1765 O/irfJl t iife:!i : : '\iyuim\i l|!i|i:i!i| ' .ilii! ■I i i Wl ikxM% Committee Thomas E. Bond, ) Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York, by The American Protestant Society. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I Historical Sketch of Papal Rome - - - 5 CHAPTER II. Christian Spirit of American Institutions - - - 20 CHAPTER III. Republican Institutions contrasted with the policy of Rome upon the subject of Popular Education - - 26 CHAPTER IV. The Influence of Romanism upon Liberty of Thought 38 CHAPTER V. The Intolerance of Rome - - - - - 46 CHAPTER VI. The Influence of Romanism upon Civil Liberty and Love of Country - 55 CHAPTER VII. The Influence of Romanism upon Morality, Industry, and Property -------67 CHAPTER VIII. Jesuitism - 80 CHAPTER IX. Conclusion --- 95 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS, CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PAPAL ROME. The subject proposed for this essay involves principles vital to the welfare of every age and country. Religious belief is implanted in the nature of man. It is the only bond that con- nects him with the skies. The needs of the body, its pains and even its pleasures perpetual- ly remind him that he is born of earth, and must return whence he came ; but this feeling assures him that, in part at least, he may claim a nobler origin and more important destiny. It is the impulse of an immortal and imprison- ed spirit, a yearning after the freedom of a higher world. The vice and barbarism of a people will not destroy it ; they may oppress it with the most senseless and fantastic ceremo- nies, they may stifle it beneath cruel rights and degrading customs, but it will still exist ; they can never eradicate it. That nation has not been known which was destitute of all traces 1* O ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH of religious belief and worship ; and in propor- tion as these have been elevated or debased, national character, social and political regula- tions have felt their influence for good or for evil. The religions of the old world, from the national ritual of the Jews to the languid, in- different spirit of paganism, have stamped their followers with an impress which has ceased to exist only with their political existence. The former it has bound together by ties, which dis- tance, neither of time nor place could sunder ; it has preserved their hereditary character and kept them a nation amid the nations, without laws, without the bond of a common language, peculiar and alike, in all climates and under all circumstances of degradation. The influence of the Papal religion also, sinking as it has with every century deeper and deeper in cor- ruption, is too evident in the history of the past for us to undervalue its importance. But the eye of an observer may see its tendency in its spirit. He need not wait for the deductions of experience but may draw, a priori, the most valid conclusions from a glance at the nature and purpose of its institutions. The pure and simple religion, taught by the Saviour and spread abroad by the mission of his apostles, did not long remain uncorrupted. For not more than two centuries did Christiani- ty exist in its original purity. The introduction of rank among the clergy, whatever may be the opinion as to its usefulness in maintaining order and enforcing discipline, was certainly cal- REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 7 culated to excite in the bosom of aspirants a passion which of all others is most at variance with the precepts of the gospel. As the wealth of the church increased, a distinction of office brought with it a distinction of power ; Ecclesi- astical rank was endowed with more than spi- ritual authority. The purer manners of the earlier bishops, in their successors degenerated into licence ; and the ambition to wield the rev- enues of the more opulent sees gave rise to shameful disorders. With the conversion of Constantine, Christi- anity became the religion of the state ; and as a result of this unholy union a train of evils was introduced into the bosom of the church which speaks with a voice of warning to the world. With the simplicity, the sincerity and charity of religion seemed also to perish. Its vitality was oppressed with a burden of pride and vain display; and the doctrines of the apostles, good will and love to men, were no longer practised by those who claimed authori- ty as their successors. Heresies raged with un- exampled violence ; and in punishing and re- pressing schism the christians forgot the perse- cutions they had so lately suffered, or remem- bered the lesson only to practise it against their erring brethren. It is a melancholy trait in the character of man, that with power he al- most necessarily loses a true sense of his duties and of the rights of his fellows. When at a distance he desires it perhaps only for a good end ; but as if its very possession tarnished the 8 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH purity of the soul, when attained, he exercises it with a far different purpose. Supreme good- ness alone is able to withstand the corrupting influence of supreme authority. But with the principles of the gospel the christians seem also to have forgotten those of worldly prudence. They stood in the pres- ence of an alert and dexterous enemy. The ancient religion of Rome, though it had lost the favour of the emperor was not abolished, nor indeed, greatly oppressed. A large portion of the senate with many of the learned and noble still adhered to the faith of their ancestors ; and the disorders of the church afforded to their philosophers an ample theme for scandal and rebuke. Heathenism reared its head again for a time under Julian, but the life of that emper- or was too short to nourish its aged frame into strength. Its final overthrow however was re- tarded for more than half a century, when, un- der the reign of Theodosius it was completely destroyed. The severities of persecution which had already been ingrafted upon the church were ready to enforce the edicts of the emperor and the zeal of the clergy ; but Paganism was of a nature too yielding to offer an obstinate resist- ance. The spirit of martyrdom was foreign to it. Its hold upon the hearts and minds of its votaries was too weak to inspire that enthusias- tic devotion which raises its possessor above every fear. A few philosophers, a few interested magis- trates lamented its approaching downfall ; the REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 9 priests pleaded for their temples and sacrifices, we hear their complaints sighing like a dirge over the ruins of a corrupt polytheism, but they could not avert its dissolution. Its life in- deed had long been extinct. The carcase re- mained, lying in pompous state, propped by splendid ceremonies, while paint and perfume varnished over its decay ; but it was silent, it had no longer a voice for the people. When the genius of Christianity touched it with its wand it crumbled into dust, and the wonder was, that materials so corrupt could so long wear a semblance of vitality. Secure in the protection of imperial authori- ty, with the revenues of ruined Paganism in her hands, the church put on its corruptions. Her priests affected the state of princes. Unscru- pulous intrigue and open violence proved often their only title to the episcopal chair ; and at the decease of each incumbent his seat became a prize for the contentions of the aspiring, to be gained by faction, bribery and bloodshed. Nor was the temptation a slight one. Wealth, au- thority, unbounded influence over the minds of the people were never failing sources of luxury to spur the ambition of the candidates. " When I consider the splendor of our capital" says a Pagan historian of the age, " I am not aston- ished that so valuable a prize should inflame the desires of ambitious men, and produce the fiercest and most obstinate conflicts ; the suc- cessive candidate is secure that he will be en- riched by the offerings of the matrons, that as 10 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH soon as his dress is composed with becoming care and elegance, he may proceed in his char- iot through the streets of Rome ; and that the sumptuousness of the imperial table will not equal the profuse and delicate entertainments provided by the taste, and at the expense of the Roman pontiffs." Besides the revenues of Pa- ganism, the riches of the church were still in- creased by the voluntary contributions of its vo- taries, but the spirit of filial charity which once prompted them had given way to motives of debasing superstition. The approaching judg- ment was held up to their fears, while pilgrim- ages, false miracles and pretended relics crowd- ed fast one upon another, to stimulate an en- thusiastic and ill directed devotion, and swell the coffers of the hierarchy with the treasures of timorous or fanatical proselytes. The so- lemnity of the death-bed, a moment of all oth- ers most fitting to impress the heart with the vanity of worldly goods, was not sacred to the rapacity of a covetous priesthood. Its ministers watched with impious vigilance for the expect- ed hour, and amid the consolations of a treach- erous religion, enticed or extorted large dona- tions and bequests as a most certain reparation for past sins, and the surest means of future salvation. The fears and sensibilities of de- vout females who embraced the christian reli- gion with characteristic ardour, were most often and most easily swayed by the arts of the cler- gy. Affection for their spiritual advisers, an anxiety for their own salvation, made them REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 11 lend a ready ear to counsels whispered to their affrighted consciences. They impoverished their estates while living, and bequeathed them to the church at death. In the latter part of the fourth century an attempt was made by Valentinian to restrain this licence. By an imperial decree a priest was forbidden to receive any gift, legacy or inheritance from a female whose conscience was entrusted to his care. " I am ashamed to say" are the words of St. Jerome " that the ministers of idols, comedians, charioteers &c, &c, are permitted to receive bequests. This prohibition extends to the cler- gy and monks alone. And the prohibition does not come from a persecuting but from a christian prince. I do not complain of the law, but I complain that we have deserved the law." In course of time " to die without allotting a portion of wealth to pious uses was accounted almost like suicide or a refusal of the last sac- raments, and hence intestacy passed for a sort of fraud upon the church, which she punished by taking the admimstration of the deceased's effects into her own hands."* All the rites and sacraments of the church were turned from their proper use, and con- verted into means of gain, until at last for money man took it upon himself to pardon sin and to reconcile his fellow man with an offended deity. Pure doctrine was now neg- lected, morality altogether disregarded; even the most inhuman crimes were of little mo- * Hallam's Middle Ages. 12 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH ment if the offender took care to be liberal to the church. This was made the distinguish- ing characteristic of a true christian. The following definition is in the words of Eligius, a saint of the seventh century, who was re markable among other qualifications for an aptness in discovering relics and the tombs of martyrs. " He is a good christian who comes often to church and brings his offering to be laid on the altar of God ; who does not taste of his produce until he has offered some of it to God ; who as often as the holy solemnities return keeps himself for some days pure even from his own wife, that he may come to the altar of God with a safe conscience ; and who finally has committed the creed or the Lord's prayer. Redeem your souls from punishment while you have the means in your power; present oblations and tithes to the church ; bring candles to the holy places according to your wealth, and come often to the church, and beg suppliantly for the intercession of the saints. If ye do these things ye may come with confidence before the tribunal of the eternal God in the day of judgment and say — Give, Lord, for we have given unto thee."* Gregory of Tours, a saint like the other, after relating a most atrocious story of Clovis (the murder of a prince whom he had previously instigated to parricide) continues the sentence, " for God daily subdued his enemies to his hand and increased his kingdom, be- * Mosheim. REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 13 cause he walked before him in uprightness and did what was pleasing in his eyes."* The same love of dominion which had incited the presbyters to exalt themselves above their equals, after a time raged among the bishops themselves. Each was jealous of the authority of the other, and magnified the im- portance of his own see according as the splen- dour of the episcopal city and the number of its relics, miracles and martyrs might seem to justify its claims to superiority. The metro- politan cities, Rome, Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople in turn advanced their preten- sions to the primacy. But the reverence paid to the ancient capital of the empire, a doubtful tradition of the ministry and martyrdom of St. Peter within her walls, and above all the vigour of her bishops with some favourable circumstances of the times, strengthened the claims and at last established the title and au- thority of the see of Rome. The progress of the papal power was so gradual that there is some difficulty in fixing its era. As late as the close of the sixth cen- tury, we find Gregory the great bishop of Rome, while opposing the claims of the patri- arch of Constantinople, pronouncing the title of universal bishop to be blasphemous, anti- christian and diabolical by whom soever as- sumed. This did not however prevent his successor Boniface III. from accepting that dig- nity at the hands of the emperor Phocas, and * Hallam 2 14 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH from this period (607) we may date the com- plete establishment of the ecclesiastical au- thority of the Pope. Corruption now advanced with rapid strides. Heathenism seemed to have revived again to find vengeance for its fall. The church catholic opened its arms to her old enemy, revived its ritual, imbibed its spirit and tottered on her way through centu- ries of darkness, sinking deeper and deeper in the mire of polytheism, encumbered with forms and ceremonies, such as she had once suffered so much to destroy. Saint after saint took his place in the calendar, image after image in the temples. It was no longer Di- vus Augustus or Nerva but St. Dominic and St. Francis. St. Mary usurped the place of the Queen of Heaven,* and the statues of * " It is difficult to conceive " says Hallam in his History of the Middle Ages " the stupid absurdity and disgusting profaneness of those stories which were invented by the monks to do her honour." The following he gives in a note, page 250, Vol. II. " At the monastery of St. Peter near Cologne, lived a monk perfectly dissolute and irreligious, but very devout toward the Apostle. Unluckily he died suddenly without confession. The fiends came as usual to seize his soul. St. Peter vexed at losing so faithful a votary besought God to admit the monk into Paradise. His prayer was refused, and though the whole body of saints, apostles, angels and martyrs joined at his request to make interest it was of no avail. In this extremity he had re- course to the Mother of God. ' Fair Lady ' he said ' my monk is lost if you do not interfere for him, but what is im- possible for us will be but sport to you if you please to as- sist us. Your son, if you but speak a word must yield, since it is in your power to command him.' The Queen Mother assented, and followed by all the virgins moved towards her son. He who had himself given the precept ' Honour thy REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 15 Phidias and Lysippus were pushed from their pedestals to give place to those of Rom- ish idolatry. To the palladium and the shields of Mars succeeded the wood of the cross and the pretended relics of saints and martyrs. The Pontifex Maximus and College of Au- gurs no longer watched the flight of birds or interpreted the omens of sacrifice, but another pontiff and another college of priests insulted the majesty of heaven with ceremonies equally senseless and profane. Next came the dogma of transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, and the claim of authority over the kingdoms of the earth ; then followed the ban of inter- dict and the sale of indulgences, until the in- genuity of Rome seemed to have exhausted itself, and paused as if at a loss what new father and thy mother ' no sooner saw his own parent ap- proach than he rose to receive her, and taking her by the hand inquired her wishes. The rest may easily be conjec- tured. Compare the gross stupidity or rather the atrocious impiety of this tale with the pure theism of the Arabian Nights, and judge whether the deity was better worshipped at Cologne or at Bagdad. " It is unnecessary to multiply instances of this kind. In one tale the virgin takes the shape of a nun, who had eloped from a convent and performs her duties ten years, till tired of a libertine life she returns unsuspected. This was in consideration of her having never omitted to say an Ave as she passed the Virgin's image. In another, a gentle- man in love with a handsome widow, consents at the insti- gation of a sorceress to renounce God and the saints, but cannot be persuaded to give up the Virgin, well knowing that if he kept her his friend he should obtain pardon through her means. Accordingly she inspired his mistress with so much passion that he married her within a few days." L6 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH claims to make upon the credulity and super- stition of her followers. And the private mor- als of its rulers were worthy of their faith. Pride, cruelty, avarice and licentiousness were marks by which they might be distinguished above their fellow-men. The "servant of servants " became the tyrant over kings. To give particular examples and names would be a useless labour wheie almost all could claim pre-eminence in guilt; and to number their vices would unroll a catalogue of crimes too iniquitous to be expressed in the vulgar tongue ; crimes which require the refinement of the Greek and copiousness of the Latin to ex- plain their nature — crimes which we scarcely understand when explained. Sounds of re- proof and warning were stifled in the smoke and flame of the burning faggot. The inqui- sition built its dungeons, filled them with vic- tims and invented new tortures for them, un- known to the milder spirit of heathenism. Religion and humanity seemed extinct. As in the great deluge, desolation covered the tops of the mountains, and the ark which bore the faith and the liberties of the world was tossed to and fro upon angry waters. If a messen- ger were sent forth to see if a place were left where prosperity and pure religion might be planted anew, he found no rest for the sole of his foot. None brought back the olive branch. But the tempest at last subsided. While the drops were falling upon the wheel and scaffold, a new light arose, and cast upon them a bow REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 17 of premise. With the revival of Literature, a spirit of humanity, of free enquiry and of liberty revived. The people and princes of the North were weary of ecclesiastical tyranny and when Luther spoke his words throbbed to the very heart of Europe, from the Tiber to the Baltic. Weaker voices had been heard before and died away, not lost, but spreading wide like the circling of the lake when a pebble falls into its waters ; but with him the north wind blew and rolled back the turbulent flood. The best portion of Europe was rent at once from the Papal yoke. England and most of the German states, the Low countries, Sweden and Denmark welcomed the Reformation, and in all it planted the seeds of Liberty. This hasty sketch of the gradual corruption of the church is not overdrawn. The pages of History will fill up the picture in colours suited to the gloomy outline. And if we turn back upon our steps, and regard the social and political condition of Christendom during the twelve centuries which preceded the Reforma- tion, we shall recognise the unhappy influence of the Papacy upon Literature, arts, arms, liberty, and public as well as private morals. Where she has been weak herself she has undermined established authority ; where she has been strong, she has riveted the chains of despotism. By her system of monarchism she weakened the patriotism and military spirit of the ancient empire and precipitated its down- fall ; and when mistress of Rome, her annals 2* 18 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH are a long record of faction, licence and blood- shed. Probably the sufferings of no nation from the beginning of time can be compared with those of Italy from the reign of Honorius to the sack of Rome by Bourbon. Alternately plundering and plundered, too weak to resist foreign invasion, and strong only in preying upon herself, the land has been one vast the- atre of devastation. The great monuments of antiquity which seem built to defy the assaults of time suffered more from the hands of her own citizens than from the barbarians ; more from the fury of the Guelfs and Ghibellines, than from that of the Goths or Huns. All who advocated liberty, a Rienzi, an Arnold of Brescia, were the victims of a vacillating peo- ple to whom slavery had become habitual, who could not accommodate themselves to any form of freedom. But though Italy was weak the power of the church was strong. It armed christian nations against each other ; it deso- lated Europe by her crusades against the Sara- cens. But its chief foes were intelligence and liberty. Industy and refinement revived in Provence and Languedoc, and with them an abhorrence of Papacy. Their language, the first of modern languages devoted to letters became the medium of song ; courtesy and gentleness distinguished the people beyond any other in Europe. Rome heard of it, gave the signal, and they disappeared from the earth. The age in short, when the power and corrup- tions of this church were at their height, was REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 19 the age when the condition of Europe was in every respect the most degraded ; and the first effects of her downfall were the restoration of order and intelligence in those countries which abjured her tyranny. Such are the solemn lessons of history — a noble study, not so much for the light it throws upon the deeds of the hero, or the enterprises of kings — not for its tales of battle and adven- ture, but for the truths which its pages embody, that have a direct interest for mankind in every age. It tells us that man is ambitious, and not to be intrusted with power ; that an irresponsible hierarchy is of necessity corrupt, and a sworn enemy to liberty ; it tells us like- wise that an ignorant and superstitious people are the most debased of slaves, or restless and cruel tyrants. 20 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH CHAPTER. II. CHRISTIAN SPIRIT OF AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS. In adverting to this topic it will be necessary to take a brief view of our Civil Institutions themselves. The founders of our Civil Institu- tions were wise and good men. Never were measures more free from the craft of politicians, or had less of the alloy of human selfishness and ambition, than those which originated in the early counsels of our fathers. They were men who did not live for themselves, but for their country and for succeeding generations. Their object was freedom ; not wild misrule, but rational, consistent freedom ; the freedom of laws enacted by themselves, and executed by those who like themselves were amenable to law, and responsible to the people. The great outlines of their design were few and simple, but they were drawn in deep and legible char- acters. They assumed as the first principle of civil government, that all men, as the creatures of God, and as brethren of one common fami- ly, have natural and unalienable rights. Inti- mately allied with this great principle they as- sumed that there is no freedom where there is not independence of thought, and a high sense of personal responsibility. They were stern advocates of the long forgotten truth, that there is a common interest between those who REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 21 O overn and those who are governed, and that the legitimate object of government is the good of the people. Nor was it among the least im- portant of their political axioms that it is the privilege of the people to choose their own ru- lers, and the province of their rulers to govern according to law. While their political prin- ciples were equally removed from tyranny on the one hand, and on the other from the pernicious influence of an all levelling equality, they ex- tended equal freedom to all, and left open every avenue to honour, wealth and power, to every class of men, and consolidated the interests of all in one general, national interest. It is not surprising that the experiment of sustaining in this New World such a govern- ment, should have been looked upon by the politicians of the other hemisphere, as a bold and doubtful enterprize. It was the experi- ment of a self governed people. Since the downfall of the ancient Republics of Greece and Rome, it has been the more prevalent be- lief of thinking men that human governments must be administered by the strong arm of ir- responsible power. Monarchy, more or less lim- ited, has been regarded as the only refuge from popular fury and outbreaking faction. In ven- turing on another course, it must be confessed that our fathers reposed great confidence in the character of the American people. They fore- saw that the government, the rulers, the laws would partake of that character. It was un- der this strong conviction that in all their early 22 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH legislation so much was accomplished with the view of forming and perpetuating an enlighten- ed and virtuous, and even religious communi- ty ; and that their early Statute Books now read the solemn lesson to their descendants that knowledge and virtue, with Christianity for their basis, are the two pillars by which this fair fabric of freedom must be supported. This land is a christian land, and its institutions are christian. What is Christianity? It is a system of truth that never changes, and yet that adapts its influence to the ever changing scenes of the world around it. It stands ready to repel every attack of error under whatever form it may appear, every encroachment of vice, whatever garb it may assume. It is pre-eminently the law of kindness. Its great and only weapons are truth and love. It recognises the exclusive sufficiency of the scriptures as the only author- itative rule of faith and practice. It exists in this land in all the variety of denominational difference ; while as an organized society, dis- tinct from the world, it assumes as its basis the revealed will of God. It has great power in this Republic ; but it is a power dependent upon no political arrangement, no civil authority. Though we seem to depreciate it by terming it merely an incidental power, yet it is to a great extent purely of this all pervading character. It is the power of religious conviction gradually insinuating itself into all classes of society ; a little leaven, leavening the whole lump. Nev- REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 23 er lias it been furnished with the opportunity of exerting its native energy upon great mass- es of men, such as is afforded it in this land. The experiment is new, the scene a novel one in the history of nations. Notwithstanding all its divisions, and though separated by well marked lines of ecclesiastical organization, Prot- estant Christianity in these states has a strong inward feeling of its essential unity. On all the great points of truth and duty, and in the careful observance of the divine institutions, the true church is one ; and it needs but a distinct sound of the trumpet to call together its scat- tered tribes, and concentrate their forces against any common foe. The vital power of Christi- anity in this free land has never been put to the test. It is by far the most powerful princi- ple of action in this country, and is deeply root- ed in the hearts of millions. We have no state religion, and yet we have a religion every where acting upon the state. We have no legal bonds, no coercive power that binds together the church and the state ; and yet is there a bond between them far more indissoluble. The state is swayed by public opinion, and public opinion, to a greater extent than in any other land, is formed by Christianity. Though the law does not support religion, religion supports the law. It is an unfettered principle, incorporated with our government, only because it is incorporated with the views of its citizens. It is to this in- fluence of Christianity that we trace the forma- tion of the government itself, and the same in 24 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH fluence may be traced throughout all its his- tory. This is precisely the influence which it ought to exert and no other. It is the individual in- fluence of good men. No one denomination of christians has ever aimed at control in the government. It would be the ruin of the coun- try for any of them to succeed in such an ef- fort ; nor is there any danger from a design like this, if the strong affinities between Lam- beth and Rome are seasonably appreciated. It needs but to sound the alarm on the ear of other denominations, and the Methodists, the Baptists, the Presbyterians and the Congrega- tionalists, would be as one man in resisting the usurpation. There is the safety of our institu- tions against all ecclesiastical tyranny. This has been our safety, as every reflecting man must see, when he looks back upon the past. Our success thus far deserves to be honoured with thanksgiving. Though we have receiv- ed accessions to our population from almost all the nations of the earth, and so varying in their habits of thought, so different in their systems of religious faith, and some of them so extrav- agant in their notions of civil liberty, that we have watched their influence with jealousy and even terror, yet does this free government stand. Though we have invited these accessions, and opened our arms to all who were either weari- ed by the exactions, oppressed by the authority, or persecuted by the intolerance of other lands ; during the course of our national history, there REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 25 have been fewer and less disastrous concus- sions, than those which during the same peri- od have attended the more rigorous govern- ments, either of Africa, Asia or Europe. Foi the most part the somewhat complicated ma- chinery of our national polity has moved smooth- ly and without obstruction, though the im- pulse has not always been uniform or wisely applied. It is indeed a problem yet to be solved wheth- er a government such as ours is not too free for the lawless passions and subtle machinations of men, and whether the next half century will not witness invasions of our rights as freemen and as christians. There are things among us of ill boding aspect which the most blind must perceive, and which every lover of his country and her institutions must view with so- licitude if not alarm. 3 26 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH CHAPTER III. REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS CONTRASTED WITH THE POLICY OF ROME ON THE SUBJECT OF POPU- LAR EDUCATION. "It is in a republican government" says Montesquien " that all the force of education is needed." This may be esteemed a political maxim. Where the power is lodged in the hands of a single person or of a privileged or- der, the case is different. Here the cares of government do not devolve upon the people; it is their part to labour to support the expenses of the state, and to fight in its defence. If the hand of their rulers does not press too heavily upon them, they do not trouble themselves to scan their conduct closely. It is of no avail to them to know their own interests, for the means to arrive at them are in the keeping of others. Education is here of less benefit to this class of citizens. It serves only to make them feel more keenly the inequality of their condition. Virtue also, though still of the highest social and personal importance, is, politically speaking, of little moment. The force of authority takes the place of moral restraint, and tyranny has an art to draw even advantage from the vices of its subjects. But in a republic the reverse of all this is the case. Here the power lies in REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 27 the hands of the citizens, and to be properly and consistently exerted they must know their own interests ; not the interests of to-day or of to-morrow, but the interests of years ; not the interests of their own class or neighbourhood, but the interests of all who are embraced with them under our common government. One of the best securities which society has that a man will act rightly, is that he should have an intelligent apprehension of his duties. She expects this, and her laws expect it. Over those from whom she cannot demand it she ex- ercises no judicial control. For the idiot and lu- natic she has only a sanitary and preventive code. That virtue indeed which is so necessary in a democracy, foi the most part keeps pace with the intelligence of a community. From the level of natural instinct we discern only our own rights or wants, for as yet we can scarcely distinguish between the two. As we ascend a step in intelligence, we discern the rights of our neighbours ; presently we take a wider view, and find that our country has claims upon us, and at last upon the topmost height of moral cultivation we perceive the rights of humanity, of all existence. Even the brute we discover has its demands upon our sympa- thy, the very worm that crawls beneath our feet we may not wantonly trample upon. Men differ. Some are by nature just and hu- mane, have a nice appreciation of the rights of others ; others are selfish and careless of 28 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH those around them or even cruel from a wan- tonness of disposition. These differences will more or less always exist, but other things be- ing equal, the man who is most enlightened will be the most virtuous, the most kind and just. Virtue of itself indeed should be the study of every one who would be a good citizen. With the Romans, from whom we have the word, virtue was synonymous with military prowess. In a republic like Rome which formed itself for conquest, where every citizen was a soldier, valour was the highest virtue. But in a government like ours it should signify a love of justice and pure humanity, a nice sense of right and wrong, elevation above pri- vate interests, and a readiness to sacrifice them for the common good. In the hands of the people are placed the lives and fortunes of their fellow men. They choose our rulers, frame our laws, and sit supreme arbiters in our courts of justice. It becomes them therefore to free themselves as far as possible from pre- judice. They should be early taught to think for themselves, to listen to the voice of reason, and to silence passion ; to court enquiry and bear with the opinions of others. As they are invested with the sanctity of lawgivers and judges, they should put on some part of the gravity and impartiality which belong to these offices. The strongest objections against a free government are drawn primarily from the ig- norance, and secondarily from the passions and REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 29 prejudices of the people. Remove but the for mer, and the latter will at least be tempered and softened. At all events it is not too much to say, that one who is grossly ignorant, though he may be a virtuous man can never be a use- ful citizen, If such should be the training of our citi- zens, what claims has the church of Rome to have it in her hands? There is nothing in her past history to give us confidence. Is there any thing in her precepts which may be a pledge that she would not abuse the trust? How far does it accord with her principles and practice to inculcate intelligence, virtue, inde- pendence of thought, free inquiry and humani- ty? A trait of irony seems to escape from my pen as I ask this question, but I ask it gravely, and will examine the subject with all the se- riousness which it demands. The subject of popular education has strong claims on the earnest attention of every friend to his country. It aims at such a diffusion of knowledge throughout the mass of the popula- tion as shall fit them to become useful, or at least trustworthy citizens. It is a remark of one of the greatest men, and one of the pro- foundest writers on political economy in the age in which we live, that " even but for the eco- nomic well being of a people, their moral and religious education is the first and greatest ob- ject of national policy."* It would be idle at * Dr. Chalmers on Political Economy. 3* 30 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH this day to attempt to prove that ignorance is a source of vice and degradation. In the Papal vocabulary, she is the mother of devotion. But all who have confidence in God as the author of the human mind, must laugh this paradox to scorn. Rome herself does not believe it in sincerity, she knows that ignorance is the mother of servility, and she knows also that knowledge is power, but her aim is not the de- votion, it is the slavery of the people. The nursery of good citizens is the school- house. Before the mind is fully formed, it re- ceives there a bent which in after life it never loses. There, as in a state in miniature, the youth have a field whereon to put in practice their various duties. There they discover gra- dually their obligations to each other and to themselves ; lessons of virtue are implanted in their hearts which grow with their years. They learn to exercise freedom of thought. They differ from each other and argue in their simple way, until the mind gains strength to walk the way of life untrammelled. But to be of efficacy the school should teach more than the letter ; it must foster the spirit of learning. It should lead its pupils in the path of enquiry, they must be taught to think and act for them- selves as responsible to God and their fellow creatures for a proper use of their abilities. Now what is the course of Rome as to ex- tending the privilege of instruction among her followers. It is a matter of universal notoriety that she has been opposed to it throughout her REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 31 whole career. "The less of foreign light" says a distinguished writer of her communion " the more submission we shall show for the faith." And upon this principle she has faithfully act- ed. That a man was eminent in science was always enough to render him suspected at the court of Rome. Not philosophy only but belles lettres and the exact sciences have felt the weight of her oppression. Every thing which wore the semblance of novelty aroused her jeal- ousy, for as her whole system of authority was based upon antiquated usage alone, she feared nothing so much as change ; even the earth should not with her consent move in its orbit, but continue fixed, as heretofore in the opinion of men it had remained, as if she feared the omen and example of the innovation. And this hostility to improvement she harbours at the present hour. If we look abroad we shall find those nations which are most distinguished for literary attainments, for skill in the arts, for in- telligent enterprise in commerce, for a liberal system of public education to be protestant na- tions. Of this Great Britain, Holland, Den- mark and many of the German States are ex- amples. If on the other hand we inquire after those countries in which the inhabitants are most ignorant, most idle and debased, we shall find them in Italy, Portugal and Spain, all of which are under the sway of Rome. The same difference exists in the northern and southern portions of our own continent. Here at home indeed when it is asked respecting a 32 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH foreigner of the poorer class " can he read or write ?" the common answer is " yes, he is a Protestant," or, " no, he is a Catholic." And if we look around upon our own citizens it needs but a glance to discover that the children of those who profess the Roman faith are far from being as liberally supplied with the ad- vantages of education as those of protestant denominations. While every other sect of christians is cheerfully promoting the cause of literature, giving their time and money to ad- vance it, she alone remains in the back-ground. Of late years, it is true, she has not been able with a decent regard for her reputation, entirely to refuse co-operation in the great work. But her efforts have been faint and unwilling ; they have been forced from her by the current of the times, and by the weight of public opinion. She has seen the children of her own com- munion instructed by heretics, and rather than have this so, she will undertake the labour for herself. But she does not educate them to be American citizens. She does not bring them to learn of those master minds which in our own country and that of our forefathers have fixed our character as a people. Our poets, orators, statesmen and historians by no means harmonize with her spirit, or suit her aims. They must all be carved and mangled for her purpose : all "must be brought to suit her Pro- crustean bed, some lopped, others stretched, until all sense and vitality disappear undei the torturing process. Their youth are forbid- REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 33 den to drink at the pure original fountain, the "well of English undefiled." They cannot be fired by the eloquent patriotism that flows from the lips of a Chatham or a Burke, or charmed with the measures of a Goldsmith, or taught by the wisdom of a Robertson. It is a pity for them, but God be thanked that such are the standards of our literature ; that in their pages beauty and wisdom are so well combined ; that none can study them, none can claim to know them as they ought, without imbibing a hatred of Ro- mish bigotry. Nor is this all, the very word of Revelation, the charter of religious rights, she withholds from her deluded followers, lest standing fast in the liberties wherewith God has made them free, they should rise and demand emancipa- tion from her bondage. There is no other de- nomination of christians that imitates her in this aversion to intelligence ; none other that fears scrutiny. Bold in the confidence of truth they stand ready to sustain opposition and en- quiry. Books even of sceptical tendency, con- taining direct attacks upon the great principles of Christianity, they do not falsify or suppress ; they manfully confute them. This is the wor- thier course. It is a confession of weakness to avoid an enemy. If the bible contains as they assert * doctrines contrary to the true religion, * The following circular lately sent to the schools of the Dordogne is worthy of the reader's notice. UNIVERSITY OF FRANCE. ACADEMY AT BORDEAUX. The inspector of the schools of the Dordogne to the school- 34 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH let them confute it, let them show that it is un- worthy of confidence : not suppress it, not gar- ble it ; above all, let them not burn it as they have done. Singular as it may appear to them, the community venerate this book ; they look upon it as the word of God to man, as the source and the only source of all their faith and hopes, and many strange emotions throb in their hearts, as they see it scornfully cast into the flames, as the leaves unfold to the fire, displaying its time honoured words, its beloved sentences of promise. This burning, it is true, is an old and favorite argument with Rome ; she has tried often to confute heretics in this way, but never with much success ; and she should remember that this is not the age nor the coun- try to appreciate such logic. The people might misapprehend it, might scent in it the odour of masters of the department, Monsieur L'Institutor. Many of the cures and their assistants have reported their school- masters as having suffered to be introduced into their re- spective schools, Bibles and Testaments, which contain doctrines contrary to the true religion. I know that some of the teachers have permitted these books to be used be- cause they were deceived by the colporteurs, who told them that they were sent by me. I hasten to request you to re- move those dangerous books from your school. I will, with- out delay, in company with the priest, visit and inspect your schools, and every copy of these books that we shall find, we will cause to be burnt. I embrace this opportunity of informing you, that from this time, I will allow only three books in the rural schools, viz. 1. The catechism of the diocese. 2. A book of moral lessons, instructive and easy to be understood by the children. 3. A book of arithmetic. (Signed) L. LAFFOREST. Inspector of the schools, &c, &c. REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 35 persecution, an odour that in times past has turned them frantic. And why is Rome thus alone in her opposi- tion to mental improvement? Because she is alone in enormity of error. Her reputation for sanctity, like that of the owl for wisdom, has one and the same origin, they both shun the light. It is not a matter of wonder that she should be so firm a patron of ignorance. Ev- ery step in intellectual advancement unmasks her infamous superstition. Every page of his- tory is stained with her shame. But mankind will not consent to be ignorant that Rome may hide her depravity. They will not shut the records of past ages out of regard to popish sensibilities. The lessons that we draw from them are too instructive to be so lightly thrown away. Next to the example of those around us, that of those who have lived before us, is of the greatest utility in forming the mind to wisdom and virtue. If patriotism is to be ele- vated, history will warm the soul with its noble patterns. If friendship, if filial or parental love, the flame glows on the pages of the past. If patience and hope in adversity are to be in- spired, if perseverance in duty, we may find it there. In our own sufferings we read how others suffered, and if the exalted of the earth, the good, the noble, the brave and beautiful have bent the neck to the sharpest stroke of ad- versity, if the rich have given up their riches, the renowned their honours, the happy their joyous life for opinion's sake, shall we, who 36 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH cannot rate ourselves higher shrink under our burdens ? Yes, as we read our hearts warm within us, a note comes down to us from the old time, gathering others to it, kindred tones, and all break in harmony upon the heart, inspir- ing us to good deeds, as the clang of drum and trumpet stirs the soldier to his harsh deeds of arms. We find too many a warning there not with- out use for our present guidance. We see the fair form of religion as she descended from above, and are won to love and revere her. We see too a giant superstition mitred and robed, wielding the keys and the crosier, with a licentious leer in her eye, and blood upon her lips. Her features are stamped with glowing characters upon our remembrance, and we know her when she crosses our path. We know too how to deal with her, how to trust her, and how to oppose her, for there have been men who have tried this before us, who have contended against her in her might, and per- ished or triumphed for our good. Who then would forego this privilege of studying the ex- perience of the past ? Who would undervalue or confine it ? None that have the welfare of their fellow men or their country at heart. None indeed but Romanists. Already the Papacy is making head against that time-honoured system of legislation which the experience of half a century has shown to be so successful in the intellectual and moral nurture of the rising generation. It seems bent REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 37 on rearing an ignorant and immoral communi- ty, on preparing a generation of evil doers for the wide-spread overthrow of our established insti- tutions. The danger has already overtaken us. Our course even now is retrograde. Some future historian may yet write our epitaph in the short sentence of the Prophet, " The peo- ple are destroyed for a lack of knowledge." Our citizens should not sleep then while the welfare of the republic is threatened in its very source, while the fountain head is poisoned from which flow those rich streams that have hith- erto made glad the land. They should bear in mind what they owe to their country and to succeeding generations. If they possess intel- ligence themselves, they should remember to whom they are indebted for it. They should imitate the fathers of our independence, who, with the liberties they gained for us, transmit- ted also to posterity a system of public instruc- tion that we might maintain and deserve them. 4 38 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH CHAPTER IV. THE INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM UPON LIBERTY OF THOUGHT. Romanism is opposed to liberty of thought and free enquiry. The first step which it takes towards this is to enslave the mind in matters of religion. It places a man's conscience in the keeping of his fellow man, and thus directly attacks and weakens his sense of moral respon- sibility. The frail and imperfect nature of man is easily led astray. It is for this reason that Providence has surrounded it with so many benign and guardian influences ; the guidance of religion, the love of home, the remembrance of parental kindness, the ties of marriage and of children, and a desire for the approbation of those around us. No one of these can be as- sailed without robbing it of an essential safe- guard. But to strike at conscience is a far greater evil. Conscience is an arbiter given to us by our Maker, to sit in judgment upon all our actions ; her office and mission come to us accredited by heaven. Even to disregard her dictates, is sure to bring us self-reproach and sorrow, but altogether to displace her from her seat, and give her up to the authority of another, is to strike at the very foundations of REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 39 morality and virtuous independence. Now what is the effect of such dogmas as Penance, Confession, and Absolution, of works of Super- erogation and of Indulgences upon this inward guide? The mere fact that we are to confess our sins to a mortal, to put the priest in the place of God, is of itself most dangerous to mo- rality. For is it to be supposed that a man will take such care to regulate his life accord- ing to his duties, if he is to settle the account with a sinner like himself instead of rendering it to his Maker. And if the priest is corrupt, as from all experience he is likely to be, what then becomes of his sense of responsibility ? But in the Romish Church every sin has its price, which is fixed by her rules of disci- pline. " This mode of legislation," says a learned writer, " was invented by the Greeks ; their penitentials were translated or imitated in the Latin church ; and in the time of Char- lemagne the clergy of every diocese were pro- vided with a code, which they prudently con- cealed from the knowledge of the vulgar. In this dangerous estimate of crimes and punish- ments each case was supposed, each difference was remarked, by the experience or penetra- tion of the monks, some sins are enumerated which innocence could not have suspected, and others which reason cannot believe." A glance at the " Tax book of the Apostolic Chancery" will show — that in the sixteenth century, these prices were by no means exorbitant, though not always apportioned with accurate justice. 40 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH Thus, for a layman murdering a layman, a sum equal to about 7 s. 6d. was demanded ; for him that killeth his father or mother, wife or sister 10s. 6d. ; for laying violent hands upon a cler- gyman so it be not to the effusion of blood 10s. 6d. For a priest to marry was a fault for which no sum could atone — to keep a concu- bine 10s. Qd* Upon the payment of these sums and after receiving absolution in due form all spiritual guilt was washed away. Under such a system as this it is evident that all opposition which conscience throws in the way of sin is at once removed, and the sole difficulty that remains is to make up the mind to pay the necessary penalty. The Romanists hold also, as is well known, the absurd doctrine of human merit; they be- lieve that the good works of the saints which abound beyond the demands of their own sal- vation, are stored in a celestial treasury, of which the Pope holds the key, and that he can dispense them to whom he pleases, according to their spiritual ends. This, coupled with the power which is attributed to him of shutting the door of Heaven to whom he will, gives him an authority over the mind which is destructive to all consistent morality. For if the good works of other men can stand in the place of our evil works, what motive is there any longer to a life of virtue? If a human power is set up for us to revere, if the blessings of a future life are to be granted or withheld at the will * McGavin's Protestant, vol. ii. p. 28. REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 41 of a mortal like ourselves, why, as an induce- ment to good works, tell us that there is a Di- vinity ? Gratitude indeed may be inculcated, for we owe to him the blessings of existence ; but our future destinies are in other hands. Such are the consequences which flojv from these and similar dogmas of Popery. The whole system is destructive to the very principle of virtue, for it strikes a fatal blow to the authority of conscience, it seeks out the recesses of the bosom, and stifles with its lax and subtle teachings that sense of moral responsibility which is proof against open assault. Its influence is equally fatal to independence of thought. What makes up the creed of the papist but a collection of dogmas which he is bound to believe, and equally bound not to examine. No appeal is made to his reason, there is no effort to produce in his mind a calm and rational conviction of the truths which he is taught. A blind and slavish faith is all that is required of him, all even that is permitted. If he hesitates to believe in the genuineness or sanctity of relics, of the parings of St. Ed- mund's toes, to give an instance, or the coals which roasted St. Lawrence, dheriwill not be told to examine and judge the question for him- self ; if he doubts of the power of man to for- give his sins, he will not be directed to the Bible, or advised to bring the subject to the test of reason. No, the answer is a far shorter one — the church has decreed, and the church is infallible and cannot err. This is the begin- ' 4* 42 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH ning and the ending of her spiritual guidance, the whole scope and spirit of her charge ; for arguments, she gives authority ; for counsel, a command, and if these are unavailing, there is in reserve the terrible anathema " let him be accursed." Some of her doctrines indeed, are such an outrage upon common sense, that they presup- pose in him who credits them, the most abject credulity. We need not hesitate to assert that he who can believe in the power of his priest, to change a piece of bread into the Divinity who made him, and that when he receives the Eucharist, in the words of Pope Pius IV, " a whole and entire Christ is taken," is prepared to admit any paradox either in morals or in politics. When the mind is once reduced to this state, it can no longer be trusted to itself. It returns to the helplessness and dependance of infancy. Threats and the scourge must now be the punishments which it fears, and noxious and cloying sweets the incentives to good conduct. There is a beautiful provision of divine providence in the credulity of children. They never doubt, are never sceptical. They believe every thing for they have every thing to learn. They will listen with interest to a tale of wonder, and tremble at the story of some frightful apparition. Alladin's lamp, the adventures of Sinbad or Abou Hassan have as much worth in their eyes as the deeds of Alex- ander or Caesar. They will quit their sports to hang upon the lips of the narrator, and it is REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 43 the happiest time of the day with them, when evening comes, and they gather around some older friend who begins to relate. And he too finds his reward in the alternate delight and terror which chase each other across their eager faces. The world is now all new to them. Its countless wonders, the toils and pleasures of existence, evil and good gleam upon their minds with strange foreshadowings, and they credit aught that gives a shape and substance to the young fantasies that throng upon their minds. And is it not a thing to grieve over when we reflect how often this happy credulity has been abused, and how many with capaci- ties for usefulness, have in this tender age imbibed prejudices which have counteracted them all ; how, even the sweet milk of human kindness has been neutralized to indifference, or turned to gall by the hand of its earliest teacher ? But the providence which gave them this credulity, gave them parents and instruc- tors to fashion it, and to their love it would seem it might be safely confided. What a re- sponsibility then rests upon those who cast the first seeds into this teeming soil. To a state like this without its innocence, is the poor cath- olic reduced under the moral tyranny of his priests. In their hands he is helpless as an infant. All manliness of character disappears. He looks upon them with superstitious awe, bears their reproaches, their threats, their blows, nay, he dares not even to think but in the form which they prescribe to him. Such is not 44 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH the discipline to be desired for the American people. It is not in this way that useful citi- zens are trained in a republic. It is by such means that men are taught to bear the yoke of others, not to govern themselves ; to become slaves, not freemen. If it be asked whether this servitude in reli- gious matters necessarily induces dependance in those of a political and social nature the reply is an appeal to the constitution of the mind. It is no less a creature of custom than the body. Like the body it acquires strength and activity by action, and becomes enfeebled by indolence. Exertion is necessary to each for the proper development of its powers. As to the idle and unstrung frame, all healthful ex- ercise is irksome, so to the enervated mind even to think becomes a toil ; a habit of sur- rendering its opinions begets a lassitude, which renders every act of judgment a burden from which it is pleased to be relieved. Action is the life indeed of independent thought, the only element in which it can attain its proper matu- rity and strength. Whether the subject be spiritual or temporal about which the mind is employed does not affect its character ; it can have no retrospective action, to render vigour to that which was before feeble and inert. As well furnished as we are with those powers which are necessary to our well being, there is no distinction in our faculties which is based upon such a difference. We have not one fac- ulty of judgment for the interests of earth, and REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 45 another for the interests of heaven, any more than we have distinct faculties of memory for the two. or any more than the body has one kind of strength to raise a weight of iron, and another to raise a weight of lead. The self- thinking mind holds its independence ready to be applied to every subject which may be pre- sented for its consideration, though it may never have taken cognizance of it before. From want of information it may not judge correctly ; but it judges for itself, and where it submits its belief to the opinion of others, it does so rationally, and with proper reserve. Where this opinion conflicts with acknowledged prin- ciples and acknowledged duties, it will reject the yoke of authority. It may take upon trust the properties of a curve or an equation, but will not agree that a square has three sides or a triangle four. It may assent to the estab- lished belief concerning the Deity, but will not be persuaded that it is a duty to persecute all who reject it. But the enslaved mind makes no such distinction. The cry " it is the will of God" has armed the Laity of the Roman church to deeds which have outraged human nature, and it w T ill arm them to repeat them, whenever it is for the interest of their clergy to give the signal. Will the Hindoo w T ho, at the bidding of his priest, casts himself beneath the car of his idol, hesitate at his command to take away the character, or goods, or life of his neighbour? 46 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH CHAPTER V. THE INTOLERANCE OF ROME. Toleration is a word often used but not always rightly applied. We may be said to tolerate an insult or an injury when with the power in our hands we do not resent it. • We tolerate an inconvenience when having the right and ability to remove it, we do not put them in force. But neither case will apply to matters of opinion. A false religion is insult- ing and injurious to God alone. It is not for man, it is for him if he sees fit to tolerate or to destroy it, and the course of events has plainly shown that his purpose is one of long suffer- ing. Pagan and Mahomedan, Jew and Gen- tile, all rejoice in his mercy, and receive com- mon temporal benefits at his hand, equally with true believers. Neither so far as a false religion is an annoy- ance to us, have we a right forcibly to remove it, therefore we cannot be said to tolerate it. It is a grievance which in common with many others we must be content to suffer. We might be annoyed to see a friend of rare abilites wast- ing his time in building up a system of false philosophy ; or one in robust health undermi- ning his constitution with empirical remedies or REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 47 by a course of debauchery ; but no one will contend that we have a right in either case to use force to restrain him. It belongs to God alone then to tolerate error in opinion. Free- dom of belief comes from him as a common right of nature, and we are responsible to him alone if we abuse it. It is no province of civil authority to frame religious creeds, and it might as properly be said that a government tolerates the breathing of the air, or the treading upon the common earth, or the enjoyment of the rain and light, as that it tolerates religious liberty. A body of men however who hold opinions which are hurtful to the state, and openly teach them, without doubt may rightly be re- strained in this liberty, though as to the policy and means of effecting this, there may still be question. Those also with whom it is a prin- ciple to be intolerant to others have hardly just cause for complaint if they are abridged of that freedom which they claim to enjoy, only that when the proper season arrives they may abuse it. In the words of the celebrated Locke, " Those have no right to be tolerated by the magistrates who will not own and teach the right of tolerating all men in matters of mere religion. For what do all these and the like doctrines signify but that they may, and are ready upon any ocasion to seize the govern- ment, and possess themselves of the estates, and fortunes of their fellow subjects ; and they only ask leave to be tolerated by the magis- 48 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH trates, until they find themselves strong' enough to effect it." If the Papists could advance a plea like this for their intolerance, for their persecutions, for the ravages which fire and sword in their hands have spread abroad over the earth, mankind could almost receive it as an excuse for them. But notwithstanding the justice of these excep- tions, the propriety of acting upon them may still be questionable. It is better to suffer wrong than to inflict it, and the principle once estab- lished that any cause could justify religious in- tolerance might be productive of more evil than many persecutions. As a means of influencing the mind all ex- ternal restraint is worse than useless. Be the cause true or false it cannot strengthen itself by cruelty. Where force is applied to control opinion, the assent is at best but cold and un- willing ; and in behalf of truth such force is unnecessary, for truth has a power of itself which comes directly from heaven, a power firm and yet gentle. Like the falling rivulet it will wear away the rock which confines its current ; while the seas of persecution might roll over it for ages, only to swell its bulk with the deposit that subsides from her troubled waters. Op- pression becomes identified with the oppressor and with his opinions ; and if a man be par- doned for hating the truth it is when those who would advance it, in their unreflecting zeal, in- fringe upon his rights. Still more idle is it to exercise oppression in behalf of falsehood. The REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 49 cause is then clear to the sufferer, he has no hesitation, he casts his life into the scale, if by that he may restore the balance of eternal equity. The world around also is sure to sympathize with the unfortunate ; in its eyes to be aggrieved is almost to be innocent. Hence we have the trite but true maxim, the " blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." Oh, it is a noble property in the mind of man that he will not look on in apathy, and see his fel- low man oppressed. The heart will at first beat more quickly, and at last the hand be busy in his defence till he finds his whole soul wrapt in a cause which but a while gone was as in- different to him as the wind. It is one thing however to apply external force and penal or preventive disabilities to sway the mind, and another to use those moral means which come within the legitimate province of argument and persuasion. If an opinion is making its way among mankind, which we believe to exert a baneful influence upon their welfare, we have the right, nay, it is our duty to stand up against it, to expose its evils, to bring the light of truth to shine upon it, to warn and persuade our fellow men of its evil tendencies. More particularly is this our duty when the errors we deplore are not the result of a single opinion, but of a system ; where the evil consequences we fear are not merely speculative and secondary, but are practical and have a direct bearing upon the public welfare and private morality, when the dangers we an- 5 50 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH tieipate are matters of history, have become facts in ethics and civil policy. When the per- secution and intolerance of Rome are the theme we may speak with confidence, for it is written in indelible characters, and the doctrines are still taught which inculcate her merciless pol- icy, and we may speak with warmth, for the wounds are yet bleeding which she has inflict- ed upon outraged humanity. The spirit of Papacy is one of unhesitating, relentless cruelty. It may be seen in the an- swer of a Cistertian monk at the storming of Beziers in the Crusade against the Albigenses. When asked how the catholics were to be dis- tinguished from heretics — "Kill them all," was the reply, " God will know his own." All per- ished. Not one escaped, as witnesses testify. Some 15,000, at the least, butchered for her- esy. A whole people, indeed, a happy and flourishing nation was almost exterminated in this dreadful crusade. " A war, distinguished even among wars of religion by its merciless atrocity destroyed the Albigensian heresy ; and with that heresy the prosperity, the civilization, the literature, the national existence of what was once the most opulent and enlightened part of the great European family.* This was in the beginning of the 13th century, and from that hour down to the present whenever and where- ever Rome has had the power, her footsteps have been in blood. In the latter part of the sixteenth century we find the same cruel- * Macauly's Miscellanies. REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 51 ties renewed in the Netherlands, we hear the boast of the Duke of Alva that in five years he had delivered over 18,000 heretics to the hand of the executioner. And all her intermediate history is but a repetition of the same atrocities, a narrative of deeds that chill the soul and freeze the blood in our veins as we read. Vic- tims by thousands were swept away almost at a stroke in despite of treaties, of promises, of oaths. To speak of individual cases, as the burning of Huss and Jerome, the tortures and death of the English martyrs, to specify these would be trifling, dreadful as they are. They were driven to the slaughter like sheep in flocks, not timorous, but in unresisting, hopeless resig- nation. Sometimes they put on another na- ture, sometimes they became warriors and took up arms to keep the knife from their throats, as did the Huguenots, the Netherlanders and Ger- mans, and God often struck with them. But they contended against fearful odds and suf- fered much and long, to bequeath a remnant of liberty to their children. The conflict was fa- tal also to Rome, fatal to her power, for it rent her dominions in twain ; fatal to her spiritual infallibility, for she was forced to turn back upon her footsteps, and recede from her anti- quated claims ; and fatal to her character which is stained with so much murder that the hue will outlast all time. When her name is mentioned, it brings with it images of the scaffold, the stake, the flame, and we see the inquisitorial band standing in 52 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH the gloom ; the lurid glare of burning faggots light up their faces, and now and then a shriek is heard to tell the meaning of the scene. This stigma of blood will rest upon her forever. The time has come, when like the guilty Queen she exclaims "out, out damned spot !" But not all the perfumes of Araby can sweeten that hand again. To read her history rouses an evil spirit in the heart of man ; it stirs him to indignation and deep bitter hatred. Such are the characteristics of Rome that as we view her the best feelings of our nature seem re- versed. The spirit of the mildest charity feels most intolerant towards her, the heart of the warmest benevolence is eager to inflict upon her the keenest wound. Is this a religion for the American people? Is it a religion for men? Was this new world reclaimed from its original wildness, only to pre- pare the soil for seeds of bitterness like this? Was it for this that our forefathers faced and drove back the native savage, that a Romish horde more pitiless and blood-thirsty might have a field whereon to wage its warfare against their children ? It will be said that these things were but ac- cidents, historical accidents, the results of cir- cumstances, of the spirit of the age and the darkness of ignorance which then covered the world. It is unnecessary to enquire what may have been the spirit of the age, how great the ignorance. It was not the spirit of Christian- ity, and for ignorance — if she would be enlight- REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 53 ened, it was but to turn to the simple code of the gospel where mercy and charity are as clearly taught as if written with a pencil of light. But they were no accidents. If ever a purpose of iniquity was manifest on earth, it was manifest in the acts of Rome. Vice was digested and established on principles, and cruelty reduced to the forms of a judicial code, as if to seal up the evidence of her guilt for posterity. No de- nial can evade, no evasion palliate it. It may be found in the bulls of her popes, in the can- ons of her councils, in her rules of Ecclesiasti- cal discipline. She has branded herself with her own hand. Historical accidents shall they be called ? There were no such accidents in the early history of the church, unless the per- secutions of Nero and Dioclesian were such. Let her be consistent at least in the application of her new vocabulary ; let the whole human race have the benefit of this casuistry which she claims for herself alone. Let the fall of Satan, of Adam commence the catalogue, and let the annals of Eternity close it in that world where the deeds of its inhabitants will be but an endless series of accidents like these. Oh, if to call them accidents would but lessen the guilt and mitigate the remorse ! But the Papists declare that their church per- secutes no longer. The answer is she has lost the power. When has she ever made this declaration while in possession of it? If she has it can be shown. In what age has the persecution of heretics ceased to be a princi- 5* 54 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH pie with her, not dependent upon times or upon the caprice of her agents, but enjoined always as a positive duty. Even scripture has been perverted to answer her unhallowed ends. She passes by all its divine maxims of charity and calls out such texts as these — :i Compel them to come in." " I come not to bring peace, but a sword." And these she uses to her purpose as confidently as if they were direct commands to slay for conscience' sake. It is not strange that in an age of refinement she should disown her barbarism, that in a land where a rebuke is ready for oppression she should endeavour to gloss her tyranny with a lie. It is now her policy to climb up the steep ascent from which she has descended, and the mode of obtaining power, and of using it when gained are as is well known very different. The dawn of God's day of Reformation in his church has proved a blighting winter to the Papacy. The adder lies half benumbed and torpid ; it can no longer leap upon its victim, but the poison remains beneath its tongue, and its bite is deadly still. It is not safe to trust her, to trifle with her. If warmed into vigour in the lap of liberty, her first blow will be aimed at freedom herself. At least let her submit to lose her fangs, if she can do it and live. Let her renounce this right of persecution, if she can exist without it. It will not be enough for her priests to disavow it. The people know them. Let a decree be issued from the Vati- can, stamped with the time-worn seal of infal- REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 55 libility, and even then let us remember that we are but heretics to whom she gives the pledge. Here is a seeming admission that Rome does not now persecute, though she retains in her creed the right to do so. An Italian would be surprised at this admission. Were any of the Pope's subjects to neglect the confessional, or attendance upon the mass, he would be im- prisoned and punished as unrelentingly as they would have been in the twelfth century. CHAPTER. VI. THE INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM UPON CIVIL LIB- ERTY AND LOVE OF COUNTRY. Is Romanism favorable to civil liberty? We have watched its tendency in those countries where the government is taken out of the hands of the people, and have beheld it on all occa- sions the faithful and jealous ally of tyranny. To whatever point the rights of a nation were to be invaded, Rome has been always ready to lend her sanction to the undertaking. If in the extent of, Europe a people were to be found whose chains were not heavy enough to please its masters, they could be forged of proper 56 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH weight and form at the smithy of the Vatican. But did the people complain beneath their bon- dage, did they claim justice from their rulers, she was sure to interpose her shield in defence of established authority. Herself an oppressor, she has been true to the common cause ; an enemy to freedom in her spiritual jurisdiction, she has moulded, so far as was within her power, the common mind of Christendom to submission and servility in temporal affairs. Experience thus far it must be owned is sadly against her. But let us see how the case stands with her in a free country. Let us enquire if she can so far change her nature as in a republic to be- come the friend and support of liberty. That she can seem to do this, that she can wear such a mask as suits her purposes is without question. The Chamelion can borrow a hue from the surface upon which it creeps, and so is it with Romanism, but like that insect her true colour is cold, stern, gray with iron hue of despotism. The very outward form of the Romish church is at variance with all rational liberty ; there is not a feature in it which has any sympathy with free institutions. A religious community of Papists is a despotic government in miniature. There are here but two grades, the priest and his flock ; one to rule, the other to obey ; on this side authority, on that unresisting submission. He has no account to give them of his charge. It is theirs to receive his dictates in silence, his to REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 57 exercise his power as he sees fit. He is accoun- table to no one but God and his superiors. Neither has the people a voice in the selection of its spiritual guides. These are appointed by the higher clergy, and these in turn receive their commission from a foreign power to which they have sworn an oath of allegiance. The substance of this oath binds them to advance the interests of that power, to hold its enemies as their enemies, and to vex and destroy heretics to the utmost of their ability. And if there is any meaning in words, what is the import of such an oath, but to undermine and betray every government that does not own the authority of the Romish see. Within less than thirty years, the bishops of the Netherlands re- fused to take the oath to support the new con- stitution which guaranteed religious liberty and equal civil and political rights to all citizens. They declared 1st. "To swear to maintain liberty of religious opinions, and the equal pro- tection granted to all forms of worship, what else is it but to swear to maintain to protect error as well as truth, &c, &c, &c. 2nd. To swear to maintain the observance of a law which renders all the subjects of the king, of whatsoever religious belief they may be, capable of maintaining all dignities and employments whatsoever, would be to justify before hand and to sanction the measures which may be taken to confide the interests of our holy religion, in these provinces, so eminently catholic to prot- estant functionaries.'* Here we see the true 58 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH spirit of the Papal hierarchy, faithful to Rome even against the constitution of their country. But they were open with it, and for this let them have their meed of praise. Of how much importance it is that the priests of this persuasion should be friends to liberal opinions, is easily estimated when we consider their authority over those confided to their care. If those interested in the welfare of this repub- lic could be secure of their patriotism, could be satisfied that they desire the progress of civil and religious freedom and the prosperity of our institutions, they would be welcomed as the strongest supporters of our national liberties. If they would labour for these ends as they la- bour for the advancement of their church, with the same watchfulness, the same endurance, the same unhesitating devotion, there are none who could do so much to promote these great interests. The complete control which they exert over the laity of their communion, the ease with which they sway their opinions and direct their conduct, gives them a power posses- sed by no other body of men in the world. But so far from this, so far from being republi- can in spirit, they are not even citizens. A Romish priest is of no country but Rome. In whatever land he may be thrown, it is to that great city that he casts his eyes, and with as much devotion as the Mahometan turns to- ward Mecca at his hours of prayer. His for- tunes, his station and prosperity all flow from the Vatican, and to the Vatican tend his affec- REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 59 lions and fealty. His allegiance to the holy see forbids him to take an oath of fidelity to the state: but should he take it, can it be expected that it will prove binding upon him, when his heart disowns it, and above all when it conflicts with a prior oath, an oath to a higher power, a power to which all oaths are but as chaff before the breath of its dispensation ! They may evade this as they will, but it is substantiated by facts. Their whole history shows that wherever the interests of their so called country have con- flicted with those of Rome, they have unhesita- tingly taken the part of the latter. This is the feature in that church which is most directly subversive of law and good government ; it is this that has almost justified the statutes of England against her. England had suffered much by her cruelty, she had learned early the lesson which Rome had taught to the whole world, that her dominion is one of blood, and resolved to remove her from her councils, to wrest the sword out of her hand, that the peo- ple might be freed from her control. No guise could be found indeed except that of religion under which it would be permitted in any country to uphold a system which in- culcates that "the pope can absolve subjects from their allegiance," " that those are not ho- micides who out of zeal for the papacy kill those who are excommunicated," that " no oath against the good of that church is binding," that " a heretic cannot be a witness," " ought not to be paid what is due to him, &c., &c." 60 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH Such doctrines are an outrage upon good order as well as common sense. To clothe them in the garb of religion may conceal their injurious tendency but does not lessen it. And is it in a republic that lukewarmness or faithfulness may be fostered with the least danger ? Is its sta- bility less dependant upon the virtue and pa- triotism of its citizens than in a monarchy ? or is it not upon these alone that all safety for free institutions depends ? Has it greater safeguards against treason, a quicker and surer grasp for restless ambition? Has it a devoted army, an all pervading police, that it can trifle with its security, that it can allow scope to those who hold and teach principles like these ! The celibacy of the Romish clergy also is at variance with those claims which a republic has upon her citizens. Of its injurious effects upon society on the score of morality we shall speak in another place. The ties which bind a citizen to the state are spun around the do- mestic fireside. Love of home, of wife and children are among the strongest of these. The affection of a father is not satisfied with the temporary prosperity of his country alone. He looks anxiously beyond this. He has given his children as hostages not merely to the pres- ent but to the future welfare of the commu- nity in which he dwells. It is not enough that his own rights are secured to him, but he wishes to transmit them unimpaired to his sons and daughters. For this he labours, and watches and ponders oftentimes when they sleep. His REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 61 greatest pleasure and pride is to send forth his children, useful citizens, to labour in a prosper- ous community. The Romish priest knows no feelings like these. Such ties can bring him nothing but shame. His vow of celibacy while it cuts him off from the best blessings of life impairs his patriotism, if any remain to him. He has comparatively no interest in the land he calls his home, and is alive only to that of his church and order. The purpose of the Romish church is no where seen more clearly than in the dis- cipline which enjoins celibacy upon her clergy. It was a master-piece of policy, to separate them from the closest bonds which unite soci- ety, to render them strangers even in the place of their birth, that they might be the readier agents of her authority, willing at her bidding to compass sea and land, the instruments of deeds which a love of country and humanity forbid. It is proper therefore that the people should bear in mind, that an order of men exists among them upon whose patriotism they can place but little dependance ; that this order is possessed of unlimited authority over a numer- ous portion of their fellow citizens, and that past experience has shown that they are ready to exert it in w T hatever way they can best ad- vance the interests of their own communion. Thus far of the priests. Let us now inquire what influence the precepts they inculcate have 6 62 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH upon the laity with regard to their qualifica- tions as good citizens. The right of suffrage and the trial by jury are the two most important institutions upon which our liberties are based. What is the ef- fect of Romanism upon these ? Does it render a man better able or more likely to discharge his duty at the ballot box, and in our courts of justice, or the contrary ? All arguments drawn from the ignorance and servility of thought which it fosters have a close relation to this branch of the subject, but they have been con- sidered already. A question however remains which has a still more direct bearing upon it. One of the most sacred claims which society has to make upon its members is that they should respect the obligation of an oath. A legal contract the law will oblige a man to per- form, but for the sanctity of an oath he is in most instances, from the nature of the case, bound by his conscience alone. It is true the law has heavy penalties for the perjurer, but their very severity is owing in a great degree to the difficulty of discovering the crime. Few men expect a witness to testify truly because the law will punish him if it be proved that he does not, but because they have more or less confidence in his honesty, and in his regard for the dictates of conscience. But if the con- science is in the keeping of another, it is evi- dent that the security for truth is greatly di- minished, for the sense of responsibility which is a pledge of it is now transferred to a third REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 63 party. Society has more reason to expect that a citizen to whom she confides a duty, will perform it faithfully, than that he will be ad- vised in good faith. The farther moral re- sponsibility is removed the weaker is its force. Men are more ready to counsel evil than to act it themselves. If this adviser be a priest and one who teaches doctrines injurious to morality, who claims the power of absolving from sins, perjury among the rest, and who maintains as a general principle that no faith is to be kept with a certain class of citizens, in this instance, heretics, and the witness believe him, what then becomes of this security? What now is to prevent him from testifying to any falsehood that his priest desires, if he can do it with safety? But how, if a large body of the same church, a society highly favoured by its head, should openly teach that perjury is no crime at all, what is more manifest, than, that to a sub- missive layman, truth becomes of secondary moment, and the will of his priest the first? Under these circumstances can we believe that there is any safety for the property, the char- acter or lives of our citizens? any security that the voice of the people will be heard at the polls, when rights of citizenship are to be had for oaths, mere oaths ? In some of our States the law has wisely or- dered that an atheist shall not be allowed to testify in courts of justice. She will not trust the great interests of equity in the hands of common honesty alone, but requires something 64 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH farther, some well grounded religious belief which shall give to an oath a character of sanctity and awe. But the religion of Rome does not give such a character to it, on the con- trary, it seems to destroy even its ordinary ob- ligations. Instead of the usual interrogatories to an infidel, let the judge upon the bench put the following question to a papist. " Do you believe that if you testify falsely in this case, your priest can absolve you of the sin, so that your conscience will be eased of all burden ?" But the question would be an idle one, even if proposed under oath, because says Sanchez,* " A man may swear, understanding secretly that he does it so far as he is obliged to speak clearly and to expound himself ; or by forming some other thoughts which may make his an- swer true," and again. — " An oath obliges not beyond the intention of him who takes it, be- cause he who hath no intention to swear can- not in conscience be obliged to any thing at all. A person who hath promised marriage to another, whether it were made sincerely or only in appearance is discharged by any reason from holding his promise. Being called before a judge he may swear he hath not made this promise, meaning he hath not made it so as to be obliged to observe it. Because he may persuade himself in conscience that he is not obliged." Is there not some cause for complaint then, when in our courts of justice, the disciples of * A Jesuit of high authority. REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 65 such a creed, are put on a level with enlight- ened citizens? Is it right that their testimony influenced as it is by a corrupt and foreign priesthood should have equal weight with that of men who think and act freely, men who have no relief for a troubled conscience but in repentance and reparation, none but a Divine Mediator to intercede for them with an offended Deity? There are without doubt many papists who are as far from testifying falsely as protestants are, but it is because they are honest as men, and not as christians. And the avowed infidel may be an honest man. He may be upright as a friend, affectionate in his domestic rela- tions. In his own way he may have the good of society at heart. There is at least no foreign authority that divides his affections with the community in which he dwells. He acknow- ledges no principle which renders it venial or even meritorious to break faith with any por- tion of his fellow-citizens. Why then should he be proscribed, while every privilege is show- ered upon those who are at least as likely Jto abuse them as he ? Is it the difference in numbers, and in social and political influence that draws the distinc- tion ? Is it because the one is weak and the other strong ? If so, it is mere oppression. If so, the greater danger to our institutions, and the greater need of watchfulness. If it has come to this, that the laws have cast a whole- some restraint upon one class of citizens, but 6* 66 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH dare not extend it to another for no other rea- son except their power, it is an omen of serious import. It is more probable however that the minds of the people have not yet viewed the subject in its proper light. They are not aware of the real import and tendency of the Popish faith. They believe the danger magnified, or at least distant. They do not perceive the si- lent but steady progress of the evil which has taken root among them. But the growth of that which is most strong and permanent is always imperceptible. The gourd which grew up in a night, withered as quickly. The oak is the same to-day and to-morrow, years seem scarcely to add to its increase, but when ma- tured it stands for ages. Let the people be on their guard then. The fear we would impress upon them is no idle one. If the power of Rome has shaken the council of princes, has wrung tribute from the covetous, chastity from the chaste, if it has put a sword into the hands of the timorous and tender-hearted which they have turned against their brethren, how easy for it to sway the oaths and suffrages of its followers, to gain an in- fluence in the state, which, if her policy calls for it, may be used as a means of its destruction. REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 67 CHAPTER VIL THE INLFLUENCE OF ROMANISM UPON MORALITY, IN- DUSTRY, AND PROPERTY. Where unnecessary rites and ceremonies abound the vitality of religion is sure to be weakened. Pomp and magnificence distin- guished the religion of the ancient pagans. In the early ages of the church she was remarka- ble for nothing, more than for the simplicity of her mode of worship. The splendour and display was all on the side of her oppressors, and we have seen that when corrupted by power, she assumed the outward garb of hea- thenism, she put on also most of its essential characteristics. Forms and ceremonies may be looked upon as the garment of religion. This should be orderly, becoming, and yet simple. If it comes a messenger from heaven, the truth will commend it. It will not need a splendid exterior, or that its march should be encum- bered with folds or entangled with a flowing train. Its feet are like the feet of those who bring glad tidings. All pomp and vain appa- rel betray a sense of inward imperfection. An accurate illustration of this may be found in the experience of every day life. The beauty 68 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH which in conscious artlessness knows its own worth, is not over solicitous as to the care with which it is arrayed. But when time steals away its attractions, then must robe and rib- bon, purple scarf, and jewelled ornament help to conceal the inroads of age. But above all it is the time worn harlot, that with the most anxious art culls out her paint and trappings. In her youth perhaps she was beautiful and innocent, but years of sin have passed over her ; every step in iniquity has seared her fea- tures with its impress and branded her as an outcast. To what pvirpose then these vestments, and crossings, and genuflexions of the Romish church, this swinging of censers and sprinkling of holy water, this tinkling of bells, this odour of incense, this glare of lighted candles at noon- day? what but to conceal her inward corrup- tion ? Can the divinity be propitiated by such devices, can a reasonable man be edified by them? If one of the apostles were now to rise from the dead, and seeking a place of worship should enter a cathedral of the present day, would he recognize it as an assembly of breth- ren such as he was wont to commune with in Jerusalem ? or as a temple of heathenism ? These ceremonies are no marks by which the church of God may be known. Their effect upon the heart is very different from that which is exercised by the power of truth. They tend to divert the mind from the essence of religion, to satisfy it with forms, to substitute frivolous REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 69 and superstitious observances in the place of moral and religious duties. The papist does not ask himself " have I done my duty? have I lived so as to enjoy the approbation of God and of my fellow-men V but " have I told my beads? have I made the sign of the cross, and how often ?" Is it not evident that a system which gives weight to such usages is likely to subvert all true ideas of rectitude ? " When a religion admits of justification by means of that which is a matter of accident, it uselessly casts away its strongest hold over the mind. They believe among the Indians that the waters of the Ganges have a sanctify- ing virtue ; those who die upon its banks are thought to be exempt from the pains of an- other life, and destined to an abode full of de- lights ; from the most distant places they send urns filled with the ashes of the dead that they may be thrown into the Ganges. Of what consequence is it whether a man live virtuously or not ? he will take care that he is thrown into the Ganges."* The papist finds his Ganges wherever he can find his priest. The last unction supplies to him the place of this sacred river. No matter by what rules he may have regulated his life, no matter how many crimes weigh upon his conscience, absolution and extreme unction wipe them away, and fit him, as he is taught, for that place where all is holiness and purity. It would not be easy to invent a doctrine which should tend more * L/Esprit des Lois. 70 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH directly than this does to sanction breaches of morality. It seems expressly to teach that the divine commands may be slighted with impu- nity, and that the claims of divine justice may be evaded by the seasonable use of a trifling external ceremony. It removes that salutary awe which a dread of future retribution exer- cises upon the conduct, and which is so neces- sary as a help to the authority of the laws. The vigilance of the civil magistrate may be eluded, the execution of his authority in various ways obstructed, but as there is a feel- ing in the mind of man that an unseen eye is always upon him, the priest steps in, tells his followers to be of good cheer, opens his stores, offers extreme unction and absolution, and if these are not enough, he displays his dispensa- tions which will operate in advance, and thus dissipates all scruple. Indeed the whole policy of the Romish church seems to aim at immu- nity for sin, or to render it rather a commodity for negotiation and traffic, to tax it, if it may be so said, both for the sake of revenue and pro- tection. The celibacy of the clergy tends still more directly to the destruction of morality. The history of the church abounds with evidence that where the clergy have been confined by their rules of discipline to a life of celibacy, they have been the most industrious promoters of licentiousness. Hear what Claude D'Es- pence says on this subject, a divine of the Romish church. He complains as follows: REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 71 "Shameful to relate they give permission to their priests to have concubines, (fee. &c, upon the payment of an annual tribute. And in some places they oblige them to pay the tax, saying they may use the privilege if they please." We forbear to multiply passages of this nature, not because they are rare, but be- cause the recital would be offensive to the reader. Probably this regulation is not in force at the present day, yet as a matter of mere policy, it would not be unwise to renew it as a defence against worse evils. So great was the dread of their spiritual advisers in Switzerland, that the priests were compelled to resort to this step that domestic peace might be in some measure secure against their invasions. Wielding the power of the confessional, the master of the secret actions and thoughts of the females of their communion, they hold in their power the most potent means for their corrup- tion. The faith of a papist has need to be strong, in various ways, that he may rest se- cure when his honour and happiness are in the keeping of an unmarried priesthood. Every citizen who regards the dignity and virtue of American women must look with detestation on a system which brings with it such a state of things as this. Who that is free from the yoke would put it on? Who would admit into the bosom of his home a sleek confessor, to demand account of the actions of those most closely allied and most dear to him — to pry with greedy and impudent curiosity 72 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH even into their most secret thoughts ? A pru- dent man would as soon receive a wolf, if ton- sured and covered with a cowl, admit him to his sheep, and leave him with them, with full faith in their security, as bring a confessor to those who have purity to lose, and feel confident that they would continue pure. May that time never arrive when American women shall bend before the priest for his treacherous absolution, or confide their thoughts in his keeping, or lend an ear to his polluting interrogatories ! Their character now stands high. All wri- ters when they draw the comparison between them and those of the continent of Europe, draw it greatly to their advantage. We know that they deserve this good opinion. But how would their reputation be likely to stand, if they had been brought up in the same faith with those whom they thus excel, if they had been educated in the superstitions of Italy and Spain ? Is there any hesitation in the answer ? If then they would preserve this superiority, let them preserve that simplicity of faith and wor- ship to which they owe it. As they have been taught so let them teach their children, that the same heritage of excellence may also de- scend to them. Monachism also demands notice. " Papal usurpations, the tyranny of the inquisition, the multiplicity of holidays, all these fetters on liberty and industry were ultimately derived,'' says Hume, " from the authority and insinua- tions of monks." Monasteries are nurseries of REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 73 vice. Those which are founded in our country are not reared upon their proper soil. If they must cumber the earth, let it be in Italy or Spain, any where where sloth and despotism have sway, but they are a blot upon the cha- racter of a free and industrious people. In European countries where the population is crowded and ill at ease, it may answer better that idleness should be encouraged and clothed with privileges, but this is no rule for our re- public. The bounty of Providence has spread far and wide this noble land ; millions of acres untitled long for the hand of the husbandman, and teem even without culture throughout wood and prairie. This is no place for the slothful. Our citizens should be active and enterprising, responding to the soil which gives such a rich reward to labour, and to the broad streams that invite to every avenue of com- merce. The hand has here no leisure to tell beads, or to rest idle through a long routine of festivals and holydays. We have not opened a wide door to emigrants and offered them such privileges as are granted by no other nation on the globe, that they should come here to im- mure themselves in stone walls, and teach in- dolence to the community, or inculcate a sys- tem of celibacy, which shall rob the republic of its youth, the future fathers and mothers of its yeomanry Sooner repeal the laws which render the right of citizenship so easy to be ob- tained. If we can spare aliens to the state we can spare them to the country. 74 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH In whatever point of view they may be con- sidered, monasteries are a curse to an agricul- tural and commercial people. If they collect within their walls the vicious, they become haunts of licentiousness, if the virtuous, they deprive the community of its most useful mem- bers. It is the part then of a good citizen to frown upon institutions so hostile to the pros- perity and morality of his country. The only monasteries should be our prisons, where the inmates, unworthy of the common right of free- dom, shall hew stone, in place of telling their beads ; shall learn some useful occupation in- stead of perfecting themselves in the mysteries of iniquity ; where no scourge, no penitential fast or dismal solitude shall visit the prisoner, unless adjudged by the wisdom of the law, and inflicted by an officer responsible for his acts to the opinion of the people. Yet one liberty may be allowed them — to give their prison a name — let it be called a convent, or monastery, or cloister, if they will, and for the first time the title will be honoured by its application to an institution of utility. And to the common loss comes oftentimes a private one that strikes us deeper, to punish us for our remissness, and spur us to our duty. He feels it who mourns a daughter or a sister lost for ever to his affection, whom the ensna- ring arts of superstition have blinded and en- trapped into the cold monastic gloom. Death cannot rob us to this extent. When the body is consigned to that dismal cloister, the grave, REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 75 we leave it in the keeping of its mother earth, which will not violate the trust, but in time dis- solves and mingles it with itself. The spirit we will fondly hope, and oftener firmly believe has emerged into a world of light. We can imagine that at times it hovers near us, sooth- ing with its unseen presence our sorrows and regrets ; we can hold converse with it in the night, and rejoice to know that the love which only words and kind deeds could be surety for when in life, it now perceives from its commu- nion with our spirit ; we do not start when the wind howls at the casement, as if the echo of a cry, extorted by the penitential scourge min- gled with its wailing, we do not fear that hun- ger or thirst can trouble the quiet of the de- parted, or that the remorseless tooth of lust can gnaw upon it ; we have not consigned the spirit as well as the body to a dungeon. Who can witness that sad ceremony, when a young maiden puts on the veil, when she takes upon her vows, the import of which she cannot un- derstand, and not feel his bosom moved with pity and indignation. Like a victim she stands, crowned perhaps with garlands, and near her the relentless executioners. Oh, it is a hideous sacrifice ! Happiness, if she has known it heretofore, from this day bids her farewell ; if it be one worn with affliction, one w T ho seeks a refuge from the unkindness of the world, she will learn when too late that in her new abode, hatred, uncharitableness and severity are occu- 76 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH pants before her — well if innocence shall re- main to her, in such unholy communion. It is not enough that a man should feel his sensibilities aroused at a scene like this. It is easy to lament over a spectacle of human mis- ery. Duty is harder. A purpose should arise within him, a purpose not to be forgotten or disturbed, to oppose by every means in his power a religion which demands these sacri- fices. In the former case he has wept over a victim, in the latter perhaps saved one. The effects of the Romish religion upon the property and industry of the country ought not to be passed by without more particular notice. But it is a subject too complicated to be devel- oped in the compass of these pages. It may be observed however that an expensive and gorgeous ritual, a long gradation of office-bear- ers and mendicant fraternities are not in ac- cordance with the simplicity and economy of our institutions, and must of necessity prove a burden upon the community. Tithes, Annats, and Peter's pence, can, it is true, no longer be imposed by law upon the people, but the church herself gives the law to those who are under her subjection, and she knows how to enforce it. Her dictates are sure to be followed by obe- dience. At present indeed the current flows in an opposite direction. Bent upon her purpose of reducing this country under her domination, she does not spare her wealth. Large sums pour in upon us yearly to forward her grand REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 77 design of Propagandism. She knows that if successful, she is but placing her money at usury. She will reap a tenfold interest when the time shall come for her to demand it. It has been a common complaint among all nations that their wealth has been drained to supply the coffers of Rome. This was one great cause that led Protestant princes to aid the Reformation ; they saw their subjects im- poverished, their own revenues diminished, and found no way to shake off the evil but to over- throw her tyranny. In the twelfth century the clergy had acquired one half the landed estate in England, and probably a larger pro- portion on the continent. In this country, she insists upon holding the property of the church in her ow r n right, and as her acquisitions are not bounded by the term of years which limits individual enterprise, the only check to be found for her rapacity is in the restraints of the law. The many feast days also and fasts which she sets apart for solemn observance are inju- rious to industry. Other things being equal the manufacturers and agriculturists of a Cath- olic, cannot compete with those of a Protestant country. This feature in her church may perhaps account in a great degree for the supe- riority in these points of the northern over the southern portions of Europe. That such a superiority exists in these as well as in most other respects, and that it has existed since the Reformation is apparent. " The protestant boasts" says Macaulay, " and most justly, that 7* 78 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH wealth, civilization, and intelligence have in- creased far more on the northern than on the southern side of the boundary ; that countries so little favoured by nature as Scotland and Prussia, are now among the most flourishing and best governed portions of the world, while the marble palaces of Genoa are deserted — while banditti infest the beautiful shores of Campania — while the fertile sea coasts of the Pontifical state is abandoned to buffaloes and wild boars. It cannot be doubted that since the sixteenth century the protestant nations — fair allowance being made for physical advan- tages — have made decidedly greater progress than their neighbours. The progress made by those nations in which Protestantism, though not finally successful, yet maintained a long struggle and left permanent traces, has gener- ally been considerable. But when we come to the Catholic land, to the part of Europe in which the first spark of reformation was trod- den out as soon as it appeared, and from which proceeded the impulse which drove Protestant- ism back, we find, at best, a very slow progress, and on the whole, a retrogression. Compare Denmark and Portugal. When Luther began to preach, the superiority of the Portuguese was unquestionable. At present the superiority of the Danes is no less so. Compare Edinburgh and Florence. Edinburgh has owed less to climate, to soil, and to the fostering care of rulers than any capital, Protestant or Catholic In all these respects Florence has been singu REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 79 larly happy. Yet whoever knows what Flo- rence and Edinburgh were in the generation preceding the reformation, and what they are now, will acknowledge that some great cause has, during the last three centuries, operated to raise one part of the European family and de- press the other. Compare the history of Eng- land and that of Spain during the last century. In arms, arts, sciences, letters, commerce, agri- culture, the contrast is most striking. The distinction is not confined to this side of the Atlantic. The colonies planted by England in America have immeasurably outgrown in power those planted by Spain. Yet we have no reason to believe that at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Castilian was in any respect inferior to the Englishman. Our firm belief is that the North owes its great civiliza- tion and prosperity chiefly to the moral effect of the Protestant Reformation ; and that the decay of the Southern countries of Europe is to be mainly ascribed to the great Catholic revival." Such is the judgment of an acute and intel- ligent writer, and there is no reasonable doubt of its correctness. It must be evident then that Romanism exerts a baneful influence on the industry and prosperity of a country, and this being the case no patriotic citizen can view her progress among us without solicitude and alarm. 80 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH CHAPTER VIII. JESUITISM. The youngest and favorite child of Roman- ism is the Society of the Jesuits. Its founder was a fanatical soldier. A severe wound had unfitted him for his original vocation, and dis- sipated the dreams of military glory which had hitherto occupied his mind ; but a new field offered itself to his ardent imagination, whereon he might still display his heroism. To advance the interests of Romanism, and to stem the current of the Reformation, which was sweep- ing away the ancient landmarks of the church, these were the objects which he proposed to himself in his new career. For these he would contend with the same enthusiasm, the same valour, which he had formerly exerted in arms. As a good knight is without his greatest orna- ment and protection, if deprived of a lady's favour, he made choice of the Holy virgin as his patroness, hung up his arms upon her altar, and devoted his life to her service. Nor were suitable revelations and miracles wanting to confirm him in his purpose, or to give author- ity to his mission. His new patroness de- scended from Heaven to encourage him, he REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 81 saw the Saviour face to face, he beheld the process of transubstantiation take place in the sacrifice of the mass, and " as he stood praying on the steps of St. Dominic, he saw the Trinity in Unity, and wept aloud with joy and wonder." Thus strengthened, after a pilgrimage to Jeru- salem, he associated with himself six others as companions of his labours. In a few years they had increased to ten, and upon applica- tion to the Pope for his sanction they were, in 1540, formed into a monastic order by Paul III. As the Dominican and Franciscan monks had lost all influence by their corruptions, and as the very existence of the church was now en- dangered by the Reformation, this new aid w T as doubly welcome to that pontiff. In addi- tion to the usual vows, a fourth was imposed upon them which bound them exclusively to the interests of the Pope. Loyola held the generalship of the society while he lived, was beatified by Paul V. and afterward enrolled among the saints by Gregory XV. At his death the order consisted of more than a thou- sand members ; in 1608 they had increased to 10,581. It continued to advance in wealth and numbers, spreading itself over all parts of the habitable globe, supplying missionaries for the heathen, instructors for youth, confessors for kings and princes, mercantile associations for commerce, spies and informers for govern- ments, skilful mechanics, wily and determined statesmen, until in the middle of the eighteenth century it had reached the height of its power. 82 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH It now stood a vast tree, its trunk rooted in the Vatican, while its branches overshadowed the earth, and were entwined with all the interests of society. Every breeze that stirred them shook Europe to its basis, and threatened the very existence of her institutions. A brief though somewhat minute glance at the principles of this society will enable us to understand the causes of its rapid growth and overthrow, and to judge at the same time if its revival in these days, is to be considered an auspicious event for the interests of humanity, and more particularly, whether its influence is likely to be favourable upon the morals and liberties of America. If after this examination we find that its teachings are in accordance with the generally received opinions of virtue and freedom, it will be unjust if we do not welcome and aid it. If, on the other hand, it be shown that its members inculcate doctrines that are most pernicious, doctrines that are destructive to every moral obligation — if the claims of honour and honesty, if public and private oaths are but toys in the grasp of their impious and subtle casuistry, to be moulded at their will as the caprice of accident and occa- sion demand — if it be seen that their practice keeps pace with what they teach — that their violence and treachery fall no whit behind the infamy of their moral and religious code, but that the latter waits upon the former and min- isters to its needs — under these circumstances it is equally plain that duty enjoins upon us REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 83 the most active and determined opposition to its advancement. The celebrated Pascal, one of the greatest ge- niuses that Europe has produced, has exposed the doctrines of the Jesuits in his Provincial Lettres, a work which inflicted a blow upon their reputation from which they have never recov- ered. Their precepts are there held up to de- testation in words that will live throughout all time, surrounded with the charms of a clear and lucid eloquence which will preserve their de- formities long after all vitality has ceased, as hateful insects are embalmed in amber, and attract us to gaze upon them by the pure me- dium in which they are enclosed. It is a work that has never been successfully answered, every attempt to reply to it has but revived its fame. When the Provincial Lettres were writ- ten however, the secret rules of the Jesuits had not been divulged to the world, and the author drew his materials from their known practice, and from the writings of their most celebrated doctors. It is from this work that most of the following extracts have been taken. As to their authenticity there is no dispute. The two principles which lie at the basis of the Jesuit's code are the doctrine of " Probabil- ities" and that of " Directing the Intention." By the first, as any course of conduct is only probably right, that is to say, is a matter of opinion, so its contrary may have its probabil- ity and may be safely followed, if there is any, although a far less probability in its favour. 84 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH By the second, a man may perform an action safely by framing to himself an intent of doing right, although the same action without this artifice would be a damnable sin ; as, to kill an enemy, having solely in view his own ad- vantage, and not the injury to that enemy. Starting with these principles they have an open field, and proceed easily as follows. " A doctor of theology" according to Layman, u may give advice contrary to his own opinion, if it is held probable by others, when this advice is more agreeable to him who consults him ; nay, even when he is assured that it is absolutely false." A judge also in a question of right may decide according to an opinion less probable, rejecting one that is more so. He is obliged likewise to restore presents, made by a man in whose favour he has rendered a just decision, for this was his right, if an unjust one he is not obliged. Sanchez declares "it is reasonable to say that a man may fight a duel, to preserve his life, his honour, and his goods in any considerable quantity — and Navarrus says well ;" he adds " that a man is permitted to send as well as accept a challenge ;" he is advised however to slay his enemy secretly, " for by this means he will avoid two evils, that of exposing his life in combat, and of participating in the sin which his enemy would commit in fighting a duel." In all these cases however it is necessary to take great care in directing the intention. The great and incomparable Molina asserts REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 85 c that he would not dare to condemn a man as having sinned who should slay him who wishes to take from him a thing of the value of a crown or less/' whence Escobar establishes this general rule " that a man may slay another for the value of a crown according to Molina.' 7 Sanchez says, " A man may swear that he has not done a thing which he has done by understanding within himself that he has not done it on such a day, or before he was born, as this is often convenient and always very just when it is necessary or useful for his health, honour, or property. And for fear that many may not have presence of mind to make such mental reservations, it is enough," he says, "if they have a general intention to give to their words the meaning that a dexterous man would give to them." Escobar says, " Promises oblige not when we have no intention to oblige ourselves in making them," and so with the rest, Molina, Lipsius, Suarez, all the greatest authorities that can be found. With every new doctor their code of morals is more and more relaxed ; what was sin before is sin no longer, and these doctors congratulate each other with great self-com- placency, that by their labours, the number of those who live in iniquity is daily diminished. A curious story is related by our author to this effect. A man who was on his way to make restitution of a sum of money which his con- fessor had ordered him to restore, stopped at a bookstore and inquired if there was any thing 8 86 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH new. The bookseller in reply handed him a fresh work on Theology. On turning it over carelessly he lighted upon his own case, and found that now he was not obliged to make res- titution. Whereupon he returned home again, relieved of the weight of his scruples and bur- dened with his money. The following are their opinions as to the duty of loving God. It is Escobar who collects them. " When are we obliged to have actual love of God ? Suarez says, that it is enough if we love him before the moment of death, without determining any time ; Vasquez, that it is sufficient at the moment of death ; others, when we receive baptism ; others, when we are obliged to be contrite : others, on festival days. But our father Castro Palao combats all these opinions and rightly. Hurtado de Mendoza asserts that we are bound to love him once a year, and that we are treated very favorably in not being obliged to do so oftener; but our father Coninck believes that we are bound once in three or four years ; Henriquez once in five years, and Filutius says that it is proba- ble we are not rigorously bound to do so once in five years. And when then ? He refers it to the judgment of the wise." Father Antony Sirmond discourses on this subject as follows : " Saint Thomas says that we are obliged to love God as soon as we enjoy the use of reason — that is rather soon. Scotus, every Sunday — upon what does he found this opinion? Others, when we are grievously REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 87 tempted — yes, in case this is the only way to escape the temptation. Sotus, when we have received a benefit from God — it is well as a mark of gratitude. Others, at death — that is rather late. Suarez says we are obliged to love God at some time or other — but at what time ? He makes us the judge. He doos not himself know. Now what this Doctor has not known, I know not who does know." He concludes however that no other strict obligation binds us, than to observe the rest of the command- ments without any affection for God, provided only that we do not hate him ! Indeed some of their authors declare that this burden was taken away by the new dispensation. " No wonder," exclaims Paschal, " that they should hold the doctrines they do concerning grace, and teach that all men have at all times enough to lead a life of piety — as they understand it." These things almost stagger belief. But we are prepared to credit more than common in- iquity of this order. It is not for nothing that the name has become infamous throughout the world, not for nothing that it is a bye- word in our language, that Jesuitism has but one mean- ing, and that — impudent craft. The world is not so unjust that it will stamp with lasting and unmitigated infamy men who have no pre-eminence in guilt. As strange as it may appear, these doctrines they have openly and generally taught. It is true they have stricter precepts for the strict ; they will oblige no man to sin who does not choose it, unless to serve 88 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH an occasion — they are not fiends — but it may be believed with confidence that to gain their ends, to strengthen their influence with those who demand a large scope for their inclinations, there is no crime which they will not excuse and palliate. Since the overthrow of the order its secret rules have been brought to light. They dis- close a system of instructions admirably calcu- lated to advance their interests, and in harmony with the precepts of their doctors. Duplicity and intrigue are here reduced to principles. They abound with advice how to win men to their favour. Their directions are given with the utmost minuteness. Princes and nobles are to be gained by flattery, by winking at their vices, by inciting them to mischief to which they have a mind. Princesses, by the women of the bed chamber — widows, by a smooth deportment — children, by encourage- ment to disobedience, and independence of pa- rental authority — mothers are to be counselled to treat their daughters harshly, that they may readily forsake the world. Nothing is forgotten. No iniquity so great, no heart so mean that it does not here find a place. It was by such a system of rules, followed out with a supple ingenuity, a fidelity that is without parallel, that they rose to the height of their power, a power that seems incredible when we look at the means by which it was acquired. In Europe their influence was felt more or less throughout every kingdom, and REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 89 over all classes of society. From the palaces of kings down to the cottage of the peasant, they exercised a sway which united fell little short of empire. In South America indeed they had actually attained empire. The extensive prov- ince of Paraguay was in the seventeenth cen- tury completely under their control. They had there an organized state of 300,000 fami- lies, an army of 60,000 men completely armed and disciplined, and furnished with all the necessaries of war. But their decline was sudden as their rise. Their abominable doctrines, their devotion to their order, their secret, unforgiving enmity,* their memory of slight offences, revenged, when * The Duke de Choiseul, the French minister, was a principal agent in procuring their suppression, and the fol- lowing origin has been assigned to the hostility with which he pursued the whole order in every quarter of Europe. The Duke having no employment in the government of France, happened one evening at supper to say something very strong against the Jesuits. Some years afterwards he was sent ambassador to Rome, when, in his usual routine of visits he called upon the general of the Jesuits, for whose order he professed the highest veneration. " Your Excel- lency did not always, I fear, think so well of us," replied the general. The Duke expressed his surprise, and begged to know his reasons for thinking so, as he was not conscious of having ever spoken of them otherwise than in terms of respect. The general to convince him to the contrary, showed him an extract from a register book in which the conversation alluded to, the day and year were minuted down. The Duke went away with the firm purpose, when- ever he should become prime minister, to destroy a society that kept up such particular and detailed correspondence, of which it makes use to the detriment of administration and government. 90 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH long forgotten by the offender, called down upon them at last the public indignation. The numerous assassins that came out of their schools to strike at the lives of princes filled Europe with terror. Upon the assassination of the king of Portugal of which they were accused, they were, in 1 759, banished from that kingdom. In 1762 they were condemned by the Parliament of France, as opposed to the laws of the state and hostile to its welfare. They were expelled from Spain in 1767, and were finally suppressed in 1773 by Pope Cle- ment XIV., who not long after fell a victim to their revenge. Their fall was a terrible one. It cannot be denied that in some respects they were treated with unnecessary cruelty. Their effects were confiscated — banishment with its attendant evils, poverty and disease, thinned their numbers. The sick and aged were not exempted from the rigorous progress of the law. Yet it was not for them, it was for hu- manity to complain, for by their abominable precepts they had placed themselves, so far as they could, out of the pale of charity. There was no mutual obligation which bound them in ties of benevolence with their fellow-men. It was but the spirit of their own doctrines which was turned against them, and the worst injuries they endured have authority against themselves from their own maxims. In 1814 the order was restored by Pius VII. to its former privileges. Europe with one voice had called for its destruction; the wisest of REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 91 mankind, divines, philosophers, and states-men had tried and condemned it; but Rome has been bold enough to brave reproach, and to couple its infamous name with hers again. It is in America that the Jesuits claim a pecu- liar interest ; it is in this land that they pur- pose to regain their lost authority. Here are no laws, they say, to restrain them, here they are free to teach iniquity. But there is a law here, though it is not found among our stat- utes — a law which is the source of all legis- lation, the law of opinion, the will of the sov- ereign people. This if duly exercised has power enough to protect the morals as well as the liberties of this republic against every assail- ant. And why shall it not be put in force? What is there in Jesuitism that can find favour in the eyes of a free and intelligent community? Is there any thing in its secresy, in its spirit of intrigue, that harmonizes with our institu- tions? any thing in its accommodating and subtle code of morals, excusing as it does every private crime, and justifying rebellion, treason, and assassination ?* It is true they do not now teach these doctrines openly. They have * The celebrated Mariana has some very refined scruples upon the subject of assassination. Since Christianity has abolished the Athenian, custom which ordained that crimi- nals should destroy themselves by a deadly potion, he holds that it is wrong to mingle poison with the food of a tyrant whom it is necessary to destroy, but that it should be applied to his garments, or to the seat of his saddle. His objections to the former method seem to arise from its resemblance to suicide. — Bayle's Diet. 92 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH learned what it is to face public indignation, and they are too prudent to arouse it. A fitting community must be formed before they can venture to promulgate their favourite ethics. The mind must first be warped by prejudice, or seared with ignorance, before it will receive them without horror; it must be used to the sway of authority, used to bow in blind submis- sion to the dictates of others, before crimes which shock uninstructed nature, can be gilded over by their detestable casuistry. It is for this reason that their schools are scattered over the land. They would become the instructer of our youth, they would form their minds and influence their destinies. It is in the guise of teachers that they purpose to steal silently to power. But what good citizen, what lover of his country will lend them his coun- tenance in the unhallowed enterprise ? What father will commit his son to their care and guidance? If he would have him virtuous, they will teach him craft, if free, they will teach him slavery, if dutiful, they will teach him dis- obedience, in a word, they will teach him Jesuit- ism. The first step will be, in the language of their Secret Instructions, " to set him free from all fear of his parents, and to show him how acceptable a sacrifice it would be to God should he desert them without their knowledge or con- sent." Whatever destiny his stern teachers may award him, he will follow it, be it the con- vent, the church, the army, the law — in what- ever station his talents can serve them best 3 REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 93 there he will take his place unmoved by filial reverence or affection.* But beside the disappointment of hopes and the loss of parental control, what can be more baneful to the future interests of a child than to place him in such hands. It is no omen of success to enter upon the stage of active life a pupil of the Jesuits. The name is odious ; * Pierre Ayrault, a celebrated French advocate, en- trusted his eldest son Rene to the Jesuits to be educated. On account of his great promise it was Ayrault's desire that his son should succeed him in his profession. He accord- ingly told the provincial of the order, and the rector of the college where he was placed, that he had other children to consecrate to the church, and that he wished them by no means to induce him to enter the society. Their promises satisfied him. After he had studied two years with them, however, they became aware of his abilities, and gave him the habit of their order. Ayrault demanded his son of them, but they declared that they knew not what had become of him. He then obtained a decree of Par- liament which forbade his reception into the society ; but it was of no avail. Rene was removed from place to place, his name was changed, and all efforts to trace him were unsuccessful. The father now wrote to Rome, and the pope to satisfy him published a list of the members of the order, but Rene Ayrault was of course not found among the number. He at last wrote a public letter to his son, but it had no influence upon him ; he continued in the society until his death, and filled some of its highest offices. By an instrument drawn up before a notary and witnesses, his father deprived him of his blessing ; a paper however was found after his death, signed with his hand, as follows: " God grant his peace, his love, and his grace to my son Rene Ayrault. I give him my benediction in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I pardon him every thing which he has done to offend me, and I pray God to assist him with his Holy Spirit in whatever employment or condition he may choose." — Bayle's Diet. 94 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH it excites distrust and alarm. The day indeed may not be far distant when their seminaries will send forth youth furnished with all the versatile accomplishments, all the intrigue and duplicity which is theirs by excellence, to de- mand at the hands of the American people the high offices in the land — the seats in their halls of legislature and justice — nay, the highest place which they have to bestow upon such as they delight to honour. But who will trust the disciples of such a school? What confidence can there be in their principles ? What sanctity in their pledges? They will swear to support the constitution and laws of our country, but the nearest priest will give them absolution if they break the oath. Or they will break it, following a " probable opinion," or " in taking it they may give to their words the meaning which any dexterous man would do.' 7 It is the merest mockery to talk of pledges, of secu- rity that they will respect the high trusts con- fided to them ; and is the American people, a people to commit its rights to the keeping of its servants without security? So far from this, it demands the highest that can be given, it demands a character for integrity and virtue, without Avhich oaths and promises are but air ; it demands a spirit of patriotism and independ- ence which cannot exist among the disciples of an isolated and bigoted society. From this view of Jesuitism, incomplete as it is, some judgment may be formed of the in- fluence which its growth among us must exert REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 95 upon the character and destinies of this repub- lic. Of all the ill features of Romanism, it is beyond comparison the worst — the most de- structive to morality, and the most dangerous to liberty. What is the part then which a good citizen should take in reference to its progress in this land? The conscience, the patriotism of every man will easily decide this question, if he will but ask it of himself — not as to means indeed, but as to the end and purpose. jHe will believe himself bound, if I mistake not — to oppose it at every step — to labour for its destruction at all times and by all lawful means — to keep the resolution always present to his mind — to perform each one for himself the office of the Roman Cato, and at the close of every deliberation, for his country's welfare, exclaim, " Jesuitism must be destroyed." CHAPTER IX. CONCLUSION. It may be said that although the church of Rome is corrupt, and the general diffusion of her doctrines and the extension of her sway in this land would doubtless be injurious to our 96 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH liberties and prosperity, yet the danger is exag- gerated or remote, there is no likelihood that the Papal religion can ever become the religion of the state, or even the predominating sect in the country. If this opinion were correct, it would not the less become us to be upon our guard and to watch its progress with anxiety. In a matter of such moment, it is better to err on the side of vigilance than to leave the least room for probabilities. Even in a fortress that is deemed impregnable, it is considered prudent to place guards, to station sentinels and exercise due watchfulness. Besides, it is not in propor- tion to the chance alone of any evil, that wise men use forethought, but in proportion to its magnitude also. We are not greatly on our guard against the bite of a harmless reptile, but if its fangs are venomous, we remove it from our neighbourhood, we chase it from our dwell- ings and our fields. If Romanism with its at- tendant evils is a curse to the country where it prevails, if its predominance among ourselves is incompatible with the dearest blessings we enjoy, we should not be content with exerting common vigilance ; we should watch it with eyes of the keenest jealousy, we should watch its every motion — we should watch it in its re- pose, as we watch the sleeping leopard. But it is unnecessary to press this point far- ther. Those who reason from the weakness of Romanism have been little awake to the pro- gress of events around them. There is noth- ing which could lead us to fear the growing REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 97 power of a national foe more than increasing opulence and population, strong alliance, ad- vancing pretensions, — and all these may be found combining against us at the present day, in favour of this great moral and spiritual en- emy. Every year brings accessions to her wealth and numbers from abroad ; powerful and affluent societies in Europe have linked themselves to her interests here, while her en- croachments may be seen in the lordly style of her prelates, and her arrogant intermeddling with our public schools. It is well known that a greater part of the emigrants who pour in upon us yearly are of the Roman persuasion. If we look at their own statistics, we shall find an increase among the catholics, to which the relative growth of our Protestant population can offer no compar- ison. In 1830 their number was estimated in their own documents at 500,000 and we learn from the same source that they now amount to 2,000,000. Vast sums of money also are yearly sent over from Europe with the sole design of building up this religion among us. Of the amount we may judge from this fact,- that the single society of Lyons in a single year contri- buted $160,000 to this darling enterprise. Of $528,000 expended by the same society during the last year $164,000 were expended here. The Leopold foundation of Austria with prince Metternich at its head is an engine of still greater power. It has no collateral object. Its purpose is not the general extension of catho- 9 98 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH licism, but the extension of it in North Amer- ica. To this end it concentrates all its strength ; its sole aim is the Evangelizing — that is the word — the Evangelizing of these United States. And with a judgment for which Rome has al- ways been remarkable, she has chosen the very heart of our country for the field of her chief labours. It is over the valley of the Mis- sissippi, the garden of America and of the world j that she is scattering her emissaries in the greatest numbers. She is aware perhaps, more than we ourselves of the future importance of this section of our land, bounded as it is by great lakes, and crossed by navigable streams, which irrigate a soil, unrivalled throughout the world in richness. Thither she sends her priests, her Jesuits, here she plants her seminaries, and these chiefly for the education of Protestant Youth. She is careless of the improvement of those that belong to her own communion, both in this country and elsewhere. These she had already in the net. It is for protestant souls that the old Fisherman angles. He sits in the Vatican, casts his line across the great sea, while his servants tend the hook, bait it with cheap arid easy terms of education or some- times with mere tinsel^ and drop it here and there, wherever they expect a good prey. It may be difficult for protestants to com- pete with them in the matter of instruction, supported as they are by the funds of Euro- pean catholics ; yet they can do it with proper REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 99 exertion, nay, they must do it, or cease to con- tend against their supremacy. Are these auspicious omens ? are these signs to be disregarded as of no moment? But it may be said that we view these things with too anxious an eye, that where their own interests are at stake, men are too ready to take alarm ; that an impartial judgment must be looked for from some other source. Let us examine then the opinion of foreigners who have written on the state and prospects of this country. At the head of them stands De Tocqueville. He says " America is the most Democratic country in the world, and it is at the same time (according to reports worthy of belief) the country in which the Roman catholic religion makes the most progress." Capt, Marryatt gives it as his opinion " that all America west of the Allegha- nies will be a catholic country." Judge Hal- liburton goes still farther, and declares " that all America is destined to become catholic." With these facts before us, from which intel- ligent and disinterested observers have drawn such conclusions, can there be any reasonable doubt that we have serious cause for apprehen- sion ? that the danger is not exaggerated nor remote, but nigh even at the door ? If the ef- forts of the Papacy are crowned with that suc- cess which her present prospects seem to war- rant, sooner or later Catholicism must hold the predominance in our country. Are we willing then to fold our hands, to stand by in idleness, and see her. labouring with all her strength to 100 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH undermine our future prosperity? Let every citizen ask this question of himself. Are we willing to see the high offices of our govern- ment under the control of a foreign priest- hood ? — for where is the man so pure as not to feel that he lived under the worst bondage, if any among his fellow citizens knew him as he knows himself? Are we willing to welcome the Inquisition and " Autos da Fe — in a word, are we willing to become what South America now is ? In the preceding chapters we have given a picture of Romanism, which though imperfect, is not overdrawn. Odious as it appears, not a line is distorted, not a feature caricatured. Yet it is but a picture. The life is wanting. It is this that gives to the original her menacing as- pect. We see her image mirrored in history, but when the Papacy in all its reality stalks lifelike among us, then we shall know her as she is. There were those in Paris, it is now two centuries ago, on an eve called of St Bar- tholomew — there were those there who knew her, and before the morning they had borne the account to God. There were those in the Netherlands who knew her when Alva gov- erned that country for Philip of Spain. Huss and Jerome knew her, and many a long list have known her who had no voice to testify to us against her. To these the came without disguise. The southern portion of this conti- nent has known her, where her feet crimsoned the soil with blood, and left traces that may REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 101 still be seen in the slavery and superstition of the people. But the people of this land do not know her. We have not heard her terri- ble Anathemas. Some faint sounds have fallen upon our ears, the distant echoes of her fulminations against our clergy and our peo- ple, but these are not the Anathemas which Rome utters when she speaks in the fulness of her power ; these are not the curses that sever the nearest ties of kindred, and pursue the out- cast even beyond the grave. We have not seen her whet the knife and light the faggot. We have not seen her in all her " pomp and circumstances" of cruelty, with her array of executioners, with her instruments of inhuman torture. And long may we remain strangers to her tyranny ! Long may we continue a na- tion favoured of the God of Heaven, blessed with the liberty and the religion which we have inherited from our fathers. But another question meets us here which is not so easy to be answered. How is Roman- ism to be opposed ? by what means shall the current be stemmed which threatens to sweep away our liberties ? It is far from my inten- tion to advocate religious intolerance in any form. Conscience is my witness that I would not forcibly disturb a Pagan in his worship. Although Rome is the Ishmaelite among chris- tian sects, although like the wild Arab of the desert, her hand is against every man's hand, yet the spirit of true religion and the spirit of the age forbid even-handed retaliation. The 9* 102 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH contest against her is thus rendered unequal, it is true, but it is rendered also the more noble and just. As far as Popery is a religious sys- tem merely it has a claim to every privilege which the benignity of our laws allows to all other denominations. She must be met by moral resistance alone. The rising generation must enjoy a course of instruction which shall have the Bible for its ba- sis ; every system which rejects the word of God, must be rejected, let it be offered on what terms it may. Our youth must come to the original fountain, must drink at the source of light and liberty. Education is a great good, but when Rome has drugged the cup with her poison, it must be put aside, however tempting the draught. No citizen then should place his children at a school from which the Bible is excluded. All mere sectarian differences may be disregarded, but upon this great principle every man should stand firm. No institution of learning which does not honour the word of God should be honoured by the favour and en- couragement of a moral people. Let no indi- vidual entrust the youth under his control to a Popish Seminary or College, no matter what economical or literary advantages may be the inducement, nor assist such institutions either with his personal influence or pecuniary aid. And more than this, let the people have an eye upon such of our youth as receive instruction at their hands ; let them follow them with sus- picion and distrust ; let public opinion weigh REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 103 heavily upon them, until a tone of sentiment be formed in this community that shall check the evil ; until it shall be perilous to the future prosperity of a man, when it can be said of him " he was educated at a Popish Seminary — at a Jesuit's college." This may seem severe. It is hard indeed that children should suffer for their parents' faults, but without this the day may come when our children will suffer for our faults. Nor should every method of kind persuasion be neglected which may lead the benighted Catholics themselves to shake off the tyranny under which they labour. It is true, the pros- pect of success in this way is but limited, yet it should not be overlooked. But there must be no intolerance, no persecution ; no privileges granted to one set of men and refused to an- other ; no legal barriers to honor and wealth, no barriers but those of public opinion. Our aim must be, in a word, not that Romanists should cease to be citizens, but that our citi- zens should cease to be Romanists. Thus far of popery as a system of religion merely. The mystery which rests upon one class of her institutions places her in a different light. I refer to monasteries and convents. Our schools, our universities, all our institutions indeed court inspection ; the community feels as if it had a right to know what is transacted within their walls. There is no concealment here, no bars, no bolts, no dismal dungeons, no hidden passages ; all is open as the day. 104 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH Secrecy is that characteristic of a society which finds least favour in the eyes of our citizens. It was this feature in Masonry which some years ago sustained the hostility of the people against that institution. A dreadful crime committed by some of its members, was the occasion upon which that hostility broke forth : but a jealousy of that society had always existed. I do not mean to condemn Masonry, for I am entirely ignorant of its principles and aims. I am inclined to believe them praise- worthy when I call to mind the virtues of some of its members — but I merely state the fact, which will not I think be denied ; that it was the mystery which shrouded the transactions of this institution, that fed the flame which well nigh consumed it. Why then should Catholic monasteries shut their doors against the public gaze. Is it just that those citizens of either sex who are imprisoned within their walls should be entirely lost to the protection of the law ? The possibility that but one is suffering illegal stripes, or panting in a dungeon for that liberty which we all enjoy, should be enough to arouse our attention to this subject. Imagine but a single one lying in solitude, ready to wel- come with the warmest thanks a law which should authorize stated visitations to these prisons to see that none suffer oppression or cruelty. " Infringement of rights !" they will exclaim ; but what rights shall not the law in- fringe in obedience to the dictates of humanity, and the will of our citizens. Even the rights REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 105 of a parent yield to its authority. From an unnatural father it can take his child, and place him in the guardianship of another. How then should the claims of a society over its members or its pupils be exempted from the same sacred and beneficial control? The people have a right to know whether all their fellow-citizens are free. Nay, it is their duty to extend the guardianship of the laws to every one in the land, be he high or low, rich or poor, Protestant or Catholic. If it appear then that the secrecy of monastic in- stitutions is contrary to the spirit of our laws, and may be destructive to the well-being of a portion of our fellow-citizens, it will go far to call for some interference on the part of the people, to justify some legal measures, which, if they do not check their growth, shall at least subject them to scrutiny, and deprive them of the ability to tyrannize in secret over their un- happy inmates. The history of our republic thus far can be looked back upon with pride. Enterprise and intelligence have been the distinguishing cha- racteristics of our citizens, while as a nation we have prospered in no ordinary degree. No portion of the human race is more exempt from superstition and narrow-minded illiberality than the American people. Up to the present time we have been favoured and happy beyond example, and we have been so without Ro- manism. The growth of that religion among us can have no other effect than to deprive 106 ROMANISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH our national character of its high independence, and assimilate it to that of those European people whom we least esteem as nations. We do not want her ignorance, her vain forms, her tyrannizing priesthood, above all we do not want her degrading ritual of polytheism. If we have need of a system of idolatry, the ancient mythology will suffice. The rays of classic genius and of elegant philosophy have at least shed a radiance over its fables. Therein is found no immunity for the adulterer and parricide. Her Furies followed the guilty one in this life, while Ixion's wheel, and the rolling stone of Sisyphus gave a faint foreshadowing of future retribution. But upon the heathen- ism of modern Rome rests cruelty, ignorance, and venal impunity for crime. A corrupt priest- hood holds the key to her fabulous purgatory, and all fears of divine justice is set at nought by her senseless ceremonies. Who would not rather sacrifice to Esculapius with Socrates, or with Seneca pour libations to Jupiter the Deliv- erer, than kneel with a Borgia at the shrine of St. Anthony and St. Dominic. But God be thanked, there is still an alter- native. We have a religion, pure and gentle, combined of mercy and of justice ; full of com- passion for the repentant and not without ter- ror to obstinate offenders. This religion is delivered to us in the Holy Scriptures ; there we see it as brought down to earth by the Sa- viour of mankind, in its heaven-born purity and simplicity, not mingled with vain devices REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 107 nor debased by superstition. There we find the spirit of consistent liberty, and of intelligent, virtuous independence. Neither tyranny nor servility have a place in its precepts. This religion is it that has made and thus far pre- served us what we are, an enlightened and free people. The essential characteristic of the papacy is despotism. In Europe she is all pomp and magnificence; she there wears a regal air — here she affects equality. Like the double Janus, she has a face for the old world and an- other for the new. That which looks toward the East is dark, gloomy, and severe; view her from the West and her frowns are softened, she has caught a trick of freedom, and tries to ape republicanism. But her essence is tyranny. It is in vain that she tries to hide it. When her temple is once closed, that will be an omen to the world of universal peace. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 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