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 DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE 
 
 COMMEMORATION OF THE LANDING 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PILGRIMS OF MARYLAND, 
 
 CELEBRATED MAY 15, 1843, AT MT. ST. MARY'S, MD. 
 
 BV THE REV. P. CORRY. A. M. 
 
 Profissor of lirec-k and l.itiii. 
 
 GETTYSBURG: 
 PRINT F.D BV II. C. IV K f N R TK nT, 
 
 MucccxLin. 
 
1} i^UL 
 

 M. St. Mary's College, May IM, 1843. 
 
 Rev. and Respected Sih, 
 
 The Literary Societies of Mt. St. Mary's, sensible of the higli lionor reflected 
 on tlicm by your late address, which combined in so remarkable a manner dignity 
 of sentiment and depth of reasoning, tender to you, through us, their heartfelt 
 tiianks and respectfully solicit a copy for publication. 
 
 Your obedient servants, 
 
 JOS. L. LE BOURGEOIS, 
 
 F. X. BYERLY, 
 
 GEO. E. COOPER, 
 
 LEANDER STEM, 
 
 JOHN S. DOUGHERTY, 
 
 E. W. WHALEY, 
 
 Committer, &.c. 
 
 To Rev. P. Corry, 
 
 ri'-'ffsior rl Greek aiiJ Lalin, i:c. ic. 
 
Ml. St. Mary''s College., May 20lh^ 1843. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I am pleased to find that the discourse which I delivered at your request, has 
 met your approbation. I ventured to depart from the subject of the day, because 
 I could have but feebly repeated, what you heard, last year, on the same occasion 
 and in the same place, from our learned and distinguished President. I therefore 
 took a subject which grew naturally enough out of that of the day, and which 1 
 thought would be both novel and interesting, and not without some advantage in a 
 mixed audience. To the length of the digression on my poor country, I trust you 
 will not object. I would fain have made it shorter; yet I could not prevail upon 
 myself to retrench or alter a line of it. A few things I have taken the liberty of 
 adding: the rest I leave without change as you heard it; and I now submit the 
 whole to your judgment and indulgence. Accept, Gentlemen, my most sincere 
 thanks for this, as well as for other instances of kindness and courtesy, which I 
 have received from yourselves and the Societies which you represent. 
 
 I am. Gentlemen, with sincere regard, 3^our ob't servant, 
 
 P. CORRY. 
 
 To Messrs. Jos. L. Le Bourgeois, 
 &.C. &c. &,c. 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 There exists a peculiar relation between the true minister of 
 Christ and his flock. The ties of flesh and blood, that, like silken 
 cords, bind up our affections round home and friends, though tender, 
 are still frail and unenduring, in comparison of those spiritual ties, 
 which bind the soul to Religion, and link us in relationship with its 
 ministers. And though this may appear strange, it is far from being 
 unnatural; for Religion and its Ministers, are the two great links 
 which unite man with his Creator, connect the visible with the in- 
 visible world, and keep up a constant communication between earth 
 and heaven. The Apostle St. Paul, aware of this spiritual relation- 
 ship, exhorts the pastors to watch for the salvation of the people, and 
 the people to obey their injunctions; that, as the pastors watched 
 for their security, ihey should repay their zeal and vigilance with 
 ready obedience and unwavering fidelity. And how admirably and 
 faithfully have the pastors and the people fulfilled these mutual 
 duties, and preserved unbroken their high and holy relationship ! 
 How true, in all ages, have we seen the pastors to tlieir sacred call- 
 ing ; and how firm and faithful the people in attachment and obe- 
 dience ! Being members of the same spiritual body " which is 
 Christ," they sympathized in each other's sufferings, they shared 
 each other's victories. When one was oppressed the other flew to 
 his rescue, maintained his rights and shielded him from injustice. 
 Thus in all ages have the clergy and the people stood side by side, 
 thus have Religion and liberty been always found united, and 
 closely arrayed in opposition to bigotry and lyranny. 
 
And wlicil a beautiful and striking illustration of iWis close 
 union between Religion and liberty, have we in the subject of this 
 day's celebration ; when we see men flying from persecution, and 
 Religion, or rather the ministers of that Religion, like good angels, 
 guiding, cheering, consoling the exiles from home and fatherland ; 
 — when we see a band of brave and generous souls, under the in- 
 spiration of their ancient faith, and the guidance of their faithful 
 pastors, breaking all the dearest ties that bound them to kindred, 
 home and country, to secure their religion from the zeal or fanati- 
 cism of the bigot, and to put their liberty beyond the reach of a 
 tyrant; — preferring exile and liberty in an unknown land, to kin- 
 dred, wealth and slavery in their native country. 
 
 But I am far from ascribing their motives to such a low princi- 
 ple as the fear of persecution, as that would have been scarcely 
 strong enough to overcome their love of kindred and their attach- 
 ment to their native place. No ; the generous founders of our 
 State had higher and nobler views. They had been born and nur- 
 tured in a religious system, which had ever been the great protect- 
 or of human rights, which had watched and preserved for a thou- 
 sand years the liberties of Christendom, pushed back Avith a strong 
 hand the stealthy encroachments of arbitrary power, and kept in 
 dutiful and salutary obedience the refractory princes of Europe. 
 Guided by the spirit of that Religion, and impelled by their own 
 inborn love of freedom and their inherited dislike of tyranny, they 
 generously left friends and country, and fearlessly committed them- 
 selves and their fortunes to the ocean, in quest of a land where 
 they might live, like their fathers, in the peaceful possession of 
 their religion and their liberty. Generous, illustrious men ! the 
 world has been too slow in requiting your services, too late in ac- 
 knowledging your merit, and too unwilling to do justice to your ex- 
 alted piety and disinterested philanlhropy. You raised the /irst al- 
 tar to religious liberty in the New World; and you dedicated it, 
 not for your own private devotion, but for the worship of all man- 
 
kind. Your benevolence was as wide and catholic as your faith. 
 Tlie cross that j'Ou erected, was not the flag of selfish and l)igoled 
 triumph, but the true emblem of salvation, the broad banner of the 
 human race: under whose sheltering and protecting arms the per- 
 secuted and oppressed of every creed and of every clime, might 
 repose in peace and security, adore their common God, and enjoy 
 the priceless blessings of civil and religious liberty. 
 
 Although these men were far in advance of their age and coun- 
 tr)^, yet we can scarcely award them the praise of discovering new 
 truths in political science. They only revived and developed in 
 their conduct, principles of civil liberty at least, which they had 
 imbibed with their religion, and which had been familiar to their 
 fathers. They had read and remembered the history of England 
 and of Europe ; and notwithstanding all the conflicting statements 
 of historians, they could easily discern, that their Religion, so far 
 from being the enemy, was the nurse of civil liberty, and that their 
 clergy had ever been its firmest and ablest defenders. And they 
 could not help observing too, that in all the struggles of their an- 
 cestors, with ambitious or tyrannical monarchs, the clergy were al- 
 ways where they should be, on the side of the people, to aid them 
 with their advice and to protect them from oppression. Whilst 
 they watched for the interest of their souls, they did not neglect the 
 humbler care of their persons, their property and their liberty; and 
 these they guarded with untiring zeal and a vigilant eye. They 
 were the sleepless sentinels on the watch-towers of Israel, that never 
 left their post, but were ever present and ready to give the alarm 
 when danger threatened their Religion or their Country. And ill 
 liave they been requited for their long and perilous service. They 
 deserved fairer treatment and a better name from posterity ; but 
 their merits and their fame have been buried or forgotten amid the 
 tumults of religious warfare, and the loud and incessant calumnies 
 of bigots and fiuiatics. To-day, My Friends, it shall be our pur- 
 pose to rescue their merits and their fume from oblivion, and to re- 
 
8 
 
 store them to that exalted rank which they held and deserved 
 amongst their contemporaries, that of friends of human improve- 
 ment, defenders of civil liberty and benefactors of mankind. 
 
 It is the great misfortune of the Catholic Clergy, that their his- 
 toiy has been written (for the most part,) in languages not commonly 
 known, and that their character descends to the modern reader 
 through the turbid stream of English history, blackened by the envy 
 and prejudice of their enemies, or distorted by the bad philosophy 
 of writers who could comprehend neither their motives nor their 
 spirit. For the last three centuries they have been left to the ' bleak 
 mercy ' of the historian, the philosopher and the infidel, and have 
 shared their censure or their ridicule in proportion as their piety and 
 zeal were conspicuous. With such men, religion was superstition, 
 piety was hypocrisy, zeal was fanaticism, and a devotion to the in- 
 terests of the people, only an artifice to secure power or to practice 
 imposition. 
 
 These writers would have us believe that the era of civilization 
 and civil liberty commenced with the sixteenth century, and that 
 all beyond that fancied twilight was darkness and ignorance, slave- 
 ry and superstition; — that the human mind, like the evil spirit, 
 had been chained for a thousand years; but that the genius of the 
 Reformation burst the chains and led forth the captive to the enjoy- 
 ment of civil and intellectual liberty; — that a great revelation was 
 vouchsafed from on high, and that truth, religion and liberty, were 
 first made known to a wondering world in the sixteenth century ! 
 And many have believed the extraordinary tale, because they heard 
 it asserted with an air of confidence and triumph: Nam quum 
 magna malai superest audacia causae, creditur a multis fiducia ;* and 
 because they had but little desire to search for a refutation of what 
 they wished to be true. Thousands are ready to believe any thing 
 of the middle ages upon any or upon no authority. Men, boys, 
 
 *For when daring confidence is brought to the support of a bad cause, by many 
 it is believed to be the ibrce of truth.— Juvenal. 
 
children, talk with becoming piety of the horrors of the dark age3, 
 Eheu nunc quantas tragoedias excitant. Alas what tragic feeling 
 they inspire! Crimes, abuses, ignorance, barbarism and supersti- 
 tion are all thrown back upon them ; and some men can scarcely 
 believe that the sun shone in those times, or that the poor people 
 enjoyed beneath the dense cloud of ignorance and superstition as 
 fine weather or as pure an atmosphere as modern philosopliy and 
 modern enlightenment have blessed us with. 
 
 There was a time when the rude barbarians of France and 
 Germany believed that their forests were filled with the wildest 
 monsters, with dragons and demons ; yet when they had the cour- 
 age to apply the axe and to explore the thickets, they found to their 
 astonishment, that they contained neither monsters nor demons; 
 and that they were but the unreal creations of their own wild fan- 
 cies. So when the scholar has the courage to approach the history 
 of the Middle Ages, he finds to his surprise that the darkness re- 
 cedes in proportion as he advances ; and that the ignorance was not 
 so dense, the superstition not so gross, nor the slavery so abject as 
 he had imagined. That there was comparatively little darkness ; 
 that civil liberty and the rights of conscience were as clearly undei*^ 
 stood, and as jealously preserved, as they have been amid the blaze 
 of modern science. And that the very body of men, who are com- 
 monly, though falsely represented, as the enemies of freedom and 
 knowledge, have always been the friends of human improvement, 
 always been arrayed against arbitrary power, and firmly upheld the 
 rights of the people. Such were the Catholic Clergy ; a body of 
 men whose equals we seldom meet with in history; confessedly 
 superior to their contemporaries in all the polite arts, nor wanting 
 in the best qualities of the human mind, sense, courage, constancy 
 and integrity. 
 
 The weightiest charges against the Clergy are, that they were 
 opposed to the diflfusion of knowledge, and the enemies of civil 
 and religious liberty. The latter charge is in some measure a con- 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 sequence of tlie former, as the surest way to keep a people in sla- 
 very is to keep them in ignorance. These grave accusations are 
 constantly repeated by careless or prejudiced hislorians, and are often 
 believed by the superficial reader. Writers with little research and 
 with less philosophy, unable or unwilling to assign the causes of 
 events, and the origin of barbarous institutions, took the shortest 
 and readiest way of accounting for them. The clergy, they saw, 
 were the most influential body of men of their times: they were 
 venerated by the people, and indeed men of every rank did hom- 
 age to their superior virtue, intelligence and ability. Some histo- 
 rians have therefore attributed to them an extraordinary degree of 
 power over people and events, which they may have possessed, but 
 from which they deduce the most absurd consequences, and expect 
 the most extravagant results. That they possessed great power, is 
 certain ; but that they could have changed by any sudden or mirac- 
 ulous operation, the frame of society, the habits of the people, the 
 customs and institutions of nations, and altered human nature itself, 
 is utterly incredible. Had the condition of the various nations of 
 Europe remained the same as it had existed under the Roman Em- 
 pire, these results might have been slowly and gradually attained. 
 But all, even the very people had changed. The slight traces of 
 civilization which the language and laws of Rome had left in Spain, 
 Gaul and Brittain, were easily and rapidly effaced by the incursions 
 of the northern barbarians.* The Goths, Huns and Vandals, rush- 
 ed from the forests of the North like a black and furious tempest, 
 levelling with the ground all the fairest institutions of ancient art 
 and literature. The huge but tottering fabric of the Old Roman 
 Empire, fell beneath their repeated shocks, and long the ferocious 
 sons of the North revelled amid the ruins and contended for the 
 fragments. Scarcely a spot of Europe escaped their ravages. In 
 almost every country they either extirpated the inhabitants or redu- 
 ced them to slavery. Those provinces which had received the Ro 
 * Sec L^ngard's Anglo Saxon Church, page 21, 8cc. 
 
n 
 
 man laws, wcic plundered or wasted ; and instead of their old mu- 
 nicipal magistrates, they were obliged to submit to the capricious 
 cruelty of barbarous chieftains. And it required several centuries 
 to restore not only law and order, but society itself. Europe had 
 never before felt such a terrific shock; and its fury was long in 
 abating.* The earth, if I may use the expression, was still heav- 
 ing with the bloody tide, and the ruins of nations lay scattered 
 upon ils angry surface. Here was a field for the zeal and political 
 sagacity of the philosopher and the infidel. Why were they not 
 there? The nations were in distress, and they called from the 
 wreck that lay around them, for some one " to succor and to save" : 
 some one to assert the rights of humanity : to snatch them from the 
 imsparing sword of the Barbarian, and to restore law and order, 
 light and religion to society. They called in vain. The philoso- 
 pher and the infidel, like the gods of the prophets, slept in heedless 
 security, and when they awoke it was only to sneer and to revile. 
 But there were men, generous, godlike men, who with breasts 
 animated from above, and glowing with a better zeal and a purer 
 love of human kind, fearlessly rushed between combatants, and 
 stayed the bloody strife by proclaiming a God and asserting the 
 rights of human nature. The fierce spirit of the Barbarian yielded 
 to the mild influence of Religion, and he stood in silent reverence 
 before the man of God. f The furious Frank cast his uplifted 
 battle axe at the foot of the cross, and embracing his enemy as a 
 christian and a brother, knelt in adoration before the sacred sign of 
 redemption. Gradually religion and morality were re-established, 
 and law and order began to return. The chieftain ruled with a 
 milder sway. The serf tilled his land, cultivated the arts of peace, 
 enjoyed happiness, if not enlightenment, and practised his religion, 
 
 *The intelligent reader will scarcely charge me with exaggeration, when he 
 recollects the descriptions ol' Claudian, and reads the following passage Irom Jor- 
 nandes, as quoted by Gibbon. Belluin atrox, multiplex, immaae, pcrliiiax, cui 
 simile nulla usquam narrat anliquitas. 
 
 t See Anglo Saxon Church, page H'd. 
 
 \ 
 
12 
 
 and worshipped his God with the same fidehty and ardor as he had 
 formerly followed his chieftain to battle. Such were the services 
 of the Catholic Clergy in the civilization of Europe. Such was 
 the glorious and bloodless conquest, that they achieved over wild 
 and lawless barbarians, over Goths, Huns and Vandals, Saxons, 
 Northmen and Germans. 
 
 Wherever they came, the nations revered their sanctity, and 
 felt the humanizing influence of their virtues and their learning. 
 Amid the din of war and (he tumults of the times, their angel 
 voice was heard above the storm, announcing peace and good will 
 to men. They soothed the ferocity of the Barbarian with the 
 gentle accents of Religion ; called back the wandering savage to 
 society and trained him to the habits of a civilized life ; and still 
 pursuing their sublime vocation, they carried the cross to the re- 
 motest regions of the North, scattering blessings upon their path 
 and shedding light upon mankind. With the Gospel in one hand 
 and the literature of Greece and Rome in the other, they rolled 
 back the dense cloud of barbarism and superstition which had long 
 overhung the nations of the North, poured upon their delighted 
 eyes the pure light of heaven, and expanded their breasts with the 
 hope of immortality, 
 
 I-'rom this rapid but imperfect view which I have given of the 
 condition of Europe, on the breaking up of the Roman Empire, 
 you may be enabled to form some notion of the difficulties which 
 the Clergy had to encounter, of the good which they have done, 
 and of the possibility of effecting what they have apparently left 
 undone. You have seen the ignorance and anarchy in which 
 they found Europe, and the condition to which they raised it. 
 They found it Pagan, they made it Christian. They found it with- 
 out morality, ravaged by war and peopled with Barbarians; they 
 gave it religion, peace and civilization; and had they done noth- 
 ing more, they would still have had a just claim to the praise and 
 gratitude of posterity. Historians may speculate about all the 
 
13 
 
 possible good which tliey luight have efi'ected, and fancy that the 
 people would have had a more rational faith and ampler know- 
 ledge, had they preached the Gospel or presided at the formation 
 of laws and governments : but they only remind us of another 
 class of men, who instead of thanking their Creator for their exist- 
 ence, complain of the imperfection of his work; and vainly im- 
 ag'me that the laws of man and nature would have been more com- 
 plete, had their little curious secrets been known at the origin of 
 things, and soul and matter been modelled by their philosophy. 
 
 The progress of a people from barbarism to refinement is slow v 
 and precarious. Liiteratnre and the fine arts are seldom coeval j 
 with civilization. They are flowers of tardy growth and of late ( 
 maturity ; they are seldom found to thrive or even to exist, except / 
 in rich and cultivated soils: or to speak less figuratively, it is gen- 
 erally in old and opulent Slates, that letters and science take up 
 their late abode. Indeed the finest periods in the history of nations 
 have been for the most part antecedent to their literature. We must 
 not therefore suppose that our ancestors were wanting in any of the 
 essential elements of civilization, because they did not possess its 
 luxuries. Christianity had entirely changed their social, moral and 
 political condition. With religion the Clergy introduced the know- 
 ledge of letters, which though not universally known, were not 
 however universally neglected. They translated or explained the 
 sacred writings in their vernacular tongues, improved the language 
 of the people, and " insensibly enlarged their minds with the dis- 
 tant view of history, of nature, of the arts and of society."* "Emu- 
 lation was awakened by the recollection of a more perfect era which 
 had preceded, and curiosity was excited to read the original text 
 and to become acquainted with ecclesiastical tradition. " Could 
 there have been a better means of civilizing a barbarous people, of 
 softening the asperity and wildness of their manners, and of inspir- 
 ing them with a love of letters? Thus in planting religion they 
 
 ' Gibbon. 
 
14 
 
 ingeniously sowcil the seeds of civilization and literature ; and if 
 they yielded a late and scanty harvest, it was owing to no want of 
 care or industry on the part of the husbandmen, but to the storms 
 of the limes and to the nature of the soil. Every scholar knows 
 the prejudice of the northern barbarians against letters. A Gothic 
 King believed that such effeminate arts suited only his Greek or 
 Roman vassals, and he declared that he would not allow his son 
 to disgrace himself by an education, lest he might "degenerate 
 from the glorious ignorance of his ancestors. " What could be done 
 with such rough and stubborn materials? How could the Clergy 
 educate a whole nation of such people? Must they give up the 
 Gospel, and teach Grammar, Rhetoric, and Philosophy? As well 
 might you expect that the pastor of this congregation would tra- 
 verse the neighborhood and teach the poor and the ignorant the 
 secrets of Mathematics or Chemistry. But although they could 
 not descend thus individually to every family, they did every thing 
 by their writings, opinions and oral instructions, to enlighten the 
 minds of the people, to polish their rude manners and to reform 
 their barbarous customs. 
 
 To them we are entirely indebted for the institution of humane 
 and useful laws, for the abolition of barbarous punishments, of 
 slavery and of vassalage. To them too are we indebted not only 
 for the preservation, but for the very existence of polite literature, 
 which they continued down to their successors like an old family 
 estate, sometimes enlarging it by their own intellectual labors, at 
 others leaving it to the ravages of time and decay. Yet if they 
 did neglect it for a time, it was only to watch more sacred treasures, 
 their religion and the souls of their flocks. To their pious and 
 provident zeal, Spain, Italy, France, England and Germany, owe 
 all their religious and literary institutions. They founded schools 
 and colleges. They taught, they lectured, they wrote; and they 
 could boast a larger number of admiring and devoted students than 
 the most celebrated of our modern Universities. Why will men 
 
say that, lliey were the enemies of literature? Where is tlie prool 
 of it? All history is against it. The loiul voice of pas( ccnlurios 
 condemns the slanderous assertion: and many a venerable scholar, 
 indignant at the impudent falsehood, rises up from the depths of 
 the dark ages to denounce (he injustice and to disprove the calumny. 
 Thus far I have shown how the Clergy introduced religion, 
 civilization and a knowledge of letters, amongst the northern bar- 
 barians ; and we have yet to see whether their policy was guided 
 by sinister motives, whether civilization was but a milder way of 
 reducing them to slavery, and whether the doctrines of religion 
 were only meant to exclude the light of literature, in order to keep 
 the people in ignorance of their rights and to confirm (he power of 
 the Church. In a country like this, where freedom is justly regarded 
 as one of the greatest earthly blessings, the question possesses pecul- 
 iar interest; for if we find that the Clergy, though they generously 
 yielded every thing else, yet selfishly retained this one great element 
 of human happiness, we can no longer regard them as the bene- 
 factors, much less as the true shepherds of the flock of Christ. But 
 the history of the past redeems them from the disgraceful imputa- 
 tion; and proves that they had not only the )nagnanimity to ac- 
 knowledge, but the acutcness to define and the courage to defend 
 the rights of the people. When men have accumulated treasure, 
 their care in preserving it is in proportion to the time and labor 
 which they spent in acquiring it. The struggle of the Clergy 
 with the barbarians was long and anxious ; and the conquest, though 
 late, was vast and glorious : and we cannot suppose that after such 
 a loss of sweat and blood, they did not guard it with the most 
 cautious vigilance. They had, by the toil of centuries, succeeded 
 in lesloring law and order to Europe; and we nuisl not think that 
 their zeal abated or their efforts relaxed at a period when (he rich 
 harvest was ripening, and when the ambition or (yranny of some 
 aspiring chieftain might have blasted (he labor of centuries. Indeed 
 this was the most important crisis in their career. In vain had (hey 
 
civilized, in vain Iiad they enlightened the people, if they still de- 
 nied them their civil rights or allowed others to keep in subjection. 
 So nuich of human happiness depends upon the enjoyment of 
 civil liberty, that it is almost as essential to the growth and exercise 
 of our faculties, as air is to the sustenance of life, or space to the 
 motion of the body. And there never were men more sensible of 
 this than the Clergy. No men ever entertained clearer or juster 
 views on the subject of popular rights. Their political doctrines 
 would be listened to with reverence and delight even in the land 
 of Washington. They do honor to themselves, to religion and to 
 liuman nature : and the catholic and the lover of liberty, may be 
 justly proud, as they go up through the middle ages and meet with 
 men, whom they had supposed to be the enemies of freedom or 
 tlie advocates of despotism, asserting the rights of the people, with 
 a force and a dignity that would do honor to an American Patriot. 
 They proclaimed in their writings and maintained in their national 
 assemblies (against Kings and Emperors,) the true principles of hu- 
 man government, that all political power is derived from the people, 
 that kings are not born to command, and that they have no divine 
 or hereditary right to rule mankind. They, poor, simple people ! 
 never dreamt of the divine right of Kings, except as a matter of 
 abstract speculation, and even then, only to refute and condemn 
 it. Such a sublime doctrine could not be comprehended by the 
 gross intellects of our unenlightened ancestors, but was reserved 
 for the capacious minds of the sixteenth century, when, with other 
 splendid revelations, it added to the slock of light and knowledge. 
 No men have left behind them more impartial evidence of their 
 opinions and principles than the Catholic Clergy. As they were 
 the honest convictions of their hearts, they declared them without 
 reserve, and had the sincerit}^ and manliness to reduce them to 
 practice. The proofs of their exertions in favor of civil liberty 
 are the most clear and undeniable, and are within the reach of 
 every student; as they may be derived from general as well as 
 
17 
 
 particular history. Tlieir writings will furnish the most authentic 
 record of their principles; while we must appeal to general history 
 for the proof of their consistency. And the testimony from boili 
 these sources, is so strong and abundant that it cannot fail to con- 
 vince the most careless or prejudiced reader. There is scarcely a 
 writer of any eminence amongst the clergy of the middle ages, 
 that does not maintain the supremacy of the people, and perhaps 
 you may have some curiosity to liear them state their opinions and 
 define their doctrines in their own concise and manly language. 
 As early as the eighth century, Pope Zachary, in writing to the 
 French, has these remarkable words: "The prince is responsible 
 to the people whose favor he enjoys; whatever he has, power, 
 honor, riches, glory, dignity, he has received from the people, and 
 he ought to restore to the people, what he has so received from 
 them. The people make the king, they can also unmake him. "* 
 And the same enlightened views, were adopted and repeated by 
 his successors and by the most eminent theologians. There is one 
 especially that rises high above all others, and embodies in his 
 writings the opinions of the clergy, and the spirit of the age in 
 which he lived. A great scholar; as venerable for the spotless 
 sanctity of his life, as renowned for the comprehensiveness of his 
 mind, the vastness of his knowledge, and the variety of his labors 
 in divinity and scholastic theology ; unquestionably the most pro- 
 found, the most acute, and correct writer of the middle ages, per- 
 haps of any age or nation — St. Thomas Aquinas. He was deser- 
 vedly styled the Angelic Doctor; and his writings procured for hini 
 a wider fame and much higher authority, than even Aristotle had 
 ever enjoyed. They were read by every scholar, they were taught 
 by almost eveiy theologian. And not only did they subscribe to 
 the doctrines of the church, which he defined and supported, but 
 
 * I quote this passage from a splendid article in the 15th No. of the Dublin 
 Review. The subject is continued through three numbers of that admirable 
 periodical. Nos. 15, 18, 19. 
 
18 
 
 they were willing to follow him in the very speculations that he 
 hazarded. He became a standard authority in all the schools of 
 Christendom; and even yet Protestants reproach us with a slavish 
 adherence to his opinions. His political views, therefore, would be 
 likely to be entertained by a large majority of his contemporaries 
 and successors, especially if those views were liberal, enlightened, 
 and favoring the rights of the people. And no man ever held 
 more rational, manly and generous opinions on the subject of popu- 
 lar government. He proclaims from the middle of the thirteenth 
 century, that " Kings do not rule by divine riglit but by human 
 authority; and that to decree any thing for the good of the com- 
 monwealth, belongs either to the people or to their representatives ;" 
 and (lays it down as a matter certain and examined,) that " political 
 governments and kingdoms are founded not on divine but on hu- 
 man law."* Now should the student meet with such a sentence 
 as this in Plato or Cicero, with what generous and patriotic feel- 
 ing would he return again and again to adjnire the noble passage 
 that gave such a death blow to tyranny! And could the man 
 who wrote that passage, who held such doctrine, be the advocate 
 of despotism or the enemy of civil liberty? Or is it hkely that he 
 would be opposed to the enlightenment of the people, while he so 
 clearly defined their rights and so fearlessly maintained their su- 
 premacy? Such a supposition would be absurd; and is equally 
 at variance with reason as it is with history and fact. 
 
 As we advance towards our own times the evidence accumu- 
 lates, and it would be too tedious and difficult to detail it. You 
 will pardon me, however, if I adduce one more proof of niy posi- 
 tion, from another writer of high authority in the Catholic Church; 
 and it is the more decisive and interesting, as the author maintain- 
 ed the supremacy of the people against the very body of men 
 
 * The leader will most readily find the original authorities in No. 15 of Dublin 
 Review, and permit me to add one or two more from St. Thomas: Contra 
 naturam est, hominem homini vellc dominari — eo quod dominium introductiun est 
 do. jure j^ontium, (juod est jus humanum. De fide, Quicst. 12, Art. 2. 
 
19 
 
 tliat charge ihc Catholic Clergy with being the enemies of civil 
 hl)erty. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in the reign 
 of Ehzabeth, and afterwards in that of James, when the " now en- 
 hghtened " clergy of the church of England were piously search- 
 ing the scriptures for divine authority to establish the divine right 
 of Kings, and forcing it upon the poor Dissenters by the gentle 
 suasion of rack and confiscation, Bellarmine, from the Vatican, 
 "from the very palace of the Pope," denounces all arbitrary or 
 irresponsible power as a usurpation, "and condemns it as false that 
 princes hold their power from God only: and that it belongs to 
 the people to determine, whether they shall be ruled by kings or 
 consuls:" that is whether their government shall be a monarchy 
 or a republic* And this is the doctrine that is held by all Catho- 
 lic theologians prior to the Reformation. But I had forgotten a 
 proof that I ought to have adduced sooner, but which may not 
 perhaps be less cogent or agreeable for being last. In the council 
 of Basil, held in the year 1431, we have both the votes and opin- 
 ions of a large assemblage of clergy, on the same sul)ject. When 
 the question was debated whether a Pope was above a Council, 
 or the contrary, f they asserted the sound republican doctrine "that 
 the Pope is in the church what a King is in his kingdom; and for 
 a King to be of more authority than his kingdom, it were too ab- 
 surd." And the same doctrine (I mean political doctrine,) was 
 taught throughout all Christendom; at Rome, Paris, Doway, In- 
 golstadt and Salamanca; nor was it confined to mere private dis- 
 cussion, it was published and known to all the world. 
 
 The same principles were embodied in the canon law ; 
 they formed the basis of the whole ecclesiastical polity, reached 
 through every grade of the hierarchy, anil presented the finest 
 
 * See Dublin Review, No. 15. 
 
 tl liope the reader will not charge me with maintaining Gallican doctrines, 
 or with making disputed points, articles of faith : I only use these facts as 1 find 
 them, to show what were the opinions of the clergy and catholic scholars generally, 
 on the subject of popular rights. 
 
20 
 
 model of a regular republic. Indeed the constitutioli of the 
 church was essentially republican. The accident of birth or for- 
 tune gave no hereditaiy title to rank or eminence; virtue, learn- 
 ing and ability, constituted the only legitimate claim to promotion 
 and distinction. The Pope was president of the vast republic. 
 And like our own President, he was elective, not hereditary, like 
 the sovereigns of Europe. And the inferior grades of the hierar- 
 chy were filled on the same principle. The highest dignities of 
 the church lay open to the poor as well as to the rich. The child 
 of the humblest cottager might lift his anxious eyes to the palace 
 of the Vatican, and amuse his boyish fancy with the bright hope 
 of being one day the sovereign of Christendom. And many a 
 poor boy that had been rescued from misery and obscurity, by the 
 timel}^ charity of the monks or cleigy, gradually rose by the force 
 of genius and the aid of generous patronage, to the dazzling 
 height of the first dignity in the christian world. Those who 
 liave read the history of the Popes will easily recollect, besides 
 many others, the names of Adrian and Sixtus. The latter was the 
 son of an obscure vine-dresser, and became one of the most dis- 
 tinguished pontiffs that ever honored the Tiara; the former left 
 England under the name of Nicolas Brakespeare, a poor, friend- 
 less mendicant, and after acquiring education and fame on the 
 continent, was raised to the chair of St. Peter, and was the only 
 Englishman that ever reached that high dignity. But it was 
 natural for the clergy to support a principle that favored their 
 ov/n security and advancement. It was their interest that the in- 
 ternal policy of the church should be republican, and that the 
 oflices of the hierarchy should be elective. But do we find them 
 as ready to admit the same doctrine in political matters or (o ex- 
 lend the same privilege to the people? Perhaps their exertions in 
 favor of civil liberty and equal rights, did not extend beyond their 
 own body, were limited to self-interest, or ended in barren specula- 
 tion. But they were not so ungenerous as to reserve to them- 
 
selves rights which were equally the patrinioay of others ; nor so 
 pusillanimous as to shrink from upholding their doctrines. They 
 had not one set of principles in theory and another for practice; 
 nor were they blest with such easy tempers and pliant consciences 
 as the enlightened men who succeeded to their places and their 
 property. What they taught and wrote in private, they had the 
 courage and consistency to maintain in public before the repre- 
 sentatives of the nation; and in the whole body of the clergy, 
 there was scarcely one to be found, to dissent from his brethren, or 
 prove false to his principles, except some minion of power, who 
 would have the baseness to yield his independence to support 
 " the odious doctrines of absolute power. " In the history of Eu- 
 rope, and in that of England especially, they have left the most 
 ample and undoubted evidence of their courage, consistency and 
 integrity. There is not a single instance on record in which we 
 ever find them opposed to the people, or supporting the preten- 
 sions of the monarch. They were always on the side of liberty, 
 and ever ready to restrain the grasping ambition of the prince. 
 They guarded the rights of the subject with the greatest care and 
 fidelity; and they watched the encroachments of the King with a 
 keen and jealous eye. They enforced upon the monarch, as well 
 as upon the meanest of his subjects, obedience to the laws and 
 statutes of the realm; nor was a coronation oath at that time a 
 mere idle ceremony as it became afterwards. The bishops re- 
 minded the prince in the strongest terms of his duly and of the 
 limits of his power; and they never failed to add, that should he 
 violate his oath or transgress the laws, the same power that gave 
 Iiim the crown would again recal it. And when he had violated 
 both his oath and the laws, they did not hesitate to depose liim. 
 Whenever a crisis occurred that seemed to endanger the rights of 
 the subject, or to extend the power of the crown, they were found 
 amongst the ranks of the people to aid them with their advice 
 and to prevent them from being over-reached by the subtle policy 
 
22 
 
 of tlicii oppicrfsors; and being independent of the crown and de- 
 voted to the interests of the people, they nobly withstood the 
 united force of bribery and intimidation; and neither threats nor 
 promises could make them yield one inch of diat sacred ground 
 which they believed to be the hereditary and lawful property of 
 the church and their flock. Although they were jealous of their 
 own rights, they had the most scrupulous regard for those of 
 others ; and they seemed to guard both with equal zeal and vigi- 
 lance. The reign of King John of England, affords a memora- 
 ble instance of their firmness and integrity.* They had shortly 
 before assisted the barons and the people in obtaining the " Magna 
 Charta ;" and John, thinking that he could easily procure a revo- 
 cation of the charter, if he onl}' had the clergy on iiis side, called 
 them to a secret council, and tried by the combined temptation of 
 power and privilege to persuade them to join him in opposition to 
 the barons and the people ; but they indignantly rejected the base 
 and infamous proposal. He took them apart; he urged, he threat- 
 ened them individually; yet, to their immortal honor be it said 
 and rememl)ered, that not one could be induced to support him. 
 Now if these men wished to enslave and degrade the people, liere 
 was a fine opportunity (which we have seen so eagerly grasped at 
 in later and more enlightened times,) of putting in execution their 
 schemes of tyranny, and of raising themselves not only above the 
 people but above the l)arons; but they preferred duty to interest, 
 principle to privilege, and civil liberty to court favor. 
 
 But I might have spared myself the trouble of detailing, and 
 you the fatigue of hearing, these particular proofs. I might have 
 contented myself with an appeal to general history, and it would 
 Iiuve borne ample testimony to the zeal and exertions of the 
 Clergy in the cause of civil liberty. 1 might have spoken of 
 their opposition to the Norman Kings and barons in defence c>f 
 the old Knglish population; of their introducing Roman laws in 
 
 * Dublin llevievv. 
 
the reign of Stephen; of their labors to restore the independence 
 of their country after tlie Norman conquest, and of the sahitary 
 provisions by which they endeavored to secure the rights of the 
 people; of their originating and obtaining the Magna Charta, and 
 of the sohcitude with which they preserved and guarded that sa- 
 cred document. I could have called up many a venerable wit- 
 ness to give evidence before you in support of my position ; and 
 might still bring to your recollection the names of Hubert, Lan- 
 franc, Langton and others : but I have already trespassed so long 
 upon your kind attention, that I have not time to detail their 
 achievements in policy or religion; nor, if I had, have I the 
 ability to do justice to their merits. I must, therefore, leave you 
 to study and to admire their characters in reading their histories. 
 Where then is the proof that the Catholic Clergy have been the 
 enemies of civil liberty, or that they were opposed to free institu- 
 tions and to the enlightenment of the people? Is it in their his- 
 tor}^ or their writings? Both, as we have seen, prove directly the 
 contrary. Is it in the attachment and devotion of the people; 
 in the grateful homage which they paid to their virtues and learn- 
 ing? Surely they would not have regarded with such undeserved 
 veneration, those who would enslave and degrade them. Men 
 are not accustomed so to love and venerate their enemies and op- 
 pressors: such feelings they reserve for their friends and benefac- 
 tors; and we may justly conclude that the Clergy were the 
 friends and benefactors of the people ; that so far from attempting 
 to enslave or degrade them, they did every thing that men in such 
 times and circumstances could do, to improve their condition and 
 to increase their happiness : and that to them the world is in- 
 debted not only for religion and civilization, but for the preserva- 
 tion of literature and civil liberty. Their labors have been de- 
 spised or forgotten, yet they are not without an ample reward. 
 They received, while on earth, the grateful homage of an admir- 
 ing and devoted people, and in a hotter world, a crown of nc\er 
 
24 
 
 fading glory, for their long and faithful ministry in the temples 
 of Religion, Liberty and Literature. Their laurels have been 
 blasted on earlh, they bloom eternal in heaven. They have been 
 denied the poor and scanty boon of human praise, they have re- 
 ceived tire welcome and the applause of Angels. 
 
 "By Fairy hands their knell is rung. 
 
 By forms unseen their dirge is sung. 
 
 Their honor comes, a pilgrim grey, 
 
 To bless the turf that wraps their clay; 
 
 And Freedom shall a while repair, 
 
 To dwell a weeping hermit diere." — Collins. 
 
 Since I have now discussed, and attempted to establish, the 
 claims of the Catholic Clergy, to the praise and gratitude of man- 
 kind; you will, I trust, permit- me to turn for a few moments to 
 the other side of the question : to see what the Church of Eng- 
 land has done for civil and religious liberty; and what advantages 
 have been conferred upon society by the revolutions both in faith 
 and government of the Sixteenth Century. Before that period 
 there w^as but one religion; and that Religion bound together 
 the nations of Europe in common sympathy. This miited the 
 people of one nation with those of another, the Clergy again 
 with the people ; gave the greatest weight and efficacy to their 
 efforts, and powerfully operated for their mutual defence and sup- 
 port. But the change of religion broke the unity of Christen- 
 dom, divided its force, seperated the people from the Clergy, and 
 left them to the mercy of ever}- petty tyrant, who was glad to 
 have them thus singled out and unable to resist his power; and to 
 have such ready materials that constanll}^ supplied him with new 
 subjects for any wild experiment which he might choose to make 
 in religion or government. 
 
 Again, the Clergy had been cntirel)^ independent of the crown ; 
 as the right of nominating to places and benefices belonged ex- 
 
25 
 
 clusively to lliemselves and the Pope. They were under no couit 
 influence. They owed no obedience to any temporal prince, be- 
 cause the mode of their appointment gave them an independent 
 title to their places, and put them beyond the influence of the 
 sovereign. * Now by making the King the supreme head of the 
 Church, the people were for ever deprived of the support of the 
 Clergy, and left to maintain an unequal contest against the great 
 " allied powers of Church and State. " Thus was given the last 
 blow to the temple of liberty, which our fathers had been six 
 hundred years in raising; it fell, and crushed in its fall the liber- 
 ties of Europe: 
 
 "A thousand years scarce serve to form a State, 
 
 An hour may lay it in the dust ! 
 
 And when shall man its shattered splendor renovate? 
 
 When call its glories back and vanquish time and fate?" 
 
 What a powerful aid, what a miglity impulse was thus given to 
 the youthful energies of despotism ! In ancient times the Clergy 
 stood between the throne and the people to watch the one and to 
 protect the other; but the inventive genius and royal policy of 
 the sixteenth century wisely placed them under the throne to sup- 
 port the growing weight of despotism. And there they have lain 
 slumbering for the last three centuries, without disturbing their 
 inglorious repose, except now and then to preach to the people 
 the "pious and godly" doctrines of die divine right of Kings and 
 of passive submission.f 
 
 * These remarks, as well as some that I have made in othrr places, must not 
 be understood to apply to any denomination of Christians in this country; as I am 
 speaking of a body of men who, with their doctrines and principles, have passed 
 away ; and if I include their successors, the censure cainiot extend to those who 
 no longer recognize their authority either in religion or government. The great 
 and good men of the Revolution had the sense and manliness to reject it in both ; 
 and most of us, I may presume, are rather willing to applaud ti\an to condemn their 
 conduct. 
 
 t Or in the language of the British Critic, " the christian duties of passive 
 obedience and non-resistance." No. 55, page 86. 
 
26 
 
 Then ensued a dynasty that might have vied with that of 
 Bagdad or Grenada ; and the people were astonished to find that 
 with their rehgion they had lost their liberty; that instead of their 
 good old kings they had arbitrary monarchs; instead of an up- 
 right and independent Clergy, they had courtly slaves, who bow- 
 ed and knelt and adored more devoutly before the throne than 
 they did before the altar. They saw men yield to the prince the 
 homage not of fealty, but of flattery, voluntary, servile flattery, 
 for their pensions or their places ; and the men who ought to be 
 the ministers of God becoi^ie the ministers of a tyrant. They no 
 longer saw a Derastan, a Becket or a Langton, to stand by the 
 people, and to meet with undaunted courage the frowns and 
 threats of an angry monarch. But they saw arise a new race of 
 men better suited to the times, with pliant principles and little in- 
 tegrity. They saw a VYolsey and a Cranmer, and the glory and 
 liberty of England were extinguished for ever. 
 
 It is a melancholy task to recount the triumphs of tyranny 
 over the liberties of a people ; and in reading the history of mod- 
 ern England, one feels as if he were following the march of 
 Philip or of Cajsar, and mourning over the fallen grandeur of 
 Athens or of Rome. 
 
 "'Twere long to tell and sad to trace, 
 Each step from splendor to disgrace." 
 
 Yes, the heart is saddened as we trace the "glory and the shame" 
 of England, and the ravages of her arms and avarice. They have 
 every where crushed or attempted to crush the rights and liberties 
 of the suljject. Is there a nation that has received the laws of 
 England and has not suffered by the change? Wherever she is 
 supreme, religion, property and liberty must yield lo her intoler- 
 ance, avarice and military despotism. 
 
 "Te semper anteit sicva necessitas, 
 Clavos trabales et cuncos mann. 
 Gestan'* alicno." 
 
And if she spares, or even nurses for a while, it is with tiie 
 cruel lenity of a greedy and voluptuous appetite, that her bigotry 
 may have a bloodier sacrifice and her avarice a fatter and a larger 
 victim. Is there a nation that she has rescued from slavery or bar- 
 barism ? Or if she found it enslaved or barbarous, has she not 
 made it worse by her avarice and military despotism? In the 
 East Indies, she found an idolatrous and degraded people : has she 
 enlightened their minds or improved their condition? No; she 
 has plunged them into deeper darkness and into lower degradation. 
 But she has emancipated her slaves in the West Indies ; yes, she 
 has changed the name without removing the cause of slavery. She 
 has taken the whip from the hands of the planter ; but it is only 
 to ply it more dextrously with her own maternal hands. What 
 avails this nominal emancipation of a iew little islands, while she 
 keeps whole nations in misery and degradation? With the ostent- 
 atious pride and capricious clemency of some Oriental monarch, 
 she leads forth in honor of freedom a few poor captives, to gratify 
 the crowd, or to add splendor to royalty, while she retains and op- 
 presses countless millions in slavish subjection. Acadia, Canada, 
 the East Indies, and England herself, will justify the comparison 
 and vindicate the assertion from falsehood or extravagance.* Why 
 will her writers talk a])Out the bigotry of the Catholic Clergy, and 
 claim for themselves the praise of toleration. Their hollow preten- 
 sions to liberality only remind us of their absurd encomiums on tlie 
 liberty and happiness of the English Nation; while the poor people 
 of that nation, unblest with either, cry for bread and groan be- 
 neath a load of taxes; and the only liberty and happiness they 
 enjoy, is the melancholy privilege of complaining of tiicir wrongs 
 and their oppressors. All that England and Englishmen have 
 done for civil and religious liberty — for the improvement or enlight- 
 
 •For Acadia, see No. 66 of the North American Review. For the East In- 
 diec, see the narrative of Bishop Heber, and for the ignorance and degiadafion of 
 English Mechanics and Operatives, sec the reports publislicd by order of Tarlia- 
 nient. 
 
28 
 
 ennienl of the people for the hist three hundred years, might have 
 been safely undertaken at the court of St. Petersburgh or in the city 
 of the Suhan. But why need I refer to past ages or to distant 
 countries? The very land in which we hve, the very day that 
 we celebrate, forcibly recall to our minds her distinguished servi- 
 ces in the cause of intolerance, and her impious attempts upon 
 the rights and liberties of her subjects. She was not content to 
 drive the Pilgrim Fathers of Maryland and New England, from 
 their native country, she still pursued their flight with unrelenting 
 hostility; and we might have been this day the "dutiful and lov- 
 ing subjects" of the Queen of England, had we not been rescued 
 from slavery and oppression, by the wisdom and the valor of the 
 descendants of those illustrious exiles. Honor, immortal honor 
 to America and to her gallant sons! she is the only nation that has 
 withstood and triumphed over British Arms. Others less fortu- 
 nate, though not less brave or devoted to freedom, had to yield a 
 reluctant submission; and at this moment there is a nation of as 
 noble souls and as warm hearts, as even America can boast, that 
 are pining and pent up in slavery; in a lovel}^ land that nature 
 has clothed with her fairest green and seems to have destined to 
 be the abode of freedom and happiness; but all the choicest gifts 
 of God and nature have been blasted by the cruelty and avarice 
 of her oppressors. There you see a living and familiar instance, 
 a lasting monument of the sinister zeal and destructive policy of 
 the Church of England, and of the devotion of the Catholic 
 Clergy to civil and religious liberty. There you can read in dark 
 and bloody characters the long annals of bigotry and misrule. 
 There you see in close opposition the principles of the Clergy 
 and those of dieir enemies, and they are as different as the creeds 
 which they profess. For three hundred years the one has been 
 oppressing; for three hundred years the other has been upholding 
 the rights of the people; and with persecution goading them on 
 one side, and every temptation to seduce them on the other, they 
 
29 
 
 have nobly clung to the people, and the people to them, and not 
 all the combined force of power, persuasion, disgrace, persecution 
 and death could break the firm alliance ; or make them yield one 
 tittle of their faith, one inch of that ground where they have con- 
 tended for ages. Their tears and their sufferings have endeared 
 them to each other: they have fought so long and bravely side 
 by side that they cannot think of parting. Like old and generous 
 comrades on the field of battle, they must conquer or die, survive 
 or perish, on the same ground that has drunk their tears and their 
 blood. Poor, unfortunate, but magnanimous Ireland ! More glori- 
 ous in her sufferings than other nations in their military achieve- 
 ments. In other countries the war has ceased, here it still rages 
 with unabated fury. Some, unable to avenge their wrongs or to 
 vindicate their liberty, laid down their arms and yielded to for- 
 tune: others retired from the contest, abandoning the cause and 
 basely surrendering their faith and their freedom: but she nobly 
 remains upon the battle-ground, "soiled with no inglorious dust,"* 
 awaiting the dawn of victory to give lustre to her arms, and pro- 
 claiming with chivalrous valour that the ground upon which she 
 stands is still her own. In such a long and desperate struggle it 
 vi'as hard for her to preserve her virgin purity; yet not all the 
 strength and malice of her enemy could wrest from her hand the 
 priceless jewel of her faith: with firm and unyielding grasp she 
 held it, transmitting from sire to son unsullied, bright and unim- 
 paired as she had received it from the hands of her own great 
 Apostle; and now she is rising np from the unequal contest, vig- 
 orous, undaunted and invincible, with the best religion and the 
 best morality in Europe. 
 
 "dieses profundo pulchrior evenit," 
 
 Plunge her in the bloody tide of persecution, she will arise more 
 beautiful; and after all the melancholy vicissitudes of her extra- 
 *Non indecoro pulvere sonlidos. Hoh. 
 
30 
 
 ordinary fale, she still steers her glorious course over the ocean of 
 time, leaving behind her a long track of living light, while all the 
 monsters that from age to age have risen about her sides to intimi- 
 date her mariners or to obstruct her path, have gone down into 
 merited oblivion and sunk info everlasting night. Such has been 
 the final triumph of truth, religion and liberty in all ages, and 
 such too has been the merited fate of all those bigots and tyrants 
 that would persecute or enslave mankind. 
 
 But we may fondly, perhaps justly, hope that a brighter era 
 is breaking upon the world ; and that truth and liberty, if they do 
 not precede, may at least follow the slow march of enlighten- 
 ment: that there will come an age, however distant, when they 
 shall triumph over bigotry and tyranny; when their empire shall 
 be commensurate ; — when growing like the mountain in the 
 vision of the Prophet, it shall fill the whole earth ; reach down 
 to the last of the human race, bless the humblest peasant with 
 true religion and with real happiness, enlarge his mind for the in- 
 vestigation and comprehension of the one and prepare and elevate 
 his soul for the enjoyment of the other. 
 
 Truth and liberty seemto be in some measure co-existent and 
 inseparable; and the latter is in many cases only the exponent or 
 consequence of the former. I have already shown the close union 
 between them, and how they mutually supported and defended each 
 other in past ages, how liberty was inviolate, as long as truth was 
 held sacred, and how the Temple of Liberty fell, when the " Pillar 
 and Ground of Truth" was torn away; and we may justly infer 
 that we never can secure to our religion or our country the enjoy- 
 ment of permanent and rational liberty, unless it be grounded upon 
 the solid and everlasting basis of truth ; I mean upon principles of 
 true religion and sound policy. There is no country, perhaps, to 
 which we may look more reasonably for the fulfilment of these 
 hopes, than to America. Here may we expect that the longing de- 
 sires of the sincere Christian will be amply gratified, and the bright- 
 
31 
 
 pst visions of the (rue philanthropist lully roahzetj. Here too niav 
 we hope that that philosophy, taking- a wider and more elevated 
 range both in religion and government than il has taken in some 
 conntries of the old world, will extend the narrow limits assigned to 
 it by the prejudice, bigotry and scepticism of English writers, intro- 
 duce a fairer and more rational criticism, and give a better and loftier 
 tone to history; and that the free American, rising nobly above 
 all the considerations of interest, party or prejudice, will have the 
 ' magnanimity to proclaim the truths of history to his candid and 
 enlightened countrymen. Then, and not till then, let the history 
 of the Catholic Clergy be written; for (hen will it be fairly writ- 
 ten and rightly understood. Then those dark shades which ig- 
 norance or prejudice may have thrown upon their characters, will 
 only give a bolder relief to their virtues, and display in a clearer 
 and more brilliant light their long and laborious services in the 
 cause of religion and humanity. And the lover of truth and lib- 
 erty, will sigh with generous regret for their unworthy treatment, 
 and pay them the merited tribute of his admiration and gratitude : 
 while he shall feel just indignation at the baseness and perfidy of 
 the men, who could wantonly and wilfully traduce them. Then 
 shall it appear that, so far from being the enemies, they were the 
 true friends and benefactors of mankind ; that their piety was not 
 hypocrisy, their zeal was not fanaticism, and their devotion to the 
 interests of the people, not the result of crafty policy, but the 
 effect of a pure, benevolent and disinterested love of human- 
 kind. This is all that we can look for here ; the rest will appear 
 on that day when the secrets of hearts shall be revealed ; when 
 prejudice, bigotry and falsehood shall have passed away amid the 
 other gross and sordid matter that surrounds us; and that truth, 
 religion and liberty, which the Catholic Clergy taught and de- 
 fended while on earth, shall shine above the stars of heaven, glo- 
 rious, triumphant and immortal, beyond the sneer of the infidel, 
 the zeal of the bigot, and the power of the tyrant. 
 
QO lililllllllllllllllilillllllllllllllllllllll 
 
 014 368 135 P i 
 
 It is not liowever to the historian anil the philosopher alone, 
 that we should look for the conection of error and the spread of 
 truth. Each one of us however obscure his condition or narrow 
 his sphere in life, may in some way lend an humble support to 
 the sacred cause; either by removing prejudices or by the gradual 
 dissemination of sound and useful knowledge. He may, by 
 simple explanation or by sober argument, influence the opinions 
 not only of individuals, but of communities; and thus diffuse 
 some feeble but warming rays of intellectual and religious light, 
 upon the colder and darker bodies that move around him. How- 
 ever small his influence may be, yet the little that he does, like 
 the pebble dropped upon the surface of the ocean, may produce a 
 wide though imperceptible undulation, and many a distant and 
 candid mind may feel the silent impulse and yield to conviction. 
 Then shall he have faithfully discliarged his duties to society, and 
 honorably filled that post which God has assigned him in the hu- 
 man system. And he may humbly trust that he shall not have 
 lived in vain, and die with the proud consciousness, that even he 
 has added something to the liberty and happiness of his race. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 368 135 A' •