all the cere- monials which usually attend such exhibitions, and with a degree of zeal on the part of the Pope not at all justified by the disgraceful origin of the trans- action. Stephen himself, fearing lest his zealous officiousness in behalf of the usurper should be traced to its true source, laboured to persuade the world that it had been dictated to him by feelings of gra- titude, for the signal services which the new King and his father had rendered to Christianity. Charles Martel had deserved, in truth, the gratitude of the Church of Rome, for the splendid victories which he had at different times gained over the Saracens, who had successfully overrun Europe, and for a long time kept it in a state of abject bondage. Nor were less meritorious nor less shining the services which Pepin, who had now assumed the name of the Champion of the Church, had rendered the Roman See, by the repeated defeats and final over- throw of the power of Astolphus, King of the Lom- bards, who had kept Italy, and Rome especially, in a state of cruel slavery, and subjected the Popes to the most abject humiliations. Nor did the gratitude of the new King towards the Chief of Rome confine itself to the recollection of past services : as, accord- ing to the testimony of ecclesiastical writers in the interests of Rome, having in the years 7o4 and 58 TEMPORAL POWER 755 gained two decisive battles over Astolphus, he compelled him to deliver up to the Roman See, the exarchate of Ravenna, Pentapolis, and all the castles of which he had possessed himself in the Dukedom of Rome.* I have dwelt rather too much on the usurpation by Pepin of the throne of France, for a twofold motive : — first, in order to show that the assumption of temporal power by the Popes was an infraction of the covenant signed by St. Peter, and an utter deviation from the meaning of the Gospel, as it originated in a criminal condescen- sion on the part of the chief of the Church, to sanction usurpations ; and did not flow from the same divine source from which Christianity derived its principles; and secondly, because I wanted to prove, with reference to a more recent instance, that the Court of Rome has always evinced a readiness to exchange its spiritual for temporal power, whenever opportunities offered, without paying any regard to decency or justice, and provided its right of disposing of thrones (that abominable jurisprudence miscalled divine right) were unequivocally asserted. And, if proofs were wanting of the tenacious adhe- rence of the pontiffs of all ages to their sordid simony, * and to their proud supremacy over all worldly objects, we might find a striking instance in the recent event to which I have just now alluded. After a lapse of more than ten centuries, we have seen the same farce of usurpation consecrated by a Pope, represented on the same stage of Paris by actors akin in their passions to their ancient prototypes. We have witnessed an aged Pontiff * Gibbon, vol. ix. chap. 49. Hallanij toI. ii. OF THE POPES. 59 undergo the fatigues of a long journey, and anoint with the same alleged sacred oil of St. Remis an illustrious soldier, as bold in his conceptions as quick in the execution of his plans. Of a sol- dier, whose hard-earned laurels, far surpassing in splendour any badge of glory of all preceding ages, had been fostered by the hand of liberty : of that ungrateful citizen, who dared to load with fetters that beautiful France, which for nearly thirty years had emptied her veins, and had exhausted her bosom, in supporting the sanguinary glory of that perjured son of Liberty, Napoleon Buonaparte. Nolo Barbaram vellere mortuo Leoni.* * Mart. lib. x. page 90^ ver. 9 and 10. It is not my design to stigmatize the memory of that truly extraordinary character, and join the crowd of his coward detrac- tors, who, while he was alive, and in the zenith of his power, would not have dared to raise their eyes to contemplate the splendour of his diadem. But, as one of the many thousand individuals whose hearts, heated with the sacred fire of liberty, have sacrificed their fortunes, their happiness, and their health, on the altar of that bewitching goddess, I may be permitted to indulge in a few de- sultory remarks upon his unjustifiable desertion from the ranks of his true friends — the men of the Revolution. Since the glori- ous battle of Marengo, I became decidedly hostile to his policy : I appeal to my country, to my name, to my principles, for the veracity of my assertions. I admired Napoleon the leader of the generous defenders of liberty ; I hated Napoleon the usurper of the hard-earned rights of his own countrymen, and the founder of an Imperial Dynasty. My opinion, therefore, cannot be dis- trusted. That he was one of the ablest generals, that has ever appeared on the fields of Mars, not even his most inveterate enemies could undertake to disprove. That he was neither cruel nor revengeful, is attested by those restless conspirators, the Emigrants, whose lives he incautiously spared, and who now, loaded with riches and dignities for a natural reaction of 60 TEMPORAL POWER These two glaring specimens of the plial^leness of the Church of Rome to sanction usurpations, and their principles, heap curses on the memory of their benefactor, in that sink of courtly corruption, the Tuileries. That he was generous in rewarding public services, is proved by those de- serters of all parties, the IMarshals, whom he drew from among the ranks of his armies, and who now exhibit themselves in the rear of a motley assemblage of monks and priests, with a torch instead of a sword in their hands. If he had been cruel, he would still be on the throne of France, as he would have exter- minated those false counsellors whom he selected from the Fauxbourg St. Germain, and by whose perfidious advices he was encouraged in his mad career of ambition and military des- potism. If he had been cruel and revengeful, he would be like the Tyrant of the Escurial — a king swimming in the blood of his people. But, while I acquit him from the charge of cruelty and revenge, I must accuse him of the most absolute despotism that ever disgraced the heart of a man ; a despotism which, by the restoration of royalty and of the Catholic mum- meries, by the restricted intercourse of knowledge, by the curtailed liberty of the press, and by the baneful military systems, had forced civilization to retrace its steps two cen- turies back. Neither the mighty impulse which his genius gave to arts and sciences; nor the fresh life which he in- fused into the veins of industry ; nor those stupendous monu- ments, which stand as centinels at the temple of his glory, can extenuate his guilt, and compensate us for the loss of the bliss of our liberty. Egypt, Greece, and Rome became the cradle of the arts and sciences, from the moment they lost their liberty : and Sesostris, Pericles, the Pisistratidse, Augustus, and the Popes, were the creators of those wonders of art, which, after having successfully resisted the confederated power of the past, command now the admiration of the present age. The poe- tical genius of Horace and Virgil blazed forth in the court of Augustus; and Tasso's, and Ariosto's unrivalled muse sung the praises of two petty Italian despots. France was indebted to those dissolute despots, the Capets, for the celebrity she ac- quired in many useful departments of industry ; and Tuscany, ji magna licet componere parvis^ owes to the robbers of her OF THE POPES. 61 absolve nations from the oath of allegiance to their misnamed legitimate rulers, provided its interests liberty, the Medici, that supremacy in arts and sciences which has rendered her worthy of the appellation of the Attica of Italy. The patronage which despots grant to knowledge is like a talis- man, which diverts the minds of their subjects from the main point of their criminal pursuits ; it is like the money which a flying thief throws down to his pursuers. But, above all, the species of knowledge which finds shelter under the wings of royal favour, is not the same which rests on the eternal basis of truth and reason ; and which, raising the embargo laid on our minds and on our hearts by superstition and ignorance, leaves our feelings open to the career of thought. Natural sciences, whose progress is ruled by the discipline of calculation, and re- stricted within the precincts of facts ; Poetry, which very sel- dom takes a delight in celebrating the virtuous poverty of Tu- bero and Fabricius, while it extols to the skies the magnificent liberality of Augustus and Mecaenas — are the spoiled children of princely affection : the first strip our mind of the spirit of ad- venture, and sober it down to the regimen of a monotonous existence ; the other imparts to it the inebriety of enthusiasm, which deprives it of the support of reason. The text of the truth of my remarks may be found in the biography of those wretched despots Lewis XIV. and Lewis XV., and in the annals of the Church of Rome, when the Bastille and the Inquisition were the colleges where minds which had evinced early symp- toms of genius, were charitably educated. Mathematics and chemistry, under the reign of Napoleon, made such extraor- dinar.* progress, as to balance the coalesced success of all pre- ceding a;, es ; and, under the present government of Charles X., the Bishop of Hermopolis, and the Jesuits, we have heard the il- lustrious Cuvier, at the tribune of the Royal Institute, celebrate the sterling utility of chemistry, on the ruin of the fine arts and moral sciences. But howsoever oppressive Napoleon's despo- tism might have been, still it was an infirmity individually af- fecting his reign, which would have ceased with his life ; when nations, to whom he had taught the secret of their own strength, and the art of turning it to their best advantage, would have recovered the plenitude of their rights, and supported their 62 TEMPORAL POWER are not neglected, prove more forcibly than any argument, or any fact, that a connection, of what- duration by the moral weapons which had been entrusted to them.* The map of Italy, carved out into so many small shares, had by the iron hand of Napoleon been nearly restored to that * That most of the legislative acts which Napoleon enacted were intended for posterity more than for the immediate benefit of the French nation, is attested by the absence of sympathy which they exhibited for present circumstances, and by the heinousness of which they were productive. I select one of the many anecdotes with which my memory is familiar, cor- roborative of my opinion. At one of the sittings of the Council of State, Napoleon proposed a certain measure, intimating that it should be ushered into the world by a Decree. Threilhard having observed that it would be more regular if it originated with the Senate, Napoleon, who on such occasions, was docile and amiable, replied that it would be the same, as the Senate had the authority of rejecting it within twelve days. The Counsellor having by a smile inti- mated, that to apprehend a resistance on the part of the Senate would be a mockery. Napoleon hastily replied, " / understand your meaning — the Senate will not dare to contra- dict me : but my measures are framed for posterity — moije passe- rai, et les institutions resteront." I had this anecdote from a celebrated character who was present. — I must not omit to trans- cribe here a most sensible distich, inscribed on a very rustic and old cottage on the Semplon, which eloquently eulogizes Napo- leon's glory — " Hie Bonaparte viam proprio patefecit Olimpo." The resignation with which the mighty Despot of Europe bore his torturing imprisonment in the island of St. Helena, gives his memory more claims to immortality than all his splendid achievements, both in the field and in the cabinet. There is more fortitude in supporting misfortunes, than by avoiding them by a voluntary death. Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere Vitam, fortius ille facit qui miser esse potest. Mart. Epigr. lib. 2. OF THE POPES. 63 soever species, with that seat of political prosti- tution, must be viewed, both by nations and govern- ments, with the utmost distrust ; and that any at- tempt by the Popes at encroaching on the privileges of the people must be checked with promptitude, and resisted with vigour. This salutary spirit of unity for which nature has intended her. He was a doctor, who, conscious of the disease of children, forces into their stomachs medicines which cause a momentary nausea to the palate, but which ultimately restore health to their whole frame. In addition to the baneful influence of spiritual and temporal tyranny, many other causes had conspired to mollify our souls, and strip our minds of the noble plumage of hardi- hood ; — I mean poetry and music. The divine songster of love, Petrarch, had, by the enchanting melody of his lyre, softened our hearts into a sweet lethargy, which had left us no other life but the life of love : and the unrivalled Metastasio, by translating into the most bewitching poetry that has ever been known, the most abject doctrines of monarchy and slavery, had made of the Italians a nation of dramatists and musicians, who praised their wretchedness in cadences.* We wanted a despot, who, by the magic splendour of military glory, could force us from the igno- miny of our effeminate life, and, like Achilles torn by the friend- ly hand of Ulysses from the side of Deidamia, re-establish us once more in the possession of our lost celebrity. All petty feuds of national rivalry had sunk into the unanimous desire of * Mais le Theatre de I'Opera n'etait point d'une si noble origine : n6 ^ la cour voluptueuse des princes, il ne pouvait etre destine h former des heros ; on lui demandait de reunir toutes les jouissances, toutes les emotions a la fois : de captiver en meme terns les yeux, les oreilles, et les plus tendres afl^ections du coeur: d'ennoblir la volupte, de la sanctifier en quelque sorte par le melange des sentimens delicats et releves ; et si Ton veut y chercher un but politique par de la de la jouissance actuelle, d'oter au prince tout remord de sa mollesse, aux sujets toute pens^e par de Ik le tems present." — Sismondi, Hist, de la Lit. du Midi d' Europe ^ torn. ii. page 304. r 64 TEMPORAL POWER foresight seems not to have escaped the attention of the grateful Carlovingians, whose dynasty had succeeded the hereditary power of the Merovingian family : because, soon after the first ebullitions of enthusiastic gratitude had subsided in the cool calculations of the statesman, Charlemagne beheld with dismay and jealousy the existence, in the centre of Italy, of a temporal power, which, aided by spi- ritual weapons, might, at some not very distant period, become a formidable opponent to his views of aggrandizement, and crush his plans in their in- fancy, lie therefore directed all his efforts to the suppression of this fast-rising Colossus of authority, by respectfully but firmly denying the confirmation of the alleged grants to the Roman See ; so that even in his own lifetime, the e.vecution of his own mid his father s promises was respectfullij eluded ;* and, after his death, Ravenna as well as Rome was numbered in the list of the metropolitan cities. But even the legality of the grant itself from Pepin to the Popes is by most historians firmly contested, on the score of never having been stipulated ; and the same authorities boldly assert that the confirma- tion of the said donation by Charlemagne, was the Italian independence. The embryo of our political existence was formed : our feelings were rapidly rallying into the nucleus of our future glory. We had an army, a navy, a flag. We had a code of laws, a King of Italy. The Pope, the terror of our minds, had fled ; and with him had disappeared those legions of devouring monks, who, like harpies, consumed the vigour of our intellects. . . . Alas ! the spell is now broken : re- deun Austriaca regna, et cum illis redit infamia nostra ! Italy is again divided among twelve despots, and her veins are con- tinually being emptied by the hungry leeches of Vienna. • Gibbon, chap. 49. OF THE POPES. 65 result of a well got up imposition of Adrian I. upon that accomplished prince.* * Fraud is the resource of weakness and cunning : and the strong though ignorant barbarian was often entangled in the net of sacerdotal policy. — Gibbon^ ch. xlix. §. 9. Gregory I., miscalled the Great, so much celebrated for his enmity to all kinds of knowledge — although very learned in theology — and for his distaste of arts, of which he studiously destroyed the most precious monuments, cheerfully condescended to crown the Centurion Phocas, who in the year 602 had mur- dered the unfortunate Maurice and his nine children, under circumstances of the most atrocious cruelty ; and who, through a series of crimes and murders, had usurped the throne of the East. Of this monster in human shape, who deluged the world with blood, and overstepped the most extreme boundaries of bar- barism, it would be impossible for my pen to trace a faithful picture. Historians of all ages, and of all parties, have done ample justice to his deserts, and consigned his name to the im- perishable execration of ages. However, this same Phocas was the friend, nay, the adopted child, of Gregory the Great, and the Saint, who in the Roman martyrology shines forth as one of the brightest gems of the Triregnum. Gibbon (vol. viii. ch. 46), with his accustomed spirit of discrimination, properly observes: — " y^s a subject and a Christian it was the duty of Gregory to ac- quiesce in the established Government ; but the joyful applause with which he saluted the fortune of the assassin has sullied with indelible disgrace the character of the Saint." Giovanni di Sarisberi and Fra Leone, both warm admirers of Gregory, praise him very highly for having destroyed the statues of the Pagans. St. Antonino, quoted by Cardinal Giovanni di Domenico, asserts that he tried to burn the works of Cicero, as he had done with the manuscripts of several other classics. — See the History of Tuscany, by my friend and master, the illustrious Doctor Pig- notti ; torn. iv. 6G CHAPTER VIII. TEMPOKAL POWER OF THE POPES. (CONTINUED.) Towards the end of the eighth century, the False Decretals, or Collections of the Decrees of the early bishops of Rome, were publicly circulated. They were forged by an obscure monk, Isidore Mercadore, and solely tended to promote the inte- rests of the Church of Rome, as I shall more com- pletely prove. One of these Decretals purported to be a donation by Constantine to Saint Silvester, the Roman Bishop, for the miraculous cure of the leprosy with which that Emperor was afflicted. The reward was certainly more splendid, than the benefit conferred by the Bishop had been useful ; as it con- sisted of the free and perpetual sovereignty given to that Bishop and his successors, of Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the West. This impudent piece of forgery was ushered into the world by Adrian I., in a letter addressed to Charlemagne, wherein he calls upon that high-minded prince to tread in the steps of the great Constantine, and show an equal libe- rality towards the Roman See. Charlemagne, either from conviction, or, more likely, from motives of personal interest, confirmed the grant ; but reserved for himself and successors the right of reversion, and more explicitly maintained their supremacy over the power of the Popes, and their unquestionable right of electing and confirming them. The same reservations were stipulated by the successors of Charlemagne, who confirmed to the several succeeding Pontiffs TEMPOKAL POWEll OF THE POPES. 67 his and his father's donations.* The scandalous disputes of Leo III. with the nephew, and favourite of his predecessor Adrian, the blood which was spilt in those ignominious contests, and the per- sonal danger which Leo incurred in an affray at Rome, and his subsequent rescue from prison, are historical facts f He afterwards went to Pa- derbon to pay a visit to Charlemagne at his head- quarters, attended by a pompous retinue of the no- bility and clergy, and there captivated the friend- ship of the Emperor by the splendid offer of the crown of Italy. Charlemagne did not hesitate to accept the gift proffered by the subtle priest; and, after having confirmed him Pope, or Bishop of Rome, immediately repaired to this latter city, where having, at the suggestion of Pope Leo, ex- changed his national costume for the habit of a Ro- man patrician, he was by the crafty Bishop honour- ed with a precious crown on his head, and both by himself and the multitude saluted Emperor of the Romans, after the celebration of mass in the cathe- dral : his head and body were consecrated by the holy unction, and himself was adored by the Pontiff, according to the rules of the ceremonial.^ This * Othoj crowned Emperor of the Romans under the name of Augustus (962), confirmed to the Pope the donations of Pepin and Charlemagne, with the following clause : " Sa ve in every thing, our authority ^ and that of our son, and of our descendants." History of the Church, by Rened. Luitprand. chap. vi. t See Renedin ; Fra Paolo ; Giannone ; Pignotti ; Denina ; and the English historians. X See Muratari, Annali d'ltalia, tom. vi. ; Sigonio de Regno Italiae ; Giannone ; Gibbon, tom. ix. ch. 49 ; and Hallam, tom. ii. ch. 7. F 2 68 TEMPORAL POWER farce, the reliearsal of which had no doubt taken up the attention of the illustrious performers for many weeks, met with complete success; as it pleased not only the pride of the two principal heroes, the Emperor and the Pope, but satisfied the ambition of the Italians, who saw, after many centuries, the nationality of their country restored by the influ- ence of a mighty and accomplished prince.* After the demise of Charlemagne, the authority of the Pontiffs derived new strength from the reign of Lewis the Meek, his successor, but more especially from the accession to the imperial throne of Charles the Bald. The domestic and foreign wars, the family and political feuds, the dissensions and con- fusions of all kind, arising not only from local mo- tives but from the nature of the times, which dis- graced the reign of those imbecile princes, gave the Popes full scope for carrying on with success their * Charlemagne, with that spirit of foresight of which all the actions of his life bear so prominent a stamp, seems to have per- ceived that the submissive humility displayed by Leo on that occasion, was not the self-denial, or the Christian disinterested- ness of the Chief of the Church, but a mark of liberality assumed under circumstances, in order to lull the illustrious Prince into a blind security, and cover the aspiring ambition of the Court of Rome to universal sovereignty. Having associated with himself, when still very young, his son Lewis in the throne, he commanded him a few hours before his death to take the crown from the altar and put it on his own head : thus showing by that vigo- rous act, that he was alive to the dangers of granting the Pontiffs the privilege of making kings, and wielding the temporal scep- tre of the world. This same praiseworthy solicitude to check the enterprizing ambition of the Court of Rome, appears in almost every page of the history of the Carlovingian race, who seem not to have suffered their gratitude for services rendered to the chief of their family to trench upon the rights of the throne. — See Eginhart de Vita Caroli Magni ; Muratori, Annali d' Italia. OF THE POPES. 69 intriguing plots, and for enforcing the direful doc- trine that the Bishop of Rome had, by Jesus Christ, been consecrated the supreme legislator of the whole spiritual Church, and that the bishops of all nations were his suffragans and dependants. It was in vain that the Galilean Church, with that noble courage which proved more successful a few cen- turies afterwards,* made for some time a stand * I mean the Pragmatic Sanction, that famous ordinance of Charles VII., drawn up at Bruges, with the consent of the grandees and prelates assembled there, published in the year 1438. It contained a regulation of ecclesiastical discipline, con- formable to the canons of the Council of Basil and Constance, and since used by the Gallican Church as a barrier against the en- croachments of the Popes. It consisted of twenty-three Articles ; and regulated the form of elections made by the clergy, restored to every Church the privilege of choosing its bishop, and to every monastery that of electing its abbot ; declared the collations to belong to ordinaries, and to them alone the right to establish prebends, to assign a third of the benefices to graduates, and to abolish reservations, annates, and other grievances. The Prag- matic Sanction was drawn up in concert with the Fathers of the Council of Basil, and was in its chief designs similar to the preceding one contained in six Articles, and published by St. Lewis in the year 1268. Pope Julius II. extorted from Lewis XI., an abrogation of the Pragmatic Sanction, on which occasion it was dragged by himself through the streets of Rome, whip- ping it all the way. Parliament having strenuously resisted the abrogation, Lewis soon perceived that he had been deceived by Geoffroy, Bishop of Arras, to whom the intriguing Pope had promised a hat, besides some more lucrative rewards ; he there- fore not only neglected to execute it, but published new edicts against the pecuniary extortions and unwarrantable pretensions of the Court of Rome. So that, in spite of the indignation of the Popes, supported by the usual display of spiritual threats, the Pragmatic Sanction kept its ground until the fatal Concordat be- tween Francis I. and Leo X., in the year 1517, when it was abolish- ed, and along with it the independence of the Gallican Church, the King only being invested with the privileges of nominating 70 TEMPORAL POWER against the despotism of Gregory IV. The demo- ralization of the bishops, the ignorance of the clergy, to bishoprics and vacant benefices. In return for this base sur- render of the rights of the Gallican Church, Francis I. received for himself and his successors, the appellation of most Christian. The illustrious Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, who, for his strenuous resistance to the usurpation and despotism of the Roman See, has deserved the name of the Champion of the Gallican Church, has left in his admirable work, Defensio Declarationis Cleri Gal- licani, a complete history of the policy of the Popes. He com- plains that the religious solicitude of the French clergy (of whom he was the intrepid leader) for the preservation of the rights and immunities of the Gallican Church, had irritated both the Pope and his adherents, who had stigmatized them with the epithet of JanscnistSj and accused them of supporting that and many other sects, ab Apostolica Sede damnatas. Invi- diosissime nos traducunt, exclaims the bold prelate, and vindi- cates his character, and that of the French clergy, 'from the aspersions cast upon them of harbouring the doctrines of Jan- senius. — Id enim super er at ut more solernni etiam Jansenistas Jingere eos, qui accuratissime omnium Jansenismum, omnesque ejus arteSf retexerunt ut suo loco prohabimus. (Vide Prcevia Dissertatio,) In like manner, despots, who are always hostile to liberal institutions, hasten to bestow the epithets of Jacobins and traitors on those disinterested citizens who, at the risk of their lives, and at the expense of their happiness, embark in the noble undertaking of breaking asunder the trammels of ty- ranny. An irresistible proof that tyrants, either clad in the mantle of popery or in the ermine of royalty, are governed by the same monstrous code of absolutism. — The Moniteur of the 26th April, 1826, contains a list of the names of cardinals, archbi- shops, bishops, and other prelates, who have signed a memorial to the King, by which they profess to adhere to the tenor of the Gallican religious constitution, and pray him to restore it to its primitive privileges. This bold attempt at clerical indepen- dence from Rome, on the part of the French clergy, is the result of the political education which the minds of the French have acquired during the Revolution, and of which the effects have not been obliterated by the bigoted despotism of the restored dynasty. At any rate, the revival of the Gallican religious OF THE POPES. ^i-'- -^^ and, above all, the imbecility of Lotharius, who hum- bly sued for pardon at the feet of Adrian II., ren- dered abortive the efforts of the few resolute de- fenders of the Gallican privileges. In the tenth century the struggle for spiritual supremacy was renewed with an increased vigour by the bishops and clergy ; but in spite of their disgraceful weakness and bigoted reverence towards the Papal See, the Carlovingian emperors strenuously supported the rights of their own station, and preserved for them- selves the exclusive authority of appointing Pontiffs, and sanctioning the election of bishops ; a preten- sion to which Pope Leo VIII. submissively bowed under the reign of Otho the Great. In the year 1047, an explicit right of nomination was granted to Henry III. in order to rescue the Church from the influence of the rabble, who, under the guidance of the Pope, had assumed the right of election. Pope Nicholas II. wrested from the em- perors this long-contested right, and conferred it on seven cardinal bishops resident in Rome ; and in order to avoid the resentment of the Emperor Hen- ry IV., decreed that the election should be subject to his ratification ; — a shadow of authority, which was entirely annihilated under the pontificate of Gregory VII., and which finally settled for ever the contention in favour of the Roman See. During the ninth and tenth centuries, the administration of the Chui'ch of Rome presents an uninterrupted sequel code will prove an insurmountable bar to the dangerous machi- nations of those ambitious enemies of social order, the Je- suits. May the spirit of those two pillars of our evangelical religion, Bossuet and Fenelon, direct the minds of the generous restorers of the Gallican Church ! 72 TEMPOKAL POWER of the most disgusting profligacies, a parallel to which we do not find recorded even in the life of any of the emperors of ancient Rome, or in the habits of the modern rulers of the East. The reci- tal of crimes of every kind, which are corroborated by the ocular testimony of contemporary writers, ought to be sufficient to inspire mankind with an insurmountable hatred for these self-constituted Vi- cars of Christ, the Popes. It would be impossible for me, if I were not circumscribed in my remarks on the religious history of Rome, to travel through the horrors of such events, the enormity of which baf- fles even the most fertile imaginations of poets.* The throne of St. Peter often became the boon of contention between factions fighting against each other, and the streets of Rome and the Lateran itself were stained with the blood of the contenders-! The two celebrated prostitutes and sisters, Marozia and Theodosia, by the fascination of their charms, and the magic of their fortune, ruled for a long period the Church of Rome, and the destinies of the world. Not only their immediate relatives, but even the fruits of their infamous intrigues, were elevated to the first dignities of the State. The bastard son, X the grandson, and the great grandson of Marozia, * In reflecting on the enormities which the Popes have com- mitted in the name of God, one feels tempted to make a parody of an exclamation of the illustrious and virtuous Madame Ro- land, who, while riding in the fatal cart to the place of execution, exclaimed, in passing before the statue of Liberty — " Liberie, que des crimes on commet en ton nom .''* t Gibbon, tom. ix. chap. 49. + He was son of Marozia by Pope Sergius, and ascended the Papal Chair under the name of John XI. — Pignotti, Istoria di Toscana, lib. ii. cap. 3. Gibbon, tom. ix. chap. 49. OF THE POPES. 73 were seated in the chair of St. Peter. The second of these, at the early age of nineteen, became the Chief of the Christian Church, and under the name of John XII. committed all kinds of murder, pro- fligacies and dissipations that could ever disgrace mankind : and he carried his dissolute eccentricities so far, as to change the dress and manners of his sex, assume the female name of Papissa Joanna, and under that disguise surpass the line of demarcation of every possible vice.* The Later an was literally transformed into a school for prostitution, where ladies of all ages and rank were either enticed by the sanctity of the place, or forced by violence, and consigned to eternal disgrace. The fame of such enormites soon spread abroad, and deterred female pilgrims from visiting the tomb of St. Peter lest they should be violated by his successor during their holy occupations.! John XII. obtained the name of Antichrist, not only on account of the free scope which he gave to his unbridled appetites, but for his affected Pyrronism on all religious subjects. We may with reason wonder how a religion evidently established on usurpations, and supported by an uninterrupted series of intrigues and profligacies of every species, has been able to brave the vigour of ages, and the resentment of men. The principles of its durability may be traced to the very elements of its corruption, to the relaxation of its discipline, and to the facility it holds out for the obliteration of crimes. In like manner the •John's female statue long held a place among the Popes in the cathedral of Siena: pro pudor ! — Pagi, Critica, tom. iii. page 624. Bayle, art. Papesse. t Luitprand. Hist. lib. vi. ch. 6, pag. 471. 74 TEMPORAL POWER religion of the Pagans withstood for many centu- ries the attacks of philosophers, and the railleries of men, not only because she stretched her hand to bribery and impunity, but because she associated and identified them with her own irregularities, by extolling the impurity of her gods as their principal dogma. When the chief of a nation is the first to set the example of immorality and corruption — when these vices are redeemable by sacrifices infinitely beneath the advantages which they produce — it is evident that the people will find it their interest to uphold that system, however vi- cious and however immoral it may be. Its immo- rality becomes conventional, and loses its hideousness by becoming the ruling doctrine of the community. This is the genuine motive of the two most detest- able governments in the world, Spain and Algiers ; and this is likewise the cause of the existence of the Catholic religion. The redress of abuses consecrated by the concurrence of ages, and by the testimony of men, must be either the effect of some extraordinary event, or of the slow but sure progress of reason and philosophy. The reformation by Luther, and the revolution of North America, awoke from the slum- ber of ages the forgotten rights of mankind. How long will the world continue to linger under civil and religious tyranny ? Gregory VII. put an end, at least apparently, to the scandalous misconduct of the Court of Rome, not only by the austerity of his manners, but by the lofty bent which he gave to his mind. He was one of the most clever, most despotic, and boldest Pontiffs that ever dis- graced the Papal chair ; his ambition, his courage, and his tyranny knew no bounds ; and with the OF THE rOPES. 75 assistance of these fatal accomplishments he was at last able to consummate the great work of the eman- cipation of the spiritual from the temporal power * The moral as well as political state of the world seems to have conspired in favour of his schemes; since most of the thrones of Europe were at that peculiar epoch filled by individuals, not only devoid of any species of energy, but so much debased even in their own estimation, by the enormity of their vices, as to be incapacitated from opposing any obstacle to the usurpations of that bold priest. On the other hand, the demoralization of the clergy, and the ignominy into which the Papal chair had fallen under the preceding Pontiffs, loudly called for a reform in manners. An individual, there- fore, so highly gifted, and of such exalted rank * Gregoire VII. tenta d'assujettir presque tous les etats d'Europe a lui payer tribut. II pretendait que la Hongrie, la Dalmatie, la Russie, TEspagnC:, la Corse, lui appartenaient en propre, en sa qualite de successeur de S. Pierre, ou etaient des fiefs relevant du San Siege. {Greg. Epist. Concil. torn. vi. edit. Harduin.) II cita I'Empereur Henry IV. k paraitre de- vant lui pour repondre aux accusations de quelquesuns de ses sujets ; et sur la desobeissance de TEmpereur il le deposa. Vat- telf lib. i. chap xi. The author of The Pope, Count Maystre, lately dead, one of the most courageous panegyrists of the Court of Rome, and who in many places of his truly extraordinary work, holds out to the admiration and gratitude of mankind, the execrable despo- tism of this Pontiff, indulges in th^ following strain of en- thusiastic feelings — '' Salut et honneur eternel a Gregoire VII. et h ses successeurs qui ont maintenu I'int^grite du Sacerdoce contre tous les sophismes de la nature, de I'exemple, et de I'he- resie I" (Tom. ii. p. 112.) Fide the Seventh Chap, of the second Book of the said work, where the most disgusting praises are lavished upon that haughty prelate, page 287- So much for Catholic toleration, Mr. O'C 11 ! 76 TEJMPOUAL POWER as Gregory was, who announced himself as the avenger of the insulted Majesty of God, and the redressor of public morals, could not fail to reap from his plans a rich harvest of success, provided his first measures bore the stamp of vigour com- mensurate to the magnitude of the object. He seems to have acted upon this principle, and by dexterously wielding the thunders of the Vatican, terrified the weak, and forced the refractory into an unqualified obedience. After having excommuni- cated Henry IV., and declared him to have forfeited the crown of Germany and Italy, as a punishment for his having resisted his commands, he prevailed upon the weak Matilda, the daughter of Boniface, Duke of Tuscany, to settle all her possessions in Italy and elsewhere upon the Church of Rome. After a long and stormy administration, this am- bitious priest was driven out of Rome, and died in exile at Salerno.* Gregory VII., who may be considered as the real founder of the Papal monar- chy, devoted the whole of his active life to the exe- cution of two favourite schemes : the first was, to fix the freedom of election in a College of seven cardinals, and to abolish the right or usurpation of the Em- perors to interfere in spiritual subjects ; — a design which was finally accomplished by his successors after fifty years of violent contests, and chiefly by the undaunted perseverance of the clergy : the second, to dispose at his own will of the Wes- tern Empire as a fief of the Church, and to extend his temporal dominion over kings and kingdoms,! — * Muratori, torn. iii. t Bishop Bossuet indulges in a strain of indignant remarks upon the right assumed by Gregory VII. and hi« successors, of OF THE porEs. 77 an attempt which, although at times partially at- tended with success, was strenuously resisted by the secular power, and ultimately extinguished by the progress of human reason.* From the death of Gregory VII. to the translation to Avignon by Clement V., the chair was occupied by thirty- six Pontiffs, under whose administration the Catho- lic Church was kept in an uninterrupted state of confusion, marked by every species of murder and criminal attempts.f From among the names which deposing kings, and disposing of their states; an usurpation which he unequivocally designates as repugnant to the spirit of the Gospel and to the maxims of Christianity. The whole paragraph I think worth being quoted in the original, both for the benefit of the ignorant and the gratification of the learned. Gregorium VII. ej usque successores liquido demonstravimus Evangelicae veritati, et antiquissimse tradition! repugnasse, cum reges deponere aggressi sunt. Ac tametsi eam quam tot anathematibus exequabantur, animi sui sententiam neque ex- presso canone firmarent, neque in ecclesiasticum dogma redige- rent ; tamen ecclesiasticae potestati conflabant ingentem invi- diam schismaticis, et hsereticis occasionem praebebant, Catho- licos in errorem inducebant, nedum in fide confirmarent, eaque omnia ideo non nocent, quod Ecclesia Catholica numquam ea approbavit, numquam ut fidei doctrinam admiserit. Defensio Declaratio/iis Clerici Gallicanif tom. ii. ch. 37. * Gibbon, tom. ix. ch, 49. t See all the authors already quoted, and Sigonius de Regno Italiee; but especially the indefatigable Muratori. The illustrious Abate Tiraboschi, in alluding to the stormy administrations of the Pontiffs Alexander II. Gregory VII. Victorius III. Urban II. and Pascal II. seems apprehensive lest a discussion of the causes which gave rise to it should endanger the livery of the Pope which he wore, and subject him to the vengeance of Rome. He therefore, endeavouring to reconcile the duties of his profession with the integrity of his character, exhorts his readers to cover such fatal objects with the veil of oblivion, and to offer up vows, praying that they may be never renewed : "Copriamo di unvelo oggetti cosi funesti, e facciam voti e pre- 78 TEMPORAL POWER crowd round our memory, we shall select a few, to which history has attached a fatal celebrity, but from whose scandalous abuse of power, and corruption of manners, ultimately sprung the emancipation of the religious and political rights of mankind, like fertility from rottenness.*' Alexander III., proved himself the worthy legatee of the despotism of his predecessors, and a clever pupil of Gregory's school ; as it was under his pontificate that his prototype's favourite scheme of fixing the election of the Pope in a college of seven cardinals, received its con- summation. In the year 1179 he conferred the title of King upon Alphonso, the first Duke of Por- tugal, who, under the pontificate of Lucius II., had rendered his province tributary to the Holy See.f Adrian IV. refused the usual kiss of peace to Frederic Barbarossa, because, having gone to Rome to receive the investiture of the empire, he omitted to hold the stirrup of the horse of that ambitious priest,:]: a degradation to which no chief of a nation, even in those barbarous times, could have conscientiously sub- mitted ; but which, however, better than any fact, for- cibly proves the haughty pride of the self- constituted successors of the humble Peter. Innocent III., gave the most vigorous impulse to Papal usurpations, and forwarded to a considerable degree the pretensions of the Court of Rome. It was under his pontificate ghiere perche mai piii si rinnuovino. Stor. della Letter. Ital. lib. iv. cap. 3. * Che dalle spine ancor nascon le rose, E da una fetid' onda nasce il giglio. Ariosto. t Hallam, vol. ii. ch. 7. :j: Hallam, torn. ii. ch. 7 ; and almost every historian of those times. OF THE POPES. 79 that the great event of the taking of Constantinople by the Latins occurred : in consequence of which for- tunate circnmstance he became so intoxicated by his ambition, that he made no scruple to declare that there only existed two powers on earth ; — the pontifical, which, having charge of the soul, is far the greatest of all ; and the royal, which is the lowest of all, and to which the bodies of men alone are entrusted.* He further explicitly asserted the rights which the Popes possessed to dispose of the sovereignty of every country in Asia, Europe, and Africa, and the rest of the world; and, in a word, constituted himself the only ruler of the destinies of men. Of this abominable doctrine he gave a striking specimen in his conduct towards Otho IV. who, for having dared to assert the rights of his sceptre over seve- ral provinces, was excommunicated, stripped of his throne, his subjects were absolved from their oath of allegiance, and himself compelled to give up the crown to Frederic II. John I. denominated Sans Terre, incurred the same fate, for having, consis- tently with the rights of his crown, appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury without Innocent's con- sent.'!' Nicholas III., of the Orsini family, having asked in marriage for one of his nephews the daughter of Charles I., King of Sicily, was by that monarch refused, in such a manner as incensed * Muratori, Vita Inn. ii torn. iii. p. 1. t Hume and Vattel, lib. i, ch. 12. Having been excom- municated, he took the singular revenge of putting into prison the concubines of all the priests of his kingdom. Fra Paolo informs us that these concubines were a sort of inferior wives, whom civilian politicians permitted the clergy to have, not- withstanding their professed celibacy. — Fra Paolo, 1st. del Cone, di Trento, lib. i. 80 TEMPORAL POWER the Pope's feelings. Nicholas, actuated by revenge, compelled him to renounce the dignity of senator of Rome, and the vicariate of the empire of Tus- cany : and not satisfied with inflicting this signal punishment on the King, he excited and fomented a rebellion in Sicily, which, about two years after the demise of that haughty pontiff, explodedi n the famous Sicilian Vespers. Dante, who very rightly has placed his soul in hell, enumerates his enormities in the 1 9th Canto of the Inferno. In the year 1282 Martin IV. absolved from their allegiance the sub- jects of Peter III. King of Arragon, and transfer- red his crown to a prince of France, although the people did not cease to obey their lawful sovereign. The pontificate of Boniface VIII. (1294) was for the importance of its events, for the vigour of its administration, and for the terror which it spread throughout the world, not inferior to that of Innocent III., or even of Gregory VII. En- dowed with dissolute,* immoral, and cruel dis- positions, his career of ambition and despotism was not checked by the pangs of conscience.! The * Laudem acrimine sumit. Ovid. Met. lib. vi. t Hume, t. ii, ch. 13. Gibbon, vol. xii. Hallam, vol. ii, chap. 7" Dante, who with the impartiality of an English jury, has condemned to eternal punishment several illustrious characters, (among whom his sworn friend and master, Brunetto Latini,) alludes to the avarice and unprincipled intrigues of Boniface VIII. in the following stanzas of the Inferno : " Ed ei gridb ; se' tu gia costi ritto, Se' tu gia costi ritto, Bonifazio ? Di parecchi anni mi menti lo scritto. Se' tu si tosto di quell' aver sazio. Per lo qual non temesti, torre a 'nganno La bella donna, e di poi fame strazio ? Cafito xix. OF THE POPES. 81 elegant and learned historian of the middle age, observes, that, under Boniface VIII., the power of the Vatican inspired a terror not inferior to that of ancient Rome ;* and we might safely add that it exhibited the same corruption, the same venality, and the same luxury, so boldly reproached by Ju- gurtha,f and so unequivocally asserted by the sati- rist.:!: The Court of the Vatican attained under that enterprising Pontiff its highest summit of authority, and from his death may be dated the commencement of its decline. In addition to the common oc- currences of the times, many extraordinary circum- stances conspired to render that era one of the most conspicuous of the Roman Church. I particularly allude to the compilation and final publication of the Decretals, and the institution of Mendicant Or- ders.. A brief history of these two powerful aux- iliaries of the Court of Rome, will not be deemed a deviation from our subject. CHAPTER IX. TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPES. (continued.) I have said in another part of this work, that towards the end of the eighth century, Adrian I. in order to impose upon the liberality of Charle- * Hallam, torn. ii. ch. 7« t Urbem venalem et mature perituram si emptorem invene- rit. Sallustii Bellum Jugurthinum. X Omnia Romse cum pretio. Juvenal. Sat. * G 82 TEMPORAL POWER magne, had directed the publication of the Decretals, or of all the Decrees of the early Bishops of Rome, all which were intended to promote the interests of the Popes, and were purposely forged by Isidore Mercatore, or Peccatore, an obscure monk of very infamous character and immoral principles.* So early as the beginning of the fourth century, a forged Collection of all the Decretals issued by the different Popes who had preceded Siricius, was pubUshed under the name of Saint Isidore of Se- ville, and commonly attributed to Isidore Merca- tore, or Peccatore : but supposed, by the illustrious Abate Zacaria, to have been rather the work of Benedictus Levita, of the Church of Mentz, who lived towards the middle of the ninth century. They have been proved forgeries ; and as such, stigmatized by aU contemporary writers, as well as those of succeeding ages.-f" Long before the twelfth century, Dionysius the Little, a Scythian by birth, but educated in Rome, (and who after his conversion to the Popish faith had become a monk,) a man very well versed in all the intricacies of ecclesiastical policy, undertook a new Collection of all the Decre- tals up to the time he lived. Many other similar collections were published after him, by St. Anselmo Bishop of Lucca, Boniface Bishop of Sutri and Piacenza, and in the eleventh century by Cardinal Deusdedit. The most celebrated of all extant, are the collections by Reginone, Buriard of Worms, and * Oficina en que se forjo esa monarquia universal, hasta en- tonces desconocida en la iglesia.— Doc/ Villanuevaf Vida Letera^ ria, torn. ii. page 357- t Giannone, lib. xix. ch. 3. Fleury, Histoire Eccl. torn. xix. Tiraboschi, 1st. della Lett. ItJtl. lib. iv. ch. 35. OF THE POPES. 83 Ivon of Chartres, which from the reputation they acquired, became the canon law of that age.* But it is evident that the study of ecclesiastical juris- prudence was in its infancy, and that an ample field was left open for the genius of any man who should undertake to rescue from chronological anar- chy, and from contradiction, such a vast undigest- ed mass of Popish firmans. This genius appeared in the person of Gratian, of Chiusi in Tuscany, one of the most learned men of that age, and a monk of St. Felice, in Bologna, who flourished in the year 1138, and whose authority, as the real foun- der of the Canon Law was so universally acknow- ledged, and rested upon such a firm basis, that, ac- cording to a very elegant modern writer, it governed all ecclesiastical courts, and gave no little uneasiness to Luther, who did him the honour of causing his writings to be publicly burnt-f. The work of this • Encycl. art. Decretals. Oudin. de Script. Eccl., torn. ii. ; and Tiraboschi, lib. iv. t La fama di questo canonista ha durato a splendere fino nel Secolo XVI. con tal face da incomodar gli occhi di Lutero, che gli fece 1' onore di fare ardere publicamente la sua opera. — Pig- nottif 1st. delta Toscana, torn, iv , The late Doctor Pignotti, Professor in the University of Pisa, and one of the most illustrious poets, historians, and philosophers of the last century, was as remarkable for his profound learn- ing and his sarcastic wit^ as for his ardent love of liberty^ and his utter detestation of the doctrines of Rome. I had for many years enjoyed the pleasure of his friendship, and the advantage of his tuition, and can, therefore, vouch for the veracity of my assertions. Before he printed his History of Tuscany, he com- mitted the fault of showing the manuscript to his friend and patron, the late Grand Duke Ferdinand III. who himself was an elegant lover of literature. That amiable and humane prince, unfortunately connected with the House of Austria, and a near neighbour of the Sultan of Rome, (Mantua, ahi ! nimium vicina G 2 84 TEMPORAL POWEK great legislator refers to the false Decretals as au- thentic documents, and quotes many acts, canons, and bulls of Popes, as well as works of holy writers who have never existed :* and notwithstanding that it has met with the universal veneration of that and the succeeding ages, it must appear destitute of any real merit to the impartial eyes of the lovers of truth. But many of the principal faults of that gi- gantic work are to be attributed to the confusion in which all historical facts lay hidden in that bar- barous age, and perhaps to the danger of adhering too much to veracity. Be it as it may, Gregory IX. caused, in the year 1300, a new and most volumi- nous compilation to be made by his confessor Ray- mond, a Dominican friar, which he divided into five books. But, whatever may be the literary merit of this production, (of which I am not aware,) the criminality of the intention remains undiminished, as it is the identical collection of all preceding for- geries, reduced into a more regular order. Boniface VIII. added to them a sixth part, which he called the Sexth, and which he likewise divided into five books. This voluminous multitude of forged do- cuments, which has continually increased under every • succeeding Pontiff, constitutes the jurisprudence of the Church of Rome, commonly called the Canon- Cretnoncs !) was reluctantly induced to prevail upon the Doctor to check the wings of his genius, and suppress some passages, too much breathing of a republican spirit, and remarkable for their aversion to Popish doctrines. This accounts for the presence of the above most ridiculous allusion to Gratian, and to the dread with which his writings seemed to have inspired the undaunted Luther. I have this anecdote from the Doctor himself. • Tiraboschi, lib. iv. OF THE POPES. 85 ical right, and is only remarkable for its time-serving doctrines.* The most dangerous principles, sub- versive of every maxim of social order, are therein tenaciously inculcated; such, for instance, that a priest is as much superior to a king, as a man is to a beast ;f that a king is not lawfully entitled to the possession of his crown, unless he holds it from the Pope ; that subjects owe no sort of allegiance to their excommunicated lord, until he is reconciled with the Church, and that the Pope is the sole arbitra- tor of the oath ; that all temporal property is un- questionably the right of the Popish crown ;:j: that ecclesiastics of all ranks are only amenable to the po- pish courts of justice in any cases, even for the crime of high treason. § These are a few features of that monstrous code of legislation, which, under the sa- crilegious name of divine right, has perpetuated the slavery of mankind, deluged the world with blood, and kept alive the torch of discord. Against that ex- ecrable doctrine, not only the philosophers of all ages, but even ecclesiastics of the Roman Church, whose hearts were not poisoned by the ethics of the Vati- * Hume, vol. ii. ch. 12. t Tantum sacerdos praestat regi, quantum homo bestiae. Stanislaus Orichavivs. X Giannone, lib. xix. ch. 3. Fleury, Hist. Ecc. Decretals, lib. i. and v. § Cognitio causae contra ecclesiasticos, etiam pro delicto Isesae majestatis, fieri debet a judice ecclesiastico.- Jyjwc? Ricci Synops. Decret. et ResoL S. Congreg. Indecorum est hiicos homi- nes viros ecclesiasticos judicare. Can. in nona actiofie 22, xvi. A constitution of Urban VI. calls those sovereigns or magis- trates sacrilegious who shall banish an ecclesiastic from their dominions, declaring that they have incurred, ipso facto, excom- munication. Cap. ii. deforo comp. in 7* 86 TEMPORAL POWER can, have pointed the arrows of their indignation.* Silenced, but not extinguished by the Reformation, and by the more active agency of the French Revo- lution, it has been revived in all its strength and hideousness, by the mystifications of the female Krudener, and by the despotism of the Holy Alli- ance, f However, that wonderful episode to the history of man, the revolution of South America, and its noble emancipation from the tyrannical grasp of Nero VH., has at once and for ever set that turbu- lent question of divine right at rest ; and proved to those robbers of the rights of men, the Popes, and their friends, the despots of Europe, that a people who together with the gift of existence have re- * A quien no duele por exemplo que las decretales de Isidore Mercator, cuya falsedad es ya una demonstracion para todo el orbe, todavia sirvan de apoyo a la Curia Romana para manchar con ellas el oficio ecclesiastico. — Vida Leteraria del Doct. Don Joaquin Lorenzo Villanueva ; torn. i. p. 143. t It is a well-known fact, that Madame Krudener, whom age had compelled to seek under the seraphic wings of religion a consolation for departed beauty and bankrupted charms, con- ceived in her febrile brain a plan for the guardianship of the rights of thrones, and of the interests of religion ; or, to speak more technically, a scheme of universal slavery, resting on divine right. ' The sketch of her ideas, surrounded by the mystification of an unintelligible theology, and by the borrowed garb of sanc- tity, she submitted to the Emperor Alexander, who soon per- ceived that its acting principle, or forza motrice, was in perfect harmony with the legislation of his barbarous empire, where men, not unlike cattle, are indiscriminately transferred by one proprietor to another. This infantile scheme {hinc illce lacry- mae !) soon grew into the gigantic Holy Alliance, lately stifled by the Briarean genius of Mr. Canning. Dante would have con- demned Mad. Krudener's soul to the same holgia with Guy Faux's ; the one attempted to demolish the building of the rights of men, while the other tried to blow up Parliament, the tem- ple of the liberties of Great Britain. OF THE POPES. S7 ceived from God the full possession of moral fa- culties, cannot submit them to despotic control, without renouncing life itself; and that the right which a nation unquestionably possesses of giving itself that form of political institutions which is deemed more in harmony with itself, is an amplifi- cation of that feeling which nature has imprinted in the heart of every creature as the sentinel of its happiness — self-preservation. The institution of mo- nastic orders, and especially of the Mendicants, whose privileges and imjustifiable immunities were so firmly established by Boniface, in the year 1 295, was one of the principal sources of the power, both spiritual and temporal of the Popes, and one of the chief causes of their retaining it so long ; as, not unlike leeches, they sucked from the bodies of nations the best of their vigour — riches, which they offered to the Popes, after having themselves shared in the traffic. The existence of those anomalies in society has been thus perpetuated by the interests both of the Roman despots, who received the plunder, and by the collectors themselves, who shared in it. It would be too great a deviation from the line which I have traced to myself, were I to enter into a minute analysis of the various causes from which the enormous wealth, and the no less enor- mous influence of monastic orders have arisen, and that stubborn spirit of resistance which in every age they have opposed to the free progress of reason and the influence of opinion ; but a brief notice of those most extraordinary institutions, will not per- haps cause a useless waste of time. Almost every social institution had originally in view the promo- tion of some useful purpose, and the encouragement 88 TEMPORAL POWER of morality and virtue ; until, partly through the agency of time, but more peculiarly through the riotous influence of interest and passions, its princi- ple was poisoned, and its intention perverted. The many orders of knighthood which at different times were instituted to reward bravery, and stimulate it to further achievements, in process of time be- came, under the influence of wicked princes, the price of corruption, the reward of intrigue, and the premium of favouritism.* The origin of monachism, which is almost coeval with the birth of the primitive Church, was the offspring of the most disinterested self-denial, and of the most generous intrepidity. Men warmly devoted to the progress of Christia- nity, voluntarily renounced the world and its dan- gerous illusions, and sought in rigid solitude, and in the renunciation of every bodily and moral en- joyment, a concentration of their feelings towards * The order of the Legion of Honour was, as its title better explains it, instituted as a reward for those extraordinary feats of bravery which so peculiarly illustrated the French Revolu- tion, and to maintain alive the sacred fire of emulation. In the course of a few years, the same star which decorated the breast of the bravest of the brave, Ney, the cool intrepid Massena, and the unrivalled Lannes, was seen glittering on that of the eunuch Crescentini. Under the paternal sway of the bigoted Bourbons that noble institution is fallen still lower. In Por- tugal, I have seen beggars decorated with the order of Christ, and that distinction offered for less than 100/. In Rome, the order of the Sprone is sold for 21. 10*., and even in happy Tus- cany any individual who can enter into a bond never to alienate a property valued at 10,000 scudi, or about 2000/. becomes ipso facto an unworthy knight of the order of St. Stephen, so much distinguished in the history of Italy, for the noble exploits of its knights against the Turks. In Poland, according to M. Jacob, the qualification for a Baron is 25/. a year ; for a Count 75/. ; and for a Prince 125/. OF THE POPES. 89 God, and the means of extending the worship of Christianity through the eloquent lessons of exam- ple.* As early as the reign of Constantine, the ascetics, who interpreted too rigidly the precepts of the Gospel, and abjured all kinds of pleasures, not ex- cepting those innocent gratifications arising from the use of food, fled from society, and shut themselves up in solitary convents. Like the primitive Christians of Jerusalem, they renounced the possession of every species of property, made a rigid vow of celibacy and poverty, and professed to subsist on alms. The model of this contemplative life they must have taken from the Prophets, who, by the practice of the most rigid abstinence and austere virtues, had ac- quired fame for sanctity and wisdom. Egypt, the cradle of religious enthusiasm and superstition, ex- hibited the first specimen of monachism in the person of Anthony, an illiterate youth of Thebais, who in the year 305 distributed his fortune among his friends, deserted his parents, and with the in- trepid devotedness of a soldier, voluntarily endured the revolting miseries of monachism. f After having * Lact. Inst. Divin. ; lib. vi. ch. 20. et seq. + The author of the Spirit of the Laws, alluding to the many moral causes, which in southern countries are productive of dis- tress, thus explains himself respecting monachism : — " Le mo- nachisme y fait les memes maux : il est ne dans les pays chauds d'Orient, ou I'on est moins porte a Taction qu'k la speculation." (torn. iii. ch. 7-) The influence of climate upon the bodily and moral strength of man, is exemplified in the discrepancy of the habits which distinguished the inhabitants of a northern from those of a southern country. The sedate calm which, amidst the bloom of health, sits on the countenances of the one, betrays that state of rigid discipline of their minds, by which their i(^eas, like a Russian regiment on parade, are strictly kejjt within the traced line of demarcation ; whereas the lively 90 TEMPORAL POWER wandered through different parts of that vast country, he fixed his abode on Mount Colzen, near the Red Sea, where he built a convent. Monastic orders soon propagated, like locusts, under the zea- lous officiousness of Anthony, now become a Patri- arch, and who attained the age of 105 years. In the year 341 his disciples, invited by Constan- tine, arrived at Rome under the guidance of Atha- nasius, a friend and admirer of the Patriarch. Europe was soon overspread with convents, which fanaticism and superstition speedily filled with in- mates. Not only private dwellings, but the most and stormy countenances of the others announce that febrile state of their ideas, which, like a body of stragglers^ are allowed to wander without restraint through the immeasurable manors of the imagination. To the people of the North nature has grant- the gift of strength, and that bodily activity which is its result, whereas she has concentrated in the imagination of the natives of the south that energy and vigour which she has denied to their bodies. It would be therefore absurd to find fault with some for the distaste they feel for the same pur- suits which are eagerly sought for by others. Nee vero terrse ferre omnes omnia possunt. And while the former fondly indulge in all kinds of violent exer- cises, the latter derive the luxury of happiness from an unin- terrupted activity of the imagination, and from the gratification of those desires, which it is always active in creating. But it is to that tyrannical control which imagination exercises over the weak constitutions of the natives of the south, that we owe that refinement of immorality which so peculiarly distinguish the people of the East, the Italians, the French, and the Spaniards, from the English, the Germans, the Swiss, and the Russians. It is to the prism of that fatal imagination, that we are indebted for the Pagan impiety, and the mythologic luxury of the Catholic religion ; for the existence of the Inquisition, and of the Jesuits. And while we Italians plume ourselves upon having given birth to a Dante, a Petrarch, a Galileo, a Machiavelli, a RaflTaello, a Michelagnolo, we must endure the ignominy of having equally OF THE POPES. 91 sumptuous edifices, and the most illustrious monu- ments of art, were now transformed into residences for these fanatic monks ; and millions of both sexes, persuaded that the gates of a monastery were the entrance to heaven, hastened to immure themselves in those recesses of wretchedness, cheerfully dis- regarding all ties of consanguinity, and forsaking not only their families but even their own chil- dren. Fatal perversion of the precepts of religion ! The time, which, in spite of their religious fervour, must necessarily have proved tedious and long, was filled up by the practice of industrious arts of every kind, which not only administered to their wants, but insensibly inoculated them with a taste for com- forts and luxury, and weaned them from their habits of industry, and their professions of poverty ; and in produced a Borgia, an Innocent III., a John XII., a Boniface VIII. The existence of monachism, therefore, as the illustrious writer above alluded to observes very properly, was the joint work of imagination and idleness, or, to speak more properly, of the vigour of the minds and the weakness of the bodies of a few natives of the East. Because those constitutions, already inclined by nature to seek for rest, and continually worn out by the lash of sensual pleasures, cheerfully embraced a monastic life, which offered the twofold gratification of repose and plea- sure. Hence the name of friar is become proverbially synony- mous for a lazy and dissipated individual. The illustrious Filan- gieri dwells at length on the effects of the difference of climate upon the moral and physical faculties of men, and on the more or less energetic passions by which they are guided. — See Scienza della Legislatione^ lib. i, cap. 14. See likewise Hippocrates of Airs, Waters, and Places ; MachiavcUi, in several chapters of his works ; Chardin ; the Abbe Dubois, and especially Bodin, who, in his Republic, indulges in the following striking observa- tion : — " Septentrionales populos, vi et armis subditos fere in officio continere ; australes religionis ac numinis metu ; ceteros (equitate, et imperio rationis." — Book v. chap. .5. 92 TEMPORAL POWER this manner monachisni, deviating from its original institution, became the seat of magnificence and dissipation. With the acquisition of wealth, they assumed pride, and all the vices annexed to that wretched infirmity of the heart. Enthusiasm, that convulsive fit of the mind, began to cool in progress of time, and the novices, instead of divesting themselves of their property in favour of their friends and parents, thought now of appro- priating it to the use of God, or more properly to their own use. The promptitude with which riches of all species flowed into the possession of monastic orders has suggested to a writer of the middle age the observation, that a great portion of the world had been reduced to beggary by the misrepresented charity of the monks towards the poor ;* since, in- stead of dedicating those voluntary contributions of the bigoted to the relief of the needy, they applied them exclusively to the increase of their power, and the enjoyment of all kinds of worldly pleasures. And as they professed to have bestowed their own personal riches upon the saints, in whose company they had resolved to spend their lives, they authen- ticated their extortions with the seal of religion, and left to the bigoted no alternative in the disposal of his property. Thus we find that Melania con- tributed her plate weighing 300 pounds of silver, and that Paula contracted an immense debt for the relief of her favourite monks,-\ who in exchange gave them a liberal share of masses and prayers. And to such a degree grew the bold and undaunted greediness of these monastic robbers, as to award the most frightful penalties in a future world to those who * Zosimus^ lib. vi. t Gibbon^ vol. vi. chap. 37- OF THE POPES. 93 showed the smallest symptoms of remissness in dis- possessing themselves of their property in their favour. The immortal author of the Spirit of the Laws assures us, that even sacraments were refused to those who died without leaving a part of their property to the Church.* The immunities which the Catholic Church offered to crimes, were another source of wealth for the clergy ; and, considering the rigour with which those taxes upon mankind were enforced, it is not too hard to suppose that the greatest part of the doctrines of the Church of Rome have been introduced and fostered with the sole view of carrying on with success and impunity a sordid traffic of fraud, l chiefly allude to the sale of Indulgences ; to the disposal of permissions and privileges of different kinds ; and, in short, to that simoniacal trade, the abuse of which having in the sixteenth century overstepped every bound, in- flamed the generous indignation of the author of the Reformation. The barbarians, who in addition to the superstitious ignorance of the times, had their hearts polluted with every species of atrocious crimes, felt very solicitous to bestow their immense riches upon the clergy ; who, in exchange, absolved their consciences from all criminality, and gave them their pledge to escort their souls in purgatory, the lazaretto of Heaven, with a posse of masses, and a shower of prayers. In order to ensure the perpe- tual success of their schemes, the clergy sought to encourage by every means at their disposal, the pro- gress of ignorance, which alone could prevent the victims of their sordid cupidity from perceiving * MontesquioUj torn. iii. p. 374. 94 TEMPORAL POWER the real artifices of their spiritual leaders. They therefore made the people believe that even among Pagans knowledge was solely confined to the mi- nisters of God, who were the interpreters of his commands, and the distributors of his benefits ; and that any deviation from this doctrine would be at- tended with heavy punishments, not only in this but in a future world. Having thus secured for themselves the monopoly of knowledge, they did not think themselves bound to redeem their pledge : but disregarding every other pursuit but dissipation and pleasure, they soon became so ignorant as to render even the ordinary talent of reading and writing a distinguished accomplishment :* and in * The avarice of the clergy, and their excessive love of li- centiousness, became so notorious and unbounded, as to call for the interference of governments. Accordingly, we find that in the year 370, Valentinian in his edict addressed to the libertine Damasus, Bishop of Rome, commands the ecclesias- tics of all descriptions, to abstain from frequenting the houses of widows and virgins, subjecting the transgressors to severe pu- nishments. By subsequent edicts he ordains that no ecclesi- astical association, either individually or collectively, shall be allowed to receive testamentary gifts and other illegal dona- tions, under the penalty of the same being forfeited to the trea- sury. {Cod. Theod. lib. 16. Tit. ii. leg. 20.) Godefroy, torn, vi. page 49. — Gibbon gives us a very eloquent and striking de- scription of the profligate manners of the clergy, and of their excessive love of riches, in the 25th chapter of his illustrious work, to which I must refer my readers, especially the leaders of Catholic Emancipation in both Houses. The sixth General Coun- cil restrai?is women from passing the night in a male convefit, or men in a monastery; and the second Council of Nice prohibits the erection of promiscuous convents of both sexes — an injunc- tion which was however disregarded. See Thomassin, tom. iii. ; and Gibbon, who quotes many authorities, ch. 37. — That the same corrupt propensities for worldly pleasures, and the same OF THE POPES. 95 the same manner as darkness conceals the deformi- ties of the body, they sought to hide in the mystery of reclusion and solitude the deformity of their mo- rals. But in order to keep alive among nations, who now began to be conscious of the irregularities of their lives, the faith of superstition, they had re- course to supernatural agency. They accordingly strove to make people beheve that their life of mar- tyrdom and penance had gained for tliem the favour of God and of the saints : that by their commands they could work all sorts of miracles, and dispense all sorts of favours : that they could restore the dead to life, and rescue bodies and souls from the actual possession of demons : that they could re- invigorate suspended vegetation ; pass rivers and seas ; swim in a furnace of melted lead ; and converse familiarly with the most savage beasts.* These, and similar other impious absurdities, not only de- based the faculties of the mind, but put them under the severe vigilance of heavenly terrors, which, like the guardian of the infernal regions, prevented, and still prevents reason from having access to them. That societies consisting of so many jarring inter- ests, and labouring under the anarchy of passions, could long boast of being the seats of happiness, even for depraved minds, it would be absurd to believe. Those rigid rules which had been laid down by the primitive founders of monachism still existed, and were by the heads of convents en- antichristian lust of wealth, continue to domineer in the hearts of the modern Catholic clergy, I shall have ample opportunities to prove when I shall give a sketch of the present state of the Catholic religion. * Gibbon, eh. 37- 96 TEMPORAL POWER forced with all the tyranny of absolutism on those individuals who either willingly or unwillingly, might have incurred their displeasure. But the state of alarm in which those guilty consciences must constantly have lived, from the fear that some virtuous bishop (vara avis in terris) might adopt the laudable resolution of examining and reforming their criminal conduct, was not one of the last causes which prevented happiness from residing among them : and besides this, there existed in the bosom of those communities of illiterate indivi- duals many, whose souls, fired with religious fana- ticism, bona Jide encountered the dreadful toils of monastic life, and who, like the celebrated Si- meon Stylites, inflicted on themselves the most revolting tortures. These fanatic monks, who were divided into two classes, Ccenobites and AnachoretSf pushed their detestation of all worldly comforts, and their love of tortures and miseries, to an extreme degree of madness, which it is foreign to my purpose minutely to describe.*^ They founded monasteries in the most remote wildernesses of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine ; and so rigidly indulged in all the privations of solitary life, that some became mad, and were sent to an hospital for that purpose established in Jerusalem, f Such extraordinary modes of life, equally insulting to the Deity as revolting to nature, became objects of repent- ance and detestation for those self-tormentors, who when once rescued from the first access of fanati- cism, saw all the horrors of their destiny, from which no human power could redeem them, having made professional vows of faith. Hence the suffer- * Fleury, Hist. Eccles. torn. vii. p. 46. f Fleury, ibid. OF THK POPES. 97 ings of that life of martyrdom, so ably depicted by Cassian, Those monastic orders, both from their exorbitant wealth, and the influence which they had obtained over the vulgar, attracted the notice of the Popes, and became in their hands a new engine of everlasting power. Boniface VIII. felt like his predecessors the necessity of protecting monastic institutions, as they alone could support him in his bold struggles for universal empire, and in his Anti- christian schemes of rendering all crowns vassals to the Triregnum. Under his Pontificate, therefore, the number of convents prodigiously increased, and the privileges and immunities of monachism ac- quired fresh vigour, and that bold impunity, which is the result of the relaxation from the discipline of all laws. In this manner, Boniface's authority, fenced round by the terror of his own name, the ignorance of the times, and the submissive but interested obedience of monastic orders, outstepped every bound of wisdom, and boldly set at defiance all earthly powers. His disputes with Philip the Fair, and Edward the First, in which he displayed the most rancorous spirit of revenge, are facts confirm- ed by the authority of history, and veluti in specu- lum, show the true character of that arbitrary priest. The King of France having imposed a tax upon the ecclesiastical orders, without asking the Pope's consent, he became furiously enraged : and seeing his threats disregarded, and his authority despised by the French Monarch, he fulminated against him a shower of Bulls, in one of which he un])lushingly maintains the doctrine, broached by all his predeces- sors, that Kings were subject to the power of the H 98 TEMPORAL POWER Popes, both in spiritual and temporal concerns.* The King of France seems to have braved for some time the wrath of the despot of Rome, and to have found in the firmness of his own character, and in the dig- nity of his crown, the means of opposing the en- croachments of Boniface. He not only ordered the Bulls to be publicly burnt, and the taxes to be rigidly exacted, but having made an appeal to the ambition of the independent Galilean Church, and painted in lively colours the dangers of implicitly submitting herself to the arbitrary mandates of an infuriated priest, he met with the unanimous support of the clergy and the nobility, who now spontaneously and unanimously declared, that they disclaimed the ju- risdiction of the Pope in temporal matters : — a cir- cumstance which exhibits in all its genuineness the dexterity and firmness of Philip, who knew how to stifle the clamorous opposition of that superstitious age. Boniface undismayed by the united resistance of the French nation, headed by its monarch, had recourse to the ordinary measures in dangerous times, and convened a Council at Rome. It was in this assembly, that he promulgated the celebrated Bull, or constitution called Unam Sanctum, whereby he declares that the Church possesses one single body, and one single head : that under the command of this latter, there are two swords, or a twofold power, the one temporal, the other spiritual ; the latter subject to the former ; and concludes by en- forcing the baneful doctrine, that every human being is as an article of necessary faith, subject in every * Hallam, vol. ii, chap. 7- DECRETALS. 99 respect to the See of Rome.* Another Bull deter- mines, that persons of whatever rank may be bound personally to appear, when summoned before the Apostolic tribunal at Rome. These extraordinary assumptions of authority were baffled in their effects, not only by the firmness of Philip the Fair, but by the manner in which the long-pending disputes between that prince and the English Edward were settled : as, having at the solicitation of Boniface condescended to take him as an arbitrator, they unanimously and firmly declared that in so doing * " Porro subesse Romano Pontifici omni humanae creaturae declaramus, dicimus et pronunciamus, omnino esse de necessi- tate fidei." Extravag. Comm, lib. 1 Tit. de majoritate et obe- dientia. On sait que ce Pape osa ecrire au Roi de France Philip le Bel — " Scire te volemus, quod in spiritualibus et tempo- ralibus nobis subes." Vattel Le Droit des Gens, lib. 1, cbap. xii. The canon law clearly states, '^ Imperium non praeest sacerdo- tio, sed subest, et ei obedire tenetur. Rubric, chap. vi. de rnag. et obe. ■ Justamente os quejebais de las buias U?iam Sanctam. In Ccena Domini, y otras en que se establece la universal y des- potica monarquia de los Papas, y su facultad de dar y guitar rey- nos, y de absolver del juramento de fidelidad a los subditos," exclaims the illustrious patriot Doctor Villanueva, Vol. II. p. 366. Bishop Bossuet accuses Pope Boniface VIII. of havings by the publication of the Decretals, Unam Sanctam, and other bulls, and by the wilfully misrepresented translations of the Scriptures, in opposition to the testimonies of tradition, encouraged the pro- pagation of doctrines calculated to destroy rather than conifirm the Christian faith. " Bonifacium vero VIII. qui decretali Unam Sanctam haec quoque niti visus est in ecclesiae dogma redigere, excusavimus quidem nos quod expositioni ipsa definitio minime respondeat, ut vidimus ; at illud coiistitit, et in expositione scripturas a vero sensu contra traditionem aperte detortas, et multa intolerabilia ad intirmandam potius quam confirmandam fidem fuisse collecta." Bossuet, Defensio Dedarationis Cleri Gallicanif vol. ii. chap. 37. H 2 100 TEMPORAL POWER they did not mean to acknowledge him as a supreme authority, by virtue of his Pontificate, but simply as a private individual, assuming the officious zeal of a friend, and acting by mutual consent the part of a judge ; a clause which they took great care to in- sert in the deed of settlement.* After the death of Boniface, the Papal chair was filled by Clement V. a native of Gascoigne, who was raised to that dignity through the intrigues of the Cardinal of Prato, and by the favour of Philip the Fair. At the instigation of this latter he trans- ferred the Apostolic See to Avignon, where it con- tinued for upwards of seventy years. The change of climate did not alter the feelings of the Head of the Church, whose favourite pursuits continued to be struggles for spiritual and temporal power. The consequences of this removal of the Court of Rome to Avignon, proved very fatal to the interests of the Italians, who were now governed by legates, not inferior to Verres, and the rest of the Proconsuls of ancient Rome, for their unrelenting avarice, haughty pride, and dissipated habits.f The infection of Popish immoralities soon spread itself in Avig- non, which by all historians, and by the divine Pe- trarch, was compared to Babylon in its profligate days4 I shall not enter into a minute examination of the conduct of the succeeding Pontiffs, as it was distinguished by the same antichristian propensity * Hume's History of England, vol. I. chap. 13. + See Machiavelli, 1st. Fior, lib. III. J Clement V. immediately promoted ten Cardinals, nine French and one English. Gibbon, torn. xii. c. 69. — So much for the impartiality and equilibrium in the Holy -College !— See the Sonnet cv. of that immortal lyric, Petrarch, beginning — " Fiamma dal ciel suUe tue tracce piova." ^ OF THE POPES. 101 for worldly pleasures, and unquenchable thirst for power, which, like an evil genius, blasted the dif- ferent ages in which they lived. The Pontificate of Boniface had so far concentrated all the crimes and enormities of the preceding, and encroached upon the anticipated enormities of future ages, that we may safely pronounce it the most remarkable event in the history of Popery, and as such to have stripped of their gloom the succeeding ages of the Church : and, therefore, any further attempt at more diffusely illustrating the subject would, I fear, prove a tedious plagiarism. However, a few more touches upon the canvas of the history of modern Rome, will not, I believe, render the picture too heavy. No Englishman, I am sure, has lost the recollection of the unrelenting persecutions which Paul III. and Pius V.* waged against Henry VIH, * Pius V. called Saint Pius, was a sanguinary monster, who in many instances became the instrument of the cruelties of the despot Cosmo de' Medici. This Tuscan tyrant delivered over to him to be burned alive those illustrious characters, who, from their generous efforts towards independence, were branded with the names of Heretics. Carnesecchi, one of the most learned and virtuous men of that age, who had been the se- cretary of Clement VII., and who was the bosom friend of the Medicean Cosmo, had been tried for heresy, and acquitted un- der the Pontificates of Clement VII., Paul III., Paul IV., and Pius IV. Saint Pius V. solicited and obtained (in the year 1556) from Cosmo, the surrender into his officers' hands of his friend Carnesecchi, who was sitting at dinner near him when he received the letter from the Pope. He delivered the philo- sopher into the hands of the Roman legate, to whom he said that for the sin of heresy he would have given up even his own son, Carnesecchi was burnt alive, and supported to the last with the fortitude of a martyr his professed opinions, — Osservatore FiO" rentinOf Parte 1, tom. iii. — Pieces Jtistificatives a la vie de Sci^ pion de Ricciy par De Potter, vol. i. p. 220. 102 TEMPOKAL POWER and the great Elizabeth ; the excommunications which they launched against these monarchs and their attempts to deprive them of their thrones. But who does not know the history of the murderers of the two French Henrys, Clement and Ravaillac, whose daggers had been consecrated by the Popes, whose punishment was hailed as the model of martyrdom, and whose names were associated with those of the most celebrated champions of the Catholic faith ?* And who can plead ignorance of the dreadful mas- sacre of Saint Bartholomew and the Barricades, * James Clement, a Dominican monk, aged twenty-four years and half, had been ordained a priest when he committed the murder. An account of his martyrdom was published, which, after extolling to the skies his holy heroism, seriously assumed, that an angel had appeared to him, and brandishing a sword, had commanded him to kill the tyrant. — This monster prepared himself for the parricide, as a good Christian would do for his martyrdom. He fasted, confessed, and took the Sacrament a few moments before the accomplishment of that murder. — See Voltaires Henriade, Chant, v. Jean Ravaillac, who assassinated the excellent Henry, was a priest, and is revered as a Saint by the Catholics. The im- mortal Voltaire has composed a very spirited Epic Poem, on the subject of the civil wars of France under Henry III. and Henry IV., which, but for the wretched rhymed verses in which it was written, would possess claims to immortality —but French poetry, alas ! — The assassin, Damien, was instigated by the Jesuits in his attempt against the life of Louis XV. Count Montlosier, in his able book published a short time ago, called Memoire a Consulter, &c, wherein with as much courage as tri- umphant success, he demonstrates the imminent dangers to which the French institutions are exposed, from the growing influx of religious superstition, but more particularly from the conspira- cies of the abominable Jesuits, proves by historical documents, that the murderer of Henry IV. was instigated by the Je- suits, and that that virtuous king on many occasions undis- guisedly evinced his apprehensions, that his life would be for- feited to these holy ruffians. See p. 42. OF THE POPES. r03 where a million of Protestants were, by the merciful hand of the religion of Rome, butchered, tortured, and burnt alive ? But as a native of Tuscany, let it be permitted to me celebrare domestica facta, and to recal to the minds of my readers the prominent part which Pope Sixtus IV. acted in the Conspiracy of the family of Pazzi against that of the Medici, when Julian was slain by Bernardo Bandini, and Lorenzo wounded by the priest Stefano, during the cele- bration of mass, and at the moment of the elevation of the host, in the Church of Santa Reparata in Florence. It appears, on the concurring authority of most of the historians of Tuscany, and especially of the unrivalled Machiavelli, that the prosperity and power to which the exalted and versatile genius of Lorenzo the Magnificent had raised Tuscany, excited the jealousy of the princes of Italy, and more particularly of Alphonso king of Naples, who could but ill brook the ascendancy which that accom- plished magistrate and learned citizen had acquired in the councils of the sovereigns of Europe. Six- tus IV., that turbulent, sanguinary, and bigoted Pope, already incensed against Lorenzo for the stand which he had always made against the encroachments of Rome, became the vile instrument of the united resentments of the many petty tyrants of Italy. Hav- ing added to the fire of discontent which fed the fa- mily of Pazzi, who were the supporters of the Repub- lican, or rather of the seditious party in Florence, with the fuel of religious fanaticism, he deputed thither the Archbishop of Pisa, Salviati, and instructed him to confer with the Pazzi, and to support by all the means with which his holy character might furnish 104 TEMPORAL POWER him, the organized conspiracy against the life of Lorenzo and of his brother Julian ; and such was the ferocious and vindictive spirit of that mitred mon- ster, that he actually gave the Archbishop a dagger blessed by him, with which he ordered him to mur- der the illustrious Lorenzo.* This detestable and san- guinary attempt, which was defeated not only by the personal bravery of Lorenzo, who successfully defend- ed himself against his assassin, but by the enthusiastic love of the Florentines for their chief, ended in the total discomfiture of the plans of the conspirators, and in their death, either by the summary judgment of popular revenge, or by the more calm proceedings of the laws.f Sixtus, vmdismayed at the unexpected result of his sanguinary machinations, with a degree of ferocity only becoming that priestly tyrant, ex- communicated the Medicean family, and its adhe- rents, declared Lorenzo to have forfeited his rank, and ordering his soldiers to join those of the King of Naples, declared war against the Florentines, in order, as Machiavelli observes, to unite the spiritual to the temporal wounds. The atrocity of this horrible deed is greatly enhanced by the class of individuals whom the Chief of the Catholic religion employed, and by the place which he selected, to perform in that most detestable tragedy. The minister of the God of * The young Cardinal, Riario, nephew to the Pope, was like- wise one of the main props of the conspirators, and a very zealous intriguer. This libertine, who at the age of nineteen, was raised to the dignity of the cardinal's hat, proved by his infamous con- duct a real disgrace even to the Catholic religion. f Most of the conspirators, among whom was the Archbishop Salviati, who had proceeded to make himself master of the muni- cipal palace, were hung at its windows ; and their corpses after having been dragged through the streets of Florence, were thrown into the river Arno. ?v7- 0/^ OF THE POPES. lOS**^ d t^ Peace, transformed into a dark assassin in his hoi**'* ' sanctuary, and while his mysteries were being cele- brated ! . . . my pen stops, and my mind recoils from its task ! Julian was an exceedingly good-tempered, benevolent, charitable prince, and much attached to the interests of the people. Of Lorenzo, it would be presumptuous in me to speak after the lumin- ous work of my illustrious friend William Roscoe, one of the most elegant historians of the present age.* Lorenzo's chief fault seems to have been that he succeeded in repressing the licence of the factions which agitated the republic, and infused into its bosom that salutary order, which is the harbinger of the prosperity and power of a state. He tried the dangerous experiment of the fusion of parties, and had nearly fallen a victim to the same false policy, which, many centuries after, has caused the ruin of the Emperor of France. The alliance which he had contracted with the family * Those who know Mr. Roscoe as a poet, an historian, a phi- losopher, know but the least part of the character of that extra- ordinary man. It is in the bosom of his numerous family, every member of which possesses undisputed claims to literary fame, that the temple of his immortal glory is erected. A tender husband, a solicitous father, a sincere friend, a warm advocate of liberty ; he lives for those who have the happiness to approach him. En- dowed with a sensibility bordering on weakness, his heart, every pulsation of which is a vote in behalf of mankind, betrays at every instant its internal emotions. It is one of the proud- est boasts of my life to have long enjoyed the friendship of the excellent Roscoe, as it would be the gloomiest of my days to have undeserved it. How many times have I seen the tears of sympathy adding new charms to the serenity of his countenance. How many times have I heard him indulging in the eloquence of benevolence ! Ah! yes, Roscoe is the man of immortality. Posterity will do him that justice which his country has almost denied him. 106 TEMPORAL PaWER of Pazzi, by the marriage of Bianca his sister with Guglielmo, irritated rather than allayed the resent- ment of those turbulent citizens ; who viewed Lo- renzo's desire to condensate the many jarring inte- rests of the republic into a sole compact interest, as an avowal of his fears, and as a tribute which he wished to pay to the powerful influence of the Pazzi's fumily. Of the hypocritical and tyrannical character of Six- tus IV., the biographer of Lorenzo the Magnificent has drawn a masterly picture in the appendix to that most able work, to which I must refer my rea- ders.* Pius v., a very bold and courageous priest, who after having, like Brutus, affected idiotism, in order to attain the supreme wish of his ambition — the Triregnum, governed the Church with the sword of a soldier, granted to Cosmo de Medici, Chief of the Republic, the title and dignity of a Grand Duke ; thus abetting him in his criminal undertaking of destroy- * See Machiavelli, Istoria Fiorentini, lib. viii. Pignotti Istoria di Toscana, lib. iv. cap. 14. Roscoe's Hist, of Jjorenzo de' Me- dici. In the Appendix, No. h, of the Illustrations, Historical and Critical to the Life of Lorenzo by the same author, a most curious document is given in the shape of a letter of the Priors and other magistrates of the Florentine Republic, to Pope Sixtus IV, in reply to his insolent mandate, immediately after the ill- success of the conspiracy, wherein he upbraids the Florentines for their impiety, and commands them to drive Lorenzo away. In that reply, the original of which is preserved in the Archivio delle Riformazioni at Florence, the priors and magistrates of the Republic indignantly repel the accusations of the Pope, boldly enumerate all his crimes, and exhort him to revert to the evan- gelical duties of his station, in the following energetic words, viz: — " Indue, indue^ beatissime Pater y meliorem mentem : me- mineris Ipastoralis officii iui, et Vicariatus Christi : memineris da- vium non in istos usus datarum. Qudm enim veremuVy ne in nostra tempora illud incidat dictum Evangelicum, " Malos male perdet, et vineam suam locabit a His agricolis /" OF THE POPES. 107 ing the liberties of his own country. The biography of the successors of these brutal despots does not offer any subject of novelty, as they trod in the same path of crimes and dissipation marked out by their predecessors, until we meet with three illustrious exceptions, in those patterns of evangelical virtue — Innocent XIII., Benedict XIV., and Clement XIV. To the simplicity of manners, unostentatious reli- gion, and unassuming pride which adorned the characters of the Pontiffs of the primitive Church, they joined a rare and profound learning, and a zea- lous patronage of arts and sciences, which they ex- tended towards every individual of merit, without distinction either of sect or of opinions. Clement XIV, better known by his family name of Ganga- nelli, had the resolution and the glory of suppres- sing the infamous order of the Jesuits, appropri- ating their immense wealth to more useful pur- poses ; and if the premature death of that most holy Pontiff, which threw such dismay on the Church at large, had not cut off the course to many more useful reforms, which he had designed, perhaps, as Bishop Ricci properly observes, this false and fantastical devotion would have been buried along with the Society of the Jesuits.* He fell, how- ever, a victim to the vindictive spirit of those ma- rauders, and died of poison administered by them.f * The Bull ordering the Suppression of the Jesuits was dated in the year 1762, and among the numerous griefs which it recited, contained the assertion unequivocally expressed, that a true and lasting peace was not reconcileable with the existence of that order. Upon what grounds has Pius VII. re-established it ? f The history of the illustrious and truly excellent Bishop Ricci, by the intrepid De Potter, contains an authentic and accu- rate relation, sent by the Minister of Spain to his Court, of the 108 TEMPOllAL POWER Pius VI. (or Angelo Braschi) was a very good man, exceedingly vain in his person,* but so much malady and death of Clement XIV. by poison administered to him by the Jesuits ; which relation is exactly conformable to the one in Latin and Italian, inserted in the History of the Life, Actions y and Virtues of Clement XIV., published in the year 1778. Pre- fixed to that relation is a recapitulation of all the crimes com- mitted by the Jesuits in France, Holland, China, Japan, and other countries ; their attempt to poison the Emperor Leopold I., and their actual poisoning of Innocent XIII. The above document was found by De Potter among the papers left by the Bishop, and presents every proof of authenticity. Clement XIV. was very robust, active, and exceedingly good-tempered, affable, and of a happy disposition. In the year 1774, one day immediately after dinner, he felt all the symptoms of being poi- soned ; such as shivering pains in the stomach, burning of |the mouth, and excoriation of the throat. He continued to pine away under excruciating torture, until the 22d of September of the same year, when he expired. The next day, the autopsy of his corpse having been proceeded to, all the consequences of poi- son became apparent, and the fact was thus established beyond the possibility of doubt. For the interesting particulars of this narrative, I must refer my readers to the above quoted work, vol. i. page 236, et seq. * Of the high idea, which this Prelate had of his own per- sonal beauty, and of the importance which he always attached to praises bestowed upon the same, many anecdotes are related, which are become the property of the public. On one occasion a poor old woman having petitioned him in vain for some impor- tant concession, she watched him while he was alighting from his carriage at St. Peter's church, and very loudly exclaimed. How can such a handsome and amiable prelate repel the supplications of charity ? Pius VI. smiled, called the supplicating woman, and granted her what she had demanded. The morals of the Ro- mans, which were relaxed and profligate to an extreme degree, derived a fresh encouragement from the known spirit of gallan- try which was the chief pursuit of the Pope's mind ; and cicis- beism, even among the inferior clergy, assumed a degree of impunity, hitherto unknown. Even the restrictions, which the Church of Rome imposes on her votaries on certain days of the OF THE POPES. 109 afflicted with the malady of nepotism, that under his Pontificate, the finances of the State were farmed to a swarm of locusts, who, under the presidency of Duca Braschi, reduced it to consumption. The immense riches which that holy nephew collected from the monopoly of all branches of commerce, confined by the most tyrannical shackles, were a source of execration to all Italy, and contributed more than any other cause to the unpopularity of his otherwise harmless relative. Pius VI. was a sin- cere lover of the arts, and the numerous monuments with which Ronie was embellished during his Ponti- ficate, bear testimony to the distinguished patronage which he extended to them. He was by no means a religious, and much less a bigoted priest ; and had he governed the Church of Rome according to the suggestions of his own judgment and consci- ence, there is no doubt that he would have walk- ed in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor, and forwarded the accomplishment of his plans, chiefly from the support which he would have re- ceived from public opinion. But, as I have already observed, he was very ambitious of his person, pas- sionately fond of worldly pleasures, and consequently averse to every kind of toil and care ; he therefore surrendered the important task of the government week, were studiously disregarded, and the Romans were left in the full enjoyment of their sensual pleasure, without the ap- prehension of a superior control. One of those anomalies in the principles of the Catholic religion, was, that while females of any rank were suffered to disgrace places of public resort, under the protection of a Cardinal, a Bishop, or an Abbe ; the characters of women on the stage were performed by men, assum- ing the dress of the other sex, in order to spare the religious minds of the Romans the tempting sight of graceful females, unavoidably condemned to eternal punishment IJO TEMPORAL POWER of Rome into the hands of the Sacred College, and of his ministers, who by the ascendancy which they had gained over his easy mind, made him the prin- ciple accomplice of their hateful administration, and rendered him the chief object of the censure of the Italians. Such were, for instance, the petty vindic- tive war which he waged against the virtuous Scipio de Ricci, Bishop of Pistoja, the disinterested redressor of the Roman Church, and the no less im- justifiable resistance which he opposed to the salu- tary alterations both spiritual and political, which the immortal brothers, Joseph II., Emperor of Aus- tria, and Leopold I., Grand Duke of Tuscany, had in- troduced into their respective States. On one occa- sion, especially, the Sacred College, having become alarmed at the undaunted perseverance with which the Emperor was carrying on the suppression of monastic orders, and the annexation to the Crown of all clerical property, prevailed upon the volatile Pius VI. to undertake a journey to Vienna, in order to reason or to frighten the refractory monarch into a repeal of those bold measures. Joseph II., who was a perfect adept in the school of man, and by no means a stranger to the ambitious habits and worldly propensities of the Pope, welcomed him with a real princely magnificence, and both by his assiduous friendship, affable manners, and the care he took to indulge him in all the irregularities of his character, so far succeeded in gaining his good graces, as to make him completely overlook the ob- ject of his journey, and the interests of the Sacred College ; and notwithstanding that he could not ob- tain from the firm monarch any of the many points which he had asked, he pronounced a most fulsome OF THE POPES. in panegyric upon the virtues and religious piety of Joseph (who was notoriously a staunch Anti-papist), in his famous allocution delivered at the public Con- sistory which he held in Vienna, at the Imperial Palace, the 12th April, 1782, which begins, " Ante- quam consistoriali huic actioni Jinem imponamus'^ But as soon as, by his return to Rome, he had put himself once more under the control of his priestly advisers, he addressed to Joseph a very threatening letter, in which he expresses his holy indignation at the ecclesiastical reforms which he had already effected, chiefly alluding to his having rendered the Clergy mere pensioners of the State, by the confis- cation of all their property. The Emperor in his reply (dated 3rd August, 1782), assuming a firm and dignified tone, refers him to the Holy Scriptures for the lawfulness of his reforms, declaring that he heard in his own conscience a voice which advised him what he was to do* Foiled in his attempts to sub- due the manly independence either of the Emperor or of his august brother, the Pope indulged his vindictive spirit in countenancing the publication of libels and calumnies, strongly reflecting on the reli- gious and private characters of the two royal bro- thers, f But for this time, at least, vo.v, vo.v prce- tereaque nihil. In the mean time, the intrepid Grand Duke of Tuscany, aided by his faithful friend, the Bishop of Pistoja, setting at nought the threatened efficacy of the Bulls of Rome, persevered in his laudable endeavours to purge the soil of Tuscany from the baneful presence of the errors of Popery. * Life of Scipio de Ricci, by De Potter, Pieces Justificatives, pp. 273—275. i Ibid, page 152. 1 1 2 TEMPORAL POWER After having abolished the execrable tribunal of the Inquisition, he suppressed a great many convents of both sexes, whose impious irregularities had attracted public censure, and subjected the remainder to the strict discipline of the Gospel ; proclaiming a full liber- ty of conscience, and putting the hitherto oppressed Jews on a par with all other sectarians. And had the two royal brothers survived the secret conspira- cies of Rome, there is no doubt that under their mighty influence, Christianity would have been re- stored to the purity of its primitive institutions. But the hands of Loyola reached the two illustrious victims, who died at Vienna within a few months of each other. Nor must we leave unnoticed the petty diplomatic war which Pius VI. continued to wage against his neighbour, the King of Naples, for the wretched subject of the Chinea : a war in which many illustrious writers took a prominent part, among whom we must peculiarly distinguish Con- forti, who succeeded in completely silencing the foolish pretensions of Rome.* The share which * Francis Conforti was the Fr^ Paolo, and the Giannone of the kingdom of Naples, and had rendered essential service to his country, by the intrepid manner in which he undertook to advocate its rights against the usurpation of the Vatican. In- cluded in the numerous list of the illustrious victims devoted to death and martyrdom by that faithless atrocious tyrant, Fer- dinand II., he was prevailed upon to employ once more his talents in the same cause, which he had so ably defended, and was promised liberty and rewards, under the most solemn en- gagements. Conforti writes a memorial replete with arguments, energy, and style, and sublime eloquence, delivers it up to Speziale, the worthy confident of the bloody monarch, and re- ceives death ! Conforti was one of the mildest and most amiable characters that have ever graced society, and adorned the Re- public of Letters. His soul enjoys its deserved reward in that THE POPES i 13 Pius VI. took in the contest of Europe against the French Revolution, the humiliations which he drew both on himself and the Church which he stover ned, and the misfortunes which he entailed on the Roman people, by his quixotic threats and his miserable anathemas against the French Republic, bear too much the stamp of the imbecility of his age to claim the dignity of remark. My opinion of the private worth of Angelo Braschi remains unaltered, and I attribute the errors which have disgraced his ad- ministration solely to the carelessness of his temper, and the malignant bigotry of his advisers. The latter part of that Pontiff's life was embittered by the atrocious sufferings, which, in spite of his age and infirmities, the brutal agents of the French oligarchy inflicted upon him. His resignation in adversity was truly evangelical, and he died a pri- soner in Valence, carrying to his grave the sympathy of mankind for his long-protracted miseries.* Pius VII., his successor, was a good man, possessing a vigorous mind, cultivated by classical knowledge. He was an ardent lover of liberty, which he studi- ously displayed on every occasion ; and during the abode of eternal bliss, where that of his deceased murderer can never approach. * Pius VI. was by no means a popular Pontiff, and the mis- fortunes which befel Rome under his administration gave scope for the satirical witticism of the Romans. The following distich, written by Sannazarius against Alexander VI., is one of the many energetic ebullitions of popular resentment which were reproduced on the occasion of the Hudibrastic war of the Papal against the French Government, and of the misfortunes which arose from such conduct, " Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero, Sextus et ipse Semper sub Sextis perdita Roma fuit." I 114 TEMPORAL POWER period of his governorship of Cesena he delivered many eloquent sermons, breathing the most enthu- siastic attachment to the then existing democratic government. He pushed his admiration for the po- litical tenets of those times so far, that in many of his sermons (which are still extant) he declares that there is no salvation for the enemies of liberty. But as soon as he was raised to the Papal throne, chiefly through the influence of the French Consul, his exalted zeal for free institutions seems to have graduaUy cooled, and he completely espoused the interests of his powerful patron. Having been dazzled by the splendour of the glory of being the restorer of the Catholic Religion in France, he be- came the principal party to the famous Concordat with the Consular Government, which proved a mortal blow to the remnants of the free institutions of that country, without in any degree benefiting the cause of religion, which it had professed to advocate. Not only the authority of the nominations to arch- bishoprics and bishoprics was vested in the first Consul, but the supreme direction of ecclesias- tical aflairs was exclusively entrusted to the same hands, thus still more consolidating the liberty of the Gallican Church. Nor did the Pope even attempt to ask for the restoration of monastic orders, a concession which on the overthrow of the Imperial Government, he so peremptorily extorted from the Catholic Governments of Europe. Pius VII. sanctioned with the seal of the Church the political usurpations of Napoleon, whom he conde- scended to crown in his own capital, and of whose ambition he became altogether the submissive tool. Nor among the many specimens of his devotion OF THE POPES. I 15 to the absolute will of the French Ernperor, must we omit to reckon the secularization of the famous Bishop of Autun, Talleyrand, whose marriage con- tracted during the convulsions of the Revolution, he condescended to confirm. But the time was fast approaching, when, wounded in his temporal pride, he would turn his submissive friendship into a ran- corous enmity ; and by the revival of the obsolete doctrines of the Church of Rome usurp the false glory of a martyr. It is not my intention to travel through those long and complicated disputes between the French Emperor and Pius VII., which have affixed such marked interest on that period of mo- dern history. But I mean to prove that that Pon- tiff assumed the dignity of resistance to the all- ruling sceptre of the Emperor, only from the moment, when, actuated by the laudable motive of relieving Italy from the obnoxious presence of Po- pery, that illustrious prince annexed the Roman States to the French crown, and designed to trans- fer the seat of the spiritual Chief of the Catholic Church to Paris. It was then, and then alone, that the Pope by his Bulls dated Rome, the 10th and 11th of June, 1809, designated his friend Napoleon, whom he had crowned, as an usurper and a rebel, declaring both him and all his friends and adherents excommunicated, and maintaining the obsolete doc- trine, that all terrestrial powers are unconditionally subjected to the Roman Tiara : Let the princes be taught, he says, that by the law of Jesus Christ they are submitted to our throne, and to our oj^ders,* He appeals to the Canon Law, to the Acts and Bulls of * Melanges Histor. par Napoleon, ecrites h St. Helene. torn. i. I 2 116 TEMPORAL POWER his predecessors, and chiefly to the Xlth chapter of reform of 22nd session of the Council of Trent. And thus we see an accomplished and honest individual, invested with the Roman purple by the hands of a son of the French Revolution, maintain, in oppo- sition to his principles so notoriously professed when he was Bishop of Cesena, those subversive doctrines of the middle age, which our zealous Ca- tholics most unblushingly assert not to form any longer an appendage to the throne of Rome. And after all this, who will dare to assert that the Ca- tholic religion of our days is stripped of those bane- ful elements of spiritual tyranny, which under- mined the safety of those governments, w^hich came in contact with her ? For what champion of the Catholic Church will undertake to justify those bold assertions, contained in the written instructions, which this same Pontiff addressed in the year 1805 to all his Nuncios, and in which he calls the doc- trine of the temporal dominion of the Popes over Kings, holy ? For, little as we study history, says his Holiness, we shall perceive the various sentences of deposition pronounced by Pontiffs and by Councils against Princes obstinate in heresy /* " Mai conosce a Roma quien pretende sanarla," said the good Bi- shop Melchior Cano. No, no, there is no alternative; either the Roman despotism must perish, or the whole world will become a province of the Vatican. The restoration of Pius VII. to the sovereignty of Rome did not rekindle in his breast sentiments of atrocious revenge. He continued to march in the interests of absolute dominion, and to uphold the * Vida Leteraria del Doct. Villanueva, vol. i, page 270. OF THE POPES. 117 systems of legitimacy ; but, notwithstanding that the first two years after his restoration had been marked by political persecutions, and even by the execution of some pretended conspirators, the policy of his administration has been peculiarly distinguished by a spirit of general forbearance towards all sects and opinions, and by a sincere desire to extinguish all records of the preceding misfortunes. In the prac- tical display of tliis wise policy, he was powerfully assisted, by his counsellor and friend Cardinal Gon- salvi, a consummate statesman, and in a general way, a liberal man : and whose principal efforts were directed to defeat the black machinations of the Holy College, the eternal source of all the evils of religion and society. Upon the whole, the repu- tation which Pius VII. has left as a priest, and a good man, entitles him to the approval of posterity : and by the protection which he afforded to arts and sciences, he has greatly deserved the gratitude of the lovers of those divine pursuits. But with all my good desire to extenuate as much as they are susceptible of being, the faults of that otherwise truly benevolent Pontiff, I cannot exonerate his memory from the censure which it has deservedly incurred for having been the restorer of the abo- minable order of the Jesuits, thus setting at defiance the decided opinion of the the world. The Bull ordering the ill-omined restoration of the Jesuits was not received in France, and is still reject- ed by Austria, Prussia, Portugal, and other govern- ments of Europe. May God have forgiven Pius VII. for the misfortunes, which by this measure he has entailed upon the world ! The present Pope Leo XII. is but a counterpart 118 TEMPORAL POWER of the two last Pontiffs, and for his affected igno- rance, the narrowness of his mind, and the uncharita- bleness of his disposition, he would even disgrace a Pontiff of the 13th century. Bigoted without in- spiration, cruel without satiety, and in short, an enemy to the human race, his administration al- ready exhibits the same miseries which disgraced the darkest ages of the Church. We have now completed the painful task of travel- ling through the biography of a few of the principal characters, who have disgraced the seat of St. Peter, and who during many centuries have upheld a S3''stem of tyranny, to which neither ancient nor modern his- tory offers a parallel. We have seen with what in- genuity they have contrived to defeat the virtuous resistance of the true believers in the Christian Re- ligion, and with what perseverance they have laboured to perpetuate the reign of darkness, under the cover of which they have been enabled to pursue their plans of deception. Of all expedients which industry sug- gested to their crafty minds, espionage^ that powerful auxiliary of despotism was the most favourite, as it furnished them with the means to dive into the re- cesses of the heart, and to drag to light the valuable ore of truth, which they soon converted into mortal poison. The Popes, therefore, wrought this terrible engine of tyranny to a state of perfection, by the in- stitution of Auricular Confession, and by the power which they delegated to the clergy of retaining an absolute sway over the consciences of men. Thus a rigid and efficient police was established over the in- tellectual world, the advantages of which soon became too evident not to awake the attention of princes, who, by a new treaty of alliance with the Church, took this OF THE POPES. 119 formidable friend into their pay. Confession, it is true, was admitted by the followers of the primitive Church ; but it was open, public, and like a conver- sation among themselves : it was an examination of the state of their consciences, and a reciprocal right of exchanging admonitions and advices. The Roman Church, associating with that innocent institution, the baneful influence of mystery and terror, converted a public discussion, into a secret and auricular confes- sion. According to Fleury, the first instance of auri- cular confession he could meet with, was that of St. Eloi, who having grown very old, and deeming him- self near the end of his mortal career, made a con- fession to a priest of all his sins, from his earliest youth and upwards. Secret confessions were first decreed and established by the fourth Council of the Lateran, under Innocent III., in the year 1215 : they were enlarged and confirmed in the Council of Florence, and in that of Trent,* which expressly and peremptorily maintained that they had been institu- ted by Christ, and rendered by the law of God ne- cessary to salvation. And here let us observe, that whenever the Popes wanted to sanctify some crimi- nal institution with the authority of Heaven, they assembled Councils, which like the Senate of the Roman Emperors, or that of Napoleon, proved humble and submissive echoes of their masters' com- mands. Hence the unrelenting efforts of the Pon- tiffs of all ages to acquire by the terror of threats, or the irresistible seductions of honours and riches, an absolute control over those assemblies of corrupt prelates, f . * Sect. 14, ch, iii. t Honours, gifts, and immunities were offered and accepted, as the price of an episcopal vote. — Gibbon, vol. iii. ch. 21. • 120 CHAPTER X. COUNCILS. The institution of Councils is coeval with the birth of Christianity. After the execrable treachery of Judas, Peter addressed himself to the one hun- dred and twenty disciples of Christ, and having as- sembled on the same spot, proceeded, after long discussions, to the election of an Apostle, as a sub- stitute for the perjured Judas, in the person of Mat- thias.* Provincial Councils were occasionally as- sembled, which consisted of deputies or presbyters sent from several churches associated together by certain bonds : their functions were limited to take cognizance of the differences of ceremonials admit- ted by the one, and rejected by the other, and to watch over the discipline of the Church : but nei- ther the discrepancy of dogmas, nor the supposed crimes of heretics, entered into the jurisdiction of those tribunals.* It was reserved for the spurious Church of Rome, to transform those originally pa- cific assemblies into arenas for stormy controversies, where the most profligate doctrines, subversive of the laws of God and of the order of society, were unblushingly proclaimed. The Apostles having de- clined the office of legislation, it appears that the discipline of the Church was entrusted to a class of men called Prophets, who exercised their func- tion without distinction of age, sex, or of natural * Act. Apost. c. i. ver. 16. Euseb. Hist. EccL lib. iii. ch. 11. t Mosheim's Ecc, History, vol. 1. COUNCILS. 121 abilities, and who poured forth their enthusiastic spirit in the assembly of the faithful. These pro- phets were soon abolished, their power having be- come not only useless but pernicious, and in their stead were appointed presbyters, or Bishops, who were, constituted ministers of the Church. Each congregation was governed by a larger or sm.aller proportion of these presbyters, whose functions now becoming important and complicated, it was deemed expedient to appoint among themselves a chief or president under the lofty name of Bishop. The expediency of the measure was recognized by all Christian Churches, which towards the end of the first century, adopted the episcopal form of govern- ment. On the demise of the bishop, a chief or new president was chosen from among the presbyters, by the unanimous suffrages of the whole congrega- tion. The bishop did not possess an absolute au- thority, but was dependant on the whole assembly, and was the first among its servants. By this mild, republican constitution, the primitive Christians were governed for upwards of one hundred years, until the dry rot of ambition undermined this salutary institution. Towards the end of the second century, the Churches of Greece and Asia, borrowing the model from the ancient Amphyctions, established provincial synods, or representative Councils, and ordained that the bishops of independent Churches should assemble in the capital of the province, twice in the year. Their deliberations were held in pub- lic, and were assisted by the advice of the most experienced among the presbyters. Their decrees or Canons regulated every controversy respecting faith and discipline. 122 COUNCILS. In the course of a few years the institution of Pro- vincial Synods was adopted by the whole Christian world, and by the union thus formed with each other, they acquired the form and power of a great federal Republic* Constantino convened the first General Council of Bishops of the whole Christian world, at Nicea, in the year 329, on the occasion of the controversy with Arius, and of the long-pend- ing disputes relative to the time of the celebration of Easter. From that sera upwards we may date the consolidation of the Romish power; since the Bishops, who, in order to lull their constituents into a blind confidence, had at first evinced the humility becoming Christian pastors, gradually grew into power, which they soon converted into an absolute despotism on every religious and temporal matter ; openly asserting that Christ had empowered them to prescribe to his people authoritative r^ules of faith and manners,^ The Pontiffs, therefore, who appre- ciated the expediency of gaining for themselves the favour ot this mighty tribunal of public opinion, strove at all times, by threats and gifts, to reconcile to their own interests their unconditional obedi- ence.! Their great efforts consisted in making people believe that the decisions of Councils did not affect them, as they were independent of them ; while they secretly exhausted all their means in order to secure their subserviency. Hence the an- * Gibbon, vol. ii. c. 15. Hooker's Eccl. Polity: Mosheim Hist. Eccl. cent. 2, part 2 ; Lettere Hist. Eccl. and others. t Mosheim, cent. 2. chap. 2. X De suerte que el capelo que algunas veces fue premio del merito, en otras lo fue de la lisonja y ponzona para envenenar animos virtuosos transladandolos de la senda de la verdad a los extravios de la curia. Doct. Vilhinueva. Vida Lileraria ; &c. tom. i. p, 277. COUNCILS. 123 tipatliy which the Popes of every age evinced to assemble Councils, for fear of exposing their abso- lutism, both in religious and temporal matters, to an unforeseen defeat. The correctness of this re- mark is fully borne out by what took place in that champion of all Councils, the Council of Trent, which was convened by Paul III., much against his own inclination, and after a severe struggle with the Catholic princes of the Diet. Even the selection of the spot became a subject of controversy, since he resisted the wishes of the Catholic princes, who had pointed out Ratisbonne or Cologne, as more central for the religious disputes which at that time agitated Germany ; whereas the Pope insisted on assembling the Council at Trent, which from its vicinity to Italy was likely to become the centre of reunion to all the clergy of the Peninsula. Having gained his point, he boldly constituted himself Pre- sident of the Council, and in spite of the strong opposition of the Protestants, prepared himself to assume its functions.* The Council was summoned for the 1st November 1542, but owing to the want of sufficient members, was adjourned to the spring of 1544. In the month of March 1547, the Pope, having begun to entertain suspicions of the friend- ship of Charles V. and terrified by the approach of Maurice, Elector of Saxony, determined to transfer it to Bologna. But in order to conceal his fears, under some plausible pretext, he prevailed upon two physicians to declare that the sudden death of two fathers of the Council, had been caused by an infectious disease, which threatened to exterminate the whole of them. Charles V. did not fall into the • Fra Paolo, 1st. del Cone, di Trento, vol. ii. 97- 124 COUNCILS. snare, but ordered all the Spanish prelates, and most of the Neapolitans, to remain at Trent ; and in this manner, the number of those who had repair- ed to Bologna, being reduced to thirty-four, and those soon disheartened from the want of employ- ment, (since from the small number of the members the Council had not begun its sittings) they impercep- tibly disappeared, and the Pope was thus compelled to dissolve it on the 17th September, 1548. The Council of Trent, the assembling of which had been warmly desired by all Christian princes, as the anticipated means of putting an end to the religious wars which desolated Germany, became, by the cunning ambition of the Popes, by whose authority it had been called together, the instrument of the enormous increase of the power of Rome, and of the sanction of its encroachments ; because, partly from the ignorance of the German prelates, and partly by the indigence of the Italian Bishops, the Popes acquired such influence in the Council as to dictate all its decrees ; * and in this manner all its doctrines, which rested upon tradition, and which were always liable to the doubts of interpretation, were de- fined by casuistical scrutinies, and coirfirmed by the sanction of authoriti/.-f The same observation might be applied to rights which, supported hitherto by mere deference to ancient customs, were now firmly established by the decrees of the Church, and declar- ed to be an essential part of its worship. Two of the main points, which the Popes gained in this most infamous assembly, were an unqualified assertion of the apocryphal Scriptures being cano- * Robertson, Charles V. vol. iii. p. 246. f Ibid. COUNCILS. 125 nical, and of the genuine authority of the church traditions ; and in this manner the breach mstead of being closed was evidenced and made irreparable^^ Henry II. King of France, firmly protested against the decisions of that mercenary tribunal, and most of tlie ambassadors sent by the Christian Princes, evinced in their correspondence with their govern- ments in the most unequivocal manner, feelings of disgust for such unprecedented effrontery and cri- minality .f The success obtained by the Pope in his * Robertson, vol. iii. p. 247- Frk Paolo, lib. i. p. 333. et seq. t The indefatigable and most learned Doctor Villanueva has illustrated hh Vida Leteraria with a series of very interesting documents hitherto unpublished, (and which he was so lucky as to discover in the King's private library in the Escurial,) con- sisting of the correspondence of several ambassadors of Philip II. King of Spain, resident in Trent, in Rome, and at different other courts, with that Monarch, and his Court and Cabinet. This correspondence is an accurate history of the intrigues, machinations, and plots of the Court of the Vatican, chiefly with reference to the proceedings of the Council of Trent, and discovers better than any proof hitherto produced the perfidy of the Popes. In a letter of Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza to the King, dated 16th of April, 1545, he alludes to the influence which the Pope is likely to acquire in the Council, by the pre- sence of so many Italian bishops. Viniendo los Obispos de Italia, que son muchos, y suyos (of the Pope) y tan pocos de otras Pro- vincias . , , se hara senor absoluto del concilia y lo podra haratar como quisiere: porque los votos que le puede?i ser conlra- rios, quedan en pleto (p. 409, vol. ii.) Don Francis de Vargas in a letter to Cardinal Granvela at Trent, dated 1 October, 1551, attributes to the obstinacy of Rome in resisting the reform of the abuses of the Church, the propagation of heresy, the losses of kingdoms, and the ruins of provinces, siendo esto lo que causa tantos malos y heregias y perdida de tantos reynos, y provincias por no atender al remedio verdadero ob solam dominandi libidinem, (vol. ii. p. 416.) Those who wish to take a complete historical survey of the Church of Rome, will find profit in consulting 126 COUNCILS. spiritual campaigns at Trent, seems to have excited the alarm of the Christian Princes, who were lite- rally terrified at this new assumption of power by the Triregnum, and at the fresh vigour which divine right had derived from the decisions of the Council. In addition to the French and German monarchs, we find, that even Philip II. of infamous memory, evinced unequivocal symptoms of dissatisfaction against the successful intrigues of the Vatican, in his secret correspondence with his different ministers abroad ; which, however, that crafty tyrant had not the honesty of raising to the dignity of public re- sentment.* Henry II. of France, irritated at the bold absolutism assumed by the Court of Rome, and terrified at the aspect of the miseries which the policy adopted by the Council might entail upon his crown- and his subjects, boldly declared, that he would not conform to the same, but strictly adhere to the con- the very profound and learned work of Doctor Villanueva, a virtuous patriot and truly evangelical priest. A splendid tes- timony of the esteem in which that excellent divine is held in the regenerated countries of South America, appears in the El Mercurio de Vera Cruz of the 2d of February, 1826, when the Directors of the newly established College of Orizava, among the most celebrated authors, whose works they have selected for the education of youth in the several departments of know- ledge, particularly point out the Catechism, published in London by Doctor Joaquim Lorenzo Villanueva, as the best book ybr instructing them in the morals of the Gospel. * By his decree of the 17th July, 1564, Philip II. ordered the strict observance of the Acts of the Council ; by a subse- quent document of the same date, he declared that in publish- ing that decree, he had no intention of modifying his privileges, right, and power, as an absolute and independent monarch; but to conform himself to the Council as far as its acts did not affect that power. See Villanueva, torn. i. p. 288. COUNCILS. 127 stitution of the Galilean Chureh. However hos- tile the resistance of some of the princes of Eu- rope to the sweeping decisions of the Council of Trent might have appeared, still it was not fol- lowed up by the most authentic of all texts — experi- ence ; but was suffered to die away in oblivion, and to swell the enormous mass of those verbose documents issued at different periods by Christian governments in a paroxysm of resentment against the Court of Rome, which (not unlike slight wounds inflicted on a savage beast, instead of calming, increase its fury,) merely served to encourage the absolutism of the despots of the Vatican. The advantages gained by these latter in the campaigns of the Coun- cil possessed too much solidity and too much reality, not to awake all their anxiety and to claim their most strenuous efforts, in order to the preservation of the credit of that mercenary and most infamous assemblage ; so that on every occasion, whenever their infallibility in spiritual matters, and their su- premacy on all sorts of earthly subjects, were called in question, they cheerfully appealed to the doctrines sanctioned by the Council, which, as we have already observed, had been concocted in the spurious manu- factory of Rome. Nor did they at any future time, when the government of the Church, embarrassed by local circumstances, or by other unforeseen events, called forth the assembling of Councils, yield to this general wish of Christians, but strenuously opposed the measure ; for fear lest some other Councils, con- sisting of more genuine elements, should abolish those impious doctrines, which had been so unblush- ingly proclaimed by the Council of Trent, and which were so decidedly, and so manifestly abhorrent to 128 COUNCILS. the predominant opinions of those times. And in or- der to support their reluctance to assemble Councils, by even a faint shadow of justice, they boldly maintained, through their mercenary agents, the cardinals, bishops, and the clergy, that as the Popes are by the authority of the divine Founder of Christianity, constituted superiors to any Council ; the collecting of such assemblies would tend to in- jure the true cause of religion, by giving birth to a numerous progeny of riotous interests, the effects of which would unavoidably be to encourage impiety and atheism. Saint Francis of Sales, Bossuet, the immortal Fenelon, and a host of true evangelical divines, courageously entered the field against these most abominable doctrines, and proved by the evidence of the Scriptures, that Councils were originally in- stituted by the followers of Christ, for the sake of maintaining unsullied the purity of religion, and of checking the authority of the bishops and their chief; and therefore that the Pope, as bishop of Rome, and first of all bishops, is indisputably sub- ject to their authority. The numerical influence of the clergy in the Councils of the Church, have at every stage of the Catholic religion, decided this essential point of dispute between Councils and the Pope, in favour of these latter, unblushingly observ- ing, that these can grant benejices, viitrefi, and hats, whereas Councils cannot* * Cum Papa det dignitates et beneficia ecclesiastica ; Conci- lium vero nihil det. — John Mayor Comment, on the Gospel of St. Matthew, chap. x. This is the grand principle of the corrup- tion which pervades most constitutional assemblies, where Court patronage silences patriotism and stops energy. Doctor Villa- nueva very properly observes, that whenever a question pended 129 CHAPTER XI. CONCORDATS. The expedient of rendering the absurd decisions of the Council of Trent palatable to piinces, and of securing for ever their support to the interests of the Church, was soon devised by the Popes in the insti- tution of Concordats ; or, speaking more properly, of conventions between themselves and the chiefs of the several Christian nations ; and in order to render that support still more availing to the individual in- terests of the reigning Pontiff, the Canon Law has confirmed the decision of a congregation of cardi- nals, that a Concordat is not valid to bind a Pope and his successors, unless sanctioned by the reign- ing Pontiff.* These Concordats are treaties of alliance between the pontiffs and the princes, by which the latter agree to surrender into their hands the spiritual government of the churches, and the supremacy over religious matters, under the stipulation that every usurpation which they should at any present or future period think advisable to between the late Cortes and the King, devotees, who were mem- bers of that body, were ready to give their vote to the latter ; and on a certain occasion, one of those bigoted members, who had so infamously betrayed the interests of his country, and sold his own conscience, energetically remarked, " Que me importan a mi las Cortes que no dan empleos ? pero del Palacio salen las mitras y las togas." vol. i. p. 275. * The Council of Trent calls Concordats, made without the authority and sanction of the Pope, " Concordias quae tantum 8U0S obligant auctores, non successores." Sect. 6, De Reflect. chap. 4. 130 CONCORDATS. force upon their subjects, and even upon those of other nations, should receive the papal sanction ; and for this, and no other motive, the announcement of a Concordat between a prince and the Roman See is looked upon, by the lovers of peace and liberty, (not unlike thunder the herald of a tempest,) as the harbinger of some infraction of justice, and of some fresh act of tyranny on the part of that absolute ru- ler. But whatever liberality circumstances may force a Pope to exercise towards a prince in the texture of a Concordat, even to the detriment of his own in- terests, still it does not impose upon him an ever- lasting responsibility ; because it is a current doc- trine in Rome, that Popes are not bound to the ob- servance of such covenants with princes or govern- ments, because of the vassalage which these owe them.* Hence arises the unrelenting enmity which Popes have at all times borne to constitutional go- vernments ; where the interests of the nation, being under the safeguard of a body of delegates chosen by itself, the absolutism of the prince is counteracted by the authority of the people ; and any measure, the foundation of which does not rest with that judi- cial body, but is the prerogative of the prince, must unavoidably undergo the ordeal of public discussion. The Concordat concluded at Bologna immediately after the dissolution of the Council, between Leo X. and Francis I., regulated the manner of disposing of clerical benefices and other property in the gift of the Church of Rome ; and such were the advantages which it conferred on the Pope at the expense of the Galilean Church, that the registering of it among the acts of the French Parliament was strenuously * Doct. Villanueva, vol. i. p. 269. > CONCORDATS. 131 resisted by that body of patriots, and through its persevering firmness ultimately abandoned by that amiable but vacillating monarch. When Napoleon had settled in his mind to usurp the supreme power in France, and constitute himself absolute monarch of that most fickle nation, the first step he took was to buy the support of Pius VII. with the offer of a Concordat : a proposal which was eagerly embraced by that Pope, as it pleased his vanity, and restored to the Triregnum one of its brightest jewels, in the voluntary submission of the Church of France, hither- to lingering in a distracted state of widowhood. In order to wean the minds of the French from all sorts of revolutionary recollections, and drill them for the sports of imperial despotism. Napoleon signed the Concordat of the 23rd Fructidor, Year 9, or the 21st September, 1801, which restored to their primitive vigour the decayed institutions and wretched mum- meries of the Church of Rome. The principal fea- tures of this most extraordinary document, which legitimatized Napoleon's unprincipled and unjusti- fiable assumption of the supreme power, were the confirmation of the purchases of national domains arising from the confiscation of Church properties ; the acknowledging in the person of the First Consul the same authority which was possessed by the late King ; and the granting to all the members of his family the same privileges and prerogatives which were enjoyed by royal relations ; the restoration of ten archbishops and fifty-three bishops, with the gloomy and countless appendage of the clergy and monks ; an unlimited liberty of conscience for all sects, but with the specially stipulated proviso, that I the Roman Catholic religion (the most adapted to K 2 1 32 CONCORDATS. serve the black designs of despotism) should be " the only religion of the Stated No doubt ])ut, in the paroxysms of his febrile ambition, Napoleon would have suffered the Pope to extort from him some further concessions in favour of the Roman Church ; but he v^^as checked in the tide of his despotic feelings by the phantom of Revolutionary enthusiasm, v^^hich he mistook for the giant of pa- triotism ; but which subsequent events have proved to have been but a misconception of the character of the French nation, and a phosphoric blaze of po- pular fury. However, he granted to the Court of Rome as many advantages and of such description as he thought necessary for the consummation of his criminal schemes — the assumption of the Impe- rial Crown, and the annihilation of the least vestige of republican institutions. The revival of the Popish religion was an error, which even the most enthusiastic admirer of that celebrated character cannot attempt to justify, and which history will visit upon his glory with the ut- most severity ; since it lay entirely within his power to have destroyed the last remnant of that most de- testable institution, which the execration of ages, the industry of philosophers, and the advantages of the French Revolution had totally annihilated. It would be a severe and unmerited libel upon the morals of Europe to assert, that she was not prepared for such a sweeping measure, and that the attempting of it would probably have rekindled those wars of religion which had for so many centuries desolated her finest provinces, and transformed her bosom into a vast cemetery. No, no : Luther had not then appeared — Luther who dared to proclaim doctrines CONCORDATS. 133 unknown since the primitive days of Christianity ; who brought the torch of evangelical truth into the dark recesses of superstition, and exposed to the gaze of the affrighted multitude the hideous defor- mities of that monster. And even now, curbed as she is under military despotism, baffled in her ex- pectations, and degraded in her pride, Europe, with the exception of a few provinces of Spain, governed by a ferocious priestcraft, still maintains an uncon- querable antipathy for the tenets of Rome ; a noble feeling, which is the badge of future grandeur, and which, kept in store for future opportunities, may be productive of the most beneficial consequences to the happiness of mankind. A still more dreadful engine of priestly power than Auricular Confession, was the establishment of the execrable tribunal of the Inquisition ; to give a faint description of which, I must dip my pen in blood. The ferocious Dominic, as I have already remarked, was the inventor of this senate of cannibals, to whom Auricular Confession handed over the self-accused and self-condemned victims. The proceedings of these holy Minotaurs were conducted in the dark recesses of mystery, where surmises and presumptions were substituted for facts and proofs. All the refinements of the most savage barbarity, which the imagination of man can * devise, were summoned, in order to extort from the agonizing victim a confession of his supposed crimes. The rack, superseding all the rules of jurisprudence, constituted the code of those pseudo-followers of Christ, and the pangs of tor- ture were interpreted for the unsuspecting proofs of logic. The finger of eternal revenge points to the pages of history reeking with blood, where the 134 CONCORDATS. deeds of that Pandemonium are chronicled in cyphers of death ! Every one who was suspected of censuring the private conduct of any minister of the Church of Rome, or who, by his personal merits, his fortune, or his integrity, had become obnoxious to the men in power, was doomed a fit object for the hungry cruelty of that tribunal, by an impious perversion of words called the Holy Office.* Every one who dared to assert the holiness of the Gospel, and drink the water of salvation at its pure, ori- ginal source, was forced into that Catholic hell, which, like Dante's, held out no hope of escape. Neither the obscurity of poverty, the lustre of power, nor the smiles of innocence, proved shelters against the eagle eyes of the Holy Office. The victim, once marked out, was by the reptile of fanaticism stunoj to death. It was from those dark cells of death that issued out that thick mist of ignorance and superstition, which overspread the horizon of knowledge, and covered with impene- trable clouds the vivid sun of the Augustan age. And it was in those torturing gaols, where the genius of Galileo, and the brilliant imagination of Ariosto and Tasso, had nearly perished. Thanks to the French Revolution, the slaughter-houses of that diabolical Holy Office are shut up, and the works of * If proofs were wanting, that the most sacred names are often adopted by wicked men, as a disguise for the most crimi- nal institutions, we might find them in the misapplication of the word holy to those infamous courts of spiritual and temporal tyranny, the Holy Office, and the Holy Alliance. From the same perversion of words arises the appellation of virtuous, which is indiscriminately bestowed upon all theatrical performers in Italy, whose characters, habits, and principles, are quite the reverse of the sense which that word means to convey. THE JEWS. 135 torture and death are only carried on in the Es- curial for the gratification of the feelings of Nero the Seventh !* CHAPTER XIL THE JEWS. The arrows of the persecutions of this Tribunal were more peculiarly pointed at the dissenters from the Church of Rome, whose apparent crimes, in those ages of superstition, derived an accession of importance from public opinion. Heresy, which was unknown to ancient religions, because they only knew morality and worship, f became the watch- word of the ministers of the Inquisition, and the hideous monster, to whom any sect which dissented from the Catholic religion, was assimilated. Under the government of the tyrant Maximus, the compe- titor of Theodore I., Priscillian and his sectarians, whose opinions had been condemned by some Spa- nish bishops, were inhumanly murdered ; and if St. Martin himself had not sought safety in a speedy retreat to Treves, he would have been included in the same death-warrant. Heresies multiplied in * See the secret history of the Inquisition by Llorente, a very intrepid exposer of the criminal machinations of that execrated institution. t " On ne vit jamais d'heresie chez les Janciennes religions, parcequ'elles ne connurent que la morale et le culte. Des que la metaphysique fut un peu liee au ChristianismCj on disputa ; et de la dispute nacquirent differens partis, comme dans les 4coles de philosophie." — Voltaire, Questions sur VEncyclo'pedie. 136 THE JEWS. proportion as persecutions assumed a more deci- ded attitude and a more refined cruelty ; so that in the fifth century their numbers exceeded fifty.* The world was then transformed into a vast arena, where dissenters, not unlike wild beasts, were hunted by the Catholics of the Inquisition, and condemned to various species of torture and death, with all the formalities of a mock trial, and with all the splen- dour of popular entertainments. " It is a great evil to be heretics," observes M. Voltaire ; " but is it a great good to support orthodoxy by soldiers and by executioners ?" asks the same philosopher. At the head of these dissenters stood the Jews, as the most strenuous and the most obstinate opposers of the religion of Christ. Of this once so illustrious though now so much fallen nation, I purpose to take a cursory view, with that spirit of fearless indepen- dence which is the parent of truth and the intrepid foe of prejudice; and, lest my opinions should be misinterpreted into an aberration from my reli- gious principles, I once more willingly and unhesita- tingly declare, that I am both from inclination and conviction, firmly attached to the religion instituted by our Saviour, which is not the same professed by the Church of Rome ; and that no human event can wean my affections from so tender and so be- loved a parent. For nearly forty centuries did the Jewish reli- gion hold the supreme sceptre over the minds of men, while other sects were left in that minority of consequence, which in our days is become the doom of the Mosaic faith. It was for the Jews * Voltaire, Questions sur I'Encyclopedie. THE JEWS. 137 that God created the world, and worked those series of miracles which stopped the march of the elements, altered the code of creation, tamed the fury of the seas, and made the strength of legions submit to the rod of an obscure shepherd.* The Jews were therefore the elect of God, and as such, possessed that pride which is the unavoidable infirmity of hu- manity, conscious of basking in the sun of an exalted station. This pride soon degenerated into a morose- ness of temper, which unfitted them for holding any station in society ; because, convinced that they were the elect of God, and that it was not in the power of any human perfection to add lustre to the dignity of such eminent rank, they not only spurn- ed communion with their fellow-creatures, but evinced an unconquerable antipathy to wash off the ignorance of their minds at the fount of knowledge. Neither the Arcadian gardens nor the Tusculum could inspire them with a desire of improving their minds, nor smooth the roughness of their tempers. The rigid doctrines of the Mosaic religion could not prove palatable to the licentiousness of Paganism : and the familiar intercourse which the latter allowed mortals to hold with the immortals, did but ill har- monize with that sullen reverence which the former inculcated to its followers towards an incomprehen- * Consider Judaism as a religion given by God himself in the most ostensible manner to a people, whom he chose to be his peculiar people, whom he separated from the rest of mankind, and with whom he made a solemn covenant : consider the whole series of miracles that were wrought to convince, to persuade, to assist and defend, to reward and to punish this people occa- sionally. — Bolingbrokes Essay XXXIII. vol. v. 138 THE JEWS. sible God.* Hence, strengthened in the obstinacy of their religious tenets, despising all other sects, and holding knowledge and civilization in the high- est contempt, they formed a distinct body of living creatures, insulated from the rest of the world. Nor did the manifestation of their religious zeal confine itself to the practice of usages and habits quite unconnected with the spirit of those times ; as they did not suffer the most trifling circumstance to es- cape, in order to make those who dissented from their faith feel how degraded and contemptible they were, when compared to themselves, the elect and favourites of the true God.f This, to say the least, imprudent manifestation of principles, the energy of which neither the alteration of manners nor the influence of ages has abated, being in collision with the generality of opinions, rendered them the objects of universal hatred; and this hatred, in proportion as they became weak, encouraged per- secutions. For many centuries under the Assyrian and Persian monarchs, they were reduced to a state of abject slavery, but it was under the successors of Alexander, that, having prodigiously increased both in number and wealth, they attracted the attention, and excited the wonder of nations. Neither the violence of the Grecian monarchs, nor the persuasions and argu- ments of learned men, could divert them from their * The simplicity of the Mosaic religion, when contrasted with the striking pomp of the religious ceremonies of the Pagans, made these latter indulge in sarcastic observations, of which the following was the most striking : ^' Nil praeter nubes et coeli numen adorant." t See Diod. Sicul. ; Dion Cassius ; Herodotus ; and Cicero. THE JEWS. 139 'steady adherence to their opinions and actions, to the tenacity of which they have at all times sacri- ficed their felicity, and even their lives. The vigour of their minds, not impaired by any abstract system of philosophy, or by any practice of knowledge, was solely centred in the thought of accumulating riches, which could alone furnish them with the means of making a stand against public hatred, and thus successfully protect their religious and civil rights. This immoderate love of riches, and no other motive, transmitted from generation to gene- ration, gave rise to those unrelenting persecutions, which, under the mask of religious zeal, have dis- graced humanity, and stained the world with indelible infamy. The great event covenanted by the Scrip- tures, was finally fulfilled in the birth of Christ, and the fond hopes of mankind for the appearance of a religion which should supersede the obscenities of Paganism, and put an end to its cruelties, were realized in the institution of Christianity. The sullen austerity of the Jews not only remained un- affected by this most sublime circumstance ; but they viewed it as an invasion of their spiritual pri- vileges, and an infraction of the rights of their hitherto favoured religion. They respected him as a prophet and a teacher of morals, but did not ac- knowledge him as the promised Messiah, because his doctrines did not entirely harmonize with the religion of Moses.* Neither the unassuming de- meanour of the Redeemer, nor the mild mora- * The Jewish converts, who acknowledged Jesus in the cha- racter of the Messiah foretold by their ancient oracles, respected him as a prophetic teacher of virtue and religion. Gibbon, chap. X. 5. 140 THK JEWSi lity of his doctrines, nor the example of universal charity inculcated and practised by his disciples, could move the gloomy obstinacy of the Jews. They joined their hatred to the hostilities of the Pagans, and waged a war of opposition to the triumphant tenets of the rising religion.* It is not my task to enter the labyrinth of contro- versy, and poach on the manors of orthodoxical history. This subject has for ages ingrossed the undivided attention of divines and historians, and nearly exhausted all the scholastic subtilties and all the arguments of theology. But without attempt- ing to justify the inveterate resistance of the sons of Israel to the bewitching doctrines of the Christian religion, we may trace it to that scrupulous adherence to the precepts of the Mosaic law, which command- ed an unequivocal hatred to all sects, that, both in their internal and external practices, differed from their own. It would, indeed, be a matter of surprise, if a peo- ple, accustomed, during upwards of twenty centu- ries, to revere a religion as the only genuine one which could open the gates of eternal bliss, and en- circle the head of the true believer with the wreath of celestial glory — a religion, the strict observance of which had been inculcated by God himself with the most terrifying threats, and the least aberration from which had at all times been visited with the * This propensity for religious disputes, which the Jews con- stantly evinced at every period of their eventful history, is strongly depicted by Josephus, the admirable chronicler of the siege of Jerusalem, the downfall of which, and with it the ulti- mate ruin of the empire of Israel, was chiefly accelerated by the violent dissensions of its numerous inhabitants, on subjects connected with religion. THE JEWS. 141 most severe punishments — it would indeed have been a subject of true astonishment, if that long-cherish- ed, long-dreaded, long-practised religion had been suddenly forsaken for the new one, in spite of the irrefragable authenticity of the Divine mission of its founder. History proves that it is not so easy a task for men's minds to divest themselves of long- retained habits, especially when they are connected with supernatural objects, the existence of which is guarded by the arms of terror. And indeed the steadiness with which the Jews of all ages have clung to their original doctrines, of which some are of the most revolting nature ; the generous sacrifices which they have made of all worldly advantages to the shrine of religious consistency, and the palm of martyrdom which they have eagerly grasped, com- pletely bear me out in this observation. Nor is it, after all, an extraordinary occurrence that the ra- diance of truth, which beamed from the mouth of the Saviour, should not have dissipated the mist of ig- norance which enveloped the minds of the sons of Israel, averse to the benefits of education, when we reflect that the same resistance to the godly truths of the Gospel was offered by other sectarians, not labouring under the same mental disadvantages as the Jews did. And when, in succeeding ages, the road to knowledge had been smoothed by the pro- gress of civilization, and a conversion to the tenets of Christianity was thus rendered more proba- ble, the atrocious persecutions which the spurious followers of that religion inflicted on dissenters, raised an insurmountable bar to that conversion ; since they, and especially the proud sons of Israel, could not bring themselves to think, .that a religion 142 THE JEWS. which had belied its original parent, and was sup- ported by every species of crime and violence, should be exchanged for their ancient law, which rested on charity and forbearance. The reverence which they preserved for Moses, the most illustrious of all legis- lators that has ever existed, the gratitude which they owed him for the innumerable benefits which he had conferred on their ancestors, were not advan- tages to be easily overbalanced, in their hearts, by the tyrannical and sanguinary despotism of the new sec- tarians. In the pertinacity of these feelings they were no doubt encouraged by the preservation in the new religion of certain doctrines and ceremonies which were the principal features of the old one.* I par- ticularly allude to circumcision, that main pillar of the Mosaic faith, which was instituted in the time of Abraham, and was the seal of the covenant with God between himself and his generations. It was in the year of the World 2107, and 1898 before Christ, that Abraham circumcised himself at the age of ninety-nine, and his son Ismael at the age of thirteen. Circumcision became hereditary, and every male child after the eighth day of his birth was obliged to undergo that operation. f Jesus Christ himself, following the commands of his Divine Father, suffered himself to be circumcised; and all his disciples and followers were subjected to the same formality. In the year 51 of Christ, a Council was held at Jerusalem by his disciples, (which was the third of that kind,) in order to discuss whether those who embraced the new doc- * The Divine authority of Moses and the Prophets were ad- mitted, and even established, as the firmest basis of Christianity, Gibbon, vol. ii. ch. 15. t Genesis, ch. 17:, ix. et seq. THE JEWS. 143 trines of Christianity were bound to preserve the duties of the ancient law, or whether they ought to be emancipated from that observance, and sole- ly to conform to the doctrines prescribed by the new law.* Some Jews who arrived from Judea, per- tinaciously maintained, that without circumcision there could be no salvation. After long and warm disputes, the Apostles and the Elders decided that the Gentiles should continue to circumcise them- selves, and follow the ancient law in all its doctrines, but abstain from idolatry, from shedding human blood, and from other sins of a like nature. Peter and Paul grew very warm in the dispute touching the rites of universal alliance ; and Augustin, bishop of Hippona, and a writer of the fifth century, charges the first with heresy, and with attempting to force Judaism upon the disciples of the new law, as he maintained that all the disciples and Chris- tians should be circumcised. f The disputes origi- nated with the Christians newly converted, who, wishing to reconcile circumcision, and the preserva- tion of several of the Mosaic rites, with the doctrines of the new religion, strove to persuade the Gentiles to embrace their opinions. Paul and Barnabas, who had been deputed to the Council, strongly opposed the introduction of any Mosaic or Pagan rite into the new religion ; while Peter, who felt the impor- tance of converting the numerous nations of Gen- tiles, and knew the tenacious adherence of the Jews to the Mosaic law, warmly advocated the expediency of gran ting to them the enjoyment of their cherished * Acts of the Apost. chap. 15. t Saint Augustin, " De Baptismo contra Donatistas/' book 144 THE JEWS. religious privileges, provided these did not clash with the main doctrines of the new religion.* James, the bishop of Jerusalem, president of the Council, and brother to Christ, supported Peter's sentiments, and from the influence which his age and rank gave him over the rest of the Council, his opinion became the rule of the Church. f To the Jews, therefore, was left the option, either of em- bracing Christianity without undergoing the opera- tion of circumcision, or to unite this to baptism. Paul, who had been so strenuous and so violent an opposer of Peter's opinion, was now compelled to conform to the decision of the Council, and, as an earnest of his submissive obedience, he circumcised Timothy, the son of a Jewess.:|: The warm solici- tude of this Apostle, the real founder of the Chris- tian religion, was not suffered to be long dormant ; as, perceiving with what stubbornness the Jews fol- lowed their ancient usages, and the strenuous efforts they were incessantly making in order to prevail upon the Gentiles to conform to them, he took the extraordinary resolution of annulling the decisions promulgated by the Council of Jerusalem, and strik- ing off from the records of the Christian religion all vestiges of servitude to the Mosaic law. Paul, therefore, upon his sole individual authority, and from an over-stretch of zeal, forbade what Jesus Christ and the Council had permitted.^ This bold * Peter was taught by a vision not to despise the Gentiles. — Acts, chap. X. V. 15 and 20. t S. John Chrysost. torn. 5. in Matth. ch. 1 ; Euseb. Hist. ' Eccl. lib. vii. ch. 12 ; S. Hieron. lib. i. J Acts xvi. 3. § De Potter, Hist, des Conciles, torn. i. p. 15. THE JEWS. J 45 measure, the propriety of which I leave to divines and ascetics to trace to a legitimate source, was not calculated to strengthen the confidence either of the Gentiles or the Jews towards the new religion ; as they, and more especially the latter, whose firm attachment to the ancient law had derived a further increase from the recent decision of the third Coun- cil, became more determined to stand in defence of that covenant which God had granted to Abraham, and which neither the Saviour, nor the Council of the Apostles, had thought fit to alter. This infa- tuation of the minds of the children of Israel in de- fence of obsolete and barbarous usages, which, if it had been treated with contempt, would have died a natural death, was met by the zealous followers of the new sect with a degree of irritation commensurate with the obstinacy of the worshippers of the old law.* And this unnecessary collision of two equally irri- tated parties, was for many ages productive of an abundant harvest of miseries ; the recollection of which strips religion of the sacredness of its dogmas. Far be from my mind the idea of attempting to pal- liate the execrable indignities which some of the Jews committed against the sacred person of Our Saviour. No, no : I repeat it again and again, I glory in the exalted name of a Christian of the pri- mitive Church ; but I contend that the crimes of a few worthless individuals are not to entail an ever- lasting execration upon whole generations ; and that the Jews of the present age do not deserve to share the same punishment, of which their remote ances- tors, the worthless criminals who actually insulted * See in Appendix a note relative to the abstinence of the Jews from eating pork. 146 THE JKWS. the Saviour, had rendered themselves so conspku- oiisly deserving. Christ has said, " He that believ- ^th, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that be- lieveth not^ shall be damned.^ But he has not or- dained that damnation shall be inflicted on the unbeliever in this world by the mercenary hands of men : he has reserved for himself the cognizance of the crimes of those who may have deviated from his holy precepts ; and it would be highly impious to suppose that the same generous mercy which the Divine Founder of Christianity so prominently showed towards his most relentless enemies, at the very moment of his spirit ascending to heaven, will not be equally shown by him in the abode of im- mortality.f At any rate the assumption of the * St. Mark, ch. xvi. v. 16. ^* Mais sur quel fondement parvint- on enfin a faire bruler, quand on fut le plus fort, ceux qui avaient des opinions de choix ? lis etaient sans doute criminels devant Dieu, puisquils etaient opiniatres. lis devaient done, comme on n'en doute pas, ^tre brules pendant toute Teternite dans I'autre monde. Mais pourquoi les bruler a petit feu dans celui- ci ? lis representaient que e'etait entreprendre sur la justice de Dieu, que ce supplice etait bien dur de la part des hommes que de plus il etait inutile, puisque une heure de soufFrance ajoutee a I'eternite est comme zero." — Voltaire, Questions sur Encyclop. t Beorum injuries Diis curse. Tacit. Ann. lib. i. cap. 73. " Le mal est venu de cette idee, qu'il faut venger la divinite. Mais il faut faire honorer la divinite, et ne la venger. Jamais : En efFet, si Ton se conduisait par cette derniere idee, quelle serait la fin des supplices }'' — Montesq. liv. xii. ch. 12. *' I dislike extremely that gloomy theology which would make the Supreme Being more inexorable than man : the whole tenour of Scripture speaks a contrary language ; and we know nothing from reason of his Divine attributes except from their bearing some analogy to our own. Now what father of a family would say to a repentant son, your repentance comes too late, and I will never forgive you." — Bishop of IJandaff's Letter to the Duke of Grafton, July 1807. THE JEWS. 147 attributes of God by men is an unjustifiable viola- tion of the precepts of the Gospel; and, as such,, highly criminal, and loudly calling for the united re- sistance of religion and justice. Both Pagans and Christians joined now in the anti-evangelical task of destroying the nation of the Jews ; and the cruelties and extortions which the Roman Emperors practised upon those infatuated sectarians, were only surpassed by the refinements of barbarity which, for many succeeding centuries, became the favourite pur- suit of the spurious successors of St. Peter. After having at different eras suffered signal decimations, the power of the Jews was entirely crushed by Titus at Jerusalem, when that far-famed seat of the pride and power of the children of Abraham was levelled with the dust, undermined by the obstinacy and riot- ous disposition of its numerous defenders. Since that fatal event they have ceased to constitute a nation ; and, wandering in search of rest and happiness, have, in proportion as they have grown weaker, increased the unrelenting cruelty of their persecutors. The Popes now assumed with satisfaction the task of con- vincing by violence those who dissented from the new doctrines, or rather from doctrines created and fostered by their ambitious despotism. Instead of pouring into the irritated hearts of the Jews the balm of the Gospel, instead of producing the conciliatory man- date of Christ, they eagerly grasped the sword of revenge, and peremptorily held out to them either an unqualified conversion to the tenets of Rome, or a series of persecutions and lingering torments. Hu- manity shudders at the recital of the savage cruel- ties which individuals, styling themselves the suc- cessors of Peter and the delegates of Christ, have L 2 148 THE JEWSl at all times practised towards this race of deluded sectarians, whose principal crime it was to preserve a firm attachment to a religion now proscribed, but which had however, for a great many centuries, held the sceptre of supremacy over all other sects. After many centuries of slaughters and robberies, the Jews became at last reconciled to the necessity of appa- rently embracing the new doctrines, in order to save their lives and those of their children, and, what was still more dear to them, their fortunes. They, therefore, consented to become Christians ; but, the moment they had been baptized, they secretly re- canted their forced abjuration of the Mosaic laws, and devoted their tyrants to curses and revenge. They went to mass, but, instead of offering up to God the supplicating vows of religious hearts, they poured forth torrents of blasphemies against their persecutors the Christians, and against the merciful founder of Christianity, in whose name they were made the subjects of unrelenting sufferings.* Those countries, especially, which, from being the seats of ignorance and superstition, were unacquainted with the sublime morality of the Gospel, took the lead in that atrocious war of persecution and destruction. I particularly allude to Spain and Portugal, the two portions of Europe where the ravages committed by the priestly oligarchy have been more severely felt, and the effects of which are, alas ! but too visible even at the present day. The fanaticism of Isabella of Castille, aided by the political cunning of her hus- band, Ferdinand of Arragon, commenced a se- ries of hostilities against the peaceful Jews and * " Car la violence peut faire des hypocrites et non des Chre- tiens." Millet, Elemens de I'Hist. de France. THE JEWS; 149 Moors, who, by cultivating with perseverance all branches of arts and sciences, had materially im- proved the prosperity of the country, and acquir- ed considerable riches. In the year 1482, they established that engine of destruction, the tribunal of the Inquisition ; and turned away from their kingdom all Jews and Moors who would not em- brace the Catholic faith. The impolicy of this measure is no less conspicuous than its injustice ; since it was to the long stay which the Moors had made among them, that the Spaniards were indebted for the first glimmerings of the light of knowledge, and for the appearance of that spirit of chivalry which had thrown such lustre on their cha- racter, and stamped it with the seal of generosity and courage — advantages Avhich, if they had not been crushed by the blasting hand of priestcraft, would have raised that nation to the pinnacle of civilization and glory. The expelled Jews arrived by thousands in Portugal, whose king, John II., actuated less by a sense of justice and compassion, than by a sordid desire of becoming possessed of the immense riches which the sons of Israel had brought along with them, consented to give them shelter, and leave them unmolested for the period of ten years, at the expiration of which he promised them assistance, and means to leave his kingdom with their families and their property. The price of this concession was fixed at the moderate sum of eight dollars, which for a King, even of so small a country as Portugal, was a very degrading bribe. The novelty of th :• tenets of the new comers, but above all the inva- luable talent which they possessed of accumulating riches, excited both the envy and the hatred of the natives : in which feelings they were greatly encou- 150 THE JEWS. raged by the open exertions of the Court of Castille* Portuguese missionaries, in despite of the solemn treaty entered into by the king, were seen preaching crusades against the harmless Jews, with that energy and perseverance which are the parents of hatred. Despair soon compelled a great number of them to seek an asylum in the Levant, where Turkish bru- tality was less cruel tlian the pledged mercy of the Catholics of Portugal. They therefore hired a great many vessels in order to carry their designs into ex- ecution ; but the epidemic of fanaticism had infect- ed their crews, and the Jews who had trusted their fortunes and families to those dens of cannibals, were robbed and murdered, after having endured all the savage brutalities which a mistaken sense of religion suggested to their persecutors. Nor did these unjustifiable hostilities against the Jews in the least abate ; on the contrary they were increased, and reproduced in a different shape, and perpe- tuated by that poison of social institutions, impunity. Until the death of John II., which happened in the year 1495, the Jews were spared the ignominy of slavery ; as that monarch had decided to affect in appearance a strict adherence to his treaties with that nation, although in reality he had in many instances most unblushingly infringed them. But the detestable task of filling brimfuU the cup of their evils, and stretching upon them the hand of destruc- tion, was reserved for his son and successor, Ema- nuel. The virtuous Osorius, Bishop of Silveira in Algarve, has in the life of that prince pourtrayed the history of the atrocious persecutions endured by the unhappy Jews, and has adorned his pages with that lovely sympathy, which the sublime Las Casas displayed both in his actions and in his wri- THE JEWS. 151 tings, in advocating the cause of the butchered Ame- ricans.* Emanuel, wishing to wrest from eternal damnation the souls of so many thousand Jews, decreed by an ordinance in the year 1496, that all male Jews who had not attained the age of fifteen should be torn from their parents, and brought up in the Catholic faith. Those among their parents who desired to escape extortions and the horrible torments of the Inquisition, consented to change ap- parently their religion, and to embrace the Catholic faith ; while, on the other hand, those who preferred a virtuous consistency with theii* religious princi- ples, to the advantages arising from this mock con- version, perished by the sword, famine, and fire. In the year 1506, a newly converted Jew, who seemed to entertain some doubts of the veracity of a mira- cle, was murdered by the mob, and thrown into the fire : a monk seized this favourable opportunity to preach a violent persecution against them, for which, during three days, upwards of 2000 of them were tortured, murdered, and burnt alive ! f All those sanguinary violations of the code of nature were * Ovrad's History of Portugal, book ii. et seq. t Sismondi, Hist, de la Lit. du Midi de I'Eur. vol. iv. p. 508. et seq. " On confiscait leur biens lorsqu'ils voulaient etre Chre- tiens ; et bientot apres on les fit bruler lorsqu'ils ne voulurent pas I'etre." Montesq. Esp. des Loix, book xxi. chap. xx. " Enfin il s'introduisit une coutume, qui coniisca tous les biens des Juifs, qui embrassaient le Christianisme." Ibid. Father Bougerel, a Provencal historian, informs us, that a Jew accused of having blasphemed the Virgin Mary, was condemned to be flayed alive ; and that some knights in disguise mounted the scaffold, and after having driven away the executioner, per- formed themselves the horrible deed, in order, as they alleged, to avenge the honour of the Holy Virgin. This anecdote is quoted by Montesquieu. Is this religion ? 152 THE JEWS. committed in the name of that Divine Being, who had died for the welfare of mankind, and whose last words were forgiveness to his enemies, and charity towards all men, without distinction ;* and thus Religion, who had descended on earth in order to spread the doctrines of mercy, and teach men how to help and assist each other, became in the hands of perfidious individuals, the instrument of their evil designs, and the scourge of mankind, which she had been wont to protect. But from what cause did this demon-like spirit of persecution against the Jews arise ? — From a strict adherence of those sectarians to the faith of their fathers, strengthened and justified by the concurrent testimony of many centuries.* This same conscientious discharge of the duties of their faith was productive to them of the same effects of sanguinary persecution by the Turks, after the birth of Mahommedism, ano- ther atrocious sect, for its sullen despotism and furious intolerance only second to its sister the Ca- tholic. The unexpected success of the Reformation seemed to have materially contributed towards dis- arming the rage of the Catholics ; who now beheld with dismay the rising of a religion, whose tenets, resting on arguments and evidence, bade fair to de- molish the proud throne of the Vatican, and offer under her mighty wings a secure shelter to perse- cuted dissenters. The Popes therefore assumed the * " Loin de sentir que tout honime est digne de respect lors- qu'il prefere les ordres de sa conscience a tons les avantages mondains, ils meprisaient et haissaient les Juifs, parceque ceux- ci demeuraient lidels a leur croyance." Sismondi, vol. iv. p. 505. " Illi solatium est pro honesto dura tolerare, et ad causam pati- entia respicit." — Cic. de Prud. THE JEWS. !>» Xil^ Q/?> ^ garb of compassion towards the Jews, and iot^mj^^'^ * 4 short time seemed to have sheathed the sword ^^i;;:i^i\ri\&,. persecution. But this temporary clemency was not a preliminary step of a return to the primitive insti- tutions of Christianity, nor a symptom of the recan- tation of their fiend-like doctrines. It was the pru- dent hesitation of skilful tacticians on the sudden appearance of obstacles of which they could not cal- culate the magnitude ; or perhaps, like Sylla's un- expected mercy, arose from lassitude, or from a satiety of cruelty. Perhaps, too, they apprehended that the rising Lutheran sect might re-invigorate the resisting obstinacy of the Jews, who now per^ ceived that the Catholic religion, in spite of her claims to a Divine origin, was, like the son of Thetis, vulnerable in some part of her body. In these assumptions I am completely borne out by the many instances of cruel persecution against the Jews, into which the Pontiffs have at different periods of society relapsed, whenever occasions started up favourable to the consummation of their cherished plans of religious tyranny. In this in- stance, however, they permitted to the Jews the exer- cise of their industry, but stripped them of all their municipal and religious rights ; assigned for their abode certain parts of the towns quite separate from the rest of the community, and in which, in order to prevent the spreading of the contagion of their doctrines, they were immediately at the setting of the sun, not unlike wild beasts, carefuUy shut up ; and in order to keep alive among the people the sacred fire of Catholic hatred, they forced the Jews of both sexes to wear on their breasts a yellow band, the badge of ignominy, or rather, in the opinion of 154 THE JEWS. the wise, the badge of honour, since it was for their steady attachment to their principles that they suf- fered these various kinds of martyrdom. The seve- ral petty governments of Italy, partly from a re- verberation of that despotism by which they were guided, and partly from a sense of abject submission to the Court of Rome, eagerly entered into the views of the latter, and joined the band of the persecutors of the Jews. The Emperor Joseph II., of immortal and phi- losophical memory, used his vast power and great influence over the councils of Europe in the de- velopement of his plans of legislative reform and unrestrained liberty. In the year 1786, having ascended the throne of Austria, he illustrated the succeeding one by the publication of his remarkable decrees in favour of the liberty of the press, of the abolition of vassalage, and of universal toleration. With the suppression of the infamous tribunal of the Inquisition at Milan, he broke asunder the fet- ters of servitude which for so many centuries had oppressed the persecuted Jews, and put them on the same level with the rest of his subjects, with refer- ence to a full enjoyment of all municipal and social rights. The announcement of these liberal measures was hailed by the enthusiastic gratitude of Europe, and the gloomy horizon of the despotism of Maria Theresa was brightened by the light of the reign of Joseph. Even the immortal Klopstock consecrated one of his sublime odes to the celebration of these auspicious reforms, and certainly the fascination of poetry was never employed to a more laudable pur- pose. Tuscany, likewise, whose monarchical insti- tutions had been erected on the splendid ruins of the P'lorentine Republic, offered a generous hospi- THE JEWS. 155 tality to these injured beings ; and Leopold, that extraordinary anomaly in the history of absolute princes, had the wisdom to welcome them not only as the martyrs of the stern consistency of their prin- ciples, but as the heralds to national industry and prosperity. The befriended Jews fully answered the sanguine expectations of that excellent monarch, and the vigour which they infused into the veins of that most happy portion of Italy, generously repaid him for the hospitality which he had granted them. The Tuscan people were soon taught to appreciate the advantages arising from the presence of such industrious visitors, and willingly associated their feelings with those of their master ; a proof, if proofs were wanting, that a nation, not unlike a family, welcomes those precepts of education, and embraces those rules of discipline, which its chiefs think fit to trace out to them ; and that the vices and virtues of a prince, not unlike a mirror, reproduce their example upon the opaque minds of his subjects.* I have, perhaps more than the limited subject of my observations required, dwelt on the so of- ten discussed subject of the Jews, not from any feeling of partiality to the nature of their religion, or to their decrepid institutions ; but because I have ' thought, that a brief recapitulation of the persecu- tions endured by them at different periods of society, and under the sole direction of the chiefs of the Catholic religion, would tend to establish, in the most evident point of view, the secession of that persecuting sect from the merciful religion of the primitive Church ; and that, therefore, a sect so pe- * '* Quand un prince parait desirer le crime, on s'empresse de le «»mm€ttre." Millol, Elem. de I' Hist, de France. 156 THE JEWS. culiaiiy remarkable for its spirit of intolerance, and for the poison of revenge by which it is governed, is not fit to concur in the regular march of the free institutions of a nation, where a general distribution of privileges is indiscriminately administered to the followers of any sect, without allusion being made to the nature of its tenets. The apologists of per- secution accuse the Jews of an ungovernable thirst after riches, a passionate love of usury, an irresistible tendency to defraud, a permanent absence of honesty, and a decided hostility to knowledge. If they are so, they are such as their cruel masters have deter- mined they should be : as it is one of the bane- ful effects of despotism to root out of the ground of the heart the germs of virtue, and encourage in their stead the growth of the thorns of vice. Where there does not exist a bond of mutual love, no return of confidence can exist. Nations governed by tyran- nical institutions are divided into two factions — the oppressors and the oppressed ; as distinct in the features of their passions, as men of different colour are in those of their faces ; and while the first display in their actions that bold security which is the result of impunity, the other must necessarily affect a spurious timidity, which is the parent of deceit. The oppressor commands, the oppressed deceives. And what has society a right to expect from men degraded in their own estimation, strip- ped of their religious claims, put out of the pale of civilization, curtailed in their appetites, persecuted, oppressed — whose hearts do not vibrate a pulsation which is not a propitiation to revenge, and whose minds do not respond to the acute spur of pride ? In Turkey, in Rome, in Poland, and in many petty sovereignties of Europe, where the moral faculties THE JEWS. 157 of man are under the lock of despotism, the Jews are as ignorant, as degraded, as contemptible as the tyranny of their masters is oppressive and cruel : while the Jews in Tuscany,* in Holland, in England, and in other countries, governed by free institutions or by a moderate despotism, where the property of the thoughts is not farmed to a gang of spies and relentless agents of the police, but is the safe in- heritance of men, the generality of the Jews do not differ from other sectarians in the practice of those duties which society has pointed out to individuals of every nation and rank. And could Turkey, or modern Rome have produced such brilliant geniuses and upright characters as Mendelsohn, Maimonides, and Ricardo ? The inordinate love of riches, that pa- ramount pursuit of the Jews to which all other desires are subordinate, is, I apprehend, not only a result of ♦ I seize with peculiar satisfaction this opportunity of pay- ing a sincere tribute of respect to the memory of my excellent friend, the late Samuel Fiorentino, of Siena, a very learned writer, and one of the most distinguished poets of modern times. To a genuine fund of vast erudition, he joined a most tender heart, abounding in all the luxuries of sensibility, and en- riched with the treasures of pure morality. This truly excellent man, who narrowly escaped being thrown upon the same pile where some of his companions, both in religion and politics, were roast- ed alive at Siena, under the personal presidency of the Arch- bishop, after the retreat of the French army from Tuscany in the year 1799, had, by the suavity of his manners and the bril- liancy of his talents, endeared himself to all classes of society, not excepting the clergy, with a great many of whom he lived on a footing of Intimacy, without however betraying the duties of his conscience. The late ?llustrious Scipio de Ricci, Bishop of •Tistoja, very properly called him, in my presence, one of the best Christians he knew, thus energetically depicting the excel- lence of his morals. Fiorentino was a happy illustration of the influence of education : as the Rebecca of Sir Walter Scott is the heau ideal of female perfection. 158 THE JEWS. their old habits of industry, but a necessary substi- tute for that consequence in society, to which every man, from the natural effect of his moral construc- tion, must inevitably aspire. It is moreover an here- ditary legacy transmitted to them by their forefa- thers, who in all times found, in the possession of riches, an efficacious means to put a stop to the un- relenting persecutions of their oppressors.* To the same want of consideration in society must be traced that antipathy to knowledge and to all the refine- ments of education, which, in almost every stage of the world, the Jews have studiously evinced. But, in proportion as the sphere of their rights has been enlarged, and by the adoption of liberal institu- tions they have been replaced in the road of emu- lation, we have seen Jews swelling the number of those distinguished characters, both in arts and sciences, which reflect a vivid light on the pride of nations. This observation is more peculiarly appli- cable to those countries which have been favoured by the blessings of the Reformation, and where the Christian charity of the primitive Church has super- seded the sanguinary theories of the middle age ; and thus we behold in Holland the gratifying spec- tacle of a monarch, one of the very few princes who have derived a salutary profit from the lesson of ad- versity, displaying a system of toleration in religious matters, which is only excelled by that liberal and * Les Juifs, enrichis par leurs exactions, etaient pilles par les princes avec la meme tyrannie ; chose qni consolait les peuples, et ne les soulageait pas Les rois ne pouvant fouiller dans la bourse de leurs sujets, a cause de leurs privileges, mettaient k la torture les Juifs qu'on ne regardait pas comme citoyens." Mon- tesjquieu, Esp. des Loir, lib, xxi. chap. xx. THE JEWS. 159 wise policy which distinguishes the reign of that truly excellent man. Neither the intrigues of the Court of Rome, nor the powerful threats of the Holy Alliance, have made any impression on the enlight- ened mind of the good William.* The firm attachment of the Jews to the religion of their ancestors is the theme of universal sur- prise, and has furnished the Court of Rome with the pretext for inflicting on those celebrated dis- senters the most severe punishments, and for shut- ting them out of the pale of society ; but, while we behold, in the common transactions of life, men dedicate the energies of their minds, and conse- crate their fortunes, to the preservation of a few trifling privileges of aristocracy, or of a similar insignificant description, can the inflexible adhe- rence of the Jews to their once favourite reli- gion, and their opposition to the doctrines of the * The King of the Netherlands has latterly promoted the most respectable Jews, in several of the great commercial towns of Holland, to be members of the municipal council. By another no less wise ordinance he has decreed that no per- son shall be admitted to any office, civil or ecclesiastical, for which the degree of Licentiate is required, unless he has bond- ^fide studied four years in a university of the king's dominions. Several other decrees have been published during the last year all tending to the salutary measure of promoting public education and the circulation of knowledge. The Ultras both of Belgium and France are grown mad at such reforms, the object of which is to curtail the baneful influence of the clergy, by submitting them to the discipline of literary education, which in progress of time will restore them to the sacred duties of the Gospel. The perse- vering resistance both of the Archbishop of Malines and his followers, has been repressed by the steady firmness of the King, who has thus held out to other sovereigns, who govern Catholic subjects, an example worthy of imitation. 160 THE JEWS. new one, excite in our minds any sense of wonder ? Instead of employing threats, tortures, and per- secutions, why does not the Pope adopt the slow but operating efficacy of persuasion ? Let the con- ciliatory morals of the Gospel, let the sublime max- ims of the Founder of Christianity be exhibited to them, in their original purity, and free from the allay of corruption. Let them be recalled to the banners of Christ by a mild treatment like strag- ling recruits, and not brought back by compulsion like refractory deserters ; and I have no doubt that the religion of Moses, so much worn out in its institutions, and so much unconnected with the spirit and the manners of the present age, will gra- dually yield to the impulse of opinion. But, as long as the Christian religion is exhibited to the sons of Israel clad in the garments of the Court of Rome, and surrounded by the frightful pomp of priestly persecution, these stern sectarians are justified in persevering in their spirit of resistance. Were I myself deprived of the inestimable possession of a true faith in the moral of the Gospel, I should prefer a follower of the faith of Moses, than to be a believer in the doctrines of the Vatican. The same observation respecting the influence of religion, may be safely applied to the influence of public opinion. Let the finger of national preju- dice cease to point out the Jews as beings of a dif- ferent cast from the rest of men ; let the impedi- ments which prevent their approach to the shrine of ambition be removed; let them feel the advantages of education, by rewarding merit with distinctions and praises ; in short, let the name of man be sub- THE JEWS. IGl stituted for that of Jew, — and I am confident that the inventors of the bills of exchange, the general treasurers of society, the idolaters of money, will assume in public opinion that distinguished station to which they are unquestionably entitled by the energy of their minds and by their persevering character. It is not a boon which the wronged Jews ask from their tyrants ; it is an act of justice, which has long been denied them, merely through the prejudices of the preceding ages, when the voice of Rome was, like thunder, the harbinger of de- struction. Times have happily altered, and the power of the Popes must now derive its support from intrigue and bribery.* CHAPTER XIII. CATHOLIC SUPERSTITION. Religion and superstition are two distinct feel- ings, opposite in principles as they are in effects ; like virtue and vice, perfection or imperfection, beauty and ugliness. f The one raises our mind to the contemplation of God, enables us to see all his * See Appendix. f " Non enim philosophi solum^ varum etiam majores nostri, religionem a superstitione separaverunt. Ita factum est in superstitioso et religioso alterum vitii nomen, alterum laudes." Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. ii. cap. 28. — See the Note to the admi- rable Spital Sermon, preached by the late illustrious Doctor Parr on the Godwinian School. M 162 CATHOLIC SUPERSTITION. perfections, and to trace to him all ideas of the sub- lime and virtuous ; to take him as the pattern of our actions, and the ruler of our thoughts ; as the dis- penser of happiness in this world, and the trustee of our eternal bliss in the next ; as the friendly- advocate who defends, and not the rigid magistrate who punishes our faults ; in short, as an eternal and essentially pure Being, who knows and forgives the frailty of our passions : — the other fills our mind with the haze of ignorance, and insulates it from any connection with God ; forces it to create a fantas- tical deity of its own, to whom we attribute the criminal propensities of man, whom we try to corrupt by bribes and to appease by cruel expia- tions, whom we consider as the companion of our irregularities and the tyrant of our passions, who has given us a despotic instinct which we must obey, and who visits our obedience with severe punishments ; in short, a Being holding in one hand the bloody dagger of revenge, and stretching the other to sordid donations. Religion is the comfort, superstition is the scourge, of man. The one, like a placid rivulet, encourages the propaga- tion of the germs of virtue ; the other, like a fuiious torrent, destroys their vegetation, et cum stabulis armenta. The one produces heroes, the other mur- derers. Religion sends to heaven Aristides^ So- crates, Plato, and Luther ; superstition promises the same bliss to Borgia, to Boniface VIII., to the pro- moters of the Inquisition, and to Ferdinand VII. Bayle and the illustrious Bacon have maintained that even atheism is preferable to superstition, " be- cause it were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of him ; for the CATHOLIC SUPEUSTITION. 163 one is unbelief, the other is contumely ; and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity.' '^ And, truly, there are many people who wouJd rather believe in no God at all, than in the God created in the Vatican, or in the Escurial. The atheist is a being deprived of the sight of intellect, which he can, however, recover through the mercy of that very God whom he does not know ; whereas the super- stitious man rejects the existence of the true God, be- cause he does not favour his blasphemous doctrines, and creates in his stead an artificial deity, cast in the same mould with his passions. By the institu- tion of indulgences, of confession, of mass, the wor- shipping of images and relics, and the working of mi- racles, but, above all, by the doctrine of purgatory and masses for the relief of the dead, and so many other ceremonies and theories, all expiatory of crimes^ and quite heterogeneous to the essence of original Christianity, — the Catholic religion, as we have al- ready observed, seems to have defeated the main object which all religions have in view, namely, the prevention of vice and the encouragement of virtue ; since it is very natural to suppose that a man who is convinced, that, by performing the ceremonies prescribed by that religion, he will wash the guilt from oif his conscience, and fit himself for the candidateship of heaven, will not be deterred from committing a crime by the severe punishments held out by laws ; because, as the author of the Spirit of the Laws well observes, " the highest penalty the magistrates can inflict upon him will be the com- * See Diet. Philos. de Bayle^ art. Superstition ; and Essays Mor. Econ. and Politic, by Bacon. M 2 164 CATHOLIC SUPEHSTITION. mencement of a future and permanent happiness." * And in this instance I apprehend social institutions can derive no benefit from the influence of a reli- gion so viciously constituted, and in many of its doctrines and ceremonies so much resembling the happily extinguished rites of Paganism. It has at all times excited wonder, that tenets so much at variance with reason, so repugnant to justice, and so detrimental in their effects, should have found zealous supporters and persevering advo- cates. Not unlike those recesses of depravation, gambling-houses, the owner of which associates with his plundered victims for the advantage of the esta- blishment, the Popes have admitted into their favour those minds which they had degraded to the level of their own infamy through the agency of their own doctrines: and this accounts for that increas- ing swarm of shameless panegyrists of all ages, whose writings, harmonizing with their actions, have mainly contributed to imprint the seal of public sanction upon the spiritual and temporal power of the Popes, to the dismay and scandal of the true believers in God. Among those conspirators against truth and religion, none stands more prominent in the records of fanaticism than the Piedmontese Count Joseph de Maystre (very recently dead), the" author of a book in two volumes called The Pope, which has excited the enthusiasm of the Court of Rome, and has de- served the appellation of the Koran of the Vatican. This work, which, for the boldness of its assertions, the futility of its arguments, the atrocity of its doc- trines, its blind reverence towards the Popes, and * Book xxiv. ch. 14. CATHOLIC SUPERSTITION. 165 the warm admiration of all the excesses and cruelties of every description committed by them, has not been surpassed by any preceding writer, (and I question whether it will meet with a rival in future ages,) is a triumphant proof that the CathoHcs of our days are as tenacious in their adherence to the doctrines of the Vatican, as were those of the dark middle age, before the spiritual thunder of Rome had been blunted in its contest with Luther. Let the ignorant leaders of the unconditional emancipation of the Ca- tholics come forward and deny the existence of this most infamous book : let the grave statesmen of both Houses peruse its pages, before they sully their names with a vote which will bequeath to posterity the sacred legacy of revenge. To give a full and accu- rate account of this most extraordinary production would be too arduous and too tedious an under- taking for my feelings. I shall, however, attempt to extract a few passages, which will convey to the mind of my readers the conviction that this book, written in the spirit of the middle age, and i ewarded with the enthusiastic gratitude of the sectarians of Rome, is an epitome of the doctrines of Catholicism, and a preventive against any relapse of faith into that most obnoxious of all sects. After having by the usual arguments of casuistry attempted to establish the right of inheritance of the See of Rome to the supremacy of St. Peter,* after having extolled the merits of the tribunal of the Inquisition and of ex- communicationf , and the beneficial tendency of the * Vol i. page 44. t Ibid, page 380—382. In his " Soirees de St. Petersburg," this furious ultra-royalist, who avows himself an enemy to know- ledge^ and the warm advocate of the most cruel despotism. 166 CATHOLIC SUPEKSTITION. Bulls, and more particularly of the three far-famed Inter Ccetera, In Ccena Domini, and Unam Sanctam,^ after having asserted the unquestionable right of the Popes to confer crowns on kings, deprive them of the same, and absolve nations from the oath of alle- giance,! h^ indulges in the following strain of Ca- tholic censure. " But without the Pope," (says this modern Draco of the Vatican) " there does not exist true Christianity : without the Pope the divine institution (what an impiety !) loses its power, its character of divinity, its converting strength : with- out the Pope, it is nothing more than a system, a human belief, unable to enter our hearts, and to modify them, in order to render man susceptible of a higher degree of science, of morality, of civilization. "^ The following is a very striking specimen of the impudent assurance of this Thersites of the Church of;Rome: — Any sovereignty, " of which the effica- cious finger of the grand Pontiff has not touched the front, will always remain inferior to others, both in its durability, the character of its dig- nity, and the form of its government."^ A little farther on, showing the holy zeal of the Jreres ig- makes a panegyric upon the Inquisition, and its autos-da-fe. He has the effrontery to call it a legitimate tribunal, " whose executions cause the shedding of a few drops of guilty blood, from time to time, and by the law ! ! ! Of the executioner he speaks in terms of the greatest enthusiasm, extolling his cool- ness in dipping his hands into the blood of his fellow- creatures, and in sitting down at dinner with his family, as calm and as happy as if he had not been engaged in those murderous exertions. This is the real Plutarch worthy of the honour of writing the lives of the Popes ! See the Third Soiree. * Vol. i. page 388 and 391. t Ibid. 234, 241, 269. :|; Vol. ii. page 153, et seq. § Ibid. CATHOLIC SUPERSTITION. 167 norantins of France, he adds, " There is no King by the people, because Christian princes possess a greater degree of common life than other men, in spite of peculiar accidents attached to their con- dition ; and this phenomenon will become still more striking, in proportion as they shall protect the vivifying religion. * Speaking of the many sects which differ from his idol, the sect of Rome, he uses the following compa- rison : " And as the putrefaction of great orga- nized bodies produces innumerable sects of muddy reptiles, national religions, who putrify themselves, produce equally a swarm of religious insects, which drag on, on the same soil, the remains of a divided life, imperfect and disgusting."! Alluding to the authority which the Pope unquestionably possesses over Councils, he makes use of the following ex- pressions : — " God forbid that I should throw any doubt upon the infallibility of a General Council ; I only say that it holds this high privilege only from its chief, to whom these promises have been pledged.":!: Of Councils generally, he affects to speak with a sort of contempt, asserting, " that it is fully proved that the Church cannot be governed by General Councils ."§ Alluding to the Council of Constance, which declared itself superior to the Pope, he very modestly says : " We must say that this assembly acted contrary to reason, in the same manner as did afterwards the Long Parliament of England, the Constituent Assembly, and the Legislative Assem- bly, the National Convention, and the Five Hundreds, and the Two Hundreds of France, and the last Cortes * Vol. ii. page 154. t Ibid, page 176. X Vol. i. page 19 to 30. § Ibid, page 24. 168 CATHOLIC SUPERSTITION. of Spain ; in short, like all imaginable assemblies, numerous and not presided over."* These few extracts, which will give but a faint idea of the an ti- Christian spirit of intolerance which animates the pages of that violent production of a furious ultra-monarchist, will be found sufficient to prove, that the doctrines therein unblushingly sup- ported, constitute the pure essence of the morals of the Vatican ; and, in order to identify them with the practical doctrines of the modern Catholicism, I must be permitted to give a rapid sketch of the principal abuses and absurdities by which it is now governed. CHAPTER XIV. BULLS. The Bull Inter Ccetera was published by the in- famous Pope Borgia ; and the elegant and learned Marmontel very properly observes, " that, of all the crimes of Borgia, this Bull was the greatest."! By this document, the Pope shared between the Spaniards and the Portuguese the sovereignty of those countries in South America and the West Indies, which might in future be conquered by the adven- turers from those two kingdoms, and excommuni- cated any other sovereign who should attempt to disturb the granted sovereignty, legitimatized by his infalUble authority. The tendency of this Bull was even more dangerous than that of Unam Sanctam, * Vol. i. page 117. t Incas, vol. i. page 12. BULLS. 169 since it established the undeniable principle, that the Pope had a right to dispose of the possessions, not only of countries already ruled by political insti- tutions, and inherited by princes, but even of those which might be discovered by the industrious genius of adventurers ; thereby setting up a precautionary claim of universal authority over properties both visible and invisible, that is to say, which lay in the stores of human imagination. This may be called a right to extend the arm of despotism over the whole world, without paying any regard to the privileges of nations, or to existing governments. The Bull In Ccena Domini was published by Pius V. in the year 1569, and by Clement X. in the year 1671. This execrable ordinance, which surpasses the despotism of a firman of the Grand Signior, or of an ukase of the Russian Autocrat, contains upwards of twenty articles, every one of which bears ample testimony to the feelings and mischievous intentions of the Chief of Catholicism. The philosophers, his- torians, and writers of every age, have pointed the ar- rows of their indignation against this most abomi- nable document, the spirit of which is to destroy the last remnant of temporal and spiritual power, and to erect the Papal throne upon the ruin of all thrones and governments. The first article declares all here- tics excommunicated ; the second, all appellants to future Councils ; the fifth, all those who shall raise new taxes on lands possessed by them, or shall allow themselves to increase the old ones, except in cases established by law, or without an express permission from the Holy See ; the eighth, those who stop the provisions and supplies, of whatever kind, which are carried to Rome for the use of the Pope ; the 170 BULLS. ninth, those who kill, maim, rob, or imprison those individuals who either go to or return from the Pope ; the tenth, those who shall use in the same manner pilgrims going to Rome, and those who shall treat in like manner Cardinals, Patriarchs, Arch- bishops, Bishops, and Legates of the Holy See ; the eleventh and twelfth, those who in the same way strike, despoil, or ill treat any person, on account of cases which he brings in a Roman court of law ; the thirteenth, those who, under pretext of a frivolous appeal, transfer causes from the eccle- siastical into a secular court of justice ; the four- teenth, those who introduce beneficial cases in laical courts ; the fifteenth, those who summon ec- clesiastics to those tribunals : the sixteenth, those who strip prelates of their legitimate jurisdiction ; the seventeeth, those who sequestrate the jurisdic- tions or revenues lawfully belonging to the Pope ; the eighteenth, those who impose upon the Church fresh tributes without the permission of the Holy See ; the nineteenth, those who, in capital cases, pro- ceed criminally against priests, without the permis- sion of the Holy See ; the twentieth, those who usurp the countries and the lands of the Popish sove- reignty. This most infamous Bull, upon the merits of which Count Maystre dwells with his accustom- ed Catholic zeal, was publicly read every year on Maunday Thursday, with all the pomp and formali- ties in which the Court of Rome so peculiarly ex- cels. Clement XIV. and Pius VI. discontinued its publication, but did not abolish it ; not from any plausible motive, . (Count Maystre observes,) but because they doubtless thought proper to grant BULLS. 171 some concessions to the spirit of the age.* But this, as well as all the preceding obnoxious Bulls, which are equally prejudicial to justice and mo- rality, still exist, although at present condemned to a temporary harmlessness ; and they may soon be recalled to their hateful life, when circum- stances shall warrant it.f The world is there- * Vol. i. p. 397. This spirit of the age does therefore exist, since the Court of Rome condescends to sacrifice to its shrine. Vannini, the celebrated atheist of the fifteenth century, having been condemned to be burned alive, on per- ceiving the stakes exclaimed, — " Oh Deus /" upon which one of the priests who attended him eagerly exclaimed, '' Ergo est Deus?"— to which he calmly replied, "Est modus dicendi." (Vide Lettres Juives.) Perhaps the Popes talk of the spirit of the age " ex modo dicendi ;" but they may perhaps find out that this Colossus is more than a mere apprehension of the mind. Witness Luther's reform and the revolution of North and South America. t Even at the present day, the Pope trusts to his faithful adherents the power of absolving from cases reserved by the Bull. There are many priests in Roman countries who possess this authority, and exert it. De Potter s Life of Scipio de Ricci, vol. iii, p. 374. The intrepid author of the " Memoire a Consulter sur un Sys- teme religieux et politique, tendant a renverser la Religion, la Societe, et le Trone," assures us (page 147) that a short time ago the principal Professor of Theology in Paris sustained theses, tending to prove that the efforts of Gregory VII. to de- throne Henry IV., and the pertinacious doctrines of Pius V., were the glorious claims of those infamous Popes to canoniza- tion ; and that the Doctors of the Sorbonne, who surround the Archbishop of Paris, have dared to introduce in the new Bre- viary a solemn office in honour of the author of the Bull In Casna Domi7ii. Do we stand in need of further proofs to sub- stantiate the revival in the Catholic world of the most danger- ous and the most impious doctrines of Rome ? Montlosier is an Ultra-royalist in his own opinion. 172 BULLS. fore threatened with the revival of a system of policy, which will not only fetter the actions and thoughts of men individually, but lay the con- duct of princes and governments under the same interdict, and render them strictly tributary to the tyranny of Rome. That this dreaded moment is fast approaching, we are warned by the restorer of the Jesuits, the persecutor of the Jews, the ignorant and bigoted Leo X. Let us be on the alert ; let us take the alarm from those degraded nations, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, which groan under the spiri- tual and temporal despotism of the Pope. " Pericu- lum ex aliis facito tibi quod ex usu fiet."* The Bull * '* La Bulla In Ccena Domini h il sommario e compendio delle leggi ecclesiastiche, tendenti per varie vie a stabilire il despotismo della Corte Romana, fabricate col lavoro di tanti secoli, inaffiato col sangue di milioni di uomini, e piantato suUa base di tanti sovrani avviliti, e di tanti troni rovesciati, come lo dimostra I'istoria ecclesiastica degli ultimi otto secoli interi; e le massime contenute nella Bolla serpeggiano^ e si concatenano con tutte le altre parti del dritto canonico^ il quale volgarmente si piega in tutte le scuole del Cristianesimo." Memoirs of Scipio de Ricci, Bishop of PistoJa,lquoted by De Potter, vol. iii. p. 187. " Esta bula destronadora, fue madre de la otra In Ccena Do- mini detestada por todos los principes Catolicos^ y hermana mayor de la de Bonifacio VIII. Unam Sanctam que costerno los Tronos." Vida Literajia del Doct. Fillanueva, vol. i. p. 154. ^' N*est-ce point la attaquer I'independance des nations, et ru- iner I'autorite des 'souverains?" Vattel, Droit des Gens^h. i. 169. A few among the Catholic Governments^ who felt the spur of national dignity, declined to acknowledge the authority of such an alarming Bull. Among them, the Republic of Venice not only refused to admit it in its States, but peremptorily resisted the warm intreaties of the pontifical Nuncios. They, moreover, dis- owned the confessors charged by the Holy See to relieve the faithful from the censures incurred by their contravention to this Bull, and never permitted them to practice their ministry. See Report of the extraordinary Deputation appointed to examine BULLS. •• 173 Unam Sanctam was the offspring of the despotism of Boniface VIII., who dared write to Philip the Fair, king of France, ** Scire te volurnus, quod in spiritu- alibus et temporalibus nobis subes. '* By that Bull, which may be seen in the Canon law, the Pope attributes to the Church two swords, or a two-fold power, spiritual and temporal, and condemns those who differ from him ; concluding that it is an arti- cle of faith, necessary to salvation, to believe that every human being is subject to the Pontiff of Rome. This infamous document needs no comment.f Gre- gory VII., who attempted to lay under tribute al- most all the princes of Europe, pronounced in the Council of Rome a very bold speech, of which the following is a sketch : " Agite nunc, quaeso, patres et principes sanctissimi, ut omnis mundus inteiligat et cognoscat, quia si potestis in coelo ligare et solvere, potestis in terra, imperia, regna, principatus, ducatus, marchias, comitatus, et omnium hominum posses- siones, pro meritis toUere unicuique et concedere. the Bull " In Ccena Domini, ad pias cansas" to the most excellent Senate, Qth March, 1769, quoted by De Potter in his History of the Life of Scipio de Ricci, vol. iii. p. 374. Ferdinand III. Grand Duke of Tuscany, enforced the prohi- bition enacted by his worthy predecessor, of this most infamous Bull, in all his estates, under the most severe penalties. Ibid. Even the Spanish Government, alarmed at the extent of tyranny which this Bull assumed over the civil and religious rights of governments, strenuously opposed its circulation ; and Philip II. by a letter written to the Viceroy of Navarre, dated 1575, threatened the most severe punishments against those who should lend a favourable attention to this Bull, and en- forced the most energetic measures in order to prevent the ef- ficacy of its effects. See Ensaijo sobre la Libertad de la Igresia Espanola in ambos tos Mundos, p. 214. * Turret, in Hist. Eccles. Compend. p. 182. t Extravag. com. Lib. i. Tit. de majoritate et obedientia. 174 ♦ BULLS. Addiscant nunc reges et omnes saeculi principes, quanti vos estis, quid potestis, et timeant."* Other partial Bulls, affecting the free exercise of the mental faculties of particular individuals, who had become illustrious either by their learning, by virtue, or by dignities, and had thus rendered themselves obnoxious to the jealous power of Rome, have ap- peared at different intervals. Among these, one which, for the illustrious subject which it concerned, produced a great sensation in the Catholic world, was the Bull called Auctorem Fidel, launched against the virtuous and learned Bishop of Pistoja, Scipio de Ricci, by Pius VI. in the year 1796. The tenour of this mandate, which attacked with the most violent censures that intrepid prelate, excited the indignation of almost all the Governments of Italy, who unani- mously (and among the rest, the generous friend of the bishop, the immortal Leopold Grand Duke of Tuscany) forbade its introduction and circulation in their dominions.f CHAPTER XV. ACTUAL STATE OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION. MIRACLES. From the remotest periods of society, miracles have been a powerful engine in the hands of a few men, interested in misleading the majority, and in imparting to their actions the sanction of Heaven. | * Natal. Alex, Dissert. Hist. EccL sect. xi. et xii. p. .384. t De Potter's Life of Scipio de Ricci, vol. iii. p. 120. X " Praedictiones vero et praesentiones rerum futurarum quid aliud declarant, nisi hominibus ea^ quae sint, ostendi, monstrari^ MIRACLES. 175 The ancient Romans, who were as superstitious as their successors the modern Romans, prefaced even their most trivial actions by the performance of some miracle ; and the palpitation of the entrails of slaughtered animals, the more or less sonorous neighs of horses, the voracious appetite of fowls, and other no less visible absurdities (so eloquently described by the Roman historian, and by the Prince of Roman orators,)! were, by the crafty ministers of religion, construed into, and hailed by the multitude as a mark of the favour of the gods. In proportion as the faith in Oracles became more universal and more steady, their efficacy was from public purposes ap- plied to private interests, and thus became the in- strument of the gratification of the most criminal passions. Machiavelli observes, that as the Oracles of Delphi, of Jupiter Ammon, of Juno, and many other deities, began in progress of time to speak according to the interests of the powerful, this falsehood was detected by the people, and they be- came incredulous, and apt to disturb public tranquil- lity. This inexhaustible source of spiritual power did not escape the anxious vigilance of the promoters of Catholicism, which, as we have already remarked, portendi, praedici ? ex quo ilia ostenta, monstra, portenta, prodigia dicuntur." Cic de Nat. Deor. lib. ii. cap. iii. See Doctor Conyers Middleton's (the celebrated biographer of Cicero) introductory discourse to the Free Inquiry into Mira- cles, a work replete with the most irresistible arguments, and^ in my opinion, notwithstanding the doctor's impeached tendency to deism, shining in all the pomp of evangelical truths. t '' Nihil nos P. Claudii bello Punico primo temeritas move- bit, qui etiam per jocum Deos irridens, cum cavea liberati puUi non pascerentur, mergi eos in aqua jussit : ut biberent, quoniam esse noUent." Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. ii. cap. iii. 176 MIRACLES. inherited most of its tenets, and most of its cere- monies, from Paganism ; it is, in many instances, mutato nomme, a faithful representation of that sect. But the same cause which gave rise to a depreci- ation in the faith of Oracles among Pagans, namely, a perversion of their influence, operated the same effects in the faith of miracles among Catholics, who now began to behold with contempt* such aberrations from the general constitution of creation .f This engine of Popish craft, which has acquired a fresh life since the downfal of Napoleon, who was the only efficient check on the mummeries of Rome, is in the same incessant activity now, as it was in the gloomiest eras of Catholic superstition, when rea- son was compelled to yield to the thundering voice of miracle. The name of Hohenlohe contains the epitome of all the blasphemous prodigies which im- posture has achieved from the days of the Pythoness down to Saint Januarius ; and wooden and stony images, which open their eyes and their lips to the faithful ; crucifixes which sweat blood ; stumps of cut trees, which, at the murmuring supplications of the devotee, shoot forth amidst the luxury of foliage the buds of vegetation, and other greater absurdities * I do not mean to deny the power that God possesses of performing miracles : indeed^ creation itself is a miracle. But I hold it to be blasphemous to believe that the other innumerable subaltern gods, created by the capricious superstition of the Catholics, share that prodigious authority in common with God. t These are facts, the authenticity of which may be easily ascertained on perusing the Italian and French papers, those dis- gusting productions of the idolatry of Rome. But the liquefac- tion of the blood of St. Januarius, which is repeated every year in the Metropolitan Church of Naples, in presence of an im- mense assemblage of people of every rank, who attach to that MIRACLES. 177 of the same species, are common occurrences in the empire of modern Christianity. But that a general, who previous to his last campaigns in Spain, had acquired some kind of glory in the contest of Mars, silly occurrence a paramount importance, supersedes the neces- sity of other proofs to support my assertions. The rehearsal of that farce takes place in the house of the Minister of the Police, two days previous to the appointed time, and it is under the di- rection of two chemists appointed by Government. I have wit- nessed it myself, at the residence of my illustrious friend, the late Minister General of the Police, Salicetti, who appreciated the ingenuity of the invention, which he maintained was a pow- erful weapon in the hands of the police. Lady Morgan has pourtrayed in her enchanting style, the wretched prevalence of miracles in Italy, and the assiduity which the Roman Govern- ment uses in supporting that abominable delusion. A scanda- lous instance of superstitious faith in miracles happened in Leg- horn in the year 1802, when that ill-fated town was afflicted with the yellow fever, imported from Havannah. The Leg- hornese, who had a great confidence in the established repu- tation for miracles of the Virgin of Montenero, resorted to the most humiliating supplications, in order to awaken the dor- mant sympathy of their old patroness. The Queen of Etru- ria, Maria Louisa, sister to Ferdinand VII. (what a name!) with that despotism which is the chief ornament of the diadems of her family, ordered the Leghornese to shift their adorations from the Virgin Mary to the Beata Bagnesi, a woman who had died a few years back, and whose name the Queen had prevailed upon Pius VII. to inscribe in the calendar of semi-saints. She accompanied her orders by the gift of the portrait of the Beata, which reached Leghorn at a moment of general consternation. The Leghornese, indignant at this blasphemous intrusion, not only resisted any attempt at superseding the long-established credit of their beloved Virgin Mary, but actually destroyed the portrait of the Bagnesi, amidst a shower of oaths and curses. So much for faith in miracles ! Machiavelli relates, that while the Roman soldiers were plun- dering the town of Vejenti, some of them having entered the Temple of Juno, and got near her image, (which it appears was made of costly materials,) asked it '' Vis venire Romam ? and the N 178 MIRACLES. should have constituted himself the Cagliostro of the quacks of the Vatican, and the active instrument in the delusion of the ignorant Catholics, is one of those anomalies in reason, which can only be ex- plained by the singular conduct of some of the French marshals and generals, who, after having worn the cap of liberty and sung hymns to Robespierre and the Goddess of Reason, exhibit now with childish vanity glittering stars on their breasts, and vie with each Other in extolling the virtues of the Bourbons, and in urging the divinity of the Pope. But of all countries where the impious doctrines of miracles have superseded the theories of liberty, none stands so conspicuous as France, that bazaar of jarring passions, where the Ninons and the Main- tenons of our days go with the same indifference from the temple of gallantry to that of God, and the priests from the gambling-house to the altar. The eloquent defender of the Constitutionnel and Journal de Commerce remarks, that the legions of missiona- ries, who have overspread the kingdom of France, majority of them having asserted that it had given its assent, by the motion of its eyes, the image was carried away. Is not this a strong feature of the resemblance of the Pagan to the Catholic religion ? (See Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, lib. i. p. 214. A Prussian grenadier was brought before Frederick the Great, accused of having purloined the jewels and riches which adorned the image of the Virgin Mary. The grenadier said in his de- fence, that having prayed to the Virgin Mary that she would send him some good luck, she had ordered him to take away the costly ornaments which encircled her : which command the gre- nadier had thought it his duty to obey. Frederick admitted the possibility of such an occurrence, but at the same time ad- vised the grenadier to reply in future to such commands, that the king would hang him. — Voltaire. MIRACLES. 179 " far from preaching the reh'gion of Christ, preach only superstition/'* They spread the most absurd tales of miracles performed by God and the Saints ; and in a recent lithographic work it is stated, that Jesus Christ has appeared in a church at Lyons, and left the print of his foot upon the altar * In another print, a letter from Christ is published, in which he is made to reprobate the obnoxious doctrines of liberalism, and the licence of public manners. M. Dupin read a letter from a " curate who refused to permit a man as a sponsor to a child, because he played upon the fiddle."* "Another curate," he added, " had declared that Lewis XVIII. was damned, because he had granted the Charter.* Is this religion ?" exclaims the indignant orator.f In the department of Marne, the same messengers of impiety and sedition, the missionaries, have lately circulated a book, which is sold in all the communes, in which prayers are distinctly pointed out for the cure of any individual disease, such as tooth-ache, rheumatism, and other infirmities. Each prayer is addressed to a certain Saint, who presides over a particular disease ; and for their idolatry, impiety, and superstition, they leave at an enormous distance the absurdities of Paganism, and the aberrations of Hohenlohe's mind.:]: Indeed, in casting a glance at • See Constitutionnel, Dimanche, 27 November, 1825. t The Jesuits have succeeded in bringing over to their in- terests this popular advocate, who is now become the object of the indignation of the liberals of France. J See Courier Fran9ais and Times, 28 December, 1825. It is a notorious fact that the Spaniards, who are rather addicted to filthy habits, have a great faith in St. Ponce, who, in heaven, fills the post of counsel against bugs. I have many times seen represent- ed, in some of the minor theatres in Naples, where performances N 2 180 MIRACLES. the degraded state of France, once so eminent in the empire of mind, though now the tool of Jesuits and Ultra-royalists, one cannot refuse her those tears of sympathy which we shed upon the scattered ruins of Thebes, Palmyra, Athens, Constantinople, and Rome, once the pride of nations, and now the obscure do- minions of Saracens and priests ! But can we find more convincing arguments of the violent supersti- tion of the modem Catholic religion, than in those scenes of carnage and destruction which, after the lapse of nearly a century, have been reproduced in the South of France ? I mean the wanton persecu- are acted twice a-day, the most sacred subjects of the Scrip- tures, of which the prototype was Punchinello, a very clever comic actor, who had the privilege of indulging in all kind of national expressions, and in all sorts of personalities, without the fear of incurring the censure of the police. The blasphemies, clothed in the garb of ridicule, which I have heard that comic buffo pronounce, and which the public welcome with enthusiastic applauses and hearty laughs, have struck me with horror. Such, for instance, as the Crucifixion of Our Saviour, when Punchinello, who acted the part of the reprobate malefactor, made use of language, which no consideration in the world could induce me to repeat. The Devil preacher, who under the disguise of a friar, is compelled to preach Christianity. A regular set-to be- tween him and the Archangel Gabriel takes place, on the sub- ject of a dead man, resuscitated by the power of Satan, which Gabriel disapproves, by once more obliging the resuscitated indi- vidual to take again his station among the dead. The martyr- doms of St. Laurence and of St. Bartholomew, the libertine in- trigues of St. Marguerita da Cortona and her conversion, the miracles of St. Anthony — these, and similar other religious topics, worded in the indecent and vulgar idiom of the low peo- ple, were continually represented to the disgrace of the Catholic religion, and in utter opposition to decency and prudence. This national abuse, I understand, is still permitted in Naples and Spain, under the immediate sanction of the self-styled Vicar of Jesus Christ. Pr-oh pudor ! MIRACLES. 181 tions of the Protestants by the Catholics at Nismes, and the manifest control which Government has given the latter, as in the instance of the fero- cious Trestallan, the leader of the bands of Catho- lic assassins, who, instead of being severely punished, was lavishly rewarded.* The safety which Ca- tholic churches and other consecrated places afford to criminals guilty of the most heinous offences ;f * Near St. Vincent, in the South of France, after the sur- render of Paris, we heard from the other extremity of the vil- lage a shout — a robber, a robber ! and we saw the mob climbing up the hill, and pursuing, with ferocious cries, a man who seemed to be somewhat a-head of them all. " This brigand," said I to an old man whom I met, " is, no doubt, a highway robber." " No, Sir," said he, "he is a rich gentleman in the village, who never took any thing away from any one." " How is he a bri- gand, then ?" " Because he is a Buonapartist." " Did he ever do harm to any one ?" " No ; but he wished to do it." '' He wished !" said I, with astonishment ; " and how do you know that he is a Buonapartist .'*" *' There can be no doubt of it — he is a Protestant." — Memoirs of a French Serjeant, f This fact needs no illustration, as it is well known to those who are conversant with the policy of the Christian government, that the most infamous criminal finds shelter and friendly hospi- tality eitlier in a church or in any other consecrated place. The tenacity with which the Court of Rome supports this execrable pri- vilege, is the strongest proof of the baneful influence of that sect on social institutions ; since, the encouragement of morality and repression of crime being the generous office both of divine and civil laws, a religion which, by the essence of its principle, pro- motes quite opposite results, is not on any account to be trusted with the guardianship of the public and private virtues of a peo- ple. Paganism was in this, and many other instances, superior to the boasted purity of the religion of Rome, since the shelter which its temples afforded to criminals was often of a tem- *porary duration ; and still more frequently could, as in the case of the traitor Pausanias, be entirely defeated, through the protection of the laws. A few weeks ago a priest at Mal- ta, guilty of a very atrocious crime, was, by the secular arm, 182 MIRACLES. the religious enthusiasm which the most celebrated assassins and robbers in the Roman States affect ; handed over to justice, to be dealt with according to the existing local laws. This case had scarcely reached the Papal ear, when all the intriguing and despotic policy of the Court of Rome was set in motion, in order to assert her often-alleged divine right ; but all efforts to rescue that clerical ruffian from the vengeance of the law, were baffled by the firmness of the local authori- ties, who turned out of the island that reverend criminal, thus allowing him to receive from the Pope the salary for the services which he had rendered religion. Mr. John Howison, in his very able and amusing book, called Foreign Scenes and Travelling Recreations, vol. i. page 149, boldly observes, '' that the Catho- lic religion, such as it exists in Cuba, tends to encourage, rather than check vices, and that for the sake of money, the church grants absolution to any assassin or murderer ! ! !" He instances several cases, where individuals, condemned to capital punish- ments for the most heinous and horrible crimes, have even re- covered their liberty, by the payment of a sum of money to the clergy, who of course have the first influence on the laws. He particularly points out the case of a criminal, who, after having been condemned to death, was executed after many years res- pite, because he had exhausted every means to feed the hungry rapacity of the clergy. Again, two sisters, who had been con- victed of having murdered their own mother, under circum- stances of the deepest atrocity, were condemned to death, but ultimately allowed to escape, by the payment of a sum of money. In every Catholic country, debtors of every persuasion who possess neither the means nor the wishes of satisfying their creditors, have the right to shelter themselves in a convent, where they are welcomed by the friars, and treated with the greatest hospi- tality. Entrenched in those spiritual castles, which the secular arm cannot touch, they set at defiance the wrath of their credi- tors, and capitulate with them on the most advantageous terms. The illustrious author of the History of the Literature of the South of Europe has pourtrayed^ with his accustomed energy, the protection which religion afibrds to crimes, even of the blackest complexion, and indulged in a strain of eloquent re- marks, which it would be too great a deviation from the limited plan of my work diflTusely to dwell upon. As a proof that pub- miraci.es. 183 the medals and crucifixes, emblematic of the Catho- lic religion, which they wear on their breasts;* the lie opinion in Spain is decidedly convinced that the Catholic re- ligion has the authority of screening crime from the sword of justice, he analyzes the structure of the comedies of the seven- teenth century, where those mirrors of the actions of our life are exhibited on the stage in all the fidelity of their original. He peculiarly alludes to that prodigy of dramatists. Lopes de Vega, whose chivalrous plays begin by the recital of some murder com- mitted by the hero of the drama, who, after going through a variety of dangerous adventures, in changing shelter from one convent to another, finally meets with a permanent protection, and a deserved absolution in some renowned church. The soli- citous sympathy which the clergy evince in behalf of an unfor- tunate individual, who, in a fit of anger, has committed a sin, but who, however, has had the generosity and felt the duty of claim- ing the protection of the Church, is not one of the minor features of Catholic superstition. The following passage by the above French writer, possesses too striking an interest to be passed over in silence : — " Le meme prejuge religieux domine aussi en Italie : un assassin est toujours sur d'etre favorise au nom de la charite Chretienne, par tout ce qui tieiit a TEglise, et par toute la partie du peuple qui est plus immediatement sous Tinfluence des pretres ; aussi dans aucun pays du monde les assassinats n'ont 6t6 plus frequents qu'en Italie et en Espagne." — Sismondi, vol. iv. page 7* * The murderous brigands in the Pope's dominions, and throughout the South of Italy, all carry images of the blessed Virgin in their bosoms. They kiss them at the very moment previous to their execution, and die good Catholics in the bosom of the church. One of the most celebrated bands of assassins was that conducted by the priest Ciro Annichiriaco, who had become so powerful, and spread such desolation both in the Neapo- litan and Roman States, as to raise the energy and power of General Church, who, at the head of several regiments, had many bloody engagements with them, and ultimately took by storm their strong hold, the Masseria of Scaserba. All the in- dividuals constituting this band wore on their breasts images of the Holy Virgin and Saints; and the holy leader, with the strict- est punctuality, performed mass every day, before or after his 184 MIRACLES. burial which clergymen deny to the remains of those who have not died in the faith of their sect, or who, by the practice of certain professions in life, have given offence to their false modesty ;* are facts exhi- sanguinary deeds. This monster, who was executed the 8th of February, 1818, said to a missionary, who had offered him the consolations of religion, the following remarkable words : — '' Lasciate queste ckiacchere, siamo delV istessa professione: non ci burliamo fra di noi — Let us leave off this prating ; we are of the same profession ; don't let us laugh at one another." He died smiling, and trusting for mercy in his own God. — See Me- morie de Carbonari, printed for Murray, 1821. Those fero- cious, undisciplined bands, called the Armies of Arezzo, who, during the retreat of the French from Tuscany in the year 179^, and under the immediate orders of the Archbishop of Siena, the Bishops of Arezzo and Cortona, eclipsed even the savage brutality of the Crusaders, wore both in their hats and breasts the image of the Holy Virgin, and indulged in the most superstitious practices of religion. They not only burned and flayed alive Jews and Jacobins of both sexes, but threw into hot ovens almost all their French prisoners, among whom were up- wards of two hundred Polish Lancers. A small body of French and Cisalpine soldiers (et quorum ego pars magna fui) easily con- quered these heroes of executions and murders ; and, after hav- ing given up their city to pillage, levelled its walls with the ground. Having, by the Provisional Government of Tuscany, been appointed one of the two commissioners who were entrusted with the authority of reporting on the origin, progress, and re- sults of that most extraordinary revolt, I had the means of form- ing an adequate estimate of the purity of the patriotism of the amazon Mari, and of the Catholic philanthropy of the British minister Wyndham. Lady Morgan's Italy is the most accurate log-book of the ship of Rome sailing through the ocean of super- stition and despotism. I wonder how she can recommend the unrestricted emancipation of the Catholics of Ireland. * That the ecclesiastical authorities in France deny the con- solation of religion, and the hospitality of burial, to perfor- mers of both sexes, and to those who may either by their actions or their writings have offended the impious Jesuitism of the clergy, is a subject of daily occurrence. That intrepid advocate MIRACLES. 185 bited by the common transactions of the day ; and which, more than all the authorities of history, au- and illustrious orator, Dupin, in his speech delivered on the 26th of November, 1825, in the Cour Royale of Paris, in de- fence of the Consiitutionnel, positively asserts, that at Poitiers the remains of a president of the Royal Court were denied the justice of burial, on the score of his having given offence to the clergy ; and that an ecclesiastical print has characterized as atheistical, (perhaps on account of its impartiality in admitting the bodies of dead men, without reference to the opinions they have manifested in life,) the cemetery of Pere la Chaise. The Journal of Antwerp announces that the body of Mr. Estancelon, (an actor) who was accidentally drowned while bathing in the Scheldt, was found on the 4th July, in the morning, and bu- ried in the evening at half-past seven. It would have been interred immediately, but hopes were entertained that it might have received Christian burial; but the priest of the parish would not venture to take upon himself to grant the rites of religion to a person belonging to the church. The deceased was a Catholic. — Brussells, 5tk July^ 1826. —But that this spirit of unrelenting revenge of the Catholic religion against any individual who may have incurred the hatred both of its ministers and votaries, is confined neither to certain climates, nor to certain nations, nor to certain times, but, like a violent storm which agitates the horizon from one extreme point to the other, stretches its terrific influence on the whole of the Catholic world, is exemplified in the following occurrence, authentica- ted by El Columhiano of the 12ik of October, 1825: — An Englishman having died about the beginning of the month, was by his own countrymen decently interred in a spot assigned for this purpose by the public authorities. I had the horror (says the writer of that article) of witnessing, on the following morn- ing, his grave sacrilegiously violated, his coffin broken in pie- ces, and the corpse, stripped of its covering, a prey to dogs and vultures. A second time did his indignant countrymen place him in the earth, and a second time did they behold his remains torn from it. The following remark of the writer al- luded to, is worthy of our attention : — " But there are amongst us {id est Catholics) certain fanatics, whom our Saviour desig- nates as " righteous over-much,'' who deem it an acceptable ser- vice to a merciful God, to mangle the image of their IMaker, and 186 MIEACLES. thenticate the evil tendency, the profligate immora- lity, and the superstition of the Catholic religion of the present era ; and fully establish the truth, that it has within the last twenty years relapsed into those systems of terror and persecution which ruled the Christian world until the breaking out of the French Revolution. But what shall we say of that overstretch of priestly despotism which commands the children of dissenters, who, through the in- triguing proselytism of its agents, have embraced the Roman faith, to extinguish in their hearts the sacred laws of nature, and, like many infuriated Tullias, trample upon the bodies of their tender parents? The families of Loveday and Home afford modern illustrations of this demon-like superstition ; and I feel a truly sincere satisfaction in being able to lay before my readers irrefragable testimonials of^ my refuse to a fellow Christian, when not a member of their church, those rights which Mahometans and Pagans do not deny him. What will the advocates of Catholic emancipation now say, who maintain, in opposition to facts and to the opinion of states- men and philosophers of all ages, that Catholicism favours free institutions ? Let them change climate, and for a few weeks transport themselves to Anticyra. * Towards the beginning of the year 1821, Mr. Loveday, an English gentleman, seized with the malady of French fashion, now so prevalent in this country, placed his three daughters under the tuition of Miss Reboul, who kept a well-known school in Paris, in order that they might undergo the purifica- tion from English morality to French immorality. The insti- tutress, being of Catholic persuasion, was by Mr. Loveday (who certainly was ignorant of the spirit of proselytism which pervades the hearts of Catholics) strictly requested that his daughters might be prevented from coming in contact with Catholic books, in order that they might avoid any possible risk of disturbing the sym- metry of their religious opinions. To this Miss Reboul readily MIRACLES. 1 87 assertions. Nor is the present Court of Rome less zealous in the revival of those atrocious punishments assented, while she immediately set in motion all her superstitious energy in order to work the conversion to Catholicism of these three intended victims of seduction. Miss Emily Loveday, the eldest of the three sisters, who, it appears, was endowed with a romantic imagination, bordering on enthusiasm, became the ob- ject of Miss Reboul's experiments. She accordingly strove to sow in her mind the seeds of Catholic terror and superstition, and carefully encouraged their propagation by the constant ex- planation of the most intolerant doctrines, . clothed in the be- witching garb of eloquence. Miss Loveday, who now had be- come ardently fond of reading Catholic books, and attended Ca- tholic churches, answered with the warmest zeal to the assiduous tuition of her treacherous governess. The imprudent father, who it appears had begun to entertain suspicions of his daugh- ter's religious wanderings, wrote to Miss Reboul, and imparted to her his anxious fears. In reply to this, the governess gave the father the unhesitating assurance (Aug. 7^ 1821), " that it would be doing her injustice to have any fears on the subject of his daughter's religion." However, at last the storm blew up, and Mr. Loveday was informed that his daughter had become a rigid, intolerant, persecuting Catholic. He soon repaired to the scene of his miseries, and, after having tried to regain his daughter over to her primitive faith, had to endure the further agony of being by that unnatural daughter stigmatized with the names of damned heretic, cruel father, and inimical to the true God ! In vain did the desolate father address himself to Govern- ment, and to public opinion. The one was without mercy, the other without power; and after having wasted away both time and money, the disappointed father had to sanction the separation of his daughter from him, and to call himself com- paratively happy in the recovery of the two remaining daugh- ters, whose Protestant principles had nearly yielded to the per- nicious suggestions of the bigoted governess. — The other in- stance of the seduction of a juvenile mind from the Protestant to the Catholic faith, was exhibited by Miss Clementina Home, the daughter of a lady, who has lately acquired a celebrity in the island of Guernsey, for the fortitude she evinced during her 188 MIRACLES. which the laws have awarded to culprits, and which form the disgrace of its jurisprudence ;* nor much trial in that royal court the 3rd Dec. 1825 (vide the Sarnian Journal and Jersey Chronicle). It appears from the trial that the lady in question, who was separated from her husband, a reverend gentleman residing at Chiswick, and lived in the above island, had the guardianship of his family, consisting of three daughters. Mr. Home having desired her to give up to him his second daughter Clementina, the mother, who seemed to be extremely attached to her, contrived to secrete her in several places, in order to elude the pursuits of her husband ; for which offence she was tried and condemned to a short im- prisonment. Among the individuals to whom Mrs. Home en- trusted the temporary custody of that interesting child, was a gentleman of the name of De Campourcy (whom I have known for many years), a resident in that island, and a gentleman endowed with a considerable share of knowledge and literary accomplishments, and professing a violent attachment to liberal institutions, and a decided hostility t5 Catholic doctrines. It appears, however, that the very few days which Miss Clemen- tina Home had spent in M. De Campourcy's house, had been employed by that gentleman in persuading the young lady's mind to embrace the Catholic faith : and how far he succeeded in his attempts we are told by Mrs. Home in the deposition which she made at her trial. " I went to the house of M. De Campourcy/* she says ; *' my child remained unmoved by my appearance : I exclaimed, ' My child, have you forgotten me } Can so short a time have weaned you from your mother ?' She said she wished to go to a convent in France ; that she was in the true faith : hoped that I and my eldest daughter would turn to the true faith — and was sorry I was a devil, a heretic, and so on. I insisted upon taking the child away ; the child fell upon its knee." And a little after she adds : — " Mr Brock took the child to my lodgings ; there was a great crowd of persons ; I went home — I could scarcely believe the immense change in my child — she told me she hated me. I pulled a mass-book out of her bosom, and burned it. Mr. Brock advised me to give up the child, as she had become unnatural, in conse- quence of the Popish ideas which had been instilled into her by * See Note* in the next page. MIRACLES. 189 less warm in its solicitude for the sudden repression of any tendency to liberal ideas ; or in its eagerness to stifle in their cradle even the thoughts of the unhap- py Romans.f The severe punishments daily inflicted M. De Campourcy/' — Now I beg my readers to observe that the conversion of Miss Clementina Home was not the result of a slow systematic persuasion, as in the case of Miss Loveday ; but was the instantaneous effect of the terrors of superstition, as the time which Miss Home had passed with M. De Cam- pourcy wag too short to allow that gentleman to resort to argu- ments and persuasions in order to accomplish the ruin of the peace of that lady's mind. * Towards the end of last year a young man of a very decent family having been found in bed with a common woman in Rome, was condemned to be whipped on an ass through th6 streets, and the woman was exiled from the Roman States. t The following are some of the articles of an ordinance re- specting the police of the theatres, lately published by the Pope. " The performances shall not begin later than nine o'clock, and end at half past eleven, except on Thursdays, when they may continue till twelve. Only a certain number of per- sons shall be admitted into the pit, and those who have no winter tickets shall be turned out. Whoever stands up in the pit shall be arrested, and pay five scudi. Whoever puts on his hat shall be immediately turned out. If the contractor acts in the smallest particular contrary to the present ordinance, he shall pay fifty scudi. An actor who allows himself an indecent gesture, or uses an expression that is nc t in the prompter's book, shall be sent for five years to the galleys. No passage shall be repeated. Whoever disputes in the theatre with an agent of the authorities, shall be turned out. Whoever strikes a blow in the theatre without weapons, shall be sent to the galleys for ten years. Whoever appears in the theatre with a weapon of any kind, shall be sentenced to the galleys for life ; or if he has inflicted a wound with it, to death. All expressions of disapprobation, as well as of enthusiastic applause, are for- bidden, on pain of imprisonment for not less than two, or more than six months. All workmen who do not immediately obey the orders given them, or oppose the officers, are to be arrested. 190 MIRACLES. on individuals suspected of Carbonarism and Ma- sonry, the repression of every society which may be thought likely to encourage the most distant pro- pensity to improve the condition of mankind,* con- stitute some of the features of the administration of the cruel and ignorant Leo Xll.f But what and on the evidence of a soldier and of another witness, sen- tenced to six months imprisonment/' A more capricious, a more tyrannical, a more cruel ordinance could not be framed by Nero, Caracalla, Heliogabalus, or even Ferdinand VII. * A decree of the Congregation de I' Index , dated 12th June, 1826, has condemned and placed in the list of prohibited books the works of Count de Montlosier ; Considerations on the His- tory of the Councils, by De Potter ; The Science of Legislation, by Filangieri ; a translation of Spinosa, by Kalbe ; My Opi- nion on the Institution of a Cathedral, by Oberthun ; the His- tory of Andrew Dunn, an Irish Catholic; and Rome in the 19th Century. This decree was approved by the Pope on the 17th of June, and ordered to be published. t The Journal de Commerce of 26th May, 1826, gives an ac- count of a Bull lately published by the Pope against secret associations of every kind, both political and literary ; and what is still more absurd and more impudent, he has requested the French Government to apply the efficacy of that holy firman to that country. The skeleton of liberty, who still presides over the deliberations of the two Chambers, has hitherto prevented the Jesuits and their servants, the Ministers, from carrying into effect the sweeping prohibitions of the ignorant Leo XII. ; while the Roman States are condemned to witness every day the ex- tinction of some remaining spark of knowledge, which will soon desert that ill-fated country, following the steps of the beloved sister Christian religion. In 1816, under the government of Pius VII., many indivi- duals distinguished both for birth and talents, were, after a lingering detention in the wretched prisons of Rome, convicted of the crime of Carbonarism, and cruelly executed. — (See Ap- pendix II. to the Memorie de Carbonari, p. 173.) The rigid vigilance which the Popish police keeps on the public and pri- vate conduct of individuals is only surpassed by that tribunal MIRACLES. 191 shall we say of the moral (and I fear that soon they will turn bodily) tortures, which are inflicted on the Jews, in utter disregard to justice, to conventions, and above all, to the morals of the Gospel ? * of political inquisition, the Austrian police of Milan. Persons convicted of having kept company with women avowedly immo- dest, are condemned to imprisonment and fines ; while the abo- minable courtship paid by individuals (even belonging to the Church) to married women is not only permitted, but hailed as a refinement of high manners. The same petty persecutions are practised against those who on certain days of the year commit the direful crime of eating beef and butter in opposition to the orders of the holy Divan. I appeal to the testimony of Eng- lishmen, who have lately visited that sink of corruption and superstition, Rome, for the veracity of my assertions. Franconi, a youth of twenty years of age, the murderer of the Prelate Fragretti, was executed yesterday in the Piazza del Popolo. There exists an ancient law, by which the murderer of an ecclesiastic is to be knocked down with a hammer, on which his throat is cut, and his arms and feet separated from his body. This kind of punishment, which arose in the nations of the middle age respecting the dignity of a priest, has not been practised as far as I know since the reign of Pius VI. On this occasion it was revived. Immediately on receiving the blow with the hammer the criminal fell to the ground, apparently lifeless ; on which the executioner proceeded to fulfil the other parts of the sentence, with a dexterity and propriety which were really remarkable. The detached members were exposed for an hour, then put into a coffin and buried. — Romey 21st Ja- nuary, 1826. The nephew of a rich baker was condemned by the police to be led through the principal streets, riding on an ass, and to ten years galleys, for having been found in possession of a sword cane, in opposition to the existing orders. The uncle offered in vain the sum of sixty thousand scudi to avoid the ignominy ; but the sentence was executed. — Rome, 14th Feb. 1826. * The Pope has ordered that the Jews shall wear as a distin- guishing mark a yellow slip or band at the top of their hats ; and the Jewesses will have to wear a broad yellow band across the breast, and be shut up in their streets. " Suivant 192 CHAPTER XVI. THE CATHOLIC CLERGY. If it is true that opinion fixes the standard value of the excellence or worthlessness of public and private characters, monastic orders must unques- tionably possess the elements of corruption and crime ; since they have at all times excited the resentment of those who take a real interest in the happiness of mankind. This observation is more peculiarly applicable to the Jesuits, who, since their ill-omened appearance in society, have become the objects of general execration. The immortal author of the Provincial Letters, who had so eloquently chronicled the vigorous war waged against them by the Port Royal, seemed to have left nothing far- ther to be desired by the lovers of justice and truth. But a modern historian of that detestable sect, who has brought to perfection the work commenced by the illustrious Pascal, has lately appeared in the person of Count de Montlosier, an ultra- roy- alist, and as he avows himself an enemy to popular *' Suivant les lettres de Rome, on s'y occupe avec beaucoup d'activite des travaux necessaires pour donner une plus grande etendue aux quartiers des Juifs, dans lesquels les Israelites seront h I'avenir confines de nouveau. Deux petites rues voisines seront jointes h ce quartier ; les marchands Chretiens qu'y demeurent ont ete obliges de deloger moyennant une indem- nite que les Israelites leur payent. Ces derniers ne peuvent plus avoir des boutiques ni des magazins dans les autres quar- tiers, et ils perdent toutes les depenses qu'ils ont faites jusqu'a present a ce sujet." Could the religious brutality of the middle age exhibit an instance of greater iniquity ? Constitutionnel, itk Dec. 1825. THE JESUITS. 193 institutions.* With a mind which courts difficul- ties, and a heart which challenges dangers, this veteran philosopher has analysed the character of that most impious fraternity, and laid bare the many hideous organs which constitute that anoma- lous body ; maintaining the undisputed principle, that pride is the great temptation of priests, who affect to despise sensual pleasures,! and that the love of power is much more tempting to them than the love of pleasure.^ He has succeeded in proving that in all the different stages of society, it has been the constant effort of the Jesuits to disguise, under the cloak of austerity and self-denial, the most per- nicious doctrines of despotism ; and that, like Bru- tus's self-assumed idiotism, their humility conceals the most deep-rooted plan of general domination. He has triumphantly exposed, in its genuine shape, the intimate connexion of this congregation with the Roman See, and the decided support which at all times it has given to the pernicious doctrines of the Vatican. He has not only proved that the vio- lent deaths of Henry HI. and Henry IV., and the at- tempted assassination of Lewis XV. were the work of the Jesuits ;§ but that even the French Revolution, and the dreadful catastrophe that struck the excellent * Fide ^' Memoire a Consulter sur un Systeme Religieux et Politique, tendant a renverser la Religion, la Societe, et le Throne. t Ibid, page 153. X Ibid, page 208. § So far from attempting to invalidate the truth of these his- torical facts, the panegyrists of the Jesuits triumphantly exult in the recollection of those bloody deeds. The historian, John Mariana, in accurately describing the murder of Henry III. by the Jesuit Clement, pronounces a most pompous panegyric upon the holy virtues of that martyr of the Christian religion. (> 194 THE JESUITS. Louis XVI. and his family, had long been planned by those intriguing nondescripts, who, in the pro- tection which those monarchs granted to arts and sciences, in the toleration which they showed to- wards dissenters, and in the wise spirit of resistance which they opposed to the despotism of Rome, had shown a marked disregard for the all-ruling authority of those spurious companions of Jesus.* After going through a variety of arguments and facts, all tending to establish the restless conspira- cies of the Jesuits against the independence of thrones and the liberty of the people ; after having traced to their influence the renewal of the igno- rance and superstition of the middle age, the ap- pearance of missionaries in all the departments of France, who preach, together with ignorance, the most violent persecutions ; after having instanced many cases in which those persecutions have been attended * In addition to these powerful causes, the spirit of revenge of the Jesuits against Lewis XV. and XVI., must have derived a fresh stimulus from the ordinance which the former published in the year 1761;, and the latter confirmed, which, after declaring that their hateful doctrines endangered the throne, the altar, and the morality of the nation, pronounced the abolition of their order, and exiled all its members from the kingdom. What can have in- duced a Bourbon to restore a congregation which had been dissolv- ed by his two immediate predecessors, as much ultra-religious as himself, the Bishop of Hermopolis has not condescended to explain. Lewis XVI. was zealous for the Jesuits, and had even for his confessor one of their order ; but he being a weak man and easily to be persuaded, the influence of those priests was often counteracted by the reasonings of his family and advisers. In the time of Lewis XIV. and XV. owing to the credit of their mis- tresses, and the'intrigues of courtiers, who paid them very high prices for the favours they obtained from the king, the credit of the Jesuits was reduced to a mere nominal vanity. In the cele- brated affair of the necklace, in which the honour of the Queen THE JESUITS. 195 with carnage and bloodshed;* after having pre- dicted that the same horrible fate which betel some members of the Capetian family, is, by the Jesuits, reserved for Charles X. and his family, he concludes by boldly asserting that Jesuitism is a hateful, abo- minable institution. f M. de Montlosier's book, which has gained for its author the honour of Jesuitical and ministerial persecution, | is, for its vast spirit of Mary Antoinette was so much interested, the chief intriguer was a Jesuit ; and the results which arose from the trial having unquestionably excited the revenge of the scattered members of that order, is it to be wondered if the Bourbons have fallen the victims of a bloody conspiracy ? It is a fact worth our attention, that most of those sanguinary monsters who composed Robes- pierre's gang, and who deluged France with blood, had been educated by the Jesuits ! * From the 16th to the 19th May of the present year, the towns of Rouen and Montargis have been the theatres of the most violent disturbances, occasioned by the revolting doctrines preached by the Missionaries in the principal churches : the mi- litary, who were called to quell the riots, openly protected with their sabres these fanatic priests. Do you not now blush, soldiers of Marengo and Austerlitz ? t '' J'ai cite les Jesuites, ma pensee est certainement que c*est une Institution odieuse, abominable." p. 304. — This cou- rageous writer has lately presented to the supreme Courts of Justice an act of accusation against the Jesuits, the restoration of whom he proves to be in opposition to the spirit of the Charter, and against the Government, for the protection which they lend to those dangerous priests. This most interesting document, signed by Count de Montlosier, dated the 6th July, 1826, enumerates the crimes of which they have rendered them- selves guilty since the institution of their order, and the evils which they have brought upon nations and kings. t Immediately after the publication of his book, M. de Mont- losier was, by the French Government, deprived of his pension in the department of Foreign Affairs, which had been granted him as a slender reward for the services which he had rendered o2 196 THE JESUITS. research, its undaunted assertions, its disinterested- ness, its literary merit, and its peculiarly eloquent style, unquestionably entitled to be put at the head of thost very few eminent productions, which throw a real lustre upon the French literature of the past and present century. The spirit of proselytism and domination, which is so conspicuously and so boldly displayed by the Jesuits in France, extends itself to all other quarters of the globe, (England not excepted,)* where they to the family of the Bourbons, during his long and well-borne emigration. In like manner. Sir Robert Wilson was stripped by the despots of Europe, of a few heraldic marks of royal esteem which he had gained in the field of honour. So much for the gratitude of Princes ! * The Jesuits' College at Stony hurst, near Preston, was founded by a few members, who had fled from Liege about twenty-nine years ago. They were presented by the father, or grandfather of Mr. Weld, the present owner of Lulworth Castle, with the house and a hundred acres of land ; they have since purchased one hundred more ; besides which, they are tenants for no inconsiderable quantity of land. — The Society, consisting of a president, superiors, missionaries, and teachers, is con- ducted entirely on the strict principles of the general institu- tion. The number of scholars is about 350, chiefly Irish; but there are foreigners from every part of the globe. Each scholar pays 50Z. a-year ; besides which their real property is estimated at 40,000/. and their income at 12,000Z. Notwithstanding their riches, they have been of late soliciting subscriptions towards building a new chapel, (asking for the contributions even of their surgeon and physician,) to which they, themselves, magnani- mously subscribed 300/. The paper from which I have bor- rowed the present information, gives us the following positive assurance : — " In the course of the five-and-twenty years that Stonyhurst has been in possession of its present owners, an en- tire change has been wrought in the religious character of the neighbourhood. The majority of its inhabitants were not then Roman Catholics; the preponderance was on the side of the THE JESUITS. 197 labour to establish a solid and permanent dominion, not subject to a second overthrow. Warned by their preceding misfortunes, they seem to have adopted a line of policy, bold but blended with prudence ; not venturing on a measure until the success of the one in view has been firmly secured : and by affecting tb flat- ter the vanity of individuals, and favour their propen- sities (a talent in which they have always excelled), and by stimulating the ambition of governments, they strive to gain a permanent footing in their confi- dence. The progress of their schemes is cautious, but simultaneous ; and all their measures bear the stamp of divine authority. Thus, for instance, we have seen them succeeding in prevailing upon some of the most distinguished families in Mexico and Protestants. At the present time the Protestants are reduced to less than one-seventh of the whole population of the dis- trict." — It is evident that in the course of the twenty-five years, which these holy intriguers have spent in Lancashire, they have succeeded in inoculating the minds and the hearts of many thou- sand individuals, who have received from them their educa- tion, with the poison of their detestable morals, which they have communicated to their relations and friends. What have not the English nation and its government to apprehend from the presence of these learned priests ! A foreign gentleman of great rank and profound knowledge, who was present at the last elec- tions in Lancasliire, has assured me that a learned gentleman, and a successful candidate for the representation of a borough not a hundred miles distant from Preston, and who is a violent supporter of Catholic emancipation, had plainly confessed, when one day at dinner in the house of a mutual friend at Liverpool, that he was indebted for his unexpected success chiefly to the unremitting exertions of the Jesuits at Stonyhurst. There is at once the secret of the disturbances in Ireland, of which the principal rich families have, for the last twenty-five years, sent their children to Stonyhurst for education. 198 THE JESUITS. Peru, to trust their children to their religious care and send them to their colleges in France ; while the same stratagem has been with equal success employed with many families in Egypt, who, by the French frigate la Truite, lately arrived at Mar- seilles, have sent forty -two young Turks and Arabs to be instructed in their policy. And can govern- ments be really so deaf to their interests, and to those of the nations which they rule, as to overlook the conspiracies of these industrious and intriguing priests, who, by instilling their principles and their morals into the minds and the hearts of the youth of different nations, constitute them their faithful agents, iand thus contrive to lay the solid foundations of universal sovereignty ? Have they lost sight of the immense riches which they levied on the credulity of mankind, and of the use to which they applied them ? Have they forgotten the despotism they displayed in Paraguay, Peru, and the rest of South America, under the reign of the Spanish Bourbons and the House of Braganza, and the motives which excited the mighty vengeance of the energetic Pom- bal, and of the honest Choiseul? Have they not read the history of the administration of the im- mortal Ganganelli, and known the causes which prompted that truly evangelic priest to suppress so dangerous and so profligate a fraternity ? Or do they wish to adjourn their resentment until the bursting of the thunder shall have warned them of the presence of the storm ? Principiis obsta, serd medicina paratur, ought to be the constant maxim of the rulers of nations. My predictions, resting not upon the authority of miracles, but upon the support of history, convince me, that unless the rising ascen- THE JESUITS. 199 dancy of the Jesuits is speedily put down, and the congregation altogether dissolved, the day is not far distant when they will wield a despotic sceptre upon the ruins of the intellectual world, and upon the ashes of liberal institutions. The object which the Jesuits have long had in view, namely, the extinction of every remnant of knowledge, and the encourage- ment of the return of ignorance, in order to retain the undisturbed possession of the minds of men, has been completely attained ; since, comparatively speak- ing, no country in Europe exhibits more striking proofs of the restoration of superstition, and of the revival of the absurd practices of Catholicism, than wretched France, prostrate at the feet of the soldiers of Loyola. The churches, and even the streets of every one of her towns, present to the astonished traveller the melancholy view of individuals of both sexes, de- prived of part of their garments, inflicting upon them- selves atrocious tortures, and walking barefooted, dragging after them a ponderous load of chains ; as if God, who is the generous dispenser of liberty, could accept the revolting holocaust of slavery.* The existence of the congregation of the Jesuits, an institution which clashes with the spirit of the Charter, is openly supported by the French Govern- ment. The minister of religion, M. de Frassinous, * *^ Hier une jeune dame, dont le vetement annonpait une femme de la Societe, et suivie de deux hommes qui paraissaient attaches k son service, a parcourue une partie de Paris, les pieds nuds, un chapelet a la main ; elle est entree en suite dans I'Eglise de Notre Dame et dans celle de St. Genevieve." ConstitutionneU 24th May, 1826. I have myself witnessed these impious performances in Spain, Rome, Naples, and Malta. Could the worshippers of Jupiter, Venus, or Odin, indulge in a more culpable superstition ? 200 THE JESUITS. has undisguisedly avowed it in his three speeches in the upper house; he has even condescended to mention the seven principal establishments, which they have in different parts of France, and which are directed by the Central congregation of Paris.* There exists another principal congregation at Lyons, under the title of the Propagation of the Faith, out of vrhich have sprung those bands of missionaries, the scourge of the South of France. They are not selected from among individuals renowned for their eloquence, their experience, their character : no, they must be young, enthusiastic, ignorant, and possessing a large share of self-assurance ; they must command a lively imagination to soar in a world of fictions, and borrow the horrors of a false religion .f The Jesuits are therefore not only protected by go- * The Bishop of Nancy has published on the occasion of the jubilee, a pastoral, in which he makes a pompous eulogy of the Jesuits. That celebrated Order, he denominates /' the perpetual object of the darkest calumnies, surrounded by so many glorious suffrages, enriched with the toils of more than eight thousand apostles and of seven hundred martyrs, whom it has caused to ascend to heaven." It is worth remarking, that among the martyrs whom the reverend bishop enumerates, he includes the fathers Guignard and Gueret, who were executed in the Place de Greve, for having advised John Chatelet to assassinate Henry IV. The reverend Malagrida is likewise included in the catalogue, for having attempted to murder a Portuguese King. t One of those brutal messengers of the congregation of Lyons was lately preaching in the principal church of a town in the South of France, against the excessive propensity of fe- males for talking and scandalizing. All at once he stooped down in the pulpit, and, after remaining in that posture a few minutes, appeared once more to the gaze of his hearers, and exclaimed with enthusiasm. Where do you think I come from P / come from hell, which I have found to be paved with tongues of females ! See that most clever book lately published, entitled THE JESUITS. 201 vernment, but government itself is entirely under their guidance. The King, the royal family, and the nobiUty, have Jesuits for confessors, who, through that auricular police, are enabled to dive into the secrets of the State, and direct the march of govern- ment entirely to the point of their own interests. To attain this main object, the principal congregation of Paris is divided into two classes, the one exclu- sively addicted to rehgious pursuits, in order to keep alive the superstitious faith of their believers, and cover, with Cardinal De Retz's mantle, the nefarious schemes of the whole order : the other, entirely occupied with the progress of their favourite plan of universal domination, is incessantly busy in the consummation of those already imagined, and in framing new ones. The evil genius of Jesuitism is present every where : in the field, in garrison, on board of ships, in the Cabinet of Ministers, in the Court of the Tuileries, in the Institutes of Science, the influ- ence of the Jesuits is predominantly felt.* It is not sufficient to excel in knowledge, in arts, in sciences, in arms, in laws ; it is not enough to be a warm Ultra-royalist, and a religious Christian ; he nmst be a friend of the Jesuits, and a promoter of their infamous trade ; favours, honours, rewards, riches, are only dispensed through their impure channel, " Observations sur la Congregation des Jesuits, et les trois Dis- cours de M, le Ministre des affaires ecclesiastiques." * M. de Frassinous, bishop of Hermopolis, delivered the fol- lowing memorable sentiments on the restoration of tlie society of the Jesuits, in his speech of the 5th July, 1826, in the house of Peers. *' Chose unique je crois dans les annales des ordres monastiques ; apres avoir ete je ne dis pas reformee, mais de- truite par un Pape, elle a ite retablice par un autre Pape, Pie VII. de venerable et sainte memoire." 202 THE JESUITS. and the passport to fortune and consideration must be signed by Jesuitism.* All parties have coalesced in waging a war against that most detestable sect. Messrs. De Pasquier and De Laines, both peers of the realm, and ex- Ministers, have lately, with their ac- customed eloquence, exhibited a most frightful pic- ture of the rising influence of the Jesuits, and of the fatal consequences which are likely to arise from the monopoly which has been granted them of public education. The legions of those holy Saracens f are incessantly recruited from among all classes, and the new soldiers are submitted to a severe discipline of proofs, initiations, and secrets consecrated by dreadful oaths. Nor is France alone suffering from the infec- tion of Jesuitism. In all countries on this and the other side of the Loire, :j: where Catholicism is the * A very short time ago^ there was a vacancy in the Institute for a correspondent. The candidates were Mr. Scoresby, the celebrated traveller and naturalist, who was proposed in a very flattering manner by M. Arago, the eminent French traveller ; and an Irishman of no talent, and not at all known, except as being patronised by the Jesuits. Scoresby, however, had only 16 votes, and all the Institute, with those exceptions, voted for his opponent. — Courier, Globe and Traveller, 2d June, 1826. t See their luminous speeches delivered the 4th and 5th of July, in the house of Peers, and reported in the Constitutionnel of the same and succeeding days, which makes the following very proper remark, '' Mais cest du camp de V Aristocrat ie meme que cesjleches acherees sont parties.'" This observation is peculiarly applicable to De Montlosier's illustrious work. { A strong proof of the intriguing spirit of the religion of Rome, was lately exhibited in the Encyclie, which the present Pope has addressed to the several bishops resident in the diff'er- ent republics of South America, and by which he ordered them, under the usual threats of excommunication, to recommend the union of those interesting regions to the mother country. The THE JESUITS. 203 ruling religion, the Jesuits have gained the sceptre over the intellectual world. The King of Sardinia, who boasts of the fatal glory of having first revived Jesuitism in the South of Europe, and entrusted to its tuition the important task of public education, must now endure the mortification of seeing those haughty priests affect, even in his own Court, the haughtiness of superiors, and contemplate their sub- jects divide with them the respect which they owe their sovereign.* But is the revival of Jesuitism an argu- ment of the expanding propagation of the Catho- lic religion ? No, it is quite the reverse. The or- der of the Jesuits was created when the religious interests of Rome were on their rapid decline; it was abolished when the throne of the Vatican was occupied by one of the most virtuous prelates that has ever existed ; and when the Catholic religion had evinced some symptoms of a voluntary return to the pure institution of Christianity. It was abolished when princes, and the nations which they governed, had been able to dive into the obscure intricacies of its policy, and had become alarmed at the rapid increase of the power and influence of their congregation. It is now revived, when the government of Colombia, by a circular letter to the Intendants of the Departments, dated Bogota, 28th July, 1825, denounces the Encyclie as a treasonable paper ; and enjoins the clergy to abstain from paying any attention to it, under the most summa- ry capital punishments. — El ColombianOf 2lst Sept. 1825. The Editor of El Misantropo de Tampus, who published the Pope's Encyclie to the bishops, has been expelled the republic of Mexico. — El Mercurio de Vera Cruz. * The late King of Sardinia, Victor Amadeus, bequeathed at his death to the Jesuits an income of 20,000 livres, which they enjoy in their magnificent convent of St. Ambrose. 204 THE JESUITS. spiritual power of the Court of Rome, nearly anni- hilated by the persevering efforts of philosophers, and the more efficient operation of the French Revolution, requires powerful auxiliaries, in order to enable it to regain its former energy. It is now revived, and brought forward by the despots of Europe, as the forlorn hope of their cause, against the ungovernable irruptions of public opinion, and the successful progress of liberty. However expe- rienced those holy tacticians may be in the wars of intrigue and dissimulation, and whatever benefits they may have derived from those past errors, which caused the overthrow of their colossal power, still the same uncontrollable lust of power, the same desire of riches, the same. proud despotism which intoxicated their minds, and made them fall head- long into an unseen precipice, are the sole advisers of their consciences, and the sole guides of their actions.* Religion and liberty are arrayed against Jesuits and despots ; public opinion against super- stition. The contest is perhaps drawing to a close; public spirit is gaining solid ground in France every day : — the generosity displayed towards the family of the late General Foi — the integrity of the judges of the supreme court of justice, who seem to prefer the triumph of their conscience to the favour of the King and the Jesuits — and the rejection of the law of primogeniture, are strong symptoms of the near return of the French to those salutary systems of * " Qu'est-ce done qui les a perdus ? — L'orgueil. Quoi ! les Jesuites etaient-ils plus orgueilleux que les autres moines? Oui, ils I'etaient au point qu'ils firent donner une lettre de cachet a un ecclesiastique qui les avaieut appele moines." — Vol- taire, Questiojis sur V Encyclopedie. THE JESUITS. 205 resistance, and those rights of national dignity, of which the GalUcan Church has often given the world luminous specimens in her long-pending dis- putes with Rome. The quarter to which the Jesuits seem to have directed their secret attention is Austria ; not on account of her claims to reUgious faith, and of her zeal for the interests of the Court of Rome — feelings to which she was at all times a stranger, but because she stands as the champion of persecution against all liberal institutions, to the overthrow of which the tactics of the Jesuits are incessantly opposed. The foundations of the Austro-Jesuitic league are the identical ones upon which the execrable holy union of Henry III. of France was built, of which the fatal effects are still felt in our days. It is, therefore, from Vienna that the thunderbolts of re- ligious and political persecution are launched, which have hitherto been checked by the firmness of the Chambers of Paris, and by the constitutional probity of the Courts of Brussels, Munich, and Baden. The field upon which such deep-concocted plans of perfidy are developed is France, the inhabitants of which, both from the fickleness of their character, and their superstitious habits, are doomed an easy prey for the cunning policy of the Jesuits. The intended revival of the Order of the Knights of Malta, of that non-descript nation of semi-monks and semi- soldiers, I have no doubt is the offspring of Jesuitism ; since, if it were thought beneficial to the balancing interests of Europe, and to the wel- fare of religion, that the weak preponderance of the Barbarians and of the Turks in the Mediterranean should be put down, we need not resort to obsolete 206 THE JESUITS. institutions, condemned both by history and common sense ; the naval strength of the different Italian powers, assisted in case of need by other maritime governments, would be more than sufficient to over- awe into submission those wretched barbarians, whose strength, like the spiritual power of Rome, lay chiefly in the terror of our minds, and who have been lately silenced into obedience by a few Sardi- nian men of war, commanded by a brave and de- termined leader. But the moving principle of the pohcy of the Jesuits (vi dominationis convulsos) is not a praiseworthy anxiety for religion ; but a rest- less, intriguing desire of universal dominion, resting on the overthrow of all liberal institutions, and on the basis of universal ignorance. CHAPTER XVII. MONASTIC ORDERS. The restoration of convents in Catholic coun- tries has followed the return of those decrepit insti- tutions, which, for so many centuries, have propped the cause of ignorance and despotism, and kept na- tions in an uninterrupted state of dotage. With monachism are returned that long train of immo- ralities, profligacies, and crimes of every description, which, identified with the Catholic religion, have done it more real harm, than even the free ani- madversions of philosophers, and the bold hostilities of the German reformer. To attempt to illustrate my remarks by partial examples, would be a use- MONASTIC ORDERS. 207 less waste of time, as they are visible in the daily occurrences of life, and registered in the annals of society. The illustrious Scipio de Ricci, Bishop of Pistoja, who, towards the end of the last century, attempted to bring the Catholic religion back to the holy discipline of the Gospel, while his friend and patron, the Grand Duke Leopold, tried to surround despotism with the restrictions of liberal institutions, has left us an interesting and very long account of the internal policy of convents, those holy gaols where passions are kept in an unnatural state of re- striction. That zealous bishop having at different times visited the convents of nuns, situated in his diocese, draws a frightful picture of the excesses, libertinism, and criminal practices, solely caused by the intrigues of the friars, which leave at a distance even the famed reputation of those most abject re- ceptacles of vice, which disgrace London and Paris. An absolute ignorance of all religious subjects, and a decided tendency to atheism, were the substitutes for the boasted sanctity of those houses of awful solicitude.* The nuns were individually examined by the bishop, in presence of his secretary, and other official persons, when they freely admitted that the work of demoralizing their hearts, and bringing their minds down to the level of brutality, had been car- ried on by their confessors, who moreover taught * Very often the nuns retained for their private use the money which was to be appropriated for defraying the religious expenses of the churches, and pay the priests who officiated in the same. Such was the case with the church of San Frediano, one of the parishes of Florence, which was almost without priests from the avarice of the nuns, who were bound to pay them. — De Potter, Vie de Scipion de Ricci, vol. III. Pieces Justijlcatives, page 165. 208 MONASTIC ORDERS. them how to despatch with expedition and mystery the innocent results of their seduction.* My pen refuses to trace these notes of infamy, and my blood turns cold in my veins. During Ricci's visit at Prato, he ordered the trial of the two refractory nuns Bon- amici and Spighi, which elicited specimens of such systematic atheism, and of such refractory libertin- ism as would disgrace even Newgate itself. The mother, Flavia Pieraccini, the abbess of the convent of St. Catherine of Pistoja, in a long letter addressed to Doctor Thomas Comparini, rector of the seminary, draws a long narrative of the crimes committed under her own eyes, by the many friar-confessors, whom she knew during twenty-four years that she had passed in that convent. " They are all alike,'' says she ; " and all professing the same maxims and the same conduct. They behave towards the nuns with more familiarity, than if they were married. They dance, sing, play, eat, and sleep in the convent. They inculcate the principle that God has prohi- bited hatred, and not love, and that man was made for woman, and woman for man." After quoting many instances of horrible depravity, which is not fit for English ears to listen to, she continues — " I say that they spoil the innocent and the most prudent, and * The Grand Duke Leopold, of Tuscany, having desired the Superiors of convents to surrender into his hands their superfluous platC;, in order to meet the exigencies of the State, was by the refractory spirit of the monks and nuns compelled to resort to active measures. At a visit to the convent of St. Matthew, at Pisa, in order to ascertain the quantity of useless plate which it contained, it was discovered that a nun, by name Marrani, of a noble family, in conjunction with an old convert and a Jew, had stolen and sold plate to the amount of one thousand scudi. — Life of Scipio de Ricci, by J)e Potter, vol. III., page 168. MONASTIC ORDERS. 209 that it is a real miracle to frequent them, and not to fall. Those who are ordained to say mass, sleep with the professed nuns, and the laics with the converts. We poor creatures think to leave the world in order to avoid dangers, and we meet here with still greater perils. Our fathers and mothers have given us a good education, and here we are taught the reverse."* This very long letter goes on in the same strain of wretchedness and contempt, on which I feel no cou- rage to dwell further, but must refer my readers to the work itself ; which, for boldness, manly truths, and straight-forward honesty, has not hitherto been surpassed by any production of a like species.t If the authority of this evangelic prelate were not suf- ficient to establish the criminality of those recep- tacles of vice and impiety, we have a variety of equally respectable testimonies in tlie works of an- cient and modern writers. The immaculate Fene- lon has, in a great many instances, raised his charita- ble voice against the abuses of convents, and pointed them out with the manly intrepidity of a member of the primitive Church. His admonitions were drowned in the riotous resentment of the children of Loyola ; and the immortal author of Telemachus had, in the latter periods of his life, to swallow the gall of priestly persecution. Even the divine * See Life of Scipio de Ricci, vol. I., page 361 . t I do not know how to reconcile the authenticity of these his- torical horrors, with the seducing picture which Mr. O'Connell made of the virtuous^ innocent^ and religious pursuits of the ca- lumniated convents of nuns in Ireland, in his curious speech at the bar of the House of Lords, in March, 1825. " Crimine ab uno disce omnes." 210 MONASTIC ORDETtS. Boccaccio has made the licentious manners of friars and nuns the theme of many of the amusing novels of his Decameron. In the fourth novel of the first day, he relates that a friar having fallen into a great sin, by bringing the same home to his superior, avoided the well-deserved punishment ; thus establishing a tacit partnership of irregularities and crimes among all the members of a religious community. The third novel of the seventh day, and the fourth of the eighth, produce strong testimonials of the worldly propensities of friars and nuns. And what are novels but a reverberation of the passions of society, clothed in the borrowed garb of fiction ? But I am not in the least apprehensive, that the unholiness which disgraces those retreats of obscenity and atheism, the convents, may be successfully contro- verted, especially if we reflect on the nature of the elements of which those communities are constituted, and on the causes which have collected them to- gether. The friars (I am chiefly speaking of the mendicants) are taken from individuals of the lowest class of society, who, rather than drag on miserable days through the toilsome exertions of an obscure life, cheerfully assume the uniform of laziness and imposture, under whose protection they can with im- punity drink brimful the cup of worldly pleasures. Those other orders of friars, who, to the disgrace of justice, and in utter defiance of the morals of the Gospel, boast of riches, and move in the exalted sphere of opulence and distinctions, can with addi- tional impunity set at defiance the censure of soci- ety and the resentment of the laws, since they pos- sess the means of silencing the one, and bribing the MONASTIC ORDERS. 21 J others.* And in order to infuse into those several congregations of monks the magic reign of the * In a preceding part of this work I have alluded to the impure source from which monastic orders derived their riches in ages of dark superstition. The crafty monks had succeeded in making the world belie ve^, that the disposal of money and property of any kind in favour of convents was such a merito- rious work, that it could cancel from the registers of heaven the most atrocious crimes, and entitle any guilty sinner to the imme- diate possession of celestial happiness. The most scandalous dis- putes were often carried on between monasteries of different or- djers for the acquisition of the same property (Murat. Antiquit. Ital. Dissert. 67, where thirteen motives are adduced of the im- mense wealth of the clergy.) At other times the clergy spread the report of the end of the world being near at hand, and more especially at the expiration of the century, for which the wealthiest among the people hastened to dispose of their whole fortunes in favour of convents. At any rate, the resignation of riches to the advantage of the churches being deemed the easiest and most efficacious means for gaining the favour of God, the most atrocious criminals willingly dispossessed themselves of fortunes which nature forced them to relinquish. Most of their donations declared the motive, pro remedio animce tucBi and others, adventante mundi terminoi Many saints were heard inveighing against such infamous abuses : Vide Jeronimus Epist. ad RusticuTJij and in the Epitaph of Nepotian. — Alii nummum addunt nummo, et matronarum opes venantur obsequio ; sunt dictiores monachi quam seculares. Vide Capitol. Cur^ Magni, Some among the monastic orders, like the Carthusians, the Ca- maldolenses, and many others, possess such considerable fortunes that they are enabled actually to live like gentlemen of the first rank. Their palaces are among the most splendid works of archi- tecture, and the sumptuousness of the furniture which adorns does not disgrace them. In the selection of the materials which form their monastic dress, they use the most expensive and most elegant. They drive magnificent carriages, frequent societies, and, in short, retain nothing of the rigid institution of mona- chism but the name. A mile or two from Lisbon there exists an order of friars, so systematically rich, that from a rule of their institutions they are actually forbidden from going out p2 212 MONASTIC ORDERS. esprit du corps, and render them more faithful to the banners of religion, and more fit instruments for the despotism of Rome, they are severally submitted to a superior called General, who holds a direct commu- nication with the Pope. The nuns, almost in every instance, are either the self-devoted victims of dis- appointed love, or the objects of the sordid cruelty of their parents, who, in order to increase the for- tune of a favourite child, compel the young virgin to plunge into the eternal horrors of a solitary life, and renounce for ever the gifts of worldly independence.* What can we therefore expect from beings whose hearts, like many gaols, contain crowds of rebellious appetites and revengeful feelings, which continu- ally ask from God and nature the free restoration of their rights ? — of beings, who look upon the rest of an airing, but must unavoidably drive in their own carriages. Is this the humble poverty recommended by our Saviour ? * In every Catholic country which, during my various tra- vels, it has been my good lot to visit, I have always made it a point to become acquainted with nuns of several convents, and by gaining their good confidence, have been admitted into the secret recesses of their hearts. Alas ! what a flood of tears I have seen flowing from half- sunken eyes, upon the iron bars of slavery ! - How many blasphemies, how many curses have I heard uttered by mouths which were doomed to sing the melody of the praises of God ! how many warm vows I have heard pro- nounced in favour of the French Revolution, which alone could break the ties of holy servitude! When in the year 1808 I was, along with many others, deputed by the Princess Eliza to inspect the convents of Tuscany, and take an inventory of their effects, preparatory to their long- desired abolition, I had frequent opportunities of ascertaining the moral and physical tortures to which those wretched beings were consigned, chiefly by the tyranny of their own relations. My father's sister was immured in. the convent of St. Benedict of Pisa, at the age of seven years, in order to gratify the avaricious expectations of her parents. MONASTIC ORDERS. 213 mankind as the authors of their miseries, and the conspirators against their happiness ? I do not pre- tend to cast any censure on the deviations from vows hastily pronounced, either under the influence of disappointment, or under the terrors of threats. I should not wish to visit with any sort of punishment those repeated acts of obedience which nature exacts from the predisposed subordination of passions. No ! the voice of nature is stronger than that of opinion, and discipline and arguments cannot be successfully opposed to instinct and appetites. But what I stre- nuously contend is, that to pretend to impose on our credulity by the assumption of a perfection which is beyond human nature to reach, and by the sur- render of passions which are identified with our very existence, is a fraud which must be firmly rejected and severely punished.* It is an axiom of political As soon as she had attained the age of twenty, and had been commanded to bid an eternal adieu to the world, (into which their tyrants, according to a cruel custom, had suffered her for many weeks to reside,) she fell in hysterics, turned mad, and during two Jong years was confined in a straight jacket. At last she became insensibly reconciled to her cruel destiny, until, by her resignation, her evangelic manners, and her chari- table disposition, she was looked upon as a saint. She had been a pattern of perfect beauty, of which she exhibited shining ves- tiges at the age of seventy. * During my stay in Spain and Portugal, from the year 1812 to 1814, I have often been an ocular witness of the depravity of friars, whom I have seen, late at night, revelling in public houses amidst courtesans and other infamous characters ; and in the conversation of drunkenness have heard them indulge in the most blasphemous expressions. One evening, on returning from the opera at Lisbon, I went into a well-known public house, where I met the Guardian of the Capuchins, brandishing a tremenduous stiletto, and compelling every body present to drink to the health of his mistress, whose accomplishments 214 MONASTIC ORDERS. economy, that the existence of monastic orders is incompatible with the prosperity of nations ; whose he extolled in the most revolting language. It is a common practice both in Lisbon and Oporto, that while a reverend friar is paying his address to a married woman in her own bed- room, the husband, who perceives his sandals left at the door, does not attempt to intrude upon the hermit's happiness, but respects those mute sentinels as the messengers of their master's commands. — One evening, in Cadiz, having, according to ap- pointment, called on a lady, I soon perceived by her embar- rassment, that she was labouring under some fear which she wanted to conceal from me ; when, having eagerly pressed her to decypher the mystery, I on a sudden saw issuing from a remote corner of the room a stout half-dressed friar, who in a thunder- ing voice commanded me to leave the house. I did not lose my self-possession, but, having cocked my pistol, soon tamed the reverend into submission. We became immediately good friends, and during my stay in Cadiz he was the most zealous and ac- tive promoter of my pleasures. — In Naples, and in Rome herself, the best and most efficient interposers in ' love-intrigues are friars, who, under the pretext of presenting fruits and flowers to gentlemen travellers, contrive to introduce themselves at the several hotels, and thus commence with them an immoral but profitable intercourse. — The two following atrocious speci- mens of the debauched habits of friars, blended with the most unexampled cruelty, happened in the kingdom of Naples in the year 1807 ; and as I was an eye-witness, both at the trial and the execution of the reverend malefactors, I can speak with perfect confidence of being believed. The first took place at Garigliano, a few miles from Naples. A very young and hand- some girl, the daughter of the principal inn-keeper of that vil- lage, was in the constant habit of going every evenmg, towards dusk, to the church of the Franciscans, in order to partake of the usual holy prayers. On one of those evenings she was missed by her anxious parents, who, in conjunction with her intended husband, searched every place and made every inquiry in order to regain the object of their affections. Several weeks passed away without their gaining the least clue to this most distressing mystery, until, with the exception of the desolate lover, every individual of her family had given her entirely up- MONASTIC ORDERS. 216 resources they consume by their habits of laziness^ and whose morals they destroy by the example they This affectionate young man, who, since the fatal loss of his beloved friend, had become an assiduous visitor at that same church, happened one evening, both from lassitude and sorrov;^, to fall asleep in one of the confessional pews, where he remained unperceived, and was thus shut up in the church. In the mid- dle of the night he was on a sudden awoke by the appearance of several friars, with torches in their hands, dragging after them a woman quite naked, whom he soon recognised for the dear object of his love. Unable to rescue her from the grasp of these armed assassins, and fearful of sharing the same fate which he perceived was pending upon her, he had the stoicism to remain a quiet spectator of that atrocious tragedy. The poor girl, amidst her desolating cries, and the blasphemous yells of those holy monsters, was dragged to the brink of an open vault, where, in spite of her heart-piercing entreaties, she was inhumanly stab- bed and precipitated into it. The terrified lover immediately on the morning gave information to the police, who caused the con- vent to be surrounded by soldiers, the culprits secured, their crime proved, and their punishment executed. — The second case, no less horrible in all its features, happened in the city of Naples. A Franciscan friar, who for many years had kept company with a woman, by whom he had had three children, formed a fresh connexion with another female, who, with her religious paramour, plotted the destruction of her rival. One morning the friar prevailed upon his former artless victim to spend with him a day in the country, and to take all her chil- dren with her. The unsuspecting female readily acquiesced in the reverend monster's wishes, and took along with her only two children, the eldest girl having gone to school. As soon as this little company had reached a thick forest, a few miles from the city, the infuriated friar despatched both the mother and the children ; and wishing to complete the destruction of the whole family, went in search of the eldest girl, whom, under pretext that her mother wanted to see her, he took away with him, and made her share the same horrible fate. This atrocious murder remained concealed for a few days only ; when King Joseph, hunting in that same forest, came to the spot where the mother and her innocent children had been butchered, and 216 MONASTIC ORDERS. continually give of a systematic dissipation. Hence those governments which have at heart the welfare of the people intrusted to their care, feel anxious to de- stroy those receptacles of holy intrigue, and those houses of ill-fame. The immortal emperor, Joseph II., that practical philosopher and true friend of mankind, among the salutary reforms which he ef- fected in his extensive dominions, caused the suppres- sion of all monastic orders, whose vast ill-gotten riches he appropriated to more useful purposes : and such have been the advantages which have accrued to the Austrian empire by so timely and so wise a mea- sure, that even the present government, whose op- position to all species of liberal doctrines is become proverbial, feels the necessity of persevering in the determination so nobly supported by its two imme- diate predecessors.* perceived some of their limbs hanging from the trees ; in this manner the whole mysterious transaction was revealed, and the many circumstances were brought to light. The two culprits were executed, and the reverend was not even allowed the privilege of taking off the dress of his own order. — At the head of the conspirators who, in the year 1808, blew up the residence of my illustrious friend the Minister of the General Police of Naples, Salicetti, (who had nearly perished among its ruins) there were several friars, who were tried, convicted, and exe- cuted. But were I inclined to expatiate on this most revolting subject, (the immorality of monastic orders,) I should swell this little work to several thick volumes ; a task which, some day or other, I shall willingly undertake, as I have collected materials both for quantity and quality adequate to my purpose. * The illustrious Bolivar, who is alive to the necessity of checking the propagation of monastic orders, has, by the fol- lowing decree, given a convincing specimen of his opinion, that most of the principal doctrines of the Catholic religion cannot harmonize with free institutions. May he live long enough to •217 CHAPTER XVIII. CATHOLIC CLERGY. The Catholic clergy, or to speak more techni- cally, the spiritual militia of Rome, forms a separate link in the chain of human beings, and a distinct organ in the economy of the social body, governed by laws entirely congenial to its nature. Both from the absurd doctrine of celibacy, and their implicit submission to a ghostly chief, unconnected with the interests by which the great family of men is ruled, they look upon themselves as a race of beings pri- vileged by the favour of God, imparted to them see that persecuting sect deprived of the means of doing further mischief ! " Head Quarters, La Paz, Aug. 29, 1825. " To His Excellency the Grand Marshal of Ayacucho. " The Liberator has decreed, that the Noviciates in religious houses of both sexes are to be discontinued ; and that such per- sons, either men or women, as have taken the habit previous to the publication of the Circular of the Minister of State of the 28th May, ultimo, to the Reverend Bishops and Ecclesiastic Governors, and to the Resolutions therein referred to, are com- prehended in its disposition, and consequently must wait, the former till they have attained the age of thirty, and the latter till they have attained the age of twenty-five, before they can take the veil. " T. S. ESTENOS." Constilucional de Bogota, 18/A May, 1826. If the illustrious Liberator does not, with the bold decision of his extraordinary mind, put down the influence of the Ca- tholic religion in America, he will not only have cause to be- wail the overthrow of the stupendous work of independence which he has created, but himself will undoubtedly fall under the dagger of some Jesuit, or other similar enemy to society. 218 CATHOLIC CLERGY. through the mediation of his lieutenant, the Pope. All their thoughts, all their actions, all their plans, must therefore bear the stamp of selfishness and pride, and move in the orbit of the planet of the Vatican. The cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and other prelates, who form the staff of that spiritual army, monopolize for themselves the wealth and honours which their rank and influence enable them to col- lect at the expense of the credulity of men ; while the privates, or simple priests, scarcely possess the means of supporting their toilsome existence.* The salary and small perquisites which the curates re- ceive, as a reward for the laborious duties which they are bound to discharge, are not of such a magnitude as to render their situation a very enviable one, espe- * The enormous wealth possessed by corporate as well as by individual religious bodies in Catholic countries, have in every age been the theme of the alarm of honest statesmen and illus- trious economists. To say nothing of the French and Italian clergy, the Spanish and Portuguese Churches own more than one-third of the income of those States, through the instrumen- tality of which they are enabled to exercise over the institutions of those countries that baneful influence, which has proved the greatest scourge of those otherwise energetic nations, and which has hitherto baffled the exertions of philosophers and patriots The Bishops of Spain have a yearly income of upwards of 520,000Z. of which the following are some of the principal names : — Archbishop of Toledo, - - - 110,000/. sterling. Ditto, of St. Jago, - - - 32,000 Ditto, of Valencia, - - - 26,000 Ditto, ofSevilla, - - - 40,000 . Vide Morning Herald, \2th April, 1826. The convent of the Escurial has an income of 500,000 dollars a-year, and the Cathedral of Madrid a like sum. What was the income of Peter, the first bishop } CATHOLIC CLERGY. 219 daily when we reflect, that, in Catholic countries, churches very properly are kept open the whole day long, and the service is therein performed from sun- rise until evening. And here I owe it to the spirit of independence which has always ruled my ac- tions, and to the love of truth which warms my heart, to express in an unequivocal manner my sentiments on the very striking difference which marks the religious conduct of the rectors and cu- rates of Catholic churches, and that of Protestant ministers. Among the former, the rector or cu- rate is strictly bound to discharge individually the laborious duties of his parish, without in any in- stance assuming the right of appointing a substitute ; whilst among the latter it frequently happens, that the same individual is appointed rector of several parishes, (some of which are many hundred miles distant from each other) the duties of which he trusts to his substitute, called a curate, to whom he allows but the twentieth or thirtieth part of his vast sinecure, which he consumes either in fo- reign countries, or at home among the pleasures of society. The irregularities of these systems of Church government, which have hitherto marred the labours of the true lovers of the Gospel, need no comment ; and I confine my humble exertions sim- ply to declare that I highly disapprove of them.* * " Amicus Plato, amicus Aristoteles^ sed magis arnica Veri- tas." Cic. I do really wonder (and who does not ?) that abuses so striking, aud so very hostile to the established religion, have not been long before corrected. If the curate, upon whom fall all the duties of the parish, is competent for his situation, why does he not receive the emoluments which, against justice and reason, flow into the pocket of the sinecurist clergyman ? And CATHOLIC CL£RGY. The conditiOQ of the Cathi^ic priest.^ unattached to any coittcj, is trulj deplorable ; and unless he de-> iwes some uKome either iVoiu his family, or fitnu some generous j^^tion, he is entirely left to his indi- vidual resources, and to the scanty fee which he recttves from tdling mass, the regular price of wbidi« sudi as is allowed by the [>arish, does not exceed eight-pence. Sometimes, at certain }K^riods of Ae year, it happens that they are hired by the parish, «ther to swell the number of attendants at {HX>cessions, or of the ministers in the church, when, dressed in splendid garments glittering with gold, they may be fairly compared to those inferior actors, who, in the evening j^erform on the stage the })arts of kings and dukes, and the next morning find them- sdves restoretl to their squalid f>overty. However, the respectability which society attaches to the spi- ritual character of the priest, not only prevents him frcHU sinking into that low degradation which, like a shadow on a body, is always consequent on poverty ; but makes it a desirable honour tor individuals mov- ing in a more exalted state of life. Families en- joying the advantages of opulence, make the situation i^ on the oontmr, be is not qualified., why is he not remored, and m more able one appointed in his stead ? At any rate, tbe paiisbioners, who pay very highly for the laudable satisfac- tion of having a derer individual at the head of their Church> cannot but think themselves wronged in those rights, so long as the qualifications of the substitute do not keep pace with the magnitude of the sacrifices they have been called upon to make. And what individual of superior abilities will consent to hire himself for the paltry remuneration of SOL or 100/. a-year ? Hie disgusting scenes which have so frequently occurx^ in die parish of St. Olave, are calculated to bring great scan« dal OB religion and its mini^texs. CATHOLIC CLEHGY. 221 of a clergyman a stepping-stone for their children to attain high dignities in the Church ; while those who are placed in quite a different posture, reckon on lessening the hideousness of their poverty by associating it with the splendour of religion. And as the qualifications for obtaining the rank of priest, consist of the knowledge of a casuistical, unintelligible theology wrapped in the clouds of coniroversy, and instead of arguments resting on the invisible au- thorities of mysteries, on the absoluteness of the Canon law, it is evident that the minds of priests cannot acquire the advantages of an efficient educa- tion, to fit them to be useful members of society, and to inspire them with that self-dignity which is a preventive against base actions. They must therefore, resort to artificial means, in order to uphold that high character, which their merits and their principles deny them.* Accordingly, not unlike cameleons, they assume that moral form which circumstances suggest to them, and becoAe al- ternately the spies of government, the confidants of lovers, and the panders of adulterous intrigues. But the vast field wherein they display the energy of their wickedness, is the domestic interior of fami- lies, where, assuming the plausible appearance of secretaries, stewards, or elementary teachers, they become the tyrants of the whole household, seduce ladies from the path of virtue, coalesce with servants to rob their masters, and lend their aid alternately * We learn from Venice that the Canon, Don Vicenzo Mr- carelli, ex-agent of the consulate of Austria, is in the army of Ibrahim Pacha. He wears the uniform of an Austrian general, and took part in the siege of Missolonghi. — Pilote, Paris, Qth JunCy quoted by the New Times, lOth JunCy 1826. 222 CONCLUSION. to the irregularities of the wife and the husband. This picture will appear overcharged to those alone to whom truth is unpalatable ; and will, on the con- trary, be hailed as a weak but faithful representa- tion of the immoral tendency of that nuisance of society, Catholic priests, by those who know prac- tically the history of the Catholic priestcraft. CHAPTER XIX. CONCLUSION. I FLATTER myself that I have demonstrated be- yond doubt, that tlie authority of religion being in- finitely stronger than any temporal power, it must unquestionably harmonize with the political institu- tions of a nation ;* and that the Catholic religion, which rests on the triple basis of ignorance, into- lerance, and despotism, can only agree with an ab- solute government, where the will of a single indi- vidual stands in place of the legitimate desires of the people ; whereas the religion of Luther, which is erected on the solid foundations of analysis, tolerance, and arguments, can better agree with a free govern- ment, where laws, before they receive the sanction of popular authority, must undergo the ordeal of * " Les dogmes les plus vrais et les plus saints peuvent avoir des tres mauvaises consequences lorsqu'on ne les lie pas avec les principes de la societe ; et au contraire, les dogmes les plus faux en peuvent avoir d'admirable, lorsqu'on fait qu'ils se rapportent aux memes principes." — Montesq. Esp. de LoLv, liv. 24. CONCLUSION. 223 public discussion.* I have, moreover, established the important fact that the modern Cathohc religion is the identical one which deluged the middle age with blood ; and that the gloomy horizon of Inno- cent III. is not brightened by the splendour of the triregnum of Leo X. That the Catholic religion has been at all times the prop of despotism and the scourge of liberal institutions, has been proved by referring to the testimonies of history, when usurp- ers have called in aid of their culpable designs the robust arm of Popery. f To attempt, therefore, to render the Catholic religion homogeneous to the doc- trines of a popular government, would not only be an infringement of justice, but an experiment likely to be productive of the most fatal results. This observation bears more immediately upon the poli- tical institutions of a nation, of which the majority is represented by Protestants, who for many cen- turies have been allowed an undisturbed pre-emi- * " C'est que les peuples du nord ont et auront toujours un esprit d'independance et de Hberte, que n'ont pas les peuples du midi ; et qu'une religion qui n'a point de chef visible, convient mieux a I'independance du climat que celle qui en a un." — Montesq. Esp. de Loixy liv. 24, chap. v. " La magnificence du culte exterieur a beaucoup de rapport k la constitution de I'etat. Dans les bonnes republiques, on n'a pas seulement reprime le luxe de la vanite, mais encore celui de la superstition ; on a fait dans la religion des loix d'epargne." — Ibid. liv. 25, chap. vii. t The following stanzas, part of a hymn sung by the religious Mad. Catalani, at one of her concerts at Naples, is a strong in- stance of the impious and servile propensities of the Catholics. " Let us raise a shout, Long live the king. Who is the image, Great God, of thee !" 224 CONCLUSION. nence of religious rights, and who have transmitted to their successors that sacred legacy. The minds of the English have, during a long space of years, been taught to look upon Rome as the source of those evils which have poured destruction on their country ; and that the era of their religious and civil rights commenced from the overthrow of the Papal supremacy, before which auspicious event their liberty, their fortunes, and their lives, were the sport of capricious tyrants, who, borrowing the mercenary authority of Rome, could thus sanctify their most tyrannical measures. To attempt, therefore, to im- press on the minds of the people that they have hitherto erred, and that all their thoughts and actions have been moving in an orbit of illusion, would be tantamount to an overthrow of all their political institutions, since it would tend to establish the dangerous principle, that, having been deceived in their religious opinions, they may more easily have been imposed upon in the adoption and pro- fession of their political tenets. The supremacy of the Protestants over the Catholics, or, if you wish it, the monopoly of religious privileges by the former, is become identified with the nation, and could not be abolished without demolishing the whole struc- ture of its character. The Protestant rehgion, or rather the religion established by the English re- formers, is become the religion of the State, that is to say, the national banner, under which the feel- ings of the generous opposers of the Stuarts raUied, and ultimately conquered and dethroned that race of despicable tyrants. All the most illustrious publicists and philosophers agree in the principle, that to attempt an alteration in the existing religion CONCLUSION. '225 of a nation, is an experiment fraught with the most dangerous consequences.* The system of the union of parties has invariably proved the perdi- tion of those governments which have attempted it. Not unlike certain liquids, containing elements of an opposite nature, which baffle the skill of the chemist intent on accomplishing their mixture — the passions of men, constituted of jarring principles, will resist the amalgamation promoted by legislators. This observation bears more forcibly upon the feel- ings of a religion, whose temporal strength is lifted up by the lever of Heaven, and sanctioned by the authority of conscience. They may, by compulsion, be brought to approach each other ; but their point of contact will be the signal of their explosion. The national character of a people, and that sacred ha- tred which they feel for foreign usages and foreign institutions, are the strongest bulwark of their inde- pendence ; and to attempt to extenuate those neces- sary prejudices, is to pave the way for their subju- gation. The Lacedemonians were so thoroughly convinced of the infallibility of this truth, that, by a law of Lycurgus, they were prohibited to learn the idioms of foreign nations, for fear lest they might excite in them a taste for their manners, and thus * " De plusj la religion ancienne est liee avec la constitution de I'etat, et la nouvelle n'y tient point. Celle-Ia s'accorde avec le climat, et sou vent la nouvelle s'y refuse. H y a plus ; les citoyens se degoutent de leurs loix : ils prennent du mepris pour le gouvernement deja etabli : on substitue des soup9ons contre les deux religions, a une ferme croyance pour une. En un mot ; on donne a I'etat, au moins pour quelque terns, et des mauvais cito- yens et des mauvais fideles." — Montesq. Esp. de Loix, lib. 25, chap. xi. 226 CONCLUSION. vulnerate tlie originality of their own.'* Protestant ascendancy is the safest defence against the en- *' * The amiable levity of the French, their taste for dress, their effeminate code of love, their excellence in dancing, and those other innumerable oddities which distinguish that nation, have often, more than its gallant armies, been instrumental in conquering those people, who, deprived of an original character, had imbibed a taste for them. Hence Italy, the Netherlands, and some parts of Germany, hailed with joy the arrival among them of the French armies, although decorated with the frightful cap of Robespierre's liberty ; whereas the Spaniards, the Prussians, the North Germans, and the Russians, whose hearts were heated with the holy fire of national prejudices, op- posed a mortal resistance to their legions, and, when betrayed by Fortune, joyfully exclaimed with the hero of Utica, " Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni." Caesar confesses in his Com- mentaries, that the national hatred of the Gauls against the Romans had given his arms more trouble than all the strength of -their legions ; and the inhospitable character of the Britons more than once stripped the brows of that great man, and of the illustrious Agricola, of the luxuriant foliage of glory. The same remark may be safely applied to India, which has been conquer- ed less by the bravery of the English armies, and the wisdom of their leaders, than by their orderly conduct, the striking perfec- tion of their manners, and, above all, the humanity of their reli- gion. The hatred of the Chinese to all foreign intrusion is the only real support of the independence of that otherwise cruel and effeminate nation. Within these few years, the rage for French fashions and French manners has completely seized the minds of the superior classes in England, who, to the scandal of common sense and real patriotism, display the greatest inge- nuity in mimicking even the most trifling faults of that lively nation : and in order to transmit to their posterity, in all its vigour of originality, this spirit of imitation, they send their children to France to complete their education. And what can they learn there ? Religion ? No, it is the seat of Popish doc- trines. Morality ? No, it is the sink of corruption. Gravity of manners ? No, it is the school for levity. The kind of instruc- tion which English youth acquire in France is dancing, and the CONCLUSION. 227 croachments of Rome ; and as long as the constitu- tional throne of a king is guarded by that religion, the intriguing policy of the Vatican will lose all its ascendancy. The glorious Revolution of the year 1 688, that strong ebullition of the indignant feelings of a betrayed nation, originated in the repeated infractions of the Constitution by the bigoted Stuarts. The reins of the government were snatched from the hands of that wretched tyrant James II., and trusted to the more vigorous ones of a foreign Pro- testant prince, under the guardianship of a solemn covenant with the nation. This covenant, commonly called the Settlement, was stipulated on the side of the people by a committee, consisting of eight peers and eight commoners ; and among the numerous grievances set forth against the deposed monarch it recited, that King James II., being a professed Papist, had invaded the fundamental constitution of the kingdom, and altered it from a legal and limited monarchy to an arbitrary despotic power, and had governed the same to the subversion of the Protes- tant religion, and violation of the laws and liberty of the nation, inverting all the ends of government, whereby he had forfeited his right to the crown, and language of that country ; and so equipped, and so educated, they return to England a kind of nondescript, and exhibit, m the splendid drawing-rooms of the nobility, a few specimens of gymnastic contortions, and of distorted rules of the grammar. What an infatuation of mind ! My children shall be cer- tainly educated in England, \vith all the faults and prejudices which are the stamina of the character of their fellow country- men. Those faults and those prejudices will be indigenous, and not borrowed from a foreign people. They will be Englishmen, and not Gallo-Britons. S2 228 CONCLUSION. the throne was become vacant.* We must not here omit to remark the emphatic allusion recorded in that celebrated document — " to the violation of the laws and liberty of the nation by a professed Papist,^ thereby sanctioning the well-established fact, that Popery is intrinsically hostile to free institutions. Such was the conviction which the minds of the English had conceived of the baneful influence of, that perverse sect upon a liberal government, that in order to guard against any possible recurrence of the happily extinct calamity, the committee inserted in the Settlement a clause, which made it binding upon the new king to root out heresy, namely Po- pery ; on which the Prince of Orange very properly observed, " that he did not mean by these words that he should be under an obligation to act as a perse- cutor r\ The Coronation Oath administered to William and Mary, conjointly called to the throne of England, unequivocally rendered obligatory on them the duty of maintaining to the utmost of their power, the laws of God, the true profession of the Gospel, and the Protestant reformed religion as by law established, I thereby excluding for ever any unforeseen danger of a collision on the part of another sect with the religion of the State consti- tutionally established. The ascendancy, therefore, of the Protestant religion, as we have already ob- served, having both by the will of the people, and the sanction of the monarch, been identified with the political institutions of the country ; the one cannot be infringed, without destroying the other. * Vide Hume vol. VIII., chap. Ixxi. ; and SmoUet vol. I.>c chap. i. t Ibid. t Ibid. \ CONCLUSION. 229 ' Under this new settlement, the Catholics were left in full possession of their religious rights, while the disqualifications imposed upon them by the Refor- mation under Henry VIII. were strictly confirmed. The active part which the Catholics of the whole kingdom have subsequently taken in the criminal attempts repeatedly made by the Stuarts to regain possession of the throne, from which they had been de- gi^aded ; the zeal displayed, the sacrifices spontane- ously incurred by the Catholic nobility and gentry for the success of these abominable undertakings; and the enthusiasm which the traitors to their country dis- played under the sword of justice — afford another proof of the strict analogy which exists between Catholicism and tyranny, while they justify the se- vere but necessary restrictions to which the worship- pers of Rome and the friends of the English Tar- quins have been subjected. It is contended by the advocates of Catholic emancipation, or, in plain words, by the friends of the expelled Stuarts, that the Popish religion, far from impeding, favours the regular progress of free institutions ; and in support of this assertion, they triumphantly instance the conduct of the Catholic barons, who extorted from King John that sacred palladium of British liberty the Magna Charta, thus laying the foundation for the stately building of the Constitution. If those illustrious noblemen had voluntarily, and from a con- sciousness of its justice, suggested that great nation- al measure to a king remarkable for his generous character and love of justice, then they would have acquired unequivocal claims to the gratitude of their countrymen and to the homage of posterity. But John was a violent and despicable despot, whose 230 CONCLUSION. repeated acts of tyranny, equally affecting his friends and his enemies, continually threatened with immi-e nent jeopardy, not only the rights and the property, but even the lives of the English people. His heart was stained with all kinds of atrocious crimes : he had betrayed his own king and brother, Richard sold the interests of his own country to Philip, King of France ; divorced himself from his legitimate wife, in order to espouse Isabella ; excited the indig- nation of the Norman barons, and killed by his own hands Arthur Duke of Britanny, many days after he had taken him prisoner. He had forfeited all his possessions in France, for having declined to appear before the King as a feudal baron to account for that atrocious murder, and fled to England in order to escape the resentment of his French vassals. Re- stored to his kingdom, he persecuted the nobility and bishops with such persevering and relentless tyranny,^ that those prelates, with the majority of the clergy and the barons, were compelled to fly from the king- dom, and seek their personal safety in foreign coun- tries. His rapacious invasions of the property of the Church, and the depredations which he commit- ted on the fortunes of the nobility, raised to such a de- gree the indignation of the cruel Innocent, that he actually excommunicated him, and released his sub- jects from their oath of allegiance. His sudden re- pentance, and abject humiliation to the proud Pan- dolf, the Pope's legate, the cruel death inflicted by his orders on Peter of Pomfret, who had foretold that this year he should forfeit his crown, the pro- fessions of respect and obedience, which he showed the primate Langton, who had returned with the bishops and clergy, and the unqualified homage CONCLUSION. 231 which he did the Pope, with all the degrading cere- monies prescribed in those times of ignorance, proved to the nobility and the nation that he was a weak and sanguinary tyrant, and that by a well-timed resistance, and the adoption of vigorous measures, they could easily snatch from him permanent securi- ties against any future recurrence of such a horrible despotism. Accordingly, both the nobility and the clergy formed a confederacy, and raised among their own vassals a powerful army, under whose protec- tion they frightened the monarch into the concession stipulated in the Magna Charta, thus surrounding with popular privileges the hitherto uncontrolled authority of the kings of England. And what other course could the plundered, incensed, threatened barons and bishops pursue, in order to establish, on a firm basis, the security of their fortunes and lives ? But I contend that this spontaneous display of disin- terestedness of the Catholic barons on behalf of the liberty of the people, which has been so pompously extolled by the partisans of Catholic emancipation, and which they have identified with the very es- sence of the British Constitution, was less an act of individual feelings, than an expediency suggested by necessity, and irresistibly and loudly called for by the nation at large, which constituted the strength of the feudal nobility.* The barons were able to * The violent quarrels of that cruel despot John with the courts of Rome, had involved his kingdom in a series of spiri- tual misfortunes, which, in those times of blind superstition, were severe visitations both in appearance and reality. The kingdom lay under interdict, the churches were shut up, the people maddened with despair, and the clergy elated with the pride of triumph. The rich property of the barons and the bishops was not only put under heavy contributions, by the eon- 232 CONCLUSION, foresee this popular burst of indignation, and had the wisdom to put themselves at the head of it, and thus become the leaders of their irritated vas- sals. But how did the Pope, the head of Catholicism, so much cried up for its affinity with liberal institu* tions, behave, when the perjured John, from his re*jK"^^ treat at the Isle of Wight, like Tiberius in Capri, applied to foreign princes for assistance, and craved the all-absolving authority of Rome in order to oppose the Barons, and enable him to destroy that tinual demands of the king for defraying the expenses of his unnecessary and capricious wars^ but were in imminent jeopardy of being some day or other forfeited to the crown, whenever that brutal despot chose to experience symptoms of such inordinate lust. That the power of the king was exorbitant, and without any control, is attested by the accurate Hume, who observes, that it had been inherited from William the Conqueror, and vested in him by the Norman Barons, who perceived the neces- sity " of entrusting great power in the hands of a prince, who was to maintain military dominion over a vanquished nation." The barons and bishops, therefore, in forcing the tyrant to di- vest himself of his absoluteness, and grant immunities and privi- leges to the people, were not actuated by the sublime inspira- tions of liberty, but compelled by self-preservation and by the resentment of wounded pride. The Magna Charta was not the reward of the disinterestedness of the barons, but rather the consequence of the unnatural state of the government, wearied out with old institutions, consisting of jarring interests, kept to- gether by the hand of violence, and ready to fall piecemeal on the most trivial event. Liberty emerges from tyranny, like fer- tility from rottenness, and the darkest day of tyranny is the dawn of liberty. And when, in the subsequent reign of the san- guinary Mary and the bigoted Stuarts, this same aristocracy and clergy were left to the impulse of their own feelings, and mas- ters of their own actions, we trace them among the most zealous abettors and decided supporters of those crowned monsters, in depriving the people of those same rights, the concession of which their ancestors are represented to have wrested from John. ., CONCLUSION. 233 same Magna Charta, which he had declared to have spontaneously and of his own free will granted ta the nation, and which he had sworn, both in his and his successors' name, to maintain inviolable under the forfeiture of all claims to their throne ? * Why, In- nocent actually sent the tyrant, whom a short time before he had loaded with all the terrors of excom- munication, a Bull against the great Charter, and an absolution from all his engagements entered into with the nobility, clergy, and the people ! f What further proofs do we want of the resistance which Catholicism, from intuitive principles, bears to li- berty? But, if some day or other the people of Spain and Algiers, unable to bear any longer the execrable cruelties of their tyrants, shall rise from their degrading ignominy, and under the guidance of the irritated nobility, and perhaps plundered clergy, shall put down those sanguinary despotisms, and in their stead establish liberal institutions, shall the jury of history award the merit of this long- desired change exclusively to the nobles, and priests of their country, and thus establish the anomalous principle, that Aristocracy, Mahomet, and Catholi- cism, are friendly to the propagation of the doctrine of liberty ? The friends of Catholicism endeavour to prove that it does not clash with free institutions, by quoting the examples of several modern nations, which are governed by constitutional charters, not- withstanding the majority of them consist of the followers of that sect. The splendid concession which Lewis XVIII. made to the spirit of the age, in the liberal charter which he granted to the French, has been almost withdrawn by his successo(r, • Hume, vol. II. ch. xi. t Ibid. 234 CONCLUSION. through the persevering machinations of the clergy,-; who have rapidly regained that omnipotent supre-i^ macy in church and state, which for so many cen-^H turies proved the scourge of that powerful and intern esting nation : and from the numerous and consider-^ able alterations which it has undergone, the charter may be compared to the tattered garments of a beggar, the original colour of which is no longer dis- tinguishable, from the patches and rags which have been sown upon them. But I have already dwelt at length on the religious state of France, and any farther notice would be rightly construed into pla- giarism. And who does not know that the clergy of Spain were the sole instruments of the overthrow of the constitution of the Cortes, sworn to by the perjured king and by themselves ? Who does not know that the dreadful theocracy, or rather pande- moniocracy, which for so many centuries has desolated that ill-fated country, is the exclusive work of the bishops and clergy, as the name itself implies ? And who has forgotten the unholy opposition which the late Pope made to the progress of the labours of the Cortes, and to the solid establishment of the adopt- ed institutions ? The king of the Netherlands, to whose political integrity and unaffected wisdom I have already alluded, in the practical display of those doctrines of liberty which he has brought back from his glorious exile, has in an unequivocal manner evinced a complete knowledge of the in- triguing policy of Rome. All his measures bear the stamp of distrust of that dangerous sect ; and the trifling concessions which he has made to the Court of the Vatican have been previously canvassed and weighed in the scale of national expediency. He / CONCLUSION. 235 has granted his permission for the Papal Bull re- specting the jubilee to be received, posted up, and / carried into effect among his Catholic subjects ; but has most properly retained the reserve, that, in granting that leave, he may not be understood as approving of those claims and formulae which are or might be at variance with the constitutional prin- ciples of the kingdom, the freedom of religion, or the franchises of the Netherland Catholic Church. A glo- rious specimen of consistency, a noble instance of true liberality, which casts the greatest censure upon the casuistry and captious arguments of the advocates of Catholic emancipation in both Houses, and out. By another decree, equally demonstrative of his determi- nation to keep within proper shackles the plotting spirit of Catholicism, he has declared that the office of Director General of the Catholic worship has been sup- pressed, and the affairs of his office incorporated with the ministry of the interior. A vigorous measure, which embraces the twofold advantage of destroying that nursery of the intrigues of the Catholics, and of subjecting that sect to the immediate authority of the civil government. The free institutions, which the patriotism and the bravery of the natives of South America have succeeded in establishing in their country, after protracted and sanguinary con- tests, will ultimately disappear under the destructive hand of Catholicism, if that sect is suffered to wield a despotic sceptre over the minds of the people. The creation of equally powerful interests, to coun- teract the influence of the Catholic religion, can only prevent this otherwise unavoidable catastrophe ; and an unlimited liberty of conscience, so much identi- fied with the essence of a republican government, 236 CONCLUSION. will alone give rise to those interests at the expense of the religion of Rome, which can resist neither the vigour of reason, nor the authority of evidence. This is not a flight of imagination, or a fit of enthu- siasm ; but an opinion supported by the authority of many centuries' experience. As long as the clergy are suffered to open and close at their discretion the gates of heaven and hell, they will be the virtual sovereigns of South America ; and as the zealous and faithful servants of the Pope, and consequently of the bigoted and tyrannical Court of Spain, they will endeavour, by keeping alive the demon of dis- cord, to regain the possession of republican South America for the hated mother country. The con- stitution of the United States of North America is held out by the friends of Catholicism as a model of political perfection, from the unrestrained liberty which it grants to all religions, and for its equality in distributing national privileges to all dissenters ; and from the success of the experiment, they infer the expediency of extending it to England, and to allow Catholics to sit in her councils, without having previously undergone the political lustration re- commended by the lovers of order and of the Eng- lish constitution. Nothing appears to me to be so much at variance with truth and common sense as this inference, which rests on false premises. The United States is a juvenile nation, young in its institution, in its morals, in its education ; retaining the freshness of nationality, which the barrier of the seas prevents from being contaminated by the cor- ruption of European manners;* harbouring in its * '' Nee servientium litora aspicientes, oculos quoque a con-' tactu dominationis inviolatos habebamus."- Tac. / CONCLUSION. 237 republican institutions that sacred hatred against political absolutism, which more forcibly embraces spiritual despotism ; viewing in each stone, bathed with the blood of its children, the recollection of its past slavery, and in the monuments which beautify its towns, the guarantee of its present and future eminence ; surrounded by people, themselves for many centuries the victims of Catholic and Spanish tyranny, decimated by the swords of hungry procon- suls. The Catholic religion, therefore, deprived of the support of aristocracy, intrinsically favourable to despotism — watched by all dissenting sects, raised on its ruins — not having a lost supremacy to recover, nor lost claims to enforce, is compelled to move in its orbit of obscurity, consisting of an insignificant minority. It can neither form plots in congress, raise rebellions in the army and navy, nor excite tumults in the cities. Its motions are not only watched by the eagle eye of national distrust, but, if they acquire importance to excite alarm, are instantly checked by the arm of a federative government, whose motions, not impeded by clashing interests, are quick, and its measures vigorous, because aided by the harmony of the organs of which it is constituted. No, no ! that illustrious people, who, issuing from woods and hills, have dared to resist and subdue the colossal des- potism of the mother country, will never consent to worship a still more formidable tyranny, the Church of Rome. Catholics may sing hymns for the Moloch of Rome, may continue to form vows in his behalf, but they must talk, vote, and fight for the prosperity of American liberty, the generous foe of Catholicism. But the case is quite the reverse in England, which the Popes look upon as a possession lost through a 238 CONCLUSION. spiritual rebellion, and the repossession of which they think themselves authorized to attempt. More than one third of her population consists of Catholics, whose hearts smart under the lash of past recollec- tions. They hate the Protestants, not only as a doctrine of their persecuting sect, but as a sacred duty of revenge for the wrong which they have inflicted on them, in depriving them of their long-enjoyed supremacy. The Catholic aristocra- cy is powerful, both from influence and wealth inherited from their ancestors; and when we re- flect on the control which these two engines of worldly power retain over the passions of man, when we consider the vicious systems by which popular elections are conducted, and think of the discordant elements of which the Legislative House is constituted, we cannot refrain from a sentiment of fear at the fatal consequences likely to result from an undue relaxa- tion in the disqualifications of the Catholics. But let us suppose the possibility (and who could deny it ?) of a majority of Catholics being secured in the House of Commons, through the intrigues of the Court of the Vatican, and the enemies of England, but, more especially, through the persevering energy of the Catholics of the United Kingdom. What would then become of the British Constitution? what of the Protestant Religion ? what of the indepen- dence of England, especially if the throne were filled by a prince friendly to the religious principles of the detested Stuarts ? And what statesman could un- dertake to erect his plans upon the assumption of the improbability of such occurrences ? How many events do we not perceive baffle the expectations of the most illustrious ministers ! How many results CONCLUSION. 239 have belied the calculations of cunning diplomacy 1 The tactics of the cabinet are not dissimilar to those in the field. The first step of a skilful general is to secure a retreat, and prepare himself for the chances of a defeat. His movements and the me- chanism of his measures must be directed to defeat the plans and counteract the movement of the enemy ; and a general, who, like Melas at Marengo, would attempt to justify his defeat either from igno- rance of the manoeuvres of the enemy, or the want of foresight in keeping an account of fortuitous events, would make himself liable to be tried by a court-martial. So it is with a statesman : before he adopts a plan he must calculate the consequences likely to arise from it, in case it should not suc- ceed, and adopt a plan of wise retreat. The friends of the Catholics rest their preteri- sions to emancipation on the sanctity of the oath, which the Constitution administers to any public functionary. The efficacy of the oath is rendered more than nugatory by the Canon law and the Papal Bulls, as we have fully demonstrated in a preceding part of this work. No oath, of any kind whatsoever, can bind a Catholic to keep faith with a Protestant : it is an essential doctrine identi- fied with the Catholic church, or rather its main prop, which the Pope himself could not alter without demolishing the whole spiritual building.* A Ca- * " Juramentum contra utilitatem ecclesiasticam prsestitum non tenet." Decret. lib. ii. ch. 24. ^' A juramento per metum extorto ecclesia solet absolvere, et ejus transgressores ut peccantes mortaliter non punientur." — Eodem. Urban VI. rendered any compact with heretics and schismatics 240 CONCLUSION. tholic member of the senate must vote in conformity with the directions of his conscience, which derives its light from the planet of the Vatican. A general of the army, or an admiral, would be compelled to fight in the interests of his terrifying religion, whose absolutism is more stern and more peremptory than all the rules of military discipline. No act can af- fect the truth of this observation. If a Catholic rebels against the doctrines of his own church, he becomes a Protestant ; if he betrays the interests of his coun- try, he becomes a traitor. The absolution from the performance of contracts, engagements, treaties, and obligations of any kind, is another privilege vested in the Pope, of which he avails himself as often as his interest requires it. Pope Clement VII. absolved Francis I. from the performance of the treaty which he had signed at Madrid with Charles V. for his own deliverance, because the Pontiff at that time want- ed to revenge the insults inflicted by the Emperor on the church and city of Rome.* If, therefore, a void and unobservable. It is worth while to read the whole of the ordinance of that swindler of public faith : — ^' Attendentes quos hujusmodi confoederationes^ colligationes, et ligae sen conven- tiones factae cum hujusmodi haereticis seu schismaticis^ post- quam tales efFecti erant, sunt temerarise, illicitae, et ipso jure nul- lae (et si forte ante ipsorum lapsum in schisma, seu haeresia initae, seu factae fuissent) etiam si forent juramento vel fide datae, firmatae, aut confirmatione apostolica, vel quacunque fir- mitate alia roboratae postquam tales, ut premittitur, sunt effecti." — Rymer, 1, vii. p. 352. * Robertson, Hist. chap. v. vol. 2. Piccinino, the famous Condottiere of the fifteenth century, had promised (by oath) not to attack Francis Sforza, at that time engaged against the Pope. Eugene IV. (the same indivi- dual who had annulled the compact with the Hussites, re- leasing those who had sworn to them, and who afterwards made CONCLUSION. 241 Catholic general, commanding an army, whose majo- rity should consist of the followers of that sect, were relieved by the Pope from the oath he had taken to his government and to his banners, he would by the spiritual terrors of his conscience be compelled to fight even against his own country, if the interests of the Pope required it. History, as we have already observed, furnishes numberless instances in support of this opinion ; and I have already proved, that modern Catholicism is the same intolerant, persecuting sect, as it was in the gloomiest ages of superstition. The evil may be momentarily kept back by the reigning spirit of public opinion, but the seeds still exist, and, not unlike the germs of the plague suppressed by the re-appearance of wintry seasons, they are ready to repullulate at the first favourable opportunity. In this assumption I am borne out by the attempts at spiritual and temporal despotism in which the Court of Rome repeatedly indulges, whenever the supineness of nations, or the corruptions of their chiefs afford the means. I now conclude this long series of historical obser- vations by strongly calling upon the British nation to stand true to the standard of Protestantism, under the King of Hungary break his treaty with Amurath II.), ab- solved him from his promises, on the express ground that a treaty disadvantageous to the Church ought not to be kept. — See Hallams Hist, of Europe during the Middle AgeSy vol. ii. chap. vii. page 297 ; and Sismondi, Hist, des Rep. d'ltaliey vol. ix. page 196. Thus Edward I., the strenuous assertor of his tem- poral rights, and one of the first who opposed a barrier to the encroachments of the clergy, sought at the hands of Clement V« a dispensation from his oath to observe the great statute against arbitrary taxation. 11 242 CONC1.USION. which the English constitution successfully fought its way through the malignant influence of time, and the uninterrupted conspiracies of tyranny. My ar- dent wish is, that the cause of the true God, identi- fied with the interests of liberty, may prove trium- phant all over the world. APPENDIX, ^ — PAGE 10. Mais rien n*estplus propre a former des bons citoyens, que de leur inspirer de bonne heure la Religion Chre- tienne ; J'entens celle qui est epuree de toutes les inven- tions humaines ; et d'etablir pour cet efFet des Ministres qui la prechent par leur exemple, autant que par leurs instructions. Car outre que cette sainte religion montre le chemin du salut eternel, elle renferme aussi une morale tres parfaite, dont les maximes suppleent au defaut des Loix, qui ne peuvent pas toujours, sans quelque inconvenient, defendre et punir tout ce qui est contraire aux devoirs de la vie sociale." — Puffendorf le Droit de la Nature et des Gens, Lib. vii. ch. ix. s. iv. PAGE 36. Since writing this book, a conspiracy of the army has been discovered in Russia, which, for its object, its rami- fications, and the high personages therein interested, bids fair shortly to justify my assertions. The severity which has been but sparingly dealt by the emperor towards the conspirators, is another proof both of the importance and extent of that national commotion. The fire is suffocated, but not extinguished. Europe marches very fast towards free institutions. Jesuits will not be able to stop this movement, because it is the result of the combinations of ages. The unexpected changes which have lately oc- curred in Portugal, may serve as an illustration of my remarks ; and more forcibly so, because the constitution is a spontaneous gift of the Emperor of the Brazils, King of Portugal, who has felt the pulse of Europe, and pet- R 2 244 APPENDIX. ceived the necessity of yielding to the opinion of the age. What a cheering prospect of future happiness ! PAGE 38. But the most celebrated of all the criminal expeditions of the crusaders, was the total extermination of the Albi- genses, in the twelfth and thirteenth century, after a long and destructive war, Mosheim and Fleury have left us a very accurate history of the persecutions and sufferings to which those dissenters were exposed through the unre- lenting tyranny of Innocent III. But it was reserved for the illustrious Author of the " History of the Republics of the Middle Ages and of France," to infuse into the recital of those sanguinary executions the pathos of his sympathising heart, and the vigour of his unparalleled eloquence. The Paulicians and Albigenses were inhabitants of Albi, (from which they took their name,) and chiefly established in Languedoc. They were a branch of the Waldenses, who had rendered themselves conspicuous for their early op- position to the encroaching doctrines of Rome. Rigid followers of the precepts of the gospel, they rejected with indignation all external rites, and more peculiarly the worshipping of images, the idolatry of temples, the doc- trine of purgatory, the efficacy of masses, the institu- tion of indulgences, the dreadful scourge of confession, and, in short, all those superstitions and impieties which reflect such a stigma on the religion of Rome. The holy hostilities of the intrepid Albigenses against popery excited the indignation of Innocent III., who stirred up Europe against them, and who, in the persevering cruelty with which he accomplished their extermination, sur- passed even the sanguinary fame of Theodora."^ PAGE 49. *' En conscience y-ait-il jamais eu un homme plus digne des petites maisons que S. Ignace, ou S. Inigo le Bis- * '^ It was in cruelty alone that her soldiers could equal the heroes of the crusades, and the cruelty of her priests was far excelled by the founders of the inquisition.*' — Gibbon, ch. 5i. APPENDIX. 245 caien ? car c'est son veritable nom.) La t^te lui tourna a la lecture de la legende doree, comme, elle tourna depuis h don Quichotte de la Manche." — Voltaire, Quest, sur VEn- ciclop. After a long train of adventures, which procured for him imprisonments and bodily punishments of various kinds, not excluding whipping, he finally went to Rome, where he offered his services to the Pope, who eagerly accepted them, and he became the founder of the order of the Jesuits. PAGE bQ. The liberality which the kings of the first race displayed towards the bishops and the clergy of France, is energe- tically depicted by Chilperic the grandson of Clovis, in a speech quoted by Gregoire de Tours, book vi. ch. 46. — ** Our exchequer," says that Prince, *' is become poor; our riches have been transferred to the churches ; the bi- shops alone reign ; they live in grandeur and magnifi- cence, while we live in a different way." PAGE 73. This Pope publicly lived with the sister of his father's concubine ; this did not prevent him from seducing all virgins, married women, and widows, whom he found to suit him. He was besides guilty of sacrilege and murder, for which shocking intemperances he was formally de- posed by Otho, Emperor of Germany : after which, hav- ing succeeded in ascending again the throne of St. Peter, he died a violent death at a gallant rendezvous. See the Annales Ecclesiastiques of the pious Cardinal Baronius. PAGE 145. " Je fairai ici une reflection. Sanctorius a observe que la chair de cochon que Ton mange se transpire peu, et que meme cette nourriture empeche beaucoup la trans- piration des autres alimens: il a trouve que la dimi- nution allait a un tiers. On sait d'ailleurs que le de- faut de transpiration forme ou aigrit les maladies de 246 APPENDIX. la peau : la nourriture du cochon doit done ^tre defend u dans les climats oil Ton est sujet a ces maladies, comme celui de la Palestine, de TArabie, de TEgypte, et de la Lybie." — Montesq. Esprit des Loix, lib. xxiv. ch. 25. This remark accounts for the prohibition in which the illustrious statesman Moses enjoined the Jews not to eat pork, the unwholesomeness of which was very well known to him ; and in order to render that prohibition still more binding, he strengthened it with the authority of religion; PAGE 161. The spoliations which princes and governments have, at all times, committed on the Jews, the hostilities and per- secutions to which they have been subject, have raised the indignation of the philosophers and historians of all ages. Montesquieu assures us that their enemies said, that " it was from a wish to try their faith, and deprive them of any vestige of the slavery of Satan, that they were robbed of their property." Hume has pourtrayed with the pencil of Tacitus, the cruelties, massacres, and robberies which the Jews suffered under Richard I., Henry III., John, and the rest of the Anglo-Norman princes : and the well-known fact of the Jew, who, under the latter tyrant, submitted for seven days to lose a tooth a-day, and pay, on the eighth, ten thou- sand marks of silver, is a specimen at once illustia- tive of the degrading attachment of the Jews to money, and of the spirit of rapacity which was so much prevalent in those times of superstition and tyranny. *' The Jews, en- riched through their shameful exactions, were plundered by princes with the same tyranny," well observes the au- thor of the Spirit of the Laws, " until at last they found, in the invention of the bills of exchange, the means of transporting, with the utmost celerity, their riches from one country to another, without exciting the suspicion of their persecutors. Driven out of France under Philip August, and Philip the Tall, they took shelter in Lombar- dy, where they gave, both to merchants and travellers. APPENDIX. 2147 bills of exchange upon their friends in that former country, for which they received the value on the spot. Usuiy, with an ardent love of which the Jews stand so boldly charged by public opinion, was sanctioned by the laws of that age ; and we find, on reference to the chronicles of France, that, towards the end of the thirteenth century, Philip August reduced the legal rate of interest from fifty to forty-eight per cent, per annum. The Jews, therefore, who, from their adroitness in accumulating fortunes, were the general money-lenders to mankind, were, by the sanc- tion of the law, authorized to practise usury, which, in fact, was nothing else than a branch of ordinary trade. And here two very important observations offer themselves to my mind; first, that, by the absolute monopoly of riches, the Jews held in a kind of bondage their cruel enemies, in the same manner as the vanquished Greeks held in vassalage their conquerors, the Romans, by the exclusive possession of knowledge : and secondly, that all those persecutions of the Catholics against the Jews, lost a great deal of their poison at the appearance of the Re- formation, and that they totally ceased in England when Henry the Eighth abolished the obnoxious code of the Vatican ; a striking proof indeed, that the spirit of reli- gious persecution, by the excitement it gives to our evil pas- sions, silences in our breasts the admonishing language of conscience. If, therefore, the modern Jews still preserve a partiality for the degrading practice of usury, and indeed they share this infamy in common with many other sec- tarians, it is to be traced to the existence of those disqua lifications, and those persecutions, under which they still labour, and which extinguish in their breasts the sacred flame of pride. Napoleon, whose plans of reforming the manners of the nations subject to his sceptre, bore the usual stamp of his vigorous mind, had, by the convoca- tion of a general synod of all the Rabbles and learned Jews at Paris, called the Sanhedrim, laid down the basis of a permanent alteration in the habits and pursuits of those inflexible sectarians. Through the powerful agency 248 APPENDIX. of discussion and argument, he had nearly convinced them that most of the doctrines of their religion had been suggested to their great statesman and prophet, by local causes, connected with their temporary welfare, which had long ceased, and the existence of which clashed with the spirit of the social institutions of the present times. He had most forcibly dwelt upon the necessity of wean- ing their aifection from their old pursuit, the immo- derate desire of accumulating wealth, and of substituting for that degrading passion, the love of glory. He had impressed upon their minds the expediency of curing the prejudices which society entertained against them, by a strict adherence to integrity. But, above all, he had suc- ceeded in rekindUng in their breasts the long-dormant spark of ambition, by holding up to their terrified minds the prospect of again constituting an illustrious nation, under the sanction of permanent institutions, because harmonizing with the spirit of the age. Hard and diffi- cult as the task had at first appeared, even to that great man, still he had nearly accomplished it ; and many of the illustrious Rabbies, whom I have at different times met, in some of the principal societies in Paris and Am- sterdam, have most earnestly evinced to me their con- viction of the expediency of Napoleon's plans ; as they themselves, bona fide, admitted that the proper channel for conveying persuasion to the minds of strict sectarians, is through their clergy, who (and more especially among the Jews) hold the keys of those seats of judgment. In like manner, by rewarding conjugal fidelity, and holding up to scorn and contempt those individuals who deviated from that most necessary virtue, he had cured both Ita- lians and Frenchmen of that true pest of society, infide- lity by system. But it is with grief mixed with surprise, that I behold the Jews in this country, where the road to distinction is, with trifling exceptions, left equally open to the followers of all religions, affect a zealous contempt for all sort of knowledge, and confine their supreme feli- city to the possession of riches. Such surrender of the APPENDIX. 249 noblest of human propensities, the desire of acquiring in- struction ; such apathy for the real valuable distinctions to which men in society can aspire— tend to lower them, both in their own estimation and in that of their friends, by reducing the sum of feelings, to a single individual feeling, or, as Mr. Hazlitt would better say, " by making them men of a single idea." (See D' Israeli's Curiosities of Literature.) The evil, I apprehend, is beyond any remedy, at least as long as that lottery of human passions, the Stock Exchange, shall be left open to ardent youths, who, in the summary methods of acquiring money, find the means of gratifying their boisterous passions at the expense of their name, their tranquillity, and perhaps their happiness. It is objected by the enemies of knowledge, that a mind absorbed in the hard pursuits of commerce, cannot, with justice to the interests it has in view, divide its attention with other avocations, both in principle and effects quite different from the principal it has in view. Without adverting to the time which men of business waste away in amusements and dissipations of every kind, we may safely assert that commerce, especially in our day, re- quires the aid of many useful sciences, as history, geo- graphy, chemistry, laws, and others, and that a good merchant must therefore be a scientific man. The truth of this observation is more forcibly felt in a country like England, where, from the effects of her excellent consti- tution, men of business are eligible to the most exalted stations in society. At any rate, on casting a glance at the list of those merchants who have lost their fortunes during the late tremendous catastrophe, it will appear evident that their minds were not distracted by an exces- sive love of knowledge ; as, with a very few individual exceptions, the majority of those persons, so unexpectedly ruined, had scarcely received the benefit of a common education. Mr. John Farquhar, lately dead, was, till the last mo- ments of his existence, passionately fond of literature, in many branches of which he peculiarly excelled. He was 250 APPENDIX. a great lover of chemistry, to which science he actually owed the commencement of his colossal fortune ; since, when he was only a cadet in the East India Company's service in India, by the application of the practical part of that science to arts, he was able to discover a new sys- tem of manufacturing gunpowder, which being approved of by the then Governor-General, Warren Hastings, be- came for him the source of immense wealth. Mr. Far- quhar, who has left a fortune of a million and a half sterling, was at the time of his death, principal part- ner in one of the first East India Houses in London, the chief partner of an extensive brewery, and of a highly respectable banking-house. The late illustrious Ricardo was the author of his own fortune ; and the pre- sent Mr. Alexander Baring, who is the ruling partner of the first house in Europe, is endowed with a large share of knowledge, and is a sincere lover of literature. But above all, Voltaire, that versatile genius, to whom no nation can oppose a rival, amassed his immense for- tune through mercantile transactions. 1 INIS. ^ LONDON : PllINTED BY S. AND R. BENTLEY, DORSET STREET, 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. •nus book IS due on the last date stamped below or ^^^ °» *• d«te to which renewS. ' Renewed books ar e subjeg t^^^a^e recall ^Ht^T^S-^ •^S&iLjdi£^^^«^ elow. 64-3 PM 67 -B PM LD LD21A-60»i-3'70 'N5382sl0)476-A-32 Universit^^of cJliSmia V 19§9 7 Berkeley V .- -*A* ^^^^ BX • J ^5 AG THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY