CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell Unlverslly Library BX1765 .074 1871 History of Romanism : .'"iS.iTlii.ll^if.iiifiSiiiJ®*' 3 1924 029 406 349 olin ^""^ H' Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029406349 7 C^' c c^ "^ 7 yL^^C^-7- ^ 2^ / ^/c^^ Z ^/?>i>-y ^^ CX^-i u y By THE History of Romanis JhE JJAIJLIE^T j^ORRUPTIOJM? OF jI^HRI^TI/^NITY ; CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, INDEXES, GLOSSARY. lil-Mstrstttos ;(|M|5rab!«|i-^ A NEW EDITION, WITH SUPPLEMENTS CONTINUING THE HISTORY FROM THE ACCESSION OF POPE PIUS IX. TO HIS PROCLAMATION OP PAPAL INFALLIBILITY, AISTD HIS DEPOSITION AS A TEMPORAL SOVEREIGN. A.D. 1870. BY JOHN pOWLING, D.D. " Stoi>y Popeby anew, brethren in the ministry ! The proper remedy against the threatened influx of papal power In our land, is to study afresh the tenets of the papacy ; to understand its errors ; to chronicle its crimea ; to mark well thsit its cha- racter is as Immutable as its pretensions are arrogant ; and that everywhere and always it has proved iUelf to be a thing which at onc« inraltB God and degrades man."— Rav. Thomas Binnev, D.D., LL.D., of London. Eev. xvil. 5. EDW^ARD -WALKER, NE^^^-YORK. Publication Office, 140 Pulton Stebet 'J- Entered, according to Act ot Congi-ess, in the year 1871, by EDWARD WALKBE, in the Oflice of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. 0. DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBLEMATICAL TITLE-PAGE. The central portion of the engraving is an emblematical representation or picture of popery as it is and has been. On the right and left, standing upon two pedestals, are two Reformers in monkish dresses, implying that, like Luther and many other eminent re- formers, they have been converted from the errors of popery. These two reformers are lifting up the curtain to exhibit to the world a genuine picture of the Romish Antichrist. In the background is seen the Churcli of St. Peter's, against which the lightnings are flashing, implying that popery is destined to fall before the light of heaven. Near by are seen two martyrdoms, implying that popery lias ever been " drunk with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus." In front is seen a pope, dressed in his tiara and pontifical robes, trampling under foot the Bible and pronouncing absolution upon a couple of devotees who are kneeling before him. These have both their rosaries in their hands, and the man has a dagger in one hand, implying that popery does not hesi- tate to authorize its use to remove a troublesome opponent, and that more than one assassin has been commended with priestly benedictions to the }wly work of assassinating heretical moriarchs and nobles. In the hand of the pope is a purse of money, which he has received as the price of his pon- tifical indulgence or absolution. "While the pope is trampling under foot the Bible, one of his soldiers is seen behind him, pointing with his sword to the Decrres of Lateran, Lyons, Constance, and Trent, the most celebrated and bloody of all the Romish Councils — as much as to say, " You must oljey these decrees or suffer the con- sequences." Thus has popery ever set her own decrees above the inspired word of God, and enforced obedience to those decrees, wherever she possessed tlie power^ at the point of the sword. Thank God that the power to perse- cute and "wear out the saints of the Jlost High" is now greatly crippled, if not forever destroyed 1 On the left are seen the representatives of the four divisions of the globe, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, with a queen, who may represent Victo- ria of England, looking on as interested spectators of the. picture thus ex- hibited. In the centre is a protestant minister, with the Bible before him, pointing to and describing the scene ; and on the right the living pope, a cardinal, and other dignitaries, horrified that this curtain should be removed, and this faithful picture of popery exhibited to the world. PUBLISHER'S NOTICE TO THE NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION. A.D. 1871. In issuing the present greatly enlarged edition of this truthful History of the Church of Eome, the publisher would beg leave to return his sincere thanks for the favor with which this thoroughly protestant but in all other respects unsectarian and undenominational work has been received by the protestant world; and would most respectfully inscribe the volume to the American Christian community of all denominations in this highly favored land. May it be the means of awakening all our Christian churches to the necessity of uniting together in one unbroken phalanx, in order to resist the insidious encroachments of the Jesuitical priests and hierarchy of Eome in these United States ; and may the circulation of the work also have a tendency to cultivate and produce a closer union and love among all sincere protestant Christians of every name throughout the land and throughout the world ! As expressive of the kind and favorable opinions of protestant journalists, scholars, and clergymen of all denominations in rela- tion to the value of this work, a few pages of the notices which were given of the earlier editions are appended at the close of the volume. In compliance with the request of many protestant friends, a brief description of the Emblematical Title-Page is added to the present edition, and may be found on the page fol- lowing this. EDWAED WALKEE, JSTew-Yoek. PREFACE. Lsr presenting tliis new and enlarged edition of The History ov Ro- MANisir to the American public, the author desii'es to exjjress his ac- knowledgments for the favor with which the work has been received by pvotestant ministers and intelligent laymen of every name, in con- sequence of which the book has already attained a circulation pro- bably more extensive than any other large volume ever published in America upon the subject of which it treats. The remarkable events of the year 1870 by which the history of the papacy was characterized — the establishment of the dogma of papal infallibility, and immediately afterward the destruction of the pope's temporal power — distinguish the present as a most memorable epoch in the history of Romanism, and as a most suitable time for the publi- cation of a new edition of this work, embodymg a history of these wonderful events and of the intervening years since the access.ion of Pius IX. to the papal throne, to the downfall of the papal king- dom. In compliance with the wish of many of the warmest friends of protestantism, the author has prepared such a history of these stirring events down to the capture of the city of Rome by King Victor Emanuel, the consequent abolition of the pope's temporal power, and the restoration of the city of Rome to its ancient glory as the proud capital of the kingdom of Italy. This, with other addi- tions, has increased the work from about 650 pages, as originally pub- lished, to the present substantial volume of more than 900 pages. This history was intended, as stated in the preface to the original edition, to supply a chasm that had long been felt by ministers, theo- logical students, and other intelligent protestants, in the historical and religious literature of the age. While a multitude of works had been published on the subjects of controversy between protestants and papists, there had been no complete, yet comprehensive, History of ii PREFACE. Romanism through the whole period of its existence, presenting m the compass of a single volume, in chronological order, the origm and history of its unscriptural doctrines and ceremonies, the biography of its most famous popes, the proceedings and decrees of its most cele- brated councils, with so much of the details of its tyranny over mon- archs and states in the days of its glory as might be necessary for a full exhibition of its unchanging character. There are comparatively but few ministei-s or private Christians who can spare either the leisure or the expense to procure and to study the library of works— Roman Catholic as well as protestant, Latin as well as English— through which are scattered the multipli- city of facts relative to this subject, a knowledge of which is necessary to all who would understand the true character of popery, and be prepared to defend against its Jesuitical apologists and defenders the doctrines of Protestantism and of the Bible. Hence the desirableness of such a work as the present. In its preparation, the author has availed himseK of all the stan- dard and authentic works on general and ecclesiastical history, on the Inquisition and persecutions of popery, on the reformers and the re- formation, and on the points of controversy between popery and protestantism to which he could gain access, either in private collec- tions or in pubUc libraries. Among Roman Catholic authors, the La- tin annals of Baronius and Raynaldus and the church histories of Fleury and Dupm have been freely examined, besides the works of Bellarmine, Paul Sarpi, and many others of a more special or li- mited scope, relating to particular pontiffs, councils, or events. Full extracts have been made from the bulls of popes and the decrees of councils, especially of the Council of Trent, illustrative of the doc- trines and character of popery. These valuable and authentic docu- ments, taken from their own standard works, are printed in this work generally in the original Latin, with the English translation, so as to permit popery to speak for itself, and to obviate the common objec- tion of Romanists of inaccurate translations. Among Protestant writers, most of the standard ecclesiastical historians and writers on Romanism have been consulted, and from them important facts have been freely gleaned. The engravings are not mere fancy sketches for the sake of embel- preface: iii lisliment, but are illustrative of unquestionable fart.t, and intended to impress those facts more vividly upon the memory. The copiovis ana- lytical and alphaljetieal indexes, glossary, and full eln-onological table have been prepared with much labor and care ; and, the author hesi- tates not to say, from the inconvenience he has often experienced in consulting works from the want of such tables, will be found a most important and useful addition to the work. The author Avould acknowledge his obligations to his valued friend, Mr. "\A"alker, the publisher, who has amply redeemed his promise made to him prior to the publication of the first edition, to spare no expense in order to issue the work in a style of mechanical execution and ar- tistic embellishment superior to any work ever before published in America upon the character or history of Romanism. In these respects, the present is greatly in advance of any previous edition. It is only deemed necessary to add, that the author has endeavored to avoid all matters of controversy between the diiferent denomina- tions of j»rotestant Christians. He has written as a member of the great protestant family, and not as a member of any one jsarticular branch of that family. It is his belief that all protestants should unite in the conflict with Rome ; and it has been his aim to furnish, from the armory of truth, weapons for that conflict, which shall be alike acceptable to ministers and Christians of every name who are not ashamed of the name of Pbotkstants. J. BOWLING. LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. Frontispiece— Proclamation of tlie Dogma of the Papal Infallibility. Council of the Vatican. Emblematical Title-Pafre, with description of the same. Crowning of Nuns and Anathema against false Nuns. Way-side Shrine of the Virgin. Calabrian Minstrels playing in her Honor. Worship of the Image of the Virgin in a Church. Relics carried in Procession to a Church to be consecrated. The Bishop closing up the Relics in the Altar. Celebration of High-Mass. Sprinkling and Blessing of Horses at Rome on St. Anthony's Day. Diiferent forms of Priestly Tonsure, or Shaving Heads. Consecration of an Abbot by the Imposition of Hands. St. Peter's Church, with the Piazza, Colonnade, Obelisk, and Fountains. Romish Ceremony of the Baptism of Bells. Remains of Glastonbury Abbey, the Scene of St. Dunstan's Miracles. The Emperor Henry IV. doing Penance at the Gate of the Pope's Palace. Marking the Foreheads of the People with Ashes on Ash- Wednesday. The Ceremony of Incensing a Cross. Two Kings leading the Pope's Horse at the Castle of Toici, in France. View of Lambeth Palace, near London. Doorway in the Lollards' Tower, an Apartment of the Palace. King John delivering up his Crown to the Pope's Legate. Emperor Barbarossa leading the Pope's Mule through St. Mark's Square. Count Raimond's degrading Penance — whipped around the Monk's Tomb. The Scapular, Rosary, Consecrated Wafer, Standards of Inquisition, etc. Procession of Corpus Christi at Rome. Colosseum, in the foreground. Wickliif rebuking the Mendicant Friars. The dead Body of a Pope lying in State. Jerome's Contrast. The Master and the Servant. Christ and the Pope. Burning of John Huss at Constance. Rome and St. Peter's from the Bridge of St. Angelo. Accident at Jubilee. The Pope as a Warrior. Pope Julius in Battle. The Pope as a God. Adored on the high Altar of St. Peter's. Tetzel selling Indulgences. Burning of Bibles by Romish Priests at Champlain, N. Y. Church of St. Peter's at Rome. Ceremony of the Degradation of a Priest previous to Martyrdom. Burning of Latimer and Ridley at Oxford. Cranmer's Renunciation of his Recantation, in St. Mary's Cburch, Oxford. Martyrdom of Cranmer— " This Hand hath sinned, this Hand shall suffer." Prison of the Inquisition, at Cordova, in Spain. Tortures of the Inquisition. Pulley, and roasting the Feet. Auricular Confession. Procession of Heretics condemned by the Inquisition to an Auto da Fe. Cruelties of the Popish Piedmontese Soldiery to the Waldenses. Children forcibly taken from their Parents to be brought up as Papists. Massacre of St. Bartholomew's, in Paris, in 1573. Fac-simile of Papal Medal in Honor of Massacre of St. Bartholomew's. Portrait of Pope Pius IX. ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. HISTORY OF ROMANISM. BOOK I.— POPERY IN EMBRYO.— Pkom the earliest coreuptions of Christianity to the papal supremacy, a. d. 606. Chapter I. — Christianity Primitive and Papal. PAGE {1. — Christ's kingdom not of this world, -....- 25 5 2. — Apostles despised all worldly honors, ...-•- 25 5 3. — Primitive and papal Christianity contrasted, ----- 26 5 4. — Purifying effect of pagan persecutions, ------ 26 5 6. — Popery a subject of prophecy. Tertullian quoted, - - - - 27 5 6. — The hindrance to the revelation of the "man of sin" removed in the time of the emperor Constantine, ------ 29 Chapter II. — Religion in alliance with the State. 5 7. — Supposed miraculous conversion of Constantine, - - - - 30 5 8. — Undertakes to remodel the government of the church. Dignity of the Patriarchs, &c., .-.- ----31 j 9. — Bishops of Rome. Spiritual assumption and tjrranny of Victor. First instance of pretended authority of Rome over other bishops, - 32 10. — Stephen, bishop of Rome, excludes St. Cyprian of Carthage, but the excommunication regarded as of no authority. Increasing wealth and pride of the bishops. Martin of Tours and the emperor Maximus, 33 Chapter III. — Steps toward papal Supremacy. {11. — Simple organization and government of the primitive churches, - 36 5 12. — Gieseler'a and Mosheim's account of the first changes in this primi- tive form. This change the first step toward Popery, - - - 36 { 13. — ^Another step toward papal supremacy. Council of Sardis, in 347, al- lows of appeals to Rome. Decision of Zosimus, in 415, in the case of an appeal, rejected by the African bishops, who refused to ac- knowledge the authority of the decree of Sardis, - - - 39 j 14. — Other steps. Law of Valentinian. Romish decretals. Council of Chalcedon, .--..-.---40 5 15. — ^Pavor of the different barbarian conquerors, ----- 42 ^ 16. — ^Willingness of the Roman pontiffs to conciliate them, by adopting heathen rites. Testimony of Robertson and HaUam, - - - 42 Chapter IV. — Divine right of supremacy claimed and disproved. ^ 17. A superiority of rank had been tacitly conceded by many to the bishop of Rome, on account of the importance of thaf city. After the fall of Rome, its bishops began to demand supremacy as a divine right, 44 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. FAOB. 5 18.— The claim examined. No proof that Peter was ever bishop of Rome, 44 1 19.— Nor if lie had been, that he was constituted by Christ supreme head of the church, '*° } 20.— Others more worthy, Paul, Peter, and John, and wherefore, - - 47 }21.— If Peter had been supreme, still no proof that the supremacy de- scended. Note. Uncertainty about the first bishops of Rome, - 48 Chapter Y.— Popery fully established.— The man cf sin revealed. 5 22. — Disgraceful and bloody struggles between rival pontiffs, - - - 60 { 23.— Contests between the bishops of Rome and Constantinople, for the title of Universal Bishop, - - -- - - ' -61 5 24.— Gregory's letter to the patriarch John, against the " blasphemous " title, 62 5 25. — His letters to the emperor Mauritius on the same subject. The title ob- tained by pope Boniface III., for himself and his successors, by the grant of the tyrant Phocas, A. D. 606, ... - - 53 } 26. — Henceforward the religion of Rome properly termed Popery, or the religion of the Pope, - - - -*- - - - - 6" Chapter VI. — Papal Supremacy. — The actors in its establishmeni. — The tyrant Phocas, the Saint Gregory, and the pope Boniface. 5 27. — Effect of the establishment of the papal supremacy, - - - 57 } 28. — Biography of the emperor Phocas, the author of the papal supremacy, 58 { 29. — His cruel massacre of the emperor Mauritius and five sons. His mur- der of the queen and daughters, -------58 5 30. — Gibbon's character of this blood-thirsty tyrant, - - - - 59 5 31-33. — Saint Gi-egory's flatteries of the tyrant Phocas, and joy at his suc- cess, on account of his favor to the Roman See, - - - - 60 5 34. — Boniface exercises his newly obtained supremacy. His decree de- claring all elections of bishops null and void, unless confirmed by the Universal Bishop, the Pope, ...... 64 BOOK II.— POPERY AT ITS BIRTH, A. D. 606.— Its DocxEraAL and ri- tual CHARACTER AT THIS EPOCH. Chapter I. — Romish errors traced to their origin. — Their early growth no argiir ment in their favor. 5 1. — The germs of popish errors of early date. No argument in their favor, 65 } 2. — Chillingworth's noble sentiment quoted, " The Bible only the religion of Protestants," .... .....gg 5 3. — Protestantism defined. Refuses to receive any doctrine upon the mere authority of tradition, ---..... gg \ 4. — Papists and Puseyites place the Bible and Tradition upon a level, - 67 Chapter II. — Origin of Romish errors continued. — Celibacy of the clergy. } 5. — Forbidding to marry a'mark of anti-Christ. Note : Is marriage a ne- cessary qualification for a minister ?- - - . . . 69 5 6. — ^Tortullian's extravagant praise of celibacy. Consequences of such notions, ...-.-.-...70 5 7. — Sensible remarks on this subject, by Clement of Alexandria, - - 71 5 8. — Cyprian's address to female devotees. Consecrating and crowning of Nuns, ..-.-...._. 71 j 9. — Second marriages prohibited to the clergy. Next step in the innovation, they are forbidden to marry at all,' after ordination, - - - 72 § 10. — ^Paphnutius, at the council of Nice, opposes this corruption, - - 72 ANALYTICAL TABLE OP CONTENTS. vii PAOB } 1 1 .— Chry sostom's singular explanation of the parable of the ten virgins, 76 !) 12. — Siricius, bishop of Rome, decrees the celibacy of the clergy, - . 77 5 13.— This doctrine plainly contrary to the New Testament. Note : The early Reformers, Vigilantius and Jerome, - 77 } 14. — Instances of primitive married clergymen, ----- 79 Chapter IU.~Origin of Romish errors continued. — Worship of the Virgin Mary. J 15. — Chrysostom's description of the sanctity of a professed virgin, - - 80 5 16.— Fanciful conceits in the fourth century, relative to the perpetual virgin- ity of Mary, 81 5 17.— Origin of the worship of the Virgin Mary. Sect of the Collyridians, 82 { 18 —Modern worship of the Virgin worse than that of the ancient heretics. Instances of this kind of modern idolatry, 82 } 19.— The idolatrous reverence of the Virgin accelerated by the Nestorian controversy, about the title " mother of God." Images of the Virgin. Note : Amusing anecdote of the emperor Constantine Copronymus, 86 5 20. — Festivals established in honor of the Virgin Mary, - ... 86 Chapter IV. — Origin of Romish errors continued. — Monkery. 521. — Monkery of heathen origin. Originated in Egypt, ... 87 5 22. — Resemblance between heathen and Christian anchorites, . . 88 { 23. — Early monks. Paul, Anthony, Hilarion, Martin of Tours, . . 88 5 24. — Gregory Nazianzen quoted. Syraeon, the pillar saint, - - - 89 5 25. — Monasteries and abbots, ---.-...90 5 26. — Exempted from the jurisdiction of bishops, and taken under the protec- tion of the popes. Thus become the tools of Rome. Instance of inhuman severity to a poor monk, by Gregory the Great, - - 91 5 27. — Monkish saints and their fabulous legends, ..... 92 Chapter V. — Origin of Romish errors continued. — Worship of saints and relics. ^ 28.— Invocation of saints grew up by degrees, from the reverence paid to mar- tjrrs. Relics enshrined in altars, ------ 93 5 29. — St. Ambrose's discovery of the bodies of two saints. Relics necessary, before a Romish church can be consecrated, - - - - 93 } 30. — Bodies of saints embalmed in Egypt. Churches dedicated to them, 94 531 . — Gregory Nazianzen's invocations to his departed father and St. Cyprian, 97 { 32. — Worship of images unknown to Christians in the fourth century. Let- ter of Epiphanius, --------- 93 5 33. — Pagan ceremonies imitated and adopted, ----- 93 { 34. — Frauds. Fictitious saints and relics. Bones of a thief reverenced as a saint, ---- 99 { 35. — Mount Soracte converted into a saint, ---.-. 100 ^ 36. — Ludicrous mistakes in saint-making. Saints Evodia, Viar, and Amphi. bolus, the name of a cloak. St. Veronica, .... 101 \ 37. — Two pernicious maxims arose. That it was lawful to deceive, and to persecute for the good of the church, - - - - - - 102 {38. — Praying at the sepulchres of the saints. Other superstitions, - - 105 } 39. — Increase of superstition in the sixth century. Purgatory, efficacy of relics, &c., 106 § 40. — St. Gregory's curious letter to the Empress, in reply to her request for the head of St. Paul. Wonderful prodigies, - - - - 107 }41. — St. Gregory exalts the merit of pilgrimages, inculcates Purgatory, &.c. First mention of Purgatory, ....... jog VIll ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAQB J 42.— With few exceptions, Popery at its birth, in 606, and Popery in its do- tage, in the nineteenth century, identical, Chaptee Y].— Striking resemblance between pagan and papal ceremonies.— The latter derived from the former. ^ 43.— The classical scholar cannot avoid recognizing the resemblance, - 109 H4.— Early adoption of these pagan ceremonies. This policy adopted ^7 Gregory Thaumaturgus, - § 46.— After Constantine, this sinful conformity to Paganism increased. Chris- tianized Paganism. Saying of Augustine, - - - - HI 5 46.— Dr. Conyers Middleton's visit to Rome. His object not to study Po- pery, but the pagan classics. Discovered that the best way to study Paganism, was to study Popery, which had been mostly copied from it, 112 1 47. — Instances of this conformity, - - - - " " " -113 (1.) — Worshipping toward the East, - - l^"* (2.) — Burning of incense, ^^^ (3.)_Use of holy water. Sprinkling of horses on St. Anthony's day, - 116 (4.) — Burning of wax candles in the day-time, - - - • - 121 (6.) — Votive gifts and offerings, -------- 121 (6.) — Adoration of idols or images, - - 123 (7.) — The gods of the Pantheon turned into popish saints, . . - 124 (8.) — Road gods and saints, 125 (•9.) — The Pope and the Pontifex Maximus, and kissing the Pope's toe, - 126 (10.) — Processions of worshippers and self-whippers, - - - - 127 (11.) — Religious orders of monks, nuns, &c., 128 5 48. — This conformity acknowledged by a Romish author. Hence the conclu- sion drawn that Popery is mainly derived from Paganism, - - 129 5 49. — St. Gregory instructs Augustin the monk, and Serenus, bishop of Mar- seilles, to favor the pagan ceremonies, 130 BOOK III.— POPERY ADVANCING.— From the establishment of the SPIRITUAL SUPREMAOT, A. D. 606, TO THE FOPE's TEMPOKAL SOVEREIGNTY, 756, AND TO THE CROWNING OF THE EMPEROR CHARLEMAGNE, 800. Chapter I. — Gradual increase of the papal power. — Darkness, superstition, and ignorance of this period. S 1. — The churches did not all immediately submit to the supremacy of the Pope, 133 5 2. — Election of the popes confirmed by the emperors or their viceroys, - 134 5 3. — Rival candidates for the popedom. Sergius pays the Exarch a hundred pounds of gold to secure his election, - - - - - - 135 S 4. — ^Means taken by the popes to enlarge their power. Pope Vitatianus appoints, by his own authority, Theodore as archbishop of Canterbury, 135 55. — Imyorteri; matters of dispute. Different modes of shaving heads, - 136 5 6. — Archbishop Theodore detained at Rome three months, to have his head shaved, ..- -- 139 8 7. The popes encourage appeals to their tribunal, by deciding in favor of the appellant. Instance. Appeal of Wilfred, bishop of York, - 139 5 8. — First instance of a pontiff requiring an oath of allegiance. Boniface, bishop of Germany, - - - 140 5 9. — Felix, archbishop of Ravenna, rejects the authority of the Pope, who, with the Emperor, inflicts upon him the most horrid cruelties. His eyes dug out, &c., --- 141 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix PAa2 5 10. — Origin of kissing the Pope's foot. Pope Constantine's visit to Constan- tinople. Favored by the emperor Justinian, - - . . 14] } 11. — Cruel character of this tyrant, ....... 143 ^ 12. — Ignorance and darkness of this age. Bishops unable to vi^rite, - 143 } 13. — Specimen of papal reasoning, to prove that monks are angels. St. Peter in person consecrating a church, ...... 144 514. — Specimen of the doctrine of this age. St. Eligius,- ... 144 515. — Rise of Mahometanism, ........ 145 Chapter n. — History of the Monothelite controversy. — Pope Honorius condemned as a heretic, by the sixth general council, A. D. 680. 5 16. — Origin of this controversy, 145 5 17. — Pope Honorius professes himself in favor of the doctrine of one will. The decree called the Echthesis, ...... 146 5 18. — ^Pope John IV. differs from his predecessor Honorius, and anathema. tizes the doctrine, - - - - - - - - -147 } 19-20. — ^Progress of the dispute, ........ 148 5 21. — Pope Theodore excommunicates Pyrrhus, and signs the sentence with the consecrated wine of the sacrament, - - - - - 149 } 22. — ^Pyrrhus restored to his dignity of patriarch of Constantinople, notwith- standing the Pope's anathema, . . - . . - .150 5 23. — Pope Martin seized and banished by the Emperor, - - . .150 {24. — Pope Eugenius and Vitalianus more moderate, - - . - 151 } 26. — ^Pope Honorius condemned at the sixth general council, for heresy. Monothelitism condemned, ....... 151 {26. — Lessons from this controversy. - - - - - - -152 (1.) — Popes careful to advance their authority, - - - . - 152 (2.) — Their authority not yet universally received, - . . - - 152 (3.) — Popes did not yet dare to anathematize and depose kings, - - 153 (4.) — ^Disproves papal infallibility. Note : Extracts from Bellarmine, &c., on infallibility, .....--..-153 Chapiek m. — Image-worship. — From the beginning of the great controversy on this subject, to the death of the emperor Leo, and of pope Chregory,both in the same year, A.D. 741. \ 27-28. — Opinions of the early fathers relative to image-worship, - - 154 { 29. — ^Paulinus adorns a church with pictures, A. D. 431, • - - 155 { 30. St. Gregory's opinion. Pope Constantine in 713, curses those who deny veneration to images, - - - - - - -156 531. — Commencement of the great controversy, in 726, - - - - 166 } 32. — Efforts of the emperor Leo to destroy image-worship. Insurrection in consequence of his decree in 730, - - - - - -157 } 33. — Pope Gregory's insulting letter to the emperor Leo, - - - 158 { 34. ^Revolt against the Emperor at Rome, in consequence of his decree against images, 169 { 35.— Letter of pope Gregory III., to Leo, 160 5 36. Gregory expends vast sums on images and relics at Rome. The Em- peror and the Pope both die, A. D. 741, 160 Chapter IV. Continitation of the controversy on Image-worship. — From the death of Leo and Gregory, A. D. 741, to the establishment of this idolatry, by the second general council of Nice, A. D. 784. { 37. — TJie emperor Constantme V. and pope Zachary, - - - - 161 2 X ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGK ) 38.— Image-worship condemned by the council at Constantinople, in 754, 162 5 39.— Crimes of the empress Irene, wife of the emperor Leo IV., - - 162 5 40.— Baronius justifies the torture or murder of her son, - - - - 163 541— She assembles the second council of Nice, in 784, which finally estab- lishes image-worship, {42. — ^Popish idolatry thus established by law, - - - - • - 164 Ca^^EK v.— The Pope finally becomes a Umporal sovereign, A. D. 766. i 43.— Rebellious tumults at Rome. Rome becomes a kind of republic under the Pope, ^^° s 44-46.— The Pope applies, in 740, to Charles Martel, for help against the Lombards, ^°° { 46. — Pope Zachary and Luitprand, king of the Lombards, - - - 167 547.— Pepin of France, with the approval and advice of Zachary, deposes his master Childeric, ^°' 5 48-49.— Rome in danger from Aistulphus, king of the Lombards, - - 167 { 50.— Succored by Pepin, who forces the Lombards to yield up the exarchate to the Pope, 169 S 51. — Aistulphus, after Pepin's return, refuses to deliver up the places to the Pope, 169 5 52. — Pope Stephen applies again to Pepin, ------ 170 1 53.— Forges a letter to Pepin from St. Peter in heaven, - - - - 171 5 54.— Pepin forces Aistulphus to keep his engagement with the Pope, who thus becomes a temporal monarch, A. D. 756, . - - - 171 CiLiPTER VI. — T%e confirmation and increase of the Pope's temporal power, to the coronation of Charlemagne, A. D. 800. 5 55. — Limits of the papal territories, ------- 174 5 56. — Enlarged by Charlemagne, .-- 174 5 57-58. — Charlemagne twice visits Rome, 175 5 59.— Crowned Emperor by the Pope, A. D. 800, 175 5 60-61. — Daniel's little horn and three horns or kingdoms plucked up by it. Final complete establishment of the independence of the papal states, 177 BOOK IV.— POPERY IN ITS GLORY.— THE WORLD'S MIDNIGHT.— Pkom the coeonation of Chaelemagne, a. D. 800, 10 the beginning of THE PONTIFICATE OF POPE HJXDEBRAND, OE GeEGOET VII., A. D. 1073. Chapter I. — Proofs of the darkness of this period. — Forged decretals. — Reverence for monks, saints, and relics. Worship of the Virgin. Purgatory. 51. — This period designated the dark ages, the iron age, &c. Lamentable ignorance, ...---.-.. 181 52. — False decretals. Pretended donation of Constantine. Extract from it, 182 5 3. — The world duped for centuries, by these forgeries. Gibbon quoted, 183 5 4. — Acknowledged by Baronius, Fleury, and other Romanists, to be forged. Opinions of Hallam, Mosheim, and Campbell, - - - - 184 5 6-6. — ^Increasing reverence for monks, relics, &c., .... 186 57-8. — Multiplication of new saints. Absurd legends of their lives, . 186 5 9. — The popes assume the exclusive privilege of saint-making, - - 187 5 10. — Increase of festivals or saints' days. Feast of All-Saints, - . 188 5 11. — Rosary of the Virgin. Absurd stories invented to do her honor. Speci- mens, ......--..- 189 } 12.— Fears of Purgatory. Feast of All-Souls, - - - - - 190 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi PAQK. Chapter IL — Proofs of the darkness of this period continued. — Origin and final establishment of TVansubstantiation. — Persecution of Berenger, its famous op- poser. — Popish miracles in its proof. tj 13. — Transubstantiation an insult to common sense. Stated in the words of its advocates, - - - - - - - - -192 {14. — ^First traces of the doctrine in 764. Tillotson quoted, - - - 193 { 15. — Paschasius Radbert in 931, first formally propounds this absurdity, - 193 \ 16. — ^Rabanus Maurus's treatise in opposition to it, A. D. 847. Quotation from it, 194 } 17-18. — The celebrated Berenger opposes Transubstantiation. His perse- cutions and death, in 1088, - - - - - - -196 5 19. — ^First made an article of faith, in the fourth council of Lateran, A, D. 1216. The decree quoted, 197 5 20. — Means by which the worship of the wafer idol was established. Pre- tended miracles of bees, asses, dogs, and horses worshipping it. Six specimens, as given by Romish writers, 198 521. — Cannibalism of the doctrine. Romish authors quoted showing why the consecrated wafer does not look like " raw and bloody flesh," 201 5 22. — " Lying wonders," a characteristic of anti-Christ, - - - - 202 { 23-24. — Horrid blasphemies of a pope and a cardinal. Creating God, the Creator of all things. The decree of Trent on Transubstantiation. Curses upon all who do not believe it, ----- - 203 Chapter IIL — Procfs cf the darkness of this period continued. — Baptism of bells, and Festival of the Ass. 5 25. — Baptism of bells first introduced by pope John XIII., in 972, - - 207 5 26-27. — Descriptions of this absurd ceremony at Montreal and Dublin, - 207 S 28. — Curious ancient description of bell-baptism from Philip Stubbes, a. d. 1682, 211 { 29. — Feast of the ass. Original and translation of the ode sung by the priests in honor of the ass, - - - - - - -213 Chapter IV. — Profligate popes and clergy of this period. 5 30. — Holy links in the unbroken chain of apostolic succession, - - 215 531. — John VIII., a monster of cruelty, - ....-- 216 s 32. Sergius III., the father of pope John XI., the bastard son of the harlot Marozia, .-- 217 s 33. John X. the paramour of the harlot Theodora, sister of Marozia, raised to the papal throne by her means, 217 5 34. — John XI. the bastard of pope Sergius III., ----- 217 s 35. John XII. nephew of John the bastard. His monstrous tyranny, de- bauchery, and cruelty, - - - - - - - -218 s 36. These facts admitted by Romanists. Baronius quoted, - - - 219 5 37, Attempts of Romanists to reconcile the profligacy of their popes with apostolic succession and papal infallibility. Father Gahan quoted. " Do all that they say, and not what they do," - - . . 220 A 38. ^Benedict IX. described by pope Victor III. as " a successor of Simon the sorcerer, and not of Simon the apostle." No doubt, true, but what becomes of the uninterrupted apostolic succession, - - 221 { 39.— The vices of the popes imitated by the inferior clergy, - - - 221 5 40. Concubines of the priests confessing to their paramours, - - 222 A 41. ^Priestly concubinage declared by Romanists a less crime than mar- riage, ■ 223 xii ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. FAeB ) 42-44.— Amidst all this profligacy, the power and influence of the popes in- creased. Accounted for by the ignorance of the Scriptures, the authority of the forged decretals, and donation of Constantine, and the awful terrors of excommunication and interdict, - - - 224 { 46.— The iron age of the world was the golden age of Popery. An im- portant truth taught by this fact, ...•-- 226 Chapter V. — Popery in England prior to the conquest. Augustinthe misswJiary, and Dunstan the monk. \ 46.— Primitive Welsh Christians refuse to submit to Popery, - - - 227 \ 47.— Augustin's reception in England by king Ethelbert. Ten thousand converts in a day, --------- 228 {48.— The ancient pagan temples of England converted into Christian churches with the same facility, by washing the walls with ftoZy water, and depositing relics in them, ------ 228 5 49. — Increase of popish superstitions. The Pope's cunning contrivance to raise a tribute in England, ..---•- 229 \ 50. — Odo, an archbishop of the school of Hildebrand, - - . • 230 \ 61.— Saint Dunstan, abbot of Glastonbury, pulls the devil's nose with red- hot tongs (!) and performs other wonderful miracles, - - - 230 5 52. — ^Description of the remains of Glastonbury Abbey, ... 231 } 63-54. — Dunstan is made archbishop of Canterbury, and works miracles to show the wickedness of marriage in the clergy, ... 232 } 55. — ^Dunstan pays a visit to Heaven, learns a song from the angels, and re- turns to teach it to his monks. His death in 988, ... 235 BOOK v.— POPERY THE WORLD'S DESPOT.— From the accession of POPE Gregory vn., A. D. 1073, to the death of Boniface vm., A. D. 1308. Chapter I. — The life and reign of pope Hildehrand or Cfregory VII. 5 1. — Hildebrand's influence at Rome before he became pope, ... 237 5 2. — Robert of Normandy persuaded to acknowledge himself a vassal of Rome, -.-----.... 238 5 3. — ^The decree confining the election of pope to the cardinals, - - 238 5 4. — ^Hildebrand chosen Pope. His inordinate ambition and tyranny, - 239 5 6. — ^His plans for a universal empire, with the Pope at the head, - - 240 § 6. — Commencement of his contest with the emperor Henry IV., - - 241 § 7. — ^Dispute about investitures with the ring and the crosier, - - 241 5 8. — Gregory threatens the Emperor with excommunication, - . . 243 5 9. — ^Executes his threats, and deposes him from the empire. Henry's ab- ject humiliation. He waits three days at the gate of the palace, where the Pope was, before he is granted the privilege of kissing the Pope's toe, ------... 243 j 10. — ^Henry renounces his submission, and is a second time excommuni- cated. Extracts from the Pope's anathema, .... 244 5 11. — Sequel of Henry's life. His own sons seduced to rebel against him, 247 5 12. — Unnatural conduct of his son Henry. Misfortunes and death of the unfortunate old Emperor, ----.... 248 Chapter II.— Li/e of Gregory VII. continued. Other instances of his tyranny and usurpation. } 13. — Pope Gregory claims Spain as belonging to St. Peter, ... 249 { 14. — His demand of Peter-pence in France. His claim of Hungary as the property of the Holy See, - . . . . . . 250 ANALYTICAL TABLE OP CONTENTS. xiii Faob. { 15. — Makes similar claims upon Corsica, Sardinia, Dalmatia, and Russia. Meets with less success in England than anywhere else, - - 251 5 16. — ^Maxims or Dictates of Hildebrand, - .... 263 { 17. — Question of their genuineness. The tyrannical doctrines of Hilde- brand advocated in the nineteenth century. This pope, Gregory VIL, still reverenced by papists as a Saint, .... 263 } 18. — ^The learned Deylingius's account of the gradual rise of papal power and tyranny, .......... 254 Chapter IIL — Pope Urban and the Crusades. } 19. — Rival popes, Victor, Clement, and Urban. Ceremony of sprinkling with ashes on Ash- Wednesday established by pope Urban. Incens- ing of crosses, ..... ... 266 { 20. — Pope Urban establishes the crusades at the council of Clermont in 1095, 269 Note. — Popular and wide-spread panic of the end of the world in the year 1000, 260 521. — Peter the hermit visits Palestine, and upon his return preaches the crusades,- .......... 261 5 22-23. — Eloquent speech of pope Urban in favor of the crusades, - . 262 5 24. — General enthusiasm of the people. Multitudes set out for Jerusalem, 263 5 25. — Efta;ts of the crusades in enriching the popes and the priesthood, - 264 { 26. — ^Vast quantities of pretended relics introduced from Palestine, - 265 Chapter IV. — Popery in England after the conquest. Archbishops Anselm and Thomas a Becket. { 27. — ^William of Normandy obtains the Pope's sanction of his intended in. vasion of England, who sends him as a token of his favor, a ring with one of St. Peter's hairs. (.') 266 { 28. — After William's conquest, Gregory requires him to do homage to him , for the kingdom of England, but king William refuses, . . 267 { 29. — Quarrel between archbishop Anselm and king William Rufus, - 268 5 30. — ^Honors to Anselm at Rome. The English required to kiss his toe, 268 5 31. — Anselm refuses to do homage to king Henry, the successor of William, 269 } 32. — Haughty claims of pope Pascal, and overbearing insolence of Anselm, 270 5 33. — Cardinal Crema, the Pope's legate in England, detected in gross licen- tiousness, .......... 271 5 34. — Cruel measures against the married clergy of England, ... 271 } 35. — Cruel persecution of some disciples of Arnold of Brescia. First in. stances of death for heresy in England, ..... 272 § 36. — King Henry II. of England, and Louis VII. of France, leading the Pope's horse, 273 { 37. — Commencement of the quarrel between king Henry and Thomas a Becket. The Pope releases the Saint from the obligation of his oath to submit to the laws of England against clerical criminals, 274 { 38. — ^Becket refuses to obey a summons to the King's court. He is tried and found guilty by the Parliament, but refuses to submit, . - 277 1 39. — ^Declines the jurisdiction of the King and barons, and appeals to the Pope, 278 5 40. — The death and canonization of Becket. Pilgrimages to the tomb of the Saint, 279 Chapter V. — Popery in England continued. Pope Innocent and king John. J 41. ^Innocent III. treads in the steps and acts upon the maxims of Gregory VIL, 279 xiv ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAoa 5 42.— Orders an episcopal palace to be demolished which was being erected at Lambeth, in London. The King, terrified by the thunders^ of ^^^ Rome, unwillingly obeys, .----■"" 5 43.— The palace is subsequently erected. Description of Lambeth palace ^^^ and Lollard's tower, - h 44.— Pope Innocent orders Stephen Langton to be chosen archbishop of Canterbury, which gives rise to the dispute with king John, - ^o-s 6 45.— The Pope endeavors to reconcile king John to this usurpation by a present of four golden rings. The King's angry letter to the Pope, 2Sa { 46.— Innocent lays England under an interdict. Fearful consequences of ^^^ this sentence, -------■"" 5 47.— Insolence of the Pope's legate to the King. Papal sentence of depo- sition against John, ..------" 5 48 —The Pope invites king Philip of France to invade and conquer Eng- land. King John's abject submission. Yields up his crown on his knees to the legate Pandulph, and receives it back as a vassal ot the Pope, "^^ 5 49. —Copy of John's deed of surrender of England to the Pope, - - 291 8 50.— Henceforward king John an obedient vassal of the Pope. Innocent's thunders of excommunication against the barons of England, - 291 Chapter VI. More instances of papal despotism. Popes Adrian IV., Alexander III. and Innocent III. } 51.— Contest between the Pope and the empire renewed. Adrian IV. and Frederick Barbarossa, 293 } 52.— Frederick's submission to pope Alexander HI. Leads the Pope's horse in St. Mark's Square, Venice, - - 294 J 63-56. — Instances of the tyranny of Innocent III. toward several of the sovereigns and nations of continental Europe, - - - 294-298 Chaptek Vn. — The Waldenses and Albigenses. i 57. — These spiritual tyrants could brook no opposition. Hence their perse- cution of the Waldensian heretics. Testimony of Evervinus, one of their persecutors, relative to their character and doctrine, - 299 5 58-59. — Similar testimony of Bernard, Claudius, and Thuanus, - - 301 6 60-61. Bloody decree of pope Alexander III., and the third council of Lateran, for exterminating these heretics, 302 { 62. — Burning of Waldenses. Thirty-five in one fire, .... 304 s 63. The church of Rome responsible for these butcheries. Another bloody edict of pope Lucius III. 304 h 64. ^The emperor Frederick's cruel decrees issued to oblige the Pope. The priest the judge, and the king the hangman, .... 305 I Chapter VIII. — Pope Innocents bloody crusade against the Albigenses, under his Legate, the ferocious abbot of Citeaux, and Simon, earl of Montfort. ' } 65. — ^Emissaries of the Pope dispatched to preach the crusade against the 1 heretics, throughout Europe. Specimen of their texts and sermons, 307 } 66. — Raimond VI., count of Thoulouse, unwilling to engage in exterminat- ing his heretical subjects. Excommunicated in consequence, - 307 S 67. — Innocent's fierce letter to Raimond. The Legate killed in a quarrel with one of Raimond's friends, ....... 308 5 68. ^Pope Innocent's bulls. No faith with heretics. Indulgences for those who would engage in the crusades against the Waldenses, . 309 S 69. — Count Raimond submits and seeks absolution from the Pope, . - 310 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. ' xv 5 70. — His degrading penance. Whipped on the naked shoulders in a church by tlie Pope's legate. Siege of Beziers, ----- 313 5 71. — The taking of Beziers. Inhuman cruelty of the Pope's legate. Sixty thsusand killed, and not a human being — man, woman, or child — left alive, 314 5 72. — Roger, the young count of Beziers, treacherously entrapped by the Pope's legate. He dies in prison, probably of poison, - - 315 5 73. — The inhabitants of Carcassone escape from the popish butchers through an underground passage. Horrible cruelty of Montfort, 316 5 74. — Menerbe taken by the papists, and the inhabitants slaughtered. One hundred and forty burnt in one fire, -317 { 75. — Lavaur taken, and the heretics burnt (in tne words of the popish his- torian), " with the utmost joy," - - - - - - - 319 5 76. — Sixty more heretics at Cassoro burnt " with infinite joy," - - 319 5 77. — The bloody crusades against the Albigenses prove that the right to ex- tirpate heresy and to put heretics to death, is properly a doctrine of the unchangeable Roman Catholic church, ... - 320 § 78. — Proofs that the Romish church claims the right of dissolving oaths, and instances of its exercise, - - - - - - - 321 5 79. — Unjust slanders against the Albigenses. If true, the Pope had no right to send his armies to invade their country and butcher them, 322 Chapter IX. — Establishment of the Mendicant Orders. Saint Dominic and Saint Francis. 5 80. — Profligacy of the orders of the monks and nuns, .... 323 { 81. — Contrast between their character and the holy lives of the teachers of the Waldensian heretics, even according to the confession of their enemies, ..--...-.-• 323 5 82. — Hence Innocent HI. encourages the establishment of Mendicant Orders, who, by their austerity and sanctity, might rival the heretical doctors, ....----... 324 5 83. — Dominicans and Franciscans. Life of St. Dominic, the inventor or the first inquisitor-general of the holy Inquisition, .... 324 5 84. — Extravagant stories of Dominic's pretended miracles, ... 325 5 85. — Dominicans, great champions of the Virgin. Marvellous Dominican miracles of the Virgin and the Rosary, . . - - . 326 5 86. — Life of St. Francis, founder of the Franciscans, the " Seraphic Order," 329 5 87. — ^Rapid and vast increase of the Franciscans, . - - - - 329 J 88. — Pretended miracles of St. Francis. The holy stigmas, or wounds of Christ, inflicted upon the Saint by the Saviour himself. This hor- rible imposture still commemorated as a fact in the Roman Catholic church. Day of its commemoration, according to the Romish calen- dar, September 17th, 330 5 89. — Prodigious influence acquired by the Mendicant Orders, - - - 330 Chapter X. — The Fourth council of Lateran decrees the extermination of here- tics, Transubstantiation, and Auricular Confession. 590. — Fourth council of Lateran held A. D. 1215. Bestow the dominions of the unfortunate count Raimond upon the bloody Montfort, on ac- count of the tardiness of the Count in exterminating heretics, - 331 }91. — Decree of the Pope and council commanding princes, under heavy penalties, to exterminate heretics. Extract from this bloody edict of the highest legislative authority in the Romish church, - - 332 } 92. — Auricular confession once a year decreed by this council. Priestly solicitation of females at confession, 333 xvi ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE. S 93.— Inquiry in Spain relative to tlje solicitation and seduction of females by popish priests at confession. Females commanded, under penalty of the Inquisition, to lay informations. Inquiry hushed up, on ac- count of the immense number of criminals. One hundred and twenty days consumed in the city of Seville alone in taking rnior- ^^^ matipns from females, '''''''( 5 94.— In this council also, Transubstantiation first decreed as an article of faith. In after ages, this was the great fturreiMg- article, - - •sa/ {95.-Worship of the host, or wafer. Origin of the festival of^ Corpus ^^^ Christi, ---■"'■"*" 696.— Manner of its celebration in popish countries. Spain, Italy. Vio- lence to an American stranger in Rome for not bowmg the knee to ^^^ the idol, -------■*"■ Chapter Xi.— Contest between the popes and the emperor Frederick II. Guelphs and Ghibelines. 6 97.— Honorius IH. succeeds Innocent III. The Isle of Man ceded to the Pope, and received back as a fief of the Holy See, - - - 342 J 98. — Frederick's successful expedition to Palestine, . - - - 342 S 99.— Pope Gregory IX. makes war on his dominions in his absence. Fred- erick's reprisals on his return. He is excommunicated, - - 343 5 100-101. — ^Innocent IV. at the council of Lyons in 1245, pronounces a sen- tence of deposition against the Emperor, and absolves his subjects from their allegiance. Frederick's death, and the unbounded joy of the Pope, 344 { 102.— Successors of Innocent IV. The quarrel continued by Frederick's son, Manfred, king of the two Sicilies. Pope Urban invites Charles, count of Anjou, to conquer from Manfred the kingdom of Sicily, 345 J 103. Amusing instance of the care which the Pope took of his own per- sonal interest in the agreement with Manfred, - - - - 346 J 104. — Defeat and death of Manfred, and conquest of Sicily by Charles, who murders the youthful Conradin, nephew of Manfred, - - 347 ^ 105. — Sicily delivered from the dominion of Charles and the French by the popular outbreak and massacre called the Sicilian Vespers, - 347 J 106. — The council of Lyons in 1274, decrees the election of Pope in coji- clave of the cardinals, .-..--.- 348 { 107. — Horrible profligacy of Henry, bishop of Liege, .... 348 J 108. — Pope Gregory X. threatens the German princes unless they imme- diately choose an emperor, to do it for them. Note: Annals of Baronius and Raynaldus, ........ 349 § 109. — Under pope Nicholas in., the Papal States become entirely inde- pendent of the empire, about A. D. 1278, ..... 350 { 110. — ^Pcpe Martin IV. excommunicates the emperor of Constantinople and I)on Pedro, king of Arragon. The latter treats the papal thunders with derision. The terror of these spiritual weapons, since the successful resistance of the emperor Frederick, gradually declining, 860 5111. — ^Pope C lestine the hermit. Rare spectacle. A good man for a Pope. Soon persuaded to resign as unfit for the office, . . 361 5112-113. — Cardinal Benedict Cajetan, who had been chief in persuading Celestine to resign, succeeds him as Boniface VIII. His dispute with Philip the Fair, king of France, 352 {114. — ^Pope Boniface's lordly arrogance. Extract from the hull Unam Sanctam, .......... 353 5 116. — ^Boniface excommunicates Philip. The Pope, arrested by Nogaret, dies of rage and vexation, - 354 ANALYTICAL TABLE OP CONTENTS. xvii PAOS } 116. — Sensible decline of the papacy from the death of pope Boniface VIIL Eloquent extract, on this subject, from Hallam, - - . . 354 Chapter XIL — Purgatory, Indulgences and Romish Jubilees. 5 1 17. — ^Establishment of the Jubilee by Boniface VIII. Inquiry on the Ro- mish doctrine of Indulgences, 356 5 118. — ^Unknown to the ancients. Proved by extracts from Alphonsus, Poly- dore Virgil, and cardinal Cajetan, --.... 35fj 5 119. — Indulgences dependent for all their importance on the fiction of Pur- gatory, 357 {120,121. — Origin of the purgatorian fiction. Augustine, Gregory, - - 358 \ 122. — ^Visit of Drithelm to Purgatory. Horrible descriptions, - - 361 5 123. — Indulgences grafted on Purgatory, 361 } 124. — Works of Supererogation, ----.... 362 5 126-7. — ^Wholesale Indulgences at Jubilee of Boniface, &c. Other Jubi- lees, -- 363 BOOK VI.— POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— Feom the death OF Boniface VIII., A. D. 1303, to the commencement of the council of Trent, A. D. 1545. Chapter I. — The residence of the Popes at Avignon, and the great Western Schism. 5 1-3. — Decline of the power of the Popes, after Boniface VIII., - - 367 5 4.— The Avignon Popes. Saint Catherine. ---... 369 5 6-9. — Occasion of great Western Schism. Election of two rival popes. Urban VI. and Clement VII. Consequences of this schism, - 370 {10. — Council of Pisa elects a third pope, Alexander v., - - - 373 { 11-12. — Fierce and bloody contests. John Huss writes against pope John's bull of crusade against Ladislaus, --.... 374 { 13. — Council of Constance deposes the rival popes and elects Martin V., 376 Chapter II. — Wickliff the English reformer. The condemnation of his works, and the huming of his hones by order of the council of Constance. { 14-16.— Life and labors of Wickliff, 376 { 17. — His translation of the New Testament. Specimen, - - . 38O { 18-19. — The hatred of the papists to an English bible. Wickliff's bold protestations on behalf of the Scriptures, . - . . . 353 { 20-22. — The council of Constance order his bones to be dug up and burnt. Execution of the sentence, ..-.-.. 386 Chapter HI. — John Huss of Bohemia. His condemnation and martyrdom hy the council of Constance. 5 23, 24. — Early life of Huss. Reads Wickliff's writings, ... 387 { 26-26. — Gives himself to his destined work. Wickliff's writings burnt in Bohemia. Prague laid under an interdict by John XXIII., on ac- count of Huss, who solemnly appeals to Jesus Christ, - . 389 { 27. — His pious letters, and presentiment of martyrdom, - - . . 390 { 28. — Jerome of Prague unites with Huss in the work of reform, - - 391 { 29, 30.— Their opposition to indulgences and the Pope's bull of crusade. Tumult at Prague, 392 { 31. — ^Huss writes against the rival popes. The Six Errors, &c., - . 396 { 33-40. — Goes to the council of Constance. Safe-conduct of the Emperor xviii ANALYTICAL TABLE OP CONTENTS. TAOB treacherously violated ; and Huss imprisoned, condemned, degraded and burnt, .....---- 399-404 Chapter TV.— Jerome of Prague at the council of Constance. His condemnation and martyrdom. } 41. — Jerome sets out for Constance, but flees in alarm and is arrested, - 407 { 42-44. — He is cruelly imprisoned and recants ; but soon renounces his re- cantation, and courageously professes his faith before the council, 407 { 45. — Contends for the supreme authority of the Scriptures, . - - 410 { 46-48.— Sentenced by the council and burnt, 410 5 49. — Copies of the decrees of the council establishing the doctrine of no faith with heretics, - - - - - - - - -41 3 } 50. — The same doctrine openly avowed by pope Martin V., ... 414 {51,52. — Close of the council. The members rewarded with induZg-ences. Denial of the cup to the laity, . - - - - - 415 Chapter V. — Popery and the Popes for the century preceding the Reformation. 5 53. — Pope Martin V. His pompous titles, 417 5 54-56. — Pope Eugenius IV. His violent dispute with the council of Basil, 418 } 57, 58. — Jubilee of 1450. Capture of Constantinople, . - - - 420 { 59, 60. — Pope Pius IL (JDneas Sylvius) proposes to go to the aid of the eastern Christians against the Turks. His change of views on the supreme authority of the Pope, ...... 420 5 61,62. — Pope Innocent VIII. and his seven bastards. His cruel edict against the Waldensian heretics, ...... 425 6 63, 64. — Pope Alexander VI. the devil's master-piece. His horrible profligacy and miserable death by poison he had prepared for another, - - 426 5 65 America discovered and given, by a papal bull, to the Spaniards, - 428 5 66-68. — Pope Julius a warrior. Absolves himself from his oath. His quarrel with Louis XII. of France and with the council of Pisa, 429 {69-71. — Leo X. and the fifth council of Lateran. Laws against the free- dom of the press, and enjoining the extirpation of heretics, . 434 Chapter VI. — The Reformation — Luther and Telzel. The reformer's war against indulgences. \ 72, 73. — Indulgences the occasion of the Reformation. Tax book for sins, 436 \ 74-77. — Tetzel, and his mode of peddling indulgences. Incidents, - 439 } 78, 79. — Luther opposes indulgences. His celebrated theses, - - 445 \ 80. — Tetzel bums Luther's theses, and the Wittemberg students bum his, 447 \ 81, 82. — Luther's Solutions, and letter to pope Leo X., - . - - 448 Chapter Vn. — Luther and Cajetan. The nxMe constancy of the reformer. \ 83. — Leo commissions Cajetan to reduce Luther to submission, - - 451 5 84. — Leo writes to the elector Frederick, to persuade him to withdraw his protection from Luther. Arrival of Melancthon at Wittemberg, 452 585-91. — Luther goes to Augsburg, and appears before cardinal Cajetan. His constancy and courage in defending the truth, and return to Wittemberg, after ten days, 462 Chapter \m..— Luther strikes at the throne of anti-Christ. The breach made irreparable. 5 92.— The legate, Charles Miltitz. Luther reads the decretals, and gradually discovers that the Pope is anti-Christ, 459 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. xix PAOS. J 93. — Disputes with Eck, at Leipsic, on the pope's primacy, ... 46O 5 94-96. — Ulric Zwingle tries to befriend Luther. Pope Leo's bull against Luther, who burns it, with the Decretals, at Wittemberg, - - 461 j 97. — Luther finally excommunicated as an incorrigible heretic. Aleander the papal legate burns his books, but is not permitted by the Elector to burn him, 463 Chapter IX. — Luiher at the Diet of Worms, and in his Paimos at Wartburg. 5 98. — Aleander, the papal legate's efforts against Luther at Worms, - 465 5 99, 100. — Luther's courage in going to Worms, and his constancy when there, 466 5 102-104. — His constrained retreat to his Patmos at Wartburg. Translates the New Testament. His return to Wittemberg. His peaceful death, 468 { 105, 106. — Loyala the founder of the Jesuits. Popish parallel with Lu- ther, . 472 BOOK VIL— POPERY AT TRENT.— From the openinc session of the COUNCIL OF Trent, A. D. 1545, to the closingj session, A. D. 1563. Chapter I. — The first four sessions. Preliminaries, and decree upon the author- ity of Tradition and the Apocrypha. 5 1, 2. — Opening of the council about two months before Luther's death. The Pope's opposition to measures of reform, - . - . 475 5 3-5. — The three first sessions. Cardinal de Monte, President, - . 477 5 6. — The fourth session. Tradition placed on a level with Scripture, - 478 5 7, 8. — The Apocryphal books inserted in the Scriptures. Proofs that they are not inspired, ......... 480 Chapter IL — Fourth session continued. Latin Vulgate exalted above the inspired Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. Private judgment and liberty of the press for- bidden, and a popish censorship of the press established. 5 9. — Decree on the Latin Vulgate. Its numerous errors. Dr. Jahn quoted, 485 5 10. — Two editions of the "Vulgate published by popes Sixtus and Clement, both declared infallible, and yet 2000 variations between them. . 487 5 11, 12. — Decrees against private judgment and liberty of the press, . 488 J 13. — Protestants indignant at these decrees. Congregation of the Index, 490 5 14. — The famous ten rules adopted by the council concerning prohibited books, describing the kinds of books prohibited, the examination of bookseller's shops by popish inquisitors, and the punishments of ex- ercising the liberty of the press, ...... 491 { 16. — Names of some authors prohibited. Copy of a papal license granted to Sir Thomas More, to read heretical books (note), ... 497 Chapter III. — Original sin and Justification. % 16. The fifth session. Decrees on original sin and Justification, . . 499 * 17. — Christ's work made a stepping-stone for human merit. Extracts from Romish prayer books, - - - - - - - -501 « 18. Extract from Tyndal. Experience of Luther on Justification, . 602 Chapter IV. — The Sacraments and the doctrine of Intention. Baptism and Con- firmation. s 21. Seventh session. Decree on the Sacraments in general, - - 605 5 22-24. — ^Doctrine of Intention. Its absurdity. Defects in the Mass, - 606 XX ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. FAoa Chapter V. — Suspension of the Council in 1549, and resumption under pope Julius III. in 1551. Decree on Transubsianiiation. i 26, 26. — Council adjourned to Bologna. Suspended. Death of pope Paul III., and choice of De Monte, the legate, a notorious Sodomite, as Julius m., 511 }27 28. — Council resumed. Thirteenth session. Decree on Transubstan- tiation, - 612 Chapter VI. — Of Penance, Auricular confession, Satisfaction, and Extreme Uno tion — to the second suspension in April, 1552. } 29. — Fourteenth session. Decrees on Penance and Auricular confession. 514 h 30, 31. — Indecency of female confession. Questions from " Garden of the Soul," 615 } 32, 33. — Insult to a female at confession. Confessing sick ladies at Rome, 618 } 34. — Confession declared necessary to salvation. Bigotry and tyranny, 621 { 35. — Decree on Satisfaction. Penitents redeeming themselves, - - 522 j36. — False translations. "Doing penance" for "repent." Bordeaux Tes- tament (note'), -...--.--. 622 537,38. — ^Decree on Extreme unction. Adjournment April 28th, 1652, - 624 . Chapter VII. — From the seventeenth to the twenty-fifth and closing session. De- nial of the cup to the laity. The Mass. Sacraments of Orders and Matri- mony. Purgatory, Indulgences, Relics, dj-c. §39-41. — The council re-opened January 8th, 1562. Eighteenth to twen- tieth session, .---...... 526 } 42. — Twenty-first session. Decree on refusing the cup to the laity, - 627 } 43, 44. — Twenty-second session. Decree on the Mass and use of Latin tongue, 628 } 46. — Twenty-third session. Decree on the sacrament of Orders, - - 580 § 46. — Twenty-fourth session. Decree on the sacrament of Matrimony, - 631 J 47. — Twenty-fifth session. Decrees on Purgatory, Indulgences, Relics, &c., -- 532 Chapter VHI. — Conclusion of the Council. Acclamations of the Fathers, and pope Pius's creed. 5 48. — ^Decree of Confirmation of the Decrees, 535 }49 — Acclamations of the Fathers. Curses on all heretics, ... 535 { 60. — ^Pope Pius's creed, containing a summary of the decrees of Trent, 537 }61. — According to this creed, Leighton, Baxter, Nevins, Payson, Milnor, &c., all now in Hell, ........ 539 BOOK Vni.— POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS.— Persecutions of Popery to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes A D 1686. ' ' ■ Chap. I. — Persecution proved from decrees of general councils and writings of celebrated divines to be an essential doctrine of Popery. { 1.— Ingenious cruelties of Popery. Fifty million victims, . . - 541 { 2. — Decrees of general councils, enjoining persecution, .... 542 \ 3.— Citations from Aquinas, Dens and Bellarmine defending persecution, 546 } 4.— Popery unchangeable. Charles Butler quoted. Peter Dens teaches that heretics should be put to death. Rhemish testament {note), 648 ANALYTICAL TABLE OP CONTENTS. xxi Chapter II. — Sufferings of the English protestants urukr Bloody Queen Mary. The burning of Latimer, Ridley, Cranmer, c{-c. 5 S. — Number of Victims. 288 burned alive by Bloody Mary, - - - 549 i 6-9. — Latimer and Ridley. Ceremony of degradation. Martyrdom, - 660 5 10-13. — Cranmer. His recantation, renunciation of that recantation, noble dying testimony, and martyrdom, 556 { 14. — Last band of martyrs. Death of Mary, and joy of the people, - 662 { 16. — Grief of pope Paul IV., at the death of his " faithful daughter" Mary. Copy of his Bull, excommunicating and deposing queen Elizabeth, 663 Chapter III. — The Inquisition. Seizure of the Victims. Modes of Torture, and celebration of the Auto da Fe. \ 16. — The masterpiece of popish cruelty. Pollock's description, - - 567 \ 17-19. — Apprehension of the victims. Different kinds of tortures, - 668 { 20-22. — Auto da fe. Procession of the victims, Dresses, the caroza, san benito, &c. Great burning. Joy of the people, ... 674 Chapter IV. — Inhuman Persecutions of the Waldenses. 5 23. — Cruelties on the Waldenses in the valley of Pragela, A. D. 1400, - 579 5 24, 26. — Similar outrages in the valleys of Loyse and Frassiniere, under pope Innocent VIII., &c., - - 580 5 26. — Horrible cruelties on the Waldenses of Calabria, .... 681 5 27, 28. — Waldenses of Piedmont. Interference of Oliver Cromwell. Mil- ton's Sonnet. Sufferers of Mount Cenis, - - - . - 685 Chapter V. — Persecutions in France. Massacre of St. Bartholomew, and Revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes. 529-31. — Massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572. Numbers slain, - - 587 5 32. — Joy of the Pope and cardinals at the news. Procession at Rome to return thanks to God for the extirpation of heretics. Medal struck in honor of the event. Recent issue of that medal at Rome, - 590 533. — Tolerating edict of Nantes in 1598. Revocation by Louis XIV. in 1 685, at the instance of his Jesuit confessor, - . - - 593 5 34. — Cruelties consequent upon the revocation. Dragoonading, . - 594 5 35. — The galleys. Popery loves to persecute the holiest men, - . 594 { 36-38. — Proofs. Extracts from letters of Le Febvre, MaroUes, and Mauru, 595 5 39. — Fiendish cruelty to a mother and her babe, 597 5 40. — Pope's letter applauding Louis for persecuting the heretics, - . 598 BOOK IX.— POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE.— From the Revocation or the Edict of Nantes, A. D. 1685, to the present time, A. D. 1846. Chapter I. — The Jesuits. Their missions. Their suppression, revival, and pre- sent position. {1. — Early Jesuit missions. College De Propaganda, &c., ... 599 { a — Temporizing policy. Adoption of Heathen ceremonies, - - - 600 5 3. — The Jansenists. Pascal and Father Quesnel, - . - - . 601 { 4. — The Jesuits, notorious assassins of sovereigns, .... 602 5 5, 6. — Their suppression in various countries, and final abolition of the order by pope Clement XIV., 604 57. — ^Revival of the order by pope Pius in 1814. Jesuits' oath, - - 605 Chapter II. — The persecuting and intolerant spirit of Popery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. { 8 9. — Persecutions in the Cevennes. Cruel death of Boeton, - - 606 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. FAOB 510, 11.— StU later persecutions. Desubaa in 1746, Rochette in 1762, . 607 } 12.— Efforts of the French priests to revive the persecution so late as 1772. French Revolution, ^"^ { 13.— Last victim of the Inquisition in Spain. Inquisition still in Rome, 609 5 14.— Ra&ele Ciocci. Popery still a wolf, though in the skin of a lamb, 610 5 15.— Public burning of Bibles at Champlain, N. Y., in 1842, - - 612 5 16. — A woman condemned to death for heresy in 1844, . - - 613 5 17. — Persecution part of the system of Popery. Bishop's oath, - - 615 5 18, 19. — Annual cursing and excommunication of all the classes of heretics on Maunday Thursday, by the Pope, &c., - - - - 616 Chaiter ni. — Popery unchanged. Modem documentary evidence of its hatred to liberty of opinion, separation of church and state, freedom of the press, and a translated Bible. 5 20. — A Romish author cited on the unchangeableness of Popery, - - 618 521.— Popery still opposed to freedom of thought. Pope Gregory's bull of 1832 cited, 619 ^ 22. — Opposed also to separation of church and state, political liberty, &c. Quotations, -- 619 5 23. — Still opposed to liberty of the press. Quotation, - - - - 620 5 24, 25. — To the Bible in the vulgar tongue. Pope Pius quoted in 1816, Gre- gory in 1844, 621 \ 26, 27. — No Bibles allowed without popish notes. Burning of Catholic testaments because without notes, in South America, - - 624 Chapter IV. — Popery as it now is. Testimony of eye-witnesses. Its modem pious frauds and pretended miracles. 5 28. — Unchanged in its grovelling superstitions and lying wonders, - 626 5 29. — Interesting letter from a recent traveller on the continent and in Rome, 626 5 30. — Parallel between Popery and modern Heathenism by Rev. E. Kincaid, 627 531. — Miracle of liquefying the blood of St. Januarius, - ... 629 5 32. — The holy house at Loretto. Flight through the air from Nazareth (!), holy yornng"er and all (! !). ....... 630 5 33. — The miraculous virgins of the Tyrol exhibited in 1841 with the wounds of Christ. The Adolorata and Ecstatica, .... 630 5 34. — Virgin Mary weeping. The imposture detected, ... 631 {35. — The miraculous medal of 1830, and its wonders, - ... 632 Chapter V. — Recent events. Discontent in Italy. Puseyism. The holy coat, and the priest Ronge. Jesuits in Switzerland. Statistics. Conclusion. { 36. — Spirit of liberty in the Papal States. Pope's dread of it, - . 633 { 37. — Puseyism in Oxford. Pleasing to the Pope, .... 634 5 38-39. — Movement in Germany. Imposture of the Holy Coat at Treves in 1844. Fearless expostulation of John Ronge. A new Church, 635 { 40-41 . — Recent proceedings of the Jesuits in Switzerland, - - . 639 5 42. — Popish missions to the United States, &c. Sums expended, . 641 543. — Statistics of Popery in America, - . 642 5 44. — Designs of the Pope and his adherents in America, ... 643 5 45. — Statistics of Popery in Britain. Maynooth college, ... 644 5 46. — Total of Romanists throughout the world. Popery is in its Dotage, 644 !j 47. — Concluding remarks. The Pope is anti-Christ. Authors who have believed this, ..---.....646 { 48.— Probably some of God's people in the Romish Babylon. All exhorted to come out of her, - 6.^7 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. xxiii PAGE. First Supplement commences, - - - - - - -651 § 1. — State of the Country under Pope Gregory XVL, _ . . 649 § 2. — Reforms demanded by the Italian People, - - . . . 650 § 3. — Character of Pope Gregory, 051 § 4. — Curious History of the Pope's Barber, ------ 052 § 5. — Pope Gregory's Death and Funeral Ceremonies, . - - . 055 § 6. — Ceremonies of a Pope's Election, ------- 655 § 7.— Election of Pius IX., 656 § 8.— Early Life of the new Pope, 659 § 9. — The first Reforms. Suppression of the Secret Tribunal, etc., - 659 § 10. — Proclamation of the Amnesty for Political Offenders, . - - 660 § 11. — The Pope encourages Railroads, dismisses Gregory's Police, etc., - 661 §12. — Swiss Soldiers dismissed. Press partially liberalized. Jews relieved, 661 § 13.— Visit of the Peasant Guidi to the Pope, 662 § 14.— The Soldier's bad Bread, 663 § 15.^0pposition of Austria to the Pope's Reforms, - - . - 663 § 16. — Conspiracy of the Anniversary of the Amnesty, - - - - 664 I If. — The Austrian Invasion of the Papal States, and Seizure of Ferrara, 665 I 18. — The Pope's Reforms as a Prince no Guarantee for Reforms as a Priest, 666 § 19. — Pius IX. no Protestant Pope, Romanists being Witnesses, - - 667 § 20. — The Pope's Political Reforms dictated by Policy alone, - - - 668 § 21. — Pius IX. no Republican. His Royal Speech, . - - . 668 § 22.— The Pope's Proclamation, 670 §28. — Effects in Italy of the French Revolution of 1848, - - - -671 § 34. — Outlines of the Constitution granted to his Subjects by the Pope, - 673 § 25. — This Constitution examined. Power vested in Pope and Cardinals, 674 I 26. — "War with Austria. The Pope's Opposition, - . . . 676 § 37. — Intense Excitement in Rome. Pius IX. almost deposed, - - 677 § 28.— The Pope's love of Popery stronger than his Patriotism, - - 678 § 29.— Flight of the Pope from Rome, 682 § 30.— Consequences of the Pope's Flight, 686 § 31.— Manifestoes of Pius IX., 688 § 32.— Proclamation of the Roman Republic, 689 § 33.— Exposure of the Horrors of the Roman Inquisition, - - - 691 I 34. ^Effect of the Pope's Expatriation upon the Catholic World, - -696 § 35.— The Pope's Appeal to foreign Powers, - - - - - - 698 §36. The Appeal of the Roman Patriots to France and England, - -710 § 37._Response to the Pope's Appeal. Invasion of the French, - -703 § 38.— The French beaten by the Romans, 705 § 39.— French Treachery. The Sunday Battle, 707 § 40.— Rome taken by the French, - - - 709 I 41.— Rejoicings at Gaeta, and the Pope's Address to the Romans, - - 710 I 42. — The Pope's Entry into Rome, ------- 711 § 43. Blow to the Papal Power in Sardinia. The Siccardi Law, - - 713 § 44. The Pope's Address to his Cardinals, - 716 § 46.— Condition of Rome since the Pope's Restoration, - - - - 721 § 46.— The Bible in Rome and Italy, 726 I 47.— Imprisonment and Banishment of Count Guicciardini, - - - 729 xxiv ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAQEi § 48. — Trial and Suffering of Francesco and Rosa Madiai for Bible-reading, 730 § 49. — Earl Roden's Interview with Madiai. Lord John Russell's Letter, - 736 § 50. — The Pope's Concordat the Cause of these Persecutions, - - - 744 § 51.— The Encyclical Letter of Pope Pius IX., 746 Second Supplement commences, - - ... - 759 Cardinal Wiseman and Papal Aggressions in England, ... - 760 Father Gavazzi. His Visit and Receptiqp in America, ... - 770 Establishment and Proclamation of the Immaculate Conception, - - 780 Translation of Roman Relics. Singular Ceremony of Consecration, - - 789 Papal Hatred of the Israelites. The stolen Jew Boy, Mortari, - - - 794 Church Reforms in Sardinia. Suppression of Convents, - . - - 800 The Papal Throne crumbling. Excommunication of Victor Emanuel, - 813 The Pope's Bull against Civihzation. Syllabus of Errors, - . - - 818 Papal Infallibility decreed. Council of the Vatican, .... 835 Downfall of the Temporal Kingdom of the Popes. Conclusion, - - - 833 APPENDIX. Fate of Maria Joaquina and of Madeira Exiles, ---... 841 John Ronge, the " Holy Coat " German Reformer, 845 Reverses of the Jesuits in Switzerland, etc., --..-. 846 Catholic Maryland not the Birthplace of Religious Liberty in America, - 849 Abbe Laborde's Letter against the Immaculate Conception, ... 853 Dogmatic Decree establishing the Immaculate Conception, - - - 857 The Pope's Allocution against the Suppression of Convents, - . - 869 Bull and Excommunication against Victor Emanuel and others, • - 872 Bull against Civilization, and Syllabus of Errors, - - . . . 877 Popery a Religion of Cursing. Specimens of Curses, .... 880 Spirit of Popery unchanged. Romish Avowals, ..... 886 Public Grants and Endowments to Roman Catholic Institutions, . - 892 List of Oecumenical Councils, ..-..-... 898 Canons and Curses of the Constitution " i)« i?i(Ze," .... .901 Decree establishing Papal Infallibility, (in Latin,) ..... 904 Decree on Papal Infallibility, (in English,) 909 Alphabetical Index of Contents, -.-..... Chronological Table of Popes, General Councils, and Remarkable Events in the History of Romanism, .... ... 923 Glossary of Technical or Ecclesiastical Terms connected with Romanism - 931 HISTORY OE ROMAIISM. BOOK I. POPERY IN EMBRYO. FKOM THE EAKLIEST COKRUPTIONS OF CHRISTIANITT TO THE PAPAL SUPKEMACT, A. D., 606. CHAPTER I. CHRISTIANITY PRIMITIVE AND PAPAL. § 1. — The blessed founder of Christianity chose to make his advent among the lowly and the despised. This was agreeable to the spirit of that Holy Religion which he came to establish. There was a time when a multitude of his followers, astonished and convinced by the omnipotence displayed in his wondrous miracles, were dis- posed to " take him by force to make him a king," but so far from encouraging their design, the inspired historian tells us " that he departed again, into a mountain himself alone." (John vi., 15.) In reply to the inquiries of the Roman governor, he uttered those memorable words, " my kingdom is not op this world," and his whole conduct from the manger to the cross, and from the cross to the mount of ascension, was in strict accordance with this char- acteristic maxim of genuine Christianity. § 2. — In selecting those whom he would send forth as the apostles of his faith, he went, not to the mansions of the great or to the palaces of kings, but to the hupible walks of life, and chose from the poor of this world, those who, in prosecuting their mission, were dastined, like their divine master, to be despised and rejected of men. In performing the work which their Lord had given them to do, the lowly but zealous fisherman of Galilee, and the courageous tent-maker of Tarsus, with their faithful fellow-laborers, despising all earthly honors and worldly aggrandizement, were content to lay every laurel at the foot of Christ's cross, and to " count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, their Lord," for whom they had " suffered the loss of all things." (Phi- lippians, iii., 8.) 26 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [=°°^ '" — ■ Effect of perMCUtioQ. Contrast § 3— A few centuries afterward, we find the professed successor of Peter the fisherman, dwelUng in a magnificent palace attended by troops of soldiers ready to avenge the sUghtest insult ottered to his dignity, surrounded by all the ensigns of world y greatness, with more than regal splendor, proudly claiming to be the sovereign ruler of the universal church, the Vicegerent of God upon earth, whose decision is infallible and whose will is law. The contrast between these two pictures of Primitive Christiamty in the tirst century, and Papal Christianity in the seventh or eighth, is so amazing, that we are irresistibly led to the inquiry, can they be the same? If one is a faithful picture of Christianity, can it be possible that the other is worthy of the name ? Leaving the reader to answer this question tor himselt, alter ac companying us in the present history, we proceed to remark that this transformation cannot be supposed to have taken place all at once. The change from the lowliness of the one to the lordlmess of the other, required ages to complete, and it was not till the lapse of more than five centuries from the death of the last of the apostles* that the transformation was entire. § 4.— The apostle Paul tells us that even in his day " the mystery of iniquity " had begun to work, and had it not been for the purify- ing influence of the fires of persecution kindled by the emperors of pagan Rome, the advance of ecclesiastical corruption and spir- itual despotism would probably have been far more rapid than it was —and at an earlier period " the man of sin " have been " revealed," even that " son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped ; so that he as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." For three centuries after the ascension of Christ, his disciples were ex- posed, with but few and brief intermissions, to a succession of cruel and bitter persecutions and sufferings. The pampered wild beasts, kept for the amusement of the Roman populace, fattened upon the bodies of the martyrs of Jesus in the amphitheatres of Rome or of other cities of the'empire, and hundreds of fires were fed by the living frames of those who " loved not their lives unto the death." " They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword ; they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." Under such a state of things, there was of course but little inducement to the worldly minded and ambitious, to seek admission to the church ; and if during a season of relaxation some such might creep within its pale, it required only the mandate of another em- * St. John is supposed to have died about A. D. 100. " He lived," says Dr. Cave, " till the time of the Emperor Trajan, about the beginning of whose reign, he departed this life, very aged, about the ninety-eighth or ninety-ninth year of his age, as is generally thought." See Cave's Lives of the Apostles, page 104. CHAP. 1.1 POPERY IN EMBRYO.— TO A. D. 606. 27 How Popery proves the Bible. Because predicted in it peror to kindle anew the fires of persecution in order to separate the dross from the gold. This opposition of the powers and poten- tates of the earth, constituted the most effectual barrier against the speedier progress of corruption in the church, and according to the prediction of St. Paul, before " the man of sin " could be revealed it was necessary that this let or hindrance should be removed. It can scarcely be doubted that the apostle referred to the continu- ance of persecuting pagan Rome, when he said, " and now ye know what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way ; and then shall that wicked BE revealed." § 5. — It is an important fact that Popery is plainly a subject of prophetic prediction in the Sacred Scriptures, and though the almost entire subversion of true Christianity, which occurred in the course of only a few centuries, might otherwise have a tendency to stagger our faith in its divine origin, yet when it is remembered that this great antichristian Apostasy or "falling away" (cmooTuaLa) happened in exact accordance with " the scriptures of truth," the fact serves to strengthen rather than to shake our faith in the divinity of our holy religion. JNot long ago, the remark was made by a Roman Catholic, " The Bible cannot be true without Holy Mother of Rome." He meant to say that the Pope gives it all its evidence and authority. " Very true," said a Protestant : " for as the Holy Bible has predicted the rise, power, and calamities of Popery — if these predictions had not been fully manifested in the actual exist- ence and tremendous evils of Popery, the Bible would have wanted the fulfilment of its prophecies, and therefore would not have been true !" The same thought was recently suggested in an eloquent discourse by Professor Gaussen, of Geneva, before his Theological class. " In pointing to the Pope," said he, " we point to a miracle which calls upon us to believe the Bible ! Considered in this view, the obduracy of the Romanists, like the obduracy of the Jews, wonderfully instructs the church, because it has been foretold ; and thus it is that the scandals of Rome are transformed into an eloquent argument. The sovereign pontiff and the Romish hierarchy be- come, in this way, admirable supports of the truth." To prove that Popery is the subject of prophetic prediction, it would be easy to produce a multitude of passages, but we shall content ourselves for the present with citing entire the full length portrait of the Romish Apostasy in the second epistle to the Thessa- lonians, chap, ii., v. 1, &c., and in first Timothy, chap, iv., v. 1, &c. " Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be ti'oubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be re- vealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself 28 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. Lbook i. Tertullian quoted. Inspired descriptiona of the Romish Apostasy. above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that when I was yet with you I told you these things 1 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be re- vealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work : only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming : Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish ; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." " Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and com- manding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be re- ceived with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." How accurate is this inspired portrait of the great Apos- tasy of Rome, although penned five or six centuries before its complete development ! Aside from the accurate symbolical de- scriptions of the same power in the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelations, these two passages alone constitute a Complete pro- phetical picture of the Papal anti-Christ, in which every feature, every lineament is drawn to the very life ; nor is this to be won- dered at, for it was sketched by the pencil of Omniscience itself It is obvious that the wicked" power which in the former "of these passages is the subject of the apostle's discourse, and denominated THE MA^ or SIN, had not then been fully displayed, and that there existed some obstacle to a complete revelation of the mystery of iniquity. The apostle uses a particular caution when hinting at it ; but the Thessalonians, he says, knew of it ; probably from the explanation he had given them verbally, when he was with them. It can scarcely be questioned, that the hindrance or obstacle, refer- red to in these words, was the heathen or pagan Roman govern- ment, which acted as a restraint upon the pride and domination of the clergy, through whom the man of sin ultimately arrived at his power and authority, as will afterwards appear. The extreme caution which the apostle manifests in speaking of this restraint, renders it not improbable that it was something relating to the higher powers ; for we can easily conceive how improper it would have been to declare in plain terms, that the existing government of Rome should come to an end. There is a remarkable passage in Tertullian's Apology, that may serve to justify the sense which Protestants put upon these verses ; and since it was written long before the accomplishment of the pre- dictions, it deserves the more attention. "Christians," says he, " are under a particular necessity of praying for the emperors, and for the continued state of the empire ; because we know that dreadful CHAP. I.] POPERY IN EMBRYO.— TO A. D. 606. 2«. ce{ avsiriXqTTTus ya/ioi ^ptti^tvos- — Clem. Alexand. I. 552. { Ancient Christianity, p. ]68. \ For a fuller account of these disorders, see Cyprian in Ma reply to Pomponitis. 72 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. Lbook u. Ckmsecraling and crowning of Nuns. P rohibition of marriage uftcr ordination . These female devotees have ever since been distinguished by the name of Nuns, in the Latin, Nonna, a vs^ord said to be of Egyptian origin, and to signify a virgin. In after ages a variety of ceremo- nies were observed, and stitl continue to be observed, upon a female taking upon herself the vow of perpetual chastity, or ' taking the veil,' as it is now called. The first of the adjoining plates represents the crowning of professed nuns, with what is called • Lhe crown of virginity,' during which ceremony the anthem is sung, Yeni Sponsi Chrisii, &c., " Come, spouse of Christ, and receive'the ciovm." In former times, it was customary to place a crown upon the heads of those who died virgins, and this custom is still observed in some popish countries. The other plate represents the reading, by the officiating priests, of the anathema against false nuns, a most awful curse against such as should violate their vows of virginity, and against all who should endeavor to seduce them from their vow, or should seize upon any portion of their wealth. § 9. — But to return to our narrative. The next step in this per- nicious innovation, after the prohibition of second marriages to the clergy, was to forbid them to marry at all, after ordination. A decree to this effect was passed at a council held at Ancyra, in Galatia, A. D. 314. By this decree, all ministers were forbidden to marry after ordination, except in the case of those who at the time of their ordination, made an explicit profession of their intention to marry, as being in their case unavoidable. In such a case a license was granted to the candidate to marry, and securing him from future censures for so doing. If, however, a candidate for ordina- tion was already married, he was not obliged to put away his wife, unless in the following singular exceptions, viz. : if he had mari'ied " a widow, or a divorced person, or a harlot, or a slave, or an actress."* In either of these cases, the wife must be first put away, as a condition of ordination. The fact that a widow, when married a second time, is here placed in the same category with a harlot or a slave, shows that at this time matrimony had grown so much into disrepute, that second marriages were considered a disgrace and a reproach. At the council of Nice, held A. D. 325, it is related by Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian, that a rule was proposed, requiring all clergymen who had married before their ordination, to withdraw from their wives, or cease to cohabit with them ; and the color of the account leads us to suppose that this regulation, which, in respect to the church universal, was called " a new law," although not new to several of the churches, was near to have been carried, and probably would have been, had not the good sense and right feeling of one of the bishops present defeated the fanaticism of the others. Paphnutius, a bishop of the Thebais, a confessor, having lost an eye in the late persecution, and himself an ascetic, rose, and •Can. Apost. 17 : 'O x^P'^' ^o/3i>', h ckPc0\iiiiIvjiv, ri Iraipav, 3 oiusriF, !j rii' i-rX cktivHs. ni tivaral clvat iiriV/coiroj ij npec/liTCpos, 1 Jid/coi/ot, i) SXas, Toi taraMvov TCv IcpaTlKOv. Crowning of Muns upon tftking their Vows Rending the Anathem:i against such as should prove falsfc. CHAP, u.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 75 Further proposal negatived at the Council of Nice. Chrysostom on the ten virgins, with spirit asserted the honor and purity of matrimony, and insisted upon the inexpediency of any such law, lilvely as it was to bring many into a snare. For a moment reason triumphed ; the proposal was dropped, nor anything fartlrer attempted by the insane party, beyond the giving a fresh sanction to the established rule or tradi- tion, that none should marry after ordination.* § 10. — Notwithstanding this decision of the council, however, the most extravagant notions prevailed, relative to the suppposed sanc- tity and merit of virginity, even among the most eminent of the Nicene fathers.f As a lamentable proof of this fact, as also the early corruptions of the doctrine of salvation by " grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," and the consequent danger of trusting to the most eminent of the early fathers in points of Chris- tian doctrine, the following extract is presented from an exposition of the parable of the ten virgins, from the pen of the celebrated and eloquent Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople. Among Protestant writers, the " oil in the lamps " has generally been understood to signify the principle of divine grace in the heart, or that genuine piety which distinguishes true Christians from mere pretenders or professors. The explanation of Chrysostom is widely different i '• What !" says he, " hast thou not understood from the instance of the ten virgins, in the gospel, how that those who, although they were proficients in virginity, yet not possessing the [virtue of] alms- giving, were excluded from the nuptial banquet. Truly, I am ashamed, and blush and weep when I hear of the foolish virgin. When I hear the very name, I blush to think of one who, after she had reached such a point of virtue, after she had gone through the training of virginity, after she had thus winged the body aloft toward heaven, after she had contended for the prize with the powers on high (the angels), after she had undergone the toil, and had trod- den under foot the fires of pleasure, to hear such a one named, and justly named, a fool, because that, after having achieved the greater labors (of virtue), she should be wanting in the less ! Now, the fire (of the lamps) is — Virginity, and the oil is — Almsgiving. And, in like manner as the flame, unless supplied with a stream of oil, disap- pears, so virginity, unless it have almsgiving, is extinguished. But now, who are the vendors of this oil ? The poor who, for receiving alms, sit about the doors of the church. And for how much is it to be bought ? — for what you will. I set no price upon it, lest, in doing so, I should exclude the indigent. For, so much as you have, make this purchase. Hast thou a penny ? — purchase heaven, ayo^aaov tov ovQavov ; not, indeed, as if heaven were cheap ; but the Master is indulgent. Hast thou not even a penny ? give a cup of cold water, for he hath said, &c. Heaven is on sale, and in the * Socrates Eccles. Hist., lib. i., c. 11. See Greek extract in Gieseler, vol. i., page 279, note 4. f Nicenefathers. This term is generally applied to Athanasius, Basil, Chrysostom, Gregory Nyssen, Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose, and other eminent ecclesiastical writers who flourished about the time of the council of Nice. 6 76 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book «■ A strange expoBition. Virginity and almsgiving . market, and yet we mind it not ! Give a crust and take back para- dise ; give the least, and receive the greatest ; give the perishable, receive the imperishable ; give the corruptible, receive the incor- ruptible. If there were a fair, and plenty of provisions to be had, at the cheapest rate, — all to be bought for a song, — would ye not realize your means, and postpone other business, and secure to your- selves a share in such dealing 1 Where, then, things corruptible are in view, do ye show such diligence, and where the incorruptible, such sluggishness, and such proneness to fall behind ? Give to the needy, so that, even if thou sayest nothing for thyself, a thousand tongues may speak in thy behalf; thy charities- standing up and pleading for thee. Alms are the redemption of the soul, i.vTQov tfivxi; ^cTi" ci-BTjuonvvrj. And, in like manner, as there are set vases of water at the church gates, for washing the hands ; so are beggars sitting there, that thou mayest (by their means), wash the hands of thy soul. Hast thou washed thy palpable hands in water ; wash the hands of thy soul in almsgiving ! § 11. — "But what is it which, after so many labors, these vir- gins hear ? — I know you not ! which is nothing less than to say that virginity, vast treasure as it is, may be useless ! Think of them (the foolish virgins), as shut out, after undergoing such labors, after reining in incontinence, after running a course of rivalry with the celestial orders, after spurning the interests of the present life, after sustaining the scorching heat, after having leapt the bound (in the gymnasium), after having winged their way from earth to heaven, after they had not broken the seal of the body (a phrase of much significance), and having obtained possession of the form of vir- ginity (the eternal idea of divine purity), after having wrestled with angels, after trampling upon the imperative impulses of the body, after forgetting nature, after reaching, in the body, the perfections of the disembodied state, after having won, and held, the vast and unconquerable possession of virginity, after all this, then they hear — Depart from me, I know you not ! " Think then what the labor is which this course of hfe exacts ! and yet, even those who have undergone all this, may hear the words — Depart from me, I never knew you ! And see how great a virtue virginity is, seeing that she hath for her sister, — almsgiving ! having nothing that can ever be more arduous, but will be above all. Wherefore it was that these (foolish virgins) entered not in, because they had not, along with their virginity — almsgiving ! Thou hast then that efficacious mode of penance, almsgiving, which IS able to break the chains of thy sins ; but thou hast also a way of penitence, more ready, by which thou mayest rid thyself of thy fiins. Pray every hour !"* This extract is long, but valuable, on account of the proof that it furnishes, that, in what is called the Nicene age, the corruptions afterward embodied in the system of Popery had made the most * Chrysostom, Homily iii., on Repentance. CHAP, u.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 77 Siricius, bishop of Rome, decrees celibacy. The Khemish Testament and its Popish annolators. alarming progress. Paul had said three centuries before, " the mystery of iniquity doth already work," and now the leaven of cor- ruption was rapidly diffusing itself over the whole mass. § 12. — At length, toward the close of the fourth century, Siricius, who held the See of Rome from 385 to 398, issued his decrees, strictly enjoining celibacy on the clergy, and several Western synods echoed the mandates of Rome. As the bishop of Rome was not at this time regarded as the head of the church, these laws were of course not received as obligatory upon all, and in the East especi- ally, notwithstanding the superstitious veneration attached to celi- bacy, these decrees, according to Gieseler (vol. i., p. 280), were rejected. Though the decrees of Siricius and his successors were gene- rally obeyed in Rome, and throughout Italy, yet large numbers of the French, German, Spanish, and EngUsli clergy continued, for several centuries longer, to avail themselves of that portion of their scriptm-al right which had been left them by the council of Nice, notwithstanding the exertions of successive bishops and popes of Rome to induce them to yield up those rights and become their obedient vassals. How blind must be that prejudice which does not perceive, in this constant warfare of the proud prelates of Rome (both before and after the epoch of the papal supremacy) against God's own institution of matrimony, a plain mark of Anti- Christ ; an evident proof that Popery, when fully developed, is that Apostasy predicted by St. Paul, when he described it as " forbidding TO MARRY !" In future centuries, we shall see the horrible vices, and almost universal corruption of morals among the popish clergy, which arose from thus setting aside the plain direction of inspira- tion " A BISHOP MUST BE THE HUSBAND OF ONE WIFE." § 13. — The doctrine of the Romish church, forbidding the clergy to marry, is so evidently contrary to Scripture, that it is scarcely necessary to say a word in its refutation. The only wonder with the bible Christian will be, where they can find even a shadow of an argument upon which to base so unnatural and antiscriptural a prohibition. The only appearance of argument offered by Romish writers is, that mentioned by the Jesuit annotators in the Rhemish Testament* in their note on Titus iii. 6. " If the studious reader peruse all antiquity he shall find all notable bishops and priests of God's church to have been single, or continent from their wives if any were married before they came to the clergy. So were all * Rhemish Testament. — As I shall have future occasion to refer to this popish version of the New Testament, I would here remark, that it appeared in 1582, and was printed at Rheims, accompanied by copious notes by Roraish authors. The Old Testament was translated like the Rhemish Testament, not from the original Greek and Hebrew, but from the I^atin version, called the Vulgate. It was printed at Douay, in France, in 1610, for which reason the Rhemish New and the Douay Old Testament, now generally bound together, are called the Douay Bible. The popish doctrines of the notes to the Rhemish Testament, were ably confuted in a work of Dr. William Fulke, which appeared in the year 1617. 78 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [boo^ii. Rhemi^h Testacent a gainst married clerey. ^j^T^il^iTT ^^^^j^^Vgj^^ the apostles after they followed Christ, as Jerome witnesseth, affirming that our Lord loved John specially for his virgimty. in their note on 1 Tim. iii. 2, they sadly abuse those who, m the early ages, adopted the same opmion as that advocated by laj lor and Elliott in the extract quoted in the note on page 69 oi this chapter. I must apologize for the grossness of the extract h-om these popish authors. It deserves quoting as a iterary curiosity, and if at all, must be quoted as it is. The followmg are their words :— " Certain bishops of Vigilantius' sect, whether upon false construction of this text, or through the filthiness of their fleshly lust, would take none to the clergy, except they would be married first, not believing, said Jerome (advers. Vigilant, cap. 1), that any single man liveth chastely ; showing how holily they live themselves, that suspect ill of every man, and will not give the Sacrament, ot order, to the clergy, unless they see their wives have great bellies, and children wailing at their mothers' breasts. Our Protestants, though they be of Vigilantius'* sect, yet they are scarce to come so far, to command every priest to be married. Nevertheless they mislike them that will not marry, so much the worse, and they sus- pect ill of every single person in the Church, thinking the gift of chastity to be very rare among them, and they do not only make the state of marriage equal to chaste single life, with the Heretic Jovinian,* but they are bold to say sometimes, that the bishop or * Vigilantius arid Jovinian. — These two early reformers who are spoken of 80 contemptuously by these popish writers, though they lived as early as the fifth century, are, for their enlightened zeal in opposing the corruptions of Christianity, which were already rife in their age, worthy to be ranked with Wickliffe, or Luther, or Calvin. The principal heresy of Jovinian was, in the words of Jerome, "this shocking A)ctrine, that a virgin is no better than a married woman.'' The emperor Honorius cruelly ordered him to be whipped with scourges armed with lead, and banished to a desolate' island, where he died about A. D. 406. Vigilan- tius flourished a few years later than Jovinian. He was a learned and eminent presbyter of a Christian church, and took up his pen to oppose the growing super- stition. His book, which unfortunately has not survived the wreck of time, was directed against the institution of monkery — the celibacy of the clergy — praying for the dead, and to the martyrs — paying adoration to their relics — celebrating their vigils — and lighting up candles to them after the manner of the heathens. St Jerome, who is esteemed a luminary of the Catholic church, and who was a zealous advocate for all these superstitious rites, undertook the task of confuting Vigilantius, whom he styles " a most blasphemous heretic," and then proceeds to compare him to the hydra, to Cerberus, &c. of the Pagan mythology, and con- cludes with calling him the organ of the devil. The following short extract from Jerome's answer will satisfactorily explain the heresy of Vigilantius : — " That the honours paid to the rotten bones of the saints and martyrs by adoring, kissing, wrapping them up in silk and vessels of gold, lodging them in their churches, and lighting up wax candles before them, after the manner of the heathen, were tne ensigns of idolatry — that the celibacy of the clergy was a heresy, and their vows of chastity the seminary of lewdness — ' Dicit * * * continentiam, haeresim ; pu- dicitiam, libidinis seminarium.' (^Jerome contra VigSantium.) — that to pray to the dead, or to desire the prayers of the dead, was superstitious, inasmuch as the Bouls of departed saints and martyrs were at present in some particular place from which they could not remove themselves at pleasure, so as to be everywhere pre- sent attending to the prayers of their votaries— that the sepulchres of the martyrs CHAP, u.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 79 Early instances of married clergymen. Peter, Cyprian, Gregory , Cfficilius, Numidicus, &c.' priest may do his duty and charge better married than single." They add that the exposition given by them is " only agreeabfe to the practice of the whole Church, the definition of ancient councils, the doctrine of all the Fathers without exception, and the Apostle's tradition." To this it is sufficient to reply that the apostle Peter was married, for the New Testament makes mention of his wife (Matt. viii. 14), and there is no scriptural proof that any one of the apostles lived and died single, or declined to cohabit with their wives. In relation to the assertion that the clergy in the early ages of the church lived in cehbacy, it will be sufficient to demon- strate its glaring falsity to cite the following few out of multitudes of instances that could easily be cited of married bishops and presby- ters in the first three or four centuries. § 14. — Valens, presbyter of Philippi, mentioned by Polycarp, was a married man.* Choeremon, bishop of Nilus, an exceedingly old man, was mar- ried. He fled with his wife to Arabia, in time of persecution, under Maximinus the tyrant, where they both perished together, as Euse- bius informs us.f Cyprian himself was also a married man, as Pagi, the annotator and corrector of Baronius, confesses. J Cfficilius, the presbyter, through whose instrumentality Cyprian was converted to Christianity, was a married man.§ So also was Numidicus, another presbyter of Carthage, of whom Cyprian tells us the following remarkable story in his thirty-fifth epistle, or, as some number it, the fortieth : " That in the Decian ersecution he saw his own wife, with many other martyrs, burned y his side ; while he himself lying half-burned, and covered with ought not to be worshipped, nor their fasts and vigils to be observed — and, finally, that the signs and wonders said to be wrought by their relics, and at their sepul- chres, served to no good end or purpose of religion." These were the sacrilegious tenets, as Jerome terms them, which he could not hear with patience, or without the utmost grief, and for which he declares Vigi- lantius " a detestable heretic, venting his foul-mouthed blasphemies against the relics of the martyrs, which were working daily signs and wonders." He tells him to " go into the churches of those martyrs, and he would be cleansed from the evil spirit which possessed him, and feel himself burnt, not by those wax candles which so much offended him, but by invisible flames, which would force that demon that talked within him to confess himself to be the same who had per- sonated a Mercury, perhaps, or a Bacchus, or some other of the heathen deities." (See Introductory discourse to Dr. Conyers Middleion's free inquiry into the mira- culous powers of the early ages, page 132.) This is a long note, but it is worthy of the room it occupies, as an evidence that in very early ages there were not wanting faithful men to protest against the growing corruptions, and as a speci- men of the doctrine as well as the spirit of some of the boasted fathers of the church, and consequently the danger of trusting to them as guides in relation to spiritual matters. * Polycarp, Ep. ad Philip., n. 11. t Euseb. Eccl. Hist. b. vi. c. 42. I Pagi. Crit. in Baron, ad ann. p. 248, n. 4. { Pontius, Vit. Cypr. 80 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book u. Gr egory, bishop of Nazianzgm, a husband and a father. Worship of the Virgin Mary . Stones, and left for dead, was found expiring by his daughter, who drew him out of the rubbish, and brought him to hfe agam. Gregory of Nazianzum, a notable bishop, was father of the other Gregory who succeeded him, as appears from the oration which the latter made in his favor. He says, " That a good and diligent bishop serves in the ministry nothing the worse for being maiTied. but rather the better, and with more ability to do good." Of his mother he says, " That she was given to his father of God, and be- came not only his helper, but also his leader both by word and by deeds, training him to the best things ; and though m other things it was best for her to be subject to him, on account of the right of marriage, yet in religion and godliness she doubted not to become his leader and teacher."! From the above well-authenticated instances of the marriage of the clergy in the earliest ages of the church, it is evident that Romanists are no more sustained by the example of primitive times than by the New Testament, in their antiscriptural and un- natural prohibition of marriage to the clergy.J CHAPTER III. ORIGIN OF EOMISH ERRORS CONTINUED. WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MARV. § 15. — We have already seen the extravagant opinions that were entertained in the fourth century, as to the merit of virginity. Before exhibiting the natural result of such unscriptural notions in the almost deification of the Virgin Mary, we shall present yet another specimen of the manner in which the graces of rhetoric and the charms of eloquence were employed in that age to exalt to the very skies, those who had devoted themselves to a virgin life. It is from a tract of the eloquent Chrysostom or golden mouth. " The virgin, when she goes abroad, should present herself as the bright specimen of all philosophy : and strike all with amazement, as if now an angel had descended from heaven ; or just as if one of the cherubim had appeared upon earth, and were turning the eyes of all * Numidif.us, presbyter uxorem adhaErentem latere suo, concrematam simul cum ca;teris, vel conservatam magis dixerim, lactns aspexit. — Cyjpi-., epist. 35 or T AXXa Kai ap^Tiyos yivcrai cpyco tc Kai \oyi,> Trpos ra Kpariara — li' lavrns oyotmn tij; tvatficias, OVK aiu-^vvopzvi\ T^pe^stv favTTiv Kai SiSaaKaXov, — Greg. Nazianzerty in Epitaph. Patris. X See Elliott on Romanism, ii. 427. In addition to the above, Dr. Elliott cites a large number of similar instances. CHAP, m.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 81 ChrysoBtoin's description of the sanctity of a professed virgin. Singular notions about tlie Virgin Mary men upon himself. So should all those who look upon the virgin be thrown into admiration, and stupor, at the sight of her sanctity. And when she advances, she moves as through a desert ; or when she sits at church, it is with the profoundest silence, her eye catches nothing of the objects around her ; she sees neither women nor men, but her spouse only ; and who shall not marvel at her ? who shall not be in ecstacy, in thus beholding the angelic life, embodied in a female form ? And who is it that shall dare approach her ? Where is the man who shall venture to touch this flaming spirit ? Nay rather, all stand aloof, willing or unwilling ; all are fixed in amaze- ment, as if there were before their eyes a mass of incandescent and sparkling gold ! Gold hath indeed by nature its splendor ; but when saturate with fire, how admirable, nay even fearful is it ! And thus, when a soul such as this occupies the body, not only shall the spectacle be wondered at by men, but even by angels." While such were the opinions entertained and expressed of the " angelic virtue " of virginity, we are not surprised to learn that it was regarded as the very height of presumption and impiety to doubt whether the Virgin Mary — asmagdevog — ever parted with this pre- cious jewel. , § 16. — About the middle of the fourth century, as appears from cer- tain expressions in Epiphanius, Gregory Nyssen, and Augustine, an opinion arose that there were in the temple at Jerusalem, virgins consecrated to God, among whom Mary grew up in vows of per- petual virginity. Her marriage with Joseph, the first named of these writers speaks of as only formal, and Jerome describes him as an ascetic from his youth.* The opinion was strenuously main- tained by them, and most of their cotemporaries, that Mary con- tinued a virgin till her death. Others, however, adopting the more natural interpretation of Matt, i., 25, and xiii., 55, 56, contended that she had afterward lived in a state of honorable matrimony with her husband, and that she had borne other children. Those who held this opinion, were enumerated among the heretics, and were called anti-dico-marianites, or opposers of the purity of Mary. It would be amusing, if it were not painful, to notice the fanciful and puerile conceits of the writers of this age, when endeavoring to establish the notion of the perpetual virginity of Mary. They even employed arguments to prove that in some wonderful 'wpy she gave birth to the Saviour, without losing her virginity, and some of them under- took to show in what way this was accomplished. Thus, says Ambrose, commenting on Isaiah vii., 14, " Haec est virgo quae in utero concepit," &c., " This is the virgin who hath conceived, and the virgin who hath brought forth a son. For the prophet not only saith that a virgin shall conceive, but also that a virgin shall bring forth." Then in the fanciful manner of applying Scripture current in that affe, he makes a reference to Ezekiel xUv., 1, 2, and asks " but -^ti^ * See Gieseler, vol. i., page 273, note 13, for references and original quota- tions from tlie fatliers named. 82 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book n. „,. — ^TT, — T7. ; Z- r.x. IT- „„ Papists all such now. The Collyridiana or early worshippers of the Virgin. *^ what is that gate of the sanctuary, that outward gate toward the East, through which no one shall enter, but the Lord God ot Israel f Is not Mary this gate, through whom the Redeemer hath entered into the world? concerning whom it is written, quia Dominus per- transihit per earn, et erit clausa post par turn, because a virgm hath conceived and brought forth." A similar fanciful allusion to this passage in Ezekiel, by Jerome, may be found in the note which I must be spared the task of translating.* § 17. When we observe, on the one hand, the earnest manner in which these fathers contend for the perpetual virginity of Mary, and on the other the extravagant honors attached to the virgin state, , we need not be surprised that the notion soon became prevalent among some that " the mother of God," as she was now frequently denominated, was herself worthy of the honors of divine worship. Accordingly, about this time, we find that a sect sprang up, whose peculiar tenet it was, that the Virgin Mary should be adored in worship, and that religious honors should be paid to her. They were called Collyridians, from collyrida, the cakes which they offered to the Virgin. However naturally this error might spring from the notions maintained by those who were regarded as the orthodox fathers of the church in this age, yet it is a proof that the Popery of the present day would even in that corrupt age have been regarded as heresy, that the members of this sect were branded by Epiphanius and others of the Nicene fathers as heretics. If one of them were now to arise from his grave, and pass through any of the Catholic count;-ies of Europe, he would soon discover a wide- spread system of idolatrous worship of the Virgin, far more debas- ing than that which they condemned, because accompanied with the idolatrous use of images, a flagrant impiety with which these ancient heretics were not charged. § 18. — In proof of this last assertion, I would refer to the fact, noticed by almost every modern traveller, that in Italy, Spain, Austria, and other popish countries of Europe, it is common to see images of the Virgin and child, not only in the churches, but also affixed in conspicuous places by the road-side, to receive the hom- age and adoration of the passer-by. Some of these Romish idols are regarded with greater reverence than others, and are conse- quently visited by a^reater number of votaries. Thus in England, the land of our fathers, previous to the glorious reformation from * Gieseler, vol. i., page 287, note 26. — " Ambrosius Ep. 42, ad Siricium P. Haec est virgo quae in utero concepit : virgo quaj peperit fflium. Sic enim scripttim est : Ecce virgo in utero accipiet, et pai-iet jilium ; non enira concep- turam tantummodo virginem, sed et parituram virginem dixit. Quae autem est ilia porta sanctuarii, porta ilia exterior ad Orientem, quse manet clausa ; et nemo, inquit, pertransibit per earn, nisi solus Deus Israel (Ezech. xliv. 2)? Nonne haec porta quia Dominus pertransibit per earn, et erit clausa post partum ; quia virgo concepit et genuit. Hieronymus adv. Pelagianos, lib. ii. {Op-p. ed. Martian. T. TV. P. II. p. 612): Solus enim Christus clausas portas vulvae virginalis aperuit, quae tamen clausse jugiter permanserunt. Haec est porta orientalis clausa, per quam solus Pontifex ingreditur et egreditur et nihilominus semper clausa est." Missing Page Missing Page CHAP, m.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 85 Minstrels playing tunes to tlie Virgin and ciilld as thougli ttie idols were conscious. Popery, there was a famous image of the Virgin at Walsingham, in the county of Norfolk, which was visited by thousands of devo- tees, from tiie most distant parts of the island, notwithstanding they had similar idols in their own neighborhoods, and perhaps in their own dwellings, occupying the same place as the penates, or house- hold gods of the ancient pagans of Greece and Rome. In Italy, where Popery is seen without disguise, each of these images is, by the common people, regarded as a distinct object of worship, and it is a very common sight to see a company of the Calaoiese minstrels performing their national devotional airs before them, especially about the time of Christmas, and pleasing themselves with the idea that the tunes are the same that were played by the shepherds at the incarnation of the Saviour, on the plains of Bethlehem. A recent traveller in Italy relates a fact which shows that images are looked upon as real objects of worship, and treated as though they were really conscious of the idolatrous honors paid to them, notwithstanding, in the expressive language of Scripture, " they have eyes but they see not, they have ears but they hear not. They that make them are like unto them ; so is every one that trusteth in them." (Psalm cxv., 5, &c.) In Rome, according to this traveller,* " it is a popular opinion that the Virgin Mary is very fond and an excellent judge of music. I received this information," says he, " on a Christmas morning, %vhen I was looking at two poor Calabrian pipers doing their utmost to please her and the infant in her arms. They played for a full hour to one of her images which stands at the corner of a street. All the other statues of the Virgin which are placed in the streets are serenaded in the same manner every Christmas morning. On my inquiring into the meaning of that ceremony, I was told the above-mentioned circum- stance of her character. My informer was a pilgrim, who stood listening with great devotion to the pipers. He told me at the same time, that the Virgin's taste was too refined to have much satisfac- tion in the performance of these poor Calabrians, which was chiefly intended for the infant ; and he desired me to remark, that the tunes were plain and simple, and such as might naturally he supposed agreeable to the ear of a child of his time of life." The accompa- nying engraving is a beautiful representation of such a scene as is described in the foregoing interesting extract from the work of Dr. Moore. § 19. — Though many centuries elapsed before an idolatry so gross as this was practised, even in apostate Rome, yet as early as the fifth century, many circumstances were tending toward this idola- trous reverence of the Virgin Mary. In the fifth century, a contro- versy arose relative to the title which it was proper to apply to her, which in its result tended, probably, more than anything else, to increase the superstitious veneration with which she had long been regarded. The occasion of this controversy was furnished by the * Dr. Moore, in his View of Society and Manners in Italy. 86 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [booku. Ne alorian controversy on the title " mother of God." Feasts in honor of the Virgin. presbyter Anastasius, a friend of Nestorius. This presbyter, in a public discourse, delivered, A. D. 428, declaimed warmly agamst the title of e«oro«os, or mother of God, which was now frequently attributed to the Virgin Mary. "He at the same time gave it as his opinion that she should rather be called Xpurrotoxos, i. e.. mother of Christ, since the Deity can neither be born nor die, and of conse- quence the son of man alone could derive his birth from an earthly parent. Nestorius applauded these sentiments, and explained and defended them in several discourses. The result of the Nestorian controversy, as it was called, was that at the third general council, which was held at Ephesus, in 431, and at which Cyril, the powerful and imperious antagonist of Nestorius. presided, the doctrine was condemned, and its defender branded as another Judas, deposed from his episcopal dignity, and sent into exile, where he finished his days in the deserts of Thebais in Egypt* This dispute, as is truly remarked by Gieseler, first led men to set the Virgin Mary above all other saints as " the mother of God." To those who reflect upon the natural tendency of an exciting con- troversy to drive men to extremes, it will not be matter of wonder that henceforward much more was said and done in honor of the " blessed Virgin," " mother of God," and " ever a Virgin," than at any previous period. Among the images with which the magnifi- cent churches began now to be adorned, that of the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus in her arms, in consequence of the Nesto- rian controversy, obtained the first and principal place. § 20. — In the following century, two festivals were established in her honor, the festum purijicationis, or festival of the " purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary," on the second of February (Candlemas day), and \hQ festum annunciationis, the festival of the annunciation on the twenty-fifth day of March, which has been popularly called Lady Day.f Mosheim says, with appearance of reason, that the former festival was established with a design " to remedy the unea- siness of heathen converts, on account of the loss of their lupercalia, or feasts of the god Pan, which had formerly been observed in the * An amusing anecdote is related concerning the Emperor Constantine Copro- nymus, who lived more than three hundred years after Nestorius, which well illus- trates the unreasonable importance which was attached for ages to these vain dis- putes about mere words. It must be remembered that in this dispute both sides were strictly orthodox in the modern sense of the word. Both sides admitted that Jesus Christ is God as well as man ; that his human nature was born of the Virgin, and that his divine nature existed from eternity ; both sides admitted the distinction between the two natures, and their union in the person of Christ. Where then lay the diiFerence ? It could be nowhere but in phraseology. Yet this notable ques- tion raised a conflagration in the church, and proved, in the East, the source of infinite mischief, hatred, violence, and persecution. The Emperor happened one day to ask the patriarch of Constantinople, " What harm would there be in calling the Virgin Mary the mother of Christ ?" "God preserve your majesty" answered the patriarch hastily, with great emotion, •^from entertaining such a thought ! Do you not see how Nestorius is anathematized for this by the whole church ?" " I only asked for my own information," replied the Emperor, evidently with some alarm, " but let it go no farther." t Bingham's Antiquities, vol. ix., page 170. CHAP, iv.j POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. (iotj. 87 Egypt the birth-place of Monkery, whether heathen or Christian. month of February."* The latter served equally well as a substi- tute for the festival of the ancient heathen goddess, Cybele, to whom the 25th of March, or Lady Day, was formerly dedicated. There is indeed a strong resemblance, in many points, between the pagan worship of Cybele, and the popish worship of the Virgin. The same appellation of " queen of heaven," which is frequently applied by papists to Mary, was generally applied by the ancient Romans to Cybele. CHAPTER IV. ORIGIN OF EOMISH ERRORS CONTINUED MONKERY. § 21. — Monkery, like most of the characteristic marks of Anti- christ, bears the most indubitable evidences of its heathen origin. Egypt, the rank soil in which it sprang up, had long been the fruit- ful parent of a race of gloomy and misanthropic eremites. It was in that country that this morose discipline had its rise ; and it is observable, that Egypt has, in all times, as it were by an immu- table law, or disposition of nature, abounded with persons of a melancholy complexion, and produced, in proportion to its extent, more gloomy spirits than any other part of the world. It was here that the Essenes and the Therapeuta3, those dismal and gloomy sects, dwelt principally, long before the coming of Christ ; as also many others of the Ascetic tribe, who, led by a certain melancholy turn of mind, and a delusive notion of rendering themselves more acceptable to the Deity by their austerities, withdrew themselves from human society, and from all the innocent pleasures and com- forts of life. Strabo, Arrian, Diodorus Siculus, Porphyry, as well as several of the fathers, especially Clement of Alexandria, and Augustine, have handed down incidental notices of the philosophy and manners of the Indian and Egyptian gymnosophists, such as are amply sufficient for the purpose of identifying the ancient, and the more recent — the Buddhist, and the Christian ascetic institute. These professors of a divine philosophy, like their Christian imita- tors, went nearly naked ; they occupied caverns or chinks in the rocks ; they abstained entirely from animal food ; they professed inviolable virginity ; they practised penance ; they passed the greater part of their time in mute meditation ; they imposed silence and absolute submission upon their disciples; they professed the doctiiue, that the perfection of human nature consists in an annihi- * See Mosheim, cent, vi., part 2, chapter iv. 88 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book n. RcscmbUnce between the pagan and Christian gymiiosophists. Paul the hermit, Anthony, Hilarion. lation of the passions, and every affection which nature has im- planted, whether in the animal or the mental constitution : abnega- tion was, with them, the one point of wisdom and virtue, and a re- absorption of the human soul into the abyss of the divine mind, was the happy end of the present system, to the pure and wise. § 22. — Now, one might reasonably have supposed and expected, that a system of doctrine and practice such as this, if it were to come at all under the powerful influence of Christianity, must have admitted some extensive modifications ; but it was not so in fact : — a few phrases and another dialect, or slang, adopted, make almost all the difference which serves to distinguish the ancient gymno- sophist from the Christian anchoret. The more rigid and he- roic ' of the Christian anchorets dispensed with all clothing except a rug, or a few palm-leaves round the loins. Most of them ab- stained from the use of water for ablution ; nor did they usually wash or change the garments they had once put on ; thus St. An- thony bequeathed to Athanasius a skin in which his sacred person had been wrapped for half a century. They also allowed their beards and nails to grow, and sometimes became so hirsute, as to be actually mistaken for hyaenas or bears. It need not be said that cehbacy was the first law of this institute, and that an abstinence the most rigid was its second law. At what time precisely, the wilderness exchanged its pagan for a Christian tenantry, it is not easy to ascertain. In some instances, no doubt, the very individuals who had begun their course as hea- then gymnosophists, ended it as Christian anchorets. But oftener, probably, the deserted cell or cavern of the savage philosopher was taken possession of by one who, having, in the neighboring cities, received the knowledge of the gospel, betook himself to the angelic life in consequence of persecutions, or of disappointments in love or in business.* § 23. — The most remarkable early instances of this gloomy fanaticism on record are those of Paul the hermit, who, during the persecution under Decius, about A. D. 250, betook himself to the solitary deserts of Egypt, where, for a space of more than ninety years, he lived a life more worthy of a savage animal than a human being. Anthony, an Egyptian, regarded as the founder of the monastic institution (because he first formed monks into organized bodies), who fixed his abode in the deserts of Egypt twenty or thirty years later than Paul, and died in the year 356, at the age of 105 ; and Hilarion, a Syrian youth, who took up his abode on a sandy beach, between the sea and a morass, about eight miles from Gaza, m Palestine, where he persisted in a course of the most aus- tere penance for about forty-eight years. Influenced by these eminent examples, immense multitudes be- took themselves to the desert, and innumerable monasteries were * See Taylor's Ancient Christianity, page 426, &c., with references to ancient authorities. CHAP. IV.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 80 Vint number of the monks In Egypt, & c. St. Bymeon, iho celebrated pillar saint. fixed in Egypt, Ethiopia, Lybia, and Syria. Some of the Egyptian abbots are spoken of as having had five, seven, or even ten thousand monks under their personal direction ; and the Tliebais, as well an certain spots in Arabia, are reported to have been literally crowded with solitaries. Nearly a hundred thousand of all classes, it is said, were at one time to be found in Egypt. The western church probably could boast of no such swarms. This however is certain, that, although the enthusiasm might be at a lower ebb in one coun- try than in another, it actually affected the church universal, so far as the extant materials of ecclesiastical history enable us to trace its rise and progress. In the west, Martin of Tours founded a monastery at Poictiers. and thus introduced monastic institutions into France. His monks were mostly of noble families, and sub- mitted to the greatest austerities both in food and raiment ; and such was the rapidity of their increase, that 2000 of them attended his funeral. In other countries, they appear to have increased in equal proportion, and the progress of monkery has been said to have equalled the rapidity and universality of Christianity itself Every province, and, in process of time, every city of the empire, was filled with their increasing multitudes. § 24. — We may learn the character of this fanaticism from a eulogy on the monastic life, composed about the middle of the fourth century by Gregory Nazianzen. There were some of these men, he tells us, " who loaded themselves with iron chains in order to bear down their bodies — others who shut themselves up in cabins and appeared to nobody — some continued twenty days and twenty nights without eating, often practising the half of the fast of our Lord — one individual is said to have abstained entirely from speak- ing, not praising God except in thought — and another passed whole years in a church, with extended hands, like an animated statue, yet never allowing himself to sleep."* One of the most renowned instances of monkish penance that is upon record is that of St. Symeon, as the papists are pleased to call him. He was a native of Syria, and devoted himself to the monkish life, in the virtues of which he is thought to have outstrip- ped all that preceded him. We are told that he lived six-and-thirty years on a pillar erected on the summit of a high mountain in Syria, from which he obtained the name of Symeon Stylites (from aivi.og, a pillar). From this pillar, it is said, he never descended except to take possession of another, which he did four times, having in the whole occupied five of them. On his last pillar, which was loftier than any of the former, being sixty feet high and three broad, he remained, according to report, fifteen years without intermission, summer and winter, day and night, exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather, in a climate subject to great and sudden changes, from the most sultry heat to piercing cold. It is said that he always stood ; the breadth of his pillar not permitting him to lie down. He • See Fleury's Eccles. Hist, book xvi. chap. 61. 90 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book u, A strange method of serving God. 1244 bows. Spacious monasteries erected- spent the day till three in the afternoon in meditation and prayer ; from that time till sunset he harangued the people who flocked to him from all countries, whom he then dismissed with his benedic- tion. He would on no account suffer females to come within his precincts — not even his own mother, who is said, through mortifi- cation and grief at being refused admittance, to have died on the third day after her arrival. To show how indefatigable he was in whatever conduced to the glory of God, and the good of mankind, he spent much time daily in the exemplary exercise of bowing so low as to make his forehead strike his toes, and so frequentJy, that one who went to see him, as Theodoret, the ancient ecclesia.stical historian, relates, counted no fewer than 1244 times — when, being more wearied in numbering than the saint was in bowing, he gave over the task of counting.* For such senseless and disgusting practices as these has this poor victim of superstition been enrolled among the calendar of saints, and down to the present day, whenever Romish writers refer to this famous pillar saint, they speak of him with the great- est reverence as Saint Symeon. § 25. — Up to nearly the close of the fifth century, the monks had generally lived only in solitary retreats, and, regarded as they were as laymen, they had entertained no thoughts of assuming any rank among the sacerdotal order. Now, however, they found them- selves in a condition to claim an eminent station among the pillars of the Christian community. The mistaken piety of many led them to erect spacious and commodious edifices for the accommo- dation of the monks and holy virgins, more resembling the palaces of princes than the rude cells of the primitive monks, and at the epoch of the papal supremacy, these monasteries were numerous and powerful, especially in the neighborhood of large citieg. The monks who dwelt in these convents were called CcEnobites, from two Greek words, signifying to live in common. When these spacious edifices were supplied with a numerous fraternity, governed by an ahhot of eminence and character, so called from a Syriac word signifying father, there often arose a jealousy between the abbot on the one hand, and the bishop on the other, in whose diocese the abbey was situated, and to whom, as things stood at first, the abbot and the friars owed spiritual subjection. Out of their mutual jealousies sprang umbrages ; and these some- times terminated in quarrels and injuries. In such cases, the abbots had the humiliating disadvantage to be under the obhgation of canonical obedience to him, as the ordinary of the place, with whom they were at variance. That they might deliver themselves from these mconveniences, real or pretended, and might be independent * Those who wish to peruse a fuller account of these miserable enthusiasts, ana the absurd legends of their wonderful miracles, may consult Theodoret's Ec. clesiastical History ; Jerom. Vita Pauli Erem. ; Middleton's Free Inquiry into tho miraculous powers, &c., p. 164-168; and Taylor's Ancient Christianity, p. 461 CHAP. IV.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606 91 Monks and abbots become the tools of the pope. Gregory's inhum an severity to .i po.irmonli of their rivals, they applied to Rome, one after another, for a release from this slavery, as they called it, by being taken under the pro- tection of St. Peter. The proposal was with avidity accepted at Rome. That politic court saw immediately that nothing could be better calculated for supporting papal power. Whoever obtains privileges is obliged, in order to secure his privileges, to maintain the authority of the grantor. § 26. — Very quickly all the monasteries, great and small, abbeys, priories, and nunneries, were exempted from the jurisdiction of the bishops. The two last were inferior sorts of monasteries, and often subordinate to some abbey. Even the chapters of cathedrals, con- sisting mostly of regulars, on the like pretexts, obtained exemption. Finally, whole orders, such as the Benedictines, who were estab- lished m the sixth century, and others, were exempted. This effec- tually procured a prodigious augmentation to the pontifical author- ity, which now came to have a sort of disciphned troops in every place, defended and protected by the papacy, who, in return, were its defenders and protectors, serving as spies on the bishops as well as on the secular powers.* They made the cause of the pope their own, and represented him as a sort of god, to the ignorant multi- tude, over whom they had gained a prodigious ascendant by the notion that generally prevailed, of the sanctity of the monastic order. It is at the same time to be observed that this immunity of the monks was a fruitful source of licentiousness and disorder, and occasioned the greatest part of the vices with which they were afterward so justly charged. Previous to the elevation of Gregory I. to the See of Rome, he was himself abbot of a monastery, and exacted of the monks the strictest observance of the rules of poverty, chastity, and implicit obedience. An instance of superstitious, and, as it appears to us, inhuman severity toward one of them, is related by Gregory him- self,! ^'^^ is worth recording as an illustration of the character of Gregory, and of the spirit of that superstitious age. The monk's name was Justus ; he had practised physic before entering the monastery, and had attended Gregory night and day during his long illness. Being himself taken ill, he discovered, at the point of death, to his brother, a layman, that he had three pieces of gold coin concealed in his cell. Some monks overheard him, and thereupon rummaging his cell, found, after a long search, which nothing could escape, the three pieces concealed in a medicament, and brought (hem to Gregory. As, by the laws of the monastery, no monk was to possess anything whatever in private, the abbot, to bring the dying monk to a due sense of his crime, and, at the same time, to deter the rest, by his punishment, from following his example, strictly forbade the other monks to afford him any kind of comfort or rehef in the agonies of death, or even to approach him. Not * See Campbell's Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, page 325. f Gregory's Dialogues, lib. iv., c. 55. Monasteries fertile in pretended saints. satisfied with that inhuman seventy, he required the brother of the unhappy monk to let him know that he died avoided, detested, and abhorred, by all his brethren. He did not even stop here, but exceeding all bounds, ordered the body of the deceased, as soon as he expired, to be thrown on a dunghill, and with it the three pieces of gold, all the monks crying out, aloud, " Thy money perish with thee !" § 27. — In an age so dark as that which gave birth to Popery, it might be expected that the newly established monastic institutions would produce hundreds of gloomy i-eligionists, whom the credulous devotion of an ignorant and superstitious multitude would enshrine as saints. Such we find was actually the fact. In the sixth century, according to Mosheim, such as wished to enforce the duties of Chris- tianity, by exhibiting examples of piety and virtue to those for whom their instructions were designed, wrote for this purpose the Lives of the saints ; and there was a considerable number of biogra- phers, both among the Greeks and Latins. Ennodius, Eugippius, Cyril of Scythopolis, Dionysius the Little, Cogitosus, and others, are to be ranked in this class. But however pious the intentions of these biographers may have been, it must be acknowledged that they executed it in a most contemptible manner. No models of rational piety are to be found among those pretended worthies, whom they propose to Christians as objects of imitation. They amuse their readers with gigantic fables and trifling romances ; the examples they exhibit are those of certain delirious fanatics, whom they call saints, men of corrupt and perverted judgment, who offered violence to reason and nature, by the horrors of an extrava- gant austerity in their own conduct, and by the severity of those singular and inhuman rules which they prescribed to others. For by what means were these men sainted? By starving themselves with a frantic obstinacy, and bearing the useless hardships of hunger, thirst, and inclement seasons, with steadfastness and perseverance ; by running about the country like madmen, in tattered garments, and sometimes half naked, or shutting themselves Up in a narrow space, where they continued motionless ; by standing for a long time in certain postures, with their eyes closed, in the enthusiastic expectation of divine light. All this was saintlike and glorious ; and the more that any ambitious fanatic departed from the dictates of reason and common sense, and counterfeited the wild gestures and the incoherent conduct of an idiot or a lunatic, the surer was his prospect of obtaining an eminent rank among the heroes and demigods of a corrupt and degenerate church.* * See Mosheim, century vi., part 2, chap. iii. 93 CHAPTER V. ORIGIN OF EOMISH ERK0E3 CONTINUED WORSHIP OF SAINTS AND RELICS, ETC. § 28. — The invocation of saints is another of the unscriptiiral practices of Popery, which boasts of an origin anterior to the papal supremacy. In modern times this idolatrous worship of created beings has grown to such a height in the Romish church, as well nigh to exclude altogether the worship of the Creator ; and who- ever will take the trouble to examine a popish book of devotion will see that there are many petitions offered to the saints for every one that is offered to the Deity. In all probability this practice grew up, by degrees, from the honors which, in the early ages, were paid to the martyrs ; and those who, in the third or fourth century, thus laid the foundation of this system of idolatry, little imagined the huge fabric of super- stition that would be erected thereon. Perhaps it would be too severe to pronounce an indiscriminate censure upon those early Christians, who, prompted by respect for the virtues of their mar- tyred brethren, were accustomed to assemble around their graves, to mourn over their loss, and to send up their supplications to the common God and Father of the martyred dead and the suffering living. In process of time, however, the due reverence with which these witnesses for Jesus had been regarded, increased to a kind of idolatrous veneration, and religious services performed over their sepulchres were regarded as possessing a peculiar sanctity and vir- tue. The growth of this idea was so rapid, that in the age of Constantino we find that stately churches were, in some instances, erected over their graves, and where this was impracticable, some relic, real or imaginary, of one of these saints was enshrined, with all due solemnity, in the magnificent buildings erected to their honor.* § 29. — Fleury, the celebrated Roman Catholic ecclesiastical his- torian, relatesf that on one occasion, in the year 386, St. Ambrose, being about to consecrate a church at Milan, was prevented by the fact that he had no relics of martyrs to deposit in the altars, when " immediately his heart burned within him, in presage, as he felt, of what was to happen." The historian proceeds to tell us that God revealed to him, in a dream, the place where the bodies of St. Ger- vasius and St. Protasius were to be found. " Having discovered their sepulchres, two skeletons were discovered of more than or- dinary size, all their bones entire, a quantity of blood about, and their heads separated from their bodies. They arranged the bodies, putting every bone into its proper place, and they covered them * Ensebius — de vita Constant., iii. 48. t Fleury's Eccles. Hist., book xviii., cliap. 48. 7 94 mSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book ii. Discovery of bodies of Sainla. Ceremony of depositing relics in the altars of churchea with cloths and laid them on litters. In this manner were they carried towards evening to the Basilica of St. Fausta, where vigils were celebrated all night, and several that were possessed received imposition of hands. That day and the next, there was a great concourse of people, and then the old men recollected that they had formerly heard the names of these martyrs, and had read the inscription on their totob. The next day the relics were transferred to the Basilica Ambrosiana," or church of St. Ambrose at Milan.* So general had the notion become that a church could not be con- secrated without relics, that it was decreed by a council at Con- stantinople, that those altars under which no relics were found should be demolished. The same necessity of relics to be deposited in the altar of Romish churches, in order to their due consecration, is contended for down to the present day. No matter how minute the particle of supposed holy dust of the saint to whom the church is to be dedi- cated ; — a tooth, a toe-nail, a hair, a drop of the blood, or a pre- served tear from the eye ; anything will do, so that it has been christened or declared genuine by his infallible holiness, the Pope. Upon the arrival of the duly authenticated relic, it is borne in so- lemn procession by priests in their robes to the altar in which it is to be deposited, and when arrived at its destination, it is placed by the hands of the bishop himself in the place prepared for its recep- tion. The first of the adjoining plates represents the procession of relics to the church, and the other the bishop in the act of closing up the sacred deposit within the altar. Before he does this he marks the sepulchre on the four sides with the sign of the cross. This is the consecration of the sepulchre. He then deposits the relic box with all possible veneration, which must be done bare-headed, the better to testify to the congregation the reverence attached to the ceremony. After this an anthem is repeated, during which, the celebrant, still without his mitre on, incenses the relics, and after- wards puts it on, takes the stone which is to be laid over the sepul- chre with his right hand, dips the thumb of the other in chrism, and makes the sign of the cross in the middle of the stone on the side that is to be towards the relics, in order to consecrate it on that side. Anthems and the Oremus immediately follow according to custom. After this the celebrant fixes the stone upon the sepul- chre, the masons make an end of the work, and the celebrant sanc- tifies it by the sign of the cross which is reverently to oe made on the stone. § 30. — To return to the origin of these superstitions. In Egypt, about the fourth and fifth centuries, another method was adopted of showing the reverence of Christians for the mortal relics of de- parted saints. In that country, according to Gieseler, the Christians began to embalm the bodies of reputed saints, and keep them in their houses. The communion with the martyrs being thus asso- * Fleury's Eccles. Hist., book xviii., chap. 46. ^ allUlUiL 1 Relics carried in procession to n church to be consecrated. pjLipoaipiiiiif 1-, The Bishop closing up the Relics in the Altar CHAP, v.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 97 InvociUioQ of Saints. Gregory Nazianzen's address to his departed father and to Cypriau, ciated with the presence of their material remains, these were dug up from the graves and placed in the churches, especially under the altars ; and the pop'ilar feeling having now a visible object to ex- cite it, became moi-e extravagant and superstitious than ever. The opinion of the efficacy of the intercession of those who had died a martyr's death, was now united with the belief that it was possible to communicate with them directly ; a belief founded partly on the popular heathen notion that departed souls always lingered around the bodies they had once inhabited, and partly on the views enter- tained of the glorified state of the martyrs, a sort of omnipresence being ascribed to them. These notions may be traced to Origen, and his followers were the first who apostrophized the martyrs in their sermons, and besought their intercession. But though the orators were somewhat extravagant in this respect, they were far outdone by the poets, who soon took up this theme, and could find no expressions strong enough to describe the power and the glory of the martyrs. Christians were now but seldom called upon to address their prayers to God ; the usual mode being to pray only to some saint for his intercession. With this worship of the saints were joined many of the customs of the heathen. Men chose their patron saints, and dedicated churches to their worship. The hea- then, whom the Christians used to reproach with worshipping dead men, found now ample opportunity of retort.* In proportion as men felt the need of such intercession, they strove to increase the number of the intercessors. Martyrs, before unknown, according to the legends of those times, announced themselves in visions, others revealed the place of their burial, and the populace were disposed to regard every obscure grave as the burial-place of a martyr.f § 31. — As specimens of the kind of invocations addressed to the saints in the latter part of the fourth century, we may refer to the funeral orations of the eloquent Gregory Nazianzen upon the mar- tyr Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, and upon his own father. At the close of the former, he addresses a prayer to St. Cyprian, in which he implores the assistance and protection of the glorified martyr " to aid him in the government of his flock." In the latter he says, I do not doubt that my departed father, " being now much nearer to God, does a great deal more for his flock by his intercession than he did on eai'th by his teaching." The celebrated Roman Catholic historian, Dupin, commenting upon this oration, which was de- livered about A. D. 381, remarks that, " the church, in the time of St. Gregory Nazianzen, believed that the martyrs and saints en- joyed already eternal happiness and the vision of God ; that they took care of men upon earth ; that they interceded for them, and that it was very profitable to pray to them for the obtaining of spiritual and temporal favors."J * See Gieseler, vol. i., p. 283, with citations of ancient authorities. t Sulpicius Severus, de vita Martini., cap. xi. i Dupin's lives and writings of the primitive fathers, vol. ii., p. 167. 98 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. I book ii. Epiphanius in the fourth century opposes images in the cliurches as contrar}' to Scripture. It should be observed, however, that in that age this idolatrous custom of the Romish church was but in its incipient state. There is a vast difference between the impassioned addresses of orators and poets to the spirits of the departed martyrs in the age of Gregory and Basil, and the regular liturgical prayers to the saints incorporated into the set forms of devotion in a later generation, and perpetuated in their worst forms of idolatry and creature wor- ship, down to the present time. § 32. — It is to be remembered too, that as yet the anti-Christian abomination of the worship of images had not yet arisen. " In the fourth century," says Gieseler, " the worship of images was still abominated as a heathen practice." A proof of this is furnished by a singular letter of Epiphanius to John of Jerusalem, written near the close of the century in which he writes as follows : " Having entered into a church in a village of Palestine, named Anablatha, I found there a veil which was suspended at the door, and painted with a representation, whether of Jesus Christ or of some saint, for I do not recollect whose image it was, but seeing that in opposition to the authority of Scripture, there was a human image in the church of Jesus Christ, I tore it in pieces, and gave order to those who had care of that church, to bury the corpse with the veil. And as they grumbled out some answer, that ' since he has chosen to tear the veil, he might as well find another,' I promised them one, and I now discharge that promise." - From this letter we learn, not only that the worship, but the use of images in the churches was altogether condemned at this time. As the account given by Mosheim, of the progress of this and kindred degrading superstitions, from the age of the Nicene fathers, to the establishment of the papal supremacy, is so graphic, and so true, 1 shall present the reader with a condensation of his remarks. An enormous train of different superstitions, says he, were gradually substituted in the place of true religion and genuine piety. This odious revolution was owing to a variety of causes. A ridiculous precipitation in receiving new opinions, a preposterous desire of imitating the pagan rites, and of blending them with the Christian worship, and that idle propensity which the generality of man- kind have toward a gaudy and ostentatious religion, all contributed to establish the reign of superstition upon the ruins of Christianity. Accordingly, frequent pilgrimages were undertaken to Palestine, and to the tombs of the martyrs, as if there alone the sacred princi- ples of virtue, and the certain hope of salvation, were to be acquired. The reins being once let loose to superstition, which knows no bounds, absurd notions and idle ceremonies multiplied every day. Quantities of dust and earth brought from Palestine, and other places remarkable for their supposed sanctity, were handed about as the most powerful remedies against the violence of wicked spirits, and were sold and bought at enormous prices. § 33. — The public processions and supplications, by which the pa- gans endeavored to appease their gods, were now adopted mto the CHAP, v.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 9*j Shameful iinpoaitionB and lying wonders. Forged relics and miracles. Christian worship, and celebrated with great pomp and magnificence in several places. The virtues that had formerly been ascribed to the heathen temples, to their lustrations, to the statues of their gods and heroes, were now attributed to Christian churches, to holy water, consecrated by certain forms of prayer, and to the images of holy men. And the same privileges that the former enjoyed under the darkness of Paganism, were conferred upon the latter under the light of the gospel, or rather under that cloud of superstition that was obscuring its glory. It is true that as yet images were not very common ; nor were there any statues at all. But it is at the same time as undoubtedly certain, as it is extravagant and mon- strous, that the worship of the martyrs was modelled, by degrees, according to the religious services that were paid to the gods before the coming of Christ. § 34. — Among other unhappy effects, these superstitious notions opened a wide door to the endless frauds of those odious impostors, who were so far destitute of all principle, as to enrich themselves by the ignorance and errors of the people. Rumors were artfully spread abroad of prodigies and miracles to be seen in certain places, a trick often practised by the heathen priests, and the design of these reports was to draw the populace, in multitudes, to these places, and to impose upon their credulity. These stratagems were gene- rally successful ; for the ignorance and slowness of apprehension of the people, to whom everything that is new and singular appears miraculous, rendered them easily the dupes of this abominable arti- fice. Nor was this all ; certain tombs were falsely given out for the sepulchres of saints and confessors ; the Ust of these saints was augmented with fictitious names, and even robbers were converted into martyrs. Some buried the bones of dead men in certain retired places, and then affirmed that they were divinely admonished by a dream, that the body of some friend of God lay there. Many, especially of the monks, travelled through the different provinces ; and not only sold, with the most frontless impudence, their fictitious rehcs, but also deceived the eyes of the multitude with ludicrous combats with evil spirits or genii. These shameful impostures and frauds have indeed been char- acteristic of Popery in all ages. One feature in the inspired descrip- tion of the man of sin, is that his coming should be with " signs and lying wonders, and all deceivableness of unrighteousness " (2 Thess., ii., 9, 10), and all history shows the fidelity of the picture. The popish writers themselves are forced to allow, that many both of their relics and their miracles have been forged by the craft of priests, for the sake of money and lucre. Durantus, a zealous defender of all their ceremonies, gives several instances of the former ; particularly of the hones of a common thief, which had for some time been honored with an altar, and worshipped under the title of a saint.* And for the latter, Lyra, in his comment on Bel * S. Martinus Altare, quod in lionorem Martyrio exstructum fuerat cum ossa et reliquias cujusdam latronis esse deprehendisset, submoveri jussit. (Durant de Hififi..]. '. r 9.'"^ 100 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book n. Dr. Mjddletnn's account of fictitious saints. Saint Mount-Oracte and the Dragon, observes that sometimes also in the church, very great cheats are put upon the people, by false miracles, contrived or countenanced at least, by their priests, for some gain and tempo- ral advantage.* And what their own authors confess of some of their miracles, we may venture, without any breach of charity, to believe of them all; nay, we cannot indeed believe anything else without impiety, and without supposing God to concur in an extra- ordinary manner, to the establishment of fraud, error, and supersti- tion in the world. § 35. — Several ludicrous, but well authenticated instances of these fictitious saints are mentioned by the learned Dr. Conyers Middleton, in his letters from Rome. In one of these cases a mountain has been converted into a saint, by the corruption of the name of mount SoRACTE, near Rome, into S. Oeaote, then S. Oreste, or Saint Oreste. This is mentioned also by Addison,t who adds that a monastery has been founded in honor of this imaginary saint. This mistake is the less to be wondered at, because the Italians usually write the title of saint with the single letter S. (as S. Gregory), and thus in ages of darkness and ignorance, it was easy to transform mount Soracte, into Saint Orestes. Thus this holy mountain stands now under the protection of a patron, whose being and power is just as imaginary as that of the old guardian Apollo. Sancti custos Soractis Apollo — Vir. jEn. 9. No suspicion of this kind will appear extravagant to those who are at all acquainted with the history of Popery, which abounds with instances of the grossest forgeries, both of saints and relics, which, to the scandal of many even among themselves, have been imposed for genuine on the poor ignorant people. Even the learned Mabillon, himself a Roman Catholic writer, speaks of some who promulgated the feigned histories of new found saints, and who even sometimes published the inscriptions of pagans for Christians. J In the earlier ages of Christianity, the Christians often made free with the sepulchral stones of heathen monuments, which being ready cut to their hands, they converted to their own use ; and turning down- wards the side on which the old epitaph was engraved, used either to inscribe a new one on the other side, or leave it perhaps without any inscription at all, as they are often found in the catacombs of Rome. Now, this one custom has frequently been the occasion of ascribing martyrdom and saintship to persons and names of mere pagans. * Aliquando fit in Ecclesia maxima deceptio populi in miraculis fictis a sacer- dotibus, vel eis adhsrentibus propter lucrum temporale, &c. (Nic. Lm. in Dan. c. 14.) i Travels^ from Pesaro, &c., to Rome. t * * qui sanctorum recens absque certis nominibus inventorum fictas historias commmiscuntur ad confusionem verarum historiarum imo et qui paganorum mscriptiones aliquando pro Christianis vulgant, &c. (Mabill. Iter ItaK page 226.) CHAP, v.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 101 More fictitious saints. Saint Julia Evodia, Saint Viar. Saint cloak-Amphibolue. § 36. — Mabillon gives a remarkable instance of it in an old stone, found on the grave of a Christian with this inscription : D. M. IVLIA EVODIA FILIA FECIT. MATRI. And because in the same grave there was found likewise a glass vial, or lacrymatory vessel, tinged with a reddish color, which they called blood, they regarded this circumstance as a certain proof of martyrdom, and Julia Evodia, though undoubtedly a heathen, was presently adopted both for saint and martyr, on the authority of an inscription that appears evidently to have been one of those above- mentioned, and borrowed from a heathen sepulchre. But whatever the party there buried might have been, whether heathen or Chris- tian : it is certain that it could not be Evodia herself, but her mother only, as the meaning of the Latin inscription is, that the daughter Julia Evodia raised this stone to her mothei-. The same author mentions some original papers which he found in the Barbarine library, giving a pleasant account of a negotiation between the Spaniards and pope Urban VIII., in relation to a cer- tain Saint Viak. The Spaniards, it seems, have a saint, held in great reverence in some parts of Spain, called Viar ; for the farther encouragement of whose worship they solicited the pope to grant some special indulgences to his altars ; and upon the Pope's desir- ing to be better acquainted first with his character, and the proofs which they had of his saintship, they produced a stone with these antique letters, S. VIAR, which the antiquaries readily saw to be a fragment of some Roman inscription, in memory of one who had been PraifectuS VIARmto, or overseer over all the highways. But we have in England an instance still more ridiculous, of a fictitious saintship, in the case of a certain saint called Amphibolus ; who, according to our monkish historians, was bishop of the Isle of Man, and fell martyr and disciple of Saint Alban. Yet the learned archbishop Usher* has given us good reasons to convince us that he owes the honor of his saintship to a mistaken passage in the old acts or legends of St. Alban, where the Amphibolus mentioned, and since reverenced as a saint and martyr, was nothing more than the cloak which Alban happened to have at the time of his execution ; being a word derived from the Greek, and signifying a rough, shag- gy cloak, such as was worn by the monks in that age. Thus we see that Romanists can boast not only of a Saint Mount Oracte, but also of a Saint Cloak Amphibolus. But this is not the climax of Rome's worse than pagan idolatry. They have not only a Saint Cloak, but also a Saint Handkerchief, to which they actually ad- dress prayers. They pretend to show at Rome, says Dr. Middleton, two original * Usser. de Britan. Eccles. primord., c. 14, p. 539. 102 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [tJOOK ii. Saint true-image Veronica. Bl aspheroous prayer to the holy handkerchief . impressions of our Saviour's face, on two different handkerchiefs ; the one, sent a present by himself to Agbarus, prince of Edessa, who by letter had desired a picture of him ; the other given by him at the time of his execution to a saint or holy woman, V eronica, upon a handkerchief, which she had lent him to wipe his face on that occasion ; both which handkerchiefs are preserved, as they affirm, and now kept with the utmost reverence ; the first in St. Sylves- ter's church, the second in St. Peter's, where in honor of this sacred relic, there is a fine altar built by pope Urban VIIL, with the statue of Veronica herself, with the following inscription : SALVATORIS IMAGINEM VERONICA SVDARIO EXCEPTAM VT LOCI MAIESTAS DECENTER CVSTODIRET URBANVS VIII. PONT. MAX. MARMOREVM SIGNVM ET ALTARE ADDIDIT CONDITORIVM EXTRVXIT ET ORNAVIT. But notwithstanding the authority of pope Urban, and his inscrip- tion, this VERONICA (as Mabillon, one of their own best authors, has shown), like Amphiholus, before-mentioned, was not any real person, but the name given to the picture itself by old writers, who mention it ; being formed by blundering and confounding the words VERA ICON, Latin for true image, the title inscribed perhaps, or ^iven originally to the handkerchief by the first contrivers of the imposture. It is related by Bower, upon the authority of Mabillon, that pope Innocent III. composed a prayer in honor of this image, and granted a ten days' indulgence to all who should visit it, and that pope John XXII., more generous than Innocent, vouchsafed no less 'than ten thousand days' indulgence to every repetition of the fol- lowing blasphemous prayer : " Hail, holy face of our Redeemer, PRINTED upon A CLOTH AS WHITE AS SNOW ; PURGE US FROM ALL SPOT OF VICE, AND JOIN US TO THE COMPANY OF THE BLESSED. BrING US TO OUR COUNTRY, O HAPPY FIGURE, there to see the pure face OF Christ."* Is it possible for impious idolatry to go beyond this ? and yet this prayer to the holy handkerchief, says Middleton, is inserted in the popish book of offices, and ordered by the rubric to be addressed to it, and this absurd legend, and others like it, flxbulous and childish as they appear to men of sense, are urged by grave authors in defence of their image worship, as certain proofs of its divine origin, and sufficient to confound all the impious opposers of it.f § 37. — To return to the origin of these lying wonders, Mosheim re- marks (vol. i., p. 371), that " the interests of virtue and true religion * Bower's Live3 of the Popes. In vita Innoc. III. f Aring. Rom. subt. Tom. ii., lib. v., c. iv. Conformity cl Ancient and Modern Ceremonies, page 158, referred toby Middleton, ui supra. ^v^^ t^^ CHAP, v.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 105 PiouB frauds and persecution declared lawful. Praying at the sepulchres of sointa. suffered grievously by two monstrous errors which were almost universally adopted in the fourth century, and became a source of innumerable calamities and mischiefs in the succeeding ages. The first of these maxims was, that it was an act of virtue to deceive and lie, when by that means the interests of the church might be promoted ; and the second equally horril^le, though in another point of view, was that errors in religion, when maintained and adhered to, after •proper admonition, were punishable with civil penalties and corporal tortures. The former of these erroneous maxims was now of a long standing ; it had been adopted for some ages past, and had produced an incredible number of ridiculous fables, fictitious prodi- gies, and pious frauds, to the unspeakable detriment of that glorious cause in which they were employed. The other maxim, relating to the justice and expediency of punishing error, was introduced with those serene and peaceful times which the accession of Constantine to the imperial throne procured to the church. It was from that period approved by many, enforced by several examples during the contests that arose with the priscillianists and donatists, confirmed and established by the authority of Augustine, and thus transmitted to the following ages." § 38. — In relation to the fifth century, the same historian remarks : If before this time, the lustre of religion was clouded with super- stition, and its divine precepts adulterated with a mixture of human inventions, this evil, instead of diminishing, increased daily. The happy souls of departed Christians were invoked by numbers, and their aid implored by assiduous and fervent prayers ; while none stood up to censure or oppose this preposterous worship. The question, how the prayers of mortals ascended to the celestial spirits, a question which afterward produced much wrangling and many idle fancies, did not as yet occasion any difficulty. For the Christians of this century did not imagine that the souls of the saints were so entirely confined to the celestial mansions, as to be deprived of the privilege of visiting mortals, and travelling, when they pleased, through various countries. They were further of opinion, that the places most frequented by departed spirits were those where the bodies they had formerly animated were interred ; and this opinion, which the Christians borrowed from the Greeks and Romans, rendered the sepulchres of the saints the general ren- dezvous of suppliant multitudes. A singular and irresistible efficacy was also attributed to the hones of martyrs, and to the figure of the cross, in defeating the attempts of Satan, removing all sorts of calamities, and in healing not only the diseases of the body, but also those of the mind. We shall not enter here into a particular account of the public suppli- cations, the holy pilgrimages, the superstitious services paid to de- parted souls, the multiplication of temples, altars, penitential gar- ments, and a multitude of other circumstances, that showed the de- cline of genuine piety, and the corrupt darkness that was eclipsing jQg HISTORY OF ROMANISM. ibook r. "■ " ' " SiiDerstition of Gregory the Great, Increasing corruptions in the sixth century. ^ the lustre of primitive Christianity. As there were none in these times to hinder the Christians from retammg the opinions of their pagan ancestors concerning departed souls heroes demons, tem- Jles, and such like matters, and even transferring them into then religious services ; and as, instead of entirely abolishing the rites and institutions of ancient times, these institutions were still ob- served with only some slight alterations ; all this swelled of ne- cessity the torrent of superstition, and deformed the beauty of the Christian religion and worship with those corrupt remams oi Fa- ganism, which stiil subsist in the Romish church. 6 39 —In the sixth century, the pubhc teachers seemed to aim at nothingelse than to sink the multitude into the most opprobrious ignor- ance and superstition, to efface in their minds all sense of the beauty and excellence of genuine piety, and to substitute, m the place oi re- ligious principles, a blind veneration for the clergy, and a stupid zeal for a senseless round of ridiculous rites and ceremonies. 1 his, perhaps, will appear less surprising, when we consider that the blind led the blind; for the public ministers and teacners oi religion were for the most part grossly ignorant ; nay, almost as much so as the multitude whom they were appointed to instruct. To be convinced of the truth of the dismal representation we have here given of the state of religion at this time, nothing more is necessary than to cast an eye upon the doctrines now taught concerning the worship of images and saints, the fire of purgatory, the efficacy oj good works ; i. e., the observance of human rites and institutions, toward the attainment of salvation, the power of relics to heal the diseases of body and mind ; and such like sordid and miserable fancies, which are inculcated in many of the superstitious produc- tions of this century, and particularly in the epistles and other writings of Gregory the Great. Nothing more ridiculous on the one hand, than the solemnity and liberality with which this super- stitious pontiiT distributed the wonderworking relics ; and nothing more lamentable on the other, than the stupid eagerness and devo- tion with which the deluded multitude received them, and suiferea themselves to be persuaded, that a portion of stinking oil, taken from the lamps which burned at the tombs of the martyrs, or the filings of a chain supposed to have been worn by a saint, had a supernatural efficacy to sanctify their possessors, and to defend them from all dangers both of a temporal and spiritual nature. There was an incredible number of temples erected in honor of the saints, during the sixth century, both in the eastern and western provinces. The places set apart for public worship were already very numerous ; but it was now that Christians first began to con- sider these sacred edifices, as the means of purchasing the favor and protection of the saints, and to be persuaded that these de- parted spirits defended and guarded, against evils and calamities oi every kind, the provinces, lands, cities, and villages, in which they were honored with temples. The number of these temples was CHAP, v.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 107 The Empress writes to Gregory for a portion of tlie body of St. Paul. His singular letter In reply aluiost equalled by that of the festivals, which were now observed in the Christian church, and many of which seemed to have been instituted upon a pagan model.* § 40. — In order to show that the charge above refeiTed to in re- lation to Gregory's superstitious regard to i-elics is not made with- out sufficient reason, I will present the reader with a translation of an epistle which he wrote to the empress Constantina, who was building a church at Constantinople in honor of St. Paul, and had written to Gregory to grant her either the head or some other part of the body of that Apostle, which was said to be at Rome, for the purpose of enshrining it in the church when completed. After a respectful allusion to the request of the empress, Gregory pro- ceeds — " Major mcBstitia tenuit, ^c. Great sadness hath possessed me, because you have enjoined upon me those things which I neither can or dare do ; for the bodies of the holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, are so resplendent with miracles and terrific prodigies in their own churches, that no one can approach them without great awe, even for the purpose of adoring them. When my predecessor, of happy memory, wished to change some silver ornament which was placed over the most holy body of St. Peter, though at the distance of almost fifteen feet, a warning of no small terror appeared to him. Even I myself wished to make some alteration near the most holy body of St. Paul, and it was necessary to dig rather deeply near his tomb. The Superior of the place found some bones which were not at all connected with that tomb ; and, having presumed to disturb and remove them to some other place, he was visited by certain fearful apparitions, and died suddenly. My predecessor, of holy memory, also undertook to make some- repairs near the tomb of St. Lawrence : as they were digging, without knowing pre- cisely where the venera:ble body was placed, they happened to open his sepulchre. The monks and guardians who were at the work, only because they had seen the body of that martyr, though they did not presume so much as to touch it, all died within ten days ; to the end that no man might remain in life who had beheld the body of that just man. " Be it then known to you, that it is the custom of the Romans, when they give any relics, not to venture to touch any portion of the body ; only they put into a box a piece of linen (called bran- deum), which is placed near the holy bodies ; then it is withdrawn, and shut up with due veneration in the church which is to be dedi- cated, and as many prodigies are then wrought by it as if the bodies themselves had been carried thither ; whence it happened, that in the time of St. Leo (as we learn from our ancestors), when some Greeks doubted the virtue of such relics, that Pope called for a pair of scissors, and cut the linen, and blood flowed from the incision. And not at Rome only, but throughout the whole of the West, it is held sacrilegious to touch the bodies of the saints, nor does such * See Mosheim, Centuries iv., v., vi., passim. 108 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [bookil Gregory consents to send the Empress BOine holy filings. Promotes pilgrimages, purgator y, fee. temerity ever remain unpunished. For which reason we are much astonished at the custom of the Greeks to take away the bones of the saints, and we scarcely gave credit to it. But what shall I say respecting the bodies of the holy Apostles, when it is a known fact, that at the time of their martyrdom, a number of the faithful came from the East to claim them ? But when they had carried them out of the city, to the second milestone, to a place called the Cata- combs, the whole multitude was unable to move them farther, — such a tempest of thunder and lightning terrified and dispersed them. The napkin, too, which you wished to be sent at the same time, is with the body and cannot be touched more than the body can be approached. " But that your religious desire may not be wholly frustrated, I will hasten to send to you some part of those chains which St. Paul wore on his neck and hands, if indeed I shall succeed in getting off any filings from them. For since many continually sohcit as a bless- ing that they may carry off from those chains some small portion of their filings, a priest stands by with a file ; and sometimes it hap- pens that some portions fall off from the chains instantly, and with- out delay ; while, at other times, the file is long drawn over the chains, and yet nothing is at last scraped off from them."* § 41. — Besides the superstitious and idolatrous reverence of Gre- gory for relics, he labored hard in exalting the merit of pil- grimages to holy places ; encouraged the use, though he condemned the ivorship, of images in the churches ; introduced a more impos- ing method of administering the communion, with a magnificent assemblage of pompous ceremonies, which institution was called the Canon of the mass, and which, without doubt, lended a century or two later to the conception of the absurd doctrine of transub- stantiation ; he also seriously inculcated a belief in the pagan doctrine concerning the purification of departed souls by a certain kind of fire, which he called Purgatory, and which doctrine, as Gieseler asserts, was first suggested by Augustine, the bishop of Hippo, towards the close of the fourth century. f A doctrine this which, conjoined with the opinion afterwards invented of the efficacy of masses in delivering tormented souls from these fires, and the power of the Pope to grant indulgences, exempting the purchasers from a portion or from the whole of their merited period of suffering in ihem, was the origin of an almost inexhaustible source of wealth to the Pope ■* The original of this letter may be found in Gregory's epistles, Lib. iv., epist. 30. The larger part of it is quoted in Latin by Gieseler, vol. i., p. 350, note 5. It is worthy of remark also, that Cardinal Baro'nius, the great Roman Catholic annalist, cites this reply of Gregory to the Empress with considerable admiration, as though he really believed the extravagant stories related by Gregory of the pretended wonders wrought by these holy bnnes. Baronius attributes the request of the Empress to ecclesiastical ambition, as though she wished to elevate the See of Constantinople to a level with that of Rome, by obtaining for her church the head of so great an apostle. t See Gieseler, vol. i.,page 352, note 14, with quotations from Augustine. CHAP. VI.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 10!) With few exceptiona, Topery at its birth and Popery in its dotage, identical. and the clergy, extorted from the credulity and the fears alike of the rich and the poor through long ages of superstition and night. § 42. — From the review which we have thus taken of the origin and progress of these various corruptions of Christianity, it appears that, with the exceptions of the belief in transubstantiation, the general worship of images, the practice of auricular confession, the performance of worship in an unknown tongue, and a few minor particulars, there is but little difference between the cha- racteristic features of Popery at its birth in the seventh century, and Popery in its dotage in the nineteenth. It is true that, as age after age rolled away, as old corruptions were strengthened and new ones added to the list, as " the man of sin," in the course of a few centuries, trampled upon the thi-ones of monarchs, unsheathed the sword of persecution against the suffer- ing martyrs of Jesus, and reeled onward in the career of ages, " drunk with the blood of the saints," the title of anti-Christ be- came more deeply branded on his shameless front : — and yet it is equally true that Popery, at its birth in 606, was characterized by every one of the predicted marks of the great Apostasy, as truly as it bears those marks at the present day. Then, as now, the apostate church of Rome had departed from the faith, " giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats." (1 Tim. iv., 1, 2.) Then, as now, that " man of sin " was revealed, even "the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God ;" and his " coming was after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs and lying wonders." (2 Thess. ii., 3, 4, 9, 10.) CHAPTER VI. STRIKING RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN PAGAN AND PAPAL CEREMONIES THE LATTER DERIVED FROM THE FORMER. § 43. — In tracing the origin of the corrupt doctrines and practices of the Romish church, we have had frequent occasion, in the pre- ceding chapters, to allude to the fact, that most of its anti-scriptural rites and ceremonies were adopted from the pagan worship of Greece, Rome, and other heathen nations. The scholar, familiar as he is with the classic descriptions of ancient mythology, when he directs his attention to the ceremonies of papal worship, cannot avoid 110 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book ii. Popish and pagan ceremonies. Their close and striking resemblance. recognizing their close resemblance, if not their absolute identity. The temples of Jupiter, Diana, Venus,or Apollo, their " altars smoking with incense " (" thure calent Arce." Virgil.), their boys in sacred habits, holding the incense box, and attending upon the priests (^^Da mild Thura, Puer." Ovid.), their holy water at the entrance of the temples {" Spargens rore levi." Firg'iV.), with their as/Jerg'i'ZZa or sprinkling brushes, their thuribula, or vessels of incense, their ever-burning lamps before the statues of their deities (" vigilemque sacraverat ignem." Virgil.), are irresistibly brought before his mind, whenever he visits a Roman Catholic place of worship, and witnesses pre- cisely the same things. If a Roman scholar of the age of the Csssars, who, previous to his death, had formed some acquaintance with the religion of the despised Nazarenes, had in the seventh or eighth century arisen from his grave in the Campus Martius, and wandered into the spa- cious church of Constantine at Rome, which then stood on the spot now occupied by Saint Peter's, if he had there witnessed these institutions of Paganism, which were then and ever since have been incorporated with the worship of Rome, would he not have come to the conclusion that he had found his way into some temple dedi- cated to Diana, Venus, or Apollo, rather than into a Christian place of worship, where the successors of Peter the fisherman, or Paul the tentmaker, had met for the worship of .lesus of Nazareth ? It is impossible to conceive of a greater contrast than that which is pre- sented between the plain and simple rites of primitive apostohc Christian worship in the first century, and the pompous and impos- ing spectacle of papal worship, performed in some stately cathedra], adorned with its altars, pictures, images, and burning wax-lights, with all the array of holy water, smoking incense, tinkling bells, and priests and boys arrayed in gaudy colored vestments, as they • were seen in the time of pope Boniface, of the seventh century, and as they are still seen, with but little change, after the lapse of twelve hundred years. § 44. — The practice of thus accommodating the forms of Chris- tian worship to the prejudices of the heathen nations, was introduced m various places long before the estabhshment of Popery in 606 ; though, of course, as there was then no acknowledged earthly sovereign and head of the church, the observance of these heathen rites was not regarded as obligatory upon all, till enjoined bv the newly estabhshed papal authority, in the seventh century. It is not unhkely that this policy, in its incipient stage, commenced by a mis- taken, but well-mtended desire of some good men, like the apostle 1 aul, to " become all things to all men," that they might " by all means save some." Yet this apology can by no means be admitted as an excuse for the almost entire subversion of Christianity in the Komish communion, by the adoption of these heathen rites, ceremo- nies, and superstitions. The ancient heathen nations had always been accustomed to a variety of imposing ceremonies in their reli- gious services, hence they looked with contempt upon the simplicity CHAP. VI. j POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. Ill Reasons for the admiaBion of pagan ceremonies dictated by worldly policy. of Christian worship, destitute as it was of these pompous and mag- nificent rites, and it was a step pregnant with disaster to the cause of genuine Christianity, when, as early as the third century some advocated the necessity of admitting a portion of the ancient cere- monies to which the people had been accustomed, for the purpose of rendering Christian worship more striking and captivating to the oufward senses. As a proof that Christianity began thus early to be corrupted, it is related in the life of Gregory, bishop of New Cesarea, surnamed Thaumaturgus, or wonder-worker, that when he perceived that the ignorant multitude persisted in their idolatry, on account of the pleasures and sensual gratifications which they enjoyed at the pagan festivals, he granted them a permission to indulge themselves in the like pleasures, in celebrating the memory of the holy martyrs, hoping, that, in process of time, they would return, of their own accord, to a more virtuous and regular course of life." " This addition of external rites," says Mosheim, " was also de- signed to remove the opprobrious calumnies which the Jewish and pagan priests cast upon the Christians, on account of the simplicity of their worship, esteeming them little better than atheists, because they had no temples, altars, victims, priests, nor anything of that external pomp in which the vulgar are so prone to place the essence of rehgion. The rulers of the church adopted, therefore, certain external ceremonies, that thus they might captivate the senses of the vulgar, and be able to refute the reproaches of their adversaries, thus obscuring the native lustre of the gospel, in order to extend its influence, and making it lose, in point of real excellence, what it gained in point of popular esteem."* § 45. — After the conversion of Constantine in the fourth century, i when Christianity was taken under the protection of the state, this sinful conformity to the practices of Paganism increased to such a degree, that the beauty and simplicity of Christian worship were almost entirely obscured, and by the time these corruptions were ripe for the establishment of the Popedom, Christianity — the Chris- tianity of the state — to judge from the institutions of its public worship — seemed but little else than a system of Christianized Paganism. Here we may apply that well known saying of Augustine, that the yoke under which the Jews formerly groaned, was more tolerable than that imposed upon many Christians in his time. The rites and institutions, by which the Greeks, Romans, and other na- tions, had formerly testified their religious veneration for fictitious deities, were now adopted, with some slight alterations, by Chris- tian bishops, and employed in the service of the true God. We have already mentioned the reasons alleged for this imitation, so proper to disgust all who have a just sense of the native beauty of genuine Christianity These fervent heralds of the gospel, whose * Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. i., page 197, 112 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book ii Wartdingtoa quoted. Cht'ialianUy paganized. Dr. Conyers Middleton's visit to Rome. zeal outran their candor and ingenuity, imagined that the nations . would receive Christianity with more facility, when they saw the rites and ceremonies to which they were accustomed, adopted in the church, and the same worship paid to Christ and his martyrs, which they had formerly offered to their idol deities. Hence it happened, that in these times, the religion of the Greeks and Romans differed very little, in its external appearance, from that of the Christians. They had both a most pompous and splendid ritual. Gorgeous robes, mitres, tiaras, wax tapers, crosiers, processions, lustrations, images, gold and silver vases, and many such circum- stances of pageantry, were equally to be seen in the heathen tem- ples and the Christian churches.* In the words of a distinguished member of the establishment in Great Britain, Dean Waddington, " the copious transfusion of heathen ceremonies into Christian worship, which had taken place before the end of the fourth century, had, to a certain extent, paganized (if w^e may so express it) the outward form and aspect of religion, and these ceremonies became more general and more numerous, and, so far as the calamities of the times would permit, more splendid in the age which followed. To console the convert for the loss of his favorite festival, others of a different name, but similar description, were introduced ; and the simple and serious occupation of spiritual devotion was beginning to degenerate into a worship of parade and demonstration, or a mere scene of riotous festivity."! When pope Boniface was invested, by the emperor Phocas, with supreme authority over all the churches of the empire, in the way we have seen, he not only adopted all the pagan ceremo- nies that had previously, in various places, been incorporated into Christian worship, but speedily issued his sovereign decrees, enjoin- ing uniformity of worship, and thus rendered these heathen rites binding upon all who were desirous of continuing in fellowship with the Romish church, or, as it now was called, the Holy Catholic church. Thus incorporated, they became a constituent element of the anti-Christian Apostasy, and have so continued to the present §46.— In the year 1729, a distinguished scholar and divine of Uie Episcopal church of England, the Rev. Convers Middieton, JJ.D., visited the city of Rome, and has so skilfully traced " th° exact conformity of Popery and Paganism" in his celebrated « let- K^T u i?"'"'^; ^'^ YJ"'''',^ ^^^"^ already had occasion to refer, that I shall avail myself, m the present chapter, somewhat at length ot that learned publication, in tracing the ceremonies of papal worship to their heathen originals. ^^ It is worthy of remark, that Dr. Middieton visited Rome not as a theologian, but as a classical scholar ; not so much for the I ^osheim's Ecclesiastical History, cent, iv., part 2, chap. 4. t Waddington's History of the Church, page 118. CHAP. VI.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 113 Lying wondets of Rome The leaping head and the fountains of milk. purpose of studying the Roman Catholic rehgion and worship, as for the sake of studying the remains of ancient classic antiquity, and thus gratifying the taste which he had acquired at the English universities, for the study of the poets, historians, and orators of ancient Rome ; — but that when he reached Rome, so exact did he find the resemblance between the temples, the images, and ceremo- nies of Popery, and those of Paganism, that he came to the just conclusion that he could in no way more effectually increase his familiarity with the latter than by directing his attention to the former. But let us hear the doctor himself " As for my own journey to this place," says he, " it was not any motive of devotion, which draws so many others hither, that oc- casioned it. My zeal was not bent on visiting the holy thresholds of the apostles, and kissing the feet of their successor. I knew that their ecclesiastical antiquities were mostly fabulous and legend- ary ; supported by fictions and impostures, too gross to employ the attention of a man of sense. For should we allow that Peter had been at Rome, of which many learned men however have doubted, yet they had not any authentic monuments remaining of him ; any visible footsteps subsisting to demonstrate his residence among them : and should we ask them for any evidence of that kind, they would refer to the impression of his face on the wall of the dungeon in which he was confined, or to a fountain in the bottom of it, raised miraculously by hirn out of the rock, in order to baptize his fellow prisoners ; or to the mark of our Saviour' s feet in a stone, on which he appeared to him and stopped him as he was flying out of the city, from a persecution then raging. In memory of which, there was a church built on the spot called St. Mary delle Piante, or of the marks of (he feet ; which falling into decay, was supplied by a chapel, at the expense of Cardinal Pole. But the stone itself, more valuable, as the writers say, than any of the precious ones, being a perpetual monument and proof of the Christian religion (!) is preserved with all due reverence" in'St. Sebastian's church ; where I purchased a print of it, with several others of the same kind. Or they would appeal perhaps to the evidence of some miracle wrought at his execution ; as they do in the case of St. Paul in a church called ' at the three Fountains ;' the place where he was beheaded : on which occasion, ' instead of blood there issued only milk from his veins ; and his head when separated from his body, having made three jumps upon the ground, raised at each place a spring of living water, which retains still, as they would persuade us, the plain taste of milk ;' of all of which facts we have an account in Baronius, Ma- billon, and all their gravest authors ; and may see printed figures of them in the description of modern Rome ! ! " It was no part of my design to spend my time abroad in attending to ridiculous fictions of this kind; the chief pleasure which I proposed to myself, was to visit the genuine remains and venerable relics of Pagan Rome ; the authentic monuments of an- J 14 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book ii. Dr7 Middleton 's reason for visiting Rome. Pagan antiquiticB beat studied through popish ceremonicB . tiquity, that demonstrate the truth of those histories, which are the entertainment as well as the instruction of our younger years. "As therefore my general studies had furnished me with a com- petent knowledge of Roman history, as well as an inclination to search more particularly into some branches of its antiquities, so I had resolved to employ myself in inquiries of this sort ; and to lose as little time as possible in taking notice of the fopperies and ridiculous ceremonies of the present religion of the place. But 1 soon found myself mistaken; for the whole form and outward dress of their worship seem so grossly idolatrous and extravagant, beyond what I had imagined, and made so strong an impression on me, that I could not help considering it with a peculiar regard ; espe- cially when the very reason, which I thought would have hindered me from any notice of it at all, was the chief cause that engaged me to pay so much attention to it ; for nothing, I found, concurred so much with my original intention of conversing with the ancients : or so much helped my imagination, to find myself wandering about in old Heathen Rome, as to observe and attend to their religious worship ; all whose ceremonies appear plainly to have been copied from the rituals of primitive Paganism ; as if handed down by an uninterrupted succession from the priests of old, to the priests^ of new Rome ; whilst each of them readily explained, and called to mind-some passages of a classic author, where the same ceremony was described, as transacted in the same form and manner, and in the same place where I now saw it executed before my eyes : so that as oft as I was present at any religious exercise in the churches, it was more natural to fancy myself looking on at some solemn act of idolatry in old Rome, than assisting at a worship instituted on the principles, and founded upon the plan of Christianity." § 47. — As a proof that these assertions are founded in truth, the following are presented as a few instances of the way in which heathen ceremonies and superstitions were transferred from Pagan to professedly Christian worship. The first is given upon the authority of Mosheim, the others upon that of Dr. Middleton, who refers to various classical authors among the ancients, and to Mont- faucon, Polydore, Virgil, Platina, Hospinian, Mabillon, &c., among the moderns, for his authorities ; but those who wish to consult the original authorities, I must refer to the work of Dr. Middleton.* (I.) Worshipping toward the East. — Before the coming of Christ, all the eastern nations performed divine worship with their faces turned to that part of the heavens where the sun displays his rising beams. This custom was founded upon a general opinion that God, whose essence they looked upon to be light, and whom they consid- ered as circumscribed within certain limits, dwelt in that part of the firmament, from whence he sends forth the sun, the bright image of his * Dr. Conyers Middleton's Letter from Rome, on the exact conformity between Popery and Paganism, London, 1761 — fassim. CHAP. VI.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 116 Burning of incense a heathen ceremony. benignity and glory. They who embraced the Christian religion, rejected, indeed, this gross error, but they retained the ancient and universal custom of worshipping toward the East, which sprung from it. Nor is that custom abolished even in our times, but still prevails in a great number of Christian churches.* (2.) The burning of incense. — Many of our divines, says Dr. JNIiddleton, have with much learning and solid reasoning, charged and effectually proved the crime of idolatry on the church of Rome; but these controversies where the charge is denied, and with much sub tlety evaded, are not capable of giving that conviction which I imme- diately received from my senses ; the surest witness of the fact in all cases, and which no man can fail to be furnished with, who sees Popery as it is exercised in Italy, in the full pomp and display of its pageantry ; and practising all its arts and powers without caution or reserve. This similitude of the popish and pagan religion, seemed so evident and clear, and struck my imagination so forcibly, that I soon resolved to give myself the trouble of searching it to the bottom : and to explain and demonstrate the certainty of it, by com- paring together the principal and most obvious part of each worship, which, as it was my first employment after I came to Rome, shall be the subject of my letter ; showing the source and origin of the popish ceremonies, and the exact conformity of them with those of their pagan ancestors. The very first thing that a stranger must necessarily take notice of, as soon as he enters their churches, is the use of incense or per- fumes in their religious offices ; the first step which he takes within the door, will be sure to make him sensible of it, by the offence that he will immediately receive from the smell as well as the smoke of this incense, with which the whole church continues filled for some time after every solemn service. A custom received directly from paganism ; and which presently called to my mind the old descrip- tions of the heathen temples and altars, which are never mentioned by the ancients, without the epithet of perfumed or incensed. Thurioremis cum dona imponerit Aris. — Virg., Mn. iv., 453, 486. Saepe Jovem vidi cum jam sua mittere vellet Fulmina, thure dato sustinuisse manum. — Ovid. In some of their principal churches, where you have before you in one view, a great number of altars, and all of them smoking at once with streams of incense, how natural it is to imagine one's self trans- ported into the temple of some heathen deity, or that of the Paphian Venus described by Virgil : Her hundred altars there with garlands crown'd, And richest incense smoking, breathe around Sweet odors, &c.— .-En. i., 420. Under the pagan emperors, the use of incense for any purpose of religion was thought so contrary to the obligations of Christianity, * Mosheim, cent, ii., pan 2, chap. iv. 11 G HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [boos. ii. Uae of holy water derived from Paganism. The jesuii La Cerda acknowledges it. that in their persecutions, the very method of trying and convicting a Christian, was by requiring him only to throw the least grain of it into the censer, or on the altar. Under the Christian emperors, on the other hand, it was looked upon as a rite so peculiarly heathen- ish, that the very places or houses where it could be proved to have been done, were, by a law of Theodosius, confiscated to the govern- ment. Jn the old bas-reliefs, or pieces of sculpture, where any heathen sacrifice is represented, we never fail to see a boy in a sacred habit, which was always white, attending on the priest, with a little chest or box in his hands, in which this incense was kept for the use of the altar. And in the same manner still in the church of Rome, there is always a boy in surplice waiting on the priest at the altar, with the sacred utensils ; among the rest the Thuribulum or vessel of incense, which the priest, with many ridiculous motions and cross- ings, waves several times, as it is smoking, around and over the altar, in different parts of the service. (3.) The use of holy water. — The next thing in the Roman worship, that will, of course, strike the imagination, is the use the papists make of the holy water, for nobody ever goes in or out of a church, but is either sprinkled by the priest, who attends for that purpose on solemn days, or else serves himself with it from a vessel, usually of marble, placed just at the door, not unlike to one of our baptismal fonts. Now this ceremony is so notoriously and directly transmitted to them from Paganism, that their own writers make not the least scruple to own it. The Jesuit La Cerda, in his notes on a passage of Virgil, where this practice is mentioned, says, "Hence was derived the custom of the holy church, to provide purifying of holy water at the entrance of their churches." Aquaminarium or Amula, says the learned Montfaucon, was a vase of holy water, placed by the heathens at the entrance of their temples, to sprinkle themselves with. The same vessel was by the Greeks called Perrirranterion ; two of which, the one of gold, the other of silver, were given by Croesus to the temple of Apollo at Delphi ; and the custom of sprinkling themselves was so necessary a part of their religious offices, that the method of excommunication seems to have been by prohibiting to offenders the approach and use of the holy water pot. The very composition of this holy water was the same also among the heathens, as it is now among the papists, being nothing more than a mixture of salt with common water ; ' Porro singulis diebus Dominicis sacerdos missas sacrum facturus, aquam sale adspersam, benedicendo revocare debet eaque populum adspergere' {Durant. de Rit., 1. 1, c. 21); and the form of the sprinkling-brush, called by the ancients aspersorium or aspergillum, which is much the same with what the priests now make use of, niay be seen in the bas-reliefs, or ancient coins, wherever the insig- nia, or emblems of the pagan priesthoof , are described, of which it is generally one. Platina, in his lives of the popes, and other authors, ascribe the CHAP. VI.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 117 Justin Martyr says that it was invented by dtEmons. Festival of St. Anthony. institution of holy water to pope Alexander I., who is said to have lived about the year of Christ 113 : but it could not have been intro- duced so early, since for some ages after, we find the primitive fathers speaking of it as a custom purely heathenish, condemning it as. impious and detestable. Justin Martyr says, " That it was in- vented by daemons in imitation of the true baptism signified by the prophets, that their votaries might also have their pretended purifi- cations by water " {Apol. 1, p. 91); and the emperor Julian, out of spite to the Chiistians, used to order their victuals in the markets to be sprinkled with holy water, on purpose either to starve, or force them to eat, what by their own principles they esteemed polluted. Thus we see what contrary notions the primitive and Romish church have of this ceremony ; the first condemns it as superstition, abominable and irreconcilable with Christianity ; the latter adopts it as highly edifying and applicable to the improvement of Christian piety ; the one looks upon it as the contrivance of the devil to delude mankind ; the other as the security of mankind against the delusions of the devil ! ! One of the most senseless and extraordinary uses to which the papists apply this holy watei% is the sprinkling and blessing of horses, mules, asses, SfC, on the festival of St. Anthony, observed annually on the 17th of January. On that day the inhabitants of the city of Rome and vicinity send their horses, &c., decked with ribands, to the convent of St. Anthony, which is situated near the church of St. Mary the Great. The priest, in his sacerdotal garments, stands at the church door, with a large sprinkling-brush in his hand, and as each animal is presented to him, he takes off his skull cap, mutters a few words, in Latin, intimating that through the merits of the blessed St. Anthony, they are to be preserved for the coming year from sick- ness and death, famine and danger, then dips his brush in a huge bucket of holy water, that stands by him, and sprinkles them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.* The priest * In the preface to his letter from Rome, Dr. Middleton gives the following story from St. Jerome, as the most probable origin of this absurd custom. " A citizen of Gaza, a Christian, who kept a stable of running horses for the Circensian games, was always beaten by his antagonist, an idolator, the master of the rival stable. For the idolator, by the help of certain charms, and diabolical imprecations, con- stantly damped the spirits of the Christian's horses, and added courage to his own. The Christian, therefore, in despair, applied himself to St. Hilarion, and implored his assistance ; but the saint was unwilling to enter into an affair so frivolous and profane, till the Christian urged it as a necessary defence against these adversaries of God, whose insults were levelled not so much at him, as the Church of Christ. And his entreaties being seconded by the monks who were present, the saint ordered his earthen jug, out of which he used to drink, to be filled with water and delivered to the man, who presently sprinkled his stable, his horses, his charioteers, his chariot, and the very boundaries of the course with it. Upon this the whole city was in wondrous expectation. The idolaters derided what the Christian was doing, while the Christians took courage, and assured themselves of victory ; till the signal being given for the race, the Christian's horses seemed to fly, whilst the idolater's were laboring behind and left quite out of sight ! so that the pagans themselves were obliged to cry out that their god Mamas was conquered at last by Christ."— Page 17. 118 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book u Ludicrous annual ceremony at Rome. Sprinkling of horses, asses, tc, with holj' water. receives a fee for sprinkling each animal, and Dr. Middleton re- marks that amongst the rest he had his own horses blessed at the expense of about eighteen pence " as well to satisfy his own curi- osity, as to humor the coachman ; who was persuaded, as the com- mon people generally are, that some mischance would befall them within the year, if they wanted the benefit of this benediction." He adds, a revenue is thus provided, sufficient for the maintenance of forty or fifty of the lazy drones called monks. Sometimes the visitor at Rome will see a splendid equipage drive up, attended by outriders, in elegant livery, to have the horses thus sprinkled with holy water, all the people remaining uncov- ered till the absurd and disgusting ceremony is over. On one occa- sion a traveller observed a countryman, whose beast having re- ceived the holy water, set off from the church door at a gallop, but had scarcely gone a hundred yards before the ungainly animal tumbled down with him, and over its head he rolled into" the dust. He soon, however, arose, and so did the horse, without either seem- ing to have sustained much injury. The priest looked on, and though his blessing had failed, he was not out of countenance; while some of the bystanders said that but for it, the horse and his rider might have broken their necks. A recent writer, formerly a Romish priest, and who, therefore, knows whereof he affirms, writes as follows, in relation to this cere- mony, " If I could lead my readers on the 17th of January, to the church of St. Antoin in Rome, I am convinced they would not know whether they should laugh at the ridiculous religious performances, or weep over the heathenish practices of the church of Rome. He would see a priest in his sacerdotal garments, with a stole over his neck, a brush in his right hand, and sprinkling the mules, asses, and horses, with holy water, and praying for them and with them, and blessing them m order to be preserved the whole year from sick- ness and death, famine and danger, for the sake and merits of the holy Antony. All this is a grotesque scene, so grotesque that no American can have any idea of it, and heathen priests would never have thought of it. Add to that, the great mass of people, the kickmgs of the mules, the meetings of the lovers, the neighings of the horses, the melodious voices of the asses, the shoutings of the multitude, and mockings of the protestants, who reside in Rome, and you have a spectacle, which would be new, entirely new, not only for American protestants, but for the heathen themselves, and must be abominable in the eye of God. But enough ; the subiect IS too serious ; it is a religious exercise, practised by the priests of Kome, in the so-called metropoHs of the Christian world, sanctioned by the self-styled infallible head of the church of Rome. All we can say is: 'Ichabod, thy glory is departed.' The priests of heathen Kome would be ashamed of such a religious display in the nine- teenth century. * prfes?^ ^^^'■^ ^°™^ ^' '' ^'' ^^' ^^^- ^- ^"««"i''"i. D.D., formerly a Roman SiiriiikliiiL' Hiitl BlesEliifj of llnj-'cs fit Itoine, on St. Anthony's Day CTAF. VI.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.—A. D. 606. 121 Lighting up candles in the day time a heathen custom. (4.) Burning wax candles in the day time. — No sooner is a man advanced a little forward into their churches, and begins to look about him, but he will find his eyes and attention attracted by a number of lamps and wax candles, which are kept constantly burn ing before the shrines and images of their samts. In the great churches of Italy, says Mabillon, they hang up lamps at every altar ; a sight which not only surprises a stranger by the novelty of it, but will furnish him with another proof and example of the conformity of the Romish with the pagan worship ; by recalling to his memory many passages of the heathen writers, where their perpetual lamps and candles are described as continually burning before the altars and statues of their deities. ' Centum aras posuit vigilemque sacra- verat ignem.' Virg., ^n. iv., 200. Herodotus tells us of the Egyptians who first introduced the use of lamps into their temples. That they had a famous yearly festival, called from the principal ceremony of it, the lighting up of candles, but there is scarcely a single festival at Rome, which might not for the same reason be called by the same name. The primitive writers frequently expose the folly and absurdity of this heathenish custom. " They light up candles to God," says Lactantius, " as if he lived in the dark ; and do they not deserve to pass for madmen, who offer lamps to the author and giver of light ?" In the collections of old inscriptions, we may find instances of presents and donations from private persons, of lamps and candle- sticks to the temples and altars of their gods. A piece of zeal which continues still the same in modern Rome, where each church abounds with lamps of massive silver, and sometimes even of gold ; the gifts of princes, and other persons of distinction ; and it is sur- prising to see how great a number of this kind are perpetually before the altars of their principal saints, or miraculous images ; as St. Anthony of Padua, or the lady of Loretto ; as well as the vast profusion of wax candles, with which their churches are illuminated on every great festival when the high altar covered with gold and silver plate, brought out of their treasuries, and stuck full of wax lights, disposed in beautiful figures, looks more like the rich side- board of some great prince, dressed out for a feast, than an altar to pay divine worship at. (5.) Votive gifts and offerings. — But a stranger will not be more surprised at the number of lamps or wax-lights, burning before their altars, than at the number of offerings or votive gifts, which are hanging all around them, in consequence of vows made in the time of danger, and in gratitude for deliverance and cures wrought in sickness or distress ; a practice so common among the heathens, that no one custom of antiquity is so frequently mentioned by all their writers ; and many of their original donaria, or votive offer- ings, are preserved to this day in the cabinets of the curious ; images of metal, stone, or clay, as well as legs, arms, and other parts of the body, which had formerly been hung up in their temples in tes- timony of some divine favor or cure effected by their titular deity J 22 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book ii. Votire offeri ngs. Hand BTtoiT^, in wax. Copie. of heathen origin i;: in that particular member. But the most common of all offerings were pictures representing the history of the miraculous cure or deliverance, vouchsafed upon the vovf of the donor. Nunc dea, nunc succurre mihi ; nam posse Picia docet templis multa tabella tuis. — Tibul., El. i., 3. Now, goddess, help, for thou canst help bestow ; As all these pictures round thy altars show. A friend of Diagoras, the philosopher, called the atheist, having found him once in a temple, as the story is told by Cicero, " You," says he, " vi'ho think the gods take no notice of human affairs, do you not see here by this number of pictures, hovsr many people, for the sake of their vovirs, have been saved in storms at sea, and got safe into harbor?" "Yes," says Diagoras,"! see how it is, for those are never painted who happen to be drowned." The temples of Esculapius were more especially rich in those offerings, which Livy says were the price and pay for the cures he had wrought for the sick ; where they used always to hang up and expose to com- mon view, in tables of brass or marble, a catalogue of all the miraculous cures which he had performed for his votaries. A re- markable fragment of one of these tables is still remaining and pub- lished in Gruter's Collections, having been found in the ruins of a temple of that god, in the island of the Tiber at Rome : upon which the learned Roman Catholic writer, Montfaucon, makes this reflec- tion : that in it are either seen the wiles of the devil, to deceive the cre- dulous ; or else the tricks of pagan priests suborning men to coun- terfeit diseases and miraculous cures. Why is not this as true of Popery as Paganism ? Now this piece of superstition had been found of old so beneficial to the priesthood, that it could not fail of being taken into the scheme of the Romish worship ; where it reigns at this day in its full height and vigor, as in the ages of pagan idolatry ; and in so gross a man- ner, as to give scandal and offence even to some of their own com- munion. Polydore Virgil, after having described this practice of the ancieats, " in the same manner," says he, " do we now offer up in ouj" churches little images of wax ; and as oft as any part of the body is hurt, as the hand or foot, &c., we presently make a vow to God, or one of his saints, to whom, upon our recovery, we make an offering of that hand or foot in wax ; which custom is now come to that extravagance, that we do the same for our cattle which we do for ourselves, and make offerings on account of our oxen, horses, sheep ; where a scrupulous man will question, in this we imitate the religion or the superstition of our ancestors." As oft as I have had the curiosity to look over those Donaria, or votive offerings, hanging round the shrines of their images, and consider the several stories of each, as they are either expressed in painting or related in writing, I have always found them to be mere copies, or verbal translations of the originals of heathenism ; for the vow is often said to have been divinely inspired, or expressly commanded ; and the CHAP. vi.J POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 123 Revival of old Pagan impostures. Woi-shiii of idols or images. cure and deliverance to have been vs^rought either by the visible apparition, and immediate hand of the titular saint, or by the notice of a dream, or some other miraculous admonition from heaven. " There can be no doubt," say their vi^riters, " but that images of our saints often work signal miracles, by procuring health to the infirm, and appearing to us often in dreams, to suggest something of great moment for our service." And what is all this but a revival of the old impostui'es, and a re- petition of the same old stories of which the ancient inscriptions are full, with no difference than what the pagans ascribe to the imaginary help of their deities, the papists as foolishly impute to the favor of their saints ? Whether the reflection of Father Montfau- con on the pagan priests, mentioned above, be not, in the very same case, as justly applicable to the Roman priests, I must leave to the judgment of my reader. (G.) Adoration of idols or images. — When a man is once en- gaged in reflections of this kind, imagining himself in some heathen temple, and expecting, as it were, some sacrifice or other piece of Paganism to ensue, he will not be long in suspense, before he sees the finishing act and last scene of genuine idolatry, in crowds of bigot votaries, prostrating themselves before some image of wood or stone, and paying divine honors to an idol of their own erecting. Should they squabble with us here, about the meaning of the word idol, Jerome has determined it to the very case in question, telling us, that by idols are to be understood the images of the dead : ' Idola intelligimus Imagines mortuorum.' (Hier Com. in Isa., c. xxxvii.) And the worshippers of such images are used always in the style of the fathers, as terms synonymous and equivalent to heathens and pagans. As to the practice itself, it was condemned by many of the wisest heathens, and for several ages, even in pagan Rome, was thought impious and detestable : for Numa, we find, prohibited it to the old Romans, nor would suffer any images in their temples ; which constitution they observed religiously, says Plutarch, for the first hundred and seventy years of the city. But as image wor- ship was thought abominable even by some pagan princes, so by some of the Christian emperors it was forbidden on pain of death ; not because those images were the representations of demons or false gods, but because they werd vain, senseless idols, the work of men's hands, and for that reason unworthy of any honor : and all the instances and overt acts of such worship, described and condemned by thenft, are exactly the same with what the papists practise at this day ; lighting up candles, burning incense, hanging up garlands, &c., as may be seen in the law of Theodosius before mentioned, which confiscates that house or land where apy such act of Gentile superstition had been committed. Those princes who were influenced, we may suppose, in their constitutions of this sort, by the advice of their bishops, did not think Paganism abolished, till the adoration of images was utterly extirpated; which was reckoned always the priLcipal of those Gentile rites, 124 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book ii. Pagan heroes an d demigods with Christian names. The Punlheon dedicated to Mary and all the eainta that agreeably to the sense of the purest ages of Christianity, are never mentioned in the imperial laws without the epithets of pro- fane, damnable, impious, &c. What opinion then can we have of the present practice of the church of Rome, but that by a change only of name, they have found means to retain the thing ; and by substituting their samts m the place of the old demigods, have but set up idols of their own, instead of those of their forefathers ? In which it is hard to say whether their assurance or their address is more to be admired, who have the face to make that the principal part of Christian worship, which the first Christians looked upon as the most criminal part even of Paganism, and have found means to extract gain and great revenues out of a practice which in primitive times would have cost a man both his lii'e and estate. But our notion of the idolatry of modern Rome will be much heightened still and con- firmed, as oft as we follow them into those temples, and to those very altars which were built originally by their heathen ancestors, the old Romans, to the honor of their pagan deities, where we shall hardly see any other alteration than the shrine of some old hero filled by the meaner statue of some modern saint. Nay, they have not always, as I am well informed, given themselves the trouble of making even this change, but have been content sometimes to take up with the old image, just as they found it; after baptizing it only, as it were, or consecrating it anew by the imposition of a Christian name. This their antiquaries do not scruple to put strangers in mind of in showing their churches ; and it was, I think, in that of St. Agnes where they showed me an antique of a young Bacchus, which, with a new name and a little change of drapery, stands now worshipped under the title of a female saint. (7.) The Gods of the Pantheon turned into popish saints. — The noblest heathen temple now remaining in the world, is the Pantheon, or Rotunda ; which, as the inscription "over the portico informs us, having been piously dedicated of old by Agrippa to Jove and all the gods, was impiously reconsecrated by Pope Boniface IV., about A. D. GIO, TO THE BLESSED ViRGIN AND ALL THE SaINTS. PANTHEON, &c. AB AGRIPPA AUGUSTI GENERO, IMPIE JOVI, C^TERISQ; MENDACIBUS DIIS, A. BONIFACIO mi. PONTIFJCE, DEIPARiE & S. S. CHRISTI MARTYRIBUS PIO DICATUM, &c. With this single alteration, it serves as exactly for all the pur- poses of the popish as it did for the pagan worship, for which it was built. For as in the old temple, every one might find the God of his country, and address himself to that deity, whose religion he was most devoted to ; so it is the same thing now ; every one chooses the patron whom he likes best ; and one may see here different services going on at the same time at different altars, with CHAP. vi.J POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 60G. 125 Heathen idols changed into Christian saints. Road gnds. distinct congregations round them, just as the inclinations of the people lead them to the worship of this or that particular Saint. And what better title can the new demigods show, to the adoration now paid them, than the old ones, whose shrines they have usurped ? Or how comes it to be less criminal to worship images, erected by the Pope, than those which Agrippa, or that which Nebuchadnezzar set up ? If there be any real difference, most people will, I dare say, be apt to determine in favor of the old possessors. For those heroes of antiquity were raised up into gods, and received divine honors, for some signal benefits, of which they had been the authors to mankind ; as the invention of arts and sciences ; or of something highly useful and necessary to life Whereas of the Romish saints, it is certain that many of them were never heard of, but in their own legends or fabulous histories ; and many more, instead of services done to mankind, owe all the honors now paid to them, to their vices or their errors ; whose merit, like that of Demetrius, (Acts xix., 23), was their skill of raising rebellions in defence of an idol, and throwing kingdoms into con- vulsions, for the sake of some gainful imposture. And as it is in the Pantheon, it is just the same in all the other heathen temples, that still remain in Rome ; they have only pulled down one idol to set up another ; and changed rather the name than the object of their worship. Thus the little temple of Vesta, near the Tiber, mentioned by Horace, is now possessed by Madonna of the Sun ; that of Fortuna Virilis, by Mary the Egyptian ; that of Saturn, where the public treasure was anciently kept, by St. Adrian ; that of Romulus and Remus in the Via Sacra, by two other brothers, Cosmas and Damianus ; that of Antoninus Pius, by Laurence the saint ; but for my part, adds Dr. Middleton, I should sooner be tempted to prostrate myself before the statue of a Romu- lus or an Antonine, than that of a Laurence or a Damian ; and give divine honors rather with pagan Rome, to the founders of empires, than with popish Rome, to the founders of monasteries. In reply to these observations of Dr. Middleton, some may inquire whether there is anything wrong in the change of a hea- then temple to a Christian place of worship, any more than in the change of theatres into churches, which is frequently done in the present day. To this objection we answer, that it is not to the change of the Pantheon into a Chi-istian temple we object, but to the adoption of the pagan ceremonies into Christian worship, and the adoring the same images of heathen deities, under the names of Christian saints. (8.) Road gods and saints. — But their temples are not the only places where we see the proofs and overt acts of their superstition : the whole face of the country has the visible characters of Paganism upon it ; and wherever we look about us, we cannot but find, as Paul did in Athens (Acts xvii. 16), clear evidence of its being pos- sessed by a superstitious and idolatrous people. The old Romans, we know, had their gods, who presided pncu- 126 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book n Reverence of the papists for these road gods. Kissing the Pope's toe. liarly over the roads, streets, and highways, called Viales, Semitaies, Compitales : whose little temples or altars are decked with flowers, or whose statues at least, coarsely carved of wood or stone, were placed at convenient distances in the public ways, for the benefit of travellers, who used to step aside to pay their devotions to those rural shrines, and beg a prosperous journey and safety in their travels. Now this custom prevails still so generally in all popish coun- tries, but especially in Italy, that one can see no other difference between the old and present superstition, than that of changing the name of the Deity, and christening as it were the old Hecate in triviis, by the new name of Maria in trivia ; by which title I have observed one of their churches dedicated in this city : and as the heathens used to paint over the ordinary statues of their gods with red or some such gay color, so J have oft observed the coarse images of those saints so daubed over with a gaudy red, as to resemble exactly the description of the god Pan in Virgil {Eclogue 10). In passing along the road, it is common to see travellers on their knees before these rustic altars ; which none ever presume to approach without some act of reverence ; and those who are most in haste, or at a distance, are sure to pull off their Ijats, at least, in token of respect : and I took notice that our postillion used to look back upon us to see how we behaved on such occasions, and seemed surprised at our passing so negligently before places esteemed so sacred. (9.) The Pope and the Pontifex Maximus and kissing the Pope's toe. — In their very priesthood, they have contrived to keep up as near a resemblance as they could to that of pagan Rome : and the sovereign pontiff, instead of deriving his succession from Peter, who, if ever he was at Rome, did not reside there at least in any worldly pomp or splendor, may with more reason and much better plea style himself the successor of the Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest of old Rome ; whose authority and dignity was the greatest in the republic ; and who was looked upon as the arbiter or judge of all things, civil as well as sacred, human as well as divine : whose power established almost with the foundation of the city, " was an omen," says Polydore Virgil, " and sure presage of priestly majesty, by which Rome was once again to reign as universally, a's it had done before by the force of its arms." But of all the sovereign pontiffs of pagan Rome, it is very re- markable that Caligula was the first who ever offered his foot to he kissed by any who approached him : which raised a general indig- nation through the city, to see themselves reduced to sulfer so great an indignity. Those who endeavored to excuse it, said that it was not done out of insolence, but vanity ; and for the sake of showmg his golden slipper, set with jewels. Seneca declaims upon it as the last affront to liberty, and the introduction of a Persian slavery into the manners of Rome. Yet, this servile act, unworthy either to be imposed or compUed with by man, is now the standing CHAP. vi.J POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 12'7 Pagan and popish processions. ThaJlagcUantcs, cr self-whlpperd ceremonial of Christian Rome, and a necessary condition of access to the veigning Popes, though derived from no better origin than the frantic pride of a brutal pagan tyrant. (10.) Processions of worshippers and self-whippers. — The de- scriptions of the religious pomps and processions of the heathens come so near to what we see on every festival of the Virgin oi other Romish saint, that one can hardly help thinking those popish ones to be still regulated by the old ceremonial of pagan Rome. At these solemnities the chief magistrates used frequently to assist in I'obes of ceremony, attended by the priests in surplices, with wax candles in their hands, carrying upon a pageant or thensa the images of their gods, dressed out in their best clothes. These were usually followed by the principal youth of the place in white linen vestments or surplices, singing hymns in honor of the god whose festival they were celebrating, accompanied by crowds of all sorts, that were initiated in the same religion, all with flambeaux or wax candles in their hands. This is the account which Apuleius and other authors give us of a pagan procession ; and I may ap- peal to all who have been abroad, whether it might not pass quite as well for the description of a popish one. Tournefort, in his travels through Greece, reflects upon the Greek church for having retained and taken into their present worship many of the old rites of heathenism, and particularly that of carrying and dancing about the images of the saints in their processions to singing and music. The reflection is full as applicable to his own, as it is to the Greek church, and the practice itself is so far from giving scandal in Italy, that the learned publisher of the Florentine Inscriptions takes occa- sion to show the conformity between them and the heathens, from this very instance of carrying about the pictures of their saints, as the pagans did those of their gods, in their sacred processions. (Inscrip. Antiq. Flor., 377.) In one of those processions made lately to St. Peter's in the time of Lent, I saw that ridiculous penance of the Jlagellantes or self-whippers, who march with whips in their hands, and lash them- selves as they go along on the bare back till it is all covered with blood ; in the same manner as the fanatical priests of Bellona or the Syrian Goddess, as well as the votaries of Isis, used to slash . and cut themselves of old, in order to please the goddess by the sacrifice of their own blood, which mad piece of discipline we find frequently mentioned and as oft ridiculed by the ancient writers. But they have another exercise of the same kind and in the samf; season of Lent, which, under the notion of penance, is still a more absurd mockery of all religion. When on a certain day appointed annually for this discipline, men of all conditions assemble them- selves towards the evening in one of the churches of the city, where the whips or lashes made of cords are provided and dis- tributed to every person present, and after they are all served, and a short office of devotion performed, the candles being put out, upon the warning of a little bell, the whole company begin to strip 128 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. Seneca'3 opinion of the self-whippers. P, ,s^n and papul mengjcimi monks and try the force of these whips on their own backs, for the space of near an hour ; during all which time the church becomes, as it were, the proper image of hell ; where nothing is heard but the noise of lashes and chains, mixed with the groans of those self-tor- mentors ; till satiated with their exercise they are content to put on their clothes, and the candles being lighted again, upon the tink- ling of a second bell, they all appear in their proper dress. Seneca, alluding to the very same effects of fanaticism m pagan Rome, says, " So great ip the force of it on disordered mmds, that they try to appease the gods by such methods as an enraged man would hardly take to revenge himself. But, if there be any gods who desire to be worshipped after this manner, they do not deserve to be worshipped at all ; since the very worst of tyrants, though they have sometimes torn and tortured people's limbs, yet have never commanded men to torture themselves." (11.) Religious orders of monks, nuns, 6fC. — The great variety of their religious orders and societies of priests seems to have been formed upon the plan of the old colleges or fraternities of the Au- gurs, Pontifices, Selli, Fratres Arvales, &c. The vestal virgins tnight furnish the hint for the foundation of nunneries ; and I have observed something very like to the rules and austerities of the monastic life, in the character and manner of several priests of the heathens, who used to live by themselves retired from the world, near to the temple or oracle of the deity to whose particular ser- vice they were devoted ; as the SeUi, the priests of Dodonsean Jove, or self-mortifying race. From the character of those Selli, or as others call them Elli, the monks of the pagan world, seated in the fruitful soil of Dodona, abounding, as Hesiod describes it, with everything that could make life easy and happy, and whither no man ever approached them without an offering in his hands, we may learn whence their successors of modern times have derived their peculiar skill or prescriptive right of choosing the richest part of every country for the place of their settlement. Whose groves the Selli, race austere, surround ; Their feet unwash'd, their slumbers on the ground. — Pope, II. xvii., 324. But above all, in the old descriptions of the lazy mendicant priests among the heathens, who used to travel from house to house, with sacks on their backs, and, from an opinion of their sanctity, raise large contributions of money, bread, wine, and all kinds of victuals for the support of their fraternity, we see the very picture of the begging friars, who are always about the streets in the same habit and on the same errand, and never fail to carry home with them a good sack full of provisions for the use of their convent. Cicero, in his book of laws, restrains this practice of begging or gathering alms to one particular order of priests, and that only on certain days ; because, as he says, it propagates superstition and impoverishes families. Which may let us see the poHcy of the church of Rome, in the great care that they have taken to multiply CHAP. VI.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. T>. 606. ]>,;;) This coDformUy between Popery and Fagnnism acknowledged and defended by a Romanist author their begging orders. ' Stipem sustulimus, usi earn quam ad paucos dies propriam Ida38e matris excepimus. Implet enim superstitione animos, exhaurit domos.' {Cic. de Legib., 1, 2, 9, 16.) ^ 4S. — After carrying out the comparison between Paganism and Popery, in relation to their pretended miracles, lying signs and wonders, &c., Dr. Middleton concludes his learned and most con- clusive letter as follows :— I could easily carry on this pai-allel, through many more instances of the pagan and popish ceremonies, to show from what spring all that superstition flows, which we so justly charge them with, and how vain an attempt it must be to justify by the principles of Christianity, a worship formed upon the plan and after the very pattern of pure heathenism. I shall not trouble myself with inquiring at what time and in what manner those several corruptions were introduced into the church ; whether they were contrived by the intrigues and avarice of priests, who found their advantage in reviving and propagating impostures, which had been of old so profitable to their predecessors ; or whether the genius of Rome was so strongly turned to fanaticism and superstition that they were forced, in condescension to the humor of the people, to dress up their new religion to the modes and fopperies of the old. This, I know, is the principle by which their own writers defend themselves as oft as they are attacked on this head. Aringhus, a Roman CathoHc writer, in his account of subter- raneous Rome, acknowledges this conformity between the pagan and popish rites, and defends the admission of the ceremonies of heathenism into the service of the church by the authority of their wisest popes and governors ; " who found it necessary," he says, " in the conversion of the Gentiles, to dissemble and wink at many things and yield to the times, and not to use force against customs which the people are so obstinately fond of, nor to think of extir- pating at once everything that had the appearance of profane." It is by the same principles that the Jesuits defend the concessions which they make at this day to their proselytes in China : who, where pure Christianity will not go down, never scruple to com- pound the matter between Jesus and Confucius, and prudently allow what the stiff old prophets so impoliticly condemned, a part- nership between God and Baal ; of which, though they have often been accused at the court of Rome, yet I have never heard that their conduct has been censured. But this kind of reasoning, how plausible soever it may be, with regard to the first ages of Chris- tianity, or to nations just converted from Paganism, is so far from excusing the present heathenism of the church of Rome, that it is a direct condemnation of it ; since the necessity alleged for the pi'actice, if ever it had any real force, has not, at least for many ages past, at all subsisted ; and their toleration of such practices seems now to be the readiest way to drive Christians back again to heathenism. I have sufficiently made good what I first undertook to prove ; This policy of conciliating the heathen adopted by Giegoiy the Great. an exact conformity, or rather uniformity, of worship between Popery and Paganism. For since we see the present people of Rome worshipping in the same temples, at the same altars, sometimes the same images, and always with the same cere- monies as the old Romans, who can absolve them from the same SUPERSTITION A.VD IDOLATRY of which We condcmn their pagan ancestors ? Those who would wish to see this striking parallel between Popery and Paganism carried out yet farther, must consult the valu- able and masterly work to which I am indebted for most of these interesting particulars, with the full references and original quota- tions from various authorities, ancient as well as modern, Roman Catholic as well as protestant. ^ 49. — That this policy of conciliating the heathen nations by adopting their pagan ceremonies into Christian worship, had been adopted previous to the epoch of the papal supremacy, A. D. 606, is abundantly evident from the instructions given by Gregory the Great, to Augustin, his missionary in Britain, and to Serenus, the bishop of Marseilles, in France, both of whom had written to the pontiff for advice. The account of Gregory's instructions to Augustin, as related by Bower, is as follows : " Not satisfied with directing Austin not to destroy, but to reserve for the worship of God, the profane places where the pagan Saxons had worshipped their idols, Gregory would have him treat the more profane usages, rites, and ceremo- nies of the pagans in the same manner, that is, not to abolish, but to sanctify them, by changing the end for which they were instituted, and introduce them, thus sanctified, into the Christian worship. This he specifies in a particular ceremony. ' Whereas it is a custom,' says he, * among the Saxons to slay abundance of oxen, and sacri- fice them to the devil, you must not abolish that custom, but ap- point a new festival to be kept either on the day of the consecration of the churches, or the birth-day of the saints, whose relics are deposited there, and on these days the Saxons may be allowed to make arbors round the temples changed into churches, to kill their oxen, and to feast, as they did while they were still pagans, only they shall offer their thanks and praises, not to the devil, but to God.' This advice, absolutely irreconcilable with the purity of the gospel- worship, the Pope founds on a pretended impossibility of wean- ing men at once from rites and ceremonies to which they have been long accustomed, and on the hopes of bringing the converts, in due time, by such an indulgence, to a better sense of their duty to God. Thus was the religion of the Saxons, our ancestors, so disfigured and corrupted with all the superstitions of Paganism, at its first being planted among them, that it scarce deserved the name of Christianity, but was rather a mixture of Christianity and Pagan- ism, or Christianity and Paganism moulded, as it were, into a third religion." The other instance was as follows : " The Franks, who had settled CHAP. VI.] POPERY AT ITS BIRTH.— A. D. 606. 131 He coinmanda Serenua to restore the images to the churches, for the sake of gratifying the pagans. in the south of Gaul, now France, had been indulged, at the time of their conversion, in the use of images, and that indulgence had insensibly brought them back to idolatry, for turning the images of Christ into idols, they paid them the same kind of worship or adoration, after their conversion, which they had paid to their idols before their conversion. This Serenus could not bear, and, there- fore, to show his abhorrence of such abominations, and at the same time to prevent them in time to come, he caused all the images throughout his diocese to be pulled down, and to be cast out of the churches, and destroyed. That wise and zealous prelate was, it seems, even then, when the dangerous practice of setting up images was yet in its infancy, apprised of a truth, which all havQ now learned by the experience of many ages, — all, at least, who care to learn it, viz. : that images cannot be allowed, and idolatry pre- vented. However, this instance of his zeal for the purity of the Christian worship, was very ill received at Rome. And, indeed. Gregory acted therein consistently with himself, for, having directed Austin, this very year, to introduce the pagan rites and usages into the church, he could not but blame Serenus for thus excluding them, and he wrote to him accordingly, commending indeed his zeal in not suffering to be worshipped that which was made with hands, but at the same time blaming him for breaking them, ' to prevent their being worshipped, since they served the ignoi-ant in the room of books, and instructed, by being seen, those who could not read.' But the reason on which the pope seems to have laid his chief stress, in censuring the conduct of Serenus, was, that, by breaking the images, and banishing them from the churches, he would prejudice the bar- barians (that is, the Franks), among whom he lived, against the Christian religion ; so that it was chiefly to gratify the pagans, who were converted, to facilitate the conversion of the others, and to adapt the Christian religion to their ideas and notions, that the use of images, and many other rites of the pagan worship, were allowed in the church. But how different was this method of converting the pagans from that which the apostles pursued, and their immedi- ate successors, nay, and all apostolic men for the three first centu- ries after Christ ? With them it was a principle not to sanctify, but utterly to abolish all pagan rites, all superstitious practices what- ever, and introduce, in their room, a plainness and simplicity suited to the worship of God, in spirit and truth. Upon that principle images of no kind were suffered in the churches during the three lirst centuries, as is allowed by several Roman Catholic writers ; nay, it was not till the latter end of the fourth century, that the pagan temples began to be converted into Christian churches. They had all, till then, been either shut up, or pulled down, the bishops of those times thinking it a great profanation to worship God even in the places where worship had been paid to the devil."* The above remarkable instances of papal conformity to Pagan- * Bower's History of the Popes, in vita Gregory I. 9 132 HISTORV OP ROMANISM. [book u This timo-servlng conformity to Paganism, aa early as the papal supremacy. Ism, related upon the unquestionable authority of Gregory s own epistles,* are a proof that this wicked policy had been thus early adopted, and though it is not perhaps absolutely certain that a/Z the pa- gan ceremonies, above enumerated, were introduced mto theKomish worship so early as 606, yet, without doubt, most of them were in use in the time of Boniface, and the others, not long after. The Pantheon, as we have seen, was consecrated to " the virgin and all the saints, within four or five years of the establishment of the papal supre- macy ; and on that occasion pope Boniface IV. employed the newly acquired papal authority, in enjoining upon all the faithful the observance of a festival in commemoration of that event, which is still celebrated with great ceremony in all popish countries, on the first of November, called the Feast of All Saints. Image worship, as we shall see, was not finally and fully established till about the middle of the ninth century, after a long contest between different emperors, popes, and councils. The history and origin of these pao-an innovations upon Christian worship, has been given at con- siderable length, because it is believed that the most satisfactory mode is thereby suggested of answering the question which so fre- quently presents itself to the candid and inquiring mind, when con- templating the heathen mummeries of papal worship. Can it be possible that this is Christianity ? that this is the religion of the New Testament ? of Jesus Christ and his apostles ? and if it is called by the name, whence did it become so corrupted ? so like the religion of pagan Greece and Rome 1 The answer is no, this is not Chris- tianity, it is Paganism, under that venerated name, and the trans- formation was effected by borrowing the temples, the idols, and the ceremonies of heathenism, to silence the scruples, and to win the suffrages of those who had no taste for a religion so pure, so spirit - UAL, AND so HOLY AS THE RELIGION OF ChRIST. * See Epist. Greg., lib. ix., epist. 71, and lib. vii., epist 110. 133 BOOK III. POPERY ADVANCING-A.D.606-800„ FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL SUPREMACY, A. D. 606, TO THE popes' temporal SOVEREIGNTY, 756, AND TO THE CROWNING OF THE EMPEROR CHARLEMAGNE, 800 CHAPTER I. GRADUAL INCREASE OF THE PAPAL POWER. DARKNESS, SUPERSTITION, AND IGNORANCE OP THIS PERIOD. § 1. — That part of the above-named period extending from the estabhshment of the papal supremacy in 606 to the epoch of the Popes' temporal sovereignty, 756, possesses peculiar interest to the student of history. These two dates are those upon which writers on the prophecies, relative to Popery, have been chiefly divided as to the proper commencement of its existence as the little horn of Daniel (ch. vii. 8). The most judicious writers, how- ever, have g&nerally preferred the latter date, or some other noting the increase or confirmation of the Popes' temporal power, as Popery could not properly be called a horn till it was, like the other horns, a temporal sovereignty. It is not to be supposed that the various churches of the West, much less of the East, gave up without a struggle their ancient hberty and independence as soon as the decree of a tyrant consti- tuted the Roman prelate Universal Bishop and supreme head of the church. The Popes, it is true, used all sorts of means to maintain and enlarge the authority and pre-eminence which they had ac- quired by a grant from the most odious tyrant that ever disgraced the annals of history. We find, however, in the most authentic ac- counts of the transactions of this century, that not only" several emperors and princes, but also whole nations, opposed the ambitious views of the bishops of Rome. Besides all this, multitudes of pri- vate persons expressed publicly, and without the least hesitation, their abhorrence of the vices, and particularly of the lordly am- bition of the Roman pontiffs ; and it is highly probable, that the Waldenses or Vaudois had already, in this century, retired into the valleys of Piedmont, that they might be more at their liberty to oppose the tyranny of those imperious prelates.* * See Antoine Leger's Ilistoiro des Eglises Vaudoises, livr. i., p. 15. 134 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. Lbook m. Election of popes coufirmed by the Empeior. Popish morality No faith with herctiia § 2.— The popes were still the subjects of the Roman emperors, and their election to the Popedom gave them no official authority till confirmed either by the Emperor himself or his viceroy in Italy, the exarch of Ravenna. This, of course, vs^as nothing more than natural and just, that since this spiritual sovereignty was created by the Emperor it should be confirmed by the same authority. Sometimes when the popes elect were suspected of being opposed to the views of the Emperor, considerable difficulty was ex- perienced in obtaining the imperial confirmation of their election. Thus, upon the election of pope Severinus in 640, we learn from a letter of the monk Maximus, that the emperor Heraclius, at the instigation of the clergy of Constantinople, refused to confirm his election to the popedom till his legates had promised the Emperor to persuade the newly-elected pope to sign the Echthesis, a decree of which we shall hear more in a future chapter ; but, adds the monk, though they complied with the Emperor's demand, they never intended to "perform so sinful a promise. So that, as Bower remarks, " they did not, it seems, think it sinful to make a promise which they thought it sinful to perform."* A characteristic illus- tration of genuine popish morality ! But why complain ? Hera- clius, in the estimation of the Pope and his legates, was a heretic, and the votai'ies of Rome had already learned to act upon the prin- ciple, so shamelessly avowed seven or eight centuries later, in the council of Constance, that no faith is to be kept with heretics. The consequence of this delay was, that pope Severinus was not ordained till about a year and a half after his election. § 3. — In 685, pope Benedict II., according to the account of the Romish historian Anastasius, had sufficient influence with the emperor Constantino IV. to obtain from him a decree permitting the ordination of popes in future, immediately upon their election, without waiting for the confirmation of the Emperor or his deputy in Italy ; but in less than two years, Justinian, who had succeeded his father in the empire, conceiving this to be a dangerous conces- sion, revoked the decree, and vested the power of confirming the election of future popes in the exarch of Italy, commonly called, from the place of his residence, the exarch of Ravenna. Two or three years later the Exarch made a profitable use of this privilege by unjustly extorting an enormous sum from pope Sergius, before consenting to confirm his election.f It had ever been the custom, at least since the decree of Phocas, to pay a certain sum into the im- perial treasury, when the election of a pope was confirmed, but in this case the Exarch demanded a much larger sum than usual. The circumstances were these : In the year 687, two candidates for the popedom, Theodore and Pascal, had been elected by rival * History of the Popes, vol. iii., p. 21. t Anastasius in vita Sergius. This historian, generally called Anastasius Bib- holhecanus, lived in the ninth century. He was the librarian of the church of Rome and abbot of St. Mary beyond the Tiber. He wrote Liber Pontificalis, in tour volumes, folio, containing the lives of some of the popes. CHAP. I.] POPERY ADVANCING— A.D. 606—800. 135 Price of u Beat in tlie chair of St. Peter. The Pope appoints Theodore archbishop of Canterbury parties. A violent and disgraceful tumult ensued between the re- spective friends of each. The judges and magistrates of Rome in vain sought to bring the two ambitious priests to an agreement, and to induce one to yield to the other. Faihng in this attempt, they formed a new party, and proceeded to elect a third candidate named Sergius, and carrying him in triumph to the Lateran, forced the gates and put him in possession of the place. Upon this Theo- dore yielded his claim and joined the party of Sergius. The other competitoi', pascal, obstinately persisted in his claim. He had made a private agreement with the Exarch to reward him with a bribe of thirty pounds of gold, upon condition that he should be chosen and confirmed as pope. Instead, therefore, of yielding to Sergius, he despatched a messenger in all haste to Ravenna, for the Exarch immediately to repair to Rome and consummate his agree- ment. Upon the arrival of the latter in the city, learning the dis- couraging situation of Paschal's affairs, and concluding that he could make a better bargain with Sergius, he immediately acknow- ledged him as pope, but demanded the enormous sum of one hun- dred pounds of gold before he would consent to confirm his elec- tion. In the end, though much against his will, Sergius was under the necessity of submitting to the exorbitant demand, though he had to pawn the very ornaments of the tomb of St. Peter before he could raise the sum necessary to secure the imperial signature to the decree confirming his election. The above is named, upon the authority of Anastasius, only as a specimen of the means fre- quently resorted to in order to supply the hnks in this boasted un- broken chain of holy apostolical succession ! It serves also as an illustration of the fact that the popes had not yet attained tem- poral sovereignty, but were still dependent for the spiritual power they wielded upon the emperors. § 4. — The popes, however, were restless, under this odious re- straint ; they had reached, by means of the emperors, the height of spiritual supremacy, and now they were anxious to knock away the ladder by which they had attained this eminence, render themselves independent of all earthly governments, and assume a rank among the temporal sovereigns of the earth, and they watched with eagle gaze for every opportunity of confirming and enlarging their power. One remarkable instance of this occurred in the appointment by the sole authority of the Pope, in 667, of Theodore, as archbishop of Canterbury, in consequence of the death of the prelate that had been appointed in England, while waiting at Rome for his ordination. To reconcile king Oswy to his assumption, he, the Pope, sent him a flattering letter, with a choice collection of his trumpery relics, and to his " spiritual daughter," the queen, he sent a cross and golden key, enriched with a portion of the filings of Peter's noted chain. Theodore, after having his head shaved according to the Roman law, was despatched to England, and forthwith acknowledged, in conse- quence of his having been chosen and ordained by the successor of St. Peter, as the primate of all England. From that time to the 136 mSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book m. Important matters of dispute. Ecclesiastical tonsure. Different ways of shaving head g. present, the archbishop of Canterbury has enjoyed a degree of power and authority in Great Britain, superior to that of any other eccle- siastic in the realm. § 5. — As a specimen of the important matters of disputation which in this age were regarded as of sufficient importance to divide the ignorant priests and monks into opposite and contending parties, may be mentioned, the famous dispute in England, relative to what was called the ecclesiastical tonsure. In plain English, the manner in which the priests should shave their heads ! When the missionaries who came over to Britain from Rome, about the mid- dle of the seventh century, encountered the Scottish and Irish priests, they were horrified at the terrible discovery that the British clergy, instead of a circular tonsure on the occiput, were distinguished by a tonsure on the forehead, in the shape of a crescent ! And this was the momentous cause of the fierce controversy that ensued between the two parties. " The grand question was," says Bower, " whether the hair of the priests and monks should be clipped or shaved on the fore part of the head, from ear to ear, in the form of a semicir- cle, or on the top of the head, in form of a circle, to imitate the crown of thorns which our Saviour wore, and of which it was thought to be an emblem. The Scots shaved the fore part of their heads, and the missionaries from Rome the top, calling that the ton- sure of St. Peter, as if it had been derived from that apostle. When, by whom, or on what occasion, the ecclesiastical tonsure, that is, the clipping or shaving the hair of the ecclesiastics, was first intro- duced, is not well known. But certain it is, that in the time of St. Jerome, who flourished in the end of the fourth, and beginning of the fifth century, a Romish priest, with his shaven crown, would have been taken for a priest of Isis or Serapis ; a shaven crown being then, as that father informs us, the characteristic or badge of those priests. As for the Christian priests, they were neither to shave their heads, as we learn of the same father, lest they should look too like the priests and votaries of Isis and Serapis ; nor to suffer their hair to grow long, after the luxurious manner of the barbarians and soldiers, but to observe a decent mean between the two extremes ; that is, as he explains it, to let the hair grow long enough to cover their skin. It w.as therefore probably the custom to cut their hair to a moderate degree, at their ordination, not by way of a religious mystery, but merely for the sake of decency, and that nothing else was originally meant by the ecclesiastical tonsure. However that be, the cutt ng of the hair was, in process of time, improved into a mystery, and the heathenish ceremony of shaving the head not only adopted by the church, but looked upon as important enough to divide it." § 6— A curious illustration of the importance attached to this loohsh custom of shaving the head in a particular manner, is con- nected with the ordination of Theodore above referred to, and is related upon the authority of the venerable Bede. In the year 667, Oswy and Egbert, the kings of Northumberland and Kent in Encr- Romish. Scottish Ea *jitJerent lorme of Priestly Tonsure, or Shaving Heads •^S^ -^0^ Consecratfoa of an Abbot by Imposition of Han 1, CHAP. I.] POPERY ADVANCING.— A. D. 606— 800. 139 Ad archbishop waiting to have his head shaved The Pope encourages appeals to Rome. land, despatched Wighard, a newly elected archbishop of Canter- bury to receive his ordination from the hands of the Pope, with a present to St. Peter, of several valuable articles of silver and gold. Wighard, dying of the plague, which then raged at Rome, the Pope resolved to embrace the favorable opportunity of advancing his power, by choosing an archbishop himself, instead of sending to the two kings, to request them, according to the previous custom, to elect a successor to Wighard. The Pope soon after nominated an Eastern monk, named Theodore, and informed the two kings that he would proceed to his consecration, and despatch him to England. Notwithstanding they were impatiently expecting his arrival, three months were permitted to elapse before his consecration, and what does the reader suppose was the all-important cause of this delay. Risum teneatis, amici ! The historian gravely informs us that he was tarrying at Rome till his hair was grown ! Theodore being an Eastern monk, had his head shaved all over, according to the custom of the East, and this was called the tonsure of St. Paul. The Pope deemed it necessary, therefore, to delay the consecration till his hair was grown all over, so that he might be shaven only on the top of his head, in the form of a crown. This was called the Roman tonsure, or the tonsure of St. Peter. It would hardly be deemed credible that so much importance should be attached to such puerile trifles, were not the fact confirmed by the continuance of this absurd and senseless heathen practice of shaving the top of the head among the priests of Rome, down to the present day. § 7. — Another most effectual way which the popes took to in- crease their power and influence, in this period, was to encourage appeals from the decisions of other ecclesiastical courts to the apos- tolic See, by almost invariably deciding in favor of the appellant, whatever might be the just merits of the case. Thus in the very next year after the appointment of Theodore to Canterbury, the same pope Vitalianus reversed the judgment of a synod consisting of all the bishops of the island of Crete, against one John, bishop of Lappa in that island, who had been found guilty of certain crimes, absolved the criminal, and imperiously commanded Paul, the pri- mate of Crete, to restore the deposed bishop to his office. The same thing happened a few years later, in the case of Wil- frid, bishop of York, who, according to the biographer of queen Etheldreda, the wife of Ecgfrid, king of Northumberland, had en- couraged that queen in a resolution she had formed, to refuse to the king the rights of a husband, and to take a vow of chastity, and retire into a monastery. Persisting in this resolution, in express opposition to the wishes of her husband, the king requested Wilfrid to use his influence with the queen, to bring her to a sense of her duty. Instead of this, however, he only confirmed her in her reso- lution, and the queen retired to a monastery in Scotland, where she received the veil at the hands of Wilfrid himself. The king, who loved his wife with the greatest tenderness, took a journey to Scot- land, to try and persuade her to return, but failing in this, he vented 240 fflSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book m. Wilfrid, an English bishop, ar- Peala with success to pop^ Agatho. First form of a bishop's oath . his indignation against Wilfrid caused him to be deposed from his bishopric, by Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, and banished him from the kingdom of Northumberland. Wilfrid appealed to the Pope, and was received by Agatho with the greatest respect and honor. The merit. of appealing to the apostolic See, especially as he was the first British ecclesiastic who had, in this way, acknow- ledged the supremacy of the successor of St. Peter, was, in the eyes of the Pope, sufficient to cover a multitude of sins. Wilfrid was declared innocent and unjustly deposed, and ordered to be restored to his See, and the clergy, as well as the laity of England, were required to pay implicit obedience to this decision, the former, on pain of being deposed, and the latter of being for ever excluded from the Eucharist.* § 8. — During the pontificate of pope Gregory II., the first instance was exhibited of a Roman pontiff requiring a solemn oath of allegiance and submission from his legates and bishops. It was in the case of the celebrated Winfrid or Boniface, who has been called the apostle of Germany. Boniface was a native of England.f and in the year 716, voluntarily went on a mission among the pagans of Germany, and after laboring with zeal and success for several years ; repairing to Rome at the command of the Pope, he was ordained a bishop, and appointed by Gregory, his legate to all the inhabitants of Germany. Upon this occasion, the Pope required him to take the following oath at the tomb of St. Peter : " In the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in the sev- enth year of our most pious emperor Leo, in the fourth of his son Constantino, and in the seventh indiction, I, Boniface, by the grace of God, bishop, promise to you, blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, to blessed Gregory your vicar, and to his successors, by the undi- vided trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by this your most sacred body, to maintain to the last, with the help of God, the purity and unity of the holy Catholic faith ; to consent to nothing contrary to either ; to consult in all things the interest of your church, and in all things to concur with you, to whom power has been given of binding and loosing, with the above-mentioned vicar, and with his successors. If I shall hear of any bishops acting contrary to the canons, I shall not communicate, nor entertain any commerce with them, but reprove and retrieve them, if I can ; if I cannot, I shall acquaint therewith my lord the Pope. If I do not faithfully perform what I now promise, may I be found guilty at the tribunal of the eternal Judge, and incur the punishment inflicted by you on Ananias and Sapphira, who presumed to deceive and de- fraud you." When Boniface had taken this oath, he laid it written with his own hand on the pretended body of St. Peter, and said, " This is * Eddius' Life of Wilfrid, chap, li., quoted by Bower, vol. iii., page 59. f See Fleury's Ecclesiastical History, book xli., 35, &c., and Dupin, 8th cen- tury, Boniface. OHAP. I.] POPERY ADVANCING.— A. D. 606—800. 141 Horrid cruelties of tlie Poye and Ihe Emperor, on the refractory bisliop of Ravenna. the oath which I have taken, and which I promise to keep." How painful to think that so holy and self-denying a man as Boniface, both from his life and death, appears to have been, should have been thus blinded by superstitious reverence for the holy See, and espe- cially for the artful, unworthy, and ambitious Gregory, who exacted from him this oath ! We shall perceive that in future ages the popes improved upon this oath, though all who read it must admit that it was a pretty fair specimen for a beginning. § 9. — The popes of this age also strove to establish and confirm their power, by punishing to the utmost of their ability, all who should presume to rebel against the authority of the apostolic See. An instance of this is given in the case of the cruel vengeance in- flicted by the Emperor, through the persuasions of pope Constantine, upon Felix and his associates. In the early part of the eighth cen- tury, Felix, archbishop elect of Ravenna, came to Rome to receive ordination from the Pope, having first, according to Anastasius, promised obedience and subjection to the Roman See. Upon his return to Ravenna, being encouraged by the people, Felix withdrew himself from all subjection to Rome, and asserted the independence of his See. Of his motives for this step we are not informed. Per- haps, like Luther in after times, he had seen during his visit too much of the pretended successors of St. Peter, to be willing longer to acknowledge their lofty assumptions. Be this as it may, the Pope was no sooner informed of the conduct of Felix, than trans- ported with rage, he immediately wrote to the Emperor Justinian, entreating him to espouse the cause of the prince of the apostles,, and demanding vengeance on the rebels against St. Peter. The Emperoi', who at this time was desirous to oblige the Pope, imme- diately ordered one of his generals to repair to Ravenna, to seize on the archbishop, and the other rebels against St. Peter, and send them in chains to Constantinople, where all except the archbishop were soon after put to death, and the latter, after having his eyes cruelly dug out of their sockets, was banished to Pontus. The popish historian, Anastasius, has the audacity to ascribe those horrid cruelties of the Pope and the Emperor, to God and St. Peter. " And thus," says he, " by a just judgment of God, and by the sen- tence of St. Peter, all were, in the end, deservedly cut off, who re- fused to pay the obedience that was due to the apostolic See." § 10. — In addition to these various ways adopted by the popes of extending their power and influence, and of inspiring with terror of their authority, all who should presume to oppose them, they made the most extravagant claims to the reverence and homage of the people. About the commencement of the eighth century, the debasing custom originated, which has continued ever since, of kissing the pope's foot. The emperor Justinian is thought thus to have degraded himself upon the occasion of a visit of pope Con- stantine, to the East, the very next year after he had been guilty of the cruelties just named, to the unfortunate bishop of Ravenna. As this visit of Constantine well illustrates the extravagant honors paid ^42 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book m, The emperor Justinian kisses the Pope's foot Character of tills ly ranL to the popes of this age, it may be well to give a brief account of it. In the year 710, the Pope received an order from Justinian to repair to Constantinople as soon as convenient, and embarked on the 5th of October, for that city, accompanied by two bishops -and a large number of the inferior clergy. The Emperor addressed an order to all governors, judges, and magistrates of the places through which he should pass, to pay to him precisely the same honors as they would if he were the "Emperor himself. At every place he touched at, he was received in a kind of triumph, amidst the joyful acclamations and homage of the people. On approaching Constan- tinople, he was met seven miles from the city, by Tiberius, the Emperor's son, the senate, the nobility, the chief citizens, and the patriarch Cyrus at the head of his clergy. Thus attended, and mounted, together with the chief persons of his retinue, on the Em- peror's own horses, richly caparisoned, he arrived at the palace assigned for his habitation. The Emperor, who was absent at the time of his arrival, as soon as he received the intelligence, appointed to meet the Pope at Nicomedia, and it was there that Anastasius informs us, " the most Christian Emperor" "prostrated himself on the ground, with the crown on his head, kissed his feet, and then cordially embraced him. On the following Sunday Justinian re- ceived the sacrament at the hands of the Pope, begged his Holiness to intercede for him that God might forgive his sins, and renewed and confirmed all the privileges that had ever been granted to the Roman See.* § 11. — It is unfortunate for the credit of the Romish church, that this " most Christian Emperor," as the popish historian calls him, like the other two sovereigns to whom that apostate church was indebted for her most valuable favors, Phocas and Irene, was one of the most bloodthirsty of tyrants, and the most abandoned of the human family. He delighted in nothing so much as in cruelty and revenge, in bloodshed and slaughter. After returning from Cher- sonesus, where, in consequence of his tyranny, he had been driven into banishment ; in consequence of supposing his dignity insulted by the inhabitants of Chersonesus, he despatched a fleet and army against them, with express orders to spare neither man, woman, nor child alive, whether guilty or innocent, and in consequence of this inhuman command, multitudes of people miserably perished by the flames, the rack, or the sea. On his return from banishment, when sailing on the Euxine, says Gibbon, " his vessel was assaulted by a violent tempest, and one of his companions advised him to deserve the mercy of God, by a vow of eternal forgiveness, if he should be restored to the throne. ' Of forgiveness ! (replied the intrepid tyrant), may I perish this instant — may the Almighty whelm me in the waves — if I consent to spare a single head of my enemies !' But never was vow more religiously performed than the sacred oath of revenge that he had sworn amidst the storm of the Euxine. The • Anastasius, in vita Constantin. CHAP. 1.] POPERY ADVANCING.— A. D. 606—800. 143 Gibbon's account of the cruelty and tyranny of this worshipper of the Pope. two usurpers, who had in turn occupied his throne during his ban- ishment, were dragged into the hippodrome, the one from his prison, the other from the palace. Before their execution, Leontius and Apsimar were cast prostrate in chains beneath the throne of the Emperor, and Justinian, planting a foot on each of their necks, con- templated above an hour the chariot race, while the innocent people shouted, in the words of the psalmist, ' Thou shalt trample on the asp and basiUsk, and on the lion and dragon shalt thou set thy foot !' The universal defection which he had once experienced might pro- voke him to repeat the wish of Caligula, that the Roman people had but one head. Yet I shall presume to observe, that such a wish is unworthy of an ingenious tyrant, since his revenge and cruelty would have been extinguished by a single blow, instead of the slow variety of tortures which Justinian inflicted on the victims of his anger. His pleasures were inexhaustible: neither private virtue nor public service could expiate the guilt of active, or even passive obedience to an established government ; and, during the six years of his new reign, he considered the axe, the cord, and the rack, as the only instruments of royalty."* Such was the man whom Ro- mish historians do not blush to call " the most Christian and ortho- dox Emperor^ merely because he cruelly tortured, blinded, and murdered those who would not succumb to the papal anti-Christ, bowed down and kissed the feet of the haughty pontiff, and loaded with his imperial favors, the apostate church of which he was the head. ^ 12. — It might be expected that an age which could yield itself so far to the extravagant claims of the newly created spiritual monarch of the world must be one of the grossest ignorance and darkness. Such, we find, was the fact. " Nothing," says Mosheim, speaking of the century in which the Pope established his supremacy, " can equal the ignorance and darkness that reigned in this century ; the most impartial and accurate account of which will appear incredi- ble to those who are unacquainted with the productions of this bar- barous period. The greatest part of those who were looked upon as learned men, threw away their time in reading the marvellous lives of a parcel of fanatical saints, instead of employing it in the perusal of well chosen and excellent authors. The bishops in general were so illiterate, that few of that body were capable of composing the discourses which they delivered to the people. Such of them as were not totally destitute of genius, composed out of tlie -VAritings of Augustine and Gregory a certain number of insipid homilies, which they divided between themselves and their stupid colleagues, that they might not be obliged, through incapacity, to discontinue preaching the doctrines of Christianity to their people." The want even of an acquaintance with the first rudiments of literature was so general among the higher ecclesiastics of those times, that it was scarcely deemed disgraceful to acknowledge it. * Decline and Fall, vol. iii., page 242. 144 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book iii. Gross ignorance of the bishops of tliis period. Specimens of their reasoning and doclrine. Ill the acts of the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, many ex- amples occur where subscriptions are to be found in this form : " /, N, have subscribed by the hand of M, because I cannot write." And " such a bishop having said that he could not write, I whose name is underwritten have subscribed for him."* § 13. — As a specimen of the reasoning of this dark age, I would refer to a writing which Holstenius, the librarian of the Vatican, where it was found, ascribed to pope Boniface IV. It is an attempt to show that monks are suitable for ministers, in opposition to some who maintained that they should be incapable of the sacerdotal ofhce. Monks are there declared to be angels, and consequently proper ministers of the word. This is proved in the following way : — The cherubim had each six wings. Monks have also six wings ; the arms of their cassock two, its extremities two more, and the cowl forming the other two. Therefore monks are cheru- bim or angels, and suitable for ministers of the word ! Whether this curious specimen of reasoning proceeded, as the learned Roman Catholic Holstenius supposes, from the infallible pope Boniface, or whether, as others believe, it was the production of some monk of that age, it may be equally appropriate as a specimen of early popish logic.f As one instance and proof of the superstition of the age may be mentioned the object (according to the opinion of the learned popish annalist Baronius), of a visit to Rome paid by Melhtus, first bishop of London, in 610, to the Pope. Bede informs us that he went to settle with the Pope some particular affairs of the English church. Baronius conjectures that he came to Rome to inquire of Boniface whether the consecration of the church of Westminster, performed by St. Peter in person, was to be regarded as valid. For St. Peter was said to have come down from heaven for that very purpose, and who will dare dispute with Cardinal Baronius the truth of the wonderful prodigy, since it is actually attested by the very waterman who conveyed the apostle over the river Thames on his way from heaven to Westminster ? and upon his testimony was believed by the abbot Ealred, whom the Cardinal calls " a very credible historian ! ! "J § 14. — As a specimen of the doctrine of this age, we may refer to a description of a good Christian from the pen of St. Eligius, as he is called, bishop of Noyon, in which, though there are some good exhortations, there is not the slightest mention of repentance for sin or faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ; and the principal stress is laid upon the lighting of candles in consecrated places, praying to the saints, and saying the creed and Lord's prayer. Let a man only abound in these services, and he could come to God, accord- ing to this saint, not as a suppliant to beg, but as a creditor to de- mand. "Da, domine, quia dedi." Give, Lord, because I have * White's Bampton Lectures, sermon ii. and notes, p. 6. t Holstein Collect Rom., p. 42, quoted and referred to by Bower— Vita Boniface X Baronius, ad annum 610. CHAT. I.] POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606—800. 145 Relic-hunting. Unkennelling dead bodies. Mahomet, the false prophet of Meccu. given !* Such was Popery then ; such is Popery still. We are not surprised to learn from his biographer, that this saint was a most zealous and persevering hunter for relics, and that " many bodies of holy martyrs, concealed from human knowledge for ages, were discovered by him and brought to light !" ' Sanctorum mar- tyrum corpora, quse per tot ssecula abdita patefact.a proderen- tur.' This zealous, relic-hunting merit-monger was successful, if we may credit his biographer, in smelling out and unkennelling, among other bodies, the carcasses of St. Quintin, St. Crispin, St. Lucian, &c. In those days of darkness and superstition it was an easy way, and one of which the bishops often availed themselves of filling their coffers by providing a supply of relics for sale, by pretending to a miraculous power in discovering the bodies of saints and martyrs. § 15. — It was in the seventh century that the false prophet of Mecca commenced his career of conquest. Fired by the spectacle which everywhere met his observation of the worship of idols in a thousand forms, not only on heathen but Christian ground, he avowed himself as the enemy of idolatry, and the champion of the divine unity. The limits as well as the design of this work will not permit a sketch of his remarkable history. After perusing the recital we have already given of the superstition, ignorance, and idolatry of popish Christianity at the era of the Popedom, the * The extract, or rather collection of sentences, from this discourse of St. Eligius quoted by Mosheim, Jortin, Robertson, Jones, &c., is as follows ; — " Bonus Christianus est, qui ad eccle- " He is a good Christian who goes siam frequenter venit, et oblationem, quae frequently to church, and makes liis ob- in altari Deo offeratur, exhibit ; qui de lations at God's altar ; who never tastes fructibus suis non gustat, nisi prius of his own fruit until he has presented Deo aliquid offerat ; qui, quoties sanctae some to God ; who, for many days be- solemnitates adveniunt, ante dies plures fore the solemn festivals observes strict castitatem etiam cum propria uxore chastity, though he be married, that he custodit, ut secura conscientia Domini may approach the altar with a safe con- altare accedere possit ; qui postremo science ; lastly, who can repeat the symbolum vel orationem Dominicam me- Creed and the Lord's Prayer. Redeem moriter tenet. Redimite animas vestras your souls from punishment whilst you de poena, dum habetis in potestate reme- have it in your power ; offer your free dia ; oblationes et decimas ecclesiis of- gifts and tithes ; contribute towards the ferte, luminaria Sanctis locis, juxta quod luminaries in holy places ; repair fre- habetis, exhibite ; ad ecclesiam quoque quently to church, and humbly implore fretjuentius convenite, sanctorum patro- the protection of the saints. If you ob- cinia humiliter expetite ; quod si obser- serve these things, you may appear vaveritis, securi in die judicii ante tri- boldly at God's tribunal in the day of bunal aetemi judicis venientes dicetis ; judgment, and say — Give, Lord, accord- Da, Domine, quia dedimus. ing as we have given." By quoting, at large, from the discourse of Eligius, from various parts of which these sentences are extracted, 1 think that Waddington has shown (though all these sentences are found in the discourse), that Eligius has hardly been treated with fairness. Still, the flagrant contradiction of the doctrine of salvation by grace and not of debt, with which the extract closes, is sufficient to show that, in that dark age, the doctrines of grace were most sadly perverted or obscured. See Waddington's Church History, p. 251, Mosheim, ii., 173, &c. The original of the discourse is found in Dacherii Spicilegium veter. Scriptor., Tom v. 146 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. |book ii Origin of the Monothelite, or one-will controversy. reader will be prepared to admit the truth of the following state- ment of Mr. Taylor in his Ancient Christianity (page 365). "" What Mahomet and his caliphs found in all directions, whither their cime- ters cut a path for them, was a superstition so abject, an idolatry so gi'oss and shameless, church doctrines so arrogant, church practices so dissolute and so puerile, that the strong-minded Arabians felt themselves inspired anew as God's messengers to reprove the errors of the world, and authorized as God's avengers to punish apostate Christendom." CHAPTER II. HISTORY OF THE MONOTHELITE CONTROVERSY POPE HONOHIUS CON- DEMNED AS A HERETIC BY THE SIXTH GENERAL COUNCIL, A.D. 680. § 16.— The early part of the seventh century was signalized by the commencement of a remarkable controversy between those who maintained with the emperor Heraclius, and Sergius, patri- arch of Constantinople, the doctrine of one will and one operation in the nature of Christ ; and those who believed in two wills, the human and the divine, and two operations or distinct kinds of voli- t,ion, the one proceeding from his human, and the other from his divme will. This was called the Monothelite controversy, from two Greek words signifying one will. Upon this abstruse metaphysical point did this famous dispute arise, which threatened to rend into fragments the whole Christian world, and that notwithstanding both parties were confessedly orthodox in relation to their belief both of the proper deity and humanity of the second person in the glorious Trinity. Our reason for introducing the history of this con- troversy in the present work is not because we attach any great importance to the opinion of either party, so long as both believed hat Jesus Christ was properly divine, coequal and coeternal with the father; but on account of the part that was taken in it by the popes of Rome, and the light which is thus thrown upon the history ol Romanism, and especially upon the infallibility (so much vaunted by Raronius, Bellarmine and other popish writers) of the boasted successors of St. Peter. ^^1 ^'''~}'' ,*^® ^'''''' ^^^' Sergius, the patriarch of Constantinople, addressed a letter to pope Honorius at Rome, informing him of the opposition which the doctrine of one will, which he styled "the doctrine of the fathers," had received from one Sophronius, at that of th. fe .^''''u™' ''"^ °*^^''' ''''^ requesting the opinion of the Pope on the subject of the doctrine in dispute, and also his CHAP. II.] POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606—800. 147 The decree called the Echthesis. Pope Honorius approves the doctrine. Pope John condemns it. advice as to the most effectual means of maintaining the peace and tranquilUty of the church. In the reply of Honorius, he stated that he entirely agreed with Sergius in opinion, that he acknowledged but one will in Christ, and that none of the fathers had ever openly taught the doctrine of two wills. About the time of the death of pope Honorius, which took place A. D. 638, Sergius published and affixed to the doors of the church at Constantinople, in the name of the emperor Heraclius, the cele- brated edict upon the subject of the controversy called the Echthe- sis, or exposition. This edict began with an orthodox profession of belief in the sacred Trinity. It acknowledged two distinct na- tures in one person of Christ ; but in reference to the will, and the operations of the will, it used the following language : — " We ascribe all the operations in Christ, the human as well as the divine, to the word incarnate. But whether they should be called two, or should be called one, we will suffer none to dispute." Notwithstanding, however, this apparent profession of neutrality, the authors of the edict say towards the conclusion — " We therefore confess, agreea- bly to the doctrine of the apostles, of the councils and of the fathers, >but one will in Christ" — and it concludes by thundering anathemas against heretics, and requiring all to hold and profess the doctrine thus declared and explained. § 18. — Sergius died soon after publishing this edict, and was, in 639, succeeded in the See of Constantinople by Pyrrhus, who as- sembled a council, and confirmed the doctrine of the Echthesis as the genuine doctrine of the apostles and fathers. On the other hand, pope John IV., who differed entirely in opinion from his pre- decessor Honorius, assembled a council of the bishops of the West. in which the Echthesis was solemnly condemned and the doctrine of one will was anathematized as entirely repugnant to the Catholic faith, and to the doctrine of the fathers. The Pope also caused a copy of the acts and decrees of this council to be immediately transmitted to Pyrrhus, signed by himself and the bishops who were present, hoping thereby to check the progress which the Monothelite doctrine was making in the East. Instead of paying any regard to the authority of the Pope or his council, Pyrrhus immediately caused transcripts to be made of the two letters of pope Honorius to Sergius, in which Honorius expressed his belief of the doctrine of one will, and sent them to all the principal bishops in the East ; at the same time appealing to them whether pope Honorius had not approved by the authority of the apostolic See of the very doctrine which his successor John had condemned by the same authority. He wrote also a let- ter to the Pope, in which he expressed his astonishment that he should condemn a doctrine which his predecessor, Honorius, had received, taught, and approved. Pope John, perceiving that this disagreement in opinion between two of the boasted successors of St. Peter was calculated to sap the very foundation of the papal authority, made an artful but lame attempt to explain away the 148 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book in. Pope Theodore s modest proposal lo Ihe patriarch Paul. The fugitive patriarch Pyrrhua opinions of Honorius, but the fallacy of his sophistical reasoning is apparent, as we shall presently see, from the fact that in the sixth general council, held a few years later, these letters of Honorius were unanimously condemned as acknowledging and inculcating the Monothelite doctrine. § 19. — Pope John was succeeded in the year 642 by Theodore, and about the same time Paul succeeded to the See of Constanti- nople, in the room of Pyrrhus, the Monothelite patriarch, who had abandoned his See and sought safety in flight, in consequence of the general suspicion that was entertained that he had been privy to the poisoning of the late emperor, Constantino III. In a letter which Theodore wrote to Paul, soon after his accession to the Popedom, he censures him for accepting the patriarchate till Pyr- rhus had been lawfully deposed, charges the latter with heresy in receiving the Monothelite doctrine and publishing the Echthesis (evidently, in the estimation of the Pope, a much greater crime than assassinating the Emperor) ; advises that a council should be im- mediately assembled, in which Pyrrhus might be judged, condemn- ed, and regularly deposed ; and closes his letter with the very modest proposal, that if there was likely to be any difficulty in the trial of Pyrrhus at Constantinople, he should be despatched to Rome, that he might there be judged, deposed and condemned by the Pope and his council ! The new patriarch Paul, as we may easily con- ceive, treated this proposal with the contempt it deserved. He took not the slightest notice of it, continued to exercise his office, and instead of condemning the doctrine of Pyrrhus, he confirmed it in a council assembled for the purpose, and caused the Echthesis to be continued on the gates of the church, that all might know the doctrine that he inculcated and believed. § 20. — The patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, and many other bishops, took sides with Paul, and maintained the doctrine of one will. Others, however, as strongly opposed both the doctrine and the Echthesis. In the island of Cyprus, both were unanimously condemned in a council of the bishops assembled for that purpose, and a long epistle was despatched to pope Theodore, bitterly com- plaining of Paul of Constantinople, for holding and promoting, to the utmost of his power, a doctrine, as they said, so plainly repugnant to the repeated " decrees of St. Peter and his See." In the West, the Echthesis was universally condemned, and three of the principal bishops of Africa first anathematized Paul in their councils, and then wrote to the Pope, earnestly entreating him to cut off from the communion of the church, not only Paul of Constantinople, but all who maintained that " impious doctrine," unless, by a speedy re- pentance, they should repair the scandal they had caused. It was chiefly through the labors of a celebrated monk named Maximus, and the result of a public disputation that he held with Pyrrhus, that the African bishops were thus brought to array themselves, with so much unanimity and so much earnestness, against the Mo- nothelite opinions. Maximus, who was a man of learning, for that CHAP.n.] POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606— 800. I49 Ilia disputation with the monk Maximus. Pyrrhua aolemnly excommunicated by Pope Theodore. age, had, previous to withdrawing to a monastery, been private secretary to the emperor Heraclius, at Constantinople, while Pyr- rhus was patriarch. Soon after commencing his labors in Africa, the former secretary fell in with the fugitive patriarch, and both of them bringing to their aid talents and learning of no mean order, each succeeded in drawing around himself a party attached to his own views. In consequence of the disturbance occasioned by these two opposite parties, the Monothelites, headed by Pyrrhus, and the Duothelites, headed by Maximus, the bishops proposed that the diffi- culty should be settled by a public dispute, before Gregory, the governor of the province. This proposal having been agreed to by the governor and the two disputants, the debate was holden in the presence of a large number of the bishops, nobility, and others, who had congregated from various parts to listen to them. Manuscript copies of the debate in the original Greek, are still to be seen in the Vatican library, at Rome, under the following lengthy, but one- sided title : " The question concerning an ecclesiastical dogma, that was disputed before the most pious patrician Gregory, in an assem- bly of the most holy bishops, and the nobility, by Pyrrhus, patriarch of Constantinople, and the most reverend monk Maximus, in the month of July, the third indiction ; Pyrrhus defending the new dog- ma of one will in Christ, wickedly introduced by himself and his predecessor Sergius, and Maximus maintaining the doctrine of the apostles and the fathers, as delivered to us from the beginning."* § 21. — At the close of the disputation, Pyrrhus, who had been compelled to wander as an exile from his See at Constantinople, wishing probably to recommend himself to the favor of the Pope, and the other Western bishops, professed himself a convert to the doctrine of Maximus, proceeded in company with him to Rome, and upon there solemnly abjuring his heresy in the presence of the Pope, the clergy, and a vast multitude of the people, was received, with great pomp and ceremony, to the communion of the Roman church, and publicly honored by the Pope, as the patriarch of Con- stantinople. The joy and exultation of the Pope was, however, of short duration ; it was soon changed into disappointment and chagrin, upon hearing that Pyrrhus had proceeded to Ravenna, and through the persuasions of the exarch Plato, who had the power, if he chose, of advancing his interests at the court of the Emperor, had publicly renounced his recent recantation, and placed himself at the head of the Monothelite party in that city. Upon hearing this, the rage and exasperation of pope Theodore was extreme. He immediately convened an assembly of the clergy in the old church of St. Peter's ; thundered forth the sentence of excommunication against this new Judas, accompanied with the most fearful anathemas, and calling, in the transport of his indigna- * The curioua in such matters, may examine a Greek copy of the report of this very ancient dispute, with the Latin translation in the opposite cohimn, occupying 28 pages folio, at the end of the eighth volume of Baronius' Annals, of which tliere is a copy in the Society Library, New York. 10 150 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book m, Pope Theodore's impotent spiritual thunders. The decree called the Ti/pe. tion, for the consecrated wine of the sacrament, mingled a portion of it with the ink, and with the mixture, signed the sentence of excommunication, which was to consign the apostate Pyrrhus to tlie agonies of despair, and to the torments of the damned. § 22. — In the mean time, with the hope of appeasing, in some measure, the wrath of the Pope, and the displeasure of the Western bishops, the patriarch Paul had caused the obnoxious decree, called the Echthesis, to be removed from the gates of the church at Con- stantinople, and prevailed upon the Emperor to supply its place by another called the Type or formulary, the object of which, while it expressed no bias to either side of the disputed question, was strictly to forbid, under severe penalties, all disputes whatever, rektive to the will or wills of Christ, and the mode of its or their operation. The Emperor, with reason, had become weary of these endless disputes and quarrels ; his object was peace, and for that reason he flattered himself that those who professed to be servants of the Prince of Peace, would readily comply with this edict. Before the suppression of the Echthesis was known at Rome, however, the Pope, in compliance with the advice of the African bishops, previously mentioned, had excommunicated Paul with great solemnity as an incorrigible heretic, and had declared him, by the authority of St. Peter, divested of all ecclesiastical power and dignities. When the news of this rash and hasty step came to Constantinople, instead of submitting to the Pope's authority, the patriarch was so enraged, that he wreaked his vengeance upon the apocrisarii or ambassadors of the Pope, and imprisoned, and even whipt some of their retinue. The excommunication of Paul by the Pope, was regarded by the Emperor, and with a few exceptions, by all the bishops of the East, as of no authority, and he continued to enjoy the patriarchal dignity and office till his death, and after his decease, the former patriarch Pyrrhus became reconciled to the Emperor, and though excommunicated and cursed by the Pope, in the terrific manner we have seen, was, notwithstanding, reinstated by the Emperor in his former dignity, and received and acknow- ledged by the bishops and people of the East as the lawful patri- arch of Constantinople. § 23. — Upon the death of Theodore (A. D. 649), pope Martin was chosen as his successor in the same year, and upon sending to the Emperor to confirm his election (which was in this century invari- ably done upon the choice of a new pope), Constantine confirmed his election with more than usual promptitude, hoping thereby to secure his co-operation in the plan he had formed for the restoration of peace, by enjoining silence on the vexed question, in his edict called the Type. Instead of this, however, Martin immediately assembled a council at Rome, and condemned not only the Mono- thehte doctrine, and " the impious Echthesis" but also " the most wicked Type, lately published against the Catholic church, by the most serene emperor Constantine, at the instigation of Paul, the pretended bishop of Constantinople." CHAP. It.] POPERVT ADVANCING— A.D. 606—800. 15] Sixth general council. Pope Honorius condemned therein for heresy, Such an insult to the imperial authority, by one who, notwith- standing his high ecclesiastical dignity, was yet a subject of the Emperor, could not be suffered with impunity. By order of the emperor Constantine, Martin was taken prisoner and conveyed to Naxos, a small island in the Grecian Archipelago : afterward carried to the imperial court, and after a mock form of trial, accompanied with cruel insult and abuse, he was stripped of his sacerdotal gar- ments, condemned and degraded, and then sent into exile, on the inhospitable shores of Taurica Chersonesus, where he died in 656. § 24. — These resolute proceedings rendered Eugenius and Vi- talianus, the succeeding popes, more moderate and prudent than their predecessor had been ; especially the latter, who received Constans, upon his arrival at Rome in the year 663, with the highest marks of distinction and respect, and used the wisest precautions to prevent the flame of that unhappy controversy from breaking out a second time. And thus, for several years, it appeared to be extinguished ; but it was so only in appearance ; it was a lurking flame, which spread itself secretly, and gave reason to those who examined things with attention, to dread new combustions both in church and state. To prevent these, Constantine Pogonatus, the son of Constans, pursuant to the advice of Agatho, the Roman pontiff", summoned, in the year 680, the sixth general or ecumenical council in which he permitted the Monothelites and pope Honorius himself to be so- lemnly condemned in presence of the Roman legates, who repre- sented Agatho in that assembly, and confirmed the sentence pro- nounced by the council, by the sanction of penal laws enacted against such as pretended to oppose it. § 25. — The condemnation of pope Honorius for heresy by this gene- ral council is an event of so much importance, in the controversy with Rome, that we deem it worthy to place on record the language in which the decree of his condemnation, and that of others who also maintained the same doctrine, was couched. The writings on this subject having been read before the council from the pens of Sergius, former patriarch of Constantinople, Cyrus of Phasis, and Honorius, former pope of old Rome, they solemnly delivered their unanimous judgment in the following terms : — " Having examined the dogmatic letters that were written by Sergius, formerly bishop of this royal city, to Cyrus once of Phasis, and to Honorius, bishop of old Rome, and likewise the answer of the said Honorius to the letter of Sergius, we have found them quite repugnant to the doc- trine of the apostles, to the definitions of the councils, to the sense of the fathers, and entirely agreeable to the false doctrines of the heretics ; therefore we reject and accurse them as hurtful to the soul. As we reject and accurse such impious dogmas, so we are all of opinion, that the names of those who taught and professed them ought to be banished from the church, that is, struck out of the Diptychs ; viz., the names of Sergius, formerly bishop of this royal city, who first wrote of this impious tenet, and Cyrus of 152 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book m Pope Honoriua anathematized by the sixth general council, ami his writings committed to the flames. Alexandria, of Pyrrhus, Paul, and Peter, who once held this See, and agreed in opinion with them, and likewise of Theodorus, for- merly bishop of Pharan; who have all been mentioned by the thrice blessed Agatho, in his letter to our most pious Lord and mighty Emperor, and have been anathematized by him, as ho ding opinions repugnant to the true faith. All these, and each of them, we too declare anathematized ; and with them we anathematize, and' cast out of the holy Catholic Church, Honorius, pope of old Rome, it appearing from his letter to Sergius, that he entirely agreed in opinion with him, and confirmed his impious doctrine." In the same session of the council, the second letter of pope Honorius to Sergius was read, examined, and by a decree of the council, committed to the flames, with the other Monothelite writ- ings ; and it is worthy of remark, that this decree passed unani- mously, without the slightest opposition, not even the legates of the Pope venturing to say a word in his behalf, so overwhelming and conclusive was the proof that pope Honorius had held and main- tained the very same doctrine as was now, by this council, acknow- ledged even by Romanists as the sixth general council, solemnly condemned as heresy.* § 26. — From the above account of this famous controversy, much light is thrown upon the condition, the character, and the claims of Popery during the seventh century. (1.) We learn that the popes of Rome were careful to seize every opportunity of advancing their authority, and practically asserting that supremacy, as the spiritual sovereigns of the church, which they had claimed ever since the decree of Phocas in 606. We hear them thundering their anathemas at the heads of the other bishops, and excommunicating even the patriarchs of Constan- tinople, the most exalted in rank of all the dignitaries of the church in this century, if we except the Pope himself. In the decree of pope Martin against the edict called the Type, we have seen that Paul is called " the pretended bishop of Constantinople," because he had been excommunicated and deposed by the authority of pope Theodore, the predecessor of Martin. In the letter which pope Agatho sent to the Emperor by the hands of his legates to the council, we discover the first pretence of a claim, which has since been frequently asserted — the claim of absolute papal infallibility. After a long descant in praise of the See of St. Peter, he affirmed that the popes never had erred, and intimated that they never could err, and that their decisions ought therefore to be received as the . divine voice of St. Peter himself. We have already seen, how- ever, that the council, in the case of pope Honorius, very soon came to an entirely different decision. (2.) We learn, also, that notwithstanding these lofty assump- * Those who desire fuller information on this remarkable controversy, may find it in Hist. Concil. Cone, vi., Sess. 12, 13; Baronius's Annals ad Ann. 681; Bower's Lives of the Popes, Vit. Theodore, Martin, Agatho. CHAP. II.] POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606—800. 153 The climas of papal assumption not yet arrived. Papal infallibility. Opinion of Bellarmlne, tc. dons, the authority of the Pope was as yet by no means universally received, nor his decrees regarded as binding, especially in the East. In proof of this, we need only recur to the fact that Paul and Pyrrhus both exercised the office of patriarch, and were for years acknowledged and regarded as such by the Emperor, the bishops, and people of the East, notwithstanding each of them had been solemnly excommunicated by the Pope. (3.) We see also that the popes had not yet learned to hurl their anathemas at the heads of emperors and kings. The election of a pope, at this time, was not regarded as valid till confirmed by a decree of the Emperor. Hence we are not surprised that the popes were too timid or too prudent to include " the most serene emperor " Heraclius or Constans in the same sentence of excommu- nication which they pronounced against Paul or Pyrrhus for merely executing the orders of their imperial masters, in preparing and publishing the obnoxious heretical decrees, the Echthesis, or the Type. The age of Theodore and of Martin was not the age of Gregory VII., or of Innocent III. (4). It is scarcely necessary to add that in the unanimous con- demnation of pope Honorius by the sixth general council for heresy, we have a complete refutation of the claim so frequently urged by the Jesuits and other advocates of Rome, of the infallibility of the Pope.* Till it is proved that two contraries can be exactly ahke, this boasted claim of infallibility must be abandoned. So evident is it that this fact is fatal to the papal infallibility, that Baronius, the Romish annalist, a strong advocate of the same, has labored hard, though without the semblance of reason, to show that the name of Honorius was inserted in the decrees instead of that ot some other person ; a supposition as weak and ridiculous as it is unfounded. The great body of Romish authors, and among the rest Dupin, candidly admit the heresy and condemnation of Ho- norius. The latter historian remarks, that " the council had as much reason to censure him as Sergius, Paulus, Peter, and the other pa- triarchs of Constantinople ;" and adds, in language yet more em- phatic, — " This will stand for certain, then, that Honorius was con- demned, AND JUSTLY TOO, AS A HERETIC, by the sixth general council."t * As it is not uncommon in the present day, in proiestarU countries, to represent the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope, as a protestant calumny, I will cite the opinion of one or two of their most celebrated advocates. 1. Lewis Capsensis de Fid. Disput. 2, sect. 6, affirms : " We can believe nothing, if we do not believe with a divine faith that the Pope is the successor of Peter, and INFALLIBLE !" 2. I shall quote the words of Cardinal Bellarmine, as they are very remarka- ble, in the original Latin (de Pont. 4, 5). " Si autem Papa erraret praeficiendo vitia, vel prohibendo virtutes, teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona et virtutes malas, nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare." That is, " But if the Pope should err, by enjoining vices or prohibiting virtues, the Church, unless she would sin against conscience, would be bound to believe vices to be good, and vibtues EVIL." t Dupin's Eccles. Hist., vol. ii., p. 16. 154 CHAPTER III. IMAGE WORSHIP. FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT CONTROVERSY ON THIS SUBJECT, TO THE DEATH OF THE EMPEROR LEO, AND OF POPE GREGORY III., BOTH IN THE SAME YEAR, A. D. 741. § 27. — We have already seen (page 98 above), that in the fourth century, the worship of images was abominated by the Christian church, and that even their admission into places of worship, for whatever object, was regarded by the most eminent bishops with abhorrence. " In opposition to the authority of Scripture, there WAS A human image IN THE CHURCH OF Jesus Christ," wcrc the words of Epiphanius, already quoted. "It is an injury to God," says Justin Martyr, " to make an image of him in base wood or stone."* Augustine says that " God ought to be worshipped .without an image ; images serving only to bring the Deity into contempt."t The same bishop elsewhere asserts that " it would be impious in a Christian to set up a corporeal image of God in a church ; and that he would be thereby guilty of the sacrilege condemned by St. Paul, of turning the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man."J " We Christians," says Origen, when writing against his infidel antagonist, " have nothing to do with images, on account of the second commandment ; the first thing we teach those who come to us is, to despise idols and all images ; it being fhe peculiar charac- ter of the Christian religion to raise our minds above images, agree- ably to the law which God himself has given to mankind."^ It would be easy to multiply such quotations as these, but it is unne- cessary. The testimony of these fathers is merely cited as historical evidence, as to the state of opinion on this subject in their day, not as matter of authority, because were their testimony in favor of the practice of this popish idolatry, as it is of some other popish corrup- tions, still their authority would weigh nothing with genuine protest- ants, in- favor of a practice so plainly opposed to the letter and the spirit of the Bible. § 28. — Some of the fathers, as Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Origen, carried their opposition to all sorts of images to such an extent, as to teach that the Scriptures forbid altogether the arts of i statuary and painting.|| Now, while it is admitted that they were mistaken in this construction of the second commandment, for we * Justin's Apology, ii., page 44. t Augustine de Civit. Dei., 1. vii., c. 5. X Augustine, de fide, et symb., c. vii. j Origen against Celsus, 1, v., 7. II See Bower's History of the Popes, vol. iii., page 214, where several extracts are given from Tertullian, Clemens, and Origen, on this point. CHAP.m.J POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606— 800. I55 Gibbon ^s account of Ihe gradual introduction of image-worehip mio the Christian church. are only forbidden to make graven images for the purpose oi bowing down to them and serving them (Exodus xx., 5), yet the fact itself, of their expressing such an opinion, is the most conclusive proof possible, that they knew nothing whatever of the popish idolatry which sprung up a few centuries later, and which continues to characterize the church of Rome down to the present time. " The primitive Christians," remarks Mr. Gibbon (who is more to be depended on in his facts, than his reasonings), "weie possessed with an unconquerable repugnance to the use and abuse of images, and this aversion may be ascribed to their descent from the Jews, and their enmity to the Greeks. The Mosaic law had severely proscribed all representations of the Deity, and that precept was tirmly established in the principles and practice of the chosen people. The wit of the Christian apologists was pointed against the foolish idolaters, who had bowed before the workmanship of their own hands ; the images of brass and marble, which, had they been endowed with sense and motion, should have started rather from the pedestal to adore the creative powers of the artist. The public religion of the Christians was uniformly simple and spiritual ; and the first notice of the use of pictures is in the censure of the council of Illiberis, three hundred years after the Christian era. Under the successors of Constantine, in the peace and luxury of the triumphant church, the more prudent bishops condescended to indulge a visible superstition, for the benefit of the multitude, and, after the ruin of Paganism, they were no longer restrained by the apprehension of an odious parallel. The • first introduction of a symbolic worship was in the veneration of the cross, and of relics. The saints and martyrs, whose intercession was implored, were seated on the right hand of God ; but the gracious, and often super- natural favors, which, in the popular belief, i^ere showered round their tombs, conveyed an unquestionable sanction of the devout pilgrims, who visited, and touched, and kissed these lifeless remains, the memorials of their merits and sufferings. But a memorial, more interesting than the skull or the scandals of a departed worthy, is a faithful copy of his person and features, delineated by the arts of painting or sculpture. At first the experiment was made with caution and scruple, and the venerable pictures were discreetly allowed to instruct the ignorant, to awaken the cold, and to gratify the prejudices of the heathen proselytes. By a slow, though inevi- table progression, the honors of the original were transferred to the copy, the devout Christian prayed before the image of a saint, and the pagan rites of genuflexion, luminaries, and incense, again stole into the Catholic church."* § 29. — About the beginning of the fifth century, the practice of ornamenting the churches with pictures had become very general, and thus the door was opened for that torrent of idolatry which flooded the churches, and in three or four centuries carried away * Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. xlb:. ■• 156 fflSTORY OF ROMANISM. Ibook m. Paulinos of Nola adorns a c hurch with pictures, &c. The permission of Gregoty a dangeroua precedent. almost every vestige of spiritual Christian worship. Among others, Paulinus, a bishop of Nola, in Italy, about the year 481, erected ni that city a magnificent church in honor of St. Fehx, and as he him- self informs us, adorned it with pictures of martyrs, and various Scripture histories painted on the walls. This example, at that time rare, was imitated in various places, though not without con- siderable opposition, till in the sixth century, the dangerous practice of using not only paintings but images, became very general, both in the East and the West. § 30. Still it was the general opinion, even to the time of Gre- gory, that if used at all, they were to be used only as helps to the memory, or as books to instruct those who could not read, and that no sort of worship was to be paid them. That this was his opinion we have already seen from his epistle to Serenas, bishop of Mar- seilles.* Thus it is evident that so late as the beginning of the seventh century, images were altogether forbidden to be worship- ped in any way. Of course the distinction invented by modern popish idolaters, between sovereign or subordinate, absolute or relative, proper or improper worship — the worship of latria, dulia, or hyperdulia — of course, I say, these scholastic distinctions were not then invented, and were therefore unknown to Gregory. They never would have been thought of, but for the necessity which papists found of inventing some way of warding off the charge of idolatry, so frequently and so justly alleged against them. The words of Gregory were, " adorari vero imagines omnibus modis devita," which the Roman Catholic historian, Dupin, has translated, " that he must not allow images to be worshipped in any manner whatever."'f The permission given by Gregory for the use of images in churches was a dangerous precedent. He might have anticipated that if suffered at all they would not long continue to be regarded merely as books for the ignorant ; especially when, as soon after happened in this dark age, the most ridiculous stories began to be circulated relative to the marvellous prodigies and miraculous cures effected by the presence or the contact of these wondrous blocks of wood and of stone. The result that might naturally have been anticipated, came to pass. These images became idols ; the ignorant multitude reverently kissed them, and " bowed themselves down" before them, and, by the commencement of the eighth century, a system of idol worship had sprung up almost all over the nomi- nally Christian world, scarcely less debasing than that which pre- vails at the present day in Italy and other popish countries of Eu- rope. In the year 713, pope Constantine issued an edict, in which he pronounced those accursed who " deny that veneration to the holy images, which is appointed by the church" — ' Sanctis imagini- bus venerationem constitutam ab ecclesia, qui negarent illam ipsam. § 31. — In the year 726, commenced that famous controversy be- J * See above, page 131. f Dupin, vol. v., p. 122. CHAP, ni.] POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606—800. 157 The emperor Leo, in 726, issues his first decree against image-worBhip tween the Emperor and the Pope upon the worship of images which for more than half a century arrayed against each other, Leo and Gregory, and their successors in the empire and the pope- dom, and which was only quelled by the full establishment of this idolatrous worship, by the decree of the second council of JN'ice. in 787. " In the beginning of the eighth century," says Gibbon, " the Greeks were awakened by an apprehension that, under the mask of Christianity, they had restored the religion of their fathers: they heard, with grief and impatience, the name of idolaters ; the incessant charge of the Jews and Mahometans, who derived from the law and the Koran an immortal hatred to graven images and all the relative worship." (Vol. iii., p. 273.) Leo, the emperor, observing from his palace in Constantinople the extensive prevalence of this idolatry, resolved to put a stop to the growing superstition, and make an attempt to restore the Chris- tian worship to its primitive purity. With this view he issued an edict forbidding in future any worship to be paid to images, but without ordering them to be demohshed or removed. The date of this edict was A. D. 726, a year, as Bower has well remarked, " ever memorable in the ecclesiastical annals, for the dispute to which it gave occasion, and the unheard of disturbances which that dispute raised, both in the Church and the State.*" Anxious to preserve his subjects from idolatry, the Emperor, with all that frankness and sincerity which marked his character, publicly avow- ed his conviction of the idolatrous nature of the prevailing practice, and protested against the erection of images. Hitherto no coun- cils had sanctioned the evil, and precedents of antiquity were against it. But the scriptures, which ought to have had infinitely more weight upon the minds of men than either councils or pre- cedents, had expressly and pointedly condemned it ; yet, such deep root had the error at this time taken ; so pleasing was it with men to commute for the indulgence of their crimes by a routine of idolatrous ceremonies ; and, above all, so little ear had they to be- stow on what the word of God taught, that the subjects of Leo murmured against him as a tyrant and a persecutor. And in this they were encouraged by Germanus, the bishop of Constantinople, who, with equal zeal and ignorance, asserted that images had al- ways been used in the church, and declared his determination to oppose the Emperor : which, the more effectually to do, he wrote to Gregory IL, then bishop of Rome, respecting the subject, who, by similar reasonings, warmly supported the same cause. § 32. — The first steps of the emperor Leo in the reformation, were moderate and cautious; he assembled a great council of senators and bishops, and enacted, with their consent, that all the images should be removed from the sanctuary and altar to a proper height in the churches, where they might be visible to the eyes, and inaccessible to the superstition of the people. But it was im- * History of the Popes, v. iii., p. 199 158 mSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book ni Tumult and murder by the women of Constantinople at the removal of an image. possible on either side to check the rapid though adverse impulse of veneration and abhorrence : in their lofty position, the sacred images still edified their votaries and reproached the tyrant. He ■w&s himself provoked by resistance and invective ; and his ovfn party accused him of an imperfect discharge of his duty, and urged, for his imitation, the example of the Jewish king, who had broken without scruple the brazen serpent of the temple. In the year 730, he issued an edict, enjoining the removal or de- struction of images, and having in vain labored to bring over Ger- manus the bishop of Constantinople, to his views, he deposed him from his See, and put in his place Anastasius, who took part with the Emperor. There was, in the palace of Constantinople, a porch, which contained an image of the Saviour on the cross. Leo sent an officer to remove it. Some females, who were then present, en- treated that it might remain, but without effect. The officer inount- ed a ladder, and with an axe struck three blows on the face of the figure, when the women threw him down, by pulling away the lad- der, and murdered him on the spot. The image, however, was re- moved, and burnt, and a plain cross set up in its room. The women then proceeded to insult Anastasius for encouraging the profanation of holy things. An insurrection ensued — and, in order to quell it, the Emperor was obliged to put several persons to death. § 33. — Pope Gregory, as soon as he heard of the appointment of Anastasius, an avowed enemy to the worship of images, as bishop of Constantinople, immediately declared him deposed from his dig- nity, unless he should at once renounce his heresy, and favor images as his predecessor, Germanus, had done.* Both the letter and the edict of the Pope were, however, treated with silent contempt, and the new patriarch continued to exercise his office, and, by the di- rection of his master, Leo, to employ all his zeal in rooting out the idolatry. The imperious pontiff was no more civil to the emperor Leo than to the patriarch. The Emperor had written him a letter, en- treating him not to oppose so commendable a work as the extirpa- tion of idolatry, and threatening him with the fate of pope Martin, who died in banishment, if he should continue obstinate and rebel- lious. The reply of Gregory is worthy of record as an illustration of the spirit of the man, and of the spirit of the times. " During ten pure and fortunate years," says he, " we have tasted the annual comfort of your royal letters, subscribed in purple ink, with your own hand, the sacred pledges of your attachment to the orthodox creed of our fathers. How deplorable is the change ! How tre- mendous the scandal ! . You now accuse the Catholics of idolatry ; and, by the accusation, you betray youi own impiety and ignorance. To this ignorance we are compelled to adapt the grossness of our style and argunrients : the first elements of holy letters are sufficient for your confusion ; and were you to enter a grammar-school, and * Fleury's Eccles. Hist., book xlii., 7. CHAP m.] POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606—800. 159 Pope Gregory's insulting letter to the emperor Leo The Pope " revered as a God upon earth." avow yourself the enemy of our worship, the simple and pious children would be provoked to cast their horn-hooks at your head." After this curious salutation, the Pope explains to him the dis- tinction between the idols of antiquity and the Christian images. The former were the fanciful representations of phantoms or demons, at a time when the true God had not manifested his per- son in any visible likeness — the latter are the genuine forms of Christ, his mother, and his saints. To the impudent and inhuman Leo, more guilty than a heretic, he recommends peace, silence, and implicit obedience to his spiritual guides of Constantinople and Rome. " You assault us, O tyrant," thus he proceeds, " with a carnal and military hand ; unarmed and naked we can only im- plore the Christ, the prince of the heavenly host, that he will send unto you a devil, for the destruction of your body and the salva- tion of your soul. You declare, with foolish arrogance, ' I will dispatch my orders to Rome ; I will break in pieces the images of St. Peter ; and Gregory, hke his predecessor Martin, shall be trans- ported in chains and in exile to the foot of the imperial throne.' Would to God, that I might be permitted to tread in the footsteps of the holy Martin ; but may the fate of Constans serve as a warning to the persecutors of the church. After his just con- demnation by the bishops of Sicily, the tyrant was cut off, in the fulness of his sins, by a domestic servant ; the saint is still adored by the nations of Scythia, among whom he ended his banishment and his life. " But it is our duty to live for the edification and support of the faithful people, nor are we reduced to risk our safety on the event of a combat. Incapable as you are of defending your Roman sub- jects, the maritime situation of the city may perhaps expose it to your depredation ; but we can remove to the distance of four-and- twenty stadia, to the first fortress of the Lombards, and then you may pursue the winds. Are you ignorant that the popes are the bond of union between the East and the West ? The eyes of the nations are fixed on our humility ; and they revere as a God upon earth the apostle Saint Peter, whose image you threaten to destroy. The remote and interior kingdoms of the West present their homage to Christ and his vicegerent, and we now prepare to visit one of the most powerful monarchs, who desires to receive from our hands the sacrament of baptism. The Barbarians have submitted to the yoke of the gospel, while you alone are deaf to the voice of the shepherd. These pious Barbarians are kindled into rage ; they thirst to avenge the persecution of the east. Abandon your rash and fatal enterprise ; reflect, tremble, and repent. If you persist, we are innocent of the blood that will be spilt in the contest ; may it fall on your own head !"* § 34. — Upon the news of Leo's decree reaching Rome, where the people were as mad upon their idols as they were at the East, * Act Cone. Nic, torn, viii., p. 651, &.c. 160 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. lbook m. Tumults at Rome. Humble epistle to the Emperor of another successor of Peter the fisherman, such was the indignation excited by it, that the Emperor's statues were immediately pulled down, and trodden under foot. AH Italy was thrown into confusion ; attempts were made to elect another emperor, in the room of Leo, and the Pope encouraged these at- tempts. The Greek writers affirm that he prohibited the Italians from paying tribute any longer to Leo ; but, in the midst of these broils, while defending idolatry and exciting rebellion with all his might, Gregory was stopped short in his wicked career. " He was extremely insolent," says an impartial writer, " though he died with the character of a saint."* § 35. — He was succeeded in his office, A. D. 731, by Gregory III., who entered with great spirit and energy into the measures of his predecessors. The reader cannot but be amused with the follow- ing extract of a letter which he addressed to the Emperor, imme- diately on his elevation: — " Because you are unlearned and igno- rant, we are obliged to write to you rude discourses, but full of sense and the word of God. We conjure you to quit your pride, and hear us with humility. You say that we adore stones, walls, and boards. It is not so, my lord ; but these symbols make us recollect the persons whose names they bear, and exalt our grovelling minds. We do not look upon them as gods ; but, if it be the image of Jesus, we say, ' Lord, help us.' If it be the image of his mother, we say, ' Pray to your 8on to save us.' If it be of a martyr, we sav, ' St. Stephen, pray for us.' We might, as having the power of Saint Peter, pronounce punishments against you ; but, as you have pronounced the curse upon yourself, let it stick to you. You write to us to assemble a general council, of which there is no need. Do you cease to persecute images, and all will be quiet ; we fear not your threats." Few readers will think the style of this letter much calculated to conciliate the Emperor ; and though it certainly does not equal the arrogance and blasphemy which are to be found among the pretensions of this wretched race of mortals in the subsequent period of their history, it may strike some as exhibiting a tolerable advance towards them. It seems to have shut the door against all further intercourse between the parties ; for, in 732, Gregory, in a council, excommunicated all who should remove or speak con- temptuously of images ; and, Italy being now in a state of rebel- lion, Leo fitted out a fleet with a view of quashing the refractory conduct of his subjects, but it was wrecked in the Adriatic, the ob- ject of the expedition frustrated, and the design of vengeance on the Pope and the Romans for the present abandoned.f § 36.— Pope Gregory, in order to revenge himself on the Em- peror for his continued and persevering opposition to images, ex- pended, m defiance of the royal edict, the whole wealth of the fihurch on pictures and statues to adorn the churches at Rome. As * Walch's Compend. Hist, of the Popes, p. 101. t See Lect. on Eccles. Hist., by Jones. London, 1834.— Lect. xxvii. CHAP. IV. J POPERY ADVANCING— A.D. 606—800. 161 Gregory's expensive zeal for image-worship. Death of tlie Pope and the Emperor. Their successors Leo was as much opposed to the worship of saints and relics as he was to images, the Pope, according to the account of the Romish historian, Anastasius, caused rehcs to be everywiicre sought for, and conveyed from all parts of the world to Rome, built a mag- nificent oratory for their reception and worship, and appointed a religious service to be performed to them, and monks to con- duct the service, maintained at the expense of the See. In those pious works the Pope is said to have expended 73 pounds weight of gold, and 376 pounds of silver, at that time a most enormous sum.* But these hatreds and animosities were soon quieted in the stillness of the grave ; for in the year 741, both the emperor Leo and the pope Gregory were nearly at the same time called away from earth, to render up their account to a higher tribunal, leaving their strifes and contentions to be continued by their successors CHAPTER IV. CONTINUATION OF THE CONTROVERSY ON IMAGE-WORSHIP. FROM THE DEATH OP LEO AND GREGORY, A.D. 741, TO THE FINAL ESTABLISH- MENT OF THIS IDOLATRY, BY THE SECOND COUNCIL OF NICE, A.D. 787. § 37. — The emperor Leo was succeeded by his son Constantino v., surnamed Copronymus, and pope Gregory, by Zachary, a native of Greece. The new Emperor followed in the steps of his father, in endeavoring to extirpate the idolatrous worship of images, but the new Pope was too busily engaged, as we shall see in the next chapter, in his ambitious attempts to exalt the temporal gran- deur of the Roman See, and to elevate the popes of Rome to a rank among the princes of the earth, to concern himself much about any- thing connected with the ceremonies of religious worship. During his pontificate, therefore, of about eleven years, the emperor Constan- tine suffered but httle molestation in his commendable attempts to root out idolatry, except from a domestic usurper, Artabasdus, who, in his absence on an expedition against the Saracens, seized upon his throne, and endeavored to conciliate the superstitious populace, by reversing the edicts of Leo against images, ordering the idols to be restored to the churches, and forbidding any one in future to question the lawfulness of that idolatry upon pain of exile or death. The dominion of Artabasdus, was, however, but short- lived. At the end of a few months, he was defeated and taken by Constantine, who spared the life of the usurper, but caused the images he had set up to be immediately destroyed, and renewed the * Bower's Hist. Popes, vol. iii., p. 299. 162 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [bookiu. Council at Constantinople condemns image-worship — A.D. 754. former edicts against their worship and use, at the same time promising the people, at an early period, to refer the whole question of image-worship to the decision of a general council. § 38. — In 754, during the pontificate of Stephen II., the Emperor proceeded to redeem this pledge by convening a council at Hiera, opposite to Constantinople, consisting of 338 bishops, the largest number that had ever yet assembled in one general council. This numerous council, after continuing their sessions from the 10th of February to the 17th August, with one voice condemned the use and the worship of images, as a custom borrowed of idolatrous nations, and entirely contrary to the practice of the purer ages of the church. On the nature of the heresy they express themselves in the following language. " Jesus Christ hath delivered us frorn idolatry, and hath taught us to adore him in spirit and in truth. But the devil, not being able to endure the beauty of the church, hath insensibly brought back idolatry, under the appearance of Christianity, persuading men to worship the creature, and to take for God a work to which they gave the name of Jesus Christ."* The decree of faith issued by this celebrated council was as follows : " The holy and oecumenical council, which it hath pleased our most orthodox emperors, Constantino and Leo, to assemble in the church of St. Mary ad Blachernas in the imperial city, adhering to the word of God, to the definitions of the six preceding councils, to the doctrine of the approved fathers, and the practice of the church in the earliest times, pronounce and declare, in the name of the Trinity, and with one heai't and mind, that no images are to be WORSHIPPED ; that to worship them or any other creature, is robbing God of the honor that is due to him alone, and relapsing into idola- try. Whoever, therefore, shall henceforth presume to worship images, to set them up in the churches, or in private houses, or to conceal them ; if a bishop, priest, or deacon, shall be degraded, and if a monk or layman, excommunicated and punished as guilty of a breach of God's express command, and of the imperial laws, that is, of the very severe laws issued by the Christian emperors against the worshippers of idols." This council is reckoned by the Greeks as the seventh general council, but by the papists, on account of their decree against the worship of images, this claim is, of course, disallowed. Encouraged by the countenance and decrees of so numerous a council, Constan- tino proceeded to burn the images, and demolish the walls of the churches which were painted with the figures of Christ, of the Virgin, and the saints, with a promptness and resolution which showed that he was determined, if possible, to extirpate the last vestige of idolatry. § 39. — Upon the death of Constantino V., in the year 775, he was succeeded by his son Leo IV., who adopted the sentiments of his father and grandfather, and imitated their zeal in the extirpation of * Fleury, book xliii., chapter 7. CHAP. IV.] POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606— 800. 163 The empress Irene. Her unnatural cruelties. Justified by piipisiTwrTLiTa! idolatry out of the Christian church. The wife of Leo was named Irene, a woman who has rendered her name infamous in the annals of crime. In the year 780, her husband, who had opposed her attempts to introduce the worship of images into the very palace, suddenly died, as is supposed by many, in consequence of poison, administered by the direction of his faithless and perfidious queen. Bower expresses his own opinion, that this woman, " so abandonediy wicked"' (as he describes her), caused poison to be administered to Leo, and Mosheim directly asserts that such was the fact. For my own part, I think it very probable that this was the cause of the death of her husband, though I am not aware that it is directly asserted by any ancient author. There is no uncertainty, however, relative to her unnatural and bloody treatment of her son, the youthful emperor Constantine VI. Inspired by a desire to occupy the throne now possessed by him, she caused him to be seized, and his eyes to be put out, to render him incapable of reigning, which, according to the testimony of Theophanes, was done "with so much cruelty, that he immediately expired." Gibbon doubts whether immediate death was the conse- quence, but describes in vivid language, the horrid cruelty of the unnatural mother. " In the mind of Irene, ambition had stifled every sentiment of humanity and nature, and it was decreed in her bloody council, that Constantine should be rendered incapable of the throne, her emissaries assaulted the sleeping prince, and stabbed their dag- gers with such violence and precipitation into his eyes, as if they meant to execute a mortal sentence. The most bigoted ortho- doxy has justly , execrated the unnatural mother, who may not easily be paralleled in the history of crimes. On earth, the crime of Irene was left five years unpunished, and if she could silence the voice of conscience, she neither heard nor regarded the reproaches of mankind."* § 40. — Such was the flagitious character of the wretched woman, who was eventually the means of establishing the worship of images throughout the empire, and yet in consequence of this service which she rendered to the cause of idolatry, will it be credited that popish M'riters represent her as a pattern of piety, and even justify the horrid torture, or the murder of her son ? The following are the words of Cardinal Baronius, justifying this cruel and unnatural crime : " Snares," says he, " were laid this year for the emperor Constantine, by his mother Irene, which he fell into the year follow- ing, and was deprived at the same time of his eyes and his life. An execrable crime indeed, had she not been prompted to it by zeal for justice. On that consideration she even deserved to he commend- ed for what she did (! !) In more ancient times, the hands of parents were armed by God's command, against their children worshipping strange gods, and they who killed them were com- mended by Moses." Again says Baronius, "As Irene was supposed * Decline and Fall, vol. iii. , page 246. jg4 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [eoox hi. The wicked Irene convenes a council, which establishes idolatry, A. D. 787. to have done what she did (that is, to have deposed and murdered her son), for the sake of reUgion (!) and love of justice (! !) she was still thought by men of great sanctity worthy of praise and com- mendation."* This extract from a popish Cardinal, and one of the most celebrated writers of that communion, needs no comment Well might Popery be called in the language of inspiration, " the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth." (Rev. xvii., 5.) § 41. In the year 784, this wicked woman wrote to pope Adrian, desiring his presence, or at least the presence of his legates, to a general council to be held at Nice, in support of the worship of images ; and Adrian in his reply testified his joy at the prospect of the restoration of the holy images to their place in the churches from which they had so long been banished. In the year 787, this famous council was convened, which papists reckon the seventh general council, though it has no more right to be regarded as a general council, than the council convened by the Emperor in 754, which condemned the use of images. The num- ber of bishops who attended on this occasion, was 350, and the result of their deliberation was, as might be expected, in favor of images. It was decreed " That holy images of the cross should be consecrated, and put on the sacred vessels and vestments, and upon walls and boards, in private houses and in public ways. And espe- cially that there should be erected images of the Lord God, our Saviour Jesus Christ, of our blessed Lady, the mother of God, of the venerable angels, and of all the saints. And that whosoever should presume to think or teach otherwise, or to throw away any painted books, or the figure of the cross, or any image or picture, or any genuine relics of the martyrs, they should, if bishops or clergy- men, be deposed, or if monks or laymen, be excommunicated. They then pronounced anathemas upon all who should not receive images, or who should apply what the Scriptures say against idols to the holy images, or call them idols, or wilfully communicate with those who rejected and despised them, adding, according to custom, ' Lonw live Constantine, and Irene, his mother — damnation to all heretics — damnation on the council that roared against venerable images — the holy Trinity hath deposed them.' "f § 42. — Thus was the system of popish idolatry established by law, confirmed by a boasted general council, in direct opposition to both the letter and the spirit of the sacred Scriptures. In spite of all the fine-spun distinctions, and papistical apologies, to diminish the guilt of this idol worship, from that time to the present, idolatry has been stamped upon the forehead of the papal anti-Christ. The church of Rome, let her say what she will, is a church defiled and polluted by idolatry, and in this spiritual adultery, her members have almost universally participated. " Tell us not," says Isaac Taylor, " how the few may possibly steer clear of the fatal errors, and avoid a * Baronius' Annals, ann. 796. + Platina's Lives of the Popes, viti Adrian I. J CHAP, v.] POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606— 800. 165 From the tumults about images in 730, the Emperor had no power in Italy. gross idolatry, while admitting such practices. What will be their eflect with the multitude ? The actual condition of the mass of the people in all countries where Popery has been unchecked, gives us a sufficient answer to this question ; nor do we scruple to condemn these practices as abominable idolatries. Tell us not how Fenelon or Pascal might extricate themselves from this impiety : what are the frequenters of churches in Naples and Madrid ? nothing better than the grossest polytheists, and far less rationally religious than were their ancestors of the times of Numa and Pythagoras."* CHAPTER V. THE POPE FINALLY BECOMES A TEMPORAL SOVEREIGN, A. D. 756. § 43. — The popes, although seizing every opportunity to exalt their own authority, had not, up to the commencement of the eighth century, ventured the attempt to excite rebellion against the ancient emperors, or to wield in their own hands, the sceptre of temporal sovereignty. In the present chapter we are to follow them, in their career of ambition, till they united the regal crown to the episcopal mitre, and took rank among the kings of the earth. We have already referred to the rebellious tumults, excited at Rome, and encouraged by pope Gregory II., when in 730, the edict of Leo was promulgated, enjoining the destruction of images. From that time forward, till the coronation of Charlemagne in 800, the government of the city of Rome, and the surrounding territory, was administered only nominally, in the name of the emperors of the East, while the real power was vested in the popes, sustained as they were by the ignorant and superstitious multitudes. " After the prohibition of picture worship," says Gieseler, " the city of Rome was in a state of rebellion against the emperors, though without an absolute separation from the empire. From this they were with- held by fear of the Lombards, who, under Liutprand, were waiting only for a favorable opportunity to extend their sway over Rome, as well as the Exarchate, and whose purpose it was the great object of the popes to defeat."t In the year 734, the Emperor sent an army and a fleet to reduce to submission the Pope and the refractory Romans, and to enforce the execution of his decree against images, but as nearly all his vessels were lost at sea, the attempt was abandoned, and from this * Taylor's Ancient Christianity, page 328. •f Gieseler's Ecclesiastical Histoiy, vol. ii., page 14. 11 166 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book m. Pope Gregory III. applies to Charles Martel for help against the Lombards. time forward, says Bower, " the Emperor concerned himself no more with the affairs of the West, than the Pope with those of the East." The Exarch, or emperor's Viceroy, continued still to reside at Ravenna, but was not in a condition to cause the imperial edict against images to be observed even in that city, much less to under- take anything against the Pope or the people of Rome, who had now withdrawn themselves from subjection to the Emperor, and were governed by magistrates of their own election, " forming a kind of republic under the Pope, not yet as their prince, but only as their head."* § 44. — In the year 740, in consequence of the Pope refusing to deliver up two rebellious dukes, the subjects of Luitprand, king of the Lombards, that warlike monarch invaded and laid waste the territories of Rome. In their distress, their fear of the resentment of the Emperor forbidding them to apply to him for the assis-tance they urgently needed, they resolved to apply to the celebrated Charles Martel, the great hero of that age, who had received that surname, which signifies hammer, in consequence of a celebrated victory gained over the Saracen forces, near Poictiers, in 732, by which he had probably saved his native country, France, from being sub- jected under the Mahometan rule. Charles was at this time mayor of the palace to the king of France, but wielded in his own person all the power of the kingdom. To him, therefore, pope Gregory III. despatched the most urgent and pressing entreaties to hasten to his aid. " Shut not your ears, my most Christian son," writes Gregory, " shut not your ears to our prayers, lest the prince of the apostles should shut the gates of the kingdom of heaven upon you !" The Pope had sent him his usual royal present of the keys of the tomb of St. Peter, with some filings of Peter's chain inserted, and appealing to these, he adds, in his letters, " I conjure you, by the sacred keys of the tomb of St. Peter, which I send you, prefer not the friendship of the Lombard kings, to that regard you owe to the prince of the apostles !"t § 45. — Whether it was, however, that the stem warrior did not at- tach much value to these wonder-working keys and filings, or whether he was unwilling to offend the king of the Lombards, it is certain that he turned a deaf ear to these pathetic appeals of the Pope ; till the latter, despairing of gaining his help by appealing to his piety or superstition, attacked him in a more vulnerable part, by appealing to his ambition. This Gregory did by proposing to Charles, that he and the Romans would renounce all allegiance to the Emperor, as an avowed heretic, and acknowledging him for their protector, confer upon him the consular dignity of Rome, upon condition that he should protect the Pope, the church, and the Roman people against the Lombards ; and, if necessity should arise, against the vengeance of their ancient master, the Emperor. • Bower's History of the Popes, vol. iii., page 300. t Gregory HI., Epist. in Baronius, ann. 740. CHAP, m.] POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606—800. IQn Leo III., Gregory III., and Charles Martel die in the same year. Pepin of France These proposals were more suited to the warlike and ambitious dis- position of Martel, and he immediately despatched his ambassadors to Rome to take the Pope under his protection, intending, doubtless, at an early period, to consummate the agreement. Pope Gregory, however, did not live to carry into effect his treasonable purpose, Charles Martel to profit by it, or the emperor Leo to hear of it. They all three died in that year, 741, within a few weeks of each other. Before the death of Martel, his timely inter- ference had procured the Romans a brief respite from their in- vaders, for soon after the arrival of his messengers at Rome, the Lombard king retired with his troops to his own dominions, though he still retained the four cities he had taken belonging to the Roman dukedom. Upon the almost simultaneous death of these three noted individuals, the Emperor was succeeded by Constantine, the Pope by Zachary, and the mayor of the palace by his son Pepin, as the nominal mayor, but the real sovereign of France. § 46. — Pope Zachary was immediately ordained, without waiting for his election to be confirmed, either by the Emperor or his Italian representative, the Exarch ; the imperial power in Italy being at this time reduced to so low an ebb. that the Emperor had no power to resist this encroachment upon his right of confirming the Uni- versal Bishops — a right which his predecessors had claimed and enjoyed without interruption ever since the decree of Phocas had created that dignity. Soon after his ordination, pope Zachary visited in person the camp of Luitprand, the Lombard king, who, upon the death of Charles Martel, was preparing again to invade the territories of Rome, and had influence sufficient, by threaten- ing him with damnation if he refused, and promising the favor of St. Peter if he complied, to prevail on him to deliver up the four cities he had taken ; which he accordingly did, declaring in the presence of all, that they no longer belonged to him, but to the Apostle St. Peter, without saying a word of the Emperor, who, if any one, was, without doubt, their rightful master and sovereign. §47. — A few years later, A. D. 751, Pepin, son of Martel, con- ceived the design of dethroning the feeble monarch, Childeric III., imder whom he was acting as prime minister and viceroy. Though he possessed the power of the sovereign, yet he was still a subject, and determined, if possible, to obtain the title of king as well as the authority. Not deeming it prudent to depose the legitimate sove- reign without providing to satisfy the scruples of the timid or the superstitious, Pepin resolved to submit the case of conscience to pope Zachary ; viz., who best deserved to be called king ; he who was possessed of the title without the power, or he who possessed the power without the title. The situation of Zachary, exposed as he was, on the one hand, to the indignation of the Emperor, and on the other, to the attacks of the warlike Lombards, was such as to leave no doubt that he would give such an answer as would secure the favor and protection of the powerful Pepin. Accordingly he 168 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book m Pepin, advised by the Pope, usurps the throne of king Childeric. Lombards conquer Ravenna gave, without hesitation, such an answer as the usurper desired ; viz., that he ought to be called king who possessed the power, rather then he who, without regal power, possessed only the title* The feeble Childeric was immediately deposed and confined to a monastery, and Pepin proclaimed king in his stead. He was crowned and anointed by Boniface, the Pope's legate, and two years after, in order to render his title as sacred as possible, the ceremony was performed again by pope Stephen, the successor of Zachary, on the occasion of a journey into France to obtain his succor against the Lombards. Upon the arrival of Stephen into Pepin's dominions on this occasion, he was received with the most extravagant honors. The king and queen, with their two sons, Charles and Carloman, the chief lords of the court, and most of the French nobility, went out three miles to meet him. Upon his ap- proach, Pepin dismounted from his horse and fell prostrate on the ground ; and, not suffering the Pope to dismount, he attended him part of the way on foot, performing, according to the Romish his- torian, Anastasius, " the office of his groom or equerry."f § 48. — In the year 753, Aistulphus, king of the Lombards, in- vaded the exarchate, and laid siege to the city of Ravenna. The city was bravely defended by Eutychius, the last of the exarchs, till his affairs were desperate, when he embarked on board a vessel with the remnant of his soldiers, and tied to his master, the Em- peror, to Constantinople. Thus ended the exarchate of Ravenna, and with it the splendor of that ancient city, in which for nearly two centuries the exarchs, as the viceroys of the emperors, had maintained the imperial power in the West. Elated by his conquest, Aistulphus despatched a messenger to Rome, demanduig the submission of the inhabitants, asserting that as the exarchate was his by right of conquest, so also were all the cities and other places that had heretofore been subject to the exarchs in Italy ; that is, all Italian dominions of the Emperor. At the same time he threatened to march with his army to Rome, and to put all the inhabitants to the sword, unless they acknowledged his government, and paid him a yearly tribute of a piece of gold for each person. § 49. — In these perilous circumstances, Stephen ventured to in- form the Emperor, who was still nominally the sovereign of Rome, and solicit his succor. Constantine, however, was too busy in pur- suing his victories over the Saracens in the East to do more than send an ambassador to make the best terms he could with Aistul- phus. The ambassador John bore with him commands to the Pope * The oldest account of this is in Annalihus Loiselianus ad ann. 749 (751). See a quotation from this ancient writing in Gieseler, iii., 14, note 6. " Zacharias Papa, mandavit Pipino ut melius esset fllum regem vocari qui potestatem haberet, quam ilium qui sine regali potestate majiebat. Per auctoritatem ergo apostolicam jussit Pipinum regem fieri." t Anastasius de vitis Pontificum, in Stephen 11. CHAP, m.] POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606-800. 169 AistulphuB, the Lombard king, threatens Rome. Pope Stephen applies for succor to king Pepin to unite his persuasions with his own, to induce the Lombard king to send a minister to Constantinople to treat of an accommodation, and in the mean time to forbear hostilities. This Aistulphus abso- lutely refused, and John was soon despatched to his master at Con- stantinople, to inform him that nothing but a powerful army sent immediately into Italy, could save the remnant of the ancient Roman empire in that country. As another expedient, two abbots were sent to the camp of the conqueror, to plead with him the cause of St. Peter. The King admitted them to his presence, but only to reproach them for meddling in worldly affairs, and com- manded them to return immediately to their monasteries. Failing in this, the Pope tried processions, in which were solemnly carried the images of the Virgin Mary, of St. Peter, and St. Paul, and a host of other saints ; but these saints too, or their images, appeared deaf to their entreaties, and their condition was daily becoming more critical. § 50. — In this extremity, pope Stephen resolved to apply in per- son for succor to Pepin, king of France, whom we have already seen encouraged by the Pope in usurping the throne of his master, Childeric. Stephen, upon his arrival in France, was received with the highest honor, and " entertained as the visible successor of the apostles." After a short delay, he recrossed the Alps, at the head of a victorious army, which was led by the King in person. The ambitious Pope, while an honored guest at the court of Pepin, Emxious to see himself elevated to the rank of an earthly monarch, had been cunning enough to obtain from him a promise that he would restore the places that might be captured from Aistulphus (not to the Emperor, but) to he freely possessed hy St. Peter and his successors. After a feeble resistance to the arms of Pepin, the Lombards were compelled to submit, their King was besieged in his metropolis, Pavia, and as the price of peace was compelled to sign a treaty to deliver up to the Pope the exarchate, " with all the cities, castles, and territories thereto belonging, to be for ever held and possessed, by the most holy pope Stephen and his successoe.s in the Apostolic See of St. Peter." § 51. — No sooner had Pepin returned into France, than Aistul- phus, who had signed this treaty, resolved not to fulfil it. The Pope had frequently reminded the Lombard king of the dishonesty and injustice of keeping those territories which belonged, of right, to the Emperor ; and it was very natural for him to conclude, that if he had no right to keep what belonged to another, neither had king Pepin any right to bestow it, or pope Stephen to receive it ; and that of the three, he himself had as much right to it as any one of them. Aistulphus accordingly laid siege to Rome, burning with rage against the Pope ; first, for bringing the French to invade his dominions ; and second, for claiming the exarchate for himself, after having so frequently threatened him with the vengeance of heaven for his injustice in not restoring that territory to nis " most 170 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book m B.ige of king AistQlphus agmnat the Pope. The Pope's urgent letter to Pepin. religious son, the Emperor," who alone had a right to it. He there- fore declared to the people that he came not as an enemy to them, but to the Pope, and that if they would deliver him up they should be treated with the greatest kindness, but if they refused to do this, that he would level the walls of the city with the ground, and leave none of them alive to tell the tale. § 52. — The Pope immediately wrote an urgent letter, arid sent it by an abbot named Fulrad, to his former protector, Pepin, in which he says, " To defend the church, is, of all works, the most meritori- ous ; and that, to which is reserved the greatest reward in the world to come. God might himself have defended his church, or raised up others to ascertain and defend the just rights of his apos- tle St. Peter. But it pleased him to choose you, my most excellent son, out of the whole human race, for that holy purpose. For it was in compliance with his divine inspiration and command that I applied to you, that I came into your kingdom, that 1 exhorted you to espouse the cause of his beloved apostle, and your great pro- tector, St. Peter. You espoused his cause accordingly ; and your zeal for his honor was quickly rewarded with a signal and miracu- lous victory. But, my most excellent son, St. Peter has not yet reaped the least advantage from so glorious a victory, though owing entirely to him. The perfidious and wicked Aistulphus has not yet yielded to him one foot of ground ; nay, unmindful of his oath, and actuated by the devil, he has begun hostilities anew, and, bidding defiance both to you and St. Peter, threatens us, and the whole Roman people, with death and destruction, as the abbot Fulrad and his companions will inform you." The rest of the Pope's letter consists chiefly of repeated invectives against Aistulphus as a sworn enemy to St. Peter, and repeated commendations of Pepin, his two sons, and the whole French nation, as the chief friends and favorites of that apostle. In the end he puts Pepin, and likewise his two sons, in mind of the promise they had made to the door-keeper of heaven ; tells them, that the prince of the apostles himself kept the instrument of their donation ; that it had been delivered into the apostle's own hands ; and that he held it tight to produce it, at the last day, for their punishment, if it was not executed ; and for their reward if it was ; and therefore conjures them by the living God, by the Virgin Mary, by all the angels of heaven, by St. Peter and St. Paul, and the tremendousdayof judgment, to cause St. Peter to be put in possession of all the places named in the donation ; and that without further delay, lest by excusing others they should them- selves become inexcusable ; and be, in the end, eternally damned.* * Codex Carolinus, Epist. 7. This is a collection of the epistles of the popes to Charles Martel (whom they style Subregulus), Pepin, and Charlemagne, as fai as the year 791, when it was formed by the last of these princes. His original and autlientic MS. (Bibliothecse Cubicularis) is now in the imperial library of Vienna, and has been published by Lambecius and Muratori (Script. Rerum. Ital. tom. iii., pars. 2, p. 75, &c). See Gibbon, vol. iii., p. 281, note 2. CHAP. V.J POPERY ADVANCING— A.D. 606—800. 171 A lelter from St. Peter In heaven to Pepin, Bent thro ugh the infallible postmaster, pope Stephen. § 53. — As some time elapsed, and the Pope had received no in- telligence of the march of Pepin, Stephen began to fear that the im- pression produced by his letter on the mind of the King had not been sufficiently powerful to induce him to cross the Alps a second time, and as the city, unless reheved, could not sustain the siege much longer, he adopted the extraordinary expedient of pretending, by one of those pious frauds which papists have always regarded as lawful and commendable, to have received a letter from St. Peter in heaven, beseeching the immediate interposition of the French on behalf of his successor and his See. This most singular document, as well as the last quoted letter of pope Stephen, has been preserved in the Codex Carolinus. The superscription is as follows : — " Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to the three most excellent kings, Pepin,'Charles, and Carloman ; to all the holy bishops, abbots, presbyters, and monks ; to all the dukes, counts, commanders of the French army, and to the whole people of France : Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied." The letter then proceeds thus : " I am the apostle Peter, to whom it was said. Thou art Peter, and upon this rock, &c., Feed my sheep, &c.. And to thee will I give the keys, &c. As this was all said to me in particular, all, who hearken to me and obey my exhortations, may persuade themselves, and firmly beheve that their sins are forgiven them ; and that they will be .admitted, cleansed from all guilt, into fife everlasting. Hearken, therefore, to me, to me Peter the apos- tle and servant of Jesus Christ ; and since I have preferred you to all the nations of the earth, hasten, I beseech and conjure you, if you care to he cleansed fro7n your sins, and to earn an eternal reward, hasten to the relief of my city, of my church, of the people com- mitted to my care, ready to fall into the hands of the wicked Lom- bards, their merciless enemies. It has pleased the Almighty that my body should rest in this city ; the body that has suffered for the sake of Christ such exquisite torments : and can you, my most Christian sons, stand by unconcerned, and see it insulted by the most wicked of nations ? No, let it never be said, and it will, I hope, never be said, that I, the apostle of Jesus Christ, that my apostolic church, the foundation of the faith, that my flock, recom mended to you by me and my vicar, have trusted in you, but trusted in vain. Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, mother of God, joins in earnestly entreating, nay, commands you to hasten, to run, to fly, to the relief of my favorite people, reduced almost to the last gasp, and calling in that extremity night and day upon her and upon me. The thrones and dominions, the principalities and the powers, and the whole multitude of heavenly hosts, entreat you, together with us, not to delay, but to come with all possible speed, and rescue my chosen flock from the jaws of the ravening wolves ready to devour them. My vicar might, in this extremity, have recurred, and not in vain, to other nations ; but with me the French are, and ever have been, the first, the best, the most deserving of all nations ; and 172 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [bookih. Fepin again conq uera AisMlphus. The Pope at length becomea a temporal BovereiEn I would not suffer the reward, the exceeding great reward, that is reserved, in this and the other world, for those, who shall deliver my people, to be earned by any other." In the rest of the letter St. Peter is made to repeat all the Pope had said in his letters ; to court the favor and protection of the French with the most abject flattery ; to inveigh with as much unchristian resentment and ran- cor, as the Pope had inveighed, against " the most wicked nation of the Lombards ;" and to entreat his most Christian sons over and over again to come, and with all possible speed, to the relief of his vicar and people, lest they should in the mean time fall into the hands of their implacable enemies ; and those, from whom they expected relief, incur the displeasure of the Almighty, and his; and be thereby excluded, notwithstanding all their other good works, from the kingdom of heaven. § 64.— With this letter from Saint Peter in heaven, pope Stephen, the infallible postmaster, despatched a messenger, in all haste, to Pepin ; but he had, upon the receipt of his first letter, as- sembled all his forces anew ; and was, when he received this, within a day's march of the Alps. He pursued his march without delay ; and, having forced the passes of those mountains, advanced, never once halting till he reached Pavia, and laid, a second time, a close siege to that city, not doubting but he should thus oblige Aistulphus to retire from the siege of Rome.* Pepin was not mis- taken in his calculations. Fearing that the French would make themselves masters of his metropolis and his kingdom, the Lombard king was compelled, before it was too late, once more to sue for peace, which was granted by the French king, upon the humiliating conditions that Aistulphus should execute literally the treaty of the former year, and convey at once the exarchate to the Pope, that he should deliver up also the city of Commachio, defray all the ex- penses of the war, and pay besides an annual tribute to France of twelve thousand solidi of gold. These terms being agreed and sworn to by Aistulphus, Pepin caused a new instrument to be drawn up, whereby he yielded all the places mentioned in the treaty, to be for eve?- held and pos- sessed by St. Peter and his lawful successors in the See of Rome. This instrument, signed by himself, by his two sons, and by the chief barons of the kingdom, he delivered to the abbot Fulrad, ap- pointing him his commissary to receive, in the Pope's name, all the places mentioned in it. With this character the Abbot, attended by the commissaries of Aistulphus, repaired immediately to Ravenna, and from thence to every city named in the instrument of donation, and having taken possession of them all in St. Peter's name and the Pope's, and everywhere received a sufficient number of hostages, he went, with all his hostages, immediately to Rome ; and there, laying the instrument of donation, and the keys of each city, on the tomb of St. Peter, put the Pope thereby at last in possession of * AnastasiuB de vitis Pont, in Stephen II. See also Baronius ad Ann. 765. CHAP, v.] POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606—800. 173 The popes' temporal and spiritual power both owing to usurpers. Bower's History of the Popes. the SO long wished-for principality, and thus was the pope of Rome finally raised to the station of an earthly sovereign, and took rank among the kings of the earth. " And now," says Bower, to whose learned labors we have been indebted for many of the facts mentioned in this chapter, " that we have seen the temporal power united in the popes to the spiritual, the crown to the mitre, and the sword to the keys, I shall leave them for a while, with two short observations. First. That as their spiritual power so also their temporal power was owing to a usurper ; the one to Phocas, and the other to Pepin. Second. That as they most bitterly inveighed against the patriarchs of Con- stantinople as the forerunners of the anti-Christ for assuming the title of Universal Bishop, and yet laid hold of the first opportunity that offered to assume that very title themselves ; so did they in- veigh against the Lombards as the most wicked of men, for usurp- ing the dominions of their ' most religious sons,' the Emperors ; and yet they themselves usurped the dominions of their ' most religious sons ' just as soon as they had it in their power."* * Bower's Lives of the Popes, vol. iii., p. 381. The edition of Bower to which we refer in the present work, is the original edition, in seven volumes quarto, " printed for the author," London, 1754. Since the present work has been in pro- gress, the author has learned with pleasure that an American edition of Bower's great work is in course of publication, in twenty-four numbers, under the editorial supervision of his learned and gifted friend, the Rev. Dr. Cox, of Brooklyn, which, by the economising improvements in modern printing, will be afforded in numbers complete for six dollars — a sum far less than the cost of a single volume of the original edition. The History of the Popes was the great work of the author's life, and is a stupendous monument of learning, industry, and historical research. Unable to controvert or to disprove his fads, which are related upon the most un- questionable authority of standard, and generally contemporary historians, the papists have striven to blacken the character of Mr. Bower, just as Tertullus, the orator of the Jews, when unable to meet the arguments of the apostle Paul, called him " a pestilent fellow."* The only effect of these attacks, however, has been to establish the character of the work as one of unquestionable veracity and author- ity. The present author cannot but indulge the hope that the enterprise of the publishers of this cheap edition of Bower (Messrs. Griffith and Simon, of Phila- delphia) will be rewarded with a sale commensurate with the sterling merits of the work. * Acts ixiv. s. 174 CHAPTER VI. THE CONFIRMATION AND INCREASE OF THE POPe's TEMPORAL POWER TO THE CORONATION OF CHARIjEMAGNE, A. D. 800. § 55. — We are henceforth to contemplate the Pope, not simply as a professed Christian bishop, but as an earthly prince, exercising a temporal sovereignty over a rich and fertile country. In reference to the extent of these first fruits of the conquests of Pepin, now pos- sessed by the Pope, says Gibbon, " The ample measure of the exar- chate might comprise all the provinces of Italy, which had obeyed the Emperor and his vicegerent ; but its strict and proper limits were included in the territories of Ravenna, Bologna, and Ferrara, its inseparable dependency was the Pentapolis, which stretched along the Adriatic from Rimini to Ancona, and advanced into the midland country, as far as the ridges of the Appenine. The splendid dona- tion was granted in supreme and absolute dominion, and the world beheld, for the first time, a Christian bishop invested with the prerogatives of a temporal prince ; the choice of magistrates, the exercise of justice, the imposition of taxes, and the wealth of the palace of Ravenna."* § 56. — These limits were subsequently much enlarged by succes- sive donations from the celebrated son and successor of Pepin. In the year 774, Charlemagne, in compliance with the entreaties of pope Adrian, advanced at the head of a numerous army into Italy, with the professed design of protecting the holy See, from the at- tacks of Desiderius, at that time the king of the Lombards. Upon the approach of the French king to Rome, he was received by the Pope, as might be expected, with the highest marks of distinction. On the morning after his arrival, Adrian, with the whole body of his clergy, proceeded to the ancient church of St. Peter's, early in the morning, to await the arrival of Charlemagne, and conduct him in person, to the tomb of St. Peter. Arrived at the steps of the church, the king kneeled down and kissed each step of the sacred edifice, as he ascended. At the entry he was received by the Pope, in all the gorgeous attire of his pontifical robes, and led by him into the church, amidst the songs of the clergy and the people, who im- piously applied to this stern warrior that song which was originally applied to HIM who is the " Prince of peace," " Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Charlemagne then solemnly confirmed the donation of the exar- chate, made by his father Pepin, to the Pope and his successors, ordered a new instrument to be drawn up, which he first signed himself, and then ordered to be signed by all the bishops, abbots, ♦ Decline and Fall, vol. iii., page 284. OHAP. VI.] POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606 -800. 175 Charlemagne confirms and enlarges the donation of Peyin. Crowns hia son king of Lombardy- and other distinguished men who had accompanied him to Rome , then kissing it with great respect and devotion, as we are informed by Anastasius, " he laid it with his own hand on the body of St: Peter."* That the king of France, by this new donation, not only promised to defend the Pope's rights to all the places mentioned in Pepin's donation, but also added several other places, is generally agreed by the ancient writers, though there is much diversity of opinion, as to what these new territories were. Returning from Rome to Pavia, the capital of the Lombard kingdom, Charlemagne besieged and i-educed that city, and captured and deposed from his kingdom, the last of the race of the Lombard kings, Desiderius, and confined the unfortunate prince for the rest of his life to a mon- astery. After thus conquering the Lombard kingdom, Charlemagne immediately took measures to put the Pope in actual possession, wliich he had never yet fully enjoyed, of all the places named in the donation of Pepin. On a second visit of the king to Rome, in 781, he caused his son Carloman to be crowned and anointed by the Pope, king of Lombardy, and his son Lewis king of Aquitaine. § 57. — -In 787, Charlemagne again visited Italy for the purpose of defeating the plans of the powerful duke of Benevento, who had conspired with some of the Lombard princes to drive the French out of Italy. Upon the approach of the King, the duke proffered submission and implored forgiveness. Charlemagne was disposed to accept his submission, and cease further hostilities, but pope Adrian, concluding no doubt, that if any cities should be taken from the duke, St. Peter would doubtless reap the benefit, dissuaded the King from his purpose of forgiveness ; and to gratify his holi- ness, he entered the dominions of the duke, captured several of his cities, and laid waste the country with fire and sword. The Pope was not disappointed. Charlemagne, before he returned to France, added to the dominions of the church, the five cities he had taken during this expedition, beside several of the places which had formerly belonged to the Lombards. The Pope, instead of an humble minister of Christ, had already become an intriguing worldly politician, and like most other sovereigns of that age, anxious chiefly for the enlai'gement of his dominions, and his own personal aggran- disement, and so that these objects might be accomplished, caring but very little about the humanity or the justice of the means em- ployed. § 58. — In the year 800, king Charlemagne having reduced under his sway nearly the whole of Europe, paid another visit to Rome, for the purpose of vindicating the cause of pope Leo III., who had been assailed, waylaid, and wounded by Pascal and Campule, two nephews of the late pope Adrian, who were loth to part with that almost unbounded power which they had enjoyed during the pontificate of their uncle. They had not only offered themselves as his accusers; * Anastasius, de vitis Pont., in Adrian. 176 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book m. The Pope judges all, and is judged by none. Charlemagne crowned Emperor, A. D. 300. but attacked him in the public streets, and dragged him half dead into the church of St. Mark. Upon the arrival of the king at Rome in the month of November, he called together the whole body of the clergy and nobility of the city in the church of St. Peter, and after seating himself on the same throne with the Pope, informed the assembly of his horror at the late cruel attempt upon the life of his holiness, that he had come there for the purpose of informing him- self of the particulars of this horrid and unprecedented_ crime, and as the conspirators, with the design of diminishing their own guilt, had charged the Pope with various crimes, he had called them together to judge of the justice or injustice of these accusations. Upon the King's pronouncing these words, says Anastasius, the archbishops, bishops, and abbots exclaimed with one voice, " We dare not judge the apostolic See, the head of all churches. By that See and its vicar, we are all judged, and they by none !"* The Pope, however, declared himself willing to justify himself by a solemn oath, and upon his doing so, Charlemagne and the assembly declared themselves satisfied ; the Pope was pronounced innocent, and upon the two conspirators was pronounced the sentence of death, which, at the intercession of Leo, was commuted to that of perpetual banishment from Italy. § 59. — A few weeks after this event, viz. : on Christmas day, 800, Charlemagne was solemnly crowned and proclaimed Emperor, by the Pope, with the title of Carolus I., C^sar Augustus. The king was assisting at the celebration of mass in St. Peter's church, when in the midst of the ecclesiastical ceremonies, and while he was yet on his knees, pope Leo advanced and placed an imperial crown on his head, amidst the shouts of the people, who immediately exclaim- ed, " Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, crowned by the HAND of God ! — long live the great and pious Emperor of the Ro- mans."! The Emperor was then conducted by the Pope to a mag- nificent throne, presented with the imperial mantle, and saluted with the title of Augustus. From this time forward, the nominal sovereignty of the Eastern emperor in Rome, which had been merely a dead letter from the time of the dispute concerning images, in 730, was formally transferred to the new emperor of the Romans, although the principal power of administering the government of that city, was left by him where it had long been, in the hands of the Pope. § 60. — Widely different opinions have existed among historians of learning and research, as to the nature of the temporal power exer- cised in the city of Rome by the popes, after the coronation of the emperor Charlemagne, whether it was an independent or delegated power, and if the latter, in what sense, and how far the popes, in the * Anastasius, in vita Leo III. t Eginhard in Annal. — Eginhard, the celebrated biographer of Chariemagiie, was a contemporary and favorite of that monarch. CHAP. VI.] POPERY ADVANCING -A. D. 606— 800. 177 The Pope's temporal power. Daniel's little horn, and tiie three plucked up by the roots. exercise of their temporal government, were dependent upon Charle- magne and the emperors who succeeded him. Instead of adding another to these various opinions, I shall only quote the following opinion of the learned Mosheim, " That Charlemagne, in effect, preserved entire his supreme authority over the city of Rome and its adjacent territory, has been demonstrated by several of the learned in the most ample and satisfactory manner, and confirmed by the most unexceptionable testimonies. On the other hand, we must acknowledge, ingenuously, that the power of the pontiff", both in the city of Rome and its annexed territory, was very great, and that he seemed to act with a princely authority. But the extent and the foundations of that authority are matters hid in the deepest obscurity, and have thereby given occasion to endless disputes. After a careful examination of all the circumstances that can con- tribute toward the solution of this perplexed question, the most probable account of the matter seems to be this : that the Roman pontiff possessed the city of Rome and its territory as a feudal ten- ure, though charged with less marks of dependance than other fiefs generally are, on account of the lustre and dignity of a city which had been so long the capital of the empire."* § 60. — In the seventh chapter of Daniel, verses 8, &c., the papal power is represented as a " little horn," or kingdom, coming up among the other ten horns or kingdoms into which the Roman empire was divided. Before this little horn, coming up after the other ten, and " diverse from the first," three of the others are plucked up by the roots, which signifies that the papal government should eventu- ally triumph over three of the states or governments out of the ten into which the ancient Roman empire was divided. Bishop Newton, in his learned work on the prophecies, supposes that these were the state of Rome, the exarchate of Ravenna, and the kingdom of the Lombards. Perhaps it may be doubted whether his assertion is quite consistent with historical accuracy, that " in the year 774, the Pope, by the assistance of Charles the Great, became possessed of the kingdom of the Lombards."! It is true that Charlemagne, upon his conquest of Lombardy, enlarged the donation of Pepin, with some of the cities formerly belonging to the Lombards, but he caused his own son Carloman, to be crowned king of Lombardy, by the Pope, in the year 781, as we have already seen. (See above, page 175.) • Indeed, while there is no uncertainty as to the fact, there is much uncertainty as to the time when the papal government thus succes- sively triumphed over these three horns or governments. Whoever will examine a map of the papal states in Italy at the present day, will see that the Pope is now possessed of all the territory occupied by two of these governments, in the sixth and seventh centuries, and at least of a large part of that occupied by the third ; but it is * Mosheim, vol. ii., page 229. t Newton's Dissertations on the Prophecies, page 617. J ^8 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book hi. Circumstances of the full esl3blishme.it of the Papal State as independent and eovereign. more difficult to tell the precise time when these territories became all united under him as a sovereign and independent monarch. 6 61 —The origin and foundation of the sovereign state, called the Papal State, which is annexed to the See ol'Rome, says a late accurate writer, " is one of the most obscure and intricate subjects in the history of modern Europe." This writer then proceeds to show m a minute and careful sketch of the papal power for more than four centuries after Charlemagne, that the popes, during all that time, thouo-h acknowledged as sovereigns, and exercising the rights ot sovereignty, and at some periods even claiming a sovereign power over all earthly kings and emperors, were yet, m the government of their own territories, nominally at least, dependent upon the em- perors of the West, till the time of Rudolph of Hapsburg, the ances- tor of the present reigning house of Austria. His account of the act of the Emperor, by which this nominal dependency was given up, is as follows : " Rudolph of Hapsburg, being elected emperor after a long interregnum (A. D. 1273), was entirely engrossed by German affairs, and had little time to bestow upon the kingdom of Italy, which had ever proved a troublesome appendage of the German crown, and he is said to have been ignorant of the geography of that country. Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily and Naples, was then the most powerful sovereign of Italy, and had extended his authority by various means over the North of Italy, where he had assumed the title of Imperial Vicar. Rudolph resented this usurpation, and pope Nicholas III., interfering between the two sovereigns, induced Charles to give up Tuscany and Bologna, as well as the senatorship of Rome, which he had also obtained. "At the same time the Pope urged Rudolph to define by a charter the dominions of the holy See, and to separate them for ever from those dependent on the empire, and he sent to Rudolph copies of the donations or charters of the former emperors. Rudolph, by letters patent, dated May, 1278, recognized the states of the church, as extending from Radicofani to Ceperano, near the Liris, on the fron- tiers of Naples, and as including the duchy of Spoleto, the march of Ancona, the exarchate of Ravenna, the county of Bertinoro, Bo- logna, and some other places. At the same time, Rudolph released tlie people of all those places from their oath of allegiance to the empire, giving up all rights over them, which might still remain in the imperial crown, and acknowledging the sovereignty of the same to belong to the See of'Rome. This charter was confirmed by the electors and princes of the empire. Rudolph's letter and charter are found in Raynaldus's * Annales' for the year 1278. This charter, important as a title, had little effect at the time. Rudolph gave up to the Pope a sovereignty, which was more nominal than real."* * See a learned article on the " Papal States," in the valuable Cyclopedia, lately published in London, by the Society for the Difiiision of Useful Knowledge, of which the celebrated Lord Brougham is president. CHAP. VI.1 POPERY ADVANCING— A. D. 606— 800. 179 Rudolph's charter, establishing the independence and defining the limits of the Papal State. The learned historian of the ItaUan republics, remarking on the same event, adds, " from that period, 1278, the republics as well as the principalities, situated in the whole extent of what is now called the states of the church, held of the holy See, and not of the Em- peror."* Thus have we endeavored to trace the history of the papal power, till its full establishment as an independent temporal sove- reignty. If, in so doing, we have related some events belonging to an age yet to pass under review, we shall readily be excused by the reader for placing in a connected view the successive occui'- rences relating to the same subject. * Sismondi's Italian Republics, page 96. See also Raynald's Annals ad Ann. 1299, and Gieseler, vol. ii., page 235, note 10, where the following extract is given from the original Latin of Rudolph's charter, establishing the independence of the Papal State, and defining its boundaries. " Ad has pertinet tota terra, quee est a Radicofano usque Ceperanum, Marchia Anconitana, ducatus Spoletanus, terra comitissae Mathildis, civitas Ravennse et ^Emilia, Bobium, Ceesena, Forumpopuli, Forumlivii, Faventia, Imola, Bononia, Ferraria, Comaculura, Adriam, atque Gabel- lum, Arminum, Urbinum, Monsfeltri, territorium Balnese, Comitatus Bricenorii, Exarchatus Ravennse, Pentapolis, Massa Trabaria cum adjacentibus terris et om- nibus aliis ad Romanum Ecclesiam pertinentibus." ■ 181 BOOK IV. POPERY IN ITS GLORY.-THE WORLD'S MIDNIGHT.-A.D. 800-1073. FKOM THE CORONATION OF CHARLEMAGNE, A. D. 800, TO THE BEGINNIN& OF THE PONTIFICATE OF POPE HILDEERAND OR GREGORY VII., A. D. 1073. CHAPTER I. PROOFS OF THE DARKNESS OP THIS PERIOD. FORGED DECRETALS. RE- VERENCE FOR MONKS, SAINTS, AND RELICS. WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. PURGATORY. § 1. — The period upon which we are now to enter, comprising the ninth and tenth centuries, with the greater part of the eleventh, is the darkest in the annals of Christianity. It was a long night of almost universal darkness, ignorance, and superstition, with scarcely a ray of light to illuminate the gloom. This period has been appropriately designated by various historians as the " dark ages," the " iron age," the " leaden age," and the " midnight of the world." The darkness was the most intense during the middle of this period, that is, during the whole of the tenth century ; yet the difference between the gloom of that and of the ninth and eleventh centuries, is no greater than the difference between the darkness of the hour of midnight, and that of the hour or two which precedes or follows it. During these centuries, it was rare for a layman of whatever rank to know how to sign his name. Still more extraor- dinary was it to find one who had any tincture of learning. Even the clergy were for a long period not very superior as a body to the uninstructed laity. An inconceivable cloud of ignorance over- spread the whole face of the church, hardly broken by a few glim- mering lights, who owe almost the whole of their distinction to the surrounding darkness. In almost every council, the ignorance of the clergy forms a subject for reproach, and by one council held in 992, it is asserted that scarcely a single person was to be found in Rome itself, who knew the first elements of letters.* In the age of Charlemagne, it is related upon the authority of * Tiraboschi, Storia della Leteratura, Tom. iii., page 198. Hallara, page 460. 12 182 HISTORY OF KOMANISM. [book iv Midnight dnrkness of this period. The forged Decretals. Mabillon, that not one priest in a thousand in Spain, could address a common letter of salutation to another. A few years later, king Alfred the Great, king of England, declared that he could not recol- lect a single priest South of the Thames, who understood the ordi- nary prayers, or could translate Latin into his mother tongue.* " Nothing," says Mosheim, " could be more melancholy and deplor- able than the darkness that reigned in the Western world, during the tenth century, which, with respect to learning and philosophy at least, may be called the iron age of the Latins." The corrup- tions of the clergy, according to the same historian, had reached the most enormous height in that dismal period of the church. For the most part, they were composed of a most worthless set of men, shamefully illiterate and stupid, ignorant more especially in reli- gious matters, equally enslaved' to sensuality and superstition, and capable of the most abominable and flagitious deeds. This dismal degeneracy of the sacred order was, according to the most credi- ble accounts, principally owing to the pretended chiefs and rulers of the universal church, who indulged themselves in the commission of the most odious crimes, and abandoned themselves to the lawless impulse of the most licentious passions, without reluctance or re- morse, who confounded, in short, all dilTerence between just and unjust, to satisfy their imperious ambition, and whose spiritual em- pire was such a diversified scene of iniquity and violence, as never was exhibited under any of those temporal tyrants, who have been the scourges of mankind.f § 2. — As a proof of the priestly wickedness and knavery which could invent such an imposture, and the ignorance and imbecility which could be duped by it, may be mentioned the forgery of the celebrated False Decretals, and the Donation of Constantine, which appeared about the close of the eighth century, and by which, during the whole of the three centuries of this midnight of the world, the arrogant pretensions of the pontiffs were established and main- tained. The object of these decretals, as they were called, was to persuade the multitude that, in the first ages of the church, the bish- ops of Rome were possessed of the same spiritual majesty and authority as they now assumed. They consisted of a pretended collection of rescripts and decrees of various bishops of Rome, from the second to the fifth centuries, and other forged acts, pub- lished with great ostentation and parade, in the ninth century, with the name prefixed, of Isidore, bishop of Seville, to make the world believe they had been collected by that learned prelate, some two or three centuries before. The most important of these forged documents, by which the enormous power and assumption of the popes, for so many ages was justified and sustained, was the pretended donation from the * See Hallam's Middle Ages, page 460. f See Mosheim, cent, x., part 2. CHAP. I.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 183 Pretended donalion of Constantlne the Grc-it, to pope Sylveater of Rome and Italy. emperor Constantine the Great, in the year 324, of the city of Rome and all Italy, with the crown, the mitre, &c., to Sylvester, then bishop of Rome. The following extract from this pretended deed of donation will be sufficient to show the character of this bungling imposture. "We attribute to the chair of St. Peter all the impe- rial DIGNITY, GLORY, AND POWER. * * Moroover, WO give to Sylvester, and to his successors, our palace of Lateran, incontestably one of the finest palaces on earth ; we give him our crown, our mitre, our diadem, and all our imperial vestments ; we resign to him the imperial dignity. * * * We give as a free gift to THE HOLY PONTIFF THE CITY OF ROME, and all the Wcstem cities of Italy, as well as the Western cities of the other countries. To make room for him, we abdicate our sovereignty over all these provin- ces ; and we withdraw from Rome, transferring the seat of our empire to Byzantium, since it is not just that a terrestrial em- peror SHALL retain ANY POWER WHERE GoD HAS PLACED THE HEAD OF religion." § 3. — This memorable donation was, near the close of the eighth century, introduced to the world, says the eloquent Gibbon, " by an epistle of pope Adrian I. to the emperor Charlemagne, in which he exhorts him to imitate the liberality of the great Constantine. According to the legend, the first of the Christian emperors was healed of the leprosy, and purified in the waters of baptism, by St. Sylvester, the Roman bishop ; and never was physician more glo- riously recompensed. His royal proselyte withdrew from his seat and patrimony of St. Peter ; declared his resolution of founding a new capital in the east ; and resigned to the popes the free and per- petual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the West. This fiction was productive of the most beneficial effects. The Greek princes were convicted of the guilt of usurpation ; and the revolt of pope Gregory was the claim of his lawful inheritance. The popes were delivered from their debt of gratitude : and the nominal gifts of the Carlovingians were no more than the just and irrevocable restitution of a scanty portion of the ecclesiastical state. The sovereignty of Rome no longer depended on the choice of a fickle people ; and the successors of St. Peter and Constantine were invested with the purple and prerogatives of the Caesars. So deep was the ignorance and credulity of the times, that this most absurd of fables was received with equal reverence, in Greece and in France, and is still enrolled among the decrees of the canon law.* The emperors and the Romans were incapable of discern- ing a forgery that subverted their rights and freedom ; and the only opposition proceeded from a Sabine monastery, which, in the be- ginning of the twelfth century, disputed the truth and validity of the donation of Constantine. In the revival of letters and liberty * In the year 1059, it was believed, or at least professed to be believed, by Pope Leo IX., Cardinal Peter Damianus, &c. The world deceived for ages by these forgeries of the popes and their tools. this fictitious deed was transpierced by the pen of Laurentius Valla, an eloquent critic and a Roman patriot. His contemporaries of the fifteenth century were astonished at his sacrilegious boldness ; yet such is the silent and irresistible progress of reason, that before the end of the next age, the fable was rejected by the contempt of his- torians ; though by the same fortune which has attended the decre- tals and the Sibylline oracles, the edifice has subsisted after the foundations have been undermined." § 4. — The fact is most astonishing that upon the strength of these documents, acknowledged now by Fleury,* and even by Baro- nius, as well as the great body of Roman Catholics, to be forgeries, the world should have quietly submitted for centuries of gloom and darkness, to the tyrannical usurpations of the haughty and aban- doned prelates of Rome. The fabric erected upon these forged documents " has stood," in the words of Hallam, " after the founda- tion upon which it rested has crumbled beneath it ; for no one has pretended to deny for the last two centuries that the imposture is too palpable for any but the most ignorant ages to credit."f It cannot be doubted by any one who is not blinded by pre- judice, that whoever was the immediate author of these spurious documents, they were forged with the knowledge and consent of the Roman pontiffs, since it is utterly incredible that these pontifTs should, for many ages, have constantly appealed, in support of their pretended rights a,nd privileges, to acts and records that were only the fictions of private persons, and should, with such weak arms, have stood out against monarchs and councils, who were unwilling to receive their yoke. '• Acts of a private nature," says Mosheim, " would have been useless here, and public deeds were necessary to accompHsh the views of papal ambiuoii. Such forgeries were then esteemed lawful, on account of their supposed tendency to promote the glory of God, and to advance the prosperity of the church ; and therefore it is not surprising that the good pontiffs should feel no remorse in imposing upon the world frauds and forgeries, that were designed to enrich the patrimony of St. Peter, and to aggrandize his successors in the apostolic See."J Nor will the reader be dis- posed to regard as uncharitable this opinion, who has perused the pretended letter of St. Peter, written in heaven, and sent to king Pepin on earth, through the hands of the infallible postmaster, pope Stephen. It is well remarked by Dr. Campbell of these forgeries of Constantine's donation and the decretal epistles of early bishops of Rome, that " they are such barefaced impostures, and so bunglingly executed, that nothing less than the most profound darkness of those ages could account for their success. They are manifestly written m the barbarous dialect which obtained in the eighth and ninth * See a dissertation of Fleury prefixed to the sixteenth volume of his Eccles. History. f Middle Ages, p. 274. I See Mosheim, vol. ii., p. 297, note. CHAP. I.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 185 Extravagant veneration for monks. The great cardinal doctrines of the gospel forgotten. centuries, and exhibit those poor meek and humble teachers, who came immediately after the apostles, as blustering, swaggering, and dictating to the world in the authoritative tone of a Zachary or a Stephen."* § 5. — Another proof of the ignorance and grovelling superstition of this dark period is found in the increasing reverence for the monastic life, and the extravagant veneration paid to those who embraced it. In this age even kings, dukes, and other noblemen, in many instances, abandoned their thrones, honors or treasures, and shut themselves up in monasteries ; and in other instances, where the attractions of wealth and grandeur were too strong to permit this sacrifice during life, the victims of superstition, upon the approach of death, imagining that the holy frock of a monk would be a pass- port to heaven, caused themselves, upon their death-beds, to be arrayed in the monastic habit, vainly hoping in this way to atone for the sins of an ungodly life. The cardinal and fundamental doctrines of the gospel seemed to be almost entirely forgotten or unknown. The doctrines of native depravity, salvation by grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus, and holy obedience springing from that faith which works by love, constituted no part of the theology of this age. The essence of rehgion was then made to consist in the worship of images and saints, in searching for the mouldering bones of reputed holy men and women, and bestowing due reverence upon these sacred relics, and in loading with riches a set of ignorant and lazy monks. It was not enough to reverence departed saints, and to confide in their intercession and succors ; it was not enough to clothe them with an imaginary power of healing diseases, working mira- cles, and delivering from all sorts of calamities and dangers ; their bones, their clothes, the apparel and furniture they had possessed during their lives, the very ground which they had touched, or in which their putrified carcasses were laid, were treated with a stu- pid veneration, and supposed to retain the marvellous virtue of healing all disorders both of body and mind, and of defending such as possessed them against all the assaults and devices of Satan. The consequence of this wretched notion was, that every one was eager to provide himself with these salutary remedies, for which purpose great numbers undertook fatiguing and perilous voyages, and subjected themselves to all sorts of hardships ; while others made use of this delusion to accumulate their riches, and to impose upon the miserable multitude by the most impious and shocking inventions. ^ 6. As the demand for rehcs was prodigious and universal, the clergy employed all their dexterity to satisfy these demands, and were far from being nice in the methods they used for that end. The bodies of the saints were sought by fasting and prayer, instituted by the priest in order to obtain a divine answer, and an * Campbell's Lect. on Eccles. Hist., p. 269. )8(j HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book iv. Insane passion for holy carcasBes. Spurious bones. Multiplication of saints. infallible direction, and this pretended direction never failed to ac- complish their desires ; the holy carcass was always found, and that always in consequence, as they impiously gave out, of the sugges- tion and inspiration of God himself. Each discovery of this kind y^&s attended with excessive demonstrations of joy, and animated the zeal of these devout seekers to enrich the church still more and more with this new kind of treasure. Many travelled with this view into the eastern pi-ovinces, and frequented the places which Christ and his disciples had honored with their presence, that with the bones and other sacred remains of the first heralds of the gos- pel, they might comfort dejected minds, calm trembling consciences, save sinking states, and defend their inhabitants from all sorts of calamities. Nor did these pious travellers return home empty ; the craft, dexterity, and knavery of the Greeks found a rich prey in the stupid credulity of the Latin relic hunters, and made a pro- fitable commerce of this new devotion. The latter paid considera- ble sums for legs and arms, skulls and jaw-bones, several of which were pagan, and some not human, and other things that were sup- posed to have belonged to the primitive worthies of the Christian church ; and thus the Latin churches came to the possession of those celebrated relics of St. Mark, St. James, St. Bartholomew, Cyprian, Pantaleon, and others, which they show at this day with so much ostentation. " The ardor with which relics were sought in the tenth century," observes Mosheim, " surpasses almost all credibility ; it had seized all ranks and orders among the people, and was grown into a sort of fanaticism and frenzy ; and, if the monks are to be believed, the Supreme Being interposed, in an especial and extraordinary manner, to discover to doating old wives and bare-headed friars the places where the bones or carcasses of the saints lay dispersed or interred." * § 7. — In connection with this insane passion for relics, it may be remarked that these dark ages were equally distinguished by the multiplication of new saints and the invention of the most absurd legends of the wonders performed by them during their lives. In the ninth century, the idolatrous custom became very general of ad- dressing prayers almost exclusively to the saints, leaving them to pre- sent the petitions of the supphant to God, nor did any dare to enter- tain the smallest hopes of finding the Deity propitious, before they had assured themselves of the protection and intercession of some one or other of the saintly order. Hence it was that every church, and indeed every private Christian, had their particular patron among the saints, from an apprehension that their spiritual interests would be but indifferently managed by those who were already employed about the souls of others ; for they judged, in this re- spect, of the saints as they did of mortals, whose capacity is too limited to comprehend a vast variety of objects. This notion ren- dered it necessary to multiply prodigiously the number of the saints. * Mosheim, vol. ii., p. 406. CHAP. I.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1074. 187 Legendary lives of sainls. Neccaslty of checking the increase of aaints. and to create daily new patrons for the deluded people ; and this was done with the utmost zeal. The priests and monks set their invention at work, and peopled at discretion the invisible world with imaginary protectors. They dispelled the thick darkness which covered the pretended spiritual exploits of many holy men ; and they invented both names and histories of saints that never existed, that they might not be at a loss to furnish the credulous and wretched multitude with objects proper to perpetuate their su- perstition and to nourish their confidence. Many chose their own guides, and committed their spiritual interests either to phantoms of their own creation, or to distracted fanatics, whom they esteemed as saints, for no other reason than their having lived like madmen. § 8. — In consequence of this prodigious increase of saints, it was thought necessary to write the lives of these celestial patrons, in order to procure for them the veneration and confidence of a de- luded multitude ; and here lying wonders were invented, and all the resources of forgery and fable exhausted, to celebrate exploits which had never been performed, and to perpetuate the memory of holy persons who had never existed. We have yet extant a prodigious quantity of these trifling legends, the greatest part of which were undoubtedly forged after the time of Charlemagne by the monastic writers, who had both the inclination and leisure to edify the church by these pious frauds. The same impostors who peopled the celestial regions with fictitious saints, employed also their fruitful inventions in embellishing with false miracles, and various other impertinent forgeries, the history of those who had been really martyrs or confessors in the cause of Christ. The churches that were dedicated to the saints were perpetually crowd- ed with suppUcants, who flocked to them with rich presents, in order to obtain succor under the aflBictions they suffered, or deliver- ance from the dangers which they had reason to apprehend. And it was esteemed also a high honor to be the more immediate ministers of these tutelary mediators, who, as it is likewise proper to observe, were esteemed and frequented in proportion to their an- tiquity, and to the number and importance of the pretended mira- cles that had rendered their lives illustrious. This latter circum- stance offered a strong temptation to such as were employed by the various churches in writing the lives of their tutelar saints, to supply by invention the defects of truth, and to embellish their le- gends with fictitious prodigies, in order to swell the fame of their respective patrons. § 9. — The ecclesiastical councils found it necessary at length to set limits to the licentious superstition of the deluded multitude, who, with a view to have still more friends at court, for such were their gross notions of things, were daily adding new saints to the list of their celestial mediators. They accordingly declared, by a solemn decree, that no departed Christian should be considered as a member of the saintly order before the bishop in a provincial council, and in presence of the people, had pronounced him 188 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book iv Canonization or saint-making a prerogative of the Pope. The feast of All Saints established in 835 worthy of that distinguished honor.* This remedy, feeble and illusory as it was, contributed in some measure to restrain the fanatical temerity of the saint-makers ; but, in its consequences, it was the occasion of a new accession of power to the Roman pontiff. Even so early as the ninth century many were of opinion, that it was proper and expedient, though not absolutely ne- cessary, that the decisions of bishops and councils should be con- firmed by the consent and authority of the Roman pontiff, whom they considered as the supreme and universal bishop ; and " this will not appear surprising," says Mosheim, " to any who reflect upon the enormous strides which the bishops of Rome made toward unbounded dominion in this barbarous and superstitious age, whose corruption and darkness were peculiarly favorable to their am- bitious pretensions." In the year 993, the Pope assumed and ex- ercised alone, for the first time, the right of creating one of these tutelary deities in the person of a Saint Udalric, who, with all the formalities of a solemn canonization, was enrolled in the number of the saints by pope John XV., and thus became entitled to the worship and veneration of the superstitious multitude. In the twelfth century, pope Alexander III. placed canonization or saint- making in the number of the more important acts of authority which the sovereign pontiff, by his peculiar prerogative, was alone entitled to exercise. § 10. — The consequence of the increase of saints was, of course, a vast increase oi festivals or saints' days, as well as of the cere- monies of worship. The carcasses of the saints transported from foreign countries, or discovered at home by the industry and dili- gence of pious or designing priests, not only obhged the rulers of the church to augment the number of festivals or holidays already established, but also to diversify the ceremonies in such a manner, that each might have his peculiar worship. And as the authority and credit of the clergy depended much upon the high notion which was generally entertained of the virtue and merit of the saints they had canonized, and presented to the multitude as objects of religi- ous veneration, it was necessary to amuse and surprise the people by a variety of pompous and striking ceremonies, by images and such like inventions, in order to keep up and nourish their stupid admiration for the saintly tribe. Hence the splendor and magnifi- cence that were lavished upon the churches in this century, and the prodigious number of costly pictures and images with which they were adorned ; hence the stately altars, which were enriched with the noblest inventions of painting and sculpture, and illuminated with innumerable tapers at noon day ; hence the multitude of pro- cessions, the gorgeous and splendid garments of the priests, and the masses that were celebrated in honor of the saints. In the year 835, the feast of All Saints was established by pope Gregory IV.. * Mabillon, Act. Sanctor. Ord. Benedict!, Sjec. v., Praef. p. 44. CHAP. 1.1 POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLU-MIDNIGUT— 800-1073. 189 Worship of the queen of heaven. The Rosary. lij'ing legcnda according to Mabillon, though other authors ascribe the establish- ment of this festival to pope Boniface IV. § 11. — Among the multitude of saints, it is not to be supposed that " the queen of heaven " was neglected. Her idolatrous worship, amidst the gloom of the dark ages, i-eceived, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, new accessions of solemnity and superstition. The rosary of the Virgin was probably invented in the tenth cen- tury. This is a string of beads consisting of one hundred and fifty, which make so many Aves, or hail Marys, every ten beads being divided by one something larger, which signifies a Pater, or Lord's prayer. Before repeating the rosary, it is necessary for the person to take it and cross himself, and then to i-epeat the creed, after which he repeats a prayer to the Virgin for every small bead, and a prayer to God for every large one. Thus it is seen that ten prayers are offered to the Virgin for every one offered to God ; and such continues to be the custom, as we learn from " the Garden of the Soul," and other popish books of devotion, down to the present time.* In the chaplets, more commonly used, there are only fifty Ave Marias, and five Pater nosters. Referring to the worship of the Virgin in the dark ages, says the calm and philosophic Hall am, "It is difficult to conceive the stupid absurdity and the disgusting profaneness of those stories which were invented by the monks to do her honor." He then gives, upon the authority of Le Grand D'Aussy, the following few speci- mens, to confirm his assertions, " lest they should appear to the reader harsh and extravagant." The titles are my own. (1.) The robber saved from hanging. — "There was a man whose occupation was highway robbery ; but, whenever he set out on any such expedition, he was careful to address a prayer to the Virgin. Taken at last, he was sentenced to be hanged. While the cord was round his neck, he made his usual prayer, nor was it inefTectual. The Virgin supported his feet " with her white hands," and thus kept him alive two days, to the no small surprise of the executioner, who attempted to complete his work with strokes of a sword. But the same invisible hand turned aside the weapon, and the execu- tioner was compelled to release his victim, acknowledging the miracle. The thief retired into a monastery, which is always the termination of these deliverances." (2.) The wicked monk admitted to heaven. — " At the monastery of St. Peter, near Cologne, lived a monk perfectly dissolute and irreli- gious, but very devout toward the apostle. Unluckily, he died suddenly without confession. The fiends came as usual to seize his soul. St. Peter, vexed at losing so faithful a votary, besought God to admit the monk into paradise. His prayer was refused, and * See " the Rosary of the blessed Virgin" in " the Garden of the Soul," page 296. The edition of this work, to which I shall again have occasion to refer, is that published at New York, 1844, " with the approbation of the Right Rev Dr. Hughes." 190 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book it. The Virgin's favor to her worsliippers and friends. Fears of Purgatoiy. though the whole body of saints, apostles, angels, and martyrs joined at his request to make interest, it was of no avail. In this extremity he had recourse to the mother of God. ' Fair lady,' said he, ' my monk is lost if you do not interfere for him ; but what is impossible for us, will be but sport to you, if you please to assist us. Your Son, if you but speak a word, must yield, since it is in your power to command him.' The queen mother assented, and, follow- ed by all the virgins, moved toward her Son. He who had him- self given the precept, 'Honor thy father and thy mother,' no sooner saw his own parent approach, than he rose to receive her, and, taking her by the hand, inquired her wishes. The rest may be easily conjectured. Compare the gross stupidity, or rather the atrocious impiety of this tale, with the pure theism of the Arabian Nights, and judge whether the Deity was better worshipped at Co- logne or at Bagdad." (3.) The licentious nun, ^c. — " It is unnecessary to multiply in- stances of this kind. In one tale the Virgin takes the shape of a nun, who had eloped from the convent, and performs her duties ten years, till, tired of a libertine life, she returns unsuspected. This was in consideration of her having never omitted to say an Ave as she passed the Virgin's image. In another, a gentleman, in love with a handsome widow, consents, at the instigation of a sorcerer, to renounce God and the saints, but cannot be persuaded to give up the Virgin, well knowing that if he kept her his friend, he should obtain pardon through her means. Accordingly, she inspired his mistress with so much passion, that he married her within a few days." " These tales," adds the historian, " it may be said, were the pro- duction of ignorant men, and circulated among the populace. Cer- tainly they would have excited contempt and indignation in the more enlightened clergy. But I am concerned with the general character of religious notions among the people : and for this it is better to take such popular compositions, adapted to what the laity already believed, than the writings of comparatively learned and reflecting men. However, stories of the same cast are frequent in the monkish historians. Matthew Paris, one of the most respecta- ble of that class, and no friend to the covetousness or relaxed lives of the priesthood, tells of a knight who was on the point of being damned for frequenting tournaments, but saved by a donation he had formerly made to the Virgin, p. 290."* § 12. — In this dark age, also, the fears of purgatory, of that fire that was to destroy the remaining impurities of departed souls, were also carried to the greatest height, and exceeded by far the terrifying apprehensions of infernal torments ; for the deluded priest- ridden multitude hoped to avoid the latter easily, by dying enriched with the prayers of the clergy, or covered with the merits and mediation of the saints ; while from the pains of purgatory they * Hallam'a Middle Ages, pages 465, 466. CHAP. I.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 191 Festival of All-Souls. Gross fiction from which it originated knew there was no exemption. The clergy, therefore, finding these superstitious terrors admirably adapted to increase their authority, and promote their interest, used every method to augment them, and by the most pathetic discourses, accompanied with monstrous fables and fictitious miracles, they labored to establish the doctrine of purgatory, and also to make it appear that they had a mighty in- fluence in that formidable region. In the year 993, the famous annual festival of all souls was estab- lished. Previous to this time, it had been customary on certain days, in many places, to put up prayers for the souls that were con- fined in purgatory ; but these prayers were made by each religious society, only for its own members, friends, and patrons. The occa- sion of the establishment of this festival was as follows : A certain Sicilian monk made known to Odilo, abbot of Clugni, that when walking near Mount Etna, in Sicily, he had seen the flames vomited forth through the open door of hell, in which the reprobates were suffering torment for their sins, and that he heard the devils wailing most hideously, "plangentium quod animse damnatorum eriperentur de manibus eorum, per orationes Cluniacensium oran- tium indefesse pro defunctorum requie," that is, " the devils howled, because the wailing souls of the condemned were snatched from their grasp, by the prayers of the monks of Clugny, praying without cessation for the repose of the dead." In consequence of this monstrous imposition, as we learn from Mabillon, a Romish author, this festival was estabUshed by Odilo,* and though at the first, only observed by the congregation of Clugni, was afterward, by order of the Pope, enjoined upon all the Latin churches. The fact is worthy of notice, mentioned by Mosheim (ii., 417), that in a treatise upon festivals, by one of the later popes, Benedict XVI., entitled " De festis Jesu Christi, Maria; et Sanctorum," the cunning author was " artful enough to observe a profound silence with respect to the superstitious and dishonorable origin of this anniversary festival. This," he adds, " is not the only mark of prudence and cunning to be found in the works of that famous pontifi'." * See Mabillon, Acta SS. Ord. Bened. Sa;c. vi., part i., page 584, where the reader will find the Life of Odilo, with the decree he issued for the institution of this festival. yyyj, 192 CHAPTER II. PROOFS OF THE DARKNESS OF THIS PERIOD CONTINUED. ORIGIN AND FINAL ESTABLISHMENT OF TRANSUBSTANTIATION. PERSECUTION OF BERENGER, ITS FAMOUS OPPOSER. POPISH MIRACLES IN ITS PROOF. § 13. — Another evidence of the gross darkness of this midnight of the world, is seen in the invention and open advocacy of that absurd dogma, which more than any other doctrine of Popery, is an insult to common sense, transubstantiation. This, in the language of the Romish authors, " consists in the transmutation of the bread and wine in the communion, into the body and blood, and by con- nexion and concomitance, into the soul and divinity of our Lord. The whole substance of the sacramental elements is, according to this chimera, changed into the true, real, numerical, and integral Emmanuel, God and man, who was born of Mary, existed in the world, suffered on the cross, and remains immortal and glorious in heaven.* The host, therefore,- under the form of bread, contains the Mediator's total and identical body, soul, and Deity. Nothing of the substance of bread and wine remains after consecration. All, except the accidents, is transformed into the Messiah, in his god- head, with all its perfections, and in his manhood with all its com- ponent parts, soul, body, blood, bones, flesh, nerves, muscles, veins and sinews.f Our Lord, according to the same absurdity, is not only whole in the whole, but also whole in every part. The whole God and man is comprehended in every crumb of the bread, and in every drop of the wine. He is entire in the bread, and entire in the wine, and in every particle of each element. He is entire with- out division, in countless hosts, or numberless altars. He is entire in heaven, and at the same tim.e, entire on the earth. The whole is equal to a part, and a part equal to the whole.J The same sub- stance may, at the same time, be in many places, and many sub- stances in the same place.§ This sacrament, in consequence of * Credimus panem convert! in earn carnem, quEe in cruce pependit. (Lanfranc, 243.) Sint quatuor ilia, caro, sanguis, anima, et Divinitas Christi. (Labbe, xx., 619.) Domini corpus quod natum ex virgine in coelis sedetad dextram Patris,hoc Sacramento contineri. Divinitatem et totam humanam naturam complectitur. (Cat. Trid., 122, 125.) t Continetur totum corpus Christi, scilicet, ossa, nervi et alia. {Aquin. iii. 2, 76, c. i.) Comprehendens carnem, ossa, nervos, &c. {Dens, 5, 276.) X Non solus sub toto, sed totus sub qualibet parte. (Canisius. 4, 468. Bin. 9, 380. Crabb. 2, 946.) Ubi pars est corporis, est totum. (Giberi, 3, 331.) Christus totus et integer sub qualibet particula divisionis perseverat. (Canisius, 4, 818.) Totus et integer Christus sub panis specie et sub quavis ipsius specie! parte, item, sub vini specie et sub ejus partibuj, existit. (Labb. 20, 32.) { Idem corpus sit simul in pluribus locis. (Faber, 1, 128. Paolo, 1, 630.) Pos- sunt esse duo corpora quanta et plura in eodem spatio. (Faber, 1, 136.) Corpus non expellat prEeexistens corpus. (Faber, 1, 137.) CHAP. II.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073, 193 Abaurditica of Tr aiisubstantialion. Earliest trace of this absurd dogma. these manifold contradictions, is, says Ragusa, ' a display of Al- mighty power ;' while Faber calls transubstantiation ' the greatest miracle of omnipotence.' "* " A person," says the learned Edgar, in his Variations of Popery, " feels humbled in having to oppose such inconsistency, and scarcely knows whether to weep over the imbecility of his own species, or to vent his bursting indignation against the impostors, who, lost to all sense of shame, obtruded this mass of contradictions on man. History, in all its ample folios, displays, in the deceiving and the deceived, no equal instance of assurance and credulity."f § 14. — The first faint traces which the page of ecclesiastical his- tory unfolds of the doctrine of transmutation of the elements, and probably the hint upon which in the following century, Paschasius built his preposterous theory, was the language of the council of Constantinople, in 754, which decided against the worship of images. This council, reckoned by the Greeks, to be the seventh general council, " in opposing the worship of images," says the learned arch- bishop Tillotson, " did argue thus : ' That our Lord having left no other image of himself but the sacrament, in which the sub- stance of bread, &c., is the image of -his body, we ought to make no other image of our Lord.' But the second council of Nice, in 787. being resolved to support the image-worship, did, on the contrary, declare that the sacrament, after consecration, is not the image and antitype of Christ's' body and blood, but is PRorERLY his body and BLOOD. Cardinal Bellarmine tells the same," adds Tillotson, " but evidently with a quibble, ' None of the ancients,' saith he, ' who wrote of heresies, hath put this " error" (of the corporal presence), in his catalogue, nor did any of them dispute about this " error " for the first six hundred years.'J True," replies the archbishop, to this singular argument, " True, for as this doctrine of transubstantiation was not in being during the first six hundred years and more, as I have shown, there could be no dispute against it."§ § 15. — " The state of the Latin communion at the time," says Ed- gar, " was perhaps the chief reason of the origin, progress, and final establishment of transubstantiation. Philosophy seemed to have taken its departure from Christendom, and to have left mankind to grovel in a night of ignorance, unenlightened with a single ray of learning. Cimmerian clouds overspread the literary horizon, and quenched the sun of science. Immorality kept pace with ignorance, and extended itself to the priesthood and to the people. The flood- gates of moral pollution seemed to have set wide open, and inunda- tions of all impurity poured on the Christian world through the Roman hierarchy. The enormity of the clergy was faithfully * Hoc sacramentum continet miraculutn maximum, quod pertinet ad omnipoten- tiam. (Faier, 1, 126.) Divina omnipotentia ostenditur. (Ragus in Canisius,i. 818.) t See Edgar's Variations, page 347. j Bellarmine De Eucharistia, lib. i. { Tillotson on Transubstantiation, Ser. xxvi., page 182. 194 mSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book iv Paschasiiig advocates TranBubstantiation. Babanus Maurus opposes it. copied by the laity. Both sunk into equal degeneracy, and the popedom appeared one vast, deep, frightful, overflowing ocean of corruption, hoiTor, and contamination. Ignorance and immorality are the parents of error and superstition. The mind void of infor- mation, and the heart destitute of sanctity, are prepared to embrace any fabrication or absurdity. Such vs^as the mingled mass of dark- ness, depravity, and superstition, v^'hich produced the portentous monster of transubstantiation. Paschasius Radbert, in the ninth century, seems to have been the father of the deformity, which he hatched in his melancholy cell." {Edgar, 369.) It was in the early part of the ninth century, that this Paschasius, who was a Benedictine monk, and afterward abbot of Corbie, in France, began to advocate the doctrine of a real change in the elements. In 831, he published a treatise " Concerning the Body and Blood of Christ," which he presented fifteen years after, care- fully revised and augmented, to Charles the Bald, king of France. The doctrine advanced by Paschasius may be expressed by the two following propositions : First, That after the consecration of the bread and wine in the Lord's supper, nothing remained of these sym- bols but the outward figure, under which the body and blood of Christ were locally present. Secondly, That the body and blood of Christ, thus present in the eucharist, was the same body that was born of the Virgin, that suffered on the cross, and was raised from the dead. This new doctrine, especially the second proposition, excited the astonishment of many. Accordingly, it was opposed by Rabanus, Heribald, and others, though not in the same mannei-, nor upon the same principles. Charles the Bald, upon this occasion, ordered the famous Bertram and Johannes Scotus, of Ireland, to draw up a clear and rational explication of that doctrine which Paschasius had so egregiously corrupted. In this controversy the parties were as much divided among themselves, as they were at variance with their adversaries. The opinions of Bertram are very confused, although he maintained that bread and wine, as symbols and signs, represented the body and blood of Christ. Scotus, however, main- tained uniformly that the bread and wine were the signs and symbols of the absent body and blood of Christ. All the other theologians seemed to have no fixed opinions on these points. One thing is certain, however, that none of them were properly inducted into the then unknown doctrine of transubstantiation, as the worship of the elements was not mentioned, much less contended for, by any of the disputants. It was an extravagance of superstition too gross for even the ninth century, tliough it is openly and unblushingly advo- cated and practised by papist priests in the nineteenth. § 16. — The language of Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mentz, the most famous opposer of this newly invented dogma, written in reply to Paschasius, in 847, is so decisive a proof that in that age this absurd dogma wp.s regarded as a novelty, that it is worthy of especial notice. " Some persons," says he, " of late, not entertaining a sound ophiion t-cspecting the sacrament of the body and blood of CHAP, n.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 195 Btercarlaniein. Dcrenser writes against Transubstmtialioii. Pope Leo opposes and punislics liirn our Lord, have actually ventured to declare that this is the IDENTICAL BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR LoRD JeSUS ChKIST ; THE IDENTI- CAL BODY, to wit, Vl'HICH WAS BORN OF THE ViRGIN MaRY, IN WHICH Christ suffered on the cross, and in which he arose from the DEAD. This error we have opposed with all our might."* The question of Stercorianism (from stercus, dung), arose immediately out of these disputes. Paschasius maintained " that bread and wine in the sacrament are not under the same laws with our other food, as they pass into our flesh and substance without any evacuation." Bertram affirmed that " the bread and wine are under the same laws with all other food." Some supposed that the bread and wine were annihilated, or that they have a perpetual being, or else are changed into flesh and blood, and not into humors or excrements to be voided. t Such were the foolish questions and childish absurdi- ties which occupied the pens of the gravest divines of this gloomy age, and which the professed immutability of the " holy Catholic church" prevents them from renouncing even in the present day, amidst the light and intelligence of a brighter and happier age. § 17. — It was long, even in this dark period, before so monstrous an absurdity as transubstantiation was generally received. In the year 1045, Berenger, of Tours, in France, and afterward archdeacon of Anglers, one of the most learned and exemplary men of his time, publicly maintained the doctrine of Johannes Scotus, opposed warmly the monsti'ous opinions of Paschasius Radbert, which were adapted to captivate a superstitious multitude by exciting their astonishment, and persevered with a noble obstinacy, in teaching that the bread and wine were not changed into the body and blood of Christ in the eucharist, but preserved their natural and essential qualities, and were no more than figures and external symbols of the body and blood of the divine Saviour. This wise and rational doctrine was no sooner published, than it was opposed by certain doctors in France and Germany ; but the Roman pontifi", Leo IX., attacked it with peculiar vehemence and fury, in the year 1050, and in two councils, the one assembled at Rome, and the other at Ver- celli, had the doctrine of Berenger solemnly condemned, and the book of Scotus, from which it was drawn, committed to the flames. This example was followed by the council of Paris, which was summoned the very same year, by king Henry I., and in which Berenger and his numerous adherents, were menaced with all sorts of evils, both spiritual and temporal. These threats were executed, in part, against Berenger, whom Henry deprived of all his revenues, but neither threatenings, nor fines, nor synodical decrees, could shake the firmness of his mind, or engage him to renounce the doc- trine he had embraced. In the year 1054, two different councils assembled at Tours, to examine the doctrine held by Berenger, at one of which the famous * Raban. Maur. Epist. ad. Heribald, c. 33. f See Dupin's Ecclesiastical History, cent, ix., chap. 7. 196 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book iv Terrifled at the monk Hildebrnnd and pope Nicholas, Berenger is compelled to renounce his doctrines. Hildebrand, who was afterward pontiff, under the title of Gregory VII., appeared in the character of legate, and opposed the new doctrine of Berenger with the utmost vehemence. Berenger was also present at this assembly, and overpowered with threats, rather than convinced by reason and argument, he not only abandoned his opinions, but, if we may believe his adversaries, to whose testimony we are confined in this matter, abjured them solemnly, and in con- sequence of this humbhng step, made his peace with the church. The abjuration of Berenger, who had not firmness and faith enough to face death in defence of the truth, was not sincere, for as soon as the danger was past; he taught anew, though with greater circum- spection, the same doctrine that he had just professed to renounce. § 18. — Upon the news of Berenger's defection reaching the ears of pope Nicholas II., the exasperated pontiff summoned him to Rome, A. D. 1059, and terrified him in such a manner in the council held there the iollowing year, that he declared his readiness to embrace and adhere to the doctrines which that venerable assembly should think proper to impose upon his faith. Humbert was accor- dingly appointed unanimously by Nicholas and the council, to draw up a contession of faith for Berenger, who signed it publicly, and confirmed his adherence to it by a solemn oath. In this confes- sion, there was, among other tenets equally absurd, the following declaration, that " the bread and wine, alter consecration, were not only a sacrament, but also the real body and blood of Jesus Christ, and that this body and blood were handled by the priests, and bruised by the teeth of the faithful, ' fidelium dentibus attriti,' and not in a sacramental sense, but in reality and truth, as other sensible objects are." This doctrine was so monstrously nonsensical, and was such an impudent insult upon the very first principles of reason, that it could have nothing alluring to a man of Berenger's acute and philo- sophical turn, nor could it possibly become the object of his serious belief, as appeared soon after this odious act of dissimulation ; for no sooner was he returned into France, than taking refuge in the countenance and protection of his ancient patrons, he expressed the utmost detestation and abhorrence of the doctrines he had been obliged to profess at Rome, abjured them solemnly, both in his dis- course and in his writings, and returned zealously to the profession and defence of his former, which had always been his real opinion. In the year 1078, under the popedom of Gregory VII., in a coun- cil held at Rome, Berenger was again called on to draw up a new confession of faith, and to renounce that which had been composed by Humbert, though it had been solemnly approved and confirmed by Nicholas 11., and a Roman council. In consequence of the threats and compulsion of his enemies, Berenger confirmed by an oath, " that the bread laid upon the altar, became, after consecration, the true body of Christ, which was born of the Virgin, suffered on the cross, and now sits on the right hand of the Father ; and that the wine placed on the altar became, after consecration, the true blood CHAP, n.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 197 Death of Berenger. Fourth council of Latcran. The poiaoned host which flowed fi-om the side of Christ."* Berenger had no sooner got out of the hands of his enemies, than he maintained his true senti- ments, wrote a boolc in their defence, retreated to the isle of St. Cosme, near Tours, and bitterly repented of his dissimulation and want of firmness ; until death, in 1088, put an end to his persecutions and his life.f § 19. — Yet notwithstanding the death of the able but too timid opposer of this monstrous doctrine, it was not till the year 1215, in the fourth council of Lateran, that this most characteristic and ap- propriate child of the dark ages was duly decreed to be a doctrine of the church. Pope Innocent III. having heard with pleasure the word transuhstantiation, which began to be applied to this subject for the first time, about the year 1100, inserted the word in the de- cree which he had prepared for the action of the council, and from that time the doctrine has always been thus designated. " It is certain," says Dupin, " that these canons were not made by the council, but by Innocent III., who presented them to the council ready drawn up, and ordered them to be read ; and the prelates did not enter into any debate upon them, but that their silence was taken for an approbation." The decree on transuhstantiation is as * The absurdity of this monstrous proposition is well illustrated by the following well known anecdote. If literally true, it shows also, what 1 am well persuaded of, that the priests do not themselves believe the dogma which, to increase their own authority and dignity, they impose upon the silly multitude. Whether true in all its particulars or not, it may serve as an illustration of the glaring absurdity of transuhstantiation. I will venture to say that there is not a priest in the land who would have faith enough to submit to such a test of his sincerity. " A protestant lady entered the matrimonial state with a Roman Catholic gen- tleman, on condition that he would never use any attempts, in his intercourse with her, to induce her to embrace his religion. Accordingly, after their marriage, he abstained from conversing with her on those religious topics which he knew would be disagreeable to her. He employed the Roman priest, however, to instil his popish notions into her mind. But she remained unmoved, particularly on the doctrine of transuhstantiation. At length the husband fell ill, and during his affliction, was recommended by the priest to receive the holy sacrament. The wife was requested to prepare the wafer for the solemnity, by the next day. She did so, and on presenting it to the priest, said, ' This, sir, you wish me to understand, will be changed into the real body and blood of Christ, after you have consecrated it.' " ' Most certainly, my dear madam, there can be no doubt of it.' " ' Then, sir, it will not be possible, after the consecration, for it to do any harm to the worthy partakers ; for, says our Lord, ' my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed,' and ' he that eateth me shall live by me.' " ' Assuredly, the holy sacrament can do no harm to the worthy receivers, but, so far from it, must communicate great good.' " ' The ceremony was proceeded in, and the wafer was duly consecrated ; the priest was about to take and eat the host, but the lady begged pardon for interrupting him, adding, ' I mixed a little arsenic with the wafer, sir, but as it is now changed into the real body of Christ, it caimot, of course, do you any harm.' The principles of the priest, however, were not sufficiently firm to enable him to eat it. Confused, ashamed, and irritated, he left the house, and never more venr tured to enforce on the lady the doctrine of transuhstantiation.' " |- See Elliott on Romanism, vol. i., page 278. Also Dupin and Mosheim, cent. !» 13 198 HISTORY Of ROMANISM. [bookiv. Pretended iniracle9 to establish the belief in the wafer Ood. follows : " The body and blood of Christ are contained really in the sacrament of the altar, under the species of bread and wine ; the bread beina; transubstantiated into the body of Jesus Christ, and the wine into his blood, by the power of God." ' Cujus corpus et sanguis in sacramento altaris sub speciebus panis et vini veraciter continentur ; transuhstantiatis pane in corpus, et vino in sanguinem potestate divin&.' {Condi Lateran, ix., cap. I.) § 20. — The means by which the popular belief in the wafer God was established by artful monks and priests, were worthy of the doctrine itself If we are to believe the wondrous legends of those dark ages, which, however, have been reiterated in a thousand forms in subsequent centuries, the most marvellous miracles were frequently wrought to testify the reality of the wonderful transmu- tation effected by those to whom it was given to " create their Creator." Some of them attested upon oath, swearing by their sacred vestments, that they had seen the blood trickle in drops, as it does from a human body, from the consecrated wafer, held in the hands of the priests ; and others that they had received still more ocular demonstration of the reality of the change of the bread into the body of Christ, inasmuch as they had actually seen it thus changed into the Saviour himself, sitting in the form of a little hoy upon the altar !* To prove that this statement is not made without abundant evidence, we will transcribe some few of these pretended miracles, related upon the testimony of celebrated and accredited Roman Catholic authors. There is a collection of no less than seventy- three pretended miracles of animals reverencing the consecrated wafer, collected by a certain Jesuit priest named Father Toussain Bridoul. In the preface to the work, the Jesuit compiler says, " Wherefore without troubling myself to confute these hare-brained people, who turn a deaf ear to all that the holy fathers have said about it (the holy sacrament) ; and having renounced their reason, I have resolved to send them to the school of the beasts, who have shown a particular inclination (not without a superior conduct) for the honor and defence of this truth." The following few instances are transcribed, to which I have taken the liberty of affixing ap- propriate titles. (1.) The wafer turned into a little hoy in the bee hive. — " Petrus Cluniac, lib. 1, cap. 1, reports, That a certain peasant of Auvergne, a province in France, per- ceiving that his bees were likely to die, to prevent this misfortune, was advised, after he had received the communion, to keep the host,] and to blow it into one of his hives ; and, on a sudden, all the bees came forth out of their hives, and ranking themselves in good order, lifted the host up from the ground, and carrying it in upon their wings, placed it among the combs. (!) After this the man went * Among the many prodigies of this kind gravely related as facts by Romish authors, the celebrated Cardinal BeUarmine mentions, with several other miracles, one in which instead of the wafer, " Christ was seen in the form, of a child." (_De Eucharistia, Lib. iii., c. 8.) f Host. The term by which the papists designate the consecrated wafer, de- rived from the Latin word Hosiia, which signifies an animal for sacrifice, a victim CHAP, n.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 199 Holy bees worship the host. Jlsses and horses kneel lo it. The Jew's dug and his master's noBe, out about his business, and at his return, found that this advice had succeeded contrary to his expectation, for all his bees were dead. Nay, when he lifted up the hive, he saw that the host (or wafer) was turned into a fair child among the honeycombs ; (.' .') and being much astonished at this change, and seeing that this infant seemed to be dead, he took it in his hands, intending to bury it privately in the church, but when he came to do it, he found nothing in his hands ; for the in- fant was vanished away. This thing happened in the county of Clermont, which, for this irreverence, was, a while after, chastised by divers calamities, which so dispeopled those parts, that they became like a wilderness. From which it ap- pears, that bees honor the holy host divers ways, by lifting it from the earth, and carrying it into their hives, as it were, in procession." (2.) The holy bees who built a popish chapel. — " CEEsarius, lib. 9, cap. 8, reports, That a certain woman, having received the communion unworthily, carried the host to her hives, for to enrich the stock of bees : and afterwards coming again to see the success, she perceived that the bees, acknowledging their God in the sa- crament, had, with admirable artifice, erected to him a chapel of wax, with its doors, windows, bells, and vestry; (!) and within it a chalice where they laid the holy body of Jesus Christ. (! !) She could no longer conceal this wonder. The priest, being advertised of it, came thither in procession, and he himself heard har- monious music, which the bees made, flying round about the sacrament ; and hav- ing taken it out, he brought it back to the church full of comfort, certifying, that he had seen and heard our Lord acknowledged and praised by those little crea- tures." (3.) The holy asses who knelt before the wafer idol. — " P. Orlandi, in his History of the 'Society, torn. 1, lib. 2, No. 27, says. That, in the sixteenth century, within the Venetian territories, a priest carrying the holy host, without pomp or train, to a sick person, he met, out of the town, asses going to their pasture ; who, perceiv- ing by a certain sentiment, what it was which the priest carried, they divided themselves into two companies on each side of the way, and fell on their knees. (!) Whereupon the priest, with his clerk, all amazed, passed between those peaceable beasts, which then rose up, as if they would make a pompous show in honor of their Creator ; followed the priest as far as the sick man's house, where they waited at the door till the priest came out from it, and did not leave him till he had given them his blessing. (! !) Father Simon Rodriguez, one of the first com- panions of St. Ignatius, who then travelled in Italy, informed himself carefully of this matter, which happened a little while before our first fathers came into Italy, and found that all happened as has been told." (4.) The Jew's dog who worshipped the host, and bit his master's nose off for destroying it. — " Nicholas de Laghi, in his book of the miracles of the holy sacra- ment, says. That a Jew blaspheming the holy sacrament, dared to say, that if the Christians would give it to his dog, he would eat it up, without showing any re- gard to their God. The Christians being very angry at this outrageous speech, and trusting in the Divine Providence, had a mind to bring it to a trial : so, spread- ing a napkin on the table, they laid on many hosts, among which one only was consecrated. The hungry dog being put upon the same table, began to eat them all, but coming to that which had been consecrated, without touching it, he kneeled down before it, (I) and afterwards fell with rage upon his master, catching him so closely by the nose, that he took it quite away with his teeth." (! !) — " The sanie which St. Matthew warns such like blasphemers, saying, ' Give not that which is holy unto dogs, lest they turn again and rend you.' " (5.) St. Anthony, of Padua, compelling a horse to kneel before the wafer God. — " St. Anthonv of Padua, disputing one day with one of the most obstinate heretics that denied the truth of the holy sacrament, drove him to such a plunge, that he desired the saint to prove this truth by some miracle. St. Anthony accepted the condition, and said he would work miracles upon his mule. Upon this, the heretic kept her three days without eating and drinking ; and the third day, the saint, having said mass, took up the host, and made him bring forth the hungry mule, to whom he spoke thus : — In the name of the Lord, I command thee to come and do reverence to thy Creator, and confound the malice of heretics. (!) While the 200 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. L^ook iv. The unbelieving Jew fetches blood from the wafer. saint made this discourse to the mule, the heretic sifted out oats to make the mule eat ; but the beast having more understanding than his master, kneeled before the host, adoring it as its Creator and Lord. (! !) This miracle comforted all the faith- ful, and enraged the heretics ; except him that disputed with the saint, who was converted to the Catholic faith."* In addition to the above marvellous prodigies, I will transcribe another pretended miracle of a somewhat different kind, but in- tended to prove the same unscriptural and absurd doctrine ; that the consecrated wafer is transubstantiated into the very body and blood of Christ. This instance is related by Friar Leon, and was first pubhshed at Paris in 1633, with the approbation of two popish doctors of theology, and has been reprinted no longer ago than the year 1821. It will be seen that the pretended time of its oc- currence is before the end of the century in which the monstrous doctrine was first established as an ai-ticle of faith by pope Innocent III., in the council of Latera.n. (6.) The unbelieving Jew fetches blood from the wafer, which turns into the body of Christ dying on the cross, and afterwards turns back again into a wafer. — " In the year of our Lord, 1290, in the reign of Philip the Fair of France, a poor woman who had pledged her best gown with a Jew for thirty pence, saw the eve of Easter day arrive without the means of redeeming the pledge. Wishinn- to receive the sacrament on that day, she went and besought the Jew to let her have the gown for that occasion, that she might appear decent at church. The Jew said, he would not only consent to give her back the gown, but would also forgive her the money lent, provided she would bring him the host, which she would receive at the altar. The woman, instigated by the same fiend as Judas, promised, for thirty pence, to deliver into the hands of a Jew the same Lord as the traitorous disciple had sold for thirty pieces of silver. The next morning she went to church, received the sacrament, and feigning devotion, she concealed the host in her handkerchief; went to the Jew's house, and delivered it into his hands. No sooner had the Jew received it, than he took a penknife, and laying the host upon the table, stabbed it several times, and behold blood gushed out from the wounds in great abundance. (!) The Jew, no way moved by this spectacle, now endeavored to pierce the host with a nail, by dint of repeated blows with a hammer, and again blood rushed out. Becoming more daring, he now seized the host, and hung it upon a stake, to inflict upon it as many lashes, with a scourge, as the body of Christ received from the Jews of old. Then, snatching^ the host from the stake, he threw it into the fire ; and, to his astonishment, saw it moving unhurt in the midst of the flames. (! !) Driven now to desperation, he seized a large knife, and endeavored to cut the host to pieces, but in vain. And as if to omit no one of the sufferings endured by Jesus on the cross, he seized the host again, hung it in the vilest place in the house, and pierced it with the point of a spear, and again blood issued from the wound. Lastly, he threw the host into a cauldron of boiling water, and, instantly, the water was turned into blood ; and lo ! the host was seen risino- out of tlie water in the form of a crucifix, and Jesus Christ was again seen dvin^ cm the cross. (.' .' .') o :/ o The Jew having crucified the Lord afresh, now hid himself in the darkest cel- lar of the house ; and a woman having entered the house, beheld the affecting picture of the passion of our Lord again exhibited on earth. Moved with fear she fell on her knees, and made on her forehead the sign of the cross, when, in a * This instance is also related by Cardinal Bellarmine. De Eucharistia, Lib iii., c. 8, ut supra. CHAP, n.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800- 1073. 201 Cannibaliam. Rensons of papists why the host does not look like " raw and bloody flesh." moment, the body of Jesus Christ, which was suspended on the cross over the cauldron, turned into the host again, and jumped into a dish which the woman held in her hand. (!) The woman tooli it to the priest, told the story I have re- peated to you, and the Jew was seized, sent to prison, and burnt alive. The penknife with which the host was pierced, the blood that flowed from the wounds, the cauldron and the dish, are all preserved, as an infallible pkoof or THIS MIRACLE." § 21. — The evident object of these pretended miracles is to prove the real transmutation of the wafer into the real living body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if this transmu- tation were really effected, and this real living body and soul were chewed between the teeth and swallowed, is it not plain that those who partook of the horrible banquet would be guilty of cannibal- ism ? The manducation of the sacramental elements, if transub- stantiation be true, makes the communicant the rankest cannibal. The patron of the corporeal presence, according to his own sys- tem, devours human flesh and blood : and, to show the refinement of his taste, indulges in all the luxury of cannibalism. He rivals the polite Indian, who eats the quivering limbs and drinks the flow- ing gore of the enemy. The papist even exceeds the Indian in grossness. The cannibals of America or New Zealand swallow only the mangled remains of an enemy, and would shudder at the idea of devouring any other human flesh. But the partizans of Romanism glut themselves with the flesh and blood of a friend. The Indian only eats the dead, while the papist, with more shock- ing ferocity, devours the Hving. The Indian eats man of mortal mould on earth. The papist devours God-man, as he exists exalted, immortal, and glorious in heaven. It is true that Romish writers have exercised a great deal of ingenuity in endeavoring to gild over the rank cannibalism of Popery. Admitting the horror that would be excited by feeding on raw human flesh and blood in their own proper forms, these writers endeavor to disguise, as well as they can, the grossness and inhumanity of eating that which, not- withstanding its species or form, they admit to be a living human body. A few extracts illustrative of these attempts will be given. Thus Aimon represents " the taste and figure of bread and wine as remaining in the sacrament, to prevent the horror of the communi- cant." Similar statements are found in Lanfranc. According to this author, " the species remain, lest the spectator should be horrified at the sight of raw and bloody flesh. (!) The nature of Jesus is concealed and received for salvation, without the horror which might be excited by blood."* Hugo acknowledges that " few would approach the communion, if blood should appear in the cup, and the * Propter sumentium horrorem, sapor panis et vini remanet et figura. (^Aimon, in Dach. 1. 42.) Reservatis ipsarum rerum speciebus, et quibusdam aliis qualitatibus ne percipi- entes cruda et cruenta horrerent. (Lanfranc, 244.) Christi natura contegitur, et sine cruoris horrore a digne sumentibiis in salutem accipitur. (^Lanfranc, 248.) 202 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book iv Shocking expressions of Romanists to gild over the cannibalism of transubstantlation, flesh should appear red as in the shambles."* Even hunger itself would be disgusted at such bloody t'ood. Durand admits, that " human infirmity, unaccustomed to eat man's flesh, would, if the substance were seen, refuse pai-ticipation."t Aquinas avows " the horror of swallowing human flesh and blood."X " The smell, the species, and the taste of bread and wine remain," says the sainted Bernard, " to conceal flesh and blood, which, if offered without dis- guise as meat and drink, might horrify human weakness. "§ Ac- cording to Alcuin in Pithou, " Almighty God causes the prior form to continue in condescension to the irailty of man, who is unused to swallow raw flesh and blood."\\ According to the Trentine Cate- chism, " the Lord's body and blood are administered under the species of bread and wine, on account of man's horror of eating and drinking human flesh and blood.'"^ These descriptions are shocking, and calculated, in some measure, to awaken the horror which they portray.** § 22. — After the reader has examined these disgusting attempts of Romish writers to palliate the cannibalism of transubstantlation, let him cast his eye once more over the lying legends of pretended miracles in proof of it, selected above from hundreds of similar ones, gravely related by popish authors as facts, and then let him decide whether a religion can be from God, which utters such enormities, and requires such outrageous falsehoods to sustain it. O anti-Christ ! anti-Christ ! truly and unerringly was thy picture drawn by the pen of inspiration, when it was declared thy coming should be "after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. Mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth !" Yet, like Babylon of old, " thine end shall come, and the measure of thy covetousness !" thy abomi- nations are not always to last, nor thy lying wonders to deceive the nations for ever. For the same unerring Spirit that drew thy por- trait hath also predicted thy fall ; when the mighty angel shall cry with a strong voice, " Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, * Si cruor in calice fieret manifestus et si in macello Christ! ruberet sua caro, rarus in terris ille qui hoc non abhorreret. {Hugo, de corp. 70.) t Fragilitas humana, quae suis carnibus non consuevit vesci, ipso visu nihil hauriat, quod horreat. (Durand, in Lanfranc, 100.) I Non est consuetum hominibus, horribilem camera hominis comedere et san- guinem bibere. (Aquin III. 75, V. P. 367.) 9 Odor, species, sapor, pondus remanent, ut horror penitus tollatur, ne humana infirmitas escum carnis et potum sanguinis in sumptione horreret. (Bernard, II Consulens omnipotens Deus infirmitati nostrae, qui non habemus usum come- dere carnem crudam et sanguinem bibere fecit ut in pristina remanens forma ilia duo munera. (Alcuin in Pithou, 467.) IT A comniuni hominum natura maxime abhorreat humanae carnis esca, aut sanguinis potione vesci, sapientissime fecit, ut sanctissimum corpus et sanguis sub earum rerum specie panis et vini nobis administraretur. (Cat. Trid. 129.) ** See Edgar's Variations, 387. CHAP, n.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 203 Creators of the Creator Horrible blasphemies of a pope and a cardinal and that ye receive not of her plagues ! For her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets ; for God hath avenged you on her ! And in her was found the blood of pro- phets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth."* § 23. — The doctrine which requires such pious frauds as above related, to gain it credence, is so gross an outrage upon common sense, that no arguments are necessary to disprove it.f Its very statement is its refutation. But it has been the source of incalcu- lable worldly gain to the anti-Christian clergy, whom it elevates to the blasphemous dignity of Creators of their Creator, and hence the secret of its success. It is almost impossible to quote the horrible impiety of pope Ui'ban and cardinal Biel, without shuddering. " The hands of the pontiff," said Urban in a great Roman Coun- cil, " are raised to an eminence granted to none of the angels, op CREATING God the Creator of all things, and of offering him up for the salvation of the whole world." " This prerogative," adds the same authority, " as it elevates the Pope above angels, renders pontifical submission to kings an execration." To all this the Sacred Synod, with the utmost unanimity, responded, Amen.f Cardinal Biel extends this power to all priests. " He that created me," says the cardinal, " gave me, if it be lawful to tell, to create himself." This powei-, Biel shows, exalts the clergy, not only above emperors and angels, but which is a higher elevation, above Lady Mary herself. " Her ladyship," says the cardinal, " once * 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10 ; Jer. li. 13 ; Rev. xvii. 5— xviii. 4, 5, 6, 24. f On such a subject as this it is lawful to imitate the satirical and ironical mode of disputation adopted by the prophet Elijah, in his contest with the idolatrous priests of Baal. (1 Kings, xviii. 27.) The following is translated from a satirical poem of George Buchanan, and sets in vivid and striking light the folly and im- piety of this idolatry. " A baker and a painter once contended, which of them could produce the best specimen of his art ;— whether the former would excel with his oven, or the latter with his colors. The painter boasted that he had made a god ; the baker replied, It is I who make the true body of God, thou only canst produce an image or representation of it. The painter said, thy god is always consumed by men's teeth ; thine, rejoined the baker, is corroded by worms. The painter affirmed, that one of his making would endure entire for many years, while an innumerable quantity of the baker's would be often devoured in an hour. But you, said the baker, can scarcely paint one god in a year, while I can produce ten thousand in a day. . Stop, said a priest, and contend no more with words to no purpose ; neither ot your gods can do anything without me ; and seeing it is I that make each of them a god, hoth shall be subservient to me : for the picture shall beg for me, and the bread be eaten by me." t Dicens, nimis execrabile videri, ut manus, qua; in tantam eminentiam excre- verunt quod nuUi angelorum concessum est, ut Deum cuncta creantemsuo signa- culo creent et eundera ipsum pro salute totius mundi, Dei Patris obtutibus offerant. Et ab omnibus acclamatum est "Fiat, fiat." {Hoveden, ad Ann. 1099j P. 268, Labb. 12, 960. Bruy 2, 635.) 204 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book iv. Worship of the wafer God in the nineteenth century. conceived the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world ; while the priest daily calls into existence the same Deity."* If the fact were not beyond dispute, the assertion would be in- credible that this impious and idolatrous doctrine of the dark ages is still held in the nineteenth century, and in enlightened America too !f Yet such is the fact, and whoever wishes to see a Romish priest create his wafer God by pronouncing a few mystic Latin wordsjj and the silly multitude worship this bit of bread, as the priest holds it up before them, has only to visit a Roman Catholic church during the performance of mass. This worship of the wafer God is a stupid and grovelling idolatry, of which even an ancient worshipper of Jupiter or Venus, or a modern votary of Juggernaut or Vishnu, would be ashamed. While most of the rites and ceremonies of Popery can be traced to their heathen origin, this alone is too extravagant to find a parallel * Qui creavit me, si fas est dicere, dedit mihi creare se. Semel concepit Dei filium, eundem Dei filium advocant quotidie corporaliter. {Biel, Lect. 4. See Edgar, 383.) f As a proof that this monstrous doctrine of the dark ages is taught in all its grossness in the nineteenth century, the following few questions and answers are transcribed from Butler's Catechism, a popular Roman Catholic manual in almost universal use among papists wherever the English language is used. On the Blessed Eucharist. Q. What is the blessed Eucharist ? A. The body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, under the appearance of bread and wine ? Q. What do you mean by the appearances of bread and wine ? A. The taste, color, and form of bread and wine, which still remain, after the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ. Q. Are both the body and blood of Christ under the appearance of bread, and under the appearance of wine ? A. Yes ; Christ is whole and entire, true God, and true Man, under the appearance of each. Q. Did Christ give power to the priests of his church to change bread and wine into his body and blood ? A. Yes ; when he said to his apostles at his last supper: Do this for a commemoration for me. Luke x.xii. 19. Q. Why did Christ give to the priests of his church so great a power ? A. That his children, throughout all ages and nations, might have a most acceptable sacrifice to offer to their Heavenly Father — and the most precious food to nourish their souls. Q. What is the sacrifice of the New Law ? A. The Mass. Q.. What is the Mass ? A. The sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, which are really present under the appearances of bread and wine ; and are of- fered to God by the priest for the living and the dead. Q. Is the Mass a different sacrifice from that of the Cross ? A. No ; because the same Christ, who once offered himself a bleeding victim to his Heavenly Father on the cross, continues to offer himself in an unbloody manner, by the hands of his priests, on our altars. Q. At what part of the Mass are the bread and wine changed into the body and blood of Christ ? A. At the consecration. Q. How are we to be penetrated with a lively faith ? A. By firmly believing that the blessed Eucharist is Jesus Christ himself, true God and true Man, HIS VERT FLESH AND BLOOD, WITH HIS SOUL AND DIVINITY. J Hoc est corpus meum (this is my body), from which is doubtless derived the cant phrase. Hocus focus, used by pretended conjurors. CHAP, n.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 205 Papists worse than the heathen who never devoured the gods they worshipped even in the temples of paganism itself. " As to that celebrated act of popish idolatry," says Dr. Middleton, " the adoration of the host, I must confess that I cannot find the least resemblance of it in any part of the pagan worship : and as oft as I have been standing at mass, and seen the whole congregation prostrate on the ground, in the humblest posture of adoring, at the elevation of this consecrated piece of bread ; I could not help reflecting on a passage of Tully where, speaking of the absurdity of the heathens in the choice of their gods, he says, ' Was any man ever so mad as to take that which he feeds upon for a god (' Ecquem tam amentem esse putas, qui illud, quo vescatur, Deum credat esse ? {Cic. de nat. Deor. 3.) This was an extravagance left for Popery alone ; and what an old Roman could not but think too gross, even for Egyptian idolatry to swallow, is now become the principal part of worship, and the distinguishing article of faith in the creed of modern Rome."* No wonder that the old Arabian philosopher, Averroes, when brought into contact with this worse than heathenish superstition, exclaimed, with surprise and disgust, " I have travelled over the world, and seen many people, but none so selfish and ridiculous as Christians, who devour the God they worship !" After reading the particulars above narrated, and especially the horribly blasphemous language of pope Urban and cardinal Biel, let the reader remember that the besotted votaries of Rome not only receive this doctrine as an article of faith themselves, but pro- nounce a most awful curse upon all the world beside, who refuse to believe it ! The following are the very words of the canons of the celebrated council of Trent, passed in 1551, pronouncing the awful anathema, and thus consigning to eternal damnation {if they could) the whole protestant world, and all else who refuse to be- lieve this monstrous doctrine. The following are extracts from the original Latin of the words of the council, with a faithful English translation. " Sancta heec synodus declarat, per " This holy council declareth — That consecrationetn panis et vini conversio- by the consecration of the bread and Tiem fieri totius substantia: panis in sub- wine, there is effected a conversion of the stantiam corporis Christi Domini noslri, whole substance of the bread into the sub- et totius substantia: vini, in substantiam stance of the body of Christ our Lord, sanguinis ejus : quae conversio con- and of the wine into the substance of his venienter et proprie a sancta catholica blood ; which conversion is fitly and ecclesia transubstantiatio est appellata." properly termed by the holy Catholic church, Transubstanliation." The council then proceed to enact the canons and cm-ses, of which the following are the first, second, and third. " Canon I. Si quis negaverit in sane- 1. "If any one shall deny that in the tissimae eucharistiae sacramento contine- most holy sacrament of the eucharist, ri vera, realiter, et substaniialiter, corpus there are contained, truly, really, and et sanguinem una cum anima et biviNi- substantially, the body and blood, together * Dr. Middleton's letter from Rome, p. 179. 206 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book iv. The curses of Trent upon all who refuse to believe the dogma of Transubstantiation. TATE Domini nostri Jesu Christi, ac with the soul and divinity of our Lord proinde totum Christum; sed dixerit Jesus Christ ; or say tliat he is in it only tantummodo esse in eo ut in signo, vel as in a sign, or figure, or by his influ- figura, aut virtute ; ID" ANATHEMA ence. ICr LET HIM BE ACCURSED ! SIT." " Canon II. Si quis dixerit in sacro- 2. " If any one shall say that in the sancto eucharistiae sacramento, remanere sacrament of the eucharist, the snb- substantiam panis et vini una cum cor- stance of the bread and wine remains pore et sanguine Domini nostri Jesu together with the body and blood of our Christi, negaveritque mirabilem illam et Lord Jesus Christ, and shall deny the singularem conversionem totius substan- wonderful and singular conversion of tvc panis in corpus, et totius substantia: the whoie substance of the bread into his vini in sanguinem, manentibus dumtaxat body, and the whole substance of the wive speciebus panis et vini : quam quidem into his blood, the appearances only of conversionem catholica ecclesia aptissi- bread and wine remaining, which con- me Transuhslantionem appellat ; 1D°AN- version the catholic church most pro- ATHEMA SIT." perly terms TransuistaTiiiarion, IT LET HIM BE ACCURSED ! " Canon III. Si quis negaverit in 3. " If any one shall deny, that in the venerabile sacramento eucharistise, sub adorable sacrament of the eucharist, unaquaque specie, et sub singulis cujus- whole Christ is contained in each element que speciei partibus, separatione facta, or species, and in the sEPAfiATE parts totum Christum contineri ; 0° AN- of each element or species, a separation ATHEMA SIT."* being made, [tT LET HIM BE AC- CURSED." § 24. — Let it be remembered that these awful curses were pro- nounced by the last general council of the Romish church ever assembled ; that, of course, they have never been repealed ; but stand down to the year 1845 in flaming characters upon the statute book of Rome, an enduring monument of her bigoted intolerance and hatred of all who refuse to yield up their common sense and reason at the bidding of a corrupt priesthood, whose evident object it is to exalt themselves not only above the common herd of the laity, but in their own language, " to an eminence granted to none of the angels" — by proclaiming themselves as the " Creators op THE Creator." In these awful anathemas, of course, are included our Baxters, our Bunyans, our Flavels, our Paysons, and all the holy and devoted men who have honored the protestant ranks, not only in the past, but in the present generation. There have been periods, as we have already seen, when the anathemas of Rome were something more than an idle breath of air, when they could kindle the fires of martyrdom, and fill the dungeons of the inquisi- tion with the tortured and helpless victims of popish bigotry and cruelty. Blessed be God ! those periods, we trust, are past. God forbid that they should ever return ! The spirit of Popery remains unchanged. God forbid that the power to make these curses effectual (at least by the aid of " the secular arm ") should ever again return to deluge the world with blood ! * Concil Trident., sess. xiii., cap. 4. 207 CHAPTER III. PROOFS OP THE DARKNESS OF THIS PERIOD CONTINUED. BAPTISM OF BELLS, AND FESTIVAL OF THE ASSES. § 25. — Another of the profane and senseless mummeries of Popery, which sprung up in this dark age, and which has been han- ded down to the present time, was the consecration or baptism of Bells. Cardinal Baronius says this custom was first introduced by pope John XIII., who died in 972 ; who gave the name of John the Baptist, to the great bell of the Lateran church at Rome.* The reason why the name of some saint is given to the bell at its bap- tism, says Cardinal Bona, is " in order that the people may think themselves called to divine service, by the voice of the saint whose name the bell bears."! The following was inscribed upon the con- secrated bells : " Colo veram Deum ; plebem voce ; et congrego Clerum : Divos adoro ; festa doceo ; defunctos ploro ; Pestem daemones fugo." that is, •■ I adore the true God ; I call the people ; I collect the priests ; I worship the saints ; I teach the festivals ; I deplore the dead ; I drive away pestilence and devils." This senseless custom of the dark ages, of consecrating and bap- tizing bells, has been ever since observed by papists, and still is, down to the present time. In a letter of an English traveller, inserted in the London Magazine for 1780, there is an interesting account of a performance of this ceremony 'at Naples, in Italy. On that occasion a nobleman was godfather to the bell, and a lady of quality was godmother. Most of the prayers said on the occasion, ended with the following words, ' that thou wouldst be pleased to rinse, purify, sanctify, and consecrate these bells with thy heavenly benediction.' ' Ut hoc tintinnabulum ccelesti benedictione perfundere, purificare, sanctificare, et consecrare dignareris.' The following were the words of consecration : 'Let the sign be consecrated and sanctified, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' ' Consecretur et sanctificetur signum istud, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.' The bishop, then turn- ing to the people, said, the bell's name is Mary. He had previously demanded of the godfather and godmother what name they would have put upon the bell, and the lady gave it this name. § 26. — A more recent eye-witness of this ceremony in the city of Montreal, Canada, describes it as follows : " The two bells were sus- pended from a temporary erection of wood in the centre of the church. In the vacant space round them, a table and chairs were placed for f Bona. Rer. Liturg., Lib. ii., cap. i22. * Baronius' Annals, ann. 968. 208 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [bookiv. Baptism of Bells. Sponsors. An expensive dress for tiie bell. the principal performers. The candles on the altar at the upper end of the church, were lighted in readiness for the exhibition, and in a short time a door on the left of the altar opened, and forth came the procession. At the head of it were two boys dressed in white, carrying two immense candles, each of which, with the candlestick, might probably measure seven or eight feet. After them came the priests, some in gorgeous silken robes, some in white, others in black, and some flaring with bright colors and gold ; other boys also in white followed, one of whom bore a silver vase with water, and another a small vessel of oil. Some of the priests in black took their seats near the altar, the rest came forward to the bells ; the large candles were placed upon the table, and beside them the vase and the vessel of oil. One of the priests, an old man dressed in white, then got up into the pulpit at the side of the church, to address the people ; after which, descending from the pulpit, he put on a robe of various bright colors, and proceeded to the ceremonial. After chanting a hymn, he read Latin prayers over the water in the basin, and thus, I suppose, consecrated it; another of the priests then carried the basin to the bells, and the first dipped a pretty large brush in the water, and with it made the form of a cross upon the bell, pronouncing the form of words used on such occasions, ' In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spii'itus Sancti ;' a third priest with another brush completed his work, making cross after cross, and then carefully brushing the intermediate places till the bell was wetted all over ; the second bell was crossed and recrossed in the same manner, and immediately large clean towels were produced, and the bells were carefully wiped dry. Returning to the table, singing and reading of prayers succeeded, and the oil was next blessed and made holy ; the principal priest then dipped his finger in the oil, and made the sign of the cross on one place on each bell, carefully wiping the place with cotton wool ; he then repeated it on a great many places on the bells, both inside and outside, carefully wiping them as before with cotton. During the singing which fol- lowed, one of the boys went out and brought in a silver censer with red coals in it ; a small box of incense stood on the table, out of which the priest took a spoonful and threw it on the coals, reading prayers over it as before ; the incense smoked up and perfumed the air ; then, after waving the censer with great solemnity three times, he carried it first to the one bell and then to the other, holding it under them till they were filled with smoke."* § 27. — It is regarded as a very great honor to stand godfather or godmother to one of these baptized bells, and rich presents are made on these occasions. On another occasion of the kind, which took place in the same city only a year or two ago, according to the public journals of that city, the velvet and gold cloth in which the holy bell was dressed, cost no less a sum than two thousand dol- lars. This is understood to be the gift of those who are honored * M'Gavin's Protestant, vol. i., page 520. Roinici] Ceremony of the B.iptipm ol Bella CHAP, m.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 21 1 Consecration of a bell at Dublin. Senseless and childish iimmmeries with the office of sponsors. Within a few weeks this absurd and senseless mummery has been performed in Marlborough street Romish chapel, Dublin. An eye-witness describes the ceremony in the Dublin Warder, in the following lively style : " On our en- trance," says he, " we beheld the bell occupying the outer raiied-in place opposite the altar, and elevated on a raised platform covered with some red stuff. Its upper periphery was garlanded with festoons of fading flowers, while a boquet in an earthenware vase was perched in the wood-work of the bell, and seemed to look with vegetable vanity on the idol of copper and tin beneath. Some thirty or forty priests in vestments were exceedingly busy, bustling here and there, to urge on the pageant, and encircled that venerable prelate, Doctor Murray, the lord archbishop of Dublin, whom they placed on a supposed throne, raised four or five steps from the floor. After placing a gilded mitre on his head, and a gold embroidered robe on his shoulders, they saluted him with several fantastic genu- flexions, and then brought him a silver censer, and stooping under the raised platform, whereon the bell reposed, disappeared, and, I presume, were employed for some minutes in worshipping and fumigating the interior of the bell ! ! After this, four or five priests preceded by young boys, robed in red gowns, bearing lighted can- dles, perambulated around the bell, and then one of the priests, wielding a black-haired brush, dipped it in water, and wet the bell profusely ; then arose a lugubrious chant from all the priests, the organ occasionally drowning all accompaniment in its sonorous diapason. Doctor Murray was now conducted from his throne, and came near the bell, and after reciting certain prayers, a napkin was handed him, wherewith he wiped part of the bell. This was the, signal for about a dozen of napkins, which, in the fists of as many priests, began to rub, and scrub, and curry, and wipe the bell on all parts of its surface. While this was going on, the organ choir were chanting instrumental and vocal exhortations to the bell, to bear all patiently. And when the brawny arms and lusty fists of those priests had well dried the bell, Doctor Murray was again conducted in pontificalibus near the bell, and a small phial of ointment being handed to him, he dipped his thumb into it, and rubbed it to various parts of the periphery of the bell, crossing it, the priests, organ, and choir, meanwhile chanting out triumphant vociferations at what they supposed to be its consecration." In reading the above accounts of the performance of these profane and idolatrous ceremonies in churches called Christian, and in the nineteenth century, one can hardly help imagining himself carried back some seven or eight centuries, to the gloom of the dark ages, when Popery was in its glory ; or living in a heathen land, and perusing the account of some imposing ceremony in the idol temples of Bramha, Gaudama, or Juggernaut. 6,28. We cannot better close these remarks on the baptism of the bells, than by the following antique and curious account of the same 212 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book iv. Curious and antique account of the mummery of bell-baptism, from old Philip Stubbes— 1598. ceremony, which is valuable, not only for the information it affords, and the piquancy of its style, but also as a choice historical rehc It is taken from an old work, written in 1585, by Philip Stubbes, entitled " Tlie Theatre of the Pope's Monarchie" " The order and manner op christening of belles, with ridicu- lous Ceremonies used therein by the papists. — When they are disposed to christen any bell, first of all there is warnying thereof giuen in the church a good while before the day appointed, which day being come the people flock thicke and three-fold to see the commedie played. The godfathers and godmothers also, being warned before the church wardens, are present in all the best ap- parrel that they haue. Besides whom you shall haue 2 or 3 others present, eury one striuing and contending who shall bee godfathers and godmothers to the bell, supposing it a wonderful preferment, a mirracilous promotion, and singular credit so to be. Thus all things made readie, the bishop in all his masking geare commeth forth like a coniuring iugler, and hauing made holy water with salt and other fibbersause he sprinkleth all things with the same as a thing of un- speakable force. And although it is at noone days, yet must he haue his tapers burning round about on eury side ; and then kneel- ing down hee very solemnly desireth the people to pray, that God would vouchsafe to grannt to this bell a blessed and happie Chris- tendom, and with all a lustie sound to driue away diuels and to pre- uaile against all kinde of peril and tempests whatsoeuer. This prayer ended, the bishop anoynteth the bell in eury place with oyle, and chrisme, mumblying to himselfe certaine coniurations and exor- cismes, which no man heareth but he alone, and yet do all men understafide it as well as hee. Then commandeth hee the godfathers and godmothers to giue the name to the bell, which being giuen, he poureth on water three or four seueral times, anoynting it with oyle, and chrisme, as before, for what cause I know not, except it bee either to make his bellie soluble, his ioynts nimble or his colour fare. This done, he putteth on the Bell a white linnen chrisome, command- ing the godfathers and godmothers to pull it up from the grounde by ropes and engines made for that purpose. Thene fall they downe before this new christtened bell, all prostrate upon their knees, and offer uppe to this idol, gifts of gold, siluer, frankensence, myrh and mayne other things, eury one striuing who shall giue most. These sacrifices and offerings to the Dieuell ended, the Bell is hanged uppe in the steeple with great applause of the people, euery one reioycing that the bell hath receiued such a happie christendome. For ioy whereof they celebrate a feast to Bacchus, spending all that dav and peraduenture 2 or 3 dayes after in danncing and ryotting, in feasting and banketting, in swilling and drinking, like filthie epicures, tyll they being as drunken as swyne, vomit and disgorge their stmking stomaches, worse than any dogges. And thus endeth this satyre together with the plaies, enterludes. Pageants, oflice and ceremonies of this suffragan Bishop. CHAP, ni.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 213 The popish Featival of the Asb. Ode sung by the priests in honor of the ass. " Now whether there bee anything here, either prouable by the woorde of God, or by the example of the primitiue Apostolical churche, or any particular member of the same euer since the be- ginning of the world, I referre it to the judgment of the wyse and learned." § 29. — Another proof of the grovelling and worse than senseless superstition of this dark period of the world, was a festival called the Feast of the Ass. This absurd festival was celebrated in several of the Roman CathoHc chui'ches of this age, in commemoration of the Virgin Mary's flight into Egypt, which was supposed to have been made on an ass. Among other places, this Feast was regu- larly celebrated at Beauvais, on every 14th of January. Were not the fact established upon the most indubitable authority, it could be scarcely credited that such disgusting ceremonies were performed in places of worship called Christian. The following account of this festival is given by the learned Townley, in his " Illustrations of Biblical Literature," upon the unquestionable authority of the writers cited at the foot of the page. A beautiful young woman was chosen, richly attired, and a young infant placed in her arms, to represent the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. She then mounted an ass richly caparisoned, and rode in procession, followed by the bishop and clergy, from the cathedral to the church of St. Stephen, where she was placed near the altar, and high mass com- menced. Instead, however, of the usual responses by the people, they were taught to imitate the braying of the ass ; and at the con- clusion of the service the priest, instead of the usual words with which he dismissed the people, brayed three times, and the people brayed or imitated the sounds hinham, hinham, hinham ! During the ceremony the following ludicrous composition, half Latin, half French, was sung by the priests and the people, with great vocife- ration, in praise of the ass : TRANSLATION. " Orientis partibus " From the country of the East Adventavit asinus ; Came this strong and handsome beast ; Pulcher et fortissiraus, This able ass beyond compare, Sarcinis aptissimus. Heavy loads and packs to bear. Hez, Sire Asnes, car chantez ; Now, Signior Ass, a noble bray ; Belle bouche rechignez ; That beauteous mouth at large display, Vous aurez du foin assez Abundant food our hay-lofts yield, Et de 1' avoine a plantez. And oats abundant load the field. Lentus erat pedibus, True it is, his pace is slow, Nisi foret baculus ; Till he feels the quick'ning blow ; Et eum in clunibus Till he feels the urging goad, Pungeret aculeus. On his buttock well bestow'd Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. Now, Signior Ass, &c. Hie in collibus Sichem, He was bom on Shechem's hill ; Jam nutritus sub Ruben ; In Reuben's vales he fed his fill ; Transiit per Jordanem, He drank of Jordan's sacred stream, Saliit in Bethlehem. And gamboled in Bethlehem. Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. Now, Signior Ass, &c. A braying match in honor of the t I his representatives f the priests and the people. Ecce magnis auribus ! Subjugalis filius ; Asinus egregius, Asinorum dominus 1 Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. Saltu vincit hinnulos, Damas et capreolos, Super dromedarios Velox Madianeos. Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. Aurura de Arabia, Thus et mjrrrham de Saba, Tulit in ecclesia Virtus asinaria. Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. Dum trahit vehicula Multa cum sarcinula, Illius raandibula Dura terit pabula. Hez, Sire Asnes, &c. Cum aristis hordeum Comedit et carduum ; Triticum d. palea Segregat in area Hez, Sire Asnes, &c Amen, dicas, asine,* Jam satur de gramine : Amen, amen, itera ; Aspernare vetera. See tliat broad, majestic ear ! Born he is the polie to wear ; AH his fellows he surpasses ! He's the very lord of asses ! Now, Signior Ass, &.c. In leaping he excels the fawn. The deer, the colts upon the lawn; Less swift the dromedaries ran. Boasted of in Midian. Now, Signior Ass, &c. Gold, from Araby the blest, Seba myrrh, of myrrh the best. To the church this ass did bring ; We his sturdy labors sing. Now, Signior Ass, &c. While he draws his loaded wain. Or many a pack, he don't complain ; With his jaws, a noble pair, He doth craunch his homely fare. ■ Now, Signior Ass, &c. The bearded barley and its stem, And thistles, yield his fill of them ; He assists to separate. When it's thresh'd, the chaff from wheal. Now, Signior Ass, &.C. Amen ! bray, most honor'd ass. Sated now with grain and grass ; Amen repeat, Amen reply, And disregard antiquity."! Hez va ! hez va ! hez va hez ! BiALX SiBE Asnes car allez ; Belle bouche car chantez."| The learned Edgar closes the account which he gives of this ridiculous mummery, in the following caustic style : " The worship concluded with a braying-match between the clergy and laity, in honor of the ass. The officiating priest turned to the people, and in a fine treble voice, and with great devotion, brayed three times like an ass, whose representative he was ; while the people, imitating his example in thanking God, brayed three times in concert. Shades of Montanus, Southcott, and Swedenborg, hide your diminished heads ! Attempt not to vie with the extravagancy of Romanism. Your wildest ravings, your loudest nonsense, your most eccentric aberrations have been outrivalled by an infallible church !"§ The final chorus, as given by Du Cange, is certainly an imitation of asinine braying ; and when performed by the whole congrega- tion must have produced a most inharmonious symphony. * Here he is made to bend his knees. | Du Cange, Glossarium, v., Festum. t Literary Panorama, vol. ii., pp. 585-688 ; and vol. vii., pp. 716-718. { Edgar's Variations, page 19. CHAP. IV.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 215 Attempts to suppress the Feast of the Ass. Profligate popes and clergy- There is another translation of this sacred ode, sung by these dig- nified priests to the ass, which exhibits the ludicrousness of the cere- mony in a more striking light, than even the translation above given. At the risk of provoking a smile, which in such a case may be allowable, I will transcribe the first four stanzas. TRANSLATION. " The Ass did come from Eastern climes ! The Ass was bom and bred with long earsi Heigh-ho ! my Assy ! Heigh-ho ! my Assy ! He's fair and fit for the pack at all times ! And now the Lord of Asses appears, Sing, father Ass, and you shall have grass, Grin, father Ass, and you shall get grass, And hay, and straw too, in plenty ! And straw, and hay too, in plenty. The Ass is slow, and lazy too ; The Ass excels the hind at leap. Heigh-ho, my Assy ! Heigh-ho ! my Assy ! But the whip and spur will make him go, And faster than hound or hare can trot. Sing, father Ass, and you shall get grass. Bray, father Ass, and you shall get grass, And hay, and straw too, in plenty. And straw, and hay too, in plenty." Attempts were made, at various times, to suppress or to regulate these sottish superstitions, by Mauritius, bishop of Paris, Odo of Sens, Grosseteste of Lincoln in England, and others. By the latter prelate, on account of its licentiousness, it was abolished in Lincoln cath edral, where it had been annually observed on the Feast of the Circumcision.* On the continent, however, it continued for centuries to be celebrated, and was officially permitted by the acts of the chapter of Sens, in France, so late as 1517. Still later permissions are found, as we learn from Tilliot and the other authorities already cited, till at length, unable to stand against the light of the glorious reformation, this senseless and disgusting popish festival ceased, toward the end of the sixteenth century.f CHAPTER IV. PROFLIGATE POPES AND CLERGY OF THIS PERIOD. § 30. — The present chapter will be devoted chiefly to a sketch of the profligate lives of several of the popes of this gloomy period, related not merely upon the testimony of protestant writers, but by the standard authors of that apostate church, of which each of these monsters of vice was, successively, the crowned and anointed head. It would hardly be desirable to stir the black pool of filth * Tilliot, Memoires pour servir Ji 1' histoire de la Fete des Foux, p. 26-32. Lau- sanne et Geneve, 1751, 12mo. t lUuBtrations of Biblical Literature, by Rev. James Townley, D. D., vol. i.,p. 249. 14 21G HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book iv Links In the koly apostolic succession. Horrible barbarities of pope John VIII composed of the lives of these " successors of the apostles," were it not to show the value of the lofty claims now so boldly put forth by the votaries of Rome, and all who trace their succession through the same polluted channel, to be exclusively the " Holy Apostolic Church ;" connected by an unbroken series of links with the apos- tle Peter himself; by the uninterrupted chain of "apostolic succes- sion," from pope Peter in thei first century, through the Johns and the Benedicts and the Alexanders, down to the popes and prelates of the nineteenth. Let us proceed then to sketch the character of a few of these holy links in this chain as related by the pen of im- partial history. § 31. — John VIII. — This pope was enriched with a great num- ber of costly presents by the emperor Charles the Bald, in return for the services of the Pope in causing him to be elected Emperor. Upon the death of Louis II., a fierce and bloody contention for the empire ensued among the descendants of Charlemagne. Through the favor of the Pope, however, Charles, the grandson of Charle- magne, was successful. Advancing to Rome, at the invitation of the Pontiff, he was crowned by him with great solemnity in the church of St. Peter on Christmas day, 875, the same day on which his celebrated ancestor had been crowned in the same place, seventy-five years before, by pope Leo III. It is worthy of re- mark that the artful Pope spoke of this coronation as giving to Charles a right to the empire, thus insinuating that he had the power of conferring the empire, and from this time forward the popes claimed the right of confirming the election of an emperor.* In a sentence pronounced by pope John upon a certain bishop Formosus, is the following expression : — " He has conspired with his accomplices against the safety of the republic, and our beloved son Charles, whom we have chosen and consecrated Emperor.] This Pope was a monster of blood and cruelty. He commended the unnatural barbarity of Athanasius, bishop of Naples, who put out the eyes of his own brother, Sergius, duke of the same city, and sent him in that state to the Pope, to answer to a charge of rebeUion against the Holy See. He applied to Athanasius the words of the Saviour, " he that loveth father or mother" (the Pope adds " brother ") " more than me, is not worthy of me," and pro- mised to send him as a recompense for so meritorious an act, a handsome pecuniary reward.J It soon appeared, however, that the bishop had more regard to himself than to the Pope in this unnatural act, for he soon seized upon the brother's vacant dukedom, and in his turn was excommunicated by the Pope. Subdued by the terror of the spiritual thunder, the refractory bishop and duke sent to implore absolution of the Pope, but the blood-thirsty pontiff sent him a reply, that the only terms upon which he would grant * Sigonius de reg. Italiae, lib. vi. t Epist. Joann., 319. t Ibid., 66. CH.u>. IV.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 217 PopeSergius III. the fulher of pope John XI., the bastard son of the harlot Marozla. him absolution were, that he should deliver to his vengeance several men, of whose names he sent him a list, and that he should cut the throats of the rest, 'jugulatis aliis,' of the Pope's Saracen enemies in the presence of his legates.* Such was the cruel spirit of this professed disciple of the Prince of Peace, and link in the unbroken chain of apostolical succession ! § 32. — Sergius III. — About the commencement of the tenth cen- tury, the singular spectacle was presented in Rome of almost the whole power and influence being concentrated in the hands of three notorious and abandoned prostitutes, Theodora and her two daugh- ters, Marozia and Theodora. This extraordinary state of things arose from the almost unbounded influence of the Tuscan party in Rome, and the adulterous commerce of these wicked women with the powerful heads of this party. Marozia cohabited with Albert or Adalbert, one of the powerful counts of Tuscany, and had a son by him named Alberic. Pope Sergius III., who was raised to the papacy in 904, also cohabited with this woman, and by his Holiness she had another son named John, who afterward ascended the papal throne, through the influence of his licentious mother. Even Baronius, the popish annalist, confesses that pope Sergius was " the slave of every vice, and the most wicked of men."t Among other horrid acts, Platina relates that pope Sergius rescinded the acts of pope Formosus, compelled those whom he had ordained to be reor- dained, dragged his dead body from the sepulchre, beheaded him as though he were alive, and then threw him into the Tiber !% § 33. — John X. — This infamous Pope was the paramour of the harlot Theodora. While a deacon of the church at Ravenna, he used frequently to visit Rome, and possessing a comely person, as we are informed by Luitprand, a contemporary historian, being seen by Theodora she fell passionately in love with him, and en- gaged him in a criminal intrigue. He was afterwards chosen bishop of Ravenna, and upon the death of pope Lando, in 914, this shameless woman, for the purpose of facilitating her adulterous intercourse with her favorite paramour, " as she could not live at the distance of two hundred miles from her lover,"§ had influence sufficient to cause him to be raised to the papal throne. Moshe'm says the paramour of pope John was the elder harlot Theodora, but his translator. Dr. Maclaine, agrees with the Romish historian Fleury (who admits these disgraceful facts), in the more probable opinion that it was the younger Theodora, the sister of Marozia.|| § 34. — John XI. — This Pope was the bastard son of his Holiness pope Sergius III., who, as we have seen, was one of the favored lovers of the notorious Marozia. The death of pope Stephen in 931, presented to the ambition of Marozia, says Mosheim (ii., 392), * Epist. Joann., 294. t Baronius, ad Ann. 908. X Platina's Lives of the Popes, vita Sergii HI. I Luitprand, Lib. ii., cap. 12. ■, , , ,. [| Mosheim ii., 391, and Fleury's Ecclesiastical History, bookliv. 218 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book iv Horrible licentiousness of pope John XII. " an object worthy of its grasp, and accordingly she raised to the papal dignity John XL, who was the fruit of her lawless amours with one of the pretended successors of St. Peter, whose adulter- ous commerce gave an infallible guide to the Roman church." § 35. — John XII. — This monster of wickedness was a nephew of John the bastard, the last named Pope, and through the influence of the dominant Tuscan party in Rome, was raised to the popedom at the age of eighteen years. His tyranny and debaucheries were so abominable, that upon the complaint of the people of Rome, the emperor Otho caused him to be solemnly tried and deposed. Upon the Emperor's ambassadors coming to that city they carried back to their master an account of the notorious scandals of which the Pope was guilty ; that " he carried on in the eyes of the whole city a criminal commerce with one Rainera, the widow of one of his soldiers, and had presented her with crosses and chalices of gold belonging to the church of St. Peter ; that another of his concubines named Stephania, had lately died in giving birth to one of the Pope's bastards ; that he had changed the Lateran palace, once the abode of saints, into a brothel, and there cohabited with his own father's concubine, who was a sister of Stephania, and that he had forced married women, widows, and virgins to comply with his impure desires, who had come from other countries to visit the tombs of the apostles at Rome." Upon the arrival of Otho, pope John fled from the city. Several bishops and others testified to the Emperor the above enormities, besides several other offences. The Emperor summoned him to appear, saying in the letter he addressed to him, " You are charged with such obscenities as would make us blush were they said of a stage-player. I shall mention to you a few of the crimes that are laid to your charge ; for it would require a whole day to enumerate them all. Know, then, that you are accused, not by some few, but by all the clergy as well as the laity, of murder, perjury, sacrilege, and incest with your own two sisters, &c., &c. We therefore earnestly entreat you to come and clear yourself from these imputations," &c. To this letter his Holiness returned the following laconic answer: — "John, servant of the servants of God, to all bishops. We hear that you want to make another pope. If that is your design, I excommunicate you all in the name of the Almighty, that you may not have it in your power to ordain any other, or even to celebrate mass ! ! !" Regardless of this threat, however, the Emperor and council de- posed " this monster without one single virtue to atone for his many vices," as he was called by the bishops in council, and proceeded to elect a successor. Still, be it remembered, this " monster " John XII. is reckoned in the regular line of the popes. The next of the name is called John the Thirteenth, and he is therefore an essential necessary link in the boasted chain of holy apostolical succes- sion ! No sooner had the emperor Otho left Rome, than several of the licentious women of the city with whom pope John had been accustomed to spend the greater portion of his time in con- CHAP. IV.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 219 Cruelties of pope John XII. Cardiaal Baronius's admission of these enormities. cert with several persons of rank, conspired to murder the new Pope, and to restore John to his See. The former was fortunate enough to make his escape to the Emperor then at Camerino, and the latter was brought back in triumph to the Lateran palace. Upon his return, pope John seized upon several of the clergy who were opposed to him, and inflicted on them the most horrible tor- tures. Otger, bishop of Spire, was whipped by his command till he was almost dead; another, cardinal John, was mutilated by having his right hand cut off", and Azo by the loss of his tongue, nose, and two fingers. But these horrible enormities were not permitted to continue long. Shortly after his return to the city, the Pope was caught in bed with a married woman, and killed on the spot, as some authors say, by the Devil, but probably by the husband in disguise.* § 36. — But decency demands that we should draw a veil over the further debaucheries and incests of these boasted si^ccessors of the prince of the apostles, and their shameless female associates in guilt and pollution. Historical fidelity demanded so much of the truth to be made known, and certainly the reader will conclude here is enough for a specimen. So conclusive is the evidence of the historical accuracy of these disgracefi:l facts, that popish writers are constrained to admit their truth. We have already referred to the celebrated Fleury, but shall cite the following re- markable language of Cardinal Baronius, one of the most powerful champions of popery, in reference to these events. " QuEE tunc facies sanctae Ecclesiee " O ! what was then the face of the Romanae ! quam faedissima cum Romae holy Roman church ! how filthy, when dominarentur potentissimaE jeque et sor- the vilest and most powerful prostitutes didissinuc mereirices ! quarum arbitrio ruled in the court of Rome ! by whose mutarentur sedes, darentur Episcopi, et arbitrary sway dioceses were made and quod auditu horrendura et infandum est, unmade, bishops were consecrated, and • intruderentur in Sedem Petri earum — which is inexpressibly horrible to be AMAssii PSEUDO-PONTIFICES, qui non sint mentioned ! — false topes, their para- nisi ad consignanda tantum tempora in mours, were thrust into the chair of catalogo Romanorum Pontificum scripti. St. Peter, who, in being numbered as Quis enim a scortis hujusmodi intru- popes, serve no purpose except to fill up EOS sine lege legitimes dicere possit Ro- the catalogues of the popes of Rome, manos fuisse Pontifices ? Sic vindica- For who can say that persons thrust into verat omnia sibi libido, saeculari poten- the popedom without any law by harlots tia freta, insaniens, astro pekcita domi- of this sort, were legitimate popes of KANDi." ' Rome ? In this manner, lust, support- ed by secular power, excited to frenzy, in the rage for domination, ruled in all THINGS." In another passage. Cardinal Baronius, the celebrated annalist of the Romish church, expresses his feelings in reference to the horri- * Bower, vita John XII. The above particulars in the life of this vicious Pope are related by Bower, upon the incontestible authority of Luitprand, bishop of Cremona, an authentic contemporary historian. His work is frequently referred to by the cautious and learned Gieseler. Hist, rerum in Europa suo temp, gesta- rum. Lib, vi. in Muratori Rer. Ilal. Script. 220 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book nr. The holy See, according to Baronius, " without spot," yet " blaclcened with perpetual infamy." biy flagitious lives of these popes, and the See which they dishon- ored, in the following remarkable language : " Est plane, ut vix aliquis credat, im- " It is evident tliat one can scarcely mo, nee vix quidem sit crediturus, nisi believe, without ocular evidence, what suis inspiciat ipse oculis, manibusque unworthy, base, execrable, and abominable conttectaX, quamindigna,quamqiieturpia things the holy, apostolical See, which is atqus deformia execranda, insuper, et the pivot upon which the whole Ca- abominanda sit coacta pati sacrosancta tholic church revolves, was forced to aposlolica sedes in cujus oardine uni- endure, when the princes of this age, versa ecclesla Catholica vertitub, although Christian, yet arrogated to cum Principes saeculae hujus quantumli- themselves the election of the Roman bet Christian!, hac tamen ex parte di- pontiffs. Alas, the shame ! Alas, the cendi tyranni ssevissimi arrogaverunt sibi grief! what monsters horrible to be- tyrannice electionem Romanorum pon- hold, were then, by them, intruded on tificum. Quot tunc ab eis, proh pudor ! the holy See, which angels revere ! what proh dolor ! in eandem Sedera Angelis evils ensued ! what tragedies did they reverendam visu horrenda intrusa sunt perpetrate ! with what pollutions was MONSTEA ? quot ex eis oborta sunt mala, this See, though itself without spot or consummatae tragcediae ? quibus tunc wrinkle, then stained ! with what cor- ipsam sine macula et sine ruga contigit ruptions infected ! with what filthiness aspergi sordibus, putoribus infici, inqui- defiled ! and by these things blackened nati spurcitiis, ex bisque perpetua in- with perpetual infamt."* FAMLA DENIGRARI !" How the above assertions can be reconciled, that " the holy See itself" can be "without spot or wrinkle," and yet "blackened WITH PERPETUAL INFAMY," must be left for popish casuists to explain. " Who can say," asks Baronius, " that persons thrust into the popedom, by harlots of this sort, were legitimate popes of Rome ?" Certainly, we answer, they have evidently no more claim to the character of bishops or ministers of Christ, than their scarcely more wicked master, Beelzebub himself But then, what becomes of the boasted uninterrupted apostolical succession ? What, indeed ! After reading the above brief recitals of but a few instances of papal profligacy, presented in this age, the reader will be prepared to acknowledge the justice of the remark of Mosheim, in reference to the tenth century : " The history^of the Roman pontiffs that lived in this century," says he, " is a history of so many monsters, and not of men, and exhibits a horrible series of the most flagi- tious, tremendous, and complicated crimes, as all writers, even those of the Romish communion, unanimously confess." (Vol. ii., 390.) § 37. — It would be amusing, were it not painful to witness the lame attempts of Roman Catholic writers to reconcile the horrible profligacy of many of their popes, with their views in relation to apostolical succession, and papal infallibihty. Father Gahan, in his history of the church, already referred to, which is probably the most accessible and popular work of its kind, among the multitude of Romanists, after faintly admitting (page 279), that " some unwor- thy popes " who had been " thrust into the apostolic chair," by the * Baronius Anna]., ad Ann. 900, &c. The former of the above passages from the Annalist, is cited by Southey, in his Vindiciae Anglicanee, page 389. Lon- CHAP. IV.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 221 Do what they say, and not what they do. Another monster , pope Benedict IX. intrigues of " three women of scandalous lives," had " disgraced their high station, by the immorahty of their lives," proceeds to remark as follow^s : " Christ promised infallibility," says he, " to the great body of her pastors, in their public doctrine, but he has no- where promised them impeccability in their conduct. ' Go,' said he to them, ' teach all nations : Baptize and teach them to observe all that I have ordained, and I will be with you,' &c. In virtue of this promise, he is always with the pastors of his church, to guaran- tee them /rowi all error in the doctrine of faith, but not to exempt them from all vice ; for he did not say, as the great Bossuet observes, ' / will be with you practising all that I have commanded, but / will be with ye teaching.' Hence, to show that the mark of the true faith was attached to the profession of the public doctrine, and not to the innocence of their morals, he said to the faithful who are taught, ' DO ALL THAT THEY SAY, AND NOT WHAT THEY DO."(! !)* I suppose that most of my readers have heard the old anecdote of the drinking and fox-hunting English parson, who used to admonish his congregation that they must do as he said, and not as he did; but probably few of them ever imagined, before reading the above pre- cious specimen of papal reasoning that the parson was indebted for his maxim to the Saviour himself. § 38. — Among the popes of the eleventh century, while there were some whose lives were decent, there were others, worthy rivals in profligacy to their predecessors of the tenth. I shall add, however, but one to this disgraceful list, Benedict IX., on account of his pre- eminence in vice. He was a son of Alberic, count of Tuscany, and was placed on the papal throne, through the money and the influ- ence of his father, at the age of eighteen years, A. D. 1033. His vicious life can only find a parallel in that of the most debauched of the Roman emperors, Heliogabalus, Commodus, or Caligula. The Romans, shocked at his daily public debaucheries, more than once expelled him from the city, but by means of the emperors, or some other powerful friends, he was as often restored. Finding himself at length an object of public abhorrence, on account of his flagitious crimes, he finally sold the popedom to his successor, Gregory VI., and betook himself to a private life, rioting without control in all manner of uncleanliness. One of his successors in the papal chai^, Desiderius, or Victor III., describes pope Benedict as " abandoned to all manner of vice. A successor of Simon the soe- CEREE, and not of Simon the apostle."! ^'^ doubt this opinion is correct, but again we ask, what becomes of the uninterrupted apos- tolical SUCCESSION ? § 39. — It might, of course, be expected that the examples thus set by the occupants of the vaunted Holy See, the boasted suc- cessors of St. Peter, would be imitated by the inferior orders of clergy, who were taught to regard the popes as their spiritual * Gahan's History of the Church, page 280. f Desid. Dialog., Lib. iii. 222 fflSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book iv. Licentiousness of the inferior clergy. Concubines of the priests confessing to their paramouro sovereign and head, as the vicegerents of God upon earth. Ac- cordingly, vfe find that a universal corruption of morals had in- vaded the monks and the clergy. " The houses of the priests and monks," says the abbot Alredus, " vi^ere brothels for harlots, and filled with assemblies of buffoons ; where in, gambling, dancing, and music, amid every nameless crime, the donations of royalty, and the benevolence of princes, the price of precious blood, were most prodigally squandered."* " Atto's language on this topic," says Edgar, " is equally striking. He represents some of the clergy as sold in such a degree to their lusts, that they kept filthy harlots in their houses. These, in a pub- lic manner, lived, bedded, and boarded with their consecrated para- mours. Fascinated with their wanton allurements, the abandoned clergy conferred on the partners of their guilt, the superintendence of their family and all their domestic concerns. These courtezans, during the lives of their companions in iniquity, managed their households : and, at their death, inherited their property. The ecclesiastical alms and revenues, in this manner, descended to the accomplices of vile prostitution.! The hirelings of pollution were adorned, the church wasted, and the poor oppressed by men who professed to be the patrons of purity, the guardians of truth, and the protectors of the wretched and the needy. § 40. — " Damian represents the guilty mistress as confessing to the guilty priest. J This presented another absurdity and an aggravation of the crime. The formality of confessing what the father confessor knew, and receiving forgiveness from a partner in sin, was an insult on common sense, and presented one of the many ridiculous scenes which have been exhibited on the theatre of the world. Confession and absolution in this way were, after all, very convenient. The fair penitent had not far to go for pardon, nor for an opportunity of repeating the fault, which might qualify her for another course of confession and remission. Her spiritual father could spare her blushes ; and his memory could supply any deficiency of recollec- tion in the enumeration of her sins. This mode of remission was attended with another advantage, which was a great improvement on the old plan. The confessor, in the penance which he pre- scribed on these occasions, exemplified the virtues of compassion and charity. Christian commiseration and sympathy took place of rigor and strictness. The holy father indeed could not be severe on so dear a friend ; and the lady could not refuse to be kind again to such an indulgent father. Damian, however, in his want of * " Fuisse clericorum domos prostibula meretricum conciliabulum histrionum, ubi aleae, saltus, cantus, patrimonia regum, eleemosynje principum profligarentur, imo pretiosi sanguinis pretium, et alia infanda." (Alredus, cap. ii.) t Quod dicere pudet. Quidem in tantA libidine mancipantur, ut obscoenas meretriculas sua simul in domo secum habitare, uno cibum sumere, ac publice degere permittant. Unde meretrices ornantur, ecclesiae vestantur, pauperes tri- bulantur. (^AUo, Ep. 9. Dachery, i. 439.) \ Les coupables se confessent a leurs complices, qui ne leur imposent point de penitences convenables. (^Damian in Bruy. 2, 356. Gianmm, X. \ 2.) CHAP. IV.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MmNIGHT— 800-1073. 223 Ccncubinngo openly pracliscd. Eegarded as a less crime In a priest than marriage. charity and liberality, saw the transaction in a different light ; and complained in bitterness of this laxity of discipline, and the insult on ecclesiastical jurisdiction and on I'ational piety. This adultery and fornication of the clergy degenerated, in many instances, into incest and other abominations of the grossest kind. Some priests, according to the council of Mentz in 888, ' had sons by their own sisters.'* Some of the earher councils, through fear of scandal, de- prived the clergy of all female company, except a mother, a sister, or an aunt, who, it was reckoned, was beyond all suspicion. But the means intended for prevention were the occasion of more ac- cumulated scandal and more heinous criminality. The interdiction was the introduction to incestuous and unnatural prostitution." {Edgar, 516, 17.) § 41. — In the tenth and eleventh centuries, concubinage was openly practised by the clergy, and it was regarded by popes and prelates as a far less crime to keep a concubine than to marry a wife. " Any person, clergyman or layman, according to the council of Toledo in its seventeenth canon, who has not a wife but a concu- bine, is not to be repelled from the communion, if he be content with one.f And his holiness pope Leo, the vicar-general of God, confirmed, in the kindest manner and with the utmost courtesy, the council of Toledo and the act of the Spanish prelacy.J Such was the hopeful decision of a Spanish council and a Roman pontiff: but, ridiculous as it is, this is not all. The enactment of the coun- cil and the Pope has been inserted in the Romish body of the Canon Law edited by Gratian and Pithou. Gratian's compilation indeed was a private production, unauthenticated by any pope. But Pithou published by the command of Gregory XIIL, and his work contains the acknowledged Canon Law of the Romish church. His edition is accredited by pontifical authority, and recognized through popish Christendom. Fornication therefore is sanctioned by a Spanish council, a Roman pontiff, and the canon law. Forni- cation, in this manner, was, in the clergy, not only tolerated but also preferred to matrimony. Many of the popish casuists raised whoredom above wedlock in the clergy. Costerus admits that a clergyman sins, if he commit fornication ; but more heinously if he marry. Concubinage, the Jesuit grants, is sinful ; but less aggra- vated, he maintains, than marriage. Costerus was followed by Pighius and Hosius. Campeggio proceeded to still greater ex- travagancy. He represented a priest who became a husband, as committing a more grievous transgression than if he should keep many domestic harlots.§ An ecclesiastic, rather than marry, * Quidam sacerdotum cum propriis sororibus concumbentes, filios ex eis gene- rassent. {Bin. 7, 137. Lahb. 11, 686.) f Christiano habere licitum est unam tantum aut uxorem, aut certe loco uxoris concubinam. (Pilhou, 47. Giannon, v. 5. Dachery, 1, 628. Canisius, 2, 111.) X Confirmatum videtur auctoritate Leonis Papae. {Bin. 1, 737.) { Gravius peccat, si contrahat matriraonium. {Cost., c. 15.) Quod sacerdotes fiant mariti, multo esse gravius peccatum quam se plurimas 224 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book iv. Amidst all this profligacy, the power and influence of the popes increased. Causes of this. should, according to this precious divine, keep a seragho. The clergyman, he affirms, who perpetrates whoredom, acts from a per- suasion of its rectitude or legality ; while the other knows and acknowledges his criminality. The priesthood, therefore, in Cam- peggio's statement, are convinced of the propriety of fornication."* § 42. — The most astonishing circumstance of all is, that amidst all this abandoned profligacy of popes and priests, their power, and wealth, and influence, should have gone on steadily increasing till it reached its culminating point during the pontificate of the im- perious Hildebrand, who ascended the papal throne under the title of Gregory VII., A. D. 1073. This strange fact is accounted for in the general ignorance of the bible, the supposed authority of the forged decretals, and the awful terror of excommunication and interdict. During these dark ages, the Scriptures were almost entirely unknown, not only among the laity, but even among the great majority of the clergy. Those of the priests who had some acquamtance with the sacred books labored hard to conceal from the eyes of the people a volume which so plainly condemned their vicious lives and their anti-scrip- tural doctrines and ceremonies. This, it is well known, has ever been the policy of popish priests, and down to the present day in countries where Popery generally prevails, multitudes of otherwise well educated people are ignorant even of the existence of the bible.f § 43.— During these dark ages, it is to be remembered, the forged decretals, and the spurious donation of the emperor Constantine, were universally received as genuine, and constantly appealed to in proof of the assumptions of the popes. On this point, in addition to what has already been said in a former chapter (see above, page 182, &c.), I shall quote a paragraph from the celebrated work of the learned John Daille on " the right use of the fathers." Speak- ing of various eariy forgeries, says he, " I shall place in this rank the so much vaunted deed of the donation of Constantine, which doni meretrices alunt. Nam illos habere persuasum quasi recte faciant, hos autem scire et peccatum agnoscere. ( Campegg-io, in Sleidan, 96 ) * See Edgar, 620. t A remarkable and unexceptionable proof of this assertion is found in the recent work of George Borrow, entitled " the Bible in Spain." On one occasion s'criT;."^ r''' " '.°^7'.'*!i'j; '^ °J "^^ P^^^"'^ -«- acquainted whh the Scripture and ever read it; he did not, however, seem to understand me. I must verv intT' 'Y' 'J\''7 ^'' ^f ^«" 7^/^^ °f ^g^. that he was in mSiy respec very intelligent, and had some knowledge of the Latin language ; nevertheless he knew not the Scripture, even by name, and I have no doubt.from Xt I sub! sequently observed, tHat at least two-thirds of his countrymen ar^ on that ,m- V ™^'"=s, in the fields where they labor, at the stone fountain bv thp wnv «irlp CHAP. IV.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 225 Forged decretals. Daill6 on the fathers. Mysterious terrors of excommunication and interdict. has for so long a time been accounted as a most valid and authentic evidence, and has also been inserted in the decrees, and so pertina- ciously maintained by the bishop of Agobio, against the objections of Laurentius Valla. Certainly those very men, who at this day maintain the donation, do notwithstanding disclaim this evidence as a piece of forgery."* In reference to the decretal epistles, Daille remarks, " Of the same nature are the epistles attributed to the first popes, as Clemens, Anacletus, Euaristus, Alexander, Sixtus, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius, Anicetus, and others, down to the times of Siricius (that is to say, to the year of our Saviour 385), which the world read, under these venerable titles, at the least for eight hundred years together ; and by which have been decided, to the advantage of the church of Rome, very many controversies, and especially the most im- portant of all the rest, that of the Pope's monarchy. This shows plain enough the motive (shall I call it such ?), or rather the purposed design of the trafficker that first circulated them. The greatest part of these are accounted forged by inen of learning ; for indeed their forgery appears clear enough from their barbarous style, the errors met with at every step in the computation of times and his- tory, the pieces they are patched up of, stolen here and there out of different authors, whose books we have at this day to show ; and also by the general silence of all the writers of the first eight cen- turies, among whom there is not one word mentioned of them." § 44. — When, in addition to these facts, we call to mind the im- mense power wielded by the popes and clergy, in consequence of the mysterious terror attached to the thunders of excommunication and interdict, we shall no longer be at a loss to account for the growth of papal power and assumption during this midnight of the world. During the dark ages, excommunication received that infernal power which dissolved all connexions, and the unfortunate or guilty victim of this horrid sentence was regarded as on a level with the beasts, The king, the ruler, the husband, the father, nay, even the man, forfeited all their rights, all their advantages, the claims of nature and the privileges of society, and was to be shun- ned like a man infected with the leprosy, by his servants, his friends or his family. Two attendants only were willing to remain with Robert, king of France, who was excommunicated by pope Gre- gory v., and these threw all the meats that passed his table into the fire. Indeed, the mere intercourse with a proscribed person incur- red what was called the lesser excommunication, or privation of the sacraments, and required penitence and absolution. Every- where the excommunicated were debarred of a regular sepulture, which has, through the superstition of consecrating burial-grounds, * DaiUe on the right use of the fathers, Philad., pages 46, 47. At the time when Daill^ wrote this valuable work, A. D. 1631, we see from the above sentence there were some who still contended for the genuineness of this spurious grant. The arguments of Laurentius Valla have since been universally admitted as conclusive, and the point is conceded by Romanists themselves. 226 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book it. The iron age of the world was the golden age of Popery. been treated as belonging to ecclesiastical control. But as excom- munication, which attacked only one and perhaps a hardened sin- ner, was not always efficacious, the church had recourse to a more comprehensive punishment. For the offence of a nobleman, she put a county, for that of a prince, his entire kingdom, under an in- terdict, or suspension of religious offices. No stretch of her tyran- ny was perhaps so outrageous as this. During an interdict, the churches were closed, the bells silent, the dead unburied, no rite but those of baptism and extreme unction performed. The penalty fell upon those who had neither partaken nor could have prevented the offence ; and the offence was often but a private dispute, in which the pride of a pope or bishop had been wounded. This was the mainspring of the machinery that the clergy set in motion, the lever by which they moved the world. From the moment that these interdicts and excommunications had been tried, the powers of the earth might be said to have existed only by sufferance.* During the pontificates of Gregory VII., Innocent JII., and their successors, while Popery sat on the throne of the earth and wielded the sceptre of the world, we shall see that these spiritual weapons were employed with tremendous effect. § 45. — It is a fact worthy of attentive observation, that the iron age of the world was the golden age of Popery. Its anti- Christian doctrines were never more extensively and imphcitly re- ceived than during these dark ages ; its superstitious rites never more reverently performed ; its contemptible festivals never more generally observed ; its corrupt and licentious clergy never more devoutly honored and munificently enriched ; and its haughty and imperious popes never attained a loftier elevation of worldly dig- nity than during this intellectual and moral midnight of the world. Hence it is not to be wondered at that the Roman Catholic his- torian, Dapin, and others, should refer in terms of the highest com- placency to this age. Speaking of the tenth century, which was the darkest part of this moral midnight, Dupin remarks. "In this century there was no controversy relating to the doctrine of faith, or points of divinity, because there were no heretics, or persons who refined upon matters of religion, and dived into our mysteries. However, there were some clergymen in England who would needs maintain that the bread and wine upon the altar continued in the same nature after the consecration, and that they were only the figure of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. This error was re- futed by a miracle wrought by Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, who made the body of Jesus Christ appear visibly in the celebra- tion of the holy mysteries, and made some drops of blood flow out oi the consecrated bread when it was broken. St. Dunstan like- wise refuted that error very strenuously in his discourses. In fine, there was no council held in this century that disputed any point * For a fuller account of these spiritual weapons, see Hallam's Middle Ages (•cliap. vii.) ; Mosheim, ii., 210, note ; and Hume's Hist, of England, chap. xi. CHAP, v.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 227 Important lesson derived from the history of Po pery in the dark ages. Popery in England. of doctrine or discipline, which shows us that there was no erroi' of faith that was of any consequence, or made any noise in the church."* Father Gahan re-echoes the same sentiments. "This age," says he, " was indeed happy in this respect, that no consider- able heresy arose, or was broached in it, for which reason there was no occasion for general councils, nor for so many ecclesiastical j j writers, as in the foregoing ages."t Before dismissing the subject of the present chapter, I would embrace the opportunity of recording a truth which it behoves every protestant, and especially every American protestant, well to remember — a truth, written in burning characters upon the dark back-ground of the world's midnight, evident as the lines of forked lightning upon a dark and cloudy sky — it is this : Ignorance and DARKNESS ARE THE NATIVE ELEMENT OF PoPERY. ItS MOST FLOURISH- ING DAYS WERE IN THE MIDNIGHT OP THE WORLD. ThE GREATEST BLOW THAT ANTI-ChRISTIAN SYSTEM EVER RECEIVED WAS THE RE- VIVAL OF LETTERS AND THE INVENTION OP PRINTING. ThE GOLDEN AGE OF POPERY WAS THE IRON AGE OF THE WORLD, AND ITS UNIVERSAL REIGN WOULD BE THE IRON AGE RESTORED ! CHAPTER V. POPERY IN ENGLAND, PRIOR TO THE CONQUEST. AUGUSTIN THE MIS- SIONARY, AND DUNSTA\ THE MONK. § 46. — Before proceeding to give a biographical sketch of the celebrated Hildebrand or Gregory VII., under whom the assump- tions of the papacy reached their climax, we shall present a concise account of the most remarkable events connected with the estab- lishment of Popery in Great Britain, and its subsequent history, to the Norman conquest. It was under the auspices of the first Gregory, bishop of Rome, that the monk Augustin, with his associ- ates, arrived in England, near the close of the sixth century, to pro- pagate among the rude and hardy Saxons, not the simple and un- corrupted gospel of Christ, but the religion of Rome, already cor- rupted, as the reader of the foregoing pages is aware, by the intro- duction of a variety of pagan ceremonies, and false and unscriptural dogmas. A much purer form of the Christian religion and worship was already observed in the mountains of Wales and other parts of the island, received, as is supposed by some, from the apostle Paul * Dupin's Ecclesiastical History, cent. x. |- Grahan'a History of the Church, p. 279. 228 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book iv. Primitive Welsh Christluns. Reception of tlie monk Auguatin, by king Ethelbert, himself, and by others, from Joseph of Arimathea, who were said to have visited Britain ; or as is supposed by others, with more proba- bility, from some primitive British-born disciples, who probably heard and received the trae gospel from the lips of St. Paul, while a prisoner at Rome, and returnmg to their native island, dissemi- nated its saving truths among their countrymen. These primitive disciples had been driven by the fierce and barbarous invaders of the island, chiefly to the mountainous districts of Wales, and not- withstanding the zeal of Augustin and other emissaries of Rome, steadily refused to admit the authority, or to receive the doctrines or the rites of that corrupt and apostate church. § 47.— It was in the year 696, that Augustin, and the other Ro- man missionaries, landed in the county of Kent, and despatched one of their interpreters to acquaint king Ethelbert with the news and design of their comuig. After a few days' deliberation, Ethelbert went into the island, and appointed a conference to be held in the open air. The missionaries advanced in orderly procession, carry- ing before them a silver cross, and singing a hymn. The king com- manded them to sit down, and to him and his earls they disclosed their mission. Ethelbert answered with a steady and not unfriendly judgment ; " Your words and promises are fair, but they are new and uncertain. I cannot, therefore, abandon the rites which, in common with all the nations of the Angles, I have hitherto observed. But as you come so far to communicate to us what you believe to be most excellent, we will not molest you. We will receive you hospitably, and supply you with what you need ; nor do we forbid any one to join your society whom you can persuade to prefer it." He gave them a mansion at Canterbury, his metropolis, for their residence, and allowed them to preach as they pleased. The labors of these zealous emissaries of Rome were so successful, that the King himself, and vast multitudes of his subjects, were persuaded to be baptized, and ten thousand are said to have submitted to that rite on the following Christmas day, thus exchanging with the same ease as they would exchange one garment for another, the ancient Paganism of their Saxon ancestors, for the Christianized Paganism of Rome. § 48. — Lest the attachments of the islanders to their pagan cere- monies might prove an obstacle to their nominal profession of Christianity, Gregory, as before mentioned (see above, page 130), wrote to Augustin, now raised to the dignity of archbishop, direct- mg him, as we are informed by the venerable Bede, not to destroy the heathen temples of the Anglo-Saxons, but only to remove the images of their gods, to wash the walls with holy-water, to erect altars, and deposit relics in them, and so convert them into Christian churches : and this, not only to save the expense of building new ones, but that the people might be more easily prevailed upon to frequent those places of worship to which they had been accustomed. He directs him further to accommodate the Christian worship, as much as possible, to those of the heathen, that the people might not be so CHAP, v.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1 Ol 3. 229 Growth of popiEh superstition in Britain. Monlicry, relics, pious frauds. much Startled at the change ; and, in particular, he advises him to allow the Christian converts, on certain festivals, to kill and eat a great number of oxen to the gloiy of God, as they had formerly done to the honor of the devil. In the course of the seventh century, monasteries, in great abundance, were founded in all parts of Eng- land, and rich endowments bequeathed them. To encourage per- sons to adopt the monastic life, the impious doctrine now began to be broached, that " as soon as any person put on the habit of a monk, all the sins of his former life were forgiven him." This engaged many princes and great men, who have as many sins as their inferiors, to put on the cowl, and end their days in monasteries. In fact, superstition, in various forms, made rapid strides in England in the seventh century ; among which may be mentioned a ridicu- lous veneration for relics, in which the clergy of the church of Rome had for some time been driving a gainful trade — a traffic which never can be carried on, except between knaves and fools. Few persons, in those days, thought themselves safe from the machina- tions of the devil, unless they carried the relics of some saint about them ; and no church could be dedicated without a decent quantity of this sacred trumpery. Stories of dreams, visions, and miracles, were propagated by the clergy, without a blush, and believed witli- out a doubt by the laity. Extraordinary watchings, fastings, and other arts of tormenting the body, in order to save the soul, became frequent and fashionable ; and it began to be believed that a pil- grimage to Rome was the most direct road to heaven.* § 49. — During the eighth century in England, no less than in Italy, ignorance and superstition advanced with rapid strides. The clergy became more knavish and rapacious, and the laity more abject and stupid than at any former period. Of this, the trade in relics alone affords abundant proof The monks were daily making discoveries, as they pretended, of the precious remains of some departed saint, which they soon converted into gold and silver. In this traffic they had all the opportunities they could desire of impos- ing counterfeit wares upon their customers, seeing it was no easy matter for the laity to distinguish the tooth or the toe-nail of a saint, from that of a sinner, after it had been some centuries in the grave. The place where the body of Albanus, the protomartyr of Britain, lay, is said to have been revealed to Offa, king of Mercia, in vision, A. D. 794 ! The body was accordingly taken up, with all imagi- nable pomp and ceremony, in the presence of three bishops, and a vast number of people of all ranks, and lodged in a rich shrine, adorned with gold and precious stones. To do the greater honor . to the memory of the holy martyr, king Offa built a stately monas- tery at the place where his body was found, which he called by his * Bede, Epist. ad Egbert. Spelman, Concil, Tom. i., p. 99, as cited by William Jones, the venerable continuator of Russell's Modern Europe, to whose lectures on Ecclesiastical History I am indebted for many of the facts relative to the pro- gress of Popery in Britain. See Lect. xxx.-xxxiv. London, 1834. 230 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book iv. Cunning of the Pope to raise a tribute in England. An archbisliop of the school of Hildebrand name, St. Alban's, and in which he deposited his i-emains, enriching it with many lands and privileges. As to the character of Offa, the monarch to whom the clergy were indebted for this ridiculous piece of pious fraud, it may suffice to say, that his life was disgraced by the commission of not a few very horrible crimes ; to atone for which he made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he lavished his money upon the Pope and the clergy, to procure the pardon of his sins. In particular, he made a grant of three hundred and sixty-five mancus- ses (pieces of money of the value of 1 3s. 4d. each), being one for each day in the year, to be disposed of by the Pope to certain chari- table and pious uses. The Roman pontiff consented to become his almoner ; but cunningly contrived to convert it into an annual tax upon the English nation, and in the most imperious manner, demand- ed it as a lawful tribute, and mark of subjection of the kingdom of England to the church of Rome. So early and so rapidly did the proud pontiffs of Rome strive to extend their dominion over the nations of the earth. § 50. — We have already seen in the case of Theodore (see above, page 135), how artfully the Pope contrived to extend and strengthen his power in England, by appointing a creature of his own to the dignity of archbishop of Canterbury, and we shall soon see that these lordly prelates were ready enough to imitate the pride and presumption of those to whom they were originally indebted for their dignity. In 934, the See of Canterbury was filled by a pre- late of the name of Odo, who acted the primate with a very high hand, of which the following is a fair specimen. He issued a pas- toral letter to the clergy and people of his province (commonly called the Constitutions of Odo), in which he addresses them in this magisterial style : " I strictly command and charge that no man presume to lay any tax on the possessions of the clergy, who are the sons of God, and the sons of God ought to be free from all taxes in every kingdom. If any man dares to disobey the discipline of the church in this particular, he is more wicked and impudent than the soldiers who crucified Christ. / command the King, the princes, and all in authority, to obey, with great humility, the archbishops, and bishops, for they have the keys of the kingdom of heaven," &c. If this Odo had lived a century or two later, we might have well supposed that he had stolen an arrow from the quiver of the impe- rious Hildebrand. § 51. — Of all the primates of England, none has obtained greater notoriety than the celebrated Saint Dunstan, so famous, or rather so infamous for his zeal in the cause of priestly celibacy, and for his pretended wonderful miracles. Dunstan, we are informed, was born in the year of our Lord, 925, near Glastonbury, and was de- scended from a respectable family who resided there. He was put to school, and his parents encouraged his application to learning, in which he is said to have made" wonderful proficiency, such as evinced superior abilities. Having run with rapidity through the course of his studies, he obtained an introduction into the ecclesias- CHAP, v.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 231 St. Duiistan's pretended miracles. Pulling the devil's nose with red hot tongs. Glastonbury abbey. tical establishment at the celebrated abbey of Glastonbury, where he continued his application to learning with commendable diligence, so that he seems to have attained all the knowledge that was within his reach. Having, by the persuasions of an uncle, embraced the monkish life, he made with his own hands a subterraneous cave, or cell, adjoining the church wall of Glastonbury. It was five feet long, and two and a half wide, and nearly of a sufficient height for a man to stand upright in the excavation. Its only wall was its door, which covered the whole, and in this a small aperture to admit light and air. One of the legendary tales which have been used to exalt his fame, shows the arts by which he gained it. In this cave Dun- stan slept, studied, prayed, and meditated, and sometimes exercised himself in working on metals. One night all the neighborhood was alarmed by the most terrific bowlings, which seemed to issue from his abode. In the morning, the people flocked to inquire the cause ; he told them the devil had intruded his head into his window to tempt him while he was heating his work — that he had seized him hy the nose, with his red hot tongs, and that the noise was Satan's roaring at the pain ; and such was the credulity of the age, that the simple people believed him, and venerated the recluse for this amazing exploit ! § 52. — In 941, the fame of Dunstan's sanctity and miracles was such that the King bestowed upon him the rich abbey of Glaston- bury, the most ancient, and down to the time of king Henry VIII., the most celebrated monastic institution of the kingdom ; and per- mitted him to make free use of the royal treasury to rebuild and to adorn it. While Dunstan was abbot of this monastery, he filled it with Benedictine monks, to which order he belonged, and of which he was a most active and zealous patron. On an adjoining page is a correct and beautiful view of the remains of Glastonbury abbey, the scene of many of his legendary miracles, which is situated in Somersetshire, England, and which continues to be an object of deep interest to travellers and antiquaries. We learn from an accu- rate writer,* that the foundation plot upon which this vast fabric and its immense range of offices were erected, included a space of not less than sixty acres, and was surrounded on all sides by a lofty wall of wrought freestone. The principal building, the great abbey church, consisted of a nave of two hundred and twenty feet in length, aud forty-five in breadth ; a choir of one hundred and fifty-five feet ; and a transept of nearly one hundred and sixty feet ; and with the chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea, which stood at the West end, one hundred and ten feet in length, by twenty-four in breadth, its extreme length measured the vast extent of five hun- dred and thirty feet. Adjoining the church on the south side, was a noble cloister, forming a square of two hundred and twenty feet. The church contained five chapels, St. Edgar's, St. Mary's, St. An- drew's, the chapel of our Lady of Loretto, and the chapel of the * Collinson, in his history of Somersetshire. 15 232 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book re DuDstaa's persecatioa of the married clergy. Miraculous images speaking to reprove the guilt of matrimony. holy Sepulchre. St. Joseph's chapel, which is the prominent object in the engraving, is still pretty entire, excepting the roof and floor, and must be admired for the richness of the finishing, as well as for the great elegance of the design. The communication with the church was by a spacious portal. There are doors also to the North and South ; one is ornamented with flower-work, the other with very elaborate flourishes and figures. The arches of the windows are semi-circular, and adorned with the lozenge, zigzag, and embattled mouldings ; underneath appears a series of compart- ments of interlaced semi-circular arches, springing from slender shafts, and also ornamented with zigzag mouldings, and in their spandrils are roses, crescents, and stars. Altogether this is one ol the most remarkable remains of antiquity in the world. § 53. — In 960, the former abbot of Glastonbury was made arch- bishop of Canterbury, and assured of the favor of king Edgar, pre- pared to execute the grand design which he had long meditated — of compelling the secular canons to put away their wives, and become monks ; or of driving them out, and introducuig Benedictine monks in their room. With this view he procured the promotion of his intimate friend, Oswald, to the See of Worcester, and of • Ethelwald to that of Winchester ; two prelates who were them- selves monks, and animated with the most ardent zeal for the advancement of their order. This trio of bishops, the three great champions of the monks, and enemies of the married clergy, now proceeded by every possible method of fraud or force, to drive the married clergy out of all the monasteries, or compel them to put away their wives and children. Rather than consent to the latter, by far the greatest number chose to become beggars and vagabonds, for which the monkish historians give them the most opprobrious names. To countenance these cruel, tyrannical proceedings, Dun- stan and his associates held up the married clergy as monsters of wickedness for cohabiting with their wives, magnified ceUbacy as the only state becoming the sanctity of the sacerdotal office, and propagated a thousand lies of miracles and visions to its honor. Among other popish contrivances, hollow crosses or images were constructed sufficiently large to conceal a monk, which, when appealed to by Dunstan, miraculously spoke in a human voice, and declared in the hearing of the gaping and astonished multitudes, the horrible guilt of those who claimed to be priests, and yet chose also to be husbands and fathers. § 54. — In the year 969, a commission was granted by king Edgar, who appears to have been an obedient tool of Dunstan, to the three prelates, to expel the married canons out of all the cathedrals and larger monasteries, promising to assist them in the execution of it with all his power. On this occasion he made a flaming speech, in which he painted the manners of the married clergy in the most odious colors, calling upon them to exert all their power in conjunc- tion with him, to exterminate those abominable wretches who kept CHAP, v.] POPERY IN ITS GLORY— WORLD-MIDNIGHT— 800-1073. 235 Strange penance for a libertine king. ^^ Death of St. Dunstan. wives. In the conclusion of his speech he thus addressed Dunstan :" I know, O holy father Dunstan ! that you have not encouraged those criminal practices of the clergy. You have reasoned, entreated, threatened. From words it is now time to come to blows. All the power of the crown is at your command. Your brethren, the ven- erable Ethelwald, and the most reverend Oswald, will assist you. To you three I commit the execution of this important work. Strike boldly ; drive those irregular livers out of the church of Christ, and introduce others who will live according to rule." And yet this furious champion for chastity had, some time before the delivery of this harangue, ravished a nun, a young lady of noble birth, and great beauty, at which his holy father confessor was so much offend- ed, that he enjoined him, by way of penance, not to wear his crown for seven years ; to build a nunnery, and to persecute the married clergy with all his might — a strange way of making atonement for his own libertinism, by depriving others of their natural rights and liberties. § 55. — At length this famous Saint Dunstan died in the year 988, and England was relieved of one of the most cunning and success- ful impostors, and obedient tools of Rome, the world ever saw. When it is mentioned that Dunstan pretended to many other mira- cles, about equal in probability and absurdity to that already men- tioned, of pulling the devil's nose with his red hot tongs, this judg- ment will not be regarded as unduly severe. As, however, Dunstan was mainly instrumental in restoring and promoting the monastic institutions, the grateful monks, who were almost the only historians of those dark ages, have loaded him with the most extravagant praises, and represented him as the greatest miracle-monger and highest favorite of heaven, that ever lived. To say nothing of his many conflicts with the devil, in which we are told he often bela- bored that enemy of mankind most severely, the following short story, which is related with great exultation by his biographer, will give some idea of the astonishing impiety and impudence of those monks, and of the no less astonishing blindness and credulity of those unhappy times. " The most admirable, the most inestimable father Dunstan," says his biographer, " whose perfections exceeded all human imagination, was admitted to behold the mother of God, and his own mother, in eternal glory ; for before his death he was carried up into heaven, to be present at the nuptials of his own mother with the Eternal King, which were celebrated by the angels with the most sweet and joyous songs. When the angels reproached him for his silence on this great occasion, so honorable to his mo- ther, he excused himself on account of his being unacquainted with those sweet and heavenly strains ; but being a little instructed by the angels, he broke out into this melodious song ; ' King and Ruler of nations, &c.'" The original author of this impious fiction was Dunstan himself, who, upon his pretended return from this celestial visit, summoned a monk to commit the heavenly song to writing from Dunstan's lips, and the morning after, all the monks 236 fflSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book iv. Conquest of England, by William of Nonnandy— A. D. 1066. were commanded to learn and to sing it, while Dunstan loudly de- clared the truth of the vision. In the year 1066, an event occurred, which constitutes an impor- tant epoch, both in the civil and ecclesiastical history of England. That event was the conquest by William of Normandy. The con- sequences upon Popery in England, of this memorable revolution, as they belong chiefly to the succeeding period, must be reserved for a future chapter. 237 BOOK V. POPERY THE WORLD'S DESPOT. FROM THE ACCESSION OF POPE GREGORY Vn., A. D. 1073, TO THE DEATH OF BONIFACE Vm., A. D. 1303. CHAPTER I. THE LIFE AND KEIGN OP POPE HILDEBRAND OR GREGORY VII. § 1. — One of the most extraordinary characters on the page of history, and probably the most conspicuous person in the history of the eleventh century, was the famous monk Hildebrand, now reverenced by papists as Saint Gregory VII., who ascended the papal throne in 1073, and who carried the assumptions of the papacy to a height never before known, claimed supreme dominion over all the governments of the world, and attempted to bring all emperors, kings, and other earthly rulers, under his authority as his vassals and dependents. This artful and ambitious monk had suc- ceeded in obtaining an almost unlimited influence at Rome long be- fore his election to the pontificate, and the attempts of the three or four popes who preceded him, to exercise their haughty sway over the sovereigns of the earth, is to be attributed chiefly to his influence and counsels. So early as previous to the accession of pope Victor II. in 1055, the authority of Hildebrand was such that he was em- powered by the people and clergy of Rome to go to Germany, and to select by his own unaided judgment, in their name, a successor to the preceding Pope, Leo IX., by performing which trust to the satisfaction of all, he greatly increased his own popularity and power. During the reign of Victor, a complaint was received from the emperor Henry ifl., that Ferdinand of Spain had assumed the title of Emperor, and begging that unless he would immediately re- linquish the title, Ferdinand might be excommunicated, and his kingdom put under an interdict. Hildebrand saw at once that this would be a favorable opportunity of advancing the scheme he had doubtless already formed of reducing all earthly sovereigns to subjection to the papal power, and accordingly persuaded the Pope to dispatch legates into Spain, threatening Ferdinand with the thun- ders of excommunication and interdict unless he immediately obeyed 238 mSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book v. Hild'^brand and tlie Pope persuade Robert of Normandy to acknowledge himself a vassal of Rome. the papal mandates and renounced a title which had been conferred by the Holy See only on Henry. The terrified prince was glad to maintain his peace with the spiritual tyrants of Rome, by submis- sive obedience to his commands. § 2. — A few years later, Hildebrand and pope Nicholas II., who waf. elected in 1059, had the address to prevail upon Robert Guiscard, the famous Norman conqueror, in consideration of the Pope's con- firming to him certain territories he had conquered, and to which neither Nicholas nor Robert had a particle of right, to own himself a vassal of the Holy See, and to take an oath of allegiance to the Pope, which is transcribed by Cardinal Baronius, from a volume in the Vatican library, in the following terms : — " I, Robert, by the grace of God and St. Peter, duke of Apulia and Calabria, and future duke of Sicily, promise to pay to St. Peter, to you, pope Nicholas, my lord, to your successors, or to your and their nuncios, twelve deniers, money of Pavia, for each yoke of oxen, as an acknowledg- ment for all the lands that I myself hold and possess, or have given to be held and possessed by any of the Ultramontanes ; and this sum shall be yearly paid on Easter Sunday by me, my heirs and successors, to you, pope Nicholas, my lord, and to your suc- cessors. So help me God, and these his holy Gospels." When Robert had taken this oath, the Pope acknowledged him for law- ful duke of Apulia and Calabria, confirmed to him and his suc- cessors for ever the possession of those provinces, promised to con- firm to him in like manner the possession of Sicily, as soon as he should reduce that island, and putting a standard in his right hand, declared him vassal of the apostolical See, and standard-bearer of the holy church. From this time Robert styled himself ' dux Apulise and Calabrise and futurus Sicilia3.'* § 3. — Soon after the election of pope Nicholas, and probably by the advice of Hildebrand, an important decree was issued rela- tive to the manner of the election of future popes. Before his time, there had been no settled rules accurately defining the electors of the popes, but they had been chosen by the whole Roman clergy, nobility, burgesses, and assembly of the people. The consequence of such a confused and jarring multitude uniting in the election was, that animosities and tumults, sometimes accompanied with bloodshed, frequently occurred in consequence of the collisions of the different contending factions ; each party striving to secure the election of its own favorite candidate to the honor of being the suc- cessor of St. Peter and, the vicar of God upon earth. To prevent these disorders in future, as well as to enhance the power of the higher clergy at Rome, Nicholas issued his decree that the power of electing a pope should be henceforth vested in the cardinal bishops {cardinales episcopi), and the cardinal clerks or presbyters (cardinales clerici). By the cardinal bishops we are to understand the seven bishops, who belonged to the city and territory of Rome, * Leo Ostiens., 1. ii., c. 16. CHAP. I.] POPERY THE WORLD'S DESPOT— A. D. 1073-1306. 239 Decree confining the election of Pope to the cardinals. Hildebrand becomes Pope. whom Nicholas calls, in the same edict, comprovinciaks episcopi ; and by the cardinal clerks, the ministers of twenty-eight Roman parishes or provincial churches. These were to constitute in future the college of electors, and were henceforward called the college of Cardinals, in a new and unusual sense of the term, which is pro- perly the origin of that dignity in its modern sense. It was customary for bishops in these ages, to be consecrated by the metropolitan, but (in the swelling and bombastic language of the papal edict), " Since the apostolic See cannot be under the jurisdiction of any superior or metropolitan, the cardinal bishops must necessarily supply the place of a metropolitan, and fix the elected pontiff on the summit of apostolic exaltation and em- pire."* All the rest of the clergy, of whatever order or rank they might be, were, together with the people, expressly excluded from the right of voting in the election of the pontiff, though they were allowed what is called a negative suffrage, and their consent was required to what the others had done. In consequence of this new regulation, the cardinals acted the principal part in the creation of the new pontiff; though they suffered for a long time much oppo- sition both from the sacerdotal orders and the Roman citizens, who were constantly either reclaiming their ancient rights, or abusing the privilege they yet retained of confirming the election of every new pope by their approbation and consent. In the following cen- tury there was an end put to all these disputes by Alexander III., who was so fortunate as to finish and complete what Nicholas had only begun, and who, just one hundred years after the decree of Nicholas, transferred and confined to the college of cardinals the sole right of electing the popes, and deprived the body of the peo- ple and the rest of the clergy of the right of vetoing the choice of the cardinals left them by the decree of pope Nicholas. To ap- pease the tumults occasioned by these acts, the popes, at various times, added other individuals to the college of Cardinals, and in subsequent ages, an admission to this high order of purpled pre- lates, the obtaining of a cardinal's hat, was regarded, next to the papal chair, as the highest object of Romish sacerdotal ambition, and moreover a necessary step to all aspirants to the dignity of sovereign pontiff, as no one but a cardinal can be elected pope.f § 4. — At length in the year 1073,, Hildebrand was himself chosen Pope, and assumed the title of Gregory VII., and his election was confirmed by the emperor Henry IV., to whom ambassadors had been sent for that purpose. This prince indeed had soon reason to repent of the consent he had given to an election which became so prejudicial to his ovra authority, so fatal to the interests and liber- ties of the church, and so detrimental, in general, to the sovereignty * " Quia secies apostolica super se metropolitanum habere non potest ; cardi- nales episcopi metropolitani vice procul dubio fungantur, qui electum antistatem ad apostolici culminis apicem provebant." {Edict of Nicholas, in Baluzius iv.,62.) |- See a learned dissertation on Cardinals in Mosheim, cent, xi., part ii. 240 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [bookv Inordinate ambition of Gregory VII. His plans for universal cmpira. and independence of kingdoms and empires. Hildebrand was a man of uncommon genius, whose ambition in forming the most arduous projects was equalled by his dexterity in bringing them into execution ; sagacious, crafty, and intrepid, nothing could escape his penetration, defeat his stratagems, or daunt his courage ; haughty and arrogant beyond all measure ; obstinate, impetuous, and intractable ; he looked up to the summit of universal empire with a wishful eye, and labored up the steep ascent with uninter- rupted ardor, and invincible perseverance ; void of all principle, and destitute of every pious and virtuous feeling, he suffered little restraint in his audacious pursuits, from the dictates of religion or the remonstrances of conscience. Such was the character of Hildebrand, and his conduct was every way suitable to it ; for no sooner did he find himself in the papal chair, than he displayed to the world the most odious marks of his tyrannic ambition. Not contented to enlarge the jurisdiction, and to augment the opulence of the See of Rome, he labored indefatigably to render the univer- sal church subject to the despotic government and the arbitrary power of the pontiff alone, to dissolve the jurisdiction which kings and emperors had hitherto exercised over the various orders of the clergy, and to exclude ihem from all part in the management or distribution of the revenues of the church. Nay, this outrageous pontiff went still farther, and impiously attempted to submit to his jurisdiction the emperors, kings, and princes of the earth, and to render their dominions tributary to the See of Rome. § 5. — The views of Hildebrand, or Hellhrand, as from his insane ambition he has been appropriately styled, were not confined to the erection of an absolute and universal monarchy in the church ; they aimed also at the establishment of a civil monarchy equally ex- tensive and despotic ; and this aspiring pontiff, after having drawn up a system of ecclesiastical canons for the government of the church, would have introduced also a new code of political laws, had he been permitted to execute the plan he had formed. His purpose was, says Mosheim, to engage in the bonds of fidelity and allegiance to St. Peter, i. e., to the Roman pontiffs, all the kings and princes of the earth, and to establish at Rome an annual assem- bly of bishops, by whom the contests that might arise between kingdoms or sovereign states were to be decided, the rights and pretensions of princes to be examined, and the fate of nations and empires to be determined. The imperious pontiff did not wholly succeed in his ambitious views, for had his success been equal to his plan, all the kingdoms of Europe would have been this day tributary to the Roman See, and its princes, the soldiers or vassals of St. Peter, in the person of his pretended vicar upon earth. But though his most important projects were ineffectual, yet many of his attempts were crowned with a favorable issue ; for from the time of his pontificate the face of Europe underwent a considerable change, and the prerogatives of the emperors and other sovereign princes were much diminished. It was particularly under the ad- CHAP. I.] POPERY THE WORLD'S DESPOT— A. D. 1073-1303. 241 Pope Gregory's contest with Heary IV. Dispute about iiivcstituroa ministration of Gregory, that the emperors were deprived of the privilege of ratifying, by their consent, the election of the Roman pontiff; a privilege of no small importance, and which tiiey never recovered. {Mosh., ii., 484.) § 6. — The contest which Gregory carried on for several years with the unfortunate emperor Henry IV. affords an instructive com- ment upon the deep-laid plans of this most imperious and am- bitious pope. Soon after his election, Gregory was informed that Solomon, king of Hungary, dethroned by his brother Geysa, had fled to Henry for protection, and renewed the homage of Hungary to the empire. Gregory, who favored Geysa, exclaimed against this act of submission ; and said in a letter to Solomon, " You ought to know, that the kingdom of Hungary belongs to the Roman church ; and learn that you will incur the indignation of the Holy See, if you do not acknowledge that you hold your dominions of the Pope, and not of the Emperor !" This presumptuous declaration, and the neglect it met with, brought the quarrel between the em- pire and the church to a crisis. It was directed to Solomon, but intended for Henry. And if Gregory could not succeed in one way, he was resolved that he would in another : he therefore re- sumed the claim of investitures, for which he had a more plausible pretence ; and as that dispute and its consequences merit particular attention we shall relate briefly the origin and history of this protracted quarrel between the Pope and the emperors. § 7. — The investiture of bishops and abbots commenced, un- doubtedly, at that period of time when the European emperors, kings, and princes, made grants to the clergy of certain territories, lands, forests, castles, &;c. According to the laws of those times, laws which still remain in force, none were considered as lawful possessors of the lands or tenements which they derived from the emperors or other princes, before they repaired to court, took the oath of allegiance to their respective sovereigns as the supreme proprietors, and received from their hands a solemn mark by which the property of their respective grants was transferred to them. Such was the manner in which the nobility, and those who had dis- tinguished themselves by military exploits, were confirmed in the possessions which they owed to the liberality of their sovereigns. But the custom of investing the bishops and abbots with the ring and the crosier, which are the ensigns of the sacred function, is of a much more recent date, and was then first introduced, when the European emperors and princes assumed to themselves the power of conferring on whom they pleased the bishoprics and abbeys that became vacant in their dominions ; nay, even of selling them to the highest bidder. This power, then, being once usurped by the kings and princes of Europe, they at first confirmed the bishops and abbots in their dignities and possessions, with the same forms and ceremonies that were used in investing the counts, knights, and others, in their feudal tenures, even by written contracts, and the ceremony of 242 mSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book v. Ceremony of investing bishops with the ring and crosier. presenting them with a wand or bough. And this custom of in- vesting the clergy and the laity with the same ceremonies would have undoubtedly continued, had not the clergy, to whom the right of electing bishops and abbots originally belonged, eluded artfully . the usurpation of the emperors and other princes by the following stratagem. When a bishop or abbot died, they who looked upon themselves as authorized to fill up the vacancy, elected immediately some one of their order in the place of the deceased, and were carefal to have him consecrated without delay. The consecration being thus performed, the prince, who had proposed to himself the profit of selling the vacant benefice, or the pleasure of conferring it upon some of his favorites, was obliged to desist from his pur- pose, and to consent to the election, which the ceremony of conse- cration rendered irrevocable. No sooner did the emperors and princes perceive this artful management, than they turned their at- tention to the most suitable means of rendering it ineffectual, and of preserving the valuable privilege they had usurped. For this purpose they ordered, that as soon as a bishop expired, his ring and croder should be transmitted to the pi-ince to whose jurisdiction his diocese was subject. For it was by the solemn delivery of the ring and crosier of the deceased to the new bishop that his election was irrevocably confirmed, and this ceremony was an essential part of his consecration ; so that when these two badges of the episco- pal dignity were in the hands of the sovereign, the clergy could not consecrate the person whom their suffrages had appointed to fill the vacancy. Thus their stratagem was defeated, as every election that was not confirmed by the ceremony of consecration might be lawfully annulled and rejected ; nor was the bishop qualified to exercise any of the episcopal functions before the performance of that im- portant ceremony. As soon therefore as a bishop drew his last breath, the magistrate of the city in which he had resided, or the government of the province, seized upon his ring and crosier, and sent them to court.* The emperor or prince conferred the vacant See upon the person whom he had chosen by delivering to him these two badges of the episcopal office, after which the new bishop, thus invested by his sovereign, repaired to his metropolitan, to whom it belonged to perform the ceremony of consecration, and delivered to him the ring and crosier which he had received from his prince, that he might receive it again from his hands, and be * " Nee multo post annul as cum virga pastorali Bremensis episcopi ad aulam regiam translata. Eo siquidem tempore ecclesia liberam electionem non habe- bant . . . sed cum quilibet antistes viam universe carnis ingresaus fuisset, mox capitanei civitatis illius annulum et virgam pastoralem ad Palatium transmittebaut, Bicque regia auctoritale, communicato cum aulicis consilio, orbatae plebi idoneum constituebat praasulem . . . Post paucos vero dies rursum annulus et virga pas- toralis Bambenbergensis episcopi Domino imperatori transmissa est. Quo audito, multi nobiles ad aulam regiam confluebant, qui alteram harum prece vel pretio sibi comparare tentabant." {Ebho's Lite of Otho, bishop of Bamberg, Lib. i., J) 8, 9, in Aais Sanctor. mensis Julii, torn, i., p. 426.) CHAP. I.] POPERY THE WORLD'S DESPOT— A. D. 1073-1303. 243 Gregory VH. anathematizes lay investitures. Excommunicates and deposes the emperor Henry IV. thus doubly confirmed in his sacred function. It appears therefore from this account, that each new bishop and abbot received twice the ring and the crosier ; once from the hands of the sovereign, and once from those of the metropohtan bishop, by whom they were consecrated.* § 8. — Considering the character of Gregory VII., it is no won- der that he could ill brook this conduct of the emperors in thus se- curing to themselves the right of confirming the election of bishops by the ceremony of investing them with the ring and the crosier Accordingly, we find that in 1075, Gregory assembled a council at Rome, in which he excommunicated certain favorites of Henry, and pronounced a formal " anathema, or curse, against whoever received the investiture of a bishopric or abbacy from the hands of a layman, as also against those hy whom the investiture should he performed." This decree was doubtless aimed chiefly at the Em- peror, who strenuously insisted on his asserted right of investiture, which his predecessors had enjoyed. As Henry continued to dis- regard the Pope's decree, Gregory sent two legates to summon him to appear befoi-e him as a delinquent, because he still con- tinued to bestow investitures, notwithstanding the apostolic decree to the contrary ; adding, that if he should fail to yield obedience to the church, he must expect to he excommunicated and dethroned. Incensed at that arrogant message from one whom he considered as his vassal, Henry dismissed the legates with very little ceremony, and convoked an assembly of all the German princes and dignified ecclesiastics at Worms ; where, after mature deliberation, they concluded, that Gregory having usurped the chair of St. Peter by indirect means, infected the church of God with many novelties and abuses, and deviated from his duty to his sovereign in several scandalous attempts, the Emperor, by that supreme authority de- rived from his predecessors, ought to divest him of his dignity, and appoint another in his place. § 9. — Henry immediately dispatched an ambassador to Rome with a formal deprivation of Gregory ; who, in his turn, convoked a council, at which were present a hundred and ten bishops, who unanimously agreed, that the Pope had just cause to depose Henry, to dissolve the oath of allegiance which the princes and states had taken in his favor, and to prohibit them from holding any cor- respondence with him on pain of excommunication. And that sen- tence was immediately fulminated against the Emperor and his adherents. " In the name of Almighty God, and by your author- ity," said Gregory, alluding to the members of the council, " I pro- hibit Henry, the son of our emperor Henry, from governing the Teutonic kingdom and Italy ; I release all Christians from their oath of allegiance to him ; and / strictly forbid all persons from serving or attending him as king" Thus, says Hallam, Gregory VII. ob- * For a full and learned dissertation on the subject of investitures, see Mosheira> vol. ii., pp. 494-503, with references to, and quotations from, original authorities. 244 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. Lbook v. The Emperor elands three days at the gate of the Pope's palace, before he is admitted to his presence. tained the glory of leaving all his predecessors behind, and as- tonishing mankind by an act of audacity and ambition which the most emulous of his successors could hardly surpass. The first impulses of Henry's mind on hearing this denunciation were indignation and resentment. But, like other inexperienced and misguided sovereigns, he had formed an erroneous calculation of his own resources. A conspii-acy long prepared, of which the dukes of Swabia and Carinthia were the chiefs, began to manifest itself; some were alienated by his vices, and others jealous of his family ; the rebellious Saxons took courage ; the bishops, intimidated by excommunications, withdrew from his side ; and he suddenly found himself almost insulated in the midst of his dominions. In this desertion he had recourse, through panic, to a miserable ex- pedient. He crossed the Alps with the avowed determination of submitting, and seeking absolution from the Pope. Gregory was at Canossa, a fortress near Reggio, belonging to his faithful ad- herent, the countess Matilda. (A. D. 1077.) It was in a winter of unusual seveiity. The Emperor was admitted, without his guards, into an outer court of the castle, and three successive days re- mained, from morning till evening, in a woollen shirt and with naked feet, while Gregory,* shut up with the tender and loving countess, refused to admit him to his presence. At length, after continuing for three days in the cold month of January, barefoot and fasting, the humbled Emperor was ad- mitted into the palace, and allowed the superlative honor of kissing the Pope's toe ! The haughty pontiff condescended to grant him absolution, but only upon condition of appearing on a certain day to learn the Pope's decision, whether or no he should be restored to his kingdom, until which time the Pope forbad him to wear the orna- ments or to exercise the functions of royalty. Intoxicated with his triumph, Gregory now regarded himself as, lord and master of all the crowned heads of Christendom, and boasted in his letters that it was his duty " to pull down the pride of kings !" § 10. — The pusillanimous conduct of the Emperor excited the indignation of a large portion of the nobility and other subjects of the empire, and they would probably have deposed him in reality, if he had not softened their resentment by violating his promise to the imperious pontiff, and immediately resuming the title and the ensigns of royalty. The princes of Lombardy especially could never forgive either the abject humility of Henry, or the haughty insolence of Gregory. A bloody war ensued between the domestic German enemies of Henry, headed by Rodolph, duke of Swabia, whom, in consequence of the Pope's sentence of deposition, they had crowned as Emperor at Mentz, on the one side ; and the Loni- bard princes who, impelled by compassion for the humbled monarch, and indignation against the lordly Pope, had rallied round the Em- peror on the other. As the result of this war appeai-ed extremely doubtful for a time, Gregory assumed an appearance of neutrality, aUbcted to be displeased that Rodolph had been consecrated as Ern- The Emperor Henry IV doing Penunce at the Gate of the Pope's Palace. CHAP. I.] POPERY THE WORLD'S DESPOT— A. D. 1073-1303. 247 Henry retracts hia submission to the Pope. Gregory cxcommunlcotes him a second time. peror without his order, and avowed his intention of acknowledginf that one of the competitors who should be most submissive to the Holy See. Henry had already learned too much of the character of pope Gregory to place much dependence on his generosity, and therefore, with renewed courage and energy, he marched against his enemies, and defeated them in several engagements, till Gregory, seeing no hopes of submission, thundered out a second sentence of excommunication against him, confirming at the same time the election of Rodolph, to whom he sent a golden crown, on which the following well known verse, equally haughty and puerile, was written : Petra dedi Petro, petrus diadema Rodolpho. This donation was also accompanied with a prophetic anathema against Henry, so wild and extravagant, as to make one doubt whether it was dictated by enthusiasm or priestcraft. After de- priving him of strength in combat, and condemning him never to be victorious, it concludes with the following remarkable apostrophe to St. Peter and St. Paul : " Make all men sensible that, as YOU CAN BIND AND LOOSE EVERYTHING IN HEAVEN, YOU CAN ALSO UPON EARTH TAKE FROM, OR GIVE TO, EVERY ONE ACCORDING TO HIS DESERTS, EMPIRES, KINGDOMS, PRINCIPALITIES LET THE KINGS AND PRINCES OF THE AGE THEN INSTANTLY FEEL YOUR POWER, THAT THEY MAY NOT DARE TO DESPISE THE ORDERS OF YOUR CHURCH ; LET YOUR JUSTICE BE SO SPEEDILY EXECUTED UPON HeNRY, THAT NOBODY MAY DOUBT BUT THAT HE FALLS BY YOUR MEANS, AND NOT BY CHANCE." ThuS had Popery now assumed the character of Despot of the world. § 11. — Before proceeding to relate a few other proofs of pope Gregory's determination to reduce all the kingdoms of the world and their sovereigns under his absolute sway, we will dismiss the case of Henry, by briefly relating the sequel of his remarkable life. With the hopes of shielding himself from the effects of this second excommunication, the Emperor assembled a council at Brixen, in the Tyrol, which resolved that Hildebrand, by his misconduct and rebellion, had rendered himself unworthy of the pontifical throne, and elected in his stead, Guibert, archbishop of Ravenna, who assumed the name of Clement III., and was at length consecrated at Rome, but is not reckoned by Romanists in the line of popes. Notwithstanding the temporary triumph of Henry over the papal tyranny, he at last became its victim. After the death of Gregory, the succeeding pope, Urban II., and Paschal II., unable to forgive or forget his rebellion against the holy See, seduced two sons of the unfortunate emperor, first Conrad, and afterward Henry, to take up arms against their father. Paschal, who was a worthy successor of Hildebrand, after the death of Conrad, excited the young Henry to rebel against his father, under pretence of defending the cause of the orthodox ; alleging that he was bound to take upon himself the reins of government, as he could neither acknowledge a king nor a Papal cruelty to Henry IV. Unnatural conduct of his son. father that was excommunicated.* In vain did the Emperor use every paternal remonstrance to dissuade his son from proceeding to extremities : the breach became wider and wider, and both pre- pared for the decision of the sword. But the son, dreading his father's mihtary superiority, and confiding in his tenderness, made use of a stratagem equally base and effectual. He threw himself unexpectedly at the Emperor's feet, and begged pardon for his un- dutiful behavior, which he imputed to the advice of evil counsellors. In consequence of this submission, he was immediately taken into favor, and the Emperor dismissed his army. The ungrateful youth now bared his perfidious heart : he ordered his father to be confined ; while he assembled a diet of his own confederates, at which the Pope's legate presided, and repeated the sentence of excommuni- cation against the emperor Henry IV., who was instantly deposed, and the parricidous usurper, Henry V., proclaimed Emperor in his stead. § 12.— Upon the perpetration of this unnatural act, two worthy servants of the church, the archbishops of Mentz and Cologne, very i-eadily undertook the grateful office of waiting upon the old Em- peror, and demanding his crown and other regalia. The unfortu- nate monarch besought them not to become abettors of those who had ungratefully conspired his ruin, but finding them inexorable, he retired and put on his royal ornaments ; then returning to the apartment he had left, and seating himself on a chair of state, he renewed his remonstrance in these words : " Here are the marks of that royalty, with which we were invested by God and the princes of the empire : if you disregard the wrath of heaven, and the eter- nal reproach of mankind, so much as to lay violent hands on your sovereign, you may strip us of them. We are not in a condition to defend ourselves." This speech had no more effect than the former upon the unfeeling prelates, who instantly snatched the crown from his head ; and, dragging him from his chair, pulled off his royal robes by force. While they were thus employed, Henry exclaimed, " Great God !" — the tears trickling down his venerable cheeks — " thou art the God of vengeance, and wilt repay this outrage. I have sinned, I own, and merited such shame by the follies of my youth ; but thou wilt not fail to punish those traitors, for their per- jury, insolence, and ingratitude." To such a degree of wretched- ness was this unhappy prince reduced by the barbarity of his son, that, destitute of the common necessaries of life, he entreated the bishop of Spire, who owed his office to him, to grant him a canoni- cate for his subsistence, representing that he was capable of per- forming the office of " chanter or reader !" Being denied that hum- ble request, he shed a flood of tears, and turning to those who were present, said with a deep sigh, " My dear friends, at least have pity on my condition, for I am touched by the hand of the Lord !" The * Dithmar. Hist. Bell, inter Imp. et Sacerdot. CHAP, n.] POPERY THE WORLD'S DESPOT— A. D. 1073-1303. 249 Pope Gregory claitna Spain as belonging to St. Peter. hand of man, at least, was heavy upon him, for he was not only m want, but under confinement. After the death of the unfortunate and deeply afflicted old man, which occurred soon after, his unnatural son, Henry V., was de- praved enough to gratify the papal vengeance still further, by the barbarous and hypocritical act of digging up the dead body of his poor old father, from consecrated ground in the cathedral of Spire, and causing it to be cast with indignity into a cave at Spire. Such is popish morality, and such is the terrible vengeance which anti- Christian Rome, in those days of her glory, exhibited toward such as resisted her authority, or disobeyed her mandates !* CHAPTER II. LIFE op GREGORY VII. CONTINUED. OTHER INSTANCES OF HIS TY- RANNY AND USURPATION. §13. — The life of Hildebrand abounds with instances of his haughty insolence and tyranny, over earthly sovereigns and nations, almost equalling in atrocity the above related history of his conduct toward Henry IV. We shall proceed to mention a few of these as related by Bower, upon the authorities cited at the foot of the page. Not satisfied with pulling down and setting up princes, kings, and emperors, at his pleasure, Gregory, as King of Kings, mo- narch of the world, and sole lord, both spiritual and temporal, over the whole earth, claimed the sovereignty of all the kingdoms of Europe, as having once belonged to St. Peter, whose right was unalienable. Thus, being informed in the very beginning of his pontificate that count Evulus, a man of wealth and power, had formed a design of recovering the countries, which the Moors had seized in Spain, and was levying forces with that view, he sent car- dinal Hugh, surnamed the White, to let him know that Spain be- longed to St. Peter before it was conquered by the Moors ; that though the infidels had subdued that country, and held it for a long course of years, the right of St. Peter still subsisted, there being no prescription against that apostle or his church, and that he, as supreme lord of the whole kingdom, not only approved of the count's design, but granted him all the places he should recover from the barbarians, upon condition that he held them of St. Peter and his See. In the letter which he wrote at this time, addressed to all who were disposed to join in driving the Saracens out of Spain, he * See Russell's Modern Europe, Part i., Letter 22. 250 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book v. Claims Petcr-pcnce in France. Claims Hungary also, as belonging to the holy See. forbids any to enter that country, who is not resolved to hold of St. Peter what acquisitions he may make, as he had rather it should remain in the hands of the infidels, than that the holy Roman and universal church should be robbed of her undoubted right by her own children ;* that is, that he had rather Christians in Spain should continue under the oppressive yoke of those infidels, than be rescued from it by a prince, who did not pay homage, as a vassal, to the apostolic See. This letter, dated the last of April, 1073, and con- sequently written a few days after his election, shows what senti- ments Gregory brought with him to the pontifical chair. Four years after he wrote again to the kings and princes of Spain, re- newing his claim to their respective kingdoms and principalities, as having belonged to his See when the Saracens seized them, and requiring those, who held them, to pay the tribute they owed to St. Peter as their sovereign lord.f § 14. — With reference to the kingdom of France, Gregory pre- tended that formerly each house in that kingdom paid at least a penny a year to St. Peter, as their father and pastor, and that this sum was, by order of Charlemagne, collected yearly at Puy in Velai, at Aix la Chapelle, and at St. Giles. For this custom the Pope quotes a statute of that Emperor, lodged, as he says, in the archives of St. Peter's church. But as that statute is to be found nowhere else, it is universally looked upon as a forgery, and by some even thought to have been forged by Gregory himself. However, he ordered his legates in France to exact that sum, and insist upon its being paid by all, as a token of their subjection to St. Peter and his See.J The legitimate sovereign oi Hungary, Solomon, being driven from his throne by Geisa, his cousin, had recourse to the Emperor, whose sister he had married, and was by him restored to his king- dom, upon condition that he should hold it of him as his feudatory. This Gregory no sooner understood than he wrote to Solomon, claiming the kingdom of Hungary as belonging to St. Peter, to whom he pretended it had been given by Stephen, the first Christian king of the country. The elders of your country, said he, in his letter to the king, will inform you that the kingdom of Hungary is the property of the holy Roman church, ' sanctse Romanje ecclesise proprium est ;' that king Stephen, upon his conversion, offered it to St. Peter, and that the emperor Henry, of holy memory, having conquered the country, sent the lance and the crown, the ensigns of royalty, to the body of St. Peter. If it be true therefore that you have agreed to hold your kingdom of the king of the Germans, and not of St. Peter, you will soon feel the effects of the apostle's just indignation, for we, who are his servants and ministers, cannot tamely suflTer the honor that is due to him, to be taken from him and given to others. § Solomon was again driven out by Geisa, * Gregorii, lib. i., epiet. 7. t Gregorii, lib. iv., epist. 28. I Gregorii, lib. viii., epist. 25. 5 Gregorii, lib. ii., epist. 13. CHAP. II.] POPERY THE WORLD S DESPOT— A. D. 1073-1303. 251 The Pope cliiims Corsica and Sardinia as the patrimony of St. Peter. Dalmatia and Russia. which Gregory construed into a judgment for the injustice he had done to St. Peter, telhng the usurper that the prince of the apostles had given the kingdom to him, as Solomon had forfeited all right to it by rebelling against the holy Roman church, and paying that homage to the king of Germany, which was due to none but her and her founder.* Geisa, thus countenanced by the Pope in his usurpa- tion, held the kingdom of Germany until the hour of his death, which happened in 1077. He was succeeded by Ladislaus, who, to avoid the disturbances which he was sensible the Pope would raise and foment among his subjects, if he held not his kingdom of him, imme- diately acknowledged himself for his vassal, declaring that he owed his power to God, and under him to none but St. Peter, whose com- mands he should ever readily obey, when signified to him by his successors in the apostolic See. § 15. — The two islands of Corsica and Sardinia he claimed as the patrimony of St. Peter, pretending that they had been formerly given, nobody knows when nor by whom, to the apostolic See. Hence he no sooner heard that the Christians had gained consider- able advantages in Corsica, over the Saracens, and recovered great part of that island, than he sent a legate to govern the coun- tries, which they had recovered, as the demesnes of his See, to en- courage them in so laudable an undertaking, and assure them that he would assist them, to the utmost of his power, with men as well as with money, till they had reduced the whole island, provided they engaged to restore it to its lawful owner, St. Peter. -f In order to subject Dalmatia to the Roman See, Gregory confer- red the title of king upon Demetrius,. duke of that country, obliging him, on that occasion, to swear allegiance to him and his successors in the See of St. Peter. That oath the Pope's legate required upon delivering to the duke, in the Pope's name, a standard, a sword, a sceptre, and a royal diadem. The new king at the same time promised to pay yearly on Easter-day two hundred pieces of silver to the holy pope Gregory, and his successors lawfully elected as supreme lords of the kingdom of Dalmatia ; to assist them, when required, to the utmost of his power ; to receive, entertain, and obey their legates ; to reveal no secrets that they should trust him with, but to behave on all occasions, as became a true son of the holy Roman church, and a faithful vassal of the apostolic See. J Demetrius was at that time king of Russia, and his son coming to Rome to visit the tombs of the apostles, Gregory made him partner with his father in the kingdom, requiring him on that occa- sion, to take' an oath of fealty to St. Peter, and his successors. This step the Pope pretended to have taken at the request of the son, who, he said, had applied to him, being desirous to receive the king- dom from St. Peter, and to hold it as a gift of that apostle. The * Gregorii, lib. ii., epist. 2. t Gregorii, lib. v., epist. 24. t Baron, ad An, 1076- 16 252 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book v. Gregory less succeasfal with king William of England. Pope added in his letter to the King, that he had compHed with the request of his son, not doubting but it would be approved of by him and all the lords of his kingdom, since the prince of the apostles would thenceforth look upon their country and defend it as his own* The despotic views of this lordly pontiff were attended with less success in England, than in any other country. William the Conqueror was a prince of great spirit and resolution, extremely jealous of his rights, and tenacious of the prerogatives he enjoyed as a sovereign and independent monarch, and accordingly, when Gregory wrote him a letter demanding the arrears of the Peter- pence, and at the same time summoning him to do homage for the kingdom of England, as a fief of the apostohc See, William granted the former, but refused the latter, with a bold obstinacy, declaring that he held his kingdom of his God only, and his own sword.f § 16. — Mr. Bower relates similar instances of Gregory's haughty assumption toward the sovereigns of Denmark, Poland, Saxony, as well as various principalities of Italy, who were compelled by the spiritual tyrant to acknowledge themselves as his vassals, but the above are certainly sufficient to demonstrate the all-grasping ambi- tion of this pontiff, and his settled plan of reducing all kingdoms into one vast monarchy, of which the prince of the apostles should be the sovereign and head. "Gregory was," remarks the same historian, "to do him jus- tice, a man of most extraordinary parts, of most uncommon abili- ties, both natural and acquired, and would have had at least as good a claim to the surname of Great, as either Gregory or Leo, had he not, led by an ambition the world never heard of before, grossly misapplied those great talents to the most wicked purposes, to the establishing of an uncontrolled tyranny over mankind, of making himself the sole lord, spiritual and temporal, over the whole earth, becoming by that means sole disposer, not only of all ecclesi- astical dignities and preferments, but of Empires, States, and King- doms. That he had nothing less in his view, sufficiently appears from his whole conduct, from his letters, and from a famous piece entitle Dictatus Papae, containing his maxims." J This piece, which is found in the 55th letter of the second book of Gregory's epistles, contains his twenty-seven celebrated propositions, among which are the following : The Roman pontiff alone should of right be styled Universal Bishop. * Gregorii, lib. ii., epist. 74. f For the letter of William, see Collier's Ecclesiastical History, in the Collec- tion of Records, at the end of the first volume, p. 713, No. 12. " Hubertus legatus tuus," says king William, to the audacious pontifT, " admonuit me, quatenus tibi et liuccessoribus tuis fidelitatem facerem, et de pecunia, quam antecessores mei ad ecclesiam mittere solebant, melius cogitarem. Unam admisi, alterum non admisi Fidelitatem facere nolui nee volo," &c. X Bower, in vita Greg. VII. CHAP. ii.J POPERY THE WORLD'S DESPOT— A. D. 1073-1303. 253 Dictates of Hildebrand. Advocated and defended by Roinanist authors, No man ought to live in the same house with persons excommu- nicated by the Pope. The Pope alone can weai- the imperial ornaments. All princes are to kiss his foot, and pay that mark of distinction to him alone. It is lawful for him to depose emperors. No general council is to be assembled without his order. His judgment no man can reverse, but he can reverse all other judgments. He is to be judged -by no man. No man shall presume to condemn the person that appeals to the apostolic See. The Roman church has never erred, nor will she ever err, ac- cording to Scripture. He can depose and restore bishops without assembling a synod. The Pope can absolve subjects from the oath of allegiance which they have taken to a bad prince. § 17. — The genuineness of these dictates of Hildebrand, as they are called, is testified by several of the most famous of the Roman Catholic writers, Harduin, Baronius, Lupus and others. Cardinal Baronius (An. 1076) not only admits the genuineness of these sen- tences, but says that the same doctrine was received in the Romish church down to his day (about 1009). His words are, " Istas hactenus in ecclesiae catholicae usu receptas fuisse." Lupus, another Romish writer, has given an ample commentary on them, and regards them as both authentic and sacred.* Whether, how- ever, they were written in this present form by Gregory, or were extracted by some other author from his epistles, as Mosheim seems to suppose, is a matter of but small importance. The whole life of that haughty and imperious spiritual and temporal despot, is a proof that he believed and acted upon these principles. In the epistles of Gregory, he more than once undertakes a labored de- fence of the doctrine that all earthly governments, nations, sove- reigns and rulers are subject to the Pope, and after referring to several instances in which he asserts this subjection had been pre- viously recognized and acted upon, he proceeds to prove it by the following reasons : (1.) The apostolic See has received of our Saviour the power of judging spiritual matters, and consequently that of judging tem- poral concerns, which is a power of an inferior degree. (2.) When our Saviour said to St. Petei-, Feed my sheep, when he granted him the power of loosing and binding, he did not excep'. kings. (3.) The episcopal dignity is of divine institution ; the royal is the invention of men, and owes its origin to pride and ambition. As bishops therefore are above kings as well as above all other men, they may judge them as well as other men.f * Lupus — NotjE et Dissertationes in Concilia, torn, iv., p. 164. ••■ Greg, epist., Lib. ii., epist. 10, 11, 12. 254 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book v, The tyrannical doctrines of Hildebrand advocated in the nineteenth century. Many popish writers of eminence have advocated these doc- trines. Thus Bellarmine asserts that though Christ exercised no temporal power himself, yet he vested St. Peter, the prince of the apostles and his successors, with all temporal as well as spiritual power, leaving him and them at full liberty to exert it, when thought expedient and necessary for the good of his church. Probably amidst the light and intelligence of the nineteenth century it is not thought expedient for the good of the ciiurch to advocate or prac- tise these doctrines of the infallible pope Gregory, at least in the United States. Yet it ought to be known, that so late as the year 1819, a volume appeared, from the pen of an Italian Catholic, De Maistre, which has since often been reprinted, advocating to the fullest extent the doctrines of pope Gregory, maintaining that kings are but delegates of the Holy See ; that the Roman pontiffs have power to depose them at will, and even prescribing a form of peti- tion which nations should address to his holiness, when they wish their sovereign to be dethroned. It is worthy to be known also by Americans, that this spiritual despot who maintained the right of the Roman See to trample at will upon the governments of the earth is enrolled in the Roman Catholic calendar as a Saint, and as such reverenced and honored, even in the land of Washington, with all due worship on a day annually set apart for that purpose. In an edition of that standard popish book of devotion, called " the Garden of the Soul," now lying before me, published in New York, 1844, "with the approbation of the Right Reverend Dr. Hughes, bishop of New York," in the calendar of the saints' days, I find the twenty-fifth of May designated as the day set apart in honor of Saint Gregory VII !* § 18. — We have now traced the march of priestly and popish usurpation from the earliest attempts of ambitious ecclesiastics to domineer over their brethren, and to usurp the prerogatives of HIM who has said, " one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." We have seen the gradual steps by which the "power of ambitious prelates in general, and of the bishop of Rome in particular, was increased, till the spiritual supremacy of the Pope was established in the early part of the seventh century. We have followed these haughty tyrants in their career of ambition, till a century and a half later they united the crown to the mitre, the sceptre to the crosier, and took their place among the temporal sovereigns of the world, till at last in the eleventh century they reached the climax of their power and usurpation, under the reign of Saint Gregory VII. We cannot better close the present chap- ter than by quoting from the learned Deylingius the following eleven propositions in relation to the rise of this power ; which he has sustained, beyond contradiction, by a vast amount of erudition and research in a disquisition occupying 117 pages. The reader will perceive, that though quoted in the language of another, these * See also the Acta Sanctorum, Antwerp, ad d. xxv. Maii. CHAP. n.J POPERY THE WORLD'S DESPOT— A. D. 1073-1303. 255 The learned Deylingius's account of the gradual rise of the popes' tyrannical power. propositions constitute a comprehensive summary of the historical account, which we have given in the preceding pages, of the gra- dual and successive steps by which the despotic power of the popes was eventually established. " Proposition 1. Christ did not institute in his church any sacred dominion, and much less a monarchical government, such as the Roman prelates during a long period have claimed and usurped. "2. In the beginning, all the ministers of the church were equal; and bishops before the second century, after the birth of Christ, were not exalted above presbyters ; nor did they arrogate to them- selves any peculiar duties or privileges of the sacred office. " 3. Although the government and the jurisdiction of the church at that period were not in bishops alone, but the presbyters and deacons, with the whole assembly, participated in the rule and de- termination of affairs ; yet the authority of the prelates gradually and rapidly obtained a large increase. " 4. All bishops then were equal, nor had the Roman bishop or any other the least right or precedence over his brethren. " 5. In the third century after the Saviour, metropolitans arose ; who were placed in the principal city of the province, so that the other prelates in the same province by degrees became subject to their jurisdiction. " 6. Whatever prerogatives of bishops, and distinction of au- thority and power, then were admitted, were derived solely from the dignity of the city where they presided. " 7. Although the metropolitan dignity was supreme after the council of Nice (in 325), yet there were three chiefs, the Roman, Alexandrian, and the Antiochian, each of whom ruled his own dio- cese unrestricted, and neither of them possessed any right or power more than the others. " 8. In the fourth century of the Christian church, the Roman pontiff was not patriarch of all Western Europe, much less was he head and monarch of the whole church ; but only a particular pre- late, not superior to other metropolitans, exarchs, or primates. " 9. After the peace granted to the churches by Constantine, the luxury and pomp of the bishops greatly increased ; and especially the ambition, authority, and power of the Roman prelate were ex- tended, so that they could not be restrained within the limits of the suburban cities ; but by various artifices, they continually became more amplified. " 10. At length the Roman prelates, not content with having ob- tained the primacy of order among the other hierarchs, endeavored to establish their authority in both divisions of the empire. After long and severe strife with the Constantinopolitan patriarch, hy the parricide of Phocas, they obtained the title of Universal Bishop ; and extended their jurisdiction, but could not grasp domination over all the church, because they were opposed by the authority of em- perors and councils. "11. Finally, in the eleventh century after Christ, the power of 256 raSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book v. Sprinkling with aslies on Ash- Wednesday. the Roman pontiff, by the ferocity of pope Gregory VII., was car- ried to its utmost extent ; and tiie nominal Christian church, through the debasement of the imperial and royal prerogatives, were forced to submit their necks to the yoke of the despotic court of Rome."* CHAPTER III. POPE URBAN AND THE CRUSADES. § 19. — Upon the death of pope Gregory, which took place at Sa- lernum, in 1085, the faction which supported his measures proceeded to the election of a successor, who assumed the title of Victor III., while Clement III., who, as we have already remarked, had been elected by the Emperor's party at the council of Brixen, was ac- knowledged as pope by a great part of Italy, and continued to main- tain his pretensions to the papal throne till his death, in 1100, that is, during the whole of the pontificates of Victor III. and Urban II. Thus, as in many other instances, both in earlier and later times, were there rival competitors for the popedom, hurling defiance and anathemas at each other, and each at the same time claiming to be the vicegerent of God upon earth, and the infallible and authoritative interpreter of the will of God to man. During the pontificate of Urban, in the year 1091, it was enacted in a council held at Benevento, among other superstitious ceremo- nies, that on the Wednesday which was the first day of the fast of Lent, the faithful laymen as well as clerks, women as well as men, should have their heads sprinkled with ashes, " a ceremony," says Bower, " that is observed to this day."t Ash-Wednesday, so called from the ceremony of giving the ashes, is the fortieth day be- fore Easter Sunday, and the Romish fast of Lent continues during the whole of this interval. The ashes used at this ceremony must be made from the branches of the olive or palm that was " blessed " (to use the unmeaning language of Popery), on the Palm Sunday of the preceding year. The priest blesses the ashes by making on them the sign of the cross, and perfuming them with incense. The ashes are first laid on the head of the officiatino- priest in the form of a cross, by another priest. After he has re*^ ceived the ashes himself, he then gives them to his assistants and the other clergy present, after which the congregation, women as well as men, one after another, approach the altar, kneel before the priest, and receive this " mark of the beast " on their foreheads. ' Deylingii Observationura Sacrarum, pars i., exercit. 6. f Bower, in vita Urban II. Miukirig the Foreheads of the People with Ashes on Ash- Wednesday 'J'he Ceremony of Incen ing a Cross CHAP. m.J POPERY THE WORLD'S DESPOT— A. D. 1073-1303. 259 Ceremony of Incensing a cross. Councils of Placenlla and Clermont, in 1095 The other engraving represents the popish custom of incensing a new cross. All crosses designed for public places, for high roads and cross ways, as they are seen in popish countries, and for the tops of Romish chapels, where one is always placed, are conse- crated with much ceremony. Candles are first lighted at the foot of the cross, after which the celebrant, having on his pontifical orna- ments, sits down before the cross, and makes a discourse to the people upon its excellence ; after which prayers and anthems fol- low. Then he sprinkles and afterward incenses the cross, as repre- sented in the engraving ; which being performed, candles are set upon the top of each arm of the cross. In the engraving, two of the attendants are seen with the candles lighted and prepared, when the childish and unmeaning ceremony is over, to affix them on the two arms of the cross. How long the candles remain there, before the piece of wood is regarded as sufficiently holy for its contem- plated destination, I am unable to say. § 20. — Pope Urban, though inferior in ability and courage to the imperious Hildebrand, was yet fully equal to him in pride and arro- gance. At a council held at Placentia, in 1095, he confirmed all the laws and anathemas enacted by Gregory, to terrify and to crush the rebels to the holy See, and at the council of Clermont, held in November of the same year. Urban proceeded a step further than even Gregory had done, by enacting a decree forbidding the bish- ops and the rest of the clergy to take the oath of allegiance to their respective kings or governments. ' Ne episcopus vel sacerdos i-egi vel alicui laico in manibus ligiam fidelitatem faciunt' The council of Clermont, just mentioned, has become celebrated in history from the fact that through the persuasions of Peter the hermit, pope Urban resolved, on this occasion, upon the commencement of those expe- ditions to the holy land called the Crusades. The object of these holy wars, which occupy so conspicuous a figure in the history of the period of which we are now treating, was the recovery of the city of Jerusalem, and the holy sepulchre, from the hands of the Turkish infidels, by whom it had been taken in the year 1065. For centuries past, the practice had prevailed of mak- ing pilgrimages to Jerusalem. In the tenth century, this custom had much increased, and had become almost universal, from a gen- eral belief which prevailed of the near approach of the end of the world, arising from a misinterpretation of Rev., chap, xx., 2-5. Toward the conclusion of the century, crowds of men and women flocked from all parts of Europe, to Jerusalem, in the frantic hope of expiating their sins by the long and painful journey to the Holy land. When the dreaded epoch assigned by these misguided indi- viduals, for the end of the world, had passed by, the current of pilgrimages still continued to flow on in the direction it had taken, and that too in spite of the heavy tax of a piece of gold per head laid upon the pilgrims, and the brutal cruelties and indignities to which they were often exposed, from the barbarians and infidel conquerors of the holy city. Thus it appears that among the causes which eventually gave birth to the Crusades, was the wide-spread 260 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [boos v. Popular and wide spread panic of the end of tlie world, in the year 1000. delusion of the immediate conflagration of the world, in the year one thousand of the Christian era.* * The language in which Mosheim relates the effects of this wide-spread delusion, is so striking, and the lesson it teaches so important, viz. : the folly of attempting to be wise above what is written, or to fathom what God has wisely concealed, viz. : the time of the end of the world, that I shall embrace the opportunity of quoting it in the present note. Speaking of the darkness of the tenth century, when this opinion was propagated, he says, " That the whole Christian world was covered at this time, with a thick and gloomy veil of superstition, is evident from a prodigious number of testimonies and examples which it is needless to mention. This horrible cloud, which hid almost every ray of truth from the eyes of the mul- titude, furnished a favorable opportunity to the priests and monks of propagating maffly absurd and ridiculous opinions, which dishonored so frequently the Latin church, and produced from time to time such violent agitations. None occasioned such a universal panic, nor such dreadful impressions of terror and dismay, as the notion that now prevailed, of the immediate approach of the day of judgment. Hence prodigious numbers of people abandoned all their civil connexions, and their parental relations, and giving over to the churches or monasteries all their lands, treasures, and worldly effects, repaired with the utmost precipitation to Palestine, where they imagined that Christ would descend from heaven to judge the world. Others devoted themselves by a solemn and voluntary oath to the service of the churches, convents, and priesthood, whose slaves they became, in the most rigor- ous sense of that word, performing daily their heavy tasks ; and all this from a notion that the Supreme Judge would diminish the severity of their sentence, and look upon them with a more favorable and propitious eye, on account of their hav- ing made themselves the slaves of his ministers. When an eclipse of the sun or moon happened to be visible, the cities were deserted, and their miserable inhabit- ants fled for refuge to hollow caverns, and hid themselves among the craggy rocks, and under the bending summits of steep mountains. The opulent attempted to bribe the Deity, and the saintly tribe, by rich donations conferred upon the sacerdotal and monastic orders, who were looked upon as the immediate vicege- rents of heaven. In many places, temples, palaces, and noble edifices, both public and private, were suffered to decay, nay, were deliberately pulled down, from a notion that they were no longer of any use, since the final dissolution of all things was at hand. In a word, no language is sufficient to express the confusion and despair that tormented the minds of miserable mortals upon this occasion. This general delusion was indeed opposed and combated by the discerning few, who endeavored to dispel these groundless terrors, and to efface the notion from which they arose, in the minds of the people. But their attempts were ineffectual; nor could the dreadful apprehensions of the superstitious multitude be entirely removed before the conclusion of this century." As an undeniable evidence, both of the existence of this panic, and of its profitable results to its artful propagators and foraenters, may be mentioned the fact that almost all the donations that were made to the church about this time, assign as the cause of the donation, and the motive of the donor, the fact that the end of the world was just now at hand, and that therefore, of course, the property would be no longer of value. They generally commenced with these words : " Appropinquarvie mundi termino, losheim, iii., 188.) CHAP. IX.] POPERY THE WORLD'S DESPOT— A. D. 1073-1303. 326 Wonderful miracles of Saivt Dominic, the founder of the Inquisition. in one day four-score persons were beheaded, and four hundred burnt alive, by this man's order and in his sight. St. Dominic is the only saint in whom no solitary speck of goodness can be dis- covered. To impose privations and pain was tlie pleasure of his unnatural heart, and cruelty was in hiin an appetite and a passion. No other human being has ever been the occasion of so much misery. The few traits of character which can be gleaned from the lying volumes of his biographers are all of the darkest colors. If his disciples have preserved few personal facts concerning their master, they have made ample amends in the catalogue of his miracles. Let the reader have patience to peruse a few of these tales, not copied from protestant, and therefore suspected authors, but from the Dominican historians themselves, and every one of them authorized hy the Inquisition.* § 84. — Among the vast multitude of their ridiculous and fabu lous stories, these disciples of Dominic relate that the mother of their master dreamed that she brought forth a dog, holding a burning torch in his mouth, wherewith he fired the world. Earth- quakes and meteors announced his nativity to the earth and the air, and two or three suns and moons extraordinary were hung out for an illumination in heaven. The Virgin Mary received him in her arms as he sprung to birth. When a sucking babe he regularly ob- served fast days, and would get out of bed and lie upon the ground as a penance. (!) His manhood was as portentous as his infancy. He fed multitudes miraculously, and performed the miracle of Cana with great success. Once, when he fell in with a troop of pilgrims, of different countries, fhe curse which had been inflicted at Babel was suspended for him, and all were enabled to speak one lan- guage. (!) Travelling with a single companion, he entered a monastery in a lonely place, to pass the night ; he awoke at matins, and hearing yells and lamentations instead of prayers, went out and discovered that he was among a brotherhood of devils. Domi- nic punished them upon the spot with a cruel sermon, and then re- turned to rest. At morning the convent had disappeared, and he and his comrade found themselves in a wilderness. (! !) He had one day an obstinate battle with the flesh : the quarrel took place in a wood ; and, finding it necessary to call in help, he stripped him- self, and commanded the ants and the wasps to come to his assist- ance : even against these auxiliaries the contest was continued for three hours before the soul could win the victory. He used to be. red-hot with divine love ; sometimes blazing like a sun ; some- times glowing like a furnace ; at times it blanched his garments, and imbued them with a glory resembUng that of Christ in the Transfiguration. Once it sprouted out six wings, like a seraph ; and once the fervor of his piety made him sweat blood. (! ! !) * See an able article on the Inquisition, from the pen of the late poet-laureate of England, Robert Soathey, LL.D., in the Quarterly Review for December, 1811, 326 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book v. Marvellous Dominican miracles of the Virgin and the Rosary. § 85. — The Dominicans were the great champions of the Virgin, and according to their writers, Saint Dominic was her peculiar favor- ite. In reference to the Rosary, which among them was especially a favorite instrument of devotion to their great patroness, they relate many wonderful miracles, among which (he following are speci- mens. {For Rosary, arms of Inquisition, (SfC, see Engraving.) (1.) The bead palace in Paradise.— A knight to whom Dominic ])resented a rosary, arrived at such a perfection of piety, that his eyes were opened, and he saw an angel take every bead as he dropped it, and carry it to the Quoen of Hea- ven, who immediately magnified it, and built with the whole string a palace upon a mountain in Paradise ! (2.) The preaching head. — A damsel, by name Alexandra, induced by Dominic's preaching, used the rosary ; but her heart followed too much after the things of this world. Two young men, who were rivals for her, fought, and both fell in the combat ; and their relations, in revenge, cut off her head, and threw it into a well. The devil immediately seized her soul, to which it seems he had a clear title — but, for the sake of the rosary, the Virgin interfered, rescued the soul out of his hands, and gave it permission to remain in the head at the bottom of the well, till it should have an opportunity of confessing and being absolved. After some days this was revealed to Dominic, who went to the well, and told Alexan- dra, in God's name, to come up : the bloody head obeyed, perched on the well-side, confessed its sins, received absolution, took the wafer, and continued to edify the people for two days, when the soul departed to pass a fortnight in purgatory on its way to heaven. (3.) The Virgin's raised arm. — When Dominic entered Thoulouse, after one of his interviews with the Virgin, all the bells of the city rang to welcome him, un- touched by human hands ! But the heretics [Albigenses] neither heeded this, nor regarded his earnest exhortations to them, to abjure their errors, and make use of the rosary. To punish their obstinacy a dreadful tempest of thunder and lightning set the whole firmament in a blaze ; the earth shook, and the howling of affrighted animals was mingled with the shrieks and groans of the terrified multi- tude. They crowded to the church, where Dominic was preaching, as to an asylum. " Citizens of Thoulouse," said he, " I see before me a hundred and fifty angels, sent by Christ and his mother to punish you ! This tempest is the voice of the right hand of God." There was an image of the Virgin in the church, who raised her arm in a threatening attitude as he spoke. " Hear me !" he con- tinued, " that arm shall not be withdrawn till you appease her by reciting the rosary." New outcries now arose : the devils yelled because of the torment this inflicted on them. The terrified Thoulousians prayed and scourged themselves, and told their beads with such good effect, that the storm at length ceased. Domi- nic, satisfied with their repentance, gave the word, and down fell the arm of the image ! (4.) Dominican friars and nuns nestling under the Virgin's wing. — In one of his visits to heaven, Dominic was carried before the throne of Christ, where he beheld many religionists of both sexes, but none of his own order. This so afiiicted him, that he began to lament aloud, and inquired why they did not appear in bliss. Christ, upon this, laying his hand upon the Virgin's shoulder, said, " 1 have committed your order [the Dominicans] to my mother's care;" and she, lift- ing up her robe, discovered an innumerable multitude of Dominicans, friars and nuns, nestled under it ! (5.) The love of the Virgin for Saint Dominic. — The next of these foolish legends is almost too impious to be repeated. The Dominicans — the inquisitors — tell us that " the Virgin appeared to Dominic in a cave near Thoulouse ; that she called him her son and her husband ; that she took him in her arms, and bared hei breasts to him, that he might drink their nectar ! She told him that, were she a mortal, she could not live without him, so excessive was her love ; even now, im- mortal as she was, she should die for him, did not the Almighty support her, as ho THE SCA1'ULA;1, KOSAKV, and ClIAll.K.. The Scapii/nr is a hahit worn over the shoulder', which the Virgin Mary is s:iid to h-.wv. jrivcn to Simo Stocli, a hermit, to whnni she appeared, assuring tiini lh;it it w,i^ ,in.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1546. 395 Hus3 loses the favor of the King. Invites a discueaion at Prague on the Pope's bull of Crusade. provided he pays a sum of money, he can obtain, by means of a very slight contrition, remission of his sins, and of their consequent penalty : the other is a man of worth who has never committed but venial sins ; yet, if he gives nothing, he shall have no pardon. Now, according to the bull, if those two men should happen to die, the former — the criminal — will go straight to heaven, escaping the pains of purgatory ; and the second — the just man — will have to undergo them. Were such indulgences really available in heaven, we ought to pray to God that war might be waged against the Pope, in order that he might throw open all the treasures of the Church !"* In reading these extracts from the writings of Huss, it is impos- sible not to think of the still more severe and pointed rebukes of Luther, a hundred years later, of this blasphemous pretence of par- doning sin for money, excited by the conduct of the infamous Tet- zel, the indulgence-peddler of pope Leo X. § 30. — This noble reply of Huss to the bulls of John XXIII., while it increased his favor and influence with the people, drew on him the hostility of the court. The King was then at war with Ladislaus ; his favor, like that of the greater part of princes, was subordinate to his political interests : he, therefore, accepted the bulls, and with- drew for a time his support from John Huss. Prague was then divided between two powerful parties. All who had favors to ex- pect from the King or the people declared themselves in support of the bulls ; and to this period must be assigned the rupture between Huss and Stephen Paletz, an influential member of the clergy. Paletz had been his friend and disciple ; but being as anxious for the advancement of his fortune as Huss was for the progress of the truth, he preachefl in favor of the bulls and the indulgences. These reverses, however, did not shake the resolution of Huss. He caused a placard to be put upon the doors of the churches and monasteries of Prague, inviting the public, and particularly all doctors, priests, monks and scholars, to come forward and discuss the following theses : " Whether, ac- cording to the law of Jesus Christ, Christians could, with a safe con- science, approve of the crusade ordered by the Pope against Ladis- laus and his followers, — and whether such a crusade could turn to the glory of God, to the safety of the Christian populations, and to the welfare of the kingdom of Bohemia V On the appointed day, the concourse was prodigious ; and the rector, in alarm, endeavored, though in vain, to dissolve the assem- bly. A doctor of canon law stood up and delivered a defence of the Pope and the bulls ; then, falling upon John Huss, he said — " You are a priest ; you are subordinate to the Pope, who is your spiritual father. It is only filthy birds that defile their own nest ; and Ham was cursed for having uncovered his father's shame." At these words, the people murmured, and were in great commotion. Already were stones beginning to fly, when John Huss interfered and calmed the storm. After him, the impetuous Jerome of Prague * Hist, et Monum. Hus., Tom. i., p. 215, &c. 396 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vi. Popular tumult at Prague. Valuable tesitimony of cardinal Peter D'Ailly. addressed the multitude, and terminated a vehement harangue vi^ith these words : " Let those vs^ho are our friends unite with us ; Huss and I are going to the palace, and we will let the vanity of those indulgences be seen." Jerome was, however, persuaded not to go to the palace, but the feelings of the excited multitude could not be calmed. On the fol- lowing Sunday an event occurred which raised this excitement to an almost ungovernable pitch. A report was in circulation that three men had been thrown into prison by the magistrates, for hav- ing harangued against the Pope and indulgences. The students rose ; arms were taken up, and Huss, followed by the people and the scholars, proceeded to the town-house, and demanded that the prisoners' lives should be spared. Two thousand men were in arms in the square. " Return peaceably to your homes," cried John Huss to them ; " the prisoners are'pardoned." The crowd shouted their applause and withdrew ; but, a short time after, blood was seen to flow in abundance from the prison. The senators had de- termined on the most dangerous course, — that of endeavoring to inspire terror, after having exhibited it themselves. An executioner had been introduced, and had beheaded the prisoners, and it was their blood which had escaped. At this sight a furious tumult arose. The doors of the prison were burst open, the bodies taken off, and transported in linen shrouds under the vault of the chapel of Bethlehem. There they were interred with great honors, the scholars singing in chorus over their tomb, — " They are saints who have given up their body for the gospel of God." Indignation gra- dually pervaded the whole of Bohemia, and John Huss, in his vio- lent invectives against the Pope, used but little moderation. He attacked, in the most unmeasured language, the despotism and simony of the pontiff, as well as the debauchery and display of the priests ; he rejected also the traditions of the Church respecting fasts and abstinence, and he opposed to every other authority that of the Scriptures. The popish doctors of Prague formed a league against him, and accused him of belonging to the sect of the Armi- nians, who relied on the authority of Scripture only, and not on that of the church and the holy fathers. To this Huss replied, that on the point in question he was of the same opinion as St. Augustine, who acknowledged the Scriptures alone as the foundation of his faith. § 31. — The testimony of Peter D'Ailly, cardinal of Cambray, as to the real cause of the dissatisfaction in Bohemia, considering the source from whence that testimony is derived, is valuable. " It is," said he, " on account of the simoniacal heresy and the other miqui- ties which are practised at the Court of Rome, that there have arisen, in Bohemia and Moravia, sects which have spread from the head to the other members in this kingdom, where a thousand things highly insulting to the Pope are publicly uttered Thus it is that the notorious vices of the Court of Rome trouble the Catholic faith, and corrupt it by errors. It is to be desired, certainly, that CHAP, m.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 397 Hu38 writes the Six Errors, members of Anti-Christ, &;c. Summoned to the council of Congitaice those heresies, and their authors, were rooted out of all those pro- vinces ; but I do not see that this result can be accompli-shed, unless the court of Rome can be brought back to its ancient morals and its praiseworthy customs." In the meanwhile, the disgraceful schism of the rival popes continued, and furnished the partizans of Huss with arguments for combating the jurisdiction of the Pope. " If we must obey," said they, " to whom is our obedience to be paid ? Balthazar Cossa, called John XXIII., is at Rome, — Angelo Corario, named Gregory XII., is at Rimini, — Peter de Lune, who calls himself Benedict XIII., is in Arragon. If one of them, in his quality of the Most Holy Father, ought to be obeyed, how does it come to pass that he cannot be distinguished from the others, and why does he not begin by subduing them ?" § 32. — During a second retirement of John Huss to his native village of Hussenitz, he published a short but energetic treatise, under the title of The Six Errors. The first was the error of the priests, who boasted of making the body of Jesus Christ -in the mass, and of being the creator of their Creator. The second con- sisted in declaring — I believe in the popes and the saints. The third was the pretension of the priests to be able to remit the trespass and the penalty of sin to whom they pleased. The fourth error was implicit obedience to superiors, no matter what they ordered. The fifth consisted in not making a distinction, in their effect, be- tween a just excommunication and one that was not so. And, lastly, the sixth error was simony, which John Huss designated a heresy, and of which he accused the greater part of the clergy. This little work, which attacked the clergy in particular, was pla- carded on the door of the chapel of Bethlehem ; it ran with won- derful rapidity through the whole of Bohemia, and its success was immense. He wrote also at this period his treatise on the Abomi- nation of the Monks, the purport of which is sufficiently explained by its title ; and another, entitled. Members of Anti-Christ, a vigor- ous and fearless exposure of the vices and disorders of the Pope and his court. § 33. — Upon the assembling of the Council of Constance in 1414, John Huss was immediately summoned to attend it. Had he re- fused to obey the summons, doubtless, as he himself asserted at Constance, the powerful barons of Bohemia, who favored his cause, would have protected him, in their fortified castles, from the rage of his enemies — and even King Wenceslaus would not have ven- tured to deliver him up. In this event, the eyes of the Bohemian reformer might gradually have been opened yet more fully to the abominations of Popery, and the scenes of the glorious Reforma- tion of Germany might have been witnessed a hundred years ear- lier than the age of Luther. But, to prepare the way for the Reformation, the pi-ovidence of God required yet another bloody sacrifice to be oflfered in view of the world — a sacrifice, in defiance of the most solemn promise of protection and safety — in order to exhibit yet more fully the cruel and perfidious character of the papal 398 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book VI. Copy of the Emperor's eaft^conduct. Husa'a misgivings whetlier he should ever return aiivo anti-Christ ; and John Huss was destined to be that sacrifice, Upon the reception of the summons, Huss prepared to depart for Constance. He obtained a safe-conduct (a document promising him protection upon the faith of the grantor) from king Wenceslaus, and demanded a similar one from the emperor Sigismund, which he received while on his journey. This document, the violation of which, at the advice of the popish cardinals and prelates at Con- stance, stamps such indelible disgrace upon all who thus openly- declared the doctrine, that no fj^ith is to be kept with heretics, is of so much importance that I shall transcribe it. It was couched in the following terms :* " Sigismund, by the grace of God, King of the Romans, &c., to all ecclesiastical and secular princes, &c.., and to all our other subjects, greeting. We recommend to you with a full affection, — to all in general, and to each in particular, the honorable master, John Huss, bachelor in divinity, and master of arts, the bearer of these presents, journeying from Bohemia to the council 'of Constance, whom we have taken under our protection and safe-guard, and under that of the empire, enjoining you to receive him and treat him kindly, furnishing him with all that shall be necessary to speed and assure his journey, as well by water as by land, without taking anything from him or his, for arrivals or depariares, under any pretext whatever ; and calling on you to allow him TO PASS, sojourn, stop, and return freely and surely,! providing him even, if necessary, with good passports, for the honor and respect of his Imperial Majesty. — Given at Spires, this \Sth day of October of the year 1414, the third of our reign in Hungary, and the fifth of that of the Romans." § 34. — Notwithstanding these precautions, it appears that the intrepid and faithful reformer had some doubts whether he should ever be permitted to return alive. He probably knew enough, from the past history of Rome, to produce misgivings whether his popish enemies would hesitate to violate a promise, however solemn, if made to a heretic ; and therefore he " set his house in order," and arranged all his worldly affairs, before leaving that home, to which he might never return. He made some bequests, in the event of his death, and wrote several farewell letters, which are intensely interesting, as exhibiting his evident growth in piety and spiritual- ity, as he drew nearer and nearer to the martyr's sufferings and the martyr's crown. In one of these letters, addressed to his beloved friends in Prague, he writes — " I am departing, my brethren, with a safe-conduct from the king to meet my numerous and mortal enemies I con- fide altogether in the all-powerful God, in my Saviour ; I trust that he will listen to your ardent prayers, that he will infuse his pru- * L'Enfant's Council of Constance, vol. i., p. 61 ; Bonnechose, book ii., ch. i f " OmNIQUE PROKSUS UWPEDIMENTO REMOTO TRANSIRE, STARE, MORARI, ET RE- DIRE LiBERE permittat; s." " Vcnir librement et d'en revenir," Dupin. For the original of the document, see Acta publica apud Bzovium, Ann. 1414, Sec. 17 } quoted in Latin by Gieseler, III., 351, and Waddington, p. 465. CHAJ. m] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D 1303-1545. 399 Huss's farewell letters on setting out for the council. His evident growth in spirituality and grace. dencG and his wisdom into my moutii, in order tliat I may resist them ; and that he will accord me his Holy Spirit to fortii'y me in his truth, so that I may face, with courage, temptations, prison, and if necessary, a cruel death. Jesus Christ suffered for his Vv-eli- beloved ; and, therefore, ought we to be astonished that he has left us his example, in order that we may ourselves endure with patience all things for our own salvation ? He is God, and we are his crea- tures ; He is the Lord, and we are his servants ; He is master of the world, and we are contemptible mortals : — yet he suffered ! Why, then, should we not suffer also, particularly when suffering is for us a purification ! Therefore, beloved, if my death ought to contribute to his glory, pray that it may come quickly, and that he may enable me to support all my calamities with constancy. But if It be better that I return amongst you, let us pray to God that I may return without stain, — that is, that I may not suppress one tittle of the truth of the gospel, in order to leave my brethren an excel- lent example to follow. Probably, therefore, you will never more behold my face at Prague ; but should the will of the all-powerful God deign to restore me to you, let us then advance with a firmer heart in the knowledge and the love of his law."* In another letter, which Huss addressed, when setting out, tp the priest Martin, his disciple, he speaks of himself with the greatest humility. He accuses himself, as if they were so many grave offences, of having felt pleasure in wearing rich apparel, and of having wasted hours in frivolous occupations. He adds these affect- ing instructions : " May the glory of God, and the salvation of souls, occupy thy mind, and not the possession of benefices and estates. Beware of adorning thy house more than thy soul ; and, above all, give thy care to the spiritual edifice. Be pious and humble with the poor ; and consume not thy substance in feasting. Shouldst thou not amend thy life and refrain from superfluities, I fear that thou wilt be severely chastened, as I am myself— -I, who also made use of such things, led away by custom, and troubled by a spirit of pride. Thou knowest my doctrine, for thou hast received my instructions from thy childhood ; it is therefore useless for me to write to thee any further. But I conjure thee, by the mercy of our Lord, not to imitate me in any of the vanities into which thou hast seen me fall."t He concludes by making some bequests, and disposing, as if by will, of several articles which be- longed to him ; and then, on the cover of the letter, he adds this pro- phetic phrase, "I conjure thee, my friend, not to break this sealuntil thou shah have acquired the certitude that I am dead." Thus evi- dent is it, that God was preparing his servant for the sufferings of martyrdom and the joys of Heaven^ . . u , / In the month of October, 1414, Huss bade adieu to his chapel of Bethlehem, which he was no more to behold, and to his friends and » Hist, et Monum., J. Huss, t. i., p. 72, Epist. i. + Ibid., Epist. ii. 24 raSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vi. 400 Hubs ■uresled l u violaUon of the safe-conduct. Popish efforcs to reconcile Sigismund to Ihla treachl^. disciples. He left behind his faithful Jerome, and their parting was not without emotion. " Dear master," said Jerome to him, "be firm : maintain intrepidly what thou hast written and preached against the pride, avarice, and other vices of the churchmen, with arguments drawn from the Holy Scriptures. Shou d this task be- come too severe for thee— should I learn that thou hast fallen mto any peril, I shall fly forthwith to thy assistance." i 35 _In shameful violation of the safe-conduct of the i.mperor almost immediately upon the arrival of Huss at Constance, he was placed under arrest by order of the Pope and cardinals, and com- mitted to a loathsome prison. When this was known at Prague, the city was thrown into commotion. A number of protests were at once signed. Several barons and powerful noblemen wrote press- ing letters to the Emperor, reminding him of the safe-conduct which he had received from Sigismund himself. " John Huss," observed they, " departed with full confidence in the guarantee given him in your Imperial Majesty's letter. Nevertheless, we now understand that he has been seized on, though having that in his possession ; and not onlv seized on. but cast into prison, without being either convicted or heard. Every one here, princes or barons, rich or poor, has been astonished to hear of this event Each man asks his neighbor how the holy Father could so shamefully have violated the sanctity of the law, the plain rules of justice, and finally, your Majesty's safe-conduct, — how, in fact, he could thus have thrown into prison, without cause, a just and innocent man. The enemies of Huss were not less active in their efforts to de- stroy, than his defenders to save him. They circumvented Sigis- mund, and dexterously took advantage of his prejudices, his blind devotion, and his zeal— more remarkable for energy than sound judgment — for the extinction of the schism. They adduced argu- ments of great length to prove that he was perfectly at liberty not to keep faith with a man accused of heresy : they persuaded him that he possessed no right to accord a safe-conduct to John Huss with- out the consent of the council ; and that, the council being above the Emperor, could free him from his word. Yet, notwithstanding the attempts of these popish priests to silence the clamors of Sigis- mund's conscience, at so base an act of treachery, the Emperor did not abandon the victim to their power without considerable resistance. It was like yielding up the helpless lamb to a conclave of wolves thirsting for his blood, and it required all the efforts of popish sophistry to convince Sigismund, even for the passing mo- ment, that such a violation of his solemnly pledged faith was law- ful ; and the remembrance of this perfidious abandonment of the man he had engaged to protect, haunted and disquieted him in the subsequent years of his life. Two years after the council, when no longer blinded by the sophistries and seduced by the persuasion of the bitter enemies of Huss, the Emperor wrote to the barons of Bohemia in the following terms : " I am unable to express it — how much I was aflilicted by his ill fortune. The active measures that I V— cHAP.ni.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 401 Husfl before the council. His condemnation and degradation, took in his favor are matters of public notoriety, — for I went so far as several times to leave the assembly in anger, and had even once quitted the city ; upon which the Fathers of the council sent to inform me, that if I stopped the course of their justice, they had nothing to do at Constance. I therefore determined to abstain from any further interference : for if I interested myself further in John Huss's favor, the council would have been dissolved."* § 36. — It would be a tedious task to relate the particulars of the various audiences of Huss before the council ; the charges which were brought against him, the doctrines that he was alleged to have taught (some of which he denied, and others he defended), the cruel insult, abuse, and mockery that he received from his oppressors, and the meekness, yet firmness and holy boldness with which he conducted himself, through the whole of the proceedings. All his letters, and all the testimony of contemporary writers, serve to prove that at this last period of his life, his angelic meekness and resignation were as constant as his misfortunes. If indignation had formerly characterized some of his acts and writings with an im- press of extra violence or bitterness, these defects had given place to their opposite virtues, and, through the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, he had never been more meet for the crown of immortality in heaven than at the moment when his enemies were preparing to inflict martyrdom on him on earth. Never did any one manifest a faith more full of hope and gratitude, in the midst of trials in which carnal men would have beheld only motives for lamentation and despair. " This declaration of our Saviour," said he, " is to me a great source of consolation : ' Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day ; for, behold, your re- ward is great in heaven." § 37. His condemnation and degradation. — But we hasten to the description of his condemnation and martyrdom. On the 6th of July he appeared the last time before the council in the fifteenth general session, to hear his sentence pronounced. The Emperor and all the princes of the empire were present, and an immense crowd had assembled from all quarters to view this sad spectacle. Mass was being celebrated when Huss arrived, and he was kept outside until it was over, lest the holy mysteries should be profaned by the presence of so great a heretic. A high table had been erected in the midst of the church, and on it were placed the sacerdotal habits with which John Huss was to be invested, in order to be stripped of them afterward. He was directed to seat himself in front of this table on a footstool, elevated enough to allow him to be seen by every one. A fierce and blood-thirsty harangue was delivered by the popish bishop of Lodi, from Rom. vi., 6, " That the body of sin might be destroyed" which he concluded with the following words, addressed * CochlcEUS, lib. iv. 402 mSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book yu Articles of Husa condemned. The martyr prays like his blessed master, for his encmiet). to Sigismund : " Destroy heresies and errors, and, above all," point- ing to John Huss, "this obstinate heretic. It is a holy work, glorious prince, that which is reserved to you to accomplish — you to whom the authority of justice is given. Smite, then, such great epemies of the faith, in order that your praises may proceed from the mouth of children, and that your glory may be eternal. May Jesus Christ, for ever blessed, deign to accord you this favor." § 38. — The articles from the writings of Huss were then read, to which the holy martyr made several attempts to reply, but was prevented by the uproar and clamor that was raised to prevent him from speaking. He was accused, among other absurd charges, of having given himself out for a fourth person in the Trinity. To- this he replied by repeating aloud the Athanasian or Trinitarian creed. His appeal to Jesus Christ, mentioned in page 390, was also laid to his charge as a heavy crime. He, however, repeated it, and maintained that it was a jast and proper proceeding, and founded upon the example of Jesus Christ himself. " Behold !" cried he, with his hands joined together and raised to heaven, " be- hold, O most kind Jesus, how thy council condemns what thou hast both ordered and practised ; when, being borne down by thy ene- mies, thou deliveredst up thy cause into the hands of God, thy Father, leaving us thy example, that we might ourselves have re- course to the judgment of God, the most righteous Judge, against oppression ! Yes," continued he, turning toward the assembly, " I have maintained, and 1 still uphold, that it is impossible to appeal more safely than to Jesus Christ, because HE cannot be either cor- rupted by presents, or deceived by false witnesses, or overreached by any artifice." When they accused him of having treated with contempt the excommunication of the Pope, he observed : " I did not despise it ; but as I did not consider him legitimate, I continued the duties of my priesthood. I sent my procurators to Rome, where they were thrown into prison, ill treated, and driven out. It is on that account that I determined, of my own free will, to appear before this council, under the public protection and faith of the Emperor here present'' At the moment of pronouncing these words, Huss looked steadfastly at the emperor Sigismund, and we are not surprised to be informed by the historian, that a deep blush crimsoned his face. It was in allusion to this circumstance, in the next century, that the emperor Charles V., when solicited by some worthy successors of the popish foxes of Constance, to cause Luther to be arrested at the diet of Worms, notwithstanding the safe-con- duct he had given him, replied, " No, I should not like to blush LIKE Sigismund."* § 39. — After hearing the sentence, Huss fell on his knees, and said, " Lord Jesus pardon my enemies 1 Thou knowest that they have falsely accused me, and that they have had recourse to false testimony and vile calumnies against me ; pardon them from thy * See L'Enfant, vol. i., page 422. CHAP, m.] POPERY ON A TOTTEilLXG THRONE— A. D. 1303-1645. 403 His degradation. Stripped of hia priestly vestments. Led out to martyrdom. infinite mercy !" Then commenced the afflicting ceremony of de- gradation. The bishops clothed John Huss in sacerdotal habits, and placed his chahce in his hand, as if he was about to celebrate mass. He said, in taking the alb, " Our Lord Jesus Christ was covered with a white robe, by way of insult, when Herod had him conducted before Pilate." Being thus clad, the prelate again ex- horted him to retract, for his salvation and his honor ; but he de- clared aloud, turning toward the people, that he should take good care not to scandalize and lead astray believers by a hypocritical abjuration. " How could I," said he, " after having done so, raise my face to heaven ! With what eye could I support the looks of men whom I have instructed, should it come to pass, through my fault, that those same things which are now regarded by them as certainties, should become matters of doubt — it, by my example, 1 caused confusion and trouble in so many souls, so many consciences, which I have filled with the pure doctrine of Christ's gospel, and which I have strengthened against the snares of the devil ? No ! no ! It shall never be said that I preferred the safety of this misera- ble body, now destined to death, to their eternal salvation !" The bishops then made him descend from his seat, and took the chalice out of his hand, saying: "0 accursed Judas! who, having aban- doned the counsels of peace, have taken part in that of the Jews, we take from you this cup, filled with the blood of Jesus Christ !" His habits were then taken off, one after the other, and on each of them the bishops pronounced some maledictions. When, last of all, it was necessary to efface the marks of the tonsure, a dispute arose among them whether a razor or scissors ought to be employed. " See," said John Huss, turning toward the Emperor, " though they are all equally cruel, yet can they not agree on the manner of exer- cising that cruelty." They placed on his head a crown or sort of pyramidal mitre, on which were painted frightful figures of demons, with this inscription, " The Arch-Heretic," and when he was thus arrayed, the prelates devoted his soul to the devils. ' Animam tuam diabolis commendamus.' John Huss, however, recommended his spirit to God, and said aloud . " I wear with joy this crown of opprobrium, for the love of Him who bore a crown of thorns." § 40. — His martyrdom. — The church then gave up all claim to him — declared him a layman — and as such, delivered him over to the secular power, to conduct him to a place of punishment. John Huss, by the order of Sigismund, was given up by the Elector Palatine, vicar of the empire, to the chief magistrate of Constance, who, in his turn, abandoned him to the officers of justice. He walked between four town Serjeants, to the place of execution. On arriving at the place of burning, Huss kneeled down and recited some of the penitential psalms. Several of the people, hearing him pray with fervor, said aloud : " We are ignorant of this man's crime, but he offers up most excellent prayers." When he wished to ad- dress the crowd in German, the Elector Palatine opposed it, and ordered him forthwith to be burned. " Lord Jesus !" cried John 404 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vi Hose's meek, courageous, and godly demeanor at the stake of burning. His ashes cast into the Rhine. Huss, " I shall endeavor to endure with humihty, this frightful death, which I am awarded for thy gospel, — pardon all my enemies." While he was praying thus, with nis eyes raised up to heaven, the paper crown fell off: he smiled, but the soldiers replaced it on his head, in order, as they declared, that he might be burned with the devils he had obeyed. Having obtained permission to speak to his keepers, he thanked them for the good treatment he had received at their hands. " My brethren," said he, " learn that I firmly believe in my Saviour : it is in his name that I suffer, and this very day I shall go and reign with him !" His body was then bound with thongs, with which he was firmly tied to a stake, driven deep into the ground. When he was so affixed, some persons objected to his face being turned to the East, saying that this ought not to be, since he was a heretic. He was then untied and bound again with his face to the West. His head was held close to the wood by a chain smeared with soot, and the views of which inspired him with pious reflections on the ignominy of our Saviour's sufferings. Faggots were then arranged about and under his feet, and around him was piled up a quantity of straw. When all these preparations were completed, the Elector Palatine, accompanied by Count d'Oppenheim, marshal of the em- pire, came up to him, and for the last time recommended him to retract. But he, looking up to heaven, said with a loud voice : " I call God to witness, that I have never either taught or written what these false witnesses have laid to my charge, — my sermons, my books, my writings, have all been done with the sole view of rescu- ing souls from the tyranny of sin, and, therefore, most joyfully will I confirm with my blood the truth which I have taught, written and preached ; and which is confirmed by the divine law and the holy fathers." The Elector and the marshal then withdrew, and fire was set to the pile 1 " Jesus, Son of the living God," cried John Huss, " have pity on me !" He prayed and sung a hymn in the midst of his torments, but soon after, the wind having risen, his voice was drowned by the roaring of the flames. He was perceived for some time longer moving his head and lips, and as if still praying, — and then he gave up the spirit. His habits were burned with him, and the executioners tore in pieces the remains of his body and threw them back into the funeral pile, until the fire had absolutely consumed everything ; the ashes were then collected together and thrown into the Rhine ; and as it was said of Wickliff, so may it be said of the holy martyr of Bohemia, that the dispersion of his ashes in the river and in the ocean, is an emblem of the subsequent dissemination of those truths, for the sake of which he braved a martyr's sufferings, and won a martyr's crown. Burning of John Huss, at Conetanco. 407 CHAPTER IV. JEROME OF PRAGUE, AT THE COUNCIL OP CONSTANCE. HIS CONDEM- NATION AND MARTYRDOM. §41. — Upon hearing of the imprisonment and danger of Huss, his faithful friend Jerome remembered the promise he had made liim at his departure from Prague, and prepared to fulfil it. He set out for Constance without a safe-conduct, accompanied by a single disciple. He determined to appear before the council and plead his friend's cause. He arrived in that city on April 4th, and mingling, without being known, with the crowd of people, he overheard dis- astrous intelligence. It was said that John Huss would not be ad- mitted into the presence of the council — that he would be judged and condemned in secret — that he would leave his prison only to die. Jerome was struck with alarm, and thought all was lost. A violent terror seized on him, and he took to flight as suddenly as he had come. On his mournful return to Bohemia, he stopped at Uberlingen, and wrote, but in vain, to the Emperor for a safe-con- duct. The council granted one, but in such terms as to render it useless. It contained the following rather curious assurance of pro- tec/ion: '^ As we have nothing more at heart than to catch the foxes u-hich ravage in the vineya.rd of the Lord of Hosts, we summon you, by these presents, to appear before us as a suspected person, and violently accused of having rashly advanced several errors ; and we order you to appear here within a fortnight from the date of this summons, to answer, as you have offered to do, in the first session that shall be held after your arrival. It is for this purpose, that, in order to prevent any violence being offered to you, we, by these presents, give you a full safe-conduct as much as in us lies, except- ing always the claims of the law, and that the orthodox faith does not, in any respect, prevent it ; certifying to you, beside, that whether you appear within the specified period or not, the council, by itself or its commissioners, will proceed against you as soon as the term shall have elapsed." Jerome proceeded with a sad heart on his way homeward, when he was arrested in the Black Forest, and brought back to Constance, which he entered on a cart, loaded with chains and surrounded by a guard of soldiers.* <§, 42. — He was taken in that miserable condition to the Elector's house, where he was kept until he appeared in public, before a gen- eral meeting of the members of the council. At his first appearance before the council, he was bitterly assailed by several of the mem- bers, and his attempts to reply to their accusations were met with * Venit igitur currui impositus, catenis longis ac sonantibus constrictus. (Msc. Lips. Von der Hardt, t. iv., p. 2] 6.) 408 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book vt. Jerome, in a moment of fear, recants. Res olves to renounce his recantatioD. vociferous shouts : " To the flames with him ! — to the flames !" He was conducted back to his loathsome dungeon, chained in the most painful postures, and fed on bread and water. For six months he was suffered to pine away in chains, no severity had been spared him in his noisome dungeon, and his legs were already afflicted with incurable sores. It was hoped that sufferings of such duration and rigor would have depressed his soul, and subdued his courage. His cruel persecutors hoped that his spirit had been subdued by the terrible vengeance of the council on Huss. He was taken out of prison, and summoned, under pain of being burned, to abjure his errors, and subscribe to the justice of John Huss's death. Human weakness prevailed — Jerome was afraid, and signed a paper in which he submitted himself to the coun- cil, and approved of all its acts. This retraction of Jerome proves, by the very restrictions which it contains, how much it must have cost the unfortunate man to consent to it. He subscribed, it is true, to the condemnation of the articles of Wickliff" and John Huss; but he declared that he had no intention of bearing any prejudice to the holy truths which these two men had taught ; and as to Huss in particular, he avowed that he had loved him from his tenderest ■years, and that he had always been ready to defend him against every one, on account of the mildness of his language, and the good instructions he gave the people. While we cannot but mourn that the weakness of nature, and fear of the most terrible and painful of deaths, induced Jerome thus to recant his opinions, and profess to condemn what in his heart he approved ; before we venture harshly to censure him, we should place ourselves in his position, and ask, would we have displayed a greater degree of courage and con- stancy. § 43. — Jerome was then led back to prison, but treated with greater lenity. His qualified recantation, however, was unsatisfac- tory to some of the members of the council, who, like the tiger with his appetite whetted by the taste of human flesh, ardently thirsted for the blood of Jerome. The persecuted martyr then comprehended, that, in order to save his life, he should be obliged to plunge deeper into perjury. Indignation restored him strength — the love of the truth prevailed over the love of life — and he at once made up his mind to adopt a heroic resolution. He resolved boldly to defend his opinions, and follow the martyred Huss to the flames. On the 23d of May, 1516, upon being again confronted with his cruel judges, he renounced his former recantation, advo- cated his own opinions and those of John Huss, with a degree of learning, argument, and eloquence truly astonishing even to his ene- mies.* In reference to his martyred associate and brother, he ex- * In a long and interesting letter of the learned Roman Catholic Poggio, the Florentine historian, and once secretary to pope John XXIIL, he writes as fol- lows ;^" It ie worthy of remark, that after having been so long shut up in a place where it was utterly impossible for him either to read or even to see, and where the perpetual anxiety of his mind would have been quite sufficient to de- CHAP. IV.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 409 Hia courugeous and eloquent protestations before the council. claimed aloud before all the council, " I knew John Huss from his childhood, and there was never anything wi-ong in him. He was a most excellent man, just and holy ; — he was condemned, notwithstanding his innocence ; — he has ascended to heaven, like Elias, in the midst of flames ; and from thence he will summon his judges to the formidable tribunal of Christ. I, also — I am ready to die : I will not recoil before the torments that are prepared for me by my enemies and false witnesses, who will one day have to render an account of their impostures before the great God, whom nothing can deceive. Of all the sins," added he, " that I have com- mitted since my youth, none weigh so heavily on my mind, and cause me such poignant remorse, as that which I committed in this fatal place, when I approved of the iniquitous sentence rendered against Wickliff", and against the holy martyr, John Huss, my mas- ter and my friend. Yes ! I confess it from my heart ; and declare, with horror, that I disgracefully quailed, when, through a dread of death, I condemned their doctrines. I therefore supplicate and con- jure Almighty God to deign to pardon me my sins — and this one, in particular, the most heinous of all — according to the promise which he has made us, ' I will not have the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live !' " Then, raising his hand, and pointing to his judges, he exclaimed, in tones which must have made them tremble on their seats, " You con- demned Wickliff and John Huss, not for having shaken the doc- trine of the church, but simply because they branded with repro- bation the scandals pi'oceeding from the clergy — their pomp, their _pride, and all the vices of the prelates and priests. The things which they have affirmed, and which are irrefutable, I also think and declare, like them." § 44. — Upon the heroic martyr being interrupted by the exclama- tions of his judges, trembling with rage, and asking, " What need of further proof?" — " Away with the most obstinate of heretics ! " Je- rome exclaimed with a noble dignity of manner and eloquence of speech, " What do you suppose that I fear to die ? You have held me for a whole year in a frightful dungeon, more horrible than death itself. You have treated me more cruelly than a Turk, Jew, or pagan, and my flesh has literally rotted off my bones alive ; and yet I make no complaint, for lamentation ill becomes a man of heart and spirit ; but I cannot but express my astonishment at such great barbarity towards a Christian." "His voice," remarks the learned Romanist Poggio, in the remarkable letter referred to in the last note, " his voice was touching, clear, and sonorous ; his ges- ture full of dignity and persuasiveness, whether he expressed in- dignation or moved his hearers to pity, which, however, he ap- prive any other of memory altogether, he could, notwithstanding, have been able to quote, in support of his opinions, bo great a number of authorities, and learned testimonies of the greatest doctors, so that one would have said tliat he had passed all that time in perfect repose, and at full liberty to devote himself to study." 410 HISrORY OF ROMANISM. [book VI. Jerome contends for the supreme authority of the Scriptures, He ia brought up for sentence. peared neither to ask for nor to desire. He stood there, in the midst of all, the features pale, but the heart intrepid, despising death, and advancing to meet it. Interrupted frequently, attacked and tormented by many, he replied fully to all, and took vengeance on them, forcing some to blush, and others to be silent, and tower- ing above all their clamors. Sometimes, too, he earnestly besought, and at others forcibly claimed to be permitted to speak freely — calling on the assembly to listen to him whose voice would soon be hushed for ever."* § 45. — Before being brought up for sentence, Jerome was again remanded to prison, and while there, was visited by several car- dinals and bishops, who had been astonished by his wonderful elo- quence and ability. The cardinal of Florence exhorted him again to recant, and to save his life. " The only favor that I demand," replied Jerome, " and which I have always demanded, is to be con- vinced by the Holy Scriptures. This body, which has suffered such frightful torments in my chains, will also know how to support death by fire, for Jesus Christ." " And in what manner," asked the Cardinal, " do you desire to be instructed ?" " By the holy WRITINGS, which are our illuminating torch," was the emphatic re- ply of Jerome. " What ! " said the Cardinal, " is everything to be judged of by the Holy Writings ? Who can perfectly comprehend them ? And must not the fathers be at last appealed to, to interpret them ?" " What do I hear !" cried Jerome. " Shall the word of God be declared fallacious ? And shall it not be listened to ? Are the traditions of men more worthy of faith, than the holy gospel of our Saviour ? Paul did not exhort the priests to listen to old men and traditions, but said, ' The Holy Scriptures will instruct you.' O Sacred Writings, inspired by the Holy Ghost, already men esteem you less than what they themselves forge every day ! I have lived long enough. Great God ! receive my life ; Thou who canst re- store it to me !" " Heretic !" said the Cardinal, regarding him with anger. " I repent having so long pleaded with you. I see you are urged on by the devil."t § 46. — On the 30th of May, Jerome was brought before the council for sentence. The bishop of Lodi ascended the pulpit and delivered, as he had at the sentence of Huss, another most savage harangue, from which it will be sufficient to quote a brief extract from the part addressed to the martyr. " But with you — who are more guilty than Arius, Sabellius, and Nestorius ; — with you, who liave infected all Europe with the poison of heresy, grand indul- gence has been practised. You have been detained in prison only * The whole of this letter, occupying six quarto pages, which is a noble testi- mony to the learning, eloquence, and courage of the martyr, especially as coming " ~ - - . . - " ■ , pp. 694. from an eye-witness and a Romanist, may be found in L'Enfant, vol. 599. f "Te a diabolo agitari video." (Theob. Bell. Hussil., chap, xxiv., p. 60.) CHAP. IV.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 411 Fcrocioui harangue of the bishop of Lodi. Copy of Jerome's sentence. from necessity ; honorable witnesses alone have been listened to against you, and the torture has not been employed, which was a great fault. Would to God that you had been tortured ! You would have denied your errors in your torments ; and suffering would have opened your eyes, which your crime held closed."* At the close of this popish sermon, Jerome mounted a bench, and again, in a loud voice, expressed his abhorrence of his for- mer cowardice, of approving, in order to save his life, of the in- human sentence of Huss — "I only gave my assent to it," said he, " from a dread of being burned — from the fear of that dreadful punishment. I revoke that culpable avowal ; and I declare it anew, that I hed like a wretch, in abjuring the doctrines of Wickliff and of John Huss, and in approving of the death of so holy and just a man. ' The sentence of Jerome was then read, which is recorded by L'Enfant, as follows: — "Our Lord Jesus Christ being the true vine, whose Father is the husbandman, told his disciples, that he would cut off all the branches that did not bear fruit in him. There- fore the sacred synod of Constance, in obedience to the order of the sovereign teacher, being informed, not only by public fame, but by an exact inquiry into the fact, that Jerome of Prague, master of arts, a layman, has affirmed certain erroneous and heretical arti- cles maintained by John Wickliff and John Huss, and condemned not only by the Holy fathers, but by this sacred synod ; and that after having publicly recanted the said heresies, condemned the memories of both Wickliff and Huss, and sworn to persevere in the Catholic doctrine, he returned in a few days like a dog to his vomit ; and that in order to propagate the pernicious venom which he concealed in his heart, he demanded a public hearing ; and that when he had obtained it, he declared in full council that he was guilty of great iniquity and a very wicked lie, in consent- ing to the condemnation of Wickliff and John Huss, and that he for ever revoked the said recantation, though he had declared that he held the faith of the Catholic church as to the sacrament of the altar and transubstantiation. For these causes the sacred synod has resolved and commanded, that the said Jerome be cast out, as a rotten withered branch, and declares him a heretic, relapsed, ex- communicated, accursed, and as such condemns him." § 47. — Jerome was then handed over to the secular power to be burnt. A high crown of paper, on which were painted demons in flames, was brought in. Jerome, on seeing it, threw his hat on the ground in the midst of the prelates, and taking it in his hand, placed it on his head himself, repeating the words which John Huss had pronounced — " Jesus Christ, who died for me a sinner, wore a crown of thorns. I will willingly wear this for him." The soldiers then seized on his person, and led him away to death. Upon arriv- * See an abstract of this Sermon, which strikingly exhibits the unchangeably pereeciiting spirit of Popery, in L'Enfant, i., 588, 689. 412 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vl Jerome^s martyrdom. Sings on his way to the strike, and prays in the midst of the flames ing at the same stake as that to which Huss had been bound, the martyr fell on his knees to pray, but the executioners raised him up whilst still praying, and having bound liim to the stake with cords and chains, they heaped up around him pieces of wood and a quan- tity of straw. Jerome sang the hymn, Salve, festa dies, toto vene- rabilis cevo, etc. He then repeated the creed, and addressing the people, he exclaimed, " This creed which I have just sung, is my real profession of faith ; I die, therefore, only for not having con- sented to acknowledge that John Huss was justly condemned. I declare that I have always beheld in him a true preacher of the gospel." When the wood was raised on a level with his head, his vestments were thrown on the pile, and, as the executioner was setting fire to the mass behind, in order not to be seen, " Come for- ward boldly," said Jerome ; "apply the fire before my face. Had I been afraid, I should not be here." When the pile had taken fire, he said with a loud voice, " Lord, into thy hands do I commit my spirit 1" Feeling already the burning heat of the flames, he was heard to cry out in the Bohemian language, " Lord, Almighty Father, have pity on me, and pardon me my sins ; for Thou know- est that I have always loved thy truth !" His voice was speedily lost ; but by the rapid movement of his lips, it was easy to see that he continued to pray. At last, when he had ceased to exist, all that had belonged to him, his bed, cap, shoes, dec, were brought from the prison and thrown into the flames, where they wei'e reduced to ashes with himself. These ashes wei-e then collected and thrown into the Rhine, as had been done in the case of John Huss. It was hoped, by this means, to remove from the followers of these two holy martyrs every ai'ticle that might by possibility, become in their hands an object of veneration ; even to the last particle of their bodies and clothes, everything was made away with ; but the very ground where their stake was placed was hollowed out, and the earth on which they had suffered, was carried to Bohemia, and guarded with religious care, as the most precious and invaluable memorials of these holy men. § 48. — Comment upon the above horrible illustrations of the cru- elty and perfidy of Popery, is unnecessary. The simple facts speak most eloquently, and should never be forgotten till in reference to this popish Babylon, in which " is found the blood of the prophets and the saints," the mighty angel of prophecy shall declare, Bady- T.ON THE GREAT IS FALLEN, IS FALLEN. (KcV. Xviii., 2, 24.) There is no historical fact which modern Romanists have so much endeav- ored to conceal, obscure, or deny, as this well known act of perfidy on the part of the council of Constance, in imprisoning and condemn- ing Huss, in defiance of the Emperor's safe-conduct, and their own efforts to reconcile the conscience of Sigismund to this base and perfidious act. This is not to be wondered at. There is scarcely a fact in the history of this apostate church, which reflects upon her such indelible disgrace, and happily for the cause of truth, not one fact which rests upon more conclusive evidence. CHAP. IV.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 413 Copiea of the decrees of the council, establishing the doctrine of no faith with hereticB. Yet as the principle upon which papists act, is that frauds are pious, and hes are holy, when perpetrated for the good c f the church, we expect, of course, where the evidence is not supposed to be at hand, that the fact will be denied. To furnish this evidence, the following decrees of the council, passed after the burning of Huss, to silence the public clamors against the perfidy of the coun- cil, are recorded in the original, and a translation. It is not known to the author that the original of these memorable decrees, estab- lishing the doctrine as an article of the Romish church, that no faith is to he kept with heretics, is to be found except in the scarce, volu- minous, and expensive work of L'Enfant. They ought to be known to all, and are therefore transcribed here. § 49. — The first of these decrees relates to the validity of safe-con- ducts in general, granted to heretics, by the temporal princes. It is as follows : " Pr^sens sancta synodus ex quovis salvo-conductu per imperatorem, Reges, et alios seculi principes hcereticis, vel de haeresi difEimatis, putantes eosdem sic h. suis erroribus revocare, quocunque vinculo se adstrinxerint, concesso, nul- lum fidei Catholics vel jurisdictioni ec- clesiasticEB prsejudicium generari, vel impedimentuni praestari posse seu debere, declarat, quo minus salvo dicto conduc- tu non obstante, liceat Judici competent! ecclesiastico de ejusmodi personarum erroribus inquirere, et alias contra eas debite procedere, easdemque punire, quantum justitia suadebit, si sues perti- naciter recusaverint revocare errores, etiamsl de salvo-conductu confisi ad lo- cum venerint judicii, aliis non venturi nee sic promittentem, cum aliis fecerit, quod in ipso est, ex hoc in aliquo reman- sisse obligatum." "The present synod declares that every safe-conduct granted by the Em- peror, kings, and other temporal princes, to heretics, or persons accused of heresy, in hopes of reclaiming them, ought not to be of any prejudice to the Catholic faith, or to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, nor to hinder, but such persons may, and ought to be examined, judged, and pun- ished, according as justice shall require, if those heretics refuse to revoke their errorsj even though they should be arriv- ed at the place where they are to be judged only upon the faith of the safe- conduct, without which they would not have come thither. And the person who shall have promised them security, shall NOT, IN THIS CASE, BE OBLIGED TO KEEP HIS PROMISE, by whatsoever tie he may be engaged, because he has done all that is in his power to do." The second of these decrees is, perhaps, still more valuable, relates to the safe-conduct of John Huss in particular : It " Sacro sancta, etc. Quia nonnuUi nimis intelligentes, aut sinistrse intenti- onis, vel forsan solentes sapere plus qukm oportet nedum RegicE Majestati, Bed etiam sacro, ut fertur, Concilio, Un- guis maledictis detrahunt publice et oc- culte dicentes, vel innuentes, quod sal- vus-conductus per invictissimum princi- pem Dominum Sigismundum Romano- rum et Ungaris, etc. Regem, quondam Johanni Hus, hseresiarcliE damnatae memoriae datus, fuit contra justitiam aut honestatem indebite violatus : Cum ta- men dictus Johannes Hus fidem ortho- " Whereas there are certain persons, either ill-disposed or over-wise beyond what they ought to be, who in secret and in public, traduce not only the Em- peror, but the sacred council, saying, or insinuating, that the safe-conduct grant- ed to John Huss, an arch-heretic, of damnable memory, was basely violated, contrary to all the rules of honor and justice ; though the said John Huss, by obstinately attacking the Catholic faith in the manner he did, rendered himself unworthy of any manner of safe-conduct and privilege; and though accordiko 414 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. f book vl The same doctrine ni-no faith with heretics, avowed by pope Martin V, doxam pertinaciter impugnans, se ab cm- to the natural, divdie, and human ni conductu et privilegio reddiderit alie- laws, no promise or faith ought to num, nee aliqua sibi fides aut promissio, have been kept with him, to the prk- de jure natural!, divine, vel liumano, judioe of the Catholic faith. The fuerit in prEejudicium Catholicai fidei sacred synod declares, by these presents, observanda: Idcirco dicta sancta syno- that the said Emperor did, with regard dus prjEsentium tenore declarat : dictum to John Huss, what he might and ought invictissimum principem circa praedic- to have done, notvvithstanding his safe- turn quondam Johannem Hus, non ob- conduct ; and forbids all the faithful in Btante memorato salvo-conductu, ex juris general, and every one of them in par- debito fecisse quod licuit, et quod decuit ticular, of what dignity, degree, pre-emi- Regiam Majestatem ; statuens et ordi- nence, condition, state, or sex they may nans omnibus et singulis Christi fide- be, to speak evil in any manner, either libus, cujuscunque dignitatis, gradus, of the council, or of the King, as to prceeminentifE, conditionie, status, aut what passed with regard to John Huss, sexus, existant, quod nuUus deinceps on pain of being punished, without re- sacroconcilioautRegiaeMajestatideges- mission, as favorers of heresy, and per- ils circa praedictum quondam Johannem sons guilty of high treason." (For the Hus detrahat, sive quomodolibet oblo- original of these decrees, see L' Enfant ii., quatur. Qui vero contrarium fecerit, p. 491 ; for his translation, which has tanquam fautor hereticae pravitatis et been adopted, see i., p. 514). reus criminis la3sae majestatis irremissi- biliter puniatur." § 50. — The abominable doctrine thus shamelessly avowed that faith is not to be kept with heretics, was still more emphatically expressed and enjoined by the Pope, who owed his elevation to the council of Constance, Martin V. In a bull addressed in 14:il, to Alexander, Duke of Lithuania, who, it appears, thought himself bound by some promise, not to persecute heretics, the Pope tells him as plain as words can express it, if he had made any promise to undertake their defence, " that he would be guilty of a mortal sin, should HE KEEP faith WITH HERETICS, WHO ARE THEMSELVES VIOLATORS OF THE HOLY FAITH, because there can be no fellowship between a believer and an unbeliever." I shall insert the original of this une- quivocal avowal of pope Martin in the text, lest, by being thrown into a note, it should escape the attention of the reader. " Quod si tu aliquo modo inductus defensionem eorum suscipere promisisti ; SCitO TE DARE FIDEM HjERETICtS, VIOLATORIBUS FIDEI SANCTA, NON PO- TUISSE, ET IDCIRCO PECCARE MORTALITER, SI SERVABIS ; quia fidcli ad infidelem non potest ulla communio." It is published by Cochlaius, a prejudiced Catholic. (Lib. v., p. 212.) We cannot better close this subject than by citing the just re- marks of Dean Waddington, relative to the act of horrid murder and perfidy, perpetrated by the council, and described above. After enumerating various acts of the council, he proceeds as fol- 'ows : " But we have still to describe the most arbitrary and iniqui- tous act of the same assembly. The holy fathers, be it recollected, had met for the reformation of the church. The word was per- petually on their lips, and they denounced, with unsparing vehe- mence, some of the corruptions of their own system. In the midst of them were two men of learning, genius, integrity, and piety, who had entrusted their personal safety to the faith of the council, John Huss CHAP. IV.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 41S Dean Waddington's juat remarks on the perfidy and cruel ty of the council of Const.tncc. and Jerome of Prague, and these two were reformers. But it hap- pened that they had taken a different view of the condition and exi- gencies of the church, and while the boldest projects of the wisest among the orthodox were confined to matters of patronage, disci- pline, ceremony, the hands of the two Bohemians had probed a deeper wound ; they disputed, if not the doctrinal purity, at least the spirit- ual omnipotence of the church. Those daring innovators had crossed the line which separated reformation from heresy — and they had their recompense. In the clamor which was raised against them, all parties joined as with one voice : divided on all other questions, contending about all other principles, the grand universal assembly was united, from Gerson himself down to the meanest Italian papal minion, in common detestation of the heresy, in implacable rage against its authors. Those venerable martyrs were imprisoned, arraigned, condemned, and then by the command, and in the presence of the majestic senate of the church, the deposer of popes, the uprooter of corruption, the reformer of Christ's holy communion — they were deliberately consigned to the flames. Is THERE ANY ACT RECORDED IN THE BLOOD-STAINED ANNALS OF THE POPES MORE FOUL AND MERCILESS THAN THAT ? . . . . MorC than this. The guilt of the murder was enhanced by perfidy ; and for the pur- pose of justifying this last offence (for the former, being founded on the established church principles, required no apology), they added to those principles another, not less flagitious than any of those already recognized — 'that neither faith nor promise, by natu- ral, DIVINE, or human LAW, WAS TO BE OBSERVED TO THE PREJUDICE OF THE Catholic religion !' "* Mr. Waddington adds the impor- tant fact, that " this maxim did not proceed from the caprice of an arbitrary individual, and a pope, — for so it would scarcely have claimed our serious notice ; but from the considerate resolution of a very numerous assembly, which embodied almost all the learning, wisdom, and moderation of the Roman Catholic church."f §51. — After some attempts by John Gerson and others, at the partial reformation of the horrible corruptions of the church, " in its head and members," which were principally defeated through the crafty management of the new pope, Martin V., it assembled for the forty-fifth and closing session on the 22d of April, 1418, and the Bull which gave the members of the council permission to return to their homes, showered on them and their domestics a profusion of indulgences, as a fitting reward for their labors. The following is a copy of the Bull of indulgence, issued on this occasion. " We, * ' Cum tamen dictus Johannes Hus, fidem orthodoxam pertinaciter impugnans se ab omni conductu et privilegio reddiderit alienum, nee aliqua sibi fides aut pro- missio de jure naturali, divino vel humano, fuerit in praejudicium Catholicse fidei observanda : idcirco dicta sancta synodus declarat, &c.' These words are cited by Hallam (Middle Ages, chap, vii.), without suspicion, and also by Von dei Hardt, in his valuable collection of authentic documents (Tom. iv., p. 521). without any expression of doubt. f Waddington's History of the Church, page 458. 416 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book vi. The fathers dismissed by the Pope with indulgences as a fitting reward. Tlie cup denied to the laity. Martin, bishop, servant of the servants of God, vv^ith a perpetual romembrance of this great event, and at the request of the sacred council, do hereby dismiss it, giving to each member liberty to re- turn home. By the authority of the Almighty God, and the blessed apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, and by our own, vs^e grant to all who have been present at this council, a full and entire remission of their sins, once during their lifetime, so that each of them may enjoy the benefits of this absolution for two months after it shall have become known to him. We grant them the same grace when in articulo mortis, both to them and their servants, on this condition, however, that they shall fast all the Fridays in a year for the abso- lution, at the point of death, unless they be legitimately prevented : in which case they will perform other acts of piety. After the segand year, they shall fast the Friday for the rest of their life. . . . If any one shall rashly oppose this absolution and this concession, which we give, let him learn that he will thereby have incurred the indignation of Almighty God, and of the blessed apostles, Paul and Peter."* § 52. — Thus this numerous council, consisting of cardinals, arch- bishops, and abbots, beside the Pope and the Emperor, occupied about three years and a half in the glorious achievements of remov- ing three spiritual tyrants to make room for another, passing a de- cree denying the use of the cup to the laity, in the sacrament, and burning the bodies of two living heretics, and the mouldering bones of one dead one. The canon which deprived all but the clergy of the use of the cup in the eucharist, was as follows : " The sacred council, wishing to provide for the eternal safety of the faithful, after a mature de- liberation by several doctors, declares and decides, although in the primitive church this sacrament was received by the faithful in the two kinds, it can be clearly proved, that afterward it was received in that manner only by the officiating priests, and was offered to the laity unddr the form of bread alone, because it must be believed firmly, and without any hesitation or doubt, that the whole body and the whole blood of Jesus Christ are truly contained in the bread as well as in the wine. Wherefore, this practice, introduced by the church and by the holy fathers, and observed for a very great length of time, ought to be regarded as a law, which it is not per- mitted to reject or change, without the authority of the church." The object of this unjust prohibition, so plainly contrary to the command of Christ, was evidently to exalt the dignity of the clergy, and draw the line of distinction between them and the laity (alreadj wide enough) still wider, by giving them some exclusive preroga- tive, even at the Lord's table. Compared with other popish inno- vations and corruptions, this prohibition may seem to be of little importance, yet it was deemed so serious an innovation by the countrj-men of the martyred Huss, that in addition to the horrid * From the MSS. at Venice, in Von der Hardt, vol. iv. CHAP, v.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 417 This prohibition unscriptural. The Callxtinca. Pope Mnrlin V. murder of their uvo eminent countrymen, it produced a serious revolt against their sovereign, who sustained the papal decrees, vi^hich con- tinued for some y6ars under the direction of that extraordinary man, the courageous, but too violent John Ziska. A portion of these Bohemian dissenters from Rome took the name of Calixtines, from the Latin calix, a cup. The fathers of the council found a greater difficulty in reconciling the minds of the people to this prohibition, than scarcely anything else, especially as the version of Wickliff's New Testament, and probably some others in other languages, were by this time in the hands of many of the people. The words of Christ were so explicit, " Drink ye ma. of it " (Matt, xxvi., 27), as though his omniscience had foreseen and provided against this per- version of his ordinance, by the great apostasy, that the popish doctors found it a most difficult task, even in appearance, to recon-" cile their prohibition with the Scriptures. One of their most learned writers, the famous French Doctor John Gerson, wrote an elabo- rate treatise against " Double Communion," in which he inadver- tently disclosed the cause of his uneasiness, in the following words : " There are many laymen among the heretics who have a version of the Bible in the vulgar tongue, to the great prejudice and offence of the Catholic faith. It has been proposed," he adds, " to reprove that scandal in the committee of reform." No wonder, that since the Bible is directly opposed to this popish edict, the papists were anxious to shut that book up from the people. Such has ever been, and without doubt, such is still the cause of their bitter hatred of the universal circulation, in the vernacular languages of the people, of God's holy word. CHAPTER V. POPERY AND THE POPES FOR THE CENTURY PRECEDING THE REFORMATION. § 53. — The progress of Popery from the dissolution of the coun- cil of Constance in 1418 to the time of Luther, about a century later, was from bad to worse. Pope Martin V., who was raised to that dignity by the council, yielded to but few of his predecessors in his haughty and extravagant claims of the dignity of the Holy See. He was a steady opponent of all measures of reform, during the whole of his pontificate. The people, starving for spiritual food, demanded bread, but he gave them a stone ; — they clamored for reform, but he gave them — indulgences. We can sometimes scarcely repress a smile at the pompous edicts 25 418 raSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vi. Pompous tilles of the Popes. Council of Basil. Dispute between pope Eugenlus and the council. of the emperor of China, who styles hin:iself " Lord of the Sun," but this was fiar outdone by pope Martin, who in his dispatches sent by his nuncio to Constantinople, adopted the following array of titles : " Sanctlssimus, et Beatissimus, qui habet coeleste arbitrium, qui est Dominus in terris, successor Petri, Christus Domini, Dominus Uni- versi, Regum Pater, orbis Lumen," that is, " The most Holy and most happy, who is the arbiter of heaven, and the Lord of the EARTH, the successor of St. Peter, the anointed of the Lord, the Master op the universe, the father of kings, the light of the WORLD," &c.* Who in reading these blasphemous assumptions of a miserable mortal, is not reminded of the inspired description of the papal anti-Christ : " as God, sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God V (2 Thess. ii., 4.) § 54. — In the year 1431 pope Martin died, and was succeeded by Eugenius IV., a man whose ignorance was only equalled by his presumption and obstinacy. His pontificate was chiefly distin- guished by the obstinate and protracted contentions between him and the council of Basil, which, after a feeble attempt of the Pope to prevent it, assembled on the 14th of December, 1431. In the course of the contest with the Pope, the council of Basil published and reiterated a decree that had been passed by the council of Con- stance, that the Pope was inferior, and subject to a General Council, and in the history of the council by .^neas Sylvius, afterwards pope Pius II., this doctrine is strongly and forcibly urged, that a council is superior to a Pope, and that the latter is rather the Vicar of the church than the Vicar of Christ.'f We shall soon see that a change of circumstances produced a great change in this writer's views, and that pope Pius II. pronounced ^neas Sylvius a heretic, though one and the same person. § 55. — The following extracts from an eloquent letter of car- dinal Julian, the president of the council of Basil to pope Eugenius, are transcribed on account of the light they throw on the morals of the popish clergy of this age, to reform which was one of the pro- fessed objects of the council. " One great motive with me," says the Cardinal President, " in joining this council, was the deformity and dissoluteness of the German clergy, on account of which the laity are immoderately irritated against the ecclesiastical state : so much so, as to make it matter of serious apprehension whether, if they be not reformed, the people will not rush, after the example of the Hussites, upon the whole clergy, as they publicly menace to do. Moreover, this deformity gives great audacity to the Bohemians, and great coloring to the errors of those, who are loudest in their invectives against the baseness of the clergy : on which account, had a general council not been convoked at this place, it had been necessary to collect a provincial synod for the reform of the Ger- man clergy ; since in truth, if that clergy be not corrected, even * Papal Rome by Rev. Dr. Giustlniani, p. 181. f iEneas Sylvius, Comment, de Gestis BasU, Concil., Lib. I., p. 16. CHAP, v.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 419 Cardluiil Julian's letter. The Pope suspended by the council, who in turn aunuls ila ucte. though the heresy of Bohemia should be extinguished, others would rise up in its place." .... "If you should dissolve this council, what will the whole world say, when it shall learn the act? Will it not decide, that 'the clergy is incorrigible, and desirous for ever to grovel in the filth of its own deformity I Many councils have been celebrated in our days, from w'hich no reform has proceeded ; the nations are expecting that some fruit should come from this. But if it is dissolved, all will exclaim that we laugh at God and man." .... " Most blessed Father, believe me, the scandals which I have mentioned will not be removed by delay. Let us ask the heretics, whether they will delay for a year and a half the dissemination of their virulence ? Let us ask those, who are scandalized at the de- formity of the clergy, if they will for so long delay their indignation ? Not a day passes in which some heresy does not sprout forth ; not a day in which they do not seduce or oppress some Catholics ; they do not lose the smallest moment of time. There is not a day, in which new scandals do not arise from the depravity of the clergy ; yet all measures for their remedy are procrastinated I" . . . . " Why then do you longer delay ? You have striven with all your power, by messages, letters, and various other expedients, to keep the clergy away ; you have struggled with your whole force utterly to destroy this council. Nevertheless, as you see. it swells and in- creases day by day, and the more severe the prohibition, the more ardent is the opposite impulse. Tell me now — is not this to resist the will of God ? Why do you provoke the Church to indignation ? Why do you irritate the Christian people ? Condescend, 1 implore you, so to act, as to secure for yourself the love and good will, and not the hatred of mankind." § 56. — The earnest pleadings of the Cardinal were, however, lost upon Eugenius. He was resolutely opposed to the council and to reform. The council cited him before them. The Pope retorted by a Bull of dissolution, and both were equally fruitless. At length, after eighteen months of remonstrance and forbearance, the council, on the 12th of July, 1433, suspended the Pope from his dignity ; and Eugenius, in reply, annulled their decree. At length this quarrel was carried to its final result. On the 31st of July, 1437, the coun- cil cited the Pope to Basil to answer for his vexatious opposition to the reform of the Church; and the Pope, in that plenitude of power to which he had never formally abandoned his pretensions, declared the council transferred to Ferrara in Italy. In the 5i8th session (Oct. 1. 1437), Eugenius was convicted of contumacy ; and on the 10th of the January following, he celebrated, in defiance of the sentence, the first session of the council he had assembled in opposition at Ferrara. On that occasion he solemnly annulled every future act of the assembly at Basil, excepting only such as should have reference to the troubles of Bohemia. Finally, on the 25th of June, 1439, the council of Basil solemnly deposed Eugenius IV. from the papal throne, and on the 5th of November following, another pope was elected, Amadeus Duke of Savoy, who assumed 420 HISTORY OP KOMANlSxM. [book vi. Renewal of papal schism. Rival popes and rival councils. Seiious accident at [he Jubilee of 14.50 the name of Felix V. Thus was again revived that deplorable schism, which had formerly rent the church, and which had been terminated with so much difficulty, and after so many vain and fruit- less efforts, at the council of Constance. Nay, the new breach was still more lamentable than the former one, as the flame was kindled not only between two rival pontiffs, but also between the two contending councils of Basil and Florence, to which place Eugenius had removed the council of Ferrara. The greatest part of the church submitted to the jurisdiction, and adopted the cause of Eugenius ; while Felix was acknowledged as lawful pontiff, by a great number of academies, and among others, by the famous university of Paris, as also in several king- doms and provinces. The council of Basil continued its delibera- tions, and went on enacting laws, and publishing edicts, until the year 1443, notwithstanding the efforts of Eugenius and his adhe- rents to put a stop to their proceedings. And, though in that year the members of the council retired to their respective places of abode, yet they declared publicly that the council was not dissolved, but would resume its deliberations at Basil, Lyons, or Lausanne, as soon as a proper opportunity was offered. This schism was at length terminated, in the year 1449, by the resignation of Felix V., who returned as Duke of Savoy to his delicious retreat called Ripaille, upon the borders of Lake Leman. The obstinate pope Eugenius had died in February, 1447, and his successor, Nicholas V., by the retirement of Felix, obtained undisputed possession of the papal throne. § 57. — During the reign of pope Nicholas, in the year 1450, the avarice of the Roman Clergy and people was again nourished by the celebration, of the Jubilee; and so vast were the multitudes which on this occasion sought the plenary indulgence at the tombs of the apostles, that many .ire said to have been crushed to death in churches, and to have perished by other accidents. One of these accidents, on account of the number of lives lost, deserves particular mention. In consequence of the pressure of the vast multitude on a certain day, no less than ninety-seven pilgrims were thrown at once from the bridge of St. Angelo and drowned. This bridge is one of the favorite spots for viewing the vast and splendid fabric of St. Peter's, especially on the night of the great festivals, when the dome is almost instantaneously illuminated, not by any in- genious mechanical contrivance, but by the vast number of hands employed, each of whom, at a given signal, lights the lamp at which he is stationed, and thus converts, in a moment, the noble and stately dome, into a vast hemisphere of liquid light. Our artist has represented, in the adjoining engraving, the acci- dent at the bridge of St. Angelo, during the Jubilee of 1450, partly as a memorial of that event, but chiefly on account of the fine distant view that is afforded of the church of St. Peter's, and of a large portion of the city from that spot. We have preferred to represent St. Peter's church as it is now CHAP, v.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1645. 423 St. Peter'a. Taking of Constantinople. ^neaa Sylvius chosen pope by the name of Pius 11. seen from the bridge of St. Angelo, rather than the old church or Constantine, which then occupied the site of St. Peter's ; reminding the reader, at the same time, that the foundation stone of the present noble edifice, was not laid till a half a century later, viz. by pope Julius in the year 1506. Of course, it is impossible to represent in a distant view the magnificent square of St. Peter's, surrounded by its stately colonnade of near three hundred pillars, with the Egyptian obelisk in the centre, and the beautiful fountain oa each side of the obelisk. This deficiency, however, has already been supplied in the accurate engraving of this architectural wonder of the world opposite page 178. While we cannot but lament over the unjustifiable means em- ployed to obtain funds for the erection of this magnificent structure by trafficking in the sins of men ; it is impossible to withhold our admiration at the grandeur of the architectural design and the ability, taste, and skill displayed in carrying forward to its comple- tion, this proudest of all modern temples. § 58. — In the year 1453, an event occurred which spread a deep gloom over the whole Christian world. This was the taking of the city of Constantinople, for so many centuries the capital of the Eastern Roman empire, by the Mahometan, or as they were com- monly called, infidel Turks, and the consequent entire overthrow ol that empire, of which it was the metropoUs. Previous to the fall of Constantinople, pope Nicholas had used some exertions, but without success, to make the protection of the Christian capital of the East from the designs of the infidels, the common cause of the monarchs of Christendom, and he redoubled his efforts when the work before him was not one of protection, but of re-conquest. In the midst of his chivalrous designs to recover Constantinople, and expel the conqueror from Europe, and at a moment when there seemed some prospect of a partial co-operation for that purpose, Nicholas V. died, A. D. 1455. His complaint was gout; and it is commonly asserted that its progress was hastened by the affliction with which he saw the triumphs of the infidel. § 59.— After the brief reign of pope Calixtus III., the immediate successor of Nicholas, the celebrated iEneas Sylvius, whom we have before had occasion to mention, was elected to the popedom by the name of Pius II., in 1458. One of his first acts was to assem- ble a council at Mantua, for the purpose of invoking the co-operation of Christian princes, in a general crusade against the Turks, tor the recovery of Constantinople. The council opened on the 1 st of June, 1459, just six years from the taking of Constantinople, and continued nearly eight months. The intestine divisions of Europe, however, prevented the carrying into effect the designs of Pius. At length the Pope proposed to go in person on this expedition " This then," said he, " shall be our next experiment : we will march in person against' the Turks, and invite the Christimi monarchs to follow us ; not by words only, but by example also. It may be when they shall behold their master and father— the Roman pontiff", the vicar 424 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book ti. lu Pius condemns the opinions of iEneas Sylvius, his former self. Effect of a change of circumstancea *of Christ Jesus — an infirm old man, advancing to the war, they will take up arms through shame, and valiantly defend our holy reli- gion.* In accordance with this resolution, the old pontiff departed to assume the command of the force which had already assembled at Ancona, but had no sooner joined them than he died, and the whole expedition immediately dispersed. § 60. — In his early life, ^neas Sylvius was the able and zealous opponent of papal assumption over councils. His earliest laurels were won at the council of Basil, which deposed pope Eugenius, and reiterated the doctrine, that the Pope was inferior, and subject to a general council ; and iEneas at that time warmly advocated these views, and remained, through the whole of the schism, faith- ful to the council. Upon his becoming pope himself, he seized an early occasion to discourage those liberal principles of church gov- ernment, which were entertained by many ecclesiastics, and which had so lately been propagated by himself. During the council of Mantua, shortly before its dissolution, and at a moment when his influence over its members was probably the greatest, he published a celebrated bull against all appeals from the Holy See to general councils. " An execrable abuse, unheard of in ancient times, has f gained footing in our days, authorized by some, who, acting under a spirit of rebellion rather than sound judgment, presume to appeal from the pontiff of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, to whom, in the person of St. Peter, it has been said, ' Feed my sheep ;' and again, ' Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; ' to appeal, I say, from his judgments to a future council — a practice which every man instructed in law must regard as contrary to the holy canons, and prejudicial to the Christian republic " The Pope then proceeded to paint in vague and glowing expressions the frightful evils occasioned by such appeals ; and finally pronounced to be ipso facto excommunicated ail individuals who might hereaf- ter resort to them, whether their dignity were imperial, royal, or pontifical, as we^l as all Universities and Colleges, and all others who should promote and counsel them. In the year 1463, pope Pius issued a bull containing a formal re- cantation of his former views, and declared that no confidence was due to those of his writings, which offended in any manner the authority of the apostolical See, and established opinions which it did not acknowledge. " Wherefore (he added) if you find anything contrary to its doctrine, either in my dialogues, or my letters, or any other of my writings, — despise those opinions, reject them, and follow that which I now proclaim to you. Believe me now that I am old, rather than then, when I spoke as a youth ; pay more re- gard to the Sovereign Pontiff than to the individual ; reject iEneas — receive Pius. The former name was imposed by my * RaynaU, Annal. ad Ann. 403. CHAP, v.j POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1646. 425 Pope Innocent and his seven bastards. His bloody edict for extirpnting of the VValdensea parents — a Gentile name, — and in my infancy : the other I assumed as a Christian in my Apostolate."* § 61. — The remaining popes of this century were Paul II., Sixtus IV., Innocent VIII., and Alexander VI., who were all men of vicious and abandoned lives, and who appear to have risen successively in the scale of avarice, cruelty, and sensuality, till Satan produced his master-piece in the infamous Alexander VI. Passing over the two first named, we must dwell for a moment upon the character of Innocent. Sixtus, and preceding popes, had wasted the revenues of the church upon profligate nephews, but pope Innocent introduced a still more revolting race of dependants, in the persons of his ille- gitimate offspring. Seven children, the fruits of various amours, were publicly recognized by the vicar of Christ, and became, for the most part, pensioners on the ecclesiastical treasury. Fewer crimes would, perhaps, have been perpetrated, had the Pontifl" resolved to be the only criminal. But with all his weakness, Innocent was animated by a spirit of avarice, which attracted observation even in that age of the popedom. And he performed at least one memorable exploit, as it were, in the design to surpass his predecessor by a still bolder insult on the sacred College ; he placed among its members a boy, thirteen years old, the brother-in-law of his own bastard.f But the court of Rome did not resent the indignity— it was sunk even be- low the sense of its own infamy. § 62. This same pope Innocent issued a violent and furious bull against the Waldenses, an extract of which, though only a speci- men of a large class of similar effusions of papal bigotry and blood- thirstiness, is vet worthy of record as a specimen of the spirit of Popery only a few years before the glorious reformation, and while Luther, its destined author, was just emerging from infancy. Luther was born in 1483. The bull of pope Innocent was issued in 1487. This truly popish document institutes Albert de Capi- taneis archdeacon of the church of Cremona, nuncio and commis- sioner of the apostolic See in the states of the Duke of Savoy, and prescribes to him to labor in the extirpation of the very pernicious and abominable sect of men called the Poor of Lyons or the Wal- denses, in concert with the Inquisitor-General Blasius, of the order of the Preaching-Brotherhood. The Pope gives him, for that object, full power over all archbishops, bishops, their vicars and chief officers; « in order," says he, " that they may have authority, together with you and the said inquisitor, to take up arms against the said Walden- ses and other heretics, and to come to an understanding to crush them like venomous asps, and to contribute all their care to so holy * " .^neam rejicite, Pium recipite— illud Gentile nomen parentes indidere nas- cent! ■ hoc Christianum in Apostdatu suscepi." (Waddmgtnn, 506.) ■f This boy was John, the son of Lorenzo de' Medici, the same who became r eo X It should be observed, that Innocent, on making the creation, stipulated that the boy should not take his seat in Consistory till he was sixteen. Some state the age of creation at fifteen, that of admission at eighteen. (SeeRaynaldus, Aim. 1489. Waddington, 611.) 426 HISTORY OF ROyAMRM. [book vi Indulgences promised for exterminating tin- heretics. Election of the infamous Alexander \h and so necessary an extermination We give you power to have the crusade preached up by fit men : to grant that such per- sons as shall enter on the crusade and fight against these same heretics, and shall contribute to it, may gain plenary indulgence and remission of all their sins once in their life, and also at their death ; to command, in virtue of their holy obedience, and under penalty of excommunication, all preachers of God's word to animate and incite the same believers to exterminate the pestilence, without sparing, by force and by arms. We further give you power to absolve those who enter on the crusade, fight, or contribute to it, from all senten- ces, censures, and ecclesiastical penalties, general or particular, by which they may be bound, as also to give them dispensation for any irregularity contracted in divine matters, or for any apostasy, and to enter some terms of composition with them for the goods which they may have secretly amassed, badly acquired, or held doubtfully, applying them to the expenses attendant on this extirpation of heretics ; .... to concede to each, permission to lawfully seize on the property, real or personal, of heretics ; also to command all being in the service of these same heretics, in whatsoever place they may be, to withdraw from it, under whatever penalty you may deem fit ; and by the same authority to declare that they and all others, who may be held and obliged by contract, or other manner, to pay them anything, are not for the future in any way obliged to do so ; and to deprive all those refusing to obey your admonitions and commands, of whatever dignity, state, order, and pre-eminence they may possess, to wit, the ecclesiastics of their dignities, offices, and benefices ; and the laity of their honors, titles, fiefs, and privi- leges, if they persist in their disobedience and rebellion ; . . . . and to fulminate all kinds of censures, according as the case in your judgment may demand ; .... to absolve and re-establish such as may wish to return to the lap of the church, although they may have sworn to favor the heretics, provided, taking the contrary oath, they promise to abstain most carefully from doing so."* Who does not perceive that the closing extract I'have quoted of this bull of pope Innocent VIII., is another reiteration of the doctrine of Con- stance, and of pope Martin ; and however popish priests may seek to conceal the fact from the eyes of Protestants, ever the doctrine of Rome — no faith with heretics ? § 63. — Upon the death of Innocent VIII., in 1492, the cardinals were notoriously bribed to give their suffrages for a Spaniard named Ro- deric Borgia, who upon his election assumed the name of Alexander VI. It would be a tedious and disgusting task to enumerate all the debaucheries, incests, assassinations and other outrages of which this papal Nero, and his equally infamous son Cardinal Caesar Bor- gia, were the guilty perpetrators. In the downward progress of pontifical impurity, we have at length reached the lowest step, the * Leger. Hist, des eglisea Vaudoises, Vol. ii., chap. 2 ; the original of the bull is in the library of Cambridge University. CHAP, v.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 427 Pope Alexander, the Devil's master-piece. Gives an entertainment in the Vatican to 50 public proRtitutct). Utmost limits which have been assigned to papal and to human de- pravity. " The ecclesiastical records of fitteen centuries," says Waddington, " through which our long journey is now nearly ended, contain no name so loathsome, no crimes so foul as his ; and while the voice of every impartial writer is loud in his execration, he is, in one respect, singularly consigned to infamy, since not one among the zealous annalists of the Roman Church has breathed a whisper in his praise. Thus, those who have pursued him with the most unqualified vituperations, are thought to have described him most faithfully ; and the mention of his character has excited a sort of rivalry in the expression of indignation and hatred. In early life, during the pontificate of Pius II., Roderic Borgia, already a cardi- nal, had been stigmatized by a public censure for his unmuffled debaucheries. Afterwards he publicly cohabited with a Roman matron named Vanozia, by whom he had five acknowledged chil- dren. Neither in his manners nor in his language did he affect any regard for morality or for decency ; and one of the earliest acts of his pontificate was, to celebrate, with scandalous magnificence, in his own palace, the marriage of his daughter Lucretia. On one occasion, this prodigy of vice gave a splendid entertainment, within the walls of the Vatican, to no less than fifty public prostitutes at once, and that in the presence of his daughter Lucretia, at which entertainment deeds of darkness were done, over which decency must throw a veil ;* and yet this monster of vice was, according to papists, the legitimate successor of the apostles, and the Vicar of God upon earth, and was addi'essed by the title of his Holiness I I Again I ask, is not that apostate church, of which for eleven years this pope Alexander VI. was the crowned and anointed head, and a necessary link in the chain of pretended apostohc succession — is she not fitly described by the pen of inspiration — " Mother of HARLOTS, AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH?" (RcV. Xvii., 5.) § 64. — The following are the circumstances relating to the death of pope Alexander, which stand on the most extensive evidence. His infamous son, Csesar Borgia, being greatly in want of money to pay his troops, applied to his father for assistance ; but the apostolical treasury was exhausted, and neither resources nor credit were then at hand to replenish it. On which, the Cardinal suggested to the Pope an easy, and, as it would seem, not very unusual method of supply- ing their wants. The cardinal Corneto, as well as some others of the sacred college, had a great reputation for wealth ; and it was then the practice at Rome for the property of cardinals to devolve, on their decease, to the See. He proposed to get rid of this Corneto. The Pope consented ; and, accordingly, invited the cardinals to an en- tertainment which he prepared for them in his vineyard of Corneto, which was near the Vatican. Among the wines sent for this occa- sion, one bottle was prepared with poison ; and instructions were * These infamous debaucheries are relateti with much more minuteness than i3 consistent with modern refinement and delicacy, by Burchardus, (Piar. ITA 4tl8 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vi, Pope Alexander caught in hia own trsp. America discovered, and given by Ihe Pope to the Spaniards carefully given to the superintendent of the feast respecting the dis- posal of that bottle It happened that, some little time before sup- per, the Pope and his son arrived, and, as it was very hot, they called for wine. And then, whether through the error or the absence of the confidential officer, the poisoned bottle was presented to them. Both drank of it, and both immediately suffered its vio- lent effects. Caesar Borgia, who had mixed much water with his wine, and was, besides, young and vigorous, through the immediate use of powerful antidotes, was saved. But Alexander having taken his draught nearly pure, and being likewise enfeebled by age, died in the course of the same evening.* § 65. — It was during the pontificate of Alexander VI., that the discovery of America was achieved by that wonderful man, Chris- topher Columbus. For several centuries previous to that age, it had been regarded as an established doctrine, that the Pope, from his supreme authority, had the right of granting all heathen coun- tries to such Catholic princes as would engage to reduce them under the dominion of the church and the Holy See. In accordance with this doctrine, pope Martin V. early in the same century had granted to the crown of Portugal all the lands it might discover from cape Bojador in Africa, to the Indies. Immediately upon the intelligence being received by the Spanish sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, of the success of Columbus, measures were taken to obtain the sanction of the Pope. Accord- ingly, in compliance with the request of the Spanish ambassadors that were immediately dispatched to Rome, pope Alexander VI. issued his bull, dated May 2d, 1493, "ceding to the Spanish sove- reigns the same rights, privileges, and indulgences, in respect to the newly discovered regions, as had been accorded to the Portuguese, with regard to their African discoveries, under the same condition of planting and propagating the Catholic faith. To prevent any conflicting claims, however, between the two powers, in the wide range of their discoveries, another bull was issued on the following day, containing the famous line of demarcation, by which their terri- tories were thought to be clearly and permanently defined. This was an ideal line drawn from the north to the south pole, a hundred leagues to the west of the Azores, and the Cape de Verd islands. All land discovered by the Spanish navigators to the west of this line, and which had not been taken possession of by any Christian power before the preceding Christmas, was to belong to the Spanish crown ; all land discovered in the contrary direction was to belong to Por- tugal. It seems never to have occurred to the pontiff", that by push- ing their opposite careers of discovery, they might some day or other come again in collision, and renew the question of territorial right at the antipodes."! * See Waddington's Ch. Hist., p. 515. For a particular account of the lives and vices of this flagitious Pope, and his no less infamous son, Ca;sar Borgia, see Life of pope Alexander VI., by Alexander Gordon. • t Life and Voyages of Columbus, by Washington Irving, book v., ch. 8. c;ii.\;' v] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 429 I'll.' |)owf r of the popes not what it once was. Pope Julian absolving himself from his oath It may serve to correct the notions of some good people, who know but little about the history of" Popery in past ages, and imagine that it never was more powerful than now, to rememberthat three centu- ries and a half ago, not only the territory now called the United States, but the whole of North and South America, were given away by a single dash of pope Alexander's pen. I presume there is but little fear of the great Republic of the West ever being handed over, like an apple or an orange, as a present from his Holiness to their Catho- lic majesties of Spain or of Portugal. And yet, according to the aforesaid decree of pope Alexander, the Catholic sovereigns of Spain have a right, so far as a papal grant can confer it, to the whole of the United States, from Maine to Texas, and to the entire continent of the West. Well may the old gentleman at Rome, when he thinks of the power of his predecessors, and casts his eye over the vast prairies and savannahs of the West, sit on his trem- bling throne in Italy, like Bunyans giant Pope, " biting his nails that he cannot come at them." ^ G6. — Upon the death of Alexander VI., Pius III., a sick and feeble old man, was elevated to the papal throne, through the in- trigues of the Cardinal who hoped soon to succeed him, and died after a brief reign of only twenty-six days. The stratagem of Julian della Rovera was successful. He celebrated the mass at the obsequies of the deceased Pope and scarcely was that office performed when he re-opened his former intrigues with the design, on this occasion, of procuring his own election. He gained the leading cardinals by magnificent promises, and the confidence that they would be observed. On the very first scrutiny, Julian della Rovera was unanimously raised to the chair of Alexander VI. On this occasion, Julian, who assumed the name of Julius II., took the same oath which had been taken by the infamous Alexander and several of his unworthy predecessors of the fifteenth century, to convoke a general council within two years from his election, and effect other reforms in the administration of the church, under the penalty of "perjury and anathema," from which they swore neither to absolve themselves, nor suffer any others to absolve them. These oaths, however, were only made to be broken. The popes claimed the power not only of absolving others, but of absolving themselves from the obligation of an oath, and when, therefore, the object of taking the oath was accomphshed, and the hat of the Cardinal ex- changed for the tiara of the Pope, this convenient power was in- variably exercised.* That this pretended power of the popes of absolving from the obligation of an oath, whether of allegiance to a rulex or of * Beausobre in his liistory of the Reformation " (Livre i.) gives the words of tlie oath by which the candidate for the papal chair thus bound himself, which are worthy of being placed on record " Prajmissa omnia et singula promitto, voveo et juro observare et adimplere, in omnibus et per omnia, pure et simpliciter et bona fide, realiter, et cum effectu perjurii et anathematis, a quibus nee me ipsum absolvani', nee alieni absolutionem committam. Ita me Deus adjuvet," &c. 430 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [bookvi. The right of absolving from oaths still claimed by the priests of Rome, any other kind, has ever been believed and practised by the papal anti-Christ, is a fact vvrhich needs no proof to such as nave but a limited acquaintance with history. We have seen how frequently it was practised in the lives of Gregory VII.,* Innocent III., and the other popes of that period when Popery reigned Despot of the World ;t but perhaps it is not equally well known, that the same doctrine is openly advocated by papists of the present day, and plainly taught in the text-books used in their colleges. Thus, in the class-book used in Maynooth College, Ireland, Bailly asserts that " there exists in the church a power of dispensing from the obligation of vows and oaths."J In this abominable proposition, quoted from a standard Romish author, the church means the Pope, as, according to the canon law, the Pope is the interpreter of an oath.§ Dens, in his theology, the modern standard of Catholicism in Ireland, authorizes this maxim. || The dispensation of a vow, says this criterion of truth, " is its relaxation by a lawful superior in the place of God, from a just cause. The superior, as the vicar of God in the place of God, remits to a man the debt of a plighted promise"'^ If a pope has the power of absolving others from the obligation of an oath, he has, of course, the power of absolving himself, and hence can be bound by no promise, however sacred ; by no oath, however solemn. Upon this monstrous principle did pope Julius, like many of his predecessors, take a solemn oath pre- vious to his election, which he doubtless intended when he took it. to violate, so soon as his elevation to the popedom should give him the power of absolving himself from his oath, and thus annulling the laws of God with impunity.** * Gregory, in 1080, asserted his authority to dissolve the oath of fealty. His Infallibility supported his assertion by proofs, or pretended proofs, from scripture and tradition. This authority, his Holines.s alleged, was conveyed in the power of the keys, consisting in binding and loosing, and confirmed by the unanimous consent of the fathers. The contrary opinion he represented as madness and idolatry. ' Contra illorum insaniam, qui, nefando ore, garriunt, auctoritatem sanc- t£e et Apostolicje sedis non potuisse quemquam a Sacramento fidelitatis ejus ab- solvere.' {Lahb. 12, 380, 439, 497.) f See above. Book v., passim. X ' Existit in ecclesia potestas dispensandi in votis et juramentis.' {Bailly 2, 140 ; Maynooth Report, 283.) } ' Declaratio juramenti, seu interpretatio, cum de ipso dubitatur, pertinet ad Papam.' {Gibert 3, 512.) II 'Superior tanquam vicarius Dei, vice et nomine Dei, remittit homini debitum promiasionis factae.' {Dens, 4, 134, 135.) T Dens also avers that a confessor should assert his ignorance of the truths which he knows only by sacramental confession, and confirm his assertion, if ne- cessary, by oath. Such facts he is to conceal, though the life or safety of a man or the destruction of the state, depended on the disclosure. The reason, in this case, is as e.xtraordinary as the doctrine. " The confessor is questioned and answers as a man. This truth, however, he knows not as man, but as God ;" and, therefore (which was to be proved), he is not guilty of falsehood or perjury. ' Debet respondere ee nescire eam, et, si opus est, idem juramento confirmare. Talis confessarius interrogatur ut liomo, et respondet ut homo. Jam autem non scit ut homo illam veritatem, quamvis sciat ut Deus.' {Dens, 5, 219 ; Edgar, 246.) ♦* Another instance of the practical exercise of this abominable doctrine oc- The Pojje as a Wiirrior — Pope Julius iu Eatl!e. The Pope as a Ciud — adored on tlio lii;^h Aliur ot St. Peter's CHAP, v.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1645. 438 Pope Julius a WDrrior. 200,000 men slain in Iwttle tiirouBh his means. His quarrel with Lewis Xll. § 67. — Pope Julius was a man of blood. His assumption of that name was itself an expression of his admiration of the ancient con- queror, Julius Caesar, and a mode of avowing his preference of the military to the sacerdotal character. Almost the whole ten years oi" his pontificate (1503-1513) were spent in the field of battle, amidst scenes of carnage and slaughter. The evident object of his ambition was to reduce the whole of the peninsula of Italy under the sovereignty of the self-styled successoi's of St. Peter. He suc- ceeded in compelling the Venetians to yield up several cities to the Holy See, and had he not been cut short by death in his victorious career, it is supposed by many that the object of his ambition might have been realized. It is related of him that he was so fierce and indefatigable a warrior, that though decrepit with age, he did not shrink from the toils of the meanest soldier ; that in prosecuting his schemes of ambition, he would never listen to a proposal of peace, while the slightest prospect of success remained, though to be purchased at the cost of thousands of lives ; and that two hun- dred thousand men perished in battle through his means ; that al- most the only use he made of his pontifical function was to dictate his bulls and anathemas, which he did with the same energy as he commanded his army ; and finally, in the words of a cele^bratcd chronicler of France, that in his fierce and bloody conflicts on the field of battle, " he acted more like a sultan of the Turks than as THE VICAR or THE Peince OF Peace, and the common Father of all Christians."* § 68. — Lewis XII., king of France, provoked at the insults he received from pope Julius, is said by many authors to have caused a medal to be struck, with the inscription, ' Perdam Bahylonis nomen ' — that is, " I will destroy the name of Babylon." It is pro- per here to add that the authenticity and occasion of this celebrated motto, has aflTorded matter of keen debate to respectable Vi/riters on both sides of the question. There is no question, however, that Lewis was violently incensed against the arrogant military Pope, and that in the year 1511, several cardinals under his protection assembled a council at Pisa, with the intention of setting bounds to the power, and curbing the tyranny of this furious and ambitious PontiflT. Julius, on the other hand, thundered his anathemas against the council of Pisa, excommunicated all the members, and degraded the cardinals from their dignity. The council returned the com- pliment (like that of Basil, seventy years before), by summoning tlie Pope into their presence, declaring him contumacious, and eventually suspending him from his office. The warlike pontiff, curred in the life of pope Paul IV., who, in 1555, absolved himself from an oatli which he had talcen in the Conclave. His Holiness had sworn to make only four cardinals ; but violated his obligation. His Supremacy declared, that the Pontiff could not be bound, or his aulhwity limited, even by an oath. The contrary "he characterized as " a manifest heresy." ' Le contraire 6toit une heresie manifeste.' (^Father Paul Sarpi, lib. ii., sec. 27.) * Mezerai Abrege Chron., torn, v., p. 117; reign of Louis XII. 434 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book n. AcceBsion of pope Leo X. Ennctment of a general council against the freedom of the presa. relying upon his carnal, at least as much as his spiritual defences, treated these proceedings with contempt and laughter, and sum- moned a council at Rome,* which was opened on the 3d of May, 1512, and in which the proceedings of the council of Pisa were annulled, and condemned in the severest and most insulting lan- guage. This council of the Pope is called by Romanists" the eigh- teenth general council, or fifth of Lateran, though almost all who were present were Italians, and the total number of cardinals was fifteen, and the archbishops and bishops, together, eighty. Proba- bly the fierce denunciations of the Pope and this petty general council against the council of Pisa, would have been followed by the most dire anathemas against king Louis, and other princes who favored that council, had not death snatched away this fierce, turbulent, and bloody Pope on the 20th of February, 1513. § 69. — The successor of Julius was Leo X., a name which is insepa- rable from the history of the glorious reformation, for the determined but unavailing opposition that he offered to the doctrines and measures of Luther. Under Leo the fifth council of Lateran continued its ses- sions, at various intervals, till the month of March, 1517. Among the decrees of this council was one forbidding the freedom of the press, which in consequence of the invention of the art of printing had for some years been a source of annoyance to Rome. Pope Leo and the council ordained " that no book should be hereafter printed at Rome, or in any other city or diocese, until it had been examined — at Rome by the vicar of his Holiness, and the mas- ter of the sacred palace — in Other dioceses, by the bishop, or some doctor appointed by him, or by the inquisitor of the place, on pain of various temporal penalties and immediate excommunication." Popery has probably never received so severe a blow, as in the in- vention of printing ; and according to human probabilities, the refor- mation would have been nipped in the bud, and the world would still have been covered with popish darkness as it was amidst the gloom of the world's midnight, had it not been for the noble art which multi- plied, almost with the speed of thought, the fearless protestations of the reformers against the profligacy and corruption of Rome. The date of this noble art is generally placed in 1444, though some years doubtless elapsed before it was very extensively used. About 1472, not thirty years after the invention, pope Sixtus IV. commenced the crusade against the freedom of the press which Popery has cai-ried on from that time to this. In, 1501 the vile Alexander VI. ordained under the severest penalties, that .io books of any description should be printed, in any diocese, without the sanction of the Bishop,! and a few years aftel- Leo X., in the manner we ha\ e seen, renewed this prohibition. § 70. — There was another enactment of the fifth council of Late * The bull of Julius convoking this council, in which he calls the council of Pisa a synagogue of Satan, and compares its authors to Dathan and Abiram, may he found in Raynald's Annals, ad Ann. 1511. •[■ Raynald's Annals ad Ann. 1501, s. 36. CHAP, v.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 435 A papist's groans at the III success of the laws against heretics, in preventing the Rerorinution. ran, which deserves a passing mention. This was a decree enjoin- ing upon the Inquisitions estabhshed in various countries to proceed zealously in tlie punishment and extirpation of heretics and Jews, especially against those who had relapsed, from whom every hope of pardon was withheld. These decrees are recorded by the Ro- mish anrfahst Raynald, the continuator. of the annals of Baio- nius, who exclaims in tones which we might almost imagine to pro- ceed from a hungry wolf, disappointed of his prey by the watchful- ness of the shepherd and his faithful dog. "How ill, alas ! these most holy laws were observed, appears from the hydi-a-birth of the Lutheran heresy which came so soon afterwards."* § 71. — On the 16th of March, 1517, was held the twelfth and con- cluding session of the council. The bull of dissolution announced the accomplishment of every object of the assembly : peace had been re-estabhshed among the princes of Christendom ; the schis- matic synod of Pisa abolished ; and, above all, the reformation of the Church and court of Rome had been sufficiently provided for I There were, indeed, some fathers who ventured to argue, that every abuse had not even yet been removed, and that the lasting interests of the Church would be better promoted by the further continuance of the council — but the majority supported the Pope ; and this universal assembly of the western Church, after having deliberately regulated all matters requiring any attention, and restored the estab- lishment to perfect health and security, separated with complacency and confidence 1 Little did Leo and the fathers of the council dream of the storm that was impending over them ; of the lightning of heaven that was already gathering to purify the moral atmo- sphere of the popish miasma that corrupted it. It is a coincidence worth remarking, th^t in the very same year, almost before the pre- lates of Rome h^d exchanged their parting congratulations on the imagined peace and security of the church, Luther had commenced his bold and fearless preaching against that plague-spot upon the polluted and rotten carcase of anti-Christ — the infamous doctrine of INDULGENCES. * Raynald. ad Ann. 1514, sect. 31,&.c. 436 CHAPTER VI. THE REFORMATION. LUTHER AND TETZEL. THE REFORMERS WAR AGAINST INDULGENCES. § 72. — We have seen, in a previous part of this work, the profit- able use that was made by the popes whenever they wished to en- rich their coffers, at the expense of a credulous and superstitious multitude, of the doctrine of indulgences, — the pretence that a miserable mortal, often polluted with the most awful crimes, had power to control the punishments of God's justice in the invisible world, and to grant a plenary indulgence for the most flagrant crimes, to such as would purchase it with money. The horrid im- piety of this blasphemous pretension is such that we can hardly help feeling astonished at the forbearance of the insulted Deity in suffering his name thus to be blasphemed, his prerogatives thus in- vaded, and his creatures thus outraged and abused for so long a series of ages. But the justice of God does not sleep for ever. It pleased him that the very means of the aggrandizement and wealth of apostate Rome should also be the cause of its receiving a blow from which it never has, and never will recover. Indulgences, and the money they procured, were for ages the inexhaustible source of papal Rome's grandeur and wealth. Indulgences, and the indignation they excited. Were the occasion of her fall. The proud structure of St. Peter's, it is true, was built upon a foundation of indulgences ; every stone in that gorgeous structure, if it had a tongue, might tell a tale of rob- bery, or murder, or adultery ; or of the outrageous cheat announced by the infamous Tetzel, " the very moment the money jingles in the chest, the soul for whom it is paid escapes from the pains of purgatory, and flies to heaven." Yet, when the courtly and luxu- rious Leo proclaimed his bull of indulgences, for the building of St. Peter's, little did he imagine how dearly that proudest of all the temples of anti-Chi-ist would be bought. And there is not a true protestant in Christendom, however much he may despise the spiritual knavery and imposture of the indulgences upon which St. Peter's is erected, that would not regard the glorious reformation as cheaply purchased at the price of the millions of gold and silver it would require to build ten thousand such costly erections. A work like the present would not be complete without a sketch of the incidents connected with that memorable event in the annals of Popery, the glorious reformation. Yet it is a source of sin- cere and unmingled satisfaction to the author, that the recent pub- lication and unparalleled circulation of the most captivating, au- thentic, and thorough history of the Reformation that has ever CHAP. VI.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 437 Indulgences to build St. Peter's. Prices of sins in ttie Tax-boolcs of tiie Roman CliaQCeiy. been written in any language,* precludes the necessity of devoting more than a few pages to that momentous moral revolution ; and even those few will be devoted mainly to facts connected with the reformation, which reflect light upon the character and the history of Popery. § 73. — The first stone of the present church of St. Peter's at Rome, was laid in the year 1506 by the ambitious and warlike pope Julius II., and when Leo X. succeeded him on the papal throne, he found the treasury of the church almost exhausted by the ceaseless wars and ambitious projects of his predecessor. " Making use," says Sleidan, " of that power which his predecessors had usurped over all Christian churches, he sent abroad into all kingdoms his letters and bulls, with ample promises of the full pardon of sins, and of eternal salvation to such as would purchase the same with money !" It is obvious that the multiplication of crimes in a superstitious and dissolute age, would be proportionate to the facility of obtain- ing pardon. It had been a practice in the different governments of Europe to allow the payment of a fine to the magistrate, by way of compounding for the punishment due to an offence. The ava- ricious and unprincipled court of Rome adopted a similar plan in religious concerns, and intent only on the augmentation of revenue, it even rejoiced in the degradation of the human mind and charac- ter. The officers of the Roman chancery published a book con- taining the exact sum to be paid for any particular sin. A deacon guilty of murder was absolved for twenty crowns. A bishop or abbot might assassinate for three hundred livres. An ecclesiastic might violate his vows of chastity, even with the most aggravating circumstances, for the third part of that sum. To these and similar items, it is added, " Take notice particularly that such graces and dispensations are not granted to the poor, /or not having wherewith to pay they cannot he comforted." ■\ * It is almost unnecessary to say, that the author refers to D'Aubigne's popular and invaluable "History of the Reformation," to which he would take this oppor- tunity of expressing his obligation for most of the incidents connected with Lu- ther's struggles against the abominations of Rome. The work of D'Aubigne has lately been honored with a special notice of reprobation m the Pope's bull of 1844. Thank God it is translated into Italian ! Let D'Aiibigne's History of the Reformation only be read throughout the whole of outraged and injured Italy, and the world will see that the Pope had reason to tremble on his tottering throne. t Taxa Cancellar. Romanae, quoted in Cox's life of Melancthon, chap. iii. As it has become usual with Romanists to deny the authenticity of these Tax-books for sin, since it has been discovered that protestants have become acquainted with their contents, it is proper to remark that more than twenty-seven editions of the work had appeared, before any one thought of denying their authenticity. The evi- dence on this subject has been weighed and sifted a hundred times, and the result is that in the opinion of the most eminent literary men, the authenticity of this genuine Romish work is established without the shadow of a doubt. The foUow- mf doctors and youths assembled, and Luther, put- ting himself at their head, led the procession to the appointed spot. A scaffold had already been erected. One of the oldest among the Masters of Arts soon set fire to it. As the flames arose, Luther drew nigh, and cast into the midst of them the Canon Law, the Decretals, the Clementines, the Extravagants of the popes, and a portion of the works of Eck and of Emser. When these books had been reduced to ashes, Luther took the Pope's bull in his hand, held it up, and said aloud : " Since thou hast afflicted the Lord's Holy One, may fire unquenchable afflict and consume thee 1" and thereupon he threw it into the flames. He then with much compo- sure bent his steps toward the city, and the crowd of doctors, pro- fessors and students, with loud expressions of applause, returned to Wittemberg in his train. " The Decretals," said Luther, " are like a body whose face is as fair as a virgin's ; but its limbs are forceful as those of the lion, and its tail is that of the wily serpent. In all the papal laws, there is not a single word to teach us what Jesus Christ truly is." " My enemies," he said again, " by burning my books, may have disparaged the truth in the minds of the common people, and occasioned the loss of souls ; for that reason I have burned their books in my turn. This is a mighty struggle but just begun. Hitherto I have been only jesting with the Pope. I entered upon this work in the name of God ; — He will bring it to a close without my aid, by his own power. If they dare to burn my books — of which it is no vain boast to say that they contain more of the Gospel than all the Pope's books put together, — I may with far bet- ter reason burn theirs, which are wholly worthless." By this act, the daring reformer distinctly announced his separation from the Pope and the papal church. He now accepted the excommunica- tion which Rome had pronounced. He proclaimed in the face of Christendom that between him and the Pope there was war even to the death. Like the Roman who burned the vessels that had conveyed him to the enemy's shore, he left himself no resource but to advance and offer battle. After this, there could be no peace with Rome. § 97. — On the 3d of January, 1521, Leo issued his final bull of excommunication against Luther. The former had given him op- portunity to retract within a limited time ; in this, the sentence was definitively pronounced, and Luther declared an incorrigible heretic, fitted only for destruction. Aleander and Caraccioli were appointed legates of the Pope, and after unsuccessfully using everv possible 464 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vi. The papal legates permitted by the Emperor to bum Luther's books, but not to burn him. persuasion with the Elector, to employ against the reformer the secular arm, they busied themselves everywhere throughout the eitlpire in collecting his writings and publicly committing them to the flames. To these measures, the papal legates had obtained the consent of the young emperor Charles V. ; but after all, Aleander cared little about books or papers — Luther himself was the mark he aimed at. " These fires," he remarked again, " are not sufficient to purify the pestilential atmosphere of Germany. Though they may strike terror into the simple-minded, they leave the authors of the mischief unpunished. We must have an imperial edict sen- tencing Luther to death." Aleander found the Emperor less com- pliant when the reformer's life was demanded, than he had shown himself before, when his books alone were attacked. " Raised as I have been so recently to the throne, I cannot," said Charles, " without the advice of my counsellors, and the consent of the princes of the empire, strike such a blow as this against a faction so numerous and so powerfully protected. Let us first ascertain what our father, the elector of Saxony, thinks of the matter ; we shall then be pre- pared to give our answer to the Pope." The legates, therefore, renewed their applications to Frederick, but that humane and honor- able-minded prince shuddered at the thought of delivering up the courageous Luther to the fate of Huss and of Jerome. At length, for the first time, the Elector by his counsellors publicly declared his intentions with legard to Luther. He stated to the papal nuncios that " neither his imperial majesty nor any one else had yet made it appear to him that Luther's writings had been refuted, or demonstrated to be fit only for the flames ; that he demanded, there- fore, that doctor Luther should be furnished with a safe-conduct, and permitted to answer for himself before a tribunal composed of learned, pious, and impartial judges." In reply to this, said the arrogant Aleander, " I should like to know what would the Elector think, if one of his subjects were to appeal from his judgment to that of the king of France, or some other foreign sovereign." But, per- ceiving at last that the Saxon counsellors were not to be wrought upon, " We will execute the bull," said he ; " we will pursue and burn the writings of Luther. As for his person," he added, aflect- ing a tone of disdainful indifference, "the Pope has little inclination to imbrue his hands in the blood of the unhappy wretch." Thus did the leoates of Rome vainly attempt to conceal their mortification and chagrin, that their expected prey had escaped out of their hands. 465 CHAPTER IX. LUTHER AT THE DIET OF WORMS, AND IN HIS PATM03 AT WAKTBURG, § 98. — A GRAND diet of the empire was about to be held, at which the Emperor and all the princes of Germany would be present. Aleander received directions to attend it, and to demand, on the part of his master, the employment of the secular arm for the sup- pression of the rising heresy. The Diet of Worms was opened Jan- viary 6, 1521. A more splendid assembly has been scarcely ever held. The nobles of Germany were anxious to do honor to the court of their young Emperor, and to testify their dutiful regards. They vied with each other in the costliness of their equipments, and the number and rank of their attendants. It seemed as if the wealth of the empire had been collected together at one place for proud display. The occasion, too, was unusually interesting and impor- tant. In addition to political affairs of pressing urgency, the state of religion called for anxious deliberation. The cry for reform was heard on every hand. All saw that the disease required prompt attention ; but none knew what means to suggest, while danger was daily increasing. Aleander, the papal nuncio, was true to his mas- ter's interests. On his arrival at Worms he exerted himself to the utmost to procure the immediate condemnation of Luther. He would have had him proscribed and put to the ban of the empire, that his party might be crushed by one vigorous blow. But this was found to be impracticable. The reformer's opinions had taken too deep root to be easily plucked up. Some even talked of taking the whole matter out of the Pope's hands, and referring the deci- sion to impartial judges, chosen by the principal potentates of Eu- rope. Aleander was perplexed and enraged. Still he persevered, sometimes applying to the Emperor, sometimes to his ministers and other members of the diet, among whom he scattered profusely large sums oi money intrusted to him by the court of Rome. At length he succeeded, by force of bribes and intrigue, in obtaining permission to address the assembled diet. He appeai-ed before them on the 13th of February, and spoke for three hours in a strain of impassioned eloquence, describing Luther as a monster of iniqui- ty, whose crimes ought to be visited with the utmost sevej-ity of the laws. Aleander had hoped to obtain his condemnation without giving him an opportunity to reply ; but much to the chagrin of the Legate, the reformer was summoned to the diet, that he might in person avow or retract the opinions imputed to him, and be dealt with ac- cordingly. With the summons an ample safe-conduct was trans- mitted, guaranteeing his security in going and i-eturning ; signed, not only by the Emperor, but also by those princes through whose States it would be necessary for him to travel. For this precaution he was indebted to the elector of Saxony, who knew the men with 466 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vi. Persuasions of friends nnd foes to keep Luther from the Diet at Worms. His couragoous reply. ■whom he had to deal, and positively refused to allow the reformer to leave Wittemberg without that security. This was another mor- tification to Aleander, who was fully prepared to act over again the iniquity of the infamous council of Constance, which caused Huss to be seized and bm'ned, notwithstanding the assurance given for his safety. The popish Nuncio was, however, compelled to sub- mit to the decision of the diet, which he did with as good a grace as possible.* § 99. — Strenuous efforts were employed to prevent Luther from appearing at Worms. His friends trembled for his safety and his life. His enemies dreaded (what some of them had already wit- nessed) his reasoning, eloquence, and knowledge of the scriptures, so superior to their own. The papal party tempted him with the hope of an amicable adjustment: the advocates of truth sought to excite his apprehensions. All their efforts failed. " Tell your mas- ter," he said to a messenger from Spalatin, " that though there SHOULD BE AS MANY DEVILS IN WoEMS AS THERE ARE TILES ON THE ROOFS OF THE HOUSES, I WOULD GO 1" Uninfluenced by persuasions and undaunted by threats, Luther entered Worms on the 16th of April. The day after his arrival he was summoned to attend the diet. On the mcrning of that day his soul had endured unwonted depression, almost amounting to an- guish. But in his distress he sought the Lord with strong crying and tears, and was graciously heard. Peace returned, and holy, undaunted courage again filled his spirit. He cheerfully attended the officer who was appointed to conduct him to the hall of audi- ence. He reached the place with some difficulty, so great was the crowd that thronged every avenue, in eager curiosity to see the man whose fame had spread throughout Germany, and on whom the thunders of the Vatican had hitherto fallen harmlessly. At length he stood before the august assembly. The Emperor occupied the throne. Next to him sat his brother, the arch-duke Ferdinand. Six electors of the empire were present ; twenty-four dukes ; eight margraves ; thirty prelates ; seven ambassadors ; the deputies of ten iree cities ; princes, counts and barons ; the papal nuncios ; in all, two hundred and four noble and illustrious personages. The countenances of many betrayed deep inward concern and anxiety. Luther had held communion with God, and enjoyed " perfect peace." On the table was laid a collection of his writings. He was asked whether he acknowledged them as his productions, and whether he was prepai'ed to retract the opinions they contained. To the first question he answered in the affirmative. To the second he replied that the question was very serious and important, and ought not to be answered without due consideration, lest he should in any way * See a compendious, but deeply interesting history of the " Reformation in Europe, by the author of the Council of Trent " (Rev. J. M. Cramp), chap, iii., sect. 3, a work which may be profitably read by those whose time would forbid the more diffuse and circumstantial, but thrilling narrative of D'AubignS. CHAP. IX.] POPERY ON A TOTTEPJNG THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 467 Luther refuses to retract his writings. His noble and memorable protestation. injure the cause of truth ; he asked, therefore, for a brief delay. So reasonable a request could not be refused. Next day he appeared again. The questions were repeated. Luther then addressed the assembly. He had acknowledged, he said, the books on the table to be his. Their contents differed much from each other. In some, he had treated of faith and works, un- masking the errors of the age ; he could not retract them without treachery to the Gospel. A second class consisted of writings in which he had exposed the enormous corruptions and abuses of the papacy ; these were so notorious, and had been so long and so justly the subjects of loud complaint in Germany, that it would be worse than folly to suppress the works in which they were held up to pub- lic reprobation. In the third place, he had in some of his books attacked individuals who had advocated existing evils ; and he was willing to confess (for he could not pretend to be free from fault) that he had sometimes written with unbecoming violence : yet he could not retract the sentiments advanced in those writings, because such a course would encourage the enemies of the truth, and embolden them in their opposition. Wherefore he prayed that instead of per- sisting in the demand for retractation, the diet would take measures to convince him, from the Scriptures, of his error. As soon as he should be convinced, he would immediately acknowledge it. " You have not answered the question," said the chancellor of the arch- bishop of Treves, to whom the management of this part of the busi- ness was intrusted. " A clear and express reply is required. Will you or will you not retract ?" The reformer's answer was worthy of him. " Since your most serene majesty, and the princes, require a simple answer, I will give it thus : unless I shall be convinced by proofs from Scripture, or by evident reason (for I believe neither in popes nor in councils, since they have frequently erred and contra- dicted themselves), /cflHTZoi choose but adhere to the word of God, which has possession of my conscience. Nor can I possibly, nor will / ever make any recantation, since it is neither safe nor honest to act contrary, to conscience. Here I take my stand ; 1 cannot do other- wise. God be my help 1 Amen." § 100. — This speech made adeep impression. The Emperor himself was struck with admiration. " If you will not retract," resumed the chancellor, " the Emperor and the States of the empire will see what ought to be done with an obstinate heretic." " God be my help," rejoined Luther ; " I can retract nothing." He then with- drew, leaving the diet in deliberation. When he was called in again, another effort was made. His appeal to Scripture was treated with contempt, since he had revived errors which had been condemned by the council of Constance ; as if the authority of the council of Constance were superior to that of the word of God ! In conclusion, the chancellor said, " The Emperor commands you to say simply, yes or no, whether you mean to maintain whatever you have advanced, or whether you will retract a part?" " I have no other answer to give than what I have already given," replied 468 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vi. The popish enemies of Luther seek in vain to induce the Emperor to violate his safe-conduct. the courageous reformer In spite of the persuasions or menaces of his opposers, he persisted in this noble determination. In reply- to the entreaties of the archbishop of Treves, who labored hard to induce him to submit to the diet — " I will put my person and my hfe in the Emperor's hands," said he ; " but the word of God — never !" He claimed for every Christian the right of private judgment ; if he consented to a council, it would only be on condition that the council should be compelled to judge according to Scripture. Protracted debates followed. Some counselled the violation of the safe-conduct, and urged the Emperor to seize Luther, and put him to death. But the high-minded princes of Germany scorned the base proposal. Charles himself, bigoted as he was, revolted at it. " If good faith were banished from the whole earth," he exclaimed, " it ought still to find refuge in the courts of kings." At length, the adversaries of the reformer saw that it was useless to labor longer with him to induce him to submit, and other measures must be adopted. Efforts were made by some of Luther's bitterest popish adversaries, but without success, to induce the Emperor, like his predecessor Sigismund, to violate his safe-conduct, and to leave Luther, as Sigismund had left Huss, to the tender mercies of the church ; and it was in reply to these suggestions, that Charles uttered that expression already mentioned in the account of the cruel and treacherous murder of Huss, " / should not like to blush like Sigismund." (See page 402.) On the 25th of April, the chancellor. Doctor Eck, Luther's former antagonist at Leipsic, attended by the chancellor of the Empire, and a notary, presented themselves. The Chancellor ad- dressed him as follows : — " Martin Luther, his Imperial Majesty, the Electors, Princes, and States of the Empire, having repeatedly and in various ways, — but in vain, — exhorted you to submission, — the Emperor, in his character of defender of the 'Catholic faith, finds himself compelled to resort to other measures. He therefore orders you to return to whence you came, within the space of twen- ty-one days, and prohibits you from disturbing the public peace on your journey, either by preaching or writing." § 101 — If Charles V. had too much regard for his word to violate his safe-conduct to Luther, it was not because he favored either the reformer or his doctrines. He was willing to take any other step, to oblige the Pope and his emissaries, and to put a stop, if possible, to the rising heresy. At the instigation of Aleander, he issued an edict, the draft of which was prepared by the papal Legate him- self, placing Luther under the ban of the empire, and threatening the same to all who should favor or protect him. The nature of this sentence will be best explained by the following extract from the decree : — " We, Charles the Fifth, &c., to the Electors, Princes, Prelates, and to all to whom these presents may come. . . . The Augustin monk, Martin Luther, regardless of our exhortations, has madly attacked the holy church, and attempted to destroy it by writings full of blasphemy. ... In a word, and passing over many CHAP. IX.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 469 Lulher under the ban of the empire. The Emperor's edict. Seized on hia way home- Other evil intentions, this being, who is no man, but Satan himself under the semblance of a man in a monk's hood, has collected in one offensive mass, all the worst heresies of former ages, adding his own to the number. . . . We have, therefore, dismissed from our presence this Luther, whom all reasonable men count a mad- man, or possessed by the devil ; and it is our intention that, so soon as the term of his safe-conduct is expired, effectual measures be forthwith taken to put a stop to his fury. . . . For this end, and on pain of incurring the penalty of treason, we hereby forbid you to receive the said Luther from the moment when the said term is ex- pired, or to harbor or to give him meat or drink, or by word or act, publicly or in private, to aid or abet him. We further enjoin you to seize, or cause him to be seized, wherever he may be, and to bring him before us without delay, or hold him in durance until you shall be informed how to deal with him, and have received the re- ward due to your co-operation in this holy work. ... As to his adherents, you are enjoined to seize upon them, putting them down, and confiscating their property. . . . And if any one, whatever may be his rank, should dare to act contrary to this decree of our Imperial Majesty, we command that he be placed under the ban of the Empire. Let each one observe this decree." § 102. — In the meanwhile, Luther had left Worms, and after spending a day or two on his way at his native village, at Eisenach, was on the road to Wittemberg, accompanied by Amsdorflf and his brother James. They skirted the woods of Thuringen, taking the path that leads to Waltershausen. As the wagon was passing a narrow defile near the ruined church of Glisbach, a short distance from the castle of Altenstein, suddenly a noise was heard, and in a moment, five horsemen, masked and armed from head to foot, fell upon them. His brother James, as soon as he caught sight of the assailants, jumped from the wagon, and fled as fast as he could, without uttering a word. The driver would have resisted. " Stop," cried a hoarse voice, and instantly one of the attacking party threw him to the earth. Another of the masks grasped AmsdorfF, and held him fast. While this was doing, the three horsemen laid hold on Luther, maintaining profound silence. They forced him to alight, and throwing a knight's cloak over his shoulders, set him on a led horse that they had with them. This done, the two other masks let go Amsdorff and the wagoner, and the whole five sprang into their saddles. One dropped his cap, but they did not stop to recover it ; and in the twinkling of an eye, the party and their prisoner were lost in the thick gloom of the forest. At first they took the direction of Broderode ; but they rapidly changed their route, and without quitting the forest, rode first in one direction and then in another, turning their horses' feet to baffle any attempt to track their course. Luther, little used to riding, was soon over- come with fatigue. His guides permitted him to stop for a few instants. He rested on the earth beside a beech tree, and drank some water from a spring which still bears his name. His brother 470 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [booetl Popery robbed of its prey. Luther curried to the caslle of Wartbur& James, continuing his flight from the scene of the rencounter, reached Waltershausen that evening. The driver, hastily throw- ing himself into the vsragon, in which Amsdorff had already mount- ed, galloped his horse at full speed, and conducted Luther's friend to Wittemberg. At Waltershausen, at Wittemberg, in the open country, the villages and towns on the route, the news spread that Luther was carried off. Some rejoiced at the report, but the greater number were struck with astonishment and indignation, — and Soon a cry of grief resounded throughout Germany — " Luther has fallen into the hands of his enemies !" § 103. — These apprehensions, however, were groundless. The abduction of Luther was planned by his friends and protectors, with the concurrence of the elector Frederick, and, as some sup- pose, with the connivance even of the Emperor himself, who, not- withstanding his desire to court the favor of the Pope, and to up- hold the religion of Rome, might yet have been unwilling to incur the indignation of Germany by delivering up Luther to the flames. Be this as it may ; without doubt, the hand of God was visible in thus providing his faithful servant with a retreat from the rage of his bloodthirsty enemies. When the emperor Charles was induced to issue his edict against Luther, doubtless his popish adversaries thought that the victory was theirs. Like Haman glutting his eyes with the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, Aleander and his associates were, doubtless, feasting their imaginations with the expected destruction of the reformer and the reformation. But God had other designs. Popery must be robbed of its prey, and his faithful servant must have leisure and retirement to continue his bold exposure of the mother of harlots, and above all, to give the New Testament, from which he had learned the doctrines he preached, to the Germans in their native tongue. These objects were accomplished by his mysterious but providential abduction. The place to which Luther was conducted by his mysterious guides was the lofty and isolated castle of Wartburg, an ancient resi- dence of the landgraves of Thuringen. They took away his ec- clesiastical habit, attiring him in the knightly dress prepared for him, and enjoining him to let his beard and hair grow, that no one in the castle might know who he was. The attendants of the cas- tle of Wartburg were to know the prisoner only by the name of knight George. Luther scarcely recognized himself under his sin- gular metamorphosis. Left at length to his meditations, he had leisure to revolve the extraordinary events that had befallen him at Worms, the uncertain future that awaited him, and his new and strange abode. During the ten months of the reformer's captivity, the knight George was not idle. In the castle of Wartburg, Luther composed works which mightily tended to shake the Romish power in Ger- many. Auricular confession, private masses and monastic vows, were the themes on which his resistless eloquence was employed. He held them up to the indignant reprobation of men, and satisfac- CHAP. IX.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1645. 471 TraDfilatea the New Testament. Returna to Wittoniberg. Dies peaceAtllY ou his bed. torily proved that they are alike opposed to the word of God and to Christian freedom. But his greatest work was the translation of the New Testament into the German language. That also was execut- ed at Wartburg. It is the noblest monument of his genius, and was the most precious gift that Germany had yet received. The volume was published in September, 1522, and was received with gratitude and joy by those who loved the truth ; but it was denoun- ced, vilified, and in many places publicly burned by the bigoted Ro- manists. § 104. — At length, Luther left his retreat, and arrived at Wittem- berg, on the 6th of March, 1522, where he was joyfully received by his beloved Melancthon, and other fellow-laborers in the work of reformation, and immediately resumed his former labors with ac- ceptance and success. The imperial edict had proved as harmless against him as the papal bulls, and notwithstanding his being placed under the ban of the empire, by which all were forbidden to give him food or shelter, and authorized to seize his person wherever he might be found, no one presumed to molest him. There seemed to be a shield of divine protection continually around him, and on it inscribed in characters which made even his popish enemies to falter, " Touch not mine anointed, and do my peophet no harm." The history of the remaining years of Luther's life, of the rapid progress of his opinions in Germany, France, Switzerland, and England, and other countries ; of the diets of Nuremburg, Spires, and Augsburg, and the protest of the reformers against the deci- sions of Spires,* seem to belong rather to a history of the Reforma- tion than of Romanism. It will be sufficient here to add, that in spite of all the rage of his adversaries, Luther continued for nearly a quarter of a century after his return from his Patmos (as he was accustomed to call it) at Wartburg, to advocate those doctrines for which he had made so noble a stand before the crowned and mitred heads of the diet at "Worms, and with redoubled energy to expose the abominations, and attack the corruptions of apostate Rome. Luther died peacefully and triumphantly in his bed on the 18th of February, 1546, in the sixty-third year of his age,t and the * In the year 1526, a diet of the empire had heen held at Spires, which granted liberty to the reformers of holding their opinions till a general council, notwith- standing the clamors of the popish party for the execution of the edict of Worms, against Luther and his friends. In 1529, a second diet was held at Spires, in which the popish party triumphed. The decisions of the former diet of Spires were revoked, and the mass was ordered to be restored to the churches. Against this decree, the reformers entered their solemn protest, and from this circumstance were called protestants. ,.,,,,,.-, , . ,. + For some few years before his death, Luther had suttered much from disease. His popish enemies hoped every day he would die, and about a year before his death a pamphlet was published at Naples, to inform the world that Luther was dead and giving the particulars of his end. In this ebullition of popish malignity, it was asserted that Luther had spent his time in gluttony and drunkenness, and blaspheming the Pope ; that upon the approach of death he had received the sacra- 472 fflSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book n. Circamstancca of Lather's death. Ignatius Loyala, the founder of the Jeauils. anti-Christian church of Rome never has, and never can, recover from the blow struck by the German reformer, till the voice of pro- phecy is fulfilled and the triumphant shout of the angel of the Reve- lation is heard, " Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen." ^ 105. — Contemporary with the great reformer, another remark- able individual, but of an entirely opposite character, appeared in Spain, and five years previous to the death of Luther, succeeded in establishing a Society which exerted a mighty influence on be- half of the papacy in after generations, the celebrated order of the Jesuits. This was Ignatius Loyala, who was born in 1491, and was consequently eight years younger than Luther. In early life, Loyala was a soldier and a warrior, infected with all the vices that are so common in camps. At about the age of thirty, he received a severe wound in the leg, at the siege of Pampeluna, in the war be- tween the emperor Charles V., and the French king, Francis I. During the lingering sickness which ensued upon this wound, he em- ployed himself in reading books of romance and chivalry, and the lives of the Saints, till combining the two ideas of chivalry and de- votion to the Virgin, he resolved to become a knight errant in the cause of " our Blessed Lady." Full of this idea he arose from his bed an altered man. The soldier had become a Saint. He betook himself to study, self-mor- tification and penance. He journeyed to Italy, to Jerusalem, and there, on the spot, where Christ was crucified, claimed to have re- ceived from the Saviour himself, a revelation, that he should found ment, and immediately died ; but the consecrated wafer had leaped out of the stomach of the arch-heretic, and to the astonishment of all beholders, remained suspended in the air (!) ; that the morning after he was buried, the tomb was found empty, but such an intolerable smell, and such an odor of burnt brimstone came from it, that it made everybody sick who came near it, whereupon many fearing the Devil would in like manner come and steal their dead bodies out of their graves, repented and joined the Catholic church ! ! A copy of this pamphlet was sent to Luther by the Landgrave of Hesse, with which the reformer was very much amused, and in reply, only expressed his joy that " the Devil and his crew," the Pope and the papists, hated him so heartily. Luther died during a visit to his native village of Eisleben. About the last words he uttered were, " O, heavenly father, although this body is breaking away from me, and I am departing from this life, yet I certainly know I shall for ever be with thee, for no one can pluck me out of thy hand." Dr. Jonas said to him, " Most beloved father, do you still hold on to Christ, the Son of God, our Saviour and Redeemer ?" His fading countenance once more briglitened, his clear blue eyes sparkled with intelligence, and he replied, in a distinct and thrilling tone, " O yes !" These were the last words he was heard to utter. An affecting incident occurred just as he breathed his last. One of the old men of the village in at- tendance, who, nearly sixty years before, had often carried the favorite little Martin to school in bad weather, forgetting in that moment the mighty reformer, and think- ing only of the friend of his aged heart, putting his withered face to the cheek of the departed Luther, and his arm across his bosom, exclaimed in the plaintive notes of his childhood, " Martin, dear Martin, do speak to me once more !" But there was no reply. The mighty spirit had fled, and Luther was in the presence of that Saviour whom he had ardently loved and faithfully served. (See an interesting article on the last days and death of Luther, in the Biblical Repository and Clas- sical Review for April, ] 845, /rom the pen of the Rev. Professor Stowe.D. DA CHAP. IX.] POPERY ON A TOTTERING THRONE— A. D. 1303-1545. 473 Pope FhuI hi. sanctions the order of the Jesuits. Popish parallel between the Jesuit Rnd the Iteformer a new order, to be called " The Society of Jesus." Returning home, he was joined by Lainez (the second general of the order), Francis Xavier, Salmeron, Bobadilla, Rodriguez, and Le Fevre ; and in 1534 these seven united in recording their solemn vow at the altar of St. Denys, in the city of Paris. Six years afterwards (A. D. 1540), a bull was granted by Pope Paul III., sanctioning the order of the Jes- uits, granting to the members the most ample privileges, and appoint- ing Ignatius Loyola the first general of the order, with almost des- potic power over its members. In return, Ignatius and his followers were to render unlimited obedience to the Pope, and to hold them- selves in readiness, at a moment's notice, to go to any part of the world to advance the interests and to promote the designs of the Holy See ; and the wily pontiff was too sagacious not to perceive the im- mense value of such an army of obedient soldiers to fight his battles in all parts of the world, since the terrible blow inflicted on the pa- pacy by the efforts of Luther and his associates, in the work of refor- mation. Thus was originated a society which has filled a large share in the history of the world for the last three centuries, and which, after passing through many reverses, still exists ; an ever-active and almost omnipresent instrument of papal despotism ; the secret, insinu- ating, but ever-watchful and vigilant foe to freedom, civil or religious, and to the pure and unadulterated gospel of Christ. § 106. — The following parallel between Luther and Ignatius Loy- ala, from the pen of Damianus, a bigoted papist, one ofthe first his- torians of the Jesuits, may be regarded, considering the source whence it proceeds, as the highest possible eulogium upon the Ger- man reformer It is taken from the " Synopsis Historic Societ. Jes.," printed in 1640 : "In the same year, 1521, Luther, moved by a consummate malice, declared war openly against the church : Ignatius, wounded in the fortress of Pampeluna, having become bet- ter, and, as it were, stronger, from his wound, raised the standard in defence of religion. Luther attacks the See of St. Peter, with insults and blasphemies : Ignatius, as if to undertake his cause, is miraculously cured by St. Peter. Luther, subdued by rage, ambition, and lust, quits a religious life : Ignatius, eagerly obeying the call of God, changes from a profane to a religious life. Sacrilegious Luther contracts an incestuous marriage with a holy virgin of God : Ignatius binds himself by a vow of perpetual con- tinency. Luther contemns all the authority of his superiors : the first precepts of Ignatius, full of Christian humility, are to sub- mit and obey. Luther declaims like a fury against the Holy See : Ignatius everywhere supports it. Luther draws as many from it as he can : Ignatius conciliates and brings back as many to it as he can. All Luther's studies and enterprises are directed against it : Ignatius, by a special vow, consecrates his labors, with those of his associates, to it. Luther detracts from the venera- tion and worship of the sacred rites of the church : Ignatius main- tains all veneration for them. The sacrifice of the mass, ihe 474 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vi. duotation from Damianua'B history of the Jesuits. His comparison of Ignatius Loyalo, and Luther. eucharist, the mother of God, the tutelary saints, the indulgences of the pontiffs, and the things attacked by Luther with such fury, were objects which the industry of Ignatius and his companions was eagerly and continually employed in seeking new modes of cele- brating. To this Luther, the disgrace of Germany, the hog of Epicurus, the destroyer of Europe, the accursed portent of the universe, the abomination of God and men, etc. God, in his eternal wisdom, opposed Ignatius."* * As the reader may be gratified to see the identical words of this remarkable effusion of popish bigotry, the original Latin is subjoined. " Eodem anno vigesi- mo-primo, adulta jam nequitia, palam ecclesiae bellum indixit Lutherus : laesus in Pampelonensi arce Ignatius, alius ex vulnere, fortiorque quasi defendendae reli- gionis signum sustulit. Lutherus Petri sedem probris, convitiisque laeessere aggreditur : Ignatius quasi ad suscipiendam causam, a S. Petro prodigiose cura- tur. Lutherus Ira, ambitione, libidine victus, a religiosa vita discessit : Ig- natius Deo vocante impigre obsecutus, a profana ad religiosam transit. Lutherus cum sacra Deo virgine incesta nuptias init sacrilegas : perpetuae conti- nentisB voto se adstringit Ignatius. Lutherus omnem superiorum contemnit auctoritatem : prima Ignatii monita sunt, plena christianse demissionis, subesse et parere. In sedem apostolicam, furentis in morem, declamat Lutherus : illam ubique tuetur Ignatius. Ab ea quotquot potest Lutherus avertit : quotquot potest conciliat, reducitque Ignatius. Adversus illam minentur omnia Lutheri Btudia atque conatus : Ignatius suos suorumque labores peculiari voto illi conse- crat. Lutherus sacris ecclesiae ritibus venerationem, cultumque detraxit : Ignatius omnem illis reverentiam asserit. Missaeque sacrificio, eucharistiae, Dei paraB, tutelaribus divis, et illis, tanto Lutheri furore impugnatis, pontificum indulgentiis ; in quibus novo semper invento celebrandis Ignatii sociorumque desu- dat industria. Luthero illo Germaniae probro, Epicuri porco, Europje excitio, orbis infelici portento, Dei atque hominum odio, etc.aBterno consilio Deus op- posuit Ignatium." {Damianus Hist. Soc. Jes, — Lib. i. Diss, vi., p. 18.) BOOK VII. POPERY AT TRENT. FROM THE OPENING SESSION OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT, A. D. 1646, TO THE cLosnia SESSION, a. s. 1663. CHAPTER I. THE FIRST FOUR SESSIONS. PRELIMINARIES, AND DECREE UPON THE AUTHORITY OF TRADITION AND THE APOCRYPHA. § 1. — At the time of Luther's death, the fathers of Trent had just commenced the celebrated council, called at that city by pope Paul III., partly with the professed design of promoting a reform of the abuses in the church, and of the morals and manners of the clergy, which was so loudly demanded ; but chiefly for the pur- pose of rooting out the Lutheran heresy ; and, in opposition to the doctrines of the German reformers, of stating and defining with more exactitude and precision than ever before, the doctrines of the Romish church. "The opening session of the council of Trent was held on the 13th of December, 1545, and the closing session was not held, till the month of December, 1563 (after several sus- pensions and intermissions), about eighteen years from its com- mencement. The council of Trent is the last general council ever held by the Romish church, and consequently the very highest source of authority as to the present doctrines and character of Romanism. In the present chapter we shall give a synopsis of the most remarkable doctrinal decrees of the difierent sessions of this celebrated council.* * The principal original authorities for the history of the council of Trent, are, (1) The History of the council of Trent, by Father Paul Sarpi, a learned Roman- ist, born at Venice, in 1552, and died in 1623, aged 71. The work was first printed at London, in Italian, in 1619, and in Latin in 1620. The English edition which 1 have used, " translated out of Italian by a person of quality," is that of London, 1676. The work of Father Paul was regarded by the Pope as too favor- able to protestants, and he was called by some " a protestant in a friar's frock." (2.) The History of the council of Trent by cardinal Sforza Pallavicini, who was born in 1607, and died in 1667, aged 60, a bigoted papist, written in opposi- tion to that of Father Paul. The evident partiality and bigotry of Pallavicini ren- der him an unsafe guide, but his work may be profitably read, in connection with 476 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book to. QuesUoa whether to begin with doctrine or discipline. Popery too corrupt to bu reformed. § 2. — About the commencement, an important question arose,whe- ther tlie fathers should begin with the subject of rforfrime or of disci- pline ; whether they should first, for the salce of guarding the church against the growing Lutheran heresy, discuss and accurately define the doctrines which every true son of the church must receive ; or whether, in compliance with the demands that reached them from every quarter, they should proceed at once to the reformation of the notorious abuses in the church, and to enact laws to restrain the acknowledged immorality and profligacy of the clergy. The em- peror Charles, by his representatives and advocates in the council, contended earnestly for the latter course, maintaining that the refor- mation of the ecclesiastics would be the fittest means of reclaiming men from heretical depravity. The Pope had already determined on the former, and had instructed his legates to use all their influ- ence to settle the matters of doctrine, before they turned their atten- tion to matters of reform. If this course had been fully adopted, years would doubtless have been exclusively occupied in splitting hairs and framing decrees on doctrinal subjects, and probably the subject of reform, so much dreaded by a corrupt Pope and priest- hood, have been crowded out altogether. As it was, the influence of the Emperor's party was sufficient to secure a compromise of this question, by the adoption of a plan proposed by the bishop of Feltri, that some subject of doctrine, and some subject of reform or discipline, should be decided in each ses- sion of the council.* Every effort was employed by the Pope and his legates to defeat important measures of reform ; and the little that was done on this head during the whole session of the council, is scarcely worthy of mention. The fact is that Popery had becoine a mass of moral corruption — far too corrupt indeed to admit of a radical reform, without demolishing the whole system ; and the insignificant attempts at reform made during the council, in matters relative to pluralities of benefices, intrusions of mendicant monks, &c., &c., were like attempting to cure a human body covered all over with ulcers from the mass of corruption within by sticking a square half inch of court-plaster upon one or two of the sores. Nothing effec- that of Father Paul. The best edition is that of Rome, two vols., folio, 1656. For an able dissertation on the comparative merits of Sarpi and Pallavicini, see Ranke's history of the Popes, appendix, section ii., pp. 437-448. (3.) A translation of Father Paul's work into French, in two volumes, folio, with copious and valuable notes, reviewing the criticisms and cavils of Pallavicini, by Pierre F. Courayer, a French divine, who was born in 1681, and died in 177'6, aged 95. The title of this valuable performance is, " Histoire du Concile de Trente, traduite de nouveau en Francois avec des Notes Critiques, Historiques, et Theologiques par Pierre F. le Courayer, D.D." 1736. The most valuable accessible history of the council of Trent, drawn from ac- curate orieinal sources, with care and skill, is that of the Rev. J. M. Cramp, a work whicn I cannot recommend too highly, and to which I would take this oppor- tunity of acknowledging my obligations in the present division of my work. * Pallavicini, book vi., chap. 7, sec. 6 — 8. CHAT. i.J POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1645-1563. 477 Cf^remonieB of opening. Indulgences promised lo all who should pray for the council. tual could be done with Popery by way of reformation, but by dis- placing tradition and papal dictation from the throne, and restoring the Bible to its proper place, as the only rule of faith and discipline ; and this would have been at once to overturn, from the very foun- dation, the whole fabric, and to establish in its stead the doctrine and discipline of Luther and the reformation. The decrees of the council of Trent, therefore, are chiefly useful as being the most coi-rect and authoritative exposition of what Po- pery was in the Trentine age, and what it still continues to be. Passing over the decrees on discipline, which are of very little im- portance, we shall proceed to cite the most important portions of the decrees on doctrines, accompanied with such historical and explana- tory remarks as may be necessary to a clear understanding of the whole. The portions of the decrees cited will be in the original Latin as well as in English, to guard against that hacknied resort of Romanists, the charge of inaccurate translation. The original Latin of the decrees is copied from the first edition, printed at Rome in 1564. § 3. — First Session. — This was held, as already remarked, on the 13th of December, 1545. Three legates had been appointed to preside in the name of the Pope — the cardinals De IVIonte, Santa Croce and Pole. Of these, De Monte was the president. Much pomp and religious solemnity were exhibited on the occasion of the opening of the council. The legates, accompanied by the cardinal of Trent, four archbishops, twenty-four bishops, five generals of orders, the ambassadors of the king of the Romans, and many divines, assembled in the church of the Trinity, and thence went in procession to the cathedral, the choir singing the hymn Veni Cre- ator. When all were seated, the cardinal De Monte performed the mass of the Holy Ghost ; at the end of which he announced a hull of indulgences issued by the Pope, promising full pardon of sin to all who in the week immediately after the publication of the bull in their respective places of abode should fast on Wednesday and Friday, receive the sacrament on Sunday, and join in processions and suppli- cations for a blessing on the council. A long discourse followed, de-i livered by the bishop of Bitonto. After this, the Cardinal rose and briefly addressed the assembly ; the accustomed prayers were offered, and the hymn Veni Creator again sung. The papal bull authorizing their meeting was then produced and read ; and a decree was una- nimously passed,* declaring that the sacred and general council of Trent was then begun — for the praise and glory of the holy and undivided Trinity — the increase and exaltation of true religion — the extirpation of heresy — the peace and union of the Church — the reformation of the clergy and Christian people — and the destruction of the enemies of the Christian name. The Pope adopted decisive measures to secure his authority, and prevent all intermeddling with * The members of the council signified their assent by the word plcuxt (it pleaseth), and their dissent by non placet (it doth not please.) 478 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book to. A popish bishop declares that laymen have '* nothing to do but to hear and submit." his prerogative. He appointed a congregation or committee of cardinals to superintend the affairs of the council, watch its pro- ceedings, and aid him with their advice. The legates were instructed to begin with the discussion of disputed doctrines and to treat the reformation of abuses as a matter of secondary moment ; notes were to be taken and transmitted to him, of any observations relative to his court, the reform of which he reserved for himself To all letters and documents his own name and those of the legates were to be prefixed, that it might appear that he was not only the author, but also " the head and ruler" of the council :* and he ap- pointed the secretary and other necessary officers without consult- ing the fathers, or permitting them to exercise their undoubted right of election. § 4. — The Second Session was held January 7th, 1546, and was chiefly consumed in discussions as to the style to be adopted by the council, and the order of the future proceedings, whether they should commence with doctrine or discipline. Several of the members of the council desired the insertion of the words " repre- senting the universal church." In the debate which ensued, the bishop of Feltri observed, that if the clause were admitted, the Protestants would take occasion to say, that since the church is composed of two orders, the clergy and the laity, it could not be fully represented if the latter were excluded. To this the bishop of St. Mark replied, that the laity could not be termed the church, since, according to the canons, they had only to obey the commands laid upon them ; that one reason why the council was called was, to decide that laymen ought to receive the faith which the church dictated, without disputing or reasoning ; and that consequently the clause should be inserted, to convince them that they were not the church, and had nothing to do but to hear and submit ! It was finally agreed to employ the words oecumenical and universal in the designation of the council. § 5. — The Third Session was celebrated February 4th, 1546, and nothing was done, except to adopt as a decree of the council and to repeat the Nicene creed. It was objected by some that it would be very ridiculous to hold a session for the purpose of repeat- ing a creed 1200 years old, and which was universally believed ; that it would be of no service against the Lutherans, who received it as well as themselves ; and that the heretics would take occasion to say, and with good reason, that if that creed contained the faith of the church, they ought not to be compelled to believe anything else. Many of the fathers could not help expressing their discon- tent, and were heard complaining to one another as they left the assembly, that the negotiations of twenty years had ended in com- ing together to repeat the belief ! § 6. — The Fourth Session was celebrated on the 8th of April, 1 54 G, and was one of the most important sessions of the council. * Pallavicini, Lib. v., cap. 16, sec. 2. CILA.r. I.] POPERY AT TRIJNT— A. D. 1645-1563. 479 The Council placea Tradition on a level witli Scripture. So do the Pusoyilcs — note. In this session, a decree was passed which placed tradition upon an equality with the Scriptures — declared the books of the Apocrypha to be a part of the word of God — elevated the Latin translation of the Scriptures called the Vulgate, to an authority superior to that of the inspired Hebrew and Greek originals, and enacted severe penal laws against the liberty of the press. The decree passed at this session was divided into two parts: — (1.) Of the Canonical Scriptures; (2.) Of the Edition and Use of the Sacred Books. In quoting from this decree I shall, for the sake of order and perspicuity, prefix head- ings in italics. Tradition declared of equal authority with the Scripture. Sacro-sancla oecutnenica et generalis Tridentina Synodus, in Spiritu sancto legitime congregata, praesidentibus in ea eisdem tribus Apostoiicae Sedis Legatis, hoc sibi perpetuo ante oculos proponens, ut sublatis erroribus, piiritas ipsa Evan- gelii in Ecclesia conservetur : quod promissum ante per Prophetas in Scrip- turis Sanctis, Dominus noster Jesus Christus Dei Filius, proprio ore primum promulgavit ; deinde per sues Apostolos, tanquim fontem omnis et salutaris veri- tatis, et morum disciplinEE, omni creaturee prasdicarijussit : perspiciensque banc ve- ritatem et disciplinam contineri in libris scriptis, et sine scripto traditionibus, quae ab ipsius Christi ore ab Apostolis accep- tsE, aut ab ipsis Apostolis, Spiritu sancto dictante, quasi per manus traditse, ad nos usque pervenerunt ; orthodoxorum Pa- trum exempla secuta, omnes libros tam veteris qukm novi Testamenti, cum utri- usque unus Deus sit auctor, necnon tra- ditiones ipsas, turn ad fidem, turn ad mores pertmentes, tanqukm vel receptas a Christo, vel a Spiritu sancto dictatas, et continue successione in Ecclesia Ca- tholica conservatas, pari pietatis affectu ac reverently suscipit, et veneratur. The sacred, holy, oecumenical and general council of Trent, lavffully as- sembled in the Holy Spirit, the three before mentioned legates of the Aposto- lic See presiding therein ; having con- stantly in view the removal of error and the preservation of the purity of the gospel in the church, which gospel, pro- mised before by the prophets in the sa- cred Scriptures, was first orally published by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who afterwards commanded it to be preached by his apostles to every creature, as the source of all saving truth and discipline ; and perceiving thai this truth and discipline are contained BOTH IN WRITTEN BOOKS AND IN UNWRIT- TEN TRADITIONS, which have come down to us, either received by the apostles from the lip of Christ himself, or trans- mitted by the hands of the same apos- tles, under the dictation of the Holy Spirit ; following the example of the orthodox fathers, doth receive arid rever ence,wkhEQiUAL piety and venesatick, all the books, as well of the Old as ot the New Testament, the same God be ing the author of both — and also the AFORESAID TRADITIONS, pertaining both to faith and manners, whether received from Christ himself, or dictated by the Holy Spirit and preserved in the Catho- lic church by continual succession. This placing of uncertain Tradition upon an equality with the Sacred Scriptures is still, of course, the doctrine of Rome, and may be regarded as the grand distinguishing point between Popery and Protestantism. He who receives a single doctrine as matter of faith upon the mere unsupported authority of tradition, so far occu- pies the popish ground defined in the above decree.* * That the Puseyite unites with the Romanist is occupying this popish ground, see the proofs adduced above, page 67, and also the valuable work of Bishop M'll vaine upon the Oxford divinity, pp. 307 — 315. 480 HISTORY OF .ROMANISM. [book vn. Canon of Scripture adopted by the council, including the apocryphal boolt9. § 7. — The Apocryphal books placed on a level with the inspired Scriptures. Sacrorum vero librorum indicem huic decreto adscribendum censuit ; ne cui dubitatio suboriri possit, qjuinam sint, qui ab ipsa Synodo suscipiuntur. Sunt vero infrii scripti : Testainenti veteris, quih- que Moysis, id est, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numeri,Deuteronomium; Jo- sue, Judicum, Ruth, quatuor Regum, duo Paralipomenon, Esdree primus, et secun- dus, qui dicitur Nehcmias, Tobias, Ju- dith, Hester, Job, Psalterium Davidicum centum quinquaginta psalmorum. Para- bola:, Ecclesiastes, Canticum cantico- rura, Sapientia, EccIesiasticuK, Isaias, Jeremias cum Baruch, Ezechiel, Daniel, duodecim Prophetaj minores, id est, Osea, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonas, Mi- cheas, Nahum, Habacuc, Sophonias, Ag- gEEUs, Zacharias, Malachias ; duo Ma- chabaeorum, primus et secundus. Testa- menti novi, quatuor Evangelia, secun- dvim Matthffium, Marcum, Lucam et Joannem ; Actus Apostolorum k Luca Evangelista conscripti : quatuordecim EpistolEB Pauli Apostoli ; ad Romanos, duEE ad Corinthios, ad Galatas,ad Ephe- sios, ad Philippenses, ad Colossenses, duae ad Thessalonicenses, duae ad Timo- theum, ad Titum, ad Philemonem, ad Hebrseos ; Petri Apostoli duae, Joannis Apostoli tres, Jacobi Apostoli una, Judae Apostoli una, et Apocalypsis Joannis Apostoli Moreover, lest any doubt should arise respecting the sacred books which are received by the council, it has been judged proper to insert a list of them in the present decree. Tfiey are these : of the Old Testa- ment, the five books of Moses, — Gene- sis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy ; Joshua ; Judges ; Ruth ; four books of Kings ; two books of Chronicles ; the first and second of Es- dras, the latter is called Nehemiah ; To- bit ; Judith ; Esther ; Job ; the Psalms of David, in number 150 ; the Proverbs ; Ecclesiastes ; the Song of Songs ; Wis- dom ; Ecclesiasticus ; Isaiah ; Jeremiah, with Baruch ; Ezekiel ; Daniel ; the twelve minor Prophets, — Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakknk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zecha- riah, and Malachi ; and two books of Maccabees, the first and second. Of the New Testament, the four Gospels, ac- cording to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ; the Acts of the Apostles written by the Evangelist Luke ; fourteen Epis- tles of the Apostle Paul, — to the Ro- mans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians, two to Thessatonians,to Timothy, one to Titus, to Philemon, and to the Hebrews ; two of the Apostle Peter ; three of the Apos- tle John ; one of the Apostle James ; one of the Apostle Jude ; and the Reve- lation of the Apostle John. Thus did the apostate church of Rome add unto the inspired word of God, a series of books, the writers of which lay no claim to inspi- ration, and which possess no higher title to that distinction than the Metamorphoses of Ovid, or the forged popish decretals of Isidore ; thus subjecting itself to the curse pronounced in the Apocalypse, upon such as presume to add to the word of God : " For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book." (Rev. xxii., 18.) § 8. — The motives of the papists in giving these apocryphal books a place in the canon of Scripture, are abundantly evident from the use which they make of them in establishing some of their unscriptural doctrines and practices. Yet so entirely opposed are the passages usually cited for this purpose to the whole tenor of the inspired word of God, as to be sufficient, of themselves, were there CHAP. I.J POPERY AT TRENT— A D. 1 545-1 5b3. 481 Arguments ogainst the inspiration of the Apocrypha — false In doctrine — Immoral. no Other arguments, to prove that they are not inspired. Two or three instances of this only can be given. (1.) The Apocrypha teaches, as do the papists, that a man can justify himself and make atonement for his sins by his own works ; the inspired word of God ascribes justification and atonement wholly to the merit of Christ's righteousness, and the efficacy of his sufferings. Apocryphal Texts. — Says one of these writers : " The just, which have many good works laid up with thee, shall out of their own deeds receive reward." Tobit xii., 8, 9. " Prayer is good with fasting, and alms, and righteousness." " Alms doth deliver from death, and shall purge away all sins. Those that exercise alms and righteous- ness shall be filled with life." Ecclus. iii., 3. " Whoso honoreth his father maketh atonement for his sins." 30. " Alms maketh atone- ment FOR SINS !" XXXV., 3. " To forsake unrighteousness is a pro- pitiation." Inspired Texts. — To show how entirely these texts are opposed to the inspired word of God, it will be sufficient to cite the following two as specimens of hundseds, teaching the same glorious doc- trine. Rom. iii., 24, 25. "Being justified freely, by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus : whom God, hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood" Gal. ii., IG. "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law : for by the works of the law shall NO FLESH BE JUSTIFIED." (2.) The apocryphal book of JVIaccabees teaches the popish prac- tice of praying for the dead ; which is opposed to the whole tenor of God's inspired word, and never once hinted at in a single pas- sage of the old or the new Testament (2 Mace, xii., 43, 44). "And when he had made a gathering throughout the company, to the sum of 2000 drachms of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin- offering, doing therein very well and honestly : for if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead." (3.) But these apocryphal books are not only destitute of the slight- est claim to inspiration, they are also immoral, and teach and com- mend practices plainly condemned in God's word. The bible con- demns suicide. (Exodus xx., 13.) The book of Maccabees com- mends as noble and virtuous the desperate act of Razis, in falling upon his sword rather than suffering himself to be taken by the enemy (2 Mace, xiv., 41, (Sec). The bible condemns the assassina- tion of the Shechemites, in language of just severity (Gen. xlix., 7). The Apocrypha highly commends this base and treacherous whole- sale murder (Judith ix., 2, &c). The bible forbids and condemns magical incantations (Lev. xix., 26, and Deut. xviii., 10, 1 1,14). The Apocrypha represents an angel of God as giving directions for such mcantations, by the heart, liver, and gall of a fish (!) in a ludicrous 482 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book to. Silly opocryphal story of incantation by n fish's liver. Apocryphal books not in the ancient catalogue. and contemptible story, fitter for the Arabian Nights' Entertain- ments, or the Adventures of Baron Munchausen, than for a book claiming to be a part of God's word (Tobit vi., 1-8). " And as they went on their journey they came to the river Tigris, and they lodged there ; and when the young man went down to wash himself, a fish leaped out of the river, and would have drowned him. Then the angel said unto him, talie the fish. And the young man laid hold of the fish and drew it to land. To whom the angel said, open the fish, and take the heart and the liver, and the gall, and put them up safely. So the young man did as the angel commanded him, and when they had roasted the fish, they did eat it. Then the young man said unto the angel, brother Azarias, to what use is the heart and the liver and the gall of the fish ? And he said unto him, touching the heart and the liver, if a devil, or an evil spirit trouble any, we must make a smoke thereof before the man or the woman, and the party shall be no more vexed. As for the gall, it is good to anoint a man that hath whiteness in his eyes ; he shall be healed." In the same book of Tobit, the angel that is introduced, is guilty of wilful lying, by representing himself as being a kins- man of Tobit (v. 12), and afterwards contradicting himself, by af- firming that he is Raphael, one of the holy angels (xii., 17). It is unnecessary to refer to the silly fable of Bel and the dragon, the ark going after Jeremiah at the prophet's command (2 Mace, ii., 4), the story of Judith, &c., and the numerous contradictions and ab- surdities that are found in these books. It will be sufficient, in ad- dition to the above, to show that the apocryphal books were never admitted into the canon of Scripture during the first four centuries, that the writers themselves lay no claim to inspiration, and that even popish authors, previous to the council of Trent, have admit- ted that they did not Iselong to the canon of scripture. (4.) These apocryphal books are not mentioned in any of the earliest catalogues of the sacred writings; neither in that of Melito, Bishop of Sardis, in the second century,* nor in those of Ongen.f in the third century, of Athanasius,J Hilary,§ Cyril of Jerusalem,|| Epi- phanius,"ll Gregory Nazianzen,** Amphilochius.tf Jerome,JJ Rufi- * This catalogue is inserted by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History lib iv c. 26. ■' ■ ■' t Ibid., lib. vi., c. 25, p. 399. I In his Festal or Paschal Epistle. See the extract in Dr. Lardner's Works vol. iv., pp. 282—285., 8vo. ; vol. 2, pp. 399, 400, 4to. \ Prolog-, in Psalmos, p. 9. Paris, 1693. Lardner, vol. iv., p. 305, Svo. : vol. 11., p. 413, 4to. II In his Fourth Catechetical Exercise. Ibid., vol. iv., p. 299, Svo. ; vol. ii. p. 411, 4to. ' ' IT In various catalogues recited by Dr. Lardner, vol. iv., pp. 312, 313, Svo ; voL 11., p. 409, 4to. ** Carm. 33. Op., torn, li., p. 98. Ibid., vol. iv., pp. 407, 408, Svo. ; vol. ii., p. 470, 4to. ' rr > ) , > ft In Carmine lambico ad Seleucum, p. 126. Ibid., p. 413, Svo. ; vol. ii., p. 473. tt In Prajfat. ad Libr. Regum sive Prologo Galeato. Lardner, vol. v., pp. 16, ciup. I.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1563. 483 Never quoted by Christ and his apostles. Lny no claim themselves to inspiration. nus,* and others of the fourth century ; nor in the catalogue of canonical books recognized by the council of Laodicea,t held in the snme century, whose canons were received by the Catholic church ; so that, as Bishop Burnet well observes, " we have the concurring sense of the whole church of God in this matter."J (5.) These books were never quoted, as most of the inspired books were, bij Christ and his apostles. They evidently formed therefore no part of that volume to which Christ and his apostles so often referred, under the title of Moses and the prophets. There is scarcely a book in the Old Testament, which is not quoted or referred to in some passage of the New Testament. Christ has thus given the sanction of his authority to Moses, and the Psalms, and the prophets ; that is, to the whole volume of scripture which the Jews had received from Moses and the prophets ; which they most tenaciously maintained as canonical : and which is known by us under the title of the Old Testament. But there was not one of the apocryphal books so ac- knowledged by the Jews, or so referred to by Christ and his apostles. (6.) The authors of these books lay no claim to inspiration, and in some instances make statements utterly inconsistent therewith. The book of Ecclesiasticus, which, though not inspired, is superior to all the other apocryphal books, was written by one Jesus the son of Sirach. His grandfather, of the same name, it seems, had written a book, which he left to his son Sirach ; and he delivered it to his son Jesus, who took great pains to reduce it into order ; but he no- where assumes the character of a prophet himself, nor does he claim it for the original author, his grandfather. In the prologue, he says, " My grandfather Jesus, when he had much given himself to the reading of the Law, and the Prophets, and other books of our fathers, and had gotten therein good judgment, was drawn on also himself to write something pertaining to learning and wisdom, to the intent that those which are desirous to learn, and are addicted to these things, might profit much more, in living according to the law. Wherefore let me entreat you to read it with favor and at- tention, and to pardon us wherein we may seem to come short of some words which we have labored to interpret. Farther, some things uttered in Hebrew, and translated into another tongue, have not the same force in them. From the eight and thirtieth year, coming into Egypt when Euergeles was king, and continuing there for some time, I found a book of no small learning: therefore I 17, 8vo. ; vol. ii., p. 540, 4to., and also in several of his prefaces to other books, which are given by Dr. L., vol. v., pp. 17 — 22, 8vo. ; or vol. ii., pp. 540 — 543, 4to. * Bxpositio ad Symb., Apost. Lardner, vol. v., p. 75, 76, 8 vo. ; vol. ii., p. 573, 4to. f Can. 59, 60. Lardner, vol. iv., pp. 308, 309, 8vo. ; vol. ii., pp. 414, 416, 4to. Besides Dr. Lardner, Bishop Cosin, in his Scholastical History of the Canon, and Moldenhawer (Introd. ad Vet. Test., pp. 148 — 154), have given extracts at length from the above mentioned fathers, and pthers, against the authority of the apocry- phal books. I On the Sixth Article of the Anglican church, p. 111. 6th edit 484 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book to. nie author of the Maccabees disavows inspiration. A temperance argument against the Apocrypha. thought it most necessary for me to bestow some diligence and travail to interpret it ; using great watchfulness and skill, in that space, to bring the book to an end," &c. These avowals, as will be seen at a glance, are altogether inconsistent with the supposition that this modest and candid author wrote under the direction of in- spiration. The writer of the second book of the Maccabees professes to have reduced a work of Jason of Cyrene, consisting of five volumes, into one volume. Concerning which work, he says, " Therefore to us that have taken upon us this painful labor of abridging, it was not easy, but a matter of sweat and watching." Again, " leaving to the author the exact handling of every particular, and laboring to follow the rules of an abridgment. To stand upon every point, and go over things at large, and to be curious in particulars, belongr eth to the first author of the story ; but to use brevity, and avoid much laboring of the work, is to be granted to him that maketh an abridgment." " Is anything more needed to prove that this wri- ter did not profess to be inspired ? If there was any inspiration in the case, it must be attributed to Jason of Cyrene, the original writer of the history ; but his work is long since lost, and we now possess only the abridgment which cost the writer so much labor and pains. Thus, I think it sufficiently appears, that the authors of these disputed books were not prophets ; and that, as far as we can ascertain the circumstances in which they wrote, they did not lay claim to inspiration, but expressed themselves in such a way, as no man under the influence of inspiration ever did."* The author of this book concludes with the following words, which are utterly un- worthy of a person writing by inspiration; " Here will I make an end. And if I have done well, and as is fitting the story, it is THAT WHICH I DESIRED ; BUT IF SLENDERLY AND MEANLY, IT IS THAT WHICH I COULD ATTAIN UNTO. FoT tts it is liurtful to drink wine or water alone ; and as wine mingled with water is pleasant, and de- lighteth the taste ; even so speech finely framed delighteth the ears of them that read the story. And here shall be an end." (7) There is one additional evidence at least, that this book is not inspired, to be drawn from the silly expression just quoted that " it is hurtful to drink water alone." If there were no other proof, this single expression would be sufficient to show that God was not its author, especially since the investigations of total abstinence so- cieties have proved that cold water alone, instead of being hurtful, is the most healthful beverage which can be used.f * Alexander on the Canon, page 80. t The above brief sketch of the evidences which prove that the books of the Apocrypha are uninspired, and therefore not a part of the sacred scriptures, would not have appeared in the present work, had it not been called for, by the fact that Romish priests are taking advantage of the general ignorance that prevails rela- tive to the Apocrypha, to inculcate some of the unscriptural doctrines of their apostate church upon the authority of these books. In a recent course of popular lectures in defence of the doctrines of Popery in the citv of New York, the preacher took CHAP. II.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1563 .185 The curse ngainst rejecters of tradition or the Apocrypha. Standard authors on the Apocrypha Inoip:) After attentively weighing the above evidences, that the apocry- phal books possess not the slightest claim to be regarded as a part of God's word, let the reader peruse the following additional extract from the decree of the council of Trent. The curse upon those who refuse to receive the apocryphal books as inspired, or who reject the authority of the traditions. Si quis autem libros ipsos integros Whoever shall not receive, as sacred cum omnibus suis partibus, prout in Ec- and canonical, all those books and every clesia Catholica legi consueverunt, et in part of them, as they are commonly veteri vulgata Latina editione habentur, read in the Catliolic Church, and are pro sacris et canonicis non susceperit ; contained in the old Vulgate Latin edi- ct traditiones prsedictas sciens et prudens tion, or shall knowingly and deliberately oontempserit ; ANATHEMA SIT. despise the aforesaid traditions ; LET HIM BE ACCURSED. CHAPTER II. FOURTH SESSION CONTINUED. LATIN VULGATE EXALTED ABOVE THE INSPIRED HEBREW AND GREEK SCRIPTURES. PRIVATE JUDGMENT AND LIBERTY OF THE PRESS FORBIDDEN, AND A POPISH CENSORSHIP OP THE PRESS ESTABLISHED. § 9. — The second part of the decree passed at the fourth ses- sion is entitled, " of the edition and use of the Sacred books," and as this decree authoritatively declares the present doctrine of the Romish church with respect to the Scriptures, I shall quote the largest part of it in three divisions, with appropriate headings. as his text to establish the doctrine of prayers for the dead, evidently because lie could not find one in God's inspired word, 2 Mace, xii., 43, 44, above cited. He might just as well, in the estimation of protestants, have taken a text from the his- tory of Robinson Crusoe or Sinbad the Sailor. Yet many might be ensnared tvith the plausible train of remark ; " If these books are not inspired," say the papists, " why have even protestants bound them up in their bibles ?" And to this we can only reply — why indeed ? No consistent protestant should ever pur- chase a bible with the Apocrypha. Let booksellers, if they choose, publish these apocryphal books, and let readers purchase and read them as they would any other curious and ancient writings, but let them never be bound in the same volume with God's inspired word. The reader who would examine still further the overwhelming evidences that the apocryphal books are uninspired and uncanonical, is referred to any or all of the following works : — Lardner's works. Vol. v. ; Home's Critical Introduction, Vol. i.. Appendix No. v. ; Alexander on the Canon. But especially the recent valuable work entitled, " The arguments of Romanists on behalf of the apocrypha, discussed and refuted by Professor Thornwall, of South Carolina College." 486 mSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vd. A mere human performance, ond an Imperfect one too, placed above God's int^pired word. The Latin Vulgate put in the place of the inspired Hebrew and Greek Scriptures as the only authentic word of God, from which all translations were therefore in future to he made, and to which all appeals were to he ultimately referred. Insuper eadem sacro-sancta Synod us Moreover, the same most holy coun- considerans non parum utilitatis ac- cil, considering that no small advantage cedere posse Ecclesise Dei, si ex omni- will accrue to the church of God, if of bus Latinis editionibus, qua; circumfe- all the Latin editions of the Sacred runtur, sacrorum librorum, quaenam pro Book which are in circulation, some one authentica habenda sit, innotescat, sta- shall be distinguished as that which tuit, et declarat, ut haec ipsa vetus et oi^ght to be regarded as authentic — doth vulgata editio, quae longo tot seculorum ordain and declare, that the same old usu in ipsa Ecclesia probata est, in pub- and Vulgate edition which has been licis lectionibus, disputationibus, prs- approved by its use in the church for so dicationibus, et expositionibus pro au- many ages, shall be held as authentic, in thentica habeatnr ; et ut nemo illam re- all public lectures, disputations, sermons, jicere quovis praetextu audeat vel prae- and expositions ; and that no one shall sumat. dare or presume to reject it, under any frelence whatsoever. Thus were the ipsissima verba, the very words, in the original Hebrew and Greek, which were dictated by the Holy Spirit, thrown aside by the council of Trent, and a mere human performance substituted in their place, viz., the Latin translation of Jerome, vphich many of the most learned Romanists have ac- knowledged to abound with errors. The learned Roman Catholic, Dr. Jahn, confesses that in translating the Scriptures into the Vul- gate Latin, Jerome " did not invariably give what he himself be- lieved to be the best translation of the original, but occasionally, as he confesses {Prcsf. ad Com. in Eccles.) followed the Greek trans- lators, although he was aware that they had often erred through negligence, because he was apprehensive of giving umbrage to his readers by too wide a departure from the established version ; and therefore we find that, in his commentaries, he sometimes corrects his own translation. Sometimes, too, he has substituted a worse in place of the old translation." In another place. Dr. Jahn adds as follows : " The universal admission of this version throughout the vast extent of the Latin church multiplied the copies of it, in the transcription of which it became corrupted with many errors. Towards the close of the eighth or the beginning of the ninth cen- tury, it was, at the command of Charlemagne, corrected by Alcuin from the Hebrew text. This recension was either not widely pro- !)agated, or was again infected with errors ; for which reason Lan- ranc, archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1089, caused some copies to be again corrected. Nevertheless, cardinal Nicholas, about the middle of the twelfth century, found ' tot exemplaria quot codices ' (as many copies as manuscripts), and therefore prepared a correct edition." In the year 1540, the celebrated printer, Robert Stephens, printed an edition of the Vulgate with the various readings of three editions and fourteen manuscripts. " This again," says Dr CHAP, n.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1563. 487 The two infallible papal editiona of the Vulgate with 2000 variations between them. Jahn, " was compared by Hentenius with many other manuscripts and editions, and he added the various readings to an edition pub- lished at Louvain in 1547. This edition was frequently reprinted, and was pubUshed at Antwerp in 1580, and again in 1685, en- riched with many more various readings, obtained by a new colla tion of manuscripts by the divines of Louvain."* § 10. — As the Vulgate was thus exalted by the council of Trent to the place of the inspired original, it was, of course, necessary to prepare an authorized edition of this Latin version on account of the innumerable variations in the different editions of the Vulgate issued previous to that time. To effect this object, pope Sixtus V. commanded a new revision of the text to be made, and corrected the proofs himself of an edition which was published at Rome in 1 590, and proclaimed, by his infallible papal authority, to be the authentic and unalterable standard of Scripture. It was very soon discovered, however, that this edition abounded with errors, though it had been accompanied by a bull, enjoining its universal reception, and forbidding the slightest alterations, un- der pain of the most dreadful anathemas. The popish dignitaries thus found themselves in a most em- barrassing predicament, and that whichever horn of the painful dilemma they choose, if the facts only became known,^ would be equally fatal to themselves ! " Either this edition must De maintain- ed as a standard with thousands of glaring errors, or infallibility must be shown to he fallible, by the correction of these errors. To make the best of a bad thing, the edition, as far as possible, was called in, and a more correct edition issued by pope Clement VIII. in 1592, accompanied by a similar bull. Happily for the cause of truth, the popish doctors were unable to effect an entire destruc- tion of the edition of Sixtus. It is now exceedingly rare, but there is a copy of it in the Bodleian library at Oxford, and another in the royal library at Cambridge. The learned Dr. James, who was keeper of the Bodleian li- brary, compared the editions of Sixtus and Clement, and exposed the variations between the two in a book which he called, from the opposition between them, Bellum Papale, i. e. the Papal War. In this work Dr. James notices 2000 variations, some of whole verses, and many others clearly and decidedly contradictory to each other. Yet both editions were respectively declared to be authentic by the same plenitude of knowledge and power, and both guarded against the least alteration by the same tremendous excommunication.f Dr. Jahn candidly relates the facts above named, and makes * See Dr. Jahn's Introduction to the Old Testament, sect. 62, 64. f For a full account of these two editions of the Vulgate, see Dr. Townley's illustrations of biblical literature, ii., 168, &c. For between thirty and forty specimens of these variations, between the two infallible editions, see a small work published by the present author in 1843, entitled " Defence of the protes- tant Scriptures against popish apologists for the Champlain Bible-burners," pp 46-48. 29 488 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. Lbook vn, Eighty thousand errors ui the Vulgate. Laws forbidding private judgment and liberty of the press. the following remarkable admission : — ■' The more learned Catho- lics have never denied the existence of errors in the Vulgate ; on the contrary, Isidore Clarius collected eighty thousand." It is amusing to notice the embarrassment caused to this learned Roman- ist, by the decree of the council of Trent establishing the authority of the Vulgate. As a good Catholic he vv'as bound to receive that decree, and yel his learning forbade him to blind his eyes to the errors of that version, elevated by the said decree to a higher stand than the original Hebrevsr and Greek text. The attempt of Dr. Jahn to explain the decree of the council of Trent, so as to reconcile it with his own enlightened views of the Latin Vulgate, exhibits an amusing specimen of ingenuity, and may be seen in his Introduc- tion to the Old Testament, section 65. It is hardly necessary to add, that the Rhemish Testament, Douay bible, and ail other popish versions of the Scriptures are made (not from the original Hebrew and Greek, but) from the above imperfect Latin Vulgate version of Jerome ; and as the stream cannot be expected to rise higher than the fountain, the errors of the Vulgate are perpetuated in all the translations made from it. True, even the Douay bible is better than none : but Romish priests are afraid to let even that be given to their blinded adherents with- out notes k> prove that, wherever it condemns their anti-Christian system, it aoes not mean what it says. This, however, is in strict accordance with the council of Trent, which we shall see in the next extract forbids the right of private judgment. § 11. — The right of private judgment in reading the Scriptures prohibited, and its exercise punished. The next extracts which we shall quote from the decree, are as follows : — Preeterea, ad coercenda petulentia in- In order to restrain petulant minds, genia, decernit, ut nemo, suae prudentiae the council further decrees, that in mat- innixus, in rebus fidei, et morum, ad ters of faith and morals and whatever iedificationem doctrinee ChristianEB perti- relates to the maintenance of Christian nentium, sacram scripturam ad suos sen- doctrine, no one, confiding in his own BUS contorquens, contra eum sensum, judgment, shall dare to wrest the sacred quem tenuit et tenet sancta mater Ec- Scriptures to his own sense of them, con- clesia, cujus est judicare de vero sensu trary to that which hath been held and et interpretatione Scripturarum sancta- still is held by holy mother church, whose rum, aut etiam contra unanimem con- right it is to judge of the true meaning sensum Patrum, ipsam Scripturam sa- and interpretation of Sacred Writ ; or cram interpretari audeat ; etiam si hu- contrary to the unanimous consent of the jusmodi interpretationes nuUo unquim fathers; even thougli such interpretations tempore in lucem edendae forent. Qui should never be published. If any dis- contravenerint, per Ordinaries deckren- obey, let him be denounced by the ordina- tur, et peenis & jure statutis puniantur. ries, and punished according to law. § 12. — The liberty of the press authoritatively forbidden. Sed ct Impressoribus modum in hac Being desirous also, as is reasonable, parte, ut par est, imponere volens, qui oi setting bounds to (lie printers, lolio with jam sine modo, hoc est, putantes sibi li- unlimited boldness., supposing themselves cere quidquid libet, sine licentia superi- at liberty to do as they please, print edt- orum ecclesiasticorum, ipsos sacrse tions of the Holy Scriptures with notes CHAP. II.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1563. 489 The decree of the council enacting fines and penalties for exercising the liberty of the press. Scripturae libros et super illis annota- tiones, et expositiones quorumlibet in- differenter, saepe tacito, eaepe etiam ementito preelo, et quod gravius est, sine nomine auctoris imprimunt ; alibi etiam impressos libros hujusmodi temere ve- nales habent ; decernit, et statuit, ut post- hac sacra Scriptura, potissimum vero haec ipsa vetus et vulgata editio, quam emendatissime imprimatur ; nuUique li- ceat imprimere, vel imprimi- facere quos- vis libros de rebus sacris sine nomine auctoris ; neque illos in futurum ven- ders, aut etiam apud se retinere, nisi primum examinati probatique fuerint ab Ordinario, sub poena anathematis et pe- cuniae in canone Concilii novissimi La- teranensis apposita. Et, si regulares fuerint, ultra examinationem, et proba- tionem hujusmodi, licentiam quoque a suis superioribus impetrare teneantur, recognitis per eos libris, juxta fonnam suarum ordinationum. Qui autem scrip- to eos communicant, vel evulgant, nisi antea examinati, probatique fuerint, eis- dem poenis subjaceant quibus impres- sores. Et qui eos habuerint, vel lege- rint, nisi prodiderint auctores, pro aucto- ribuB habeantur. Ipsa vero hujusmodi librorum probatio in scriptis detur, atque ideo in fronte libri, vel scripti, vel im- press!, authentice appareat r idque to- tum, hoc est, et probatio, et examen, gratis fiat: ut probanda probentur, et reprobentur improbanda. and expositions taken indifferently from any writer, without the permission of their ecclesiastical superiors, and that at a con- cealed or falsely-designated press, and which is worse, without the name of the author — and also rashly expose books of this nature to sale in other countries ; the holy council decrees and ordains, that for the future the sacred Scriptures, and especially the old Vulgate edition, shall be printed in the most correct manner possible ; and no one shall be permitted to print, or cause to be printed any books relating to religion without the name of the author ; neither shall any one here- after sell such books, or even retain them in his possession, unless they have been first examined and approved by the ordi- nary, under penalty of anathema, and THE PECUNIARY FINE ADJUDGED BY THE LAST COUNCIL OP Lateran.* And if they be regulars, they shall obtain, be- sides this examination and approval, the license of their superiors, who shall ex- amine the books according to the forms of their statutes. Those who circulate .or publish them in manuscript without being examined and approved, shall be liable to the same penalties as the printers ; and those who possess or read them, unless they declare the authors of them, shall themselves be considered as the author. The approbation of books of this description shall be given in writ- ing, and shall be placed in due form on the title-page of the book, whether ma- nuscript or printed ; and the whole, that is, the examination and the approval, shall be gratuitous, that what is deserv- ing may be approved, and what is un- worthy may be rejected. The above extracts from this decree need no comment. Let it be remembered that these prohibitions and penalties were enacted Dy the last general council of the Romish church, that they have never been repealed, that they are now enforced wherever Popery has the power to enforce them, and always will be, wherever that power shall be possessed. The proofs are abundant that Popery hates liberty of opinion and of the press, as much in the nineteenth century as she did in the sixteenth, when these laws were passed * The decree of the council of Lateran here referred to, which was enacted in 1515, was to this effect ; that no book whatever should be printed without exami- nation and license by the bishop, his deputy, or an inquisitor ; and that those who offended should forfeit the whole impression of the book printed, which should be publicly burnt, pay a fine of 100 ducats, be suspended from the exercise of their trade for one year, and lie under excommunication ! (See above, p. 434.) 490 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vn. Indignation of the proteslanta at the deer ?e3 of the council upon tradition, the Apocrypha, &c. by the supreme authority of the church. As, however, we are about to transcribe the ten rules of the congregation of the index in rela- tion to prohibited books, no comments are necessary. Those cele- brated rules are an emphatic commentary upon the above cited decree. § 13. — The proceedings of the council — says Mr. Cramp (p. 57) — were carefully watched by the protestants. They quickly per- ceived that it was altogether under the control of the Pope, and would issue no enactment contrary to the established order of things at Rome. Several publications were sent forth, declaratory of their views and feelings, one of which was written by Melancthon. In these works, while they expressed their willingness to abide by the decisions of a council composed of learned and pious men, eminent for the fear and love of God, they positively refused to acknowledge the authority of the assembly at Trent. Their reasons were nu- merous and weighty. They objected to the presidency of the Pope, he being a party in the cause ; to the Romish prelates, the appointed judges, many of whom were ignorant and wicked men, and all of them declared enemies of the reformation, but especially to the rules of judgment laid down in connexion with Scripture, and treated with equal or greater deference — viz., tradition and the scho- lastic divines. The friends of the departed Luther, who had just been gathered to his rest, the great champion of the Bible, were deservedly indig- nant that the council should place tradition on a level with the Scrip- tures, which they regarded as an act of daring impiety. They were surprised to hear, that several books which had ever been regarded as of doubtful authority, and had only received the sanc- tion of some provincial councils and of two or three popes, should now, without examination, be ranked among the acknowledged pro- ductions of inspired men, and be made portions of the Sacred Vol- ume. Nor were they less astonished and surprised at the decision respecting the Vulgate, in which that version, though confessed to abound with errors, was made the authoritative and sole standard of faith and morals, to the neglect of the original Greek and He- brew Scriptures. Nor were the free spirits of the sixteenth cen- tury less indignant that so insignificant a company of priests and monks should endeavor, by restraining the liberty of the press, and appointing a censorship of popish priests, to crush the germ of inquiry, to strengthen the bonds which had held the nations so long, and to cast the mantle of ignorance over the population of a whole continent. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the protes- tants looked upon the council, not only with suspicion but disgust, and positively refused to submit to its authority or decrees. During the continuance of the council, a committee was appoint- ed, called the congregation of the index, whose duty it was to pre- pare an index of prohibited books. This index was not published till March 24, 1564, shortly after the adjournment of the council, by pope Pius IV., to whom it had been committed by the council. The CHAP. n.J POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1663. 491 The ten rules of the index of prohibited books. These rul-es the present imperative laws of Bomanism. following ten rules, generally called " the rules of the congregation of the index," are here given, though belonging to a later period of the council, on account of their connection with the subject of the present chapter, and they are transcribed entire, on account of their vast importance, as illustrative of the policy of the church of Roine, in repressing as much as possible the circulation of the Scriptures, and in placing restrictions upon the freedom of the press. Let it be remembered that the following rules are the present imperative laws of the Romish church, adopted by the very highest authority in that church, the last general council, and sent forth to the world under the sanction of its supreme head, pope Pius. These rules are the laws of the Romish church, in precisely the same sense as a statute enacted by the House of Representatives and Senate of the United States, and signed by the President, becomes the law of the American nation ; and all popish bishops and priests are bound to enforce these laws, wherever Popery prevails, to the very utmost of their ability. Let the protestant lover of his bible, and of that glorious bulwark of liberty, the freedom of the- Press, pay particu- lar attention to the passages marked by italics or capitals, and then say whether it is possible for freedom to exist in any land where Popery is the predominant religion, and the priests of Rome pos- sess the power to enforce these laws of their church. § 14. — The ten rules of the congregation of the index of pro- hibited BOOKS, enacted by the council of Trent, and approved by pope Pius IV. in a bull, issued on the 24th of March, 1564. By these rules, the following descriptions of books are con- demned and prohibited : — Regula 1. Libri omnes quos ante Rule 1. " All books condemnecl by the annum MDXV aut Summi Pontifices, supreme pontiffs, or general councils, aut Concilia oecumenica daranirunt, et before the year 1515, and not comprised in hoc indice non sunt, eodem modo in the present Index, are, nevertheless, damnati esse censeantur, sicut olim to be considered as condemned, damnati fuerint. Regula 2. Haeresiarcharum libri, tam Rule 2. " The books of heresiarchs, eorum qui post praedictum annum whether of those who broached or dis- haereses invenerunt, vel suscit4runt, seminated their heresies prior to the quam qui haereticorum capita aut duces year above mentioned, or of those who sunt vel fuerunt, quales sunt Lutherus, have been, or are, the heads or leaders Zuinglius, Calvinus, Balthasar Paci- of heretics, as Luther, Zuingle, Calvin, montanus, Swenchfeldius, et his similes, Balthasar Pacimontanus, Swenchfeld, cujuscumque nominis, tituli aut argu- and other similar ones, are altogether menti existant, omnino prohibentur, forbidden, whatever may be their names, Aliorum autem haereticorum libri, qui titles, or subjects. And the books of de religione quidem ex professo tractant, other heretics, which treat professedly omnino damnantur. Qui vero de re- upon religion, are , totally condemned ; ligione non tractant, ti Theologis Catho- but those which do not treat upon re- licis, jussu Episcoporum et Inquisitorum ligion are allowed to be read, after be- examinati et approbati permittuntur. ing examined and approved by Catholic Libri etiam Catholici conscripti, tam ab divines, by order of the bishops and in- aliis qui postei in hasresim lapsi sunt, quisitors. Those Catholic books also qukm ab illis qui post lapsum ad Eccle- are permitted to be read, which have siiE gremium rediere, approbati a facul- been composed by authors who have 492 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book Vli. Rules on prohibited books continued. The circulation of the Bible " will cause more evil than good.** tate Theologic4 alicujiie Universitatia CatholicjB, vel ab Inquisitione general! permitti poterunt. Regula 3. Versiones scriptorum etiam Ecclesiasticorum, quae hactenus editae sunt & damnatis auctoribus, modo nihil contra sanam doctrinam contineant, per- mittuntur. Librorum autem veteris Testament! versiones, viris tantum doc- tis et piis judicio Episcopi concedi pote- runt : modo hujusmodi versionibus tam- quam elucidationibus Vulgatae editionis, ad intelligendam sacram Scripturam, non autem tanquam sano textu utantur. Versiones vero novi Testamenti, ab auctoribus primse classis hujus indicis factEB nemini concedantur, quia utilitatis parum, periculi vero plurimum lectoribus ex earum lectione manare solet. Si quae vero annotationes cum hujusmodi quae permittuntur versionibus, vel cum Vul- gata editione circumferuntur, expunctis locis suspectis h. facultate Theologica alicujus Universitatis Catholicae, aut inquisitione general! permitti eisdem poterunt, quibus et versiones. Quibus conditionibus totum volumen Bibliorum, quod vulgo Biblia Vatabl! dicitur, aut partes ejus concedi viris piis et doctis poterunt. Ex Bibliis vero Isidori Clari! Brixiani prologus et prolegomena prseci- dantur : ejus vero textum, nemo textum Vulgatae editionis esse existimet. Regula 4. Cum experimento mani- festum sit, si sacra Biblia vulgar! lin- gui passim sine discrimine permittantur, plus inde, ob hominum temeritatem, de- triment!, quam utilitatis oriri, hac in parte judicio Episcopi, ant inquisitoris stetur : ut cum concilio Paroch! vel Confessarii, Bibliorum k Catholicis auc- toribus versorum lectionem in vulgar! lingua, eis coneedere possint, quos in- tellexerint ex hujusmodi lectione, non damnum, sed fide! atque pietatis aug- mentum oapere posse, quam facultatem in scriptis habeant. Qui autera absque tali facultate ea legere seu habere prae- sumpserit, nisi prius Bibliis Ordinario redditis, peccatoruin absolutionem per- cipere non possit. Bibliopolae ver6, qui aftervifards fallen into heresy, or who, after their fall, have returned into the bosom of the church, provided they have been approved by the theological faculty of some Catholic university, or by the general inquisition. RuU 3. " Translations of ecclesiasti- cal writers, which have been hitherto published by condemned authors, are permitted to be read, if they contain nothing contrary to sound doctrine. Translations of the Old Testament may also be allowed, but only to learned arid pious men, at the discretion of the bishop ; provided they use them merely as eluci- dations of the vulgate version, in order to understand the Holy Scriptures, and not as the sacred text itself. But Translations of the New Testament made by authors of the first class of this Index, are allowed to no one, since little advantage, but much danger, generally arises from reading them. If notes accompany the versions which are allowed to be read, or are joined to the vulgate edition, they may be per- mitted to be read by the same persons as the versions, after the suspected places have been expunged by the theo- logical faculty of some Catholic uni- versity, or by the general inquisitor. On the same conditions also, pious and learned men may be permitted to have what is called Vatablus's Bible, or any part of it. But the preface and pro- legomena of the Bible published by Isidorus Clarius are, however, excepted ; and the text of his editions is not to be considered as the text of the vulgate edition. Rule 4. " Inasmuch as it is mani- fest FKOM experience, THAT IF THE Holt Bible, translated into the vulgar tongue, be indiscriminately allowed to every one, the temerity of men will cause more evil than GOOD TO ARISE FROM IT, it is, on this point, referred to the judgment of the bishops, or inquisitors, who may, by the advice of the priest or confessor, permit THE reading OF THE BlBLE TRANS- lated into the vulgar tongue by Catholic authors, to those persons WHOSE faith and PIETY, THEY APPRE- HEND, WILL BE AUGMENTED, AND NOT INJURED BY IT ; AND THIS PERMISSION THEY MUST HAVE IN WRITING. But if any one shall have the presumption to CHAP. n.J POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1563. 493 Punishments for those who have the *^ presumption " to read or sell the Bible without permission. prsdictatn facultatem non habenti Bib- lia idiomate vulgari conscripto vendi- derint, vel alio qtiovis modo concesse- rint, librorum pretium, in usos pios ab Episcopi convertendum, amittant, aliis- que poenis pro delicti qualitate ejusdem Episcopo arbitrio subjaceant. Regu- lares verb non nisi facultate k Prselatis suis habita, ea legere, aut emere pos- sint. Regula 6. Libri illi, qui haereticorura auctorum opera, interdum prodeunt, in quibus nulla aut pauca de suo apponunt, sed aliorum dicta coUigunt, cujusmodi sunt Lexica, Concordantiae, Apophtheg- mata, Similitudines, Indices, et hujus- modi, si quae habeant admista, quae ex- purgatione indigeant, illis Episcopi et Inquisitores, unk cum Theologorum Catholicorum concilio, sublatis, aut emendatis, permittantur. Regula 6. Libri vulgari idiomate de controversiis inter Catholicos et haereti- cos nostri temporis disserentes non pas- sim permittantur : sed idem de iis ser- vetur, quod de Bibliis vulgari lingu4 scriptis statutum est. Qui vero de ra- tione bene vivendi, contemplandi, con- fitendi, ac similibus argumentis, vulgari sermone conscript! sunt, si sanam doc- triiiam contineant, non est cur prohibe- antur; sicut nee sermones populares vulgari lingu4 habiti. Quod si hacte- nus in aliquo regno vel Provincial aliqui libri sunt prohibiti, quod nonnulla con- tinerint quae sine delectu ab omnibus legi non expediat, si eorum auctores Catholici sunt, postquam emendati fue- rint, permitti ab Episcopo et Inquisitore poterunt. READ OR POSSESS IT WITHOUT SUCH WRITTEN PEKMissiON, he shall not re- ceive absolution until he have first de- livered up such Bible to the ordinary. Booksellers, however, who shall sell, or otherwise dispose of Bibles in the vulgar tongue, to any person not having such permission, shall forfeit the value OF the BOOKS, to be applied by the bishop to some pious use ; and be subjected by the bishop to such other penalties as the bishop shall judge proper, according to the quality of the offence. But regu- lars shall neither read nor purchase such Bibles without a special license from their superiors. Rule 5. " Books of which heretics are the editors, but which contain little or nothing of their own, being mere com- pilations from others, as lexicons, con- cordances, apophthegms, similes, in- dexes, and others of a similar kind, may be allowed by the bishops and inquisi- tors, after having made, with the advice of Catholic divines, such corrections aivi emendations as may be deemed requi- site. Rule 6. " Books of controversy be- twixt the Catholics and heretics of the present time, written in the vulgar tongue, are not to be indiscriminately allowed, but are to be subject to the same regulations as Bibles in the vul- gar tongue. As to those works in the vulgar tongue, which treat of morality, contemplation, confession, and similar subjects, and which contain nothing contrary to sound doctrine, there is no reason why they should be prohibited ; the same may be said also of sermons in the vulgar tongue, designed for the people. And if in any kingdom or province, any books have been hitherto prohibited, as containing things not proper to be read, without selection, by all sorts of persons, they may be al- lowed by the bishop and inquisitor, after having corrected them, if written by Cathrflic authors. Regula 7. Libri qui res lascivas seu Rule 7. " Books professedly treating obscoenas ex professo tractant, narrant, of lascivious or obscene subjects, or aut docent, cum non solum fidei, sed et narrating, or teaching them, are utterly morum, qui hujusmodi librorum lectione prohibited,* since, not only faith but * We suppose this rule is not intended to apply to obscene and lascivious books intended for the instruction of candidates for the priesthood, or for examination of 494 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vu. Rules of the Index continued. Further restrictions upon the liberty of the press. facile corrumpi solent, ratio habenda sit, omnino prohibentur : et qui eos habue- rint, severe ab Episcopis puniantur. AntiquL vero ab Kthnicis conscripti, propter sermonis elegantiam et proprie- tatem permittuntur : nullk tamen ra- tione pueris preelegendi erunt. Regula 8. Libri quorum principale argumentum bonum est, in quibus ta- men obiter aliqua inserta sunt, quae ad haeresim, seu impietatem, divinationem, seu superstitionem spectant, k Catholi- cis Theologis, inquisitionis generalis auctoritate, expurgati, concedi possunt. Idem judicium sit de prologis, summa- riis, seu annotationibus quae k damnatis auctoribus, libris non damnatis, appositae sunt : sed posthac non nisi emendati excudantur. Regula 9. Libri omnes et scripta Geomantiae, Hydromantiae, Aeromantiae, Pyromantiae, Onomantiae, Chiromantiae, Necromanliae, sive in quibus continentur sortilegia, veneficia, auguria, auspicia, incantationes artis magicae prorsus re- jiciantur. Episcopi vero diligenter provideant, ne astrologiae judicariae libri, tractatus, indices legantur, vel habean- tur, qui de futuris contingentibus, suc- cessibus, fortuitisve casibus, aut iis ac- tionibus, quiE ab humana voluntate pen- dent, certi aliquid eventurum afRrmare audent. Permittuntur autem judicia, et naturales observationes, quae naviga- tionis, agriculturae, sive medicae artis juvandae gratia, conscripta sunt. Regula 10. In librorum, aliarumve Ecripturarum impressione servetur, quod in Concilio Lateranensi sub Leone X., Sess. 10, statutum est. Quare, si in alma urbe Roma liber aliquis sit impri- mendus, per Vicarium SummiPontificis et Sacri Palatii Magistrum, vel per- Bonas k Sanctissimo Domino nostro de- morals, which are readily corrupted by the perusal of them, are to be attended to ; and those who possess them shall be severely punished by the bishop. But the works of antiquity, written by the heathens, are permitted to be read, because of the elegance and propriety of the language ; though on no account shall they be suffered to be read by young persons. Rule 8. "Books, the principal sub- ject of which is good, but in which some things are occasionally introduced tending to heresy and impiety, divina- tion, or superstition, may be allowed, after they have been corrected by Catholic divines, by the authority of the general inquisition. The same judgment is also formed of prefaces, summaries, or notes, taken from the condemned au- thors, and inserted in the works of au- thors not condemned ; but such works must not be printed in future, until they have been amended. Rule 9. " All books and writings of geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, py- romancy, onomancy, chiromancy, and necromancy ; or which treat of sorce- ries, poisons, auguries, auspices, or magical incantations, are utterly re- jected. The bishops shall also dili- gently guard against any persons read- ing or keeping any books, treatises, or indexes, which treat of judicial astrolo- gy, or contain presumptuous predictions of the events of future contingencies, and fortuitous occurrences, or of those actions which depend upon the will of man. But such opinions and observa- tions of natural things as are written in aid of navigation, agriculture, and me- dicine, are permitted. Rule 10. " In the printing of books or other writings, the rules shall be ob- served, which were ordained in the 10th session of the council of Late- ran, under Leo X. Therefore, if any book is to be printed in the city of Rome, it shall first be examined by the Pope's Vicar and the master of cansoience preparatory to confession. If so, Dens's Theology, their most popu- lar standard work for students, and " the Garden of the Soul," published at New- York, 1844, with the approbation of bishop Hughes, must certainly be included in the prohibition. Probably, however, the rule was only intended to apply to works of this description when published by heretics. ^■l POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1663. 195 PuniBhments of booksellers who violate these rules. Their shops to be examined by inquisitors. putanda^ pritis examinetur. In aliia veio locis ad Episcopum, vel alium ha- bentem soientiam libri vel scripturae im- primendse, ab eodem Episcopo deputan- dum, ac Inquisitorem heEreticaB pravita- tis ejus civitatis, vel dicecesis, in qua impressio fiet, ejus approbatio et examen pertineat, et per eorum manum proprijl subscriptione gratis et sine dilatione im- ponendam sub poenis et censuris in eodem decreto contentis approbetur : hac lege et conditione addita, ut exem- plum libri imprimendi authenticum, et manu auctoris subscriptum, apud ex- aminatorem remaneat; eos vero, qui libelloa manuacriptos vulgant, nisi ante examinati probatique fuerint iisdem poe- nis subjici debere judicarunt Patres de- putati, quibus impressores : et qui eos habuerint et legerint, nisi auctores pro- diderint, pro auctoribus habeantur. Ip- sa vero hujusmodi librorum probatio in scriptis detur, et in fronte libri vel scripti, vel impressi authentice appareat, probatioque et examen ac cetera gra- tias liant. Praeterea in singulis civitatibus ac dioecesibus, domus vel loci ubi ars im- pressoria exercetur, et bibliothecae li- brorum venialium saepiiu visitentur a personis ad id deputandis ab Episcopo, sive ejus Vicario, atque etiam ab In- quisitore hsereticEe pravitatis, ut nihil eorum quae prohibentur, aut imprimatur, aut vendatur, aut habeatur. Omnes vero librarii, et quicumque librorum venditores habeant in suis bibliothecis Indicem librorum venalium, quos habent, cum subscriptione dictarum personarum, nee alios libros habeant, aut vendant aut quacumque ratione tradant, sine licen- tia, eorumdem deputandorum, sub poena amissionis librorum, et aliis arbitrio Episcoporum vel Inquisitorum impo- nendis. Emptores vero lectores, vel impressores, eorumdem arbitrio punian- tur. Quod si aliqui libros quoscumque in aliquam civitatem introducant, tene- antur eisdem personis deputandis re- nunciare : vel si locus publicus merci- bus ejusmodi constitutus sit, ministri, the sacred palace, or other persons chosen by our most holy father for that purpose. In other places, the examination of any book or manuscript intended to be print- ed shall be referred to the bishop, or some skilful person whom he shall nominate, and the inquisitor of heretical pravity of the city or diocess in which the impression is executed, who shall gratuitously and without delay affix their approbation to the work in their own handwriting, subject, nevertheless, to the pains and censures contained in the said decree ; this law and condition being added, that an authentic copy of the book to be printed, signed by the author himself, shall remain in the hands of the examiner : and it is the judgment of the fathers of the present deputation, that those persons who pub- lish works in manuscript, before they have been examined and approved, should be subject to the same penalties as those who print them , and that those who read or possess them should be con- sidered as the authors, if the real au- thors of such writings do not avow themselves. The approbation given in writing shall be placed at the head of the books, whether printed or in manu- script, that they may appear to be duly authorized ; and this examination and approbation, &c., shall be granted gra- tuitously. " Moreover, in every city and diocess, the house or places where the art of print- ing is exercised, and also the shops of booksellers, shall be frequently visited by persons deputed for that purpose by the bishop or his vicar, conjointly with the inquisitor of heretical pravity, so that nothing that is prohibited may be printed, kept, or sold. Booksellers of every de- scription shall keep in their libraries a catalogue of the books which they have on sale, signed by the said deputies ; nor shall they keep or sell, nor in any way dispose of any other books, without per- mission from the deputies, iindek pain OF FORFEITING THE BOOKS, AND BEING LIABLE TO SUCH OTHER PENALTIES AS SHALL BE JUDGED PROPER BY THE BISHOP OR INQUISITOR, WHO SHALL AL- SO PUNISH THE BUYERS, READERS, OR PRINTERS OF SUCH WORKS. If any per- son import foreign books into any city, they shall be obliged to announce them to the deputies; or if this kind of mer- chandise be exposed to sale in any public 496 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. Jeook tij. Books of deceased persons not to be used, till examined by inquisitors. Punishments of disobedience. publici ejus loci prsedictis personis sig- nificent libros esse adductos. Nemo ve- ro audeat librum, quern ipse vel alius in civitatem introduxit, alicui legendum tradere, vel aliqu4 ratione alienare, aut commodare, nisi ostenso prius libro, et habits, licentisl k personis deputandis, aut nisi notorie constet, librum jam esse omnibus permissum. Idem quoque servetur ab heredibus et executoribus ultimarum voluntatum, ut libros k defunctis relictos, sive eorum indicem illis personis deputandis offer- rant, et ab iis licentiam obtineant, prius- quam eis utantur, aut in alias personas quacumque ratione transferant. In his autem omnibus et singulis poena statua- tur vel amissionis librorum, vel alia ar- bitrio eorumdem Episcoporum, vel In- quisitorum pro qualitate contumaciae vel delicti. Circa vero libros, quos Patres depu- tati examinarunt aut expugn^runt, aut expurgandos tradiderunt, aut certis con- ditionibus, ut rursus excuderentur, con- cesserunt, quidquid illos statuisse con- stiterit, tam bibliopolae, quam ceteri ob- servent. Liberum tamen sit Episcopis aut Inquisitoribus generalibus secun- diim facultatem quam habent, etiam libros, qui his regulis permitti videntur, prohibere, si hoc in suis regnis, aut pro- vinciis, vel disecessibus expedire judi- caverint. Ceterum nomina, cum libro- rum qui a Patribus deputatis purgati sunt, turn eorum quibus illi banc pro- vinciam dederunt, eorumdem deputato- rum Secretarius notario Sacrse univer- salis Inquisitionis Romse descripta Sanctissimi Domini nostri jussu tradidit. Ad extremum vero omnibus fidelibus praecipitur, ne quis audeat contra harum regularum praescriptum, aut hujus in- dicia prohibitionem libros aliquos legere aut habere. Quod si quis libros heere- ticorum, vel cujusvis auctoris scripta, ob hseresin, ob falsi dogmatis suspicio- nem damnata atque prohibita, legerit, sive habuerit, statim in excommunica- tionis sententiam incurrat. Qui vero libros alio nomine interdictos legerit, aut habuerit, praeter peccati mortalis reatum, quo afficitur, judicio Episcopo- rum sever6 puniatur. place, the public officers of the place slwll signify to the said deputies, that such books have been brought; and no one SHALL PRESUME TO GIVE TO READ, OR LEND, OB SELL, ANT BOOK WHICH HE OR ANT OTHER PERSON HAS BROUGHT INTO THE CITY, UNTIL HE HAS SHOWN IT TO THE DEPUTIES, AND OBTAINED THEIR PERMISSION, unless it be a work well known to be universally allowed. " Heirs and testamentary executors shall make no use of the books of the de- ceased, nor in any way transfer them to others, until they have presented a cata- logue of them to the deputies, and ob- tained their license, under pain of the confiscation of the books, or the inflic- tion OF SUCH OTHER PUNISHMENT as the bishop or inquisitor shall deem proper, according to the contumacy or quality of the delinquent. " With regard to those books which the fathers of the present deputation shall examine, or correct, or deliver to be cor- rected, or permit to be reprinted on cer- tain conditions, booksellers and others shall be bound to observe whatever is or- dained respecting them. The bishops and general inquisitors shall, nevertheless, be at liberty, according to the power they possess, to prohibit such books as may seem to be permitted by these rules, if they deem it necessary for the good of the kingdom, or province, or diocess. And let the secretary of those fathers, accord- ing to the command of our holy father, transmit to the notary of the general in- quisitor, the names of the books that have been corrected, as well as of the persons to whom tlie fathers have granted the power of examination. " Finally, it is enjoined on all the faithful, that no one presume to keep or read any books contrary to these rules, or prohibited by THIS INDEX. But IF ANY ONE KEEP OR BEAD ANY BOOKS COMPOSED BY HERE- TICS, OR THE WRITINGS OF ANY AUTHOR SUSPECTED OF HERESY, OR FALSE DOC- TRINE, HE SHALL INSTANTLY INCUR 'THE SENTENCE OF EXCOMMUNICATION; AND THOSE WHO READ OR KEEP WORKS I?i- TERDICTED ON ANOTHER ACCOUNT, BK- SIDES THE MORTAL SIN COMMITTED, SHALL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED AT TlIK WILL OF THE BISHOPS." CHAP. II.1 POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1645-1563. 497 Authors honored with a place In the Index. Extracts from a popish ilcense to read hcroticai boola § 15. — The committee appointed at the council of Trent, and under whose supervision the above rules were drawn up, was made pennanent, and exists at the present day under the style of " the congregation of the index." Under the care of this committee, the original index of prohibited books has ever since been receiving constant additions, and of course, by this time, has grown to a pon- derous size. Among the names of authors included in this index prohibitorius, are many familiar and dear to the protestant world : Wickliff, Luther, Calvin, Bucer, Zwinglius, Melancthon, Beza, Tyn- dal, Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Knox, Coverdale, Bishop Hooper, John Fox, John Huss, Jerome of Prague, Addison, Lord Bacon, George Buchanan, Cave, Claude, Grotius, Sir Matthew Hale, Locke, Milton, Mosheim, Robertson, Saurin, Jeremy Taylor, Young, the author of Night Thoughts, and even Leigh Richmond, the sainted author of that sweet little tract, which has been the means of lead- ing so many souls to Christ, has, for writing " The Dairyman's Daughter," been honored (for it is an honor) by a place in this pre- scriptive popish index.* None of the works of these authors are allowed to be read by the blinded and priest-ridden votaries of Rome, according to the above rules of the index, without a special license from the popish bishop ; and this can only be obtained by favored individuals under very peculiar circumstances. Bishop Burnet, in the collection of records appended to his history of the Reformation, has preserved a Latin copy of such a license, granted by the Romish Bishop Tonstal, of London, on the 7th of March, 1 527, to the celebrated papist. Sir Tho- mas More, who was about to write against the reformed doctrines, from which the following extracts are translated : — " Forasmuch as the church of God has, of late throughout Germany, been infested by heretics, certain sons of iniquity have joined together, who are endeavoring to bring into our country the ancient damned heresy of Wickliff and of Luther, and are publishing in great abundance their most corrupt writings into our vernacular tongue ; and striv- ing with great efforts to corrupt the truth of the Catholic faith by their most pestilential dogmas. And forasmuch as it is greatly to be feared that the Catholic verity may be in danger, unless good and learned men oppose themselves to the malignity of the afore- said men, &c. . . . And forasmuch as thou, most famous brother, both in our own tongue and in Latin can excel even a Demosthenes," &c. The document then alludes, as an example, to the most illus- * Beside the index prohibitorius, the papists have their index expurgatorius — that is, an index of books not entirely prohibited, but in which certain passages are expurgated ; and this includes multitudes of passages not only from protestant but from Romish writers, and even from various editions of the works of the Fathers. For a full account of both these indexes, see that valuable, learned, and authentic work, " Mendham's Literary Policy of the Church of Rome, exhib- ited in an account of the damnatory catalogues, or Indice.i, both Prohibitory and Expurgatory." London, 1820 498 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. Bishop Tonstal's license to Sir Thomas More to read the worlis of Luther, &c.— no(e. trious king, Henry VIIL, who by his defence of the Sacraments of the Chiirch " had merited the immortal name of the Defender ol the faith," and to the writings of Luther, by reading of which Sir Thomas might understand in what lurking places these crooked serpents hide themselves ' quibus latibulis tortuosi serpentes sese condant ;' and after exhorting him to obtain an immortal name by thus defending the church against the heretics, concludes by grant- ing him the license to read the heretical books in the following words : " To that end we grant and concede unto you the power and license of keeping and reading books of this kind."* May the time never arrive when the free-born sons of Protestant America, before being at liberty to write, and to publish, and to read what they choose, must, like the ignorant and degraded inhab- * The following is a correct transcript of this curious and ancient document : " Cuthbertus permissione Divina London Episcopus Clarissimo et Egregio viro Domino Thomje More fratri et amico Charissimo Salutem in Domino et Benedict. Quia nuper, postquam Ecclesia Dei per Germaniam ab haereticis infestata est, juncti sunt nonnulli iniquitatis Filii, qui veterem et damnatum haeresim Wycliffi- anam et Lutherianam, etiam hEeresis Wycliffianse alumni transferendis in nostra- tem vernaculam linguam corruptissimis quibuscunq ; eorum opusculis, atque illis ipsis magna copia impressis, in hanc nostram Regionera inducere conantur : quam sane pestilentissimis dogmatibus Catholics fidei veritati repugnantibus maculare atq ; inficere magnis conatibus moliuntur. Magnopere igitur verendum est ne Catholica Veritas in totum periclitetur nisi boni et eruditi viri malignitati tam pree- dictorum hominum strenue occurrant, id quod nulla ratione melius et aptius fieri poterit, quam si in lingua Catholica Veritas in totum expugnans haec insana dog- mata simul etiam ipsissima prodeat in lucem. " Quo fiet ul Sacrarum Literarum imperiti homines in manus sumentes novos istos Hfereticos Libros, atq ; una etiam Catholicos ipsos refellentes, vel ipsi per se verum discernere, vel ab aliis quorum perspicacius est judicium recta admoneri et doceri possint. Et quia tu, Frater Clarissime, in lingua nostra vernacula, sicut etiam in Latina, Demosthenem quendam praestare potes, et Catholicse veritatis as- sertor acerrimus in omni congressu esse soles, melius subcisivas horas, si quas tuis occupationibus suffurari potes, coUocare nunquam poteris, quam in nostrate lingua aliqua edas quse simplicibus et ideotis hominibus subdolam hEereticorum malignitatem aperiant, ac contra tam impios Ecclesiae supplantatoies reddant eos instructiores ; habes ad id exemplum quod imiteris prae-clarissimum, illustrissi Do- mini nostri Regis Henrici octavi, qui Sacramenta Ecclesiae contra Lutherum tolls viribus ea subvertentem asserere aggressus, immortals nomen Defensoris Ecclesise in omne eevum promeruit. Et ne Andabatarum more cum ejusmodi larvis lucteris. ignorans ipse quod oppugnes, mitto ad te insanas in nostrate lingua istorum nae- nias, atque una etiam nonnuUos Lutheri Libros ex quibus hteo opinionum monstra prodierunt. " Quibus abs te diligenter perlectis, facilius intelligas quibus latibulis tortuosi ser- pentes sese condant, quibusq ; anfractibus elabi deprehensi studeant. Magni enim ad victoriam momenti est hostium Consilia explorata habere, et quid sentiant quove tendant penitus nosse : nam si convellere pares quae isti se non sensisse dicent, in totum perdas operam. Macte igitur virtute, tam sanctum opus aggre- dere, quo et Dei Ecclesiae prosis, et tibi immortals nomen atq ; aetemam lb Coslis gloriam pares : quod ut facias atque Dei Ecclesiamtuo patrocinio munias, magno- pere in Domino obsecramus, atq ; ad ilium finem ejusmodi libros et retinendi et legendi facultatem atq ; licentiam iinpertimur et concedimus. Dat. 7 die Martii, An])o 1527 et nostrse Cons, sexto." (Regist. Tonst., Fol. 138 ; Bumet,\o\. iv., p. 4.) CHAP. III.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 15^5-1563. 499 Fifth and Sixth Session. Canons and curses on original sin remitted by baptism and on justiflcation. J, itants of popish countries,* humbly sue for permission to the despotic priests and inquisitors of Rome ! CHAPTER III. ORIGINAL SIN AND JUSTIFICATION. § 16. — The Fifth Session was lield June 17th, 1546. After several days spent in unprofitable debate upon the subject of original sin, in which more use was made of the subtleties of Aquinas and Bona- ventura and of the unintelligible dogmas of the schoolmen than of the word of God, a decree was passed, which is hardly worth recording, expressive of the views of Rome on this point, and con- cluding as usual with the awful anathema on all who presumed even to think differently. The following two brief extracts are sufficient, as specimens of the spirit of this decree : — Si quis parvulos recentes ab uteris Whosoever shall affirm, that new- matrum baptizandos negat, etiam si fu- born infants, even though sprung from erint i baptizatis parentibus orti, &c., baptized parents, ought not to be bap- ANATHEMA SIT. tized, &c., LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Si quis per Jesu Christi Domini nos- Whosoever shall deny that the guilt tri gratiam, quae in Baptismate confer- of original sin is remitted by the grace of tur, reatum originalis peccati remitti ne- our Lord Jesus Christ, bestowed in bap- gat, &c. Si quis autem contrarium tism, &c. If any one THINKS diffee- senserit, ANATHEMA SIT. ently, LET HIM BE ACCURSED. The Sixth Session was to have been held July 28th, but the pro- tracted debates on the important subject of justification so long de- layed the preparation of the decree that it had to be deferred till the 13th of January, 1547, when a long decree, consisting of six- teen chapters and thirty-three canons, was finally passed. A few of the canons and curses will be sufficient to indicate the doctrine of Rome on this point. Si quis dixerit, homines justificarivel Wlioever shall affirm, that men are sola, imputatione justitiae Christi, vel justified solely by the imputation of the solsl peccatorum remissione, exclusi righteousness of Christ, by the remission gratijl, et charitate, quae in cordibus of sin, to the exclusion of grace and eorum per Spiritum sanctum diffunda- charity, which is shed abroad in their tur, atque illis inhaereat ; aut etiam gra- hearts, and inheres in them ; or that the tiam, qu§, justificamur, esse tantim fa- grace by which we are justified is only vorem Dei ; ANATHEMA SIT. the favor of God ; LET HIM BE AC- CURSED. * In popish priest-ridden Spain these prohibitions of the index still operate in all their force, and wo be to the man who presumes to sell or to read a book pro- scribed by these priestly enemies of the freedom of the press. " There is still fixed," says Mr. Bourgoing, " every year, at the church doors, the index, or list of those books, especially foreign, of which the holy office has thought fit to inter- dict the reading, on pain of excommunication." Modem State of Spain, ii., p. 276. 500 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book VII. Canons and curses of the council on Justification. Si quis hominem semel justificatum dixerit amplius peccare non posse, neque gratiam amittere, atque ideo eum qui labitur, et peccat, nunquam vere fu- isse justificatum ; aut contrk, posse in tota vita peccata omnia, etiam venialia, vitare, nisi ex speciali Dei privilegio, quemadmodum de beata Virgine tenet Ecclesia; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit, justitiara acceptam non conservari, atque etiam augeri co- ram Deo per bona opera ; sed opera ipsa fructus solummodo et signa esse justifi- cationis adepts, non autem ipsius au- gends causam ; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis in quolibet bono opere justum saltern venialiter peccare dixerit, aut, quod intolerabilius est, mortal iter ; atque ideo poenas jeternas mereri ; tantumque ob id non damnari, quia Deus ea opera non imputet ad damnationem ; ANA- THEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit, eum, qui post Baptis- mum lapsus est, non posse per Dei gra- tiam resurgere, aut posse quidem, sed soli fide amissam justitiam recuperare sine Sacramento PcEnitentiae, prout sancta Romana, et universalis Ecclesia, a Christo Domino, et ejus Apostolis edocta, hue usque professa est, servavit, et docuit : ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis post acceptam justificalionis gratiam, cuilibet peccatori poenitenti ita culpam remitti, et reatum Eeternae poense deleri dixerit, ut nuUus remaneat reatus poenae temporalis exsolvendae vel in hoc seculo, vel in futuro in Purgatorio, an- tequkm ad regna coelorum aditus patere possit; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit, hominis justificati bona opera ita esse dona Dei, ut non sint etiam bona ipsius justificati merita ; aut, ipsum justificatum bonis operibus, quae ab eo per Dei gratiam, et Jesu Christi meritum, cujus vivum membrum est, fiunt, non vere mereri augmentum gra- tiEB, vitam aeternam, et ipsius vitae EEter- Tix, si tamen in gratia decesserit, con- secutionem, atque etiam glorias augmen- tum ; ANATHEMA SIT. Whoever shall afiirm, that a man once justified cannot fall into sin any -t more, nor lose grace, and therefore that he vi'ho falls into sin never vfas truly justified ; or, on the other hand, that he is able, all his life long, to avoid all sins, even such as are venial, and that without a special privilege from God, such as the church believes was granted to the blessed Virgin ; LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall afiirm, that justifi- cation received is not preserved, and even increased, in the sight of God, by good works ; but that works are only the fruits and evidences of justification received, and not the causes of its in- crease : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall afiirm, that a righteous man sins in every good work, at least venially ; or, which is yet more intolera- ble, mortally ; and that he therefore de- serves eternal punishment, and only for this reason is not condemned, that God does not impute his works to condemna- tion ; LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall afiirm, that he who has fallen after baptism cannot by the grace of God rise again ; or that if he can, it is possible for him to recover his lost righteousness by faith only, without the sacrament of penance, which the holy Roman and universal church, in- structed by Christ the Lord and his Apostles, has to this day professed, kept, and taught ; LET HIM BE AC- CURSED. Whoever shall affirm, that when the grace of justification is received, the of- fence of the penitent sinner is so for- given, and the sentence of eternal pun- ishment reversed, that there remains no temporal punishment to be endured, be- fore his entrance into the kingdom of heaven, either in this world, or in the fu- ture state, in purgatory ; LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall affirm, that the good works of a justified man are in such sense the gifts of God, thai they are not also his worthy merits ; or that he, being justified by his good works, which are wrought by him through the grace of God, and the merits of Jesus Christ, of whom he is a living member, does not really deserve increase of grace, eternal life, the enjoyment of that eternal life if he dies in a state of grace, and even an increase of glory ; IJIT HIM BE AC- CURSED. CHAP. III.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1563. 501 Way in which Popery mukes the work of Christ a stepping-stone for human merit. § 17. — Thus did the doctors of Trent transform the finished work of our Lord J esus Christ, into a mere stepping-stone for human merit, and teach men to look rather to their own good works as the founda- tion of their hope than to the glorious righteousness of the Son of God imputed to the believer, and received by faith ; and such has ever been the doctrine of Rome. Still further to " darken counsel," the doctors connected justification with baptism, whether in the case of an infant or an adult. Is an individual distressed on account of sin ? If he was baptized in infancy, he is told that he was then justified, and that penance is now the path to peace, the " second plank after ship- wreck." If he was not baptized in infancy, as soon as that ordin- ance is administered he is assured that he is safe. He is not bidden to look to the cross of Christ ; nothing is said of the " blood that cleanseth from all sin ;" he has been washed in the " laver of regene- ration ;" the " instrumental cause" of justification, and with this he is to be satisfied. Here is no room for the Apostolic declaration, " Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. v., 1) : it is shut out altogether. The efliect of these sentiments on the mind, and the influence it is intended they should exert, may be ascertained by a reference to the manner in which they are interwoven with the devotional exer- cises of Roman Catholics. The following extracts are taken from the " Garden of the Soul." A " Morning Prayer" contains these expressions : " I desire by thy grace to make satisfaction for my sins by worthy fruits of penance ; and I will willingly accept from thy hands whatever pains, crosses, or sufferings I shall meet with during the remainder of my life, or at my death, as just punishments of my iniquities ; begging that they may he united to the sufferings and death of my Redeemer, and sanctified by his passion, in which is all my hope for mercy, grace, and salvation." " How very short the time of this life is, which is given us in order to labor for eternity, and to send before us a stock of good works, on which we may live for eternity." The sick person is thus instructed, " Beg that God would accept of all your pains and uneasiness, in union with the suf- ferings of your Saviour Jesus Christ, in deduction of the punish- ment due to your sins." On these passages no comment is re- quired : their design and tendency are sufficiently apparent. We add some specimens of the prayers prescribed in the Roman Missal. " Let our fasts, we beseech thee, O Lord, be acceptable to thee, that by atoning for our sins, they may both make us worthy of thy grace, and bring us to the everlasting effects of thy promise." "Receive, O Lord, we beseech thee, the prayers of the faithful, to- gether with these oblations ; that by these duties of piety they may obtain eternal life."* " O God, who by innumerable miracles hast honored blessed Nicholas, the bishop ; grant, we beseech thee, that hy his merits and intercession we may be delivered from eternal • Roman Missal for the use of the Laity, pp. 61, 337. 502 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [s^k to. Tyndal and Luther on the glorious doctrine of justification by faith. flames." ' " O God, who wast pleased to send blessed Patrick, thy bishop and confessor, to preach thy glory to the Gentiles ; grant, that by his merits and intercession we may, through thy grace, be enabled to keep thy commandments. "f " God, who hast translated the blessed Dunstan, thy high priest, to thy heavenly kingdom ; grant that we, hy his glorious merits, may pass from hence to never- ending joys."J " O God, who grantest us to celebrate the transla- tion of the relics of blessed Thomas, thy martyr and bishop ; we humbly beseech thee that, hy his merits and prayers, we may pass from vice to virtue, and from the prison of this flesh to an eternal kingdom."^ § 18. — In opposition to these anti-scriptural popish sentiments, it is cheering to turn to the glorious doctrine advocated by Luther, Melancthon, and their noble associates in the work of reforma- tion. There was no doctrine upon which the reformers were more unanimously agreed, than the glorious truth of justification by faith alone through the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Says the martyred Tyndal, the early translator of the New Testament, in his " Prologe to the Romayns :" " The somme and hole cause of the writing of this epistle is, to prove that a man is justified by fayth onely ; which proposition whoso denyeth, to him is not onely this Epistle and al that Paul wryteth, hut also the hole Scripture so locked up, that he shall never understand it to his soul's health." Luther calls this doctrine ' articulus stantis aut cadentis ecclesias' — the article by which a church stands or falls ; he says, " it is the head corner-stone which supports, nay, gives existence and life to the church of God ; so that without it the church cannot subsist for an hour." — He calls it the " only solid rock." " This Christian article," he writes, " can never be handled and inculcated enough. If this doctrine fall and perish, the knowledge of every truth in religion will fall and perish with it. On the contrary, if this do but flourish, all good things will also flourish, namely, true religion, the true worship of God, the glory of God, and a right knowledge of every- thing which it becomes a Christian to know.|| The following memorable protestation of Luther on this subject, deserves to be written in letters of gold. " I, Martin Luther, an un- worthy preacher of the Gospel of oar Lord Jesus Christ, thus pro- fess, and thus believe ; that this article, that faith alone, without WORKS, CAN JUSTIFY BEFoiiE GOD, shall ncvcr be overthrown, neither by the Emperor, nor by the Turk, nor by the Tartar, nor by the Pope, with all his cardinals, bishops, sacrificers, monks, nuns, kings, * Roman Missal for the use of the Laity, p. 627. f Ibid., p. 663. t Ibid., p. 686. } Ibid., 614. The late celebrated Romanist, Dr. Milner, said of bishop Poynter, " that he would give the universe to possess half his merit in the sight of God." Laity's Directory, 1829, p. 74. Cramp, 115. There is a striking similarity, or rather identity between the doctrines of the Oxford Puseyites and the Romanists on the article of Justification. For proof of this, and extracts from Puseyite writinjis, see M'llvaine' on the Oxford Divinity— passim. II Milner's Church history, vol. iv., p. 615. Scott's Continuation of Milner, vol. i., p. 627. Cramp 112. CHAP. III.] POPERY AT TRENT— A D. 1546-1563. 503 Luther'B noble protestation. His visit to Eoine. The just shall live by faith. princes, powers of the world, nor yet by all the devils in hell. This article shall stand fast whether they will or no. This is the true Gospel. Jesus Christ redeemed us from our sins, and he only. This most firm and certain truth is the voice of Scripture, though the world and all the devils rage and roar. If Christ alone take away our sins, we cannot do this with our works ; and as it is im- possible to embrace Christ but by faith, it is therefore equally impos- sible to apprehend him by works. If, then, faith must apprehend Christ, before works can follow, the conclusion is ii-refragable, that faith alone apprehends him, before and without the consideration of works ; and this is our justification and deliverance from sin. Then, and not till then, good works follow faith as its necessary and INSEPARABLE FRUIT. This is the doctriue I teach ; and this the Holy Spirit and the Church of the faithful have delivered. In this will I abide. Amen."* § 19. — And it was no wonder that Luther loved this doctrine of jus- tification by faith. It was that blessed passage, " the just shall live by faith" that first darted a ray of gospel peace and joy into his mind, when struggling to obtain ease for a wounded conscience by the ceremonies and mummeries of Popery. In 1510, the future re- former was dispatched on a journey to Rome. On his way thither, the poor German monk was entertained at a wealthy convent of the Benedictines, situated on the Po, in Lombardy. This convent enjoyed a revenue of thirty-six thousand ducats ; twelve thousand were spent for the table, twelve thousand on the buildings, and twelve thousand to supply the other wants of the monks. The magnificence of the apartments, the richness of the dresses, and the delicacy of the viands, astonished Luther. Marble, silk, and luxury of every kind ; what a novel spectacle to the humble brother of the convent of Wittemberg ! He was amazed and silent ; but Friday came, and what was his surprise ! The table of the Benedictines was spread with abundance of meats. Then he found courage to speak out. " The Church," said he, " and the Pope forbid such things." The Benedictines were oflended at this rebuke from the unmannerly German. But Luther, having repeated his remark, and perhaps threatened to report their irregularity, some of them thought it easiest to get rid of their troublesome guest. The porter of the convent hinted to him that he incurred danger by his stay. He accordingly took his departure from this epicurean monastery, and pursued his journey to Bologna, where he fell sick. Some have seen in this sickness the effects of poison. It is more probable that the change in his mode of living, disordered the frugal monk of Wittemberg, who had been used to subsist for the most part on dry bread and herrings. This sickness was not " unto death," but for the glory of God. His constitutional sadness and depression returned. What a fate was before him, to perish thus far away from Germany under a scorching sun, in a foreign land I The dis- - * Lives of the Eminent Reformers, p. 98 : Dublin, 1828. 30 504 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. Ibookvd. Luther climbing Pilate's stair-caso for indulgence. His horror and shnnic; at himself. tress of mind he had experienced at Erfurth again oppressed him. A sense of his sins disturbed iiim ; and the prospect of the judgment of God filled him with dismay. But in the moment when his terror was at its height that word of Paul, " The just shall live hy Faith" recurred with power to his mind, and beamed upon his soul like a ray from heaven. Raised and comforted, he rapidly regained health, and again set forth for Rome, expecting to find there a very different manner of life from that of the Lombard convents, and eager to efface, by the contemplation of Roman sanctity, the sad impression left upon his memory by his sojourn on the banks of the Po. § 20. — On his arrival at Rome, with the hope one day of obtaining an indulgence promised by the Pope to any one who should ascend on his knees what is called Pilate's staircase, the poor Saxon monk was slowly climbing those steps which they told him had been miraculously transported from Jerusalem to Rome. But whilst he was going through this meritorious work, he thought he heard a voice like thunder speaking from the depth of his heart : " The just SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." Thcsc words, which already on two occa- sions had struck upon his ear as the voice of an angel of God, re- sounded instantaneously and powerfully within him. Pie started up in terror on the steps up which he had been crawling ; he was hor- rified at himself; and, struck with shame for the degradation to which superstition had debased him, he fled from the scene of his folly. This powerful text had a mysterious influence on the life of Lu- ther. It was a creative word for the reformer and for the refor- mation. It was by means of that word that God then said : " Let there be light, and there was light." It is frequently necessary that a truth should be repeatedly presented to our minds, in order to produce its due effect. Luther had often studied the Epistle to the Romans, and yet never had justification by faith, as there taught, appeared so clear to him. He now understood that righteousness which alone can stand in the sight of God ; he was now partaker of that perfect obedience of Christ which God imputes freely to the sinner as soon as he looks in humility to the God-man crucified. This was the decisive epoch in the inward life of Luther. That faith which had saved him from the fear of death became hencefor- ward the soul of his theology ; a stronghold in every danger, giv- ing power to his preaching and strength to his charity, constituting a ground of peace, a motive to service, and a consolation in life and death.* * Merle D'Aubigng, pp. 54, 56. 605 CHAPTER IV. THE SACEAMENTS AND THE DOCTRINE OF INTENTION. BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION. § 21. — The Seventh Session. — It was I'esolved by the fathers of Trent at the first general congregation,* after the sixth session of the council, that the subject of the next doctrinal decrees should be the sacraments. Respecting the number of the sacraments, the members were pretty generally agreed. It was held that they were seven, viz., baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, penance, ex- treme unction, orders, and matrimony. In support of this number, they adduced tradition and the most fanciful analogies. Some of them gravely argued that since seven is a perfect number, since there are seven days in the week, seven excellent virtues, seven deadly sins, seven planets, &c., therefore, as a matter of course, there must be seven sacraments. Such was the boasted wisdom of the united talent and learning of this infallible popish council ! Still, it is not astonishing that the fathers resorted to arguments like these, in support of seven sacraments, since it was impossible to find in the New Testament a single argument for more than two, viz., baptism and the Lord's Supper. f The doctrinal decree was ready by the 3d of March, 1547, and was promulgated in the seventh session held on that day. A few extracts from it will be sufficient. The decree was divided into three parts. (1) Of the sacraments in general, (2) of baptism, (3) of confirmation. The following are extracts from the first part, the sacraments in general. Ad consummationem salutaris de jus- In order to complete the exposition tificatione doctrine, quee, in prEecedenti of the wholesome doctrine of justifica- proxima Sessione uno omnium Patrum tion, published in the last session by consensu promulgata fuit ; consentaneum the unanimous consent of the fathers, visum est de sanctissimis Ecclesise^ Sa- it hath been deemed proper to treat of cramentis agere, per quce omnis vera the holy sacraments of the church, by justitia vel incipit, vel coepta augetur, which all true righteousness is at first vel amissa reparatur. Propterei sacro- imparted, then increased, and after- sancta cecumenica et generalis Triden- wards restored, if lost. For which tina Synodus, in Spiritu sancto legitime cause the sacred, holy, oecumenical and congregata, &c. . . . sanctarum Scrip- general council of Trent, lawfully as- turarum doctrinse, Apostolicis tradilioni- sembled, &c., abiding by the doctrine bus, atque aliorum Conciliorum et Pa- of the sacred scriptures, the tradition trum consensui inhjerendo, hos prae- of the apostles, and the uniform coh- * The meetings of the council for debating the various subjects, and for pre- paring the decrees, were generally called Congregations. When the decrees were in readiness, the Session was held at which they were authoritatively pro- mulgated and enacted. t See Father Paul's History of the council of Trent, lib. ii., s. 85. 506 mSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vn. Canons and cursea of the council on the Sacraments and Intention. sentea canones statuendos, et decemen- ■ dos censuit, &c. Si quis dixerit, Sacramenta novae legis non fuisse omnia a Jesu Christo, Domino nostro, instituta ; aut esse plura vel pauciora quJim septem, videlicet, Baptismum, Confirmationem, Eucliaris- tiam, Poenitentiam, Extremam Unctio- nem, Ordinem, et Matrimonium ; aut etiam aliquod horum septem non esse ver6 et proprie Sacramentum ; AN- ATHEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit Sacramenta novae legis non esse ad salutem necessaria, sed superflua ; et sine eis, aut eorum voto per solam fidem homines k Deo gratiam justificationis adipisci ; licet omnia sin- gulis necessaria non sint ; ANATHE- MA SIT. Si quis dixerit, Sacramenta novs legis non continere gratiam, quam significant, aut gratiam ipsain non ponentibus, obi- cem non conferre, quasi signa tantum externa sint acceptae per fidem gratiae vel justitiae, et notee queedam Christianas professionis, quibus apud homines dis- cernuntur fideles ab infidelibus ; AN- ATHEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit, per ipsa novje legis Sacramenta ex opere operate non con- ferri gratiam, sed solam fidem divine promissionis ad gratiam consequendam suiEcere; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit, in ministris, dum Sa- cramenta conficiunt, et conferunt, non requiri intentionem saltern faciendi quod facit Ecclesia ; ANATHEMA SIT. sent of other councils, and of the fathers, hath resolved to frame and de- cree these following canons, &c. Whoever shall affirm Ihat the sacra- ments of the new law were not all in- stituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, or that they are more or fewer than seven, namely baptism, confirmation, the eu- charist, penance, extreme unction, or- ders, and matrimony, or that any of these seven is not truly and properly a sacrament : LET HIM BE ACCURS- ED. Whoever shall aflnrm that the sacra- ments of the new law are not necessary to salvation, but superfluous ; or that men may obtain the grace of justifica- tion by faith only, without these sacra- ments, although it is granted that they are not all necessary to every indivi- dual :* LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall affirm that the sacra- ments of the new law do not contain the grace which they signify ; or that they do not confer that grace on those who place no obstacle in its way ; as if they were only the external signs of grace or righteousness received by faith, and marks of Christian profession, whereby the faithful are distinguished from un- believers : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall affirm that grace is not conferred by these sacraments of the new law, by their own power [ex opere operato] ; but that faith in the divine promise is all that is necessary to ob- tain grace : LET HIM BE ACCURS- ED. Whoever shall affirm that when ministers perform and confer a sacra- ment, it is not necessary that they should at least have the intention to do what the church does : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. § 22. — This last canon and curse with respect to the doctrine of intention, demands a few words of explanation. The doctrine of Popery is that the vahdity of a sacrament depends upon the intention of the officiating priest ; so that no man can be sure that he has been duly baptized, unless he can be sure that the priest not only pronounced the formula of the words, but also had the intention in his mind to baptize him. So in like manner, no one can be sure that he has received absolution from the priest, or that he has duly re- ceived the sacrament of the eucharist, unless he can look into the * This exception refers, doubtless, to orders and matrimony. The former pe- culiar to the priesthood, the latter forbidden to them. CHAP. IV.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1645-1563. 507 Absurdity of the Romish doctrine of Intention. heart of the minister and be sure that he had the intention duly to administer these rites. Now, as Romanism teaches that these are absolutely necessary to salvation, and the validity of all depends upon the state of the priest's mind, unknown to any but the omni- scient God ; in what a distressing state of doubt and anxiety must those be who seriously believe these doctrines and attentively re- flect upon them ! How different, all this, from the gospel plan of immediate access to the mercy seat ; not through the medium of a fallible and often corrupt and depraved mortal, but through the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the great Apostle and High Priest of our profession. Popery says, " come to the priest ; if he baptize you, if he absolve you, then you may be saved ; but if he refuse to do it, then you shall be damned. Or if he do it, but without the due in- tention of mind (of which you can never be absolutely sure), then he may utter the formula of baptism, he may pronounce the words of absolution, but still you shall be damned ! for in the words of the decree, the ' intention' of the priest is essential to the validity of the act, and the act validly performed is necessary to salvation." On the other hand the Scriptures say — and Protestantism re-echoes the blessed invitation — " Come to Christ ; for ' he is able to save unto the uttermost, all that come unto God by him 1' ' Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved' — and ' him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.' " In the one system, all is made to depend on the priest, and the sinner is thus held in the chains of mental bondage to a miserable mortal ; in the other all is shovsm to depend on Christ, and the ransomed believer is enabled to say, " I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him, until that day." Such is the slavery of Popery. Such is the freedom of the gospel ! § 23. — The doctrine of intention also has an important bearing upon the change of the wafer into the body and blood of Christ, and upon what is called the " sacrifice of the mass." For if the priest have not the intention to effect this change, and thus to " create his creator, then it is maintained by Romanists that no change takes place, the wafer does not become God, and the people who worship it are consequently guilty of idolatry. So that no man who wor- shi])s the host, can possibly be sure at the time that he is not guilty of idolatry. The following extract from the Romish Mass Book oi Missal (p. 53), will sufficiently explain this remark. The portion of the book from which it is taken is entitled — ' De defectibus in cele- bratione missarum occurrentibus ;' that is, respecting defects oc- curi'ing in the mass. De defectibus Vini. — Of the defects of the Wine. Si vinum sit factum penitus acetum, If the wine be quite sour, or putrid, or vel penitus putridum, vel de uvis acerbis be made of bitter or unripe grapes : or seu non maturis expressum, vel ei ad- if so much water be mixed with it, as mixtum tantum aquae, ut vinum sit cor- spoils the wine, no sacrament is made, ruptum, non coniicitur sacramentum. 508 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vn. Curious extracts from the Romish Missal on defects in the Mass. Si post consecrationem corporis, aut etiam vini, deprehendiiur defectus alte- rius speciei, altera jam consecrata ; tunc ei nullo modo materia quse esset appo- nenda haberi possit, ad evitandum scan- dalum procedeiidum erit. If after the consecration of the body, or even of the wine, the defect of either kind be discovered, one being consecrat- ed ; then, if the matter vchich should be placed cannot be had, to avoid scan- dal, he must proceed. De defectibus FormcB. — The defects in the Form. Si quis aliquid diminuerit vel immuta- ret de forma consecrationis corporis et eanguinis, et in ipsa verborum immuta- tione, verba idem non significarent, non conficeret sacramentum. If any one shall leave out or change any part of the form of the consecration of the body and blood, and in the change of the words, such words do not signify the same thing, there is no consecra- tion. De defectibus Ministri. — The defects of the Minister. Defectus ex parte ministri possunt contingere quoad ea, quEE in ipso requi- runtur, hjec autem sunt, imprimis inten- Tio, deinde dispositio animze, dispositio corporis, dispositio vestimentorum, dis- positio in ministerio ipso, quoad ea, quze in ipso possunt occurrere. Si quis KON intendit conficere, sed delusarie aliquid agere. Item si aliquae hostifE ex oblivione remaneant in altari, vel aliqua pars vini, vel aliqua hostia la- teat, cum non intendat consecrare, nisi quas videt ; item si quis habeat coram se undecim hostias, et intendat consecrare solum decern, non determinans quas de- cern intendit, in his casibus non conse- crat, quia requiritur intentio, &c., &c. The defects on the part of the minis- ter, may occur in these things required in him, these are first and especially in- tention, after that, disposition of soul, of body, of vestments, and disposition in the service itself, as to those matters which can occur in it. If any one intend not to consecrate, but to counterfeit ; also, if any wafers remain forgotten on the altar, or if any part of the wine, or any wafer lie hidden, when he did not intend to con- secrate but what he saw ; also, if he shall have before him eleven wafers and intended to consecrate but ten only, not determining what ten he meant, in all these cases there is no consecration, because intention is required ! In addition to the above extracts from the Missal, the following upon various other defects besides the intention of the minister, are curious, and worth recording : — Si post consecrationem ceciderit mus- ca vel arnea, vel aliquid ejusmodi in ca- licem et fiat nausea sacerdoti, extrahat earn et lavet cum vino, finitamissa, com- burat et combustio ac lotio hujusmodi in sacrarium projiciatur. Si autem non fuerit el nausea, nee ullum periculum tinieat, sumat cum sanguine. Si in hieme sanguis congeletur in ca- lice, involvatur calix in pannis calefactis, si id non proficerit, ponatur in fervente aqua prope altare, dummodo in calicem non intret donee liquefiat. Si per negligentiam, aliquid de san- guine Christi ceciderit, seu quidem su- per terram, seu super tabulam lingua lamhatur, et locus ipse radatur quantum If after consecration, a gnat, a spider, or any such thing fall into the chalice, let the priest swallow it with the blood, if he can ; but if he fear danger and have a loathing, let him take it out, and wash it with wine, and when mass is ended, burn it, and cast it and the wash- ing into holy ground. If in winter the blood be frozen in the cup, put warm clothes about the cup ; it that will not do, let it be put into boiling water near the altar, till it be melted, taking care it does not get into the cup. If any of the blood of Christ fall on the ground by negligence, it must be licked up with the tongue, the place be sufficiently scraped, and the scrapings :HAP. IV.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1563. 509 The priest must piously ewallow his vomil. Priests ridiculing their own mummeries satis est, et abrasio comburatur : cinis burned ; but the ashes must be buried in vero in sacrarium recondatur. holy ground. Si sacerdos evomet eucharistiam, si If the priest vomit the eucharist, and species integrae appareant reverenter su- the species appear entire, he must fv- mantur, nisi nausea fiat; tunc enim ously swallow il again ; haX. \i a. n?iViSea. species consecratEB caute separentur, et prevent him, then let the consecrated in aUquo loco sacro reponantur donee species be cautiously separated, and put corrumpantur, et postea in sacrarium by in some holy place till they be cor- projiciantur; quod si species non appa- rupted, and after, let them be cast into reant comburatur vomitus, et cineres in holy ground ; but if the species do not sacrarium mittantur. appear, the vomit must be burned and the ashes thrown into holy ground. How miserably debased must be the soul and intellect of a ra- tional being, before he can submit to a religion which enjoins such rules as the above ! The votaries of Jupiter, Diana or Juggernaut, would be ashamed of them 1 Is it possible for the priests to believe these disgusting absurdities ? Credat JudcBus Apella. § 24. — Now the question naturally arises, when these priests pro- nounce the words of consecration, do they always intend to conse- crate, or to transmute the wafer into " the body, blood, soul, and di- vinity of Christ ?" Let the following incident in the life of Luther suf- fice for a reply. One day, during the visit of the future reformer at Rome, Luther was at table with several distinguished ecclesiastics, to whose society he was introduced in consequence of his charac- ter of envoy from the Augustins of Germany. These priests ex- hibited openly their buffoonery in manners and impious conversa- tion ; and did not scruple to give utterance before him to many in- decent jokes, doubtless thinking him one like themselves. They related, amongst other things, laughing, and priding themselves upon it, how when saying mass at the altar, instead of the sacra- mental words which were fo transform the elements into the body and blood of the Saviour, they pronounced over the bread and wine these sarcastic words : " Bread thou art, and bread thou shalt remain ; wine thou art, and wine thou shalt remain — Panis es et panis manebis ; vinum es et vinum manebis." " Then," continued they, " we elevate the pyx, and all the people worship." Luther could scarcely believe his ears. His mind, gifted with much viva- city, and even gaiety, in the society of his friends, was remarkable for gravity when treating of serious things. These Romish mock- eries shocked him. " I," says he, " was a serious and pious young monk ; such language deeply grieved me. If at Rome they speak thus openly at table, thought I, what, if their actions should cor- respond with their words, and popes, cardinals, and courtiers should thus say mass. And I, who have so often heard them recite it so devoutly, how. in that case, must I have been deceived !"* * Merle D'Aubigne, p. 53. That the priests of the nineteenth century in the city of Rome are no better than those of the sixteenth above mentioned, is mani fest from the following words of one who was but lately one of their number. " What was my surprise," says Dr. Giustiniani (after becoming sceptical upon some of the doctrines of Popery), "when I made known my thoughts to some priests my intimate friends, to find that they were rank infidels ! With the Scrip- 510 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. poOK ■VC. Canons and curses on Baptism and Confirmation. Baptism declared necessary to salvation § 24. — The second and third divisions of the decree were upon the subjects of Baptism and Confirmation. From these it will be sufficient to cite, without remark, the following extracts. Si quis dixerit, Baptismum liberum esse, hoc est, non necessarium ad salu- tem ; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit, parvulos, eo quod ac- tum credendi non habent, suscepto Bap- tisrao inter fideles computandos non esse, ac proptereJi, cum ad annos dis- cretionis pervenirent, esse rebaptizan- dos ; aut praestare omitti eorum Bap- tisma, quam eos non actu proprio cre- dentes baptizari in sola fide Ecclesise ; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit, Confirmationem bap- tizatorum otiosam CEeremoniam esse, et non potius verum et proprium Sacra- mentum; aut olim nihil aliud fuisse, quJim catechesim quamdam, quS, adoles- centiae proximi fidei suae rationem co- ram Ecclesia exnonebant; ANATHE- MA SIT. ' Si quis dixerit, injuries esse Spiritui sancta eos qui sacro Confirmationis chrismati virtutem aliquam tribuunt ; ANATHEMA SIT Whoever shall affirm that baptism is indifferent, that is, nut necessary to sal- valion; LET HIM BE ACCURSED Whoever shall affirm that children are not to be reckoned among the faith- ful by the reception of baptism, because they do not actually believe ; and there- fore that they are to be re-baptized vifh en they come to years of discretion ; or that, since they cannot personally believe, it is better to omit their baptism, than tiiat they should be baptized only in the faith of the church : LET HIM BE AC- CURSED. Whoever shall affirm that the con- firmation of the baptized is a trifling ceremony, and not a true and proper sacrament; or that formerly it was nothing more than a kind of catechiz- ing ; in vifhich young persons explained the reasons of their faith before the church : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall affirm that they offend the Holy Spirit, who attribute any vir- tue to the said chrism of confirmation : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. By the first of these canons, we perceive that Rome regards baptism as necessary to salvation, and pronounces her curse upon all who believe otherwise. By the second, she consigns in a body to damnation (that is, so far as her good wishes can operate), at least one of the largest denominations of the great protestant family ; and by the third and fourth, that and all the other denominations of Christians belonging to that great family, who are unwilling to believe that " confirmation " is " a true and proper sacrament." tures they were unacquainted ; the doctrines of the church they considered as human fabrications ; mocked at and ridiculed thmgs most sacred in the eye of a devoted papist, and laughed at the ignorance of the poor deluded people." (Papal Rome as it is, p. 42. 511 CHAPTER V. SUSPENSION OF THE COUNCIL IN 1549, AND KESUMPTION UNDER POPE JULIUS in. IN 1551. DECREE ON TRANSUBSTANTIATIOM. § 25. — Soon after the session in which the canons just cited were passed, a proposal was made under the pretext of a fever having broken out at Trent to transfer the council to some other place ; and through the influence of the legate, De Monte, and others of the ultra-papal party, a vote of the majority was obtained, and a de- cree passed at the eighth session, March 1 1th, 1547, though not with- out strong opposition, to remove to Bologna, a city belonging to the Pope, and where the future sessions would be still more exclusively under his influence, than those already past. This step was very offensive to the emperor Charles, who employed all his influence in persuading, as many as possible of the divines still to continue at Trent. Those who assembled at Bologna were all Italian prelates, and entirely under the direction of the Pope. Being so few in number, and exclusively of one nation, they could hardly presume to act as d, general council. On April 21st, they met in what was called the ninth session, only to adjourn to June 2d. On the latter day they met again, and adjourned to September 14th, when they as- sembled only to prorogue the council for an indefinite period ; and after the lapse of more than two years, the few prelates still re- maining at Bologna were informed by the Pope on the 17th of Sep- tember, 1549, that their services were no longer needed, and conse- quently they dispersed to their homes. § 26. — In less than two months after the suspension of the coun- cil, pope Paul III. died, on the 10th of November, 1549. When the cardinals entered into the conclave to choose a successor, they pre- pared and signed a series of resolutions, which they severally bound themselves by solemn oath to observe in the event of being efected to the Apostolic chair. The resumption of the council, the esta- blishment of such reforms as it might enact, and the reformation of the court of Rome, were included.* It was long before they could agree, so powerful was the influence of party feelings and conflict- ing interests, producing complicated intrigue, and thereby extend- ing tneir deliberations to a most inconvenient and wearisome length. At last the choice fell on De Monte, the former legate at Trent, who was publicly installed into his high office, February 23d, 1 550, and assumed the name of Julius III. It aflTords a striking comment upon the pretended efforts of the ecclesiastics at the council of Trent, to effect a reform in the dis- cipline and morals of the priesthood, that a notoriously immoral man hke De Monte should have been elevated to the papacy. In addition to his other vices, he was a notorious sodomite, and bestow- * Le Plat, vol. iv., p. 166-159. 512 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book to. A hard question to answer The arrogant bull of pope Julius for the re-assembling of the council ed a cardinal's hat on a young man named Innocent, the keeper of his monliey, of whom he was suspected to be too fond. When the cardinals remonstrated with him on occasion of this promotion, he cooly Y&'^\\eA, " And what merit did you discover in me, that you raised me to the Popedom ?" They could not easily answer such a question,* nor could they any more easily remove the unworthy pope from his ill-deserved elevation. § 27. — The Emperor, who was now anxious to unite all the Ger- man princes in some plan of religious union, pressed the resumption of the council of Trent upon the new pope, and endeavored to pre- vail upon him, in his bull for the re-assembling of the council, to use such language as might not disgust the Protestants, and prevent them from coming to Trent. It soon became evident, however, that Julius wished to hinder the Protestants from attending the council, and was determined by this means to prevent the discussions which would result from their appearance there. Instead of showing any moderation in the style and temper of the document, he used ex- pressions that could not but be obnoxious and offensive, even to many Roman Catholics. The pontiff asserted that he possessed the sole power of convening and directing general councils ; com- manded, " in the plentitude of apostolic authority," the prelates of Europe to repair forthwith to Trent ; promised, unless prevented by his age and infirmities, or the pressure of public affairs, to pre- side in person ; and denounced the vengeance of Almighty God, and of the Apostles Peter and Paul, on any who should resist or disobey the decree. f When the bull was presented to the Protes- tants, it produced exactly the effects that were anticipated. They declared that such arrogant pretensions precluded the hope of con- ciliation, and that they must retract any promise they had given to submit to the council, since it could not be done without wounding their consciences and offending God. § 28. — At length the council was re-opened. The eleventh session was held on the 1st of May, 1551, and the twelfth on the 1st of September following, but no doctrinal decrees were passed at either. The thirteenth session -was held on the 11th of October, and a long decree was issued on the subject of Transubstantiation, con- sisting of eight chapters and eleven canons and curses. It will be sufficient to quote the following five of the canons and curses. Si quis negaverit, in sanctissimae Whoever shall deny, that in the most Eucharistiae Sacramento contineri vere, holy sacrament of the eucharist there realiter et substantialiter corpus et san- are truly, really, and substantially con- guinem unk cum anima et divinitate tained the body and blood of our Lord Domini nostri Jesu Christi, ac proinde Jesus Christ, together with his soul and totum Christum : sed dixerit tantum- divinity, and consequently Christ entire ; * Thuan. Hist, dcs Conclaves, Tom. i., p. 101. f Wolf. Lect. Memorab., tom. ii., p. 640-644. Wolfius says that a new coinage was issued by Julius III., with this motto — " Gens et regnum, quod mihi non parue- rit peribit — The nation and kingdom which, will not obey me, shall perish." See also Father Paul's council of Trent, lib. iii., sec. 33. CHAP, v.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1663. 513 Canona and curees of the council OD Transubatantiation. modo esse in eo ut in signo, vel figuiA, aut virtute ; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit, in sacro-sancto Eu- charistise Sacramento remanere sub- stantiam panis et vini uni cum corpore et sanguine Domini nostri Jesu Christi, negaveritque mirabilem illam et singu- larem conversionera totius substantiee panis in corpus, et totius, substantije vini in sanguinem, manentibus dumtax- kt speciebus panis et vini ; quam qui- dem conversionem Catholica Ecclesia aptissime Transubstantiationem appel- lat; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis negaverit, in venerabili Sacra- mento Eucharistia; sub unaquaque spe- cie, et sub singulis cujusque speciei par- tibus, separatione facta, totum Christum contineri ; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit, peractA consecratione, in admirabili EucharistiaB Sacramento non esse corpus et sanguinem Domini nostri Jesu Christi, sed tantum in usu, dum sumitur non autem ante vel post, et in hostiss seu particulis consecratis, quEe post communionem reservantur, vel supersunt, non remanere verum cor- pus Domini ; ANATHEMA SIT. but shall affirm that he is present there- in only in a sign or figure, or by his power: LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall affirm, that in the most holy sacrament of the eucharist there remains the substance of the bread and wine, together with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and shall deny that wonderful and peculiar con- version of the whole substance of the bread into his body, and of the whole substance of the wine into his blood, the species only of bread and wine remain- ing, which conversion the Catholic church most fitly terms transubstantia- tion : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall deny that Christ en- tire is contained in the venerable sacra- ment of the eucharist, under such spe- cies, and under every part of each spe- cies when they are separated : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall affirm, that the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are not present in the admirable eucharist, as soon as the consecration is perform- ed, but only as it is used and received, and neither before nor after ; and that the true body of our Lord does not re- main in the hosts or consecrated mor- sels which are reserved or left after communion ; LET HIM BE ACCUR- SED. Whoever shall affirm, that Christ the only begotten Son of God, is not to be adored in the holy eucharist with the external signs of that worship which is due to God ; and therefore that the eu- charist is not to be honored with extra- ordinary festive celebration, nor solemn- ly carried about in processions accord- ing to the laudable and universal rites and customs of holy church, nor pub- licly presented to the people for their adoration : and that those who worship the same are idolaters ; LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Enough has already been said in former portions of this work, relative to the monstrous absurdity of Transubstantiation pro- claimed in the preceding canons. Upon such an insult to common sense and reason, it cannot be necessary longer to enlarge. In this place, therefore, no further remark will be offered on this most con- contradictory and absurd of all the doctrines of Rome. Si quis dixerit, in sancto EucharistijE Sacramento Christum unigenitum Dei Filium non esse cultu latriEe, etiam ex- terno, adorandum ; atque ideo nee fes- tive, peculiari celebritate venerandum, neque in processionibus, secundvim lau- dabilem et universalem Ecclesise sanctae ritum et oonsuetudinem, solemniter cir- cumgestandum, vel non publice, ut adoretur, populo proponendum, et ejus adoratores esse idoltras ; ANATHE- MA SIT. 514 CHAPTER VI. ON PENANCE, AURICULAR CONFESSION, SATISFACTION, AND EXTREME UNCTION TO THE SECOND SUSPENSION IN APRIL, 1552. § 29. — The fourteenth session of the council was held November 25th, 1551, and issued its decrees on penance and extreme unction. The decree on penance contained nine explanatory chapters, and fifteen canons and curses. Penance is said to consist of three parts, contrition, confession, and satisfaction. The following extracts from the canons will sufficiently explain the faith of Romanists on the subject of penance. Of penance in general. Si quis dixerit, in Catholica Ecclesia Poenitentiam non esse vere et proprie Sacramentum pro fidelibus, quoties post baptismum in peccata labuntur ipsi Deo reconciliandis, k Ohristo Domino nostra institutum ; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis Sacramenta confundens, ip- sum Baptismum, PoenitentisB Sacramen- tum esse dixerit, quasi hasc duo Sacra- menta distincta non sint, atque ideo Pcenitentiam non recte secundum post naufragium tabulam appellari ; AN- ATHEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit, verba ilia Domini Sal- vatoris : Accipite Spiritum sanctum: quorum remiseritis peccata, remittuntur eis : et quorum retinueritis, retenta sunt : non esse intelligenda de potestate re- mittendi et retinendi peccata in Sacra- mento Poenitentiae, sicut Ecclesia Ca- tholica ab initio semper intellexit ; de- torserit autem, contra institutionem hu- jus Sacramenti, ad auctoritatem praedi- candi Evangelium ; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis negaverit, ad integram et per- fectam peccatorum remissionem requiri tres actus in posnitente, quasi materiam Sacramenti PoenitentiEE, videlir it, Con- tritionem, Confessionem, et Satisfac- tionem, qua3 tres Pcenitentiae partes di- cuntur ; aut dixerit, duas tantum esse PcBnitentias partes, terrores scilicit in- cussos conscientis, agnito peccato, et Cdem conceptam ex Evangelio, vel ab- Whoever shall affirm that penance, as used in the Catholic church is not truly and properly a sacrament, insti- tuted by Christ our Lord, for the benefit of the faithful, to reconcile them to God, as often as they shall fall into sin after baptism : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever, confounding the sacraments, shall affirm that baptism itself is a pen- ance, as if those two sacraments were not distinct, and penance were not rightly called a " second plarik after ship- wreck:" LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall affirm that the words of the Lord our Saviour, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained ;" are not to be understood of the power of forgiving and retaining sins in the sacrament of penance, as the Catholic church has always from the very first understood them ; but shall restrict them to the authority of preaching the gospel, in opposition to the institution of this sacrament : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall deny, that in order to the full and perfect forgiveness of sins, three acts are required of the penitent, constituting as it were the matter of the sacrament of penance, namely, contri- tion, confession, and satisfaction, which are called the three parts of penance ; or shall affirm that there are only two parts of penance, namely, terrors where- M'ith the conscience is smitten by the CHAP. VI.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1563. 515 Canona and curses upon Auricular Confession. solutione, qui credit quis sibi per Chris- tum remissa peccata: ANATHEMA SIT. sense of sin, and faith, produced by the gospel, or by absolution, whereby the person believes that his sins are forgiven him through Christ: LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Of secret or auricular confession to the priest. Si quis negaverit, Confessionem Sa- cramentalem vel institutam, vel ad sa- lutem necessariam esse jure divino, aut dixerit, modum secrete confitendi soli sacerdoti, quem Ecclesia Catholica ab initio semper observavit et observat, alienum esse ab institutione et mandate Christi, et inventum esse humanum ; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit, in Sacramento Pceni- tentiee ad remissionem peccatorum ne- cessarium non esse jure divino, confiteri omnia et singula peccata mortalia, quo- rum memoria cum debita et diligenti praemeditatione habeatur, etiam occul- ta, &c. ; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit, Confessionem omnium peccatorum qualem Ecclesia servat, esse impossibilem, et traditionem hu- manam, k piis abolendam ; aut ad earn non teneri omnes et singulos utriusque sexils Christi fideles, juxta magni Con- cilii Lateranensis constitutionem, semel in anno, et ob id suadendum esse Chris- ti fidelibus, et non confiteantur tempore Quadragesima! ; ANATHEMA SIT. Si quis dixerit Absolutionem sacra- mentalem sacerdotes non esse actum judicialem, sed nudum ministerium pronuntiandi et declarandi remissa esse peccata confitenti ; modo tantiim credat se esse absolutum ; aut sacerdos non serio, sed joco absolvat ; aut dixerit non requiri Confessionem poenitentis, ut sacerdos eum absolvere possit ; AN- ATHEMA SIT. Whoever shall deny that sacramental confession was instituted by divine com- mand, or that it is necessary to salvation ; or shall afhrm that the practice of se- cretly confessing to the priest alone, as it has been ever observed from the begin- ning by the Catholic church, and is still observed, is foreign to the institu- tion and command of Christ, and is a human invention : LET HIM BE AC- CURSED. Whoever shall affirm, that in order to obtain forgiveness of sins in the sacra- ment of penance, it is not by divine command necessary to confess all and every mortal sin which occurs to the memory after due and diligent premedi- tation — including secret offences, &c. : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall affirm that the con- fession of every sin, according to the custom of the church, is impossible, and merely a human tradition, which the pious should reject ; or that all Christians, of both sexes, are not hound to observe the same once a year, accord- ing to the constitution of the great Council of Lateran ; and therefore, that the faithful in Christ are to be persuad- ed not to confess in Lent : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Whoever shall affirm that the priest's sacramental absolution is not a judicial act, but only a ministry, to pronounce and declare that the sins of the party confessing are forgiven, so that he be- lieves himself to be absolved, even though the priest should not absolve seriously, but in jest ; or shall affirm that the confession of the penitent is not necessary in order to obtain absolu- tion from the priest: LET HIM BE ACCURSED. § 30. — Before quoting from the canons of satisfaction in the same decree, it is necessary to pause here, for the purpose of briefly showing the indecency, the bigotry, and tyranny of the above laws of the Roman Catholic church relative to auricular confession. Let it be remembered that this decree enjoins upon all of " both sexes," the females as well as males, to confess in the ear of the 5 If, HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vit. Iridecency of females secretly confessing to a priest. priest alone, closeted with him in the closest secresy, not only every sinful or unholy act, but every impure thought that has passed through the heart ; and that it is the duty of the priest to question and to cross-question their penitents in every variety of form, rela- tive to their violations in thought, word, or deed, of each of the commandments of the decalogue. The reason for this particularity in confession, is given in the fifth chapter of the decree in the fol- lowing words : — " For it is plain that the priests cannot sustain the ofRce of judge, if the cause be unknown to them, nor inflict equita- ble punishments, if sins are only confessed in general, and not mi- nutely and individually described. For this reason it follows that penitents are bound to rehearse in confession all mortal sins, of which, after diligent examination of themselves, they are conscious, even though they be of the most secret kind," &c. In the various Romish books of devotion, such as the " Path to Para- dise," " Garden of the Soul," &c., there are directions to' penitents how to prepare themselves before going to confession for this scru- tinizing examination. The following few questions, from the direc- tion for the examination of conscience, in the " Garden of the Soul," are cited at random, as characteristic specimens of the confessional enquiries on the subjects to which they refer. " Have you by word or deed denied your religion, or gone to the churches or meetings of heretics, so as to join in any way, with them in their worship ? or to give scandal ? How often ? Have you blasphemed God or his saints 1 How often ? Have you broke the days of abstinence commanded by the church, or eaten more than one meal on fasting days 1 or been accessary to others so doing ? How often 1 Have you neglected to confess your sins once a year ; or to receive the blessed sacraments at Easter 1 Have you presumed to receive the blessed sacrament after having broken your fast ? Have you committed anything that you judged or doubted to be a mortal sin, though perhaps it was not so ? How often 1 Or have you exposed yourself to the evident danger of mortal sin ? How often ? And of what sin ? Have you enter- tained with pleasure the thoughts of saying or doing anything which it would be a sin to say or do ? How often ? Have you had the desire or design of committing any sin 1 Of what sin ? How often r § 31. — The disgusting indecency of auricular confession, and its ne- cessarily corrupting influence, both to priest and penitent, must be evident to all, when the nature of the subjects is considered upon which the priests are bound to examine their female penitents rela- tive to violations of the laws of chastity. I have now lying before me the edition of the "Garden of the Soul," printed in 1844, at New York, and as we are informed on the title page, " with the approbation of the Right Reverend Dr. Hughes, Bishop of New York." On pages 213 and 214 of that popular Roman Catholic book of devotion, I find the following questions in English, for the CHAP. VI,] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1563. 517 Questions on Ihe seventh commundDient from the " Garden of the Soul,'* approved by Bishop Iluglics examination of conscience on the sixth* commandment. They are transcribed verbatim et literatim, wilh the omission of por- tions of two of the queries, which are calculated to suggest modes of pollution and crime, that a pure minded person would never think of I had thought at first, of translating these questions into Latin, and throwing them into a note ; but they are printed in PLAIN ENGLISH, in a popular book of devotion, issued under the auspices of the most celebrated Romish Bishop in America, and to be found in the hands of almost every Roman Catholic ; and it is nothing but right that Protestants, and especially those who send their daughters to Roman Catholic seminaries, should know the kind of queries that will be proposed by the priests, in the secret con- fessional, to their wives and their daughters, in case they should be induced to embrace the religion of Rome. 1 must be excused for omitting the most indecent portions of the two vilest questions in the filthy list. 1 dared not pollute my page with them. The work in which they are found, can be procured at any Roman Catholic book-store. The following are the questions : " Have you been guilty of fornication, or adultery, or incest, or any sin against nature, either with a person of the same sex, or with any other creature ? How often? Or have you designed or at- tempted any such sin, or sought to induce others to it ? Hovi' often ? Have you been guilty of self-pollution 1 Or of immodest touches of yourself? How often ? Have you touched others or permitted yourself to be touched by others immodestly ? Or given or taken wanton kisses or embraces, or any such liberties ? How often ? Have you looked at immodest objects with pleasure or danger ? Read immodest books or songs to yourselves or others ? Kept indecent pictures ? Willingly given ear to, or taken pleasure in hearing loose discourse, &c. ? Or sought to see or hear anything that was immodest ? How often ? Have you exposed yourself to wanton company ? Or played at any indecent play ? Or frequent- ed masquerades, balls, comedies, &c., with danger to your chastity ? How often ? Have you been guilty of any immodest discourses, wanton stories, jests, or songs, or words of double meaning ? How often ? And before how many ? And were the persons before whom you spoke or sung married or single ? For all this you are obliged to confess by reason of the evil thoughts these things are apt to create in the hearers. Have you abused the marriage bed by * * * * * * * * * * *. Or by any pollutions ? Or been guilty of any irregularity, in order ******* * # * *_ How often ? Have you without a just cause refused the marriage debt ? And what sin may have followed from it ? How often ? Have you debauched any person that was innocent before ? Have you forced any person, or deluded any one by de- * This is properly the seventh commandment, — " Thou shalt not commit adul- tery." It is called the sixth in the Garden of the Soul and other popish books, on account of their omission of the second, which forbids the worship of images or idols. They make up the number ten, by dividing the tenth into two. 518 HISTORY OF ROMANISiM. [eook vii. Auricular confession at Home in the words of an eye-vvitnesa. Instance of assault to a young lady. ceitful promises, &c. ? Or designed or desired so to do ? How often ? You are obliged to malie satisfaction for tiie injury you have done. Have you taught any one evil which he knew not be- fore? Or carried any one to lewd houses, &c.? How often?" § 32. — It will be a sufficient commentary on the above questions to cite two brief extracts from the work of the Rev. Dr. Giustiniani, who was recently himself a Romish priest in the city of Rome itself — the very " seat of the Beast" — and who is therefore perfectly acquainted with the practical operation of secret auricular con- fession. The first is in reference to a young lady of about seven- teen years old, in the family where the Doctor was boarding. " One day the mother told her daughter to prepare to go with her to-morrow to confess and to commune. The mother unfortunately, feeling unwell the next morning, the young lady had to go by her- self; when she returned, her eyes showed that she had wept, and her countenance indicated that something unusual had happened. The mother, as a matter of course, inquired the cause, but she wept bitterly, and said she was ashamed to tell it. Then the mother insisted ; so the daughter told her that the parish priest to whom she constantly confessed, asked her questions this time which she could not repeat without a blush. She, however, repeated some of them, which were of the most licentious and corrupting tendency, which were better suited to the lowest sink of debauchery than the confessional. Then he gave her some instructions, which decency forbids me to repeat ; gave her absolution, and told her before she communed, she must come into his house, which was contiguous to the church ; the unsuspecting young creature did as the father con- fessor told her. The rest, the reader can imagine. The parents furious, would immediately have gone to the archbishop, and laid before him the complaint ; but I advised them to let it be as it was, because they would injure the character of their daughter more than the priest. All the punishment he would have received, is a suspension for a month or two, and then be placed in another parish, or even i-emain where he is. With such brutal acts, the history of the confessional is full." {Papal Rome as it is, pp. 83, 84.) § 33. — The other extract from the work of Dr. Giustiniani (p. 188), refers to the manner of confessing sick penitents in their bed-cham- bers, in the city of Rome, where he long resided. In that city, he says, " you will see the indisposed fair penitent remain in her bed, and the Franciscan friar leaving his sandals before the door of her bed-chamber, as an indication that he is performing some ecclesias- tical act, then none, not even the husband can enter the chamber of his wife, until the Franciscan friar has finished his business and leaves the chamber ; then the husband with reverence ready wait- ing at the door, kisses the hand of the father Franciscan for his kindness for having administered spiritual comfort to his wife, and very often he gives him a dollar to say a mass for his indisposed opouse." {See Engraving.) '■ Rut why," continues the doctor, " shall I speak of the moral cor- Auricular Confession iu a Church. Tortures of the Inquisition. — Pulley, and Roaating the Feet. CHAP, -vi.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1563. 521 The bigotry and tyranny of the popish laws on confession. Consequences of neglecting them at Rome ruption of Popery in Rome ? it is everywhere the same ; it appears differently, but never changes its character. In America, where female virtue is the characteristic of the nation, it is under the control of the papal priest. If a Roman CathoHc lady, the wife of a free American, should choose to have the priest in her bed-room, she has only to pretend to be indisposed and asking for the spiritual father, the confessor, no other person, not even the husband, dare enter. In Rome it would be at the risk of his Hfe ; in America at the risk of being excommunicated, and deprived of all spiritual pri- vileges of the church, and even excluded from heaven." § 34. — The bigotry and tyranny of the popish canons of Trent rela- tive to confession are no less evident than their indecency. In one of the canons above cited, this sacramental confession to a priest is declai-ed to be necessary to salvation, and a bitter curse is pro- nounced not only on him who neglects to confess, but on all who deny that this auricular confession is necessary to salvation. In protestant lands we can smile at the anathemas of an apostate church. We feel that they are but a breath of empty air, and we treat them with that contempt they deserve. Let those lands but once become popish, and be reduced to the situation of oppressed and priest-ridden Italy or Spain, and the people must obey these decrees, and treat them with the respect they challenge, or endure the conse- quences. What those consequences are at " Rome in the nineteenth century," we learn from a forcible and accurate writer. " If every true-born Italian, man, woman and child, within the Pope's domin- ions, does not confess and receive the communion at least once a year, before Easter, his name is posted up in the parish church ; if he still refrain, he is exhorted, entreated, and otherwise tormented ; and if he persist in his contumacy, he is excommunicated, which is a very good joke to us, but none at all to an Italian, since it involves the loss of civil rights, and perhaps of liberty and property. Every Italian must at this time confess and receive the communion." — " A friend of ours, who has lived a great deal in foreign countries, and there imbibed very heterodox notions, and who has. never to us made any secret of his confirmed unbeHef of Catholicism, went to-day to confession with the strongest repugnance. ' What can I do V he said. ' If I neglect it, I am reprimanded by the parish priest ; if I delay it, my name is posted up in the parish church ; if I persist in my contumacy, the arm of the church will overtake me, and my rank and fortune only serve to make me more obnoxious to its power. If I choose to make myself a martyr to infidelity, as the saints of old did to religion, and to suffer the extremity of punish- ment in the loss of property and personal rights, what is to become of my wife and family? The same ruin would overtake them, though they are Catholics ; for I am obliged not only to conceal my true belief, and profess what I despise, but I must bring up my chil- dren in their abominable idolatries and superstition ; or, if I leach lliem the truth, make them either hypocrites or beggars.' "* * Rome in the Nineteenth Century, vol. ii., p. 262 ; vol. iii., 160. 31 522 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book to Canong and curses on satisfaction. Men '' redeeming tliemselves" from sin. Corrupting the Scriptures § 35. — Of Satisfaction. — On this third part of penance, it will be sufficient to quote the three following canons : — Si quis dixerit, totam poenam simul Whoever shall affirm, that the entire cum culpa remitti semper ^ Deo, satis- punishment is always remitted by God, factionemque poenitentium non esse ali- together with the fault, and therefore am quam fidem, qu4 apprehendunt Chris- that penitents need no other satisfaction turn pro eis satisfecisse ; ANATHEMA than faith, whereby they apprehend SIT. Christ, who has made satisfaction for them : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Si quis dixerit, pro peccatis, quoad Whoever shall affirm, that we can by pojnam temporalem, minime Deo per no means make satisfaction to God for Christi merita satisfieri poenis ab eo in- our sins, through the merits of Christ, flictis, et patienter toleratis, vel k sacer- as far as the temporal penalty is con- dote injunctis, sed neque sponte suscep- cerned, either by punishments inflicted tis, ut jejuniis, orationibus, eleomosynis, on us by him, and patiently borne, or vel aliis etiam pietatis operibus, atque enjoined by the priest, though not un- ideo optimam pcenitentiam esse tantim dertaken of our own accord, such as novam vitara ; ANATHEMA SIT. fastings, prayers, alms, or other works of piety ; and therefore that the best penance is nothing more than a new life : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Si quis dixerit, satisfactiones, quibus Whoever shall affirm, that the satis- pojnitentes per Christum Jesum peccata factions by which penitents redeem them- redimunt, non esse cultus Dei, sed tra- selves fi-om sin through Christ Jesus, are ditiones hominum, doctrinam de gratia, no part of the service of God, but, on et verum Dei cultum, atque ipsum ben- the contrary, human traditions, which eficium mortis Christi obscurantes ; AN- obscure the doctrine of grace, and the ATHEMA SIT. true worship of God, and the benefits of the death of Christ ; LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Thus is it that the Romish anti-Christ fights against " the glorious gospel of the blessed God," and pronounces a curse upon all who trust entirely for salvation to Christ, and believe and rejoice in the most precious assurance of the word of God — " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sins." § 36. — The reader, acquainted chiefly with his bible, who has never become familiar with the pious frauds and crafty devioes of Popery, upon reading the foregoing decree upon penance, satisfac- tion, &c., naturally inquires, " How do they reconcile these unscrip- tural notions with the word of God ? I have read my bible from beginning to end, and have found nothing from Genesis to Revela- tions about doing penance — where do they get this doctrine ?" In reply to this natural inquiry I answer — " They do it by falsify- ing and corrupting God's word, by substituting in their Rhemish or Douay version, the words, " do penance" for " repent" in those pas- sages where the original uses ceravoe'S), a word which every Greek scholar knows refers to an operation of the mind {^ovs) from which the word is derived, with the preposition i«Era denoting change. Two or three instances of this fraudulent translation will be sub joined. Thus, Matt, iii., 2 : "Do penance, for the kingdom of hea- ven is at hand." Luke xvii. 3 : "If thy brother sin against thee, rebuke him ; and if he do penance, forgive him." Acts viii., 22. CHAP. VI.] POPERY AT TRENT— A D. 1645-1563. 523 Doing penance. Flagrant falsification of God'B Word, in tlie popish Bordeaux testament— fnote.) Peter to Simon Magus : " Do penance therefore, from this thy wick- edness." In every one of these instances, it is scarcely necessary to say the Protestant version renders the term repent, as the meaning of the Greek word undoubtedly requires. They even carry this mis- translation into the Old Testament, for instance, Job xiii., 6. " There- fore I reprehend myself and do penance in dust and ashes." Pro- testant : " Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Ezek. xviii., 21 : "If the wicked do penance for ail the sins which he hath committed," &c. Protestant: "But if the wicked will turn," &c.* * The Bordeaux Testament. — The falsification of God's Holy Word, by Bubsti- tuting " do penance" for " repent" is not the most flagrant instance of the cor- ruption of the Sacred Scriptures of which the votaries and advocates of Popery have been guilty. Soon after the expulsion of the Huguenots from France in 1685, in consequence of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the papists, per- ceiving that they could not prevent the scriptures from being read, resolved to force the sacred volume itself into their service, by the most audacious corruptions and interpolations. An edition of the New Testament was published, so trans- lated, that a Roman Catholic might find in it explicit statements of the peculiar dogmas of his church. The book was printed at Bordeaux, in 1686. It was entitled, " The New Testament of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Translated from Latin into French, by the divines of Louvain :" and the attestation of the popish archbishop of Bordeaux was prefixed to it, assuring the reader that it was " care- fully revised and corrected." Two doctors in divinity of the university of the same place also recommended it as useful to all those, who, with permission of their superiors, might read it. A few quotations will show the manner in which the work was executed, and the object which the translators had in view. In the summary of tiie " contents" of Matthew xxvi,, Mark xiv., and Luke xxii., it is said that those chapters contain the account of the " institution of the mass !" Acts xiii., 2, (" as they ministered to the Lord and fasted") is thus rendered — " as they offered to the Lord the sacrifice of the mass, and fasted," &c. In Acts xi., 30, and other places, where our English version has the word " elders," this edition has "priests." A practice that has proved very productive of gain to the priesthood, is made scriptural in the following manner : " And his father and mother went every year in pilgrimage to Jerusalem," Luke ii., 41. "Beloved, thou actest as a true believer in all that thou doest towards the brethren, and towards the pilgrims." 3 John, 5. Tradition is thus introduced : — " Ye keep my commandments, as I left them with you by tradition," 1 Cor. xi., 2. " The faith which has been once given to the saints by tradition." Jude 6. That the Roman Catholic might be able to prove that marriage is a sacrament, he was furnished with these renderings : — " To those who are joined together in the sacrament of marriage, I command," &c. 1 Cor. vii., 10. " Do not join your- selves in the sacrameM o/ marriage with unbelievers." 2 Cor. vi., 14. 1 Cor. ix., 5, is so directly opposed to the constrained celibacy of ike clergy, that we can scarcely wonder at finding an addition to the text ; it stands thus — " Have we not power to lead about a sister, a woTnan to serve us in the gospel, and to remember us with her goods, as the other apostles," &c. In support of human merit, the translation of Heb. xiii., 16, may be quoted — " We obtain merit toward God by such sacrifices." Purgatory could not be introduced but by a direct interpolation : " He himself shall be saved, yet in all cases as by the fire of purgatory." 1 Cor. iii., 16. Many other passages might be noticed. " Him only shalt thou serve with latria," i. e., with the worship specially and solely due to God : this addition was 524 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book to. A Spaniard's idea of doing penance. Form of administering Extreme Unction. The idea which the common people among Papists entertain of doing penance, is well illustrated by a reply once made by an intel- ligent Spaniard to a friend of mine, a clergyman of New York. " It means," said he, "to eat no breakfast — very little dinner — no tea ; not to lie in bed, but on the floor, and (suiting the action to the word) whip yourself! whip yourself! ! whip yourself! ! !"* Of Extreme Unction. § 37. — This also is regarded as a sacrament by the Romish church. It consists in the anointing, by the priest, of a person supposed to be at the point of death with the sacred oil upon the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, the mouth, and the hands. The unction is applied to all the parts above mentioned. At each anointing the priest says, " By this holy unction, and through his great mercy, may God in- dulge thee whatever sins thou hast committed by sight" — " smell" — " touch," &c. This is called the " form " of the sacrament. At this time the priest has the power of absolving the dying person from all sins, even from those which in the seventh chapter of the decree on penance are reserved to the decision of the Supreme evidently made to prevent the text being urged against the invocation of the saints ; Luke iv., 8. " Many of those who believed, came to confess and declare their sins." Acts xix., 18. " After a procession of seven days round it." Heb. xi., 30. "Beware, lest being led away with others, by the error of the wickedhere- tics" file. 2 Pet. iii., 17. " There is some sin which is not mortal, but venial." 1 John v., 17. " And round about the throne there were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones twenty-four priests seated, all clothed with albs." Rev. iv., 4. The alb, it will be recollected, is part of the official attire of a Roman Catholic priest. But the most flagrant interpolation occurs in 1 Tim. iv. 1 — 3. " Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some will separate themselves from the Roman faith, giving themselves up to spirits of error, and to doctrines taught by devils. Speaking false things through hypocrisy, having also the conscience cau- terised. Condemning the sacrament of marriage, the abstinence from meats, which God hath created for the faithful, and for those who have known the truth, to receive them with thanksgiving." " Such," says Rev. J. M. Cramp, now president of the Baptist college in Mon- treal, to whom I am indebted for this important fact — " such was the Bordeaux New Testament. Whether it was actually translated by the divines of Louvain is doubtful. This is certain, however, that it was printed by the royal and univer- sity printer, and sanctioned by dignitaries of the Romish church. It is proper to add, that the Roman Catholics were soon convinced of the folly of tlieir conduct, in thus tampering with the inspired volume. To avoid the just odium brought on their cause by this wicked measure, they have endeavored to destroy the whole edition. In consequence, the book is now excessively scarce." I am not aware that a single copy of the Bordeaux Testament is to be found in the United States. Four copies, however, are known to be in existence in Great Britain. One is in the library of the dean and chapter of Durham; another is possessed by the Duke of Devonshire ; a third is in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth ; and the fourth was a few years ago in the possession of the late Duke of Sussex, by whom President Cramp was permitted to visit his valuable library, and to make the extracts from the Bordeaux Testament, cited in the above note. (See Cramp's History of the Council of Trent, page 67, &c.) * See Defence of Protestant Scriptures,by the present author, page 52. CHAP. vi.J POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1646-1663. 525 Popery pu ts the priest In the place of Christ. Canons and curses on Extreme Unction. Pontiff. However the man may have lived during life, let him on his dying bed confess to a priest, receive absolution and extreme unction, and he is sure of his passport to Heaven. Awful delu- sion 1 thus to put the priest in the stead of Christ, and teach the poor dying sinner to trust in a few drops of oil from the fingers, and a few words of absolution from the lips of a miserable mortal, •instead of directing him to Christ that "rock of ages," who is the only "sure foundation" of a sinner's hope, and bidding him trust alone in that Almighty Saviour, who is " able to save unto the ut- termost all that come unto God by him." " All will confess," says Mr. Cramp, "the vast importance of right views and feelings in the prospect of death. Perilous as is deception or delusion in things spiritual at any time, tiie danger is immeasurably increased when the last change is fast approaching, and the final destiny is about to be sealed for ever. It is then that the church of Rome " lays the flattering unction to the soul." The dying man sends for the priest, and makes confession ; absolution is promptly bestowed : the eucharist is administered; and lastly, the sacred chrism is ap- plied. These are the credentials of pardon, the passports to hea- ven. No attempt is made to investigate the state of the heart, de- tect false hopes, bring the character to the infallible standard : nothing is said of the atonement of Christ and the sanctifying in- fluences of the Spirit. Without repentance, without faith, without holiness, the departing soul feels happy and secure, and is not un- deceived till eternity discloses its dreadful realities — and then it is too late. It is not affirmed, indeed, that the description is univer- sally applicable ; but that, with regard to a large majority of in- stances, it is a fair statement of facts, cannot, alas, be questioned."* It will be sufficient to quote the following two canons with the curses upon all who cannot believe that these drops of oil " confer grace" or " forgive sin," and who prefer, therefore, to trust for sal- vation solely to the infinite merits, the perfect righteousness, and the one-atoning sacrifice of the Son of God. Si quis dixerit, Extremam Unctionem Wlioever shall affirm that extreme lion esse vere et proprie Sacramentum unction is not truly and properly a k Christo Domino nostro institutum, et sacrament, instituted by Christ our a beato Jacobo Apostolo promulgatum : Lord, and published by the blessed sed ritum tantum acceptum k Patribus, Apostle James, but only a ceremony re- aut figmentum humanum : ANATHE- ceived from the fathers, or a human in- MA SIT. vention : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Si quis dixerit, sacram infirmorum Whoever shall affirm, that tlie sacred Unctionem non conferre gratiam ; nee unction of the sick does not confer grace, remittere peccata, nee alleviare infir- nor forgive sin, nor relieve the sick : mos : sed jam cessasse, quasi olim tan- but that its power has ceased, as if the tum fuerit gratia curationum ; AN- gift of healing existed only in past ATHEMA SIT. ages : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. § 38. — No doctrinal decrees were passed at the fifteenth and six- teenth sessions, the latter of which was held on the 28th of April * Cramp's council of Trent, p. 214. 526 fflSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vu. Second BUBpension of the council in 1552. R e-opena, after a ten yeara interval, in 1562 1552. On that day a hasty decree was passed, adjourning the council for two years, in consequence of the alarm excited by the successes of the protestant prince, duke Maurice of Saxony, who was at war with the emperor Charles, and moving with his victorious forces m the direction of Trent. No sooner was this decree passed for a second suspension, than the council-hall was quickly vacated, and the fathers hastened to the asylum of their homes. CHAPTER VII. FROM THE SEVENTEENTH TO THE TWENTY-FIFTH AND CLOSING SES- SION. DENIAL OF THE CUP TO THE LAITY, THE MASS, SACRA. MENT3 OF ORDERS AND MATRIMONY. PURGATORY. INDULGENCES, RELICS, &C. § 39. — Though the council had adjourned for but two years, nearly ten years elapsed, from various causes, before it was re- opened. During this interval, after the death of pope Julius III., which took place March 23d, 1555, three other pontiffs successively occupied the papal throne, Marcellus, cardinal of Santa Croce, one of the former legates at Trent, who died after the very brief reign of twenty-one days, Paul IV., a most bloody persecutor and pro- moter of the Inquisition, and Pius IV., who was chosen on Christ- mas day, 1559. At length the council was re-opened on Sunday, January 18th, 1562, and the first session under pope Pius IV., or seventeenth from the commencement, was held. After mass and a sermon, the bull of convocation was read. Four other bulls or briefs were also produced : the first contained the Pope's instructions to the legates ; in the second and third he gave them authority to grant licenses to the prelates and divines to read heretical books, and to receive pri- vately into communion with the Romish church any persons who micht abjure their heresies ; by the fourth he regulated the order of precedence among the fathers, some childish disputes having al- ready arisen among them on that account. § 40. The eighteenth session was held February 26, when the principal subject of consideration was the subject of prohibited books. A brief from pope Pius was read, authorising the council to prepare a catalogue of prohibited books. This document ad- verted in a lugubrious strain to the wide dissemination of heretical books, and the importance of interfering to avert this evil. A coni- mittee, or congregation was subsequently appomted to prepare this CHAr. vn.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1563. 527 Prohibiting boolca The Holy Spirit In a travelling bag. Propoeals for reform rejected. index prohibitorius,* the result of whose labors has already been mentioned, in connection with the doings of the fourth session of the council, and their restrictions upon the liberty of the press. The reason of the Pope sending directions relative to this subject was a fear lest it should appear that the council was superior to the Pope, by the proposed revision of an index prohibitorius previ- ously prepared by pope Paul IV. The doings of the council were in fact almost entirely under papal control, so much so that M. Lanssac, the French ambassador, in a letter written the day after his arrival to De Lisle, the French ambassador at Rome, expressed his fear that little advantage would be derived from the assembly, unless the Pope would suffer the deliberations and votes of the fathers to be entirely free, and no more " send the Holy Spirit in a travelling hag from Rome to Trent ?"-\ § 41. The'nineteenth session was held, May 14th, and the twen- tieth, June 4th, but no doctrinal decree was passed at either. At these sessions the most determined opposition to all proposals of re- form was made by the papal legates, and the party under their in- fluence. A memorial was presented to the legates by the imperial ambassadors, containing the Emperor's wishes with regard to re- formation. It included among others the following demands : that the Pope should reform himself and his court, that no more scan- dalous dispensations should be given, that the ancient canons against simony should be renewed, that the number of human pre- cepts in things spiritual should be lessened, and prelatical con stitutions no longer placed on a level with the divine commands, that the breviaries and missals should be purified, that prayers, faithfully translated into the vernacular tongues, should be inter- spersed in the services of the church, that means should be devised , for the restoration of the clergy and the monastic orders to primi- tive purity, and that it should be considered whether the clergy might not be permitted to marry, and the cup be granted to the laity. The legates were alarmed, and exasperated at this memo- rial ; they quickly perceived how dangerous it would be to suffer its introduction to the council, and persuaded the ambassadors to wait till they had negotiated with the Emperor. Delphinowas at the imperial court : he assured Ferdinand, that if he persisted in requiring the memorial to be presented, a dissolution of the council would be the consequence. The Emperor yielded, and that im- portant document was suppressed.^ I 42.— Refusing the cup to the laity. — Discussions ensued upon the question of withholding the cup in the sacrament from the laity. The denial of the cup had been predetermined at Rome, and of course, all the influence of the legates and their party, and especially of Lainez,|| the second general of the Jesuits, who was * Father Paul Sarpi, lib. vi., c. 5. Pallavicini, lib. xv., b. 19. + Le Plat, vol. v., p. 169. Cramp, 250. t Father Paul, lib. vi., sect. 28 ; Pallavicmi, hb. xvii., cap. 1. li Lainez. This famous successor of Loyala, the founder of the Jesuits, waa 528 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book tit. Canons and curses on denying the cup to the laity. And on the sacrifice of the Maea a member of the council, was employed to effect this object. They alleged that should this point be conceded to the laity they would lose all their reverence for the holy sacraments, and that the dif- ference between the laity and the holy clergy would be so nar- rowed down, as to be almost destroyed. On the other hand, the ambassadors of the Emperor and of France, and the envoy from Bavaria, contended strongly for conceding the cup to the laity. The imperial ambassadors presented a memorial on the state of Bohemia, alleging that ever since the council of Constance the practice of communion in both kinds had been maintained with great tenacity by the Bohemians, and that a refusal on the part of the council to concede this point, would probably cause them to take refuge with the Lutherans. But all was of no avail. A de- cree was prepared, and on the 16th of July, 1562, it was passed in the twenty-first session. The following two canons embody the substance of the decree. Si quia dixerit, sanctam Ecclesiam Whoever shall afBrm, that the holy Catholicam non justis causis et rationi- Catholic church had not just grounds bus adductam fuisse, ut Laicos, atque and reasons for restricting the laity and etiam Clericos, non conficientes, sub non-officiating clergy to communion in panis tantummodo specie communicaret, the species of bread only, or that she aut in 60 errasse ; ANATHEMA SIT. hath erred therein : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Si quis negaverit, totum, et integrum Whoever shall deny that Christ, Christum omnium gratiarum fontem et whole and entire, the fountain and au- auctorem sub una panis specie sumi, thor of every grace, is i-eceived under quia ut quidam falso asserunt, non se- the one species of bread ; because, as cundiim ipsius Christi institutionem sub some falsely affirm, he is not then re- utraque specie sumatur ; ANATHE- ceived according to his ovifn institution, MA SIT. in both kinds : LET HIM BE AC- CURSED. § 43. — Of the sacrifice of the Mass. — The decree on this subject was passed at the twenty-second session, held September 17th, 1562. It consisted of eight chapters and nine canons, and taught that in the eucharist, a true propitiatory sacrifice was offered up for sin, in the same way as when Christ offered up himself as a sacrifice on the cross. Five of the canons were as follows : — Si quis dixerit, in Missa non offerri Whoever shall affirm, that a true and Deo verum et proprium sacrificium, aut proper sacrifice is not offered to God in quod ofTerri non sit aliud, quam nobis the mass ; or that the offering is nothing Christum ad manducandum dari ; AN- else than giving Christ to us, to eat : ATHEMA SIT. LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Si quis dixerit, illis verbis, Hoc facite Whoever shall affirm, that by those in meam commemorationem, Christum words, " Do this for a commemoration non instituisse Apostolos sacerdotes ; of me," Christ did not appoint his apos- a prominent member of the council, and distinguished himself by his advocacy of all the measures calculated to establish and enlarge the authority of the Holy See. He delivered a celebrated speech on the sovereign jurisdiction of the Pope, which is reported at some length by Father Paul, and copied by Dr. Campbell in his Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, Lect. xx. CHAP, vin.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1563. 529 The Mass to be peilbrmed in Latin. Awful perversion of Christ's sacrifice in the Romish lVIas3. aut non ordinasse, ut ipsi, aliique sacer- ties priests, or did not ordain that they dotes ofterrent corpus et sanguinem and other priests should offer his body Buum ; ANATHEMA SIT. and blood : LET HIM BE ACCURS- ED. Si quis dixerit, MIssee sacrificium tan- Whoever shall affirm, that the saori- tum esse laudis et gratiarum actionis, fice of the mass is only a service of aut nudam commemorationera sacri- praise and thanksgiving, or a bare com- ficii in Cruce peracti non autem pro- memoration of the sacrifice made on pitiatorium ; vel soli prodesse sumenti ; the cross, a.i\A not a propitiatory offering ; neque pro vivis et defunctis, pro pecca- or that it only benefits him who receives tis, pcenis, satisfactionibus et aliis ne- it, and ought not to be offered for the cessitatibus offerri debere ; ANATHE- living and the dead, for sins, punish- MA SIT. ments, satisfactions, and other necessi- ties : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Si quis dixerit, blasphemiam irrogari Whoever shall affirm, that the most sanctissimo Christi' sacrificio in Cruce holy sacrifice of Christ, made on the peracto, per Misss sacrificium, aut illi cross, is blasphemed by the sacrifice of per hoc derogari ; ANATHEMA SIT. the mass ; or that the latter derogates from the glory of the former: LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Si quis dixerit, imposturam esse, Whoever shall affirm, that to cele- Missa celebrare in honorem sanctorum, brate masses in honor of the saints, and et pro illorum intercessione apud Deum in order to obtain their intercession with obtlnenda, sicut Ecclesia intendit ; AN- God, according to the intention of the ATHEMA SIT. church is an imposture: LET HIM BE ACCURSED. § 44. — By the same decree they enjoined the performance of the Mass in the Latin language, and pronounced a curse upon all who should " declare that it should be celebrated in the vernacular lan- guage only." How contrary all this to the declaration of St. Paul, " In the church I had rather speak five words with my understand- ing, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." (1 Cor. xiv., 19.) What an awful perversion of the glorious , sacrifice of Christ on the cross is presented in these canons on the Mass ! At the cost of incurring the impotent curse pronounced in the fourth of them, I assert that by this doctrine the holy sacrifice of Christ is blasphemed, and the cross of Christ made of none eflTect. How utterly opposed is this doctrine of Christ being offered up as often as the sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated, to the whole tenor of the New Testament, and especially to the Epistle to the Hebrews. Doubtless the omniscient and Holy Spirit foresaw this feature of the Romish Apostasy, and (as it would appear with the special de- sign of meeting this exigency), inspired the apostle Paul to' write as follows : — " For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet i'hat he SHOULD offer HIMSELF OFTEN, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others ; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world ; but now ONCE in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. ■ And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment ; so Christ was once offered to 530 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vn. Orders and apostolic succession. Thieves and Robbers. The ministry that cnts — note. bear the sins of many For by one offering he hath per- fected for ever them that are sanctified." (Heb. ix., 24-28 ; x., 14.) Is it any wonder that popish priests are so bitterly envenomed against the circulation of God's holy word without note or com- ment, since its plain and unequivocal declarations are so diametri- cally opposed to their doctrines ? — " Christ is not offered up in sacri- fice, so often as the ancient Jewish high priests offered the sacrifice under the ceremonial law, that is, once every year," says the apostle Paul, writing under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. "' There you ai-e wrong, Paul," reply the priests of Rome ; " for we have the power given unto us of ' creating our Creator,' and offering him up for the sins of the world ; and instead of not being offered up so often as once every year, he is offered up hundreds of times every month, whenever the sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated ; and whoever shall affirm (whether Paul or any one else) that Christ is not offered up as often as this, even every time the Mass is cele- brated, LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Thus does apostate Rome, in consistency with her true character, maintain throughout all her distinctive doctrines her title to the name of anti-Christ. § 45. — The twenty-third session was held on the 15th of July, 1563, and the subject of the decree passed was the sacrament of orders. The doctrine of Rome on this subject is too well known to render it necessary to transcribe the decree. It taught that the peculiar excellence and glory of the priesthood was " the power given to consecrate, offer, and minister Christ's body and blood, and also to remit and to retain sins ;" that there are " seven orders of ministers," viz., " priests, deacons, sub-deacons, acolytes, exorcists, readers and porters ;" that " orders is one of the seven sacraments of the holy church ;" that in ordination, " grace is con- ferred ;" that bishops have " succeeded to the place of the apostles" and " hold a distinguished rank in this hierarchal order ;" that " they are placed there by the Holy Spirit to rule the church of God ;" that they are " superior to presbyters," " ordain the ministers of the church," &,c., and that all who " presumptuously undertake and assume the offices of the ministry" by any other authority than that of these popish bishops " are not to be accounted ministers of the church, but thieves and robbers."* The decree consists of four * Thieves and Robbers. — It is well known that on this subject the views of the Puseyites are identical with those of Rome. All of them believe, and some of them do not scruple to affirm that the holiest and the best of the ministers of the various protestant churches— our Doddridges, and Bunyans, and Paysons, and Fullers, and Halls— are nothing more than thieves and robbers, because they have entered into the Christian ministry some other wav than through the boasted but pretended Imeal apostolical succession. The following anecdote of a well known and distmguished living member of this community of "thieves and robbers," con- veys a decided rebuke of these arrogant assumptions :— The ministry that cm(s.— When the venerable Lyman Beecher was a young man, and returning on a certain occasion to hi a native town in Connecticut, he fell into conversation by the road-side with an old neighbor, a high churchman, who had been mowing. " Mr. Beecher," said the farmer, " I shoull like to ask you a ques- CHAP. VII.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1563. 531 Twenty-fourth EGSsion of Ihe council. Decrees on matrimony with the canona and cursoa. chapters, from which the above sentences are quoted, and closes with eight canons, embodying the same doctrine and pronouncing upon all who refuse implicitly to receive the dicta of Rome, the usual awful malediction— ANATHEMA SIT— LET HIM BE ACCURSED. §46. — The twenty-fourth session was held oa the 11th of No- vember, 1563, and the subject of the decree was, the sacrament of matrimony. After an allusion to the " ravings" of the " impious men" of those times (evidently referring to Luther, Calvin, and their associates) the decree proceeds as follows : — Therefore this holy and universal council, desiring to prevent such rashness, hath determined to destroy the infamous heresies and errors of the before-named schismatics, lest many more should be affected by their destructive contagion ; for which cause the following anathemas are decreed against these heretics and their errors. Then follow twelve canons, with the usual curses annexed on this subject, of which it will be sufficient to transcribe four : — Si quis dixerit, eos tantiim consan- Whoever shall affirm, that only those guinitatis et affinitatis gradus, qui Levi- degrees of consanguinity or affinity tico exprimuntur, posse impedire matri- which are mentioned in the hook of Levi- monium contrahendum, et dirimere con- ticus can hinder or annul the marriage tractum ; nee posse Ecclesiam in non- contract ; and that the church has no nuUis illorum dispensare, aut constituere power to dispense with some of them, or ut plures inipediant, et dirimant ; ANA- to constitute additional hindrances or THEMA SIT. reasons for annulling the contract : LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Si quis dixerit, matrimonium ratum, Whoever shall affirm, that a marriage non consummatum, per solemnem reli- solemnized but not consummated is not gionis professionem alterius conjugum annulled if one of ihe parties enters into nondirimi; ANATHEMA SIT. a religious order: LET HIM BE AC- CURSED. Si quis dixerit, Clericos in sacris Or- Whoever shall affirm, that persons in dinibus constitutos, vel Regulares, cas- holy orders, or regulars, who may have titatem solemniter professos, posse mat- made a solemn profession of chastity, rimonium contrahere, contractumque may contract marriage, and that the validum esse, non obstante lege ecclesi- contract is valid, notwithstanding any astica ; vel voto ; et oppositum nil aliud ecclesiastical law or vow ; and that to esse, quam damnare matrimonium, pos- maintain the contrary is nothing less seque omnes contrahere matrimonium, than to condemn marriage ; and that all qui non sentiunt se castitatis, etiam si persons may marry who feel that though earn voverint, habere donum ; ANA- they should make a vow of chastity, THEMA SIT : cum Deus id recte pe- they have not the gift thereof; LET tion. Our clergy say that you are not ordained, and have no right to preach. I should be glad to know what you think about it." " Suppose," replied Dr. Beecher, " you had in the neighborhood a blacksmith who said he could prove that he belonged to a regular line of blacksmiths which had come down all the way from St. Peter, but he made scythes that would not cut ; and you had another blacksmith, who said he could not see what descent from Peter had to do with making scythes that would cut. Where would you go to get your scythes ?" " Why to the man who made scythes to cut, certainly," replied the farmer. " Well " said Dr. Beecher, " that ministry which cuts, is the ministry which Christ has authorized to preach." In a recent conversation on the same subject. Dr. Beecher gave his opinions by relating this circumstance. ' 532 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vn. News arrives of pope Pius's sicitness. The council hastens to the last session. Article on Purgatory. tentibus non deneget, nee patiatur non HIM BE ACCURSED— for God does deneget, nee patiatur nos supra id quod not deny his gifts to those who ask possumus, tentari. aright, neither does he suffer us to be tempted above that we are able. Si quis dixerit, statum conjugalem Whoever shall affirm, that the conju- anteponendum esse statui virginitatis, gal state is to be preferred to a life of vel caelibatus, et non esse melius ac virginity or celibaey, and that it is not beatius manere in virginitate aut caeli- better and more conducive to happiness batu, quam jungi matrimonio ; ANA- to remain in virginity or celibacy than THEMA SIT. to be married, LET HIM BE AC- CURSED. By the first of these canons, Popery makes good its claim to the character of anti-Christ by claiming the power to abrogate the laws of God ; by the second, it encourages persons to break the most inviolable of all obligations and contracts upon condition (by enter- ing a monastery or nunnery) of becoming one of the slaves of Rome ; by the third, it forbids marriage to the clergy, and thus makes good its claim to another mark of anti-Christ, " forbidding to marry ;" and by the fourth it places an undeserved stigma upon that state which God himself established, which Jesus honored by (lis presence and a wonderful miracle, and which St. Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit pronounced " honorable in all." § 47. — The council had resolved on the 9th of December for the twenty-fifth session, intending, if possible, to make it the closing session. All parties, legates and prelates, the ambassadors and the Pope, were now anxious to bring the council to a close. The sub- jects of Purgatory, Indulgences, Feasts, Saints, Images, and Relics remained yet to be discussed, and it was resolved, that instead of lengthy decrees, with all the formality of chapters and canons, brief statements only of the doctrine of the church should be published on these subjects. While discussing these matters on the night of the first of December, news arrived that pope Pius was alarmingly ill, and that his life was considered to be in danger. The fathers were hastily convened, and a resolution passed to celebrate the closing session of the council, as soon as the necessary documents could be prepared, instead of waiting for the ninth instant, the day originally appointed. Accordingly, on December 3, 1563, and the following day (for there was too much business to be dispatched at one sitting) the twenty-fifth and last session was held. Purgatory, the invocation of saints,, and the use of images were the subjects of the first day's decision. On the second day, indulgences, the choice of meats and drinks, and the observance of feasts were the subjects of consideration. The following extracts from the statements promulgated by the council on these subjects, will be sufficient to show the doctrine of Popery on the topics to which they relate : — On Purgatory. — " Since the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Spirit, through the sacred writing and the ancient tradition of the fathers, hath taught in holy councils, and lastly in this caeumenieal council, that (here is a purgatory and that the souls detained there are assisted by the suffrages of the faithful, but especially by the acceptable sacrifice of the mass ; this holy council commands all bishops CHAP. VII.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-1663. 533 Doctrinal etatements of the council on Indulgences, Fasts, Invocation of Saints, and Kelics. diligently to endeavor that the wholesome doctrine of purgatory, delivered to us by venerable fathers and holy councils, be believed and held by Christ's faithful, and everywhere taught and preached Let the bishops take care that the suffrages of the living faithful, masses, prayers, alms, and other works of piety, which the faithful have been accustomed to perform for departed believers, be piously and religiously rendered, according to the institutes of the church; and whatever services are due to the dead, through the endowments of deceased per- sons, or in any other way, let them not be performed slightly, but diligently and carefully, by the priests and ministers of the church, and all others to whom the duty belongs." On Indulgences. — " Since the power of granting indulgences has been bestowed by Christ upon his church, and this power, divinely given, has been used from the earliest antiquity, the holy council teaches and enjoins that the use of indulgences, so salutary to Christian people, and approved by the authority of venerable councils, be retained by the cimrch ; and it anathematizes those who assert that they are useless, or deny that the church has the power of granting them," &c. On choice of Meats and Drinks, Fasts and Feast-days. — " Moreover, the holy council exhorts all pastors, and beseeches them by the most holy coming of our Lord and Saviour, that as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, they assiduously recom- mend to all the faithful the observance of all the institutions of the holy Roman church, the mother and mistress of all churches, and of the decrees of this and other oecumenical councils ; and that they use all diligence to promote obedience to all their commands, and especially to those which relate to the mortification of the flesh, as the choice of meats and fasts ; as also to those which tend to the in- crease of piety, and the devout and religious celebration of feast-days ; admonish- ing the people to obey those who are set over them — for they who hear them, shall hear God, the rewarder — but they who despise them, shall feel that God is the avenger." On the Invocation of Saints. — " The holy council commands all bishops, and others who have the care and charge of teaching, that according to the practice of the Catholic and apostolic church, received from the first beginning of the Christian religion, the consent of venerable fathers, and the decrees of holy coun- cils, they labor with diligent assiduity to instruct the faithful concerning the invo- cation and intercession of the saints, the honor due to relics, and the lawful use of images ; teaching them that the saints, who reign together with Christ, offer their prayers to God for men — that it is a good and useful thing supplianily to invoke them, and to flee to their prayers, help, and assistance, because of the benefits be- stowed by God through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is our only Re- deemer and Saviour ; and that those are men of impious sentiments who deny that the saints, who enjoy eternal happiness in heaven, are to be invoked — or who af- firm that they do not pray for men, or to beseech them to pray for us is idolatry, or that it is contrary to the word of God, and opposed to the honor of Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God and man, or that it is foolish to supplicate, verbally or mentally, those who reign iu heaven." On ihe reverence due to the Kelics of the Saints. — " Let them teach also, that the holy bodies of the holy martyrs and others living with Christ, whose bodies were living members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit, and will be by him raised to eternal life and glorified, are to be venerated by the faithful, since by them God bestows many benefits upon men. So that they are to be wholly con- demned, as the church has long before condemned them, and now repeats the sen- tence, who affirm that veneration and honor are not due to the relics of the saints, or that it is a usekss thing that the faithful should honor these and other sacred monuments, and that the memorials of the saints are in vain frequented, to obtain their help and assistance." 634 fflSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vn. Worship of images. Pagan and popish idolaters. The curse upon all who dare to think differently. On the reverence due to Images of Christ, the Virgin, and other Saints. — " More- over, let them teach that the images of Christ, of the Virgin, mother of God, and of other saints, are to be had and retained, especially in churches, and due honor and veneration rendered to them. Not that it is believed that any divinity or power resides in them, on account of which they are to be worshipped, or that any bene- fit is to be sought from them, or any confidence placed in images, as was formerly' by the Gentiles, who fixed their hope in idols. But the honor with which they are regai-ded is referred to those who are represented by them ; so that we adore Christ, and venerate the saints, whose likenesses these images bear, when we kiss them, and uncover our heads in their presence, and prostrate ourselves. All which has been sanctioned by the decrees of councils, against the impugners of images, especially the second council of Nice." In reference to this last article it is worthy of remark, that the worshippers of Brahma, Vishnu, Gaudama, and other heathen idola- tors, make precisely the same defence as the Romanists, when ac- cused of worshipping images, viz : that they do not worship the images when they Idss them and prostrate themselves before them, but the divinities, " whose likenesses these images bear." The divine command is, " Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them," (Exod. XX., 4, 5), and the Romanist who in the words of the above decree, " prcstrates " himself before an image (let him say what he will) is just as much an idolator as the Burman worshipper of Gau- dama, or the Hindoo worshipper of Juggernaut. On this subject I have an interesting letter from a distinguished missionary from Bur- mah, which I shall present in a future chapter. After thus establishing the doctrine of Rome, on these gross per- versions of the word of God, the council proceeds to add, in its usual style of bitter malediction against all who shall dare to think for themselves, Si quia autem his decretis contraria docuit, aut senserit ; ANATHEMA SIT. Whoever shall teach or think in op- position to these decrees ; LET HIM BE ACCURSED. 535 CHAPTER VIII. CONCLUSION OP THE COUNCIL. ACCLAMATIONS OF THE FATHERS. AND POPE Pius's CREED. § 48.^-Decree of Confirmation. — After the foregoing decrees had been enacted, the council passed the following decree of confirma- tion, in which it will be seen that, in accordance with the invariable policy of the Romish church, in countries where they have suf- ficient influence, the council invokes the secular arm, and exhorts all princes to enforce these decrees. Such is the unrepealed doc- trine of Rome, in this decree of her last general council on the duty of the civil magistrate to enforce upon the people the dogmas of Popery. " So great has been the calamity of these times, and the inveterate malice of the heretics, that no explanations of our faith have been given, hov^ever clear, nor any decrees passed, however express, which, influenced by the enemy of mankind, they have not defiled by some error. For which cause the holy council has taken particular care to condemn and anathematize the principal errors of the heretics of our age, and to deliver and teach the true and Catholic doctrine ; this has been done — the council has condemned, anathematized, and defined. But since so many bishops, called from different provinces of the Christian world, could be no longer absent from their churches without great loss and universal peril to the flock — and no hope remained that the heretics would come hither any more, after hav- ing been so often invited and so long waited for, and having received the pledge of safety, according to their desire ; and therefore it was necessary to put an end to this holy council ; it now remains that all princes he exhorted in the Lord, as they now are, not to permit its decrees to he corrupted or violated hy the heretics, hut to ensure their devout reception and faithful observance, hy them and all others. But if any difficulty should arise in regard to their reception, or any circumstances oc- cur, which indeed are not to be feared, that should render necessary any further explanation or definition ; the holy council trusts, that in addition to the remedies already appointed, the blessed Roman pontiff will provide for the exigency, either by summoning certain individuals from those provinces in which the difiiculty shall arise, to whom the management of the business may be confided, or by the cele- bration of a general council, if it be judged necessary, or by some fitter method, adapted to the necessities of the provinces, and calculated to promote the glory of God, and the good of the church." § 49. — Acclamations of the fathers. — Before separating, a kind of closing recitative service was held, conducted by the cardinal of Lorraine, to express the assent and solemn confirmation of the fathers, of all that had been done. At this service a responsive dialogue or declaration was uttered, called the acclamations of the fathers, ' acclamationes patrum,' and as it is of itself a curious per- formance, and a most striking illustration of the spirit of Popery, it is here subjoined. Domine Deus, Sanctissiraum Patrem O Lord God ! long preserve the most diutissime EcclesicB tuae conserva, mul- Holy Father of thy church for many tos annos. years. Cardinal. Beatissimorum Summorum Cardinal. To the souls of the blessed 536 HISTORY Of ROMANISM. [book VII. Acclamations of the fathers at the close of the council. The last words were cursea Pontificum animabus Pauli III. et .Tulii III. quorum auctoritate hoc sacrum generate Concilium inchoatum est, pax a Domino, et eeterna gloria, atque felici- tas in luce sanctorum. Responsio pairum. Memoria in bene- dictione sit. Card. Caroli V. Imperatoris et Sere- nissimorum Regum, qui hoc universale Concilium promoverunt et protexerunt, memoria in benedictione sit. Resp. Amen, Amen. pontiffs Paul III. and Julius III., by whose authority this holy general coun- cil was begun, peace from the Lord, eternal glory and felicity in the light of the saints. Answer of the fathers. May their me- mory be blessed. Card. May the memory be blessed of the emperor Charles V., and the most serene kings who have promoted and protected this universal council. Ans. Amen, Amen. After similar acclamations, in praise of the emperor Ferdinand, the Pope, legates, reverend cardinals, illustrious orators, &c. the Cardinal proceeded as follows : — Card. Sacrc-sancta oecumenica Tri- dentina Synodus : ejus fidem confitea- mur, ejus decreta semper servemus. Resp. Semper confiteamur, semper servemus. Card. Omnes iti credimus : omnes id ipsum sentimus : omnes consentien- tes et amplectentes subscribimus. Heec est fides beati Petri, et Apostolorum : h£eo est fides Patrum : hsec est fides Orthodoxorum. Resp. Ita credimus ; ita sentimus ; ita subscribimus. Card. His decretis inhasrentes, digni reddamur misericordiis et gratia primi, et magni supremi Sacerdotis Jesu Chris- ti, Dei intercedente simul inviolate Do- ming nostril sancta, Deipara, et omnibus Sanctis. Resp. Fiat, fiat. Amen, Amen. Card. Anathema ctjnotis hjeretiois. Resp. ANATHEMA, ANATHEMA. Card. The most holy and oecumeni- cal council of Trent — may we ever confess its faith, ever observe its de- crees. Ans. Ever may we confess, ever ob- serve them. C. Thus we all believe : we are all of the same mind ; with hearty assent we all subscribe. This is the faith of the blessed Peter and the Apos- tles ; this is the faith of the fathers ; this is the faith of the orthodox. Ans. Thus we believe ; thus we think ; thus we subscribe. C. Abiding by these decrees, may we be found worthy of the mercy of the chief and great high priest, Jesus Christ our God, by the intercession of our holy Lady, the Mother of God, ever a virgin, and alt the saints. Ans. Be it so, be it so : Amen, Amen. C Accursed be all heretics. Ans. ACCURSED, ACCURSED. Thus this famous council closed, with a bitter curse upon its lips, solemnly repeated in full chorus, in the most emphatic form, against all who should dare to think for themselves, or refuse im- plicitly to receive their dogmas. And be it remembered, this is THE LAST GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE RoMISH CHURCH, and that aL its acts and decrees are just as binding now upon every papist as they were at the moment when they were proclaimed to the world. Again did this popish council, at the moment of its separation in its very last words vindicate the claim of Popery to the character of anti-Christ, for Christ has said, " Love your enemies, bless and CURSE NOT ;'' but anti-Christ says, " Accursed be all heretics, anathe- ma, ANATHEMA ! ACCURSED ! ! ACCURSED 1 i 1" CHAP. VIII.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1546-1663. 537 Summary of the doctrinea of Trent in pope Pius's creed. § 50. — Pope Pius's creed. — On Januaiy 26th, 1564, pope Pius IV. published the bull of confirmation of the acts and decrees of the council, enjoining the prelates of the church, whenever neces- sary and practicable, to call in the aid of the secular arm to enforce the decisions of the council upon all. In December of the same year, the Pope issued a brief summary of the doctrinal decisions of the council, in the form of a creed, usually called, after himself, "Pope Pius's Creed." It was immediately received, throughout the universal church : and since that time, has ever been considered in every part of the world, as an accurate and explicit summary of the Roman Catholic faith. Non-catholics, on their admission into the Catholic church, publicly repeat and testify their assent to it, without restriction or qualification. On account of the authority and importance of this creed of pope Pius, it will be given in the original and a translation. It is expressed in the following terms : Ego N. firma fide credo et profiteer omnia et singula, quae continentur in symbolo fidei, quo S. Romana ecclesia utitur, viz. : — 1. Credo in unum Deum Patrem omni- potentem, factorem coeli et terr^, visibi- iium omnium, et invisibilium ; et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum, filium Dei unigenitum, et ex Patre natum ante omnia sascula ; Deum de Deo, lu- men de lumine ; Deum verum de Deo vero; genitum, non factum; con- Eubstantialem Patri, pet quem omnia facta sunt ; qui propter nos homines, et propter nostram salutem descendit de coefis, et incarnatus et de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria virgine, et homo factus est ; crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato, passus, et sepultus est ; et resur- rexit tertia die secundum scripturas : et ascendit in coelum, sedet ad dexteram Patris ; et iterum venturus est cum glo- ria judicare vivos, et mortuos ; cujus regni non erit finis: et in Spiritum Sanctum Dominum, et viviflcantem, qui ex Patre Filioque procedit; qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur, et conglo- rificatur, qui locutus est per prophetas : et unam sanctam Catholicam, et apos- tolicam ecclesiam. Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum, et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi soeculi. Amen. 2. Apostolicas et ecclesiasticas tradi- tiones, reliquasque ejusdem ecclesiae ob- servationes et constitutiones firmissime admitto, et amplector. 32 I, N., believe and profess, with a firm faith, all and every one of the things which are contained in the symbol o£ faith, which is used in the holy Roman church, viz. : — I believe in one God, the Father Al- mighty, malcer of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible ; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only be- gotten Son of God ; bom of the Father before all worlds ; God of God ; Light of Light ; true God of true God ; be- fotten, not made ; consubstantial to the 'ather, by whom all things were made ; who, for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incar- nate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, aud was made man ; was cruci- fied also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried, and rose again the third day, according to the scrip- tures, and ascended into heaven ; sits at the right hand of the Father, and will come again with glory to judge the liv- ing and the dead, of whose kingdom there will be no end ; and in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Life-giver, who pro- ceeds from the Father and the Son ; who, together with the Father and the Son, is adored and glorified, who spoke by the prophets : and one holy catholic and apostolic church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins ;. and I expect the resurrection " of the dead " and the life of the world. Amen. I most firmly admit and embrace apos- tolical and ecclesiastical traditions, and all other constitutions and observances of the same church. Creed of pope Pius IV., continued. 3. Item sacram scripturam juxta eum Bensum, quem tenuit et tenet sancta ma- ter ecc)esia, cujus est judicare de vero sensu et interpretatione sacrarum scrip- turarum, admitto ; nee eam unquam, nisi ju.xta unaninem consensum patrum accipiam, et interpretabor. 4. Profileor quoque septem esse vere et proprie sacramenta novae legis, a Jesu Christo Domino nostra instituta, atque ad salutem humani generis, licet non omnia singulis necessaria, scilicet baptismum, confirmationem, eucharis- tiam, pcenitentiam, extremam unetionem, ordinem et matriraonium ; illaque gra- tiam conferre ; et ex his baptismum, confirmationem et ordinem, sine sacrile- gio reiterari non posseu 6. Receptos quoque et approbatos ec- clesijE catholicae ritus, in supra-dictorum omnium sacramentorum solemni admin- istrations recipio, et admitto. 6. Omnia et singula, quEB de peccato ori- ginali, et de justificatione in sacro-sancta Tridentina Synodo definita et declarata faerunt, amplector et recipio. 7. Profiteor pariter in Missa offerri Deo verum, proprium et propitiatorium sa- crifioium pro vivis, et defunctis ; atque in sanctissimo Eucharistiae sacramento esse vere, realiter et substantialiter cor- pus et sanguinem, una cum anima et di- vinitate Domini nostri Jesu Christi ; fierique conversionem totius substantiae panis in corpus, et totius substantia vini in sanguinem : quam conversionem ca- tholica ecclesia transubstantiationem ap- pellat. 8. Fateor etiam sub altera tantum spe- cie totum atque integrum Christum, ve- rumque sacramentum sumi. 9. Constanter teneo purgatorium esse, animasque ibi detentas fidelium sufFragiis juvari. 10. Similiter et sanctos una cum Chris- to regnantes, venerandos atque invocan- dos esse, eosque orationes Deo pro nobis offerre, atque eorum reliquias esse ven- erandas. 11. Firmissime assero, imagines Chris- ti, ac Deiparae semper virginis,necnon ali- orum sanctorum, habendas et retinendas esse, atque eis debitum honorem ac ven- erationem impertiendam. 1 2. Indulgentiarum etiam potestatem a I also admit the sacred scriptures ac- cording to the sense which the holy mo- ther church has held, and does hold, to whom it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the holy scriptures ; nor will I ever take or in- terpret them otherwise, than according to the unanimous consent of the fathers. I profess also, that there are truly and properly seven sacraments of the new law, instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, and for the salvation of mankind, though all are not necessary for every one : viz., baptism, confirmation, eucharist, pen- ance, extreme unction, order, and matri- mony, and that they confer grace ; and of these, baptism, confirmation, and or- der, cannot be reiterated without sacri- lege. I also receive and admit the ceremo- nies of the Catholic church, received and approved in the solemn administra- tion of all the above said sacraments. I receive and embrace all and every one of the things which have been de- fined and declared in the holy council of Trent, concerning original sin and justification. I profess, likewise, that in the mass is offered to God a true, proper, and propi- tiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead ; and that in the most holy sacrifice of the eucharist there is truly, really, and substantially the body and blood, to- gether with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and that there is made a conversion of the whole sub- stance of the bread into the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood, which conversion tlie Catholic church calls transubslantiation. I confess also, that under either kind alone, whole and entire Christ, and a true sacrament is received. I constantly hold that there is a pur- gatory, and that the souls detamed therein are helped by the sufflages of the faithful. Likewise, that the saints reigning to- gether with Christ, are to be honored and invocated, that they offer prayers to God for us, and that their relics are to be venerated. I most firmly assert, that the images of Christ and of the mother of God, ever virgin, and also of the other saints, are to be had and retained ; and that due honor and veneration are to be given them. I also affirm, that the power of indul- EHjIP. VIII.] POPERY AT TRENT— A. D. 1545-15i;3. 539 This creed binding upon all. According to it, Lcighton, Baxter, Payson, &c., are now all in Hell. Christo in ecclesia relictam fuisse ; il- larumque usum Christiano populo max- ime salutarem esse affirmo. 1 3. Sanctam Catholicam et apostolicam Romanam ecclesiam, omnium ecclesi- arura matrem et magistram agnosco ; Romanoque Pontifici, beati Petri, Apos- tolorum Principis, successori, ac Jesu Cliristi vicario veram obedientiam spon- deo, ao juro. 14. Cffitera item omnia a sacris canoni- bus, et OBCumenicis conciliis, ac praecipue a sacro-sancta Tridentina Synodo tradita, definita, et declarata, indubitanter recipio atque profiteor ; simulque contraria om- nia, atque hasreses qiiascumque ab ec- clesia damnatas, rejectas, et anathema- tizatas, ego pariter damno, rejicio, et an- athematizes. 15. Hanc veram Catholicam fidem, ex- tra quam nemo salvus esse potest, quam in prsEsenti sponte profiteor, et veraciter tcneo, eandem integram et inviolatam, usque ad extremum vits splritum con- stantissime (Deo adjuvante) retinere et confiteri, atque a meis subditis, vel illis quorum cura ad me in munere meo spec- tabit, teneri, doceri, et preedicari, quan- tum in me erit, curaturum, ego idem N. spondeo, voveo, ac juro. Sic me Deus adjiivet, et haec sancta Dei evangelia." gences was left by Christ in the church, and that the use of them is most whole- some to Christian people. I acknowledge the holy catholic and apostolical Roman church, the ijiother and mistress of all churches ; and I promise and swear true obedience to the Roman bishop, the successor of St. Pe- ter, the prince of the apostles, and vicar of Jesus Christ. I also profess and undoubtedly re- ceive all other things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons, and GENERAL COUNCILS, and particularly by the holy council of Trent ; and like- wise I also condemn, reject, and anathe- matize all things contrary thereto, and all heresies whatsoever, condemned, rejected, and anathematized by the church. This true catholic faith, out of which NONE CAN BE SAVED, which I now freely profess, and truly hold, I, N. promise, vow and swear most constantly to hold and profess the same whole and entire, with God's assistance, to the end of my life : and to procure, as far as lies in my power, that the same shall be held, taught, and preached by all who are un- der me, or are entrusted to my care, by virtue of my office. So help me God, and these holy gospels of God. § 51. — The above creed is binding at the present day upon every Romanist, whether priest or layman, and to it, every Romish priest now living has solemnly expressed his adherence. By this creed, it is expressly declared that out of the Romish church none can be saved, and that of course all who have died out of it are now suffering THE TORMENTS OF HELL ! The seraphic Leighton, the godly Baxter, with Howe, and Hooker, and Charnock, and Flavel, and Owen, and the long list of worthies, their compeers of the olden time, in Eng- land and on the continent of Europe ; the angelic Payson, the heaven- ly minded Nevins, and the holy and truly catholic Milnor,* the self- sacrificing missionaries, Carey, and Ward, and Morrison, and Boardman, and Henry Martin, and Ann Judson, and Harriet New- ell — all, all of them, according to the solemnly professed creed of the Romanist, are even now suffering in the fires of Hell ! Is it possible for anti-Christian bigotry to go beyond this ? Besides this, be it remembered that he who professes this creed, * Since page 68 was stereotyped, on which the name of this estimable clergy- man and devoted Christian was before mentioned, he has been called to enter into his rest. He departed this life, and exchanged, without doubt, the toils and sorrows of earth for the joys and the rest of Heaven, on the 8th of April, 1845. For many years previous to his death he had been the honored, revered, and successful Rector of St. George's Episcopal Church, New York. 540 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book to The doctrines of Popery became permanently filed at the cou ncil of Trent solemnly declares that he receives " all things delivered, defined and declared by the general councils." This, of course, includes the decrees of the third and fourth council of Latei'an on the duty of extirpating heretics* and all the rest of the unscriptural and anti- Christian decrees of these councils, which have been related in the present work. Then let it be remembered that this is the present faith of every intelligent Romanist, and solemnly sworn to by every Romish priest. With the history and decrees of the council of Trent we might appropriately close our labors, as this was the last general council of the Romish church, and from that time to the present. Popery has undergone but little change. In this council her doctrines became permanently fixed, and in its decrees all heV anti-scriptural inventions were embodied. Since then her influence has been gradually declin- ing, with occasional fitful efforts to regain her long-lost power. Wherever she could secure the aid of the secular arm, she has not failed to harass, and imprison, and burn the heretics who have opposed her ; and she has still reeled on in succeeding centuries, " drunk with the blood of the saints." A few sketches of the most famous of the persecutions of Popery, and a brief summary of the most important events in the history of the popedom since the Trentine period, will bring our labors to a close. * For these decrees, see above, pp. 302, 320. BOOK VIM. POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS. PERSECUTIONS OF POPERT TO THE EEVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NAKTES, A. D 1685. CHAPTER I. PERSECUTION PROVED FROM DECREES OF GENERAL COUNCILS AND WRIT- INGS OF CELEBRATED DIVINES TO BE AN ESSENTIAL DOCTRINE OP POPERY. § 1. — Among the scriptural marks of the predicted Romish Apos- tasy, the Babylonish Harlot of the Apocalypse, is the following : — " And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and WITH the blood of the martyrs of Jesus (Rev. xvii., 6). The whole history of Popery is a commentary upon the truthfulness of this description. That history is written in lines of blood. Com- pared with the butcheries of holy men and women by the papal anti- Christ, the persecutions of the pagan emperors of the first three centuries sink into comparative insignificance. For not a tithe of the blood of martyrs was shed by Paganism, that has been poured forth by Popery ; and the persecutors of pagan Rome, never dreamed of the thousand ingenious contrivances of torture, which, the malignity of popish inquisitors succeeded in inventing, when in the language of Pollock, they ******* gg^f g^jjj planned Deliberately, and with most musing pains, How, to extremest thrill of agony, The flesh, and blood, and souls of holy men. Her victims might be wrought. From the birth of Popery in 606, to the present time, it is esti- mated by careful and credible historians, that more than Fifty Mil- lions of the human family, have been slaughtered for the crime of heresy by popish persecutors, an average of more than forty thou- 542 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vm Immense numbers of Ihe martyred victima of popish bigotry and cruelty. sand religious murders for every year of the existence of Popery. Of course the average number of victims yearly, was vastly greater, during those gloomy ages when Popery was in her glory and reign- ed Despot of the World ; and it has been much less since the pow- er of the popes has diminished to tyrannize over the nations, and to compel the princes of the earth, by the terrors of excommunication, interdiction, and depo.sition, to butcher their heretical subjects.* The reader of the foregoing pages need not again be told, that the right to persecute heretics, and to put them to death for the sake of their opinions, has been claimed and exercised for centuries by the Romish church. " The duty of putting heretics to death," says Professor Gaussen, of Geneva, " is among the infallible and irre- vocable decrees of its general councils, like those of the Mass and Purgatory ; and when Luther dared to say, ' that it was against the will of the Holy Spirit, to burn with fire men convicted of error,' the court of Rome, in its bull Exsurge, placed this opinion among the number of the forty-one propositions for which it condemned Luther, and ordered, under severe penalties, that he should be seized and sent to the Pope."f § 2. — According to the faith of Romanists, there can be no higher legislative authority than a pope and general council, and what- ever is decreed by such a council, with the concurrence of the Pope, becomes a legitimate doctrine and article of faith. Accord- ingly, as we have seen, every priest, in the words of the creed of pope Pius, solemnly swears, on the holy evangelists, to hold and teach all that the sacred canons, and general councils have delivered, declared, and defined. Of course they are bound to receive all the laws enacted by the general councils of Lateran, Basil, Constance, &c., enjoining the extermination of heretics. Innumerable provincial and national councils have issued the most cruel and bloody laws of outlawry and extermination against the Waldenses and other heretics ; such as the councils of Oxford, Toledo, Avignon, Tours, Lavaur, Albi, Narbonne, Beziers, Tolosa, &C.J But as papists will assert that these possess no authority to establish a doctrine of the church (though they must be admitted to ■^ " No computation can reach the numbers who have been put to death, in dif- ferent ways, on account of their maintaining the profession of the Gospel, and op- posing the corruptions of the Church of Rome. A million of poor Waldenses perished in France ; nine hundred thousand orthodox Christians were slain in less than thirty years after the institution of the order of the Jesuits. The Duke of Alva boasted of having put to death in the Netherlands, thirty-six thousand by the hand of the common executioner during the space of a few years. The Inquisition destroyed, by various tortures, one hundred and fifty thousand within thirty years. These are a few specimens, and but a few, of those which history has recorded ; but the total amount will never be known till the earth shall disclose her blood, and no more cover her slain" (Scott's Church History). f See an able discourse of Professor Gaussen, of Geneva, to the Theological students at the opening of the course in October, 1843, entitled "Popery an argu- ment for the Truth, by its fulfilment of Scripture Prophecies." I See Edgar, 218, 219, with citations of original authorities. CHAP. I.] POPERY DRUNK WITH BLOOD OF SAINTS. 643 ^ General councile which have enjoined the elaughler and e.xtirpation of heretics. be illustrations of its spirit), I shall pass over these, and simply re- mind the reader, once more, of the general councils that have sanc- tioned by their decrees the punishment of death for heresy. Six at least of these highest judicial assemblies of the Romish church, with the Pope at their head, have authoritatively and solemnly en- joined the persecution and extermination of heretics. These comprehended (1) the second general council of Lateran, who in the year 1139,in the twenty-third canon, excommunicated and condemned the heretics, commanded the civil powers to suppress, them, and included their protectors and defenders in the same curse with themselves.* (2.) The third general council of Lateran, in 1179, under pope Alexander III., issued a still fiercer manifesto against the heretics. An extract from this bloody decree has already been given in English on page 302. It will be sutficient, in this place, to throw into a note a corresponding extract from the original Latin of the same decree.f (3.) The fourth general council of Lateran in 1215, under the inhuman pope Innocent III., exceeded in ferocity all that had pre- ceded it. A copious extract from the decree of this council, both in the original and in English, has already been given on pages oo2, 333. (4.) The sixteenth general council held at Constance in 1414, we have already seen carrying these bloody principles into execu- tion in the inhuman religious murder of Huss and Jerome. Not content with this act of horrible treachery and barbarity, the Pope and the council proceeded, previous to its dissolution in 1418, to a solemn sanction of the inhuman decrees of Lateran. The holy and infallible assembly, in its forty-fifth session, presented a shock- ing scene of blasphemy and barbarity. Pope Martin, presiding in the sacred synod and clothed with all its authority, addressed the bishops and inquisitors of heretical pravity, on whom he bestowed his apostolic benediction. The eradication of error and the es- tablishment of Catholicism, Martin represented as the chief care of himself and the council. His Holiness in his pontifical polite- ness, characterized Wickliff", Huss, and Jerome, as pestilent and de- ceitful hierarchs, vi^ho, excited with truculent rage, infested the Christian fold, and made the sheep putrify with the filth of false- hood. The partisans of heresy through Bohemia, Moravia, and other kingdoms, he described as actuated with the pride of Lucifer, the fury of wolves, and the deceitfulness of demons. The Pontiff * Eos qui religiositatis speciem simulantes, tanquam haereticos ab ecclesia Del pellimus, et damnamus, et per potestates exteras coerceri preecipimus. Defensores quoque ipsorum ejusdem daranationis vinculo innodamus. (Bin. 8, 596.) f Eos et defensores eorum et receptores anathemati decernimns subjacere. Sub anathemate prohibemus, ne quis eos in domibus, vel in terra sua tenere vel fovere vel negotiationem cum eis exercere preesumat. Confiacentur eorum bona et liberum sit principibus hujusmodi homines subjicere eervituti. (Labb 13 630 Bin. 8, 662.) v ■ , . 544 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vm. Sanctioning murder in the name of the God of mercy. Plenary indulgence for the murderers. then, supported by the council, proceeded, for the glory of God, the stability of Romanism, and the preservation of Christianity, to excommunicate these advocates of error, with their pestilent pa- trons and protectors, and to consign them to the secular arm and the severest vengeance. He commanded kings to punish them according to the Lateran council. The above mentioned inhuman enactments of the Lateran, therefore, were to be brought into requisition against the Bohemians and Moravians, and they were to be de- spoiled of all property. Christian burial, and even of the consola- tions of humanity.* (5.) The council of Sienna, in 1423, which was afterward con- tinued at Basil, published persecuting enactments of a similar kind. The holy synod assembled in the Holy Ghost, and representing the universal church, acknowledged the spread of heresy in different parts of the world through the remissness of the inquisitors, and to the offence of God, the injury of Catholicism,- and the perdition of souls. The sacred convention then commanded the inquisitors, in every place, to extirpate every heresy, especially those of Wickliff", Huss, and Jerome. Princes were admonished by the mercy of God to exterminate error, if they would escape divine vengeance. The holy fathers and the viceroy of heaven conspired, in this man- ner, to sanction murder in the name of the God of mercy : and granted plenary indulgences to all who should banish those sons of heterodoxy or provide arms for their destruction.! These enact- ments were published every sabbath, while the bells were rung and the candles lighted and extinguished. (6.) The ffth general council of the Lateran, in 1514, enacted laws, marked, if possible, with augmented barbarity. Dissembling Christians of every kind and nation, heretics polluted with any con- tamination of error were, by this infallible gang of ruffians, dis- missed from the assembly of the faithful, and consigned to the in- quisition, that the convicted might undergo due punishment, and the relapsed suflfer without any hope of pardon.J * Haeresiarchae, Luciferina superbia et rabie lupina evecti, dEEmonum fraudibus illusi. Oves Christi Catholicas hEEresiarchje ipsi successive infecerunt, et in ster- core mendaciorum fecerunt putrescere. Credentes et adhaerentes eisdem, tan- quam haereticos indicetis et velut hEereticos seculari Curia; relinquatis. {Bin. 8, 1120.) Secundum tenorem Lateranensis Concilii expellant, nee eosdem domicilia tenere, contractus inire, negotiationes exercere, aut humanitatis solatia cum Christi fidelibus habere permittant. {Bin. 8, 1121. Crab. 2, 1166.) t Volens hsc sancta synodus remedium adhibere, statuit et mandat omnibus et singulis inquisitoribus haereticae pravitatis, ut solicite intendant inquisitioni et ex- tirpationi haeresium quarumcumque. Omnes Christiana; religionis principes ac dominos tam ecclesiasticos quam saeculares hortatur, invitat, et monet per viscera misericordis Dei, ad extirpationem tanti per ecclesiam pra;damnati erroris omni celeritate, si Divinam ultionem et poenas juris evitare voluerunt. {Labb. 17, 97, 98. Bruy. 4, 72.) It is proper here to remark, that some Romish authors deny the claim of the council of Sienna and Basil to be a general council. Others, however, admit it. t Omnes ficti Christian!, ac de fide male sentientes, cujuscumque generis aut nationis fuerint, necnon hsretici seu aliqua hsresis labe polluti, a Christi fide- CHAP. I.] POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS. 545 Persecution of heretics advocated by popish divines. St. Aqulhos, Cardinal Bellarmine " The principle of persecution, therefore," justly remarks the learned Edgar, " being sanctioned, not only by theologians, popes, and provincial synods, but also by general councils, is a neces- sary AND INTEGRAL PART OP RoMANisM. The Romisji communion has, by its representatives, declared its right to compel men to re- nounce heterodoxy and embrace Catholicism, and to consign the obstinate to the civil power to be banished, tortured, or killed."* § 3. — The same persecuting principles have been advocated by individual Romish divines in various ages. It will be sufficient to quote proofs of this remark from Saint Aquinas in the thirteenth century, Bellarmine of the sixteenth, and Peter Dens who wrote in the eighteenth, but is studied and followed by popish colleges and seminaries of the nineteenth. The persecuting doctrine is frequently avowed in the writings of St. Aquinas, the angelic doctor, as he is called by Romanists. " Heretics," says he, " are to be compelled by corporeal punish- ments, that they may adhere to the faith."t In other places, St. Aquinas unequivocally asserts, that " heretics may not only be ex- communicated, but justly killed," and that " the church consigns such to the secular judges to be exterminated from the world by death."X But the most remarkable illustration of the spirit of Popery on this subject, is the labored argument of a celebrated Cardinal, enforcing the duty of thus putting heretics to death. Cardinal Bellarmine§ is the great champion of Romanism, and expounder of its doctrines. He was the nephew of pope Marcellus, and is acknowledged to be a standard writer with Romanists. In the 21st and 22d chapters of the third book of his work, entitled " De Laicis" (concerning the laity), he enters into a regular argu- ment to prove that the church has the right, and should exercise it, of punishing heretics with death. The following extracts are so conclusive as to the faith of Romanists on this point, that we give them in the original, as well as in the translation. The titles of the chapters are Bellarmine's as well as what follows. Hum coetu penitus eliminentur, et quocumque loco expellantur, ac debita ani- madversione puniantur, statuimus. (Crabb. 3, 646. Bin. 2, 112. Labb. 19,844.) * See Ed^r, chapter vi., passim. f Haeretici sunt etiam corporaliter compellandi. (Aquinas 2, 42.) And again, Haeretici sunt compellandi ut fidem teneant. (Aquin. 2, 10.) I Haeretici possunt non solum excommunicari sed et juste occidi Eccle- sia relinquit enm judici sseculari mundo exterminandiim per mortem. (^Aquinas 2, 11 ; 3, 48.) 5 Cardinal Bellarmine. — This celebrated popish casuist and divine was born in Tuscany, in 1542. He was raised to the dignity of Cardinal in 1599, as a re- ward for his writings and services on behalf of Popery; and from 1605 to the year of his death, 1621, he resided at Rome, in constant attendance upon the per- sbn of the popes, and under their patronage, industriously employing his pen for the defence of the Roman Catholic faith. After his death, on account of the valuable services he had rendered the Romish church by his writings, he was very near being placed in the calendar of saints. Out of seventeen cardinals, we are informed by a Romish historian, that ten voted for his canonization. (Dupin, cent, xvii., book 5.) 546 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [eoqk vin. Bellarmine'a argument proving that the church has a right to punish Heretics with death. Chapter XXI. That heretics, condemned by the church, may he punished with temporal penalties and even with death. ' Posse hcere- ticos ah ecclesia damnatos temporalihus pcenis etiam marts mulctari.' Nos igitur breviter ostendemua hasreti- cos incorrigibiles ac prEEsertim relapses, posse ac debere ab ecclesia rejici, et a -secularibus potestatibus temporalibus poem's atque ipsa etiam morte mulctari. Prima probatur scripturis. Probatur secundo sententiis et legibus imperato- rum, quas ecclesia semper probavit. Probatur terlio legibus ecclesieB. Pro- batur quarto testimoniis Patrum. Pro- batur ultimo rations naturali. Prima hsretici excommunicari jure possunt, ut omiies fatentur, ergo et occidi. Probatur consequentia quia excommunicatio est major poena, quam mors temporalis. Secunda experientia docet non esse aliud remedium, nam ecclesia paulatim progressa est et omnia remedia experta ; primo solum excommunicabatdeinde ad- didit mulctam pecuniariam ; tarn exili- um, ultimo coacta est ad mortem venire : mittere illos in locum suum. Terlio, falsarii omnium judicio meren- tur mortem ; at haeretici falsarii sunt verbi Dei. Quarto, gravius est non servare fidem hominem Deo, quam feminam viro ; sed hoc morte punitur, cur non illud. Quinlo, tres causae sunt propter quas ratio docet homines occidendos esse ; prima causa est ne mali bonis noceant ; secunda est, ut paucorum supplicio multi corrigantur. Multi enim quos impunitas faciebat torpentes supplicia proposita excitant ; et nos quotidie idem videmus fieri in locis ubi viget Inquisi- tio. Denique hasreticis obstinatis benefi- cium est quod de liac vita tollantur; nam quo diutius vivunt eo plures er- rores excogitant, plures pervertunt, et majorem eibi damnationem acquirunt. "We vi^ill briefly show that the church has the power and ought to cast olT incorrigible heretics, especially those who have relapsed, and that the secular power ought to inflict on such, tempo- ral punishments, and even death itself. 1st. This may be proved from the Scripture. 2d. It is proved from the opinions and laws of the Emperors, which the church has always approved. 3d. It is proved by the laws of the church. 4th. It is proved by the testimony of the fathers. Lastly. It is proved from natural reason. For first : It is owned by all, that heretics may of right be ex- communicated — of course they may be put to death. This consequence is proved because excommunication is a greater punishment than temporal death. Secondly. Experience proves that there is no other remedy ; for the church has step by step tried all remedies — first, — excommunication alone ; then pe- cuniary penalties ; afterward banish- ment ; and lastly has been forced to put tliem to death ; to send them to their own place. Thirdly. All allow that forgery de- serves death ; but heretics are guilty of forgery of the word of God. Fourthly. A breach of faith by man toward God, is a greater sin, than of a wife with her husband. But a woman's unfaithfulness is punished with death ; why not a heretic's 1 Fifthly. There are three grounds on which reason shows that heretics should be put to death: the 1st is, lest the wiciied should injure the righteous — 2d, that by the punishment of a few, many may be reformed. For many who WERE MADE TORPID BY IMPUNITY, ARB ROUSED BY THE FEAR OF PUNISHMENT ; AND THIS WE DAILY SEE IS THE RESULT WHERE THE INQUISITION FLOURISHES. Finally, It is a benefit to obstinate heretics to remove them from this life ; for the longer they live the more errors they invent, the more persons they mis- lead : and the greater damnation do they treasure up to themselves. In the next chapter Bellarmine proceeds to reply to the objections of Luther and others, against the burning of heretics. We tran- CHAP. I.J POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS. 54'7 Cardinal Bellamiine's answers to objections against tlie punisliment of lieretics by death. scribe the replies of the popish casuist to the first, second, thirteenth and eighteenth argaments against the burning of heretics.* The chapter is entitled as follows : Chapter XXII. Objections answered. ' Solvuntur objectiones.' Superest argumenta Lutheri atque aUorum haereticovura diluere. Argu- mentum, primum, ab experientia totius ecclesije : 'Ecdesia,'' inquit Lutherus, ' ab inilio sui usque hue nullum combussit hcEreticum, ergo non videtur esse volun- tas Spiritus ut comburantur.' Respondeo, argumentum hoc optime, probat, non sententiam, sed imperitiam, vel impudentiam Lutheri : nam cum infiniti propemodum, vel combusti, vel aliter necati fuerint, aut id ignoravit Lutherus, et tunc imperitus est, aut non ignoravit, et impudens, ac mendax esse convincitur : nam quod hseretici sint sajpe ab ecclesia combusti, ostendi po- test, si adducamus puaca exempla de multis. Argumentum secundum; experientia testatur non profici terroribus. Respon- deo, experientia est in contrarium ; nam Donatista;, Manichaei, et Albigenses armis profligati, et extincti sunt. Argumentum decimum lertium : Do- minus attribuit ecclesiae gladium spiri- tus, quod est verbum dei non autem gladium ferri; immo Petro volenti gladio ferreo ipsum defendere, ait : ' Mitte gladium tuum in vaginam,' Joan 18. Respondeo ecclesia sicut habet Principes Ecclesiasticos, et seculares, qui sunt quasi duo ecclesias brachia, ita quos habet gladios, spiritualem, et ma- terialem, et ideo, quando manus dextera gladio spirituali non potuit hsereticum com'ertere, invocat auxilium brachii sin- " It remains to ansvifer the objections of Luther and other heretics. Argument 1st. From the history of the church at large. ' The church,' says Luther, 'from the beginning, even to this time, has never burned a hereiic.j Therefore it does not seem to be the mind of the Holy Spirit, that they should be burned !' I reply that this argument proves not the sentiment, but the ignorance, or im- pudence of Luther ; for as almost an INFINITE NUMBER Vl^EKE EITHER BURNED OB OTHERWISE JPUT TO DEATH, Luther either did not know it, and was there- fore ignorant ; or if he knew it, he is convicted of impudence and falsehood — for that heretics were often burned by THE CHURCH may be proved by adducing a few from many examples. Argument 2d. ' Experience shows that terror is not useful.' I reply, experiencr PROVES THE CONTRARY — FOR THE Do NATISTS, MaNICHEANS, AND ALBIGENSES WERE ROUTED, AND ANNIHILATED BY ARMS. Argument 13th. ' The Lord attributes to the church " the sword of the Spi- rit, which is the word of God ;" but not the material sword, nay. He said to Pe- ter, who wished to defend him with a material sword, " put up thy sword into the scabbard." ' John 18th. I answer ; As the church has ecclesiastical and secular princes, who are her two arms ; so she has two swords, the spiritual anil material ; and therefore when her right hand is unable to convert a heretic with the sword of the Spirit, she invokes the * The whole of this labored argument of the great popish divine, to prove the lawfulness and expediency of the burning of heretics, is well worthy of examina- tion and study, by all who would understand what genuine Popery is. In the edi- tion of Bellarmine's works (Six vols., fol. 1610), which I have consulted in the cele- brated Van Ess library of the New York Theological Seminary, it occupied ten folio columns of Vol. II., p. 556, &c., besides the 20th chapter, of four columns, proving that the books of heretics ought to be destroyed. f If Luther ever made this assertion ascribed to him by Sellarmine, his meaning must have been that the true church of God had never burned a heretic, not that the anti-Christian Popes, councils, and secular powers of the Romish church had not burned heretics, for in the sense of tlie Romish church, all history testifies to the truth of Bellarmine's remark, that " an infinite number' of heretics were " either burned, or otherwise put to death," and that too (in the words of Bel- larmine), " by the church.' 548 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. L^ook vm. Popery is unchangable. The doctrine of Bellarmine taught by papists in the nineteenth century. istri, ut gladio ferreo heereticos coerceat. aid of the left hand, and coerces heretics with the material sword. Argumentum decimum ociavum: Argument 18th. " The Apostles never Nunquam Apostoli brachium seculare invoked the secular arm against here- contra hcereticos invocaverunt. Re- tics." Answer (according to St. Augus- spondet S. Augustinus in epist. 50. et tine, in letter 50 and elsewhere). " The alibi, Apostolos id non feciese, quia nul- Apostles did it not, because there was no lus tunc erat Christianus Princeps, quem Christian Prince whom they could call invocarent. At postquam tempore Con- on for aid. But afterwards in Constan- stantini Ecclesia tine's time the church called auxilium secularis brachii imploravit. in the aid of the secular arm." Now if, as Romanists in protestant countries sometimes assert, the Romish is not a persecuting church ; could it be possible that one of the very highest dignitaries of that church, a Cardinal, the nephew of one pope, and the special favorite and confidant of others, could have penned, without rebuke, such an infamous and labored argument in support of the burning of hei'etics, as that from which the foregoing extracts are made. § 4. — Some people suppose that, with the lapse of ages, the character of persecuting Rome has changed. No such thing. Popery is unchangeable, and so her ablest advocates declare. Says Charles Butler, in the work he wrote in reply to Southey's book of the church, — " It is most true that the Roman Catholics believe the doctrines of their church to be unchangeable ; and that it is a tenet of their creed, that what their faith ever has been, such it was from the beginning, such it is now and such it ever will be."* But supposing Romanists admitted a possibility of change in their doctrines, still there is abundant evidence in point of fact, from the writings of recent popish divines, that their doctrine remains the same, relative to the duty, whenever, and wherever they possess the power of extirpating heretics by death. It would be easy to cite a multitude of proofs of this assertion from various writers, but a single author will be sufficient. It is from the theology of Peter Dens, the celebrated doctor of Louvain. It was written, or rather the first volume was printed in 1758, and was adopted by the popish clergy in Dublin, in the year 1808, " who unanimously agreed that this book was the best work, and the safest guide in Theology for the Irish clergy."! A single extract will be sufficient. After stating that heretics are deservedly visited with the penalties of exile, im- prisonment, &c., the popish Doctor inquires, An haeretici recte puniuntur morte ? Are heretics rightly punished with Respondet S. Thomas affirmative : quia Death ? St. Thomas answers in the falsarii pecuniae vel alii rempublicam afflemative. Because forgers of mo- turbantes juste morte puniuntur : ergo ney or other disturbers of the state are etiam heeretici qui sunt falsarii fidei et justly punished with death ; therefore ut experientia docet rempublicam gravi- also heretics, who are forgers of the ter perturbant. . . . Confirmatur ex faith, and as experience shows, greatly 60 quod Deus in veteri lege jusserit oo- disturb the state. . . . This is con- * Butler's Book of the Roman Catholic Church, t Edgar's Variations, p. 243. CHAP, n.] POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS. 549 The persecuting doctrine taught in the Rhemish Testament, &c. Bloody queen Miiry cidi falsos Prophetas. . . . Idem firmed by the command of God under probatur ex condemnatione articulii 14, the old law, that the false prophets Joan. Huss in Concilio Constantiensi. should be killed. . . . The same is (Dens, 2, 88, 89.) proved by the condemnation — by the fourteenth article — of John Huss in the council of Constance. The same horrid doctrine is taught in the Extravagants or Constitutions and other authorized writings of a large number of the popes, the Directorium Inquisitorium, or Directory for Inquisi- tors, the notes to the Rhemish Testament,* &c., &c., but the point is already established upon sufficient authority, and further testi- mony is unnecessary. Without undertaking to give a complete account of the persecutions of Popery, we shall present a few additional sketches of the manner in which the persecuting princi- ples of Rome have in various ages been carried out in the tortures, massacres, burnings, and other barbarities inflicted upon those whom she chose to stigmatize with the name of heretics. CHAPTER II. SUFFERINGS OF THE ENGLISH PROTESTANTS UNDER BLOODY aUEEN MARY. THE BURNING OF LATIMER, RIDLEY, CRANMSR, &C. § 5. — It would be improper entirely to omit, and yet it is not necessary minutely to describe the well known cruel burnings of the English protestants, during the reign of the bigoted and hard- hearted woman, whose name has been appropriately handed down to posterity as bloody Queen Mary.! And it seems proper to * In the Rhemish translation of the New Testament for the English Romanists, the following note is appended to the words of our Lord — Luke ix., 55 — when he rebuked two of his disciples for their desire to destroy those who refused to receive him : " Not justice, nor all rigorous punishment of sinners, is here forbidden ; nor Elias's fact reprehended; nor the Church, nor Christian princes, blamed for put- ting heretics to death ; but that none of these should be done for desire of our particular revenge, or without discretion, and in regard of their amendment and example to others. Therefore, St. Peter used his power upon Ananias and Sap- phira, when he struck them both down to death for defrauding the Church !" He- brews X., 29, ia, in like manner, applied to all whom the Church of Rome calls heretics. f Full information on these persecutions may be obtained from that well known and authentic work, " Fox's Book of Martyrs," " Southey's Book of the Church," &c. I would especially recommend the valuable abridgment of Fox's work, accompanied with remarks in her own beautiful and impressive style, by Mrs. Tonna, better known as Charlotte Elizabeth, a lady, who, by her genius, piety, and genuine Protestantism, as exhibited in the numerous productions of her pen, has laid un- 550 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vm. Number of martyrs of the Marian persecution. The venerable Latimer and Ridley. commence these few sketches of persecutions of Popery, with the recital of the sufferings of the Marian martyrs, as they all occurred during the interval that elapsed between the second adjournment and resumption of the council of Trent already described. During her brief reign of five years, according to the lowest calculations, two hundred and eighty-eight persons were burned ALIVE, by her order, for the crime of heresy, and among them were the wealthy and the poor, the priest and the layman, the merchant and the farmer, the blind and the lame, the helpless female and the new-born babe. The persecutions did not commence in the first year of her reign. She was proclaimed Queen on the 17th of July, 1553, and it was not till the commencement of 1555 that the venerable .John Rogers, the proto-martyr of the Marian persecu- tion, sealed the truth with his blood by being burnt alive at Smith- field. He suffered on the 4th of February, 1555. The number of heretics burnt alive in England, in 1555, was seventy-one ; in 1556, eighty-nine ; in 1557, eighty-eight; and in 1558, forty. The num- ber of the victims would have been largely swelled, had not death relieved the world of the presence and tyranny of this popish mon- ster in the s'hape of a woman, on the 17th of November, 1558. The names of Rogers, and Saunders, and Hooper ; of Taylor, and Bradford, and Philpot ; of Latimer, and Ridley, and Cranmer ; and of their martyred associates, have become familiar as house- hold words to their protestant descendants of England and Ameri- ca; and the oft-repeated story of their painful but triumphant deaths, amidst the torturing fires of martyrdom, continues to preach loudly and eloquently of the cruelty and bigotry of Rome. Our limits will allow but a brief sketch of the martyrdom of the three last-mentioned of the nine worthies whose names have been cited above. § 6. — Bishops Latimer and Ridley were two of the ablest as well as holiest of the martyrs whose blood was offei-ed as a sacri- fice upon the altar of popish bigotry during the reign of Mary. Hugh Latimer was born about 1472, and was now, therefore, upwards of fourscore years old. He had been a prominent man, in the reign of the licentious Henry VIII., the father of queen Mary, and was appointed by him to the bishopric of Worcester. It is related of Latimer, as an instance of his faithfulness, that on new year's day, when, according to the prevailing custom, the emi- nent men of the land presented the King with a new year's gift, his gift consisted of a copy of the New Testament, with the pas- sage marked, and the leaf turned down to the words, " Whoremon- gers and adulterers God will judge." Those acquainted with the history of the adulterous Henry VIII. need not be told how applicable was the reproof to his character. der deep obligation the whole protestant world. I know of no uninspired writer, either of the past or present time, who so happily combines entertainment with mstruction as this gifted lady. Her "English Martyrology" and "Siege of Derry " ought to be read by every jTOtestant youth in the world. CHAP. II.] POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS. 551 T^egradalion of Ridley from the priostly office. Rensona of this ceremony. When this faithful and venerable man was apprehended by order of the bloody Mary, he said to the officer, " My friend, you are a welcome messenger to me ;" and in passing through Smithfield, where so many of the martyrs of Jesus had been burned alive, he remarked, " Smithfield hath long groaned for me."' He suffered a long and cruel imprisonment in the Tower previous to his martyr- dom. One day, when suffering from the severe frost and denied the comfort of a fire, the aged sufferer pleasantly remarked to his keeper, that if he were not taken better care of, he should certainly escape out of his enemies' hands, meaning that he should perish with cold and hardship, and thus escape the burning intended for him by his enemies. Nicholas Ridley was born in the year 1500, had been chaplain to the pious youth, king Edward VI., the predecessor of Mary, and had been appointed by him bishop of London. Upon the accession of Mary, he was soon seized and committed to the Tower, where he and Latimer continued during the winter of 1553 and 1554, and were afterwards removed to Oxford, and lodged in a common prison. In the year 1555, a commission was issued to several popish bishops to proceed against these two holy men. Full ac- counts are given by Fox of the various disputations they held with the martyrs. It is sufficient here to remark, that neither threats nor promises could shake their constancy, and that in every interview they came off triumphant over all the arguments of their popish opponents, by whom they were condemned to be degraded, and delivered up to the secular power. § 7. — The reason why the church of Rome always performed this ceremony of degradation upon ecclesiastics before delivering them up to the secular arm to be burnt, was because she was too watchful over the immunities of the privileged order of priests, to deliver them up to temporal jurisdiction, till stripped of the sacer- dotal character, and degraded to the situation of laymen. Brooks, bishop of Gloucester, perforrned this ceremony on Ridley on the 15th of October. Brooks repeated on this occasion his fruitless attempts to shake the constancy of the martyr, and to induce him to acknowledge the authority of the Pope ; but Ridley only renewed his faithful testimony concerning " the usurped authority of the Romish anti-Christ ;" and declared, " the Lord being my helper, 1 will maintain so long as my tongue shall wag, and breath is within my body, and in confirmation thereof seal the same with my blood." Ridley continued so faithfully to reason upon the true character of the Pope, that the Bishop threatened to employ the gag, a weapon of frequent use in those days, when the faithful testimony of the martyrs could be in no other way prevented. The bishop of Gloucester then remarked, that seeing he would not receive the Queen's mercy, they must go on to degrade him from the dignity of priesthood ; saying moreover, " we take you for no bishop, and therefore we will the sooner have done with you, com- mitting you to the secular power ; you know what doth follow." 552 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book vm Ridley's courage under mockery and abuse. Latimer and Ridley at the Btalte " Do with me as it shall please God to suffer you," was the reply ; " I am well content to abide the same with all my heart." Brooks desired him to put off his cap and put upon him the surpHce : he answered, " I will not." " But you must." " I will not." "You must ; therefore make no more ado, but put this surplice upon you." " Truly, if it come upon me, it shall be against my will." " Will you not put it upon you V " No, that I will not." " It shall be put upon you by some one or other." " Do therein as it shall please you ; I am well contented with that, and more than that ; the ser- vant is not above his Master. If they dealt so cruelly with our Sa- viour Christ, as the Scripture maketh mention, and he suffered the same patiently, how much more doth it become us, his servants 1" The surplice was then forcibly put on him, with all the trinkets appertaining to the mass : during which he vehemently inveighed against the Romish bishop, calling him anti-Christ, and the apparel foolish and abominable. This made Dr. Brooks very angry : he bade him hold his peace, for that he did but rail. The Christian mai-tyr replied, so long as his tongue and breath would suffer him, he would speak against their abominable doings whatsoever hap- pened unto him for it. When they came to the place where he should hold the chalice and wafer-cake, they bade him take them into his hands : he replied, " They shall not come into my hands ; and if they do, they shall fall to the ground for me." An attendant was obliged to hold them fast in his hands while Brooks read a cer- tain thing in Latin, appertaining to that part of the performance. Next they placed a book in his hand, while Brooks recited the passage, " We do take from you the office of preaching the gospel," &c. At these words Dr. Ridley gave a great sigh, and looking up toward heaven, said, " O Lord God, forgive them this their wick- edness !" The massing garments being taken off one by one, till the surplice only was left, they proceeded to the last step of the de- gradation, by deposing him from the low'est office of the priesthood." § 8. — On the following day, October 16th, 1555, Latimer and Ridley were brought to the stake, which was prepared in a hollow, near Baliol college, on the north side of the city of Oxford. The venerable Latimer being stripped for the stake, appeared in a shroud prepared for the occasion ; and now, says Fox, " a remarkable change was observed in his appearance ; for whereas he had hith- erto seemed a withered, decrepit, and even a deformed old man, he now stood perfectly upright, a straight and comely person. Ridley was disposed to remain in his trousers ; but on his brother observ- ing that it would occasion him more pain, and that the article of dress would do some poor man good, he yielded to the latter plea, and saying, " Be it, in the name of God," delivered it to his brother. Then, being stripped to his shirt, he stood upon a stone by the stake, and holding up his hand, said, " O heavenly Father, I give unto thee most hearty thanks, for that thou hast called me to be a professor of thee, even unto death : I beseech thee, Lord God, take mercy upon Ceremony of the Degradatiou of a Priest previous to Martyrdom l,if "//,f(niHll| III "l^ifih'si //'/j, I I'll \ \ Burning of Latimer and ilidley at Oxtor^ CHAP. 11.] POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OP SAINTS. 555 Dying reiniirk of the venerable Latimer. Ridley's horrible and protracted torment by his slow burning this realm of England, and deliver the same from all her enemies." The smith now brought a chain, and passed it round the bodies of the two martyrs, as they quietly stood on either side of the stake : while he was hammering the staple into the wood, Ridley took the chain in his hand, arid shaking it, said, " Good fellow, knock it in hard, for the flesh will have its course." This being done, Shipside brought him some gunpowder in a bag to tie round his neck ; which he received as sent of God, to be a means of shortening his tor- ment; at the same time inquiring whether he had any for his bro- ther, meaning Latimer, and hastening him to give it immediately, lest it might come too late ; which was done. A lighted faggot was then brought, and laid down at his feet, on which Latimer turned and addressed him in those memorable and prophetic words, " Be of good comfort, Mr. Ridley, and play the man : " we shall this DAY LIGHT SUCH A CANDLE, BY God's GRACE, IN ENGLAND, AS, I TRUST, SHALL NEVER BE PUT OUT." The flames rose ; and Ridley in a wonderfully loud voice ex- claimed in Latin, " Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," often repeating in English, " Lord, receive my spirit !" Latimer on the other side as vehemently crying out, " Father of heaven, receive my soul !" and welcoming, as it were, the flame, he embraced it, bathed his hands in it, stroked his venerable face with them, and soon died, seemingly with little pain, or none. So ended this old and blessed servant of God, his laborious works, and fruitful life, by an easy and quiet death in the midst of the fire, into which he cheer- fully entered for Christ's sake. But it pleased the Lord to glorify himself otherwise in Ridley : his torments were terrible, and pro- tracted to an extent that it sickens the heart to contemplate. The fire had been made so ill, by heaping a great quantity of heavy fag- gots very high about him, above the lighter combustibles, that the solid wood kept down the flame, causing it to rage intensely be- neath, without ascending. The martyr finding his lower extremi- ties only burning, requested those about him, for Christ's sake, to let the fire come to him ; which his poor brother Shipside hearing, and in the anguish of his spirit not rightly understanding, he heaped more faggots on the pile, hoping so to hasten the conflagration, which of course was further repressed by it, and became more ve- hement beneath, burning to a cinder all the nether parts of the suf- ferer, without approaching the vitals. In this horrible state, he continued to leap up and down under the wood, praying them to let the fire come, and repeatedly exclaiming, " I cannot burn," writhing in the torture, as he turned from side to side, the bystanders saw even his shirt unconsumed, clean, and unscorched by the flame, while his legs were totally burnt off". In such extremity his heart was still fixed, trusting in his God, and ejaculating frequently, " Lord, have mercy upon me I" intermingling it with entreaties, " Let the fire come unto me — I cannot burn." At last one of the bill-men with his weapon mercifully pulled away the faggots from above, so giving the flame power to rise ; which the sufferer no 33 556 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book raj. Oxford, the burning place of Latimer and Ridley, no place for compromise witli Rome. Thom. Cranmer. sooner saw, than with an eager effort he wrenched his mutilated body to that side, to meet the welcome deliverance. The flame now touched the gunpowder, and he was seen to stir no more ; but after burning awhile on the other side, he fell over the chain at the feet of Latimer's corpse. Such are thy tender mercies, tyrant Rome ! The rack, the faggot, or the hated creed — Fearless amidst thy folds fierce wolves may roam. Whilst stainless sheep upon thine altars bleed. § 9. — Let the Christian reader now draw nigh and contem- plate this painful scene — the venerable form of the holy Latimer, with his snowy locks whitened by the frosts of eighty-three win- ters, dressed in his shroud, directing his eyes upward to heaven for strength as the torturing flames gather and wrap themselves around his aged and quivering limbs, and yet amidst his tortures praying for his tormentors — the stately and noble form of his companion Ridley, chained to the same stake, with his feet and legs actually burning to a cinder, till they fall from his tortured body ; before death, the welcome deliverer, has done his work — then let him con- template the cowled priest of Rome, with cross in hand, insulting the dying agonies of the martyrs, and rejoicing in their proti acted and excruciating torments — and remember that this, stripped of dis- guise or concealment — this is Popery — " drunk with the blood OF THE SAINTS AND OF THE MARTYRS OF JeSUS." Well does that gifted authoress, Mrs. Tonna, exclaim, after citing the description of the horrible tortures inflicted upon these two holy men, " Wo unto us, if, with these examples before us, we shrink not from touching, even the outermost fringe of that harlot's polluted garments ! There is that mingled with the dust of Oxford which will rise up in the judgment, a terrible witness against those who, while trampling on the ashes of the martyrs, shall dare to sug- gest any, even the slightest measure of approximation to the apos- tate church — any recognition of her, otherwise than as the deeply ACCDRSED ENEMY OF ChEIST AND HIS SAINTS."* § 10. — Thomas Cranmer was born in 1489, and had been ap- pointed by Henry VIII. archbishop of Canterbury. During the brief reign of the youthful Edward VI., Cranmer (though not entirely fice from the contamination of the doctrine of Rome, the right to persecute for conscience sake) was one of the principal agents in advancing the reformation in England. Upon the accession of bloody Mary, he was soon marked out as a conspicuous victim for papal fury. His closing days are clouded, as were those of Je- rome of Prague, by his signature to a written recantation, obtained from him by his enemies, by the means of the prospect they held out to him of life and comfort, after nearly three years of cruel and rigorous imprisonment : yet, like the Bohemian reformer, he * English Martyrology, by Charlotte Elizabeth, vol. ii., p, 65. KHAP. u.] POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS. 657 Cranmcr in St. Mary's church. His inounifut demeanor and copious tears, bitterly repented this act of natural weakness, and showed the sin- cerity of that repentance, by his extraordinary courage and con- stancy, amidst the fires of martyrdom. After Cranmer had signed this document, he soon found reason to suspect that his popish ene- mies would still not be satisfied without his blood ; and in the esti- mation of some, this circumstance may, perhaps, tend to cast a shade of doubt over his dying protestations. No one, however, who will carefully consider the circumstances of the last few hours of his life (which we shall now proceed to narrate), can reasonably doubt that his penitence for this act of pardonable weakness was sincere, and that the same Jesus who cast a look of love, and melted the heart of Peter, who had denied him, sustained the dying Cranmer by his presence and his smiles, and welcomed the ran- somed spirit of the departed martyr to the abodes of the blessed. § 11. — It is generally thought that Cranmer was not informed of the determination to put him to death, till the morning when he was to suffer. About nine A. M., of the 21st of March, 1556, he was taken to St. Mary's church, Oxford, to listen to a sermon by Doctor Cole, preached at the church instead of at the place of exe- cution, on account of its being a very rainy day. A Romanist who was present, and who expressed the opinion " that the former life and wretched end of Cranmer deserved a greater misery, if greater had been possible," was yet, in spite of his heart-hardening opinions, touched with compassion at beholding him in a bare and ragged gown, and ill-favoredly clothed with an old square cap, exposed to the contempt of all men. " I think," said he, " there was none that pitied not his case, and bewailed not his fortune, and feared not his own chance, to see so noble a prelate, so grave a counsellor, of so long-continued honor, after so many dignities, in his old years to be deprived of his estate, adjudged to die, and in so painful a death to end his life." When he had as- cended the stage, he knelt and prayed, weeping so profusely, that many, even of the papists, were moved to tears. While Cole was preaching the sermon, in which he endeavored to make the best apology possible for the act of the Queen in con- signing Cranmer to the flames, the venerable martyr himself seemed overwhelmed with the weight of sorrow and penitence. " With what great grief of mind he stood hearing this sermon," says good John Fox, in his own simple and beautiful style, " the outward shows of his body and countenance did better express, than any man can declare : one while lifting up his hands and eyes unto hea- ven, and then again for shame letting them down to the earth. A man might have seen the very image and shape of perfect sorrow lively in him expressed. More than twenty several times the tears gushed out abundantly, dropping down from his fatherly face. Those which were present testify that they never saw, in any child, more tears than burst out from him at that time. It is marvellous what commiseration and pity moved all men's hearts that beheld so heavy a countenance, and such abundance of tears, in an old mar, 558 mSTORY OJ^ ROMANISM. s [book vm. His courageous and unexpected dying testimony to the truth. Renounces his extorted recantation of SO reverend dignity." Withal he ever retained " a quiet and giave behavior." In this hour of utter humiliation and severe re- pentance, he possessed his soul in patience. Never had his mind been more clear and collected, never had his heart been so strong. After the sermon, Cole exhorted Cranmer to testify before the peo- ple the sincerity of his conversion and repentance, that all men might understand he was " a Catholic indeed." §12. — "I vsrill do it," replied Cranmer, "and that with a good will." He then rose from his knees, and, putting off his cap, said, " Good Christian people, my dearly-beloved brethren and sisters in Christ, I beseech you most heartily to pray for me to Almighty God, that he will forgive me my sins and offences, which be many without number, and great above measure. But among all the rest, there is one which grieveth my conscience most of all, whereof you shall hear more in its proper place." He then knelt down, and offered up a touching and fervent prayer, speaking of himself as " a most wretched caitiff and miserable sinner." Rising from his knees, he proceeded to address the assembled multitude, giving them many pious and godly exhortations, before touching upon the point which all were anxiously expecting to hear — whether he was about to die in the Romish or the protestant faith. At length he said : " And now, forasmuch as I am come to the last end of my life, whereupon hangeth all my life past, and all my life to come, either to live with my Master Christ for ever in joy, or else to be in pain for ever with wicked devils in hell (and I see be- fore mine eyes presently either heaven ready to receive me, or else hell ready to swallow me up) ; I shall therefore declare unto you my very faith, how I believe, without any color of dissimulation ; for now is no time to dissemble, whatsoever I have said or written in times past." He then repeated the Apostles' creed, and declared his belief in every article of the true Catholic faith, every word and sentence taught by our Saviour, his Apostles, and prophets, and in the New and Old Testament. " And now," he continued, " I come to the great thing which trouhleth my conscience more than anything that ever I said or did in my whole life, and that is, the setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth ; which now here I RENOUNCE AND REFUSE as things Written with my hand, contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart." Hitherto, with con- summate skill, the martyr had avoided a single word which could indicate to his popish persecutors the unexpected blow they were about to receive. Up to this time, probably, the multitude of Romanists had expected him to confirm his recantation, and sup- posed that the writings to which he had just referred and which he now renounced were those which he had published in opposition to the doctrines of Rome. This illusion was dissipated, when, in the next sentence, he spoke of those writings as — " written for fear of death, and to save my life, if it might be : and that is, all such bills and papers as I have written or signed with my hand since my de- gradation, wherein I have written many things untrue. Cranmer'g ItiinTinriation of hia Recnntation in St. !\Iary'B Cliurcb, Oxford. Martyrdom of Cranmer. — " The hand that hath sinned, that hand shaU first suffer.** CHAP. 11.] POPERY DRUNK WITH BI-OOD OP SAINTS. 561 Rage of the jiapista at Craniuer's noble confession. His unflinching constancy iD the flames. " And." proceeded Cranmer, " forasmuch as my hand offended, writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall first be punished there- fore ; for may I come to the fire, it shall be first burnt !" He had time to add, " As for the Pope, I refuse him as anti-Christ; and as for the Sacrament, I believe as 1 have taught in my book against the bishop of Winchester, the which my book teacheth so true a doctrine of the Sacrament, that it shall stand at the last day before the judgment of God, wlien the papistical doctrine, contrary thereto, shall be ashamed to show her face." § 13. — At this unexpected and noble confession. Cole and the rest of the popish priests, monks and laymen, were too much as- tonished to interrupt him, or he would not have been suffered to proceed so far. At length, an uproar was raised which prevented him from proceeding ; Cole foaming with rage, cried from the pul- pit — " Stop the heretic's mouth, and take him away," and the priests and friars rushed upon him, and tore him from the stage, on which he was standing. Cranmer was quickly hurried to the stake, prepared on the spot where Latimer and Ridley had suffered five months befoi-e. The venerable martyr had now overcome the weakness of his nature; and, after a short prayer, put off his clothes with a cheerful coun- tenance and willing mind, and stood upright in his shirt, which came down to his feet. His feet were bare ; his head, when both his caps were off, appeared perfectly bald, but his beard was long and thick, and his countenance so venerable, that it moved even his enemies to compassion. Two Spanish friars, who had been chiefly instrumental in obtaining his recantation, continued to ex- hort him ; till, perceiving that their efforts were vain, one of them said, ' Let us leave him, for the devil is with him !' Ely, who was afterward president of St. John's, still continued urging him to re- pentance. Cranmer replied, he repented his recantation ; and in the spirit of charity offered his hand to Ely, as to others, when he bade him farewell ; but the obdurate bigot drew back, and reproved those who had accepted such a farewell, telling them it was not lawful to act thus with one who had relapsed into heresy. Once more he called upon him to stand to his recantation. CranYner stretched forth his right arm, and replied, " This is the hand that WROTE IT, AND TIIEEEFORE IT SHALL SUFFER PUNISHMENT FIRST." True to this purpose, as soon as the flame arose, he held his hand out to meet it, and retained it there steadfastly, so that all the peo- ple saw it sensibly burning before the fire reached any other part of his body ; and often he repeated with a loud and firm voice, " This hand hath offended 1 this unworthy eight hand." Never did martyr endure the fire with more invincible resolu- tion ; no cry was heard from him, save the exclamation of the protomartyr Stephen, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit !" He stood immoveable as the stake to which he was bound, his countenance raised, looking to heaven, and anticipating that rest iato which he 562 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vm. " First perish this unworthy hand." Cranmer's m:irtyrdom, injurious to the cause of Rome ■was about to enter ; and thus, " in the greatness of the flame," he yielded up his spirit. The fire did its work soon. . . . and his heart was found unconsumed amid the ashes. The pile is lit — the flames ascend ; Yet peace is in the martyr's face ; And unseen visitants attend That chief of England's priestly race ; Mightier in peril's darkest hour, Than when enthroned in rank and power Steadfast he stood in that fierce flame, As standing in his own high hall : He said, as sadness o'er him came, Remembrance of his mournful fall — Stretching it to the burning brand — " FlKST PERISH THIS UNWORTHY HAND !" Thy foul and cruel deed, O Rome ! Was vain ; that blazing funeral pyre Where Cranmer died, did soon become ( To England as a beacon fire ; i And he hath left a glorious name, ! Victorious over Rome and flame. I "Of all the martyrdoms during this great persecution," says I Dr. Southey, " this was in all its circumstances the most injurious to 1 the Romish cause. It was a manifestation of inveterate and deadly I malice toward one who had borne his elevation with almost unex- ampled meekness. It effectually disproved the argument on which « the Romanists rested, that the constancy of our martyrs proceeded I not from confidence in their faith, and the strength which they de- \ rived therefrom ; but from vainglory, the pride of consistency, and I the shame of retracting what they had so long professed. Such \ deceitful reasoning could have no place here: Cranmer had re- ] tracted ; and the sincerity of his contrition for that sin was too I plain to be denied, too public to be concealed, too memorable ever [ to be forgotten. The agony of his repentance had been seen by ! thoueands ; and tens of thousands had witnessed how, when that agony was past, he stood calm and immoveable amid the flames ; a patient and willing holocaust ; triumphant, not over his persecu- tors alone, but over himself, over the mind as well as the body, ' over fear and weakness, as well as death."* § 14. — For upwards of two years and a half from the martyr- dom of Cranmer, a mysterious providence permitted the papists of England to glut their bigot rage in the slaughter of the lambs and the sheep of Christ's fold who refused to subscribe to the doctrines of Rome. At length the time of deliverance approached. The last of these bloody sacrifices to the popish Moloch was made on the 10th of November, only one week previous to the death of queen Mary, in the burning ahve of three men and two women at * Southey's Book of the Church, chap. xiv. CHAP. 11.] POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS. 563 The lust burning in the reign of bloody Mary. Joy of the people at her death. Elizabeth and the Popo. Canterbury, for denying transubstantiation and the worship of images. The names of this last company of victims who brought up " the noble army of martyrs " of the Marian persecution, were John Corneford, John Hurst, Christopher Brown, Alice Snoth, and Catharine Tinley. The last was an aged and helpless woman, whose years and debiUty, one would have thought, might awaken pity even in the breast of a savage. But popish bigotry knows no pity ; and the feeble and withered body of the aged saint was con- sumed to ashes in the torturing flames. From the burning pile of this last company of martyrs, the prayer arose from the lips of the sufferers that their blood might be the last that should be thus shed, in England, for the truth ; and God heard that prayer. One week after, on the 17th of November, the merciless bigot-queen was called before a higher tribunal to give an account of the innocent blood that she had poured out like water during her brief but terrible reign. Mary died in the morning. Before night the bells of all the churches in London were rung for the accession of Elizabeth, and amidst the lamentations of popish bigots that some of their victims had escaped, a shout of rapture went up from the hearts of the people that the work of blood was done ; and bonfires and illuminations testified the general joy that the reign of terror and of Rome was over. § 15. — Great was the sorrow and disappointment of that bloody persecutor and promoter of the Inquisition, pope Paul IV., at hear- ing of the death of his " faithful daughter," Mary, and the accession of her protestant sister Elizabeth to the throne of England. In answer to the ambassador sent to the court of Rome, in common with the other European courts, the Pope replied in a haughty style, " That England was held in fee of the apostolic See. . . . that it was great boldness in her to assume the crown without his consent; for which, in reason, she deserved no favor at his hands ; yet, if she would renounce her pretensions, and refer herself wholly to him, he would show a fatherly affection towards her, and do every- thing for her that he could consistently with the dignity op the APOSTOLIC See !"* Elizabeth treated these kind proposals of his Holiness with just the attention they merited, and a few years afterward was excom- municated and deposed by pope Pius V., and her subjects absolved from their allegiance and forbidden to obey her, under penalty of the same anathema!! This important instrument of papal ven- geance renews all the obsolete pretensions of Hildebrand and Boni- face, and is especially valuable as an exhibition of the feelings of ap- probation and regard on the part of the anti-Christian popes of Rome toward that bloody persecutor of God's saints, queen Mary ; and their bitter hatred toward her sister Elizabeth, who had put an end to those scenes of horror and of blood. The original bull, in Latin, may be found in the collection of * Burnet's Hist, of the Reformation, vol. ii., p. 680. 564 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vm Copy of the bull of pope Fiue, cxcominunicating and deposing queen Elizabeth. records at the end of Burnet's History of the Reformation. The following is a translation of the most important part : Excommunication and deposition of queen Elizabeth of England. " Pius, &c., for a future memorial of the matter. He that reign- eth on high, to whom is given all power in Heaven and on Earth, committed one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, out of which there is no salvation, to one alone upon earth, to Peter the Prince of the Apostles, and to Peter's successor the Bishop of Rome, to be governed in fullness of power. Him alone he made prince over ALL PEOPLE, AND ALL KINGDOMS, to plucli up, dcstroy, scattcr, con- sume, plant and build, tfec. . . . But the number of the ungodly hath gotten such power, that there is now no place left in the whole world, which they have not essayed to corrupt with their most wicked doctrines. Amongst others, Elizabeth, the pretended Queen of England, a slave of wickedness, lending thereunto her helping- hand, with whom, as in a sanctuary, the most pernicious of all men have found a refuge ; this very woman having seized on the king- dom, and monstrously usurping the place of the Supreme Head of ' the church in all England, and the chief authority and jurisdiction thereof, hath again brought back the same kingdom into miserable destruction, which was then newly reduced to the faith, and to good order. For having by strong hand, inhibited the exercise of the TRUE RELIGION, WHICH MaRY THE LAWFUL QuEEN, OF FAMOUS MEMORY, HAD, BY THE HELP OF THIS See, RESTORED, after it had been formerly overthrown by King Henry VIII., a revolter therefrom, and follow- ing and embracing the errors of heretics, she hath removed the royal council, consisting of the English nobility, and filled it with obscure men, being heretics ; hath oppressed the embracers of the Roman faith, hath placed impious preachers, ministers of iniquity, and abolished the sacrifice of the mass, prayers, fastings, distinction of meats, a single life, and the rites and ceremonies ; hath com- manded books to be read in the whole realm, containing manifest heresy, &c. . . . She hath not only contemned the godly re- quests and admonitions of princes, concerning her healing, and con- version, but also hath not so much as permitted the Nuncios of this See to cross the seas into England, (fee. . . . We do, there- fore, out of the fulness of our Apostolic power, declare the afore- said Elizabeth, being a heretic, and a favorer of heretics, and her adherence in the matter aforesaid, to have incurred the sentence of anathema, and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Christ. And, moreover, we do declare her to be deprived of her pretended TITLE to the kingdom aforesaid, and of all dominion, dignity, and privilege whatsoever : and also the nobility, subjects, and people of the said kingdom, and all others which have in any sort sworn unto her, to be for ever absolved from any such oath, and all manner of duty, of dominion, allegiance, and obedience ; as we also do, by the authority of these presents, absolve them, and do deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended title to the kingdom, and all other things aforesaid. And we do command and interdict all and every CHAP. ni.J POPERV DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS. 567 Original of tbie bull excommunicating Elizabeth — note. The Holy inquisition. one of the noblemen, subjects, people, and others aforesaid, that they presume not to obey her, or her admonitions, mandates, and laws ; and those who shall do the contrary, we do innodate with the like sentence of ANATHEMA.* " Given at St. Peter's at Rome, in the year 1569, and the 5th of our j'ontificate." CHAPTER III. THE INaUISITION. SEIZURE OF THE VICTIMS. MODES OF TORTUBE, AND CELEBRATION OF THE AUTO DA FE. §16 . — Of all the inventions of popish cruelty the Holy Inquisi- tion is the masterpiece. We have already referred to its establish- ment by Saint Dominic, in the thirteenth century. For the history of this destructive engine of papal cruelty, we must refer to any, or all of the authentic works of Llorente, Puigblanch, Limborch, Stockdale, Geddes, Dellon, and other historians of the Inquisi- tion. All that we shall undertake will be a brief description of the treatment, tortures, and burnings of the unfortunate beings who writhed under its iron rod of oppression. The adjoining engraving represents an exterior view of one of the gloomy prisons of the Inquisition in that country, which, more than any other, has been oppressed and crushed by this horrid tribunal, un- happy Spain. It is copied from a drawing taken on the spot by David Roberts, Esq. It was impossible for even Satan himself to conceive a more horrible contrivance of torture and blood, than this so called Holy * The following is the original of the closing extract of this bull, deposing Eli- zabeth from her throne. We should hardly have believed that the mad pretensions of Hildebrand were thus revived by the Pope near tlie end of the sixteenth century, and half a century subsequent to the glorious reformation, were not the original documents at hand, and the fact beyond the shadow of a doubt : — " Declaramus de ApostolicsE potestatis plenitudine, praedictam Elizabetham Heereticam, et Haere- ticorum fautricem, eique adherentes in praedictis, anathematis sententiam incurrisse, esseque a Christi Corporis unitate prsecisos : Quin etiam ipsam pr^tenso Regni priedicti jure, necnon omni et quorumque Dominio, dignitate, privilegioque priva- tam ; Et item proceres, subditos et populos dicti Regni, ac CEeteros omnes, qui illi quomodocunque juraverunt a Juramento hujusmodi, ac omni prorsus dominii, fide- litatis, et obsequii debito, perpetuo absolutes, prout nos illos praesentium autliori- tate absolvimus, et privamus eandem Elizabetham praetenso jure Regni, aliiisque omnibus supradictis. Praecipimusque et interdicimus Universis et singulis Proce- ribus, Subditis, Populis et aliis prEedictis ; ne illi, ejusve monitis, raandatis, et legi- bus audeant obedire : Qui secus egerint, eos simili Anathematis sententia innoda^ mus." — Burnet's Keformation, vol. iv., p. 99. 508 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vm. Pollock's poetical description of the Inquiaition. Mode of apprehending the victims, Inquisition. There it was (in the words of Pollock), that the Babylonish harlot of the Apocalypse, *****" With horrid relish drank the blood Of God's peculiar children — and was drunk ; And in her drunkenness dreamed of doing good. The supplicating hand of innocence, That made the tiger mild, and in his wrath The lion pause — the groans of suffering most Severe were naught to her : she laughed at groans ; No music pleased her more ; and no repast So sweet to her as blood of men redeemed By blood of Christ. Ambition's self, though mad And nursed on human gore, with her compared Was merciful. Nor did she always rage ; She had some hours of meditation, set Apart, wherein she to her study went ; The Inquisition model most complete Of perfect wickedness, where deeds were done. Deeds ! let them ne'er be named, — and sat and planned Deliberately, and with most musing pains. How, to extremest thrill of agony. The flesh, and blood, and souls of holy men. Her victims might be wrought ; and when she saw New tortures of her laboring fancy born. She leaped for joy, and made great haste to try Their force, — well pleased to hear a deeper groan." § 17. — The victims of the Inquisition were generally apprehended by the officers of the tribunal called/affji'/iars, who were dispersed in large numbers over Spain, and other lands where the " Holi/ office" was established. In the dead of the night, perhaps, a carriage drives up, and a knock is heard at the door. An inquiry is made from the window, by some member of the family rising from his bed ; ' who is there V The reply is the teiTible words, ' The Holy Inquisition.' Perhaps the inquirer has an only child, a beloved and cherished daughter ; and almost frozen with terror, he hears the words, ' Deliver up your daughter to the Holy Inquisition,' — or it may be — Deliver up your wife, your father, your brother, your son. No matter who is demanded, not a question must be asked. Not a murmur must escape his lips, on pain of a like terrible fate with the destined victim. The trembling prisoner is led out, per- haps totally ignorant of his crime or accuser, and immured within those horrid walls, through which no sigh of agony or shriek of an- guish can reach the ear of tender and sympathizing friends. The next day the family go in mourning ; they bewail the lost one as dead ; consigned not to a peaceful sepulchre, but to a living tomb ; and strive to conceal even the tears which natural affection prompts, lest the next terrible summons should be for them. In the gloomy cell to which the victim is consigned, the most awful and mysterious silence must be preserved. Lest any of its internal secrets might be disclosed, no sounds were permitted to be heard throughout the dismal apartments of the Inquisition. The poor CHAP. III.] POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS. 569 A poor heretic whipped to death for coughing in the Inquisition. Torture of pulley nnd ropes. prisoner was not allowed to bewail his fate, or, in an audible voice, to offer up his prayers to Him who is the refuge of the oppressed ; nay, even to cough was to be guilty of a crime, which was imme- diately punished. Limborch tells us of a poor afflicted victim who was, on one occasion, heard to cough ; the jailors of the Inquisition instantly repaired to his cell and warned him to forbear, as the slightest noise was not tolerated in that house. The prisoner replied that it was not in his power to forbear ; a second time they admo- nished him to desist ; and when again, the poor man, unable to re- frain from coughing, had repeated the offence, they stripped him naked, and cruelly beat him. This increased his cough, for which they beat him so often, that at last he died through the pain and an- guish of the stripes which he had received. § 18. — The commonest modes of torture to force the victims to confess or to accuse themselves, were, dislocation, by means of pul- ley, rope and weights ; roasting the soles of the feet; and suffoca- tion by water, with the torment of tightened ropes. These tor- tures were inflicted in a sad and gloomy apartment called the " Hall of Torture," generally situated far underground in order that the shrieks of anguish generally forced from the miserable sufferers, might not interrupt the death-like silence that reigned through the rest of the building. (1.) Dislocation btj the pulley, ropes, and weights. In this kind of torture, according to Puigblanch,* a pulley was fixed to the roof of the Hall, and a strong cord passed through it. The culprit, whether male or female, was then seized and stripped, his arms forced be- hind his back, a cord fastened first above his elbows, then above his wrists, shackles put on his feet, and weights, generally of one hun- dred pounds, attached to his ancles. The poor victim, entirely naked, with the exception of a cloth around the loins, was then raised by the cord and pulley, and in this position was coolly adnio- nished by the cruel inquisitors to reveal all he knew. If his replies were unsatisfactory, sometimes stripes would be inflicted upon his, or her naked body, while in this dreadfully painful situation— the arms bent behind and upwards, and the weight of the body, with the heavy irons attached, wrenching the very bones from their sockets. If the confessions were still unsatisfactory, the rope wa» suddenly loosened and the victim let fall to within a foot or two of the ground ; thus most fearfully dislocating the arms and shoulders, and causing the most indescribable agony. This dreadful process was sometimes repeated again and again, till (oh horrible !) the poor mangled victim, with his dislocated bones, dangling on the ropes, as it were by his loose flesh, fainting from excessive pain, was hurried to his miserable dungeon, and thrown upon the cold damp ground, where the surgeon was permitted to attend him, to set * See " Inquisition Unmasked, a historical and philosophical account of that tre- mendous tribunal, by D. Antonio Puigblanch." Translated from the SpanlBh. a vols. ; London, 1816. 570 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book viii. Torture of roiisling Iho soles of the feet, the tightened ropes, &c. Horrid torture of a young lady, his dislocated bones and patch up his poor tortured frame, only to prepare him for a renewal of these horrors, unless in the interval he should choose to avoid them either by renouncing his faith, or by accusing himself of vi^hat he might be entirely innocent. (2.) Roasting the soles of the feet.— In this torture the prisoner, whether male or female, stripped as before, was placed in the stocks ; the soles of the feet were well greased with lard, and a blazing fire of coals in a chafing dish placed close to them, by the heat of which the soles of the sufterer's feet became perfectly roasted. When the violence of the anguish forced the poor tortured victim to shriek with agony, an attendant was commanded to interpose a board be- tween the victim's feet and the fire, and he was commanded to con- fess or to recant ; but if he refused to obey the command of the inquisitor, the board was again removed and the cruel torture re- peated till the soles of the sufferer's feet were actually burnt away to the bone, and the poor victim, if he ever escaped from these hor- rid dungeons of torture and misery, was perhaps made a cripple for life. The two forms of torture above described are represented in the adjoining illustration. (3.) The torture of tightened ropes and suffocation by water was performed in the following manner. The victim, frequently a female, was tied to a wooden horse, or hollow bench, so tightly by cords that they sometimes cut through the flesh of the arms, thighs and legs to the very bone. In this situation, she was obliged to swallow seven pints of water slowly dropped into her mouth on a piece of silk or linen, which was thus sometimes forced down her throat, and produced all the horrid sensations of drowning. Thus se- cured, vain are all her fearful struggles to escape from the cords that bind her — every motion only forces the cords further and further through the quivering and bleeding flesh. Heretics who were supposed incapable of surviving the inflic- tion of the horrid tortures above described, were subjected to other contrivances for inflicting pain, with less danger of life. Among these lesser tortures was one called the torture of the canes. A hard piece of cane was inserted between each of the fingers, which were then bound together with a cord, and subjected to the action of a screw. Another of these was the torture of the die, in which the prisoner was extended on the ground, and two pieces of iron, shaped like a die, but concave on one side, were placed on the heel of his right foot, then bound on fast with a rope which was pulled tight with a screw. Both of these kinds of torture occasioned the sufferer the most intolerable pain, but with little or no danger of life. § 19. — Not unfrequently death ensued from the severe tortures of the holy office. "A young lady, who was incarcerated in the dungeon of the Inquisition at the same time with the celebrated Donna Jane Bohorques, will supply an instance of this kind. This victim of inquisitorial brutality endured the torture till all the mem- bers of her body were rent asunder by the infernal machinery of Missing Page Missing Page CHAP. lu.] POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS. 573 A young lady tortured to death. Reflections on such an act of Inquisitorial cruelty the holy ofBce. An interval of some days succeeded, till she began, notwithstanding such inhumanity, to recover. She was then taken back to the infliction of similar barbarity. Small cords were twisted round her naked arms, legs and thighs, till they cut through the flesh to the bone ; and blood, in copious torrents, streamed from the lacerated veins. Eight days after, she died of her wounds, and was translated from the dungeons of the Inquisition to the glory of hea- ven."* Ah, who can conceive the tale of unutterable anguish that is in- cluded in a single instance of inquisitorial malignity and cruelty — such, perhaps, as that just related ! A lady — a young lady — per- haps the only daughter of doating parents, as dear to them, reader, as your daughter to you, or mine to me — brought up, perhaps, in the lap of luxury and refinement — living amid the smiles and ca- resses of doating friends, and dreaming of no danger nigh. In an unguarded moment a sentence has escaped her, disrespectful to the idolatry of Rome. Perhaps she has dared to say, she trusts for salvation, not in Mary and the saints, but in Cheist alone. That sentence has been heard by a spy of the Holy office. She retires 10 sleep at night ; at the midnight hour the carriage of the Inquisi- tion stops before the door, and the lovely, the tender, the delicate female, upon whom the wind has never before been suffered to blow roughly, is dragged away to the damp and gloomy cell of the hor- rible Inquisition. Look at her, as she kneels prostrate in. her gloomy dungeon, and implores succor from on high ! See that tear of natural an- guish that trickles down her cheeks, as she thinks of the agony of a doating father, of a tender mother, perhaps of a frantic betrothed one, who yet dare not give utterance to their anguish for fear of a similar fate. She is summoned before the tribunal of the men of blood. She is darkly told of suspicions, of informations, but she knows neither their author nor their subject. She is commanded to confess, without knowing her accusation, and is silent. The rough and hardened popish executioners are summoned, and her maiden modesty is outraged by her clothes being rudely torn from her per- son by cruel and bloody men. The command is given, the horrid torture is applied. The piercing cords are bound around her tender limbs, till they cut through the quivering flesh, and, fainting, she is borne back to her gloomy dungeon. No father's hand is there in that gloomy dungeon to wipe away those tears, no mother's hand to stanch and to bind up those bleeding wounds. She flies to the throne of grace for help (where else can she ?) and she feels that Jesus is with her. In a few days, she is carried, all pale, enfeebled and ema- ciated, before her iron-hearted judges. She is again examined, and the horrible process of outrage and torture is repeated. She is carried back to her dungeon, to breathe her sighs to the cold stone walls, to linger alone, and suffer- * Moreri, 6, 7. Limborch, 323. Edgar, 230. 574 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vm. The Auto da ft. Description of the dresses of the victims. The San benito— Coro za, 6cc. .ng for a few days, and then her ransomed spirit quits the tortured body, and wings its way to Heaven. Her mourning friends know not of her death, for no" news is suiiered to transpire beyond those gloomy walls. But there is ONE who knows, ONE who sees, and ui his book are recorded all the groans and sighs of that poor suf- ferer, to be brought forth in fearful reckoning against her murderers in another day. When the mind has formed an accurate and vivid conception of a single case like this, then let it be remembered that it is but one of thousands and tens of thousands of equally barbarous instances of popish persecution, cruelty and torture ; and that for ages, in lands that groaned under the iron rod of Popery, these horrors were of daily occurrence. O merciful and compassionate God ! what deeds of cruelty and blood have been perpetrated upon thy suffering children, in the name of HIM whose very heart is tenderness, and whose very name is LOVE 1 § 20. — The next scene in this melancholy tragedy is the auto da fe. This horrid and tremendous spectacle is always represented on the Sabbath day. The term auto da fS {act of faith) is applied to the great burning of heretics, when large numbers of these tor- tured and lacerated beings are led forth from their gloomy cells, and marched in procession to the place of burning, dressed accord- ing to the fate that awaits them on that terrible day. The victims who walk in the procession wear the san benito, the coroza, the rope around the neck, and carry in their hand a yellow wax candle. The san benito is a penitential garment or tunic of yellow cloth reaching down to the knees, and on it is painted the picture of the person who wears it, burning in the flames, with figures of dragons and devils in the act of fanning the flames. This costume indicates that the wearer is to be burnt alive as an incorrigible heretic. If the person is only to do penance, then the san benito has on it a cross, and no paintings or flames. If an impenitent is converted just before being led out, then the san benito is painted with the flames downward ; this is called " fuego repolto," and it indicates that the wearer is not to be burnt alive, but to have the favor of being strangled before the fire is applied to the pile. Formerly these garments were hung up in the churches as eternal monuments of disgrace to their wearers, and as the trophies of the Inquisition. The coroza is a pasteboard cap, three feet high, and ending in a point. On it are likewise painted crosses, flames, and devils. In Spanish America it was customary to add long twisted tails to the corozas. Some of the victims have gags in their mouths, of which a number is kept in reserve in case the victims, as they march along in public, should become outrageous, insult the tribunal, or attempt to reveal any secrets. The prisoners who are to be roasted alive have a Jesuit on each side continually preaching to them to abjure their heresies, and if any one attempts to offer one word in defence of the doctrines for CH.VP. ni.] POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OP SAINTS. 575 Gagging of heretics. Outrageous hypocrisy of the Inquisition, in their pretence of mercy- which he is going to suffer death, his mouth is instantly gagged. " This I saw done to a prisoner, says Dr. Geddes, in his account of the Inquisition in Portugal, " presently after he came out of the gates of the Inquisition, upon his having looked up to the sun, which he had not seen before in several years, and cried out in a rapture, ' How is it possible for people that behold that glorious body to worship any being but Him that created it.' " § 21. — When the procession arrives at the place where a large scaffolding has been erected for their reception, prayers are offered up, strange to tell, at a throne of mercy, and a sermon is preached, consisting of impious praises of the Inquisition, and bitter invectives against all heretics ; after which a priest ascends a desk, and re- cites the final sentence. This is done in the following words, wherein the reader will find nothing but a shocking mixture of blasphemy, ferociousness, and hypocrisy. " We, the inquisitors of heretical pravity, having, with the con- currence of the most illustrious N , lord archbishop of Lisbon, or of his deputy, N , calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of his glorious mother, the Virgin Mary, and sitting on our tribunal, and judging with the holy gospels lying before us, so that our judgment may be in the sight of God, and our eyes may behold what is just in all matters, &c. &c. " We do therefore, by this our sentence put in writing, define, pronounce, declare, and sentence thee (the prisoner), of the city of Lisbon, to be a convicted, confessing, affirmative, and professed heretic ; and to be delivered and left by us as such to the secular arm ; and we, by this our sentence, do cast thee out of the eccle- siastical court as a convicted, confessing, affirmative, and professed heretic ; and we do leave and deliver thee to the secular arm, and to the power of the secular court, hut at the same time do most earnestly beseech that court so to moderate its sentence as not to touch thy blood, nor to put thy life in any sort of danger." Well may Dr. Geddes inquire, in reference to this hypocritical mockery of God and man, " Is there in all history an instance of so gross and confident a mockery of God, and the world, as this of the inquisitors beseeching the civil magistrate not to put the heretics they have condemned and delivered to them, to death ? For were they in earnest when they made this solemn petition to the secular magistrates, why do they bring their prisoners out of the Inquisition, and deliver them to those magistrates in coats painted over with flames ? Why do they teach that heretics, above all other male- factors, ought to be punished with death ? And why do they never resent the secular magistrates having so little regard to their earnest and joint petition as never to fail to burn all the heretics that are delivered to them by the Inquisition, within an hour or two after they have them in their hands ? And why in Rome, where the su- preme civil, as well as ecclesiastical authority are lodged in the 576 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book viii. Joy of papists at the auto da f6. Kings and queens witnessing and aiding in the bloody scene. same person, is this petition of tiie Inquisition, which is made there as well as in other places, never granted 1"* § 22. — If the prisoner, on being asked, says that he will die in the Catholic faith, he has the privilege of being strangled first, and then burnt ; but if in the Protestant or any other faith different from the Catholic, he must be roasted alive ; and, at parting with him, his ghostly comforters, the Jesuits, tell him, " that they leave him to the devil, who is standing at his elbow to receive his soul and carry it to the flames of hell, as soon as the spirit leaves his body." When all is ready, fire is applied to the immense pile, and the suffering martyrs, who have been securely fastened to their stakes, are roasted alive ; the living flesh of the lower extremities being often burnt and crisped by the action of the flames, driven hither and thither by the wind before the vital parts are touched ; and while the poor sufferers are writhing in inconceivable agony, the joy of the vast multitude, inflamed by popish bigotry and cruelty, causes the air to resound with shouts of exultation and delight. Says Dr. Geddes, in a de- scription of one of these auto da fes, of which he was a horrified spectator : " The victims were chained to stakes, at the height of about four feet from the ground. A quantity of furae that lay round the bottom of the stakes was set on fire ; by a current of wind it was in some cases prevented from reaching above the lowest ex- tremities of the body. Some were thus kept in torture for an hour or two, and were actually roasted, not burnt to death. " This spec- tacle," says he, " is beheld by people of both sexes, and all ages, with such transports of joy and satisfaction, as are not on any other occa- sion to be met with. And that the reader may not think that this inhuman joy is the effect of a natural cruelty that is in this people's disposition, and not the spirit of their religion, he may rest assured, that all public malefactors, except heretics, have their violent death nowhere more tenderly lamented, than amongst the same people, and even when there is nothing in the manner of their death that appears inhuman or cruel."f It was not uncommon for the popish kings and queens of Spain to witness these wholesale burnings of heretics from a magnificent stage and canopy erected for the purpose, aijd it was represented by the Jesuit priests as an act highly meritorious in the king to sup- ply a faggot for the pile upon which the heretics were to be con- sumed. Among other instances of this kind, king Charles II., in an auto da fe, supplied a faggot, the sticks of which were gilded, adorned by flowers, and tied up with ribands, and was honored by being the first faggot placed upon the pile of burning. In 1559, king Philip, the popish husband of bloody queen Mary of England, was witnessing one of these cruel scenes, when a protestant nobleman named Don Carlos de Seso, while he was being conducted to the * Geddes' tracts on Popery. View of tne court of Inquisition in Portugal, p. 446. Limborch, vol. ii., p. 289. ■f Cited in Limborch, toI. ii., p. 901 CHAP. iv.J POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS. 579 The Waldenscs. Their increase, in spite of persecution. Cruel outrage in the valley of Pragela. stake, called out to the King for mercy in these words : " And canst thou, oh king, witness the torments of thy subjects ? Save us from this cruel death ; we do not deserve it." " No," replied the iron- hearted bigoted monarch, " I would myself carry wood to hum my own son, were he such a wretch as thou." Thus is it that popish bigotry can stifle the strongest and tenderest instincts of our nature, turn human beings into monsters, and inspire joy and delight at wit- nessing the writhing agonies and hearing the piercing shrieks of even tender and delicate women, as their living bodies are being roasted amidst the fires of the auto dafl. CHAPTER IV. INHUMAN PERSECUTIONS OF THE WALDENSES. § 23. — We have already given an account of the popish crusade against the Waldenses of the south of France, and the horrible cru- elties and massacres inflicted on them by the bloody Montfort and the Pope's legate, at the commencement of the thirteenth century. (Book v., chap. 7, 8.) Nothing more than a very brief sketch can now be added of the barbarities of a similar kind, which at various intervals were endured by this pious and interesting people during the five centuries which followed from the commencement of the crusade of pope Innocent. In spite of all the efforts of the popes and their bigoted adherents to extirpate from the earth these pious people, they continued to increase in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in various coun- tries of Europe, but especially in the valleys of Piedmont, where, shut in by the lofty and snow-capped mountains around them, they were in some degree sheltered from their popish persecutors. About the year 1400, a violent outrage was committed upon the Waldenses who inhabited the valley oit Pragela, in Piedmont, by the Catholic party resident in that neighborhood. The attack, which seems to have been of the most furious kind, was made toward the end of the month of December, when the mountains are covered with snow, and thereby rendered so difficult of access, that the peaceable inhabitants of the valleys were wholly unapprised that any such attempt was meditated ; and the persecutors were in ac- tual possession of their caves, ere the former seem to have been apprised of any hostile designs against them. In this pitiable plight they had recourse to the only alternative which remained for saving their lives — they fled to one of the highest mountains of the Alps, with their wives and children, the unhappy mothers carrying the ci'adle in one hand, and in the other leading such of their oflspring 34 580 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. l^ook vm, Mpthera and infants perish in tlie mountains. Horrid barbarities of the archdeacon of Cremona. as were able to walk. Their inhuman invaders, whose feet were swift to shed blood, pursued them in their flight, until night came on, and slew great numbers of them, before they could reach the mountains. Those that escaped, were, however, reserved to expe- rience a fate not more enviable. Overtaken by the shades of night, they wandered up and down the mountains, covered with snow, des- titute of the means of shelter from the inclemencies of the weather, or of supporting themselves under it by any of the comforts which Providence has destined for that purpose : benumbed with cold, they fell an easy prey to the severity of the climate, and when the night had passed away, there were found in their cradles, or lying upon the snovf , fourscore of their infants, deprived of life, many of the mothers also lying dead by their sides, and others just upon the point of expiring. § 24. — Nearly a century later, in consequence of the ferocious bull of pope Innocent VIII., already cited (page 425), a most barbarous persecution was carried on against the VValdenses in the valleys of Loyse and Frassiniere. Albert de Capitaneis, archdeacon of Cre- mona, was appointed legate of the Pope to carry his bull into exe- cution, and was no sooner vested with his commission, than calling to his aid the lieutenant of the province of Dauphiny, and a body of troops, they marched at once to the villages inhabited by the here- tics. The inhabitants, apprised of their approach, fled into the cares at the tops of the mountains, carrying with them their children, and whatever valuables they had, as well as what was thought neces- sary for their support and nourishment. The lieutenant flnding the inhabitants all fled, and that not an individual appeared with whom he could converse, at length discovered their retreats, and causing quantities of wood to be placed at their entrances, ordered it to be set on fire. The consequence was, that four hundred children were suffocated in their cradles, or in the arms of their dead mothers, while multitudes, to avoid dying by suflfocation, or being burnt to death, precipitated themselves headlong from their caverns upon the rocks below, where they were dashed in pieces ; or if any escaped death by the fall, they were immediately slaughtered by the brutal soldiery. " It is held as unquestionably true," says Perrin, " amongst the Waldenses dwelling in the adjacent valleys, that more than three thousand persons, men and women, belonging to the valley of Loyse, perished on this occasion. And, indeed, they were wholly extermi- nated, for that valley was afterwards peopled with new inhabitants, • not one family of the Waldenses having subsequently resided in it ; which proves beyond dispute, that all the inhabitants, and of both sexes, died at that time."* § 25. — In the year 1545, a lai'ge tract of country at the south of France, inhabited chiefly by the Waldenses, was overrun and most cruelly desolated by the popish barbarians, under the command of a violent bigot, named baron Oppede. A copious account of this per- * Perrin's History of the Waldenses, book ii., chap. 3. CHAP. :v.] POPERY DRUNK WITH BLOOD OF SAINTS. 581 A barn full of women burnt to death. Dreadful persecution of the Waldensea in Calabria. secution is given by a candid Romish contemporary historian, Thu- anus, in the history of his own times. As a specimen of the cruel- ties perpetrated upon the heretics at this time, we can only extract the description of the talking of a single town, Cabrieres. " They had surrendered to the papists, upon a promise of having their lives spared ; but when the garrison was admitted they were all seized, they who lay hid in the dungeon of the castle, or thought themselves secured by the sacredness of the church ; and being dragged out from thence into a hollow meadow were put to death, without re- gard to age or the assurances given : the number of the slain, within and without the town, amounted to eight hundred : the women, by the command of Oppede, were thrust into a barn filled with straw, and fire being set to it, when they endeavored to leap out of the win- dow, they were pushed back by poles and pikes, and were thus mise- rably suffocated and consumed in the flames."* § 26. — About the year 1560, during the suspension of the council of Trent, a most violent and bloody persecution was carried on against the Waldenses of Calabria at the south of Italy, by direc- tion of that brutal tyrant, pope Pius IV. Two monks were sent from Rome, armed with power to reduce the Calabrian heretics to obedience to the Holy See. Upon their arrival, at once to bring matters to the test, they caused a bell to be immediately tolled for mass, commanding the people to attend. Instead of complying, however, the Waldenses forsook their houses, and as many as were able fled to the woods with their wives and children. Two com- panies were instantly ordered out to pursue them, who hunted them like wild beasts, crying, " Amazzi ! Amazzi !" that is, " murder them ! mui'der them !" and numbers wei-e put to death. Seventy of the heretics were seized and conducted in chains to Montalto. They were put to the torture by the orders of the inquisitor Panza, to induce them not only to renounce their faith but also to accuse themselves and their brethren of having committed odious crimes in their religious assemblies. To wring a confession of this from him, Stefano was tortured until his bowels gushed out. Another prisoner, named Verminel, having, in the extremity of pain, promised to go to mass, the inquisitor flattered himself that, by increasing the violence of the torture, he could extort a confes- sion of the charge which he was so anxious to fasten on the Pro- testants. The manner in which persons of the tender sex were treated by this brutal inquisitor, is too disgusting to be related here. Suffice it to say, that he put sixty females to the torture, the greater part of whom died in prison in consequence of their wounds re- maining undressed. On his return to Naples, he dehvered a great number of Protestants to the secular arm at St. Agata, where he inspired the inhabitants with the utmost terror ; for if any indivi- « * Thuani Historia sui temporis, Lib. vi. The same horrible cruelties, witli Bome additional particulars, are related by Sleidan, in his History of the Reforma- tion, book xvi. 582 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. Lb"ok vra Horrible barbarities at Montalto. Eighty-eight throata of the Waldenaes cut in cold blood dual came forward to intercede for the prisoners, he was immedi- ately put to the torture as a favorer of heresy.* Of the almost incredible barbarities of the papists at Montalto in the month of June, 1560, the best and most unexceptionable account is that furnished in the words of a letter of a Roman Catholic spectator of the horrid scene, writing to Ascanio Carac- cioli. This letter was published in Italy with other narrations of the bloody transactions. It commences as follows : — '• Most illus- trious sir — Having written you from time to time what has been done here in the affair of heresy, I have now to inform you of the dreadful justice which began to be executed on these Lutherans early this morning, being the 11th of June. And, to tell you the truth, I can compare it to nothing but the slaughter of so many sheep. They were all shut up in one house as in a sheepfold. The executioner went, and, bringing out one of them, covered his face with a napkin, or benda, as we call it, led him out to a field near the house, and, causing him to kneel down, cut his throat with a knife. Then, taking off the bloody napkin, he went and brought out anothei-, whom he put to death after the same manner. In this way, the whole number, amounting to eighty-eight men, were butchered. I leave you to figure to yourself the lamentable spec- tacle, for I can scarcely refrain from tears while I write ; nor was there any person who, after witnessing the execution of cme, could stand to look on a second. The meekness and patience with which they went to martyrdom and death are incredible. Some of them at their death professed themselves of the same faith with us, but the greater part died in their cursed obstinacy. All the old men met their death with cheerfulness, but the young exhibited symp- toms of fear. I still shudder while I think of the executioner with the bloody knife in his teeth, the dripping napkin in his hand, and his arms besmeared with gore, going to the house and taking out one victim after another, just as the butcher does the sheep which he means to kill." Lest the reader should be inclined to doubt the truth of such horrid atrocities, the following summary account of them, by a Neapolitan historian of that age, may be added. After giving some account of the Calabrian heretics, he says — " Some had their throats cut, others were sawn through the middle, and others thrown from the top of a high cliff: all were cruelly but deservedly put to death. It was strange to hear of their obstinacy ; for while the father saw his son put to death, and the son his father, they not only exhibited no symptoms of grief, but said joyfully that they would be angels of God : so much had the devil, to whom they had given themselves up as a prey, deceived them."t * Perrin's Waldenses, pp. 2(J2— 206. Leger, &c. t Tommaso Costo, Seconda Parte del Compendio dell' Istoria di Napoli, p. 257. See that valuable work, which has recently been honored by a notice in the Pope's bull against the Christian Alliance, M'Crie's Reformation in Italy, chap. v. Tho Reformation in Spain, by the same writer, is equally valuable. Cruelties of the Puitish Pieclmontese soldiery to the Walcifuse; Children forcibly taken from theh- Parenta, to be brought up as Papifts CHAP. iv.J POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS. 585 Barbarities in Piedmont. " Mother with inOiiit down the roclcs." The poet Milton and Oliver Cromwell. § 27. — -About the middle of the following century, the barbarity and wholesale slaughter of the poor oppressed Waldenses, in the valleys of Piedmont, by their popish persecutors, was such as to excite a general feeling of indignation and remonstrance in all the protestant states of Europe. The bigoted and cruel soldiery, at- tended by the still more bigoted monks, had been let loose upon the inoffensive inhabitants of the valleys. Thousands of families had been compelled to abandon their homes in the very depths of win- ter, and to wander over mountains covered with ice and snow, des- titute and starving, to seek a refuge from their relentless persecu- tors ; and multitudes of them perished on the way, overwhelmed by tempests of drifted snow. Children had been torn from their agonized parents to be brought up as Roman Catholics, and carried off where those parents, even if they should linger out a miserable existence themselves, might never more expect to behold these ob- jects of their tenderness and affection. Many were hurled from precipitous rocks, and dashed to pieces by the fall. Sir Samuel Morland, who was appointed ambassador by Oliver Cromwell to bear the remonstrances of protestant England against these popish cruelties, published, on his return, a minute account of the sufferings of the Waldenses, in which he relates that in one instance " a mother was hurled down a mighty rock, with a little infant in her arms ; and three days after was found dead, with the little child alive, but fast clasped between the arms of the dead mother, which were cold and stiff, insomuch that those who found them had much ado to get the young child out."* The great poet Milton was, at this time, Latin secretary to Oliver Cromwell, and wrote the eloquent expostulations on the persecutions of the Waldenses, addressed to the duke of Savoy, with which Morland was entrusted, and the letters to the various protestant sovereigns of Europe on the same subject.f The im- mortal author of the Paradise Lost also invoked his poetic muse to excite sympathy for these " slaughtered saints," in the following sonnet, in which there is an allusion to the touching incident of the mother and her babe, just cited from Sir Samuel Morland. ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT. Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold ; Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old, When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones Forget not : in thy book record their groans Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold Slain by the bloody Piedmoniese that rolVd Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans * Sir Samuel Morland's history of the Valleys of Piedmont, p. 363. Folio, London, 1658. f For a full translation of these able and interesting documents from the pen of Milton, see Jones' History of the Church, Cone's edition, vol. ii., pp. 326-366. This valuable work is very full on the subject of the Waldenses. It was origi- 580 mSTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vni. Milton'B sonnet on the sufferings of the Waldenses in Piedmont. Further persecutions and cruelties. The vales redoubled to the hills, and they To heaven. Their martyr'd blood and ashes sow O'er all th' Italian fields, virhere still doth sway The tripled tyrant ; that from these may grow A hundred fold, who having learned thy way Early may fly the Babylonian wo. § 28. — The interposition of the powerful Protector of England was not to be resisted. The persecutions of the Waldenses were abated, and the protestant Christians of Piedmont enjoyed for a few years a season of comparative repose, till the persecutions arising from the revocation of the edict of Nantes in France, when the popish duke of Savoy, imitating king Louis of France, com- menced another most cruel and bloody persecution of the Wal- denses, hardly exceeded in severity by any of the preceding. To relate the particulars of it would be only to repeat the horrors of massacres, burning, outrage, and rapine, by which the feelings of the reader must already have been sufficiently harrowed. This cruel persecution was brought to a close through the friendly inter- position of the Swiss Cantons, in September, 1686. Multitudes of the Waldenses had long been confined in loathsome prisons in Pied- mont. The Swiss Cantons sent deputies to demand their release, and the privilege of quitting the dominions of their popish per- secutor. In the month of October, the duke of Savoy's proclamation was issued for their release and banishment. It was now the approach of winter, the ground was covered with snow and ice ; the vic- tims of cruelty were almost universally emaciated through poverty and disease, and very unfit for the projected journey. The pro- clamation was made at the castle of Mondovi, for example : and at five o'clock the same evening they were to begin a march of four or five leagues ! Before the morning more than a hundred and fifty of them sunk under the burden of their maladies and fatigues, and died. The same thing happened to the prisoners at Fossan. A company of them halted one night at the foot of Mount Cenis ; when they were about to march the next morning, they pointed the officer who conducted them to a terrible tempest upon the top of the mountain, beseeching him to allow them to stay till it had passed away. The inhuman papist, deaf to the voice of pity, insisted on their marching ; the consequence of which was, that eighty-six of their number died, and were buried in that horrible tempest of snow. Some merchants that afterwards crossed the mountains, saw the bodies of these miserable people extended on the snow, the mothers clasping their children in their arms ! Such are the ten- der mercies of Rome. nally written a.s a " History of the Waldenses," and afterward enlarged, and re- published under the title of a " History of the Church." 087 CHAPTER V. PEHSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW, AND REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. ^ 29. — We have already seen, in the massacres of the Waldenses of Beziers, Menerbe, Lavaur, and other places, that the emissaries of papal vengeance did not always wait for the slow process of inquisitorial examination and torture, to wreak their vengeance upon the detested heretics ; and it would be easy to fill a volume with the horrid details of wholesale massacres of hundreds and thousands of heretics at the time, by which the faithful servants of the popes have merited and obtained from these self-styled suc- cessors of St. Veier, plenary indulgences, which should admit them, with their hands all reeking with blood, to the abodes of the blessed. Omitting all mention of the horrid massacres of Orange and Vassy, in France ;* the butcheries of the bigoted duke of Alva, in the Netherlands, performed under the sanction of the husband of bloody Mary, Philip of Spain ;f or the massacres in Ireland and other popish countries, we can describe but one which stands pre- eminent among these scenes of blood, viz. the massacre of St. Bar- tholomew, at Paris, on the 24th of August, 1572. The massacre of St. Bartholomew was a plan laid by the in- famous Catharine de Medici, queen dowager of France, in concert with her weak and bigoted son, Charles IX., for the extirpation of the French protestanls, who were called by the name of Hugue- nots. Under the pretext of a marriage between Henry, the pro- testant king of Navarre, and Margaret, the sister of Charles, the Huguenots, with their most celebrated and favorite leader, admiral Coligny, had been attracted to Paris. Coligny had been affection- ately warned by many of his friends against trusting himself at Paris, but such were the assurances of friendship on the part of king Charles, that he was thrown off his guard, and was drawn within the toils that popish malignity and craft had laid for him. On the 22d of August, an attempt was made to assassinate the Ad- miral by a shot fired at him in the street, by which he was wounded in the arm. This act was doubtless perpetrated at the instigation of the infamous queen mother, if not of her son, though that wicked woman pretended deep commiseration, and upon a visit to the Ad- miral remarked, that she "did not believe now the King could sleep safely in his palace." And yet both the mother and son, were * For a description of these see Lorimer's Protestant church of France, and Smedley's Reformed Religion in Prance. f For an account of the cruelties of the duke of Alva in the Netherlands, who asted that in six weeks he had caused 18,000 persons to be put to death for the tne of Protestantism, see Watson's History of Philip II., book x. 588 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. Lbook vm. Murder of Coligny. Frightful slaughter at the massacre of Bartholomew at that very moment, and had for weeks past been deliberately con- cocting a plan for the slaughter not only of Coligny, but of all his protestant friends, whom they had now caught in their toils at Paris ; and in all this, no doubt, their popish bigotry taught them they were doing God service ! ^ 30. — At length the fatal hour had arrived. All things were ready. The tocsin, at midnight, tolled the signal of destruction. The troops were sent forth, by royal command, to perform their work of death. The assassins rushed into Coligny's hotel, killing several protestant Swiss soldiers as they passed. " Save your- selves, my friends," cried the generous-minded chief. " I have long been prepared for death." They obeyed his commands, and es- caped through the tiling of the roof; and in a moment after, the daggers of the popish assassins were buried in the heart of the noble chief of the protestants, and his body ignominiously thrown from the window, to be exposed to the rude insults of the bigoted populace.* Among those who escaped through the tiling was a protestant clergyman, M. Merlin, the chaplain of the Admiral. His escape was attended with a remarkable providential circumstance. He hid himself in a hay-loft, where he was sustained for three days by an egg each day, which a hen laid, for his support.f After the death of Coligny, the slaughter soon extended itself to every quarter of the city, and when the glorious sun looked forth that morning, it was upon an awful spectacle. The dead and the dying mingled together in undistinguished heaps. The pavements besmeared with a path of gore, along which the bodies of the mur- dered protestants had been dragged to be cast into the waters of the Seine, already dyed with the blood of the slain. The execu- tioners rushing through the streets, bespattered with blood and brains, brandishing their murderous weapons, and in merriment, mimicking the psalm-singing of the protestants ! The frantic Hu- guenots, bewildered with fright, running hither and thither to seek a place of safety, but in vain. Some ran towards the house of Coligny, but only to fall by the hands of the same murderers ; others, remembering the solemn promises of the King, and hoping that he was not privy to the massacre, ran toward the palace of the Louvre, but only to meet a more certain and speedy death ; for, even Charles himself fired upon the fugitives from the window of the palace, shouting with the fiend-like fury of a devil or an in- quisitor, " Kill them ! kill them !" The Louvre itself was a frightful scene of slaughter. The protestants who had remained there, in the train of the king of Navarre, were called out one by one,J and put to death in cold * See Smedley's History of the Reformed Religion in France, vol. ii., chap. 11. t Quick's Synodicon, i., 125. Smedley, ii., 10. t Ad uno, ad uno. (Davila, torn, i., p. 295.) " They were compelled to go out one after another by a little door, before which they found a great number of satellites armed with halberds, who assassinated the Navarrese as they came out." (German Narrative cited by Mr. Sharon Turner, Reign of Elizabeth, p. 319.) CHAP, v.] POPERY DRUNK WITH BLOOD OF SAINTS. 589 Multitudes of the slain in Paris and other cities of France. blood, under the very eyes of the king. Even the protestant king of Navarre himself had been ushered into the presence of Charles through long lines of soldiers thirsting for his blood, and commanded with oaths to renounce the protestant faith, and was then, together with the prince of Conde, thrust into prison, and informed that un- less they embraced the Roman Catholic faith in three days, they •would be executed for treason. In the meanwhile the work of slaughter went forward, and during seven days, at the lowest com- putation,* 5000 protestants were murdered in the city of Paris alone. § 31. — The whole city was one great butchery and flowed with human blood. The couit was heaped with the slain, on which the King and Queen gazed, not with horror, but with delight. Her majesty unblushingly feasted her eyes on the spectacle of thousands of men, exposed naked, and lying wounded and frightful in the pale livery of death.f The king went to see the body of admiral Co- ligny, which was dragged by the populace through the streets ; and remarked, in unfeeling witticism, that the " smell of a dead enemy was agreeable." The tragedy was not confined to Paris, but extended, in general through the French nation. Special messengers were, on the pre- ceding day, dispatched in all directions, ordering a general massa- cre of the Huguenots. The carnage, in consequence, was made through nearly all the provinces, and especially in Meaux, Troyes, Orleans, Nevers, Lyons, Thoulouse, Bordeaux, and Rouen. Twenty- five or thirty thousand, according to Mezeray, perished in different places. Many were thrown into the rivers, which, floating the corpses on the waves, carried horror and infection to all the coun- try, which they watered with their streams. The populace, tutored by the priesthood, accounted themselves, in shedding heretical blood, " the agents' of Divine justice," and engaged " in doing God service."! The King, accompanied with the Queen and princes of the blood, and all the French court, went to the Parliament, and acknowledged that all these sanguinary transactions were done by his authority. "The Parliament publicly eulogized the King's wisdom," which had effected the effusion of so much heretical blood. His Majesty also went to mass, and returned solemn thanks to God for the glorious victory obtained over heresy. He ordered medals to be coined to perpetuate its memory. A medal accord- * That of Mezeray. Bossuet says 6000, and Davila 10,000 victims in Paris. f Tout le quartier ruisseloit de sang. La cour etoit pleine de corps morts, que le Roi et la Reine regardoient, non seulement sans horreur, mais avec plaisir. Tout !es ruee de la ville n'etoient plus que boucheries. (Bossuet, 4, 637.) On exposa leurs corps tout nuds S. la porte du Louvre, la Reine mere etant k une fenestre, qui repaisoit ses yeux de cet horrible spectacle. (Mezeray, 5. Davila, v. Thuan., ii., 8.) Frequentes e gynoeceo feminEE, nequaquam crude i spectaculo eas absterrente curiosis ooulis nudorum corpora inverecunde intuebantur. (Thuan., 3, 131.) I I^es Catholiques se regai-derent comme les executeurs de la justice de Dieu (Daniel, 8, 738. Thuan., 3, 149.) 590 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vm. Joy of the Pope and Cardinals at the massacre. ■ Medal struck in honor of the eyent. ingly was struck for the purpose with this inscription, PIETY EXCITED JUSTICE.* § 32. — The King sent a special messenger to the Pope to an- nounce to him the joyful intelligence of the extirpation of the pro- testants, and to tell him that " the Seine flowed on more majesti- cally after receiving the dead bodies of the heretics." Nothing could exceed the joy with which the news was received at Rome. The Pope and cardinals went in procession to the church of St. Louis to return solemn thanks to God (oh, horrible impiety !) for the extirpation of the heretics. Te Deum was sung, and the firing of cannon announced the welcome news to the neighborhood around. The Pope's legate in France felicitated his most Christian majesty in the Pontiff's name, " and praised the exploit, so long meditated and so happily executed, for the good of religion." The massacre, says Mezeray, '• was extolled before the King as the triumph of the church."! The Pope was not satisfied with a temporary expression of his joy. He caused a more enduring memorial to be struck in the form of triumphant medals in commemoration and honor of the event. These medals represented on one side an angel carrying a sword in one hand, and a crucifix in the other, employed in the slaughter of a group of heretics, with the words hugonotorum STRAGEs (slaughter of the Huguenots), 1572 ; on the other side, the name and title of the reigning Pope. A new issue of this cele- brated medal in honor of the Bartholomew massacre has recently been struck from the papal mint at Rome, and sold for the profit of the papal government. Such was the joy of the cardinal of Lorraine (whom we have already seen closing the council of Trent with anathemas against heretics), upon receiving the news at Rome, that he presented the messenger with one thousand pieces of gold, and, unable to restrain the extravagance of his delight, exclaimed aloud that "he believed the King's heart must have been filled with a sudden inspiration from God when he gave orders for the slaughter of the heretics."^ Another Cardinal, Santorio, afterwards pope Clement VIII., in his autobiography, designates the massacre as " the celebrated day of St. Bartholomew, most cheering to the Catholics."^ Thus is it by * Pietas excitavit justitiam. II fit frapper vm medaille a I'occasion de la Saint Barthelemi. (Daniel, 8, 786.) Apres avoir oui solemnellement la messe pour re- mercier Dieu de la belie victoire obtenue sur I'heresie, et commande de fabriquer des medailles pour en conserver la memoire. (Mezeray, 5, 160, ciied by Edgar, 240.) t La haine de 1' heresie las fit recevoir agreablement a Rome. On se rejouit aussi en Espagne. (Bossuet, 4, 644.) La Cour de Rome et le Conseil d' Espagne eurent une joye indicible de la Saint Rartelemy. Le Pape alia en procession k I'eglise de Saint Louis, rendre graces k Dieu d'un si heureux succes, ot I'on fit le panegyrique de cette action sous le nom de Triomphe de 1' Eglise. (Mezeray, 5, 162. Sully, -1,21. Edgar,2i\.) X De Thou, lib. liii., oh. 4. Smedley, ii., 36. j He speaks of the " giusto sdegno del re Carlos IX. di gloriosa memoria, id quel celebre giomo di S. Bartolomeo lietissimo a' cattolici ;" that is, " the just wrath of king Charles IX., of glorious memory, on the celebrated day of St. Massacre of St. Baitholomew'e, in Paria. CHAP. V.J POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS. 503 Revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685. Cruel effects of this decree. the joy of the Pope and cardinals at the massacre, by the medal struck in its commemoration and honor, and by their solemn thanks- givings for the happy events, without alluding to the proofs (by no means inconsiderable) of a previous correspondence between the Pope and the King, that this horrible slaughter is fixed as another dark and damning spot upon the blood-stained escutcheon of Rome, § 33. — After the massacre of Bartholomew, the protestants of France continued to be the subjects of cruel and bitter persecution from the papists, and yet in the midst of all, the blood of the mar- tyrs was the seed of the church, and the cause of God and of truth continued steadily to advance. At length, in the year 1598, twenty-six years after the massacre, an edict granting the protestants liberty of worship, with certain restrictions, was passed, through the favor of king Henry IV. This was called the edict of Nantes, and though far from removing all disabilities on account of religion, was received by the protestants with joy and gratitude. It continued in force till J 685, though for the last few years of that period many of its provisions had been violated with impunity, and the protestants exposed to a series of cruel insults and annoyances from their popish neighbors. In the year 1685, king Louis XIV. of France, a bigoted papist, at the persuasions of La Chaise, his Jesuit confessor, publicly revoked that protecting edict, and thus let loose the floodgates of popish cruelty upon the defenceless protestants. By the edict of revocation, all former edicts protecting the protestants were fully repealed ; they were forbidden to assemble for religious worship ; all their ministers were banished the kingdom within fifteen days under penalty of being sent to the galleys ;* all their children born in future were ordered to be brought up in the Roman Catholic re- ligion, and the parents required to send them to the popish churches under a penalty of five hundred livres ; and what rendered the law yet more cruel, all other protestants, except the banished ministers, were forbidden to depart out of the kingdom, under penalty of the galleys for men, and of confiscation of money and goods for the women. § 34. — In the cruelties that followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes, the policy of Rome appeared to be changed. She had tried, in innumerable instances, the eflfect of persecution unto death, and the results of Bartholomew had shown that it was not effectual in eradicating the heresy. Now, her plan was by torture, Bartholomew, most cheering to catholics." (Cited by Ranke in his History of the Popes, book vi., p. 228.) * Sent to the galleys. — This was a punishment somewhat similar to sending felons to the hulks or convict ships, such as those at Woolwich, England ; except that the rio-or of the former was much greater. The galley-slave was chained to his oar, competed to labor without intermission, in company with the vilest felons and blasphemers, and continually exposed to the lash of the cruel and (in the case of heretics especially) often vindictive taskmaster, upon his naked back. To this horrid and degrading punishment, some of the most distinguished and learned of the French protestant clergy were doomed during this persecution. 594 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vm Wearing out the snints of the Most High. Dragoonading. Cruel Ireatmeni of the proteatanta. annoyance, and inflictions of various kinds suggested by a brutal ingenuity, " to wear out the saints of the Most High." One of the most common means was what was called dra- goonading ; that is quartering brutal dragoons upon the defence- less people, who had license to employ any means in their power to compel the poor persecuted protestants to embrace the popish faith. '• There was no wickedness," says M. Quick in his Synodi- con, " though ever so horrid, which they did not put in practice, that they might enforce them to change their religion. Amidst a thousand hideous cries and blasphemies, they hung up men and women by the hair or feet upon the roofs of the chambers, or hooks of chimneys, and smoked them with wisps of wet hay till they were no longer able to bear it ; and when they had taken them down, if they would not sign an abjuration of their pretended heresies, they then trussed them up again immediately. Some they threw into great fires, kindled on purpose, and would not take them out till they were half roasted. They tied ropes under their arms, and plunged them again and again into deep wells, from whence they would not draw them till they had promised to change their religion. They bound them as ciiminals are when they are put to the rack, and in that posture, putting a funnel into their mouths, they poured wine down their throats till its fumes had deprived them of their reason, and they had in that condition made them consent to be- come Catholics. Some they stripped stark naked, and after they had offered them a thousand indignities, they stuck them with pins from head to foot ; they cut them with penknives, tore them by the noses with red-hot pincers, and dragged them about the rooms till they promised to become Roman Catholics, or till the doleful cries of these poor tormented creatures, calling upon God for mercy, constrained them to let them go. They beat them with staves, and dragged them all bruised to the popish churches, where their enforced presence is reputed for an abjuration. They kepi them waking seven or eight days together, relieving one another by turns, that they might not get a wink of sleep or rest. In case they began to nod, they threw buckets of water m their faces, or hold- ing kettles over their heads, they beat on them with such a con- tinual noise, that those poor wretches lost their senses. If they found any sick, who kept their beds, men or women, be it of fevers or other diseases, they were so cruel as to beat up an alarm with twelve drums about their beds for a whole week together, without intermission, till they had promised to change. In some places they tied fathers and husbands to the bedposts, and ravished their wives and daughters before their eyes. And in other places rapes were publicly and generally permitted for many hours together. From others they plucked oft' the nails of their hands and toes, which must needs have caused an intolerable pain." § 35. — The galleys formed another mode of oppression. There, a vast body of protestants, some of them, such as Marolles and Le Febvre, of the highest station and talent, were confined — wretch- CHAP, v.] POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OP SAINTS. 695 Popery tolerates wickedness, but not heresy. Pious cxpressiona of tire persecuted Le Tebvre edly fed on disgusting fare — and wrought in chains for many years. The prisoners often died under their sufferings. When they did not acquit themselves to the mind of their taslfmasters, or disre- garded any of their persecuting enactments, they were subjected to the lash. Fifty or sixty lashes were considered a punishment se- vere enough for the criminals of France — men who were notorious for every species of profligacy ; but nothing less than one hundred to one hundred and fifty would suffice for the meek and holy saints of God. They were considered a thousand times worse than the worst criminals. It is a striking feature of the persecutions of Popery that the more holy and Christ-like her victims, the more dreadfully severe have been the character of their sufferings ; her war has not been against wickedness, but heresy, and she could readily tolerate the grossest immorality, so long as she had no reason to complain of the rejection of her creed. This is consistent with her true character. Popery is anti- Christ, and it is natural to suppose that the nearer men come to the character of Christ, the fiercer will be her hatred, and the more bitter her persecution. Hence the quenchless enmity of Rome for such holy men as Wickliff and Huss and Jerome, Rogers and Latimer and Ridley, Le Febvre and Marolles and Mauru. We shall present an extract or two from the letters of the three last named victims of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, while suf- fering under the cruel inflictions of the papal anti-Christ, to sustain this assertion. § 36. — Says Le Fehvre, when writing from a noisome dungeon, "Nothing can exceed the cruelty of the treatment I receive. The weaker I become, the moi^e they endeavor to aggravate the miseries of the prison. For several weeks no one has been allowed to enter my dungeon ; and if one spot could be found where the air was more infected than another, I was placed there. Yet the love of the truth prevails in my soul ; for God, who knows my heart, and the purity of my motives, supports me by his grace. He fights against me, but he also fights for me. My weapons are tears and prayers. .... The place is very dark and damp. The air is noisome, and has a bad smell. Everything rots and becomes mouldy. The wells and cisterns are above me. I have never seen a fire here, ex- cept the flame of the candle You will feel for me in this misery,'* said he to a dear relative, to whom he was describing his sad condition : " but think of the eternal weight of glory which will follow. Death is nothing. Christ has vanquished the foe for me : and when the fit time shall arrive, the Lord will give me strength to tear off the mask which that last enemy wears in great afllictions." .... Far be it from me to murmur. I pray without ceasing, that he would show pity, not only to those who suffer, but also to those who are the cause of our sufferings. He who commanded us to love our enemies, produces in our hearts the love he has com- 596 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vin. Marolles and Pierre Maiiru. Heavenly-minded piety in a dungeon and In ii galJey-ship. manded. The world has long regarded us as tottering walls ; but they do not see the Almighty hand by which we are upheld." § 37. — Says Marolles, a minister of eminent piety, and extensive scientific attainments, in a letter to his wife, after being removed from a galley to a dungeon, " When I was taken out of the galley and brought hither, I found the change very agreeable at first. My ears were no longer offended with the horrid and blasphemous sounds with which those places continually echo. I had liberty to sing the praises of God at all times, and could prostrate myself be- fore him as often as I pleased. Besides, I was released from that uneasy chain, which was far more troublesome to me than the one of thirty pounds weight which you saw me wear." He then goes on to speak of a temptation into which he was permitted to fall — a distrust of God lest he should lose his reason, and a fear that he was advancing to a state of insanity — " At length," says he, " after many prayers, sighs, and tears, the God of my deliverance heard my petitions, commanded a perfect calm, and dissipated all those illusions which had so troubled my soul. After the Lord has de- livered me out of so sore a trial, never have any doubt, my dear wife, that he will deliver me out of all others. Do not, therefore, disquiet yourself any more about me. Hope always in the good- ness of God, and your hope shall not be in vain. I ought not, in my opinion, to pass by unnoticed a considerable circumstance which tends to the glory of God. The duration of so great a temptation was, in my opinion, the proper time for the Old Serpent to endeavor to cast me into rebellion and infidelity ; but God al- ways kept him in so profound a silence, that he never once offered to infest me with any of his pernicious counsels ; and I never felt the least inclination to revolt. Ever since those sorrowful days, God has continually filled my heart with joy. 1 possess my soul in patience. He makes the days of my affliction speedily pass away. I have no sooner begun them than I find myself at the end. With the bread and water of affliction he affords me continually most delicious repasts." This was his last letter. He resigned his spirit into the hands of his heavenly Father on the 17th June, 1692. § 38. — The next example of suffering piety, from whom I shall quote, was of one who wrote from amidst the slavery and suffering and horrors of the galleys. Says Pierre Mauru, after referring to the cruel strides he was forced to bear, from twenty to forty at a time, and these repeated frequently for several days in succession. " But I must tell you, that though these stripes are painful, the joy of suffering for Christ gives ease to every wound ; and when, after we have suffered for him, the consolations of Christ abound in us by the Holy Spirit, the Comforter : they are a heavenly balm, which heals all our sorrows, and even imparts such perfect health to our souls, that we can despise every other thing. In short, when we belong to God, nothing can pluck us out of his hand If my body was tortured during the day, my soul rejoiced exceed- ingly in God my Saviour, both day and night. At this period ciiAP. v.] POPERY DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS. 597 Cruel scourging of Pierre Mauru on bocirci tlie gaileys. The faitli and llie iiatitnce of tlid saints especially, my soul was fed with hidden manna, and I tasted of that joy which the world knows not of; and daily, with the holy apos- tles, my heart leaped with joy that I was counted worthy to sufTei- for my Saviour's sake, who poured such consolations into my soul that I was filled with holy transport, and, as it were, carried out of myself . . , . But this season of quiet was of short duration ; for soon afterwards the galley was furnished with oars to exercise the new-comers ; and then these ihexorable haters of our blessed re- ligion took the opportunity to beat me as often as they pleased, telling me it was in my power to avoid these torments. But when they held this language, my Saviour revealed to my soul the ago- nies he suffered to purchase my salvation, and that it became me thus to suffer with him. After this, we were ordered to sea, when the excessive toil of rowing, and the blows I received, often brought me to the brink of the grave. Whenever the chaplain saw me sinking with fatigue, he beset me with temptations ; but my soul was bound for the heavenly shore, and he gained nothing from my answers In every voyage there were many persons whose greatest amusement was to see me incessantly beaten, but particu- larly the captain's steward, who called it painting Calvin's back, and insultingly asked if Calvin gave me strength to work after being so finely bruised ; and when he wished the beating to be re- peated, he would ask if Calvin was not to have his portion again. When he saw me sinking from day to day under cruelties and fa- tigue, his happiness was complete. The officers, who were anxious to please him, had recourse to this inhuman sport for his entertain- ment, during which he was constantly convulsed with laughter. When he saw me raise my eyes to heaven, he said, ' God does not hear Calvinists when they pray. They must endure their tortures till they die, or change their religion.' .... In short, my very dear brother, there was not a single day, when we were at sea, and toil- ing at the oar, but I was brought into a dying state. The poor wretched creatures who were near me did everything in their power to help me, and to make me take a little nourishment. But in the depth of distress, which nature could hardly endure, my God left me not without support. In a short time all will be over, and I shall forget all my sorrows in tjjie joy of being ever with the Lord. Indeed, whenever I was left in peace a little while, and was able to meditate on the words of eternal life, I was perfectly happy ; and when I looked at my wounded body, I said, here are the glorious marks which St. Paul rejoiced to bear in his body. After every voyage I fell sick ; and then, being free from hard labor and the fear of blows, I could meditate in quiet, and render thanks to God for sustaining me by his goodness, and strengthening me by his good Spirit." Here is the faith and the patience of the SAINTS. Is it possible to conceive of suffering borne in a holier cause or in a more Christ-like spirit? § 39. — It would be an endless task to recount all the inventions of popish ingenuity to harass and to wear out these saints of the 598 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book vin. Fiendish cruelty to a mother and babe. The Pope's thanks to Louis for thus persecuting the heretics. Most High. One which could not have been conceived anywhere else but in the bottomless pit and in the heart of a fiend, deserves to be mentioned. On January 23d, 1685, a woman had her suck- ing child snatched from her breasts, and put into the next room, which was only parted by a few boards from her's. These devils incarnate would not let the poor mother come to her child, unless she would renounce her religion and become a Roman Catholic. Her child cries and she cries ; her bowels yearn upon the poor miserable infant ; but the fear of God, and of losing her soul, keep her from apostasy. However she suffers a double martyrdom, one in her own person, the other in that of her sweet babe, who dies in her hearing with crying and famine before its poor mother. The heart sickens at the contemplation of such enormities. Human language cannot describe the sufferings of these oppressed victims of popish cruelty. It is only the Spirit of God who can mark the terrible lineaments, and he does so when he speaks of " wearing out the saints of the Most High," and of anti-Christ being " drunk with the blood of the saints," and of their blood crying from under the altar, " O Lord, holy and true, how long dost thou not judge and avenge our blood upon them that dwell on the earth?" and when he speaks of similar worthies as persons " who were stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword : they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins ; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy) : they wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."* § 40. — Let the reader carefully consider the above affecting and authentic instances of suffering for Christ's sake, and then let him read the following language of pope Innocent XI., in praise of the popish bigot, by whose orders they were inflicted. This Pontiff wrote a special letter to king Louis, expressly thanking him in the warmest and most glowing terms for the service he had rendered the church in this persecuting edict against the heretics of France. The Pope requests him to consider this letter a special testimony to his merits, and concludes it in the following words : — " The Catholic Church shall most assuredly record in her sacred annals a work of such devotion toward her, and celebrate your name with never-dy- ing PRAISES ; but, above all, you may most assuredly promise to yourself an ample eetribution from the divine goodness for this most excellent undertaking, and may rest assured that we shall never cease to pour forth our most earnest prayers to that Divine goodness for this intent and purpose." Thus evident is it not only that the acknowledged head of the apostate church of Rome approved of the horrid barbarities in- flicted upon the French protestants, but that he regarded their per- petrator as conferring a special favor upon that church, thus en- titling himself to her lasting gratitude and her warmest thanks. * Lorimer's Protestant Church of France, chap. iv. BOOK IX. POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE. FEOM THE REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES, A. D. 1685, TO THE PHESEHT TIME, A, D. 1845. ' CHAPTER I. THE JESUITS. THEIR MISSIONS. THEIR SUPPRESSION, REVIVAL, AND PRESENT POSITION. § 1. — The eighteenth century was chiefly distinguished by events connected with the history and proceedings of that crafty and dan- gerous order, the Jesuits ; their missionary eflbrts to extend the dominion of the papacy in China and other oriental countries, and the disputes which arose relative to their practice of amalgamating heathen with Christian rites ; their protracted and fierce contests with the rival sect of the Jansenists ; their banishment from the various kingdoms of Europe, and the final suppression of the order by pope Clement XIV. in 1773. Before describing the controversy which arose in this century relative to the missionary operations of the Jesuits in China, it may be necessary briefly to refer to the origin of those missions. The missionary efforts of the Jesuits commenced immediately after the establishment of that order: in 1541, Francis Xavier, who appears to have been a sincere enthusiast, free from the trickery and worldly policy that afterwards distinguished his order, and who by his zeal and success obtained the name of " the apostle of In- dians," sailed for India, where he was successful in converting thou- sands to the Romish faith. In 1549, he visited Japan, where he laid the foundations of a branch of the Romish church, which in after years is said to have consisted of two or three hundred thou- sand members. From Japan, with a zeal and self-devotion worthy of a purer faith, Xavier sailed for China, but died when in sight of that populous empire, in 1552. Subsequently to his death, Matthew Ricci penetrated into China, recommended himself to the favor of the nobility and Emperor by his skill in mathematics, and succeeded in planting the Romish faith in Pekin, the capital, where he died in 35 600 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book ix Policy of the Jesuit missionaries, " All things to all men." Their shameful conformity to heathenism. 1610. Other Jesuit missionaries, in process of time, extended the spiritual dominion of the Pope and their order into Malabar, Abys- sinia, and other countries, and especially into South America, where they succeeded in reducing whole nations of Indians to their sway. In 1622, was established at Rome, by pope Gregory XV., the Congregation for propagating the faith (De Propagandd Fide), a body of cardinals, priests, &c., whose special duty it is to devise means for propagating the Romish faith throughout the world ; and in 1627, the College De Propagandd Fide, in which young men of all nations are educated as Romish missionaries ; and in 1663, the kindred institution in France, called " the Congregation of the priests of foreign missions." From these institutions hundreds of Jesuits were sent forth to reduce the nations of the world to the obedience of the Pope. § 2. — In accomplishing this object the Jesuits early adopted the principle that the end sanctifies the means, and scrupled at no measures to entrap the people to the nominal profession of Chris- tianity. In the words of an eloquent living writer, " The motto and device in one of their earlier histories was well illustrated in their conduct. That device was a mirror, and the superscription was ' Omnia omnibus,' All things to all men. But what in Paul was Christian courtesy, leaning on inflexible principle ; and what in Loyola himself was probably wisdom, but slightly tinged with unwarrantable policy, became, in some of his disciples, the laxest casuistry, chameleon-like, shifting its hues to every varying shade of interest or fashion. " The gospel is to be presented with no needless ofl^ence given to the prejudices and habits of the heathen, but the gospel itself is never to be mutilated or disguised ; nor is the ministry ever to stoop to compliances in themselves sinful. The Jesuit mistook or forgot this. From a very early period, the order were famed for the art with which they studied to accommodate themselves and their religion to the tastes of the nation they would evangelize. Ricci, on entering China, found the bonzes, the priests of the nation ; and to secure respect, himself and his associates adopted the habits and dress of the bonzes. But a short acquaintance with the empire taught him, that the whole class of the priesthood was in China a despised one, and that he had been only attracting gratuitous odium in assuming their garb. He therefore relinquished it again, to take that of the men of letters. In India, some of their number adopted the Brahminical dress, and others conformed to the disgusting habits of the Fakeer and the Yogee, the hermits and penitents of the Mo- hammedan and Hindoo superstition. Swartz met a Catholic mis- sionary, arrayed in the style of the pagan priests, wearing their yellow robe, and having like them a drum beaten before him. It would seem, upon such principle of action, as if their next step ought to have been the creation of a Christian Juggernaut ; or to have arranged the Christian suttee, where the widow might burn CHAP. I.] POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1686-1845. 601 Worshipping the crucifix upon the altar of Confucius. Decrees of pope Clement. 'The Jansenists. according to the forms of the Romish breviary ; or to have or- ganized a band of Romanist Thugs, strangling in the name of the virgin, as did their Hindoo brethren for the honor of Kalee. " In South America, one of the zealous Jesuit fathers, finding that the Payernes. as the sorcerers and priests of the tribe were called, were accustomed to dance and sing in giving their religious in- structions, put his preachments into metre, and copied the move- ments of these Pagan priests, that he might win the savage by the forms to which he had been accustomed. In China, again, they found the worship of deceased ancestors generally prevailing. Failing to supplant the practice, they proceeded to legitimate it. They even allowed worship to be paid to Confucius, the atheistical philosopher of China, pi'ovided their converts would, in offering the worship, conceal upon the altar a crucifix to lohich their homage should be secretly directed. Finding the adoration of a crucified Saviour unpopular among that self-sufficient people, they are ac- cused by their own Romanist brethren of having suppressed in their teachings the mystery of the cross, and preached Christ glo- rified, but not Christ in his humiliation, his agony and his death. A more arrogant act than this, the wisdom of this world has seldom perpetrated, when it has undertaken to modify and adorn the gos- pel of the crucified Nazarene."* About the commencement of the eighteenth century, the ques- tion arose in the Romish church whether this amalgamation of heathenism with Christianity in the missionary operations of the Jesuits was a lawful method of multiplying converts. This was decided by pope Clement XL, in the year 1704, against the Jesuits, and the Chinese converts were forbidden by a solemn edict any longer to practise the idolatrous rites of their nation in connection with their professed Christian worship. This edict, however, so displeased the Jesuit missionaries, that the same Pope, di-eading the consequences of exasperating so powerful an order, deemed it politic to issue another edict a few years later, which in effect nul- lified the provisions of the former. This latter decree which was dated in 1715, allowed the heathen ceremonies referred to, upon condition that they should be regarded, not as religious but civil institutions ;t a distinction which might serve to satisfy the con- science of the Pope in thus authorizing the ceremonies of heathen- ism, but would have not the slightest effect on the feelings of the Chinese devotee in mingling in the same act of devotion, the wor- ship of Confucius and of Christ. § 3. — Among the most persevering and able of the opponents of the Jesuits and their methods of converting the heathen, the Jan- senistsVere the most conspicuous and celebrated. They were so called from Cornelius Jansenius, a celebrated Roman Catholic * See an able and learned article on " the Jesuits as a Missionary Order," from the pen of Rev. Wm. R. Williams, D.D., in the Christian Review, for June, 1841. f Bower's Lives of the Popes, vol. vii., page 494 ; Mosheim, vi., 3. 602 HISTORY OJ' ROMANISM. [boox ix. Poficurs provincial letters. Father Quesnel's book on the New Testament condemned. bishop, who, about the middle of the seventeenth century, had pub- lished a work under the title of Augustinus, advocating the doc- trines of the African bishop on the native depravity of man, and the nature of that divine influence, by which alone this depravity can be cured. The doctrines of this book were altogether too evangelical for the Jesuits, who opposed it with all their might. Through the influence of the Jesuits, the book was first prohibited by the Inquisition, and afterwards condemned by the Pope, and a fierce and bitter controversy was thus enkindled between these rival sects in the Romish church, which continued for more than a century. For a time the Jesuits appeared to triumph in France, but a blow was given to them in the " Provincial Letters " of the devout and learned Pascal, from which they never have and never can recover. In this celebrated work it was shown by innumera- ble citations from their own standard writers, presented in a style of inimitable wit, beauty, and eloquence, that Jesuitism is utterly subversive of all true principles, alike of morality, religion and civil government ; a fact which the whole history of this crafty and mis- chievous order in every land where it has obtained a foothold has tended to confirm. The cause of the Jansenists acquired an additional degree of credit a few years later by the publication, in 1687, of " Father Quesnel's moral reflections on the New Testament." The quintessence of Jansenism was blended, in an elegant and artful manner, with these annotations, and was thus presented to the reader under the most pleasing aspect. The Jesuits were alarmed at the success of Ques- nel's book, and particularly at the change it had wrought in many, in favor of the evangelical and almost protestant doctrines of Jan- senius: and to remove out of the way an instrument which proved so advantageous to their adversaries, they engaged that weak prince Louis XIV. to solicit the condemnation of this production at the court of Rome. Clement XL -granted the request of the French monarch, because he considered it as the request ol the Jesuits; and, in the year 1713, issued out the famous hull Uni- genitus, in which Quesnel's New Testament was condemned, and a hundred and one propositions contained in it pronounced heretical. Among the propositions condemned were the following three, viz., that grace is the effectual principle of all good works ; that faith is the fountain of all the graces of the Christian ; and that the Sacred Scriptures ought to be read by all. § 4. — This temporary triumph of the Jesuits was destined to be but short. The princes of Europe at length opened their eyes to the dangerous principles of an order which hesitated at no means, however unjust or perfidious, to accomplish their nefarious designs. The only wonder is that they should not have earlier begun to dis- trust an order of men, a part of whose creed it was, that it was meritorious to assassinate rulers and governors that stood in the way of the advancement of the Romish church. The Jesuits had long been notorious for attempting the lives of CHAP. i.J POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1685-1845. 603 The Jesuits' plots against the lives of princes. The gunpowder plot and the Jesuit Garnet. sovereigns, as is testified by the assassination of Henri III. of France, and William, prince of Orange, as well as by the various unsuccessful plots against queen Elizabeth and James I., of Eng- land. Toward the close of the reign of Elizabeth, in a pro- clamation dated Nov. 16th, 1602, she says that " the Jesuits had fomented the plots against her person, excited her subjects to revolt, provoked foreign princes to compass her death, engaged in all affairs of state, and by their language and writings had undertaken to dispose of her crown." In the reign of her successor, James I., after the failure of several schemes against his Hfe, the Jesuits, in the year 1605, con- trived the horrible gunpowder plot to blow up the King, the royal family, and both houses of parliament, in order to place a papist upon the throne of England. Through the good providence of God, this dreadful plot was defeated, and its popish contrivers de- tected and punished. In this atrocious conspiracy, says Southey (Book of the Church, 435), " Guy Fawkes and his associates acted upon the same principles as the head of the Romish church, when in his arrogated infallibility he fulminated his bulls against Eliza- beth, struck medals in honor of the Bartholomew massacre, and pronounced that the friar who assassinated Henri III. had per- formed " a famous and memorable act, not without the special providence of God, and the suggestion and assistance of his Holy Spii'it !" If the conspirators had felt any compunctious scruples, the sanction of their ghostly fathers quieted all doubts ; and when one of their confessors, the Jesuit Garnet, suffered for his share in the treason, it was pretended that a portrait of the sufferer was miraculously formed by his blood, upon the straw with which the scaffold was strewn ; the likeness was rapidly multiplied ; a print of the wonder, with suitable accompaniments, was published at Rome ; Garnet in consequence received the honors of beatification from the Pope, and the society to which he belonged enrolled him in their books as a martyr." Even the persecuting Louis XIV. of France stood in fear of the dirk or the poniard of the Jesuits. When Pere La Chaise, for so many years the Jesuit confessor of Louis, and the prompter of his persecuting measures against the protestants, felt his own end approaching, he earnestly begged of him to select his future con- fessor from among the Jesuits. He requested him to do so, ac- cording to S. Simon, " for his own security," as the society num- bered among its members persons that ought not to be driven to despair, and because after all a "bad blow" was soon struck, and was not without precedents. Louis XIV., however prodigal of the lives of others, was too careful of his own to neglect the Jesuit's advice, and selected a successor to La Chaise from among the same powerful and dangerous order.* * S. Simon. Memoires, chap. 217. See an able article on the Jesuits in France in the North British Review for February, 1845. 604 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book ix. Suppression of the Jesuits in France, Spain, &c. Abolition of the order by Clement XIV. § 5. — The Jesuits had already been expelled from England by proclamation of James I., in 1604, the year previous to the gun- powder plot. But it w^as not till the latter half of the eighteenth century that the other sovereigns of Europe av^^akened to the dan- ger of permitting in their dominions an order of men holding such principles ; and incensed by the officious interference of the Jesuits in political affairs, they one after another expelled them as a pest and a plague from the countries they governed. They were ex- pelled from Portugal in 1759. Three years later, the French parliament declared that such a body, having peculiar laws, and all subject to one individual residing in Rome, was dangerous to the state ; and in 1764 the society was suppressed in France by order of the King. Three years afterward they were expelled from Spain. On the 31st of March, 1767, the colleges and houses of the Jesuits in that country were surrounded at midnight by troops ; sentinels were posted at every door, the bells were secured, the royal decree expelling them from Spain read to the members hastily assembled ; and then having taken their breviaries, some linen, and a few other conveniences, they were placed in carriages and escorted by cavalry to the coast, where they embarked for Italy. In the follow- ing year, 1768, the king of the Two Sicilies and the duke of Parma, followed in the steps of France and of Spain, and sup- pressed the order in their dominions. § 6. — At length, by a bull of pope Ganganelli, or Clement XIV., dated July 21st, 1773, the order of the Jesuits was entirely abohshed, its statutes annulled, and its members released from their vows. " Their abolition was not a work of haste. According to the life of this Pope, published in the year 1776, he spent four years deliberately examining the history of the order. He searched the archives of the Propaganda for the documents relating to their missions, the accusations against and apologies for them ; desirous of being correct in the matter of his condemnation, he communi- cated his brief privately to several cardinals and theologians as well as to .some sovereigns, &c., before he promulgated it. He then decided on the abolition, but not without considering the con- sequences to himself He believed it would be death to him ; when he signed the instrument, he is reported to have said : " The sup. pression is accomplished. I do not repent of it, having only re- solved on it after examining and weighing everything, and because I thought it necessary for the church. If it were not done, I would do it now ; but this suppression will be my death." The initial letters of a Pasquinade appeared on St. Peter's church, which he interpreted, " The Holy See will be vacant in September," which was verified in his death on the twenty-second of that month, 1774, attended with every symptom of poison. Thus ended for the time being the order of Jesuits, and thus too the man that dared to stop them in their course of iniquity. It is not saying too much," re- marks Rev. Dr. Giustiniani (page 247), " if we consult history and experience, that another so infamous a class of men never lived." CHAP. I.] POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1685-1845. 605 The order revived by pope PiU3 VII. in 1814. Copy of the JcBuits' oath § 7. — Notwithstanding this deliberate condemnation of the Jesuits, the order was revived by pope Pius VII., soon after his re- turn to Rome from his captivity in France, where he had been de- tained by Napoleon. The bull of restoration was dated August 7th, 1814, and the order is now engaged, as busily as ever, in Eng- land, Switzerland, America, and other lands, in secretly under- mining every protestant government by its insidious and crafty, yet steady and persevering efforts to advance the influence of the order, to propagate the dogmas, and extend the dominion of Rome. It will be a sufficient evidence of the dangerous character of the order to any government where they are suffered to pursue their nefarious designs, to append to this brief notice of the Jesuits the solemn oath that is taken by every member upon his initiation into the Society. Jesuits' Oath. — " I, A. B., now in the presence of Almighty God, the blessed Virgin Mary, the blessed Michael the Archangel, the blessed St. John Baptist, the holy apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and the saints and sacred host of heaven, and to you my ghostly father do declare from my heart, without mental reserva- tion, that pope Gregory is Christ's Vicar General, and is the true and only Head of the universal church throughout the earth ; and that by virtue of the keys of binding and loosing, given to his Holiness by Jesus Christ, he hath power to DEPOSE HEKETIOAL KINGS, PKINOES, STATES, COMMONWEALTHS, AND GOVERNMENTS, ALL BEING ILLEGAL, WITHOUT HIS SACRED CONFIRMATION, AND THAT THET MAT SAFELY BE DESTROYED ; therefore to the utmost of my power, I will defend this doctrine and his Holiness's rights and customs against all usurpers of the hereti- cal or protestant authority whatsoever, especially against the now pretended au- thority and church in England, and all adherents, in regard that they be usurped and heretical, opposing the sacred mother church of Rome. "I DO RENOUNCE AND DISOWN ANY ALLEGIANCE AS DUE TO ANY HEKETIOAL KING, PRINCE, OR STATE, NAMED PROTESTANT, OR OBEDIENCE TO ANY OP THEIR INFERIOR MAGISTRATES OR OFFICERS. 1 do further declare the doctrine of the church of England, of the Calvinists, Huguenots, and other protestants, to be damnable, and those to be damned who will not forsake the same. I do further declare, that I will help, assist, and advise all or any of his Holiness's agents in any place wherever I shall be ; and do my utmost to extirpate the heretical pro- testants' doctrine, and to destroy all their pretended power, legal or otherwise. 1 do further promise and declare, that notwithstanding I am dispensed with to as- sume any religion heretical, for the propagation of the mother church's interest, to keep secret and private all her agents' counsels, as they entrust me, and not to divulge, directly or indirectly, by word, writing or circumstance whatsoever, but to execute all which shall be proposed, given in charge, or discovered unto me, by you my ghostly father, or by any one of this convent. All which 1, A. B., do swear by the blessed Trinity, and blessed sacrament, which 1 am now to receive, to perform and on my part to keep inviolably ; and do call all the heavenly and glorious host of heaven, to witness my real intentions to keep this my oath. In testimony hereof, I take this most holy and blessed sacrament of the eucharist, and witness the same further with my hand and seal, in the face of this holy convent." eofi CHAPTER IL THE PERSECUTING AND INTOLERANT SPIRIT OP POPERY, AS EXHIBITED IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES. § 8.— SuBSEauENT to the cruel edict of the popish king Louis Xiy. in 1685, which was the cause of the horrible sufferings de- scribed in a previous chapter, the remaining years of the seven- teenth and a few of the eighteenth century, were occupied in France in attempting to suppress the insurrections which arose in some parts of that kingdom, by those who banded together in de- fence of their religious liberties. Multitudes of the Huguenots, in spite of the decree which forbade them to quit the country, evaded the vigilance of the guards, and escaped into Holland, England, America, and other countries where they could enjoy freedom to worship God. The larger number of those who escaped were artisans, and carried their useful arts and manufactures to the countries which" they thus enriched by their flight. The farmer was unable to carry with him his cattle or his fields, his vines or his fig trees, and was thus, m some instances, driven by oppression to fight for religious freedom in his native land. A thrilhng account has been given of the protracted struggle for religious freedom of the people of the Cevennes, m Languedoc, and the horrible barbarities of their popish persecutors and conquerors, by one of the most celebrated of their leaders. Mens. Cavalier, whose memoirs were published in London in 1 726. In this contest no quarter was given by the papists to the Huguenots, or Camisards as they were now generally called, and hundreds of men, women, and children, the inhabitants of whole towns, were butchered in cold blood. § 9.— In the year 1705, a few months after the Camisards ap- peared to be wholly crushed, some of the leading men who yet sur- vived, secretly assembled at the house of Mons. Boeton, between Nismes and Montpellier, to consult upon a new attempt to extort religious liberty from the government. The plan was discovered ; Boeton was apprehended, and condemned to the horrible death of being broken alive upon the wheel— a cruel death, which he bore with a fortitude worthy of the primitive martyrs, and which showed that the spirit which animated a Huss, a Latimer, and a Ridley, was not extinct at the commencement of the eighteenth century. When led forth to execution, he never ceased to raise his voice above the rolling of the drums, to exhort the spectators, and especially such as he saw dissolved in tears, to " continue to remain firm in the communion of Jesus Christ." Incessantly importuned by two priests who accompanied him, and who offered him pardon in the name ol the King, if he would abjure his religion and repent of his faults, he was seen to lift his eyes toward heaven, as if praying for CHAP, n.] POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1685-1846. 607 Cruel martyrdom of Boeton. His courage and piety to the laat. strength to withstand the suggestions of those ecclesiastics, whom he regarded as angels of darkness sent to seduce him, and for forti- tude to endure the attacks of death, like a faithful soldier fighting in the cause of God. One of his friends, who chanced to be out and perceived him approaching, was so deeply pained by this touching sight, that he stepped hastily and in tears into a shop to avoid meeting him. Boeton, having observed him, asked permission to say a word to his friend. It was granted, and he desired that he might be called out. " What !" said he, " do you shun me because you see me clothed in the livery of Christ ! Why should you weep, when he grants me the favor to call me to himself, and to seal the defence of his cause with my blood ?" Sobs choked the utterance of his friend, who was going to embrace him, when the archers made Boeton walk on. As soon as he came in sight of the scaffold erected on the esplanade, he exclaimed, " Courage, O my soul ! I behold the scene of thy triumph. Soon, released from thy painful bonds, thou wilt be in heaven !" Without a murmur he submitted to the torments prepared for him. The bones of his legs, thighs, and arms, were broken by the blow of the executioner's club; and in this deplorable and mutilated condition he was left fastened to the torturing wheel, with his head hanging down, for five hours, which he spent in singing hymns, in fervent prayers to God, and exhortations to those who drew nigh to listen. His tormentors perceiving from the tears of the specta- tors, and their loud praises of the constancy of the suffering mar- tvr, that instead of striking terror into the protestants, this specta- cle only tended to strengthen them in their faith, the order was given for the executioner to terminate his work by the coup de grace. As he was about to do this, an archer on the scaffold ex- claimed, in the true spirit of Popery, that this Huguenot ought to be left to die on the wheel, since he would not renounce his errors. Boeton made this reply to the cruel wretch : " You think, my friend, that I am in pain ; indeed I am : but learn that He who is with me and for whom I suffer gives me strength to endure my suf- fering with joy." The executioner now came to complete his task. Boeton made a last effort ; raised his head, notwithstanding the horrible state to which he was reduced ; and, lifting his voice above the drums, which had never ceased beating during the execution, among the troops drawn up in order of battle around the scaffold, he em- phatically pronounced these his last words ; " My dearest brethren, let my death be an example to you to maintain the purity of the Gospel, and be faithful witnesses how I die in the religion of Jesus Christ and of his holy apostles," and immediately expired. § 10. — It is computed that to the persecuting spirit of Louis XIV., not less than three hundred thousand protestants were sacrificed during his reign. After his death in 1714, the French protestants enjoyed a temporary respite from their sufferings, 608 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book ix. Popish clergy clamor for the execution of the laws against heretica. Martyrdom of Rochette, &c., in 17B2. though the edicts against them remained unchanged, and they were still in various ways exposed to the annoyances of their ene- mies. One of the most serious of these was the fact, that their marriages were regarded as illegal, because not solemnized by a papal priest. The children of such parents were regarded, in the eye of the law, as illegitimate, and the parents represented by the priests as living in a state of concubinage. Property left to such children was in many cases made over to the nearest popish relative, and in other instances confiscated to the crown. In the meanwhile, the popish clergy clamored for the literal execution of the laws against heretics. The bishop of Alais, in reply to an officer who was a friend to tolerance, wrote — " The magistrates have relaxed the severity of the ordinances, and thus caused all the evils of which the state has to complain." Another popish prelate, the bishop of Agen, having heard a report that the tolerating edict of Nantes was to be re-enacted, wrote a pamphlet praising the piety of Louis XIV. for revoking that decree, and for persecuting the heretics, and expressing the hope that his successor would never undo the noble deed of his predecessor.* § II. — About the year 1745, the former cruelties were revived, and all Huguenot pastors who fell into the hands of the government were put to a cruel death. The apprehension of M. Desubas, a young pastor, in December, 1745, was the cause of a most cruel and wanton waste of life. Some of his flock assembled unarmed to implore the liberation of their beloved pastor, and were twice fired upon with muskets, by which upwards of forty were killed. The young pastor obtained the crown of martyrdom, February 1st, 1746. Among those who fell victims to this cruel persecution were a venerable man of eighty years old, who was condemned to be hung for preaching, and went to the gallows repeating the fifty-first Psalm, and a youthful pastor named Benezet, whose patience, cou- rage, and joy, at the hour of his martyrdom, in January, 1752, were such as to lead even the executioner to say that he " did not hang a man, but an angel." So late as 1762, a Huguenot pastor named Francis Rochette, and three brothers named Grenier, who had made an attempt to rescue their pastor, were executed at Thoulouse. The eldest was not twenty-two years of age. They had endeavored to release their pastor from captivity, and were beheaded close to the gibbet on which Rochette was hanged. They were oflTered their lives if they would abjure ; but their firmness did not relieve them from the obtruding solicitations of four priests, who beset them until the fatal moment. As the crucifix was occasionally presented to the brothers, the eldest observed : " Speak to us of him who died for our sins and rose again for our justification, and we are ready to listen ; but do not introduce your superstitions." Rochette was forced to descend in front of the cathedral, where he was ordered • See Brovrning's History of the Huguenots, chap. Ixvi. OHAF. II.] POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1686-1845. 609 Cessation of the persecution. Remonstrance of the popish cleigy. The French revolutioa to make the amende honorable : but he boldly declared his princi- ples, refused to ask pardon of the King, forgave his judges, and to the last displayed a martyr's constancy. The brothers Grenier were equally firm. After two had suffered, the executioner en- treated the younger to escape their fate by abjuring. " Do thy duty," was the answer he received, as the youth submitted to the axe.* § 12. — Soon after this, the Jesuits, the relentless enemies of the Huguenots, were suppressed in France, and the flowing of heretic blood ceased ; though an effort was made in 1765 by the popish clergy to resist the tendency to toleration by a remonstrance to the King. " It is in vain," that body declares, " that all public worship, other than the Catholic, is forbidden in your dominions. In con- tempt of the wisest laws, the protestants have seditious meetings on every side. Their ministers preach heresy and administer the Supper ; and we have the pain of beholding altar raised against altar, and the pulpit of pestilence opposing that of truth. If the law which revoked the edict of Nantes — if your declaration of 1724 had been strictly observed, we venture to say there would be no more Calvinists in France. Consider the effects of a tolerance which may become cruel by its results. Restore, sire ! restore to the laws all their vigor — to religion its splendor." Similar presentations were made by the papist clergy against the protestant assembhes so late as 1770 and 1772, thus afford- ing the most conclusive evidence that the persecuting spirit of Popery remained unchanged, and that its priests, even so late as toward the close of the last century, would gladly have renewed against the heretics of France the massacres, the barbarities and outrages of 1572, or of 1685. A few years subsequent to these memorials against the protestants, the Roman Catholic clergy were themselves exposed, amidst the horrors of the French revolution, to the same sufferings of confiscation and banishment, which they thus earnestly desired to be inflicted upon their protestant neigh- bors. And while we most heartily deprecate the atrocities of the infidel faction which then ruled the destinies of unhappy France, and rejoice in the hospitality shown in England and other pro- testant lands, to the banished Romish clergy (among whom were, doubtless, some who had joined in these persecuting petitions twenty years before), presenting as it does so marked a contrast to the intolerance and cruelty of these very priests towards the {pro- testants in their own land ; at the same time, we cannot but regard these sufferings as a part of that retributive vengeance which will not always sleep, and which we learn from the eighteenth chapter of Revelations, is yet to fall more fearfully upon persecuting and apostate Rome. § 13. — The Inquisition in Spain continued its work of torture and * From the Toulousaines a series of letters published in 1763, cited by Browti- ing, 273. 610 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [mok ix. The Inquisition in Spain, Its suppression. Still exists in Rome. of blood through the greater part of the eighteenth century, and so late as November 7th, 1781, a woman was burnt alive by the sen- tence of the Holy Office at Seville, on the charge of having formed a contract with the Devil. At the time of the suppression of the Inquisition in Spain by Napoleon, in 1808, multitudes of unhappy victims were found in a most deplorable condition, incarcerated in the horrid dungeons of the tribunal, and restored by the French soldiery to liberty and their homes. Upon the restoration of Fer- dinand VII., the Catholic king of Spain, he re-established the In- quisition by an ordinance dated July 21st, 1814, and appointed the bishop of Almeria, Inquisitor-general, but it only continued in ope- ration five years. Upon the revolution of 1820, it was finally sup- pressed by the Cortes. In the Papal States, the Inquisition still exists, though its opera- tions are conducted with much secresy, and are veiled as much as possible from the public eye. In other countries the exercise of inquisitorial power is frequently entrusted to the popish prelates. The Roman tribunal now in existence is that established by pope Sixtus V. in 1588, which was styled the " Holy Roman and Uni- versal Inquisition." It consists of twelve cardinals, several pre- lates as assessors, several monks called consulters, and several priests and lawyers called qualificators, whose business is to pre- pare the cases. Persons at Rome are frequently imprisoned for not going to confession, having in their possession bibles and pro- testant books, and for other offences against Popery. It is said by papists that the torture and the punishment of death is not now in- flicted by the Romish inquisition. All we know on the subject is that its punishments are inflicted with the profoundest secresy, that its victims are no longer publicly burnt at the auto da fe, and that their sufferings, in most cases, are known only to themselves, their persecutors, and to God. Occasionally, a victim of Romish bar- barity escapes to a land of freedom, and publishes to the world the recital of his sufferings, though these narratives are invariably de- nounced as false by the Jesuitical defenders of Rome, in accord- ance with their well known principle of action that frauds are holy and lies are lawful, when told for the good of the church. § 14. — One of the most valuable recent narratives of this kind is that of a yoLing monk, named Raffaele Ciocci, who after being bar- barously treated in an inquisitorial prison near Rome, in 1842, till he consented to sign a recantation,* escaped to England, where he * After Raffaele had been entrapped into the hands of his inquisitorial persecu- tors, many means were employed by the Jesuits to subdue him. Four times a day he had lo listen to a long sermon against the doctrines of Protestantism. To all the questions which he addressed to the Jesuits, one would reply : " Think on hell, my son !" — a second : " Think, my son, how terrible the death of a sinner !" — a third would exclaim: "Paradise! my son, Paradise!" Next, recourse was had to phantasmagory, to strike him with terror. A skeleton placed in his cham- ber : a transparency, presenting a resemblance of the last judgment day, suddenly appeared before him during the rehearsal of terrible discourses, or afterward cal- culated to affect him. At last, filth and privations of every kind came also to tlie CHAP. II.] POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1685-1845. 611 Trefttment of UalTaele Ciocci by the Roman Inquisition, in 1842. published his thrilling and instructive narrative, a production which bears internal evidences of its truth, as is well remarked by Sir aid of the Jesuits, in subduing their obstinate pupil. When they saw him suffi- ciently shaken, the following declaration was offered to him for his signature : " I, Raffaele Ciocci, a Benedictine and Cistercian monk, unskilled in theological doc- trines, having in good faith, and without malice, fallen into the errors of the pro- testants, being now enlightened and convinced, acknowledge my errors. I retract them, regret them, and declare the Roman church to be the only true Catholic and Apostolic church. I bind myself, therefore, to teach and preach according to her doctrines, being ready to shed my blood for her sake. Finally, I ask pardon of all those to whom my anti-Catholic discourses may have been an occasion of error, and I pray God to pardon my sins." On reading these lines, Rafjaele trembled with indignation, and immediately exclaimed : " Kill me, if you please, my life is in your power; but as for subscribing this iniquitous formulary, I shall do so NEVER !" After vain efforts to induce him to comply with his wishes, the Jesuit withdrew in a rage The following day Raffaele appeared before his persecutors, who again urged him to sign the declaration. On his refusal Father Rossini spoke : " Your opinions are inflexible ; be it so ; we are going to treat you as you deserve. Rebellious son of the church, in the plenitude of power which she has received from Christ, you shall feel the holy rigor of her laws. She cannot per- mit the tares to infect the soil in which grows the good seed, nor suffer you to re- main among her sons, and become a stumbiing-block for the ruin of many. Aban- don the hope, therefore, of leaving this place, and of returning to dwell among the faithful. Know, then, that all is over with you." •' Then," continues Raf- faele, " there was a long silence ; all the terrors which had seized me during my seclusion at once assailed me. The immovable countenances of the Jesuits, who in their cold insusceptibility of feeling seemed alien from earth, convinced me that all indeed was over with me My courage failed, and trembling I ap- proached the table ; with a convulsive movement I seized the pen, and wrote .... my shame ! . . . . my condemnation ; . . . . God of mercy ! O may that moment be blotted from my life !" The Jesuits congratulated him, and he was permitted to return to the convent of San Bernardo, in which, from that time, he was allowed a little more liberty. He continued, meanwhile, to read the Bible, and strengthened himself more and more in his determmation to break definitely with the errors of Rome, and to bid an eternal adieu to Italy and his family. A circumstance presented itself which favored the execution of this project. Two English travellers, whom Raffaele accompanied one day in the quality of cicermie in the circus of the baths of Diocletian, and to whom he discovered his situation, took a strong interest in his behalf. Several times they returned, had conversations with the unhappy monk, and undoubtedly instructed him as to the means of escaping from his prison. In fact, not long after this, he embarked at Civita-Vecchia, where, before doing so, he had the privilege of reading, posted up jn the church, a brief of excommuni- cation against " D. Raffaele Ciocci, a Cistercian monk, an apostate ;" and after various distressing perplexities, owing to his inexperience, he reached Marseilles, crossed France, and arrived at London, where he was received with kind hospi- tality, and protected from the attempts of the Jesuits to seize onc^ more on their prey. "Oh!" exclaims he, " that my companions in slavery in the monasteries of San Bernardo and Santa Croce, in Gerusalemme, could see me as I am, in a state of health and tranquillity, while they are taught to believe that the excommunica- tion has penetrated my bones, and that I am wasting away like a lamp whose oil is failing. Poor youths ! seized with terror at the funeral ceremony performed on occasion of the apostasy of any member of the Order, they are not aware that it is but a trick, calculated to expel from their minds every thought of imitating Uie example, and of following the footsteps of the fugitive." — (Ciocci' s Narrative, page 137.) 612 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book ix. Continued [leisecuting policy of Rome. Exiles of Zillerlhal. Bible-burning at Champlain, Culling Eardly Smith, a distinguished protestant gentleman, who long resided in Rome, and is therefore well qualified to judge.* Not more than two years ago a severe decree against the Jews of Ancona was issued by the Roman Inquisition, dated from the chancery of the Holy Office, June 24th, 1843.t The persecuting policy of Rome is still carried out by her priests in the various countries where they are dispersed, just in proportion to the power and influence they possess. In thoroughly popish countries thoy continue openly and without disguise to act upon their ancient intolerant and persecuting principles, though the spirit of the age forbids them, as formerly, to sacrifice at once whole hecatombs of human victims ; in semi-papal lands, as in France and some other parts of continental Europe, where Pro- testantism is tolerated by the government, they exhibit the same spirit by a system of petty annoyance, and attempted restrictions upon the freedom of a protestant press ; and in protestant lands, as America and England, in order the more effectually to accomplish their designs, they aim, as much as possible, to conceal the true character of their church, and sometimes even have the bare-faced eflrontery to deny that persecution is or ever has been one of its dogmas. In the first case, the wolf appears in his own proper skin, showing his teeth, and growling hatred and defiance against all opposers ; in the second, with his teeth extracted, but with all his native ferocity, showing that if his teeth are gone, he can yet bruise ;!uJ mangle with his toothless jaws ; and in the last, covered all I'ver with the skin of a lamb, attempting to hleat out the assertion, ■• / am not a wolf, and I never was," and yet by the very tones of his voice betraying the fact that though clothed in the skin of a iamb, and trying to look innocent and harmless, he is a wolf still; waiting only for a suitable opportunity to throw off his temporary disguise, and appear in all his native ferocity. ^ 15. — As a recent illustration of this unchanged spirit of Roman- ism may be mentioned the persecutions, banishment, and exile, in the year 1837, of upwards of four hundred protestants of Ziller- lhal, in the Tyrol, for no other reason but because they refused to conform to the Roman Catholic church. J As another instance of the intolerance of Popery, and its de- tcrmiaed hatred to the bible in the vulgar tongue, may be mentioned an occurrence still more recent, by which the feelings of protestant Americans were outraged, viz., the public burning of bibles, which took place no longer ago than October 27th, 1842, at Champlain, a village in the State of New York. The following account of this sacrilegious outrage is from an official statement of facts, signed by four respectable citizens appointed as a committee for that purpose : — " About the middle of October, a Mr. Telmont. * Romanisin in Italy, by Sir C. E. Smith, page 41. f Ibid., 49, 65. J An interesting account of tlie sufferings of these exiles for conscience sake has been written by Dr. Rheinwald, of Berlin, and translated from the German by Mr. John B. Saunders, of London. CHAP. II.] POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D.. 1686-1845. 613 Jesuits openly burning bibles. Disgraceful language of a priest on the protestant bible {note). a missionary of the Jesuits, with one or more associates, came to Corbeau in this town, where the Catholic Church is located, and as they say in their own account given of their visit, ' by the direction of the bishop of Montreal.' On their arrival they commenced a protracted meeting, which lasted several weeks, and great numbers of Catholics from this and the other towns of the county attended day after day. After the meeting had progressed several days, and the way was prepared for it, an order was issued requiring all who had bibles or testaments, to bring them in to the priest, or ' lay them at the feet of the missionaries.' The requirement was gene- rally complied with, and day after day bibles and testaments were carried in ; and after a sufficient number was collected, they were burned. By the confession of Telmont, as appears from the affi- davit of S. Hubbell, there were several burnings, but only one in public. On the 27th of October, as given in testimony at the pub- lic meeting held there, Telmont, who was a prominent man in all the movements, brought out from the house of the resident priest, which is near the church, as many bibles as he could carry in his arms at three times, and placed them in a pile, in the open yard, and then set fire to them and burned them to ashes. This was done in open day, and in the presence of many spectators." For a pictorial illustration of this scene of popish intolerance and sacrilege, see En- graving opposite page 440. In the affidavit of S. Hubbell, Esq., above alluded to, who is a respectable lawyer of the place, it is stated that the President of the Bible Society, in company with Mr. Hubbell, waited upon the priests, and requested that inasmuch as the bibles had been given by benevolent societies, they should be returned to the donors and not destroyed ; to which the Jesuit priest, perhaps with less cun- ning than usually belongs to his order, coolly replied, that " they had burned all they had received, and intended to burn all they could get."* § 16. — A still more striking illustration of the unchangeably per- secuting spirit of Popery down to the present time, remains yet to be told. In the Portuguese island of Madeira, which is almost en- tirely under the control of the popish priesthood, a violent persecu- tion has been lately carried on, chiefly in consequence of the suc- * For a full account of the circumstances connected with this atrocious act, see " Defence of the Protestant Scriptures against Popish Apologists for the Cham- plain Bible-Burners," by the present author. The above little work was written in reply to a popish priest named Corry, of Providence, R. I., who justified the burning of the bibles upon the ground of the alleged unfaithfulness of the pro- testant version. Among other statements he makes use of the following dis- graceful language : — " If, then, such a version of the bible should not be tolerated, the question then is, which is the best and most respectful manner to make away with it. As for myself, I would not hesitate to say, that the most respectful would be to burn it, rather than give it to grocers and dealers to wrap their wares in, or consign it to more dishonorable purposes (! !) and I hardly think, that there is a man of common sense, be he Catholic or protestant, that would not say the same." G14 HISyORY OF ROMANISM, [look ix. A woman sentenced to death for heresy in 1844, by the papists of Madeira, cess of the labors of Dr. Kalley, a pious physician from Scotland, and a British subject, resident on the island. Dr. Kalley has for some time past been in the habit of reading and explaining the scriptures in his own house for the benefit of his family and such others as chose to come in. vSeveral of these have been convinced of the errors of Popery, and have consequently exposed themselves to the most cruel annoyances and persecutions. In a letter from Dr. Kalley, dated May 4th, 1844, and published in the London Record, he says : " Last Sabbath two persons, when going home from my house, were taken prisoners and committed to jail, where they now lie, for not kneeling to the host (or consecrated wafer) as it passed. On Monday a third was imprisoned on the same charge. On Wednes- day, several were mauled with sticks, and some taken by the hands and feet as in procession, and carried into the church, and made to kneel before the images. On the 2d of May, a girl brought me some leaves of the New Testament, telling me, with tears, that her own father had taken two, and beaten them with a great stick, and then burnt them. On the same day, Maria Joaquina, wife of Manuel Alves, who had been in prison nearly a year, was con- demned TO DEATH." (! ! !) Yes, condemned to death, in the year 1844, for denying the absurd dogma of transubstantiation, refusing to participate in the idolatry of worshipping the wafer idol, and (in the words of the accusation) " blaspheming against the images of Christ and mother of God ;" in plain language, refusing to give that worship to senseless blocks of wood and stone which is due only to God. The same letter contains a copy of the sentence of death passed on this poor woman by Judge Negrao, of which the follow- ing is an extract : — " In view of the answers of the jury and discussion of the cause, &c., it is proved that the accused, Maria Joaquina, perhaps forgetful of the principles of the holy religion which she received in her first years, and to which she still belongs, has maintained conversations and arguments condemned by the church, maintain- ing that veneration should not be given to images, denying the real existence of Christ in the sacred host (the wafer), the mystery of the most holy Trinity ;* blaspheming against the most holy Virgin, Mother of God, and advancing other expressions against the doc- trines received and followed by the Catholic Apostolic Roman Church, expounding these condemned doctrines to different persons, thus committing the crime of heresy and blasphemy, &c. * * ******** I condemn the ac- cused, Maria Joaquina, to suffer death, as declared in the said law, * Though the crime of the papists would not have been diminished in the .slightest degree, had this accusation been true, as persecution for conscience sake is in every case unjust ; yet it is due to this victim of popish persecution to say, on the testimony of Dr, Kalley and others, that she firmly believes the doctrine of the Trinity, and is " an intelligent, clear-minded, Christian woman, quite willintr to die, if the Lord will." CHAP, n.] POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1685-1845. 615 Maria Joaquina in her dungeon. Peraecution, nnt a mere al/use, but part of the system of llonianiam. and in the costs of the process, which she shall pay with her goods. Funchal Oriental, in public court, 2d of May, 1843. Joze Pereira Leito Pitta Ortegueira Negrao." The papists have not yet dared to brave the indignation of the world by executing this sentence, and thus burning or hanging a heretic in the middle of the nineteenth century. Yet, the fact that a pious and respectable woman, the mother of seven children (the youngest at the breast when she was cast into prison), should receive such a sentence in the year 1844, for the crime of heresy, should arouse the whole protestant world to the unchange- ably persecuting character of the apostate church of Rome. At the last accounts, the poor woman was still languishing in her dun- geon ; Dr. Kalley states his opinion that " it is as likely that she will be actually executed, as it was that she should be condemned to death." Of this, however, we have doubts. However glad the popish priests might have been to burn a heretic, could they have confined the knowledge of the fact to their own little island, they dare not, and they will not do it, now their cruelty has been pub- lished abroad, and the pulse of the whole protestant world is throb- bing with sympathy for that suffering martyr of the nineteenth century as she pines in her lonely dungeon, the persecuted iVIaria Joaquina. § 17. — The instances of persecution and intolerance above related are not mere abuses of the system of Romanism, or excrescences upon it ; they are a part of the system itself, and that Romish bishop who does not, to the utmost of his power, " persecute and oppose " heretics and rebels against his Lord, the Pope, is false to his most solemn oath. This will be evident from the following oath, which is taken by every archbishop and bishop, and by all who receive any dignity from the Pope. Let particular notice be taken of the sentence printed in capitals. Bishops' Oath of Allegiance to the Pope.—" I, N., elect of the Church of N., from henceforward will be faithful and obedient to St. Peter the Apostle, and to the holy Roman Church, and to our Lord, the Lord N., pope N., and to his successors, canonically entering. I will neither advise, consent, nor do anything that they may lose life or member, or that their persons may be seized, or hands in anywise laid upon them, or any injuries offered to them, under any pretence whatsoever. The counsel with which they shall intrust me by themselves, their messengers, or letters, I will not knowingly reveal to any to their prejudice. I will help them to defend and keep the Roman papacy, and the royalties op St. Peter saving my order, against all men. The legate of the apostolic See, going and coming, I will honorably treat and help in his necessities. The rights, honors, privileges, and authority of the holy Roman Church, of our Lord the Pope, and his aforesaid successors, I will endeavor to preserve, defend, increase, and advance. I will not be in any counsel, action, or treaty, in which shall be plotted against our said Lord, and the said Roman Church, anything to the hurt or prejudice of their persons, right, honor, state or power ; and if I shall know any such thing to be treated or agitated by any whatsoever, I will hinder it to my utmost, and as soon as I can, will signify it to our said Lord, or to some other, by whom it may come to his knowledge. The rules of the holy Fathers, the apos- tolic decrees, ordinances, or disposals, reservations, provisions, and mandates, I will observe with all my might, and cause to be observed by others. 36 616 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book ix. Bishop's oath to persecute heretics. Persecution as much on article of faith as the Mass, &c " Hesetics, schismatics, and rebels to our said Lord, or his aforesaid SUCCESSORS, I WILL TO MY UTMOST PERSECUTE AND OPPOSE. ' Here- ticos, schismaticos, et rebelles eidem domino nostro vel successoribus praedictis pro posse persequar ei oppugnabo.' I will come to a council when I am called, unless I be hindered by a canonical impediment. I will by myself in person visit the threshold of the Apostles every three years ; and give an account to our Lord and his foresaid successors of all my pastoral office, and of all things anywise belong- ing to the state of my Church, to the discipline of my clergy and people, and lastly to the salvation of souls committed to my trust ; and will in like manner humbly receive and diligently execute the apostolic commands. And if I be de- tained by a lawful impediment, I will perform all the things aforesaid by a certain messenger hereto specially empowered, a member of my chapter, or some other in ecclesiastical dignity, or else having a parsonage ; or in default of those, by a priest of the diocess ; or in default of one of the clergy of the diocess, by some other secular or regular priest of approved integrity and religion, fully instructed in all things above-mentioned. And such impediment I will make out by lawful proofs to be transmitted by the foresaid messenger to the cardinal proponent of the Holy Roman Church in the congregation of the sacred council. The pos- sessions belonging to my table I will neither sell, nor give away, nor mortgage, nor grant anew in fee, nor anywise alienate, not even with the consent of the chapter of my Church, without consulting the Roman Pontiff. And if I sliall make any alienation, I will thereby incur the penalties contained in a certain con- stitution put forth about this matter. So help me God and these holy Gospels of God." The original Latin of this oath may be found in the treatise of the learned Dr. Isaac Barrow, on the papal supremacy (works, folio edition, vol. i., page 553). It was copied by Barrow from " the Roman Pontificate, set out by order of pope Clement VIII." (Antwerp, anno 1626, p. 59, &c.) After quoting the oath, Dr. Barrow remarks : " Such is the oath prescribed to bishops, the which is worth the most serious attention of all men who would understand how miserably slavish the condition of the clergy is in that church, and how inconsistent their obligation to the Pope is with their duty to their prince ;" and we may add, with their fidelity and allegiance to any government under which they dwell. Besides thus solemnly engaging to " persecute and oppose here- tics," every bishop and priest, in swearing to the creed of pope Pius (see page 539). professes to receive " all things delivered, de- fined, and declared by the general councils," including, of course, the decrees of several of those councils for the extirpation of here- tics, which have been cited in the progress of this work (see pages 302, 332, 434, 543-545). ' Nothing can be more evident, therefore, than that the right to persecute heretics, and the duty of exercising this right to the utmost of their power, is at the present time as much an article of faith of every Romish prelate and priest as tlie doctrine of the Mass, of Purgatory, or of Extreme Unction. § 19. — It is a remarkable fact, and one which well illustrates the unchangeably persecuting spirit of Popery, that a solemn curse, " with bell, book, and candle," against all heretics, is annually pro- nounced by the Pope at Rome, and by other ecclesiastics in other places, on the Thursday of passion week, the day before Good Friday, the anniversary of the Saviour's crucifixion. This is called CHAP. U.J POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1685-1846. 617 Ceremony of excommunication and cursing at Rome on Holy Thursday. the Bull in casna domini, or " at the supper of the Lord." The cere- monies on this occasion are well adapted to strike terror into the superstitious multitude. The bull consists of thirty-one sections, describing different classes of excommunicated persons. The fol- lowing single section, which includes all protestants, is given as a specimen. " In the name of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by the au- thority of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, and by our own, we excommuni- cate and anathematize all Hussites, Wickliffites, Lutherans, Zuinglians, Calvin- ists. Huguenots, , Anabaptists, Trinitarians, and other apostates, from the faith ; and all other heretics, by whatsoever name they are called, or of whatever sect they be. And also their adherents, receivers, favorers, and generally any de- fenders of them : with all who, without our authority, or that of the apostolic See, knowingly read or retain, or in any way, or from any cause, publicly or pri- vately, or from any pretext, defend their books containing heresy, or treating of religion ; as also schismatics, and those who withdraw themselves, or recede ob- stinately from their obedience to us, or the existing Roman Pontiff." ' § 19. — A recent spectator of the ceremony at Rome says that after the excommunicated are mentioned, the curse proceeds as follows : — " Excommunicated and accursed may they be, and given body and soul to the devil. Cursed be they in cities, in towns, in fields, in ways, ill paths, in houses, out of houses, and all other places, stand- ing, lying or rising, walking, running, waking, sleeping, eating, drinking, and whatsoever things they do besides. We separate them from the threshold, and Irom all prayers of the church, from the holy mass, from all sacraments, chapels, and altars, from holy bread and holy water, from all the merits of God's priests and re- ligious men, from all their pardons, privileges, grants, and immuni- ties, which all the holy fathers, the popes of Rome have granted ; and we give them utterly over to the power of the fiend ! And let us quench their soul, if they be dead, this night in the pains of hell- fire, as this candle is now quenched and put out (and then one of them is put out), and let us pray to God, that if they be alive, their eyes may be put out, as this candle is put out (another was then extinguished) ; and let us pray to God, and to our Lady, and to St. Peter, and St. Paul, and the holy saints, that all the senses of their bodies may fail them, and that they may have no feeling, as now the light of this candle is gone (the third was then put out), except they come openly now, and confess their blasphemy, and by repentance, as in them shall lie, make satisfaction unto God, our Lady, St. Peter, and the worshipful company of this cathedral chin-ch. And as this cross falleth down, so may they, except they repent, and show themselves." Then the cross on which the ex- tinguished lights had been fixed was allowed to fall down with a loud noise, and the superstitious multitude shouted with fear. This terrific scene is of itself sufficient to account for the superstitious dread, among ignorant Papists, of the priestly anathema. The impious farce of cursing is soon' followed by the Pope's blessing on all who believe, or profess to believe, his own creed. 618 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book ix. Popery srill unchanged wiih reepect to freedom of opinion and the press, &c. On Easter day he says mass at the high altar of St. Peter's, and at its close pronounces his blessing on the prostrate multitude in the square below, many of whom are pilgrims from considerable dis- tances. {See Engraving opposite page 430.) One thing is, how- ever, clear : he curses some who are objects of the Divine favor ; he blesses others with whom God is angry every day. In each instance he speaks in vain, as it regards them ; but in every one there is a record against him of presumptuous sin, in the book of God's remembrance.* CHAPTER III. POPERY UNCHANGED. MODERN DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE OF ITS HATRED TO LIBERTY OF OPINION, SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, FREE- DOM OF THE PRESS, AND A TRANSLATED BIBLE. § 20. — An impression is extensively prevalent that the Popery of the present day is something entirely different from the Popery of the dark ages, when amidst the gloom and the superstition of the world's midnight, it reigned Despot of the World. Yet while this change for the better is charitably believed by some lukewarm protestants, who are therefore contented to lay down their weapons and forsake their watch-tower, it is absolutely and unequivocally denied by the most celebrated champions of Rome. Says Charles Butler, in his Book of the Roman Catholic Church, " It is most true that Roman Catholics believe the doctrines of their church to be unchangeable ; and that it is a tenet of their creed, that what their faith ever has been, such it was from the beginning, such it is now, and such it ever will be." We have already seen, in the last chapter, that Popery is the same as in the dark ages, with respect to its essentially persecuting spirit. We shall now proceed by citations from various authentic documents of recent date, and by a reference to the state of Popery, as it is at present seen in popish countries, to show that in every important particular ; in its hatred to the freedom of opinion and of the press, and to the bible in the vulgar tongue ; in its hos- tility to the separation of church and state ; in its debasing, super- stitious, and grovelling idolatry ; its blasphemous pretended power of indulgences, and its forged miracles and lying wonders ; in all these respects, that Popery is even now the same that we have seen it throughout the career of ages, over which our long journey is now nearly finished. * Spirit of Popery, page 116. ciiAP. III.] POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1685-1845. 619 Liberty of opiiiioQ stitl forbidden. Pope opposed to separation of church and state. §21. — In the last session of the council of Trent, it was decreed in reference to certain doctrines, " If any one shall presume to teach or think {' senserit') differently from these decrees, let him be accursed" (see page 534). Thus we see that Popery invades the sanctuary of a man's most secret thoughts, and however con- sistently he may speak or act, if he presumes only to think diffei- ently from her decrees, subjects himself to her curse. To show that liberty of opinion is still prohibited in the Romish church, it will be sufficient to present a single extract from a document which no Roman Catholic will presume to dispute, emanating from the Supreme Pontiff himself, of no older date than August 15th, 1832. It is the famous Encyclical letter of the now reigning Pope, — Gregory XVI. " From that polluted fountain of indifference flows that absurd and erroneous doctrine, or rather raving, in favor and in defence of ' liberty of conscience^ for which most •pestilential error, the course is opened by that entire and wild liberty of opinion which is everywhere attempting the overthrow of civil and religious institutions ; and which the unblushing impudence of some has held forth as an advantage of religion." * * * • " From hence arise these revolutions in the minds of men, hence this aggravated corruption of youth, hence this contempt among the people of sacred things, and of the most holy institutions and laws ; hence, in one word, that pest of all others most to he dreaded in a state, unbridled liberty of opinion." § 22. — It might be expected that a power which is thus bitterly hos- tile to liberty of opinion, should be equally opposed to the separation of church and state, which has always been regarded by every en- lightened friend of freedom, as one of the surest safeguards of the liberty of nations. Accordingly we find pope Gregory, in the same document, making use of the following plain and unequivocal language : — " Nor can we augur more consoling consequences to religion and to government, from the zeal of some to separate the church from the state, and to burst the bond which unites the priest- hood to the empire. For it is clear that this union is dreaded by the profane lovers of liberty, only because it has never failed to con- fer prosperity on both." The reason why the Pope is in favor of a union of the state with the church, especially when the secular powers can be held in submission to Rome, is too obvious to need remark. In the fol- lowing extract from Gregory's bull of 1844, the Pope calls upon his " venerable brethren " to prevent the machinations of the Christian Alliance, and by exciting the jealousy of the sovereigns of Italy, lest their subjects should obtain with liberty of conscience political liberty also, he invokes their aid in frustrating these " sec- tarian combinations." " Moreover, venerable brothers," says he, " we recommend the utmost watchful- ness over the insidious measures and attempts of the Christian Alliance, to those who, raised to the dignity of your order, are called to govern the Italian churches, or the countries which Italians frequent most commonly, especially the frontiers and ports whence travellers enter Italy. As these are the points on which the sectarians have fixed to commence the realization of their projects, it is highly- necessary that the bishops of those places should mutually assist each other, zealously and faithfully, in order, with the aid of God, to discover and prevent their machinations. " Let us not doubt but your exertions, added to our own, will he seconded by the ciinl authorities, and especially by the most influential sovereigns of Italy, no less by reason of their favorable regard for the Catholic religion, than that they plainly perceive how much it concerns them to frustrate these sectarian combinations. Indeed, it is most evident from past experience, that there are no means more cer- tain of rendering the people disobedient to their princes than rendering them indif- ferent to religion, under the mash of religious liberty. The members of the Chris- tian Alliance do not conceal this fact from themselves, although they declare that they are far from wishing to excite disorder ; but they, notwithstanding, avow that, once liberty of interpretation obtained, and wilh it what they term liberty of conscience among Italians these last will naturally scon acquire political LIBERTY." Such has ever been the horror of the popes, in all countries sub- ■ ject to their sway, lest the people should obtain political liberty. § 23. — From the decree of the fourth session of the council of Trent, as well as the rules of the congregation of the Index (see above, pp. 488-499), we have seen that the laws of Popery authori- tatively prohibit the freedom of the press, and decree certain heavy penalties, wherever they have the power to enforce them, on all who dare to exercise that freedom. That this is still the doctrine of Rome will be evident from an additional extract or two from pope Gregory's bull of 1832. " Hither tends that worst and never sufficiently to be execrated and de- tested LIBERTY OF THE PRESS for the diffusion of all manner of writings, which some so loudly contend for and so actively promote." Again : " No means must be here omitted, says Clement XIII., our predecessor of happy memory in the Encyclical Letter on the proscription of bad books — no means must be here emitted, as the extremity of the case calls for all our exertions, to exterminate the fatal pest which spreads through so many works, nor can the materials of error be otherwise destroyed than by the flames, which consume the de- praved elements of the evil. From the anxious vigilance then of the Holy Apos- tolic See, through every age, in condemning and removing from men's hands sus- pected and profane books, becomes more than evident the falsity, the rashness, and the injury offered to the Apostolical See by that doctrine, pregnant with the most de- plorable evils to the Christian world, advocated by some, condemning this censure OF BOOKS AS A NEEDLESS BURDEN, REJECTING IT AS INTOLERABLE, OR WITH INFAMOUS EFFRONTERY, PROCLAIMING IT TO BE IRRECONCILABLE WITH THE RIGHTS OF MEN, OR DENYING, IN FINE, THE RIGHT OF EXERCISING SUCH A POWER, OR THE EXISTENCE OF IT IN THE CHURCH." In addition to the other " bitter causes of solicitude," pope Gregory proceeds to mention " certain associations, and political assemblies," in which (horribile dictu!) " LIBERTY OF EVERY KIND IS MAINTAINED, revolutions in the State and in religion are fomented, and the sanctity of all authority is torn in pieces." In the above extracts from these famous documents of pope Gre- gory, the acknowledged head of the Roman Catholic church, there is no ambiguity. The doctrine of Popery is stated without disguise. Let the reader remember, that these extracts are not from a document of the dark ages ; that they did not proceed from the pen of a Gregory VII., or an Innocent III., but from the present CHAP, m.] POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1685-1846. 621 Banyan's giant Pope biting hiB nails. Home's hatred to the Bible in the vulgar tongue. reigning Pope in the nineteenth century ; and that in them those rights which Americans and freemen of every nation hold most dear, liberty of opinion, of conscienof,, and of the press, are fiercely denounced as "absurd and erroneous doctrines;" '^preg- nant with the most deplorable evils" — and "pests of all others most to he dreaded in a state ;" while such as dare to " condemn this censure of books as a needless burden,'" " proclaim it to be irrecon- cilable with the rights of men," or deny " the existence of such a power in the church," are charged with falsity, rashness, and in- famous EFFRONTERY ! ! Who will deny that the spirit manifested in this document would prompt its author to enforce its abominable doctrines against the friends of freedom of every name, by the rack, -the faggot, and the stake, like his predecessors, in the palmy days when Popery was in its glory, if he did but possess the power? But, in the words of good old John Bunyan, though the giant Pope be still alive, sit- ting " among the blood, bones, ashes, and mangled bodies of pil- grims that had gone this way formerly," yet, " by reason of age, and also of the many shrewd brushes that he met with in his younger days, he has grown so crazy and stiff in his joints, that he can now do little more than sit in his cave's mouth, grinning at pilgrims, as they go by, and biting his nails, that he cannot come at them." § 24. — With respect to Rome's hatred to the bible in the vulgar tongue, we have seen that the council of Trent, in the fourth rule of the congregation of the Index (p. 492), declares that its indiscriminate use will be productive of " more evil than good." Such is still the doctrine of R,ome. Within the last thirty years, several papal bulls, or circulars, have been issued, condemning Bible Societies and the free circulation of the scriptures in the vulgar tongue. One by pope Pius VII., in 1816, one by Leo XII., in 1824, another by Pius VIIL, in 1829, and two by the present Pope, Gregory XVI., in 1882 and 1844. It will be sufficient to give a brief extract from the circular of Pius VII., in 1816, and more copious extracts from the bull of 1844, which, on account of its exhibition of the present chr^racter of Popery, is the most valuable of them all. In a letter addressed to the primate of Poland relative to Bible Societies, and dated June 26th, 1816, pope Pius VII. uses the following language: .' " We have been truly shocked at this most crafty device (Bible Societies), by Jfhich the very foundations of religion are undermined. We have deliberated lupon the measures proper to be adopted by our pontifical authority, in order to ifemedy and abolish this pestilence, as far as possible, — this defilement of the faith 'so imminently dangerous to souls. It becomes episcopal duty, that you first of all /expose the wickedness of this nefarious scheme. It is evident from experience, ' THAT THE HOLT SCEIPTUKES, WHEN CIRCULATED IN THE VULGAR TONGUE, HAVE, ' THROUGH THE TEMERITY OF MEN, PRODUCED MORE HARM THAN BENEFIT. Wam the people entrusted to your care, that they fall not into the siiares prepared for their ! everlasting ruin" (that is, as you value your souls, have nothing to do with Bible Societies, or the bibles they circulate). 622 HISTORY 01-' ROMANISM [book ix. Gregory's bull of 1844. All versions ol'the Scriptures forbidden without popish notes. § 25. — Nothing but want of space (as we have already exceeded our intended hmits) prevents us from giving entire the last bull of pope Gregory XVI., dated May 8th, 1844; so conclusive is the evi- dence it affords of Rome's unchanged hostility to the Bible. The following are the most important portions : — " Venerable Brothers, health and greeting Apostolical : — Among the many attempts which the enemies of Catholicism, under whatever denomination they may appear, are daily making in our age, to seduce the truly faithful, and deprive them of the holy instructions of the faith, the efTorts of those Bible Societies are conspicuous, which, originally established in England, and propagated throughout the universe, labor everywhere to disseminate tlie books of the Holy Scriptures, translated inia the vulgar tongue ; consign them to the private interpretation of each, alike among Christians and among infidels ; continue what St. Jerome formerly complained of — pretending to popularize the holy pages, and render them intelli- gible, without the aid of any interpreter, to persons of every condition — to the most loquacious woman, to the light-headed old man, to the wordy caviller ; to all, in short, and even by an absurdity as great as unheard of, to the most hardened infidels." The Pope then proceeds to remark that these societies " only care audaciously to stimulate all to a private interpretation of the divine oracles, to inspire contempt for divine traditions, which the Catholic Church preserves upon the authority of the holy fathers ; in a word, to cause them to reject even the authority of the Church herself." The Pope then proceeds to eulogize the tyrannical and bloody persecutor of the Waldenses and founder of the Inquisition, for his zeal against " Bibles translated into the vulgar tongue." " Hence the warning and decrees of our predecessor Innocent III., of luippy memory, on the subject of lay societies and meetings of women, who had assembled themselves in the diocese of Metz for objects of piety and the study of the Holy Scriptures. Hence the prohibitions which subseqiiently appeared in France and Spain, during the sixteenth century, with respect to the vulgar Bible." "It became necessary subsequently," he adds, " to take even greater precau- tions, when the pretended reformers, Luther and Calvin, daring, by a multiplicity and incredible variety of errors, to attack the immutable doctrine of the faith, omitted nothing in order to seduce the faithful by their false interpretations and translations into the vernacular tongue, which the then novel invention of printing contributed more rapidly to propagate and multiply. Whence it was generally laid down in the regulations dictated by the Fathers, adopted by the council of Trent, and approved by our predecessor Pius VIL, of happy memory, ant), which (regulations) are prefixed to the list of prohibited books, that the reading 'jf the Holy Bible, translated into the vulgar tongue, should not be permitted except to those to whom it might be deemed necessary to confirm in the faith and piety. Subsequently, when heretics utill persisted in their frauds, it became necessary- for Benedict XIV. to supekadd the injunction that no versions whatever sH0t)\LD be suffered to be read but those which should be approved of by xtie Holy See, accompanied by notes derived from the writings of the HolY Fathers, or other learned and Catholic authors. [ " Notwithstanding this, some new sectarians of the school of Jansenius, afte the example of the Lutherans and Calvinists, feared not to blame these justifiabl precautions of the Apostolical See, as if the reading of the Holy books had been a, all times, and for all the faithful, useful, and so indispensable that no authorit could assail it. " But we find this audacious assertion of the sect of Jansenius withered by the I most rigorous censures in the solemn sentence which was pronounced against ( their doctrine, with the assent of the whole Catholic universe, by two sovereign I pontiffs of modern times, Clement XI. in his unigeniius constitution of the year \ 1713, and Pius VI. in his constitution actorem fidei. Of the year 1794. Conse- quently, even before the establishment of Bible Societies was thought of, the decrees of the Church, which we have quoted, were intended to guard the faithful CJIAP, ni.J POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1685-1846. 623 All preceding decrees against the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue conlirmed by pope Gregory. against the frauds of lieretics who cloak themselves under the specious pretext that it is necessary to propagate and render common the studij of the holy hooks. " Since then, our predecessor, Pius VII., of glorious memory, observing the machinations of these societies to increase under his pontificate, did not cease to oppose their ef&rts, at one time through the medium of the apostolical nuncios, at another by letters and decrees, emanating from the several congregations of cardinals of the Holy Church, and at another by the two pontifical letters ad- dressed to the Bishop of Gnesen and the Archbishop of Mohilif. After him, another of our holy predecessors, Leo XII., reproved tlie operations of the Bible Societies, by his circulars addressed to all the Catholic pastors in the universe, under date May 5, 1824. Shortly afterward, our immediate predecessor, Pius VIII., of happy memory, confirmed their condemnation by his circular letter of May 24, 1829. We, in short, who succeed them, notwithstanding our great un- worthiness, have not ceased to be solicitous on this subject, and have especially studied to bring to the recollection of the faithful the several rules which have been successively laid down with regard tu the vulgar versions of the holy hooks." Alluding to the recently formed society called the Christian Alliance, the Pope says : " This society strains every nerve to introduce among them, by means of individuals collected from all parts, corrupt and vulgar Bibles, and to scatter them secretly among the faithful. At the same time, their intention is to disseminate WOKSE BOOKS still(! !), Or tracts designed to withdraw from the minds of their readers all respect for the Church and the Holy See." After referring with evident alarm to the fact of the translation into Italian of those excellent works, D'Aubigne on the Reformation, and M'Crie's Reformation in Italy, the Pope proceeds as follows : " With reference to works of whatsoever writer, we call to mind the observance of the general rules and decrees of our predecessors, to be found prefixed to the Index of prohibited books ; and we invite the faithful to be on their guard, not only against the books named in the Index, but also against those proscribed in the general proscriptions. "As for yourselves, my venerable brethren, called as you are to divide our soli- citude, we recommend you earnestly in the Lord, to announce and proclaim, in convenient time and place, to the people confided to your care, these Apostolic orders, and to labor carefully to separate the faithful sheep from the contagion of the Chkistian Alliance, from those who have become its auxiliaries, no less than those who belong to other Bible Societies, and from all who have any communica- tion with them. You are consequently enjoined to remove from the hands of the faithful alike the Bibles in the vulgar tongue which may have been printed con- trary to the decrees above mentioned of the Sovereign Pontiffs, and every book proscribed and condemned, and to see that they learn, through your admonition and authority, what pasturages are salutary, and what pernicious and mortal. . . . Watch attentively over those who are appointed to expound the Holy Scriptures, to see that they acquit themselves faithfully, according to the capacity of their hearers, and that they dare not, under any pretext whatever, interpret or explain the holy pages contrary to the tradition of the Holy Fathers, and to the service of the Catholic Church." After more remarks in a similar strain, the Pope proceeds, in the following words, to renew the condemnation of the Bible Societies, and to confirm all pre- ceding decrees against the Scriptures in the Vulgar tongue : " Wherefore, having consulted some of the Cardinals of the Holy Romish Church, after having duly examined with them everything and listened to their advice, we have decided, venerable brothers, on addressing you this letter, by which we again condemn the Bible Societies, reproved long ago by our predeces- sors, and by virtue of the supreme authority of our apostleship, we reprove by name and condemn the aforesaid society called the Christian Alliance, formed last year at New York ; it, together with every other society associated with it, or which may become so. " Let all know, then, the enormity of the sin against God and his Church which tliey are guilty of who dare to associate themselves with any of these societies, OT abet them in any way. Moreover, we confirm and renew the decrees re- cited ABOVE, DELIVERED IK FORMER TIMES BY AFOSIOLIO AUTHORITY, AGAINST THB 624 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book ix Four facta evident from pope Gregory's bull. PDBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, KEADINO AND POSSESSION OF BOOKS OF THE HoLT SCRIPTUKES TRANSLATED INTO THE VULGAR TONGUE." The circular letter from which the above copious extracts are transcribed is superscribed as follows : " Given at Rome from the Basilic of St. Peter, on the 8th of May, in the year 1844, and the fourteenth of our Pontificate." Signed, Gregory XVI., S. P. § 26. — The above is a remarkable document. It shows conclu- sively that Rome's hatred to the Bible remains unchanged, and that she is just as much opposed in the nineteenth century to " the publica- tion, distribution, reading, and possession of books of the Holy Scriptures translated into the vulgar tongue," as she was in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries, when she burnt the heretics who were guilty of these enormous crimes, with their Bibles hanging round their necks, or ransacked the grave of Wickliff, the first translator of the New Testament into English, and vented her rage by burning his mouldering bones to ashes. In the closing sentence of our quotations from the bull, pope Gregory confirms and renews the various decrees referred to in his circular, including, of course, the decree of pope Benedict XIV., which he cites, forbidding the reading of all versions, ex- cept " those which should he approved hy the Holy See, and accom- panied BY notes, derived from the writings of the Holy Fathers, or other learned and Catholic authors." Among the other decrees confirmed and approved in this letter of pope Gregory are the decree and rules in relation to pro- hibited books, adopted by the council of Trent, and approved by pope Pius VII., of happy memory — the bull Unigenitus of pope Clement XI., in 1713, condemning the New Testament of Father Quesnel, and the circulars or bulls of popes Pius VII., Leo XII., and Pius VIIL, against Bible Societies, issued successively from Rome in 1816, 1824, and 1829. From the extracts we have given from this bull of pope Gre- gory, four facts are manifestly evident. First, That the Pope, and of course all true papists, are still opposed to the " distribution, reading, and possession of books of the Holy Scriptures in the vul- gar tongue." Second, That tradition is still regarded as of equal authority with the inspired word of God. Third, That private in- terpretation of the Scriptures is still absolutely prohibited ; that is, that the Romanist does not believe the Bible means what it says, but what the church says it means. Fourth, That all hibles in the vul t o s- 5's: a c6 a •T3 O 1 O s Baltimore, ... New Orleans, - Louisville, - - Boston, - - - - 59 46 40 32 61 110 20 10 70 33 12 12 40 13 3 5 41 2 38 10 18 32 26 85 15 6 75 60 15 50 25 30 31 30 9 33 16 6 58 43 40 31 34 49 96 19 10 57 31 10 15 33 12 8 6 24 2 20 7 9 16 37 11 24 3 3 7 2 1 10 29 2 6 2 5 1 3 1 1 1 1 2 3 1 1 1 1 56 10 9 30 20 4 10 19 25 7 19 3 8 4 1 3 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 5 3 4 1 1 2 2 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 4 11 1 6 3 2 1 2 8 4 1 5 2 1 2 2 1 2 27 6 4 I 4 15 6 2 5 6 7 5 1 4 1 90,000 160,000 40,000 65,000 New York, - - Charleston, - • - 200,000 10,000 Cincinnati, - - - St. Louis, - - - 65,000 Mobile, - - . - Detroit, - - . Vincennes, - - - Dubuque, - - - 11,000 40,000 25,000 5,800 Natchez, - - - Pittsburg, - - - Little Rock, - - 30,000 Chicago, - - . Hartford, - - - 50,000 MiLWAUKIE, - - Ap. Vic. Or. T. - 20,000 Dioo. 21, V. Ap. 1 675 592 572 137 22 220 26 28 63 94 811,809 To the above table is appended the remark that the aggregate population of the dioceses not marked, is probably about 260,000, making a total of 1,071,800 as the entire Romish population at pre- sent in the United States. To show the probable increase of Roman- ism in future years, which, by the way, is chiefly by immigration from popish countries in Europe, the following comparative statis- tics of their increase in the past ten years are given from the same source. Dioceses, Bishops, Churches, in 1835, 13 " 14 " 272 in 1840, 16 17 454 in 1845, 21 26 " 675 Priests, Eccles. Seminaries. Colleges, " 327 " 12 " 9 (t (C 482 16 11 709 22 15 CHAP, v.] POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1685-1845. 643 Designs of the Pope and his adherents in America. Plain avowal of a popish editor (note). During the same ten years the total number of Roman Catho- lics in the United States, like the number of churches, has more than doubled, and with the addition of at least 100,000 popish immigrants every year, there can be no doubt that it will double again in less than the same time. The ratio of increase of the whole population of the United States, is about 34 per cent, for ten years. § 44. — There can be no doubt that the Pope and his adherents have formed the deliberate design of obtaining the ascendency in the United States. Popish priests and editors make no secret of this design, and expect its realization at no distant day.* The rapidity with which they are carrying forward their operations in the Western States may be gathered from the statistics of a single city. At the last census, St. Louis contained about 36,000 inhabitants, of whom probably 15,000 are papists, though the priests claim one half the population. From the St. Louis Directory, recently pub- lished, we gather the following particulars, furnished by the priests themselves. They have, including the cathedral and the chapel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is attached to the Convent, now built and building, seven churches, five of which are of the largest size and * The following language of Orestes A. Brownson, who is just now a flaming Roman Catholic, in the number of his Quarterly Review for April, 1845, would be of very little consequence from the chamelion character of the writer or editor, who, it has justly been remarked, " is everything by turns, and nothing long to- gether," were it not believed that the paragraphs relative to the designs of Popery in America are published " under authority." " ' But would you have this country come under the authority of the Pope ?' Why not ? ' But the Pope would take away our free institutions !' Nonsense. But how do you know that ? From what do you infer it ? After all do you not commit a slight blunder ? Are your free institutions infallible ? Are they founded on divine right ? This you deny. Is not the proper question for you to discuss, then, not whether the Papacy be or be not compatible with republican government, but, whether it be or be not founded in divine right ? If the Papacy be founded in divine right, it is supreme over whatever is founded only in human right, and then your institutions should be made to harmonize with it, not it with your insti- tutions. . . . The real question, then, is, not the compatibility or incompatibility of the Catholic Church with Democratic institutions, but, is the Catholic Church the Church of God ? Settle this question first. But, in point of fact. Democracy is a mischievous dream, wherever the Catholic Church does not predominate, to inspire the people with reverence, and to teach and accustom them to obedience to author- ity. The first lesson for all to learn, the last that should be forgotten, is, to obey. You can have no government where there is no obedience ; and obedience to law, as it is called, will not long be enforced, where the fallibility of law is clearly seen and freely admitted. . . . But ' it is the intention of the Pope to possess this country.' Undoubtedly. ' In this intention he is aided by the Jesuits, and all the Catholic prelates and priests.' Undoubtedly, if they are faithful to their religion." After the above plain avowal and additional remarks in a similar strain, Mr. B. comes to the following conclusion : — " That the policy of the Church is dreaded and opposed, and must be dreaded and opposed, by all protestants, infidels, dema- rogues, tyrants, and oppressors, is also unquestionably true. Save, then, in the discharge of our civil duties, and in the ordinary business of life, there is, and CAN BE, NO HARMOHT BETWEEN CaTHOLIOS AHD PkOTESTANTS." 044 HISTORY OP ROMANISM. [book ix. Statistics of Popery in Great Britain and throughout the world. the most durable construction. They have a University contain- ing one hundred and fifty students, under charge of the Jesuits ; an extensive hospital, and a Convent in charge of the Sisters of Charity. They have two large orphan asylums, also under the charge of the Sisters of Charity ; four free schools, tvi^o of them with five teachers each, one containing two hundred and fifty, and the other three hundred and fifty pupils, besides two female acade- mies, under the care of the Ladies of the Visitation. § 45. — Extraordinary efforts have also recently been made for the propagation of Popery in Great Britain. The following statis- tics of the Romish church in that kingdom are taken from the Catholic Directory for 1845 : — The total number of Roman Catholic chapels in England is 501, in Wales 8, in Scotland 73 besides 27 stations where divine service is performed, making a grand total for Great Britain of 582. Of the chapels in England, there are in Lancashire 98, in Yorkshire 58, Staffordshire 32, Middlesex 25, Northumberland 22, Warwickshire 22, Durham 17, Leicestershire 15, Cheshire 14, Hampshire, Somersetshire, and Worcestershire 13 each, Kent and Lincolnshire 12 each, and Cumberland, Derby, and Shropshire 9 each. Of the chapels in Scotland, there are in Invernesshire 17, in Banffshire and in Aberdeenshire 10. In England there are 10 Catholic colleges, in Scotland 1. In England there are 31 convents and 3 monasteries. The number of missionary priests in England is 666, in Scotland 91, making a grand total of 757. An intense excitement has, within the present year, been pro- duced in England by a Parliamentary grant — produced chiefly through the agency of Sir Robert Peel — of a large endowment to Maynooth Roman Catholic college in Ireland, near Dublin, where about 450 students are preparing for the Romish priesthood. § 46. — The total number of the Roman Catholic population throughout the world at the present time is variously estimated from one to two hundred millions. The Metropolitan Catholic Almanac for 1844, gave the number of "the faithful," 160,842,424, though it is to be remembered the entire population of many papal countries are included, whatever may be their religious views ; and it is well known that multitudes in Italy and elsewhere enumerated in the census of " the faithful," are infidels. The entire number of popish priests cannot be less than 500,000, probably more. Among these, according to the Cathohc Almanac, are one Pope, 147 archbishops, 584 bishops, 71 vicars apostolical, 9 pre- fects, 3 apostolicals, and 3,267 missionary priests. If such are the strength and numbers of the Romish church at the present time, it may be asked, why we have entitled this closing portion of our history " Popery in its Dotage." To this we reply, that its apparent increase in some countries is more than counter- balanced by its rapid decrease in others, as well in number as in influence and in power. The one hundred thousand annually swell- ing, by immigration, the Romish ranks in America, are only a trans- ier of so many from the old and priest-ridden countries of Europe ; and if it is true that the foundations of the throne of the papal anti- CHAP, v.] POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1685-1846. 645 Poperj', upon the whole, gradually diminishing in influence and strength. It is in its Dolafie Christ are being laid, broad and deep, on these western shores, still it is cause of joy and gratitude to the friends of truth, that in Europe that throne is tottering to its fall. The blows which Popery has received within a year past, in continental Europe, from the sturdy arms of John Ronge and his noble coadjutors in Germany, more than outweigh, in the estimate of its aggregate strength, its apparent and boasted successes in the western world ; and while it behoves America to be watchful against the advances of that dangerous and insidious power which is aiming to control her des- tinies, still it is consoling to reflect that the strength and influence of the papal anti-Christ is, upon the whole, gradually yet certainly diminishing ; and that it has been growing weaker and weaker, with each succeeding century, from the time when a Gregory, an Innocent, or a Boniface, by the force of their spiritual thunders, hurled monarchs from their thrones, or an Alexander VI., by a single dash of his pen, granted to the Catholic king of Spain the whole continent of America, North and South, and all beyond "a line drawn a hundred leagues west of the Azores, and extending from the South to the North Pole."* Most heartily, then, do we again join in the eloquent words of Hallam : — " A calm, comprehensive study of ecclesiastical history, not in such scraps and fragments as the ordinary partisans of our ephemeral literature obtrude upon us, is perhaps the best antidote to extravagant apprehensions. Those who know wh.\t Rome has ONCE BEEN, ARE BEST ABLE TO APPRECIATE WHAT SHE IS ; THOSE V7H0 HAVE SEEN THE THUNDERBOLT IN THE HANDS OF THE GnEGORIES AND THE Innocents, will hardly be intimidated at the sallies of DECREPITUDE, THE IMPOTENT DART OF PrIAM AMID THE CRACKLING RUINS OF Troy !"f Yes ! in spite of its spasmodic efforts for enlargement. Popery is in its dotage ! It is not, and never again can be, what it once was ; and compared with the Popery of the middle ages, notwithstanding its boasted and frequently exaggerated numbers, it is a Pigmy compared with a Giant. Popery is in its dotage ! and therefore all its struggles to regain its former power shall prove only like the convulsive throes of a dying man; for, sure as the unerring word of prophecy, anti-Christ is destined to fall, and the signs of the times indicate that the day cannot be very far distant, when the shout of joy and exultation shall be heard — " Babylon the Great is fallen, js fallen I" Let the Protestants of the present age only be vigilant, active, persevering and prayerful ! let them sleep not while the enemy is sowing his tares, and some of their children may yet live to see the day when the Romish Babylon shall be destroyed, and to join in the shout of triumph which shall burst from a disenthralled and regenerated world over its final downfall and destruction ! "Cj^ * See Irving's Life and Voyages of Columbus, book v., chap. 8, et supra, 428. + Hallam's Middle Ages, page 304, ei supra, 355. 646 CONCLUDING REMARKS. § 47. — Tlius have we, at length, arrived at the close of our long journey of sixteen or seventeen centuries, from the davi'n of papal corruptions down to the present time. The result of our examin- ation is the solemn conviction — strengthened the more attentively we study the subject — that the Romish, so far from being the true church, is the bitterest foe of all true churches of Christ — that she possesses no claim to be called a Christian church — but, with the long line of corrupt and wicked men who have worn her triple crown, that she is ANTI-CHRIST ; — the original of that apostate power whose character was sketched eighteen hundred years ago by the pea of inspiration, " whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness," and " whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming." (2 Thess. ii., 8-10.) If this is so, if Popery is not Christianity, but a system of cor- ruption, error, and falsehood, that has usurped that venerable name, then it is evident that Christianity is not chargeable with the atro- cious vices and horrible cruelties of which her corrupt and wicked hierarchy have been guilty through so many centuries of perse- cution, of shame, of pollution and guilt, and the history of which has been given in the pi-eceding pages. Let not the infidel, therefore, after perusing the detail of the enormities of anti-Christian Rome, close the book with a scowl of contempt at the New Testament, and say — " this then is your Christianity." No ! Popery is not Christianity ; it is not the re- ligion of the New Testament ; it is as far from it as light from darkness, as heaven from hell, as Christ from anti-Christ. And it would be just as rational to brand Christianity with the cruelties and enormities of the idol temples of Juggernaut or of Kalee, or with the atrocities of the infidel actors in the French revolution, as to lay at the door of the religion of HIM who was meek and lowly in heart, and who came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them — the crimes, the murders, the burnings, the massacres, the obscenities, the impostures, the lying wonders — which have marked the career of apostate Rome, at every stage of her pol- luted and blood-stained history. If Popery were a just exhibition of Christianity, it would be a religion unworthy of a Being of infinite holiness, purity, and be- nevolence, and were it not that prophecy has foretold "its history and described its character, the existence of such a system for so many centuries under the name of Christianity, would be the strongest prop of Infidelity. This difficulty, however, immediately vanishes, and Popery is transformed into an eloquent argument for the truth of the bible when we remember that its whole history and character are fully delineated in the prophetical scriptures ; that CHAP, v.] POPERY IN ITS DOTAGE— A. D. 1685-1845. 647 Slen who have advocated the identity of Rome with anti-Chriat. Can a Roman Catholic be saved 1 it is that great anti-Christian power, described by Daniel, in his seventh chapter (verse 25), under the emblein of a little horn, as " wearing out the saints of the Most High ;" by John in the Revelations, as a beast "making war with saints," and "open- ing his mouth in blasphemy against God" (xiii., 5, 6, 7), and as " Babylon the great, mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth," " a woman drunken with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus" (xvii., 5, 6), and by Paul in his first epistle to Timothy as " a departure from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils (iv., 1), and in his second epistle to Thessalonians as " a falling away," or apostasy, as the revelation of that " Man of Sin," that " Son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or is worshipped" (ii., 3, 4). In these prophetic scriptures, the character of the papal anti-Christ is drawn, with an unerring precision, which is sufficient alone to prove that these holy men, Daniel, Paul and John, " spake as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost." This identity of papal Rome with anti-Christ was maintained by Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, and all the continental reformers ; by Latimer, Ridley, Cranmer, and all the British reformers : by the illustrious Sir Isaac Newton, Mede, Whiston, Bishop Newton, Lowth, Daubuz, Jurieu, Vitringa, Bedell, and a host of equally pious, illustrious and learned names. The same testimony has been borne in the authorized doctrinal standards of the Episcopal, Pres- byterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, and other churches both of Europe and America. The same doctrine is still taught in the theo- logical school of Geneva by the illustrious D'Aubigne and Gaussen, and with but here and there a solitary exception, by all the most learned professors and clergymen of the present day, connected with the various evangelical denominations of protestant Christians. § 48. — Here the inquiry naturally presents itself, ' if the Romish is not a true church of Christ, but only an apostate anti-Christian power, is it possible for any one to be saved who dies in her com- munion V To this we reply, that the salvation of a man depends not upon what visible Church, whether true or false, he is connected with, but upon the question, whether he has been " born again" (John iii., 3), whether he has truly repented of his sins before God (Luke xiii., 3), and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts xvi., 31 ; John iii., 16, 36). If any man be thus reconciled to God through faith in Christ, he is a "new creature ; old things are passed away ; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. v., 17) ; and he who is thus called and justified shall most assuredly be glorified (Rom. viii., 30), what- ever visible church he belong to, or if he belong to none at all. It is not the connection with any particular church that saves a man (though it is the duty of every converted man to become a member of a church of Christ), but it is his union to the Lord Jesus Christ by a sanctifying and saving faith ; and if this is wanting, then all the confessions, and absolutions, and indulgences and extreme unc- tions of a priest can confer no benefit ; but if he possesses this sav- 38 648 HISTORY OF ROMANISM. [book dc. Some of God's believing people probably in Babylon. All eihorted to come out of her. ing faith in Christ, then while these popish practices can do him nol a particle of good, they shall not avail to shut him out of heaven. The great danger of these popish observances is, that they have led thousands and tens of thousands to trust not in the atonement and righteousness of Christ, but in them for salvation, while the ab- solute necessity of the new birth, and the new heart and the new life (" hid with Christ in God") has been kept out of sight, till it was too late ; and thus are the skirts of the Romish priesthood covered all over with the blood of the thousands and tens of thousands whom they have led blindfolded to hell. Still it is a thought calculated to relieve in some degree the pain- ful feelings produced by this bitter reflection, to remember that a Fenelon, a Kempis, a Pascal, a Bourdaloue, and perhaps thousands more who once held an external connection with the church of Rome, have, in spite of such connection, and the hindrance it offers to that personal application to and reliance on Christ, without which none can be saved, become penitent believers in Jesus, and are now in glory. O it is pleasing to hope that many a poor monk, like Luther in his monastery at Erfurth, may have found out, within the walls of his solitary cell, that " the just shall live by faith," and that salvation is to be obtained, not by pilgrimages, and penances, and indulgences and extreme unction, but through faith in the blood and righteousness of Christ; and thus discovered the way to heaven, though he may never have renounced his external connec- tion with Rome. That there may be some, even in the Romish Babylon, who are the " children of God by faith in Jesus Christ" (Gal. iii., 26), seems to be intimated by the warning cry, " Come out of her, my people !" If there were none of God's people in Babylon, they could hardly be galled upon to come out of her. To such, therefore, in the com- munion of Rome, who, though (like Luther in the sixteenth, and Ronge in the nineteenth century,) nominally connected with the Romish Babylon, have discovered her errors and mourned over her corruptions, I would say, Come out of her ! like Luther and the thousands of holy men who have trodden in his footsteps. Come out of her ! — if you would not be instrumental, by your influence and example, in leading souls from Christ to trust for salvation in the foolish mummeries of Popery which your souls despise — Come :out of her ! finally, if you would escape the calamities which pro- phecy declares are yet to fall upon her, hear the voice- from heaven (Rev. xviii., 4, 5), which says — Come out of hek, my people ! that YE BE NOT PARTAKERS OP HER SINS, AND THAT YE RECEIVE NOT OF HER PLAGUES ; FOR HER SINS HAVE REACHED UNTO HEAVEN, AND GoD HATH REMEMBERED HER INiaUlTIES ! THE END OF THE OEIGINAL EDITION. SUPPLEMENT TO BOWLING S HISTORY OF ROMANISM. J BY THE AUTHOR. BEING A CONTINUATION OF THAT WORK FROM THE ELECTION OP POPE PIUS IX. TO THE PRESENT TIME. A. D. 1846—1852. The continued demand for the present work, notwithstanding the sale of some twenty thousand copies, in connection with the recent occurrence of very remarkable events in the history of Rome and the Papacy, has suggested the importance of appending to the present new and enlarged edition a continuation of the history from the time of its first publication, A. D. 1846, to the present year, 1852. § 1. State of the Country under Pope Gregory XVI. — The dis- contented and disturbed condition of the Roman states under the im- becile but tyrannical old pontiff Gregory XVI., has already been alluded to.* Aided by his associate and adviser in oppression, the Secretary of State, Cardinal Lambruschini, he had long attempted, by a series of confiscations, banishments, and executions, to quell the rising spirit of liberty, and hundreds of the noblest spirits of Italy had been crushed beneath the iron heel of his priestly despot- ism. The government beneath which the people had groaned for ages, was a government of priests. The supreme council of Rome con- sisted exclusively of priests. The governors of provincials were cardinals and bishops ; and all the political and financial affairs of the Roman states were regulated by the priests. Their single object was the maintenance of their own priestly authority. Their spirit was a narrow, bigoted despotism, and the country they governed, though rich in the bounties of nature, was the poorest and the most miserable in Europe. * Supra— pages 633, 634. g50 SUPPLEMENT TO THE Reforma dem anded under Gregory XVI. Secret Manifeato. Yet, though thousands of her patriots had been either murdered or exiled, Italy still groaned for deliverance from her ghostly oppressors, and like the smouldering fires of Vesuvius previous to eruption, the fires of liberty were just ready to burst forth from their pent-up cav- erns, when the welcome news of the death of Gregory XVI. spread universal joy throughout the states of the church. § 2. Reforms demanded I>y the Italian People. — The following passages, translated from the conclusion of a "Manifesto of the Peo- ple of the Roman States to the Princes and People of Europe," is- sued a short time previous to the death of the old Pope, and secretly circulated, afford abundant evidence of the existence of this spirit among the people, and point out the reforms that were most impera- tively demanded : — " We venerate the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the whole clergy. We entertain the hope that it will recognise the noble essence of civ- ilization embraced in Catholicism. Therefore, in order that our views may not be misinterpreted by Italy and Europe, we proclaim aloud our respect for the sovereignty of the pontiff as the chief of the Universal Church, without restriction or condition. As respects the obedience due to him as a temporal sovereign, behold the prin- ciples which we propose to him for a basis, and the demands which we make : — " 1. That he shall accord an amnesty to all political offenders ac- cused since 1821; " 2. That he shall accord a civil and crim.inal code, modeled on those of other parts of Europe, establishing the publicity of debates, trial by jury, and the abolishment of confiscation, and of the punish- ment of death for the crime of treason ; " 3. That the inquisition and other ecclesiastical tribunals shall be divested of all jurisdiction over the laity; " 4. That the political trials shall be conducted before the or- dinary tribunals, with the ordinary forms ; " 6. That municipal councils shall be freely chosen by the people, and their choice approved by the sovereign ; that these councils shall nominate provincial councils, and that the supreme councils of state be named by the sovereign from lists presented by the provincial councils ; " 6. That the supreme council of state, sitting at Rome, shall have the control of thefinances and the public debt, that it shall have 1 determining voice in reference to the receipts and expenses of the state, and be consulted in reference to all matters of public interest ; " 7. That all employments and dignities, civil and military, be con- ferred on the laity; " 8. That the public instruction shall cease to be subjected to bishops and clergy, religious education being reserved exclusively to them ; " 9. That the censorship of the press be restricted to the prevention HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 651 Pope Gregory and the beautiful Cajetanina. of injury to the divinity, tiie Catholic religion, to the sovereign, and to the domestic life of the citizen ; " 10. Th&t foreign troops be disbanded. " 11. That there be instituted an Urban guard, charged with the maintenance of public order and of the observance of the laws ; " 12. Finally, that the government enter upon the path of all the social ameliorations demanded by the spirit of the age, and practised by the other governments of Europe." § 3. Character of Pope Gregory, and his favorite, the beautiful Cajetanina. — Before proceeding to describe the election of Gregory's successor, by whom we shall see that several of the above reforms have been granted, we shall pause, for the purpose of giving a brief sketch of the history and character of Gregory XVI. " Mauri Capellari was born at Belluno in 1765, and placed by his parents, respectable citizens, in a Benedictine convent of Camaldules. In 1826 he was named Cardinal by Pope Leo XII., and placed at the head of the Propaganda, or missionary school at Rome ; and on the 2d of February, 1831, crowned Pope, under the name of Greg- ory XVI. "As a man, if not greatly calumniated, he was passionate, not much restrained by his vows of chastity, and habitually addicted to the intemperate use of intoxicating drinks. This last failing enabled the French government to obtain great favors at Rome, by semi- annual presents of champagne ; and has been well hit off by a pas- quinade. It represents the deceased Pope knocking for admittance at the gates of Paradise. ' Who wishes to enter?' asks St. Peter. ' Gregory, your successor at Rome.' — 'But,' replies St. Peter, ' Greg- ory the Great died, and came here a long time ago. Who are you that have taken his name V — ' Why, they call me, in Rome, Greg- ory Bevone' {the tippler). ' Oh ! I have heard of you ; come in.'* * The Roman people have a great partiality for these pasquinades and carica- tures, and frequently exercise their wit upon a dead Pope, however obsequious to the living one. An amusing caricature and dialogue were got up in Rome, after the death of Gregory — representing St. Peter and Gregory going to Para- dise. The journey being hard and tedious for an aged man like the Pope, he complained to St. Peter thus : " How is it, St. Peter, that our journey is so long ? I did not know that Paradise was so far from the Vatican." St. Peter replied, " If you had allowed the construction of railways and steamers in your state, we should have arrived there long ago. But now you must stop for a while in Purgatory." After having remained some time in Purgatory, where he met his friend O'Connell — so the story goes — Gregory set out with St. Peter again on his eter- nal journey. Coming in sight of Paradise, the Pope asked St. Peter why the angels and his last predecessors in the Papal chair, did not come out to meet him. " Dear Gregory," replied St. Peter, " as for the Popes, there are few of them in heaven, and the news of your death has not yet reached there : as it would have done, if you had established telegraphs, and granted the freedom of the press." When the Saint and the Pope arrived at the gates of Paradise, St. Peter asked Gregory for his key, which after some time he found, and handed it to 652 SUPPLEMENT TO THE Curious History of the Pope's Barber. " When he was crowned, he distributed copper coins to the popu- lace, saying, ' Aurum et argentum non est mihi, quod autem habeo tibi do.' — ' Silver and gold I have none, but such as I have, give I unto you.' Yet he has left money and personal property, valued at $2,000,000 to his nephews and nieces; for, of course, he had no direct heirs. " As monarch of the Papal States, his partisans endeavor to ex- cuse his many faults by saying that owing to his modesty he was overruled by the cardinals ; but history will charge him with gross misgovernment and bigoted cruelty. No sooner was he seated on the throne than the occupation of Ancona, by the French, extorted from him a promise of reform and progress. How has he fulfilled it? The answer will be found in his invitation to Austrian bayonets, under Jesuitical influence, to enforce his despotic laws — in the taxes which have oppressed his subjects — in his encyclical letter, which destroyed the liberty of the press — in the maintenance of the Inqui- sition — and in the pertinacity with which, obstinate in wrong, he has clung to the antiquated prejudices which dog the advancement of society. In no other civilized nation are the people so ignorant — no other civilized nation is without a mile of railroad."* The allusion of the writer just quoted to Gregory's reputed want of chastity, refers, doubtless, to the fact, so notorious in Rome, of his concubinage with the beautiful wife of Count Cajetanino, formerly the barber and intimate associate of Capellari, when a monk ; after- ward CAMARiERO SECRETO, and chief favorite (always excepting his wife) to the same Capellari, when Pope Gregory XVI. " Other writers," says M. Cormenin, "will unveil, at the proper time, the mysteries of the private life of the Pope, the origin of the astonish- [ ing fortunes of Cajetanino, the barber of Cardinal Capellari ; they will explain the excessive tenderness of the holy father for the beau- tiful Cajetanina, and her seven children ; they will tell the causes which have given to her an apartment in the Quirinal palace, on the same story with that of the Pope. We will content ourselves with stating that at Rome strange rumors are circulated on this subject, and that Gregory XVI. is openly designated as the father of the chil- dren of Cajetanina."t ^ 4. Curious History of the Pope's Barber, the Imsband of Caje- tanina. — The following circumstantial and somewhat amusing ac- count of the rise of this fortunate barber, is related upon the authority of the Rev. Dr. De Felice, of Montaubon, the able and accurate for- eign correspondent of the New York Observer : — " While yet a simple monk, father Capellari frequented the shop him, but it proved to be the key of his wine-cellar. St. Peter was admitted within the gates, but Gregory was lost among the fog. * Correspondent of the Boston Atlas, dated Rome, June 5, 1846. t De Cormenin's Lives of the Popes, translated from the French ; vol. ii., page 431. HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 653 Rapid riee of tho monk Cnpellari. of a barber named Cajetanino Moroni, who was known as a facetious lellow, full of wit and joviality. A sort of intimacy was formed be- tween the monk and the merry barber. They passed sometimes liours together in the most friendly conversation, and Cajetanino said, laughing, to father Capellari : ' Wlien you shall be Pope, I will still be your barber.' How little did he think that this jest would become one day earnest! "In his youth and riper years, the monk Capellari was fond of study. He wrote some books in defence of the Catholic faith. His labors drew the attention of his superiors, and, in 1807, he was ap- pointed, by Pope Pius VH. member of the Academy of the Catholic religion. In this new office, he devoted himself more ardently than ever to theological pursuits. He became successively censor of the Academy, professor of theology, vice-president, and finally prior of the Camaldules in Rome. As might be supposed, the high honors conferred on Capellari would not allow him any longer to frequent the humble barber's shop, and take his turn to sit in the chair with his own clients ; but the intimacy between them was not diminished. Cajetanino went on set days to the convent of the Camaldules, to perform small offices for his old friend, and he repeated, with a more exulting air than before : ' When you shall be Pope, I will still be your barber.' " But the protector and his dependant were subjected to severe trials. It was the time when Napoleon ruled Europe with an iron rod. He took the city of Rome, made the Pope prisoner, and the religious congregations were dispersed. Capellari left the convent of Camaldules, and sought an asylum in the Venetian states, his own country. This was a cruel separation, especially to the barber Caje- tanino, who was left exposed to the jests of his friends. They asked him ironically : ' Do you still think you shall one day be the Pope's barber?' What prospect was there, indeed, that an exiled monk would ever be called to mount the pontifical throne ? " Things remained thus till 1814. Then Pius VII. returned tri- umphantly into what is called St. Peter's domains. Father Capellari' also left his retreat to resume the government of the monastery of Camaldules. He published a work on the miracles which had re- stored the pontifical authority, considered as motives to faith. This work, like all the other theological writings of Capellari contained a species of learning mixed with revolting superstitions and ridiculous, reasoning. Such is the employment of professors of theology, and ecclesiastical dignitaries in Rome. Men of very low capacity can attain to these high stations provided they only subserve the interests of the holy see. Capellari's conduct would seem extravagant in another country, but at Rome he was caressed and honored. He became councillor of the Inquisition and of the Propaganda, and in' 1826, he received a Cardinal's hat. " The barber was not forgotten by his fortunate patron. He con- 65i SUPPLEMENT TO THE The barber's all-powerful influence. The Bilver-pigeon tinned to perform his office about his person, and when he saw the red cap upon the head of Capellari, he repeated with more assurance than ever : ' When you shall be Pope, 1 will still be your barber.' But the last step in the ascent remained to be talcen. Cardinal Ca- pellari was appointed Pope. It is easier to imagine than to describe the joy, the transport, the ecstacy, of the barber Cajetanino, when he saw his prediction fulfilled. He was at last, as he had said so many times, called to the honor of being the Pope's barber. " Accordingly, when Gregory XVI. was installed in the palace of the Vatican, Cajetanino, with his wife and children, occupied splen- did apartments in the very dwelling of the Holy Father. The bar- ber was appointed camariero (servant of the bedchamber) ; he re- ceived the respectful homage of the bishops and other ecclesiastical dignitaries, who before had paid him no attention. He was loaded with riches by the Pope's munificence. A journal affirms that Caje- tanino now owns several domains of barons, counts, and marquises. He is become, indeed, the most important, most influential man in Rome.* " Gregory XVI, naturally timid, exchanging suddenly, the quiet life of a monk for the noise, intrigues, and perplexities of his govern- ment, sought for a favorite, a confidant in Cajetanino, and imparted to him all his thoughts. After figuring in public and pompous cere- monies, or delivering a speech in the council of Cardinals, he seeks, at night, the family of the barber, to rest from his fatigue and taste the sweets of domestic life. Cajetanino seems to be a man of good sense, who has not become giddy by his great fortune. He is the confidant of the Pope in all his difficulties, his adviser, and the dis- penser of his favors. " Applicants soon discovered the barber's influence, and to him they address their requests, when they wish to obtain any important office, or any other favors of the Holy .See. They are careful to add to their solicitations some rich present, or large sum of money to gain the concurrence of the Pope's servant. This is a very lu- crative business. I will mention but one example. '• Lately, the Jews of Rome, having been threatened with perse- cution by the Inquisition, felt that they absolutely needed the good offices of the barber Cajetanino for their security. They took sev- eral steps with him without success, because they did not ofTer money enough. At last they invented an ingenious method to soften the heart of the all-powerful favorite. One morning, when Cajetanino opened his window there entered an antomaton-pigeon, a master- piece of mechanism. This pigeon was of massive silver ; its eyes were formed of precious stones ; it had in its beak a golden twig, and the petition of the unhappy Jews was hung around its neck by a chain of gold. Cajetanino was enchanted, as you may well think, with this admirable manner of making him a magnificent present. * This correspondence was dated May 23, 1844. HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 655 Pope Gregory's death and funeral ceremonies. Ceremonies of a Pope's election. The petition of the Jews was immediately presented to the Pope, and they were rescued from the persecutions of the Inquisition. " I could relate to you several similar facts ; but this one is enough for my purpose. Here, then, you see the internal state of the court of Rome ; you see who is this pretended infallible Head of the Chris- tian world ! The Romanists regard him as the interpreter of the Holy Spirit, and they are not aware that there is one behind their idol, or rather above their idol, a favorite — sometimes a nephew, a more or less near relative — sometimes a barber, a domestic, who really governs the holy father, and controls all his purposes. What a strange religion is Romanism ! How shameful for intelligent beings to prostrate themselves before a feeble old man, who is himself un- der subjection to an obscure household servant ! Let us thank God that we, Protestants, acknowledge no other authority than that of the Lord and his holy Word !" § 5. Pojpe Gregory^s Death and Funeral Ceremonies. — Upon the death of Pope Gregory, which took place June 1st, 1846, the glory of Cajetanino of course departed, and the tonsorial favorite was glad to escape from Rome and to seek a refuge from the rage of an in- sulted and outraged populace, in the neighboring state of Tuscany. As soon as the death of the Pope was made known to Cardinal Camerlinque, that functionary, in accordance with the usual custom, proceeded to the Quirinal palace, raised the white covering over the face of the corpse, and struck three blows on the forehead with a small silver mallet. The Cardinal then proceeded to the window of the palace, and exclaimed in the hearing of the people, " 11 Papa realmente morto," that is, " The Pope is in reality dead." After this, he broke the fisherman's ring and great seal of state. Prepa- rations were then made for burying the Pope's body in state. The corpse was embalmed, clothed in the pontifical robes, and afterward placed on a throne in a chapel in the basilica of St. Peter, with the feet projecting through a railing (in the manner represented in the en- graving on page 381) so that all the people who chose might kiss them as they passed through the chapel. After the funeral ceremo- nies, which are called Novem Diali from their occupying nine days, the corpse was placed in a coffin and carried on a bier to the entrance of the vaults, where the body of Pius VHI. had reposed since his death in 1830 — there to remain till the death of his successor on the papal throne shall furnish another occupant for the temporary niche and consign his remains to their place of permanent sepulture. § 6. Ceremonies of a Pope's Election. — The election of a new Pope is a matter of surpassing interest in the city of Rome. The whole city, during a conclave,* is under a strange excitement. Vast multitudes assemble within view of the building in the palace where * Conclave. So called from the fact that the cardinals during the election of a Pope are closely confined under lock and key. From the Latin con, and da- vis, a key. 656 SUPPLEMENT TO THE Election of Pius IX. the cardinals are confined, with their eyes fixed for hours upon the chimney whence the smoke of the burning votes ascends, as a signal tiiat no election has been made. The ceremonies connected with the election of the Pope — uni- formly observed on such occasions — were as follows. The day after the last of the Novem Diali, or nine days funeral solemnities, which in this instance was the 11th of June, the cardinals, after hearing mass, proceed to one of the pontifical palaces, where rooms have been prepared for each of them. Upon their entrance the door is locked and the passage to the palace walled itp, so to remain till the election has taken place ; the keys of the palace, in the meanwhile, beinrr intrusted to a prelate, previously chosen by the cardinals, and styled governor of the conclave. During their confinement, each cardinal is allowed a secretary, called conclavista, and two domestics. While the cardinals are in conclave, the utmost precaution is taken to prevent any communication with the people without. Even their meals are closely examined by the proper functionary, to see that no writing is concealed therein. At a stated hour each day, the cardi- nals meet to count the votes, two thirds of which are necessary to secure an election. If no one is elected, the ballots are thrown into a small furnace, together with some combustible materials, and the smoke passing through a tube to the top of the palace, informs the multitude without that no election has taken place. Should the stated hour pass by, as soon as the last loll of the clock has an- nounced the fact, the cry bursts forth from ten thousand voices, Aon v'efumo ! — There is no smoke ! which is equivalent to saying, A Pope is elected. <§ 7. Election of Pius IX. — On the present occasion, the multi- tude had for five days in succession seen the smoke arising from the chimney, as a signal that Rome was still without a Pope. On the sixth day, however, the election was made. The hour passed and no smoke appeared. The closed aperture was broken down, and the master of the ceremonies came forth to the multitude, and bor- rowing the language of the angels at the birth of Christ, "I bring you tidings of great joy" — " Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum,'''' an- nounced that Cardinal Mastai Feretti was elected to the dignity of Pope, under the name of Pius IX. Within the conclave, as soon as the fact of his election is ascertained, he is invested with the pon- tifical robes, and the cardinals — an hour before his equals — bow be- fore him with the lowliest reverence, and kneel to kiss his feet. With- out, the air resounds with the shouts of the populace, the beating of drums, the rattling of musketry, the ringing of bells, and the roaring of the cannon of Saint Angelo ; and all this to celebrate the suc- cession of another to the vacant chair of St. Peter the fisherman, another king elected to reign over the church of Him who said, " My kingdom is not of this world" — and to receive the homage and Pope Pius IX. HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 659 Uarly life of the new Pope. First reforms, prostrations of the disciples of Him who said, " One is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren !" § 8. Early life of the neiv Pope. — The new Pope, whose full name was Giovanni Maria Mastai Feretti, was 54 years old at the time of his election. He was born at Sinigaglia, in the march of Ancona, on May 13, 1792. While yet a child, he is related to have had a remarkable escape from drowning. He fell into a pool, and was drawn from the water by a poor countryman named Guidi, who has lived to see his little charge seated in the so-called chair of St. Peter, and to be substantially rewarded by him for the service he had rendered half a century before. At the age of 18, young Fe- retti visited the city of Rome, and soon after entered upon military life. It is related that He enlisted in the army of Napoleon, but at- tained no higher rank than that of a lieutenancy. Upon recovering from a dangerous sickness, he exchanged the army for the church, and soon after becoming a priest, he was sent by Pope Pius VH. to Chili in South America, in the capacity of auditor to the (so-called) vicar-apostolic of Chili, Mugi, now the Roman Catholic bishop of Clta Castello. From Chili, Feretti afterward travelled to Montevi- deo and other parts of South America, as a missionary of the Pope. On the return of Feretti to his native land, he found that his for- mer patron, Pius VII., was dead, and that he had been succeeded in the papal chair by Leo XII. The usual reward of the faithful servants of the papacy was not, however, withholden from the suc- cessful missionary. In the year 1829, he was raised to the lucrative post of archbishop of Spoleto ; three years later, in December, 1832, he was transferred by the late Pope Gregory XVI. to the bishopric of Imola; and in 1840 he was raised to the dignity of Car- dinal. <§ 9. The first Reforms. — Stippressio?i of the Secret Tribunal, Sp:., and Dismissal of Lamhruschini. — Immediately upon his accession to the Popedom, Pius IX. surprised the world by the adoption of a policy as extraordinary as it was novel for an occupant of the Papal chair — a policy of political reform. Leaving, for the present, the discusssion of the motives which prompted this apparently liberal policy, we shall now proceed to re- late the principal reforms introduced by Pius, chiefly in the words of a vigorous writer who is himself an Italian and an exile.* "We choose to borrow the words of this author, though sometimes a little too enthusiastic for our taste, principally because we believe the facts to be correcdy stated, and partly because we would not withhold from the Pope the meed of praise which is his due. At the commencement of the reign of the new Pope, the Italian writer referred to represents him as casting a look over the eternal city, and beholding it lying before him, a den of serpents, a desert * See an article on Italy and Pius IX., by G. F. Secchi de Casali, in the .American Review for November, 1847. 060 SUPPLEMENT TO THE Suppression of the secret triburml. Dismissal of Lambruschini. Amnesty for political oiienders. — the people dying for food, or wandering in anarchy and poverty ; thousands exiled in foreign lands ; the prisons crowded with political offenders ; the government held by the enemies of the people, and deaf to their cries. No public instruction ; no industry ; religion corrupted by its own ministers ; crime triumphing in every shape of depravity ; despotism showing its low and odious front at every step , justice unattainable ; the courts, which should be the schools of con- science, converted into offices of bribery and gross oppression ; the whole state reeling to its centre, and about to fall for ever, and be swallowed up. Rather than pass under a successor like Gregory, the Roman people would have preferred the dominion of Austria ; but Heaven had so favored them, that should their Pontiff perform his duty to himself and his officers, they might once again, and per- haps for ever, gain a footing among nations, and step forward boldly in the race of civilization. A few days after his election he suppressed the military warrants, a kind oi secret tribunal for the seizure and condemnation of political offenders — analogous with the Council of Three of the Venetian government. He then called upon six cardinals to compose a council for delib- eration upon public affairs, and resolved upon giving, on a certain day of every week, a public audience to all comers, without distinction of rank or condition. He caused a. private letter-box for himself to be placed in the entry of the Vatican. Lambruschini was still Secretary of State ; and while he continued in that office, there was no hope of amelioration for the people ; he saw only anarchy and license in the reform movements, and opposed giving a constitution to the state, as if it were a merely revolutionary policy. To oppose the injurious influence of this minister, Pius then conjoined the two offices of foreign affairs and the secretaryship in one, and conferred it upon Cardinal Gizzi — a man of liberal and enlightened views, who was prepared to sympathize and co-operate with Pius in his plans of reform. § 10. Proclamation of the Amnesty for Political Offetiders. — At the time of the death of Pope Gregory, the estimated number of Italian exiles driven from their native land for political offences — many of them for daring to whisper the name of liberty — was from five to six thousand. Letters containing supplications from the friends and families of the exiles, poured in upon the Pope. " Pius ! Pius ! have mercy upon us ! pity our families, our brothers, in exile and misery !" But, to call back and reinstate all, was an attempt serious, if not dangerous. He had been Pope only one month when he resolved upon this great act of justice. Cardinal Gizzi gave his support to the measure, and on the evening of the memorable 16th of July, the amnesty was declared for all political offenders. The Romans, notwithstanding all their hopes, were taken by sur- HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 661 Encourages railroads. Dismisses Gregory's police. Preaches a sermon prise by this new proof of magnanimity in their chief, and the city and country were filled with joy and mutual congratulations. A vast crowd assembled in the Colosseum and at the Capitol, and marched in procession, with wax candles, and singing joyful songs, to the Monte Cavallo, to return thanks to their chief, and beg his benedic- tion. Since the fall of the last of the Tribunes, there had been no such day in Rome. The houses throughout the city, and every palace except those of Cardinal Lambruschini and the Austrian am- bassador, were illuminated. The vast crowd moved to the ground under the balcony of the Pope's palace, and here he extended bis hands and blessed them. On the morning of the next day, the Pope returning in his car- riage, the horses were taken from it by the people, who then drew him with songs of triumph to the Quirinal palace. No Pope was ever treated with an equal degree of attention by the Roman people. The festivals and illuminations continued for many days after the amnesty, both in the Roman states and in other parts of Italy. The joy of the Bolognese was excessive ; they voted a marble statue to Pius IX., and kept up the festivities three days and nights. The bills of amnesty posted on the corners of the streets, were wreathed with flowers. Political parties throughout all Italy resolved themselves into the one party of the Pope. § 11. Encourages Railroads, dismisses Gregory's Police, and preaches a Sermon. — To promote industry, commerce, and the ame- lioration of the country, on the 10th of November he invited private companies of citizens to submit projects for railroads in the Roman states. In the meantime he granted economical and other govern- mental reforms, and established new institutions for municipal and provincial legislation. The terrible police of the last Pope was discontinued, and a de- cree promulgated, threatening severe judgments against criminal offenders, but declaring that no person should be prosecuted for po- litical opinions. The employees of Gregory XVI. were discharged from office, and liberal and intelligent persons substituted. The se- cret and mysterious tribunals were abolished, and the judicial and penal systems of Beccari and Filangieri, which abolish capital pun- ishment and establish trial by jury, adopted by the compilers of the new code. On the 18th of November, a vast crowd being assembled from all parts, he preached in San Giovanni, in the Lateran, which is the first instance of a Pontiff's preaching in public. The congregation fol- lowed him to the Quirinal palace, on his return, with vivas and cries % 12. Swiss Soldiers dismissed — Press partially liberalized — Jews relieved, S/'c. — Beside the above, the following reforms have been effected : — 662 SUPPLEMENT TO THE Swiss soldiers dismissed. Jews relieved. Visit of the peasant Guidi to the Pope The six thousand hired Swiss soldiers have been sent home, and national and civic guards have been organized in their stead. The tariff on cotton and woollen goods, and the enormous internal duties on salt,* and other articles, have been reduced. Private companies have been authorized to construct four lines of railroad, having a total length of about four hundred miles. The law concerning the liberty of the press has been so altered that the rigid censorship which before existed was changed for a somewhat more liberal one, and the censors, except of works on religion, must henceforth be laymen. Still, it is a mistake to suppose that the freedom of the press exists in Rome. The Jews of Rome, who had been cruelly oppressed by the last Pope,t and confined to that miserable part of the city called the Ghetto, have been relieved from certain special taxes that had been imposed on them, and are now permitted to establish themselves where they please, in any part of the city. § 13. Visit of the ijeasa.nt Guidi to the Pope Several anecdotes have been related of the Pope, which, if true, are sufficient to show that he is not only politic and prudent as a prince, but kind and be- nevolent as a man. One of the most interesting is the following ac- count of the interview between the Pope and the poor countryman who, fifty years before, had saved him from a watery grave. The peasant, Domenico Guidi, was already some seventy years old — poor, and destitute of the means of subsistence for himself and his daughter. Incited by the fame of Pius IX., after many days of sufferings and hardship, the father and daughter arrived at Rome, quite destitute, and not knowing how to make themselves known to * Says a correspondent of the Kew York Observer, in a letter dated Sonie, April 27, 1848 — " The demoralizing effect of a single unjust law is great. For example, take the late government monopoly here of the manufacture of salt, and the enormous duty imposed on it. ' This profit,' says a writer here, ' is chiefly wrung from the poorer classes of the agriculturists. The most grievous consequences arise from the rigor with which it is protected. We have seen poor peasants inhabiting the seashore, expiate in a dungeon the crime of boiling sea water to obtain a little salt. We have seen saline springs destroyed, choked up with stones and earth, and soldiers placed to guard them, at the risk of conflict and bloodshed with the poor wretches who sought to profit by these gratuitous gifts of Providence.' " f Gregory XVI. in 1843, in connexion with the Holy Inquisition of Rome, published a cruel edict against the persecuted Jews. In this decree, they were forbidden to^ receive Catholic masses, or to engage Christians in their service. The conclusion of this intolerant decree, conceived in the true spirit of Popery, is as follows : " No Israelite shall sleep out of his Ghetto, nor induce a Christian to sleep in that accursed enclosure, nor carry on friendly relations with the faith- ful, nor trade in sacred ornaments, nor books of any kind, under a penalty of five hutidred crowns, and of seven years' imprisonment. The Israelites, in interring their dead, shall not make use of any ceremony, nor shall they use torches, under penalty of confiscation. Those who shall violate our edicts shall incur the penal- ties of the Holy Inquisition. The present measure shall be communicated in the Ghetto, to be published in the synagogue. Dated from ' The Chancellary of the Holy Inquisition, June 2iih, 1843.' Signed, " Fra ViNCENZo Salina, Inquisitor- General." HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 663 The Boldiere bad bread. Oppoeition of Auetria to the reforms o f Pius the Pontiff. Since his election Pius IX. had strictly forbidden pub- lic beggary, and at his own cost had founded splendid almshouses for the destitute. The officers arrested Domenico Guidi and his daugh- ter as vagrants, and took them to the police-office. After discovering who he was, and the intent of his journey, the commissioner informed the Pope of this story of Guidi and his daughter. Both were there- upon well dressed by the order of the Pope, and taken in a car- riage to the Vatican. On the 28th of March, 1847, accompanied by the physician of the government and by his daughter, Guidi en- tered the pontifical hall of the Vatican, to be admitted to audience, but fainted at the entrance, and fell upon the floor. The officers and prelates of the court, with the physician, relieved the unfortu- nate Guidi, and the Pope gave order that he should be removed to a comfortable room of the palace, and receive every attention. The next day, when Guidi had sufficiently recovered himself, he was admitted to audience. Nothing could be more interesting and admirable than the interview between the Pontiff and the saver of his life. Pius received him as an old friend, and with the kindest expressions. Guidi could neither speak nor show any demonstra- tions, so great was his astonishment and admiration. The Pope would not permit him to kneel before him, but embracing him, he said, " Guidi, you were the friend of my childhood, and the saver of my life. You shall suffer no more from want. You and your daughter shall go to Sinigaglia to my palace, and live with my friends." The next day Guidi left Rome, in a post-carriage. His daughter was placed in a house of education, and Guidi still lives comfortably in the Mastai palace. § 14. The Soldier's bad Bread. — Another pleasing anecdote re- lated- of Pius, is the following : It has already been mentioned that one of the early steps taken by the Pope was the granting of a pub- lic audience to all classes of his subjects, without distinction of rank, and without the common ceremonies of presentation. On these oc- casions the meanest of his subjects was allowed full permission to state his grievances and to prefer his petition. At one of these audi- ences, a common soldier brought to the Pope a loaf of miserable bread, and said it was a fair sample of their daily allowance. Pius took the loaf, invited the minister of war to dinner, and laid it on his plate. The astonished functionary turned pale when he saw it, and the Pope inquired if that was the kind of bread he furnished to his soldiers. After that he passed through the barracks, and having found some four thousand similar loaves, he ordered them to be given away, imprisoned the bakers who furnished them, degraded the min- ister of war from his office, and supplied each soldier with money to buy bread for himself. § 15. Opposition of Austria to the Pope's Reforms. — During the reign of Pope Gregory XVI., the despotic government of Austria had exercised a controlling influence in the Roman states. The im-' 664 SUPPLEMENT TO THE Design against the Pope's litis. Conspiracy of the anniversary of the amneety. perious and tyrannical Prince Metternich, then at the summit of his power, had more than once listened to the supplications of the Pope to protect him against the rising spirit of liberty among his own peo- ple. At the commencement of his reign the attempted revolution of 1831 had been quelled by Austrian armies, and Austrian bayonets alone had prevented the patriots of Italy from demanding and se- curing from the old Pope all and more than all the reforms that have been granted by his more liberal and politic successor. At the commencement of the reign of Pope Pius, Metternich saw himself in danger of losing the influence he had long possessed in the Roman states, and by means of the Austrian ambassador in Rome, used every means to turn Pius IX. from his course of reform, and to induce him to follow the policy of his predecessor. The ambassador exerted himself to the utmost to create a breach between the Romans and the Pope ; and failing in this, excited against him several of the cardinals, whose power had been much abridged since the death of Gregory XVI., besides a number of fanatical priests and friars, who resolved, if possible, to effect his destruction. The first conspiracy against the life of Pius IX. was to }>ave been accomplished on the 5th of April, 1847. This diabolical plot has been shown by clear evidence to be the work of the fanatics and of Austria. The French ambassador, Signor Rossi, revealed their de- signs and names to the Pope. Instead of immediately arresting them, he followed the policy of a man confident of his position. The conspirators had put their names into a vase, and drawn the one who was to visit the Pope and kill him during the interview. A Capuchin, or religious friar, was the person whose name came out first ; and, followed by the other conspirators, he went to the Vati- can, and asked to speak with the Pope. Pius sent for the name of the friar, which was boldly given. His name was on the list. Orders were immediately given to arrest him. As he was admitted and entered the hall, two pistols and a poisoned dagger were found upon his person. He was then sent to the castle St. Angelo with the rest ; and many others were afterward arrested. The fact had to be kept secret for a short time, in order to avert the vengeance of the Roman people from the friars. Other conspiracies, in which ecclesiastics were engaged, have been discovered in the Roman states. Cardinal Delia Genga, nephew of Pope Leo XII., was arrested and sent to the castle St. Angelo, for not fulfilling the orders of the new government, while he was a legate in Romagna. Some priests preached in the churches against Pius IX. Of these, some were arrested ; others, known to have been ultra-Catholic, were murdered by the irritated people. ■^ 16. Conspiracy of the Anniversary of the Amnesty. — The 18th of July was the anniversary of the amnesty. To celebrate this epoch, the people were making sumptuous preparations, erecting tri- umphal arches, temples to Amnesty, illuminations, fire-works, and HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 665 Plan of the conspirators, Austrian Invaeion of tho Papal states. Seizure of Ferrara. pageants, as such things are done in Rome. Every one looked for- ward with joy to the approaching anniversary, when a population of 180,000 inliabitants would unite in celebrating the election of Pius IX. and the Amnesty. But now the festival was to be made a car- nage ; thousands of people were secretly marked for slaughter, and the Pope was to be hurried off from Rome, while an anti-Pope was to be elected in his stead. The Austrian emissaries distributed money and granted favors to whoever would engage in the conspiracy. Arms, funds, all the necessary means were offered, and when the work was accomplished, the same day she made ready to send an army to invade the Roman states. As it was, her advance was no farther than Ferrara. A few days previous to the execution of the plot, by the boldness of some citizens of Faenza, and by the energy of Ciceronachia, a man of the people, all was discovered, and Pius triumphed again over his enemies. The plan of the conspirators was to attack the soldiers and gen- darmes on the evening of the 18th of July, while the people and the army were celebrating the anniversary of the Amnesty. They were to attack the troops with daggers, on which were carved the words, "Long life to Pius IX.," as if the authors of this massacre were the exiles and followers of Pius IX. The conspirators, mingled with the sol- diers, were to kill all the liberal citizens — to carry the Pope to Naples — to oblige him to abdicate, and to call for an Austrian intervention. As soon as this atrocious plot was discovered, Pius IX. said that " the time for clemency had passed, it was necessary to act with se- verity." He ordered the festival to proceed, as if nothing had hap- pened, and established the National Guard. The government used all the necessary precautions that the crisis demanded, and named his cousin, the cardinal Feretti, Secretary of State, instead of Gizzi. The National Guard was organized, and men of all ages and con- dition enlisted. The wealthy families offered arms and money, and their palaces to be used as barracks for the troops. The next day, after the nomination of Feretti, the advocate Morandi succeeded Grasselini as Pro-governor of Rome. Grasselini fled the same night to Naples. The active movers in arranging the plot, appear to have been a number of disbanded agents of a secret police of the late Pontificate. Nothing appeared directly to implicate the cardinal Lambruschini, who remained quietly at Givita-Vecchi, notwithstand- ing that the people believed him to be one of the conspirators. § 17. The Austrian Invasion of the Papal States, and Seizure of Ferrara. — If any proof were wanting that the conspiracy we have related was set on foot by Austrian agency and intrigue, the occupa- tion of Ferrara, a town in the Papal states, on the very same day, by Austrian troops, is abundantly sufficient. When the governor of Ferrara, Cardinal Ciacchi, protested against this invasion of a peace- ful state, the Austrian general calmly inquired whether he had not received special notice from Rome of the expected arrival of the 39 666 SUPPLEMENT TO THE The Pope's reforms as a prince no guaranty for reforms as a priest. Austrian army in Ferrara ; thus establishing the fact of a mutual agree- ment between the Austrian conspirators at Rome, and Austrian in- vaders at Ferrara. In the broad noonday, those barbarous hordes invaded the town, and compelled the pontifical garrison to surrender the different posts into their hands. To crown their insolence, they sent a guard of honor to the cardinal legate, who immediately aban- doned the government-house, and removed to the bishop's residence. On receipt of this intelligence at Rome a council of cardinals was assembled, and Pius IX., moved by the signal insult thus offered to him, declared that he would protest ; and that if that new protest was disregarded, he would decree a sentence of excommunication against the invaders, and that if that measure did not avail, he would hoist the labarvm (the sacred standard of the Papacy), and march against the Austrians at the head of his people. Several of the Powers of Europe protested against this high-handed outrage on the part of Austria against Pius IX. ; and when the Austrians discovered the failure of the conspiracy at Rome, they shortly after evacuated Ferrara, and departed from the dominions of the Pope. § 18. The Pope's Reforms as a Prince no guaranty for Reforms as a Priest. — It is not surprising that in America, and other lands that have tasted the blessings of freedom, a widespread sympathy should have been felt in the reformatory movements of the Pope, and a universal indignation at the efforts of Austrian despots to crush these movements toward political liberty, in the bud. Nor is it strange that some have fondly hoped that Pius was about to extend these liberal movements into the domain of religion, and that, per- chance, Popery itself might change its character, and instead of be- ing, as heretofore, a system of spiritual despotism, falsehood, and tyranny, that it was about to become a religion of truth, of gentle- ness, and of love. No mistake could be greater than this. Sooner might " the Ethiopian change his skin, and the leopard his spots." These reforms, such as they are, are political, not reUgious. Pius is a Papist still. The position occupied by a Pope of Rome is one which is entirely sui generis. It has no parallel among the sovereigns or dignitaries of the civilized world. He is at the same time a Prince and a Pon- tiff. In the former character, he is the head and monarch of the state ; in the latter (according to the creed of Romanism), he is the head and monarch of the church. As a Prince, he may alier, amend, or modify, the political institutions of the state over which he reigns ; while as a Pontiff he is himself bound by the infallible de- crees of his church, as embodied in the acts and canons and anathe- mas of preceding Popes and councils. Hence, it is a mistake, though many fall into it, to imagine that Pius IX.'s reforms as a prince are to be considered as any guaranty of reforms as a priest. The government of the Roman states, hitherto the most wretched in Europe, may perhaps be ameliorated by the adoption of a portion HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 667 Piua no Froteetaiit Pope. Testimony of Roman Catholics. of those liberal institutions and political rights which have been long enjoyed by every Protestant nation ; while Popery remains the same bible-hating, heretic-cursing system of bigotry, intolerance, and spir- itual despotism, as it ever has been. No mistake can be greater than to suppose that the present Pope's "political acts" are to be regarded as an index of his " ecclesiastical dispositions," that the reforms he has granted in the state are to be followed by any changes or modifications in the system of Popery itself. Infallibility and immutability are the boast of the Romish church. "It is a te- net of their creed," says one of their own writers " that what their faith ever has been, such it was from the beginning, such it is now, and such it ever will be."* § 19. Pius IX. no .Protestant Pope, Romanists being witnesses. — None are more strenuous than Roman Catholics themselves in de- nying that the liberality of the Pope as a Prince is to be regarded as any indication of his feelings as a Priest. " How widely," says the writer of an article lately published in Bishop Hughes' Freeman's Journal, " has the belief spread that Pope Pius IX. was in every sense of the word a liberal Pope : that his political acts, misread by infidels and revolutionists, afforded an index of his ecclesiastical dispositions : that his concessions to the spirit of the time fixed a deep gulf between him and the old Gregories and Innocents of the Pope- dom : that a new spirit' was being breathed into the Catholic religion by the secular influences of the time. . . . How widely have these most delusive hopes spread ! How fondly have they been nursed and cherished ! In every country, amongst weak, or wicked, or ig- norant men, this thought has made its way — that in a liberal Pope was to be found a traitor to his own church, an apostle of some mad scheme of universal fusion, a destroyer of the antiquated dogmas of Christianity. . . . In Ireland, as elsewhere, the character of the Pope has been misconceived ; the nature of his liberality mistaken. There, as elsewhere, dreams have been nursed of a false peace — a peace, the characteristics of which were to be universal philanthropy, tolera- tion, charity — a peace, to attain and preserve which, the odious ex- clusiveness of Catholicity was to be abolished for ever ; and — not merely in civil laws — but in the language of its own claims, and the forms of its own institutions, it was to bring itself down to the mis- erable level of the sects."+ According to the admission of this Roman Catholic writer, the boasted reforms of Pope Pius are nothing more than " concessions to the spirit of the time ;" and every Protestant should know that this policy is as old as the Papacy itself. Popes have seldom re- * Charles Butler, in his Book of the Church. f The article from which the above extracts are taken, was published in the Freeman's Journal, the week following the great meeting in the Broadway Tabernacle, in November, 1847, for the glorification of Pius IX. ; — a fitting re ward for American Protestants who are willing to lick the dust beneath the feet of " his Holiness," the Pope of Rome. 668 SUPPLEMENT TO THE The Pop&s reforms dictated solely by policy. Pius IX. no Republican. fused, in secular politics, to commit themselves to the humor of the day ; but it was that they might always be Popes — spiritual despots, ecclesiastical tyrants, lording it over the consciences and souls of men. If any one doubts whether the partial political reforms of Pius were in reality demanded by the "spirit of the times," let him refer back to the secret manifesto which we have copied in section the second of this supplement, and then let him remember that that document, demanding all and more than the present Pope has granted, was in circulation before Pius had dreamed of the Papacy, and while he was simply Bishop of Imola. <^ 20. The Pope's Political Reforms dictated hy Policy alone. — After the caveat just quoted from Roman Catholic authority, it is to be hoped that there is but little danger that Protestants should in- dulge the vain hope of any essential change in the Antichristian sys- tem of Popery, or that they should mistake the true character, as political acts, of the reformatory movements of the present Pope, since his elevation to the sovereignty of the Roman states. True policy pointed tp the course which as a temporal sovereign, he has hitherto pursued. Had Pius — as many minions of the last Pope fondly hoped he would — pursued a policy similar to that of Gregory XVI., the volcano of popular indignation, which was just ready to burst upon the old Pope and Lambruschini, would have poured forth its burning lava upon his own devoted head. Pius was too much a man of the world to suppose it possible that he could prevent the eruption of this volcano, unless he quenched its fires. The act of amnesty would cost him nothing, and would gain him thousands of friends. Nothing could be easier ; nothing could be more politic. His experience as a soldier, and, above all, his travels and observa- - tion in America, had taught him some lessons relative to the difficulty of suppressing the spirit of liberty, and he was too politic and too prudent — perhaps he was too patriotic and benevolent — to neglect those lessons. Here, doubtless, was the secret of his movements of reform, § 21. Pins IX. no Republican — His Royal Speech to the Roman Consulta. — It has been a very general error in America and else- where, that Pius IX., by the partial political reforms he has conceded to his people, intended to make some approach toward republicanism. Sufficient has already transpired to prove this hope fallacious. It is true that he may find it difficult to lay the spirit of liberty which has been evoked, and the Romans may ere long discover the folly of associating the spiritual and temporal power in the same individual ; but we may rest assured that a Pope of Rome will never voluntarily lay aside the temporal sovereignty which his predecessors have, for so many centuries, enjoyed. Pius IX. is no exception to this remark, and time will show, if it has not already, that nothing but absolute compulsion will ever induce him to resign the dignity of a Prince, and to return to the condition of a simple priest, though at the head HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 669 The Pope's royal speech to the Roman Consults, of the Romish church. The Pope has already begun to reahze the danger lest he may soon be compelled to relinquish his political sov- ereignty, and has publicly uttered his rebuke of those "restless" spirits who have manifested a disposition to be satisfied with nothing short of a separation between the temporal and the spiritual power. In October, 1847, as a sort of comphance with the increasing demands of the Roman people for a Constitution, Pius IX. established at Rome a kind of Council of State, consisting of delegates from the different Roman provinces, called the Qonsulta. At the first session of this Consulta, or parliament (as it may be called), held on the 15th of November, after an address to the Pope from the President of the Consulta, assuring him, in the name of all the deputies, of their homage and obedience, Pius IX. repUed in the following remarkable and significant language : — "I thank you for your good intentions, and appreciate them as tending to the public good. It has been with a view to the public good that, from the first moment of my being raised to the pontifical throne, I have done, under the in- spiration of God, all that I have been able to do ; and I am ready, by God's as- sistance, to do as much in future, idthout, however, in anywise retrenching the sovereignty of the pontificate ; as I have received it full and entire from my pred- ecessors, so will I in like manner transmit it to my siiccessors. " I have for my witnesses my three millions of subjects — I have all Europe for a witness of what I have hitherto done to bring my subjects near to me, and unite myself with them, that I might become acquainted with their wants, and make provision for them. It is with the object of better knowing these wants, and providing for the exigencies of the public welfare, that I have united you in a permanent council — it is to listen, in case of need, to your advice, and avail myself of its aid in my sovereign resolutions, in which I shall consult my own conscience, and confer upon it with my n.inisters and the sacred college. " He will deceive himself greatly who shall see in the Consulta di' Stato, which I have just created, a realization of his own Utopian notions, or the germ of an institution incom^^atihle with the pontifical sovereignty." Pius IX. having delivered this speech with some warmth of em- phasis, paused an instant, and then resuming his natural mildness, continued to the following effect : — " These words are not addressed to any of you, whose social education and Christian and civil probity, as well as the loyalty and rectitude of your inten- tions, were known to me from the moment at which I proceeded to your election. Neither do these words apply to the mass of my subjects, for I am sure of their fidelity and obedience. I know that the hearts of my subjects are united with mine in the love of order and concord. " But, unfortunately, there exist some persons (small in number, it is true, still they do exist), who, having nothing to lose, are fond of disorder and revolt, and even abuse concessions. It is to them that these words are addressed — ^let them well consider their signification. In the co-operation of the deputies I see only a firm support from persons who, divesting themselves of all private inter- ests, will labor with me, by their councils, for the public good, and who will not bo stopped by the vain words of restless and injudicious men. You will aid me with your wisdom to find that which is most necessary for the security of the throne, and for the real happiness of my subjects." The attention of the reader is particularly called to those portions of the above address which we have italicised. In these sentences 570 SUPPLEMENT TO THE The Pope's proclamation. Pius IX. seems to have felt that he was a King. How royally does he tell the representatives of the people why he has sent for them — " to listen, in case of need, to your advice, and avail myself of its aid in my sovereign resolutions, in wiiich I shall consult MY OWN CONSCIENCE !" Even the Autocrat of all the Russias could not have spoken more like a sovereign and a despot. — " Re- member" (says the Pope, in substance), " ycu are not to, legislate, but to advise. Pius is Master still !" § 22. The Pope's Proclamation.S{\\\, Pius IX. had granted to the Roman people no Constitution, and there were thousands of Ital- ians in the Papal dominions who had before suffered for the cause of liberty, who could not be deceived by this wretched shadow of a popular representation. The people were clamorous for a Constitu- tion. To allay this agitation, the Pope issued the following procla- mation, published at Rome, on the 10th of February, 1848. This document may be valuable for future reference, as it shows, in the Pope's own words, what he has done for his people, and what he intends to do for them, as well as what he does not intend to do. It bints, moreover, in no ambiguous terms, at what the Pope considers his safeguard in any future emergency, viz., the two hundred milhons of Papists throughout the world, who, to whatever nation they be- long, still regard themselves as his faithful subjects and servants. " Pius P. P. IX. — The Pontiff, who in the course of two years has received from you so many proofs of love and faith, is not deaf to your desires, to your fears. We never cease to meditate within ourselves how to develop most use- fully, consistently with our duties to the church, those civil institutions which we established, not forced by necessity, but from the desire for the happiness of our people, and the esteem we felt for their noble qualities. We also turned our thoughts to the reorganization of the army, before even public opinion demanded it; and we have sought the means of obtaining the service of foreign officers to aid those who honorably serve the Pontifical government. The better to extend the sphere of those who can bring their talents and experience to bear upon pub- lic reforms, we have also taken measures to increase the laical part of our Coun- cil of Ministers. If the unanimous will of the princes to whom Italy owes the new reforms is a guaranty of the preservation of those boons, received with so much gratitude and applause, we cultivate it by maintaining and consolidating the most amicable relations with them. Nothing, in short, which may be con- ducive to the tranquillity and dignity of the state will ever be neglected. " O, Romans and Pontifical subjects, by your father, and sovereign, who has given you the most certain proof of his affection for you, and is ready to give you more, if he be worthy to obtain from God that he may inspire your hearts and those of all the Italians with the pacific spirit of his wisdom ; but he is ready at the same time to resist, hy means of the institutions already conceded, all dis- orderly violence, as he would also resist demands contrary to his duties and to your happiness. Listen, then, to the paternal voice which admonishes you, nor be removed by that cry that proceeds from unknown mouths, to agitate the peo- ple ol Italy with the terror of a foreign war, aided and prepared by internal con- spiracies, or by the malignant ignorance of those who govern. This is, indeed, deceit to impel you by terror to sieek public safety in disorder; to confound by tumult the councds of your ruler ; and to prepare, by creating confusion, pre- texts tor a war that could never, by any other motive, be declared against us. WJiat danger, in fact, can impend over Italy, so long as a bond of gratitude and HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 671 Effects in Italy of th e French Revolution. Address to the Pope. confidence unites the strength of the people with the wisdom of princes, with the sacrfedness of right? " But we principally — we, the head and sovereign Pontiff of the most Holy Catholic religion, should we not have in our defence, if we were unjustly attacked, innumerable sons who would defend the centre of Catholic unity like the house of their father ? It is, indeed, a great blessing among the many which Heaven hath imparted to Italy, that scarce three millions of our subjects have two hun- dred millions of brothers of every nation and of every tongue. This was, in more dangerous times, and in the confusion of the whole Roman world, the safeguard of Rome. It is for this the ruin of Italy was never complete. This will ever be her defence, so long as this Apostolic See shall reside in her centre. " Oh, then, great God, shower tKy blessings on Italy, and preserve for her this most precious boon of all, faith ! Bless her with the benediction that thy vicar, prostrated before Thee, humbly demandeth ! Bless her with the benediction that the saints to whom she gave birth, the Queen of Saints, who protects her, the Apostles whose glorious relics she preserves, thy Incarnate Son, who sent his representative upon earth to reside in this same Rome, ask of Thee !" ^ 23. Effects in Italy of the French Revolution of 1848. — In the document just quoted, the Pope speaks of his resolution to " resist demands contrary to his duties and to the people's hap- piness." By this, he unquestionably meant the demands which were everyday becoming louder and more frequent for a Constitution. In less than two weeks, however, from the issuing of that proclama- tion, an argument arose for concessions to the spirit of liberty, which the most despotic sovereigns of Europe were unable to resist — this was the French revolution of February, 1848, by which Louis Philippe was driven from the throne of France by an indignant and outraged people. As soon as the news of this event, and the subse- quent proclamation of the republic was known at Rome, an immense crowd of people proceeded with banners, and amid cheers for the Constitution and the French republic, to the Quirinal, where a depu- tation was chosen to present the following address to the Pope : — " Holy Father — The recent events of France are of such impor- tance that they must exercise the greatest influence in every part of Europe, and particularly in Italy. The subjects of your Hohness, with the strongest attachment to your person and throne, feel the ne- cessity of expressing their fears and hopes in this emergency. For the purpose of giving a wise direction to the movement of political passions which may rise in the present circumstances, your subjects think it urgent that a Constitution be immediately published, in har- mony with the institutions of the other Italian states, and that all the efforts of the nation be turned to the maintenance of interior order and exterior independence. Hence, if a homogeneous, compact, and liberal ministry, equal to the gravity of the case, was universally called for some time ago, it now becomes of the utmost necessity, and every moment of delay might produce fatal and irreparable evils, which your generous heart has constantly striven to avoid. Men able to support so great a weight, and who enjoy public confidence, are not wanting among the laity of your dominions, and public opinion has already called your attention upon them. You, who, by giving 672 SUPPLEMENT TO THE The Pope's address to the municipality. Submission to princes your benediction to Italy, have, in the face of the world, associated her cause with that of religion, will now perceive that your temporal power is directly involved in the destinies of our common fatherland. And it will be the greatest glory of your Pontificate, if, in the midst of the tempests now preparing in Europe, Italy, avoiding the evils that may result from them, is capable of preserving internal order, establishing her liberty, and regaining her independence. Such is the faith your subjects have in your intentions, that they are convinced you will confirm in this moment of trial the universal opinion of your wisdom and magnanimity." The journals of Rome publish the following reply of the Pope, to the address of the municipality, calling for constitutional institutions and guaranties : — '• The events which follow precipitately and in rapid succession, sufficiently justify the demand which you. Signer Senator, addressed to Tie in the name of the magistrates and council. It is well known that I am unceasingly engaged in giving to the govemraent that form which you, gentlemen, demand, and which nations require. But every one understands the serious difficulty with which he who is invested with two great dignities, has to contend. What in a secular government may be done in a night, can not be effected in the Pontifical govern- ment without mature examination, since it is very difficult to trace exactly the line which shall distinguish one power from the other ; nevertheless, I flatter myself that, in a few days, the work being completed, I shall be able to an- nounce the new form of government, which will obtain general satisfaction, and more particularly that of the Senate and Council, who are more minutely ac- quainted with the circumstances and the position of the country. May God bless these my desires and labors; and if conducive to the welfare of reliinon, I shall stay at the foot of the crucifix, to olTer up thanks for all the events Prov- idence has allowed to take place : whilst I, not as much as Prince, but as head of the universal church, shall be content if they contribute to the glory of God.'' The feelings with which Pius IX. regards the recent revolts by which Europe has been distinguished against crowned oppressors, can not be mistaken, when the following extract from a speech of the Pope in a Consistory at Rome, is duly considered : " We are greatly afflicted at seeing, that in different places, men are met with among the people, who, boldhj making an unwarrantable use of our name, and being guilty of the greatest insult to our 2}erson and our supreme dignity, dare to deny to princes the submission which is due them, to raise multitudes against them, and to excite criminal movements ; all of which is so contrary to our thoughts, that, in our encyclical letter,* addressed to all our venerable brethren, the bishops, we did not fail to inculcate the obedience due to princes and powers, and which, according to the precepts of the Christian law, no one can cast off' without crime, unless it be in the event of anything being ordained contrary to the laws of God and the Church." _ § 24. Outlines of the (so-called) Constitution, granted to his sub- jects by the Pope.— At length, on the 14th of March, 1848, a proc- lamation was issued at Rome, authenticated by the sign-manual of • This encyclical letter will be found printed in full in the Appendix. HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 673 Outlines of the new Constitution granted to the Italian people. the Pope, granting a Constitution to his subjects. The friends of free- dom throughout the world should read and study this stingy, forced, and contemptible concession to the people of Rome, which is called a Constitution, and which, be it remembered, is the ne plus ultra of a nation's rights, in the view of that Pontiff, who, even by Protestant Americans, in their mistaken sympathy, has been lauded to the skies as " the Apostle of Liberty." How would America, or any other nation that knows what liberty is, be satisfied with a Constitu- tion such as that of which the following is a brief abstract? We invite the special attention of the American Protestant admirers and worshippers of Pius IX. to those items which we have printed in italics. " The College of Cardinals (chosen by the Pope) is to be constituted a Senate, inseparable from the same, and two Deliberative Councils for the formation of the laws are to be established, consisting of the 'High Council' and the ' Coun- cil of Deputies.' " The judicial tribunals are to be independent of the government, and no ex traordinary commission courts are to be in future established. The Kational Guard is to be considered an institution of the state. " The Pope convokes and prorogues the Legislative Chambers, and dissolves the Council of Deputies, being required to convoke a new Chamber within three months, which will be the ordinary duration of the annual session. The sessions are to be public. " The members of the Senate are to be appointed by the Pope for life, and their number is not unlimited. The qualification of a Senator is the age of thirty years, and the plenary exercise of civil and political rights. "The Senate will be chosen, ^ar ^re/crencc, from the prelates, ecclesiastics, ministers, judges, councillors of state, consistorial lawyers, and the possessors of en income of four thousand scudi* per annum. " The Pope will appoint the President and Vice-Presidents. " The second council will be elective, on the numerical basis of one deputy to every thirty thousand souls. The electors are to consist of the gonfalonien ^mayors), priors, and elders of the cities and communes ; the possessors of a cap- ital of three hundred scudi ; the payers of direct taxes to the amount of twelve tcudi per annum ; the members of the colleges of their faculties, and the titular professors of the universities; the members of the councils of discipline, the ad- vocates and attorneys practising in the collegiate tribunals, the laureates ad hofiorem in the state universities, the members of the chambers of commertfe, the heads of factories and industrial establishments, and the heads of scientific and public institutions assessed for certain amounts. " The qualification of a deputy is the possession of a capital of three thousand scudi, or the payment of taxes to the amount of one hundred scudi per annum, and the members cf colleges and professors of universities, &c., will be eligible ex officio. "A distinct electoral law will regulate the elections of deputies. The per- sons of the members of both councils are sacred, as far as their votes and speeches are concerned, but it appears that the privileges of freedom from ar- rest on civil and criminal process are limited to the actual session, and a month before and after. " All laws and new taxes must be sanctioned by these two councils and assented to by the Pope ; but the councils are not to be allowed to propose laws which may affect ecclesiastical or mixed affairs, which may be opposed to the canons and dis- cipline of the church, or which may tend to vary or modify the present statutes. They are also forbidden to discuss the ' religious diplomatic relations' of the Holy See to foreign countries. * The Roman scudo (plural scudi} is equal to one dollar 674 SUPPLEMENT TO THE Profesaion of the Popish religion necessary for the enjoyment of civil rights. Constitution examined. " The discussion of finanoial matters exclusively appertains to the Council of Deputies. The sum or civil list appropriated to the endowment of the Pope and the College of Cardinals, and to ecclesiastic purposes generally, as well as to the expenses of the corps diplomatique, the Pontifical Guards, the maintenance of the apostolical palaces and museums, and various other purposes, is fixed at tix hundred thousand scudiper annum, including a reserve fund for contingen- cies. The canons, tributes, and dues, amounting to the annual sum of thirteen thousand scudi, are to remain at the entire disposal of the Pope. The ministers are responsible for their actions, and have a right to speak in both council3, whether members or not. " The session of the Chambers will be suspended by the death of the reigning Pontiff, but the new Pope must convene them a month after his election. The ministers are to he confirmed and chosen by the Sacred College [of Cardinals]. " The rights of temporal sovereignty, exercised by a defunct Pontiff, are vested in the Sacred College during the interregnum. " There will also be a Council of State composed of ten councillors and a body of auditors not exceeding twenty-four. This council will be required to draw up projects of laws, and to give its advice on administrative affairs in cases of emergency. Ministerial functions may also be conferred upon it by a special law. " The present statute will be enforced on the opening of the new Councils, which will take place about the first Monday in June. The functions of the present Council of State will cease twenty days previous to the opening of the Councils ; but it will, nevertheless, continue to examine such administrative measures as may be presented to it for consideration. All the legislative enact- ments, not contrary to the decrees of the present statute, remain in force. " The profession of the Popish religion is indispensable as a qualification foi Oie exercise of civil and political rights." § 25. This Constitution examined. — The substance of all power vested in the Pope and his Cardinals. — Such is an outline of the Con- stitution which Pius IX., after nearly two years of promise and eva- sion and delay, has at length presented to his subjects. Well may we apply to this worse than contemptible result of the protracted study and labor of the modern " Apostle of Liberty," the biting sar- casm by which the Latin poet rebukes the orator or author whose labored openings and mighty promises result only in abortion and imbecility — "Parturiunt monies; nascitur ridiculus mils."* — Horace. If anything were wanting to convince the American people that their congratulations were premature, and that Pius IX. is no more the friend of genuine liberty than the spiritual despots and tyrants who have preceded him on the Papal throne, surely this miserable abortion of a constitution is sufficient ! How ingeniously is this instrument constructed, so as, while ap- parently making concessions to the people, to retain all the substance of power where it has ever been since the establishment of the Papal despotism — with the Pope, his Cardinals, and Priests. The mem- bers of the Senate are to be appointed by the Pope. The President and Vice-Presidents are to be appointed by the Pope. The Legisla- tive Chambers are to be convoked and prorogued, at his pleasure, * The mountains are in travail — and a little mouse is bom. HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 675 All power with the Pope and Cardinals. Poor, priest-ridden Italy. hij the Pojie. The Council of Deputies, should they at any time prove refractory or disobedient, may immediately be dissolved by the Pope. The discussion of financial matters belongs exclusively to the Council of Deputies ; but as though afraid to trust them for his own salary, Pius gives them to know that before entering upon the dis- cussion of other financial matters, six hundred thousand dollars per annum must be secured for the endowment o{ the Cardinals and the Pope, with his corps diplomatique, Pontifical guards, apostolic pal- aces, museums, &c., besides a neat little perquisite of thirteen thou- sand dollars more, from canons, tributes, and dues, to be "at the entire disposal of the Pope." The College of Cardinals is to be constitu- ted a Senate, and these " princes of the church" are to be chosen, of course, by thi Pope. The Ministers are to be chosen and con- firmed by the Cardinals. Should a Pope die, then, lest the people should presume upon a little more liberty, the rights of temporal sovereignty are to be exercised, during the interregnum by the Car- dinals. Is any preference to be shown in the choice of members of the Senate ? That choice is to rest first on prelates and ecclesiastics; after them, upon ministers, judges, councillors, lawyers, and rich men, with an income of at least four thousand dollars per annum.* It is true that in addition to this noble " High Council," there is to be a popular assembly, called the " Council of Deputies," but what they are to do, and what they are not to do? Why they are • The baneful effects of the overwhelming influence of priests and nobles, throughout Italy, is forcibly exhibited in the following extract from a recent num- ber of Blackwood's Magazine : — " Italy has two evils, either of which would be enough to break down the most vigorous nation— if a vigorous nation would not have broken both, ages ago. These two are the nobles and the priesthood — both ruinously numberless, both contemptibly idle, and both interested in resisting every useful change, which might shake their supremacy. Every period of Italian convulsion has left a class of men calling themselves nobles, and perpetuating the titles to their sons. The Gothic, the Norman, the Papal, the ' nouveaux riches,' every man who buys an estate — in fact, every man who desires a title — all swell the lists of the nobil- ity to an intolerable size. Of course, a noble cEin never do anything — his dig- nity stands in his way. The ecclesiastics, though a busier race, are still more exhausting. The kingdom of Naples alone has eighty-five prelates, with nearly one hundred thousand priests and persons of religious orders, the monks forming about one fourth of the whole ! In this number the priesthood of Sicily is not included, which has to its own share no less than three archbishops and eleven bishops. Even the barren island of Sardinia has one hundred and seventeen convents ! Can any rational mind wonder at the profligacy, the idleness, and the dependence of the Italian Peninsula, with such examples before it ? The Pope daily has between two and three thousand monks loitering through the streets of Rome. Beside these, he has on his ecclesiastical staff, twenty car- dinals, four archbishops, ninety-eight bishops, and a clergy amounting to nearly five per cent, of his population. With these two millstones round her neck, Italy must remain at the bottom. She may be shaken and tossed by the politi- cal surges which roll above her head, but she never can be buoyant. She must cast both away before she can rise. Italy, priest-ridden, noble-ridden, and prince-ridden, must be content with her fate. Her only chance is the shock which will break away her encumbrances." 676 SUPPLEMENT TO THE The Pope's Constitution an insult to the people of Rome. " not to propose laws which may affect ecclesiastical or mixed affairs." Otherwise, poor priest-ridden Rome might, perhaps, be relieved from a portion of the misery and oppression which the Papal despotism has imposed on her for ages. They are not to meddle with laws which might affect the " canons or discipline of the church." Oth- erwise, the secrets of inquisitorial chambers might be brought to light, or the lust and cruelty of Roman nunneries might be exposed and denounced. They are not to do anything which may even " tend to vary or modify the present statues .'" Otherwise, the hateful fabric of tyranny which ages of oppression have reared, might be seen crumbling beneath the rays of the sun of modern freedom which has just arisen upon the world. They are forbidden even "to dis- cuss the religious diplomatic relations of the Holy See to foreign countries." This, of course, is a matter which no profane hand must touch. The Pope is " God's vicegerent upon earth," and his plans of universal empire and control, must be left entirely to him- self and his priests. Thus fully does this Constitution tell the Council of Deputies what they must not do. If we ask what they must do, the answer is — They must provide for the Pope's salary — they must do the Pope's bidding — and when his Holiness needs their services no longer, they must be dissolved at his bidding, and return whence they came. To crown all, these obedient servants of the Pope, under the name of a popular assembly, are to be elected, not by the people, but by mayors, priors, and other privileged characters, and possessors of at least three hundred dollars — and these must be exclusively Papists, for ^^ the profession of the Popish religion is indispensable for the exercise of civil and political rights !" Is any further proof needed that the Papacy and Liberty are entirely and utterly antagonistic ? or that the professed and loudly-vaunted liberalism of Pope Pius IX. is " vox, vox, pralereaque nihil" ? <§ 26. War with Austria. — The Papers opposition. — The few months that have elapsed since die granting of the above Constitu- tion, have been chiefly occupied by disputes between the Pope and the Roman people relative to the question whether war should be proclaimed against the Austrians, the tyrants and oppressors of north- ern Italy Soon after the breaking out of the Revolution of 1848 in France, the people of Lombardy and Venice rose in arms against their Austrian conquerors, expelled the garrisons from several of their cities, and under the generalship of Charles Albert, of Sardinia, gained several signal victories over their oppressors. Encouraged by this temporary success, the people of the different Italian states formed the idea of national unity and independence of all foreign rule. The subjects of the Pope joined in the national enthusiasm, and longed to march against the Austrian invaders. Pius IX., fear- ful of offending the Austrian bishops, and thus creating a schism in the church — unwilling to offend or to alienate that mighty empire, HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 677 War with Austria . Intense excitement at Rome. Pius IX. almost deposed. which had for ages been the great bulwark of the church, refused to second the wishes of his subjects ; pocketed the affront of the in- vasion of Ferrari, and exhorted his subjects to submission and to peace. In a secret consistory of the College of Cardinals held at Rome, April 29th, 1848, the Pope expressed himself as follows : — •' Everybody knows, Venerable Brothers, the words which we addressed to you last year, when we reminded princes of the paternal kindness and attentive care which they owe to the people placed under their power, and the people of the fidelity and obedience which they owe to their princes. Afterward, we neglected nothing to impress these same sentiments on all. Would to God that the effect had responded to our paternal exhortations ! But every one is aware of the public commotions which have taken place both in Italy and m other countries. If any one should ivish to pretend that the path was opened ,to such events by the acts which our love and kindness prompted us to carry out at the commencement of our reign, that man certainly is mistaken, and can not justly impute such things to us, since we have done nothing but what appeared necessary for the prosperity of our temporary state. With respect to those who in our kingdom have abused our benefits, we shall, in accordance with the ex- ample of our Divine Master, pardon them from the bottom of our hearts, We call them back to better thoughts, and we pray God to turn away from their heads the chastisements which fall on ungrateful men. " Besides, the people of Germany can not reasonably complain of us, because we were unable to contain the ardor of such of our subjects in the temporal order who have applauded what was done in Italy, who, inflamed with the love of their own nation, united their efforts to those of the other Italian populations. Many other princes in Europe, whose armies were more numerous than ours, beheld themselves eqally unable to oppose the uprising of their people. In that state of things, we, however, gave no other orders to our troops than to protect the integrity and security of the Pontifical state. " However, several persons manifest a desire to behold us, in accord with the other populations and princes of Italy, declare war on Germany ; in consequence we judge it our duty to announce in your assembly that nothing can be more dis- tant from our thoughts than such a course, which would be altogether unbecom- ing our position, as holding on earth the place of Him who is the author of peace." % 27. Intense Excitement in Rome. — Pius IX. almost deposed from his Temporal Power. — The excitement produced in Rome by this address was intense. The Pope was virtually made a prisoner in his own palace. On Sunday, April 30th, the whole general staff held a sitting. The municipality went in procession to the Pope, to demand explanations as to his policy, and recommend him to abdi- cate. The civic guard took possession of all the gates of the city, and had orders to let no one, whether priest, bishop, or even the Pope himself, leave the town. The ministry notified the Pope of their intention to resign, and all was in preparation for the formation of a provisional government, if the Pope did not yield. The morning came for the decision — the streets were filled with people waiting the answer of the Pope — the answer did not arrive ; and at eight o'clock in the morning, a new deputation was sent to the Pope, who asked till twelve o'clock to make his decision. At this moment the anxiety and agitation doubled ; the Guard took posses- sion of the fort Saint Ange, the arsenal and mint, the prisons, and all 578 SUPPLEMENT TO THE The Pope's popularity gone. ^ Ex tracts from Italian joumala. the public establishments; Duke de Rignano declared to the Pope that he could not depend upon the National Guard ; there was not a moment to lose ; and yet the Pope remained firm. At noon, the Minister Mamiani tried one more efFort ; the Pope yielded ; Mami- ani announced it to the people that the ministry had been sustained, and received a carte blanche for things temporal, and that it comprised a power to declare war. The joy was expressed in popular demon- strations , the correspondence of the cardinals that was seized was read to the public on the capitol by a senator. The cardinals, seeing the impossibility of getting away, assembled round the Pope, who, it is said, had made every preparation for departing himself. The minis- try promised to co-operate with all the forces of the state in expelling the Austrians ; and the Austrian minister was sent away from Rome.* From that time to the last advices from Rome and Italy, the war againstthe Austrians has been prosecuted with various reverses, though from recent defeats which Charles Albert and the Italians have sus- tained, and the recapture by the Austrian general Radetsky, of Milan, and several other cities, from which the Austrians had been expelled, there is too much reason to fear that the cause of Italian freedom will, for the present, be prostrated, and that Austria will regain her former authority in Lombardy, Venice, and other parts of Italy. % 28. Reasons for the Pope's Policy — His love for Popery stronger * The effect of this policy of the Pope has been almost entirely to destroy the popularity which he so lately enjoyed. " Eulogies to the Pope have now ceased; the hymn of Pius IX. is forgotten; reproaches and accusations take the place of applause, and the Pope is often stigmatized as a Jesuit" — a reproach which his reluctance to the recent expulsion from Rome of these intermeddling pests of society, seems to justify. A correct idea of the present state of the public mind of Italy toward Pius IX. may be formed by reading the following extracts from recent numbers of three well-known Italian journals. The Contemporaneo, published at Rome, says: "The Pontiff has saved the Prince, but in doing so he has compromised the glory of both, and the calamity of Italy will be his condemnation. There remains to this land only God and her rights. Let our Italian brethren be assured they do not deceive themselves in relying on the people — those are deceived who rely upon the Papacy for the redemption of Italy." La Patria, published in Tuscany, says: " The Pope is the friend of Austria's emperor — may God pardon him ! If repentance could be a reparation, Italy would rise once more from the abyss into which Pius IX. has plunged her. But repentance only expiates faults — it does not change their effects. As Prince, let him put himself at the head of his people, whom he has thrown like lambs into the mouth of wolves — as Pontiff, let him anathematize, instead of weeping over his throne and altar." The Courier Mercantile, published at Genoa, says : " We do not flatter our- selves that our words can reach the ears of him who has done everything to cast us back into the slavery of Babylon — to present us as a holocaust to the Austrian idol. But should they reach him, we would boldly say — ' You are not the vicar of God, hut (he vicar of the Austrian emperor. You fear the schism of the Aus- trian prelates, and heed not the curse of nations. Wait awhile, and you will reap such fruit as you deserve. Poor Italy ! whither has the dominion of the Pope led you ? After this protest, what have we to hope for from our Pontiff? Nothing. Mark well, O people ! These are the terrible effects of THE TEMPORAL DOMINION OF THE PoPES." HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 679 The Pope'B dilemma. Afraid o f an Austrian echiem in the cliurch. than Ids Patriotism. — The position of the Pope since the declaration of war against Austria, has been extraordinary. Compelled by the force of circumstances to sanction the war, and yet fearful of cutting off the right hand of the Roman church, by creating a schism in Austria, with which he had been threatened by German priests and Jesuits, he has endeavored to escape from the dilemma — by keeping himself aloof from all connection with the war — thus throwing his moral influence in the scale of Austria — and transferring all the re- sponsibility of the war to the ministry he had created, with these ex- traordinary powers. This strange posture of affairs in Rome has been so well explained in a recent article in an able religious journal,* that we can not better close the present sketch than by transferring the larger portion of it to our pages. To explain how the collision has taken place which has already, in effect, divested the Pope of his civil and secular power (says this wri- ter) nothing more is necessary than to look at the condition of the Italian people, and to recollect, in connection with the existing state of facts, some of the plainest principles of international right. 1. Italy is in fact one country, 'and the Italians are one people. If it were an island, instead of being a peninsula, its extent, and the natural demarcations by which it is separated from all other countries, could hardly be more definite. Throughout its whole extent there is essentially one race, one language, one religion. The people have a common history, and a common literature. They have common sympathies and prejudices, and a common character, distinguishinp- them from all their neighbors, the French, the Swiss, the Spaniards, the Greeks, and the Germans. They are known and spoken of, the world over, as one people, with their own national designation, not as Lombards, or Tuscans, or Neapolitans, but as Italians.! Italy is one country, marked out and shaped into unity by the God of nature and of history, more completely by far than Germany or Switzerland. 2. Italy then being a nation, with boundaries distinctly marked by Him who " hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation," has, by a charter from God, all the rights that belong to a nation. It has a right to its own national unity, and * The New York Evangelist. f The population of the difTerent states of Italy is as follows : — Naples and Sicily, or the kingdoms of the two Sicilies - - - 8,566,900 Piedmont and Sardinia ----..-.--... 4,879,000 Roman States 2,877,000 Tuscany and Lucca ----.----.---. 1,701,700 Monaco 7,580 San Marina -------------... 7,950 Modena ---. 483,000 Parma and Placentia ------.---... 477,000 Venetian Lombardy ---------.-... 4,759,000 Italian Tyrol 522,608 Istria - 458,000 Total 24,739,738 6S0 SUPPLEMENT TO THE Italian right to national independence. Orestes A. BrowBson, to a complete national independence.* No Congress of kings at Vi- enna or Verona, chaffering, and bargaining, and bartering provinces and cities, with all their population, as speculators bargain village-lots, can take away such a right from the Italian people. The Italians have the same right to a complete national independence, and the same right to model their political institutions according to their wants that the French have — that we have. Foreigners have no more right to govern Italy, or any part of it, than the British have to govern France or any part of it. The Austrians in Italy are foreigners. Their only right to govern those parts of Italy which they have had in their possession, is the right of the sword ; and the moment the Italian people have it in their power to drive out the intruding gov- ernment, that right ceases. Whenever Italy, as a whole, has the power to assert her national unity and independence, she has a right to do so ; and in that hour every part of Italy has a right to protec- tion and support from every other part. This is the principle on which the Italians are acting. 3. Whatever existing form of government in Italy is found to be an obstacle in the way of a combined effort to establish national unity and independence, ought to be reformed. The people under that government have a right, and it is their duty to reform it. If the government of any Italian state is so constituted that it must needs weaken the power of the entire Italian people to assert their national * There is one man, at least, in the world, who dissents from these enlightened views, who looks with horror upon the awakened spirit of freedom in Italy, who groans in spirit at beholding the downfall of hoary despotism, and who stigma- tizes all who are sighing and daring for the deliverance of their native countries from royal and priestly despotism, as " miscreants — the spawn of hell — doing their best to desolate Europe." That man is an American, but he is a Papist. His name is Orestes A. Brownson. Here is an extract from a late number of his Quarterly Review : — " Nor have these Italian liberals been content with expelling Jesuits. They have proceeded farther, and at this moment the Holy Father is in a sort of du- rance — ' honorable imprisonment,' as it is termed — because he does not choose to violate faith, conscience, and duty, at the bidding of a graceless mob. And we have men among us — men passing for Catholics even — who are frantic with joy, throw up their greasy caps, and cheer them on with their loud hurrahs, as the genuine friends of freedom. Stupid dolts ! do these sympathizers not know that the foundations of liberty are never laid in injustice, never established in outraging law and religion — and that the men who know not how to obey, who will not respect the rights of others, and who demand freedom only for their own selfish purposes, can only be the assassins of liberty? These liberals, these miscreants, the spawn of hell, who are doing their best to desolate Europe, and replunge the nations, civilized by Christianity, into the darkness of barbarism, deserve the execration of every man who has a human heart under his left breast ; and the man who calls the Church his Mother deserves something far worse if he but dreams for a moment that there is the remotest possibility that the least conceivable good can be effected, even for the temporal condition of the people, by their exertions." For an extract from the writings of this same Bro\vnson, relative to the designs fp I A?r^ "P"" America, and his right to possess this country, and the aid attorded him m secunng this right, by the Catholic prelates, priests, and Jesuits, see the toregoing History, page 643. HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 681 The Pope's intereata as a Pontiff, and his duties as a Prince, incompatible. independence, and to establish their common liberty, then the com- mon necessity of all Italy requires that the constitution of that gov- ernment be changed. And when that necessity is felt by every Ital- ian heart from the Alps to the straits of Messina, the mischievous anomaly must be removed. 4. Such an anomaly has been found to exist in the peculiar gov- ernment at Rome. The sovereign of that state is at the same time the religious head, the chief-priest of the Roman Catholic world ; and what he does in one capacity may be disastrous to his interests in the other. It so happens that Pius IX., whose wise and benefi- cent reforms in the administration of the civil government at Rome, were the beginning of the grand movement for the emancipation of Europe,* has found that his interests as a Pontiff and his duties as a ruler over a free people are incompatible. As head of the Roman government, which in many respects, aside from ecclesiastical influ- ence, is the most important government in Italy, though in military strength inferior to some others, he ought to insist on the independ- ence and federal union of all Italy, and therefore on the removal of the Austrian troops from Lombardy. All those patriotic feelings for which we give him full credit, prompt him to this course. All those desires, which, as a true-hearted Italian, weary with the sight of the degradation which results from political oppression, he can not but cherish, prompt him to say to Austria, " The time has come when Italy will no longer endure the presence of your barbarian armies on her classic soil. Our divisions are at an end ; the day of our infirm- ity is passed, and the day of our deliverance is come." This is what Pius IX. would say if he was only a secular prince, and as such had nothing to regard but the welfare and the rights of his coun- try. And a bold demonstration on his part would unite all Italy, and would bring upon the plains of Lombardy such a force as would compel the Austrians to go home and mind their own affairs. But, unfortunately, Pius IX. is also " His Holiness," " our Lord the Pope ;" and as head of the church he must take care lest Austria become schismatic. The emperor of Austria is a dutiful son of the church. The Austrian empire has been for ages one great bulwark of the Papacy. Spain is fallen into ruins. France is no more to be depended on. Austria is undergoing political changes which predispose the minds of men to all sorts of novelties ; and if at such a time as this the head of the church should become per- sonally obnoxious to the Austrian government and to the people of Vienna, the church of Austria might declare itself indepfendent of the Holy See. Expostulations and remonstrances from Austrian prelates have no doubt been addressed to His Holiness, with all rev- erence and humility, and yet with an earnestness that could not be * Though this may be true in the order of time, yet we have seen that the Pope in his speech to the consistory (page 677) denies that the path was open to these " public commotions" (as he terms them) by any act of his own. 40 682 SUPPLEMENT TO THE Either Popery or Italy to be Bacriflced. Continuation till 18.J?- disregarded. He must either sacrifice the unity and independence of Italy to the interests of Popery, or the interests of Popery to the welfare of his country. This was and is a painful dilemma. We give him credit for a hearty attachment to the Roman Catholic unity, and to those interests ■which are committed to him as the head of the church. We give him credit, also, for a true love to his country. Surrounded by his cardinals, he speaks as Pontiff. He tells them that he is a minis- ter of the gospel ; that the Austrians are a portion of his pastoral charge; that the emperor is a dutiful son of the church, and that he cannot make war upon Austria. But all Rome cries out that the Austrians must be expelled from Italy, and that Italy must bring her whole strength, undivided, to make the expulsion speedy, safe, and final. And with an earnest- ness of tone in which there seems to be some echo of the voices that expelled the Tarquins, Rome tells him, " If your conscience as a minister of the gospel will not permit you to perform your duties to us and your country in your capacity as a civil ruler, resign that power into hands that can wield it for the welfare of Italy and of the world !" What the result is to be, does not yet appear. The Pope has made farther concessions to his people — concessions almost equiva- lent to the abdication of his secular sovereignty. That this is the end, who will say? New YoiiK, Nov. 12, 1849. § 29. Continuation till 1852. — Flight of the Pope from Rome.— The foregoing portion of this Supplement was written previous to the flight of Pius IX. from Rome. The conduct of the Pope during his exile at Gaeta, and since his restoration by means of the French soldiery, up to the present date, A.D. 1853, has proved that the estimate we formed of his character in the preceding pages was literally correct. Pius IX. has proved himself no less a tyrant and a despot than his predecessors' on the papal throne. — We shall now proceed to relate the- particulars of the Pope's flight from Rome, and of other remarkable events, illustrative of the history and character of popery, that have occurred in the three or four years that have since transpired.— Pius IX. having resisted and frustrated for a time the Italian movement for nationality, was at length obliged to yield. His prime minister, Rossi, a pupil and imitator of Guizot, the late prime minister of Louis Philippe of France, on the 15th of Novem- ber, 1848,' was assassinated, in spite of his guards, near the spot where Julius Caesar fell. The conspirators seem to have had much more generalship to take advantage of their bloody deed than Brutus and Cassius had. Since the revolution in Paris, it had become evi- dent that the ecclesiastical supremacy of Pope Pius IX. was seri- ously imperilled. The reconquest of Lombardy kept down, but did HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 683 Assnasination of EoBsi, the Pope's Prime Minister. extinguish, the aspirations of the liberals for Italian unity. It was seen that the project, if allowed to assume a practical shape, would extinguish the spiritual claims of the Pontiff. Without means to stem the torrent, the Pope applied all his resources and every tem- porizing expedient to turn it aside. During the conflict, his per- sonal popularity melted away. His antiquated assumptions came to be regarded as the great stumbling-block to Italian nationality, and to the settled establishment of constitutional freedom. His govern- ment was despised and powerless. At length Count Rossi undertook the difficult task of reorganizing the papal gc^vernment. A man of energy and experience, and a pupil of M. Guizot, he brought to the task much of the talent and unbend- ing austerity which distinguished his master, without the resources to carry his intentions into effect. His haughty spirit and con- temptuous bearing marked him out as the special object of popular enmity. On the 15th of Nov., 1848, he proceeded to open the Cham- ber of Deputies, and met the execrations of the populace by scowls of scorn anij defiance. In a sudden outburst o^ popular fury, the prime minister was attacked, and, though surrounded by a military force, fell beneath the poniard of an assassin in the crowd. Like Caesar, he had been warned of, but disregarded his danger, and he fell within a few yards of the spot where the Roman dictator was sacrificed. The death of Rossi assured the triumph of the populace. After the death of the premier, a sudden pause ensued, though toward evening groups of mingled soldiers and citizens, with lighted torches, were heard singing in chorus along the streets, '* Benedetta quella mano cite il iiranno pugnalo /" (" Blessed be the hand that stabbed the tyrant !") On the morning of the 16th, the city was in commotion. A gathering began in the great square del Popolo, and symptoms of a menacing character to any one cognizant to Roman peculiarities were perceptible in the leading streets. The civic guards and troops of the line in fragmentary sections commingled with the people ; arid carbineers, whose uniform had hitherto been invariably arrayed against the populace, were now for the first time seen to fraternize with the mob. From the terrace of the Pincian hill, the spectator could count nearly twenty thousand Romans in threatening groups, and mostly armed. Printed papers were handed eagerly about, all having the same purport, and containing the following " fundamental points: 1. Promulgation and full adoption of Italian nationality. 2. Convocation of a constituent Assembly, and realization of the federal pact. 3. Realization of the vote of the war of independ- ence given in the Chamber of Deputies. 4. Adoption in its integ- rity of the Programme Mamiani. 5. Ministers who have public confidence — Mamiani, Sterbini, Cambello, Saliceti, Fusconi, Lunati, Sereni, Galletti." The ostensible object was to proceed with these five points to the 684 SUPPLEMENT TO THE ■ Terrible threats of the mob to the Pope. Chamber of Deputies in a constitutional manner. But the chiefs finding themselves in such numbers, and many deputies being found mixed up with the crowd, the cry was raised to march to the Pope's palace, and accordingly the procession moved on orderly enough through the Babuino, and reached the Quirinal by the avenue opened by Sextus the Fifth. At one o'clock, the members of the chambers presented themselves as the mouthpiece of the multitude, and transmitted the five points to the monarch. In about ten min- utes, the president of the late ministerial council. Cardinal Soglia, came forth from the private apartment, and informed the deputation that Pius IX. would reflect on the subject, and take it into his best consideration. This answer was proclaimed to the people, but a general murmur of dissatisfaction gave evidence of its insufficiency to meet the crisis, and the crowd insisted on the deputation getting a personal audience with the Pope. This was obtained, and in about a quarter of an hour Galletti, the ex-police minister, appeared on the balcony to ac- quaint the people that the Pope had positively declined adhesion to their request, and had stated that " he would not brook dictation." At two o'clock, the position of the Pontiff" began to grow critical. All the avenues of the Quirinal palace were blocked up by dense crowds ; and as no preparation had been made for this unanticipated influx of visitors, there was but the usual small detachment of Swiss guards on duty. These men were known to be resolute, and, had there been but a few more of them, the monarch might have cut his way through the mob, and gained Subiaco, in the Apennines, whither it had often been a question of retiring from the rabble of Rome on previous outbreaks. As it was, one of the advanced sentinels having been seized and disarmed by the mob, the Swiss body-guard instantly flung back and barred the gates of the palace, presenting their mus- kets, in readiness to fire at once on the immense multitude of the populace which beleagured the Quirinal. At this stage of the proceedings, it was evident that the die was cast. From the back streets men emerged, bearing aloft long lad- ders, wherewith to scale the pontifical abode ; carts and wagons were dragged up and ranged within musket-shot of the windows, to protect the assailants in their determined attack upon the palace ; the cry was, " To arms, to arms!" and musketry began to bristle in the approaches from every direction : fagots were produced and piled up against one of the condemned gates of the building, to which the mob was in the act of setting fire, when a brisk discharge of firelocks scattered the besiegers in that quarter. The multiltude began now to perceive that there would be a determined resistance to their further operations, but were confident that the Quirinal, if not taken by storm, must yield to progressive inroad. The drums were now beating throughout the city, the disbanded groups of regular troops and carbineers reinforcing the hostile display ol assailants, and rendering it truly formidable. Random shots were HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 685 The Pope's secretary killed.— A shot flred into the Pope's room. aimed at the windows, and duly responded to ; the outposts, one after another, being taken by the people, the garrison within being too scanty to man the outworks. The belfry of St. Carlina, which com- mands the structure, was occupied. From behind the equestrian statues of Castor and Pollux a group of sharp-shooters plied their rifles, and at about four o'clock Monseigneur Palma, private secretary to the Pope, was killed by a bullet penetrating his forehead. A shot is also said to have entered the room where the Pope was. Of the people and troops, twelve were wounded, and none killed. Two six- pounders were now drawn up by the people and duly pointed against the main gate ; and a truce having been proclaimed, another depu- tation claimed entrance and audience of the Pope, which the mon- arch ordered to be allowed. The deputation were bearers of the people's ultimatum, which was a reproduction of the five points before stated ; and they now declared that they would allow the Pope one hour to consider; after which, if not adopted, they announced their firm purpose " to break into the Quirinal and put to death every inmate thereof, with the sole and single exception of his holiness himself." Pius IX. no longer hesi- tated. A popular ministry was at once appointed, and the other demands of the people were referred to the Chamber of Deputies. The week following this popular outbreak, the Pope remained a close prisoner in his palace. The business of the government went on in the Pope's name, but without his sanction or co-operation. At length, on the 25th of November, Pius IX. disguised himself as an attendant of the Bavarian ambassador, and made his escape from Rome to the city of Gaeta, where he was cordially received by that tyrannical and cruel despot, Ferdinand, king of Naples. The following curious particulars of the Pope's flight, which will be new to our American readers, are related in an interesting little work, recently published in Scotland, by a distinguished Italian oiiicer, and participant in these stirring events, G. B. Nicolini, to whose graphic pen we shall be indebted for a portion of the follow- ing details of the noble struggle of the Roman patriots for freedom, and their final expulsion and defeat by the French army. While the Pope was amusing his too credulous counsellors with protestations of liberalism, says Nicolini, he was, with Madame Spaur, the lady of the Bavarian Minister, planning the means of flight, and medita- ting the ruin of Rome. The evening of the 25th of November was dark and cloudy. Rome was profoundly tranquil. Few persons were to be seen in the streets. Only at intervals was the silence of the night bro- ken by the watchword of the patrols. At the corner of the Via delle Quattro Fontane stood a carriage. At some Httle dis- tance were lurking several persons, apparently watching for its safety. Every other minute a gentleman leaned out of the carriage window as if impatiently waiting for some one. The coachman, too, often turned on his seat and looked anxiously about At 686 SUPPLEMENT TO THE ' ■ CnrloBB pnrticulftra of the flight of Fiua IX. length a person habited like a priest, approached the carriage with a circumspect demeanor. The door flew open, the priest stepped in and the horses started off at full speed At the city gate the coachman shouted "Baviera," and was permitted to pass. The carriage rolled onwards by the Via Appia towards Albano. While this mysterious equipage is so rapidly advancing on the road, another is waiting in the middle of the wood between Albano and Gensano. The few passers-by are surprised to see it standing in such a place at such an hour. From the window of this carriage it is a lady who looks out in anxious expectancy. A wag, observ- ing that she had waited a very long time, cried out-r-" La belle has come too early to the rendezvous." At last two carabinieri who were patrolling the road, approached and inquired of the lady why she waited. — " I expect my husband and my chaplain," was her answer. They asked her name ; — she prudently gave it. They obligingly offered to stay with her as a protection till her husband arrived ; — to avoid suspicion she consented, and descend- ing from the carriage remained with them, still evincing the great- est impatience. At twelve o'clock, the other carriage arrived. The person in the priest's dress, on seeing the carabinieri, hesita- ted to dismount, but the lady reheved his embarrassment by exclaiming — " Well, Count ! what a time you have kept me wait- ing ! and you too, Signer Abbate !" added she, patting the priest on the shoulder. The courteous carabinieri assisted the lady and the " Abbate" into the carriage, which immediately dashed away. It was not an Abbot. It was the Pope ! It was the successor of St. Peter ! It was the shepherd who in its greatest need had deserted the flock committed to his care ! It was Pius the Ninth, — the religious Pius, who had thrown away the pastoral crook that he might resume a tyrannical sceptre ! It was Mastai, who once a mild, charitable man, had become a cruel and vindictive despot!* Upon the arrival of the fugitive Pope at Gaeta, a seaport town of the kingdom of Naples, a messenger was dispatched to King Fer- dinand, who, upon the reception of the news, immediately sent two regiments of soldiers by . steamer, as a guard of honor to the Pope, and soon followed himself in another steamer with the queen and the royal family ; and upon their arrival, did homage to the Pope, in the usual manner, by kissing his foot. § 30. Consequences of the Pope's flight. — The flight of the Pope was immediately followed' by, that of most of the prelates and cardinals, and caused, along with great joy, much apprehension and uneasiness. Peaceable and timid citizens feared that some great evil was about to fall upon their abandoned city. The priests secretly augmented this fear. Many there were who yet shrunk •■ History of the Pontificate of Piua IX., by G. B. Nicolini, of Rome, deputy to the Tuscan constituent assembly, and officer of the general staff of the Roman army, page 85.— Edinburgh, 1852. HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 687 A provisionftl government appointed. from the curse of Pius, whom they had regarded as the messenger of heaven. The more considerate and reflecting among the citi- zens were afraid lest the people should let loose their inveterate hatred against the priesthood, and drench the town with blood. The patriots, on the other hand, who now assumed the name of Republicans, were dissatisfied with the new Ministers, still govern- ing in the Pope's name. In such a state of affairs both the Par- liament and the Municipality of Rome sent a deputation to Portici to entreat the Pope to return to his own capital. Pius the Ninth would not even permit the deputies to fulfil their mission, and this still more enraged the Republican party, which now increased every day, and which was desirous that the Government should at once renounce all allegiance to the Pope. Yet it still persisted in its moderate policy, governing in the name of Pius the Ninth, and sent to him a second deputation to entreat him to return. This deputation met with as little success as the first. A third deputa- tion, with offers of still greater concessions, was dispatched to Gaeta, but Pius still refused to give them an audience. At last the people, growing impatient and clamorous, menaced the Ministry if they should persist any longer in acknowledging the Pope's sovereignty. Consequently, on the 14th of December, the •Parliament named a Provisional Government, and called to Rome a Constituent Assembly. During this interval, — namely, from the flight of Pius to the nomination of the Provisional Government, — we behold the noble and gratifying spectacle of a people without rulers, governing themselves. Some of the provinces were still governed by prelates all devoted to the fugitive Pope ; others, on the contrary, were impatient to cast off" entirely the clerical yoke. The priests were exciting civil war ; monks, priests, and Jesuits frightening the population and above all the more timid sex, with threats of a thousand different temporal and spiritual punishrnents. The people, thrown at once from a state of political slavery into a state of uncontrolled liberty, were the real and absolute sovereign. Yet this people, who had many wrongs to avenge, cannot be reproached with a single criminal act — a single day of tumult — a single transgression. Is not this, asks Nicolini, a noble and sublime spectacle ? It would have been strange if the populace of Rome, thus deliv- ered from the presence of their haughty oppressors, the prelates and cardinals, had not shown their joy by some imprudent, yet very natural manifestations. The wonder is that they were not guilty of more criminal excesses. The following two instances may be given of the feelings of the Roman populace towards the fugitive cardinals. — One day, a Roman passing through the Corso, saw exposed in a shop many cardinals' and bishops' hats ; and cried out, " What do these hats here ? — let us send them to Gaeta by the Tiber." No sooner said than done. In three hours all the shops were denuded of their scarlet glories. The shopmen were offered 688 SUPPLEMENT TO T^E Tlie fleet of