J Columbia (BnitJer^ttp THE LIBRARIES a^^i^-e^. MONKS, POPES, AND Their Political Intrigues, nr JOHN ALBERCtER. *^ Like latnbs have zue crept into pcnuer ; like wolves have lue used it ; like dogs have lue been driven otit ; like eagles shall lue rene^u our youths — St. Francis Borgia. ^^ Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty ^ — Washixgtox. \2r e:N^E '\^xi!L;\jj^i^, IJALTIMOKK: 1871. 73G ^^^-i'liii Entered according to Act of Congress in the j-enr 1871, hy JOnX ALBEKGER, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. PB E FA CE, The object of the present work is to show tlie political nature of the Catholic church, and its treasonable designs with regard to the American republic. In the course of the following pages the author has endeavored to show that the Catholic Church is intrin- sically a gigantic conspiracy against the liberties of the world; ingenious in its construction, opulent in its re- sources, extensive in its ramifications, and formidable in its character. In proof of this assertion he submits to the consideration of the reader a mass of irrefragable authority, and indisputable historical incidents. The authorities on which he chiefly relies are papal bulls, briefs, and encyclical letters; the canons of Catholic councils ; Catholic periodicals under the supervision of priests, such as the Civita CattoUca, Bro7iso7is Eevicw, the Boston Fllot, the Tablet, the Bamhlcr, the Shepherd of the Valley, the Faris Univcrs; also the works of Dens, the author of the Catholic system of Divinity; of Llorente, the secretary of the Spanish Inquisition; of Bellarmine, the celebrated Catholic controversialist; 0^ Ferraris, the author of the Catholic Ecclesiastical PKEFACE. Dictionary ; of Fra Paola, tlie Catholic ecclesiastical historian ; of St. Thomas Aquinas, entitled hy the church " the Angelic Doctor," " the Angel of the School," *' the Fifth Doctor;" of St. Bernard, called " the Honeyed Teacher" and his works " Streams from Faradise ;" of Labbeus, of St. Liquori, of Moscovius, and of a host of other oracles of Catholicism. By means of these authorities the veil of piety which conceals and decorates the papal church is partly drawn aside, and her monarchial character, political organiza- tion, despotic nature, ambitious designs and treasonable principles, are distinctly presented to view. The author pretends to no originality. The diction and logic are, of course his own, but the facts and prin- ciples upon which he bases his charges are the avowals of the church, the records of history, and the official affirmations of civilized nations. The Infidels, as faithful sentinels on the watch tower of liberty, have often uttered the cry of warning ; the Protestant pulpit has at intervals startled from its drowsy slumbers, and echoed the same alarm ; but nei- ther the one nor the other has been able to arouse the people from their profound slumber. Gavazzi has lec- tured, Hogan, Colton, Hopkins have written, but so profound and death-like is the torpidity which holds the senses of Americans in indifference, that the warn- ings of writers and speakers have died away with the PREPACE. tones in which they were uttered. But Americans must awake — thej will awake — if not soon enough to avert the impending doom overhanging their country and their posterity, yet soon enough 1 alas, too soon ! to weep in despair over their present apathy and indijSfer- ence, amid the ruins of their republic, JOHN ALBERGER, Baltimoke, Md.^ Julj^ 4th, 1871, CO 2^'' TEN TS. CHAPTER I. Catholicism a Political Organization. , . 6 CHAPTER II. Political Machinery of the Papal Power, , . 15 CHAPTER III. Monastic Vow of Perpetual Solitude, • . 22 CHAPTER IV. Monastic Vow of Perpetual Silence, . . 32 CHAPTER V. Vow of Silent Contemplation. Part First, . 40 " Second, . 46 " Third, . 35 CHAPTER VI. Monastic Vow of Poverty, . . .85 CHAPTER VII. Monastic Vow of Celibacy, . . . 100 CHAPTER VIII. Monastic Vow of Unconditional Obedience, . 129 CHAPTER IX. Pagan Origin of the Monastic Orders, . . 136 CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. Popes — tlielr Pretensions, Elections, Character and Administrations, . . . . 153 CHAPTER XI. The Papal Monarchy — Crown, Banner, Cabinet, Court, Decrees, Jurisdiction, Coinage, Army and Navy, Eevenues, Oaths and Spies, . . 181 The Papal Monarchy. Section Two. The Pope's Direct Authority ; his Opposition to Marriage ; to Slavery ; his Claim to Temporal Power on the Forged Decretal Letter of Constantino ; on the Fictitious Gift of Pepin ; on the Pretended Donation of Charlemagne ; on the Disputed Bequest of Matilda, Duchess of Tuscany ; the Title of Pope a Usurpation ; the Papal Artful Policy; the State of Italy under the Papal Government, ..... 207 CHAPTER XII. Papal Political Intrigues in England — Papal Machinery ; Intrigues under the Keigns of Henry II. ; of King John ; of Henry VII. ; of Charles I. ; of Charles II. ; of James II. ; of William and Mary, . . . .226 CHAPTER XIII. Papal Political Intrigues in France — During the Keigns of Clovis ; of Childeric III. ; of Pepin ; of Charlemagne; of Hugh Capet; of Philip IV.; of Louis XII.; of Francis I. ; of Francis II. ; of Charles IX. ; of Henry IV. ; of Louis XIII. ; of Louis XIV., . . . .256 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIV. Papal Political Intrigues in Germany — Under the Peigns of Otho I.; of Henry IV.; of Henry V. ; of Frederic I. ; of Frederic II. ; of Conrad IV.; of Albert I.; of Henry VII. ; of Louis of Bavaria; of Charles IV.; of Sigismund ; of Charles V. ; of Ferdinand II.; Papal Intrigues in Austria ; in Prussia ; and in the Nether- lands, 289 CHAPTER XV. Papal Political Intrigues in Portugal and Spain — Under the Peigns of Alphonso I. ; Sancho II. ; Dionysus ; John II. ; Emanuel ; John III. ; Sebastian ; Philip II. ; Joseph I. ; Maria Fran- cesca Isabella ; John VI. ; Pedro VL ; and Dona Maria, - ... 323 In Spain — Under the Peigns of Recared L; Charles V.; Philip II.: Philip IIP; Charles II.; Charles III.; Charles IV.; and Ferdi- nand VII, . . . . .336 CHAPTER XVI. Papal Intrigues Respecting the United States ; Catholic Persecution ; Protestant Persecution ; Catholics in the Revolutionary War ; in the late Rebellion ; Catholic Enmity to Civil and Religious Liberty ; an Alliance formed for the Subversion of the American Republic ; the Duke of Richmond's Letter; Catholic Immi- gration ; Progress of Catholicism ; the Repub- lic in Imminent Danger ; Union the Only Means of Salvation; Conclusion, , , . 348 CHAPTER I. Catholicison a Political Organization, GuizoT, speaking of the Christian Church, says: "I say the Christian Church, and not Christianity, between which a broad distinction is to be made." (Gen. Hist. Civilization, Lecture 11, p. 48.) The Catholic Church has little except the name of Christianity, w^hile it is secretly a political organization to establish *' the suprem- acy of the Pope over all persons and things," which, according to Bellarmine's view, "is the main substance of Christianity." If w^e have recourse to the lexicon to ascertain the signification of the term religion, we may arrive at a definite conclusion respecting its classical use : but if we are guided in our inquiry by the popular acceptation, we will discover that its definitions are as numerous as the inhabitants of the globe, and as various as their fea- tures. We have Natural religion. Pagan religion, Hin- doo religion, Jewish religion, Christian religion, and Mahometan religion. Among Christian sects some be- lieve religion to consist in individual feeling, some in baptism, some in reverence for the clergy, some in problematical creeds and dogmas, some in observances of church ordinations, some in rhapsodies, and some in a species of sentimentalism. The Boston Pilot says: "There can be no religion without an Inquisition ;" but Thomas Paine, with nobler philosophy, thinks "religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fel- 1* 6 CATHOLICISM A low creatures happy." The diversity and discordance which have arisen respecting the import of this term, originate from its compound nature adapting it to desig- nate one idea, or a variety of ideas. But while we rarely encounter two persons exactly concurring in an opinion of what is religion, we find all readily admitting that it essentially consists in just principles and correct conduct. Principles are the fountains of thought and feeling; to be just, they must be formed in accordance with truth and reason. Conduct to be correct must be in harmony with the rights of others, and the principles and designs of the human organism. According to this definition, religion may exist with or without ceremonial observ- ances. All forms are merely external appendages, un- essential to the nature of religion, and as distinct from it as the casket is from the gem, or the body from the vital principle. If this definition should be construed into a definition of mere morality, it cannot invalidate any objection founded on it to Catholicism, as every such objection will then become demonstrative proof that the Catholic Church is not only destitute of reli- gion, but even of morality. The signification of a corporate organization is well understood, but how shall we ascertain its principles and designs ? Not from the tenor of its professions ; but from the nature of its constitution, the tendency of its measures, the sanctions which it has given, the recogni- tions which it has made in its official capacity ; and above all, from the avowals it has uttered, under such a prosperous condition of affairs as made disguise unne- cessary. In courting popular favor, an organization concocted to subvert the rights and interests of the POLITICAL OKGANIZATIOX. 7 people, would, from, motives of policy, be prompted to conceal its nature and design ; but when wealth and power had sufficiently fortified its security to enable it to scorn and defy public opinion, it would then as naturally unfold its latent principles, as a summer's sun would hatch an innocently loooking cluster of eggs into a nest of poisonous asps. If among the members of an organization, which pro- fesses to be of an exclusively religious character, men should be found who are unquestionably religious or moral, this fact would no more prove it to be a religious or moral institution, than would the membership of the same persons to a railroad or municipal corporation prove such a corporation to be a religious and not a secu- lar organization. But if at periods in its history, its most irreproachable and credible members should denounce it as a political power, and labor to transform it into a purely religious institution, and for such a /' damna- ble heresy" were burnt alive, and their ashes thrown into a river to prevent the people from worshipping them, what would be the legitimate inference from such facts ? Would it not be that it claimed to be a political organization ? that it was high treason in its estimation to question its right to this character ? and that to utter such a question in its domains was to provoke its heaviest penalty? Did not all these facts occur in Ptome respecting Arnold of Brecia ? And in Catholic history have not similar facts, from his time down to the Reformation, been incarnadined in human blood, too deeply for audacity to deny or time to obliterate ? But what is a religious organization ? If religion is moral goodness, a religious organization must be an em- CATHOLICISM A bodiment of its principles, a practical exemplification of its maxims, and a scheme in measures and policy- adapted to extend the observance of its obligations. Such an organization must be consistent with itself, and in harmony with the natural j)rinciples of man. In integrity it must be invulnerable ; in adherence to right inflexible; in hostility to wrong, uncompromising. It must be the champion of the rights of human nature ; the friend of freedom, equality and liberality ; the enemy of bigotry, intolerance, and despotism. Its claims must be commended by truth; its measures sanctioned by reason and conscience ; its triumphs won by argument and persuasion. Its hands must be unstained with blood. It must never perpetrate a fraud, nor descend to intrigue, nor dissemble, nor cherish malice, nor slan- der an ojDponent, nor traffic for self-aggrandizement, nor prostitute its principles to political objects, nor accom- modate itself to the vices of any age or country. Amid general corruption it must always be pure, amid bigotry it must always be tolerant, amid oppression it must always advocate the cause of justice, and amid ignorance the cause of education. Such are some of the essential characteristics of a religious or moral organization. Any departure from them in an institution, proves its secularism. No church in which they form not a distinguishing feature, has any claims to be a religious or moral corporation. Now w^hen we see an institution, professing to be of an exclusively religious character, organizing its depart- ments upon a financial basis; enjoining on its members the vow of unconditional obedience, in order to subject them to its despotic domination; the vow of absolute POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. » poverty, in order to enable them more successfully to administer to the increase of its wealth; the vow of celibacy, in order to prevent them from having legiti- mate heirs, to divert the ecclesiastical possessions from the church ; when we see it establishing schools to select and mould to its designs the most promising among youth, instituting universities to enrich itself by the sale of their honors, absolving sins for money, selling indul- gences for the commission of premeditated crime, erect- ing missionary stations among Pagans for the purpose of traffic and emolument, manufacturing evidence, com- mitting forgeries, and corrupting and interpolating the text of ancient authors, denouncing reason, crushing liberty, circumscribing knowledge, anathematizing those who disbelieve in its arbitrary dogmas, torturing those who question its supreme authority, burning those who oppose its pretensions ; having a national cab- inet, ministerial offices, accredited ambassadors, main- taining a standing army, a naval force, religious military orders to extend and enlarge its domains, carrying a national banner, wearing a political crown, declaring war, concluding national covenants, coining money, and exercising all the rights of an acknowledged inde- pendent monarchy, it is more than credulity can admit, to concede that such an organization is not a corrupt, cruel, despotic, and political institution. That such is the constitution of the Catholic Church is a fact, attested by the existing Papal Government, and by the spirit and acts of its past history ; and that it is now what in the past it has been, is established by the unanimous testi- mony of its acknowledged expounders. Simplicity has been amused by modern Catholic apol- 10 CATHOLICISM A ogists, wJio assert that the Papal monarch has resigned his former pretensions to universal temporal sovereignty, and that he now merley maintains his right to supreme spiritual authority. But this subterfuge can mislead only a superficial, ignorant mind. As spiritual sovereignty is absolute dominion over reason and conscience, it una- voidably involves temporal sovereignty ; nay, temporal sovereignty of the most despotic and unlimited authori- ty. Eeason and conscience lay at the foundation of all political power ; and if Catholicism is adapted to govern them, it transcends in despotism the most ingeniously contrived monarchy that tyranny has ever elaborated, or by which the faculties of man have ever been en- thralled. Spain, Russia, or any other government is less tyrannical in its constitution than is the Catholic Church. He who would establish the contrary opinion, must first obliterate the Papal bulls, the decrees of the Councils, and the authorities of the Catholic Church; he must go to Pome and convert the present Pope and his college of Cardinals ; nay, he must attend the coming CEcumenical Council and induce it to annul the canons of all the previous Councils, and to declare that all the preceding Popes were " damnable heretics," and have them accordingly excommunicated. These preliminary steps must be taken before he can avoid absurdity or the imputation of wilful prevarication. But the Papal See has never resigned its preposterous claim to universal temporal sovereignty. The bulls and canons asserting this pretension have never been an- nulled. They still form the canon law of the Church. No ofiicial declaration has announced an abrogation of them. The Pope's reiterated and blasphemous claim to POLITICAL 0RGANIZATI0I7. 11 infallibility precludes the possibility of such a sensible act. Infallibility is inconsistent witli change of prin- ciple or error of conduct, and when the Church of Rome arrogates such a divine attribute, she avers that her past history indicates her present character and future in- tentions. In this opinion all her authorities concur. Bishop Kendrick says : " All doctrine of definitions already made by general Councils and former Pontiffs are tnarlcs which no mem can remove.'"' (Primacy, p. 356). Brownson says: "What the Church has done, what she has expressly or tacitly approved in the past, is exactly what she will do, expressly or tacitly approve, in the future, if the same circumstances occur." (Re- view, Jan. 1854). Again : " The Catholic dogma, in regard to every subject whatever, has always been the same from the beginning, remains always unchangeably the same, and will always continue in every part of the world immutable." (Review, Jan., 1850). Again: " Catholicity, as long as it continues Catholicity, cannot be carried to excess. It will be all or nothing." (Re- view, Jan., 1854). The editors of the Civilita Cattolica, the Pope's organ at Rome, say : " From the darkness of the catacombs she ( the Catholic Church ) dictated laws to the subjects of Emperors, abrogating decrees, whether plebeian, senatorial or imperial, when in conflict with Catholic ordinances. To-day, as in all time, the Church commands the spiritual part of man ; and, in ruling over the spirit, she rules the body, rules over riches, over science, over affections, over interests, over associ- ations — rules, in fine, over monarchs and their minis- ters." The Dublin Tablet, Feb. 24, 1865, the accredited organ 12 CATHOLICISM A of Komanism in the British, realm, says : " The Pope is at this moment interfering in Piedmont, defending one class of citizens against the government; and in the House of Representatives (of the United States), a Christian (Mr. Chandler, in his speech, Jan., 1865), denies the right ! Governments may and do prohibit good works, and the Pope interferes. They also com- mit evil, and the Pope interferes ; and good Christians (Catholics) ^r^o' the Topes authority to that of the State. The godless ( non-Catholic ) colleges of Ireland, the troubles of Piedmont, all bear witness against the unchristian opinion." The Paris Univers says : "A heretic examined and convicted by the Church, used to be delivered over to the secular authority to be punished with death. Nothing has appeared to us more neces- sary. More than 100,000 persons perished in conse- quence of the heresy of WicklifFe, and a still greater number for that of John Huss; and it would be im- possible to count the bloodshed caused by Luther, and it is not yet over!' De Pratt, formerly an Abbe of the Pope, says: "The Pope is chief of 150,000,000 of fol- lowers. Catholicism cannot have less than 500,000 ministers. The Pope Commands more subjects than any sovereign — more than many sovereigns together. These have subjects only on their own territory, the Pope commands subjects on the territory of all sovereigns' (Flag of the Union.) But the testimony is voluminous, and I forbear further cj^uotations on this point. To understand, then, the past history of the Catholic Church, is of paramount importance to every freeman. What is it 1 It is the development of her nature. It is the unfolding of her treason to the world. It is un- 2 POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 13 covering the cruelty and despotism concealed under her religious profession. It is the revelation of her animos- ity to the rights of men, to the progress of society, and to the exercise of reason and conscience. It shows her to be a secret political organization, skilfully constructed for the acquisition of supreme political power, and hypo- critically disguised under the semblance of religion. If in her infancy she did not always avow her ambitious designs, she always secretly cherished them ; and, if in her adversity she has moderated her tone, she has not her natural thirst for secular power. As she grew in strength, she grew in arrogance and despotism; and when, by a system of artful intrigues and bold usurpa- tions, she had created a colossal power that overawed the united monarchies of Christendom, she unsheathed the double sword, the symbol of ecclesiastical and polit- ical power, and asserted her right, as Vicar of Christ, to rule with or in preference to Princes, invaded the rights and liberties of independent nations, crowned and uncrowned monarchs, destroyed freedom every- where, anathematized, shackled, tortured and burnt all who opposed her monarchical pretensions. Her trium- . phal processions have been the most magnificent when her hands were the bloodiest, and her Te Deurti was chaunted with the most fervor when the smoke of her stakes ascended in the thickest volumes, and the gore shed by the double sword streamed in the broadest and deepest currents. When Time, the avenger, hurled her from her des- potic throne, she supplicated, because she coukl not command, and moderated her pretensions, because she dare not assert them. But if she presumes not now to 14 CATHOLICISM A POLITICAL OKGANIZATION. tear the crown from the head of the mighty, who would annihilate her for her audacious attempt; if she does not now absolve subjects from allegiance to their gov- ernments, whose artillery, to avenge the insult would be marshalled against her ; if she does not now attempt to burn at the stake those w-ho reject her absurdities, and who w^ould burn her for an attempt — the reason of the extraordinary change in her infallible holiness is palpable. It is not because she has discarded the doc- trines consecrated by so many bulls, battles and trea- ties, but because she cannot carry them out without peril to her existence. But let Brownson, whom Pope Pius IX., in a letter dated April 29, 1854, blessed with an apostolic benediction for services rendered, solve this point. He says: " The Church, who possesses an ad- mirable gift of discretion, has prudently judged that she would not declare all things explicitly from the begin- ning, but at a given time, and in suitable circumstances, would bring into light something which was hitherto in concealment, and covered with a certain obscurity. (Re- view, January, 1854), CHAPTER II. The Political Machinery of the Papal Power, That the Holy Catholic Church is artfully constituted to subjugate all secular and ecclesiastical power under its authority, and that its object is not to advance the interests of moral goodness, but to acquire temporal dominion, must be admitted by every one that fully comprehends the principles upon which its religious Orders are organized. These Orders were founded by Catholic saints and Bishops. They have been con- firmed by Popes and Councils. And though they have been suppressed, on account of their corrupt tendency and political intrigues, in kingdom after kingdom, yet in pontifical bulls they have been defended as being the most useful and pious class of the Catholic community. They may therefore be regarded as having been author- atively acknowledged to be constituted in harmony with the principles and designs of the Catholic Church. In fact they form the body of its organization, as the Pope does its head, and the Councils do its members. In investigating the intrinsic nature of these orders, we are naturally led back to that period of their history which allowed them an unembarrassed development. As they are sanctioned by a church which claims the attribute of infallibility, whatever changes the advance of civilization has effected in them, must be regarded as a mere prudent accommodation to existing circum- stances, to be tolerated no longer than they are impera- tive. If in 1900 the Catholic Church gain the suprem- 16 ' POLITICAL MACHINERY acy in the United States which she hopes to gain, she will restore the despotism and superstition which char- acterized her domination during the dark ages. Pope Gregory XYI. in his Encyclical Epistle of 1832, says : " Ever bearing in mind, the universal church suffers from every novelty, as well as the admonition of Pope St. Agatho, that from Avhat has been regularly defined nothing can be taken away — no innovation introduced there, no addition made, but that it must be preserved untouched as to words and meaning." The religious Orders consist of anchorites, monks, nuns and knights. The anchorites in general lived separ- ately, but sometimes in communities. The nuns lived in perpetual solitude, as also did the monks, with the exception of such as devoted themselves to the adminis- tration of the public affairs of the church. The knights were soldiers of the cross, instituted to defend and propagate the Piomish faith by the force of arms. The orders differed from one another chiefly in the style of their dress, in degrees of rigidness of discipline, and in the assumption of additional vows. They all assumed the vow of absolute poverty, of perpetual celibacy, and of unconditional obedience to the rules of their Order, and to the commands of their superior. Each member was subject to the absolute authority of his superior, who resided in the monastery ; each superior to the ab- solute authority of his general, who resided at Kome, and each general to the absolute authority of the Pope, who was the head and the chief engineer of the Avholo machine. By means of this machinery the monarchi- cal power of the Pope has been, and is still, although the machinery in some places is somewhat damaged, OF THE PAPAL POWEE. 17 exerted in every kingdom, in every republic, in every city, and over every Catholic mind in Christendom. When a novice assumed the monastic vovrs, he be- came the absolute property, or chattel, of the institution which he entered, as irreversibly as if he had signed, sealed, and delivered a deed conveying to it his soul and body. By this act of piety he yielded up his personal freedom, and became ironed with the shackles of an eternal slavery. A culprit might hope for liberty when his time would expire, but the recluse could only expect disenthralment by death. If disappointed in finding the holiness which he fancied to hallow the place, or if, relieved of the misanthropic gloom, the isolating superstition, or the delusive representations which had induced him to enter the monastic walls, he should escape, he was pursued, and if captured remanded back by the civil authorities to the cold solitude of his prison house. Not only have these cruel deeds been perpetrated in the dark ages, but in this age of civiliz- ation — not only in despotic Europe, but in free Amer- ica. True, the civil authority in. Protestant countries has not interfered, but Catholic ingenuity has discov- ered means equally efficacious. How many escaped nuns have unaccountably disappeared from society? "What infamous means have Catholic priests adojDted to fill their nunneries ? A young girl in Baltimore, who had just passed her sixteenth year, was carried to a nunnery, and although her mother and relatives invoked the interposition of the civil authorities, yet they were unable to reclaim her, because she had arrived at age. Who that has any conception of the numerous applica- tions of distracted mothers at the police station-houses 2* 18 rOLITICAL MACHINERY of some of our large cities, for their children, who have mysteriously disapj^eared ; or that has read the account recently published in the New York papers, (of the recovery of the body of a young female who had been drowned, v/hen in one day eight mothers called at the dead-bouse to see if the corpse was not that of a daughter w^hom each had missed), can avoid believing that if the nunneries were open to public inspection, some of these mysteries might be resolved ? After the ceremonies were concluded which sepulchred the novice forever in his monastic cloister, his thoughts, feelings, and desires were henceforth to be regulated, not by the operations of the brain, but by the rules of his Order. The most secret recesses of his mind were to be opened to the inspection of his confessor. For the intrusion of a natural thought he was liable to the infliction of the severest penalty ; and the voice of the superior was the only reason, the only conscience, the only instinct he was at liberty to obey. Subjected to a systematic course of rigid discipline adapted to paralyze reason, suppress conscience and stifle instinct, he became a passionless, soulless, mechanical automaton, as well formed to bless, pray and preach, as to curse, forge and murder, and equally ready to do either at the man- date of his superior. When the superstition of the masses, the ignorance of princes, the ambition of politicians, and the intrigues of the j^riesthood had favored or cultivated the growth of Catholicism until it was matured into a colossal mon- archy, it was discovered that w^hile its centre was in Eome, its branches extended to every section of Chris- tendom. Its monasteries conveniently and strategeti- OF THE PAPAL POWER, 19 cally located in different parts of the world, its confess- ors penetrating the secret designs and wishes of states- men and princes, its spiritual advisers scrutinizing the conduct of opulent and distinguished personagas, its spies, under the license of Papal indulgences, profess- ing all opinions, and entering all associations and socie- ties, and its agents in constant communication with their superiors, their superiors with their generals, and their generals Avith the Pope, and all acting in concert in every part of Christendom toward the accomplishment of one grand design ; the See of Rome became the recep- tacle of accurate accounts of the condition, events and characters of the various sections of the globe, and was capable of improving every occurrence to its best advan- tage, and of commanding in its support the power of every locality. As nothing was too great to transcend its aspirations, so nothing v/as too minute to escape its scrutiny, Monarchs, legislators, judges, jurists, states- men, generals, bankers, merchants, actors, schools, col- leges, men, women, children — all were objects which its spiritual machinery sought to control. Invisible, but omniscient, the Pope was seen nowhere, while his power was felt everywhere. He touched the secret springs of his machinery and the world was roused to arms or silenced to submission; kings were astounded with ap- plauding subjects, or sat powerless on their thrones; armies rushed to battle or grounded their arms ; states- men were blasted, none could tell for what crime ; mis- creants were ennobled, none could tell for what virtue; men's business or domestic affairs were disarranged, none could tell for what cause. So sudden, secret and terrible were the revolutions wrought in the fate of in- 20 POLITICAL MACHINERY dividuals and nations, that they seemed like the venge- ful interposition of Providence, and the mystery which concealed the hidden cause led the ignorant and stupe- fied world to interpret them, under the instruction of a crafty priesthood, as the manifestations of divine wrath. When we calmly consider the disposition of the Catholic organization, it seems that all the inventions of ancient tyranny were condensed in it with improved malignancy. The ambition of Caesar, which hurried him on to the destruction of the liberties of his country, while he imagined the cold hand of his departed mother clasped his heart ; the jealousy of Commodus, who never spared what he could suspect ; the cruelty of Mithri- dates, who fed on poison to escape the secret revenge of his injured subjects; the inhumanity of Caligula, who wished the world had but one neck, that he might cut off its disobedient head at one blow, are, indeed, ter- rible examples of despotism, but they were limited to one nation, and left reason and conscience unshackled. But in the Papal organization we find a scrutiny which penetrated all secrets, a despotism that ironed reason and conscience, an ambition that grasped heaven and earth, a malignity that blasted for time and eternity — a policy in which all the elements of bigotry, terror, mal- ice, duplicity and obduracy were incorporated in their most frightful proportion. Before this conception we might well shudder, for its irons are secretly manacling our own limbs. Its triumphs, written in the blood of the millions it has butchered, commemorated by the monuments of ecclesiastical rubbish which it has erected, seen in the gloom of superstition it has cast upon the world, utter a solemn admonition to the freemen of OF THE PAPAL POWER. 21 America. Think not that the present attainment in civilization is proof against this boundless Upas — this all-blasting tree, whose sap is poison and whose fruit is death. Think of Egyptian, Asiatic, Grecian civiliza- tion, and tremble lest their fate become your own. Let not confidence beget an apathy that may close the eye of vigilance, or enervate the powers of resistance. Lis- ten to Pope Pius IX. when he declares that " the Cath- olic religion, with its rights, ought to be exclusively dominant, in such sort that every other worship shall be banished and interdicted." Listen to Father Hecker, who says : " The Catholic Church now numbers one- third of the American population, and if its member- ship increase for the next thirty years, as it has for the thirty years past, in 1900 Eome will have a majority, and be bound to take the country and keep it." Read the statistics and learn the fearful probability of the ful- fillment of Hecker's prophesy. Then dream n& more that your liberties are safe. CHAPTER III. The Monastic Vow of Perpetual Solitude. The religious Orders were the fundamental principle of the growth of the Papal monarchy. These orders as- sumed certain tows, the nature and tendency of which we will proceed to investigate in the spirit of candid inquiry. The first vow to which we will invite atten- tion, is the vow of perpetual solitude and seclusion. Although at the first introduction of these monastic orders into the church, this vow, and those which we shall hereafter examine, were not formally assumed, yet they were invariably observed; and in the year 529, under the auspices of St. Benedict, the express assump- tion of them became an indispensable condition of membership. Until the tenth century, the hermits and the Benedictine monks and nuns were the only Catholic Orders that existed ; the former generally, and the latter entirely, lived in solitary seclusion. The devout misanthropy of the hermits induced them to select for their habitations the most gloomy, cheerless, and inhospitable regions they could hunt up. Piously^ scorning the salubrious and magnificent localities, so prodigally furnished by nature, they constructed their huts at the bottom of dismal pits, among the clifi"s of rugged rocks, in barren deserts, and in solitary wilder- nesses. Some lived under trees, others under shelving rocks, some on the top of poles, and others in the deserted caverns of wild beasts. Some buried themselves in the gloomy depth of trackless forests, isolated from hu- SOLITUDE AND SECLUSION. 23 man contiguity, and assimilated in aspect and habits to the brute creation. Their bodies divested of decent apparel, and covered with a profusion of hair, and their aspect horrid and revolting beyond description, the hermits sought to acquire the reputation of saints by attaining the nearest possible approximation to wild beasts. Another class of these eccentric devotees con- structed a number of contiguous dungeons, and formed themselves into a sort of monastic community. In these vaults they imprisoned themselves for life, the door being locked, and sometimes walled up, a small window only was allowed, through which to receive aliment and give pious advice. In these dungeons they manacled their limbs with ponderous chains, encircled their necks with massive collars, and clothed their legs with heavy greaves. In the depth of winter they would immerse themselves in icy water, and sing psalms. To make themselves revolting ; to imitate the habits of wild animals, until they became more horrible, because more unnatural; to subject themselves to vol- untary torture, severe and bloody flagellations, were deemed the highest acts of piety. Whatever conspired to comfort they considered profane ; w^hatever was pleas- urable they avoided as sinful ; and whatever was ab- surd, filthy, and disgusting, they imagined allied them to gods and angels. St. Anthony, who was so holy that he never w^ashed himself, nor wore any apparel except a shirt, was canonized by the Catholic Church for his extraordinary attainment in sanctification. The appro- bation which the church so readily conferred on oddity and singularity might at the first appear surprising, but when we recollect the immense pecuniary and 24 MONASTIC VOW OF political advantage slie derived from them, we will no longer doubt her motive, nor avaricious sagacity. A singular custom suggested by this ludicrous institution may be worthy of a passing notice. The abbots of the monasteries, in order to dispose of a brother abbot, whose celebrity surpassed their own, or whose circum- ventive genius they feared, or who had excited their suspicion, jealousy or revenge, would congregate together, and declare that the fated brother had arrived at a degree of sanctification that better qualified him for the hermit's cell than for an abbotship of a monastery, and that to protect him from the contamina- tion of the world, and to enable him to perfect his holi- ness, it was necessary to wall him up in eternal seclu- sion. In accordance with this pious regard for their brother's sanctity, they adapted summary measures for its forcible execution. Silence, gloom and solitude, according most congeni- ally with the designs of the monastic institutions, they were generally located in sterile wastes, dense and trackless forests, and other localities adapted to excite the sensation of loneliness, dreariness and desolation ; but when secular considerations suggested they occu- pied picturesque and luxuriant localities, commanding the sublimest prospects of Nature. These edifices, which often rivalled gorgeous palaces, were nothing but religious penitentiaries, in which the inmates endured all the privations, and were shackled with all the irons with which criminals are punished in ordinary penal institutions ; and though they were ostensibly constructed for religious purposes, they were really de- signed for the infliction of punishment, in accordance PEEPETUAL SOLITUDE. 25 with the ecclesiastical code. "With regard to tliis code Guizot says : '* The Catholic Church did not draw up a code like ours, which took account only of those crimes that are at the same time offensive to morals and dan- gerous to Society, and punishing them only because they bore this two-fold character ; hut prepared a cata- logue of all those actions, criminal more particularly in a moral point of view, and punished all under the name of sins. (Gen. Hist. Civil., Lee. x., p. 118). In what light these religious penitentiaries have been re- garded by their inmates their eternal seclusion has pre- vented them from publicly divulging, but the few who have broken their enthralment, and the "heretics'"' who have been confined in them, have described them as the most intolerable of dungeons. In fact the mod- ern penitentiary system has originated from them.. Guizot thinks this is one of the great blessings which Catholicism has bestowed on society — (see Gen. Hist. Civil., Lect. vi., p. 135). The vow of perpetual seclusion comprises a renuncia- tion of the pleasures and business of life, an abnegation of the claims of consanguinity, friendship and society ; and an abjuration of all filial, parental and natural afi'ection. This vow is in contravention of the obliga- tions imposed on man by Nature, to improve society by contributing to the advancement of its financial, social, political and scientific welfare. It precludes the exer- cise, and consequent development, of the varied powers of the human organism. It surrenders the personal re- finement and moral strength which may be acquired by social intercourse, and conflict with opposing habits and principles. It ignores the imperative duty of under- 3 26 MONASTIC VOW OF standing and judiciously relieving liuman want and misery, and of aiding the execution of efficient schemes of public utility and philanthropy. It is not only in violation of the obligations of humanity, and the noblest principles of human enjoyment, but it debars the recluse from correcting any error into which he may have been betrayed by false representations, or an over- heated fancy ; or, of modifying his condition according to the change which experience and reflection may have effected in his opinion and feelings. Yet, although such are the absurd nature and injurious consequences of the vow of perpetual seclusion, it is proposed by the church of Rome, as the surest means of obtaining the sancti- fication of the soul and the crown of eternal happiness. If to bury our talents, to wall ourselves up in a dungeon ; to sit for years upon a pole ; to scorn the soci- ety of human beings ; to reject the comforts of civil- ized life ; to retrograde into barbarism ; to assume the habits, and acquire the aspect of wild animals ; to im- prison ourselves where we can never respond to the demands of consanguinity, society, friendship and pa- triotism : where we can never contribute to the knowl- edge, wealth or prosperity of the country of our nativ- ity — if this is religion, then Catholicism has the honor of confirming the most revolting condensation of these monstrosities that has ever disgusted the spirit of civ- ilization. But if religion really consists in fair dealing, in noble deeds, in moral integrity amid moral turpi- tude, in individual purity amid general corruption, in unwavering virtue among the strongest incentives to guilt, then the organization that sanctions vows subvers- ive of these attainments cannot be admitted, con- PERPETUAL SOLITUDE.' 27 slstently with the most indulgent liberality, to be of a religious character. Thus far in our judgment, we have presumed that the novices, in assuming their vow, were actuated by the laudable desire of obtaining the highest degree of moral purity. This worthy ambition was doubtless the governing motive of a proportion of them. Either from the instigations of moral insanity, or from the va- garies of a distempered fancy, or from the misrepresen- tation of artful and designing priests, or from the des- pondency which misfortune is apt to engender in weak, or too sensitive minds, or from a misconception of the natural tendency of solitude, men and women have at times been led to assume the vows, and submit to the penancG prescribed by the religious orders. But there were other motives equally, and perhaps more generally, active. Ludicrous as were their holy isolation and pen- ance, still the sanctity which the monks imitated, and the tortures which they self-imposed, were rewarded by a credulous and superstitious world with profound homage and admiration. By undergoing sufferings which appeared intolerable to human fortitude, they acquired the reputation of being sustained by divine agency ; and, as their popularity increased in propor- tion to their wretchedness, they labored to extend their fame by adding to their misery. Their sufferings and fortitude alike incomprehensible to human reason, an awe-struck fancy betrayed the public into the delusion that what it beheld was the results of superhuman sanctity ; of a sublime elevation above ordinary human- ity ; and of the interposition of divine power. These misconceptions, artfully cultivated by the priesthood, 28 MONASTIC VOW OF extended the fame of the self-tormentors Leyond the celebrity of heroes, poets and philosophers. Kings and queens visited them with superstitious reverence ; states- men consulted them on abstruse questions of govern- mental policy ; peace and war were made at their mandates ; and pilgrims from remote regions bowed at their feet and begged their blessing. Thus favored by the profound homage of all classes of Christendom, they were enabled with more facility than any other profes- sion to become opulent bishops, royal cardinals, or monarchical popes. Such being their eligibility to the honors and emoluments of the spiritual dignities of the church, vanity was quick to perceive that the anchorite's hut and the monk's cloister were the surest paths to universal adulation ; religion, that they were the most respectable methods of becoming honored in life, and worshipped after death ; avarice, that they were ' the most available means of obtaining lucrative positions ; and ambition, that thay were the shortest roads to dig- nity and power. Yv^ith these attractive facts glaring on the eye of sacred aspirants, it requires but little knowl- edge of human nature to conceive with what avidity the ambitious would crowd into the most repulsive cloisters ; with what eagerness they would adopt the revolting habits and ludicrous privations of the recluse ; and with what ingenuity they would indurate and tor- ture the body, in order to win the applause of the world, and the privilege of selecting its most advan- geous positions. Accordingly, monastery after monas- tery arose with sudden and astonishing rapidity, and their cells became supplied — not with aspirants after holiness and heaven — but with aspirants after secular PERPETUAL SECLUSION. 29 and ecclesiastical dignities, and the indolence, luxury, and licentiousness which, they afforded. The pious flattery that was lavished on voluntary suffering, and the distinguished rewards which recom- pensed it, strongly tempted the feeble conscience of monks and hermits, to task their ingenuity in invent- ing contrivances for magnifying the apparent and diminishing the real sufferings of their self-imposed torture. By the aid of an improved invention an artful hypocrite could procure a greater reputation for sanctity than a contrite penitent, and become more eli- gible to the worldly honors and emoluments of the church. St. Simeon Stylites, who sat upon a pole for thirty years, convinced Christendom, by his wonderful absurdity, that he was miraculously supported ; while living he enjoyed its profoundest respect, and when dead was canonized by the Catholic Church. But an observer by describing the numerous gesticulations of this sainted mountebank, diclosed the secret of his arti- fice. By means of a system of gymnastics, he kept up a vigorous circulation of blood through his frame, and thus acqired a health and longevity which would have been incompatible with a state of inactivity. But it appears that he was tormented with an ulcer on the thigh, inflicted by the devil, who had tempted him to imitate Elijah in flying to heaven, but who maliciously smote him upon his raising his foot to make the ascen- sion. His mystical gesticulations not healing, but probably inflaming the wound, may have shortened the natural term of his miserable existence. As he had gradually arisen from a pole of seven feet high to one of fifty feet high, if had not been for his vanity and 3* so MONASTIC VOW OF his evil company he might have gained a still higher position ; but whether by this means he would ever have reached heaven may be questioned by astronomy and heresy : but there is no doubt he acquired by his folly and artifice the beatification of the Catholic Church. The apathy with which the self-tormenters endured their excruciating penance and the severe rigors of the seasons, was chiefly the effect of artificial callousness, induced by an ingenious discipline, calculated to destroy the susceptibility of the nervous system to the influence of external agents. A similar course of training has always been practiced by the religious orders of the Hindoos and the Mohametans, who, like those of the Catholic Church, endure self-imposed torture which seems to surpass human fortitude, and acquire by this species of ambition unbounded popularity. Even the uncleanness of the holy brotherhood was an artifice. It formed a protecting incrustation on the surface of the skin, which, by covering the the papillse, the sentient, organs, or destroying their capacity for sensation, enable the hermits to endure without apparent emotion the cold winters and bleak winds of inhospitable for- ests. This secret is known and practised by some African tribes, upon whom washing is consequently in- flicted as a penalty for crimes. To the eye of supersti- tion, clouded v/ith ignorance, and fascinated by the ignes fatui of sacred fiction, the calmness of the monks and hermits under torments and exposures which seemed insuflferable to humanity, appeared a palpable demon- stration of miraculous interposition, and consecrated them in its estimation. Their acts, however, were as PERPETUAL SEOLUSIOX. 31 mucli tricka as are the mysterious capers of a conjurer. As the more artful and callous could endure the sever- ity of penitential acts with, greater indifference than the candid and sensitive they acquired a higher repu- tation for holiness, advanced to the enjoyment of more distinguished honors, and finally became canonized as paragons of virtue and objects of adoration. Such are the nature and consequences of the vow of perpetual seclusion. Such is a portion of the " doc- trinal definition already made by the general councils and former pontiffs," which, according to Bishop Ken- drick, " are landmarks which no man can remove," (Primacy, p. 356). Such are some of the Catholic dogmas, which, " in regard to every subject whatever,' according to Brownson " have been always the same from the beginning, remain always unchangeably the same, and will always continue in every part of the world immutable." (Review, January, 1850). Such is in part "what the church has done, what she has tacitly or expressly approved in the past," and accord- ing to the same authority "is exactly what she will tacitly or expressly approve in the future, if the same circumstances occur." (Review, January, 1854). " The same citcumstances" is the universal church, which Je- suit Hecker, in his recent speech in Chicago, thinks the United States needs, and which the people (Catholics) will at no distant day proclaim. CHAPTER IV, Tlie Monastic Vow of Perpetual Silence. A vow of perpetual silence was assumed by several religious orders ; but it was observed with different de- grees of austerity. Some monks passed their whole lives in profound silence ; others spoke on certain days of the week ; and others at particular hours of speci- fied days. The modern penitentiary regulations respect- ing the conversation of prisoners seem to have been derived from the singular customs of the dumb brother- hood. The members cf the mute orders, perpetually con- cealing their features with their cowls, and their thoughts by their silence, appear to have concluded that secrecy was the substance of religion. He who could conceal the best, and preserve silence the lojigest, obtained among the devout the useful credit of possess- ing the most grace. The effusion of the Holy Ghost, which, by a prodigal distribution of tongues, and their clashing jargon, had set the primitive ecclesiastical council in an uproar, and which, by its powerfully stimulating qualities had turned so many cities up- side down, had a very different effect on the silent orders of the Catholic Church. AVhile to the former it communicated intuitive knowledge of all languages, to the latter it interdicted as profane the use of any. To pass an entire life without uttering a word, was consid- ered by the dumb friars, as an unquestionable evidence of their having received the unutterable fulness of the PERPETUAL SILENCE. 33 Holy Ghost. "Whether the primitive church and the Catholic orders were blest with the influence of the same Holy Ghost, or whether the divine spirit politely accommodates the nature of his unction to the demands of particular ecclesiastical exigencies, seems to require some proof, before it can be rationally admitted that profound silence and distracting discord are effects of the same cause. But the question of truth and error is of a less intri- cate nature. Truth is candid, open and fearless ; error is hidden, intolerant and cowardly. The one challenges investigation ; the other denounces it ; the one opens its breast to the. scrutinizing gaze of the world ; the other conceals its features from the most intimate associate. If such is the fearlessness of truth, and such the cowardice of error, the secrecy of the silent orders commends them less to the confidence which candor inspires, than to the suspicion which secrecy begets. Secrecy is most generally adopted to cover objection- able designs ; and, the profounder the former is, the more objectionable are the latter. I speak not of the secret signs by which benevolent societies recognize their members, but of those associations which, while they are professedly designed for religious purposes, conceal their principles and projects from public view. Although in some other respects secrecy may sometimes be suggested by discretion, yet it is often suggested by guilt. All that off"end against the natural sentiments of propriety, shrink from the public gaze. Eobbery, murder, and every other infraction of civil ordinations seek to shroud their intentions and machinations in the greatest secrecy. The traitor and the highwayman/ 34 MONASTIC VOW OF afar from the searching scrutiny of the inquisitive, re- tire to solitary forests, inaccessible retreats, and dismal caverns, to hold their conclaves and plot schemes of blood and depredation. Evasion, prevarication and disguise are the inseparable concomitants of guilt. So secret is crime that its perpetration can generally only be established by circumstantial evidence. Secrecy is, therefore, naturally calculated to excite suspicion ; it seldom means good ; it generally means evil ; some- times robbery, frequently murder, often treason, always some ]3lot so antagonistical to reason and the welfare of society that its projectors are conscious that publicity would endanger, and perhaps defeat its execution. The shocking crimes which the pious monasteries con- cealed have frequently been divulged by those who have escaped from their cloisters, but what unutter- able deeds the taciturnity of the mute monks sanctioned may not be so clearly proved as naturally imagined. That it was exceedingly profitable will appear evident upon a moment's reflection. These dumb friars were confessors, and as they never uttered a word, they ac- quired the confidence of the most desperate criminals. The Jesuits, who could not disclose the startling secrets of their order without alarming the fears of temporal princes, confessed to none but to the silent monks. All the devout who contemplated the commission of the crimes of murder, sedition, or treason, preferred to un- bosom their designs to the taciturn fraternity, and re- ceive through their agency the absolution and indulg- ence of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. But the connivance of the church at criminal deeds could be commanded only by the power of gold ; and the amount TERPETUAL SILENCE. 85 requisite for expiation was always in proportion to tKe atrociousness of the crime. Now, as the commission of the highest misdemeanors most imminently endangered the life and liberty of the perpetrators; it is as easy to see the munificent pecuniary advantages which perpet- ual silence obtained for the monks, as it is to see that the most flagitious criminals would prefer disclosing their intentions to the most silent lips. It may here be remarked, by way of explanation, that confessors are not bound, as is generally supposed, to inviolate secrecy. The secrets of the confessional may be communicated from one priest to another ; and, when a confessor desires to make public use of any in- formation which has been confessed to him, he adopts the artifice of requesting the informer to communicate the matter to him out of the confessional. The dumb friars, not less artful than secret, elabor- ated a system of sacred gesticulations, by which they managed to express their wants and desires with as much force as they could have done with their tongues. Although grimace and gesticulation were more clumsy and less varied in their signs than is vocal articulation, yet by this means the dumb monks contrived, as occa- sion suggested, to describe, command, supplicate, scorn, imprecate, curse or bless. This odd device was well adapted to the non-committal policy of the religious orders, as it enabled them to aflirm, deny, impugn, slan- der ; to threaten any dignity, anathematize any power, and commit any crime of which language is capable, without incurring responsibility, violating any legal enactment, rendering themselves amenable to any tribu- nal, or answerable for the breach of any code of honor. 36 MONASTIC VOW OF The adoption of this ingenious device to avoid com- pliance with unnatural obligations, affords an instance of the singular duplicity into which the subtilty of pi- ous craft may betray human nature. The misfortune of being born a mute is justly classed among the most deplorable calamities that can afflict a human being. The natural privations of such a person elicit in his favor the condoling sympathies of all considerate per- sons. Yet in order to accomplish secret purposes of ambition or cupidity, the dumb monks resigned the most important advantages with which Nature had en- riched them, and gratuitously assumed all the disad- vantages that the greatest calamity could have imposed. If there was nothing reprehensible in the taciturn fra- ternity but this curious departure from the natural use of the human faculties, it alone would be sufficient to subject them to the suspicion of the candid, and the aversion of the prudent. The tongue, it must be confessed, is sometimes an un- ruly member, but it is also the noblest blessing of the human organism. It is among the most prominent characteristics that distinguish the human from the brute creation. It is mostly by the means of the judi- cious employment of speech that the ignorant are in- structed, the afflicted consoled, and the cause of truth and freedom defended. It is by it that error is detected, vice intimidated, and superstition and despotism are exposed. The interchange of opinion, the animating power of debate, the searching inquisition of truth, the spontaneous sallies of wit, the exhilarating effusions of humor, the burst of eloquence, the lore of philosophy, art, science, all the natural overflowing of the soul, find TERPETUAL SILENCE. 37 in the varied and expressive functions of speecli tlieir most available avenues for the outlet of their respective treasures. Speech is a reflective blessing; it blesses him who exercises it, and him upon whom it is ex- ercised. None can use with propriety their vocal powers without improving them; none can instruct without being instructed; none can advocate truth without being enlightened by its beams. It is a means which all possess of imparting consolation ; w^hich en- riches the more prodigally it is dispensed ; which the poorest may bestow on the richest ; which is always the cheapest, often the most valuable, and sometimes the only one that can avail. When speech is free and un- trammeled by the fetters of intolerance, it is the most efficacious mode of improving the moral and intellectual tone of society. It is more powerful than legal enact- ments, and has been more successful than dungeons, racks, and all the prescriptions of tyranny combined. Laws may interdict and gibbets terrify, but neither can convince the understanding, nor purify the sources of action. But freedom of speech enters the soul, con- verses with the intellect, sifts opinions, and moulds the nature of man into order and justice. She enters the halls of legislation and erects right into law. She enters the court and gives equity to judicial proceed- ings. She enters a community and breaks the irons of slavery, bestows equality on all, and enthrones in power public opinion. She enters a nation of slaves and makes them a nation of sovereigns. She is the great redeemer of the moral world. Her touch has healed its disorders ; her voice has calmed its storms ; her spirit has reanimated its dead. Such being her mission, 4 38 MONASTIC VOW OF none but impostors need fear her scrutiny ; none but bigots need dread her vengeance ; none but tyrants need tremble at her approach. Yet, notwithstanding the immense advantages the power of speech confers on its possessors, the silent monks have resigned all right to its use and sought an equality with dumb brutes. Whatever motives of religion may have mingled with the consumma- tion of this atrocious folly, it atones not for the good it has prohibited the monks from doing, nor the luxurious pleasure it has obliged them to forego. If it is consist- ent with the secret designs of any religious order to iron the faculties of speech in eternal silence, it is not consistent with the designs of Nature, the dictate of reason, nor the progress of man. If it is consistent with the obligations of any religious organization to prohibit the exercise of those powers by which error is checked, truth promoted, virtue fortified, and the world en- lightened, it is not consistent with the obligations of man, the purest instincts of his being, and the noblest virtues of his nature. If it is consistent with the prin- cijjles of any version of religion to view with dumb in- difference the errors it might correct, or the sorrows it might heal, it is not consistent with the instinctive ^ prompting of knowledge or of natural sympathy. And if such designs, obligations and principles are consistent with the faith and practice of the Catholic Church, she is a curse to the world, at variance with the general interests of society, opposed to the most sacred rights of man, an enemy to human knowledge, to human pro- gress, and to human sympathy. A slavery so abject, an absurdity so gross, and a despotism so monstrous, PERPETUAL SILENCE. 39 as that whicK she sanctions, should consign her rev- erence to contempt, and her holiness to the scorn and ridicule of all enlightened nations and ages. * CHAPTER Y. The Monastic Vow of Silc7it Coiiterrvplatioji . 37npi PAKT FIRST Meditation not the Source of Knowledge. Similar in nature to the vow of seclusion and silence, and equally incompatible with a fulfilment of the obli- gations of reason and humanity, was the vow of silent contemplation assumed by many of the religious orders. Meditation, abstractly considered, is neither a virtue nor a vice. It derives its merit or demerit from the objects on which it dwells, and the manner in w^hich it employs its faculties. The mind receiving its impres- sion from external objects, and their vividness and profundity being in proportion to the constancy with which they are contemplated, we as naturally become enlightened by what is true, expanded by what is lib- eral, and animated by what is pleasing, as we are misguided by w^hat is erroneous, contracted by w^hat is illiberal, and depressed by what is gloomy. Amid objects of reality, amid scenes of grandeur, where the subjects are the most numerous and varied, and where the faculties are cawakened to their severest and most rigid scrutiny, is the great college in which the under- standing is invigorated and improved ; in which the fancy is ennobled and chastened ; in which the mind acquires those maxims of wisdom, and that ascend- SILENT COXTEMPLATIOX. 41 ency over impulse and illusion Avhicli enable it to act in conformity with the principles of happiness and of the human organism. The process of meditation is the act of comparing facts, deducing conclusions, analyzing compounds, and tracing the chain of cause and effect. Knowledge is the material with which it works ; and, in proportion to its accuracy and extent, will be the value and greatness of our elaborations. But the processes of meditation are not adapted to the acquisition of knowledge. None are so absurd as to expect to obtain a knowledge of grammar, arithmetic, history, astronomy, or of the laws and properties of matter, by the mere exercise of the contemplative powers. To retire into solitude, and endeavor by the guess-work of meditation to acquire even a knowl- edge of the alj)habet, would be as ridiculous as to attempt to make our feet perform the ofBce of our hands. Not less absurd would it be, were we to im- mure ourselves in the gloom and silence of perpetual confinement, avoiding the objects of Nature and an in- tercourse with society, with the expectation that by such means, though we possessed the penetration of a Locke, the intellect of a Gibbon, or the versatility of a Voltaire, to acquire anything but profound ignorance ; or any ideas but what were unnatural, distorted and misshapen. To obtain knowledge we must exercise the perceptive faculties. The senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching are the only avenues by which knowledge can reach the mind. He whose observation has been the most comprehensive, and whose investiga- 4* 42 MONASTIC VOW OF tiong have been the most thorough and accurate, is enabled to exercise the contemplative powers with the .greatest pleasure and advantage. The distinct and graphic imagery of men, scenes, events, objects and their properties, with which he has stored his mind, will give correctness to his ideas, variety to his mental opera- tions, comprehensiveness to his intellectual view, clear- ness to his judgment, and truth to his conclusions. Possessing the elements of correctness, he will also possess the elements of happiness and success. He is enabled to open the volume of Nature, and read, in her pages of rocks and stars, sublimer periods than the pen of superstition ever recorded. He stands perpetually in the vestibule of truth, opening on the fields of im- mensity, strewed with objects of reality, before the blaze of ^vhose overpowering grandeur the throne and empire of fancy dwindle into insignificance. He is enabled to imbibe the fervor, inhale the inspiration, and enjoy the ecstatic delights which scientific truth alone can confer, and which in intensity and purity so far transcend the fanatic's wildest excitement. He is inducted into the secret by which science has achieved all her victories, and by which she has erected in such solid grace and grandeur those literary and philosoph- ical structures which stand like imperishable columns amid the ruin of temples and kingdoms. But the acquisition of these exalted attainments em- braces the exercise of all the intellectual power on ap- propriate objects. The mental, like the corporeal pow- ers, are various ; they are differently organized and adapted to deal with objects of different natures; and, all require to be exercised judiciously, in order to be SILENT COKTEMPLATIOK 4a kept in a healthy tone. If any member of the body is disused, it will be deprived of its natural energy ; if any faculty of the mind is disused, it will lose its natural strength. It is only when each faculty of mind and body is properly exercised that the health and vigor of the whole organism can be maintained. The physiological cause of the enervating effects of indo- lence, and the invigorating consequences of exercise, are found in those laws of the human organism, whereby the blood is increased in a member by exercise, and de- creased by inertia, and a proportionable degree of strength imparted by one and, subtracted by the other. Now, the faculties employed in the process of medita- tion, comprehend but a small number of the mental powers ; and if they are exclusively exercised, a super- abundant volume of blood will be distributed to them, and they will absorb the aliment necessary for the sub- sistence of the others. The establishment of this in- equality in the distribution of the blood will derange the harmonious condition of the cerebral organs ; some will be overcharged, and either inflamed or constipated, and others impoverished or enervated. One class of the mental powers thus becoming over-excited, another class enfeebled, and a third paralyzed, the ideas which the mind, in this condition, is capable of elaborating, must necessarily be partial, defective, disjointed and grotesque; resembling those nightmares that flit in our sleep, or those monsters which are born without limbs, and marked with deformity and distortion. But when all the moral faculties are properly employed, they will all receive their appropriate nourishment and maintain their natural vigor. In consequence of a harmony, 44 MONASTIC VOW OF equality, unity and reciprocity of mental action, thus induced, all tlie powers will be preserved in healthy action — the perceptives in furnishing the mind with knowledge, memory in storing it up, order in classify- ing it, analogy in comparing it, judgment in deducing conclusions from it, taste iu selecting what is most appropriate, fancy in adorning it; and all proceeding as naturally as the vital organ elaborates and vitalizes the blood, and the reproductive system transforms it into animal fluids and solids. But the partial exercise of the mental faculties, em- braced in the act of meditation, not only disproportion- ately develops the cerebral organs ; but deranges those which it labors to keep in incessant activity. A period of rest after labor is indispensable to the maintenance of the health and vigor of the cerebral organs. Exer- cise increases the flow of blood to their parts ; repose, by inducing the process of recuperation, not only re- stores their vigor but increases their healthy volume. The invigorating efl'ect of sleep is derived from the profound slumber into which all the faculties are calmed, except those whose functions are destined to recuperate and vitalize the entire system. To labor to keep the meditative faculties in constant action is to interrupt the process of recuperation ; and, consequent- ly, to prevent them from becoming vitalized. The man who attempts to lift a weight beyond the capacity of his - muscular vigor, may never afterward be enabled to raise the tenth part of what was within his former ability ; and Sir Isaac Newton, whose powers of con- templation seemed almost superhuman, after he had enervated his faculties by impelling them to constant SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 45 and excessive exercise, has furnished the -world with an illustration of the imbecility it engendered, by his works on the prophecies. But the principle of self-preservation inherent in the human mind, rebels against the destruction of its facul- ties. Habitually to exercise the contemplative faculties on one class of objects is a superhuman task. In spite of resistance the blood will pursue its natural course to the different organs of the brain, and by virtue of this fact, in conjunction with the natural condition of the system, instinct will prompt, thought intrude, emotion arise, appetite crave, passion yearn, distraction ensue ; and under the external semblance of sanctity, a moral volcano will burn and heave. We may, by means of the theological subterfuge that the involuntary actions of the cerebral functions are the suggestion of impure and malignant fiends, apologize to our conscience for the intrusion of profane and worldly thoughts, but this device will not exorcise them. ^Ye shall find that in the effort to become automata, wo are men ; and that in the attempt to exercise one class of faculties and to con- centrate : them perpetually on one class of objects, we have grappled with a giant, over whom, if we triumph it will be in our death-struggle. It -is impossible to think and feel by rule. Neither particular trains of thought, nor particular kinds of emotion are at the command of the will. Belief or unbelief, the sensations of contrition, of devotion, of hope, or any other sentiment or feeling can no more be created by an act of volition, than can storms and earthquakes. There is a secret power acting on the nervous system, over which the will has no control. 46 MONASTIC VOW OF The state of the atmosphere, the sanity of the system, the unconscious power of imbibed principles, the recol- lections of the past, the circumstances of the present, and the prospects of the future, all like unseen spirits stir the soul's depths with ideas and passions, always involuntary, and sometimes as abruptly as an electri- cal flash. To attempt to subject the laws by which ideas and emotions are created to the power of the will, so that they may be conjured and shaped by its mand- ates, is to war, not only against the constitution of the human mind, but against the powers and elements of Nature. PART SECOND. The Natural Effects of the Monastic Vow of Silent Con- templation. Let us consider the character and products of the mind which the monastic vow of silent contemplation is cal- culated to create. "When liberal education has disciplined the intellectual powers, and study has enriched the mind with the facts and principles of science and literature, a philosopher may find in solitude an influence congenial to his high pursuits ; and with his scientific instruments enlarging his field of vision, he may discover new secrets in the realms of Nature, and come forth from retirement a more useful member and a brighter ornament of society. But if with distinguished abilities, and the valuable results of an erudite industry, he should maintain per- petual silence, and continue for life in a secluded abode, SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 47 he would be of no benefit to mankind, and neither "win nor deserve the homage which they accord to scientific benefactors. But the monks were very far from being philoso- phers. They were in general exceedingly illiterate. Some of their orders actually interdicted as profane any attempt to cultivate the intellectual powers, or to ac- quire either scientific or literary information. Filled with abject and obscene pilgrims, with slaves who knew of nothing but manual labor, with mechanics whose scanty wages had precluded the possibility of a rudi- mental education, with soldiers who had no knowledge but that of war, and who had fled before the victorious barbarian into obscurity for safety, it could not be ex- pected that the monasteries with such material, im- prisoned in solitude, deprived of social communion, enervated in mental capacity, and restricted in the exercise of their intellectual powers, could ever give birth to philosophers, or to anything but mental imbe- cility and moral monstrosities. It has been alleged in favor of monastic institutions that they have originated and were sustained from a pious intention of affording the devout an asylum, where, secluded from the distractions of life, and oc- cupied in silent contemplation on death and judgment, they might fit themselves for the society of God and an- gels. That such a motive has at times mingled with the causes which have induced individuals to assume the mo- nastic vow, is undoubtedly true; but had it been in every instance the only incentive it would not have made the act less irrational, unnatural and pernicious. Such a plea, in fact, would only prove that monastic 48 MONASTIC VOW OF piety was identical with Pagan piety. Long before the origin of Christianity, religious orders existed in India, which sought by means of the destruction of all corpore- ality and intellectual activity, an incorporation with the nature of God, and the realization of a state of perfect happiness. But an act may be absurd and pernicious, while its motive is pure ; and it is always absurd when its objects are imaginary, and pernicious when they are in viola- tion of the dictate of reason. The monastic vows and regulations were ill calculated to make men either happy, enlightened, or useful. Encaverned in solitude, the monks could not become extensively acquainted with the objects of Nature ; preserving perpetual silence, they could not materially enlarge each others' informa- tion ; exercising but one class of the mental organs, they could not form the numerous order of conceptions perfected only by the review of all the faculties. Iso- lated from human contiguity, walled up in a dungeon, or incarcerated in a monastic cell, the mind overtasked with labor, broken down by fatigue, prostrated yet urged to action, one class of the faculties paralyzed, another inflamed to frenzy, and all concentrated in silent contemplation on terrible and incomprehensible subjects, partial or complete insanity would ensue ; in- congruity would become tasteful, exaggerations natu- ral, impossibilities credible, fBhadows realities, and visions, fiends, and angels take possession of the mind. The productions of such a mind, being a transcript of its impressions, would present nothing as real or symmet- rical ; but everything as disfigured, indistinct, shadowy, inharmoniously blended, or superlatively gigantic, Mis- SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 49. Bhapen dwarfs, huge giants, beings that were neither men, nor beasts, nor birds, nor fishes, nor angels, nor demons, but an incongruous mixture of them all, would be its natural offspring. Men with birds' wings, beasts with human heads, women w^ith fishes' scales, and animals variously compounded of the limbs, claws, and beaks, all in violation of the natural order of Nature, and incompatible with the laws of life, would spring in horrible profusion from the distorted imagination of the monks. All ideas of proportion, adaptation and utility would be transgressed in their creations. They might regale credulity with an account of cities fifteen hundred miles high, with asses reproving prophets, with snakes con- versing with women, with immaterial beings fluttering on ponderable pinions, and with angels whose heads reached the stars, but whose forms were so hugely dispro- portioned, that while one foot rested on an insignificant portion of the isle of Patmos, the other would rest on a like portion of the Mediterranean sea. The scenery, caught from the gloom of forests, caves or cloisters, would naturally wear an infernal aspect, where there would be shape, but no symmetry ; color but no contrast nor harmony ; where immaterial beings would be represented as tormented with the flames and suffocating effects of liquid brimstone ; where they would shriek and groan without vocal organs, war and wound with material swords, and where corjDoreality and incorporeality would be compounded in every variety and degree of inconsistency. If in the intervals of the monk's gloomy ravings he should attempt a more cheerful picture, the scene which he would probably 50 MONASTIC VOW OF portray miglit glitter with, gold and gems AvHere they would be of no service ; but it would be pervaded by an awfulness whicli vs^ould be depressing, and by a splendor wbicli would be terrifying. The music might be loud enough to shake Nature to its foundation, but it would naturally be monotonous, perhaps consisting of one tone and one song, eternally sung by beings without throats, assisted by the trumpets and harps invented by mortals ; and had pianos, fiddles and accordians been early enough invented, they too, would probably have chimed in the grand chorus. Beside the music of the operatic troupe, the other recreations would prob- ably be so incompatible with the principles of human enjoyment, and make the monk's very heaven so awfully repulsive, that common sense would prudently shrink from partaking of its glory. Thus the conceptions of virtue and of vice, of perfect happiness and of perfect misery, of metaphysical and of theological dogmas, formed by the distempered brains of hermits and monks, while they might be awfully effulgent or in- supportably horrible, would be conflicting in their parts, inconsistent with pure ideas of men, of phantoms, or of things ; and such a strange commingling of incon- gruities as might remind reflections of the huts and palaces of Christian Eome, which are constructed of the tombs, alters, temples and palaces of Pagan Rome. What reason would naturally deduce from the char- acter of the monastic vows and rules, is amply con- firmed by the facts of history. Housed with silent, ignorant and gloomy companions, the monks con- templated not the realities of truth, but the fictions of a distempered fancy ; and while they scorned the first as SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 51 profane, they trembled before the second as a dread reality. Conceiving the deity as a monarch, they thought of him as a tyrant ; and believing their nature depraved, they punished themselves as criminals. As they imagined freedom of thought sinful, they acquired the temper of a slave ; and as they were incapable of reasoning themselves, they accepted as truth whatever their ecclesiastical tyrants dictated. Impressed with the fancy that demons had taken possession of their bodies, they attempted to dislodge them by making their abode as uncomfortable as possible. After having manacled their limbs with the heaviest chains, and lacerated their bodies in the most horrible manner, they were surprised at finding that they had not yet destroyed their constitutional principles and appetites ; and regarding themselves still as objects of divine wrath, they trembled as if a fiery and bottom- less pit yawned at their feet. "While they labored by monastic rules and exercises to fit themselves for the society of God and angels, they rendered themselves unfit for the society of human beings. The percep- tive powers uninformed, and inflamed by disease, furnishing nothing but extravagant and perverted ideas, and the fancy combining them only into mon- strous and hideous shapes, the mind became perpetually filled with the most horrible images. The superabund- ant volume of blood consequent on overwrought excite- ment, distending the blood vessels of the visual and auditory organs, and causing them unnaturally to press against these organs, gave a vivid distinctness to the impressions, and so brought out the mental perspective as to give the complexion and dis- 52 MONASTIC VOW OP tinctness of reality. In consequence of the condi- tion of mind thus induced, the sights and sounds con- ceived by fancy were recognized as real by the per- ceptive organs. The senses thus recognizing visions as realities, the life of the recluse was doomed to become an incessant struggle, not only with real disease, but with imaginary demons. Less refined in their myth- ology than the Pagans, w^ho regarded the earth, air and water as peopled with genii, naiads and fairies, they conceived them inhabited by malignant fiends. The monks often fancied that they saw the misshapen forms of demons, and heard their diabolical whispers. Too illiterate or obtuse to account for natural phenomena, they supposed that they had a hand in regulating the operations of Nature ; and, too unacquainted with the habits of the brute creation to understand their me- chanical capacity, they regarded the contrivances of animals as the undoubted fruit of a nocturnal adven- ture of the infernal inhabitants. They often conceived that they saw His Satanic Majesty, with all his distin- guishing appendages, such as his cloven foot, his sooty aspect, his peculiar horns, and sulphurous odor. Al- though his visitations were most formidable in the shape of a woman, yet they frequently had the uncommon fortitude of sustaining long conversations with him. The more jjious a monk was, the more frequently he was honored with the company of demons. This fact is not surprising, for it is certain that the more success- fully he warred against nature and himself, the more diseased would become his brain, the more extrava- gant his conceptions, the more discordant his imagina- tion, the more susceptible his senses to false impresions, SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 53 the more frequent and terrible would apparitions ap- pear, and the better he would be suited for the com- pany of fiends and spirits. If in the vigorous and wholesome bustle of life, the visual oigans may recog- nize images which have no real existence, the auditory, sounds which are imaginary, and the olfactory, odors which are the mere products of fancy, how much more vividly would analogous deceptions be likely to occur in the minds of monks and anchorites, whose condi- tion was replete with causes calculated to create them. Such was the melancholy condition of those monks who, aspiring after superhuman sanctification, had with sin- cerity of purpose assumed the monastic obligation. But there were others who, more ambitious of fame than of internal purity, had assumed the same obliga- tions. Professedly despising pleasure and fortune, but secretly laboring to acquire their possession, they manufactured with more facility diabolical apparitions, than those whichs pontaneously psrang from the over- wrought brain of the sincere. Sanctification having become the passport to worldly honors, and its degree orthodoxly estimated by the degrees of personal familiarity with the Devil, the aspiring were too frail to resist the temptation of increasing their celebrity by multiplying the number of Satanic visits ; and as they could draw on an inexhaust- ible mine of conscienceless inventions, and deliberately adorn them with the terrific and interesting incidents of romance, they far outstripped the reputation of the sincere, and with greater facility obtained the emolu- ments of ecclesiastical sinecures. The sense of touch not being equally susceptible of false impressions with the 54 MONASTIC VOW OF otlier senses, while the sincere might see demons and hear their voices, they could not so well recognize them by means of contact. But the hypocritical, untram- meled by this limitation, would create by their invent- ive faculties any number of personal encounters and terrific battles with the armies of the infernal regions. Although the monks sometimes relate how com- pletely they vanquished the Devil by their elo- quence and the ingenuity of their arguments, yet they oftener tell how valorously they triumphed over him after a desperate struggle with his superhuman strength; and not seldom, how alone and single-handed they en- countered him in command of a battalion of fiends, in- flicting on the spiritual bodies of the demons such deep gashes, and cutting up their impalpable substances in such a horrible manner that, wounded, bleeding and de- moralized, they retreated in. wild disorder. As the monkish cell, like the human brain, could accomodate any number of devils, it was as convenient a hall of audience in which to receive His Satanic Majesty, as it was an area for the scientific manoeuvering of his le- gions. The crown of sanctification being awarded to the most unscrupulous inventor of pious ficitons, a hy- pocrite was encouraged to labor to outrival the fame of an antagonist by the boldness of his assertions, the ex- travagance of his fables, and the incredibleness of his fabrications. Under such circumstances we are not astonished to find that some claimed to have obtained a perfection in holiness that enabled them to see the Devil anywhere, and to look upon hell at any time. Even at the period of the Reformation, the popular belief recognized the Devil and his imps as often vis- SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 55 ible. Martin Luther, while engaged in translating the Bible, conceived that he saw the Devil enter his study, for the purpose of embarrassing him in the execution of his useful design. Annoyed at this unceremonious and impertinent intrusion, he threw at His Satanic Majesty an inkstand, which, passing through the dusky form and striking the wall beyond, left a stain which is vis- ible to this day. PART THIRD. The Ignorance and Corruption induced hy the Monastic Vow of Silent Contemplation. The profound homage won by the monks from igno- rance and superstition, gave such credit to their extrav- agant productions, that history has sometimes been led into the error of recording them as real events ; and the craft or credulity of the church in incorporating them in her devotional books has so deepened and per- petuated reverence for them, that, even at the present day, they continue still to govern in a measure the superstition, and to contaminate the creed and ritual of reformed churches. It has been alleged, wuth apparent plausibility, in favor of monastic institutions, that they were during the middle ages the protectors of learning. But, un- fortunately, this noble virtue can be justly claimed for only a few of them ; and for that few in but a limited sense. Some of the inmates being unfit for more remu- 56 MONASTIC VOW OP nerative employment were subjected to the drudgery of copying manuscript ; sometimes the task w^as imposed on others as a penance. The aged and infirm of the Benedictine monks were thus employed ; and, as the multiplication of manuscripts is the most efficient mode of preserving what is written on the perishable mate- rial of paper and parchment, these monks have con- tributed to the preservation of learning. But invetr erate prejudice, obstinate bigotry, gross ignorance, and abject servitude Avere ill qualified to render correct versions, while they were well adapted to the perpetra- tion of fraud and corruption. Transcribing manu- scripts, not to produce accurate copies, but to consume time or do penance, and governed by the misleading principles of their order, it is not as likely that the monks would furnish authentic and reliable transcripts, as that they w^ould mar them wdth errors, embellish them with fancies, and interpolate them with forgeries and wilful corruptions. "While such was the literary honesty of the religious orders, and such likely to be the character of their manuscripts, the ignorance and superstition of the age favored rather than obstructed the perpetration of any pious fraud they might contemplate. A few facts will illustrate the incredible ignorance of the Catholic clergy during the dark ages. A Jew, converted to Christianity' but not to truth, having persuaded the Emperor Maximilian that the Hebrew w^orks, the Old Testament excepted, were all of pernicious tendency, the latter, at the horrible revelatation, ordered them to to be burnt. The learned Eeuchlen earnestly remon- strated against the imperial decree, and succeeded ia SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 67 having its execution postponed until the matter of the allegation could be critically examined. A controversy of ten years ensued. So grossly ignorant were the clergy that not one of them with whom Reuchlen de- bated had ever seen a Greek Testament, and as for the Hebrew Bible, they denounced its alphabetical char- acters as the diabolical invention of some profane sorcerer. So obstinate was their opposition to Hebrew literature that they declared their readiness to support their cause at the point of the sword. Neither the Pope nor the cardinals having sufficient learning to decide on the merits of the question, the former was induced to appoint as umpire the archbishop of Spires, whose de- cision happily rescued oriental literature from the flames of the stake. Pope Sylvester II., whose literary attainments were superior to those of the clergy of his age, was regarded as a magician who held unhallowed converse with infernal demons. St. Augustin, who was ignorant of the Greek tongue, and whose learning was sufficiently superficial to prepare him for canonization, pronounced the doctrine of the antipodes a blasphemous heresy ; and Pope Zachariah degraded a friar for in- dorsing it, and excommunicated all Catholics who should believe it. The patriarch Cyrille declared that neither he, nor the Vandal clergy, nor the African clergy un- derstood the Latin language. St. Hilary asserts from his personal knowledge that but few of the prelates in the ten provinces of Asia preserved the knowledge of the true god. {Hilar, de Synodis. c. 63, p. 1186). It might reasonably be supposed that the ecclesiastical councils, composed of the most influential bishops, priests and abbots, would comprehend among their 58 MONASTIC YOW OF members many distinguished scholars, yet according to the authority of Pope Gregory II., the councils at his time were composed of men, not only ignorant of letters, but of the scriptures. According to the testimony of Sabinus, bishop of Heraclea, the Nicene bishops were "a set of illiterate, simple creatures that understood nothing," and Cassian charges the Egyptian monks of having ignorantly preached Epicurean Paganism as the gospel of Christ. Among the crowd of slaves, soldiers, lords and priests that thronged the convents, the sign of the cross, the sign of ignorance, was a general mode of executing contracts, as all could make it, though few could write their names. That the literary progress of the church has not kept pace with the progress of the world, will be attested by a few extracts from a work written by William Hogan, formerly a Catholic priest of Philadelphia, comprising an essay entitled, " A Synopsis of Popery, as it was and as it is," and another entitled, " Auricular Confession and Popish Nunneries," published at Hartford, by Silas Andrew and Son, in 1850 — a work that may be profit- ably consulted by parents who educate their daughters at nunnery schools, and by gentlemen who contemplate forming matrimonial alliances with ladies who have been accomplished at such institutions. Speaking of the ecclesiastical canons the author says : " These canons are inaccessible to the majority of the American people, even of theologians, and with the purport or meaning of them none but those who have been edu- cated Catholic priests have much or any acquaintance. He who argues with Catholic priests must have had his education with them, he must be of them and from SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 59 among tliem. He must know from experience that they will stop at no falsehood where the good of the church is concerned ; he must know that they will scruple at no forgery ivhen they desire to establish any point of doctrine, fundamentally or not fundamentally, which is not taught by the church ; he must be aware that it is a standing rule with the Popish priests, in all their controversies with Protestants, to admit nothing and deny everything, and that if still driven into diffi- culty they will have recourse to the archives of the church, where they keep piles of decretals, canons, re- ceipts, bulls, excommunications and interdicts, ready for all such emergencies, some of them dated from 300 to 1000 years before they were written or thought of, showing more clearly than perhaps anything else the extreme ignorance of mankind between the third and ninth century, when these forgeries were palmed on the world." {Synopsis, p. 9, 10). Again, he observes: " The majority of Catholics in this country know no- thing of the religion which they profess, and for which they are willing to fight, contend, and shed the blood of their fellow beings. I am not even hazarding an asser- tion when I say there is not one of them that has read the gospel through, or that knows any more about the religion he professes than he does about the Koran of Mohammed. He Is told by the priest that Christ estab- lished a church on earth ; that it is infallible, and that he must submit implicitly to what its popes, priests and bishops teach, under pain of ' damnation/ This is all the great mass of Catholics know of religion ; this is all they are required to learn ; and hence it is that these people are unacquainted with the pretensions of the 60 MONASTIC VOW OF Pope, the intrigues of the Jesuits, and the imposition practised on them by their bishops and priests." (Si;- nopsis, p. 29). Speaking of the theological education of the priests, he says : " During the four years I spent in the college of Maynooth, they (the scriptures) formed no portion of the education of the students. It is my firm conviction, that out of the large number of students there for the ministry, there was not one who read the gospels through, nor even portions of them, except such as are found in detached passages, in works of controversy between Catholics and Protestants. Un- til I went to college I scarcely ever heard of a Bible. I know not of one in any parish of Munster, except it may be a Latin one, which each priest may or may not have, as he pleases. But I studied closely the holy fathers of the church ; so did most of the students. Wc were taught to rely upon them as our sole guide in morals, and the only correct interpreters of the Bible. A right of private judgment was entirely denied us, and represented as the source of multifarious errors. The Bible, in fact, we had no veneration for. It was, in truth, but a dead letter in the college ; it was a 'sealed book to us, though there were not an equal num- ber of students who were obliged to study more closely the sayings, the sophistry, the metaphysics and mystic doctrines of those raving dreamers called holy fathers; many of whom, if now living would be deemed mad, and dealt with accordingly." (Au7'ic. Confess., vol. 1, p. 79, 80). But to return to the consideration of the monks. The pen of transcribers, so generally ignorant, and so grossly superstitious, could not render authentic manu- SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 61 scripts even when actuated by the best intention ; and when w^e recollect that the task which required the exercise of an enlightened and vigorous intellect was devolved on the most diseased and infirm of the re- ligious orders, the impossibility of its effectual perform- ance will appear without a doubt. As ignorance could not transcribe masterly, so superstition would pervert intentionally. Conscience paralyzed by bigotry, and the love of truth supplanted by a careful regard to the interests of the church, the copyists would esteem it a Christian duty to omit such parts of a manuscript as militated against the truth of their religion ; to corrupt such parts as might by perversion be made to adminis- ter to its support ; and to interpolate such parts with occurrences and apparent incidental allusions to events, the omission of which was fatal to its cred- ibility ; and thus by a system of typographical frauds, deliberate falsehoods and artful perversions, contrive to make it appear that all Jewish and Pagan literature concurred in establishing Catholicism. The classics, unlike the canonical scriptures, have been subjected to the purifying process of rigid criti- cism, and the monkish corruptions which once perverted the meaning, are in a great measure eradicated from modern editions. Had the New Testament been sub- jected to a similar ordeal, such for instance as the learned Strauss, in his Life of Christ, instituted. In- fidels might have fewer objections to the gospels, and the credit of these sacred books be far better sustained than it has been by voluminous commentaries, declama- tory sermons and conflicting polemical works, defending the grossest frauds and the boldest interpolations. 6 62 MONASTIC VOW OF Tlie bigotry or fear of the church, which induced it to corrupt the works of ancient authors, led it also to wage an exterminating war against those profane productions which it could not satisfactorily answer. For this purpose the secular power was invoked, and laws were framed prescribing the severest penalty for those who should read or possess a Pagan production. The persecution against philosophers and their libraries was carried on with such pious insanity that besides its causing piles of manuscripts to be destroyed, men of letters burned their elegant libraries, lest some vol- ume contained in them should jeopardize their lives. Young Chrysostom, happening once to find a proscribed volume, gave himself up for lost. St. Jerome, in order to deter his readers from perusing any of the heathen authors, declared he had been scourged by an angel for reading the productions of Virgil. The Orthodox Theo- dosius, in the destruction of the Alexandrian library, consigned to the flames the literary treasures of an- tiquity. The bare thought of the existence of works which baffled the talent and learning of the church to refute, irritated the sensitive piety of the monks beyond endurance. They pursued the masterly productions of Celsus and Porphery with an unscrupulousness which seemed to indicate that the annihilation of them was in- dispensable to the existence of Christianity. After malice had ferreted every crevice where a proscribed volume could be secreted, and vengence had not left a vestige of any of them remaining, except what was quoted or perverted in the works of Christian apolo- gists, the Church boasted that God had not left a work of hostile literature in existence. With not less bias- SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 63 phemy and bigotry lias tlie same absurdity been echoed by dishonest, ignorant theologians of all ages. So wide and unsparing was the monkish war against classic lit- erature, that it has left no work in existence belonging to the period of Christ ; and hence where knowledge is the most needed the historian finds the least ; and where the facts might be expected to be the most abundant and of the clearest description, the wildest and most ridiculous fancies are presented. The necessity for this destruction proves the power of the works destroyed, and the alarm and weakness of the faith that destroyed them. Beside the destructive hostility of the monks to the formidable literary obstacles which embarrassed the vindication of their theological subtleties, their zeal led them to perpetrate the grossest forgeries in order to manufacture historical data in their favor. Prominent among the numerous instances of this disregard to truth, are the following passages conceded by all scholars to be entire fabrications. The passage in the works of Phlegon, in which he is made to speak of a total eclipse of the sun and a simultaneous earthquake ; a passage in Macrobius, which represents the author as incidentally referring to the death of a son of his as having occurred in consequence of a jealous order issued by Herod for the massacre of a.11 children under two years old ; the Epistle of Lentulus, prefect of Judsea at the time of Christ, who is represented as describing the person and character of Christ, in a governmental despatch, which according to prefectorial custom was encumbent on him, in transmitting to Pome a report of all important events occurring within the limits of his jurisdiction ; 64 MONASTIC VOW OF the legend of the Veronica handkerchief in which it is related how Abgarus, king of Edessa, sent ambassadors to Christ to solicit the favor of his portrait, and how wiping his face with a handkerchief, and thereby im- pressing his features on it, politely accommodated the legation ; the Epistle of Pontius Pilate to the Emperor Tiberius, in which he is made to relate the alleged cir- cumstances of the death and resurrection of Christ ; the fabulous inscriptions on two fabulous columns, said to be situo.ted near Tangiers, relating to a robber called Joshua, son of Nun ; and all the passages found in Jo- sephus in reference to Christ. Origen, who wrote in the second century, complains that his own works had been altered ; and the practice of this base species of dishonesty seems to have fearfully increased with the growth of the Church. The monk Jerome, in the fourth century, finding the versions of the scriptures which were received by the churches as authentic exceedingly conflicting, undertook to abate the scandal it caused, by compiling a Bible with genuine text. The product of this laborious exertion was, how- ever, so unsatisfactory to the theological tastes of the churches, or to the results of their critical examinations, that but few of them adopted it. Although Jerome's labors were but imperfectly appreciated during his life, yet, as he had materially approximated toward furnish- ing a catholic desideratum, the Vulgate, which is a modification of his Bible, was declared by the Council of Trent, in 1546, to be " authentic in all lectures, dis- putations, sermons and expositions, and no one shall presume to reject it under any pretence whatever." But in attempting to execute this decrts^, the startling SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 65 fact became evident that the copies of the Vulgate, in consequence of the liberty which translators had taken with the text, essentially differed from one another ; that each church believed in a different Bible ; that it \vas impossible to determine which divine book was the least corrupted ; and that as the Council, inspired by the Holy Ghost, had forgotten to designate which copy of the Vulgate was the genuine one, it only in- creased the confusion it had attempted to remedy. If disbelief in the Bible is infidelity, the greater number of the churches were actually in a situation which made them unconscious infidel conclaves. To relieve them from this perilous predicament, the Pope appointed a learned committee to prepare a Bible which should have genuine text. But the Bible elaborated by this com- mittee, not according with the Pope's theological fancies or secret designs, was rejected. Pope Pius IV. next tried his hand at perfecting and correcting the scriptural text ; but the task exceeding his learning and ingenuity, his efforts were alike unproductive of satisfac- tory results. He was followed by Pope Pius V., who also labored in vain. In 1590 Pope Sixtus V. made a Bible which his judgment or prejudice pronounced to be au- thentic. Determined that Christendom should be re- duced to the alternative of accepting his version, or having none, he anathematized all who should alter its text or reject his authority. But Pope Clement VIII., not having the fear of his infallible predecessor's anath- ema before his eyes, made another Bible, and promul- gated it from his throne as genuine and authoritative, amid a heavy storm of Vatican thunder, in which he consigned to the care of the Devil and his angels all 6* 66 MONASTIC VOW OF wlio should presume to correct the work of his infallible hands. A year had, however, scarcely elapsed when he was obliged to correct its glaring inconsistencies him- self ; incurring the vengeance of his own anathemas. Notwithstanding an incessant tinkering for ages by the ablest theologians, to mend the numerous flaws in the Catholic word of God, every well-informed Eomanist admits, that while all the previously received versions of the Vulgate are too grossly corrupted to be defended, the one in present use is far from being perfect. Cardi- nal Bellarmine, who was deeply versed in Biblical erudi- tion, and who in life had obtained such an eminent degree of popularity for sanctity, that when he died a guard had to be placed over his corpse, to prevent the devout from robbing it of its garments — who wished to preserve or vend them as relics — declares that the most that can be said in favor of the received version is, that it is the best that has been made. The authorized English version of the holy scrip- tures, known as James' Bible, is the product of forty- seven celebrated Biblical scholars, after three years' labor. The manuscripts from which they made their translations being exceedingly corrupted and discordant, the renderings consequently were so conflicting and irreconcilable on any principle of philological or exe- getical criticism, that in order to efi'ect any agreement, and prevent the production of as many Bibles as there were translators, they put the question concerning a disagreement to vote, and decided which was the cor- rect rendering by the authority of a majority of suf- frages. But this logic was not appreciated by Dr. Smith and Bishop Belson, to whose joint scrutiny the Bible SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 67 tHus manufactured was afterwards submitted, and they accordingly subjected it to a further process of purifica- tion, W hile philological criticism, and investigations con- cerning the genuineness of the sacred text, have wrung from Catholics the reluctant concession that the Vul- gate needs a revision, they have equally extorted from Protestants the unwilling admission that their version is corrupted with undoubted forgeries. The doxology at the conclusion of the Lord's prayer, the story of the pool of Bethsaida, the story of the rich man and Laz- arus, and the story of the adulteress, are universally conceded by scholars to bo wilful fabrications. The most distinguished among Biblical scholars go further, Bretschneider, the friend and confident of Joseph IL of Austria, rejects the Gospel of St. John. Dr. Lardner rejects the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of St. James, the Second Epistle of St. Peter, the Second Epistle of St. John, the Epistle of St. Jude, and the book of Revelations. Dr. Evanson rejects the Gospel of St. Matthew, the Gospel of St, Mark, the Gospel of St. Luke, the Epistle to the Ephesians, the Epistle to the Colossians, the Epistle to the Romans, the First Epistle of St. Peter and the First Epistle of St. John. The Greek Testament comprehends 181,253 words, yet such is the number of mistakes, perversions, for- geries and interpolations in the existing manuscripts, that in comparing the documents together 130.000 va- rious readings are detected; showing that the manu- scripts from which the Nev/ Testament is translated, are not correct in one word out of six. Those discrep- ancies, afi'ecting the mere spelling of a word in some in- 68 MONASTIC VOW OF stances, and, in otiiers, the sense of a passage, are of all degrees of importance. In Tischendorf 's New Testament, publislied by Tauch- nitz, at Leipzig, in English, and for sale by the New York booksellers, we find the following: "But the Greek text of the apostolic writings, since its origin in the first century, has suffered many a mischance at the hands of those who have used and studied it. . . . The authorized version, like Luther's, was made from a Greek text which Erasmus in 1516, and Eobert Steph- ens in 1550, had formed from manuscripts of later date than the tenth century. . . . vSince the sixteenth centu- ry Greek manuscripts have been discovered, of far greater antiquity than those of Erasmus and Stephens ; as well as others in Latin, Syriac, Coptic and Gothic, into which languages the sacred text was translated, between the second and fourth centuries Schol- ars are much divided in opinion as to the readings which most exactly convey the word of God." {Intro- duction, p. 1, 2). "When mistakes in a mianuscript arise, from the ignor- ance or incompetency of the copyist, they invalidate its authority ; when they arise from his carelessness, they are proofs that he entertained no reverence for it ; and when they occur from a deliberate intention on his part to corrupt and to interpolate it, they are demonstrations that he did not believe in its divine inspiration. That the religious orders did not believe in the divine in- spiration of the holy scriptures, is as undeniable as it is that they deliberately and intentionally marred all the Biblical manuscripts that passed through their hands. The conviction is equally irresistible that those SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 6§ who sanction the corruptions of the sacred text by using them as authority, and those who defend them in defi- ance of the irrefragable proof of their spurious character, forfeit all claim to a reputation of common honesty. There is another class of forgeries perpetrated for the good of the Church, to which I will briefly advert. Of this description is the Decretal Epistle of Constantine the Elder, addressed to Pope Sylvester — the foundation of the Pope's claim to temporal sovereignty ; and also the Creed of Athanasius, forged two hundred years after his death, and which Gennadius, Patriarch .of Con- stantinople, upon first reading, pronounced to be the work of a drunken man. All ranks of the Church seemed to have become infatuated with an ambition to be forgers. Pope Stephen II. forged a letter, and attributed its authorship to the spirit of St. Peter. In this document, according to Gibbon, " The apostle assures his adopted sons, the King, the clergy, and the nobles of France, that dead in the flesh, he is still active in the spirit ; that they now hear and must obey the voice of the founder and guardian of the Roman Church ; that the virgins, the saints, and all the host of heaven, unan- imously urge the request, and will confess the obliga- tion ; that riches, victory and paradise will crown their pious enterprise, and that eternal damnation will be the penalty if they suffer his tomb, his temple, and his people to fall into the hands of the perfidious Saracens. ( Dec. vol. v., chap, xlix., p. 26. ) The evidences of similar frauds are numerous. All the letters and de- cretals of Clementine are spurious. But few of the nu- merous works ascribed to Pope Gregory the Great are genuine. The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinth- 70 MONASTIC VOW OF ians is egregeously corrupted and interpolated ; Kig second Epistle to the Corinthians, is so much mutilated that but a fragment of it remains ; his autobiography, in which he is made to take a journey with St. Peter ; and all his apostolic canons, are entire fabrications. The Apocalypse was rejected as spurious at the Council of Laodicea, by the seven churches to which it was ad- dressed, and the sentence was almost universally con- firmed by the churches of Christendom. Sirmund shows that the Kicene canons have been corrupted, altered, abridged, and forged to accommodate them to the designs of the church. {Tom. iv., p. 1-234). To es- tablish a historical basis for some pious imposition, the the letters of bishops, decrees of councils, and bulls of Popes have been forged, distorted, marred, interpolated or destroyed. Volume after volume has been written aud falsely attributed to the pen of some distinguished author, in order to obtain respect and authority for an absurd ecclesiastical claim or arbitrary usurpation. Without moral principle, and intent only on supporting the ambitious pretentions of the Pope, the religious orders, at the suggestion of interest, scrupled not to destroy the finest models of literary taste, and to per- petrate the most audacious forgeries. What could not militate against the- credit of their dogmas, or obstruct the consummation of their designs, or what might, by an artful adulteration be made accessory to them, they might piously spare ; but whatever was in its nature too inflexibly inimical to the success of them, they la- bored to annihilate. The unavoidable deduction from the existence of the monkish forgeries is, that every doctrine for which they have been fabricated to prove, SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 71 13 false ; and that every doctrine and event for wliicli they have been manufactured to disprove, is true. The mutilation and destruction of ancient authors by the religious orders is a positive admission that such works were fatal to their claims ; the attempt to manu- facture artificial proof by corrupting and interpolating them, is an acknowledgment that the successful vindication of their creed and pretensions required proof which did not exist ; and the cargoes of their forgeries, each instance of which being a demonstration of these assertions, and consequently an undeniable ob- jection to the validity of the authority upon which they rest their claims, show the vast amount of labor the monks have undergone to disprove their own doctrines, and destroy their own credibility. In the revival of learning, inaugurated by profane genius, the monastic orders, which possessed the trea- sures of classic literature, took, in general, no active part. The literary fires which smouldered in their in- stitutions cast but a sickly glare upon the darkness within, and the feeble rays could not be expected to penetrate the massive walls of these huge castles of ignorance. Resembling more a taper placed under a bushel than a light set upon a hill, they left the sur- rounding region enveloped in midnight gloom. The manuscripts transcribed or perverted by the monks were stowed away as useless rubbish. At length the holy charm which, for ages, had bound the church in stupid ignorance, was happily dissolved. Pope Nicho- las v., catching a spark of the fire which burned in the breast of his lay associates, such as Cosmo Medici, his own, too, became ignited. Unconscious or regardless of 72 MONASTIC YOW OF tte liberalizing tendency of classical literature, lie be- came enthusiastic in its cause, and inaugurated a pur- suit wbicli bas exposed tbe forgeries and legends of the Catholic Church to scorn and contempt. Whatever were his private viev/s, his public example and asser- tions indicate that he had arrived at a firm conviction that the papal chair would not soon again be filled with another friend to the classics. Diligently improving the auspicious moment, he collected the dusky and moulder- ing manuscripts from the monasteries, while his coadju- tors sent vessels to gather them from abroad. By the united labors of the Pope and his opulent laymen, respectable libraries were formed, and the world was enlightened by recovered versions of Xenophon, Diodo- rus, Polybius, Thuycidides and other eminent authors. The apprehensions of Kicholas, suggested probably by his knowledge of the nature and past conduct of the church, were too well founded not to be confirmed by subsequent history. The Pagan authors of Greece and Rome, speaking in the clear tones of reason and philo- sophy, could not subserve the purposes of ecclesiastical fraud and intolerance. The dark conspiracy to deceive and enslave mankind, and the systematized measures to keep the world in ignorance, which constitutes a per- manent feature of Catholic polity, could derive no aid from a liberal diffusion of Pagan erudition. Hence Leo X., who is ranked among the most generous of the pontifical patrons of the classics, prohibited the transla- tion of them into the vernacular language. But it may be alleged as an exception to the usual hatred manifested by the church to the cause of educa- tion, that the Pope did, at times, establish colleges and SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 73 universities. This fact is undeniably true. Pope Six- tus IV. established several universities ; but he required from each, for a charter, 10,000 ducats ; and for each collegiate title and office, from 10,000 to 20,000 ducats. Pope Innocent III. also founded a university ; but it was on condition that he received 50,000 scudi for its charter. He also very generously created twenty-six secretaryships, and a host of other offices, to assist the labors of education, but he sold appointments to them at very exorbitant prices. Pope Alexander VI. also founded a university, but it was in consideration of a magnificent bonus ; and he even further displayed his magnanimity by nominating eighty writers of popish briefs, and selling the appointments at 850 scudi each. But after all what was the object of these institutions? Was it to advance the capacities of individual man? Was it to enlighten society at large ? Not at all. Gui- zot says : " For the development of the clergy, for the instruction of the priesthood, she [the church] was actively alive ; to promote these she had her schools, her colleges, and all other institutions which the de- plorable state of society would permit. These schools and colleges, it is true, were all theological, and des- tined for the clergy; and, though from the intimacy between the civil and religious orders they could not but have some influence on the rest of the world, it was very slow and indirect." (Gen. Hist. Civ., Sect, vi., p. 132). Guizot might have added with truth, that even for her own clergy the church never tolerated an educational institution without receiving an exorbitant pecuniary consideration, nor appointed a professor, or any other officer, without receiving pay for it. 7* 74 MONASTIC VOW OF Dens, in Hs ''Systematic Theology,'' reasons thus: " Because forgers of money, and other disturbers of the State, are justly punished with death, therefore also are heretics, who are forgers of the faith, and, as experience shows, greatly disturb the State." ( Dens, 2, 88, 89). If this logic is sound, it is difficult to perceive how Popes, cardinals, monks and priests can avoid conceding justice the right of putting them to death, as by the uni- versal testimony of history and the acknowledgment of the ablest Catholic authors, they have been forgers of the faith ; and, as they have been greater forgers than Protestants, they may, according to their own logic, be more justly put to death. But this we should be sorry to witness. The efforts of the church to manufacture evidence in support of gratuitous assumptions, which so clearly dis- proves what it asserts at every step ; sinks its character and authority into such utter insignificance ; and in proportion to the warmth of its zeal adds weight to the contempt it has earned, might be considered un- worthy the notice of sober reason, and left to the crushing jeer of its own ludicrousness. Yet when its polluting finger presumes to touch the sacred page of history ; when it would annihilate all historical author- ity by base interpolations, and load the shelves of libra- ries with its spurious trash, it has invaded a province sacred to the rights of the world ; a province in which truth, reason, and human progress have a deep inter- est, and which must be protected against the intrusion of malignant feet. From the monastic vows and regulations, we might be agreeably surprised if the literary productions of those SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 75 who were governed by them were anything but models of absurdity and puerility. It would naturally be sus- pected that the ideas of the monks would be shaded by the gloom of their melancholy abode, contracted by the influence of their solitary confinement, and rendered misshapen by the habit of conversing exclusively with their own meditations ; and that their literary produc- tions would be rife with all the inventions to which bigotry and superstition could prompt, and with all the craft and unscrupulousness that could serve the pur- poses of unpolished and unnatural fraternities, isolated from society, absolved from the ties and obligations of humanity, and exclusively devoted to the defense and aggrandizement of an organization which aimed at mo- nopolizing all secular rights, immunities and privileges, in order to command the dominion and luxuries of the world. This reasonable presumption we shall find too well confirmed for the credit of human nature, in those legends and theological disquisitions which have often puzzled the credulous, but much oftener curled the lip§ of the more enlightened into a smile of philosophical contempt. Palpably fictitious, rarely possessing the merit of ingenuity, and, in general, absolutely puerile, yet have the monkish legends been consecrated as di- vine in the Catholic Mass-book, enforced upon the ac- ceptance of the obstinate by the terrors of the Inquisi- tion, and sometimes mistaken by history for actual events. This ludicrous mass consists in part of magnified and distorted events of true history, and in part of person- ages and details entirely spurious. It is elaborately ornamented, or degraded with circumstancial accounts 76 MONASTIC VOW OF of miracles which were never performed, with reports of debates which never took place, and with details of battles which were never fought. Faithful only in transcribing their own vitiated taste and unscrupulous conscience ; and decorating their narratives with coarse scenes of blood and bigotry, of death and horror, of hell anddemons, they have furnished a record of absurdities, of a depth of hypocrisy, of an audacity in fabrication, and of a total depravity in principle unparalleled in the history of deception and imposition. Had they, like Sir Thomas Moore, in his description of Eutopia, or no place, described a people which were no people, a city which was invisible, and a river w^hich was waterless, they could scarcely have been less imaginary, though it must be conceded that they are less entertaining and instructive. Passing over the polemical rubbish, the absurd topics of discussion and the ludicrous logic of the monastic orders, which would be too tedious for a reader of the nineteenth century, wo will briefly allude to some of their amusing legends, which have been consecrated as sacred history in the devotional books of the church. The actual sufferings and deaths of the primitive Chris- tians, they have grotesquely magnified, and invented fanciful modes of torture, which never could have en- tered the more cultivated brain of a Roman emperor. According to the story of these visionists, when a Pa- gan female embraced Christianity, she was often com- pelled to decide whether she valued her virtue higher than she did her religion ; and, when the inflexibility of her faith imperiled her innocence, a divine power always interposed, and miraculously rescued her from a SILENT CONTEMPLATION, 77 dangerous predicament The male converts were sub- jected to similar modes of ingenious torture. A young saint, in the passion of his iirst love, according to their authority, was once chained naked to a bed of flowers, and in this hapless and exposed condition, wontonly assaulted by a beautiful courtezan; but he saved his chastity by biting off his tongue, St. Cecilia made a vow of perpetual virginity, but her father disregarding the unnatural obligation, betrothed her to a prince. In spite of all remonstrances to the contrary, the marriage was on the eve of being consummated, when an angel interposed, and, after satisfactorily adjusting matters between the nuptial parties, rewarded the groom for the relinquishment of his bride, and the virgin for the ob- stinacy of her resolution, by crowning them both with wreaths of spiritual roses and lilies, culled from heaven's flower garden. Sometime after the eventful occurences of this wedding party, Amachius, a Eoman prefect, commanded Cecilia to sacrifice to the gods. Her piety obliging her to disobey the royal injunction, it was de- termined that the majesty of the law should be vindi- cated by having her boiled three days and three nights in a pot of water. The coldness of divine grace how- ever sufficiently impregnated her body to protect it from injury. As her piety had rendered her invulner- able to the effects of boiling water, the emperor ordered the executioner to try the virtue of a ponderous axe. Accordingly she was laid upon the block ; the execu- tioner gave her neck three scientific strokes, but perr ceiving her head still attached by its integuments, desisted from further effort convinced that the accomr plishment of the task exceeded his constitutional vigor. 78 MONASTIC VOW OF The miraculous feat of this saint in inventing music, a long time after all nations had acquired some proficien- cy, at least, in its principles, lias often been the theme of pious historians, orators and poets. St. George slew a dragon ( a lizard ), which was about to swallow a kings daughter. St. Dennis walked tvro miles after his head had been cut off. St. John of God displayed so much whimsical zeal that he was supposed to be demented, and w^as placed in a lunatic asylum. St. Hubert vrent on a hunting excursion, and seeing a stag v.-ith a cross between its antlers, became converted by the vision into a bishop. He received a key from St. Peter, which is still preserved in St. Hubert's monastery, at Ardennes, and is regarded as an infallible remedy for the hydro-, phobia. St. Patrick found a lost boy, whom the hogs had nearly devoured. On touching the mutilated frame with his holy hand, it recovered the lost flesh which had been digested by the swine, and stood before the saint perfectly proportioned in all its parts, and with- out a wound. This charitable saint once fed 1,400 per- sons on one cow, two stags, and two wild boars. Eespecting, however, the rights of ^^roperty, and per- ceiving that to be benevolent at another's expense was a suspicious species of morality, he so adroitly con- trived the management of his miracle that the cow which had been eaten up by the people, and which belonged to a poor widow, was seen the next day well and hearty, and as comfortably grazing in her usual pastures as if nothing had happened. St. Xavier, while traversing the ocean, lost overboard a crucifix. On landing, a crab brought it in his claw, and rever- ently laid it at his feet. The Devil, assuming the SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 79 shape of a charming woman, once made indelicate pro- posals to him. This piece of impudence so enraged the saint that he spit into His Satanic Majesty's angelic face. The Devil, being a gentleman, was so disgusted at this coarse vulgarity, that he ever afterward shunned Xavier's society. St. Anthony of Padua, after exhaust- ing the strength of the Catholic arguments in favor of consubstantiation, in a debate with a heretic, finally converted his antagonist by an appeal to the under- standing of a horse. Holding up the host before the an- imal, he addressed it thus : " In virtue and in the name of thy creator, I command thee, horse to come, and with humility adore thy God." The horse, at the re- quest of the saint, instantly left the corn which it was eating, advanced to the host and fell upon its knees be- fore it. St. Andrew being assaulted by the devil with an axe, and by a company of imps with clubs, called for assist- ance on St. John, who responded with a regiment of angels ; and capturing the devils, chained them to the ground. At this exploit St. Andrew laughed. The Emperor Maximus, having cut St. Apia Tell into ten pieces, the angel Gabriel put him together again. This contest of disintegration and recomposition was carried on with much spirit between Maximus and Gabriel. Ten times a day for ten consecutive days was the saint cut into ten pieces by the malice of the one, and put to- gether again by the anatomical skill of the other. St. Martin of Tours, the patron saint of drunkards, whose festival was formerly celebrated by the devout with banqueting, hilarity and carousals, once, on a drunken frolic, divided his garments with a poor soldier. At 80 MONASTIC VOW OF night, in a dream, he beheld Christ wearing the identi- cal garment he had given away. His mind became so impressed, probably deranged, that he turned Catholic. The face of this saint was so sanctimonious that it once paralyzed the arm of a robber, which was raised to give him a death blow. He wrought many miracles ; could raise the dead to life, Clovis, after his Gothic victory, made him a rich donation ; and as the hero's war steed was in the saint's stable, he proposed besides, to redeem it with the generous sum of 100 ducats, but the pious horse refused to move until the sum was doubled. St. Anthony saw a centaur in the desert. Finding the corpse of the hermit Paul in the wilderness, and being too much prostrated through fasting to bury it, two lions seeing his difficulty, politely offered their assist- ance ; and after digging a grave and depositing in it the hermit's corpse, respectfully vanished away. St. Athanasius compliments him on account of his holy ab- horence of clean water, and for not having suffered his feet to be contaminated with it except in cases of una- voidable necessity. ( Vet. Ant, c. 47 ), St. Palladus, seeing a hyena standing near his cave, addressing it, asked: " What's the matter ?" " Holy father," replied the beast, " the odor of thy sanctity has reached me. I killed a sheep last night, and want to confess and get absolution." St. Beuno caused the earth to open and swallow a disappointed lover, who had cut off the head of his mistress for her having refused to marry him. He then, by saying mass over the remains of the unfortu- nate lady, caused her head and body to reunite, and life to reanimate her frame. St. Nepomuk, refusing to dis- close the secret confessions of a queen, to her husband SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 81 wlio suspected her of infidelity, was doomed to suffer . death by drowning. This saint was canonized by Pope Innocent III., and his tomb is shown to this day. But unfortunately for the infallibility of His Holines, it has been indisputably proved that no such person as St. Nepomuk ever existed. A priest once travelling along a solitary road, heard a most harmonious sound pro- ceeding from a beehive. On approaching it he discov- ered that the bees were adoring the eucharist, and sing- ing psalms to its honor. A monk residing at the mon- astery of Tebenoe was visited by an angel who dictated to him a liturgy. This divine work is preferred by the learned Cassion. St. Ambrose, piously inhuman, care- fully instilled into the youthful minds of Theodosius and Gratian the spirit and maxims of religious persecution. He taught them that the worship of idols was a crime against God, and that an emperor is guilty of the crime he neglects to punish. All the intolerant laws and horrible religious butcheries which disgraced the ad- ministrations of these princes, and their successors, originated in their Catholic education. The same saint justified the conduct of a bishop who had been convicted by the court of setting fire to a Jewish Synagogue. ( Tom. ii. Epistle xl. p. 946 ). St. Augustine, whose most conspicuous virtue was an uncompomising hatred of heretics, warmly commended the inhuman edicts of Honorius against the Donatists, which proscribed and banished several thousands of their priests, stripped them of their possessions, deprived their laymen of the rights of citizens, distracted the land with tumult and blood, and drove a large number of them to seek relief by invoking martyrdom. The inhuman saint rejoiced 82 MONASTIC VOW OF at the despair and madness whicli shortened the lives of these unfortunate persons, as it would hereafter lessen their torments in hell. St. Jerome justly denounced the disgraceful practice of the clergy in defrauding the natural heirs out of their inheritance, and vindicated the governmental edicts to obstruct this system^atic plunder. But his brother monks recriminated ; charged him with being the lover of Paula, of profanely bestow- ing on her the title of mother-in-law of God, of assign- ing himself the chief place in her will, of inducing her to abandon her infant son at Rome, of exercising an un- due influence on her beautiful daughter, and of induc- ing the mother to consecrate her to perpetual virginity, so that he might encounter no obstacles in inheriting her immense possessions, in which was comprehended the city of Necropolis. To these charges he replied that he was merely the steward of the poor. With the fortune of Paula he built four monasteries. He was bitterly opposed to St Chrysostom, who boldly de- nounced the corruption and licentiousness of the clergy and imperial court. Keadily and maliciously he coin- cided with the opinion of Theophilus, that Chrysostom had delivered his soul to the Devil to be adulter- ated ; and when zeal in the cause of virtue had brought upon the head of Chrysostom the wrath of the emperor and the court, and he was incarcerated in a dungeon, these two lights of the church had the decency to re- gret that some punishment more adequate to his guilt was not inflicted. St. Cyril, of Alexandria, piously lusted after temporal power, and, as the patriotic No- vitians obstructed his designs, he closed their churches, took forcible possession of their sacred utensils, plun- SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 83 dered tKe dwelling of Theapentus, their bishop ; and then seizing on the Jewish synagogue, drove the Jews from the city and pillaged their houses. The governor interposed ; but five hundred armed monks surrounded him and attempted to murder him. Hypatia, a lady celebrated for her personal charms, unblemished char- acter, and extraordinary literary acquirements, was, on account of her Novitian proclivities, assaulted by the holy forces of St. Cyril, dragged from her carriage, and punctured to death with tiles. The enumeration of the fables of the monks, and of the atrocious acts of canonized saints, might be con- tinued until it filled huge volumes ; but well-informed Catholics will be thankful that this notice is so brief. The Missil, the Glories of Mary and other Catholic com- pendia, some of w^hich consist of fifty folio volumes, will satisfy the more curious. The profound homage paid to the monks for supposed sanctity, and the inquisitorial terrors which -were brought to bear in favor of their frauds, so blunted public perception to truth that the fictitious events and personages invented by one age were believed by the succeeding, until the church be- came the simple dupe of its own forgeries, and self- cursed by accepting, as matters of fact, the fables and impositions with which it had humbugged former ages. Meldegg, Catholic Professor of the Theological Faculty of Freiburg, affords the following testimony in favorof what has been stated : " The old breviary," says he, "crammed full of fictitious or much-colored anecdotes of saints, with passages of indecorous import, requires a thorough revision Some Masses are founded on stories not sufficiently proved, or palpably ficttcious, as 84 MONASTIC VOW OF SILENT CONTEMPLATION. the Mass of the Lancea Christi, the Inventio Crusis, &c." The ludicrousness of the monastic vow of silent con- temjDlation is visible in the misshapen ideas of the monks ; its pernicious tendency, in the frauds, perver- sions, distortions and interpolation w^hich it has led them to perpetrate ; its bigotry, in the wide destruction of ancient literature to which it has incited them ; its absurdness, in the puerile and contemptible productions which it has induced them to elaborate ; and its immor- ality, in that coarseness and vulgarity in their literature, so offensive to a sense of propriety, and which some- times makes an allusion to their works a matter of re- luctance. CHAPTER VI. The Monastic Vow of Poverty. The monachal vows which we have considered in the foregoing chapters were assumed hj all the religious orders prior to the thirteenth century. At that period orders were inaugurated to assist in the administration of the public affairs of the church. As these orders as- sumed obligations incompatible with the observance of silence and seclusion, the vows imposing them were not enjoined. But the vow of poverty, which will be the subject of the present chapter, and the vow of celibacy and obedience, which will hereafter be considered, w^ere assumed by all the religious orders, both antecedent and subsequent to the thirteenth century. The vow of poverty embraced an unqualified abjura- tion of all right to acquire or hold individual property, but granted the privilege of owning property in a cor- porate capacity. This privilege was, however, variously restricted by the terms of different monastic charters. The Carmelites and the Augustines were permitted to hold such an amount of real estate as would be sufficient for their support ; the Dominicans were limited to the possession of personal property ; while the Franciscans were not allowed to hold either real estate or j^ersonal property. The vow of poverty assumed by ths monks was adopted either from the instigations of an artful policy, to acquire wealth with the reputation of despising it, or from a conviction that poverty was a blessing and 8 86 MONASTIC VOW OF wealtli an evil. If the first hypothesis is correct, the assumption of the vow was exceedingly reprehensible ; if the second, it was absolutely absurd. A condition of poverty, abstractly considered, is a matter of neither praise nor censure. It is sometimes a source of degredation ; often of crime, and always of in- convenience and embarrassment. Its general tendency is to weaken in man his inborn sense of personal inde- pendence ; to debase his mind with notions of fictitious inferiority ; to degrade his social dignity by inducing sycophantic and obsequious habits ; and to lead him to sacrifice his conscious equality to the demands of arti- ficial rank. The incessant toil imposed by poverty on the energies of the poor obdurates their nature ; and, allowing no interval for mental culture, permits nothing to interrupt or soften its tendency. The mortifying difficulties experienced by this class of society to obtain, by honest labor, a subsistence for themselves and their natural dependents, have sometimes led them to become depredators upon society, when their constitutional principles, unwarped by indigence, would have secured their obedience to law and their labors for the public good. Graces have been lost in brothels, and talents extinguished on scaffolds, which, had tolerable means protected against the cravings of hunger, might have added lustre to the female character, and heroes, states- men and scholars to the scroll of fame. Poverty beget- ting despair, and despair destroying hope, the incentive to action, the powers of genius sunk into the torpidity of stupefaction, and the strength of a lion slumbered in the inactivity of a sloth. The chill w^hich poverty breathes over the mind is as unfriendly to the unfold- 1»0VERTY. 87 ing of the intellectual germs, as the icy atmosphere of winter is to the fructification of vegetable seed. The poet or philosopher, hoveled in penury, without books or scientific instruments, with spare meals and gloomy forebodings, never creates his brightest gem, nor solves his profoundest problem. However sweetly Burns may sing or Otway melt, or however importantly other sons of indigence may have contributed to the augmentation of the volume of science and literature, yet the world has never heard their sweetest song, nor read their brightest period ; for the groan of penury has marred the harmony of the one, and the tear of want has dimmed the lustre of the other. As a condition of poverty is, in the abstract, a subject of neither praise nor blame, so also is a condition of wealth. "Wealth, however, is the ablest means of ad- vancing individual and social progress, as well as the sole remedy for the evils of poverty. If it cannot be adduced as a ground of esteem or of respectability, or as an apology for the ignorance, stupidity, pomposity, vanity and vulgarity with which it may adventitiously be associated, yet, as it amplifies the means of ben- eficence, and protects the weakness of human nature against temptation arising from indigence, its honest acquisition is always consistent with the severest prin- ciples of rectitude ; and its pursuit is recommended by the honorable pride of personal responsibility, the mo- tives of prudence and forecast, and the consideration of every domestic and social obligation. Without its aid the world would have remained in a state of primal barbarism ; the commercial intercourse of nations, the first element of civilization and the principal source of 88 MONASTIC VOW OF national prosperity, power and greatness, would never have been known ; agricultural, manufacturing, mechan- ical and mining interests, unstimulated by the lucrative traffic of supplying a foreign demand for surplus domes- tic production, would never have been extensively de- veloped; the knowledge, the exotic luxuries, and the improvments in the comforts and conveniences of civil- ized life derived from international trade, could never have been obtained ; the great bond of the amity of na- tions, and the power created by the pecuniary advan- tages of exchanging with one-another the products of their different climates, and which, by dissipating mu- tual prejudices, suspicion, vanity and self-conceit, has united them in friendly and beneficial intercourse, would never have existed ; and, as the first altars were erected for the exposure of merchandise for sale, as the first ofi'erings w^ere the currency by which goods w^ere pur- chased, penalties satisfied, salaries paid, and amity and friendship expressed ; and, as the first temples were market-houses built for the accommodation of the traffic of the caravans, and to protect the goods against plun- dering barbarians, who understood not the conventional rights of property, had it not been for the fact that in the pursuit of wealth, communities felt the importance of establishing convenient centres of trade and modes of exchange, the ceremonies of religion would never have been invented. ( See Heeron's Historical Re- searches, translated by Bancroft). As neither a condition of poverty nor a condition of wealth is a subject of praise nor censure ; but, as the former inflicts on humanity its worst evils, and the lat- ter confers on it incalculable advantages, a vow of pov- POVERTY. 89 erty can have no innate sanctity to commend it, but must have all constituents that can render it objectionable. When it is further considered that there is a modifying reciprocity incessantly acting between the conditions of the different members of the human family, making the prosperity of one advantageous to all, and the indi- gence of one disadvantageous to all, we may find not only a selfish, but also a patriotic incentive in availing ourselves of any pecuniary right of our being. No one can be indigent without decreasing the wealth of ano- ther, nor opulent without contributing to the subsistence of others, nor industrious without adding to the sum of national wealth, nor indolent without consuming that for which he renders no equivalent. Now, as the vow of poverty is inconsistent with the virtues and obliga- tions created by the mutual dependence and reciprocal influence of the condition and circumstances of man- kind on each other ; as it fosters all the evils that demoralize the social state ; as it multiplies the number of paupers, discourages industry, sanctifies pernicious influences, and burdens society with the support of in- dolent and useless members, it is at variance with the interests of man and th^j)rosperity of government. National wealth is the aggregate of individual wealth. The greater is the amount of individual wealth in a nation, and the more equally it is distri- buted among the inhabitants, the less are the evils of poverty, the more independent and responsible are the citizens, the more energetically are the agricultural, mineral, manufacturing, and commercial interests devel- oped, the more generally and intimately are the inter- ests of the people interwoven with the fabric of the 8* 90 MONASTIC VOW OF government, the greater will be the nation's prosperity, the more formidable its arms, the more peaceful its in- ternal condition, and the more durable its prosperity. A reformatory institution, to be efficacious, must be adapted to the nature of man and his socia condition. Its principles must be his principles. Its measures must tend to aid his fullest development. To accomplish this object it must seek to abolish all re- strictions on his rights, to remove whatever vitiates his sense of independence, to incite his industry by making labor honorable and its rewards certain, and to annul the immunities, exemjDtions, privileges and monopolies which degrade the masses by indigence and invidious distinctions, and corrupt the few by luxury and ficti- tious dignity. But the monachal institution, which sanctions poverty, the most prolific source of crime ; which denounces individual wealth, the great element of civilization, and of individual and national improve- ment ; which inculcates indolence, the parasite that feeds on the vitals of society; which discourages the avocations of industry, the parent of personal inde- pendence and responsibility ; and which aims at a mo- nopoly of wealth, itself the source of political inequal- ity, of despotic government and of popular servitude — can advance no claim to a magnanimous mission. To e&teem it a virtue to be poor, pleasing to infinite intel- ligence to renounce the best means of self-improvement, criminal to protect human integrity against the assaults originating in a condition of poverty, are ideas of such an absurd nature that the inference can scarcely be avoided, that the source whence they originated must have been utterly destitute, not only of moral principle, but of common sense. POVERTY, 91 But whenever conduct becomes enigmatical, and prin^ ciples are avowed contradictory to human reason, pas- sion and interests, an ordinary knowledge of the craft of ambition is apt to suggest a suspicion, that these singular abnegations have not sprung from a sanctity that has elevated the avowers above human nature, but from the injustice of their designs and the profundity of their dissimulation. Conscious that candor would be de- feat, they have endeavored to accomplish objects by pretending to oppose them. The church never being too strongly fortified in holiness not to practise the ad- vantageous vices of the world, has invariably been betrayed into the adoption of this crafty policy ; but, always fanatical, she has never been discreet. Not only has she denied her real designs, but, in order to conceal them, has imposed vows of such an absurd and inconsistent import, as could not fail to reveal the hypocrisy and craft that dictated them. The vow of poverty was not assumed to become indigent, but to become opulent. It was a financial manoeuvre, designed to facilitate the routine of business ; and it proved a very efficacious means of self-emolument. It won a reputation for the holy beggars, that humbled imperial dignity at their feet. Theodosius refused sustenance until a monk who had anathematized him, nullified it by absolution. The Empress of Maximus, in her own palace, at her own table, esteemed it a high honor to be permitted to wait as a servant on St. Martin of Tours. While the assumption of unnatural vows invested the mendicant monks with the credit and importance of supernatural beings, and elevated them above the dig- nity of emperors and empresses, it opened to their 92 • MONASTIC VOW OF avarice the treasures of the world, and enabled them not only to fill their coflfers with the people's money? but to win their blessing in the act of defrauding them. Such was the haughty indifference of the Abbot Pambo, who seemed to imagine, with his church, that he was the owner of the wealth of the world, that when Mala- ria^ a rich sinner, presented him a donation of plate for his monastery, and intimated that its weight was about three hundred pounds^ replied : " Offer you this to me or to God ? If to God, who weighs the mountains in a balance, he need not be informed of the weight of your plate." The real design and value of the monastic vows was once forcibly expressed by a Benedictine monk, who remarked: "My vow of poverty has given me one hundred thousand crowns a year ; my vow of obe- dience has raised me to the rank of a sovereign prince." An incident occurred in Paris, in relation to two eccle- siastical dignitaries which illustrates the cupidity and unapostolic character of the church. Innocent IX, and St. Thomas Aquinas having met together in Paris, and a capacious plate, piled with gold, the proceeds of the sale of indulgences, being brought into the room in which they were seated, the enraptured Pope exclaimed : ** Behold, the days are past when the church could say, gold and silver have I none." But the saint truthfully remarked: "The days are also past when the church could say to the paralytic, arise and walk." Praetaxta- tus, a Pagan philosopher, viewing the princely rev- enues of the church, declared that if he could become bishop of Rome, it might even remove his scruples about believing in Christianity. Assuming the strongest possible obligations to main- tain a perpetual condition of absolute poverty, the monks yet found it compatible with the principles and teachings of the church, to convert their religious or- ganizations into a financial corporation, and to conceal its character and design under a veil of angelic piety. The wealth which they apparently scorned, they unscru- pulously amassed ; the power which they scoffed at as profane, they attempted to monopolize ; to whatever they seemed the most indifferent, they the most sedu- lously labored to acquire ; and whatever they professed with their lips they violated in their practice. This consummate hypocrisy might be condemned by the pro* fane sceptic, but the means crowned the end with too high a degree of success not to be justified by the piety of the religious orders. . The measures and designs of this false and crafty policy harmonized too well with the pretensions of the Pope, and furnished his purposes with too able and in- genious an auxiliary, not to command his fostering care and protection. Equal in duplicity and rapaciousness, he exempted the mendicant orders from all secular and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, privileged them to de- mand alms without restriction, invested them with the exclusive power of selling indulgences, and conferred on them the lucrative prerogative of accepting legacies under the evasive name of offerings. By this munifi- cent lavishment of spiritual favors, the mendicant or- ders soon found themselves transported from an apparent condition of pauperism to a real condition of princely wealth and power; enjoying at the same time all the sympathy that indigence could excite, and all the lux- ury that money could purchase. Exempted from secu* 94 MONASTIC VOW OF lar jurisdiction, they were empowered to plunder, ravish and murder with impunity ; privileged to demand alms of all, they were the masters of the fortunes of all ; endowed with the exclusive power of vending indulg- ences, they enjoyed a monopoly of the most lucrative trade that was ever projected; and, allowed to receive legacies, they were enabled, after having wheedled the devout out of their treasure while in health, to take advantage of their dotage, and to stand over their dying pillow, and dictate the terms of their last testa- ment to the advantage of the church, and to the disad- vantage of natural heirs. Avarice, like the cormorant, is insatiable ; the more it is gorged, the keener is its appetite ; and this rapa- cious demon having taken complete possession of the monastic body, every dollar that its craft wrung from the devout only inflamed its greediness the more. "When it had exhausted the gold of a penitent, its cove- tous eye became fascinated by his land ; and, what avarice craved, financial sagacity quickly perceived an available method of obtaining. The church possessing no inherent moral vitality, sank with the middle ages into barbarism ; her power was then supreme, but insecurity of life and property prevailed, and under her auspices temporal power de- generated to a system of rapine and plunder. Had she been divine, she would then have beamed as a lone star on a tempestuous ocean ; but being earthy, she resem- bled the other earthy compounds ; nor could she well be distinguished from the barbarians and savages with whom she mingled, except by her imperfect notions of morality and justice, and her superior financial skill POVERTY. 95 in speculating on public calamity. The barons, in tbe support of their interminable wars, had taxed their subjects to an extent which produced general dissatis- faction. As the monasteries enjoyed inviolability and freedom from taxation, they offered the disaffected a refuge from an oppressive taxation, if they would be- come lay monastic members, and convey their worldly goods to the church. A wish to inhale the supposed holy atmosphere of the monasteries, to partake of their luxuries, to enjoy the indulgence they accorded to the commission of sin, to evade an impoverishing taxation, and at the same time to retain some degree of personal freedom, induced wealthy persons of both sexes to con- clude contracts with the monasteries, by which they be- came penniless, wholly dependent for subsistence on them, and irrevocably subjected to their despotic domi- nation. Beside this shrewd speculation on public calamity, the excitement and irruption of the crusades afforded the monks another opportunity for the exercise of their financial skill. With the instinctive foresight of cupid- ity, they had perceived the pecuniary advantages which would accrue to their order in the course of the holy war about to be inaugurated ; and as they had fanned its first sparks into a general conflagration, they could hardly have any conscientious scruples in remunerating themselves, by concluding such sharp and profitable bargains as occasion presented and vows facilitated. They well knew the commercial art of bartering that which was worthless for that which was valuable ; and of advancing the market price of an article by a mo- nopoly of it, or depressing its value by increasing the 96 MONASTIC VOW OF supply beyond the demand. In consequence of the public excitement real estate became greatly depressed in value, and holy war-horses, clubs, lances, battle^ axes, and other sacred instruments of destruction, pro- portionally advanced in price. The sagacious provi- dence of the monks having in advance accomulated vast military stores, very obligingly accommodated the devout crusader, by exchanging an inconsiderable por- tion of them for a very considerable tract of his land. By such operations the church obtained very extensive domains in exchange for objects of trifling value, or for very inadequate sums of money. The success of the sacerdotal financiers becoming notorious, land specu- lation grew into a contagious mania. Even kings came into the market to buy up the domains of their deluded vassels. The competition between monks and mon- archs was as great as it was amusing ; but sacerdotal craft was the more successful negotiator. The oil with which the priests had been anointed at their ordi- nation was supposed to endow them with the power of bestowing blessings and curses at will, and the high rep- utation for sanctity which they had acquired by vows 'of absolute poverty, conferred advantages of trade on them which crowns and sceptres could not command. Kings could purchase only with money ; but the mon- asteries had an exhaustless bank of indulgences, of part- ing blessings, of promised prayers, and of promised masses for departed souls. This bogus currency may provoke the levity of the profane, but it was, neverthe- less, prized by the saints above the value of silver or gold, and held by the monasteries at its highest market- able price. With the command of such unlimited re- POVERTY. 97 sources, the monasteries could successfully outbid princes, and purchase without impoverishment what monarchs could not without bankruptcy. With an air of piety and benevolence, but with an unscrupulousness that regarded neither truth nor prin- ciple, the monks invented every fiction, and adopted every possible method of augmenting the stores of their wealth. AVell aware that human piety is more easily inflamed by the prospect of gold than by the prospect of heaven, they manufactured extravagant reports of the wealth of Jerusalem ; representing it as a vast storehouse of gems and precious metal. So glovv'ing' were these descriptions that the piety of the crusaders became excited into frenzy, and their devotion into irre- pressible vociferousness ; a delightful anticipation rapt them into heavenly ecstacies ; and impatience for the glorious results of the coming combat appeared to be the only unpleasant ingredient that marred their hap- piness. On huts and farms, on palaces and domains, they looked down with scornful indifference ; for they felt that wealth surpassing the treasures of the Indies, and palaces more gorgeous than Europe could build, would inevitably raward their pious adventure. The cool-headed priest, too well informed to partake of the, general delusion, deliberately viewed the enthusiasm, and calmly calculated by what means it might be sus- tained and augmented, and how it could most judi- ciously be made to administer to the pecuniary advan- tage of the church. While the coldness with which the reason and conscience of priests secretly regarded the general lunacy, was well disguised, the masses, on the contrary, were all flame and fury, and wrought up *9 9S MONASTIC VOW OF to suck a pitcB. of anxiety to wrest the lioly land from the Infidels and appropriate it to themselves^ that they became indifferent to the treasure- and land that they already possessed. In this unhealthy state of the pub- lic mind, it was an easy task for spiritual advisers to relieve their confiding pupils of their revenues, and ul- timately to become the proprietors of many of their domains. The method by which this magnificent object was ac- complished, was not only by the treachery of exchang- ing trumpery for valuables, but also by inducing the soldiers of the cross to devolve, during their absence, .the care of their land and revenues on the monasteries, and to make them their heirs-at-law in case of death abroad. As but few of the crusaders of some of the expeditions ever returned, as many of all of them per- ished abroad, we must accord the credit of extraordi- nary shrewdness to the calculating cupidity of the monks, who could make the love, devotion, lunacy and enthusiasm of the devout, their life at home and death abroad, equally advantageous to the monastic cofi'ers. As the infatuation, so beneficial to the church, was gen- eral ; as the convulsions of the times rendered property of all descriptions exceedingly insecure ; and, as many of the devout, equally frantic with the crusaders, were restrained, either by infirmity or other circumstances, from embarking in the holy enterprise, it was not diffi- cult for the monks, amid the general frenzy, to induce such persons to become lay members of the monasteries, and to place their domains under the protection of those powerful institutions ; an advantageous encum- brance which they always assumed with obliging avidity. 1>0VEETY. 99 With such money-making devices and sharp prac- tices, and many others of a similar nature, the mendi- cant orders, united in an avaricious and arrogant con- federacy, enjoying the protection of the Pope, and the confidence and homage of Christendom, and released from all secular and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, seemed, while abjuring the possession of property as a crime, and professing poverty as a virtue, to be rapidly mo- nopolizing the wealth of the world — the domains of princes, the traffic of merchants, and the political power of governments. Under such circumstances monastic opulence, without the intervention of a miracle, must have prodigiously increased, and their domains aug- mented to provinces. From the fifth century, in every section of Chris- tendom, monastery after monastery continued to rise, generally constructed with stupendous proportions, and in sumptuous style ; furnished with every species of luxury, and polluted by every description of vice. St. Bernard, who, by the assumption of the vow of absolute poverty, renounced a considerable private in- heritance, and who subsequently scorned the profi'ers of lucrative dignities, could, nevertheless, by means of his monachal power and opulence erect ten monasteries, make nobles and Popes tremble at his authority, and even kings submit to his dictation. The Jesuits, who enjoyed all the privileges of the mendicant and secular orders, excelled them both in duplicity and rapaciousnes. Animated by a crafty and unprincipled zeal for the emolument of their order, they established mission-houses among savage nations, under the pretext of civilizing them and saving their 100 MONASTIC VOW OF souls. But this specious pretext was but a pious mask, under which was concealed an infamous scheme of swindling the natives abroad out of property, and wheedling the devout at home out of liberal donations, and splendid legacies. Their extensive mission-houses were neither designed for temples of devotion, nor for converting idolaters; their walls less frequently wit- nessed the monks at devotion, than they did at plotting schemes of plunder. Like ancient temples, and more recent churches, mosques and fairs, they were designed as centres of trade to facilitate commercial transactions ; and, as they were the grand resort of the people for ex- change of commodities, they, like the former, gave rise to the numerous villages, towns and cities, whose names they bear. Pagan simplicity has never been a match for monkish craft; and no sooner had the gold and gems of the natives inflamed the zeal and sharpened the shrewdness of the monks, than they were wrung from them by some swindling transaction, Possess- ing the arts of civilized society, they were enabled to astonish the natives with miracles, and success^ fully to impose on their ignorance and simplicity. They boasted of having induced multitudes to embrace Chris- tianity ; but as their object was not to convert Pagans from idolatry, but to defraud them out of their land and gold, they were careful not to offend them by de- manding a renunciation of the practice of idolatry, but contented themselves with entreating their converts simply to adore Christ and his mother when worship- ing the images of their gods. "With this ambiguous, but insinuating modification of Christianity, they made for- tunes out of the devout at home and savages abroad. POVERTY. 101 In 1743, tills avaricious sacerdotal order establislied a mission-house at the island Marti nic[ue ; and so adroitly did they manage their Christianizing business opera- tions, that in a short time they monopolized the trade of that island, and of the surrounding islands. Their success naturally excited the jealousy of the secular merchants; and as they were generally regarded as destitute of commercial honor, and unprincipled in their ambition, a formidable opposition was easily fomented against them. This opposition, apparently justified by self-preservation, and the necessity of inaugurating a more liberal and enlightened commercial policy, im- paired to a considerable extent the interest and popu- larity of the sacerdotal establishments. At this stage of their history, a circumstance occured which culmin- ated in their disgrace. Two valuable cargoes had been consigned to them by their French correspondents. These cargoes were captured by the English, with whom the French were at war. In conformity with maritime usage, the consignors demanded indemnity of the Jesuits. The Jesuits denied the legality of the de- mand, and refused to give the satisfaction asked. An appeal was consequently taken to the King of France, who, deciding in favor of the consignors, demanded the Jesuits to make the required restitution. But their presumptuous piety led them to scorn his authority in the same temper in which they had rejected the prayer of his mercantile subjects. This insolent and treason- able conduct led the king to investigate the principles of their order ; and finally to abrogate it in all the states of France, as a political organization projected for the acquisition of power and riches. 9* 102 HONASTIC YOW OF By means of tlieir Cliristianizing establisliinents in Paraguay and Uruguay, the Jesuits ruled the natives with despotic power, and acquired an immense amount of wealth. In 1750, Spain having by a commercial treaty ceded to Portugal seven districts of these do- mains, the monks at the head of an army of fourteen thousand men, compelled the contracting nations to an- nul the treaty ; but an attempt being afterwards made to assassinate the King of Portugal, the government declared the order of the Jesuits to be a treasonable organization, and confiscated all their posssessions in the dominion. The order of the Catholic Knights, in- corporated for the defense and propagation of the true faith, by the force of arms, like the monks, rapaciously acquired an incredible amount of riches w^hile under the solemnest obligation to maintain a perpetual con- dition of absolute poverty. These holy organizations were exclusively military ; the sword Avas the only ar- gument they used. The Knights of St. John, with the vow of poverty on their lips, but with the sword of con- quest in their hand, amassed such extensive domains, that they gave their chief an annual salary of one million guilders. The Knights Templars, while they vowed absolute poverty, acquired by arms, forced loans, donations, bequests and other means, such a prodigious amount of wealth that they erected nine thousand vast and princely palaces, each enriched with extensive territory, and all powerful enough to maintain immu- nity from the jurisdiction of the savereign in whose kingdom they were located. The Teutonic Knights, while they abjured the rights of property, and swore never to allow its possession to tarnish their sanctity, POVERTY. 103 wrung from Sweden all tlie territory that extends from the Oder along its hanks to the Gulf of Finland. It is reported by travellers that the Shaggians, a barbarous tribe of Egypt, when meeting a foe, will exclaim: "Peace be with you," and thrust a lance in his heart. The wild mockery of these uncouth savages at avowed principles has been far exceeded by the conduct and profession of the monachal and military orders of the Catholic Church, whose vows were meant for imposition, and whose life was a scene of perjury. By the aid of magnificent revenues, the various orders of the religious paupers were enabled success- fully to negotiate for the most lucrative dignities of the church, and enjoyed the fairest prospects of becoming either bishops, cardinals or popes, and of obtaining the luxurious indolence, idolatrous reverence, and impious adulation they secured. The hypocritical devices of the ancient and modern Brahmins, of the Hindoo and Mohammedan monks, and of the priests and prophets of ancient Pagan nations have, in Christian countries, where no prejudice pleads in their favor, and where their origin and claims are candidly investigated, been justly exposed to the scoffs and contempt of common sense ; and it is possible that under the same circum- stances, the monks, priests, ceremonies and dogmas .of Catholicism, which resemble them as nearly as a type can its prototype, would sink to the same level. When we calmly reflect on the monastic institution, and observe the financial principles on which it is organ- ized, the variety and prodigious traffic which has dis- tinguished its career, the immense treasure and domains it has acquired by fraud and artifice, it seems like some 104 MONASTIC VOW OF gigantic financial corporation, projected for speculating in land, and for making money by the tricks of trade. When we call to mind the avarice by which it has been actuated, the duplicity it has practised, and the impo- sitions of which it has been guilty, it appears to be a corporation organized to make money, regardless of every maxim of justice, and every principle of honor. When we consider how basely it has prostituted its privileges and immunities ; becoming superior to law to violate the principles of rectitude ; professing absolute indigence to demand, like a highwayman, a tribute of every one it chanced to meet, if not with a pistol in its hand, yet with an anathema at its disposal more dreaded by the superstitious than thousands of pistols, it looms up before the imagination as a corporation of outlaws, whose right is might, whose object is money, and whose profession is to plunder. When we reflect on its pre- tention of vending for gold the pardon of sin, the favor of God, immunity for guilt, and protection against the future retribution of heaven, it appears like a corpora- tion of fiends which arrogates the ^prerogatives of deity, traffic in the hearts and souls of men, sport with their hojDes and fears, and merchandise heaven and hell, time and eternity. And when we remember that the Koman Catholic Church has incorporated these infamous relig- ious orders in her constitution, and has officially pro- nounced them to be her most useful members, and has thus sanctioned and made her own, all their duplicity, all their rapacity, all their swindling operations, all their highway robbery, and all their profanity, immo- rality and blasphemy, she seems like some black and midnight monster, dripping with human gore, an em- POVERTY. 105 bodiment of every deformity, an incarnation of every loathsome, hideous and unsightly demon, and a just rep- resentation of the character and principles of the arch- fiend. CHAPTER VII. Monastic Vow of Celibacy. Nature has organized man for the. conjugal union. She has endowed him with powers adapted to its requirements ; with passions that aspire after its plea- sures and benefits, and with sensibilities that can be gratified only by the performance of its obligations. By the reciprocal relations, and the amiable intercourse which it establishes between the sexes, it furnishes an attractive means of mutual improvement, refining the grossness of the sensual propensities, and developing the noblest graces of the human character. By blend- ing masculine boldness with feminine delicacy, it takes rudeness from the one, and imparts energy to the other ; and thus contributes, in an eminent degree, to the form- ation of that equanimity of character which is the happy medium between extremes, and of that agree- able association of strength and urbanity which is best fitted to cope with the difficulties .ncident to life. By an alliance of mutual affection and interests for life, it secures their highest development, and the most complete and undisturbed enjoyment of their benefits. It identifies the honor and interests of parents and children, securing affectionate protectors for helpless infancy, faithful guardians for inexperienced youth, and interested tutors for fitting the rising generation for the useful and noble stations of society ; and while it thus provides for children, it rewards the solicitude CELIBACY. 107 of parents with a shelter in adversity, a support in de- clining age, and a name in posterity. But while such are the inducements of marriage, yet a regard to personal interest and happiness might deter a considerate person from assuming its obligations, when either a suitable companion has not been found, or pecuniary resources are insufficient to meet the domestic demands in a satisfactory manner. Pecuniary compe- tency and similarity of taste and disposition are requi- sites indispensable to connubial felicity. Without them marriage w^ould be a source of privation, difficulty and alienation ; and family a painful encumbrance. When, therefore, fortune has withheld these essentials of con- jugal happiness, celibacy, in either sex, is more honor- able than matrimony. But to stifle the instincts that prompt to this union, and ungraciously to spurn the incalculable benefits it proffers, unrestrained by any prudential consideration, is to violate, without motive, the laws of human happi- ness, and neglect the fulfilment of the most important design of the organism of man. An act so unnatural is, perhaps, seldom contemplated, except under extreme mental depression, or under the singular delusions of which religious fanaticism is so prolific. Disappointed love, reverses of fortune, or the hope of becoming in- sensible to the wants of humanity by acquiring super- natural perfection, has sometimes induced the weak and superstitious to assume the monastic vow of perpetual celibacy. The motive of such conduct has always ori- ginated in emotion ; and though emotion is alwaya sin- cere, it is always fluctuating. A cloud that obscures the sun and casts a gloom over earth, soon passes away, 108 MONASTIC VOW OF leaving the former in its natural brightness, and the lat- ter in its usual attractiveness. Not less ephemeral is the mental gloom which adversity or superstition may throw over the human mind. When the energies of acquisitiveness have been prostrated by repeated pecu- niary misfortunes ; when the warmth of ambition has been chilled by the wounds of reputation ; when the currents of love have been frozen by the cold breath of disappointment; the desolated heart may feel that its struggle for subsistence is vain, that its hopes of dis- tinction have perished, and that its ties of love are broken forever. But these despondent sensations are ephemeral ; they are the results of a temporary repose of passions which are rooted in the constitution of our nature, and which can be destroyed only with our being. Though despair may for a time throw a wintry gloom over the mind, yet hope will again bud and bloom, avarice will again sigh for wealth, ambition will again thirst for distinction, love will again yearn for com- panionship, and every passion resuming its natural energy will again create the emotions for which it was organized, and compel us to seek its appropriate gratifi- cation in the social, conjugal, or political relations which subsist in society. This revulsion is inevitable. It is as certain as the subsidence of a tempestuous torrent after having ex- hausted its energy, into its ordinary peaceful roll. As all emotions are ephemeral, so must be all the vows and resolutions which they generate. Each day brings with it new and unexpected events, which abrogate or modify the emotions and resolves which the circum- stances of the preceding day had suggested ; nay, more, CELIBACY. 109 the antithetical emotions thus created are always pro- portionably strong to those which they supplant. Hence? vows assumed by any person under extraordinary men- tal excitement, will be repudiated when he is under extraordinary mental depression ; and obligations as- sumed under either of these conditions of mind, will be found inconsistent with the ordinary obligations of life, when that usual current of thought and emotion shall set in, which always flows in harmony with human reason, philosophy and happiness, and the regular course of things. If w^hen this condition shall supervene ; if when hope shall succeed to despair, and reason and re- flection to impulse and fanaticism, and when all the passions and powers of our nature shall resume their natural operation — if then, we shall have placed our- selves by any mistake, however innocently committed, in a situation where we cannot respond to the demands of our nature, we will find that we have doomed our- selves to perpetual misery. Nor will any degree of purity or sanctity of motive arrest the evils of mistaken conduct. Nature is inex- orable ; she inflicts punishment on the violators of her laws without regard to the motives by which they have been actuated. She admits no apology ; she knows no forgiveness. Neither tears nor penitence can mitigate her vengeance ; neither pleas of conscientious motives, nor of ignorance of her ordinations, can soften the rigor of her justice. Although the desire of perfection is a natural and noble one, yet she has established laws by which alone it is to be obtained, and punishes the aggressors of them with deformity and imbecility. These laws are intelligible. Human perfection clearly 10 110 MONASTIC VOW OF compreliends the perfect development of all the physical, mental and moral powers of man. Exercise is the only means by which these faculties can be developed. The system of exercise adapted to the attainment of this end must embrace a judicious employment of every acuity belonging to the human organism ; allowing none to depreciate by indolence ; none to become ener- vated by incessant or overstrained exertion ; but to maintain all in that natural and reasonable condition in which, while they are alternately relieved they are mu- tually strengthened. By the discipline of such a sys- tem of exercise knowledge will gradually become the foundation of reason, judgment the guide of fancy, conscience the controller of the passions, the vital or- gains the recuperator of the physical and mental facul- ties ; a healthy reciprocity and modifying action will be maintained between all the powers, and that equili- brium engendered which is peace ; that condensation which is energy ; and that perfection which is essential to genius. The monastic vow of perpetual celibacy is clearly un- favorable to this general exercise of the powers of hu- man nature. It permits the exercise of only a limited number of these powers, and thereby obtrudes an insu- perable obstacle to the full development of the human character. It stimulates those which it cultivates to incessant activity, and thereby distorts and deforms their organisms by an abnormal development. It fetters in inactivity the bulk of the human faculties, and thereby lessens the number and variety of the natural sources of the pleasures of life. It reduces activity in the vital system, and thereby saps the fundamenta' trength CELIBACY. Ill of the whole organization, engendering those physical and moral diseases, which render life joyless, and death often the only remedy. It prohibits the exercise of those faculties by which alone the design of the human organism can be accomplished, and permits but a few of them to be exercised in order to attain the highest degree of perfection. It would dry up the springs of a river, in order to increase the volume of its current ; it would weaken the foundation of an edifice, in order to protect it against the shocks of earthquakes. But wheth- er these ecclesiastical absurdities are more insane than idiotical, we respectfully submit to the acumen of the OEcumenical Council, whenever it shall resume its session at Eome. The monastic vow of celibacy, is as weak in its funda- mental principles, as it is absurd in its discipline. It is founded on the ascetic delusion, that the sensual passions are evils; and that human perfection and happiness consist in the attainment of a passive state of mind, un- troubled by desire, thought or action. But this is a Brahminical absurdity, rusted to its core by tha abra- sion of ages. Fven if the propensities were evils, yet wisdom w^ould teach us that as they are a result of our organism, they should be regulated ; especially if by a judicious regulation, they can be made to administer to the pleasures of existence. But they are not evils ; on the contrary, they are unmeasurable benefits. If they are ever tormentors, it is when prudence has not regu- lated their gratification, or when abuse has made their cravings unnatural. If they are ever sources of dis- ease, it is when they are exercised in violation of the laws of human nature. If they ever become impotent 112 MONASTIC VOW OF in the production of pleasure, it is when their possess-* ors have become gluttons, sots, debauchees, misers, or some similar compound of human depravity. But when the animal passions are refined by knowledge, chastened by virtue, directed by reason, governed by conscience, and exercised with a considerate regard to the integrity of the other powers, they become sources of pleasure and vigor, incentives to industry and enter- prise, and eminently contribute towards the advance- ment of the perfection and happiness of our being. Another fundamental error of the vow of celibacy, is the delusion that man may by means of solitude and resolution arrest the natural promptings of the propen- sities. The propensities are constituted by nature essential portions of our being; and accordingly we must cati-y them with us into whatever solitude we may retire ; aud as their emotions are naturally irrepres- sible, their powers must be felt under whatever obliga- tion we may assume. Vows, resolutions and solitude are as incapable of arresting the progress of the pas- sions, as they are of stopping the pulsations of the heart. Amid the deepest silence and solitude they will still yearn for expression, and yearn the more the deeper is the stillness. Amid the bustle and tumult of the world they are excited by innumerable different objects ; their attention is divided among a variety of attractions ; and each finds its appropriate gratification constantly offered to its taste. But in solitude there is every thing to concentrate, and nothing to divide their power ; every thing to inflame, and nothing to appease their appetites ; and consequently, under such circum- stances, their powers must be the most ungovernable, CELIBACY. ' 113 and the torments of their craving the most unsupport- able. The foregoing observations were made on the pre- sumption, that the vovv' of perpetual chastity was as- sumed by the Catholic orders with sincere intentions of conforming to its requirements ; but this w^as not always the case. "Whatever sincerity or sanctity may have mingled, in some cases, with the motives that prompted its assumption, neither monks nor nuns, nor priests, nor bishops, nor popes, have in general furnished a reason- able amount of evidence in favor of their chastity. The natural and efficient regulator of the animal passions is marriage. The conjugal union, judiciously formed, is invaluable to man, but almost indispens- able to woman. Her organization preeminently qual- ifies her for its conditions and relations. The sen- sitiveness peculiar to her nervous system, obliges her to shrink from the rude battle of public life ; her weakness instructs her in the importance of placing herself under the guardianship of the more muscular power of man, which is noblest employed when it best protects the weak ; and her characteristic instincts and capacities lead her to seek her chief employment and happiness in the modest retirement of domestic life, where she finds the temple of which she alone is priestess; the idols which excite her purest devotion ; the altars on which she lavishes her choicest gifts ; and where, in ad- ministering her sacred profession, in dispensing instruc- tion to her children, care to her household, and conso- lation to the sick and dying, her true dignity and beauty acquires the deepest enchantment. Whatever the mental and personal charms of a female may be, 10* 114 MONASTIC VOW OF - the true excellence of her character can never be seen or appreciated, except in the practice of the amiable virtues which constitute the wife and the mother. This, woman knows; this she feels; and to obtain this end the rights of her nature, and the interests of society, concur in authorizing her to adopt every available means. Yet, notwithstanding these plain facts, the Cath- olic Church has the unpardonable presumption to pro- nounce a curse on her, if she should prefer a union so essential to her happiness and usefulness to a state of perpetual virginity. Every time her common sense teaches her to say that marriage is preferable to virgin- ity, this religious monster, in the name of the Holy Trin- ity and all the saints and angels, answers " Let her be accursed." Every time her nature prompts her to say, that, to be joined in marriage is more blessed than to remain in a state of virginity, this monster in horror at the profane and unorthodox expressions, responds, " Let her be accursed." Hear it from the lips of the holy mother herself: " Whosoever shall say, that the church could not in- stitute impediments annulling marriage, or that in instituting them she has erred, let him be acursed." "Whosoever shall say, that the marriage state is preferable to a state of virginity, or celibacy, or that it is not more blessed to remain in a state of virginity or celibacy, than to be joined in matrimony, let him be accursed." " Whosoever shall affirm, that matrimonial causes do not belong to the ecclesiastical judges, let him be ac- cursed." ( Canon of the Council of Trent ). Atrocious as is this decree, it expresses not the full CELIBACY, 115 measure of Catholic arrogance. For while with pal- pable inconsistency, the church solemnizes among Cath- olics the rites which she anathematizes them for prefer- ing, she declares that all those whose marriage cere- monies have not been celebrated according to her fantastic requirements, are living in a state of " shame- ful concubinage."" It would seem that by consummat- ing the union which she holds men and women accursed for desiring, she incurs on her own soul the curse she pronounces on others. She requires no fee for her mat- rimonial services, but accepts marriage presents^ which may perhaps have softened her malignity to this product of civilization with regard to Catholics ; but non-Cath- olics who do not conciliate her holy aversion to it by such presents, she pronounces them profligates, their wives prostitutes, and their children bastards. Hear this from the lips of Pope Pius IX. "Marriage cannot be given, unless there be, one and at the same time a sacrement, consequently that any other union between man and woman among Christians, made in virtue of what civil law soever, is nothing else than a shameful and miserable concubinage, so often condemned by the church." ( Allocution on the State of Affairs in New Grenada ), So in the j udgment of the present Pope, the non-Cath- olics in the United States consist of strumpets and bastards. According to the principles of the Catholic Church, thus officially enunciated, every person, the marriage rites of whose parents have not been per- formed by a Catholic priest, is an illegitimate offspring divested of all legal right to inherit property of his parents. If the church shall ever gain in America the 116 MONASTIC VOW OF numerical strengtB. for wliicli she is striving, what will be the consequence to non-Catholics ? Will she declare them legitimate, or respect their property titles ? Have not her priests made this land ring with the assertion, that Infidels and Protestants have no right where Cath- olicism is triumphant. But who is she that has the audacity to proclaim such principles? A church, which has been dripping with the blood of innocence for ages, yet is thirsting for more. Who are they that prate about chastity? A body of the most corrupt, unprincipled, and licentious priests that ever disgraced the name of religion. The cold dissoluteness of the Catholic orders is not only undeni- able, but it is even frightful. Had history been silent, and the real conduct of Catholic priests, and the inte- rior of Catholic nunneries remained a profound secret, yet, an ordinary knowledge of human nature would have warranted the suspicion that the priests were not models of chastity, nor the nunneries asylums of innocence. But history has not been silent ; she has spoken distinctly, and spoken often. A nun escaped from her prison-house, or a priest not yet steeled by hypocrisy to^ all the pleadings of virtue, or who was disgusted beyond endurance at the corruption that fes- ters in the heart of the Catholic Church, has furnished history with startling records, and raised the sacred veil, that the superstitious might behold the horrible compound of duplicity, lust, and murder which secretly pollutes the interior of the institutions which they rev- erence. But these fitful revelations, although appeal- ing to the noblest sympathies of mankind, have seldom produced an effect equal to the exigency. Like bursts CELIBACY. 117 of unexpected thunder, they have startled for a moment, but soon rumbled into silence and forgetfulness. Such is the general infatuation, that people seldom question that around which the sanctions of religion are thrown, and when they do the doubt is soon obliter- ated. They will reverently bow to a priest without thinking it is possible that under the guise of his chaste and holy profession, avarice, lust and murder may reign supreme. They will heedlessly pass a nunnery without thinking how many broken hearts may there be hope- lessly imprisoned ; how many gifted and accomplished females may there be pining in anguish and despair, who, while they sought an abode of unsullied chastity, found themselves entrapped in a den of infamy, to be profaned by holy confessors ! But reluctantly as char- ity would believe these statements, they are substanti- ated beyond the possibility of doubt or denial, by the records of Catholic authority of the highest order. An insight into the mysteries of Catholicism, and the mode by which priests conceal from publicity their acts of seduction and adultery, may be learned from the following extract from Hogan's "Auricular Confession." " The secular orders," says he, " are composed chiefly of parish priests and their curates, whose duty it is to hear their parishioners. The orders of regulars are com- posed of friars, who are subdivided into several minor orders, and who have no particular duties to dis- charge, unless especially deputed to do so by the bishop, or the deputy of the diocese into which they may be divided. It is so managed by the secular priests, that whenever they fail in seducing their penitents, and are detected by them that one of those friars shall immedi- 118 MONASTIC VOW OF ately be at hand to hear the confessions of all such females, and forgive their sins, on condition that they shall never reveal to moral being the thoughtless pecca- dillos of their parish priest, who for the moment forgot himself, and whose tears of penitence now moisten the ground on which he walks." ( Auric. Confess, vol. ii. p. 168 ). The adaptation of the confessional to prepare the way for seduction and adultery may be comprehended by the following extract from the ' Synopsis of Popery" by the same author. " Do any of these families," asks he, " know the questions which a priest puts to their fam- ilies at the confessional ? Do husbands know the ques- tions which priests put to their wives at the confession ? .... Fathers, mothers, guardians and husbands fancy to yourself the most indelicate, immodest, libidinous questions which the most immoral and profligate mind can conceive, — fancy those ideas put into plain lan- guage, and that by way of questions and answers, and you will then have a faint conception of the conversa- tion which takes place between a priest and your hitheito pure daughter. If after two or three examina- tions, in that sacred tribunal, they still continue vir- tuous, they are rare examples." ( Synopsis, p. 170, 171). While the Catholic Church imposes on the priests and monks the vow of celibacy, it accords them the priv- ilege of acting licentiously with impunity. In the life of Bishop Scipio de Eicci, written by an eminent Cath- olic, the practice of the church in allowing bishops and priests to keep concubines, while it forbids them to marry under pain of excommunication, is asserted and CELIBACY. 119 defended. The Council of Toledo passed a canon for- bidding priests to keep more than one concubine in public. William Hogan asserts that every priest keeps a concubine, and every teacher in a school attached to a Catholic nunnery, has been seduced by her teacher. Chamancis says : " The adultery, obscenity and impiety of the priests are beyond description. St. Chrysostom thinks the number of them that will be saved, bears a very small proportion to those who will be damned. Cardinal Oonpaggio asserts that " the priest who marries commits a more grievous sin than if he kept many con- cubines." Pope Paul protected houses of ill-fame, and acquired great riches by selling them licenses. The Council of Augsburg ordered that all suspected females should be driven by whips from the dwellings of the clergy, and have their hair cut off. A monk relates that he once made a contract with the Devil that if he w^ould cease to fill his mind with lascivious ideas, he would omit some prayers to the saints whose pictures decorated the walls of his cloister, but upon communi- cating the substance of the agreement to the bishop, he was informed by him, that " rather than abstain from adoring Christ and mother in their holy images it would be better to enter every brothel and visit every pros- titute in the city." Richard of England replied to Fulk Nuelly, the legate of Pope Innocent III., commis- sioned to blow the trumpet of another crusade : " You advise me to dismiss my three daughters, Pride, Av- arice and Incontinence. I bequeath them to the most deserving : my pride to the Knights Templars ; my av- arice to the monks of Ciste ; and, my incontinence to the prelates." Pope John XXIII. was deposed by the 120 MONASTIC VOW OF Council of Constance for having committed seventy different sorts of crimes, among the number of which was illicit commerce with three hundred nuns. The Trappists, a menkish order of highway robbers, were constantly employed in abducting females, confining them in their monastery, and perpetrating the most atrocious rapes. At the Council of Canterbury King Edgar declared that the houses of the clergy were nothing but brothels. Petrarch laments over the fact that the clergy at the papal court were shamefully licentious. Cardinals lived openly with their concu- bines ; and it became a question of etiquette whether a bishop's concubine should not, at the court of His Holi- ness, precede other ladies. Llorente, chief secretary of the Spanish Inquisition in 1789, relates that the in- quisitors having granted permission to the females of a certain locality to denounce their guilty confessors, the number of priests denounced was so great that thirty secretaries were employed for sixty days in taking down depositions, and that the profligacy of the clergy so far exceeded all calculation that it was concluded to sus- pend investigation, and to destroy the records of the proceedings. The extent and depth of clerical deprav- ity can never be divulged by those who know it, for St. Bernard asserts that " Bishops and priests com- mit acts in private which it would be scandalous to ex- press." From nunneries governed and visited by priests of such a character, what is the logical inference ? Cha- mancis, an unimpeachable Catholic authority, answers this question when he says : " To veil a woman in these convents is synonymous to prostituting her." The sev- CELIBACY, 121 entli General Coraicil of Nice prohibited the erection of double convents for the accommodation of both sexes ; but the prohibition was not regarde^i. In Europe every nunnery has attached to it a foundling asylum ; in the United States, a grave-yard. Llorente relates a curious account of Aquida, an abbess of a Carmelite nunnery at Liemo, It appears that this female had, on several occasions, professed to have become pregnant ■with stones, and to have retired for the purpose of giv- ing them birth. She had often exhibited her miracu- lous progeny to the credulous, and pretended to be enabled, by their divine nature, to cure diseases with them. Her success in working miracles by them pro- cured for her the reputation of a saint. But unfortun- ate for her eventual canonization, a rumor became cur- rent that instead of having given birth to stones, she had given birth to children, and strangled them ; and that she had obliged the holy nuns under her super- vision to practise the same iniquity. The informant, an inmate of the nunnery, pointed out the place where the murdered babes were buried ; and subsequent exca- vation revealed the horrible fact, that half the tale of blood had not been told. The following additional facts, related by William Hogan, as having transpired under his personal cogniz- ance, afford further confirmative proof of the general character of priests and nuns, and that it remains as it has always been, in all countries, and at all periods of civilization : " The Eoman Catholics of Albany," says he, *' had, about three years previous to my coming among them, three Irish priests among them^ occasionally preaching, 122 ^ MONASTIC VOW OF but always hearing confessions As soon as I got settled in Albany I bad, of course, to- attend to the duty of auricular confession, and in less than two months found that the priests, during the time they were there, were the fathers of between sixty and one hundred children, besides having debauched many who had left the place previous to their confinement." (Au- ricular Confession, p. 46). *' A short time previous to my coming to this coun- try, and soon after my being installed as confessor in the Pvomish Church, I became intimately acquainted with a family of great respectability. This family con- sisted of a widowed father and two daughters, and never in my life have I met with more interesting young ladies than the daughters were In less than two months after my first visit to this family, at their peaceful and respectable breakfast table, I observed the chair which had been usually occupied by the elder of the two ladies occupied by the younger, and that of the latter to be vacant. I inquired the cause, and was in- formed by the father that lie had just accompanied her to the coach, which had left that morning for Dublin, and that she went on a visit to the Kev. B. K. It seems that both of the daughters of whom I have spoken went to the school attached to the nunnery of the city of — . The confessor whose duty it was to hear the duty of the pupils of the institute, was one RbTs.,B. K., a friar of the Franciscan order, who, as soon a?*"i^is plans were properly laid, and circumstances rendered them ripe for execution, seduced the elder lady ; and finding the fact could no longer be concealed, arranged matters with a Dublin friend She was eon- fined at the house of his friend, and her illicit offspring given to the managers of the foundling hospital in Dublin No sooner was this elder lady provided for, than this incarnate demon, B. K., commenced the seduction of the younger lady. He succeeded, and ruined her too. But there was no difficulty in provid- CELIBACY. 123 ing for them. They both became nuns. .... I saw them in the convent at Mount Benedict. They were great favorites of Bishop Fenton. They were spoken of by some of the females of Boston as models of piety." (Auricular Confession, p. 100-106). ** Soon after my arrival in Philadelphia, ... a Ro- man Catholic priest by the name of 0. S. called on me, and showed me letters of recommendation which he had from Bishop T., of Ireland, and countersigned by the Roman Catholic bishop of New York, to Bishop England, of South Carolina. .... He arrived at Charleston, and was well received by Bishop England. There lived in the parish to which this reverend con- fessor was appointed, a gentleman of respectability and wealth. Bishop England supplied this new missionary with letters of strong recommendation to this gentle- man, advising him to place his children under his charge, assuring him they would be brought up in the fear of God and love of religion The Rev. Popish wretch seduced the eldest daughter of his bene- factor, and the father becoming aware of the fact, armed himself with a case of pistols, and determined to shoot the seducer. But there was in the house a good Catholic sevant [ a spy ] who advised the seducer to fly. He soon arrived in Charleston ; the right reverend bishop understood his case, advised him to go to confes- sion, and absolved him from his sins ; . . . . sent him on his way to New York His victim after a little time, having given birth to a fine boy, goes to confession herself, and sends the child of sin to the Sis- ters of Charity residing in , to be taken care of as a nullius filius. As soon as the child was able to walk a Roman Catholic lady adopted it as her own. The real mother of the child soon removed to the city of , told the whole transaction to the Roman Catholic bishop of , who knowing that she had a handsome property, introduced her to a highly res- pectable Protestant gentleman,' who soon married her. He ( the bishop ) soon after introduced the gentleman 124 MONASTIC VOW OF to the Sisters of Charity who had provided for the illicit ojSFspring of the priest, concealing its parentage, and representing it as having no father living. The gentle- man was pleased with the boy, and the holy bishop finally prevailed on him. and his wife to adopt it as his own." (Auric. Confess, p. 111-115). "When quite young and just emerging from child- hood, I became acquainted with a Protestant family, re- siding in the neighborhood of my birthplace. It con- sisted of a mother (a widow), and three interesting children, two sons • and one daughter In the course of time the sons grew up, and their guardian in compliance with their wishes, and to gratify their am- bition, procured them commissions in the army As soon as the sons left to join their respective regi- ments, which were then on the Continent, the mother and daughter were much alone There was then in the neighborhood only twenty miles from this family, a nunnery of the order of Jesuits. To this nunnery was attached a school superintended by the nuns of that order The mother yielded, in this case, to the malign influence of fashion ; . . . . sent her beautiful daughter, her earthly treasure, to the school of these nuns. . , . . Soon after the daughter was sent to school, I entered the college of Manooth as a theological stu- dent, and in due time was ordained a Catholic priest. An interval of some years passed There was a large party given, at which among others I happened to be present; and there meeting with my friends and interchanging the usual courtesies on such occasions, she sportingly, as I then imagined, asked me whether I would preach her reception sermon, as she intended becoming a nun and taking the veil I heard no more of the aifair until about two months, when I re- ceived a note from her designating the chapel in which she expected my services On the reception of my friend's note a cold chill crept over me, I antici- pated and trembled, and felt there must be foul play. . . . . Having no connection with the convent in which CELIBACY. 125 she was immured, I did not see her for three m^onths following. At the expiration of that time one of the lay sisters delivered me a note I found my young friend wished to see me on something important, I of course lost no time in calling on her, and being a priest, I was immediately admitted ; but never have I forgotten, never can I forget, the melancholy picture of lost beauty and fallen humanity which met my aston- ished gaze in the person of my once beautiful and vir- tuous friend 'I sent for you, my friend, to see you once before my death, .... I am in the family-way and must die,' " He then proceeds to relate, that in the course of a conversation which ensued he learned from the nun that she had* been seduced by her confessor, (which fact precluded any appeal or redress), and that the lady ab- bess had proposed to procure an abortion, but that an inmate had informed her that the medicine which the lady abbess would give would contain poison. He promised to renew his visit within a few days ; he did 80, but the foul deed was done. Fiends ! Monsters 1 Boes not the blood curdle in every vein at such recitak ? Does not man and woman blush at their dishonored nature ? Is there a God that can allow the use of his name to sanction such execrable depravity; that can look with indifference on women avowing chastity in his name in order to allure the purest of their sex to destruction ; or that can be in- sensible to the imprecations of injured innocence, pro- faned in holy houses? Is God a fiction, or divine retribution a dream ? No ! While a thunderbolt leaves a monastery or a nunnery in existence, lightning has nq avenging power ! While either of them exists man 11* 126 MONASTIC VOW OF may well douLt the existence of retributive justice in human affairs. But it may be said, that God has delegated to society the power to punish offences committed against its moral interests, and therefore does not himself interfere in the matter. But does society exercise its authority in the matter any more visibly than deity ? Society enacts laws and prescribes penalties respecting murder, rape, broth- els, false imprisonment, and irregular interments. She also investigates all alleged infractions of these laws, except when they involve the honor of monastic insti- tutions. But why are these dens exempted from the common law of the land ? Why are they allowed to bar their doors against the authority which all others must respect? Why are they allowed to organize within a government an independent government, nul- lifying its jurisdiction over them? Why are not the interior of monastic institutions constantly and thor- oughly inspected, and the authority of the common law maintained over them? Is it because they are too pious to violate the law of the land ? If this were so, it would do them no harm, l^ut much good, to have the fact week after week attested by an investigating com- mittee composed of their opponents. But is not the contrary the fact ? Do they not deprive their inmates of personal liberty ? Do they not imprison them in dungeons ? Do they not punish them ? Do they not inflict on them barbarous chastisements ? Are they not sacerdotal brothels? Has not every age and country given its testimony to show that kidnapped men and women have been imprisoned for life in their cells ; that there nuns have been poisoned, abortions procured, CELIBACY. 127 "babes murdered, women outraged by priests, and every law, human or divine violated with impunity ? Are these sensational declamations ? Would for the credit of human nature they were. No ! They are the true records of monastic history, alleged by kings and statesmen, proved before councils, and acknowledged by monks, nuns, priests, pishops, and popes. With such an array of evidence before society, why does it allow institutions among it where every crime tnay be committed secretly, and with impunity ? Why do not grand juries, who visit other jails, penitentiaries, and asylums, inspect also the more secret and sus- picious nunneries ? We have now described the nature and consequences of the monastic vow of celibacy. This obligation is opposed to the nature, and defeats the object of the hu- man organism. It extinguishes conjugal, filial, and parental affection. It severs the ties that bind the in- terests of society together. It injures both the present and the future, by abrogating their mutual connection. It strikes at the root of national greatness, by arresting the tide of population. It degrades the dignity of the community, by increasing the number of illegitimate children. It wars against marriage, the noblest incen- tive to social refinement and civilization ; the basis of woman's hope and happiness; the impulse and gratifi- cation of her pride of family, love of parental control, and desire to live in posterity. It anathematizes wo- man's purest aspirations, and man's holiest ties. It converts the ardor of chastity into snares for its seduc- tion. It sanctifies prostitution and adultery. It vio- lates the law of the land. It erects in the most magni- 128 MONASTIC VOW OF CELIBACY. ficent parts of a city its spacious brothels, with, massive walls, secret doors, false floors, guarded windows, grated cloisters, inaccessible to the inspection of law, but acces- sible at all hours of night or day by priests. Within these wails it allures beauty, virtue, and talent, and while pretending to fit them for the society of infinite purity, betrays them into the power of unprincipled priests, and imprisons them in eternal seclusion, where no groan can meet the public ear, where they can never tell the story of their wrong, nor appeal to a heart for sympathy, nor to a law for redress. CHAPTER VIII. Monastic Vow of Unconditional Obedience. Another vow which w^as universally assumed by the religious orders, was the vow of unconditional obe- dience. By the obligation of this vow the members of the convents were subjected to the absolute authority of the superiors ; the superiors to the absolute au- thority of the generals ; the generals to the absolute authority of the pope. The authority of these holy officials strongly resembled that of the oriental despot, who, on being informed by his general that it was im- possible to build the bridge over the river, as he had ordered, replied : " I inquired not of thee whether it was impossible or not; I-commanded thee to build it; if thou failest thou shalt be strangled." Accordingly, at the mandate of a superior a subordinate was obliged to go on any errand, for any purpose, criminal or not, to depart on any mission, to perform any work, to un- dertake any enterprise, or to occupy any station that he required - of him. The superior's decision was final, and from it there was no appeal. The Jesuit's general was empowered to inflict and remit punishment at op- tion, and to expel any member of the order without the form of charge or trial. It mattered not whether the task assigned the recluse exceeded, or not, his mental or physical capacity, he was bound to obey the order immediately, and fully ; to hesitate, or seem to hesitate was a crime, and by the penal code of some of the 130 MONASTIC VOW OF monasteries punished by tlie infliction of one hundred lashes. But to reduce a human being to such an absolute servi- tude was no easy task. To transform an active being into a spiritless automaton ; a sensitive being into a senseless machine ; a rational being into an irrational brute, was not the work of a moment, but of years and discipline. In order to subdue and habituate the will to implicit and mechanical obedience, recourse had to be had to penance, to trials, to all that could stifle doubt and inquiry, debilitate the power of resistance, and degrade conscious dignity in the dust. The most menial services, the most loathsome, disgusting, and absurd offices were consequently asssigned to the proba- tionists. They were required to suck the putrid sores of invalids, to remove enormous rocks, to walk un- flinchingly into fiery furnaces, to cast their infants into ponds of water, to plant stafi^s in the ground and to w^ater them until they should grow. They were never allowed to be alone , two were always to be together ; the one a constant and conscious spy on the emotions of the other. The faithful son who could harden him- self into a cold, cruel, and remorseless statue, was com- mended for his attainments in piety ; but the unfaith- ful son who could not but betray some emotion, or re- maining consciousness of the independence of his na- ture, in defiance of his circumspection, was doomed to suff'er the torments of an excruciating penance. The vow of solitude had stifled the social instincts ; the vow of silence had paralyzed the powers of speech, and sealed up the lips of wisdom, knowledge and elo- quence ; the vow of contemjilation had subjugated the UNCONDITIONAL OBEDIENCE. 131 intellectual faculties to the domination of fancy, and the bewilderments of ignorance ; the vow of poverty had shackled the faculties of improvement and enter- prise ; the vow of celibacy had extinguished connubial and parental affection ; and now the vow of uncondi- tional obedience, by subjugating reason, conscience, and the executive powers to the absolute control of a supe- rior, had completed the monk's slavery in the ruin of every noble and valuable attribute of his nature. Atro- cious as were the other vows, the last exceeded the combined atrocity of them all. It consummated the destruction of his nature. It was the grave of his man- hood ; the tomb in which he buried himself alive. After its assumption his reason was not to guide him ; his knowledge was not to direct him ; his conscience was not to admonish him ; but in defiance of them all, and even at the risk of his life, he was to tremble, and obey a spiritual despot. His perceptive faculties, his conscious independence, his love of liberty and justice, his sense of obligation and accountability, all the men- tal, moral, and physical powers which constitute his being, were by this vow, basely surrendered to an absolute lord, to whom he became a slave in mind and body, — and forever. The blind obedience which the pope demands to his despotic will, is antagonistical to the Jewish religion, to the Christian religion, and to Natural religion. It is a nullification of all religion ; an abrogation of the au- thority of the deity ; a usurpation of the throne of Heaven. The Jewish and the Christian religion require unconditional obedience to God alone. In their sacred books, the pope is nowhere mentioned, nor is any power 132 MONASTIC VOW OF referred to analagous to what lie claims. Natural re- ligion prescribes reason and conscience as tiie sujDreme guide of man ; and reason and conscience reject the papal authority as absurd and unjust. In the Hiero- phant of the Elysian mysteries, in the Apostolic Suc- cessor of Buddha, in the Grand Lama, in the Egyptian and Persian High Priest we may find something anal- agous to the claims of the Pope of Rome, but nowhere else. The unconditional obedience required by the pope is inconsistent with all ideas of merit and demerit in human conduct. If man acts not from the independ- ent suggestion of his reason and conscience, but from the secret orders of another, he is no more deserving of commendation for uesful acts, than a locomotive is for its obedience to the will of an engineer. The unconditional obedience demanded by the pope is inconsistent with human accountability. It is an abrogation of all obligation, and all law. It assumes that the pope is above all authority ; accountable to none ; and that he is capable of nullifying all obliga- tions between man and man, between government and subjects, between mankind and their creator. It ob- trudes between man and his reason, and forbids him to listen to its voice. It obtrudes between man and his conscience, and forbids him to obey its dictates. It ob- trudes between man and his civil obligations, and for- bids him to obey the laws of his country. It leaves no sense of duty or obligation existing in the constitution of man. According to it, man is not accountable to reason, nor conscience, nor society, nor God, but to the pope alone. The pope is therefore " more than God," UNCONDITIONAL OBEDIENCE. 133 as one of his titles asserts ; and God is no God or an inferior one to him. The unconditional obedience enforced by the pope is subversive of the rights of the world. For one man, however good or great, to require the united intelli- gence of the human family to submit to his arbitrary dictation, is to deny their right to an independent will, reason, conscience, or principle of action, or the privilege of exercising the powers which they have inherited with their being. It is to declare that all men are abject slaves to the pope. It is to deny that any has a right above a brute that is bridled, har- nessed, or yoked, to be driven by the spurs and whips of its owner. In short, it is to crush all liberty and the rights of human nature. A claim of absolute authority is always absurd ; but the papal claim of absolute dominion over human con- science and reason, surpasses all absurdity recorded in the annals of tyranny and arrogance. Even were su- periors, generals, and popes as wise and virtuous as humanity permitted, yet such a degree of power en- trusted to them would be detrimental to the interests of society. Parents whose welfare and honor are so inti- mately interwoven with the welfare and honor of their children, often regret over the mistakes which they have committed in giving counsel. For a sj^iritual des- pot, whose nature has been religiously pruned of human sensibilities, whose mind has been contracted within the bigoted circle of spiritual ideas, whose interest is antag- onistical to those of his subjects, and who owns no ac- countability for the proper exercise of his functions, for such an inhuman monster to be entrusted with exclusive 12 134 MONASTIC VOW OF control over tlie reason, conscience, and interests of another, would as inevitably complete his arrogance and tyranny as it would the misery and slavery of his subordinate. Less than such a result could not be ex- pected from the best of superiors, generals, or monks. But when the past history of these holy men has shown that they have invariably labored for their self- aggrandizement, and that as a class, they have been ignorant, immoral, cruel and intriguing, such power, in the hands of such men, would not only extinguish all virtue in the breast of the governed, but render them instruments of the most flagitious purposes. When by means of an ecclesiastical despotism, learning was gov- erned by ignorance, wisdom by folly, virtue by vice, can we wonder that monks, superiors, generals and popes were the basest and most licentious of men ; that the convents were rife with prostitution and murder ; that the papal court was the most profligate in the world ; and that the most prosperous period of Catholicism was the darkest age of mankind. But the papal claim of absolute control over reason and conscience refutes itself. It suggests a strong jDre- sumption that he is conscious that he can make no successful appeal to either reason or conscience. Had it been otherwise would he have denied their author- ity ? "Were he confident that his pretensions are founded in truth, would he have prohibited investigation ? Is not reason the clearest guide to truth, conscience its most powerful advocate, investigation its most formid- able ally ? And had these noble principles been avail- able in supporting the pretension of the pope, would he have had the stupidity to denounce them? UNCONDITIONAL OBEDIENCE. 135 If it is consistent with religion to make automata of human beings, slaves of men, a machine of the world ; to harness mankind in the gears of an ecclesiastical despot, that they may be driven under his lash whither- soever his pleasure or interest may require ; to obliter- ate the faculties that distinguish men from brutes ; to deny the existence of a God by abrogating his attributes, and blaspheme Omnipotence by the ridicule of assuming his prerogatives ; then the absolute, implicit, and un- hesitating obedience enjoined on the religious orders by the Catholic Church is in accordance with its spirit and design. But if religion is morality in its highest devel- opment, humanity in its purest character, and reason in its freest exercise, then is the papal despotism not only subversive of religion, but destructive of the rights of man, of the obligations of virtue, and dangerous to the liberty and interests of the world. CHAPTER IX. Pagan Origin of the Ilonastic Orders. — Concluding Fiemarhs. We have shown in the previous chapters that the mo- nastic vows are in conflict, not only with the require- ments of moral goodness, but with the dictates of rea- son, the principles of personal improvement, and the interests and progress of society. "We have shown, also, that they were assumed not for the humble pur- pose of acquiring spiritual perfection, but for the am- bitious purpose of obtaining riches, powder, and domin- ion. From these considerations, and from the fact that the monachal orders form an elementary part of the constitution of the Catholic Church, we have inferred that she is rather a political than a religious institution ; and that while politics form her nature and principles, religion is assumed as an ornament and disguise. We will now adduce a few facts tending to show that monkish orders originated, not from Christianity ; that they existed in pre-historic ages ; and that so far as they constitute the Catholic Church, she is a heathen, and not a Christian institution. It is well known that the Carmelite monks claim Elijah, the prophet, as their founder. Among the an- cient personages whom they assert belonged to their order, they enumerate Pythagoras, the Gallic Druids, all the prophets and holy men mentioned in the Old and New Testament, the Apostles, the Essen es, and the CONCLUDING REMARKS. 137 ancient liermlts. Althougli amid the wrangling of the monastic orders for preeminence, this claim has rigor- ously been contested, yet Pope Benedict III. allowed the Carmelites to erect in the Vatican the statue of Elijah as the founder of their order. This permission, so far as the concession of the infallible fixther is author- ity, places the antiquity of the monachal order remotely beyond that of Christianity ; acknowledges its institu- tion to have originated from Judaism ; and grants that its rules and principles were adopted by ancient Pagan fraternities. That identical institutions have flourished in Asia from the remotest historical periods, admits not of a question. The present Sufism of Arabia is but a modi- fied form of an ancient system of pantheistical mysti- cism, which taught that through the observance of ascetic practices the animal passions could be destroyed, the soul purified and assimilated to God, and a beatific state attained whose tranquility nothing could disturb. The Gymnosophists, the naked philosophers of India, were an order of monks, who practised the most excruciat- ing penance ; and who, in their eagerness to become pure, sometimes burnt themselves alive. The God Fo, born in Cashmere B. C. 1027, the author of the Bram- inical religion, strenuously advocated monachal insti- tutions. The different orders of the monks and her- mits which originated from his allegorical and mystical teaching, assumed the vows of unconditional obedience and absolute poverty. The monks resided in monas- teries, and the hermits in deserts. They both practised the most rigorous penance, professed to aspire after ab- solute puritv, but in their conduct and principles they 12* 138 PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE were grovelling, intriguing, profligate and ambitious. Buddha, born B. C. 1029, two years after Fo, found- ed the monastic order of the Buddhists. His con- vents were governed by superiors who were subject to the absolute authority of the patriarch, or, as he was officially styled, the Apostolic Successor. The func- tions and authority of the Buddhistic superiors were similar to those of the Catholic orders ; and the preten- sions and dignity of the patriarch were one and the same with those of the Pope of Kome. The monks lived in monasteries, assumed the vows of obedience, poverty and celibacy, and admitted virgins to social in- tercourse. Jeseus Christna, born B. 0. 3,500, the incar- nate redeemer of the Hindoos, whose birth, life, aud miracles resemble those of Jesus Christ, (see "Bible in India,") alludes in his discourses to monks and her- mits as being at his time ancient, flourishing and ven- erated orders. The Hindoo and Mohammedan Fakirs are classes of monks who vow obedience, poverty and celibacy, retire from the world, pass their time in silent contemplation, and acquire the veneration of the pop- ulace by the practice of absurd and cruel penance. The Essenes, who flourished in Egypt and Palestine be- fore the Christian era, were an organization of monks who derived their theological principles from the God Theuth, the founder of the Egyptian religious ceremonies. From the above enumerated facts the conclusion is irresistable, that the Catholic monastic orders are neither of Christian origin, nor inconsistent with the doctrines and worship of Paganism. A Eomish missionary who visited China, observing the similarity which subsisted between the Chinese and MONASTIC ORDERS, 139 the Catholic religion, declared that the devil must have preceded him, and converted the nation to Christianity, in order to cheat the church out of the credit of the enterprise. A more learned but less pious authority concluded from the same analogy, that Catholicism did not convert Paganism, but that Paganism converted Catholicism. We will now conclude our examination of the Cath- olic monastic orders, with a few general remarks. The monastic vows are not only a bold abnegation of the authority of reason and conscience, but a crafty de- vice to delude the credulous, and secretly to acquire riches, power and influence. Although they were as- sumed by the monks as perpetual obligations, yet they were evaded, modified, or abrogated as interest and pol- icy suggested. The mendicant orders, which assumed the vow of perpetual and absolute poverty, artfully la- bored to amass fortunes; and soon betrayed a secret design of acquiring hierachal importance and suprem- acy. The Franciscans, who solemnly obligated them- selves to remain forever poor, incessantly grasped after riches. When they had built nunneries, convents, and became the proprietors of extensive domains, they abro- gated their vow of perpetual poverty, lest it should in- validate their title to vast possessions which they held. With equal duplicity and ambition, they assumed, upon their first organization, a vow of perpetual ignorance; abjuring the acquisition of any intellectual accomplish- ment, and consecrating themselves strictly to the preaching of the gospel. But becoming enchanted with the magnificence of the papal crown, and wishing to wield its immense power and lucrative patronage in be- 140 PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE half of their order, and perceiving that literary ac- quirements would facilitate the accomplishment of this object, they annulled their vow of perpetual ignorance, and began to devote themselves to the acquisition of some degree of profane erudition. Having acquired immense wealth and popularity, and removed by art or bribery every obstacle to the success of their ambition, they placed on the apostolic throne, from their own order, Nicholas V., Alexander V., Sixtus IV., and Clement XIV. The Dominicans, who were established to preach against infidels and heretics, adopted at the commencement of their career the money-making de- vices of the mendicant orders ; but when their reven- ues had become so great, and their domains so exten- sive that they had attracted a covetous glance from the secular power, they prudently annulled the vows by which they had been acquired, lest the profane avari- ciousness of princes should cause their sequestration. The Jesuits professed to have a holy abhorrence of riches, but thankfully accepted costly presents, opulent legacies, vast tracts of land, and the pecuniary means of erecting numerous stately structures. While this pious fraternity resolved not to accept any ecclesiasti- cal dignity, it secretly and artfully labored to acquire all the privileges of the mendicant orders, all the ad- vantages of the secular clergy, and to make the mem- bers of its order superior to those of any other, and its general next in power and importance to the pope. By hypocrisy, intrigue, and cringing sycophancy, these un- scrupulous monks obtained rights and privileges enjoyed by no other ecclesiastical corporation. They not only obtained exemption from all civil and episcopal taxes, MONASTIC ORDERS. 141 and from all amenability to any other power than that of the pope ; but also the authority of absolving from all sins and ecclesiastical penalties; of changing the object of the vows of the laity; and of acquiring churches and domains without restriction. They were privileged also to suit their dress to circumstances, their conduct to peculiarities, their profession to the views of others; to be accommodating and complaisant while pursuing a political enterprise, and under the mask of any external appearance to prosecute in secret what might excite opposition if openly avowed. They were allowed to become actual merchants, mechanics, show- men, actors, and to adopt any profession calculated to facilitate the accomplishment of a design, and to throw off the mask whenever they thought expedient. Organ- ized on the principles of deception, and unrestricted in their privileges, they secretly labored for their own aggrandizement, while they publicly professed to be sacrificing their interests to the salvation of mankind. They became professors of universities and tutors of schools, that they might select the brightest minds of the rising generation, and mould them to their pur- poses. They became the spiritual guides of females of rank and opulence, that they might avail themselves of their influence and control their wealth. They became the confessors of princes, that they might penetrate their intentions, ferret out their secrets, watch over their conduct, and enslave and govern their minds. They became the governors of colonies, in order to grasp secular revenues, and to exercise the political power in behalf of their interests. They established seminaries and boarding schools for both sexes, in 142 I^AGAN OBIGIN OF THE order to acquire dominion over the young ; they sought to occupy the confessional, in order to dis- cover all domestic and governmental secrets ; and they labored to monopolize the pulpit, in order to manufac- ture public opinion, and influence the general tone of society in their favor. The numerous divisions into which the religious or- ders were divided, and their different degrees of aus- terity, enabled the church to suit its policy to the cor- ruption or purity, the ignorance or learning of the nation it sought to proselyte and govern. Under its direction the monks flattered every power they were ordered to subvert, and blushed at no sycophancy that facilitated the accomplishment of an object. Governed by unnatural vows, they sacrificed freedom, the source of natural sentiment, to credulity and blind submis- sion The most absurd and criminal injunctions of a superior or general were obeyed without compunction or remorse. If they aspired after perfection, it was by sacrificing the virtues of life. If they strove to obtain personal purity, it was by violating the law^s of their being. They sought to atone for offences by scourging their backs, ironing their limbs, chaining themselves to focks, passing their lives in caves, in days without food, in nights without sleep, in years without speaking ; sub- sisting without money, propagating without women, acquiring the respect of the world they despised, the riches they contemned, and the dignity they abjured. They were a palpable deception, yet an object of uni- versal veneration. By cunning and obsequiousness they sought and obtained power ; by duplicity and fraud they amassed fortunes; by luxury and tyranny MONASTIC ORDERS. 143 they oppressed the world. Every species of absurdity, art, hypocrisy, avarice, ambition and despotism, under the guise of sanctity was embodied in their organiza- tion, and illustrated in their conduct. The doctrines which they taught were often as per- nicious as their professions were false, and their con- duct crafty. As the accommodating morality of their religion allowed them to adopt any profession, or any mode of life that would favor the success of a design, so the license of their sop]?iistry enabled them to con- strue the maxims of virtue according to any standard that would justify the conduct dictated by their interest or sycophancy. By the pliancy of their moral code they consecrated the basest means to pious ends. By the subterfuge of perplexing interpretations, mental reservations, and an artful ambiguity of language, they excused and sanctioned perjury and every other crime. They taught that offences were justified, if, when com- mitted, the criminal thought differently from what he said or done ; and that a mental reservation nullified the obligation of any promise, of any contract, or of any treaty. The perversions- of the maxims of virtue by which they sought to justify the crimes of others, they applied to their own conduct in the broadest sense. In 1809, when the papal archives were brought to France, the startling fact became public that the holy fathers had been in the habit of availing themselves of pious subterfuges. It then appeared that while they had made contracts, and issued bulls in conformity with the demands of temporal princes, they had at the same time nullified, by virtue of mental reservations, such of them as were obnoxious. 144 IMMORALITY OF THE The absurdities and perniciousness of their moral code were not exceeded by those of their penal code. According to the doctrines of Catholicity the guilt of every crime may be expiated by the performance of penance. To regulate the priest in prescribing this mode of punishment, the church furnished him with an ecclesiastical body of laws, which he as carefully as pru- dently concealed from the eyes of the intelligent. All priests were enabled, by the use of this code, to under- stand the true orthodox degree of punishment which had been authoratively decided should be inflicted on penitents, for the commission of any offence of word, thought or deed ; and a uniformity in the administra- tion of penal prescriptions was maintained, which har- monized with the divine inspiration by which the con- fessor pretended to be guided in the matter. Fasts, prayers, self-torture, abstinence from business, were, by the authority of the ecclesiastical code, declared to be the divinely appointed methods of expiating the guilt of rape, of fornication, of adultery, of robbery, of murder, and of every degree and species of crime. These offences being veryhenious in their nature, and very frequently committed by those who believed in the ability of the church to absolve them from their guilt, and time being required for the performance of the atoning penance, it is easy to see that an ordinary Cath- olic sinner was in eminent danger of incurring a debt which would require several centuries of penance to liquidate. Here was a dilemma. Long fasting would starve him ; long abstinence from business would em- poverish him ; and either expedient would prevent him from being a source of revenue to the church ; and, in MONASTIC ORDERS. 145 fact, defeat the object of the holy sacrament of pen- ance. To obviate this difficulty the ingenious method of indulgences was adopted. By this happy expedient provision was made for the relief of all criminals at stipulated prices, graduated according to their pecuni- ary circumstances. A penance imposed on a rich sinner for one year's indulgence in the commission of a par- ticular offence, was, by this crafty device, allowed to be cancelled by the payment of twenty shillings to the priest ; and if the sinner was poor, by the payment of nine shillings Yet even by this indulgence and char- itable discrimination, as every separate offence required the atonement of a separate penance, few sinners escaped incurring less than a debt of three hundred years, or of two hundred pounds sterling. The liqui- dation of such an obligation during the dark ages would consume a small fortune ; but the expansive benevolence of the church, touched at the sorrows of her contrite members, graciously accepted their land after she had exhausted their purse. As crime had its degrees of turpitude, the ecclesias- tical code prescribed degrees of severity in punishing it. Whoever could not pay with their purse had to pay with their body. Three thousand lashes, and the repe- tition of a portion of the Psalter, were prescribed as an indispensable satisfaction for any crime whose penance required a year to discharge; and fifteen thousand lashes and the repetition of the whole Psalter, for any crime whose penance required five years to dis- charge. A year's penance was taxed at three thousand lashes,- a century's at three hundred thousand lashes, and five centuries at fifteen hundred thousand lashes. 13 146 IMMORALITY OF THE These scourgings were always sanctified by tKe repeti- tion of psalms. As vicarious flagellation did not im- pair the revenues of the church, it was not objected to; and a sinner would often expiate his guilt by vigor- ously laying the stripes it demanded on the back of an accommodating friend. The skill and hardihood of St. Dominic was able to discharge the penitential lashes of a century in six days ; and his pious example was at- tempted to be imitated even by ladies of fashion and quality. The monasteries were ambiguous, oppressive corpora- tions. If they have at times preserved the literary treasures of the ancients, they have impaired their au- thority by numerous corruptions and interpolations. If they have sometimes established institutions for the education of youth, they have generally usurped the fortunes of their patrons. If they have ever been places of refuge for the proscribed, they have always been the means of oppressing industry, and restricting freedom. If they have been schools for the correction of error, and improvement in virtue, yet the absurdities and immoralities taught within their sanctuaries, and the crimes notoriously practised therein, have in- flicted deeper injury on the cause of truth, and on the interest of public morals, than can be atoned for by any usefulness or virtue which they could possess, or can pretend to claim. Their virtues were accidents ; their vices natural offsprings. They were financial in- stitutions. The labor performed by their inmates as a penance, was made a lucrative source of revenue. The articles which they manufactured were represented as capable of imparting a peculiar blessing to the pur- MONASTIC ORDERS. 147 chaser, making them cheap at any price. A simple badge of a religious order, to which, were ascribed di- vine virtue, and an unlimited amount of indulgences, was sold to lay members at the price of a respectable fortune. The tutors with which the monasteries fur- nished schools, the professors which they gave to col- leges, the confessors with which they supplied princes, and the spiritual guides with which they provided the affluent of both sexes, were benevolently granted upon the payment of exorbitant sums of money. Gold being the source of power and luxury, it became the govern- ing principle of the church. For it she granted in- dulgences to violate the laws of heaven and earth ; threatened and repealed excommunications ; and mer- chandised every spiritual blessing, all the prerogatives of heaven, and all the privileges of earth. Gold sup- plied the place of contrition, atoned for the offences of criminals, released sinners from purgatory, and opened to guilt the gates of Paradise. As it more ably than any thing else increased the power and dominion of the church, it was a more adorable object than the deity, a more precious savior than Christ, a more sanc- tifying possession than the Holy Ghost. As all had sinned, all had to pay ; and as all were totally depraved, all had to be liberal. The confessor was judge ; and as he was interested in the amount, he was likely to be ex- orbitant in the demand. The sin of total depravity, which all had inherited from the forbidden fruit which Adam had eaten, empowered a priest to demand of a penitent the surrender of the whole of his fortune. "With extraordinary financial ingenuity, the church converted not only the crimes of her members, but the 148 IMMORALITY OF THE virtues of her departed saints, into a lucrative source of revenue. Happily conceiving that the saints, some of whom had been executed as malefactors, had per- formed more good works than was necessary for the salvation of their souls, she inferred that the supera- bundant quantity of their goodness might be dealt out to the destitute without detriment to the owners. With more cupidity than reason, the church laid claim to these works of supererogation, and began to vend them at exorbitant prices. The exhaustlessness of the store, and the scarcity of the article among her members, made the enterprise a very profitable speculation. After disposing of a great portion of heaven, and finding it exceedingly remunerative, her inveterate disposition to traffic led her to examine the saints more carefully, and see if they had not other disposable material for the exercise of her commercial ingenuity. She was not long in discovering that the bones of the saints were likely to be deemed as valuable as their vir- tues had been, and might prove as marketable. This discovery induced an industrious search for their graves, and a careful excavation of them. The bones of Sam- uel, the judge of Isreal, which had slept for five hun- dred years in Palestine, were exhumed and transported to Rome. St. Stephen having appeared in a dream to a pious man, and informed him where his corpse reposed, the locality was immediately examined by bishops and priests in company with the dreamer. Unmistakable proofs appeared as- to the existence of a grave, but some honest doubts arose as to it being the identical one in which St. Stephen had been deposited ; yet they all vanished upon opening the coffin, for such celestial MONASTIC ORDERS. 149 odors arose from the corpse, and such, devout reverence was manifested by the trees and rocks in the vicinity, that the most sceptical was satisfied of the genuineness of the relics. A saint's tomb being equal in value to a gold mine, it was natural for the church to seek for it with great eagerness. But the deep earnestness of her enthusiasm blunted the acuteness of her judgment. It sometimes led her to mistake the bones of cats, of dogs, and of jackals for those of saints; and as there is no difference between the bones of thieves and murderers and those of saints, and as both classes have often been regarded by law as synonymous, and interred together in the same field, the former were frequently gathered up in mistake for the latter. But however mortifying were such errors, they did not prove as unfortunate as might have been expected ; for until anatomy and his- tory had rectified them, the bones of pigs, of jack- als, and of malefactors, brought as good prices as the veritable bones of saints, were as eagerly sought after ; and what is very remarkable, performed as many and as great miracles. We do not pretend to assert that the religious orders, even the most objectionable of them, did not in some instances render valuable aid to the cause of education and humanity The sanctity and disinterestedness with which their profession was invested, though generally assumed, were sometimes real. But the corrupt and pernicious principles which entered into their constitu- tion, were too self-evident to be concealed from the eyes of mankind ; and too revolting to escape the anim- adversion of some of the more noble and courageous members of their fraternitv. Some of the clergy, and 13* 150 ABEOGATION OF THE many of the learned men of the age boldly complained of their base immorality. Their aversion to reform, and the worldly policy which characterized their relig- ious profession, sunk them in the estimation of the en- lightened and philanthropic. Their pernicious inter- meddling in political affairs, their cunning and obse- quiousness, their busy and intriguing spirit, and the powerful confederacy of their orders, made them ob- jects of suspicion to jurists and statesmen. The nu- merous exemptions which they enjoyed under the pro- tection of the laws, their privileges nullifying the jurisdiction of the civil authority over them, their overgrown power, and the base accommodation of prin- ciple to circumstances, by which they labored to advance the pope's pretension to supreme dominion, rendered their existence in a government a political solecism. But notwithstanding these palpable facts, the force of habit and of education, the deep-rooted reverence which existed in the public mind for the spiritual guides, the superstitious dread of their anathemas, and the servile temper which monarchical government engenders in the minds of subjects, all conspired to conciliate Christen- dom to the deep degradation inflicted on society by the monastic orders, until their arrogant conduct towards some powerful monarch had surpassed the limits of his forbearance. It was then that the discontent and in- dignation which their outrageous conduct had cre- ated in the public mind, but which superstition had held in check, broke forth in bold and explicit demands for reformation. Eeforms, consequently, w^ere not only projected, but peremptorily enforced. The temporal and spiritual powers of the monastic orders were re- MONASTIC ORDERS. 151 stricted by the abolisliment of their exemptions. Sov- reigns appropriated many of their rich estates to educa- tion and charitable purposes ; and sometimes to their own use. Even Catholic princes obliged the monks to submit to unpleasant restrictions, or to purchase exemp- tion at an enormous rate. The different orders, one after the other, were abrogated on account of some in- tolerable conduct. The Jesuists were abolished in Eng- land on account of the political plotting of its members ; in Holland for having caused the assassination of Maufice de Nassau ; in Portugal for an attempt to mur- der Joseph I.; in Spain, and its colonies, for conspir- ing against the government ; in Italy for licentious- ness ; and in France, as the decree expresses, because " Their doctrine destroys the law of nature, that rule of morals which God has inscribed on the heart of man. Their dogmas break all bounds of civil society, authorizing theft, perjury, falsehood, the most inordi- nate and criminal impiety, and generally all passions and wickedness ; teaching the nefarious principle of secret compensation, equivocation and mental reserva- tion ; extirpating every sentiment of humanity in their sanction of homicide and parracide ; subverting the authority of government, and, in fine, overthrowing tho practice and foundation of religion, and substitut- ing in their stead all sorts of superstition, with magic, blasphemy, and adultery." That their conduct and principles are of the most execrable description, the history of all nations affords melancholy evidence. They attempted to dethrone Queen Elizabeth, but de- feated in that, sought to murder her. They caused the assassination of the Prince of Orange. They endea- 152 ABROGATION OF MONASTIC ORDERS. vored to poison Maximillion I., King of Austria. They attempted to murder Henry IV., and Louis XV. They poisoned Pope Clement XIII., for having attempted to abolish them, and Pope Clement XIX., for having ab- rogated their order, although he did it with mental reservations. Loaded with the crimes of ages, and the curses of nations, they were abolished with different limitations in every part of Europe ; and as they were the most powerful of the monastic orders, the others rapidly incurred the sentence of the same degradation. But notwithstanding all this, the Jesuistical order, so execrable in its principles, so dangerous to public peace and morals, and so justly reprobated by all enlightened men and governments, was restored by Pope Pius VII.,' who intimated that it would reappear in the same au- thority in which it fell. Again these monks are trav- ersing the world, arresting the progress of science, demoralizing society, and plotting treason and rebel- lion in the advancement of the pope's claims to su- preme temporal and spiritual dominion, until the foun- dation of independent government begins to quake ; until the pillars of constitutional liberty begin to tot- ter ; until despotism dares insult the ears of freemen with the boldness of its prophecies ; and until states- men and patriots turn pale as they view the portentous vapors darkling the political horizon, which may gather into a storm, whose rain will be the blood of nations, and whose thunder will shake governments to atoms. CHAPTEK X. JPopes, their Pretensions, Elections, Character, and A dministrations. That we may not commifc the error of attributing to tiie holy mother absurdities which she repudiates, we will inquire v/hat are her pretensions before arraigning her reason or justice in making them. An unequivo- cal answer to this inquiry may ba obtained from the import of her titles, from the bulls of her popes, from the canons of her councils, and from the assertions of her acknowledged authorities. Some of the pope's ac- credited titles are the following : " The Father of all Fathers;" "The Chief High Priest and Prince of God ;" "The Regent of the House of the Lord ;" "The Oracle of Religion;" "Our Most Holy Lord God;" "Our Lord God the Pope;" "The Divine Majesty;" " The Victorious God and Man in the See of Rome;" " The Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world;" "The Bearer of Eternal Life;" "The Most Holy Father;" "Priest of the World;" "God's Vicar General on Earth ;" " The Mo§t High and Mighty God on Earth;" " More than God," &c., &c. " Pius v., our reigning pope, is prince over all na- tions and kingdoms, and ho has power to pluck up, scat- ter, plant, ruin and build." — Cano7i of the Council of Trent, " All mortals are judged by the pope, and the pope by nobody." — Later an Canon, 13* 154 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, " It is necessary to salvation that all Christians be subject to the pope." — Po-pe Boniface VIII. " Ireland, and all the isles on which Christ, the holy- sun of righteousness hath shone, do belong to the patri- mony of St. Peter and the holy Catholic Church" — Bull of Pope Adrian. " He (the pope) alone has the right to assume em- pire. All nations must kiss his feet. His name is the only one to be uttered in the churches. It is the only name in the world. He has the right to depose empe- rors. No council can call itself general without the consent of the pope. No chapter, no book can be re- puted canonical without his authority. No one can in- validate his sentence ; he can abrogate those of all others. He cannot be judged by any. All persons whatsoever are forbidden to condemn him who is called to the apostolic chair. The Church of Home is never wrong, and will never fall into error. Every Eoman pontiff when ordained becomes holy." — Bull of Gre- gory VII ** The pope is supreme over all the world, may im- pose taxes, and destroy crowns and castles for the pre- servation of Christianity." — St. Thomas Aquinas. " The supremacy of the pope over all persons and things is the main substance of Christianity." — Bellar- mine. " The pope is crowned with a triple crown, and is constituted over his (God's) hand to regulate concern- ing all inferiors ; he opens heaven, sends the guilty to hell, confirms emperors, and orders the clerical or- ders." — Antonius of Florence, Diet. 40, Si Papa. " The pope is* the only Vicar of God ; his power is over all the world, Pagan as well as Christian, the only Vicar of God, who has supreme power and empire over ELECIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 155 all princes and kings of the esiith.'—Blareus, Be Rom. Eccl, Art. 5, sec. 19. '* The pope has supreme power over kings and Chris- tian princes ; he may remove them from office, and in their place put others." — Brovius, Be Rom. Pontiff, Cap. 46, p. 62. " The pope is the Lord of the whole world. The pope has temporal power; his temporal power is most eminent. All other powers depend on the pope." — 3far- cinus, Jure Princep. Rom., Bib. 2, cap. 1, 2. "The pope is divine monarch, supreme emperor "and king. Hence the pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven, of earth, and of hell. He is also above angels ; so that if it were possible that angels could err from the faith, they could be judged and ex- communicated by the pope." — Feraris in Papa, Art. 11, M. 10. " The vicar of God in the place of God, remits to man the debt of a plighted promise." — Bens. 4, 134. " The pope can do all things that he wishes to do, and is empowered by God to do all things that he him- self can." — Tiba. " The pope can transubstantiate sin into duty, and duty into sin." — Bur and. " The bishop of Eome cannot even sin without being praised. ' ' — Iloscovius. " God's tribunal and the pope's tribunal are the same." — 3foscovius. From the loftiness of these pretensions, we are invol- untarily impelled to look to the holy fathers for cor- responding principles, character and conduct. If they possess the moral attributes of the deity, they must 156 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, possess also liis physical attributes ; and if they pos- sess his physical attributes, they can much easier create some world out of nothing over which to domineer, than they can create a claim to all the crowns, riches, and territory of the earth, out of the patrimony of St. Peter, who was never worth a cent. If, indeed, the pope's tribunal and God's tribunal are the same ; if he above all in heaven would be the proper judge, and anathematizer of angels, should any of them fall ; if he can annul the obligation of any oath which man is un- der to his maker, then he must be the associate judge of God Almighty, equal to him in dignity, superior to him in jurisdiction, and supereminent to him in author- ity. If the pope can transubstantiate sin into duty and duty into sin, he can annihilate all distinction between right and wrong, and convert the worship of God into a sin, and the adoration of himself into a duty. But these extraordinary pretensions, if unsupported by ir- refragable proofs of divine power and virtue ; if the administrative abilitiesof thejDopes have not transcended those of infinite wisdom and goodness ; and if their monarchy is not such a just embodiment of unquestion- able and universally accepted principles as has produced and maintained among their subjects on earth a degree of peace, order, and concord superior to that which subsists among the angels in heaven, then are their pretensions not only presumptous but ridiculous, not only arrogant but blasphemous ; denying the existence of God by claiming equality with him, contemning his authority by usurping his prerogatives, and trampling under foot his name and character, by presuming to exercise a superior degree of executive and judicial authority. ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS, 157 In selecting a person among mortals capable of fill- ing a throne so exalted above the thrones of earth and heaven, we perceive the great embarrassment under which those must have labored on whom the difficult task was devolved. They claim, however to have suc- ceeded hy the aid of divine inspiration, although it cannot be denied that the persons whom they have se- lected were in general the weakest and most corrupt men of their ase. o In the course of time and experience it became the custom of the bishops, on the demise of a pope, to re- commend to the suffrages of the college of cardinals a suitable person for his successor. As the populace claimed and enjoyed the prerogative of confirming or rejecting the choice of the bishops, and as nobles, from selfish and ambitious motives, often interfered in the proceedings, the papal elections were always scenes of excitement, and sometimes of disorder. The jealousy of emperors interfered in the matter, also, claiming the right to arbitrate between rival candidates, to interdict the consecration of any pope elect until the forms of his election should be inspected by their deputies, and approved by themselves, and to convene synods for the purpose of trying any of the holy fathers who should be charged with criminal conduct, and to punishing such of them a^ should be found guilty. But the des- potism of the church, naturally increasing with her power, enabled her eventually to relievo herself of these unpleasant restrictions, to assert independence of the secular powers, and to maintain it by force of arms. This papal triumph removing the wholesome check which had hitherto restrained and softened the 14 158 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, violence of episcopal ambition, left tlie claims of rival candidates for the vicarship of Christ to be disputed by the anathemas of the clergy and the frenzy of the mob. The knell of a pope's death became the tocsin of war, and the election of his successor a bloody struggle for political interest. Eival aspirants appeared in the ecclesiastical arena ; acrimonious contests ensued ; ad- herents were bought; competitors insulted; votes ex- torted by threats ; Rome polluted with blood ; and the peace of Christendom endangered. To defeat a hostile or elect a friendly candidate, nobles and princes would appeal to the passions of the mob, and excite them to ungovernable fury. Emperors would interpose not only in the election, but in the administration of a pope. They often obliged the inspired college to select such a candidate as suited their interest ; sometimes they pre- vented, and at other times anticipated its action. Through the influence and intrigues of two royal harlots, Theodora and Marozia, the chair of St. Peter was filled with their lovers. Pope John XII., when he was eighteen years old, and Pope Benedict IX., when he was twelve years, were, through the wealth and power of those prostitutes, elevated to the papal dignity. Pope John XII was deposed for ingratitude and trea- chery by the Emperor Otho I., who caused the inspired college to elect Leo VII., and placed him by military force on the apostolic throne. Pope John XIII. was elected by the inspired college at the command of Otho II., Pope Clement II. at the command of Henry III., and Pope Clement III. at the Command of Henry IV. Clement II. was elected to displace Benedict IX., Clem- ent III. to displace Gregory VII., Boniface I. to dis- ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 159 place Dioscorus, and Martin V. to displace Jolin XXII., Gregory XII. and Benedict XII. three cotemporaneous holy fathers. The antagonistic al popes would mutu- ally denounce each other as anti-popes, and tax their ingenuity to effect each other's destruction. Benedict XII. disposed of his rival by violence ; John XIV. in- carcerated his in a dungeon, in ^yhich he starved to death. Besides the rivalship which infuriated opposing candi- dates, and the intermeddling of princes in their elec- tions in order to secure a pliant instrument for their political designs, the inspired college itself was often rent into revengeful and irreconcilable factions. So violent sometimes were these conflicts, that the col- lege became divided into two parties, each of which proceeded to separate churches, and electing its favor- ite, presented him to the people as having been chosen by divine inspiration. Two antagonistical popes thus being elected in accordance with papal usages, divine inspiration, and canonical law, it became difficult, with- out the aid of another inspired college, to determine which of the two popes was the genuine holy father. Sometimes this question was decided by prior- ity in the moment of an election ; sometimes popular sanction or imperial preference resolved the difficulty ; and at other times different sections of Christendom arriving at opposite conclusions, supported different popes. At one period two popes divided the patrimony of St. Peter, the one reigning over one portion of it, and the other over another ; and at another time three popes asserted jurisdiction over it. These rival holy fathers would incessantly encounter one another with 160 POPES — THEIE PRETENSIONS, bulls, anathemas, and swords ; and invoking foreign arms in their support would distract, not only Kome, but all Europe, with their irreconcilable controversies. In order to abate the calamity of the papal elections, Pope Alexander III., chosen in 1179, abolished the mode of electing a pope in which the clergy and people participated, and invested the sole right in the college of cardinals. This expedient prevented the frequency of double elections, and their tumultuous and bloody schisms. But still the disorderly elements which shook the church could not be entirely eradicated without the abolishment of the papal throne. The pas- sions and private interests of the members of the sacred college ; their wish to secure the honors and emoluments of an independent reign ; their insidious machinations to become popes themselves ; often deprived the church, under the new electoral method, of the benefits of a holy father. An interregnum of months, sometimes of years, would ensue between the death of a pope and the election of his successor, while disgraceful negotia- tions were always visible. Pope Clement IV. promised the crown of both of the Sicilies to Charles of Anjou, on condition that he would use his influence with the inspired college in favor of his election to the papal throne ; and Pope Boniface VIII., after expending large sums of money on an election, excommunicated the obstinate cardinals who had refused to vote for him. The ambition and corruption of the cardinals having kept the papal throne vacant for three years previous to the election of Gregory X., he issued a bull in 1265, requiring the members of the college to assemble in Rome nine days after the demise of a pope, and after ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 161 taking an oath to abjure all previous understanding, to retire with a single attendant into a common apart- ment, and to remain there until they should be able to agree on a choice. If within three days the influence of the Holy Ghost should not be sufficiently powerful to enable them to arrive at a canonical agreement, the luxury of their repast was to be, abridged to a single dish at dinner and supper; and if within eight days these privations should still be insufficient to quicken the divine influence on the grossness of human nature, tne cardinals were then condemned to subsist on a small allowance of bread, water and wine. The stimulus of this regimen has seldom failed to produce a speedy and harmonious agreement. But the corruption of the Holy See was the growth of ages, and had carefully been systematized by the hand of experienced craft. It could not therefore be entirely eradicated by any modification in the papal electoral forms; although improvements might be introduced, making them the occasion of less scandal. The fact that an attendant on a cardinal during the session of an electoral college is worth an independent fortune, is significant of the corrupt machinations by which the holy fathers continue still to be elected. The bull of Pope Gregory X. has, ineed, prevented the former fre- quency of schisms, but it was insufficient to prevent one of seventy years' duration, which occurred on the death of Pope Benedict XI, in 1348. The inspired college having assembled in accordance with the re- quirements of the canon, sworn to abjure all pre- vious understanding, became, nevertheless, divided on the question whether a Frenchman or an Italian should 14* 162 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, be elected as the vicar of Christ. Two-thirds of the cardinals were in favor of a Frenchman, but a mob of thirty thousand Romans preferred an Italian. " Death or an Italian Pope," shouted an infuriated crowd, as it gathered around the Vatican, and made preparations for burning anv of the inspired college M'ho should vote for a French candidate; while the cathedral bells, in . harmony with the discordant clamor of the mob, pealed forth an ominous warning. Under the terror of these intimidations, the inspired college submitted to the wishes of the mob ; and electing Urban VI., an Italian, and presenting him to the populace declared, according to usage, that they had been inspired to choose him through the influence of the Holy Ghost. The disap- pointed cardinals disguised their mortification under the warmest congratulations to the newly elected pope, but gratified their secret malice by entering into clan- destine negotiation with Philip IV., King of France, and stipulating with hinr to accommodate his interest by electing a pope in the place of Urban, who should conform to his washes in all things. After having by flattery, and professions of friendship and allegiance, sufficiently deceived the vicar of Christ, they retired to Fundi, and, excommunicating him, elected Pope Clement in his place. The papal monarchy hence be- came divided into two antagonistical bodies, the one having its capitol at Rome, the other at Avignon m France. The aspirants to the dignity of the vicarship of Christ endeavored, in general, to obtain its holy honors by the employment of artifice and intrigue. They were ready to flatter any power, assume any semblance, agree ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 165 to any terms, and profess any sentiment that promised to favor their design. At the council of Constance, Pope Martin V. advocated the most liberal ecclesiasti- cal reforms, but recanted his heresy as soon as he ob- tained the triple crown. Pope Alexander VI. was elected by bribing Cardinals Cibo, Spozza and Kearis. Pope Alexander VIL. while a cardinal, assumed the semblance of great humility and sanctity, but no sooner had he become a successor of St, Peter, than he threw ojQf the cumbrous mask by which he gained the honor, and openly began a course of dissipation and luxurious indulcrence. Sixtus VL played a deep and crafty game to win the papal crown. In order to deceive the car- dinals he assumed the appearance of an infirm old man, deaf, blind, and scarcely able to hobble on a crutch ; and who desired nothing but obscurity, devotion and repose. By the agency of the confessional he correctly informed himself of the wishes of princes and the secret designs of cardinals. Under a mask of profound dis- simulation he gained the confidence of kings and nobles, and evaded the scrutiny of cardinals. Having trans- formed himself into the semblance of such a convenient tool as the members of the college desired to place on the apostolic throne, they chose him unanimously ; but repented of it unanimously immediately afterwards. No sooner had the electoral formalities been con- concluded than, in the presence of the cardinals, he raised himself from his former stooping position, con- temptuously threw away liis crutch, and with a bounding and vigorous step displayed to the horror consternation of the sacred college that it had chosen for a holy father, not a pliant simpleton, but a man of 164 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, authority, determination, and sagacity. Pope Celes- tine was elected solely on account of his ignorance and mental imbecility. For twenty-seven months the disputes of the cardinals had kept the papal throne without an incumbent. To conciliate their differences they finally agreed to elect Celestine, who was celebrated for his intellectual deficiency and profound ignorance of the world. When this holy father entered Apulea after his consecration, he symbolically rode upon an ass. But his incapabil- ity of transacting the ordinary business the Holy See, obliged the sacred college to reassemble, and endeavor by the aid of the Holy Ghost to select a more suitable vicar of Christ. It succeeded in electing Boniface VIII., who possessed more business capacity, but less moral integrity ; and who, standing in mortal dread of his simple and unaspiring predecessor, and fearing the instability of the apostolic throne while he was at large, pusillanimously imprisoned him for life. It is a singular fact that while distant potentates trembled at the thunders of the Vatican, the subjects of Rome scoffed with impunity at its insolent preten- sions. The tyranny and corruption of the holy fathers have frequently been met with contempt and insurrec- tion by the populace. The cardinals have at times been stripped, beaten, and trodden under foot. The priests have been caught by mobs, which, after digging out their eyes, and crowning their heads with ludicrous mitres, have sent them as admonitions to the pope. The sacred processions, headed by the holy fathers, have been saluted with showers of stones. The vice- gerents of God, while on the apostolic throne, have ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 165 been seized by the throat, rudely buffeted, torn from their chair and incarcerated in dungeons. Laudislaus, King of Naples, whom the pope had entitled " Gen- eral of the Church,'' in consideration of serviceb ren- dered, thrice afterwards entered Rome as a master, profaned the churches, violated the virgins, plundered the citizens, and worshipped at the shrine of St. Peter, The holy fathers, assailed by subjects at home and princes abroad, were constantly fleeing from the inse- cure patrimony of St. Peter to find refuge in France, Anangni, Perugia, Yiterbo, or some other locality. Sometimes they retaliated the insults of their Catholic subjects, and levied armies to chastise them ; and, on one occasion they had, in a friendly conference, eleven deputies of the people murdered in cold blood, and their bodies cast into the streets. When the Holy See was transplanted from Pome to Avignon, the vices, corruption, and tumults which were characteristic were transplanted along with it. The same popular insubordination and papal insecurity pre- vailed ; the people were seditious and the popes in- sulted. A Catholic freebooter at the head of his band, once entered Avignon, plundered the people and churches, compelled the pope and cardinals to ransom themselves by the payment of an enormous sum of gold, and to absolve him and his fellow robbers from the guilt of the transaction, and from all their crime. Notwithstanding the ostentatious sanctity and gor- geous show with which the church invests her external form, her throne has never been occupied by a distin- guised paragon of virtue ; nor has it, notwithstanding her liberal indulgence to moral turpiturd, often been 166 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, graced by those whom she dared to canonize for the purity of their conduct. High principled and lofty minded men have scorned to aspire to her dignities ; and had they not, they still could not have stooped to the dishonorable means by which they are to be ob- tained. With pretensions demoralizing her officials by destroying their sense of moral accountability, fostering their vanity, pride and superciliousness, and dissolving all restraints on the instigations of malice, revenge, cupidity, licentiousness, duplicity and tyranny, it would be absurdity to expect to find in their character any exalted degree of moral excellence. Look at those whom the inspired college has chosen vicegerent of God. Where we might expect to see the Solons, Cimons, and Catos of the age, we always see despotism, generally duplicity, and often profligacy and cruelty. Look at Pope Gregory, the Great. Was he not an as- piring and unscrupulous despot ? While pretending to wish to be unknown, did he not employ every device to become the most notorious man of his age. To pave his way to the pontifical throne, ho devoted his patri- mony to the use of convents, and immured himself in them. By seeming to resist, he secured his election ; and by addressing an artful remonstrance against its confirmation to the emperor, he removed every obstacle in the way of his consecration. To disguise more deeply his ambition, he solicited a merchant, whom he knew could not accommodate him, to convey him secretly from Rome ; and, finally, overacted his part by secreting himself in a wilderness, and building a fire that his retreat might be discovered. His financial skill was unquestioned. He induced Eecared, King of ELECIONS AND ADMINISTBATIONS. 167 Spain, to exchange a great amount of gold and a valu- able collection of jewels for a few hairs of St. John the Baptist, a piece of the true cross, a key which, it was alleged, contained some grains of a chain with which St. Peter had been shackled while in a dungeon. He also sanctified the most atrocious assassination that was, perhaps, ever perpetrated. The Roman legions having become demoralized, the Emperor Maurice at- tempted to reduce them to order by the enforcement of rigorous military discipline. This effort produced a general dissatisfaction among the troops, which culmi- nated in the election of Phocus, an obscure soldier, in the place of Maurice. The emperor, desirous of restor- ing tranquility to the nation, magnanimously abdicated the purple. Never having heard of the name of Phocus before, he inquired of his general who he was. " Alas," replied he, "a great coward, and I fear will be a murderer." This prophecy was soon fulfilled. Phocus sent to the private dwelling of Maurice assas- sins, who, before the eyes of their father coldly butch- ered his five sons, and then consummated the horrible tragedy with the murder of the emperor himself. After this barbarous act had been perpetrated. Pope Gregory, although he owed his elevation to the indulgence of Maurice, complimented Phocus on his good fortune, and rejoiced that his piety and benignity had raised him to the imperial throne. From this model pope let us turn to Pope John XII., elected in 956. In ambition unprincipled, in cruelty inexorable, in dissoluteness cold and calculating ; the annals of history scarcely furnish an equal compound of moral deformity. Elevated to the papal throne through 168 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, the influence of a prostitute, he made the principles of his patroness the maxims of his conduct. He was a drunkard, a profligate, a blasphemer, and a murderer. He passed his time in hunting and gambling. He swore by the Pagan Gods and Goddesses. He lived in public adultery with Roman matrons. He converted the papal palace into a brothel, and made it a school for education in the arts of prostitution. His rapes of widows, wives, and virgins were so frequent, that fe- male pilgrims were deterred from visiting the tomb of St. Peter, for fear of being violated by the holy father while kneeling at his shrine, to invoke his aid in the practice of chastity and piety. Now advert to Gregory VII., elected in 1075, and see what baseness, trickery, avarice, and insolence have been consecrated as holy in the character of a vicar of Christ. Protected from reproach by his claim to infal- libility, he presumed to outrage the sense of common decency by living with the Countess Matilda under sus- picious circumstances ; and conceiting that he was en- dowed with supreme power over all kings and govern- ments, and that if they resist his authority he must punish them, he undertook to dethrone Henry IV., Em- peror of Germany and Italy, because that prince had exercised the right of investiture contrary to the inter- diction of the papal bulls. For this insolent proceed- ure the emperor determined to depose him, and drive him from Rome. Penetrating the emperor's design, he attempted to defeat it by buying the adherence of the Italian populace; but this movement was effectually counterpoised by the emperor's purchasing the support of the Italian nobility. He also convened acouncil at ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 169 by whicli Gregory was deposed ; and another at Brisen at which Clement III. was elected. To place Clement in possession of the papal dignity, Henry formed a coalition with the Emj^eror Alexius: to defeat this pro- ject Gregory formed an alliance with Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia. The arms of Robert were victorious, and Gregory was delivered from his perilous situation. But victory sometimes is as disastrous as defeat. The formidable allies of the holy father, which success had introduced into the city of Rome, comprehended a nu- ^aerous band of Saracens who hated the Christian name and capital, although they had for money and the license of war been induced to take up arms in defence of the sacerdotal monarch. A furious sedition happen- ing to arise in the city among the inhabitants, the Sara- cens eagerly availed themselves of the occasion to gratify their hatred of Rome and of Christianity. They commenced murdering the citizens, plundering dwel- lings, profaning churches, and firing buildings; nor was their revenge satiated until they had, not only de- populated the city, but reduced the greater portion of it to ashes. This catastrophe completed the disgrace of Gregory. Finding himself universally detested as its author, he had to flee for safety to Salerno, leaving Henry to consummate, without opposition, his design of placing Clement III. upon the apostolic throne. From the conduct of this crafty and talented sacerdo- tal despot, let us turn a glance at pope Innocent II., elected in 1130. The elevation of this Pope was the tocsin of a war which, during his administration, kept Rome and Italy in a state of violent convulsion. The sacred college not being able canonically to concur in 15 170 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, His election, became divided into two obstinate factions, each of whicb elected a vicegerent of God ; the one being Pope Innocent II., and the other Pope Anaclitns. Two implacable despots being thus authorized to claim the papal throne, a furious holy war was inevitable. Anaclitus having the heavier artillery drove Innocent from Rome; but France and Germany espousing the cause of the fugitive, enabled him to secure a sufficient army to effect his return. lie was, nevertheless, obliged to limit his papal jurisdiction to one portion of the city; his antagonist being too strongly entrenched in the other to be dislodged. But even from this limited domain he was again driven by the arms of his formid- able rival, and again reinstated by the forces of the temporal power. The two holy fathers continued to hate, persecute and anathematize each other, until death settled the sanguinary controversy by the removal of Anaclitus. Relieved of the terrors of a powerful adversary, Innocent II. convoked the Lateran Council, in which one thousand bishops condemned the soul of Anaclitus, and excommunicated Rogers of Sicily for having supported the schismatic. On account of this papal insolence, Robert declared war against Pope In- nocent ; and taking him prisoner, obliged him to ab- solve him from the sentence of the excommunication, and to invest him with the papal provinces of Apulia, Capua, and Calibria. Let us now direct a moment's attention to Pope Inno- cent III, elected in 1198, who, when receiving the triple crown exclaimed : " The church has given me a crown as a symbol of temporalities she has conferred on me a mitre m token of spiritual power ;— a mitre for ELECIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. " 171 the priesthood ; a crown for the kingdom ; making me the vicar of him who bears on his garments and thighs, ' The King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.'" Inflated with this popular conceit he imagined that he was supreme prince over all nations and kingdoms, and that he had a divine light to pluck up, destroy, scatter, ruin, plant and build whenever a notion happened to in- spire his presumptuous brain. He arbitrarily obliged the prefect of Eome to swear allegiance to him, de- manded royal homage of Marguard of Eomagna, and upon the refusal of that prince to compromise his sov- reignty by submitting to such unwarrantable dictations, deprived him of the duchy of Mark Ancona. With a despotic hand he wrung Spoleto from Duke Conrad. He excommunicated Philip of France for having repu- diated his wife, and obliged him to sue for mercy at his feet. He deposed King John, of England, for refusing to confirm the election of a bishop ; instigated France to declare war against him, obliged him to resign his kingdom to the See of Rome, to pay large sums of money for absolution, and to hold his throne as a papal fief. He exercised an oppressive despotism over the temporal provinces of Christendom, established inqisi- sitorial tribunals, suspended religious worship by inter- dicts, and urged the cruel persecution of the Albigen- ses. When his military forces were ready for combat, he is said to have exclaimed : " Sword, sword, whet thyself for vengeance." Turn from this ornament of the papal throne, and con- sider the character and administration of Pope Boni- face VIII., elected in 1295. Pliable and revengeful, presumptuous and ambitious, he sought to make tools of 172 POPES — THEIR PEETENSIONS, princes, and slaves of subjects. On his way to the Lateran palace, after his election, the King of Hungary and the King of Sicily, in token of their inferior rank, held the bridle of his horse ; and with crowns on their heads waited on him at table as menials. He boldly excommunicated Philip IV., of France, but cowardly sought to escape the penalty by taking refuge in the fortress of Anangni. While luxuriating in this sumpu- ous retreat, in fancied security, William of Nosgeret sur- rounded the palace with three hundred horse, and a scuffle ensued in which the vicegerent of God was rudely seized by the throat, severely kicked and cuffed, and cast into prison. A mob, however, soon released him from confinement. In view of his flagitious and undeniable acts of duplicity, simony, usurpation and profligacy, King Philip had resolved to summon a coun- cil at Lyons for the purpose of deposing him ; but the chastisement of incarceration which he had undergone so mortified his pride, that within three days after his liberation he died in a paroxysm of rage and fury. Look at the character of Pope Alexander III., elected in 1159, who, demoralized and misled by papal preten- sions, distracted all Europe, and kept the Holy See in a state of perpetual insurrection. Under the protection of Frederic I. the anti-popes Victor III., Pascal III., and Calaxtus III., successively arose against him ; re- peatedly driving him from Ptome ; sometimes to France ; sometimes to Anangni ; and sometimes to Venice. But fortune eventually favoring him, he wreaked the heavi- est vengeance on the heads of his antagonists. He obliged Frederic to kiss his feet, and to hold the stirrup of his horse. He laid Scotland under an interdict. ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 173 He restored the thrones of England and Germany on conditions that augmented his power. And in the ex- ercise of his apostolic authority gave the world calami- tous proof that ecclesiastical supremacy is incompatible with the peace of the world. Regard for an instant the character of Pope Alex- ander VI., elected in 1523, who perfected in his papal character the dissipation w^hich had disgraced his youth. His policy, both domestic and foreign, was base, treach- erous and execrable. He undertoolj to seize on the Italian provinces by the most cruel and dishonorable methods. He attempted to extort money from the different sections of Christendom by fraud and force. He seduced his own daughter ; and gave notorious evi- dence of the profligacy of his life by five illegitimate children. He conspired with his son, Cardinal Ccesar Borgia, to poison four cardinals, but the conspirators drinking the poison themselves, became the victims of their own treachery. Look at Pope Julius II., elected in 1505, and mark his savage, ferocious, and warlike character. Ambi- tious of military renown, he commanded his army in person, and without regard to the rights of nations or individuals gratified his lust of power and dominion. In the prosecution of the interests of the Holy See, he excommunicated the Duke of Ferrara, gave Navara to Spain, besieged Muandolo, colleagued against the repub- lic of Venice, and made war upon Louis XII., King of France. Behold Clement V., elected in 1305, and mark the gross simony, nepotism, and arrogance which disgraced his administration. Hear him excommunicating Henry 15* 174 POPES — THEIR PEETEXSIOKS, VII. of Germany, and his allies, for Lis refusing to me- diate between him and Robert ; and hear him pro- nouncing a curse on the Venitians for their refusing to submit to his dictation ; declaring them infamous, con- fiscating their gold and war vessels, abolishing their governmental offices, and absolving' the subjects from obedience to the laws. Turn to John XXII., elected in 1410, and see if any vice, public or private, debarred a candidate from the papal throne. In his youth a pirate, the sanctity of his pontifical character neither restrained nor concealed the precocious viciousness w^hich he had manifested. Although he may have amused himself with the popish conceit that a holy father cannot sin without being praised, yet the Council of Constance, on the testimony of thirty-seven good Catholic witnesses, found seventy indictments against him, and degraded him from the papal dignity. Among the crimes for which he was deposed were simony, murder, rape, sodomy, and illicit intercourse with his brother's wife, and with three hun- dred nuns. This holy father died in jail. Look at Julius III., elected in 1550, whose unnatural licentiousness transcending all bounds of decency, sought its gratification with boys, men, and even cardi- nals. Hear Sixtus V., in the college of cardinals, pro- nouncing a eulogy on the assassinators of Henry III. King of France, and comparing them with Judith and Eleazer. Hear Alexander I, as he placed his foot on Frederic, King of Denmark, exclaim : " Thus shalt thou tread upon the lion and the adder." Hear Pius v., as he excommunicated Queen Elizabeth, exclaim : " I have this day set thee over the nations, over the ELECTIONS AXD AD^-IINISTRATIOXS. 175 kingdoms, to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to build up and to throw down." AVitness Pope Leo III. ab- ruptly crowning Charlemagne, and to the astonish- ment of the worl investing him with all the titles, hon- ors, and regal ornaments of the Caesars. Witness Gregory IV. fomenting discord between Charlemagne and his sons, then between the sons themselves, then tampering with the officers of the imperial army, then absolving them from their oath of allegiance, then ut- tering to Louis I., son and successor of Charlemagne, that arrogant assertion : " Know my chair is above the emperor's throne ;" and ultimately see the design of these atrocious acts, in the claim of the subsequent popes to the dominion of the Csesars, by virtue of the donation of Charlemagne. Look at the two hundred and ninety-seven popes that have filled the papal chair : Twenty-four of them were anti-popes ; twenty-six were deposed ; nineteen were compelled to abandon Rome ; twenty-eight were kept on their throne only by foreign intervention ; fifty- four were obliged to rule over foreign parts ; sixty-four died by violence ; eighteen were poisoned ; one was shut up in a cage ; one was strangled ; one smothered ; one died by having nails driven in his temples ; one by a noose around his neck ; and only one hundred and fifty-three out of the whole number have proved them- selves at all worthy. Read the papal annals ; hear the frequent and atrocious anathemas of the popes ; mark the vices that have continued century after century to disgrace the administrations of the holy fathers, and say if prrofane history affords a catalogue of monarchs so black with crime, so unprincipled in ambition, so 176 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, remorseless in revenge. Their pretensions were made not from conscious right, but to justify intended usur- pations. They claimed to be endowed with power to do whatever God himself could do, in order to forge a plea for governing the world as despots. They claimed the prerogative of absolving subjects from their oaths of allegiance, that they might rule kings with abso- lute authority. They claimed that they could not sin without being praised, that they might commit any crime without being censured. They claimed the abil- ity of transubstantiating sin into duty, and duty into sin, that they might justify themselves in adopting any means to obtain an end. They claimed all the author- ity and holiness of heaven, that they might be wor- shijDped and feared as Gods. But while they had the audacity to prefer these claims, it is not a supposable case that the dullest of them was such a stupendous fool as to believe in the validity of his own pretensions. With a triple crown on their heads, with the keys of heaven and hell in their hands, with an assertion on their lips that th«y are the king of kings, and the pro- prietors of all the thrones, domains, revenues, gold and. gems of the earth, they seriously pretend that they are the successors of St. Peter, an humble fisherman, who like his master, had not where to lay his head, and whose patrimony, which they claim to inherit, must have consisted at most of but an empty purse, a staff, a suit of unfashionable garments, and, perhaps, some old fishing nets. And while they have been elected by emperors, by mobs, by arms and clubs, by bribery, and by every species of corruption, they affirm that they have been chosen by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTKATIONS. 177 The papal monarchy was neither designed nor calcu- lated to foster the growth of either truth, reason or virtue. The policy and measures w^hich it adopted were never intended to correct vice, but to make it ad- minister to the importance of its power, and the wealth of its coffers. Its design has always been to reign su- preme ; and in conformity with a policy dictated by this design, it has destroyed every virtue that obtruded an obstacle to the accomplishment of its purposes, and protected every vice that appeared to favor their suc- cess. Such being the principles of the papal government, it could not be hoped that the holy fathers would be the friends of truth and reform. In fact they must have been conscious that a rigid system of reform would have swept them from their thrones, and doomed many of them to confinement in the dungeons of a penitentiary. Accordingly we see that while temporal princes, some clergymen, and numerous laymen loudly demanded re- form in the head and body of the church, the popes strenuously opposed the project as a dangerous innova- tion. When summons had been issued by temporal princes for the assembling of councils for purposes of reformation, the pontiffs frequently forbid obedience to them. When circumstances have obliged popes to issue orders for the convocation of such assemblages, they have rendered them nugatory by neglecting to fix the time and place to their meeting. When compelled to be more definite in their conduct and language, they have endeavored, by changing the time and place for holding a proposed council, to defeat the object which they were obliged to sanction. When their cautious 178 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, vacillations have been summarily arrested, and all the obstacles they had obtruded removed, and a council for reform had been assembled, they edeavored by base and corrupt means to control its action, and defeat its use- fulness. When in defiance of papal remonstrances, threats and intrigues, reformatory decrees have been passed by councils, the popes have-, nevertheless, at- tempted to nullify them by evasion, trickery or ne- glect. Pope Gregory declared that a council could be useful only under a Catholic prince. Pius II. forbid an ap- peal to a council. Julius II. interdicted the assembling of one after it had been summoned. When the united voice of princes and subjects compelled Pius VII. to call a council, he nullified his own summons by ne- glecting to fit the time for its meeting. When a crit- ical state of public affairs had led Pope Paul to imagine that he could shape the proceedings of an inspired council according to his private interest, he convoked the Council of Trent ; but finding his intrigues inade- quate to his ambition, he induced his legates to exhaust its time in frivolous ceremonies and useless excursions. When the Council of Pisa obliged Alexander VII. to pledge his word to prosecute certain specified reforms, he adopted no measure in compliance "with his word. When the Council of Basle enacted decrees of reform, the artifice of Pope Eugenius rendered them of no avail. When the Council of Constance, after deposing three rival popes, elected Martin V. in consideration of the zeal with which he had advocated church reform, it was soon apparent that his zeal for reform was his ambition to be elevated to the papal throne, and ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 179 that it all had expired as soon as his election was se- cure. Pope Pius denounced the reforms which Joseph II., of Austria, proposed to introduce into his kingdom, and adopted every expedient to counteract them. When the tyranny and profligacy of the monastic or- ders had awakened the indignation of all Christendom, the vicar of Christ, by means of bulls, anathemas and intrigues, defended them with ferocious zeal. When the Jesuists were banished from England for treason- able machinations, from Italy for profligacy, from Portugal for attempts at assassination, ancl from the other parts of Europe for execrable conduct, the popes not only defended, but recommended them as the most pious and useful members of the church. When the papal throne was restored by England, a heretic, and Russia, a schismatic, in conjunction with the Catholic powers, after it had been abolished by France, the pope, in defiance of the wishes and resolutions of his liberators, and in violation of the obligations of honor and gratitude, restored the barbarous inquisition, the obnoxious order of the Jesuists, and the superstitious practices of the dark ages. The holy mother, indeed, has given birth to little be- sides monstosities. The features and principles of her offspring cast a dark suspicion on her chastity. They usually wear the lineament, if not the cloven foot of the arch-fiend. Ambition, duplicity, treachery, vicious- ness, and immorality are deeply featured in their countenances, and some of them seem to be an incarna- tion of every crime that could entitle a human being to be considered as the off'spring and heir of hell. If there were some honorable exceptions, they were like 180 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, stars on a stormy night, obscured by the heavy mist through which they shone. Some popes, it is true, have been great governors ; men of great foresight and enterprise ; men who, looking beyond their age, have prepared measures that have successfully met future exegencies ; but their sagacity has been quickened by ambition and avarice ; and their great talents have been wasted on duplicity and intrigue. The less ex- ceptionable of them have acknowledged and deplored the corruption of the Holy See ; but they seem to think it is incurable, for their hopes of the future are always darkened by the recollection of the past. Hence we hear Nicholas V., as he bestowed an office on the worthy, say : " Take this, you will not always have a Nicholas to bestow a gift on the ground of merit." CHAPTER XI. TSJB PAPAL MONARCHY, SECTION ONE. The Papa I Crown — Banner — Cah inet — Court — Decrees — Jwrisprudence — Coinage — Army and Navy — P,e- venues — Oaths — a7id Spies. Whatever plausibility the creed and ritual of the Catholic church may throw around her religious preten- sions, the fact is undeniable that she is a temporal power, claiming to be the only legitimate sovereignty on earth, and the right to reduce all governments, by fair or foul means, under her absolute authority. The pope, the head of this unlimited monarchv, is a polit- ical prince ; his capital is the city of Rome, and his do- mains, until recently, were the States of the Church. According to a practice observed at the coronation of princes, the pope is invested with national authority by ascending the Chair of State, and receiving a head- dress emblematical of temporal sovereignty. These symbolical headdresses were originally garlands, in- vented by Prometheus in imitation of the chains which he had worn for the redemption of mankind, but which in the course of time became applied, by the "[Iranian priestesses to decorate themselves aud their altars ; by lovers, to adorn the doors of their mis- tressees : by the devout, to deck the animals which they .16 182 THE PAPAL devoted to sacrifice ; by slave owners, to attract atten- tion to the slaves whom the exposed for sale ; by rela- tives, to embellish the corpse of a deceased friend ; and finally, in the dark ages, when they were transformed into a variety of fantastical shapes, profusely decorated with gold, gems and pearls, and had become associated with ideas of greatness, power and authority, they were exclusively appropriated by kings to symbolize the regal authority. In the ninth century, this practice having become fashionable among the royal classes, Pope Alexander III., who was elected in 1159, aspiring to be considered rather as the successor of kings than of a fisherman, ventured to encircle his sacerdotal mitre with a regal diadem, emblematical of universal spiritual sovereignty. To this crown Pope Boniface VIII., elected in 1295, added a second, to symbolize the pope's universal temporal power ; and to this crown Pope Urban V., elected in 1363, added a third, to de- note the pope's supreme spiritual and temporal power over Europe, Asia and Africa. The adoption of these regal emblems by the holy fathers may seem in the eyes of the profane to represent not their rights, but their ambition. They claim, however, to have been moved by the Holy Ghost in adopting their head decorations ; but if this pretension absolves them from the vice of ambition, it limits at the same time their authority to Europe, Asia and Africa. The Holy Ghost not having intimated the existence of America in his social inter- course with the 23apal monarchs, nor prescribed to them the adoption of a fourth crown to symbolize their authority over it, it is rational to infer from these facts that he intended to infer by his silence, that the popes MONARCHY. 183 have no right whatever of exercising any jurisdiction over its territory. If the pope's regalia have any sig- nificance, it is that his government is restricted to Europe, Asia and Africa; and that he has no right to exercise either temporal or spiritual authority over any church, society or institution, on the American conti- nent. But in sight of the pope's monarchical palace, triple crown, and regal ornaments, the statue of St. Peter, erected in the seventh century, wearing a simple mitre, stands scoffing at them in eternal derision. The pope as an independent sovereign has not only a temporal crown, but a political banner. This ensign consists of a white flag with a device of cross-keys ; its white color may signify peace ; the cross-keys the pos- session of earth and heaven ; and, conjointly, these em- blems may intimate that there is to be no peace until the claims of the pope to universal spiritual and tem- poral sovereignty is acknowledged by all nations. Apollo, the symbol of the rising sun, and Pluto, the symbol of the closing day, are represented with keys in their hands, to denote their office of opening and shut- ting the gates of day. It is thought by some that the idea of the papal keys was borrowed from these em- blems of the Pagan Gods. But it was the custom of a conquered city to present to the victor the keys of its gates, through its officials, in token of the submission of the inhabitants to his authority. In conformity with this ancient custom, it is affirmed by the popes that Pepin, King of France, after he had wrested the Exarcate from the possession of the Lombards, pre- sented the keys of the subjugated cities to the Holy See on the tomb of St. Peter. They assert also, that 184 THE PAPAL Charlemagne presented the pope with a banner, and authorized him to unfurl it in the cause of the church. But if the story of Pepin's gift is as empty as the tomb of St. Peter, at Rome, is and always has been, of the corpse of the apostle ; and if Charlemagne's donation of cities, most of which he never pessessed, and the remainder of which he governed as his own with the most jealous scrupulosity until the day of his death, it is difficult to perceive how the popes, by virtue of these gifts, can have any claim to either keys or banners. The pope, as an independent sovereign, has also a national cabinet. His privy council is the college of cardinals ; his minister of internal and foreign affairs is the cardinal secretary ; his viceroys are the legates and nuncios which he accredits to foreign powers ; his governors and lieutenant-governors are the Catholic bishops and archbishops, which are located in different parts of the world; and his ministers of finance and police are the priests of different grades and orders. The civil offices of the papal monarchy have always been filled by members of the sacerdotal orders, and disposed of by the holy father for money. As an independent sovereign the pope has an impe- rial court. In the grades of this court he himself en- joys the first rank, being placed on an equality with God, and in some respects above him. The cardinals stand next to princes ; they wear a purple mantle, the emblem of royalty ; formerly they ranked in Chris- tendom equal with kings, preceded princes of blood, and sat on the right of kings, or near the throne. The generals of the Catholic orders, the abbots, archbish- ops, bishops and priests, consider their titles as royal, MONARCHY. 185 and maintain that in consideration of them they should be exempted from the jurisdiction of civil magistrates. As an independent sovereign the pope has the power to issue absolute decrees. The papal bulls, apostolic briefs, and encyclical letters, are the exercise of sov- ereign power. From the despotic tone of these docu- ments, sometimes moderated by fear, but never from inclination, the pope evidently claims the right of inter- fering not only in the ecclesiastical, but also in the political affairs of all nations. As an independent sovereign the pope has a system of j urisprudence and administrative j ustice. The canon- ical law by which he governs his monarchy consists of the Concordantia Discordantiwni or Decretiutn Graiiani ; the Decratales Gregorii Noni ; the Liber Sextus, by Boniface VIII ; the Extravagantes Johannis XXII ; the Extravagantes CoraTnunes, and the Clementinus ; all of which are known under the general name of Cor- pus Juris Canonica; and all except the Extravagantes have the full authority of law. The papal system of administrative justice consists of a chief court, a civil court, and an apostolical court. The apostolical court regulates the pope's domains and collects the taxes. The members of the court are always bishops, and the presiding officer is generally a cardinal. As an independent sovereign the pope has exercised the governmental prerogative of coining money. The papal coins have various devices. They all have the cross-keys ; most of them the trijDle crown ; and some of them are inscribed with the word Dominus. As an independent sovereign the pope has always maintained, when possible, an army and a navy. Pope 16* 186 THE PAPAL Clement VIII. elected in 1523, raised an army of regu- lars and volunteers of thirty thousand foot and three thousand cavalry. Pope Leo IX. commanded an army consisting of Italian volunteers, several bands of rob- bers, and seven hundred Suabians. Pope Alexander VI. at the head of a powerful army conquered Bo- logna, Ancona, Ravenna and Ferrara. After the re- turn of the pope to Eome from Avignon, in 1577, a standing army was formed consisting of cavalry and infantry. The papal military organizations have been of the most formidable description. The Dominican Knights, the Teutonic Knights, the Knights of St. John, and the Knight Templars, instituted for the defence and prop- agation of Catholicism by the force of arms, were skil- fully organized and rigorously disciplined. They as- sumed the vows of celibacy, poverty and unconditional obedience. They were interdicted, by the terms of their charter, from acknowledging any protector but the pope, and were made independent of any other author- ity. Upon becoming initiated into their orders, the pope absolved them from all human obligations, and they were required to sunder all human ties. They enjoyed all the immunities and privileges of the religious orders ; and in conjunction with them formed a standing army of three hundred thousand men, fully equipped for war, exclusively devoted to the pope's interest, and ready at his call to serve him by land or sea. As an independent sovereign the pope has a national revenue. This revenue is domestic and foreign. From official reports the pope's domestic revenue, in 1853, amounted to 13,000,000 florins ; his foreign revenue is MONARCHY. 187 not publicly known. In the dark ages half of the ecclesiastical revenues of Europe flowed into the church treasury at Home ; but at present the various streams of wealth destined for the church, are diverted to con- venient localities, situated in different parts of the world, to be disbursed according to regulations pre- scribed by the holy father. As the subject is somewhat curious, we are tempted to inquire into some of the sources of the papal revenue. One source of the pope's revenue is the sale of indul- gences, St, Peters Church, at Rome, which cost 45,000,000 crowns, was chiefly built from the proceeds of this species of traffic, William Hogan furnishes some singular facts respecting this ingenious device, by which the church accommodates the wishes of the members in the commission of sin, to her pecuniary advantage. He says: " They (the pope and the propagandi) resolved that indulgences should, in the future, be called scapulu.% and thus piously enable all Catholic priests and bishops to swear on the Holy Evangelists that no indulgences were sold in the United States The scapula costs the purchaser one dollar. The priest who sells it tells him that in order to make it thoroughly efficacious, it is necessary that he should cause some masses to be said I may safely say that, on an average, every scapula sold in the United States costs at least five dollars," — Synopds^ pp, 176, 177, The number of Catholics in the world is computed, by Catholic authority, at 150,000,000, Some of the papal subjects would not, perhaps, purchase a scapula in a year, while others might purchase a hundred ; but at the moderate estimate of one scapula annually tp 1^6 THE PAPAL each Catholic, the pope would derive from this source an annual revenue of 750,000,000 dollars. The sale of the scapula would; of course, be in proportion to the wickedness of the church members; the more virtuous they were the less would they be necessitated to con- tribute to the coffers of the church ; and as merchants and traders always scheme to create a demand for their goods, it is not reasonable that either the pope or his priests would encourage their Catholic subjects in con- duct that would render them of no value to them ; and that would injure the sale and lessen the demand of their articles of trade, by which their treasure and luxuries are so much augmented. Another source of the pope's revenue are the masses which the church requires to be said for the deliver- ance of the souls of deceased Catholics out of purga- tory. These masses were sold before the rebellion at fifty cents a piece ; whether they have since risen in value in proportion to other articles, I have not the means of ascertaining. What number of masses are requisite for conjuring a Cotholic layman's soul up from purgatory, I am not informed ; but there is a will of a priest recorded in Towsontown, Md.. which bequeaths to a brother priest the sum of one hundred dollars to pay for two hundred masses, " to be said for the bene- fit of his poor soul." If the church will not release the soul of a priest from purgatory for less than one hun- dred dollars, how much does she demand of a layman for a similar purpose? It would seem that the sanctity of a priest ought enable her to get him out of the pur- gatorial fire, and release him from the clutches of the APAL POLITICAL INTBIOrES the long-premeditated assassination of Henry IV. was accomplished by Ravaillac, who stabbed him to the heart with a double-edged sword, the papal symbol of spiritual and temporal power. The papal machinery during the past reigns had de- moralized the nation. The national policy was charac- terized by a system of falsehood, corruption and intrigue. Princes of the blood were excluded from the throne, on account of their liberal proclivities. Innocent men, women and children were imprisoned, murdered and burnt. Female intrigue, the bane of national peace and virtue predominated in political circles ; and pub- lic robbery and extravagance laid the foundation of a debt which ultimately broke down the government. Under Louis XIII., who became King of France in 1610, the papal machinery was directed by Cardinal Richelieu, who governed the king ; by M. Tellier, his confessor, and Madame Maitenon, his prostitute, who governed the cabinet. Richelieu gave boldness and craft to the national policy, and consummated the governmental absoluteness which had been initiated by Louis XL Division of power being more friendly to justice and republicanism than consolidation, the papal political machinery has always vigorously, as well as universally, labored to defeat the first and encourage the second. But w^hat is unfriendly to republicanism is destructive to national prosperity ; and consequently the papal intrigues and appliances in favor of absolute- ness in France destroyed the greatness of the nation. The political security and religious liberty which Henry IV. had secured to the subjects were annulled by the repeal of the Edict of Nantes, and Catholic in- IN FRANCE. 287 tolerance again domineered over the lives and fortunes of Protestants. Kings had been taught by their teach- ers and spiritual guides that " to dissemble was to reign," and that " to become a great man it was necessary to become a great villain." The consequence was national weakness and demoralization. Mock treaties were made to conceal real ones, and kings, to disguise their intentions, acted differently from what they thought. A succession of weak, bigoted, tyrannical, and criminal rulers had oppressed the industry of the country, and drove thousands of subjects to seek a livelihood under less oppressive government. Despotic ministers, rapa- cious favorites, intriguing prostitutes, foolish enter- prises absurd laws, professed rakes in the garb of priests and cardinals, prodigality, corruption and tyranny withering the vitality of the nation, and accu- mulating on the heads of the people an insupportable load of taxation cind misery, were the deplorable results of the operation of the pope and his political engine. But while such were the calamities which Catholicism was maturing, the eloquent writings of Voltaire, of Ros- seau, and other liberal authors were awakening a spirit of inquiry in the public mind, and preparing the way for political regeneration. The smouldering fires of freedom which burned in the breast of the nation, ren- dered the conflict between monarchy and republicanism inevitable. It finally took place; the majesty of the people was vindicated ; and, a national assembly con- vened consisting of three hundred and seventeen cler- gymen, three hundred and seventeen nobles, and six hundred and seventeen deputies of the people ; all of whom took an oath never to separate until they had given France a free constitution. From the ruins of the 288 PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIGUES. monarcliy a republic arose in majesty and power. The feudal estates were abolished without indemnifica- tion. The invidious game laws, the feudal tribunals, the church tithes, the ecclesiastical revenues, the hered- itary descent of officers, the exemption of church dig- nities from military taxation, the laws excluding Pro- testants from offices of trust or profit, and denying them the right of inheriting, acquiring or bequeathing prop- erty, and all that the toil of the papal machinery had accumulated on the heads of the people, were swept away by the spirit of liberal government. To obtain this freedom the nation had poured out its blood. But 'the nation had been educated in Catholic bigotry and intolerance ; and now it visited on the heads of its tutors the lessons which they had taught. The people swept away the despotism of the throne, but left it remaining in the national councils ; and, while they made a wreck of oppression, they preserved its elements to be reconstructed in another form. It is not, then, surprising, that hard as their freedom was won, it was so easily betrayed by the genius of Napoleon Bonaparte, once its advocate, but always its foe ; who hated repub- licanism as much as he hated papacy, for they both were in conflict with his designs ; and who loved nothing but himself and supreme dominion. But the boon he sought his ambition defeated. While he stood at the height of his fortune, with the conquest of Europe in his grasp, the mask fell from his brow. The confidence of freemen forsook him ; and his glory, which else might have outrivalled the splendor of the greatest, flickered, grew dim, and soon vanished away ; leaving the world as much astonished at the obscurity it left as it had been at the efi'ulgence it had emitted. CHAPTEE XIV. PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIOUES IN ' GERMANY, Papal Intrigues in Germany under the reigns of Otho I — of Henry IV, — of Henry V. — of Frederic I — of Frederic II — of Conrad IV. — of Albert I — of Henry VII. — of Louis of Bavaria — of Charles IV. — ofSigis- Tnund — of Charles V. — of Ferdinand 11. — Papal In- irigues in Austria — in Prussia — and in the Nether- lands. WiTTiKiisrD the Great, King of Saxony, after a vigorous resistance for thirty-three years against the arms of Charlemagne, the confederate of the pope, submitted to be baptized to spare the further effusion of the blood of his subjects. But in the events of one hundred years, the conquered became the emperors, and the Franks were supplanted on the throne by the Saxons. Prom the time that the Carlovingian dynasty was established until the dissolution of the empire in 1806, the secular power had to continually struggle against the intrigues and usurpations of the Papal See, The pope's claim of being the disposer of crowns, and the source of secular power, acheived something of a triumph in 962, when through a crafty policy the pon- tiff bestowed the diadem on Otho. Prom motives of policy the emperor conceded the spiritual claims of the pope, but prudently nullified them by placing him 25 290 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES under his authority. While Otho acknowledged that he was emperor by the grace of God and the pope, he required the latter, who was John XII., to swear allegi- ance to him, and the Koman See to enter into a solemn agreement wdth him that henceforth no pope should be chosen except in the presence of a Germanic imperial commission. This judicious check on the intriguing policy of the Papal See, was too unpleasant to be toler- ated longer than weakness made it unavoidable. Pre- sumptuous as false, Pope John XII. was led to violate his oath of allegiance, and to take up arms to acquire inependence of secular authority. For this act of per- jury, treason, and violation of a solemn treaty — which in a layman would have been a capital offence, but in a priest was aggravated by the additional crime of hypoc- risy — the emperor could not do less than depose him. In the papal monarchy virtue and ability were sel- dom conspicuous, and generally when either appeared in its administration, it was less the offspring of Cathol- icism than of the Germanic authority. The emperors of Germany were far better men than the popes of Eome. While the first labored to reform the church, the latter did little else than corrupt it. Virtue, the foundation of public order and concord, could not but be encour- aged in the subjects by a sagacious monarch ; and vice, the indulgent mother of fraud and imposition, could not but be cultivated by a crafty and ambitious priest. In the progress of the conduct of the papal and the impe- rial policy, so mutually antagonistical, Henry III., who became Emperor of Germany in 1046, had to depose three popes, and to fill the papal chair during his life with men of his own choice. He also held the papal IN GERMANY. 291 monarcTiy under strict surveilance, and forbade the be- stowal of any spiritual dignity, or the appropriation of any church property without his sanction. The whole- some effects of his severity won commendations even from those upon whom they were most rigorously en- forced ; in proof of which it may be stated that the clergy spontaneously bestowed on him the title of " The Pious," which he condescended to accept. In 1056 Henry IV. ascended the throne of Germany. The Papal See, iDitterly groaning under the jealous re- straint which had been imposed on it by the secular authority, eagerly watched, and artfully intrigued for an opportunity to remove them. The impolitic and ty- rannical conduct of Henry JV. appeared, perhaps in its eye, as a providential circumstance designed to aid the success of its long cherished design. The emperor, governed by the advice of Archbishop Adelbert, at- tempted, by building castles, and committing brutal and violent acts, to rule his people through the terror of his authority. Neglecting to guard popular interests, which alone can secure popular attachment, his efforts to over- awe his subjects produced only dissatisfaction and in- surrection. In an outburst of popular violence pro- voked by his imprudence, considerable damage was done to some churches in Saxony and Thuringia. These disorders gave Henry the opportunity of gratifying his revengeful feelings in accusing the inhabitants before the pope of sacrilege, and of entering their territory and perpetrating the most barbarous cruelty. The conse- quences of this proceeding eventuated in such a favor- able crisis to the papal designs, that, had the ablest pope projected and engineered them they could not 292 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES have culminated more propitiously. The injured and exasperated inhabitants appealed to tho pope. Pope Gregory VII., having ascended the papal throne with- out the consent of the German court, eagerly embraced a cause which enabled him to assert his claim claim to in- dependent sovereignty, and supremacy over all secular authority. Fully aware that the tyranny of Henry had deprived him of the affections and support of his subjects, he commanded the unpopular monarch to appear before him, under pain of excommunication. In punishment for this ferocious w^arrant the emperor sum- moned a council of bishops at Worms, and obliged them to renounce their allegiance to Gregory. This daring act so irritated the pope that he began to lavish, with un- sparing liberality, anathemas on the head of the mon- arch. Henry at first treated this display of arrogated divinity with scornful indifference, but his vices had too much disembarrassed the action of the papal ma- chinery not to allow it to disable his power and revenge. His subjects disowned their allegiance to him ; his friends deserted him ; his soldiers disobeyed his orders ; and he found himself helplessly at the mercy of a revenge- ful and irritated priest. With a refinement of malice that seems to do credit to papal ingenuity, at least, the emperor w^as required to dress in penitential robes, for- mally to solicit for three days an interview with the sacerdotal despot, and then to promise unconditional obedience to him in all things. But the acts of tyranny carry with them the seeds of retribution. The tyrant who could impose such conditions on a fallen foe, could also have been guilty, in the exercise of his power, of inflicting injuries on his subjects which would IN GERMANY, ' 293 he calculated to excite a disposition to revolt and retal- iation. This was precisely the case with Pope Gre- gory YIL He had oppressed the Italian provinces to such a degree that the inhabitants longed for an oppor- tunity to depose him; and now the misfortunes of Henry appearing to render him an available agent in the accomplishment of their designs, they proposed a coalition with Mm. The pope becoming acquainted with this secret machination, set about to counteract it. By the operation of his skilful machinery he was en- abled suddenly to create a conspiracy in the heart of Germany, for the deposition of the emperor ; but the vigilance and valor of the latter defeated the revolu- tionary movement. Having in vain exhausted all re- sources to subject the incorrigable monarch to his abso- lute authority, he now sought to beguile the mortifica- tion of his defeat by hurling anathemas at his obsti- nate head. But the temper of Henry not disposing him to indulge the chagrined pope in insolent sports, summoned a council of German and Italian bishops at Brixen, and by proving to their satisfaction that Pope Gregory VII. was a heretic, a sorcerer, and had dealings with the devil, effected his degradation, and placed Clement HI. in the papal chair. The spirit and pretensions of Catholicism are so inim- ical to secular authority that, to whatever extent they obtain a controlling influence in a government they tend to abridge its sovereignty, and threaten its subversion. This tendency, so clearly indicated by the principles of the papal monarphy, and so fearfully illustrated in its history, is incapable of being restrained by any sense of gratitude, or by any obligation of oaths. A knowl-^ 35* 294 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES edge of this unliappy truth will prevent surprise that the munificQiit favors which Henry bestowed on Pope Clement IIL, in elevating him to the papal dig- nity, should not have caused the repeal of the anathe- mas ond excommunications which had been pronounced against him, nor arrested the papal machinery in its insidious and treacherous operations, in fostering the elements of discord which existed in the empire. No- thing but the surrender of the principles of sovereignty will ever conciliate a pope to the authority of a secular government. The prudence, courage, and talents of the king were hence constantly called into requisition to defeat the secret machinations of his enemies. His eldest son was instigated to rebel against him. After he had subdued him, his second son, whom he had crowned as his successor, obliged him to surrender into his hands the imperial authority. By the implacable revenge of the Papal See, operating through its varied machinery, he was deprived of power, reduced to scorn and neglect, and after it had murdered him by degrees, prohibited the interment of his anathematized corpse in consecrated ground. After Henry V., in 1106, had wrung from his father's hand the imperial sceptre, he sought to have this atro- cious act sanctified in the eyes of his subjects by being crowned at Pome by the pope — Paschal II. This sanction of unfilial conduct the pope was willing to ac- cord ; but as it seemed to present an opportunity for making a good speculation, he exacted, as the only con- dition on which the favor could be granted, a conces- sion to the Holy See of all the rights and 2:)rivileges which had been claimed for it by Pope Gregory VII. IN GERMANY. 295 This proposition startled Henry ; he saw the ambitious designs of the pope, and he felt the importance of check- ing them. Boldly denying the papal pretensions, and rejecting with indignant contempt the proposition of Paschal, he marched his army on Rome, dragged the pope from the altar while he was celebrating mass, and casting him into prison, determined that he should there remain until he consented to crown him without any condition. To be restored to liberty and luxury the pope acceded to all the terms dictated to him by the emperor, but with a secret disposition to render them nugatory at the first opportunity. Disturbances occurring in Germany, the pope was agreeably relieved of the embarrassing restraints of the emperor's pres- ence. To suppress the Germanic revolution the skill and valor of Henry was occupied for two years. In the meantime the pope, in order to nullify the conces- sions which he had made, organized an Italian conspi- racy against the emperor. Soon as Henry had quelled the insubordination in Germany, he therefore returned to Italy to punish the author of the calamities of his reign. But Pope Paschal evaded the designed chas- tisement by absconding to Apulea, where he shortly af- terwards died. Pope Galatius II., an enemy of Henry, having ob- tained the papal dignity, the latter deposed him, and caused Bourden, under the name of Gregory VIIL, to be substituted in his place. The deposed pope and his cardinals, having the control of the papal machinery, were enabled to oppose, with great success, the policy of Henry in every part of his dominion, Galatius assembled a council of bishops at Vienna and 296 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES excommunicated him; Calaxtus II. convened one at Kheims, and repeated the sentence ; the nobles broke out in frequent rebellion ; and finally such insubordi- nation prevailed in the empire, and such violent out- bursts so frequently disturbed the public peace, that in order to restore tranquillity Henry was compelled to subscribe to a concordat at Worms, in which he re- nounced the right of investiture, and to any interfer- ence in the consecration of bishops. Frederic I. succeeded to the imperial throne in 1152. The increasing opulence and power of the Italian and Lombardine cities owing allegience to Germanic author- ity, the ambitious aspirations of the Papal See for illimitable dominion, and the insidious operations of its machinery in producing public taste and opinion in harmony with its desires, had, at the beginning of the reign of Frederic I., produced revolts and usurpations in Lombardy and Italy, which obliged the emperor to visit and chastise the insurrectionary districts. Pope Alexander III., the chief source of the public discord, fled on the approach of Frederic to France, and excommunicated him. A league was then formed be- tween the pope, Venice, and the Greek empire against Frederic ; and for twenty years the calamities of war were protracted. The cruelty which the emperor had exercised towards the rebellious cities created a des- perate opposition to his authority, and exercised an important influence in stimulating the valor and energy of the people, by which their freedom was finally achieved in the treaty of Venice in 1177. The spiritual and temporal crown of the world which the Koman See attempted to manufacture out of the IN GERMANY. ~ 297 fishhooks of St. Peter, however visionary it might orig- inally have appeared, assumed in the progress of the papal political intrigues, the appearance of a stubborn, formidable and frightful reality. With the profound policy which it elaborated, and the systematic course of measures which it adopted, accommodated to all exi- gencies and pursued through all periods, and at all places; with its machinery ramifying the political, so- cial, and literary institutions of Christendom ; with its confessors transmitting to Rome every important fact ; with its inquisition extorting from victims an admis- sion of every false charge of which ecclesiastical interests required the establishment ; with its preachers and spir- itual guides manufacturing, private and public opinion suitable to its demands by perverted facts and false state- ments ; and with its army of monks, knights, sycophant princes, servile kings, and deluded devotees ; it had at the period of Pope Innocent III. subjugated Christen- dom under its despotic authority. During the progress of its aggressive course the voice of reason and patri- otism had often lifted up remonstrances against its advancement ; but the eloquent tones died away un- heeded amid the clamorous chaunts of superstitious rites. But now, after supineness had allowed it to amass supreme and despotic power, and fortify itself by every means of defence, the antagonism of the people began to be energetically manifested. It is the fate of des- potism of every form, when it has developed the full strength of its all-blasting power, to awaken another power destined to trample it in the dust. That power is the strength which slumbers in the popular arm. When the papal despotism was no more a pretension, 298 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES but a fact, when it stood distinctly before the world clotted with the blood of generations, surrounded by broken sceptres and crushed thrones, with its feet on the neck of kings and people, and its usurping hand grasping at the crowns of earth, heaven and hell, a murmur of horror broke from the lips of the world. Then learn- ing began to scoff at its claims, research to expose its frauds, wit to ridicule its pretensions ; and then religious liberty, through the Albigenses and Waldenses uttered that memorable peal, which is destined to reverberate as an undying tone through all future ages. Then arose the free cities from their long degradation, and began to perfect their internal organizations by the establish- ment of corporations ; then appeared the first universi- ties, arousing the dormant spirit of free inquiry and investigation ; then the abrogation of the system of violence began to restore public security ; and then the separate members of the empire began to be assembled and deliberate on public affairs, originating the principle of the provincial diets. Frederic II., son of the emperor Henry VI., was born at this illustrious period of German history. Philip, Duke of Suabia, was nominated regent during Frederic's minority, but the pope, wishing a more pli- ant instrument, substituted Berthold. Finding this scheme impracticable he recommended Otho, and Philip being murdered, the papal policy succeeded. But the pope soon found that his intrigue had vested with power a mortal foe to the Papal See. For Otho clearly mani- fested a design of not only wresting Sicily from Fred- eric, which the latter inherited from his mother, princess of Constance, but of establishing the authority of Ger- IN GERMANY 299 many over certain possessions of Italy wliicli it claimed as an inheritance. To counteract the mistake of his policy the pope took Frederic under his protectson, and called into requisition all the power of his machinery. At the age of twenty-one years he crowned his protege Empe- ror of Germany ; but in order to bind him to his inter- ests he exacted a coronation oath that he would under- take a crusade in behalf of the church. Frederic, enjoy- ing the favor and influence of the pope, and the advan- tageous co-operation of his machinery, soon defeated Otho, and became sole sovereign of the empire. With a grasp of intellect, and versatility of talent that rarely have sprung from a royal cradle, Frederic II. elaborated projects which, although they transcended the liberality and enlightenment of his age, yet laid the foundation for their development in a future period. The possession of the German and Sicilian crowns led him to hope that he would be able to repress the power- ful hierarchy of Rome, and reduce the pope to the dig- nity of a bishop. Impressed with the importance of this object, and the difficulty of its accomplishment, he slowly and cautiously removed obstacle after obstacle, and selected the elements for his great enterprise. As a preliminary measute he caused his son to be crowned King of Rome. This act alarmed the jealousy of Pope Honorious III., who desired to be acquainted with the motive of it. The emperor replied that his coronation oath required him to undertake a crusade, and the fulfilment of it rendered it necessary to invest his son with regal authority. However ungratifying this reasoning was to the pope, he could not refute it, and as the emperor promised to deal severely with the her- 300 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES etics, and to exclude them from offices of trust or profit, lie became greatly pacified. In maturing his measures for the restoration of the Italian empire, the emperor procrastinated for twelve years the fulfilment of his un- dertaking, a crusade ; and though the pope frequently reminded him of the solemnity of his obligation, yet his apologies were so plausible that they seemed fully to justify the delay. The inexplicable mystery of Fred- eric's conduct, however, excited the apprehensions of Pope Gregory IX. — and to get rid of his presence in Europe he j)eremptorily demanded that he should undertake the promised crusade. With a show of obe- dience to the pope's injunction, he commenced prepar- ing for the enterprise, but upon such an extensive scale, and so interruptedly and slowly that it damped the fire, consumed the provisions, and thinned the ranks of the pilgrims. At length he set sail with his fleet, but becoming indisposed after three days' voyage returned home. The return of his formidable army alarmed the fears of the pope, who appears to have equally dreaded the success of his arms abroad and of his pres- ence at home. Adopting the customary policy of the popes in their emergency, he endeavored to embarrass the designs of Frederic by pronouncing sentence of excommunication on him, and suspending all religious services in his dominions. The justice of this sentence being attempted to be supported by the failure of the emperor to fulfil his coronation oath, Frederic endea- vored to nullify it, if not in the eyes of the pope, yet in those of the people, by undertaking a vigorous cru- sade. But the infallible pope who had excommunicated him for not becoming a crusader, now excommunicated IN GEBMANY. 301- him for becoming one. During the emperor's absence the pope preached a crusade against him in his own do- minions, organized a conspiracy against him, and devas- tated his empire with his own troops. That he might weaken the power and popuh\rity of the emperor abroad, he ordered the bishops and knights of the army of the cross in Palestine to dispute his command and oppose his designs. But the remarkable genius of Frederic, undaunted by difficulties, and unimpressible by discouragement and reverses, made him victorious, as well over the arms of the Turks as over the intrigues of the pope. He entered Jerusalem in triumph ; and, not finding a bishop who would incur the papal ana- themas by crowning him, he performed the ceremony himself. The success of Frederic filled Christendom with joy, but the pope with indignation. He declared every church into which he entered profaned ; inter- dicted the celebration of divine w^orship in Jerusalem ; and such was his influence with the chivalrous knight- hood, that among its members were found persons base enough to secretly inform the Sultan how he might dis- pose of his victor, by assassination, in his customary visits to the river Jordan. But the magnanimity of the Sultan rejected the proposition with contempt, and communicated the matter to the emperor to place him on his guard. While Frederic exacted from the pope what justice and self respect demanded, he was so far from being disposed to treat him with unnecessary rigor that, when his vices and tyranny had excited his subjects into a re- bellion, he interposed in his behalf and restored tranquil- lity. An act so generous in the emperor should have 26 302 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES awakened in the pope an equal degree of magnanimity, but so far was he incapable of any sense of gratitude, that he instigated the emperor's son to conspire against him, and assured him of the assistance of the Lom- bards. This conspiracy was detected, and defeated in its bud ; and, the emperor regarding his son more as the victim of sacerdotal craft than as a real foe to his authority, pardoned his disloyalty. The sense of grati- tude naturally arising from this act of clemency, added to the weight of filial affection, should have been sufficient to form a disposition which would have subjected the son to the most affectionate subor- dination to the father. But the dispensations and absolutions with which the church pretends to nullify social and civil obligations, unhappily interfered with the natural instincts of the son's mind, and led him to add to the guilt of his treason, the ignominy of attempt- ing to assassinate his father. This atrocious act can- celling every obligation of nature, would have justified the emperor in proceeding to extremes ; but his native magnanimity prevailed, and he sentenced his son to per- petual banishment. The success of the policy of Frederic comprehended a union of the hostile elements of his southern territory, the subjugation of the Germanic aristocracy, and of the Italian cities in alliance with the pope. Preparatory to the execution of this policy he made some conquests in Lombardy These successes excited the revenge of the pope, who accordingly visited on his head another excommunication. But the Vatican thunder was allowed to roll on, as amid its music the emperor marched on from victory to victory. At length, in the IN GERMANY. 303 development of the policy of Frederic, the time arrived for striking a decisive blow at the heart of the public disorder. By a sudden movement he entered the papal dominions. The pope trembled on his throne. He saw his monarchy at the mercy of an emperor, whom he had anathematized, whose son he had taught to rebel, whose subjects he had corrupted, and whose downfall he had labored to effect. The consummation of the policy of Frederic was in his grasp ; but the magnificent prospect which skill and valor had obtained, superstition blasted. Having some reverence for the office, though none for the character of the pope, and conscious of the powerful influence it wielded over the superstitious, he ventured to listen to the papal monarch, who professed a willing- ness to concede all his demands, but proposed that they should first be sanctioned by a council of the bishops of the church. The emperor soon perceived, but too late, that this specious proposition was but a popish device. The preliminaries for holding the proposed council established the fact, that the pope intended to have it chiefly composed of the most inveterate enemies of the emperor ; in fact none but such were invited to partici- pate in its proceedings. Frederic felt justified, there- fore, in forbidding the convention to assemble. As his prohibition was disregarded, he intercepted a Genoese fleet of one hundred bishops, and brought them captive to Naples. This manoeuvre broke up the council, and perhaps broke the pope's heart, as he shortly afterwards died. Cardinal Fiesco, a warm friend of the emperor, be- came Pope Innocent IV. ; but the dignity of pope making him regard the emj)eror as hostile to his mon- 304 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES archial pretensions, converted His former friendsiiip into bitter annimosity. Returning to Lyons, lie confirmed all the aathemas that had been pronounced against Frederic, and summoned him to appear at the bar of a grand council to be convened at that place. In the proceedings of this council the most ridiculous and groundless charges were preferred against Frederic, and though completely refuted by his deputies, yet as the proceedure was merely the semblance of a judicial trial, to sanction preconcerted malice and revenge by forms of lagality, the council did not hesitate to declare him guilty, any proof of innocence to the contrary, It seems to have concentrated its ingenuity in devising new and unheardof methods to give terrific importance to the ventilation of its hate. An anathema was pro- nounced on the body and soal of the emperor, and on all his interests, friends and allies. While pronouncing these religious curses, the priests, like fiends administer- ing at some infernal ceremonies, held in their hands lighted torches, and upon its conclusion suddenly ex- tinguished them ; and by the theatrical trick of uttering discordant shrieks and howls, seemed in the daikness of the cathedral to have converted the holy place into the lower regions, peopled with the arch-fiend and his agents. Though these artistical elaborations were not without some effect, yet the vigor of the emperor's genius, the magnanimity which he constantly displayed, his vast popularity, and the triumph of his arms — which continued to his death — deinonstrated to the intelligent that there was no real curse in the papal anathemas. Conrad IV., son of Frederic II., became emperor of Germany in 1250. Innocent IV,, whose policy it was IN GERMANY. 305 to profess any friendship, and violate any obligation that contributed to his interests, determined to com- plete on the son the vengeance he had commenced on the father. Presumptuous as vindictive he declared that inasmuch as Frederic II. had been excommun- icated, his son could not inherit the throne. On the ground of this ridiculous pretext, he pronounced him dispossessed of all his inheritance ; laid on him an in- terdict ; and persecuted him by all the means which his power and influence afforded. But notwithstanding a revengeful pope, whose malice through his machinery operated everywhere, yet, he had more than his equal to contend with. The courage and heroism of Conrad defeated the papal army, kept the pope's allies in check, and was about to enter Lombardy with the fairest pros- pects of success when his illegitimate brother, by admin- istering poison to him, relieved the pope of a formidable adversary. Conradin, son of Conrad IV., the last of the noble house of Hohenstaufen, was the heir to the throne. The pope refused to acknowledge his right to succes- sion, because his father had been excommunicated. He declared also that Conradin had forfeited his right of inheritance to the crown of Naples and Sicily, and un- dertook to bestow it on Charles of Anjou. But Conradin entered Italy and defeated the usurper; but while he was pursuing the flying enemy with too much reckless- ness, he was captured by the vanquished. The world expected that his youth and valor could not but win compassion even from the iron-hearted j^ope, but the in- tense hatred of the papal monarch to the noble house of which this intrepid lad was the last scion, would not 26* 306 PAPAL POLITICAL INTHIGUES permit him to allow an opportunity to escape of extin- guishing it forever. Conradin was therefore, though but sixteen years old, publicly executed as a criminal ; but his heroism, and the circumstances under which he met death, crowned his memory with immortal honor, while it cast a deeper tinge of ignominy on the already blackened character of the pope. The usurpation of territory, and interference in political affairs, which are so strongly characteristic of the papal policy, originate from the consti- tutional principles of the Roman See. In conformity with them Pope Boniface VIII. proclaimed him- self King of Rome ; and declared that the Roman See was the source whence the Germanic electors derived their rights. Albert I. being chosen em- peror by the electors in 1298, was summoned by the pope to appear before him and apologize for having ac- cepted the crown without consulting his pleasure, and to expiate the guilt of his offence by the performance of such penance as should be prescribed. To en- force compliance with this injunction the pope formed an allegiance with the archbishop of Mentz, a powerful military bishop, and a former friend of Albert. To re- sist the belligerent pope Albert effected an alliance with Philip la Belle, of France. Making a sudden diversion into the electorate of Mentz, Albert obliged the bishop to form a league with him for five years. The pope then suggested peaceful negotiation rather than disas- trous war. It was finally agreed between the two con- tracting. parties that the pope should give to Albert the possessions of his ally, and that Albert should acknowl- edge that the western empire was a grant as a fief from IN GERMANY. 307 the pope, that the electors derived their right from the Roman See, and that he would defend the papal inter- ests with his arms. The pope then proceeded, by vir- tue of an excommunication, to invalidate the title of Louis la Belle, of France, to his kingdom, and officially to transfer it to Albert I. During the reign of Henry YII., who became empe- ror of Germany in 1308, the tyranny and ambition of the pope were held in decent check, and the Papal See was unusually quiet and respectable. The emperor, whom the pope hated, but whom he dared not anathe- matize, v/as finally removed by poison administered in the sacramental wine, by Moltipulcian, a Dominican monk. Soon as this event occurred the pope's ven- geance, which had been accumulating in fury for years, bat which was too much overawed to utter a murmur, now burst forth with the most impetuous and indecent violence in anathemas on the soul, the corpse, the coffin, and the tomb of the dead emperor ; but it is not sup- posed that they done any damage, except to the charac- ter and good sense of the Roman See. Louis IV., of Bavaria, became emperor of Germany in 1330, To arrest the encroachments of the Papal See on the rights of the sovereignty of the empire, the diet of Reuse framed a constitution, in 1338, which provided that the choice of the electors of the union should be final in its decision, and independent of the Pope of Rome. These patriotic proceedings seemed to the pope to be interfering with his rights ; and John XXI. ac- cordingly prohibited the performance of divine worship in the empire, until the obnoxious constitution should be aanulled. But Louis soon repaired this calamity by 30S PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES the creation of Pope Nicholas V., who, having equal authority with Pope John XXL, nullified all his acts. Pope Clement VII., who succeeded to the papal throne in 1342, excommunicated Louis, and by his intrigues caused five electors to declare in favor of Charles of Luxemburg.* This violation of the celebrated constitu- tion of 1338 induced ihree electors to assemble at Lahstein, and declare the choice of Charles null and void ; and as Louis had died, they elected Edward of England, but he declining, they elected Frederic the Severe ; he also declining, the crown was finally settled on Gunter of Schwarzburg. But Gunter being removed by poison, the papal policy triumphed in the coronation of Charles of Luxemburg. Charles IV., in 1346, wishing to be crowned by the pope at Eome, visited Italy to negotiate for that favor. Pope Innocent VL, always inclined to make the vanity and ambition of his subjects administer to his aggran- dizement, signified a disposition to accommodate the em- peror, but on such disgraceful conditions that, by accepting them he subjected himself to the scorn and derision of the world. This self-degradation was much aggravated by the fact that many distinguished Komans, oppressed by the papal administration, united in requesting Charles to claim the city of Pome as a por- tion of his empire. Instead of improving this opportunity to extend the limits of his government, he renounced all rights, not only to the city of Eome, but to the States of the Church, to Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and Cor- sica. He also consented to impose a tax on the empire for the benefit of the Papal See, equal to one-tenth of the ecclesiastical revenues ; and further added to his IN GERMANY. 309 disgrace by taking an oatli never to enter Italy without the pope's sanction. For this base sycophancy he was assailed by princes and people with a storm of indigna- tion. To allay the fury of this tempest he announced an intention of convening a council for the reformation of the clergy, and for making liberal concessions to the popular demands. But this attempt to calm the people aroused the indignation of the Papal See. The pope exhorted the electors to depose him instantly. Assailed on all sides, dangers thickening around him from all quarters, but dreading less the indignation of the em- pire than the anathema of the Roman See, he yielded to the dictation of the pope, and confirmed the clergy in all their privileges, sanctioned all their abuses, pro- tected them in all their possessions, and made them en- tirely independent of the secular power. The papal power, at the period of Frederic II., seemed to tremble on the verge of inevitable de- struction ; but by a profound and unscrupulous policy, and a system of crafty intrigues, aided by a political machinery whose various parts ramified every portion of the empire, and acted in concert through all ages and dynasties, it had steadily carried its advancements through the blood of millions and the ruins of thrones, until, at the time of Charles, it had regained its supremacy in the empire ; and dictated treaties to the emperors, measures to the diets, and laws to the people. A power that could at its option excite or quell a popular out- burst, create or destroy a dynasty, might be an object of terror to people and princes, but never an object of reverence. The dread it cast on the mind was always unpleasant, and in proportion as its power became op- 310 I'APAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES pressive and disadvantageous, opposition and resistance were inevitably excited. The love of independence, the native individualism of the Germanic character, was ahvays a mortal foe to papal despotism. It might be cowered into silence, but it still grew in vigor, be- came more impatient as the pope became more despotic, and bolder as it became more conscious of its numeri- cal strength. This spirit, in 1411, when Sigismund be- came Emperor of Germany, displayed an energy pro- phetic of stirring events and important consequences. The spirit of Germanic individualism led distinguished men of the nation to deny, with emphatic boldness, the pretensions of the pope ; to denounce the profligacy of the clergy ; and to demand in the body and head of the church a thorough reformation. Prominent among the apostles of religious freedom, which rose into con- sequence at that time, was John Huss, and his disciples. The success of these reformers excited and alarmed the pope. Hating any semblance of a right to participate in his authority, or to assume any approach to an equality with him, he was strongly averse to the assembl- ing of a deliberative council; but conscious that his divine attributes and prerogatives were not adequate to the existing emergency, he consented that the Coun- cil of Constance should be called, on condition that it should adopt the most energetic means for the extirpa- tion of the heretics. With the secret design of betry- ing the amiable reformer, John Huss, he was invited to respond in jjerson to a summons of the council. To quiet his apprehensions of danger, the emperor fur- nished him with a safe conduct, and the pope pledged his honor to protect him from harm. Thus guarded by IN GEBMANY. 311 the honor of the state and the church, he was, notwith- standing, perfidionsly betrayed, and condemned to be burnt alive. The perfidy of the infallible pope is justi- fied by the saints and authorities of the Catholic church, on the ground that no pledge, assurance, or oath, can rightfully protect a heretic from punishment. Sigis- mund attended the horrid ceremonies ; and being re- minded by a by-stander that the course of the wind might bear an offensive effluvia to the position he occu- pied, answered : " The odor of a burning heretic can never be offensive to Sigismund." The death of John Huss was terribly revenged. The stake became the watchword of union. The hitherto mild and submissive reformers became desperate revengers. Churches and convents were burnt ; monks and priests slaughtered without mercy. The insurgents met and defeated the imperial forces. The strongest armies of the cross withered before their ferocity. For fifteen years they devastated the Papal dominions, and shook the government with the violence of their retribution. Seeing it impossible to restrain their rage, Sigismund obliged the Council of Basle to negotiate with them for the adjustment of their difficulties. This politic mea- sure so incensed Pope Eugenius IV., whose uncompro- mising vengeance longed for the extermination of every opponent to papal despotism, that he ordered his legates to dissolve the obnoxious assembly. But the laity had advanced in liberality and knowledge far beyond the possible attainment of a papal despot, and in defiance of his maledictions and intrigues, continued their useful session, and terminated, by peaceful concessions, the war with the Hussites, 312 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES The grand struggle between religious freedom and Catholic despotism was visibly approaching when Char- les v., King of Spain, in 1519 became Emperor of Germany. His design was to conquer the world, and his policy was to unite all parties in augmenting the national strength. To secure the favor of the pope, and the co-operation of his extensive and eifective machin- ery, he declared himself the defender of the Catholic faith. To conciliate the Protestants he convened a diet at "Worms, at which, under a plausible show of toleration he allowed Luther, in his presence, to defend the principles of the reformation. But his ambigu- ous policy becoming offensive to the Roman See, he issued an edict against the Protestants. A Catholic from interest, he was more disposed to make the pope auxiliary to the success of his designs than to be gov- erned by him. Hence, when Francis I. preferred claims to certain portions of the Germanic empire, he leagued -with the pope and accomplished the defeat of the king ; but he was equally disposed to defend his interests against the pope. The papal monarch, always appre- hensive of the political power of friend or foe, seeing that his confederacy with Charles had vastly augmented the latter's preponderating power, and placed the papal interests at his disposal, formed against him a counter league with the Italian States. This effort to retrieve the errors of his jDolicy only aggravated his misfortune. The forces of the Holy League were de- feated by the arms of Charles, Rome taken by storm, the city plundered, the pope imprisoned, and four hun- dred thousand crowns of gold demanded for his ran- som. When Charles heard of the success of his arms, IN GERMANY, 313 in evident moctery lie dressed himself in mourning for the pope, ordered masses to be said in all the churches for his deliverance from prison, and in alleviation of his misfortune reduced the ransom to 100, 000 crowns. The power of Charles overavving the papal throne, it prudently refrained from venting in insulting anathe- mas the ebullitions of its wrath. Pope Clement VIL, after the peace of Cambray in 1592, crowned Charles as King of Lombardy and Eome. On this occasion the emperor dutifully kissed the feet of the papal monarch. The cause of this affection and harmony was shortly afterwards man- ifested in an intolerant edict against the Protest- ants. This significant menace led the Protestant princes to form the Smalkalden League for the pro- tection of Protestantism. Two years afterwards a holy league was formed by the Catholic princes for the pro- tection of Catholicism. After some abortive attempts at negotiation, the Protestant league raised the stand- ard of war. The emperor by strategetic movements, and by creating jealousy and divisions among the Pro- testant confederates, obtained important advantages over their arms, and finally succeeded in dissolving the league. But Maurice of Saxony had secretly formed another league, which was joined by Henry II., King of France. While Charles was at Innspruck, attending the Council of Trent, Maurice suddenly appeared at the head of an army, and the emperor barely escaped amid the darkness of a stormy night from being cap- tured. The council was consequently dissolved, and the Protestants dictated the terms of peace at Passau ; which the emperor ratified at Augsburg. By the terms 27 814 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES of this treaty it was agreed that no one should be attacked on account of his. religious belief ; that no one should be molested in the enjoyment of his property or mode .of worship ; that religious disputes should be ad- justed by pacific means ; that persons for religious rea- sons should be allowed to change their residences ; that bishops on becoming Protestants should forfeit their office and salary ; and that every Protestant should en- joy his faith until a religious compromise should be established, Charles, broken down in health and constitution, enfeebled in mind, and conceiving that he was haunted by some invisible power which blasted all his prospects, abdicated the throne and retired to a monastery, where he passed the remainder of his life in making wooden clocks, and in performing his funeral ceremonies. Ferdinand II., King of Spain, succeeded to the crown of Germany in 1619. He was by nature of a morose and revengeful disposition, and the bigotry and preju- dice which had been instilled into his mind by Catholic preceptors made him an accomplished instrument in the hands of the church, in executing its exterminating vengeance on the heretics. During the course of his tutelage he made a pilgrimage to Home, where an oath was administered to him by the pope, that if he should ever become emperor he would exterminate heresy in his dominions. When he ascended the throne Germany was divided into two factions. The one was known as the " Catholic League," and the other as the " Evan- gelical Union." The Catholic League was headed by Maximilian, elector of Bavaria, and comprised the bishops and princes attached to the house of Austria. IN GERMAirr. 315 TKe Evangelical Union was headed by the Duke of Wittenberg, the elector of Saxony and Brandenburg, and composed of Lutheran and Calvinistic princes and knights. A number of the princes of Bavaria assem- bled at Prague, and declaring that they would not sub- mit to Maximilian, chose for their king Frederic, elector of the Palatina, a member of the Evangelical Union. This revolt benefited the Evangelical Union by a powerful accession. A desperate and bloody struggle was imminent between these two parties. Notwithstanding the Protestant influence in Bavaria, ^ Ferdinand succeeded in having himself elected king. After this event he tore up in a violent rage the charter which Rudolph II. had granted the Bohemians, because it allowed them to build churches and school- houses. He then showed his remembrance of his pop- ish oath by persecuting the Protestants, banishing their preachers, and depopulating the kingdom by an intoler- ance which caused emigrations of whole sections from his dominions. The victory of his troops near Prague enabling him to dictate a treaty which crushed the Protestant cause, and dissolved the Evangelical Union, he proceeded to restore the ecclesiastical institutions which had been abolished by the Protestants, to ex- clude Calvinists from the benefits of the religious peace of Augsburg, and to require Protestants living under Catholic princes to believe in Catholicism. Besides these decrees, enforced by the military power, the con- quest of the Palatinate of Frederic, the bestowal of that dignity on Maximilian, the emperor's favorite, giving the Catholics the ascendency in the electoral college, the army of Tilly in Lower Saxony, where no 316 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES existing enemy made it excusable, depriving the Pro- testants of their churches, committing wanton violence on the Lutherans, and compelling thousands to abandon their homes, property and country, were such gross violations of treaties, and such strong incentives to resistance, that the Protestant princes were impelled to unite in a league with the King of Denmark and the Duke of Holstein, determining to exhaust every resource in the defence of religious liberty. After some successes the confederated forces were defeated, and the Protestants lost all that they had acquired since the peace of Augsburg. At this dark hour in the fortunes of the league, Gustavus Adolphus, with an army of thirty thousand veterans, espoused its cause. His heroism, strategetic skill, and indomitable valor soon annihilated Tilly's army, reduced the imperial allies to extreme distress, conquered Lower Saxony and Bavaria,' and delivered the Protestants from their per- ilous situation. Tilly having died, Wallenstein assumed command. Having raised an immense and formidable army, the new general was enabled to attack Adolphus with such overwhelming force that he compelled him to retire from Bavaria. In 1642, at Lutzen, the two pow- erful armies came to a general and decisive engagement ; the genius of Adolphus crowned his arms with victory, but his intrepidity cost him his life. Through a wise policy the Swedes still continued a triumphant career, victoriously marching through the empire with incred- ible rapidity, and finally, after the battle of Prague, dictating the peace of Westphalia. By the terms of the peace of Westphalia Calvinists acquired the same rights with Lutherans ; princes were IN GERMANY, 317 bound not to persecute subjects on account of religious differences ; all acquisitions of Protestants since the peace of Augsburg were confirmed ; entire equality of sect, liberty of conscience, and the exercise of all modes of religion were guaranteed, and the independence of Switzerland and of the Netherlands acknowledged. Pope Innocent X. strenuously protested against this peace, complaining in bitter terms of the deep injury it inflicted on the church. Though the consequences of the treaty have been of the most benignant nature to Europe, still the Papal See has, through all periods maintained, with unabated animosity, its original oppo- sition to the invaluable treaty. The papal intrigues, so prolific of disastrous wars, were no less pernicious to Austria than they had been to other powers. Upon the death of Duke Frederic, its ruler, Frederic 11. , of Germany, declared the duchy a vacant iief of his empire, and appointed over it a governor. Pope Innocent V. persuaded Margaret, the sister of the deceased duke, and Gertrude, his neice, to claim the duchy as their inheritance. The Margrave Hermann, by the aid of the pope and his machinery, was enabled to command a strong party in support of the project. After a war of thirty-six years the dis- pute was settled by the interference of the emperor Eodolph, who gave it to his two sons, Albert and Ro- dolph. On the death of Maria Theresa, Joseph, her son, succeeded to the throne of Austria. Maria Theresa was a very devout and superstitious princess, a circum- stance which enabled the sacerdotal fraternity to gain and betray her confidence. But in making her an ob- 27* S18 PAPAL POLITICAL INTPvIGUES JGct of their craft they made her son their enemy. Their duplicity having excited in the mind of Joseph a strong aversion to the intermeddling and intriguing profession, he no sooner ascended the throne than he manifest- ed a disposition to adopt a policy more in accordance with the enlightenment of the age than was agreeable to the pope and the clergy. The world with pleasure, but the church with consternation, beheld him enlarg- ing the liberty of the press, tolerating the Protestants, treating the Jews with moderation, annulling ecclesi- astical sinecures, and abolishing such monasteries and nunneries as were not useful as schools or hospitals. Uneasy at these useful reforms, yet not daring to mut- ter his Vatican thunder, and finding his machinery un- able to atop their progress. Pope Pius IV. sought a per- sonal interview with the liberal minded emperor, to dissuade him from the further prosecution of his bene- ficent intentions. But notwithstanding the earnest re- monstrances of the vicar of Christ, the emperor still continued to reduce the number of the monasteries, and to effect reforms in the churches, and in the various de- partments of the government. This wise and saga- cious policy, which relieved the people of the oppres- sion of spiritual despotism, and renewed the vigor of national energy, was not appreciated by the masses through the ignorance and superstition of the age. The emperor not only had to contend with opposition from those for whose moral advancement he was labor- ing, but also with the disguised hostility of the pope, and the subtle operation of his treacherous machinery. But still, amid wars, seditions and rebellions, he pur- sued his magnanimous policy ; and if he did not effect IN GERMANY. 319 all the reforms in the cliurch, and in liis government, that he had contemplated, it was more through the in- trigues of the pope than through any want of disposi- tion, skill and energy on his part. The various orders of knights, whose avocation it was to enforce conformity to the demands of Catholi- cism by the vengeance of the sword, was an important part of the papal machinery. All who yielded not to this argument were threatened with extermination ; all who did, became the slaves of spiritual despotism. Under pretext of protecting Poland from the ravages of Prussian heathen, the Teutonic Knights, in 1226, won from Conrad of Masovia a small strip of land on the Vistula. For fifty-three years they carried on a war against the Persian tribes, and finally obliged them to embrace Catholicism. This war, suggested by papal craft, continued by incredible barbarity, culminated in the grossest perfidy. In their protection of Poland they inflicted deeper injuries on her than the savages of Prussia had ever contemplated, or in fact had the abil- ity to inflict. They subjugated the Baltic seaboard, from the Oder to the Gulf of Finland, and wrung from her her maritime commerce, and her northern line of defence. Poland and Prussia having both been plun- dered and oppressed by the knights, united in a bond of union against their common enemy, and a ferocious war was inaugurated, during which the knights lost a great portion of their territory, and finally their power was broken. In the various vicissitudes of the suc- ceeding fifty years the knights became abolished in Prussia, and their possessions converted into a heredi- tary duchy, under the male line of Prince Albert, 320 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES which, under Francis III. became the kingdom of Prussia. The papal intrigues with regard to the Netherlands, were fruitful of sanguinary and deplorable conse- quences. Under the reign of Charles V. one hundred thousand Protestants fell a sacrifice to the papal intol- erance. Philip, his son and successor, narrow in his views, irritable in his temper, and implacable in his hate, transcended even Charles in the inhumanity of his measures towards his Protestant subjects. Cardinal Granvella having introduced into the Netherlands the inquisition, for the extirpation of religious freedom, the Prince of Orange, in conjunction with other distin- guished personages, remonstrated against the measure. This remonstrance was regarded by the government as an act of treason. The haughtiness of the cardinal, and the severe measures he introduced to intimidate the people, produced great disorder and alarm. The nobles conspired to defend their rights ; the Protestants boldly celebrated their religious ceremonies, and the people fled in crowds to England and Saxony. In spite of in- tolerant edicts and excruciating torture, a bold spirit of resistance was excited in the provinces. Philip re- called Cardinal Granvella, but appointed in his place Alva, a more cruel and implacable tyrant. Proud, fierce and imperious, this man knew of nothing but to command in a despotic tone, and expect his subjects to tremble and obey. Sixty years of warfare always suc- cessful, had familiarized him to deeds of blood, without humbling him by the salutary lessons of misfortune. Death, the usual penalty of disobedience to his com- mands, gave his mandate a terrific importance. As IN GERMANY. 321 soon as lie Kad assumed the direction of tlie Netherland provinces, lie established a council of blood by means of which he condemned all whom he suspected of heresy, or whose fortunes excited a prospect of increasing his own. The noblest of the nation fell under the axe of his exe- cutioner ; and as avarice had always been a prominent trait of his character, he now illustrated the obduracy with which it is capable of debasing humanity, by con- fiscating the property, not only of the present but of the absent; not only of the living but of the dead. Having cited the Prince of Orange to appear before his council, and that prince having refused on the ground of his exemption by privilege, law and usage, he de- clared him dispossessed of all property, and seizing on his son, sent him to Spain as a hostage. The prince, here- tofore a liberal-minded Catholic, now declared himself a Protestant, and drew his sword in favor of religious freedom. By a perseverance which no difficulties could prostrate, a sagacity which no subterfuge could deceive, a heroism which no danger could appall, and a magnan- imity which commanded the admiration of the world, he struggled through discouragement, vexation and de- feat until he had laid a solid foundation for the freedom of the provinces, by reconstructing them in a judicious confederacy, under the name of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and inducing them to renounce alle- giance to Spain. Philip hence declared the prince an outlaw, and offered a reward of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for either his apprehension or his assassination. In 1584 the noble prince was shot dead by Balthazar Gerard, who confessed that he had been instigated to the deed by a Franciscan monk and a 322 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES. Jesuist priest. But though the founder of the republic fell a victim to Romish treachery, its defence was con- tinued with insuperable still and valor. Army after army sent against the republic was annihilated by the indomitable bravery of its troops, until its soil became the cemetery of the military strength of Spain. Its tolerance gave it population ; its freedom, energy ; its maritime contes.ts, a knowledge of navigation ; and its enterprise, commerce trade and prosperity. After a war of thirty years, replete with heroism and magnan- imity, it wrung from Spain, in the Westphalia treaty, a full recognition of independence. CHAPTER XV. PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES IJSf POP- TUOAL AND SPAIN. In Portugal, under the reign of Alphonso I — Sancho II — Dionysus — John II — Emanuel — John III, — Sebastian — Philip II — Joseph I — Maria Fran- cesca Isabella — John VI — Pedro VI — and Dona Maria. In Spain, under the reign of Peccarred I — Charles V — Philip II— Philip III— Charles II— Charles III Charles IV. — a7id Ferdinand VII. Alphonso, in 1139, in the cause of the church and of national independence, subjugated the Moors of Por- tugal. The victor was saluted on the field by his army as king of the conquered dominion ; the Cortes Lamego invested him with regel authority ; and Pope Alexander III. acknowledged his legitimacy, the independence of the nation, and the laws and constitution which were prescribed. By a provision of the constitution, which probably sprung from the religious tolerance of the Moorish regime, the king was prohibited under forfeit- ure of the crown, from becoming tributary to any foreign power. But notwithstanding this proud inter- diction, Alphonso in the course of severe conflicts which afterwards took place between him and the kings of Castile and Loon, made his kingdom, in violation of his own constitution, a fief of Pv-ome, in order to secure the papal support. 324 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES In consequence of tliis concession to papal supremacy, Sancho II., in 1245, became involved in a dispute with the clergy ; and upon appealing to Pope Innocent IV., had the misfortune to lose his crown. Alphonso III. succeeded to the regal dignity. Jealous of the rights of sovereignty, and determined to transmit them unimpaired to his successor, his reign was, in con- sequence, a perpetual contest with the intrigues of the clergy. Inflexibly firm and resolute, he defeated their artful attempts to extend their landed estates ; to obtain exemption from taxation ; to acquire for their persons and possessions an independence of secular jurisdiction ; and to subject the temporal to the spiritual authority by an insidious and gradual encroachment on the rights of the crown. Dionysus, who succeeded Alphonso III., opposed with prudence and firmness the papal intrigues, which had disturbed the peace of the kingdom from its foun- dation. In order to moderate the selfishness and tyran- ny of the first and second estates, composed of the clergy and nobility, he erected the cities into a third estate, of equal legislative authority. By elevating the dignity of the commonality, and taking advantage of the commercial resources which the geography of the country afi'orded, he awakened in the nation a spirit of indomitable enterprise which laid the foundation of its subsequent greatness. This liberal and enlightened policy cost him the friendship of the papal court, but he disarmed its malice by an admirable course of prudence and courtesy. John II. became King of Portugal in 1450. During his administration Ferdinand and Isabella, of Spain, IN PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. 325 governed by the spirit of Catholic intolerance, insti- tuted a rigorous prosecution against the Jews, by which thousands of them were deprived of their fortunes, and driven into exile. The Jews had arisen in Spain into considerable political influence ; they had become farm- ers of the revenue ; and their characteristic avarice had rendered them obnoxious to the people. Instead of rectifying the evil by adequate measures, the crown and people, influenced by the church, were made instru- mental in gratifying its hatred against the Hebrew race, by a persecution as unjust as it was impolitic. John II., with more liberal views of government, im- proved the injudicious measures of Spain, to the advan- tage of his own kingdom. Discarding the intolerance of his religion, he invited the persecuted Jews to his do- minion ; and by affording them a peaceful asylum, added largely to the wealth, population, prosperity and im- portance of the nation. Emanuel, son of John II., succeeded to the throne of Portugal in 1495. He married Elenora, sister of Char- les v., of Germany. He had imbibed the beneficent toleration of his sire, which had been so advantageous to the nation, but which was too antagonistical to the spirit of Catholicism, to command its support. The craft of priestly policy might conceal its hostility to tolerance from public perception, but machinations for its subversion would be no less incessantly at work. In the pious system of sacerdotal intrigue the amiable qualities of human nature are the most available, as they are the most insidious, and least liable to be suspected. Devoid of the finer sentiments of honor, the priests, in their capacity of spiritual advisers, scruple not to abuse 28 326' PAPAL POLITICAL INTPvIGL'ES tlie privileges accorded tKem, in making the influence which a female may exercise over a husband, lover or parent, subservient to their own purposes. This species of ecclesiastical intrigue is illustrated m the conduct of Queen Elenora. Having acquired a controlling ascend- ancy over the king's mind, she was induced by her spiritual advisers to extort from him a promise that he would require the Jews to embrace Christianity under pain of being reduced to slavery for life. By whatever considerations, Emanuel was led to promulgate a decree so injurious to the national welfare, and so inconsistent with the tokrant spirit he had manifested, yet he had the humanity or sagacity to procrastinate its execution for twenty years, and thus to ameliorate the horrors with which it was fraught ; and to place the develop- ment of the catastrophe beyond the period of his administration. John III., son of Emanuel, was crowned King of Portugal in 1521. A pliant tool in the hand of papal intrigue, he gave a fatal blow to the tolerance and prosperity of his kingdom. The implacable hatred of the church towards the Jews, hoarded for so many years, now relieved of all restraint, exhibited its fiend- ish barbarism in deeds of exterminating cruelty. To escape the persecution to which they were exposed, the Jews practised the externals of Catholijcism, while they secretly observed their ancient rites. The vigilance of the papal machinery, like a monster with a thousand eyes, penetrating all secrets, soon detected this evasion. In order to discover the persons who thus consulted self-preservation and the dictates of consciences, the inquisition was introduced, and a crusade of blood and IN PURTUGAL AND SPAIN. 327 devastation preaciied against the whole Hebrew race. Their property was confiscated ; their children were torn from them and placed under Catholic control ; aad they themselve reduced to slavery, or subjected to the tortures of the inquisition. "While John III., during his reign, was the wretched instrument of Catholicism for the accomplishment of its atrocious designs, his grandson, Sebastian, who in 1557, at the age of three years succeeded to the throne, was educated, by the express injunction of his father's will, by the Jesuists, and consequently was moulded to the same purposes, and reduced to the same flexible subserviency. Inclined to extravagance by temper and disposition, and educated by bigotry and craft, his am- bition became singularly whimsical ; his devotion to the pope absolute ; and his thirst indomitable and un- quenckable to engage in some enterprise in which he might shed the blood of infidels and heretics. When he arrived at majority, in order to express his devotion to the pope, he assumed the title of " Most Obedient King." At the age of twenty years his restless fanati- cism led him to undertake an expedition against the unoffending infidels of Tangiers ; and suddenly falling on the astonished inhabitants, gained an easy victory over them. The success of his forces against these defenceless mountaineers led him to imagine that his arms were invincible. Muley Mohammed having con- spired against his uncle Muley Moloch, the governor of Moroco, Sebastian conceived that by aiding the con- spirators with his personal valor and military forces, he might acquire some distinction for his name, and some advantages for the church. The dictates of prudence 328 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES and sound policy, the protestations of his ablest coun- sellors, and the munificent offer of Muley Moloch to purchase his neutrality by the cession of five fortified places on the coast of Africa, were feeble remonstrances to a mind like that of Sebastian's, in which fanaticism had supplanted principle, and despotism humanity. To popularize the hazardous undertaking, the papal ma- chinery began to work industriously in its favor. Col- lecting an army of twenty-one thousand three hundred men, comprised of Portuguese, Germans, Spaniards, Frenchmen and Italians, and a fleet of one hundred vessels, he sailed for Africa, and landed with safety at the port of Alzira. Although the number and skilful disposition of the Moorish troops left little doubt of their triumph; although Sebastian's provisions were nearly exhausted ; although Muley Moloch, more con- cerned for the safety of the misguided fanatic than from any apprehension of the success of his arms, again attempted to negotiate a peace ; although some of the Portuguese commanders advised a retreat, and all of those of the conspirators a retreat to the coast, yet so confident was Sebastian of the interposition of divine providence in aiding him to butcher the infidels, that he even refused to defer the engagement until the after- noon, in order that he might have the darkness of the night to cover a retreat, should such a measure become inevitable. Sebastian fought with distinguished brav- ery, yet his desperate fanaticism was equalled, if not surpassed, by the heroic courage of those who had been tortured, outraged, and exiled by his intolerance. The martial semicircle of the Moors enclosed his forces in a volume of destructive flame, and their disciplined valor IN PORTUGAL. 329 and skilful manceuvres completely annihilated them. The bodies of the vanquished that strewed the battle- field were, in general, too horribly disfigured with wounds to admit of their persons being identified ; and Sebastian's corpse being among the number, his actual death became doubtful. This circumstance, twenty years afterwards furnished the papal machinery with a convenient opportunity for manufacturing a bogus Se- bastian. But although Joseph Taxera, a Dominican monk, traversed Europe to enlist the imperial courts in its favor, yet the numerous spurious Sebastians that had sprung up, and the eagerness of several crowned heads to seize the kingdom, defeated the object of his mission. The controversy was finally settled by the battle of Alancatura, which, crowning with victory the arms of Philip II., of Spain, one of the claimants, subjugated Portugal to the dominion of Spain. The religious frenzy and whimsical ambition of Se- bastian, the result of his Catholic education, cost Portu- gal the flower of her nobility, the strength of her army, and her national independence ; overloaded her with debt, and degraded her under the dominion of a gov- ernment distracted by unsuccessful wars, and governed by a rapacious and unprincipled administration. When John III, in 1540, introduced the Jesuists into his kingdom, the doom of Portugal was sealed. From that period, under the intolerant measures of his administration, its power began rapidly to decline, until its disastrous connection with Spain secured its downfall. Guinea, Brazil, the Molluccas, and all the fairest dominions of Portugal were wrung from her grasp. Spain oppressed her with rapacious tyranny ; 28* 330 PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIGUES England and tlie Jesuists monopolized her trade, and the calamities which had visited her in such frightful succession exhausted her resources. The capacity of the nation for greatness, notwith- standing the degradation into which she had sunk, still animated the patriotic Portuguese with the hopes of a national redemption. In 1640 a powerful conspiracy was formed against the Spanish regime, and in 1750 the political independence of Portugal was achieved, and Joseph I. elevated to the throne. Duke Pombal, an able statesman, and the prime minister of the gov- ernment, regarding the Jesuists as the origin of the weakness and disgraces of the government, and believ- ing that their secrecy, dissimulation and treachery, absolved him from any obligation he might assume with regard to them, inconsistent with the public good, became a member of their order that he might acquire a correct knowledge of their principles and mode of operation, and be qualified to counteract their pernicious ma- chinations. With profound dissimulation, he so com- pletely deceived them that they admitted him to an in- timate knowledge of all their secrets, plans and de- signs. After having fully obtained his object he made a public exposition of their secrets. He disclosed the dangerous principles of their constitution, their po- litical objects, the oaths by Avhich they were bound, the baseness of their intrigues, their false professions, their horrible deeds, and their disgraceful rapacity and profligacy. By the exposure which he was enabled to make he succeeded in having them removed from the important position of confessors to the king, and in- structors of youth in colleges. He also induced Joseph IN POETUGAL, 331 to expel tliem from the missions of Paraguay; to abridge the power of the bishops ~ and to prohibit the celebration of the " auto-da-fe" of the inquisition. The Jesuists not being able successfully to arrest the progress of reform determined to assassinate the king; but failing in this attempt, the whole order fell under the ban of the kingdom, and were officially declared a political organization under the mask of religion, and its members expelled from the kingdom as enemies of the public peace, and traitors to the government. Pope Clement XIII., enraged at this summary destruction of the most efficient department of his machinery, endea- vored to intimidate the reformers by threats of excom- munication, and commissioned a legate to adopt any means to arrest proceedings against the Jesuists. But his legate was promptly escorted out* of the kingdom; and as the conduct of the holy father in protecting and defending an organization of traitors and assassins, im- plicated him in the guilt of an accessory, all connection with the See of Rome was declared dissolved until the imputation should be removed by the abolishment of the Jesuistical order. The vanity of Pope Clement could not permit him to suffer such a mortification, and the decree of dissolution was rigorously enforced ; but his successor, at the hazard of disproving the papal in- fallibility, complying with the demands of Portugal, amicable relations were re-established. On the death of Joseph I., in 1777, Maria Francesca Isabella, his eldest daughter, succeeded to the royal dignity. The superstitious temperament of this queen, and her natural infirmity, which terminated in con- firmed mental alienation, disqualified her for the admin- 332 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES istration of the governmental powers on sound prin- ciples of public policy, and surrendered her to the selfish control of a corrupt priesthood and ambitious nobility. By the intrigues of these two classes, which seldom scruple to sacrifice the popular interest to their personal advantage, Pombal was deprived of his useful political influence, most of his regulations w^ere abol- ished, and Portugal, from the dawn of a magnificent future, sunk into the obscurity and lethargy of her former condition. In 1817 John VI., who had been regent during the imbecility of the queen, from 1795 to her death, ascended the throne. The spirit of French republicanism ex- erted a liberalizing influence over Europe generally, and had apparently a similar efl'ect on the pope and his machinery. • Those who did not understand the profoundity of sacerdotal craft might have been stupefied with as- tonishment to see a pope, while professing to be in- fallible, discarding principles and policies which had been approved by the practice, and defended by the anathemas of his predecessors. He not only sanctioned the prohibition of Portugal forbidding Jesuists from entering the kingdom, and consented to the aboli- tion of the inquisition, but even requested that all persecution against the Jews should cease, and that they should be admitted to greater rights and privileges. The popular current had set in too strongly in favor of change in the constitution and administration of the government for papal sagacity to oppose, and unob- structed by the sacerdotal machinery, it became daily augmented in volume and impetuosity. The liberal IN PORTUGAL. 333 feeling of the nation, allowed spontaneously to flow, culminated in 1820 in establishing, without violence or bloodshed, a provisional government and a new cortes. Tolerance on the lips of a Catholic priest is treason to Rome ; and, though this circumstance might have cau- tioned prudence against investing any of them with power, yet as they had warmly espoused the liberal cause, they were elected by the people as members to the cortes, with the exception of a few lawyers and governmental officers. At the assemblage of the cortes, under the presidency of the archbishop of Braga, the revolutionary measures were sanctioned, the inquisition forever interdicted, and a constitution framed which secured freedom of person and property, the liberty of the press, and legal equality. The king approved the provisions of this constitution, and swore to support it. But under this prosperous appearance of repub- lican progress, the demon of religious intolerance was secretly at w^ork ; availing itself of every means to arrest the popular current. The portentous mutterings of an approaching storm were frequently heard ; and it was not, therefore, a matter of surprise to the friends of freedom, that in 1832, a regency was established at Valladolid, under the bishop of Lisbon, with the avowed object of subverting the constitution, and inviting the people to rally under the standard of monarchy ; nor that this regency was supported by the queen, Don Miguel, the clergy and the nobility. The machinations of the papal machinery had so successfully extinguished the popular enthusiasm which had won such important concessions to natural right, that no sooner was the standard of royalty raised, than an enormous reduction 334 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES took place in the ranks of the liberal party. So many- priests, noblemen, soldiers and people espoused the royal cause, that John VI. found no difficulty in declar- ing the constitution of 1822, which he had sworn to support, null and void, and to protect his perjury and his treason to the freedom of the people, by disarming the military and the national guards. The absolutists then proceeded to annul all the concessions that had been made, in accommodation to the popular feeling ; they restored the church confiscated property, estab- lished a censorship over the press, imprisoned or ban- ished the liberal members of the cortes, and organized a junta for the purpose of framing a monarchial con- stitution. But Don Migual, aspiring to become absolute king, could not submit to the restriction of a constitu- tion; and, being commander-in-chief, and exercising the governmental powers, excited an insurrection against the Lisbon cortes, and arbitrarily proceeded to banish all liberals, constitutionalists, freemasons, and members of other secret societies. That he might successfully remove every obstacle that imperiled his ultimate de- signs, he forbade all appeals to the king. But the acts w^hich his ambition dictated were too reprehensible not to acqure for his administration a dangerous and preju- dicial notoriety. In spite of all precaution the rumor of his tyranny penetrated the royal palace, and Don Miguel was summoned into the presence of the king to explain the reasons for his arbitrary conduct. Candidly acknowledging or artfully assuming that he had been the innocent victim of craft and misrepresentation, he succeeded in obtaining the king's pardon. In 1826 John VI. died, and Isabella becoming regent, IN PURTUGAL 335 administered the government until Pedro IV. of Brazil, the brother of the deceased king, could make it conve- nient to visit Portugal, and assume the reigns of gov- ernment. After having done so he established a con- stitution, providing two legislative chambers, and then abdicated in favor of his eldest daughter, Dona Maria da Gloria. Don Miguel, his brother, the chamberlains, and the magistrates swore to support the constitution. But the first, in violation of his oath of allegiance, and of his fraternal obligations, entered into a con- spiracy for its overthrow. ^Yith this object in view he organized an apostolic party, and abusing the power and confidence with which he was honored, secretly filled the army, navy, and civil offices with his adherents. Having matured his plans he caused an insurrection to break out against the queen, in order to enable him to seize the royal authority under pretense of restoring public tranquillity. Eng- land, however, interfering, the revolution was checked, and the project of usurpation frustrated. But the trea- sonable plot was skilfully and comprehensively laid, and the zealous support which it derived from the papal machinery soon rendered it popular with the masses. As if enamored of slavery and despotism, the people began to crowd into the ranks of the apostolic party, to second its declaration in favor of Don Miguel as kiug, to unite in its shouts of " Long live the absolute king," " Down with the constitutions," and to denounce, abuse and assault those who refused to echo its suicidal accla- mations. A few military garrisons which still with- stood the popular frenzy, and adhered to the cause of constitutional government, raised the standard of revolt; 336 PAPAL POLITICAL i:ntriques and being joined by other troops, an army was organ- ized which marched against Lisbon. It was met by the apostolic army, which greatly outnumbered it ; and be- ing defeated, the liberal junta was dissolved and Don Miguel proclaimed absolute king. In 1834 Don Miguel was defeated by Don Pedro IV., and the constitution of 1826 was re-established by the cortes. FAFAL FOLITICAL INTRI0UF8 IN 8FAIN. "We will conclude our history of Papal Political In- trigues, by a cursory glance at a few of its instances with regard to the government of Spain. Catholicism was introduced into Spain in 586, under the reign of Reccared I. ; and from that period the governmental affairs were controlled by the political intrigues of the clergy, until 711, when the kingdom became a province of the Caliph of Bagdcd. The Moorish government adopted a more 1-beral pol- icy than was consistent wdth the spirit of Catholicism. It tolerated the free exercise of all religions. It per- mitted the subjugated to retain their laws and magis- trates. Agriculture, commerce, arts and science flour- ished under its auspices. It established libraries and universities ; and, from the hand of its civilization Europe has received the knowledge of arithmetical characters, of gunpowder, and of Ihe art of manufac- turing rags into paper. But the Infidels who conferred these advantages could not conciliate the proud spirit IN SPAIN. 337 of tKe Spaniard to subjugation under foreign rule, nor the pope to the loss of revenues derivable from, an opu- lent kingdom. A national struggle for indevisibility of empire, and primogenitureship in succession was conse- quently inaugurated ; and a succession of conquests, from 1220 to 1491, ultimated in the reduction of the Moors under Castellian supremacy. "With the achieve- ment of nationality, and the discovery of South Amer- ica, Spain began to rank with the first powers of Europe. But her decline was as rapid as her elevation. Besides the conflicting laws and customs which prevented na- tional unity, and the political tyranny which oppressed the masses, a rigorous persecution was inaugurated against the Moors and Jews, compelling such as refused to be baptized to leave the kingdom. In 1520 Charles V. became king of Spain, and subse- quently, also Emperor of Germany. After suppressing an insurrection of his Spanish subjects, who demanded a liberal constitution, and annihilating the last vestige of civil liberty by separating the deliberative estates, he established over the kingdom a military, religious, and political despotism. So oppressive was his admin- istration, and so reckless were his expenditures, that although Mexico, Peru, and Chili poured a continual stream of wealth into the public treasury, yet excessive taxes had to be imposed, and enormous loans negotiated to satisfy the demands of the rapacious monarch. In 1555 Philip II. ascended the throne of Spain. The Catholic education of this prince fitted him bet- ter for a cloister than a throne. His rapacity empov- erished the nation, and his religious intolerance perpet- ually convulsed it with sedition and war. His devout- 29 33.8 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES est wish, was to extirpate heretics, and his most pleasing sight was an auto-da-fe, in which he could behold his subjects expiring in the flames. Like Sigismnnd, the smell of burning heretics was never offensive to his nostrils. His inhuman and impolitic course having led his minister to intimate that he was depopulating his kingdom by his frequent massacres, he replied : " Bet- ter be without subjects than to reign over heretics." As cowardly as he was blood-thirsty,, it w^as his custom when his army was engaged in battle ^ to retire to a safe retreat and pray for its success ; and whenever a victory was achieved to assume the head of the command, as if the triumph was the result of his valor and military skill. Although his Catholicism had transformed him into merely mechanical part of the papal machinery, without feeling or reason,, yet when his truce with France was broken by the interference of Pope Paul IV., and his right to the kingdom of Naples was declared forfeited, he awoke from his lethargic slumbers, and commissioned the bloody Alva to proceed with an army to Eome and chastise the holy father for his insulting political in- trigues. The pope alarmed, and, perhaps surprised at the belligerent attitude of a king once so remarkably obedient, thought it better to consult prudence than the divine prerogatives of his office, and to avert the impending chastisement by subscribing to articles of peace. In 11G9 Philip III. became invested with the royal dignity. By nature a tyrant, by temper a bigot, with- out any administrative capacity, and educated in su- perstition and intolerance, he seems to have been born IN SPAIN. 839 for the the disgrace and destruction of the throne he inherited. In the most brilliant period of Spanish his- tory her religious despotism, was prophetic of her pre- mature decay, and each succeeding reign verifying the prophecy, she now tottered on the verge of ruin. Favorites were allowed to waste the national revenues, England and Holland destroyed the Spanish commerce, frequent insurrections destroyed the public peace ; eight hundred thousand Jews, and two million Moors were, during this and the preceding administra- tion driven from the country ; and to complete the na- tional degradation Spain had to submit to the suprem- acy of England. In 1665 Charles II. succeeded to the regal authority. At his death, which occurred in 1700, he made Philip of Anjou, grandson of his sister, consort of Louis XIV., the sole heir of his dominion, in order to prevent the division of the empire, which had been resolved upon by France, England and Holland. This will led to the war of the Spanish succession, notwithstanding which the Bourbon, Philip V., maintained himself on the Spanish throne. In 1759 Charles III. succeeded to the tnrone of the Spanish monarchy. The decaying embers of liberalism which had began to scintillate amid the gloom of des- potism, now shone forth with renewed brilliancy. Ge- nius and intelligence, which alone are capable of grap- pling with the astute principles of government, and of developing the latent greatness of a people, were for- tunately exhibited in the favorite publicists and states- men of the monarch. Profound and elevated views of political economy began to characterize the administra- 340 PAPAL POLITICAL INTPvIGUES tion ; and the true principles of commerce, the national importance of agriculture, arts and manufacture, and the best means for their development, became more generally understood by the government and the people. "With Count Florida Blanca, a man of extraordinary ability and activity, as ambassador at Rome, holding the pope in check ; with Aranda, a man of penetrating genius, occupying the most influential position of the state ; with Olavides enjoying the confidence of the monarch, and elaborating laws for public improve- ment ; and with Campomanes, a scholar of varied and profound erudition, as fiscal gaent of the royal council of Castile, defending the enlightened policy of the govern- ment against the attacks of bishops ; equalizing taxa- tion ; and reducing the number of mendicants, the nation could not but increase in splendor and pros- perity, notwithstanding it had became involved in a formidable war which raged between France and Eng- land. By the co-operation of these patriotic statesmen, whose lofty spirit scowled on despotism and religious bigotry, a pragmatic sanction was obtained from the government which restricted the inquisition, banished the Jesuists from the Spanish dominions, and confiscated their property. But Rome and her priests could not forgive these benefactors of the nation, although their liberal policy had improved every department of government, and had added, amid the disasters of war, wealth to the treasury, and a million men to the population. Florida Blanca w^as disgraced, imprisoned, and finally banished to his estates. Campomanes was removed from ofiice, and disgraced. Aranda, who so greatly contributed to IN SPAIN, 341 public security, good order, and tlie abolition of abuses, after passing through several trying vicissitudes, was banished to Arragon. And Olavides, in the midst of his beneficent and patriotic labors was arrested for her- esy, and imprisoned in a monastic dungeon. For the better protection, perhaps, of the monarchy from aggressions from without, and from insubordina- tion from within, the pope, at the request of Charles III., declared the Spanish monarchy to be under the su- pervision of the Immaculate Conception. St. James, the former protecting genius of Spain, was formally deposed from office, and the Virgin Mary duly invested wdth his authority and jurisdiction. The truth of the Im- maculate Conception was demonstrated beyond prudent dispute by the oaths of the emperor and the estates ; and similar oaths were made the indispensable condi- tion of all who should henceforth receive a university degree, or become a member of any corporation or as- sociation. As reverence for the clergy had become the substance of the Catholic religion, so now invocations to the Virgin Mary became the principal act of devotion. In 1788 Charles IV. was invested with the imperial dignity. In 1808 the troops of Bonaparte having en- tered his dominions, he welcomed them as allies, and shortly aftewards resigned the crown in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII. A month had not elapsed before ho secretly revoked his resignation, and finally ceded his right to the crown to Napoleon, who placed Joseph Bonaparte on the throne. Although the ministers of Ferdinand VII., and the greater part of the educated classes of Spaniards, acknowledged without hesitation 20- 342 PAPAL POLITICAL INTPcIGUES the authority of Joseph, yet the monks and priests, whose principles and interests are identified with des- potism, in conjunction with the absolutists, and sup- ported by England, found sufficient available material in the change of dynasty, in the arrogance of the French, and in the national hostility to foreign domina- tion, to excite a general insurrection against the French regime, and in favor of Ferdinand VIL as king. A junta was established at Seville which proclaimed war against France, and announced an alliance between England and Spain. A desperate struggle was now inaugurated, which, through six bloody campaigns, ra-.-d from 1808 to 1814 ; during which every import- ant city was successively taken and lost, and every province was desolated and drenched in blood. Ar- mies after armies, on both sides, were created and de- stroyed with melancholy rapidity. The papal machin- ery held the people in such absolute control that, though the French gained victory after victory, abolishing ay they triumphed the feudal privileges, the inquisition, the monkish order, and endeavored by the most liberal concessions to conciliate the popular prejudices, yet thev retained no place which they did not garrison. Their ranks were constantly thinned by the secret dagger, their communications cut off by guerillas, and their wounded murdered in cold blood. Insurgent bands everywhere carried on the bloodiest struggles, and wo- men took a fiendish delight in torturing ar.d assassinat- ing the captives of war. A length the dreadful trag- edy was closed, by the victory of the English at Toulouse. Peace being restored to the nation the cortes assemb- IN- spai:n'. 343 led, and sliortly afterwards passed a resolution, declar- ing that before Ferdinand should be acknowledged as king, he should be required to swear to support the constitution which had been drawn up by the cortes of 1812, and which had been acknowledged by the allies of Spain. When interrogated as to his disposition of complying with the demands of the cortes, he replied in a tone of insolent indifference : " I have not thought about it." To fortify the abso- lute power he intended to usurp he professed to abhor despotism, and solemnly pledged his honor to grant the people a new constitution, founded on liberal principles, and which would afford ample protection to the rights of person and property, and to the freedom of the press. But the motives which induced him to make these promises did not urge him to fulfil them. "While he nullified the old constitution, he did not restrict his authority by a new one ; but in the exercise of abso- lute power arrested the officers who served under Jo- seph Bonaparte, and banished them with their wives and children ; abolished freemasonry ; restored the Je- suists ; re-established the inquisition ; put liberals to the rack ; executed all who opposed the domineering pretensions of the priests ; imprisoned those who ven- tured to remonstrate against his measures ; incarcerated in monastic dungeons the members of the cortes ; and domineered with absolute despotism over the lives and fortunes of his subjects. These severe proceedings, in- tended to intimidate insurgents, produced disloyalty, confusion and anarchy. The army became dissatisfied ; the people insubordinate ; the country infested with plundering and murdering guerillas ; and, encouraged 344 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES by this turbulent state of affairs, four battalions, in 1819, under Riago, declared for tbe constitution of 1812. The progress of this revolution was strenuously opposed by the allied forces of the monks, the priests, and the absolutists. The bishop of Cienfuegos defeated it at Cadiz. But the people inhaling the patriotic enthusi- asm, arose in masses in its favor, and even the apostolics deserted their commanders. Ferdinand deprived of troops, and almost of adherents, found himself obliged to submit to the demands of the people. A provisional junta was established to conduct -the public affairs, before which Ferdinand appeared and swore to support the constitution of 1812. The inquisition was abolished. The cortes assembled, and in a session of four months, endeavored by the means of moderate measures to con- ciliate the prejudices and interests of contending fac- tions, and to restore harmony and vigor to the nation. The clergy and absolutists, whom no concession could satisfy, except that of unrestricted monarchy, organ- ized a conspiracy for the overthrow of the constitution ; and as the cortes had in their reformatory measures abolished some convents, and banished all non-juring priests, they appealed to the religious frenzy of the people, and succeeded in creating considerable opposi- tion to the constitutions. In the interest of this coun- ter revolution an apostolic junta was established on the frontiers of Portugal, for the avowed design of destroy- ing the privileges of the crown and the clergy. Nu- merous bands of armed monks and iDcasants appeared in the different provinces ; and their bold assassinations and barbarous acts produced such universal consterna- tion, that the cortes declared the whole country in a IN SPAIN. 345 state of siege. It was now evident that tlie priests and monks who had stimulated the peasants to insur- rection had been instigated by the French government. But the cortes met the conspirators with skilful and vigorous measures, and having vanquished them in every engagement, succeeded finally in effecting the disbandment of their forces. In 1822 another attempt was made to subvert the constitution. At Soi d'Urgel, on the confines of France, the absolutists established a regency under the Marquis Mataflounda. France was the instigator of this regen- cy, and supported it with her influence and money. The army of the absolutists, composed of apostolic soldiers, and soldiers of the faith, were met by the united strength of the nation, and overwhelmed with defeat. The regency fled to France. But this evidence of the capability and determination of Spain to main- tain a constitutional government, awakened into oppo- sition every element of despotism, not only within her borders, but within all Europe. The pope refused to receive the Spanish ambassadors. The nuncio left Madrid; France, Austria, and Prussia demanded of the cortes that they should restore to Ferdinand full sovereign powers, and England advised acom- pliance with the demand. The Duke Angouleme, the commander of the French forces, established a junta which formed a provisional government on abso- lute principles, and declared the acts of the cortes null and void. France raised an army of the soldiers of the faith, who were received by the Spanish clergy with acclamations of joy, and termed by them "Good Christians." The peasantry, controlled by the priests, 346 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES espoused tlie cause of the absolutists, tut the army, the educated classes, and the people residing in cities gen- erally adhered to the party of the constitutionalists. The dictatorial interference of foreign powers in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation, and their attempts to defeat a governmental reform which they had sanc- tioned, and which, to achieve had cost the nation so much treasure, and so many valuable lives, fired the na- tive pride and heroism of the Spanish character, and united the different factions of the constitutionalists in a solid body in favor of their country and its liberty. Though few in number, without allies, and without pe- cuniary resources, yet they were full of energy and he- roic courage. The cortes repelled with patriotic indig- nation the insolent interposition of foreign powers, and prepared for the doubtful contest with consummate skill. As the church had been the chief cause of the national calamity, they appropriated its surplus plate to the necessity of the public treasury. The soldiers of the faith, and their guerilla bands, exclusively requir- ing the attention of the national guards and of the soldiers of the line, the cortes found themselves with- out an efficient army to oppose the march of the French troops, and the apostolic forces. This serious disadvan- tage enabled the absolutists to march on from victory to victory ; and though some places made a good de- fence, and others a stubborn and desperate resistance, yet others submitted with scarceiy a struggle. The gloom which now overshadowed the prospects of the constitutionalists, was ominously deepened by the de- fection of some of their generals. But the undaunted firmness of the remaining leaders, and the unequalled IN SPAIIT. 347 "boldness and skill which characterized their niancKuvres, desperately disputed inch by inch the progress of the monarchists, until the fall of Valencia terminated the eventful struggle, so honorable to the constitutionalists, so disgraceful to Europe, and so full of admonition to freemen. The bloody contests in which the liberals had been engaged greatly depleted their ranks, and now dungeons, exile, and the secret dagger nearly com- pleted their annihilation. Under these depressing cir- cumstances, the cortes invested Ferdinand with abso- lute power. The apostolics, the soldiers of the faith, the clergy and the uneducated classes, hailed him with acclamations of " Long live the absolute king;" " Long live religion;" " Death to the nation;" "Death to the negroes." Ferdinand then declared null and void all the acts of the constitutional government, and all the public approvals by which he had sanctioned them. An attempt was made to introduce the inquisition, but the liberals, supported by France, and even approv- ed by the pope, successfully resisted the obnoxious measure. In 1832, the infirmities of Ferdinand having rendered him the dupe of designing favorites, he cre- ated Christina, the queen, regent for the infanta Isa- bella, his daughter. In 1837 the regent was obliged, by an insurrection, to proclaim the constitution of 1812. In 1843, Isabella having attained her majority, was declared queen. The constitution, revised and deprived of its democratic provisions, was substituted for that of 1837. After the adoption of this constitu- tion the municipal privileges were abridged, the sale of the sequestered church property suspended, and extra- ordinary provisions devised for the support of the clergy. CHAPTER XVI. PAPAL INTRIG UPS' RPSPPOTING THE UNITED STATES. Papal Intrigues — Catholic Persecution — Protestant Per- secution — Catholics in the Revolutionary War — In the late Pehellion — Catholic Enmity to Civil and Re- ligious Liberty — An Alliance formed for the Subver- sion of the American Republic — The Duke of Rich- mond's Letter — Catholic Immigration — Progress of Catholicism — Its Consequences — The Republic in Im- minent Danger — Union Only Means 'of Salvation — Conclusion. That the papal pretensions have been a fruitful source of the seditions and wars which, like successive tor- nadoes, have swept in fearful rapidity over Christendom, the records of history furnish the most unquestionable evidence ; yet still no one will venture the assertion that popish machinations have been the sole cause of jDolitical discords. Treason and popular disaffection have revolutionized and annihilated government after government long before the throne of St. Peter was established ; yet since that unfortunate period it cannot be denied, that whenever the causes of civil or foreign war became active, the sacerdotal monarchs have inflamed or soothed them according to the dictates of their interests. Through their intrigues the extermin- ating sword of Charlemagne compelled the Saxons to be baptized ; and that of Otho I. compelled the Danes to IN THE UNITED STATES. 349 accept ilie same rite. Through their intrigues Clovis was induced, by his Catholic wife, to consent to be bap- tized ; and his troops who had followed him to the field of slaughter, were led to follow him also to the baptismal fount. By the same means Ethelbert, who wished to marry Bertha, daughter of Carobert, King of Paris, was persuaded to agree to matrimonial stipulations allowing her, upon becoming his wife, to bring her bishop with her, and permitting him to establish a Cath- olic church in the kingdom for her convenience. By the same artful means Ethelwolf was led to confer on the clergy the tithes of all the produce of the land ; Alfred the Great, to expel from his kingdom all the Danes that refused to be baptized ; Edward to accept the title of saint and confessor in lien of an heir to his throne, and to consent to abstain from nuptial congress with his queen ; Edward IV. to promulgate a law com- mitting to the flames all persons convicted of the her- esy of the Lollards ; and Mary I., a person of good natural qualities and administrative abilities, to imprison Protestant bishops for high treason, to confine princess Elizabeth in the tower, to execute Lady Jane Gray and her husband Guilford Dudley, to provoke the insurrec- tions of Cave and Wyat, to commit to the flames two hundred and twenty-seven of her innocent subjects, and to render herself a terror to her nation. By the same disgraceful and impertinent intrigues the reign of Queen Elizabeth was perpetually disturbed with efl'orts to overthrow her government. The popes excommuni- cated her ; denied her legitimacy ; endeavored to sup- plant her with Mary Queen of Scots; induced the French to support Scotland in a rebellion against her 30 350 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES government; created a sedition in the north; incited Spain to promote a conspiracy against her, assisted by Florentine m^erchants, the Bishop of Ross, and the Scotchmen residing in Enghind ; and when all these efforts proved abortive, to organize a conspiracy to have her assassinated by Anthony Babington. By the same disastrous intermeddling the reign of Queen Ann was disturbed with efforts to restore the succession to James the Pretender, the pope's tool for the recovery of Eng- land; under that of George I. the Duke of Marie- borough was led to prockiim the Pretender in Scotland ; Cardinal Alberoni, minister of Spain, to form an alli- ance in his favor with Russia, Sweden, France and Spain ; and Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, to engage in a conspiracy for the same object. Similar papal machinations have interfered with the peace of France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, Russia, Poland, China, Japan, Egypt, Abyssinia, and of many other governments, all of which were fearfully pro- ductive of sedition, anarchy, war and revolutions. Besides these intermeddlings with the national affairs of all governments, the Catholic church assails all non- Catholics with the most execrable persecution, openly when she dares, secretly when she must. In her fiend- ish malice she counsels the violation of every principle of justice, of every obligation of humanity, of all con- tracts, of all pecuniary engagements, of all oaths, and urges as a duty the persecution and extermination of all unbelievers, by means of corporeal punishment, by imprisonment, banishment, murder, fire, swords, racks, stakes and scaffolds. Hear the truth of these assertions from the sanctified lips of the holy mother herself: IN" THE UNITED STATES. 351 " The Catholics believe that the Pope's authority is not only ministerial but supreme, so that he has the right to direct and compel, with the power of life and death." — Ecc. Jacob. 2Iag., But. Reg. Oppos. c. 138. " Two swords were given to Peter, the one temporal, the other spiritual." — Bernard de Consed. Lib. 4 : c. 3. " She (the church) bears, by divine right, both swords, but she exercises the temporal sword by the hand of the prince, or the magistrate. The temj^oral magistrate holds it subject to her order, to be exercised in her service, and under her direction." — Bronsons Bcv., Jan., 1854. " Both swords are in the power of the Pope, namely, the spiritual and the temporal sword ; but the one is to be exercised by the church, the other for the church ; the one by the hands of the priest, the other by the hands of the king and the soldiers, but as the sword of the priest." — Pope Boniface, Corp. Jur. Con. cd. Bochcr, tome 11: p. 1139. "Civil contracts, promises, or oaths of Catholics with heretics, because they are heretics, may be dissolved by the Pontiff." — Pope Innocent X., Caron. 14. Engagements made with heretics and schismatics of this kind, after such have been consummated, are incon- siderate, illegal, and in law itself is of no importance, (although made, per chance, by the lapse of 'those per- sons into schism, or before the beginning of their heresy), even if confirmed by an oath, or one's honor being pledged." — Pope Urban VI., Bymerl: 352. " Though sworn to pay he may refuse the claims of a debtor who falls into error or under excommunication. The debtor's oath implied the tacit condition that the creditor, to be entitled to payment, should remain in a state in which communication would be lawful.'' — St, Bernard, Mayrwoth Report, 260. 352 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES " There are various punishments with which ecclesi- astical sanctions and imperial laws order heretics to be punished. Some are spiritual, and effect the soul alone ; others are corporeal, and effect the body. . . Among the corporeal punishments, one which very much annoys heretics is the proscription and confiscation of their property." — Alphonso de Castro, cap. 5 : p. 98. "Another punishment," says he, "is the deprival of every sort of preeminence, jurisdiction and government, which they previously had over all persons of all con- ditions ; for he who is a heretic is, ipso jure, deprived of all things." — lb., cap. 7 : p. 1055. " The last punishment of the body for heretics," he informs us, " is death, with which we will prove, by God's assistance, heretics ought to be punished." — Ih., cap. 12 : p. 123. But it will be said that Protestants have been guilty of persecution as well as Catholics. This assertion is unquestionably true. We confess, with regret, that Protestantism, although she admits the right of private judgment, has proved a foe to civil and religious liberty. But unlike Catholicism, she has made concessions; reluct- antly, indeed, but still she has made them. Guizot con- fesses that her practice has necessarily been inconsist- ent with* her profession of toleration. She, however, claims not, like Catholicism, to be the source and su- preme controller of all political power ; nor to be the sole disposer of crowns and kingdoms ; nor has she elaborated a policy, adopted a systematic course of measures, and organized a clerical force for the acqui- sition of supreme and universal temporal and spiritual dominion. She has no central head, with spies penetrat- ing all domestic and national secrets, and communicat- IN THE UNITED STATES. 353 ing to it the information they have acquired. She has no political machinery ramifying every part of Chris- tendom, and acting in concert for the promotion of her interests. She has no convents, nor nunneries; nor monastic vows ; no father confessors ; no religious confessional; no religious orders, no military knights; and no spiritual guides. She imposes no oaths of alle- giance on her priests, requiring them to adopt every available method of* subjugating all government under her authority. She has no inquisition, no rack and tor- ture for her opponents ; no pretensions to absolve sub- jects from their oaths of allegiance; no interdicts to alarm superstitious minds by the suspension of religious worship in disaffected kingdoms. She has never inter- fered between rulers and their subjects, concocting trea- son, fomenting sedition, and producing anarchy. She has never organized armies for the extension of her do- minion, and for the subjugation of kingdoms to her au- thority. She has never butchered whole cities for unbelief, nor in one day put one hundred thousand heretics to death. She has done none of these things, yet her hands are not unstained with innocent blood. Would they were. Henry YIII., of England, perse- cuted with equal severity those who believed in the pope's right to temporal power, and those who disbe- lieved the other dogmas of Catholicism. The Church of England, under Charles I., inflicted the most atro- cious punishment on the Irish Catholics ; under James I., on tho Puritans ; and under Elizabeth, it oppressed both Catholics and dissenters with tyrannical measures, and illiberal disabilities. The Puritan Cromwell perse- cuted both Catholics and Episcopalians. In Ireland he 31* 354 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES wasted the Catholics with fire and sword ; in Scotland he put whole garrisons of dissenters to death ; and as his schemes for obtaining the royal dignity suggested, persecuted Covenanters, Republicans, and Puritans. When Charles 11. was elevated to the throne he deprived 2000 dissenting clergymen of their livings ; and by his five-mile act prohibited them from approaching within five miles of their former parishes. But the rigor of Protestantism eventually relaxed its severity. Un- der William III. some of the disabilities which oppressed the dissenters were removed ; and under that of George III. additional toleration was accorded. Still it must be admitted that the ablest agents in extorting these concessions to religious liberty were the Free Thinkers of that age. Yet the Quakers, always the most respect- able body of citizens, and the professors of the most harmless of all creeds, were still punished with fines, confiscation, imprisonment and death. All who disbe- lieved in the holy trinity were also subject to similar persecutions, Kot until 1813 did Protestant England cease to punish a belief in Unitarianism with imprison- ment, and legal disabilities. John Calvin, at the head of the Consistory of Geneva, had John Guet beheaded on a charge of attempting to overthrow the doctrines of the Calvinistic church ; and Micheal Servetus arrested and burnt alive for having attacked the doctrine of the holy trinity. Even in republic America, under the ele- vating influence of liberal institutions, the intolerant spirit of religious bigotry predominates more or less over the mind of the Christian republic. In Massachu- setts Baptists and Quakers were once fined, imprisoned, and burnt alive. In Virginia all Quakers that disbe- IN THE UNITED STATES, 355 liered in the holy trinity, and all persons ttat refused to have their children baptized ^ve^e scourged, confined, banished or put to death. In Pennsylvania, under the charter of "William Pena, all Atheists Avere excluded from official position. In Maryland disbelief in the holy trinity -was declared to be a capital offence ; and not -until recently -^-as any person, who professed not to believe in Christianity, unless a Jew, eligible to any office of trust or profit in the State ; nor even to this day is any person eligible who disbelieves in a God. The statute books of every Protestant country bear testimony to the same illiberality. Humboldt, Cuvier, Buffon, La Place, Gibbon, Voltaire, Hume, Jefferson, and other eminent scholars and patriots would, by the prorisions of almost every State constitution in the Union, be debarred from filling the lowest office that they create. In fact the history of no religious sectary indicates it to be a bond of love, union, or concord. Every Protestant creed, sectary or conclave, is a per- petual source of mutual jealousy, animosity and perse- cution. The same intolerant spirit breathes its malig- nancy over the pages of the religious press. "" If we are not Christians," says the Church Uyiion, " let us make no hvpoeritical pretensions of founding govern- ments on Christian principles. If we are, I believe that they should predominate over our whole life; let us have them incorporated in the basis of our govern- ment, and the national policy shaped by them. Let no one hold an office of trust or profit whose life is not conformably thereto." These holy ravings remind us of an attempt once made by the Puritans to incorporate the Bible into the British constitution. " The wrestlers 356 PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIGUES with God," as they called themselves were, deliberating upon a motion to repeal the laws of England, and sub- stitute in their place the laws of Moses and the proph- ets. But Cromwell averted the calamity "by a peremp- tory dissolution of parliament, and a command to " the wrestlers" to go home,' nor did he think it prudent to call them together again. The religious politics of the Methodist Home Journal are similar in tone with that of the ChurcJi Union. This infuriated orthodox theo- logian says : " They that deny the doctrines of Chris- tianity, ignore the basis on which our government is founded. Can they be regarded as citizens? Ought any man who holds to this position be admitted to — or permitted to hold Christian citizenship under this gov- ernment? We hold that to be consistent with our- selves Infidelity should not be tolerated in our country, much less encouraged by those who openly profess- and teach its doctrines." These assertions are the evident irrepressible ebullitions of innate treason to the repub- lic. They ingore the basis on which our government is founded, and, according to the logic of this fanatic the sect that holds them ought not to be regarded as citi- zens, nor permitted to hold Christian citizenship under this government. But the knife with which this mad- 'man wo-uld cut his own throat 'Infidelity would wrest -from him. The sacred basis of our government is 'equal political and religious rights. Had Methodism 'been chosen as the basis of our government, would a ■republic have been thought of? Kever f Did not •John Wesley, its founder and sj^irit, oppose- the Ameri- can revolution ? Did he not write against it, preach 'against it, and labor publicly and" privately to arrest its IN THE UNITED STATES. ' 357 progress ? Was there a man in England that inflicted deeper injury on the American cause ? While English Infidels aided the struggle for independence with their pens, money and valor, — while English statesmen blushed at the barbarous conduct of their government, — this bigoted priest, a fugitive of justice from the State of North Carolina, defended it without shame or com- punction. Even at this day Potestant priests have dared to assert that Infidels have no rights which they are bound to respect ; but such miscreants have no Tights, (for they surrender them by their assertions,) which any person is bound to respect. Such self- accursed, self-outlawed bigots, in conjunction with un- principled demagogues and political aspiring judges, are to-day laboring to incorporate in the national con- stitution the fanaticism of the Church Union and of the Methodist Some Journal. When their holy trea- son shall have become a success, liberty will forsake her desecrated abode ; despotism will occupy her temple ; and, we fondly hope that, in the course of coming events the fanatics will not discover that they have legalized their own extermination. Had Constan- tino the Great, though frenzied with ambition and crimsoned with guilt, beheld the boundless ocean of gore which was destined to flow from an incorporation of Christianity with the civil power, and to roll its heavy surge over all future time, he would have been more obdurate than a fiend had he not cowled his head in horror at the frightful vision, and dropped in mercy the pen already inked to inaugurate the tremendous •catastrophe. Yet how sickening is the thought that the -example of ihis ambitious tyrant,- loaded with the curves 358 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES of ages, is now attempted to be imitated by Protestant priests, political judges, and United States officials. But thanks to nature, the play of the natural principles of liberty in the minds of some priests, have been too strong to be repressed by dogmatic creeds. Gloriously inconsistent with their principles, they have inscribed their names in imperishable honor on the scroll of lib- erty. Thankful for the few names blazoned there, freedom must drop a tear over the smallness of the number. It will be asked, perhaps, notwithstanding the facts which have been adduced showing the political nature and designs of the Catholic church, what has the Amer- ican republic to apprehend from it? It will be asked, Did not Catholics fight for the establishment of a free government in the revolutionary war ? Did they not fight to defend it in the war of 1812 ? Did they not fight to preserve its unity in the late rebellion ? No well informed person will answer these questions in the negative ; and no candid person will fail to acknowledge the distinguished valor and liberality which they dis- played on these occasions. Catholics are men ; and the love of liberty is a natural principle of the human con- stitution. Ignorance may blind it ; prejudice mislead it ; and superstition overawe it ; but when the natural vigor of its disposition is aroused it will assert its rights in defiance of creeds, shackles and stakes. It is not the nature, but the education of Catholics, and the religious despotism with which they are enthralled, that has so often deprived freedom of their homage and allegiance. The frequent opposition of Catholic princes to the policy and measures of the popes, the numerous leagues IN THE UNITED STATES. 359 which they have formed, and the vast armies which they have raised in their support, abundantly show how often their reverence for the pope has been displaced by defiance to his authority, and contempt for his pre- tensions. The liberal minded people of France have, from an early date, boldly opposed the pope's claim to temporal power. St. Louis IX., in 1269, declared in a pragmatic sanction, that the temporal power of France was independent of the jurisdiction of Rome. Charles VIII., of France, in a pragmatic sanction issued in 1433, asserted for France, in conformity with the canons of the Council of Basle, independence of Rome in all temporal matters. Louis XIV., in 1682 convened a national council of the clergy at Paris, which decided that the Pope of Rome had no power to interfere, directly or indirectly, in the temporal concerns of princes and sovereigns ; that the visages of the French church are inviolable ; that the authority of the general councils is superior to that of the pope ; and that the pope is n.ot infallible in matters of faith. The popes, by the means of bulls, have attempted to nullify these acts, but nev- ertheless they form the distinctive principles of the Gallican Church, and also of other Catholic churches in different kingdoms of Europe. Th^ Fenian order is another happy instance of the predominance which pa- triotism may gain, in the minds of Catholics, .over their reverence for the church and its despotism. If Catholics have at various times chastised the pope, deprived him of temporal authority, assaulted his per- son, imprisoned and deposed him, it is not surpris- ing that they fought in the defence of the independ- ence and freedom of America. No one that has an 360 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES adequate conception of the papal policy, will be mucli astonished that the Catholics were prominent leaders in the revolutionary war. It was a cause in which the pope himself, in perfect consistency with his pretensions, might have 25ersonally engaged. The pope claims Eng- land as his fief, and denounces her kings as usurpers. The success of a revolt intended to deprive England of her colonies was as gratifying to his revenge as it was flattering to his ulterior designs on the colonies them- selves. In a republic he could plant his machinery, build up at will his monastic penitentiaries, erect his strong castle-like and secret-celled churches, leisurely select and occupy eligible and strategic points for cita- dels, and collect from every kingdom his most faithful and reliable subjects. Bishop Hughes asserted that Catholicism was friendly to republics, for they allowed its free development. But the development of Cathol- icism involves the subversion of republics, and the establishment in their place of political and religious despotism. The insincerity of any proposed attachment to the American republic by popes or priests, is attested by the very occurrence of the Southern rebellion. Had the pope and priests been opposed to it a Catholic rebel would scarcely have been known ; and had not the Catholics North and South been in favor of the rebel- lion, it could not have taken place. That singular and unnecessary intestine collision, in which the South gained nothing but disgrace, the North nothing but depopulation and empoverishment, and at the mystery of which leading secessionists were so much puzzled that they declared it to be the effects of a general - IN THE UNITED STATES. 361 lunacy, was nevertheless in perfect harmony with the profound and masterly policy of the Ptoman See, which comprehends in its toils the events of ages, and from the first projection of a, ]jlot to its final consummation, shapes every intervening circumstance to the fulfilment of its grand design. The Catholics North supported, the cause of the Union, and the Catholics South the cause of the rebellion with votes, money and men ; the rebellion, therefore, was not contrary to the teachings of the church. The depopulation of the native element of the North, the influx of foreign Catholics, the crea- tion of an oppressive national debt, the demoralization consequent on civil war, the engenderment of civil an- tipathies, and the supplanting of colored servants by white Catholic servants, were all known prospective re- sults of the rebellion ; were all in harmony with the papal designs ; and to realize which the Catholics of the North, and the Catholics of the South were stimulated by their priests to meet each in deadly conflict. But dismemberment could not possibly have been in- tended by the secret projectors of the rebellion. It was an impracticable idea. The geography of the coun- try interposed to its success an insurmountable obstacle. It was also inconsistent with the papal designs. But monarchy was not an impracticable idea. It encoun- tered no difficulty in the country's geography. It was in harmony with the policy of the Roman See. The Catholic blood which was poured out in such torrents in the civil conflicts was not intended to eff'ect dis- memberment, but to create the elements conducive to the establishment of a monarchial government. Shortly after the close of the rebellion this soil, hallowed bvthe 31 362 1>APAL rOLlTlCAL 1NTEIGUE3 blood, and consecrated by tbe sepulture of million!? of freemen; Catholic as well as non-Catholic^ was attempted to be desecrated by tho establishment of presses for openly advocating that execrable treason ; and it has been asserted by the leaders of the late rebellion, that the civil war is not at an end ; but that it will again break out, and then the battle field will not be the South, but every State, city and village in the Union. Perhaps they mean to intimate that it will be a repeti- tion of the massacre on St. Bartholomew's eve. To those who fondly dream that the republic of America has nothing to fear from the pretensions of the Pope of Rome, and his loyal subjects, we submit the following extracts : " Heresy (Protestantism) and Infidelity have not, and never had, and never can have any right, being, as they undoubtedly are, contrary to the law of God." — Bronson's Mev., Jan.^ 1852. *' Heresy (Protestantism) and unbelief are crimes, and in Christian countries, as in Italy and Spain for in- stance, where the Catholic religion is the essential law of the land, they are punished as other crimes." — Bishop Kendrick. *' Protestantism of every form has notj and never can have any right, where Catholicism is triumphant ; and therefore we lose all the breath we expend in declaim- ing against bigotry and intolerance, and in favor of re- ligious liberty, or the right of any one to bo of any religion, or of no religion, as best pleases him." — Catholic liev., Jan., 1852. " Eeligious liberty is merely endured until the oppo- site can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world." — Bishop O'Connor^ of Pittsburg. IN THE UNITED STATES. 363 *' If the Catholics ever gain, which they surely will, an immense numerical majority, religious freedom in this country will be at an end." — Archbishop of 8L Louis. " Catholicity will one day rule America, and religious freedom will be at an end." — Buhop of /St. Louis. *' The Catholic church numbers one-third of the American population ; and if its membership shall in- crease for the next thirty years as it has for the thirty years past, in 1900 Rome will have a majority, and be bound to take the country and keep it." — Hecker. '* Should the said church go on increasing _ for the next twenty years, the papists will be in a majority of the people of the IJnited States." — Williayn Hogan. *' St. Thomas Aquinas, in his second book, chapter 3, page 58, says: 'Heretics (non-Catholics) may justly be killed.' But you will answer, there is no danger of this. They can never acquire the povver in this coun- try to sanction that doctrine. How sadly mistaken are you ! How lamentably unacquainted with the se- cret springs or machinery of popery." — William Hogan, Quoting from an author Hogan writes : *' America is the promised land of the Jesuists. To obtain the ascendency they have no need of Swiss guards, or the assistance of the holy alliance, but a ma- jority of votes, which can easily be obtained by the importation of Catholic voters from Ireland, Austria, and Bavaria. ... I am not a politician, but knowing the active spirit of Jesuitism, and the indifference of the generality of Protestants, I have no doubt that in ten ) ears the Jesuists will have a mighty influence over the ballot, box, and in twenty will direct it accord- ing to pleasure. Now they fawn, in ten years they will menace, in twenty command." — Synopsis, p. 106. 364 PAPAL POLITICAL NTEIGUES In the above quoted authorities we have a unanimous declaration of Catholic bishops, priests and ^periodicals," that the Catholic church is radically opposed to reli- gious liberty ; that she regards Protestants and Infidels as criminals ; that whenever she obtains the political power she punishes them as such ; and that the success of her policy and measures in this country has been sufficient to justify her expectation, that in 1900 she will be enabled to accomplish all her bloody and trea- sonable designs. That these hopes are not altogether chimerical, we have also the reluctant and alarming concessions of her opponents. Those who abuse liberty should be deprived of its benefits ; and those abuse it most who take advantage of its generous indulgence to plot for its destruction. The rights of toleration sub- sist only by mutual consent ; their obligations are re- ciprocal ; and whenever the silent compact is violated by one party, the other is exonerated from its obliga- tions. No man possesses a right w^hich is not possessed by another ; nor has he any authority for claiming for himself that which he does not concede to others. When, therefore, the Catholic priests proclaim that Protestantism in any form has no right where Cathol- icism is triumphant, they surrender their rights where Protestantism in any form is triumphant. When they assert heresy and unbelief are crimes, and where the Catholic religion is the essential law of the land, are punished as crimes, they authorize heretics and unbe- lievers to consider Catholicism a crime, and where her- esy and unbelief are the essential law of the land, to punish Catholics as criminals. When they say that Catholicity will one day rule America, and then religious - -IN THE UNITED STATES. 365 liberty will be at an end, they appeal to the instincts of self-preservation, and justify freemen in adopting any measure that is necessary to render their avowed trea- son and destructive designs abortive. They assail the fundamental principles of the Constitution, and forfeit all right to its protection. Neither Protestants nor In- fidels may bo disposed to avail themselves of the privi- leges of these concessions, while forbearance is a virtue ; but they may be provoked to consider the further tol- erance of the Jesuists in this country as inconsistent with the peace and stability of the republic. As the treasonable designs of the Catholic priests are undeniable, it is important to understand by what means they expect to accomplish their infamous pur- poses. The subjoined letter of the Duke of Richmond, formerly Governor-General of Canada, will explain their policy, their system of measures, and the co-opera- tion which they are to receive from the sovereigns of Europe. " It (the American republic) uill he destroyed^'' says he, " it ought not, and will not he permitted to exist. The curse of the French revolution, and subsequent wars and commotions of Europe, are to be attributed to its example, and so long as it exists no prince will be safe on his throne, and the sovereigns of Europe are aware of it, and they arc determined on its destruction, and they have come to an understanding on the S2ihject, and have decided on the means to accomplish it; and they will eventually succeed, by subversion rather than by conquest. All the low and surplus population of the different nations of Europe will be carried into that country. It is, and will be, the receptacle of the bad and disaffected population of Europe, when they are 31* 366 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES not wanted for soldiers or to supply navies ; and the governments of Europe will favor such a cause. This will create a surplus majority of low population, who are so very easily excited, and they will bring with them their principles, and in nine cases out of ten adhere to their ancient and former governments, laws, manners, cus- toms and religion, and will transmit them to their pos- terity, and in many cases propagate them among the natives. These men will become citizens, and by the constitution and kws be invested with the right of suffrage. Hence discord, dissension, anarchy and civil war will ensue, and some popular individual will assume the government, restore order, and the sovereigns of Europe, the immigrants, and many of the natives will sustain him. The church of Rome has a design on this country, audit will in time he the established religion, and it will aid in the destruction of the republic. I have conversed with many sovereigns and princes of Europe, and they have unanimously expressed their opinion relative to the government of the United States, and their determination to subvert it." According to this admonitory letter an alliance has been formed by the European powers and the Pope of Eome, for the sub- version of the American republic, the substitution of a manarchy in its place, and the establishment of Cathol- icism as the national religion. Had the Duke of Rich- mond been silent, still no well informed person could doubt that all the European sovereigns, whether Pro- testant or Catholic, would act uj^on the avowed prin- ciple of the Holy Alliance in their conduct with regard to North America. Would England consent, it may be asked, to ally herself with the papal despot? Why IN THE UNITED STATES. 367 not ? Slie has done so before ; in the recent troubles of the Roman See she sent her war vessels to protect the pope ; and she assented to the principles of the Holy Alliance, which was for the extinguishment of all free- dom in Europe. The good sense of the English people would never have recognized a policy which inevitably involved their own destruction ; but they are a cypher in the great account of the short-sighted government. That England heartily co-operates with the papal priests in their infamous work, may be learned from the subjoined extract of the Dublin Evenincf Mail, elicited by the news from America that certain teachers had been dismissed from a school of the West on account of their foreign birth, &c. : " The foreign birth and Roman Catholic proclivities of the teachers thus dismissed," says he, " are sufficient evidence that they have been imported into the United States by the Church of Rome, with a view to pervert the secular education of the country to the purposes of proselytism. They are, in fact, emissaries of the College de Propaganda Fide, and have been trained and qualified, no doubt, by its edu- cation, to carry out abroad the principles it has been so successful in disseminating here in Dublin. The pope has not a more efficient free-handed institution at his hach than the imperial parliament of the united Icingdom, which spares no expense to furnish his holiness with zealous and well informed agents for the spreading of his dominion over the face of the globe. Does he re- quire priests to publish and extend it wherever the English language is spoken, the halls and dormitories of Maynooth are enlarged, and their larder abundantly replenished to keep a constant supply of young ecclesi- 368 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES astics for his service. Do these in turn send home a requisition for more teachers to assist them in their work, the Chancellor of the Exchequer adds some ten thousand 'pounds for his yearlg estimate for national edu- cation in Ireland, and continued re-enforcements of propagandists are thus maintained, in readiness to move in obedience to the call, whenever Rome mav need their service." According to the Duke of Pdchmond's letter, one of the means by which the tyrant of Rome and his col- leagues have adopted for accomplishing the downfall of the government of the United States, is that of foreign immigration. Let us examine the operation of this device. The editor of the Louisville Journal, in dis- cussing the question of foreign immigration, makes the following statement: " In 1850 our native white popu- lation was about 17,300,000. In the same year our foreign population was about 2,300,000. In 1852 the immigration was about 398,170. At that rate it would take only about six years to double the foreign popula- tion here in 1850. This is about five times our popula- tion's increase, which is in a ratio of three or four per cent, per annum, while the increase of foreigners is from fourteen to sixteen per cent, on the census of 1830, 1840, and 1850. " In 1852 our presidential vote was about 3,300,000. In 1848 it was about 2,880,000. In 1852 our foreign arrivals, as shown, were about 400,000, and 240,000 of these were males, thus showing that in one year, the arrivals of foreign males into this country, was nearly as great as the increase of our whole voting population during four years." IN THE UNITED STATES. 369 The foreign arrivals by sea alone were — In 1850 . 315,333 *' 1851 . 403,828 " 1852 • • > • 398,470 " 1853 • > 400,777 From Canada and Mexico during the same period about 700,408 2,118,408 It appears from the census of 1850 that the total ag- gregate of foreign population of the United States in 1849 was 2,210,829. If the tide of immigration has added but two millions to the number of the foreign population every four years since 1849, it must have amounted, in 1869, to 7,210,829. All the immigrants are not, however, Catholics. Some are Protestants, some Infidels, and some Radical Repub- licans. The Turners, the Free Germans, and the mem- bers of the Revolutionary League are all firm friends of free governments. The proportion of Catholics among the immigrants, at a fair computation, is presumed to be about three-fourths of the entire number. They must, therefore, add to the Catholic numerical strength about 3,750,000 at every decade Besides the numerical augmentation of the Catholic church through the medium of foreign immigration, there are other appliances acting powerfully in its favor. " It is not long," says "William Hogan, " since I saw a letter from the Catholic bishop Kendrick, of the diocese of Massachusetts, in which he informs the authorities of Rome that he is making converts of some of the first 370 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES families in the diocese." — Synopsis, p. 169. "I Lave often conversed," says he, "with American Protestants on this subject, and regret finding many of them — espe- cially those of the Unitarian creed — are strong advo- cates of popery, and in favor of its introduction among the people." John L. Chapman, a Methodist clergy- man, in a work written before the Southern outbreak, says in substance, according to my recollection, that a Methodist j^reacher cannot now address his congrega- tion upon the subject of Catholicism with the same freedom he could formerly ; that those who imagine a Methodist preacher can now utter in the pulpit, or at a tract or bible meeting, the sentiments of John Wesley respecting popery, are entirely mistaken ; and that those who suppose that an editor of a Methodist peri- odical can now assail the errors of Catholicism without the loss of subscribers, are laboring under a great delu- ions. While the pulpits, revivals, and evangelical en- terprises are making no converts of any account among Catholics, the confirmation services of the Catholic bishops show the great number of adult non-Catholics which they are adding to their church. The number of children kidnapped, and the extraordinary number confirmed by Catholic bishops, might suggest a suspi- cion that the church has not abandoned its historic mode of adding to its members. Every non-Catholic child educated in a Catholic school becomes a Catholic, or strongly biassed in favor of that church. We hear of Protestant priests, and sometimes of Protestant bishops, and of whole bodies of theological students becoming Koman Catholics. It is an undeniable fact that the annual increase of IN THE UNITED STATES. 371 the Catholic population far outstrips that of the non- Catholic population ; and that at some future period its numerical strength will he capable of deciding in favor of the church every election that takes place. When that unfortunate hour arrives every policeman, council- man, mayor, judge, governor, delegate, congressman, senator, president, civil official, army or naval officer will be a Catholic. Then the non-Catholics wiiV be powerless, and at the mercy of those who believe they have no rights. Then, by the secret operation of the papal machinery, one faction will be inflamed against another, and one section of the land against another. Then rapine, violence, assassination, sedition, massacre — everything that can render life and property insecure — will distract every state, city and village in the Union. Then, amid the anarchy and confusion thus produced, some Catholic tyrant will arise, and — the civil disorders subsiding at the bidding of the pope — will be pro- claimed dictator. Supported by the Catholic and Pro- testant kings of Europe, he will abolish the republic, and establish in its place a Catholic monarchial gov- ernment. Then, according to Bronson, heresy and Infidelity will be declared to have no rights. Then, according to Archbishop Kendrick, Protestantism will be declared to be a crime, and punished as such. Then, according to the archbishop of St. Louis, religious lib- erty will no longer be endured. Then, according to Ilecker, the Catholic church will be bound to take the country, and keep it. Then inquisitions will bo intro- duced, and stakes erected. Then the darkness of the middle ages will settle over the land. Then the school- houses, the colleges, the asylums, and the churches built oT2 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES with Protectant funds vrill Le applied to Catholic pur- poses. Then the fortunes which non-Catholics have amassed will be confiscated. Then the territorial acqui- sitions of the Government, all its resources, all the ad- vantages it has acquired by arms and treaties, its navy and its army, will become the property of the papal monarchy, and applied to its defence and extension. Then it will be the business of Americans, not to create magistrates, but to obey despots ; not to share in the sovereignty of the government, but to toil in slavery to support an execrable despotism. Then liberty of speech and freedom of the press will be no more. Then the ecclesiastical dungeons, which the supineness of Amer- icans have allowed Catholicism to erect among them, will be the homes and graves of freemen. Then will arise a government constructed of schemes for public plunder ; where an aristocracy are privileged robbers ; v/here moral worth and dignity are the helpless victims of power and injustice; where laws are made for subjects, not for rulers ; and where the people are inherited by royal heirs, like so much land and cattle. Then will the monarchial demon, the God of slaves and aristocrats, seated on the people's throne, with his feet on the people's neck, quaff blood like water ; and eye with scornful indifference the squalid millions whom he has doomed by an enormous taxation to huddle in hovels, without light or air, with cloathing scarcely enough to hide their nakedness, with food scarcely enough to sus- tain life, or fire scarcely enough to keep them from freezing. When the pope shall have succeeded in his attempts to establish such a monarchy over the American people, IN THE UNITED STATES. 373 lie will next proceed to enlarge its dominions by the annexation of Canada, Mexico, all^ South America, and all the Pacific and Atlantic islands. AVith such a do- minion, such resources, such an army and navy, he will be master of the land and the ocean. He will then proceed to plunder and discrown the very kings that had assisted him in erecting his colossal power. He will then enforce, by the thunders of American moni- tors and war steamers, his claim to the crowns of Eng- land and Russia; his claim to be the disposer of all crowns ; his claim to be the only monarch that ought to wear the token of royalty ; in fine, his claim to the supreme temporal and spiritual monarchy of the world. Then England will awake, but it will be in the vengeful folds of a serpent crushing out her life. Then the Euro- pean despots will awake, but it will be amid the crumb- ling of their thrones. Then the papal allies will awake, but it will be to find their limbs fettered, and the foot of the sacerdotal monarch placed in malignant triumph upon their necks. Then the w'orld will awake, but it will be to find that it has sufi'ered the extinction of the last star of liberty, and involved itself in a night of despotism without the hope of a morn. But the spirit of freedom is immortal ; its conflict with despotism will be eternal. Bolts, dungeons, shackles cannot confine it; racks, flames and gibbets cannot extinguish it. To annihilate it, the most formid- able efl"orts of bigotry, the most ingenious arts of states- men, the combined power of church and state, have been applied in vain. Though the blood of freedom's sons have streamed in torrents, and the smoke of their stakes have darkened the face of heaven, yet their 32 374 PAPAL POLITICAL INTPIGUES spirit has still walked abroad over the world. So it has been in the past ; so Jt will be in the future. If the Catholic demon should massacre all the freemen in one age, they will rise up more powerful in the next; and successively as time rolls on, shake with their energy the accursed throne. Hence civil war will never cease, fields will eternally reek with gore, burning cathedrals and convents will illuminate the night, till the v/orld, instructed by its past errors, will unite in a natural union for the extinguishment of Catholicism. We have now alluded to the dangers which begin to blacken our political firmament. Can the storm be averted? "We believe it can. A union of the Protest- ants, Jews, Spiritualists, Free Eeligionists, Infidels, Atheists, Turners, Free Germans, and of all non-Catho- lics, without regard to creed, race or color, on a basis of universal civil and religious liberty, with a, judicious policy, and a corresponding system of measures, will prove adequate to the emergency. Such an organization, if sufiiciently liberally constituted, might command the support of Gallic and Fenian Catholics. The life, lib- erty and welfare of all non-Catholics, if not, indeed, of the Fenians and Galileans themselves, are in equal dan- ger, and why should they not organize for mutual safety? Does prejudice forbid it? Millions of lives must be sacrificed if a union be not efi'ected. "Who would, then, hesitate io sacrifice a prejudice that it may be effected ? A tyrant may demand concessions with- out rendering an equivalent, but freemen can not. Can Americans sleep in peace, while the clang of the hammers that are forging their chains are sounding in their ears, and the pillars which support their govern- IN THE UNITED STATES. S75 ment are tottering over their heads ? It seems impos- sible. Their obligations to their country, to posterity, to the world, demand union. Union or slavery ; union or confiscation ; union or the rack, the stake, the gibbet. One or the other is inevitable. Which do you now chose? A few more years hence you will have no choice. Every citizen knows that under the present form of government his merits have rewards, and his industry has encouragements enjoyed by no people m any country, or under any other form of government. The poorest and the richest are here accorded equal chances, equal privileges; and an equal voice in selecting legislators, judges and rulers. They are equally un- trammelled by legal impediments in seeking the highest positions in the government. Each citizen is an inte- gral part of the sovereignty of the nation ; he partici- pates in its management, and shares its greatness and glory. It is a consolation enjoyed only by an Ameri- can, that if fame nor fortune should gratify his ambi- ■ tion, he can still bequeath to his children a richer inheritance than that of either fame or fortune, the inheritance of a free government. Judging of the future by the past, it is his privilege to believe that the republic will continue to grow in power and greatness with each succeeding age, until the light of her glory shall fill the earth ; until despots shall tremble before the majesty of the people ; until the clank of slavery, and the groan of the oppressed shall no more be heard; and until the united world shall rise to the majesty and greatness of equal privileges, equal rights and equal laws. 376 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES Such are the blessings guaranteed, and the expecta- tions warranted by the continuance of the republic ; but monarchy, like a deadly blast, annihilates them all. With the liberty, it lays the greatness and glory of the nation in the grave. Intolerance will then re-establish its racks and torture. Industry will then be oppressed, and enterprise annihilated. This land, which has so long resounded with the song of liberty, will then re- verberate with the clanking irons of servitude. This nation, which is now the wonder and glory of the earth ; which is so powerful and prosperous ; this nation will be no more. Her life and splendor will have departed with her freedom. History may record her eventful story ; her sons may clank in chains around her tomb ; future freemen may curse the degenerate sons who wanted the valor or unanimity to transmit to their pos- terity the government which they inherited from their ancestors ; but these will not call her to life and glory again. Like a wave she will have rolled away ; like a dream, she will have departed ; like a thunder peal, she will have muttered into eternal silence. Like these she had but one existence, and that will then have ended. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES This book is due on the date indicated below, or at the expiration of a definite period after the date of borrowing, as provided by the library rules or by special arrangement with the Librarian in charge. DATE BORROWED DATE DUE DATE BORROWED DATE DUE :, C28(842)M50 936 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY III' nil ' III lilliillllllll 0035518898 936 Ail4 Alberger l°J}^ P°Pf? ^nd their oolite =^t JUL 5 1945 « XJ V\T H KTO