LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I 
 
 Chap. ..®.X-l7-"'6-L. 
 Shelf -.H3-.- 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 l^SS^f&i 
 
TUE QUESTION SOLYED: 
 
 AN ANSWBR TO 
 
 KEV. DR. CLARK'S 
 
 ^^ Question of the Hour," 
 
 AND HIS OTHER 
 
 ANTI-CATHOLIC PROBLEMS. 
 
 7 
 
 JAMES C. HANNAN. 
 
 ^K. 
 
 ^%^ 
 
 % 
 
 ALBANY: 
 
 WEED, PAESONS AND COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
 1870. 
 

 Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 
 
 JAMES C. HANNAN, 
 
 in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States 
 for the Northern District of New York. 
 
PEEFAOE. 
 
 In submitting this little yolume to the kind 
 consideration of the citizens of Albany, the 
 simple object of the writer is to take issue with 
 many of our Protestant ministers, particularly 
 Dr. Clark, of the Dutch Eeformed Church, alias 
 " two-steepled '^ church, alias First Reformed 
 Church, who has lately been moving the heavens 
 and the earth against the Catholics and their 
 principles. This self-constituted minister of the 
 gospel of peace, if he is sincere in what he utters, 
 is one of the most bare-faced peryerters of God^s 
 truth, that it has been our misfortune to hear in • 
 a long time. At that season of the year when 
 the anniversary of the birth of Christ is being 
 celebrated by God's people throughout every 
 land and clime, when the true ministers of the 
 gospel are preaching peace and forgiveness to a 
 sin-stricken world, this counterfeit holds forth 
 m his Dutch pulpit, and, in the sacred and holy 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 name of God, bears false witness against his 
 neighbors, falsifies their motives, perverts history 
 against them, and scatters seeds of hate and 
 strife in a community where peace and harmony 
 should prevail. This ought not to be the case, 
 at this age and in this country. "Where is the 
 need of plump, well-fed parsons agitating relig- 
 ious feuds, and poisoning the minds of their 
 hearers against a faith instituted by the Son of 
 God — proclaimed by the Evangelists — preached 
 by St. Peter and St. Paul, St. Patrick and St. 
 Augustine — for which kings had laid down 
 their crowns, and martyrs their sacred lives? 
 When one contemplates the position that this 
 man occupies, as lecturer to a congregation of 
 our fellow citizens who wield a large amount of 
 influence in commercial circles and the affairs 
 of every-day life, and who are too closely con- 
 fined to business to investigate Theology, or the 
 history of the Christian Church, the faith and 
 practices of Catholic people, nor what they have 
 accomplished for the kingdom of our Lord, is it 
 to be wondered at that they feel a prejudice 
 against us ? Under such an influence, it would 
 not be surprising if they should break off all 
 
PREFACE. T 
 
 communication^ socially, with any one bearing 
 the name of Catholic, discharge all in their em- 
 ploy, as persons dangerous both in the commu- 
 nity and family circle, organize native American, 
 know-nothing and no-Popery combinations, pull 
 down churches, burn cdnvents, tar and feather 
 Catholic priests, and defame and insult those 
 leading pure and pious lives in religious com- 
 munity, as has been done often before in many 
 parts of this enlightened republic. It is an old 
 dodge of Protestant preachers, when they fail to 
 interest their hearers, to ransack the Scriptures 
 for quaint and ambiguous texts to preach from, 
 and when those become stale, their last resource 
 is sure to be a tirade against the Catholic Church, 
 and that never fails to keep up the attention. 
 Do Protestants imagine that we have no fine 
 feelings — no rights — no honesty of purpose — 
 that we are a God-forsaken people, ignorant and 
 degraded — averse to every sense of right, and 
 barely to be tolerated? They must certainly 
 think 60, if they believe such men as Clark, 
 Darling & Co. It is with this view, therefore, 
 that the writer takes upon himself the responsi- 
 bility of placing the subject fairly before them, 
 1* 
 
Tl PEEFACE. 
 
 leaving the issue to truth and their sense of 
 justice. 
 
 I regret exceedingly, that I haye not the 
 manuscripts from which Dr. Clark read his 
 Sunday evening lectures, in order that I might 
 follow him step by step. These are beyond my 
 reach, so he must be met upon general princi- 
 ples; besides, it would take more time than I 
 could spare from my daily occupation to answer 
 all his accusations, as I understand that he 
 scarcely lets a Sunday pass, the year round, 
 without railing in some way against Catholics. 
 
TABLE OP CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Protestant writers and speakers — Their influence and char- 
 acter— Dr. Clark's position — Catholics not unbelievers 
 in revealed religion. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Church of Rome, not the Church of Anti-Christ— 
 Heresy and heresiarchs— Defenders of Catholic faith in 
 all ages. -_ 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Our bishops and priests faithful to Zion — The anniversary 
 of Tom Paine --- Catholics and the war of independence 
 — False charges against our American bishops — Liberty 
 and the Church — Protestantism in league with despot- 
 ism—The Church and the civil power — The relative 
 political influence of Catholic and Protestant ministers 
 over their congregations. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Protestant preachers and the Inquisition — The Inquisition 
 and the Waldenses — St. Dominic and the Inquisition — 
 Spain and the Inquisition — Pope Sixtus IV and the 
 Inquisition— Pascal— Rome the Jewish paradise. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Protestant saints —Cruelties of the Hollanders in forcing 
 Protesta^ntism into the Netherlands — The Prince of 
 Orange and Duke of Alva— The Thirty Years War — Per- 
 
Vm TABLE OF COKTEKTS. 
 
 seditions in the reign of Henry VIII— Penal code of 
 Elizabeth — Ireland drenched with the blood of her chil- 
 dren— D'Aubigne and St. Patrick — Desecration of the 
 graves of Irish saints. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Landing of the Pilgrims— Puritan Intolerance — The Blue 
 Laws— The Quaker persecution — Puritanical hypocrisy 
 
 — Witches — Catholic colony of Maryland — Indian con- 
 versions — Protestant intrigue in Maryland. 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 The blessings of education when accompanied by religion — 
 Pagan education — The establishment of the Church — 
 Its benign influence on society— The object of education 
 
 — Early training of youth. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Catholics do not'desire the destruction of the public school 
 system — Their objections to it as it now stands — The 
 Bible too sacred to be profaned in the school-room — 
 Clark on Catholic Ignorance — Bancroft's opinions — 
 Catholic and Protestant missions — Protestant knowl- 
 edge of the Catholic Church — Why Catholics object to 
 reading the Bible in public schools — Catholics not will- 
 ing to separate secular and religious education — Dr. 
 Clark and the Cincinnati school board — He misrepre- 
 sents the Catholic claim— Opinion of Hartford Courant 
 and other papers on the school question — Protestant 
 ministers exciting the people to tumult — The wrath of 
 the Observer man — Dr. Clark as a weather-cock—" Why 
 do Catholics come among us ?", 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The French Revolution and the Protestant educational sys- 
 tem — Education in England before the Reformation — 
 The Church in the Middle Ages — Mr. Kay's travels in 
 Europe-^ His estimate of Catholic and Protestant educa- 
 tion—Statistics—The prosperity of Catholic colleges 
 and universities during the Middle Ages — Educatioyi in 
 England after the Reformation — Catholics do not hate 
 the Bible — Protestant boasting. 
 
TABLE OF COKTEKTS. ix 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 False accusations against the Church— Sincerity and intel- 
 lect seek Rome, hypocrisy and ignorance seek Geneva — 
 Comparison between Catholics and Protestants on their 
 death-beds — Brilliant eulogies passed on the Church by 
 distinguished Protestants — The changing of Protestants 
 from one communion to another— Protestant pride. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Dr. Clark's trip to Europe — His visit to the city of the Pon- 
 tiffs—Lying statistics of morality by Protestant minis- 
 ters — An old dodge — Comparison between l«ne Fathers 
 of the Church and the Leaders of the Reformation — 
 Vagaries of Protestants — The immorality of the Re- 
 formers—The vile practices of the Antinomlans — The 
 profligate lives of Protestant monarchs and rulers. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Morality of Catholic iand Protestant countries — Intemper- 
 ance —Sir Francis Head compliments Ireland — Fearful 
 list of spurious births in Protestant countries— Rev. 
 Dr. Halley's opinion of immorality and unbelief in 
 Geneva — Mr. Laing's statistics — Contrast between 
 Catholic and Protestant cantons of Switzerland — No 
 restraint among Protestant youth — Crime on the in- 
 crease — Foeticide and infanticide — Divorce laws — Im- 
 moralities in and around the halls of* legislation — 
 Clerical villians of the Protestant stripe— Protestant 
 cupidity — The Dutch the only people capable of tram- 
 pling on the cross in the ports of Japan— The hollo wn ess 
 of Protestant piety —Predictions of Protestants — Some 
 hope of Dr. Clark's conversion. 
 
Tlie Question Solved. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Protestant writers and speakers — their inpluence and 
 character — dr. clark's position — catholics not unbe- 
 lievers in revealed religion. 
 
 THEKE is a class of public speakers, who 
 neither impress the nnderstanding, nor 
 warm the affections. They may polish off 
 a sentence and round a period with much 
 eloquence, but watch them closely and you 
 cannot fail to discover considerable strain- 
 ing after popularity. In seeking reputation 
 in this way, more especially when they 
 undertake to discuss the Catholic question, 
 their love of display carries them so far 
 beyond themselves, that they forget all 
 their obligations to truth. Their concep- 
 tions of common sense are at times so low, 
 that they seem to lose the proper use of 
 
12 ' THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 their faculties. Instead of bread, they give 
 us a stone ; and for a fish, they hand ns 
 a serpent. By their much talking, they 
 remind one of the citizens of Plato' s com- 
 monwealth — capable of controlling every 
 thing, but performing nothing. Their work 
 is done like their preaching — on paper. 
 To this class Dr. Clark properly belongs. 
 Take Protestant ministers generally, and 
 their logic, not to mention their theology, 
 is the flimsiest in existence. Their preach- 
 ing is a mixture of Christianity, infidelity, 
 and sophistry. Unscrupulous in their at- 
 tacks against the Church of Christ, they 
 show a vindictive spirit akin to the arch 
 enemy of souls. Nothing is right but 
 what they dictate, and nothing true but 
 what tallies with their narrow, perverted 
 notions. If you speak of a holy office in 
 God's Church, which tends to soothe and 
 comfort the sinner, they shout with holy 
 horror, ' ' Popish invention ; false doctrine, ' ' 
 etc. If a Catholic artist, full of faith and 
 devotion to his church, transfers to the 
 
THE QUESTlOiq- SOLVED. 13 
 
 canvas his conception of some religious 
 idea, or historic event, he is hounded down 
 as an enemy to moral instruction, and con- 
 tributor to idolatry ; while the gross con- 
 ceptions of Greece and Pagan Rome, or the 
 more modern work of the great unknown — 
 the '' Cardiff Giant," is lauded to the skies. 
 They are so accustomed to look upon 
 things which we hold to be true and edify- 
 ing, through a distorted vision, that they 
 can hardly distinguish a prism of light and 
 shade from a lump of charcoal. The beau- 
 ties of Catholic worship, the grandeur 
 of Catholic architecture, the magnificence 
 of Catholic painting and Catholic music, 
 are to them blemishes, useless and unbe- 
 coming, because above their capacities. 
 They remind me of the man who got angry 
 at the Creator, because in some parts of 
 the heavens he placed more stars than in 
 others. If a poor Catholic should excel 
 his feUows in virtue and holiness,- they will 
 attribute his devotion, not to the grace of 
 God, working in his soul, but to some 
 
14 THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 
 
 superstitions or selfisli motive. In this 
 way, and by snch teaching, Protestants 
 grow np like poisonons weeds, with the 
 spirit of evil continnally gnawing at their 
 hearts ; while their ministers, with tongnes 
 of serpents, keep on distilling venom and 
 malice from Snnday to Snnday, which they 
 infuse into the minds of their hearers, thns 
 fostering hatred toward a class of their 
 fellow-citizens, who never did them wrong. 
 They grudge us the sun by day, and the 
 moon by night, and would poison the very 
 air we breathe, if they had the power, and 
 it would not injure themselves. Dioclesian 
 and Tiberius possessed this spirit; such 
 was the conduct of Cain when he killed 
 his brother; and wicked men in all ages 
 have cherished such feelings. Many even 
 went so far as to make goblets of the 
 skulls of their victims (who were their 
 supposed enemies), out of which they be- 
 came drunk with revenge, as did the mon- 
 ster Albonus. 
 Now, the great oracle of the Dutch 
 
THE QUESTIOIlT SOLVED. 15 
 
 Church would have his people believe 
 that Catholics are the enemies of all that 
 is good and noble in this life or the life to 
 come. This OJiristian teacher is wofuUy 
 ♦ ignorant as regards this subject, or else a 
 wicked perverter of what he knows to be 
 true. We cannot excuse him on the plea 
 ©f ignorance, for, by his style of preach- 
 ing, we should judge that he has made the 
 short-comings of Catholics a greater study 
 than the spiritual necessities of his flock ; 
 and, besides, how could a Protestant D. D. 
 be ignorant of the faith and practice of 
 Christian sects ? Did he not study his Bible 
 in the common schools, those great foun- 
 tains of inspiration, the bulwarks of the 
 State and the milestones on the high road 
 to liberty and progress ? We must, there- 
 fore, accuse him of forgery, black and 
 offensive, full of malice, jealousy and re- 
 venge. The Catholic Church defines it to 
 be a sin against the Holy Ghost to impugn 
 the known truth by arguing obstinately 
 against points of faith and holy practices, 
 
16 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 or to prevent the way of our Lord, by 
 forging lies against Catholics and slander- 
 ing the Church of Christ, as heretics and 
 infidels do. 
 
 Dr. Clark, in his preaching, or, more 
 properly, prating, reminds one of the han- 
 dle of a jug : he is all on one side. He 
 claims all the virtues, all the learning, 
 wisdom, and progress of the age ; his peo- 
 ple are the salt of the earth, and the First 
 Church, although it stands in a hollow, he 
 places on the top of Mount Zion. Happy 
 people ! thrice happy Doctor ! 
 
 I would not be surprised if, some bright 
 morning or other, we should see the learned 
 Doctor, trumpet in hand, proclaiming aloud 
 at the corner of Van Schaack and North 
 Pearl streets, ''We are the chosen of Israel, 
 the Lord' s anointed ; we love God and our 
 neighbor as ourselves ; we are as full of 
 intelligence, moral worth, and good will to 
 men, as ever we can hold ! Come this way, 
 all ye people in search of salvation, and I 
 will show you more big I's in this congre- 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 17 
 
 gation of ours than you ever saw before ! 
 Be careful ! would ye go near the whore of 
 Babylon 1 Hearken not to Anti-Christ, or 
 the scarlet lady ! Beware of Popery, ' and 
 the superstition, ignorance, and idolatry 
 of Catholics ! Listen well ! don't you hear 
 the old Pope and his seven hundred bish- 
 ops forging chains this very instant, to 
 bind the American people hand and foot ! 
 Keep out of the way of all those Catholic 
 priests, although one of them performs 
 more ministerial duties in a day than I do 
 in a month, and makes more converts from 
 Protestantism to Rome in one year, than I 
 have from Popery since I received my ordi- 
 nation, from a man who never received 
 proper authority to ordain me ! Come in 
 here, all you staunch nativists, and hear 
 me handle the subject of the Bible and 
 Common Schools ! Father Ludden has gone 
 to Rome, that wicked old city, where the 
 people are all as ignorant as stuffed pigs ; 
 he will not be here to bring us to an account 
 
 for bad logic and inconsistency in matters 
 2* 
 
18 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 
 
 pertaining to tlie public weal ! He took up 
 the cudgel once before against four of us. 
 Christian giants^ as we are, and, like a 
 true Irishman, knocked us clean out of 
 time ! So, come in here, I say, and we will 
 have a good time by ourselves; we will 
 clap our hands together, stuff our people 
 with all manner of accusations, rash judg- 
 ments, and lies, to sustain our cause, and 
 the members of our conventicle will retire 
 to their homes, satisfied that a second Paul 
 has arisen in the person of J, Rufus W. 
 Clark, D. D., once a Congregationalist, 
 but now a Reformed Dutch Protestant ! " 
 
 If Rufus W. Clark will stand up in his 
 pulpit, like an honest man, and argue out 
 the questions which divide Catholics and 
 Protestants, in a generous, logical manner, 
 throw aside prejudice and ill-will, speak 
 respectfully of those who entertain opin- 
 ions contrary to his own, and prove that 
 the 250,000,000 Catholics are all in the 
 wrong, and a handful of Dutch Reformed 
 Protestants all in the right, I, for one, will 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 19 
 
 extend to him my most sincere thanks. 
 Can he pnt his finger on the first article of 
 Christian faith, necessary to salvation, that 
 the Roman Catholic disbelieves ? He pro- 
 claims to his congregation that the Pope is 
 the foe of God, that all Catholics are idol- 
 aters, and classes them with atheists, infi- 
 dels, and nnbelievers of every shade. Good 
 kind and amiable pastor, yon remind me 
 of a man who was in the habit of getting 
 drunk. Coming to the door of his dwell- 
 ing, he wonld stand upon the threshold, 
 and seeing his wife sober and industrious, 
 attending to her domestic duties, he would 
 call out to her, ^'You're drunk;" ''goto 
 bed ; " " you ought to be ashamed of your- 
 self, you good for nothing;" and if the 
 poor thing would reply in justification of 
 herself, and point out his sin and folly, he 
 would knock her down, and then kick her 
 because she fell. 
 
 Again, Protestants, after abusing us and 
 taunting us with ignorance, irreligion and 
 every other foul epithet, will turn round 
 
20 THE QUESTIOl^ SOLVED. 
 
 and tell us they did it for our good and 
 lasting happiness, and because they love 
 our souls. Yes ! they love our souls as 
 the wicked young man loved his mother, 
 who, on becoming enraged at her, deter- 
 mined to do her violence, but ashamed to 
 do it in an ungracious manner, he caught 
 her in his arms, crying out, ^'Mother, I 
 love you; Mother, I love you," and 
 squeezed, and squeezed until he broke her 
 ribs. I can see how an Infidel or a Free- 
 thinker can war against us, but how a man 
 claiming to be a minister of Christ can 
 accuse us of being hostile to the interests 
 of God and man, is more than I can well 
 conceive, unless Satan is his master, in- 
 stead of Jesus. 
 
 This Evangelical teacher, with a most 
 brazen effrontery, proclaims from his pulpit 
 that the Catholic has no true faith, but is a 
 slavish adherent to what his priest imposes 
 upon him ; and he observes no obligation 
 save that which corresponds to the slavery, 
 degradation and craft of Rome. Let me as- 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 21 
 
 sure the good people of the First Reformed 
 Church (a title, it seems to me, very much 
 out of place at this period of the Christian 
 Era) that Catholics are not as ignorant of 
 what pertains to their salvation, as their 
 pastor would have them believe ; and al- 
 though a large number of them do not 
 study their Bible as Protestants do, never- 
 theless they know the duties of a Christian, 
 and should any of them stray away from 
 their faith, and pursue a course of sin and 
 shame, the fault does not lie at the door of 
 our Holy Church, or at the feet of our 
 pastors and teachers. 
 
 ''Faith is a gift of God, or a supernatural 
 quality infused by God into the soul, by 
 which we firmly believe all those things 
 which he hath in any way revealed to us ; 
 and without faith it is impossible to please 
 God." This every Catholic child learns as 
 soon as he comes to the use of reason. He 
 is also taught that faith alone will not save 
 him, without good works, and that he must 
 observe the precepts of God and His 
 
22 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 Church. He learns that the Old and New 
 Testaments are the works of divine inspi- 
 ration, and a precious legacy left to God' s 
 Holy Church, full of instruction, replete 
 with wisdom and sublime thought. He 
 believes also that the Holy and Apos- 
 tolic Church and its ministers are the only 
 true and reliable interpreters of the sacred 
 volume. Every Catholic child is taught to 
 believe that there is but one God, who 
 created the heavens and the earth, out of 
 nothing and by His word only — that He 
 created man to his own image and likeness, 
 giving him will, memory and understand- 
 ing — that the object of man's creation was 
 that he might know, love and serve God in 
 this life, and be happy with Him in the 
 next. He is also required to know that in 
 this one God there are three distinct per- 
 sons — the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost ; that God the Son, the second per- 
 son of the Blessed Trinity, came down from 
 heaven, in the person of Jesus Christ, to 
 redeem man from the dominion of sin. 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 23 
 
 to which he became subject through the 
 violation of God' s holy law. The Catholic 
 fully believes in the death and resurrection 
 of that same Jesus, and that He shall come 
 again, at the last day, to judge the world — 
 that the good shall possess the Kingdom 
 of Heaven, and the wicked be banished for- 
 ever from the presence of God. He also 
 believes that the Holy Ghost, or the third 
 person of the Trinity, is equal with the 
 Father and the Son, and that He descended 
 upon the Apostles, in the form of tongues 
 of fire, to strengthen them to preach the 
 Gospel and plant the Church. He be- 
 lieves, too, all the articles contained in the 
 Apostles' creed, in all the commandments 
 of God, and the precepts of His Holy 
 Church ; and that the Catholic Church is 
 none other than that self-same institution, 
 established by the Apostles under the 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Now, if she is not that Church of which 
 St. Peter was the visible head, will Dr. 
 Clark be kind enough to tell us which is ? 
 
24 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 What other church has come down to us 
 by perpetual succession, if it be not the 
 Catholic Church, through which our bish- 
 ops, priests, and other holy persons re- 
 ceive doctrine, orders, and power to teach 
 and perform religious duties, for the edifi- 
 cation and spiritual comfort of God' s poor 1 
 
 Catholics love their Church because they 
 believe it to be Grod's kingdom on earth, 
 and receive with submission whatever she 
 proposes to their belief, because she is the 
 pillar and ground of truth, and cannot err 
 in what she teaches. They know that 
 Christ gave the promise to St. Peter, the 
 first Pope and Bishop of Rome, that the 
 gates of hell should not prevail against His 
 Church, that the Holy Ghost should bestow 
 on her all truth, and that He himself would 
 forever abide with her. 
 
 Ours is not a faith given to speculation 
 or to doubt — such a faith is worse than 
 none at all. The spirit of speculation in 
 matters of religion, is no more to be com- 
 pared to that warm, living, active faith of 
 
THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 25 
 
 Catholics, than the song of ''Jim along 
 Josey," is to the Psalms of David! I 
 would as soon trust Dagon on the ark of 
 Grod, as to trust -the private interpretation 
 of the Scriptures to save mj soul. This 
 jumbling together of individual notions 
 and opinions, and calling it Christianity, 
 is as ridiculous as to affirm that a child' s 
 kaleidoscope is the meridian sun. But 
 Dr. Clark says, we are the foes of Grod, 
 enemies of Christianity, and know nothing 
 of Christ and His divine attributes. Thank 
 you, Reverend Sir, for the high opinion 
 you entertain of us ; but look out ! we warn 
 you of the wrath to come, when every liar 
 shall have his portion in the ''lake that 
 burns with brimstone and with fire ! " 
 3 
 
CHAP, II. 
 
 The church of eome, not the church of anti-christ — 
 heresy and heresiarchs — defenders of catholic faith 
 in all ages. 
 
 TS Dr. Clark in earnest, when he de- 
 JL nounces the Church of Rome, as the 
 Church of Anti-Christ, or is he only pull- 
 ing the wool over the eyes of his congrega- 
 tion ? If he was not embarked in the cause 
 of the evil one, he never again would put 
 on the black gown to uphold error and 
 retard the progress of Christ' s Church on 
 earth. Let me tell his people that if it 
 were not for the Church which he de- 
 nounces, in any thing but decent language, 
 there would not be a Christian temple in 
 the city of Albany to-day. Let me ask the 
 members of the '^ First Reformed," if they 
 ever studied what the Catholic Church has 
 done to uphold the religion of Jesus Christ 
 throughout the world, from the day that 
 our Blessed Lord triumphed over the 
 grave to the present time. 
 
THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 27 
 
 In tlie earliest age of Christianity, as far 
 back even as the days of the Apostles, 
 there were proud innovators, who pre- 
 tended to reform the infant chnrch. The 
 most prominent among these pretenders 
 were Simon Magus, Philetus, Menander, 
 Hymenus, Mcholaites, Cerinthns and 
 Ebion. 
 
 In the second century, the Yalentinian, 
 Marican and Carpocratian heresies arose. 
 In the third century, Paul, of Samosata, 
 was excommunicated for denying the di- 
 vinity of Christ, Sabellius was condemned 
 for denying three persons in one God, 
 Novatus for denying the forgiveness of 
 sins, and Manes for inculcating the doc- 
 trine of two Deities. 
 
 In the fourth century, arose the Donat- 
 ists and the Arians, who denied the divin- 
 ity of Christ ; and the Macedonians, who 
 opposed that of the Holy Ghost. In the 
 fifth century, the N^estorians preached 
 against the doctrines of Christ' s divine and 
 human nature; and the Eutychians, the 
 
28 THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 
 
 Pelagians and the followers of Yigilantius, 
 opposed some of the most vital doctrines 
 of the Church. 
 
 In the sixth century, the Church was 
 obliged again to go forward and battle 
 against infidels, heretics, and wily politi- 
 cians. The great St. Benedict, St. Gildas, 
 and eight others, not less distinguished, 
 confounded and put to flight, by the sword 
 of logic and authority, Aschepali, the 
 Jacobites, the Tri-theists, and numerous 
 others. In this century the Church had to 
 contend against the greatest scourge of 
 all — the rise and progress of Mahometan- 
 ism. In the seventh century, arose the 
 Monotholite heretics and the Paulicians ; 
 and, in the eighth, the detestable Iconoclasts 
 were met and defeated, by the seventh 
 general council, as were Felix and Elip- 
 hand, who taught errors in the west. 
 
 The ninth century saw the union of many 
 heresies, brought about by Claudius of Tu- 
 rin, while Grotescale labored hard to estab- 
 lish Predestinarianism. It was at this time 
 
THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 29 
 
 that the G-reek schism originated, and the 
 march of the Mussulman carried the sword 
 of persecution not only through France 
 and Sicily, but into the very city of the 
 Pontiffs. The Church, in the tenth century, 
 was much distracted by civil factions at 
 Rome, as well as by the misconduct of 
 many of her most prominent children. 
 The eleventh century witnessed another 
 schism in the Greek church: the new 
 Manicheans turned up in France, and were 
 met and subdued, as were their predeces- 
 sors, by the great defenders of virtue and 
 religion. Again, in the twelfth century, 
 heresy seemed to revive in a variety of 
 forms, and Mahometanism once more threat- 
 ened to destroy Christianity ; but God de- 
 fended His Holy Church by some of the 
 most illustrious Pontiffs that ever sat in 
 the chair of Peter. The great doctors who 
 were called to defend the faith were St. 
 Bernard, St. Anselm, Peter Lombard, 
 Peter, abbott of Clughny ; S. S. Otto, Nor- 
 bert, Henry of Upsal, Hugh of Lincoln, 
 
30 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 William of York, and St. MalacM of Ire- 
 land. These holy men buckled on the 
 armor of God, and repulsed a prolific 
 growth of heresies which sprang up rank 
 and defiant, such as those of Marcilius 
 of Padua, Arnold of Brescia, Henry of 
 Toulouse, Peter Bruise, Peter Waldo, 
 the Bogomilians, Albigenses, and other 
 branches of the Manichean family. This is 
 the corrupt and blood-thirsty brood that 
 Dr. Clark undertook to defend a few Sun- 
 days ago, before an audience among whom, 
 we would venture to assert, there were not 
 half a dozen persons who knew any thing 
 at all of the true history of these common 
 disturbers of the public peace, nor the 
 errors which they strove so hard to propa- 
 gate. If their object was simply to worship 
 Grod in their own way, as the learned Doc- 
 tor declares, they might have enjoyed that 
 privilege until doomsday, if they could 
 live so long, and nobody would interfere 
 with them. Instead of this, they wanted 
 to obtrude their erroneous opinions upon 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 31 
 
 their neighbors, and traduce the faith of a 
 people which was as true as it was holy. 
 They became so arrogant and lawless that 
 the strong arm of the civil power was at 
 last compelled to interfere. We question 
 very much if Dr. Clark, himself, knew 
 what he was talking about ; for, if he was 
 better posted in the science of Christian 
 morals, and had any regard for the pure 
 life-giving doctrine of salvation, he would 
 never attempt to palliate or defend the 
 crimes and practices of such red-mouthed 
 vilifiers of all that was good and holy, 
 true and imperishable in God' s revelation 
 to mankind. It is somewhat singular that 
 he should revive the almost forgotten sub- 
 ject of the Waldenses at this particular 
 time. Their history is of little importance 
 to the world they disgraced, and few think 
 it worth their while to go into any details 
 concerning them. They were a fanatical 
 sect at best, loose in morals, and subversive 
 of the peace and happiness of social life. 
 None but a man of evil meaning, who is 
 
32 THE QUESTION SOLYED. 
 
 always on the look-out for some new arrow 
 to plnck from Ms qniver of falsehood to 
 wound truth in a tender part, would up- 
 hold the errors which prudence and justice 
 condemned six centuries ago. If the Doc- 
 tor had any high regard for his people, he 
 would never have introduced the ^'poor 
 men of Lyons" to their acquaintance* 
 What have the congregation of the First 
 Church in common with the '^Humiliati? " 
 They believed in auricular confession, the 
 Mass, etc. As Dr. Clark does not believe 
 in such essentials, he must hold to their 
 errors, which would not be at all compli- 
 mentary to so large a christian as our 
 worthy friend of the two steepled light- 
 house. There is not a well-organized Chris- 
 tian government on the face of the earth, 
 that would tolerate them as they first 
 showed themselves in France. We would 
 hate to accuse the Doctor of sanctioning the 
 proceedings going on daily in Chicago, Indi- 
 ana and other parts of our country ; but it 
 looks strange, to say the least, for he well 
 
THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 33 
 
 knows that Peter Waldo and Ms friends 
 held it to be a cardinal doctrine, that '^ di- 
 vorce was lawful under all circumstances." 
 
 In the thirteenth century Fratricelli and 
 Beguardi with other heretics arose, with 
 whose gross immoralities no pure mind 
 should be made acquainted. In the next 
 century the hateful Manichean doctrine 
 was upheld by other new sects. The Lol- 
 lards sprang up in Germany and the Wick- 
 liffites in England, whose abominable errors 
 threatened to sap not only religion itself, 
 but the foundations of civil society. The 
 Church, in the fifteenth century, witnessed 
 many errors and dissensions. The Hus- 
 sites, Adamites and other remnants of the 
 immoral Albigenses, attacked not only the 
 Church, but made war against the State 
 also. 
 
 But it was reserved for the sixteenth 
 century to cap the climax of revolt and 
 opposition to the See of Rome. The arch 
 reformer Luther sounded the key note of 
 rebellion, broke his sacred vows, shook off 
 
34 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 all authority in matters of faith, pretended 
 to unlock a chained Bible, and lo ! heresies 
 swarmed like maggots in a putrefying car- 
 cass. Out crept Lutherans, Zwinglians, 
 Anabaptists, Puritans, Socinians and the 
 Family of Love. The haughty monk swore 
 destruction to the Church, and to the 
 natural mind she stood in great peril ; but 
 thanks to the power and promise of Christ, 
 the barque of Peter breasted the angry 
 waves of error and deceit, which threatened 
 to engulf her, and with sails set, colors 
 flying and the cross nailed to her mast-head 
 she plowed the fierce surges of hate and 
 discord, until she anchored safely in the 
 haven of peace and love, beneath the 
 shelter of the Rock of Ages. 
 
 In the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury the sects were in full blast, and, 
 though diflering widely in point of doctrine, 
 they united under the common name of 
 Protestants — their aim and purpose being 
 the destruction of the Church. But the 
 Lord of Hosts thwarted their designs, and 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 35 
 
 like the builders of the Tower of Babel, 
 they were confounded and dismayed. The 
 Lutherans divided into Diaphorists and 
 Abiaphorists — Calvinists into Gomarists 
 and Armenians — and the Angelicans into 
 four divisions. These fought among them- 
 selves and became cruel and revengeful one 
 against the other. Atheism and Infidelity 
 raised their defiant crests in the last cen- 
 tury, and nowhere did they make such 
 progress as in Protestant countries. 
 
 And now we are near the close of the 
 nineteenth century, and the names of the 
 sects are legion — it would be impossible 
 in fact to enumerate them. They remind 
 one of the clouds and shadows that flit 
 across the sky on an autumnal day — they 
 are forever changing and dissolving — what 
 is true to-day is false to-morrow. In this 
 State alone, there are eighty- seven different 
 sects ! What a pious brood ! They are 
 but a reflex of what St. John saw in his 
 vision, when the fifth angel sounded the 
 trumpet. ^'And I saw a star fall from 
 
86 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 
 
 heaven on tlie earth, and there was given 
 to him the key of the bottomless pit. And 
 the smoke of the pit arose as the smoke of 
 a great furnace, and the sun and the air 
 were darkened with the smoke of the pit, 
 and from the smoke of the pit there came 
 out locusts upon the earth. And power 
 was given to them as the scorpions of the 
 earth have power." 
 
CHAP. m. 
 
 Our bishops and priests FAITHPUIi TO ZION — THE ANNIVER- 
 SARY OF TOM PAINE— CATHOLICS AND THE WAR OF INDEPEND- 
 ENCE—FALSE CHARGES AGAINST OUR AMERICAN BISHOPS — 
 LIBERTY AND THE CHURCH — PROTESTANTISM IN LEAGUE WITH 
 DESPOTISM— THE CHURCH AND THE CIVIL POWE41 — THE RELA- 
 TIVE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT 
 MINISTERS OVER THEIR CONGREGATIONS. 
 
 TELL me, ye defamers of Grod's Holy 
 Clinrcli, that lier bishops and priests are 
 opposed to hnman liberty! Falsehood, 
 black as hell, and ugly as the rotting car- 
 cass of Henry YIII ! How dare you tempt 
 the Lord our Grod ! But the good Lord is 
 merciful and slow to anger, and he permits 
 you like tares to grow up with the wheat 
 until the harvest. Our bishops and priests 
 are not only sentinels on the watch towers 
 of Zion, defending the gospel of salvation, 
 but in every age from the day that St. 
 Peter stood in the hall of Pudens, the Ro- 
 man Senator, denouncing the tyranny of 
 Rome, and proclaiming mercy and hope to 
 the captive and the slave — the same privi- 
 leges to the bondman and the free, down to 
 
38 THE QUESTIO]Sr SOLVED. 
 
 tMs very hour, they liave always stood up 
 for the rights of man, not as the infidel 
 Paine defines them, but as Jesus of ISTazareth 
 taught and commanded. 
 
 And here let me say, by way of paren- 
 thesis, that the followers and admirers of 
 Thomas Paine hold their blasphemous 
 anniversaries in that section of liberal 
 Christianity from which I understand Dr. 
 Clark emanated. Year after year they 
 unblushingly inculcate impiety and un- 
 belief — making a mockery of Christ and 
 His saints — pouring forth soul-destroying 
 doctrines like streams of molten lead and 
 burning lava. Notwithstanding all this. Dr. 
 Clark remains as silent and as dumb as the 
 Pyramid of Cheops. Why should he offend 
 men of wealth and distinction belonging to 
 that organization % It is modern progress that 
 inspires such choice spirits, and moreover, 
 they have nearly all been educated in the 
 common scTiools of New England, where each 
 in turn read his Bible and construed its 
 meaning to suit his own taste and fancy. 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 39 
 
 Let but tlie Catholic Churcli proclaim 
 her authority in matters of faith and dis- 
 cipline, and the great oracle of the 'Hwo 
 steepled church" would awake to life, as 
 if struck by a wizard's wand, and in his 
 fulminations he would kick seven pulpits 
 to pieces, and bang the inwards out of a 
 dozen Bibles. 
 
 The accusation that Catholicity promotes 
 despotism, as has been alleged by Clark 
 & Co., is not only false, but highly criminal. 
 Catholics form no mean portion of the 
 census of these United States; Catholics 
 first discovered this continent and planted 
 the cross on its virgin soil. They took an 
 active part in the early warfare of the 
 country, and no part of Washington's 
 army were braver or more enthusiastic in 
 casting off the yoke of Gfreat Britain than 
 they. 
 
 But Dr. Clark asks, what brought Catho- 
 lics here, why did they not go to Mexico 
 or South America ? Such a question would 
 sound better coming from the lips of an 
 
40 THE QUESTIOjN" solved. 
 
 ignorant know-notMng, rather than from 
 the month of a man having as mnch intel- 
 ligence as the Doctor pretends to po&sess. 
 Did Greorge Washington and his compat- 
 riots, in 1776, ask Lafayette, Pulaski, Count 
 de Grasse, Kosciuszko, De Kalb, and the 
 brave Commodore John Barry (who was 
 appointed by Washington to form the first 
 naval fleet in the war of independence, and 
 who never struck his colors to a British 
 man of war), what brought them here, why 
 did they not go to South America or 
 Mexico? No! Washington's idea of pat- 
 riotism was far different from Dr. Clark's. 
 It is well for the cause of American free- 
 dom that such men as the hero of the 
 North Dutch had no hand in its early 
 deliberations. Washington was a soldier, 
 a patriot, and an honest man ; Clark is 
 neither. This creature of circumstance has 
 the hardihood to assert that Catholicism is 
 incompatible with republican institutions. 
 Does he not know that Catholic republics 
 existed long before Columbus discovered 
 
THE QUESTIOisr SOLYED. 41 
 
 America ? Did he never liear of San 
 Marino, founded by a monk more than 
 1500 years ago, and the little republic of 
 Andorra founded by a bishop in the ninth 
 century? The people of these territories 
 remain, even to this day, free and independ- 
 ent, thoroughly democratic in their prin- 
 ciples, well educated, happy, and contented 
 in their mountain homes. 
 
 Some of the signers of the Declaration 
 of Independence were Catholics — they have 
 occupied position* of trust in almost every 
 department of the government, and formed 
 a large proportion of the army and navy. 
 Now, will these calumniators of our Catho- 
 lic brethren show us one, who proved un- 
 faithful to the trust reposed in him? 
 Among them all, there could not be found 
 one Benedict Arnold. Can Protestants 
 say as much? Our late war has given 
 additional proofs of the loyalty of our 
 bishops, although Dr. Clark asserts they 
 are not and cannot be citizens of the Re- 
 public, because they owe allegiance to a 
 4* 
 
43 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 foreign power. There never was a grosser 
 libel than this ! 'Tis true that onr ecclesi- 
 astics do not take an active part in politics, 
 and it would be well for Protestant minis- 
 ters if they followed their example in this 
 regard, for it is my candid belief, that they 
 did more to foment strife and discord in 
 the body politic, by their political preach- 
 ing, than any other class of our citizens. 
 The office of the Catholic priest is too 
 sacred — his labors too arduous, to allow 
 him much time to devote to politics ; but 
 in his fealty to the government and to the 
 laws he yields to none. A more thorough 
 American than the late Archbishop Hughes 
 never breathed the air of human liberty— 
 and what we claim for him, may be said of 
 all our bishops throughout the Republic. 
 We cannot do better, perhaps, than give an 
 extract from the transactions of the sixth 
 provincial council of Baltimore in 1846, 
 wherein the assembled bishops officially de- 
 clared as follows : 
 
 '^It is unnecessary for us to tell you, 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 43 
 
 brethren, that the kingdom of Christ, of 
 which the Bishop of Rome, as successor 
 of Peter, has received the keys, is not of 
 this world ; and that the obedience due to 
 the Yicar of the Saviour is in no way in- 
 consistent with your civil allegiance, youl 
 social duties as citizens, or your rights as 
 men. We can confidently appeal to the 
 whole tenor of our instructions, not only 
 in our public addresses, but in our most 
 confidential communications, and you can 
 bear witness that we have always taught 
 you to render to Csesar the things which 
 are Caesar's, to Grod the things which are 
 God's. Be not, then, heedful of the mis- 
 representations of foolish men, who, unable 
 to combat the evidences of our faith, seek 
 to excite unjust prejudice against that au- 
 thority which has always proved its firmest 
 support. Continue to practice justice and 
 charity towards all your fellow-citizens — 
 respect the magistrates — observe the laws — 
 shun tumult and disorder, as free, and not 
 as having liberty as a cloak for malice, but 
 as the servants of God." 
 
44 THE QUESTI02^ 80LVED. 
 
 The bishops of the fifth council of Balti- 
 more made a still stronger declaration, in 
 an ofiicial letter to the Pope, in answer to 
 which the Holy Pontiff expressed his satis- 
 faction thus : ^^ Your letter was most pleas- 
 ing to us." The extract from that letter 
 reads thus : ''They spread doubtful rumors 
 against us among the people ; with untir- 
 ing efforts, they circulate among the 
 ignorant and uninformed, books, which 
 calumniate our most holy religion ; they 
 leave no means untried to infect with errors 
 their Catholic servants ; and ... al- 
 though our forefathers poured out their 
 blood like water for the defense of our 
 liberties against a Protestant oppressor, 
 they yet seek to render us, their fellow- 
 citizens, suspected by, and odious to the 
 government, 'by falsely asserting that we 
 are reduced to servitude under the civil 
 and political jurisdiction of a foreign 
 prince^ namely^ of the Roman Pontiffs and 
 that we are therefore unfaithful to the re- 
 public 1'^'^ 
 
THE QUESTION SOLYED. 45 
 
 Did Dr. Clark take any pains to examine 
 the subject well, before making such a 
 sweeping and savage attack on the allegi- 
 ance of our American bishops? It must 
 have been a part of malice, and not a want 
 of intelligence, that actuated our belligerent 
 parson, for no well informed man in our 
 day believes that the Pope of Rome claims 
 any obedience from his children, scattered 
 as they are all over the earth and under all 
 forms of government, other than what they 
 owe him in spiritual matters. The question 
 of papal jurisdiction was long since dis- 
 cussed in both houses of the British parlia- 
 ment. Mr. Pitt took great pains to investi- 
 gate the matter, and if those persons who 
 admire Dr. Clark for his honesty, will look 
 into Butler's Book of the Church, page 287, 
 if they do not come to the conclusion, that 
 the worthy pastor is possessed of the spirit 
 of lying, they are as bad as he is. Mr. Pitt's 
 investigations resulted in this: ^'that the 
 Pope, or cardinals, or any body of men, or 
 any individual of the Church of Rome, can- 
 
46 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 not absolve or dispense with. Ms Majesty's 
 subjects from their oath of allegiance, upon 
 any pretext whatsoever," There is not 
 a monarchial government in Europe, that 
 believes to the contrary of this. How comes 
 it then that our brave, intelligent Americans 
 of the Protestant stripe, allow themselves to 
 be frightened by such, a bugbear, which has 
 no existence, save in the addled brains of 
 their religious teachers ? If Dr. Franklin, 
 when minister to France (and we take it 
 that he was as good, as pure and as patri- 
 otic as our worthy friend of the '^two- 
 steepled church," and his name will be 
 cherished as a benefactor of his race long 
 after Rufus W. Clark, D. D., shall be buried 
 in oblivion and rotted out of memory), had 
 such squeamish fears of Rome as our 
 modern patriots, would he have solicited 
 the Pope's Nuncio to appoint a Catholic 
 bishop for America, lest American Catholics 
 might be dependent on an English bishop ; 
 and recommended his friend and companion 
 the Rev. Dr. Carroll, for that position ? 
 
THE QUESTIOlSr SOLVED. 47 
 
 Protestants are continually accnsing the 
 CliurclL of intolerance, and, with a great 
 flourish of trumpets, appeal to the Goddess 
 of Liberty upon all occasions, especially 
 when the See of Rome asserts her authority. 
 As freedom from restraint is always agree- 
 able to the carnal-minded, audiences ap- 
 plaud and accept the gilded bait regardless 
 of consequences, never stopping to inquire 
 whether their orator speaks truth or false- 
 hood. Let me tell such people, that truth 
 is only safe and lasting in its effects, in pro- 
 portion as it maintains its authority ; for the 
 instant it compromises with falsehood it 
 becomes hidden and lost to view, and error 
 will stalk through the land corrupting the 
 heart of man and outraging common sense. 
 Christ has always spoken with authority, 
 so have the Apostles and their successors. 
 If religious truth is left to the caprice of the 
 human mind, ungoverned and alone, heresies 
 must necessarily arise, which the history of 
 our race during the last eighteen centuries 
 proves conclusively. Free thought without 
 
48 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 a governing voice, has sped from one theory 
 to another until finally it ended in Panthe- 
 ism or Atheism. It is a thing impossible to 
 reconcile the various opinions of mankind 
 on a single article of faith when it is left an 
 open question. The human mind being 
 finite and limited in capacity, it cannot 
 reason beyond a certain point — then again, 
 men have different measures of intellectual 
 strength — besides, pride and selfishness are 
 too powerful ingredients in the composition 
 of our nature, to allow truth at all times its 
 natural supremacy. It follows, then, if 
 the wisest man cannot penetrate into the 
 mysteries of his own being, that, to make 
 him a responsible agent, he must have a 
 supernatural intelligence bestowed upon 
 him, else he is compelled to grope his way 
 through the maze of life, unable to get over 
 his perplexity. How necessary therefore it 
 is for him to have some faithful guide, to 
 point out the way that leads to the promised 
 land, the realms of truth and happiness, 
 where the mists of error and ignorance shall 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 49 
 
 pass from before Ms eyes, and lie be ushered 
 into the full and perfect light of everlasting 
 day. 
 
 The Catholic Church, from the first, pro- 
 mulgated and maintained, that truth was 
 the very source of all liberty, and that man- 
 kind, rich and poor, black and white, from 
 the king to the beggar, are equal in the sight 
 of Grod, dear to His heart, created by His 
 own august power, and destined to reign 
 with Him forever in the Kingdom of His 
 glory. .Why, then, should the church that 
 claims to be the spouse of the Most High, 
 desire to despise and degrade his dear chil- 
 dren in the flesh ? To accuse her of such a 
 crime, is a base and wicked fabrication — 
 the Church not only established the princi- 
 ple of equality, but she made it practical. 
 The child of the poorest Catholic peasant 
 can aspire to the Papal chair as well as he 
 of the blood royal. I have seen the poor 
 French peasant, with his wooden shoes, tread 
 the grand aisles of Notre Dame, side by side 
 with the proudest and most wealthy citizen 
 
50 THE QUESTIOIsr SOLVED. 
 
 of la belle France — kneel before the same 
 altar — partake of the same sacraments, and 
 no distinction made between them. What 
 say the poor people of the First Reformed 
 Chnrch ? All superiority is left outside the 
 doors of the Catholic Church ; inside, the 
 king and the beggar are brought to the same 
 level. By her divine philanthropy she ele- 
 vates and ennobles the lowest creature in 
 society, and has frequently brought kings 
 and princes down from their exalted posi- 
 tions, to wash the feet of the poor. Is a 
 religion that teaches such noble virtues as 
 these, to be accused of favoring despotism ? 
 If an oppressed people, under a cruel and 
 despotic government, wish to overthrow the 
 oppressor, the Church permits them to arm 
 themselves in defense of their liberties, and 
 shake off the yoke that tyranny imposes 
 upon them ; but in case they are too feeble 
 to resist, they are counseled to bear pa- 
 tiently the wrongs inflicted, rather than 
 place themselves in an attitude which would 
 surely bring destruction upon them. The 
 
THE QUESTIOiq" SOLVED. 51 
 
 Church teaches them to die like Christians, 
 knowing full well that the blood of martyrs 
 is destructive to tyranny. 
 
 The Church is not, and never was, hostile 
 to liberty ; on the contrary, she is, and ever 
 was, favorable to freedom. The doctrine that 
 ' ' all men are born free and equal, ' ' was held 
 by her more than a thousand years before 
 Thomas Jefferson was born. As early as the 
 accession of Henry I, of England, an ecclesi- 
 astical council, held by St. Anselm, de- 
 nounced slavery as contrary to the laws of 
 God. The great synod of Armagh, at a time 
 when Englishmen were in a state of bondage 
 in Ireland, decreed and ordained that slavery 
 must be abolished in that country ; and it 
 was done. That land, now in a condition 
 of slavery herself, has the honor of the first 
 general act of emancipation known in 
 history. 
 
 A voice that teaches sovereigns that they 
 should be the dispensers of kindness and 
 benevolence to the people whom they gov- 
 ern, that they must reign according to the 
 
52 THE QUESTIOlSr SOLVED. 
 
 spirit and letter of the law, and that there 
 is a Judge and Prince in Heaven, who will 
 one day bring them to an account for any 
 wrong done to the subject, cannot be in 
 league with despotism. 
 
 Let us now investigate the Protestant side 
 of this question. Did not Henry VIII, the 
 head and chief of English Protestants, cause 
 his ministers to preach the divine right of 
 kings, and obedience to royalty ? In 1540, 
 a miserable party of sycophants got together, 
 obtained Parliamentary sanction, and com- 
 piled a work to show that subjects could 
 not withdraw their obedience from their king, 
 for any cause whatever; that the people 
 must obey all the laws, proclamations, pre- 
 cepts and commandments, made by their 
 princes and governors ; that they must not 
 draw their swords against their prince for 
 any cause; nor against any other person 
 without his leave. This work was written 
 by those who called themselves Christian 
 teachers. Archbishop Cranmer, at the 
 coronation of Edward VI, declared that 
 
THE QUESTIO]Sr SOLVED. 53 
 
 liis right to govern did not depend npon 
 any engagement made at Ms coronation; 
 that Ms crown was given Mm by Almighty 
 God, and could not, by any failure in 
 Ms administration, be forfeited. Bonner, 
 in 1549, declared in a sermon at Paul's 
 Cross, that any resistance to royalty 
 would certainly bring eternal perdition on 
 the rebel ; that all such as rebelled against 
 their prince, no matter the cause, get unto 
 them damnation ! ''Those," said he, ''that 
 resist the high power, resist the ordinance 
 of Grod ; and he that dies in rebellion, by 
 the words of God, is utterly lost, body and 
 soul." Bonner was obliged to preach this 
 doctrine, else lose his head or Ms diocese. 
 The difference between him and a Catholic 
 bishop, would simply be this: the latter 
 would forfeit both, sooner than give utter- 
 ance to such a doctrine, while the former 
 would preach any thing prescribed to him, 
 rather than lose either. In the Book of 
 Homilies, the "right divine" is maintained, 
 
 and in the tenth sermon of the first book, 
 5* 
 
54 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLYED. 
 
 Elizabeth caused the same doctrine to be 
 preached after the following manner : ^^The 
 high power and authority of kings, with 
 their making of laws, judgments, and offi- 
 ces, are the ordinances not of man, but of 
 Grod." And further, '4t is not lawful, for 
 inferiors and subjects in any cause, to resist 
 and stand against the supreme powers;" 
 and again, ''this is so manifest, it is an in- 
 tolerable ignorance, madness, and wicked- 
 ness, for subjects to make any murmuring, 
 rebellion, resistance, commotion or insurrec- 
 tion, against this dear and dread sovereign, 
 lord and king (Elizabeth), ordained and ap- 
 pointed of God's goodness, for their com- 
 modity, peace, and quietness." This was 
 the kind of doctrine preached and backed 
 up by a few texts of Scripture, from that 
 period to the time of Queen Anne ; and so 
 the Protestant Church of England taught in 
 the reign of Charles II, and of James. In 
 1622, a man named Knight attempted to in- 
 culcate principles differing from the above, 
 when a law was passed and put strictly ir 
 
THE QtJESTIO^Sr SOLVED. 55 
 
 force, and the graduates of Oxford had to 
 make oath, that '4n no case is it lawful to 
 use force against the sovereign." The book 
 from which poor Knight obtained his proofs 
 was ordered to be burnt publicly before the 
 two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. 
 Mainwaring was made bishop by Charles I, 
 for holding to the doctrine of the ^' right 
 divine," and the Protestant Church in con- 
 vocation adopted his views, adding, that 
 ^^ under the most^earfal penalties, the sub- 
 ject must give tribute, aid, and subsidy, and 
 all manner of support to kings, by the law 
 of God, and of nature, and of nations, in 
 all cases, and that the subject has not so 
 good a right to his individual property as 
 the king has to it." The House of Com- 
 mons, however, having a higher apprecia- 
 tion of justice, condemned the canons after 
 the church had passed them. This act 
 brought the Commons in direct antagonism 
 to the church and the king; until at last 
 the Commons triumphed, and brought the 
 king' s head to the block. Anarchy and con- 
 
56 THE QUESTIOlsr SOLYED. 
 
 fusion became the order of the day in Pro- 
 testant England, and the blood that was 
 shed by contending factions was fearful to 
 contemplate, and although Cromwell dis- 
 solved the long parliament and seized the 
 reins of power, the ''right divi:^e" still as- 
 serted its authority. Tillotson wrote a letter 
 to the unfortunate Lord Russell, previous 
 to his execution, informing him that non- 
 resistance was the doctrine of all Protestant 
 churches. 
 
 Let us contrast such teachings, with what 
 the Church prescribed, and which the learned 
 doctor willfully ignores. Does he not know 
 that the doctrine, that ''the people are the 
 legitimate source of civil authority," was of 
 Catholic origin? Let him turn over the 
 pages of English history, and he will find 
 the Holy Pontiff proclaiming the decision, 
 which afterwards became a law, as far back 
 as the time of Edward the Confessor, "that 
 unless the ruler properly discharge his 
 duties towards the people of his realm, he 
 shall not be allowed the name of king, even 
 
THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 57 
 
 by courtesy." The Catholic Judge Bracton, 
 in the reign of Henry III, says, ^^he is a 
 king when he reigns well, but a tyrant when 
 he oppresses the people. ' ' In another place, 
 this learned advocate proclaims, that ''when 
 the king ceases to govern according to law, 
 he is not a king ; he is a tyrant, and a min- 
 ister of the devil." Both Edward and 
 Richard II were deposed by a Catholic 
 parliament, for misgovernment and injustice 
 to the people. Fortescue, Catholic Chan- 
 cellor of Henry VI, publicly declared that 
 " a king was placed by the people to defend 
 the laws of his subjects, their bodies and 
 their goods." Thus the Catholic Church 
 and Catholic doctrine ever stood between 
 the people and their tyrants. Does not the 
 minister of the ^Hwo steepled church" know 
 well that Magna CTiarta^ the basis of Eng- 
 lish rights and liberties, was wrung from 
 King John by Catholics, the priests and 
 bishops at their head ? They taught the 
 people their civil rights, and took care that 
 the king duly observed his oath of office. 
 
58 THE QUESTIOIsT SOLVED. 
 
 The canons of the Church, in fact, formed 
 the basis of the civil law of England. The 
 clergy tanght the people that excessive 
 taxation was wrong, and that taxation with- 
 out representation was wicked, and ought 
 to be resisted. In 1223, they caused Henry 
 III to confirm these decisions, and in after 
 years when the same king tried to repeal 
 the great charter, the clerical party defeated 
 his efforts, and maintained the rights of the 
 people. It was Hubert, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, that declared the crown to be 
 elective, so that it was a decision of the 
 people that placed John upon the throne. 
 When he afterwards attempted to crush the 
 barons, and quarrel with the clergy. Cardi- 
 nal Langdon produced the old charter, 
 forced the king to desist from violating the 
 law, and thus protected the subject in his 
 legal rights. The clergy were the expound- 
 ers of the law ; they explained them to the 
 people twice a year in their grand cathe- 
 drals. The Church, in all ages and in all 
 countries, protected the poor in their civil 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 59 
 
 rights, and for this she became the object 
 of fear and jealousy. Persecutions had 
 been raised against her faithful ministers, in 
 the reign of William the Conqueror, William 
 Rufus, and Henry I, away down, in fact, to 
 the wicked revolt under Henry YIII, that 
 monster of iniquity. These were the days 
 of confessors and martyrs, who yielded up 
 their lives for the sake of God and His 
 poor — glorious men, who dared to stand 
 before king and baron and battle for the 
 right. 
 
 The Church does not administer secular 
 governments, nor does she interfere with 
 them, further than to declare the law which 
 all secular governments are bound to obey, 
 on peril of contravening the law of God. 
 The church claims to define the spiritual 
 order upon which the State should be 
 founded, and opposes no revolution in favor 
 of sound, religious principles. She wages 
 war against unlawful means to overturn any 
 existing government. With us here in free 
 America, it seems the height of folly to sup- 
 
60 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 
 
 pose for a second that the Church would 
 undertake, at this age of her existence, to 
 accomplish for the United States, what she 
 never yet dreamed of in connection with any 
 other government under the sun. As far as 
 we know, the Church finds no fault with the 
 Constitution of the United States. It per- 
 mits us the freedom of our religious opin- 
 ions, and the practices of our faith, the 
 same as it does all others. Have we not a 
 right, therefore, to promulgate our religious 
 principles, by lawful means, as far as we 
 can, in order to save souls, which is the 
 chief object of the Church' s mission, as well 
 as to save society from final destruction ? 
 We do not desire, nor do we strive for politi- 
 cal power as Protestants do, to bring about 
 this happy result : it is Protestants who are 
 aiming for State power, to control the relig- 
 ious opinions of Catholics ; but this they 
 never can accomplish, let them whine, rant, 
 and intrigue as they will. The die is cast ! 
 There is a strong anti-Christian power in the 
 body politic, which will suffer no state 
 
THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 61 
 
 religion ; and even if there was not, the 
 sects themselves could never agree upon a 
 State religions creed. Such tools as Dr. 
 Clark, who invent lies as fast as Dexter can 
 trot, and draw conclusions from them as 
 quickly, are the worst enemies to civil soci- 
 ety. With pompous declamation, and crafty, 
 lying essays, they warn the State against 
 the grasping nature of the Church — tell the 
 people they are in imminent danger of 
 losing their liberties, and that Catholics are 
 threatening to tumble down their free insti- 
 tutions in their faces. To show the lying 
 propensities of such scribblers, we would 
 only refer the reader to an article, or rather 
 a string of falsehoods, published in Put- 
 nam's Magazine for July of last year. 
 They were ably refuted by that high-toned 
 periodical, the Catholic Worlds in the 
 August number, which every Protestant, 
 having any regard for truth, should procure 
 and study for themselves, in order to see 
 how their religious teachers deceive them. 
 Notwithstanding the aforementioned state- 
 
62 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 ments were shown to be untrue, Putnam^ s 
 Magazine took no notice of the refutation ; 
 neither did the Protestant press, which had 
 given the article wide publication. No, no ; 
 they knew it was a lie when they published 
 it, and they wanted to keep their readers 
 still in the dark. Protestantism was born 
 of a lie, and has been sustained by lying 
 ever since. 
 
 Instead of Catholics aiming at political 
 power to destroy Protestant institutions, 
 the boot should be placed on the other leg. 
 We need only refer to the late know-nothing 
 movement, the Protestant Association, and 
 the American Christian Union. Protestant- 
 ism has been always coqueting with politi- 
 cal power, as has been proved over and 
 over again, and if the real sentiments of the 
 Evangelicals were known, they would prefer 
 a scion of the House of Brunswick for their 
 ruler, to the Congress of the United States, 
 so as to be able to wield the throne of State, 
 against the altar of the Church. Listen to 
 the Christian Intelligencer : ''The religious 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 63 
 
 liberty wMch places Catholics on an equal 
 footing in the political order with Protest- 
 ants, may be discovered to be a great mis- 
 take." Is not that sentiment alone antago- 
 nistic to the great American doctrine of equal 
 rights ? They persist in forcing ns to send 
 our children to be educated in schools con- 
 trary to our dearest wishes, and because we 
 object on religious grounds, they call us a 
 priest-ridden, intriguing class, who are plan- 
 ning the destruction of their free institutions. 
 Such declamation is all bosh, gentlemen, 
 and you know it — we cherish and respect 
 free institutions as well as you do, and better 
 too. We love institutions that the truth 
 makes free — you love those which propa- 
 gate error, which in the course of time will 
 prove destructive to every Godlike gift in 
 man. Reject the wholesome admonitions 
 of the Church of Rome, which is the living, 
 breathing, active Church of Jesus Christ on 
 earth, the uncompromising enemy to infidel- 
 ity and despotism of every shade and hue, 
 the nurse of virtue, the patron of chastity, 
 
64 THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 
 
 the fountain of inspiration, and the mother 
 of devotion ; stay her progress and yon will 
 hasten down the stream of immorality and 
 corruption, like drift-wood to the open sea. 
 We are frequently taunted from the pulpit 
 and by the sectarian press, that we go as 
 enemies to the polls ; meaning thereby that 
 Catholics act as a unit, in securing legisla- 
 tion hostile to Protestants. There is not a 
 word of truth in such a statement ; on the 
 contrary, there are but lew of our clergy, as 
 far as I know, who take any active part in 
 politics beyond depositing a ballot ; nor do 
 these all vote alike — some belong to one 
 class of politics, and some to another ; the 
 only difference between themselves and 
 Protestant ministers in this respect is, that 
 the former never join a fanatical party. The 
 same may be said of the laymen ; they do 
 not go to the polls as Catholics, they go as 
 freemen and the only enemies they meet 
 there, as a rule, are Protestants, who lay in 
 wait for the poor laborer, to whom they hold 
 out bribes, to tempt his poverty and corrupt 
 
THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 65 
 
 Ms principles. The Protestant Dominie has 
 ten times more control over the members of 
 his congregation than the priest has over 
 his. The former keeps dinging all the time 
 into the ears of his hearers, both in the long 
 prayer, and the prosaic sermon, till he 
 makes a nose of wax of by far the majority 
 of them ; while the poor priest allows his 
 flock to act their own pleasure, in almost all 
 cases. I have seen it stated not long since, 
 that the GTiristian World (which is the 
 month-piece of the American and Foreign 
 Christian Union), urges it to be 'Hhe duty 
 of all Protestants, to unite at the polls, and 
 vote down everything that tended to ad- 
 vance the interests of the Catholic Church." 
 The whole history of Protestantism proves 
 its despotic tendency — it tries to lord it 
 over Catholics where it has power, and where 
 it has not. In this country, when a just 
 man urges forward a Catholic claim, in the 
 halls of legislation, he is abused and decried 
 for giving aid to the enemy. The sectarian 
 
 press and the bigoted pulpit sing out 
 6* 
 
66 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 ^' enemy at the polls ! " ^ invasion of Prot- 
 estant rights!" and the majority are let 
 loose once more on the Catholic trail. It is 
 to be regretted that Catholics do not take a 
 lesson from Protestants and act with more 
 concert in political affairs. They have as 
 much right to demand legislation for the 
 protection of their religion as Protestants 
 have. To this equality Protestants object — 
 they want to rule. They claim all privileges 
 from the State, and wonder why Catholics 
 are even tolerated. What arrogance ! All 
 we ask, as Catholics, is equal rights with 
 other denominations before the State. We 
 claim no more, nor shall we be satisfied to 
 take less, let the First Dutch say what it 
 will. When I hear a Protestant minister 
 injuring his lungs in the praise of religious 
 freedom, I feel like cutting off his coat-tails 
 so that every true lover of Liberty could get 
 a decent kick at him. His voice is like the 
 song of the siren, that charms but to devour. 
 
CHAP. TV. 
 
 Protestant PREACHERS and the inquisition— the inquisition 
 
 AND the WAIiDENSES— ST. DOMINIC AND THE INQUISITION — 
 SPAIN AND THE INQUISITION — POPE SIXTUS IV AND THE INQUISI- 
 TION — PASCAI. — ROME THE JEWISH PARADISE. 
 
 DR. CLARK, in common with all other 
 Protestant preachers, scarcely ever con- 
 cludes a discourse, without interlarding it 
 with the Inquisition. It is Inquisition in the 
 beginning, Inquisition in the middle, and 
 Inquisition at the end, until their hearers, 
 like themselves, get Inquisition on the brain. 
 We are no apologist for any institution that 
 tjrrannizes over the conscience of man, 
 neither would we willingly submit to have 
 opinions, destructive of religion and civil 
 polity thrust upon us. Personally, I regret 
 the Church having any thing to do with the 
 Inquisition, and yet, when I consider the age 
 in which it was instituted in Spain, the 
 circumstances which called it forth, what the 
 Church had to suffer from^ heresy for eight 
 centuries previous, and the condition of 
 
68 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 society, I do not wonder that a check was 
 pnt on the fomenters of strife in the State, 
 and discord in the Church. It seems hard 
 to take the life of a human creature, to 
 torture, or throw him in prison, but we have 
 examples sufficient to prove that mercy has 
 a limit, even with the Almighty. We well 
 know that God destroyed all the inhabitants 
 of the earth, save ISToah and his family ; and 
 the Old Testament is full of examples, where 
 the chosen of the Lord had put thousands 
 to the sword. Whole tribes and nations 
 were disinherited, and cities destroyed by fire 
 from heaven, on account of man' s insubordi- 
 nation, his infidelity and his crimes. Prot- 
 estants will have it that the Inquisition was 
 the work of the Church. Now, this is a lie ! 
 They also maintain that it was the ecclesi- 
 astical tribunal that passed the penalty of 
 the law. This also is a lie ! Dr. Clark told 
 his people, in his lecture on the Waldenses, 
 that they were condemned to death, by the 
 priests, for opinion's sake. This is a pal- 
 pable lie, and it is a great wonder it did not 
 
THE QUESTION SOLYED. 69 
 
 choke him when he gave it utterance ! Prot- 
 estants also insist that St. Dominic was its 
 founder, and the good saint has been con- 
 tinually the object of abuse and condemna- 
 tion, when it is a well established fact that 
 he never opposed heresy with any other 
 weapons than prayer, patience, and good 
 counsel. It is not exactly known when or 
 where the Inquisition was first established ; 
 but this much is certain, that in its first 
 operations it was mild and salutary, and 
 continued so until the civil power made use 
 of it for its own protection. It was not until 
 the latter part of the fifteenth century that 
 its rigors were fairly put into practice. It 
 is unjust, therefore, to charge St. Dominic 
 or any other ecclesiastic with either its sever- 
 ity or its abuse. The part that was intrusted 
 to that order, long after the death of St. 
 Dominic, was the preaching part. Judaism 
 had crept into Spain in or about the fifteenth 
 century. The wealth and intermarriage of 
 the Jews with many of the noble families 
 of the realm, especially those connected 
 
70 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 with the government, had made them a 
 formidable power in the political status of 
 the country. Add to this the influence 
 arising from the remains of Mahometanism, 
 which had already cursed the land with its 
 despotic sway, and deluged its fertile prov- 
 inces with the blood of its own people. The 
 country was thus jeopardized, by Judaism 
 on the one hand and Islamism on the other. 
 The noble Castilians could not stand this 
 encroachment any longer — a jealousy, deep 
 and bitter, sprang up — the Cortes demanded 
 strong measures against the Jews — the 
 provinces flew to arms, and a most terrible 
 slaughter was the result. The political 
 horizon grew thick and murky, thunder- 
 bolts were pent up in the surrounding gloom, 
 when Ferdinand thought it high time to put 
 a stop to the impending danger, which 
 threatened the country, and the Inquisition 
 was accordingly called into operation. 
 Isabella opposed the severe measures, but 
 the king prevailed, and the Inquisition was 
 put in full force. La Maistre says, that ^4t 
 
THE QUESTIOiq" SOLVED. 71 
 
 is a great error to suppose that we can get 
 rid of a powerful enemy by merely clieck- 
 ing him ; prudence tells us that we should at 
 least drive him into his intrenchments. ' ' The 
 Spanish Inquisition was not an ecclesiastical 
 instrument to punish men for conscience 
 sake, it was purely royal ; and any odium 
 attached to it is to be attributed to the minis- 
 ters of the crown, and not to the ministers 
 of the Church. 
 
 I do not know how Dr. Clark, or any 
 man like him, can draw such horrid pictures 
 of the Inquisition, and then charge them to 
 Catholics, unless he is a close student of the 
 infidel Yoltaire, who, in his hatred towards 
 Christianity, ridiculed and falsified every 
 thing connected with its progress and pro- 
 tection. The imaginations of a people are 
 easily worked up by a crafty teacher or a dis- 
 sembling preacher, so that they will believe 
 the most absurd story against Catholics, 
 because their minds are already made up on 
 that score — their ears being used to such 
 lying calumnies from their earliest infancy. 
 
73 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 In conversation with one of Dr. Clark' s 
 parishioners a few days ago, he would have 
 it that the priests put heretics on the spit 
 and turned them before great fires — broiled 
 them on gridirons, etc. Was there ever 
 credulity like this ? ISTo well educated man, 
 unless he should be a shameless profligate, 
 and breathing the air of infamy, would utter 
 such scandalous abominations. But there 
 are some dupes so blinded by prejudice that 
 they will swallow any thing and every thing 
 no matter how absurd, should its aim be to 
 throw obloquy on our holy religion and its 
 ministers. "" 
 
 A couple of summers ago I met a deacon 
 of one of the Presbyterian churches of 
 Rochester — we boarded at the same hotel, 
 and had many conversations on one subject 
 and another. In the main he seemed pretty 
 well informed, but on the subject of religion 
 his knowledge appeared very limited. In 
 relating to him a story, to illustrate the 
 tenacity of Irish Catholics to the faith of 
 Jesus Christ, during the invasion of Crom- 
 
THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 73 
 
 well, he looked at me with astonishment, 
 and exclaimed, ^' Well, that's the first time 
 that I ever heard that Catholics believed in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ ! " I looked at him 
 with double surprise, and asked him if he 
 truly meant it, and he replied in the affirm- 
 ative. I went forthwith and procured him 
 a three-penny catechism, and requested 
 him to read it. At first he objected, for he 
 did not suppose it contained any thing good. 
 I prevailed upon him, however, to look it 
 over at his leisure. I saw him next morning 
 after breakfast — he had read it some time 
 during the night, and approached me with 
 the book in his hand saying, ' ' I don' t know, 
 after all, that we differ much on the main 
 points of Christian doctrine. ' ' He promised 
 me he would investigate the subject more 
 thoroughly, and seemed much mortified at 
 his ignorance of Catholic dogma. 
 
 This is precisely the case with thousands 
 
 of well-meaning Protestants — they are kept 
 
 in ignorance of the faith of Catholics, and 
 
 their minds are poisoned by their ministers, 
 
 7 
 
74 THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 
 
 their literature and their traditions. An 
 American may be excused for Ms ignorance of 
 the religious belief of Chinese Tartary, or the 
 South Sea Islands, but to be unacquainted 
 with the general outlines of Catholic faith, 
 seems to me very singular, to say the least. 
 They have heard more and know less of the 
 Church of Christ, than any other civilized 
 people on the globe. Their ministers will be 
 held to a strict account before the judgment 
 seat of Grod for all this ignorance. Their 
 ministry is an office of prejudice, hate and 
 rancor, with which they fill the breasts of 
 those over whom they exercise an influence. 
 In that dreadful day when they are arraigned 
 before the face of the great Judge, and as 
 they stand before Him, in all the ugliness 
 of the grave, chattering blasphemy against 
 the Almighty, while thousands upon thou- 
 sands of their dupes shall come up in judg- 
 ment against them, howling, in wild con- 
 fusion, ^' Ye teachers of perdition, we have 
 been damned through your deception," 
 the Lord will hurl them from His presence, 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 75 
 
 never more to see the light of His counte- 
 nance. 
 
 We challenge Dr. Clark, or any other per- 
 son, to point to any Catholic bishop or 
 priest that ever took the life of an individual. 
 They preach rather mercy and forgiveness, 
 clemency and justice, throughout the earth — 
 they but too often yielded up their own lives 
 as a living sacrifice, for the sake of Gfod' s 
 poor and the honor of religion. The Catho- 
 lic Church, kind mother that she is, views 
 mankind in a different light from those who 
 libel her — she looks upon men as the image^v 
 of that God whom she worships and adores, 
 for well she knows that they all have been 
 ransomed by the blood of Jesus Christ, 
 whether they belong to the household of 
 faith or not. 
 
 It was principally for this reason that Pope 
 Sixtus IV allowed ecclesiastics to act as 
 inquisitors, lest any individual should have 
 been unjustly sentenced by the civil magis- 
 trates. Dr. Clark, in referring to Pascal, 
 took good care not to mention any opinion 
 
76 THE QUESTION SOLYED. 
 
 that the great man held favorable to the 
 Church. In one of his provincial letters, he 
 says, ^'the Church holds the effusion of 
 blood in such abhorrence that she deems 
 all who abet, promote and effect a capital 
 condemnation of a fellow being, although it 
 be accompanied by every religious consid- 
 eration, to be disquaMed from oflBlciating at 
 her altars." 
 
 If the Church was given to persecution 
 and the destruction of human life, as has 
 been charged upon her, how comes it that 
 she never yet perpetrated a deed of blood, for 
 opinions' sake, in that province which she 
 legitimately calls her own ? There was not 
 a country in all Europe where the Jew was 
 so well protected in his rights, as in the 
 Papal States. In contradistinction to the 
 annoyances to which they were subjected in 
 all other lands in those days, they used to 
 designate Rome as the Jewish Paradise. 
 If any fault could be found with the papal 
 government, it should be attributed rather 
 to its mildness and humanity in the exercise 
 
THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 77 
 
 of its authority than otherwise. A more 
 just and paternal code of political ethics 
 never was adopted by a civilized people, 
 than was that of Rome, nntU English 
 fomenters of rebellion and their infidel allies 
 took up their abode there, hatching sedition 
 and revolt. It was there, among an unsus- 
 pecting people, that these villains distilled 
 the poison of rationalism and disobedience 
 to constituted authority, under the pretext 
 of liberty, independence, etc. I never knew 
 a rascal yet that did not appeal to such high 
 sounding pretensions as a cover to hide his 
 depravity — just like the snake that crawls 
 among the flowers, and when the unwary 
 stoops to pluck an inviting blossom, he is 
 met by the deadly fangs concealed beneath. 
 
CHAP. Y. 
 
 Protestant SAINTS — CRUELTIES or the Hollanders inforctng 
 
 PROTESTANTISM INTO THE NETHERLANDS — THE PRINCE OP 
 ORANGE AND THE DUKE OP ALVA — THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR — 
 PERSECUTIONS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII — PENAL CODE OP 
 ELIZABETH — IRELAND DRENCHED WITH THlfc BLOOD OP HER 
 CHILDREN— D'AUBIQNE AND ST. PATRICK — DESECRATION OP 
 THE GRAVES OP IRISH SAINTS. 
 
 IT is not at all pleasant to open anew the 
 wounds and scars of religious strife, even 
 by allusion. Individually, we would rather 
 allow every form of past impiety, bloodshed 
 and injustice to sleep forever in the dismal 
 graves of their own making, to improve the 
 present, and to look forward with hope to 
 the future ; but the spirit of Cain is still 
 rampant among the people, and nowhere 
 does it seem to take deeper root than in the 
 hearts of your Protestant preachers. Ob- 
 serve one of these creatures, in his degraded 
 pulpit, and you cannot fail to discover a 
 want of sincerity, which, to the student of 
 human nature, is truly revolting. N'owhere 
 could you find a purer specimen of this 
 class than the very D. D. of the ^'two- 
 
THE QUESTIO]^ SOLYED. 79 
 
 steepled" churcli, for it seems as if Ms 
 breast is a nest of vipers, and every time lie 
 opens Ms month, a serpent tlirnsts ont its 
 head. Poor Darling is bad enongh in all 
 conscience, bnt he is no more to be com- 
 pared to Clark, in virulence, than a sword- 
 fish is to a crocodile. 
 
 This brace of precious revilers have both 
 openly and covertly attacked us, without 
 any provocation whatever, and we must de- 
 fend ourselves as best we can. They lie 
 continually about us ; we shall content our- 
 selves by telling the truth about them. The 
 one calls our Church the ' ' enemy of liberty, ' ' 
 and the other, the ''cruel persecutor of the 
 saints of God," meaning Protestants. We 
 have disposed of the former accusation, and 
 it now only remains for us to disprove the 
 latter, which we will undertake to do in one 
 sentence : There never was such a being as 
 a Protestant saint, and as the Church could 
 not interfere with that which had no exist- 
 ence, the assertion is at once proven to be 
 false. 
 
80 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 On the contrary, the spirit of persecution 
 has always accompanied Protestantism, as 
 the following deeds of cruelty will clearly 
 show : The history of Protestantism forms 
 but one long catalogue of violence ; it had 
 its origin in rebellion, and blood and murder 
 fast followed in its train. Rousseau, who 
 was educated a Protestant, says, that "the 
 Reformation was intolerant from its cradle, 
 and its authors, universally persecutors." 
 
 Good people of the ^' Dutch Reformed," 
 I pray you, listen to your amiable saint 
 Luther : ^ ' If we send thieves to the gallows, 
 and robbers to the block, why do we not fall 
 on those masters of perdition, the popes, 
 cardinals, and bishops, with all our force, 
 and not give over till we have bathed our 
 hands in their blood ?" He also called the 
 people to arms without waiting for the orders 
 of a magistrate. He counsels his followers 
 after this manner : ''If you fall before the 
 beast (pope) has received his mortal wound, 
 you will have but one thing to be sorry for, 
 that you did not bury your dagger in his 
 
THE QUESTIO]^ SOLVED. 81 
 
 breast. All that defend him must be treated 
 like a band of robbers, be they kings or be 
 they Caesars." These were the first blasts 
 blown from the trumpet of the Reformation, 
 and which summoned the Lutherans and 
 Anabaptists of Lower Germany to deeds of 
 anarchy and confusion. St Zwinglius did 
 the same in Switzerland ; he preached his 
 new doctrine by the aid of war and devasta- 
 tion, as did Mahomet. The Anabaptists, as 
 well as the Catholics, came in for their share 
 of the blessed doctrine — little of the milk 
 of the Word, but plenty of cold steel, burn- 
 ings, and the dungeon. St ^^hilip Melanc- 
 thon wrote a work in defense of persecu- 
 tions, and even Bucer, a professor of divin- 
 ity, sanctioned the dagger and the axe in 
 propagating the new religion ; and, in proof 
 of his saintly character, he taught, that 
 Servetus should not only be burned, but 
 that ''his bowels ought to have been torn 
 out, and his body chopped to pieces!" 
 John Calvin stood chief saint of them all 
 in his persecuting principles ; he established 
 
82 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 his inquisition at Geneva, for the punish- 
 ment of all who did not embrace his vile 
 doctrine of '' Predestination." Poor Serve- 
 tus, the first victim, was burned at the stake, 
 Gruet lost his head, and Groteus starved to 
 death in one of the prisons of Berne. St. 
 Beza also wrote a work in support of perse- 
 cutions. Baron Des Adrets was a precious 
 saint; he resembled a tiger in his thirst for 
 blood; and, on a certain occasion, caused 
 his little son to wash his young hands in 
 Catholic blood ! ! 
 
 IsTeither time nor space will allow me to 
 record the ter^ble massacre at Msmes and 
 Montpelier, where thousands were butchered 
 in cold blood, while the Consistories of Cal- 
 vin looked on with delight. 
 
 The cruel devices of the Hollanders in 
 forcing Protestantism into the Netherlands 
 have no parallel in the worst ages of ancient 
 barbarism. Let us give a sample of Dutch 
 cruelty, as portrayed by a Protestant histo- 
 rian, Kerroux, and which we take the liberty 
 to copy from Plain Talk: "The ordinary 
 
THE QUESTIOiq" SOLVED. 83 
 
 processes of cruel torture were only the 
 lowest degree of punishment inflicted on the 
 innocent. Their limbs were disjointed ; the 
 flesh, hanging in shreds, after a pitiless 
 scourging, was swathed in rags dipped in 
 alcohol, then set on fire until the flesh burnt 
 and the nerves crisped ; the bones were bared 
 to view. Sometimes, so much as half a 
 pound of sulphur was employed in burn- 
 ing the armpits and the soles of their feet. 
 Thus martyred, they were abandoned on 
 the fields for days and nights without any 
 relief, only that repeated blows drove sleep 
 away from their eyes. N^o food was given 
 but herrings, or such as would create a 
 burning thirst, whilst no kind of drink, no, 
 not even water, was allowed. Hornets were 
 inserted to sting their navels. Sonoi went 
 so far, as to cause rabid rats to be placed 
 on the breasts and bellies of those martyrs, 
 inclosed in a box made for the purpose, and 
 covered with combustibles. Fire being ap- 
 plied, these vermin became furious, and 
 would cleave a way for themselves, tearing 
 
84 THE QUESTI02>r SOLVED. 
 
 the bowels and the hearts of the victims. 
 The wounds were seared with burning coals, 
 or molten lead was poured into them. ... 
 He had invented even more horrible tor- 
 ments, and he inflicted them in cold blood ; 
 cannibals would be disgraced by his cruelty ; 
 decency forbids us to say more." 
 
 In plotting murder and all other abomi- 
 nations, those early Protestants might claim 
 the medal. About the year 1680, Henry 
 III was dispatched after the following man- 
 ner: the Huguenot faction murdered a 
 Dominican Friar, and one of the assassins 
 put on his habit, sought admission to the 
 royal court, and assassinated the king to 
 make room for Henry IV, who favored 
 their cause. 
 
 It was by a mean, contemptible plot that 
 William of Orange, after being defeated by 
 the Duke of Alva, in the Netherlands, when 
 tranquillity had been restored to that dis- 
 tracted region, threw it back again into 
 anarchy. He conspired with the Holland- 
 ers, from his headquarters among the 
 
THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 85 
 
 Huguenots, in France ; lie had his emissa- 
 ries play the role of preachers, and sent 
 them out to stir up a new revolt ; and when 
 the plan was matured, he led out his adher- 
 ents in great force, before the Duke of Alva 
 was made aware of the fact, and the Flemish 
 dominions were drenched in human gore. 
 
 Look through the history of the Thirty 
 Years' War, and see the sanguinary horrors 
 and infamous excesses which those blas- 
 phemous heresiarchs brought upon every 
 land through which the generals of the 
 Infernal Host led them. They deluged 
 France, Grermany, Denmark, and Sweden, 
 with rivers of blood ; devastated towns and 
 villages ; and showed no mercy to age, sex, 
 or condition. Estimates of the number 
 slain in battle in the low countries, aside 
 from those hanged, emboweled, starved, 
 burned, died in prison, etc., are variously 
 laid down at from one to two hundred 
 thousand ; add to this the desecration of 
 Churches, the pillage of the sacred vessels, 
 
 rare and costly paintings and statuary, the 
 
 8 
 
86 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 destruction of libraries which contained the 
 collected wisdom of ages, the abuse of 
 woman, the demoralization of children, the 
 lust and licentiousness of every kind and 
 description, and you have the first fruits of 
 your boasted Reformation in Germany. 
 
 What has been said of distracted Ger- 
 many, may be told of France; wherever 
 the Calvinists gained strength and power, 
 fearful carnage ensued. Twenty thousand 
 Catholic Churches were demolished, and 
 even the hospitals which contained the sick 
 and suffering were razed, and the poor in- 
 mates abused by a rough and brutal soldiery, 
 and left unsheltered to the mercy of the 
 elements. The whole of IS'ormandy was 
 wrecked in a most frightful manner, priests 
 were murdered, and monks buried alive. 
 In the province of Dauphiny, three hundred 
 and sixty-seven priests and monks were 
 murdered, and nine hundred towns and vil- 
 lages sacked and burned. 
 
 In Denmark and Sweden, Protestant vio- 
 lence also did its work, and to this present 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 87 
 
 day it is a penal offense for a Swede to 
 become a Catholic. 
 
 In 1533, Pope Harry VIII, of blessed 
 memory to Protestants, sent forth his 'bull^ 
 from which we take the following order : 
 ''Every person presented or indicted of 
 any heresy, or duly accused by two lawful 
 witnesses, may be cited, arrested or taken 
 by an ordinary, or other of the king's sub- 
 jects, and committed to the ordinary to 
 answer in open court ; and, being convicted, 
 shall abjure his heresies, and, refusing to 
 do so, or falling into relapse, sliall he 
 hurned in open place, for an example to 
 others." 
 
 Very soon a poor priest named John 
 Nicholson was condemned, and burned at 
 Smithfield ; and after him a man and a 
 woman were also committed to the flames. 
 Two priests and an abbot were hung and 
 quartered at Reading, and the Abbot of 
 Glastonbury was hung and quartered at 
 Torre Hill. Shortly after two monks and 
 the Abbot of Colchester were put to death 
 
88 THE QUESTIO:^' SOLVED. 
 
 for simply denying the king's supremacy. 
 Two noblemen. Sir William Peterson, and 
 Sir William Richardson, priests, were 
 drawn on the rack, hanged and quartered 
 for the same offense. Anne Ascue, a beau- 
 tiful young lady, who was accused of dog- 
 matizing on an article of faith, met with a 
 most terrible death. After the poor crea- 
 ture had been stretched on the rack, the 
 chancellor ordered the lieutenant of the 
 Tower to turn it still further ; the oflS.cer 
 refused, and in a moment of rage the 
 chancellor himself put his hands to the 
 cruel instrument, and almost tore her body 
 asunder ! This failed to make her re- 
 nounce her faith, when she was taken out, 
 carried in a chair to Smithfield, and there 
 burned alive with three others, condemned 
 for the same offense. 
 
 Some writers calculate that, during the 
 despotic sway of Henry YIII, seventy-two 
 thousand persons were executed, but this 
 falls far below the proper estimate. The 
 truth never can be known, on account of 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 89 
 
 the numbers that were privately assassin- 
 ated ; and then again, our chief information 
 on the subject is taken from Protestant 
 sources. Most of the Catholics that were 
 left within the realm were so persecuted 
 that their lives were but a slow process of 
 death. 
 
 When the perjured Elizabeth, the illegiti- 
 mate daughter of Henry, ascended the 
 throne, the edicts of persecution were re- 
 newed with double energy. The most 
 severe laws and penal enactments were set 
 in motion, the recital of which makes the 
 heart sick. An ecclesiastical commission 
 was set up, called the Star Chamber, the 
 iniquities of which would rival even the 
 court of Pluto. The fiends, on the slightest 
 pretense or suspicion, would arraign a per- 
 son before them, administer to him an 
 oath, and extort confession by the rack, 
 imprisonment and fines. If one showed 
 the smallest consideration for, or exercised 
 the least act of hospitality or benevolence 
 
 toward, a religious, he was fined and im- 
 8* 
 
00 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 prisoned. Hanging, burning, emboweling, 
 racking, and quartering, were the order 
 of the day. It seemed as if every feeling 
 of humanity had perished in the bosoms of 
 those inhuman reformers, and that malig- 
 nity of the most direful kind had taken its 
 place. The tears of the widow, the cries 
 of the orphan, the sobs and groans of the 
 dying, failed to awaken the first minimum 
 of justice, the first impulse of mercy. 
 
 During the fierce and bloody reign of 
 Elizabeth, tribunals were established, all 
 over the land, to suppress the Catholic 
 faith, and thousands of that communion 
 were apprehended, confined, banished, 
 hanged and tortured, without a due pro- 
 cess of law. Even children, who absented 
 themselves from Protestant worship, were 
 cast into prison, and often executed. 
 
 Who has not heard of Edward Campian, 
 the famous scholar, and one of the brightest 
 stars that ever appeared in the galaxy of 
 Christ Church School, in London. He it 
 was who delivered the Latin oration before 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 91 
 
 the beautiful Queen of Scots upon her acces- 
 sion to the throne. He subsequently took 
 the degree of A. M. at Oxford, and was 
 admitted to orders by the Protestant Bishop 
 of Gloucester. When Elizabeth paid her 
 respects to the University, he was again 
 chosen to deliver an oration in Latin, which 
 captivated all present ; it was a production 
 of great merit, and a master-piece of elo- 
 quence. But, like every great and honest 
 mind, he became suspicious of the reformed 
 doctrines, retired to Ireland, where, after a 
 faithful study of the subject, aided by 
 prayer, he renounced the errors of the 
 Reformation, and embraced the old faith. 
 He threw away, as worthless, all the honors, 
 distinctions and preferments which he had 
 but to stretch out his hand to acquire, even 
 the patronage of the throne, to join the 
 Society of Jesus, and lead the life of a poor 
 missionary priest. He was spotted out in 
 Ireland, and obliged to fly the country ; he 
 returned to England, to be arrested for high 
 treason, and condemned, without proper 
 
93 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 evidence, with three other priests. They 
 were executed at Tyburn. Here was a man 
 charged with the crime of high treason, 
 whose character was pure and spotless from 
 his youth up, the pride of the learned, an 
 ornament to society, and a friend of human- 
 ity, who preferred a life of poverty, with 
 truth and justice for his models, rather than 
 to be a peer among the great ones of earth, 
 with whom humanity was weakness, and 
 justice a mockery. 
 
 Search the universe from pole to pole, 
 look back through the annals of Time, and 
 you cannot find any thing to compare in 
 ferocity with the penal laws of Elizabeth. 
 The freedom of man's will was enslaved by 
 brute force ; he was forbidden to follow the 
 dictates of his own conscience, and com- 
 pelled to attend a worship which his reason 
 and faith told him was false. He was taxed 
 beyond his means to support that in which 
 he had no part or concern ; he could not 
 entertain for a moment a priest or a teacher 
 of his own choice, beneath his roof, without 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 93 
 
 exposing himself to fines, imprisonment and 
 even to death. He was robbed of the fruits 
 of toil, forbidden to travel more than five 
 miles from his own home, not even to attend 
 the burial of a fond and tender parent or 
 friend. The wife of his bosom, and the 
 daughter of his affection, were brutalized 
 before his face, and by those, too, who 
 claimed to be the only legitimate Chris- 
 tians ! ! ! Three men could not meet in the 
 street, even by accident, without being ap- 
 prehended and punished. IsTo Catholic 
 could own a horse worth more than £5; 
 should he possess such an animal, a Prot- 
 estant was at liberty to come and demand 
 it, and if refused might break in the door 
 of the stable and take him by force ! If the 
 owner made any objections, the robber 
 might shoot him, without being punished 
 for his crime. No Catholic could act as 
 guardian, or give instruction to the orphan 
 child of a deceased brother or sister. Leases 
 were granted to Protestants alone, beyond a 
 certain term; no Papist could serve on a 
 
94 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 
 
 jury, or give evidence in a court of law. A 
 Catholic could not be admitted to bail ; in 
 fact, he had no privilege that he might call 
 his own ! The sum of £5 was paid for the 
 head of his priest and his schoolmaster! 
 It was no unfrequent incident for a rufllan 
 to rush into a Catholic congregation, and 
 thrust a dagger through the body of the 
 priest, while officiating at the altar ! These 
 are but samples of the atrocities which poor 
 Ireland had to suffer during the reign of 
 that shameless woman, who was head and 
 mistress of the second Protestant reforma- 
 tion in England. 
 
 The sufferings of Irish Catholics during 
 the invasion of Cromwell, that worse than 
 Goth or Vandal, were truly terrific. This 
 pious murderer capped the climax of all 
 inhumanity. But why do I specify ? Each 
 English marauder vied with his predecessor 
 in brutality. Murder, robbery, and confis- 
 cation were the leading virtues of Protestant 
 rule in Ireland. Thousands upon thousands 
 were slaughtered, so that the land was cov- 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 95 
 
 ered over with the mangled bodies of its own 
 people. Dr. Curry, who was a man of truth 
 and unblemished character, describes the 
 condition of the province of Munster during 
 the ravages of Elizabeth's troops: ''Great 
 companies of men, women and children 
 were often forced into castles and other 
 houses which were then set on fire ; and, if 
 any of them attempted to escape from the 
 flames, they were ^hot or stabbed by the 
 soldiers who guarded them. It was a diver- 
 sion to these monsters of men, to take up 
 infants on the points of their spears, and 
 whirl them about in their agony, saying that, 
 if sujffered to live, they would grow up 
 Popish rebels. Women were found hanging 
 on trees, with their children at their breasts, 
 strangled with their mothers' hair." 
 
 Behold the atrocities of John Knox, who 
 has been styled the ''Rufiian of the Refor- 
 mation," and his pack of gospel-mongers. 
 They succeeded in pulling down the ancient 
 landmarks of Catholic faith, and Catholic 
 morality, and finally degraded the once 
 
96 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 
 
 noble Scot into a semi-infidel, and bronght 
 Ms Highland home into servile subjection 
 to Elizabeth, the harlot Queen of England. 
 
 Blessings on you, Ireland, land of strong 
 and steadfast faith; your green hills and 
 fertile valleys were stained with the inno- 
 cent blood of your own children; though 
 starvation, the jail, the ax, and the gibbet 
 did their work of death and misery, you 
 have survived the shock, and to-day stand 
 as firmly to the religion of St. Patrick, as 
 when that glorious Apostle laid him down 
 to die, by the peaceful waters of the Red 
 Lake ! 
 
 That weak minded old dotard who under- 
 took to write an apology for the Lutheran 
 revolt, and called it ''History," writes 
 another foolish document, claiming St. 
 Patrick for the Presbyterians, in which he 
 makes a laughing stock of himself. As 
 well might the donkey that dug up Joe 
 Smith's Bible claim to be its author, as 
 D'Aubigne to make a Protestant of holy 
 St. Patrick. He never mentions in his 
 
THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 97 
 
 pamphlet, how the Protestants treated the 
 remains of that Saint, in the reign of Henry 
 VIII ; how the viceroy of Ireland, to please 
 his royal master, and to weaken the faith 
 of Irishmen, repaired to the County Down, 
 where were interred the bodies of St. Pat- 
 rick, St. Bridget and St. Columbkille; 
 broke open their graves; dragged their 
 hallowed remains from the sacred precincts 
 of the tomb, and with the aid of a troop of 
 brutal soldiers scattered their ashes to the 
 four winds as they mournfully passed over 
 Lough-Derg. 
 
 The untutored savage respects the mem- 
 ory and resting place of his dead, and in 
 his greatest acts of barbarism, pauses before 
 the graves of his sires ; nor will he molest 
 the sacred mounds, where are interred his 
 enemies in battle — but it was reserved for 
 Protestants to defile and pollute the hal- 
 lowed bones of our venerated and sanctified 
 dead. 
 
 Protestant tyrants, you have stolen our 
 goods and chattels, robbed us of our 
 
98 THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 
 
 magnificent Christian temples, wMch. the 
 faith, and piety of onr forefathers had 
 erected to the worship and glory of the 
 Triune God; you have demolished the 
 houses of our religious confraternities, 
 leveled the homes of the poor, and slaugh- 
 tered our people by the million ! But the 
 most brazen of all, for us Irishmen in par- 
 ticular, and the hardest to be borne, is, that 
 after such acts of Vandalism and sacrilege, 
 of murder and persecution, Protestants 
 will turn round and tell us what a liberal 
 set of Christians they are ! ! Yes, you are 
 very liberal, in your abuse, your hatred and 
 your plunder ! ! You will even give the old 
 excuse, that you robbed us for our good, 
 murdered and abused us for our souls' sake. 
 Was there ever impudence equal to this? 
 Oh, you race of vipers, your love but equals 
 your hate ; your kiss is like the kiss of Judas 
 Iscariot when he betrayed our blessed Lord, 
 and your embrace is as cold and as clammy 
 as the coils of your spiritual father when he 
 seduced mother Eve in the Garden of Eden. 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 99 
 
 I might fill page after page with deeds of 
 torture, each one worse than the other, and 
 which could not be equaled unless in the 
 regions of the damned. These were the 
 means adopted by the Saints of the Refor- 
 mation to promulgate a new religion among 
 Catholics. These are the choice spirits that 
 Dr. Clark undertakes to defend ; he raises 
 his polluted hand (upon which the unction 
 of grace never rested), and declares, in the 
 face of Heaven, that this band of hangmen 
 and cut-throats were ^^ saints," the ^^ elect 
 of Grod," etc., etc ! ! ! As well try to blot 
 out the stars from the blue vault of night, 
 as to establish them among the friends of 
 the blessed Saviour. Rather, give them 
 their proper title; call them the '^ hell- 
 hounds" of the great Protestant rebellion! 
 
CHAP. YI. 
 
 Landing of the pilgbtms — pukitan intolerance — the BiiUE 
 
 liAWS — THE QUAKER PERSECUTION — PURITANICAL HYPOCRISY — 
 WITCHES — CATHOLIC COLONY OF MARYLAND — INDIAN CONVER- 
 SIONS—PROTESTANT INTRIGUE IN MARYLAND. 
 
 DR. CLARK may charge such enormities 
 to the account of Church of England 
 Protestantism, but this will not help his 
 cause in the least ; for, to us, all the isms 
 are the same. They have all been hatched 
 from the same serpent' s egg, and none have 
 shown more intolerance than his own Puri- 
 tan ancestors. Had Rufus W. Clark, D. D., 
 lived in colonial times, he would have 
 made a fine specimen of a brutal perse- 
 cutor — neither Endicott nor Cotton Mather 
 could begin to show half the virulence that 
 this fierce reviler of Catholics would mete 
 out to those who should, perchance, differ 
 from him in matters of religion. It is 
 really sickening to hear those Fourth of 
 July orators, lay and clerical, beat the air 
 and shout in laudation and fulsome praise 
 the character of a band of men the most 
 bigoted and sanguinary that ever trod the 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 101 
 
 shores of the western world. Snch eulogies 
 from year to year, from pulpit to pulpit, 
 and through the medium of the press, re- 
 flect no more the character of New Eng- 
 land Puritanism, than the saintly reputa- 
 tion of John the Evangelist illustrates the 
 life of a Choctaw Indian. 
 
 The first information that we generally 
 receive from these garrulous declaimers is, 
 that the Pilgrims were driven to the wilder- 
 ness of the west by the edicts of perse- 
 cution ; then follows a description of their 
 sufferings on the stormy ocean ; their land- 
 ing on Plymouth Rock, in midwinter ; the 
 hunger and deprivation incident to a new 
 settlement, etc. — and all to secure civil and 
 religious freedom. 
 
 We have investigated this subject in a 
 
 spirit of candid inquiry, and found not a 
 
 word of truth in such recitations. It is 
 
 all Yankee blarney ! Neither in Secretary 
 
 Morton's Fwe Reasons^ nor Hutchinson's 
 
 Collections^ do we find that persecution 
 
 had any thing to do with the landing of 
 9* 
 
103 THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 
 
 the Puritans on Plymonth Rock. In the 
 address of J. Prescott Hall, before the JSTew 
 England Society, he declares, that in Hol- 
 land, at the time of the departure of the 
 Puritans, ''the free exercise of every man^s 
 religious opinions and practice was thor- 
 oughly guarded.'' One of their own party 
 affirms, in his eight reasons for the depart- 
 ure of the Puritans for Massachusetts, that 
 ''they did sweetly enjoy their church liber- 
 ties," and that they left "with their own 
 free choice and motion." 
 
 If such was the fact, what need of all 
 these crocodile tears concerning the landing 
 of the pilgrims ? What did the privations 
 of a few days amount to, in comparison 
 with the advantages soon to be realized? 
 They made applications to Sir Fernando 
 Gorges, President of the Plymouth council, 
 from whom they obtained "concessions 
 equal to their desires," and "to the par- 
 ticular satisfaction and content of them 
 all." This shows, at least, that they were 
 placed under good auspices. 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 103 
 
 Trumbull, a Puritan historian, says, that 
 'Hhe uncommon mortality of 1617 had 
 in a manner depopulated that part of 
 the country in which they began their 
 plantations. They found fields which had 
 been planted, without owners; and a fine 
 country round them, in some measure cul- 
 tivated, without an inhabitant." They were 
 enabled to subsist from the natural pro- 
 ducts of the surrounding country, without 
 realizing any annoyance from the poor 
 Indian, whom they afterward so cruelly 
 persecuted. Less than a year subsequent 
 to their arrival, Edward Winslow wrote to 
 his friends in England, that, ''by the good- 
 ness of Grod, we are so far from want that 
 we often wish you partakers of our 
 plenty." This does not look like those 
 pictures of misery and deprivation which 
 our rhetoricians paint in the imagination 
 of wondering thousands. 
 
 We are not actuated by any feelings of 
 prejudice against these stern, unyielding 
 Puritans — they had many good qualities, 
 
104 THE QUESTIO]Sr SOLVED. 
 
 of which, perseverance and courage were 
 the most prominent ; but we are unwilling 
 to give them any praise beyond what truth 
 and common sense will allow. 
 
 In England, these over-zealous men were 
 loud in their denunciations of tyrannical 
 power, and used every artifice to overturn 
 the government, in order to establish uni- 
 versal toleration which was their boast. 
 What was this but a hypocritical pretense 
 to entice the masses under their banner — a 
 wily trick, characteristic of Protestants all 
 over the world. The same spirit animates 
 the sects of to-day ; when they want to carry 
 a point they drown truth and rectitude by 
 inflammatory appeals to freedom. But, to 
 the everlasting disgrace of New England 
 Puritanism, it permitted the love of domin- 
 ion and the lust for gain to usurp the place 
 of godliness and universal charity. One 
 of their first acts of legislation was a union 
 of Church and State ; then followed other 
 laws, penalties and provisions, which could 
 only be equaled by the fiery and blood- 
 
THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 105 
 
 stained edicts of the worst period of ancient 
 despotism. 
 
 Watch, the drift of Protestantism, and 
 yon will find an artery running through the 
 whole system, uniform in all its details. It 
 affects to supply the body with nourish- 
 ment and vigor, until it comes to a certain 
 point, when, from some undue pressure or 
 untoward circumstance, inherent in the con- 
 stitution, its character is changed, its use- 
 fulness ceases, and, instead of a life-giving 
 channel, it becomes a pool of impurities, 
 noxious and deadly in. its influences. 
 
 English Puritans strenuously opposed 
 the established Church, and denounced 
 kingly rule, until they found a fitting place 
 to exercise that liberty of conscience which 
 was their boast, their desire, and their chief 
 aim ; but selfishness changed their ideas 
 completely, and they were no sooner settled 
 in their new abode, than their own establish- 
 ment began framing laws, concerning mat- 
 ters of faith, whose rigor and bigotry had 
 scarcely a parallel. They were guilty of 
 
106 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 
 
 worse severities toward others, for conscience 
 sake, than were ever measured out to them. 
 They commenced their acts against heresy 
 in 1631, and thus these meek and pious 
 Puritans forgot their ^^Anti-Christian bond- 
 age," and from peaceful lambs they became 
 ravening wolves, thirsting for the blood of 
 their fellow creatures. Baptists, Roman 
 Catholics, and Quakers, came in for their 
 share of Puritan liberty^ of whij)pings, 
 lashings, banishments, prisons, and the gib- 
 bet, and all because they claimed to worship 
 God according to the dictates of their own 
 conscience. They wielded^the power of their 
 Church '' constantly," says Chief Justice 
 Story, ^^by the arm of civil government." 
 
 In 1629, at Salem, Mass., they drew up a 
 solemn covenant with this pledge, to wit : 
 ''We do bind ourselves, in the presence of 
 God, to walk together in all His ways, 
 according as He is pleased to reveal himself 
 to us in His Blessed Word of Truth ; nor 
 will we deal harshly or oppressingly with 
 any, wherein we are the Lord's stewards." 
 
THE QUESTIO]^ SOLVED. 107 
 
 Now we will see how they kept their 
 covenant ! Fines were imposed for absence 
 from their worship, and they levied taxes 
 to support "a lawful, orthodox, and godly 
 ministry." They passed laws against the 
 keeping of Christmas, holidays or any other 
 festival, — fined all who publicly found fault 
 with their statutes, and placed persons in 
 the stocks who denied their right to com- 
 pel all to attend congregational worship. 
 If any one possessed a book not orthodox, 
 he was heavily fined, and if a woman' s 
 tongue, which they considered very loose 
 and unruly, should say a word contrary to 
 the established laws, it was placed in the 
 cleft of a stick until she mended her man- 
 ners. They allowed but one printing office 
 in the whole colony, from which issued a 
 muzzled newspaper. Upwards of eighty 
 opinions were reported to the godly censors, 
 as being " notorious impieties and damnable 
 heresies." The Puritanical parsons were 
 the inquisitors, and had to be consulted 
 before any law could be passed, and they 
 
108 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 nsed the pulpit upon all occasions, to carry 
 out their likes and dislikes. No man could 
 fill office without their sanction, directly or 
 indirectly, and they pried even into the 
 practices of social life, so tl^at nothing 
 escaped their vigilance. Dr. Morse says, 
 ^'they prohibited the use of tobacco, under 
 a penalty ; but at length some of the clergy 
 fell into the practice of smoking, and tobacco, 
 by an act of government, was set at liberty." 
 Bancroft says, 'Hhat the elders instigated 
 and sustained the government in its worst 
 cruelties." They went even beyond their 
 own jurisdiction to take vengeance, for in 
 1643 we find Samuel Grorton and others not 
 belonging to the Massachusetts colony, 
 marched from Rhode Island to Boston, at 
 the point of the bayonet, and condemned to 
 death for holding '^ blasphemous and wicked 
 errors. ' ' Many were compelled to wear irons 
 on one leg, work like slaves, and then sent 
 to England, deprived of their possessions, 
 their chattels and their goods. 
 These Puritans were as false in their pro- 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 109 
 
 fessions as they were wicked in their actions; 
 they persecuted those for whom they pro- 
 fessed friendship and high regard ; they in- 
 tercepted private letters, and read them in 
 general court, on the slightest pretext. They 
 instituted a test act, odious and detestable, 
 so that no one could vote, hold office or 
 property, without being members of the 
 Puritan church. They scoffed at the right 
 of petition, and laughed, if a Puritan could 
 laugh, at any one vain enough to suppose 
 that justice could be found outside the pale 
 of Plymouth colony. If a man but opened 
 his mouth in his own defense, or asked a 
 right to which he thought he was entitled, he 
 was at once branded as a public disturber, 
 fined and imprisoned. 
 
 But the most barefaced of all was, that at 
 the very time in which they were visiting 
 such enormities upon all those who in any 
 way differed from them, morally and soci- 
 ally, the General Court appointed a com- 
 mittee to frame anew some of their laws, in 
 
 order to let autocratical England know their 
 10 
 
110 THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 
 
 utter disaffection to arbitrary government." 
 There is Protestant consistency for yon ! ! ! 
 
 The next sect who laid claim to principles 
 of religions liberty were the Baptists, who 
 were terribly persecuted by the iron hand 
 of Puritan supremacy. They made great 
 demonstrations of liberality, talked loudly 
 of ^'Jerusalem's prosperity and Babylon's 
 destruction," and declared that '' earthly 
 authority belongeth to earthly kings, but 
 spiritual authority belongeth to that spir- 
 itual king, who is King of kings." 
 
 The moment the fneek and pious Puritans 
 heard this declaration, that moment they 
 made a fell swoop on the Baptists — immer- 
 sion itself could not hide them. Pulpits 
 thundered anathema against them for hold- 
 ing ''damnable opinions," so that they had 
 to scamper, or become submissive to the 
 mild persuasive power of the cat-o'-nine- 
 tails. Poor Thomas Painter, for refusing 
 to have his child sprinkled, was handed 
 over to the man with the knotted whip, 
 although they would have preferred a fine, 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. Ill 
 
 to help fill their godly coffers ; but Win- 
 throp says '^he was very poor, so that no 
 other but corporeal punishment could be 
 inflicted upon him," he was ordered to be 
 publicly whipped. 
 
 I will not go further into the abominable 
 acts of legislation, exclusiveness and hypoc- 
 risy, which marked the early career of New 
 England Puritanism ; the statutes against 
 heresy alone filled seven large and closely 
 printed pages. Suffice it to give a few of the 
 persecutions that were instituted and put in 
 force against all those who were so unfortu- 
 nate as to differ from puritanical orthodoxy. 
 
 In 1666, before any laws against Quakers 
 were enacted, two members of that peace- 
 able society, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, 
 arrived at Boston. They were immediately 
 seized, their trunks and baggage diligently 
 searched, and their books and papers carried 
 to the market-place and publicly burned by 
 the hangman, without due process of law. 
 The good ladies were brought before Belling- 
 ham, who at once committed them to prison 
 
112 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 because they addressed Mm after the man- 
 ner of their order, with tTiee and ffiou ! 
 Their bodies were minutely examined to see 
 if they had witch marks, no respect was 
 paid them even on account of their sex, and 
 they remained in confinement five weeks, 
 almost starved to death. Upall interested 
 himself in their behalf, when they were 
 taken from their prisons and sent back to 
 where they came from. It was well for 
 them that Endicott was not there at the time, 
 for he afterwards declared, that '^had he 
 known it, he would have had them scourged 
 before they left." 
 
 Others of the same society followed, not 
 knowing the fate of the poor women. They 
 were presented to the governor on their 
 arrival, when the following advice was given 
 them, ^'Take ye heed not to break our 
 ecclesiastical laws, for then ye are sure to 
 stretch by a halter." The Captain of the 
 ship that brought these men from England 
 was obliged to take them back again at his 
 own expense. 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 113 
 
 Poor old Upall, himself a Puritan, because 
 of a few remarks he had made on the unrea- 
 sonableness of such actions, was cast into 
 prison, fined and banished, in his old age, 
 from the colony. On his waj to Rhode 
 Island he stopped with an Indian Chief to 
 whom he told his pitiful story, and to which 
 the Indian replied, ^' What a God have the 
 English, who deal so with one another about 
 their God." 
 
 In 1658, the most severe enactments were 
 
 passed against Quakers, and it is horrible 
 
 to recount the severe persecutions inflicted 
 
 upon them for conscience' sake. They were 
 
 apprehended without warrant, tried and 
 
 sentenced to be expelled the country, or 
 
 else suffer death. They were whipped, 
 
 kicked, buffeted, branded, fined, put in 
 
 stocks and cages, imprisoned and hung. 
 
 They were styled '^pernicious," '' cursed," 
 
 ' ' heretics, " " ranters, " " rogues ' ' and 
 
 '' vagabonds." They could not dispose of 
 
 their property by will ; they were stripped 
 
 to the waist, both sexes, for absenting them- 
 10* 
 
114 THE QUESTIOiiT SOLVED. 
 
 selves from the ' ' law-church, ' ' and ' ' stretch- 
 ed rack-wise npon the wheels of a great 
 gun, or tied to a cart's tail and dragged 
 through the most public streets of town 
 after town until they were beyond the 
 bounds of the Commonwealth, and lashed 
 as they went along. They were turned out 
 at the dead of night amid frost and snow ; 
 they were branded R. (rogue), and H. (here- 
 tic) ; their ears were cropped, tongues bored 
 through ; they were sentenced to be sold as 
 slaves, banished, and often hung and left 
 unburied." 
 
 Who were the principal agents in this 
 hellish drama of blood and cruelty ? Who, 
 but men of Dr. Clark's stamp ! They pro- 
 fessed Christian charity, while their actions 
 would do honor to Lucifer and his sable 
 host. 
 
 Rev. John Wilson stood high among the 
 Puritan saints, and was ''counted blessed 
 beyond his fellows" ; hear him in a council 
 convened to punish three men and a woman 
 who would not believe in the ''blessed doc- 
 
THE QUESTIOI^T SOLVED. 115 
 
 trine," as preached by the pious divines of 
 of Plymouth colony. ''Hang them," said 
 he, ''else," — drawing his finger across his 
 throat — ! you may imagine the rest. As 
 these poor people were led out to the scaf- 
 fold, Wilson marched along at the same time, 
 insulting them as they went, like a fiend of 
 the bottomless pit, glorying in their misery, 
 which he was potent in consummating ; and 
 when Mary Dyer ascended the ladder, he 
 actually handed his own handkerchief to 
 the hangman to pull over her eyes ! 
 
 They ordered some to be chained to a log, 
 without food or drink, through the coldest 
 days, and in the most public place, until 
 they were frost-bitten ; others had their ears 
 nailed to a tree on Boston Common, and 
 could not be liberated without either tearing 
 away the flesh or remaining until mortifica- 
 tion had set in. 
 
 K a Catholic priest entered the colony, he 
 could be apprehended without due form of 
 law, and hung to the first tree or post. We 
 need not speak of the fearful penalties which 
 
116 THE QUESTION SOLYED. 
 
 were inflicted upon all the nnfortnnate old 
 women, who were at all singular in manner 
 or appearance ; for such there was either a 
 fagot or a halter. But the unkindest cut of 
 all was, that after they had executed many 
 of their criminals, they found out they were 
 by no means guilty ! For all such perse- 
 cuting devices, they consoled one another 
 by quoting some text of Scripture, in justi- 
 fication of their heartless conduct. Thus 
 the Bible was made to serve every conceiv- 
 able act of tyranny and oppression. 
 
 The code of laws drawn up by Roger 
 Williams and his friends was a vast im- 
 provement on other Colonial enactments ; 
 still the old leaven was manifest in the gov- 
 ernment of the good people of Rhode 
 Island — they tolerated all religions save the 
 Catholic. 
 
 For the full, free and perfect expression 
 of civil and religious liberty, it was reserved 
 for Catholic Maryland, to take the lead of 
 all the other colonies. Within the limits 
 of that glorious old commonwealth, every 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 117 
 
 man could sit under his own vine and fig- 
 tree, and none to molest or make him afraid. 
 
 History records no greater persecution 
 against any class of people, than the English 
 government put in force against its Catholic 
 subjects. Those who had separated from 
 the established Church fled to other climes, 
 but the poor Catholics were so impoverished 
 by penal laws that they could not emigrate ; 
 besides they disliked to leave forever that 
 old land which was dedicated to the religion 
 of their fathers, and they clung with fond 
 affection to the sites of their old altars now 
 desecrated and in ruins. 
 
 Lord Baltimore, however, who had re- 
 nounced the religion of Henry and Elizabeth 
 to become a child of Jesus Christ, and of 
 His Church, took compassion on the suffer- 
 ings of his co-religionists, and resolved on a 
 plan to mitigate their misery by establish- 
 ing a colony in North America, where 
 Catholics might enjoy a freedom of con- 
 science, unknown to them in England. 
 When he had accomplished this undertak- 
 
118 THE QUESTIOJS" SOLVED. 
 
 ing, lie formed a code of laws that will for- 
 ever place Mm in the first rank of just and 
 wise lawgivers. When the Ark and the 
 Dove (beautiful names), landed their cargo 
 of poor, panting, bleeding and abused Catho- 
 lics, with the faith of martyrs, and the love 
 of Calvary' s Blessed Victim in their hearts, 
 they planted a cross, sacred emblem of sal- 
 vation, and knelt them down in the shade 
 of venerable trees, beneath the blue canopy 
 of heaven, while the holy sacrifice of the 
 Mass was offered up to Almighty God, for 
 their safe deliverance from the perils of the 
 ocean and the fiery persecutions of the 
 Pharaohs of Gfreat Britain. 
 
 They next made a friendly visit to the 
 Piscataways, with whom they formed an 
 alliance, not with a Bible in one hand and a 
 sword in the other, like the self-sufficient 
 saints of the Mayflower, and their descend- 
 ants, but in a spirit of Christian charity. 
 
 Lord Baltimore and his two missionary 
 Fathers converted the tribes, in and around 
 their new settlement, and Chilomacon, king 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 119 
 
 of the Piscataways, was solemnly baptized 
 July Sth, 1640. By the honesty, fair deal- 
 ing and charity of the colonists, they sur- 
 rounded themselves with friendly Indians, 
 who embraced, with child-like simplicity, 
 the Christian faith. 
 
 How was it, on the other hand, with our 
 godly Plymouth settlers? They deceived 
 the poor Indians, by all manner of double- 
 dealing and heartless conspiracy ; they gave 
 them strong drink, and while under the in- 
 fluence of it, the poor creatures bartered 
 away their lands and possessions without 
 an equivalent. Massasoit, chief of the tribe 
 that first welcomed the pilgrims, and re- 
 ceived them hospitably into their wigwams, 
 never embraced the Puritan faith. After 
 his death, his son Philip was robbed of his 
 territories, many of his tribe were murdered 
 and he himself driven into exile, far away 
 from the hunting grounds of his fathers. 
 There was not a single tribe converted to 
 New England orthodoxy ; on the contrary 
 many of the Indians were hung, others 
 
120 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 butchered in cold blood, their villages 
 burned, while not a few were driven out 
 among unfriendly tribes or sold into slavery. 
 
 Peace, quietness, and religious zeal per- 
 vaded the colony of Marylqind, until some 
 Puritan refugees from Virginia sought pro- 
 tection and a home there. The Catholics, 
 little suspecting the designs of these dan- 
 gerous men, took no thought for their own 
 safety, having full confidence in the power 
 of their charter. In 1643, however, in the 
 absence of Governor Calvert, a rebellion 
 was fomented through the agency and deep 
 laid schemes of the new comers, led on by 
 Ingle and Claiborne. These traitors to the 
 cause of truth and humanity took supreme 
 control of the colony, banished all who 
 remained faithful to Lord Baltimore, re- 
 duced others to abject poverty, arrested 
 the missionaries, and sent them back to 
 England in chains. 
 
 Tell me, now, you vain-glorious boasters, 
 who take pride in every thing ^^ great, 
 glorious, and free," are you not assuming 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 121 
 
 too much in claiming for your sires virtues 
 which they never possessed, and deeds 
 which they never performed ? 
 
 What a conceited specimen of humanity 
 is your average Yankee preacher ; he fancies 
 himself a match for any body and every 
 body ; he can see through a stone wall, 
 while his neighbor, should he be a Catho- 
 lic, cannot see the length of his nose! 
 His geese are all swans, while his neigh- 
 bor's ducks are veritable toads; his eyes 
 are clear as an eagle' s, while his neighbor' s 
 are dull as an owlet' s ; he could swallow a 
 Roman Doctor of Divinity with as much 
 ease as a sea-gull would a tad-pole ! He 
 possesses more knowledge in his sconce, 
 after a year's study in a New England 
 Academy, than the combined wisdom of 
 the seven hundred bishops of the Ecumeni- 
 cal Council now in Rome ! He is a walk- 
 ing library of science and theology ; he 
 knows the beginning and the end of every 
 thing that was, is, and is to be ; he is per- 
 mitted to know what nobody else ever 
 11 
 
122 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 knew ; lie is, in fine, a perfect nonesuch ! 
 After all this arrogance, he very often 
 comes out a minus quantity ; he enters the 
 field of polemics like a lion, and comes out 
 like a whipped kitten! His- powers of in- 
 vention are inexhaustible ; if beaten by the 
 facts of history or the sword of logic, he 
 invents new themes and fresh accusations 
 against his opponent, until, at last, he 
 comes down to a regular system of relig- 
 ious black-mailing ! 
 
 I 
 
CHAP. vn. 
 
 The blessings of education when accompanied by beligion — 
 pagan education— the establishment of the chubch — its 
 benign influence on society — the object of education — 
 eably training of youth. 
 
 ONE of the choicest blessings given to 
 mankind is a good, thorough educa- 
 tion, guided by correct religious principles. 
 It is religion, after all, that softens the 
 obdurate heart, polishes and refines man's 
 rude nature, and hallows and sanctifies 
 his whole being. It is the spark which 
 illumines the soul, warms the affections, 
 and sheds a lustre over the whole charac- 
 ter. Education, without religion, is not 
 conducive to the real happiness of man. 
 It too often puffs him up with pride and 
 vanity ; it makes him selfish and egotisti- 
 cal ; it causes him to refer the products of 
 the genius which God has given him to 
 some superior or inherent quality which 
 he fancies to be peculiarly his own, so 
 that, instead of humbly acknowledging his 
 indebtedness to the Author of every good 
 
124 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 
 
 and perfect gift, he lianghtily seeks the 
 homage and reverence of his fellow men. 
 
 To impart instruction is a very sacred 
 office, and ought not to be intrusted to the 
 careless, the bigot, or the unbeliver ; rather 
 should it be to the work of religious teach- 
 ers, who know and feel the weakness of 
 our humanity, and our dependence on a 
 power superior to the natural instincts of 
 our own nature. If you instil into the 
 expanding mind of youth nothing but the 
 idea of a gross materialism, your labor is 
 vain and fruitless. 
 
 Let us turn over the pages of history, 
 and what do we find but the vilest im- 
 morality, degradation, and slavery, spring- 
 ing out from ancient Grecian and Roman 
 civilization, which our modern historians, 
 lecturers, and preachers admire so much, 
 and with great show of learning, and not 
 a little bombast^ deal out to their admiring 
 audiences in glowing eulogy ; but not a 
 word of the struggles of the Catholic 
 Church, amid the raging torrents of perse- 
 
THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 125 
 
 cution, with which kings and tyrants 
 threatened to engulf her; bnt, thanks to 
 that augnst Being who preserved her, de- 
 spite the malice of her enemies, she still 
 lives, fresh and vigorous, pursuing her 
 sacred vocation, that of teaching and pro- 
 claiming man' s duty to his God. 
 
 In the days of Pericles, Thucydides, and 
 Sophocles, the most classic of the ancients, 
 the brilliant Euripides, Zeno, and the divine 
 Phidias, the public school was a theatre 
 of vice, where the worst instincts of the 
 human heart were nurtured. The animal 
 passions became so gross, that cannibalism 
 was not only practiced, but taught. The 
 Stoics deemed it not unlawful to eat human 
 flesh, and even permitted children to de- 
 vour their own parents. 
 
 In the age of Rome's greatness, Julius 
 
 Caesar and Augustus were patrons of the 
 
 arts and sciences, and representatives of 
 
 the civilization of their time, yet, with all 
 
 their learning, elegance, and grandeur, their 
 
 depravity sounded the lowest depths. 
 11* 
 
126 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 
 
 Julius Caesar knew nothing of the divine 
 attribnte of mercy. Read his character as 
 portrayed by Suetonius, and then boast of 
 the splendors of the golden age ! Sitting 
 on his throne of gold, he would, with his 
 own hands, pluck out men's eyes, break 
 their limbs, cut their throats, and have 
 their bodies thrown to the dogs and birds 
 of prey. Behold, on the Ides of March, 
 altars erected in honor of Julius Caesar, 
 stakes and inflammable materials made 
 ready, and three hundred young men, the 
 flower of Rome's nobility, are slaughtered 
 without reserve on that infernal day. 
 
 What has been told of Greece and Rome, 
 may be said of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, 
 Lydia, Persia, Carthage, and the whole of 
 Asia Minor. Blood and carnage, cruelty 
 and oppression, marked every step of their 
 progress, until all vestige of primitive truth 
 had disappeared from the people. 
 
 No one can deny the material civilization 
 of those classic ages. Science produced 
 ingenious inventions, and noble and vast 
 
THE QUESTIOi^ SOLVED. 127 
 
 discoveries — history, eloquence, poetry, 
 architecture, music, painting, and sculpture 
 flourished with amazing sublimity ; yet 
 what did they accomplish for poor human- 
 ity? Nothing, absolutely nothing. The 
 standard of decency was reduced to the 
 level of the brute creation, and below it. 
 Homer never sang a strain of purity, nor 
 VirgU a plea for mercy. Woman was 
 debased, childhood forsaken and cruelly 
 butchered, the aged and infirm cast into the 
 Tiber, or converted into targets to be shot 
 at. The youth of both sexes were demoral- 
 ized to the most shameful degree. 
 
 This is but a mere glimmer of the condi- 
 tion of Pagan society down to the establish- 
 ment of that Church which was founded 
 upon a rock, and to which our blessed Lord 
 gave the promise that the gates of hell 
 should never prevail. 
 
 And now began the healing of the nations, 
 the regeneration of mankind. The sun- 
 shine of peace dawned upon the quivering, 
 persecuted heart of humanity, and the long 
 
128 THE QUESTIOi^ SOLVED. 
 
 night of Grentile barbarism began to recede 
 before the light of the gospel of Jesus 
 Christ. Catholic charity began to extend 
 its benign influence everywhere in spite of 
 heathen opposition and the prestige of the 
 powerful ones of the earth ; compassion 
 and benevolence went forth side by side, 
 instructing the ignorant, giving hope and 
 consolation to the helpless and forsaken, 
 and thus establishing a new era of peace 
 and love throughout Europe and the East. 
 Blessed be God that we live under this dis- 
 pensation, and forbid it that our earth 
 should ever again be cursed with a civiliza- 
 tion without a Christ in it, as the teachers 
 of modern infidelity are laboring hard (per- 
 haps unconsciously) to bring about. False 
 teachers are abroad in the land, with a lie 
 in their mouths, deceiving the people ; try- 
 ing to seduce Catholics away from the faith 
 which was once given to the Saints, and 
 otherwise corrupting what is pure and holy 
 in society ; and all in the name of liberty 
 and progress ! In every age the Church 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 129 
 
 has been attacked by Pagan philosopliers, 
 Jews,* Infidels and heretics of every grade 
 and condition, from Simon the Sorcerer, 
 down to Rufus W. Clark, D. D., of Albany ; 
 and yet she stands a tower of strength 
 against the assanlts of the enemy — " a pil- 
 lar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by 
 night." What but the power of Jehovah 
 sustained her despite the wasting hand of 
 Time, while thrones and principalities have 
 passed away like things that are told ? Her 
 fair proportions might for a time be shaded 
 with gloom, and to human vision lost to 
 view ; but, like the glorious sun in the 
 heavens, she emerges from the surrounding 
 darkness, and sheds a warmth and a lustre 
 over the face of Nature, bringing faith and 
 hope and consolation to the inhabitants of 
 earth. 
 
 The chief object of education is to make 
 man better and happier in this life, and to 
 fit him for Heaven. As well might you ex- 
 pect pure water from an impure fountain, as 
 to find a well-cultivated, happy mind in a 
 
130 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 school not established npon a religious 
 basis. The old proverb, ^Hrain up a child 
 in the way he should go, and when he is old 
 he will not depart from it," is as true now 
 as when it fell from the lips of King Solo- 
 mon. The world has given us proofs innu- 
 merable of its verity. When Moses was 
 brought up in the royal court of Pharaoh, 
 amid the splendors of nobility, surrounded 
 by the wisdom and learning of Egyptian 
 philosophers, what was it that ennobled his 
 mind, purified his heart, and shielded him 
 from the contaminating influences which sur- 
 rounded him, if it was not the voice of God, 
 speaking to his young heart, through the 
 person of his mother, who not only nourished 
 him, but instilled into his mind the faith of 
 Abraham, and the promises of the Almighty; 
 so that when he grew to man' s estate he re- 
 fused to be called the son of Pharaoh's 
 daughter ? Rather would he suffer affliction 
 with the people of Grod, for a time, than 
 enjoy the luxury of an idolatrous court. 
 Now, behold the contrast : King Nebu- 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 131 
 
 cliadnezzar, nourished by a wild goat, grew 
 up with low animal passions, perpetrating 
 all manner of sin and crime against Grod, 
 untU, by a just judgment from Heaven, he 
 was turned from a royal palace to associate 
 with the beasts of the field, the companions 
 of his early life. 
 
 The Emperor Caligula, though born of re- 
 putable parents, was nursed by a rude mas- 
 culine woman, with brutish strength, and a 
 bearded face, ferocious and vindictive in 
 disposition. The child partook of her de- 
 pravity, and all history records no greater 
 monster. 
 
 Youth is by far the most important period 
 in the life of man ; it is the season of early 
 impressions, when character is formed for 
 good or for evil, for honor or for shame. 
 How necessary, therefore, to shield it from 
 the contamination of sinful actions, and 
 make it acquainted with the science of sal- 
 vation, which consists in knowing, loving 
 and serving God. 
 
CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Catholics do not desire the destruction op the public school 
 
 SYSTEM — their OBJECTIONS TO IT AS IT NOW STANDS — THE BIBLE 
 TOO SACRED TO BE PROFANED IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM — CLARK ON 
 CATHOLIC IGNORANCE — BANCROFT'S OPINIONS — CATHOLIC AND 
 PROTESTANT MISSIONS — PROTESTANT KNOWLEDGE OF THE CATHO- 
 LIC CHURCH — WHY CATHOLICS OBJECT TO READING THE BIBLE 
 IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS — CATHOLICS NOT WILLING TO SEPARATE SECU- 
 LAR AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION — DR. CLARK AND THE CINCIN- 
 NATI SCHOOL BOARD — HE MISREPRESENTS THE CATHOLIC CLAIM 
 — OPINION OF HARTFORD COURANT AND OTHER PAPERS ON THE 
 "SCHOOL QUESTION "— PROTESTANT MINISTERS EXCITING THM 
 PEOPLE TO TUMULT — THE WRATH OF THE "OBSERVER MAN "— 
 DR. CLARK AS A WEATHER-COCK — *' WHY DO CATHOLICS COME 
 AMONG US?" 
 
 CATHOLICS do not wish to ^'batter 
 down" or demolish the public schools, 
 as your sectarian leaders assert ; they only 
 wish the public school system, which is as 
 much theirs as yours, to be so modified as 
 to meet the wishes of all. We object to 
 having Protestant and infidel teachers to in- 
 struct our children ; we object to text-books 
 which contain sentiments not in unison 
 with our theology, or reflecting on our 
 principles; we object to lazy parsons, un- 
 authorized laymen, and sickly sentimental- 
 ists, obtruding themselves into the school- 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 133 
 
 room, where our Catholic children are 
 seated, and filling their yonng, susceptible 
 minds with false notions of religious educa- 
 tion, and material progress ; and we object 
 to the reading and studying of a corrupted 
 Bible, or allowing our children to interpret 
 it, according to their fancy, as Protest- 
 ants do. 
 
 I have been, myself, in schools where the 
 Bible was made a text-book, and its study 
 imperative on every scholar in the institu 
 tion, and yet I failed to discover that it 
 made the students any better or more 
 moral than where it was excluded alto- 
 gether. In my opinion it made them worse, 
 for ''familiarity breeds contempt." It used 
 to grieve me to witness the uses it was 
 occasionally made to serve — from lighting 
 a cigar or a fire, to the most menial office. 
 I have often seen it side by side with the 
 most obscene and scandalous publications 
 that ever issued from a vile press. Many 
 a time have I observed young boys pick 
 
 out passages in the Canticles of Solomon, 
 12 
 
134 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 and pass them over to tlie opposite sex, 
 and vice versa. I was only yonng then, 
 and never heard the question of the ^' Bible 
 in the Common Schools" debated; but 
 young as I was, I could not help coming 
 to the conclusion, that had the holy book 
 been read only in the family circle, by way 
 of narrative or christian history, and its 
 sacred character interpreted only by Grod's 
 ministers, it would have been safer and 
 more conducive to public and private 
 morals ; and both youth and old age would 
 have a greater respect for it. 
 
 In refutation of Dr. Clark's calumny con- 
 cerning the universal ignorance of Cathol- 
 icism, by which he insinuates that the 
 Church opposes the diffusion of useful 
 knowledge, I need only point to the Catho- 
 lic Almanac for the past year, and it will 
 not only surprise his hearers to read therein 
 what the church is doing for education, but 
 make them ashamed of a man who could 
 make such lying statements. 
 
 Nearly all the religious orders of this 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 135 
 
 Continent are engaged in tlie work of 
 education. From British America to the 
 Grulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific, in the cities and on the plains, 
 along the mountain ranges, and down the 
 Pacific slopes, they give every variety of 
 education from the highest branches of 
 philosophy to the common rudiments of 
 knowledge. 
 
 George Bancroft, a son of Massachusetts, 
 and from whom Catholics could not expect 
 much favor, affirms, in his valuable history 
 of the United States, that '^religious zeal, 
 not less than commercial ambition, had in- 
 fluenced France to recover Canada ; and 
 Champlain its governor, whose imperishable 
 name will rival with posterity the fame of 
 Smith and Hudson, ever disinterested and 
 compassionate, full of honor and probity, of 
 ardent devotion and burning zeal, esteemed 
 the salvation of a soul worth more than the 
 conquest of an empire." 
 
 Long before the stony-hearted Puritans 
 placed foot on what Bishop Spaulding calls 
 
136 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 
 
 the ^^ Yankee Blarney Stone," the faithful 
 ministers of the cross planted missions in 
 the eastern part of Maine. The poor Fran- 
 ciscans, with their lives in their hands, pene- 
 trated into the land of the Mohawks and 
 Wyandots, not protected by American 
 counsels, or under the muzzles of English 
 guns, like many of our modern sort, who 
 have gone to India and China. 
 
 The Catholic missionary goes forth in the 
 name of the Gfod of Hosts, with his crucifix 
 in his hand, and the word of divine power 
 in his heart, willing to lay down his own 
 life to save the souls of others. 
 
 Poor Father Le Caron led the life of a 
 beggar, partaking of the charity of the sav- 
 ages as he journeyed through the wilderness 
 of the newly discovered country, passing 
 from one hostile tribe to another, sowing the 
 seeds of christian truth and love among a 
 race of people at once savage, powerful and 
 warlike, until he gained the great waters of 
 Niagara, and took up his abode with the 
 Hurons. 
 
THE QUESTIOItT SOLVED. 137 
 
 Bancroft says, that ^Ho confirm the mis- 
 sions the first measure was to establish a 
 college in New France, and the parents of 
 the Marquis de Gamache, pleased with his 
 pious importunity, assented to his entering 
 the order of Jesuits, and added from their 
 ample fortunes, the means of endowing a 
 Seminary for education at Quebec." Thus 
 we see that Catholics established the first 
 institution of learning in America. Let us 
 make a few more extracts from Bancroft. 
 
 ^'The fires of charity being enkindled, the 
 Duchess D'Aguillon, aided by her uncle. 
 Cardinal Richelieu, endowed a public hos- 
 pital dedicated to the Son of God, whose 
 blood was shed in mercy for all mankind." 
 ^' From the hospital nuns of Dieppe, there 
 were selected the youngest twenty-two, to 
 brave the famine and rigors of Canada, in 
 their patient mission of benevolence." 
 
 " The same religious enthusiasm inspiring 
 
 Madame de la Peltier, a young and opulent 
 
 widow of Alengon, she, with the aid of a 
 
 nun of Dieppe, and two others from Tours, 
 12* 
 
138 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 established the Ursuline Convent for girls. 
 ^ ^ ^ The venerable ash-tree still lives 
 beneath which Mary of the Incarnation, so 
 famed for chastened piety, genius and good 
 judgment toiled for the education of the 
 Huron children." 
 
 By a like spirit, and after the same man- 
 ner, have Catholics continued their mis- 
 sionary labors, combining education and 
 religion, down to the present day. Their 
 institutions are conducted by a self-sacri- 
 ficing class of teachers, who have given up 
 the world and all its allurements to devote 
 themselves in an especial manner to glorify 
 God ; to secure their own salvation, and to 
 instruct the ignorant and the depraved not 
 only in what is useful in society, but to 
 point out to them the ways of truth and 
 holiness, the only road to Heaven. Beau- 
 tiful, indeed, is such a life, and highly to be 
 commended ! 
 
 And now, dear reader, think you that 
 such noble sacrifices are made to corrupt 
 the heart and brutalize the mind, or compel 
 
THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 139 
 
 '^Tiniyersal ignorance," as the Reverend 
 libeler, of the Dutch Church, asserts? 
 
 To hear this man rant about education^ 
 one would suppose that Providence consti- 
 tuted him grand censor of the educational 
 system. He makes one assertion after 
 another, all of which are nothing more than 
 cool assumptions ; he never inquires about 
 the right or wrong of a thing, but pitches in 
 like a drunken bully, indiscriminately, to 
 exhibit his strength at knock down argu- 
 ments. He must entertain a poor opinion 
 of the well educated portion of his flock, 
 when he offers them such devil's venison. 
 They cannot help knowing that such accu- 
 sations are a fraud, and will not go down 
 with any kind of relish ; still the majority 
 will accept these absurdities and swallow 
 them down stock and fluke. 
 
 It astonishes me to think how wofuUy 
 ignorant Protestants are, concerning the 
 affairs of the Catholic Church ; what she 
 has done and is now doing for the welfare 
 of society; unless they have adopted the 
 
140 THE QUESTIOlSr SOLYED. 
 
 system of the old Gfreeks, who believed in 
 anything and everything bnt the truth. 
 
 Protestantism is only a man-constructed 
 system, take it as you will ; it is of human 
 authority, liable to err, and cannot, there- 
 fore, claim Christ for its foundation. 
 Catholics, on the contrary, can prove their 
 Church to be that repository of divine 
 truth over w^hich the Holy Spirit hovers, 
 giving her light and holiness whereby to 
 teach and govern with authority ; deceiving 
 no man, and claiming obedience from all. 
 They cheerfully accept her kind offices, 
 having full confidence in her teachings and 
 declarations. N'ot so with Protestants, they 
 keep floating about on an ocean of doubt 
 and uncertainty — they have no faith, they 
 have only opinions, and opinions differ. 
 
 It is neither fair nor honest in Dr. Clark 
 to prejudice the people, by wrongfully in- 
 forming them that it is the object of Catho- 
 lics to exclude the Bible from the common 
 schools ; and that " the priests would 
 rather have the children grow up assassins 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 141 
 
 than allow them to have recourse to the 
 Bible." Now, if the people of the First 
 Church have any regard for truth, they 
 never would pay a man a large salary to 
 uphold falsehood and calumny. 
 
 I do not suppose, for a moment, that they 
 are so utterly blinded by this man's state- 
 ments, as to believe with him that there is 
 any Catholic priest in the world, who would 
 prefer a little child to grow up an assassin, 
 rather than to read the Bible. A man who 
 would make such an assertion as that is no 
 better than a murderer himself. If his people 
 can stand such lies, their consciences must 
 be as dry as autumn leaves, else they are as 
 wicked as he is, and partake of his crime. 
 
 It is true, that both priest and people are 
 opposed to reading what they deem a 
 corrupted version of the Bible, and the 
 singing of Protestant hymns in schools 
 which they are taxed to support. What 
 right have Protestants, any more than 
 Catholics or Jews, to assume to themselves 
 privileges which the Constitution does not 
 
143 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 allow them? Is it fair for Protestants to 
 insist on giving a religions bias to a school 
 where the majority are Catholics, as is the 
 case in onr large cities ? Catholic parents are 
 bonnd in conscience, to train n^ their child- 
 ren in the faith which they themselves pro- 
 fess, nntil they arrive at the nse of reason ; 
 and hence, their great objection to any sys- 
 tem, pnblic or private, which wonld tend to 
 weaken their belief, or place the subject of 
 religion unfairly before them. 
 
 For the same reason they object to institu- 
 tions of learning, where religion is entirely 
 excluded. They hold that education with- 
 out religion, as before proved, is unreliable 
 if not wicked — they hold that moral and 
 religious principles are the true basis of 
 human society, and the earlier their child- 
 ren are so instructed, the better for their 
 own being, and the welfare of the State. 
 
 This is the whole matter in a few simple 
 words, and if Protestants attach any other 
 motive to the Catholic claim, they either 
 misunderstand it or willfully corrupt the 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 143 
 
 aims of the Cliiircli. We know and appre- 
 ciate the value to the State of a good sys- 
 tem of public schools, and it has always 
 been a cardinal doctrine in the economy of 
 the Church, to combine religious instruction 
 with secular education, feeling assured that 
 upon such a basis, the nation is most secure. 
 Man is naturally a religious being, but sub- 
 ject as he is to the corrupting influences of 
 his own weak nature, and the depravity of 
 society, the training of his youth must have 
 a religious bearing, in order to be beneficial 
 and lasting. This is why Catholics have been 
 making such efforts to establish schools of 
 their own, and for which they have made very 
 great sacrifices. They prefer their children 
 to have a small share of worldly knowledge, 
 with sound religious principles, than to have 
 them converted into polished Pagans, with 
 their heads full of science and no love of 
 God in their hearts. 
 
 Dr. Clark has allowed himself to become 
 so inflated lately, on the " school question," 
 that he swelled out like a balloon, but the 
 
144 THE QUESTION SOLYED. 
 
 least prick of common sense would let out 
 all the gas, and his great swelling words of 
 vanity wonld vanish into thin air, leaving 
 nothing behind save a bad odor. 
 
 The action of the school board of Cincin- 
 nati, has been haunting him like a ghost, so 
 that his brain has become addled. He rants 
 and raves in' his pulpit concerning the ques- 
 tion of the '^ Bible in the common schools " 
 so much, that if another city would follow 
 the example of Cincinnati the Doctor would 
 either have apoplexy or be sent to the State 
 Lunatic Asylum. 
 
 The reverend gentleman is not just in his 
 allusions to the Western Watchman. Why 
 did he not quote the whole article from that 
 paper (which for the most part was ironical) 
 instead of culling passages from it, and 
 stringing them together as best suited his 
 purpose, giving a wrong interpretation of 
 said article, and changing the sense entirely, 
 thereby doing great injustice to the editor 
 of that paper. 
 
 German infidelity had more to do with 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 145 
 
 casting out the Bible and all other religious 
 instruction from the schools of the ''Queen 
 City," than Catholics had. The latter, if 
 compelled to send their children to public 
 schools, would much rather retain the 
 Protestant Bible than have all religious in- 
 struction banished from them. 
 
 None but a madman would dare to make 
 such assertions as Dr. Clark has lately. He 
 has not put the question fairly before his 
 people, he was so one-sided in the whole 
 matter, that it was a wonder he did not tip 
 over. As we have said before, the commu- 
 ntiy being composed of different denomina- 
 tions having the same political rights, the 
 government is bound to protect them ; so 
 that Catholics and Protestants are on an 
 equal footing before the law, and the State 
 is obliged to protect both in the free exercise 
 of their religious tenets. This being the 
 case. Catholics have a perfect right to make 
 demands upon the Legislature to alter any 
 enactments which curtail them in the free 
 exercise of their faith. The school question 
 13 
 
146 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 
 
 with ns is a matter of conscience. But the 
 Doctor says, if you grant such privileges 
 to Eomanists you must grant them to all 
 other denominations, if they desire it. This 
 does not follow, for the Church views all 
 sects, from Calvinism to Atheism, as pro- 
 testing against the religion of Jesus Christ, 
 so that all the sectaries are Protestants to 
 us. What difference does it make to Prot- 
 estants if their children are educated with 
 spiritualists, infidels and nothingarians — 
 they all go on the progressive principle, 
 and the public school as now constituted 
 is just the thing. 
 
 The chief aim, however, of Protestants is 
 to use the State against the Church, hence 
 they cry out ''public instruction," as a 
 blind to destroy Catholic faith. It is a 
 hatred of the Church that makes them so 
 clamorous for public instruction as it is now 
 devised. If they profess such a love for 
 Jesus Christ and His inspired word, how 
 comes it that they fraternize so easily with 
 Unitarians, Universalists, and Free Thinkers 
 
THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 147 
 
 of every grade ? If they desire the perpe- 
 tuity of the Christian religion, let them lay 
 down the arms of their warfare and submit 
 to the mild authority of the Holy Roman 
 and Apostolic Church — listen attentively 
 to her sweet and gentle counsels — obey with 
 Christian fortitude all her mandates, and 
 enlist with us under the banner of the cross 
 in making common cause against infidelity, 
 which threatens to demoralize society. As 
 it is now, Protestants are only strengthen- 
 ing the citadel of unbelief, and in no way 
 can they accomplish that result better than 
 in seeking to make the State, instead of the 
 Church, the educator of the rising genera- 
 tion. 
 
 There are many able and right minded 
 Protestants who concur with us in the belief 
 that religion in society is its only safeguard, 
 and to make that sentiment popular and 
 lasting it must be diffused into the common 
 schools. Many of them, too, call for a 
 modification of the school system, in order 
 to relieve Catholics from a Protestant or 
 infidel ascendancy. 
 
148 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 A writer in the Hartford Courant speaks 
 to its readers as follows: '^Although a 
 Protestant, I sympathize very much with 
 those honest Romanists who deplore the 
 present purely secular aspect of our public 
 schools, and believe with them, that the 
 shutting out of ethics and Christian doc- 
 trine from them makes us virtual pagans, 
 and gives the support of the State to virtual 
 paganism. Whether a few verses of the 
 Bible shall be read, or not, at the opening 
 of the daily session, is, I think, a purely 
 superficial question, and may well give 
 way to deeper issues. For my own part, 
 I feel that we are miserably short handed 
 in our efforts to impress such religious 
 truth on the young, as shall prepare them 
 to enter upon life with a wholesome desire 
 to conform to the laws of God. And seeing 
 how little good ethical teaching there is, 
 and how feebly religion gets any hold on 
 our youth, I cannot wonder at the excesses 
 which are displayed ; at the want of honor, 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 149 
 
 respect for law, and at the practical atheism 
 wMcli abound." 
 
 The wrathy old gentleman of the New 
 York Observer^ notwithstanding he talks 
 about the ''coming fight," favors a refor- 
 mation in the school system. He says, 
 ''the State teaches too much. What the 
 State is required to do is to see to it, that 
 all its children are taught to read and 
 write, and to understand such things as 
 are essential to good citizenship. There 
 is no good reason why A should be taxed 
 to enable the children of B to learn Latin, 
 music, or drawing, or any one of the 
 twenty studies now taught in the public 
 schools. Our public school system needs 
 to be overhauled. The religious question 
 is pressing hard upon the popular mind 
 and heart. Perhaps the solution of all 
 these questions will be found in leaving 
 the subject of education to the voluntary 
 action of the people, as religion is now 
 left. This plan is finding able advocates. 
 
 13* 
 
150 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 The whole subject needs to be examined 
 carefully and speedily." 
 
 TTie New York Journal of Commerce 
 advocates ^Hhe entire separation of the 
 educational process from State authority. 
 Youth needs the higher sanctions of re- 
 ligion in every department of culture, and 
 this cannot be secured in a State school 
 where there is no State church." 
 
 The New YorJc Tablet claims ^Hwo ways 
 in which the State can honestly and justly 
 deal with the school question. It must 
 either divide the schools in fair propor- 
 tion, and give to Catholics the control of 
 their division, and to Protestants or non- 
 Catholics, the control of theirs ; or adopt, 
 in education as in religion, the voluntary 
 system, and leave to each denomination to 
 establish, support and manage schools for 
 itself in its own way, without any more 
 public support or interference than is law- 
 ful in ecclesiastical matters. The last is 
 the proper way ; indeed, the only consistent 
 method of dealing with the question, be- 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 151 
 
 cause education is a function of the Churcli, 
 not of the State. As we have, and can 
 have, no public or State church, so we 
 can consistently have no public or State 
 schools." 
 
 And the New TorTc Daily Times remarks : 
 '^It may be doubted, whether it is the busi- 
 ness of the government to teach school, any 
 more than to teach religion." 
 
 Catholics do not desire the system of com- 
 mon schools abolished ; all we want is our 
 proportion of the public moneys — the selec- 
 tion of our teachers, and course of studies, 
 such as would meet the approbation of our 
 spiritual counselors. In all other respects 
 let them remain under the boards of public 
 instruction. In the present system, I fail to 
 discover religious equality, but I can very 
 easUy see a Protestant and Infidel ascend- 
 ancy. The State has no right to educate our 
 children — we hold it to be the ofiice of the 
 Church. This is nothing new — the Church 
 has been the educator from the beginning. 
 
 If the State Legislature will not grant us 
 
152 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 the reform we need, let it not tax us to sup- 
 port a system at variance with our religious 
 convictions. Supposing the school law was 
 modified, so as to grant Catholics separate 
 schools, it would in no wise abolish the sys- 
 tem as it now is for Protestants. To them 
 it would be just the same. I think it would 
 be better for both parties, Protestant as well 
 as Catholic, to have a change, as there would 
 arise a competition which would stimulate 
 to excellence and proficiency, and place the 
 standard of education higher than it ever 
 was before. 
 
 Protestant ministers are afraid that this 
 question wUl come fairly and squarely before 
 the people. They know and feel that Catho- 
 lics have the best end of the argument — 
 that all the logic and justice is upon their 
 side, and when they find themselves driven 
 to the wall, they threaten vengeance if we 
 persevere in our just demands. Hear the 
 New YotJc Observer^ the bluest sheet of Cal- 
 vinism now in existence. ^'We say again, 
 let Romanists and their friends beware; 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 153 
 
 there is fire slumbering under the dead 
 ashes of the present. It is not safe to drive 
 Protestants to the wall, and batter down 
 their institutions in their very faces. Pro- 
 voke not — rather we would say, compel 
 not — an attitude of hostility that all good 
 men would deplore." 
 
 Another choleric gentleman in New York 
 who styles himself a Reverend Doctor, but 
 does not believe in the divinity of Christ, 
 threatens as follows : " We warn our Roman 
 Catholic fellow-citizens of what is in store for 
 them, if they continue to press their claim 
 to break up our national system of pub- 
 lic schools. They will sooner or later bring 
 on a civil war, in which they and their 
 churches will be swept, as by a whirlwind, 
 from the land." And the great Dr. Clark, 
 who turned his back on Congregationalism, 
 to become a Dutch Reformed parson, has 
 uttered the same in substance, though we 
 cannot give his precise words, for he spoke 
 as fiercely and with as much vehemence as 
 
154 THE QUESTI02!^ SOLVED. 
 
 an angry Malay, with knife in hand, running 
 a muck. 
 
 What a similarity of sentiment between 
 Unitarians and Calvinists ; they might form 
 a union yet, a kind of marriage, between 
 the adder and the scorpion. 
 
 Dr. Clark asks, why do Catholics come 
 among us with a foreign religion ? The same 
 question was asked by the Romans in the 
 days of the Apostles. They accused the 
 early Christians of bringing a foreign religion 
 among them, which threatened to subvert 
 their institutions, and bring destruction to 
 the Empire. Hence, laws were enacted 
 against them ; they were put to the fire and 
 the sword, and obliged to flee into the caves 
 and fastnesses of the earth. But the God 
 whom they served, in His own good time and 
 pleasure, brought them forth, like gold tried 
 in the furnace, full of faith and the Spirit 
 of their Master. Their cause triumphed in 
 the end, for theirs were the principles and 
 practices of virtue, truth and godliness ; 
 
THE QUESTIOIS' SOLVED. 156 
 
 wMe their persecutors fell to rise no more, 
 to either power or dominion. 
 
 The Doctor further says, '^we tolerate 
 Romanists, and yet they are not satisfied." 
 Ifow, who is this ^^we" and ''us," who 
 seem to form a copartnership with the 
 reverend lecturer? Does he mean the 
 descendants of the Dutch settlers and the 
 Plymouth Colony, or the sectaries in gen- 
 eral, such as Presbyterians, Dutch Reform- 
 ers, Baptists, Unitarians, Universalists, 
 Spiritualists, Free Lovers, Free Thinkers, 
 Infidels and Atheists ? If this is the firm 
 of which Dr. Clark is a leading member, we 
 do not envy him his associates : they are all 
 chips of the same block — they cannot be 
 mistaken, because of their strong family 
 resemblance. Let me tell that firm, that if 
 it pursues an aggressive and unjust policy 
 toward its neighbors, it will become bank- 
 rupt, and will not be able to pay one per 
 cent out of its spiritual treasury. 
 
 This assumption of the Doctor' s is laugh- 
 able, to say the least — it is nonsense and 
 
156 THE QUESTIO^JJ- SOLVED. 
 
 worse — it is simply ridiculous. Let him 
 study the Constitution and the laws of his 
 country a little more before he comes for- 
 ward again with such balderdash. 
 
 We spurn his toleration, and laugh at his 
 threats ; we shall act as freemen should, and 
 demand equal rights with him. We will 
 take part in all questions relating to the 
 public weal, and stand up like a wall of 
 brass against the encroachments and injus- 
 tice of Protestant tyranny. 
 
CHAP. IX. 
 
 The FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE PROTESTANT EDUCATIONAIi 
 SYSTEM — EDUCATION IN ENGLAND BEFORE THE REFORMATION 
 — THE CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE AGES — MR. KAY'S TRAVELS IN 
 EUROPE — HIS ESTIMATE OP CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT EDU- 
 CATION—STATISTICS—THE PROSPERITY OF CATHOLIC COLLEGES 
 AND UNIVERSITIES DURING THE MIDDLE AGES — EDUCATION IN 
 ENGLAND AFTER THE REFORMATION — CATHOLICS DO NOT HATE 
 THE BIBLE — PROTESTANT BOASTING. 
 
 THE French Revolution had more to do 
 in bringing about public instruction, or a 
 State system of schools, in the Protestant 
 countries of Europe, than any movement 
 Protestants had set on foot toward that end. 
 The sovereigns were frightened into it, fear- 
 ing the consequences which would be likely 
 to follow, if man's nature was allowed to 
 give way to the passions, uncontrolled by 
 education and religion; for, as the New 
 TotTc Tablet affirms, it was the result of 
 godless schools, and the spirit which con- 
 ceived and planned them, that brought 
 Louis XVI to the guillotine. 
 
 The Church has not existed for eighteen 
 centuries without taking cognizance of pass- 
 ing events. She has seen the rise and fall 
 14 
 
158 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 of nations ; her advice, therefore, is prudent 
 and healthful. She has witnessed the ruin 
 and desolation that irreligion brought upon 
 the people ; she therefore warns her children 
 to beware of institutions where reason is 
 deified and Christian ethics abolished. 
 
 But Dr. Clark says that Catholicism is uni- 
 versal ignorance — Protestantism, universal 
 education. When he conceived that wicked 
 fabrication he knew he was telling a lie, but 
 a lie is nothing to him when he has a point to 
 gain. He belongs to that class of whom it 
 is said, that ^' the words of their mouth were 
 smoother than butter, but war was in their 
 hearts ; their words were softer than oil, 
 yet were they drawn swords." 
 
 Without referring to all the civilized coun- 
 tries that have been instructed and con- 
 verted to Christianity by Catholic enterprise 
 we may, while passing, allude to a few, but 
 particularly England, that nation which 
 Dr. Clark seems to think the Protestant 
 Paradise. 
 
 Was there no education in England until 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 159 
 
 the time of Henry VIII, Somerset and 
 Elizabetli ? three precions murderers, as the 
 BdinburgJi Review designates them, to wit : 
 ''Henry, the murderer of his wives ; Somer- 
 set, murderer of his brother ; and Elizabeth, 
 murderess of her guest." What a glorious 
 triangle to build the Protestant church 
 upon! 
 
 When England was Catholic the nation 
 was studded all over with religious and 
 educational establishments — churches, con- 
 vents and monasteries, had schools attached 
 to each, besides the great colleges, diocesan 
 seminaries and private tuitions. One-fourth 
 of that island was, in fine, devoted to educa- 
 tion, religion and charity, so that, if we take 
 into consideration the age, population and 
 wealth, it is a marvel that so much was ac- 
 complished for the instruction of youth ; 
 for a hundred received a collegiate educa- 
 tion then, to one who now enjoys a like 
 privilege. The printing press was not yet 
 invented, so that their books were in manu- 
 script and of great value. All honor to the 
 
160 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 industry and perseverance of those good old 
 monks, who night and day labored inces- 
 santly to supply the demand education 
 made upon them. Did this look like ^^uni- 
 versal ignorance" you man of easy times ? 
 If you were a just, upright, honest man, you 
 would praise, rather than abuse, those glori- 
 ous, self-sacrificing servants of Grod, who by 
 their faith and zeal kept the torch of education 
 as well as religion, burning brightly at a time 
 when feudal despotism was in league with 
 ignorance, and devoted to war and conquest. 
 Those feudal lords kept a certain class of 
 the people in ignorance and degradation, 
 whose only ambition was to obey their royal 
 masters with a most abject servility. To 
 improve the moral condition of such a vil- 
 lainous class was no small nor easy task. 
 They lived generally, outside the cities, in 
 close proximity to the baronial castle, fol- 
 lowed no worthy occupation, and united the 
 character of soldier, robber and slave. 
 
 The Church undertook the Herculean task 
 of emancipating them from such a life of 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED* 161 
 
 depravity, and succeeded wonderfully Well, 
 despite the opposition of their powerful 
 chiefs. The clergy imparted to them a true 
 knowledge of God, their own responsibility 
 and their obligations toward their neighbor. 
 Such were the characteristic eflfbrts of the 
 Church in all ages. 
 
 A few years ago the University of Cam- 
 bridge, in England, commissioned a Mr. 
 Kay to make a tour of Europe, in order to 
 ascertain the condition of the poorer classes 
 in each country. He spent eight years in 
 that capacity ; and, as he is a staunch Prot- 
 estant, and consequently no friend of Catho- 
 lics, his evidence must have some weight 
 with our so-called evangelical friends. 
 
 Others may praise Mr. Kay for his manly 
 independence in furnishing correct statistics 
 of the countries through which he passed ; 
 for our part we thank him not a whit— he 
 could not help himself, he could not contra- 
 dict public records. Had he said less than 
 he did on the subject of education, he would 
 have been easily confuted by the govern- 
 14* 
 
162 THE QUESTION SOLYED. 
 
 mental registers, besides being put down as 
 a traveling mountebank, in whom no con- 
 fidence could be placed ; Ms own friends 
 even would be obliged to discard Mm, so 
 tliat lie would have no weight in matters 
 of public interest. His report shows very 
 plainly that there is more freedom of con- 
 science in the monarchical countries of 
 Europe, save Russia and Turkey, than in 
 our own Republic. This, of course, is no 
 fault of our glorious constitution, but the 
 action of a tyranmcal majority. 
 
 To show the relative condition of the edu- 
 cational system in those countries visited 
 by Mr. Kay, we borrow the following statis- 
 tical extracts from his report, as we find 
 them in Dr. Spalding's Review on this sub- 
 ject, and which read as follows : 
 
 In France the number of primary schools 
 in 1843 was fifty-nine thousand three hun- 
 dred and eighty-three, the number of nor- 
 mal colleges for the instruction of teachers 
 was ninety-six, and the number of teachers 
 actually engaged in instruction, seventy- 
 
THE QUESTIOlSr SOLVED. 163 
 
 five thonsand five hnndred and thirty-five ; 
 and as the population of France in 1843 
 amounted to thirty-four million two hun- 
 dred and thirty thousand one hundred and 
 seventy-eight, it follows that there was in 
 that year 
 
 One primary school in France for every 558 inhabitants. 
 
 One teacher for every 446 do 
 
 One normal college for every 356,564 do 
 
 In the same year there was in Prussia 
 
 One primary school for every 653 do 
 
 One teacher for every 662 do 
 
 One normal college for every 377,300 do 
 
 In the kingdom of Bavaria (Catholic), 
 
 in the year 1846, there was 
 
 One teacher for every 508 do 
 
 One primary school for every 603 do 
 
 One normal school for every 550,000 do 
 
 In the kingdom of Saxony (Protestant, 
 
 with a Catholic king), there was in 
 
 the year 1843 
 
 One primary school for every 900 do 
 
 One teacher for every 588 do 
 
 One normal college for every 214,975 do 
 
 In the duchy of Baden (Catholic, with 
 
 Protestant government), in the year 
 
 1841 there was 
 One primary school for every. ...... 700 do 
 
 One normal college for every 500,000 do 
 
164 THE QUESTION SOLVED, 
 
 It will be seen that, whMe Saxony has 
 more normal schools, in proportion, than 
 either Prussia, Bavaria, or even France, 
 she is far behind France in the relative 
 number of primary schools and teachers, 
 and behind Prussia, Bavaria, and Baden, 
 in the proportion of primary schools to the 
 population. It is well to bear in mind, 
 that in Saxony, the government is Catho- 
 lic, with a large majority of Protestants in 
 the population, while the government of 
 Prussia is Protestant, with about two-fifths 
 of the population. Catholics ; that of Baden, 
 Protestant, with a very large Catholic 
 majority ; while both the government and 
 an overwhelming majority of the people 
 of Bavaria are Catholic." 
 
 In regard to Austria, we have the follow- 
 ing statistics: ^'In 1842 the population of 
 the Austrian empire, including Lombardy, 
 but excluding Hungary, was twenty-five 
 million three hundred and four thousand 
 one hundred and fifty-two. For this popu- 
 lation, twenty thousand two hundred and 
 
THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 165 
 
 ninety-three primary day-schools had been 
 founded ; that is, one primary day-school 
 for every one thousand two hundred and 
 forty-seven inhabitants, besides eleven 
 thousand one hundred and forty repeti- 
 tion, or evening-class schools. For these 
 twenty thousand two hundred and ninety- 
 three primary schools, forty-one thousand 
 eight hundred and nine teachers had been 
 appointed and salaried, each of these teach- 
 ers having obtained a certificate of com- 
 petence before being allowed to ofllciate as 
 an instructor of youth. There was, there- 
 fore, in 1842, about one teacher for every 
 six hundred inhabitants in the whole empire 
 of Austria, excluding Hungary, and rather 
 more than two teachers, on the average, 
 to every primary school." 
 
 ''France has fifty-nine thousand three 
 hundred and eighty-three elementary 
 schools ; England and Wales only four 
 thousand. France expends annually two 
 million pounds sterling ; England only 
 one hundred and twenty-eight thousand 
 
166 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 pounds. In England and Wales nearly 
 eight million persons cannot read and 
 write, and of four hundred and sixty-seven 
 thousand eight hundred and ninety-four 
 marriages of all classes in . three years, 
 three hundred and three thousand eight 
 hundred and thirty-six of the persons 
 married could not write their own names. 
 More than one-half of the children in Eng- 
 land are not attending any school, and the 
 teachers in many of the village schools 
 cannot read and write correctly, and know 
 little of the Bible, although they profess 
 to explain it to their pupils. To come up 
 to the lowest standard of popular educa- 
 tion in Continental Europe, England and 
 Wales should have twenty-three thou- 
 sand five hundred and thirty-one schools, 
 twenty-six thousand five hundred teach- 
 ers, and forty-one normal schools ; whereas 
 of normal schools she has only twelve to 
 ninety-two in France, and only a little 
 more than one-sixth of her quota of primary 
 schools ! By far the greatest part of the 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 167 
 
 school buildings of England have only one 
 room, in which all the classes are instructed 
 together, in the midst of noise and foul 
 air." 
 
 ''In Protestant Holland there are only 
 two normal schools to two million six hun- 
 dred thousand inhabitants." 
 
 ''Rome, with a population of one hundred 
 and fifty-eight thousand six hundred and 
 seventy-eight souls, has three hundred and 
 seventy-two public primary schools, with 
 four hundred and eighty-two teachers, and 
 fourteen thousand children attending them ; 
 Berlin, with double the population, has only 
 two hundred and sixty-four schools. Rome 
 has also her university, with an average 
 attendance of six hundred and sixty stu- 
 dents ; and the Papal States, with a popu- 
 lation of two and a half millions, contain 
 seven universities, while Prussia, with a 
 population of fourteen million, has but 
 seven." 
 
 "In Spain, in 1850, there were ten univer- 
 sities, forty-nine institutes under direction 
 
168 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 of the government, and sixteen thousand 
 primary and other schools. In public 
 schools alone (exclusive of universities and 
 institutes), the number of pupils was in the 
 proportion of one to seventeen of the whole 
 population." 
 
 By this we see that Catholic France is far 
 ahead of Prussia or any other Protestant 
 nation of Europe, while England is at the 
 foot of the scale, not only of all Catholic 
 but Protestant countries. 
 
 In France, Austria, and other Catholic 
 countries, provision is made for Protestant 
 children, so that the religious scruples of 
 their parents are amply satisfied. No law 
 compels them to bow to the vast majority, 
 in this respect. Mr. Kay says, ''The most 
 interesting and satisfactory feature of the 
 Austrian system is the great liberality with 
 which the government, although so staunch 
 an adherent and supporter of the Romanist 
 priesthood, has treated the religious parties 
 who diifer from itself in their religious 
 dogmas. It has been entirely owing to this 
 
THE QUESTION SOLYED. 169 
 
 liberality that neither the great number of 
 sects in Austria, nor the great difference of 
 their religious tenets, have hindered the 
 work of the education of the poor through- 
 out the empire." He goes on to show the 
 efficiency of the schools, and how the diffi- 
 culties arising from religion are met ; and 
 ends up by saying, that ''Whenever the 
 minority of any parish, whether Romanists, 
 Protestants, or Jews, desire to establish a 
 separate school for their children, and to 
 support a teacher of their own denomina- 
 tion, they are at liberty to separate from the 
 majority, to provide alone for the education 
 of their children ; but, by one means or 
 another, each parish is obliged to provide 
 for the education of all its children, and 
 each householder to contribute his share of 
 the funds necessary for this purpose ; and, 
 whether separate or mixed schools are 
 established, all are made subject to public 
 inspection, so that the public may know the 
 real character of each establishment ; that 
 no demoralizing school, or inefficient or im- 
 15 
 
170 THE QUESTIOJ^ SOLVED. 
 
 moral teacher, may be allowed to exercise a 
 baneful influence upon the youth of the 
 empire ; and that the instruction in useful 
 and civilizing knowledge may not be sacri- 
 ficed in any degree to the dogmatical teach- 
 ing of the different sects." 
 
 If the object of Catholicism is covertly to 
 gain control of education in order to use it 
 against Protestants, why, in the name of 
 common sense, do they not carry out the 
 scheme wh^re they have the power to do so. 
 I have alluded to Austria particularly, as 
 she has always been the butt and reproach 
 of our over-bilious parsons and swaddling 
 ranters of every description. 
 
 We might go on quoting from Mr. Kay' s 
 report, which is quite a voluminous affair, 
 but enough has been given to show that 
 Catholics are not such an ignorant, godless, 
 vicious and forsaken set, as our virtuous 
 and immaculate Protestant friends would 
 have us believe. 
 
 If '^universal ignorance" is the distinct- 
 ive feature of Catholicism, how came it to 
 
THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 171 
 
 pass, that, in 1264, fifteen thousand scholars 
 entered Oxford alone, and from 1300 to 
 1340, the number of students annually ex- 
 ceeded thirty thousand. One thousand 
 poor scholars were educated yearly in that 
 noble institution, free of expense. Can the 
 same be said of it in our day ? 
 
 In 1263, the University of Bologna re- 
 ceived ten thousand law students, and 
 Robertson, in his History of Charles Y, 
 says, that ten thousand graduates voted 
 on certain questions in the University of 
 Paris. 
 
 Has Dr. Clark never heard of such bril- 
 liant minds as Eusebius, St. Jerome, St. 
 Hilary, St. Gregory the Great, St. Augus- 
 tine, Origen, Ambrose, Athanasius, Cassio- 
 dorus, the emperor Constantine, Charle- 
 magne, Leo X, Polycarp, Justinian, St. 
 Clement, and thousands upon thousands 
 of others, equally great and gifted? The 
 names of distinguished scholars sent forth 
 by the Catholic Church would fill volumes. 
 I defy Dr. Clark to prove that one of them 
 
172 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 
 
 discouraged the diffusion of useful knowl- 
 edge, at any time or place; on the con- 
 trary, they were always the patrons of 
 literature, and the guardians of education. 
 
 If '' universal ignorance" is the pre- 
 dominant passion of Catholics, what in 
 the world have they accumulated so many 
 libraries for? What a foolish people, to 
 be sure, to wear themselves out in writing 
 and collecting such a vast and varied num- 
 ber of books! It was not at all '^ smart" 
 in them to buUd up such libraries as those 
 of Monte Cassino, Csesarea, Jerusalem, 
 Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople, Ham- 
 burg, Bamberg, Cologne, Weremouth, 
 York, Lincoln, Armagh, Spanheim, Ros- 
 sano. Piedmont, Peterborough, Paris, Pa- 
 dua, Naples, Salamanca, and Yalladolid. 
 
 Poor old Ireland, may her name be for- 
 ever sacred for her efforts in the cause of 
 education ! For three hundred years, from 
 the fifth to the eighth century, she led the 
 van of intellectual progress throughout 
 Europe. If Dr. Clark will look into the 
 
THE QUESTIO]Sr SOLVED. 173 
 
 Annals of the Four Masters, he will see 
 what Catholic Ireland accomplished for 
 literature and civilization, when his Eng- 
 lish progenitors were yet a common horde 
 of barbarians. She not only founded the 
 schools of Bobbio in Italy, Ratisbon, Co- 
 logne, and Erfurth, but her professors were 
 to be found in every institution of note 
 throughout the Continent. She founded, 
 too, the famous school of Lindisfarne, and 
 many others throughout England. 
 
 Does this look like '^universal ignor- 
 ance," Doctor? 
 
 How was it subsequent to the boasted 
 Reformation ? The enligMened Protestants 
 tore down and leveled to the ground all 
 the monastic schools ; converted the colleges 
 to private and public uses, and allowed 
 Oxford and Cambridge to fall into decay. 
 Many of the old libraries were entirely 
 destroyed, and the children of the few, 
 only, were permitted the advantages of 
 education, while the poor were neglected 
 and despised. It is true, that very many 
 15* 
 
174 THE QUESTIO:^" SOLVED. 
 
 discoveries and improvements are of mod- 
 ern date, but we do not thank the Prot- 
 estant religion for them; some of them 
 were the result of chance, while others were 
 brought into notice by men having no 
 especial regard for revealed religion. But 
 this we will say, that those educated pre- 
 vious to the Reformation knew perfectly 
 well the rights and duties of mankind, and 
 as to a thorough religious education, they 
 have not yet been excelled. 
 
 Dr. Clark asserts that ^'Catholics hate the 
 Bible," but does he not know, that it was 
 the Catholic saints, by the authority of the 
 Church, that collected and compiled the 
 canon of the Scripture, which has been 
 handed down to us through one generation 
 after another ? If Catholics feared the spread 
 of knowledge and hated the Bible so much, 
 it is strange that St. Boniface should entreat 
 of a certain abbess, that she would copy the 
 Epistles of St. Peter, in letters of gold. 
 
 If Protestants were honest in their love 
 for the Bible, instead of villifying Catholics 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 175 
 
 about hating it, they would ojffer a vote of 
 thanks every Sunday morning in their 
 assemblies, to the Catholic Church for her 
 jealous care- and watchfulness, in protect- 
 ing the sacred volume. If Catholics were 
 averse to the Bible, they might have de- 
 stroyed it ages before the Lutheran mon- 
 strosity was spawned; but, instead of so 
 doing, Bibles were printed in Latin, Ger- 
 man, Italian, French, English, Spanish and 
 Dutch, long before Luther broke his sacred 
 vows. There were forty editions printed in 
 Italy alone, and recommended by the 
 Pope — three distinct translations were pub- 
 lished at Wittemberg, the latest in 1490, only 
 seven years after the birth of Luther — and 
 seventy editions in other languages, before 
 Luther issued his version. 
 
 To hear Protestants ''blow," as a Yankee 
 would say, is sometimes amusing. They 
 remind you of old salts, who are notorious 
 for their fish stories — they become so accus- 
 tomed to retailing them over and over that 
 they finally believe them themselves. Prot- 
 
176 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 estants, in like manner, keep on telling ns 
 what they have done for the world — they 
 started the fox and came in at the killing. 
 They have invented everything, from a jack- 
 knife to a flying ship — they are the head 
 and pluck of every great achievement in 
 literature, art and science — in fact, they 
 ride upon the wind, and sail upon the 
 storm ; nothing is good but what they do or 
 say, and nothing right but what they coun- 
 tenance. If they had lived in the days of 
 Pontius Pilate they would have eclipsed the 
 Pharisees, by their vain boasting and self- 
 glory. Their lights are on the mountain 
 tops, while the dim taper of Catholics is 
 hid under a bushel, producing nothing but 
 smoke. Our American Protestants are as 
 vindictive as their English co-religionists, if 
 not more so. They are very magnanimous 
 in their assertions and accusations against 
 the spirit of the Church, but she can stand 
 it aU, for as it is in the department of pub- 
 lic instruction, so is it in all other respects, 
 as far as Catholic principles are concerned. 
 
THE QUESTIOiq' SOLVED. 177 
 
 Look them up honestly, and you will find 
 them, as did Mr. Kay the educational sys- 
 tem. He started from England, which he 
 had fancied the most progressive, moral and 
 civilized nation on earth, and expected 
 nothing in his perambulations on the Conti- 
 nent but ignorance, superstition and crime ; 
 but, to the great surprise of the Cambridge 
 commission that sent him forth, he returned, 
 after long absence, to tell them that his 
 native country was, in the aggregate, the 
 most depraved and illiterate nation he had 
 seen. 
 
CHAP. X. 
 
 False accusations agaixst the church — sincerity and in- 
 tellect SEEK ROME, HYPOCRISY AND IGNORANCE SEEK GENEVA 
 — COMPARISON BETWEEN CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS ON 
 THEIR DEATH-BEDS — BRILLIANT EULOGIES PASSED ON THE 
 CHURCH BY DISTINGUISHED PROTESTANTS — THE CHANGING OP 
 PROTESTANTS PROM ONE COMMUNION TO ANOTHER — PROTEST- 
 ANT PRIDE. 
 
 IF the Cliurcli of Rome is such a moun- 
 tain of ignorance as onr intelligent Doc- 
 tor makes her out to be, how comes it that 
 so many learned men and women forsake 
 Protestantism to enter the ranks of Roman 
 Catholics ? We conld enumerate thousands 
 of highly distinguished converts from Prot- 
 estantism, yearly. No base or selfish motive 
 prompts them to take such a step, because, 
 in a worldly point of view, they have every 
 thing to lose and nothing to gain. ISTot so 
 the miserable few who forsake Catholicism 
 for some uncertain creed. Take, for exam- 
 ple, such apostates as Achilli, who was 
 expelled for his libertinism ; Hogan and 
 Gavazi, suspended priests, whose crimes 
 had been proven against them ; degraded 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 179 
 
 in body and soul, and covered with the 
 leprosy pf their own abominations, they go 
 away prodigals from their father' s house, to 
 be received with open arms by Protestants. 
 Where will you find such men as ISTew 
 man. Manning, Faber, Wilberforce, Lord 
 Spencer, the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, Prince 
 Henry Edward of Schoenberg, Count Ingen- 
 heim, brother to the King of Prussia, Fred- 
 eric, Duke of Meclenburg, Madame Swetch- 
 ine of Russia, a most brilliant writer and 
 thinker, the brother of the King of Wurtem- 
 burg, or the famous Count Stolberg and his 
 whole family. Werner, who occupied many 
 of the highest positions in the city of Berlin, 
 on becoming convinced of the truth of the 
 Catholic faith, cast away all his honors and 
 joined the order of the poor Redemptorists. 
 A great many others, not less distinguished 
 in literature and science, belonging to Prussia 
 (whose common school system, by the way, 
 is far in advance of our own country), re- 
 nounced Protestantism and became Catho- 
 
180 THE QUESTIOisT SOLVED. 
 
 lies, such as Sclilegel, the Baron Eckstein, 
 the famous Adam MuUer, etc., etc, 
 
 Charles Louis de Haller, one of the most 
 eminent Protestants of Switzerland, became 
 a Catholic, for which he lost his social posi- 
 tion, his titles and emoluments, and was 
 driven into exile by his former friends, who, 
 like Dr. Clark & Co., boast of. their tolera- 
 tion and freedom of thought and action. 
 But the glorious example of Haller was 
 soon followed by others, among whom we 
 may mention Esslinger, of Zurich, Pierre de 
 Joux, of Geneva, as also Frederic Hurter, 
 the learned President of the Consistory of 
 Schaffhouse, Overbeck, the great painter, 
 Laval, pastor of Conde-sur-Noiveau, Paul 
 Latour, President of the Consistory of Maz- 
 d'Asil, the famous Bermaz, of Lyons, and 
 Listz, the great pianist and composer. 
 
 In the United States we have Dr. Ives, 
 once Protestant Bishop of North Carolina, 
 who made a journey to Rome, and thowing 
 himself at the feet of the Pope, handed him 
 the ring and seal which he wore as the in- 
 
THE QUESTIOiT SOLVED. 181 
 
 signia of Ms office, saying, ^^Holy Father, 
 here are the marks of my rebellion." Who 
 has not heard of the erndite, uncompromis- 
 ing Dr. Brownson, one of the greatest logi- 
 cians that America has ever seen, and the 
 terror of Protestant controversialists ; for no 
 man in the United States could be found so 
 fool-hardy as to measure swords with him 
 in the field of metaphysics or theology. 
 
 We can, also, point to Father Hecker, one 
 of the most learned men in the country, and 
 Superior of the Order of Paulists, all of 
 whom were distinguished ministers of vari- 
 ous sects, and belonging to some of the first 
 families of the country ; Dr. Rogers, of 
 Louisville ; Dr. Anderson, the distinguished 
 essayist and writer ; Bishop Bayley ; Rev. 
 Mr. Doane; Rev. Mr. Preston, of St. Ann's, 
 New York; Father Wadhams, Y. Gr., and 
 Father Walworth, of our own city. 
 
 We have prominent converts from all the 
 liberal professions, and not a day passes 
 without fresh recruits from Protestant 
 ranks. 
 
 16 
 
182 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 
 
 Now, who do we lose ? Unfrocked monks, 
 suspended priests, and a few obstinate 
 noodles, who, once in a great while, go to 
 the next Protestant meeting house through 
 spite; but who, on their death bed, con- 
 science-smitten, send for a priest and re- 
 nounce their apostacy. Protestants, again, 
 take a mean advantage of some poor people 
 in distress, and bribe them to forsake their 
 religion, which they may do for a time, but, 
 as a rule, they return again. 
 
 Who ever heard of a Catholic who, on 
 his death bed, desired to become a Protest- 
 ant? I could swear on the Holy Gospels 
 there never was one. On the contrary, 
 thousands of Protestants, when they come 
 to die, renounce the errors of the Reforma- 
 tion, beg to be admitted to the True Church, 
 and depart this life in peace, praising God 
 for their conversion. 
 
 Who ever heard of an intelligent Catholic 
 becoming a Protestant, unless for some self- 
 ish object? I challenge Dr. Clark to point 
 out one ! How many converts has he made 
 
THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 183 
 
 since his ordination, with, all his ranting? 
 Answer, ye Congregationalists of Brooklyn, 
 and ye Dutch Reformed of Albany ! There 
 might be one or two stray sheep, without 
 brains or influence, who have wandered 
 from the fold for the sake of a husband or 
 a wife, or to improve their worldly condi- 
 tion, and sold their birthright for a mess of 
 pottage ; but, if they were questioned as to 
 why they changed their religion, could not 
 give the first sensible or scriptural answer. 
 On the contrary, I could show him hun- 
 dreds in this city alone, who have re- 
 nounced Protestantism, and who could 
 hedge the learned Doctor round about with 
 arguments and proofs as solid as the rocks 
 of Gribraltar. 
 
 If you Protestants possess all the learn- 
 ing, all the sincerity, and all the holiness, 
 of which you boast, and we only the peel- 
 ings, scraps and refuse of what is good, 
 intelligent and true, how come these things 
 to pass ? 
 
 Mgr. Segur relates the story of a Protest- 
 
184 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 ant minister and French priest, who were 
 traveling together in a stage coach, when 
 the following conversation took place. The 
 minister introduced the subject of conver- 
 sions, and found great fault with the priest, 
 for the large number of recruits the Church 
 obtained out of the ranks of Protestantism ; 
 the priest answered with a smile, " but you 
 have a good many on your side." ''Ah," 
 replied the minister ; ''yes, but you give us 
 your garbage, while you take our cream." 
 A writer quoted by Mr. Foisset, in his 
 work on Catholicity and Protestantism, 
 said, "Had I the misfortune of not being a 
 Catholic, two things would disturb me, I 
 must confess. First, the number and supe- 
 rior mind of those who have believed in the 
 Roman Church, after examination, ever 
 since the times of Luther and Calvin ; and 
 secondly, the number and superior mind of 
 those who, after examination, have aban- 
 doned Luther and Calvin, and gone over to 
 Rome. I would, hence, come to the conclu- 
 
THE QUESTIOJST SOLVED. 185 
 
 sion that there is room for examination, and 
 I would examine." 
 
 The high and flattering encomiums passed 
 on the usefulness, strength and perpetuity 
 of our holy Church, by men of science and 
 philosophy outside her communion, would 
 of themselves fill volumes. Let those who 
 are contiually predicting the overthrow of 
 the Church of Rome, hearken to the declara- 
 tion of Lord Macaulay concerning her: 
 " The proudest royal houses are but of yes- 
 terday, compared with the line of the 
 Supreme Pontiffs. The Republic of Venice 
 came next in antiquity. But the Republic 
 of Venice was modern, when compared with 
 the Papacy ; and the Republic of Venice 
 is gone, and the Papacy remains. The 
 Papacy remains, not in decay — not a mere 
 antique, but full of life and youthful vigor. 
 The Catholic Church is still sending forth, 
 to the farthest ends of the world, mission- 
 aries as zealous as those who landed in Kent 
 with Augustine ; and still confronting kings 
 with the same spirit with which she con- 
 16* 
 
186 THE QUESTIOlSr SOLVED. 
 
 fronted Attila. The number of her children 
 is greater than in any former age. . . . Nor 
 do we see any sign which indicates that the 
 term of her long dominion is approaching. 
 She saw the commencement of all govern- 
 ments, and of all the ecclesiastical establish- 
 ments that now exist in the world ; and we 
 feel no assurance that she is not destined to 
 see the end of them all. She was great and 
 respected before the Saxon set foot on Britain; 
 before the French had crossed the Rhine ; 
 when Grecian eloquence still flourished at 
 Antioch ; when idols were still worshipped 
 in the temple of Mecca. And she may still 
 exist, in undiminished vigor, when some 
 traveler from New Zealand shall, in the 
 midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on 
 a broken arch of London bridge, to sketch 
 the ruins of St. Paul. . . . When we reflect 
 on the tremendous assaults which she has 
 survived, we find it difficult to conceive in 
 what way she is to perish." 
 
 The famous scholar Marheinehe, admits 
 the Church to be miraculously organized. 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 187 
 
 He says, " We, Protestants as we are, when 
 we take in at one view this wondrous edi- 
 fice, from its base to its summit, must 
 acknowledge that we have never beheld a 
 system which, the foundation once laid, is 
 raised upon such certain and secure prin- 
 ciples ; whose structure displays, in its 
 minutest details, so much art, penetration 
 and consistency ; and whose plan is so 
 proof against the severest criticisms of the 
 most profound science." 
 
 Another German philosopher, Grfrdner, 
 says, " The Catholic Faith, if we concede its 
 first axiom, which neither the Lutherans, 
 nor the Reformed, nor even the followers of 
 Socinus denied, is as consistent and as con- 
 secutive as the books of Euclid. The entire 
 of the Romish religion is founded upon 
 the fact of a supernatural revelation, de- 
 signed for the whole human race ; which, as 
 it embraces all generations, future as well 
 as present, can never be interrupted." 
 
 Prof. Draper, of the University of New 
 York, who has no superior in the ranks of 
 
188 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 men of science and philosophy in America, 
 speaks of the influence of the Christian 
 Church on European civilization, as fol- 
 lows: ''In the history of the European, 
 from the time of the Emperor Constantine 
 to the eighteenth century, the ecclesiastical 
 element so greatly preponderates as to 
 constitute its almost essential feature ; and, 
 after all, it is impossible to do justice to 
 the effects which ensued on the establish- 
 ment of Christianity, and its adoption by 
 the white man as his religion. The civil 
 law exerted an exterior power in human 
 relations; this produced an interior and 
 moral change. The idea of an ultimate 
 accountability for personal deeds, of which 
 the old Europeans had an indistinct per- 
 ception, became intense and precise; the 
 sentiment of universal charity was exem- 
 plified, not only in individual acts, the 
 remembrance of which soon passed away, 
 but in the more permanent institution of 
 establishments for the relief of affliction, 
 the spread of knowledge, the propagation 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 189 
 
 of truth. Of the great ecclesiastics, many- 
 had risen from the humblest ranks of 
 society, and these great men, true to their 
 democratic instincts, were often found to 
 be the inflexible supporters of right against 
 might. Eventually coming to be the de- 
 positaries of the knowledge that then ex- 
 isted, they opposed intellect to brute force, 
 in many instances successfally, and, by 
 the example of the organization of the 
 Church, which was essentially republican, 
 they showed how representative systems 
 may be introduced into the State. IsTor 
 was it over communities and nations that 
 the Church displayed her chief power. 
 Never in the world before was there such 
 a system. From her central seat at Rome, 
 her all-seeing eye, like that of Providence 
 itself, could equally take in a hemisphere 
 at a glance, or examine the private life of 
 any individual. Her boundless influence 
 enveloped kings in their palaces, or re- 
 lieved the beggar at the monastery gate. 
 In all Europe there was not a man too 
 
190 THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 
 
 obscnre, too insignificant, or too desolate 
 for her. Surrounded by her solemnities, 
 every one received Ms name at her altar; 
 her bells chimed at his marriage, her knell 
 tolled at his funeral. She extorted from 
 him the secrets of his life at her confes- 
 sionals, and punished his faults by her 
 penances. In his hour of sickness and 
 trouble her servants sought him out, teach- 
 ing him by her exquisite litanies and 
 prayers to place his reliance on God, or 
 strengthening him for the trials of life, by 
 the example of the holy and just. Her 
 prayers had an efiicacy to give repose to 
 the soul of his dead. When even to his 
 friends his lifeless body had become an 
 offense, in the name of God, she received 
 it into her consecrated ground, and under 
 her shadow he rested till the great reckon- 
 ing day. From little better than a slave, 
 she raised his wife to be his equal, and, for- 
 bidding him to have more than one, met 
 her recompense for those noble deeds in a 
 firm friend at every fireside. Discounte- 
 
THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 191 
 
 nancing all impure lore, site put round 
 that fireside the children of one mother, 
 and made that mother little less than 
 sacred in their eyes. In ages of lawless- 
 ness and rapine, among people but a step 
 above savages, she vindicated the inviola- 
 bility of her precincts against the hand of 
 power, and made her temple a refuge and 
 sanctuary for the despairing and oppressed. 
 Truly she was the shadow of a great rock 
 in many a weary land ! " 
 
 Great and expansive intellects have always 
 been more disposed to deal fairly with the 
 policy of the Church than those of smaller 
 capacity. Take a poor, miserable sectarian 
 devotee, with a mind as muddy as the 
 Mississippi after a freshet, a cold, sluggish 
 heart, and a soul no bigger than a mus- 
 quito's wing, and he is by far a greater 
 bigot than your man of large brain and 
 noble instincts. 
 
 In the days of my early boyhood, family 
 matters brought me in contact with Prot- 
 estants, and being of an inquiring turn of 
 
193 THE QUESTI02>r SOLVED. 
 
 mind, I came very near being led astray 
 by the cunning sophistries of many of my 
 friends. I had the presumption of going 
 so far as to doubt many things concerning 
 Catholic faith and Catholic principles, and 
 if I am a judge of my own feelings, there 
 never was a person of my age (for I was 
 yet in my pupilage), that made a more 
 honest investigation into the Protestant 
 claim than I did. I sincerely regret having 
 wasted so much valuable time in hunting 
 up what, in my inmost soul, I designate as 
 the biggest religious swindle that has been 
 Jcnown in the history of man; for, as far as 
 I could judge, I discovered more downright 
 hypocrisy and covering up of sin, among 
 Protestants, than among those who pro- 
 fessed no religion at all. I could point my 
 finger to professors of religion, of high 
 standing, with a sleek, pious exterior, who 
 make long prayers, hate Catholics, and 
 talk much about virtue and holiness, who 
 are regular Shylocks, unscrupulous, vin- 
 dictive, and uncharitable. 
 
THE QUESTIOi^ SOLVED. 193 
 
 A good, pious, and practical Catholic, 
 who never, perhaps, committed a mortal 
 sin in his life, who views himself a sinner 
 in the sight of God, and would be scandal- 
 ized if his virtues were paraded all over 
 town, is decried by your evangelical per- 
 fectionists who are continually recounting 
 their own good deeds ; but call one of them 
 a poor, miserable sinner, and he will take 
 it as a very great insult. 
 
 In this connection I often think of a 
 story told me by a person well acquainted 
 with the facts. It happened that a maiden 
 lady, on the shady side of forty, a seam- 
 stress by occupation, and a member of the 
 Methodist Church, resided in a quiet west- 
 ern village. At the usual evening gather- 
 ings, sewing and quilting bees, '^Aunt 
 Betsy" appeared as a useful and clear- 
 seeing person, who could turn her hand to 
 any thing. Her knowledge of family affairs 
 was pretty extensive, and rumor said that 
 ^'she knew too much." To church, sun- 
 day school, and prayer meetings, she was 
 17 
 
194 THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 
 
 very attentive, but one little besetting sin 
 always accompanied her, and often made 
 trouble among the neighbors. Aunt Betsy 
 would carry little privacies back and forth, 
 and generally with . a small addition, to 
 make them more interesting. Some of her 
 Methodist sisters became disgusted, and 
 requested the dominie to give her a ^'talk- 
 ing to." On a certain evening, during con- 
 ference meeting, our heroine was sitting as 
 if in great agony of spirit, and as the minis- 
 ter came around to her, he asked, '^Well, 
 Aunt Betsy, what has the Lord been doing 
 for you, since I saw you last?" '^Wall, 
 
 Brother B , I am a poor cretur (a sob) ; 
 
 I feel my Saviour afar off, and there is no 
 good in me" (another snuffle). '^Well, 
 sister, I don't wonder at it, for every one 
 says you are a miserable creature." This 
 was too much for the humility of Aunt 
 Betsy ; she jumped up with an air of per- 
 fect scorn and contempt, saying, ^'Wall, I 
 am just as good as they are, or you either, 
 consarn your impudence!" She left the 
 
THE QUESTIOi^r SOLVED. 195 
 
 meeting to be seen at the Baptist Churcli 
 the following Sunday. 
 
 The amount of vanity treasured up in 
 Protestant congregations surpasses the 
 court of the Grand Turk. Take, for exam- 
 ple, the vagary of shifting or running from 
 one Church to another on the slightest pre- 
 tense, or supposed insult. They think no 
 more of changing their religion than they do 
 of changing their clothes. The rich cannot 
 brook the idea of mixing up with a poor 
 congregation ; and, if a person belonging to 
 the latter should, by hook or by crook, get 
 rich, they are itching to go to the Church 
 frequented by the ''upper ten." The 
 preacher does not suit one ; the matter of 
 the discourse offends another ; the minister 
 is too proud or too humble, too grave or 
 too gay. Somebody, of influence in the 
 congregation, had seen or heard of some 
 one else, a hundred miles off, who is just 
 the thing ; a meeting is called, the trustees 
 have a fight, the minister is either insulted 
 or openly discharged, and another takes 
 
196 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 his place, to meetj perhaps, with no better 
 fate. 
 
 The fact is, where there is no sure faith, 
 there is no stability of purpose in religion. 
 The father and mother profQSS one set of 
 principles, the brother and sister jnst the 
 reverse ; while in many cases, no two mem- 
 bers of the family believe alike. Even the 
 children of Protestant ministers will des- 
 pise the tenets of their parents, and adopt 
 some other system of ethics. Can this be 
 the work of God? If so, the good Lord 
 would contradict Himself, and to say that, 
 would be blasphemy. 
 
CHAP. XL 
 
 Dr. ci-abk's trip to Europe — his visit to the city of the pon"- 
 tiffs — lying statistics of morality by protestant minis- 
 ters— an old d(^ge — comparison between the fathers 
 of the church and the leaders of the reformation — 
 vagaries of protestants — the immorality of the re- 
 formers—the vile practices of the antinomians — the 
 profligate lives of protestant monarchs and rulers. 
 
 DR. CLARK goes to Europe, whether for 
 the good of his health, or a respite 
 from the terribly exhausting labor of pre- 
 paring two sermons a week, it is none of 
 our business ; but the Doctor must be 
 learned and interesting to feed his fashion- 
 able flock ; he must present them with 
 dainty scraps of spiritual food, served up 
 with anti-Popery sauce, and seasoned with 
 the pepper bf infidelity and the salt of mod- 
 ern progress and Protestant civilization. But 
 a journey to the Old World is not a journey 
 at all without a visit to the Eternal City; 
 and Dr. Clark, being a lover of ancient 
 Roman civilization, must make a pilgrim- 
 age thither. N'ow, a D. D. of the Dutch 
 Reformed stamp is a very small potato in 
 17* 
 
198 THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 
 
 Eome, and just as mnch out of place, as 
 '^Mickey de Boots" would be in the 
 society of Shakspeare and his friends. 
 Having no feeling in common with the 
 spiritual and learned circles of that classi- 
 cal city, he lounges round the haunts of 
 vice, and visits the most abanidoned places , 
 of foreign resort, kept by Protestants and 
 Infidels ; or wanders about the site of the 
 ancient city, weeping over the ruined tem- 
 ples of pagan civilization, wishing, no doubt, 
 that he had been there in the golden age. 
 
 What else he did, we know not ; but he 
 returns to his Dutch Reformed pulpit to 
 treat his dear brethren to a feast gathered 
 by him in the purlieus of Catholic Eome ; 
 knowing full well, that such* a banquet 
 would tickle the palates of the godly peo- 
 ple of Albany. 
 
 It is with Dr. Clark as it has been with 
 most Protestant preachers, when all other 
 arguments against Rome fail, they try to get 
 up lying statistics concerning the morality of 
 Catholic and Protestant countries. On this 
 
THE QUESTI02^ SOLVED. 199 
 
 snbject, Protestant ministers should forever 
 hold their peace. They and the virtue of 
 morality parted company a long time since ; 
 and, like two diverging lines, the farther 
 they go the wider will be the breach. True 
 morality emanated from the Catholic Church 
 of Christ, the fountain of purity and holi- 
 ness. She has been, from the beginning, the 
 uncompromising enemy of every evil inten- 
 tion, every unclean thought and action. 
 Can there be any thing more in unison with 
 the Divine mind than her theology, more 
 acceptable than her offices, or more beauti- 
 ful than her liturgy ? She has opposed the 
 avarice and cunning of the Jew, the sword 
 and imposition of the Mahomedan, the 
 impiety and corruption of the Infidel, the 
 fury of the Pagan, and the malignity, deceit, 
 wicked and lying assaults of the Protestant 
 and the Apostate. Her mission is a service 
 of love ; she listens attentively to the cries 
 of woe, rebukes the wayward, calls back 
 the erring, and pours the oil of consolation 
 into the wounded, throbbing heart of hu- 
 
200 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 
 
 manity. From the peasant's hut to the 
 king' s palace, she exercises a moral influ- 
 ence ; she curbs the passions of the tyrant, 
 and softens the heart of the outlaw. She 
 provides a home for the cast-away and the 
 forlorn, the sick and the unfortunate ; she 
 gives countenance and support to every 
 useful occupation and to every benevolent 
 and humane enterprise ; to the weak she is 
 merciful and compassionate, and to the 
 strong she imparts lessons of wisdom, so 
 that they may exert their strength in favor 
 of virtue and good works. She regulates 
 the conduct of her children from the cradle 
 to the grave, decrying vice, and inculcating 
 practices of virtue, with a watchfulness that 
 never ceases — with an energy that never 
 tires. How, therefore, can she be held re- 
 sponsible for the irregularities that may at 
 times break forth among a few members of 
 her communion ? 
 
 Compare the lives of the Fathers and 
 Doctors of the Church, with the apostates 
 and leaders of the Reformation, and the 
 
THE QUESTI02IT SOLVED. 201 
 
 contrast is so great, that no rainbow of the 
 heavens could span the gulf that lies be- 
 tween. The former were saints, in the true 
 acceptation of the word ; full of faith, devo- 
 tion and humility, ever ready to obey the 
 calls of duty, to deny themselves, take up 
 their cross and follow Christ; and nobly 
 did they walk in the footsteps of their 
 Master. They endured hunger and thirst, 
 toil and fatigue, insult, and every conceiva- 
 ble cruelty ; yet they faltered not in their 
 path of duty, nor feared a lion in the way. 
 On they went, with their hands to the 
 plough, nor did they look back, until they 
 accomplished their task — they kept the 
 faith, and received the crown. How was it 
 with the latter ? Actuated by a spirit of 
 pride, a love of display, and a thirst for 
 self-indulgence, they bartered away every 
 noble action, and every pure sentiment, for 
 base and unworthy motives ; perverted the 
 word of God to justify their wayward pas- 
 sions, and enlisted their forces under Mars, 
 the god of war and bloodshed. 
 
202 THE QtJESTIO]^ SOLYED. 
 
 Where in the ranks of Protestantism can 
 you find such illustrious personages as SS. 
 Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, Mar- 
 tin, Mcholas, Anthony, Benedict, Bernard, 
 Francis, Ignatius, Basil the Great, Alphon- 
 sus Liguori, Vincent de Paul, Aloysius ; 
 SS. Jane Frances, Rose of Lima, Bridget, 
 Elizabeth of Hungary, Genevieve, Agnes, 
 Agatha, Euphrasia, Balbina, Monica, Teresa, 
 Cecilia, Catherine of Sienna, and thousands 
 upon thousands of holy men and women 
 who conquered the impulses of human 
 nature, to cultivate the heavenly aspira- 
 tions of the soul. They forsook the fleeting 
 pleasures of this life, for the everlasting 
 happiness of the life to come. Search the 
 universe and you cannot find, outside the 
 pale of the Church, the equal of St. Francis 
 Xavier, or any of the saints in the Roman 
 Calendar. Even the laws of nature yielded 
 obedience to their pious demands, and bore 
 testimony to their great sanctity. 
 
 We will now impeach those from whom 
 Dr. Clark draws his inspirations, and, lest 
 
THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 203 
 
 onr Dutch Reformers should think that we 
 draw upon our imagination, we will give 
 Protestant authority as our witnesses. To 
 begin with their apostle and high priest 
 Luther, we accuse him of the gross crime of 
 concubinage, with a woman he had seduced 
 from the paths of virtue, and from that time 
 he gave full swing to all his animal passions. 
 Morgenstern, a Protestant, produces a letter 
 of Luther' s, which decency forbids us to lay 
 before our readers ; one sentence will suffice, 
 ''good drinking, and good eating; behold 
 the surest means of being happy ! " 
 
 Audin, a Protestant, tells us that Luther 
 was on intimate terms of friendship with his 
 Satanic majesty, the devil, in proof of which 
 Luther himself says : ''I have been always 
 better treated by the devil than by men ; and 
 I would rather be strangled by the devil 
 than by the emperor. I would at least die 
 by the hand of a great man. ' ' In his ' ' Table 
 Talk," he speaks eloquently of the ''man in 
 black." "There are devils in the forests, 
 in the waters, in the marshes, — wherever, 
 
204 THE QUESTION SOLYED. 
 
 in fine, there are creatures to torment. Some 
 hang on the sides of black clouds, others 
 excite storms, raise up tempests, hurl 
 thunderbolts, dart lightnings, and, in fine, 
 infect the air, the sea and the fields. The 
 philosophers attribute these things to the 
 stars." He also asserts that the devil is 
 the author of all physical evils, of sickness, 
 death, etc., and undertakes to prove his 
 theory by the second chapter of Hebrews. 
 He declares that his own sickness at Coburg 
 was not a natural malady, but the finger 
 of the devil pressing heavily on him. ''I 
 have found many varieties of caterpillar in 
 my garden, I thought it was the devil that 
 sent them to me. They have, as it were, 
 horns on the nose ; they have rings of gold 
 and silver; outside they appear brilliant, 
 inside they are full of poison. The devil is 
 like a fly. As soon as a fine book appears, 
 the fly goes over its white pages, leaving 
 well known traces of its presence, as much 
 as to say, ' I have been there.' So the devil, 
 when he finds an innocent and pure heart. 
 
THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 205 
 
 sullies it." (See Frankfort edition of Lu- 
 ther's Table Talk.) 
 
 But after a while, these mutual friends had 
 a falling out. '^ The devil gives me no rest, 
 he annoys me night and day ; at table and 
 in bed ; in the church and in my study ; at 
 home and even in the cellar ! " While in his 
 study at Wittenberg, translating the Psalms, 
 the devil would steal up to him and suggest 
 wicked fancies to his imagination. If Luther 
 pretended not to understand him, old cloven 
 foot would fly into a passion, fling his papers 
 about, close or tear up his book, and put the 
 candle out. On one occasion the devil, in 
 the shape of a fly, annoyed him so much 
 that he could stand it no longer, and with 
 terrible voice cried out, ^^ Begone, Satan!" 
 and hurled the inkstand at the winged imp. 
 The ink stains are visible on the castle wall 
 to this day. Hear him as he mounted the 
 pulpit of ^^All Saints," in Wittenberg, 
 equipped in a coat of mail, and a long sword 
 hanging by his side: ^^I know Satan; I 
 know that he does not sleep, that his eye 
 
 18 
 
306 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 watches for trouble and desolation. I have 
 learned to wrestle with him, and do not fear 
 him ; I have inflicted more than one wound 
 from which he will long suffer. What mean, 
 then, these novelties which have been intro- 
 duced in my absence? Was I at such a 
 distance that I could not be consulted ? Am 
 I no longer the source of pure doctrine? 
 What must the devil think when he sees 
 you enact all your fancies ? The sly rogue 
 keeps himself quiet in hell, since he knows 
 what tragedies you doctors are about to ex- 
 cite!" meaning Karlstadt and his brother 
 reformers, who abolished the Mass, and gut- 
 ted the old church of All Saints of all that 
 was rich and costly in its decorations, the 
 works of piety and genius. 
 
 This proceeding on the part of Luther 
 called forth the opposition of the assailed, 
 and the authorities of the city called the 
 warlike doctor to a conference, to which he 
 responded. He there met a famous cobbler, 
 named Crispin, who was looked upon as a 
 great theologian among the Protestants of 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 207 
 
 Orlamnndi, and who took sides against him. 
 The discussion being ended, the question 
 was decided in favor of the cobbler ; and the 
 sequel was, that the warrior doctor was 
 pelted with stones out of the city, the mob 
 crying after him, ^' May the devil and his 
 imps have you ! May you break your neck 
 and limbs before you leave the city ! " 
 
 It is needless to recite any more from the 
 lips of this bold, bad man; if the reader 
 should be curious enough to look up the 
 subject, we will refer him to Audin's Life 
 af Luther, American edition. There he 
 will find Luther' s theory of Demonology ; 
 his famous conference with the devil; his 
 Satanic majesty's overwhelming argument 
 which completely demolished Luther ; the 
 squabble of Martin and the devil, over the 
 bag of nuts, etc., etc. Over his conversation 
 on the '^ charms of beautiful women," we 
 prefer to draw our pen ; such lasciviousness 
 is not to be spoken or written, in a Christian 
 community ; let it forever sleep amid the 
 ruins of the Black Eagle Tavern at Witten- 
 
208 THE QUESTIO][^J- SOLVED. 
 
 berg, that once spiritual retreat of Lnther 
 and Ms drunken companions and fellow 
 reformers, Amsdorf, Staupitz, and Justus 
 Jonas. ''I tremble," exclaimed Melanc- 
 thon, ^^when I think of the passions of 
 Luther!" 
 
 Zwinglius compares Luther to a nasty 
 hog, grunting around, tearing up the sweet 
 flowers of a fine garden. ^^ Luther," he 
 says, '^cannot speak of God and of holy 
 things but with procacity, great ignorance 
 of theology, and impropriety." 
 
 Let us now bring John Calvin before the bar 
 of public opinion. He is charged with com- 
 mitting sins against nature^ for which he 
 was branded; he is stripped, and the mark 
 is visible ! The charge being sustained, his 
 apologists came forward, and with an un- 
 blushing impudence, sought to justify him 
 on the ground that St. Paul was marked in 
 like manner. We will bring forward' as 
 witness, Galiffe, himself a Calvinist, and 
 author of a work entitled Notices Genealo- 
 giques^ published in the city of Gfeneva, the 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 209 
 
 Iiot bed of Calvinism. " Truth compels me 
 to say, that John Calvin raised the standard 
 of the most ferocious intolerance, of the 
 grossest superstitions, and the most impi- 
 ous tenets. A terrible apostle, a drinker 
 of blood, from whose inquisition nothing 
 escaped. During 1558 and 1559 he caused 
 one hundred and fourteen judgments to be 
 given in criminal matters, etc. !" IS'ext we 
 will call Yolmar to the stand. What do 
 you know of your hero, Calvin ? '^ I know 
 hina to be violent and perverse, but he is 
 the man to further our interests !" 
 
 Here comes Calvin's favorite disciple, 
 Theodore Beza, whose evidence is as fol- 
 lows: ^^ Calvin could never be trained 
 either in temperance, in honest habits, or in 
 truthfulness ; he was always stuck in the 
 mud." Our last witness shall be Bucer, 
 who declares, that ^^ Calvin in all truth is a 
 
 mad dog ; he is a bad man Be on thy 
 
 guard, O Christian reader ! against Calvin's 
 books." 
 
 BuUinger pitches into Zwinglius, and 
 18* 
 
210 -THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 tells how he was expelled from his parish 
 on account of his immoralities. He ac- 
 knowledged his vices to a friend, after this 
 fashion: '^If you are told that I have 
 given in to pride, intemperance, and im- 
 purities, believe it, for it is true: I am a 
 prey to these vices and many others." Lu- 
 ther said of him, that he was '^satanized, 
 in-satanized, and over-satanized, and that 
 ha would surely be damned." 
 
 The pious Beza, who Protestants would 
 have us believe was a model of perfection, 
 did not escape the criticism of his co-la- 
 borers. Heshussius asks, '^How can any 
 one wonder at the incredible impudence of 
 this monster, whose lewd and infamous life 
 is so well known over all France, through 
 his epigrams, worse than cynic ? And still 
 in hearing him, you would say, that he was 
 a holy man, another Job, or a modern an- 
 chorite of the desert, even a greater man 
 than Saint John or Saint Paul, he boasts so 
 much, on every occasion, of his exUe, his 
 labors, his purity, and the wonderful sane- 
 
THE QUESTIOi^ SOLVED. 211 
 
 tity of his life !" Schlussemberg calls liim 
 '^an obscene man, equal to a devil incar- 
 nate, kneaded with cunning and impiety, 
 who can do naught but belch forth satirical 
 blasphemies." 
 
 The Antinomians cried out that good 
 works were an impediment to salvation. 
 Eaton, a Puritan, taught, that '^believers 
 ought not to mourn for sin, because it was 
 pardoned before it was committed." Rich- 
 ard Hill maintained, that '^even adultery 
 and murder do not hurt the pleasant chil- 
 dren, but rather work for their good." It 
 was also preached, that God sees no sin in 
 believers, whatever sin they commit. ''My 
 sins might displease God; my person is 
 always acceptable to Him. Though I should 
 outsin Manasses, I shall not be less a pleas- 
 ant child, because God always views me in 
 Christ. Hence, in the midst of adulteries, 
 murders and incest, he can address me 
 with, ' Thou art all fair my love, my unde- 
 filed, there is no spot in thee.' It is a most 
 pernicious error of the school men to dis- 
 
212 THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 
 
 tinguish sins according to tlie fact, and not 
 according to the person. Thongh I blame 
 those who say, 'let ns sin that grace may- 
 abound,' yet adultery, incest and murder 
 shall, upon the whole, make me holier on 
 earth, and merrier in Heaven." For gross 
 immoralities among our early Protestants, 
 we will refer the reader to Fletcher's work 
 on Antinomianism. 
 
 The Reformers themselves abused and 
 cursed each other in the vilest manner. 
 Luther called Zwinglius a pagan, and said 
 he despaired of his salvation. He also 
 declared, that Ecolampadius was strangled 
 by the devil. Luther wished that Carlostad 
 would break his neck, and the latter desired 
 to see Luther broken on the wheel. Grotius 
 testified, that it was sedition and violence 
 that gave rise to the Reformation in Holland. 
 Henry VIII, it is said, never spared a man 
 in his anger, or a woman in his lust ; and 
 the vile Cranmer, himself a libertine, who 
 changed his religion seventeen times, 
 allowed the beastly monarch the full sway 
 
THE QUESTIOlSr SOLVED. 213. 
 
 of Ms passions, and nowhere could you 
 find a greater scoundrel. The illegitimate 
 Elizabeth, mistress of Leicester, and the 
 murderer of her own sister, is another fine 
 example of Protestant morality. 
 
 Those apostles of perdition, in spite of 
 their hjrpocrisy, were obliged to cry out 
 against the increasing depravity of the times. 
 '^Men," said Luther, '^are now more re- 
 vengeful, covetous and licentious, than they 
 ever were in the Papacy" ; and in a letter 
 to the Christians of Antwerp he writes, 
 ^Hhere are almost as many creeds as heads. 
 There is no simpleton, who, if he happens 
 to have a dream, does not believe himself 
 visited by God, or become a prophet." 
 ^ The cruel Calvin lamented, that ^'of the 
 many thousands, who, renouncing Popery, 
 seemed eager to embrace the gospel, how 
 few have amended their lives ! Nay, what 
 else did the greater part pretend to, but, by 
 shaking off the yoke of superstition, to give 
 themselves more liberty to follow all kinds 
 of lasciviousness ?" 
 
214 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 
 
 Another of them says, ''they give due 
 place to the preaching of the word of God, 
 but no amendment of manners is found 
 among them ; on the contrary, we see them 
 lead an abominable, voluptuous, beastly 
 life ; instead of fasts, they spend whole 
 days and nights in revelings and drunken- 
 ness." And how could it be otherwise, 
 when the leaders themselves were actuated 
 by motives of the basest kind, and the peo- 
 ple but reflected the excesses of their teach- 
 ers? John Bockhold, who headed one of 
 the sects, had eleven wives at one time, most 
 of whom he put to death. Some ran naked 
 through the streets, and others actually 
 professed the doctrine of continuing in sin 
 that grace might abound. Modesty forbids 
 me to recount the prominent immoralities 
 of the Family of Love. Fletcher says, 
 ''many persons speaking in the most glori- 
 ous manner of Christ and their interest in 
 His complete salvation, have been found 
 living in the greatest immoralities." 
 
 Frederic the Great says: "If the causes 
 
THE QUESTIOi^ SOLVED. 215 
 
 of the progress of the Reformation were re- 
 duced to simple principles, it would be seen 
 that in Germany it was the work of interest ; 
 in England that of love, and in France that 
 of novelty." 
 
 In truth these miserable men, as a distin- 
 guished author declares, '^changed the 
 Christian religion into a true pandemonium, 
 where all dreams, all half-truths, and all 
 errors can disport themselves at ease and 
 celebrate their Sabbath." 
 
 In 1838 some of the leading Protestant 
 papers of Europe came out with the plain 
 declaration that they could not support any 
 longer the Reformed churches of Germa- 
 ny, Switzerland and France, because they 
 'Svere corrupted in what constitutes the es- 
 sence of Christianity. The gnawing worms 
 of Socinianism and Infidelity, have, in their 
 devouring activity, penetrated every part 
 of the body, substance and even heart of 
 these alien churches." 
 
 The British Review, also, of August, 1838, 
 calls what remains of the Reformation, in 
 
216 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 those conntries, "sb mummy, a solemn 
 corpse, which, can no longer walk, nor 
 breathe, nor live." 
 
 Poor deluded maniacs, you resemble the 
 foolish woman, who set fire to her house to 
 free it from cobwebs ! You deliberately fol- 
 lowed the inspirations of pride, and blindly 
 obeyed the demon of self-interest! You 
 broke the sweet yoke which bound you to 
 the cross of Christ, to worship at the shrine 
 of ambition and false pleasures ! You 
 threw away the torch of truth, for the dark 
 lantern of error and falsehood, and were 
 lost in the mazes of heresy and speculation ! 
 
 How could holiness, virtue or any other 
 godlike quality take root and grow under 
 such influences and among such a people ? 
 The blind credulity, unfortunate aberrations 
 of intellect, the deep and damning crimes of 
 depraved human nature, never showed with 
 such demoniacal splendor, as in those na- 
 tions over which the fell spirit of Protestant 
 disunion and unbelief hovered. I hesitate 
 not to say that the greater part of the evils 
 
THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 217 
 
 manifest in Catholic countries and among 
 Catholic people, can be traced directly or 
 indirectly to the corrupting influences of 
 Protestantism. 
 
 Can the records of the Christian Era point 
 us to a more wicked or shameful set of lead- 
 ers, in any cause, than Henry YIII, Frederic 
 of Saxony, Elizabeth of England, Philip, 
 Landgrave of Hesse, the Electors and 
 Princes of Germany, Frederic I of Denmark, 
 Gustavus Vasa of Sweden, the Lords of 
 Berne in Switzerland, and the Prince of 
 Orange in Holland ? A bloodier, more im- 
 pious and cursed set of rascals, never dis- 
 graced the fair face of earth, or polluted the 
 kind atmosphere of God' s universe. In lust, 
 envy, gluttony, anger and every other capi- 
 tal sin, history places them in the first 
 rank. 
 
 The preachers and disseminators of these 
 heretical creeds were, in their hands, like 
 potters' clay, to be shaped as fancy dic- 
 tated. They shifted their willing dupes at 
 pleasure from Lutheranism to Calvinism, 
 
 19 
 
218 THE QUESTIOI^r SOLVED. 
 
 and back again from Calvinism to Luther- 
 anism, or any other ism they chose. Fred- 
 eric III changed his subjects from Lnther- 
 anism to Calvinism, and made them con- 
 fess to a catechism of his own compiling. 
 When his son Lonis ascended the throne 
 in 1576, he revoked the established laws of 
 his father, put down Calvinism, and re- 
 stored the Lutheran faith once more. In 
 1582 Calvinism was again brought on the 
 boards by another prince, and an order was 
 issued that any one, not submitting to the 
 decisions of Dort, should be banished the 
 country. In 1586 John Greorge substituted 
 Calvinism for Lutheranism in the province 
 of Anhalt Dessau, and made it obligatory 
 on all to believe in predestination, under 
 penalty of exile. Another prince succeeded 
 John, who compelled the people to return 
 again, or suffer a like penalty. The same 
 transformation was practiced in Brande- 
 bourg, by John Sigismund, and also in 
 Hesse Cassel in 1614. 
 Frederic William, of Prussia, at a fiar 
 
THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 219 
 
 later date, establislied an amalgamated 
 faith in Ms kingdom, placed a veto on the 
 progress of the Catholic Chnrch, raised the 
 decaying temple of Protestantism to emi- 
 nence, and called it the '^Evangelical 
 Church of the Khine." He caused to be 
 published statutes and ordinances regula- 
 ing matters of religion at his pleasure. He 
 also directed the mode of worship, pre- 
 scribed a kind of Mass, introduced candles, 
 incense, crucifixes, etc., etc. But now comes 
 the most laughable farce of all ; the Calvin- 
 ists could not agree with the Lutherans, 
 Rationalists quarreled with both, and forth- 
 with a spiritual row began in the Evangeli- 
 cal camp. Frederic, failing in polemics, 
 yet nothing daunted, thought the best way 
 to end the discussion was by an appeal to 
 the last argument of kings. He called to 
 his aid two hundred thousand muskets, 
 and, with this spiritual phalanx of bristling 
 bayonets, he very soon forced obedience to 
 his decisions, and the famous Agenda was 
 recognized as the embodiment of all that 
 
220 THE QUESTIO^Sr SOLVED. 
 
 was good and wise in religion. There was 
 but one village in the realm that showed 
 signs of dissatisfaction ; the population of 
 Oels closed their houses of worship against 
 the preachers of the new organization, but 
 a battalion of infantry was sent against 
 them. The people showed some resistance, 
 when, by a well directed volley, a large 
 number of the inhabitants were killed and 
 wounded. This put a stop to all opposi- 
 tion, and from ten to fourteen bailiffs were 
 quartered in each family until the insur- 
 gents expressed their unqualified faith in 
 the infallibility of his royal highness, Fred- 
 eric William. 
 
 In Sweden the same may be said of the 
 royal Gustave. He ruled the consciences 
 of his subjects with a rod of iron. 
 
 In the face of such testimony, how can 
 those hireling preachers have the brazen 
 effrontery to step forward and claim for 
 Protestant countries all the good morals, 
 just views, and liberal enactments ? There 
 are some men who delight to excel in im- 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 221 
 
 pudence, and our belligerent friend of the 
 " two-steepled clmrch." is one of them ; but 
 we can tell him that the base servility of his 
 king- worshiping sectaries is no more to be 
 compared to the noble principles and prac- 
 tices of Catholics in all that concerns the 
 moral dignity of man, than the flickering 
 taper that burned in the sepulchre of Rosi- 
 crusius is to the god of day. 
 
 19* 
 
CHAP. XII. 
 
 MOKALITY OF CATHOLIC AND PBOTESTANT COUNTRIES — INTEMPEB. 
 ANCE — SIR FRANCIS HEAD COMPLIMENTS IRELAND — FEARFUIi 
 LIST OF SPURIOUS BIRTHS IN PROTESTANT COUNTRIES — REV. 
 DR. HALLEY'S opinion OF IMMORALITY AND UNBELIEF IN GE- 
 NEVA — MR. LAING'S STATISTICS — CONTRAST BETWEEN CATHOLIC 
 AND PROTESTANT CANTONS OF SWITZERLAND — NO RESTRAINT 
 AMONG PROTESTANT YOUTH — CRIME ON THE INCREASE — FOETI- 
 CIDE AND INFANTICIDE — DIVORCE LAWS — IMMORALITIES IN AND 
 AROUND THE HALLS OF LEGISLATION — CLERICAL VILLAINS OF 
 THE PROTESTANT STRIPE — PROTESTANT CUPIDITY — THE DUTCH 
 THE ONLY PEOPLE CAPABLE OF TRAMPLING ON THE CROSS IN 
 THE PORTS OF JAPAN — THE HOLLOWNESS OF PROTESTANT PIETY 
 — PREDICTIONS OF PROTESTANTS — SOME HOPE OF DR. CLARK'S 
 CONVERSION. 
 
 WHEN Catholic countries are accused of 
 being more prolific in crime than Prot- 
 estant ones, we take it that onr accusers do 
 not believe it themselves ; they are actuated 
 more from a spirit of malice and jealousy 
 than otherwise ; or, to be more charitable, 
 if any of them really think they are in the 
 right, I would earnestly request them to 
 study facts, and not to be deluded by their 
 religious teachers, whose chief aim is to 
 deceive. 
 
 Let us take intemperance for example, 
 and we shall find that this degrading vice is 
 much more common in Protestant than in 
 
THE QUESTION SOLYED. 223 
 
 Catholic nations. In England, Holland, 
 Sweden, Scotland, Denmark, and the United 
 States, it is very common ; while in France, 
 Italy, Spain, Portugal, and most Catholic 
 countries, it is very rare. In London alone, 
 there is more drunkenness than in all the 
 Catiolic cities of Europe. According to a 
 parliamentary report made to the House of 
 Commons, a few years ago, the appalling 
 fact was recorded, that twelve thousand 
 females roamed the streets of London as 
 notorious public drunkards. In England, 
 thirty-two million gallons of spirituous 
 liquors are used annually, besides immense 
 quantities of wine and malt liquors. 
 
 There is more whisky used in Scotland, 
 in proportion to the population, than in any 
 other country in Europe. It is estimated 
 that, in Glasgow alone, thirty thousand of 
 its citizens go to bed drunk every Saturday 
 night. 
 
 Notwithstanding the misery and wretch- 
 edness that Protestant rule entails upon 
 Catholic Ireland, and that such a condition 
 
324 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 is favorable to the vice of intemperance, it 
 is remarkable how the poor Irish, as a clasps, 
 keep themselves as free from drunkenness 
 as they do, in their native country. Sir 
 Francis Head, who was once Goveraor- 
 General of Canada, wrote a book, which he 
 entitled, '^ Two weeks in Irela;iid." He re- 
 lates, in that little work, that he expected 
 to find, there, terrible exhibitions of the vice 
 of intemperance ; bnt he was agreeably dis- 
 appointed ; for he affirms, that, in his tour 
 through the country, he saw but two 
 drunken men. It is to be deeply regretted 
 that they do not observe the same modera- 
 tion in the land of their adoption ; but there 
 are many excuses to be made in their favor. 
 They are a sociable, warm-hearted people, 
 given to hospitality, and brimful of friend- 
 ship and hilarity, so that it is not difllcult 
 to bring them to an intimate acquaintance 
 with the glass : besides, they are a hard- 
 working class, and fatigue and exhaustion 
 too often prostrate their sturdy physical 
 constitutions ; and, as alcoholic stimulants 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 225 
 
 are the commonest and easiest to be pro- 
 cured, of all the exciting agents calculated 
 to restore the debilitated system, it is not 
 at all strange that these poor sons of toil 
 should indulge occasionally, and, from 
 frequent practice, acquire the habit of 
 taking too much. Again, they are con- 
 tinually coming in contact with friends 
 of their youth, from the far-off land of 
 their nativity, whom they may not have 
 seen for many, many years ; and, as it has 
 been the custom, from time immemorial, 
 when long parted friends do meet, to 
 bring into requisition the social glass, the 
 poor Irishman, situated as he is in a foreign 
 land, with temptations all around him, must 
 have more than the ordinary amount of self- 
 denial to resist. 
 
 But he is not alone in this practice of 
 drinking a drop too much ; other nationali- 
 ties are not far behind him, and in many 
 cases outstrip him. The Yankee drinks N^ew 
 England rum and old rye until he becomes 
 as blind as a bat, then pokes himself away 
 
226 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 in some nook or corner until he gets sober. 
 The Englishman guzzles his gin and '^hold 
 hale" until he is as full as a leech, drops 
 himself away in his bed or his chair to sleep 
 it all away, and awakens only to go at it 
 again. The Dutchman is not far behind ; he 
 will pitch into his lager and Rhine wine until 
 he makes a beast of himself, and so with all 
 the rest. Each has his favorite intoxicating 
 beverage — from old Aunt Sarah's bottle of 
 peppermint to the Congressman's cham- 
 pagne. 
 
 The most noticeable of all is the compari- 
 son of the virtue of chastity. Sweden, which 
 is almost entirely Protestant, is the most 
 immoral country in all Europe ; and Stock- 
 holm, its capital, is the most immoral city 
 in the whole world. The number of persons 
 convicted of heinous crimes and beastly 
 practices in that nation, in 1837, according 
 to Mr. Laing's report, was twenty-one thou- 
 sand two hundred and sixty- six, in a popu- 
 lation of three million ; and in 1836, one to 
 one hundred and thirty-four of the whole 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 227 
 
 number were convicted for the like crimes, 
 being a still greater proportion. The pro- 
 portion of illegitimate births in that thor- 
 oughly Protestant country is as one to 
 fourteen, and in Stockholm one to one and 
 a half. The Swedish consul at London 
 denied Mr. Laing's statements, w^hen the 
 latter gentleman proved beyond a doubt 
 that his figures were correct. The number 
 of divorces in 1838 were one hundred and 
 forty- seven ; of suicides, one hundred and 
 seventy-two. In the same year, in Stock- 
 holm, out of two thousand seven hundred 
 and fourteen children born there, one thou- 
 sand one hundred and thirty-seven were 
 illegitimate. When we take into con- 
 sideration the position of Sweden on the 
 map of Europe, with no influx of strangers, 
 no large manufacturing establishments, the 
 majority of the population being engaged in 
 agriculture, and having a well-constructed 
 church establishment, being amply provided 
 with Sunday schools and Bibles, we are at 
 
228 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 a loss to know the cause of tMs demoraliza- 
 tion. Will Dr. Clark please inform ns ? 
 
 England comes next in the scale of moral 
 degradation. The number convicted of crime 
 on an average, yearly, is in the ratio of one 
 to nine hundred and sixty of the whole 
 population. When Bible societies were first 
 organized in England, the Mecca whence 
 Dr. Clark turns his eyes in adoration, the 
 annual receipts footed up the large sum of 
 five hundred thousand dollars ; and the 
 prediction was that depravity would wing 
 its way to Catholic countries, and England 
 would become the New Jerusalem. But 
 mark the sequel ! By a return made to the 
 House of Commons, June 5th, 1818, it was 
 shown that, as the Bible Society progressed, 
 the amount of crime increased fourfold. 
 
 There were committed for trial in 1805, 4,605 
 
 " " " 1817, 18,932 
 
 There were sentenced to be hung in 1805, 350 
 
 « '' " 1817, 1,302 
 
 Behold your Biblical infiuence, great doctor ! 
 London comes next in crime to Stockholm. 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 239 
 
 There are over eighty thorisand abandoned 
 females in that city, besides a large number 
 of private women of easy or doubtful virtue ; 
 and more than two hundred schools where 
 boys and girls are trained to be skillful 
 thieves and pickpockets. 
 
 In English poor-houses there were sixty- 
 six thousand illegitimate births to ninety- 
 four thousand legitimate ; in Wales, of five 
 thousand seven hundred and forty- seven 
 births, three thousand and seventy were 
 illegitimate, and in Scotland seven in every 
 ten are illegitimate. 
 
 In Ireland the proportion of the same class 
 is very small ; in the Catholic province of 
 Munster it is not one in twenty. 
 
 Catholic Naples, toward which our Rev- 
 erend lecturer exhibited not a little acri- 
 mony, shows in the above regard but one 
 hundred and thirty to fifteen thousand. 
 Prom whom did you get your information, 
 wonderful Dr. Clark ? 
 
 Of Prussian morality, our candid Presby- 
 terian paints a most fearful picture. Vices, 
 
 20 
 
230 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 which in Catholic countries would be looked 
 upon as most disgraceful, would excite no 
 surprise in that land of public schools and 
 Bible-teaching. Such crimes in Prussia, in 
 the words of Mr. Laing, are called "youth- 
 ful indiscretions!" In another place he 
 affirms that ''the Prussians,, morally, are 
 slaves of enslaved minds." Every thing is 
 compulsory there, not only in education 
 but religion also — the freedom of the will is 
 entirely abrogated ; the moral training of 
 the child is taken out of the hands of the 
 parents by state authority, and it follows 
 that not only filial affection is destroyed, 
 but the father and mother are positively de- 
 graded. 
 
 The same author gives us another picture 
 of the religious state of Geneva, which sur- 
 passes any thing that we have ever heard 
 or read of. ''Geneva, the seat and center 
 of Calvinism, the fountain head from which 
 the pure and living waters of our Scottish 
 Zion flow . . . has fallen lower from 
 her original doctrine and practice than ever 
 
THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 231 
 
 Rome fell. Rome has still superstition; 
 Geneva has not even the semblance of relig- 
 ion ! " He then tells of picnics, ball-rooms, 
 concert saloons, billiards, skittles, the shout, 
 and the shots of the rifle clubs, to be seen 
 and heard everywhere on the Sunday and 
 during the hours set apart for religious 
 worship by all Christian communities. He 
 then gives a pitiful description of the ser- 
 vices held in the old church in which the 
 apostle of predestination once held forth. 
 The congregation consisted of a few females 
 and less than two dozen of very old men ; 
 and the sermon he characterizes as a disser- 
 tation which might with more propriety 
 have been delivered the evening before at a 
 meeting of some scientific body. The same 
 author in commenting on the devotional 
 aspect of the audience says, the ''male por- 
 tion of the congregation kept their hats on 
 during the entire sermon." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Halley of this city (com- 
 pared to whom Rufus W. Clark, D. D., is 
 but a tyro in literature, and who, by the 
 
232 THE QUESTI02!T SOLVED. 
 
 way, is far from being a bigot, if we are to 
 judge from Ms interesting letters to tlie 
 Argus during his tour througli Europe in 
 the summer of 1868), writes of Gfeneva as 
 follows: ^^We visited tlie Cathedral and 
 had the privilege to stand in the pulpit once 
 occupied by the illustrious Calvin. It 
 grieves us to learn that this city has wofully 
 swerved from her past faith, that Rational- 
 ism and Infidelity have to a great extent 
 supplanted the pure doctrines of Christian- 
 ity, and that, at one time the bulwark of the 
 truth and the resort of illustrious refugees 
 from all parts of Europe, it is now pervaded 
 with latitudinarianism and heresy." 
 
 Of the two Cantons which foi:m the Swiss 
 Confederation, one is Catholic, the other 
 Protestant; and every honest and intelli- 
 gent traveler bears testimony to the supe- 
 riority of the former over the latter, for 
 morality and religion. It is true, that the 
 Protestant Canton is the wealthiest, but this 
 can be easily accounted for. The richest 
 soil, the best water privileges, the best roads 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 233 
 
 and trading places, are situated in the lower 
 half of Switzerland, and besides, the people 
 are more selfish and worldly minded than 
 in the upper Canton, which is mountainous 
 and barren for the most part : so that Prot- 
 estantism has no more to do with the ap- 
 parent prosperous condition of the beautiful 
 valleys of Switzerland than the religion 
 of the Anthropophagi of Polynesia. Mr. 
 Laing says: '^The religious influence is at 
 its minimum in Protestant, and at its max- 
 imum in Catholic, Switzerland." 
 
 Italy has been the mad dog of Europe, 
 with Protestant writers and speakers, for 
 three hundred years ; in their estimation 
 she should be blotted from the map of the 
 world. Italians may have their vices (for 
 what people have not ?) but if we place them 
 side by side with the Protestant population 
 of England (and I might come a little nearer 
 home, I think) in looks, manners, intel- 
 ligence, and moral worth, they will hold 
 their own. You will see more drunkenness 
 and quarreling, hear more blasphemy and 
 20* 
 
234: THE QUESTIOlNr SOLVED. 
 
 foul language in one street, and in one day, 
 in an Englisli or American city, than you 
 see or liear in all the Catholic towns of 
 Europe in an age. There is a native polite- 
 ness among many of those old peoples which 
 is to be attributed to Catholic teaching. 
 
 Ask an Englishman to show you the way 
 to Cheapside in London, and if he conde- 
 scends to answer you at all, he will turn 
 around gruffly and tell you, ''away down 
 that way," and pass on ; a Yankee will ask 
 you ''where you came from, where you are 
 going to, and what is your business ;" but 
 ask a Frenchman or an Italian to do you 
 the same favor, and he wUl answer you 
 with a smile, and take the greatest pains 
 to set you right. I have never known a 
 truly Christian man, who was not also a 
 polite man. 
 
 Take the Irish as a class, whom our Prot- 
 estant friends delight in calling "low," 
 "vulgar," and "uncivilized," and they pos- 
 sess a fineness of feeling, and a delicacy of 
 expression that all travelers admire. Let 
 
THE QUESTIOJSr SOLVED. 836 
 
 two strangers meet on the highway in Ire- 
 land, and they will salute each other with 
 some Christian expression, snch as ^'God 
 save you, sir!'' ^'Grod save you kindly!" 
 and then pass along, each his own way. In 
 some other countries, you meet a man and 
 he will eye you with suspicion, pull down 
 his brows with an ill-natured expression, as 
 if he would like to do you bodily harm. 
 The wicked and bad thought seems to be 
 always uppermost with some people. See 
 what a back-biting, calumniating, jealous, 
 and begrudging class you will find in mostly 
 all our communities, and church members 
 are not the least exempt from the charge, 
 their ministers setting the example. Ask 
 that little barefooted boy who trudges along 
 the road side, in one of the most primitive 
 parts of Ireland, a question, and he will an- 
 swer, ^^ Yes, sir," or "l^o, sir," with perfect 
 respect ; ask one of our American youths, 
 and he wiU look at you with perfect indif- 
 ference, and reply, '^Well, I don't know," 
 or " Guess so," and the like ; and if you 
 
236 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 
 
 shonld chance to rebuke him for his want 
 of good manners, ten chances to one, he 
 will swear at you, or shake his fist in your 
 face. Such rude dispositions are not con- 
 fined to any one class either ; they are as 
 often found among the children of our fash- 
 ionable circles, as in those of their poorer 
 neighbors. 
 
 A mixing up of the youth of both sexes, 
 with very little restraint, is not only unwar- 
 ranted but dangerous ; nevertheless it is very 
 common in Protestant countries. A little 
 lad, recently emerged from petticoats, and 
 with hardly an idea beyond a game of mar- 
 bles, will, with the assurance of a full grown 
 man, call to see a young miss in her best 
 bib and tucker. The friends of each call it 
 ^'cunning," and the parents will even allow 
 considerable familiarity, and oftentimes en- 
 courage this sort of baby courtship, which, 
 to say the least, is not always productive of 
 sound morality. 
 
 Protestant ministers are forever harping 
 on the vices and ignorance of Catholic chil- 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 237 
 
 dren ; and it is contemptibly mean in them 
 to stuff the minds of their Sunday School 
 classes, as they are in the habit of doing, 
 with anecdotes and lying stories concerning 
 them. In this they commit a double sin — 
 by doing a great and scandalous injury to 
 the one party, and outrageously deceiving 
 the other. We will put the question to any 
 fair, unprejudiced traveler, if he has ever, 
 in his journeyings through Catholic nations, 
 found ruder children than he has seen here 
 in these United States, notwithstanding our 
 boasted public instruction and plentiful sup- 
 ply of Bibles and Sunday Schools ? 
 
 I would be safe in saying that a girl of 
 twelve years of age, in a Protestant school, 
 knows more about matters pertaining to her 
 constitution than a Catholic woman of sixty 
 in any other country. How came she with 
 this kind of knowledge ? Let Dr. Clark an- 
 swer ! A few years ago I met an intelligent 
 farmer, who in the course of conversation 
 informed me that the country around where 
 he resided was flooded with a certain species 
 
238 THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 
 
 of literature, immoral and debasing in its 
 influences, and which the youth of both 
 sexes sought with avidity ; that most of the 
 young men and women had a copy hid away 
 in their trunks ! 
 
 There was a filthy publication started in 
 I^ew York a few years since, which had a 
 wide circulation, not only among the de- 
 praved, but was liberally patronized by 
 what is called the ^^ better class" — even by 
 many who stood high in their respective 
 churches, as was shown by the arrest of the 
 proprietor and seizure of the books of the 
 
 concern. I was visiting a friend in W , 
 
 Connecticut, at the time, and well do I re- 
 member the commotion made in that city 
 of evangelical purity^ when the agent lo- 
 cated there had his books confiscated. The 
 number of copies sold in that little city 
 alone was fearful to contemplate ; and to 
 the credit of the Catholic population, who 
 form nearly half, not a single Catholic name 
 was found on the list of the ruffian's sub- 
 scribers. In countries where Catholicism 
 
THE QUESTIOiT SOLVED. SS9 
 
 predominates, yon will not find a degrading 
 publication, unless by stealth. If your wife 
 or daughter take np the morning paper, 
 their eyes will not fall upon '^personals," 
 or other degrading advertisements. There 
 may be a city like Paris, for example, where 
 Protestantism and Infidelity form a large 
 proportion ; there you may find obscene and 
 impure literature; but thank God for the 
 kind care and watchfulness of His Holy 
 Church, that protects her children from these 
 seducting and vile infiuences. 
 
 What sort of an opinion would a stranger 
 form of the moral condition of this Eepub- 
 lic, who should read the columns of our 
 daily and weekly papers ? What a fearful 
 list of murders, thefts, highway robberies, 
 arson, defalcations, breaches of trust, big- 
 amy, seduction, drunkenness, gambling, 
 suicide, the common practice of foeticide and 
 infanticide, the unhallowed laws of divorce, 
 etc., etc. Protestantism is powerless to stop 
 this surging tide of vice which sweeps over 
 the land. The Ca4)holic Church, of all others, 
 
240 THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 
 
 stands pre-eminent in checking this overflow 
 of sin and folly ; and, because she inter- 
 poses a barrier, the vampires of our schools 
 of modern progress accuse her of crimes of 
 which she is not guilty, and lay plans for 
 her destruction, by placing her in a false 
 light before the people. They aim to suck 
 out the life blood of her constitution, in 
 order to paralyze her efforts for good. 
 Strange and reckless infatuation! Will 
 error and deceit forever strive with truth 
 and holiness ! 
 
 Behold what pictures are drawn of the 
 scenes in and around the halls of legisla- 
 tion, even the Congress of the United States ! 
 Hear the vile abuse, the bandying of foul 
 epithets, the charges and counter-charges 
 of the representatives of the people against 
 each other ! 
 
 See the long list of clerical mllains^ of 
 the Protestant stripe, in every State in the 
 Union, who have been charged and found 
 guilty of all manner of crime ; and then 
 say that Protestanism is in the odor of 
 
THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 241 
 
 sanctity. Whenever I meet a Protestant 
 minister I sliudder ; for faith tells me that 
 he is an ambassador of the evil one ; a kid- 
 naper of souls, and a traitor to the canse 
 of Christ and the everlasting welfare of 
 mankind. Shame on the lazy pack ! They 
 eat the bread of idleness, and fatten on the 
 carcass of a nondescript and dead faith. 
 The execration of Moses is already upon 
 them, for he hath said, " Cursed be he that 
 maketh the blind to wander out of the way. 
 And all the people shall say. Amen ! " 
 
 But Dr. Clark will have it, that all this 
 depravity may be cured by the dissemina- 
 tion of Bibles and lying tracts, without 
 which, we will all go to Hong Kong. He 
 cites several examples of the power which 
 the Bible wields against the lawless and the 
 depraved, particularly the class called ''jail- 
 birds." He used up considerable ''blar- 
 ney" on two certain jailers, one of whom 
 resided in the blessed State of Connecticut, 
 and the other in the goodly city of Albany. 
 These gentlemen informed him that they 
 21 
 
243 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 
 
 could not govern a prison without Bible aid. 
 We commend tliem for every effort they 
 make to reform the offender ; but, when 
 they assert their inability to control a house 
 of correction without Biblical assistance, 
 we pronounce it all gammon. It is the iron 
 door and great key, the musket and the 
 strong inclosure that do the business ; tact 
 and good judgment being, of course, indis- 
 pensable. We will now hear the evidence 
 of another Protestant, Mr. Joseph Kean, 
 Warden of the penitentiary on BlackwelP s 
 Island for the past twenty years. He told 
 me, personally, that he was always on the 
 alert for the convict who, with a sanctimo- 
 nious face, asked him for a Bible. He 
 declared that such fellows were the biggest 
 scoundrels, and he would not allow them 
 any privileges. 
 
 This distribution of Bibles, which our wise 
 doctor advocates, together with the common 
 license of private interpretation, is the iden- 
 tical rock that split the craft of Protestant- 
 ism in twain, shattered all her timbers, and 
 
THE QUESTIOl^ SOLVED. 243 
 
 left the wreck floating and floundering on 
 the seething waters of doubt and disunion ; 
 and there she will remain, the drift-wood 
 of Christianity, until she is lost in oblivion. 
 Our neighbor attributes every enterprise 
 in art, science, trade, and commerce, to the 
 influence of the Bible. As the revelation 
 of God to man, the history of the birth and 
 establishment of Christianity, and the record 
 of the great drama enacted on the hill of 
 Calvary, it is certainly a pearl of great 
 price ; but when it is made subservient to 
 the sordid interests of man, it becomes a 
 curse rather than a blessing, because, by its 
 aid, the truth of Grod is turned into a lie. 
 How often have I seen men with '^ Bible," 
 ^' Bible," on the end of their tongues, play 
 the role of the false disciple ? O, ye emis- 
 saries of Satan, I know you well ! Your 
 cupidity has no bounds ! Dr. Milner ex- 
 pressed the Protestant idea to a dot, when 
 he said, ^^The temporal interest of their 
 religion is the ruling principle of their 
 morality." 
 
244 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 
 
 There is not, perhaps, another instance in 
 the category of meanness, ingratitude and 
 perfidy, since the day that Iscariot betrayed 
 his blessed Master, equal to that of the 
 venal Dutch merchants in the harbors of 
 Japan. After the Catholic missionaries had 
 been butchered, their churches destroyed, 
 and the homes of their adherents made deso- 
 late, the ports of that barbarous nation were 
 closed against all foreigners except the Chi- 
 nese, unless they complied with the Empe- 
 ror' s conditions, the chief feature of which 
 was, that all hailing from Christian nations 
 should trample on the cross. N^one were 
 found base enough to comply with such a 
 heathenish demand, until the Hollanders 
 came along, when, Judas like, they not only 
 trampled on the glorious emblem of man' s 
 salvation, but denied having any thing in 
 common with Christians, and thus suc- 
 ceeded in selling their God for a cargo of 
 merchandise. 
 
 I am very suspicious, my dear doctor, that 
 much of this hub-bub about the ^'schools," 
 
THE QUESTION SOLVED. 245 
 
 and great love for the Bible is put on; it 
 may be a mercenary trick after all. I have 
 seen men like you before, who, notwith- 
 standing their high pretensions, turned out 
 to be regular humbugs ; and not a few, who 
 had never studied the religious question 
 beyond the length of their own tether. I 
 remember to have seen and heard of such 
 fellows in the old country when I was 
 a little boy, and not one of them ever 
 amounted to a row of pins. There were a 
 few who started out with the ^'no-popery" 
 cry, who had the honesty and manliness to 
 renounce their errors, after being set right 
 by superior minds, and became humble 
 pupils in the school of Christ. 
 
 Dr. Cummings, of London, used to be 
 the great Exeter Hall champion, but the 
 poor fellow became crazy. He went from 
 one subject to another, mixing up one 
 theory with the next, until his most inti- 
 mate friends could not tell what he was 
 driving at. He then became a prophet, and 
 set the time, not only for the downfall of the 
 21* 
 
246 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 
 
 ^^man of sin, "but the destruction of the 
 world, which was to have taken place in 1849. 
 Twenty summers have come and gone since 
 then, and old mother earth is as dignified 
 as ever, hale and hearty; Pius IX is far 
 more secure in the chair of Peter than he 
 was then, and the last that I heard of 
 Cummings he was making a goose of him- 
 self writing letters to the Pope. 
 
 I recollect another young man, full of 
 zeal for the Protestant cause, and as elo- 
 quent and commanding as Wendell Phillips 
 ever was. He fancied himself especially 
 called to deal a fatal blow to the papacy, 
 and created a terrible excitement in and 
 around Birmingham. He lectured, wrote 
 and preached with the vehemence and im- 
 petuosity of a Luther; but what was the 
 result, think you ? Grod saw that he started 
 out with a candid mind and an honest 
 heart, and, like St. Paul, he was arrested 
 in his course. The light of truth beamed 
 upon him ; he at once discovered his error, 
 went straightway to the venerable Bishop 
 of Birmingham, cast himself in humility at 
 
THE QUESTIO]Sr SOLVED. 247 
 
 the feet of the prelate, and begged to be 
 received into the bosom of that Church he 
 had so bitterly opposed. With the meek- 
 ness of a little child he humbled himself at 
 the foot of the cross, sought forgiveness for 
 the evil he had done, and the once brave 
 and eloquent John Mason did penance in a 
 cloister the rest of his life. 
 
 Who knows, Doctor, but you might one 
 of these days go and do likewise? 'Tis 
 true, that the longer a man keeps on in his 
 sins, the harder it is for him to renounce 
 them ; but still we have the assurance, that 
 
 " While tlie lamp liolds out to burn 
 • The vilest sinner may return." 
 
 Pray to God, in the sincerity of your heart, 
 that the scales of error may fall from your 
 sinful eyes, so that you may see the pure 
 light of the gospel, and do penance for 
 your misspent life. Think, oh think, poor 
 deluded man, of the number of souls you 
 have been the means of sending to that 
 eternity of sorrow, where the worm dieth 
 not and where the fire is never quenched ! 
 
NOTE. 
 
 On the eve of going to press, I was asked if I had seen 
 Dr. Clark's book ; to which I replied in the negative. A 
 day or two after a gentleman presented me with a copy, 
 bearing the name of " The Question of the Hour," which 
 caused me to change my title-page to The Question Solved. 
 Although his book is sufficiently vindictive, it is not a 
 faithful copy of his lectures, for they were meaner still ; 
 besides, he delivered other anti-Catholic harangues before 
 and after he discussed " The Bible and the School Fund," 
 so that I am obliged to answer him in a general way. He 
 did not confine himself to the School Question alone ; he 
 wandered all over the earth, from China to Hindostan, 
 from Italy to England, from North to South America, so 
 that it would be no small matter to pursue him in his airy 
 flights and crooked ways ; for, as the Rev. Dr. Lord, Presi- 
 dent of Dartmouth College, once said, " error and falsehood 
 would run around the world while St. Paul would be get- 
 ting his boots on." 
 
 If any should consider me harsh in dealing with these 
 questions, it is Dr. Clark's fault ; he set the example. He 
 has been so thoroughly educated in the school of religious 
 hate, that it is impossible for him to say a kind word of any 
 one differing from him, particularly if he had the least sus- 
 picion that the individual stood higher in the moral scale 
 than himself. The Doctor has such an extravagant opin- 
 ion of his own capacity for every thing great and good in 
 the world, that nobody else has a chance to come in for a 
 slice. He swells out to such a degree, in his boasting, that 
 he fancies that he could not only swallow Jonah but the 
 whale too. 
 
 Now, if like David I have put the stone of invincible 
 truth into my sling, and succeeded in hitting this Protest- 
 ant Goliath on his face of brass, I shall feel amply repaid 
 for this small effort in the cause of religious progress. 
 
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