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 L I G) R_A RY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N 1 VERS ITY 
 
 Of ILLl NOIS
 
 BISHOP BERKELEY^ ^^^ '^ 
 
 ox ^) 
 
 LETTER TO SIR JOHN JAMES, Bakt. 
 
 WRITTEN IN 1741, 
 
 BY THE RIGHT REV. 
 
 GEORGE BERKELEY, D.D, 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF CLOYNE ; 
 
 NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, EXTRACTED FROM THE IMPERFECT 
 REMAINS OF THE BISHOP'S MSS.; 
 
 AND EDITED BY 
 
 THE REV. 
 
 JAMES S. M. ANDERSON, M.A. 
 
 CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE QUEEN, 
 
 PERPETUAL CURATE OF ST. GEORGe's, BRIGHTON, 
 
 AND PREACHER OF LINCOLN'S INN. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 FRANCIS & JOHN RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. Paul's church yard, and waterlog place ; 
 
 FOLTHORP, North Street, and KING, East Street, BRIGHTON. 
 
 MDCCOL.
 
 LONDON : 
 GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 
 ST. John's square.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The MSS. of Bishop Berkeley, of which the follow- 
 ing Letter is a portion, were the property of the 
 late Rev. Hugh James Rose ; and have been kindly 
 lent, by the widow of that faithful servant of God, 
 to the Editor of these pages, with the view of assist- 
 ing him in a History of the Colonial Church, upon 
 which he is engaged. He has found among them 
 several interesting memoranda relative to Berkeley's 
 scheme of establishing a College in the Bermudas, 
 and also notes of Sermons preached by him during 
 his residence in Rhode Island. He gratefully ac- 
 knowledges the help derived thence, towards the 
 illustration of one of the noblest efforts of Christian 
 zeal, which the annals of the last century exhibit. 
 
 In his examination of these papers, the Editor 
 found several others, in a mutilated condition, of 
 which the following Letter to Sir John James, on 
 the Roman Catholic controversy, is the most im- 
 portant. 
 
 A 2
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The published writings of Bishop Berkeley, which 
 have any immediate reference to the Church of 
 Rome, are contained in the third volume of his 
 Works, (London, 1820,) and relate only to the 
 duties temporal which he therein seeks to enforce. 
 The one is a very brief Letter to the Roman Catho- 
 lics who lived in his own Diocese of Cloyne, exhort- 
 ing them to order and obedience, after the rebellion 
 which had agitated Great Britain in 1745. The 
 other is an Address, entitled ' A Word to the 
 Wise ; or, an Exhortation to the Roman Catholic 
 Clergy of Ireland,' written in 1749, in which he 
 persuades them to use their influence in correcting 
 the many evil habits w4iich prevailed among the 
 Irish peasantry. The last of these Letters proved, 
 — as the kindly spirit in which it was written could 
 hardly fail to make it, — so acceptable to those to 
 whom it made its appeal, that, in the Dublin Journal 
 of November 18, 1749, they tendered publicly their 
 thanks to Berkeley ; acknowledging the justice of 
 his censures, the wisdom and benevolence of his 
 designs, the signal charity with which he had com- 
 municated the knowledge of them, and their desire 
 to do what in them lay towards their completion for 
 the common good ' . 
 
 The Editor of the following pages is not aware 
 that, except in the above documents, and, inciden- 
 tally, in one or two passages of The Minute Philo- 
 
 ' Life of Bishop Berkeley prefixed to his Works, i. xiv. 
 
 - uiuc :
 
 PREFACE. 5 
 
 soplier, any allusion, to the differences between the 
 Church of Rome and our own, is to be met with 
 in any of the known writings of Bishop Berkeley. 
 Certainly, he cannot discover a single passage, which 
 bears directly upon the doctrinal points of contro- 
 versy between the Churches. When, therefore, he 
 found among the MSS. entrusted to his hands for 
 the special object which has been described, — and 
 none of which, he believes, have ever been before 
 published, — an exposition of the truth, concerning 
 some of these points, so clear and forcible as that 
 presented in the following Letter ; clothed in the 
 same exquisite graces of diction, which distinguish 
 the other works of Berkeley ; and breathing, in its 
 purest form, that spirit of Christian love, which 
 had already won for its waiter the best sympathies of 
 an admiring world ; he felt that it was his duty to 
 make others partakers of the benefit which he had 
 deriA^ed from its perusal. He requested, therefore, 
 and readily obtained, permission to prepare it for 
 the press. 
 
 Some passages in it, he regrets to say, have been 
 impaired by time; and others are totally destroyed. 
 But, notwithstanding all its imperfections, and the 
 apparent hopelessness of being able to supply its 
 deficiencies from any other quarter, the Editor 
 believes that it deserves, and will richly repay, the 
 examination of attentive readers. 
 
 It has been said by some one of Bishop Pearson, 
 that 'his very dust is gold.' The same may be
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 repeated, with equal truth, of the fragments which 
 have here been carefully gathered up out of the 
 dust of Bishop Berkeley. Many will assuredly 
 account them precious. The voice, which here 
 issues from the gi^ave of a good and great man, 
 may be listened to, and obeyed, in quarters which 
 the pleadings and remonstrances of his living infe- 
 riors fail to reach. It speaks, in loving and solemn 
 accents, upon some of those very subjects which 
 agitate so powerfully the minds of many, in this 
 day of unhappy division. And if, in any instance, 
 it shall be found to stay the evil, by informing the 
 understandings, and correcting the wills, of those 
 who suffer themselves to look with coldness or with 
 scorn upon the Church of their Baptism; and crave 
 after a return to teaching and to practices, against 
 which she has entered her uncompromising and 
 faithful jjrotest ; will it not be good for them, and 
 for others, to have heard it ? 
 
 Kemp Town, Brighton, 
 Sept. 25, 1850.
 
 LETTER, 
 
 TO SIR JOHN JAMES, Bart.^ 
 
 Cloy ne, June 7tli, 1741. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I WOULD not defer writing, though I write in 
 no small confusion and distress ; my family having 
 many ill of an epidemical fever that rages in these 
 parts, and I being the only physician to them and 
 my poor neighbours ^ You have my sincere 
 
 ^ The Editor would gladly receive more information than he 
 has yet been able to obtain concerning Sir John James. It is 
 evident, from the unfeigned respect for his learning, and love for 
 his person, which Berkeley manifests, that he was no ordinary 
 man. He was about to become a member of the Church of 
 Rome; and his correspondence with Berkeley arose from his 
 desire to communicate, to one with whom he had long lived in 
 friendship, his reasons for that step. In Burke's Extinct Baro- 
 netage, a Baronet of the same name is stated to have died, without 
 issue, soon after the date of this Letter. 
 
 ^ In the Bishop's published correspondence with his friend Mr. 
 Prior, prefixed to his Works, i. Iv., occurs a passage, dated May 
 19, 1741, only a few weeks before this Letter, which describes the
 
 8 LETTER. 
 
 thanks for the freedom and friendship with which 
 you are so good to communicate your thoughts. 
 Your making the unum necessarium your chief busi- 
 ness sets you above the world. I heartily beg of 
 God, that He would give me grace to do the same ; 
 a heart constantly to pursue the truth, and abide in 
 it, wherever it is found. 
 
 No Divine could say, in my opinion, more for the 
 Church of Rome than you have done : — 
 
 Si Pergama dextra 
 
 Defend! possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent. 
 
 [Virg. iEneid. ii. 291.] 
 
 fearful havoc which the sickness, here alluded to, was then making 
 in the counties of Cork and Limerick, depopulating whole 
 villages, and making the survivors flee away in terror. No trace 
 of perplexity or fear is exhibited on the part of the good Bishop, 
 although liis own family were among the sufferers. He describes, 
 in the same passage, the different remedies which he had 
 applied with the greatest success ; and a comparison of these 
 statements with the celebrated Treatise, which he wrote a few 
 years afterwards, upon the virtues of Tar Water, entitled, 
 ' Siris,' &c., will show that, in the work which he was now 
 carrying on for the benefit of the sick poor of his neighbourhood 
 and Diocese, was formed the first link of that wondrous chain of 
 philosophical reflections, which, beginning from the simplest 
 principles of healing applied to the relief of the body, terminated 
 in the contemplation of the loftiest mysteries of the soul and 
 spirit. It is remarkable, that, whilst his time was thus en- 
 grossed, and his attention thus distracted, Berkeley should have 
 been able to write, at such length, and with such unaffected 
 composure, upon the widely different subject which his corre- 
 spondent here forced upon his attention.
 
 LETTER. y 
 
 The Scriptures and Fathers, I grant, are a much 
 better help to know Christ and His ReUgion 
 than the cold and dry writings of our modern 
 Divines. Many who are conversant in such books, 
 I doubt, have no more relish for the things of the 
 Gospel, than those who spend their time in reading 
 the immense and innumerable tomes of Scholastic 
 Divinity, with which the Church of Rome abounds. 
 The dry polemical Theology was the growth of 
 Rome, begun from Peter Lombard, the Master of 
 the Sentences * ; and grew and spread among the 
 Monks and Friars, under the Pope's eye. The 
 Church of England is not without spiritual writers 
 of her own. Taylor, Ken, Beveridge, Scott, 
 Lucas, Stanhope, Nelson, the author of the works 
 falsely ascribed to the writer of the Whole Duty 
 of Man, and many more, whom I believe you will 
 find not inferior to those of the Church of Rome. 
 But I freely own to you that most modern writings 
 smell of the age, and that there are no books so 
 fit to make a soul advance in spiritual perfection, 
 as the Scriptures and ancient Fathers. 
 
 I think you will find no Popery in St. Augustine, 
 or St. Basil, or any writers of that antiquity. You 
 may see, indeed, here and there, in the Fathers a 
 
 * So called from his Liber Sententiarum, which was a digest 
 in four Books of Sentences, or Propositions, extracted from the 
 writings of the Fathers, and became the basis of the Scholastic 
 Theology. It appeared in tlie year 1172.
 
 10 LETTER. 
 
 notion borrowed from Philosophy (as they were 
 originally philosophers); for instance, something like 
 a Platonic or Pythagorean Purgatory : But you will 
 see nothing like indulgences, or a bank of merits, or 
 a Romish purgatory, whereof the Pope has the key. 
 It is not simply believing even a Popish tenet, or 
 tenets, that makes a Papist, but beUeving on the 
 Pope's authority. There is in the Fathers a divine 
 strain of piety, and much of the spiritual life. This, 
 we acknowledge, all should aspire after, and I make 
 no doubt is attainable, and actually attained, in the 
 communion of our Church, at least as well as in 
 any other. 
 
 You observe very justly that Christ's religion is 
 spiritual, and the Christian life supernatural ; and 
 that there is no judge of spiritual things but the 
 Spirit of God. We have need, therefore, of aid and 
 light from above. Accordingly, we have the Spirit 
 of God to guide us into all truth. If we are sancti- 
 fied and enhghtened by the Holy Ghost and by 
 Christ, this will make up for our defects, without 
 the Pope's assistance. And why our Church and 
 her pious members may not hope for this help as 
 well as others, I see no reason. The Author of 
 our faith tells us. He that " will do the will of God, 
 shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." 
 [S. John vii. 17.] I believe this extends to all 
 saving truths. 
 
 There is an indwelling of Christ and the Holy
 
 LETTER. 1 1 
 
 Spirit ; there is an inward light. If there be an 
 ignis fatuus that misleads wild and conceited men, 
 no man can thence infer there is no light of the Sun. 
 There must be a proper disposition of the organ, as 
 well as a degree of daylight, to make us see. 
 Where these concur, no body doubts of what he sees. 
 And a Christian soul, wherein there is faith, humility, 
 and obedience, will not fail to see the right way to 
 salvation by that light w^hich lightens the Gentiles, 
 and is a glory to Israel. 
 
 There is an invisible Church, whereof Christ is 
 the head ; the members of which are linked together 
 by faith, hope, and chaiity. By faith in Christ, not 
 in the Pope. Popes are no unerring rule, for Popes 
 have erred : witness the condemnation and suppres- 
 sion of Sixtus Quintus's Bible by his successor ^ 
 
 * Reference is herein made to the Vulgate, which had been 
 already declared by the Council of Trent to be authentic, and to 
 the edition of it which had been prepared under the authority of 
 Pope Sixtus v., in 1590, and commanded by him to be adopted 
 throughout the Romish Church. This edition, notwithstanding, 
 was condemned, and ordered to be suppressed, two years after- 
 wards, on account of its inaccuracies, by his successor, Clement 
 VIII. The differences between the Sixtine and Clementine 
 editions of the Vulgate, alike promulgated by Pontiffs claiming 
 infallibility, are of the most serious character ; some clauses are 
 wholly omitted in the former, and inserted in the latter ; others 
 are inserted in the former, and wholly omitted in the latter ; and, in 
 many passages, which appear in both, the most glaring contradic- 
 tions, with respect to numbers, &c., repeatedly occur. Some 
 specimens of these, extracted from Kortholt de Variis Scrip- 
 iurce Editionihus, arc given by Mr. Hartwell Home, in his
 
 12 LETTER. 
 
 Witness the successions of Anti-Popes for a long- 
 tract of time ^. 
 
 There is a secret unction, an inward light and joy, 
 that attends the sincere fervent love of God and His 
 truth, which enables men to go on with all cheer- 
 fulness and hope in the Christian warfare. You 
 ask. How I shall discern or know this ? I answer 
 much more easily than I can that this particular 
 man, or this particular society of men, is an unerring- 
 rule. Of the former I have an inward feeUng, 
 jointly with the internal, as well as exterior, Xoyoc, to 
 
 Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy 
 Scriptures, ii. 203 — 205. 3rd Edit. In Gibson's Preserva- 
 tive against Popery (the last Edit. v. 267), is an admirable 
 Discourse on Tradition, by Bishop Patrick, in which, speaking of 
 these contradictions in different, and equally authorized, editions 
 of the Vulgate, he adds these emphatic words : ' Whereby all 
 Romanists are reduced to this miserable necessity, either to make 
 use of no Bible at all ; or to fall under the curse of Sixtus, if he 
 make use of that of Clement ; or the curse of Clement, if he use 
 the Bible of Sixtus. For they are both of them enjoined, with 
 the exclusion of all other editions ; and with the penalty of a curse 
 upon them, who disobey the one or the other ; and it is impos- 
 sible to obey both.' 
 
 " This refers to the schism in the Papacy, which took place 
 upon the death of Gregory XI., in 1378, soon after his return 
 from Avignon to Rome, and which distracted the Latin Church 
 for more than forty years. Gibbon gives, in the 70th chapter of 
 his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a 
 brief, but vivid, account of the miseries caused by it ; and, if the 
 reader should have the opportunity of consulting the authorities 
 cited by him, Baluze and Muratori, he will find all his state- 
 ments abundantly confirmed.
 
 LETTER. 13 
 
 inform me. But for the latter I have only the 
 Pope's word, and that of his followers. 
 
 It is dangerous arguing from our notion of the 
 expediency of a thing, to the reality of the thing 
 itself. But I can plainly argue from facts against 
 the being of such an expedient. In the first cen- 
 turj^s of the Church, when heresies abounded, the 
 expedient of a Pope, or Roman oracle, was unknown, 
 unthought of. There was then a Bishop of Rome ; 
 but that w^as no hindrance or remedy of divisions. 
 Disputes in the Catholic Church were not ended 
 by his authority. No recourse was had to his in- 
 fallibility ; an evident proof they acknowledged no 
 such thing. The date of his usurpations, and how 
 they grew with his secular power, you may plainly 
 see in Giannoni's History of Naples : I do not 
 refer you to a Protestant writer. 
 
 Men travelling in daylight see by one common 
 light, though each with his own ej^es. If one man 
 should say to the rest. Shut your eyes and follow 
 me, who see better than you all ; this would not be 
 well taken. The sincere Christians of our com- 
 munion are governed, or led, by the inward light of 
 God's grace, by the outward light of His written 
 Word, by the ancient and Catholic traditions of 
 Christ's Church, by the ordinances of our National 
 Church, which we take to consist all and hang 
 together. But then we see, as all must do, with 
 om' own eyes, by a common light ; but each with 
 his own private eyes. And so must you too, or
 
 14 LETTER. 
 
 you will not see at all. And, not seeing at all, how 
 can you chuse a Church ? why prefer that of Rome 
 to that of England ? Thus far, and in this sense, every 
 man's judgment is private, as well as ours. Some, 
 indeed, go further ; and, without regard to the Holy 
 Spirit, or the Word of God, or the writings of the 
 primitive Fathers, or the universal uninterrupted 
 traditions of the Church, will pretend to canvass 
 every mystery, every step of Providence, and reduce 
 it to the private standard of their own fancy ; for 
 reason reaches not those things. Such as these, I 
 give up and disown, as well as you do. 
 
 I grant it is meet the Law of Christ should, like 
 other laws, have magistrates to explain and apply 
 it. But then, as in the civil State, a private man 
 may know the law enough to avoid transgressing 
 it, and also to see whether the magistrates deviate 
 from it into tyranny : even so, in the other case, a 
 private Christian may know, and ought to know, 
 the written law of God, and not give himself up 
 blindly to the dictates of the Pope and his assessors. 
 This, in effect, would be destroying the law, and 
 erecting a despotic government in stead thereof. It 
 would be deserting Christ, and taking the Pope for 
 his master. 
 
 I think it my duty to become a little child to 
 Christ and His Apostles, but not to the Pope and 
 his courtiers. That many honest and well-meaning 
 men live under such thraldom, I freely admit, and 
 am sorry for it. I trust that God will have compas-
 
 LETTER. 15 
 
 sion on them, as knowing how they were educated, 
 and the force of first impressions. But we, who 
 never had their education, cannot plead their pre- 
 judices. 
 
 Light and heat are both found in a religious mind 
 duly disposed. Light, in due order, goes first. It is 
 dangerous to begin with heat, that is, with the affec- 
 tions. To balance earthly affections by spiritual 
 affections is right. But our affections should grow 
 from inquiry and deliberation ; else there is danger 
 of our being superstitious or enthusiasts. An affec- 
 tion conceived tow^ards a particular Church, upon 
 reading some spiritual authors of that communion, 
 which might have left a byas in the mind, is, I 
 apprehend, to be suspected. Most men act wdth a 
 byas. God knows how far my education may have 
 byassed me against the Church of Rome, or how far 
 a love of retreat and a fine climate may byas me 
 towards it. It is our duty to try and divest our- 
 selves of all byas whatsoever. 
 
 Whatever unguarded expressions may be found 
 in this or that Protestant Divine, it is certainly the 
 doctrine of our Church that no particular Church, 
 or congregation of beUevers, is infalhble. We hold 
 all mankind to be peccable and errable, even the 
 Pope himself, with all that belong to him. We are 
 like men in a cave, in this present life, seeing by a 
 dim light through such chinks as the Divine good- 
 ness hath opened to us. We dare not talk in the 
 high, unerring, positive style of the Romanists. We
 
 16 LETTER. 
 
 confess that "we see through a glass darkly:" 
 [1 Cor. xiii. 12 :] and rejoice that we see enough to 
 determine our practice, and excite our hopes. 
 
 An humble, devout penitent believer, not byassed 
 by any terrene affections, but sincerely aiming and 
 endeavouring, by all the means God hath given him, 
 to come at truth, need not fear being admitted into 
 the Kingdom of God without the Pope's passport. 
 There is, indeed, an invisible Church, whereof Christ 
 is head ; linked together by charity, animated with 
 the same hope, sanctified by the same Spirit, heirs 
 of the same promise. This is the Universal Church, 
 militant and triumphant : the militant, dispersed 
 in all parts of Christendom, partaking of the same 
 Word and Sacraments. There are also visible, 
 political or national, churches : none of which is 
 Universal. It would be a blunder to say particular 
 universal. And yet, I know not how, the style of 
 Roman Catholic hath prevailed. The members of 
 this universal Church are not visible by outward 
 marks, but certainly known only to God, whose 
 Spirit will sanctifie and maintain it to the end of 
 time. 
 
 The Church is a calling, e/cKXWa •, "Many are 
 called, but few are chosen." [S. Matt. xxii. 14.] 
 Therefore, there is no reckoning the elect by the 
 number of visible members. There must be the 
 invisible grace, as well as the outward sign ; the 
 spiritual life and holy unction, to make a real mem- 
 ber of Christ's invisible Church. The particular
 
 LETTER. 17 
 
 Churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, 
 &e., have all fallen into error. [Art. XIX.] And 
 yet, in their most corrupt and erroneous state, I 
 believe they have included some true members of 
 that body whereof " Christ is head ;" of that build- 
 ing whereof He is "the corner stone." [Ephes. iv. 
 15; ii. 20.] " Other foundation can no man lay," 
 but on this foundation. There may be superstruc- 
 tures of "hay, stubble," [1 Cor. iii. 11, 12,] and 
 much* contemptible trash, without absolutely anni- 
 hilating the Church. This I take to have been 
 evidently the case. Christ's religion is spiritual 
 and supernatural ; and there is an unseen cement 
 of the faithful, who draw^ grace from the same 
 source, are enlightened by the same " Father of 
 lights," [James i. 17,] and sanctified by the same 
 Spirit. And this ; although they may be members of 
 different political or visible congregations, may be 
 estranged, or suspected, or even excommunicate to 
 each other. They may be loyal to Christ, however 
 divided among themselves. This is the charitable 
 belief of the true sons of our Church ; howsoever 
 contrary to the damning temper of Rome, and the 
 sour severity of Dissenters. 
 
 To explain this by a familiar instance. When 
 King Charles the Second was at Brussels, he had 
 friends in England of different factions, and sus- 
 pected, or even hated, each by other ; who yet alike 
 wished the King well, and corresponded with him, 
 though not with one another. The King knew his 
 
 B
 
 1« LETTER. 
 
 loyal subjects, though they were not known, owned, 
 or trusted mutually. They all promoted his return 
 though by different schemes ; and, when he came to 
 his kingdom, they all rejoiced with him. 
 
 But perhaps you will say there is need of an in- 
 fallible visible guide for the soul's quiet. But of 
 what use is an infallible guide, without an infallible 
 sign to know him by ^ ? We have often seen Pope 
 against Pope, and Council against Council ^ What 
 or whom shall we follow in these contests, but the 
 written Word of God, the Apostolical traditions, and 
 the internal light of the Xo-yog, that irradiates every 
 mind, but is not equally observed by all ? If you 
 say, notwithstanding these helps and lights, that we 
 are still weak, and have weak eyes ; in a word, that 
 we may err : I say, — So may you. Man is fallible ; 
 and God knows it ; and God is just. I am more 
 easy on these principles, and this way of thinking, 
 than if I tamely and slothfuUy gave myself up to be 
 ridden and hoodwinked by the Pope, or by any 
 other visible Judge upon earth. 
 
 ' This argument is pursued with triumphant power, by Sher- 
 lock, in his ' Brief Discourse concerning the Notes of the 
 Church,' in refutation of Cardinal Bellarmine, and also in his 
 ' Vindication of the Same.' These and other Tracts, which 
 appeai'ed originally in Gibson's Preservative, &c., have since been 
 published in a separate and cheap volume, and are strongly re- 
 commended to the reader's notice. 
 
 * Most startling and conclusive evidences of the truth of this 
 fact are given in the first Tract in Gibson's Preservative, &c., 
 by Bishop Stratford, i. 11 — 17.
 
 LETTER. 19 
 
 The security and repose of souls is pretended, or 
 promised, to be had in the bosom of the Roman 
 Church. But, I think, least of all to be hoped for, 
 in a Chm'ch which, by her doctrine of the priest's 
 intention being necessary to the eflficacy of Sacra- 
 ments, must raise in every thinking member infinite 
 and indissoluble scruples. Since it is acknowledged 
 that many Infidels and Jews and Mahometans have 
 been ordained, and possessed all degrees of dignity, 
 and administered all Sacraments, in the Church of 
 Rome : Therefore, all Sacraments, derived either 
 mediately or immediately from such, were ineffectual : 
 Therefore, no particular member can know, upon the 
 principles of the Church of Rome, whether he is a 
 Christian or not : Therefore, that very Church, 
 which sets up above all others for making men easy 
 and secure within her communion, is, indeed, more 
 than any other, calculated for producing doubts and 
 scruples, such as I do not see possible how they 
 should be solved or quieted upon her principles. 
 
 You seem to think the numerousness of her sons 
 an argument of her truth. But it is admitted the 
 Mahometans are more numerous than the Chris- 
 tians ; and that the Arians, once upon a time, were 
 more numerous than the Orthodox. Therefore, that 
 argument concludes nothing. 
 
 As for her miracles, which you think so well 
 attested that thinking Protestants dare not deny 
 them, I declare honestly that the best attested of 
 her miracles that I have met with, and the only that 
 
 B 2
 
 20 LETTER. 
 
 seemed to have any verisimilitude, were those said 
 to be performed at the tomb of Abbe Paris ; and 
 those are not admitted by the Church of Rome her- 
 self ^. I have read, inquired, and observed myself, 
 when abroad, concerning their exorcisms \ and 
 miracles ; and must needs say they all appeared so 
 
 " It is hardly necessary to remark, that the claims, put forth 
 in behalf of the miracles alleged to be wrought at the tomb of the 
 Abbe Paris, were revived and defended, soon after the date of 
 this Letter, with all the skill which the accomplished sophist could 
 exercise ; and that the refutation of them was completely esta- 
 blished by Bishop Douglas, in his ' Criterion,' pp. 132, &c. The 
 results of the Bishop's argument are to be found in Paley's ' Evi- 
 dences of Christianity,' Prop. ii. c. ii. 
 
 * Berkeley had good reason to remember the pretended exor- 
 cisms of which he here speaks; for, when he was on the Continent 
 with the Earl of Peterborough, in 1714, he was asked by Basil 
 Kennett, Chaplain to the English Factory at Leghorn, to preach 
 for him one Sunday. ' The day following,' adds his biographer, 
 ' as Berkeley was sitting in his chamber, a procession of priests 
 in surplices, and with all other formalities, entered the room, and 
 without taking the least notice of the wondering inhabitant, 
 marched quite round it, muttering certain prayers. His fears 
 immediately suggested to him, that this could be no other than a 
 visit from the Inquisition, who had heard of his officiating 
 before heretics without licence, the day before. As soon as they 
 were gone, he ventured, with much caution, to inquire into the 
 cause of this extraordinary appearance, and was happy to be 
 informed, that this was the season appointed by the Romish 
 Calendar for solemnly blessing the houses of all good Catholics 
 from rats and other vermin ; a piece of intelligence which 
 changed his terror into mirth.' Berkeley's Life prefixed to his 
 Works, i. iv.
 
 LETTER. 21 
 
 many gross impositions. As for the miracles said 
 to be performed in foreign missions, I can give no 
 credit to them (I judge by what accounts I have 
 seen) ; and, if you will be at the trouble of perus- 
 ing the Lettres edifiantes et curieuses ecriies des 
 Missions E'trangeres, printed at Paris, perhaps you 
 may think of them as I do. 
 
 As for the Roman Saints and Martyrs, please to 
 read their legends, or even the canonizations of the 
 last centur}% since Rome hath been enlightened and 
 something reformed by our Reformation, for those 
 of St. Pietro d'Alcantara and St. Magdalena de 
 Pazzi. I believe you never read of any thing like 
 them and their marvellous wonders, which neverthe- 
 less were admitted for authentic by Pope and Cardi- 
 nals. I myself saw and conversed with a woman at 
 Genoa, a reputed Saint, whose head I met, three 
 years after ^, encircled with rays, to be sold among 
 other pictures in the great Square of Leghorn. 
 This same Saint appeared to me very manifestly a 
 vile lying hypocrite, though much extolled and 
 admired. 
 
 I never saw any character of a Popish Martyr 
 that came up to that of Jerome of Prague, one of 
 the first Reformers ; for which I refer you to 
 
 * Berkeley returned, in 1714, from the tour, in which he met 
 with the adventure related in the former note ; but, soon after- 
 wards, went upon another tour, in company with Mr. Ashe, 
 which occupied four years. lb. v. In this way, he was enabled 
 to observe, at the intervals of time above-mentioned, the circum- 
 stances to which he refers.
 
 22 LETTER. 
 
 Poggius, and ^neas Sylvius, who was eye-witness 
 to his behaviour, and afterwards became Pope ^. 
 
 Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, were, I think, 
 good men, and acted on good motives. So was 
 Jewell a very good man. I wish you'd read his 
 little Latin book in defence of the Reformation. 
 I have not seen it these thirty years ; but remember 
 I liked it well. Hooker, Usher, Dodwell, Fell, 
 Hammond, and many more Protestants of our 
 Church, had piety equal to their learning. 
 
 Basil Kennet[t], Chaplain to the factory of Leg- 
 horn in Queen Anne's reign, was esteemed and called 
 a Saint by the Papists themselves, as the English 
 merchants there assured me. On the other hand, in 
 so many converts, and such a numerous clergy, that 
 there may be found sundry good and learned men, I 
 make no doubt, whose learning and piety are skil- 
 fully made use of and applied by the Court of Rome 
 to extend her influence and credit. 
 
 You mention monasteries to have been anciently 
 regarded as schools of Divine Philosophy. But there 
 is, by what I can find, no similitude between ancient 
 
 ^ The Council of Constance, which condemned Huss and 
 Jerome of Prague to be burnt alive, was held in 141 4 ; and iEneas 
 Sylvius was raised to the Papal throne, in 1458, under the name 
 of Pius 11. Gibbon makes mention both of him and Poggius ; 
 describing the former, in his 68th chapter, as one who, after he 
 was Pope, devoted his life to the prosecution of the Turkish war 
 which, when secretary to the Emperor, he had stated was im- 
 practicable; and the latter, in his 65th chapter, as famous among 
 the revivers of learning in the fifteenth century.
 
 LETTER. 23 
 
 and modern monks. Compare what St. Bernard, 
 in his treatise De Vita Solitarid, saith of the monks 
 of Thebais, with what you'll see in the monasteries 
 of Flanders. I fear there is no corruption, or per- 
 version, worse than that of a monastic life. 
 
 It seems very expedient that the world should 
 have, among the many formed for action, some also 
 formed for contemplation, the influence whereof 
 might be general and extend to others. But to get 
 men and women to a contemplative life, who are 
 neither fitted nor addicted to contemplation, is 
 a monstrous abuse. To assist the XvaiQ and 
 (f>vyri of the Soul by meditation, was a noble 
 purpose, even in the eyes of Pagan Philosophy ^ 
 How much more so in the eyes of Christians, whose 
 philosophy is of all others the most sublime, and the 
 most calculated to wean our thoughts from things 
 carnal, and raise them above things terrestrial ! 
 
 That the contemplative and ascetic life may be 
 greatly promoted by living in community and by 
 rules, I freely admit. The institution of the Essenes 
 among the Jews, or the republic of Philosophers, 
 that was to have been settled in a city to have been 
 built by the direction of Plotinus \ in the territory 
 
 * Berkeley reverts to this subject towards the end of his ' Siris,' 
 sect. 358, where he speaks of ' The flight of the mind towards 
 God, called by the Platonics cpvyi) judrou Trpoc fxovov.' 
 
 * Plotinus, a Platonic philosopher of the third century, was a 
 native of Egypt, and a disciple of the schools of Alexandria ; but 
 repaired to Rome when he was forty years of age, and passed 
 twenty-six years in that city and in Campania, delivering lectures 
 and writing works on philosophy.
 
 24 LETTER. 
 
 of Capua, if the Emperor Gallienus had not changed 
 his mind ; such institutions as these give dehghtful 
 images, but very different from any thing that I 
 could ever see in a Popish convent ; and I have 
 seen and known many of them. 
 
 I should like a convent without a vow, or per- 
 petual obligation. Doubtless, a college or monastery, 
 (not a resource for younger brothers, not a nursery 
 for ignorance, laziness, and superstition,) receiving 
 only grown persons of approved piety, learning, and 
 a contemplative turn, would be a great means of 
 improving the Divine Philosophy, and brightening 
 up the face of religion in our Church. But I should 
 still expect more success from a number of gentle- 
 men, living independently at Oxford, who made 
 divine things their study, and proposed to wean 
 themselves from what is called the world. 
 
 You remark on the badness of men and views, 
 that seem to have concurred in the Reformation. 
 That there may be some truth in this charge, I will 
 not deny. But I deny that this can be an argument 
 against the Reformation ; since you seem to grant 
 yourself that the Church of Rome hath been re- 
 formed on occasion of our Reformation, which yet 
 you condemn. Evil men and councils may some- 
 times be the occasion of good. And it is on all 
 hands admitted that God knows how to extract 
 good from evil. 
 
 The charge of Idolatry on the Church of Rome 
 (which you make so light of) is, I fear, not without 
 foundation. For, although the learned may, and
 
 LETTER. 25 
 
 do, distinguish between a relative respect for images, 
 and an absolute worship of them ; yet it cannot be 
 doubted that the use made of them becomes a great 
 snare to the multitude. I myself, by talking to 
 some common people in Italy, found they worship- 
 ped images with an adoration as formal and stupid 
 as any heathen idolater. And both I, and every 
 other traveller must see (and the best men among 
 themselves are scandalized to see it), that the 
 Blessed Virgin is often prayed to and more wor- 
 shipped than God Himself, 
 
 You speak of the unity and peace of the Church 
 of Rome, as an effect of the Spirit of God presiding 
 in it, and of the doctrine of an infallible head. But 
 the fact is denied. Successions of Anti-Popes with 
 horrible dissensions, violent measures and convul- 
 sions ensuing thereupon, sufficiently show the con- 
 trary. The Court of Rome, it must be owned, hath 
 learned the Venetian policy of silencing her sons, 
 and keeping them quiet through fear. But where 
 there breathes a little spirit of learning and freedom, 
 as in France ; or, where distance lessened respect, as 
 in China ; there have often appeared, and ever and 
 anon continue to appear, great struggles, parties, 
 and divisions, both in matters of faith and discipline. 
 And, where they are quiet, their union seems, so far 
 as I can judge, a political union, founded in secular 
 power and arts, rather than an effect of any divine 
 doctrine or spirit. 
 
 Those who are conversant in history plainly see
 
 26 LETTER. 
 
 by what secular arts and steps the Papal power was 
 acquired. To history, therefore, I refer you. In 
 the mean time, I cannot forbear making one remark 
 which I know not whether it hath been made by 
 others. Rome seems to have cut her own throat 
 by the forgery of Constantine's Donation ^, in which 
 there is this remarkable clause : Decernentes sanci- 
 mus, ut Romana Ecclesia principatum teneat tarn 
 super quatuor sedes, Alexandrinam, Antiochenam, 
 Hierosolymitanam, ac Constcmtinopolitanam, quam 
 etiam super omnes in universo orbe terrarum Dei 
 ecclesias\ 
 
 Doth not this look like an acknowledgment that 
 the See of Rome oweth her pre eminence to the 
 appointment of Constantine the Great, and not to 
 any divine right ? 
 
 * * * * [In this part of the MS., 
 
 the Editor is soi^ry to say, four pages are wanting, 
 and, he fears, irretrievably lost. He has supplied the 
 partial chasms in the sequel, by words within brackets, 
 where the context appeared fully to warrant their inser- 
 
 ® This forgery appeared in the eighth century, and is supposed 
 to have been the work of Isidore. It was introduced into the 
 world by an Epistle of Adrian I., exhorting Charlemagne to 
 imitate the liberality, and revive the name, of.the great Constan- 
 tine. See Dean Comber in Gibson's Preservative, xv. 159 ; 
 Gibbon, c. 49. 
 
 ^ ' We decree and ratify, that the Roman Church hold the 
 chief rank as well over the four Sees of Alexandria, Antioch, 
 Jerusalem, and Constantinople, as over all the Churches of God 
 in the whole world.'
 
 LETTER. 27 
 
 tion ; where it seemed doubtful, he has not attempted 
 to insert any,] * * # * * 
 
 * * * many innovations are in theirs, 
 which we account repugnant to the Word of God, and 
 the primitive traditions. Therefore, a Papist of any 
 tolerable reason, though bred up in the Roman 
 Church, may, nevertheless, with a good conscience, 
 occasionally join in our worship ; and I have known 
 this done. May I not therefore hope that you will 
 continue to do it, and not, in perfect complaisance to 
 the Pope, renounce and damn us all ? In the mean 
 time, you may deliberate, continue your impartial 
 inquiry, and well weigh your steps, before you range 
 under the Pope and receive his mark. 
 
 I had forgot to say a word of Confession, w^hich 
 you mention as an advantage in the Church of 
 Rome, which is not to be had in ours. But it may 
 be had in our communion, by any who please to 
 have it ; and, I admit, it may be very usefully prac- 
 tised. But, as it is managed in the Church of 
 Rome, I apprehend it doth infinitely more mischief 
 than good. Their casuistry seemeth a disgrace, 
 not only to Christianity, but even to the hght of 
 nature. 
 
 As Plato thanked the Gods that he was born an 
 Athenian, so I think it a peculiar blessing to have 
 been educated in the Church of England. My 
 prayer, nevertheless, and trust in God is, not that I 
 shall Uve and die in this Church, but in the true 
 Church. For, after all, in respect of religion, our
 
 28 LETTER. 
 
 attachment should be only to the truth \ Tmight, 
 therefore, own myself a little surprised, upon ob- 
 serving that you concluded your letter with de- 
 claring, — You trust, by God's grace, to live and die 
 in the Church of Rome. I can easily suppose that 
 expression was a slip ; but 1 can never suppose that 
 all [the] skill and arts of Rome can destroy your 
 candour. 
 
 You will pardon the freedom of an old friend, 
 who speaks his thoughts bluntly, just as they come, 
 to one who used to be [a man] of fi-ankness without 
 forms. If I have exceeded in this kind, impute it 
 to haste, as well as my repetitions, inaccuracies, 
 and want of order. You set me a time ; and I 
 have obeyed as I could ; hoping that your own 
 thought will give clearness and method to my 
 broken and indigested hints. 
 
 To your own thoughts I appeal, trusting that 
 God will give you grace to think for yourself, and 
 to exert that sharpness of judgment which He has 
 given you, with double diligence, in this most 
 weighty affair. There are some writings of my 
 Lord Falkland's, concerning the Infallibility of the 
 Roman Church, bound up in the second volume of 
 Dr. Hammond's works, together with some learned 
 
 ^ The reader of the 'Siris' will remember with what energy 
 Berkeley gives utterance to the same feeling in the last sentence : 
 ' He that would make a real progress in knowledge, must dedicate 
 his age as well as youth, the later growth as well as first-fruits, 
 at the altar of Truth.'
 
 LETTER. 29 
 
 arguments in behalf of the Church of Rome, I 
 have not read those writings ; but, on the reputa- 
 tion of Lord Falkland, venture to recommend [them] 
 to your perusal. 
 
 The importance of the subject, together with my 
 esteem and affection for you, have run me into a 
 greater length than I intended : which if you are so 
 good as to pardon this once, I promise to be more 
 succinct and methodical another time, if you think 
 fit to favor me with an answer. In which case, I 
 would intreat you to number your paragraphs with 
 figures prefixed, which will govern and shorten my 
 answer. 
 
 The years I have lived, the pains I have taken, 
 and the distempers I labour under, make me sus- 
 pect I have not long to live. And, certainly, my 
 remnant of life, be it what it will, could be spun out 
 delightfully in the sun and the fresco, among the 
 fountains and grottos, the music, the antiquities, 
 the fine arts and buildings of Rome, if I could once 
 recommend myself to her religion. But I trust in 
 God, those fla . . . . things shall never bribe my 
 judgment. Dress therefore your batteries against 
 my reason ; attack me by the dry light * * * 
 assign me some good reason why I should not use 
 my reason, but submit at once to his Holiness's will 
 and pleasure. Though you are conqueror, I shall 
 be a gainer. In the work of truth, I am ready to 
 hear and canvass with the best of * * * skill, 
 whatever you shall be so good to offer.
 
 30 LETTER. 
 
 To your kind inquiry about my health, I can say 
 
 that, though I am not well, yet, I am less bad than 
 
 I was a year ago ; and that . . minal disorders seem 
 
 to quit me, though with a leisurely pace. [My 
 
 fam]ily is a great comfort to me. My wife, who is 
 
 just recovered from an illness, alwaies remembers 
 
 you with the highest esteem ; and interests herself 
 
 in your welfare. She sends her compliments ; but 
 
 knows nothing of the subject of our correspondence. 
 
 If she did, I doubt it would make her think better 
 
 of the Church of Rome, in which she liked some 
 
 things, when she was in France. She is become a 
 
 great farmer of late. In these hard times, we employ 
 
 above a hundred men every day in agriculture of 
 
 one kind or other ; all which my wife directs. This 
 
 is a charity, which pays itself. At least the Do- 
 
 maine of this See will gain by it. Oh ! that you 
 
 had a farm of a hundred acres near Oxford ! What 
 
 a pleasure it would be to improve and embeUish the 
 
 face of nature, to lead the life of a patriarch rather 
 
 than a friar, a modern cloystered friar ! My wife 
 
 finds in it a fund of health and spirits, beyond all 
 
 the fashionable amusements in the world. Dear 
 
 Sir, you have the best wishes and most hearty 
 
 prayers of your most obedient and affectionate 
 
 Servant, 
 
 G. CLOYNE. 
 
 Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London.
 
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