r .^ :> i - ; i I ,?,.,■■-.■ ■ . . « -- '-'> v ft. .■ dM^^itJ"-^ ■■■■■■ u LIBRARY ►V ■>•■> 'T i 1 '& ' J'SL*- • This book is due two weeks from the last date stamped below, and if not returned o r renewed at or - kx • ■\'^ before that time a fine of five cents a day will be incurred. £-" >M — ^^— — — — ^^ .. \ >^ ■ ■ ■ ?i; ^ % ^4^ >^ <^ /7 AN"ESS/i:Y ON IK?, EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION CIVIL SOCIETY IN EUROPE. BY WILLIAM MACKRAY, -IIIXISTER OF THE GOSPEL, STIRLING. .,...." TIS THE CAUSE OF MAN." COWPBR. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH ; AND T. CADELL, STRAND, LONDON. ]VIDCCCXXIX. 1'. NEILt, PRINTER. TO THE VERY REVEREND AND LEARNED THE PRINCIPAL AND PROFESSORS OF MARISCHAL COLLEGE, WITH THE OTHER TRUSTEES OF THE LATE MRS BLACKWALL, THIS VOLUME, BEING THE ESSAY, MUCH ENLARGED, TO WHICH THEY, IN MDCCCXX, AWARDED HER BIENNIAL PRIZE, IS, WITH GREAT RESPECT, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. r ■' 4 il o "='1 Q PREFACE. W iiiLE the Author of this work was pursuing his Academical studies in the University of Aberdeen, the Trustees of the late pious and benevolent Mrs Black wall, proposed, as the subject of her Biennial Prize-Essay, the Ques- tion — " What has been the effect of the Re- formation in Religion, on the state of Civil So- ciety in Europe ?" A few pages, chiefly with a view to his own improvement, he wrote on this subject, and, unexpectedly to himself, proved the successful Candidate. After his Essay was publicly read in Marischal College, several of those respectable persons who heard it, expressed their desire, that, in consideration of the great importance of the subject, it should be published ; but with this desire, on VI PREFACE. various accounts, he could not, at that time^ permit himself to comply. The reasons which have now induced him to publish the Essay in its present form, will readily suggest themselves to considerate minds. In various parts of Europe — not excepting our own, and our sister kingdoms — the interests of Catholicism have, of late years, experienced a considerable revival. The number of its avowed disciples, and of its secret friends, has, there is reason to believe, greatly increased ; while, in all its territories, and in all the departments of its hierarchy, there is taking place a combined and vigorous movement against Protestantism throughout the world. — In these circumstan- ces, it does seem to the Author of this work to be the imperative duty of every genuine Pro- testant to rouse himself from slumber, and, by every legitimate mean, and in the temper of true charity, to give his aid in the defence and establishment of that interest which involves at once the glory of God, and the temporal and eternal welfare of mankind. For, it is his de- PREFACE. Vll liberate and decided conviction, that Popery is the bane of society, and that, in proportion as it obtains in the world, the condition of his fellow-men will become degraded and unhap- py- Entertaining these views, he was led to adopt the resolution of revising and enlarging the short Essay before alluded to ; the more readily engaging therein, that the view which it takes of the bearings of the Reformation appeared to him to be one which, although of very great mo- ment, has been toa rarely brought under the notice of Christians, and by no means regarded with the fulness of interest which it is entitled to claim. In the excellent work of M. Villers, much valuable information is given respecting the influence of the Reformation on political and civil society ; and to that enhghtened, thovigh sometimes erring, philosopher, the Christian world is under high obligations. But it seemed to the Author of the following Essay, that the Vlll PREFACE. subject admitted of farther illustration ; and, accordingly, while in various parts of his plan he has availed himself of the work just referred to, he has studied to advert chiefly to that part of the subject which Villers has touched most lightly ; — that is to say, he has directed his remarks less to the political influence of the Reformation, than to its effect on the civil and domestic affairs of European society. If, under the favour of Almighty God, this Essay shall be the mean of inducing or che- rishing, in the mind of any of its readers, a warm regard to the cause of the Reformation, and a desire to behold the blessings of that great Revolution valued and extended, the ob- ject of its publication will be abundantly real- ized. CONTENTS. Introduction, . p., j tj CHAPTER FIRST. ON THE EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION ON CIVIL LIBERTY. Importance of Liberty to Human Happiness Not really enjoyed in the ■ States of Europe before the Sixteenth Century They would proba- bly have remained strangers to it but for the Reformation. . . .Papal Rome Spiritual Supremacy of the Popes.;. • .Their temporal domi- nion. . . .Ignorance the source of Papal Domination. . . .Means em- ployed by the Pontiffs for the establishment of their power. . . .The Papal system was protected by religious belief. . . .The Church was the protectress of civil tyranny. . . .Luther. . . .His opposition to the Court of Rome. . . .Tetzel. . . .Sale of Indulgences. . . .Luther de- nounces them. . . .Is anathematized. . . .His magnanimous conduct . . . .The translation of the Holy Scriptures forwarded the Reforma- tion. . . .Hostility of the Church of Rome to the reading of the Scrip- tures. . . .Rapid spread of the Reformation. . . .It partially overthrew the spiritual supremacy of the Pontiffs. . . .Destroyed their secular domination. . , .This the case even in Catholic countries. . . .The overthrow given to the power of Rome soon affected the civil governments of Europe Writings of the Reformers They were, 1. Advocates for the rights of the people; Sentiments of Luther; Melancthon ; Zuinglius ; Knox ; Calvin — 2. The Reformers advo- cated the rights of Princes ; Unjustly accused of hostility to govern- ment. . . .View of the change produced by the Reformation on the liberties of the states of Europe. . . .England. . . .Her condition be- fore the Reformation. . . .Her condition posterior to it. . . .Scotland . . . .The Reformation in her the dawn of genuine liberty. . . .Knox . . . .The Covenanters. . . .Our obligations to them. . . .Consolidation of British liberty in 1C88 Holland Sweden. . . . .Denmaric . . . .Germany. . . .Switzerland. . . .Geneva. . . .Condition of the Ca- tholic states. . . .Italy. . . .France. . . .Spain. . . Pp. 10— lOf) X CONTENTS. CHAPTER SECOND. ON THE EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION ON THE INTERNAL SECURITY AND PROSPERITY OF THE KINGDOMS OF EU- ROPE, AND ON THEIR INTERCOURSE WITH EACH OTHER. The Reformation has impressed the minds of the people with the duties which they owe to their rulers. . . .The Papal system entwined with the affairs of Government. . . .The interest of the Church deemed of paramount importance. . . .Vengeance of the Popes against the princes and nations by whom they were offended. . . .Excommunica- tion. . . .Interdict. . . .Nations thrown into confusion by these instru- ments of Papal wrath. . . .Principle which lay at the foundation of all this preposterous. . . .Abolished by the Reformation. . . .All interfer- ence of a foreign power with the internal affairs of States excluded . . . .The Reformation has impressed on the minds of Rulers the du- ties which they owe to their subjects. . . .Coronation oath, to be faithful to Rome, led to persecution. . . .Happier system introduced by the Reformation. . . .Princes raised above the control of Rome. . . . Harmony of feeling, and of interest produced between Protestant princes and their people. . . .Charles IX. . . .Elizabeth. . • .Bartholo- mew massacre. . . .The Reformation abolished many customs and in- stitutions, which corrupted the morals, and impoverished the re» sources of the states of Europe. . . .Monachism Diminution of the number of festivals and holidays The Reformation imposed a powerful check on the perpetration of crime. . . .Doctrine of indul- gences. . . .Doctrine of the right of sanctuary. . . .Abolished in Pro- testant lands. . . .Beneficial effect of the Reformation on the inter- course of states with each other, . - . . . Pp.110 187 CHAPTER THIRD. ^N THE EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION ON DOMESTIC HAP- PINESS, AND, IN GENERAL, ON THE HAPPINESS OF SO- CIAL LIFE. This subject partly anticipated... Social morality promoted by the Refor- mation... Morality essential to happiness. ..Superstition its enemy... CONTENTS. Xi The Popish superstition... Corruption of manners. ..The })roifress of literature would have furnished no remedy for the pj-evailing evils... The Reformation a recurrence to Christian principles and Christian purity... A revolution in point of social morality forced upon Catholics The Reformation gave secui-ity to the intercourse of social life... ...Principles of Popery opposed to it. ..The virtue and peace of domes- tic life in the power of the Clergy. ..Auricular confession... Abomina- tions practised under shelter of this doctrine. ..Abolished in Protes- tant lands, ..The Reformation effected an auspicious change in the whole character of the people. ..Tendency of the Catholic system to destroy generous feeling... Awfully intolerant... The temper of popery the reverse of that by which domestic society can be rendered happy ...Charity the peculiar spirit of the Reformation, Pp. 188 — 207 CHAPTER FOURTH. ON THE EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION ON THE PROGRESS \ OF KNOWLEDGE. Value of knowledge to man. ..Its importance to national dignity and vir- tue. ..Melancholy state of knowledge before the 16th century. ..The papal system hostile to learning... Bacon.. .Galileo... A happier age was approaching. ..Principles by which men were influenced before and since the Reformation widely different... The latter naturally tended to stimulate knowledge.. .The Protestant Reformers were men of learning... Desired its advancement... Discussions originated by the Reformation promoted knowledge. ..Noblest works of genius were produced by Protestants... Study of literature forced upon the Catholics... Knowledge cannot be encouraged by the church of Rome ...Protestant States most eminent for literature... Progress of know- ledge since the Reformation... Liberal sentiments of the Scottish Re- formers. ...Their enlightened designs... .Greatly unsuccessful. ...One noble achievement of theirs. ..Establishment of Parochial Schools... Their value to Scotland... Great efforts in the present age to promote improvement. ..The Church of Rome is opposing the progress of knowledge. ..Her efforts will be finally unsuccessful.. .Universal spread of knowledge anticipated, Pp. 208 228- XU CONTENTS. CHAPTER FIFTH. ON THE EVIL CONSEgUENCES OF THE REFORMATION. The most auspicious events attended with some evils... Illusti'ation of this in the history of Cliristianit^'.-.The Reformation occasioned various disastrous wars... Has been charged with injuring Literature and the Arts. ..This chai'ge considered. ..The Reformation originated a vast multiplicity of sects. ..Has aAvakened the strife of controversy... Reca- pitulation, Pp. 229—253 APPENDIX. I. Of the Inquisition. ..II. Bull of Pius VII. against Bible Societies. ..En- cyclical Letter of Leo XII.. ..III. Doctrine of the Protestant Churches respecting the duty which subjects owe to their i-ulers...IV. Forms of Papal Excommunication... Princes excommunicated. ..V. Monas- teries in Scotland... VI. Protestation of Innocent X. against the Peace of Westphalia... VII. Triumph of Popish principle over the obligations of friendship. ..VIII. Intolerance of the Papal church... Bull in Cmui Dowim... Persecutions in France during last century... IX. Abjui'ation of Galileo. ..X. Of the Index Expurgatorius...XI. Ro- man Catholics in Ireland plead for permission to their children to learn to read the Scriptures. ..XII. Bull of Pope Innocent VIII. against the Waldenses, Pp. 255 — 320 INTP^ODUOTION. It is not, for the most part, by those who are contem- poraneous with great events, that a proper estimate can be formed of their importance. The wisdom of that Providence which governs the world, has chosen, in the accomplishment of its purposes, to pursue a course altogether different from that which would have been adopted by the wisdom of man ; educing from occurrences, apparently so trivial as to be great- ly unnoticed by the men among whom they took place, a succession of most interesting and splendid conse- quences, and confounding human calculation by the momentous light in which those scarcely heeded oc- currences come to be regarded by the people of suc- ceeding generations. Among the multitude of illus- trations which history furnishes of the truth of this remark, the event concerning which it is proposed to treat in the sequel of this essay, is one of the most in- teresting and memorable, A 2 INTRODUCTION. Few events ij^ tJie fe'tbr^r 6f i^ai^kind have been of greater importaiicp. than. the.. Reformation, and few have derived their brig-in from mere inconsiderable oc- currences. Wpnde^fny7)QIBERTV. X3 pression by wbicli the world called Christian was en- slaved. Tlie power to which we allude is that of Papal Rome, — a power, whose nature, greatness, and dura- tion, are among the most surprising phenomena that human history presents to our contemplation. This power, having its seat at Rome, and an Italian priest as the superintendent of its administration, arrogated to itself the prerogatives of Deity,— claiming unlimit- ed authority over the world in secular as well as in ecclesiastical affairs, — assuming to itself the right of dethroning monarchs, and disposing of crowns, — and visiting those who refused obedience to its will with the most fatal and sanguinary vengeance. Spiritual supremacy was all that was originally claimed by the pretended vicars of Jesus Christ ; and, abhorrent as the idea of temporal power is to the character of the ministers of religion, and utterly repugnant as it is to the genius of Christianity to be associated with the pride and pomp of worldly grandeur, more than spiri- tual supremacy it could not have been anticipated that they would demand. But, alas for the peace and happiness of mankind ! as if the imposition of an un- hallowed spiritual yoke had been too small a triumph for them to have gained over a degraded world, more than this they did demand, and more than this they came to possess. In boundless violation of all pro- priety, and in outrage to that Saviour for whom they professed to act, but whose " kingdom is not of this world," they assumed to themselves imperial as well as sacerdotal power, grasped the temporal sword, as 14 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION well as the keys of Saint Peter, and ceased not to ply their insidious devices, till, not only in religion, but also in all secular affairs, they wielded uncontrolled domi- nion over the Christian world * What a spectacle of * The spiritual supremacy of the Roman pontiffs was fully esta- blished about the commencement of the seventh century ; their temporal power seems not to have been consolidated till a hundred and fifty years after that period. The immediate instrument of its consolidation was Pepin, the betrayer and successor of Chil- derick. King of France. This crafty usurper, having been mate- rially indebted to Pope Zachary, for the success of his enterprise against his master's throne, conferred upon that pope's successor, Stephen II., the Exarchate of Ravenna, which had been recover- ed fi-om the King of the Lombards, by whom it had been taken from the emperor. About thirty years afterwards, important ad- ditions were made to the gift of Pepin, by his son and successor Charlemagne. This monarch was the first emperor who was crowned by the pope ; and, from his time, the pontiffs assumed the right of conferring the empire, and laid claim to sovereignty over all kings. This supremacy of the head of the papal church is asserted in strong and most blasphemous terms in the decrees of her councils, and in the writings of her clergy and her popes. " The pope," says one council, with Gregory VII. at its head, " ought to be called the Universal Bishop ; he alone ought to wear the tokens of imperial dignity ; all princes ought to kiss his feet ; he has power to depose emperors and kings, and is to be judged by none." — '•' The church, my spouse," exclaims Innocent III., " is not married to me without bringing me something. She hath given me a dowry of a price beyond all price — the plenitude of spiritual things, and the extent of things temporal — the mitre for the priesthood, and the crown for the kingdom — making me the lieutenant of Him who hath written on his vesture and on his thigh, ' King of kings and Lord of lords,' — to enjoy ylone the plenitude of power, that others may say of me, next to God, Out of his fulness have we received." To deny this supremacy is, in the estimation of the church, heresy of the grossest kind. Accordingly, one of the ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 15 humiliation was it, to behold such a powerful kingdom as Biiglaud acknowledging her subjection to a foreign priesthood, by the yearly payment of a tribute levied on all her families? — a tribute which, although the consideration of its amount is insignificant in com- parison with the consideration of its degrading import, was far from being trivial in point of value ; for, from the time of its imposition to that of its abolition, the sum which it put into the Papal treasury, could not be less than a hundred millions of our present money.* pontiffs, writing to Pliilip of France, uses these words : " We would have you know, that you are subject to us, both in things spiritual and temporal ; and we declare all those who believe the contrary to be heretics !" At another time, addressing the same monarch, he says, " Do not allow yourself to imagine that you have no superior, or that you are not in subjection to the head of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. He that thinks this is a fool, and he that obstinately maintains this is an infidel, separated from the flock of the good Shepherd." These proud and blaspliemous claims of the pontiffs of Rome were never forgotten by them, but, on the contrary, were prosecuted with so much success, that, partly by subtlety, and partly by terror, they gained the sovereignty of Eu- rope, and rendered the greater part of its states the tributary fiefs of the Papal See.t * In England, this tribute, which was known by the name of Peter-pence, was exacted annually from every family in the king- dom. The payment of it is dated from the reign of Ina the Saxon. It was prohibited by Edward III., but was soon after revived, and continued till the Reformation. Something of the same kind existed in other countries. In Ireland, it was established under t A condensed view of the arrogant claims of the Papal See, and of the laiio-uage in which they were asserted, is to be found in a work of immense research, entitled, " Free Thoughts on the Toleration of Popery," by the late Professor Bruce of Whitburn. Notes, pp. 30 — 34, 44 — 55, &c. 16 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION So completely, indeed, did clerical ambition gain the ascendancy over the secular powers, that we find the greatest of the princes of the earth humbling themselves to the very dust in the presence of him who was called " the Pope," and sacrificing before him at once the majesty of kings and the dignity of men* ; — or, if there did sometimes appear a monarch, who, more spirited than his fellows, dared to disobey " the Vicar of Christ," he became the victim of a resent- ment, which, availing itself of the superstition of his people, was felt to be terrible. In the history of Henry II. of England is found a memorable illustra- tion of this remark. Perceiving that the insolence and profligacy of the clerical orders in his dominions Henry II. ; in Spain, Portugal, and France, it was claimed by Gregory VII. 5 and was introduced by other pontiffs into Sicily, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, ike. * History tells us of two princes — the one a king of England, the other of France, whom one of the pontiffs compelled to hold his stirrup, while he mounted on horseback ; of another prince — an emperor indeed — upon whose neck, while he was lying pros- trate before him, the pope placed his foot, exclaiming, with blas- phemous application of the words of Holy Writ, " Thou shalt tread upon the serpent, and trample on the dragon and the lion ;" — of another, that he was compelled to lie in chains under the pon- tiff's table; and of another, the king of England who ventured to punish the insolence of Thomas of Canterbury, that he was obliged to walk barefooted to the tomb of Becket, and there to receive a whipping on the bare back from the monks and priests. We are shocked by the perusal of details like these ; but the facts which they record are well authenticated, and serve, at once, as demonstrations of the greatness of the papal power, and as speci- mens of the revolting insults which the pontiffs inflicted on the princes of Europe. ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 17 had become intolerable ; he determmed to attempt their reformation ; but his attempt proved fatal. The Primate of England, indignant, fled to Rome, — the anathemas of the Holy Sec thundered, — the friends of the King were excommunicated, — ^he himself was deposed, — and his subjects were absolved from their allegiance. There needed no more. The haughty fugitive returned in triumph through the streets of the English metropolis, and the priestly domination derived increased stability from the opposition which it had sustained *. * In the history of Henry IV. Emperor of Germany, we find, if possible^ a still more melancholy example of the tremendous infliction of papal vengeance. This great monarch, accused by Pope Gregory VII., of exalting himself against the church, was excommunicated, and deposed, and declared unworthy of the allegiance of his subjects. Amid the rigours of a severe winter, he passed the Alps, with his queen and infant son, and, after ex- cessive fatigue, arrived at the fortress of Canusium, which was at that time the residence of the pope. There, in the outer court of the fortress, did the suppliant prince stand for three days in the open air, barefooted, having his head uncovered, and wrapt around with a wretched garment of woollen cloth. On the fourth day, the haughty priest deigned to adinit him into his presence, and agreed to absolve him, upon the condition of his attending a ge- neral council, to answer for the charges brought against him, and promising to acquiesce in the decision of that council, of what na- ture soever it might be. The council met, and, at the instance of the pope, chose another emperor, to whom Gregory sent a crown bearing this inscription — " Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodolpho." Bloody were the wars to which this transaction gave birth, and dreadful were the treachery and cruelty to which the ejected mo- B 18 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION " With propriety has the period been termed ' The Dark Ages,' when such a usurpation could meet with endurance — a usurpation reared on the ruin of all that is virtuous and noble in the character of man. How much must it excite our astonishment, that mankind should ever have given themselves up, bound hand and foot, into the power of such a despotism ! In- to what ignominious debasement had they fallen, — what blighted minds and withered hearts were theirs, when such an abomination was permitted to defile the earth!" " Then Superstition held her reign, While — priests combined — a ready train— Her throne on ignorance to rear. And rule her slaves by hope and fear. Obsequious, 'mid the trembling crowd. Slaves of their arts even monarchs bowed, Force joined with fraud to aid the unhallow'd plan. And tyrants leagued with priests, the foes of man." Armstrong. Ignorance was the melancholy characteristic of those ages, — an ignorance cherished in every possible way narch was exposed. Twenty years did he manfully contend for his rights, during which time no fewer than four excommunica- tions were thundered against him. At last, in utter violation, not merely of the precepts of that holy religion of which they professed to be the guardians, but of the common dictates of hu- manity, the pontiffs— of whom there were four in the short space of twenty years — excited his son to rebel against him, to seize his person, and cast him into prison. Thence was he brought to the Diet at Mentz, where again he was excommunicated, divested of the imperial dignity, stript of his royal robes, and left a melan- ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 19 by the proud ecclesiastics, whose darling pursuit was universal dominion ; and of the manifold miseries by the endurance of which mankind were afflicted and debased, ignorance may be regarded as the jirolific source. Superstition, it is true, had in those ages shed its destructive influence over the Christian world, and operated, with dreadful effect, in fostering the power by which the world was oppressed. But Super- stition was the child of Ignorance. Ignorance origi- nated, ignorance gave duration to, that whole hideous train of absvu'dities, which, although shocking and in- sulting to our common understanding, was with incre- dible art introduced to the faith and attachment of mankind ; and therefore, ignorance must be regarded as the source of that gigantic system of domination which these absurdities cherished and upheld. / Ignorance has ever been the fovmdation of the ty- rant's throne. The experience of all ages has demon- strated, that tyranny will never be borne with patience till light has been excluded from the mind. Diffuse knowledge among a people, confer upon them liberty of thought and of investigation, and you give them resources that cannot be exhausted, — energies that cannot be overcome./ Memorable is the illustration of this remark, which we find in the history of ancient Greece. What was it that raised her little states to choly monument of ftillen greatness, and of the perfidy and cruel- ty of the papal court. After reigning upwards of forty years, and at the head of his armies fighting sixty-two battles, in al- most all of which he was victorious, this great, but most unhappy monarch, died at Liege, a poor broken-hearted exile. B 2 20 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION the commanding eminence which they occupied among the nations of the world ? It was Liherty. Greece was the land of freedom, while the people of other lands were slaves. And why was Greece free ? Be- cause she was intelligent. Amply did knowledge un- fold to the Greeks her precious stores ; over the fields of literature and science they expatiated with an ar- dour worthy of a people who had tasted their sweets ; and the effect of the progressive march of information thus stimulated was striking. Although few in num- ber, possessing very limited resources, and surrounded by hosts of enemies, the inhabitants of those diminu- tive states did, nevertheless, maintain their independ- ence with a loftiness of heroism, that has shed a lustre around their name, which no length of ages will ever efface. And it was not till the Grecian mind — cor- rupted by the gold, and enervated by the luxuries of conquered nations — became disqualified for, and ne- glected its former glory, the pursuit of knowledge : it was then, and not till then, that the star of free- dom, which had poured over Greece its splendid rays, sunk beneath her horizon, and left her, forlorn, amid the gloom of a thraldom, which, during every succeed- ing age, has become more terrible, and from which — to the lasting dishonour of other nations, whom the spoils of her literature have enriched and ennobled, — after the lapse of eighteen long, sad centuries, she is not delivered. The Popes of Rome, therefore, could not possibly have adopted a plan more calculated to establish the domination to which they aspired, than the imposition ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 21 of restraints on freedom of thought, and on the pro- gress of knowledge. Their favourite maxim was, " to retain the minds of men in utter stupidity, and to keep them, as much as possible, empty, that they might afterwards be filled with any thing which is found agreeable, and that superstition might find a ready reception." The process was slow, but its success was not doubtful. Ages elapsed ere this great conspiracy against the liberties of mankind was matured ; but its authors, steady to their purpose, never, for one moment, lost sight of their darling object, till the monstrous sys- tem was completed, and, by the imposition on the world of the doctrine of infallibility, was invested with a cha- racter that seemed superior to change. It was the re- ception of this most preposterous doctrine that sealed the fate of the nations of Europe. Thenceforth " Be- lieve and obey," was the established law of Christen- dom. Implicit faith and blind submission were the sovereign virtues. Rational inquiry and private judg- ment did lowliest homage to absolute, unquestionable, authority. Mind was doomed to stagnation. The very Book, without which men perish, was withdrawn from the people ; and every opinion, deemed hostile to the interests of the Church, was denounced as he- resy. Last of all, as if to fill up to the very utter- most the measure of their atrocious wickedness — that they might annihilate for ever the last feeble remains, if, indeed, there were still any remains, of intellectual freedom — they established the Inquisition, — " that tribunal, which," to use the language of a masterly writer, " in solemn mockery of all that is sacred, ap- 22 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION propriates to itself the title of Holy Office, and, in its outrage to the Saviour of the world, and all the spirit and letter of his beneficent laws, lifts up its front to heaven as the guardian of the Christian faith, and marches forth its victims to deathful agonies and burning flames." Claiming for its institutor Pope Innocent III., one of the most arrogant and profligate mortals that ever breathed, this detestable tribunal, utterly opposed in its whole spirit to the genius of Christianity, had a quick erection in many of the states of Europe, and, with dismal success, promoted the unhallowed object for which it had been intro- duced.* Such were the means by which was reared, and long protected, " that whole dark pile of human mockeries," called Popery, which extended its dismal shade over the Christian world, claiming to be the in- stitution of the Saviour of men, but presenting, in its whole influence, a scene infinitely opposed to that which will be beheld under the reign of Him, who shall be to the nations of the earth " as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." As the mind cannot conceive a more iniquitous or more formidable system of oj)pression than that which was managed by the Roman Pontiffs, it would be dif- ficult to conceive one more obviously destined to long duration. " Religion," says a profound writer,f " acts on its subjects with a power peculiar to itself. The * See Appendix, No. I. + Foster. ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 23 sense which man, by the very constitution of his na- ture, has of the existence of some superhuman power, is one of the strongest principles of that nature ; and whatever takes effectual hold of this sense, will go far toward acquiring the regency of his moral being." In this manner was strength imparted to the Papal power. It had been carefully identified with that principle which, in every point, comes in contact with the human character, and which, when possessed of any energy at all, governs the soul. Thus identified, its control over its subjects was supreme. Established under the semblance of religion, and protected by all the authority of its inviolable sanctities, the huge colossus seemed invulnerable, and, in the pride of its imagined omnipotence, scorned hostility. It is of importance, too, to remark, on this part of the subject, that whilst, in the fulness of her own se- curity. Papal Rome sat as a queen, and said, " I am no widow, and shall see no sorrow," she was the pro- tectress of all the systems of political oppression that prevailed throughout Europe. It is this consideration that has induced us, when adverting to the state of Europe, in respect of liberty, before the Reformation, to assign such a prominence to the pontifical yoke. We have done this — not because we are insensible of the magnitude of those aggressions on popular right which were practised by the secular powers, nor merely, though the consideration is important, be- cause possessing, as the Pontiffs did, political as well as ecclesiastical power, their domination was on that account the more intolerable, being the more unjust. 24 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION — but, chiefly, because it is our conviction, that the Papal power was the guardian of all the oppression that was exercised by the political riders of those days ; and that, until it was overthrown, and utterly demolished, there could neither be the enjoyment of genuine liberty, nor any material improvement in the condition of society. Before resistance to secular ty- ranny could commence, it was necessary that the hu- man mind should be raised from prostration, and called forth into activity, that intelligence should be diffused, and that men should be brought to think and act like men. But all this the church forbade, — not be- cause she cared for the stability of the political govern- ments of the world, but because she knew well that every thing of this kind was utterly opposed to her own security. The rescue of intellect from its degra- dation, and the extension of knowledge, would have inflicted, as they did afterwards inflict, a death-blow on the Papal power ; and, therefore, these, above all other things, the Pontiffs laboured to prevent. And so long as the power of the church was respected, so long as the authority of its head was deemed indis- putable, so long as " believe and obey " was the uni- versally acknowledged maxim, the occurrence of any change which would have been favourable to liberty was impossible. It was absolutely necessary that the authority of the church should be spurned, and her power overthrown, ere the existing systems of poli- tical thraldom coidd be even assailed. If, indeed, the tyranny that existed during those ages had been altogether of a secular nature — if it ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 25 had wanted that connection with religion, or, rather, with the prevailing superstition, which imparted to it such a peculiar complexion — the revival of letters, occa- sioned by the discovery of the artof printing, would have done much toward effecting an auspicious change in the circumstances of Europe. But as the case was — en- trenched as the prevailing systems were behind the for- midable and universally respected power of the Court of Rome — the influence of literature was too feeble and too limited to accomplish any great change in favour of freedom. Raised by means of popidar ignorance to the possession of a power whose greatness fills us with astonishment, the Pontiffs became, as might naturally have been expected, the patrons and guardians of that to which they owed their aggrandizement. Their in- fluence was employed to perpetuate in the world the reign of darkness ; and, regarded as they were by the mass of the people with implicit deference, their ad- monitions — that knowledge was incalculably pernicious — would have induced the latter to put it away from them, and to choose the darkness rather than the light ; or, if, in any instance, they should have failed to accomplish their object by admonition, it would have been accomplished by force : and thus it is ex- tremely probable, that the gleam of light which sprung up in Europe on the discovery of the art of printing would, by the potent efforts of a priesthood which was the natural and inveterate enemy of knowledge, have been soon extinguished. At all events, it would have been utterly incompetent for effecting the much-need- ed renovation of European society. " In the system 26 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION of an infallible church," says a French writer, who was by no means prejudiced in favour of Protestantism *, " all the decisions of which are dictated by the Holy Spirit, such a reformation as is requisite becomes im- possible. It is certain, that, at the period of the Re- formation, the heads of the Catholic religion, who, at first, had discovered nothing in the revival of letters but glory and pleasure, or some tendency toward the refinement of manners, and who encouraged them un- der that idea, began to perceive their own danger in too much knowledge, and manifested a very distinct resistance. That opposition has not speedily ceased in Austria, in Spain, in Italy, in the Netherlands, where all the means of inquisition and censure were employed to restrain the operations of mind, and to turn improvement backwards. Let any one compare the political, religious, and literary oondition of the greater part of those countries, during the succeeding ages, with the condition of Saxon Germany, of Hol- land, and England, in the same respects ; and let him judge, without prejudice, what could have been ex- pected from the same policy extended in all its rigour over Europe !" It was the Reformation in religion that, by assail- ing the church herself, and exposing to the view of mankind the monstrous injustice of her usurpation, struck at the root of the evil, and, establishing free- dom of investigation as the natural right of man, laid open tyranny in all its forms to those invasions, from * Villers. ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 27 which, by the abused sanctities of religion, it had too long been shielded. " The contest," says the biographer of Knox, " between Papal sovereignty and the autho- rity of General Councils, which was carried on during the fifteenth century, elicited some of the essential prin- ciples of liberty, which were afterwards applied to po- litical government. The revival of learning, by un- folding the principles of legislation and modes of go- vernment in the republics of ancient Greece and Rome, gradually led to more liberal notions on this subject. But these were confined to a few, and had no great influence on the general state of society. The spirit infused by philosophy and literature is too feeble and contracted to produce a radical reform of established abuses ; and learned men, satisfied with their own su- perior illumination, and the liberty of indulging their speculations, have generally been too indifferent, or too timid, to attempt the improvement of the multi- tude. It is to the religious spirit excited during the sixteenth century, which spread rapidly through Eu- rope, and diffused itself among all classes of men, that we are chiefly indebted for the propagation of the ge- nuine principles of rational liberty, and the consequent amelioration of government *." For a considerable time previous to the Reforma- tion, there were not a few individuals, in various parts of Europe, who uttered loud complaints against the pontifical tyranny, and earnestly desired a reformation of the prevailing abuses. But the overthrow of the * M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. i. pp. 302, 303. 28 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION system they ventured not to contemplate. The re- moval of some of the appendages of Popery was the utmost extent of the wish which they entertained ; to lay violent hands on the structure itself, was a mea- sure of the necessity of which they were by no means convinced. These were not the men for the times. The accomplishment of their desire would have done little permanent good to mankind. It would have been to lop off from the great poison-tree, which was shedding its deadly influence over the world, a few of its branches, leaving untouched, and vigorous and fruitful, its massy trunk and deep-stricken root, to send forth other boughs, and to shed abroad as deadly an influence, and to be still the bane of many an unborn genera- tion. Nor, indeed, although there had been those be- fore whom the futility of such a partial measure as this was fully revealed, and in whose apprehension it was needful to stand forth in declared and decided op- position to the whole prevailing system of politico-ec- clesiastical oppression, would it have been surprising, if, contemplating the peril attendant on such a step, they had shrunk from its adoption. The power to be op- posed was so completely overwhelming, and the pros- pect of making any impression upon it — not to speak of its overthrow — lay so far beyond the range even of probabilities, that he who would have engaged in the enterprize must have brought to it a firmness of reso- lution, and a boldness of daring, of which there have been but few examples in the history of man. The place of honour in this instance, was really the place of danger ; and, of all the men in the world, the inha- ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 29 bitaiit of a moiikisli cell — that other name for sloth and effeminacy — would be the last whom any one would deem qvialified or disposed for its occupation. Among the few redeeming circumstances that are to be found in the history of monasteries, this is not the least worthy of being recorded, that, while they pro- duced such an accomplished scholar as the author of " The History of the Council of Trent," they gave to the world such a dauntless reformer as Luther ; and were it not that these illustrious individuals were striking exceptions to the whole tendency of the mo- nastic life, the recollection that they were monks would almost incline us to cast the mantle of oblivion over all the abuses of monastic institutions, and cease to regret that they have been. It is, perhaps, beyond our power to determine with precision whether the opposition made by Luther to ' the tyranny of the Court of Rome was or was not the result of design. There is, certainly, much in his con- duct that seems to indicate the total absence from his mind of any preconcerted plan of operation. At the same time, we know, that, seven years before he en- tered on the arduous career which has immortalized his name, he was deputed to Rome about the affairs of his order ; and, indignant as he must have felt at the thousand abominations of the Pontifical Court which met his eye, it does not seem unlikely that there, if not the design, at least the noble and disinterested wish, took possession of his soul, to stem, if possible, the torrent of depravity which was desolating the world, and to accomplish the emancipation of his 30 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION fellow men from what, he was convinced, was the most dreadful and infatuated oppression in which they could be held. In the celebrated letter which, ten years after this period, he addressed to the Pontiff, Leo X. he declares, in strong language, the effect which an ac- quaintance with the manners of the Pontifical Court had produced on his mind. He affirms that its corruption exceeds that of Babylon and Sodom — that he regards it as desperately wicked — that it is a most licentious den of thieves — that he deems its case beyond reme- dy — that, being filthy, it must continue filthy still — and that, as long as he preserves any thing of the spi- rit of the gospel, lie will persevere in giving it his de- termined opposition. " O Leo !" says he, after having declared that to the Pontiff himself he entertained no enmity, and after having advised him to resign the pontificate to those sons of perdition for whom alone it is now fit, — " O Leo !" says Luther, in a style of bold admonition that admirably became the Reformer of Europe, " you sit on a most inauspicious and dange- rous throne. The more wicked and execrable your court is, the more readily do they use yom* name and authority to ruin the fortunes and the souls of the people, to mviltiply their villanies, and to oppress the whole church of God. I speak the truth, because I wish you well. If Bernard, vdth an honest freedom, deplored the situation of Pope Eugenius, at a time when there was room for better hopes of the Roman Court, though even then very corrupt, why may not we, after an accumulation of most ruinous corruptions for upwards of three hundred years, be allowed to ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 31 speak freely ? Those who thus complain, and exe- crate the Court of Rome, are your best friends, and do you the best services. Nothing can be more op- posite to Christ and his religion, than the practices of the Roman See." These are the sentiments which, from the time of his visit to Rome, the Reformer had learned to cherish respecting the Papal power ; and, judging from these sentiments, it does not seem un- likely, that, from that time, the desire to rid the world of such a dreadful abomination had taken possession of his mind *. * What a contrast does the open manly conduct of this reform- er present to the timid, time-serving policy of the literati of his age — not excepting even the most eminent of them all — the great Erasmus. Distinguished as the latter was for the extent of his learning, the elegance of his taste, and the acuteness of his mind ; deemed, perhaps deservedly, the first literary character of his age, he yet " loved the praise of men" more than the approba- tion of his conscience or of God. He knew full well the extreme corruption of the political and religious establishments of the times in which he lived ; he was aware, especially, of the into- lerable oppressions exercised over her poor deluded subjects, by the profligate hierarchy of Rome ; yet, neither had he the cou- rage to stand forth in the high character of reformer, nor was he honest enough to avow himself the friend of those who came, with their lives in their hands, to plead in that character the cause of their God and of their fellow-men. Admired and re- spected as a man of literature, by princes, and popes, and digni- fied ecclesiastics, their favour he could not feel in his heart to forfeit — an exposure of the abuses of the system with which they were identified — save in as far as such an exposure consisted with the retention of their esteem — he dared not to attempt ; and thus did he at once degrade the eminence of his literary character, and cast away his reputation as an honest man, by sacrificing, at the 32 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION . Be this matter, however, as it may, the very first step which Luther took in opposition to the power of shrine of self and of the world, the solemn convictions of con- science, and the momentous interests of mankind. What could be a more striking proof of the temporizing spirit of this great man, than the language in which, on one occasion, he addressed one of the reformers — cautioning him not to injure his (Erasmus') reputation, by representing him as connected with ihein ? "I pretend not to pass sentence on you," writes he to Ecolampadius, who, in the preface to one of his books, had used the phrase — " Magnus Erasmxis nosier" — owr great Erasmus — " I leave that to the Lord, to whom ye must stand or fall. But this I reflect on, namely, What do several great men think of you ? — the Em- peror, the Pope, Ferdinand, the King of England, the Bishop of Rochester, Cardinal Wolsey, and many others, whose authority it is not safe for me to contemn, and whose favour I must not de- spise. You know very well that there are some who look upon you as heresiarchs and schismatics. Now, What will such per- sons say, when they read in your Preface the words, ' Our great Erasmus ?' Will not the consequence be, that the dangerous sus- picions of powerful princes or of implacable enemies, who had begun to think a little better of me since the publication of my ' Diatribe,' will be all revived ?" Who feels not shocked at the utterance of such language by this great man, especially when it is recollected, that he not only was aware, but had acknowledged, that the Reformers were the be- nefactors of mankind ? Who is not grieved to behold this most accomplished scholar of his day, meanly temporising, in order to secure the favour of men whom, in his heart, he most thoroughly despised ? But he had his reward. The fading honours of liter- ary eminence Erasmus gained, but of the imperishable, ever- brightening glories, that constitute the inheritance of the refor- mer and the patriot, his crooked policy bereaved him for ever. The " Diatribe," of which his letter to Ecolampadius makes mention, was a treatise " On the Freedom of the Will," in which he attacked the doctrine of the reformers, and of which he sent 2 ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 53 Rome was decisive. Burning with indignation at the conduct of the pretended head of the church in claim- ing a right to indulge mankind in the perpetration of crime, and to barter for money heaven and the pardon of sins, and shocked at the outrages on all morality which were practised by the commissioned venders of these indulgences, he denounced the traffic as iniqui- tous, called in question the authority which had sanc- tioned it, and appealed for the truth of bis doctrine to the word of God *. copies to the Royal polemic, Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey, telling the latter, that, if it had been his choice to dedicate the book to any one, he would have inscribed it either to him or to the pope ! * Under the pretence of completing the erection of St Peter's Church, which had been begun by his predecessor Julius II., but in reality to defray the expenses of his gaudy court, Leo, in the fifth year of his pontificate, published an indulgence throughout the christian world, proclaiming to all who would give money for the specified purpose, the pardon of their sins, and the privilege of eating eggs and cheese in the time of Lent. One of the retail- ers of these indulgences, John Tetzel, a Dominican monk, and a man of matchless impudence, came with his unholy merchandize into the neighbourhood of Wittemberg, where Luther was, at that time, labouring in the double character of professor of philosophy, and preacher of the gospel. The audacity and impiety of Tetzel in the discharge of his iniquitous commission were extreme. He made his boast that he had saved more souls from hell by his in- dulgences, than St Peter had converted to Christianity by his preaching. He assured the purchasers of them, " That their crimes, how enormous soever, would be forgiven ; whence it be- came almost needless for him to bid them dismiss all their fears about their salvation. For, remission of sins being fully obtained, what doubt could there be of salvation ?" In the usual form of C 54 EFFFXT OF THE KEFOHMA TKjX The court of Rome was amazed and enraged at the audacity of this disturber of the world's repose ; and, feeling that the impeachment of its boasted infallibi- lity was a blow struck at the very root of its system of usurpation, thundered its anathemas against him. His opinions were denovmced as heretical and scanda- lous ; his writings were forbidden to be read under pain of excommunication ; those who had them in their possession were commanded to burn them ; Lu- ther himself— if he did not, within sixty days, bring or send his retractation to Rome — was declared to be an obstinate heretic, and excommvmicated and de- livered over to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh ; absolution, written by bis own band, be said, " I, by tbe autbo- rity of Jesus Christ, through tbe merits of bis most holy passion, and by the authority of bis blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and of our most holy Pope, delegated to me as commissioner, do ab- solve thee, Jirsty from all ecclesiastical censures however incurred, secondly, from all sins committed by thee, however enormous, — for so far do the keys of the church extend,— and I do this, by re- mitting all the punishments due to thee in purgatory, on account of thy crimes, and I restore thee to the innocence and purity in which thou wast baptized, so that the gates of punishment may be shut to thee when dying, and the gates of paradise be opened/' No language can express the indignation which a christian must feel, when be thinks of the impiety of those men, who, claiming to be the representatives of Jesus Christ, dared to lend their sanc- tion to such transactions as these. But their time was come- The cup of their iniquity was full. Another impost of this kind they were never again to obtrude upon tbe world. The opposi- tion which Luther gave to the blasphemies of Tetzel commenced tbe Reformation ; and the bold step which he took, when be called in question the authority of the Pope, Avas the signal of that re- volt which rescued the lialf of Europe from tbe papal yoke. ON Civil. LIBERTY, 35 and all the secular powers were required, under pain of incurring the same censures, and of forfeiting all their dignities, to seize his person, that he might he punished according to the demerit of his crimes. A man of another temper would have been terrified into instant submission by the announcement of papal dis- pleasure. But Luther was not thus to be intimidated. Fearing God, he feared none beside. Determined that, having once reared in a deluded and enslaved world the standard of truth, he would rather die than desert it, he heard the thunders of the Vatican as the passing wind. " The die is cast," he exclaimed, " papal wrath and papal favour I alike despise. Let the Roman- ists condemn me, and bum my book, and if, in retiu-n, I do not publicly condemn and burn the whole mass of ])ontifical law, it shall be because I cannot find fire." He appealed from the sentence of the Roman Pontiff, characterizing him as " a rash, iniquitous, tyrannical judge," — " a hardened heretic and apostate," — " an enemy and opposer of the sacred Scriptures," — and " a proud, blasphemous despiser of the sacred church of God, and of all legal councils.' After which, an immense pile of wood having been previously prepared for the purpose without the walls of Wittemberg, in the presence of the professors and students of the Uni- versity, and of a vast multitude of spectators, he com- mitted to the flames the bull of his excommunication, and the decretals of the pontifical jurisdiction. There is not in all history the record of a bolder transaction. Its influence was electric. Mind, roused from its long torjwr, burst forth into life and energy. The people c 2 36 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION having, by means of Luther's appeal, had their atten- tion directed to the Holy Scriptures, earnestly wished to possess them. Alas, they were not to be found ! The very church that ought to have exercised a vigi- lant guardianship over the Holy Word, and urged its careful study on all her members, had proved its bit- terest foe, and had withdrawn it so entirely from her degraded subjects, that the greater part of them were ignorant of its very existence. Years elapsed before the wish of the people to obtain, and of the Reformer to give them, the Scriptures in their own language, could be gratified ; and with unhallowed earnestness did the supporters of the papal usurpation labour to render abortive the imploring wish of the one and the benevolent design of the other. But, by the good providence of Him whose time had arrived for the re- novation of a degenerate world, the German Reformer was at length enabled to publish among his country- men a translation of the New Testament ; and its ap- pearance was of essential moment in forwarding the Reformation. Eagerly did the people peruse it, and with utter astonishment did they perceive its infinite repugnance to the prevailing superstition *. Thence- forth, the mighty spell was broken by which they had * " I know not," says the historian of the Reformation, " whe- ther any man that 6ver lived had a greater reverence than Luther for the Holy Scriptures. It was the sight of them, through God's blessing, which illuminated the mind of the Reformer : it was the want of them which, through the iniquity of papal artifice and tyranny, held the people in the darkness of ignorance and superstition. Luther, therefore, easily foresaw the important con ON CIVIL LIBERT V. 37 been bound ; the authority that sanctioned the evils under which they groaned began to be called in ques- sequences which must flow from a fair translation of the Bible in the German language. Nothing would so eifectually shake the pillars of ecclesiastical despotism ; nothing was so likely to spread the knowledge of pure Christianity. Accordingly, he rejoiced in the design of expediting the work, while his adversaries depre- cated the execution of it, more than any heresy of which the greatest enemy of the church could be guilty." It was in the year 1522, that he published his version of the New Testament, and his translation of the whole Scriptures was completed and given to his country in the year 1530. " The whole performance/' says his historian, " was a monument of that astonishing industry which marked the character of the Reformer." The effects of this labour were soon felt in Germany j immense numbers now read in their own language the precious word of God, and saw with their own eyes the just foundations of the Lutheran doctrine. A ihore acceptable present could scarcely have been conferred on men who were emerging out of darkness ; and the example being followed soon after by reformers of other nations, the real know- ledge of Scripture was facilitated to a surprising degree." Than all this, nothing could have been more fatal, and therefore more an object of deprecation, to the court of Rome. " The papacy," continues the same excellent writer, " saw all this, and sighed in- dignant. Emser, a doctor of Leipsic, was employed to depreciate the credit of Luther's version ; and the popish princes, within the bounds of their respective dominions, ordered the work to be burnt. Nor was their resentment appeased by the advice which Luther openly gave to their subjects, patiently to bear their suf- ferings without resisting their governors, but not to come forward and deliver up their German Bibles, or to do any act which might testify an approbation of the requisitions of their superiors on the occasion. Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, issued a severe edict to prevent the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible, which had soon gone through several editions ; and he forbade all the subjects of his imperial majesty to have any copies either 38 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION tion — ^men dared to think, to reason, to examine ; and that glorious peculiarity of Protestantism, the of that or any of Luther's books. In Flanders, the persecution appears to have been extreme. Many, on account of their adhe- rence to Lutheranism, were put to death, or deprived of their property, by the most summary and tyrannical proceedings." In manifesting such keen opposition to this benevolent under- taking of the German Reformer, the papal court acted in precise- ly the same spirit with that which it had displayed in reference to the translation of the Bible, which, two hundred years before, the Primitive Reformer of England, Wickliffe, had accomplished into his native tongue. It was one of the first great works in which that illustrious man engaged, to enable his poor ignorant countrymen to read in their own tongue the wonderful works of God. The Bible, he affirmed, is the will of God ; and it long gave him great offence, and was deemed by him one of the capi- tal errors of Popery, that it should be locked up from the people. But his publication in the English language of the records of di- vine truth, brought down upon him a storm of dreadful persecu- tion. " Christ entrusted his gospel," said the ecclesiastics of his time, " to the clergy and doctors of the church, to minister it to the laity, and weaker sort, according to their exigencies and several occasions. But this Master John Wickliffe, by translat- ing it, has made it vulgar ; and has laid it more open to the laity, and even to women, who can read, than it was wont to be to the most learned of the clergy, and those of the best understanding : and thus, the gospel jewel, the evangelical pearl, is thrown about and trodden under feet of swine." In order to stay the progress of this growing evil, attempts were made to suppress, by public au- thority, the reading of the English Scriptures ; and the instances were not few, in which the poor people, for whose souls no man cared, had to expiate the crime of reading them at the stake, — in which case, it was a common practice to fasten round the neck of the condemned heretic the parts of the scriptures which were found in his possession, that they with him might be consigned to the jame fate. ON eiVIL LIBERT V. 39 right of private judgment, was established on an im- moveable basis. The cause of the Reformation was embraced and advocated by the most enlightened and eloquent men of the age. Melancthoii in Germany, Zuinglius in Switzerland, Calvin in France, and Knox in Scotland, with a host of other eminently pious and talented men, Nor is it unworthy of remark, that it was not only in the ages of darkness that hostility to the publication of the Holy Scrip- tures ia the languages of Europe was manifested by the pontiffs and the court of Rome. In succeeding ages, and in our own time, lias this dismal feature in the character of the papal church been strikingly displayed. In vain have her insidious friends affirmed, and her too credulous opponents believed the affirmation — that her illiberal spirit is departed, and that the superstition and bigotry which distinguished her in days of old have given place to better, more enlightened, and more rational sentiments. Only a few years have elapsed since two solemn bulls were issued from the pontifical court in relation to this very subject, distinguished by all the bigotry and intolerance of the dark ages. One of these precious monuments of the improved state of Catholic sentiment in the nineteenth century, the reader will find in the Appendix, No. II. ; and, as he peruses it, he will find the melancholy con- viction forced upon him, that the character of the papal church is really unchanged, — that all the disastrous visitations of Divine Providence which its head and members have recently experi- enced, have had no effect in meliorating its relentless spirit,— that the same inveterate hostility to the reading of the Bible, and the same shrinking from the light of sacred truth, which were its characteristics in the days of darkness, distinguish it still, — that, in short, the poor {ibused disciples of the Roman church, are as really and entirely excluded as ever they were from tasting those blessed waters, which, flowing from beneath the throne of God and of the Lamb, have been made to pour their healing and glad- dening streams among the desolate heritages of this fallen world ! 40 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION devoted themselves to its interest, and laboured for its advancement ; nor had many years gone past from the period of its commencement, till, in every part of Christendom, multitudes had withdrawn from the communion, and rejected the authority of the Roman church ; while in not a few of the states of Europe, the papal supremacy was formally and publicly dis- claimed. Now, it is true that the revolution, at the outlines of whose initiatory history we have just glanced, did, in the first place, operate on religion ; and the effect which it produced on the religious state of Europe was of immense importance. To have rescued the one-half of Europe entirely, and the other partially, from the spiritual jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiffs, was a great achievement — an achievement to which may be traced all the triumphs that genuine religion has since obtained throughout the world. But the Reformation did more. It annihilated throughout Europe the secular power of the Roman See ; and, when we mention this, we record a triumph which the progress of literature never could have gained. Only in one point was the system vulnerable ; and upon that point literature was not calculated to bear. The foundation of the great fabric was laid deep in those religious opinions which, even from infancy, were assiduously instilled into the popular mind ; and there any impression which was intended to be effectual and permanent behoved to be made. There, accordingly, the Reformation did make an impression, and that im- pression was both effectual and permanent. Long ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 41 had mystical Babylon, proud as her predecessor of the ancient world, sitten secure in her own greatness, and scornfully smiled at all her foes. The winds and the tempests of many generations had assailed her in vain ; she seemed to gain strength from opposition, and to outbrave even the vengeance of heaven : but the time of retribution was come ; touched by that word which is " the breath" of the Most High, as if light- ning from the skies had undermined her base, she fell, and left to the view of posterity the melancholy wrecks of the grandeur which, in preceding ages, as- tonished and awed the kingdoms of the earth. The endurance which the pontifical domination had experienced, during so many hundreds of years, was owing, as has been already remarked, to the influence of religious belief on the credulous minds of the super- stitious multitude. The right of the Pontiffs to so- vereign power was acknowledged generally throughout Christendom, and, regarded as the gift of heaven, was held inviolable. But the light of reformation that was made to burst forth upon the world, put to flight the darkness and delusions of a thousand years. Ut- terly at variance with the will of heaven as the exist- ing ecclesiastical supremacy was found to be, still more monstrous, if possible, seemed that secular do- minion, wherewith it had been long associated. On the latter, therefore, descended the vengeance that vi- sited the former. England, Scotland, Holland, Den- mark, Sweden, the half of Germany, and more than the half of Switzerland, disclaiming the authority of the Pontifical Court, withdrew the tribute which had 42 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION been the badge of their slavery, and spurned away from them those degrading laws, to which, during the ages of darkness, their homage had been paid. Nor was it only in the nations which, from that pe- riod, were called Protestant * that the Reformation affected the secular power of the court of Rome. This was the case even in Catholic countries. In most of them the power of the Pope was gradually circumscribed, and a very considerable abatement took place in the veneration with which his authority was regarded. * The name Protestant, took its rise from the following circum- stance. At a diet of the princes of the empire, held at Spires, in Germany, in the year 1529, it was decreed hy the majority there present, " That in those places where the edict of Worms had been received, it would not be lawful for any one to change his religion j that in those places where the new (Lutheran, or re- formed) religion was exercised, it should be maintained till the meeting of a council, if the ancient (Popish) religion could not be restored without danger of disturbing the public peace ; but that the mass should not be abolislied, nor the catholics hindered from the free exercise of their religion, nor any one of them allowed to embrace the reformed faith ; that the sacramentarians should be banished the empire ; that the anabaptists should be punished with death, and that no preacher should explain the gospel in any other sense than what was approved by the church." Against this de- cree six princes of the empire entered their protest, namely, John? Elector of Saxony ; George, Margrave of Brandenburgh ; Ernest and Francis, Dukes of Brunswick and Lunenburgh ; Philip, Land- grave of Hesse; and Woolfgang, Prince of Anhalt. Fourteen free cities of Germany joined in this protest ; and from it the pro- fessors of the reformed faith first obtained the name of Protest- ants, a name which was afterwards given in common to all who separated themselves from the tyrannical and idolatrous practices of the Church of Rome. ON Civil, LIBERTY. 1.1 Many a time since then has the heatl of the Church been treated, even by catholic princes, as an object of extreme insignificance ; and many a time has he been employed as the wretched tool of their ambition. The Popes have been aware of this abatement of respect for their authority, and have yielded, with sullen reluc- tance, to the dire necessity of the times. The spirit of their system has not been less intolerant and fierce, but it has been compelled to endure severe repression. They have not relinquished their pretensions to uni- versal power ; but they have asserted them more spa- ringly, and with diminished confidence. Times with- out number, since the Reformation, have they inter- fered in the affairs of kings and kingdoms, and, too often, they have not interfered in vain ; yet has not their interference experienced, even from her own children, the profound veneration which, in the ages before Luther, it was accustomed to receive. " From that time," says a writer formerly quoted, " the ap- pearance of respect has been only vain ceremony. It was too well known that the Vatican was only a volcano exhausted. What issued spontaneously from Rome was impotent and unavailing ; whilst a single cornier dispatched from Paris, from Vienna, or Lis- bon, toward that ancient capital of the world, extort- ed from it— sometimes a bull for the extinction of a re- ligious order, sometimes a regulation, — so many proofs of submission given by the feeble successor of so many haughty pontiffs, who only purchased his precarious existence at the price of all the compliances exacted from him." 44 EFFECT OF THE REFOKMATION The surprising events which took place in the poli- tical world about the commencement of the present century, seemed to indicate that the period was at hand when the nations were to enjoy an entire rid- dance from the oppressions of that unholy power, which had trampled so long on their dearest interests ; and the prospect of such a deliverance was cheering to the hearts of the friends of liberty and of mankind. In language so sanguine as the following, did one of these friends of humanity declare his anticipations : " The French Revolution has been peculiarly instrumental in bringing the Pope to the last stage of degradation ; his territories overrun and pillaged again and again ; he himself compelled to every species of submission ; and the holy chair itself kept empty, till it suited the convenience of the republican and atheistical chiefs to place in it a vicar of Jesus Christ. The temporal power of the Pope is completely destroyed by the re- public, and he is one of the meanest of the vassals of Bonaparte. This is not only seen and felt by the princes of Europe ; there is hardly a monk or a pea- sant in the darkest catholic corner of Europe who is not sensible of it. It is now visible to every votary of the Holy See, that the Pope has nothing to give. His vast patronage stimulated the zeal of those vota- ries in former times ; and we may now expect to see speedy changes in the state of Catholicism wherever it exists." Unhappily, subsequent events have placed these de- sirable changes at a greater distance than might have been, at that time, anticipated. The settlement which ON CIVIL I-IBEUTV. 45 was made of the affairs of Europe, posterior to the final overthrow of him whom Divine Providence raised up to he her most dreadful scourge, is of a complexion altogether hostile to the interests of freedom ; and, surely, the protestant princes, when they lent their as- sistance to the re-establishment of that power which delights to trample on the most sacred privileges of man, acted iu auother spirit than that of the Refor- mation. But we confidently hope, that its re-esta- blishment will be for a short period ; that efforts to repair the crumbling walls of that fabric which the Reformation greatly demolished will be all in vain ; that the tendency toward an improved state of society which, in the l6tli century, was imparted to the cur- rent of human affairs, will not now be successfully op- posed ; that, in short, the contest which the foes of their species are waging, for the recovery of their lost ascendancy, will ])rove to be their expiring struggle, and will usher in the final triumph of omnipotent truth. There is ground for the indulgence of these cheer- ing hopes. There are events taking place in the reli- gious world, by which they are more than sanctioned. Protestantism is " the cause of man," and its basis is the Bible. Aware of this, the friends of the Refor- mation and of their species have roused their energies to the task of disseminating the Scriptures among their fellow men ; and, more than all their predeces- sors, are christians of this age distinguished for their exertions in this enterprise of beneficence. It has not been the only object of these best friends of their race to send the book of God into the negro's hut, and 46 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION abroad over the dreary wilds of heathenism ; the mil- lions of their unhappy brethren whom the genius of popery holds in bondage, have come within the range of their compassionate regard ; and we trust that the progress — we will not say of reason and philosophy, the cant phrase of some speculators about human improve- ment, but — of the Bible and Christianity, will ere long eradicate the last remains of that atrocious sys- tem, which, during so many ages, has triumphed over the weakness of humanity, and will blot out its re- membrance from that world which it has too long polluted. / It was not long till the destructive blow which had 'been given to the power of Rome began to affect, most materially, the political governments of the na- tions of Europe. It was remarked in the commence- ment of this Essay, that the possession, on the part of the Pontifical Court, of its spiritual and temporal power, was accompanied with this aggravation, that that power was the guardian of all the other modes of tyranny which existed among the nations of western Europe. Their princes and their subjects were alike devoted, in soul and body, to the interests of the church ; and, for the support which the former yield- ed to its arrogant claims, they were invested with ab- solute authority over the lives and fortunes of the lat- ter ; whilst these, believing — as they were taught by those to whose teaching they listened with implicit deference — that the power of their monarchs was di- vinely communicated, esteemed their persons sacred, and were prepared tamely to acquiesce in all their ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 47 measures. It was thus that the preposterous rnaxim — that kings are possessed of a divine right to govern,^ independently of the will of their subjects, — derived its origin, — a principle so utterly hostile to rational li- berty, that it could have been introduced only in those ages in which men, ceasing to reason, had given themselves up, bound hand and foot, to be the slaves of a cruel and lying priesthood. Of this state of proud domination, on the one hand, and deep humiliation on the other, the church was the protectress ; and out of it, as has been stated in the preceding pages, mankind could be delivered only by the previous overthrow of her power. That overthrow, we have seen, the Re- formation accomplished. Letting in on the minds of the people the light of divine truth, and exhibiting, from the Holy Scriptures, the baselessness of the ex- isting system of religion, it inspired them with con- tempt for the authority of the church by which that religion was sanctioned, and effected in some nations the total, in others the partial overthrow, of her do- mination. Nor, when once the fetters forged and im- posed by the church were broken and cast away, and men felt themselves emancipated from her thraldom, was it long till the political governments of the world began, in a similar manner, to experience the melio- rating influence of the Reformation. The controver- sy which was carried on respecting religious freedom, and the investigation which it originated, elicited not a few of the principles of civil liberty, and threw con- siderable light on the subject of political government. " The authority of the church being, in some places, 48 EFFECT OF THE KEFORMATIOK strictly conjoined with the authority of the state, and in others altogether confounded with it, it was impos- sible to examine and discuss the rights of the one, without extending the investigation also to the rights of the other. Men inquired by what right the Popes pretended to raise up and cast down kings ; and this naturally conducted to the inquiry — by what authori- ty kings were originally set up ? When the respec- tive rights of the church and state were discussed, it was difficult, from this important topic, not to turn sometimes to the rights of the people. It was ascer- tained that the community, regarded as a religious as- sociation, that is to say, as a church, had a right to choose its own pastors, and to draw up its own creed. It was most natural from this to conclude, that the same community, as a political association, had a right to elect its own magistrates, and to form its own con- stitution. The Emperor opposed the new religious creed. Men then inquired, if, in matters of faith, they ought to obey the Emperor. In 1531, the Fa- culties of Law and Theology in the University of Wit- temberg answered unanimously in the negative. From that time, all discussion turned only on the limits of that obedience which is due to sovereigns, and of that resistance which may be opposed to them *." The writings of the Reformers merit to be regarded as the principal source of the brilliant light which, in modern times, has been poured on this interesting subject. They were the first persons in the modern * Villers. ON CTVIT> IJBERTY. 49 world who wrote on it with freedom, and in a strain of manly eloquence that forms a pleasing and digni- lied contrast to all that prostration of sentiment and feeling which impresses such disgusting features on the productions of preceding times. Indeed, although it were true that, on the subject of political govern- ment, the writings of the reformers contained nothing worthy of being remembered, the very fact that they did write on that subject, and that they wrote on it with freedom — a phenomenon which, during many ages, the world had not beheld — would entitle them to be esteemed the liberators of Europe. They held forth a glorious example to the world — they opened up the way which many have since successfully trod ; and were this all that we could say on their behalf^ — were it really the case that their recorded sentiments on the subject of political government are absolutely worthless, they would be entitled to the praise of having done an immensely important service to the interests of freedom. But the reformers were not mere declaimers about liberty ; they were its enlight- ened and consistent advocates. In their views, and in their language respecting it, they had regard to the rights of the jieople, but they were mindful, at the same time, of the rights of kings. They wished to behold the former rescued from oppression ; but they desired, also, to see the latter in possession of all that they coidd claim as their just prerogative. We shall enlarge a little on this part of our subject — not be- cause lengthened argumentation is necessary to de- monstrate that the Reformation was the birth-season D 50 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION of our, freedom — ^but because the sentiments of the Reformers, on this head, have been much misrepre- sented, and because we should deem it an unpardon- able neglect, if, when awarding to the Reformation its merited praise, we should omit to vindicate the great- ly traduced opinions of the authors of the Reforma- tion. In the first place, the Reformers were the firm and enlightened advocates of the rights of the people. They wished to see them in possession of that free- dom from unjust constraint, which the word of God declares to be the unalienable privilege of man. But this privilege, they perceived, could not be enjoyed, so long as the monstrous doctrine of the divine right of kings, and of passive obedience on the part of subjects, maintained its sway in the minds of the multitude. This principle they regarded as lying at the founda- tion of all the political tyranny that existed, and, therefore, against it they placed themselves in the at- titude of resolute and persevering hostility. It is, in- deed, true, that they did not come to take this en- lightened view of the subject with equal rapidity. They had been, with the multitude, the slaves of the common belief; and out of the trammels of this belief some of them escaped at a much later period than their brethren. There was a time, for example, when the Saxon Reformer, even after he had entered on his interesting career, was the assertor of passive obe- dience — covdd not bring his mind to the adoption of the opinion, urged upon him, as it was, at once by reason and revelation, that the oppressive measures of riders ON CIA^TI. I-IBEETY. 51 may be resisted by their people. Nor, indeed, ought this to excite our surprise. It cannot appear wonder- ful to any considerate mind, that sentiments on the subject of freedom, so entirely the reverse of those which they had been long accustomed to deem ortho- dox, should have obtained the acquiescence of the Reformers by slow degrees. The influence which old opinions and old attachments exert on the mind, is always too powerfid to be at once overcome ; and, in many cases, the control which they acquire over all its feelings is so complete, as to baffle every attempt at conviction, and to seal it up in impenetrable darkness. In the history of Christianity we find a mournfully striking illustration of this remark. Its divine origin is demonstrated, beyond the possibility of reasonable doubt, by the evidence of miracles and prophecy, as well as by the sublimity and purity of its own doc- trines and precepts ; yet are we assured, that, in its primitive age, there were many, not only among the Jews, but also among the enlightened Greeks, who, professing to be fired with the love of wisdom and of truth, did nevertheless, on account of its opposition to their confirmed modes of thinking, put it away from them as a system of folly : and even in this our own age of vaunted illumination, there are many, who, mighty in pretensions to candour and liberality of mind, and perfect freedom from every thing like pre- judice, do, nevertheless, under the influence of a sys- tem revolting to the best feelings of our nature, and as destitute of ground to stand upon as " the baseless fabric of a vision," talk of the evidence of the truth of D 2 oSr EFFECT OF THE TIEFORMATIOK our religion as a falsehood, and spurn the volume in which it is embodied away from them ! Unhappy men ! hov/ much they deserve our deep commiseration t What a state of wretchedness is theirs! Gloriously as they suppose themselves to have broken loose from all the trammels of system, and far exalted as they deem themselves to be above all the prejudices of the vulgar, they are, in very deed, the dupes of prejudices more glaringly unreasonable than any that ever were entertained, and the very slaves of the coldest, and gloomiest, and most delusive system, that ever was presented to the faith of mankind ! Of other tempers, and of a different character, were the Reformers of Europe. They had that thirst for knowledge which led them to search after truth ; but, happily for themselves and for mankind, they had also that candour, and that docility of mind, which, when truth was found, led them to embrace it.* The ad- vances^ indeed, which they made towards enlightened views oil the subject of politics, as well as on the sub- ject of religion, were gradual ; and it could not be but that this circumstance should have imparted to their opinions, expressed at different times, a character of inconsistency. The Saxon Reformer, as has been already remarked, was considerably later than his. brethren in acquiring correct ideas of the duty which * The obstinate attachment to his absurd notion, respecting the Eucharist, by which Luther was so unhappily characterised, wa& manifestly occasioned, not so much by the love of his own dogmir, as by his excessive reverence for the leiy irords of Scripture, — " This is mv bodv " ^ ON Civil. LIBEKTY. 53 subjects owe to their political rulers. The notions which he had imbibed, respecting the spiritual nature of the kingdom of Christ, and the unlawfulness of de- fending it by secular power, rendered him, for a time, the advocate of passive obedience. He could not bring his mind to acknowledge the propriety of resisting encroachments on religious rights, and of preventing their destruction, by opposing force to force. But an obstinate attachment to sentiments, on this subject, so much at variance with both reason and Scripture, was not destined to form a blot in the character of Luther. " If thou mayest be free, use it rather," says the Apostle ; — " a maxim," remarks the enlightened bio- gi-apher of Knox, " which is applicable by just ana- logy to political, as well as to domestic freedom. The Christian religion natively tends to cherish and dif- fuse a spirit favourable to civil liberty ; and this, in its turn, has the most happy influence on Christianity, which never flourished extensively, and for a long pe- riod, in any country where despotism prevailed. It must, therefore, be the duty of every Christian, to exert himself for the acquisition and the defence of this invaluable blessing. Although Christianity ought not to be propagated by forc€ of arms, yet the external liberty of professing it may be vindicated in that way, both against foreign invaders, and against domestic tyrants : and, if the free exercise of their religion, or their right to remove religious abuses, enter into the grounds of the struggle which a nation maintains against oppressive rulers, the cause becomes of vastly 54 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION more importance ; its justice is more unquestionable ; and it is still more worthy, not only of their prayers and petitions, but of their blood and treasure, than if it had been maintained solely for the purpose of secu- ring their fortunes, or of acquiring some merely world- ly advantage. And to those whose minds are not warped by prejudice, and who do not labour under a confusion of ideas on the subject, it must surely ap- pear paradoxical to assert, that, while God has grant- ed to subjects a right to take the sword of just de- fence for securing objects of a temporary and inferior nature, he has prohibited them from using this reme- dy, and left them at the mercy of every lawless despot, with respect to a concern the most important of all, whether it be viewed as relating to his own honour, or to the welfare of mankind." In this light was the subject at last regarded by Luther ; nor was he ashamed, in the face of the w orld, to acknowledge the change which his sentiments had undergone. At the consultation in which the league of Smalcald •■ — that first and honourable stand which * At the diet of the German Empire, held at Augaburg, on the 25th of June 1530, Bayer the Chancellor of Saxony, read, on be- half of the Protestants, and in presence of the emperor and -as- sembled princes, the celebrated declaration of Lutheran principles, since distinguished by the name of " The Augsburg Confession." This declaration — of which the matter is said to have been sup- l)lied by Luther, wliile the style and arrangement were the work of the elegant Melaucthou — was heard by the assembly with deep attention, and had the effect of confirming the wavering a- mong the Protestants, and gaining over many to their cause who had hitherto been its foes. The enemies of the Reformation pretend ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 55 the Protestant princes made against their oppressor was formed, he made the candid confession, that, in writing, as he had formerly done, against all resistance in defence of religion, he had erred ; and that, under- standing the subject as he now did, it was his convic- tion, that, in full accordance with the spirit of the Gospel, and with the jwlitical law, a defensive confe- ed to refute the doctrines of the confession, in a tract which was, shortly afterwards, published by two of the most learned of tlieir doctors ; but this tract was answered, in a most eloquent and masterly manner, by another from the pen of Melancthon. At last after reason and argument had been found ineffectual for gain- ing to the Reformed that liberty of religious profession which they desired, and to the enjoyment of which they had a most rightful claim, — when, instead of granting them that liberty, the emperor sought to crush them by the authority of imperial edicts, and the force of the secular power, — the Elector of Saxony, and the con- federate princes of the Reformation met at Smalcald, 1530-31, and entered into a solemn league, in which they bound themselves nobly and vigorously to defend, even to the shedding of their blood, that religion and those liberties which the power and bigotry of Rome were menacing with destruction. This is the confede- ration to which reference is made in the text. In itself most wise and reasonable, it proved an eminent mean, in the hand of that Providence which watched over the interests of the Reformation, in consolidating the energies of the Reformed, in augmenting their zeal, and furthering in a very great degree the momentous cause in which they had embarked. To its influence, especially, may be traced the peace, so favourable to the Protestants, which in 1532 was concluded at Nuremberg — in which, while they promised to aid the emperor in his war against the Turks, and to ac- knowledge Ferdinand as lawful king of the Romans, the emperor engaged to abrogate the edicts formerly made against the Re- formed, and to grant them the free and unmolested enjoyment of their religious rights. 56 EFFECT OF THE IJEFOKMATION deracy on behalf of the reformed faith might be en- tered into, if the Emperor, or any in his name, should attempt its overthrow. So great, indeed, was the change which took place in the sentiments of the Re- former on this subject, that the advocates of the ancient system very gravely, though very unjustly, charged him with the crime of sedition. " At present," are his own words, " they accuse me of being a seditious person, because, forsooth, I have written on the secu- lar power, wisely and usefully, and so as no doctor has done since the days of the Apostles, except, perhaps, St Augustine. This is what I can declare with a good conscience, and of which the world can bear me wit- ness." But, while it is true that the political opinions of the Saxon Reformer did experience the change to which we have adverted, there is no person who will affirm — at least, there is not the slightest ground for affirming — that that change was any thing else than the result of thorough conviction. Considerations of a selfish nature his magnanimous soul would have spvirned away from him ; and there was every thing in his character to induce us to believe that he was too honest to be swayed by the principle of expe- diency. It was the pious regard which he entertained for the Bible, and the firm resolution which he had adopted, ever to resign himself to its guidance, that induced him to act as he did ; and, it were well for the interests of Christianity, if all the opinions of its professors were the result of as much honest investi- gation, and of as profound respect for the dictates of ON CIVIL LI15E11TY. 57 Scripture, and of right reason, as characterized the de- cisions of this great man. His amiahle preceptor and coadjutor — whom Lu- ther was wont to call " the most learned and truly Grecian Philip Melancthon" — entertained the same liberal and enlightened sentiments on this interesting subject ; and when we consider that the wide range of topics embraced by his Lectvues would afford him many opportunities of discussing and adverting to it, and moreover, that those lectures were listened to by an audience of frequently more than two thousand in- dividuals, we cannot entertain a doubt, that, in a very extensive sphere indeed, the influence of his opinions was experienced. Gentle and yielding in his disposi- tion as he is reported to have been, on that point, which, as we have seen, was for a considerable time a subject of perplexing doubt to his reforming friend, he speaks with an air of firmness and decision, that marks it to have been, in his mind, by no means a matter of doubtful dispute. " The Gospel," he w rites at one time, " affords us ample warrant to act in political matters agreeably to the dictates of right reason. It sanctions the principle of resistance to oppression. Indeed, were this not the case — were this principle not recognized by it — the Gospel would be transformed into a politi- cal code, beneath the shelter of which the grossest ty- ranny might find protection." " We commend ourselves and our cause to God," was his unhesitating reply, at another time, to Cardinal Campegius and his party, who were using the most strenuous efforts to induce him to relinquish his adherence to the Protestant Confession 58 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION — " we commend ourselves and our cause to God. If He be for us, who can be against us ? In our pro- vinces we have upwards of forty thousand persons, in- cluding poor ministers, their families and parishioners, whose spiritual interests we cannot abandon, but will do whatsoever we are able for them, supplicating the help of Jesus Christ, whose cause we espouse, and on behalf of whom we are prepared to labour with pa- tience, and to endure all difficulties. //' it he neces- sary, we ivould — if such he the will of God — rather fight and die, than hetray so many souls." In other parts of Europe, did the Reformers pro- claim themselves the friends of freedom, and, with all the weight of their influence, and with all that manly boldness which marked them out as really the men for the times, did they establish the principle of resistance to tyranny, in whatsoever shape it ap- peared. " Stand firm," said Zuinglius, the Swiss re- former, to the ministers of Ulm and Meningen, who requested his advice concerning the part which they ought to act, in consequence of the Emperor's ex- pressed determination to restore in some of the impe- rial cities the Roman superstitions, — " Stand firm to the truth, and promise the Emperor ohedience, pro- vided he does not touch your religion. If he shall refuse these terms, then tell him how much you la- ment that he should be so ill advised as to suppose he possesses a power over your consciences — a power which no pious Emperor did ever assume, and which no man could ever give — and that, therefore, there is nothing which you will not hazard rather than give way m this matter to any authority save that of the Word of ON Civil. LIBERTY. 59 God." — " When the Papists, " he continues, " shall perceive your resolute determination, they will not venture to employ force against you. They know very well, that, if they go to war, their possessions are liable to be plundered by the soldiery, and that, after all, the issue is doubtful. Besides, if the Romish hie- rarchy, nay, if any authority whatsoever, should begin to oppress the Gospel, and if we, through negligence, shall submit to the encroachment, I maintain that we are as guilty of denying the truth as the oppressors themselves. Already have ye broken off much of the Roman yoke. What folly, then, now to submit, in spiritual things, to the Emperor's authority, which is entirely derived from these very Papal pretensions which you have rejected."^ In the spirited language of this dauntless patriot, may the people of Scotland perceive a striking resem- blance to those potent strains, by which, as if some supernatural impulse had seized them, their ancestors of the sixteenth century were roused to the task of their country's emancipation. Knox was no less the advocate of freedom than his continental brethren; and, as the assertor of her freedom, it will not be easy to express the debt of gratitude which his country owes him. His discourses, characterized by an elo- quence that overpowered his auditors, and carried them completely along with them — and indeed all his writ- ings that have been transmitted to us, display his senti- ments on the subject of which we are treating, to have entirely coincided with those by which British Pro- testants have been generally distinguished, and which 60 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION are regarded as forming the basis of British liberty. " Now, no farther to trouble you at present," is his lan- guage, at one time, written from the continent to the nobility of Scotland, " I will only advertise you of such report as I hear in these parts uncertainly noised ; which is this — that contradiction and rebellion is made to the authority by some in your realm. In which point, my conscience will not suffer me to keep back from you my counsel, yea my judgment and command- ment, that none of you who seek to promote the glory of Christ, do suddenly disobey or displease the establish- ed authority in any thing lawful ; nor that you assist or fortify such as, for their own particular cause, and worldly promotion, would trouble the same. But in the bonds of Jesus Christ, I exhort you, that, with all simplicity and lawful obedience, with boldness in God, and with open profession of your faith, you seek the favour of the authority— that, by it, if possible, the cause in which you labour may be promoted, or, at least, not persecuted ; which thing, if, after all humble request, you cannot obtain, then, with solemn and open protestation of your obedience to be given to the au- thority in all things not plainly displeasing to God, you may lawfully attempt the extremity, which is, to provide, whether the authority will consent or not, that Christ's Gospel may be truly preached, and his holy sacraments rightly administered unto you, and to your brethren, the subjects of that realm. And, far- ther, you lawfully may, yea, thereto are bound, to de- fend 2jonr brethren from persecution and fyranmj, be it against princes or emperors, to the uttermost of ox CIVTI. LIBERTY.. 6l your power ; providing, always, as I have said, that neither yourselves deny lawful ohedience, nor yet that you assist or promote those that seek an authority or pre-eminence of worldly glory." To none of the Reformers, however, were the na- tions of Europe more signally indebted for the intro- duction of correct and enlightened sentiments on the subject of government, than to the celebrated Calvin. His work, entitled, " Institutiones Christianse Reli- gionis," although it was published by him when he was at the early age of twenty-five years, merits to be esteemed one of the noblest monuments that genius, combined with piety, ever reared : and, distinguished as it is by an elegance of style, that would not have dishonoured the best writers of the classic ages, and a precision of statement which is altogether astonishing, considering the wide range of subject embraced by it, and that its author had just escaped from a darkness which might be felt, we need not wonder, that, in a few years, it should have obtained a very extensive circulation. One part of his book he devoted ex- pressly to the subject of government, and, notwith- standing all the light which has been poured on that subject in succeeding ages, it will not be easy to point out a work, in which there is contained, in so small a compass, more judicious and masterly statements respecting it. Numerous editions of this noble work dispersed among the nations of Europe soon after its publication, must have produced a very powerful effect on the minds of their people ; nor is there any reason to doubt, tljat, although it may be 62 EFFECT OF THE EEFORMATTON impossible to ascertain to what extent, it exerted an influence in favour of both civil and religious liberty which was at once potent and permanent. But it is time to remark, in the second place, that, while the leading actors in the Reformation were dis- tinguished for their regard to the rights of the people, they were not less distinguished for their regard to the rights of kings. Everywhere did they prove them- selves the unshrinking advocates of freedom, but every where, at the same time, did they prove themselves the friends of good government and social order. Of the crime of exciting disaffection to civil authority, they were indeed accused ; but never was accusation more unfounded and base. Differences of sentiment as to the advantages or disadvantages of particular forms of government may have obtained among them, but that any one of them was characterized by hostility to reo-ular government itself, is an assertion to corroborate which a single fact cannot be adduced. Strange, in- deed, it would have been, if the men who, in the face of danger and of death, had restored to mankind that di- vine religion, which recognises among his doctrines, as well the rights of rulers as of subjects, and which assigns among its injunctions such a prominence to their re- spective duties — strange, indeed, it would have been, if these men had been the violators, in so gross a man- ner, of the sacred precepts of that religion — the abet- tors of practices so utterly at variance with its whole spirit ! Obedience to civil rulers in all things lawful, is so obviously the dictate of that holy book which they regarded as the only standard of morality, that ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 63 the encouragement of sentiments of an opposite na- ture would have argued such a wilful perversion of its contents, as is utterly inconsistent with all that inte- grity of heart, and that honest regard for the teaching of Scripture, hy which they were so much distinguished. No ; they sought the reformation of government, not its destruction. " Extensive observation," to give the language of his biographer respecting our Scottish Reformer, a more general, but not less warrantable application — " Extensive observation had convinced them of the glaring perversion of government in most of the European kingdoms. But their principles led them to desire their reform, not their subversion. They were perfectly sensible of the necessity of regu- lar government to the maintenance of justice and or- der among mankind, and aware of the danger of set- ting men loose from its salutary control. They uni- formly inculcated a conscientious obedience to the lawful commands of their rulers, and respect to their persons, as w^ell as to their authority, even when they were chargeable with various mismanagements, as long as they did not break through the restraints of law and justice, and cease to perform the essential duties of their office." " The Protestant Reformation," says a judicious writer, well versed in its history, " although princi- pally concerned to restore true Christianity, and rec- tify the many abuses which the wicked policy of Rome had introduced into religion, through several ages, did not overlook this important part of reform : it tended also to restore and secure the rights of princes, and to 64 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION promote the welfare of particular kingdoms, and the liberty of mankind, by settling the authority of ma- gistracy on just foundations. Among other things in controversy with their adversaries, the Reformers with unanimity declared against Papal encroachments on civil power — the confounding of jurisdictions — the ex- emption of certain classes of men from the laws — the subjection of subjects to a foreign head, claiming power to tax them, or to absolve them at his pleasure from their allegiance. They also, with one voice, de- clared against the wild and enthusiastic opinions of some persons pretending reformation — the levelling schemes of the Anabaptists — and the tumultuous in- surrections of the German peasants — which were all invidiously charged by their adversaries upon the prin- ciples and cause of the Reformers, though they could derive no countenance from these but by their perver- sion and abuse. The opposition, also, made to the Protestants in many places, by the civil powers under which they lived, afforded them another occasion and call to assert and manifest to the world their legal and peaceable subordination, in all points wherein obe- dience to human authority and laws could warrant- ably be claimed. They accordingly took care, in as- serting and exercising their natural or religious rights, and in explaining the due limits of authority and obe- dience, to avoid any thing that might look like a re- fusal to give due allegiance even to the rulers who were inimical to their religion, or as if they were men delighting in anarchy and Belialism. Their public apologies and confessions, as well as private writings. ON CIVII> LIBERTY. 65 contained assertions and language sufficiently explicit and strong upon these points, as may be seen, among other monuments, in the passages relating to them in the Augsburg, the Helvetian, the French and Scottish Confessions *. Their personal practice, and public proceedings accorded with their professions ; unless when open tyranny compelled them to use the com- mon right of self-defence and resistance." Lengthened as this digression has been, it is not, we trust, altogether out of place. Writing respecting the influence which the Reformation has exerted on liberty, we feel that injustice would have been done to the character of the Reformers, if we had not borne our testimony to the integrity of their political creed, and pointed the notice of our readers to the entire ab- sence of all ground for those imputations with which their memory has been assailed. They were not, it is true, men of accommodating spirits, whom royalty could seduce by its smiles, or intimidate by its frowns. They were strangers to that false politeness, which, in violation of conscience and of truth, can profess re- spect for tyranny, and minister flattering compliments to profligate greatness. But that they either enter- tained or countenanced opinions which derogate, in the remotest degree, from the proper rights of politi- cal rulers, is a most iniquitous accusation ; and poor * In the Appendix, No. III., the reader will find some extracts from the Confessions of the Reformed Churches, which constitute an ample and triumphant vindication of their sentiments, and those of the Reformers, in relation to this very interesting and important subject. E ^6 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION must be the heart of that man, who can assign to his industry the odious task of attempting to fix so mani- fest a calumny on the deliverers of Europe — men, whose memory the friends of piety and freedom will ever venerate, and whose names they will never cease to associate with all that is precious and dear to them in the world. The change which, under the influence of the Re- formation, was effected in the political condition of Europe, is amply detailed in the histories of the pe- riod in which it took place ; although it is certainly matter of regret, that the writers of these works have not given sufficient prominence to the influence which the Reformation had in producing it. To examine that change minutely in this place is not our design. It will be sufficient for our present purpose, in con- cluding this part of our subject, to take a rapid glance at the aspect which was assumed by the principal states of Europe posterior to the Reformation ; and in do- ing this — while we refer to history for the details — it will appear evident, that the revolution of which we are treating, not only had a tendency to afffect, but did actually affect, the political governments of the age, and did, in many striking instances, accomplish a change, the benefits resulting from which are at this moment enjoyed, and will through all time continue to be enjoyed, not by Evu'ope only, but by the world. In the auspicious influence of the Reformation, as it respects civil liberty, no country has more largely participated than our own. Britain has been eminent- ly the scene where the good done to mankind by that ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 67 revolution has been displayed. In her — while from some of the continental nations, in which the light of truth began to spread, and to render visible the thick- surrounding darkness, it was soon, by the formidable exertions of its enemies, unhappily excluded — ^in her, the light, which, after ten centuries of gloom, burst upon mankind, was cherished and perpetuated, and, under the good providence of Him whose time had ar- rived to have mercy on the world, was made to diflPuse over her moral scenery a charm, which, till then, she knew not, and which, since that time, has constituted the essence of all that moral loveliness by which her character has been adorned. Look to Britain, we would say, to those persons who are so sceptical as to ask, what has the Reformation done for liberty ? Lift your eyes to this land of our fathers, elevated in point of substantial glory above all other lands — confessed, in spite of her native insignificance, the chief among the nations, arbitress of the destinies of the mightiest empires on the earth — and behold in her one splen- did example of what the Reformation has done for li- berty. Liberty constitutes the foundation of all her greatness ; and the source of her liberty was the Re- formation. History, it is true, assures us, that, at a period long anterior to the sixteenth century, the constitution of England had worn an aspect which was, on the whole, favourable to freedom. But we know well, that the mere existence of good laws will form a very slender barrier against the encroachments of tyrannical riders, if they are not shielded from perversion by the opi- E 2 68 EFFECT OF THE REFOEMATION nioii, openly and boldly expressed, of an intelligent population. Such a safeguard for their liberties the people of England did not possess. The fundamental laws of the kingdom, favourable as they were to poli- tical freedom, had been, for the most part, extorted from arbitrary monarchs, by whom, when it suited them, they were disregarded ; and the people, debased by ignorance and superstition, and held in bondage by a hundred petty sovereigns besides, were neither in a condition, nor had any desire, to cause them to be respected. Need we wonder that, in such circum- stances, the most flagrant violations of right, on the one hand — and the most humiliating acquiescences, on the other, should often meet the eye of the reader, while he peruses, indignant, these portions of her history ? There was nothing in this wretched state of society which could warrant the anticipation of a change for the better ; but every thing, as we have already shewn, to induce the melancholy expectation of its longer du- ration. The abolition of the feudal system had, in- deed, some considerable time before the Reformation, rescued the people from baronial slavery ; but it did this only to deliver them up into the power of a royal despot. Henry VIII. was a more absolute monarch than any other that ever filled the British throne; and history bears us out in affirming, that, but for the religious revolution of the sixteenth century, which overthrew the power of the church, and inspired the public mind with a noble feeling of independence, the government of our country, no longer checked by the ON CIVIL LIBERTY. GGT baronial power, and supported by the immense influ- ence of the church, would have become, and would at this moment have been, a despotism.* With the commencement of the Reformation in England began the establishment of her liberty. By the overthrow which Henry gave to the Roman power throughout his kingdom, there was inflicted, on the despotism which he and his predecessors had been at- tempting to rear, a wound of which he little dreamed. * " In proving that the Reformation prevented this conntry from falling under a despotic government," says a writer in ' The Pulpit,' who subscribes himself ' A Protestant/ "I might gather abundant evidence from the histories of France and Spain. The same causes which abolished the feudal system in England, abo- lished the same system in those countries. What was the result ? In both countries the government became despotic. Both coun- tries had their parliaments ; but in Spain, this parliament, or cor- tes, was never permitted to assemble, and in France, the parlia- ments were allowed merely a judicial authority. While the Huguenots, or Protestants, abounded in France, there was, in- deed, a virtual, though not a constitutional, check to the royal power ; but after they were banished by the revocation of the edict of Nantz, civil liberty was unknown in that country. Both France and Spain, till the recent revolution, groaned beneath the double oppression of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny,: and such would have been the case with England, had it not been for the glorious Reformation." The Pulpit, part 26, p. 231. It is greatly to be desired that the admirable letters of this writer, containing such a comprehensive, and, at the same time, concise vindication of the Reformation from the calumnies of one of the most unprincipled of men, were published in a separate and cheap form. Thus pub- lished, they might obtain extensive circulation, and do incalcula- ble good amongst those classes of society, that have not access to the work to ^^'hich they are at present confined. 70 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION Thenceforth the genius of tyranny found England to be an unkindly soil ; and although, for many years, it struggled hard to regain its lost ascendancy, and oft- ener than once let loose the tempest of war over the breadth and length of the land, these were its expir- ing throes, resembling " the working of a sea^ Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest." The motives which prompted Henry to come to a rupture with the court of Rome are too well known to leave us in any doubt, whether or not he designed to effect a favourable change in the condition of his people. Titled the royal polemic had been with the name of " Defender of the Faith," but he was ambi- tious also to become its Lord. He wished to trans- fer the ecclesiastical supremacy from Rome to his own metropolis, and to concentrate, in his own person, both the pontifical authority and the imperial power. But his wish was vain. When he overthrew in his kingdom the Papal domination, he destroyed unwit- tingly the magic spell by which, for many ages, the energies of his people had been bound. A channel was opened, by means of that destruction, for the extensive dissemination of the reformed doctrines. These were accordingly spread far and wide through- out the land ; and the consequence was, the accom- plishment of a revolution in the sentiments of his subjects, which the haughty potentate had not anti- cipated. An invincible hostility to the Popish super- stition, and a deeply rooted abhorrence of arbitrary ON Civil. LIBERTY. 71 power, constituted from that time the prominent fea- tures in the popular mind ; nor, much as these fea- tures were the object of his execration, could the op- pressor, with all his furious proscription at once of enemies and of friends, accomplish their extinction. Efforts with that infamous design he and his succes- sors frequently made ; bvit they were made in vain, and served only to render more terrible the explosion which afterwards took place, and which deluged Eng- land with native blood. The long reign of Henry's protestant daughter* tended, in some degree, to heal the wounds of her bleeding country, and to repair the disasters which it had sustained under her infamous predecessor f . The tragic scenes which the history of the latter princess discloses to our view, it is painful for humanity to contemplate; nor is it unlikely, that, but for the shortness of their duration, they would have succeed- ed in expeUing from the land of their fathers the most valuable of its inhabitants, and bequeathing to the wretched remainder that inheritance of slavery from which they were seeking, and were fondly hop- ing to escape. Happily for England, however, the sanguine anticipations of the enemies, and the gloomy forebodings of the friends, of freedom and of their country, were disappointed by the opportune death of the cruel queen, and the arrival of her illustrious sister at the sovereign power. She, a Protestant from prin- ciple, banished, by public enactment, from her domi- • Elizabeth. t Mary. 72 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION iiions the system that had too long degraded them ; and, if she did not alter the form of the government, greatly ameliorated its spirit. It may be noticed in this place, that it was during the reign to which we are now alluding, and in conse- quence of those struggles which derived their birth from the Reformation, that the maritime power of England, which, under Divine Providence, has been of such mighty moment in her past history, gave symp- toms of rising greatness. Until that period, the sceptre of the ocean (if, indeed, we may use such a phrase without derogating from the honour of the Most High) had been wielded by Spain ; and her In- vincible Armada seemed destined, as it certainly was intended, to increase and to perpetuate her power. But it happened otherwise. The winds, obedient to the command of Heaven, conspired against this formi- dable attempt to perpetuate the misery of mankind ; and, in co-operation with English bravery — the bra- very of minds rescued from enervating bondage, and now acknowledging subjection only to their Creator, gave it a decisive and ruinous overthrow. " The gloomy monarch, doubtful, and resign'd. To every fear that racks an anxious mind, Ask'd of the waves that broke upon his coast What tidings ? — and the surge replied. All lost." All was indeed lost ; for, from that hour, the naval greatness of Spain declined, till at length it sunk into that state of utter insignificance in which, at this day, we behold it, and which most of all befits a nation. ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 73 whose energies, ignorance and superstition have com- bined to destroy. It was dui'ing the period in which the last four princes of the house of Stuart filled the throne of England, that royal tyranny met with the firmest and most successful resistance. Long, and with marvel- lous patience, did the people bear the encroachments of their oppressors, and fondly did they hope that some auspicious revolution would take place in their measures ; — but their hopes were vain : even the warning voice of sore adversity failed to give wis- dom to their rulers ; one outrage on their rights after another was brought to their endurance, till, roused to indignation by accumulated wrongs, they expelled the last James from his throne, and determined that thenceforth it should never be possessed by any of his line.* * The period of English history above alluded to, is beyond all doubt the most momentous through which England has passed. Never were the civil and religious rights of a people in more aw- ful peril, and never was there a more honourable contest than that which was carried on in their defence. The patriots of those days — particularly the parliaments — merit to be esteemed the saviours of their country, and to be had in grateful remembrance to the latest age. " In the history of the world," it is well re- marked by Miller in his ' View of the English Government/ " we shall perhaps discover few instances of pure and genuine patriot- ism, equal to that which, during the reigns of James and Charles, was displayed by those leading members of parliament, who per- severed with no less temper than steadiness, in opposing the vio- lent measures of the court. The higher exertions of public spirit are often so contrary to common feelings, and to the ordinary mea- sures of conduct in private life, that we are in many cases at a 74 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION In Scotland, as was the case in our sister kingdom, the Reformation was the dawn of genuine liberty ; and in her, during the whole period at which we have been glancing, the struggle for liberty, to which the loss whether to condemn or to admire them. It may also be re- marked, that, in the most brilliant examples of heroism, the splen- donr of the achievement, at the same time that it dazzles the be- holder, elevates and supports the mind of the actor, and enables him to despise the difficulties and dangers with which he is sur- rounded. When Brutus took away the life of Caesar, he ran coun- ter to those ordinary rules which bind society together ; but, ac- cording to the notions of his own age, he secured the applause and veneration of the worthiest part of his own countrymen. To per- form a great service to our country by means that are altogether unexceptionable, merits a purer approbation, and, if the action, while it is equally pregnant with dangers, procures less admira- tion and renown, it affords a more unequivocal and convincing proof of true magnanimity and virtue. When Hampden, by an ap- peal to the laws of his country, exposed himself to the fury of Charles and his ministry, he violated no friendship, he transgres- sed no duty, public or private ; and, while he stood forth to defend the cause of liberty, he must have been sensible that his efforts, if ineffectual, would soon be neglected and forgotten ; and that, even if successful, they were less calculated to procure the ap- plause of his contemporaries, than to excite the admiration and esteem of a grateful posterity. To the illustrious patriots who re- mained unshaken during this period, we are indebted in a good measure, for the preservation of that freedom which was banish- ed from most of the other countries of Europe. They set the ex- ample of a constitutional resistance to the encroachments of pre- rogative ; accommodated their mode of defence to the variations in the state of society which the times had produced ; and taught the House of Commons, by a judicious use of their exclusive right of taxation, to maintain and secure the rights of their con- stituents." ON Civil. LIBERTY. 75 Reformation gave birth, was carried on with ardour and perseverance. In that struggle, the civil as well as the religious rights of the Scottish people were in- volved, and the advocates of the one were found in the resolute assertors of the other. This we conceive to be a fact of peculiar importance — worthy of general regard — ^but especially worthy of the consideration of those men who assume to themselves the name of Philanthropists, whose calculations, nevertheless, and whose exertions, are all confined within the range of worldly concerns. " Ye men of earthly benevolence," we would say to such persons, " who love to do good, but whose love of doing good knows not to pass be- yond the interests of time, and to whom it is so con- genial to turn away with disdain from any project that would propose a wider excursion, or lay claim to a loftier importance, — ponder the fact to which we have just adverted, that the civil equally with the religious liberties of our land were struggled for, and that the very men whom the Reformation had roused to plead boldly for the one, were the men who, while all around them crouched willingly beneath the yoke, contended stedfastly and successfully for the other. Ponder this fact ; and, accustomed as you may have been to regard the Reformation as merely a religious revolution, aflPecting only those interests of mankind, whose value — though it reaches forth into eternity — ye have not learned to appreciate, henceforth form a better esti- mate of its worth ; exclude it not, as heretofore ye may have done, from your grateful regard ; nor cast upon those who strove, and sacrificed their lives, for 76 EFEECT OP THE REFORMATION its establishment, the cruelty of your scorn!" The Reformation, by restoring to the world genuine reli- gion, has done imspeakable good to man, viewed as an immortal being ; but by breaking the fetters of des- potism which bound him, and introducing him to light and liberty, it has also been a source of felicity to man, viewed as the inhabitant of this world ; — and thus, although it is the peculiar glory of the Re- formation to have attracted towards it the esteem, and gratitude, and prayers of the pious, it has, at the same time, in the mighty sweep of its energy, proved the parent of benefits, which should commend it even to worldly men, and should secure for it the respect and gratitude of those whose feelings and views are associated only with secular concerns. The chief agent in Scotland's reformation is endeared to us as the restorer of our spiritual freedom ; but he is also eminently endeared to us as the firm, unbending patriot, to whom, under God, we are mainly indebted for our political liberty. Scotland, at the momentous crisis when he appeared, stood in need of some daunt- less and intrepid spirit to sway the minds of her people — some individual of sound intelligence and ge- nuine patriotism, who would at once proclaim the dangers of anarchy, and rear a determined front against oppression in its every form ; — she needed, in short, some bold assertor of her long lost rights, in whom the spirit of her Wallace might seem to revisit the land that he delivered, and to frown, indignant, on those who dared to pollute the scene of his deathless triumphs. Such a character she fovmd in the person ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 77 of her Reformer ; and, great as were the exploits of her celebrated warrior, by the gleam of whose sword the rose on England's banner " was often scathed," and her " wavering host struck powerless," — and im- portant as is the debt of gratitude which she owes for his generous and persevering, though too unsuc- cessful exertions, — and deservedly as the monument should rise to perpetuate his fame, and to remind fu- ture generations of his heroic deeds — triumphs of a higher order were achieved, and benefits of a more dignified character conferred on his countrymen, and the applauses of remotest ages still more justly merit- ed, by her Reformer — by that man who, under God, was the instrument at once of redeeming from degra- dation the political liberties of his native land, and of lifting up the minds of her people to the love and the pursuit of a freedom — " unsung By poetSj and by senators unpraised, Which monarchs cannot grant, nor all the powers Of earth and hell confederate, take a^vay : A liberty, which persecution, fraud, Oppression, prisons, have no power to bind, — A liberty of heart derived from heaven. Which whoso tastes can be enslaved no more." Yes ! and what patriot of our land is there, who has not often felt within him the workings of an honest indignation, as he has passed along the streets of her metropolitan cities, and has beheld around him the splendid monuments by which she has expressed her gratitude to other benefactors, and has thought that 78 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION three hundred long years were permitted to pass away ere ever the greatest of her human benefactors was publicly honoured — ere ever a single edifice was reared to perpetuate, in the land which he delivered, the name of Knox. It is well that, even at the distance of three centuries from the era of his glorious labours, the stigma of entire neglect has been wiped away from our national character ; nevertheless, the tardi- ness with which there has been at last awarded a small tribute of admiration to the Reformer of Scotland, will remain on record in our country's annals an indelible reproach. " We have read in our youth," exclaimed an elo- quent preacher, while the name to which we are al- luding was yet unmonumented, " we have read in our youth of patriot men, the avengers of a covmtry's wrongs ; and, after witnessing, in severe experience, the meanness and the selfishness of mankind, we turn again to the page of history with eagerness, increased a thousandfold ; and we trace with a thrilling emo- tion the sacred steps of Leonidas, of Wallace, or of the archer Tell ; and a nation's gratitude bids the monu- ment arise to perpetuate the memory of their deeds — of fetters broken, and for ever cast away — of tyranny overthrown — of justice recalled from the heavens, and fixing her abode once more upon the earth. And shall no eye turn with eagerness to the page which tells of the mind emancipated ? Shall no heart throb with emotion, shall no breath breathe irregular, as we read of those who burst the bands of spiritual slavery, who restored reason to its freedom, and taught the ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 79 man, intellectual and at large, judging for himself, and aware of his responsibility, to claim the place which belongs to him among the works of his Creator ? I would bind the laurel on the patriot's brow : I would join with you, my countrymen (if such your purpose be), in adding a stone to the heap which covers his remains ; but, while the name of Wallace is to be preserved by an additional security, foul scorn do I hold it, to be under the necessity of reminding you, that no column has been raised to the memory of Knox, and that no church, or pnblic edifice, throughout the land which he delivered^ has been inscribed with his name *.' After all that has been said, however, respecting oiu- Scottish Reformer, and the stigma which his un- requited exertions have cast upon many generations of his countrymen, it is, perhaps, not untrue that the name of Knox, unmonumented though it had re- mained, would have found its best memorial in the esteem and the veneration of those by whom the bless- ings he conferred on his native land have been valued and improved. What though no " wreath of grati- tude" had ever been hung upon his tomb ? What though " no pilgrim fraught with pious lore" had ever visited the scene of his labours ? What though his deeds had never been recorded on the marbled pillar, or his ashes gathered into " the storied urn ?" His name, bright with venerable associations, and identi- fied with his country's purest glories, would never * Hodgson's Hamillonian Sermon. 80 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION have been forgotten : — in the grateful and venerating hearts of the patriotic and the pious among his coun- trymen, his services would have found their best re- quital, and his virtues their noblest shrine. " This is the reward of the patriot and the saint. The mo- numents of fame, like the beings whose names they perpetuate, will soon pass away, and the lonely heap of their ruins, in some future age, may awaken the re- gret of the pensive traveller, as he silently acknow- ledges the might of time, in mouldering the glories of the past, and darkening with the clouds of forgetful- ness the records of perishing greatness. But those impressions of awe and love which are made on the heart by the virtues of great and noble minds, are more enduring, — they never perish ; and, in the de- cay and wreck of all human empire, will shed a beau- teous splendour on the spirits of the just, and soothe and delight them through the silent lapse of innumer- able years." It will be thus with the patriot and saint of whom we are speaking. The men of true patriot- ism in this land will ever venerate his name, and will trace their national privileges, and their national re- nown, to that great revolution which his life was spent in seeking to establish, — nor ever, in Scottish history, will the period arrive, when the parent shall cease to tell his children, or the children cease, with their in- fant tongues, to lisp out the name of — Knox ; and thus will there be found, in the grateful remembrance of posterity, the noblest monument, the most impe- rishable memorial, of him who brought us out of bar- barism, and made us free. ON Civil. LIBERTY. 81 But it is not only in the history of the illustrious individual of whom we have just spoken, and to whom we have deemed it our duty to award our tribute of humble but sincere admiration, that the sentiment with wliicli we introduced these remarks respecting the Reformation in Scotland is signally illustrated. Of Knox, it is eminently true, that, while religion was the primary object of his benevolent and perseve- ring exertions, the secular welfare of his country was an object which, in connection with the other, he zealously and stedfastly pursued. But this also is true of those men who were the coadjutors of Knox in his momentous labours ; and it is especially true of the actors in those struggles, which, down to the time of the Revolution in 1688, were carried on for the advancement of the Scottish Reformation. These are they, who, from the solemn and important deeds into which they entered on behalf of their country, were named Covenanters, and who, in the style of modern ridicule, have been contemptuously termed " the brethren of the Covenant." Their projects and their doings bear at once on the political and on the spiritual lelicity of their land ; and what they said, and did, and endured, for the advancement of her no- blest interests, merits to be had in grateful remem- brance to the latest age. " In the midst of the fiery furnace of persecution," says Charteris, in a very elo- quent passage, with which we cannot forbear enrich- ing our pages, " they appeared assuming the high cha- racter of witnesses for God, and maintaining it in the face of danger and death. Though few in number, F B2. EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION like the gleanings of grapes after the vintage, and a few berries on the top of the outermost bough, they lifted up the fallen standard of religious liberty, and generously devoted themselves/' " Against the re- volt and outbreaking of this generation, we are called to stand in the gap, and leave our bodies there, that the generation to come, who shall hear that the spouse of Christ once dwelt in Scotland, with all her beauti- ful ornaments, may, at least, behold her memorial in the torn veil, and trace her footsteps in the land by a track of blood. They would swear no oaths, sub- scribe no bonds, take no test, nor yield to any impo- sition on conscience. They would not pray for the king, because that might be construed as owning a title which, in their judgment, he had forfeited ; and they resolved whatever it might cost, to be ingenuous and open, decisive and unembarrassed, both in word and in deed. They testiiied against all the arbitrary, persecuting acts of Charles, and published acts of their own, disowning the King, excluding the Duke of York, and declaring war in defence of their religion and of their lives. The avowal of disaffection was the signal of death, and, by means of mercenary spies and traitors, many of them were seized and executed. They denounced vengeance on the spies, admonishing both the bloody Doegs and flattering Ziphites to re- member, " All that is in peril is not lost, and all that is delayed is not forgiven." The coward race were appalled by a threatening that came from men with- out falsehood and without fear. Their bold example attracted congenial spirits, and, like the Israelites in ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 83 Egypt, the more they were afflicted, the more they grew. They formed into societies, and settled the ground and nature of their testimony. A love of li- berty they considered as the national character, which it was their duty to maintain and transmit. A de- fensive war against tyranny they justified by the laws of nature, and by the precepts and doctrines of the Bible. It is God's command to his people, " Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughters of Babylon." " If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and them that are ready to be slain ; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not, shall not He that pondcreth the heart consider it." Our brethren are drawn unto death, and we are ready to be slain : in such circumstances, to forbear is to partake of the sin of murderers. Sympathy and self- defence are the armour of God, a shield and buckler wliich must not be vilely thrown away. The powers that be are of God, but he ordains them to be minis- ters to men for good." " They rejected James at his accession to the crown, because he had not taken the coronation vow, and was in no condition to fulfil it. They disdained his toleration, and would not accept as a favour what belonged to them as a right, nor ac- knowledge a power to give, which implied a power to take away. Spurning his restriction of worship to houses, they vindicated their liberty in the fields, preaching in mountains and in the wilderness, as Christ and his forerunner preached. To those who objected that their testimony was unexampled, they answered, The tyranny of the times is also without ex- F 2 84 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION ample : former examples arose from the state of things which produced them ; the present singular state of things demands a new example to after ages. Ty- rants formerly used force, but they now demand an explicit owning of arbitrary power ; — the limitation of kingly power is a question which they compel us to decide ; and our example may instruct and animate posterity. Their standard on the mountains of Scot- land indicated to the vigilant eye of William, that the nation was ripening for a change. They ex- pressed what others thought, uttering the indigna- tion and the groans of a spirited and oppressed people. They investigated and taught under tlie guidance of feeling, the reciprocal obligations of kings and sub- jects, the duty of self-defence and of resisting tyrants, the generous principle of assisting the oppressed, or, in their language, helping the Lord against the mighty. These subjects, which have since been in- vestigated by philosophers in the closet, and adorned with eloquence in the senate, were then illustrated by men of feeling in the field. While Lord Russel and Sydney, and other enlightened patriots in England, were plotting against Charles, from a conviction that his right was forfeited, the Cameronians in Scotland, under the same conviction, had the courage to declare war against him. Both the plotters and the warriors fell ; but their blood watered the plant of renown, and succeed- ing ages have eaten the pleasant fruit." Such is the record of the character and doings of the Covenanters ; and we may appeal to every heart that is not utterly estranged from proper feeling, whe- ON CIVIL LIBERT V. 85 thcr tbey arc not eminently entitled to our gratitude and esteem ? lleligious Reformers they undoubtedly were ; but they were at the same time the friends and the advocates of civil liberty. They sought to break and to cast away from their country, for ever, the fet- ters of spiritual thraldom, with which her enemies strove to bind her ; but they likewise sought her de- liverance from political oppression. Indeed, although it had been the case that their efforts were solely di- rected to the vindication of their own religious prin- ciples, they would have really been, and would have merited to be esteemed, the advocates of their coun- try's civil rights. For the ecclesiastical systems, against which their opposition was directed, were uni- formly combined, in this land, with arbitrary power ; and therefore, in lifting up their testimony against, and opposing them, they were appearing, not merely in support of certain principles of religious belief, and in adherence to a peculiar system of ecclesiastical poli- ty, but on behalf of the rights and liberties of their whole nation, in opposition to the tyrannical encroach- ments of arbitrary power. But they did more than this. They stood forth di- rectly, and avowedly on behalf of the civil liberties of their native land : in fact, they were the only persons of their times who made a firm and consistent appear- ance in their defence. The Covenants, from which they derived their name, and against which, in suc- ceeding ages, so much ignorant abuse has been poured forth, were deeds in which they bound themselves to defend and promote the civil liberties of their king- 86 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION dom, as well as the purity of its religious profession. The writings which they published, such as their Lex Rex, their Apologetical Relation, their Naph- tali, their Jus popi/li vindicatiim, — writings which, by the extensive learning and profound judgment they displayed, astonished and confounded the most talented bishops of the Episcopal church — were noble, and very influential testimonies for the genuine prin- ciples of political freedom. And, as the preceding extract has made manifest, their whole conduct, from the time when they stood forth in a public character, down to the Revolution in 1688, was a continued struggle for the best privileges of their earthly king- dom, as well as for the nobler immunities of the king- dom of heaven. Patriots, therefore, the Scottish Covenanters surely were, in the best and highest sense of the term, for religion, liberty, conscience, and tlic public good — all that is precious to man as a rational and immortal being, entered into the matter of their contendings. Their love of country was of the su- blimest cast. The spots on which they contended, and on which many of them fell, were scenes of purer and more substantial glory than that which was gained of old on the plains of Marathon, or at the straits of Thermopyle. Pardonable we deem it in the historians of ancient Greece to make honourable men- tion of these celebrated places, — for the annals of an- tiquity do not record more illustrious examples of magnanimity and disinterested patriotism, than those of which they were the scenes : but the historian of Qur land, when he tells us of the heroism with which ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 81 these patriot-men, in the times " when monarchs owned no sceptre but the sword," " foiled a tyrant's and a bigot's bloody rage," and of the firm persever- ance with which, in spite of all that was around them calculated to break their resolution, they clung to the cause in which they had embarked, displaying on their native mountains the banner of freedom, and standing out to the view of mankind in the high cha- racter of advocates at once for the prerogatives of their God, and for the liberties of their country, — is point- ing our attention to transactions of loftier character, and of far deeper interest: nor do we hesitate to de- clare, that, for our part, we should blush to claim kin- dred with the man who could survey the portion of our country's history in which these transactions are recorded, without feeling both gratitude and admira- tion. Of such men, we are aware, there are not a few. " The cold-blooded infidel " casts a look of in- effable disdain on the cause and the doings of the Covenanters, because he regards them as merely the paltry conflictings of some insignificant religious sects. The servile advocate of arbitrary power turns away from them with disgust, because he is jealous of every thing that has the air of a struggle for freedom. The bigoted adherent of another system of ecclesiastical jurisdiction dislikes them, because the Covenanters thought not altogether as he thinks, but made their appeal from the dogmas of erring man, to the unerr- ing oracles of the living God. While, last of all, and, unhappily, in the most numerous class of all, the worldly man, immersed in secularity, and alive only 88 EFFECT OF THE HEFOllMATIOX to the things of this present world, deems the Cove- nanters' contest heneath his regard, because it was connected with rehgion *. There were rehgious mat- ters involved in that contest, and it is this circum- stance, we conceive, which constitutes its highest glory ; — nevertheless, it is this very circumstance which, in the view of worldly men, deprives it of all its interest, and entitles it to be set down as the mere ebullition of fanaticism ! Alas, for such men ! Their mode of thinking and of judging affords a melancholy disj)lay of the hostility which exists in the corrupted human heart against God, and against the things of God ! So long as the benevolent exertions of the friends of their race remain unconnected with spiri- tual and religious concerns, so long as they maintain a character purely secular, they will receive the tri. bute of high approbation ; — but let this boundary be once touched — let benevolence extend the sphere of its exertion beyond the precincts of secularity, and, although it becomes thereby just the more worthy of esteem and of applause, it has entered a scene whither the world will not follow it, and in which contempt and scorn will be its sure reward. " Patriots have toiled, and, in their country's cause, Bled nobly, and their deeds, as they deserve. Receive proud recompense But fairer wreaths are due, though never paid, * See Burns' (of Paisley) admirable " Letter to Dr Chalmers on the distinctive Characteristics of the Protestant and Roman Catholic Religions." ON CIVIL MUEllTY. 89 lo those wliOj posted at tlie shrine of Truth, Have fallen in her defence with their names No bard embalms and sanctifies his song ; And history, so warm on meaner themes, Is cold on this." It ought not to be thus. The patriot is au ho- nourable character, but he who is both a patriot and a martyr is much more honourable. Such were the Scottish Covenanters. If ever there were interests worth contending for, they are those for which they struggled. If ever there was a contest that bore a character of genuine magnificence, it is the contest in which they were engaged. If ever there were men who merited the esteem and the applause of succeeding generations, they are the men of whose doings we have been dis- coursing. For all that is estimable in our political and moral condition, we arc indebted to them. They completed the deliverance which Knox and his co- adjutors had commenced. They concluded the de- struction, throughout this realm, of ecclesiastical do- mination and arbitrary political power. They be- queathed to us the Protestant succession, and all that is valuable in the British constitution. These are the Scottish Covenanters ! Long time has passed since they were numbered among Scotland's living men ; and the tempests of many a winter have swept over the places where their ashes repose ; but they are not, they cannot be forgotten. The record of their lives may perish, and the rude lettered tablet that marks the hallowed spot of their glorious slumber may mould. 90 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION er to dust ; but their fame is deathless in the heart of every lover of Scotland's liberty and Scotland's Refor- mation. Their worth has a monument more imperish- able than marble or brass, — a monument which will survive the trophies of conquerors and kings, and which the lapse of time will never be able to destroy. It was at the memorable Revolution in 1688, that the determination to be free, with which the Refor- mation had inspired the minds of the British people, achieved its object. The arduous but glorious strug- gle which, for more than a centmy, had been perse- veringly maintained against arbitrary power, was then brought to an auspicious termination. The storms by which the land had been assailed, were hushed to re- pose, and the firmness of our forefathers was crowned with success. That political constitution, which has been the glory of Britain, and the admiration of the world, may be said to have then received its comple- tion ; the rights of the subject, and the prerogatives of the prince, were explicitly and honourably fixed ; and, by the settlement of the succession to the crown in the line of an illustrious Protestant House, the sway of a Popish monarch, which . the nation had learned full dearly to appreciate, was for ever pre- cluded. Then, in short, it was, that the tree of Bri- tish liberty, planted in a former age, and watered with the blood of patriots and martyrs, attained its majestic growth, and succeeding generations have prospered beneath its shade, and abundantly partaken of its pleasant fruit. Had the Reformation accomplished no other achieve- ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 91 ment on behalf of the liberties of mankind, than that to wliich we have been adverting, — had it effected no- thing more than the emancipation of one country from darkness and despotism, its memory would have been blessed. To have reared, in the midst of the ocean, an asylum for freedom, whence, in process of time, as from a centre, its genial emanations might have gone forth, and, penetrating the surrounding gloom, shed blessings over the still degraded portions of the earth, — would have been to do much for the happiness of our race. But it did more : The sphere of its early influence was much more extensiv^ We can point to other nations in which its introduction proved the dawn of freedom ; and although it is true, that, in some instances, the political importance which these nations acquired, has been swept away by the impe- tuous tide of events which, during recent years, has poured itself over Europe, it is at the same time true, that there remain in the character of their people, an intelligence, a love of enterprise and of industry, with a variety of similar features, the offspring of the Re- formation, which confer on them a decided and acknow- ledged superiority over the population of those states in which the ancient system retains its powej,' In glancing rapidly at the history of some of these nations, we may advert, in the first place, to the States of Holland. But for the spirit of resistance to arbi- trary power elicited by the Reformation, these pro- vinces which, with all their insignificance, acted, for a considerable time, such an important part among the kingdoms of Europe, would most probably have re- 92 EFFECT OF THE IIEFORMATION maiiied under the yoke of their Spanish oppressors, /with them, as was the case with England, the vindi- , i^^ cation of their religious rights proved the means of regaining their political freedom .j Soon after its com- mencement in Germany, the Reformation had made rapid progress in these states, when Pliilip, the mo- narch who, at that time, swayed the sceptre over the Spanish branch of the empire, became alarmed, and determined to use vigorous efforts for its extinction. Proscriptions and persecutions of its friends ensued ; and, the more certainly to crown his unholy enterprize with success, he erected, among the Belgians, the tri- bunal of the Inquisition. But his efforts were vain. Tyrants and persecutors ! learn wisdom from the strik- ing: lesson. Means like those to which we have ad- verted, may repress, for a time, the rising spirit of a people, but cannot crush it ; and the violence with which it will, at length, burst forth, will be awful in proportion to the degree of repression which it has ex- perienced. The Belgian Revolution is one of the multitude of instances in which the truth of this re- mark has been demonstrated. The barrier which Philip was attempting to rear in his dominions against the progress of mind, proved utterly ineffectual. His system of increased oppression, instead of rendering the Hollanders submissive to his measures, imparted tenfold energy to their resistance. With one heart and one mind, they rose against the ravishers of their freedom ; and, animated by the consideration of the immense value of the prize for which they were con- tending, determined to emancipate themselves, or pe- ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 93 risli with the riglits for which they foiiglit. Here we wouhl Sciy again to tlie enemies of the Reformation, here is a scene resulting from that very revolution to which you ascribe such a blasting influence on the affairs of Europe, which is one of the noblest that the sun can look upon, — a brave but oppressed people awakening from the base slumber of many generations, and standing forth in the attitude of bold contention for their long insulted and dishonoured rights. Who feels not that this is a hallowed scene ? Who vene- rates not the combatants ? What mind follows not with lively interest the progress of their glorious en- terprise ? Arduous and long was the contest that ensued, ere the struggle was successful. But it could not be unsuccessful. What achievement is there which a people, in the circumstances, and with the feelings of the brave Belgians, could fail to accom- plish ? The storm of popular indignation burst furiously over the system by which the Hollanders had been oppressed ; and, along with their oppressors, swept it from their soil. Thus did the Reformation call into vigorous activity the long slumbering energies of this people; stimulate them to attempt the recovery of their lost freedom ; infuse into their minds that firm patriotism, and that lofty spirit of independence, for which they were afterwards illustrious ; and, in short, lay the foundation of all that grandeur, and power, and prosperity, which, in the lapse of years, came to be possessed by their diminutive state ! iln the history of Sweden, we will find another tes- 94 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION timony to the truth of the affirmation which we have made, — that the Reformation proved the dawn of li- berty to the nations of Elin*ope. The introduction of the Reformation into that country brouglit along with it the recovery of her independence, and the rejection of the Danish yoke. /Under the virtuous government of Gustavus Vasa, than whom never was patriot more worthily esteemed the saviour of his coimtry, the great and dangerous power of the clergy was sup- pressed ; their overgrown revenues were applied to the purposes of government ; a regular monarchy was esta- blished ; and such internal vigour was given to the administration of affairs, that, rising above her natural weakness, Sweden became the first kingdom in the north *. So highly indeed was she elevated by the abilities of her Protestant princes, and the other ad- vantages which she had derived from the Reformation, that she became the protectress at once of Protestant- ism, and of the liberties of Germany. The commence- * The history of the introduction of the Reformation into this country, is peculiarly interesting, and cannot be read by a Chris- tian without intense feeling. Formidable was the opposition which it had to encounter, and marvellous was the train of events by which, under Divine Providence, that opposition was over- come. Her monarch, Gustavus Vasa, was the Reformer of Swe- den ; nor, perhaps, was there ever a prince in whose history the beautiful prediction of Old Testament Scripture — so full of joy to the church of Christ — more eminently received its fulfilment : " Thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings."' — " Kings shall be thy nursing-fathers, and their queens thy nursing-mothers." — See Milner's Histori/ of the Church, Cent, xvi- chap. vi. ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 95 ment of the century posterior to the Reformation, be- held her enterprizing monarch at the head of that powerful confederacy which was formed among the German princes against the bigotry and boundless ambition of the House of Austria. The splendid successes whicli they obtained against that power are recorded in the pages of the historian : nor is it im- probable that, if Gustavus Adolphus had survived a few years longer, the greatness of Austria would have been annihilated. Of the subsequent history of Swe- den, it is not necessary for us at present to treat. Sufficient for our purpose we deem it to have shewn, that the Reformation conferred on that kingdom liber- ty and greatness. Nor is it an objection of any mo- ment against the argument which we are maintaining to say, that all this liberty and all this greatness were soon extinguished. Were it even true that this was the case, it would just prove that the benefits of the Reformation were not properly improved : and, if the rulers of Sweden, or of any other nation, pursued mea- sures which were calculated to dissipate these benefits and to prevent them from shedding their kindly influ- ence over the whole population of their land, they alone certainly were to blame ; and to them must be attributed that retrogradation which their several countries may have made in the path of improvement. " A queen weak, and fond of gallantry ; a king despo- tic, and a conqueror, dissipated the advantages pro- cured to Sweden by the Reformation. Had Gustavus Adolphus, and Oxenstiern, obtained always successors worthy of them, the Czars would not probably have 96 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION built tlieir imperial city on the Newa ; they would not have reached the shores of the Baltic ; and the face of the north, and consequently that of Europe, would have been different from what it is. But Sweden shone only for an instant ; and, like those sudden me- teors which shoot a momentary light through the long- darkness of the night, it quickly disappeared from the political horizon." A similar decline did Protestant Denmark expe- rience : but neither with this has the Reformation any concern ; nor can its enemies, with any degree of fair- ness, endeavour, from the statement of this fact, to lessen its importance in the estimation of mankind. Sufficient for it is the praise of having poured on the world the light of freedom, and of having opened up the true path to national dignity and grandeur ; and if these brilliant prospects have been, in any case, shrouded, such a disaster is to be traced to some other cause than the Reformation. [If we turn our eyes to Germany, we find its Pro- testant states indebted to the Reformation for their deliverance from the Austrian yoke.J At the com- mencement of the sixteenth century, the House of Austria, possessed of the imperial dignity, and ren- dered more powerful by the acquisition of Burgundy and the Spanish crown, had attained a great prepon- derance in the (German empire ; and, aiming at unli- mited monarchy, threatened entirely to overwhelm the smaller states. That, but for the intervention of the Reformation, this would actually have taken place, is in the highest degree probable, [it was that auspi- ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 9T cious Revolution whicli introduced among the inhabi- tants of those states a firmness of opposition to the foe of their common rehgion, and established among them a bond of harmonious union that consolidated their energies, and enabled them to secure their liberty, and the profession of the reformed faith over half the em- pire*, j * Beneficial as has been the effect of the Reformation on Pro^ testant Germany, it cannot be denied that it was the occasion of the consolidation of the power and tyranny of Austria. The fol- lowing are the judicious reflections of a writer, whom we have al- ready quoted, on this subject : " Whether," says he, " the esta- blisliment of Austrian despotism would or would not have been effected by other means, certain it is, that immediate occasion was given to it by the Reformation. And this is a remarkable instance of that mixture of evil with good which commonly attends the noblest of human transactions. We are not masters of conse- quences and events. And if we were to attempt to impose it on ourselves as a law to abstain from accomplishing a great good, be- cause it might be attended with some evil, we must cease altoge- ther to think of benefiting mankind. The general timidity of men preserves them steadily enough from risking too much. This is a very powerful agent. They seldom attempt the accomplish- ment of a great good, where evils of any magnitude are apparent, except the motive be very urgent, and they feel themselves sti- mulated by the presence of worse evils than any they have to ap- prehend. The oppression of the church, and the impending ruin of their liberties by the emperor, were greater evils to the Ger- man princes and people, than the conflict they had to sustain in opposing the two despots. The inhabitants, however, of the em- peror's own dominions, suffered by this effort towards liberty. Oc- casion was taken of it, as always is of every effort towards liber- ty which is not successful, to fasten the chains of a double sla- very more strongly upon them. At the time of the Reformation, his dominions Avere probably the freest in Europe. The people retained in their own hands exclusively the right of taxation, — G 98 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION The cantons of Switzerland had recovered their po - litical liberty before the Reformation. This circum- stance, to those who do not sufficiently estimate the peculiar situation of that country, may seem to invali- date the remarks which we have made respecting the hostility of the Papal system to civil liberty. " This people," it may be said, " achieved the rescue of their independence, and maintained it with the most heroic courage ; while, for a hundred and fifty years there- after, they remained subject to the authority of Rome." But in all this, if the circumstances of the case be that right which became the parent of British liberty, — and Charles obtained no supplies but by the consent of the Cortes or States of his dominions; which always, too, supplied him very scantily. But great powers were entrusted into his hands for the suppres- sion of the Reformation. He claimed and solicited them for this object, whicli he represented as most sacred and important. The people foolishly consented to them, not reflecting on the conse- quences. And by these powers were their liberties destroyed. The eflbrts of the emperor against the great revolution were in vain ; but they were too successful against his own people ; and, at this moment, the states _over which he ruled, groan under the heaviest and most destructive despotism." Thus far the excel- lent translator and annotator of Villers. With all this, however, the Reformation cannot be blamed. These were consequences re- pugnant to its genuine spirit, the very reverse of those which it was calculated to produce. How different might have been the condition of Germany, how different, especially, might have been the condition of the Austrian people, if the Reformation had been permitted to extend to them its meliorating influence ? The his- tories of England, Scotland, the Low Countries, and other con- tinental nations, are lasting proofs, that exactly in proportion as the Reformation has been successfully established, civil liberty has blessed the world. t^ ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 99 rightly considered, there is nothing inconsistent with what we have been asserting. At tlic time when the Swiss Cantons threw off the Austrian yoke, the poli- tical servitude under which they were groaning had become intolerable, — it had reached that point beyond which human endurance will not extend. At the same time, the domination of the Roman Pontiffs had as- sumed among them an aspect of greater mildness than had characterized it in any other part of Europe. To tlie extraordinary stretches of usurped power, which, in other lands, were felt so keenly, the inhabitants of Switzerland were almost entire strangers. For this exemption from the common miseries of the Christian world, they were perhaps principally indebted to the mountainous nature of their country, their consequent poverty, and the character of insignificance thus im- pressed upon them. But to what causes soever it may be attributed, the fact is certain, that the influence of the Papal system was, by a great deal, less powerful among them than in other kingdoms which were sub- ject to its sway. This circumstance, whilst it ren- dered the Swiss contented with their religious condi- tion, made the severity of their political servitude more irksome and intolerable. The barrier which, in other countries, the prevailing system of superstition had reared against the assertion of popular rights, had, among this people, almost no existence. These rights, therefore, as might have been expected, were success- fully vindicated from a tyranny that was become too great to meet with longer toleration ; whilst their re- ligion, full as it was of absurdities, having become ac- G 2 100 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION commodated to their circumstances and manners, and l>eing productive of no evils of which they were sensi- hle, had taken strong hold of their affection, and given hirth, in their minds, to feelings altogether hostile to change. To this circumstance, too, it is probably ow- ing that the Reformation was not universally esta- blished among the Swiss. Hostile to improvement as the Popish superstition is, and always must be, it had worn among them its most benignant aspect ; and, be- ing productive, in appearance, of no great or immediate evils, they became attached to it as the inheritance of their fathers, and regarded its defence as honourable and glorious. How much it is to be regretted that the efforts of a brave people should have been so mis- directed, as to fight for the chains by which they were enslaved, and to carry devastation into the peaceful territories of their countrymen, in order to perpetuate among them a bondage which they had spurned ! For, mild as it appeared when contrasted with the aspect which it wore in other parts of Europe, still it was slavery ; and the superior character for intelligence and active industry by which the Protestant Cantons have since that time been distinguished from their Catholic neighbours, is a striking demonstration of the deleterious influence of the Romish system, even when it appears in its mildest form *. * " I was much struck," says an intelligent traveller, who visit- ed Switzerland in the end of last century, " with the solitary appearance of Constance, a town once so flourishing in commerce, and so celebrated in the annals of history. There was a dead silence throughout, — grass growing in the principal streets. For- ^ ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 101 Rapid as is the survey which we arc taking of the effect of the Reformation on the interests of liberty in tlie states of Europe, we must not omit to make men- tion of the Genevan Republic. Insignificant in ex- tent, and having a population of little more than 30,000 inhabitants, there are, nevertheless, so many circumstances connected with the history of this state, bearing on that of the Reformation, that it has ac- merly, by the assistance of Zurich and Berne^ it had driven out the bishop, and embraced the Reformation. But being obliged to submit to the emperor, and to re-admit the Catholic religion, from this period it lost independence, fell by degrees into its present almost annihilated state, and exhibits to some of the neighbouring Swiss Cantons, an instructive contrast, which cannot but the more sensibly endear to them the commerce and the liberties which they enjoy." — " The town of St Gall is generally Profestanl, and its government ^ristocratical. Every thing in this town was alive ; and all wore the appearance of industry and activity, cxhihillng a striking opposition to Constance." — " During the present and pre- ceding century, the Protestants (in the Canton of Glarus) have increased considerably in number, and their industry in every branch of commerce is greatly superior." — " Zurich (Protestant ) is looked up to as one of the most independent of the Cantons. The inhabitants are industrious, and carry on with success several different branches of manufacture ; and there is no town in S^vit- zerland where letters are more encouraged or cultivated with greater success." — " Lucerne is the first in rank and power among the Catholic Cantons. The Pope's Nuncio resides here. The town scarcely contains 3000 inhabitants, has no manufactures of any consequence, and little commerce. As to lear7iing, it nowhere meets with less encouragement, and consequently is nowhere less cultivated. What a contrast to Zurich !" — " The Canton of Soleure contains between 40,000, and 50,000, all Catholics. The trade is of little value, although they are commodiously situated for carrying on an extensive commerce." — Coxe's Sketches. lOa EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION quired an importance to which its own character and transactions would never have entitled it. / The inde- pendence of Geneva was the offspring of the Reforma- tion. , Under the influence of that bold and enter- prising spirit which accompanied the reception of the reformed doctrines, were the citizens of this state prompted to cast off the yoke of the Duke of Savoy, who, protected by the court of Rome, held them in subjection. Their former tyrants leagued to crush their bold endeavours ; but not all the thunder of pon- tifical wrath, nor the fierce assaults of their secular op- pressors, were effectual to reinslave them *. Their in- dependence was established ; and it continued to be their boast almost for three centuries. Immediately on the acquisition of its freedom, this interesting state began to act a most important part in the concerns of JEurope. Thence, as from a centre, were those rays of truth diffused over surrounding nations, by wliich the sacred flame of liberty and religion was kept alive, and brightened, and extensively spread. There the celebrated Calvin employed his mighty genius for the * It is an annecdote not unworthj' of being recorded in this place, thatj on the morning after the night in which the crnel and bigoted Duke of Savoy had made his last assault upon Gene- va — in which he was signally defeated — the celebrated Theodore Beza — then very old, and very deaf — being apprised of the victory they had gained — for he knew nothing of the transaction till it was -past — was carried to his pulpit, and gave out, to be sung by the citizens assembled to offer thanksgiving to Almighty God for their protection, tlie hundred and twenty fourth Psalm. This, if we mistake not, was the Inst public service ]>erformed by this great and s;ood man. / -s ON CIVIL LIBEETY. 103 promotion of the knowledge and happiness of man- kind. There the venerable reformer of Scotland ob- tained an asylum from persecution, and matured his plans for the emancipation of his country. There, too, a sanctuary was found by the proscribed and exiled natives of our sister kingdom, driven from their homes by an infuriated queen, who, abandoning at once the tenderness of her sex, and the common feelings of hu- manity, had lighted up the torch of persecution, and gained a triumph to the cause of superstition amid the expiring cries of her martyred people. Situated , in the centre of Europe, Geneva became the metropolis of the Protestant world ; and, by the extensive disse- mination of the writings of those illustrious men to whom she either gave birth, or afforded a refuge, ex- erted a most auspicious influence on the moral and po- litical condition of surrounding states. These are cir- cumstances that have conferred on this interesting re- public an importance in the scale of European politics of which few nations can boast. To Geneva we may point as a striking example of that elevation of cha- racter which knowledge and liberty can confer on states otherwise contemptible : nor, although her glory is, in the mean time, awfully departed, — although men, undeserving of the name of Protestants, have usurped those very seats of learning and of public in- struction which, in the days of her golden age, were nobly and worthily filled by the successors of Calvin and Beza, — though, in short, the blasting influence of a proud and unhallowed scepticism has laid desolate 104 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION the metropolis of the Reformation, — is it improbable^ that, rescued from the domination of infidelity, and brought once again under the reviving influence of Christian teachers and Christian principles, she may yet, in the hand of that Providence which seems to have preserved her for interesting purposes in the go- vernment of the world, be the instrument of perform- ing services of signal importance to the cause of illu- mination and freedom among the kingdoms of Con- tinental Europe*? • " Geneva," says one of her own academicians, " has been often called the capital of Protestantism, and she deserves the name. The whole of Protestant France held a constant commu- nication with this small city, formerly so rich in illustrious men : it was the centre of all religious education, the seminary of all the clergy, and the general library of all Protestantism. The persecuted Protestants in the Cevennes, Poiton, and Brittany, when they fled to this city — the only asylum in the countries of their language which remained open to their faith — fell down on their knees, when they discovered its spires from the tops of the mountains, and gave thanks to God that he had preserved, upon the frontiers of their country, a place where they could freely adore and serve him. Geneva was the sacred city for all the French Calvinists, and she strove to render herself worthy of this noble title. Situated on the confines of three countries, and three languages, always ready to receive the lights of Germany and of England, and to transmit them to France, and to Italy, Geneva was, with respect to this last country, the only state which thought of carrying there the lights of the Reformation. In the valleys of Piedmont, under the King of Sardinia, there have al- ways been a small people, poor, sober, and laborious, who profess Protestantism. (See Appendix, No. I.) The Vaudois of the val- leys of Lucerne, of Peyrouse, and of Pragelat, owe to the benevo^ ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 105 In the preceding pages, we have given some cursory hints respecting the political effect of the Reforma- tion ; and, superficial as they may have been, they lent influence of the Reformation, a liberal education, a universal acquaintance with the Sacred Scriptures, a probity and loyalty, which will not be found in the rest of Italy. The descendants of the first preachers, and the first victims of the Reformation, hav- ing come to the knowledge of the truth even before the time of Wickliffe or John Huss, have not degenerated from their fore- fathers ; yet they are nothing more than mountaineers ; there is no city among them as a centre of illumination j regular instruc- tion is unattainable among them ; and they have no printing-press to multiply books of religion. Geneva is the capital of the Vau- dois, as she is that of the Protestants in France. It is there they come for instruction ; it is there that their ministers come to learn theology ; it is through it that they stand connected with the world; it is of great importance to the Protestant interest in Europe, that there be in the centre of the Continent a free and an independent city speaking the French language — a city enlightened, and which enjoys a high reputation in li- terature and in religion, where the pure doctrine of the Refor- mation is freely taught, freely discussed, and purely reunited tu that constant progress of knowledge and philosophy, which dis- tinguished the countries in which the English and German lan- guages are spoken, but which, without Geneva, would be exclud- ed from the countries where French is spoken. It is by Geneva that harmony can be maintained between those free countries where the Protestant church is dominant, and those countries where liberty is insecure, or where the Protestant church, form- ing only a feeble minority, may be led astray, corrupted, or en- slaved. By means of Geneva, French books, calculated to main- tain the noble spirit of Protestantism, may be written and print- ed ; from Geneva will proceed preachers, Avho unite French elo- quence to the surer and more powerful authority of philosophy and reason." — Sismondi's Cons'ideralions on Geneva. 106 EFFECT OF THE llEFOKMATION demonstrate, in our opinion, that its influence on the cause of European liberty was both powerful and be- neficial. When we behold that Revolution which ef- fected such a mighty change in religion, accomplish- ing one no less extraordinary in the character and sen timents of the nations in which it was established ; when we perceive it not only disturbing the reign of superstition, and rescuing the consciences of men from its degrading dominion, but crumbling to dust, by its potent touch, the varied systems of political oppression, and infusing into the general mass of the people a noble spirit of investigation and enterprize, extremely favourable to the progress of freedom, and of the va- rious arts that benefit and adorn society, — can we he- sitate to pronounce it one of the most auspicious events that ever have taken place in the history of mankind ? With what feelings must an intelligent Protestant, especially a British Protestant, cast his eyes over those regions where the tyranny from which he has been emancipated, still predominates ? While he must ex- perience deep regret that so large a portion of his spe- cies should exist in such a degraded state, the felicity of his own situation will appear, if possible, in brighter colours by the contrast, and he will become more strongly attached to his own beloved land. In no way, indeed, are the benefits of the Reformation so perceptible as by comparing the condition of the Pro- testant with that of the Catholic nations. The limits prescribed to this Essay, do not permit us to enter on a particular examination of the condition of the latter; nor, indeed, is such an examination necessary. Tliose ox CIVIL LIBERT V. 107 persons who arc even superficially acquainted with the history of Europe, do not need to be told that liberty is by no means congenial to Catholic climes, and that the instance is extremely rare in which they have en- joyed it. Perhaps the example of Switzerland is the only one of this kind recorded in history ; and, to the circumstances which conferred on it a peculiar and insulated complexion, we have already adverted. In France, the most enlightened of the Catholic king- doms, genuine liberty has never been enjoyed. Over her has despotism ruled, — assuming, at one time, a milder, at another time, a more ferocious aspect *. Of the Catholic nations in the south of Europe, this is still more emphatically true. Penetrated they once were by the rays of light; but scarcely had that light begun to spread, and to render visible the surrounding darkness, when its progress was arrested by the strong * The ruling powers in France were opposed to the Reforma- tion : but, notwithstanding their formidable opposition, the re- formed doctrines made early and rapid progress in that country. By persecutions, and wars, and massacres, did their enemies seek to extirpate them : but in vain. The opposition which they ex- perienced served to further the cause, and to consolidate the ener- gies of the Protestants. They fought for their liberties and they obtained them, and the Edict of Nantz seemed to indicate the commencement of a milder government, and a wiser policy in the French monarchs. Alas ! it was not so. The Protestants were persecuted both secretly and openly, till, at length, the perfidious revocation of their guardian Edict, completed the destruction of their once flourishing and glorious church, of more than two thou- sand congregations, and sealed the doom of unhappy France. How different might have been her condition, and consequently the con- dition of Europe, if her monarchs, yielding to the voice of truth and of their people, had embraced the Reformation ! 108 EFFECT OF THE llEFOK M ATION arm of power, and they were left amid the gloom of that moral and political degradation which is the in- separable attendant of priestly dominion. All this is pre-eminently true of Spain. Her history is aw- fully instructive on the subject of which we are treat- ing. In her the superstitions and idolatries of Papal Rome have been displayed to all the world in their native deformity, and in all the disastrous influence which they exert on the dearest interests of mankind. O Popery ! What revolting features are thine ! How appaling is thine aspect, when stern necessity compels thee not to appear in milder array ! Thou art the nurse of ignorance ! Thou tramplcst on free inquiry, and on every liberal sentiment ! Thou triumphest in the overthrow of freedom, and in the groans of suffer- ing and degraded men ! Unhappy Spain ! Holland, thy tributary in ancient days, is now free, whilst thou art more a slave than she was ! Ill fated land ! Is this the fruit of all that Britain has done for thy emanci- pation ? Was it for this that her brave soldiers tra- versed and fought on thy soil ? Was it for this that they signalized tlieir valour by so many triumphs, and reared to their prowess so many glorious trophies ? Did they shed their blood in the cause of thy inde- pendence, that the gloom of a more wretched despotism might envelope thee, and that a deadlier foe to thy welfare might seize thee in his grasp ? It is consoling, however, to think that, on this sub- ject, we have ground to indulge clicering anticipations. Long has been the night of the Popish lands, and dis- mal has been its gloom. Humanity weeps at the ON Civil. LIBERTY. 109 thouglit of the many centuries of degradation through which they have passed. But we despair not for them. The period of their debasement will have an end. Their long and dreary night will be succeeded by the joyful morn of a bright and lasting day. The impulse which was communicated to society by the Reforma- tion has not ceased to operate. The progress of mind cannot now be interrupted. Rational liberty, the birth- right of every member of the family of man, will per- vade the world ; and the degraded nations of the earth will participate in those blessings from which they have been long estranged. " A mighty angel took up a stone, like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus, with violence, shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." — Rev. xviii 21. 110 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION CHAPTER 11. OF THE EFFECT WHICH THE REFORMATION HAS PRODUCED ON THE INTERNAL SECURITY AND PROSPERITY OF THE KINGDOMS OF EUROPE, AND ON THEIR INTERCOURSE WITH EACH OTHER. If, from contemplating the effect of the Reformation on civil liberty, we pass to the consideration of its influence on the internal security and prosperity of the European states, and on their conduct towards eacli other, we will find that, in both these points of view, [ it has been productive of important benefits ; that, in the former, it has impressed on the minds of rulers and subjects their reciprocal duties, and has abolished many customs and institutions which tended to corrupt national morals, and impoverish national resources ; and that, in the latter, it has destroyed those illiberal and unjust principles which governed the councils of nations, and has infused into their in- tercourse with each other, a spirit of candour and good faith, which was formerly unknown. During the long period in which Papal Rome pos- sessed uncontrolled power, the nations of Europe held their security and their peace by a tenure of the most precarious kind. In almost the whole of them, the 1 ON NATIONAL PllOSPERITY. HI system of the Papal Church had been so artfully en- twined with tlie affairs of government, and its doc- trines had obtained so powerful an ascendency over tlie minds of their people, that the pontiffs actually pos- sessed more power in them than their monarchs That the interest of the church is of supreme importance, and that it is the duty of every individual to seek the good of the church in preference, and even, if it should be necessary, in opposition, to the good of his country, Vvas the monstrous maxim which they most assiduously, and, unfortunately for the happiness of mankind ! most successfully inculcated. Awfully must the minds have been blighted, which could be prevailed on to cast themselves down before such a doctrine as this, — a doc- trine on which even enlightened reason impresses the brand of infamy, and which was sufficient, without any other evidence, to cast the stigma of utter abomination on that religion which could lend it her sanction. Religion ! The name, in this case, is misapplied. Re- ligion is holy and heavenly ; but is that system pure, can that system be descended from heaven, which seeks the extension of its interests at the expence of all the peace, and, consequently, all the happiness of human society ? — which not only warrants, but, in very deed, commands its votaries to sacrifice at its shrine, the affection, and all the endearing bonds of friendship, and amid whose pestilential atmosphere, patriotism, the noblest of earthly passions, withers and dies ? It is impossible. But such was the thing called religion in Europe before the Reformation ; and it is revolting to every generous and noble feeling to read, 112 EFl ECT OF THE REFORMATION' in the pages of the historian, the record of the blasting influence which it shed on the internal condition of the European states. By means of this religion, the pon- tiffs possessed the entire ascendency over them ; and, accordingly, whenever they thought fit to denounce the policy pursued by any prince as hostile to the in- terests of the church, how good soever in itself that policy might be, and how much soever adapted to me- liorate the condition of his subjects, its abandonment became absolutely necessary ; or, if persevered in, the daring transgressor was proscribed, and all the influence which the pontiffs possessed in his dominions was called forth into formidable operation against them. Of all the instruments of vengeance that were wield- ed by the Papal church against those by whom she con- ceived herself to have been injured, the excommunica- tion and the interdict were the most tremendous. The former affected individuals, the latter whole nations. The sentence of excommunication was inflicted often times for the most frivolous offences ; and ^the person against whom, in the anger of the church, it was denoun- ced, experienced it to be a dreadful infliction. " He was proscribed as unworthy of the most common enjoyments of life. No one, not even his nearest and dearest rela- tion, was permitted to approach him ; he forfeited every natural right, and every legal privilege ; he could act in no public ca])acity ; he could succeed to no inheri- tance ; and, even when dead, if he died without abso- lution, he was not allowed the privilege of Christian burial ; but ordered to be flung into a pit, or covered over with stones." Against the terrible thunders of ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 113 this anathema, even kings and emperors were not se- cure ; and the excommunication of a monarch utterly- degraded him in the estimation of his subjects. His- tory tells us, that, after Robert, the second king of the Capetian race, had been excommunicated by the Court of Rome, his own servants threw the victuals which came from his table to the dogs, refusing to taste any thing that had been polluted by his touch. And we are moreover assured that, when Geoffrey, Archdeacon of Norwich, who had been entrusted with an office in the Court of Exchequer, heard, while sitting on the bench, of the excommunication of King John, he mentioned to his colleagues the danger of serving under an ex- communicated prince, and immediately left the court *. But the excommunication, with all its terrors, was a trifle when compared with the Interdict. It is im- possible to conceive, in its full extent, the overwhelm- ing mischief with which the operation of this tremen- dous engine of Papal vengeance and policy was at- tended. Confusion and dismay were spread over whole kingdoms, when they were subjected to it ; and the imagined guilt of one person was made to involve the * It was not merely in times of darkness that these anathemas — so infinitely unlike the ordinances of the God of mercy — were issued forth by the arrogant and wicked mortals who assumed to themselves the character of the vicegerents of Jesus Christ. Times of comparative light, and of recent date, have been disgraced by them ; — demonstrating, that the lapse of ages has not meliorated, even in the smallest degree, the ruthless system that gave them birth. In the Appendix, No- IV., the reader will find some of these dreadful forms of papal excommunication, Avith the names of the most celebrated princes against whom they have been is- sued- II 114 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION ruin of millions. " Its execution," says the liistorian of England, " was calculated to strike the senses in the highest degree, and to operate with irresistible force on the superstitious minds of the people. The nation was, of a sudden, deprived of all exterior exer- cise of its religion. The altars were spoiled of their ornaments. The crosses, the relics, the images, the statues of the saints, were laid on the ground ; and, as if the air itself had been profaned, and might pollute them by its contact, the priests carefully covered them up, even from their own approach and veneration. The use of bells entirely ceased in all the churches. The bells themselves were removed from their steeples, and laid on the ground, with other sacred utensils. Mass was celebrated with shut doors, and none but the priests were admitted to that holy institution. The laity partook of no religious rite, except baptism to new born infants, and the communion to the dying ; the dead were not interred in consecrated ground ; they were thrown into ditches, or buried in common fields ; and their obsequies were not attended with prayers, or any hallowed ceremony. Marriage was celebrated in the church-yard ; and that every action in life might bear the marks of this dreadful situation, the people were prohibited the use of meat, as in Lent, or times of the highest penance; were debarred from all pleasures and entertainments, or even to salute each other, or so much as to shave their beards, and give any decent attention to their person and apparel *." It is easy to conceive what effect such scenes as these * The influence of the Interdict was at its introduction limit- ed ; but its progress kept pace with Papal power, and in a short ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 115 were calculated to produce on the minds of ignorant and superstitious people. It could not be but that they should become indignant at the conduct of their rulers, whom they would regard as the authors of their mis- fortunes; and their indignation, cherished by the priest- hood, who were ever ready to espouse the cause of their spiritual masters, would, very naturally and unavoid- ably, give birth to insurrections and civil wars. Such, on reference to the faithful page of history, we find to have been really the effect of these scenes : nor would the catalogue be a short one that would comprehend all the states and the kingdoms which, in this extra- ordinary manner, have been embroiled by the unjust interference of a foreign power. Now, the principle which lay at the foundation of all this — that principle which, by stating an opposi- tion, in the minds of the people, between the interests of the church and those of the state, sunk the latter into utter insignificance —was one of the most prepos- terous which the human mind coidd possibly conceive. It went to establish a state within a state ; to deprive the monarch of the allegiance of his subjects ; or, at time it made kings and nations tremble. Smaller societies were at first the objects of its censure ; and, even in this shape, its effects, as might have been expected, were of a grievous nature. But Papal tyranny stopped not here. Whole parishes, provinces, and the most powerful nations, were in this manner made to ex- perience pontifical wrath. Interdicts were at different times hurled against France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Normandy, Venice, Florence, Rome itself; and England, during the reign of John, was for six years subjected to this terrible manifestation of the Pope's displeasure. H 2 110 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION least, to render his dependence on their allegiance pre- carious in the extreme. It was a principle inconsistent at once with the dignity and the rights of princes, and with the duties of their subjects ; nor, so long as it was dominant, could the condition of society be peace- ful and secure. The Reformation lias dried up this prolific source of the mischiefs which, during many ages, deluged the Christian world, and has inspired the people of Pro- testant lands with sentiments more consonant to rea- son, and more conducive to the welfare of society. The Christian religion, restored to its purity, has pro- claimed itself the friend of government and of gootl order ; and, identifying its interests with those of the community in which it is professed, has disclaimed and prohibited every method for its extension by which the tranquillity of that community might be distm-bed. Subordination to civil authority it has ranked among the imperative duties of its professors, — a subordination which no power on earth may presume to invalidate ; and, branding as antichristian the assumption of secular power, on the part of its ministers, has limited all their interferences to a sphere more congenial to the charac- ter by which they are distinguished. In this manner has the Reformation in religion extended its ameliorating influence to the condition of political communities. Whilst it has overthrown the secular supremacy exercised by the Roman pontiffs it has also demolished their spiritual jurisdiction ; and thus, excluding for ever any foreign interference with the internal affairs of the state, and rescuing its dis- ON NATIONAL PKOSPERITY. 117 ciplcs from the operation of that monstrous principle which went to establish an opposition between the dictates of religion and the love of country, it has con- tributed, in no ordinary degree, to the stability of go- vernment and the happiness of civil society. But the Reformation, while it has thus impressed on the minds of the people the duties of obedience to their king, and love to their country, — while it has withdrawn from its ascendancy in their hearts the idea that their allegiance to their prince is subject to the control of a foreign power, and has taught them that patriotism, far from being, in any case, repugnant to religion, is enforced with all the v^^eight of her most sacred sanction, — has, at the same time, pointed out the duty and the interest of rulers, and has effected a change in their sentiments and conduct not less aus- picious, nor of less importance to national felicity. The maxim, of which we have already spoken, that the good of the church is of infinitely greater moment than the good of the state, was one that influenced the minds and the conduct of rulers, as well as of their people ; and, although there are instances on record, in which, on the part of some spirited and judicious princes, this hateful maxim was spurned, it had too often the melancholy effect of concealing from the view of the ruling powers the true interests of their kingdoms, and of stimulating measures that were ut- terly hostile to their welfare. Moreover, it is a fact that merits to be remembered, on this part of our sub- ject, that the coronation of princes was generally ac- companied with the exaction of an oath, in which they 118 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION swore fealty to the head of the church, and bound themselves to exterminate those whom she should pro- nounce to be heretics from their dominions ! It is most manifest that such an obligation was at utter variance with all the duty of the prince, and with all the peace and prosperity of his kingdom ; yet was it, in most instances, faithfully regarded ; and it is painful to read, in the histories of those times, the details of all the devastation and the wretchedness that were brought on the people of many of the states of Europe, by the absurd attachment of their monarchs to so cruel and degrading an imposition. Naturally and directly did it lead to persecution, than which there is not one thing more disastrous to all that constitutes a nation's grandeur and felicity *. Wheresoever it has obtained, the Reformation has introduced a happier order of things. It has * Persecution is, undoubtedly, tlie most dreadful scourge with which a nation can be visited. It strikes at the root of every pub- lic and domestic blessing ; it destroys, at once, prosperity and peace. When princes care not for the welfare of their subjects, but barter their interests and their lives to gratify a bigoted and aspiring priesthood, happiness flies from their dominions — confi- dence, the important band which unites society, is broken — com- merce is stagnant — and the nation's stability sustains a disastrous shock. Many a striking instance does history record of the baneful effects of persecution ; as a specimen of which, we shall advert to one or two of the most prominent. The shedding of the blood of more than fifty thousand of the best of his subjects, and the ex- pelling from his dominions of many thousands more, was the me- lancholy price which Charles V. paid for his furious attempts to retard the progress of the Reformation in the Netherlands. A hundred thousand persons, of the trading part of tlie community, ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 119 rescued the men in power from under the dominion of a system which bound them at once to act con- trary to their own interests, and to violate the duty which they owed to their subjects. It has torn in pieces that veil of superstition which was before their left the same ill-fated land, under the sanguinary government of the Duke of Alva — multitudes of whom are recorded to have obtain- ed refuge and a settlement iii England^ and to have contributed much to the prosperity of her manufactures, and the increase of her wealth. It was the mournful confession of Philip II. — one of the most bigoted persecutors that ever existed— that the wars he had waged for the extirpation of heretics, cost him almost six hundred millions of ducats ; and that, with the exception of the acquisition of Portugal — a poor requital indeed — he had spent his wealth and labour for no permanent advantage. Incalculable was the mischief inflicted on France by the many cruel persecutions •of which she had been the scene ; but all her preceding losses were nothing in comparison of those which she sustained in con- sequence of that fatal act of treachery — the revocation of the Edict of Nantz. " In vain," says the historian of that period, de- scribing the result of the perfidious deed, " in vain were orders given to guard the frontiers, and all the coasts, against those who thought it their duty to flee. Nearly 50,000 families, in three years' time, left the kingdom, and were afterwards followed by others. They carried with them among strangers, arts, manufac- tures, riches. Almost all the north of Germany, a country, be- fore, wild and void of industry, assumed a new appearance from the numbers transplanted thither. They peopled whole cities. One quarter of the suburbs of London was entirely peopled with Frenchmen, workers in silk; others carried there the art of finish- ing crystals, which was then lost in [France. The gold is yet to be found very common in Germany, which the refugees dispersed there. Thus France lost above five hundred thousand inhabi- tants, a prodigious quantity of wealth, and, above all, the arts, with which her enemies were enriched." 120 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION eyes, and through which they obtained only false and distorted views of even their most momentous concerns, and has poured the light of a glorious day on their duties and their interests. To say that they have always acted as they ought to have done, would be to say what facts do not warrant ; but we are amply borne out when we affirm, that, by the mere change which it has effected in their circumstances ; by the deliverance which it has brought them from the op- pression of a principle that, at the nod of a foreign power, bound them to persecute their subjects, — the Reformation has done much to promote both their happiness and that of their people. But this is not all : There has been produced, as the native effect of the change just adverted to, a harmony of feeling, and a combination of interest, between the princes and the people, from which Catholic countries, how much so- ever the progress of knowledge may have ameliorated their condition, are completely estranged. Raised from a state of inglorious vassalage, to reign over a free and enlightened people, it was not to be expected that the Protestant princes would remain insensible of the auspicious change. Exceptions there have been among them ; but, in general, they have displayed a liberality of sentiment, and a humanity of action, that are not to be found in the character or conduct of Ca- tholic monarchs. Contrast, for example, the character of Charles IX. with that of his immortal contemporary of England. With what sentiments but those of de- testation and horror can we regard the monarch who, on the bloodiest day in the whole history of France, ON NATIONAL rKOSPERlTV. 121 when the sound of the great bell in her metropolis proved the signal of death to thousands of her people, and the demon of persecution sat smiling, in dismal triumph, over the heaps of the wounded and the slain, took part in the work of extermination ; and, from the windows of his palace, took his aim at the terrified multitudes who were swimming across the river, if happily they might escape from the scene of such mur- derous deeds ? Surely there exists not a mind so cal- lous to every generous and humane sentiment, as not to rejoice in the overthrow of a system that tended to bury so entirely all the tender feelings of our nature, and to destroy all that liberality of thought which is the ornament of man *. How different was the con- * There is not, in all history, a more appalling narrative than that which relates to the Bartholomew Massacre. The memorial of this horrible catastrophe will go down and testify to distant gene- rations, that the promises of papists are perfidious, that their ten- der mercies are cruel. Peace, and friendship, and union, seemed to be firmly established between them and the Protestants; — the court of France seemed to have laid aside its hostility ; — and, more than ever had been the case, were those of the Reformed faith honoured and caressed, Alas! it was a calm dreadfully omi- nous, — a moment of sunshine, the melancholy presage of an awful storm. Assured of safety, by the pledged oath of their monarch, the chief of the Protestant nobility repaired to Paris to celebrate the nuptials of the King of Navarre with the sister of Charles, — nuptials which were joyfully hailed by the Protestants as the bond of mutual amity between those of the two religions. O, Popery ! what bloody nuptials didst thou render them ! Not yet was the ceremony solemnized, when the Protestant Queen Dowager of Navarre was destroyed with a pair of poisoned gloves. Then, at thiJ dead hour of night, tolled the great bell of Paris — the pre- determined signal of destruction — and the French capital became 122 EFFECT OF THE IlEFOllMATION duct of the Protestant Queen ! " These are my guards," said the noble-minded Elizabeth, pointing to the surrounding crowds of her subjects, when blamed a scene of carnage. The commission given to the murderers had been, " Not to spare!" and they fulfilled it with dreadful preci- sion. Bands of hired ruffians marched from street to street, and entered the dwellings of those who were doomed to die. No re- verence was shown to the hoary head, no respect was paid to ta- lent or to rank ; the helplessness of childhood was not pitied, the beauty of woman was not spared. Seven days, with unabated fury, did the carnage last, — during which time the streets of the French metropolis are said to have literally run with blood. Nor was Paris alone the scene of this detestable barbarity. Letters had been sent by the perfidious court to the chief cities of the kingdom, command- ing the Catholics in these places to begin a massacre of the Pro- testants on the same night, and at the same hour. IMost faith- fully were these mandates obeyed. In Orleans, Angers, Troyes, Meaux, Bourges, Tholouse, Lyons, La Charite, and Rouen, were the Protestants, who, at that time, dreamed of any thing but per- secution, suddenly and furiously assailed, and, for several months, made the victims of most shocking and unparalleled atrocities. Se- venty thousand persons — according to the lowest computation — among whom were the brave and pious Admiral Coligni, and more than five hundred noblemen and gentlemen of rank, were mas- sacred on this melancholy occasion ; and the Duke of Sully de- clares in his " Memoirs," that he had documents in his possession, which made it evident that the court of France had sent letters to the neighbouring courts, earnestly requesting them to follow its infernal example ! Oh how it aggravates the pain with which the details of this horrid transaction are remembered, to think of the manner in which the tidings of its accomplishment were received at Rome ! " When the letters of the Pope's legate were read in the assem- bly of the cardinals, declaring that all was transacted by the will and express command . of the king, it was immediately decreed that the pope and cardinals should march in solemn procession to ON NATIONAL PllOSrERlTY. 123 for exposing herself with few attendants. Magnani- mous sentiment ! worthy to be inscribed in characters of gold, and to have its spirit imbibed by every pos- sessor of a throne ! It was remarked in the commencement of this chap- ter, that the Reformation has promoted the internal security and prosperity of the states of Europe, by ef- fecting the abolition of various customs and institu- tions which were calculated to corrupt their morals, and to impoverish their resources. Under this head the overthrow of monachism deserves particular notice. the church of St Mark, and give thanks to God for so great a blessing conferred on the see of Rome and on the Christian world; that, on the Monday thereafter, solemn mass should be celebrat- ed in the church of Minerva, at which the Pope, Gregory XIII., and cardinals, should be present ; and that a jubilee should be published throughout Christendom, as a thanksgiving to God for the happy extirpation of the enemies of the truth and church in France ! In theev ening, the cannon of St Angelo were fired to testify the public joy, the whole city was illuminated with bon- fires, nor was any token of rejoicing omitted that was usually em- ployed for the greatest victories obtained in favour of the Roman church ! " The bigoted and perfidious monarch who had been the prime agent in these horrid transactions, was not permitted to escape even in this world, the righteous judgment of God. " His sin- gular death," says his historian, " was regarded by his contem- poraries as a remarkable instance of divine justice. He who had been the means of spilling the blood of seventy thousand of his fellow creatures, found his blood, in an unheard-of manner, burst- ing from his veins." He died amid the agonies of dreadful re- morse, an awful monument of the vengeance which, sometimes even on earth, is made to light on the persecutors of the church of God. 124< EFFECT OF THE KE FORMATION It was the cruelty of some of the emperors, and the terrible persecutions with which they visited the pri- mitive Christians, that induced multitudes of the lat- ter to escape into solitary and uninhabited places* where the enthusiasm that distinguished many of them was inflamed to an extraordinary degree by the gloom of the surrounding desert. The individual who, in the early ages, acquired most celebrity as a hermit, was Anthony, formerly a swine-herd in Egypt, — respecting whom, after his wild imagination had obtained the government of his soul, and prompted him to become an inhabitant of the wilderness, many strange and marvellous stories are related. Fanaticism having continued the unnatural practice of leaving society, even after the cause which had given birth to it had ceased, the monastic life began, under the au- spices of this extraordinary person, to assume a regu- lar form. Edifices were reared and appropriated to the purpose ; rules were prescribed for the observance of their inhabitants : and eminent for piety was the individual esteemed, who, forsaking the vain pleasures and pursuits of a fleeting world, took up his final re- treat in one of these solitary mansions. This was the origin of monastic institutions ; and one of the most surprising subjects that can engage our con tern plation^ is the extent to which they increased. To think of a society that derived its existence from an obscure in- dividual, who possessed no influence save what his fervid superstition conferred upon him, extending its ramifications over one kingdom after another, and over one region after another, till it could boast of an esta- ON NATIONAL PUOSPEUITV. 125 blishmcnt over half the globe, — numbering, too, among its members, statesmen, kings, and emperors, and ac- tually grasping a great part of the wealth of tlie na- tions in which it prevailed, — to think of all tliis is to think of one of the most astonishing scenes that his- tory unfolds. The monastic life, we have said, is unnatural, — for it is in direct opposition to an original principle of the liuman mind, by which our species are connected among themselves — the desire of society ; nor is there a more striking phenomenon in the history of man- kind than this — that a wild enthusiasm should acquire entire superiority over an affection to which men in every region in the world do homage. The object, too — the professed and primary object — of monastic institutions is preposterous. Little can be said for the rationality of minds which could suppose that the du- ties we owe to the God who made us may be better performed amid the gloom of the desert, and the dreariness of the cell, than in the scenes of social life ! But, although it were granted that the object of monastic institutions is not irrational, it might still be truly affirmed, that their existence was, from the very hour of their commencement, one continued crime against God, and against human society, increasing every hour in magnitude and atrocity. Man is not a being formed for himself alone. Dependent on his fellows, his very circumstances point out his destina- tion. He is a member of society, and there are duties which he ov,es to society of as much importance in their own place, as those that are more immediately 126 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION required of him by liis Creator. Wliat estimate, then, must we form of the conduct of- him who turns away with utter contempt from all those offices of social duty, and, bursting through all the strong and endear- ing ties by which he is connected with the members of the same great family, resolves to live " a solitary man ? " Be it that his solitude is not the solitude of inactivity, that it is devoted to the most rigid obser- vances of superstitious devotion, that it even exhibits the reality of the poet's picture — " His dwelling a recess in some rude rock, Bookj beads, and maple dish, his meagre stock ; In shirt of hair, and weeds of canvas dress'd. Girt with a bell-rope that the pope has bless'd ; Adust with stripes told out for every crime. And sore tormented long before his time : — See the sage hermit by mankind admired. With all that bigotry adopts inspired, Wearing out life in his religious whim. Till his religious whimsy wears out him." Can his conduct be approved ? It cannot. Rea- son whispers — " He who a hermit is resolved to dwell, And bid a social life a long farewell. Is impious." His own experience, too — the entire absence from his mind of every thing like solid contentment — sug- gests that he acts not as he ought. — ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 127 " God never made a solitary man j "Twould mar the concord of his general plan. — Sliould man through nature solitary roam. His will his sovereign, every where his home. What force would guard him from the lion's jaw ? What swiftness save him from the panther's paw ? Or should fate lead him to some safer shore. Where panthers never prowl, nor lions roar. Where liberal Nature all her charms bestows. Suns shine, birds sing, flowers bloom, and water flows. Still discontented, though such glories shone. He'd sigh and murmur to be there alone." And if, from the suggestions of reason and experi- ence, we turn to the dictates of inspiration, to which every appeal respecting moral duty must ultimately be made, we will find that they recognise the social duties of man no less explicitly than those of religion, and declare that the one must never usurp the place of the other. Well, therefore, might the poet ex- claim " Go, teach the drone of saintly haunts. That wastes in indolence his time. Though many a holy hymn he chaunts. His life is one continued crime." Look, then, to the aggregate of injury which, in this one respect — the withdrawment of its members — was inflicted on society by these institutions, during the long period of twelve centuries, and, negative though the crime be, it will not be easily counter- balanced. If the beings devoted to monachism during all that time be estimated at the permanent average of three hundred thouaand^ — a number, there is rea- 128 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION soil to believe, greatly below the truth,* — forty gene- rations passed away in that period, and a total is pre- sented to us equal to the population of England — perhaps it might be regarded as double or triple that number — of our fellow-creatures, to whose exertions in her service society had a right of which she could not be deprived, snatched away from her, and, with all those powers and faculties, which, under a kindlier influence, might have been her ornament and her de- light, buried in the lone desert ! Who can tell, amid all this prodigious overthrow of mind, how many mighty spirits were crushed in their opening energies ? How many individuals were condemned to live in vain, through whose enterprising efforts light might have been shed on the paths of literature, or on the truths of religion ! Who can tell whether the com- bined exertions of many of these lost myriads might not have prevented the disastrous reign of darkness that ensued, and rendered the Reformation unneces- sary? At all events, who is so sceptical as to doubt, whether, in all this inconceivable multitude, there * It is likely that the number of" monies and nuns throughout Christendom, was far greater than that which we have supposed. One of hor ecclesiastical historians computes the number in France, at the end of the seventeenth century — a period, be it remembered, posterior to the Reformation, and in which, of course, the ranks of monastics might be supposed to have been greatly thinned — at upwards of two hundred thousand ! England, at the time of the suppression of the monasteries by Henry VIII., contained fifty thousand : and it is on record, that one of the pontiffs was accustomed to boast, that he had forty-four t/ioi/xotnl nio}ias~ ieries at his command ! ON NATIONAL PKOSPEHITV. 129 were many who would have occupied important sta- tions in society ; — many wlio would have proved the centre of domestic charities, the lovers of freedom, the friends and benefactors of their species ? Important, indeed, must be the literary services that will redeem from the charge of atrocious guilt the system which occasioned such gigantic ruin of intellectual and moral, as well as of physical powers ! This, however, is not the precise view which we in- tend to take of the injury done to society by monastic institutions, nor is it that in which tlieir criminality appears invested with its highest aggravation. It is, indeed, much to deprive society of the benevolent ex- ertions of millions of her members, but it is a painful addition to set all these millions in hostility against her. We do not say that this was done directly ; but we say, that, from the principles on w^hich these insti- tutions were established, and the conduct which cha- racterized tlieir members, they can be regarded in no other light than as arrayed against her prosperity and her peace. The principles on which they were insti- tuted were those of entire devotedncss to the court ol" Rome, and absolute independence on the civil power. Now, it must strike every thinking mind, that the exemption of such vast numbers of ecclesiastical per- sons from all subjection to the secular authorities, was utterly at variance with national security ; yet this ex- emption was claimed for them, and during many ages afforded ground of contention and warfiire in almost every nation of Europe. It was too late, after the Reformation had taken place, to think of continuing 1 130 EFFECT OF THE REFOiJMATION such a state of matters ; but its continuation was at- tempted, and, in the articles decreed by the Council of Trent, for the reformation of jirinces and civil ma- gistrates—which were, in fact, but a collection and confirmation of the decrees of former councils — we may read at once a description of the state of Christendom, in this particular, for ages previous to the Reforma- tion, and of the state in which, if Papal influence had been sufficiently powerful, it would still have remained. The principal decrees of this Council, on the subject about which we are treating, are the following: — " That persons ecclesiastical, even though their cleri- cal title should be doubtful, and though they them- selves should consent, cannot, under any pretext, even that of public utility, be judged in a secular judica- tory. Even in cases of notorious assassination, or other excepted cases, their prosecution must be preceded by a declaration of the bishop of the diocese. That in causes spiritual, matrimonial, those of heresy, tithes, &c. civil, criminal, mixed, belonging to the ecclesiasti- cal court, as well over persons as over goods, pertain- ing to the church, the temporal judge cannot inter- meddle, notwithstanding any appeal, &c. ; and those who, in such causes, shall recur to the civil power, shall be excommunicated, and deprived of the rights contended for. Secular men cannot constitute judges in causes ecclesiastical ; a clergyman, who shall accept such offices from a layman, shall be suspended from orders, deprived of benefices, and incapacitated. No king or emperor can make edicts, relating to causes or persons ecclesiastical, or intermeddle with their juris- (^N NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 131 diction, or even with the inquisition, but arc obhged to lend their arm to the ecclesiastical judges when called on. Ecclesiastics shall not be constrained to pay taxes, excise, &c. not even under the narae of free gifts, or loans, either for patrimonial goods, or the goods of the church. Princes and magistrates shall not quarter their officers, &:c. on the houses or mona- steries of ecclesiastics, nor draw thence aught for vic- tuals, or passage-money, &c. By way of conclusion, there was an admonition to all princes to have in ve- neration the things which are of ecclesiastical right, as pertaining to God, and not to allow others herein to offend, renewing all the constitutions of sovereign pontiffs, and sacred canons, in favour of ecclesiastical immunities, commanding, under pain of anathema, that, neither directly, nor indirectly, uiKler any pre- tence, aught be enacted or executed against ecclesias- tical persons, or good.s, or against their liberty ; any privilege or immemorial exception to the contrary not- withstanding." * Such are the privileges which, not the monks only, but all the orders of clergy, insulted the powers of Europe by arrogating to themselves, and in asserting which, they frequently threw whole kingdoms into confusion. " It is evident," says Dr Campbell, " that these articles imply a total independence of the eccle- siastic on the secular powers, inasmuch as the latter * See these decrees largely stated in " The History of the Council of Trent/' book viii. — and abridged in Campbell's Lec- tures, ii. 193. I 21 132 EFFECT OF THE K EFOHIM ATION could, on this plan, use uo coercive measures, either for preventing the commission of crimes by tlie former, or for punishing them when committed — could not, even for the eviction of civil debts, or discharge of lawful obligations, affect the clergy, either in person or property, moveable or immoveable ; and could ex- act no aid from them for the exigencies of the state, however urgent. Besides, the independence was sole- ly on the side of the clergy. The laity could not, by their civil sanctions, affect the clergy without their own concurrence ; but the clergy, both by their civil and by their religious sanctions, could affect the laity, and, in spite of their opposition, whilst the people had any religion, bring the most obstinate to their terms. The civil judge could not compel a clergyman to appear before his tribunal ; the ecclesiastical judge could compel a layman, and did daily compel such, to ap- pear before him. And in all the interferings and dis- putes between individuals of the different orders, the clerical only could decide. Moreover, though the kinds of power, in the different orders, were common- ly distinguished into temporal and spiritual, the much greater part of the power of the ecclesiastics was strict- ly temporal. Matters spiritual are those only of faith and manners ; and the latter only as manners, that is, as influencing opinion, wounding charity, or raising scandal. Whereas, under the general term spiritual, they had got included the more important part of ci- vil matters also, affairs matrimonial and testamentary, questions of legitimacy and succession, covenants, and conventions, and wherever the interposition of an ON NATIONAL I'llOSPERlTY. 133 vdth was customary. Add to these, that tliey were the sole arbiters of the rights avowedly civil of the church and churchmen, and in every thing where- in these had, in common with laymen, any share or concern." In short, the language of the author of " The Wealth of Nations," respecting the Popish clergy generally, may with still greater propriety be applied to the monastic orders. They were " a sort of spiritual army, dispersed in different quarters, in- deed, throughout Europe, but of which all the move- ments and operations could be directed by one hand, and conducted upon one uniform plan." The monks of each particular country " might be considered as a particular detachment of that army, of which the ope- rations could easily be supported and seconded by all the other detachments, quartered in the different countries round about. Each detachment was not on- ly independent of the sovereign of the country in which it was quartered, and by which it was main- tained, but dependent on a foreign sovereign, who could at any time turn its arms against the sovereign of that particvdar country, and support them by the arms of all the other detachments." We remark farther, that the monastic institutions were injurious to the states of Europe, inasmuch as they absorbed a vast portion of national wealth. It is not merely true of them that they were support- ed — supported in affluence and splendour — at the ex- pence, too, of the very community whose claims on their services they had spurned ; but it is also true, that, aided by the delusions which popery had spread 134 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION over the world, they drew into their possession im- mense riches, the greater part of which, as to any ad- vantage resulting from it to the state, became from that moment utterly dead. In confirmation of the truth of this statement, we may appeal to the history of every nation in Europe. In the first place, let us advert to the condition of England. " In that king- dom," says one of her most veracious ecclesiastical his- torians, " the prodigious increase of the riches of the church had long been the subject of complaint, as a matter of the utmost prejudice to the state. The ba- rons, indeed, had taken care to insert a clause in the Great Charter, which expressly prohibited any one to alienate his lands to the church ; but this prohibi- tion had no effect. The church still continued to ac- quire estates, which were never afterwards alienated ; and yet, all these estates were in a dead hand, as to any return to the state. They afforded neither wards, reliefs, nor marriages, like other lands ; and, in pro- portion, therefore, as their revenues increased, the public exchequer was impoverished ; nor would Eng- land, in some ages, if this custom had been continued, have been any thing more than a nation of monaste- ries and churches. Edward I. therefore, proposed to make a law, which should effectually prevent the continuance of this evil, by prohibiting any one to dispose of his estates, without the king's consent, to societies which never die ; and, accordingly, was passed the famous statute of Mortmain." In spite of all these precautions, the cause of rnonachism prevailed so m\ich,in our sister kingdom, that no fewer than six ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 135 hundred and foi'ty-five religious houses are recorded to have been suppressed by Henry at the Reforma- tion, the annual revenues of which, according to Sir John Sinclair, were equivalent to sioc millions of our present money. If, from England, we turn our eyes to the conti- nent of Europe, we find matters, if possible, in a still more melancholy state. In Sweden, we are informed by the Abbe de Vertot, the property which belonged to the church was of more value than all the other estates of the kingdom together. As a specimen of the condition of the Netherlands, this fact is worthy of being recorded, that, in the province of Cambresis, the possessions of the ecclesiastics were, to those of the whole laity, as fourteen to three ! Respecting the state of France, these are the words of a French wri- ter : " At every step of our progress we find monas- teries and magnificent abbeys, more rich still than they appear. When travelling, I have often had the cu- riosity to ask, To whom these farms, these woods, these lands, belong ? and have almost always been answered, To such an abbey, to such a community, to such a chapter ! If to these immoveable possessions be add- ed the annuities, the tithes, and other contributions, we will be forced to conclude, that at least the half of the property of the kingdom is in the hands of the priests and the monks." — " What I say of France," continues the same writer, " is still more sensibly true of Spain, Italy, Flanders, and Germany. If the Pope were master of all these estates, and could appropriate the use of them to himself, he would be the richest 136 EFl'lXT OF TIIK REFOUiAI ATION sovereign in the world. To find any to equal him, it would be absolutely ueeessary to raise again the an- cient kings of Mexico and Peru, the JMoutezuinas and the Atabilpas." Scotland, too, poor though she was, sa- crificed largely at the shrine of monastic folly. One of her princes, in the 12th century, founded and en- dowed no fewer than tivelve magnificent fabrics, con- secrated to the purposes of monachism, for which the church honoured him with the insertion of his name in her saintly calendar *. But the revenues which they derived from their endowments in land, and from their church livings, al- though quite enormous, wTre not the only sources of wealth to the monasteries. Sums exceeding concep- tion came into their possession from the sale of relics, and the voluntary offerings of superstitious devotees. Perpetually were the religious of the monasteries ex- hibiting a vast variety of relics, whose virtues were marvellously adapted to all the exigencies of human life. There were, for example, three or four arms of St Andrew, some dozens of Jeremiah's teeth, the pa- rings of St Kdmund's toes, some of the coals that roasted St Laurence, the girdle of the Virgin INIary (shown in eleven several places), two or three heads of St Ursula, some of St Peter's buttons, and many a * This was David I. King of Scotland. In the Appendix, No. V.J the reader will iind an interesting document, extracted from a work by Thomas ]\Ioir, member of the College of Justice, in which are detailed the number of monasteries, cloisters, and nunneries in Scotland ; their names, the shires in which they were situated, with their church-orders and founders. ()\ XATIOXAI, rUOSPEKITV. 13? rag of the muslin and the hicc of St Margaret and St C'lara, and other illustrious female saints ! ^V thou- sand marvellous properties were attributed to these ])recious relics. They had power to fortify against temptation, to infuse and strengthen grace, to drive away the devil and all evil spirits, to allay winds and tempests, to purify the air, to secure from thunder and lightning, to arrest the progress of contagion, and to heal all diseases ! Indeed, it was much more diffi- cult to tell what they could not, than what tliey could do ! To be permitted to touch, or even to see these hallowed things, was a privilege for which the people had to pay ; but the possession of them was to be ob- tained only with a very great price ; and the virtue by which they were distinguished, was always propor- tioned to the rate at which they had been procured *. * The idolatry of relics made its appearance in the church at a very early period. It seems to have taken its rise from the ho- nour in which the martyrs of the primitive ages were held, and to have been designed to perpetuate the remembrance of their names and actions. The bodies of the earliest martyrs were de- cently interred, and left behind them on the earth — not, indeed, the splendid monument, or the marble tablet — but the grateful hearts of weeping multitudes. It was not till the middle of tlie fourth century that they were either disinterred, and regarded as holy relics, or being held sacred, were preserved unburied. We find on record the censure of Athanasius against this practice ; but, notwithstanding the remonstrances of this holy father, the tombs . of departed saints were impiously violated, and their bones tri- umphantly carried in procession. The limb of a martyr soon be- came the adopted child of the growing superstition, and miracles of every description were alleged to have been performed by the legs and arms of the dead. The bones of Andrew, Luke, or Ti- 138 EFFECT OF THE llEFOllMATION In addition to the immense sums received for their relicts, the religious of the monasteries were ever at- testing some new miracle, for the purpose of attract- ing the unhealthy, the penitent, and the pilgrim ; all of whom were expected to leave an offering behind them to the wonder-working saint. The wealth of which, by these means, the monks became possessed, mothy^ could not be bought with gold ; while those of beasts, or of any creature, which an impostor could lay hold of, were pur- chased with avidity, as being the remains of the virtuous dead. In this manner, the objects of religious homage were multiplied to a prodigious extent, and happy did he pronounce himself who was able to procure a particle of holy dust. When this could not be obtained, (and it is difficult to conjecture how bones enough could not be found to supply every person, since those of a mouse required no more than the touch of a priest to be metamorphosed into the parings of St Peter's), any thing which had come in con- tact with, or even approached the body of a saint, was eagerly enrolled among the objects of veneration. " The parings of a martyr's nails," says a judicious writer, " served the purpose, or the pollings of his hair ; and when these were too difficult an ac- quisition, some handkerchief would haply be found, or cowl, or slipper, or girdle, or comb, or cord, or latchet ; some rag of wool, or sackloth ; or some lucky stone, or chain, or spear, or nail, or gridiron, whereby he had suffered, or some filings of these at least ; all of them, like artificial magnets, fit substitutes for the original, having acquired the same sanctity and miraculous virtue at second-hand." In different places, and at the same time, the tombs of holy men were worshipped. The face of John Baptist, for example, is to be seen at St Jean Angeli, the rest of his head at Malta, his skull at Nemours, his jaw-bone at Vesu- < Hum, his forehead at St Salvadore, — and yet his whole head is exhibited at St Silvester in Rome, and at Amiens in France, and at Gaunt in Flanders ! The finger wherewith he pointed to the Saviour, is produced at Besancon, at Thoulouse, at Lyons, at Bourges, and at Florence ! ON NATIONAl> PROSPERITY. 139 was enormous. An English historian informs us, that the offerings at the shrine of Thomas a Becket amounted, in one year, to nine hundred and fifty-four pounds, — a sum equivalent to ten thousand pounds of our present money ; and that the gold taken from the shrine, at the time of the demolition of the reli- gious houses, " filled two chests, which eight strong men could hardly carry." " The jewels," says another historian, " the plate, the furniture, and other goods, which helonged to all these houses, must have amount- ed to a prodigious sum, of which no computation can now he made. In many of the rich monasteries, their vestments were of cloth of gold, silk, and velvet, rich- ly emhroidered ; and their crucifixes, images, candle- sticks, and other utensils and ornaments of their churches, were of silver, silver-gilt, and gold." And what, it may be inquired, was the mighty be- nefit which, in return for all the splendid gifts they received, the monastics conferred on their devotees ? We have examined copies of the grants of estates and other property, which were made to several of the mo- nasteries by the kings and nobility of our country ; and invariably the grand return made to the donors, was a promise that all the influence which the fathers pos- sessed in heaven should be exerted in behalf of their souls, and the souls of their relations ! What impo- sition can be too gross, for deceiving an ignorant and superstitious people? The sanctity of the recluses consisted wholly, or chiefly, in some ridiculous singu- larity of garb ; yet was the world so much infatuated by their appearance, that liberality to them — even to 140 El'FECT OF THE llEFORMATION the beggaring of their own cliiklren — was regarded as the most direct path to lieaven ; nor, it was imagined, could immortal happiness be more effectually secured, than by giving the luxuries of life to those who had bound themselves to live in abstinence, and by en- riching those who had sworn to live for ever poor ! Thus were the people deluded, and thus was it evi- dent, that the pretensions of the monastic fathers to poverty and austere piety were mere cant ; for, amid all the gloom, and all the affected rigidity of their character and their devotions, they never manifested much reluctance to encumber themselves with the riches that perish, and to barter for the carnal things of this world, the precious commodities of the world to come. It would have been well, however, if the mere ab- sorption of property and of wealth had been all the positive evil with which the monastic institutions were chargeable. It is manifest that this would, in process of time, have effected the ruin of society ; that, but for the Reformation, Europe would, ere long, have become a region of monasteries and of monks. Ne- vertheless, it is the moral influence which they ex- erted, that renders them pre-eminently infamous, and throws over their guilt its deepest and darkest shade of atrocity. The morality of a nation constitutes its highest glory ; when that is gone, its worth is de- parted, and though it may continue to boast of trade, and riches, and power, it is become an abomination in the earth. Now, it is a fact which cannot be disputed, that the institutions of which we are treat- ON NATIONAL rrvOSPriUTY. ^ 141 iug, natuvally tended, niui did greatly contribute, to spread the ruin of moral character, over every country in wliicli they prevailed. Tliere is not, perhaps, one in- dividual of our species, on whose mind seclusion from society would not produce the most baneful effects. It would either give to his character the complexion of a rigid, unsocial, misanthrope, or inspire him with all the fervour of fanatical frenzy. Men of strong mental powers, improved by education, have been unable to withstand its influence. " Indeed," says M. d'Alem- bert, " it seems to be the unavoidable effect of a monas- tic education to contract and fetter the human mind. The partial attachment of a monk to tlje interest of his order, which is often incompatible with tliat of other citizens — the habit of implicit obedience to the will of a superior, together with the frequent return of the yvearisome and frivolous duties of the cloister — debase his faculties, and extinguisli that generosity of sentiment and spirit, which qualifies men for think- ing or feeling justly, with respect to what is proper in life and conduct." The effect of monastic seclusion on the female mind, has been sometimes of a singidar cast. We read of a convent of nuns in France, where a strange impulse seized one of the fair sisterhood to mew like a cat, which soon communicated itself to the rest, and became general throughout the convent, till, at last, they all joined, at stated periods, in the practice of mewing, and continued it for several hours ! The same writer mentions another instance, still more ex- traordinary, and not quite so harmless, of the manner in which female imaginations have been affected, in 142 EFFECT OF THE IIEFOIIMATION " those deep solitudes and awful cells. Where heavenly, pensive, contemplation dwells." In the fifteenth century, one of the nvnis in a Ger- man convent was seized with a strange propensity to hite all her companions, and, surprising as it may seem, this disposition spread among them, till the whole sisterhood was infected with the same fury. This ex- hibits the ludicrous of monachism ; but it is the effect which it has produced on the passions that mankind have had most reason to deplore. Men may think to escape the power of passion, by escaping from the view of those objects by which it was excited ; but expe- rience tells us that the thought is vain. *' The calm which seems to accompany the mind in its retreat is deceitful : the passions are secretly at work within the heart ; the imagination is continually heaping fuel on the latent fire, and at length the labouring desire bursts forth, and glows with volcanic heat and fury. The man may change his habitation, but the same pas- sions and inclinations lodge within him, and, though they appear to be undisturbed and inactive, are si- lently influencing all the propensities of his heart. Even minds under the influence of virtuous principle could with difficulty stem the impetuous torrent ; and as for those of an opposite description, it is not won- derful that they should be overcome." Thus actually did it happen to the devotees of monachism. The ce- libacy, the poverty, and the self-tormenting punish- ments to which they pretended to dedicate themselves, were the means of fostering their pride, their ambi- ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 143 tion, and their sensual inclinations ; and so quickly was the semblance of sanctity banished from their ha- bitations, that, in the ninth century, the most strenu- ous efforts of Charlemagne were inadequate to the task of repressing the disorders with which they were pervaded. Ignorance, arrogance, and luxury, were the prominent features in the character, not, indeed, of the monks only, but of all the orders of clergy. " Worldly ambition," says Tytler, " gross voluptuous- ness, and grosser ignorance, characterized their various ranks ; and the open sale of benefices placed them of- ten in the hands of the basest of men." The history of monastics, says a continental writer, exhibits in full view the melancholy truth, that their hearts were corrupted with the worst passions that dis- grace humanity, and that the discipline of the convent was seldom productive of a single virtue. The bishops exceeded the inferior clergy in every kind of profli- gacy, as much as in opulence and power ; and, of course, their superintending and visitorial authority was not exerted to lessen or restrain the prevalence of those vices, which their evil example contributed so largely to increase. Time and chance sometimes produce very extraordinary events, and if a really pious, vi- gilant, and austere prelate arose amidst the general dissoluteness of the age, his single efforts to reclaim these solitary ecclesiastics were seldom attended with success. " The celebrated Boccace has, by his witty and inge- nious tales, very severely satirized the licentiousness and immorality which prevailed during his time, in 144 EFFKCT OF THE llEIOR M ATIUN the Italiiin monasteries ; but by exposing the scanda- lous lives, and lashing the vices of the monks, nuns, and other orders of the Catholic clergy, he has been decried as a contemner of religion, and as an enemy to true piety. Contemporary historians have also de- livered the most disgusting accounts of their intempe- rance and debauchery. The frailty, indeed, of the female monastics, was even an article of regular taxa- tion ; and the Holy Father did not disdain to fill his coffers with the price of their impurities. The frail nun, whether she had become immured within a con- vent, or still resided without its walls, might redeem her lost honour, and be reinstated in her former dig- nity and virtue, for a few ducats. This scandalous traffic was carried to an extent that soon destroyed all sense of morality, and heightened the hue of vice. Ambrosius, Bishop of Canadoli, a prelate of extraor- dinary virtue, visited various convents in his diocese ; but on inspecting their proceedings, he found no traces of virtue, or even of decency, remaining in any one of them, nor was he able, with all the sagacity he exer- cised on the subject, to reinfuse the smallest particle of these qualities into the degenerated minds of the sisterhood. The reform of the nunneries was the first step that distinguished the government of Sixtus IV. after he ascended the Papal throne, at the close of the fifteenth century. Eossns, a celebrated canon, of the strictest principles, and a most inflexible disposition, was the agent selected by his Holiness for this ardu- ous achievement. The Genoese convents, where the nuns lived in open defiance of all the rules of decency ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 14s5 and the precepts of religion, ^vere the first objects of his attention. The orations which he publicly uttered from the pulpit, as well as the private lectures and ex- hortations wliich he delivered to the nuns from the confessional chair, were fine models, not only of his zeal and probity, but of his literature and eloquence. They breathed, in the most impressive manner, the true spirit of Christian purity ; but his glowing re- presentations of the bright beauties of virtue, and the dark deformities of vice, made little impression upon their corrupted hearts. Despising the open calum- nies of the envious, and the secret hostilities of the guilty, he proceeded, in spite of all discouragement and opposition, in his highly honourable pursuit ; and at length, by his wisdom and assiduity, beheld the fairest prospects of success daily opening to his view. The rays of hope, however, had scarcely beamed upon his endeavours, when they were immediately over- clouded by disappointment. The arm of magistracy, which he had wisely called upon to aid the accom- plishment of his design, was enervated by the venality of its hand ; and the incorrigible objects of his solici- tude having freed themselves, by bribery, from the terror of the civil power, contemned the reformer's de- nunciations of eternal vengeance hereafter, and re- lapsed into their former licentiousness and depravity. A few, indeed, among the great number of nuns who inhabited these guilty convents, were converted by the force of his eloquent remonstrances, and became after- wards highly exemplary by the virtue and piety of their lives, but the rest abandoned themselves to their 146 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION impious courses ; aiul, though more vigorous methods were, in a short time, adopted agaiust the refractory monastics, they set all attempts to reform them at de- fiance. The modes, perhaps, in which their vices were indulged, changed with the character of the age ; and, as manners grew more refined, the gross and shameful indulgences of the monks and nuns were changed into a more elegant and decent style of enjoyment. Fashion might render them more pru- dent and reserved in their intrigues, but their passions were not less vicious, nor their dispositions less cor- rupt." Such is the record of monastic profligacy and cor- ruption ; and when we think how the monks were re- garded by the people with profoundest reverence, and, moreover, with what swarms of them Europe was filled — " friars white, black, and grey; canons regular, and of St Anthony; Carmelites, Carthusians, Cordeliers, Do- minicans, Franciscans Conventual and Ohservantines, Jacobines, Remonstratensians, Monks of Tyronne and of Vallis Caulium, Hospitallers, or Holy Knights of St John of Jerusalem ; Nuns of St Austin, St Clare, St Scholastica, St Catherine of Sienna ; with Canonesses of various clans," — we cannot entertain a doubt, that the contagion of their example operated with most de- basing and corrupting effect upon the character of mankind. It is truly painful to think what must have been the condition of morality, when its professed teachers were so immoral ; and it is hard to conceive, what, in the view of the God of truth and purity, must be the turpitude of that system, or of that widely ox NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 147 extended institution, wliicli, for more than a thousand years, spread its unhallowed influence over so great a portion of the world, and triumphed in the overthrow of all that is virtuous and noble in the character of man. If these statements are correct — and that they are so is beyond all reasonable controversy — there is no person who, after giving the subject an impartial con- sideration, will hesitate to acknowledge that the Refor- mation, in effecting the overthrow of the monastic sys- tem, has promoted, in no ordinary degree, the prosperity of every state in which it has obtained. We do not deny, that, in a literary point of view, the monasteries were productive of good. We grant, that, at one pe- riod, all the little learning of which Europe could boast, was included within cloistered walls, and that, to them, we are indebted for the preservation of many of the works of the classic writers of ancient times. Nor are we unaware of the magnitude of the obliga- tions which this single circumstance has imposed up- on us. Those great monuments of taste and genius, which have called forth the applause of many gene- rations, we do not undervalue. We are aware that they constitute the basis of our literature, and that, to cultivate a judicious acquaintance with them, is one of the most interesting and useful studies of a literary kind in which the youthful intellect can be engaged ; and never may the period arrive, when classic learning shall sink into discredit, and the youth of our land cease to feel the noble ambition of holding converse with the mighty minds of former times. But, while K 2 148 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION we award to the monastic iustitutions the praise to which they are entitled, of having preserved to us much of the learning of ancient days, we do not think that this will counterbalance the mischiefs which they occasioned ; and highly as we value the services which they have rendered to the literary world, we conceive that the question would not be one of very difficult solution, whether they have been productive of more good or evil to society. At the period of the Reformation, however, learn- ing had ceased to dwell in the solitudes of monachism. The age of darkness had passed away, never more to return ; the art of printing had unlocked the store- houses of ancient literature, and sent abroad their treasures for the good of mankind ; and thus there was not left the shadow of reason for the longer en- durance of these incumbrances on the states of Eu- rope ; — nay, pregnant as they palpably were with many very serious evils, there was the most urgent necessity for their removal. This the progress of knowledge effected. These institutions, the birth of an ignorant and superstitious age, fell before the brightness of the light of truth ; and, at their dismemberment, was un- folded more strikingly than ever had been done be- fore their incorrigible depravity. Great, indeed, have been the lamentations in which some writers have affected to indulge, respecting the alleged outrages of the Reformation. Believe them, and literature will never recover from the disaster which it sustained, by the loss of the thousands of precious volumes, which, with the monasteries that ON NATIONAL PllOSPERITV. 149 contained them, were, by the barbarous fury of the Reformers, consigned to destruction. Believe them, and, moreover, the demolition — occasioned by the Re- formation — of the splendid edifices appropriated to monachism, inflicted a misfortune on the fine arts which is absolutely irretrievable. These stately fa- brics, it is said, the illustrious product of immense labour and expence — on which all the taste and ge- nius of the world were lavished, and which seemed destined to perpetuate through all time the triumphs of art, are now in ruins ; and the superb arches, the lofty columns, the mouldering walls, of these once glo- rious structures — the melancholy remains of such a ■magnificent creation of art and genius — present to the eye of the scientific observer a scene of devastation, for which all the benefits of the Reformation will never atone ! Now, in reference to this expression of regret, we have to remark, in the first place, that much of it is groundless ; and, secondly, that even with what of it is not so, we cannot sympathise. That the monastic libraries, at the time of the Reformation, were fur- nished with many — or, indeed, with any — very valu- able works, is a mere unwarranted assumption. It does not appear that those persons who have poured forth their wailings over injured literature, had any evidence for their justification. For more than half a century had the press been in vigorous operation, and during that period, it is likely, all in literature that was really valuable had been drawn from obscurity ; nor, distinguished as the Reformers were for their re- 150 EFFECT OF THE REFOUMATION gard to learning, and, in several very splendid in- stances, for their literary acquirements above all their contemporaries, is there the smallest ground to doubt, that, if any of these literary monuments remained, they would have been the objects of their search and careful preservation. But we do not need to rest the matter here. We have positive information respect- ing the state of some of the monastic libraries, and this may, with all fairness, in the absence of contrary evidence, be regarded as a specimen of the condition of the rest. In the recently published life of our Scottish Reformer, we have an enumeration of the contents of several of these pretended receptacles of learning, which appear to have been despicable in the extreme. Legends of saints, pastorales, graduales, missals, breviaries, and other writings of a similar de- scription, seem to have been the precious stores, for destroying which the Reformation has been branded with epithets of the most odious kind.* Thus far, * It must be acknowledged by the keenest advocates of the monastic institutions, that, if they were the means of preserving from destruction any of the ancient manuscripts, this took place rather from accident than design ; for, most assuredly, the monks were the chief promoters of that ignorance by which the neglect of classical learning was occasioned. Nay, what is much worse, the monks themselves were, in truth, the greatest destroyers of an- cient manuscripts, and did a thousand times more injury to the interests of literature, than any other class of men in the world. The writings of the bards, and other sages of Greece and Rome, were, in many instances, carefully obliterated, that the mate- rials on Avhich they were written might serve the nobler and more hallowed purpose of recording the penances of some devotee, or ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 151 theicfoiv, wc regard the expressions of regret to which we have alluded as utterly groundless. With respect to the charge of doing disservice to the fine arts, the Keformation, it must be acknow- ledged, is guilty. Popery is a religion of pageantry and pomp. It aims, by the splendour of its ceremo- nies, to dazzle the intellectual eye of its votaries, and thus to shroud from their observation its intrinsic de- formity : and in the days of its glory, when princes, and kings, and emperors, were numbered among its ser- vants, and all the wealth of the world was ready to be offered at its shrine, it was wont to call in the assist- ance of art and genius, and to rear for its celebration sumptuous edifices, embellished with all the ornaments of the chisel and the pencil, establishing thereby the more firmly its usurped dominion. This the Refor- mation, wheresoever it has obtained, has put an end to, and, by the change which it originated, has cer- tainly exerted an influence unfavourable to the arts. We shall, perhaps, have occasion, afterwards, to ad- vert to this topic : in the mean time, we confine our- selves to the remark, that the Reformation was at- tended with the demolition, in several countries, of the miracles of some saint ! Indeed, it is far from being unlikely, that, if the art of printing had not been discovered, and if, in combination with it, the reformation in religion had not exerted its auspicious influence, the monasteries — these lamented recepta- cles of ancient learning — would have proved the tomb of classic lore, and the means of inflicting upon literature a calamity, com- pared with which, even the alleged excesses of the Reformation would have been as nothing ! 152 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION the fabrics appropriated to monachism, — many of which, architecture, painting, and sculpture, had com- bined to render monuments of grandeur and of taste, — and that, therefore, in this instance, if not in the former, the lamentations of the devotees of science do not seem entirely without foundation. Nevertheless, with these lamentations we cannot sympathise. The promotion of the fine arts is our most ardent wish, but never do we desire to see tliem promoted at the expence of what is infinitely more valuable — the inte- rests of liberty and morality. What were the monas- tic edifices, but so many trophies reared proudly to celebrate the triumphs of spiritual despotism over mankind? And, although it is true that the system might have been abolished, while its fabrics were spared, who will say that, emancipated as the people were, most suddenly and unexpectedly, from a tyranny which, for many ages, had trampled on all that was most dear to them in the world, it was to be expected that they would exercise much discrimination in ma- nifesting their resentment against the authors of their wrongs, or that they would extend a protecting arm to edifices which they could not but regard as the strongholds of the power by which they had been op- pressed? It is not in human nature to act in this manner : and, therefore, far from censuring the demo- lition of these edifices — injurious as it certainly has been to the progress of the arts — we regard it as the effervescence of a noble spirit, indignant at having been so long deluded and oppressed, rude — as might have been expected — in the manner of its operation, ox NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 15S but indicating the return of health and vigour to the public mind. Besides, to use the language of a judicious writer, formerly quoted, " the destruction of these monuments was a piece of good policy, which contributed mate- rially to the overthrow of the Roman Catholic religion, and the prevention of its re-establishment. It was chiefly by the magnificence of its temples, and the splendid apparatus of its worship, that the Popish Church fascinated the senses and imaginations of the people. A more successful method of attacking it, there- fore, could not be adopted than the demolition of what thus contributed so much to uphold and extend its in- fluence. There is more wisdom than many seem to perceive in the maxim which Knox is said to have in- culcated, " that the best way to keep the rooks from returning, was to pull down their nests." In demolish- ing, or rendering uninhabitable all those buildings which had served for the maintenance of the ancient superstition (except what were requisite for the Pro- testant worship), the reformers only acted upon the principles of a prudent general, who dismantles or razes the fortifications which he is unable to keep, and which might afterwards be seized, and employed against him by the enemy. Had they been allowed to remain in their former splendour,, the Popish clergy would not have ceased to indulge hopes, and to make efforts, to be restored to them : occasions would have been taken to tamper with the credulous, and to inflame the minds of the superstitious ; and the reformers might soon 154 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION have found reason to repent their ill-judged forhear- ance # " On the whole, the following reflections of a sensible writer respecting one of the monasteries, may, we think, with great fairness, be extended to them all. " Its fra- ternity (that of Glastonbury Abbey) is said to have consisted of 500 established monks, besides nearly as many retainers on the Abbey. Above 400 children were not only educated in it, but entirely maintained. Strangers from all parts of Europe were liberally re- ceived, classed according to their sex and nation, and might consider the hospitable roof under which they lodged as their own. Five hundred travellers, with their horses, might have been lodged at once within its walls ; while the poor, from every side of the coun- try, waited the ringing of the alms-bell, when they flocked in crowds, young and old, to the gate of the mo- nastery, where they received, every morning, a plentiful provision for themselves and their families. All this ap- pears great and noble. On the other hand, when we consider 500 persons bred up in indolence, and lost to the commonwealth ; when we consider that these houses were the great nurseries of superstition, bigotry, and ig- norance : the stews of sloth, stupidity, and perhaps in- temperance ; when we consider that the education re- ceived in them had not the least tincture of useful learning, good manners, or true religion, but tended rather to vilify and disgrace the human mind ; when we consider that the pilgrims and strangers who re- sorted thither were idle vagabonds, who got nothing * M'Crie's Life of Knox. ON NATIONAL I'llOSrElll TV. 155 abroad which was equivalent to the occupations they left at home ; and when we consider, lastly, that indis- criminate almsgiving is not real charity, but an avo- cation from labour and industry, checking every idea of exertion, and filling the mind with abject notions, we are led to acquiesce in the fate of these foundations, and to view their ruins, not only with a picturesque eye, but with moral and religious satisfaction *." But the monastic were not the only institutions, by abolishing which the Reformation has done im- portant and lasting service to the resources and the morals of the states of Europe ; — the diminution, and, in some instances, the total abolition which it effected of the vast number of festivals and holidays that were formerly observed, deserves to be mentioned as none of the least of the advantages with which it has been at- tended. " The Sabbath," says the intelligent histo- rian of the Indies, " considering it only under a poli- tical point of view, is an admirable institution. It was proper to give a stated day of rest to mankind, that they might have time to recover themselves, and to lift up their eyes to heaven ; to enjoy life with reflec- tion ; to meditate upon past events ; to reason upon present transactions ; and, in some measure, to form plans for the future. But by multiplying those days of inactivity, hath not that which was established for the advantage of individuals and societies, been con- verted into a calamity for them ? Would not a soil which should be ploughed three hundred days in the year, by strong and vigorous animals, yield double the * Gilpin's Observations on the Western Parts of England. 156 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION produce of that which should only be worked one hun- dred and fifty days in the year ? What strange infa- tuation ! Torrents of blood have been shed, an infinite number of times, to prevent the dismembering of a ter- ritory, or to increase its extent ; and yet the powers in- trusted with the maintenance and happiness of em- pires, have patiently suffered that a priest, sometimes even a foreign priest, should invade successively one- third of this territory, by the proportional diminution of labour, which alone could fertihze it ! This incon- ceivable disorder has ceased in several states ; but it continues in the south of Europe, and is one of the greatest obstacles to the increase of all subsistence, and of its population. The opinion expressed by this writer, respecting the pernicious influence which the observance of the Popish Festivals does still exert in some of the European nations, is an opinion more than warranted by the multitude of facts on the subject, which press them- selves on our regard. Much as the number of these festivals has been abridged, even in Popish countries, in consequence of the Reformation, it is still very con- siderable, and while, by the suspension of labour that takes place on those days among all persons engaged in trade, and manufactures, and agriculture, there is injury done to the national wealth of no small magni- tude * ; the voluptuousness and riot that characterize * The effect of holidays on Spain may serve as a specimen of their effect on the other Popish nations. It is stated by a noble writer of her own, that the sum lost to Spain, every feast day, by the suspension of labour in trade, manufactures, and agriculture. ON NATIONAL PROSPEUTTY. 157 their observance, do incredible injury to the national morahty. Now, if this is the case even in our own age, — if the influence of these holidays is so pernicious in the nineteenth century, when their number has been so much diminished, and their power so much repressed, what must have been the state of matters in the times that were anterior to the Reformation, when their number was vastly greater, and when their baleful effects were experienced in every sphere of life, and in every department of human society ? The saints, to whose memories certain days had been ap- propriated, had multiplied so exceedingly that their commemoration occupied a great portion of the year. " The Christian Martyrology," says a recent writer, who was profoundly versed in the study of ecclesiasti- cal antiquities, " became as voluminous as the Pagan mythology. In the time of Eusebius, we are told that the saintly names to be commemorated, already amounted to more than five thousand for every day of the year ! No wonder though those who attempted to compile the lives and acts of the saints, in later times, shouldf have found it such a long and laborious task as would require the space of several years to ac- complish it. The collection begun last century by Roswede, who died in 1629, and continued by the Je- suits BoUand, Henschen, Papebroch, and Cardon, in amounts to four millions of livres. At this rate, — supposing the livre to be worth, of our money, tenpence Sterling, and suppos- ing the number of festivals on which labour is entirely suspended, to be no more than forty — a number, there is reason to believe, much below the truth — the annual deficiency to Spain, in point of wealth, will amount to almost seven millions sterling ! ! ! 258 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION the year 1680, amounted to the number of fourteen volumes in folio ; and they had then dispatched only the saints of the first four months of the year ! To shorten a little the labour, and to abridge the ceremo- nial of commemoration, they hit upon the device of associating a number of them into fellowship, and ma- king one day serve for several of them, so that, on some busy days, good Catholics could pay their com- pliments to thousands at once, whereby they were ca- nonically exempted from the drudgery of dancing dai- ly attendance upon them, being quit of them till that day twelvemonths. Thus, on Innocents' day, they com- memorated the Babes of Bethlehem, an indefinite number ; on the 9th of March, the Forty Martyrs of Sebastes ; another was consecrated to St Ursula, and her eleven thousand virgins ; on another they dis- charged their homage to myriads of the heavenly host, whose number, at least, amounts to thousands of thou- sands, and ten thousand times ten thousand, which is the work of September 29th, — the festival of St Mi- chael, and all the angels, whose names, virtues, and services, taken one by one, it would have been rather difficult to record particularly. A similar universal commemoration they were obliged at length to appoint for the human saints. Lest any of them should have been forgotten and overlooked in the crowd, the 1st of November was consecrated to perpetuity, in honour of All the Saints. But notwithstanding of this commo- dious and expeditious way they had learned of paying the immense accumulating debts which they acknow- ledged to be due, there still remained abundance of ON NATION A I, PROSPE-RITV. 159 particular accounts to clear, on particular marked (lays, to give sufficient employment both to priests and laity, if they proposed to solemnize the whole round of feasts, whether double, semi-double, or simple, general, national, provincial, or local, with that degree of strict- ness which they pretended was necessary." — " So mad did they become on their superstition, as not only to dedicate holidays to God, to Christ, to angels, to the virgin, to the apostles and saints, real or supposed, but also to inanimate objects, or particular acts, events or circumstances ; to the dedication of churches, anniver- saries of consecration of bishops, celebration of councils, and even to crosses, spears and nails, chains, clothes, and beads *." The whole multitude of these holidays, indeed, was not attended with the entire suspension of labour and business, else the frame of government and of society must have been dissolved. Nevertheless, the number on which this was actually the case, was very far from being small. During ninety-eight days in the year, the number of those festivals which are called double, and which are appointed to be celebrated with the greatest solemnity, secular employments were prohi- bited, and an interdict was laid on the whole worldly business of society f. Nor was this all : Abandoning * Bruce's " Annus Secularis." t The festivals of the saints were guarded from the profanation of secular business, not only by the authority of the ecclesiastical and civil powers on the earth, but also by the vindictive jealousy of the saints themselves in heaven. The fierce deities of the Pa- gan world were not more dreadful in their resentment against the 160 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION not merely the high-toned purity of Christian morals, but even the ordinary decorum which reason dictates as the becoming characteristic of human conduct, hte people marked the celebration of these sacred days with every feature of profligate dissipation. It seemed, indeed, as if mankind had retrograded to the times and profaners of their consecrated days, than were the mild saints of the Christian world against those by whom theirs were profaned. A Roman poet assures us that certain royal ladies, having ventured to spin on the feast of Bacchus, were, for that crime, transformed into bats ! In the tales of classic times, we lind many instances - of similar revenge ; and they do not greatly surprise us. Stern- ness was the prominent feature in the character of the Heathen Gods ; and this feature we are prepared to find embodied in their actions. But, from the saints of a religion whose prominent fea- ture is love, we naturally expect conduct of a milder cast. Alas ! our expectations are vain. In the legends of Rome we find the saintly character fearfully vindictive and unrelenting. We read of a man who having got a shirt made on the day of the Assump- tion of our Lady, found it, when about to put it on, all over- sprinkled with blood ! He had reason to congratulate himself that it happened to be the day of Our Lady, for, it is likely, the other saints would not have allowed him to escape so easily. In the Life of St Francis we are informed, that a poor wood-feller, having gone out one day to cut wood, as he was raising up his axe to give the stroke, heard a voice crying, three times, " It is my feast, it is not permitted to work," but, continuing his work not- withstanding, both his hands stuck fast to the handle of the axe ! But the fate of poor Peter, an ox-driver — mentioned in the life of St Hippolitus — was still more awful : it happened that, inad- vertently, he greased his waggon on the day of St Mary Mag- dalene, and, immediately, he heheld his waggon and oxen consumed by fire from heaven, and was himself scorched in a most miserable manner ! ! " Tantsene animis coelestibus irae ?" ON NATIONAL PllOSPERITV. 161 scenes of antiquity ; or, as if the festivals of tlie hea- tlicn gods, with all the circumstances of debauchery that attended them, had been transferred to Christian lands, and had now obtained among those who were called Christian people ! A few facts illustrative of these statements, shall here be produced. " Alas, for grief!" says Cyril of Alexandria, " very many among us Christians imitate this madness and intemperance of the Jews, who, upon holidays and solemn festivals, giving themselves over to scandalous plays, to drunken- ness, to dancing, or other vanities of the world, when they ought to serve God more diligently, to frequent the churches more earnestly, to be instant in prayers, and engaged in ecclesiastical duties, do then most of all provoke God with their most dissolute manners. Is this, O Christians ! to celebrate a holiday, — to pam- per the belly, and to let loose the reins to unlawful plea- sures ? If work be prohibited on holidays, which must be used for the necessary sustenance of life, are not those things then much more forbidden, which cannot be committed without sin, and great offence to God ? On days that are allowed for servile work, every one is in- tent upon his own business, and he abstains from drunkenness, pastimes, and vanities ; but, on holidays, men every where run to the ale-house, to plays, to in- terludes, and dances, to the derision of God's name, and the perversion of his day." The evils of which, even at this early period, the festivals were productive, induced the African Coun- cil, at which Augustine was present, to enact the two following canons, which were subscribed by up- L 162 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION wards of two hundred bishops. 1 . That those feasts which were used in many places contrary to divine precepts, a d which were drawn from the errors of the gentiles, should be prohibited, and, under pains, ex- cluded from cities and villages, especially, since in some cities men fear not to keep them, even on the birth-days of the most blessed martyrs, and that in the very churches : on which days, also (shameful to speak), they use most wicked dances through the vil- lages and streets, so that the matronal honour and the modesty of innumerable women, devoutly coming to the most holy day, is assaulted by petulant and lasci- vious injuries, so that even access to the holy exercises of religion is almost interrupted and discontinued. 2. That the spectacles of the theatres, and other plays, should be wholly removed on the Lord's day, and other celebrated Christian festivals, especially because, on the Easter holidays, people went more to the cir- cus, or theatre, than to the church, laying aside all their holiday devotion, when these spectacles come in their way : Neither ought any Christian to be com- pelled to attend them." In succeeding ages, the abuses which were con- nected with the observance of holidays became still more flagrant. In the middle of the eighth century, a synod in France fovmd itself compelled to enact, That every bishop in his parish shall take care that the people of God make no pagan feasts or interludes, but that they reject all the filthy abominations of the gentiles, such as the profane offerings for the dead, fortune-tellings, divinations, and immolated sacrifices. ON NATION AI, PKO'SPEIUT V. l6S which tboHsh men make near to the churches, after the pagan manner, in the name of holy martyrs and con- fessors, provoking God and his saints to wrath and vengeance : as also, that they diligently inhibit those sacrilegious fires, which they call nedfri (bonfires), and all other observances of the pagans whatever. We learn from a writer of the thirteenth century, that, in the days of Henry I. " it was the custom of the people of England to spend their Christmas in plays, mas- querades, and magnificent and costly spectacles, and to addict themselves to pleasures, dancing, dicing, and various other games." At the time of the meeting of the Council of Constance, the abuses resulting from the festivals were particularly complained of by some of the leading men of the Roman church, and the refor- mation of them was loudly demanded. To such a height of impiety, indeed, had many even of the clergy proceeded, that they used to spend the whole night of the Nativity of our Lord, and great part of the day, in gaming; " and they played," says the historian, " in the name of Jesus Christ, and in the name of the Virgin." A most melancholy representation of the wretched state of Christendom in those times, has been left on record by a celebrated doctor of Paris, who, imme- diately before the meeting of the Council of Constance, wrote on the very subject of which we are treating. " Every one," says Nicholas di Clemangis, " may per- ceive with how little devotion the Christian people now celebrate these holidays. Few come to church on them ; many hear not mass at all ; others hear but a T- 2 1()4 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATiaX part of it, and go away. Some satisfy themselves with entering into the church, and taking theie a little consecrated water, or falling down on their knees for a moment, saluting the image of the Virgin Mary, or of any saint, or adoring the body of Jesus Christ du- ring the elevation. Few persons are present at the office of matins and vespers, and often the priest re- peats alone with an under clerk ; sometimes scarcely one can be found to answer at the mass. Some go to their houses in the country, others go about their se- cvdar bvisiness : great numbers resort to fairs, which now are never kept in a public and solemn manner, but on the most eminent festivals. Some are de- lighted with stage-actors, and frequent the theatres ; tennis-ball employs some, and dice very many. Fes- tivals are celebrated by the richer sort with great pomp of apparel, and magnificent banquets ; but the con- science lies neglected and unpurged. As to the exte- rior, all is fair and garnished — the houses and floors are cleaned, green boughs are placed at the door, the ground is strewed with herbs and flowers ; but the in- ward man partakes not in the exultation, but mise- rably pines away in its filthiness. With respect to the profane vulgar, as they may fitly be called, holi- days are not celebrated by them in the temples, nor in their dwellings, but in taverns and alehouses. They resort thither almost at sun-rising, and oftentimes they abide there until midnight. They swear, forswear, blaspheme God, and curse all his saints : they roar, they wrestle, they wrangle, they sing, they rage, they shriek, they make a tumult, and seem to be as mad as ON NATIONAL. PROSPERITY. l65 bedlamites. They strive who shall overcome one an- other in drinking : they drink merrily to one another, and eagerly excite one another to drink ; and when they have glutted themselves sufficiently, then they rise up to play. How shall I relate the vanities of public plays and spectacles on these days ? The cross- ways resound with dances, and the villages and streets, and indeed the whole city, with the voices of singers, the shouts and clamours of dancers, the confused sound of the harp, tabret, and all other musical harmonies. Their minds being moved by the blandishments of laughter, the glances of the eye, and the engaging- sweetness of song and music, become effeminate, wax vain, and warm into luxury and incontinence. There youth hath first discarded its chastity. There young- men and children are corrupted, and infected with an impure contagion. They continually provoke one an- other to lewdness, and he that will not follow the rest to destruction, is accounted a wretch, a sluggard, a good-for-nothing. What heathen acquainted with these sacrilegious festivals, would not believe that the floralia of Venus, or the feasts of Bacchus, were ob- served, rather than the solemnities of any saint, when he should there behold such uncleannesses as were wont to be committed on the festivals of these idols ? Neither doth the filthy obscenity only of Bacchus and Venus seem to be exercised there, but likewise of Mars and Bellona too. For it is now a common opinion, that it is an unseemly holiday, which is not distin- guished with fighting and effusion of blood *." ^ 3Iany interesting facts on tliis subject are to be found in tlic 166 EFFECT OF THE REFOUMATION It is impossible to read such statements as tliese— to which a multitude of the same kind might be added — without feeling that the Popish festivals were inju- rious, in an extreme degree to the best interests of so- ciety ; that they diminished national resources ; and, which was the deadliest injury of all, opened wide on the Christian world the floodgates of wickedness, to the sweeping away, in numberless instances, of the very sem- blance of morality from among its people. Who sees not, that, in respect of this matter, the Reformation has been an unspeakable blessing to mankind ? For, wheresoever it has obtained, it has abolished these pernicious institu- tions, and has rid the Christian states of the many abo- minations with which they were attended ; and even in Popish lands, where it has scarcely obtained toleration, much less an establishment, its auspicious influence has been so far experienced, that the princes have ven- tured to prescribe limits to those holiday observances, which, fostering idleness, and every form of dissipa- tion, they perceived to be utterly hostile to the pros- perity of their dominions. It merits to be mentioned on this part of the sub- ject, as an important advantage resulting from the Reformation, that, throughout the Protestant, and, to a considerable extent, also in the (Catholic world, it has had the effect of imposing a powerful restraint on work quoted in })■ 150., a work distinguished, like all the other productions of the same author, by a profuiidit} of research on the subject of which he wrote, that is altogether astonishing. His writings merit a circulation far leyond \\hat they have ever obtained. ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 167 the perpetration of crime. In making this remark, we do not refer so much to the potent influence which it has exerted in terminating the reign of ignorance, and diffusing among mankind useful knowledge ; — al- though, to a reflecting mind, aware of the truth of the maxim, that ignorance is the parent of crime, and aware also of the melancholy fact, that, previous to the Reformation, not only did knowledge not exist, but the very persons who were the professed instructors of others, were themselves sunk into a state of deplorable ignorance, of which, in this intellectual day, we can form no adequate conception — it will appear most ma- nifest, that, in promoting knowledge among mankind, the Reformation operated powerfully in the preven- tion of crime. But, in the remark which we have made, we particularly refer to the removal, effected by the Reformation, of some powerful incentives to crime, to which pontifical avarice had given existence, and which it laboured to perpetuate. It forms a grave and awful charge against the Papal system, that, by inducing and cherishing ignorance, it promoted vice ; but the grievousness of its offending in this matter re- ceives intense aggravation from the appalling fact, that it gave to wickedness and vice positive encou- ragement. Among the various institutions by which this was done, those of Indulgences and the Right of Sanctuary deserve particular notice. Were it not that the fact is too well authenticated to be the subject of doubt, it could not be credited that men, assuming to themselves the name of Head of the Holy Church of Jesus Christ, and professing. 168 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION as his Vicegerents, to be the guardians of every thing that is sacred and pure, should have so far forgotten the character to which they pretended, and should have acted in such utter contradiction to the whole spirit and letter of the faith which they professed to venerate and to defend, as to teach the world that heaven had empowered them to pardon sin, and that the remission of all iniquity might be bought with money. This was done by the Heads of the Romish Church ; and it was not in one or two, but in number- less instances, that the power which they claimed — of selling the forgiveness of sins — was exercised. For several centuries before the Reformation was this prof- ligate doctrine of indulgences prevalent and operative in the Christian world. In fact, it was one of the chief, if not the most important, of the means that were employed for replenishing the coffers, and strengthen- ing the sinews of the Papal state. It was among the bishops, and other inferior clergy of the Roman Church, that the scandalous traffic in indulgences was first begun. Feeling the want of mo- ney for their own private pleasures, or for the exigencies of their ecclesiastical government, they thought of the fortunate expedient of granting to their flocks the power of purchasing the remission of the penalties im- posed upon transgressors, by the payment of a sum of money, which, they said, was to be applied to certain religious purposes. In other words, they published in- dulgences, which, says an ecclesiastical historian, be- came an inexhaustible source of opulence to the epis- copal order, and enabled them to form and execute ON NATIONAL PllOSPERITY. l69 the most difficult schemes for the enlargement of their authority, and to erect a multitude of sacred edifices, which greatly augmented the external pomp and splen- dour of the church. It was not long, however, that the inferior clergy were permitted to monopolise this profitable traffic. The Pontiffs soon cast towards it a wishful eye, as Ahab, of old, desired the vineyard of Naboth ; and, with them, in those days, to covet was to possess. The power of the bishops, in remitting penalties to transgressors, was accordingly taken away, and assumed entirely by the Court of Rome ; and the Pontiffs, when either the wants of the church, or the emptiness of their own treasury, induced them to look out for new revenues, published a complete, or what they called a Plenary Remission of all the temporal pains and penalties which the church had annexed to certain transgressions. But they went farther than this. Audaciously usurping the authority of the Most High, they were not satisfied with selling the relaxa- tion of the rigours of canonical penitence, but, in the hope of still more largely increasing their wealth, im- piously pretended to abolish even the punishments which are reserved for sinners in a future state. It was in the eleventh century, and for the purpose of encouraging the princes and people of Europe to en- gage in the glorious enterprize of recovering the Holy Land, that this blasphemous prerogative, which the Pontiffs assumed, was first exercised. It was after- wards extended to the crusades which were under- taken for the destruction of heretics in various parts of Europe ; and, in process of time, the benefit of in- 170 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION dulgeuces was given to all persons who devoted of their substance for the accomplishment of any pious work recommended by the Pope. It was not deemed enough to assume the power of granting plenary re- missions, that is, the remission of all the sins of which the individual concerned had been or might be guilty — although one would think that more than this would have been esteemed superfluous. A third part of sins besides was, on some occasions, remitted ; and some- times the Pope has given eighteen thousand years of pardon, which, after providing for his own necessities, might be disposed of by the pardoned person for the advantage of others ! At the period of the Reformation, the effrontery displayed by the agents of the Papal (3ourt, in im- posing on the credulity of mankind by the sale of in- dulgences, had arrived at a most extraordinary height. The Christian world swarmed with these enemies to its purity and peace, unfolding their nefarious wares in every town and village, and actually exposing them for sale to the highest bidder. The story of Tetzel, to which we have adverted in another part of this Essay, is well known. About the time when he was prosecuting the traffic of indulgences in Germany, an- other dealer in this spiritual merchandise, Bernardino Samson, an Italian monk, was carrying it on with vi- gour in Switzerland. This man having shown his credentials to the magistrates of the principal towns, openly carried on his trade in the inns, churches, and public squares, having a flag, with the arms of Leo, for his sign. Some of his bulls, written on common ON XATIONAI, PKOSPERITV. 17] paper, he sold for threepence English : others, on parchment, for a crown ; while others were much more expensive. There were some of them authorising the purchaser to choose his own confessor, who acquired, ipso facto, the power to relieve him from any vow, or even to absolve him from perjury. " If any man," he exclaimed, " purchase letters of indulgence, his soul may rest secure with respect to its salvation. The souls confined in purgatory, for whose redemption in- dulgences are purchased, as soon as the money tinkles in the chest, instantly escape from that place of tor- ment, and ascend to heaven *. The efficacy of indul- gences, indeed, is so great, that the most heinous sins * The pretended efKcacy of indulgences was not coniined to tiving men, it extended also to the dead. An indulgence might be procured on behalf of departed souls, in virtue Cf which they would obtain relief from the excruciating torments of the purga- torial state, and be admitted into the felicity of heaven. One cannot help admiring the artful policy with which every part of the Pontifical system is contrived, and how almost all its doctrines are made subservient to the rapacity of its impious chiefs. Of this remark, the invention of the doctrine of jnirgalori/, in con- nexion with that of indulgenceSy is a striking illustration. Expe- riment could be made as to the value and the efiicacy of ghostly bulls, in reference to temporal calamities ; but this could not be so easily done in reference to their success in the unseen state. Artfully, therefore, did they contrive the fable of an intermediate state of punishment, and it was owing to the belief of this absur- dity, that the doctrine of indulgences proved to be so lucrative. The fiery lake, says one, was first of all created, and souls were plunged into it, that the priests might have the pleasure, or rather the profit^ of fishing them out again. Some are indulged so far as not to go there at all ; while other poor souls are left to welter there for thousands of years, without any pity from the merciless 172 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION would be expiated and remitted by them, and the per- son freed both from punishment and guilt. For twelve pence you may redeem the soul of your father out of purgatory," This audacious monastic, we are told, carried from Switzerland, as his own share of the pro- fits, the enormous sum of eight hundred thousand crowns, eqvial to more than two millions of our present money, besides a quantity of gold and silver plate. It is easy to perceive, that all this gave most direct and positive encouragement to the perpetration of crime. The fear of future punishment — the dread of that unknown hereafter, in which men will be re- warded according to their works — a dread with which man in his rudest state is conversant, and which no so- phistry can ever entirely banish away from him — is one of those powerful restraints by which, in the ma- nagement of his righteous government, God has chosen to repress the wickedness of mankind. Withdraw this fear from the minds of men — set them loose from all apprehension of Heaven's righteous and awful judg- ment in the world to come, and you cast the reins on the neck of passion and of lust, and open the way to priests, for no other sin of them or their surviving friends, than the damnable one of poverty ! 'J'he following anecdote demonstrates the debasing extreme to which, on this subject, they had carried the minds of the credu- lous people. A celebrated preacher of the fifteenth century, in discoursing of the pains of purgatory, and exhorting his audience to contribute liberally for the redemption of such as suffered them, assured the people that the tormented souls heard the sound of the money, when it fell into the basin, and no sooner did it play ////, tin, fill, than they burst into laughter, ha, ha, ha ! hi, hi, hi ! ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 17-^ the most atrocious impiety. Now, this was done — as far as it was possible to be done — by the institution of which we are speaking. Tlie future judgment was not absolutely denied — the state of approaching retri- bution still remained a doctrine in the creed of the church — but, by the assurance which was given, that a paltry sum of money would save from the woe, and introduce into the felicity of the coming world, that doctrine was rendered a mere non-entity. Men might live according to all the inclinations of their depraved hearts, undismayed by the thought of futurity, and certain that, provided they were liberal to the church, the most dissipated life would not exclude them from celestial bliss. In combination with the impious doctrine to which we have been adverting, that of the right of sanctuary must have operated as a very powerfvd incentive to the perpetration of crime. This, like many other doc- trines which obtained the Papal sanction, was derived from the practice of heathen lands. It is well known that the superstition of the Pagans made the temples and altars of the gods, and the tombs and statues of heroes, asylums for criminals; and, in imitation of their example, did Popery devote to the same purpose churches, altars, crosses, and consecrated ground. It was in the reign of Constantino the Great that this custom was first introduced into the Christian world. We have an account of the privilege of sanctuary being granted in the twenty-fifth year of the fourth century, to the clergy of the Council of Nice, at which the emperor was present. Seventy years thereafter. ]74- EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION Theodosius — who was the mere tool of the clerical or- ders — enacted that the altar, and the inward purlieus of churches, should be places of refuge. About the middle of the fifth century, the outbuildings belong- ing to the churches were added to the places of sanc- tuary ; and towards the end of that century, we find in the list of asylums, the lodgings of the bishops, and other clergy, their gardens, baths, cloisters, and courts. It must be remarked, however, that the institution whose progress was thus rapid, was not originally de- signed to patronize wickedness, or to shield the guilty, but to be a refuge for the innocent, the injured, the oppressed ; and, in doubtful cases, to give men protec- tion, till they might obtain a fair and equitable hear- ing, and till their guilt or innocence might be clearly ascertained. But it was not long ere the privilege of sanctuary was altogether perverted from its original design. The places above mentioned became in pro- cess of time, asylums for the positive protection of vil- lany. If any criminal, how atrocious soever, betook himself to consecrated ground, his life was safe. Jus- tice was set at defiance, the laws were trampled on, the civil power was despised, and clerical insolence screened from punishment the most aggravated crimes. " Unthrifts," says an English annalist, describing the abuses of these sanctuaries, " riot and run in debt upon the boldness of these places ; yea, and rich men run thither with poor men's goods ; there they build, there they spend, and bid their creditors go whistle them ! Men's wives run thither with their husbands' ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 17^ plate, and say they dare not abide with their husbands for beating. Thieves bring thither their stolen goods, and live thereon. There devise they new robberies nightly ; they steal out and rob, and reave, and kill, and come in again, as though these places gave them not only a safeguard for the harm they have done, but a licence to do more." Nevertheless, although this institution was the source of a multitude of evils, — although it was ut- terly hostile to every thing like national order and morality, it was guarded by the church, — her power was exerted on its behalf, — and it became a matter of extreme peril for the secular authorities, even in the most glaring case, to interfere. One striking instance of this, related by the historian of the Indies, we shall here record. " A man convicted of a multitude of crimes, sought impunity for all his enormities at the foot of the altar. The viceroy Gelves caused him to be dragged from thence. This act of necessary jus- tice was construed into an outrage against the divi- nity. The thunder of excommunication was imme- diately sent forth, and the people rose. The regular and secular clergy took up arms ; the palace of the commander was burnt ; his guards, friends, and parti- zans were put to the sword ; he himself was put in irons, and sent to Europe, with seventy gentlemen, who had not been afraid to espouse his cause. The archbishop, who was the cause of all these calamities, and whose vengeance was not yet satisfied, pursued his victim with the wish and desire of sacrificing him. The court, after having hesitated for some time, de- 176 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION cided at length in favour of fanaticism. The defender of the rights of the throne and of order, was con- demned to total oblivion, and his successor was au- thorized solemnly to consecrate all the notions of su- perstition, and particularly the superstition of asy- lums." * These baleful institutions, which operated so fear- fully in the encouragement of immorality, have been, at least in the Protestant world, abolished by the Re- formation. Indulgences, and sanctuaries for crime, have been swept away, with the thousand other abo- minations of Popery from which we have been de- livered. The knowledge of right and wrong does not now depend on the pleasure of a weak or worthless * It is related, th^it at Turin, in 1732, a soldier on the parade shot the captain of his company dead in the ranks, and walked deliberately into a church. Here he was safe, as long as the monks were pleased to protect him, and the king dared not to proceed against him. After many intreaties, the monks did indeed turn liim out, and he Avas broke alive on the wheel ; but in all this there was implied a degrading acknowledgment of their power to screen whom they chose, even the most atrocious offenders. Indeed, as is remarked by a writer in '' The Pulpit," from whose excellent letters we have, in the preceding part of this Essay, made several extracts, — " it is very probable, that the practice of assassination, so fre- quent in Italy, was at first occasioned by the number of asylums. If a ruffian were to assassinate my nearest relative, and run to one of these asylums, he is safe ; should he afterwards obtain abso- lution, he may then walk the streets in perfect safety. What, then, must I patiently bear this ? No, I will kill him in return, and run to an asylum myself. In this way, assassination proba- bly commenced, till it became so general that it war, no longer dis- graceful." 3 ON NATIONAL PROSPERITV. 177 mortal ; — the disgrace and the danger of crime have been set in their proper light — and the laws of God and of the State have been vindicated from violation, and guarded and supported by every dictate of reason and religion. Nor are these benefits of the Reforma- tion altogether confined to Protestant lands ; they have been experienced, to a certain extent, also in Catholic countries. It is true, the doctrine of indul- gences has never been relinquished by the Papal See ; nay, has been declared perpetual by the authority of the last general Council, and is even now acknow- ledged by the Roman Church as one of her unchan- ging laws.* It is also true, that the sister-doctrine of * On the subject of Indulgences, the reader may peruse the following extract from a work recently published by the Rev. P. (landolphy, a Roman Catholic Priest of eminence ; and approved by the highest ecclesiastical authorities at Rome. The whole work, sanctioned as it is by the head of the Papal church, demon- strates that Popery as a system is unchanged by the lapse of ages, — tliat its features are, at this moment, not one whit less revolt- ing than they appeared in the twelfth, or in the sixteenth cen- tury. The following extract, in particular, demonstrates that her opinion, in reference to the doctrine of indulgences, has undergone no alteration. Having quoted, as the warrant for that doctrine, the declarations and the examples of many pontiffs, the decrees of many councils, and particularly these words of the Council of Trent — " The power to grant indulgences has been given to the church by Jesus Christ, and the use of them is beneficial to sal- vation ; and the power ought to be retained, yet, nevertheless, used with moderation, lest ecclesiastical discipline should be weakened by an over great facility:" — he then states the grand principle on which the doctrine is founded : " All the good works of the just have a double value in the sight of God, — M 178 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION the , right of sanctuary is still recognized by that chui'ch : and so little are its revolting abominations at variance with the spirit even of modern Popery — which some writers would have us believe to be a one of merit, the other of satisfaction ; that is, one giving a title to recompense hereafter, the other constitnting an equiva- lent for the temporal punishment of sin. . . . Thus every good work has a douhle claim on the bounty of God, one in quality of merit, the other in quality of satisfaction, and, as the satisfaction arising out of the good works of the saints far exceeds their tem- poral debt to the justice of God, it becomes a balance in favour of the church, which, through the infinite mercies of Jesus Christ, she is authorised to apply to the exigencies of her other children, " Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Which treasure, derived from the virtues of the saints, through the superabundant merits of Jesus Christ, forms an inexhaustible stock of satisfaction, which the church, and the chief pastor, are empowered to apply to the general advantage of the faithful. " Peter feed my lambs, feed my sheep." Among the many prac- tical instances that might be adduced of the present existence of this doctrine in the Church of Rome, one shall here be mentioned, which is of very recent occurrence. Dr Moylan, the titular Bishop of Cork, issued, on a late occasion, a Declaration of Plenary Indul- gence and Jubilee, for the building of a Popish Cathedral in the City of Cork. In the Pastoral Letter which he issued in this case, he proclaimed, in imitation at once of the pious example of Leo X , and of his present master, the reigning Pope, not only the remis- sion of temporal censures, but of the future punishments of sin in the world to come ! Tliis letter he ordered to be publicly read, in every chapel of his diocese, " on the four successive Sundays ending 5th December 1813." His jubilee continued about a whole month, on account of the multitudes who came from all parts to take advantage of the Plenary Indulgence, or full remission of sins ; and it is stated, that " the pecuniary payments required of those who came to receive the indulgence, thouoh reduced so low ON NATIONAI, PROSPERITY. 179 very difterent thing from the ancient system — that only a few years have elapsed, since the head of the church appointed four towns in Italy to be asylums for assassins ! But while all this is true — it is, at the same time, undeniable, that Catholic countries have shared, in no small degree, in the good which the Re- formation has conferred on mankind, by the abolition of the institutions about which we have been treating. The flagrant abuses with which they polluted society, have been, by the light of the recovered Word of God, exhibited in all their deformity, and since that time have been more rarely witnessed. Another Tetzel has not disgraced an age since that of Luther ; nor would even catholic princes — with, perhaps, an exception or two — permit such violent encroachments on the laws of their states, as they were accustomed to witness, with degrading tameness, in the days of darkness and superstition. Whilst, in the various ways at which we have ra- pidly glanced, the Reformation has improved the mo- as twopence to each person of the lower order in the vast crowd, amounted to a large sum !" In his Pastoral Letter are found the fol- lowing words of expostulation with his flock, in reference to the indulgence : " It is written, that God will hear us in the accepta- ble time. Surely this holy time of indulgence must be the most acceptable time ! Ah ! profit of them. Be reconciled to your offended God. If you neglect this grace, if you suffer this holy time of indulgence to pass without profiting by it, there is every reason to fear that the time of God's mercy shall pass from you never more to return ! Were your sins as red as scarlet, by the grace of the absolution, and the application of this plenary indul- gence, your souls shall become white as snow !" M 2 180 EFFECT OF THE REFOEMATIOX rals, and promoted the prosperity of the states of Eu- rope, its effect has been eminently beneficial in refer- ence to their intercourse with each other, and, we may add, in reference to their intercourse with the distant nations of the earth. So completely had a dark and intolerant superstition subjected them to its power, that, in numberless instances, their dignity, their in- terest, their honour — all were abandoned in compli- ance with its injunctions, and basely sacrificed at its shrine. The mere remonstrance of the high-priest at Rome was enough to cancel the most awful bonds, and to induce his subjects to trample on their most solemn obligations. If his Holiness the Pope was pleased, at any time, to declare respecting treaties that had been concluded between belligerent king- doms, or that had been entered into by friendly na- tions for their mutual good, that they were inconsist- ent with the interests of the church, his declaration was sufficient — in spite of all the solemnity of the oaths under which the parties had come — to induce their gross and immediate violation. Facts almost without number pour in upon us in confirmation of this statement. We find it recorded, that Charle- magne, at the particular request of the Pope, and to discharge the obligation of his father, Pepin, to the Holy See, violated most grossly his league with Desi- derius, king of the Lombards, and, although allied to him by marriage, dispossessed him of all his domi- nions, — terminating by that act of perfidy the Lom- bard government in Italy. We find it farther record- ed, that Henry II. of England obtained a Papal dis- ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 181 peiisatioii to violate his father's will, which he had solemnly sworn to observe, and, on that ground, wrested the kingdom of Anjou from his brother Geof- frey, to whom of right it belonged. Again and again, and many times, were the solemn treaties that took place between the Catholics and the Protestants of France sacrificed to the infamous principle on which we have been remarking. In the course of the Albi- gensian wars — their historian assures us — more than ten treaties, which had been entered into with that brave and magnanimous, but devoted and martyred people, were perfidiously violated. One of the most memorable instances that are on record, of the breach of solemn engagements, for the sake of the church, is the infringement of the ten years' truce which was concluded between Ladislaus IV. king of Hungary, and the Turkish sultan Amurath. The peace, it wovdd seem, displeased the Pope. He sent his legate Julian to induce the king to violate it, and to absolve him from the oath by which it had been confirmed. It was accordingly violated ; the war was renewed ; and a sanguinary battle was soon thereafter contested at Varna, which terminated most fatally and disgrace- fully for the arms and the faith of the Christians. It is related, that Amurath, amid the fury of the battle, perceiving the dreadful slaughter of his men, and that his affairs were in extreme peril, plucked from his bo- som the writing that contained the league, and, hold- ing it up in his hand, with his eyes at the same time lifted to heaven, exclaimed — " Behold, thou crucified Christ ! this is the league which thy Christians, in thy 3 182 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION name, made with me, and which they have, without any cause, violated ; if thou art a God, as tlieij say, and as we dream, avenge the wrong now done to thy name and to me, and show thy power upon thy per- jured people, who, by their deeds, deny thee — their God ! " Whether this anecdote be true or false, it is certain, that the army of the Hungarians was totally destroyed, and their king slain ; and that the ruin of Hungary, the overthrow of the Grecian empire, and the rapid progress of the Ottoman arms in Europe, were the disastrous consequences of this perfidious transaction. By the Reformation, this melancholy state of mat- ters, has been, at least in the Protestant world, brought to a termination. It is true, the same power has been often claimed on the part of the Pontiffs ; and, on the part of the Popish princes, the same degrading sub- mission has been often displayed.* But wheresoever * The truth of this assertion might be demonstrated by refe- rence to a multitude of facts, but the mention of one or two in this place shall suffice. Peace was given to Germany, and the liberty of professing their religion was given to the Protestants, by the arrangements which were agreed on between the Emperor Charles and the princes of the Reformed faith, and which, in 1532, were ratified in the Diet at Ratisbon. But the Pope was oifendcd beyond measure on ac- count of the concessions which hud been made to the Protestants, and ceased not his remonstrances till they were revoked, and till a war for religion was rekindled. In the conclusion of that war, the Landgrave of Hesse having made terms of pacification with the emperor, was, in violation of the treaty, and of the imperial faith which had been pledged to him, made a prisoner. The ON NATIONAL PllOSPERITY. 183 the spirit of the Reformation has been introduced and imbibed, the pretended right of the heads of the Papal Church to dispense with solemn engagements has been indignantly rejected, and the principle under the in- Duke of Saxony, resenting the perfidy, had again recourse to arms, and brought Charles to the peace of Passau, in which it was provided, that neither party should be injured on account of their religion. This treaty was confirmed at the next Diet of Augsburg. Soon, however, it was overturned. War was rekin- dled, and the Protestant interest was extinguished in Bohemia. The flame spread over all Germany, and, indeed, almost through- out Europe. Furiously did it rage for thirty years, filling Ger- many with devastation and blood, but at length was terminated by the peace of Westphalia. Of this treaty we have spoken in a preceding part of our Essay. It was, on the whole, eminently favourable for the Protestants, securing them in the enjoyment of many a privilege which they had long contended for in vain. Against it, however, the Pope solemnly protested, declaring it to be derogatory to the interests of the church, and therefore null and void. The document which he emitted on this occasion, the reader will find in the Appendix, No. VI. Alas ! matters had imdergone a mighty alteration in the states of Europe, else his protestation had been found to be something else than a lehnn imbelle. Dire necessity compelled the popish princes to regard the treaty. With a multitude of indirect infractions of it, indeed, they were chargeable, but political reasons weighed with them to prevent its open and positive violation. In addition to these notices, the following facts may be men- tioned, as evidences that the same arrogant claims are still made by the pontifl^s on behalf of the church, and that the same in- famous principle, by whose operation the states of Europe were formerly afflicted and degraded — that the pleasure of the Pope can make void even the most solemn obligations — would be still, if it were possible, most rigorously enforced. In the treaty which was concluded in 1707, between the Emperor and Charles XII. 184 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION fluence of Avhich they wished the kings of the earth to act, has been scorned. The solemnity of an oath has been generally held sacred by the princes of Pro- testant lands, and they have been accustomed to re- several concessions of importance were made to the Protestants. At this the Pope Clement XI., was full of indignation, and, im- mediately writing to the emperor, condemned it in the following terms : 'We do, by these presents, denounce, and, by the authori- ty given to us by Almighty God, we declare, that the foresaid articles of the Treaty of Alt Ranstadt, and the other things con- tained in it, which hurt the Catholic faith, the divine worship, the salvation of souls, the ecclesiastical authority, jurisdiction, and rights Avhatsoever, and in what manner soever, with all and every present and every future consequence of them, have been from the very beginning, are now, and for ever shall be, null and void, and .that no one is bound to observe them, or any of them, even al- though they have been often ratified and confirmed by oath !' StiU more presumptuous is the following language of another Pope : " Urban V., bishop, servant of the servants of God, &c. Truly it has come to our ears, that not only our dearly beloved son in Christ, the illustrious Winceslaus, King of the Romans, but also his father, Charles, Emperor of the Romans, did, either conjunctly or severally, enter into certain confederacies, leagues, &c. with divers kings and princes, and that some of those kings and princes, either at that time or afterwards, became open schismatics or heretics, and were separated from the unity of the holy Roman Church, — Therefore we, consider- ing that such confederacies, engagements, leagues, &c. made Avith those who had become schismatics and heretics, are rash, unlawful, and, of very deed, null, (though perhaps they were made before the lapse of those persons into schism or heresy), notwithstanding they may have been confirmed by oath or pro- mise, or the apostolic sanction, or strengthened by any other au- thority whatsoever: — we, being desirous to obviate the danger of souls, as well to the said king, as to all others whom it does or may concern, do therefore, by these presents, strictly prohibit ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 185 gard their own dignity and the honour of their people as concerned in its fulfihnent, Nor has this auspicious change in their public con- duct been altogether confined to the nations of Eu- rope ; the most distant regions have been included within the sphere of its influence. During the melan- choly period that preceded the sixteenth century, the one half of the world lived in a state of proscription from intercourse and friendship with the other. So thoroughly was the spirit of the prevailing supersti- tion imbibed in those days by the people of Western Europe, that every other part of the world was supposed to be under the malediction of heaven, and its inhabitants regarded as an order of inferior beings. Friendship with such persons would have been consi- dered as degrading in the extreme, nor did any inter- course take place with them, except for the purpose of enslaving, and, by inquisitions, and tortures, and fire, them from keeping those confederacies, leagues, or conventions, in any part, themselves, and from allowing them in any manner to be observed by others ! ! " It may be mentioned, in conclusion of this — already too lengthened — note , that the same pontiff, whose letter to the emperor we have just quoted, wrote to the Abbot of St Gall, in Switzerland, respecting a treaty which, in I7I8, he had entered into with the Protestant canton of Berne, telling him, among other things, " that he and his successors were not bound to observe the articles of that treaty, any more than if they had never been agreed to." Who will affirm, in the face of such melancholy facts as these, that the atrocious principle of not keeping faith with heretics, when the interest of the church re- quires, and opportunity permits it to be violated, is not recog- nised and avowed by the Papal See ? 186 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION and sword, reducing them under the domination of the Roman See. Long did these sentiments prevail — ^insulting as they were to the dignity of our com- mon nature; but, according only with a dark and superstitious age, after the light of truth had again visited and gladdened the world, they fled, and gave place to notions more consonant to reason, and to the religion of Christ. The genuine spirit of that religion was shewn to be utterly opposed to such a system of proscription, — a system which sought to entail for ever, on a great portion of our species, the curse of ignorance and degradation. When the Bible — the grand repository of divine truth — was laid open to the investigation of mankind, it was easily perceived that Christianity is any thing but exclusive in its na- ture ; that it is not confined to one sect or one nation, or included within the precincts of any country ; that it extends its regards to the entire species, teaches its disciples to cherish sentiments of kindness and bene- volence towards all mankind, and seeks to bring to the enjoyment of its inestimable blessings the people of every language and of every clime. The narrow limits within which bigotry would have confined the favourites of heaven were overleaped ; Christians be- gan to regard fellow men as brethren, — the children of the same Father, and equally the objects of his paternal care ; separating oceans, which before made enemies of nations, began to be traversed for their mutual good, and mighty schemes were projected for the general welfare. To that interesting era may be traced the origin, in modern times, of those plans for ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 187 the extension of knowledge, and the blessings of civi- lized and Christian life, among distant and degraded regions, which, in the present day, have increased to so much strength, and which constitute the brightest features in the aspect of our times. — It is scarcely ne- cessary to add, that the secular interests of the Euro- pean nations have been any thing but injured by the change of sentiment to which we have been adverting. Their people became more intelligent and active ; commerce was prosecuted with new vigour ; and the nations themselves became more affluent and power- ful. 188 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION CHAPTER III. OF THE EFFECT WHICH THE REFORMATION HAS PRODUCED ON DOMESTIC HAPPINESS, AND, IN GENERAL, ON THE HAPPINESS OF SOCIAL LIFE. In prefixing to the preceding chapter the title which it bears, we are not to be understood as affirming that the effects of the Reformation which it records have no bearing on the happiness of domestic or social life ; nor, in prefixing to this chapter the title which stands before it, do we mean to say, that the advantages re- sulting from the Reformation which we are about to record, have no relation to the public welfare. All that is intended by these titles is to intimate the more immediate bearing of the events and changes detailed in their respective chapters ; for the truth is, that whereinsoever the Reformation benefited domestic so- ciety, in that also, though less directly, it did good to the national community : and whereinsoever it bene- fited the public interests of the state, it, at the same time, conferred important benefit on social life. In considering the effect which the Reformation has produced on social happiness, it will be obvious to every person of reflection, that the influence which it has sent forth on the morality of social life, is en- ON SOCIAL LIFE. 189 titled to prominent regard. In a preceding part of our Essay, this subject has been adverted to ; but there is yet a remark or two respecting it, to which we request the attention of our readers. Excellent is the poet's sentiment when he affirms, that " The only iimaranthine Howei* on earth Is virtue." True Christian virtue is the dignity and happiness of in- dividual man ; nor is it less so of man in his social state. Destitute of this celestial gift, man is a weed, and a community of such men is a garden of weeds. If so- ciety is not, in the first place, in some degree virtuous, it cannot be happy ; and it will be found, that the comfort and happiness of social life bear an exact pro- portion to the degree of virtuous feeling by which it is pervaded. We know that it will constitute the glory of the celestial world, and be one great source of its felicity, that it will be characterized by the entire and everlasting absence of moral evil ; and, therefore, it will be according to the approaches which are made by human society on the earth to the 'purity of hea- ven, that it will advance towards its dignity, and par- ticipate its happiness. We have seen, from the preceding details, that nu- merous institutions existed, and were cherished, un- der the papacy, which shed a most baleful influence over the morals of both public and private life ; and that, in effecting their overthrow, the Reformation has done incalculable good to mankind. But it must not be forgotten, that, even although those institu- 190 EFFECT OF THE HEFOEMATION tions had not existed, the Popish system itself, inas- much as it is a system of most debasing superstition, did naturally tend to incapacitate and inspire men with distaste for the practice of social virtue. No truth has more largely obtained the confirmation of experience than this — that superstition is hostile to morality, and that, exactly in proportion to its pro- gress, does it become, in a moral point of view, the bane of society. Now, the superstition which, in the ages before Luther, was prevalent in what was called the Christian world, was distinguished by every fea- ture of darkness and debasement. Awfully was the glory of our divine religion obscured and trampled in the dust, when its sublime doctrines were transformed into idle and contemptible theories, its simple but majestic ritual exchanged for an immense and bur- densome train of puerile and ridiculous observances, and its pure and virtuous injunctions — whose object is to rescue man from the bondage of vice, and to fit him for the employments of the celestial state - sup- planted by human commandments, whose whole ten- dency was to enfeeble the mind, and to deprave the heart ! In what a fearful state of degradation and delusion must the human soul have been, when load- ing the body with iron chains, continuing days and nights without eating, refraining from the use of speech, remaining motionless like statues, and stand- ing on lofty pillars for years together, were adopted as methods of pleasing God ! It could not have hap- pened otherwise than that the mind, by devoting its whole regard to such senseless and degrading super- ON SOCIAL LIFE. IQl stitionsi should have become enfeebled and contracted in all its energies, and utterly disqualified for the mo- mentous duties of social life. If, in addition to the baneful tendency of such a superstition as this, we consider the extreme corruption of domestic manners that prevailed among the various orders of the pontifical clergy, and the influence which their example could not but exert on tlie ignorant multitude, we shall no longer be surprised at the ab- sence, in those ages, of all that is ennobling to the hu- man character, and of all that is excellent and charm- ing in human society. " For some years," says the Popish Doctor Bellarmine, " before the Lutheran and Calvinistic heresies were published, there was not (as contemporary authors testify) any severity in ecclesias- tical judicatories, any discipline with regard to morals, any knowledge of sacred literature, any reverence for divine things ; there was not almost any religion re- maining." " The modern and unhappy clergy," says a German bishop, who wrote about the commence- ment of the Reformation, " addict themselves to tem- poral things ; being destitute of divine light, they love themselves, neglect the love of God and their neighbour ; they are worse than worldly men, whom they destroy together with themselves. They are ad- dicted to pleasures and infamous practices, and neglect the salvation of the souls of Christ's faithful people. By the lives of such wicked clergymen, the seculars come to be disobedient and irreverent towards the church ; they are seduced by blind guides, who, O shame ! are ignorant, proud, covetous, hypocrites, simoniacal, luxu- 192 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION rious, envious, slow to good works, and prone to evil. Where at this day can be found that continence in gesture, diet, apparel, and conduct, that becomes the clergy? At banquets, taverns, plays, and theatres, they are more frequently found than in places dedi- cated to God. How infinitely pernicious to the uni- versal church, the scurrility, the ignorance, the forni- cation, the simony, and other crimes are, with which almost the whole clergy are infected, there is no man who can entertain a doubt." Surely it is not wonderful that all this contempt of morality in those who ought to have been its guar- dians, and who professed to be its teachers, should have induced utter disregard for it in the minds of the people. This we find actually to have been its me- lancholy effect ; for r^icholas Clemangis, already quo- ted, himself an archdeacon in the church of Rome, de- clares, " That wicked persons did so much abound in all professions of men, that scarcely one among a thousand was to be found, who did sincerely live an- swerable to his profession ; or, if there was any one that was honest, chaste, temperate, and did not follow this licentious kind of life, he was made a laughing stock to others, and was forthwith called either an in- solent and singular madman, or a hypocrite." These are evils for which the progress of literature and science — if, indeed, it were possible, that, in such a state of things, literature and science could have made progress — would have furnished no remedy. Speculators about the improvement of mankind may dream of the regeneration of the human character. ON SOCIAL LIFE. 193 and the melioration of human society by other means, but the whole past experience of man compels us to believe and to affirm, that Christianity, and Christiani- ty alone, is adequate to the accomplishment of that great work. In vain had philanthropists laboured, and sages taught, and the splendour of human wisdom for four thousand years illumined the world. Christianity, at her first entrance among the children of men, beheld gross and universal depravity pervading the manners of mankind. They were, according to the testimony of Him whose words are eternal truth, " filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, de- spiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, diso- bedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmer- ciful." Wheresoever her influence extended, Chris- tianity accomplished a blissful and glorious change, — a change which was the boast and the joy of her apo- logists, and the confusion of her enemies. " Give me," exclaimed the Christian Cicero *, pleading the cause of our divine religion, " give me a man passionate, slande- rous, ungovernable ; by the power of the word of God I will render him placid as a lamb. Give me a man greedy and avaricious, I will give him back to you li- beral, lavishing his gold with unsparing hand. Give me a man who shrinks from pain and death, and pre- sently he shall contemn the gibbet, the stake, and the * Lactantius. N 194 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION wild beast. Give me one who is libidinous and a de- bauchee, and you shall see him sober and temperate. Give me one cruel and bloodthirsty, and his fury shall be converted into clemency itself. Give me, in short, one addicted to folly, injustice, and crime, and he shall become prudent, and harmless, and just." Now, the Reformation, being a recurrence to the form and the spirit of genuine Christianity, might have been expected to produce a recurrence to that purity of conduct, and that elevation of moral character, which are its inseparalde attendants. Accordingly, we find that this was really the case. The thousand abuses and immoralities which were tolerated, and even en- couraged, under the preceding reign of darkness, fled as lowering clouds are scattered by the sunbeams of the morning ; a return was extensively made to that purity of external conduct w^hich had been universally relinquished ; and the foundation was laid of all that refinement of manners, and all that dignity of charac- ter, by which, since the Reformation, the people of the Protestant have been exalted above the people of Catholic lands. There are, it is true, some Protestant countries, in which this auspicious change has taken place to a greater extent than has been the case in others. In Scotland, for example, and in Protestant Switzerland, the lower orders of society are much superior, in point of intelligence and morals, to people of the same class in any other land. It is obvious, that this superiori- ty is to be attributed to the more extensive diffusion of knowledge — especially religious knowledge — in these ON SOCIAL LIFE. 195 countries, and tlieir consequent more enlarged en- joyment of the blessings of the Reformation. But the influence of this happy revolution, in elevating the tone of social morality, has not been confined to Protestant lands. In those Catholic states, in which Protestantism has obtained toleration, a very consi- derable improvement has taken place in the morals both of the clergy and of the people. This reformation of conduct, indeed, vv^as forced upon the members of that church, by the surprising increase of light and knowledge that had taken place around them ; never- theless, the elevation of the standard of morality, and the consequent melioration of man's social condition, are pleasing events — in what way soever they may have been accomplished, — and wc feel compelled to venerate the memory of the momentous revolution by which they were produced. It merits to be remarked farther on this part of our subject, that the Reformation has imparted a de- gree of security and confidence to the transactions of commerce, and to the intercourse of social life, which, under the reign of popery, could not possibly exist. The detestable principle — to which we have again and again adTcrted — that every other interest must be abandoned when it comes into competition with the interest of the church, must appear to every person of common reflection to have been utterly at variance with every thing like generous friendship, and unsus- pecting intercourse, among mankind. What confi- dence could there be in social intercourse, what hap- piness in friendship, when men lived in continual jea- N 2 196 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION lousy of each other, afraid to speak tlie genuine sentiments of their hearts, lest some unguarded ex- pression should annihilate their correspondence, and occasion the sacrifice of their friendship — peradven- ture also of their lives — at the shrine of unholy zeal * ? Add to this, that, in consequence of the unbounded in- fluence which the clerical orders possessed over the minds of the people, they had the virtue, the peace, the happiness of domestic society entirely in their power. A more striking illustration of this remark cannot be conceived, than that which is furnished by the prevalence of the practice of auricular con- fession. It was the doctrine in which the people were carefully instructed, that they ought to acquaint their spiritual guides with all their affairs — their faults and their good deeds — every thing, in short, which they either had done or intended to do. It would not be believed, if it were not proved by the fact, that ever the human mind could be so dismally blighted as tamely to acquiesce in such a degrading imposition. Alas ! it would seem that if the mental eye be once closed in darkness, there is no usurpation too dreadfiil or too debasing to obtain the implicit re- verence of mankind. Auricular confession was re- ceived as a divine doctrine ; and the wrath of the Al- mighty was supposed to rest upon the sinner who dared to neglect it. And thus did it come to pass, that the priesthood became acquainted with the tran- * One memorable and mournful example of the triumph of Po- pish principle over the endearing obligations of human relation- ship, the reader will find recorded in the Appendix, No. VII. ON SOCIAL LIFE. 197 tactions of every family, enjoyed many opportunities of indulging their ambitious and licentious passions — had the virtue and the peace of domestic society com- pletely in their power — ^in short, obtained control over the whole system of human life ! When we think of such a tremendous engine of corruption as this, wield- ed at will by a band of aspiring and profligate men, it is impossible to resist the conviction, that, in those times, domestic life must have been, to a very great extent, the scene of jealousy, and suffering, and mi- sery *. * A multitude of facts might be mentioned, which demonstrate the truth of this conviction. A specimen of these we shall here present to our readers. Under the pontificate of Paul II. a bull was emitted from Rome respecting the conduct of the clergy, par- ticularly those of Spain, in reference to the sacrament of confes- sion- Part of this bull is in the following words : — "■ Whereas certain ecclesiastics in the kingdom of Spain, and in the cities and dioceses thereof, having the cure of souls, or exercising such cure for others, or otherwise deputed to hear the confessions of peni- tents, have broken out into such heinous acts of iniquity, as to abuse the sacrament of penance in the very act of hearing the con- fessions, not fearing to injure the same sacrament, and him who instituted it, our Lord God, and Saviour Jesus Christ, by entice- ing and provoking, or trying to entice and provoke, females to lewd actions, at the very time when they were making their confes- sions." — The introduction of this document into Spain, brought to light in a most appalling manner, the wretched condition into which domestic society had been reduced by the influence of the Papal institutions. The following is the narration of a Spanish Avriter concerning this affair : When this bull was first introduced into Spain, the inquisitors published a solemn edict in all the churches belonging to the archbishopric of Seville,] that any per- son knowing or having heard of any friar or clergyman's having 198 EFFECT OF THE IIEFOIIMATION A happier state of matters has been introduced by the Reformation. It has put an end to those grievous inroads upon the comfort of society, by which its mem- committed the crime of abusing the sacrament of confession, or in any manner having improperly conducted himself during the con- fession of a female penitent, should make a discovery of what he knew, within thirty days, to the holy tribunal ; and very heavy censures were attached to those who should neglect or despise this injunction. When this edict was first published, such a considerable number of females went to the palace of the inquisi- tor, only in the city of Seville, to reveal the conduct of their in- famous confessors, that twenty notaries, and as many inquisitors, were appointed to minute down their several informations against them : but these being found insufficient to receive the depositions of so many witnesses ; and the inquisitors being thus overwhelmed, as it were, with the pressure of such affairs, thirty days more were allowed for taking the accusations ; and, this lapse of time also proving inadequate to the intended purpose, a similar period was granted, not only for a third but a fourth time. The ladies of rank, character, and noble families, had a difficult part to act on this occasion, as their discoveries could not be made at any parti- cular time and place. On one side, a religious fear of incurring the threatened censures, goaded their consciences so much as to compel them to make the required accusations ; on the other side, a regard to their husbands, to whom they justly feared to give offence, by affording them any motives for suspecting their pri- vate conduct, induced them to keep at home. To obviate these difficulties, they had recourse to the measure of covering their faces with a veil, according to the fashion of Spain, and thus went to the inquisitors in the most secret manner they could adopt. Very few, however, escaped the vigilance of their husbands, who, on being informed of the discoveries and accusations made by their wives, were filled with suspicions ; and yet, notwithstand- ing this accumulation of proofs against the confessors, produced to the inquisitors, this holy tribunal, contrary to the expectations ON SOCIAL LIFE. 199 bers were so long afflicted ; has denounced intrusion on the sanctuary of domestic life, as an atrocious of- fence ; in short, has put it in the power of every man to enjoy the sweets of unsuspecting friendship, and all the charities of private life. To that auspicious revo- lution are we, in a great measure, under God, indebted for all that charms us in the circle of our acquaint- ance, and all that we hold dear in our domestic en- joyments. '■' O fortuiiatos nimium, sua si bona iiormt !" There is yet one other point of view, in which, before leaving this part of our subject, we may consider the bearing of the Reformation on social happiness. It has effected an important and auspicious change in the religious temper, and, thereby, generally in the whole character of those among whom it has prevailed. It will not be denied by any person who is even mode- rately acquainted with the spirit, and bearings, and history of popery, that the direct tendency of the sys- tem, which obtained universal regard in the christian world before the Reformation, was to banish genero- sity, gentleness, and even humanity of feeling, out of the world. Intolerance — forbidding, unrelenting, vin- dictive intolerance— was the one feature, which it sought and tended to render predominant, and awfully influential in the human mind. A departure, how unimportant soever, from the opinion, or the practice of every one, put an end to the business, by ordering that all crimes of this nature, proved by lawful evidence, should from thenceforth be consigned to perpetual silence and oblivion ! " 200 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION of the Church, was regarded and denounced as heresy ; and, to this crime, forbearance — ^not to speak of chari- ty and kindness — was forbidden. Nurtured amid in- tolerance of so dark a complexion, and accustomed to behold and to enforce the merciless execution of every decree which the genius of popery had sent forth to guard its unjust usurpation, it could not have happen- ed otherwise, than that the whole aspect of the character of mankind should have become gloomy, unsocial, and vindictive. Even females, formed by nature in finer mould, with feelings more delicate, and hearts more susceptible of tender impressions, than those of the other sex, when once they had thoroughly imbibed the spirit of their faith, seemed to relinquish the most amiable features of their character, and, on some occa- sions, to be divested even of humanity itself. In those countries in which the Inquisition had obtained an establishment, this debasing influence of the spirit of popery was pre-eminently displayed. Kindness of temper seemed utterly to have forsaken their people. The barbarities of the most infamous of all tribunals were talked of, and witnessed, without the slightest manifestation of horror ; nay, the committing to the flames of a number of fellow-creatures, whose only crime was that of thinking for themselves, and refusing to worship God otherwise than according to his blessed word, was contemplated with pleasure ; and multitudes assembled to the celebration oi' an Auto-da-fe, as a better and more joyous entertainment than a bull- feast, or a theatrical exhibition* ! * An Auto-da-fe, or Act of Faitli, was an execution by the authority of the inquisition. The sight of such a spectacle was ON SOCIAL LIFE. 201 It has been affirmed by some modern advocates for popery, that all this ought not to be charged on the pre- vailing superstition of those days ; that the intolerance horrible in the extreme ; and the very mention of its atrocities, with the callousness and triumph which the cruel spectators mani- fested, is calculated to make a mind not altogether void of human sensibility, shudder. The unhappy victims, after having breathed* for years together, the pestilential vapours of a solitary dungeon' and after enduring the most excruciating tortures which malignity could suggest, or barbarity inHict, were dragged from their scenes of misery, given over to the civil power, as hopeless and impeni- tent, and, amid circumstances of awful solemnity, committed to the flames. On the preceding festival, or Sunday, intimation of the approaching execution was made in the churches, and the people were invited and encouraged to be present. In consequence, the multitude which attended was immense. A host of blood-thirsty ecclesiastics issued from the convents and churches, and crowded to the spot ; the standard of the Inquisition was unfurled, the heretics in sackcloth moved mournfully along, and silence was not interrupted, save by the tolling of the cathedral-bell, whose hol- low sound, at intervals, falling on the ear, announced the sad busi- ness of the day. From all quarters of the nation in which it took place, and even from other lands, did the princes and the grandees resort to the tragedy, as to a magnificent entertainment. Philip II. was accustomed to enjoy an Auto-da-fe as much as a theatrical exhibition, and one was actually prescribed to Charles II. as a medicine and cordial. Ladies also, casting off the exquisite sensi- bility of their sex, and trampling on the common feelings of hu- manity, rejoiced when they should have wept, and gloried in their shame. The convulsions of expiring fellow-creatures, made the smile of triumph to play upon their countenance, and the shrieks and groans of a martyr in the flames, instead of drawing forth the sigh of female commiseration, only served to add fuel to their dis- mal joy. In truth, they dared not weep. Sympathy in such a case was no venial sin. Philip III. for giving vent to his natural feelings, and permitting on one occasion a tear to fall from his 4 202 EFFECT OF THE REFOllMATION and the cruelties to which we have been alhidiug arc not attributable to the system of the poutificeal church, any more than the atrocities which have been sometimes per- petrated by Protestants are chargeable on the religious system which they profess. This affirmation, if really made in sincerity, must emanate from minds profoundly io-norantof the subject of which they speak and whereof they affirm. The religious system of Protestants is a system of charity. There is not among them all, so far as w^e know, one exception to this principle. The dictate of every creed that exists among them is the dictate of their common Lord—" Love your enemies ; bless them that curse you ; do good to them that hate you ; and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you." If, in some of their Confessions, and other public documents, there are found expressions that savour of intolerance— that seem to engage their eye, forfeited, in expiation of his crime, a drop of blood, which was taken from him by the Inquisitor-general, and burnt by the common executioner. Grief, therefore, was banished from the spectators of these atrocities. Joy, the joy of minds degraded and brutalized, beamed in every countenance, and every heart expe- rienced additional delight by the repeated symptoms of agony that were beheld in the poor sufferer. The preacher who officiated, when the grand Auto-da-fe, prescribed to Charles II., was exe- cuted, and who, if tenderness was to be met with, ought to have possessed it, on seeing a hundred and twenty persons ready to be cast into the fire, exultingly exclaimed, " Oh ! thou tribunal, for boundless ages mayest thou keep us firm in the faith, and pro- mote the punishment of the enemies of God. Of thee I may say what the Holy Spirit said of the church, ' Thou art fair my love, thou art fair as the tents of Kedar, as the sightly curtains of Solomon !'" ON SOCIAL LIFE. 203 disciples to exterminate by violence whatsoever opi- nion or practice they conceive to be contrary to Holy Scripture, these expressions are most satisfactorily ex- plained, in other parts of those documents, to imply the removal of such opinions and practices by those methods alone which are lawful, and which have the sanction of the Word of God. And if, in addition to this it must be acknowledged — as, alas ! it must be ac- knowledged — that Protestants have been guilty of persecution, their deeds of atrocity are to be attributed to the profligate authors of them, who were Protestants merely in name, and not to the religious system which they profess ; for it is impossible for their bitterest enemies to point out one article in their respective systems which legitimately leads to persecution. But, on the other hand, the atrocities which were perpe- trated by the disciples of the papacy, were perpetrated from principle, in obedience to the dictates of their unholy system, and not merely in consequence of their own partial and erring views of truth and duty. Va- rious proofs of this statement have been already inci- dentally referred to in the preceding pages, and, if it were necessary, many others might be adduced, all combining to demonstrate that intolerance and perse- cution, even to suffering and death, were the princi- ples which the system of the Catholic Church solemn- ly enjoined on the belief and the practice of her mem- bers. Why should we say were ? These are the prin- ciples of that system at this day ; for they have never been retracted. Nay, the last General Council of the Papal Church has stamped its confiiinatiou, and the 204 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION character of immutability on them all ; and, in the atrocities which, during the last, and in the beginning of the present century, were perpetrated on the Pro- testants in various continental states, and especially in France, the world has beheld these principles brought into dreadful practical operation*. Now, it is the con- sideration that such are its principles that impresses on the system of Catholicism the brand of foulest in- famy, and renders it deservedly the execration — as it has been the dreadful scourge — of the Christian world. Its whole effect is to debase and brutalize the hu- man mind ; and especially, by its laws against heretics, and its crusades for their extermination, and its inqui- sitions, and acts of faith, and interdicts, and excom- munications, and all the host of other deeds of bigotry which accord with its spirit, and are mentioned in its annals, does it tend to banish every thing like gene- rous and kind feeling from the human character, and from human society, and to induce tempers the very opposite of those which the Book of God enjoins, and which were exemplified in Him, who " loved us even when we were enemies," and who hath left us an ex- ample that we should follow his steps f . It is manifest, from all this, that popery is a system utterly at war with the social happiness of mankind. The induration of the human character which it efFect- * See Appendix, No. VIII. t That there are persons in the Roman Catholic Church who do not approve of the principles above described, we readily allow. But these persons are better than their religion ; and it would be as unfair to take their opinion as a proper specimen of Catholic ON SOCIAL LIFE. 205 ed had, it is true, a primary reference to religion, but could not be restricted to it. The whole range of hu- man affairs must, in a greater or less degree, have been subjected to its influence. The habit of bigotry and unfeeling zeal, once established in the soul, could not but display its unhallowed influence, even in matters in which religion was not immediately concerned, and must especially have operated with baleful effect on the condition of domestic society. There temper is every thing; " bowels of mercies, kindness, humble- ness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearance, forgiveness, charity," — are the amiable dispositions which genuine Christianity recommends, and the pre- valence of which would render the social state of man truly blessed. But these are not the tempers with which popery has a tendency to inspire her disciples. They are opposed to her whole spirit — as entirely op- posed to it, indeed, as light is to darkness. In pro- portion, therefore, as the spirit of popery was imbibed and manifested by its votaries, must domestic society, and the intercourse of private life, have been marked by an utter destitution of substantial felicity. Unfelt for and unfeeling, hateful and hating one another, is the wretched picture which was exhibited for many ages by human society in the papal world. principles, as it would be to take the sentiments of any of her Armi- nian clergy as a specimen of the real principles of the Calvinistic Church of England. We speak of systems, not of individuals • and in a case like the present, in which the system has been for ages open to the view of the world, we do not need to appeal to any individual, or to any body of men, for information respect- ing it. 206 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION How blissful is the change, whicli, in respect of these things, has been accomplished by the Reforma- tion ! The merciful and benign religion of the Savi- our of men has dethroned from its ascendency the fierce and forbidding superstition which had usurped its place. Far from intending to eradicate the humane and benevolent feelings of our nature, its design and its tendency are to elevate and ennoble them. Incul- cating by its supreme authority the sacred principle of good will to men of every description, it aims not to aggrandise any privileged class or community of persons, but to promote the general happiness of universal man- kind. This is the religion which, by the Protestant Reformation, has been freed from corruption, and has obtained scope for the diffusion of its heavenly influ- ence over the world ; and, in proportion to the degree in which men have imbibed its spirit, have the mild- ness and the charity, which are its distinguishing fea- tures, been manifested in their intercouse with each other, and with distant lands. Poor, indeed, must be the heart of that man who can cast his eyes over the population of Protestant states, and behold, instead of the fierce, and cruel, and unrelenting zeal, that dis- tinguished in other days the people of the christian world, and the dark and disdainful scowl which they were wont to cast upon the professors of another faith, and the natives of other lands, the displays of charity and philanthropy by which they are now beautified and ennobled — poor must be that man's heart, who can look abroad, and behold all this, and feel no emotions of satisfaction from the momentous change ! The spirit ON SOCIAL IJFE. ^07 of the immortal Howard was the genuine spirit of Christianity, and of the Reformation ; and, although comparatively few persons have it in their power to leave their homes, as he did, and to traverse oceans, and mountains, and empires, in search of want and wretchedness, which they might pity and relieve, the same noble and benevolent temper may be traced in that amiable eagerness which pervades the Protestant world to feel for the miseries of their fellow men, and which, passing immeasurably beyond every considera- tion of kindred, and nation, and creed, is anxious to bless the whole of mankind with every temporal and spiritual privilege which it is in their power to be- stow. 208 EFFKCT OF THE REFORMATION CHAPTER IV. OF THE EFFECT WHICH THE REFORMATION HAS PRODUCED ON THE PROGRESS OF KNOWEEDGE. The field which the title prefixed to this chapter spreads hefore us is ainple and interesting ; but our limits permit us to cast over it only a cursory glance. Every person who is not altogether a stranger to re- flection, must be aware that knowledge is of infinite importance to man, both in his individual and social state. It constitutes the dignity of his nature. It allies him to superior beings. Without it he is de- graded, destroyed, lost. " Knowledse to the soul Is power, and liberty, and peace." Very considerable is the influence which the progres- sive advancement of knowledge sends forth on a na- tion's character, manners, and felicity. Its tendency is to polish the rudeness of nature, and to soothe its ferocity ; to restrain the passions, and humanize the heart. By it the social principle is strengthened, society is established, its laws are settled and ex- plained, its wants provided for, its labours abridged, its whole system softened, dignified, improved. What is ON THE PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 209 it SO much as the progress of knowledge, especially religious knowledge, among the inhabitants of her scattered villages, that has given to the national cha- racter of our own beloved land such a tone of high su- periority over the character of other states ? And what is it but the pressure of the darkness of that deep and sullen night wliich has been induced and cherished by those petty spiritual tyrants, who have been the scourge and the curse of ill-fated Ireland, that has sunk her people so immensely below the rank, in European society, which they are fitted, and, under a happier influence, would have been entitled to claim ? The melancholy state of this our sister isle, speaks volumes as to the vast importance of knowledge to m.ankind, and proclaims, with a voice which all the world shoidd hear, that outrage, and anarchy, and crime, arc the mournful consequences of its depar- ture *. We were led, when treating, in a former part of our essay, of the bearing which the Reformation had on * " In Antrim, Armagh, and Londonderry," says one of her ministers, contrasting the condition of her instructed with that of her uninstructed provinces, " the number of educated children is, to the whole population, in the proportion of one to twelve : and these are peaceable, quiet counties. But, in the county of Lime- rick — Limerick, two well known by its atrocities and murders — What is the number of children educated there ? There are many who will be surprised to learn that it is only as one to nine hun- dred and seventy-seven ! In the province of Ulster, it is as one to seventeen ; and in Munster, as one to five hundred !" — The Rev. W. Daly's Speech at the Nineteenth Anniversary of the British and Foreign Bible Society. O 210 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION the interests of liberty, to advert to the melancholy condition of the world, during the dark ages, in re- spect of knowledge and learning ; and to the means which were employed by the ambitious priesthood of the Roman Church, for putting out the intellectual light of mankind. It is not necessary now to en- large on this part of the subject. Suffice it to re- mark, that useful knowledge was utterly banished from among the great mass of the people of the western world ; and that the condition, even of the clerical orders, was not much superior to that of those whom they professed to guide. The Bible was unknown to most, and despised by all ; and the study of its origi- nal languages was stigmatized as in the highest de- gree criminal and dangerous. Even the Faculty of Theology at Paris declared, before the assembled parliament, that, if the study of Greek and Hebrew was permitted, religion was undone* ! Nor was it only * " We might have lived for ever in peace and harmony," ob- served the vicar of the Bishop of Constance, ingenuously, " though there had been never such a thing as a Bible ;" — and Cardinal Hessius observed, in the same spirit, " that the affairs of the church Avould have been on a much better footing, if the Gospels had never been written." Learning fell into as much disrepute as the Bible among the clergy of the old establishment. " To un- derstand Greek rendered a man liable to be suspected of heresy, and Hebrew of more." In 1523, the magistrates of Lucerne ha- ving ordered the house of Colinus, a learned professor, to be searched for heretical books, one of the monks who performed the office, meeting with a Homer, called out, " This is Lutheran, all that is Greek is Lutheran !" — " There is a new language called Greek, invented by the heretics," said a preacher to his congre- gation, " and a book printed in that language called the New ON THE PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 211 religious knowledge that was interdicted — the complete extinction of intellectual freedom and investigation was attemjited, and, with respect to the vast majority of mankind, was accomplished. In short, the maxim, that " ignorance is the parent of devotion and of civil subordination" — a maxim the most monstrous that ever blighted minds could adopt, was, by a train of deep laid policy, rendered dominant over all the christian world, and, from that time, dreariness and barrenness were the melancholy characteristics of many ages in the history of man. Mind, with all its energies, was dormant ; the sublime faculties of the human soul, by which it is allied to superior natures, were subjected to stagnation ; and human society resembled the wide waste of an Arabian desert, or the gloom of the moon- less and starless midnight sky. Through the stillness and sullenness of that awful night, indeed, a solitary star did sometimes appear, attempting to scatter, in some faint degree, the sur- rounding darkness ; and, amid the great intellectual and moral waste which the world in those ages pre - sented to view, there does here and there meet the eye a green spot, on which we love to linger — just as the wearied traveller, after toiling for days together among the horrors of an African desert, lights him, at last, on some verdant spot, enjoys it with rapture, and leaves it with reluctance, casting back to it many a longing, lingering look ! Testament, which contains many dangerous things. Hebrew is another new language ; whoever learns it becomes a Jew ! " O 2 212 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION One of the few celebrated names that are to be found m the history of the dark ages is the name of Bacon. This great man, borne up by the vigour of his own unaided genius, rose superior to that formi- dable despotism which had withered and prostrated the minds of mankind around him, and penetrated into the regions of science with an ardour which, under more auspicious circumstances, would, there is reason to believe, have been productive of splendid results. But the time was not yet come, when scientific stu- dies could be prosecuted with impunity. Bacon's ca- reer was checked. The church became alarmed lest light should enter, and disturb the peace of her dark dominion. The pursuit of science in which this man of genius ventured to engage, was viewed with suspi- cion and jealousy : he was accused of having corres- pondence with the devil, was tried for magic, and, through the influence of Jerome Esculo, the Pope's Parisian legate, who afterwards ascended the papal throne, was condemned to imprisonment for ten years ! Who feels not his indignation roused when he per- uses the details of such a transaction as this ? What execration do not distant ages owe to those men, who, under the semblance of religion, could treat so inglo- riously a man whose only.crime was the love of science, and who nobly sought to rise above the prostrate world by whom he was surrounded *. * With no truth can it be affirmed, that this hostility to sci- ence was the error of the age, and not the crime of the papal sys- tem. Its aim has been, in all ages of its history, to exclud ON THE PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 213 But that Providence which superintends the affairs of the world, had happier days in store for mankind : light, to extinguish freedom of thought ; and, accordingly, one hundred and fifteen years after the Reformation, we behold, in the history of another great philosopher, its hateful and still po- tent arm stretched forth to crush, if it had been possible, the bud of science, which was gradually disclosing its beauties, and diffusing its fragrance over the world. Galileo had become a convert to the Copernican astronomy ; and, by a succession of noble discoveries — the most splendid, perhaps, which it ever fell to the lot of an individual to make — had demonstrated the mo- tion of the earth round the sun. A mind untrammelled by prejudice, would readily judge, that the region of his specu- lations was a territory which the church had no right, and should have had no desire, to invade ; and would imagine, that the slightest attempt to interrupt his glorious career would never have been made. Alas, it happened far otherwise ! As a de- monstration, which it is impossible to gainsay, of the inveterate and perpetual warfare that is waged by the pontifical church, not against true religion only, but against philosophy and science — let the fact be recorded, that the greatest philosopher of his age was accused as a heretic, was cast into a dungeon of the inquisi- tion, heard the doctrines of his philosophy condemned by those priestly bigots who had no minds, and were not worthy, to com. prehend them, and had the choice given him of either recanting his opinions, or being burnt to death ! He did recant. At the age of seventy years, on his bended knees, and with his hand on the holy Gospels, he condemned the book which he had written, abjured and cursed opinions which he could not cease to hold without ceasing to think, and swore before God and the Holy In- quisitors, that he would never more, either in word or in writ- ing, assert the doctrines which he had demonstrated and avowed. What a scene of humiliation was this ! Who pities not the aged timorous victim of persecution ? Who execrates not the hostility of his foes ? The mind of Galileo was crushed ; he never after- 214 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION (lays ill which this horrible system of restraints and punishments was to be overthrown — and the human in- tellect was to be rescued from its long prostration — and Religion, restored to her native purity, was to gain illus- trious triumphs — and science was to rear her splendid trophies — and the light of a glorious improvement, waxing brighter and brighter, was to be shed over and to beautify the aspect of human society. This happier age in the history of man was introduced and brought about by the combined influence of three of those extraordinary events which Divine Providence some- times brings to pass for the illumination and regene- ration of a dark and corrupted world. These events were the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, in the middle of the fifteenth century, and the conse- quent migration of the Greeks of Constantinople to the west ; — the discovery of the art of printing, which took place about the same time ; — and the Reforma- tion by Luther, which signalized the commencement of the following age. By the first of these events, the Greek literati, who had been sheltered in the capital of the east, were dispersed over Europe, and the in- tellectual riches of antiquity were, through their in- strumentality, placed on the common table of the wards talked or wrote on the subject of astronomy. " Such," ex- claims a philosopher of our own age, " was the triumph of his enemies, on whom ample vengeance would long ago have been executed, if the indignation and contempt of posterity could reach the mansions of the dead." — The reader will find the humbling abjuration of Galileo in the Appendix, No. IX. ON THE PKOGllESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 215 western world. By the second, facilities were af- forded for the extensive dissemination of ancient lite- rature, and for gratifying that ardent desire after lite- rary and religious knowledge, which, shortly thereaf- ter, began to be universally expressed. But, as we have demonstrated in a former part of our essay, the third of these memorable events— the Reformation — was necessary to overthrow that power which was the sworn, and determined, and formidable protectress of the reign of darkness, and to give scope for the ope- ration, and stability to the influence, of the other aus- picious occurrences to which we adverted. Through the combined influence of these important events, in- tellect was roused from its stagnation, the long lost rights of mind began to be appreciated, and that con- test commenced, which triumphantly terminated in the mind's emancipation. The acquisition of religious liberty was, indeed, the primary object of that memo- rable struggle which took place throughout Europe in consequence of the Reformation ; but the transition was an easy and a rapid one, to liberty of thought and investigation on general subjects. The works of the poets, the orators, and the philosophers of antiquity, pregnant with liberal sentiment and patriotic enthu- siasm, sent forth their spirit with the rapidity and the force of lightning over the awakening world, and co- operated with the writings of the reformers, and the revived literature of modern times, in crumbling to ruin the systems of intellectual and spiritual oppres- sion, by which Europe had been blighted and degra- 216 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION ded for a thousand years. Thus was the reign of mind, when banished from the east, established in the west, and, from that era, commenced the period of in- tellectual activity, which has crowned the modern na- tions — especially our own — with a more substantial and permanent glory than was won by all the political contests they ever waged. The principle to which the world, previous to that time, had done homage, not only in religious but in philosophical and scientific pursuits, was " Believe." The principle which, from that time, has been adopted as the basis of intellectual and moral culture, is " Exa- mine ;" and it is only necessary to reflect for a moment on the immense difference between these two princi- ples, in order to perceive, that under the government of the one, society must assume an aspect entirely dif- ferent from that which it assumes under the other. The principle of examination calls forth light, of which it is the friend ; that of blind submission is the promoter of darkness. He who is a slave in his mind, in the very centre of his being, is, without knowing that he is so, a slave in his whole conduct. He is a slave by birth, from the stupefaction and apathy which unnerve his faculties. But the man who is free in the inmost sanctuary of his soul, is really free. Nobly and boldly does he look around him : he be- comes active, enterprising, and fitted for every thing that is great and useful*. The progress of knowledge from this period was rapid, at least compared with its * See Villers, page 296. ON THE rilOGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 217 progress under the preceding economy ; and the exer- tions and the discoveries of the bright constellation of scientific men, who have since arisen, and who have shed a glorious lustre over the last three hundred years, form a striking and delightful contrast to all that pros- tration of intellect, and all that poverty of invention and of enterprise, which were the melancholy charac- teristics of preceding times. Literature, in the south of Europe, was not the im- mediate offspring of the Reformation ; but, as we have already stated, had begun to experience an im- portant revival in the preceding century, and operated, with no inconsiderable effect, in forwarding the inte- rests of the great cause of religious reformation, which, shortly thereafter, began to attract the notice of man- kind. Nevertheless, the reviving literature of the south acquired stability, and received a farther very important impulse from the Reformation ; and it is pleasing to observe the wisdom and goodness of the Supreme Governor among the nations making resto- red learning and vindicated Christianity thus mutually to befriend and promote each other. The author of " Lectures on the History of Literature," though ma- nifestly no friend to the Protestant Reformation, was yet compelled to acknowledge its beneficial influence on letters in these memorable words : — " The great improvements and discoveries which have given to the science and literature of modern Europe, a new form and direction, belong, properly speaking, to the eigh- teenth century. But that intellectual cultivation which attained its mighty developement in the eigh- 218 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION teenth, received its shape and form in the sixteenth century, through the Reformation. It was the mo- ving spirit of that event which, hoth in the one of these periods, and in the other, determined the way in which the intellectual cultivation should run, the end it should strive to reach, and the limits within which it should be confined. In both periods, the apparent subjects of dispute and tumult were matters at first sight little connected either with refinement or with literature — for these were either politics, and the ec- clesiastical constitution, the being, the limits, and the exertions of spiritual powers, or those mysteries of re- ligion which lie too deep even for the investigations of philosophers themselves. The Reformation, never- theless, although these were apparently its objects, had the effect of shaking and altering the whole of Europe, and thus came to exert a very great and mul- tifarious, although certainly an indirect, influence over literatui-e, and over all the exertions of intellect, in whatever way applied *." It is a fact worthy to be remembered, that the lead- ing agents in the Protestant Reformation were them- selves distinguished for the love, the cultivation, and the promotion of learning. They were men who, in point of vigorous minds, and literary accomplish- ments, occupied the first rank in their age, and, al- though the great cause of pure religion was that to the vindication and advancement of which they chiefly devoted themselves, they were not forgetful of the in- * Schlegel's Lectures on the History of Literature. ON THE PKOGllESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 219 terests of literature. They felt and lamented that useful knowledge and learning had been almost extin- guished by the system that had been long dominant in the world ; and, regarding the revival and progress of learning as eminently subservient to their cause, and believing that only error and delusion could thereby be injured, they cultivated science themselves, accord- ing to their opportunities, and exerted all their in- fluence to rouse others to investigation. More indirectly, but not less powerfully, did the Reformation promote literature, in another way. It necessarily originated a variety of keen theological discussions: — these occasioned a diligent application to the gaining of acquaintance with the original lan- guages of the sacred writings, and with the customs, the manners, and the transactions of antiquity. To this, and other literary studies of a similar kind, did the learned men of the age devote themselves with all the enthusiasm of minds just emancipated from de- grading restraint — and the result of their investiga- tions — communicated to their fellow men through the medium of the press — not only was the mean of dif- fusing a considerable portion of knowledge, but — which was a more important achievement still — awakened a desire for general knowledge extensively among man- kind. Had the system which obtained the homage of the world in the dark ages been perpetuated, it is far from being improbable, that the whole of those va- luable works in every department of literature and science, to which the last three centuries have given birth, would never have appeared, and all the splendid 220 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION results of their influence on society would have been unknown. For, it is worthy of remark, that the most illustrious of those works by which the latter ages of the world have been benefited and adorned, received their birth on Protestant ground. The Catholic world, it is true, during the same period, has not been without its great men. Indeed, in consequence of the Reformation, the study of science and literature was forced upon them. The learned attacks of their adversaries compelled the adherents of the old system of things to adopt this measure in their own defence. But, after all, the study of science and literature, either sacred or profane, never did, never could receive encouragement in the Church of Rome, The pro- gress of knowledge among her members would prove fatal to her interests ; — she is a kingdom of dark- ness*. It is in Protestant states, and in them alone, that ample encouragement has been given to the inte- rests of knowledge, and it is to them that we are in- debted for almost all those productions in theology, and in the various departments of literature, which have cast a halo of glory around our modern times that will never fade away f . * What could be a more striking proof of this, than the fact, that, in the Index Expurgatorius, published by authority of the Court of Rome, not only the writings of the Reformers, and other Protestants, on religion, but also some of the noblest scientific works that have ever issued from the press, are placed under the bann of the church, and forbidden to be read. See Appendix, No. X. t The comparative merits of the two systems, in reference to the encouragement of learning, are strikingly illustrated in the ON THE PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 221 It must be admitted, however, after all, that the progress of knowledge has not been so rapid since the detail which a German traveller of last century gives respect- ing the condition of the continental universities : " That men may be qualified for the learned professions, and new inventions in the sciences promoted, the Protestant German universities supply va- cant chairs by men of literary merit, and who have distinguished themselves by their writings. With the popish universities, a few instances excepted, it is the reverse. Papists upbraid our univer- sities as fairs, where science is exposed to sale, for attracting fo- reign purchasers ; while theirs are designed to instruct natives in what is profitable, not to collect strangers from the ends of the earth. I acknowledge that Protestant princes often consider universities as sources of wealth, and allure strangers by introdu- cing or keeping up many abuses. The charge of complying with the prejudices and humours of parents, and conniving at folly, ob- stinacy, and vice, cannot be equally brought against the Popish universities. Still the great question remains, — What is taught, in what manner, and for what purpose ! Now, Popish universities serve for little, save the support of the hierarchy. A subtle scho- lastic philosophy, a casuistry unsuitable to human nature, a study of the fathers, without taste or true criticism, and other dreams of the brain, which have no tendency to make men wiser or better, are their chief study. A few years only have elapsed, since sound philosophy, the classic authors, history, the law of nature, chemis- try, and even medicine, and a rational explication of scripture, have been studied ; and, as yet, they flourish in few of their uni- versities. Among Protestants, professors contend who shall excel in science : among papists, what monastic order shall have the greatest influence. Many boasted changes and reformations are little more than one order getting into professorships, and exclud- ing another. This determines what system shall be introduced j whether the Doctor Subtilis, the Doctor Angelicus, or the Doctor Seraphicus, shall darken the understandings of youth ; and whe- ther traditions shall be taught according to Thomas, to Scotus, or to Busenhaum ?" " A description of a Journey through Germany and Switzerland, in the year 1781, by Frederic Nicolai." 222 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION era of the Reformation as it might have been. The number of individuals has been comparatively small, to whom intellectual improvement has been, in any great degree, extended. A few privileged classes of society have had the means of enjoying it, but with respect to the great mass of the people, every thing beyond the mere rudiments of knowledge has been kept from them, wrapt up in profoundest mystery, — insomuch, that how great soever the illumination of the world may have been — and it has been great, im- measurably beyond any thing that was known previous to the sixteenth century — the enlightened part of the mass has borne no more proportion to tliat which re- mained unenlightened, " than the surface of the ocean, which is stirred by the breeze, and radiant with the sunshine, does to the depth of waters which remain dark and unmoved beneath it." Now, the permitting this state of matters to continue so long — to what cause soever it is to be attributed — has been, in the administration of all the Protestant states, a great practical error ; — an error, not merely exerting a ruin- ous influence on the degraded multitudes who have been its immediate victims i but hostile to the welfare of the state, — for an ignorant people are the ready prey of every profligate demagogue who aspires to power ; and dangerous to science, — for it is the improvement not of individuals but of a nation, that is most secure against decay. Knowledge ought not to have been withheld from the people, but, on the contrary, the most vigorous measures should have been employed for putting them universally in possession of it ; and ON THE rilOGllESS OF KXOU^EEDGE. 223 at an infinite distance should men have stood away from the monstrous maxim, to which the world had too long done homage — that knowledge is degraded, when it is applied to enlighten the minds, and to increase the comforts, of the people. This maxim the Refor mation had exploded ; and if the governments of Eu- rope had steadily pursued the path which that great revolution marked out to them, the character of their people would have stood higher than it does at this day, in point of intellectual and moral worth. To the honour of the reformers of our native land, it merits to he remembered, that they manifested a no- ble superiority to such crooked policy ; that, in the ge- nuine spirit of Christianity they sought the universal extension of knowledge among their countrymen ; and that, if the liberal and patriotic measures which they proposed had obtained the countenance and co-opera- tion of the Scottish Aristocracy, the people of our land would have been, at this day, much more enlightened than they are, and she could have claimed the glory of being, in a higher degree than is presently the case, the seat of science. One noble achievement they did ac- complish — an achievement which, although there were not another in their history worthy of being remem- bered, would surround their memory with imperishable renown. They effected the establishment of the institu- tion of parochial schools — an institution to which, more than to any other, this land of our fathers is indebted for the diffusion of much useful knowledge among her people, and for that peculiar complexion of thought- ful intelligence by which they are generally distin- 2M EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION guislied, and by which they are elevated, in point of intellectual and moral worth, above all the people of surrounding nations. " The compilers of the First Book of Discipline," says the author of the Life of Knox, " paid particular attention to the state of edu- cation. They required that a school should be erect- ed in every parish, for the instruction of youth in the principles of religion, grammar, and the Latin tongue. They proposed that a college should be erected in every notable town, in which logic and rhetoric should be taught along with the learned languages. They seem to have had it in their eye to revive the system adopted in some of the ancient republics, in which the youth were considered as the property of the public rather than of their parents, by obliging the nobility and gentry to educate their children, and by provid- ing, at the public expence, for the education of the children of the poor who discovered talents for learn- ing." The Scottish nobles were not sufficiently en- lightened to appreciate the utility of these proposals of the reformers, nor were they sufficiently disinterest- ed to make the sacrifices which were necessary for car- rying them into execution. The avarice of these men, their eagerness to share among themselves the rich revenues of the superseded clergy of the Popish church, — and the protracted struggles in which the nation was involved with the enemies of her freedom, retard- ed, for a considerable time, the accomplishment of the enlightened designs of the Scottish ministers, and, in some important points, entirely defeated ^them. Suc- cessful, however, they were in laying the basis of that ON THE PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 225 general system of education, which, with the various improvements it has received in succeeding ages, has proved one of the greatest blessings that our beloved country has ever enjoyed. The benefits arising from this noble and benevolent institution, have not been confined to the people of our lowland districts ; they have penetrated even into those mountainous parts of our land which, by their peculiar habits, and man- ners, and customs, seemed unhappily separated from its influence ; insomuch, that, at this moment, ac- cording to the statement of one of their own writers, " it is no uncommon thing for the traveller to meet, even in the highlands of Scotland, a youth attired in the simplest form of the garb of his native hills, going to, or returning from school, with some of the classics of Greece or Rome under his arm, while the flush of a pardonable emulation crimsons the countenance of the lively highlander, as the intelligent stranger conde- scends to inquire about the progress of his studies." Deep is the debt of gratitude which, for all this, Scot- land owes to the plans and the exertions of her Refor- mers. But for these, the mountain scenery of our land would have still been the abode of ignorant, and rugged, and ruthless men. The spirit of dark and desperate hostility would still have been breathed against us by its people; and our peaceful plains, would have still, as in days of old, lain open to the fury of lawless and merciless invaders. It is the ope- ration of these bequests of reforming times, that has lulled to sleep the fiery passions of the Scottish moun- taineer, — that has soothed the elements of revenge, 226 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION which long time rankled in his breast, — that has sof- tened down the jfierceness of the lion to the gentleness of the lamb, — that, in short, has changed the impetu- osity of minds, which were once as rugged as the craggy cliff, and impelled by torrents of passion as boisterous as the mountain stream, — into the stillness of the lake that sleeps softly in the valley. The age in which it has pleased Divine Providence to cast our lot is, happily, more distinguished for ef- forts to promote the great cause of human improve- ment than any of its predecessors. Men of religion have set themselves, by the establishment of schools, and other benevolent institutions, to spread the know- ledge of the Scriptures in ignorant and long neglected lands ; while men of science are labouring, by the or- ganization of literary and scientific institutions, to send the streams of useful learning forth among the ordinary classes of mankind. All this is right and praiseworthy. We hail with unfeigned pleasure all these enterprises of benevolence. They are all promot- ing " the cause of man." We rejoice in the operation of those many institutions whose object is to extend the boundaries of science ; for, far from being of the opi- nion which is entertained by some narrow minds — that there is danger to be apprehended from enlight- ening the people, and that popular turbulence is con- nected with popular illumination, we are convinced, that, in proportion as the people are made to rise in the scale of information, they will rise in moral digni- ty, and, instead of becoming factious and rebellious, and the ready prey of every political impostor, will be ON THE PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 227 distinguished by those habits of peace and intelligent obedience, which, while they do honour to the subject, are the best and noblest safeguard of the government and the laws. But, above all, we rejoice in the pro- gressively enlarging operations of those educational and other associations, which have a special bearing on religion. The knowledge of the Scriptures is, above all other things, of importance to man. By them his soul lives, and he is fitted for being the inhabitant of eternity, when the transactions of this fleeting scene shall be forgotten. But by them also his temporal comfort is advanced. By them, in proportion to the degree in which their blissful influence is shed over mankind, are men rendered virtuous and happy ; and it will be when the knowledge of the word of God has been universally diffused ; and when, in consequence of that diffusion, the spirit of Christianity shall have been imbibed by mankind, — it will be then, and not till then, that the dcterinincd improvement of human society shall be reached, and we will behold " a world in principle as chaste as this is gross and selfish ;" and the falsehood, and wrong and outrage, wherewith earth is filled, shall be swept away ; and the period will be come, when " men shall beat their swords into plough- shares, and their spears into pruning hooks ; and na- tion shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn the art of war any more." In the way, and as the foe, of this most blessed consummation, stands the Church of Rome. She deprecates a period of light ; and, at this moment, is she putting forth her efforts, with more determined energy in opposition to p 2 228 EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION the progress of religious and other useful knowledge, than ever she has done since the days of Luther. Bi- ble societies have been again and again denounced by her head as " pestilential abominations ;" schools, in which the Scriptures are taught, have been, in like manner, anathematized; and the imploring voice of the poor degraded victims of her delusions — pleading to be permitted to give their children scriptural edu- cation — has been disregarded and condemned *. How long, and how fiercely Divine Providence may be pleased to permit this foe of the world's illumination to rage, we pretend not to determine ; — but we know who hath said, that, in the latter days, " many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased ;" we know who hath assured us, that " the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea ;" and, confident that these cheering an- nouncements shall be realised, we anticipate with de- liglitful certainty the approach of a period, when, in- stead of beholding the stream of knowledge rolled back to its source, and the dreariness of intellectual and moral desolation covering the earth, men shall see the waters of truth pouring themselves in resistless tide among all lands, spreading health, and verdure, and beauty, over the moral scenery of our world, and caus- ing " the wilderness and the solitary place " to rejoice and blossom as the rose ! * See Appendix, No. XI. ON THE PROGRESS OE KNOWLEDGE. 229 CHAPTER V. ON THE EVIL CONSEQUENCES OF THE REFORMA- TION. It was not to be expected that an event like the Re- formation, which operated so extensively and so power- fully in changing the religious, the political, and the social condition of the states of Europe, would have been unattended by any consequences of an injurious description. This world is not the scene of unmingled good. The character and circumstances of man in his present state of existence are such, that every event which takes place in his history must, like the sym- bolical cloud in the desert of Sinai, have a dark, as well as a bright side,— must have a portion of evil mixed up with all the good of which it is productive. In the history, even of Christianity, we find the most striking illustration of the truth of this maxim that can possibly be conceived. Its introduction is, un- questionably, the most important and auspicious event that ever has been, or ever will be, recorded in the an- nals of the human race. Its motto is the song of an- gels, " Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will to men." In the history of Christianity arc destined to be more than realized the brightest visions ^30 EVIl. CONSEQUENCES that ever prophet announced, or raptured poet sung ; scenes of peace, and felicity, and joy, " such as earth saw never, such as heaven stoops down to see." Nevertheless, the introduction of Christianity was not unaccompanied with disastrous effects. Its nature and its tendency are good, —good without any mix- ture of evil. Yet did its divine author, our blessed Lord and Saviour, declare respecting it, " I come not to send peace on earth, but a sword ; for I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law ; and a man's foes shall be those of his own household." Wars, and persecutions, and outrage, and bloodshed to a most awful degree were, accordingly, its consequences, — consequences, however, of which it is innocent, and which are attri- butable solely to the depravity of those who, when the light shone among them, were unwilling to receive it. Now, if even the introduction of Christianity, the most memorable and blissful event that is recorded in the whole history of man, was the innocent occasion of many disastrous transactions, it is by no means won- derful, that the lleformation from Popery, which was just the restoration of genuine Christianity, should have been followed by some consequences of a similar nature. The opponents of Christianity, in the primi- tive ages of her history, eagerly laid hold of the fact, which has been just adverted to, and talked of it as a demonstration that Christianity had been a curse, and not a blessing, to mankind ; and tlicir example has been imitated by the enemies of the Reformation. OF THE REFORMATION. 231 They have told us of a multitude of evils, of which that revolution has been productive, and they have attempted to persuade us that these are of such mag- nitude as never to be atoned for by the benefits which it has conferred : but, than all this, nothing could be more illiberal, or more unjust. Many of the alleged evils which are attributed to the Reformation, are found, on inquiry, to be productive of good. Not a few of the injurious occurrences with which it is blamed, are unjustly laid to its charge ; and, with respect to those real evils which it has occasioned, we hesitate not to assert that they are infinitely coun- terbalanced by the numberless substantial benefits with which it has been attended. One or two in- stances of the truth of these assertions, in reference to that great revolution, shall, in this place, be adduced. We are told, in the first place, that the Reforma- tion has operated with mischievous eflPect on the tran- quillity of civil and political society. It has been pro- ductive of many fierce and disastrous wars in all the countries of the western world. Germany, and France, and Britain, we are assured, have all been the scenes of the desperate and long continued struggles to which it gave birth. Now, in making our reply to this par- ticular charge which the enemies of the Reformation have preferred against it, we answer, most unhesita- tingly, that the guilt of these unhappy conflicts, can, with no justice, be charged on the Reformation ; and that, even although the. case were otherwise, although it were true that these hostile transactions were exci- ted and encouraged by the Reformation, they bore 232 EVIL CONSEQUENCES such a character, and have been productive of such be- neficial consequences, that, notwithstanding all the atrocities by which they were distinguished, and the obstructions which, for a time, they laid in the way of social improvement, we would esteem them on the whole blessings to mankind. Let it be supposed, in tlie first place, that those con- tests by which, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the nations of Europe were convulsed, with all the evils which they occasioned, are to be laid to the charge of the Reformation ; who, that thinks of the character which they bore, and of the eiFects which they produced, will hesitate to admit 'that they have been, on the whole, auspicious events. It was the love of freedom, and a noble determination to recover the long-lost rights of men, that originated them, and sti- mulated their continuance. The foes of the Reforma- tion indeed, have often stigmatized them as contests of rebellion, but the stigma is slanderous and unjust. They were contests for religion, and liberty, and truth, — all that is dear to man in this world, and in the world to come. Even although they had been unsuc- cessful, we would have honoured them in our remem- brance, and the scenes in which they were waged we would have venerated as the fields of glorious, though fruitless fight. But these contests were not, in general, imsuccessful : attended, doubtless, they were, with aw- ful, and extensive, and long-lasting devastation, whose details, as we read them in the pages of the historian, fill us with regret and horror, but they terminated in the overthrow of the oppressoi", the breaking asunder OF THE REFORMATION. 233 of fetters, and the bringing forth of the enslaved to light and liberty. What then ? Is it to be regret- ted, after all, that they have been ? Shall we wish that they had never been undertaken ? Would pro- testant Germany consider even the century of warfare which the Reformation cost her, too mighty a price for the substantial advantages she has derived from it ? Would the Belgian provinces be content again to sub- mit to the imperial yoke, if the blood and treasure which they expended in gaining their freedom could be restored ? Is there any patriot of our own beloved land, who, when he thinks of the years, and ages even, of internal convulsion, by which she was rent in conse- (pience of the Reformation, imagines that she pur- chased, by too costly sacrifices, her freedom, her happi- ness, her glory ? In short, is there any man of sound intelligence, who will cast his eyes over the nations of Europe, and mark the independence of mind, the acti- vity of thought, the elevation of character, the refine- ment of manners, by which they are generally distin- guished, and contrast all this with the condition of Europe in the dark ages, and then say that the sacri- fices which were made in accomplishing this mighty change have been beyond its value ? It is impossible. Putting the blessings of restored Christianity out of the question, the Reformation has been attended with such a multiplicity of other benefits to the nations of Europe, and, indeed, to the world at large, as amply compensate for all the toils, and perils, and woes, which were experienced in conflicting for its establishment. But, after all, the guilt connected with these scenes S34 EVIL CONSEQUENCES of warfare and outrage cannot, with justice, be laid to the charge of the Reformation. Those, and those only, are to be blamed for these things, who resisted the improvements, and the just rights, which the people had become enhghtened enough to appreciate and to demand. Mildness and peace are the characters which the friends of the reformed faith always desired to bear ; persuasion and argument the only arms they were anxious to employ. Nor would any other ever have been emj»loyed, if the despots of the age had lis- tened to the voice of reason and of truth. They, cer- tainly, had no right to prevent the degraded millions who were their subjects, from becoming enlightened, and free, and happy. Rather ought they to have made common cause with their people ; and if they had done this, which it was at once their duty and their interest to do, the peace of the world would not have been in- terrupted. But they set themselves to oppose the Re- formation ; they attempted its overthrow. The ruin of its friends — the wretchedness of mankind, would have been the consequences of their success. Resis- tance was necessary — resistance was made ; not those, however, who resisted, but those whose aggressions rous- ed that resistance, — the enemies of the Reformation, and they alone, must bear the guilt of all the evils of which it was the innocent occasion. It is affirmed, farther, that the Reformation has operated with most injurious effect on literature, and on the fine arts. To this topic we have already ad- verted, when treating of the overthrow of monastic in- stitutions, and of the progress of knowledge ; but it OF THE IIEFOIIMATION. • 235 may be nccesscary, in this place, to extend to it a more enlarged consideration. Much idle declama- tion has been uttered on this subject, the authors of which manifestly knew little or nothing respecting the matter about which they presumed to write. Enough, it has been deemed by most of them, that opportunity was given of assailing, with their invective, a revolution, of which, though sharing its advantages, they were the bitter foes ; and accordingly, many a loud and grievous outcry they have made respecting the ex- cesses of the Reformation, and the deadly injury which that revolution inflicted on learning and on the arts. We have already shewn, that the complaints which have been uttered respecting the alleged outrages of the Reformation, and the injury they did to literature and the arts, are, in a great degree, destitute of foun- dation. It is not true — at all events, it is a mere as- sertion, not only unsupported by the shadow of evi- dence, but contradicted by all the evidence that has reached us — that the ebullition of popular indignation which burst forth against the ancient system, was at- tended with the extensive destruction of literary works. The monasteries, at the time of the Reformation, seem to have been any thing but the abodes of learning ; and the Reformers were too much distinguished as literary men themselves, and too anxious to see the streams of knowledge pouring their fructifying waters along the desolate heritages of the earth, to recommend measures by which injury would be done to the interests of learn- ing. But, even although the case were otherwise, al- though the lamentations of literary men over injured 236 EVIL CONSEQUENCES letters were not unsupported by facts, — although, to the injury which the Reformation unquestionably did inflict on the arts, we were warranted to add the in- jury in its widest extent, which, by the overthrow of the monasteries, it is alleged to have done to the in- terests of learning, — even in this supposed case, we would feel ourselves bound unhesitatingly to declare, that the loss sustained by mankind, though of import- ance in itself, and when abstractly considered, is un- worthy of being mentioned in comparison with the substantial blessings with which it has been attended. What though some monuments of Grecian and Ro- man genius have perished, and some magnificent spe- cimens of architecture have been turned into ruins, and some opportunities thereby been taken away from our men of science, of exercising literary acumen, and gratifying literary taste ? What matters all this, when in the room, and partly by the means of these disad- vantages, there has been obtained the shining forth of Christianity, in her unadulterated and glorious sim- plicity, and the breaking asunder and casting away of the vilest and most grievous manacles that ever en- slaved the body or the soul of man ? With respect to the general influence of the Refor- mation, we most pointedly deny that it has been hos- tile to learning. What literature had Europe, that was worthy of the name, before the sixteenth century ? What literature has Europe still, that is not either the immediate offspring of the Reformation, or mainly indebted to it for its lustre and perfection ? Have not all the great literary works, which have made their or THE REFORMATION. !^3T appearance in modern times, been the production of men who were either Protestants, or had felt, though they refused to acknowledge, their obligations to the potent, rousing, and ennobling influence of the Refor- mation. The fine arts, it must be acknowleged, have been, to a certain extent, unfavourably affected by the Re- formation. This has been the case, not merely in con- sequence of those operations of positive destruction, which took place in various parts of Europe, but also, and chiefly, in virtue of the change which has been ef- fected in religion ; in the expulsion of all that external pomp and magnificence by which the system of the dark ages was distinguished ; and by means of which encouragement, to an incredible extent, was given to the arts, especially those of architecture, painting, and sculpture. " When a pompous worship requires mag- nificent temples, imposing ceremonies, and splendid de- corations ; when religion presents to men's eyes the sensible images of the objects of public worship ; when it rests on a sacred mythology ; when the earth and heavens are peopled with supernatural beings, to whom the imagination may lend a form ; then it is that the arts, encouraged and ennobled, attain the height of their glory and perfection. The architect, called to honours and fortune, conceives the plan of those temples and cathedrals, the sight of which imposes a religious awe, and of which the walls are adorned with the finest productions of art. This temple, those altars, are ornamented with marble and precious metals, which sculpture has formed into angels, saints, and the images 238 EVIL CONSEQUENCES of illustrious men. All the different apartments are decorated and filled with pictures. In one place is Jesus expiring upon a cross ; in another he is shining on Mount Tabor, in all the divine Majesty. Art, so nearly allied to what is ideal, and which delights in ascending to heaven, repairs thither to seek for its most sublime creations ; a St John, a Cecilia, and particular- ly a Mary, that patroness of all tender and ardent souls — that virgin model of all mothers, — the intercessor of grace placed between man and his God, — that Ely- sian, — that august and interesting being, — whom no other religion offers any thing that resembles. Du- ring those solemnities, the finest stuffs, precious stones, and embroideries, cover the altars, the vases, the priests, and even the partitions of the sacred place. Music completes the charm by the most exquisite strains, and the harmony of various instruments. Those powerful encouragements are repeated in a thousand different places. Capitals, parishes, the numerous convents, even the most humble congregations, strive to excel in splen- dour, and to captivate all the faculties of the devout and religious mind. Thus a taste for the arts becomes general, by means of so powerful an exciting cause. Artists multiply, and vie with one another in their ef- forts. The celebrated schools of Italy and Flanders flourished under that influence, and their beautiful productions which have come down to us afford abun- dant testimony of the greatness of the encouragements which they derived from the Catholic worship." A scene of a different kind from all this has been introduced by the Reformation. The union which ex- OF THE REFORMATION. 239 isted between religion and the arts has been broken down. The magnificence of popish worship has been abolished, as inconsistent with the institutions of Jesus Christ, and a simple yet dignified ritual introducetl into the church, which forms a striking contrast to all the foolish pageantry of what was called the Christian worship of former times. This change has been, in a religious point of view, most beneficial to the Christian world. It has trampled in the dust the idolatry of Catholicism ; has dissolved the enchantment of the imagination, by which men were deluded, and, witli- drawing the attention of the worshippers from splendid, but unmeaning forms, has directed it to that which is of infinitely greater importance, — the religion of the heart. But, while this change has benefited the great cause of scriptural piety, the fact cannot and needs not be disguised, that it has, at the same time, done dis- service to the arts. It has annihilated one of their most powerful stimulants ; has diminished their popu- larity, and excluded them from a scene, of all others the most eminently adapted to call forth, and furnish scope for, their noblest triumphs. Superb temples are not now deemed indispensably necessary for the wor- ship of Deity ; the productions of the chisel and the pencil are banished from the house of God as unseemly decorations ; and the world, having lost its reverence for the patronage of saints and angels, no longer ex- pends its treasures on their statues. The influence of the Reformation has, undoubtedly, in respect of these things, been unfavourable to the progress of the fine arts ; nor are we so destitute of 240 EVIL CONSEQUENCES taste, as not to acknowledge it to be matter of regret that this should have been the case. But religion is of infinitely greater importance to mankind than the arts ; and, rather than behold it corrupted and debased, we would be content that they should perish and be forgotten. Suppose the Reformation not to have ta- ken place, then art would have continued to be en- couraged, to flourish, to accumulate its trophies, and to advance towards higher degrees of eminence and glory. But at what expence would all this have been obtained ? At the expence of dishonoured, degraded Religion, and the perpetuated ignorance, deception, and misery of mankind ! For it is manifest, that the fine arts were, to a certain extent, identified with that monstrous corruption of Christianity which had usurped her name, and were not the least powerful of those means by which that mystery of iniquity was cherished and upheld. But who would wish to see the arts pros- per, at the expence of all the dearest interests of man- kind? Who would not rather that they should be shorn of some of their splendour, than that that fascina- tion should go down to succeeding generations with its power unimpaired, by which, in the most momentous of all concerns, men were deluded and destroyed ? Who, in short, deems not the vindication of religion, the restoration of unadulterated Christianity, and the establishment of mental freedom, blessings of such inconceivable magnitude, as infinitely to counterbalance the partial and temporary restraint which, in contend- ing for their enjoyment, was imposed upon the arts ? It deserves to be remarked, that, in thus depriving OF THE REFORMATION. 241 the arts of one important mean of their prosperity, the Reformation has offended in company with Christiani- ty, and that the very same defence which triumphantly vindicates the latter, serves for the vindication of the former. To a far greater extent than ever was the case under Popery, did the religion of the Greeks exercise a fostering influence over the arts. When we contemplate it as Christians, it is the object of our ut- ter contempt and abomination, exhibiting, in a most melancholy manner, how stupid and depraved the hu- man mind is, when unenlightened and unrenewed by Him who created it. But when we look upon it with a scientific eye ; when we behold it calling forth those energies of mind whose achievements it is our delight to contemplate, it attracts our admiration, and forces us to regard it among the pleasing images of departed days. The skill of the architect was tasked for mag- nificent temples to their thirty thousand gods ; while the most refined taste of the painter and the statuary was employed in their decoration. Not one town was there in Greece that did not abound with the produc- tions of her celebrated artists. Athens alone could boast of more than 3000 statues, sacred to the memory of illustrious names ; and, in every one of her porticos and temples, were to be beheld the paintings of Par- rhasius, Zeuxis, or Polygnotus. Their offerings, too, their sacrifices, their assemblies, their holy revels, were scenes altogether favourable for sculpture and paint- ing. " Young priestesses, adorned with festoons of amaranths and violets, and sacrificers crowned with ivy, holding the Thyrsus in one hand, and the cup in the Q 242 EVIL CONSEQUENCES other, were personages most interesting to the artisan^ and eminently adapted to enrich the productions of the fine arts." In fact, the rehgion of the Greeks may be said to have furnished materials out of which, under the forming hand of art, sprung those pleasing and magnificent productions which have charmed to extasy the human mind in many a succeeding generation, and of which the bare description has awakened the admiration and delight of those whose eyes were never privileged to behold them. All this scene of pagean- try, Christianity put an end to. It destroyed the temples and the altars of Pagan idolatry ; terminated its pompous worship ; abolished all its rites ; extin- guished its glory for ever. What a shock to the fine arts was this ! What a theme of lamentation to men of genius and taste ! And how might it be ex- pected that they would inveigh against Christianity as a base and pernicious system, whose object was to exterminate every vestige of refinement, and every monument of taste, and to plunge the world again into the rudeness and barbarism of primitive days! But, in reference to all this, how noble, how decisive, how glorious, is the defence of our holy religion ! In its nature it is not hostile either to literature or the arts. Nay, its tendency is to unfetter the human mind, and to inspire it with noble sentiments, and thus to further, in the most important of all ways, the im- provement and happiness of man. In destroying the religion of the Greeks, indeed, it removed one power- ful stimulant which the arts had long enjoyed, and thereby, in the mean time, tarnished their glory. But OF THE REFORMATION. 243 what then ? The triumphs of Grecian art were gained at the expence of interests infinitely move precious. They were trophies reared in commemoration of the reign of him who is " The Prince of this world," and one of the chief of whose devices for supporting his kingdom has been the pressing into its service the ge- nius, the learning, and the grandeur of the earth. In proportion as mankind became more entirely given to idolatry, the fine arts advanced towards perfection ; that is to say, they were invested with brighter lustre, in proportion as the spiritual glory of man departed farther away, and in proportion as he sunk deeper and deeper in spiritual degradation and ruin ! O unhal- lowed achievements of art ! Ye temples, and domes, and porticos of the ancient world ; monuments of mighty genius and cultivated taste ! We look upon your relics with admiration ; but we think of your over- throw with delight. The abolition of the idolatry which stimulated your creation, and arrayed you with all your charms, has been the salvation of the world ; and better for mankind it would surely have been, that the art of the painter and the statuary should have gone into everlasting oblivion, than that we should have forfeited the civilization, the refinement, and, above ail, the light and the hope of everlasting life, which the religion of Jesus Christ has imparted to mankind ! Thus is Christianity vindicated in refe- rence to the injury which she inflicted on the arts ; and, on the very same substantial grounds, do we vindicate the Reformation. But, after all, there is reason to believe, that the 2 q2 244 EVIL CONSEQUENCES unfavourable influence which the Reformation exerted on the fine arts, is far less considerable than has been sometimes affirmed ; and, moreover, will prove only of short duration. A temporary eclipse they did experience; but it was the prelude of their shining forth with greater and more permanent brightness. Their connection with religion has indeed been broken up, but their achievements have been extended to those other departments of society from which they were excluded, but which constitute their proper and legitimate province. Patronage, too, such as, save in the states of Greece, the arts never received, has, in these latter days, been awarded to them ; while, in the establishment of freedom, the Reformation has laid a foundation for the advancement of literature and the arts, without which it is impossible for them to obtain substantial and permanent improvement. " Ne- ver did a slave become an orator," writes Longinus excellently ; and his remark is applicable to all the fine arts, and to general literature. — " his spirit being ef- fectually broken, the habit of subjection continually overawes and bears down his genius." — " Liberty, on the other hand," says he, " produces fine sentiments in men of genius. It invigorates their hopes, excites an honourable emulation, and inspires a noble ambition and desire to excel." The history of the Grecian states furnishes an admirable illustration of the truth of his remark. It was from the time when they first began to struggle for freedom, till the period when that precious gift of heaven was snatched away from them, that their great artists flourished, and that all those great works of genius were produced, which have re- OF THE REFORMATION. 245 fleeted immortal honour on their authors, and on the land that gave them birth. And although, in some other nations, there have been periods in which, even in the absence of liberty, various adventitious circum- stances combined to raise some of the arts to consider- able improvement, their success in these instances was not permanent, and was, on the whole, inferior to that which, in other circumstances, they would have at- tained. Literature and art flourishing amid an at- mosphere of despotism, remind us of those plants and flowers which, translated to an ungenial clime, are ne- vertheless reared to some faint degree of maturity by artificial means. Their appearance, in these circum- stances, affords a slight indication of what they would have been under their native sky ; but exhibits, on the whole, a melancholy contrast to the perfection of stature and of beauty which the genial hand of nature would have conferred upon them. The Reformation was the dawn of genuine freedom in modern Europe. Its in- fluence has been already manifested in the potent im- pulse which literature and the arts have experienced ; and, we doubt not, will yet be still more eminently manifested in carrying them on to achievements of more substantial excellence than the modern world has ever beheld. We shall take notice, in conclusion, of the charge which has been brought against the Reformation, — of having given birth to an immense number of hostile religious sects, and of having awakened the strife of controversy in every corner of Christendom. These are circumstances which seem, at first view, to have 246 EVIL CONSEQUENCES been extremely prejudicial to the interests of religion, and to the welfare of society ; and, in originating these circumstances, the Reformation does seem to have done signal disservice to mankind. But he who will pass beyond the mere surface of this subject will, we are confident, be brought to regard the matter in an- other light. In the first place, it is not true that the number of Jarring sects was multiplied in consequence of the Reformation : for, although it cannot be de- nied that Protestants have, in process of time, become subdivided into a variety of denominations, some of them professing tenets sufficiently absurd, — it is still as undeniable that, in the Church of Rome, ere yet the Reformation had taken place, although her mem- bers professed to be gathered together under the aus- pices of an infallible head, there was a greater multi- tude of sects, each distinguished by its particular dog- mas, and each inveterate against another, than has ap- peared during the whole eventful history of Protestan- tism. But even although the case were entirely different ; although it were true that the number of sects had been greatly multiplied, it is most easy, in reference to this matter, to vindicate the Reformation. For, what person of sense and consideration is there, who will esteem it wonderful that the sudden and unex- pected restoration of liberty of thought, and of inquiry and profession, to the members of a church that, for ages, had been fettered down to implicit belief and passive obedience, yhould have produced an immense number of discordant opinions ? Or^ who will say that OF THE IIEFOIIMATION. 247 it is not ranch more pleasing, to behold the restored liberty of mind and conscience, attested even in this manner, than to witness a tranquillity pervading the church and the nations, which was manifestly nothing else than the deep stillness of spiritual degradation and spiritual death ? Besides, many of those unscrip- tural and absurd opinions, the adoption of which is not wonderful in minds, weak, it may be, in themselves, and thrown suddenly into freedom, have long since passed into oblivion. Protestantism has been gra- dually uniting the energies of her friends, and will, we are assured, continue to do so more and more, until rival sects shall live only in the pages of the historian, and, the Roman apostasy, with every other false system, having been destroyed, the disciples of Christ shall be one over all the earth. But, say the enemies of the Reformation, the revo- lution of which you make your boast has interrupted peace, and awakened the din of controversy throughout every part of the Christian world. If there is evil in this, of that evil the Reformation must bear the blame. On many occasions, we readily acknowledge, have con- troversialists gone beyond the bounds of moderation, and treated each other with rude and outrageous invective ; but for this they alone are to be blamed. It is an evil which, to a great extent, pervaded the church of Rome before the Reformation was heard of; the Protestants of the sixteenth century retained too much of it, nor is it yet thorougldy banished from the Christian world. But wc candidly confess that we are not of the number 248 EVIL CONSEQUENCES of those who regard controversies, when properly ma- naged, as an evil. We coincide entirely with a mo- dern writer, who, on this subject, thus admirably ex- presses himself: " However unhappily controversies have too often been conducted, the assistance they have afforded to the discovery of truth is not light or incon- siderable. Not to mention the Reformation, which was principally effected by controversy, how many truths have by this means been set in a clearer light, and, whilst the unhappy passions it has awakened have subsided, the light struck out in the collision has been retained and perpetuated. As the physical powers are scarcely ever exerted to their ivtmost extent, but in the order of combat; so intellectual acumen has been dis- played to the best advantage, and with most effect, in the contests of argument. The mind of a contro- versialist, warmed and agitated, is hurried to all quar- ters, and leaves none of its resources unemployed in the invention of arguments ; tries every weapon, and explores the hidden recesses of a subject with intense vigilance, and with an ardour which it is next to im- possible, in a calmer state of mind, to command. Dis- ingenuous arts are often resorted to ; personalities are mingled, and much irritative matter is introduced ; but it is the business of the attentive observer to separate these from the question at issue, and to form an im- partial judgment of the whole. In a word, it may be truly affn-med that the evils of controversy are tran- sient, the good it produces permanent." Tlie whole history of the cliurch since the Refor- OF THE REFORMATION. 249 matioii, is a commentary on these sentiments. Free- dom of discussion is the glory of Protestants, and a thousand times rather would we encounter all its evils, than part with its enjoyment. It is the discoverer and the guardian of truth ; and to that very excitement, and that very indulgence of controversy for which the Reformation is blamed, are we indebted for the noblest defences of truth of which the world can boast. And who knows not, that to those controversies, on politi- cal and religious subjects, which, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were carried on in this land, and on the Continent of Europe, — distinguished as not a few of them were, for what, in these days, we would call unchristian invective, — are to be traced in no inconsiderable degree, the superior intelligence, and the ardent and unquenchable love of civil and religi- ous freedom, by which it is the glory of the people of our native land to be characterized. Thus have we endeavoured briefly to answer the question, " What has been the effect of the Refor- mation on the state of civil society in Europe ?" — That all, or even the greater part of the advantages which have resulted from that extraordinary revolu- tion, have been mentioned in these pages, or that, on the other hand, we have taken notice of all the alleged evils that are laid to its charge, we do not affirm. To the most prominent of these things, however, we have directed the attention of our readers ; and, although we have not found the event that has been treated of 250 lEVIL CO>rSEaUENCES to have been productive of imminglecl good, enough has been detailed respecting it, to convince impartial minds, that a revolution more blissful, and more wor- thy of the grateful remembrance of mankind, has not taken place in the world, since the age of primitive Christianity. Wherever it has been rationally esta- blished, or generally embraced, it has ameliorated and given stability to the government ; elevated the po- pular character, diffused information, and imparted an impulse to improvement in all that gives comfort to life, and glory to a nation. These effects may not every where have been produced in an equal degree ; ■ — a variety of circumstances in some of the European states have prevented the meliorating influence of the Reformation from being so largely experienced in them as was the case in others. But wherever the princi- ples of the Protestant Reformation have prevailed, — wherever its spirit has been generally imbibed, these effects have invariably followed, and there have ap- peared in tlie body of the people, a love of civil liberty genuine and regulated, — a manly tone of independ- ence, — a virtuous feelings — an intelligence, — a habit of industry, — and a steadiness of conduct, not to be -found in other countries. Most manifest, therefore, it is, that the interests of the Protestant Reformation are of incalculable importance. They are emphatically " the cause of man." They are identified with the liberty, the improvement, the happiness of the human race. In proportion as they obtain extension and per- manence over the world, will men be rescued from er- OF THE REFORM ATIUN. 251 ror and dcgiadatioii, and become enlightened, and dig- nified, and free. But if they were to be overthrown, — if the system before which, in days of old, the world bowed down in lowliest submission, were again to obtain the ascendency — a system, whose essence is slavery, and whose tendency and effect have always been to cherish arbitrary power, to crush every thing that bore the semblance of freedom, to check the pro- gress of information, to put away generosity and cha- rity from man, and to render him degraded and miser- able, — if this system were to recover its power and tri- umph over mankind, then, to use the very appropriate expressions of a great philosopher, " the boasted free- dom which the Reformation has fostered, would perish for ever ; the sentiment of liberty and the fire of Hea- ven, which our fathers transmitted to their posterity, would expire and be extinguished ; men would know the debasement of servility, and forget the honours of their kind ; — they would renounce their natural, their religious, and their political rights, and be contented to creep upon the earth, to lick its dust, and to adore the caprices, and the power of a tyrant !"— This, in- deed, will never be. Popery will never again acquire universal ascendency, nor will Protestantism ever be universally overthrown. — Of this we are confident,— not so much from any dependence that we have on the attachment of Protestants in general to the interests of the Reformation, but because the Divine Word hath assured us, that the antichristian power shall be visited with calamity upon calamity, till it be finally 252 EVIL CONSEQUENCES destroyed. At the same time, it is far from being im- possible, — we had almost said unlikely, — that, in par- ticular countries, the zeal, and the policy, and the power of Rome, combining with the apathy and deep slumber of Protestants, may obtain a triumph over the cause of freedom, and turn the current of improvement in those regions backwards. It may be, nor does it seem exceedingly improbable — that, by some signal and unanticipated successes of Catholicism, which shall endanger — if not, for a time, overthrow — their free- dom, and deprive them of their dearest privileges, He, whose benignant interposition is so strikingly beheld in the introduction and establishment of the Reformation, may warn the people of the Protestant world, more than ever they have been warned, of the dangerous spirit and character of Popery, and teach them, more effec- tually than ever they have been taught, the unspeak- able importance to mankind of that great oause, whose prosperity they have regarded with too much indiffer- ence. Most imperative is the duty that devolves on all who profess to be the friends of the Reformation, to wake from their slumber, and to set themselves, by every legitimate and scriptural mean, to counteract the bold, and strenuous, and persevering efforts, which, with a zeal that would do honour to a worthier cause, the enemies of their religion and liberties are putting forth for their overthrow. And most incumbent it is on the Protestant Princes, and the Protestant govern- ments of Europe, to remember their immense obliga- tions to the Reformation, and their duty in conse- OF THE REFORMATION. 253 quence of these obligations, and, banishing away from them the absurd opinion, that religious considerations should never be allowed to mingle in political affairs, — to cultivate with each other the closest connection, and to deem themselves bound, in respect both of inte- rest and of duty, to seek the prosperity of that great and glorious cause, in which are most deeply involved their own welfare and the happiness of mankind. APPENDIX. ( 257 ) APPENDIX. No. I. OF THE INQUISITION. See page 22. I- HIS tribunal, the most infamous by which the history of the world has been disgi'aced, was instituted in the begin- ning of the thirteenth century, for the purpose of complet- ing the extermination of heretical pravity from among man- kind. Its introduction and establishment constitute the most awful demonstration that could possibly have been given of the apostasy of the Papal church, and a most un- equivocal and dreadful proof of her antichristian character. Any thing more abhorrent to justice than the procedure of this tribunal — any thing more revolting to humanity than the punishments which it imposed — any thing more at war with religion than the spirit which it displayed — any thing, in short, more entirely destructive to the peace and the happiness of mankind than its existence and operation — it is impossible to conceive. It did not seem enough to the profligate ecclesiastics who sought to become masters of the world, that they had imposed restraints upon liberty of thought, and induced an almost universal midnight-dark- ness, and gained tlie implicit reverence of almost all the II 258 OF THE INQUISITION. princes and the nations of Europe ; — there seemed to be some formidable institution still wanting in tlieir system of degradation, by which their unhallowed triumph, whereso- ever it was not fully achieved, might be completed, and which might seem like some mighty giant standing at the gate of the gloomy edifice which they had reared, and frowning destruction on all by whom it should be assailed. This institution they found in the coui't of the Inquisition. Organized for the avowed purpose of punishing and exter- minating heresy, it came, in the course of a few years, in consequence of the extensive interpretation which that term received, to take cognizance of every thing which the In- quisitors thought proper to regard as a crime. It was he- resy^ for example, to reject even one tenet which had been sanctioned by the councils or the court of Rome ; to read an interdicted book; to be kind to an excommunicated person; to utter an unguarded expression respecting the Papal authority; or even to manifest natural affection to the dearest earthly friend who had incurred the censure of the church. It is obvious that, in consequence of such an ex- tensive interpretation of the crime of heresy, the life of al- most every man was put under the power of this most ex- traordinary tribunal. But this is not all. It was brought to pass, soon after the establishment of the Inquisition, that positive crime was not necessary in order to bring per- sons under the cognizance of that ruthless court; it was sufficient to be suspected of heresy, and the slightest degree of suspicion, however destitute of foundation, was enough to involve those to whom it attached in proceedings which might terminate in their temporal ruin and their death. Nay, even when no gi'ound for suspicion existed, accusa- tions were basely fabricated, aud the innocent and unsus- pecting were imprisoned, that their property might be for- feited, and their all sacrificed to the avarice and villany of the Church. OF THE INQUISITION. 259 The mode of proceeding which this court adopted in the prosecution of its victims, was not less extraordinary and unjust, than that hy which they were brought under its power. Secrecy, dishonest and tyi-annical secrecy, under cover of which the most flagi-ant crimes might be perpe- trated, was its peculiar characteristic. First of all, the ap- prehension of the unhappy victims of inquisitorial villany was not permitted to transpire. It was generally in the dead horn- of night that this deed of darkness was done ; and with so much dexterity was it conducted by the fami- liars of the holy office, that not only those who lived in the same neighbourhood, but even those who were members of the same family, in many instances, knew nothing of it. One striking example of this is mentioned by the historian of the Spanish Inquisition, in the case of a father, three sons, and three daughters, who, although they lived toge- ther in the same house, were all carried prisoners to the Inquisition, without knowing any thing of one another's being there, till seven years afterwards, when those who were alive were brought forth to an Auto-da-fe ! Lest any of its infernal secrets might be disclosed, no sounds were permitted to be heard throughout the dismal apartments of the Inquisition. The poor prisoner Avas not allowed to bewail his fate, or, in an audible voice, to offer up his prayers to Him who is tlie refuge of the oppressed ; nay, even to cough was to be guilty of a crime, which was immediately punished. A poor prisoner, we are told by the historian Limborch, was, on one occasion, heard to cough ; the jailors of the Inquisition instantly repaired to him, and warned him to forbear, as the slightest noise was not tolerated in that house. The man replied that it was not in his power to forbear ; a second time they admonished him to desist ; and when, again, the poor man, unable to do otherwise, had repeated the offence, they stripped him R 2 260 OF THE INQUISITION naked, and cruelly l)eat him. This increased his cough, for whicli they beat him so often, that at last he died through tlie pain and anguish of the stripes which he had received ! From tlie moment that the hapless victims of this dread- ful tribunal were arraigned before it, an utter violation of justice characterized every step of the proceedings that were instituted against them. No information was given to the wretched prisoner respecting the crime of which he had been accused. The gi-and object of tlie Inquisitors was to make him inform against himself; with his accu- sers, or the witnesses against him, he was never confronted ; nay, he knew not even theu* names. He was told that the holy fathers never proceeded sa\'e on the most unquestion- able information ; was exhorted to reflect on his past life, and to tell ingenuously the sins which he had committed ; and was assured that ingenuous confession would pi-ocure for him a mitigation of the punishment which his crime might deserve. Rarely were their efforts imsuccessful. By operating successively on their victim's hopes and fears — now fawning and then frowning — one while affecting to pity, another while uttering dreadful menaces ; at one time deluding him with ])romises of speedy deliverance, at ano- ther threatening racks, and dungeons, and burning flames; or, if tliese methods availed not, by a train of excruciating tortures, in the invention of which more than human inge- nuity seemed to have been employed, and in the applica- tion of which more than human cruelty seemed to have been displayed ; and, by tedious confinement in some soli- tary, noisome dungeon, where his eye never beheld the light of Heaven, and no sounds ever fell upon his ear, save the clanking of his fetters, and the stern voice of the man who daily brought him his miserable pittance of bread and water ; — in this way did the fathers of the Inquisition ge- OF THE INQUISITION. 26l nerally bring their unhappy prisoner to accuse himself, to confess crimes of which he was innocent, and thus to be- come the instrument of his own destruction. The annals of the human race contain nothing more re- volting to the feelings of our common nature, than the de - tails that are given of the cruelties, which, under the name of punishments for crime, were inflicted on the unfortu- nate victims of the Inquisition. Unlike all other tribunals, its punishments commenced even before conviction ; tor- tures, at the remembrance of which humanity shudders, were not unfrequently employed to extort an acknowledg- ment of guilt, and tens of thousands expired amid their agonies, who were as innocent of the crimes laid to their charge as the unborn child. On those persons who were declared to be guilty, and denounced as obstinate heretics, the full vengeance of this dreadful tribunal was made to de- scend. They were given up to experience a doom, which, if the awful fact were not before us, we could not believe it possible that man would ever have brought down upon his fellow-man. Death, amid the excruciating agonies of the fire, was the fate to which they were devoted : — the re- volting spectacle of a multitude of human beings expiring in the flames, was the most glorious triumph of the Inqui- sition, and it was enjoyed with rapture, at the same time that, with unparalleled hypocrisy, the inquisitors affected to pity the sufferers, and to shed tears of compassion over their melancholy doom. It was against the poor, but memorable people, known by the name of Waldenses, that the operations of this infer- nal tribunal were first directed. Dwelling in the deep se- questered valleys of the Alps, and greatly unknown and unheeded by the rest of the world, this interesting people ])reserved, for many ages, the purity of Christian worship and Christian manners : and their little region was the scene 3 2(62! or the inquisition. of light and verdure, wliile all around jt was darkness and desolation. But persecution entered their peaceful retreats. It was not to be brooked by the haughty priest at Rome, that this simple people should remain strangers to the pa- pal yoke, and be permitted, without interruption, to wor- ship God according to his word, apart from the abomina- tions of the Roman church. In the ears of surrounding princes their atrocious heresy was proclaimed'; and it was declared to be more meritorious and pleasing to Heaven, to undertake a crusade against them, than even against the infidel possessors of the Holy Land. Armies were accor- dingly assembled at the nod of the pontiff; against a people of whom the world was not worthy, was the tempest of their ungodly fury let loose ; and the lone valleys of the Waldenses, where the sound of war had never been heard, became the scene of outrage and ruthless devastation. In this truly christian work of extirpating heretics and heresy together, was the Inquisition devised and established to yield its aid — as if the ordinary operations of pontifical vengeance would have too tardily accomplished the annihi- lation of this weak, unresisting, harmless people. The de- tail of its atrocious proceedings in their ill-fated land — of the havoc which it made among the humble disciples of Jesus Christ — of the tortures which it inflicted — and of the martyring flames which it lighted up, will remain in the historian's page an indelible memorial of its character, and of the monstrous wickedness of the system that gave it birth. Over this devoted and truly christian people, among whom the truth of God was preserved, when all the sur- rounding world had forsaken it, did persecuting Rome, af- ter ages of bloodshed and martyrdom, gain a melancholy triumph; — the crossed banners of Catholicism floated over deserted villages, and the wrecks of conflagrated towns, and the poor remains of the Waldcnsian church, driven to OF THE INQUISITION. 263 Strange lands, or retiied in the mountains and lurking- places of their own beloved land, wept in secret over its sad desolations, and cried to Him who is the refuge of thg oppressed, that he would arise and plead liis own cause.* In other parts of Europe was this bloody court soon erected ; and, that the poor heathen who had never heard of the name of Jesus might have a specimen of the tender mercies of christian men, and might be gained over as con- verts to the christian faith, its establishment was extended to Pagan lands. Nowhere, however, has its operation been more powerful and terrific than in the kingdom of Spain. Eight hundi-ed persons have been condemned at once by one of its tribunals; and, in a single year (1481), the In- quisition of Seville condemned to the flames no fewer than two thousand persons, and nearly twenty thousand more to various inferior degrees of punishment. During hundreds of years, the Inquisition has been the terror of the Spanish people, and has contributed more than any other institution to reduce to the lowest pitch of degradation their national character. " Its form of proceeding," says an eminent French writer, who was by no means attached to the cause of Protestantism, " is an infallible way to destroy whomso- ever the inquisitors wish. The prisoners arc not confronted with the accuser or informer. Nor is there any informer or witness who is not listened to. A public convict, a no- torious malefactor, an infamous person, a common prosti- tute, a child, are, in the holy office, though nowhere else, credible accusers and witnesses. Even the son may depone against his father, and the wife against her husband." • In No. XII. of this Appendix, the reader will find the Bull which was issued by Pope Innocent VIII. for the extirpation of the Waldenses, one of the most melancholy demonstrations of pontifical pride and cruelty that the whole history of the Papacy records. It effected, by the barbarous crusade which it originated, the ruin of the Waldensian church, and the destruction of eight hundred thousand of that devoted people. 264 OF THE INQUISITION " This procedure," continues the same writer, " unheard of till the institution of this court, makes the whole king- dom tremble. Suspicion reigns in every breast. Friend- ship and quietness are at an end. The brother dieads his brother, the father his son." This is the tribunal of the Holy Apostolical Inquisition ! — a tribunal more blasphemous, and dishonoui'ing to the God of Mercy, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and more aw- fully degrading to mankind, than any other institution that ever has existed upon earth. Everlasting infamy will rest upon its name; and the execrations of the wise and the good, in all ages, will light upon the unhallowed system that gave it birth. ( 265 ) No. II. TRANSLATION OF THE BULL AGAINST BIBLE SO- CIETIES, ISSUED FROM ROME, JUNE 29- 1816, BY POPE PIUS VIL, TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF GNEZEN, PRIMATE OF POLLAND. See page 39. Pope Pius VII. Venerable Brother, Health and Apostolic Benediction. In our last to you, we promised, very soon, to return an answer to yours, in which you have appealed to this Holy See, in the name also of the other Bishops of Poland, re- specting what are called Bible Societies, and have earnestly en(|uired of us what you ought to do in this affair. We long since, indeed, wished to comply with your request ; but an incredible variety of accumulating concerns have so pressed upon us on every side, that, till this day, we could not at- tend to your solicitation. We have been truly shocked at this most crafty device, by which the very foundations of religion are undermined; and having, because of the great importance of the subject, convened for consultation our venerable brethren, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, we have deliberated with the utmost care and so- licitude upon what measures, within the compass of our pontifical authority, are proper to be adopted, and in order to remedy and abolish this pestilence as far as possible. In the mean time, we heartily congratulate you, venerable brother, and we commend you again and again in the Lord, as it is fit we should^ upon the singular zeal you have dis- 266 BULL AGAINST BIBLE SOCIETIES. played, under circumstances so hazardous to Christianity, in having denounced to the Apostolic See, this defilement of the faith, most imminently dangerous to souls; and, al- though ^ve perceive that it is not at all necessary to excite him to activity who is making hast;?, since of your own ac- cord you have already shewn an ardent desire to detect and oppose the impious machinations of these innovators, yet, in conformity with our office, we again and again exhort you, that whatever you can achieve hy power, provide for by counsel, or effect by authority, you will duly execute with the utmost earnestness, placing yourself as a wall for the house of Israel. For this end, we issue the present letter, viz. that we may convey to you a signal testimony of our approbation of these your laudable exertions, and also endeavour therein still more and more to excite your pastoral solicitude and vigilance. For the general good imperiously requires us to combine all our means and energies to frustrate the plans which are prepared by its enemies for the destruction of our most holy religion : whence it becomes an especial duty, that you first of all expose the wickedness of this nefarious scheme, as you are already doing so admirably, to the view of the faithful, and openly publish the same, according to the rules prescribed by the church, with all that erudition and wis- dom in which you excel ; namely, that Bibles printed among heretics are numbered among prohibited books, agreeably to the rules of the Index (No. II. and III.) ; for it is evi- dent from experience, that the Holy Scriptures, when pub- lished in the vulgar tongue, have, through the temerity of men, produced more harm than benefit (Rule IV.) And this is the rather to be dreaded in times so depraved, when our holy religion is assailed from every quarter with great cunning and effort, and the most grievous wounds are in- flicted on the church. It is, therefore, necessary to adhere to the salutary decree of the congregation of the Index BULL x\GAINST BIBLE SOCIETIES. 267 (June 13. 1T57), that no versions of the Bible in the vulgar tongue be permitted, except such as are approved by the Apostolic See, or published with annotations extracted from the writings of the holy fathers of the church. We confidently hope, that, even in these turbulent cir- cumstances, the Poles will afford the clearest proofs of their attachment to the religion of their ancestors, and this especially by your care, as well as that of the other prelates of this kingdom, whom, on account of the stand they are so wonderfully making for the faith committed to them, we congratulate in the Lord, trusting that they all will very abundantly justify the opinion entertained of them. It is moreover necessary that you should transmit to us, as soon as possible, the Bible which Jacob Wuick published in the Polish language with a commentary, as well as a copy of the edition of it lately put forth without those annota- tions taken from the writings of the holy fathers of our church, or other learned Catholics, with your opinion upon it ; that thus, from collecting them together, it may be as- certained, after mature investigation, what errors lie insi- diously concealed therein, and that we may pronounce our judgment on this affair for the preservation of the true faith. Proceed, therefore, venerable brother, to pursue the truly pious course upon which you have entered, viz. diligently to fight the battles of the Lord in sound doctrine, and warn the people entrusted to your care, that they fall not into the snares which are prepared for them to their everlasting ruin. The church waits for this from you, as well as from the other bishops, whom our epistle equally concerns ; in- deed we most anxiously expect it, that the deep sorrow we feel on account of the new species of tares, which our ene- my is sowing so abundantly, may, by this cheering hope, be somewhat alleviated ; and we heartily invoke you and your fellow bishops, for the good of the Lord's flock, ever 268 BULL AGAINST BIBLE SOCIETIES. increasing spiritual gifts, through our apostolical benedic- tion, which we imp;ut to yourself and to them. Given at Rome, at St Mary the Greater, June 29. 1816, the seventh year of our Pontificate, POPE PIUS VII. The foregoing bull, in company with another, breathing precisely the same spirit, and addressed to the Archbishop of Mohilow, was sent forth, the reader will observe, by the predecessor of the present pontiff.* Bigotry, and a hostility to the general reading of the Holy Scriptures, not less dark and unrelenting than that which was displayed in the six- teenth century, constitute the prominent features of both these documents. Since the time when they were issued, their mitred author has gone into that state where the au- thority of popes is not regarded, and \a here to the highest, as well as the lowest of mankind, the knowledge of the Word of God is the only conductor to everlasting felicity. Another cardinal, since then, has been transformed into a Pope, and has taken possession of the pontifical throne. But it would seem as if the heads and ministers of the papal church were given up to judicial infatuation. Each deter- mines to tread in the footsteps of his predecessors, and, if possible, to exceed them in obstinate attachment to all the doctrines of the ancient faith. Far from realizing even the remotest approach to the hypothesis of a celebi-ated wi-iter, who regards it as a possible case that the popish hierarchy might be converted to genuine Christianity, and become, even under its present constitution, the organ of the exten- sive propagation of true religion, the heads of the Catholic church seem bent on more and more glaring aberrations from the purity of Christian faith, and increased devoted- ness to the bigoted and exclusive system wliich, in days of " This was written before the death of Leo XII. He. too, is now no more. BULL AGAINST V.WA.T. SOfTF.TIES. 269 old, was dominant over the Christian world. Exactly in proportion, indeed, as the devotees of Catholicism are lond in affirming that a change has taken place in the sentiments of the Papal church, and that her spirit is now infinitely less illiberal than it was in the days of Wickliff and Lu- ther, are her sovereign and infallible heads, from to time, by their decisions, and bulls, and encyclical letters, contra- dicting these statements, and giving ample demonstration that the character of their system is still the same, and that they are, in all points, the zealous children of their aposto- lical predecessors. In proof of this, we state a fact which may not be known to all our readers, that the present pontiff, the successor of Pius VII., has sent forth for the benefit of the clergy of the Catholic church, a document which he en- titles " The Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XII," in which, with the same tone of lofty bigotry that characterized the bulls of his predecessors, he condemns, in the most unquali- fied manner, and anathematises, the general circulation, and general reading, of the Word of God. We shall quote a sentence or two from this curious production. « You are aware, venerable brethren," says the pontiff, " that a certain society, commonly called The Bible So- ciety, strolls with effrontery throughout the world ; which society, contemning the traditions of the holy fathers, and contrary to the well known decree of the Council of Trent, labours with all its might, and by every means, to translate, or rather to pervert, the Holy Bible into the vulgar languages of every nation ; from which proceeding, it is gi-eatly to be feared, that what is ascertained to have happened as to some passages, may also occur with regard to others — namely, that, by a perverse interpretation, ' the gospel of Christ be turned into a human gospel, or, what is still worse, into the gospel of the devil.' To avert this plague, our predecessors published many ordinances; and, in his latter days, Pius VII. of blessed memory, sent two briefs, 270 BULL AGAINST EIBI,E SOCIETIES, one to Ignatius, Avchbisliop of Gnesen, tlie other to Stanis- laus, Archbishop of Mohilow, in wliich are many proofs, accurately and wisely collected from the Sacred Scriptures, and from tradition, to shew how noxious this most wicked novelty is to both faith and morals." " We also, venerable brethren, in conformity with our apostolical duty, exhort you to turn away your flocks, by all means, from these poisonous pastures. Beseech in all patience and doctrine, that the faithful entrusted to you (adhering strictly to the rules of the congregation of the Index) be persuaded, that if the Scriptures be every where indiscriminately published, more evil than advantage will arise thence, on account of the rashness of men." " Behold, then, venerable brethren, the tendency of this society, which, moreover, to attain its ends, leaves nothing untried ; for not only does it print its translations, but also, wandering through the towns and cities, it delights in dis- tributing them amongst the crowd ; nay, to allure the minds of the simple, at one time it sells them, at another, with an insidious liberality, it bestows them." After a variety of exhortations to the clergy, in which they are called upon to oppose the deluge of these evils, which is spreading over the world, there occurs the follow- ing singular sentence, in which no dubious indication is af- forded of what would be done, in tlie way of putting down the Bible Society, and propagating the true faith in the world, if, as in days of old, the civil powers were under the control of the church : — " Again, therefore, we exhort you, that your courage fail not. The power of temporal PRINCES WILL, WE TRUST IN THE LORD, COME TO YOUR ASSISTANCE, WHOSE INTEREST, AS REASON AND EXPERIENCE SHEW, IS CONCERNED WHEN THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH IS QUESTIONED." ( 271 ) No. III. THE DOCTRINE OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES RESPECTING THE DUTY WHICH SUBJECTS OWE TO THEIR RULERS. See page 65. THE AUGUSTAN CONFESSION. Article XVI. Christians must necessarily obey the present magistrates and laws, save when they command to sin. For then they must obey God rather than men. Art. 4. THE FRENCH CONFESSION. Article XXXIX. God hath put the sword in the magistrate's hands, to repress offences, not only against the second table but also against the first. We ought, therefore, for his sake, who is the author of this order, not only to suffer those to go vera whom God hath set over us, but also to yield them all honour and respect, as to his lieutenants and mi- nisters appointed by him to bear a lawful and holy office. Article XL. We maintain, then, that we ought to obey laws and sta- tutes, pay tributes, and bear other burdens of subjection, and undergo the yoke with a good will, although the magi- strates should be infidels ; so that God's sovereign autho- rity remain entire and inviolate. 272 THE DOCTRINE OF THE THE BELGIC CONFESSION. All men, of what dignity, quality, or state soever they be, must subject themselves under the -lawful magistrates, pay unto them imposts and tributes, and please and obey them in all things that are not repugnant unto the Word of God : also pray for them, that God would be pleased to direct them in all their actions, and that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life under them, in all piety and honesty. THE HELVETIC- CONFESSION. As God will work the safety of the people by the magi- strate, whom he hath given to the world as a father, so all subjects are commanded to acknowledge that benefit in the magistrate. Let them honour and reverence the magi- strate as tlie minister of God, let them love and assist him in all his just and equitable commands, and let tliem pay all imposts and tributes, and all other dues of that kind, faithfully and willingly ; and, if the public safety of the country and justice require it, and that the magistrate un- dertake a war by necessity, let them also lay down their lives, and spill their blood for the good of the public and of the magistrate, and that in the name of God, willingly, valiantly, and cheerfully. For he that opposeth himself to the Magistrate, provoketh the heavy wrath of God himself. THE BOHEMIAN CONFESSION. Let all and every one yield subjection, in all things that are nowise contrary to God, unto the higher power; first, to the King's majesty, and next to all magistrates, and those that are in authority, in what offices soever they be placed, whether the men be good or bad, as also to all their PROTESTANT CHURCHES, &C. 273 officers and deputies, and let them defer unto tliem all lionour, and perform all things which are due unto them by right ; let them pay unto them also the homage, im- posts, tribute, and the like, which they are obliged to pay and perform. » THE SAXONIC CONFESSION. Subjects are obedient to the politic magistrate, as St Paul teacheth, Rom. xiii., not only for wi*ath, that is, for fear of the corporeal punishment which the magistrates in- flict on the disobedient, but also for conscience sake ; — that is, disobedience is a sin offending God, and separating the conscience from God. THE SWEVIC CONFESSION. Our divines have placed the obedience which is due to magistrates among the good works of the first rank ; teach- ing that the more a Christian is sincere and rich in faith, the more careful ought he to be to subject himself unto the public laws. They likewise teach, that to be a magistrate is the most sacred office that a man may have. Wlience also it Cometh, that they that bear a public authority are called gods in the Scriptures. THE ENGLISH CONFESSION. Article XXXVII. The King's Majesty hath the chief power in this realm of England, and other his dominions ; unto whom the chief government of all estates of this realm, whether they be ecclesiastical or civil, in all causes, doth appertain. And it is not, nor ought to be, subject to any foreign jiuisdiction. 274 DOCTRINE or PROTESTANT CHURCHES, &C. THE FIRST SCOTTISH CONFESSION. Article XXVI. We acknowledge empires, kingdoms, dominions, and cities, to be distinoted and ordained by God; the power and authority in the same — be it of emperors in their em- pires, of kings in their realms, dukes and princes in their dominions, and of other magistrates in their cities — to be God's holy ordinance, ordained for manifestation of his own glory, and for the singular profit and commodity of man- kind : so that whosoever goetli about to take away, or to confound, the whole state of civil politics, now long esta- blished, we affirm the same men not only to be enemies to mankind, but wickedly to fight against God's expressed will. We further confess and acknowledge, that such per- sons as are placed in authority are to be loved, honoured, feai'ed, and holden in most reverend estimation- ( 275 ) No. IV. FORMS OF PAPAL EXCOMMUNICATION. (See page 113.) I. THE DAMNATION AND EXCOMMUNICATION OF ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF ENGLAND, AND HER ADHERENTS. Pius, Bishop; Servant to God's Servants; for a perpetual memorial of the matter. Section I. — He that reigneth on high, to whom is given all power in Heaven and on Earth, committed one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church (out of which there is no salvation) to one alone upon earth, to Peter the Prince of the Apostles, and to Peter's successor the Bishop of Rome, to he governed in fulness of power. Him alone he made prince over all people, and all kingdoms, to pluck up, destroy, scatter, consume, plant, and huild, that he may re- tain the faithful, that are knit together with the hand of charity, in the unity of the Spirit, and present them spot- less and unblameable to their Saviour. In discharge of which function, we who are, by God's goodness, called to the government of the aforesaid church, spare no pains, labouring with all earnestness, that unity and the Catholic religion (which the author thereof hath for the trial of his children's faith, and for our amendment, suffered to be exercised with so great afflictions) might be preserved un- corrupted. Sect. II. — But the number of tlie ungodly bath gotten sucli power, that there is now no place left in the wliole s 2 276 FORMS OF PArAI- EXCOMMUNICATION. world, wliich tliey have not essayed to corrupt with tli en- most wicked doctrines: Amongst others, Elizahetli, the pretended Queen of England, a slave of wickedness, lend- ing thereunto her helping-hand (with whom, as in a sanc- tuary, the most pernicious of all men have found a refuge,) this very woman having seized on the kingdom, and mon- strously usurping the place of the Supreme Head of the Chinch in all England, and the chief authority and juris- diction theicof, hath again brought back the same kingdom into miserable destruction, which was then newly reduced to the most Catholic faith, and to good order. For having, by strong hand, inhibited the exercise of the true religion, which Mary the lawful Queen, of famous memory, had, by the help of this See, restored (after it had been formerly overthrown by King Henry VIH., a revolter therefrom), and following and embracing the errors of heretics, she hath removed the royal council, consisting of the English nobility, and filled it with obscure men, being heretics ; hath oppressed the embracers of the Catholic faith, hath placed impious preachers, ministers of iniquity, and abo- lished the sacrifice of the mass, prayers, fastings, distinction of meats, a single life, and the Catholic rites and ceremonies ; hatli commanded books to be read in the whole realn?, con- taining manifest heresy, and impious mysteries and insti- tutions, by herself entertained and observed, according to the prescript of Calvin, to be likewise observed by her sub- jects ; hath presumed to throw bishops, parsons of churches, and otlier Catholic priests, out of their churches and bene- fices, and to bestow them and other church-livings upon heretics, and to determine of church causes ; hath prohi- bited the prelates, clergy, and people, to acknowledge the church of Rome, or obey the precepts and canonical sanc- tions thereof; hath compelled most of them to condescend to her wicked laws; and (o abjure the authority and obe- dience of the Bishop of Rome, and to acknowledge her fo FORMS OF PAPAL EXCOMMUNICATION. 277 be sole ludy, in temporal and spiritual matters, and this by oath; hath imposed penalties and punishments on those who obeyed not, and exacted them of those who persevered in the unity of the faith, and their obedience aforesaid ; and hath cast the Catholic prelates and rectors of churches into prison, where many of them, being spent with long languishing and sorrow, have miserably ended their lives. Sect. III. — All which things, seeing they are manifest and notorious to all nations, and by the gi'avest testimony of very many so substantially proved, that there is no place at all left for excuse, defence or evasion ; we, seeing that impurities and wicked actions are multiplied one upon an- other; and, moreover, that the persecution of the faithful, and affliction for religion, groweth every day heavier and heavier, through the instigation and means of the said Elizabeth : because we understand her mind to be so hardened and indu- rate, that she hath not only contemned the godly requests and admonitions of Catholic princes, concerning her healing, and conversion, but also hath not so much as permitted the Nuncios of this See to cross the seas into England, are for- ced of necessity to betake to the weapons of justice against her, not being able to mitigate our sorrow, that we are con- strained to take punishment upon one, to whose ancestors the whole state of Christendom hath been so much boun- den. Sect. IV. — Being therefore supported with his authority, whose pleasure it was to place us (though unequal to so great a burden in this supreme throne of justice), 'we do, out of the fulness of our Apostolic power, declare the aforesaid Elizabeth, being a heretic, and a favourer of heretics, and her adherence in the matter foresaid, to have incurred the sentence of anathema, and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Chiist, And, moreover, we do declare her to be S78 FORMS OF PAPAL EXCOMMUNICATION. deprived of her pretended title to the kingdom foresaid, and of all dominion, dignity, and privilege whatsoever : and also the nobility, subjects, and people of the said kingdom, and all others which have in any sort sworn unto her, to be forever absolved from any such oath, and all manner of duty, of dominion, allegiance, and obedience ; as we also do, by the authority of these presents, absolve them, and do deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended title to the kingdom, and all other things aforesaid. And we do command and in- terdict all and every one of the noblemen, subjects, people, and others aforesaid, that they presume not to obey her, or her admonitions, mandates, and laws ; and those who shall do the contrary, we do innodate with the like sentence of anathema. And because it were a matter of too much dif- ficulty to convey these presents to all places wherever it shall be needful, ovir will is, that the copies thereof, under a public notary's hand, and sealed with the seal of an ec- clesiastical prelate, or of his court, shall carry altogether the same credit with all people, judicial and extrajudicial, as these presents would do, if they were exhibited or shewn. Given at Rome, at St Peter's, in the year of the incarna- tion of our Lord 1570, the 5th of the Calends of May, and of our popedom the fifth year. II. EXCOMMUNICATION PRONOUNCED BY PHILIP KUNN, A POPISH BISHOP IN IRELAND, AGAINST FRANCIS FREEMAN, AVHO EM- BRACED THE PROTESTANT FAITH IN 1765, FOUND AMONG THE bishop's PAPERS IN HIS HOUSE IN THE COUNTY OY WICK- LOW. By the authority of God the Father Almighty, and the blessed Virgin Mary, and of St Peter, and St Paul, and all the Holy Saints, we excommunicate Francis Freeman, late of the county of Dublin, but now of Juckmill, in the coun- FORMS OF PAPAL EXCOMMUNICATION. 279 ty of Wicklow, that, in spite of God, and St Peter, and in spite of all the Holy Saints, and in spite of our most Holy Father the Pope (God's vicar on earth), and in spite of our right Reverend Father in God, Philip Dunn, our dioce- san and worshipful Canons, who serve God dail}^, hath apostatised to a most damnable religion, full of heresy, and blasphemy ; excommunicated let him be, and delivered over to the devil, as a perpetual malefactor and schismatic ; ac- cursed let him be in all cities, and all towns, in fields, in ways, in yards, in houses, and in all other places, whether lying or rising, walking or running, leaning or standing, wa- king or sleeping, eating or di'inking, or whatsoever thing he does besides ; we separate him from the threshold and all good prayers of the Church ; from the participation of the Holy Jesus ; from all sacraments, chapels, and altars ; from the lioly bread and holy water ; from all the merit of God's holy priests and religious men ; and from theii* cloisters, and all pardons, privileges, grants, and immunities which all the Holy Popes have granted them ; and we give him over utterly to the fiend ; and let him quench his soul when dead in the pains of Hell fire, as this candle is quenched and put out ; and let us pray to God, our Lady, St Peter, and St Paul, that all the senses of his body may fail, as now the light of this candle is gone, except he come, on sight hereof, and openly confess his damnable heresy and blasphemy, and by repentance make amends, as much as in him lies, to God, our Lady, St Peter, and the worship- ful company of this Church ; and as the staff of this holy cross now falls down, so may he, except he recants and re- pents. (Signed) Philip Dunn. (Bruce on the Toleration of Popery, p. 422.) 280 FORMS Ol PAPAL EXCOMMUNICATION. III. ONE OP THE MOST DREADFUL. FORBIS OF EXCOMMUNICATION THAT EVER WERE COBIPOSED, IS THAT WHICH WAS DENOUNCED AGAINST THE POPE's ALUM-MAKER, WHO, HAVING ABANDONED HIS HOLINESS, INTRODUCED THE SECRETS OF HIS TRADE IN- TO ENGLAND. It is as follows : — " By the authority of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and of the holy Canons, and of the Immacu- late Virgin Mary, the Mother and Patroness of our Sa- viour ; and of all the celestial'virtues, angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, powers, cherubims, and seraphims ; and of all the holy patriarchs and prophets ; and of all the apos- tles, and evangelists ; and of all the holy innocents, who, in the sight of the Lamb, are found worthy to sing the new song ; of the holy martyrs and holy confessors ; and of the holy virgins, and of all the saints, and together with all the holy and elect of God, we excommunicate and anathema- tize this thief or this malefactor N : And from the thre- sholds of the holy Church of God Almighty, we sequester him, that he may be tormented, disposed, and delivered over with Dathan and Abiram, and with those who say unto the Lord God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. And as fire is quenched with water, so let the light of him be put out for evermore, un- less it shall repent him, and he make satisfaction. Amen. May God the Father, who created man, curse liim. May the Son, who suffered for us, curse him. May the Holy Ghost, who was given for us in baptism, curse him. May the Holy Cross, which Christ, for our salvation, triumphing as- cended, curse him. May the holy and Eternal Virgin Mary curse him. May St Michael, the advocate of holy souls, curse him. , May St John, the chief forerunner and baptist of Christ, curse him. May the holy and wonderful company FOllMJS OV PAPAI, EXCOJVIMUNICATION. 281 of Martyrs curse liini. May St Peter, St Paul, and St Andrew, and all other Christ's Apostles, together with the rest of his disciples, and four evangelists, curse him. May the holy choir of the holy Virgins, who, for the honour of Christ, have despised the things of the world, curse him. May all the Saints, who from the beginning of the world, to everlasting ages, are found to be the beloved of God, curse him. May the heaven and earth, and all the holy things therein remaining, curse him. May he be cursed wherever he be, whether in the house or in the field, or in the high way, or in the path, or in the wood, or in the water, or in the church. May he be cursed in living, in dying, in eating, in drinking, in being hungry, in being thirsty, in fasting, in sleeping, in slumbering, in waking, in walking, in standing, in sitting, in lying, in working, in resting, and in blood-letting. May he be cursed in all the powers of his body. May he be cursed within and without. May he be cursed in the hair of his head. May he be cursed in his brain. May he be cursed in the crown of his head ; in his temples ; in his forehead ; in his ears ; in his eye-brows ; in his cheeks ; in his jaw-bones ; in his nostrils ; in his fore-teeth and gi-inders ; in his lips, in his throat ; in his shoulders ; in his wrists ; in his arms ; in his hands ; in his fingers ; in his breast ; in his heart ; and in all the interior parts to the very stomach ; in his veins ; in his reins ; in his groins ; in his thighs ; ; in his hips ; in his knees ; in his legs ; in his feet ; in his joints ; and in his nails. May he be cursed in the whole structure of his members. From the crown of his head to the sole of the foot. May there be no soundness in him. May the Son of the living God, with all the glory of his majesty, curse him ; and may heaven and all the powers that move therein rise against him, to damn him; unless he shall repent and make full satisfaction. Amen, amen, — so be it." (See the Work rclerrt'cl to in tlic preceding note, p. 305.) ^82 PRINCES EXCOMMUNICATED. IV. PRINCES EXCOMMUNICATED, WITH THE NAMES OF THE POPES UNDER WHOSE PONTIFICATES THEIR EXCOMMUNICATION TOOK PLACE. Leo III. Emperor, was excommunicated by . Pope Gregory II. Leo III. Emperor, Gregory III. Leo V. Emperor, Paschal I. Lewis, King of Germany, John VIII. Robert, King of France, Gregory V. Lotliario, Emperor, Adrian II. Henry IV. Emperor, Gregory VII. Bolislaus, King of Poland, The same. Henry IV. Emperor, Urban II. Philip I. King of France, . The same. Henry IV. Emperor, Pascal II. Henry V. Emperor, The same. The same, Calistus II. The same, Gelasius II. William, King of Sicily, Adrian IV. Frederick I. Emperor, ......... Alexander III. Henry II. King of England, The same. Henry VI. Emperor, Celestine III. Alphonso, King of Gallicia, The same. Philip, Emperor, Innocent III. Otho, Emperor, The same. John, King of England, The same. Philip I. King of France, The same. Ladislaus, King of Poland, The same. Lewis VII. King of France, The same. Lewis VIII. King of France, The same. Frederic II. Emperor, Honorius. The same, Gregory IX. AVenceslaus, The same. Frederic II. Emperor, Innocent IV. Manfred, King of Sicily, Urban IV, Conradin, King of Sicily, Clement IV Alphonso, King of Portugal, Gregory X. Alphonso, Bang of Castile, The same. PRINCES EXCOMMUNICATED. 283 Charles, King of Anjou, ......... Pope Nicholas III. Peter of Arragon, Martin IV. Michael Paielologgus, Emperor, The same. James, King of Arragon, Honorius IV. Alphonso, King of Arragon, The same. The same, Nicholas IV. Philip IV. King of France, Boniface VIII. Eric VIII. King of Denmark, The same. Lewis of Bavaria, John XXII. The same, Bennet XII. The same, Clement VII. Jane, Queen of Naples, Urban VI. Charles, King of Naples, . The same. Lewis of Anjou, Boniface IX. Richard, King of England, The same. Edward, King of England, The same. Wenceslaus, Emperor, The same. Ladislaus, King of Naples, Innocent VII, The same, Alexander V. Ladislaus, King of Bohemia, Sextus IV. Albert, King of Navarre, Julius II. Lewis XII. of France, The same. Stenon, King of Sweden, Leo X. Henry VII L King of England, Clement VIL The same, Paul III. Elizabeth, Queen of England, Pius V. Henry III. King of France, Sixtus V. Henry, King of Navarre, The same. Henry IV. King of France and Navarre, . . . Gregory XIV. Ambassador of Lewis XIV. King of France, . . Innocent XI, 284 LIST OF MONASTERIES IN SCOTLAND. w w H r/J xn PS W W S Q < ;? ^ p O ^ W w 1— 1 P^ H 133 H a in < 55 w O ^ Ic-I r^ % ^ 1— ( O (Zl P4 PS a It S'^ a 3 o tz. o £! o o «-■ ti -w I I M _ , _ / . _ _ . 3 . « -I S , 'rhMOOOOCOOOOOgSrt r"' iJ cd 'rt rt c« c3 c3 rt t\3 L-S a kH ;> -J xn la S. 2.2 3 :;3 :3 -c c^ ^ ^ 0) 4o c « B S fl<1 ^H 'r^ ""? •'"' I > "— ' '^H 'rH -^ *.-■ *^. w -^ .^H *^ ^ •!— I -i-H rj ■>-H w j3 *r^ ^aja;a;3a>Q3S3S3^=!fe3 3a3SpSoSg o) tu a> 0) I 1) « . • , y, c^ <1> ni rill § il/&:§ §^.25 gtSt'^lil OHHHi-li^g^HSpHOOOOOwCjHU =j1 S §^ ^ §.S as g 3 o ^ ^ ?.-2 -5 ^ ^ 2 r- 2 no r; TS ' ^^^O^WSi^KWuP^ X3 T3 g oi .3 -rv- ^ 3 O Qi C ?f5 . LIST OF MONASTEKIES IN SCOTLAND. 285 .5 rt c " H ^.^ § " ,5 S 3 O O c^H < tec ,a E ^ *J to ?i fcC tC 3 6 S £ ^ 3 3 3 :. -33 c (u-^Its '^wh • * v^ . 3 k-l jj O) o S c W aO ^ M ^ . ^"^ « .5 i .2 n •§:•-::•-•- -^ -^ g 1i -5 .3 -ji -S -5 -^ .H - c .g ^ ^ SI .22 > .'S 2.22 — 33-5So-StH03.2o33o--;3o,>^3--; OQJ ,11 ;.i 01 a> •i^S:|^g=a|^S.g:atg|;2ig|5.^&||^|g|5|32 S!t3n30c-irK:oo,« .Z^lS ^ "^ ^k2 i2S::i 3m 3 OjSiS-^-^ ~ -t' •- X3 Ph Cm c3 ^ -3 .Q 3 - _ ^ ^ - 53 ~o "^ ii ■£^■60=5 3ftl 5 3 ^l3 « 3 u 5 > E2 -c a S'2 ^ . '§ nnedy. Miles, nbar, Count of Ma mmerville, de eode wart. Count of Atl mpbell, Miles, aig. Miles. liburton. Miles, nclair. Count of Or ume, or Alexander King of Scotland, urn. Prior of St A «*-a>3oa)3c«4-ics.Mhri --g ffi^^Si^SS2i^.2.2S^ ^ pq W xoa . c A O r- .2 O •^ u l^ 0) ^^ , , 0) 0) > 0) 7* > 3 H 33 (1) 5^ 2 01 p •3 U3 f- ■g 0) g ,:! g w^ J O >:q h5 ■ « = S ^ ."3 >H ri . be a> 3 'O 3.j;3'Oju3 3 S cs .2 "^ .3 S .a .2 ^ .2 2 3 Si s 5-3 .3 OJ T! , ^ s ^^ — ^ ^ w O 3 . Ai CS & . ' 3 i* 3 " '^ 3 ■3 ^ r: . 3 P t; ■J5 0) bD . c S JO 3 G1r33_E ^-r'Tr 3 > s5 c-S gSJS S^iJ^ ^?j 5"Sk23rtk2'S^o.i:ooo'\: Ogq^QU^Q^faOp:jQpjg ( 287 ) No. VI. PROTESTATION OF THE POPE AGAINST THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. (See Note, page 183.) Pope Innocent X. By a zeal for the house of God, which continually moves our spirit, we principally apply ourselves with care to pre- serve with all integi-ity the orthodox faith, and the dignity and authority of the Catholic Church, lest the ecclesiastical rights, of which we are appointed the defender by our Lord, should suffer any damage from those who seek ra- ther their own interests than those of God, and that we may not be accused of negligence in the administration of them which hath been committed to us, when Ave shall render an account of our government to the sovereign Judge : Wherefore, it was not without the most lively sen- timents of grief that we have understood, that, by many articles, both of the peace respectively made at Osnaburg, 6th of August 1648, between our most dear son in Christ, Ferdinand, king of the Romans, elected emperor, his allies and adherents, on the one part, and the Swedes, together with their allies and adherents, on the other ; and also of that which was in like manner concluded at Munster, in Westphalia, the 26th day of August, the same year, be- tween the same Ferdinand, his allies and adherents, on the one hand, and our very dear son in Christ Jesus, Lewis, the most Christian king of France, and likewise his allies and adherents, on the other; great prejudice hath been done to the Catholic religion, to the divine worship, to the apostolical Roman See, to inferior churches, and to the ec- clesiastical order, as also to tlicir jurisdictions, authorities, 288 PROTESTATION OF THE POPE immunities, fVancliises, liberties, exemptions, privileges, affairs, goods, and rights : for, by divers articles of one of these treaties of peace, tliey abandon for ever to heretics and their successors, among others, the ecclesiastical goods of which they were formerly possessed ; they permit to the heretics, who are called of the Augsburg Confession, the free exercise of their heresy in various places ; they promise to assign them places to build churches for that purpose ; they admit them with the Catholics to public offices and posts, and to certain archbishoprics, bishoprics, and other ecclesiastical dignities and benefices, and to a participation of the first prayers which the Apostolic See hath granted to the said Ferdinand, king of the Romans, elect emperor ; they abolish annats, the rights of the pallium, confirma- tions, the months of the Pope, and the like rights and re- serves in the ecclesiastical goods of the said Confession of Augsburg ; they attribute to the secular power the confir- mation of elections, or the postulatlons of the pretended archbishops, bishops or prelates, of the said Confession: many archbishoprics, bishoprics, monasteries, provostships, bailiages, commanderies, canonicats, and other benefices, and goods of the church, are given, to heretical princes in perpetual fee, under the title of secular dignity, with the suppression of the ecclesiastical denomination ; they ordain, that, against this peace, or any of these articles, no laws, canonical or civil, common or special, decrees of councils, rules of religious order, oaths, concordats with the Roman pontiffs, or any other statutes ecclesiastical or political, decrees, dispensations, absolutions, or other exceptions, ought to be alleged, heard, or admitted : the number of seven electors of the empire, formerly settled by the apos- tolical authority, Is augmented without our consent, and that of the said See, and the eighth electorate is erected In favour of Charles-Lewis, count palatine of the Rhine, a heretic ; and several other things arc ordained shameful to AGAINST THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 289 report, very prejudicial and Imrlful to tlio orthodox reli- i^^ioii, the said Roman See, to subordinate churclies, and others above named. And altliough tlie venerable brother Fabio, bishop of Narde, our nuncio extraordinary, and of said See along the Rhine, and in Low Germany, hath pub- licly protested in our name, and in name of said See, in tlu? execution of our orders, that these articles having been rashly settled by persons who had no power to do so, were void, null, and unjust, and ought to be held by such every where : and, though it be a law notorious, that every trans- action or paction made about ecclesiastical matters, without the authority of the said See, is null, and of no force or validity ; nevertheless, that a remedy may be more effec- tually provided to the indemnity of the above, and being willing to provide it, according to the duty of the pastoral office committed to us from on high, &c. We, of our own accord, and from our own certain knowledge, and mature deliberation, and from the plenitude of ecclesiastical power, say and declare, by these presents, that the foresaid articles of one of these treaties, or of both of them, and all the other things contained in the said treaties, which in any respect whatever hurt or bring the least prejudice, or which may be said, imderstood, pretended or esteemed to be able to hurt, or to have hurt, in any manner the Catholic religion, the divine worship, the salvation of souls, &e. with all that hath followed or shall follow thereupon, have been of right, are, and shall be, perpetually null, void, in- valid, wicked, unjust, condemned, reprobated, frivolous, without force and effect, and that no person is bound to observe them, or any of them, even although they should be fortified by an oath ; and whosoever hath thence ac- quired, or may or shall acquire, or ever arrogate to himself any right, or deed, or coloured title, or cause of prescrip- tion, even though possession should follow thereupon dur- ing a very long and immemorial time, without any chal- T 290 PROTESTATION OF TH'E POPE lenge or interruption ; — they also are to be reputed for ever as having no existence, or as having never been made or established. And yet, for greater precaution, and as far as is needful, of the same free motion, knowledge, delibera- tion, and plenitude of power, we condemn, reprobate, an- nul, and deprive of all force and effect the said articles, and all other things prejudicial to the above, as aforesaid, and protest against them, and of their nullity before God : and likewise, so far as is needful, we restore, remit, and reintegi'ate, fully, whatever regards tlie affairs of the Apos- tolical and Roman See, &c. We likewise ordain, that, under no pretence whatever, can these present letters, or any of their contents, at any time, be debated, invalidated, retracted, called into judgment or controversy, reduced to the terms of law, charged with vicious subreption, obrep- tion, nullity or invalidity, or of want of our intention^ or of any other substantial defect not imagined, how gi'eat soever, or on any other head resulting from right or fact, ordinance or custom, under whatever colour, pretext, rea- son, or occasion it may be ; — but that they are and shall be always valid, firm, and effectual, shall produce and obtain their full and entire effect, and shall be, for the time to come, inviolably observed by all those to whom they ap- pertain, or shall appertain, in any manner whatever ; and that thus, and not otherwise, the ordinary judges, and the auditors delegated from the apostolical palace, the cardi- nals, legates a latere, and the nuntios of the holy Roman chui'ch, and all others, whatever authority they presently exercise, or for the time being, ought, in this manner, al- ways and every where, to judge and decide in all the things above mentioned, depriving them, and every one of them, of the power and avithority to judge, declare, and interpret otherwise, declaring null and of no effect wbatever may be attempted against these presents, of deliberate purpose, or in ignorance, by whom, and of what authority soever, not- AGAINST THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 291 witlistamling of all that is above, and all apostolical consti- tutions and ordinances, whether general or special, even those which have been published in general councils, and notwithstanding also, so far as needful, our rule, and that of the apostolical chancery, de non tollendo jure qusesito, and the constitution of Pope Pius IV. of happy memory, our predecessor, touching favours concerning any interest of the apostolical chamber, which ought to be presented and registered in said chamber in a certain time there ex- pressed ; so that it is not at all necessary that these pre- sents should be at any time presented and registered there- in ; notwithstanding also all laws imperial and municipal, and all statutes, usages, and customs, though immemorial, privileges, concessions, and apostolical letters, fortified cither by oath, or by apostolical confirmation, or by any other security, and granted to any places or persons what- ever, clothed with the imperial or royal dignity, or any otlicr dignity, whether ecclesiastical or secular, and quali- fied in any other manner wliatever, &c. To all which, and every one of which, we derogate, and will that it should be derogated specially and expressly, and from all other things whatever, contrary hereunto, &c. Given at Rome, at St Mary Major, under the Fisher's Ring, the 26th day of November, in the year 1648, and the 5th of our Pontificate. M. A. Maraldus. T 2 292 TRIUMPH OF POPISH PRINCIPLE No. VII. EXAMPLE OF THE TRIUMPH OF POPISH PRINCIPLE OVER THE ENDEARING OBLIGATIONS OF HU- MAN RELATIONSHIP. See page 19C. John Diaz, a Spaniard, liaving studied theology for some time at Paris, became acquainted Avith the Scrip- tures, and the writings of the reformers, and embraced their doctrine. He went first to Geneva, where he culti- vated friendship with Calvin ; and afterwards to Strasburg, where he became tlie intimate friend and colleague of Bu- cer, who made him accompany him to the diet of Ratisbon in 1546. He had there an interview with Malvenda, whom he had formerly known at Paris, who deplored his change, and professed the utmost surprise at finding him engaged in the interests and society of Protestants, who would triumph more, he said, in having proselyted one Spaniard, than some thousands of Germans ; entreating him to regard his reputation, and not bring such a foul stain on himself, his family, and nation. When this made no impression, Mal- venda endeavoured to work on his fears, representing the gieat power of the Pope, the dreadful nature of his excom- munication, the wrath of Caesar, &c. But Diaz, unmoved by all these arts, boldly avowed and vindicated his faith, professing his resolution to abide by the true religion, what- ever dangers he might be exposed to. Whereupon Mal- venda desisted, but immediately gave information and com- plaint against him to the Emperor's priest. Alphonso, the brother of Diaz, who was a lawyer in the court of Rome, having heard of his heresy, went in haste to Ratisbon. Not finding him there, he posted to Newburg, twelve miles OVER HUMAN RELATIONSHIP. 293 distant from Ratisbon, and renewed all the entreaties of Malvenda ; earnestly inviting him io Rome, and promising a yearly salary, provided he would comply. Baffled in every attempt, the subtle advocate confessed that he was over- come, and pretended the highest love for the evangelic doc- trine, but expressed a wish that his brother should remove with him to Italy, where he might have a better opportu- nity of spreading the doctrine of the Reformation in Na- ples, and of extending it from thence into his native coun- try. John, overjoyed at the change, consulted his Protes- tant friends, who dissuaded him from complying with the flattering proposals. Alphonso then requested that his brother would only accompany him as far as Augsburg, but this he also declined. Alphonso at length took his leave, after professions of the most cordial affection, ex- horting his brother to constancy, and declaring himself happy in having, by his conversation, in a few days, made such proficiency in the true knowledge of God. He en- treated him, moreover, to write to him ; and obliged him to accept of some money, as a token of his fraternal kindness. With mutual endearments, and a profusion of tears on both sides, he went into his chariot and departed. Who will believe the shocking event? The false brother had not proceeded far, when he stopped short, hired an assassin, procured a hatchet, prepared a letter, and drove directly back to Newburg, where he arrived early in the morning. Leaving his horses at the gates, he led the murderer to the house of his brother, and sent him with the letter, while he watched at the door, that nothing might prevent the exe- cution of the enterprise. The minister, hearing of a mes- sage from his brother, hastily rose out of bed, walked to the next chamber in his cap and night-gown, received the letter from the hand of the messenger, which expressed gi-eat solicitude for his safety, cautioning him against Mal- venda, and all such enemies of the gospel. Bat scarcely 294- TRIUMPII OF POPISH PllINClPl.E liad he begun to read, when the ruffian from behind struck him witli the hatcliet, and cleft his head in two, even to his shoulders, so that he instantly fell down dead without uttering a word. The assassin left the bloody weapon sticking in the body, and fled with the unnatural monster who employed him. The murderers were arrested, but the Emperor pretending to take the case under his oAvn cog- nizance, set justice at defiance, and screened the savage brother, and the foul perpetrator of the horrid crime from the punishment which they deserved. Such, when Popish principles take full and firm hold of tlie mind, is the dread- ful length to which they will carry their abused disciples*. To the foregoing dismal narrative, may be added the fol- lowing statement- — similar, though less horrible in its na- ture — which has been very recently communicated to the public in the correspondence of the Continental Society. — *' A circumstance," says the relater of this fact, " charac- teristic of the true spirit of Popery, which is gaining ground, lately occurred. A catholic girl lived with a pious baker at B (the directors of this society are accustomed to conceal names — lest they should unnecessarily expose then' agents and their friends on the Continent to violence and persecu- tion) ; the piety of the family so wrought upon her, that she began to read the Bible, attending family worship, and at length the church. This coming to the knowledge of her parents, they sent for her, under pretence that her mother was very ill, and not expected to live. After she had been absent some days, the baker, now apprehensive that she had been inveigled away, went in company with a friend to her parent's house. On asking for her, they Avere told that she had left home for some days, and they did not know where * The account of this transaction, whicli is given at length by Martin Bucer, and other Protestant writers, is corroborated by the testimony of the Popish historian Mainiburg. OVEll HUMAN RELATIONSHIP. 295 she was; but while they were speaking, the master heard the girl's voice expressive of distress, and it turned out, that she was locked up without food, and threatened with starvation, if she did not abjure her heresy, and retui*n to the Catholic church. Finding remonstrances in vain, he de- termined to go to a magistrate, and give notice of the gu'l's captivity ; but on the way he and his friend were assailed by a mob of 200 pessons, who cast stones at them, beat them unmercifully, and at length dragged them, bleeding and nearly senseless, into a chapel before an image of the Virgin Mary, vowing that the heretics should worship it, if they meant to escape with their lives." The police inter- fered, and when the narrator of this transaction left the ^cene of outrage, the case was under investigation. ( 296 ) No. VIII. INTOLllKANCE Ol TIIi: TAl'Al, CIU'RCH. See page 204. It was not merely in tlie ages of darkness tliat preceded or even in the times of contention wliich followed, the Re- formation, that intolerance was the prominent feature in the principle and practice of the Papal Cluircli. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has it been manifested, that her character in this respect is unchanged. Intole- rance has been avowed as her principle, and has been on many occasions reduced to practice. A few years only have elapsed, since the predecessor of the late Pontiff de- clared, " That the toleration of other religions is inconsis- tent with the doctrines of the Catholic Church." It is a fact, too, with which some Protestants may be unacquainted, that, every year, on the Thui'sday preceding Good-Friday, one of the most solemn excommunications of the Church of Rome is denounced, in which, amid circumstances of great external pomp, all heretics, and schismatics, and all persons contumacious and disobedient to the Papal See, are anathematized. In this singular document, which we re- gard as a standing memorial of the unabated intolerance of the Papal Church, there are found the following sen- tences : Sect. III. — " We excommunicate and anathematize, in the name of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by the authority of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, and by our own ; all Hussites, Wickliffites, Luthe- rans, Zuinglians, Calvinists, Hugonots, Anabaptists, Tri- nitarians, and apostates from the Christian faith ; and all INTOLERANCE OF THE PAPAI- CHURCH. 297 other heretics, by whatsoever name they are called, and of whatsoever sect they be ; as also, their adherents, receivers, favourers, and generally, any defenders of them; together with all who, without our authority, or that of the Apos- tolic See, knowingly read, keep, print, or, anyways, for any cause whatsoever, publicly or privately, on any pretext or colour, defend their books containing heresy, or treating of religion ; as also schismatics, and those who withdraw themselves, or recede obstinately from the obedience of us, or the Bishop of Rome for the time being." Sect. IX. — " Farther, we excommunicate and anathe- matize all who, by themselves or others, give intelligence of matters relating to the state of Christendom, to the Turks and enemies of the Christian religion, to the hurt and prejudice of Christians, or to heretics, to the prejudice of the Catholic re- ligion, or who anyways afford to them counsel, assistance, or favour, notwithstanding any privileges hitherto granted by us, and the aforesaid See, to any persons, princes, or commonwealths, wherein express mention is not made of this express prohibition." Sect. XVII. — " Also all those who, under pretence of their office, or, at the instance of any party, or of any others, draw, or cause and procure to be drawn, directly or indirectly, upon any pretext whatsoever, ecclesiastical persons, chapters, convents, colleges of any churches, be- fore them to their tribunal, audience, chancery, council or parliament, against the rules of the canon law; as also those, who, for any cause, or under any pretext, or by pretence of any custom or privilege, or any other way, shall make, enact, and publish any statutes, orders, constitutions, pragmatics, or any other decrees in general or in particular ; or shall iise them when made and enacted, whereby the ecclesiastical liberty is violated, or any ways S98 INTOLERANCE OF THE PAPAL CHURCH. injured or depressed, or by any other means restrained ; or whereby the rights of us, and of the said See, and of any other churches, are any way, directly, or indirectly, tacitly or expressly, prejudged." It Is obvious from this section, that the claim is still put fo)th by the Papal See on behalf of its clergy, that they should be totally independent of the civil power ! Sect XIX. — " Also those who usurp any jurisdictions, fruits, revenues, and emoluments belonging to us and the Apostolic See, and any ecclesiastical persons, upon ac- count of any churches, monasteries, or other ecclesiastical benefices ; or who, upon any occasion or cause, sequester the said revenues, without the express leave of the Bishop of Rome, or others having lawful power to do it." All Prostestant governments, it is manifest fiom this sec- tion, are annually placed under the solemn curse of the Papal Church. Sect. XXIX. — " Moreover, that the processes them- selves, and these present letters, and all and every thing contained in them, may become more manifest, by being published in many cities and places ; we, by these writings, entrust, and, in virtue of holy obedience, strictly charge and command all and singular patriarchs, primates, arch- bishops, bishops, ordinaries of places, and prelates, whereso- ever constituted, that, by themselves or some other, or others, after they shall have received these present letters, or have knowledge of them, they solemnly publish them in their churches once a year, or oftener, if they see con- venient, when the greater part of the people should be met for celebration of divine service ; and that they put faithful christians in mind of them, relate them, and declare them." INTOLERANCE OF THE PAPAL CHURCH . 2l99 Of the practical demonstrations that have been given, even in recent times, of the intolerance of the Catholic church, the following interesting extracts furnish an ap- palling specimen. " By an edict of Louis XV. 1724, all marriages not cele- brated by priests of the church of Rome, are declared con- cubinage, and the children of such marriages bastards. The laws of France also ordain that, before marriage, the parties shall confess, and receive the Lord's Supper. As Pro- testants could not do this without renouncing their religion ; and as, since the revocation of the Edict of Nantz, they had been deprived of their churches ; their marriages were solemnized in the open fields, and hence called marriages of the desert. Many are the oppressions they have on this account endured. The tender connection of husband and wife, by the laws of the State, and decisions of Parliament, was considered as infamous ; and for no other crime, the married persons were imprisoned, sent to the galleys, or by exorbitant fines reduced to poverty. Innocent in- fants, pledges of the purest love, before their birtb were, by the father of their country, condemned to the shame and wretchedness of being accounted children of uncleanness. The Catholic clergy, attended by bailiifs, broke into houses in the night, destroyed every thing, tore children who had reached four years of age from the bosoms of parents, and placed them under the direction and government of monks, the parents being obliged to defray the charge of educating them in a religion whieli they detested. If children es- caped, the father was forced to pay an enormous fine, or to pine away in a gloomy dungeon. From 1751 to 1753, many such hellish scenes were transacted in a nation, which prides itself as the patron of humanity and polite- ness. The intcndant of Languedoc enjoined, 1751, that all 300 INTOLERANCE OF THE PAPAL CHURCH childi-en baptised by Protestants, should be rebaptised in the Romish Church ; and that the marriages of Protestants should be rendered legitimate only by the priest's subse- quent blessing. Men present at religious assemblies were punished with the galleys ; women with perpetual impri- sonment ; preachers with the halter. Instructions, conso- lations, sacraments, were prohibited to Protestants. Even on their deathbeds they were tormented by the unwelcome visits of monks and priests ; and when they heroically re- tained to the last breath the Protestant faith, their dead bodies were dragged through the streets, and thrown upon dunghils. The severe laws from which these evils arose, remained unrepealed ; and the execution of them depended on the humour of bishops, and their attendants ; complaints of these cruelties were considered as seditious ; and escap- ing them, by leaving the kingdom, was not allowed. So deeply did an intolerant spirit debase human nature, and produced barbarities which would shock a Huron." " In the memorial," continues the same writer," which Paul Rabant, the eldest of the Protestant ministers at Nismes, presented to the Marquis de Paulmy, he gave a lively picture of what his brethren in Languedoc had suf- fered for ten years past. Attending religious assemblies was punished with loss of nobility, with banishment, im- prisonments, scourging, the galleys, death. Parties of soldiers attack their defenceless meetings, and wound, maim, or kill men, women and children. Bibles found in the possession of any were burnt, and the possessors put to death. Husbands, wives, and childi'en were torn from one another's arms, that the children might be rebaptized and educated in popery, and the parents compelled to renounce their religion. By the violence of the soldiers, massacres were committed in private houses ; and many, whom they seized, were hanged, and their carcasses cast on the dung- hils. All this happened, says he, in our enlightened coun- INTOLERANCE OF THE PAPAE CHURCH. 301 try, and in tlie most polite and civilized nation. It is no wonder that despair drove some to violent measures in self- defence, and that many sought safety by flight. Their bowels were rent, by taking from them what in the world was dearest to them. In the most Christian kingdom, a dark dungeon, or the galleys, or death, was his reward, who would not live as an atheist, without worshipping God ; and complaints of this barbarous treatment were ac- counted crimes." Walch's Religions Geschichte. Erskine's Sketches, vol. ii. p. 201, 214. 302 THE ABJURATION OF GALILEOi No. IX. THE ABJURATION OF GALILEO, DEMONSTRATING THAT THE CHURCH OF ROME IS HOSTILE TO LITERATURE AS WELL AS TO TRUE RELIGION. See Note, p. 214. " I, Galileus, son of the late Vincentius Galileus, a Flo- rentine, aged 70, being here personally upon my trial, and on my knees before you, the most eminent the Lords, Cardinals, Inquisitors-General of the universal Christian common- wealth, against heretical wickedness ; and having before my eyes the most Holy Gospels, Avhich I touch with my proper hands, do swear that I have always believed, and do now believe, every thing avhich the holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church doth hold, preach, and teach. But whereas, . notwithstanding, after I had been legally enjoined and com- manded by this holy office, to abandon wholly that false opinion, which maintains that the sun is the centre of the universe, and immoveable, and that I should not hold, de- fend, or in any way, either by word or Avriting, teach the aforesaid false doctrine ; and whereas, also, after it had been notified to me that the aforesaid doctrine was contrary to the Holy Scriptures, I wrote and published a book, in which I treated of the doctrine which had been condemned, and pro- duced reasons of great force in favour of it, without giving any answers to them, for which I have been judged by the holy office to have incurred a strong suspicion of heresy, viz. for believing that the sun is the centre of the world, and that the earth is not the centre, but moves. Being there- fore willing to remove from the minds of your eminences, THE ABJURATION OF GAI-Il.F.O. 303 nml of every Catliolic Cliristian, the strong suspici< n which has been legally conceived against me, I do, with a sincere heart, and a true faith, abjure, curse, and detest not only the foresaid errors and heresies, but, generally, every other error and opinion which may be contrary to the aforesaid holy church ; and I swear that, for the future, I will never say or assert, cither by word or writing, any thing that shall give occasion for a like suspicion ; but that, if I should know any heretic, or person suspected of heresy, I will inform against him lo this holy office, or to the inquisitor, or ordi- nary of the place in whicli I shall then be. Moreover, I swear and promise, tliat I will fulfil and fully observe all the penances which have been, or shall be hereafter, enjoined me by this ludy office. But if, which God forbid it should happen, that I should act contrary to my word, promises, protestations, and oaths, I do hereby subject myself to all the penalties and punishments which have been ordained and puldished against such offenders by the sacred canons, and other acts both general and particular. So help me God, and these lioly gospels which I now touch with my own proper hand. I, the above mentioned Galikus, the son of Galileus, have abjured, sworn, promised, and bound myself as above ; and, in testimony of these things, I have subscribed, with my own proper hand, the present instruments of my abjuration, and have repeated it, word by word, at Rome, in the Con- vent of Minerva, this 22dday of July anno 1633, I, Galileus, son of Galileus, have al>jured, as above, with my own pro- per hand." 304 INDEX EXPURGATORIUS. No. X. INDEX EXPURGATORIUS. See Note, p. 220. In the early ages of tlie Christian diurcli, there existed no restrictions respecting the reading of hooks, save those wliich good men tliought proper to impose on tliemselves. The first ecclesiastical prohibition that we meet with on this snbject, is the canon of a council which was held at Carthage, about the beginning of the fifth century ; in which, as being pernicious to good morals, the writings of tlie Pa- gans were forbidden to be read. Frequently, for political reasons, did the emperors prohibit the books of heretics ; but it was from the time when the Papal power was esta- blished, and its influence extended over the world, that the most vigorous and successful measures were adopted for perpetuating the darkness of the human mind. It was not till about the period of the Reformation, that the Indices Expurgatorii, or Catalogues of Interdicted Books, were published ; and it was during the pontificate of Paul IV. in 1559, that the prohibitory document was settled down into the form which it bears in modern times. Heretofore, says the author of the History of the Council of Trent, from whose admirable work these notices are taken, those works only had been interdicted whose authors had been con- demned as heretics. But now they advanced many steps farther, and laid the foundations of a marvellous system of policy for the support and aggrandisement of Papal power, by depriving men of the knowledge which is necessary to defend them from usurpation. The Index now compiled INDEX EXPURGATORIUS. 305 was divided into three parts. Tlie first, says he, contained the names of those authors whose works, of what subject soever they might treat, were prohibited ; and in this man- ner were placed, not only those who differed in doctrine from the Chur.ch of Rome, but many also who lived and died in her communion. The second contained the names of some books of particular authors, the rest of whose works were not condemned. In the thu'd, by a general rule, all anonymous books, published after the year 1519, were for- bidden. Many authors and books were condemned, which, for 300, 200, and 100 years had been read, with the concur- rence of the pontiffs, and of _^ all the learned men of the Church of Rome ; and, strange as it may seem, there were included in this class, modern books, some of them printed in Italy, and even in Rome, approved, too, not only by the Inquisi- tion, but also by the Pope, — a striking example of which is the fact, that the Annotations of Erasmus on the New Tes- tament, although read, and, in his brief of September 1618, approved, by Leo X. were condemned. But the most re- markable circumstance of all, is this, that, under colour of faitli and religion, all those books are condemned and pro- hibited, in which the authority and the rights of secular princes are defended against ecclesiastical usurpation ; and in which the power and privileges of bishops and councils are vindicated from the encroachments of the Roman court; and, in short, all those works in which the mask is stripped away from the system of hypocrisy and tyranny, by which under pretence of religion, the people are deceived. To such an extent, indeed, did this horrible Inquisition carry its hos- tility against the liberty of the pi'ess, that a catalogue was made out of no fewer than sixty-two printers ; and all the works were prohibited which either had been, or miglit be published by them ; to which proceeding was added this consummation of inquisitorial iniquity, that all the books of such other printers as had printed any of the works of he- 306 INDEX EXPURGATORIUS. retics were placed under the same prohibition. In conse- quence of these proceedings, remarks Father Paul, there scarcely remained a hook to he read ! And, with such an excess of I'igour were these infamous decisions accompanied, that the prohibition of every book in the Index, was on pain of excommunication to the reader, the power being reserved to the Pope of inflicting on the offender deprivation of of- fice and benefice, incapacitation, perpetual infamy, and such other arbitrary punishments as he might judge to be called for by the nature of the crime ! Thus did the Court of Rome wage determined war against the interests of knowledge and learning, proving itself the decided foe, not only of pure Christianity, but of all literature and science, and of every thing that constitutes the ornament, and glory, and delight of human society. Never was an expedient devised more admirably adapted to make men stupid, to degrade them down to the level of irrational beings, and to render them the contented slaves of the most ruthless despotism, than thus to employ religion in opposition to reading and inquiry, and every noble exertion of the human mind. In what a horrible condition of mental slavery might the world haA^e now been, if that colossal power which long time wielded its sceptre, and crushed the energies of its people, had not been overthrown ! How, but for that Reformation, on which multitudes who enjoy its blessings set no value, might we have been at this day, — Christians indeed in name, but as really barbarians in mind and in character, as the rude savage who has never stepped beyond the boundary of his woods, and on whose benighted soul the light of science and of religion has never shined. ( 307 ) No. XI. THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND IMPLORE THAT THEIR CHILDREN MAY BE PERMITTED TO READ THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. See page 228. COPY OF A LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE R03IAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OP KERRY, AND NUMEROUSLY SIGNED BY THOSE PROFESSING THE ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIGION, RESIDING WITHIN HIS DIO- CESE. To the Right Reverend Cornelius Egan, Roman Catholic Bishop of Kerry, Sj-c. " May it please your Reverence, — We, the undersigned, being members of the Roman Catholic Church in your bishopric, beg leave to approach you with all respect and deference due to our spiritual father, and to implore your pastoral indulgence on a subject of much anxiety to us, and of gi-eat importance to tlie bodies and souls of our dear children. " In almost every parish of this county, free schools have been established by our charitable gentry, with the assist- ance of the generous English, in which all who choose to attend are taught how to earn theii- own bread with honesty, and to live in quietness and kindness with their neighbours; and every sort of books necessary for this pm*pose are sup- plied without the least cost. As many of our clergy for a long time supported and recommended these schools; as we know the masters are good scholars, and men who have ob- tained certificates of character from priests; and as we 308 REQUEST 01- THE IRISH RO:\rAN CATHOEICS know that tlie pupils of these schools get on rapidly in knowledge and good behaviour, we are desirous that our heloved children should have the benefits which are enjoyed by our neighbours. For some time past, however, the clergy have required us to take our little ones away from those schools, telling us that there is danger of losing our reli- gion by sending them, or that, though they can see no harm whatever in our doing so, yet they must obey the or- ders of their bishop in forbidding us. Some of us being unwilling to depriA e our children of such great blessings, have been denied the rights of that holy church in which it is our wish to live and die; some have had their names called, Sunday after Sunday, from the sacred altar, and thus been exposed to the scorn and persecution of our neigh- bours ; whilst our little ones have often been the objects of insult and abuse, and all this because we wish our dear children to become sensible, industrious, and honest Catho- lics. " Most Reverend Sir, — we do not presume to dictate to our clergy, but we think it very strange that they should now call that bad which they once thought good; we do not know how the sending our children to these schools, in which God's word is taught, can injure their religion, if our church is built xipon that rock, against which " the gates of hell shall not prevail ;" especially whilst they have the use of the Roman Catholic version of the Scripture, and their masters are willing to instruct them in the catechism when the school has closed. Nay, many of our children, who attend the Scripture schools, are most perfect in the catechism of our holy church. " We approach your paternal feet. Holy Father, humbly imploring that you will instruct the clergy to relax that hostility which many of them direct against the Scripture schools, and to suspend those denunciations and penalties which are dealt out to us, merely because we love our chil- IIEGAIIUING THE HOI,Y SCRIPTURES. 309 dren, and wish to see them honest men, loyal subjects, good Christians, and faithful Catholics. In short, permit us to know something of the true word of God, so much spoken of in these days. " Do not suffer us to be branded as Catholics, and to have our hearts wounded, and our livelihood taken away with- out deserving it ; and at last be driven from the church in which we have been reared, to one which our Bishop Doyle says is not very different, but which does not interfere with the natural right of parents to educate the children which Almighty God has given them. Some of our neighbours have gone over, from being opposed, and we do not see them less happy than they were. " Holy Father, and most Reverend Sir, we beg you to forgive our presumption, and to grant us, in a general or- der to the clergy, the reasonable indulgence we thus seek that we may remember you in our prayers and thanks- givings to Almighty God, and that the blessings of them that are ready to perish may come upon you. " We are, most Reverend Father, though poor and igno- rant, your faithful children." (Here follow many signatures.) The perusal of the preceding document awakens in our breasts mingled emotions of indignation and regret. Alas, for Ireland ! that her people should be in such a state of degradation as to need to send forth such a prayer ; that those who are the subjects of the most enlightened go- vernment in the world should be debarred, through the in- fluence of an intolerant priesthood, from a privilege which involves not merely their temporal, but also their everlast- ing welfare, and which Heaven has proclaimed to be the unalienable right of all mankind. For this is the divine in- 310 REQUEST OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. junction, " Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." Of what execrations are those petty spiritual tyrants wor- thy, whose power, which ought to be exerted for the salva- tion, is put forth for the destruction, of their unhappy sul)- jects ! It is spiritual despotism that has been the curse of Ireland ; and it will never be well for that interesting land till the fetters of her despotism be broken and cast away and her degraded people brought forth to the '^ght and li- berty of the children of God. At the same time, the docu- ment which we have just recorded inspires us with hope. It calls to our recollection the complaints and remonstrances which were the immediate precursors of the Reformation ; and it seems to us something like the faint murmuring of that overwhelming tempest, which will, ere long, arise, and sweep away from our afflicted sister Isle the unhallowed usurpation by which she has been oppressed. In the mean time, it is the imperative duty of British Protestants, if they have any compassion for their brethren who are the victims of popery, to stand at a distance from every measure by which the interests of that system would be strengthened ; and especially to beware of exalting it to po- litical influence and authority ; for, most assuredly, the ex- altation of the papal system in Ireland to political influence would throw a barrier in the way of her best emancipation, and retard the progress of that improvement which seems silently, but surely, approaching to her long afflicted but abased people. ( 311 No. Xll. BULL OF POPE INNOCENT VIIL lOR THE EXTIRPA- TION OF THE VAUDOIS, GIVEN TO ALBERT DE CAPITANEIS, HIS LEGATE, AND COMMISSARY- GENERAL FOR THAT EXPEDITION ill 1477. Innocent the bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our well-beloved son Albertus de Capitaneis, archdeacon of the church of Cremona, our nuntio, and commissary of the apostolical see, in the dominions of our dear son the noble Charles, Duke of Savoy, both on this side and that side of the mountains, in the city of Vienne in Dauphiny, and in the city and diocese of Sedun, and the places adjacent, — health and apostolic benediction. The chief wishes of our heart demand that we should en- deavour, with the most studious vigilance, to withdraw those from the precipice of errors, for whose salvation the sove- reign Creator of all things liimself chused to suffer the greatest of human miseries, and carefully to watch over their salvation ; we, to whom he hath been pleased to com- mit the charge and government of his flock, and who most ardently desire that the Catholic faith should prosper and triumph under our pontifical reign, and that heretical pra- vity should be extirpated from the territories of the faithful. We have heard, with great displeasure, that certain sons of iniquity, inhabitants of the province of Ambrun, &c. follow- ers of that most pernicious and abominable sect of wicked men called poor men of Lyons, or Waldenses, which long ago hath most unhappily (damnabiliter) risen up in Piedmont, and the other places adjacent, by the malice of the devil, en- deavouring, with fatal industry, to ensnare and seduce the 312 BULL OF rOPE INNOCENT VIIL sheep dedicated to God, through winding devious paths and dangerous precipices, and at last to lead them to the perdition of their souls ; who, under a deceitful appearance of sanctity, and delivered up to a reprobate sense, have the utmost aver- sion to follow the way of truth, and who, observing certain superstitious and heretical ceremonies, say, do, and commit very many things contrary to tlie orthodox faith, offensive to the eyes of the divine Majesty, and most dangerous in tliemselves to the salvation of souls. And whereas our wellbeloved son, Blasius de Mont- Royal, of the order of preaching friars, professor in theolo- gy, inquisitor-general in these parts, transported himself into that province, in order to induce them to abjui*e the foresaid errors, and profess the true faith of Christ, having been formerly appointed for that service by the master-gene- ral of that order, a^id afterwards by our beloved son Cardi- nal Dominic, styled Presbyter of St Clement, legate of the holy see in these places, and at last by Pope Sixtus IV., of happy memory, our immediate predecessor ; but, so far from forsaking tlieir wicked and perverse errors, like the deaf adder that shuts its ears, they proceeded to commit yet greater evils than before, not being afraid to preach publicly, and, by their preacliings, to draw others of the faitliful in Christ into the same errors; to contemn the excommunica- tions, interdicts, and other censures of the said inquisitor ; to demolish his house ; to carry off and spoil the goods that were in it, and those of other Catholics; to kill ]iis servant ; to wage open war ; to resist their temporal lords ; to destroy their property ; to chase them, Avith their families, from their parishes, burning or demolishing their houses, liinder- ing them to receive their rents, doing to tliem all the mis- chief in their power; as also to commit innumerable other crimes the most detestable and abominable. We therefore, as obliged by the duty of our pastoral charge, being desirous to pluck up and wholly root out from FOR EXTIRPATING THE VAUDOIS. 313 the Catholic church that execrable sect, and those impious errors formerly mentioned, lest they should spread farther, and lest the hearts of the faithful should be damnably cor- rupted by them, and to repress such rash and audacious at- tempts, we have resolved to exert every effort for this pur- pose, and to bestow hereupon all our care : and we, putting our special trust in God as to your learning-, the maturity of your wisdom, your zeal for the faith, and experience in affairs, and likewise hoping that you will execute, with ho- nesty and prudence, all that we have judged proper to com- mit to you for extirpating such errors, we have thought good to appoint you, by these presents, our nuntio, and commissary of the apostolic see, for this cause of God and of the faith, in the dominions of our dear son, Charles, Duke of Savoy, &c. to the intent that you may cause the said in- quisitor to be received and admitted to the free exercise of his office, and that, by your seasonable remedies, you may prevail with these most wicked followers of the Waldensian sect, and others defiled with the infection of any sort of he- resy whatever, to abjure their errors, and obey the orders of the said inquisitor. And that you may be able to effect this with so much more ease, in proportion to the greatness of the power and authority wherewith you are vested by us, we, by these presents, grant to you a full and entire licence and authority to call, and instantly to require, by yourself, or by any other person or persons, all the archbishops and bishops in the Duchy, in Dauphiny, and in the parts adja- cent, (whom the Most High hath appointed to be partners with us in our travail), and to command them, in virtue of holy obedience, together with the venei-able brethren, our ordinaries, or their vicars, or the officials-general in the cities and dioceses wherein you may see meet to proceed to the premises, and to execute the office which we have en- joined you ; and, with the foresaid inquisitor, a man of great erudition, cslablislied in the faitli, and of ardent zeal for tlie 314 BULL OF POPE INNOCENT VIII, salvation of souls, that they be assisting to you in the things mentioned, and with one consent proceed, along with you, to the execution of them ; that they take arms against the said Waldenses and other heretics, and, with common coun- sels and measures, crush and tread them as venomous ser- pents ; and that they provide with care, that the people com- mitted to their inspection persist and be confirmed in the confession of the true faith ; and that, in a work so holy, and so very necessary, as the extermination and dissipation of these heretics, they apply all their endeavours, and willingly bestow all their pains, as in duty bound ; and, in fine, that they neglect nothing which may any way contribute to that design. Moreover, to entreat our most dear son in Christ, Charles, the illustrious King of France, and our beloved sons, the noblemen, Charles, Duke of Savoy, the dukes, princes, earls, arid temporal lords of cities, lands, and the universities of these and other places, the confederates of higher Germany, and in general all others who are faithful in Christ in these countries, that they may take up the shield for defence of the orthodox faith, of which they made profession in receiv- ing holy baptism, and the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom kings reign, and princes rule ; and that they afford help to the said archbishops, bishops, to you, to their vicars, or officials, and to the inquisitor, by suitable aids, and by their secular arm, according as they understand to be need- ful for executing svich a necessary and salutary perquisition ; and that they vehemently and vigorously set themselves in opposition to these heretics, for the defence of the faith, tlie safety of their country, the preservation of themselves, and all that belong to them, that so they may make them to perisli, and entirely blot them out from the face of the earth. And if you should think it expedient, that all the faithful in those places should carry the salutary cross on their hearts and on their garments, to animate them to fight re- FOll EXTIKTATINC; THE VAUDOI>:. 315 solutely against these lieretics, — to cause prcticli and pub- lish the croisade hy the proper preachers of the word of God, and to grant unto those who take the cross, and fight against these heretics, or who contribute thereunto, the privilege of gaining a plenary indulgence, and the remission of all their sins once in their life, and likewise at the point of death, by virtue of the commission given you above; likewise to command, upon their holy obedience, and un- der the pain of the gieater excommunication, all fit preach- ers of the word of God, secular and regular, of whatever or- der they be, mendicants not excepted, exempt and non-ex- empt, that they excite and inflame these faithful to exter- minate utterly by force and by arms tliat plague, so that they may assemble with all their strength and powers for repelling the common danger ; further, to absolve those who take the cross, fight, or contribute to the war, from all ecclesiastical sentences and pains, whether general or particular, by whicli they may in any manner be bound, excepting those which shall be specially inflicted hereafter, from which the offenders are only to be loosed by previous satisfaction, or the con- sent of the party ; as likewise to dispense with them as to any irregularity they may be chargeable with in divine things, or by any apostasy, and to agree and compound with them as to goods which they may liave clandestinely or by stealth acquired, or which they dishonestly or doubt- fully possess, applying them only for the support of the ex- pedition for extirpating the heretics ; in like manner to commute all vows whatever, though made with an oatli, of pilgrimage, abstinence, and others, (excepting only tliose of chastity, of entering into a religious life, visiting the Holy Land, the sepulchres of the apostles, and the Church of St. James in Compostella), to those who come forth to this warfare, or who contri1>iitc thereto, or who only give as much as the performance of their vows of pilgrimage might probably have cost them, having a respect to the distance 316 BUl.L OF POPE INNCOENT YIII. of the places, and the condition of the persons, according as shall appear proper to you, or to the confessors deputed by you for that purpose; in the mean time to chuse, appoint, and confirm, in our name, and in the name of the Romish church, one or more captains or leaders of the war over the crossed soldiers, and the army to be convened, and to enjoin and command that they undertake that charge, and faith- fully acquit themselves in it for the honour and defence of the faith, and that all the rest be obedient to him or them; to grant, further, to every one of them a permission to seize and freely possess the goods of the heretics whether move- able or immoveable, and to give them, for a prey, whatever the heretics have brought to the lands of the Catholics, or, on the contrary, have taken or caused to be taken from them ; to command likewise all those who are in the service of the said heretics, wherever they be, to depart from them within a limited time which you shall prescribe to them, under whatever pains you shall judge proper; to admonish and require them, and all persons ecclesiastical or secular, of whatever dignity, age, sex, or order they be, under the pains of excommunication, suspension, and interdict, reve- rently to obey and observe the apostolical mandates, and to abstain from all commerce with the foresaid heretics ; and, by the same authority, to declare, that they and all others, whoever they })e, who may be bound and obliged by contract, or in any other manner whatever, to assign or pay any thing to them, shall not henceforth be obliged to do so, nor can they be compelled in any manner of way to it ;— moreover, to deprive all those who do not obey your admonitions and mandates of whatever dignity, state, degree, order or pre-eminence they be, ecclesiastics of their dignities, offices, and benefices, and secular ]>ersons of their honours, titles, fiefs, and privileges, if they persist hi their disobedience and rebellion ; and to confer their benefices on others whom you shall account worthy of them, and lOll EXTIRPATING THE VAUDOIS 317 even on those who may be ah-eady possessed of, or expect- ing any other ecclesiastical benefices, in whatever number, or of whatever quality soever they may be ; and to declare these deprived as aforesaid, for ever infamous, and inca- pable, for tlie time to come, of obtaining the like or any others; and to fulminate .ill sorts of censures, according as justice, rebellion, or disobedience, shall appear to you to require ; to inflict an interdict, and when inflicted, either to remove it finally, or only to suspend it for a time, accord- ing as it may be found expedient, on good reasons and con- sideration, as you may know to be useful and necessary; but chiefly on those days on which perhaps indulgences are to be published, or the croisade to be preached ; — and to pro- ceed directly and simpliciter, without the noise and form of justice, having only regard to truth, against those who carry to these heretics, or their accomplices, provisions, arms, or other things prohibited, and other aiders, abetters, advisers, or entertainers of them, whether open or secret, or who by any means hinder or disturb the execution of such a salu- tary enterprize ; and to declare all and every one of the trans- gressors to have incurred the censures and pains, botli spiri- tual and temporal, which are inflicted, of right, upon those wlio do such things ; — as also to restore and absolve those who are penitent, and willing to return again to the bosom of the church as formerly, even thougli they should have taken an oatli to favour the heretics, or had received their pay to fight for them, or liad supplied them with arms, succours, victuals, and other things forbidden; providing they promise by taking an oath of a diff"erent kind, or otherwise give sufficient security, that for the time to come they will obey our mandates, those of the church, and yours, whether they be communities, universities, or particular persons, of whatever state, order, or pre-eminence they be, or in what- ever dignity, ecclesiastical or civil, they may be elevated ; and to re-establish and pjut them in possession of their hon- 318 BULL OF POPE INNOCENT viii. ours, dignities, offices, benefices, fiefs, goods, and other rights, of whicli tliey were formerly possessed; — and in fine, to concede, dispose, establish, ordain, command, and execute, all and every other matters necessary or in any respect con- ducive to tliis salutary business, even though tliey should be such as require a particular order, and are not compre- liended in your general commission; and to check and re- strain all opposers thereof, by ecclesiastical censm'es, and other suitable and lawful remedies, Avithout regard to any appeal whatever ; and, if need be, to call in to your assis- tance the aid of the secular arm. And our will is, that all privileges, exemptions, apostolical letters, and indulgences of any kind, granted by us, in general or particular, or in manner aforesaid, under any form of words or expressions, shall be held void, and as letters not gi-anted, so far as they are inconsistent with, and tend to hinder or retard these presents, — we hereby deprive them of all force, together witli all other things whatever that are contrary, though the Holy See should have granted to any, either generally or particularly, that they could not be interdicted, suspend- ed, or excommunicated and deprived of their dignities and benefices, or smitten with any other apostolical pain, if in the apostolical letters there be not full and express mention made, word for word, of such an indulgence. Thou, therefore, my dearly beloved son, undertaking with a devout mind the charge of such a meritorious work, shew yourself diligent, solicitous, and careful in word and deed to execute it, so that from your labours, attended with the divine favour and grace, the expected success and fruits may follow ; and that, by your solicitude, you may not only merit for reward the glory which is bestowed on those who are employed in designs and affairs of piety, but also that you may obtain, and not undeservedly, the more abundant commendations from us, and from the apostolic see, on ac- count of your most exact diligence and faithful integritv. FOU EXTIRPATING THE VAUDOIS. 319 And, because it may be difficult to transmit tliese present letters to all places where they may be necessary, we will, and by apostolical authority appoint, that, to a copy which may be taken and subscribed by the hand of any public no- tary, and attested by the subscription of any ecclesiastical prelate, entire faith may be given, and that it should be held as valid, and the same regard paid to it as to the ori- ginal letters, if they had been produced and shewn. Given at Rome, at St Peter's, in the year of the incarna- tion of our Lord 1477, the 5th of the kal. of May, in the third year of our pontificate. This monument of Papal bigotry achieved its object — a crusade commenced against the Waldenses, by which they were annihilated. Wlien we think of the melancholy fate of this martyi-ed Christian people, we are led to ex- claim, in the pathetic language of Milton, — " Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lye scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ; Even them who kept th}- truth so pure of old. When all our fathers worshijjped stocks and stones, Forget not ; in thy book record their groans — Slain by thy bloody Piedmontese, who roU'd Mother with infant down the rocks ; their moans The vales redoubled to the hills, and they To heaven." Tlie prayer will be heard : — the time is at hand when tJie millions of the " excellent ones of the earth " whom Popery hath martyred, shall be avenged. For thus spake the voice from heaven : — " Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remem- bered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded 320 BULL OF POPE INNOCENT VIII. you, and double unto her double, according to her works : in the cup which slie hath filled, fill to her double. How much she liath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her; for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sor- row. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and moiu-ning, and famine ; and she shall be utterly burned with fire : for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." Rev. xviii. 4-8. p. NEILL, PRINTER. ..OLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRAF^IES Jt K WiJf » i*.'i"l*- Ci*^! -■•Vv ^^T * ■ ^>^ ** 1 C-*- i^'/ '^."^ ^'4' x-'^.- K' i^' '/-'▼, •'^« fNJ 00 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^K ' '