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LETTERS

ROMAN CATHOLIC
CONTROVERSY.
BY \y. C, BROWNLEE, D. D.,
OF THE COIT.EGI.VTr. PnOTESTAXT REFORMED DUTCH CMlT.cri. l^V.XI VOKK,

*' Veritas kntj^nArlncit,»-.TS,ev* Ti. 2-*4»

tecctni EHiiioji, ^tf^iseil^nffWftUirg^dj^

NEVV^ YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR:
PHILADELPHIA, J. WHETHAM :
HARTFORD, D. F. F.OBINSON.
J834,

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by
WM. C. BROWNLEE, D. D.
In the Clerk's office ofthe District Court for the Southren District of New- York.

3s:

BOWNE, WISNER & CO. PRIHTERS.

DEDICATION. TO THE PEOPLE,
AND TO THE MAGISTRACY, AND MINISTRY
OF THE UNITED STATES.

Fellow Citizens : — I come not before you as a sectarian : nor merely as a
polemic. The subject of this discussion enlists the feelings of every patriot. It
involves not only the deepest interests of our holy religion, but the very exist
ence of our liberties, and the perpetuity of our Republic.
We come not before you to oppose the Roman catholic religion, merely as a
religion. We have a higher, and we trust, a holier aim. Having detected in
it, a lurking enemy, conspiring against religion, and the essential interests of
our countiy, we have dragged it forward into the light ; and have brought it up
to TOUR tribunal, for public judgment in the case.
In our pleadings at yonr bar, we shall demonstrate that the Roman catholic
religion is not found in^he Holy Bible; that it has diverged far, in its erratic
course, from primitive and pure Christianity ; that it stands now separated from
it by a gulpii, wide as that which separates the prophet of Arabia's Koran
from tlie holy Scriptures of God: and that, as an ancient religion, it is, in fact,
the perpetuation of Greek and Roman paganism, — baptised under a new no
menclature. But, we shall not rest satisfied with proving each of these positions. Impor
tant as is their truth to the christian community, they cannot, as such, claim
national attention. But there is a point in this controversy which does claim
your attention, as a nation. For, while pure apostolical Christianity, like its
Lord, has not its kingdom of this world: while it shrinks from the unhallowed
union with the state ; and seeks no political aggrandisement , no civil establish
ment ; no worldly power, or earthly grandeur ; while it neither aims at making a
tool of statesmen, and politics, nor permits its ministry and sacred things to be
come the willing tool of a carnal policy ; the Roman catholic system i?, in all
points, the reverse of this.
It is, as we shall see from its creed, and from historical documents, a system
of mere huraan policy ; altogether of a foreign origin ; foreign in its support ;
and bringing with it, over the face of society, wholly a hostile foreign influence.
Its pope and priests are politicians, men of the world, and mere men of pleasure. .
It is, in the hands of a singular foreign despotism, precisely what the Koran is

iv ,., OEDlCATIOS.
in the hands of the Grand Turk, and his Mufti. It is a tremendous weapon of
mischief, the hilt of which is at Rome. It wields its holiest things in a constant
war of proud domination; not only uniting, as it does always unite,_church and
state : but uniformly making an abused and insulted tool of nations and govern
ments, wherever it has the ascendency. It is not only illiberal, but intolerant
in its politics, as well as its religious creed. Il has put forth claims to tax, with
out the consent ofthe people, not only its own subjects, but even fhe citizens of
other nations, under the ghostly plea of its divine right to tithes, and spiritual
oflferings ! It has claimed, as a temporal-spiritual power, not only to rule its own
Roman states, but to interfere with every government of Europe, South Ameri
ca, and Mexico. It has not only ruled, wilh a rod of iron, its own spiritual
armies of prelates, priests, monks, and friars, with their trodden down victims ;
but it has interdicted nations ; dethroned kings ; dissolved civil governments ;
suspended commerce; annulled national laws ; and paralyzed the authority of
the magistrates. Hence, each of all the nations, where its withering influence,
like the terrible Simoom of the desert, has been felt, has, in its turn, been
thrown into the utmost confusion. It has, from its very genius of despotism,
uniformly denied the rights ofthe people to self-government. Wherever it has
had power over a nation, it has warred against the freedom of the press; the
progress of knowledge ; the rights of conscience ; and the liberties of mankind !
Its one grand aim, — that is to attain wealth, pleasures, and boundless power, —
it has ' pursued with a step as steady as time, and with an appetite as keen as
death.' To compass ils object, it has eraployed dungeons, rack.s, chains, inqui
sitions; andthe fire and sword of exterminating persecutions !
All this, as we shall demonstrate froEi historical documents, it has done, in
times past.
We shall review passing evenls to show that, even now, it is in the very act of
executing its deep laid conspirac}' against the institutions and liberty of our Re
public — by means of foreign gold ; by its imported colonies of vicious and
ignorant raen, the vassals ofthe pope; and by its hosts of Jesuits and priests, —
the household troops of his holiness; the emissaries of the^Holy Alliance 1
And we shall draw aside the mask which it contrives to adjust so carefull}'
over its visage, in our country ; and shall exhibit its unblushing clairas to InF-^l-
libility, and Immutability ; in order to establish tJie unquestionable fact,
that Romanism, spiritual and political, is even here, at this day, as resolutely
as ever, the same that it was in the Dark Ages; and, moreover, that it will ever
remain, in reality, the same malignant genius of evil, and the Lawless One,
until the holy vision of St. John be consummated, at the close of the- predes
tined period of the 1260 years ! How far I have succeeded in doing this, you
are now to decide.
I ara, fellow citizens, your humble, aud most devoted servant,
W. C. BROWNLEE.

CONTENTS.

Dedication. iii
The challenge and acceptance. 1
Part I.
LETTER I, Rule of faith is the Holy Scriptures — The judge of controversy is
the Holy Ghost speaking in them — this, our only tribunal of appeal — tradi
tions — the fathers — contrast of the Protestant, with the Roman catholic rule,
and judge. Their charge of our divisions — repelled — charged on Popery. 3
LETTER II. Review of the priest's letter i. — point at issue — wherein we
agjee — and differ — The only, and infallible rule, — no defect, nor obscurity
in the Bible — proofs — refutation ofthe priest's declamatory invective against
the infallible rule, and judge. What is, in reality, their rule ? What is their
judge. 6 ^
LETTER to Dr, Varela — his separate attack on the Scriptures — refutation —
in answers to his fourteen queries. . 12
LETTER III. Verbiage — Roscoe — priest's besetting infirmity — their decep
tion in the use of the word Scriptures : — their tribunal of judgment, the pope
and his clergy — all men bound on pain of daranation, to submit to them ! —
farther discussion of the rule of faith — origin of the popish dogma relative to
their rule — Ghillingworth quoted — dissection of the popish rule, the 1st and
2d arguments^-closed with a review ofthe priest's errors, and mis-statements,
in their Letter ii., in six particulars. 16
PRIEST'S LETTER III., Extracts from. 28
LETTER IV. Rule of faith, continued — the priests never quote our definitions
fairly — they have, unexpectedly, laboured to convert this into a deistical, in
stead of fapal controversy — priests yield a main point to deists-^external and
internal evidence — anecdote illustrative of our argument — the copper kettle—
the 3d, 4th, and .5th arguments against the Romish rule. 30
PRIEST'S LETTER IV. Extracts from. 39
LETTER V. Rule of faith, continued — genius of popery, its elasticity — it la
bours to conceal its real dogmas, in our Republic — it is the same unchanged, as
in the darkest ages — despotic — hostile to free institutions — our citizens for
get that the Jesuits claim immutability — outlines of the preceding arguments
— Arguments, 6th, 7th. 8lh, 9th, and 10th, against the Romish rule. 40
PRIEST'S LETTER V. Extracts frora. 48
DISSERTATION on the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. 51
LETTER VI. The claims of the popish rule being destroyed, the Protestant
rule is without a rival — minute examination of the priest's objections, and er-

CONTEWTS.

rors — their traditions — their claims truly ludicrous — an exposure of these tra
ditions: their fanaticism, extravagance, and impiety: the aristocracy and no-
bihty ofthe haughty, priests— treatment of the R. C. laity— genuine priest
craft— the vicious circle, specimen of it— Jesuitical defence of their adding the
apocrypha to the Bible— reply to the objection against a ivritten rule, that the
Hebrews were without the written word for fourteen generations— and that
before Moses, and in Christ's and the apostles' time, there was no written rule.
Reply to the repeated objection, that Christ did not command the aposlles to
write the New Testament — and thatthe primitive Chrisdanshad not the Scrip
tures in their vernacular. They confound objective and subjective infallibility,
and make all infaUible who have the infallible rule ? "Twenty books of the
Old Testament are lost,"— this refuted— Epistle of Barnabas — "The Arian
Gobbler" — pope Joan — Milner, the dead lion. 55
PRIEST'S LETTER VI. Extracts from. 63
LETTER VII. Review of the priest's infidel objections, continued — Textual^
difficulties removed — "the Pr'otestants separale the Bible from oral teaching"
— this refuted — "the rite of baptism, and change-of the Sabbath can be esta
blished only by tradition" — this refuted — the Vulgate — farther examination
of this incorrect version — different from Jerome's version — Clementine and
Sextine edition of the Vulgate — the Douay translation — the Roman catho-,
lie church has, in fact, no authorized version ofthe Bible in English: — the fa
ther's quoted — no unanimous consent of them on the popish rule — Marcelli-
iius — infallibility, where lodged — Jesuits oppose our rule by an argument ta-
' ken from sectarian abuse of it — Intention — tendency of popery — deism —
(hostility to the rights of conscience and liberty .~) 65;
PRIEST'S LETTER VII. Extracts from. 77
LETTER to Dr. Varela — reply to his letter— St.. Ambrose, and saint worship
\ —St. Augustine— Ronjish conwrsion, what?— image worship— popish doc-
I trine of grace— Dr. V.'s false quotation— power to appoint new articles of faith
\ —seven sacraments— ordinances— of God— ofthe pope — reply to ihe charge
) of Protestant divisions— efiects of the priest's defective education— specimen
';, of popish sophisms— reply to the charge of "falsehood," respecting the Tren-
tine addition of new articles of faith. 80
CARD, to the public. 86
T,ETTERVIII. Besetting errors — Vulgate— no authorized version in English
—inextricable difficulty from the contradictions of the fathers— reply to the
charge of the corruption of our English Bible — Walton and Selden on the
Vulgate — Bellarmine on the pope's infallibility — Dr, Gurtis's charge of Bible
corruption — reply — Dr, Cardwell's exposure of this — singular instance of
'blasphemy, by our priests — p, 90 — appeal to the confederated priests, and de
ists—Proof that popery is a novelty, from historical dates of the origin of the
chief tenets and rites— the doctrines which have always been held bythe true,
Church— Historical date of, i. The pope's.supremacy — ii. Invocation of saints
— "Mother of God," criticised— The divine worship of Mary — Specimen 
iii. Use of images— iv. Purgatory— v. Celibacy— vi. vii. Transubstantiation
and the Mass— cannibalism— viii. Abstraction of the cup, in the Eucharist 
ix. Relics— X. The retention of the Bible in a dead language — Extracts ofthe
fathers on these. The question answered, ffhera was your religion before Lvr-
ther ? gy
PRIEST'S LETTER VIII. Extracts frora. 100
LETTER IX. The spirit of the priest's Letter 8., infidelity— "Mother of God"
— subject of present discussion— r/ie peculiar doctrines, rites, and institutions
of popery, originated by fanaticism, and sustained by imposture. Carnal repre
sentations of the Trinity— official services of the popish saints— canonizing
power— miracles of popery— speciraens— miracles of statues— doctrines
settled by visions— the orders of monks founded by fanatics— also their riles
the Mass. " ' Ifid
PRIEST'S LETTER IX. Extracts from. 115

CONTENTS. yW
LETTER X, The priest's concession about legends — Luther — reply to the
taunt of Protestant miracles— the unity in our discussion— traditions— -enor
mous bulk of the Romish rule of faith — Romish circle about traditions— the
priests constrained to admit that there is no authorised version of the Bible—
i.(The exorbitant claims of Rome over the human conscience::f-proofs, speci
mens — idol worship — mother of (!od — a Becket — money on his altar — the pa
pal supremacy — 4 factions on this — papal claims spiritual and temi)oral — case
of F. Cooper in New York Legislature — ii. Rome has lost the spiiit of Christi
anity — ])roofs, specimens — iii. Hersystcui gfuerates ignorance and protHigacy —
quotations from their moral writers — Jesuitism. 118
Roman Catholic editorial notice — Cardin reply. 131,132
PRIEST'S LETTER X. Extracts frora. 133
LETTER XI. The Douay Bible not sanctioned by the authority ofthe Roraish
church — exposure of this — the superstitions and impostures of the Rorai.^h sect —
reply to C. Butler's plausible appeal — baptism of bells — sacerdotal dress — Latin
praj'ers — superstition of the Mass — prayer to St. Sacrament — incense — holy
water — charms — agnus dei — Italian soup — lamps, wax candles — abstaining
from meats — penance — popish misrepresentations of St. Patrick — wood of the
cross — Charles X — .Duke of Brunswick's fifty reasons — supererrogation — feast
of the Ass — song lo the Ass, by his fellows — imposture aad fraud of Romanism —
specimens — cursing of vermin — Bees adoring the Mass — St. Januarius — souls
coming out of purgatory — Crabs in velvet — miracle of exorcising a demoniac —
St. Peter's chair, a hoax. 134
Priest's card to Dr. B. 145
Reply to this. 145
Priests' Letter XL, Extracts from. 147
LETTER XII. 'The marks ofthe R. G. church,— "The church" is really the
object of apapist's faith.— proof,— claim o( antiquity, — refutation of this, — catho
licity, — refutation of this, — Romanism against the christian world, and that
against it. ' 149
Card of Dr. B. to the public. 156
Editorial notice in the Roman catholic print ; and part of Dr. B's letter. 157
Dr. B's card to the public, in reply. " 158
LETTER XIII. The raarks of the church, claimed by papists, continued. —
succession — refutation of this — no succession by ordination, or holiness, or
doctrine — the schisms in the Latin church — atrocious popes. 159
The Priests' closing Letter. 167
LETTER XIV. and last to the Priests. Review of their Letter — the genius
and spirit of their controversy — Jesuitism — reply to their criticism on the ar
ticles of faith in express texts, in p. 146 — The gracing of their retreat^n a
parody on the king of Assyria, and his officers — Rabshakeh's fate, and epi
taph. ¦ 168
Part II.
LETTER I. To the members ofthe Roman catholic church — Introduction —
invitation to the discussion; — a parable of olden times — St. Peter — his com
panion, a chief-priest — dialogue — the genius of Popery appears to them —
the result. , 173
.LETTER II. An appeal to Roman Catholics, onthe necessity ofinoving in the ^
^ work of their emancipation from priest craft — they are, while under this mental
bondage to priests, without liberty — various impostures — anecdote of priest
P., and a Dominie — specimen of mental slavery, here — Carbonarian faith 178
LETTER III. The Jesuit rule by which priests are guarded — genius of the
revived Jesuitism — the 4th mark claimed by the papists — sanctity — refu
tation of this. 182
LETTER IV. This subject continued— celibacy and monachism — exhibition
of clerical profligacy according to the results of papal law — instructive anec-

CONTENTS.

187

193

196

dote ofthe Spanish priesthood— the pope's Tax Book— prices of sins quoted,
(and Appendix). .
LETTER V. Earnest appeal to Roman catholics to vindicate the cause ot lib
erty, and our country— an appeal on the value of relig-ious liberty — in their
morals the priests fulfil Bible predictions— danger from Jesuitism— their mon-
archism — specimen of their doctrines, in our land— papal claims.
LETTER VI. We are the best friends of Roman catholics— the treasonable
doctrinestaught hereby Jesuits— quotations— their immoral doctrines — alto
gether pagan— their dangerous tendency in society— they produce the morals
of Paris and the reign of terror — the parent who sends his children to their
seminaries is a traitor.
LETTER VII. The next mark claimed by the papists— Mni<2/— genuine spi
rit of Romanism, malignity, caused by this plea of unity — Refutation of this ,
claira — Rorae a distracted church — proofs. 200
LETTER VIII. Unity, continued— it is destroyed by her monkish orders — no
unity in doctrines — no unity in papal supremacy — quotations — Augustine—
Jerorae. 204
LETTER IX. Popery condemned by Scripture, and the fathers — the fathers
against papal supremacy — Jerorae farther quoted on " the Rock" — Chrysos
tom — Origen — "rh edoret — TertuUian — Ambrose — Cyprian — Hilary — G rego-
ry — Councils — Bellarmine. 208
LETTER X. Popery condemned — instances — images — conderaned by scrip
ture — by fathers — 'TertuUian, Athanasius, Si,c. loorship of Saints — condem
ned by the Bible — by the fathers, Augustine — Athanasius, &c. — Latin
prayers — condemned by the Bible — by Origen — Augustine, &,c. 212
LET'TER XI. Popery condemned — on the unanimous consent — worship of the
Virgin — condemned by Scripture — by the fathers — Epiphanius — Augus
tine — absolution of sins — ^infamous dogmas of Rome on this — refuted from
Scripture. 217
LETTER XII. — The jarring elements in popery, destroy its wnirT/ — it is at war
with Scripture — and the fathers, on the priests' claim of power to pardon sins,
Augustine — Jerome — Chrysostom — Ambrose — pope Gregory — Basil —
Hilary — Cyril — Clemens Alex. — P. S. Papists are by a late decree, allowed
to eat meat on Saturdays. 220
LETTER XIII. Popery condemned — popery distinct from the religion of our
ancient ancestors — appeal to the Roraan catholics on this — the popish dog
ma on the Rule of faith is condemned — by the Scriptures — by tbe fathers —
Hilary — Basil — TertuUian — Ambrose — Cyril of Jer. — Cyril of Ai6x. —
Athanasius — Origen — Chrysostom — Jerome — Augustine. 224
LETTER XIV. Popery condemned— the addition of the apocrypha is condem.-
ned— internal and external proof against it— fathers against it — Origen —
Athanasius — Cyril — Jerome — Cyprian — Augustine — Councils. 229
LETTER XV. Popery condemned — appeal to the Irish catholics — popery,
was not the religion of your priraitive ancestors— St. Ibbar— St. Patrick;
were not papists — earnest entreaty to abandon the novelty of popery, and re- '
turn to Christianity ;—!rra?isu6stanjMtto?i condemned — by Scripture  by
reason. " 232
LETTER XVI. Popery condemned— Transubstantiation condemned by the fa
thers — Irenasus — Ignatius — Gelasius — Hilary — Cyprian — Ambrose — Tertul-
lian— Theodoret— Eusebius— Justin Martyr— Cyril— Clemens Alex  Atha
nasius— Origen—Chrysostom— St. Bernard— Jerorae— Augustine— Also by
the Liturgies of Chrysostom and Basil— of St, Jaraes— St. Mark—by GyrU
of the 16th century— and Metrophanes, speaking the sentiment of the Oriental
churches— Earnest appeal to all Roman catholics on this revolting imposture 
P. S. Three Romish priests converted. 23y
LETTER XVII, Popery condemned—The Mass is condemned— by reason-
by Scripture— Old Testament— and New Testament— by the fathers— J erome—
Damasus— Augustine— Bernard— the Decretals agamst it— Pope Gregory  .

CONTENTS. IX
Chrysostom— JustinMartyr— Clemens— TertuUian— Lactantius— Reason why
the priests cling to this iraposture ofthe mass — their schemes by it, caused the
enacting ofthe Mortmain law of England — hints at various kinds of masses. 242
jETTEti XVIII. — Popery condemned — -Purgatory — a cardinal's opinion of its
etficacy^ts history-^origin — its novelty — its kind of torments — eight chambers
in it— its immense revenues to the priests — anecdotes — the young nobleman —
Priest Thom — auction of souls — revenues from it, in Spain — wholesale rob
bery. ^ 248
LETTER XIX. — Popery condemned — Purgatory — conderaned by reason, and
Scripture — its absurdities — it exhibits the priests as cruel, and inhuraan — con
deraned by the fathers — Justin Martyr — Lactantius — Hilary — Cyprian — Ter
tuUian — Gregory Nys. — Gregory IS'iiz. — Basil — Ambrose — Justin Martyr far
ther, quoted — the Cyrils — ¦Chrysostom — Athanasius — Jerorae — Augustine —
Bede — Anselm — Epiphanius — Olympiodorus — the council of Aix la Chapelle
— the council of Basil — Bellarmine convicted of falsehood — remarkable saying
of Archbishop Usher. 253
LETTER XX. To the archbishop, and bishops of the Roman catholic church —
appeal on the necessity of a reforraation in their sect — proofs — quotations —
deplorable condition of popish churches — contrast of Protestants and Papists —
priests — tlieir doctrines — and vices — the cause. 260
LETTER XXI. The Romish church a perpetuatedbranch of ancient paganism —
proof — the pagan chapel, and the popish chapel corapared — holy water at the
door of each — incense — altars — Pantheon, now the house of all the Saints —
human Qe-ih useii in the sacrifices of each — pagan cannibals — popish cannibals — '
vestments of pasjaii, and popish priests — pagan boy in white, attending the
priest — popish boy, in asurplice — Pix, orbox Containing \he wafer god — pagan
origin of this — processions — temple of the pagan foundling, now the temple of
the popish foundling, with its appendage of similar miracles — priests of Bel-
lona — the R. C. Flagellantes — pagan water idolatry — popish water idolatry —
the sprinkling of cattle by pagans — the sarae, by papists — the pope is Pontifex
Maximus — this was the title and office of the chief of paganism — hence the
difference of conversion among papists, and Christians. 264
LETTER XXII, A minute delineation of high mass fn ponii/ica/iiMS. 268
LETTER XXlII. The idolatry and superstition of popery — sixfold idolatry in
the Roraish church — description of idolatry — it is, in the words of holy writ,
"The LiE"-^it is impious — irrational — saint worship — refutation ofthe Rom
ish arguments for it — anecdote of the chief of the house of Gordon — three
factions in the Roraan church — and three distinct doctrines in it, on images —
exhibition of these — refutation, 274
LETTER XXIV. Idolalry and superstition of popery, continued — specimens —
worship paid to Thomas a Becket — more honors rendered to him than to
Christ, for 400 years, in England — in Scotland papists addressed the Lord's
prayer to the saints — the olBces, and employment of the saints — prayer at the
consecration ol" images, by the pope — the queen of heaven — atrocious idolatry
of her worship — worship of relics — specimens — -.worship of the wood of the
cross — specimen — worship of the wafer — St. Sacrament, an idol in popery —
prayers said to it — the idolatry of popery exceeds, in immorality, ih^t of
paganism . '
LETTER XXV. On the internal symptoms of decay, and final ruin of popery-4
no foundation for saving faith in it — its contradictions will hasten its ruin — j
specimen of these — as the mother of deism and vice, she must perish — illus
tration of thi.s — atheism prevailing in popish countries. , 284
LETTER XXVI. Symptoms of decay and ruin, continued — the immorality of
all its doctrines, and rites — this is working its downfall— popery practically'
repeals the whole of the ten precepts — proof— specimens — its tyranny will
work its fall — Ulustration. 288
LETTER XXVII. Symptoms of decay andruin, continued — contrast of a false,
with the true religion---the spirit of popery, is the spirit of antichrist — popery

279

CONTENTS.

condemns the essential, and holiest, doctrines of Christianity— proof— speci- ,
men— the Bible itself is prohibited by The /nrfex— proof— the jarring doctnnes
in popery, relative to the fundamental tenet of popery, the papal supremacy,
will work its fall— specimen of the doctrines ofthe four factions ra the Komisn ^^^
church, on this point.
LETTER XXVIII. Internal symptoms of decay and rum m popery, con
tinued— Intention— the appUcation of this peculiar popish dogma to the seven
sacraraents of Rome— it overturns them ali— it leaves popery without a priest,
a pope, a, rite, and a church— popish hostility to the progress of knowledge,
and science— curious specimens of this— singular case of Galileo, and bishop
Virgil— the appropriate remark of Galileo's companion about the pope, and his
priests. .
LETTER XXIX. Symptoms ef decay and ruin in popery, coBtmxied—^vorBhip,
and use of relics— this will hasten iis destruction, as light, and truth dissipate
darknes.s— additional specimens of these relics— ludicrous duplicates, and mul
tiplication of identical things— amazing discoveries for the antiquarian— in-
sta(jci-.,s— unparalleled curiositie.s— some 6/asp/iemoMS reUcs. _ 302
LETTER XXX, Popery essentially despotic, and incompatible with our free
institutions — minute investigation of this — proof — .scheme of the Jesuits, and
European despots — poi)ery not reforraed, nor reforraable — proof— Spanish
popery at this day — origin, rise, csiablishment of papal supremacy. , 306
LETTER XXXI. Popery essentially despotic, and incompatible with our free
institulin.is — The pope's supremacy is held by papists, to be the essence of
Christianity — examination of ihis — the real claims ofthe pope — tki'Poral
powKLi claimed by him, as absolutely, and as certainly as spiritual power —
proof — quotations. <^1"
LETTER XXXII. Popery essentiaUy despotic, and incompatible uilh our free
instiiuUoHS, continued — Rome never yet tolerated any oilier church, where
she had the power — she has always united church and state, so as to make a
spiritual tool of the state — historical illustration — her inlukrunce is, with her,
a religious principle — her annual denunciation, and damnation of all Protest- ,
ants, Jews, &c. — proof^the Jesuitism and falsehood of Dr. England ex)osed —
convicted from his own books — quotations from a rare book in reference to the
Bull /)i C(£na Domini — analysis of this bull — the Romish priests' oath — the
bishops" oath — au apjieal to our patriots and statesmen — instructive warning
in the words ofthe eminent statesman Rucellai. 313
LETTER XXXIII. 7Vie six grand attributes of popery — the rise and character
of the apocaly-plic Beast — its impurity — "the Man of Sin" — its impiety and
arrogance — historical illustration of this — cxp(jsition of 1 Tim. 'w. I, 4. —
"(liicirinesof ilevils" — "forbiddingto marry" — " abstaining from meats" — 320
LETTER XXXIV, The fourth attribute, Inachery — proof— the moral tenets
of po|ierv — "no faith to be kept with heretics," is a dogma of llie Roman
catholic church — proof — decrees — doctrine — fads, in evidence — copy of the
secret oath of Jesuit. — appalling danger frora tliein, 325
LETTER XXXV. The fifth attribute, TO^oZrrance—proof— quotations from
popes, and councils — popish lands are the lands of while staves — proof — speci-
.mc'Ds — the student and his confessor — state of Italy, Spain, Ireland, 329
LETTER XXXVI, The siith attribute of popery, 'Cruelty ;— this put forth in
two f(nms of raalignily' — ihe Inquisition — Persecution — Discussion on ihefiisl —
dehnilinn of the Inquisition — its history — three degrees in ils rise and piogress —
law ofthe Inquisition — character of an In(]uisitor — picture of this infernal tri
bunal in Spain — its interior — ils tortures — by water — fire — rack — St. Mary—
an Auto dafe — nutnb?r of its victims. 332
LETTER XXXVII, Popish cruelty — continued — persecution — crusades — mo
ral ones — sanguinary ones — case of Hungary — difierence in the instances of
Protestant and Popish persecutions — Calvin and Servetus^Poiieiy makes it a
duty, by a regular dogma, fo persecute — It does this in iivo ways : 1, By " the
mouth speaking- great things" — her auaiheraas — specimen of these: — 2. By

contents. XI
massacres — Bellarmine's atrocious plea for persecution — he avows persecution
to be the doctrine anil practice of Holy Mother — popes — councils, do the same —
proof— specimens — every Roraan cathoUc bishop is regularly sworn into of
fice to persecute — proof— his oath quoted — hence no R. Catholic has it in his
choice to be liberal — if true to his oath, and his religion, he must jiersecute —
proof. 340
LETTER XXXVIII. The ferocious cruelty of the system of Popen/— jhlstorical
illustrations — the systematic persecutions and massacres of the Waldenses —
the Albigenses — case ofthe city of Beziers — ^Languedoc — 100,000 persons fall,
in one day, victims to the papists' swords — butcheries of Moors — Jews —
Christians in Spain^Bohemia — .Hungary^France — Holland — Ireland — the
the public rejoicings at Rorae by the pope's orders, on account of the massacre
ofthe Protestants of France — the medal struck by the pope, and paintings got
up, to coniinemorate the papal triumphs over religion, and humanity — The Ro-
ish Church has never disowned, nor ever apologized for her former ferocious
persecutions — .\s a church, she approved of the deeds of her ancestors, and
StUl approves of all her blood shed ! Estiraate of the victiras of this sanguina
ry sect — au appeal to all orders of chrisdans — and to the American natiim on
this matter — appeal to the consciences ofthe bishops — conclusion — we part to
meet no more, until we meet at the Judgment seat of God — apology for the
freedom, and warmth of ray address; Gard to the public. 345
THE APPENDIX. I. The coraparative numbers of Papists— and Chris
tians. II. Extracts from the pope's chancery book. III. Gross impuriiy en
joined by popes and councils. IV. Index Expurgatorius. V. Form of a pa
pist's confession. VI. Absolution. 351

THE
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY.

TBB origin or THIS CONTROVERSY IS FULLY EXPLAINED IN THE FOtlOWlNC
CHALLENGE.
^0 the Editor of the Truth Teller.
Sir: — In the series of letters addressed to me by a Roman Catholic writer, in your
columns, I have been honored with a succession of public challenges to come out in
the discussion of the Roman Catholic tenets. And you have, in the frankest and
most candid manner, offered me your columns for my reply.
I have stated repeatedly to my friends, and also in a letter to a Roman Catholic
gentleman of my acquaintance, — I mean Dr. B., that I shall not come out in reply to
any anonymous writer. And you know as well as I, that no man of honor would do it.
I have waited for several months to see some responsible name appear ; I have
heen hitherto disappointed. But, now, feeling as every Protestant minister does, that
no one should decUne a call given, in Di^-ine Providence, to defend the truth, I beg
leave to make the following propositions, in all frankness and candor. Through you
I beg respectfuUy to give a challenge, in my turn, to any one, or all ofthe following
gentlemen, Roman Catholic priests, in our city, to come forward and discuss, in a
series of letters, alternately with me, the leading doctrines and practices which sepa
rate the Protestant Churches from Rome; — I mean, the Right. Rev. Bishop Dubois;
the very Rev. Dr. Power ; the Rev. Dr. Varela ; or the Rev. Mr. Levias ; or any
other, whom they wUl nominate, as their substitute.
A reply, as early as you can make it convenient, is requested.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
January 28, 1833. W. C. Brownlee.
The foUowing letter appeared in the "Tkcth Teller," in reply to Dr. Brownlee.
Mr. Editor: — We accept Dr. Brownlee's " Challenge." But, to exclude all
chance of introducing equivocal or hrelevaut matter, to secure singleness of view and
imity of object, to prevent shift, subterfuge, and cavil, " to avoid foolish and unlearned
questions, knowing that they beget strife," — 2 Tim. ii. 23; — he is requested to state
what is his Ruh of Faith, and who, or what is his Judge of controversies in matters
of faith. John Power, V. G. and Rector of St. Peter's.
Thomas C. Levins, Pastor of St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Felix Varela, Pastor of Christ's Church.

LETTERS

REV. DR. W. C. BROWNLEE,
0» THB
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY.
LETTER L
To the Editor ofthe Truth Teller.
Sir : — I feel indebted to your politeness in causing to be inserted in yonr columns,
my caU for a responsible name : and, through you, I tender my respects to the learned
gentlemen who have met my invitation.
I hope w-e shaU not be so long in settling our preliminaries, as the two gentlemen
were, who have commenced their discussion in Philadelphia. At any rate, it shall
not be my fault, if we are. I hope. Sir, the learned Priests do not mean to throw a
barrier in the way to prevent our discussion : although the request, or insinuation put
forth in their "acceptance" of my "challenge," does appear to me to be something
which rather squints that way.
Mr. Editor, — I shall not allow myself to be stopped at the very threshold of dis-.
cuasion, by any invitation to settle the Rule of faith and the Judge of controversy.
If we pause here untU we shall agree on this point — we shall stop here forever. The
Protestant andthe Roman Gathohc do not;— and what is more, they can never agree
on this point. This creates the abyss which lies between them : If they could agree
on this point, they would no longer stand in the relation of Protestant and Papist.
The only Rule of faith and final Judge of controversy, as every Protestant beUeves,
is THE Holt Spirit speaking to ds in the written word of God, the Holt
Scriptures ; contaiiung all the books ofthe Old Testament, and all the books ofthe
New Testament. In these, God spoke to the church in Hebrew and in Greek : if
tiiere be any thing not so plain, at first view, as I wish, I compare parallel passages,
and evolve the meaning by all proper means, under the guidance of the fountain of
truth, the Spirit of God, who has promised to "guide us in all truth,"
To charge the Holy Scriptures with obscurity, or deficiency, is the same thing as to
bring a charge against the Holy Ghost. No christian can do this. The apparent ob
scurity on the pages of the Bible, proceeds from the darkness of our minds. Hence
the Spirit of God teaches us to pray — " Open thou mine eyes that I may behold
¦^rondrous things out of thy law !" Psalms cxix. 18. And shall I dare to call that
obscure or imperfect, which the Spirit of God gave forth, and has declared to be clear
or *' plain to him that imderstandeth ;" so that he may run who readeth it ? Shall I

4 ROMAN CATHOIIC CONTROVERST.
dare to add human traditions, or the laws of erring mortals, to that Rule which God
has given to the church, and pronounced "perfect" and "sure" and "right," and
"pure?" Ps. xix. Shall we dare add to God's holy word, who has laid this
solemn command on protestant, pope, and priest, — "add THon not unto his words,
LEST HE REPROVE THEE AND THOU BE FOUND A LI.\r!" PrOV. XXX. 6. Will any
priest or layman, dare add to that Holy Book which the Holy Spirit ha-s made perfect,
closed up, and sealed with a tremendous maledicUon on the mortal who shall "add to
it or take away from it." Rev. xxii. 18, 19.
I can appeal, in controversy, to no tribunal but to that of the Holt Ghost speak
ing IN the sacred Scriptures; — who has expressly enjoined on us this command,
Isaiah viii. 19, 20, "Should not a people seek to their God? for the living to the
dead? to the law, and to the testimony, if we speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them." The Bible contains
the whole religion ofthe Protestant. But if a mortal man has a right to add to God's
word, then why may he not also alter and new model it? But the man, be he Pope,
Priest, or Protestant, who ventures to do this, does actually usurp the throne of God:
" ae sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God !" He sits in judgment
on his Maker ; he calls him up to his bar, and dictates to God ! If this be not the con
summation of blasphemous daring, I profess I know not what can be !
As for Romish traditions and oral laios, we shall treat them with the same respect
as we do the Koran of Mohammed, untU the evidence of their divinity be produced,
and established by prophecy, tongues, and miracles : and the fact be confirmed that
God gave them to the Church of Christ for a Rule.
As for the fathers of the Greek and Latin Churches, I will receive their pages with
profound veneration, and sit at their feet, as the expositors of truth, as soon as the Ca
tholic Church of Rome shall produce a genuine copy of them as the fathers wrote, and
left, their sentiments : — namely an editio expurgata, free ofthe scandalous alterations,
and corruptions made in them, by the monks of the dark ages !
For the Pope, and " Holy Mother Church," I shall yield myself a dutiful son and
throw myself at his holiness' feet, as soon as he shall produce, before the Christian
world, a few genuine and authentic credentials, from the court of heaven ; confiimed
infallibly by the miraculous gifts of tongues, prophecy, and miracles — as the holy
Apostles did — that God Almighty has really constituted him the legal deposit of truth :
the fountain of immaculate purity, and the accredited expounder of the Holy Bible ;
to create mental light, and with his keys to lock up in darkness the heretical mind ; and
be the final judge of controversy. The world has become too enlightened to give cre
dit to the fanatic, or knave who sets himself up for tlie " standard" of truth, or as one
who is admitted into the secrets of Heaven, and the cabinet minister of the court ofthe
Almighty. Nay, so unruly has the human mind become, in consequence of its burst
ing the chains of darkness, and emancipating itself from the ghostly power and super
stition ofthe dark ages, that it not only ventuers to call a man a fanatic, but gravely
to propose a place in bedlam, for the man who would enact the scenes of former days ;
who would constitute himself the final judge of controversy, set up claims over God's
own word ; pass gag laws against the freedom of speech and the press ; or forge chains
for the human conscience, and prevent the progress of glorious liberty !
This is protestantism. On the contrary every body knows that the Roman Catho
lic Church rejects these opinions of Protestants with disgust. They deny, indignantly,
that the vmtten word of God, or, the Holy Ghost speaking in the scriptures, either is,

ROMAN catholic COl^TROVERST. 5
or can be the Rule of faith, or Judge of controversy. What we call God speaking in
the scriptures, they venture to pronounce a thing obscure, potverless, and utterly unfit
to ,be a Rule or Judge. What we call die voice of God speaking in the Holy Word,
has no authority, no power, witli them, — no binding obligaUons on the conscience ; —
untU the Pope, or the Holy Church shall pronounce it to be the word, and give it vita
lity and authority ! By their creed, even Almighty God cannot speak through his owu
word, with either intelUgence, or authority, until the Pope shall bid it have intelligence
and authority ! He — not God — is the " Uving speaking Oracle," of truth ; he, not God,
is the "only final Judge of controversy !"
Hence it is morally impossible that the Protestant and the Roman Catholic can evei
agree ou this point.
The priests aflect to beUeve that the absence and want of their living, speaking ora
cle in our system, has originated the various divisions and sects among Protestants.
And this has Eiiibrded a rich harvest of materials for our good humored opponent's elo
quence. Everybody has heard of Dr. Power's stereotype sermon on Unity, Catholi
city, infallibiUty, and the endless divisions of the heretics.
The priests have been rather unfortunate in selecting this topic for their declamations
against the Christian world. For, it is known to every one that there is scarcely even
one erroneous sect, or heretic, in ancient or modern times, which has not sprung up in
the bosom of "Mother Church!" But, then, the Holy Inquisition and the bishops
have carefully and assiduously sought them out, and made glorious bonfires of them!
Yes, every returning year, at that Romish /east of charity called an auto da fe, did
Holy Motlier turn all these sectarians into the fire, and burn them as did the votaries of
Moloch, in sacrifice to the genius of their idolatry !
Now, did the Protestants imitate the example of the Romish Church iu the horrid
festivals of her ghostly despotism ; and did the strongest party in the land, annuaUy,
doom to the dungeon and the flaraes, all the weaker sects, — then assuredly there would
soon be as much ferr/yic unity among Protestants, as there is in Spain and Italy!
But, in the United States, in our happy Republic, there is no State religion, — and no
union of Church and State, as in all Roman Catholic governments. Hence the lovely
picture of Protestant mUdness, charity, Uberality, and mutual forbearance !
But, after aU, it is a pleasant piece of humor, to hear the Roman Catholic priests
ridiculing the divisions and various sects of the Protestants; wliile they laud "the
unity of Holy Mother Church, created and cemented by their living, speaking Oracle!"
What ! This coming from tlie members of the Roraan C atholic Church ; — a church
containing, in her bosom, moi'; divisions and sects, than all those of Protestants ! A
church rent and tom by divisions of the most untractable and irreconcilable kind ! —
Ask you for proof?
Witness the feuds in that day, when three rival popes were mutually putting the
pontifical ban on each other ! Witness the divisions and horrid scenes of conflict in
the bosora of Holy Mother in the great Western Schism, which every Roman Catho
Uc historian detaUs! Witness the divisions, in doctrines, caused by the Augustines,
conflicting with other sects ! Witness the violent feuds between the Jansenists and
the Jesuits ! Witness the divisions caused by the Dominicans, so famous for their
.zeal in burning better and more virtuous men than themselves ! Witness the different
sects of gray friars, and white, and black ; and the mendicants! Witness the exaspe
rating feuds between the Frajiiiscans and the Dominicans, Ioik hing the immaculate
conception of the Virgin Mary : — the former, stoutly maintainii, j that she was con-

O ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
ceived by her mother, as pure and innocent as Jesus Christ was ; and the latter sect,
¦with no less than Saint Bernard at their head, insisting that this sentiment was a dam
nable heresy ! Witness the eternal wars in the bosom of Holy Mother, between thesfe
unnatural and turbulent sons, the Scotists, and the Thomists ! Witness the characte
ristic feuds and brawls of the Jesuits, the Benedictines and Dominicans. Witness
the six grand heads of controversy in the sixteenth century, which rent the Holy
Church in pieces; and which are familiar to every Roman Catholic student of their
own histories ! The fierce and indomitable Jesuits were pitted against the Jansenists,
Dominicans, and Augustines. Sometimes the Jesuits and Dominicans were pitted
against each other, as, for instance, on the doctrines of grace : At other times, the Je
suits and Dominicans united on the efiicacy of the sacraments, in opposing aU other
sects! See Dr. Courrayer's translation of Paul Sarpi's Council of Trent.
Witness the violent confUct between the Franciscans and the Pope, John XXIL, in
the 14th century ! and the fierce contest between the Jesuits, on the one side, and the
Augustine doctors, and the university of Lou vain, and of Douay, on the other! Wit
ness the long and furious controversy between the Molinists of Spain, with the Augus
tines and Thomists, and which set at defiance Pope Clement VIIL, and all his influ
ence, for a long season !
In fine, I know scarcely a single century of Holy Mother's history, when the
bosom of her Unity was not a frightful arena of fierce contending priests, whom no
power on earth, fallible or infaUible, could compose, tiU they had exhausted their
mutual fury! See the pages of Nicholas De Clemangis; Wessel of Groningen; Cas
sander, Rayner, and Ferns, Cap. 8. Judic.
As forllNiTT,- there was Unity, Mr. Editor, — most striking Unity, in Holy Mother.
There was unity in opposing the Spirit of God speaking in the scriptures. There was
unity in adoring images, relics, and the saints. There was unity in declaring for
seven Romish sacraments instead of the bible's two. There was unity in the behef
and profit of purgatory. There was unity in believing that the Pope has the keys of
Heaven ; and that he and the priests wUl allow no heretic to pass into the kingdom
of heaven. There is perfect unity in Mother Church, in denying the necessity of re
generation and a new heart, by the Holy Ghost ; there is unity in denying that Christ
finished his atonement on the cross — unity in offering him up, afresh, for the sins of
the quick and the dead, in the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass ! There is unity in de
nying justification by the righteousness of Christ alone ! There is unity in beUeving
that Christ is not the only mediator, thatthe holy virgin is mediatrix ; and "jure ma-
tris jubet filio ,-" by " the rights of a mother, commands her Son" to hear us. See the
Rosary and Missal; and Bonavent, Cor. B. M. Virg, — Tom. 6. Rom. Edit, of 1588;
Psalter ofthe Virgin, p. 84. Argent Edit.
This is a specimen of the only unity which characterizes the Holy Mother, and
which your "living and speaking oracle" promotes!
Besides, Sir,— "Ego et Rex,"— I and the learned priests have, already, tried our
mutual strength on the fioor, in oral debate. And we got along, in perfect good
humor, and quite as successfully as one could have anticipated, without stopping to
tettle the point about the Rule and Judge. Each one took his own way ; as I now re
spectfuUy propose to do ; and went straight forward, hke honest men, and skilful con-
troversalists, I mean, therefore, Mr. Editor, with your leave, soon to pass on to one
great and vital point, — say, the Church. I am, Sir, your most ob't and humble servant,
W. C. Brownlee.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. '
LETTER II,
TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND LEVINS.
On the Rule of Faith.
Gentlemen : — You begin your letter wdth an expression of amazement at my
"chivahous" daring in "challenging prelate and priest," to this discussion. The
chivali-y of "the lion hearted Richard" himself, excites less araazeraent than this
venturous daring of mine, to challenge four men led and shielded by " infallibility"
itself! And all of them, moreover, sharing in the blessings ofthe same " infalUbility !"
But you fiirget the feeUngs of a protestant. In his estimation, " prelate and priest"
are official creatures of mere human fiction, — and quite harmless among " lion heart
ed" repubUcans. And the ghostly claims of "infalUbles," sound in his ears like the
bravadoes ofthe antiquated heroes of Otranto!
The fact is, and you know it, gentlemen, I was driven into this controversy hy your
own partizans. And, therefore, my claims are too humble, in this matter, to be deco
rated with the honors of " chivalry." I return them, with all humility, to their right
ful owners.
You have utterly mistaken my meaning as to " the settling" of the point ofthe Rule
and Judge of truth. I simply alledged that there could be no use in stopping at the
threshold of the debate, untU we, — that is, CathoUc and Protestant, should come
together on this point. For the truth is, we never can "settle it" in this sense. This
creates the abyss which Ues between us. My only object in those remarks, weis to
make sure the continuance of our discussion.
That the question touching " the Rule" was of small moment, was no statement of
mine. I deem it of infinite importance. I have not declined the discussion of it.
Nay, gentlemen, pardon me, I have discussed it, — though briefly, in my first letter:
yes, and settled it too, in the only sense, so far as I can see, in which we can settle
it. That is, I have distinctly laid down the Protestant Rule, and shown out of the
Holy Bible, that it is the Holy Spirit speaking to us in the written word. And I have
also stated, fairly, your Rule, namely, — the scriptures, the apocrypha, and oral tradi
tions, explained by a living, infalUble oracle. This was, as I did conceive, going as
far aa we ought to go at the entrance of our discussion. I was wUling to take it up in
its proper place if you pleased. And, I did reaUy suppose that you would, yourselves,
have preferred the discussion of it, after we had discussed the subject of the " infaUible
Church." It was natural, first to seek out this said "infallible church," and, then, to
seek out, in her, this said " infallible Rule and Judge." And, gentlemen, are you not
aware that this is the order, which was pursued by your " infalUble councU of Trent ?"
[See Sess. 3 and 4.]
But I am not tenacious : I yield to courtesy : qua via ducit sequar. Since you in
sist on it, that the Rule shaU be discussed first, even so be it: only let none of us pro
pose a retreat.
The pomt fairly at issue between the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches on
the Rule of Faith and Judge of Controversy, is tias:—Both of us, in the first place,
admit that there is an infallible rule of faith, established by Christ, to guide us in mat
tes of faith, and decisions of controversy, in religion. But, in the second place, we
differ, toto ccelo, as to what that Rule is.

8 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
First:— The Protestant Church declares that the only Rule of faith and Judge of
controversy, is the Holy Spirit teaching us in the written word ofthe Old and Neu)
Testaments, every thmg necessary to be known and beUeved, m order to glorify God
and enjoy him for ever.
Second:— The R. Catholic Church believes that the only Rule is the scriptures in
the old Latin, or Vulgate translation, only, together with the Apocrypha, and oral tra-
ditons : and aU these are to be infaUibly explained by a living, speaking, infallible
oracle and judge; who is, 1st, according to one sect m Holy Mother, the Pope: 2d,
by another sect, a Council : 3d, by another sect, the Pope and Council : 4th, by another
sect, the Holy Mother Church,— meaning the Pope and his clergy. Such is the dis
cordance of sentiments, in the very bosom of "unity and infallibility," touching this
vitally essential point, namely, "the infallible Judge!" And this, by the way, ex
plains the phenomena, in the mode of pursuing their argument, both by my opponents
and by Mr. Hughes'. They make a vaporing demonstration, and a threatening air of
assault upon "the poor offending Bible," the Protestant's Rule, in order to hide the
weakness of their own system. They labor to raise a cloud of smoke and dust, around
the truth, and then to escape in the dark.
Here we have, at one view, the two great dividing sentiments. Protestants, with
humble veneration, receive the Holy Ghost speaking in the written word, as their only
Rule and Judge ; and they know, and are sure, that he speaks to them as plainly, and
intelligibly, as a beloved father does, in a letter to his dear child,. — choosing to express
his will in the plainest and simplest terms. On the contrary, the Romish Church's
Rule is the Pope, or Council, or both, or Holy Mother. They are not agreed here.
But they are agreed in this, that it shall not be the Holy Spirit speaking in the scrip
tures; and that he shall have a rival, and opponent in his own house! And now,
let the christian public decide whether we, as rational beings, shallUsten to God our
Maker, speaking to us, or to an "infalUble Judge," composed of one or more fallible
human beings ! And these, moreover, not very holy, nor very virtuous men ! Nay,
they are men of the most presumptuous arrogance, and pontifical pride ! Did men
reason and draw their information from the pure fountain of truth, and not believe,
simply, by proxy, this controversy might be settled in a few minutes. Let us examine
each of these in their order : —
1. The Protestant Rule and Judge. Suppose I say to Dr. Power, here is a point
to be settled; who shall tell us what this Rule is? To whom shall we go? Shall I
go with you to your "infallible Rule .'" Or will you go with me to the holy scrip
tures, and hear the Spirit of God speaking infalUbly to us ? We cannot go to your
'^infallible Rule." This is the very subject of enquiry ; you have not yet found this
infallible rule ; this is the point in debate. We can go to the holy scriptures : you
admit their authenticity and inspiration. If you do not, you are deists. I repeat it,
gentlemen, if you question the divine inspiration ofthe Bible, TOU are Deists ! If
you place yourselves by Paine and Hume, then I am prepared to meet you with argu
ments on the external and 'internal evidence of the scripture's inspiration. This, how
ever, would be a ,shifting of the ground.
But if you admit their divine inspiration as the Council of Trent does, — then here
we have found the infallible Rule. For the same evidence which establishes their di
vine inspiration, does also estabUsh their infallibility. God, speaking to us, speaks
infallibly the truth. Now, we have 1 st, only to open their pages and listen, ^yith pro
found reverence, to God speaking to us. Psahn xix. Here the law of God is declared

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 9
to be "perfect ;" it is " tme ;" it is "right ;" it is " pure." Isaiah viii, 19, 20. " Should
not a people seek unto tlieir God ? for the living unto the dead ? To the law and to
the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light
in them." Here those are reproved as going away from God, even going "to the
dead," on behalf of the li-nng, who go to any human bar or judge, fbr the rule of truth.
Again, Prov. xxx. 6. " Add tliou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou
be found a liar !" 2 Tim, iu. 16. " All scripture is given by ins])iration of God and
is profitable, &c., that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all
good works." Here "the perfect" word of the Lord makes the raan of God perfect,
Jind thoroughly furnished to all good works. No language can more plainly declare
this rule and judge infallible. And, finallv, read in Rev. xxii, 1 8, 19, the tremendous
maledictions of Almighty God, on all those who " add to," and who " take away
from" God's written word !
Here, then, we have the will of God raost plainly spoken. Obscurity, weakness,
and ineflScacy, are not in the word of God. Who will challenge the Almighty and
say to him, thou speakest obscurely, and weakly, and inefficiently ? Who will ven
ture to utter such blasphemy before the christian public ? If you think it, speak it
out. We challenge you to come oUt against the Bible : call it imperfect : call it a
failure. Set up the Pope against God. Bring out your accusations against the Holy
Spirit. Tell the pubhc that it is the Pope or his clergy, and not God's blessed word,
that " converts," that makes us " perfect," that " fui-nishes thoroughly to all good
works !" I knovi' you say this in your books : this is the very basis of your argument
when you go to establish your Uving infallible judge !
2. The Holy Scriptures are God's law ; and our Lord's last ivill and testament,
KniKii AiaSriKTi. Now, what shall be done to a man who forges a new law, and foists
it into the code ? ^Vhat shall be done to the man who forges, adds to, or alters a man's
last will and testament, to promote his own ends ? What " sorer punishment," awaits
the man, council, or pope, who with fearful daring, under the very eye of the Almighty,
adds to, forges, and alters God's law ; and our Lord's last wiU and testament ?
3. I shall lay before you, the following chain of reasons and maxiras. God is the
only lord of the conscience. WiU any man deny this, and put his conscience in the
keeping of pope or priest, who will, any day, pledge himself, in a manner similar to
those spirital trafficers who absolved the Duke of Brunswick ? They were, by a
solemn bargain, "to be daraned in the old Duke's stead, ifhe happened to be damned
for becoming a Roman Catholic .'" Again, God alone can dictate to the conscience,
and prescribe our creed and true form of worship. If the proudest pope who ever set
foot on neck of king or emperor, should rise up and dictate these, he would seal his
fate as " that man of sin, sitting in the temple of God," affecting to do God's work, by
a shocking usurpation ! Besides, God only can make known his will. He employed
rational instruments to deliver his messages. God never required behef mi/iOMi ewi-
dence. He always vouchsafed sufficient evidence, when he sent a prophet or apostle :
liiat evidence was exhibited by miracles, prophecies, and tongues. When any pre
sented claims to inspiration, or to give an infallible rule, the church, by her Lord's
command, required the necessary evidence. Try the spirits, whether they be of God.
The church still, must have recourse to the same mode of trying those who pretend
ta divine claims. If we believe without evidence, we yield ourselves a prey to im
posture. If any society of men now claims to be infallible, then they have, from
God, the usvial evidence of miracles, prophecy, and tongues. If they want these, they

10 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
are knaves and unpostors. " Holy Mother" has actually set up these claims : sh«
<liliberately says that God speaking in the scriptures neither is, nor can be the infaUir
ble rule : but she herself is it. This claim she sets up, without producing any ofthe ne
cessary evidence. Hence, if there be truth in the Bible, she does act the knave and
impostor ! And, of course, you know whence she got her commission to do so.
I shall devote the rest of this letter to examine your invective agauist the infallible
Rule of the Holy Spirit speaking in the inspired writings. Every error and heresy
has its weak side. Your reasoning betrays this palpably. The radical error, gentle
men, in your argument is this : you mistake the nature of the evidence by which thil
point is to be established. You say the Bible cannot prove its own authenticity : and,
therefore, it cannot be the Rule of faith. This is an instance of that crafty logic,
called shifting the question, when it cannot be met J The force of your argument is
this — because a thing does not perform that which it was not designed to do, therefore, it
is not fit for the thing for which God made it.' No book proves its own authenticity;
we seek not on the pages of the Bible for the proof of its authenticity. Internal evi
dence, you ought to know, is not external evidence. We prove the Bible's authenti
city by the evidence of antiquity. The Jews give their testimony to the Hebrew Bible'*
authenticity ; the primitive christians of the Waldenses and Albigenses, who have an
unbroken succession of pastors from the apostolic times, give their testimony to it, by
the tradition ofthe apostolic evidence : the many tribes of heretics and sctiismatics do
give their historical testimony to the genuine and authentic books of the Bible ; the
Romish Church gives its testimony to it historically. Thus friends and foes unite in
their historical testimony. We have, moreover, the evidence of miracles testified to,
the evidence of prophecy in these books, fulfilled, and now fulfilling. Thus, we prove
the authenticity of the scriptures by external evidence ; and, finaUy, by internal evi
dence. See Home's Introduction, vol. 1., aud other works on the canon of Scripture.
And this evidence being complete,the perfect evidence of the inspiration of the Bible
is the perfect evidence of its being the only uifallible Rule of faith.
I pray you, gentlemen, try your objections against our Rule, with a deist, and yon
•will see your radical mistake. A deist, says — " Dr. Power, I am glad to see your ar
guments against these heretics' Bible Rule : I hope that, as a man of sense, you will
just follow out your own argument. The Bible, you say, cannot prove its own au
thenticity ; therefore, it ie not the word of God ; it is not inspired ! Nay, Dr. Power,
the Bible does not prove the existence of God ! Therefore, it is defective, it is not inspi
red!" You would say, — " Sir, I prove fhe existence of God against you and atheists,
from the works ,of nature ; and, Sir, the Bible assumes this tlmt there is a God ,- and it
is he who speaks iij it to us," Just so, in reasoning against a deist ; you must prov«
the authenticity of the Bible, not from its own page : for he does not beUeve it. Yon
must prove it as I have said above, from other arguments ; and thus, in opposing a
deist, you annihilate your own argument against our Rule !
You object that the " Bible cannot be the Rule," because bad men and heretics
sought shelter under it, apxl made a bad use of it, Profound logic ! The abuse of a
thing condemns it, then. Hence, as medicine and food have been abused, it is wicked
to use them for the end for which God made them ! The gospel itself has been
abused by heretics ; therefore, it is unfit to bring sinners to Christ.
Again, you have ventured to object against the Bible being " the Rule," alledging
that it has originated all the errors, divisions, and schisms, that exist among Protest
ants. This objection I hold up before the christian public : and, do solemnly charge

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 11
TO you. Rev. Gentlemen, the crime of slandering, and bearing false witnes*
AGAINST God's holt scriptures ! You charge on God's word the impious errors
and deeds of sinful men ! The Bible, gentlemen, never originated one error, or heresy !
never countenanced tliem : never approved them ! On the contrary, it solemnly
condemns every error that springs up ! These errors arose from man's proud con
tempt of piety, and then- refusal to hear and obey the holy scriptures. Gentlemen :
what have you said ? Do you deny the Bible to be God's word ? If not, then I re
peat it, God speaks in it. You must adrait diis, or confess yourselves deists ! Now,
what have you aifirmed ? The Bible has originated errors ! God himself, by his
Spirit speaking to men, has originated errors and heresies ! VerUy you utter in plain
words your origin and descent !
Let us apply your argument, gentlemen, to the papal Rule. In the bosom of unity
itself and under the working of "the infallible rule" ofthe Pope, ten errors, heresies^
and divisions, have sprung up for every one ofthe Protestants ! Then where are your
pretensions to an " infalUble Rule !" I appeal to the pubUc, then, whether your
argument does not involve slander and blasphemy !
You object against " the Bible Rule," and say that if it were infallible, as we
alledge, " why does it not flash on the minds of all ? why are there any deists ?"— .
VerUy, gentlemen, you take incredible pains to show off your infallible logic ! If
this logic wUl prop up his hohness' throne, die Uterature of your school will work
miracles. I shall thus test your objection. A deist says to Dr. Power, — " Sir, —
the gospel of the Bible, or the system which Christ taught does not flash on the
minds of all, — nay. Sir, the dictates of your infallible Rule, councils, and popes,
do not fash on the minds of all; there are Turks Jews, and deists loithin your pale,
and all around you, therefore the gospel, and even popery itself is a fiction!" How
wiU you meet this logic with which you arm the deist ?
I conclude by caUing on you to come out in the defence of your " infallible Rule,"
composed of fallible materials. You have been concealing yourselves hitherto, in the
gmoke and dust of deistical objections, against the Bible. The public solicit answer
lo the following questions : —
What is, in reality your Rule and Judge ? Why do you decorate the apocrypha
with the honors of inspiration, since even the authors of these books never took it into
Iherr heads to claim it ; or to be prophets. See Mac. iv. 46. ch. ix. 27 ; but on the con
trary craved pardon for errors committed by them ? See 2 Mac. xv. 38, &c. What
evidence have you that oral traditions were given by Christ for part of the Rule ?
Where can these traditions possibly be found ? Who is your Judge of controversy ?
Is it the Pope ? Is it a council ? Is it the Pope and council ? Is it Holy Mother
Church ? What is it you mean, in soberness, by " Holy Mother Church ?" Have
any of your popes been pagan idolators ? Was Marcellinus ? Which of them here
tics ? Was Liberius the Arian ? Which of them a Nero in vice ? Was Alexan
der ? Have you had more than three popes at one time ? Were they all rautuaUy
doomed ? Were all these the infallible judges and dictators ? Being successors of
the Apostles, you must sustain your claims by apostolical evidence, or be impostors.
Have you had no errors, no divisions, no schisms, in you, under the very eye of
infallibUity ? Whence has it happened, — and this, is a solenrn question, — that infal
libility did not settle the immaculate, or non-immaculate conception of the Virgin
Mary ; and the brawls, and errors mutually charged on each other, by Jansenists
and Jesuits : Franciscans and Dominicans ? Can you teU us where that part of

IS ROMAN CATHOLIC COlfTROVERST.
your Rule, viz. the universal consent of the fathers, can possibly be found ; as it is
not on the pages of their endless contradictions ? Do not your Rule and judge,
bemg human beings, take away Uberty of conscience, and put it in the pope and
priest's keeping ? And, finally, does not your " infallible Rule" require aU de-vout
CathoUcs, absolutely to believe things contrary to, and contradicted hy, the positiw
evidence of oil their senses 1 Namely, that by a certain sacerdotal process, a wafer
is converted into the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ!
Meet these questions fairly, and honestly, as logicians, and theologians ! And I
shall pay my respects to your Rule, and your defence of it, in my next. One word to
my friends : this, I caU only skirmishing ; for I am pressed for want of time. I pro
pose to begin the controversy with my learned opponents, soon, in good earnest.
I am. Gentlemen, Yours, &c.
New York, Feb. 18, 1833. W. C. Brownlei.

TO THE REV. DR. VARELA.
Rev. Sir : — The unique letter which you have done me the honor of addresang to
me, would have been highly amusing, had it not been for its uncompromising spirit
of deism !
What amused me, was the manner of your retreat from the present discussion, after
you had signed your pledge to stand by your Rev. Brethren. I knew that my kind
hearted neighbor. Dr. Varela, was a curious antiquarian as well as a classic scholar.
And he has been studying the antiquated Parthian character. These ancient wor
thies, when in view of the enemy, would retreat at full gallop ; but in their retreat
they always discharged a shot or two, wdth their bows and arrows. So friend Varela,
Parthian like, retreats ; but fires off an epistle, from his retreat, before he gives me
his " farewell," and " leaves me in good hands!"
But, Sir, you should not have retreated ; you should have remained firm to yonr
pledge. It is true, you could not brook such letters as those which the other two
priests are inflicting on the public taste. But you were pledged, and you should not
have retreated.
It is painful to see a gentleman of your age and experience, advocating the leading
principle of Deism ! Paine and Hume would have cordially acceeded to, and ap
plauded your sentiments against the Holy Bible. You and they pronounce it unfit,
and too imperfect, to be the Rule of Faith ! I appeal to the Christian community,
whether it is not obviously the spirit of infidelity fhat you advocate.
1st. You ask,— ^" Where in the scriptures do you find that the scriptures are the
only Rule of faith ?" This I have already shown in my two letters. See Psalms xix ;
Prov. xxx. 5, 6 ; Isaiah viii. 19, 20 ; 2 Tkn. ui. 16, 17 ; Rev. xxU. 18, 19, &c.
2d. You demand, " From what scriptures were the scriptures believed, when they
were first written ?" The Scriptures were beUeved by the people of God, on the satis
factory evidence which the inspired prophet or apostle produced, to establish his
commission from heaven. His miracles and predictions showed fhat God sent him;
and then, his words and his writings were believed to be from God. The scriptures are
believed on account of their external, as well as their internal evidence. I am aware
ofthe radical error under which you and the other Priests labor. It is this, — ^you be-
live that the Bible has no evidence, and no authority, but just that which the Pope and

ROMAN C.tTHOT.ir CONTROVERST. 13
ihe Romish Church choose to give to it ! You will not allow even God himself to
speak to us, but just as the Pope pleases. This is die fun damen tal error ofthe Ro
mish church ! But the world is now too enlightened to submit to such Gothic ideas !
3. You say, — " Not the scripture, but its interpretation forms die different creeds of
different Protestant sects. Hence these interpretations are real articles of faith.
Now what scripture have Protestants for these interpretations ?"
I reply, — God does, indeed, speak plainly and clearly in the scriptures ; the Chris
tian apprehends his will and mind witiiout difficulty. But it is equally certain that
men of perverse minds do not apprehend thein aright. Ilciicc the origin of error.
Now, the design of our creed is not, as you conceive, to substitute a human rule
in the place of the divine rule ; but simply to detect, and keep out errorists from the
fold of Christ. We say " here is the holy Bible." The false teacher says " I take it as
it is, as my rule." We reply, " No, you do not receive it in truth, unless you receive
it in this precise sense and meaning, in wlUch tlie church of Christ receives it, and
has expressed it in her canons." If mem were never false, we should probably not
need these tests.
These articles of faitli are not wholly expressed in the language of scripture : they
could not be a test if they were. But tiien every doctrine of faith contained in them
is carefiUly taken from the Bible : not one new idea is added : nothing is taken away.
And, in all cases, the scriptures are our only and perfect rule by which all these
canons and articles are themselves tried. You ask, "what scripture we have for all
this?" I answer, — 1 John iv. 1 : " Beloved, believe not every spirit : but try the
spirits whether thev be of God."
" 4. You ask, if the scriptures be so plain, why do Protestants explciin it ? 'Why
do you preach ?"
Here you bring forward the leading tenet of Popery, namely, the scriptures are
so obscure that no man can explain or understand them, but the pope and his pjriests.
I beg to ask you, Sir, this question, — "Do you, or do you not, believe that the
, scriptures were given by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost ? If you do not, you are
a deist ! If you do, then you admit that the Holy One speaks to us in fhem. If he
does, then you wiU admit fhat He means to be understood. And yet you have the
boldness to charge the Holy Spirit with intentional obscurity and darkness, so that his
own subjects cannot understand him ! " Why do we preach them ?" Why, to train
up God's people by instruction, by prayer, and praise ; and to make the authoritative
offer of the gospel to sinners ; and administer the sacraments to the faithful. May I
not retort on you ? "Why do Romish priests preach, since they have a living, speak
ing, infaUible rule, the pope ?
" 5. The rule of your faith is, that the scriptures must be understood and observed
according to private judgment, and not precisely according to the judgment of the
church." I am sorry that you give such palpable proofs of being utterly unacquaint
ed with the opinions and dogmas of Protestants. I exhort you to remember the valu
able proverb, that before we speak or write on a subject, loe should know something
about it! You ought to know, 1st, that what you state here, is not true. The Pro
testant churches do not so understand the scriptures. 2d. By the Reformation, we
regained from ghostly tyranny, the rights of conscience and private judgraent. We
thinit and judge for ourselves : we do not manage reUgion by proxy, as the pope's
subjects do : we do not trust our unalienable rights of conscience and private judgment
to fhe supervision of a ghostly impostor, nor accecpt his vaporing guarantee of
3

14 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
heaven. We cannot beUeve -with the duke of Bruns-wick, that " a priest can be
accepted in our stead, should we be condemned for becoming papists." The priestly
guarantee of heaven is copied from the model of that personage, who, with equal
boldness, offered our Lord the whole world ifhe would worship him ; whUe, in fact,
he did not possess one foot square of its whole surface ! Indeed, we deem the insuh
offered to us, by those priests, who profess to hold the judgment and consciences of men
under their entire control ; and who denounce " the fire of purgatory," and " the
¦wrath of God, and St. Peter, and St. Paul," op all v/ho shaU dare read the Bible,
or even think for themselves on matters of religion, — to be the greatest insult offered
to our species ! 3d. A gentieman of your reading ought to know what is a subject
of historical record, namely, — that no private individuals, but the pastor, or bishops,
and elders of the Reformed churches, met in councUs, far purer and holier than the
council of Tren*.- and emitted our canons and confessions of faith, which they esta
blished by copious and infallible extracts from the scriptures. And yet this judg
ment of the church of God is gravely pronounced by you a private judgment ?
I beg leave to charge publicly on your church. Sir, the crime of having long per
verted a text of St. Peter. I allude to his words in the second epistle. Chap. i. 20,
21. "No PROPHECT ofthe scriptures is of any j)rwate interpretation, &c." St. Peter
here speaks of prophect, and of that alone. But your sect. Sir, has all along com
mitted the inexcusable error of making the apostle say, — " No scripture is of any
private interpretation." I call on Dr. Varela, as an honest man, to put a speedy end
to this scandalous imposition upon Roman Catholic laymen. If you do not, — then
let your laymen judge of their priests' honor and honesty !
" 6. Why did not Luther and Melancthon on one side, and Calvin and Zuinglius
on the other, agree upon the meaning of these plain words — this is my body ? Who
have the spirit ?"
I reply, — they have the Spirit who adhere the closest to the plain doctrine of the
Bible, and to common sense. Had Luther shaken off, at once, all the monkish absurdi
ties, he would have believed not only that no wafer could be made into a God, but
that no wafer could contain God, or his presence !
But, Sir, I have already repUed to this, and shown your radical error in this mode
of conducting an argument. Can it be possible. Sir, that you do not know that an
" infallible rule and judge" reedly do not secure the LafalUbility of all those who may
happen to use that rule ?
Are you infallible, because the pope is your head and keeps your conscience ? Are
all the Catholics in New York infallible ? Do your own " infallible rule" and
" living, speaking judge," actuaUy make every son of Holy Mother infallibly armed
against aU vice, and all error, and heresy ?
7. You assail us about " the various and different translations of the Bible in
Protestant countries." Each nation has its own tongue and idiom ; and hence there
may be shades of difference in the expression. But not one doctrine, — not one idea
is altered, or perverted by any of all the translations ofthe Reformed churches. Be-
."iides. Dr. Varela, you ought to know, that the Hebrew and the Greek are the infallible
standards, and the last resort in all disputed translations. But, Sir, it is amazing to
hear tou, or any of your church attack our translations, — when the "infallible coun
cil of Trent" has sanctioned the Latin Vulgate as the only one to be used. And every
Hebrew and Greek scholar in Christendom knows that the Vulgate, as it now is,— is
THE VERT WORST OF THE WORST TRANSLATIONS !

ROM.AN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 15
8. You expatiate, as usual, " on the differences and divisions of the Protestants."
1 have replied twice to this already. This is the stereotype declamation of the priests,
in " Holy Mother." Now, tiiis comes with the worst grace from a Roman Catholic.
For every one error and division among Protestants, there are at least, ten errors, divi
sions, and heresies, in the very bosom of unity herself. I ask you. Sir, are you a
Jansenist? Or a Jesuit? A Dominican? Or a Franciscan? Is your infallible
rule in the pope ? Or is it in a council ? Or in the pope and council ? Or in
" Holy Church ?" Here is a fatal division of four of your sects within your church,
touching this first essential dochine ! To which of all these sects do you belong ?
And finally, if you have infallibilitt, somewhere, why does it not come out, and
settle these brawls and heresies in what you call your "holy, one, undivided church?"
"9. Can the law be the judge? Who applies it ? Are the scriptures the law?
Can they be the judge ?" I reply, again, the scriptures are the law and rule ; and
the Holy Ghost, speaking to us in them, is the Judge. Sit down at Christ's feet. Dr.
Varela, and Usten, and receive his law, and his rule. But, if you did so, — alas! what
a havoc would you make of your oral traditions and councils : your pope and cardi
nals, all must go ; and even " the idols must be thrown to the moles and the bats !"
" 10. Private spirit is faUible, can it be the judge of an infallible faith ?" I reply,
that you misrepresent tis. The Holy Spirit spcEiks to us infallibly true. And we can
take up his holy mind and will, more readily and easily, than your priests can take up
the mind and tvill of " the infallible" and divided popes and councils!! Permit me
to ask you : How many fallibles in a pope and council, will go to make up one
infallible ? Solve this problem, before the christian public. If you can, yon will
work a miracle on your own behalf !
" 11. Private spirit is unknown but to him who possesses it; can it be the knoum
rule of faith that will gather raen in one infallible faith and religion." — The private
or interior spirit never was advocated, or even allowed to exist in the bosom of the
Protestant churches. False prophets and fanatics have ever been ejected from fhe
fold of Christ. Your charge against us here, is either unintelligible, or, pardon me, it
is wilful slander ! The Romish church, as every well read man knows, has been
the steady patron of fanatics, and the interior spirit ! Witness your Tanquelmus, and
the Amauri, and the Whippers, in whose processions such royal fanatics as the king
of France, and the Cardirml Lorraine have more than once joined to patronize the
interior spirit. See Boileau's Hist, of the Flagel. chap. 23. And, finally, your own
preacher Taulerus exhibited his fanatical effusions at Cologne in A. D. 1346. These
sermons were published in various places ; and originated almost every fanatical
sect in Holland, France, and Britain, after the Reformation!
" 12. The spirit is your key to open the mysteries of the scriptures, but what
sign have you to distinguish the true from the evil syiritl" I have just answered
this charge of fanaticism. Those who have claimed imraediate inspiration, and gave
their signs, and wrought their miracles, were the fanatics who sprung up in " Holy
Mother's" bosom, and poured their deluges of outrageous foUy over the land. They
were uniformly ejected by all the Protestant churches. Your charge, brought against
Luther and Calvin, that they professed to work miracles, and raise the dead, is copi
ed from fhe pages of the wretched Bolsec ; not one of whose statements even a Roman
priest ever believed. For you know that that man was such an atrocious apostate,
that he was excluded from even your coiflmuiiion ; and he died under " Holy Mo-
tljer's" b^n !

16 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
" 13. How can you prove a man to be a heretic, if he has the same rule of faith
widi you, and the same right to apply it ?" To this I reply that it is no difficuU mat
ter to convict a man who is a heretic. For instance, the word of God teaches us that
he is a heretic who makes a man, St. Peter, for instance, the foundation ofthe church,
instead of Christ! He is a heretic who raakes a man the head of the church,
instead of Christ ! i^e is a heretic who bows down to stocks and stones, and
prays to dead men, and dead women ! He is a heretic who believes that purgatory, and
not Christ's blood, purges away our sins ! iiZe is a heretic who makes a god, prays
to him,— and then eats him up ! All this the Bible teUs us very plainly. He may
indeed say that he adheres to the Bible also, as his rule. But it is an easy matter to
make it manifest that his monstrous heresy is not countenanced by the Bible. And
then by witnesses, we can prove that the man does hold, and teach these revolting
errors. He may swagger and assume high airs, and call himself " a holy priest,"
and " is no less than infallible," and " can open heaven, and shut it." Poor man ! this
only proves that he labors under a spiritual madness. The fact is, we can, in a
church court, convict him of heresy, notwithstanding all his delusions and wildness,
just as easily as we can a murderer in a court of justice. I hope I have fairly answered
you. " 14. Can any man learn by himself, from the scriptures, every essential point of
faith, without any fear of error ?" I answer, yes ; he can learn, without error, all
that Christ has revealed, for our salvation. But he can find there none of all the
essential doctrines of the Roraan Catholic church. For the Bible never contained
them, and Christ never taught them ! FinaUy, I reply in the words of St. Paul, —
" AU Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, &c., and
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to all good works."
I shaU not follow you, at present, through your quotations frora the writings of the
Reformers. You know, and all the world knows, that these Protestants solemnly
condemned the errors of popery to which you cling ; and wrote unanimously against
them. With what degree of honor, or honesty, you profess to quote in favor of your
errors, men publicly known as their avowedly greatest enemies, I shall leave the pub
lic to judge. " Give me permission," said an eminent partizan ofthe Romish church,
" to select scraps from the pages of the best writer in France, and I shall soon have
him hanged for high treason !"
FareweU, Dr. Varela : I reciprocate your kindness, and " leave you in good hands."
May God bless you, and save you by his grace. Yours very truly, and'Tcspectfully.
, W. C. B.

LETTER III,
TO DOCTORS POWER, V.\RELA, AND MR. LEVINS.
" Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram !
Quale per incertam lunam, sub luce maligna,
Est iter in sylvis," — Virg.
Rev. Gentlemen : — The elegant Roscoe relates that a certain laconic senate in
Italy, condemned a man for employing- three words where two only should have been
used. And their sentence doomed him to one of two punishments : namely, — to go
to the galleys for Ufe, or to read through the verbose work of Guiciardini. The cul-

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 17
prit chose the latter. But havmg fairly choked on the first page ; — ^he begged his
punishment to be commuted to the galleys for life.
It is not difficult to conceive your certain fate, if brought to this bar. And your
punishment would lie between the choice of the galleys, and the reading and digest
ing of your extraordinary letters !
Verbosity is not your only besetting sin. There is something else in it, which a
man of deUcate and refined taste, would, with McGavin, call "billingsgate ;" or in
the words of Dr. Chalmers, " blackguardism." Yet, in charity it may be only a
wild burst of eraotions from consciences stricken by the force of truth. I shall extract
one sentence as u. specimen of your first two columns ; and leave it without remark.
" In it," that is, my letter, — " there is the strut of the bully ! the gasconade of the
coward ! the subterfuge of fhe dissembler ! the trick of the partizan ! the pretensions
ofthe scioUst ! the petulence ofthe sour Calvinist! the malignant zeaZoiri/ of the
Puritan !"
You have volimteered a confession of " the inspiration, authenticity, and genuine-.
ness of the holy scriptures." You say, — " We deny not the inspiration of the scrip
tures ,-" — " We hold the scriptures to be an infallible rule."
I am sorry that there is room for saying that a palpable deception is practised in
these terms. The word " scriptures" has a very different meaning in the Roman
CafhoUc's vocabulary, from that ofthe Protestant's. All the world knows that in the
beUef of the Protestant, the books ofthe Old Testament, and those ofthe New, in the
Hebrew aud Greek, rendered accurately into our vernacular, — and nothing else than
these, constitute fhe holt scriptures.
But in your creed, gentlemen, you add to the inspired books, the human ¦writings
and fictions, called the Apocrypha : and then all these raust be used in the Latin false
version, called the Vulgate. This is not all ; you add oral traditions, of unknown and
doubtful origin ; and, raoreover the unanimous consent of the fathers ! All these con-.
stitute your "scriptures:" and this is what you always intend when you speak of
the scriptures ! And to consummate the difference between us. You denounce fhe
private christian's unaUenable right to read the Bible, and to leam the meaning of
God's Spirit speaking plainly and clearly unto him. You deny, and even ridicule
the claims of the private rights of judgment. You treat with bitter sarcasm the
christian's liberties of conscience. You have usurped power over the conscience, and
deny that any man has a right from God, even to think for himself on religion, with
out license from a prie.st ! Hence, you not only set up a new rule, and invent new
scriptures ; but you erect a novel tribunal to dictate to men's consciences the mean
ing of the "scriptures I" This new tyrant is — you say, — "a visible society of men,
appointed by Christ, called the church of God, — meaning the Romish church ; or the
pope and his clergy! And I beg every christian and patriot in the republic to
examine the claims which our priests set up in behalf of this ft)reign despot, — " to
this society of men,'' say you, " for the final ending of all controversies in religion,
all christians are bound to adhere and submit their judgment, and their opinions, on
points of religion; and this on pain of eternal damnation!" — Priests' Letter ii.
Is not this the cUmax of pontifical arrogance ; the consummation of fanaticism :
the full overflowings of the deadly chalice of Popery, — whose master spirits were seen
in ¦sTsions by John, " trafficing in human souls !"
I have, in my last two letters, in the briefest manner possible, established the truth
of the authenticity, and inspiration of the holy scriptures : and, thence, showed that
3*

18 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY.
this evidence is the perfect evidence of the infallibility of the Bible ; in which the
Holy Ghost, as the infallible judge, speaks to us. This also, decides the canonicity
of each of the books, of the holy canon of scripture. Every book estabUshed by the
evidence refen-ed to, is a part of that canon ; and every book which is not sustained
by this evidence, is not to be received into the canon. We pointed out the radical
error of Romish writers, on this point. They make the authority and -proof of the
inspiration of the scriptures, to depend on " the church," meaning the Romish
church ! This is one of their chief and most mischievous errors. It aims a deadly
blow at divine revelation. But the Bible does, in truth, no more depend on the
Roman church for the evidence of its divinity, and authority; than does the sustain-,
ing of the heavens and the earth depend on the pope's nod ! Their divinity and
inspiration are fully sustained by other, and complete portions of evidence besides
tradition ; namely internal and external, from the display of miracles, frora predictions,
&c. And we distinctly noticed, and again repeat it, — that, for the tradition, or histo
rical evidence of the church, which hands the canon of scripture down, siraply as
a depositorjr, we are as much indebted to the Hebrews, and the Jews ; to the Greek
church ; to the pure and apostoUcal church of the Waldenses ; and to the libraries of
the curious, whether christians or heretics ; as well, and as much as to the church
of Rome, That this last sect should set up such arrogant pretensions, and claim the
whole honor of transmitting the Bible, and of giving it all its authority, must be set
down to sheer knavery, or a derangement in the moral faculty .
Now, from this evidence, I proved the word of God to be the only infallible rule of
faith: for it, and it alone, comes from God : and the Holy Ghost speaking to us, is
the only judge of controvers)', in religious matters. And I quoted select passages
which clearly and distinctly declare the mind of that onljr judge deciding the contro
versy. And these who set themselves in opposition to these texts, and their authority
are guilty of the crime of setting up the pope as a rival to the Holy Ghost ! I rest my
appeal with the public. And remember, gentlemen, that the petulent denial that
you gave to these texts, for argument you have none, ivas not in proper keepjing. You
have no right to pronounce sentence on one of my arguments : you are neither judge
nor jury. It belongs to the christian public, to pronounce, finaUy, on mine, and
your arguments.
And by this protestant lesson and logic, to which all priests are, by their habits, of
course, utter strangers, I trust you -will duly profit, and fructify in future.
You have, with much zeal, endeavored from the outset, to retard my approach
to examine your rule : but now we have it fairly before us ; and though you renew the
stereotype challenge to stop at ceitain points, until you be satisfied, I assure you, gentle
men, that I have three reasons for rejecting this demand : —
1. As a Protestant, I will not be dictated to, as to the mode of my argument. For, —
2. You have not got us into the Inquisition yet : and we Protestants do not view
with much love, this mode a la Spanish, of joining the sword to' the pen. And,
3. The whole question of the rule, is before us, and why do you affect to say that
I shall discuss only one point, — and not touch your rule, or take in fhe whole field ?
Before entering on the dissection ofthe popish rule and judge, it will be interesting
to trace the origin of this extravagant dogma, and the real motive which first led the
partizans of Rorae to adopt it.
Dr. Middleton, in his curious " Letter from Rome," has fuUy and satisfactorily traced
into the ancient Roman paganism, almost every characteristic rite and ceremony,

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 19
which fhe Roman Catholics have introduced into tiieir corrupted system of Christianity.
The paraUel is truly striking, and shall be noticed in due tirae. But the originating
cause of her adopting this dogma about the rule of faith, is found solely within the
bosom of her own ambition. The famous Chillingworth has traced it with a master's
hand in the following extract, which will be perused by ray readers, with deep
interest : —
" He that would usurp an absolute lordship and tyranny over any people, need not
put hhnself to the ti'ouble and difficultv of abrogating, and disannulling the laws
made to maintain the common liberty : for he raa%" frustrate their intention and com
pass his own design as ¦n'ell, if he can get the power and authorithy to interpret
them as he pleases, and add to them -v\hat he pleases, ami to ha\ c his interpretations
and additions stand for la^^'S ; ifhe can rale his people by his laAvs, and his laws by
his lawyers. So the church of Rome, to establish her tyranny over raen's consciences,
needed not either to abolish or corrupt the holy scriptures, the pillars and supporters
of christian liberty, (which in regard ofthe nuraerous multitude of copies dispersed
dirough all places, translated into almost all language, guarded with all solicitous care
and industry, had been an unpossible attempt :) but the more expedite w-ay, and
therefore the raore likely to be successful, was to gain the opinion and esteem of the
public authorised interpreter of them, smd the authority of adding to them what doc
trine she pleased, under the title of traditions, or definitions. For by this means, she
might both serve herself of all those clauses of scripture which might be drawn to cast
a favorable countenance upon her ambitious pretences, which in case the scriptures
had been abolished, she could not have done, and yet be secure enough of having either
her power Umited, or her conuptions and abuses reformed by them. This being once
settled in the minds of men, that unwritten doctrines if proposed by her, were to be
received with equal reverence to those that -were Avritten ; and that the sense of scrip
ture was not that which seemed to men's reason and understanding to be so, but that
which the church of Rome should declare to be so, seemed it never so unreasonable
and incongruous. The matter being once thus ordered, and the holy scriptures
being made in effect, not vour directors and judges, (no farther than you please ;) but
your serA'ants and instruments, always pressed, and in readiness to advance your de
signs  it is safe for you to put a crown on their head, and a reed in their hands, and
to bow before them aud cry: Hail King of the Jews! To pretend a great deal of
esteem, and respect, and reverence to them."
I. The Roman CathoUc Church cannot pretend, with any show of reason, to pios-
se.ss this " infallible rule," when her greatest men cannot agree among themselves,
in deciding where this rule exists. Every one knows the endless diversity of senti
ment among the Romish w-riters, touching the point where this infaUible power lies.
I have formerly noticed four distinct sects among them. I have now to add, that one
class led on by Pighius, Albert, Gretser, and Bellarmine, and followed by all the
Jesuits, jilace the exercise of infallible power in the pope, and make hira the deposi
tory of interpretation. Bellarmine De Poniif. Lib. iv. cap. 3, and cap. 5, says
" the pope cannot possibly err." The canon law in the gloss, calls the pope, " the
Lord God." The Bishop of Bitonto, Mussus, has styled hira : " Him who is to us as
our god upon earth." The bishop of Grenada caUed hira, " a god on earth not subject
to a councU." And so late as July, 1809, Pope Pius VIL, in excommunicating "his
own dear son" Napoleon, whom he had crowned and blessed, says : " We, unworthy
as we are, represent the God of peace !"

20 ROMAN C.4.TH0LIC CONTROVERST.
Another class make the pope an unlimited monarch in spiritual and civil matters..
This was the sentiment of die councUs of Florence, of the Lateran, and of Trent.
Another class violently oppose this tyranny, and stand up in behalf of the rights of
councUs ; and they assign the pope only the right of presidency. Du Pin, Paola
and others advocate this; and they are sustained by the decisions ofthe councils of
Pisa, Constance, and Basil. And Pope Eugenius IV. did solemnly for awhile, ac
knowledge this. These opinions respect the pope's supreraacy, and his infallibility.
The decretals of Pope Pius I., declare for the rights of bishops against the lordly
claims of their superiors. " Bishops are accountable only to God." Bellarmine
opposes this with fierce zeal, and places the pope above all councils, and all tribunals
on earth, and all law ! To crown the climax, he writes thus : De Pontif Lib. iv. cap. 5.
"If the pope could so far err, as to command vice and prohibit virtue, the Church tvould
be bound to believe vice to be good, and virtue to be bad .'" I can give many more quo
tations, were it necessary, out of the canon law, and decretals of Pope Gregory VIII.
This was the usual style of the ghostly powers in the dark ages. But, now they have
gradually receded from this folly and impiety, down through the other shades of dif
ference, to a " mere presidency of the pope." And Dr. Pise, I heard assert on the
floor of the Protestant Association, that they owned the pope merely as their " spirittial
head," and rejected him, or rather, never owned him as a temporal prince ! It is true,
no man who has read the canon law and decretals, can for a moment, believe this
statement of Dr, Pise. For the pope " infallibly" claims this power and stUl wears
fhe triple crown. Bellarm. Lib. v. cap. 6.
Other Romish writers have placed councils above the pope : and there have been
councils that have actuaUy exercised this power. The council of Sinuessane if we
may believe ancient records, and your Remish annotators, Luke xxii. 21, arraigned,
tried, and conderaned Pope Marcelline for pagan idolatry! The council of Con
stance condemned Pope John XXIIL, and that of Basil condemned Pope Eugenius
IV. The assembly of Cardinals and Prelates of France in 1625, declared that "his
Holiness the pope is above all calumny, and his faith out of the reach of error!"
This was the dogma of the Jesuits. " The church " say many writers, and my
opponents among the rest, "the church is the infallible rule and judge." No;
says another class ; "the pope alone is judge ;" "The pope is above the CathoUc
church." "No council can touch him," says Pighius. "He is above councils,"
says Bellarmine, yet he adds like a holy son of infallibility, "he may be deposed,
only for heresy." Lib. U. De pont. Cap. 30. Yes! say several "infallible councUs,"
"we are above the pope, and can try him, and can depose him, and we have done
it!" And thus, they suit the action to the word, like honest men !
Thus, it is maiufest that the leading men of the Roman church are all agreed that
they have within "the church," an infaUible rule and judge. But they are at
endless war among themselves respecting the place where it is deposited. We have
it; that is certain; but we cannot tell where it is! Hence Dean Swift observed that
" reaUy Holy Mother might as well be without an infkllible head ; as not to know
where to find him, in time of necessity !"
But, nevertheless, they agree in a marvellous manner on this pomt; namely,  to
reject unanhnously the infallible rule of God our Saviour ; and himself, as the infal
lible Judge. " They are not content with Christ the judge in heaven ; and the holy
scriptures the mle and judge on earth,"— says an emment writer,—" but they must

ROM.VN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 21
have another judge; a visible judge. Like the IsraeUtes, they must have a visible
gorf to go before them, — though it were but a calf!"
Let the Roman Catholics go then, and try their infallible rule in the composing
of fheir own internal ware and controversies. Let them do this, before they stalk
forth as my learned opponents say, in reference to their jiresent warfare, — " arming
themselves with a panoply terapered by no teiresfrial artisi ;" to attack Ihe genius of
Protestantism in his strong holds. It will be well for them, if, like the hero Don
Quixotte, they meet only a windmill, in a similar illusion of the brain !
II. ^^'hat the Roraan Catholic church claims as the only infallible rule, is a thing
absolutely beyond the reach of the pope, or any council. It is positively impractica
ble of appUcation by mere mortals !
Were it not for the impiety ofthe thing, it were a piece of pleasant humor to hear
a Roman priest descanting about the obscurity of die Bible ; and melting into pathos
about the irapossibility of God's own rational creatures understanding a plain and
luminous message ofthe gospel from their Creator! Now, in opposition to all his
declamation, it is evident that the priest never feared, nor even believed the obscurity
ofthe Bible. It is because it is " so small a book," and of snch easy access; and because
it is so plain and clear, that he does fear it ; and labour to keep it out of the hands of
the laity. If it were obscure, it would do " Holy Mother" no harm!
But, let anyone look at the "infallible rule'' of the CathoUc Church! 1st. it
includes the scriptures, with the apocrypha, with all its fictions and indecencies. Now,
I tell you, gentlemen, the pope, and your church can no more wield the sword of the
spirit, and fix infalUble interpretations; and subdue the huraan soul; and produce
faith ; and create a nevr heart in man ; and convey divine grace, — all which our infal
lible word, and judge do, — than they can create a new Ireland ; or even cleanse the
Augean .stable of his Holiness's court at Rome !
This is not all. — In your rule, and as an essential part of it, you reckon all the acts,
and decisions of " Holy Mother Church." — These are deposited, in, at least, 8 folio
volumes ofthe Popish Bulls: in 10 folio volumes of Decretals: in 31 folio volumes
of Acts of CouncUs; in 51 folio volumes of the Doings and Sayings of the Saint's, —
" Acta Sanctorum." And add to all this, at least 35 volumes of the Greek and Latin
fathers ; in which are to be found that part of your rule called the unanimous consent
of the fathers. And to all this chaos of unread, unexamined, unimagined materials,
you add the almost boundless list of unwritten traditions, which, like the learned Ger
man's book, contain " observations and dogmas on all things, — and somethings
besides:" — traditions which have floated down onthe wind, and the miasmatic air of
Rome for nearly 1260 years!
All these cumbrous and enormous additions made to the holy scriptures, constitute
the Roman Catholic rule : the pope is judge. This judge must know the holy Bible
infalUbly and wholly : he must be minutely, perfectly, and infallibly acquainted with
aU the above named 135 folio volumes : he must know infaUibly all their unknowable
contents : reconcile all their irreconcilable contradictions : know minutely, and infal
libly, all the cases, and wants of all his dear flock, namely, the cardinals, prelates,
priests, and lay subjects ; he must know the hearts of all ; and be able to send light
into the human mind, and uprightness into the human conscience : he must know the
merits, perfectly, of each contending partizan, and order of friars ; and set forth, in
a plain, clear, and luminous page, every truth to settle disputes ; so that If the combat
ants do not see it, his infallible rule raay yet convince and convert all the predestinated

22 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
children of heaven! And, finally, as the first step towards his evidence of doing all
the rest, he must write down as cleariy, as by a sun beam, the place where the long
sought for, the terra incognita; the undiscovered, and undiscoverable land of infalli
biUty and supremacy, can be found ! That is, your infalUble judge must begm by
conquering an absolute impossibiUty ; and this bemg achieved, he must show proof
further, by triumphantly proceeding- to conquer ten diousand impossibUities ; annuaUy,
and hourly, and each passing moment, day and night!
This being manifestly the true state of the case, one is almost terapted to thmk the
claims of the Roraish church to one infallible head or judge only, to be quite moderate
and modest! I am persuaded that, in order to know infaUibly the Hebrew text, and
the Greek text; and all the different sentiments and doctrines contained in these 135
folio volumes ; and to digest and anange aU the oral traditions ; and bring the unani
mous consent out of the fathers, where no consent ever existed, — not even ten millions
of popes, such as the luxurious and effeminate things, which have reigned in Rome
under the name of popes, could do the ten millionth part required of this rule ! ! !
Nay, I must put the case stronger stiU ; none but Alraighty God has the attribute of
infallibility : none but God can reveal to the church his own word : none can be the
lord of the conscience, but our Creator : and he is supreme Lord thereof. And there
can be no more any inferior, or subordinate lord of the conscience, as my opponents
affirm, than there can be a rival to the Almighty on the throne of our hearts, and on his
throne in heaven ! None can be judge and rule of faith, but he alone who can create
a new heart in us; and make us true christians, even the Great God, who, indeed,
uses men as pastors, and to be our spiritual teachers and advisers ; but who alone knows
all the secrets of the souls of all men : and who alone convinces and converts. He
filone can be the judge ; aud his word alone can be our rule. And those who set up
these counter claims, we repeat it, must either be Jesuitical knaves, using false and
wicked pretences to gain an ascendency over the souls, bodies, and goods of men ; or
jclse, they are d eranged in the moral faculty ! This claim set up by the pope, and the
priests, reminds raeof asayingof a maniac in the Philadelphia Asylum, "People think
me idle here, in my cloister, or dungeon cell, in this easy old bachelor life, which I am
leading! But, alas! for the ignorance of mankind ! Be it known, that I keep in motion
the balance wheel of heaven : but for me, all nature would stand still I"
-The pope's claims are fidly as extensive and extravagant. He absolutely affects to
do, in the spiritual world, in the church, in purgatory, and in heaven, what the ma
niac believed he did in the natural world ! The pope keeps the balance wheel of
heaven in motion ; but for him, all illuminations, and all efficacies of grace, and all
conversions, and all deliverances from sin, and all emancipation from purgatory ; and
entrances into heaven, will cease and stand still ! ! And thus " as God, he sitteth in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God ,'"
This is the commencement of our argument against your rule. I shall here pause,
ia order that I may pay my respects to you, in a re-view of the leadmg errors and mis
statements in your last letter.
1. You charge me wilh a want of unity in my last letter. I assure you there is
strict logical unity in it. I laid down my rule of faith; defended it ; and closed by
showing that every objection you brought against our nUe, operated ten times more
severely against your mle. This was the reason why I noticed the errors, heresies,
*nd division in your church.
But 2, There is an error in your statement, which I shaU bring before the public j

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 23
for I frankly tell you that I have no hope that you will correct it. It is a mis-statement
copied, as usual from Milner's End of Religious Controversy. It is the standing error,
the stereotype misrepresentation of the Roman Cotiiolic writers ; and is repeated by
every little scribe which undertakes the defence of " Holy Mother," It is this : You
never give our own definitions, nor a fair description of the Protestant rule.
We have repeatedly stated tiiat our only infallible rule is the scriptures : and the
only infallible judge is the Holy Spirit, speaking to us in them. — And these words of
God are interpreted by his own words in other passages ; that is, — the Spirit speaking
in the word, interprets it to his church. And hence, it is a proverb in the lips of all
Protestants, that the Bible, or the Spirit speaking in the Bible, is its own best inter-
pieter. AU Protestants have solemnly denied that their rule is the Bible as explained
by private interpretation ; or as understood by every private individual ! And yet -with
these denials before his eyes, MUner asserts this falsehood over and over ag-ain, in his
End of Religious Controversy. You gentiemen, have repeated and propagated this
same slander. You invariably tell your followers what every one knows to be false,
that the Protestant's Rule is their Bible as interpreted by private judgment, or "the
interior Spirit." Indeed, your whole argument throughout is based on this unmanly
misrepresentation !
Your error has arisen from mistaking our declarations, touching private judgment.
We affirm fhat in the "ever blessed Reformation," we achieved "the right of pri
vate judgment," to think for ourselves and choose our religion. Not even an infant
scholar is so ignorant as to think of hiring a priest to keep his conscience, and settle his
spiritual accounts with his Maker, for money !
But we carefuUy teach our people, fhat while they have this right of private judg
ment, in regard to man ; they are bound by God's word to believe all that He says,
and do all that He commands: that they have no right before God to take the Bible in
any sense different from the mind of fhe Spirit of God speaking in it. That is, not by
by private interpretation; but by the Bible's own explanation of itself are they to be
guided. I beg the particular attention of my readers to this point. It is this solution which
neutralizes all the Roman Catholic priests' objections. And this explanation, we
caimot prevaU on their candor, to observe. It is a pitiful cause, which requires its
defendants to lay down a false statement, as the opinion of his opponent, that he
may, in the estimation ofthe ignorant, reap laurels by fighting against a man of straw,
or, to use my opponent's elegant allusion, " couching a lance against a windmill !"
As for John Wesley, it is not in my way, nor yours either, to drag in the name
of that venerable man into our controversy. Your arguments, however, take in a
wide range. You start an idea, and there is no saying where you end ; as Cow-
per says, you — " Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark;
Through Gaul, through Greece, and into Noah's ark."
Gentlemen : you ought, in honor, to quote the avowed creeds and confessions of the
church. No society is accountable for the private opiiuons of its members, whUe they
are mnocent speculations. Your quotation from Wesley is perverted by you to a wrong
sense. You can extract no Romanism out of it. He simply declares the way he took
by prayer and study, to discover the meaning ofthe Bible. Go you and do likewise :
and be entreated to tread Ughtly on the ashes of John Wesley, and similar worthies, for, —
"If christian worth in heaven rise,
' "" Yell mend ere ye corae near him !"

24 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
4. You also quote from die judicious Hooker, and Dr. Field's "Book ofthe church."
Now you know weU, gentiemen, that no two men wrote with more vigor and effect
against popery than these. And it is disgraceful in a literary man, to torture an idea
out of an author, contrary to the whole spirit and tenor of his work. The quotation
you give from Hooker, Eccles. Polity, p. 119, is notiimg to your purpose; he sunply
rebukes ignorant and obstinate errorists "whose capacity wiU scarce serve them to ut
ter /ue v/ords in a sensible manner,"— and who, witiiout any authority, set tiiemselves
up as teachers, and propagate " gross and palpable errors." And the sentence yon
give from Field, siraply declares that " the holy Bible is, m each passage, to be
explained according to the analogy of faitii," and " tiie general practice of the church,"
in her purest times.
You quote Dr. Field as favoring your heresy ; of course you wiU be pleased -with the
following, out ofthe same book you quote : " The pope is above general councUs ; and
he is not above thera; the pope raay err judicially ; the pope cannot err judicially; fhe
pope is temporal lord of all the world ; the pope is not temporal lord of all the, &c. The
virgin Mary was conceived in sin; she was not conceived in sin. If there be no con
tradiction here, then afl Roman priests declare the same doctrine !"
You also quoted Bullinger, folio 71, 72, cap, 15, and the author of " Scripture and
the church" with Hooker, sec. xiv. p. 86. These teach us, you justly say, that "the
church of God is endued with the spirit;'' and that "we could not believe the gospel
were it not that the church taught us, and witnessed that this doctrine was delivered by
the apostles." Luther, on John xvii. also says that " ifhe had not received the word of
God from the Catholic church, he should have known nothing about it."
These exhibit the sentiments of all the Reformed churches respecting one branch of
the evidence of divine truth ; that is tradition and testimony of the church ; the holy
Catholic church. But you have, as usual, fallen into a very natural and selfish error.
These writers say the church of God — the Catholic church did this : they did not once
say the Roman Catholic church. And it was sheer bigotry that dragged you into
the enor. It is tirae, in all conscience, that you learned to know the immeasurable
difference between these two societies, — The Holy Catholic Church of God, and the
Roman Catholic church ofthe pope!
5. I noticed not your former remark on the character of Luther ; and I was un-
¦willing to be drawn aside from the main argument : besides, this is personal abuse,
not argument. But were even Luther and Calvin, and other reformers, the mon
sters you wish to represent them, this affects not the question in discussion. We
never made these men our living, speaking rule ! I quoted your profane popes and
heretical councUs, quite in point ; and also the errors and divisions of " Holy Mother
church,'' for the best reasons in the world. These you make your living, speak
ing, and infallible rule ! Surely, if I demonstrate the errors and heresies of your
infaUible judges, I annihilate your rule. But as onr rule is the scriptures, and our
judge of controversy, the Holy Ghost speaking in them, not as understood by "pri
vate interpretation," but as interpreted by God, speaking in them to us, surely aU
your invectives against the Reformers are utterly irrelevant matter. But since you
stoop so low as to reiterate these persontdities, I shall vindicate these Reformers here.
Gentlemen, you furnish us another proof, that a Roman priest cannot breathe, nor
eat, nor drink, nor exist, without slandering good old Luther, and the other worthies
of the Reformation! It has been their very aliment to slander fhem. This glorious
and splendid achievement ofthe Reformers, o-wned and blessed of Almighty God, in

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 25
giving ci-vil and religious liberty, as well as pure Christianity, to every nation of Eu
rope, who would embrace it, has ever been painful and mortifying to your sect.
Their name seems to inflict pain on a priest's and on a monk's heart, as acutely as wheu
the steel touches the bare nerve ! Do you remember the saying of your own Eras
mus? What made fhe Romish priests so malignant against Luther, was this :  "he
touched the pope's crown and the priest's belly !"
You asserted that Luther rejected the epistle of James, and that to the Hebrews.
This I solemnly deny ; and every tiieologian knows that your assertion is false ! If
you really knew no better, it was inexcusable in you to write on the subject : if you
did know what I have now asserted, it displays a crirainal, but powerless atterapt to
injure the hero of the reformation, whose fame is increasing every year ! The truth
is this : when Luther -was yet half a monk, and had his eyes only half opened to the
light of protestant trutii, " he spoke lightly" of James's Epistle. But afterwards,
when he became a thorough divine, he advocated that epistle, as well as all the rest.
See Home's Introd. vol. iv. p. 412, note. And fhey were accordingly inserted by
him in the canon.
Some time ago, a slander w£is thrown out by a Romish priest, in th» Protestant
Association. But it met with a detection, and caused no enviable feeUngs to the
slanderer. He asserted that he had a quotation frora Luther's own works, in which
that Reformer is made to confess, that " he had been an impure, wicked, and licen
tious man." But, as usual, in Roman Catholic quotations by priests, the quoter
stopped short in the middle of Luther's sentiment. And how was the slanderer con
founded when he was helped, by a skilful accoucheur, a friend of mine, to deliver him
self of the rest of the sentence ! — namely : " All this I was," says Luther, " while I
was a Roman Catholic and a monk ; but now I am, by the grace of God, what I am!"
I would call the attention of the Lutheran church to a valuable work which some of
their learned men shoiUd give to the public in English, — I mean Dr. Melchior Nicho
las's Vindication of Maitin Luther, published by professor Wolfilin, of the college of
Tubingen, A, D. 1663, He records the seven chapters of slander against Luther, by
the Jesuit Forerus; and gives a triumphant refutation of each one of them. Every
thing which my opponents copy out of Mumford, relative to Luther, I find extracted
from Forerus — stripped of his decency, and modernized hy vulgarity.
In a particular manner is the slander refuted, that Luther admitted himself to have
been a pupil of the devil, in his sentiments touching the mass ! The amount of the
affair is this : Luther was, on a time, tempted to despair of divine mercy ; the thoughts
that mshed in upon his distracted mind, he conceived to be the immediate suggestions
ofthe devil. And the devil tempted him to this despair by this thought : " How can
there be hope for you, a wretch, who celebrated the abominable mass for no less than
fifteen years!" This is all that Satan is supposed, by the priests, to have taught
Luther. But it was, in fact, his own illumined conscience, lashed into horror, at
the retrospect of the horrid iniquity of celebrating the infamous mass, and sustaining
popery so long !
The immortal Calvin is another of the Reformers honored by the outpouring of
your vials of slander on him. And you have revived the malignant fictions of the
notorious Bolsec relative to the character and actions of John Calvin. It is true,
no one of you believes these books of monkish fables. There has not lived the priest,
yet, who has beUeved his own -writings on this matter ! Every one of you has the
means of knowing them to be sheer fictions. I should be guilty of insulting the
4

26 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
understandings, and the consciences of my three opponents, did I even insinOate that
they did, themselves, believe them ! But il is unmanly, and highly criminal in men
of letters aud taste, to feed the vUe appetite of slander, among a degraded and igne
rant community, " the simple faithful," who cannot read, and who think, and believt,
hy sacerdotal proxy. " I'd sooner be a dog, and bay the moon
Than such a Roman !"
And, gentiemen, the notorious Bolsec was the very last man that the sons of" Holy
Mother" shoiUd quote. He was, as you well know, au apostate CarmeUte monk, who
died under the ban of your church : and so profUigate that he gave his wife to be a
prostitute to the holy canons of Autun, to regain the Catholics' favor. He was a mis
creant hired to slander Calvin and Beza. And, you are fully aware that this was
Ilis infamous character. See Lemprier, article Bolsec. None but such men as Bolsec
can breathe slander over the memory of such an accomplished scholar, and trans-
cendant divine !
No one of the Reformers has escaped the poisoned breath of your revenge. Your
church has her "Records of judgments on heretics." This is the register of our
canonized worthies. Priest Hamilton stands first in the fetes of slander : Laing ¦writes
what he calls "the miserable, horrible, detestable, and execrable deaths" of Luther, Cal
vin, and other heretics ! The Scottish catholics gravely assure us that John Knox's
head, before he expired, was converted miraculously into a dog's head, with its face
turned backwards! Hamilton does not make the miracle quite so striking. "The
opening of John Knox's mouth, while dying," says he, very giavely, "was dra^wn
out to such a length of deformity, that his face resembled that of a dog, as his voice did
ihe barking of that animal !" Laing says : " He had communings with the devil, who
at last carried him off bodily !" " Not exactly so," said priest Hamilton, — "when his
friends came into his chamber, they found his dead body lying prostrate on the
floor!" When priests have the audacity to fabricate such a fate for John Knox, who died
in the presence of his family and friends, and closed a brilliant career, by a most
triumphant death — what will you not fabricate of those who die in your hands, and
beneath your power !
Lastiy : — You resuscitate the bnital invectives against the Waldenses, the faithful
descendants of the primitive and apostolical church, in the vallies of Piedmont, and
Bohemia. " These," say you, "were ihe enemies of order, and of the human race.
These " primitive christians," believed that there were two gods, one good, the other
bad. They despised the Old Testament as the book of the devil. They held marriage
to be unlawful without considering chastity a virtue ! Such were the execrable tenets
of the Albigenses which they propagated, like Mahomet, by plunder, rapine, fire and
sword." Ah! gentiemen, "Old Mother Church " has lost none of her ancient virulence^
although by age, she is becoming feeble and toothless : and as Livy has finely said 
" Vana sine viribus ira est." The world is not to be for ever covered with darkness;
and a perpetual prey to impostors. Late extensive and learned researches, hava
thrown a clear light over the aspersed characters of those holy martyrs of Jesus Christ
The ignorant and obscure -writers you quote, together with Mosheim, and a few other
Protestants who permitted themselves to be imposed on by Roman inquisitors, are no
more to be reUed on for the -character of the Waldenses, than would the records of th«

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 27
Jews, who murdered our Lord, bo relied on for His character. What candid man
would beUeve the murderous inipiisitors' character of our dear brethren, the martyrs !
Who would believe flie Roraan slanders of our dear brethren, the primitive christians !
But it so happens that we have the most ample testimony to refute the slander
perpetrated at Rome against the Waldenses, and unblushingly perpetuated by every
Romish priest, even in this enlighiened age !
These primitive christians believed in the one Uving and true God, and the Trinity :
they were not 3Ianicheans : they held not fhe doctrine of an evil god, equal to a good
one : they received all the books of the Old and New Testaraent ; and rejected the
Apocrypha ; they held marriage to be lawful in minister and layman ; they were
firm believers in all the doctrines ofthe gospel, as exhibited in our creeds and canons;
they were a chaste and devout christian people.
I refer you to Jones' Church History, re-published in New York, in 1824. In vol.
U. p. 41, &c., vou ^v^ll find a copy of two of the ancient Waldensian Confessions of
Faith, and a full exhibition of their character and history, I beg to refer you also to
GUly's " Waldensian Researches, tvith an introductory inquiry into the antiquity and
purity ofthe Waldensian church," published in London, 1831.
Dr, AUix who has investigated this subject deeply and accurately, says, — " I defy
the impudence of fhe devil hiraself to find in the writings of the Waldenses the least
shadow of Manicheism!" And every scholar now admits that the erroneous state-,
ments of Mosheim and Liraborch have originated iu their implicitly following the
Romish inquisitors on this subject. As for Robinson, he wreaks his vengeance on
them because he found them too orthodox to be Socinians ! See AUix's Remarks on
the Churches of Piedraont, p, 188, 191, and Jones' Ch. Hist. vol. ii. ch. 5.
And if you prefer the testiraony of Roman Catholics, I refer you to Florimond dt
Remund's Hist, de la Heresie, liv. -^ii. chap. 7. He calls thera the "first Luthe
rans" as in all important points, they agree -with the Reforraers. " They have nothing
in their mouths but Christ, the Saviour," says he, "and they know nothing else than
Jesus Christ. It is the ignorance, gross, and almost essential to the Vandois heretics
re-vived in this age &c." " Having the Bible translated, these poor people read it
continually, in such a manner that they know all the books of it by heart."
Hear also TAwanus, Historia; Ub. x.xvu. cap. 9. temp.Carrol. IX. "Nee quenquam
&c. Nor can one usually find even a boy among them who being interrogated rela
tive to the faith he professes, cannotpromptiy and from raeraory, give a reason, &c.''
And he quotes Wicliff, Huss, and Jerome, as being precisely of their opinions. See
the London Prot, Journal, for 1831, p. 718.
But what is more, we have thetestimoay of tivo inquisitors. The one was Reinerius,
who pubUshed a catalogue of the Waldensian errors. Dr. AUix has given us the Latin
copy of this, p. 183, &c. The other inquisitor's testimony" you will find in Hist.
Scrip. Bohem. p."222; and in AUix, p. 211. Sesselius, your archibishop of Turin,
lived in the very heart of Piedmont, and was a violent persecutor of these christians.
He wrote a narrative of their opinions sometime before the Reformation.
All these show the existence, in an ancient flourishing church, of the very sentiments
and doctrines of Luther, and of Calvin. In reading Sesselius' extract frora the Wal
densian confessions, you would imagine hira quoting frora the pages of Calvin! But
Calvin's name was not then even heard of. And yet the Roman Catholics ask us,
" where was your religion before Luther ?" See Jones U. p. 35—41. But what crowns
the whole, we havejthe testimony of one of your ' infalUbles ;' I mean .iEneas Silviu*

28 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
afterwards pope Pius U. It is found in his Historia Bohemia, p. 141. And if this is
not in your reach, you wUl find copious extracts in Jones' Chuich Hist. ii. p. 19 — 41.
From the statements of their bitterest foes, therefore, as well as their friends, it is a matter
of historical record, tiiat the agreement between these primitive apostolical christians,
and the Reformers, on tiie various doctrines of the gospel, was strictiy uniform and
exact !
I shall for the present, leave this, and when we come to the sanguinaiy marks of
the Roman Catholic church, under tiie m-ticle Persecution, we shall rehearse a tale of
woe, not equaUed in history, perhaps ; nor surpassed in fiction ! I allude to fhe horrid
massacre, and extermination of the Waldenses, by Pope Innocent MIL and his fero
cious priestiiood !
The Jews of old bewailed the deeds of their ancestors, .and said, " Had we lived in
the days of our fathers, we would not haAe slain die prophets, '¦ And they gai'nished
the sepulchres of the martyred holy ones ! But, alas ! in tiiis enlightened age, tiie less
humane priests of Rome do not only refuse to garnish the tombs of die martyred
Waldenses and Albigenses ; but they breatiie the poisoned breath of cniel slander
over their sacred ashes ! In die vindictive attributes diey ha\ e been always immu
table. I am, gentiemen, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PEIESTS' LETTER in.
' There is another class of distinctinnists, the class of operative religionists. Many of ita
members, leagued to a more than common share of tlie cuise entailed on tbe children of
Adam, toiling in the 'sweat of tlieir brow,* and pack horses to the interior spirit, have
drudged through the 'Hebrew and Gieek oftlie Holy Ghost.' "
"Our ambition is limited to one — to Doctor Brownlee, a Preacher in (he Middle Dutch
Church. His name in itself a host, is more than nmplo matter to impart the lustre of embel
lishment to our remarks. His letters, and, oh, ye members of the Middle Dutch Church,
his powers of ratiocination ! Theological in his matter, logical in his procf, iiir'Dicille in his
ai-guments, rigid in his references, drfinite in his terms, classical in bis phrases, solid in his
scripture te.xts, happy in his quotations, — did the old Stngirite return to earth he would shun
an encounter! — Gentle in his words, courteous in his allusions, /os/trfiow^ in his compliments.''
"Your first letters are merely illustrative of your powers of 'squinting;' — the last is
direct, unerring vision; — tlie completion of cool, logical, and theological argiuncnt. To aid
our readers, and specially the members of die Middle Dutch Church, in the application of
this direct and unerring vision, the demands expressed in our former letters, are a third
time n p ated. You, Rev. Sir, have not yet ansvrrrd them. Excuse the iteration. Pardon
our ad, erance to singleness of object, " Tell us how you know the Bible to be Ihe word of
God? How do you know which books were written by Divine inspiration? Does the
Bible contain the whole word of God, or does it not?"
"Were it not reducing you to the innocent simplicity of infancy, we should consign you
to the nursery to be rocked to the old lullaby, " see saw, Magcry Daw," Is it thus u
man acquainted with the 'Hebrew and Greek ofthe Holy Ghost' establishes his rule of
faith! Is this tlie outpouring ofthe Holy Spirit's favorite!"
" Your reasons, Rev, Sir, for this inquisitorial decree? Is it because the interior spirit
does not speak through your letters? Are the 'Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost,'
less gifted with infallibility than your writings ?"
" Here there is a promise urbanely expressed to the ear, but, oh how broken to tlie liope !
The Bible is not yet proved to bo the word of God, and jet, in the same letter fi-om whieh

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 29
the preceding passage is taken, you invoke die interior spirit to the interpretation of fiv«
scripture texts to prove the infaUibiUty of the Bible. This is a ludicrous specimen of tha
nursery see saw logic,'' &c.
" The interior spirit, is tasked to prove the infaUibility of the Bible, and the Bible is used
to prove the right ofthe interior spirit. You insist on the Bible being the only rule of faith;
that each individual, no matter how gross or uncultivated in mind, possesses the right to
adopt that sense of scripture which appears to him the best according with truth ; that God
has promised the illumirtation necessary to discover this accordance with truth, and, yet,
aU this you pretend to prove fi-om scripture te,\ts, ere the scripture is proved to be the word
of God I"
" As the import of this modest and inspired extract, though not i n the ' Hebrew and Greek
ofthe Holy Ghost,' may be interesting to the members of the Jliddle Dutch Church, w»
present it to them in English, 'This is my will, this is my command. Let mv will be
reason.' So Luther commands, and he proclaims himself a doctor pre-eminent above all
the doctors of the entire papacy. Therefore the word alone shall remain in my New
Testament » - » * * tliough all the popish asses should run rabid, thev shall not
remove it."
" Bishop Hare says, ' The orthodox faith does not depend upon the scriptures, considered
absolutely in themselves, but as explained by Catltolic tradition,'"
yote. — This episcopal prelate does not sav Roma-N" Catholic tradition.
"The famous Dadith in his episde to Beza, says, 'If that be the truth, which the ancient
Fathers have, w\th one accord professed, it must be owned, that this truth, will be wholly
on tlie papists side.' — See Brercly's Protestant Apology. Now, Rev. Sir, the most learned
Protestants acknowledge, that we have the holy scriptm-es on the authority. of the Catholic
church, nay, on the autliority ofthe Roman Catholic church, fcr Dudith says, that all the ancient
Fathers, are on 'the side of the papists ;' and your favorite ^liddleton says, ' that he pities
the Protestants when he sees them stiuggling to reconcile the Fathers to the reformation.' "
Xote. — Everv one who knows the corruptions introduced into the Fathers, bv the monka
ofthe dark ag-es : whereby modern poperv is awkwardly tagged to the primitive writers, will
cordially unite \\-ith Dudith and Middleton.
The above quoted Brerely, to^^ether with Knot and others, ^vere notorious for tlieir mi©.
representations; and hence t.hey were prime auxiharies of iMilner in his " End of Contro
versy.'' We go on with extracts : —
" "Where then is your infallibility ? ' It is seated, says Holy Jlother, in aU my Bishops and
Pastors throughout the ^vhole world, prcft.-s^ing the same doctrine, and united in faith and
communion widi their supreme pastor, the bishcp of Rome. It also resides in a general
council, at which the pope is present , either in person or by his legates, after it is confirmed
bythe pope himself. This is an article of faith wherein all Catholics agree. See Suares
de fide p. 5. sec. 7. Xo. 9. You now know where to find my infallibility, and on this subject
you -will discover no difference of Oj)inion amon? my children.''
'- The 3rd council of Carthage, held in the year 307, examined the tradition ofthe church,
with ^egard-to those books about -\\hich there was any doubt, or difference of opinion, and
found aU the books recommended in our canon. In the 47th canon, the council defines our
books to be canonical, sayi.ng, ' we received from our fathers, that these books are to be read
inthe Church.' "
To the above quotation, I shall subjoin the idea of our priests, as Jlilner, their champion,
cypresses it.
"It was not until the end of the fourth century that the genuine canon of scripture wa»
fixed: and then it was fixed by the tradition and authority ofthe church, declared in the third
council of Carthage, and decretal of Pope Innocent I." He then quotes " the most learned
protestants," — -as Luther, Hooker, Chillingworth ; with St. Augustine, as teaching this.

39 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
LETTER IV.
TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, ANB MR. LEVINS.
" Every word of God is pure."—" Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and
thou be found a Liar !"
Rev. Gentleiwen :— I shaU not follow Mr. Levins over the field of his poUuting
effusions. The above extracts are a specimen of your last letter : they carry their
answer along with them. It is true, I do write for " the members of the Middle
Dutch Church." And " the members of the Middle Dutch Church," are very dif
ferent people from the flocks of St. Patrick's pastor ! One naturally adapts himself
to the cliraate and society in which he lives !
I have already stated the rule of faith held by the church of Christ, resting, as it
does, on the rock or eternitt : and that held by your church, professing to be
built on St. Peter.
It must be obvious to every one who has studied Romish authors, that no Roman
priest will have candor enough to honor our defitutions, as we give them. The Pro
testant churches never have said that their rule of faith is the scriptures, as received by
every one, by private interpretation. This is a sheer interpolation by the priests, who
defend their cause by this perversion. The Holt Spirit speaking unto us is the
RULE ANu judge ; and it is to be received as He interprets it to us, in his plain, sim
ple, and perspicuous words. We exercise the right of "private judgment," and
"liberty of conscience.'' But that " private judgment," does not constitute the Rule,
Hereby, as rational beings, we are put into the possession of the means and faculties
of studying and finding out the mind and -will of God.
It is one of the vexatious difficulties which we have to encounter m this discus
sion, that our opponents cannot appreciate the meaning and force of certain words,
current with Protestants. A Roman priest can, for instance, no more take up fhe
meaning, and estimate the force of the terms "liberty of conscience," and "private
judgment," in religious matters, than "can the legitimate tyrants" of Europe, appre
ciate the " rights and pri-vileges" of American repubUcans ! Their minds have never
conceived the possibiUty of their existence.
It was never contemplated in this discussion, to convert it into a deistical controversy.
I had never conceived that the Roman priests would so boldly, and so honestly, come
out in the ranks of deism, and insist on making it an indispensable part oftlie discus
sion, to turn aside to prove the inspiration of the holy Bible. Yet, so it is. The
New York priests have all along dogmatically insisted on my letting their infallible
rule alone ; and in confining ourselves, first of all, to the proof of the divine inspira
tion of the scriptures.
There are two reasons urging them on to this course. The first is, that they are
aware, as we shall soon show, that their whole system touching infallibility, and
their " infalUble rule," is their open flank, and weak side. And second, the main
reason is this : The Roman church holds this dogma as the basis of her whole sys
tem, " tlie inspiration of the scriptures relies only on an external authority, and that is
the authority of the Roman Catholic church.''' My opponents express this in tiieir
Letter II. , thus : " Were the deist to say to Dr. Power, Sir, I cannot see any internal
evidence of inspiration in the holy scriptures ; Dr. Power would say, that he himself
sees no such evidence of then inspiration ; that he would not believe the scriptures

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 31
unless led to their belief by the Catholic church ; tiiat if the deist would follow him
into the Catholic church, he would show him die evidence of the inspiration of the
scriptures." Hence it is a very prominent tenet in dieir infidel system that die
divine inspiration of the Bible cannot be proved but by the word and authority of
"Holy Modier!" You may advance all diat has ever been written on it, yet if
you do not yield up the question in debate, and fall down and acknowledge die Roman
goddess, as above "aU that is called God, or is worshipped," they raise the outcry,
that you have not touched the point. " Yield rae all I want," cries the Priest,—" or,
you shun the whole question, and know nothing about logic, or theology," And,
moreover, when we have such anthropoi alogoi, " unreasonable men," as Mr. Levina
to deal widi, whose Inishowen inspirations render him unfit to take up a solid argu
ment, one gets heartily " blackguarded," to the bargain !
Now, we have discussed the proofs ofthe inspiration ofthe Bible, and shown that
it is estabUshed perfecdy by its own internal evidence, and by external proofs, such as
miracles, tongues, prophecies ; and by historical evidence, and tradition also; as that of
the Hebrews and Jews "to whom were committed the oracles of God ;" and by die
church at Jerusalem; and by the church at Antioch ; by the whole Greek churches;
by the apostolical church of die Waldenses, and by the church of Rorae. All these
were checks, mutuaUy, on each other ; and all handed down the holy scriptures to pre
sent tiraes.
There never was exhibited such aiiother master-piece of ghostly assurance and
impudence, as that of the Romish church, in pouring conterapt on the churches of
the East, — say of Antioch, and all the Greek church, far more ancient than herself,
and far purer; and also on all other branches of the church: and of clainnng th«
exclusive honor of handing down the Bible by tradition.
The Romish rule of faith we also stated ; it is this, — " the infallible scriptures,
with the apocryphal books, and oral traditions, with the unanimous consent of the
Greek and Latin fathers ; and all as explained by the infaUible head, the Pope or a
councU, or the church, a pope and council. "The Bible," or "infallible rule"
of the Romish church, in a word, is large enough to load four carts heavily ; besides
all their traditions. And then the " pope," or "council," or "church," is mounted
on them as the "infallible judge and interpreter."
We are now prepared to go on with our dissection of this rule. The whole
Roman system, as it is evident from history, scripture, and dear bought experience, is
a cunningly devised scheme to gain, not the salvation of souls : she who is "drunk
with the blood ofthe saints," has no anxiety about the salvation of souls; but to gain
unbounded civil power, and wealth for Peter's purse. And as n preparatory step to
this, she seeks to gain a complete ghostly power over the souls and consciences of her
crushed and trodden down victims. Hence we are taught where to seek for the
originating cause of her adopting not God's holy word, but this rule as the "infallibly
rule." The question, with its devisers and inventors, -was not, what heis God spoken 1
What is HIS word ? But it was this : — what is best adapted to achieve promptly the
consummation of our scheme of spiritual subjugation : — and, thence, the temporal
power over the souls, and bodies, and possessions of all men !
Chillinsworth furnished us, in our last letter, with the true origin of this Romish
rule. This writer is, on our side ofthe Romish controversy, what Homer was among
ihe ancient poets ; and Demosthenes was among the orators. And yet my Inis
howen friend, Mr. Levins gravely quotes this Protestant Hercules as actuaUy favor
ing your heresy !

52 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.' '
An asylum for the cure and prevention of polemical phrenzy, and literary knavery,
has, I believe, not yet been contemplated. But no man wiU hesitate to say diat
«nch an institution would be infinitely more merciful, and useful, than aU your mo
nasteries and nunneries ! ¦
According to Chillingworlh, this is the precise attitude of the pope, and the Roman
Catholic church, before the worid. That thing, be it pope, or councU, or pope and
«ouncU, or " Mother Church," in which infallibUity is lodged, does in a condescendmg
manner, take the Holt One and his blessed word, under its special protection:
bestows on the Bible its inspiration, and all its authority : claims the uncontrolled right
of explaining it to aU men's consciences: and of adding new doctrines, and even new
sacraments; it appoints its own devoted priesthood, as "the other god upon earih,"
as Mussus, bishop of Bitonto said : it doles out a portion of the infalUble interior spirit
to each priest, for the defence of the scariet woman of St. John : and brings every thing
into market, for money, even souls, and bodies of men ; and each sin, at the staple
price of the Pope's exchequer book. It avails itself of the aid of the Bible, when h
can be gracefully bent to its way : and when it condemns its course, or is silent, it puts
it on the papal rack, and tortures it into an utterance of what it wants before anignorant
and degraded generation of men !
We have finished our first two arguments against the Roman CathoUc rule. Wb
i&owed first, that, with all their pretentions, their best and most intelUgent writers
cannot tell us where it is to be foimd. They all adirUt that " they do have it;" but
they cannot tell us how to come at it !
I cannot resist an appropriate illustration of this in a late anecdote. Patrick O'B,
¦was attached to oneof our packets. Ithappened thatwhile Patrick was, in hisvocation,
washing a copper kettle, it rolled over board into the sea. It. was gone in a moment.
There was no use in lamenting ; he could not recall it. He made his way directly to
the cabin : — " Captain, can a thing be said to be lost when we know where it is ?"
" Certainly not, my good lad !" replied the Captain, " Well, then, by St. Patrick!"
cried our cook, — "my fine copper kettle cannot be said to be lost, at all: for I know
that it is in the bottom of the sea." " Holy Mother's" infallible judge is precisely in the
same predicament ! But who shall bring it up and make it visible and tangible ! Oiu:
second argument was this : — No mortal man, pope or council can wield this same rule,
or make any practicable use of it. We shall now go on : —
III. Your infallible rule can never be found out, on your principles, nor employed for the
benefit of man. This rule must have been estabUshed by Christ for the benefit of all
God's moral subjects ; or only for the benefit of the pope and his clergy. You will
scarcely deny that God designed his message to be addressed to all men." Christ says,
— " What I say to you, I say to all, watch." " He that hath an ear let him hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches." " Search ye the Scriptures, &c. "Blessed is he
that readeth, and they that hear, &c. — You will hardly venture publicly to affirm in
this enlightened country, that God has committed his Holy word only to priests : and
that the most immoral and polluted priesthood on earth can be the sole depository of
¦God's pure scriptures ! I beg your pardon. I am too charitable : you have openly
avowed this. But I must remind you thatthe assertionof a criminal whohas abstracted,
and wasted his master's goods, is not a witness in his own case : his proofless word
passes for nothing. Give us proof, instead of your assertions.
Now, how must those who are to receive benefit from your rule, arrive at the evidence
of the fact that your rule is the only infallible one ? On the principles you hold, no
one can find it out. You condemn, and in genuine Romish spirit, you even ridicule

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 33
the rights of private judgment, and private interpretation, in this matter. Now apply
your own argument here, and you will see whither it leads you.
You affirm that the Holy Bible is the infallible rule, so far as it goes : then you add
the Apocrypha ; and a chaotic mass of traditions : and all these are to be taken according
to the unanimous consent ofthe Fathers; of whom any two are scarcely of one mind.
How go you to work here ? You set out to seek diis rule and judge, either as a church,
en masse : wliich is utterly impossible. Or you go as indi\iduals : but how can you as
individuals, be assured ofthe inspiration ofthe Bible; ofthe genuine traditions; and
ofthe consent o"the Fathers? You must either form a judgment and belief, or not. If
not, then there is no faith. If you do form a belief and a judgment, then mark your
dUemma, you do by private judgment, and by private interpretation, determine, yourself,
that this is the rule and judge. And thus you do, as falUble men, by privat e judgment,
determine the infallible rule. That is to say, private judg^ment, and falUble individu
als do that which you have declared they never can do. And, hence, in determining
your rule, you overthrow all your own objections against ours.
But even admiting that you have, by private and fallible judgment, determined the
infallible rule, you wUl find yourselves no nearer the end of your difficulties than
before. Your " infalUble head," the pope, happens to be a mortal and erring man. Besides
he is not accessible, except to only a few in Italy. He cannot exhibit truth, and decide
controversies in every chapel ; in every house, in every heart, in all lands. A council
can do no better. There has been no council since that of Trent. And the ghost of
that council cannot walk die earth, and enter into all houses, and chapels, and hearts,
in all lands ! — It could not do this, were it even now in session at Trent.
" Holy Mother Church,'' can act no better part. You send your people to her for
fhe true infallible rule. Now the act of faith is thus expressed in your Douay cate
chism ; and the definition is a curious one ; it embraces the sum total of a Papist's
faith : " Great God, I firmly believe all those sacred truths which the holy Catholic
church believes and teaches, because thou, who art truth itself, hast revealed them.
Amen!" I wUl not stop to remind you that the Mohammedan belief is as simple,
namely : " There is one God, and Mohammed is his prophet." And, throughout all
Turkey, there is much more unity in Mohammedan belief, than in your church. But
what I urge on your attention, is this — the difficulty is not removed by this chicanery.
" Holy church" cannot do any thing better, in this afiair, than the pope. For what
is " holy church?" Roman priests do not even agree in the answer to this question.
Some say " the church," is the pope and his clergy: some say it is the priesthood.
You and Mr. Hughes seem to include the laity with the priests, and so make it "the
people and their pastors."
But here is the difficulty; how can you congregate aU these into one speaking
rule ? How, and where, can the simple faithful find the response of this orat le ?
No where under the sun. She cannot speak and judge ; the faithful cannot hear her
voice from all places where the people and priests are scattered abroad.
Either then, the faidiful flock have no faith, because they have no response from
this oracle, and no rule ; or else they must believe by proxy ; and not only so, but
truly believe that of which they have no knowledge whatever ! And this last is the
alternative, as every one knows ! And any man can make the experiment to satisfy
himself, with a true and devoted son of the church. Let any one ask a Roman Catho
lic who follows impUcitiy his priest,—" Pray, what is your belief?" he wUl reply,

34 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
"I beUeve as the church believes." "WeU, what does the church believe?" He
¦will say, " holy church believes as I beUeve." " But what do you and die church
beUeve?" "Why, arrah, now we both believe exactly the same thing!" This is
tiie uniform answer ; and you can never get any other out of them, for the best reason
in the world; there is nothing else in them! And what is much worse, by tiiB
RULE, and the priest's influence, nothing else is allowed to enter into his dark and
wofuUy abused mind. " Ignorance is the mother of devotion .'" This is dieh old and
tried maxim.
FinaUy, shaU the flock be sent to what your champion, Dr. MUner, calls " the whole
word of God, ivritten and unwritten 7" This, as I have said, is large enough to load
some four carts ! Havmg found these 135 folio volumes, and the unwritten traditions,
if he can, the simple enquirer is no nearer the end of his difficulties. For, alasl
should a layman, in his simplicity, dare to take it on him to use his private judgment,
and reason, and make a mental effort to find out his Maker's wUl, and the holy word
speaking to him, he should forthwith have the ban of the priest pronounced on hini>
He must yield up his conscience and his soul, simply to be guided by the pope or
oouncU ; that is to say, a rule and a judge which he can never see, and never discover!
IV. That Christ established your infallible rule, in his church, we utterly deny.
The Roman Catholic writers have here exhibited a curious specimen of logic, hi
their abortive efforts to prove that Christ established their Rule. MUner, in his Eni
of Controversy, has led the way ; aU of you follow after him. You assert, in strong
terms, tiiat Christ did establish your rule, and gave it to the aposties : that you ar,B
the only apostohcal successors ; and, therefore, you only have that rule of Christ,
that is infallible.
Now, let us see a specimen of the logic and proof. Christ, you say, established
your rule. This was the first thing to be proved; and, let us not loose sight of fhs
materials of this rule. If Christ ordained your rule, then he gave forth by inspi
ration, the Apocrypha, as well as the Bible ; then, also, he ordained by inspiration,
all the oral traditions of your church ; and he also told the church, by the Holy
Spirit, that he gave you the unanimous consent ofthe endlessly contradicting Fathers,
as a part of that rule, and that he appointed, by name and title, the pope, or coun
cil, or the church, you know not which, as the only infaUible judge.
This was the point to be proved : but no one of you touches it except by asser
tion. MUner, and Hughes, and yourselves, shift completely the subject to be provedi
And, instead of showing that Christ ordained the materials out of which your rulfi
is made, you labor to show that Christ ordained teaching by ivord of mouth.
•" Christ," says Hughes, " has made the promise of infallibility to the succession of
TEACHING and not to writing, reading, or private interpretation." And Milner, in
his End of Controversy, declares that Christ sent the apostles and fheir successors tc
preach the gospel byword of mouth. "If," says he, " Christ had intended that all
men should learn his religion from a book, viz: — the New Testament, he would
have written that book himself, and enjoined the obligation of learning to read it,
&-C." " But," adds this Vicar General of England, with unblushing impiety and
infidelity, " Christ imote no part of the New 'Testament himself, and gave no orders
io his apostles to write it." See Letter VL, &c., p, 63, &c.
Thus, having, on the principles of deism, got rid of the ¦written word of God,
although in contradiction to the council of Trent, which admitted the inspriration of
the holy scriptures, you do, by a dexterous shifting of the question, make this teach-

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 35
iog by word of mouth, to be the rule estabUshed by Christ in his church ; and,
being established by him, it must be infallible.
And thus, the real infallible rule of Rome is abandoned, without proof, to its fate.
Instead of proving the inspiration of the Apocr^'jiha, traditions, and the consent of ths
Fathers, and the divine authority ofthe pope, they very gravely set to work, and try
to prove that the " infallibility was promised to teaching by word of mouth !"
But were it possible that you, gentiemen, could prove the infallibility of the succes
sors of the aposdes, this would not avail you. For, —
V. The line of your succession is entirely broken off, both as it regards the popes and
the church.
1. The succession is cut off from Rome, by the loss of the essential bond of holiness,
Christ says, " Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." " Except a
man be born of the water and of tiie Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
" K any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." This is the essential
doctrine of Christianity. Hence no wicked man, no infidel, can be considered a
member of Christ's church.
But, -without denying that there areindi-viduals who are true christians -within the pale
ofthe Romish church, we do assert that, as a church, she has not only lost this badge
of holy disciple hip. but even maintains fhat hoUness of heait, or internal grace, is not
necessary to merabership. Hence the usual expression with the Roraan priests :
"Such a one is reconcUed to the church;" not to God, but "to the church."
And Bellarmine maintains an argument that " wicked raen, infidels and reprobates,
remaining in fhe public profession of their Romish church, are true members ofthe
body of Christ !" See Bell. Lib. 3. De Eccles. c. 7. The Rhemist Annotators
declare the same, on 1 Tim. iii. 15, and on John xv. 1.
2. And, in addition to this, fhe Romish church has apostatized from the funda
mental doctrines ofthe gospel. You reject the one only and perfect atonement of Christ,
and substitute, in its place, the raass, in which you profess to offer up weekly, an
unbloody sacrifice for the living and the dead ; you reject justification by faith alone,
through Christ's righteousnes ; you deny the efficacious work of grace by the Holy
Ghost: with you, a sinner is saved purely by human merit, and the efficacy of your
sacraments, and the prie.st's intention.
And to the pure doctrines and institutions of the gospel of Christ, the Roman Catho
lics have added an endless train of doctrines, -wUl-worship, rites, and ceremonies.
The whole face of Christianity has been changed in that church ; the whole system
new modelled, in the most heaven daring manner.
In Christ's throne they have reared " their lord god, the pope." They have intro
duced the adoration of saints, and the idolatrous veneration of images. They have
invented a purgatory, though opposed by St. Augustine, and the best Fathers, before
the sixth century. They deny marriage to the priests, and very facetiously call a
bachelor priest's Ufe, " chastity !" Transubstantiation and the mass, though invented
iu the ninth century, were iraposed on the Roman church, only so late as 1215, in
fhe fourth council of the Lateran. by Pope Innocent III. They deny the cup to the
laity in the Lord's supper ; although Pope Gelasius, in 492, pronounced it sacrilege
to do so !
Thus, your church is apostate in doctrine ; and so the succession is cut off. Hear
the words of Gregory NaziaiLsin, speaking of Athanasius succeeding in the chair of
St. Mark : " He was not less the successor of his piety, than of his seat; in point of

^ ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
time distant from him. But, in piety, which indeed is properly called succession,
direc'tly after hhn. For he diat holdetii of die same doctnne is of the same chair ;
but he who is an enemy to die doctrine, is an enemy to the chair !" Orat. 21, on
Adian. Paris edit, of 1777.
But, 3. Your succession is broken off in the broken Ime of the popes, and true ordina
tion. 'The very nature of the apostoUcal character, and call to office. wUl show that
the aposdes had no successors in office. An apostie was one who had seen Christ
ahve, after his death ; was sent by immediate inspiration and a caU to office, by
Christ, visible to him ; and who, moreover, established his divine call before die
world, by miraculous powers. Gal. chap. i. and 1 Cor. ix. 1, &c.
Besides these, Christ appointed pastors and teachers. When the line of extraordi
nary offices, Uke that of die aposdes and prophets, ceased, the ordinary Une of pastors
and teachers continued. These, alone, strictiy speaking, had successors, as these
were successors to the aposdes in that part of theh characters which made fliem
teachers. " Go ye, and teach all nations." This was spoken as much to the
pastors and preachers, as to the aposdes ; and to the successors of that class which
actually had successors.
But even admitting, what was impossible, that your popes were the successors of
the apostles, the line has been broken off long ago.
I have before me copious extracts from Platina, Baronius, Genebrard, Dupin, &c.,
all Romish -writers, which show that the Roman Catholic church was corrupt from
the fourth century ; that she increased in corruption until the ninth : and that, from
the ninth to the council of Trent, say for 660 years, she was in a state of fhe
most frightful corruption.
The tumults and bloodshed, at the election of popes, clearly prove that Rome was
converted into the synagogue of Satan. Could such gladiators be the apostohcal
successors ? Pope Liberius [A. D. 353] became a heretic by the emperor's influ
ence, and that of the apostate Bishop Hosius. Hear your ¦writer, Andre du Chesne :
"Not to dwell on all the persons of distinction, who imitated him, he notoriously car
ried along with him, in his fall, the supreme bishop of the entire orthodox church !"
Platina, in his life of Damasus, I., A. D., 366, says, "that when he ¦was elected
pope, he had a rival in the church called Sicinus; where many were Idlled on both
sides, in the church itself: since, the matter was discussed not only by votes, but
by force of arms!"
Baronius, vol. vi. p. 562, A. D. 498, tells us that fhe emperor's faction sustained
the election of Laurentius to the papacy. In this struggle, "murders, robberies,
and numberless evils, were perpetrated at Rome." Nay, such were the horrible
scenes that, says Baronius, " there ¦was a risk of their destroying the whole city !"
In the schism between the Popes Sylverius and Vigilius, in the sixth century,
the latter, though an atrociously wicked man, " implicated," says Baromus, " in so
many crimes," that all virtuous men opposed him, was raised to the papal chair.
Yet this man was pronounced a good pope. Baronius says he is not to be despised
though a bad man. " Let every man recollect," sayS he, " that even to the shadow
of Peter, immense ¦virtue was given of God !" Bar. vol. vii. p. 420.
In the midst of contentions which rent the Roman Catholic church. Pope Pela
gius I. was chosen. This pope approved the council which Pope Vigilius had con
demned. This increased the flames of ecclesiastical war to such a degree that the
pope could not find a bishop of Rome, 'who could consecrate him ; and he wa»

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 37
constrained to beg a priest of Ostium to do this service: "a thing" says Baronius,
" which never had occurred before." Vol. vii. p. 475.
The Popes Formosus and Stephen lived in tho nindi century. The latter, says
Baronius, was so wicked, that he would not have dared to enrol him in the list of
popes, were it not that antiquity gives liis name. In the exercise of papal infallibility,
he not only rescinded the cwts and decrees of his infallible predecessor Fonnosus ;
but, collecting a council of cardinals and bishops as bad as himself, he actually had
the old pope tcdien out of his grave ; and he brought him into court, tried, and
condemned him ; cut off three of his fingers ; and plunged his remains into the
Tiber. See Platina's life of Stephen A'l. and Baronius, do.
Pope Romanus L, in his turn, abrogated the decrees and acts of Stephen VI.
" For," says Platina, "these jiopes seem to ha'i'e thought of nothing else, than to
exting-aish the name and dignity of their predecessors." Life of Romanus I.
Genebrm'd in his Chronicles, under the year 904, says, " for nearly 150 years,
about fifty popes deserted wholly the virtue of their predecessors, being apostate
rather than apostolical 1"
Baronius, under the year 1004, names three rival popes, who perpetrated the most
shameful crimes, and bartered fhe papacy, and sold it for gold. He, though a Roman
cathoUc writer, calls them Cerberus, " the three headed beast which had issued from
the gates of hell!"
Bzo-vius, in his Eccles. Annals, A. D., 1411, delates that after die councU of Pisa,
the head ofthe church was three schisms, three anti-popes.
The councU of Pisa deposed two of your holy popes, whom, in their sentence, they
pronounced notorious heretics, and guUty of perjury.
The council of Constance, in A. D., 1414, deposed three popes, namely, Benedict
¦XIH., fhe Spanish pope; and Gregory XIL, the French pope; and John XXIIL,
the ItaUan pope.
In short, so early as A, D. 1073, there had been no less than twenty-five schisms,
by the anti-popes, and fhe general profligacy of the priests. And the most violent
ones happened after that date.
Now the present pope, and his prelates, and all his priests, are as incapable of tra
cing their succession through these endlessly broken lines of papal succession, as are the
present Jews of tracing their descent from their re,spective tribes and families. It is
all idle and absurd in them to set up the claims of apostolical succession. Jerome
and Gregory Nazianzen tell you that the succession is that of piety and doctrine,
not that of merely sitting in the same chair, or throne ! On your principle, the
Turks, or Egyptians' power and dominion in Jerusalem, worshipping in the mosque
of Omar, are the tme and lineal successors of Moses and Aaron, and the Hebrew
church of old !
Here I shall add an appropriate remark of your Baronius ; who though a Roman
cathoUc ¦writer, seems to labour honestly to make out tiie case that your church is dege
nerated from the once holy church of Rome, as far as the Turks' mosque at Jerusalem,
is from the pure ancient Hebrew church. Hear his words in his life of Pope Stephen
VII. A. D. 900. "The case is such, that scarcely any one can beUeve, or even will
beUeve it, unless he sees it with his eyes, and handles it -with his handfe, viz. What
unworthy, vile, unsightiy, yea, execrable and hateful things the sacred apostoUc See,
on ¦whose hinges the nniversal apostolical church turns, has been compelled to see,
&c."— " To our shame apd grief be it spoken, how many monsters, horrible to behold,
5

38 KOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
•were intruded by them" (the secular princes*) "into that seat which is reverenced by
angels !" " The holy See," he adds, " is bespattered widi filth," " infected by stench,"
" defiled by impurities," and " blackened by perpetual infamy !"
And to crown this climax, Baronius, under the year 912 adds : " What is then die
face ofthe holy Roman church ! How exceedingly foul it is ! When most potent, sordid
and abandoned women (Meretrices;) ruled at Rome ; at whose wiU the Sees were
changed ; bishops were presented ; and what is horrid to hear, and unutterable. False
Pontiffs, the paramours of these women, were intruded into the chair of St. Peter,
&c." He adds — " Fbr who can affirm that men illegally intruded by bad women,
(Scortis,) were Roman pontiffs i" Again : " The canons were closed in sUence ; the
decrees of Pontiffs were supjjressed ; the ancient traditions were proscribed ; and the
sacred ceremonies and usages of former days were whollt extinct !" See his
Annals A. D. 912.
Thus we have evidence the most complete and overwhelming, not from Protestant
authors, but from your own favourite Baronius, that the Boman catholic succession
is, in every sense, completely and for ever cut off. You are a ¦withered branch lying
in fhe dust. You are as completely severed from the primitive apostolical church of
Rome, as is the mosque of St. Omar, from the primitive christian church of Jerusalem.
Hence, you have neither pope, nor prelate, nor priest, nor sacrament, nor a holy
infallible rule of faith !
I shall close tbis letter with a brief notice of some ofthe miscellaneous objections iii
your last. You coramit an error relative to the canon and the councU of Carthage,
The editions of that council's decrees vary much; and they are of " very doubtful
faith." What confidence can you have in their decrees, when there is mention made
in it of yonr pope Boniface, who wis actually not made pope until 23 years after its
meeting ! And if you admit their canon, what will you do ¦with their decree about the
ecclesiastical canon of Legends. And, finaUy, are you aware that this councU con
demns the papal ambition ; denying that any ecclesiastic should be called " bishop of
thefirst seat," or "prince of priests," or even " chief of bishops .'" See Bern De
Moore, Per. Comment, vol, i. p. 316.
The apocryphal books are not in the canon -written out by Melito, bishop of Sardis,
of the second century ; nor in that of Origen of the third ; nor in that of Athanasius,
Hilary, Gregory Naz., or of Jerome, of the fourth. See Euseb. L. 4. 26. and L. 6.
25; LardnerlV. 282. Home, Introd. i. p. 628.
Hear now St. Jerome in his Epist. ad Lastam, — " Caveat &c. Let her take heed of all
the apocrypha; if she will read it, not for the tmth of doctrine, but reverence ofthe story,
let her know that they are not their ¦writings whose titles they bear, and that many cor
rupt things are mixed in them." See Willet, p. 2. folio.
Our priests must perceive that the words they quote from the council of Carthage
do not canonize the apocrypha. They only state that these books "were read in the
church." Augustine also admits that they were read, "but by an humble officer, in a
lower place than that in which the canonical scriptures were read by the bishop." See
Aug. De Predest., Lib. 1. cap. 14. And in his De Civ. Dei, Lib. 18. c. 26. and Lib. 17.
c. 29, he declares that Judith, Wisdom, and £ccZesja«iictiS are pot canonical. There
fore, gentlemen, you and MUner, — if we must credit history and the Fathers, have
uttered what is notoriously in error, relative to the canon, and tradition !
You quoted Hooker, and ChilUngworth, as favoring your infidelity on the rule of
faith ! I shall give you a quotation from fhe first, with the comment of the last on it.

ROMAN CATHOLIC eONTROVERST. 39
Hooker thus writes, — " Scripture teaches us that saving tiuth, which God discovered
to the world by revelation : and it presumedi us taught otherwise, that itself is divine.
The question then being, by what means we are taught this ; some answer, that to
leam it, we have no other way dian tradition. Chillingworth says — " some answer
80, but he doth not. " These great men, ne;Lt proceed to show that mere tradition ' is
not enough :' and that 'die authority or testimony of the church (they mean not the
Romish church) is the first outward motive leading men to esteem ofthe scrip
tures.' C. adds, — thefirst outward motive, not die last assurance whereon we rest,"
Hooker Ecc. Pol. B. 3. s. 8. ChUl. note 7. Prot. Jour, of London, vol. i. 686.
Yours very truly, and respectfully.
W. C. B,

EXTRACT FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER IV.
" SpurcUoquium decet hereticos et ethnicos!" — Tertul. De Resur.
" Is your last letter worthy of a scholar, worthy of him who is intimate with the interior
spirit, and faraiUar with the "Hebrew and Greek ofthe Holy Ghost?" Is it, in any sense,
a logical and theological production? Does it, even remotely, bear on the matter in quesi
tion — your rule of faith ?"
" Does it honor him who erects his rule of faith on the whisperings ofthe interior Spirit,
and tlurough its illumination selects from the " Hebrew and Greek of the holy Ghost," those
necessary articles of creed on which his salvation depends ?"
"Unable to meet your antagonist in manly and logical argument-,-skulking under the
shelter of subterfuge and rank slanders, into wliich you breathe a still ranker life, — a prey
to the gnawings which eat into your very heart's core under defeat, disgrace and dishonor,
you sputter out the morbid secretions of an envenomed will."
Again our queries are repeated.
How do you know the Bible to be the word of God 7
How do you know which books were vn-itten by divine inspiration ¦?
Does the Bible contain the whole of the word of God, or does it not?
" Nothing in your last — but an idle drivel about the ' liberty of conscience,' — American
Republicans, a startling phrase, anthropoi alogoi, to prove intimacy with Hebrew and
Greek ofthe Holy Ghost &c. &c."
" Thus you go up, up, up;
And thus you go down, down, downy ;
Thus you go backward and forward, —
And, heigh for your logic, dear Browniee !"
" Your register of, and tirade about, the Popes is out of place, of no consequence to the
real matter under consideration — ^yourrule of faith."
" We call on you, in the face of the Biblical world, to produce one single text of scrip
ture, which tells you ' that the only rule of faith and judge of controversy, established by
Christ, is the Holy Spirit speaking to us in the written word of the Old Testament and of
the New."
" First, when Christ sent his apostles to convert the world, he did not say go and distribute
the scriptures to the nations of the e^rth but ' Go into the whole world, and preach the
gospel to every creature.' "
" Secondly. The Bible is a book more or less obscure in most parts of it, and full of things
'hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest to their ovm destruction.'
2 Pet. iii, 16. Some texts seem to contradict others : Several appear to inculcate the very
vices which God condemns,"
" Thirdly. The learned among christians, who make the Bible alone their rvile of faith,

40 P.OMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
cannot agree, as to its meaning, in the moat important points ; as the endless vai-iations of
Protestants on all religious subjects prove,"
" Fourthly. The rule of faith previously to the existence of the scriptures of the New
Testament, must have been the testimony of the church or preaching of the gospel by men
sent by God."
" Can you, Rev. Doctor, adduce scripture evidence, that the gospels iji the New Testa
ment were actually written by the blessed Apostles and Evangelists, whose names are
attached to them ? Is it possible for you to prove by any other means, than tradition, that
the Sabbath ofthe Jews was changed by the Ajiostles to the first day of the week? What
other proof can jou give, except that of tradition, for the custom of infant baptism."
You shall aswer this, — " First, if we look back to the commencement of cluistianity, we
shall find that the New Testament was written, by the Apostles and Evangelists chiefly in
Greek." " We think it strange, that our most gracious Redeemer would require of the ^oor igno-
rant people to pick out their religion through the exercise of their ovm scanty intellect from
the holy scripture, or to depend on their own weak capacities, for detecting the true sense
and interpretation of it."
"Your great mistakes in supposing the rule of faith was made and intended by God to
be put into the hands of every raan. It would be absurd to suppose it ; and, hence, the old
distinction of Ecclesia docens, and Ecclesia discens, &c."
" Christ gave no orders to his Apostles to write the New Testament ;" If the Bible be your
ordy rule of faith, you cannot believe that Chiist did give any such command to his Apos
tles. Produce the text if you can, and if you cannot, why beUeve he did command his Apos
tles to write the New Testament?"
" But we cannot conclude, without expressing our gi-eat surprise at the divisions of Pro
testants with regard to the very essence of religion, seeing that they are taught, as they assert
by Clirist himself, under 'guidance ofthe Spuit of God.' "

LETTER V.
TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS.
" Therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and' my bridle in thy Ups, and I wUl turn tiiee
back by the way, by which tiiou earnest."— /saiaA's message to- Sennacherib, ch. 37. 29.
ON THE RULE OF FAITH.
Gentlemen :— I dare say my readers -wiU have learned already, from this stage
of our argument, that it is not by fair and manly argument that Popery seeks to.
advance Uself : but, on the contrary, by throwing a veil over its most repulsive and
haggard features. Every Protestant, and every patriot ought to make himself tho-
Toughly acquainted with this pecuUar attribute of popeiy, namely its smgular po^wer
of elasticity, in adapting itself to each country ; to all tunes, and places ; and to the
peculiar habits of thinking among a people. With the Jesuit among the Chinese, it
permits the natives to worship deceased fathers and mothers ; on the trifling condition
that they only change the nomenclature, and call them St. Peter; St. Paul; St.
Dommick ; and the Holy Virgin ! Or, with the Canadian Jesuit among the Indians,
it gains the ear of the savage warrior by "representing Jesus Christ as an ancient,.;,
and brave warrior, who excelled all his compeers in killing and scalping the foes of
the tribe!" *
Its grossest doctrines it carefu.ly conceals, among civilized and refined people. It

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 41
is in its government, not only monarchic, but feudal : and of the very essence of
absolutism, in its claims of authority over the souls, consciences, and bodies of its '
votaries. Witness the absolute supremacy of his holiness, over his prelates ; and
that of the prelates, over the priests ; and that of the priests over the souls, bodies i
and properties of fhe simple faithful !
Yet, whUe, in the very essence of its priesdy power, it is all hostility to republican
freedom: and cannot be otherwise, from its public, and sworn aUegiance to the
foreign potentate of Rome ; it gravely affects to raise its hosannahs in favor of our
glorious and free institutions ! I speak not of all : there are in the Romish com
munion, as enlightened and loyal hearts as ever beat in a gallant bosom : and many
of these excellent men we have in our city. I speak of the Romish priesthood : and
of those who basely yield to their absolutism ; and who sustain their usurpation df
what neither God, nor man ever gave fhem.
It is a truth ¦n-liich I am anxious to impress on my readers, that fhere has been
no change, no improvement, no reformation, in the spirit, power, and designs of
popery. Its spirit is precisely the same, this day, in its secret haunts, in our city, and
over the land, as it is now in Italy and Spain : and it is the same here, and in Italy,
as it ever has been in the darkest ages of Europe. There is a strange delusion
abroad in the land, namely ; that there has been a singular improvement in it ; and
that it is entirely different. To make this impression on the American mind, has
been the incessant labor of fhe Jesuits who swarm in disguise, among us, in these
United States, since they lost their foothold in Europe. And the extent of this
lethargy and indifference is appaUing. It indicates one of two things : the great
influence of Jesuitism, or the insensibility of our fellow-citizens to the national dan
ger to which we are exposed from the J esoits, whom no despot in Europe can endure,
and who have been solemnly banished by every government of the old world !
Now, Holy Mother and her sons are precisely the same now as when they con
vulsed the nations of Europe. The old lion has had his claws pared, and his teeth
broken ; he is only recUning in his den — en couchant — until his teeth and his claws
shaU have gro-wn. His spirit is the same, unbroken, unsubdued, untameable ! And
our fellow citizens, whose characteristic charity has been ungenerously imposed on, do
verUy pay thera no compliment, in a Jesuit's estimation, when they call their system
an improvement on the doctrines, regimen, and tyranny of the papal court, in the
dark ages. In paying them this compUment, at which every son of Loyola smiles,
but ¦with bitterness of feeling, we actually, though unwittingly, rob them of their pre
eminent attribute of immutability.
It is a compliment as ungracious to our Jesuits, as that of the popish princes of the
old world to their poiie. They caressed and worshipped the apostolical vicar of
Christ, while they sent potent armies to beleaguer his city, and plunder him, as a
temporal prince!
All the difference which can be supposed to exist between ancient and modem
popery, arises from this elastic attribute of adapting itself to the times, the habits, and
religious freedom of a thinking people. And, hence, our main task is to exhibit their
real and accredited principles, in their standard works, and contrast with them these
pretended modern ¦views, put on, en masque, until the time (may it never happen,) when
their anticipated ascendency shall take place in our land, on the contemplated ruin of
the Protestant religion, and the extinction of our republic institutions !
We have proved, I tmst, to the satisfaction of every candid christian, that w^hat the
5'

42 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVfiftST'.
Roman Catholic church calls its infallible rule of faith never can be found out, or
reduced to any practical purpose : that Christ never estabUshed that rule in his church r
and that even if he did, the Une of succession is broken off, and lost irretrievably.
The blow which severed the last bond of apostolical union and succession, was struck
hy that assembly of ungodly men who formed the councU of Trent; and whom your
own father Paul, in his history of it, called "a camp of incarnate demons !" The
succession is gone from the Romish church, Uke the departed glory, which, in the
holy vision of Ezekiel, was seen hovering long over the threshhold, and then over the
city, and, finally, took its flight!
No accurate theologian ever said that the holy universal church of Christ has been,
or can be, cut off. She has existed in her glory and beauty, as the spouse of Christ,
since the days of Adam, down through all the revolution of time, and of empires, even
to this hour. Unlike the church of Rome, which by her own confession, rests on a
mortal man, the rock Peter, — the holy church of God is founded on the eternal
ROCK of ages, even Jesus Christ ; and the gates of hell cannot prevaU against her.
She advances in splendor, and an ever encreasing lustre of accumulating glory, as
she advances in days, and in years. Andthis fair one moves forward, leaning on
the arm of her espoused Lord, to take possession of all nations, and kingdoms on
earth ! And the long line of her successive pastors and teachers, has ever continued,
unbroken, till now, and wUl through all days, unto the consummation of all things.
This holy universal church may not, at all times, be visible. In the days of Ahab,
die spiritual church was not visible : it did not stand visibly out with its pastors and
teachers. Yet it existed in the ministrations of EUjah ; and in the persons of the 7000
who, though unknown even to diat holy prophet, had not bowed the knee to Baal.
So also in the general apostacy ofthe christian era, this spiritual society did not stand
visibly out before the world with her pure ministers, and her congregated assemblies.
Yet there ever was a church of God in Asia, in Greece, and amid the dens and caves
iu the ¦vs-est and south of Europe : there ever was an unbroken succession of holy ¦wit
nesses : with their unbroken line of holy pastors, and teachers, and they were raised
up, as their martyred fathers closed their lives, and sealed the testimony ¦with their
blood, — by the call of divine providence, and the call ofthe faithful church; a two
fold call, essential to the true ministry; — which no Roman CathoUc priest ever had;
or ever thought of claiming.
If protestants would be at the trouble of keeping these facts in view, relative to the
succession of the pure church of Christ, in Asia ; and through the line ofthe Walden
ses, and the very ancient Anglian church, and the Culdees, and Lollards in ScotlantJ
and Ireland, every one would be prepared to answer the illiterate and vulgar quibble
of the Roman catholics, — " Where was your religion before Luther ?" Yes ! The holy
church of J esus Christ, has from the days of Adam, been roUing on like the streams of
our own mighty Blississippi, and becoming deeper and wider, and more and more
majestic, as she flows alongthe bosom of time. But the Roman catholic church, and
the numerous sects and heresies in her, like so many byous, bursting through thp
banks of that noble river, and threading their heavy and muddy courses through tbe
adjacent lands, have been diverging, in the course of years, farther and farther from the
jiure rivers of the water of Ufe, which issue from the sanctuary and throne of God. — But
we novv^ go on to our —
VI. Argument, against the Eoman cathoUc mle of faith ; namely : — The proof

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. ^
which the Romish tvriters bring in behalf of your nde, is riot only involved in contradic-
tio'ns, but is founded in arrogant and blasphemous assumptions.
"Popery," says bishop HaU, (in his works p. 351.) "Popery destroyeth the foun
dation, and instead of die true foimdation, it lays a double new one ; the one a new
rule of faifh : and die other, a new author, or guide of faith.'' Instead of Christ, as the i
Judge, " popery rears on the throne a man, the man of sin. He must know all things,
can eiT in nothing ; he directs, informs, commands, animates, both in earth, and pur
gatory ; expounds scripture, cauonizefs saints, forgives sins, and creates new articles
of faith; and in all these, is absolute and infalUble as his Maker !"
Planting themselves on the ground of this rale, the Roman priesthood intrude them
selves between the human inteUect, and our Creator; and declare that they are lords
over the reason, and judgment, and conscience of man ; that man shall not think for him
self, nor exercise, in religion, the rights of private judgment. They stand up betweejt
God and his own accountable subjects, and affirm in the very presence of the Almighty,
that they shaU not hear God's word, as he spealvs it to them : that they shall not be
permitted "to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; that they shall hear it
only as their priesthood choose to explain it : that all the authority of the Bible is
derived from fhem, and theh church ; that no man shall take on him to worship God,
as Christ prescribes, but as the Romish pn'esf/ioorf prescribes : that the Spirit of
God speaking in fhe Scriptures shall not interpret the word to them; bnt that the
priesthood alone shall doit. And thus, in the very face ofthe Almighty, the supreme
and only Judge of aU, do they usurp the guidance of the human conscience : and thrust
themselves in the throne of God, and receive the confessions of sins ! sitting in the temple
of God, and calUng the pope, God, they grant absolution of sins ! They provide a new
sacrifice of a thing they call the Mass ; and they tell divine justice, that this, even this,
and not the blood of Christ, shaU atone and reconcile ! They consummate their
damning high treason against ths Son of God, by providing a supply of new and
tmheard of intercessors ; and they place this new host of their heaven, under the super
vision ofthe mediatrix, the Virgin Mary !
And they close the creation of their new heavens, and their new earth, by denounc
ing the holy Bible, as " a falacious rule ;'' and erecting in its stead, as their law, and
their judge, fhe mle and judge of their own invention ! And they utter their hosannahs
to them as " infallible" and as utterly rem,oved above all liability to mistake, or misappre
hension !
After this, it would not surprise us, if they claim for their pope, or the church, the
power of appointing new articles of faith. I am aware that a strong party among
them deny this, but the Roman party does maintain it. Pope Leo X. condemned
Luther for denying this power: See his Bull added to the last Council in Lateran :
and bishop Jer. Taylor's works p. 392. And Thomas Aquinas and Almain expressly
assert, — " That the Popes of Rome by defining many things, which before lay hid,
symbolmn fidei augere consuesse, are accustomed to enlarge the symbol of faith."
Apd every body know-s that twelve articles were added to the creed, by the council
of Trent.
Bellarmine De concil. Auctor, lib. ii. cap. 17, teaches the genuine popery, namely ;
that "the supreme pontiff is simply and absolutely above the church ; and above a
general council, &lc." He adds the following, which no one can clear from the
charge of blasphemy : " All the names which in the scriptures are appUed to Christ,
proving him to be above the church, are, in like manner, applied to the pontiff; as,

44 ROMAN catholic controvbrst.
first, Christ is paterfamilias, head of the family, in his own house, which is the
church. The pontiff is high steward in the same, that is, he is pater famUias, in the
place of Christ, loco Christi."
And hence the tides ofthe pope, on the pages of these writers, who advocate this
doctrme. He is " Deus alter in terra," " another god on earth ;" " die lord our god
the pope." " Idem est dominium Dei ac Paps ;" " The dominion of God and the
pope are the same !" " The infallible one." And pope Clement VII. and his car-
dmals, in their letter to king Charies VL, say, "as there is only one God m heaven,
so diere cannot, and there ought not, to be but one God on earth !"— meaning himself.
See Troisard, tom. 3. p. 147. Mussus, bishop of Bitonto, called the pope, "Mm
who is to us as our God;" and the bishop of Grenada styled him, " a god on earth.not
subject to a council." And in Bellarmine's noted saymg, we have this doctiine,
(lib. iv. de Rom. pont. c. 5:) "But if the pope should err by enjouUng vice, and for
bidding virtues, the church, teneretur credere, &c., would be bound to beUeve ¦vices to
be good, and virtues to be wicked, unless she would be willing to sin against con
science !" Pope Leo X., m his Brief of Nov. 9th, 1512, declared that " as vicar of
Christ on earth, he had power to forgive, by virtue of the keys, the guilt and punish
ment of actual sins, &c. See Dupin. vol. iv. p. 17.
These sentiments seem so monstrous, that many of my good natured readers, I
dare say, actually think that we exaggerate. Hence I shaU give a few more quota
tions from their approved -writers in order to exonerate myself. " Estiment papam,"
&c. They esteem the pope to be God alone ; unicum Deum esse, who has all po^wer
in heaven and in earth." Gerson and Carron, p. 34; Giannon, Hist. Nap. X. 12.
St. Bernard, Oper. 1725, says, — "Praster Deum, &c. — None is Uke tmto the popeia
heaven or earth, except God !,, Pope Innocent III. avowed " that the pope holds the
place ofthe tme God." — Papa locum Dei tenet in terris. Papa vicem nan pun homi
nis, sed veri Dei gerens in terra." See Pithou 29; Gibert vol. ii. p. 9. "Papa et
Christus, &c. — The pope and Christ make one consistory : so that, sin excepted, the
pope can almost do all things which God can do." See Jacobatius, De ConciUo,
Venet, Edit. 1728, Edgar Var. p. 161.
And finally, the pope being invested ¦with all power in heaven, and on earth, all
ci-vil governments are of right under his dominion. The pope, says a councU which
had Gregory VII. at its head, "ought to wear the token of imperial dignity ; all
princes ought to kiss his feet." Pope Innocent HI. said, "the church, my spouse, is
not married to me ¦without bringing me something." And he goes on to state that
dowery, namely ; the spiritual and the temporal crown in pleiUtude ; " that others
may say of me, next to God, ' out of his fulness have we received !' " Hence, in
the times of European degradation, he trampled under foot all the laws, and all fhe
magistracy of the European kingdoms.
" (iui Satanam non odit, amet tua dogmata Papa !"
And as if they attempted, without compunction, the utmost limit of impious daring,
they claim power to do ¦what Christ himself never did ; namely, " to redeem souls
out of purgatory," And those accredited Romanists, who licensed that marvellous
book, the Revelations of St. Bridget, such as Terrecremata, and others, gave sanc
tion to that declaration that "the good Gregory, sua oratlone, &c., by his supplica
tions raised aloft ' ad altiorem gradum,' to a loftier grade, even the pagan Caesar."
Morn. Exer. 88. '
Such are the arrogant and blasphemous claims advanced by means of your " infal-

aoMAH CATHOLIC COHTaoVERST. 45
llble mle." It is impossible not to conclude that this is the invention of him " whoso
coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders!"
VII. The history of your church estabUshes this position, that it is false, in fact,
that there is any such thing as an infallible rule in her. If there were infallibiUty
in the "Holy Mother," or in the pope, by the " infalUble exercise" of their "infaJr
lible rule," then, most assuredly, it would not be too much to expect soraething like
sanctity and pure morals, in his holiness, and in his court. We have shown that in
regard to our rule, all disorders, and di^visions in the Protestant churches, arise from
their not fully listening to, nor entirely obeying, God's holy law and word. But no
evils, no errors, no tUvisions, have ever been caused by the Bible. To charge this
on the holy law, is to charge it on God Almighty speaking in it. But, in your case,
it is entirely different. ^A'e offer to prove diat your rule is corrupt ; that your head,
the pope, is corrupt ; and that your church is corrupt. And it is fhe very exercise of
your infaUible rule that does actuaUy cause all these errors and divisions in the
Romish church !
Now, let any candid man look at the court and priesthood of Rome, where this
infalUble rule is, in its purest influence and operation. And, gentleman, you kno^w
as weU as I do, what that eminent divine of your church has ¦written, — namely,
Claude D'Espence ; — " Shameful to relate ! They gave pennission to priests to
keep concubiues, upon paying an annual tax !" This is only a tithe of sacerdotal
impiety. And yet you affect to marvel at my charging them with "immoraUty
and pollution." Can it be possible that you do not know what " chastity" means in
the lips of priests ? But hear the same doctor : " There is a printed book which has
been sold for a considerable time, entitled the Taxes of the Apostolic Chancery, from
¦which we may leam more enormities and crimes, than from all the books ofthe Sum-
mists. And of these crimes, there are some which persons may have liberty to commit
for money ; while absolution from all of them, after they have been committed, may
be bought." D'Esp. ad. cap. i. Epist. ad. Titum. deg. U. Hence the pollution of
your indulgences ; hence the poUution of your auricular confessions, hence your abso
lutions for raoney ! Every one of your victims knows the truth of all this!
Then, in reference to the character of die pontiff, who wields this "infallible mle ;"
I quoted out of Baronius, in my last, the character of many of them. To this, you
repUed, — "Your tirade about the popes is out of place, and of no consequence, &c."
Most logical reply. Nevertheless it is strictly in point ; and you feel it ; and you
cannot question one of my quotations ! I directed the public eye to the pontiff, and
his throne, beaming ¦with holiness ! Your own -writer, Guiciardini, speaking of tho
popes, even so late as those of the sixteenth century, says, — " He was esteemed a
good pope in those days, who did not exceed in wickedness, the worst of men !"
Alexander VI. was a reproach to human nature, aud died by a mistake ; taking
that poisoned chalice which he had prepared for another! Julius II. was so notori
ously -wicked that "he was a scandal to the whole church. He filled Italy with
rapine, war, and blood." Pope Leo X. was not a believer in the immortality of the
»oul ; nor even in any doctrine of Christianity ; he was a spiritual juggler : he called
fhe gospel of Christ " a lucrative fiction !" And to a cardinal who offered him consor
lation in his dying moments, by a text of holy writ, he exclaimed "Away with yow
baubles of texts !" — Paul Ui. and Julius Ui. "were such licentious characters that no^
modest man can ¦write, or read their lives without blushing." The popes ofthe darker
ages, the tenth century, for instance, and up towards the dawn of tbe Reformation,,

46 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
were m aU respects, rivals ofthe Roman pagan Emperors. To theu utmost licentious
ness, and lewdness, they added cruelty more revolting tiian even that of theirs!
Witness John X., John XXH., and XXIIL and Innocent VIIL, who made the
valUes of Piedmont flow like streams, with the blood of thousands of innocents!
If there was the operation, of an "infaUible rule" in the Romish church, there
-would at least be some traces of an exact and conspicuous harmony. But the " Uving
rule and judge" itself has caused the reverse of aU this. The example of jEneas
Sylvius was honest and instructive. B efore he became Pope Pius II. he had zealously
defended the council of BasU against the Boman court. When chaUenged for advo
cating opposite sentiments when created a pope, he repUed that " as Sylvius, he was
a damnable heretic, but as Pope Pius II. he was an orthodox pontiff." And h is a
notorious fact, that in the struggles of Rome to gain unlimited power, your "infalUble
judge" originated almost aU the poUtical wars of Europe; and aU the divisions in die
church before the bishops yielded up their rights ; and before the temporal princes
¦were brought to place their necks under the haughty priests' heel ! In proof of this 1
refer the curious reader to HaUam's Hist, of the Middle Ages, vol. 1. chap. 7. And
StiUingfleet on the Divisions of the Rom. Church, ch. 5.
In reference to t'ne disputes about doctrines, let the priests name one contested point
settled, finally, by this infaUible judge. Has the question about the Virgin Mary's
«' immaculate conception," been settled ? No. Have the disputes been settled rela
tive to the kind of worship due to the natural blood of Christ, which raged between tha
Franciscans and Dominicans, in the fourteenth century ; and again, a century after
this, under Pius II, ? No, the pope's interference rather made it worse. Has your
infallibility been able to compose the theological wars between the Calvinistic
Jansenists, andthe Arminian Jesuits? Every infaUible mterposition made the flames
blaze StUl more fiercely. 'Who taught servants to rebel against their la^wful prince,
and seize the throne? Your infallible judge, in the person of Pope Zachary, and of
•Gregory VIII. w^ho put his heel on the emperor's neck. — " Your infallible," ¦\vho kin-
,dled the terrible wars in Germany, and over aU Europe: the ghostly arrogance of
your infalUble judge, climbing to ci^vil power, and setting nation against nation ia
.order to weaken their power. — Who set whole nations against their la^wful rulers?
"The infallible pope," who suspended civil laws, and stopped commerce; and spread
.ci^vil rebellion over the land. Who massacred the Huguenots, the Waldenses, and
Lollards? The hired assassins of the " infallible judge" of Rome, which celebrated
the Parisian massacre by a solemn Te Deum! Who changed the doctrines and tho
decrees, and the institutions of heaven ? Your infalUble judge, — ¦who has corrupted
the doctrines of the Bible ; added five sacraments, unknov.'n to the early church, and
contrary to Christ's solemn commands : who has, also, instituted the various orders
of lazy and vicious monks, friars, and ntms, to devour the surplus product of the
people's industry. Who, professes to convert virtue into -vice; and vice into virtue?
Let your Bellarmine answer, — " the pope, who can transubstantiate sin into duty, and
duty into sin ! De Rom. Pontif. Lib. iv. cap. 5. — Who can dispense with law, and
right? Let your own Pope Gregory iii. in 8. cind iv,, answer it: — "Possumus ife.
TVe can dispense against law and right ! See also Extravag. Comm. 208. And
Labbeus, vol. 19. p. 924. Who seats himself on God's throne, and usurps his prero
gatives? Your pope who arrogates the right and power to grant indulgences ; who
demands confession of sin to be made to him and his priests ; who absolves all sine at
0. regtjlg,r tariff; who delivers ftom purgatory; and sends the most ¦vicious and ungodly

¦ROMAN CiTHOLlC CONTROVERST.
men to heaven, for monby, according to the chancery book me^bnafl ihy. E spence.^ i'
Who founded the hellish Inquisition, and tumed loose on the humair-r^CWhl^ i^^^m^i' - •
ster as the inquisitor Torquemada? "The infallible judge,'' your^~pBpes.:'wilOsa-' ''
servants have repeatedly gratified the royal courts of Spain with die Moloch sacrifices
of human beings, at an Auto de Fe !
Such are the legitimate fruits ofthe exercise of your Rule. Let the world judge of
the tree, by these poisonous and deadly friuts.
VIII. We have die consent of the greatest and best of the Fathers against your rule,
and most decisively in favor of our mle.
These quotations I shaU reserve for the present. They ¦wUl come in appropriately
at the close of our discussion on the nde of faith.
IX. Your rule is fhe instrument by which you have established claims that go to
cennihilate all liberty, civil and religious, from the face of the earth. You deny God's
word to the people unless they have a ¦written permission from a priest, condescending
to allow him to heEur his Maker speaking unto him ! But with even this, permission,
you deny him the rights of private judgment, or even to think widi that soul which the
Almighty has given him. He must think, and reason, and beUeve, just as the lordly
priest dictates. The prelate exerts the same tyranny over the priest, and the pope
over the prelate. And in those kingdoms where popery is the established religion,
priestcraft eats out the very existence of ci-vil Uberty. I point to Spain, to Rome,
to Naples, to Austria ; and say, behold, fellow citizens, the melancholy proof. All
the doctrines of supremacy, and toleration, and union of church and state, are genuine
popery, begotten and nursed, and matm-ed by your pope. And what is the state of
our RepubUc ? I see the holy and lovely genius of Liberty walking forth over our
happy plains, in her fair robes and glory, and caUing her happy votaries to every
national blessing and happiness. And near her pathway we perceive a fierce lion
in his den ; his face peering from his dark and disguised cavern ; but his claws are
pared, and his teeth broken : he is flapping his lusty sides with his tail ; waiting with
impatience for his claws to grow, and his teeth to be whetted, his eyes, the whUe,
gleaming dark and unsubduable ¦wrath. His blood shot eyes are ever on the fair
Genius of Liberty, and he is meditating a ferocious assault upon her, the moment he
prowls forth, when the sun shaU be setting over the land !
X. And last: neither prelate nor priest can give their flocks any decisive evidenct
that they are lawful, and ordained pastors.
Were it even possible that you could estabUsh apostolical succession, you cannot
prove a legal ordination. For, first, no priest has the true and essentially necessary
CALL of the christian people. A man takes it into his head to go to a catholic semi
nary ; after his term is out, without the least evidence of spiritual conversion by the
grace of the Holy Ghost, he presents himself to the bishop, and is ordained, and then
he is stationed in a chapel ; say St. Patrick's, or St. Peter's. The gospel call of a
christian people is never asked. And I do question gravely, if you, gentlemen priests,
do really understand what a gospel call is !
Second. — The office of priest as you take it, (not as my EpiscopaUan brethren take
it,) is unknown to the Christianity ofthe New Testament. It is an outrageous imposi
tion on scripture and reason. I challenge any man to produce me one passage, justly
and correctly translated, in all the New Testament, wherein the office or even name
of priest is ever appUed to a successor of the apostoUcal teachers. The Greek was
used by the Holy Ghost in the Ne^w Testament. No^w there is not in all the Greek

48 fet)MAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
thereof or in any truly and correctly translated passage, ene instance of die ti-ue
minist,^ of Christ being called priests in the visible church By assuming the name
and office of priest, the cadioUcs overthrow the priesthood of Chnst, and his one,
final, and only offering of a sacrifice. "By this one offenng, he has, for ever, per
fected tiiem tiiat are sanctified." But the catholics call their officiattng men priests,
shnply, and only, for this reason, that they offer up the sacrifice of the mass -even a
sacAfice, in the room of Christ's one, only, and never to be repeated sacrifice ! By
this very name of priest, assumed by them, do they deliberately and designedly over
throw our Lord's blessed and perfect atonement !
As surely then, as this sacrifice was perfect, and needed never to be repeated, so
surely are tiiere no such things as priests to offer sacrifice by the will of God !
Thirdly and last : There is not a Roraish priest in existence, who can prove his
ordination : because not one of them can prove the existence of the bishop's intention,
in diat rite. In this " Sacramental rite," your own councU of Trent, Sess. 7. declared
that he who denies that the intention of the officiating minister is not necessary to the
efficacy of the sacrament, is to be anathema. Now, unless the " holy bishop," who
ordained you, gentiemen, had the intention in his soul, conscience, and heart, reaUy
and truly to ordain you ; or if his iiund happened to waver ; or to wander after some
object,— in fact, if the talisman and magic charm of intention was, in any measure,
wanting, then you are not ordained. And what is more, if you venture to set up pre
tensions to ordination without the perfect evidence that the bishop had the said intention,
you are not only not ordained, but you are absolutely under fhe holy ban of the council
of Trent ; and exposed to damnation ! !
Now, I defy any of you, gentiemen, with all the aid of your " infalUbiUty," to
pto^ve this INTENTION. The witnesses of the scene cannot prove it. You caimot
yourselves prove it ; because you could not penetrate the mind of the bishop. The
bishop himself cannot prove it : he can produce no e^vidence to satisfy any one : he
has not die least recoUection on the subject. None but God can tell whether he had
the INTENTION. But, most assuredly, without this unattainable evidence, you are
ruined ! Without it, not a soul of you can prove your ordination. Without it, you
are living in a mortal sin, — for any thing you know to the contrary.
Hence we arrive at the most certain conclusion that you have neither an " infal
Uble rule," nor legitimate pope, prelate, priest, or church, before God or man !
I am. Gentlemen, Yours, &c.
W. C. B.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER V.
It opens with a discussion on ingratitude, — Dr, B's claims to sympathy, — his defeat, — his
presuraptuous chaUenge of the priests of New York!
" Your next claim rests on your claims to be a ' Gentleman, and Writer for the Middle
Dutch Church ;' and this claim is supported by language not usu&.l with those who whisper
with the interior spirit and interpret tiie ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost.' *
" You say the Catholic Clergy are ' a polluted and immoral Priesthood,' that the ceUbacy
ofthe priests is a ' pleasant joke,' The same foul and gross slaver is sputtered through your
laat letter."
"This third claim rests on your letter in. the 'Christian Intelligencer' of Saturday, in

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 49
which you a^d your 'virtuous ladies' recommend the printing of the obscene tale and
slander, 'Lorette.'"
Note. — The priests edlude here to a well written little book called " Lorette, or the history
ofthe daughter of a Canadian Nun." It is a true narrative ofthe atrocious morals of pricpta
and nuns; and contains ;ui interesting account of the conversion of the Nun, her mother,
and others. The truth is, die picture of morals drawn from tlie Ufe in this book, has
galled our priests bevond measure,
I had no other concern in this book, die second edition of which is already nearly sold,
than sunply the reading ofthe ^I. S. and roooniii tending it. It never was shown to " the virtu
ous and highly intclVurcnt Indies of the iUilille Dutch Chiiirli." It was submitted by ils author,
formerly a Presbyterian minister in (Quebec, to a few eminently intelligent and virtiioiia
ladies ; members of the Presbyterian church ; and lliey cheerfully accorded to its author,
their hearty recommendation of it,
I addressed a card in contidence, to Jlr, Levins, the rude author of the repeated assaults
on " the virtuous ladies oftlie Middle Dutch church," stating to him the above facts. After
that, instead of feelin;; the appeal made to him, as to u gentleman, ho became ten fold more
rude and insulting ! We proceed with e.xti^acts : —
" Do you seriously. Rev. Sir, intend this answer as a proof that the Bible is the word of
God? Here there id nothing but a series of assertions. Assertions are not proofs Where
is the form of argument, — where the ' form of sound words V IThere is the logical concate
nation? Where the convincing and logical conclusion?"
That you may kiwio the work you have to execute, we register the propositions contain
ed in your answer.
Question, Hoiv do you know the Bible to be the word of God ?
Answer 1st, " I know it from its e.ziernul e^adence of prophecy,'' Prove it.
2nd. •¦ 1 know it from its external evidence of miracles.'' Prove it.
3d. " I know it from its external evidence ofthe i,'ift of tongues." Prove it.
4th. " I know it from its interned evidence, namely, its majesty." Prpve it.
Sth. " I know it from its internal evidence, its purity," Prove it,
6th. "I know it from its internal evidence, its sublimity." Prove it.
7th. "I know it from its internal evidence, its efficacy in convincing." Prove it.
Sth. " I know it from its internal evidence, its efficacy in converting." Prove it.
9th. " I know it from its internal evidence, its efficacy in comforting." Prove it.
10th. " I know it from its internal evidence, its perfect harmony in all its parts." Prove it.
11th. " I know it from its internal evidence, its uncorrupted preservation." Prove it.
12th. "I know it from the historical evidence of its own tradition." Prove it.
13th. "I know it from the Hebrews and Jews.'' Prove it,
14th. " I know it from the African Church.'' Prove it.
15th. "1 know it from the Church of die Albigenses and Waldenses." Prove it.
16th. " And I know it from the Roman Church." Prove it.
"Your only rule of faith and judge of controversy, the written word of God, speaking to
us in the scriptures of the Old Testament and the New, is utterly abandoned by you.
When asked to prove the Bible to be the word of God, you say you prove it " from the
external evidence of prophecy, and of miracles : and the gift of tongues, and that the
CHURCH TELLS YOU SHE HAS THIS EVIDENCE, from the authors of the books of the holy scrip
tures." Here then, Rev. Sir, is your unequivocal admission of what we contend for. We
contend that without the testimony ofthe Church, the Bible could never be proved to be tho
word of God. This you admit,"
My reader is fully aware that I have, all along, admitted the historical tradition o( the chris-
4ian church, as a prominent portion ofthe external evidence.
But the conclusion drawn in the next sentence by our priests, is no less extraordinary,
than the above discovery.
" Therefore" — ^that is " because the Bibleis thus proved to be the inspired word of God " —
6

50 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
" therefore, Sir, the written word of God, in the scriptures of the Old Testament and of the
New, is not tlie rvlp of faith established hy Christ ! It is an article of christian belief, that the
Bible is the word of God. But this article of behef could not be known from the Bible alone,
how then can it be said Christ established, as a rule of faith, that which never could bring
man to the faith ofthe divinity ofthe scriptures. Strange, Rev. Sir, that so able a divine as
yoa, never detected the absurdity of your Protestant rule of faith and judge of controversy,
untU it has been fully demonstrated to you, by your Catholic antagonists."
" If you will but consult the learned work of Adamus Contzin, on die four gospels, and
also the great work of Serrerius, you will find that no fewer than twenty several books of
scripture have wholly perished. ' These books,' says Dr. Brownlee, ' referred to by deists
and Romish priests, such as Jasher and certain epistles and gospels, were not given by
inspiration.' The trick of your design is obvious.
Here our priests specify the books lost. " Tlie hook of the wars of the Lord ;' ' — "thehookof
Nathan, •' of Iddo," "of Gad"— "the epistle /ram Laodicea.'' They add, in the profound
science of Biblical lore, and settie a mooted point which has divided the first scholars, — al
though they have yet to learn the Hebrew alphabet ! St. Matthew, whose Hebrew gospel
did not exist, in his c. x.xvii. 9, quotes words spoken by the prophet Jeremy, ivhich are not
now found in the writings ofthe prophet. St. Matthew, also c. ii. v. 23,- says, "it was
spoken by the prophets" — "He shall be called a Nazarene." Where, in any of the pro
phetic books noAV existing, is Christ called a Nazarene? The books, then ofthe prophets
here alluded to by St. Matthew, must have perished.
"This was the belief, Rev. Sir, of the great St. John Chrysostom, whom we are better
pleased to follow, than the preacher in the Middle Dutch Church. In his 9th Hom. on St.
Matt, he says, ' many of the prophetical monuments have perished. For the Jews being
careless, and not only careless, but also impious, they have carelessly lost some of these
monuments, others they have partly burnt, partly torn in pieces. Saint Justin, writing
against Tryphon, shews that the Jews maliciously destroyed many ofthe books of the Old
Testament. Yet against the testimony of the scriptures, and in opposition to the most re
spectable historical evidence, preacher Brownlee asserts, 'there is no inspired book lost!'
Truly, Rev. preacher. ' Quem Deus vult perdere, prius dementat !'
And your insane flippancy of assertion, if not gross ignorance of the subject on which you
write, places you before the 'christian public,' in the ludicrous attitude of afrantic fanatic,
declaiming to a conclave of virtuous ladies, on the all sufficiency of a mutilated rule of faith'
while you leave to your opponents the rich and noble eloquence of the Chrysostoms, the
the Gregorj'S, the Basils, the Justins, the Cyprians, &c,"
" You unblushingly proclaim us idolators, because we venerate the saints of God, and pay
a decent respect to images,"
Here follow pretended quotations from Luther and Melancthon, in which these worthies, the
last in the world who would do it, are made to praise and laud, and almost worship, the pu
rity of " Holy Mother !"
Next, there follows a unique illustration of a notorious Jesuit maxim, namely ; " when
you are charged with a sentiment, or a crime, retort, and deliberately charge it back on your
foe ; and make him as ridiculous as you can."
" No priest, says Dr. Brownlee, can prove his ordination, for he cannot prove that the
bishop who ordained him, had the ' magiccharm ofintention.' Really, most worthy preacher,
' writer,' and 'gentleman,' we must greet you, &c. — "
" Your intellect has strange biasses; its fro\>ens\ty to ' sqtlinting,' is, we fear, incurable,
How fitly it illustrates • the Hebrew and Greek ofthe Holy Ghost,' — 'Though thou shouldst
bray a fool in a morter with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.' Your
doctrine of intention is among the most ludicrous that could emanate from a rheumatic brain.
it would uproot all confidence between man and man, dissolve the laws of every system oi
compact, and taint with guspicion every pledge of trust. But to apply your puerile argument

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 51
to yourself. In the course of ministerial duties, you are asked to baptize a child. You bap
tize it. According to j/oitr Zffw of intention the parents ofthe child cannot prove your inten
tion to baptize, therefore the child is not baptized ! This is your wondrous logic. Will the
preacher who did concoct it. ever prove his rule of faith? No. But, gentle Doctor, are
you a christian ? Were you baptized ? Certainly not ; for, according to your own doctrine,
you cannot prove the intention of the parson who baptised you. Ergo, you are no christian.
Q. E. D. You interpret the ' Hebre\v and Greek ofthe Holy Ghost' to your ' virtUA)us' cro
nies. Can they have faith inthe interpretation ? They cannot prove your intention. What
think you of your logic, dear Doctor! You are now. Rev. Sir, openly and cftectually de
feated, on your rule of faith. "
" You are informed Unit the Jews, during their captivity at Babylon, lost the knowledge of
the old Hebreiv tongue, in which the law and the prophets were written, and inthe afterperiod
of tiieir existence, spoke Syriac, a mi.xture of Hebrew and Chaldaic, Those who understood
the Hebrew were few. It is also admitted by all, fhat, before the coming of Christ, there was
no Sjriac version ofthe holy scripture. Hence, for fourteen generations, the Jews had not
die Bible in tiieir own original vernacular language. But the law and the prophets were
read in their synagogues, and the psalms were sung in a language they did notunderstand,"
The letter is closed with a quotation from Roscoe, in which an eulogium is gravely uttered
on the atheistic and projligate popes !
But we give them credit for the wittiest and truest sentence, which closes their letter V,
It is a bit of choice sarcasm, but purely accidental; for our priests are ' smart' only by chance.
Comparing the church of Rome to the bark of St. Peter, they very honestiy call the whole
Romish priesthood, "the practised cb.^vi that raaw the goodly vessel !"

DISSERTATION
ON THE DIVINE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLT SCRIPTURES.
We were unwUling to be turned out of our direct course in order to meet infidel
objections. The following argument, therefore, was placed more than once before
our Letters, while the Priests reiterated their deistical questions.
Priests : 1st. " How do you know the Bible to be the word of God ?"
Ans. 1st. From the external evidence of prophecy, which has been, and is now
fulfilling before our eyes: (See the proof in Bishop Newton on the prophecies) and
of miracles by the inspired writers, and the gift of tongues : by which all the
nations heard the gospel in their own native language. Also from internal evidence ;
namely, their majesty which every christian, and every reasonable man may see on
every page, contrasted with every human writer : from their purity which no man
could have conceived, or framed in his writings ; from their sublimity, in the concep
tions and descriptions of God, of heaven, of hell, which no uninspired man could
execute : from their efficacy in convincing and converting sinners ; and comforting
the saints : no human composure ever has done this. The sacred writings, which
have been the instrument containing the gospel, have done what no huraan writer
can do, or ever has done : and, from their uncorrupt preservation. While the whole
persecuting power of pagan Rome was bent on their destruction ; and innumerable
errorists and heretics sought to corrupt them, — neither they, nor Rome have succeeded.
All the Roman priests, and all the Voltaire and Paine school, being of one mind here,
cannot prove one sentence, far less one inspired book, lost. And we chaUenge these
bold slanderers of God's "pure and perfect word," to prove one — even one of their
danders.

52 Roman catholic coNTROVERSt.
Moreover, the Bible is proved to be the word of God from the HistoRrcAL evIdeSce
OF TRADITION. To the christian church, as well as the Jewish church, were com
mitted the oracles of God. The hundreds of thousands of christians who lived in the
days of the aposdes, received these inspired books from the apostles, and evangelists :
and being fully satisfied of their inspiration, by their internal evidence, and by the
miracles and prophesies, and tongues, given in proof, by God's inspired servants, the
christian members of the Church transmitted them to their children, with their certi
fication of this evidence ; and they lo their children, untU they have reached us.
And all the sections of the churches have done this. The Bible is handed down to us
by the Jews and Hebrews : by the Syriac churches, still existing in India ; as Dr.
Buchanan who lately visited thera, testifies : and by the Greek church, more ancient
and more pure than that of Rome : and by the famous African churches, who in the
days of Augustine absolutely denied their dependence on the Roman Church: by
the Walden.sian churches, descended from the ancient Italick churches : and who
possessed the very ancient Latin version, called the Old Italick version of the Bible,
before the vulgate was written : by the ancient and apostolic churches of the Culdees
in England, in Scotland, in Ireland, and also in Spain, — in all of -ivhich the gospel
flourished for centuries before they were overrun by the idolatrous emisaries of
Popery ! And finally, they have been tran.smitted also by the humble aid ofthe Pioman
Catholic church. Moreover, all the ancient versions of the Bible, made in the first,
second, and third centuries, in Asia, in x'Vfrica, and Europe, have the valid authority
of so raany most undoubted tracUtions confirming the evidence of the existence of the
original word of God : and lastly, the enemies of the church, such as Celsus, Por
phyry, Zosimus, and Julian the apostate, do all bear their testimony to the authenti
city and genuineness ofthe apostolical writings.
Thus, on the strength of this full and irresistible moral evidence, do we believe the
Bible to be the word of God. We are not so weak and bigotted, and foolish as to
believe it, merely on the church's tradition. The internal evidence is as strong, this
day, on our minds, as it ever was ; and we have the constant fulfilling of predictions
before our eyes, over the churches, andthe world. And, finally, we see it manifestly
PROVED in the conviction and conversion of every one that is brought into the fold of
God, by the Holy Spirit. Every christian conversion by the gospel read and preached,
is a fresh and irresistible demonstration that the Bible is most certainly, and evidently
the word of God.
Priests : 2d, " How do you know which books were written by divine inspiration ?
The Bible cannot prove its own inspiration."
Ans, 2d, No Roman Catholic, or Protestant, so far as I know, ever said to a deist,
that the Bible proves its own authenticity and genuineness. Your Bull Uni<^enitus,
for instance, does not, and cannot prove its own authenticity ; the Magna Charta, and
our own Declaration of Independence do not prove their own authenticity. None
but papists can mistake here. Their defective education, and their wretched theology,
induce them to think that there is only one form of evidence to establish the authenti
city and divinity ofthe Bible, — and that is, — "Holy Mother's testimony and autho
rity!" We know " which books were written by divine inspiration, in the following per
fectly satisfactory manner.
The authors of each of the books of the holy scriptures, first gave evidence before
the church, by ¦w^orking miracles, by prophesying, and speaking tongues, that they

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 53,
were the accredited messengers of God. This being settled, they wrote those books
which bear their naraes, at the command of God. " Thus saith the Lord," was the
evidence fhat they were enjoined to speak and write. This established their divina
inspiration. (See Hos. viii. 12 — John xx. 31 — Rom. xv. 4; 2 Tim. iii. 16 — Rev. i.
11 &c. &c., also the beginning of each of Paul's epistles.) Having written them by
inspiration, they delivered them publicly to the church, certified in their hand writing.
This established their authenticity and genuineness : the church saw and knew that
these holy authors did most certainly write the books which bear their name. And
the churches in Asia, and in Greece, cmd in Africa, and in Italy, and in all Europe,
handed them down from generation to generation, just as the Magna Charta of Eng
land, or the Declaration of Independence is by tradition, handed down from age to age.
And, finally, just these books which compose the Bible, and no other books whatever,,
have had these evidences. And, thus, we know, by the most certain demonstration,,
¦what books were given to us by divine inspiration ; and what books are not inspired ;,
and therefore, apocryphal.
Priests: 3d. '• Does the Bible contain the whole word of God ?"^
Ans. 3d. It does. And the same evidence which establishes the fact of their di
vine inspiration, fully estabUshes this. There is no inspired book lost. Those books,
referred to by deists and the Romish priests, as lost, such as Jasher, and certain epis
tles and gospels, were not given by inspiration. And we defy all the priesthood of
Rome to prove their inspiration.
Let them not shift the question. We make a public call on you, priests, to prove
the inspiration of these lost books. If they do not finally enter on the proof of their
inspiration, then we shall set it down as a public recantation of their error ; and a
confession of their utter unfitness to prove their position. We know they cannot :
and we are assured they (fare not offer any defence of their inspiration. Remember
your own words, the mere fact of their being written by a prophet, or an Apostle, as
Barnabas, is no evidence, alone, of their inspiration. Produce the evidence of their
di-vinity which we have for "all scripture." You cannot: and you know that you
cannot. Gentleman, it is just as impossible that any of the inspired books could be lost, by
the carelessness of the church, or the cunning of the eneray, as it is impossible that a
book of the common law of the United States, or of old England, or any part ofthe
Magna Charta, or our Declaration of Independence, can be abstracted and lost !
Such a loss could not take place in the days of the Aposdes ; for they could bear
fheir testimony to all that was inspired ; and against all that was forged. It could not
take place after their death, for before the death of the last of the Apostles, namely^
John — copies of the holy scriptures, even of the entire and perfect canon, were mul
tipUed over Asia, Africa and Europe.
Priests : 4. How can you prove that the scriptures alone are the sufficient rule ?"
Ans. 4. By the strongest testimony that can exist: namely, the testimony of
Almighty God. And bold and unblushing must that christian deist he who shall dare
to give the lie to the Almighty. Psalm xix. — " The law of the Lord is perfect: con
verting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple: "the
judgments ofthe Lord are true and altogether righteous." "By them is thy servant
wamed ; and in keeping of them there is great reward." The whole of Psalm cxix ;
and particularly these: — "Through thy precepts I get understanding: — "Thy word
is a lamp to my feet ; a light to my path." " Thy word is very pure :" &c. Isaiah,
6*

54 RO.MAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
viii. 19, 20. " If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light
in them." John v. 39. " Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eter
nal Ufe: and they are they which testify of me." John xvU. 17. " Sanctify them
through thy truth. Thy word is truth." 2 Pet. i. 19. "We have a more sure word
of prophecy, whereunto ye do weU that ye take heed," &c. 2 Tim. iU. 15. "The
holy scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation," &e. And, finaUy, they
make the " the man of God perfect, and thoroughly furnished unto aU good works."
I shaU conclude this, by noticing briefly several vulgar errors of Roman cathoUc
priests, ¦which we deem incurable. 1st. The invariable reply of a priest when asked
what he conceives to be the Protestant rule of faith, is this : " The scr'iptures as under
stood by every person of sound judgment are thdr only rule of faith." This is as wan
ton a misrepresentation as would be that of a criminal who affirms that, " it is not the
law of the land, hut my own construction of that law, by which I am to be tried !" —
Besides, we object to this, because it actuaUy palms on the Protestant church, the
very error which we condemn in popery! The Roraan catholic rule of faith, is this:
"The whole word of God, written and unwritter, as explained by the cathoUc or
universal church," That is, — as it is explained by the falUble judgments of each of
the fallible individuals who constitute that church. It is ludicrous that the best of
their polemics should thus charge on us the essential principle of their own system ;
and then maintain a lusty warfare again.st us for holding it !
2d. The Romish priests always assume it as a fact that they are the succes
sors of the apostles ; and are, by heaven, invested with power equal to them ! ¦ 3d.
They deny that Christ commanded his apostles to write any of the New Testament
scriptures ! He commanded his apostles " to go and teach all nations." " And this,"
say they, by a most arbitrary construction, " always means oral instruction. They
were sent to preach, not to write books!"
Christ certainly commanded them to wTite the New Testament scriptm-es. See
Rev. i. 10, 11, 17, 19; Luke xxiv. 44, 47; 2d Tim, iU. IG, -,;¦
And if he did not, then the New Testament is not given by his inspiration. For
God's act of inspiring them to write, was his act of commanding them to write the
New Testament. If they wrote without his command, they went beyond their com
mission. Such is the inveterate spirit of deism pervading popery ! 4th. That "the
Bible is the most obscure book in the world." This simply means that the svstem
of popery cannot be found in it by common readers. And as the priests alone can
find that in the scriptures, and other writings, which God never put there, nor au
thorized; hence it is necessary to the very existence of popery, that the priests should
be constituted the only persons who can explain scripture, and keep their victim's con
science! Sth. That " Christians, previous to the writing ofthe New Testament, had
not the scriptures as a rule." This is spoken in the face of clear evidence to the con
trary. " Search the scriptures," said our Lord. They had the Old Testament, and
the benefit of inspired teachers. Lastly: 'Phe Roman Catholic priests betray at
every step, the painful deficiency of their education. Biblical Uterature forms no
portion whatever of their education. On no other principle can we account for their
liidicrons blunderings. For instance, our priests confound internal evidence with
external, as in the following quotation from their letter V. ; — "But if you can produce
no text which can precisely determine the number of canonical books, then- it evidently
foUows that there is something to be believed, which cannot be found in the scriptures
themselves, and, by consequence, the written word of God alone, is neither a/aH nor

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVEKST. 55
tufficient rule of faith, If you could have produced fhe text, you would not have
referred us to the passag-es in holy writ, which can never prove, nor were they ever
intended to prove, that the scriptmes alone, are a sufficient rule of faith." See reply
in No. 2, above.

LETTER VI.
TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, .\ND MR. LEVINS.
Rev. Gentlemen. — I finished in my last, my ten arguments against yonr Roman
catholic rule of faith. I ha^ e reason to know that the enUghtened public are satisfied
with the perfect conclusiveness of these arguments. Your pretensions to an infallible
rule being entirely annihilated, — the claims set forth in behalf of our rule aud Judge
of controversv, ai^e of course, without a rival, from your annihilated system. I call
die attention of the Protestant, and Roman catholic public to the fact that the priests
have not examined nor refuted one of these ten arguments: they have not even ap
proached one of them. The strongest diing they have said is this; — '¦ What has all
this to do with the defence of your Protestant rule?" This is really amusing. So
utterly destitute do j'ou seem to be of the true logic, and the scientific rules of defence
and offence, — that even while your ¦whole magazine of ammunition v asin the act of
being blown up, about your ears, you gravely ask us, " pray what has all this to do
with vour defence of the Protestant rule?" I had thought, gentlemen, that there
¦were only two claims set up ; that of the Protestant rule in the holy scriptures ; in
which the infaUible Judge, namely, Almighty God, the Spirit speaks unto us, by that
which is aheady revealed : and closed for ever, and pronounced by the Almighty,
perfect : and all-sufficient "to make the man of God perfect :" and on the other hand,
the Roman catholic rule ; ¦which your church, in fatal, but characteristic union with
deists, sets up in opposition to the holy bible : even as, with unparalleled daring and
impiety, you place the pope and council on the throne of judgment, in rivalship with
Almighty God ! And of these two rival claimants, one of them, namely, your rule,
and the whole of your presumptuous assertions, being, I trust, demolished and annihi
lated : of course, our rule, stands forward alone, and without any rival.
I shall now redeem my pledge, and take up your various objections, errors, and
misstatements. I have postponed the examination of them, to this place ; because
every one saw that you threw them out, — not at all because you, yourselves, believed
them: but simply because you availed yourselves of every difficulty, and obstacle,
to impede us in our demolition of your rule. You had not the merit, nor even the
means ofthro^>ving down a golden apple, to turn us out of our course.
I. One of the main objections, and that on which ray opponents estabUsh the last
hopes of their sinking cause, k taken from their view of traditions, — Their church
like that ofthe Hebrev^ church, had the oracles of God, committed to them; they con
veyed them down to these times. This seems to be an innocent position : but it was
assumed as a position on which to plant the Antichristian lever, by which they have
moved and convulsed the civU and political world. " They have been," as Augus
tine says, "the librarian of the church;'' or as another shrewdly observes, "the mere
carrier of the mail bag;" to transmit to a whole vicinity, the contents of that mail
bag, for their own benefit, and that of others.

56 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
But could the gravest spectator refrain from laughter, did the post boy, summoning
the community together, gravely harangue them thus ? " It is well known to you all,
¦that the general government has committed to my trust one of the lines, by which the
contents of this mail bag is carried : therefore by virtue of this trust-worthiness, I de
mand the right and honor of being all the carriers of all the Unes in the worid ! I
claim also the right of keeping, in my power, all the contents of the mail lines ; and of
enacting my own personal explanations of every letter in them, and those to whom
they are directed, have, as every one knows, no right, nor power, whatever,
to do this ! And, hark ye, I am not to be trifled with : I have a right, as maU-carrier,
to make as much gain of you all as I can. And let the obstinate know, in a word,
that the fires of purgatory await every opposer of my wUl ! I have not done yet, — I
claim, moreover, in right of being letter carrier, to have the spiritual and temporal
power over each soul in the whole district through which I pass. It is my right to
fix your destiny here, to open heaven to you, or shut its gate irrevocably, for the
DUES paid to me according to my will and pleasure !
This modest claira set up by the post boy, is literally what the pope and his priests
have set up. Because they happened to be the mail carriers of one line : because as
one section of the church, they carried the Bible down to their vicinity : they are the
entire carriers of all lines ; and they arrogate extravagant ghostly claims to spiritual
donunion over -men's souls, bodies, and property ! Had it not been for the incon
ceivable blindness and ignorance of the dark ages, these claims would have been
received only with indignation, — or to say the least, with peals of laughter ! The
post boy's ravings were soberness compared to this.
II. The whole of their doctrine touching tr.i.ditions, is involved in fanaticism
and extravagance. For instance : —
1st. Availing themselves of the ambiguity of the word, they use it to mean, at one
time, the transmission of the Bible to our times : at another, to mean those oral doc
trines, undefined, invisible, artificial, and intangible, — that are convenient for a mis
chievous aud designing power, — as an instrument to originate, and establish new
doctrines and rites.
2d. The Romish church holds that, by tradition alone, the entire evidence ofthe
divine inspiration ofthe Bible is established. She merges the whole internal evidence
and the other branches of the external, in this, for one grand selfish object, namely, —
gain. 3. She pronounces judgment in her own behalf, that she is the onlt church of
God. Aud all the churches that have flourished in Syria, Greece, Africa, and
Europe, are in her all absorbing and ambitious ¦views, utterly nothing ! Hence, no
attention is to be paid to their historical monuments, or their transmission of the
scriptures !
4. Having arrogated to herself this exclusive title, she assumes the right of determin
ing that HER EXCLUSIVE TRADITION bestows On the Bible all the evidence necessary
to settle its inspiration, and its aufhority !
5. This simple handing down of the Bible, she says, gives her the entire right of
not only determining the authority, but of fixing the meaning of God's word : and of
dictating a religion to the conscience of all God's subjects. Nay, like the tyrant, intox
icated whh the fury of ambition, she claims from the humble act of conveying down
the scriptures, an unbounded ghostly power over all the souls, and the bodies, and tbe
property of men ! She is theace a God on earth : she pardons sin, and creates new

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 6?
objects of worsliip, by the power of canonizing. And to crown the whole tale of her
imparalleled claims, wherever she meets, c^¦en in the pages of Protestants, with tlie
word Church, or Catholic ; she assumes it as granted that she only is meant, and
that all our Protestant champions, even when opposing her, meant only homage to
her, because diey defended " the church," the "catholic,'" or, general Church,
which of course, could mean only die Roman sect! Such unheard of reasoning, gen
tlemen, pervades all your letters.
II. There is a pecuUar sentiment interwoven in all the objections of my opponents:
and it is deser\-Uig of notice, as it is characteristic of catholicity at home, and in
Europe ; it is this. The priesthood is a spiritual nobility, and exclusive aristocracy, of
an awful order. They are in fact, every thing ; and the poor luily are nothing, utterly
nothing! Hence the terms in our priests' letter, "The poor ignorant people," of
" scanty intellects," and " Aveak capacities ; " Strange, to think that the Redeemer
should requu^e such to pick out theh religion from die scriptures !" And this system
deems it not enough to brutalize the laity ; it also insults them. And hence the con
clusion which the priests draw from the fact of their degradation, is as curious in point
of logic, as it is destitute of aU benevolent feeling ; — namely, because thej' are ignorant,
therefore, we wiU not allow them the great means appointed by God to instruct them ;
the laity shall uot have the right to hear what God says to them, without a priest's
written license !
'- But God has given his word as a light to our feet, and a lamp to our path.'' " The
man of God is made perfect by the scriptures, and is thoroughly furnished by them
unto all good works."' " No, my child," says Holy Mother by her priests, " that light
does not mean light ; that lamp is not the lamp ; God's law, though perfect, is "a faUa-
cious," and mischievous mle ; "perfect" does not mean "sufficient!" "And mark me,
my son," saj-s she, — " we are very watchful, and very benevolent ; though men may
have thinking powers, they have no right before me, to think ! Though God may have
given to each private man, a judgment, yet none have the rights of private judgment
with me ! Though there are some things hard to be understood, aud only some, it is
true, — yet it is far the safest way to keep out of the Iciity's hands all the plain aud easy
parts too. Though some men, namely, the " unlearned and unstable do wrest the
scriptures," yet it w'ih he an act of pure benevolence to keep away the temptation, and
abstract the whole Bible from the hands of all !
But the apostle does not say that any ofthe scriptures are beyond the possibility of
being understood. They are SBcvonTa. hard, that is, not impossible to be understood.
Would it not be a little more benevolent, still, to make the people " learned," and
and thence " stable,"' by n solid education ? That is what you heretics say ; but
says Holy ^Mother, — " There is nothing equal to a cloud of darkness brooding over the
mind of our ' low, -vulgar, and poor ignorant laity ;' it is highly salutary ; our priestly
influence would vaiUsh in six weeks, if this cloud were unhapiiily dispersed. For
we know this by our bitter experience, ever since the squabble between Mr. Martin
Luther and pope Leo X." As certainly as the " poor ignorant people" begin to read,
they wUl think for themselves: then they ¦will reclaim from us the rights "of your
accursed private judgmnnt ;" and the right of going directly to God himself, to have
fheir sins pardoned for nothing ! Then the asses which we have long bridled and ridden,
most joyfully, 'peacefully, and profitably, will slip the noose. Then farewell to the
gains and sweets of priestcraft; and the shrines of the great goddess, the queen of
heaven ! !

58 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY.
III. Another prominent feature in your logic, gentiemen, has been the vicious cir
cle. When we demand ofthe Roman Catholics,—" How do you prove your church
to be infallible ? And whence do you establish the marks of the true church ?" They
appeal to Matt. xxvUi. 19. ; and to the passage relative to Peter, the rock. In fact
they seek proofs of theh church out of the holy scriptures. This their fathers have
done; and even Bellaimine, De A^erbo Dei, Lib. i, 2. says,—" Sacra Scriptura regu
la credendi certissima tntissiraaque sit &c. Sacred Scripture is the most certain and
most safe rule of faith. On the other hand inthe whole course of this controversy,
the priests have fiercely maintained that the scriptures, their inspiration, and tiieir
audiority depend on the church! And thus "Holy Mother," reasons in a circle,
after the following manner, A certain estate is in suit, in chancery ; a female of
rather a suspicious character, with a few characteristic attendants, not a whit holier
thau they should be, appears in court, with a parchment roll in her hand ; she claims
the property on the evidence of that parchment roll. "Who are you?" says the
court; "Who I am you can know by the most perfect evidence of this parchment
¦writing." They look into the roll : there is nothing there but what is unfavorable to
her. "But what, and whence is this roll?" says the court. "What that deed ia,
and whence its evidence, you can know," says she, "inthe most certain manner
from my oral testimony. My lips certify that will ; and that will certifies me !" This
is fhe literal argument of our Roraish priests ! !
IV. There is one of your objections, which I am constrained once more to notice.
It is your stereotype objection in all your oral, and written discussions. Besides it is
copied out of Mumford, and Milner, and put into every Roman catholic's lips. It is
this: " The Protestant rule is the Bible as explained by each, by private judgment and
Ms otvn private interpretation." This has been answered and exposed ten thousand
times by our writers : and yet, it is deliberately and constantly urged. Now, we
pronounce this as deUberate a slander, as it would be on my part, did I assert that you
¦recite the prayers of Mohamraed at Mass ! No Protestant ever said that the Bible,
as explained by each one, by private interpretation, is the rule. The reason is obvi
ous ; it involves a contradiction ; the Bible manifestly cannot be the rule, if each
man's private sentiment be the rale. The priest, therefore, who reiterates this charge
contradicts himself, and bears false witness against his neighbor. And yet I assure
my readers, that they will find our priests recklessly renewing this slanderous charge,
to the end. The reason is manifestly this : did they take our own doctrine, in our
own words, and sense, it were utterly irapossible for them, for lack of raatter, to
advance one rational objection. The Protestant church unaniraously proclaims that
her RULE IS the word of God ; and the judge and interpreter is the Al-
MiGHT? God, speaking in it to us, plainly and clearly; because God in
tends that we should certainly understand him.
V. When we urged on you, gentiemen, the fact of your corrupting the word of
God, by adding to it the apocrypha, and traditions, which the fathers rejected, — you
turned on us, and replied by charging on us, in genuine style of Jesuitism, the same
sin. " We cannot refrain from laughter," as St. Jerome once said on a similar charge,
tohear you very gravely asserting in your letter II. that "the Calvinists add to the
gospels, and to the episties, the institutes of Calvin! — and the Heidleberg catechism
to the apocalypse!" "And they add their professions (confessions) of faith to die
Bible." According to this unique and irresistible logic, we sh^U presently hear it asserted

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 59
that Dr. Power's last sermon in St. Peter's, is an awful and impious addition to the
pope's bull, Uuigenitus! And our priests sacred tonsure is an addition to the pope's
tiara, and will make it no imre the triple, but the quadruple crown ! What miracles
will not the mysterious powers of Romish logic etl'ect !
But, after all can it be possible that our meaning is misunderstood, when we say
that the council of Trent has added many books to the sacred canon ? You are
aware that the Tridentine Fathers declared certain books to be as much inspired, aa
the holy scriptures, anl thence enjoined them to be read with the same " holy and
pious veneration," as the rest of the scriptures. Now surely, you do not mean gravely
to charge it on us, thit we canonize as inspired, the catechisms, or confessions, far
less the writings of private individuals !
VI. " The Hebrews" you say " were witiiout the written word of God for 14
generations; hence the scriptures could not be their rule of faith." Gentlemen, you
appear very learned in your letter II, You give a sort of dissertation on the Hebrews'
losing their native tongue after the great captivity ; and the introduction of the Syriac
among the Jews for fourteen generations, you say, the Jews have not had the Old
Testament in their vernacular ; it was read in Hebrew to them ; a tongue not under
stood. All this borrowed plumage is plucked from your convenient Mumford, the Jesuit.
But I deny this utterly, and I call on you for his and your proof, that the Jews were
without the scriptures in their vernacular tongue for fourteen generation,^, Mumford's
assertion is no proof to you, or to me. I am prepared to prove your and his assertion
utterly false.
I shall name only one fact. Ezra, after the captivity, read the bonk ofthe law to
the people; this shows beyond contradiction that they understood the Hebrew. He
read the law, and, as a preacher, gave the sense, and made the people understand it.
Ezra was not initiated into the edifying practice of praying and preaching, in Latin or
Chinese, to his people ! And it is interesting to know, that all the Jews, except the
apostate Jews, keep up this custom of Ezra ; the apostate Jews, Uke you, continue the
truly edifying and interesting habit of employing in the public worship, an unkno^wn
tongue i This, by the way, might do with the Jews, who prayed only to him who
knows all tongues : but -with you it is a fatal and fooUsh work ; and I beg you to look
well to it ; for you ought to know that the Virgin Mary, " the glorious Mediatrix," to
whom the most of your prayers are offered, being a Jewess, knew Hebrew and Syriac,
but nothing ofthe Latin, never having been at Rome ! ! Hence all your prayers are
thrown away upon her, even supposing you could get within the range of her sight,
and hearing !
VIL " If the scriptures had been the rule of faith,'' say you, "the church would
always have had them in writing; but before Moses, there was no writing; and in
Chrisf s time, they had not the New Testament." We reply that in all periods before
the writtenword was completed, the church had the same rule and judge. They had
the word of God, uttered by inspiration from the lips of the patriarchs, and prophets,
and from Chri.st, and his apostles. And the same judge, namely the Holy Ghost
spoke unto them, and determined all controversies, and all that was necessary to faith
and sound morals. This favorite objection of our priests, betrays great ignorance of
biblical and historical knowledge.
VIIL In your industrious zeal against the holy scriptures, you object to our rule,
that if Christ had designed them for the rule, he would have commanded the disciple*

60 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
to write, and to distribute Bibles : on the contrary, he said, " Go and teach aU nations :"
and by "teaching," you assume, without proof, that mstruction by the lip is meant.
I beg' again to reply, that "teaching," impUes as much the use of writings, as of
oral instruction. And our Lord's command to teach, included as much an injunction
to write, as to speak. Apostolical facts confirm this : they did write, as weU as preach ;
they declared that they were enjoined to write. See Rev. i. 19. And their writings
they left to the church as a rule of faith. John xx. 31 ; Luke i. 3, 4 ; 2d Tim. iu. 16 ;
Rom. xvi. 26.
You object in words borrowed from Mumford, that, " if the scriptures were the rule
of faith, the aposdes would have procured the Bible to each different nation in its
own native tongue. But they did not, — and gave no orders to their successors to do
it."  Letter II. I reply that you cannot prove that they did not enjoin them to do
this. One thing is manifest from Paul's enjoining the speaking in known tongues : —
that he and his associates did preach to the nations in their own native tongue. See 1
Cor. xiv. 19. The apostle would have made a glorious figure, if he had preached the
gospel to the plain Greeks in Chinese ; or taught the Romans in native Irish ! Or
fhe Scotch and Irish in full flovvfing Latin!
The fact is this, the Almighty set the mark of his strong reprobation against this
popish foolery, by his gift of tongues to the apostles. Rather than permit his servants
to insult the people, and offer an outrage to common sense, by talking to them, in an
unknown tongue, God ¦wrought a splendid miracle, and gave his preachers the gift o'
tongues. And finally, they used the Greek of the Hebraic idiom. And Greek, says
Cicero, we.s spoken over all the east and the west. It is true, you object, again, with
Mumford, "that it was only the well educated in these countries, who understood the
Greek !" That is exactly what we mean. And hence, in all nations there were
multitudes of learned men who could render the Greek Septuagint, and the Greek New
Testament into all the different languages, as Christianity spread among the nations.
And these raen needed no command, — but tliat of reason and common sense, to move
them to this duty. They were enjoined to teach all men. But without books, teaching
could not be carried on, when the holy spirit of inspiration departed. While he ¦was in
the church, as before Moses ; and before the New Testament was written, the church
having the law spoken by iramediate revelations, could do without inspired writings;
but just as he was retiring, were the inspired writings filled up. And, in fine, it is a
matter of historical fact, that the sacred writings were translated into various languages,
even before the last of the apostles, and apostolical fathers died. Witness the ancient
Syriac ; and soon after, the ancient Italick, or Latin version, before the Vulgate ; fhe
Egyptian ; the Persian, the Ethiopian, the Sclavonic. See Home's Introd. vol. i. p. 96,
and vol. ii. chap. v. where a minute account of them is given.
IX. In every attempt at argument, gentlemen, I discover one of your besetting
errors: it is this: you claim infallibility for the rule of your faith. But you have
never preserved, nor even made, the distinction between objective and subjective infal
libiUty. In the Protestant rule of faith, there is an objective infalUbility. It cannot
be otherwise ; because Almighty God speaks to us in his holy scriptures. But there
is no such thing as subjective infallibility. The subject on whom it. operates is not
infallible ; it does not make aU men infkllible in their views. By an accurate square
rule of two feet, a carpenter is guided infallibly, in his accuracy, in building a house.
But that same rule in the hands of a child, or a blind man, -will not regulate the
buUding; nor make the chUd, and the bUnd man infalUbly accurate: and yet it is

ROM-VN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. Cl
?he same perfect rule in die hand* of all three. The fault lies in the subject : not in
the rule objectively. The royal psalmist David, distinctly recognizes this by the
guidance of the Holy Spirit: — " Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous
things out of thy law." Ps. cxix. 16. Gentlemen, you confound these two things,
¦with studious care, in all your declamatory opposition to the holy scriptures. And
fhe issue of your argument, — paidon me, I mean no insult in calling it argument, — is
worthy of this wretched logic.
We have not, however, observed this mode of arguraent against your rule: for we
have shown, it is believed, to die entire satisfaction of the christian public. — 1st.
That you have no infalUble rule whatever: because widi the deistical school, you
abandon the holy scriptures ; and with characteristic malignity, even taunt the He
brew and Greek volumes, inspired by the .Holy Ghost. 2d. That though you had
such a rule, your church and priesthood could no more wield it, to the effecting of any
practical appUcation, than a man can do it, who is stricken blind ; or a wretched
maniac who decks hiraself in a triple crown, and dreams that he is pope and the vicar
of heaven! and 3d. That did even such a rule exist, your succes.sion is utterly cut
off and annihilated ; and that you have neither church, nor pope, nor priest, nor sacra
ment! X. I come now to your often repeated assertion, that "many, — nay, twenty books
of the Old Testament are lost." Aud among these you reckon, "The book of the
wars of God:" "Jasher," "Nathan," "Iddo," "Solomon's sayings," "the epistle
from the Corinthians to Paul : the epistle from Laodicea." In reply — hst. I shall for
a moment suppose what you affirra to be correct. And as you make the church to be the
infallible guardian and keeper of the holy scriptures, and also the very fountain of their
purity and authority, it is evident on yonr own principles, that she bas been guilty of
a most scandalous and mortal sin, in permitting twenty books to be lost ? But you
make the church the infallible rule. Here, then, your infallible rule has committed a
mortal sin; inasmuch as she has betrayed God's cause, aud wantonly lost 20 books!
Either she is not the infallible rule, and keeper of God's word ; or no books are lost !
2d. The allusion to these books, as 'Jasher," &c., by the inspired writer is no
e^vidence of theh inspiration, or their ever being a part ofthe holy canon. None of
the insphed writers call 'ihem " scripture ;" none of them quote them as " scripture."'
They simply allude to them as St. Paul does, in some of his sayings and epistles to
certain heathen poets. Thus, in the Acts, in his discourse to the Athenians, — Paul
quotes a sentence found in Homer, and Hesiod : also in Plato, and in Virgil, iEn. vi.
724 ; and the poet Aratus. And moreover, in Titus i. 12, Paul quotes the heathen
poet Epimenides, and pronounces his testimony a moral truth. Here St. Paul does
exactly no more than what the Old Testament writers clo in referring to "Nathan,"
"Iddo," or " Gad." Do you pronounce Homer, Hesiod, and Epiraenides, gravely,
to be inspired writers? Are these men's writings, then, holy scriptures becau.se St,
Paul quoted them ? We all know that the Rev. father Levins, indeed, quotes his
Shakespeare ten times more frequently than his Bible : and far more accurate is he
and more at home with Shakespeare than with the holy Bible. But we are not pre
pared to hear Homer, and Epimenides, and Shakespeare canonized!
Your appeal, gentlemen, to Chrysostom does not help your sinking cause. I deny,
and you must deny as well as I do, that he calls these books " scripture," or a portion
of the canon. You here attempt to palm an imposition on the ignorant. And verily
you shall have your reward. That eminent Father calls them " prophetical menu-
7

62 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
ments ;" or remnants of prophetical times ; or Jewish national monuments. They were
not inspired works ; no honest man dare assert that they were ; he cannot prove it, ifhe
is so fool-hardy as to assert it. They were the national legends, traditions, or rab
binical books, containing historical sketches or expositions: but they were by no means
inspired. In the London repubUcation of Leslie's " Short way with the Jews," designed as a
tract for the Jews, you will see a clear evidence and Ulustration of the idea I now
advance. Many ancient rabbinical books were found to contain expositions of pas
sages relative to Messiah, in all respects favoring the views of christians ; and by an
edict of the rabbins, a command was given to the synagogues to destroy them.
These "prophetical monuments" have been wantonly destroyed. You can see a
copy of this Hebrew injunction, in the London edition of Leslie's " Short Way."
I have only to add, that if you renew this charge "of twenty books being lost,"
without giving the public the full evidence of their divine inspiration, and of their
having once formed a part ofthe sacred canon, then you, and Contzen, and Serrarins,
and Mumford, do post yourselves as deliberate slanderers of God's holy word I
XI. "The epistle of Barnabas is authentic, but not inspired." "Now," say you,
— "if the certainty of receiving the epistles of Paul, pure and entire from his hands,
as an apostle, be your reason for admitting their inspiration, tell us why you reject the
episde of Barnabas, the apostle?" Lett. 2.
Even admitting your absurd position that there is no other evidence of inspiration,
than that of tradition, there is no difficulty here in answering your question. Barna
bas never laid claims to inspiration ; he did not lay his epistle before the churches as
inspired : hence the church never declared it inspired : nor received as such. Hence
it wants the internal evidence.
I cannot omit here an amusing circumstance, relative to an extraordinary discovery
which my profoundly learned opponents have made in their last letter. Though I
have formally included tradition, and the church's testimony, in the Ust, as one ofthe
evidences of the truth of divine inspiration, they have just discovered, for the first
time, that we really do hold that ; aud they exult with triumph that we have made
the concession ! ! But then, gentlemen, you take care not to tell your intelligent de
votees, that we hold to the tradition of historical testimony of all the churches, in Asia,
Greece, Africa, aud Europe ;— ^and not in your ridiculous, and exclusive manner, to
the sect of the Roman church only !
XII. In your letters you have more than once made emphatic allusions to the
"Arian Cobbler," and to "old women," and "virtuous females." I must, for want
of room postpone the objection of the "Cobbler" which you and Mr. Hughes, copy
out of old Mumford ; and which you improve, actually out of Volney : of this in my
next. I was at a loss for some time, to penetrate the reason -why you speak so
solemnly, so often, and so affectionately about "old women," and "-virtuous old
ladies." After some pains I have discovered die reason. A pious man, especially a
Roman priest, is always very grateful. And I have no doubt fhat you make these
frequent allusions with a pious view of cherishing the memoiy of good old Pope Joan ;
that pious and sly " old woman" and "virtuous female," who contrived to obtain a
cardinal's hat ; and finally, to climb up into St. Peter's chair ! You have proud
reasons to cherish her memory, — good old soul ! And as pious and chaste sons, to
speak fondly aud gratefully of such " old women ;" and " such -virtuous females."
You can never forget "fhe chair Stercorarius ;" nor the street of Rome immortalized

R0M.4.N CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 63
by her labors. We cannot blame you for being grateful. It was not every pope
that made such a present to " Holy Mother," and to " St. Peter's chair," — as Pope
Joan did ; as the old Roman distich, composed by an orthodox monk, has fully shown :
viz. — " Papa pater patrum peperit papissa papilum ! !
WUl our learned priests oblige the reading public with a literal version of this curi
ous monkish verse ; and accompany it with historical notes, and a commentary ?
You have felt the force of our remark on the unfair writer Milner. Hence you pee
vishly remark, — " Your attack on the great Milner reminds us of the jack-ass kicking
the dead lion.'' There is a slight error here; but such things will occur with even
accurate printers. It should have been, — " it reminds us of the lion kicking the dead
jack-ass!" But it is of no consequence. Even admitting hira to be "the dead lion,"
— I beg you to know that no Protestant ever strikes a fallen, — far less a dead foe !
McGavin in The Glasgow Protestant, and another writer in The London Protestant
Journal, vol. i. 683, have actuaUy left nothing to be done, in despatching and skinning
"the dead Uon.'' They have annihUated every one of his objections : and exposed
the infamy of that unfair ¦writer, who never could quote an opponent without mis
statement : nor shape an argument without sophistry ; nor detail a simple narrative,
¦without lalsehood and fraud !
I am, gentlemen, your most ob't and humble servant,
W. C. B.
EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER VI.
" The letter opens with a long discussion about ' the stamp which nature impresses on dif
ferent animals.' ' So it is with fools and dunces.' Then follows a lamentation over Dr.
B. » ' utter failure to prove his rule.' ' Who, not gifted with prophetic vision, could have
supposed a teacher in Israel, a preacher in the Middle Dutch Church, a familiar with the
interior spirit, an erudite able to interpret every crabbed idiom in the ' Hebrew and Greek
of the Holy Ghost," a 'gentleman,' who arrogates to himself the sole right to be the ' writer,
to his flock, and the director of 'virtuous ladies,' who could have supposed he would have
shrunk from the logical probation and defence of a cause to which he had invited discus
sion !"
" Had ¦we foreseen your unenviable qualities of mind, you should not have numbered us
among your conti^ovesial antagonists ; you might still, for aught it would affect us, have been
the Grand Lama of the Middle D utch C hurch, and the interpre ter of the ' Hebrew and Greek
ofthe Holy Ghost,' for your cliallenge would not have been honored by our acceptance.''
"Your assertions were returned to you inthe order of sixteen propositions. Why was your
answer given under this form ? Did you suppose it would have been admitted by us as es
tablishing the Bible to be the word of God? If you did, the sixteen propositions have fur
nished another form of testimony.''
The priests, then, proceed to go over Dr. B.'s proofs ofthe divine inspiration ; and declare
them " puerile,'' and mere " assertions.'' " There is nothing but assertion, and a reference
to bishop Newton : and, on this, forsooth, you hook your infallible conclusion — the Bible is
the word of God ! This is really, utterly, and disgracefully puerile, contemptible, farcical.
Yet, this is a preacher's answer in defence of his rule of faith! This is the answer of a
Judge in Israel, who can, when he lists, evoke the interior spirit, and interpret the " Hebrew
and Greek ofthe Holy Ghost?"
" This is the Q,. E. D. of your interior spirit, and your logical basis for an article of faith ;
How will John Calvin greet you on the river Styx ? Your proofs now are typical of what
your shade will be tlien. Again your opponents say, — prove your answers, logical doctors,"

64 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
Here follows a tedious repetition of the only idea that they have ever yet advanced on thi*
point, namely : that " the inspiration of the Bible is proved only from the traditionary testi
mony of the church: that 'the church' is their sect, and that exclusively."
We have all along admitted this branch of testimony to the divine inspiration of the holy
scriptures : but we have insisted on the testimony of all the branches of the church of Christ.
The following exhibits the eternal circle in which all Romish priests move. " But this evi
dence he has from the testimony of the chuich; therefore, without the testimony ofthe
church, he could not believe the inspiration of the scriptures. But the inspiration ofthe
scriptures is an article of christian behef; and to this belief, the Doctor could not be brought
by the scriptures alone. Therefore, the scriptures alone are not a sufficient rule of faith.—
Q. E. D."
" You reject the inspiration of the epistle of St. Barnabas on the authority of the Cathohc
church ; you admit the inspiration of the gospel of St. Luke on the same authority, and yoa
have the assurance to tell us, ' we are not so weak and bigoted and foolish, as to believe it,
merely on the church's tradition !' This ' mere carrier of the mail bag' as you impiously call
the churoh of Christ, is authority with you for rejecting as inspired scripture, the writing of
an apostle, and for admitting as inspired scripture the writings of one who "was not an apos
tle, St. Luke ; and this authority which you pretend to revere on this all important point you
reject with contempt, when there is question of ascertaining its meaning."
" Where does the Catholic Church tell you that the books referred as lost were not inspired?
Would St. Matthew, think you, refer the Jews to uninspired prophecies, for proof that Christ
was the Messiah foretold by the prophets ? It was spoken by the prophets, ' He shall be
called a Nazarene, — Matt. c. ii. 5, 23. The books of the prophets, wherein Christ was
called a Nazarene, have perished, for he is not called a Nazarene in all the prophetical
books which we have."
The following sets the deism of our priests in a clear light : —
" But what are we to think of the man who libels the Almighty by pertinaciously asserting
in the face of the public that the Almighty established as the only rule of faith, that which
comraon sense alone tells us could not be the only rule of faith. The inspiration and cano
nicity of the scriptures are articles of faith. These articles cannot be proved by the scrip
tures alone ; therefore, the scriptures are not the only rule of faith."
Note. — The priests, in their zeal to show that the Jews had, in their captivity in Babylon, '
utterly lost the Hebrew language, ludicrously contradict their own leading tenet, by assert
ing that Ezra translated the Bible into their vernacular tongue. Here are their words : —
" Hence we conclude, that, when Ezra, ' after the captivity, read the book ofthe law to the
people,' he acted both the part of a preacher and interpreter. To have the people under
stand the law which he read, he must have_ translated it for them."
Romish priests always stoutly maintain that an infallible rule makes all those wlio use it,
infalUble also. Hence the following extravagance: "Your distinction between subjective
and objective infallibility, is worthy of the logician, and great magician ofthe Middle Dutch
Church. The holy scriptures are infallible, because they are the word of God. ' But there
is no such thing as subjective infallibility.' So then the Almighty God, who is your inter
preter of the holy scriptures and not your own private spirit, does not infaUibly teach you
the truth ! "
It is curious to see the priests deprecating and denying the vicious circle, and at the same
moment employing it in defence of Holy Mother ! " Our church," say they, " established by
miracles, comes into court, without spot or wrinkle!" Yes ! the polluted lady of Babylon,.
" the mother of harlots," as John said, " comes into court MJispotierf, with the testament of
hsf divine spouse. It is readily admitted to be genuine." — that'is, exclusively, say the priests,
by tlie church's own testimony. " Its contents are duly examined ; and behold this document,
already proved and admitted to be genuine, — that is by her own word — says: ' That Christ
promised to be with his church to the end gf the world.' ' That he would send her the Holy
Ghoat to teach her all truth ;' she is called ' the pillar and the ground of truth ;' and this

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 65
Dr. Brownlee calls a vicious nrcle, which in logic is called a sophism, proving the same by the
same, in every respect. Here you see, tlie document is proved to he a genuine record, on the
respectable testimony of the Catliolic church, before tlie infallihility of the church is proved from the
document." Finally, in tiieir Letter III., the priests thus express the Roman catholic sentiments, rela
tive to their vulgate : —
" It is painful to be obliged to expose your ignorance where you ought to be better informed.
Are you not aware, Sir, tiiat the Vulgate, which you call the icorst of all translations, and
which you say is considered as such by all enlightened Protestants, was partly made and
partly corrected by the hrst biblical scholar, and one ofthe greatest and most holy men, who
ever lived, St, Jerome, You ought to know that this version was made when the best and
purest copies of the Hebrew, Chaldaic, Greek and Latin, together with the polyglots of
Origen, ^vere to be had. That this version has been constantly in the hands ofthe Western
church, in all its extent, during fifteen centuries. You ought to know, on the other hand,
that the Hebrew and Greek originals have been, during many ages, in the hands of wander
ing Jews, and divided oppressed Asiatics, and that, therefore, you cannot possibly answer for
the changes they may have undergone. This circumstance ought to cause you to observe deep
silence on this point. Are you ignorant that the most learned Protestants in biblical criti
cism such as JliU, Walton, Polyg. have professed the greatest esteem for the Latin Vulgate.
The learned Grotius writes of the Vulgate, thus: " Vulgutum intcrpretem semper plurimi
feci, non modo quod nulla dogmata insalubria continet, sed etiam quod multum habet in se
eruditionis." Grot . in annot. in Vet. Test. And, notwithstanding this mass of respectable
testimony, the preacher ofthe Middle Dutch Chm-ch tells us that the Vulgate is the worst qf
all possible translations" — Quid domini faoient, audent cum talia /ares ?

LETTER VII.
"Strike, but hear me !" — Saying of a Greek General.
Rev. Gentlemen : — I have gone over your last letter carefully. You have not
adduced one solitary new idea. There is no novelty, even in the style ; it is the old
and deep stauied ribaldry, dyed in the wool ; and setting at defiance, every process to
¦wash or bleach it ! — The inteUigent christian will do me the justice to admit that the
Protestant rule has been fully established : and that the Roman rule has been likewise
demolished by our ten arguments, which have not even been noticed, far less answered,
by the reverend priests.
I shall therefore close my reply to the remaining infidel objections, urged with such
appalling intemperance against the only rule of faith, — the word of god, and the
ONLT JUDGE OF CONTROVERST, THE HOLT SPIEIT SPEAKING TO US IN IT.
I, I shall review your infidel insinuations, drawn from textual difficulties. The
chiistian and ingenious scholar, when he meets "with difficulties in the holy Bible,
would seek the solution of them on the pages of those judicious biblical writers, who
have devoted their time and talents to the iUustration of bibUcal literature. He would
examine the original; and study Bochart, Whitby, Lighifoot, "Lux in Tenebris;" or
your own modern writers, Jahn, and Bug,and he would discover tha,t there is not one
textual difficulty, which has not been satisfactorily solved.
It is characteristic of the unnatural infidel's criticism, and opposition to truth, to
sport apparent contradictions, and magnified difficulties, triumphantly detected in his
father's wll and TESTAMENT ! Tliis you liavc done, gentlemen, with the malig
nity of unnatural sons i And what gains the infidel by this ? Just as much as you do
7*

6S ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
in your infidel crusade ! Unholy and unchristian is that cause, beyond aU gainsaymg,
which requires for its defence, a traitorous and parricidal thrust, — powerless though it
be, — at the holy scriptures of our God and Saviour !
I would here observe that die authority and genuineness of our common law, or Decla
ration of independence, would not be affected by some slight mistakes of the transcriber
or printer. We maintain the same in regard to the Bible. WhUe not one sentence is
marred ; not one item lost : not one doctrine altered, we may admit that a transcriber,
uot being inspired, may have mis-spelled words, or even substituted one proper name
for another. Would the omission of a name, or the alteration of a name, in some
copies of the signers of seventy-six, render null and void the whole instrument
signed? Surely not. Apply this principle to the point before us.
In 2 Kings viu. 26. Ahaziah is said to have been 22 years old when he began to
reign : in 2 Chron. xxii. 2. he is said to have been 42. The Hebrews had uo arithme
tical figures : they used the letters ofthe alphabet. And in this case a transcriber had
the letter mem, whose power is 40, instead of the letter caph, whose power is 20. And
the Hebrew scholar knows that these two letters, with the difference of a slight perpen
dicular dash, are much alike. Does this change of a letter affect any article of faith ?
Matt. i. 17. There are said to be fourteen generations between Salathiel and Christ ;
yet thirteen only are recorded. Whitby has solved it, by showing that by Jeconias,
named in verse 11, is meant Jehoiachim, the eldest son of Josias : and that Jeconias
named in the 12th verse was Jehoiakim's son, who was the father of Salathiel. This
completes the fourteenth generation. Dr. Lighifoot advocates the following solution.
It was a custom, nay, even au axiom iu the Jewish schools, to reduce things and num
bers, to the very same name when they were nearly alike. This was avowedly to aid
the memory. I beg leave to refer to his book Hora Hebraica. Now, Matthew has
observed the three fold division of Jewish chronology ; namely, the era before the
kings ; the era under the kings ; and the era of their national declension down to the
time of Messiah, And to help the memory, after the manner of the Hebrew school,
he has divided each of the three eras into fourteen generations. Now, uo scholar can
suppose this to be taken in its strict and Uteral sense, says the Doctor. For it is just
as true that Matthew has designedly left out three kings in the Sth verse, in order to
make 14 generations in the first era, as that he has reckoned the third era 14 genera
tions, while it contains 13 only. All this was strictly in keeping with the national
custom or rule of the Jews, which Matthew did not invent, but follow : for it was to
the Hebrews that he was writing. See Poli Synop. in loco.
Luke ni. 35, 36. " Saiah was the son of Cainan, who was the son of Arphaxad."
Genesis records it thus: — " Arphaxad begat Saiah." One solution is this: — Saiah
and Cainan were the names of one ])erson: the latter being the co-Tuouien : and
hence they read it thus, — Saiah the Cainan, who was the son of Arphaxad. Others'
are of opinion that as Cainan is found only in the Septuagint Greek translation,
and not in the Hebrew text of Moses, it was inserted into some copies of the Greek
Testament, out of those copies ofthe Septuagint, which had this -word. Beza states
that in his copy the word Cainan was not found ; and lately Dr. Hales has showit
f 'aat this extra name is an interpolation in the Greek Septuagint. See his New Ana
lysis, vol. 1. p, 90 — 94. And from this it had been transfered into some copies of
Luke by a transcriber. It has been observed by an eminent Biblical scholar, that
all the variations, and all the various readings which friend or foe can discover, do
not alter the aspect of one doctrine, or a single article of our creed. Home ia

kOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 67
Vol. 1. appendix iii. has devoted 64 pages to a minute examination of these textual
difficulties. To these, for want of room, I beg to refer my reader.
You have presented an objection from two other texts. The first is Matt, xxvii,
9. "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet." And the
words quoted are not found anywhere in Jeremiah, but in Zechariah. From this you
infer that a part of Jeremiah has been lost : and, therefore, his book is mutilated and the
Bible imperfect. This is uttered in the reckless style of those of who.se theological
education an accurate and enlightened Bible criticism forms no part whatever. The
scholar knows that there are solutions without supposing any such outrageous conclu
sion. First. — These words may have been first spoken by Jeremiah, and then
recorded, afterwards, by Zechariah. Or, second : — we may conclude with Bishop
Hall and Griesbach, that a transcriber may have, in certain copies, written Jriou for
Zriou, that is, the contracted form of Jeremiah, instead of the contracted form of
Zechariah. Or, thud : — We may say with others, tiiat Zechariah was also called by
the name of Jerenuah, as his cognomen. See instances of this in Korne, vol. 1. p.
538. One apostle was sometimes called Joses ; at other times, Barnabas. And he
who was nominated but not chosen to the apostleship, is called Joseph, and Barsabas,
and Justus.
The second text from which you raise an objection against "the perfect law" of
God, is Matthew ii. 2-3. " That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
prophets, he shall be called a NAZARENE." Now this is no where found in the
prophets' writings : and your conclusion is, — that some portion of the Holy Scrip
tures is lost. Here it might be quite enough to demand, — what is lost ? " Why,"
say you, — "this phrase or sentence is lost, — He shall be called a Nazarene."
Then I deny the position : for it stands here in the Bible before your eyes : aud if it
ever had been omitted, then here it is restored by the insphed penman. And, there
fore, you the objectors being judges, it is not lost !
I shall give another solution. Matthew refers to no one prophet: "it was spoken
bythe prophets." He refers to no one sentiment, or sentence; he alludes to some
marked characteristic of Christ, noticed by the holy prophets generally. And accord
ing to the four rules laid down by Wolfius and Rosenmuller in reference to the mode
pursued by the New Testament writers, in their quotatic^ns out of the Old Testament,
we perceive that they often quoted the meaning, instead ofthe passage UteraUy : that
is, they give us the sense, instead of the formal and literal quotation : and especially
so, when they were quoting, not out of one prophet, but from " the prophets," in
order to give a condensed view of the passage. Surenhusius the learned Hebrew
professor in Amsterdam, has observed in his Biblos Katallages, p. 2. that this phrase
" to fulfil what was said," was a familiar phrase of the Talmudists ; and used by the
learned Jews, when they alledged not the very words of Moses and the prophets, but
their sense, which was deduced as a certain anxiom from them.
Now apply this rule of leghimate criticism lo the words of Matthew under discus
sion. A Nazarene was the epitiiet used among the Hebrews and Jews, of old, to
denote the meanest and most despised of mankind. This was the character ofthe raen
of Nazareth. Now, it was foretold by David, Psalm xxii, and Ixix. 9, 12; and Isaiah
Iii. and Uii; aud also by Zech. xi. 12, and 13, that our Lord Jesus Christ was to
appear, on earth, a most humble and despised man of sorrows. And though born in
Bethlehem, of David's royal line, he was brought up in Nazareth among the Naza
renes : and was, therefore, by the maUguant Jews, called and reproached as a Naza-

53 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
rene. And thus, what was spoken by "the prophets" was UteraUy fulfiUed; and
hence, no part of their writings is lost.
II. Another all prevaUing error in your letters is this : In opposition to the rule of
faidi ordained by God, you constantly make this assumption, that Protestants sepa
rate the Bible from the holy rainistry and oral teaching. On this assumption is based
every objection, brought forward in your questions in Lett. 4 : on diis are based all
your objections relative to the supposed obscurity of the Bible : and all that steady and
unflinching opposition of the Pope and his priests to Bible societies ; and the catholic
distiibution of the scriptures among the laity. Yet no assurance to the contrary, and
no exposure of the unmanly misrepresentation, will induce the priests to do justice to
truth and themselves, as well as to us. We never separate oral instruction from die
reading of the scriptures. And we know from experience that, in proportion as the
Bible is gratuitously distributed, is the call for the ministry urgent from the people where
the scriptures are read. The appointed ministry of Christ, acting in his name, read
and expound the scriptures. And as the Bible is read, pastor and people hear God
speaking unto them; and learn the law from the Most High.
III. You object out of the Jesuits Mumford, and Milner, that there are certain
things, such as infant baptism, and the change of the Sabbath, which scripture does
not settle ; and which tradition ofthe Church alone can.
There is a twofold error in ray opponent's arguraent here : —
1st. Even admitting that these are to be established by tradition, it is the consum
mation of sacerdotal arrogance inthe Roman catholic priests to despise the Syriac, and
the Greek, and the African, and the ancientltalickchurches, and to claim the absolute
and exclusive right of handing down that which all the other churches did hand down
by tradition.
2d. These ordinances -K-ere established by scripture as well as the faithful testimony
of all the churches. See 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2. Here St. Paul gives a divine injunction as
much to observe the Sabbath on the first day of the week, as to make a coUection for
the poor on that day. And the scriptures call the first day of the week the Lord's
day. And for infant baptism, see Matt. xxviU. 19 ; and Acts ii, 38, 39, Now, I am
not going to dictate to my honored Baptist brethren. They have a right to hear
God's word and to interpret that word spoken to them aud to me ; just as you claim
the right to interpret what " Holy Mother" says to you, gentlemen. And avaiUng
ourselves of the right of hearing for ourselves, we say God commands us to teach, or
disciple, and baptize "aU nations." And as infants constitute the third item of na
tions, as much as men and -women do the other t no, we fairly infer that we have the
command to baptize our infants. A christian brother says, " infants are not expressly
named." "True, but neither is man, or woman mentioned: infants are as much
mentioned as adults." And, moreover, in Acts iii. 38, 39. we have another testimony :
and we erect our argument thus : When an ordinance and a promise are combined
and connected, as here, all those mentioned and named in the promise, have a right
to the ordinance : but the promise here connected with baptism, includes infants and
parents : here are die words literally rendered " Repent ye," [in the plural,] " and
be baptized every one of you ; for the promise is to you and your children." There
fore infants ought to be baptized. If Protestant brethren differ, — so do Jesuits and
Jansenists, Franciscans and Dominicans under their infalUble rule !
You lay much stress on the traditions, alluded to by Paul in 2 Thess, iU. 6. And

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST, 69
you infer from this, tiiat besides the written word, Paul delivered unwritten traditions,
" Hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle."
Now, gentiemen, it cannot have escaped you, that die Apostle mentions three dis
tinct classes of traditions ; namely, die traditions of men, which he reprobates ; Col.
U. 8. and which our Lord also condemned, Mark vii. 9. Then there were the tradi
tions touching things indifferent ; or mere opinions, such as frequency of comraunion,
and so forfh ; and finaUy, traditions by inspiration : and which regard the same doc
trines and ordinances exhibited in the New Testament. Thus Paul first gave the
Corinthians the Lord's Supper by oral tradition, and then he gave it by writing.
" For I have received of the Lord, that which also / deUvered," or gave you, that is, by
tradition, from Christ. These traditions flora Christ are the same as imraediate com
munications by inspiration — aud were, like all revelations from God, established to
the satisfaction and faith of the church, by the evidence internal and external so often
mentioned already.
Now if we, or an angel from hea^'en bring any thing by a tradition without aposto
lical and miraculous evidence, let that tradition, and its fanatical votary be accursed.
If your traditions, gentlemen, are of men, we reject them as "accursed" — if fhey
came from God, theu they are accompanied by the evidence of miracles, prophecy,
and tongues. But your traditions have none of this divine evidence. Therefore they
are huraan inventions ; and are "accursed."
IV. Ofthe L.iTiN Vulgate. — I had called this version, after deliberate exaraina
tion " die worst of the worst translations." You usher in your defence with these
words, — ¦¦It is painful to be obliged to expose your (Dr. B's.) ignorance, where you
ought to be better informed." This benevolence, in which you are as generously
sincere, I dare say, as if you had been administering extreme unction to your victim,
— is quite out of keeping, and in bad taste. I invoke the whole body of the learned,
now to judge between us, — both Roraan Catholic, and Protestants; and let them pro
nounce who is profoundly ignorant of translations.
In reference to the Latin Vulg-ITE, I beg leave to remark, that Jerome finished
his labors on his translation in A. D. 384. There e.Kisted, before him, the old Italick
version from the Greek Vulgate. This version is the oldest in Latin : it was made
in the close of the second century. Jerome endeavored to improve on this version ;
but, in too many instances, it was corrupted. I refer you, gentleraen, to the profound
critic Nolan, on the integrity of the Greek Vulgate. In the second chapter of Luke,
verse 33, the Greek Vatican, and the Vulgate make Joseph the father of our Lord;
" pater illius, et mater." — And this eminent critic shows that these two versions,
ou this text, are "grossly corrupt." See Nolan p. 169, note. And Lowth has
shown, that in some instances, the Latin Vulgate is found "to be notoriously defi
cient in expressing the sense." See his translation oflsaiah, p. Ixxviii.
You seem to think, gentiemen, in your Letter III. that Jerorae possessed a copy of
Origen's Hexapla, or Polyglott, as you call it. Jerorae had not so many facilities as
your exuberant imagination has conceived. He had not the Hexapla : and you
ought to have known this. He was compelled to perform a long voyage, from Rome
to CcBsarea, in order to see aud consult that book. See Home, vol. ii. p. 198. You
have betrayed an utter ignorance of the subject : and, I am no hypocrite, — I am not
sorry in exposing your ignorance, pro bono publico!
Yet severely as we may criticise this old version, I assure you gentlemen, I did not
allude to Jerome's true version, when I called it the worst of translations. I alluded

70 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
to your Vulgate, as it now exists ; and as it is spread out before the English reader
in the Douay Bible. The Roman cathoUcs seek to palm this on the public, as the
genuine version of Jerome. But, diis pretension ; and aU your quotations from ap-
provkig Protestants, such as Grotius, Walton, and so on,— are not only to no pur
pose ; but absolutely deceptions ; and you, had you been Greek and Hebrew scholars,
would have known all tiiis. I here, beg leave to challenge any scholar, m good faith,
to produce one of our learned Protestants who applauds the Roman Latm Vulgate,
AS IT NOW IS.
Of the valuable labors of Jerome, none approved more highly, — and none are
more able, by virtue of their accomplished education, to approve more highly, than
the Protestants. But can you possibly be ignorant of what Nolan has given ample
evidence, that St. Augustine himself, though he did indeed approve of the labors of
Jerome, did not use his version : he used the old Italick verson to the day of his
death. See Nolan p. 15. and the learned Home has shown that, from the days of
Cassiodorus, down to Alcuin, in the 8th century, " the text of the Vulgate fell into
great confusion : and was disfigured by the innumerable mistakes of copyists." But
the most curious part of the history of the Vulgate remains to be told. The Council
of Trent, small, — very small in numbers ; and by the best judges, namely the Pro
testant literati, deemed still smaller in literature and theology [see also P. Sarpi Lib^
2, s. 51.] did actually pronounce the Vulgate with all its palpable errors, to be inspi
red and divine. Like father Levins, whom I have had the honor of introducing so
advantageously to the " Christian public," — and who really seems not to be
conscious in what language the Old and New Testaments were written, unless it
¦was the old Irish ; — and therefore, he blunders out his taunts, incessantly " against
the Greek and Hebrew of the Holy Ghost, in the inspired volumes," — these same
Tridentine fathers actually preferred the Latin version of the Bible, to the inspired
originals of the Greek and Hebrew.
These fathers appointed a committee to re-vise and correct this same version, which
they had pronounced inspired! But, in as much as this thing displeased the pope, it
was delivered over into his care. It passed through no less than three popes' hands.
Sixtus V. had it published as the only pure and perfect Vulgate. He issued a Bull,
"enjoining its universal reception; and threatening ¦with no less than perdition, the
man who should raake the slightest alterations.'' And, though issued by the Infalhble,
in the plentitude of his knowledge and power, it had not been long before the public,
before it was found to abound with damnable errors ! Hence it was quickly called in.
Clement VIIL, not having the fear of the Bull of Sixtus before his eyes, did actually
make very many alterations ! His new edition he pubUshed in A. D. 1592 ; and like
a good pope, he proped and barricaded this new, and a second time, perfect edition, by
a similar Bull, pronouncing it now to be immaculate, and the only Vulgate ! And,
in the plenitude of infaUible power, he prohibited any alterations to be made in it, by
any body, on pains of the most terrible anathemas ! But behold, the very next year,
namely, 1593, a new, corrected, and altered edition was issued; and pronounced to
he more perfect than his former most perfect edition !
Now, all these phenomena are easily accounted for. It was not for want of scholar
ship to translate Hebrew and Greek into Latin, No ; the real insuperable difficulty
lay in getting something Uke a translation, simply with a ¦view to lend countenance to
the neic Roraan system of doctrine, and rituals, which had no place, nor name, norrecog-
aition in all the word of God ! !

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 71
Now, gendemen, in your laudatory zeal for the Vulgate, I call on you publicly, to
say, which of these "infalUbly accurate," and "contradictory" versions you adhere
to. Dr. James in his book, " Bellum Papale," has set down two thousand variations
between the Sixtine, and the Clementine editions of your Vulgate ! I have now before
me a large selection, in which the first pope's version leaves out whole verses which
the last pope's version has! Again, the Clementine has omitted entire clauses which
fhe Sixtine has inserted. Ihave, before me, a Ust of "manifest contradictions,"
between the two : with many other remarkable differences. Now, gentlemen, to which
of these " only perfect copies," of these equally " infaUible," and equally contradictory
popes, do you yield your conscience and faith ? The call is made on you to declare this
in good fcdth. We know fhat you cannot. We know that you have manifested an
utter want of information on this whole subject. In your Letter III. you say, — " You,
[Dr. B.] ought to know that the Vulgate version was made when the best and purest
copies ofthe Hebrew, ChcUdaic, Greek and Latin, together with the Polyglots of Ori
gen were to be had : that this version has heen constantly in the hands of the Western
church, in aU its extent, for 15 centuries.'' I profess it is impossible to quote, even
from your own letters, gendemen, another sentence containing more wilful and wicked
misrepresentations than these : or one exhibiting more profound ignorance of the
history of your Vulgate ! You unblushingly hold up the idea that your Vulgate is now
precisely what Jerome left it ! And you conceal the endless variations and innovations
that have been made on Jerome's version, by the Sixtine and Clementine labours! !
I beg leave merely for want of room, to refer to Home, vol. ii. p. p. 200. 201 : for a
comparative view of these variations : and "manifest contradictions," beween the two
popes' editions of your Vulgate. As for the true version of Jerome, it is of great value.
The Douay Bible, now before the public, exhibits the unhallowed Ubertles taken by
unprincipled men, with the word of God. For instance, in the second commandment
your Douay renders the first clause, "thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
thing" instead of "image:" And the phrase "thou shalt not bow down thyself to
them," you corruptly render "thou shalt not adore them." In the New Testament
you render iicTavourc " do penance ;" whereas it never meant on classic, or Bible page,
any thing else than this, — " be ye changed in your minds by repentance," or "re
pent ye." In violation of all chronology, you convert John the Baptist, and St Peter
into heretical Roman priests, and make them preach the modem cant of, — " Do
penance ; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ;" and again, " do penance and be
baptized." Do penance, verily! A thing this is, which iohn and Peter never
heard of, and never conceived of, in their pure evangelical minds !
Moreover, this same Douay Vulgate converts the apostle Paul's solemn warning
in Colosians ii. 18, against the idolatrous worship of angels, into an impenetrable
mysticism of language ; or else a real exhortation to be " voluntary in humiUty,
and the reUgion" or worship "of angels!" And what fills every devout christian
with utter amazement, yonr Vulgate converts the good old patriarch Jacob into a
driveUing Roman idolater, in his last moments. WUl fhe public beUeve me, when
I assure them that the Roman Douay Bible, lately published in New York,
renders Hebrews xi. 21, in the following manner — "JACOB ADORED THE
TOP OF HIS STAFF !" Therefore I repeat what I formerly asserted, that the
Vulgate, as it now is, is one of the worst and most mischievous versions of the
Bible ! And it is a base and immoral Uterary imposition on the pubUc, to call
your Vulgate the version of Jerome .'

J% EOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
I ouffht here to notice your injurious reflections on the Hebrew and Greek origi
nals in Letter HI. — " These have been, during many ages in the hands of wander
ing Jews, &c. ; and, therefore, you caunot possibly answer for the changes they
have undergone : and you thence recommend " deep silence on tliis point," Here
you gravely assume the supposition that the wandering Jews and oppressed Asiatics
have been carrying all the Hebrew and Greek originals ¦with them: that the christ
ian churches in Asia, in Africa, and Europe had no copies ! Does this require any
sober reply ? Does not every scholar know that Jews and christians, possessing each,
many ancient copies, have been anxiously watching each other. And the immense
labours of Dr. Kennicot, in his splendid Hebrew Bible, and those of M. De Rossi, of
Parraa, have fully "ascertained the hitegrity of the sacred Hebrew text.',' Not one
item touching " doctrines, moral precepts, and historical relations," is injured, far
less invalidated by the Varis Lectiones. And to give some idea of the pains taken
by these Hebrew scholars, Kennicot has given a catalogue of a hundred Hebrew
manu.^cripts in the libraries of Oxford, Cambridge, and the British Museum. And
M. de Rossi collated 479 Hebrew manuscripts ; and 288 printed editions ! And,
finally, I shall quote .in reply to you, the words of Jerome Lib, 3, com. in
Esaiam : — " Si quis dixerit, &c. If any one shall say that the Hebrew books
were afterwards corrupted by the Jews ; let hira hear Origen what he answers
in the 8th volume of his explanations of Esay, &c." Again, — " But if they say
that the Hebrews falsified them after the coming of Christ and the preaching of
the apostles, I cannot hold from laughter that our Savior and his apostles
should so cite testimonies of scripture, as the Jews would afterwards deprave them,
&c.'' See also Bishop HaU, p. 589. And the faraous saying of Reuchline, and
Jerome advers. Helvidium., ought to be well known to you, — " The Hebrews drink
ofthe wellhead: the Greeks of the stream ; and the Latins of the puddle!"
I remember that, in one of our Protestant debates. Dr. Power raised his hand
toward heaven, and made an awful appeal to God, that he and his clerical friends
did earnestly encourage his people, the laity, to read the holy scriptures ; that is,
in the English language ! Now, gentlemen, will you affirm that THERE IS ANY
ONE VERSION OF THE BIBLE IN ENGLISH, THAT IS AUTHORIZED
BY THE POPE, OR THE CHURCH ? I defy you to answer in the affirma
tive ! And, if not, where was Dr. Power's faith, and honor, in that heaven daring
appeal !
V. You have not the unanimous consent of the Fathers to your novel rule : on the
conti^ary, the best and greatest of them are decidedly against you, and in favor of
our Protestant rule. This is a matter of historical fact.
Augustine says; — " The city of God detests doubts, as the madness of the Aca
demicians. For she beUeves the sacred scriptures both of the Old and New Tes
tament, which we call canonical ; whence our faith is derived, whereby the just
lives ; and by means of which we Walk ¦without wavering." Civ. Dei. lib. 19. c.
18, vol. 7, Paris EdU. of 1685.
Again: — "Who is ignorant that the canonical scriptures ofthe Old and New
Testament are contained within certain Umits ; and that it is to be preferred to aU
the subsequent writings of bishops; so that no one can doubt, or dispute concerning
it, whether whatsoever is written in it, be tme and right." On Baptism agamst the
Donatists, Lib. 2. c. 3. vol. 9.
Again: — "In thmgs which are openly set forth in the scriptures, those thuigs ara

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.

73

to be found which comprise faith and moral conduct." On Chr. Doctr. Lib. 2. c, 9.
vol. 3.
Again : — " There are undoubtedly books of the Lord, whose authority both of us
acknowledge, which we mutually believe and obey- Here let us seek the church ;
here let us discuss our doctiines, &c." " I will not have the holy church proved by
human documents, but by divine oracles." Tom. 9. p. 341.
Again: — "Read tirese things to us from die law, the prophets, the Psalms, the
gospels, apostolical writings ; read, and we will believe,'' Do, cap. G.
As^ain in his Tract 2. in Epist. Johan., he says, — " Against treacherous errors
God would place our strengdi in die scriptures; ayaiiist which none that would, any
waj~, seem a christian, dares to speak," I beg I lie particular attention of you all,
gentlemen, to these last words of one of your own saints! And, as my simile of die
" carrier," wasdecmed liy you impious, leai^n if yon please whence I had it. Augustine
on Ps, hi. Vol. 4. p. 534, says, — •-^Ve produce books from our enemies ; and con
found others of our foes. In what opprobrium, therefore, are the Jews? The Jew
can-ies die book whence tlic christian draws his faith. These have been our librarians."
'•These Jews appear from the holy scriptures which they carry, as does the face of a
mirror, &c."
Again : — ¦¦ A\Tiether the Donati.--ts hold the churc'h, non nisi divinarum, &c. let
them only show by the canonical books of scripture. For neither do we say they
should believe us, that we are in the church of God, because Optatus or Ambrose-
had commended this church unto us, which we now hold ; or because it is ackno^w-
ledged bv the councils of our fellow teachers : or because so great miracles are done
in it: it is not, thereibre, manifested to be true, and catholic. But it is the tvill of
Christ that his disciplf.s should be confirmed by the testimony of the laiv and prophets.
These are the rules of our cau^e : these are the foundations : these are the confirma
tions." Aug, in Psalm 69, Bishop Hall, p, 592, folio.
I beg one quotation more to show this father's views of the plenitude of scrijiture :
" John testifies that Christ hath said, and did many things that are not written. But
those things tvere selected to be ivritten which seemed to suffice for the salvation of be
lievers." In John. Tract. 49. vol. Ui. 619.
Jerome thus writes : — "The church of Christ, who has churches in the whole
world, is united bythe unity ofthe Spirit; and has the cities of the law, the prophets,
and the gospel, and the apostles : she has not gone forth from her boundaries, id est
&c. that is, from the holy scriptures." Tom. 5. p. 334, Paris Edit, of 1602. Again :
— " But the word of God smiteth the other things, which they spontaneously discover,
and feign as it were, by an apostolical authority, withoul the authority and testimony
of scripture." Comment, in Hag. c. 1 Tom. 5. p. 506, This testimony of Jerome
strikes your popish rule dead ! Again : — " The Lord will speak in the scriptures cf
the people : in -the holy scriptures ; which are read to the people with the intent that
all may understand it." " As the Apostles v/rote, so also the Lord hath spoken ; —
that is, by the gospels ; not in order that a few, but that all may understand." " The
chiefs ofthe church, and the chiefs of Christ did not write to a few but to the whole
people. And see what he says of the princes, that is, of the apostles, and the evan
geUsts who were in her. He says who were, not are, so that, with the exception of the
apostles, whatsoever should afterwards be said, should be cut off, and should henceforth
have no authority," Jerome, Tom. vu. p. 259, Paris Edit. 1602.

74 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
In Tom. iU. Ub. 24 ; and in Tom. ix. p. 186., Jerome mentions die books of ths
apocrypha ; and declares them not ofthe canon : and " not to be brought forward for
the confirmation of faith."
Chrysostom, another of your saints, is decidedly pitted against your popery. And
wiU any intelligent Roman cathoUc prefer the extravagance of modern priests to St.
Chrysostom? "I always exhort," said he, "and wiU never cease to exhort you,
that you wiU not only attend to the things spoken to you here, but when you are at
home, you continuaUy busy yourselves in reading the holy scriptures ; which prag-
tice also I have not ceased to drive into them which come privily to me." HomU. iii.
on Lazar.
Again: — " Sayest thou, O man, it is not for thee to turn over fhe scriptures, who
art distracted with cares? Nay, it is for thee, more than for them, &c." Thi»
great preacher then goes on to answe^- the people's objections that they could not weU
understand the Bible. Now, behold how much the tables are turned by the modem
innovations of popery : " The spirit of God has so dispensed this word, that pubh-
cans, fishers, tent-makers, shepherds, goat herds, (aipolous) and even idiotai, the
most illiterate men, may be saved by these books." Homil. in Genes. 29. And I
shall add out of liis Homily ninth on Colossians : "Hear I beseech you all ye
secular men ; provide for yourselves Bibles, which are the medicines for the soul : at
least get the New Testament." Again: — " All things are intelligible and straight ia
the divine scripture : all things that are necessary, are clear." Hom, iU, on 2 Thes,
ii. Again: — "Ignorance of the scriptures is the cause of all evils." Hom. ix. on
Colos. iii. And finaUy: — "The knowledge ofthe holy Bible is a powerful defence
against siu: while an ignorance of them is a deep precipice, a profound gulph! It
is a great betraying of salvation to know nothing of the divine law : it is this igno
rance which has given birth to heresies ! They have occasioned the corruption of
morals !" Third Serm. on Lazar.
I have copied thus fully from this great and beautiful Greek writer ; because padr«
Levins seemed to insinuate my ignorance of him; and boasted rather unseasonably
of his own acquaintance with him ! Does padre Levins read Greek ? It is different
from Irish, soraewhat !
Athanasius thus writes; — "If ye are disciples ofthe gospel, speak not unright
eously against God : but walk in the things that are written. But if you will speak
¦any thing besides that which is written, why do you contend against us, who are dg-
termined neither to hear, nor to speak any thing but that which is written ? Ths
Lord hiraself says, if ye continue in my word, ye are truly free !" On the Incam. of
Christ, Paris Edit, of 1627.
Once more : — " For the holy and divinely inspired scriptures are of themselves suf
ficient for the discovery of truth." Speech against the Gent. Paris Edit. And per
mit me to add that this father who flourished from A. D. 335 — 340, has given us a
list ofthe canonical books ; and a list ofthe books not inspired, viz, the apocrypha.
See his Synops. ofthe holy Script. Paris Edit, of 1627. This list accords entirely
with ours.
Tertullian says, "I adore the plenitude of the scriptures." And in his book
against Hermogenes, he says, " Let this man's school show that it is in the scriptures:
if it is not in the scriptures, let him fear the curse directed against those who add or
diminish." See his Advers. Hermog. Paris Edit, of 1675, p. 241. I put it to every
discreet layman, if our priests will honor and obey this father, in these words !

ROM.AN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 75
In a word, I am prepared to prove, by any amount of quotations, that the Greek
and Latin fathers of the first five centuries, held to the very letter of the following
words of Augustine : " Sancta scriptura nosti^a- doctiinse regalum figit." " The holy
scriptures determine or fix fhe rule of our doctrine". Or with Si. Gregory, the pope,
" In this volume (the Bible,) are written down all that etin instruct us." Hora. 9, ia
Ezek. ; and in the most accurate conception of St, Chryso-,tom, — " The canon
ceases to be the canon, if anv tiling is added, or taken away frora it." Hom. 12, on
ch. Ui. of Philippians : and in the decisive works of Basil : " Il is right and neces
sary that every one should leai^n fhat which is useful, from the holy scriptures; both
for the purpose of furnishing the mind with gi^eater piety, and also that they may not
he accustomed to human traditions." Tom. 2 p. 449. Bened. Edit. Paris, 17-22,
And here I deem it not inappropriate to introduce the testimony of your own Bel
larmine, De Verbo Dei Lib, i. cap. 2. Sacra scriptura &c. — " Sacred scripture is
the most certain rule of faith." And again: — "At sacris scripturis, &c. But no
thing is better known, nothing more sacred than the holy scriptures, which are con
tained in fhe prophetical and apostolical writings : so (hat he -nho refuses to believa
in them," namely, as "the most certain rule of faith," — "is the mast fooUsh being" —
the most consummate of fools, — stultisimum. For that they are most perfectly known,
the christian ¦n-orld is witness ; and the consent of all nations, among whom for ma
ny ages, their supreme auffioritj-, summum auctoritatem, has been admitted ; and
they are moreover most certain, and most true, containing no human inventions, but
the divine oracles." Lib. i.e. 2.
We are now prepared, gentl emeu, for our argument. Whatever, with you, has not
the unanimous consent ofthe fathers, cannot be a doctrine of your church. But, hers
we have demonstrated the historical fact, that you have not only not the unanimous
consent, — but it is entirely, and most manifestly against you, and in our favor.
Hence, on vour own principles, you must admit that the holy scriptures alone are
the rule of faith. And your pretended infallible rule, is condemned by the holy
scriptures, and by the fathers.
VI. In you Letter III., you make Augustine affirm, that Marcellinus was not an
idolater ; that this " slander was raised by the Donatists." In reply I beg leave to
say that you ought to know more accurately the sentiments of your own -writers.
Your o-wn Pope .(Eneas Sylvius, Pins II., says : "We might adduce many examples
of Romish pontiffs, if our time permitted us, who were either heretics, or stained ¦with
other ¦vices. Nor does it escape us that Marcellinus offered incense to idols; and that
another pope which is worse and more horrible, was raised to the popedom by the
arts of the devU !" You will find these words in his Comment on the Acts of the
Council of Basil, p. 9; Finch p. 110.
VII. In Letter IIL, you also venture to represent " Holy Mother" saying that "no
enlightened son of mine ever taught the doctrine that infallibility was lodged in the
pope alone." Here is another instance ofthe most reckless disregard of truth. You
do certainly admit Bellarmine to be an "enlightened son;" at any rate, in the same
letter, you make "Holy Mother" call him "my faithful son!" Now let me direct
your eyes to Bellarmine De Con. Auct. Lib. ii. cap. 17. "The supreme pontiff
is simply and absolutely above the church universal, and above a general council ; so
that he acknowledges no jurisdiction on earth above himself," &c. Again: "Se-
cundo : probatur," &c. Secondly, it is proved by an argument from scripture. For
all the names, which in fhe scripture are applied to Christ, proving him to be above

76 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
the church, are in like manner appUed to the pope : as, first; Christ is pater familiag,
the head ofthe famUy : so is the pontiff: he is pater familias; loco Christi, in the
place of Christ !" I do not know, gentlemen, what your bishop may think of this
misrepresentation, and unprincipled disregard of truth and honesty : or whether six
months penance, by flagellation, and hair cloth would not be deemed too little ! But,
we Protestants think that such flagrant crinies cannot be washed away, but by years
of deep repentance through the Redeemer's blood!
VIII. The Jesuits have been in the habit of opposing the Bible rule of faith by an
argument taken from the abuse of it by the different sectaries. My opponents, and
Mr. Hughes also copy it out of jMumford; and select " the Arian Cobler" into whose
lips they put many possible o'ojections ; and profes.s, finally, that his opponent cannot
defend the Bible doctrines against him. ll is a singular circumstance that the infi
dels of France employed this silly form of argument against Christianity. Volney has
it, at full length, in his "Ruins," Lond. Edit. Chap. 21. He ihtroduces the Jews,
the Roman Catholics, the Lutherans, the Mohammedans, and the Pagans, into the
presence of the French Directory. Into the lips ofthe christians, he puts speeches,
which exhibit the quintescence of nonsense and absurdity ; and from the abuse of a
good and holy thing by bad men, Volney exactly as j'uu do, turns all religion into
ridicule. This is matched only by the priests' case of the "Arian Cobler," into
whose lips the greatest absurdities are put by them. And ^-^¦hile all his objections
might be easily refuted by any of our sabbath scholars, who are well taught the usual
texts to prove our Lord's supreme deity, the priests quote his abuse, as arguments
against our Bible rule. Most unquestionably that is a bad cause which resorts to the
logic of reasoning against a good thing, from the abuses of it by the follies of men :
and blesses the deist, in order to hurt the Protestant.
IX. The doctrine of intention as held by your church, I did fairly state in my
argument against you. You make the efficacy of all j-our sacraments to depend on
the priest's intention to make them what the church intends them to be. Thus,
unless the Bisiiop had the intention in his soul and conscience, to ordain j'ou, and
make you, bona fide, the prie.sts of the church, — then you are not ordained. This is
the solemn doctrine of Trent, backed by anathemas! But you cannot prove his
hitentiou; and no mortal can. Hence, you have no evidence, under heaven, that
you are true priests. And if you claim the office, and administer at die altar, witii
out true ordination; you expose yourselves to eternal damnation! And how did
you, gendemen, reply to this, in Letter v. ? By a marvellous process, verily ! You
assumed without au attempt at proof, that Protestants held also this absurd and impi
ous doctrine : and then very gravely turned on me, and asked how I knew when I
had the intention! This is supremely ridiculous, that learned priests, professedly
opposing Protestants, should be so profoundly ignorant of our doctrine ! Sirs, we
reject your doctrine of intention with abhorrence ; as one of the prominent marks
of John's Apocalyptic Beast ! And we reiterate our argument : and put you to
prove the Bishop's intention, or your ordination. You never can prove your ordina
tion ! You can never have faith in your own priesthood ! You never can have a
moment's freedom from the justest doubts that you may be in mortal sin ! You can
never find repose, by a thousand masses, from the alanning uncertainty, that in a few
hours, you may be in the horrors of perdition ! Deplorable result of practical popery !
In your last two letters you have not succeeded in bringing forward one single new
idea, in the way of defensive, or offensive operations ! And what has struck all our

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 77
readers, you have not replied to, nor even noticed, one ofthe ten arguments brought
against your novel rule of faith ! This silence being the full admission of discomfi
ture, I shall now leave the rule of faith, and go forward into the chambers of your
"Holy Mother's" imagery, — which wUl be seen to set at defiance, in sober truth, all
that the holy Ezekiel, in vision, beheld iu olden times of fhe wicked Jews !
This closes the first part of my letters. We have succeeded, we believe, in esta-
hlishing the fact by evidence of a painful nature, namely, their own admissions and
arguments, that the Romish priests are decidedly deists from principle! I have rea
son to believe that there is not a doubt of this left on the minds of the religious com
munity. And one of the strongest confirmations is this, every infidel has hailed
die priest's letters as uncompromising auxiliaries to fheir cause, and bitter warfare
against our Lord Jesus Christ ! ! This is a matter of public notoriety.
We have succeeded, also, we trust, in establishing this fact/ that the first principle
held by die Roman catholic church takes away from itsmeraufers, the sacred rights of
thinking, and reasoning, and acting according to their own consciences'hthat, in fact,
the priest permits no exercise of conscience : no rights of private judgment whatever,
on matters of religion ! ! The Roman priests wield a system whieh converts man
into a mere mechanical engine, in order that he may think, and move, aud act, and
dispose of his soul, body, spirit, and property, just as the holy priests prescribe. No
Roman Dictator ever wielded a more tyranical and terrific power, in pagan empire,
than that of our priests ! !
And fincUly, we have shown, even at this stage of our argument, that the Roman
catholic church, — I mean not fhe many gallant and patriotic men in her, — but her
»ystem of religion, is a necessary and deadly enemy to all liberty, — personal and na
tional ; to all liberty, civil and religious ! ! I am. Gentlemen, Yours, &c.
W, C. B,

EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER VII,
It opens with a discussion on Dr. B.'s " gnawing and bitter conviction of defeat," — and
his "writhing under the bitterness of discomfiture." " The inspired of the M. D. Church
has exhausted his argument." " His rule of faith and calvinistic creed are in our clutch !"
They proceed to go over all of Dr. B.'s letters, one by one, and lament his hopeless fail
ure, in characteristic slang.
"Aware ofthe torture of mind you now experience from defeat, we will, in charity, as
cribe the irritabiUty of your temper to the consciousness of failure in establishing your rule
of faith."
" To affix a stigma on Nuns and Jesuits, you and your ' virtuous ladies' sanctioned the
gross and polluting fiction—' Lorette.' "
" Yes, whether in the pulpit or the street; whether interpreting the ' Hebrew and Greek
ofthe Holy Ghost;' whether directing your 'virtuous ladies' by the gaslight of your interior
spirit to the realms of Elysium, or manufacturing, by patent right, chains, and sulphur, and
anathema for your polemic antagonists, you will be hailed the Preacher who approved an
obscene slander for the instruction of their sons and daughters."
" Does it make your heart the domicile of the interior spirit ? Does it not prove your inti
macy with the 'Hebrew and Greek ofthe Holy Ghost?' "
" You inform ' your friends you were but skirmishing.' This was a strange avowal from
a Religionist, who professes such zealotry of adhesion to the ' Hebrew and Greek of the
Hely Ghost V " 8*

73 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
" There is no proof, no form of proof ; and, yet, the logical Preacher imagined he had de
monstrated the Bible to be the word of God !"
" Therefore he has not yet demonstrated that the Bible is the Word of God : therefore, ha
has not yet affixed a rational character to his Rule of Faith ; therefore, in the selection of
his religion he is not governed by discretion ; therefore, his faith is mere human opinion—
therefore, he has no foundation on which to rest his hope of eternal salvation ! ! !"
"What think you now, inspired Preacher, of your rule of faith? What think you of
' our forms of reason !' 'Is not your rule,'— that is, the holy scriptures,—' torn up and scat
tered to the winds ? Is it not,'— that is, God's holy scriptures,—' like the bubble blown by
the child in the sport of infancy, flimsy, and hollow'! Is it not,'— that is, the Holy Spirit
speaking in God's word, — 'a shell around vacuity; but without a tincture ofthe rainbow
colouring, which gladdens the infant's sight ?' "
[Xotc. One is forcibly reminded of the simUar impious boastings of Thomas Paine, that
he had, also, annihilated the holy scriptures I]
" You have not yet proved the Bible to be the 'Word of God, and the Bible, by the very
terms of your rule of faith, must be the actual foundation of every argument you logically
should use,''
"Excellent, — worthy of die gigantic Erudite inthe 'Hebrew and Greek ofthe Holy
Ghost.' "
" His intellect is not manufactured from penetrable stuff :— it is as guiltless of thought and
argument at the present hour, as when it exulted in the gasconade of " CHALLENGE"
against his opponents." " To clianB^e poor Brownlee, do not hope ;
'Tis vain to slnive an Ass's face,
Anrl only labor 10 misplace,
And loss of words, indeed, as well as soap,"
" Your creed is the dropsied offspring of mere human opinion, — it is an emanation from
the piissions of earth, — it is too gross to ascend above earth's exhalations, — it cannot elevate
human hope to the Seraph's abode, — it cannot console on earth, it cannot say I have a rest
ing place in Heaven ! — Defeat, discomfiture, and rout, this is a bitter and gnawing convic
tion. Degraded, dishonored, unpitied ! How vanquished gasconade will fret its heart ill
s'-'llenness ! How misery ^\ill ruminate ovej^ the indiscretion of CHALLENGE, and yearn
for the reputation lost and the pinnacle from which it fell ! A GREAT MAN has fallen in
Israel ! Ye choristers of the Middle Dutch Church muffle your tones of joy, ' the inspired
Writer of Zion, and he that was clothed in the best gold, — how is he esteemed as an earthen
vessel !' "
" In pointing out some of die apparently contradictory texts of the Bible, we were con
vinced that Dr, Brownlee believed his rule of faith to be perfectly consistent, and that his
proofs would be given in all the fulness of an erudite in the ' Hebrew and Greek of the
Holy Ghost,' Wc have not been disappointed. This theologue, whose ' only rule of
Faith is the written word of God, and judge of controversy, the Holy Ghost speaking to us in it'
tells us that this rule, is not contradictory, because Bochart, Whitby, Lighifoot, Jahn
and Bug, tell him there is no contradiction to be found in the passages we have quoted.
Doctor Brownlee believes that there are no really contradictory passages in the scriptures,
his rule of faith,"
" Wo now call on the Preacher of the Middle Dutch Church, to produce one passage of
holy writ, to prove, that there is no contradiction in the places to which we have referred,"
" But, how can you refer the people to the scriptures for the belief of those points of chris
tian faith, which are not found in the scriptures, such as the canonicity, the integrity, and
inspiration of the books of scriptures ?"
" But is it not the extreme of folly in one, whose only rule of faith is the Bible, thus to
declaim in favor of tradition ?"
" Why, Rev. Sir, the veriest old crone among your virtuous ladies, will see that this con-
'jlusion is not contained in the premises, and that tiie inveterate habit of drawing such con-

ROM.iN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 79
elusions, argues a 'derangement ofthe moral faculty.' One thing is certain, the Holy
Ghost must consider you, no extraordinary genius, when after a course of some thirty ov
forty years in his school, you display such ignorance of elouioutary pilnciplcs."
"Strange, Rev, Sir, that YOUR ONLY JUDGE OF CONTROVERSY, THE HOLY
GHOST, SPEAICING TO YOU IN THE SCRIPTURES does not decide this Contro
versy between you,''
" Your attacks on tiie Vulgate you have borrowed from Pope's fourth spcei-h in the dis
cussion with McGuire, The Catholic champion earnestiy called on tiie biblical crusader
to compare tiie Sixtine and ClemontiiLO editions of the Bible, witii the Viil;;ato of St, Je
rome, and to point out anv substantial difference, if any could be found. This he did not do,
and for a \-ery obvious reason. Yet after this failure on the part of Mr, Pope, you have the
effrontery to invoke ' all the learned tojuiliie between us,' and you pronounce our quota
tions from approving Protestants as deceptions and absolutely to no purpose,''
" Protestants oiiglit to pause before they institute a comparison between their English
translation of the Bible, and our Doway translation. They are the children of the Bible,
and of the most abominably corrupted Bible, that e\er appeared. We make no random
assertions. Mark our proot's and weigh them well. Read the famous Bioughton's adver
tisement of Corruption to Lords of the Coiiiicil in the year 1604, and recollect that he was
a Puritan.' -
" In the Hampton Court Conference, pag. 45, 46, 47, all the English Bibles are pronoun
ced inlamous translati.Dus, For the history of these translations, we refer to Bishop
Pretyman," " For the coi-ruptioiis that exist even in all the late editions of the English Protestanti
Bible, we refer to the pamphlet of Mr. Curtis on this subject. As you profess intimacy
with the 'Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost,' and are interested in the Protestant
translations of the Bible, you, of course, have seen the pamphlet of Curtis, a dissenting
minister, addressed to the present Protestant Bishop of London. In this pamphlet Curtis
states, as the result of a laborious examination of a great number of Bibles, that, in the
modern editions, he has detected no less than '2!>ol intentional departures from King Jame's
Bible, in seven books, or only a fourth part of the canon of the scriptures ! On the inten
tional departures from what is termed in England, the authorised version of the scriptures,
we refer you to the averments made by several highly respectable witnesses before the se
lect Committee of the House of Commons on King's Printers' Patents, From this examin
ation and the pamphlet of the Rev, Mr. Curtis, you will obtain knowledge of which you are
now ignorant, though you exult in your Protestant education."
" Let it suffice for the present, that the Pope is convinced, from the report of the Bishops
in the countries where the English language is commonly spoken, that the Do"\\-ay transla
tion and the different editions of it, are all free from substantial error. This is all that the
discipline of our churcli requires wilh regard to the different translations from the Vulgate —
and it is in virtue of this discipline, that Doctor Power did assert, that Roman Catholics
were not prevented by their Pastors from reading the Bible in the Vulgar tongue.''
"A correct edition of the fathers, does not exist, says Dr. B. ; for he says, the monks of
the dark ages corrupted them. Y'et in opposition to this positive assertion, he quotes from
the fathers, corrupted by the monks, because he thinks it supports his cause ! He says,
"produce a ^e«MJnc copy and I will receive their pages with profound veneration!" Yet,
to support his rule of faith, and wanting an editio expurgata, he props his creed on quota
tions from the Fathers ! Is there in the records of controversial history so striking an ex
ample of inconsistency — such direct contradiction?"
" In the seventh section of your Hydra Epistle, you accuse us of a ' reckless disregard of
truth,' for saying that ' no divine of the church of Rorae ever taught that infallibility was
lodged in the Pope alone,' We do not avoid the weight of this assertion. But how do you
convict us of falsehood ? By an argument at once the moat stupid and absurd, Bellarmine
is a son of the church ; but Bellarmine says that the Pope is above a general council.

go ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
Therefore, BeUarmine beheved that infaUibility resides in the Pope alone. Now, Sir, Bel
larmine believed that Christwas above the Aposties. Therefore, according to you, BeUar
mine believed that infallibility was confined to Christ alone, that the Apostles were not in
falUble. Dear Doctor we despair of ever making a logician of you."
Then foUowB the oflen repeated quotations out of Hooker, Field, &c.

At this stage of the discussion, serious difficulties, it was understood, had occurred among
the priests. Dr. Varela had already refused to go with his associates : and now Dr. P., it
was whispered, was dissatisfied. My Letter VIII. in reply to the priests' Letter VIL, was,
by their influence, kept up, and withheld from the pubUc, for some time. And it was not
until they and their editor were notified, that, unless they published it forthwith, it should
certainly appear in other papers, that it was at length, reluctantly printed. Meantime the
foUowing reply was brought forward to Dr. Varela's occasional Letters.

TO THE REV. DR. VAREL.\.
" Magna est Veritas, atque prEevalebit !"
Great is truth, and it shall prevail ! — An old Protestant maxim.
Mt Reverend Friend — I give your great credit for you honesty and taste, in not
permitting the priests to use your name, in the revolting and scandalous letters which
they inflict on the public feelings : their infidel assaults on the holy scriptures ; and
their illiterate and rude taunts on " the original Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost,"
Now, sir, proceed a Uttle farther, according to the correct instinct of taste ; and re
nounce the vice of slandering the immortal authors of the " ever blessed Reformation,"
and of perverting the pages of the elegant and classical Calvin. Permit me briefly
to reply to your two letters : and, here, let me say that I shall not follow you on any
of the points discussed in our regular series. I reserve your remarks on purgatory
and the mass, until I shall reach them in proper order.
1. My friend Varela says, he produced a text from St. Ambrose to show that he
taught the invocation of the saints. Now, I affirm that no honest man can read Am
brose on the first chapter of Romans, and then venture to tell the public that he ap
proved the invocation of saints. No, Sir, you know, if you have Ambrose, that he
¦wrote against it with great zeal and indignation, Theodoret on Coloss. 2, and Am
brose on Rom, 1, having stated the detestable origin of invoking Saints, thus declare
against it: — "The heathen idolaters to cover the shame of neglecting God, used this
miserable excuse, that by these (fheir departed heroes, daimones) they might go to
God; as by officers we go to a king." Now, Sir, hear Ambrose farther: — " Go to,
is any man so mad, or unmindful of his salvation, as to give the king's honor to an
officer ? And yet these idolaters do not think themselves to be guilty who give the
honor of the name of God to a creature : and, forsaking the Lord, adore their fellow
servants, as if there were any fhing more that could be reserved to God!" — "To
procure the favors of God (from whom nothing is hid, he knows the works of all men)
¦we need no spokesman, but a devout mind. Suffragatore non opus est &[c." — You
quote the words of the church of Smyrna to Polycarp, to sustain your prayers to
the saints, — namely, "We adore God, we venerate the martyrs." But these words
condemn you ; Protestants venerate the saints ; you adore, or pray to them. You even

ROMAN C.VTHOLIC CONTROVERST. 81
make Jacob " adore ihe top of his staff ." See Doway Bible, Hob. xi. 21. ; and quote
him as an exaraple in yom' idolatrj-.
I have thus con^ticted you. Sir, of misrepresentation ; and yuu owe a solemn apo
logy to St. Ambrose the first time you invoke him ! Ynu charge me with inisquoting
St, Augustine on this same point; and you profess to quote from him the doctrine of
the invocation of saints and angels. In reply, I assert that Augustine every where
most solemnly and indignantly rebukes the idolatry of invoking .paints, with wliich
you criminate his memory ! Just look into his professions, Lib. 1 c. 5, Lib. x. c.
4-2, &c. Ill his book, De Quant. Anim. c. 34, he savs: — "In the CathoUc Church,
it is divinely and siiijularly delivered that no creature is to be worshipped by the soul,
but the Creator of all things alone." Ami, in his book Dc A'cra Relig, c, 5,5, he stiys :
'- The adoring of men that are dead, should be no part of our religion; because, if
they lived piously, they will not seek that kind of honor; they are to be honored for
imitation: not to be adored for religion, or invoked in a reUgious manner." Now,
Dr. Varela, the next time you jo to iu^^oke your Saint Augustine, I beg vuii. as an
honest man, confess to him that you have been most Previously perverting his writings ;
and doing that wickedness, which he has solemnly condemned and reprobated! But,
you gave an opposite quotation from his pages. Here then it is manife.-,t, either that
St. Auju-i ine has beenaltered and mutilated by the monks of the dark ages, who tran-
' scribed his works : or that this saint did grossly contradict himself. If so, then you
have not the unanimous consent of the same father tvith himself; far less the unanimous
consent of all the fathers ! Take it either ¦^vay, it is fatal to your idolatrous practice of
invoking the absent spirits of dead men, and dead women ! ! !
2. I again affirm, Sir, that Romish conversion is simply "a reconciliation to the
church." Every one accustomed to the style of Roman priests and writers, knows that
this is invariably the mode of expressing it. And reconciliation to the church, mean
ing a nominal union to the Romish church, is the consummation of virtue, and the
perfection of holiness? And if he only die in the bosom of "Holy Mother," and
pay the church's dues, let his ignorance be exer so great; or the vices of his life, up
to his dying hour, ever so many, he is perfectlv safe ! Here, as every one sees, the
Romish church has assumed the very ground ofthe Jews, "We he Abraham's
seed." And because they were his descendants, they held it up as a self evident
point, that God was under an obligation to save them i — The Roman Mass is a sub
stitute for the true atonement ; and hence the only ground of a sinner's hope by jus
tification and reconcUiation to God, is wholly taken awaj- ! And Bellarmine in Lib.
iii. De Eccles. cap. 2 and 7. has fairly and honestly expressed the opinion of all Ro
man catholic priests of our day. They do not believe in the need of a spiritual
renovation ; they hold with unblushing assurance, that there is no need of internal
grace in the members of tiieir church : all they require is only the extemal rite and
public profession. And hence they say, in the words of Bellarmine, and the Rhem.
Annot. on John 15. sect. 1. that "wicked men, and even reprobates, remaining iu
the public profession ofthe church, are true members ofthe body of Christ !"
3. You foUow the Romish church in her singular zeal for image worship ; and
you remind me of my " ignorance in this matter, and of the confusion in my dates."
There is no mistake, my friend, in the matter. The use and worship of images in
the christian church is a mere novelty. I stated thatthe seventh general council held
in 754, in which were present 383 Fathers, did solemnly condemn the worship
of images, and their use in churches. It is true, the Roman popes stood out

82 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
as usual, for the use and veneration of them. I am weU aware that your church
does not acknowledge this 7th general council of the Greek church. But you hesi
tate not to admit the infamous decrees of the idolatrous council of Nice, the second of
that place. These decrees revived image adoration; and poured worse than Pagan
superstition over the western church.
There are two things, my good Sir, which have excited my surprise. Why did
you not state that the councU of Frankfort, consisting of 300 bishops, did in 794,
unanimously condemn the worship, and the use of images, and thus overthrow your
wicked council of Nice ? But what surprises me far more, my good Doctor, is this;
that you could, in your conscience, approve of any decision of that council. Is it
possible that you can applaud a council summoned together, and guided, by fhe atro
cious Irene, who murdered her husband, and then usurped the imperial throne ? Do
you, then, avow that your images were sustained by the council under the dictation
of a bloody murderer ? And this is not all. In the West, or Latin church, at ths
same time, the two popes, Gregorys, kindled the flames of rebellioil, and -war, against
their lawful princes ; and spread civil war over Italy and the islands adjacent. And
in their horrid popish rage for image worship and superstition, they caused ihe death
of unnumbered thousands. It was in the eighth century that those ghostly barbari
ans on the pontifical throne, spread ruin and havoc, far and wide. And your fellovr
priests and you cease not to applaud these bloody idolaters !
4. You complain that I did not truly represent your church's doctrines on grace.
And "you produced a text out ofthe council of Trent" which, you say, removes all
doubt of its being a calumny, that "the catholic church denies tbe work of grace:
and holds that the sinner is saved purely by human merit." That text I find in the
decrees ofthe council of Trent, But, though pained to hurt your feelings, I am con-
,9trained to tell you, that you have made a scandalous misquotation which perverts
the sense of these fathers.
Here is your quotation: — "Eternal life must be preached as a grace mercifully
promised to the children of God." This is very sound Protestantism. But it is mere
mangling ofthe whole sentence : the whole of it, is as follows: — "Atque ideo &c.
And therefore to these who work well, and (persevere to the end, and hope in God,
etemal life is to be proposed, (proponenda) both as a grace mercifully promised to fhe
children of God, through Jesus Christ, and, also, as the reward to be faithfully ren
dered by the promise of himself, to their good works and merit.' '
Your whole quotation, in the Truth Teller p, 207. Col. 1, is given as if one conti
nuous sentence ; whereas it is composed of four garbled extracts ! Your second clause
stands thus , —
" Jesus Christ communicates virtue to those who are justified, the same as the.
head does to the members, or the vine to the branches, which virtue always ante-
cedes, accompanies, and is subsequent to the good works, and without it they coidd
not be by any means meritorious."
This you give as the entire sentence ; whereas you stop in the very middle of it.
The rest of the passage stands thus : — " it must be believed fhat the justified are in no
respect deficient ; but that they may be considered as fully satisfying the di^vine law
(for the state of this life,) by their own good works, which are wrought in God; and
as meriting eternal life to be obtained, in due time, if they die in a state of grace."
In this manner. Dr. Varela, you go on mangUng the poor Tridentine Fathers in a
mercUess way. See C.Trent, S. 6. cap. 16 and Cramp's Text Book p. p. 104&412.

KOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 88
The real doctrines issued by the authority of these Fathers, and held by all ortho
dox Roman cathoUcs, are these ; that good works done before conversion, have a
merit de congruo ; that is, they merit a divine reward from a principle of corlgruity,
or fitness, and fhe free bounty of God: and good works done after justification, do
truly and properly merit eternal Ufe. And thus they overturn the doctrines of th«
free grace of God ; and fhe special grace of the Holy Ghost.
5. You challenge me to produce a single Roman cathoUc divine who has claimed
for the pope, or the church, fhe power of appointing new articles of faith. Have you
forgotten, Sir, the words of Bellarmine and other.s, who constitute the pope a " God
upon earth :" and the pater familias ofthe church, having the titles, and the place of
Chnst in it? Can you be ignorant diat Pope Innocent III., during the session of fha
4th councU of fhe Lateran, did, without consulting any body, publish and enact no
less than seventy laws, or decrees, by which he not only established the power of tha
popes and clergy, but also imposed "new doctrines, or articles of faith, on the christ
ian church." See Mosh. ii. ch. 3, p. 2, and Daille on Confession. \\'ill you deny
that the Trentine councU added twelve articles to the church's creed? Aud can you
seriously dispute, that Leo X. condemned this among the forty-one tenets of Luther,
" that the pope, or church had no power to establish articles of faith." And here, Sir,
are the words of the buU which you challenge me to produce " Certum est iu manu
Ecclesife, et papse, prorsus non esse statuere articulas fidei, imo nee leges morum, seu
bonorum operum." That is, "It is certain that it is not in the power of the church
or ofthe pope to constitute or determine articles of faifh, nor even laws of morals, or
good works.'' This is Luther's tenet which this pope condemned. And the Rhemist
Annotators speak strongly on the point: "We must beUeve the church of Rome and
trust her in all things." On 1 Tim. iU. sect. 9: Again, "we ought to take our faith
and aU things necessary to Scdvation from the hands of our superiors." On Acts x.
sect. 8. And finaUy, see the bull of Leo X. added to the last council in the Lateran:
"Ad solam, &c. To the sole authority ofthe pope does it belong to give a new edi
tion of the creed; or a new giving out of the creed belong to him solely." And to
crown the whole, see Corpus Juris Canon. Dist. 40. and the foUowing declaratioryn
Dist. xix. cap. 6. "Inter Canonicas &c. Among the canonical scriptures the
(pope's) decretal epistles are to be numbered." These need no comment. Here is
evidence ofthe highest order, — namely, your own books!
6. You write. Sir, with an amazing degree of non chalance, about your admitting
seven sacraments ; and of our admitting two, as if your will, and mine, by a mere
choice, were left to settle this. Nay, by way of a most ludicrous blunder, you
add : " If I am not greatly mistaken, the Presbyterian church admits of only one
proper sacrament !" How so, — why, say you, " because they make it only an
ordinance !" What naivete in this blunder of the true sons of Loyola ! They are so
accustomed to receive the laws, ordinances, and rites simply from "the Lord God, the
pope," — that they reaUy do not know this elementary truth, that the true church — that
is the Protestant church, receives it as an undoubted article of her faith, that Christ,
her only King and Head, ordains all the institutions of his house: that the pope,
and he of the Koran, have no more power and authority to institute a new statute or
rite, in his church, than to add a new world to his dominions ! Hence he has made,
fixed, and pronounced inthe New Testament, every law, and every ordinance, which
the church is ever to enjoy. And from this divine institution, we call the holy supper,
and baptism, ordinances. Our Romish priests have no idea of this; for the pope is

84

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.

soul, conscience, heart, law, and gospel to them ! WhUe the christian looks, up to hi«
God and King in heaven ; the romanists Uft their eyes over the hiUs and seas, to
Rome ! My dear sh, they take no pains to spare the pnestly character : they heap
proSf upon proof that they Unger a thousand years behmd the light of God's holy
gospel, in the dai^kness of the darkest ages !
7. I wUl once more answer the often repeated question respecting divisions exist-
mg in the Protestant world, and their causes, whenever you wUl have the goodness
to answer frankly, the following queries : —
i^irst— What is the reason why two equally learned lawyers wUl difier on a plain
point of law ? Or, why do you, and Dr. Power, and Mr, Levins so far dUfer fhat your
taste and delicacy wiU not permit you to lend yonr name to their rude and blasphe
mous Letters ?
SecontZ— AVhat has caused the endless divisions in Holy Mother's bosom ?" Your
" infaUible rule," which as certainly fell down from heaven, as did the image of Diana
from Jupiter, is firmly beheved by all the different sects in your church. Now, why
do the Jesuits and Jansenists diff tr, and persecute each other ? Why do the Francis
cans and Dominicans difler, and quarrel, beyond the powers of the pope and the church
herself to unite them ? Why did vou and your bishop quarrel with the priest of
Brooklyn? Had he no "infalUble rule of Holy Mother," to guide him, as weU as
you? Third — ^Whether your superior education enables you to apprehend the distinction
between subjective infallibUity, and objective infallihility? Your colleagues in theh
Letters to me, ventured on the attempt : but it proved a complete abortion ! And in
order to cover their retreat, and throw, at least, something like a veil over invincible
ignorance, they actually turned into ridicule, the plain and logical distinction of objec
tive and subjective infallibility !
We cease, however, to wonder at any thing. The state of education among Romish
priests is deploiable. Hebrew and Greek, with Biblical criticism form no part of
their training ! AVhy, some of them conceive the Latin Vulgate to be really the ori-
ginal language of the Bible, given by inspiration. Others seem equally as igno
rant as the Romish Archbishop of a town in Italy, in the dark ages, who happening to
find a Bible in some old box in the library ; exclaimed upon reading it, — " / have found
a singular old hook here : I know not tphat it is, but one thing I see, it makes entirely
against us!" They imagine that if there be any "original" of the Holy Sphit's
inspiration, it must be the old Irish tongue ! For, there can be no doubt, say they,
thatthe prophets and aposties lived in old Ireland, and -wrote the scriptures there!!
Hence these furious taunts flung at " the Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost."
The author of them exhibits a burning zeal in support of this Milesian theory, at all
risks, and hjizard of character !
But, Sir, your better education must enable you to apprehend the difference between
subjective and objective, as applied to this point in theology. There is an infallibUity
objective, in our Protestant rule; because God speaks to us infallibly in the Bible.
But the subjects on which this rule is brought to operate, namely, men, are not infal
lible. Hence, there is no subjective infallibUity. That is, the infalUble rule of Gotl,
does not make men, personally, infalUble. Hence it is easy to see that under the
best and most divine rule, men will err ; and hence, they wUl differ. The fault is in
men obviously, not in God's word!
8. When grave and solemn charges are brought against the pope, and Holy Mo-

nOltAiN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 35
ther's priesthooij, and fheir spiritual and 'moral chaiactex is thence annihilated : and
when these charges are fully proved out of your own writers, such as Baronius, Pla-
titta, and Clemangfet how; have you repUed ? Why, by throwing the obU^ion of si
lence over it : or by a quotation from Roscoe containing an eulogium on tico or three
tolerably decent popes ! A-nd this- done, you thence piously infer, that because a few
were decent, and rather more moral than others, therefore they were all good popes,
and theperfect rule and judge of all truth,- human and divine! This is a fair speci
men of the precious " dicdectics, and logic." of our priests ! ^ ,, .
You had, in reserve, another characteristic mode of replying to our clihrge of infi
deUty and profligacy made against popes and priests. The Reformers havti been, you
say, fhe worst, and most execrable of men ; " Luther was a pupil of the Devil ;"
and, " therefoTQj our ¦wicked Popes were angels, and our poUuted Priests, chaste
saints!" Now, admitting that you could induce yourselves to believe the Reformers tp be as
bad as demons, fhat does not touch the .question. We never constituted one of these
men,-™not even Paul, or Peter, the li'ving rule and judge ! We repeat it, the bible is
OUR ONLT RULE, AND GOD SPEAKING IN IT, IS THE INFALLIBLE JUDGE.;— B-Jt yott
declare the pope, or the church, made up of these basf and profligate meq, to be, the -
li^ving speaking oracle, and judge! Hence, when we adduced eviileuce thatthe
popes, as your Father Paul says of the Trent Fathers, were — " A camp of incarnate
demofls,'' and your priests, by your own witnesses, a race of polluted, sensual men
¦v^allowiBig in ¦vices, — ^we did, thereby, annihUate, utterly, and for ever, your Roriiaa
cathoUe- rule of faith ! ! It died by the virulence of its own corruption !
Come, now. Father Varela, open your eyes in candor; read GJod's holy word;
retract your errors ; embrace the truth ; come over to the fold of the only- true Shep
herd, our Lord Jesus ; and I will greet you, in Christ. Your aflfectionate brother,
W. C. Bp.ownlee.
P. S. Since ¦writing the above, I per'ceive that you have charged ' me with publish
ing a falsehood, m as much as I affirmed that the Trentine Fathers added twelve arti
cles to the creed. ,
The Trentine Fathers did this by their agent, Pope Pius IV. to whom they left the
matter merely : as fhe echo of that council and its head, he published the creed. By
him acting in its name were the additional articles added. I have made one mistake
¦which I hasten to rectify. Instead of t^Yelve, he added fourteen new articles to the
treed ! And I challenge Dr. Varela and all the priests to deny it ! Let any one take
up Cramp's Text Book: let him look into pope Pius IV.'s creed, in Cramp, p. 450:
there he wUl see the original Latin copy : and in p. 387, he will see tho translation.
First, you have fhe creed, and then attached to that, fourteen new articles, unknovifn
to the Apostles, and unknown to the church of Christ inthe first six centuries.
, Sir, I have here estabUshed another proof, that our Jesuit priests will deny any
' thing, and will assert any thing, even with the most glaring evidence to the contrary,
hefore their eyes ! I can assign no other reason than this : they set Protestants at defi
ance ; their unlettered votaries, they know, have no access to these documents, in our
hands, and in the pri.ests' hands. And thpy are satisfied that their victims will take
the priests' word against all the evidence that truth can pour forth. Their simpl?
votaries have been volunteers ih self immolatioffn and have always believed by proxy
W. C. B.

86 SOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.

A CARD.— TO THE PUBLIC

The subscriber owes it to the public respectfully to state, that the follo^wing Letter
¦was kept back by the Roman catholic paper, a whole week, without any reason, or
excuse being offered. And he also owes it to himself to state farther, to all who read
the Roman catholic paper, that, after it was at length given, it appeared in its col
umns, so deformed and mangled, by the omission of lines and words, and by error*
of the grossest nature, that it is next to beiug unintelligible.
He takes this occasion also to state, that that catholic paper has from time to time,
admitted the most indecent and outrageous attacks on Protestant ladies, whom the
priest Mr. Thomas C. Levins has seen fit to drag into the present controversy ; and
yet the editor has been induced to refuse positively to admit a reply from the subscri
ber, or from ladies, to these personal outrages !
The little book " Lorette, or the history ofthe daughter of a Canadian nun," which
has stung the priests' conscience, and inflicted such acute pain, — -was submitted so
none of my parishioners. No one of the ladies of the Middle, and North Dutch
churches ever saw, or even heard of it, while in manuscript. I repeat it distinctly, —
no one of them was of the number of those judicious and virtuous mothers of fami
lies, who took the trouble of reading and recommending it. These were all of the
Presbyterian church exclusively. This I made known, confidentially, to the priest.
Yet, in violation of all the decencies and courtesies of life, the priest Mr. Thomas C.
Levins, has dragged in the ladies of the Middle Dutch church into this controversy :
and he still continues, under his own signature, and the shocking vulgarities of
" Fergus McAlpine,'' published weekly in the popish newspaper, in violation of every
principle of honor, — to offer insults to ladies who move in the first circles of New
York! I deem it, therefore, my duty to hold up this Romish priest, before the fathers, hus
bands, and brothers of those ladies, — as the rude violator of the decencies, and com
mon courtesies of society : — as one who has insulted ladies in language, and terms
which can proceed from no christian, or gentleman ! As one who has added coward
ice to these unmanly insults, by employing his priestly influence to prevent all re
plies, and exposures from appearing in those columns, where he publishes his outrage
ous attacks !
The subscriber begs leave to make an appeal to every gentleman, and every lady
incur community, whether this repeated insolence to ladies, on the part of a Romish
priest, is to be tolerated. He can have no objection that Mr. Levins should heap on
his head his unmeasured abuses, and sacerdotal vituperations. The subscriber is his
public and avowed theological opponent ; and he is prepared for it. For it is just as
natural for a priest of Roman faith to persecute those, whom, in his vulgar aud ilUbe
ral views, he is pleased to call "heretics;" as it is for him to breathe! But, then,
let him confine the outpourings of the vials of his ghostly wTath, to those, exclusively,
who war against his impieties ; and not, with the graceless coward, insult ladies, and
those who never entered the lists with him ! None but the rudest being, that ever
was trained up in all the heartlessness of Jesuitism, and monastic celibacy, which
paralyzes every noble, and -virtuous, and holy feeling of the human soul, — can per
mit himself to insult ladies ! And when, in the calamitous events of providence, such
outiaws intrude themselves on virtuous and polished society, and rudely violate social
courtesies, — then, every gentleman, and, most especially, every young man, is bound.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 87
promptly to show that fhere are husbands, and fathers, and brothers to defend their
-wives, their daughters, and sisters, against such brutal assaults of priests !
I am, most respectfully, &c.^^
W. C. Brownlee.
May 14, 1833.

LETTER VIII.
TO DRS. POWER AND V.\RELA, AND MR. LEVINS.
" Upon this rock will I build my church !" — Jesus Christ.
" And that rock was Christ." — St. Paul.
" Otiier foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
Gentiemen : — Your seventh letter I have carefuUv perused. You would have saved
trouble, and been as near your object, had you reprinted the sixth against me, in
reply. You have offered, in both, much incense to the spirit of error and heresy. I
fear he is the presiding genius over all your nocturnal orgies and lucubrations. You.
have renewed your crusade against the holy Bible ; but without advancing one single
new idea; or even one semblance of a fresh argument on the point. My ten argu
ments against your rule, by which I trust, it has been logically demolished and anni
hUated, — have been passed over, unnoticed by you. And, gentlemen, whatever attri
butes your enemies deny you, I shall maintain that in this silence, you possess both
¦wisdom and cunning. ^Ve have also fully established fhe evidence ofthe holy scrip
tures, by the usual arguments and proofs, briefly given, from internal and from exter
nal evidence ; from mhacles, prophecy, axd historical evidence or tradition. Audi
trust, I have fully exposed your besetting sins touching tradition. It is truly ludi
crous to see grave and professedly learned men insisting on it, forever, that tradition
alone is aU the evidence of the Bible's inspiration ; and that tradition belongs solely
and exclusively, to " Holy iMofher" of Rome, verily! You repeat here, again, with
•olemn trifling, all your deism and twaddle in this matter, which had been refuted,
and exposed, and logically put to rest. The only thing that seems tohe novel is this :
you have fallen, like theological sophomores, into the silly error of confounding the
act of faith in the external evidence of the holy Bible, with the act of faith in our
Lord, speaking in the Bible. By the former, we are assured that the Bible came
from God — by the latter we do believe in Christ, speaking in the Bible, and through
that faith, are justified from guilt before God. Now my profound opponents cannot
comprehend the dislhiction ! And what is more, no papist ever can. For he
beUeves in the "church, namely Holy Mother." And by that faith is he saved.
This, gravely, is their avowed sense of that sentence in the creed — " I believe in the
cathoUc Church" ! ! !
1. My exposure of your Vulgate Bible has, I see, taken effect : it has stung the priest's
conscience ! And you cannot conceal how much you writhe under it. No wonder :
Magna est Veritas, atque praevalebit ! — But you have not examined, far less refuted
one of my statements. And I compliment you again on your wisdom in not touch
ing them. Every Jesuit is a spiritual man of war, from his youth up. And in your
tactics Holy Mother enforces no rule more anxiously than this : — whenever your
opponent advances an argument which you cannot answer — take special care not io
Umch it"!

8§ ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
, The Strongest thing you.hajve said here, in reply to my exposure of your Vulgats,
"-is this : " Your attack on h, you have borrowed from Pope's discussion -with M'Guhe.
&C.", My good padres, I- did not know it : for, I am sorry to say, that I have not yet
been able to add- that book to my Ust. I have never seen it. * But, gendemen, you
. must have seen that I copied my authorities from the fountain head,-^such as Nolan,
Home, Willet, Father Paul Sarpi, Pallavicini, and the collections of Cramp. And,
gentiemen, if, as you say. Pope was so iU informed on the subject, as not to be able
to sUence ^tPGuire promptly on this point, hy an exhibition of the endless errors, varia
tions, and contradictions existing betw.eei^ the Sixtine, and the Clementine editions of
fhe Vulgate, he was very ill qualified for his duty. Every scholar knows that Dr.
James, in his Bellum Papale, has pointed Out two thousand variations between these
two papal editions. And anyone by taking up Home, vol. ii. p. 200, 201, canseea
specimen of these errors, omissions, additions, and contradictions. I mention Home,
becau,se he is in every minister's Ubrary. And I again refresh you with Reuchline and
Jerome's words, — " the Hebrews drink of the wellhead ; the Greeks of the stream ;
and the Latins ofthe puddle !" And, at the same time, I renew my public challenge to
you to tell the public, to which of these erroneous and contradictory editions of your
Vulgate, from the hamds of these two equally infalUble and contradictory popes, you
give in the adhesion of your flexible faith and conscience.
2. I also beg leave to renew my demand of an answer to the question in my last,
and which you have shunned. You have always averred, and can we doubt your
honor, that you insist that your laity read the holy Bible ? Even your pope, you said,
approves cf your Douay ! Now, we demand of you to tell us if there be one English
version of the Bible authorised by either the pope or the church ! We say there is not
one authorised version in our language ! Will you venture. Sirs, to contradict it ? I
possess evidence ; namely, the testimony upon oath, of some of your first men in Ire
land, given in before the British parliament, to confirm what I say !
3. Yflu are involved in a difficiUty, really inextricable, from my quotations from
the Greek and Latin fathers. And I am anxious to show how great this difficulty is.
There is uo contradiction as you affect to say, between my Letters I. and VII. You
know as well as I do, that the fathers have been altered, mangled, and corrupted in
many parts. But providence so ordered it, that these kpavish monks who corrupted
many parts of them, did not succeed in corrupting all of them ; or all parts of each of .
theiji. .Hence the many glaring contradictions on their pages. Now, take it which
way you -please, gentlemen, the quotations from the fathers are absolutely fatal to
your .sinking cause. It is an immutable doctrine of yoiur church, that no rite, nor
.^doctrine is from God, unless it have ^the unanimous consent of the fathers. Hence it is
ut^'r folly,inyou, gentlemen, to do as padre Levins has done; namely, to quote a
.sentence or tw-o. This ,wUl never do. You must ha^v^ their unanimous consent. If
1 do produce, as you know I have done, a sentence from these, contradicting yours, it
is of ijo consequence to our Protestant cause, "wjiich of us is right. It is enough fbr me
,that I destroy your unanimous cqjisent. I beg my readers to remember this importaitt
maxim. It is to administer glorious service to us in our future discusions of the Ro
mish doctrines and ceremonies. , •»¦

* This statement brought me in no less than ttoo copies in one day: and one of theBi,I
wish to be grateful iu saying it, was from a R. C. Priest, ! Here let me add, that .so Beep
and solemn was the sympathy of the protestant public, that books were sent in to me from
persons of every sect and cfenomination, many of which generous friends, I never saw,
itor heard of, before.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 89
4. You call Protestants " the chUdren of the Bible." We are grateful for this honor
wrung from such lips. Truth is rare and valuable like gold ; especially when it
comes in small grains amid mountains of falsehood. But you venture to say that we
have " the most abominably corrupt Bible that ever appeared." You add : "Mark our
proofs and weigh fhem well : read Broughton's advertisement of corruption, to tho
lords of council in 1604."
Our priests are as defective in historical education, as they are in biblical criti
cism. Is it not astonishing that a priest, or any school boy, should really not kno-w
that our translation now in use, was not in existence in 1604 ? It was not finished
untU the year 1611 I Our priests are absolutely so illiterate that they do not know
that they are charging on our present, and admhable translation, the errors that
existed in preceding translations !
They commit a simUar blunder when they say that, " in the Hampton conference
all the English Bibles were pronounced infamons translations." Is it credible that
priests should be so utterly ignorant of familiar historical facts ? Our version, now in
general use, was made after the Hampton conference ; and in consequence of tho
learned puritans requesting King James to select able men to give an accurate trans
lation. See Neal's Hist, of the Puritans, U. ch. 2. Home's Introd. vol. ii. p. 249.
5. And as our priests appeal to Walton and others, as favoring fheir sentiments, re
lative to the Douay, and to our version, the public can conceive what reliance is to be
placed on the faith and quotations of the priests, from the followiug criticism of Walton :
" The last English translation of the Bible, made by divers learned men, at the com
mand of King James, may justly contend witii any now extant, in any language of
Europe." And the learned Selden, a better judge than the pope, and his millions of
priests combined, calls it " the best translation in ffie world!" And omitting other
equally great judges, your own Geddes, a Socinian Roman Catholic priest, speaks of
it thus: "If accuracy, fideUty, and the strictest attention to the letter ofthe text, do
constitute the qualities of an excellent version, this, of all versions, must, in general,
be accounted the most excellent !
6. You have not given a fair exhibition of Bellarmine's views of papal infallibility.
He and these of his sect in the Romish church, do actuaUy place it in the pope alone.
I quoted him and the canon law. These exhibit the pope as absolute: "a god on
earth," in the place of Christ, " loco Christi :" and accountable to no council ; doing
on earth what he pleases, even as God does in heaven ! Hence they make him the
sole depository and fountain of infallibility ! You simply deny that any son of" Holy
Mother" ever held such sentiments, and get rid of my quotations by misstatement,
and mysticism. I need scarcely add that those who look into Bellarmine and the
canon law, will perceive that you are either by design, or accident, absolutely ignor
ant of your own standard papal writers !
Finally — There is one other point on which I find something apparently new. In
a fresh and most unchristian ebullition against the holy scriptures, you quote Dr.
Curtis's pamphlet in which he numbers no than 29yl mtentional departures from the
received version of our English Bible ; that is, he undertakes to show that, in tho
printing, all these errors have been introduced. And in this detection, our reverend
christian priests exult, and leap for joy, as if they and their agrarian auxiliaries had
actually made a breach in the walls of Zion ! !
I have convicted my opponents of Deism : and I have evidence that every think-
uig christian in the community is fully and painfully satisfied with the evidence,
9*

90 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
7
And to estabUsh this fact was in indeed my main reason for lingering so long on fhe
rule. We have succeeded in dragging out this lurking Antichrist from his deceptious
den ; and we have branded on his forehead a mark and a name which all his holy
water can never wash out— namely : " This is the father and prince of Deism !"
And as if they were resolved, unblushingly, to wear the mark and the name, the
priests have made this new assault, through the aid of Dr. Curtis, against the holy
scriptures. Now, mark the proofs of their dishonesty in this matter. When we
remember the source whence our priests got their information of Dr. Curtis' re
searches, it was morally impossible for them not to know that the profound scholar.
Dr. Cardwell, of Oxford University, has entered the Usts against him, has overthrown
him, and exposed his errors completely. I shall edify my honest and accurate
opponents, by quoting a little specimen of this exposure. In the book of Genesis,
Dr. Curtis musters the formidable array of eight hundred and seven variations, and in
the gospel of Matthew, no less than four hundred and sixteen ! This, to you and
every infidel, is a very refreshing and comfortable discovery. But pause a littie.
Our champion. Dr. Cardwell, goes over the same ground, collates the various copies,
and shows triumphantly that in Genesis there are only nine variations ; and in Mat
thew only efe'iien .' And these affect not the sense; nor trench on doctrine! If a
Jesuit could be brought, by any power short of divine grace, to blush, my guilty
and treacherous opponents ought to blush to their very tonsures! But, the grace
of God only can make a culprit see and feel his crimes !
I have one remark more. I am prepared for even the ultra deism of the Vol
taire school from you, gentlemen, but the indecent sally in your last letter, I was
really not prepared to hear. I allude to your revolting blasphemy, in your last
letter. Will the christian community pardon me for quoting it? "One thing is
certain, the Holy Ghost must consider you (Dr. B.) no extraordinary genius, when,
after a course of thirty or forty years in his school, you betray such ignorance." &c.
The ignorant and deluded victims of popery, who can write and inflict on the
church, such outrageous blasphemy against the most Holy One, cannot be said to
believe that "there is any Holy Ghost." And it were mockery to call them christ
ians ! I appeal to every one of the five hundred thousand christians in the United
States, who read our letters ! Have we not convicted the priests of Deism, and
deliberate blasphemy ?
One word to the confederated parties : Gentlemen priests : Your very natural and
anti-christian invectives against God's holy word, have been gladly hailed by all the
infidels in the land. I said gladly, for in the absence ofthe Agrarian chief, now
laboring in the cause of deism, in England, they rejoice at any little aid to their cause,
come it from a Roman priest, dyed in the wool : or come it from a genuine pupil of
Frances Wright. And this is no despicable attribute of their system, that they are
very thankful for very small favors ! It is true ; and I only remind you of it : they
have applauded your intellectual industry against God's holy Bible, at the expense of
your sincerity and moral honesty. And it ought not to be concealed that these,
your auxiUaries, gravely pronounce you hypocrites. Prepare the watch-word, there
will soon be trouble in the camp !
And, gentlemen deists,— I use not the titie invidiously,— are you aware of the
character and pretensions ofthe Roman priests with whom you make common cause?
Are you aware ofthe consequences which will follow, shoiUd you succeed in conduct
ing them into power, in these United States ? Look at Italy, at Austria, Naples, and

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 91
Spain. You are helping to light up the fires ofthe Auto da fe ! The Roman church
cannot exist without persecutions, massacres, and the burning of her foes. For she
holds no faith with heretics : and that it is a most meritorious deed to extirpate heretics !
In aiding the Roman priests (who laugh in their sleeves :it your credulity and weak
ness) you are preparing the fire and fagots! You are preparing for yourselves the
unenvied distinction of being the last devoured ! Pause, and think. Do not strengthen
the tyrant's ai'm Which is raising the blow against our fair and happy Republic !
I now go on to show ffiat the Roman Catholic Church is younger than
ChRISTIANITT : amd that PoPERT is a mere NOVELTT in the RELIGIOUS
WORLD. Here I would observe that the church of God is one great and holy body, of which
Christ is the head. The church has existed from the beginning of the world, it exists
now, and will exist to the consummation of all things ; unaffected by the lapse of
lime, orthe change, and succession of individual members.
The church has ever held the truth. And truffi descended from God, and has ever
kept her throne in Zion. Christ the King of truth, reigns in her forever. Nothing
of human invention is of the truth. Every item of it comes from God, through
Jesus Christ.
The following are some of these leading truths which never failed in the church ;
and which have ever distinguished the church from all human societies. And wher
ever these doctrines are wanting, there " Satan has his seat ;" — there is " his syna
gogue." 1st. The one Uving and true God is fhe only and exclusive object of divine worship
and veneration. The church of God never prayed to creatures ; never made suppli
cations to dead men, or dead women. The pagan, and afterwards the anti-christian
apostacy alone, did this. The pagans deified their heroes and heroines, and made
suppli^^ations to them. The antichristian apostacy, faithful copyers, have, in like man
ner, deified orcanonized their dead spiritual heroes and heroines ; they offer incense to
them ; bow down before them ; and make solemn supplications, and prayers to them.
These systems are twin sisters ; begotten by their common father, the prince of dark
ness, the grand enemy of di-vine worship, and the originator of all idolatry.
2d. The Church has always held feuth in one savior, Jesus Christ; and his
ONE perfect sacrifice. Pagan and antichristian apostacies have renounced this.
The sacrifices of the former, and the mass sacrifice of the latter, have displaced and
rejected, completely, the one only sacrifice of our blessed Lord. Besides, popery has
created such a host of mediators, and mediatrices, and intercessors, in the deified
saints, that the humble faithful cannot get a sight of the one only mediator Christ, on
account of the countless rabble of saints put into the place which HE alone occupies.
3d. The church of God never used images to aid her worship. She was solemnly
prohibited from this iniquity by the second precept. " Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing, &c. Thou shalt not bow
do^wn thyself to them, &c." This is the Uteral version of the Hebrew original ; and
every other version is false; and does, of design, cover idolatrous practices. As for
tiie cherubim, and the brazen serpent, they were made by an express command of God ;
and they were not used to worship God, in any sense whatever. It was for the sin of
idolatry, or using images and false gods, that the ancient Jews suffered most severely,
by the terrible judgments of God on that heaven daring sin !
4th. The circumcision of the heart, or spiritual regeneration was a peculiar doctrine

93 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
of the church. " Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of
God." This doctrine is unknown to pagans, and laughed to scorn by the pope, and
his priesthood. They hold that no " internal grace" is needful in the members of Uie
church, but only " external profession." And most gravely they assert that wicked
men, and even reprobates, remaining in the public profession of the church, are true
members of the body of Christ." See Bellarmine De Eccles. Lib. Ui. cap 2 and 7.
And the Rhem. Annot. on 1 Tim, 2. Sect. 10. And on John 15. Sect. 1. WUlet,
p. 51.
Sth. The church always held that God only and exclusively, is the lord of the
HUMAN conscience; and in no subordinate sense can any mortal claim power over
the conscience. Almighty God will not share his throne with any miserable.and arro
gant tyrant. All false reUgions lodge power with the priests to rule over, and dictate to,
the conscience. This ever has been the characteristic of paganism, and Romanism.
The evidence of this lies opjn to view on the page of scripture ; and in the history of
paganism, and the Roman church.
6th. Almighty God alone can, and does pardon sin. He gave the law, pre
scribed the penalty ; we are his moral subjects ; to him alone are we accountable in
the matters of sin, spiritual duty, and pardon. As church members we are to confess
our faults one to another ; and so ought the priest to confess his faults to the people, if
this text be quoted by them as authority for his innovation. But auricular confes
sion has no warrant from Almighty God. Upon the principles of pagans, and Roman
catholics, God has transferred over into the hands of immoral and poUuted men, the
government of his empire. If a priest has a right to receive the confession of sins,
and pronounce absolution, for money ; then has he the right to claim the judgment
seat of heaven ; judge the dead ; and displace Jesus Christ, in order to make gain !
7th. The spirit of true reUgion is the unsubduable spirit of liberty. Wherever
the worship of the true and holy One has been estabUshed by the gospel, there
liberty has reigned. And, just in proportion as the gospel is left unshackled by the
traditions, and interested schemes of men, has liberty had her splendid triumphs !
The Jewish church exhibited liberty diffusing happiness over a free and blessed people.
When religion languished, tyrants bore sway. Let the people cast their eyes over all
Roman catholic nations, and contrast their degradation, tyranny, priestcraft, and
outrageous oppression, — with the light, liberty and happiness of Protestant countries!
Contrast Spain and Italy, and Austria, with Holland, and Scotiand, and England!
Contrast the turbulent Mexicans, and Southern priest-ridden republics, with our own
glorious repubUc, and read the truth, visibly written, as with a sunbeam from heaven !
T would draw the attention of every sound politician to this point. I know of no other
portion of civil and ecclesiastical histoiy, more fruitful of great practical lessons to the
patriot, and to our country, than this is.
Stir. The true and chaste spouse of Christ is not conjoined, in bondage, unto the
state. "My kingdom is not of this world," said Christ. And his servants are not
allowed to usurp authority, or "be lords over God's heritage;'' far less are they to be
luxurious, proud, insolent princes, and truculent tyrants ! The pagan and Roraan
religions; and those which are only half reformed have permitted the infidel princes
ofthe earth, the " Lords spiritual and temporal," to tyrannise over the church : to make
a tool of her, and her lordly revenues, to promote personal, and family ambition : until
she is become, in many lands, a fallen and degraded thing ; vile, and impure ; and
loathsome! The tyrants ofthe earth have converted her into "Tin mother of

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 93
harlots, and abominations of the earth." This is her name among the nations of the
earth, and all the host of God. This name the finger of the Lord has written on her
brazen forehead ! And au .\dantic of pricstiy holy water can never wash her clean,
nor ¦wipe the brand from her forehead !
These peculiarities of a false religion, show that Romanism is not the jmre and
ancient church of Christ, But this is only my introduction. The grand peculiarities
of Popery, — with your leave, I shall class under ten heads, — or, gentlemen, ten horns,
if you please.
First, The pope's supremacy. I shall not stop here to n^fule those doctrines :
I shall merely establish their origin and date, in order to show that popery ;'roy;er, is a
mere novelty in the christian world. Our refutation shall be olUred when we reach
these, in " the dependencv of our argument."
AU papists admit the pope's supremacy. But among the sectaries in the bosom of
'' Holy Mother," there has been great diversity of belief. There are four ]ir(jminent
kinds of failh, rending asunder holy Unity, on this essential point. One cla.ss vouch
safes him a mere presidency: a second votes him an unlimited sovereignty: a third,
exalts the pope to an equality with God: the fourth, very modestly, makes the pope
actually superior to God ! This I shaU discuss again : I shall wait to see whether our
learned priests will venture to deny this division. Ignorance of their own writers
may very probably induce them to deny it.
Now, according to the doctrines ofthe pope's supremacy, Peter was made the first
supreme. And having died in A. D. t>7, he was succeeded by some obscure beings,
upon whose names even the Romanists cannot agree. But the holy apostle John
suirived Peter at least forty years ; aud so these obscure but a'osolute supremes, ¦were
placed over this holy and belo-s^ed apostle ! This was really outrageous in the Romish ,
church ! And, moreover, this apostle John has not, in any of his inspired writings,
had the grace of God, or the good sen=o, to acknowledge this supremacy ; nor deported
himself as a dutiful son. On our priests' principles, Drs, Power and Levins must
denounce the holy John as a rebelious son of "Holy Mother !" What ! Live 40 years,
and -write so mucb scripture, vet say not one word for his holiness, and his essential
supremacy ! Padre Levins ought, forthwitii to excommunicate his memory, with bell,
book, aud candle ! Gentlemen, bv -^^-hat strange and unheard of negligence in discipline,
has this been omitted by " Holy Mother?" Never did her thunders of the Vatican thus
sleep when her vengeance burned against the pious and martyred saints of Europe !
The early councils resisted papal supremacy. In A. J). 418, the si.-cth council of
Carthage resisted three po]ies, one after another. The council of Chalcedon, held
about the y-ear 450, resisted pope Leo, on the question of his supremacy. A mighty
and harmonious opposition was directed against papal usurpation by the bisliops and
and clergy of France and Germany. lUyricus, in Catal. Test. Verit. p, 41, gives
their episde, in which they " admonish fhe pope Anastasius and his accomplices, to
let them alone, and not exercise their tyranny over them,"
The bishops of Belgia resisted the pope Nicholas, so late as 860, lUyricus records,
in p. 80, their epistle to him, in which they say, — "We will not stand to thy decrees ;
nor hear thy voice ; nor fear thy thundering bulls ! We assault thee with thine own
weapon, who despisest the decree of our Lord God I"
So late as the seventh century the Anglian bishops resisted popery in England, and
refused even to own the pope, and his Austin monks as christians. See Burgess'
Tracts, p. 125, Lond. Prot. Joum. May, 1832.

94 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
In Scotiand, as is evident from Dr. Jamieson's history of the Culdees, popery and
supremacy were resisted with strong indignation to even a later period.
In Ireland the devout Irish resisted popery still longer. Dr. O'Halloran declares
in his antiquarian researches, that " St. Patrick, beyond doubt, found in Ireland, when
he arrived there, an estabhshed Christian Church." And he declares that "an un
compromising enmity existed in the minds ofthe Irish people against every thingcon-
nected with Rome! "And we have the famous reply of the Irish divine, St. Ibar,
on record, which he made to St. Patrick, who -wished to exercise some jurisdiction :—
" We never acknowledge the supremacy of a foreigner .'" Let every true hearted Irish
man record this reply of their famous native divine ; and remember the fact that Ireland
never submhted to the jiope's supremacy until overpowered by the conspiracy ofthe
pope, and King Henry IL, in A. D. 1172. I refer to O'DriscoU's views of Ireland,
U. p. 85.
In Spain, the radical elements of popery and papal supremacy were detested, and
successfully resisted, so late as the beginning of the eighth century. See Dr. Geddes
on Popery, vol. ii. 11 — 60 ; and McCrie's History of the Reformation in Spain and
Italy. The emperor Lewis, son of Charlemagne, so late as the middle of the ninth century,
with all his clergy and nobles, owned no supremacy in the pope ; but on the con
trary sustained the power of the bishops and councUs against him. Hence the
devout exclamation of your own honest Platina: " O Liidovice, utinamnunc viveres!"
See lUyr. Catal. p. 86, Morn. Exer. p. 224.
The best and early fathers warmly opposed the Pope's supremacy. St. Augustine
was the fourth who signed the famous decree ofthe African Milevetan Council. Thia
decree was made against all appeals from the African Church, by bishops, or mem
bers, to the pope ; and it was made in opposition to Pope's Zosimus, Boniface, and
Celestine. See Mansi CoUect, Cone. Tom. iv. p. 507; Venet. edit. 1765.
Jerome, also opposed it; hear his words : "The Church ofthe Roman city is not to
be deemed one thing, and the church of the whole world another. Gaul, Britain,
Africa, Persia, India, and all the barbarous nations adore one Christ : and observe one
rule of faith. If you look for authority, the world is greater than a city, (Rome.)
Wheresoever a bishop is, whether at Rome, or Constantinople, or Alexandria, or
Tanais, he is ofthe same worth, (or authority) and the same priesthood." "But all
are successors of the apostles, ^Vhy do you produce to me the customs of one city ?"
To Evagr. Tom. U. p. 512, Paris edit, of 1602.
The following from St, Jerome has a very particular claim on our attention: —
"Bishops should remember that they are greater than elders, (presbyters,) ralher by
custom, than by truth of the Lord's appointment : and that they ought to rule fhe
church in common." On Titus Lib. i. cap 1 .
Hear Theodoret's memorable words : — " Christ alone is head of all : the church is
his body ; and the saints are the members of his body : one is fhe neck : another fha
feet." "By bis legs understand St. Peter, the first ofthe apostles." On Sol. Song.
Par. Lat. edit. 1608. So far from making Peter the head, he considered him the legs,
which are supported by the feet, as you well know !
Then there is TertuUian's famous sentence, which your Romish writers have man
gled so scandalously — supposing that we, "ignorant heretics,," had not seen, nor read
that honest witness against your supremacy. " Survey fhe apostoUcal churches, in
in which the verychairs of the apostles stUl preside over these stations ; in which theii

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 95
»wn episties are recited, uttering die voice, and representing die presence of each of
them. Is Achaia nearest to thee, thouhast Corinth. If thou art not far from Macedonia,
tftou hast the Philippians and the Thessalonians. If thou canst go to Asia, thou hast
Ephesus. If thou art near Italy, thou hast Rome, whence tons, also, authority is near
at hand." Praes. adv. Hter. Cap. 36, p. 215, Paris edit. 1675. Now, ilis a notable
oircumstance, that the Romish writers, when fhey quote out of TertuUian, leave out
all that is put here in italics; namely, all but the last sentence ; thereby perverting
this father, and making him utter what no man in his days had even conceived, or
thought of. Mr. Hughes of Philadelphia, lately quoted him in this garbled manner ;
and received a suitable scourging for so doing !
I shall gratify you, gentlemen, wifh one refreshing quotation more. And if you do
not give up your-pope's supremacy as universal bishop, then on your own principles,
are you the most obstinate heretics alive. For I quote from your owu infalUble
and holy pope, and one whom you have deified too, and do invoke with incense,
prayers, and holy wrestUngs ; I mean pope St. Gregory, — Padre Levins very gravely
tells us that he loves antiquities and all old things — wore it even like " Holy Mother,"
a very old sinner ! Well, you must know that a bishop of the Greek church first
claimed supremacy, and the honor of universal bishop ; until one of the fathers of
Rome, some of them pretty honest men at that time, rebuked his iniquity, and shamed
him out of it. Now hear the infalUble pope and saint Gregory — who wrote this in the
close of the sixth century, namely, 590. Having shown that Peter, and Paul, and
John were all members under one head, he says: — " No one desired to call himself
universalis, or universal bishop.'' See Regist. Epist. Lib. 5. p. 743, Tom. ii.
Again, for this is too good to be quitted so soon ; "I do confidently say that whoso
ever called himself universal Bishop ; or is desirous to be called so, in his pride, is
fhe FORERUNNER OF ANTI-CHRIST; bccausc, iu his pride, he prefers himself to the
rest. And he is conducted to error, by a similar pride ; for as the wicked One wishes
to appear a god above all men ; so whosoever he is, who desires to be called the only
Bishop (solus sacerdos,) extols himself above all other Bishops." Tom. ii. Regist.
Epist. In. 15. Epist. 33. edit, of Paris, 1705.
Once more, for this is delectable, coming as it does from your great saint: — In his
eulogy to the bishop of Alexandria, he solemnly affirms that " the primacy of Peter
descended to three Sees: namely, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome." Tom. ii. 887.
Paris edit.
Once more ; for I am determined that Pope St. Gregory, if possible, shall save you
from the mortal sin of holding the Roman pope's supremacy. Hear your holy saint :
" If any one in that church assumes that name," he was speaking of universal Bishop,
"which in the opinion of all good men he (his rival in the East,) has done; then the
whole church ; (may it never happen) falls from its state, when he who is called univer
sal, falls. But let that name of blasphemy be absent from the hearts of Christians ;
which, when it is really assumed by one, the honor of all priests is taken away." —
Regist. Epist. ; Lib. 5 ; Indie. 13; Epist. 20. also Lib. 7. p. 881. Paris edit. 1705.
Thus I have proved by arguments and testimony from your own church, that the
supremacy, and infamous usurpation of your pope, is a novelty in the christian world.
It was not fully gained by the " Man of Sin" until the consummation of truth's over
throw, in the darkest hour of the darkest ages.
Second. The invocation of saints, is a novelty introduced bythe "Man of
Sin" also. This origiuated in those bold and figurative expressions, and forms of

gg ROMAN catholic CONTROVERST.
apostrophising ofthe departed martyrs, common among declamatory preachew.
Invocation of saints began to show itself sometime after the beginning of the third
century. It was violently opposed by the truly faithful, until the seventh century;
and finally, it was established, in spite of all opposition, only in the ninth century,
when the church was driven into the -wilderness.
We have the testimony of St. Augustine against you on this point. "He is the
High Priest who has entered within the veil ; and who alone of those tvho have ap
peared in the flesh, does intercede for us." On Psalms 64, vol, iv. p. 633. edit.
Paris, 1685,
Theodoret, who -R-rote in A. D. 451, says,—" Send up thanks-giving to God the
Father, through Christ; and not through angels. The council of Laodicea also fol-
lowintf this rule, and desiring to heal that old disease, made a law that people should
not pray to angels; nor forsake our Lord Jesus Christ." On Colos. 8 chap. Pane
edU. Lat. 1603.
St. Chrysostom declared [inthe beginning ofthe fifth century,] that " there was
no need for minor intercessors with God." " With God it is not thus ; for there is no
need of intercessors for the petitioners; neither is he so ready to give a gracious an
swer, when entreated by others ; as by ourselves praying to him." On Math, cited
by Theod. Eclog, &c.
More full is this saint on that passage of " sending away the woman of Canaan,"
Mark the philosopy ofthe woman; she entreats not James, nor John, nor comes she
to Peter ; she breaks through the whole company of them ; and saying I have no
need of a mediator ; but taking repentance as a spokes-woman, I come to the fountain
itself. I have no need of a mediator; have thou mercy on me.'' See his Disc, on
this part of Mat. ch. 15, Paris edit. 1621.
Gregory Nyssen deno-unces.creature invocation : " The word of God has ordained
that none of those things which have their being by creation, snail be worshipped :"
(Ts/JiKT/iioi/, that is venerated by prayers, or invoked in religious worship. "Moses,
die tables, the law, the prophets, the gospel, the decrees of all the apostles forbid equally
our looking to the creature." Orat. 4, in Eunom. Tom. ii, p. 144, Paris edit, of
cioiccxv. I shall only add Epiphanius, of A. D. 336. He is a strong witness against the
atheism of saint worship or mvocation. " Neither is Elias to be worshipped, although
he were alive, nor is John to be worshipped TrpocKwriroi, i. e, bowed down before, and
prayed to. Nor is Theela, or any of the saints to be worshipped, bowed down be
fore, or prayed to. For that ancient error Shall not prevail over us, of forsaking the
LIVING God, aud worshipping creatures. For they served and worshipped the crea
ture more than the Creator, and became fools. For if an angel will not be worship
ped, how much more will not she, (the Virgin Mary) who was born of Anna?" See
his book against the heretics. No. 79. p. 448.
Now, will you permit me to refresh your consciences, gentlemen, %vith a contrast
of Romanism -with this primitive Christianity of the fathers. In the face ofthe Bible,
in which the Holy Ghost commands us not to pray to, or worship creatures : in the
face of the testimony of CouncUs, by the sainted fathers, you thus pray ; — " O Holy
Mary I — obtain for us by intercession, light to know the great benefit which Christ has
bestowed on us." " O Holy Virgin, obtain for us by thy intercession, that our hearts
may he so visited by thy holy Son, &c." " O most pure Mother of God !" — ^What
revolting blasphemy ! God's Mother ! ! Mother of God ! ! Paganism never breathed

R0M,\N catholic CONTROVERST. 97
such Atheism, god has no mother! The infinite and invisible being, god, has
NO mother ! What a most brutish mind conceived this idea ! What a brutalizing
prayer this is, to teach men ! Christ our mediator, as man had a mother ; but as God,
he had no mother. — But I go on. — " O Mother of God, we beseech thee, obtain for us.
by thy intercession, grace to lead pure and holy lives, &c." Again : — " O most bles
sed Virgin, graciously vouchsafe to help us to accomplish the work of our salvation,
by thy powerful intercession ! — Amen." See Dr. John Power's Catholic Manual;
Rosary of the B. Virgin : N. York edit.
The following I copy from " the Roman Catholic prayer book, or devout christian's
Vade Mecum." It will be seen how Dr. Power, and the Philadelphia book differ in
translating the same passage. AVill fhe Bishops not take care, and look after such
pope-daring innovations ! — " O most blessed Virgin, graciously vouchsafe to negotiate
for, and with us, the work of our salvation, for, and ¦with us, the work of our salvation,
by thy powerful intercession ! Amen.' '
Again: — " Confiding in thy goodness and mercy, I cast myself at thy sacred feet,
and do most humbly supplicate thee, O Mother of the eternal Word, to adopt me as
thy child; and take upon thee, the care of my salvation." "O God, grant, we be
seech thee, by the Virgin IMary, his mother, that we may receive the joys of eternal
life, by the same Christ our Lord."
I copy the following from the Litany of our Lady of Loretto, — The Litany means
a solemn suppUcatory prayer. "Holy Mother of God, pray for us! — Mother of our
Creator, pray for us ! — Mother of our Redeeraer, pray for us ! — Mirror of Justice !
pray for us ! — Seat of wisdom, pray for us ! Ark of the covenant, pray for us ! — Gate
of heaven, pray for us! Refuge of sinners, pray for us! &c. &c."
But this is not the worst : one thing I am prepared to show, that the various Roman
works which appear in Enghsh, are designed to impose on Protestants, and to conceal
the real doctrines of Rome. Only look into their Latin books, — there you behold
their frightful idolatry, in its rank growth, and perfection. Here isa specimen : ' ' Holy
Mother, — Ora patrem, jube fiUo, — pray to the father for us, and command thy son,
&c." Again : — O felix puerpera, nostra pians scelera, jure matris impera Redemp-
tori ! O happy Mother, atoning for our crimes, lay thy commands on the Redeemer,
in right of thy being his Mother." And to consummate what all heathenism never
conceived, in theh comparative piety, a Roman saint, namely, Bonaventura, whom
the pious and faithful do worship on July 14, annually, — has gone over the Psalms of
David ; has stricken out Lord, God, &c. and has inserted Holy Mother, our Lady, &c.
Thus: "In thee, O Lady, do I put my trust, &c." — "Let our Lady arise: let her
enemies be scattered, &c." " O come let us sing unto our Lady : and make a joyful
noise unto the queen of our salvation!!" Psalm 110. "TheLordsaid untomyLady,
sit thou on my right hand," &c. &c. ! ! ! See Bonav. psalt. of the B. Virgin ; his
works, Tom. vii. Rom. edit, of 1588. And Hist. Sec. Char. August, de Comem. B.
M. Virg. And Morn. Ex. p. 523.
And, lest these may be deemed too antiquated, I shall show that, in all that is idola
trous and wicked, the Romish church is immutable. The present Pope, Gregory
XVI., in the Circular sent forth on entering his office, solemnly rendered adorations to
the Holy Virgin ; and calls upon all the clergy to implore, — " that she who has been
in every calamity, our Patron and Protectress may watch over us, — and lead our
minds, by her heavenly influence, to those counsels which may prove most salutary
to Christ's flock." " That all may have a happy and successful issue, let us raise
10

.98 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTRO^VERST.
our eyes tothe Most Blessed Virgin Mary; who alone destroys heresies! Who is our
greatest hope ! Yea the entire ground of our hope !" See Laity's Directory, 1833.
Third :— The use of Images in the churches is a novelty. Here I must be brief.
The best of the fathers condemned the use of images : one CouncU in A. D. 300 con
demned the use of pictures iu churches. In 700 the CouncU of Constantinople so
lemnly condemned them : and ordered their expulsion from the churches. In 754 the
seventh Greek general councU solemnly condemned image use and worship. About
the ninth century this idolatry seems to have been established.
Fourth : — The doctrine of purgatory is a mere novelty. — I shall in due time,
produce the best of the fathers against it with St. Augustine at their head. It is most
manifestly borrowed from the pagan fire purification of souls. And it has been a ter
rific screw in sacerdotal hands to extract from trembling mortals a hundred fold more
money, than all the African slave trade ever has accumulated ! These two evils,
namely, slavery, and the priests' fiction of purgatory, have been permitted by tbe
¦wrath of heaven to be let in upon a guilty world ! The one dealt in human bones
and sinews and blood ! The other, as St. John saw in ¦vision, traded in human
souls ! ! The lust of gold is the object of both ! This golden doctrine of popery
is only some four hundred and four years old! It was ultimately established in
Rome by the council of Florence, A. D. 1430.
Fifth: — Priest's celibacy, that " old bachelor's joke" which vexes our holy fathers
so much, is a novelty in the christian world. This usurpation of a freeman's rights,
is unrecorded and unknown in all histories of common despotism ! No human tyrant
ever was so atrocious as to enact it in any civil government. It is purely diabolical :
none but the prince of darkness was capable to inspire the conception thereof into the
mind of a papal despot. And none but the most slavish, trodden down, and heartless
of all our species, — men, I may not call them, — can pretend submission to it !
Every priest and school boy knows that it is not only uncommanded in the holy
scriptures, but set down as a predicted and prominent characteristic of Anti-christ.
The "great apostacy" from Christianity was to be distinctiy known by all men, as
one "forbidding to marry !" 1 Tim. iv. 3.
And every one who has looked into history, knows that pope Gregory A''II., a tyrant,
who, in point of atheism and vice, threw the entire Une of the pagan emperors, his
predecessors on the Roman throne, completely into the shade, as saints, in comparison
¦with him, — was the man who conceived this instigation of Satan, and took away the
unaUenable rights of man; — the right of marriage, from the priests. This he did in
the year 1 074. Hence the celibacy of the priests is only some 763 years old. Before
that, every priest, like other honest men, had his own wife. Since diat, they have
been " holy fathers" without wives !
Sixth and seventh : Transubstantiation and the Mass. This striking pecuUarity of
popery is a mere novelty also, in the reUgious world not only, but even in the rational
world. A doctrine which represents the priest's creating his Creator ; and making a
wafer to be really the human flesh of Christ ; and which, therefore, by their own con
fession, makes men cannibals! I am perfectly grave, gentlemen. I ask you, what
is the wafer, when you put it, with awful solemnity, on the projected tongue of your
kneeling votary? You reply, it is the flesh and blood, really and truly, of Christ's
human nature." Then does not every one see that they eat and swallow down
human flesh ! If that make them not cannibals, then words have lost their meaning;
and men have lost their reason, their judgment, and their senses !

R0M.4N CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.

99

Against this monstrous and disgusting novelty of the mass, we can produce the testi
mony of seventeen of your earliest aud best fathers, namely, from Irena;us to
St. Augustine. This papal invention was originated about the middle of the fifth
century ; it ripened by degrees under sacerdotal ignorance and knavery, until the
ninth century : and, finally, along with auricular confession, was established into a
dogma and a sacrament of the Romish church, by the decree of pope Innocent III. in
the fourth council of the Lateran, in the year 1215. Mosh. Ui. ch. 3, part 2. Your
own Scotus and Alphonsus give the same date of its age. Alph. De Castro, Adv.
Hceres. And although BeUarmine reproves these faithful statements, he, nevertheless,
admits dial the mass is no older than the year 1073 ; and he gives as the father of this
innovation, pope Gregory VIL, and his council at Rome. See Bell. De Euchar. lib.
iu. cap. 23. So recent is this innovation of the mass by the confession of your stan
dard writers !
Eighth : The taking away ofthe wine, or holy cup, in the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper is a novelty. Pope Gelasius, in the year 492, pronounced thie abstraction of
the cup " an impious sacrUege." See Corp. Juris Can. Pars 2, Dist. 3.
Ninth: The adoration of relics was introduced about the same time, with the invo
cation of saints; audit arose from the perversion of mementos, or keepsakes left by
martyrs, and those who were dear to the church. To adore relics, or venerate them
religiously, is to adore dust and ashes! So says St. Augustine : " Timeo adorare
terram, &c. I fear to adore earth lest God condemn me." The Council of Carth., 5,
Can. 15, says : — " Placuit, &c. It has pleased us to request the most renowned em
peror, that relics may be taken away, not only such as are kept in shrines, and images,
but in what place soever, woods, or trees." WUlet Synop. Papismi, p. 391. So late
as the year 730, the council summoned by the emperor Leo HI., did, with only one
dissenting voice, decree that " the worship of images and relics was mere idolatry!"
This decree was fully enforced by Leo ; and the churches were purified of them. See
Morn. Exer. p. 217; also Pezel, and Lampad. Mellif. Hist, part iii, p. 37, 41.
Tenth and last : — The keeping of the Bible in a dead language, and refusing tlie
free and unlimited perusal of God's holy word, is a novelty in the church. This
usurpation, so characteristic of ghostly tyranny, is condemned by the uniform tenor
of the scriptures. And I can produce at least twelve of the most eminent Greek and
Latin fathers, who maintain the holy scriptures to be the only, and all sufficient rule
of faith and morals : and who taught, what was, indeed, the universal sentiment ofthe
whole primitive church, that it was the duty of all men to read and study them. I
shall select a few.
St. Augustine was not in favor of keeping the Bible, and using prayers in an un
known tongue. He says — "They ought to be aware that no voice reaches God's ears
that is unaccompanied with a feehng of the mind." — " These things ought doubtless
to be corrected," — that is, the purest style and proper dialect of each people should
be used in worship, — " that the people may say amen, to what is clearly understood."
Vol. I. p. 27, Bened. Edit. Paris 1685. Again, — " We ought to understand that we
may sing ¦with human reason, not as it were with the voice of birds ! Thrushes and par
rots, crows and magpies are taught by men to pronounce what they do not know" — -just
as your victims do your Latin prayers. — "But to sing with understanding is granted
by the divine will to men." Vol. IV. p. 82.
Hear, next, the reproof of St. Jerome. "The people who were asleep under their
masters, wiU arise and hasten to the mountains of the scriptures." "And when

100 ' ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
they shall be well skilled in reading them, if they shall not find any to teach them,
their study shall be approved, because they have fled to the mountains ; and have
reproved the indolence of their masters!" "Tom. V. p. 415. Paris Edit. 1602.
St. Chrysostom says, — " Ignorance of the Scriptures is the cause of all evils."
HomU. 9, in ch. 3, Coloss. And addressing the poor, and laboring men he says,—
" Hear, I exhort you, all men engaged in the bustles of life, and obtain for yourselves
books, the medicine of the soul. If you will have nothing else, get the New Testa
ment, the acts of the apostles, the gospels, as your constant teachers." Hom. 9.
in Col. 3. And in his 3d Serm. on Laz. he goes over all the objections of tradesmen
and laborers, and then adds, — " What sayest thou, Oman, is it not i% business to
study the scriptures, because thou art distracted with a thousand cares ? Truly, indeed,
it is thine, much more than it is theirs."
I shall quote one beautiful sentence more from this father : — "Whether you go to
the Indies, or to tbe ocean, or to the British isles, or to the Black sea, or to the western
regions, you will hear all persons, every where, philosophizing from the scriptures :
there is a difference of speech, but not of faith: they have a different tongue, but one
mind!" Serm. 53. On the usefulness of reading the Bible.
Finally; St. Basil says: — "It is right and necessary that evert one should learn
that which is useful from the holy scriptures ; both for the purpose of furnishing the
mind with greater piety ; and also that they may not be accustomed to human tradi
tions!" Tom. II. 449. Paris Edit. 1722.
Hence it is most manifest that Popery, in its leading characteristics, is ameienovelty
in the christian world !
The vulgar and illiterate question every one has heard reiterated, — "Where was
your religion before Luther." This question maybe answered thus : — 1st. By a coun
ter question, — "Where was your face, this morning, before it was washed." 2d. "It
is found, as a system, where your religion never can be found ; namely, in the holy
Bible." 3d. "It has been found in profession, in that unbroken line of faithful and
holy men, descended from the Italick church ; and perpetuated inthe line ofthe Wal
denses, Albigenses, Lollards, and Culdees ; together with the faithful in the Greek,
the African, and the old Syriac churches.
I shall conclude with the words of the accurate writer Vcetius, with which every
man, well versed in the history ofthe first six centuries, will readily accord : — namely ;
"In thefirst six hundred years of our era, there was no church, no one doctor, no one
martyr, no confession, no one family, no one member of the church ; neither in the
West, nor in any other part of the world, that was properly, and formally a Papist."
I am, gentlemen, yours truly, &c.
W. C. B.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER VIII.
It opens with a discussion on false friendship, — Dr. B. has deserted and ruined the cause
of his rule of faith. He aspired "to be the mighty erudite in the Hebrew and Greek ofthe
Holy Ghost:" had it not been for his rash "ambitioning theological renown," and his ventur
ing "to challenge the priests," his rule of faith might have rested in obscurity, and enjoyed
the respect which obscurity secures.'' But, sad to tell : disregarding the limits which nature
fixed to his faculties, he feU,— like Satan, " a brighter star ia a purer firmament." The

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 101
"polemical athlete of Calvinism fell; and  will the members of the M. D. Church
fill up the hiatus by way of epitaph!"
" We £ire aware. Rev. Gentieman, ofthe sorrows and afflctions of aoul which now haunt
you, — of your regrets for disregard of the monitions of your interior spirit, when you provo
ked your antagonists to engage in controversial conflict. We pity — for wo have pity for
you — the reputation you have lost by the contest."
" But if you rest on a bed of tortures, you made it for yourself."
" Could any thing else befall one who " had an inveterate selfishness for the bubble of dis
tinction ; a deranged or vitiated appetite for polemics; and the bravo of a few bigots and
fanatics." They next hold up Dr. B, aa duly punished by his fall, and perfect failure, for his
daring to give " the challenge" to such men as the priests !
" Finding your letter VlII to contain no matter relevant to your rule of faith," — " but being
a mere register, crude and false, of things, not bearing on the point in issue, it is consigned
to the disregard it merits,"
Then followa an eternal repetition pf all that they had advanced again and again, in oppo
sition to the scripture rule of faith,
•' It suits yoiu- purpose, because you cannot prove, on the principles of your protestant
rule of faith, the Bible to be the word of God, to wander into irrelevant matter, and divert
the attention ofthe members ofthe Middle Dutch Church from the real point under discus
sion." " We recur to your past letters to again exhibit your illogical references, proofless aseer-
Uons, and recklessness of truth, to again ' insert the hook in your nose,' "
" Dr. B. writes, ' to charge the holy scriptures with obscurity, or deficiency, would be to
bring a charge against the Holy Ghost.' Would not thia contradiction be derided were it
afiirmed by a child ; and yet, its author is preacher Brownlee, the ' writer and gentlemen' of
the Middle Dutch Church, the erudite in the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost,' the
Sampson Agonistes of the ' virtuous ladies' who sanctioned the obscene fiction, Lorette."
" How is he to compare parallel passages 1" He cannot prove the Bible to be the word
of God! You Aape noi proved it."
" Over thegoodand discriminatingsense ofthe enlightened portion of your flockyour false
charges have not prevailed ; they rest on the same level with your proofs of the Bible being
the word of God."
" You call us 'deists and infidels !' We pity the degradation and malignancy of the will
from which these terms emanate."
" Dr. B. writes, — 'you have renewed your crusade against the Holy Bible.' This ridicu
lous, but malicious charge we repel. Our crusade is not directed against the Bihlc, it is di
rected against your Protestant rule of faith,' — That is to say, the bible: ! ' Our sincere respect
is evinced for the Bible, since, by our creed, we will not submit it to the indiscriminate judg
ment of every ignorant and fanatical mind.' "
" To gull the ignorant among your flock, you afl'ect to designate us Deists, because we
use your expression 'the Hebrew and Greek ofthe Holy Ghost!'"
"We have proved that the scriptures cannot establish their own authenticity, integrity,
and inspiration : and our concluBion is, that, since you admit these characters as articles of
faith, and admit them without any scriptural authority, the scriptures are not your onlymXe
of faith. Ag^ain we say, since all christians are obliged to believe the canonicity and inspi
ration ofthe holy scriptures, and since the canonicity and inspiration ofthe scriptures cannot
be proved by the scriptures, the divine author ofthe christian religion never gave the holy
scriptures as man's only rule of faith. We farther assert, that as your only rule of faith, is
the written Word of God, contained in the Old Testament and the New ; and, aa the books
ofthe OLD TESTAMENT or of the NEW cannot prove their own authenticity and inspi
ration, — you cannot, consistently, believe they are authentic and inspired,"
" What ! the creed of the christian, according to Preacher Brownlee, is to be derived
from the scriptures alone, and those scriptures not able to prove their own inspiration,
10*

102 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
which is an article of faith every christian must hold, in order to believe the reUgion divine,
which he derives from the scriptures. 'If this be not absurdity or fatuity in its last stage,
we know not the import of ideas,' "
"The priests care but littie for your approbation, or censure of the Latin Vulgate, Your
vituperation ia of no consequence when such profound scholars as Grotius, Walton, and
Mills pronounce judgment ; and you know they have spoken of the Vulgate in terms of ex
alted praise,"
Next there foUows a denunciation against translations of the Bible ; — all is uncertain ; all
corrupt; we cannot have any confidence in one of them ; the translators were not infaUible:
you cannot know this from the rule ! " Does the Bible teU you that the translators took no
liberties with the Hebrew and Greek copies !" Hence all is utterly uncertain; all doubtful;
you have no rule ; no word of God ! " Hence no rational, no divine faith can be found idtli
Protestant^ !"
In this manner they run on through half a newspaper column, in impiety and deism not
surpassed by Hume or Paine ! But their master piece of deception follows. Without inti
mating that at the Hampton Conference, the various defects of former translations of the
English Bible, were pressed, in order to move the King to select the ablest men to make a
new translation (which is the one now in use.) The priests collect all the objections made
at this Conference, and hurl them forth, with dexterous Jesuitism, as the sentiments of the
most learned Protestants, against all English translations without exceptions, as well those
then in existence, as the one made afterwards ! !
"The Reformers," say they, after having declaimed against the horrifying heresies, and
translations of Luther, Zuingle, Calvin, Beza, and the English translators, — "the Reformers
have remorselessly polluted the pure fountain of eternal truth ; and have caused the people
to drink of this poisoned source!" "Who then, can repose confidence in their translations?"
All this, be it remembered, comes from our "learned priests," who have not yet learned
the primary elements of Hebrew and Greek ! Admirable critics! They enter the lists with
the profoundest scholara who ever lived, — I mean the translators of the English, the Dutch,
and the German Bible !
" To your high toned demand, ' tell us if there be one English version of the Bible author
rised by either the pope or the church,' we return the very brief answer — ^Transeat. If
you hnow the meaning of this term, you know what use to make of it."
" We have advanced the most positive and convincing arguments to prove to you, that
the Saviour of the world did not establish the holy scriptures as our only rule of faith,
and these arguments you have not touched,"
I quote the following as a specimen of deUberate misrepresentation. The reader knows
that we alwiiys have said that the Holy Ghost speaking in the rule, is judge of controversy,
" You have undertaken to prove, that the holy scriptures alone are the only rule of faith,
and ONLY JUDGE OF CONTROVERSY estabUshed by Christ,"
" Not a word have you said to prove that the scriptures have been given to us as OUR
ONLY JUDGE OF CONTROVERSY,"
" Now, Rev. Sir, we have many arguments to prove that the Scriptures were not es
tablished by Christ as the judge of all controversies in religion between christians. Our
first argument is taken from the nature of the judicial office. The Judge between two in
dividuals at variance, is bound to express himself in such a manner as that both parties shall
see what his sentence ia. One party must see that it is for him, the other must see that it is
against him. But the scriptures do not decide in this way. Therefore, the scriptures are
not the judge of controversies."
Here 1st. the priests take advantage of their own misrepresentation. We say the Holy
Ghost is the judge, 2d, They renew the old error that the infalUble rule makes those who
use it, infallible.
To neutralize the above, let my reader put the words "Holy Ghost," in the above sentence,
,13 the judge; and he wiU at once perceive the blasphemy ofthe papal doctrine here expressed.

.OMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 103
The error and sophism lie here : — although the Holy One does speak, himself, infallibly, —
yet because each of these parties do not infallibly see and feel that he speaks/or the one, and
against the other : therefore, the Holy Ghost and his rule cannot bo the judge, and the only
rule! But we go on : "Now we say that one of two things must be admitted, ehher the
scriptures have not hitherto pronounced sentence, clearly, evidentiy, and sufficiently, or, if
they have, that either the Lutherans or the Calvinists are very stubborn or obstinate for not
having obeyed the sentence ofthe Holy Ghoat. Dr. Brownlee may take his choice."
To neutralize this sophistry of deism, we need only apply the above argument to any con
ceivable rule, or revelation from God. Either man must be infallihle, amid all his sina and
miseries, before God; and he must infallibly take up the rule in ita true sense, and the
Judge's decision; or, there is no truth in it ; and no benefit derivable from it! Let the Ro
man Catholic only apply the above mode of argument to his own rule : and he must per
ceive that if it does not end all the divisions, and errors of Jesuits, and Jansenists ; Domini
cans and Franciscans; — nay, if it does not prevent, and heal all the errors anil heresies of those
who have secededfrom " Holy Motlier," — then is there no truth, no infallibility in it ! And, hence>
this argument ofthe priests annihilates their own system !
It is amusing to see how Dr. B.'s denial of " God's Mother" affects the priests. It is Nesto
rianism ' It ia atrocious ! It is blasphemy ! What ! deny that a woman can be the mother
ofthe eternal God! Heaven daring man! And they facetiously affect to fall into a fit ofthe
hysterica ! But hear them.
" When we ourselvea see Preacher Brownlee renewing the blasphemies of Ncstorius,
under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, we shudder, and turn with aflfectionate reverence, to
that Holy Mother, who has never sported with divine truth, and who standa like an Appe-
nine, firm, and subUme in the light of Heaven."
But they shake off tiie fit, and with it, all their consistency, — and actually themselves fall
into Dr. B.'a Nestorianism ! Hear them. " Yet when we call her " Mother of God." we do
not say that she ia tiie Mother ofthe Divinity, but of the WORD MADE FLESH; GOD
AND MAN IN THE SAME PERSON, This is what Preacher Brownlee calls, "revolt
ing blasphemy!"
This is incorrect. We called that "revolting blaaphemy" which the priests are pleased,
here, to assert, and to deny, with the same breath? Every one must perceive that to call the
Virgin Mary " the Mother of God," does make her the Mother of the Divinity. For there is
one God only, and that one God is the one Divinity, Either there is more than one God, or
the priests' doctiine makes a woman "the mother of the Divinity,'' There is no way of
eluding this.
It would be amusing and instructive to hear a Roman catholic priest explain^ in an assem
bly of literary men, the text, in the Hebrews, relative to Melchisedec, who was the type of
our Lord, " He," that ia our Lord, — " was without father, without mother,'' He waa " witiiout
father," that is, as to his human nature, lie was "without mother ;' ' and yet he had a mo
ther. As the son of man, he had a mother. In another sense, he had no mother. This is
the point to be settled by the priests. It needs only the aid of comthon sense to say that
only one possible conclusion remaina, — he had " no mother" as God. — I ask only this one
item inthe Romish church's invocation, to convict her of atheism, and anti-christianism !
She will never give it up ; for by the wise arrangement of divine providence, she will never
cease to give, daily, infaUible evidence that she ia the anti-christ, and Babylon the
Great ! If the Romish priests were to lay aside this novel and invented title " Mother of
God," — we ahould be deprived of one main evidence that she is the " whore of Babylok,"^
foretold by St. John !

104 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
LETTER IX.
TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS.
" There is nothing but roguery in villainous man."— Shakspeare.
Gendemen :— Your last letter cleariy reveals what the religious public had long
suspected, and what you have been all along, anxious to conceal ; namely, the deep
conviction onthe part of the Roman priests, that the peculiar dogmas, and ceremonies
of their church cannot sustain the bold inspection of the American community. And
hence every thing is to be hazarded, every thing, even truth itself sacrificed, to prevent
your antagonist from gomg forward into " the chambers of her imagery" ! I did conjec
ture, gentlemen, that you would not dare to follow me in the investigation of your
christiano-pagan system of popery. But, now, in your last letter, you have setded the
question. You will not follow me ; j'ou will not leave the rule ; it is more easy to
retail the scandal of infidels and priests, against God's holy word, than to enter into the
arena, and defend your edition of baptized Roman paganism ! You have not tho
moral courage to stand by, and assist at the stripping of the apocalyptic " Mother of
harlots." You dare not stand forward aud defend her nameless abominations, before
the enlightened American public ! For me, — I shall go forward : five hundred thou
sand American christians have condescended to cheer me on. And "so may God
do to me and more also," if, by the grace of God, I do not tear that veil oft' from her
haggard face ; and show her abominations to the whole house of God, in this land !
In your last letter, you have played off with increasing malignity, and more fellness
of purpose, than usual, your infidel opposition to the holy word of God. You repeat,
for the eighth time, your maUgnant opposition to the vrord of the Most High, which js
the Protestants only rule of faith. You repeat that the Bible is not the rule, and the
Spirit of God is not the Judge, because the Bible, andthe Spirit cannot prove them
selves ! And this you assert in the face of the full and manifest evidence to the con
trary, which we set before you ; from external evidence, which estabUshes the authen
ticity and genuineness of the Bible ; and from internal evidence. Those who disbe
lieve this holy word of God are worse than devils. For sailh St. James, "the devils
also believe and tremble." Ch. ii. 19. It is no enviable distinction, gentlemen, to be
posted as worse than the worst of fallen angels !
There is nothing new in your renewed crusade against the holy Bible, which requires
me to pause in order to'refute it. Your last idea of infidel vituperation has long ago
l^een exhausted. The novelty is only in the manner: the virulence and vituperation
are only put forth with new force. As if resolved that nothing on your part should be
wanting to consummate the evidence set before the public, in proof of your unblush
ing- Deism, you are filling it up, even to overflowing ! And you seem now even to
glory in wearing the name branded on your forehead, as the representatives of popery,
— " this is the father and Prince of deism .'" It is true you profess sincerely to believe
in the scriptures, even while you assail them fiercely. I do not doubt it : this is in
tended for eflbct. No one is so ignorant as not to know that even Hume always spoke
respectfuUy of—to use his own words; — "Our holy Religion," even whUe uttering
his bitter hostility to it ? And even Lord Herbert, the father of "the English deists,"
and also Lord Bolingbroke, always professed as sincerely as you, to reverence the scrip-
tiiros! Herbert even received a revelation from heaven to pubUsh his book against

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSV. 105
divine revelation ! Remarkable enemies of God's cause have been remarkably in
consistent. The reason is obvious, public opinion has always suiggcred them !
If you choose, gentlemen, to continue your infidel \ituperations against the holy
scriptures, I shall beg leave through you, to inform the public, that they cantind,with-
outyour vulgarity, every thing you have been retaiUiig, already printed in old Mum
ford, and Milner. And in reply, they can find a lull refutation of aU your deistical ob
jections in Korae's Introduction. He has collected the refutations of every objection
that deism has yet conceived. And the intellects of our priests, who nc\ er leave the
beaten path of old Mumford, and Milner, have not been adequate to the task of devis
ing any one fhing ne if against the holy Bible !
Yonr defence of die uncouth blasphemy of calling Blaiy " the Mother of God,"
is unique, though in perfect keeping with the ¦^vhole system of your sect. " The Mo
ther of the eternal God .'" A creature made of dust and ashes the mother of the Al
mighty- Creator ! A finite creature the mother of the infinite Creator ! Then it was
not the human nature of our Lord that was born ! It was the eternal and divine Es
sence of die Deity that was born ! Hence, previous to the birth of God, or 1 800 years
ago there was no God! ! If there was a God then, of course he was not born, then
Mary is not the mother of God!
Besides, do you not see fhat you confound the ttoo natures in the one person of
ChristJ If God was born of Jlary, then is the Deity a human nature ; and the hu
man nature of Christ is nothing else than the essence of the Deity ! You know what
monstrous heresy this was !
I put it to the candor of any reasonable man, whether a match can be found equal
to this revolting blasphemy, amid all the wildest vagaries of the human race, in their
worst and most impious forms of pagan extravagance ! No, not one can be found :
by one only is it matched : and we must go into popery to find it : that match is tran
substantiation ; in which a priest creates his Creator out of bread ; and then eats him
up ! If such be Christianity, then I say, "May my soul be with the philosophers !"
But no! It bears the deep branded stamp of its legitimate origin. Such doctrines, I
speak it gravely, — could be invented only by the devil, as Richard Baxter said.
In my leist Letter, I showed that Catholicity is younger than Christianity ; and that
popery is a novelty in the christian world. We have, by historical documents, and
quotations from the fathers, fixed the birthday of the existence of ten of the Roman
cathoUc peculiarities. And we call on the priests, in the face of the American com-
muuity, to point out a single error in these dates ; and refute the quotations of the fa
thers, which we have given. Let them follow us, if they have courage to defend
their sinking cause ; and no longer make themselves ridiculous in lingering on the
rule. It will be proper, in sustaining the unity of discussion, now to proceed to point out
some of the fatal results of the Roman Catholics' apostacy from the only rule of faith ;
and the only judge of controversy. And the point which I have selected for discus
sion in this Letter, is this : — The peculiar doctrines, rites, and monkish institutions of
Romanism, were originated in sheer fanaticism, and sustained by imposture. My
selections of specimens and evidence, shall be rather miscellaneous in this Letter.
1st. Notwithstanding the command of the Deity to take good heed and make no
manner of similitude, "for ye saw," says the Almighty, — "no similitude in the day
that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb," — the Roman church declares in her cate
chism, p. 360, that " to represent the persons of the Holy Trinity, by certain forms,

106 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
under which, as we read in the old and new Testaments, they deigned to appear, fs
not to be deemed contrary to relig-ion, or the law of God. Hence in the engravings
found in certain editions of the Breviary ; and in pictures on the stained glass of Ca
thedrals, and in a painting seen by any one who has visited the Roman cathoUc
bishop of this city, God the Father is actuaUy figured forth as a venerable, old, white
headed man ! In other pictures where the group is complete, there is a pretty, youth
ful man ; this they call Christ; and he is placed on the old man's right. Above is seen
a figure of a dove: this animal they call the Holy Ghost. Hard by, in gorgeous hu
man robes, stands " the Mother of God .'" This marveUous group of an old man, and
a young man, and a dove, and a woman, constUute the popish conception of the
family of their god !
2d, In the distribution of work and offices assigned to the vast host of saints, much
fanaticism is displayed. They have at least two St. Anthonies. He of Padua delivers
his votaries from water : — He v/ho is sirnamed the abbot, delivers from fire ! St.
Nicholas is invoked by yovmg persons who wished to be married. St. Ramon pro
tects women who are "in that condition in which all good ladies -wish to be, who love
their lords." And the saint Lazaro assists them in labor. St. Domingo cures fevers ;
St. ApoUonia takes care of the teeth ; and she must be invoked with prayer and in
cense, by those who have tooth ache. Then St. Lucia heals all diseases of the eyes;
St. Petronilla cures the ague ; St. Liberius the stone : and St. Blass all the dis
eases of the throat. St. Barbara is invoked as the refuge in war, and in thundei?
storms : and St. Roque shields the humble faithful against the plague. Each king
dom of Europe has its own saint : other saints are more menial : One saint presides
over hogs ; another over geese. See Cramp, p. 332 ; and Townsend's Trav. in
Spain, vol. iii. p. 215.
3d. In the canonizing of saints, and adding to the objects of divine worship, and ve
neration, we perceive a fruitful exhibition of fanaticism. This, like the usual pecu
liarities of catholic Rome, is borrowed from pagan Rome. The pagan priests to sus
tain their credit, now and then proclaimed that certain great characters, great in war,
vice, and sensuality, had been honored in heaven and placed among the gods; and
the pagan canonization took place accordingly. Even the modest and virtuous Virgil
deified Augustus ; and gravely asked him, while yet alive, in what part of heaven, he
chose after death, to reign and shine ! The case of king Romulus is an apt illustra
tion of modern Roman canonization. There must be a miracle, or a vision at least.
Well, Proculus appeared before the Roman Senate, and declared that Romulus had
revealed himself to him in a vision, and told him that he was received up among the
gods. See Plutarch, Vit. Rom. Halicar. Lib. 2. p. 124.
In modern Rome, miracles are required in evidence ofsaintship; and there is actu
ally an office in Rome, where the congregation of Rites sit, and gravely receive the
transmitted accounts of fresh miracles ; and hear witnesses ; and judge as solemnly as
they can, and decide, daily. Even Dr. Lingard is a simple and faithful believer in
modern incredible miracles. Even the Goliah, Dr. Milner, while he rejects certain
popish miracles by the wholesale, does, nevertheless, in letter 24, give in some very
dainty and precious morsels of their blessed miracles. Well, on their miracles being
duly vouchsafed to their impostures, and on their beiug duly established and registered,
a new saint, and fresh object of worship is set up before the simple faithful. Almost
every pope has added some. Benedict VII. added eight in one summer. Clement
XIL, /our more; others, one; others, /our. But, like aU the other "golden" rites of

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 107
Holy Mother, it costs an immense sum to get into the ghostly calendar, and be a god.
This is one way by which St. Peter's purse is replenished when it gets low.
I shall adduce a specimen of a miracle confirming the ghostly honor. The idol of
Pazzi, Italy, — namely, St. Mary Magdalene, received canonization for this among
many other marvellous things. When the virgin body, after death, was exposed in
church, a young man of profligate morals came among others to see it, touch it, and
venerate it. On his appioach, the dead body gravely and iu disgust, turned
round its head from him, as from " a horror of that dunghill !" This was witnessed
and testified to, by no less than one Jesuit priest. Another evidence ef an infallible
nature, and -which is sure to gain the ghosdy honor, is this : the bones and dust of
saints, in their graves emit a sweet and delicious odor. This is " the odor of sanctity."
I find in this same bull of the Pope which canonized this idol of Pazzi, that this is
affirmed of this " Virgin Magdalene." It begins, " not without good reason, with that
incorruption, and good odor of her body, which continues to this day, &c." At Blois
in France, when the chest of relics, kept in the parish of St. Victor, was opened, the
monk of St. Lomer, cried out that he felt a very sweet odor; and others seized with
the exemplary infection, said they felt the sweet swell of roses and the jessamine, from
the dead saint's bones. See vol. i. p. 8, 10, Frauds of Roman Monks and priests:
Prot. i. 373 Glasg. edit.
In the absence of these saints, — "Holy Mother" has carefully collected innume
rable specimens of their relics, which are venerated and bowed down to. Indeed a
Roman chapel is not duly consecrated without relics. The following are a few ofthe
holy and venerated reUcsof St. Peters, Rome, namely : The cross ofthe good thief;
St. Joseph's axe and saw : and what is a rare thing, — St. Anthony's Mill stone, on
which he sailed into Musco^vy. In other churches in Europe, they have a little speci
men of the manna of the wilderness ; a comb of the Virgin Mary ; an arm of St.
Lazarus; a finger and arm of St. Ann, the Virgin's mother: St. Patrick's staff, by
which he expelled the toads from Ireland : and, what is very appropriate, a piece of
the rope ¦with which Judas hanged himself! There is also a vial of the Virgin's
milk; a vial of the breath of St. Joseph, caught by an angel, as he was blowing hard
when cleaving wood ' ! This rare relic was long adored in France ; piously carried
to Venice: and lastly deposited with awful solemnity, in Rome. And finaUy, the
head of St. Dennis, which he caught up and carried two miles under his arm, after it
had been cut off. See Phil. Lib. June, 1818, Prot. vol. 2. p. 12, Glasg. edit.
In furnishing the relics of saints' bones, whole church yards and cemetries have
been ransacked ; and sold to the simple faithful, for objects of adoration, and idols.
Chips of the cross are in all monasteries, and chapels. Could these fragments be
collected they would prove that the cross must have been large enough to build
our United States' Navy. In many churches there is a head of John the Baptist.
" How thankful I am," said a dignitary of the Roman church, on seeing a Baptist
head: "this is the /ourtA head of John, which I have seen in France!" And Dr.
M'CuUoch tells us, that some years ago, five pilgrims arrived in Rome with relics from
the Holy Land : and it was joyfully discovered that each of them had afoot of the
ass which carried our Lord into Jerusalem.
4th. In the grave pretensions of the Romish church to miraculous powers, there is
a singular exhibition of fanaticism. You are aware, gentlemen, that you lay unblush
ing claims to miracles. "The Catholic church," says Dr. Milner, Lett. 23, "being
always the chaste spouse of Christ,— continuing to bring forth children of heroical

108 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
sanctity, God fails not in this, any more than in past ages, to Ulustrate her and them
by unquestionable mhacles." And he proceeds to give rare specimens. A nun fore
told the catastrophe of Lous XVI. A certain benedict Labre prophesied, and wrought
miracles, and converted no less than an American clergyman caUed Thayer. In
1814, a man who got his back bone actually broken, was made whole by making a
pUgrimage to Garswood, near Wigan, England ; and there gettmg the sign of the
cross made on his back, by the relics of some obscure priest's hand, named Arrow-
smith, who was killed in the days of Charles I.
These, however, are small affairs when laid inthe balance -with the antiques! For
miracles, like the marveUous feats of travellers, are always great and marveUous, in
proportion to their distance of time and place, from actual inspection. St, Patrick,
they tell us, sailed over ta Ireland, and if there be no mistake, once also to England,
on a millstone ! And thus he was not a whit behind St. Anthony. We are told that
St. Dennis carried his own head under his arm two mUes after it was cut off. " St.
Francis of Sales," saysButler in his Uves ofthe saints, vol.i. p. 168, "raised the dead;
cured the palsy, and the blind." St. Francis of Paula, raised from the dead a young
man, and restored him to his mother. Butler i. 361. St. Francis, the founder of the
Francisians, was favored with visions, and revelations of an apostoUc grandeur. He
predicted nothing less than his own death : and did many miracles by his intercession,
after his death. Butler and St. Bonaventure affirm this, but give no evidence, and
tell us uot how they knew his miracles after his death. Moreover, he had a vision of a
seraph with six wings : this presented to his view the visible crucified body of Christ.
And the effect of this w-as, thatthe said seraph " caused the soul of St. Francis to be
utterly inflamed with seraphic ardor ; and his body to have, and to retain the simi
lar wounds of Christ." "His hands and feet were pierced through; and the holes
seemed to retain the round black headed nails of hard fle.sh in his palms and in
his feet. And their long points on the other side, were turned back, as if
clenched with a hammer. And in his left side there was a red wound, as if made by a
lance. Pope Alexander IV. had the felicity of witnessing all these: and to give
currency and stability to these miraculous and ingenious scratchings, his holines
preached a sermon on the occasion. And the simple faithful believe this in prefer
ence to the only rule of faith: and worship St. Francis of Assissium, as anothet
savior. St. Wenefride was a noble lady of Wales. Being a nun, she could not yield to the
suit of Caradoc, the young prince. Being enraged at this, he pursued her, and with a
cruel blow cut off her head This originated three splendid miracles, which taken
together, are greater than any recorded in the holy Bible. In the 1st place St. Beuno
interfered, aud settled the career of the young villain. He made the earth open under
his feet, and, Korah like, he was sunk down into the bowels of the earth. Then 2d.
On the spot where the dead nun's head fell, a well opened, and poured its salutary
streams ; and that " Holy Well" works miracles, it is said, until this day. The 3d.
St. Beuno took up the nun's head, kissed it ; placed it on the bleeding stump ; covered
it -with his mande : said mass . prayed to the Virgin Mary : And behold St. Wene
fride jumped up, perfectly well ; her head being on exactly as usual : and the evidence
of the cure was perpetuated by the appearance of a fine circle, Uke a thread, around
her neck ; — that being the place where the head and neck were nicely cemented
together. Apostles and prophets! did ye ever any thing to match this ! See Butler's
Lives, &c.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 109
St. David, I presume the king of Scotland, who builded so many chapels and
cathedrals, once ordered St. Kired to come to a Synod on weighty business. The
saint excused himself on account of being lame and crooked. St. David immediately
prayed him straight. But die old saint still lingering, the choleric St. David forth
with prayed him crooked and lame again, to teach him better manners.
St. Patrick in the Romish legends, receives credit and saintly homage for raising
a boy from fhe dead after he had been nearly devoured by hogs. And on an
other occasion he fed 14,000 people, with the flesh of one cow, two -svild boars, and
two stags. And to crown the miracle, the simple faithful assure us that the cow was
seen alive next day, grazing in the pastm-e field as usual.
St. Xavier had a valuable crucifix. On a certain day, he dropped it overboard,
into fhe sea. He was quite inconsolable. But, it came to pass, that as he was walk
ing onthe shore in the land whither he had gone, to his astonishment and indescribable
joy, he saw the very crucifix he had lost moving towards him on the waves. As hu
hastened down to the water's edge, behold, it was very reverently and devoutly laid
down at his feet, by a CR.is, who had borne it through the deep, miraculously, to the
feet of the holy saint. Dr. Milner speaking of St. Xavier's miracles in general, says,
that " they were verified soon after the saint's death, by -^tirtue of a commission from
John III. King of Portugal." See Letter 24, &c. But, as a -wi^iterhas justly observ
ed, it was no miracle of St. Xa^vier : fhe crab has the whole merit : and he recom
mends him to his Holiness' notice to give him due honors, at his next canonization.
Palmam qui meruit, ferat. It ought to be St. Crab. '
The Roman saints ¦were particularly successful in their ¦wrestlings, and coups du
main with the de^til, and his demons. On one occasion St. Philip Nerius, in 1555,
saw a person near the baths of Diocletian ; and as he seemed, at one moment, young,
andthe next moment, old, the saint suspected it to be Satan, at some of his tricks.
Whereupon he summoned him " in the name of Christ to discover himself." And
instandy the devil fled in great precipitation, leaving a loadisome scent in the place ;
the reverse of the bones of the saints. And hence he knew, says he, that it was
Satan. Seethe Acta Sanct. Tom. 6. Antwerp edit, of 1688. Mali. 26. This is a
famous Roman work, full of similar legends !
St. Francis was once sorely tempted by a devil in the form of a lovely female — an
appalling object, you kuow, to a holy Prie.st ! But, one evening, as he again assailed
the saint, "he spit in the devil's face." The Roman historians gravely add, — being
"confounded and disgracefully defeated, the devil fled !" Acta Sanct. Supra.
St. Andrew of Salus, was once assailed by the devil, armed with an axe, and aided
by several demons -with clubs and lances. In their assault, the gallant saint invoked
St. John the Aposde. Upon this, John instandy appeared, in the form of an old man,
and putting his back to fhe door, to prevent all egress, he ordered the holy ones who
accompanied him, to chain down each of the devUs, and with the chain taken from
St. Andrew's neck, to scourge them thoroughly. This was done to so effectual . a
purpose that die devUs cried out "Mercy ! mercy ! mercy !" And the holy St. An
drew, it is added, by our Roman historians, could not restt-ain himself from bursting
into laughter,— ¦'* risu correptus est,"— at the complete belaboring given to these
unruly fiends ; and attheir wUd screams. See Acta Sanct. Tom. 6. Mail. 28.
St, Dominick, whUe sitting in his dormitory, writing by candle light, was assailed
by the devil in the form of a monkey, strutting, and making giimaces before him. On
this, the saint ordered him to come forthwith, and hold his candle, which, without a
11

110 SOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
candlestick, the crafty saint put into the demon's hand. Presendy the cElildle being
burned out, the devil's fingers began to be scorched ; and he wailed and howled
hugely. Nothing moved by this, the saint ordered him to hold on. And the devil
was compelled to hold the burning flame, until his forefinger was actually consumed^
unto the joint ; " usque ad juncturam manus, toms crematus est." And to complete
the victory, this holy founder of the Dominicans, gave the devil a smart blow with his
walking cane, and said, "Depart thou wicked one." The blow sounded as ifhe had
struck a dry bladder full of wind. " Upon this the devil fled, leaving a mighty stench
behind, which plainly discovered who this creature was." See Acta Amplior. St.
Dom. Augusti 14. Finch p. 410. This, you know, gentlemen, is a morsel of your
own sober history, here detailed.
The fanaticism of the Roman writers, is further displayed in the object for which
they hold up these monstrous figments, and diabolical rencounters. Hear their own
words. " Truly this man (St. Dominick) is to be extolled among the angelical
powers, who so powerfuUy confounds and reproves diabolical wickedness."
FinaUy, not only have men, but even statues and images wrought miracles. So
late as 1796 "Official Memoirs," relative to "miraculous events," were published,
and signed, apd authenticated by Dr. Bray, archbishop of Cashel, and Dr. Troy,
archbishop of Dublin, aud twelve other dignitaries of the Romish church of Ireland.
In these " Memoirs" it is stated that in May, 1796, at Toricello, a torrent of tears ran
down from the eyes of a wooden Virgin Mary ! And such a perspiration flowed from
her, as to wet the clothes " applied by the faithful." Mem. p. 217.
On July 9, 1796, a picture called Delle Muratte, was observed to move its eyes in a
miraculous manner. The circular movement of the eyes continued for many months.
The result of this was the procuring of many gifts, and large sums of money, for the
Virgin ; and a marvellous excitement took place ; and nothing but prayers and vows
to holy Mary was heard. Immense crowds of devotees were constantly before the
painting ; and altars were every where erected to the Virgin ; and a prodigious im
pulse given by this lying wonder, to the Romish devotion. See Off. Blemoirs, p. 35,
and Finch p. 280, 281.
5th, Doctrinal sentiments and rites have been defined and settled by visions and
revelations, in the Roman cathoUc church. The original followers of St. Francis
were frightful fanatics. The holy mission of this saint being established by his mi
racles, by his five holy wounds, canonization, and the miracles achieved by him after
death, and by his intercession, his followers were prepared to receive him, as a second
Jesus. In a book called The flotvers of St. Francis, it is written, "that those only
were saved by the blood of Christ, who lived before St. Francis ; but all that foUowed,
¦¦were redeemed by the blood of St. Francis!" See Eymericus, and Wolfii. Lect.
Memor. cent. 13. See also Bishop StiUingfleet, on the idolatry and fanaticism of the
Rom. church, p. 236. And the votaries of this man, the Franciscans, in the words of
Petrus Johannes, made the rule of St. Francis equal, — nay to be the very same as
¦the gospel of Christ, and that by which Christ was directed!
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception ofthe Virgin, long distracted "Holy
Mother." The Franciscans held that she was born as pure as an angel ; and I find
that our vicar general. Dr. Power, holds this, and teaches it in his Manual. On the
contrary, the Dominicans utterly denied it. Who was to settle this ? " Deo dignus
vindice nodus!" The holy Bible says nothing of her immaculate purity. Besides,
" Holy Mother" denies that 'the word of God is her only rule. Anselm produces the

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. Ill
evidence of an apparition in a storm (a very fit season !) lo some Abbot; this vision
announced die Virgin's immaculate purity, and admonished all good men to keep the
feast ofthe Conception. One Nerbertus had anodier vision, — no less than the Holy
Virgin herself enforcing the same thing. St. Gertrude also had revelations lo the
same purport; then St. Bridr;ct brings not a few, but many revelations to the same
purport; and lastly Johanna a Cruce. These were solemnly declared by the Doc
tors to be such " that no man can reject them unless they intend lo be as great heretics
as Erasmus !" The Roman cathoUc Erasmus ! Eheu !
But unfortunately, fanaticism stops not always on the right side: that is to say —
your side, gentlemen, who believe in " the immaculate Conception." For while
Baronius gives us the above details, Antonius and Cajetan assure us that St. Catha
rine had a holy vision and a holy revelation ; and it was told her by a spirit of hea
ven, that the Virgin was conceived in original sin like all other people ? Great names
condemned St. Bridget's visions, Cajetan, for instance, calls them "old wives' fabics
and dreams!" — Sit fas loqui ! But she was approved by doctors, and cardinals : and
her visions and revelations declared to be divine, by pope Boniface IX,, who accord
ingly, enrolled her among the saints, and other idols worshipped in your church. But
after all, "Holy Mother" gives each of fhem fair play, as Bishop StiUingfleet justly
observes. She approves the revelations of both: pronounces the authors ofthe con
tradictory revelations both equally inspired by God ! And in the Roman Breviary,
on the 8th of October, you worship St. Bridget ; and in your prayers to her, " confess
these revelations to have eome immediately from God to her." And in one ofthe lessons
for that day, you devoutly " magnify the multitude of her divine revelations." And in
the Roman Breviary, April 30, you magnify the saintess who opposed the Immac
ulate Conception, as much as its heroine. St. Catharine's " holy ecstacies," are glori
fied in the lesson ofthe day; and you adore piously "the five rays coming from the
five wounds of Christ, making five miraculous marks on the con-espondent parts of
her sacred body, namely, hands feet, and side ! Dr. Power yields his solemn faith to
St. Bridget. Pray, to whom do Mr. Levins, and Dr. Varela yield the simple faith of
their pious souls ?
6th. The gi'eat monkish orders of your sect have been founded by fanatics, in their
raving fanaticism. First, the Carthusians were founded by St. Bruno ; he was guided
to the spot where he founded his monastery, by a vision of seven stars vouchsafed to
his coadjutor St Hugo. " Many miracles after his death," says Butler, — "attested
his sanctity and favor with God." Lives of the Saints ii. 4,59, &c. The manner of
St. Bruno's conversion as narrated by no less than sixty Roman catholic writers, indi
cates that he commenced his career in fanaticism. He was standing by when the
funeral service was being said over a priest ; when the dead man started up, and said,
"By the just judgment of God I am damned!" Having said tbis, he instantly died
again. By this was St. Bruno converted ! — Launoy De causa Sue. Brun. c, v.
Second. The Benedictines were founded by St. Benedict. This Roman worthy
was favored with an incredible variety of visions and revelations. He predicted mar
vellous events, and wrought many miracles. The thorns and brambles on which he
rolled, in order to expel his raging lusts, grew up, and had the honor of having St.
Francis to engraft roses on them, which always bloomed in winter. When a boy fell
into the river, he foiresaw it while in his cave : sent his servant, who walked on the
water some distance, and pulled the boy out. When some wicked persons brought him
poisoned drink, he made the sign of the cross over it, and the vessel burst into a thou-

112 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
sand pieces. He was so sharp-sighted that he could see spirits. He alone saw "the
litde black devil which led away a monk from prayers." I am soberly quoting your
writer's own words, gentlemen. He saw his sister's soul enter heaven in the shape of
a dove ; and that ofthe good bishop of Capua, in a fiery circle ! And, finally, "he
was rapt up into heaven, and saw God face to face." See Butler, BoUandi Acta Sanct.
Fit. Bened. Stilling, p. 263, &c.
Third. The Dominicans were founded by St. Dominick, whose character, as an
extravagant fanatic, we have already noticed. He had his first meeting with St.
Francis at Rome ; and there he made known his modest and spiritual vision, namely,
" that Christ was just coming to destroy the wicked world ; but his mother, the Vir
gin, stopped him, and informed him that she had famous servants who were to reform
the world; he himself waa one whom the Lord approved as one who would do this
work," &c. See Rainald, A. D. 1216, n. 48. Stilling, p. 273. Wolfius, in his
Lect, Memor. cent, 13. p. 509, tells us of the statues set up in St. Mark's church at
Venice; one of St. Paul, with this inscription : "By him we go to Christ:" the
other, a statue of St. Dominick, with this modest Roman inscription: "By him
¦we go easier to Christ!" His order was, in all respects, worthy of such a founder;
they were, as StiUingfleet says, " the most blasphemous enthusiasts the world ever
saw.'' Fourth. The Franciscans were founded by the companion ofthe last named fana
tic, and was personally more of a fanatic than St, Dominick. St. Bonaventure
declared on oath that Christ revealed it to him, that by "the angel ascending out of
the east, having the seal of the Uving God," St. John meant no other than St.
Francis. And this is the audacious motto under his picture, and is applied the same
way, by pope Leo X. St, Francis "had no teacher but Christ ; and learned all by an
immediate revelation." He also heard an instructive voice issuing from a crucifix.
Even the pope had a revelation approving him, after he had been disposed to reject
good St. Francis. This revelation satisfied his holiness' mind ; and he approved of
the order of the Franciscans. See Bonavent. Life of St. Francis, cap, Ui. sec. 1,7.
Stilling, p. 272. St. Bridget had solemn vision of him: namely, that the "Fran
ciscan rule was not composed by the wtisdom of men, but by God himself; nay that
every word in it was inspired by the Holy Ghost." " And this," says this Roman
prophetess, " is the case with all the reUgious orders." Bridgittae Revel. L. 7 cap.
20. p. 559, voh 1. StiU p. 273.
Fifth. The Carmelites. Launoy, in his book " De Vis. Sim. Stocki. cap. 1."
declares that Simon Stockius had a heavenly vision of the Virgin Mary, in which
she imparts to him what was befitting respecting the branch of Mendicants called
Carmelites. And such was the marvellous condescension of the Virgin Mary, that
upon Simon's devout prayers to her, she appeared to him with the veiy habit and
fasion of dress which she would have them wear. And what crowns the whole
with a peculiar glory, she gave, says Launoy, a promise greater than any that her son
Christ had ever given : namely, " that whosoever died in that habit, should not perish
in hell!" Precious garment! Precious Carmelitism!
Sixth. Even Jansenists had recourse to an attempt at the miraculous ; but they
only met with a prompt exposure, and a sad overthrow. See Mosheim V. 209 :
Seventh. Jesuitism was founded and organized by a fanatic not surpassed by Moham
med, or even St. Francis. This was Ignatius Loyola, He had been a soldier, and
^^ lamed in battle. He was a most illiterate creature. But this did not stand in the

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 113
¦way of visions and revelations. I shall copy a few specimens from the Roman
eathoUc authors Maffeius, Ribadeneira, and Orlandino. St. Peter, say these writers,
" appeared unto him before he was so far recovered as to be able to read." In a fit of
zeal he made a solemn vow of himself to be a knight of the Virgin. He made this
vow on his knees before her image. At that moment the room shook; the window
glasses were broken ; and a dreadful noise took place. " An argument," says Orlan
dino, with solemnity, "that the devil then took leave of him." A point of very ques
tionable tincertainty. It is more likely tliat the said personage was making an ingress'
rather than an egress at this moment ; if we may judge from the future horrid con
vulsions of all Europe, by his pious foUowers, the Jesuits. Somo time after this, the
Virgin appeared with great glory about her, and her babe in her lap. AVhat Virgin —
hy the way, — could tiiis be ? And what babe ? Could the man, absolutely insane as
hewas, mean the glorified Redeemer, Jesus Christ? Ignatius was now fully clothed,
on a model given by a divine trance. This fanatic had a long coat of hair cloth ; a
bag of water in one hand ; a crab tree staff in the other ; he was girded with an iron
girdle, bare headed ; ¦with a ¦wicker shoe on one foot; the otherbare. He had a vision
of Jesus Christ, and certain most wonderful communications. At another time he
had "a vision of the Blessed Trinity, under a corporeal representation," In one
trance he continued eight daj-s ; during which, — blessed vision for the benefit, peace,
and happiness of mankind; he saiv the frame and model ofthe Society of Jesus, —
says Orlando L. i. 23, In another trance he saw God the father commending St,
Ignatius, (that is himself) to his Son Jesus Christ; who very kindly received him and
said wifh a smUe, "/ will be favorable to thee at Rome!" Ribadeneira was present at
Rome, when this was told in a domestic conference of the grave fathers of Rome ;
and he records it -with all becoming and suitable gravity. See Butler's Lives of the
Saints, Art. St. Ignat. vol. ii. p. 2f)3, Dubl, edit.
7th. The leading ceremonies and rites of Romanism are founded iji sheer fanati
cism. That is to say, these gradually crept in by designing men, as we showed in
Letter VIII ; but they were finally established, as articles of faith of the " simple be
lievers," by visions and miraculous displays. For instance :¦ —
Istly. The making of the sign of the Cross is a grand characteristic of Popery.
Miracles have followed this making of the sign of the cross. We have seen
already, that a saint discovered poisoned drink by making the mystic sign over the
vessel; and die poisoned cup flew into a thousand fragments. "St. "Walthen was
haimted at prayers by the devil, first, in the shape of a mouse," — I am quoting gravely,
gentlemen, from your Acta Sanct. 3 Aug. Tom. i. — "then in the form of a pig, a
barking dog ; then a wolf; and lastly of a roaring long horned bull !" But upon his
making the sign of the Cross, all comfortably vanished in a trice. See Finch
p. 415. Acta Sanct. Aug. 3. Tom. i. 264.
2dly. Purgatory was a doctrine hard to be estabUshed ; it cost many a vision,
many a dream, many a fanatical revelation. Witness St. Gregory's revelation, deUver
ing the soul of Trajan from the fires thereof. St. Benedict saw the soul of Germaiius
escape out of it, and reach heaven. St. Ignatius saw the soul of Hosias, one of the
Jesuits, escape, and get to glory, a tough job! — Maff'. Lib. 2. cap. 12. StiU. p. 323.
St. Bridget had a revelation to the same purport with that of St. Gregory : as certified
by Salmer. Disp. 27. and Baron. Annal. 604. N. 59. St. Mathildis also was success
ful this way. See BeUarm. De Purgat. 1. 2. cap. 8. StUling. 251.
33ly. Bellarmine in a very gallant manner proves Auricular Confession, by a cer-

114 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
tain vision of a tall and terribly fierce man, with a book in his hand, who blotted out
¦ instantly, all the sins which the humble thief confessed to the priest, upon his knees."
Bell. De Pcenit. 1. 3. cap. 12. StUUng. p. 252.
4thly. It -wUl puzzle any of our priests to name one saint, or saintess, who has been
beatified, and canonized, ¦without the evidence of an apparition, a vision, a revelation,
or a miracle, sufficient to satisfy his Holiness's conscience, in conferring the ghosdy
honor ! In proof of this, just let any one turn up Butler's Lives of the Saints ; and
he will see on almost every page, the clearest evidence of what we now assert.
Sthly. The feast of the apparition of the Archangel Michael, is constantly observed
al: Rome with extraordinary Romish devotion. This was originated, and established
to the " simple faithful" by a revelation vouchsafed to the Bishop of Sponto, and a
vision seen at the same time by a few drovers onthe mountain Garganus. See Legal.
De concep. V. Mar. sect. 3. p. 371. StiUingfleet, p. 253, 256.— Rom. Brev. May 8.
6thly. The long and troublesome controversy touching Easter Day was conve
niently and quietly settled, in the Roman church, by a revelation kindly granted by
some invisible agent, or other, to Hennes. See Legal. De concept. &c. ut upra.
7thly. The festival of Corpus Christi was instituted by Pope Urban IV. in order
to confound all gainsayers against Transubstantiation and the Mass. This famous
festival was originated by a revelation granted by some being, or other, to Mother
Juliana, of immortal memory with you, gentlemen. This same Mother Juliana was
no common crone. I shall quote from your writer Bzovius Annal. Tom. 13. Anno.
1230. N. 16; and Still, p. 254. " She had rapmres, exstacies, and prophecies." She
was so sharp at discerning things invisible, that she knew people's thoughts : " She
wrestled with devils, discoursed with apostles, and ¦wrought many miracles." In all
her visions, she ever and anon saw the full moon, "with a snip taken from her round
ness !" For twenty years she wrestled with the invisible po^wers, with all the charac
teristic curiosity of afemale, to discoverwhat thissame "snip" could possibly typify.
This vision she revealed to De Lausanna, who told it to De Trecis, who was after
wards Pope Urban IV. All could not discover what this same "snip" on the moon's
circular edge indicated. It was something involving the interests of " Holy Mother
Church." Of this mother Juliana was most sure : but stUl what thatwas, — she could
not read from her mystic lore. But two prophetesses can make marvellous discove
ries. Mother Isabella came, apropos, to her aid. She too had a vision. And say Dies-
temius, and Bkiius, — " This Isabella was so much intoxicated by her vision, that^ out
of the abundance of her spiritual drunkenness'' (these are the Roman writer's own
words,) "she declared that she^ would promote the Holy Feast, although the whole
world should oppose her." This same feast of Corpus Christi, and solemn proces
sion of the " Bread made god," through the streets, ¦with " devout ruffians" in front,
with carbines, to knock down all who refused the new breaden god, — the Creator,,
created by the priest, in the Mass, — this same feast was mother JuUana's "snip" in
the edge of the moon. This holy festival being instituted,, the moon was henceforth
roamd as a perfect circle, and all is complete I Such is the edifying origin of Corpus
Christi! Ho ¦w much you owe to Mother Juliana, and the moon's snip; andthe
simple devotion of Urban IV. In addition to Bzovius, see Diestemius Blserus,
Arnoldus Bostius, Petr. Pro3monstratensis» Vignier, and Molanus. Also StiU. p.
256, 257.
Lastly; indulge me in one instance more. Your sanctum sanctorum, and un
matched peculiarity of the Mas3„ was estabUshed by fanatical revelations. This-

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 115
precious morsel of Romish fanaticism, shall claim our attention in due time. At
present I allude to die wild fanaticism by which it was established, gradually as au
article of faith of the " faithful." This corner stone of Popery had a prodigious variety
of revelations and miracles to establish it. I shall select an instance or two.
Bellarmine De Sacr. Euchar. Lib. 3. cap. 8. narrates several miracles. In one
instance, says he, instead of broad, real flosli was seen ; that is to say, the loaf, or
wafers, were converted not invisibly, as now a days, by half a miracle with you ; but
visibly, and really, and truly, — into true flesh! He does not say whether /mmore or
bestial flesh. In anodier instance, says he, instead of the wafer, Christ was seen,
bona fide, "in the form of a child." But why a child, it is impossible for us heretics
even to conjecture. They cannot mean our glorified Lord. Roman priests only
can explain this mystery of popery.
But all these are comparatively trivial aflairs to die devotion and faith of a heretic's
horse ! Bliserable heretics are all Protestants, when even a horse bows down and
adores "fhe breaden god." I quote this from no less a man than your own Bellar
mine, who solemnly relates it as sober history in his book De Sac. Euchar. Lib. 3
cap. 8. St. Anthony of Padua, had once an encounter with a heretic, an Albigensian,
touching the change ofthe wafer into Christ's flesh. "1 have a horse," says the
heretic, — "to whom I shall give nothing for three days. On the third day do you
come ¦R-ith the Host ; and I shall come with the horse. I shall pour out some corn to
him; but if he foisake his com, and go and venerate the Host, then shall I believe."
On the day appointed all the parties came. And St. Anthony in a truly saint like
manner, addressed a stUtable and eloquent word of exhortation to the horse.
" In the ^^rtue, and in the name of thy Creator, whom I truly hold in my hand,"
says he, — "I command and enjoin thee, O horse, to come, and with humilitj', revere
him." " No sooner were the words uttered," says the grave Bellarmine, "than the
horse unmindful of his corn hastens towards the Host, in the priest's hand ; inclining
his head, and devoutly kneeUng on his fore feet, he adored his Lord in the best manner
he could, and confuted the heretic." See also Finch p. 343.
This really crowns the loftiest cUmax of all the specimens of fanaticism extant.
A priest creating his Creator out of bread. A horse sensibly listening to an e.ichort-
ation. A horse devoutly bowing do^mi on his knees, and worshipping his maker, in a
bit of wafer. And what is most amazmg of all, — a priest, — a rational being believing
all this. I am, gentlemen, yours, &c.
June 4, 1833. W. B. C.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER X.
It opens with a descant on the cares, troubles, and disasters of life, wilh some sentimen-
talism about one's rising above them. " But in mental collisions, defeat is foUowed by the
worm that never dies !"
It is, therefore, with the priest, a very serious matter to engage in polemics ; it is vic
tory, — or no less than perdition !
" Dr. B.'s defeat is obvious; it is admitted even by the raost prejudiced among the elite
of his flock! Hence his acerbity of temper, and his recklessness of truth I Our Victory
aver you excites no stirrings of vanity, for it has been too easily won ! This is not writ
ten in the way of boast! Some concession must be made to tho irritabUity of a mind

116 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
writhing under the torturing vexation of defeat— so as to cause forgetfulness of your sta
tion,  as an interpreter of the Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost !''
« Do you believe the stales of which your last letter ia formed to be any portion of Catho
lic creed .' Do you imagine Catholics will admit your malignant fictions, while they mock
and reject the dreamy legends of the visionary among their own siUy writers ?"
" Your rule of faith, your " matter of infinite importance," is abandoned. Your theme
now is farcical carricature of Catholic doctrine."
"We claim the protection of the great Dr. Johnson, who says : 'The diversion of iffii«in|'
an author has the sanction of all ages and nationa, and is more lawful than the sport of teas
ing other animals, because for the most part, he comes voluntary to the stake.' You came
Voluntary to the stake."
" ' The Bible alone,' the preacher says, ' is the rule of faith of every Protestant.'
He believes, as an article of faith, the inspiration ofthe Bible, but this inspiration cannot
be proved from the Bible, therefore, he admits an article of faith not derived from the Bible ;
therefore, the Bible alone is not his only rule of faith ; therefore, he contradicts himself;
and, therefore, the Bible alone is not a sufiicient guide to a future world. This has not
been refuted,"
Note : — Every one must perceive that this often repeated objection against the only rule
of faith, is founded in a play upon the double sense 'm which the word faith is taken in holy
writ. Jude says : " earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints ; ver. 3,
Here faith signifies the system of gospel doctrines. Again: "we are justfied by faith."
Hero it means the exercise of the soul, by which we receive Christ Jesus, and walk in
him. But the priests, byreason of their defective education, confound these two. We say,
" the scriptures are the only and perfect rule of faith." That ia, it contains in it every thing
necessary to he kiioicn and believed, for our salvation. But, then, that faith, by which we re
ceive those doctrines, and all the evidence of them, is not in the Bible ; it ia in the mind of
the believer, like every other mental act. Yet the priests, in the most ludicrous manner,
insiat that unless " mental faith" be found " in the Bible's system of faith," the scriptures can
not be the only rule of faith !
Next follows the endless repetitions about Luther ; and the rejected epistle of James ;
and the losa of some twenty books of scripture; and about John Wesley ; and the tradi
tions; and the genuine copy of the fathers ; and the change of the Sabbath ; and the
utter failure of Dr. B.'s proof of the rule; and his Nestorianism; and his blasphemy in
denying that the woman Mary is the motlier of God !
" From the scriptures themselves it is notdiSicult to prove that they cannot be the Judge
of controversy. Common sense tells us, we must distinguish between the letter ofthe
scriptures, and the sense ofthe scripturea. St. Paul, 2 Cor. iii. 6, marks this distinction,
' the letter,' says the apoatle, "killeth, hut theapirit quickeneth."
" Rev, Sir, we say that the scriptures, if we regard the bare letter, cannot possibly be
the judge of controversies. We also say, the scripture, even if we regard its meaning,
cannot be the judge of controversy ; and we call on the christian public to mark our proofs
of these assertions, and the delusion you labor under, hi holding the scripturea to be
' your only rule of faith and judge of controversy.' That the scriptures cannot be our
judge of controversy, if we regard the bare letter is thus proved. That which leads men
into heresy and error, cannot be the infallible judge of all controversies; but tho scriptures,
if we respect ita bare letter, leads men into error and heresy, therefore, it cannot be tho
infallible judge of controversies. The major proposition of this syllogism is self evident.
The minor is proved by the words of St. Paul, ' the letter killeth,' as much as to say it
leadeth us into error." " The letter killed" the Jews ; and it " kUled the heretics."
Notes : — 1. Here is another painful instance of our priests very defective education. By
"the Utter that killeth," they actually mean the scnptures taken literally ! Need 1 say that

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 117
'^ the letter that killeth" is the law and broken covenant uttering its curao, including tho bur
dens and curses of the legal dispensation of Moses, which is now done away.' And it is
contrasted with " the spirit that giveth life," that is, tho gospel dispensation. Honce, in
reasoning against the holy scriptures frora this text of " the letter," the priests really leave
out all the gospel of Christ from our rule!
2. They assert that " tho scripture," — in otiier words, the Holy Ghost speaking in U, 
" leads into error and heresy 1"
3. they charge upon tho Bible, and upon the Holy Ghost, all tho sin, perverseness, and
heresy of the wicked children of men. That is, because the blind man cannot see,  there
fore, the clear shining sun is in fault ; because the mechanic, when intoxicated, cannot
use with skill, the correct inatruments of hia craft, therefore, tho error and consequent
mischief are owing, entirely, to the instruments, and to him who raade thera perfect !
4. The sentence of God's law uttered on us is " tlui letter that killeth." See Rom. Yll. 9.
This sentence of God on guUty sinners, the priests say, is " as much as to say that it leads
us into error" ! That is, when the law " kills" the murderer ; and the judge utters its sen
tence on him, it is as much aa to say, tliey had him into error !
5. They maintain that " even if we regard its raeaning," — that is, even if we take up its
spirit, and hear correcdy the Holy Ghost speaking unions, — "it is still not our rule"!!
This is the consummation of deism, and its necessary consequence, heaven-daring impiety
And it is not simply a mistake of our priests personally. It is originated necessarily by
the essential doctrines of poper}-. But we go on
"The Scripturea are often obscure and hard to be understood. Out of this obscurity
many controversies arise as to their true meaning. There raust be sorae judge to deter
mine their true meaning."
" But common sense tells us, this judge must be distinct from the Scriptures, for tlie
Scripture itself, which is obscure, cannot determine its own meaning. To deny that the
Scriptures are obscure and hard to be understood, would, Rev. Sir, ' argue a derangement
in the moral faculty;' in truth, it would argue more, it would savor of infidelity. It
would certainly be unscriptural, after Saint Poter telling us, that in the epistles of Saint
Paul, there were ' many things hard to be u.ndebstood.' Now, Rev. Doctor, we humbly
submit, that whatever is ' hard to be understood is obscure.'"
Then they adduce inatances of their obscurity : from their manner, and from their matter :
"they are full of fignrea, allegories, and parallels:" "there are prophetical passages ; and
many apparent contradictions." ' Hence the Bible is a very obscure book :' and common
sense tells us, that a judge, whose decisions are so obscure as to leave room for controversy,
is extremely unfit for his office. We are convinced that such a judge would never be
appointed, or sanctioned by our Divine and AU-wise Legislator."
" Finally, they arrived at thia conclusion : — ' You have no Scripture for tho canonicity
of the Scriptures ; therefore, you cannot believe the Scriptures to be canonical : there
fore your Piule of Faith leads lo downright Deism,' "
Notes : — 1. Here men'a folly and guilt, " who refuse to be taught," are wholly palliated;
and the entire blame rolled over on the unoffending Bible. " The unlearned and unstables
are those whom the apostle marks aa " wreslers," of the scriptures : and tho originators
of error. Yet, instead of bringing "the unlearned" into the correcting influence of the
true learning ; instead of bringing " the unstable" under the hallowing restraints of sound
mental, and christian discipline, they cry out against the Holy Bible, — "Away with it!
Away toith it! Not this, but Barabbas for our judge ! Crucify it! Crucify it! It originates alt
eontroversies, errors, and heresies !
2. They studiously keep out of view the doctrine which we have taken pains, distinctly
and often, to state ; namely, that the Holy Ghost speaking in the Bible is the omlt
JODOE of controversy. And the Scriptures are as distinct from this judge, as a word from
lt« speaker. Now, can be be a cbfjptian man and have the fear of the Holy Ghost before

118 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
his eyes, who ventures in the face of heaven, to say that the Holy One who " leads Us into
all truth," cannot determine hia own meaning; cannot convey clearly his own raind and
wfll, by his own inspired word.'" If controversy arise, is it the fault of the Holy One, or
the perverse wiU of irapious raen ? If men wander deliberately into error, is it not because
the sons of darkness hate the holy light of heaven, and choose the guidance of corrupt
reason .' If men do not see, and do not understand, is the Bible, is the Holy Ghost under
any bond of obligation to furnish eyes, and brains to rebels perpetrating high treason
against Heaven .'
No intelligent and candid Protestant or Roraan catholic, has ever coraplained of the
obscurity of the Bible's doctrines of salvation. And all the world knows that if the
Romish priesta could find popery in the Bible, it would instantly become one of the plain
est and most luminous books in the world !
3. They are here chargeable with a characteristic imposition. Because St. Petersays
that in the epistles of St. Paul, there are some things hard to be understood, they forthwith
convert the word some into many, and thence conclude that all the Scriptures are hard
to be understood ! And, finally, they misrepresent the meaning of the whole passage.
" Some things are hard, but, by no means impossible to be understood.
4. The priests bring- " a railinn; accusation" against heaven itself! " A judge, — that is
the Holy Spirit speaking in the word of God, — " whose decisions are so obscure as to
leave room for controversy is extremely unfit for his ofiSce! Such a judge," — that is the
Holy One, — " would never be appointed, nor sanctioned by our Legislator! ! !" — I leave it
to the decision ofthe christian world, whether the master-spirit of infidelity ever displayed
more irapiety ; or Judas more treachery : or Rabshakeh raore blasphemy, than our priests
have done in these extracts ! And, I repeat it, — it ia not their personal fault : they act
perfectly in character ; it proceeds from the natural genius, and essential doctrines of
Popery !
There follows next a quotation from the popish catechism, steeped in deism. This
«xhibits what is administered to these young immortals, instead ofthe pure waters of life.
May Jesus Christ preserve these children from such soul-destroying doctrines, as are in-
stilled into their minds by their " spiritual teachers," and infidel catechisms !
The Letter, nest, details some ofthe protestant miracles: such as, a marvellous growth
of hair on a person's head, during night, narrated by Dr. Adam Clark : next, the case of
Mary Toft, whom our priests gravely represent as "bringing forth rabbits:" of Johanna
Southcote, whom the priests endorse as the would-he mother of Messiah : and finally, of cer
tain Irish ghosts, who danced on the waters at Portatown Bridge: and which, no doubt
existed, — but only in the guilty and tortured consciences of their popish assassinators !
The Letter is closed with these words: — " Such things," naraely, these Protestant mira
cles, — " as woU as your rule of faith, have originated," — that is the holy scripturea, and
the Holy One speaking to us in them, — " have originated in sheer fanaticism, and haveheen
sustained hy imposture!" This carries with it, its own refutation ; and proclaims in every
one's ear, the origin, and nature of popery.

LETTER X.
TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS,
" Tria faciunt bonum, &c. Three things make a good monk and nun; to speak well of
the superior ; to read the Breviary as much and as often as they choose ; and to let things
go on just as they please," — " There shall come in the last days scoflTers, walking after their
own lusts," — St. Peter.
Gentlemen : — By the detaU of extracts, in rny last letter, I established the fact, that

ROMAN C.A.TH0LIC CONTROVtIRST. 119
jTCurpeculiar ceremonies are based in fanaticism: and that your whole system was
founded by some of the wildest fanatics, fhe world over saw. These extracts I copied
from your own standai-d works, such as Ada Sanctorum., Butior's Lives, &c. You
have not denied die truth of one of these extracts ; and you cannot. I invite you to
try your logic at a refutation of them. It was siipromcly sUly, gentlemen, to pass the
whole over, as you did, in j-our last letter, with this Jesuitical question:  "Do you
imagine catholics -will admit your malignant fictions, while they mock, and reject the
dreamy legends of the visionary among their own silly writers ?"
Let your bishop look to this doling avowal. Popes have sent tens of thousands to
the stake, and gibbet, for things of a great deal less consequence dian this wicked
taunt on the Pope, and Holy Blother. Why, gentlemen, you pronounce Acta Sancto
rum, — your achievements of 3^our saints, their miracles, and holy tales, to be dreamy
legends! You call your popes, and the various orders of your monks, '^ silly and
visionary writers .'" Nay, have ^^¦e lived to hear the concessions ! The whole evidence
on which your popes gravely proceed m die mysteries of canonization, to manufac
ture new saints, and new gods, for Roman worship, — you actually denounce as wild
and " dreamy legends."
Permit me, gentlemen, to congratulate you on this approximation to the light.
Even IMr. L. I shall not despair of: protestant light, and logic have wrought wonders
on better men, in compeUing them to speak the truth. If Balaam's ass spoke after
being well cudgelled, why may not even he have his mouth opened, in the service of
truth, by a logical flagellation ? *
You repeat your slanders of Luther, "the Great and the Good," I have only
room for two remarks here. Every scholar knows that Luther, when more illumined
from monkish ignorance, did admit the epistle of St. James into the canon. It stands
in Luther's German Bible, and if you will consiUt Woolfii Curaa, Philol. vol. v. 6.
and also Fabricius Bibliotli. Grajc. Lib. iv. cap. 5. sec. 9. you can see your evidence
of your slander of Luther. My other remark is this : — Gentlemen, look nearer home.
The Roman church, in fhe 4th century denied the canonicity of the Epistle to the
Hebrews ! St. Jerome tells you this. See his Treatise of illustrious men, cap. 59,
and his Epistle 53 to Paulinus. The Roman church stood out long against " the He
brews:" but she was finally "cudgelled" by the Greek church into orthodoxy, on the
canon, so far as it respects "the episde to the Hebrews."
You say a good deal in your last, about "the stake;" and " my coming volun
tarUy up to TOUR STAKE." I kuow that your spirit always leads that way. And
even to-morrow, had your charitable and Uberal sect the ascendency, you would plant
the stakes, and light up the Smithfield fires in our Park. I know it, and you know
it-: and even now anticipate it. But may God in his rich mercy, preserve the Lord's
church ; and our happy RepubUc, from the conspiracy of the Jesuits.
I quoted a fair specimen of your miracles, believed, and by your own Popes, duly
registered at the " Office of Miracles at Rome," by your kna-vish compeers. You
reply to this proof of Romish fanaticism by a bull and frog story from "Adam
Clark," about a natural phenomenon, a wonderful growth of a woman's hair !
You quote the case of Toft, and Johanna Southcote. Is it not marvellous that you
should not know that these fanatics borrowed their entire system from your own
Taulerus, and Cressy ! But, here is a point we wish to notice. When fanatics sprung
up among Protestants, we cast them out, and disown them. But when they appear in
"Holy Mother," she sings hosannas to them, and enrolls them among her saints !

120 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY.
Now, gentlemen, I go on to other points. You are pleased to repeat in almost
every Letter, that I do not adhere to the subject of discussion — " the Rule."
Now, so far is your charge from being true, fhat I have, in fact, thus far, been fortu
nate enough in observing the strictest bnitt in my discussions. In your first note,
you simply asked me " to state our rule of faith, and our judge of controversy." I
compUed -with this, by stating that our rule of faith is the holy scriptures ; and that
the judge of controversy is Almighty God, speaking plainly and clearly to us in them.
I did not stop here, although this was all you demanded : — I next brought forward the
proof, that the scriptures were the only and sufficient rule : I showed this from
external evidence, and internal : I showed it from various passages, that God speaking
to us, inthe Bible, declared it to be his own word; and pronounced it perfect ahd
sufficient. I next endeavored to draw you out in defence of your rule ! You carefully guarded
against this. You know you cannot prove your rule of faith by the present authority,
and infallibiUty of your Church. And I give you the credit of a shrewd and well
conceived retreat. But is not your silence ominous ? Are you not betraying a con
sciousness that your clumsy Rule, contained in so many foUos, is utterly untenable,
utterly indefensible ? You can never prove that Christ delivered to us, by divine in
spiration, the apocrypha, and unwritten tradition, and the unanimous consent of the
Fathers. You can never create a paradise out of this continent of mud ! In the
jnidst of your awkward flomiderings in this matter, I succeed in dra^wing you into
your " ¦vicious circle :" and I fully convicted ^ou of your Romish sophistry, by which
you impose on simple and uneducated partizans. You first proved " Holy Mother
Church" from certain marks taken from the Bible ; then you estabUshed the inspira
tion and authority of the Bible, from your " Mother Church !" And the same sophis
try and " ¦vicious circle" appear also in your doctrine of tradition.
You found it necessary to attempt the proof of ttvo things here : namely, that these
traditions did come from Christ's lips : and that the chain has been faithfully kept
unbroken. But no man can, while in his senses, believe without evidence ; and no
man has evidence unless he be well acquainted with all the dead, and with all the
living, who had this chain of tradition, in their keeping. It is entirely difi'erent from
that which is written down in ten thousand copies, every where received and read.
Those traditions floated down on the tongue, by hearsay evidence. Unless we know
the truth and fideUty of all the dead, and of aU the Uving, who did and stUl do hand
them down, it were an insult on common sense, to ask us to believe these traditions !
How do you get over this impossibility ? Why, by plunging stUl deeper into absurd
ities. For instance, first, you resort to the unanimous consent of the fathers, and lay
down this maxim, that what has this unanimous consent is true tradition ; what has
it not, is to be rejected. Now, you load yourselves here ¦with a task which, as
we showed, no uninspired man can achieve. To estabUsh this unanimous consent
you must produce an authenticated copy of the fathers, free of all additions and
alterations. And you must demonstrate the fact of this. You must, then, go over
aU their thirty-five enormous folios ; exhibit tireir 40,000 pages to the public, and
Tprove infallibly, that there is no error, and no contradiction, or one doubtful sentunent
in one of them ; but an unanimous consent to all your peculiarities of popery. How
many mUlions of such men as Dr. Power, and Mr. Levins, would it take, with the
aid of Dr. Varela, to do this, think you?— No tongue can tell !
But, gendemen, the setdement of diis point, is simple and easy on our part. For

ROMjIN catholic CONTROVERST.
while you are put upon pro^ving a negative, we have the easy taslr*-''
afitte. I have done it in my Letter A'lIL, I selected ten of yi

arities of popery; and then adduced from si> to seventeen ofthe*
who are clearly against each of your peculiarities. It is of no c^
whether your fathers' volmnes be autiicntic or not. And thus, by die"^
cess, yom unanimous consent to your system, has been utterly demolished.
in his senses, none but a Jesuit, which is the classic English word for a knave, will
venture to affirm that there is any such thing as a unanimous consent of the Greek and
Roman fathers. There is an universal contradiction on their part ; both among them
selves, and against all the essentials of popery.
But second, you all saw this evil, and to remedj^it you have invented the wild and
extravagant fanaticism of infallibilitt. And you affirm, ¦vvith solemn grimace,
that "the Church," — meaning the Roman priests, — "know these traditions by her
infallibility." Now, mark your sophistry and vicious circle. AVho has a right
to decide on these traditions, and this infallibility ! "Why, the Church to be sure,"
say you: "that is to say, the Romish priests." You stand forward with no other
power and aufhority than that which is derived from tradition and infallibiUty : and
by virtue of this said power, from unproved tradition, and unproved infallibility,
you decide formally fhat these traditions and this infallibiUty are from God our Sa
vior ! You borrow from these uninspired novelties, all y^r power and authority of
office : and then by this official power, you prove tradition and infallibility divine ! !
These arguments of yours, are the entire corner stone of your ancient tottering edi
fice, — already tumbling about your ears, — for, blessed be God, the 1260 years of "the
Beast's" reign are now verging nearly toward their close. This is the only and
entire idea which you have advanced, stript as it has been, of all your verbiage, coarse
wit, and blasphemy ?
But, I did not stop here : your rule I next attacked, and logically demolished by
TEN arguments. That was no great task : and there was no great honor in doing it, I
frankly admit. But these ten arguments have not to this day been touched, far
less refuted by you. Thus far, then, was there not 'perfect unity in my discussion ? I
next devoted Letters VL and VII. to the refutation of various objections which your
zeal had collected, against the holy Bible, our rule of faith. And you now stand con
victed of the deism of the Voltaire school ; in the estimation of every chris.ian, and
of every sensible deist in the community? To accomplish this, and strip the -vizor
off" your face before an indignant community, was, I repeat it, one main object of my
Ungering so long on the rule.
In Letter \TII. I showed that, in abandoning the word of God, as the only rule,
you have apostatized from pure Christianity ; and erected a perfectly novel system in
its stead. In letter IX., I endeavored to follow out this argument. I exhibited a col
lection of historical documents, to demonstrate the appalling result of your apostacy
from the onlt rrUe of faith. I proved, from your own authentic books, that
your leading doctrines, rites, and monkish orders were estabUshed in fanati
cism I Is there no unity in all this discussion ? Has not the Master told us
that, "by their fruits ye shall know them?" Have we not conducted our
readers to the pure word of God, which, like the tree of life, bears all manner of
fruit ; yielding its fruit and leaves, for the spiritual food, and healing of the nations ?
And have I not, amid your unmanly vituperations, been solemnly warning all men
against an approach to your fatal tree of death, — more deadly than the tree of the
• 12

128 ROMAN catholic CONTROVERST.
East, -whose mortal iofluence poisons the air, and scatters on every hand wasting pfesfJ*
lence and death !
I congratulate you on avowing, for once, the truth, namely, that there is no version of
the scriptures in English, authorised by your pope, or Mother church. Your reply
to my question on this subject was "Transeat!" That is, " let that pass ;" meaning,
there'oy, to say, — " Our craft has fculed, and betrayed us ; let us boldly make a ¦virtue
of necessity: every priestknows that " our Douay Bible," is asheer hoax on Protest
ants : our Irish superiors, indeed, once ventured by solemn testimony, to declare it
"authorised by our superiors:" but we all know their wise reasons for denying on
oath, all this and even their own signatures, before the British parliament. Therefore
"transeat!' " — Gentlemen, I laud^your candor. But, then,yo1i have placed your
Vicar general, Doctor Power, in a predicament in which no man of truth or honor can
be found. You have " pontifically," convicted him of a mean and scandalous impo
sition, and at the same time, of a shocking impiety . In Clinton HaU, in presence of
the public, he Ufted his hands towards heaven, and made a solemn appeal to Al
mighty God that he and his priestly associates, did zealously encourage the reading of
the holy scriptures by the laity in their own vernacular ! And yet, there is, as you now
admit, no authorised version of them in English ! !
This is the second extraordinary admission which has been extorted from yon. I
allude to the avowal in your Letter I. that your religion, and that of the Protestants
are not modifications of the one thing : that they are essentially distinct. You say,
" If the Catholics are right, your Reformation was superfluous and a rebellion against
heaven. If you hold the truth, the chief part of catholic worship is not only errone
ous, but idolatrous: an ofience against heaven, &c.'' I thank you for this admission
in the face of the American people, and I trust it ¦will never be forgotten by the reading
and reflecting community. We are as opposite as Christ and Belial! And by this
last admission, you have doomed your own rule ; in as much as it proves that this part
of it, namely, the holy scriptures, and also the apocrypha, are utterly inaccessible
to many of your priests, and to the great body of the laity. And when we take into
consideration the fact that the unanimous consent of the Fathers does not exist; and
its proof by you will live and die in the land of promise ; most manifest is it, now, if
any doubt did, heretofore, remain, that your rule is by your infatuated admission, de
fective, intangible, false, and utterly useless, and nullified ! You have no rule of faith
from heaven ! ! And, hence, as in all usual processes of nature ; — for monsters beget
monsters, — your rule, originated by the prince of darkness, naturally begets apostacies,
the novel sect of Romanism with all its putrifying mass of fanaticism, and supersti
tions, and idolatries ; — unparalleled in the moral history of our fallen race !
In my last Letter, I drew the public attention to some of the proofs of this. I beg
leave to devote another letter to it. Be pleased then, gentlemen, to follow me in the
pleasing task !
" From the subUme to the ridiculous, there is only a single step,'' said Napoleon in
his fatal faU. In the irrevocable fall of the Romish church, she has united the most
lofty and daring in claims of power and homage, to the most fantastic, ludicrous,
mean, and base in imposture, and degrading in action ! The iUustration of this wiU
teach us the appaUing consequences of abandoning the only guide and rule, as the
" Romish anomos, the lawless One" has done.
I. This "Lawless One" has set up claims on the human conscience, which place
at defiance, aU sober conceptions. The Romish priesthood grasp the reins of unbound*

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 123
od ghosdy power over their votaries, the deluded peo|ilo. Without a special ivritten
license from the priest, no man, or woman, dare read the holy Bible,  even admit
ting that there were an authorized version wkhin their reach. That is to say,  God is
not allowed, without sacerdotal permission, to speak to his own subjects ! And men,
who have to account unto God, each for himself, and not by proxy, are not alio wed with
out a polluted and usui-ping priest's pennission, to hear God speaking unto them. The
Romish church tells Almighty God, dial he shall not be heard, but dirough a priest's
lips ; and even as that priest shall choose ! The Romish church teUs the Almighty,
that the priest shall explain his divine wUl, just as the priest, — ignorant, incontinent,
and ¦s'icious as he is, — shall be pleased ; that God is not the lord of the conscience ;
thatthe priest has a right to dictate to man all dial God only has a right to say : that
the priest opens heaven ; that he opens, and shuts up in purgatory; and in hell; that
though Christ commands " to come without money and ivithout price," the priest and
IMofher church tell the Aluughty that, they shall pay their money, and give the priest
his price of the mass ! that diough Christ has " the keys of hell and death," and sets
his people aU free, the pope and his priestlings reply to the Most High, — " Now, thou
shalt not wear the keys of hell and of death : I demand them of thee ; because certain
popes dreamed a dream, and told us that St. Peter got them from thee, — thou shalt not
have them? Besides, no man shall have freedom from the yoke of bondage, nor have
theh souls emancipated from purgatory untU we shall obtain all the gold and silver
from them which we can extract!" This is the mandate issued from your throne of
Mammon ! !
Hence, Christ and his atonement are excluded: the idol is set up in its place;
human merit, gold and silver, occupy the place of his unspotted righteousness ; holy
water, penance, and ghostly absolution occupy the place which the Holy Spirit occu
pies in his own church. The only object of divine worship is now lost sight of, in the
confounding and bewUdering multiplicity of created gods and goddesses ! The Vir
gin Mary is the queen of heaven: she is, O horrible ! " the mother of God!" and her
mother. Saint Anna, is of course " the grandmother of God!"
The Virgin has more prayers offered up to her by your well educated devotees, than
what Christ has ; as every one knows who is acquainted with female Roman catho
lics. And each new saint, added for money, and by some sublime catholic miracle,
absorbs for, a season, all the worship. In the year 1171, for instance, there arose a
new god. This was Thomas a Becket, an impious and haughty priest, the curse and
scourge of his country; and a rebel against the laws of the laud, aud the authority of
his lawful sovereign ; who also screened the vicious and criminal priests from the just
visitation of outraged laws, and an insulted community. The haughty rebel was slain
by some persons who felt indignant at his insults offered to the king and the laws.
The court of Rome has never failed to take advantage of these feuds and national
disturbances. It has never failed to sustain rebels against their sovereigns, providing
it could reap any possible advantages to ghostly power. And the pope has never failed
to enrol iu his holy calendar as right worshipful saints, those who fell in rebellion
againstking and country, to help on popery. Accordingly this English rebel was duly
canonized. In a short time a magnificent altar was erected to him in his cathedral,
near those of Christ, and " the holy mother of God !" One main use of altars in our
priests' mass houses, is, by the way, to receive the needful, namely, the money ! The
holy priest must not handle it : he needs no money ; holy man ! his whole soul is in
heaven ! The altar receives the money ; it is given, — not to the priests, — O, no — it is

124 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
given to God and the saints! WeU, the amount of gold and silver pUed up on the'
altar is the clearest and best evidence which of the saints gets the most devotion !
During the young honors of the new god, the accounts stood thus: On Christ's altar
£3, on that of the dead priest, £832 ! Next year — this priest eclipsed Christ and
"the mother of God;" accounts stood at more fearful odds ! On Christ's altar,
£0 : — nothing ! not one copper farthing, and hence no prayers to him ! On the altar
of Mary were laid £4. 1. 8. On that of the wretched dead priest, £954. 6. 4.!
The Roman pontiffs are invested with different degrees of power by the four grand
factions existing in the bosom of " undivided Mother Church," The first makes him
merely a president : the second, an absolute monarch : the third makes him equal to
God, and calls him "our God," "the Lord God, the pope :" "our God on earth:"
"none," says St. Bernard, (1725) "but God is like unto the pope, either in heaven
or in earth." Edgar's Variations of popery, p. 158. The fourth faction makes the
pope superior to God. " He has the plenitude of power, and is above law." Gibert
ii. 103. BeUarmine, De Pontif. IV. 5, declares that he cau bind the church to believe
that virtue is vice : and vice is virtue, — " Possumus, &c. We can dispense -with law."
See the Decret. Gregor. III. 8, IV. "The pope (Leo X.) has power above all
powers in heaven and in earth," See Labb. Concil. vol. 19. 924. Edgar, p. 161.
This is the grand practical dpctrine exercised with such tremendous mischief at the
contessional. Such power,is lodged with the priest that he can make sin no sin ; and
vice laudable, if committed to oblige and favor the priest. " If you sin with me, and
comply with my will" says the holy man possessing a chip of the pope's infallible
power, — " I will absolve you, after we are done !" " I will absolve you, for a trifle, —
said a holy priest to a lady of my acquaintance ofthe North Dutch Church, when he
was urging her to play cards and gamble, on a sabbath afternoon, on board ofthe
packet. In virtue of this unlimited power, the pope and his Jesuits claim authority over the
bodies and souls of all men : and over all their property, — be they Romans or Protest
ants ! Does any man possess such feeble conceptions of the nature and spirit of the
apocalyptic " Beast," as to imagine that the Protestants' apostacy and heresy have
put them beyond the pope's power and claims ? No : he claims dominion over every
Protestant as much as ever.
He claims power, also over all governments, in all kingdoms, and in all republics,
be they Protestant or Roman cathoUc. My credulous fellow citizens will not believe
this. But they must allow me to say that this credulity proceeds from the success
with which the crafty Jesuits have blinded our eyes, and palmed on us a system, as
their system, which every priest knows to be ridiculous and false. I speak not of the
enlightened and truly patriotic Roman cathoUcs, who have seen through the mask
of ghostly hypocrisy. I speak ofthe Roman Jesuitical system, with the pope at the
head of it. ' " It is a thing most manifest," says a Romish author, Tesora Politico, &c.
1602, p. 20. — "That his holiness has universal power over all: not only in his own
states, but those of other princes, and in all the world, &c." ' And Bellarmine De
Pont. Lib. V. cap. 6, teaches that '''the pope has the chief power of disposing ofthe
temporal afTairs of all christians, in order to their spiritual good." Yes, for their spirit
ual good ! Riches and scripture doctrines corrupt men. And, therefore, for man's
spiritual good, the priests take away the money and the Bible : and burn the body, for
the soul's spiritual good ! And all the world has read the saying of pope Innocent III.
" The Chturch, my spouse, is not married to me without bringing me something : she

"-^. ROMAN C.ITHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 125
lias given me a dowry of a price beyond aU price,— the plenitude of spiritual things ;
and the extent of temporal things !" " The pope," said a council wilh Gregory VII.
at its head, "ought to be called the universal bishop ; he alone ought to wear the
tokens of imperial dignity ; all princes ought to kiss his feet ; he has power to dethrone
empires and kings; and is to be judged by none !" And Rome never amused herself
¦with empty tides, as do the Persian and Chinese princes. Thoy uttered their diabolical
edicts in thunder ; and executed them wifh fire and blood ! They excommunicated
kings ; deposed them from dieir thrones ; absolved subjects from their lawful alleg-i-
ance ; moved nations to rebelUon and blood shed : abrogated national laws : put an
end to commerce, antitrade: turned once happy nations into fields of blood ! An
endless succession of wars in Germany was originated by pontifical juide; no tie was
held sacred; no oath was binding; no law of God or man respected, if the Roman
pontiff could only gratify his satanic passions; and extend his anti-christian power !
In aword, kings, and princes, and magistrates, were sacrificed to his ambition. And
whUe the flames of war kindled by hhn, raged over many lands, and while oceans
of human blood were shed by his infernal emissaries, the priesthood, — he was all the
time busy in drawing in die wealth of the contending nations. He weakened, and
divided, then conquered, and gained infinite wealth by national robbery ! All this
was done in the name of Christ; ctil this robbery was for man's spiritual good ; all
this money went into holy Peter's purse for man's salvation !
Touching the nature and extent of the pope's supremacy there is a mistake gener
ally prevaUing among our fellow citizens. Our poUtical men, and very many of even
our christian professors, conceive that it exists merely in name, among the Roman
catholics in our country : and that it is not acknowledged now by the enlightened
members of that sect. This is a great error. 1 am indebted to an estimable friend of
mine for an important fact which goes to illustrate this matter. He states what took
place in our State Legislature about 26 years ago. , He was at that time a member of it.
Francis Cooper, Esq. one of his associates elected, was a Roman catholic; he could
not take the oath of office and allegiance because it bound him " to abjure all allegi
ance to king, prince, potentate and power, whether ecclesiastical or civil." He
could not abjure the pope's supremacy : he could not renounce this foreign yoke.
On his petition, and that ofthe Roman catholics, a bUl was brought in to strike out
the word " ecclesiastical."' An animated debate took place, and, owing to the rage of
poUtics, and the general want of knowledge of the true nature and tendency of the
foreign yoke of popery, it was carried. And so the Roman catholics do not abjure
foreign ecclesiastical allegiance ! This establishes the fact that the papal supremacy
includes a ghostly despotism over his votaries, not equalled in any Turkish, or any
pagan land.
Some, I dare say, are disposed to admit that the plea of the papists is plausible and
right : that they own him merely as their " spiritual head." I have two reasons
why.I demur to this. First, it cannot be republican ; nor salutary to civil Uberty to be
under such foreign despotism, — that a man cannot think, nor write, nor act, or even
read the holy scriptures, without being exclusively moved and dictated to by a foreign
despot? A man who thus sells his soul, and his christian liberty, can never be a good
and faithful lover of American liberty. It is utterly impossible. But, this is not all, —
this separation of the ecclesiastical from the civil and temporal power of the Pope is
not authorised, not even recognized, far less allowed by the Pope. It has never been
yielded up by him : and it never can, and it never will. Why ? because a despot
13*

126

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY.

never yields, but for ever tries to acquire more power : and because, as every papitJ
pleads, the pope and church are infalUble, and immutable. And it is most manifest
that all papists who separate the spiritual from the temporal power, are in the very
act of robbing the pope. They are in the act of robbing the pope of the most brilliant
gem in his crown, — his infaUibility ! The sentiments ofthe popes quoted above, fully
prove this. And the case of Mr. Farnan, of Brooklyn : and the late difficulties be
tween the highly respectable and intelligent trustees of St. Patrick's and the priests,
must satisfy every one that the priests and Jesuits here have never given up this claim
of temporal power ; and they never will. It is true, they tell the Protestant public,
that they admit only the spiritual power. But they know, and every intelUgent man
in the community does know, that the priests have sworn before Almighty God to up
hold the pope in all the extent of his power : they do own his civil power as much as
his spiritual ; or, as the alternative, they are, in the pope's eyes, daring rebels ; and
before heaven, pei|jured knaves ! Let them choose the alternative of the dilemma.
The present Pope has exhibited all the intolerance and bigotry of the ninth century ;
and let the American public look to it, — every one of you, gentlemen, and every bishop
and priest believe and avow the same sentiments. In his Circular Letter published in
Europe and America, your supreme Head, lately pronounced from the Vatican, that
"liberty of conscience is an absurd and dangerous maxim: or rather the ravings of
delirium!" And you, gentlemen, beUeve and unblushingly advocate the same thing :
and you have not the assurance to come out and deny it. Let the American public,
both poUtical and religious, look at this ; let them watch the priests, if they will dis
avow this bull of their present ghostly leader at Rome !
This is not all: the pope and his priests are avowed enemies to the liberty ofthe
Press : to them it is a torturing nuisance. Hear the present Pope's own words in the
above named Circular. The liberty of the Press is "that fatal' license, of which we
cannot entertain too much horror !" And if ever they gain the ascendancy here, they
will soon show this, by the Codex Expurgatorius ; by chains, dungeons, racks, and
fires ! In admitting the Pope's supremacy, they are sworn, on pain of damnation,
to admit and honor all this dictation of the pope, in temporal and spiritual matters.
II. In Rome's apostacy from the only rule of faith,. s?ie has irrecoverably lost the
spirit of Christianity.
The genius of Christianity is love, pure, holy, unsubduable love and benevolence.
" God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him," " He
that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love," " If a man say I love God, and
hateth his brother, he is a Uar !" " Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer ! and
ye know that no murderer hath eternal Ufe abiding in him." St. John's 1st epistle.
Now contemplate the spirit of the Roman cathoUc church, ever since- her great
apostacy ; — as displayed in her dogmas, and actions, — The maxim " that no faith is
to be kept with heretics," has been a favorite doctrine with Rome, most firmly believed
and rigidly acted upon. Pope Gregory VII. made a decree to this purpose, v/hich
has not been re^Voked. Martin V, said in his letter to the Duke of Lithuania,. — " Be
assured that thou sinnest mortally, if thou keepest thy faith with heretics !" Gregorj'
IX. made a decree, absolving all people from their vows, and obligations to those who
had fallen into heresy. And the Bishop Simanca, sometime professor of law in the
University of Salamanca, in his famous work " The Catholic Inslitutions,'' — says in
his commentai-y on this law of Gregory IX., that "by this law, all governors are set
free from the bond of their oath." " A Catholic wife is set free from her obligations

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 127
to perform her marriage contract with her heretical husband." And he adds, "Justly,
therefore, were some heretics [Huss and Jerome] burned by the council of Constance,
aldiough tiiey had been promised security !" The general council of Constance did
solemnly establish this characteristic, and sanguinary dogma of ihe Roman catholic
church, that "no faith must be kept with heretics."
Cai-rying out this principle, Rome pronounces all ¦i\ho refuse to yield unlimited
obedience to the pope's despotism in all things, to be heretics ; and heretics are trai
tors against heaven and Almighty God, because they are rebels against heaven's
VICAR. And by that fact aie their lives forfeited; and it is a duty to burn, kill, cut
down, and exterminate them from the face of fhe earth, "And the blood of here
tics," — say your Rhemish annotators on Rev, xvii. 6, — "is no more the blood of
saints, than the blood of diieves, man kUlers, and other malefactors, for die shedding of
which, by order of justice, no commonwealth shall answer."
By this solemn dogma of the Romish church, all devoted Roman cathoUcs are
taught irom their chUdhood, to believe fhat to kill a Protestant, or a heretic, is doing
God a service, because it is the act of executing Holy Mother church's law. Hence
that unshaken enmity, malice, wrath, and murderous hatred, which bigoted Roman
catholics feel against Protestants, Jews, and others ! They abhor them even as one
abhors the prince of darkness I They believe them all to be worse than thieves,
robbers, and murderers. Their canons, and their priests daily teach that no man can
possibly be saved who is not a Roman catholic. And besides these weekly aud daily
impressions made by the priests, and the diabolical spirit breathed throughout their
hooks and conversations, " the faithful" are accustomed once every year, at least, —
that is on the Thursday of Passion week, — to see the Pope's representative, in his
flaming scarlet robes, (the emblem of their bloody purpose) pronouncing the curse of
present and perpetual perdition on all Protestants. This is regularly done in our
cities, and throughout the land.
This deeply maUgnant spirit, has often burst forth as a mercUess demon from " the
bottomless pit." Hence the murderous wars of the Crusades against the Turks, and
the christian Waldenses ! Hence the wars of Germany, and all Europe, in the dark
ages, and in the times of the Reformation. The Roman catholic princes ofthe bloody
house of the Bourbons, and of Austria, went forth at the pope's nod, " doing God
service," for "the spiritual good of man," persecuting, plundering, burning, and
massacring Protestants! Hence the horrid interdicts, and excommunications of
kings, and whole nations; hence depositions, and the absolving of subjects from their
allegiance and duty to the magistracy, and the laws ; the suspension of trade and com
merce; the refusal to let the dead be buried; and aU the innumerable evUs which
popish fury could devise and inflict on a people. Hence the cool and systematic
murders of Protestants and others ; in a long and bloody train of executions,.— not to
speak ofthe Inquisition. Upwards of sixty-eight millions of human beings, as we shall
afterwards show, have been oflfered upon the altar ofthe bloody Roman cathoUc faith.
St. John, in vision, saw Rome catholic " drunk with the blood of the saints." Now,
he that hateth his brother, is a murderer. What must Rome be, which has made the
hatred of men, who differ from her in religion, an article of her reUgious creed .
"What must she be, who has shed such oceans of human blood ? Is it not a mockery
of religion and reason to caU her a church of Christ ? Is it not an outrage on reason ,
to call that— Christianity, which stmiulates her to do such damnable deeds ? Moloch

128 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
and Jugernaut are mere children in murderous crimes, compared to this. Offer no
apologies for her, because Protestants have persecuted. They have done so ; but then
it is no part of their religion. Calvin and others acted under the unrepealed' bloody
civil laws, which had been passed by Roman cathoUcs, when Servetus was burned.
There is nothing in the canons, nothing in the creed of Protestants, stimulating to
persecution. On the contrary, every sentiment in their creeds and confessions, breathes
love and benevolence. The early Protestants were only acting out the infamous les
sons which they had, when young, unhappUy learned from the Roman cathoUcs.
But it is a part of the canons, and elemental part of the religion of Rome, as we have
seen above, to persecute and kill heretics ! And as if all this were not enough, the
pope claims the power of persecuting even after death. He claims the power of dam
nation. He absolutely claims the keys to shut out of heaven, and shut up in hell.
Let any look, for proof of this, into the Bulls. I take up, for instance, the Bull of
excommunication against Queen Elizabeth, of England. Here is the title of it. " The
damnation and excommunication of Elizabeth, and her adherents, &c." "Pope
Pius, servant of the servants of God," — (marvellously humble this knave was) — "in
perpetuam rei memoriam, &c." — Here we aee the result of the Roman apostacy,
from the only rule. Can that rule adopted by the Romish church, which stimu
lates to such deeds these monsters in human form, be a rule given to us from infinite
love and benevolence ? It is impossible !
III. Can a rule of faith which generates Ihe most deplorable ignorance and revolting
profligacy, proceed from the fountain of all light and holiness ?
In every Roman catholic country, the priesthood, according to the letter of instruc
tion, and oadi of office, direct their unmitigated hostUity against these two things;
namely, the promiscuous reading of the holy Bible : and the universal education of
the people. " The Bible shall not be given to the people : the laity shall never be
permitted to read the scriptures, when, and as they please;" "education shall not be
given to the people uni-sersally : we are the fountain of knowledge : we the cathoUc
priests have the keys ; — we have the keeping of God's will and secrets : and we let
the Ught out, orally, as we please ! Education and reading the Bible only make
heretics ! The more intelligent the people are made by reading, the nearer are they
to damnation!" This is on every priest's lips: ilis the burden of their preaching;
and of their every day conversation.
The pope, in his late Circular, denounced Bible Societies, as "the device ofthe
Uevll." And his priests, as in dutjr bound, by their oaths, re-echo this hostility lothe
Bible, and to education, everywhere. And in our own land, as well as in Italy, and
Spain, the priesthood are laboriously employed in watching over their flocks: not in
instructing them ; not in meliorating their condition; not in communicating education
and industrious habits : but in checking the dangerous inroads of light; and the fatal
consequences of universal education ! And in those places where the influence of
Protestants constrains them to open schools, what do they teach the youthful spirits
of our land ? To say ten thousand Ave Marys : to pray to innumerable idols : to
hate and execrate the English version ofthe Bible ; to hate and abhor Protestants: to
own the pope's and priest's unUmited despotism : to consider the pope's and priest's
power above that of our President : and all our governors : and all the magistracy of
the land : that our government and magistrates, being heretics are merely usurpers;
that the time is coming when they shall gain ascendency, and shall crush all hereti
cal rulers! And, yet, these men would wish to have money from our public funds,

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 120
paid by the taxes levied on Protestants, to support these nunneries, and seminaries,
where these principles are taught, subversive of all order in Europe, and America.
The people who are imbued with popery, are, generally speaking, more ignorant,
and far more ferocious than those of ancient pagan Egypt, Greece, or Rome. And in
point of idolatry, superstition and morals, the pagan Greeks and Romans were far
purer, and more refined ! The proof of this meets the eye of every traveller in Swit
zerland, Italy, Spain, and in bleeding Ireland. Poverty is the child of Romish idola
try and superstition. Iu the Eastern despotism, the tyrant robs the subject ofthe fruits
of industry ; and paralizes all his efforts. In popish communities, the priest fleeces
the obedient flocks; and paralyzes the ai-m of industry. Add to this, that there are
many saint days, and lady days, and holy festival days, when no ^jjan truly
Roman catholic, dare follow his lawful avocations. These do almost cut off the poor
man's Uttle income, and make him miserably poor. And, then, patron saints' days
are closed with brutal revelry and debauchery ! They glorify their saints and idols,
by fighting, gambling, swcarmg, blasphemies, and brutish drunkenness. Look for
proof of this, to Rome, Naples, Madrid, fhe South of Ireland, and that portion of father
Levins' parish, in the vicinity of the Cathedral, and at the place called "the Five
Points," in New York.
We formerly quoted fhe lives of tiie popes, and showed out of your own writers,
Baronius and GiUciardini, that "He was usually deemed a good pope who did not
excel in wickedness the worst ofthe human kind." And he being the great fountain
head of impurity, — pollution naturaUy flowed, through his accredited priesthood, as
a dead sea over all the land. The moral infamy of a church must be consummate,
when, by the decree of pope Paul HI., houses which I cannot name, were openly
licensed ; and 60,000 infamous beings yielded their immense revenue of wickedness
to fhe pope's treasures. And it is so in Rome, unto this day. These licences afford
large revenues to " the holy father." It is a truth notorious at Rome, that he receives
the one third ofthe profits weekly, and annually, from these licensed haunts of infamy.
And it has been a subject of amusement to those who are intimate with our priests,
to hear their affectation and prudery about the admirable little narrative "Lorette, or
the daughter of a Canadian Nun." They caU it " an obscene fiction." What! A
Roman catholic priest affecting to have his modesty shocked at "Lorette," a moral and
instmctive narrative of facts! A priest shocked at imaginary "obscemty," — into
whose ears and imagination, and heart, is daily poured, at the confessional, as into a
common sewer, all that is impure, polluting, and loathsome, in a whole parish.
" Credat JudiEus Apelleff, non ego."
Let any one take up Paschal's Provincial letters, and that book sold in our book
stores, called " Secreta Monita,— The secret instructions of the Jesuits;" and let him
read the extracts out ofthe 326 Jesuit writers, on moraUty, and he wiU ea.sily discover
that paganism, counting in even Sodam and Gomorrah, had nothing to equal Ro
mish doctrines, and Jesuit criminality.
I took up the two folio volumes of Ludovicus Molina, the other day, and read a
passage to a friend of mine, out of the 1150 page, 2nd volume, in Latin ; to give him
an idea of the moral instructions given to servants,— as he had some Roman cathohc
servants in his family. I then turned to the extract out of Cardenas, Crisis Theolog.
Diss. 23, cap. 2, p. 474; and there read to him what is instilled into the ears of the
" simple faithful," of the confessional, that he might know how to trust these women
who make confessions to expelled Jesuits, Here are the words,—" Servants may

130 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
secretly steal from their masters as much as they judge their labor is worth, more
than the wages they receive." " In good earnest," exclaimed myfriend, "one of my
domestics, who is quite punctual in going to confession, has been reducing this literally
into practice. I have detected this Roman cathoUc woman robbing me, to some con
siderable amount."
" She acted upon principle," said I, " and is an apt scholar : the priest shrieves her,
and receives his boon."
I read him some more extracts. Here they are : "A man is not bound to restore
what he has stolen in small sums, however large may be the total." See Tam-
bur. Explic. Decal. Lib, 8, p. 205. Again : — "A woman may take the property of
her husband to supply her spiritual wants, and to act as other women." That is,
women, who are more punctual in confessing to the priest than men are, may rob to
pay holy father confessor. See Gordonus, Theol. Mor. Univ. p. 826. Again: —
" After a sou has robbed secretly his father, as a compensation, the confessor need not
enforce restitution, ifhe has taken no more than the 'just reward of his labor." See
Fran. Xavier Fegeli p. 158. And the following will show how a Jesuit feels toward
magistrates : — " A priest cannot be forced to give his testimony before a secular judge."
See Taberna vol, 2, p. 268, And Tamburinus, Lib, 3, p. 27. teaches that, — " the
judge is not a competent lawful authority to receive the testimony of ecclesiastices."
Emmanuel Sa leaches in Aphor. p. 41. That " the rebellion of Roman priests is not
treason, because they are not subject to civil government." Airault Cens. p 319.
teaches this doctrine of assassination, — -'If a calumniator will not cease to pubUsh
calumnies, you may fitly kill him, not pubUcly, but secretly, to avoid scandal," And
Escobar in his Theol. Moral, vol. iv. p. 274, taught that, — " it is lawful to kill an accuser
whose testunony may jeopard your Ufe and honor." And to consummate their vil
lainous doctrine, Busembaum and Lecroix in Theol. Moral, vol. i. p. 295, teach this
doctrine of devils : "In all the above cases where a man has a right to kill any person,
another may do it for him, if affection move the murderer !"
I beg leave to add here, what our unsuspecting fellow-citizens will scarcely believe ;
but it can be fully proved from the standard writings of the Romish church ; — it is
this, all Jesuits and papists (I mean priesls and those bigots who obey them) believe
that the property of all Protestants, being heretics, is forfeited, aud belongs of right,
to "Holy Mother Church," just as in monarchies where the man's property is confis
cated, who is guilty of high treason. Hear their -words: — " Every christian govern
ment as soon as they openly abandon the Roman failh instandy are degraded frora
all power and dignity, by human and divine right." Philop. Respons. ad Edict, p.
106. That is, the Roman catholics may seize on their power and means. Bellar
mine teaches, as we have already seen, in Lib, v. cap, 6, that the Pope has the chief
power of disposing of the temporal affairs of all christians, &c," Aud Pope Innocent
VIII. in his sanguinary bull, by which he sent a crusade of armed bandits, to extirpate
die Waldenses, in the year 1487, " gave a full and entire license," to his Nuntio,
<¦' to grant to every one of the soldiers of the crusade, a permission to seize and freely
jxissess the goods, moveable and immoveable : and to give them for a prey, whatever
the heretics have brought to the lands of fhe papists." He then proceeds to say that
all who are bound by contract, to assign and pay any thing to them (the Waldenses)
are set entirely free from such bonds, to keep and possess what belongs to them.
I shall sum up the moral character of Jesuitism, which has been thirty-nine times
abolished and expelled from the different governments of Europe : and in doing this,

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. J3j[
J shall employ the high authority of the Arret of the Pariiament of Prance in 1762,
¦when it exthpated the Jesuits. " Tho consequences of their doctrines destroy the law
of nature: break all die bonds of civil society : authorizing lying, theft, perjury the
utmost uncleanness, murder, and all sins ! Theii doctrines root out all sentiments of
humanity : excite rebellion : root out all religion : and substitute all sorts of supersti
tion, blasphemy, irreligion, mid idolatry." Such is tho declaration of the Parliament
of Parisv See the Secret Insti-uctions of the Jesuits, Appendix p. 111. &o.
Now, this order, the most daring and outrageous of all the Monkish orders,  which
had turned the governments of Europe into fields of blood, and which has been ba
nished from every country of Europe, — was revived, and organized by Pope Pius
VIL, in 1814. And I earnestiy beg aU my fellow-citizens to be assured that it has
been re-vived, and is now employed with all its accustomed diabolical cunning and
power, to gain over the JJ. States under the papal yoke! And amid various facilities,
they are avaiUng themselves of fhe perfect religious liberty of our Republic, to carry on
a deep conspiracy against fhe Protestant religion, and our ci-vil liberty. It is a tremen
dous sword, the hUf of which is at Rome ! Every vessel that arrives brings in multi
tudes of Jesuit priests in disguise. And all of them conspire in aiming a tremendous
blow, which, if God prevent not, and ward off from our slumbering fellow-citizens,
wUl fall, one day, ¦with the horror of a SkuUabog, an Irish, and Parisian massacre !
Now, you have hitherto performed unmatched feats of vituperation : ¦will you permit
me, gendemen, to beg you to meet my charges and arguments. I have copied my
extracts from your o-wn books. Disprove and refute them, if the thing can be done.
It can be done only by abjuring your o^wn books; or detecitng false quotations; meet
them logically : or frankly tell us the truth that you cannot. Either alternative
jequires, I fear, more courage than what you possess. I am, gentlemen, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

Our'priests had already given frequent indications of a desire fo retreat. They only
wanted, and they were earnestly seeking, aauitable pretext. We had stated their doctrines
and ceremonies iu strong language, it is true : but this, if ia believed, was fully sustained by
quotations from their own books. " The greater the truth, the greater fhe libel." This
quaint maxim is understood by every culprit. Each development of their true system was
" slander." We were held up to R. C. execration by the priests, with a view to cover their
meditated retreat. Hints of personal violence were often thrown out , but no credit was
given to the rumors. A remark in my Letter X. on the vile scenes of the Confessional, was
called "slanderous," simply becauae if was too true for the public ear. This brought a
repetition of sacerdotal threats : and the following Editorial Notice appeared in the Roman
Catholic paper, the ferocious design of which was too manifest. This, together with the
Card, in reply, here follows.
"It iato be regretted that Dr. Brownlee, a miniater of religion, should so far forget his
station as to insult fhe Irish Catholics of this city in hia controversial Letter of to-day. This
does not prove his rule of faith or judge of controversy. His allusions fo Catholics at the
Five Pointsare gross and false. The Irish catholics of this city have feelings, and he should
respect them. If the honor and dignity connected with his sacred station do not urge him
to the expression of. truth, they should suggest prudence. Such allusions as he makes to the
Five Points are insults to Irish Catholics ; and insults may excite a spirit which he cannot
suppress ; — insults are not always endured by Irishmen,"

133 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
" The Doctor is informed that afoul allusion fo fhe sacrament of confession, is left out
Its authorship would disgrace fhe keeper of a brothel."

A CARD.
To the Public.— 'M.y Reverend opponents, the priests, having exhausted their last idea ; and
spent nearly all fhe fury of vituperation, seem now to have recourse fo threats of personal
violence. This appears from an extraordinary article which Mr. Denman has seen fit fo
admit under his editorial head; but which, however, bears the usual attributes of father
Levins's style !
To efi'ect their evil purpose they hold me up to fheir partizans, " the rabble,'' as guilty of
outraging the feelings of" Irishmen." This I solemnly deny; audit is too ridiculous fonecd
a serious refutation. It is enough for me to state fhat among my numerous personal friends
I number many " Irishmen" whom I love and honor. I know the noble traits of a genuine
Irishman's character : and it is impossible for me to insult their feeUnga. And I teU the
Prieats and fheir Englishman Editor that every sensible man in the Roman catholic commu
nity knows that I am incapable of insulting an Irishman's feelinga ! If is "Priestcraft,"
and ifs unenviable attributes that I deem fair game ; because it is fhe greatest enemy to our
free institutions, and our religious liberties !
But, is it possible fhat Irishmen do not see through this thin veil of hypocrisy ? Who does
mot see that Mr. Denman, and his priests have here ofiered fhe most outrageous insult to an
Irishman's feelings ! They have here, identified the character of Irishmen, with the charac
ter of the "Five Points." Who ever deemed any connection between the two, until Mr.
D. and his ghostly advisers have declared that he who speaks against the "Five Points,"
does insult an Irishman's feelings ? In all the annals of vituperation there never was a
greater insult offered to Irishmen than this, from Mr. Denman and his Priests !
But, it is impossible not fo see the design of this article in the last " Truth Teller." There
is, in it, a characteristic threat of personal violence ; it rouses to deeds of violence and
blood! Butwearenot in Italy or Spain! We are in New York, where the laws reign !
For my part, tliese threats move not me; the word fear, I do not know the meaning of. I
shall follow, in my humble course, fhe immortal Luther. I shall go with him even to the
city of " Worms ;" and with Huss and Jerome of Prague; even to " Constance ;" and I shall
go, as Luther said' — " were there as many devils in my way, as there are files on fhe houses !"
And let them venture on the execution of their sanguinary threats ! I do solemnly warn
them in the face of the New York community, that fhe first Protestant blood that is shed
here, wiU raise a flame which all the waters of the Hudson will not quench !
I ought to add fhat fhe priests ordered Mr. Denman f o strike out a sentence in Letter X. ;
and if is presented in a garbled form to the public in fhe Catholic paper; and, raoreover, he
assigns a reason for doing this, in impure language, such as none but an expelled Jesuit could
employ. The banished sentence is restored toils place: and tiie public can judge of its
truth and relevancy.
But, after all, what is " fhe head and front of my ofi'ending,'' which has called forth this
threat of violence, from the priesta and their editor ! Simply this : In the foUowing Letter
I only ventured to compare the state of morals at Rome, Naples, Madrid, and the South of
Ireland, wifh those of the " Five Points" in our city! Now had Mr. Levins been capable
of duly appreciating the morals of all ultra Roman catholic countries; and had he been pos
sessed ofthe common sentiments of courtly gratitude, he would, instead of " bloody tiireafs,"
have made me one of his best bows ; and heartily thanked me for putting him, and this lioh)
portion of his parish, into such good company ! ' .' '
< I am respectfully,
W. C. BROWNLEE.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. J33

EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER X.
This letter occupies nearly five columns of a common newspaper size. It contains the
following subjects : —
1, Personal invectives without O'Connd's eloquence, or Cohhet's degant polish! We pre
sent a specimen.
"In your last, you, the intimate with the "Hebrew and Greek ofthe Holy Ghost,"
have out-Brownleed Brownlee, The merit is great, and only a Brownlee could have
achieved it."
"The hberty of conscience conferred by your "ever blessed Reformation" must not be,
checked, or controled,"
" The consciousness of defeat is evident, in every paragraph of your last. There are the"
ascerbity of mind, the sourness of temper, the sullenness of disposition, the recklessness of
truth, the indifference to character, the unblushing aaaertion, the faithlessness in citing au
thority, the wUfulness that would inflict injury and fhe suggeation that would affix a stain to
character, which ever have been the last resources of ungenerous minds, when writhing
under disgrace, defeat and overthrow, — when tortured by the worm that never dies."
There is in " your notorious tenth, the deep toned growl of Calvinistic peace and love,
uttered by the reUgious minister, who vaunts familiarity with an interior spirit, intimacy
with the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost,' and fellowship with ' highly intelligent
and ' vi'rttujus ladies.' For shift and subterfuge, contradiction and falsehood, joined to un-
gentlemanlike language, bold calumnies, and rancorous raalice, it stands unrivalled. So
much of these bitter and damning elements we never expected to meet with in any human
being, much lesa in a predestined clergyman treating ofthe concerns of religion,"
Such is our priests' gratitude for our painful inquiry info the origin and tendency of their
novel system ! Thia personaUty occupiea upwards of a column and a half.
2. There follows Lcther again with the rejected epistle of St. James : and the German
Bible, in one fourth of a column.
3. Their vindication ofthe authorised Douay: —
" Dr. B. says the 'Douay Bible is unauthorised by the pope and church:' and this is the
inference you deduce fi-om your ignorance of the scholastic term proposed to you ! The
Douay Bible printed by Mr. John Doyle, in this city 1ms heen approved hy the catholic hislwp of
New York, and by the bishop of South Carolina. It was printed from a copy of the Douay
Bible approved by the catholic bishop of Dublin. The Bible printed in Philadelphia was
approved hy thebishop of thai city. The Douay Bible in England ia approved and sanctioned
by the catholic bishops in England, and what they and other biahops approve and aanction
is authorised hy the Pope, for they, immediately under the pope, are the guardianaof the catho
lic rehgion. Will you again repeat fo the members ofthe Middle Dutch Church and your
' christian pubUc' this slander and falsehood ?"
4. The rest ofthe letter, about two closely printed columns, contains a renewed aittack, if
possible, more virulent than ever, on the perfection of the holy scriptures : they are declared
to be utterly inadequate, as a rule : they cannot settle the meaning of certain expressions, as
"this is my body," — "born of water and the spirit," &c.: they cannot settle one ofthe great
points of controversy between the Roman catholic church and Protestants: they cannot
throw lighten certain points by reason of their obscurity ; they cannot even remove the ap
parent contradictions in them. Finally, after repeating the three questions, so often an
swered, " How do you know the Bible to he tlie word of God," &c. they close in this language :
" But the scripture cannot prove either the canonicity, or the authenticity, or the inspira
tion of its own books; — ^therefore, our consistent theologian cannot beUeve inthe canoni
city, authenticity, divinity, or inspiration of scriptures ; therefore, his rule makes him a
Deist r"
" Sufficient proof has been given in our letters, that Preacher Brownlee's Protestant rule
13

134 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
offaith, cannot be asafe guide to a future world; — if establishes no basis for divine faith;— if
followed, it MnsT goide fo deism and infidelity."
" What shall be fhe next subject of discussion between us, and preacher Brownlee V
" Having disposed of his rule of faifh, or, in other words, the foundation of his reUgion,
the next topic evidently is, What are fhe articles of creed determined by his rule of faith,
which must be believed in order to secure salvation ? WiU the Preacher refuse to enter
on this matter ? If he do he wiU act irrationally. We wish to be illumined."
This is a mere ruse du guerre. The priests are meditating a retreat from the arena, and
they are planning a pretext to cover fheir retreat. Hence they say in fhe close of their let
ter : — " Should the Preacher in the Middle Dutch Church, decline discussion on this subject .
our direct controversy with him is terminated."

LETTER XI.
TO DOCTORS POWER, AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS.
[ " Gia Roma, hor Babilonia falsa, e ria, &c. —
"Formerly Rome, now Babylon, falaa and guilty —
Hell of the living ! It will be a great miracle,
If Christ is not angry with thee at last !" Fetrardi, tom. 4. p. 149.
Gentlemen : — In your last Letter you have exhibited a paralysis : and have almost
given up the ghost. I have gone over your epistle twice ; and I deUberately affirm,
that no man, Protestant or Catholic, can discover one new idea : or an approach to a
reply to any one of my arguments, against your rule, and the fanaticism of your sect.
In the close, you repeat, in a condensed form, the one all pervading, and one only
soUtary idea, which has ever yet appeared in your ten Letters : it is this : — " Preacher
Brownlee's Protestant rule," — that is to say, God's inspired Word, and the Almighty
speaking to us in it, — "cannot be asafe guide to the future world: his Protestant
rule," — that is, the inspired scripture, and the Almighty speaking in them to us, —
" if followed, must guide to deism and infidelity !" Thus then, you deliberately affirm,
for the tenth time, that God speaking to man in his own Word, " must guide to deism
and infidelity!"
Will the force of public opinon have no influence in checking this infidelity, and
blasphemy ? Let any one read the speech of fhe blasphemous Assyrian, Rabshakeh,
and then say, if he can there discover any thing worse than this mockery of God's
holy Word, and the name of the Holy Ghost !
I have drawn you into the net, at last, in the affair of the Douay Bible. You
affirm that your " bishop's" permission is "pontifical" authority! — ^With men thus
reckless of truth, no measured terms can be observed ! Do you, then, ventmre to affirm
that " a bishop's" authority is " the Pope's" authority ? You know that no bishop
can give pontifical authority to any book. And your leading men in Britain have
pronounced that to be a falsehood which you have asserted. I now give you the
names. Dr. Poynter, titular bishop of London, declared on his solemn oath, before
the committee of the British House of Commons, that, " there is no English version
ofthe Bible, at all, authorised hy the See of Rome." And Dr. Troy, your Archbishop
of Dublin pubUshed under his proper signature, — and Dr. Doyle, on his solemn oath,
that " the notes of the Douay Bible are of no authority whatever !" Thus your lead
ing men in Britain, give you the lie ! And thus, there is most satisfactory evidence

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 135
that the " Douay Bible" is a mere hoax, and an imposture, palmed on the simplicity
of Protestants ! I am reduced to the alternative of either insulting your inteUectual
power, or of affirming fhat each of you knows this to be the most certain truth.
And how can you reconcile your young and unfledged zeal for the use of the Bible,
in the hands of yom people, in their vernacular; and for " the awi/ioriscd version of the
Douay," with your sworn allegitmce to the pope and Tridentine fathers ? You have the
fourth "rule of thecongregationof the Indcx,"ly'mgheforeyo\iT eyes. 'By the pontijicat
authority, the highest with all Romish priests, be it in heaven or earth, ills thus declar
ed, — " It is manifest from experience that if the sacred Bible, translated into the vulgar
tongue, be indiscriminately allowed to every one, the temerity of men will cause more
evil than good to arise from it."
Now, with fhe example of these priests in England and Ireland before you, and
this notorious canon of die council of Trent, it unquestionably required no small
degree of assurance to tell the American public what you did, relative to " the authorised
Douay Bible !" Yes, the Bible, in English, is a prohibited book, by the pope and a
councU. And, yet, your very bishops, who have swom the solemn oath of allegiance
to the spiritual autocrat of Rome, and recorded their pledge, on pain of damnation, to
execute, even to the letter, every one of his la^ws, — have publicly declared fhat they
do permit, and even recommend this prohibited English version ! And our priests,
for reasons best known to themselves, if not for popular effect, are not ashamed to pro
claim the treacherous knavery. Were similar conduct exhibited pubUcly as this is, —
in any common monied transaction, it would cover our bishops, and our priests, in
every virtuous circle of American society, with perpetual infamy.
I shall now go on with the subject of your church's Superstition and Imposture.
Charles Butier, Esq. the author of "The Book ofthe R. catholic church," says: —
" May I not ask if it be either just or generous to harass the present catholics, with
the weakness of the ancient writers of their communion; and to attempt to render
their religion and themselves odious, by these unceasing and offensive repetitions !"
This has been also said by our priests in their Letter IX.
Were these superstitions, and miracles, and this fanaticism, publicly disowned, and
condemned by your church, you should never hear of them fVom us. But all these
false miracles and endless superstitions are printed in your "Breviary," used weekly
in yonr worship : they are read in Latin weekly ; applauded, defended, prayed over,
and believed by you, and owned by C. Butler himself; even while he ¦wrote the above
sentence ! Your popes applaud them, and on the faith of these miracles they canon
ized the saints which you worship. Your bishops own and applaud them, and pro
nounce their anathema on all those who disbeUeve any one part, or parcel of all the
fanaticism which I quoted. Only, — they are all in Latin ! Locked up are they, from
common -view and public execration, in Latin! Every Saint's day, Drs. Power,
and Varela and Mr. Levins, pray over these very superstitions, and fanaticism, and
miracles: — even while they publicly call them "silly, dreamy legends!" You
cannot deny your "Breviary !" You cannot disown your book, — the "Acta Sanctoi
rum." Let the honesty, therefore, of Mr. Butler, in the above appea;l, and that of our
priests, pass for what it is worth.
In addition to my former observations, I have now to state : — 4th. That the Super
stition of the Romish churoh confirms the melancholy evidence of her utter apostacy
&om the only rule of faith. " Superstition," says Bishop Hall, — ' ' is godless religion i

136 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
devout impiety : fhe superstitious is fond in observation : servile in fear : he worships
God, but as he lists : he offers to God what he asks not ; and all but what he should
give ; and makes more sin than do the ten commandments !" In your church, gen
tiemen, there is every gradation of this ¦vice, from the sober burlesque, even to the deep
tragic flagellation, and penance. It is, aswe shall prove, one mass of superstition.
For instance, it is a part of your religion, to baptize bells, before fhey are set up.
I have before me some instructive instances of this : particularly those that took place
of the latest dates, in Canada and Naples. A gaudy procession comes into the church,
with a priesdy attire of modey colors ; like some equipped buffoons for the stage : a
god father, and a god mother stand up by the Bell, and take the vows ! The dumb
',thing is wetted in the form of a cross; then crossed ¦wifh "holy chrism," whUethe
lips of the priest taking the awful name of the Trinity in vain, baptizes it in the most
holy name ! The priest then gives three strokes with the clapper : the god parents do
the same ; and then solemnly pronotmce the Bell's name. This farce, the disgrace of
our enUghtened day, is made, moreover, to subserve the cause of a more degrading
superstition. The sound of these baptized BeUs, as you priests, gravely teach your
people, fails not to disperse devils lurking in the air ; and make them scamper off ¦with
incredible celerity. It also, you as gravely teach, brings souls out of purgatory. All
Saints' day is, in Canada, and in all Roman cathoUc lands, a great day of ringing
these "baptized bells," and thereby bringing souls out of purgatorial pains, and purg
ing the air of de^vils.
The priest's dresses also teem ¦with superstition. Two things go to secure the divine
efficacy of your rites and ceremonies. One is the priest's intention of soul to do " what
the church" intends ; the other is his consecrated dress. Were fhe priest to officiate
¦without the appropriate garb: and did that want the "holy shape," and "the appro
priate holy color," for the day and occasion, the priest and laity would be in a mortal
sin. Without the orthodox shape, and color, they cannot be accepted by the Almighty :
but it is of no consequence whether they have religion, or even the common decency
of morals. All your reUgion is in the outer man ; and in ceremony, and in the color,
and shape of sacerdotal dress.
The divine efficacy of prayers uttered in the Latin tongue, which none of the laity
understand, is another part of your superstition. You deem it not at all necessary that
any one of your people offer up, in his soul, one vow, or prayer, with the understand
ing. Indeed how can he ? He understands not one idea which you utter. The people
are thus made a mere tool of: they act ¦without heart and xmderstanding. They do
not know one prayer. You mutter barbarous Latin ¦words over them. These are
viewed merely as a charm ; a hocus pocus from the lips of fhe sacerdotal legerdemain.
This nurses the ignorance of an immovable superstition. The priest "negotiates"
the whole work of salvation for sinners, who go on in a course of impious morals ; and,
at the last, the priestly embassy, they are told, is honored in heaven : and the souls are
saved bythe virtue of outward mummery ; — and, provided all the church's dues are
paid, their debts in heaven are cancelled.
Farther, the whole appendages of the mass are one train of superstition. I aUude,
mainly at present, to your prayers offered up by your pious priests and flocks, to saint
sacrament. For he it known, that the sacrament is converted into an idol: and
to St. Sacrament devout prayers are offered. The Litany of this saint is too
long to be quoted: yet I cannot resist the desire of presenting a specimen
of these prayers. "Bread com of the elect, have mercy on tis! Wine budding

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 137
from Virgins, have mercy on us! Fat bread, and the deUght of kings, have mercy
on us! Cup of blessing, have mercy on us!" And so on. All these prayers are
offered, while you bow down to the bread and chalice. That is, they are offered up
to the bread and cup ! This I venture to say, throws into the shade, and fairly eclipses
all pagan superstition ! " For who ever heard,"— says Cicero, — " of a people making
a god of that which they eat, and then praying to it?" But you do make a god of
bread, and then pray to it, and then eat it !
The use of incense is a fragment of pagan superstition. This characteristic
of popery strikes aU who enter a chapel ; it is poured forth from the altar, and the
whimsical play of swinging die censor. In old catholic lands the images of the
Romish saints, are as black as the pagan saints in their day, by this incessant smoke.
Now, yoiu: use of incense is not originated by the custom ofthe abrogated ceremonial
law of Moses. Your custom is purely pagan. And had you lived in the times of
pagan Rome, none of you, verily, would have been martyrs, and none of you even
deemed christians ! For our ancestors of the pure primitive christians, deemed it
strictiy pagan : and it was even a test resorted to by the heathen, to entrap a christian.
If any one consented to burn incense, he avowed thereby his relinquishment of Christ
ianity ; and he was let go as a traitor to Christ, with die applause of the heathen !
The use of holt w.\ter is another prominent superstition. At the door of the
chapel, each one helps himself from the "holy" reservoir. This is notoriously bor
rowed from the pagan worship. " The Amula," says Montfaucon, " was the vase of
water which stood at die door of the heathen temple for the same purpose. La Cer-
das, in his notes on the well known passage of Virgil respecting sprinkling, says^
"Hence is derived the custom of Holy Mother, to provide holy water at fhe entrance
ofthe chapel, &c." Even the mixture is pagan; it was that of salt and water! And
here I remark again, that had you lived in apostolical, and early times, your present
superstition would have saved you from martyrdom ; and spared you even the charge
of being christians. Dr. Middleton has shown that this was made a test of christian
discipleship : if they refused sprinkling they suffered. And Julian Apostate caused
the food of christians to besprinkled with "holy pagan water;" and they behoved
either to eat it, or starve. Middleton p. 136^140.
Your superstition has also engendered many charms and incantations. You are
noted for this. No thoroughly devout Roman catholic will stir abroad until he has
crossed his shoulders and face : nor converse with heretics, nor read their books, until
he has crossed himself, and invoked his guardian saint. The whole of your doctrine
of saint's relics, is based on this superstition. They are charms to, keep devils and
" bad luck," away from the simple faithful. You maintain a brisk trafic in the arti
cle ofthe " agnus dei," — which is made of wax, balsam and chrism, ¦with the image
of " die lamb of God," on it. These Agni Dei are consecrated by the pope, usu
ally in the first year of his ghostly reign. And it is no trifle that will keep the faithful
from having them, or a chip of them. Whoever is fortunate enough to wear them, as
you teach yonr flocks, is " safe from all spiritual and temporal foes ; from all perils
from fire and water : and from sudden and unshrived death. Thoy drive away all
devUs, and succour women in child birth : nay, they wash away old sins, and give
new grace." In evidence of this "See Franc. Cost. Christ. Instil. Lib. 4. cap, 12,
And " Devotion and office ofthe sacred heart of Christ," p. 375. — Cramp. 364.
In the French service for " St. Sacrament," I see a copy of "two prayers which
were found in Christ's sepulchre at Jerusalem." And whoever wears copies of these
13*

138 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
about his body, is perfecdy safe against all the wUes of the devU : against all storms,
thunder, and Ughtning, and sudden death ! Gl. Prot. No. 60.
Now, I quote not private superstitions, such as the making a sovereign cure for
diseases, as is done in Ireland, out of a piece of clay taken from a priest's grave, and
steeped in water ; nor the famous " Italian soup," so late as 1817, made with a bit
of the shirt of Cardinal Gonsalvi, boiled in it, to remedy all pains and evUs,- made
and gravely beUeved in, at head quarters,— namely at Rome. See Gallifico's Letters,
published in London, 1812, by John JMurray : and Glasg, Prot. No. 148. The super
stitious which I have quoted, are solemnly authorised in your books, as part of your
belief, and ancient religion.
Another peculiarity of your superstition is the use of lamps and wax candles, in open
day, and as a part of holy rites. The origin of this must strike every one, well read in
the classics. The Pagans had their processions with lamps ; and tapers were kept
burning, day and night, before the idols. The primitive christians, you know, ridicu
led tills custom of the idolatrous pagans. Lactantius' words I recommend to you, gen
tlemen, and to all your people. " The heathen light up candles to God," — said this
primitive christian with keen ridicule, — "as if he lived in the dark ! And do they
not deserve to pass for madmen who offer lamps to the Author and Giver of Ught ?"
See Bliddleton p. 140 — 155. You cannot answer this christian father in the negative.
Do you, then, and the laity, take good heed, and see to it: for you have no commu
nion in this thing with the ancient primitive christians ? Your gods and saints Uve in
the dark:" and "you light up lamps to give them light."
Abstainuig from meats in Lent, and other seasons, is another singular attribute of
your superstition. Your religion being one avowedly made to consist only in exter
nals, and one avowedly setting aside all piety, purity, and spirituality in the heart : —
it follows, with you, of course, contrary to our Saviour's words, that "it is not that
which cometh out of the heart, that defileth a man ;" but that meat which " enters
into the mouth!" This, you gravely affirm, does defile the man! Hence "your
disciples, on their sick beds," as Bishop Hall said ; — " are troubled by no sin so much
as by this, that they did once eat meat on a Friday : no repentance can expiate that ;
the rest of their sins need none!" p. 171, works folio. But can your people not see
through the mist of fanaticism, — that meat, which God has blessed and made good for
our use, can no more defile the soul, than it can spoil a fine thought, or corrupt a pure
idea ! True, you reply, as you lull them asleep — this would hold good if religion
were in the heart ! But our religion being extemal, altogether outward, and in the acts
of the body, the use of meats defiles our reUgious feelings, and spoils our devotion !
The discipline and pexance of your church are strongly marked with supersti
tion. In opposition to divine authority you insist on it, that bodily exercise is profita
ble to all things, even to salvation I Hence your cruel fastings, — pardon me, I mean
in olden times. No charge can be brought against modern priests that they do not
know how to live well! The broad shouldered and brawny priest, with the vermillion
countenance, was never " fed on dry pease and cold water," as Sir Walter Scott says.
It is on the laity that your church lays the healthful blessings of fasting, and season
able lacerations, and flagellations, with the whip i This mania has occasionally bro
ken out in the overflowings of superstition ; and has drawn bishops and cardinals,
and even kings fnto its vortex. A king of France, and the cardinal Lorrain, have
been known to join the flagellation, clothed in sackcloth, and armed with "the holy
and sanctifying whip !" And historians tell us, that at a certain season of this disci-

ROMAS CATTHOLIC CONTROVERST, 139
pline, die lights in die Church are at die tinkUng of a bell, extinguished : dien each
devotee seizing the inspiring moment,— strips bare the shoulders; and for an hour no
thing is heard but the noise of the well applied whip, either on their shoulders, or
—it may be, — as profitably, on the benches within their reach ! And if any thing far
ther were necessai-y, 1 would point to St. Patrick's recorded macerations of the flesh, as
astriking instance of this superstition. Lying on the cold stones, under fhe open air;
repeating daUy 150 psalms : making 300 genuflections, his right hand performing
800 motions inthe sign of die cross daily ! and dividing the night inlo three parts : one
third on his knees : one third sleeping ; and one third standing immersed in cold wa
ter ! ! See fhe Rom. Brev. March 17. Thus St, Patrick spent his edifying days ! ! *
But, by what name shall I call your worship paid to the wood ofthe Cross? In the
holy scripture, the word cross is used to express, 1st., the cruel and ignominious death
ol" crucifiction : and in this sense '-the tree" is " the accursed tree ;" and the person
dying on it is, inlaw, " cursed :" — thus " cui-sed is every one that hangeth on a tree!"
And thus our Savior "v.'as made a curse for us," to redeem us from all sin. 2d. It is
taken for fhe real and perfect atonement of Christ, because this was fully accomplished
onthe cross. But contrary to the sentiments and faith ofthe whole christian world,
the Romish church, makes the "cursed tree," not onljf " a blessed tree ;" but the
wood thereof is a real object of worship, with latria ; " Quia Debelur ei latria." See
Pontif. Rom. Clem. 8. Roman edit. 1595: folio. Finch, p. 289.
Here, I shall subjoin a specimen of j-our praj'ers offered up to the wood of the
CROSS. "O Crux, uniea spes, &c. O Cross, only hope ; hail! in this glory of thy
triumph, give an increase of grace to the pious, and blot out the crimes of the guilty !"
Festa Sept. 14. " O bona Crux, &c. O good Cross, who hast obtained comeliness
and beauty from the Lord's limbs, receive me &c." — Nov. 30th. And many of the
good citizens of New York have ¦tvitnessed this idolatrous superstition in ihe elevation
of the Cross ; and its being waved about by a litde roguish boy ; as he presented it to
the prostrate votaries, worshipping a bit of blackened wood! " Behold the wood of
the Cross!" cries the priest. " Venite, adoremus! Come, let us adore it!" And
all are on their knees : and happ5r is that favorite one who can only get near enough to
kiss it, as he adores it ! ! See Rom. Brev. Sat. of Passion week. There is not a more
brutish superstition in the annals of paganism! I challenge any scholar to produce
ita match out of all ancient, or modem heathenism !
And fhe Roman superstition is not confined to priests and old women. The following
is the prayer ofthe priest-ridden ex-king, Charles X, of France, at the baptism of the
Due de Bordeaux in 1821. " Let us invoke for him the protection of the mother of
God ! the queen of angels ! Let us implore her to watch over his days ; and remove
far from his cradle, the misfortunes which it has pleased Providence to afflict his rela
tives ; and to conduct him by a less rugged path to eternal felicity !" Shall I call this
superstition, or sheer atheism ! It is a fair specimen of the revived Jesuitism of France !
The next case is that of Ulric, Duke of Brunswick, who in his dotage, took it into
his head to be — not converted, for the Romish church holds no such doctrine, — but
" reconcUed to die Romish church." Never having known the nature of true religion,
he was easUy seduced by the Jesuits. He wrote a tract called " Fifty reasons of the
* That is, as papists state. We deny that the venerable Patrick was any such fanatic. In
fact, he lived and taught inlreland, before popery overran that country. We rank him among
the pious and orthodox servants of Christ. We publicly deny that St. Patrick was a papist .'
The popish "Life" of thia holy man, is a disgusting tissue of monkish fictions and falsehoods.

140 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
Duke of Brunswick, for preferring the Roman Catholic reUgion to all other sects.*'
The foUowing is his last and crowning reason, which I copy literally. It exhibits a
new specimen of life Insurance! " The catholics, to whom I spoke concerning my
conversion (to Romanism) assured me" says he, " that if I were to be damned fbr
embracing the cathoUc faith, they were ready to answer for me at the day of judg
ment; audio take my damnation to themselves ; an assurance I could never extort," —
adds the Duke very gravely, — " from the ministers of any other sect, in case I should
live and die in their religion !" See this book recommended by your champion. Dr.
Milner, Maneh. edit. 1802.
Again: Your doctrine of supererogation is abase, but profitable superstition. Your
saints can not only keep all the law of God perfectly you say : but even do quite a great
deal over, and above, what infinite perfection requires. This is "the merits of all
saints !" It is put, as you gravely teach your disciples, into one grand treasury: and
the pope keeps the key of it : and he deals it out by way of indulgences, absolutions : —
aud for the help of all who have no merit ; but on the contrary, much guilt. No man
is refused his full share, even to an escape from purgatory, and even from hell : — and
triumphant entrance into heaven, — on one small condition, namely, that he pay the
full price fixed by the holy chancery book of the pope ; and the dictation ofthe priest,
in gold and silver !! ! Shall I caU this superstition ? Or knavery? Or both? The
pope collects All Saints' merit into a fund : and makes sale of it! I gravely ask the
public if they can name a more barefaced system of knavery, practiced on a poor and
deluded people, to abstract their money from them, under false pretences ? And espe
cially so, when Dr. Varela, uncontradicted by the bishop, and his associates, has pub
lished the fact, in a newspaper, " that it is a doctrine ofthe Romish church, that the
priests do not know who, or what of their deceased parishioners, are in purgatory !"
I therefore, respectfully appeal through you, gentlemen, to our fellow citizens, of the
Roman catholic faith, whether these can be good men, or possessing common honesty
who avow, that they do not know ivho are in purgatory ; and yet take your money in
large sums for masses to free your deceased relatives from that place ! ^^'^hat do you
call fhe men around you, who extort money by false pretences ? Look to it. I am
not yom- enemy, who put you on your guard ; and tell you, that God Almighty asks
no money for masses, and for pardoning your sins. Will you beUeve the priests
rather than God? Go to him alone, through die Lord Jesus Christ, — He offers to do
it " wiffiout money, and without price." See your own Douay Bible, Isaiah 55, 1.
Finally : — I shall oblige you and my readers, with only one instance more, of the
incurable superstition of your church. I allude to "the feast op asses," — so fa
mous in your churches, until the light of "the heretics' " religion drove this relic of
prietsly barbarism, I beUeve, into oblivion ; — at least I have not heard of your celebra
ting it in St. Patrick's, or St. Peter's.
This festival commemorated the flight of Joseph and Mary into Egypt; but the
Ass, on which Mary rode, is the most conspicuous personage in the group. Your
sacerdotal ancestors selected the prettiest young lady in the town where the festival
was held ; she represented Mary : she rode on an Ass in splendid attire ; and superb
asinine trappings. She rode the Ass into the church, and up to the altar ; high mass
was then begun : the Ass, as he was taught by his devout compeers, and feUow wor
shippers, kneeled down at the altar. After mass, an ode was sung by the priests in full
chorus TO the ass ! ! I shall present a specimen of the original, in Latin and French,
and then add four stanzas of " the sacred ode" in the Miltonian style, in English :—

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.

141

Orientis partibus,
Adventavit asinus,
Pulcher et fortisaimus,
Sarcinis aptissimus,
CHORDS.
Hez ! Sire Asnes, car chantez,
Belle bouche rechignez,
Vous aurez du foin assez,
Et de r avoine a phantoz,
Lentus erat pedibus,
Nisi foret baculus
Et eum in clunibus
Pungeret aculeus.

CHORDS,
Hez ! Sire Asnes, car chantez, &c.
Ecce magnis auribus,
Subjugalis filius
Asinus egregius
Asinorum dominus.
CHORDS.
Hez ! Sire Asnes, car chantez, &c.
Saltu vincit hinnulos,
Damaa et caprioles.
Super dromedarios,
Velox Medianeos.
Hez ! Sire Asnes, car chantez, &c,

THE TRANSLATION.
" The Ass did come fi^om Eastern climes !
Heigh-ho ! my Assy !
He's fair and fit for the pack at all times !
Sing, father Ass ! and you shall have grass,
And hay, and straw too in plenty !
" The Ass is slow and lazy too ;
Heigh-ho, my Aaay,
But the whip and spur will make him go.
Sing, father Ass, and you shaU get grass,
And straw, and hay too, in plenty,
" The Ass was bom and bred with long ears ;
Heigh-ho, my Assy,
And now the Lordof Assea appears.
Grin, father Ass, and you shall get grass.
And straw, and hay too, in plenty.
" The Ass excells fhe hind at a leap,
Heigh-ho, my Assy,
And faster than hound or hare can trot,
Bray, father Ass, and you shaU have grass,
And straw, and hay too, in plenty."
Here are beauty, elegance, taste, and devotion combined. I have only to add that
the finale was exquisite. The service was always closed with a braying match be
tween the holy and venerable priests in full uiuform, around the altar, and the laity,
in honor of the ass. The stubborn animal would not regularly unite in their rational
service, therefore they condescended to his estate. The priests appropriately " repre
senting the ass," brayed in a fine treble voice, three times. This was replied to by
the devout crowd, who, in full chorus, brayed three times. Then the solenm and as
tonished ass, with his devout cortege was led away home to his hay and straw.
No lover of antiquity, nor modern traveller has yet discovered a parallel to thie
exquisite piece of Roman devotion !
It is probable, gendemen, that you may deny the honor of this festival, as you have
my otiier quotations, ¦wiffi your books lying open before the pubUc. But you are per
fectly aware that this asinine festival is as real and genuine, as is your mass !
I refer you to Du Cange Gloss. Paris Edit, of 1733 : vol. iu. 426. Velly's Hist.

142 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
Du France. Paris Edit, of 1561 ; vol ui. 537. And Edgar's Variations of popery,
Dublin Edit. p. 46. See also Recreat. Magaz. Lond. and Bost. Edit. p. 180.
Lastly : — The Roman cathoUc system has been sustained by Imposture and Frauds.
Here I have materials for volumes. I can give only a specunen of gleanings from
your Roman cathoUc works. In former ages of your dark system, you studiously
kept the people iu profound ignorance : and thus you carried on the imposture
with every facUity. Hence your sweating images : your weeping images, — tears ran
down from their eyes in floods! Hence your images which rolled the eyes and
shook the head ! At the Reformation when sad havoc was made with these miracle
makers, several rare specimens were publicly exhibited. Instead of brains, these
Romish idols had springs and complicated machinery to give motion to fhe eyes and
to the head, and excite the piety of " the simple faithful."
In lands purely catholic, the people, when paying for their masses, ¦wish, very
naturally, to know if the soul has received benefit, and is deUvered; — although father
Varela has let out a dangerous secret, namely, " that their church teaches that no one
of' their priests knows what soul is in purgatory." Well, the priest tells " the simple
faithful," that as long as the soul is not delivered, — by looking into a little door in the
Sacrario, or tabernacle, they can see it, — that is to say, the departed soul, in ihe form
of a mouse ! ^Vhen it is set free from the purgatorial pains : that is, when all the money
that cau be exacted for masses, is obtained, then the mouse disappears! See Master
Key, vol, i. p, 168, 170. Contemptible as this may seem to men of taste, yet it is
what I should call one of the fraternity's more respectable impostures, in " the mystery
of iniquity."
It is a matter perfecdy e^vident from the records of your Breviary, — and Butiei's
Lives, and the Acta Sanctorum, that your whole system has been carried on in the
cells of monks and nuns, by one continuous tissue of visions, revelations, and mira
cles. The "ReUgious," as they all misname themselves, spend their time in manu
facturing this godly sort of ware, for the common benefit of Holy Mother, and " the
simple faithful." Miracles are recorded on the pages of Butler's lives, (3 vols. Dub
lin Edit.) " as plenty as blackberries." Saints walk Uke St. Dennis, ¦without their
heads. Devils are discomfited by legions. The dead are raised. The wafer is not
only converted into Christ's flesh — but is often seen transformed into a hide babe. I
invite my Roman catholic and Protestant friends to examine Buder's Lives, the most
accessible of books. I offer it for fheir inspection : and the Dublin copy of the Car
melite scapular. See also the book called " The Frauds of the Monks."
Again : — Your characteristic talent at cursing and excommunicating, in pontifical
form, ¦with all its dire effects, has not been confined, in its game, to men and women !
For the common benefit of the faithful, it has been successfully fulminated against
four legged beasts, and creeping things. That is to say, your pontifical wrath has
been expended not against heretics only ; but against vermine ! What a valuable
thing a priest is ! Whenever rats, locusts, mice, have overrun fields, the priest in his
consecrated robes, with the grace of intention, to render the rite all efficient, walks
over fhe fields, and sprinkles them, in the form of a cross, ¦with holy water: and so
lemnly curses and excommunicates these vermine. In Provence, in France, the
locust were thus cursed sacerdotally ; but, as my author states, they heeded not the
holy man, or Holy Mother's fulmination. The pope was informed of their heretical
obstinacy! His holiness being infalUble, gave a salutary advice to the faithful.
He ordered the obstinate locust to be again solemnly cursed — ^in November. It was

R0M.\N CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 143
punchially done. And lo ! all of them perished in one night, — by the frost ! See the
accotmtof this in Hurd's Hist. p. 229.
The famous Jesuit Toussain Bridoul, and after him, the well known writer Gavin,
in lus " Master Key of Popery," gives numerous instances of beasts, birds, and bees,
pausing miraculously, in their gambols, and graver pursuits, "to bow to, and adore
the Holy Mass ! " Petrus Cluniac, Lib. 1. cap. 1. — with whom, of course, you, gen
demen, axe well acquainted, — gives us some edifying instances of bees adoring, and
even dying before the Mass! One instance is this: — The wafer being conveyed,
some how or other into the hive, — fhe bees were found dead, — and in the midst of
them, the wafer had become an infant Christ!!! I am gravely quoting from your
own approved author ; — and you know it, if you know any thing of your O'wn minute
histoiy ! And Cantiprat, Lib. 3. Sec. 1. cap. 40, relates that a hive of bees being
heard to hymn most harmoniously,— on inspection, the consecrated wafer ofthe mass
was found among fhem, while they were devoutly humming its glory ! Now this
may seem incredible to many! But I have only to say that I copy it out of the
Roman books. And for my part, I am not surprised that bees should adore the mass !
To me it is far more miraculous that a two legged animal, — a man, with a rational and
immortal spirit should sing its glory ! To me it is far more miraculous that rational
beings should be able to beUeve fhat a priest can create his Creator out of a little wafer,
—and then — eat up his Creator ! This is matched only by the every day prayers of
our Eutychian heretics, the priests, who make Mary "the mother of God!" And
St. Anna "the grand-mother of Almighty God! !" If there be impostures equal to
this in any part of God's dominions, I should be glad to be made acquainted ¦with
them. What is fhe reason ¦why I cannot get any one of you, gentlemen, to come out,
and touch this part of my argument ? The reason is obvious ; you know that what
I speak is nothing but truth : and you dare not — and you cannot defend these dis
gusting — but pubUcly avowed and beUeved catholic absurdities ! !
Yon are, of course, gentlemen, well acquainted ¦with the annual miracle of St.
Januarius at Naples. The blood of this saint is kept in a bottle ; it is usually a crust ;
but on his day, at the invocation of the faithful, it becomes something different in
the botde ; — fhe token of his presence and protection. By the way, he is, yon know,
the guardian against the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius. Well, on a certain day, after
innumerable ceremonies, of which all pagans of all heathen lands, are itmocent,—
this saint's blood, — if he condescends to be propitious, becomes a bubbling red Uquid in
the priest's hand. Dr. Moore, the father of General Sir John Moore, and the tutor
of the late Duke of HamUton — in his " Tour," gives a true and fuU account of this
annual ceremony, from ocular inspection. Sometimes the holy saint is rather obsti
nate : he -wiU not soften and dUute his own blood, while it is daylight. Towards the
evening, the mob becomes very obstreperous ; and chide the saint in no set phrase ;
¦" You sooty, yeUow faced old fellow ! why wiU you not yield, and melt at the pious
invocation of our priests?" These words Dr. Moore heard uttered. When it begins to
he conveniently dark, the blood in the bottle becomes liquid, — the priest proclaims it : —
then is the boisterous cry of praise heard, in favor of "the beautiful, and fair St.
Januarius." So much for fhe saint who takes care of Naples ; and has die charge of
Mount Vesuvius. ¦ It is a pretty, and profitable imposture withal. For money flows
in plentifully, when the saint yields — ^that is, melts his crusted blood in the priest's
bottle,— and the priest's coffers overflow with silver.
I shall present you another instance of imposture. About seventeen years ago,

144 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
says an eminent writer in 1820, a lady now living in Edinburgh, -was on a -visit to her
DubUn relatives. Through the influence of a Scotch gentieman, she -was introduced
to a popish chapel, on an occasion when a number of souls was to he translated out of
purgatory. The chapel was brilUantly Ughted. The priest who sat in a lofy place
witii a table before him, took care that there should be no exhibition until he -Was
paid- Several ofthe relatives ofthe deceased persons, whose souls were to be released,
rose up, and passing before fhe priest, each laid do^wn a well filled purse on the table.
The money being stowed away -with a nod of satisfaction, he stated to the audience,
now on the tip-toe of expectation, that the souls were actually translated, and in evi
dence of this, they would soon make their appearance. Instantly a moveable part of
the floor, a kind of trap-door, commtmicating, as it were, with the infernal regions of
purgatory, slowly opened, and there appeared black, burned, brandered, and seared,
little creatures, crawling heavily and awkwardly out over the slanting board. As they
began to move about, amid shouts of a miracle, a miracle, the lights were, in order to
prevent detection, extinguished as if by magic ! The lady who had eyed these suffer
ing representatives of troubled souls, heing ¦within reach of one of them, slyly picked
it up in the dark, and conveyed it to her pocket, — for ladies wore pockets in those
days,— -and carried it home : and pulling it out, to the utter astonishment of all, it turn
ed out to be A CRAB, in a newly fitted on dress of black velvet! This was communi
cated by an eminent clergyman, who had it from the lips of the lady's daughter, who
carried off the emancipated spirit ! See McGavin's Glasgow Prot". ch. 78.
I cannot resist telling another, which I had from my friend the Rev. W. Wilson,
residing near Phtsburg, Pa. He had it from an eminent counsellor, who was an eye-
viritness of the scene. In their neighborhood, in Ireland, the heretics had been mak
ing dangerous inroads. To check this evil, a miracle was proclaimed; and it was to
be no less than the casting the devil out of a maniac ! A stage was erected in a
¦field, near a morass ; there sat the bishop and his priests in their robes. Our coim-
sellor heing a Roman catholic, was admitted on the stage. The maniac was brought
up, in heavy chains, foaming, and screaming, and gnashing his teeth. The form of
exorcism was duly gone through : all was in painful suspense : the priest officiating,
then, raising his arms, the right one over the head of the maniac, he cried " Come out
of him thou devil!" That moment a black bird, like a raven, issued from the man-j
iac's head ; the chains fell off as by a charm, and the maniac leaped up fall of joy,
and perfectly restored. The roar of a miracle, a miracle, shouted by the crowd as
their eyes followed the black devil flying away into the morass, was deafening.—
" But," — said the sly counsellor, " I saw with my own eyes, the crow come mit ofthe
priest's unde sleeve : and every one could see that the chains were so contrived that, by
touching a spring, they could fall off instantly." The knave, in a word, acted the
maniac well ; and was well paid for his pains by the priests.
I shall conclude with the imposture of St. Peter's chair. "At the extremity of the
great nave of St. Peter's, Rome, and behind the altar, stands, — or rather once stood— a
sort of throne," says a late traveller. " This throne enshrines the real, plain, worm-
eaten wooden chair, in which St. Peter commonly sat, when he was pope." Wheu
the French under Napoleon visited Rome, not being much disposed towards the £aith
of the simple faithful, they seized this holy relic. Upon a close examination of its
decorations, certain letters and figures were traced. It was carefuUy washed from its
cobwebs and dust ; and the sentence copied from the hack of " St. Peter's identical
chair." It was in Arabic character. Alas, for Saint Peter's pontificalchair. Alas,

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 345
.for the pope's infallible succession in this chair. The sentence was translated, papists
unfortunately for infallibUity, — are no scholars in the Oriental languages  Here is tho
translation, — " There is one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet ! ,'" It had been a
sad mistake. Instead of Peter's stool from the older churches ; or his seat at Antiocli,
the ignorant Romanists had plundered a Mohammedan priest of his chair, and thus
robbed the mosque to decorate Saint Peter's at Rome. Thus, the pope had been sit
ting from time immemorial, not in St. Peter's chair, but in a Mufti's chair. And
hence, as they count their succession hy " a chair," the pope has upset his infallibility,
and derives his legitimate succession from Mohammed. 1 am, gentlemen, yours truly, &c.
W. C. B.

On the same day in which the above Letter appeared, the following Notice was
issuedin fhe same Roman catholic paper, which contained my Letter XL, July 1-3,
1833. TO DOCTOR BROWNLEE, A PREACHER IN THE MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH.
Dear Sir — We must again iterate the question proposed to you in the " Truth
TeUer" of last Saturday.
A proposition was proposed to Preacher Brownlee in our last letter, — " What articles
of faith, found in the scripture in express terms, must be believed in order to be
saved?" We expect a direct answer from Preacher Brownlee. No subterfuge. The
continuation of our controversy with him, personally, will depend on his answer.
John Power,
July 5di, 1833. Thos, C. Levins.

TO DOCTORS POWER, AND LEVINS.
Gentlemen : — You have honored me with a Card, containing a fresh challenge ;
and in last Saturday's paper, youreiterate it. You could not but be aware when you
¦wrote these cards, that your editor had no less than two letters on hand, from rae ;
namely, one to Dr. Varela; and one to you, in the regular order of discussion. Had
I been two letters or even one in arrears, you might have had some plausible reason
for this zeal and impatience. As it is, — I leave the public to judge with what kind of
grace you make this new and bullying challenge. Your edUor keeps up my letters,
and ludicrously enough offers his columns to you to reiterate fresh calls on me to come
out! And yet, he gave me his assurance that he would deal fairly.
Your new challenge is contained in this ungrammatical and blundering card. " A
proposition is proposed to Preacher Brownlee ; What articles of faith found in the
scriptures in express terms must be believed in order to be saved ? The continuation
of our controversy with him personally v/ill depend on his answer!"
One aim you have ever kept in view from thefirst, in all this discussion ; — iti*
this, — to prevent me, by all possible means, from exhibiting in their native deformity,
the dogmas, and rites of your church. For this purpose you adhered to " the rule,'''
and would hear of nothing but " the rule ;" even after its evidence was full, expUcit,
and complete : and afteryou had exhausted even the last of your borrowed ideas ; and
spent the last expletive of ferocious -vituperation. It is true, you thought you had
14

146

ROMAN CATHOLIC CON'TROVERST.

caught me in your trap, when I changed my purpose, and agreed to discuss the Rule.
But, you were not aware until it was too late, that I had laid a trap for you. You were
not aware that we were, all the while, drawing you out : and setting you hefore the
American public, in all the unenviable character of convicted Deists ; more vulgar
than Paine ; and more blasphemous than Voltaire ! I thus succeeded in a double
object, — namely, the exposure of your corrupt church, and your personal deism !
And, now, not yet having found an excuse palpable enough to cover your retreat ;
you assume an inquisitorial air ; and not only dictate to me a subject, which will
draw me entirely away from that which the pubhc expect and demand from me : but
you take it on you to declare, that unless my answer shall be precisely according to
your views, and wishes, you will then retreat, and leave the ground !
But I caU on you to keep strictly to the point under discussion. Upwards of twenty-
five arguments I have had the honor of presenting to your consideration, and that of
the public ; lefuting your rule of faith ; and exposing the divisions ; and novelty of
your church; her superstitions, fanaticism, and impostures! None of these have
heen answered. If you do retreat, — I here enter my solemn protest against it, before
the public, that it can be for no other reason than this, — namely, that you cannot vin
dicate your church from one of all these charges ! If you do retreat, I protest that it
shall be pronounced a public acknowledgment, that popery is indefensible hefore the
enlightened American people !
In reply, — the articles of faith put forth in express terms in the scriptures, and
necessary to be beUeved by us, in order to our salvation, are these : — " Hear O Israel,
the Lord our God is one Lord." — "There are three that bear record in heaven, the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one." " God sent his
Son into the world to save us." " Thou art the Son of God :" " I and my father are
ONE." " The son of man came to .seek and to save them that are lost." "Jesus the
Son, — is the true God, and eternal life." "In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was God." "Jesus proceeded forth and came from God." The Holy Ghost
is God ; "Why hath Satan fiUed thine heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost? Thouhast
not lied unto men, but unto God !" " The spirit proceedeth from the Father :" " and
He is also the Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ." Gal. iv. 6-.
" BeUeve in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." He that believeth
and is baptized, shall be saved : he that beUeveth not sh-all be damned." " Shew ye
Ibrlh the Lord's death, until he come : " Do this, (celebrate the eucharist,) in remem
brance of me." " This is life eternal to know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent." "If thou shalt beUeve in thine heart, and confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved." " Except a man be born of the
-water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." " Except
ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." "Walking in all the commandments and
ordinances of the Lord blameless," — " thou shalt love the Lord thy God -with all thy
heart and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor, as thyself." " We are justified by
the faith of Jesus Christ; and not by the works of the law." "By the works ofthe
law shall no flesh living be justified;" that is, before God, our Heavenly Father.
"By works," the fruits of holiness "is a man justified, and not by faith only," says
St. James : — that is, before men, we give evidence of jusrification by our piety and
holiness. By faith in "Christ's imputed righteousness alone without works, are we
justified at the bar of God, in our justification before God. Thus Paul and James are
reconciled, and plaiMy too, even to an infant scholar !

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 147
Here is a specimen of the articles in express terms of scripture. I omit, for want
of room, those about Christ the only king and head of the church : about " the Man of
Sin:" and about "the mark of the beast on the forehead, and inthe hands," which will
doom a man to perdition. Now, if we believe these in the heart by the true failh of
God, the Holy Spirit's operation, and "if wc confess them with the mouth we shall
be saved." And I give them in the express words of God, in his scriptures. And who
will venture to gainsay the express words of God ? Which of you dare impugn the
counsels, decrees, and doctrines of the Almighty ?
And now, having, I hope, fully met your challenge, I demand it, as my right, to go
on with the main point in hand, namely, the exposure ofthe old " Harlot, Mother of
Babylon." And, in courtesy, you will allow me in my turn, to challenge you to fol
low me, and my arguments. By the grace of God I shall not retreat.
I am, gentlemen, yours, &c.
July 20, 1833. W. C. Brownlee.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER XI,
It opens ¦ivith a grave discussion on " the gentleman" and " fhe writer." They admit Dr,
, B. to be " a writer," but very strongly deny that he is " a gentieman." And they caU him
" A liar!"
" From your gasconade ' challenge' to the catholic bishop and priesta of New York, to the
1 ast paragr.aphs, the ' purgatorial crabs' and the ' Mufti's chair,' in your letter No. XI, , these
arenot ten consecutive lines in your eleven letters, that do contain either a deliberate false
hood, or a proofless assertion. This will be amply proved ere the present controversy be
closed." " When ¦wilful falsehood is used by a preacher in the most sacred cause that can be un
dertaken by man — Religion: when it is used to subvert the creed of his neighbor, and uphold
his own, then the strict and honest appellation for this preacher, though he may be a Ches
terfield among ' virtuous ladies,' — a liar ; no other word can designate the real character of
the man!"
Note : — It is much easier to employ this characteristic vulgarity, than to prove one of our
arguments a failure, or one of our quotations from Romish books false.
The following exhibits a specimen ofthe ludicrous, with a little spice of Jesuitical rancor
and the repetition of their everlasting " Tillitudlum." Having mentioned my twenty-five argu^
ments, they add, — " but there are two of those ' twenty-five arguments' to which the ' chris
tian public' should especially attend, as truths of a more eminent order. The first is your
gross, unchristian, and false charge against the poor catholic servants of this city ; — the other,
your sanction ofthe obscene tale, Lorette. But our catholic rule rests as solid in its eternal
strength, and the walls of St. Patrick's cathedral are as free from fissure as if they had not
been pelted by the preacher's ' parallel passages' from his ' Hebrew and Greek ofthe Holy
Ghost.' "
Note : — I brought no false charges against " catholic servants.'' I stated facts which can
be established in a court of justice. It was protestant compassion that prevented my friend
from sending the Roman catholic culprit, to Bridewell, And I stated it as a native result of
the infamous priestcraft that whispers fhe atrocious doctrine of " legal theft," at the con
fessional. I call the attention, once more, of priests and laymen to L. Molina, vol, ii, 1150,
and the extracts from th#Jesuit Cardenas : — " Servants may steal secretly from their masters, as
much as tliey judge their laboris worth, more than the wages which they receive." It would secure
the pubhc safety, and preserve the purity of morals, if the " holy priests," who instil this
immoral and dangerous doctrine, info the minds of " silly women, laden witii iniquity,'' at

149

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.

the confessional, were they committed to Bridewell, instead of their lesa guilty victims,— To
these charges I have thus presented facta, and unqueafionable extracta from their owu
books. I ought not to omit, that it ia ludicrous to enrol " this charge against fhe poor servants,"
»nd ray " sanction of Lorette" among the twenty arguments against the priests' rule '.
Having run over their endleea repetitions against the holy Bible, our only rule of faith,
they arrive in their second column, at their old quarters, thus r —
" Therefore, your rule of faith leads directly and necessarily to Deism and Infidelity !
Thus, Rev. Preacher and erudite inthe "Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost," is the
" hook in your nose."
Having spent a quarter of a column in defending fheir ungrammatical and blundering
card, fhey notice tlie feast of asses, evidently no novelty to them : and fhey invite Dr. B. " a»
possessing eminent qualifications to join in the procession ofthe next feast of asses around St.
Patrick's cathedral." But they do not specify whether he is 'to bray, in neble, with the holy
priests ; or in solemn bass, to bray with the priest-ridden laity !"
There next follows an expression of amazement at our creed, expressed, in substance, in
scripture language, in our card. Why, exclaim they, the Arians beheve as much ! The
Nestorians believe as much, the Pelagians, the Eutycians, who confound Christ's two natures
nto one, and make a female the motlier of tlie Deity, — why they all believe as much ! " In
he name of common sense can this be your creed ?"
Note. They should have added, — and they all professed to believe the same Bible,
therefore we should throw rt away. They all used human clothing and human food ; there
ibre, to be utterly at antipodes with them, and to have no communion with them, we ought
to reject both fhe one, and the other !
They close the Letter with anew demand, — too simple to attain their object, ¦\vhich fhey
never lose sight of, name!}', to turn us aside from our purpose, — " ^Vhat article of catholic
faith is contradicted bythe express texts of scripture, inserted in your new creed? Let this be
noted by your christian public.''
Note. I reply, — all the peculiar tenets of popery, saint and image worship, the new
mediators, and mediatrices, tlie mass, which takes the place of our Lord's atonement ; lioly
tvcter, anit purgatory, which take the place of the Holy Spirit, and his influences ; confession
and absolution, in which a wretched priesf thrusts himself into the place of Him, even " God
who, alone, can pardon sins ;" the ghostly supremacy of the pope, who usurps the throne of
Him who " has all power in heaven, and in earth ;'' infallibility assumed by a vicious and pol
luted priesthood, — from the pope, down to the uneducated priest, who knows not mumpsimus
from sumpsimus,* in his own Vulgate, — as it thrust itself into the judgment seat of God
Almighty, — are all opposed fo, and contradicted by, these texts. The sword of the Spirit
aims a decisive blow at tlie head, and the heart of fhe Apocalyptic Beast ! And with these,
every limb, to the remotest extremity, must die ; and die fo live no more !

* A certain zealous Roman catholic priest iu the days of the immortal Reformer, Luther, was ab.'^olutety so
rude and illiterate, that he had, for thirty years, read mumpsimus, for the Latin word sumpsimus. "When tiie
Reformer reproved the barbarism, and offered to put him right, he gave this truly orthodox answer, according
10 the standard of the unreformable court of Rome, and popery, — " It may be so '. But I shall not give up my
old MUMPSIMUS, for your uew sumpsimus ["

ROMAN C.ITHOLIC CONTROVERST. 14D
LETTER XII.
TO DRS. POWER, ANO VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS.
"Sic et Babylon apud Johannen, &c. Thus also Babylon is, in our John, a figure of tho
city of Rome ; which is great and proud in empire ; and a subduer of the saints." Tertullan.
Gentlemen : — We ha\'e shown that die Roman cathoUc religion is not found ia
the Bible ; that, in fact, the whole system is irreconcUeable with the word of God.
We have also finished our discussion on the superstition, fanaticism, and impostures of
the Romish church, and clergy. The subject which now claims onr attention in the
natural order of logical dependence, is that of the notes, or marks of ihe Roman catho
lic church.
It is weU known to those who are famUiar with Romish books, or have intercourse
with Roman catholic priests, and laitj-, that ¦- Holy Mother church" is the main
object of their faith. That sect has so completely apostatized from the truth, that it
seems actually to have no idea of saving " faith in God, and in Christ." Justiticalion
by faith in Christ, and fhe renovation of the heart by the Holy Spirit, are doctrines
which form no part of their svstem. Thev "beUeve in Holy Mother church."
They receive, by faith, all that she teaches: they only aim at dying in her bosom;
this is all the justification, and all the sanctification they look for. "The temple of
the Lord! The temple of the Lord, are these!" This is as often and as sincerely
repeated by the Romish sect, as it ever ¦ivas by the Jews of antiquity. They have, in
fact, publicly assumed the very gi^ound, which the apostate Jews took, against our Lord
and his kingdom. They not only crucify him afresh in every repetition of the Mass ;
hut they say we are the children of " Holy Mother Church ;" we are of " her who is
the immutable church:'' we are of her to ¦whom the Lord gave the promise tha-L "the
gates of hell shall not prevail against her.'^ This promise ¦(^•hich our Lord gave to
his pure, holy, and only church, they insultingly and arrogantly appropriate to them
selves; even as did the persecuting and murderous Jews, Thelatter said "We" be
Abraham's children !'' and they graveh" infeiTcd that the Almighty was bound, in
virtue of that, to save them, vicious and apostate as they were. The forraer, the Ro
mish sect, say — -' We are of Holy Mother !" And let their character be what it may :
though they are at -vvar whh God's law, and are rebels against all our Lord's olhces,
rejecting him as a prophet, by tlieir traditions and infidel rule of faith ! rejecting him
as a priest in each renewed rebel act of the mass, which they call a sacrifice for tin;
quick and the dead ! rejecting him as the only ki.^g in Zion, by the blasphemous
supremacy ofthe pope! though they practice all vices, and sell even pubUcly, as at
vendue, the pardon of sins, past, present, and future ; yet because they are of "Hoh'
Mother," and are in her bosom, they shall all be saved I And no human being out of
her pale, are, or can be saved !
Hence we hear the Roman catholic priests and laity pronouncing the solemn doom
of perdition on all men, — themselves only excepted, who are the exclusive favorites
of heaven. To their partizans in iniquity, they say, as men who have taken the
keys of the kingdom out of the hands of him who alone can bear them and
wield them, — "If you die in Holy Mother's" bosom at last, it is no matter what
you have been, or have done, or what you now are : you are safe ! We are the only
church: and the gold and sUver, paid for "absolution" and "ext:;eme unction,"
14*

150 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
wash away si'ns ! And as a token of this, the priest, counterfeiting as much gravity
as possible, wraps up his deluded votary in a rag of old " Holy Mother's" tattered gar
ment: then he dictates a certificate to God the judge, that this said rag of the Roman
"Harlot," is the very robe ofthe Redeemer's righteousness: and all the church dues
being paid, he must, of course, acquit him, at the priest's bidding! And why ? Be
cause God had given an assurance to his true church — not at all to the Roman apos
tacy, — that what she "bound on earth" by way of wholesome discipline, "he should
bind in heaven."
From all this it must be obvious, ¦with what anxiety the Roman catholic priests.
endeavor to establish the truth of their church, by certain marks. The most promi
nent of these are antiquity, catholicity, succession, unity, &c. These we are now to
discuss. First: — antiquitt. — There are few points by which the public have been more
imposed on, than by this claim : " The church of Rome is ofthe ancient religion." In
the ears of the superficial and weak, this claim of "the old religion," sounds as a
resistless charm. " It is the old religion." And from this they draw an inference
befitting men who neither think, nor reason. Instead of listening to evidence and argu
ment as proof of the utter apostacy of Romanism : and, thence, justly inferring that
the " age and antiquity" of a rotten carcass only make it infinitely more rotten ; they
profoundly and very logicaUy conclude that the antiquity of corruption makes it
sweet and good! "It is the old religion," say tbey, ¦without stopping to listen to
the proof that " Old Mother" has been dead and buried ; though pagan-like, she has
been set up in her grave clothes, to receive the worship of her children. And because
they deem her the *¦' old religion," therefore she is the only true religion. And the
name " Protestant," being a new name — some two or JArce hundred years old, — fhere
fore the religion presented under that netv name, is new, and a false reUgion. The
public mind must be disabused on this point. And for this purpose I beg your atten
tion to a Iwo-fold sophism ir> this universal cant of papists about their antiquity.
1st. Antiquity is no evidence when taken alone, of the truth of a theory. Sin and
error are as old as Adam. Does that ripen and mellow thera into God's truth '.' The
kingdom of Satan is considerably older than even that of Rome, and the popery there
of. If popery be true from its antiquity, much more so is the kingdom of Satan, the
reign ofthe truth. The Ptolemaic system of astronomy, which placed the earth in
the centre, and made the sun and worlds move, as it were, round a grain of sand, is
far more ancient than the Copernican : and therefore, by Romish dialectics, conse
crated to the defence of" Holy Mother," the former system is true, and theNewtonian
system is false ! Sir Isaac Newton's philosophy is new ; it is only some hundred
vears old. Therefore the systems of Egypt, and the dark ages, are the true philoso-
jihy ; and Sir Isaac is an impostor like Luther; and his system, Uke the Reformation
is falsehood !
2. Another portion of your sophistry Ues here: the Roman priests designedly con-
fimnd the name of " Protestants," wilh the system of religion, which they maintain.
And, thence, in true Romish logic, they conclude that because the name "Protest
ant," bestowed on the Reformers, in consequence oftheir solemn Protest and appeal
to a general council, against the decree of Charles V., and the Diet of Spires, in A. D.
1529, — is a new and recent name, therefore their religion is no dder than the na'me !
Now let us try the force of this delectable Romish logic. "Ireland" is a name of
roodern date ; only sorae few centuries old. Before this, it was called Hibernia, But

ROMAN CiTHOLlC CONTROVERST. 151
because the name is a few centuries old, it follows by the certainty of our Romish logic,
that the thing itself, — even the Emerald Isle is a mere novelty, and had only a recent
existence! "Great Britain" is a new name; it used to be called "Albion;" — in
short, England, Scotland, France, America itself, are all new and modern names:
and as, by the Romish dialectics, the name and the thing designated by it, are of
equal date in duration ; fherefore, these countries only began to exist when they got
tliese modern names ! '
In my letter VIII. I examined the maniac logic of the priests. Wc showed that
the Romish church wants the essential marks ofthe true church. I then offered ten
proofs in evidence ofthe historical fact, that the Romish church and her characteristic
system are a raere novelty ; invented chiefly after the sixth century, by wicked men
and despots ; and the very master piece of satan and priestcraft ! These we sustained
by appeals to historical documents. And if silence be consent, then have the priests
given me their unlimited assent to each and all of these ten arguments! On this
mark of their church, I need not long insist. I shall only observe, in brief, that tho
great fundamental tenet of Romanism, — namely, the suprehact ofthe Pope, or of
the church, is a mere novelty in the history ofthe church. Pope Zozimus in A. D.
420 seems to have been the first who attempted to set up certain claims of supremacy
for the Roman See, over all other churches in the West. And this he tried to esta
blish by an impudent forgery of some decrees, purporting to be the decrees of the
council of Nice ; in which he had caused it to be written " that it was lawful to ap-
pCeU to Rome, from other churches." The famous Milevitan council in Africa, of
whom your own St. Augustine was a leading and faithful member, opposed and con
demned these impious clairas of the Pope. They even sent a special embassy into the
East, to obtain from the Greek church attested copies ofthe acts of the council of Nice.
And by these copies they publicly convicted the popes of Rome, even "the infalli
ble" Zozimus and his "infallible" successors, of falsehood, fraud, and forgery! I
shall give you the words of this councU, which solemnly denied and repelled tho
pope's claims of supremacy, so late as the fifth century : — " Quod si ab eis, &c. But
if they, (the clergy) think it necessary to appeal from them, they shall appeal only to
African Councils, or to the primates of their provinces. If any one shall appeal be
yond the seas, let him be received into communion by none in Africa." The signa
ture of St. Augustine is the fourth to this solemn decree. See Mansi Council. Col
lect. Tom. 4. p. 507. Venet Edit. 1785. Finch, p. 156.
And so late eis A. D. 590, Pope Gregory I, declares the apostle Peter " not to be
the head, but only a member of the church." See Regist. Lett. Tom. 2, p. 743.
And again, "I confidently say that whosoever calls himself nniversal bishop, or de
sires to be called so, is, in his pride, the forerunner of Antichrist," &c. See Lib. 7.
Indie. 15. Epist. 33. Bedict. Edit. Paris, 1705. In another place, he affirms that tho
" three bishoprics of Alexandria, and Antioch, and Rome," are from the same Peter,
" which is of one, but in three places, — quse in tribus locis unius est." Tom. ii. p.
887. It was not untU the days of Boniface III. A. D. 606, that the pope was raised to the
supremacy of universal bishop. And this was done, not by the will of God, but by
the civil power of the ferocious tyrant Phocas, who murdered the king his master, and
by murder and treason, usurped the imperial throne. And even this supremacy, ob
tained by the most atrocious means, extended to the Western churches only. Tha
Eastern, and the Greek churches stood out against papal usurpation, and do resist yoa

152 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
unto this day. Now, this supremacy, partial and sectarian as it was, being the device
of the political Judas, caUed Phocas, at the instigation of Western schismatics, inthe
seventh century, where is the boasted antiquity of the Roman cathoUc sect ? I venture
to say that no well read Jesuit can refrain from laughter, without an unusual effort,
even while he is putting forth this knavish claim of antiquity !
The MASS, the grand arcanum of Roman craftiness, the subUme creature of priest*
craft, which lays golden eggs, can boast of no great antiquity. This fiction was, after
many a struggle, established in the bosom of Holy Mother, in A. D. 1215; and con
sequently it is now only six hundred and nineteen years old. And I invite any priest,
well versed in the history of the church, to prove any thing to the contrary.
Auricular confession, one of the main springs of ghostly power ; the copious
source of wealth ; and of all possible wickedness, was finally established by Pope
Innocent III., in the beginning of the thirteenth century, and is no older than the
Mass. Purgatory, notwithstanding the golden harvests which it was foreseen to afford
"Holy Mother," is of a quite recent date. It required all the darkness of the dark
ages to brutaUze sufficiently the human mind, in Europe, for its faith and reception.
The priests had long labored by pious frauds, and miracles, and visions, it is true, to
establish the lucrative fiction, Bnt maugre all their influeijce, it was really not
elevated into a proud article of faith among the simple faithful, until A. D. 1430. This
was done by the notorious council of Florence. It is, therefore only404years old!
The creation and invocation of saints have long been another profitable affair in
your church. In order to make the manufactory of this ¦ware profitable, there must
be invocation. Pope Clement XI. created four saints in one day, namely, Pius V ;
Andrew of Aveline ; Felix of Cantalice ; and Catharine of Bologna, for each of which
he received 100,000 crowns ! Here the spiritual job brought him 400,000 crowns, in
a couple of hours ! Yet notwithstanding the Romish eflbrts in behalf of this lucrative
dogma, the invocatioti of saints was not fixed, as an article of faith, until the ninth
century !
But we must cut short our details. The use and worship of images ¦were condemn
ed so late as A. D. 700, by the council of Constantinople. In the ninth century, tbe
darkest hour of the darkest ages, they were finally set up 'by impiety and imposture,
as objects of worshi]) in your church. Telesphorus invented and bi^oughtin the Len^
ten feasts. Calixtus instituted, by arbitrary power, the four ember fasts of the year.
Hyginus exerted his genius in inventing the "sacred chrism or oil." The mamage
of priests was finaUy prohibited by Pope Gregory VII. near the close of the eleventh
centurj', say A. D. 1070. And the abstraction of the cup from the eucharist, or the
communion without icine, after it had been forged, and in-^'cnted by impostors; and
opposed by Pope Gelasius, was finally decreed by the council of Constance, which
met in A. D. 1414. And it is therefore, an imposition only 430 years old !
And it is due to truth, to observe here, that all these papal innovations, now alluded
to, and more fully narrated in mv Letter VIIL, were not quietly permitted to usurp the
throne of Christ our Lord, and displace his doctrines. On each one of them fhere
was a struggle before the arch-deceiver prevailed. I am prepared to produce from_^De
to seventeen of the best of the fathers against each one of these innovations of Rome.
The want of room only, prevents me from quoting them, St, Augustine with Jerome,
who called Rome " the great Babylon," and St. Ambrose, take the lead. Every Ro
man priest has read of the two " thunderbolts of war" against Romish impositions, —

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVSRST. 15^
namely, Bertram.and Berringer, who, in the days of Gregory VII. called also by the
more emphatic and appropriate name of " HeUbrand," impugned the idolatrous fiction
of the mass. Who has not read the immortal Robert Groslhcad, die Roman catholic
bishop of Lincoln, shnamed the pounding Hammer of the Romish beast? Who liaa
not heaid of Gallus, and Petrarch, and a host of others : and in later times of Claude,
and Nicholas Clemangis?
On the contrary, even- peculiar doctrine, and rite of ancient Christianity, as our
Lord revealed it in the holy scriptures, have been religiously beUeved, and professed by
the Piotestant church ofthe Reformation. Call u? by any name you elect . call us
Protestants ; or the children of the old Italick church, or ^Valdenses, or Albigenses ; *ir
Bohemian brethren ; or LoUards; or Huguenots; or the associates of Luther ; or Cal
vin; or Zuingle; or Knox. We hold up to public view "The syntagmata Confes-
sionum," " the collection of the Confessions" of the Reformed Church. On every
doctrine, aud sacrament of die pure primitive and apostolical Christianity, all tho
-' Reformed churches," are entirely alone. Not so in Rome; every essential doctrine,
and the two sacraments are bmied, and utterly lost in the rubbish of " Babjdon the
Great!" And were we even to outrage tnith and historical evidence, by admitting the Romish
church to be a true church of Christ, can any man be so stupid as not lo know diat
the church at Jerusalem, the Svriac church, which Dr. Buchanan found existing in.
the interior of India, are far more ancient than that of Rome? Can any man
be so ignorant of historical truth as not to know that the churches of Egypt, particu
larly that of Alexandria; and the church of Antioch, and the whole Greek church, are
more ancient thau that of Rome. Nay, every sensible man knows that the old
Italick church was before the church of Rome, as she now is, being the same in doc
trine and rites as the "apostoUc church at Rome.'' The arguments, therefore, ofthe
Roman writers on this point, are not only vicious sophistry, but false in fact.
2d. C.VTHOLiciTY. — The term Catholic, a Greek word, signifies general or univer
sal. And the Roman church claims the exclusive use, and honor of this title. They
are the catholic, the universal church.
Vvlien applied to the church of Christ, "which he bought with his own blood ;" as it
is appropriately used in the creed, "I believe in the holy catholic church," the Protest
ants understand it thus : — It takes in all those who are, or shall be in the kingdom of
God above. "The church," says St. Jerome, "does not consist of walls, but of
true doctrine. Wherever the true faith is, there the church is." Oper. vol, vii. p. .388.
" The church of Christ," says St. Augustine, — "is in the saints : the church of Christ
is in those who are written in heaven: — the chnrch of Christ is in those who do not
yield to the temptations of the world." Oper, Tom. iv. Expos, ofthe 47th Psalm.
Again, says he, on the 62 Psalm, — "Christ's whole (catholic) church, which is
spread every where, is his body, of which he is the Head." In the same sense do all
Protestants correctly use the term. The church catholic includes all who are now in
glory out of our ransomed family : all who are now in Christ by faith ; and all who
shall be in him, the Head of us all.
But the Romish sectarians are about as modest as some of the Eastern princes,
who gravely claim dominion over sun and moon ; and derive titles from these exten
sive and "catholic" dominions, in the heavens! They are the "catholic," the
" universal" church ! They have two arguments to sustain this romantic claim. —
1st. The aposdes gave them the exclusive name of catholics. I shall quote their own

154 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
words ; for it explains the singular reason why neither in Rome, nor in New York,
the priests ever call themselves christians. " When heresies sprang up, — the name
christian was too common to sever the heretics from the true faithful men : hence the
apostles by the Holy Ghost, imposed the name catholic on those who are obedient to
the (Roman) church's doctrines." See Rhem. Annot. on Acts xi. 26, and 1 John U.
2. and BeU. De Eccles. iv. 4. That is to say, — for this Romish mysticism needs a
translation, — the apostles who wrote the scriptures in Gieek, and who, themselves,
belonged principaUy, and especially to the Syriac and Greek churches, without any
command from heaven, gave to an obscure Jewish assembly of christian converts al
lUme, consisting probably, at that time, of a few hundred, the tide of " The univer
sal church of Christ .'"
You may gravely ask where any one can find the command, if any ever was giv
en ; or where any statement is made in civil history, authorizing the belief, that the
apostles of our Lord, in the midst of the great and flourishing churches of the East,
such as those of Syria, and Egypt, and Greece, took it solemnly into their heads to
bestow the title of "church universal or catholic," on a few obscure christians in
Rome ! I answer no one has been yet bold enough to risk his character in asserting,
¦with proofs out of ancient documents, that the apostles did so. The simple word of
the interested " infallible," is all ihat has been pleaded. But if diere be no weight ia
the estimation of all who do not beUeve by proxy — there is a second argument resort
ed to by the romantic advocates of popery. "They are the catholic or universal
church," say they — "because in respect of time, place, and person, the Roman
church has always been in ihe world ; in all countries in the world : and has flourished
in all nations !" That is to say — for this needs a friendly exposition : " The Romish
church has always been in the world," — except when the Jewish church existed; —
which was before the Romish church had a being ! " The Roman church has always
been in the world :'' That means for a few centuries ! " The Roman church has
been in all countries, in all the world," That is, except in Asia, and Africa, and the
greater part of America, and some of the most extensive empires of Europe. " The
Roman church has flourished in all nations. Except England, Scotland, Holland,
Ireland, Denmark, Russia, Prussia, all Asia, all Africa. " The Roman church takes
in all people.'' Yes, except about eight hundred millions out of nine hundred miUions
of the human family. "The Romish church will a?i«ai/« be in the world," except
from the close of the 1260 years, and the whole period of millenium, when she wUl
be annihilated by a cathoUc overthrow.
Such are the ludicrous and maniac claims of this sect of schismatics, to catholicity,
or universality ! The person who does not see the absurdity of this, most assuredly
merits our pity and compassion. The claim of " catholicity" in fact, sets all sober
reason utterly at defiance. The pope, prelate, or priest, who soberly claims the title
of "catholic" for his sect, must either be forsaken of reason and common sense, and
thence be a maniac : or which we believe to be the truth of the case, he acts the im
postor and knave. And, conscious ofthe ridiculous nature of his claims, like the char
latan, he advances them with an unblushing- impudence to cheat his votaries into
compUance, by his lofty and swelling words of vanity, merely to advance his own
interests, in his pretensions to ghosdy and temporal power. "A Roman catholic !"
That is to say, in plain English, " a particular general !" " A Roman catholic." That
is to say, — the little affair called " Rome," is all Syria, all Greece, all Asia, all
Europe, all America! "A Roman catholic!" That is to say, the litde comer

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 155
and nook of "Rome," is catholic, — is all the world, all the universe! And the few
bigotted dogmas, invented by the most worthless of men, for die most infamous of
ends, namely the extinction of religion and civil liberty, form the whole religion
of the whole world !
" Oh ! judgment, thou hast fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason."
The church catholic and universal is — we repeat it, — a glorious assembly. It
embraces all those who are now in heaven ; or on the earth, walking in the unity of
the spirit, in the beauty of hoUness, and die bond of peace : or who shall yet, in due
time, be united to Christ; and shall ere long, reach "the general assembly, and
church of the first born." But what man, in the sober exercise of his reason, did ever
apply this tide of the " church universal" to a sect of apostates from Christ ; con
temptible even in point of numbers, compared with the great mass of the human
family, who composed the true church of the Jews : and the true church of the New
Testament. A sect, moreover, which has filled the ears of all good men with
direful rumors ! A sect which has made the very heavens re-echo with the horrid
cries of treason, rebelUon, and crime ! A sect which has drenched the earth with the
blood of sixty-eight millions of hum/in beings, whom it has sacrificed on the altar
of its bloody and horrid superstition.
It deserves to be noticed here fhat various sectaries, besides the Roman church,
have afiected to call themselves " catholic ;" and to boast of their numbers. For
instance, the Donatists did so, m the days of St. Augustine. See Aug. Epist. 48.
The PelagiEms also set up claims to this inordinate title ; as appears from St. Jerome,
Lib. 3. Advers, Pelag. " Quid si te alius catholicum dixerit, &c." What if another
call thee catholic ? Shall I give consent?"
But it is remarkable that neither they, nor, as I have just observed, the Roman
cathoUcs, have ever adopted the holy and honourable name of Christian ! It can be
shown from respectable authors, and it is an extraordinary fact — that the Romish
priests, from time immemorial, have despised this venerable and divinely appointed
name. " It is notoriously known, that in Italy, and at Rome, the most honourable
name of Christian, is actually a name of reproach; and usually it is abused to signify
a fool, or a dolt! see Christ. Franch. coll. Jesuit, near the end; and Fulk's Refuta
tion of the Rhem. Annotators. Acts xi. 26. And in our day, if any humble soul
should happen to stumble into Rome, the See and country of the Antichrist, and should
venture to call himself a Christian, in what may be termed the second rate society, of
archbishops and bishops, — he would be received with peals of laughter and merriment,
as some antideluvean creature ! But if he avowed himself, in the simplicity of hia
soul, to be a Christian in the Pope's presence, before his godly court of cardinals, he
might deem himself fortunate if he escaped a dungeon, or assassination.
I cannot close ¦without observing another material evidence against your claims to
"catholicity.'' These claims are not otUy illegal, absurd, and contrary to historical
evidence; but actually contrary to the doctrine of Christ and the sentiments of your
best fathers. " Fear not little flock," said our Lord : " Many are called, few are cho
sen." And St. Jerome writing against the claims to catholicity, set up by tbe
Pelagians, says in his third book against them; "The multitude of your fellows doth
not, therefore, prove you a catholic ; but rather a heretic." See also St. Augustine,
De Pastoribus. And one of the more sensible of your Popes, namely, Nicholas I. in
his Letter to the Emperor Michael, says, — " A small company hinders not, where

156 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
piety aboundeth : neither does a great company further, where impiety abounds : glory
mjtfor the multitude, for not the multitude, but the cause justifieth, or condemneth." .
Finally ; — From the sixth century, no one of your advocates can establish any true
claim of connection, on your part, as a church, with the church of Jesus Christ. Tbe
Eastern churches indignantly cast off your infamous usurpations, over them : so also
did the African church, wifh your owu St. Augustine at their head. You have been
continually diverging from the good old church of God at Rome ; and the good old
Italick church, from whom our pure and holy forefathers, the Waldenses and Albi
genses proceeded. You, Uke Ishmael, are against every section of the church of
Christ : and every church against you. You are no longer the pure river of God wa
tering the earth; but the sluggish and muddy bayou, bursting forth from the majestic
and chrystal river of God ; and threading your way, amid the putrid exhalations and
swamps of a Dead Sea ; sending forth, to an immeasurable extent, moral pestUence,
and death, over the nations.
On the whole, the Protestant faith is not only the most ancient, but the most true cath
olic faith. With the church of God in all ages; with them on earth ; and with them in
heaven, we are perfectly at one, on every doctrine, and on each of the sacraments,
which have characterized the church, the chaste spouse of Christ. We, therefore are,
of the true catholic church of Christ, — you are the Roman cathoUc church of Anti
christ. We move forward under the pure white flag of the Redeemer's standard ; the'
true cross of our Blessed Redeemer ; you move on in darkness and in blood, under
the standard of your prince, Abaddon, "your king, the angel of the bottomless pit."
But I must cause. I am, gentlemen, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

CARD.
It is necessary to remind my readers that fhe priests, in their second challenge
chose to make it a condition of their continuing the controversy, that I should aban
don the attack on their system, and defend the Protestant system. I promptly
declined obedience to this unreasonable dictation, being determined to force my way
into their very citadel, and into the interior ofthe "chambers of imagery." They
declined publishing any reply to me, last Saturday. Ha-ving prepared the
preceeding letter, I sent a card on Monday morning to Mr. Denman, editor of the
Roman catholic print, requesting him to say whether I was correct in understanding,
the information conveyed to me from his office, through my friend Mr. T. ; namely
that no more was to be pubUshed by him on either side. In reply to this Card, I
received a letter, abusive and insulting ; while the writer took care to answer roe
neither negatively nor affirmatively. I replied by again solicitLcg a definite answer,
whether he would allow me to go on as usual, in his columns. I waited two hours
and a half for his reply ; none came. I then entered into arrangements to have my
letters pubUshed simultaneously, in the three papers which have hitherto copied thera
from fhe Roman cathoUc print ; and, at the time, sent a copy of my letter XII. to the
office of the Roman cathoUc paper. And it is proposed, by the grace of God to follow
up the retreat of the priests, by a letter every second week, until the enJ of August :
and then hy a short letter weekly, until the -victory shaU be complete.
W. C. B.

ROMAN C.tTHOLIC CONTROVERST. 157
In Tlie Truth Tdltr of August 3, appeared this Ed'itorial Notice.
"• Dr. Brownlee has sent us tiie following communication as his answer to Di-s, Power
and Levins' Letter No, 1'2, published in our last. We consent as a matter of courtesy to its
appearance — and also to gratify Dr, Brownlee whose private communications fo the editor
for publication, are of the most urgent nature. In complying with Dr, Brownlee's solicit
ations we must here state, tiiat unless he will confine himself to the topics under discussion
we must close this controversy.''
This " communication" was notiiing more than the introduction to my Letter XII., which,
by a private message, I had begged the editor of the R, cathoUc print, to place at fhe head of
the manuscript Letter, which had been some time in his hands. It follows : —

TO DRS. POWER, AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS.
Gentlemen : — ^I have carefully read your 12th letter on the27fh of July, You are heartily
welcome back again after your temporaiy retreat. Stand to your post, 1 exhort you, as good
Romans ; we are only beginning the fug of war. But ,=eriously, 1 thank you for your letter.
It helps on my cause marvellously. What a miserable cause must yours be, when Bishop
Dubois's THREE sclect champions can venture out, before an American public, with such a
production as this ! Hence I thank you for it ; it establishes with fresh evidence, all I have
advanced relative to your deism. The evidence is now full and running over.
I agi-ee with jou, also very cordially, in belie^ving that no small degree of degradation
attaches itself to the labor of detailing out of your books, fhe accounts respecting " the Duke
of Brunswick ;" " and St. Patrick's miracle," and " St. Dennis carrying his own head, after
he was beheaded," — " and your Du Cangis' account of your feast of the Asses," and the
true " account of the pm-gatorial crabs, with their velvet coats," and " Sf. Peter's chair
plundered fi^om a Mufti's mosque." I admit that if is degrading in your historians to detail
them. And one really feels himself lowered fo be compelled to quote such trash ! But then
what must be the infinitude of the degradation of the "infiiUible pope," and the " infallible
church," and of the "infallible priests of Rome," who have gravely recorded all tiiis impo
sition, in their devotional books, — ay, in their Breviary ; and do solemnly command their
votaries to believe it all, on pain of damnation ! Yes, hypocrisy will affect to deny all
these ! You even affect, in matchless assurance, fo treat them as fictions ! This is pure
homage to our enlightened American public ; and an item of fhat Jesuitism, by which all
Roman priests are sworn to conceal their real tenets and rites, from the eyes of protestants
and republicans. You and your bishop know that if you were in Italy, or in Spain, and
ventured on thC disbelief of these miracles; or even the afFectation of ridiculing fhem be
fore enlightened men : — yes, if you were heretic enough, in Spain, to smile at the headless
Sf. Dennis carrying his head under his arm ; or at the edifying tales of other saints sailing
over the sea, on fheir cloaks, with their companions for ballast, — you would forthwith be
the inmates of dungeons ; and escape burning only by a well timed recantation on your
knees ! ,
Your ultra " zealotry," is "ambitioning" too much, to use your classic style, when you
find fault with my scriptural creed; or indeed any christian creed. The religious public can
not but smile at three men, publicly convicted of open and avowed deism, affecting to sit in
judgment on a christian creed !
In fine, as there is not a new idea in all your letter ; and as I have proposed to myself to
go forward into " Holy Mother's" chambers of imagery, even were its entrance guarded by
Cerberus, with ifs three heads. I shall go on with the regular discussion.
This letter was published in fhe Christian InteUigencer of last Saturday : to which we
refer the readers ofthe Truth Teller. W. C. Browni.ee."
15

158 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVEHSTi

A CARD.— To THE Public.

The editor of the Roman catholic print called "the Truth Tdler," has, now in his hanAi,
TWO letters from me, which he has refused to publish : namely, one addressed to Dr. Varela,
designed to expose the impiety and blasphemy of the title " the Mother of God," which the
Romish sect has invented, and long used in its idolatrous worship of the Virgin Mary : the
other, is my twelfth letter to the Rev. Drs. Power, Varela, and Levins. He has assigned no
reason why he refuses to publish the^rsi. He seems to offer two reasons for refusing to
publish fhe last. First, he affects to refuse its admission into his columns, because it appeared
in otiier papers. Now, this is extraordinary : for this twelfth letter was put in manuscript, into
Mr. Deninan's hands, by my friend, actually two or three entire days before any paper pub
lished it ! Nay, he had actually refused ifs admission, and had put the Priests' letter in its
place, heforehe knew that otiier papers would publish it on tlie same day. So much for Roman truth !
The second reason is this : " It does not come to fhe point ; it is no reply to the Rev.
Priests." And he is pleased to repeat this, in his last Saturday's paper, in these words, —
" Unless Dr. B. will confine himself to the topics under discussion, we must close this contro
versy." Now, I will nof gravely offer to refute what the asserter himself never has believed.
He and his readers know well that I have stuck " terribly" close fo fhe topic under discus
sion : and the excoriations of the retreating priests make them feel it. No one, it is true,
can.claim any merit in doing this: one only sees what a plain, and simple exposition of gos
pel truth and historical facts can do on the bare nerves of a culprit's guilty conscience !
Does any man think so meanly ofthe intellects of Drs. Power, Levins and Varela, as fo im
agine for a moment, fhat they seriously believe in all that impious nonsense which consti
tutes fhe doctrines and rites ofthe Romish sect? No, they laugh it to scorn, while they
teach it. What Cicero spoke of the old Roman Augurs, I apply as a scourge of scorpions
to these priests. After they return from the exhibition of this buffoonery, trumpery, mira
cles, and mummery in fhe chapel, " they cannot help laughing in each other's faces, as they
pull off their motley robes, and charlatan dress!"
But even admitting that these men did think my letters wide ofthe point, and that " I never
confine myself to fhe topics in discussion," who constituted William Denman and the
Priests, the judge, counsel, and jury, to pronounce on me ? 1 tell these men that I am the
only atid sole judge of what I deem fit to say : and the christian public is fhe only umpire
bet\veen us. But, after all, if fhe editor and his holy council of priests deemed my letters
" so sillv, so extravagant, and so wide of the point," do they nof see that this was the very
reason why they sliovld publish tliem ? Yes, publish them, and cover tlie heretic wifh confusion !
It is proper here to state, that the editor of fhe R. catholic paper, took it upon himself not
only fo withhold my Letter from his readers , but to convert my short introduction, into o
formal Letter, and even to forge and append my signature, as above, fo these introductory
sentences. And he has, moreover, had the audacity fo insert a sentence which I did not
write, in order to serve fhe purpose of making me convey fhe idea that I meant to gite my
Roraan catholic readers no other answer vehatever, to the last Letter of the priests, than the
above. As if now is, I deem it disreputable to any man of honor, fo have any further intercourse
with him, in the premises.
I shall, therefore, offer no more of my letters to his columns, until he publish the two letters
which he now has on hand ; and also make fhe amende horwrahle before the christian public,
rfor these crimes which he has committed against good taste, honor, and sound morals.
I am respectfully,
August 5, 1833. W. C, B.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 159
LETTER XIII.
TO DRS. POWER AND V.\RELA, AND MR. LEVINS.
"Ante NicBonum concilium sibi quisque vivebat:
Et ad Romanam Ecclesiam parvus habebatur respectus."
.(Eneas Sylvius, Pope Pius II. Epis. 288.
Gentiemen : — ^We noticed in our last Letter, your idle claims lo antiquity and
catholicity. I have now to observe, —
3d. That succession is another mark claimed by the exclusive Roman catholic
sect. By this their writers mean to convey the idea, that their sect alone is that church
to which Christ gave die promise "I am with you:" andthe assurance "thatthe
gates of hell shall not prevaU against it." They alone, say they, have the direct
lineal succession from Christ by St. Peter, and the other popes: all the other claim
ants in fhe Greek church, fhe Syriac, the African, the Old Italick, the Waldensian,
and Protestant church, are all, to a man " damnable heretics, for which there is no sal
vation ; it being impossible that God can save any except Roman catholics." This is
the genuine and immutable doctrine of the Roman sect ! And your books contain
ing this insane doctrine Ue open before the American public !
I will not discuss here, the question of ordination. I simply observe that we advo
cate it on gospel principles ; and reject with abhorrence, the superstitious and fanatical
rite which Romish priests are pleased facetiously to call ordination, and consecration !
It has no more authority from Christ the only head of the church, than has any rite
of Mohammed, or the Uving idol of Thibet. This we noticed formerly. There must
be a call of God's pro-vidence (Heb. 5. 4.) and a call of a church given to a pastor, —
" Come over emd help us." The man who wants these, has no right before God, or
the chmrch, to ordination. He who wants these, " climbs up another way," and has
the seal of reprobation branded on his forehead, " as a thief and a robber !" Such is
the appointment and destination of the Roman priest by his bishop : no call, no cou'
sent of "the church," is asked for : they are ipso facto, usurpers, put "into livings,"
by ghostly tyranny, and usurped power. The whole system is a conspiracy against
Christ's crown and authority, and an outrage on the consciences, and rights of
freemen. In their claims of succession, the Roman sect ludicrously assert that they have an
unbroken Une of descent from " Christ the first pope," through " St. Peter the second
pope," down to this day. This is ingeniously figured forth, and proved, by a painting
to be seen in Roman catholic families, and which was described to me, the other day,
by a friend of mine, to whom it was shown in Philadelphia. In this portion of their
" genuine tradition," strong as proofs of holy writ, Christ is represented as ascending :
and a stream of his blood is issuing in an arched line from his veins ; and is entering
into the veins of St. Peter ; and through him into the veins of the popes, in regular
succession. Hence they are the genuine successors " by blood relationship." And
this morsel of tradition, ingeniously committed to paper, is more firmly believed by
" the simple faithful," than is any passage in all the New Testament. Such is the
force of invincible but culpable ignorance.
Now, to reap any benefit from "the succession," one would naturally suppose that
the " universal particular church of Rome," should first, prove their succession ; and
then prove their exclusive succession. For he who claims all the inheritance, and

,160 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
leaves none to any other, must, of course, prove that no one but himself is heir. But
unfortunately for these exclusive claims of the Roman bigots, the Greek church has
genuine apostolical descent. The church at Alexandria, in Egypt, had it ; the most
ancient and famous church at Antioch has it, and has ifs Patriarch sitting in St. Peter's
chair to this day ; also the church of Africa, once so famous ; and through the genu
ine Old Italick church, from which your sect apostatized, the Waldenses had their
true, apostolical succession. Then hear the words of your own Pope Gregory I. of
whose writings you and your bishops are so scandalously ignorant. That "saint,"
and pope has declared, and you ought to know it, that " St. Peter's primacy descend
ed to three bishopricks, namely, thatof Antioch, of Alexandria, and of Rome." See
¦his Epis. 40. Lib. 7. Tom. U. p. 887. Paris EdU. of 1705. And, moreover, he pro
nounces fhe title and claims of " Supreme and universal bishop," to be the invention
of antichrist, who was already in the world." — Even a priest's ignorance cannot deny
that St. Gregory the pope wrote this. Now, if you believe him, j'ou must renounce
your exclusive succession : if you do not believe him, then do you pronounce him a
lying heretic : and therefore " the infallible" " Holy Mother and pope," who canonized
Ilim, and " the infalUble and immutable Holy Mother church," who -vs-orships him on
his saintly day, is no more infallible and immutable ! Choose ye with which horn of
this dilemma, you shall be pierced, and ecclesiastically slain.
You are perfectly aware that no satisfactory historical evidence has ever been pro
duced by your writers that Peter ever was at Rome. Every intelligent Roman ca
tholic is aware that it rests solely on the fictions of interested priests. Several writers
have, on our side of the question, entered into accurate chronological arguments to
show that Peter never was there, as a presiding teacher. I beg to refer to Willet's
Synopsis Papismi, p. 141. There is no evidence in the Bible that Peter w-as at
Rome ; far less that he was a pope. If he was pope, how utterly inexcusable, un
dutiful, and wicked, must St. Paul have been ; -^vho resided there so long; and never
had the grace or good manners to salute him, or send his due pontifical salutations, or
even to mention the name of " the lord your god pope Peter !" Nay, if " lord Peter' '
had been pope, he must have been a most unprincipled man. For Paul, when brought
before Nero, at least two years before Peter's death, says, "At my first answer, no
man stood by me : but all men forsook me : I pray God that it may not be laid to their
charge." Now, you must admit, either that " lord Peter," was not pope, and not even
present in Rome ; or that he was a foul traitor to Christ, and the cause for which
Paul was nobly suffering. You insist on it that he was present; that he was pope.
Therefore you compel us to believe that you and "the Holy Mother church" are no
torious slanderers of your own pope Peter.
Besides it is singular that your writers should betray such ignorance of your own
canons. I beg you to look intoJ>ecrei. pars. I. Cap. 2 Anacletus, &c. These canons
make your ridiculous fictions about Peter's headship, stand out in bold relief. I shall
quote the canon, — " Ambo Ecclesiam, &c. Both Paul and Peter did consecrate the
Roman church." Irenaeus says the same. Lib. iU. cap. 3. And, as St. Paul was
"not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles;" and did even administer a severe
aposfoZj'cai, and therefore a super-pontifical rebuke to " lord Peter, the pope," — 3'ou
must, to make your succession and exclusive claims good, show the evidence of your
succession from "lord Paul," the pope, also. Or, as a necessary alternative, you
must abjure the Bible evidence ; and what is more with you, you must abjure and deny
your own canons. Or, finally, if you choose for once to be honest men, renounce

R0M.^N CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 161
your absurd succession. " Quid faciam Romae, — mentiri nescio," — " What can I do
at Rome, I cannot fabricate lies," said a true prophet.
But, gendemen, even admitting dial the apostles had successors as apostles, which,
we have already proved, they had not ; and even admitting it possible that you can
get over the infinity of historical and chronological difficulties, which every body sees
lying in yom way, — your succession has failed, and is lost in inextricable ruin!
This I took die liberty of proving in my Letter IV. and you made no reply : you
durst not touch the subject : your silence \^-as ample evidence that you cannot disen
tangle the question of succession from its labyrinth of confusion, and contradictions.
There is not one sensible man among you that, for one moment, believes it. I should
insult your intellectual powers did I even insinuate that you, gentlemen priests, do
yourselves believe this " fundamental tenet." And as for " the simple faithful priests"
w-ho know no better, and "the simple faithful laymen," who belie\e infinitely more
than they know anj- thing about, — why, diey believe in the succession and the de
scent of the "holy prastes," just as strongly, and on just as good evidence, as do the
intelUgent pagans of the East, that " fhe world is a large flat body, resting on the back
of a huge land turtle!"
I shall only add here that your Une of succession from the apostolic church is bro
ken off, by the total and utter loss of the bond of holiness. You are " The man of
sin," trafficking "in sin," and in "the souls of men," as I shall show, when I come
to indulgences, and the pope's chancery book containing the registered price of every
sin, and the fixed price of men's souls! The succession of doctrine also is utterly
and incurably destroyed. This I showed in Letter VIII. You have renounced every
grand pecuUar doctrine of the gospel : even your recognition of the Trinity, is merely
nominal : the main object of your worship is " The Queen of heaven," she -ivho
" commands her son," — namely the Virgin Mary, she is in your spiritual heaven, and
in your temples, what Venus was in the East, and Jupiter was among the Greeks and
Romans ! You have practically lost the most holy doctrine of Trinity, utterly in
j'Our thirty thousand gods and goddesses, usually named saints, and saintesses ! And
this being the case with the object of divine worship, it is easy to see that not even one
essential doctrine of the gospel bas kept its place in your system. All these have been
quenched in your heavens ! All is dreariness and darkness : your skies are covered
¦\vith a veil of blackness : no one soUtary star sparkles there ! Now this being the
case, hear the words in St. Clement's Epist. I. which you admit to be genuine ; St.
Peter there declares that " the true succession is in the succession of doctrine." Also
your Pope Felix says — " Qui participes, &c. those who would share the apostleship,
must follow the apostles' doctrine." So also in your Decret. P. I. dist, 40. cap. I.
"Petrus, &c. Peter left the inheritance of innocence to his heirs." And let me add
a valuable extract from Gregory Nazianzen :t—" To ^,£1/ yap &c. He that holdeth the
same doctrine is of the same chair ; but he who is an enemy to the doctrine, is an
enemy to the chair." Orat. 21. In Laud. Athanasii: Paris Edit. 1778. Therefore
your SUCCESSION is broken off utterly, and forever!
This is not all. We shall pay our respect to some of the prominent popes, through
whom you claim your " holy and unbroken line of succession," Asimple detail from
history will show what kind of a thing this " holy and unbroken line of Roman suc
cession" is.
The popedom of Peter, and that of Joan, the female pope, rest on equal evidence,
Peter's papacy was not mentioned for several centuries after his death : Joan's wau
15*

162 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
not registered for two hundred years after her decease. But even supposing the fiction
true, that he was pope in good earnest, the Roman writers, and even the ancient
fathers cannot agree who were the immediate successors of lord Peter, the fisherman !
Seven ofthe fathers with Augustine, make Linus the seconrf bishop of Rome. Tertul
lian and the Latins make Clemens the second. Cossart, in his great work, the Con
cilia, cannot determine from any existing evidence, which of these was the successor
of lord Peter. He frankly admits "the uncertainty of the pontifical succession."
Latterly the supposition inclines to favor Linus. But, it so happens that " the Apos
toUcal constitutions" bear witness that Linus, your second pope, was ordained not by
pope Peter, but by Paul. This fairly upsets the succession from lord Peter, by Linus.
See Ap. Con, Lib. vii. 46, and Labbeus, Lib. i. 63.
Again, Baronius, Bellarmine and others make Cletus, and Anacletus two difi'erent
popes : Cotelerius, Fleury, and others make them the same man : Bruys and Cossart
declare that it is perfectly uncertain whether they were, or were not the same man !
Twenty other Roman writers have entered the lists to settle this interminable point !
See Cotelerius, Tom, i. p. 387. Binii Concilia Tom. i. p. 30, &c., &c. ; Edgar's Va
riations of Popery, p. 75, Dublin Edition.
The learned and solemn triflings of Romish ¦writers fully establish this point, —
namely, that there was not a soul of them that kuew any thing about the papal suc
cession! And the sum of the whole is this, — it is a truth about as certain, and as
valuable, as that ofthe true successor of Robin Hood, or Jack, the giant killer ! Thus
gentlemen, to avail myself of a truly expressive Irishism, — the pontifical succession
was fairly cut off, before it began !
But passing this, — and supposing the impossible tiling to have happened, the grand
schisms have utterly cut off your succession. Dr. Geddes in his valuable work, in
four volumes on the papacy, enumerates tioenty-four schisms ; your Baronius twenty-
six ; Onuphrius the most accurate of writers, makes thirty ; this, said Edgar, in his
Variations of popery, is the commonly received estimation. The detailed account I
have before me by Geddes and Edgar: and could I find room for it, I should exhibit
a history of wars, bloodshed, perjury, treason, blasphemy, and the most horrid
impieties, reigning triumphant in the very throne ofthe pope, and in all his dominions ;
and unparalleled in all history ! A few specimens I shall glean from the principal
writers. The second schism was between popes Liberius and Felix in the fourth century,
Felix was chosen by the Arian faction to oppose Liberius, who was thence banished.
But having signed the Arian creed, he was recaUed : then commenced the bloody
wars between these two Arian popes. " The wars raged long, the clergy were mur
dered, by the opposing factions, in the very churches,"
St. Augustine, and Jerome, followed by the moderns Fleury, and Morery, Tom.
iv. p, 42, unite in pronouncing pope Felix an Arian heretic ! St. Athanasius, Ad
Sol., calls him a monster raised to the Roman hierarchy, by the malice of Anti-christ!
See Labbeus, Tom. ii. p, 991. — Bruys, Hist. Des papes, Tom. i. p. 123, Edgar's
Var. p. 76.
And will the American public believe me, when I declare to them that these two
bloody monsters and Arian heretics, were after all their murders, perjury, and heresy,
solemnly enrolled in the ghostly list of Roman saints ! St. Felix ! St. Liberius ! These
are their titles. And here are -the words ¦«-hich our priests address to them in prayer,
on their festival days, — even to diese murderers, and deuiers of our Lord's deity.

ROJt.iN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 163
"Oh! St. Liberius, the light ofthe holy church, lover ofthe divine laio, ivhom God
loved, and clothed with the love of glory, — procure for us by thy interceding merits, the
pardon ofall our sins!" See Rom. Breviary, p. 35. And Rom. Missal, p. 14. The
same worship is to this very day, ofTered up to the bloody and atrocious Felix as a
saint, a pope, a martyr! And to this kind of gods, do Drs. Power, Levins, and
Varela, offer up this kind of prayers ! If they neglect to do it, they know that they
are perjured men. For they have taken the great oath to do it, and to do it regularly,
on pain of damnation in their soul, and their body !
The /owrrt schism was between popes Eulalius and Boniface in the fifth centurv.
After many shameful scenes, the emperor decided the matter, and by imperial and
miUtary powers, commanded Boniface to be pope ! It is evident that at this time, the
Roman emperor dictated the election. Our priests, and "Holy Mother," must there
fore admit that Peter's spiritual lordship had, at this early period, yielded to the tem
poral power ofthe emperor Honorius, and his successors.
The seventh schism was originated by popes Silverius and ^'igilius, in the sixth
century. The first was elected by simony and fraud; and he was ordained by force
and violence. He was created pope by the king of the Goths. Vigilius his rival
was elected by another faction, by simony and fraud, equal hi atrocity, to that of his
antagonist. He received 700 pieces of gold, aud the popedom from the empress
Theodora, on condition of his aiding her purposes. This he accepted ; and was
raised to the papacy. This "holy and infallible pope," in order to get rid of his
rivals, suborned false witnesses to swear that Silverius was plotting to betray Rome
to the Goths. He paid two hundred pieces of gold for his testimony of the perjurer.
It succeeded ; the rival was banished, and shortly after this, he was starved to death ;
others say, assassinated. See Godeau, iv. 104. Platina, 68. Now, it is obvious
that, according to your own canons, both of these popes were illegally chosen. Here
the links of the chain were again broken. Besides the character of Vigilius who
professed to transmit the succession, was atrociously wicked. Covetousness, and
the impious mockery of the laws of God and man, were among his least sins. Ho
murdered his secretary by the blow of a club : he scourged his nephew to death ; and
was accessary to the murder of the pope, his rival. See Platina, 68.
The thirteenth schism took place in the close of the ninth century : it disgraced the
papacy of Formosus, and Sergius. The first was elected contrary to th'e bulls of
popes Nichola.5, and Julius. But he was sustained by the power of the king of the
Goths. Sergius, his rival, was finally expelled, and died an exile. Formosus did
not lung enjoy his guilty power and honors. Six years after his election, he died.
The atrocious pope Stephen was his successor. This " Vicar of God" ordered his
predecessor, Formosus, also a " Vicar of God," to be dug out of his grave. He had
him dressed in his pontificals : and gravely brought into court, to be tried. The
question was put to him, " How dared you, being bishop of Porto, to allow yourself to
be raised to the Holy See?" The dead body not making any reply, as might natu
rally be expected, his silence was deemed guilt; he was solemnly condemned, his
popedom declared illegal and invalid : his head and three of his fingers were cut off";
and his mangled body cast into the Tyber. The scenes which followed this, were
outrageous and horrible. The "holy and infallible father" Stephen died in a dun
geon by the rope ! Bruys pronounces his eulogium, — "This father and teacher of
all christians," says the popish writer, — " was as ignorant as he was wicked." " He
was guilty of a wicked and unheard of sacrilege," says Baronius. Pope John X,, in

164 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
his tum helped to cut off" your succession by condemning pope Stephen and re-esta
blishing the interests of pope Formosus. But all things are mutable in "immutable
and infalUble Rome." Pope Sergius III. pronounced his ban on the decrees of pope
John X., reverses his acts : restores the ordination of pope Stephen, and condemns
the ordinations of pope Formosus. See Platina, p. 127. Now, it is utterly idle for
any man to attempt to trace the genuine succession through all these confusions
and tumults, and wickedness. If these men were christian pastors and " the pure
successors" of Peter, tiien what holy and exalted saints must Nero and Tamerlane
have been!
Baronius, I am aware, ventures to make a somewhat different inference from this.
After a suitable degree of railing at the Protestants, as he always does when he is con
strained to narrate some ofthe infamous acts of the popes, by way of a Jesuit's offset,
and ruse de guerre, he very gravely pronounces this succession of abominable popes
"a clear demonstration that the supreme authority of the Roman see can never
possibly be destroyed. For, if it could," says he, " such a long succes.sion of monsters
in vice and folly must infallibly have ruined it." What an admirable argument
this would have been in the lips of the Roman pagan emperors, v ho, you know,
were also the supreme pontiffs of the pagan superstition. "Verily," they might have
said, " we have here the evidence of the truth of our holy pagan idolatry, and a demon
stration that our pontifical authority can never possibly be destroyed. For if the
pagan religion were false, and if my pontifical authority could be destroyed, — surely
such a long succession of atrocious despots, must, by their vice and folly, long ago
have ruined it !" The fact is this, in each of these cases, the boasters had nothing to
lose ! The divinity of Roman catholic despotism and of pagan despotism ; being
equally doubtful of proof; and equally from Peter and from heaven!
The nineteenth schi;m happened in the beginning of the eleventh century. It re
vealed scenes more shocking than any thing hitherto conceived. As Rome cathoUc
advanced in age, she increased, by a double compound ratio, in all possible wicked
ness. There were three popes in this schism. Benedict was elected in A. D. 1033.
He was placed in the "holy chair," by simony, the universal and every day sin of
Bome ; and by faction, and tyranny. His life was a compound of all the pollution of
the Roman pagans compressed into one little soul and body. This was "the holy
father of Rome," the only "judge ofall controversy,'' "the fountain of indulgences
and pardon of sin" for money ! Silvester was put up as a rival to this monster ; and
he expelled Benedict. John was the third pope, at this time. Benedict, without
resigning, sold the papacy to John for £1500 : and was quiet as long as this money
ministered to his diabolical lusts and wickedness. Silvester who had been driven
away by one faction, again returned and seized the Vatican. Benedict having spent
his money, also renewed his claims to that office w'nich he had sol^ for gold. These
three ruffian popes, by violence and bloodshed, kept possession of the Lateran, the
Vatican, and St. Mary's. "A three-headed beast," said your two writers, Labbeus
and Binius, "rising from the gates of hell, infested the holy chair in a wofulmanner."
Labb. vol. xi. p. 1280. Bin. vol. vii. p. 221. And Baronius, your orthodox Roman
historian also calls them "the three headed beast which had issued from the gates of
hsU!" Tom. xi. Annal, A. D. 1044, — You have Cerberus, then, in the "pure and
holy line" of your succession ! !
And how was a remedy brought to this state of things? Your Baronius has faith
fully told the tale in Tom. xi. Annal of A, D. 1044. " As the mouths of the real Cer~

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 165
herus, with its tihree heads, were stopped only by ' a pilchy mouthful,' says he, so a
certain 'pious man' of die name of Gratian, bediought of a simUar scheme," The
three mouths of this monster pope could be stopped, he was sure, wilh monet. For
money you know, gentlemen, is the only omnipotent god of your " Holy Mother" ami
her priests! This man, Gratian, actually bought die pope's chair, with all the spirit
ual powers, and honors, and apurtenances, thereto belonging, be ilicy less or more.
He bought it, with all its names, titles, and attributes, of antiquity, catholicity, succes
sion, unity, niiraculosity, and sanctity, Tbe three popes formally made over "Holy
Mother Church" for gold!! Benedict, one of the holy fathers, for instance, was lo
have all die revenues arising from England, while he lived ; and the other holy pair
had fheir just share ! And the purchaser, by the merits of his gold, was duly mads
Pope, "Vice-God," and the "Holy father" of the faidiful, to open heaven and shut
it on whom he pleased. This new and fourth existing pope assumed the name of
Gregory VI, I have only to add that your writers, Platina and Damian tell us with
much gravity that Benedict, this wicked pope, who caused this schism, and bloodshed,
and misery was subjected to punishment after death. Yes, the father of the faithful
and ""God's -^dee-regent" was doomed to punishment! He appeared, say they, to a
traveUer, with the graceful countenance of "a bear," and a head decorated with the
"long e£Lrs of an ass!" he was ornamented also with the long tail of an ass! The
traveller had the courage to ask him, — having found out that it was his "Holiness,"
what could possiblv be the cause of such a wicked and unholy transformation 7
"Ah!" said the deceased Holy Father, — "this is the due reward of my pollution
when I was the head of the Holy Mother !" This pontiff, adds one of your saints, is
doomed to be dragged headlong, until the day of judgment, through thorns and filth,
in regions continually exhaling sulphur and stench, and burning with fire. See Da
mian, c. 3. Platina, 142. Spondani, Epit. Baronii VI. 1094. Edgar 82.
I shall notice only one instance more : the twenty-ninth schism, usually called the
great Western schism, began m 1378. On the death of Gregory XI. the conclave, con
sisting of twelve French cardinals, and four Italians proceeded to choose a pope. The
citizens of Rome had recently received back the pope and court, after 70 years ab
sence, at Avignon. They very naturally supposed, that unless an overpowering mul
titude should give them some salutary hints, backed by some well-timed club-logic, to
regulate their heterodoxy, they might be wicked enough to choose a Frenchman, for a
Pope: and he, of course, they had reason to fear, would retire to Avignon, there to
spend his riches. Guided by such disinterested motives, they placed a guard of honor
around the holy conclave, and proceeded to give them the necessary hints by 30,000
armed men ; — namely, that if the holy fathers did venture to choose a Frenchman
for Pope, it must be for no other reason thau their own anxiety to get to heaven before
their time, as martyrs!! The cardinals are remarkably prudent men; they never
had given a martyr to " Holy Mother" yet; and they did not choose, at this time, to
begin the precedent : their lives were exceedingly valuable ; good men were then
scarce. They took the hint from the mob: and adopted measures to get ample ven
geance on both friends, and foes, and "Holy Mother" too!
They formally chose Urban VI. And then retiring beyond the reach of the Roman
mob's discipline, they as formaUy elected Clement VII. Here your conclave chose
two opposing heads of " Holy Mother." Clement set up his court at Avignon :
Urban, at Rome. And from that day all Europe was convulsed with wars.
This great schism lasted about 50 years, All Europe was a great ecclesiasticax

166 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
arena, on which kings and popes who are the worst of men, entered the Usts with.
deadly animosity, against popes and kings. What Uttle remains there was of religion
in Europe, was nearly extinguished. The ghostly factions acted, usually, without
policy, and always ¦without christian principle. " The pope's conscience," says Ed
gar, " evaporated in ambition, selfishness, and characteristic malignity." The cam
paign was opened by a volley of spiritual artillery. The electors denounced pope
Urban, aud he excommunicated every soul of them, and formally gave the holy car
dinals all over to the devil, soul and body ! ! Clement paid Urban back in full tale.
It was a fair trial which pope could curse his antagonist with loudest thunder and
deepest anathemas ! Kings and Queens shared in the horrid curses ! No bishop, or
priest escaped. They cursed all on each side, mutually : and each pope declared
that "What he bound on earth was bound in heaven." Hence each believed, and
declared that his antagonist, and all his adhering bishops and priests, were cursed and
excommunicated; and thence stripped of office, and sanctity! And in as much as
each of them was duly elected pope, and each of them was a gentleman of equal honor
and equal credit, we are bound in duty, to believe each of them to have been cor
rect ! And as each of these duly elected popes had annulled and vacated all the ordi
nations, collations, and promotions of his rival, of course there was not one bishop, or
one priest in aU Europe, who was not duly deposed, and duly excommunicated from
the church, and stripped of his office. They annihilated the hierarchy of Rome;
and it was regularly aud duly done! And I respectfully challenge all the Roman
priests in our Republic, to show any thing even plausible, against this historical fact.
As if to make things doubly sure, in this formal deposition, the council of Pisa
deposed and set aside these f too popes; and elected pope Alexander. This, instead
of heaUng, made three acting popes! And all Europe sustained a fresh convulsion
by the three fierce ecclesiastical factions.
The council of Constance, of atrocious memory, met in A. D. 1414. By this time
pope John had succeeded pope Alexander. The council required the three popes to
resign forthwith : each on oath solemnly yielded ; and s^wore on the holy evangelists,
to obey. But each of them instantly resumed his papacy : and thus, says an able
-writer, "Holy Mother had three perjured heads; and there tvere three perjured Vice-
gods .'" John was deposed for his infamous crimes : the councU actually proving
and declaring " the holy father" guilty of " peijnry, incest, rape, murder, and sodomy,"
See Labbeus vol. xvi. p. 178, 22'2, and Dupin vol. Ui. 14, — Gregory fhe next pope, ab
dicated and renounced the papacy : the third one, Benedict, stood out : he retired into
a strong castle, and there, deserted by all his friends, he consoled himself in his dotage,
by excommunicating twice in the day, with bell, book, and candle, all the nations- of
Europe who had deserted his holy " personal cause I" Pope ^lartin was raised to tbe
papacy. And the infamous councU made itself an execration to all generations, by
fheir treachery and infernal cruelty. They condemned, and burned alive, the famous
martyrs Huss, and Jerome of Prague, against whom they could bring no charge, but
that of being devoted christians, and faithful opposers of the heresy of the Romish
sect. We might go on to adduce a list of upwards of 200 popes of a character, in all
points, simUar to these. But this we deem enough, both to give the public an idea of
the Ime of succession boasted of by the Roman cathoUc sect : and, at the same time,
to annihUate their ridiculous claims of descent from the apostles ! I shall only add
that, ¦ivere I asked to select a Ust of the worst men ; and the most wicked rulers :

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 167
%ven the most impnncipled of the species,— such as atheists, despots, mockers of
virtue and reUgion ; the common enemies of God and man ; I would pass by the
Kings of Egypt, and Syria, and the despots of Assyria, and Babylon ; I would leave
out the atrocious Alexanders ; and the Cfesars ; and the Greek despots ; and the Ro
man emperors : I woiUd even omit the Neros, and the Tamerlanes : — and I would,
after making an honorable selection of a few worthy names, — give "the Popes or
Rome," as furnishing fhat horrid Ust ! Their enonnilies, perpetrated under the mask
of holy reUgion, exceed, in fact, the powers of description. The characters of these
men, as hinted at in St. John's Revelations, " as drunk with the blood of the saints,"
— emd as exhibited in the history of their lives, can no more be adequately portrayed
than can the character of the prince of darkness ! What man — what church, that
respects the character, and claims the honor of being Christian, would ever claim
spiritual, or ecclesiastical succession through such a line of inhuman, and despotic
tyrants ! Men I such as the arch-deceiver would select as his prime ministers ! Men !
who have been the head, fhe heart, and fhe ever ready hand of that bloody Bomish
sect, which has already murdered sixtt-eicht millions of the human family: and
is now seeking -with an insatiable ghostly ambition, to regain its power, and would,
if possible, murder as many more ! ! I am, gentiemen, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

In The Truth Teller, under the date of August 8, the folloioing Letter appeared as
the finale ofthe Priests. TO DR. BROWNLEE,
A PREACHER IN THE MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH,
This man began to build, and was not able to finish, Luc, 14, 30.
Rev. Sir: — Ovur controversy with you, personally, is terminated. It would be folly to
continue it ivith e> preacher who can neither form nor appreciate argument. Public
opinion must be respected, — our own character must not be dishonored. To continue
polemic discussion with you cannot add fo reputation, for your substitute for argument are
falsehood, ribald words, gross invective, disgusting calumny, and the recommendation of an
obscene tale ! These have been your weapons from your first to your last puerile letter.
"Inthe ' Truth Teller' of July 6th and 13th, the following proposition was preposed to
you : ' 'What articles of faith, found in the scriptures in express terms, must be believed in
order to be saved V You were, at the same time, informed that ' the continuation of our
controversy with you, personally, would depend on your answer.' After a cautious delay
your answer was concocted, — your articles of faith found in the scripture in express terms,
were given. Our last letter contained our remarks on your Bible creed. By this creed you
exclude the trinity, and the incarnation. What is your answer to our letter ? this : ' Your
ultra zealotry' is ' ambitioning' too much when you find fault with my scriptural creed, — or,
mdeed, any christian creed ! This is your theological answer ! this is fhe answer of the
erudite in the ' Hebrew and Greek ofthe Holy Ghost !' This is the answer ofthe preacher
in the Middle Dutch Church ! He says we ' ambition too much when we find fault with
his scriptural creed.' But his scriptural creed excludes the trinity and incarnation, and to
find fault with the exdusion ofthe trinity and incarnation is, from his own avowal, ' ambition
ing too much!' Hence, to secure the favor and approval of preacher Brownlee, we must
not 'find fault' with tiie scriptural creed which excludes the trinity and incarnation. We

168 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
ask his ' christian public,' is not this an ample and practical Ulustration of his protestant rule
of faith."
" But, further he vmtes; ' Vou 'ambition' too much when you find fault with any christ
ian creed !" Therefore, in the opinion of preacher Brownlee, no christian creed is to be con
demned. This is liberality ! But why does the preacher ' find fault' .with fhe catiiolic ?
Is this consistency ? Any christian creed may he adopted : this is the final, logical, and ortho
dox conclusion frora the twelve polemical letters of preacher Brownlee on his protestant rule
cf faith. This is fhe triumph achieved by preacher Brownlee for himself, the members of
the Middle Dutch Church, and his ' virtuous ladies.' As the bard sung ofthe burial of Sir
John Moore, " 'We leave him alone with his glory.' " John Power,
August Sth, 1833. Thos. C. Levins.

LETTER XIV.— AND LAST.
TO DOCTORS power, AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS.
" Therefore I will put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn
thee back by the way, by which thou camest." — Isai. xxxvii. 29.
Gentlemen : — Indulge me in a few words on parting, seeing that nothing can stop
your RETREAT from the defence of "Holy Mother." And I trust, I shall not be
deemed greatly guiltj', should I adopt a more playful humor, or, the philipic of the
great master of eloquence. The former is useful to relieve all parties, in the midst of
a rigid argument, and the sombre task of searching the pages of the fathers, and the
dtUl lumbering volumes of the Romish ¦writers. The use of the latter is as necessary
and legitimate, in rousing our slumbering fellow citizens to a sense of their imminent
danger ; and in scourging the conspirators against our republican institutions, our Pro
testant religion, aud our civil and religious liberties, — as ever it was in the hands of
the great master, against the enemies of Greece.
You inform the public, gentlemen, that "your controversy with me, personally is
at an end." I pray you, gentlemen, to beware of rash words. Controversy wifh me,
personally, you do not mean to end. It is true, this theological, and historical discus
sion has not, I trust, been personal on my part. Personal sins, and flagrant delin
quency I have rebuked : but that is no " personality,'' which is levelled against crime.
No, I chose a higher aim. No priest can, in a general discussion, be an object of
personal attack; when such game is started, and in full view, as "Holy Mother," and
priestcraft ! It is the head of all evil, on earth, namely error and vice personified,
and completely embodied in Roman Antichrist, at which fhe honest Protestant aims
the arrows of his quiver ; — and his " Jerusalem blade," when he comes to close
quarters! But for you, gentlemen, — you have labored in your vocation of endless
personalities. Jesuitism is by nature and training, given to personalities ! Jesuitism
would die of spleen, outright, if it did not vent its personalities. You have given the
most perfect specimens in this discussion. You have, moreover, established the fact
to the satisfaction of your enemies, that Romish logic has never yet distingmshed
between argument and personal abuse. I do not say that this is your personal in
firmity. No. It is of the essential nature of the whole system. Jesuitism is by its
very nature, at war with all mankind, and the good of all civilized society ! Issuing,

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. ICfl
SS it did, from the bottomless pit, if its natural malignity and hatred of all that is
good were changed, or modified, it ¦would of necessity die. " No faith ivith heretics,"
is the watchword of its bloodhounds. The clanking of chains, and the moans of tho
tortured victims in fhe Inquisition, have been its favorite music : and the fires of the
AtJTO DA FE, Ught up its dreary and horrid pathway ! The bowels of Jesuitism
yearn over us, according to its natural parental feelings ! Wherever it had the as-
dency it Ughted up the gleaming fires of persecution. When its slave. Queen Mar^v,
mounted the throne of England, the fires of Smithfield were lighted up. We cast
our eyes over the massacres of Paris, and of Ireland, and in Piedmont ! We shudder
at the Auto dafes of Spain! And "you may expel nature with a fork," as the Ro
man poet said; but nature ¦wUl retum in its unsubdued prurience, — and to-morrow
would Romanism light up the Smithfield fires, in our Park, had this bloody sect tht
political ascendency and power, in our land!
How could you, then. Rev. Sirs, be so utterly off your guard as to commit your
selves, by gi-ving a pledge you never wi]l redeem ! — But so it is : — as your own favor
ite hafh it : — ¦¦A man may smile, and smile, and be a villain,"
You have again repeated yotir blundering and ungrammatical card, demanding, —
'• Wliat articles of faith found in the scriptures, in express terms, must be believed in
order to be saved ?" That is, what articles ttre to be beUeved to be saved? You
have in all your letters, given the American public sufficient specimens, in all con
science, of the deficiencies of a Romish theological education : you might have spared
the pubUc taste this last infUction ! But this Uttle Card is the youngest and last of the
family : and of course it is a pet with you ! It is natural ! In a family, the youngest,
litde, rickety chUd is always the object of an absorbing parental fondness, — especially
when its parents are waxing old, and are feeble -minded !
You have given us another specimen of Romish logic in your remarks touching
my scripture creed. You facetiously afTect to infer that we reject certain doctrines
because we do uot mention them in express words. On your principles a man does not
believe what he does uot find room to express in certain phrases ! Hence, on the prin
ciples of your profound logic, our Lord, who does not, in express terms, mention either
the Trinity, or the incarnation, in the Lord's prayer, did not himself believe in them !
This, however, is not my main reply. Had your education embraced in it, the first
elements of a sound christian theology, and the analytic method of evolving Irutii —
you must have seen, that in the very first text which I quoted, namely, " BeUeve in
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," — the true christian necessarily be
lieves in the Father, who sent his Son to redeem us: and in Jesus Christ the incarnate
God, who in human nature, suffered, and died for us: and in the Holy Ghost, -\vho
" creates us anew in Christ," and gives us that very faith by which we receive Christ.
However, I have availed myself of your suggestion : — Nam fas est et ab hoste doceri !
I have, to satisfy you, added a few more texts to my "scripture creed," in the second
edition of my Letters; which you will admit to be now correct.
I shall not, therefore, foUow you any farther, in your disjointed, and bald declama
tion about " Creeds of christian faith" and "articles of belief." "Physician, I say.
heal thyself!" Those men, who have been fairly convicted of deism, on evidence
which would satisfy any jury of twelve honest men; and who in fact, have opeiih
declared in the face of the public, that they, and their sect do absolutely reja»i
16

170 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
God's word, as "utterly defective," and utterly insufficient to be the rule of faith,*' j-'
are not to be listened to, in discussions about christian creeds, and articles of faith.
Is it not sheer hypocrisy ? "And of all the cantings of this canting world, the cant
of hypocrisy is the worst." And of all the hypocrites, the most insufTerable are these
two classes ; — namely, — the solemn drunkard, on the alehouse bench ; and the infidel
priest demurely discusssing creeds, and the pure doctrines of our holy reUgion !
The highly complimentary truth which closes your last letter, would have been
duly appreciated by me, had it not been wrung from you by constraint. Here the
priests of Rome have been, in one respect, Uke the fair sex ; — pardon me, ladies, for
jUacing you, even in supposition, in the company of the priesthood of Rome, with
whom, we are all aware, no virtuous lady can associate for one moment. But in the
fair one's letter, one can never arrive at her real feelings and meaning, until he comes
to the postscript. There, every thing is wrapt up in the last sentence. Even sp,
after all the priests' vituperation, and scandal, and personalities, the tmth is evolved
in their last sentence, — namely, — "We leave him alone," that is their opponent —
"in his glory!" There are, I assure you, few polemics who can boast of receiving
such a compliment as this from their antagonists !
It means, — "We abandon to him the whole cause, in despair! "We leave him
alone in his glory ! Our Roman catholic rule is utterly untenable ! We abandon
the defence i The heretic's ten arguments have fairly capsized us ! They have
crushed our rule ! And the one score and five arguments against Holy Mother's
"idolatry,'' and her "superstition," and her "fanaticism," as he caUs them, have
annihilated our hopes. They are tremendous! Conscious innocence can withstand
any thing ! But a guilty conscience makes one feel one's self annihUated ! Holy
Mother's " antiquity," who can defend, when we have a conviction in our consciences,
that all our leading tenets and rites were, in sober truth, re ;ently invented by our
popes and the priesthood. Then these treacherous fathers, — and that fatal want of
the unanimous consent! These monks of the dark age have much to answer for!
When they did alter, erase and add, why did they not do their job thoroughly, like
honest sons of "Holy Mother ?" They have done their work in an imperfect and .
slovenly manner. They have left, on their old pages, enough yet to paralyze us !
And to crown the mischief, these books of our fathers, have got into the hands ofthe
heretics. And, only think, our heretic in his terrible Letter VIIL, has let the fatal
secret out from these — our own books! Our plea of "catholicity" is gone, — unless
we oppose stout denials to our own standard -writers ! The plague rest — as our
Shakespear says, on this cunning, reading, thinking " American public," — and this
"religious public" of his I What a serious mistake we have fallen into! We have
learned, — but it is too late, that we are not in Spain, and the blessed South of Ireland!
We had hoped to make this "American public" believe that particular was general;
that J?o)«e and our church, were the universal world! Our succession is ridiculed
too ! Those schisms, and those diaboUcal popes, set forth in all their horrid garnish
ment, will kill us outright! That Baronius, that Labbeus, and Binius, and Bruys,
and Du Cange, and Dupin, and the rest of our slovenly, truth betraying writers, can
never escape purg-atory, for their wanton crime of affording materials to the heretics ! !
Why did our own sons lift the veil off " Holy Mother !"
Alas ! for the stately bark of St. Peter ! It has been shipwrecked in Europe. And
our last hopes -were in bringing these United States under our grasp, and the holy des-
ipotism, — the salutary despotism of Rome, and the Inquisition! We were working

RO.MAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 171
our way seeretiy and slyly. We had got many Protestants,—" silly fools," we admit,
who actually sent their daughters into our nunneries, and their sons to our pure and
holy seminaries of Jesuitism, to be educated! ! And carefuUy and successfuUy did
we train them : and return them into die bosom of their heretical parents ; deeply
imbued v.dth pure monarchy and Romanism ; and fahhful to the catholic Jesuits' cause ! !
But alas! the cunning " Amencan public" is now waked up! And our hopes are
blasted ! The curse of St. Patrick, as Shakespear says, be on these discussions ! It
is true, we knew the wholesome rule of our Jesuit Busseus: "Avoid, if you can, all
controversy on the articles of faith, widi heretics!" We did act on tins all along!
But these obstinate heretics would not be way-laid. They plunged right onward ;
and they got in spite of us, into our citadel, — into the very chambers of our imagery !
The veil so carefully thrown over all our weak and deformed parts, has been most
unceremoniously stript o*f. And St. Patrick, as Shakespear says, only knows what
is to be the end of these things! Our blessings on this officious, meddling "Ameri
can public" of his ! We had once thought that we could easily train, by our Jesuit
legions swarming over the land, the people of this same American republic ! Our
doctrines, our rites, and church government, sustained by a foreign pow-er, cannot
thrive, — fhey cannot even live In a Republic ! But ¦when -^ve shall receive the power,
we shall teach these stiff headed Republicans another lesson. Spain, Austria and
Italy shall be the fair model of a new and renovated government ! But the maledic
tions of St. Peter and St. Paul, as our Shakespear says, be on those ill advised dis
cussions! Our secret plans, from our head quarters in Europe, have been suddenly
divulged, before they had ripened into perfection ! Our benisons on this " reading
and dunking" generation ! Ten thousand anathemas on this "light and knowledge,"
as the heretics call it. They paralyze us ; they strike us blind, as do the sun beams
the owl of the forest I"
Such, gentlemen, are the frank admissions conveyed in the last sentence, and part
ing scrap of poetry, of your last letter. We thank you for the concessions : we shall
give wings to them !
But, finaUy, permit me to grace your retee.\t with an appropriate historical expo
sition of your favorite text at the head of my letter. It was not foi nothing that you
quoted it so often, and so apropos. " Coming events cast their shadows before !" You
had a presentiment of this ill fated retreat : and it was impossible that you could
forget the retreat of the great personages, alluded to, in the premonitory passage of
the prophet.
These were Senacherib, the despot of Assyria : with his two mischief-making sons,
Adramelech and Sharezer; who closed the chapter of their father's accidents, in a
bloody tragedy. These, with their servant, Rabshakeh, came up to invade the fair
land of Judah, and destroy Mount Zion. The king of Assyria was but another name
for a cruel /oreigK despotism, exercised over the souls and bodies of men. You know
who is the antitype of this unenviable character. The two sons of that prince, children
of Belial, may represent the two men who are the right and left hands ofthe symbol
of foreign despotism, — men, who, like these sons, woiUd kill their sovereign ! And
Rabshakeh was a vain, blustering, swaggering, wine-bibber ; much given to gascon
ade ; a captain of the Assyrian host ; fighting against Zion, and against the Most
High ; much given to speak and ¦write blasphemy in the ears, and before the eyes, of
the people : much given to taunt "the Hebrew ofthe Holy Ghost," and prefer the
Babyloniaa traditions, and oracles ofthe heathens, to the pure and holy word of God.

172 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
Jloreover, for some misdemeanor or other, by the law of his despotic prince, he was
doomed never to marry, nor to be received into the company of "virtuous ladies."
Hence he exercised himself much in the language of Ashdod, in speaking evU of all
" the virtuous ofthe sex." For he did, —
"Like Moses praise and bless.
The Canaan which he never could possess.''
But haste we to the sequel — Never was defeat more public and more complete,
dian that of our Assyrians! Never was a Retreat of any vain glorious foemen
covered with more infamy than -svas that of the despot, his two sons, and Rabshakeh !
Not one strong hold of Israel could they approach with a hand of harm ! Not one
arrow took effect in any one fortress of Zion. They missed their aim : they lost their
cause: they lost their honor, they lost their whole host! The Mighty God of Zion
breathed ou them in the burning wrath of his Samiel, — and lo! they were all dead
mon ! The few struggling partizans, made their Retreat, in deat^ like silence, and
Willi unutterable confusion. God fights against all anti-christian powers !
Then, mark the end of the despot. The hands of those whom he trained up to
wickedness, did overthrow him ! As for Rabshakeh ; — as you are admirers of tradi
tion, let us seek his fate in the Misnah, and the Gemara of the Talmud. It is very
obscure ; but the most feasible may be this : — being a great patron of human igno
rance, he kept the people as blind and ignorant as possible. He hated reading and
-uriting : it only made people averse, he would say, from the patient bearing of the
yoke of priestcraft and despotism ! He took care to burn every copy of the book of
the law, that he conld find in the people's houses. But even the longest chain has an
cud. The tide of popular fury turned on him; and banished him into some eremite's
cell, to lead a Ufe of penance and unalloyed misery. And he died as he lived, the
enemy of God, the curse of civil society, and the execration of all enlightened people !
His bleached bones Vv^ere found by some humane shepherd, who placed them under
a large rock, upon which, in process of time, some one wrote an epitaph. This epi
taph probably found its way into the Gemara : and some amateurs having translated
il, — the famous Robert Burns added the charms of a poetic version to it, in the fol
lowiug manner : — " Beneath these rugged stones
Lie old Rabshakeh's bones ;
O death ! it's my opinion,
You ne'er took such
Ablatherin' bitch,
Info your dark dominion I !"
Yours very truly, and respectfuUy.
W. C, Brownlee.
Notice. — The priests having finally retreated, and having entirely given up their
cause, in this discussion itwouldbe as discreditable to address anymore letters to them,
as it would be in a soldier, who keeps in his ranks, to consort, or correspond with
cowards and deserters. I shall claim the contmued and kind indulgence of the christ
ian community wlule I go on in the regular discussion, in Letters addressed to the
Members of the Roman Catholic Church: retaining my right, however, to return to
the charge, should the Priests come out with "more last words."
New York, August 13, 1833. ' W. C. B.

ROMAN catholic CONTROVERST. 173

PART II.
LETTER I,
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
" There is not such a great difference between our church, and fhe Protestant, that you
should leave us," — said a priest to a young convert to Christianity, — " There is only this dif
ference between us," replied the youth: — " The Roman catholics worship the god whom
the priest creates out of tiie wafer ; we worship the God who creates the priesf," — Malan.
Fellow Citizens: — The priests ha-ving left the field clear, and undisturbed tons, I
could think of no other to whom I should address myself, than to you. And I beg
leave to do it, with great respect, and christian salutations. It can neither be to your
interest, nor to mine, to be deceived in this solemn matter. And God knows I wish
your salvation as well as my own. Permit me, therefore, to present myself respect
fully before you. And until we become better acquainted, let me introduce myself
with a pleasant parable of olden times.
Once upon a time, the good St. Peter was sitting, in the cool of the morning, under
a rich clustering ¦vine, in the lovely green vale of Jehosaphat ; and in eamest discourse
with a friend. The holy Apostle, and he, had retired from the dust and heat of Jeru
salem ; and they were discussing an important question, in a grave and solemn man
ner, befitting such men. The apostle's friend was a chief priest: a noted man; and
a bosom friend to Nicodemus, His faith had been shaken in the Jewish system ; and
he was devoutly inquiring how he should arrive fully at the truth, and be saved. He
had discovered with no small degree of alarm, that truth was no longer in the Jewish
system, and church. The pure word of God, the Jewish doctors had impiously dis
placed; and rendered void by fhe fatal traditions of their fathers. The pure system
of Moses was no longer honored and received by them : and, with a singular incon
sistency, what was abolished in the ceremonial law, they now clung to with great ob
stinacy. The high priest, and his associates in despotism, had usurped power over
the souls, and consciences of men : they set no bounds to their avarice, pride, and
luxury. They traded "in the souls of men:" they even professed to open heaven ;
and shut the gates of hell, at the ecclesiastical chancery prices ! They sold pardons,
and permissions to sin, at all rates ; fVom Judas's sum of 30 shekels, up to the talent
of silver, and the lordly talent of gold !
" The temple is converted into a house of merchandize — my dear Peter," said tho
chief priest, as he fanned his burning brow with his snow white turban, — " In the
midst of this universal corruption, the kingdom of God I cannot find. Now, in as
much as he declared to our father Abraham, that his church should never fail, and
repeated it to David, and all the prophets ; and as it would be mockery to look for it
amid the universal corruptions of our high priest, and our chief priests and rulers of
the synagogue ; — it must be found somewhere else. Is it to be found in the new, up
start, christian church, just organized ; or is it not to be found even there V
16*

1?4 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
St. Peter opened up to him the scriptures, and went on, comparing fhe Old Testa
ment doctrine, with those of Christ, in order to show him that this new, reformed,
upstart church, — tht christian church alone, held the whole and only genuine truths of
God. And he was patiently bringing home to his heart, with many prayers, these
apostolical instructions : and instructing him in the right way of the Lord God of his
fathers ; while he kept a strict eye on a singular, suspicious, and ill-looking stranger,
who had entered the arbor ; aud had placed himself not far from them. He was be
decked in a fantastic dress, of many colors, neither exactly Jewish, nor altogether
GentUe in its shape : and there was a wUdness in his looks, and antic gestures,
which indicated the phrenzy of a madman ; or, to say the least, the air of a designing
knave !
St. Peter went on, discoursing of the Trinity, the incarnation, the atonement ; faith,
and repentance ; and the justification of a sinner by faith in Christ, without the deeds
of the law ; and thence the absolute necessity of good works, and a holy life. He
was very particular in showing him that God only is the supreme Lord of the con
science : that no human or ghostly pow-er on earth, should be permitted by any who
calls himself a man, and not a dumb brute, to usurp power over the conscience ; or
dictate a form of religion to it. " Think, read, judge, decide for yourself. None of the
Jewish priests, nor any priest under these heavens, can dare to prescribe to your con
science. Go to God's law, and word, and his inspired apostles. God speaks:
listen ; obey ; and count that man an emissary of the devil, fresh from the burning
lake, who would dare to lord it over your conscience ; or offer to appease God for you ;
or to pardon your sins for a few Jerusalem coppers ! He is the arch impostor, — the
antichrist; of which our beloved brother John will tell you more fully."
Here the singular stranger grew so impatient, that he could no longer contain him
self : and he rudely cut short the apostle's discourse, by abmptly crying out, — "Do
you call me the impostor and the antichrist?" Then addressing himself to the chief
priest, for.he was evidently a stranger to St. Peter, — he besought him not to give heed
to one word uttered by that " hoary headed deceiver ,-" for the holy order of the high
priest, and the chief priests have the entire keeping of men's consciences. And they
negotiate with heaven the whole of man's salvation for a moderate consideration. —
But I am forgeting hunself. To give divine efficacy to my words, and confound all
heretics, I must have in my soul the intention ; and on my body the consecrated apos
toUcal raiment, — such as St. Peter the prince and pope : were he present, — would
laud and bless." And upon that he applied himself to the work.
He rose up and made certain genuflections, and prostrations to the east and west :
he then decked himself out in party-colored patches and rags, of red, purple, and
v/hite, and green ; and putting on a thing resembling three crowns, on his head ; he
went to an adjoining thicket, and cut a tall rod the top of which he twisted into a
shepherd's crook. And coming gravely up ; he stood with a solemn, demure, half
crying countenance, for a few moments ; then whispered "Now I have got the unction
of holy intention ; now for the grace procuring gestures, and genuflections." And
with that he appUed himself gravely to a succession of bodily exercises, forty-five in
number; sometimes he bowed: then he kneeled: then he elevated his arms aloft.
And having counted his forty-fifth, he sat down quite out of breath. "Now," said
he, "what I am going to say, no one dare gainsay, under peril of salutary eo/d
Steel, and the hot fire ; — to wit, heading and burning ! This crown, the emblem of
power, and this sceptre, the symbol of pastoral qualification and care, God Almighty

ROHAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 175
made -with his own hands ; and with his own hands, he placed them on my head, and
in these hands!"
The aposde would have interrupted him : — but he silenced him with an outrageous
clamor; and he went on, engrossing- the whole conversation himself. "I am God's
vice-god, upon earth : I am supreme: by me kings and priests reign and act : I am
the lord of die human conscience : God has put this ghostly power in my unworthy
hands, who am a servant of servants. "^And while the words of humility were on
his lips, he tossed his sceptre : and -waved his lordly triple crown on high, — Then he
went on : — " The revelation which God has given to the Hebrews and the Christians,
derives all its authority aud all its evidence from me : it is the word of God if I say it :
it is not, if I say nay : I add to it, and I take away ; and \\ ho shall set bounds to this
spiritual sceptre ! I have the keys of hell and of death ! I open heaven : and I
open heU! I shut them both as I will ! Through me alone, God sjieaks ! Through
me alone, men shall apply to God. I am on earth, what the Almighty is in heaven !
Hence I have power to alter what Christ did establish : I can add to his doctrines,
when it can be made profitable to bring in much gold. I can add as many sacra
ments as I please to his humble and plain two. For this is also profitable ; — if not
for doctrine, — at least for establishing my supreme power over the souls of my slaves,
and minions. And they also bring much silver and gold lo our coffers. Then gold
brings might : and might, according to sound ghostly policy, alw-ays makes right !
These are the maxims of my court !"
Here the -wrath ef St. Peter was kindled fiercely against him. He had hitherto
set him down in his own mind, as stark mad ; and he had viewed him with pity. But
as he went on in detail, he saw that he was a knave, possessed with a legion of raving
devils! "Who is he?" said he to his host. "Verily I know him not;" — said the
horror stricken chief priest: I took him at first, for some of your friends: then in my
mind, I thought him a poor demoniac, humbly following in order to get ihe devil cast
out of himself: he frequently, I thought, mentioned your name and your authority.
I suspect that he was a noted companion of Judas Iscariot !" " Who are you? Who
sent you, sirrah ?" cried St. Peter, addressing him in tenns of strong indignation ;
and unsubduable zeal for God's glory.
" Who am I ?" repUed he slowly and solemnly ; — " I am the spouse ofthe church ;
and the church is my chaste and beautiful spouse. — God's vicegerent, and the infalli
hle ¦vicar of Christ : I come from holy St. Peter the prince of the apostles."
"Your proof, sirrah!" said Peter. " There is my proof!" said he gravely. And
he held out a roll of parchment : " I certify this roll to be the true and genuine roll,
and deed of right and power, conveyed to me, through lord pope St. Peter from
God !"
"Very well, sir impostor:" said Peter; — "you certify for that roll's authenticity :
then pray, who certifies for you?" " Why look ye here, — my pity on your weak
ness, old man ; — only inspect this roll ; and it will tell all about me ; and fully certify
that I am the only legal claimant."
" And what then, sir knave, will you do, if we ridicule this ludicrous reasoning in
a circle ?" said Peter. " Why, I'll tell thee, hoary headed doubter, — if any one ex
presses a doubt, — I have the sword, the axe, the fire, and the stake ! like the sword of
earthly kings, this is my holy spiritual weapon : my ultima ratio ! my unanswerable
argument!" " What is your object," replied St. Peter ;— " for you are a creature I never to my

176 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
knowledge saw before, — is it your object to save men's souls ?" " That is a secondary
object." " What is your primary object then ? You may suppose me to be your St.
Peter, — and teU me." " You St. Peter !— you a plain fisherman, St. Peter !— why
St. Peter wore his red, and purple, and fine white robes, and his golden mitre !
Christ made him prince of the apostoUcal college!" "Thou art stark mad, I teU
thee," said St. Peter, — "but goon: dost thou setup thy kingdom solely to save men?"
" Yes, I save them in the way of making a good job of it." " But, how ? I pray thee,
go on."
"Why heaven is a great way off; and the way is very steep; and my flock are
not very steady, or moral, sometimes: — "Very well," said St. Peter, — "you lead
them to the fountain ofthe Redeemer's blood, I hope," " It is far easier, I tell thee,
ignorant man, to lead them to the basin of holy water." "Holy water!" cried St.
Peter; — "I do not know that thing; and never heard of it before: but do you not
teach the holy atonement to be the only sacrifice for the sins of man," " No, no ; we
are inventing the thing called the mass, though it will take centuries to get men so
well taught, as to leave to me all the right of thinking for them ; and then take my
bare word for every thing : to call black, -white, and the devil, Christ, if I only say it !"
" Tht mass !" said St. Peter : — "that is perfectly new to me : the Master never said a
word of it: he appointed the Holy Supper, to commemorate his death, and his one,
real, and perfect atonement."
" You know nothing at all :" cried the wild man, — " We need not the atonement of
Christ ; we offer up in the mass, daily, a sacrifice for the quick aud the dead, to ap
pease God!" "Hold, in silence, thy blaspheming Ups," cried St. Peter; "thou
must be the Antichrist ! But what said you about getting your people near to the far
distant heaven ? " Why, we make a sacrifice for them ; and what is defective in that
we make up by putting the deceased souls into purgatory, and there, a smart burning
of well applied flames, consumes in a salutary manner, all their sins, aud follies."
" Well, that, we know, is taken from the abominable heathen ; — but you do not mean
to say that it has any thing to do with us. Christians ? I never taught it : and
tbe Master never spoke of it : this he said, — ' The blood of Jesus washes all sins
away.' That is God's only purgatory that I ever heard of: for there is no other
Savior than Jesus. "But what get you for all this? — Are j-our holy water and
masses, and purgatory a free job?"
"Oh! no: we save souls in the way of making gold and silver, and building up
our power ! If we condescend to spare the time from our luxuries and pleasures, souls
should be very thankful ; and pay their fees with less grumbling!" "And as you
have added five new sacraments," said St. Peter; — "do you bestow grace through
them, free to all, and gratis 7" " Oh ! no : there is no divine efficacy in one of them,
unless the church's dues be paid : it is the church's dues : it is St. Peter's pence .'"
" So, then this marvellous and newly invented system is all adapted to make gain —
these shepherds shear the sheep, and flay them, and take all the milk to themselves !
I thought that our Master had said, — ' Ho ! every one that thirsteth, eome, drink :
come without money and without price,' God's word says this.'' " That may be,"
said the demon, "but times shall be changed: these were Christ's laws: but I speak
now of owr holiness's laws." " Why the Master had his children mainly among the
poor;" said St. Peter; 'and to the poor is the gospel preached.'" "No, no; our
infalUbles declare that the rich can buy pardons for any space, — limited only by the
limit of money, where that stops short, reprobation begins ! Know ye not that the

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 177
Streets of Heaven are paved wifh gold. As we have the laying out of the city ; and
of course all the paving, how can we have paving of gold ready, in every street,
uiUess the people give its their gold !"
"Marvellously said:" whispered St. Peter, — "now do I see whither we have got:
but repeat what thou saidst about a certain Saint Peter." " Why St, Peter was the
prince of the apostles, infallible, and" — " ali !" cried the apostle interrupting him,
"where gottest thou that novelty : — ay! prince he must have been, because he was
a blundering, forward man : infallible, too,"' added the humble apostle with deep sor
row ; — " fhey have got me to be what I never heard of from the Master, — infaUible,
verily ! Ah ! this mockery is offered because I did deny my Lord ! I am humbled
and mortified," continued he; "tiiey call me infallible and prince! I suppose be
cause Paul sternly rebuked me, and showed hunself justly my superior ! But go on,"
added he aloud : " After this ebullition what shall we hear next, I wonder?" " AVhy
•we select St, Peter to be the foundation of our church." "The blessed Master keep
me out of such a church, with such a rotten foundation" — exclaimed St. Peter with
holy indig-nation. ''Give me, O my blessed God, give me grace to belong to that
church that is buUt on die Rock of eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ! That is the
Christian church," — cried St, Peter. "And that is the only, pure, and immutable
church, which I also long to be a member of," — said the pious chief priest; but go
on; let us hear all!"
"You know nothing," — cried the Demoniac in reply — " did I not lay hold of holy
intention 7 Do I not stand up in my sanctified robes ? Am I not, therefore, infal
lible ? If you doubt, yon shall be damned, by me ! Iwill cast you into purgatory ;
and none of my holy priests shall pray you out — unless for a ruinous sum from your
heirs !
Here the apostle, eyeing the motley buffoon from head to foot, burst out into a loud
laughter: but, suddenly recollecting himself he said' — "I am determined to hear the
possessed mad man out : go on : I will not interrupt thy extravagance : the pagan
kings claim power over sun, moon, and stars ; but thou art " the wild beast whose tail
sweeps the third part of the stai-s from heaven :" and with thy pa-^vs thou throwest
men into sheol ! Go on, I pray thee."
" Ha^ving laid my foundation of empire on St. Peter, I shall go forth to subdue all
nations, kingdoms, tongues, and countries. My power extends, to all tlie world, and
all heaven, and all hell !"
Here the apostle sprang up from his seat; he could not stand it. " Nay, then. Sir
Gascon, have done, at last, I see ¦who thou art. Our sovereign and blessed Master
Jesus Christ, warned us of the great Western maniac prince, who would be intoxicated
with the blood of the saints. The system was conceived and plotted in hell : and
thou art the demon let loose for a season ; and charged with the execution of it !
Already, I see, art thou wandering to and fro through the earth, and hatching thy
diabolical plots. Now, hear me, I am St. Peter ! and had not the Master drawn the
veU over thy mind, thou mightest have known me." Then, by a holy impulse, he
laid the glorious system of the truth of Christ, as opposed to the system of Antichrist,
before the vigorous intellect of the mischievous demon : it shone brilUantly as a
poUshed steel mirror of the daughters of Judah : the truth beamed from it with unut
terable brightness, and flashed over his guilty conscience and heart.
The demon, who is also the soul and spirit of Antichrist, cast his small, sunk, and
twinkling, eyes, first, on St. Peter, ¦with fear and terror ; and then on all the objects

lyS ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
around bun, exclaiming: " Art thou come then, to betray, in thy apostolical ¦WTitingS>
and those of thy associates, fhe secret of our kingdom, which I have thoughdessly
blabbed out! Art thou come to torment me and mine before the time?" Then, wifh
a hallow scream, he fainted away under tbe beams of die truth. And a sweeping
whhlwind and vivid flashes of fire, and roaring thunder, die symbol of heaven's irre
sistible vengeance, — swept him away down the vale, into the Dead Sea !
Fellow Citizns : — I need not stop here to interpret the parable. Your own good
sense will lead you to understand it.
I am, fellow citizens, with christian salutations,
yours faithfully.
August, 1833. W. C. Brownlee-

LETTER II.
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
" We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the
proper things of the body, according as he hatii done, either good or evil." — Douay Test. '2
Cor. V. 10.
Fellow Citizens: — If you will unite cordiaUy i^tith St. Peter, in the wholesome
doctrines here taught by him, in his repUes to die evil spirit of Antichrist, then,
assuredly, you and I shall be better acquainted : and you will not count me your
enemy, because I tell you the truth.
No one of us, in this " land of die free and the home of the brave," wishes you ill.
No one of us ever says, " ill-luck to you." No one of us does wish you to forsake
the true religion of your fathers. They are designing men, and impostors, who seek
to persuade you that we have any such intention. We do solemnly assure you before
God, that all we wish mid beg cf you is this ; — that, as men, as immortal beings, who
are soon to stand before die awful throne of Almighty God, to be judged, each one
for himself — j'ou would study the holy scriptures ; and draw yoOr religion out of God's
word alone. It is God's word. God spealis to you and to us, in it : it is not obscure :
make the trial and you wUl see : he speaks to us as plainly and clearly, as does a
father to his children !
Break the chains of priestcraft in pieces, and be free ! It makes you poor, — who are
laboring men : it keeps you in abject poverty, and unsufferable bondage. You see
the highly intelligent and learned men of 3-our church despising, and laughing priest
craft to scorn ! Do the well informed ever go to tbe abominable confessional of a
licentious priest? Wo-ild the genteel and well informed among you permit their
wives and their daughters to go to hear such infamous and obscene questions put to them
by the bloated and pestilential lips of the priests ! No, never ! Resolve to be free
II from this cruel yoke. Go to Almighty God alone for pardon: go and confess to Him
alone : he asks no money : he never sent any priests to rob you, to pay for pardons.
Go in humble faith, to the only Savior, the great God, our Redeemer: he alone can
pardon. It is impossible that any thinking and reflecting mind can, for a moment,
beUeve that the infinitely holy God, would commit to incontinent wicked priests, the
power of absolving from sin ! A priest rebuking wickedness ! Behold the renovation
of Milton's scene of " Satan reproving and chiding sin!' Who can believe, — who can
he so much of a knave, as to believe and teach that Almighty God who commands

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 17!>
j-ou " to come, wldiout money and widiout price," would send a priest to barter in
pardon, and sell absolutions, and take money for letting souls out of purgatory ? Re
solve at length to rise up and be free from this worst of paganism ! Break the cruel
chains of priestcraft from around your immortal and noble souls! Resolve, and
declare, and appeal to heaven, tiiat you will, that you shall be free, Uke all other
christians around you !
Can any one of your famUies be said to enjoy liberty ; and mutual .confidence in j
each other, ¦v\-hen a ghostly tyrant establishes such an espionage over you; and'
employs the wU"e to -n-atch the husband, and the husband the wife ? Where is \
liberty and mutual confidence, and family peace enjoyed, when all the members of \
that family, are constituted spies over cach other, and carry all die family secrets to
the intermeddling priest! How can you, in one instance, trust your wife's honor to
a man who puts fhe most loathsome and obscene questions to her ; and does it to
entice her afTections away from you ? How can you answer it at the bar of God, for
allowing a modest and innocent young child to go to the confessional ; to have her
mind, and body poisoned, and polluted by a priest, at whose confessional, I do pub
licly and boldly say, no pure and -virtuous woman can appear, without being shocked :
-aal-sstitfeouT actually suffering the loss of modesty and moral character! The dark i
V ages_have rolled away.: therefore, no sober minded man in our republic can sink to
such aaSgracTation as to make such a bargain with a wretched priest, as did the late
duke of Brunswick, who made his bargain and paid his price to the "holy" priest to
ie damnedin his stead, ifhe should happen to be damned for his apostacy from Christ
to Antichrist !
I am perfectly aware that in purely Roman catholic lands, no sentiment is more
common than this, that the priest undertakes to negotiate the whole concern of salvation
for his victims ! I implore you to rise from this state of infinite degradation. A man
who can think and act as the Duke did, has a meanness of soul that is immeasurably
contemptible ! Nay, he cannot be a believer in Christianity ! Nay, he cannot be a
beUever in a future judgment, or rewards and punishments ! Nay, he is not even a
believer in the existence of God ! Permit yourselves no more to be the victims of an
infidel priesthood. In the name of God I beseech you, remember that if you die in
your sins, after following the wicked priest, God will condemn you both. Every
priest, -whose conscience is not absolutely 'seared as with a hot iron,' knows that he
neither will, nor can take your place. Bankrupt and beggared, he has no credit, — no
influence in the court of heaven. His oT»vn damnation is deep enough : and he can
not answer for you !
Open your eyes to the infamous imposture of purgatory, practised on you to cheat
you out of your money ! As certainly as Godis Almighty and just, and holy, so cer
tainly is there no such place, or thing, as purgatory ! The vile fiction, we have for
merly shown you, is only a few centuries old. Mark the imposition. Dr. Varela has
told you lately in a newspaper, that it is the doctrine of his church, that no man
hnows who, or how many, of your departed relatives are in purgatory ! ! Now, tell me,
I beseech you, how you can permit yourselves, or your wives, to be robbed of your
money, in order to bring souls out of it, when none of these priests, who get the wages
of their robbery, can even tell who is in purgatory ! Depend on it, my friends, if
their masses, and their prayers, had any — even the least interest and favor with God,
he would not conceal from them who, and how many of those are in the fires, for
w^hom they pretend to pray.

180 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
This is not aU : there is another sheer imposture in this matter. It is not trne that
your priests either do, or can, say oMthe masses for the departed souls. If they did,
they must be saying masses, day, and night, every hour of adi their lives! You need
not, — you ought not to pay any more for at least a thousand years — for your priests,
every where, at least, are a thousand years in arrears ! — Make them pay up in masses,
before you pay another copper ! How is it that you are so slow, — so utterly without
judgment, at making equitable bargains ?
The late Rev. Dutch minister of Sourland, Somerset, N. Jersey, was very intimate
¦with father P  , who occasionally officiated there. Once, while in a jocose and
free conversation, the Dominie said to the priest, — " Father P  , it is all nonsense
to profess that you beUeve in purgatory : you have too much learning and good sense
to believe in any such thing! Come now, ami not right?" "Ah!" said father
P  , " you are too severe : but come now, I declare solemnly, that I do believe in
purgatory, as eamestly as any other priest ! I am honest and loyal to Holy Mother."
And he shook his vasty sides, and laughed right merrily ; and added, — " Come over to
my chambers, and I declare to you, that I will show you purgatory." " What — show
me purgatory?" cried the astonished Dominie ; — " Yes, you shall see it, on my honor,
with your own eyes!"
You may be assured that the curious Dominie lost no time in visiting tbe priest. And,
after a refreshment of no ordinary a kind, — for there were no temperance societies, in
those days, the Dominie reminded his host of the promise touching the ¦vision of pur
gatory. " To be sure" — said the father, — "You shall see it: follow me." He con
ducted him into the confessional ; and approaching a small bureau, be pulled out tbe
drawer containing some silver pieces, — such as dollars, half-dollars, and occasionally
some few shining bits of gold ; — then turning on his guest the most quizzical look im
aginable, he said — " There, my good sir, is my purgatory : and the only one I know of,
or care for!"
My respected friends, every one knows, that in a figure of speech, tbe effect is often
put for the cause. Here is an instance of it. The silver and gold were the effect of
his victims' belief in purgatory. The priest here gravely took the effect for tbe cause :
he believed finnly in the visible effect ; while he left the cause to the faith of " sUly fools
laden with iniquity," who believe wdthout evidence, and trust in the existence of a
non-entity ! The most of the priests may, perhaps, be as learned, and as ¦wise as this
father : but, most assuredly, few of them are as honest and as candid as he was.
I have thus respectfully, and most earnestly urged on you the duty of asserting
your independence, and claiming your unalienable birth-right, to think for yourselves,
and choose your own religion. Do not, any more, repeat what assuredly is not true,
that we aim at persuading you to forsake your religion, and the religion of yonr
fathers. This is sheer priestcraft. The priests have taught you to say this. They
do it merely for effect, and deception. We ask you to abandon, — not what you ever
voluntarily chose ; not what you embraced after accurate scriptural research, and
eamest prayer to God for Ught ; but that which has been palmed on you for religion !
Had you sought it simply from God, and out of his holy and only inspired Word, you
would have found that which we would never have asked you to forsake. What we
beg you to abandon is, that system of mental tyranny ; those human devices, not
found in all God's word : that cunningly devised system, which takes away your pro
perty wtthout giving you any instruction, or any equivalent whatever in retum ; which
robs you of real peace : which, by imposing flattery, leads your souls astray, from

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 181
tiie only shepherd and bishop of souls, the Lord Jesus Christ; and chEuns you to tho
car of an unrelenting priesdy vassalage, and the worst of all despotism! We implore
yoa, fellow citizens, to hasten your escape from this yoke of bondage. Bead,— think,
— and boldly assert your rights to judge for yourselves ! Sustain the dignity and glory j
^>f your nature. In this happy land the souls of all are free, but yours. "The chains
of the dark age are stUl rivetted on you, by ghostly tyranny. Reject with indigna- /i
tion, and spurn from you tbe disgusting legends, traditions, and impostures of men,
who are six centuries behind all other people in knowledge, and morals, and religion!
Of men, who reap gain from imgoiUiness, ¦n-bose untiring effort is to stop the progress
of the Bible and christian knowledge ; and whose pleasure and gain lie in keeping
the species wrapped in tbe profotmdest ignorance ! Hitherto have the priests ¦dictated
for a religion to your consciences, what God never taught by his prophets ! And
this tbey know as well as we do ! These inventions, and tbeir mummery, and mock
ery of God and of man, are what we implore you to abandon. Choose your religion
out of the pure and unadulterated word of God ; and no longer yield your souls a prey
lo tbe impostures of ignorant, profUgate, and designing priests ! We appeal to the
Most High, our common Lord and Master, that we long over you, to see you raised
to fhe spiritual liberty, wbicb all your fellow citizens enjoy, in our happy Republic.
You only of all the RepubUcan family, have not rid yourselves ofthe execrable spi
ritual vassalage, from which, by the grace of God, our fathers set themselves free !
One of our fellow citizens, the other day, gave a Bible to a Roman catholic neigh
bor, in Brooklyn. He is a respectable man: and he can read and write. It was
given him as a great curiosity; and he promised to read it. But he soon brought it
back. His ovra mind filled with tbe traditions and nonsense of priestcraft, under the
whisperings of his spirimal guide, was itself the standard and rule. For tradition and
prejudice are the real and genuine rule of faith of the men, who exercise their souls
by proxy, and think by proxy : and beUeve by proxy: and who, if they drop unexpect
edly into bell, they expect to be recalled b-y priestly proxy, or else they have the con
solation that their proxy is to be " damned in their stead !" He threw the Bible to
his neighbour. — "Take it back" cried he, " it is a dangerous book ! It contains dam
nable errors ; and it has no Roman catholic religion in it: not even a word for " tbe
Mother of God," " the Queen of Heaven." I go with tbe priest in all that be says :
and ifhe be damned ; then I am willing to be damned too !" This authentic anec
dote I am prepared to prove by two respectable citizens who stood by, and heard him
utter it.
In some poUtical straggles, when party spirit has run high, we have heard of some
warm politicians " going the whole hog!" But here is a novel display. Here is a
daring spirit who carried the bold experiment into the world of mind and immortality !
Here is a master spirit, who bows so lowly before the throne of Antichrist; and burns
¦with such zeal to support tbe crusade of priestcraft, and despotism against God's holy
scriptures, andthe christian reUgion, that he is prepared to sacrifice body, and Ufe, and
even his soul, and even heaven ; and plunge into the gulph of perdition, to grace the
cause, and win a triumph for the prince of darkness !
But, pardon me, I ask you, my respected friends, if this man acted with the dignity
of a man ? Is this conduct rational, or befitting a human being ? Can such a wretch
as that, be fit to grace any office, or occupy any post, — but the handle of the oar of a
galley slave ; or the handle of the hammer of a wretched culprit in the mines o
Mexico, or Peru ? 17

1S2 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
Here is another specimen, I heard it uttered the other day by one of yourselves, he
was a good catholic. He " swore he was in the full faith ; and believed all that the
priests believed : be was not quite so moral, he frankly admitted, as some others: but
"he swore he was of the genuine faith." "Now, Doyle," said I, "what do you
believe?" " I believe as the holy church believes." "Well, Doyle, what does tbe
church believe V " Arrah now, she believes, I swear, exacdy what I beUeve !"
" Well said, Doyle, but tell us what you bothhelievel" He raised his fair Milesian
face, and declared with the best humored smile inthe world, — "Arrah! now we do
beUeve exactly alike the same thing."
Having now, I trust, formed an acquaintance, and having mutually refreshed our
memories -with what we have gone over, in my former Letters to the Priests : I beg
leave here to pause ; ofTering soon to present myself on a graver subject, and in a
graver manner. I am, fellow citizens, with respectful and christian salutations.
Your sincere friend, &c.
W. C. B.

I LETTER III.
TO THE MEMBERS OP THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
?:'' ArJip & (liEVyt,)!', Kai ffaXiv jia^riceTai.
" The man who fights, and runs away
May live to fight another day." Demosthenes.
Fellow Citizens : — You have penetrated the reasons, before now, why the bish
op's three champions have deserted your cause ; and abandoned the defence of " Holy
Mother." At any rate, every intelligent Protestant perceives the reasons. One of
them was tbis : — There is a certain rule laid do^wn by the Jesuits, whose order has
heen revived, to plant Romanism in our land ; and sap the foundation of our repub
lican institutions. That rule binds the consciences of tbe Jesuits, my late opponents.
The rule I alluded to, is thus expressed by Busseus, " Never discuss the doctrines
of Holy Mother Church toith a heretic, if it can possibly be avoided." You all know
how scrupulously my antagonists obeyed this Jesuitical mle. They poured out their
ebulitions of malignity against the only rule of faith ; and exhausted the last shaft of
infidel animosity against God's holy word. This tbey would do. But they shunned
all discussion of tbeir church's doctrines and rites. Another reason was this : — when
they entered tbe lists, they had no idea that we possessed tbe books, which we have ;
and which are written by their great men. Tbey had no conception that these works,
now in our possession, and which we have been quoting, were in the United States ;
hut were on the contrary slumbering in tbe monastic libraries of Spain, Italy, and
Austria. Hence they began, and actually practised, for a -vhile, the ruse de guerre,
common with all Jesuits in places where tbe people have not tbeir books ; and know
not their tenets. They denied their own books : they denied tbeir real doctrines.
But it is impossible to describe their astonishment and confusion, when we quoted
the originals of their own works, and named page and chapter. From that time,
they evidently drew back : and dealt no more in denying their books and principles.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 183
One of my antagonists exclaimed in the hearing of a friend of mine, — " Where in
the mischief, do these fellows get all these books !" If it would be in any way edify
ing I would tell him. Under providence we are indebted to Napoleon, and his "re
forming" troops, for many of them. These soldiers broke up many a Jesuit's and
Inquisitor's Ubrary, in their visit to Italy, Spain, and Naples. These volumes were
sold to these "reforming soldiers;" as plunder, profitable to themselves : and it is
probable, moreover, fhat they had wit enough to discover that any body ; even heretics,
would make a better use of these -volumes ihan tbe dull, sleek-headed, fat, contented,
ignorant monks of fhe cells, ever could do, I have in my possession a Latin work
308 years old. It was written by the bishop of Rochester against Luther, in defence
of king Harry VIII. before that prince dashed off' the pope's crown and put it on bis
own head. I have another tome of 3000 pages folio, and lately the property of one
of the pope's " ApostoUcal Protonotaries ;" whose name and coat of arms are bla
zoned in front of it. It is a precious body of Jesuitism, — its laws, and doctrines,
drawn at fuU length ; — namely, the works of L. BIolina. And whatever uninform
ed men may say, these very doctrines of Jesuitism, as we shall show ere long, are re-
-vived in our countiy by the newly revived sect, in all tbeir immutable virulence.
He is unjiardonably ignorant of European history, who does not know the genius of
Jesuitism, the master piece of Satan's deepest and utmost stretch of invention : and
also that every govemment of Europe has denounced them as equal to legions of in-
camate fiends : and the unrelenting foes of Uberty and religion : the desperate ene
mies of God and man ! And that American citizen is as unpardonably ignorant of
the present state of things tn Europe, and his own Republic, who does not know that
Jesuitism has been lately revived -with full powers by the popes, with one grand sp«-
cifi£ object ; openly avowed here and in Europe, namely, to overrun this republic ;
put do-wn our republican institutions : establish despotism : and finally, tbe Romish
bierarchy, and the inquisition : and then organize crusades against the Piotestant
religion ! ! It is tme, we smUe at their diabolical and fruitless intentions ; and appeal
to the Most High for protection. But be it remembered ; — this is to be prevented by
the glorious schemes, aud tbe means now used by the christian public : and by the
missionaries, and by Sabbath schools in the valUes ofthe Mississippi : and by the Tract
and Bible societies : — and not by these lukewarm christians, and lukewarm politi
cians in our country, who cry, — "no danger," — "no fear!" And who, moreover,
betray on whose side they are, by sending their children to be trained up by licentious
and expeUed European Jesuits ! And who betray tbeir country's cause by contribu
ting sums of money to build up Jesuit's chapels and colleges, out of which are to
issue men, who wUl make deadly war against our republican institutions, and our
reUgious liberty ! ! Who does not see that tbis is treason against our republic !
These are some of the reasons why your priest's have retreated from the field. The
object of Jesuits is to carry on their work in silence, darkness, and concealment. —
They are determined secretly to undermine us. And when they think they have the
power, we shall bear of the American gun-powder plot ! Hence our priests
hate nothing more than the exposure of their real doctrines, and their real object.
And, hence, fellow citizens of all ranks, you perceive the reason why I must go on ;
and tear the whole mask ofi" from the face of Jesuitism ; and tbe whole of the faded
purple robe off the old paralytic limbs of " Mother Babylon !" I have received let'
ters from many parts of the United States; particularly from New England, Vir
ginia, Ohio, Kentucky; and the "far West," urging me to go on. These contro-

184

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.

versial Letters of New- York, aud Philadelphia, are read with avidity, by, perhapSr
four millions of our fellow citizens. Does any man think that I can prove recreant
to my God, and my country ; and like the priests, tum my back and retreat ? Shall
I obey ttvo or three individuals ; and refuse the loud call of mUlions ? No ! sooner
let my arm fall from my shoulder hlade ! I shall not stop until I am done : and the
priests know what that means. I throw myself on the kind indulgence of the chris
tian and political public, who have hitherto sustained me. And I entreat of all my
fellow citizens, a patient and full hearing.
I shall now go on with the regular discussion. — I have despatched three marks of
your priest's church. I now beg your attention, fellow citizens, respectfully, to the
examination of the next mark.
Fourth. — Your sanctity. By this attribute of their church and priesthood, your
priests mean to convey the idea that they, their associates, and popes, are really
HOLY. They are quite separated from the wicked men of this wicked world : they
are holt ! They care nothing about power : nothing about money, — vile trash !
They would not take it from their devout and pure disciples ! They are above it, —
and above the world, and above its dainties ! Revelry and wine, and mirth, are to
the holt and spotless priesthood, an utter abominatic^n ! It makes them even fain'
at the idea of social company ! Tbeir spirits die away in them at the idea of earthly
joys, and merry entertainments! They are holt ! They are sublimely weaned
from the world. A dinner on meats, and wine on Fridays, at home, or in a steamboat,
would shock and kill them outright! The very presence of a female, — the very
name of wife, would make them expire in fits, and give up the ghost ! !
This is not aU. They are holt in their pope and cardinals, who- have not yet
practically believed in the existence of the Deity. The prince bishops of the old world-
who boast that they believe in no other world than the present, are holt ! The
priests who know not the first elements of religion, are holt unto their god!" Their
rites and doctrines, all invented since the sixth century, and invented by tyrants and
knaves, to plunder the people of the fruits of their industry, are all holt! Their vest
ments of motley color, and unmatched shape, are all holt. If a priest "swears by
his holy vestments," as every devout Roman catholic knows, it is an oath which none
of the simple faithful ever doubts. In a word what the priest does, is holy ; what the
priest says is holy; what he blesses is holy ; what he consecrates, such as relics, were
they even the bones of a convict, or a Turk — they are holy saintly relics ! The
chapel is holy : the floor is holy : the altar is holy : the candles are holy : tbe water
is holy : the oil is holy : the incense and its smoke are holy ! All that is absurd, and
stupid, and outrageous on common sense, — such as the wafer consecrated into a God>
is holy. All — all is holy, except only such small concerns as these ; namely : the
soul, the heart, and tbe lives of the priests, and their victims ! When the priest ut
ters holy anathemas on all but bis own sect, he is holy ! When he dooms the whole
Protestant world to hell, be is holy ! When he grants absolution for sin at the stated
price, in the pope's chancery book — and blots out iniquity on the graduated scale of
pounds, shilUngs, and pence, he is holy ! When he grants an indulgence at a stipu
lated sum, to secure an indemnity against future penalties and sins, just as far as the
sum, fixed upon, goes, he is holy ! In fine, tbe centre of all apostacy, sin, tyranny>
persecution, and ghostly despotism, is pronounced at Rome to be holiness. And he
who bears the title and livery of Antichrist, is called "His holiness," in the ab
stract ! And on the same principle, when the princes and rulers under the chief

ROM-iN catholic CONTROVERST. 185
priace of darkness, address each other in council, inMUton's Pandemonium, it is quite
supposable that in courtesy they politely address each other by the names and titles
of what they once were, — as "Your holiness!" "Your sublime gravity ! Your
immaculate -^-irtue !" And aU this takes place while they are plotting the ruin of the
blessed Redeemer's church ! And every student of human nature, and of things,
knows that wifh deep designers and profligate men, there is a special advantage in
calling things by names die perfect reverse of the truth ! If I plot the ruin of my
country, I assume tbe name of patriot, and clamor loudly about patiiotism! If I am
going to utter fhe most palpable lies, and fictions, and slanders, — I call my pages
" Truth TeUer !" If I am going to persecute, murder, and massacre good men,"
and extirpate the tme reUgion of Christ, I call myself "His Holiness." If, Uke
Satan, a masterspirit tries to do fhe work of darkness, "he transforms himself into an
angel of light !"
I am aware that no Roman priest beUeves what he utters about " holiness." It is
used simply for effect ; to rivet the chains of deluded victims !
The entire argument of their champion Dr. Milner of England, is this. " If the
church was holy once, she is holy still : because the church never changes her doc
trines, nor suffers any oue in her, to change fhem." Letter 19. In this sophism, he
takes the " church," in one sense ; namely, to be the church of God : in the rest of his
sentence, he takes it for granted, without any proof, that the Romish church is the only
church. And hence be infers that fhe Romish sect is the only and entire church of
God ; and, thence, that tbe Romish sect is the church in heaven : and the church on
earth ! And, from tbis unparalleled impudence of assumption, he tries to compose
his muscles into sufficient gravity, so as to infer fhat the Romish church is holy !
This is, precisely, the sophistry wbich pervades our ¦vicar general's one sermon,
which he preaches on this subject, always, and over all the world. He first sets
about pro^ving that " God's church is holy." He then solemnly concludes, not with
out a Uttle pompous bravado, that "holy mother church of Rome is all the world
over, pure and holy !" It is remarakble that be never took it into bis bead to prove
that the church of Rome is the church of God ; which he behoved of necessity to do,
in order to prove ber holy. His fatal logic leaves out, entirely, the connecting pre
mise ! On this principle, and mode of argument, the Jews have infinitely the advan
tage of him. '¦ We the Jews once were holy, as no believer in the Old Testament can
deny." But once holy, always holy : for the church of God is immutable : no matter,
though we forsake the laws and doctrines of our fathers !" Hence the Jews constitute
the one only true church !" And I shall venture to say that no vicar general, with
the aid ofall the bishops, and of all the popes, can refute their plea. And this is what
every reasonable man must admit-
Your priests try to compose their faces so far into a semblance of gravity, as to lay
claims to spotless sanctity in doctrine, sanctity in rites, sanctity in priesthood and
vestments; and sanctity in the children of holy mother! In my Letter VII. I
established the fact that your priests have so far deceived you, my fellow citizens,
that they have not left one distinctive genuine gospel doctrine pure and entire, in your
<ihurcb. If there be one, I iavite any sensible man to point it out. "Why, the
Romish priests believe in tbe Trinity and in one God!" '"That I beg leave to deny.
Tbe priests create a god at every mass: and moreover, to the one only object of
worship they have added " the mother of God," and some thirty thousand other saints
and saintesses, to whom they offer incense : and say more prayers than tp God !

186 ROMAN catholic CONTROVEftST.
"But they believe in the incarnation of Christ." This I affirm they do not tetzhs
"pure and entire." The wafer converted into the body and blood, soul and divinity
of Christ, is offered up as their incarnate god and christ .'"
" But, they adore the Holy Ghost." Can any one gravely profess to believe sor
who has ever associated, in familiar intercourse, with a Romish priest ? Can any one
soberly believe this who has read your priests' taunts about "fhe Holy Ghost T"
No, I do assure you, fellow citizens, that they have no practical beUef of the Holy
Spirit : they beUeve not in bis influences : nor in regeneration, nor in gospel hoU
ness: nor in "justification by faith, without the deeds of the law." Their incense,
their holy water, their saintly Intercessions, their priests' intention, andthe efficacy of
their rites to convey grace, have utterly excluded the Holy Ghost from their system of
belief. Their rule of faith excludes the prophetical office of Christ : their mass and
their own prieshood, have displaced Christ's priestly office : and the blasphemy and
despotism of the pope's supremacy have taken the kingly crown oflF the head of
our blessed Redeemer! In one word, the whole system ofthe Romish priestcraft is
" a gospel" as completely different from the gospel of Christ, as the " great -n-bore of
Babylon," is different from the chaste spouse of Christ, and as different as the first
bom of Satan, is' from the great God our Savior !
The only personal sanctity which your priests advocate, and require in your mem
bers, is wholly external. They must be sprinkled ¦\vitb holy water, and anointed
¦with the holy chrism ; pay the church's dues : go, at least, once a year to confes
sion : and die in the bosom of " the church," meaning the Romish church: and, then,
whatever ma.y have been their unbelief, and vices, they are safe, Tbe priest gives
each man, even the most uureformed profligate, even a Charles II. , or a Loins, a
passport into heaven: and St. Peter and St. Patrick ¦will suffer no refusal from any
there ! Let me add that tbe priest's sanctity lies also all on the outer side. He must
have had tbe lock shorn off, and his crown shaved ; and the consecrated vestments
on, with its orthodox cut, and orthodox color : and all is holy ; — even though his hands
be polluted with the worst of crimes ; and his heart destitue of charity : and even
possessed with a legion of devils! He is holy! in proof of this I quote your own
accredited writers. Bellarmine, De Eccles. Lib. 3, cap, 7. There you -vdll find it
stated that a man who is a drunkard, a profane swearer — nay, au infidel and " even
a reprobate,'' may yet be a good member of the Romish church ! See also the Rhe
mish Annotations on John, ch. xv. and Sect, 1. So completely is gospel holiness lost
in the Romish sect !
Your priests present exclusive claims to sanctity also from their possessing "the
only holy institutions and rites," by which "they convey grace," to their devotees.
Pray what holy rites ? " Why, tbe seven sacraments." What! the five rites which
you have added to our Lord's appointed sacraments. Do you really mean such
sacraments as that of "holy matrimony?" "Yes, we mean that! and by that,
through the priests' ' intention' are conveyed the virtue and purity of holiness to the
married." What! and yet you deny it to the priests ! You impose celibacy on them !
You deny them tbe holy efl&cacy of that sacrament, wbich, of all men living, they
stand infinitely the most in need of! Do you mean the sacraments of penance»
extreme unction, and all the other additional rites, wbicb your priests facetiously call
'¦' sacraments." MTiy, so far from possessing sanctity, or conveying it, they are sheer
impositions invented by despots and knaves ! They are the ofispring of priestcraft,
invented after the sixth century : and have been too successfully employed to rob

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 187
sunple and credulous people of their property. For proof of this, may I beg your
attention to my Letter VIII ? They are mere forgeries. And there is not one of your
priests so utterly destitute of intellect, as not to know this. They have been false
tokens by wbich money bas been fraudulently gained : they are forged notes and
checks by which property has been taken feloniously from the ignorant and unsus
pecting. And, now, I beg leave, fellow citizens, to put this question to every candid
man in the community, whether the money obtained from people by these coun
terfeit sacraments, be not as wickedly obtained, as ever any money was obtained of
our fellow citizens, by the forgers and cotmterfeiters that prowl on the community?
Is the " splended robbery" less criminal because it is perpetrated under the name and
sanction of religion ? Is it less atrocious, and less ruinous to men, because the trans
action is the purchase and sale of men's spiritual liberty, and the souls of immortal
beings, instead of the common articles of every day's business? Is it'less damning
before the eyes of pure Heaven, because, in the just and perfect liberty granted to
religion, true and false, fhe laws of men reach not the ghostly felony 7
I am, fellow citizens, j-ours truly &c.
W, C. B.

LETTER IV,
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
" The hypocrite in mask ! — He was a man,
Who stole the liver}' of the court of heaven
To serve the devil in ! In virtues guise.
Devoured the widow's bread ;
In holy phrase transacted villanies
That common sinners durst not meddle with !" Pollok.
Fellow Citizens : — Your priesthood has laid claims to exclusive sanctity from
this additional plea, that your head, the pope, is "holiness itself:" and that, moreover,
you had all the saints within 3-our own church, to shed an exclusive glory ot holiness
on you.
In a former letter on the succession ofthe popes, I showed you fully, that the list
of the popes, contained a majority of names of the most atrocious monsters ! Men
tbey were, that invented and perpetrated crimes which surpassed, so far as we know,
any thing ever conceived at the council board of Pandemonium ! Men who led
on the blood thirsty troops of Rome, and murdered sixty eight millions of human
beings : not to mention tbe fearful destruction of immortal souls, caused by their
deadly errors! Are these men "holiness unto the Lord !" And, aa for the saints,
their lives and adventures are those of bloody knaves, such as Loyola : and fanatics,
macerating their bodies by endless acts of personal and social cruelty; and suicides!
Monstrous "miracle-mongers" like St. Dennis and /our others, who took up their
heads after they were cut off, and walked with them under their arms — or, like St.
Patrick and others, sailing over seas on their cloaks, and on mill-stones. I refer for
proof to Butler's Lives ofthe Saints, the Acta Sanctorum, and to your Breviary.
The history of celibacy and monachism in general, affords the most impressive illus
tration of the priests' claims to sanctity. I shall merely allude to this at present.

i88 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
Until the time of pope Gregory VIL, in 1074, the priests married, and lived with their
famiUes, like other honest men, notwithstanding certain fanatical laws, which before
the times of this execrable and wicked tyrant, lay dormant. He enforced these laws
and parted husband and wife. From this time, honest and pure men were excluded
from tbe priesthood : none were employed but those who took an oath to denounce
sacerdotal marriage. Personal purity was now at an end in the Romish priesthood.
A deluge of whoredom and poUution covered, and drowned them tn perdition. With
priests, the word chastity has been always used in a sense different from that of all
good men. With the incontinent priest, it means "not married." Ihave heard our
New York priests use it, in this exclusive sense. " To live in chastity," is to live
'" not married." It never means in the priests' vocabulary, mental and bodily purity.
A priest, by their canon, is " chaste," ifhe be unmarried: even though he is known
in private, and at the confessional, even as a common rake and fornicator ! Every
one who has seen their private manners ; and every de-sotee who kneels at the con
fessional, has had perfect evidence of all this ! The Roman catholic bishop Scipio
De Ricci has demonstrated it by facts. See his " Memoirs" published in London.
It is a fact, true to a proverb, and proclaimed publicly by the best of the Romish
writers, that from the days of Gregory VIL, monasteries and nunneries were vast
eKtended sodoms; and the priesthood, in every respect, like the inhabitants of the
cities of the plain ! The temples of Astarte, and of Babylon, and of the Greek and
Roman Venus, were, really, decent and moral, amid all their pagan pollution, com
pared to the dens of the monks, and nuns, and priests ! It is impossible for me to tell
the mUlionth part of the horridly impious doings of these men ! It was even publicly
lenacted that marriage in a priest was a deadly sin : but he might keep his concubine
publicly : and the lordly bishop also might have his concubine pubUcly : and his
Turkish seraglio privately !
Will any priest deny this ? WUl anj' man who has read the pages of history
venture out even to question this ? No ; it was even enacted publicly and unblush
ingly by the council of Toledo : and what is more, ratified by Pope Leo of that day.
I appeal to history. See Binu Concilia, tom. i. p. 737 and 739. Crabb. Concil.
torn. i. p. 449. edit, of 1551. Pithou Corp, Jur. canon, p. 47. These councils
indeed, went so far as to prohibit the holy priests "from keeping more than one con
cubine!" Thus, by an ecclesiastical law, sanctioned by a pope, the marriage of a
priest was declared a "mortal sin :" but fornication was taught, practised, and recom
mended by the priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes! And what must have been the
morals of laymen ? See Canisius, Thes. Tom. ii. p. Ill, Edgar, p. 503.
Suffer me to quote a few morsels from the most authentic Roman authors, in proof
of this point ? And I beg to quote them, for the sake of my fellow citizens, who
have actually sent, and do still send their daughters to nunneries and Romish semi
naries, for education. I implore them to study the principles and morals of these
¦European Jesuits, vvho guide their children's education and morals. And one word
more: remember that the laws and sentiments I quote are yet in full force, believed,
taught, and practised, this day, among us, in their colleges and nunneries. And I
challenge all the Jesuits in the land, to detect a false quotation, or disprove aught I
shall advance. Costerus teaches that " a priest sins, if he commit fornication ; he sins
more heinously if he marries!" Cardinal Campeggio taught that "a priest who
marries, commits a more grievous transgression than if he kept many concubines."
See Costerus, cap. 15. Campeg. in Sleidan p. 96 ; and Thuan. Hist. U. p. 417. The

ItOMAN CATHOLIC CONl'KOVERsT. ISO
Consequences of these doctrines were horrible. Your own St. Bemard in the twelfth
century, declares to the world, that " bishops and priests committed, in secret, such acts
of turpitude as it would be even scandalous to express!" See Bern, in Con. Rhem,
1728. And .-Agrippa, in Bayle, i. tells us of a Romish bishop who boasted on one
occasion, of having in his diocese, eleven thousand priests who paid him, each, one
guinea, annually, for a papal license to keep a concubine ! Clemangis, your own
famous -writer, and an honest reprover of your priests' vices, declares "tbe adultery,
impiety, and obscenity of die priests to be beyond all description!" "They crowd
into bouses of Ul fame," says he, " tbey spend their lime in taverns, in eating, gam
bling, drinking, revelling, and dancing. These sacerdotal sensualists fought, roared,
rioted, and blasphemed God and the saints. And from the company of infamous
women, they would pass to the altar, and the mass !" " To veil a woman in those
days, or make a nun of her, was synonymous wifh prostituting her, — c'est la prostj-
tuer." See Clemangis 26, Lenfan. i. 70, and Bruy, Tom. in. p. 610, 611. And
And Mezeray says of the Romish clergy before tbe Reformation, that they were nearly
all fornicators and drunkards." "They held their offices in taverns, and spent their
money in debaucheries." Mez. Hist, de France, Tom. iv. p. 490. Edgar, p. 511.
The council of Valladolid say of the Spanish priests, that, "prodigal of character
and salvation, fhe clergy led lives of enormity and profligacy in pubhc concubinage."
See Labb. vol. xv. p. 247. This declaration was renewed in the council of Toledo,
in 1473. See Labb. vol. xix. p. 389, and BinU ConcU. vol. viii. p. 957.— GUdas and
Fordim have frankly unveiled the Roftiish priests of England. Even in " the sixth
century the British priests,'' says he, "were a confraternity ofthe filthiest forni
cators!" See Gildas Epist. 23, 38. Oxford edit. 1691. And Fordun gives us king
Edgar's description of them in the close of the tenth centnry. " The clergy," said
the king to tbeir face, '- are lascivious in dress, insolent in manner, and filthy in
conversation. Their time they devote to revels, debaucheries, and abominations;
and their abodes are the haunts of harlots!" So much for his majesty's opinion
of the Romish sanctity ! See Fordun cap. 30, and Bray U, 219. Edgar p. 512.
We have an extraordinary anecdote to illustrate tbe "holiness" of the Spanish
priests in tbe fifteenth century. Their revolting impurities awakened the zeal of even
popes Paul, Pius, and Gregory! These issued their bulls against the priestly " se
ducers." These bulls compelled the Inquisition to take the m;".tter up : and tbe
" holy inquisitors" summoned the attendance o/ aW Jfte /rciZ /air ones who had been
assaUed by these sons of Belial, and of Sodom. It made a terrible commotion. Maids
and matrons, nobles and peasants, flocked in numbers incredible, to lodge informa
tion. You may form some idea ofthe extent of "priestly holiness and purity," from
tbe numbers of the fair informers at the single city of Seville. AU the inquisitors
and their officers, with twenty notaries, were employed for thirty days in taking down
the depositions. The number crowding in, was not a whit abated ; they took thirty
days more, three several times ! But there was no end to the business! The patience
of even Inquisitors could not get through it. What was the result ? Just what might
have been expected, when the inquiry on such a matter was committed to priests and
bishops ! " He that was without the sin," wished to go on. But the bench of priests,
and bishops, and notaries, was deserted ! " The multitude of fair criminals," says
• my author, " and the jealousy of husbands, and above all, the overwhelming odium
thro-wn upon auricular confession, and the popish priesthood, caused tbe "¦ holy tri
bunal" to quash the prosecution, and destroy all the depositions !" See Gonsal. 183.

190 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
Lorent. Hist, of the Inquis. p. 355. Limborch, Lib. iU. p. 17. and Ejlgar's Var. pr
513. There is one prominent attribute in popery, which marks itself in perfect opposition
to Christianity. The latter, just in proportion to its extent and influence, promotes
virtue and purity. But popery, just in proportion, to its extent, and the influence of
the priesthood, promotes the most revolting impurity, and universal pollution ! Be
hold Rome, and Italy, and Naples, this day ; and next to these, Spain and Portugal !
They are one vast temple of Astarte, and Venus ! The land of Sodom and Gomor
rah was inhabited by virtuous, decent, and orderly people, compared wifh the
priests and nuns of those lands of popery personified! " Tbe Lateran palace of the
pope," says Labbeus, XI. p, 881. "which bad been a sanctuary of -\irtue, has been
tumed into a brothel." A council con-victed one of the popes, namely, John XII. of
fornication, murder, adultery, and incest ! See Labb. XI. p. 882. Thuan i. 215. and
Platina 132.
The council of Lyons, in which was assembled the chief of the bishops and cardi
nals of the Romish church, converted that city into one great temple of pollution.
M. Paris p. 792, has recorded the speech which Cardinal Hugo had the unblushing
impudence to pronounce to the citizens after the councU was dissolved. " Your
city," said the " holy and chaste priest," contained only three houses of ill-fame,
when "the holy Synod" met here. Now there is only one! But, that one compre
hends the whole city, between tbe East gate, and the West gate !" See also Edgar
p. 516. The " Holy council of Constance was attended," says your own approved
writers, "by fifteen hundred infamous females." See Labb. Vol. XVI. p. 1435. and
Bruy IV. 39. " These trained bands," says Edgar, "were the companions ofthe
infallible doctors, who made speeches in defence of popery, and burned the heretics
John Huss, and Jerome or Prague.
In the council of Basil, it was publicly avowed, and maintained by argument, by
Carlery, your famous champion, that infamous houses were necessary, and proper,
and a source of great revenue ! No man wUl venture to deny this quotation. Let
him see the fact stated in Labbeus, Concil. Vol. XVII. pp. 986. 988. Venice edit, of
1728. See also Canisius, Thesaur. vol. IV. p. 457. Antwerp edit. 1726. And every
person acquainted with the elements of Romish history, knows that pope Paul III.
,who convoked the far-famed council of Trent, made no scruples of availing himself of
tlie revenue fhat could be raised from licensed bouses of infamy ! And as 45,000 of
these infamous persons were receiving the protection of his "holy" apostoUcal licen
ces, his revenue from this so-urce was very great! See McGavin's Glasgow Protests
ant, ch. 15. These licenses continue under "his Holiness' " care to this day!
But it is not from this revolting sin alone that " Holy Mother" draws her revenues.
She has traded, and does actuiUy trade in all sins. In the far famed book called
^'The Taxes of the Apostolical Chancery," the prices of each class of sin are laid
down,. And let no Roman catholic ptiest, or layman expose his Jesuitism and igno
rance, by denying the existence of this book. Editions of it were sent out from Rome
in 1514 : from Cologn in 1515 ; at Paris in 1520 ; in 1545 ; and in 1625. It is still
in the libraries of the curious in Europe. It has been fully quoted by the " Morning
Exercises," 4to. Edit, of 1675 London. And your own well known author Claud
D'Espense in his comment on Titus, cap. 1. digr. 2. p. 479, makes tbis mention of it»
" It is a wonder that this filthy index (the Taxa Concellarias) the pope's tax book,
has not beep suppressed : there is not a hook more to their reproach : in it a price is

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 191
set to aU buyers." And finally the Protestant princes at the Reformation, made pub
lic mention of it, and inserted it in tbeir statement of tbe causes why they rejected the
council of Trent.
From this authentic tax book, I shall present a specimen of the " holy priest's"
traffic, and his prices of sin. Iu papal refinement of sin, the prices are fixed either
for sins about to be designedly committed, — and this is called an Indulgence : or, they
are paid for sins past, — and that is called Absolution.
Extracts from " Taxa Cancellaria Apostolica,"
OR His Holiness' tax book ;
Being a Ust of sms pardoned, and their orthodox prices, hi British money.
For a layman killing a lajrman, £
For kUling a father, mother, ¦wife, or sister.
For laying violent bands on a priest, without breaking the skin.
For a priest to marry, no money can buy it, but to keep a concubine,
from one guinea to
To eat meat in Lent (as bad as the murder of a father or a mother,)
For a Queen to adopt a cbUd,
To procure abortion.
For taking a false oafb in a criminal case.
For robbing, or burning a house.
For ¦violating a maid.
For incest, with sister or mother.
Behold the imposing claims of sanctity, admirably demonstrated ! And we are
not copying the doctrines and practices of the dark ages. Popert never changes
TO THE BETTER ! This is the immutable law of its nature ! And no well informed
man, nor any who has travelled in popish countries, needs to be told this. Men who
read not on this subject, and who think less, £md those who have none of the genu
ine Roman catholic books, but who draw some superficial views, from some of their
amiable and liberal cathoUc neighbors, and friends, are seen to labor under fatal mis
takes in tbis matter. They believe tbe Romish sect to be improved and reformed !
My humble prayer to God is, that He would open tbeir eyes, and convince them of
their error. I declare with deep solemnity ; and I appeal to ancient and modern his
tory, for e^vidence, — ihatfAe popery of Rome never has altered, never can alter for the
better, without being destroyed and annihilated. Tbe Romish church claims immuta
bility and infallibiUty. She appeals to God ; and says she never bas erred : never
committed deadly sins : never has changed : never has reformed : nor has ever need
ed reformation !
Every man who has been in Italy, in Spain, in Portugal, in Switzerland, in South
America, and Mexico, bas seen this inscription on the fronts of tbe various churches,
even to this day, — " Plenary indulgences sold here," at such and such prices. Again —
"Thebishop of  sells indulgences here at" — such and such low prices. "An
English gendeman," said my friend Dr. Avery, " was ¦with me at Naples : and on
reading the sign over the Indulgence shop, he went in and gravely purchased for a
email sum, an indulgence to do any sin for one hundred days!

; 0

7 6

0 10 6

0 10 6

0 10 6

0 10 6

300

0 0

0

7 6

0

9 0

0 12 0

0

9 0

0

7 6

199 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST;
i would beg those men who think so favorably of modem |iopery, to read Df *
Moor's Tour in Europe ; and Graham's Rome in the l&th century. I refer to Rome
as it is, a Tour in Italy, by Miss Morton : she finds and pronounces Italy a large
nation of Atheists ! Also Lady Morgan's Rome in the 19th century.
In South America, tbe morals of the priests are eis bad as they were, and still are,
in -Spain. My friend Capt. M  , bas seen them "in fheir robes at tbe cock-pit)
bull baiting, drinking, gambling, and involved in every possible licentiousness pub
licly and unblushingly, as if there were no sin in any thing they could do!" And
one most atrocious attribute of modern priestcraft is this ; — they sin ¦with men and
women, over the whole catalogue ofthe ten commandments; and then at the close
of the crimes, they will solemnly pronounce, oo tbe victims of their seductions, their
priestly pardon and absolution for the sins then and there committed ! We may
gravely question if even Satan himself, were he to walk forth in a visible form, in
his robes of diaboUcal concealment, could invent more impious mockery of reUgion,
or show a degree of atheism at all greater than this !
Such are the doctrines, discipline, and practice of the Jesuits, who now swarm
over our land, and are opening colleges, and seminaries, and are offering to teach
our sons and daughters. And, Protestants, ¦wUl you, — can you bid fhem God speed ?
Has, then, judgment fled from Protestants, and enlightened politicians, to bmtish
beasts ! Have men lost their reason ? "To veil a daughter, or put her into a nunnery,"
says even a Romish author, just quoted by us, — " is the same thing as to prostitute
ber!" And no father or mother can rise up from the perusal ofthe true, — alas! too
true narrative of "Lorette, the history of the daughter of a Canadian nun," — with
out a deep con^viction of the modern, and ever unchanging infamies of priestcraft and
popery! And what parent who ¦wishes not to murder the peace, and the very soul
of his child, could be tempted so far from parental duty, as to send his daughter for
education, into the atrocious haunts of a nunnery ! 'What ! can a father be so lost as
to place a sweet, innocent, unsuspecting daughter within the veiy fangs and grasp of
the Jesuits ! Would to God I could open your eyes to view this matter as christian
parents should view it. These European Jesuits, and their partisans, initiated into
the deep and damning policy of Rome, preside over these seminaries, which spread
traps for you, and them. They carry over sea with them, all these doctrines, and
immoral practices, which I have been unveiling. What ! can you barter the purity
and innocence of your sweet and amiable daughters, and sons ? 'What ! in the name
of mercy, will you immolate tbe souls of these dear and immortal beings, whom God
has given you .' Can you have a doubt remaining, after all the quotations made,
touching tbe real policy and designs of popery, and of those men, on whom every
government of Europe has uttered the ban of an universal curse and execration ? In
the name of tbe God of trath and mercy, let me lift my pleading voice to utter this
my solemn warning to you, one and all ! I do earnestly declare unto you, that it will
be discovered by you, when it is too late, that those who place their daughters and
sons in the haunts of such monsters of vice as the Jesuits are, — are far less ten
der hearted than the Hindoo who sacrificed her child to Gunga ! Or the -wretch
who placed the smiUng babe in the red hot arms of the image of Moloch ! These
destroy the body : those poison tbe soul with the venom of the worm of the second
death! So mucb for the claims of holiness, facetiously set up by tbe partisans of intriguing
priests, and their church. Our laughter at these pretensions to holiness, is checked

ROMAN CATHOIilC CONTROVERST. 193
ouly by the bitter conviction forced on us, that under these unnatural claims, they
conceal a deadly conspiracy against -virtue, morals, and religion !
I am, fellow citizens, yours respectfully,
W, C. B.

LETTER V.
TO THE -MBMBERS OF THE ROMAN C.VTHOLIC CHURCH.
" .\n PeU-us Romoe fuerit, sub judice lis est :
Simoneiu RoiuEe, nemo fuisse negat !"
•• ^^'e are not sure that Peter ever sat
In Rome : but Si.iioN did, — we're sure of that!" Prov. of the IGth century.
FelloW'-Citizens, — It is one of our privileges, as citizens of this republic, and oii&i
of pre-eminent importance, that we, the people, claim and exercise the right of watch-|
ing our public sen'ants. We inspect, and decide upon their public character, audi
official conduct with freedom, and independence. The constitution and legitimate;
laws are the rule and standard, by which we require them to regulate their conduct
in public life. If they recede from tbe spirit of these, and seek their own aggrandize
ment, and sacrifice the patriotic virtues, and the public good, on the altar of personal
interests, and Eunbition, we consign them promptly, by our legal vote, to the obsctrity
of private life. Tbis is our birfhright ; and it is unalienable.
Now, what should we think of any political, or miUtary officer, who would tell the
people, they have no right to think for themselves on politics : no right to elect their
public servants : nb right to dictate to them : but that tbey who have climbed into
office, it may be, by iniquitous means, have the sole prerogative of appointing men
to all offices in the state ? In a word, that the servants ofthe people are above control,
and accountable to none ; that they are every thing, that the people are nothing, and
as the dust under their feet ? No republican, — no honest man could endure this cant
of the old world's despotism. Yet this, you know, is the identical despotism of every
Roman catholic government of Europe. And its galling chains are rivetted, just in
proportion to the power and influence of Catholicism pervading the souls of a bru
talized people. Canyon, fellow citizens, look without disgust and horror, upon this
state of things 1 Is your gratitude to this republic, so small that you would not dis
countenance, and put down the knaves, who would sap our free institutions, a|^d
bring back upon you and upon us, this degradation, and despotism of European
catholics ?
But are politics so far superior to religion? Are the interests of time so far exalted
above those of eternity ? Is it gallant and glorious to ^•indicate civil rights, while
you allow the revolting ghostly despotism of the dark ages, still to crush your immor
tal souls in the dust ? Will you spurn from you the edicts of civil tyrants, and kis?
thc hands of the wretched minions of Antichrist, who urge their claims to rule over
your souls, bodies, and property, with the iron mace of a Hildebrand ! Your priests
not only allow of no liberty of conscience, but unblushingly laugh it to scorn ! They
tell you, that you have no right to read the holy Bible : that you must not hear your
Maker speak, except through the priest's mutterings : that if you dare to think on
18

154 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
religion, or even to speak to God, or even breathe a vow to him in any other vra^^
than as the priest shall frame it, and offer it up for money, you commit a mortal sin !
Your bishop declares to priests and people that he is lord absolute over you all : that
you have no right to choose your own spiritual guides : no right to choose your officia
ting ministers In the chapels, which you rear ! He dictates his o^wn favorites to you :
and tells you that you have no right from man or from God, to refuse. This you see
outrageously practised every day in this free republic ; and land of clear christian
light, and liberty! We behold the darkness and horrors of the tenth century in free
and enlightened America ! And of a Sabbath day, the priest, before be can ascend
the desk to officiate, must throw himself down on his knees in the dust, and adcire the
bishop and kiss his hand, and worship the image of fhe absent pope, in the august
person of the bishop who represents, in our republic, the intruding and usurped
pow-er of a foreign despot ! This you see tbe devout and holy priest Levins do in St.
Patrick's chapel, from sabbath to sabbath ! Is this the deportment of freemen? Is
this the Christian reUgion ? Is this becoming the dignity of reasonable men ? Is this
not degrading, like the superstition of pagans ? Is it not unspeakably worse than the
degradation of Turks ! How long, I beseech you, will j-ou lick the ghostly tyrant's
foot ? How long will noble and immortal beings be the crushed down vassals of a for
eign antichristian tj'ranny ?
I have, in my preceding Lelter, set before you, fellow citizens, the moral character
of your priesthood, from the humblest even to the pope. And their moral pollution,
which we were constrained to unveil frankly, is not the result of human infirmity
merely ; or adventitious circumstances alone. It is necessarily engendered by the es
sential elements of popery. Auricular confession and priestly celibacy ever have
covered, and ever will cover the Bomish church, with a flood of pollution ; and
will dro-\vn it in perdition. And, fellow citizens, has it never ocuixed to you, how
minutelv your priests have fulfilled, unintentlonalh', the prediction uttered from the
Holy Ghost, in the Bible? See 1 Tim. iv. 3. The apostates from the truth were not
onlj' to depart after "the doctrines of demons," — that is, — the worship of demons
and departed souls; but were to be noted. "Jy their forbidding to marry." And,
moreover, the great apostacy of Babylon was by inspiration, called " the mother of
harlots and abominations.'' In no other apostate christian church or sect, in all the
world, is " marriage forbidden,'' but by your priesthood and in your church ; and in
no pagan land, know we of such a sjstematic coui-se of deep and damning pollution,
as in vour church's monastaries, and nunneries, and at the confessional !
From a sketch of this revolting immorality, I pass, with your leave, to exhibit the
DOCTRixES ta',igl]t in your priests' books, colleges, and seminaries. I thus pass from
the streams ¦\vhich flow, like the waves of the second death, over your church, to un
veil the great fountains thereof. The main one is the infamous code of ethics taught
bv your Jesuit priests. And I quote these to open, if possible, your eyes tp the infamy
of vour spiritual guides ; and to awaken the slumbering consciences of those ill-in
formed Protestants, who send their children to Jesuit seminaries. And may the God
of mercy grant that our solemn warnings may be the means of putting parents on
their guard, to pluck those exposed young Protestants, as " brands from the devouring
fires!" I would just observe that the order of Jesuits, after being put down, and deemed
accursed by the Christian world; and expelled from every government in Europe,
was revived by pope Pius VII, in 1814. He took them under his special care :

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 195
placed them at the bead of bis seminaries and colleges ; as " instruments most capa
ble of forming youth to christian piety!" The plain mcruiing of which is this;
that all other men had some remains of con.>L-ience ; but the tl¦oop,^ of this seel wore
without conscience, and could, in cold blood, teach all that Rome could suggest ; and
practice all that the prince of darkness could require 1 And the pope alter settling
them as his chief apostles, closes bis Bull with telling the wurkl that "tho-,c, who
should infringe upon this Bull; or by an audacious temerity oppose," these his dear
ahd best beloved sons, would incm^ "the ¦\viath not only of .:\;.miohty God, but qf
St. Peter I'' These are the men who are, like the filthiest plague of Egypt, creep
ing up over the length and breadth of die laud : and are threading their pathway iuto
our schools, and nurseries, and bed-chambers !
Theh constitution is strictly monarchial. A general or prince, is chosen over llieiii
for life: his power is supreme, and universal: to him c\iiy member of the Society
must submit his sentiments, andhis ¦n-ill : to his injunctions he must listen, "as if they
were uttered by Christ himself." " No member can have any opinion of his uwu :
" and the Jesuit' Society has its prisons independent ofthe secular authority !" Seo
Pascal's Prov. Letters, p. 1,), N, York Edit, Hence those dungeons aud cells, under
their chapels, and college buildings, ¦which any one may see, a,s their buildings go up;
and which have been so accurately smd publicly noticed by the late veteran Lore>'zo
Dow, in his appeal to the American public on this matter.
The doctrines taught by these men, in the Romish books, and seminaries, arc ctik-n-
lated to give a death blow to civil Uberty, as well as to our holy religion. In the opin- 1
ion of all the eminent poUtical men, of all the go-seniments of Europe, tlieir senti-'
ments, instilled into their pupUs and devotees at confession, were moie fatal to the
liberties and rights of mankind, than even to reUgion. This is recorded in the pages
of hi&tory. " Jesuitism is a familiar devil ivho enters the house, crawling in the dust:
and ends by commanding tvith lordly haughtiness !" This graphic delineation I copy
from the late admirable work on Jesuitism, by Mons. De Pradt, the Roman catholic
archbishop of Malines. I beg leave also to draw your attention to the Arret of the
Parliament of France, issued in 1762, containing a statement of the reasons for the
extirpation of Jesuitism, These -svith the pontifical reasons of the pope Ganganelli
for his bold measure in dissol-ving the society, in 1772, exhibit in their tme light, thi»
band of conspirators against ourci\-il and religious institutions, — the curse of our land,
a^ they have been the scourge of all Europe !
( The first tenet of their creed exalts the pope to a monarchy, " unlimited by demo
cracy, or by aristocracy." This is civil and spiritual : he claims and receives homage
as much as a civil prince, as a spiritual, i Dr. Pise, and also all our New-York
priests have had the unblushing hardihood to deny that they own the pope, or do him
homage, as a temporal prince!" With men so reckless of truth, and who, availing
themselves of the Jesuit doctrine of mental reservation, say one thiug, and believe
another, it were needless to reason on this point ; and folly to listen to what they sav.
They know as accurately as any well read Protestant does, that the temporal and
spiritual claims of the pope, never were separated for the benefit of American Ro
man catholics. They know that these claims never can he separated. It is a matter
of recorded fact, that the pope claims power over the bodies, and souls of all men,
Protestants, as well as catholics; and over all Protestant, and non-Protestant govern
ments ! The Protestant govemment of England, and of the United States, arc only
rebels, who are to be regained back by the conversion of Jesuits, or by force of arms

196 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
in due time ! In tbe solemn belief of every pope, and every true Roman CafhoIiC'4
the Protestant kings of Holland, and England have no- more right to reign than ba(3
the excommunicated Harry VIIL, and Queen Elizabeth ! /in the solemn belief of
the pope and every Jesuit, our protestant and venerable chief Magistrate, has no
more right to bear the reins of government, than Harry VIIL or Queen Elizabeth
had in England ! The fact is, every protestant prince, every protestant President,
subject, and citizen, are annually excommunicated at Rome, and in these United
States. ')And I assert in the face of the most unblushing Jesuit, and before the Amer
ican community, that it is a matter of the most notorious evidence, that on every
Thursday of passion week, annually, according to the Bull, In cana Domini, our
protestant President, and all our protestant magistrates, governors, and every |pro-
testant member of our city corporation, are publicly, formally, and solemnly excom
municated, cursed, and sent to hell and perdition, in every Romish chapel iu the
United States ! But, then, it is pronounced in Latin, and not generally known.
Every priest takes " an oath on the evangels, and the cross" to do this. And if there
be oue of them that can have the assurance to deny that he does this, then he is by
kis own confession, A perjured knave ! 1 shall afterwards, give the priest's oath,
and this BuU of " universal ban, and damnation," pronounced by the foreign tyrant,
and his charitable, holy, and christian servants, the Romish priests, on all of us, — our
President, governors, and the whole magistracy, and the Protestant people of these
United States. I am, yours truly, &c.
W. C. B.
LETTER VI.
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
"The scarlet colored whore ! whose priests are lords,
Whose coffers held the gold of every land ;
Who held a cup ofall pollutions full,
And with a double horn the people pushed!" Pollok.
Fellow Citizens: — If you possess truly republican, and truly religious view*
and feelings, you will consider that man your best friend and benefactor, who labors
to undermine the power of priestcraft, and to aid in achieving your liberty. Yes,
fellow citizens, you will thank me for raising my warning voice, and assuring you
that you kuow not what deadly vipiers you are warming and cherishing in your
unsuspecting bosom ! What ! do you believe that a Jesuit priest can deem himself
bound to render allegiance and obedience to magistrates who are anathematized by
his "Lord God on earth," the pope ? Can any citizen be so weak, or so ignorant of
human nature, as to believe that a Jesuit priest will teach his pupils, or his devotees at
the confessional, to own a government made up of protestants, who are cursed, and
excommunicated by his spiritual dictator, the pope ? To. be sure they -will not con
fess this : they would not be Jesuits if they admitted it. They have the same pro
found oath of secrecy as free masons had. They are to keep the secret until they
gain the ascendency. I call on every magistrate of the land, and every protestant
fellow citizen, to read the Secreta Monita, or Secret Instructions of the Jesuits
(Princeton Edition of 1831.) We are indebted, for this "terrible book" of Jesuits'

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 197
secrets, to the pariiament of Paris. Tbey passed tbe act to abolish the JesuUs, in
secrecy; and the execution came on the Jesuk college like a thunder stroke. Their
palace was surrounded by troops, and dieir papers and books, and these "Secret In
structions" were seized before they had heard diat the iiarliaraont had taken up their
cause !
Now hear their own words by wbich they teach their pupils in tbe United Slates
the absolute supremacy ofthe foreign despot, the pope. "The pope, speaking from
his chair, is exempt from all ignorance, error, and mistake.'' See Dupin Disserta
tions, p. 333: Bellarmine, iv. 1, 15, and v. 9. And Labb. vol. xiv. p. 1428. Edo-ar
p. 157. They are in die habit of calUng die pope " Our Lord God," — not merely a
"god," as magistrates are sometimes called : but " Onr Lord God." And even on
their own explanation, diey call him " a god," as a magistrate, — here is a public
admission that fhey own that foreign ritier in his temporal and civil power. And
hence no Roman cathoUc, strictly so called, can take the oath of allegiance to our
constitution and government, without mental reservation, or falsehood, and perjury!
I appeal to our professional men of every denomination.
I shall give only one quotation farther. The following homage lo the pope, was
expressed by an archbishop, in tbe council of the Lateran, in the bearing and
presence of pope Leo X. And hence it has the sanction of a pope, and a council ; and
it is, in tiie behef of every true Roman cathoUc, of equal authority with the holy
Bible ! The homage was this : — " The pope has power, supra omnes potestates tam
cali, quam terra, — above aU the powers of heaven, as well as of earth!" Nay he
professes to do what God himself does not, — and cannot do. In " the mass" he and
his priesthood profess to create their Creator! Out of a wafer, they make God!
Now, the Most High never created, never could create himself! ! And thus the
instructions taught in our Jesuit seminaries, are an unparallelled compound of cruel
ghostly despotism, and blasphemy! Can the most resolute infidel in all the land,
can the christian magistrate, or a christian citizen be persuaded to hazard bis chil
dren in the seminaries, and under tbe instruction of such teachers! Whosoever he be
that does this, with bis eyes open to what every one cannot but see, must be pro
nounced an enemy to God, a traitor to his country, and the destroyer of his children's
innocence, and their immortal souls !
I shall now present you with a specimen ofthe moral doctrines of your priests.
These correspond, in all points, to their theological tenets. jEneas Silvius, after
wards pope Pius ii. says in his Epist. 26: " Nihil est quod, &fc. There is nothing
which the Roman court does not give for money: "it sells the imposition of hands,"
(the ordination of priests. Alas I — then, for the succession!) "it sells the gifts ofthe
Holy Ghost, aud tbe pardon of sins is not given to any but such as are well-monied !"
And, well said apoet of their own, namely, Mantuan, Lib. 3. " All things are saleable
at Rome, — temples, priests, altars, prayers, heaven, — yea God himself," ip the mass,
to wit, — " are all for sale !" And hence the standing miracle at Rome which jiriestly
modesty strangely forgets to enumerate in the "miracles ofthe saints." By the sale
of her trifl£s such as tbe sight of relics, and her prayers, and her indulgencies, and tho
pardons, she possesses the power of converting lead and feathers into solid gold! The
greatest, and, in fact, tbe only unpardonable sin in the Roman church is poverty ! If
you have only money you can buy tbe best seat in heaven, and the snuggest joys of
aU paradise! If you have no money, you can get nothing, not even a drop of water
to cool the tongue ! And what is really inhuman,— if the priest kflQWS yaw poverty,
18*

198 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
he has not the bowels of compassion enough to pray you out of purgatory; although
by his own testimony, it would cost bim only a single word of his mouth ! ! This is
the first article in the code of his ethics. The most horridly immoral thing is poverty!
"The poor cannot be comforted!"
"As the Jesuit's morality is entirely pagan," says Pascal, Letter V., "nature is a
sufficient guide to them." And nature does guide them with a vengeance ! The
force of tbis doctrine of probable opinion is wonderful. If a man be in a dilemma
ahout duty : this, for instance, appears vice ; that, again, is virtue : or ihis, at another
time, seems virtue, that, a vice. To relieve him, he requires no more than "the
PROBABLE opinion" of some one. And to comfort him, the opinion of even one
grave doctor, "will make an opinion probable ! And be it eyer so wrong and im
moral, if be only follow the probable opinion, it is saintly purity, it is true virtue !
And what is stUl more accommodating — should two grave doctors differ on the point,
and each of them declare an opinion; why, then, each of "the grave doctors" makes
his opinion •probable : so that you have a probable opinion on both sides. And in that
case, the way is clear, whatever law or gospel say. Take either side you please,
just as it suits your own views, and interest. That which you do is virtuous, and alto
gether right! Hence the old Jesuit proverb ; — Saepe premente Deo, fert Deus alter
opem! " If one god press hard on us, another god brings us aid !" That is to say,
both sides, namely, the right, and the wrong are both right, — just as our interest
requires it. See Pascal, Prov. Lett. V. And what is very marvellous in ethics, —
if a person following a probable opinion, commits an enormous sin, the priest must
absolve him, even though the priest holds an opinion utterly the reverse. And what
is more still, — if the priest refuses this boon, he is himself guilty of a mortal sin!
this is taught by Saurez, Tom. iv. dist. 32. sect, 5, also by Vasquez, Disput. 62, cap.
T. and by Sanchez, N. 29. Pascal, Lett. V, p, 79, For instance, oue doctor says,
"thou shalt not murder in any ca-se," Another grave Jesuit says, "it is just and
useful to take off a mau, like Henry IV, of France." The assassiii follows this
"probable opinion," and does murder him. And the Jesuit priest is bound, under
pain of a "mortal sin" to grant absolution to the assassin, and free pardon, and an
entrance into heaven : while he is conscious that he deserves the pains of hell, and is-
actually plunging iuto it ! !
Passing by othei-s, I shall quote the very accommodating principle of "-directing the
intention." By this simple expedient, the Jesuit school can convert anhnmoial, and
even an atrocious deed, into what is commendable. For instance, a man may fight a
duel, and kill a man ; providing he direct his intention simply to retrieve his honor.
He fights not with the intention to kill, but to do a service to himself. In like man
ner, a man may kill a ¦witness whose testimony may ruin him. To take away the
immoraUty of this action, he has only to intendhis own good f and not intend to murder
even lehile he kills ! This has been taught by Beginaldus, in Praxi, v. 21, sect. 62,
by Lessius De Just. Lib. ii. cap. 9, by Escobar, Tr. 5, Ex. See many more revolt
ing instances in Pascal, Lett, VII.
I shall close with a few quotations iUustrating other branches of practical morality^
"A man," says one ofyourmost respectable moralists, "who makes a contract of mar
riage, is dispensed, hy any motive, from accomplishing his promise." Sanchez Oper.
Mor. Decal. pars. 2, Lit. 3. Again, — "A man may begin his testimony with, /
sivear ; he can add this mental restriction, to day, in a whisper he may repeat, I say t
and then resume his former tone, — / did not do it!" See Filiueius, Quest, Mor. vol.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 199
ii. No. 328^ Again, " no ¦witness is bound to declare the truth, before a lawful judge
if his deposition ¦wiU injure liim, or his posterity." Taberna vol, ii. cap. 31, p. 288-
"A priest may equivocate before a secular judge;— because such a judge is not a
lawful competent authority to receive the testimony of an ecclesiastic !" Fee Tambur.
Lib. 3, p. 27. Again, " the rebellion of Roman prisels is not treason, because they are j
not subject to the civil govemment." Sec Emman. Sa, Aphor. p. 41. And, fellow
citizens, hear die words ofthe Romish favorite Bellarmine, De Rom. Po;i. in Lib. v.
cap. 6, p. 1094. "The spiritual power must rule the temporal hy oil sort of means,
and all expedients, when necessary. Christians," thai means with them R. Catholics,
" should not tolerate a heretic king!" Now, every Jesuit priest in the land, believes
and acts on ihis, when he has the power. But all the members of our government
do, by the pope's decision, consist of heretics. Hence no Jesuit, and none of his
devotess would tolerate our government for one day, if they had the power !
Again, "a man condemned by the pope maybe killed wherever he is found." See
La Croix, vol. i. p. 594. Again : " it is not a mortal sin to steal that from a man
which he would have given, if asked for it. It is not theft to take any thing from a
father, or a husband, if die value be not considerable." See Emmanuel Sa, Apor,
imder the word fiirtiim, theft. Once more, "a child who serves his father, may
secredy purloin as mucb as his father ¦would have given a stranger for his compen
sation." See this in E-cobar, Mor. Theol. vol. iv. lib. 34, p. 348. And again, —
" Servants may secretly steal from their masters as much as they judge their labor
is worth, more than the ¦vvages they receive.'' See this in Cardenas, Crisis, Theol.
Diss. 23, cap, 2, p, 474. And Ludovicus Molina thus teaches, th,u if " a man or
woman servant (hired persons) have not a sufficient support, or what is usual and
necessary, he or she may secretly take, and use out of their master's goods, what i.s fit :
they are not to be blamed for doing so, — providing they first asked him for leave so to
do, and he refuse it." See Mol. De Just, et Jure : Tom. ii. p. 1150, Ment Edit, of
1614. ^
Thus it is manifest from fheir approved books lying open to the world, that the '
Roman catholic priesthood are the grand depository of principles bearing a deadly
hostiUty to tbe chri.stian reUgion, and to our free institutions. And I renew my appeal ,
to the great American family, that the Protestant, who countenances these principles,
or aids them with his money ; or sends his children to their seminaries to imbibe these '
tenets, is an enemy to God, a traitor to our republic, and the destroyer of the peace and:
happiness of his children! I ara, most respectful!}', yours, &c.
W. C. B.

200 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
LETTER VII,
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
On the Unity of the Romish Church.
" The other shape.
If shape it might be called, that shape had none
Distinguished in member, joint, or limb ;
Or substance might be called fhat shadow seemed :
For each seemed either," — Milton.
Fellow Citizens : — 1 trust Ibavoin my last two letters put to rest, the claims face
tiously made by the Roman catholic priesthood to sanctity. All the personal and
sacerdotal holiness, to which they can lay any honest claims, lies wholly in their mot
ley consecrated garments, of duly orthodox shape, and holy cut! This easy .and
accommodating holiness is readily put ofT; and raost conveniently put on, during " a
holy fair,'' and " a solemn gala day .-" whUe in the inner man, they are stouthearted
deists, with few exceptions, and mockers of the holy scriptures : and in morals, as we
have shown, the most consummate rakes, and polluted pests of civil society ' I rest
my proof with the American community ; I appeal to the history, and tbe voice of
Europe, South America, and Mexico, for the fuller evidence of this disgrace, and foul
blot on human nature ! I come now to speak of the unity of the Romish church.
Were this unity which the priests proudly boast of, a mere harmless extravagance,
Uke the lofty titles of eastern princes, we should pass it in silence. But it i^ constituted
a mark of their being the one only true church. And all tbe churches of Christ, on
account of the supposed want of it, are doomed to be heretics, not one solitary soul
of whom, as your priests daily teach you, can possibly be saved. Hence, in the Ro
mish church this is a dangerous and bloody dogma. It eats out the vitals of broth
erly love and christian charity. It is the parent and nurse of bigotry, discord, and
every illiberal feeling. This is too raanifest in every community where popery has
any influence. Your priests take the lead. When these charitable, and chaste exclu-
sives walk our streets, or look into a Protestant assembly, tbey cross themselves, and
whisper out, — " These are odious heretics ! These men, women, and children, will
all be damned ! As soon as tbey die, they will all be in perdition I"
Andthis proceeds not from " constitutional malignity," or mere morbid misanthropy.
It is engendered by the elemental doctrines of popery, in the heart of even fenicdes,
and those who are naturally deUcate, and humane. " You ought to be executed for
propagat'ing these tenets, and opposing Holy Mother .'"—said a young lady, in tbis
city, only two years an apostate from a presbyterian church, — only two years a,
papist !
This is the very spirit engendered by the doctrines of Roman Catholicism. It is
avowedly taught by your ethic writers. Here are the avowed declarations. " Those
whom our lord the pope has condemned may be lawfully killed, any where !"
See La Croix, Tom. i. p. 294., and Secreta Monita, p. 114. Princeton etlition.
This is the law and theory : the practical result is exhibited in the Inquisition, in
the Parisian, and Irish, and Waldensian massacres ! And every one will admit that
tbe executions, and the laws of popery are true, to the life, to each other !
I have to add that in the popish charity, a heretic in ftuth, is viewed precisely in
the same light as a common murderer ,'

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 20J
Therefore, it is the decided opinion of aU Roman priests, that it's as lawful to kill
heretics, as it is to kUl murderers ; nay that it is as necessary, and as dutiful to kill the
first, as to kiU the last ! Hence, when the church of God has quoted that text, hi the
Revelation, as descriptive of popish persecutions, and iu proof that Rome was the
Babylon "that was drunk icitli the blood of the saints ; — Holy IMolher repUes in the
wordsof tbe Rhemish Annotations on Rev. xvii. 6,, "Their blood is uot caUed thu
blood of saints, no more than the blood of thie\^i;s, man-killers, and other malefac
tors, forthe shedding of wluch, by order of justice, no commonwealth shall answer."
Such a dangerous tenet must not, therefore, pass unnoticed.
The Romish priests should be the last men, in the weirld, to prefer claims to unity,
in any sense. There is, in fact, no unity in the priests' church. Will you, I pray
you, foUow me in the examination of this peiint.
I. The christian world has been against you, aud you have been against the chris
tian world. You have been IshmaeUtes on the t'ace of the earth. There have been
churches who, from primitive limes, have stood out, not only unconnected with you,
but immoveably opposed to your whole system. The-e have lestified against your
most obnoxious abominations ; and, as is evident from the venerable monuments of
theh history, s'ill existing, they hold in their confessions and creeds, the great leadiiuj
principles of modern PiotestEints. European Christendom has been the grand theatre
of fhe Waldensian church. These christians -were immensely numerous ; as is evi
dent from the prodigious number of your church's murderous armies deemed requi
site to be sent out against them. These people were called by diflisrent names, by
yoiu persecuting forefathers; but the three great divisions of them were, — the ^roJ-
denses, the Albigenses, and the Wickliffites. These had one common faith : they
unanimously rejected images, saint worship, the mass, purgatory, and all the essen
tial tenets of Romanism. And in all the essential doctrines of Christ, they were at
one ¦with the reformed churches. See Jones' Church Hist. 2 vols. N. York edition.
Reinerus, the Dominican wTiter, says in cap. 4. " that these were the most ancient
heresy; and that they existed from the days of Silvester; or, other.s say, from the
days of the apostles." Holding the apostolic doctrines, they dated their origin, as
three Romish writers admit, " and their defection from the Romish communion, from
the time of pope Silvester; andthey regard Leo, ofthe times ofthe emperor Constantine,
as their founder." Romani^m, as Edgar observes, at this time graduaUy ceased to be
Christianity; and these inhabUants of the valUes, left the antichristian communion of
Rome. Your church, and the world, have changed around this devoat christian so
ciety; while its principles and practices, through aU the Aicissitudes of time, live im
mutably the sarae. '• The Waldensian church, though despised by tbe Roraan hier
archy, Ulumined, in du, manner, the dark ages ; and appears, in a more enlightened
period, die clearest drop in the ocean of truth ; and shines the brightest constellation
in the firmament of holiness ; and sparkles the brightest gem in the diadem of our
Immanuel : and blooms tbe fairest flower in the garden of God !" See Edgar's Var.
p. 59.
Turn now, with me, to the East. Tbe Roman catholic church was boldly rejected
by the Greek church, an immense body of christians,' in the isles, m Turkey, in .Rus
sia, m Europe, and in Asia. The Romish church was as decidedly rejected by the
Nestorians; by the Jacobins, or the churches planted by James; by the churches of
Armema; and by tbe Syriac churches. To form some idea of tbe extent of the
Greek churoh, let me state, that in the eleventh century, the patriarch of Constanti'^

202 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
nople governed 65 metropolitans ; and 600 bishops ; and each bishop had thousands of
priests under him! — See Thoraassin, Dscipline de L'Eglise, Part 4, 2, 17. And
AUatius vol. I. 24. The Greeks, I must observe, are the farthest perhaps from tbe
purity of tbe Reformed churches, for this painful reason, that they unhappily remain
ed the longest in connection with the corrupt church of Rome ! But it is a raatter of
recorded history, that that immensely numerous body of Christians, has, as a church,
renounced papal usurpations, corruptions, and tyranny. And they have formally and
regularly excommunicated the Boman cathoUc cliurch ; and denounced her -svith
solemnity as no longer a church of Christ. See Simon, cap. i. and Canisius vol. IV.
p. 493. And yet your priests, in the most ludicrous manner, cease not to prate about
UNITY and CATHOLICITY !
Bloreover, the Armenian churcli, an immensely extended body, spread over Amienia,
Persia, India, Turkey, — have opposed, and also anathematised the Romish church.
Then there is the Syrian church, who have in ancient times denounced you as an
apostate sect, and no more a true church. Andthis primitive apostolical people have
existed in the heart of India, to this day, as it appears from their remains ¦^vhich were
visited by the late Dr. Buchanan. See his Star in the East. And, in a word, the
European, the Asiatic, and the African churches, who have thus solemnly dissented
frora the Roman catholic church, have been at least, four times more numerous than
the members of the Roman church, even before the Reforraation, when she was in
all her glory." And 1 invite all the Jesuits in the United States to gainsay this by
any one historical document. Yes ! it is a fact, clearly established by historj% of
which the priests take infinite pains to keep you all perfectly ignorant, that popery,
instead of unity and catholicity which are its vain and empty boasts, was never
erabraced, — never countenanced by more than o?ie//i/i part of Christendom. Yes!
every man well read in church history which the priests carefully conceal from you,
fellow citizens, does know assuredly that all along from apostolic times, there -n-ere.
four christians or dissentients for every one Roraan catholic.
The countless thousands, and hundreds of thousands of the Waldenses, and the
immense multitude in the Oriental aud African churches, — e-sen amid their painful
"divisions about minor raatters of words and ceremonies," did all oppose with firm
ness and unanimity, the cruel tj^ramiy, and revolting corruptions of the Roman
catholic church," Yes! four to one, ofall these were opposed "to the sons of error,
superstition, and popery," See our appendix. No. i. And yet your priests boast with
unparallelled assurance of their unity and universality ! Behold, fellow citizens,
how these French, Spani.sii, and Roman Jesuits insult the American con>munity, as if
you were ignorant ofthe first elements of European and popish history ! They walk
forth in the midst of us, and babble of unity and universality, as if we were enveloped
in the popish darkness of the tenth century. They enjoy our liberties, they walk forth
in our social intercourse, they smile in our faces, — and gravely tell us, — "Ye are
all heretics! Ye are as bad as murderers! We have, however, this consolation
over you, that though we want the power to justify you at the stake, and the
gibbet, — ye will all soon be doomed."'
II. Your priests boast of unity andharmony among yourselves. This is quite face
tious, and if you intend it for a sally of wit, why, itis tolerable for monks and priests.
But I shall suppose that you are serious, and gravely refute your clairas. Need I
remind you of the fatal schisms in your church, with which we refreshed your
memory in a former letter ? Where was your unity in those days whep two anc)

ROStAN CATHOLIC C<>NTR0VERSt> 203
ihtte popes, -with their bloody partisans, rent Holy Mother's family into agitated par
ties? Must I remind you of the bloody wars, which impious and atrocious popes
excited, to accompUsh the end proposed by their rebellions against their lawful
sovereigns, the emperors? Need you be reminded of tbe civil wars which raged
during the reign of the emperor Leo between those who opposed images, and "the
furious tribe of image worshippers? Need I tell you bow the popes Gregory I.
and II, were the authors, aud ringleaders of these civil commotions, and insurrections
in Italy, in their excessive zeal in behalf of image worship ? Seo Mosheim ii. cent.
8, part. 2, ch. 3. Has not the whole world heard of pope Zachary who excited
Pepin to rebel against his sovereign, the king of France, and depose him, and reign
by violence, in his stead ? And of pope Stephen ¦whose restless ambition stirred up
the French king to carry on war, and shed the blood of tbe Lombards, to extend his
papal douunions ? Who has not shuddered at his inhuraan destruction of the tens of
tiiousands of his o-^^-n good catholics, as this priest fought to wrest property and
dominion from the eraperor ? See the pages of your own writer, Platina, in tbe life
of pope Stephen, U. ; and StUlingf. p. 367. Trace, I beseech you, the progress of the
papal throne, to power and sacerdotal glory. That papal throne was founded in out
rage and rebelUon against governments : it was built on the ruin and lives of millions ;
and cemented in hiimEm blood ! "So great was the devastation and blood shed caused
by popish unity and popish harmony, that, as two of your writers relate, — " the country
about Rome suffered more, about that time, than in the invasions of Northern bar
barians, for 344 years before !" See Platina, in Life of Stephen II, ; and Blondus,
Decad. 2, Lib. i. Stilling, p. 369. Need I remind you, raoreover, ofthe infaraous
treachery of pope Gregory IV. who undertook a journey into France, professedly
-with a view of composing differences between the eraperor and his two sons, but who
had no other object, as the resiUt fuUy proved, than to excite the sons into an open
breach, and war with tbeir own father? And thus, the head of unity kindled the
flames of discord which were not quenched but by the blood of thousands. " Pope
Gregory IV.," — ;ays Hincraar the Roman catholic bishop of Rheims, — " came into
France: and there was no peace from that day, in the country." Hincmar, Epist.
p. 577, Stillinj. p. 371. Need we, also, rehearse the doings of pope Gregory \TI.,
who has been well named, "the hell-brand?" This pious head of the Roman
catholic unity, excited continual wars in Germany, and the adjacent kingdoms. The
emperor, Henry IV., fought in his time, no less than sixty-two pitched battles, (that
is, ieamore than Julius Cssar fought,) and all of them at the instigation ofthe pope,
in one way, or another. See the Chron. of Ursperg. p. 226, and the history of that
period: and StilUng. p. 372. Need I recite the horrid tumults which that pope
caused by his enforcing tbe laws of ceUbacy upon tbe priests ? Or the public distrac
tion caused by his inhuman treatment of Henry IV., notwithstanding all his ser
vices? His making that poltroon prince stand at bis gate, three days, clad in sack
cloth, bare headed, and bare footed in winter, before he deigned to give bim an audi
ence ? Was this characteristic of the head of unity and harmony 1 If you have any
doubts on the matter, I shall recite in evidence the only good thing which this
scourge of mankind during all his lifetime, either did or said. I allude to his dying
words, as recorded by Math. Paris. His. Anglic, A. D. 1087. Having called one of
his friends to him, he confessed that " it was through the instigation ofthe devil that
he had made so great a disturbance] in the christian world .'" This is an instructive
lesson of a pope, on unity !

304 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST-
In one word, it is clearly manifest to every reader of history, that in all the endless
train of tumults, insurrections, and wars which have convulsed Europe, and drenched
her in seas of blood, for about the last eleven hundred years, the pope and the
Romish prelates have been the grand agitators, and prirae causes ! And yet the
priests boast of unity and harmony, as an exclusive mark of their being the true church !
I am, fellow citizens, yours &c.
W. C. B

LETTER VIII.
'TO 'THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
 " About her round,

A cry of hell-hounds, never ceasing, barked,
AVith wide Cerberean mouths, full loud, and rung
A hideous peal !" Milton.
"Fellow Citizen*: — We go on with tbe proof that the unity ofthe priests'
fchurch is discord.
For, — III. The various orders and rules of the monks exhibit a house divided
against itself. These Orders are so raany regiments in the pope's army, who act in
concert only against the common enemy. Each of them has its ownesprit du corps ;
and has, from time to time, caused the fiercest contests and tumults on various parti
zan questions. There is 1st the Benedictines with their rules ; and dressed in the
characteristic solemn black, frora the color of the /avoriie raven, which attended Bene
dict in his solitude, and which as a sensible and judicious creature, the holy monk
appropriately called his "brother ;'' and was, in fact, as Dr. Geddes, vol. Ui. 367,
recites out of the writings of the order, " his first brother in the solitude." Then 2d ,
there are the monks of Cluny, founded by the wild fanatic St. Odo, who did not con
ceal that he was infested by flocks of mischievous foxes wherever we went ; no man
could tell where they came from, until a humane wolf volunteered raost devoutly and
obligingly, to be his guard by day and night ! Then 3d, there are the Cameldunians,
whose clothing is white, because the ghost of St. ApolUnar walked out, in clothing
of pure light, from below the altar, and appeared to their founder. The 4th order is
that of the Gilbertines, named after their founder, who was moved to institute the
order from the presence of a crucifix, gravely and sensibly nodding its head at him,
as do the statues of our raodern Mandarines ! The 5th order is the Carthusians ; —
" an inhuraan order," eis Dr. Geddes justly styles them, from their crucifying every
fine feeUng, and social principle of human nature ; a thing our priests are not guilty
of, as we have seen ! The 6th is the Cistertians, which differs as much frora that of
the Carthusians, as that did from all its preceding brothers ! This order is clothed in
white, because the mother of the founder was favored with a marveUous and appro
priate dream, that she was about to give birth to a white dog ! Then there are the
three orders of the Celestines ; the Williamites ; and the Silvesternites.
Besides these, are the Canons Regular ; and the fourteen different orders of St. Au
gustine. Then we may enumerate the Dominican, and other Mendicant orders, which
differ widely from the monkish orders : and there are the strong army of the Francis
cans ; and to crown the whole, the authors of all mischief, the Jesuit's order. Each
of these has a particular resident virtue and eflScacy ; and they gravely tell us that it

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 205
Hies in some holier article of their holy dress. For instance, the Dominican's virtue
liesin theh ic/ii7f ica;)i(fcr.- thatof the Jlouks lies in their ic/<s ; that of the Francis'-
cans in their sleeve. And it is proper for us all to know this, that ¦v^ hen the golden
dreams of tbe pope, and his monks, are realized, and when they have, conquered this
fair republic, and established these orders : and when they will sw;irra on our streets,
in their holy processions, " as jilenty as blackberries," — we may carefully pul our
selves on our good manners ; and so, by die orthodox Roman ^^•ay of thinking, and
worshipping God by human proxy, save our lives, A\ c must, for instance, swear in
these days, by the Dominican's \^\hite scapular; salute the monk by kissing his belt;
and the Franciscan by kissing bis holy sleeve, as we kneel in the dust, for the honor
of having his blessing, or the saintly honor of laying the foundation stone of a vile
nunnery, or of worshipping and lauding to heaven the priest's favorite nieces, under
the name of sisters of Love! All this they do, in popish lands!
Between these dilTerent orders, and the bishops, and the parochial clergy, there
have been perpetual wrauglings in all Roman cathoUc countries. And the pope
shrewdly avails himself, of tbeir influence mutually. \\'hen the bishops are refrac
tory, he judiciously foments quarrels by tbe monks; when the latter become turbu
lent, he throws in his papal sword to raake the bishops' scale weigh down'! Besides,
there have been as deadly feuds between these orders, as ever there have been Emiong
Highland clans, and Border reisers! The Jesuits cherish violent feuds against the
Jansenists ; the Dominicans mEuntain bloody strifes with the Franciscans, and the
Scotists ¦with the Thomists ! And all these orders know club logic, infinitely better
than arguments of grace 1
In fact, the Romish church, in its interior, has been like a boiling caldron, over a
fiercely burning fire ! Tbe agitated scalding ¦K'aves now thrown up one thing, and
now another. There is no rest, no peace to priest, to pope, or to prelate ! And yet
these raen glory insultingly over the Christiau world, in their unity and harmony ; and
hold tbis up as tbe divine mark of their possessing in fee simple, the only true church ! 1
IV. There is no unity between the doctrines, and rites of tbe Roraan cathoUc
church ; and those of the holy Scriptures, and the Fathers. Follow me in the proof
of this. First, the papal supremacy is tbe corner stoue of your fabric, if this falls, the
T/hole system falls, and the trodden down people regain th-eir rights and liberty.
Now there is no evidence in the Bible, or in sound tradition, that Peter had any
Siipremacy from Christ. On the contrary, all evideace, and sober tradition are against
it. Your priests impose on you, and confirm the e-vidence of their impostures, by
their marveUous ignorance of Greek criticism, and painful speciraens of their literary
knavery ! Christ alone is fhat Rock on which the church is built : Peter is not, and
he cannot be the Rock, as your priests pretend. Tbis is the point on which we are at
issue: we exalt Christ Jesus the etemal Son of God, as our only foundation. Your
priests actually prefer to this honor, an erring and feeble mortal, the man Peter! Is it
Eot mortifying to the dignity of human nature, and man's noble powers of reason,
tiiat any man should be so lost, and so atheistic in bis principles, as deUberately to
prefer a frail mortal creature to tbe Great God, our Savior, Jesus Christ ! Fellow
Citizens, I implore you to shaike off tbe chains of ghostly ignorance and iraposture,
which the priests rivet on yoa. Tell them that you choose not to be stultified, and crash
ed down to the level of brates, by them ! What! can you possibly prefer a frail, er
ring man, for tbe fou-ndafion of the church, and the basis of your own eternal hopes,
and reject Christ, ,the Almighty God ? If you do, fellow citizens, you renounce the
19

306 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
dignity, and the honor of man ; you throw wantonly away every thing that emiobles
the Chiistian!
It is well known to every Greek scholar, that the Roman catholic priests, in labor
ing to establish their fanatical enor, on this point, have fallen into a disgraceful gram
matical blunder, for which a school boy would be disciplined. This they do in their
critical exposition of the words iu Matt. xvi. 18. " Thou art Peter, a rock, and upon
this rock will I build my church." By t'ais imposition on the Uliterate, they ex
pose their ignorance of Biblical criticism ; or, as tbe only alternative, they betray a
mischievous act of knavery !
The true rendering is this : — " Thou art Petros ; and upon this tlie Petra, —
Ofl ravTji rri TicTfici — I will build my church." Now, it was not Petros, Peter, who
was to be the foundation. Christ said no such thing. These priests slander our
Lord: — he said it was the Petra, not Petros, on which he built t'ae church. And from
the very phrase, namely, " upon tiiis the rock," it is manifest that the Lord pointed to
his own person, as he said, " upon this the rock ;" as, on another occasion, be said, —
" destroy this temple," — meaning not the outward temple before fhem ; but " this, the
temple of his body."
•, Now, itis notorious drat your priests have fallen into the very error, into which the
Jews fell. They understood him to say, " thsir splendid temple of stone and timber,''—
and not his "ov,ai body." In like manner your priesls make the Petros the same as
"this the rock," meaning not the divine person jf Christ, but the frail manPeier !
And ours is the exposition given by St. Augustine : — ' I have said in a certain pas
sage, respecting the apostle Peter, that the church is founded upon him as upon a
rock." But now mark what this great man said afterwards, — " But I do know that I
have frequently afterwards so expressed, that the phra.se "upon tliis rock," should be
understood to bethep.ocK which Peter confessed. For it was not said to him thou art
Petra, but thou art Petros, for the rock was Christ." See Aug, Oper. Tom. i. p. 32.
the first book of his "Retractationes." Bendict. Edit. Paris, 1685. This is also fhe
judgment of seven other fathers. And let it be especially noted that vliat our Lord
said to Peter about "the keys," and "the remission of sins," he also said to tbe
church of God." Seo jTatt. x\iii. 17, 18. and also to all the other apostles, to whom
he gave "the kes's," ami power of diiciplinary remission, just as much, and as expli
citly, as to Peter. See John sx. 23.
And, I pray you, fellow citizens, to remember that your priests are at open war with
tire holy script-ares on this point. Let the inspired writers explain this matter to us.
See 2 Corin. ix. 4. Paul says, " that rock was Christ." Wul you give more beed
to ignorant and profligate priests, than to the inspired and holy St. Paul? Hear bim
again in Ephes. U. 20. " We are built upon the foundation of the aposdes and proph
ets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone," or rock. And in Revel, xxi. 14.
St. John declares "that inthe foundation were the names of the tivelve apostles," —
and not Peter's raerely. Read, flunk, and judge, I beseech you, for yourselves. Nay,
hear St. Peter himself explain this; youcertainly will give more credence to St. Peter
than to those Uliterate and licentious priests, whom St. Peter in his hcisty wrath, were
he here, would " smite, and cut their ears off"." In his first Epistle ii. 6, 7. he declares
Christ to be " the precious and elect, and chief comer stone, and fhe Petra, tht
rock." Ver. 8.
And moreover, our Lord himself settles the question about Peter's " supremacy."
See Matt. xx. 25. Mark x. 42. There he puts all his disciples on a perfect footing of

ROM.tN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 207
equality. He charges diem to borrow no model of power frora the heathen : to allow
of " no lordships ;" " no exercising of authority," o\-er each other as his aposdes, and
ministers. These were "Gentile" customs, and not christian. And Peter never
claimed supremacy ; and none of the apostles e^¦er gtne it to hira in a corapliment.
Hear his own words, in 1 Epist. cb. v. w-hile he is addressing "the elders who have
the oversight of tbe flock," that is •• teaching elders," or " the pastors." He assumes
no supremacy over them : be claims no other rank than that of a fellow "elder."
"I am also an elder,'" — -;i\s the holy and humble apostle. And placing lUm.self in
theh ranks, hechai-gesdiem "not lobe Lords over God's heritage!" How could he
be supposed guilty of that tyranny and crime, against wbich he thus solemly guards
the christian ministry? — No^.^, suppose one of their pious elders, or "priests," if
you wUl, had said, — "Our Lord Peter! Our Lord God Pope Peter!" What
would be have said ? Oui Lord's words to himself, on another occasion, when
heshowed that he was neither supreme, nor infallible, would have ministered to him
thewords of the severe but ju?t rebuke, — "Get thee behind me Satan! for thou
savorest not the dungs tl.at be of God, but those that be of men !" Hence be had no
supremacy; and if Peter had no supremacy, — your popes, leere they even his suc
cessors, have none.
But farther, I can produce seven of your fathers against this supreraacy of the
bishop of Rome, 1st. St. Augustine signed tbe decree of the Milevitan Council
which declared tuat " if anv man shall appeal" from his o-wn bishop, to any one,
" beyond sea?, let him be received int/i communion by none in Africa." Thus he de
clares that there i^ no supremacy of the bishop of Rome, over the African bishops,
and churches. See Mans. ConcU. Collect. Tom. iv. 507. Venet. Edit, of 1785.
1 am aware that popish writers quote tbe following out of Augustine's Epist. 43
alias 163. — "The supremacy of the Apostolical See, bas always remained in the
church of Rome."
But can this be genuine, and no forgery; when, as is testified above, Augustine
signed the famous decree of the Milevitan Council, protesting against the papal su
premacy of Rome ; and solemnly excommunicating all who should even appeal to
Rome against his own church and bishops in Africa ?
But the point is settled without supposing a forgery. The fathers had not always
the unanimous consent -with themselves. In Tom. i. p. 32. Retract. Lib. i., Augustine
frankly admits that he had made Peter the Rock, and the foundation of the church.
But this he retracted ; and declares that "the Rock is Christ whom Peter confessed,"
" for," adds he, — " it was not said to him thou art Petra ; but thou art Petros : for the
Rock wa? Christ,"
2d. St. Jerome says, — " Tbe church of Rome is not to be deemed one thing, and
die church of the whole world, another," — " Wheresoever a bishop is, whether at
Rome, or Eugubium, or at Constantinople, or Alexandria, or Tanais, he is ofthe same
worth," &c. "But all bishops are successors of the apostles. Why do you produce
to me the custora of one city?" See Jerome to Evagr. Tom. U. p. 512. Paris Edit.
1602. Again he says — " Bishops should recollect, that they are greater than elders,
rather by custom than the truth of the Lord's appointment; and that they ought to
rule the church in common." Jerome, on Titus, Tom. i. Lib. i. cap. 1 — Finch,
p. 166. I am, fellow citizens, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

sua? ROMAN' CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.-
LETTER IX.
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCIT.
Popery condemned by- the Scripfwres and the Fathers.
" In the first six hundred years, there was no church, no one doctor, no one martyr, no
one confessor, no one member,, in the West, or in any other part of the world, who was
properly and formally a papist;" — Voetius.
Fellow Citizens: — We have seen. in the progress of our discussion, that your
priests have a cumbrous and inaccessible load of materials for tbeir rule of faith. To
the holy scriptures, they add the apocrypha, and- oral tradition, and the unanimous
consent of the fathers. The effect of this is obvious. If I add to "any rule," or
measure,, two inches,, or cut off two, from it, — it is no longer a rule: it is utterly
destroyed. The very object for which it was made is lost. This leads, infallibly
iuto deism. Hence every Roman preist, just in proportion as he is a consistent papist
is an irrecoverable deist; and a stout-hearted opposer of God's word. His first les
son, and the first element of his system is this : The holy scriptures are not the rule
of faith : they are not perfect ; their authority is given to them by the pope and his
priesthood ! They have no divine authority over the soul and consciences of men,
but what a profane priest gives to thera !
This overwhelming truth our New York prie.st3 have taken incredible ]iains to
' convince the American community, in each of their letters, before they retreated.
And there is not a reflecting man among us, whether he is christian or deist, who
does entertain a doubt on the subject. Every body knows that the priests here are
as resolute, and as stout-hearted deists, as VoltEure, Hume, or Paine was ! Aud
having gone this fatal length, it is no wonder that there does exist among our Ameri
can, as well. as European Roraan catholic priests, the sarae division which exists
araong the deists : naraely, the immortal deist, who believes in a future state; and the
mortal deist, who does not believe in a future state ! And in this they have, by the
way, pontifical precedent and example. One of the popes of Rome, on his death
bed, sumraoned his favorites around him, aud made this extraordinary reraark, " I
am dying ; and I shall soon have three doubts solved, which have long hung on
my mind ; namely, — whether there be a heaven, — whether there be a bell, — and
whether there be a God!"
But, by abandoning the evidence and weight of divine authority, for his religioB,
tBe Roraan priest gains his great object. He throws the whole proof of his novel
system on the evidence of human authority, — and on that alone ! He is corapelled to
do this, because he is conscious that its essential doctrines, and rites were entirely
invented, some centuries, after tbe Bible was given by God to tbe church.
One principal fountain of the priests' authority and evidence, is the unanimous
consent of the Fathers. On this I join issue with them: to this test I cheerfully
follow them ; and we shall see that they are condemned by the fafherSvas well as by
the scriptures. Now, let me here state explicitly, the Roraan catholic maxira and
law on this point. It is tbis : — " That doctrine and rite which has the unanimous
consent of tbe Fathers, is binding on the huraan conscience : that which has not th.e
unanimous consent is of no authority whatever." This is the radical and fatal doctrine
on wbicb Romanism as a system of novel religion, is founded and reared.

R0M.\N CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 209
Now, I can easUy show that the distinctive doctrines and rites of Rome, do abso
lutely and utterly want this, their own essential evidence. And here let it be
especially noted, that it is of no consequence to us whether or not the Romish priests
produce quotations perfectly tbe reverse of those genuine ones wbich I shall produce.
Let them do it : only let them quote fairly. We wish them to offer opposite quota-
dons. In doing so, they will only ruin tbeir cause the sooner. They will prove that
the fathers do not only not agree with each other, — but that they do contradict them
selves. Hence, there can be no unanimous consent of the Fathers.
I have formerly given a specimen of the Fathers on the popish supremacy ; I shall
add a few more. And it will be edifying to give the exposition of a few of them on the
famous text, " Thou art the Peter, and on this rock will I build my church," fyc. In my
last letter, I gave St. Augustine's exposition. ''Itwas not said to him, diou art Petra , •
but thou art Petros ,- for the Rock was Christ," Tovii. i. p. 32, Retractions. Again:
"Did Peter receive those keys, and did not John and James, and the other apostles
not receive them ? "What was given to him, was given to tbe church.'' Sermon
149. Tom V. p. 766. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1685.
St. Jerome declares " Christ to be the Petra, the Rock ; who granted to bis apostles,
— donavit apostoii» — that they also should be called rocks." On Amos ; Tom. v. p.
263, Paris Edit, of 160-2. But, I shall help your priests to another quotation ; for I
wish to be impartial. In Tom, iv, p. 15, be makes Peter the Rock, and the chuich
founded on bim! Ag-ain, in Tom. iii. p. 173, this consistent saint says: "The
catholic chinch," (be does not say tbe Roman cafholic church,) but, " the catholic
church is founded in a firm root, upon the Petra, the Rock Christ."
It is proper to state, however, that some who are well skilled in Jerome's writings,
do maintain that when he raakes Christ tbe petra, — the rock; he extends this to all
the aposties equally : " they are all rocks : the church rests on thera all equally.
I must also vindicate bim from a quotation which your priests here, and in Europe,
have given out of his book, .Adv. Jovin. Lib i. cap. 14. It is this, — "Among the
twelve to prevent schism, one is elected, and established as the head." Here tbe
Jesuits are guUty of a partial translation ; and of garbling tbe entire sentence. I
shall give the trae rendering, and the entire sentence: "But thou sayest, the church
is founded on Peter, although in another place, the very same thing is done upon all
the apostles ; and they all receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and the
strength of the church is estabUshed equally upon them all. Yet, therefore, among
thetwelve one is chosen, that, the head being appointed, the occasion of schism may
be taken away," — that is, tbe one chosen was " head," or president to keep order.
This was, in Jerome's view, all of Peter's supremacy. And even this is questioned ;
for when the full college of apostles met, which was only while they were at Jerusa
lem, itwas not Peter, but Jaraes who was "the head," and president. Acts XV.
St. Chrysostom says "Christ did not say upon Peter, for he did not found his
church upon a raan ; but, upon fahh. What, therefore, means this Petra, — Rock ?
Upon the confession contained in Peter's word." Oper. Tom. vi. p. 233, Paris
Edit. 1621. The same idea he advances in Serraon 54. on Malt. xvi. 18.
In like manner Origen on Matt, xvi, : and Athanasius in his letter to Scrapion,
Paris Edit. 1627. Also St, Cyril of Alexandria, Tom. v. p. 509, Paris Edit, 1633.
Also St. Ambrose, De Incarn. Sac. Lib. i., Paris EdU. 1690. And it helps my cause
to add, that St. Ambrose is so destitute of the unanimous consent, that he advocates
Peter's supremacy. Let the priests produce tbis contradiction, on his pages, atnl
ig-*

SIO ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST-
thereby aid our cause. And finally, St. HUary makes the rock confessed by Peter,
to be the only foundation ofthe church. See his work, De Trinit. Lib. vi. Paris-
Edit. 1652. The original of all these Greek and Latin Fathers, I am prepared to
give, at any call. The original, in Greek and Latin, is lying before me. I omit
thera only for want of room.
Theodoret the Greek father, thus wrote in 451 ; " Christ alone is the head of all :
but the holy church is bis body ; and we say that the saints are the members of his
body; one, indeed, is the nec-k ; and another the feet. By his legs, understand St.
Peter, the first of the aposdes." On Canticles, Lat. Edit. Paris 1608. Thus he
makes Peter the legs, which are bome up by the feet ; and by no means the head !
Next, let me present you with a quotation or two from TuitulUan : "Peter was-
called a stone, or a rock, for the building of the church. All the aposlles were rocks."
Contra Marc. Lib. iv. Again; — "Survey the apostolical churches, in which the
very chairs of the apostles still preside over their stations ; in which their o\»n epistles
are recited ; uttering tlie voice, and representing the presence cf each of them. Is
Achaia nearest to thee 7 Thou hast Corinth. If thou art twt far from Macedonia,
thou hast the Philippians, and Thessalonians. If thou canst go to Asia, thou hast
Ephesus; but if thou art near Italy, thou hast Rome, whence to us also authority is
near at band." De proescrip, adv. Ha;res. cap. 36, p. 215, Paris Edit, 1675.
This is the famous passage, which the Jesuits and other popish writers had sported
so long, as an irrefragable proof, from one ofthe most ancient of the Fathers, ofthe
supremacy of the Roman See. But the imposture hEis been detected, Emd exposed..
Will ray reader believe me, when I assure him. that in quoting the above, they left
out all the lines printed in Italicks ,' Inthe Priests' Book, the quotation begins with,
"If thou art near Italy," &c. See Finch's RonUsh Cuntrov. p. 214.,
Ambrose, is usuaUy set in opposition lo Peter's supremacy. Hear his-
words; — "Faith is the foundation of the chm-ch; for it wus not said of the flesh
of Peter, but of his faith, that the gates of hell should not prev.ail against it," De
Incarn. Dom» Sacram, Lib. 1> Cap. 5 p. 711.. Bened. Edit. Par. 1690. Again;,
"¦AVhat is said to Peter, is said to the Apostles." In Psal. 38. Tom. i. p. 858. Once
more, — " not unmindful of his place, he enacted the primacy, — a primacy of confes
sion, not of honor : a primacy offaith, and not of order." De Incarn. Lib. i. as above..
Let rae next carry you to St. Cyprian, who thus v/rote in A. D. 248. — " The other
Apostles were the sarae as Peter, endowed with an equal fellowship of honor, and.
power, &e." De Unit Eccles. p. 107. Oxford edit. 1C82. Once more, in his p-re-
fatory Address to the bishops at the CouncU of Carthage be said, — "No one of us has.
set himself upas the bishop of bishops; or has driven, by tyrannical fear, his col
leagues to the necessity of obeying him; since every bishoji has his o\vn will t"or the
exercise of his liberty and power &c." And this was the sentence ofthe council of
Carthage. See Labb. and Cossart's Concil. Tom. i. p. 786.
St. Hilary we must not omit: hear his words uttered so far back as A. D. 358.-
"The buUding of the church is upon this Petra, Rock of his (Peter's) confession:
this faith is the foundation of the church :. through this faith the gates of hell are-
weak against it." De Trmit. Lib. 6. Par. Edit. 1652. Again in his Expos, of Psal.
52, he says, — " The apostles obtained the keys of tbe kingdom of heaven." Once-
more; — "we have known no rock but Christ; because it is said of him, — but the-
Rock, Petra was Christ." Expos, of Psak 140. Enarr. p. 1138.
Finally; St. Gregory,, the pope, makes an enlightened opposition to tbe suprs>

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 211
macy of the pope, in A. D. 590. I could fill pages from bim; but I select die fol
lowing, — "Ego autem fidenter dico, &r. I confidently say, that whosoever call*
himself Universal Bishop, (Pope,) or desires to be so called in his pride, is the fore
runner of Antichrist: because he, in his pride, prefers himself U) the rest. And lie
is conducted to error wtidi a similar pride. For as " that wicked one" wishes to appear
a god above all men, so, w-hosoever be is who desires to be calh-d solo bishop.
extols himself above all odier bishops." Lib. 7, Indie. 15, Epist. 33, -\il. ftlaur. Aug.
Bened. EdU. of Paris, 1705. Aud in Lib. 7. Indie. 15. Epist. -10, be .slio\v.s beyond
the denial of Jesuits, that the bishops of .Vlexandria, and Autioeh, with him of Rome,
were equally descended from the Apostle ; and that the one had no .supremacy over the
other. And this man, remember, I pray you, was a pope, and one of your saintSv
whom youworship, and adore with the burning of incense. Hence, 5»ou should tell
your priests, who scandalously impose on laymen's ignorance of history, that they
stand a poor chance in their Impes of getting into paradise by the merits and prayers
ol St. Gregory, the pope! For they oppose and blaspheme this demi _c.;od, by their
modem popery. You may depend on it, if St. Gregory, the pope, has any control of
the gates of paradise, not one soul of the Jesuits can ever get in for love, or money !
To the authority ofthe Father's, I shall add tbe decisions of cjuncils, against the
papal supremacy. It is well known that before the council of Nice, which first
divided the govemraent of the chruch into four Patriarchal seats, Rome had very
little, or rather no pre-eminence. All tbe Jesuits are, of course, well, acquainted
¦with the verses of^Hneas Silvius, who became Pope Pius ii., namely, — ¦' Autequam
Nincenum, &c. Before the Nicene councU, every bishop or pastor, lived to him
self: little respect was paid to tbe church of Rome." See Pope Pius, ii. Epist. 301 :
and WUlet's Synopsis p. 1.58. In the Nicene council, no primacy of power was
given to Rome, over the v,-hole church. The Patriarchs of Jerusalem, of Antioch,
and Alexandria, were independent of the bishop of Rome. The fact is, the bishop of
Rome was really a small concern in those days. The Oriental churches knew
scarcely any thing of his name, and nothing ofthe modern facetious clairas of abso
lute supremacy, made by our Roraish fanatics !
Lastly: your own raaster spirit, tbe Jesuit Bellarraine admits unluckily, what
overthrows ihe papal supremacy. He says, 1st. that — "It doth not depend on
Christ's institution, sed ex Petri facto, but from the fact or deed of Peter, that the
bishop of Rome, in preference to the bishop of Antioch, or any other Sre, should be
St, Peter's successor," "Il is," sajs he, "jure humano, non jure Oivino :" — by
"human law, not by divine right, or law, that he has all that power, which he has,"
"It is not ex prima institutione, i,x. from the first institution of the pontificate,.
which is read of in the gospel." Again, be frankly admits, — " Romanum pontificera,
&c." that the Roraan pontif is the successor of Peter, is not ex]ire.'^sly set down in,
the scriptures ; but it is grounded on St. Peter's tradition." See Bellarm. De Pontif.
Lib. u. cap. 17. also cap. 16.
Thus, your principal writer abandons all proof frora scripture. Hence, it is disho
nest, and sheer imposition, in any of your priests to quote ths text of Peter, the Roch
to prove the pope's supreraacy. And touching this writer's proof of Peter's supre
macy from tradition, — bis whole argument, in one word, amounts to this, A priest
goes into court to claim the possession of an immense estate : — "It is t uw," says be^
"I do not claira it by any written deed, or by tbe will of the true owner. But the
genuine members of my family, John Roe, and Nicholas Doe have a tradition in our

212 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
favor, from time immemorial, — and, therefore, we claim it, in opposition to those who
have tbe genuine and authentic ¦will ; in as much as our tradition is better than any
deed or wiU, in the possession of tbe lineal heirs ! !" This is tbe whole amount of the
Roman cathoUc argumenf.
And thus the supremacy of tbe Romish church and pope arose, not from the wUl
of God, or any command of Christ ; or the voice of Peter, or any legal deed of the
church : but, like the power and supremacy of Caesar, Alexander, or Tamerlane, —
it arose out of human pride and ambition ! It was reared by iniquity, fraud, and
atheism : it was erected at the expense of millions of human Uves : and the blood of
sixty eight mUlions bas cemented it ! ! And wo, wo, wo be to the man who, in any
way, aids, or sustsdns it. It is an enemy to the human race ! It shuts up as far as
it can, the gates of heaven ! It bas already been the eternal undoing of millions ! It
is the most maUgnant enemy of God. And tbe Almighty has pledged all bis perfec
tions to destroy it for ever and ever ! See Rev. chap. xviu.
Your sincere friend, &c.
W. C. B.

LETTER X.
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Popery condemned by Scripture and the Fathers.
" O alienate from God! O spirit accursed !
Forsaken of all good ! I see thy fall
Determined  " Milton.
Fellow Citizens: — I finished, in my last letter, the quotation of testimonies
from the Fathers against the supremacy : I now beg leave to observe : —
Second, that the use of images in divine worship is condemned by Scripture and the
Fathers. Hear the voice of God to you : — " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and bim
only shall thou serve." Math. iv. 10. "Little children keep yourselves from idols."
1 John V. 21. Deut. xx-vii» 15. "Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or
molten image, an abomination unto the Lord ; tbe work of tbe hands of the crafts
man ; and putteth it in a secret place : and all the people shall answer and say.
Amen." And hear the voice of God in the second commandment : " Thou shalt not
make unto thee any graven image ; or any likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth : thou shalt
not boto doivn thyself to them, nor serve them." And the whole of the scriptures,
on every page, denounce idolatry as rebelUon against God, and sheer atheism !
But tbe popish priests leave out the whole of the second commandraent from their
catechism, except a line or so. They raake three coramands in tbe first table, and
seven, in the second. They express the first precept thus: "Thou shall have no
other gods before me : thou shalt not make unto thee any graven thing, &c." See
the Catech. of tbe council of Trent, authorized by pope Pius V. There is a double
act of treason here against Almighty God. They leave out the word image, and
render it " graven thing :" and they cut off the whole of the precept after tbe words
" graven thing." And to make up the ten precepts, they divide the tenth into two.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 213
For instance; their ninth commandment is: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
house.'' And the tenth is : "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife." &c.
Let us now bear the Fafhers against the use of images in the worship of God. St.
Augustine says: " This is the chief cause of diis mad impielv, that a figure resem
bling a living form, operates more forcibly upon the feelings of these wn Iclied men,
than its being mcmifest that it is not living ; and therefore, that it ought to be despised
by'the Uving." Expos, of Psal. 113, Enarr. Again, in his 44lli Epist. to Max. ho
says, — "know thou, that none ofthe dead, or any thing raade of God, is wors-liipped
as God, sf the cathoUc christians." Here he staie.s that those who worship, or bow
down to the dead, or to creatures, are not catholic christians. There is another
famous passage in St. Augustine in Lib. De Mor., or his Manners ofthe catholic
ditirch, — in which he declares the worship]iing of saint's tombs and pictures, to be as
bad as gluttony and drunkenness. Here are his words : "I know that many are
¦worshippers of tombs and pictures; I know that there be raany who banquet most
riotously over die graves ofthe dead, and giving meat to the carcasses, do bury them
selves upon the buried; and attribute their gluttony and drunkenness to religion.'"
Quoted in the Iffh Homily ofthe church of England on the Peril of Idolatry, part 2.
Again, he sa\-s, — "Images be of more force to crooken an unhappy soul, than to
teach and instract it." Again, — "When iraages are placed in temples, and set in
honorable sublimity, and begin once to be worshipped, forthwith hreedeth the most
vile affection of error." See 14 Homily, ut supra.
Hear Tertullian, — " Omnis forma, i.^c. Every form, or little forra must be called
an idol." " God forbids as well the raaking as the worshipping of an idol, — tile
divine lav\' proclaims thou shalt not make an idol." De idol. cap. iv. p. 87. P.iris 1675-
St. Athanasius says: " O,^ mj ^ ran/ Ac. The invention of idols is not good, but
altogether evil. For that which has a bad beginning, being wholly bad, cannot be
deemed good in any way," Orat. Contr. Gent. Par. Edit. 1627, Finch, p, 195.
St, Ambrose thus -writes : " The gentiles worship wood, because they ihink that
is the image of God: but tbe image ofthe invisible God is not in that which is seen;
but in that which is not seen." On Psalm 118, Tom. i. p. 1095. Bened. Edit.
Paris 1690. Again, — " The church knows no vain ideas, and vain images of figures ;
but she knows the true substance of the Trinity.'' On die FUght of time, Tora. i.
Of the same sentiment, are Origen, Clemens Alexand. Eusebius, Cyprian, Lac
tantius, and Epiphanius. Gregory insists that images raay be used, " but are by no
means to be worshipped or bowed down unto." See Registr. Epist. Lib. ii. Ind. 4. p.
1100, Bened. Edit. Paris 1705.
Memorable are fhe words of Lactantius, Lib. ii. De Orig. Error. Tom. i. p, 185,
Paris Edit. 1748 : " There is no doubt but that there is no religion iu that place where-
ever any image is. For if reUgion stand in goodly things, and there is no godliness
but in heavenly things, then are images ivithout religion."
In Hke manner writes St. Cyril. But I shall close this with the words of the coun
cil of Eliberi in Spain, held in A. D. 300. "Placuit picturas, &c. It hath seemeil
good to us that pictures ought not to be in the churches, lest that which is worshipped
or adored be painted on the walls." Finch, p. 256. Thus scripture and the Fathers
condemn the use^ and the worship of images in the church.
Third  The wo-rship of angels and saints is condemned by the scriptures and the
Fathers. Col. U. 18. "Let no man beguile you in a voluntary humility, and wor
shipping of angels," When John in an unguarded moment feU down to worship tbe

214 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
angel, (Rev. xix. 10.) be was sharply rebuked, — "see thou doit not — worship God."
In Psalm lx. 11. we are taught by the Lord bow vain is the help of man, be he
dead, or living, — " O God, give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man!"
In Jeremiah iii, 23. we are taught to look to no created being : but unto God only for
salvation : — " Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel." In Acts iv. 12.
it is declared by St. Peter, who spoke by the Holy Ghost, that no angel, and no saint
can help to save us : — " There is no salvation in any other, than in Je:us : for there is
no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." No, not
one among all angels under heaven: none among all men, in heaven, or on earth!
And to make it doubly sure, God has thus proclaimed, in Jerem. -\ vii. 5, — "Thus
saith the Lord, cursed is the man that trusteth in man ; that maketh flesh his arm : and
whose heart departethfrom the Lord." — Hear also the words of onr Savior, in Matt. iv.
10., "Jesus saith unto him, get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and uim only shalt thou serve.''
From all these divine passages we gather these two essential doctrines : — 1st. All
persuasions, or motives to use, or worship idols, and go after other gods, come from
Satan. 2d, There is no ])Iace in divine worship for saints' merit, or saints' worship.
For it is certain that none of all his creatures can bring up to the throne of God any
personal worth, or merit, or sanctity, which he can add to our Lord Jesus Christ's in
finite atonement, and his holy and prevalent intercession. No angel, or iiTan can be
supposed tohe a suitable object to pray to, unless they knotv theliearts of all men. But
God only is the sole object of worship, because " he only knoweth the hearis of all
the children of men," 1 Kings viii. 39.
Now hear the Fathers on this point : — St. Bernard on Heb, i, 14, s-;iys, — " Evidently
are tbey our ministering servants, not our masters, or lords." And on Peal. 90. sec.
11. " If not our lords and masters, theu are ihev not to be worshipjied."
St. Augustine thus declares, — "Christ is the High Priest who ha.s entered, for us,
within the veU, and who alone of those tvho have appeared in the flesh intercedes for
us." InP.sal. 61. Tom. iv. p. 633. Bened, Edit. Paris. And the following is irre
sistible, — "Respondent, &c. they answer, we worship not evil spirits, we worship
those beings whom you call angels, the powers and servants ofthe great God. I wish
you would worship them, and you would soon learn from them, not to worship thera.
Take the angel for a teacher," He then refers to St, John, and the angel who rebuk
ed him, Aug. Oper. Tom, iv. p. 1054, in Psal. 96. Bened. Edit.
The words of St. Athanasius are equally decisive, — Ovk aw iri &c. It belongs
alone to God to be worshipped, and the angels themselves are aware of this;
for although they surpass others in glory, they are all creatures, and are not beings to
be worshipped, but beings who worship the Lord," Third Orat, against the Arians;
Paris Edit. 1627. To the same purpose are the words of Origen, Theodoret, Greg
ory Nyssen, Epiphanius, and others.
Fourth. — Prayers in an unknown tongue are condemned by Scripture and the Fa
thers. The Breviary, used by the priests, is in Latin ; and their prayers, and the
mass, are exhibited in LcUin. It is tme, Roman cathoUc prayer books are found in
EngUsh. Bull have had occasion to observe in a former Letter, that these books put
forth in English, are very different from the genuine Breviaries. They are sheer im
positions on you, their own devotees, designed mainly to impose upon Protestants. In
these English mEiss books, they appear marvellously orthodox ; and do make a mar
vellous approach to Protestant prayer books. They have, it is true, the prayeis ta

Roman catholic controverst. 215
die saints, and "the rosary of die Mother of God." But these are shorn of their chief
blasphemies, to stop the mouths of uninformed Protestants. The infamous blasphe
my contained in die prayers to the Virgin, for instance, is carefully expunged in the
EngUsh versions of the Breviary. I mean the phrase " Holy Mulher command thy
Son, &;c." In the Latin Breviary, it is "jube filio,"' command thy son. "Holy Mo
ther, ora patre:n. jube filio, — pray to tbe Father, and commund thy Son."
Again, — "Jure matris impera dilectissimo tuo filio Domino noslio Jesu Christo;
By the rights of a mother, command thy most beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ."
See Bonavent. Cor. Beat. Virg, rUaria : Tom. vi, Rom. Edit, A. D. 1588.
Again, — -' O felix puerpera, nostra plans scelera, jure matris impera Redemptori!
Ora suppliciter (Patrem ;) pn^cipe sublimiter (Redemplnvi.") That is, — "O happy
Mother of God, by virtue of die rights of a mother, atoning fur our crimes, lay 1;hy
commands on the Redeemer ! Humbly supplicate the ?"adiei , lay thy imperial com
mands on thv Son, the Redeemer !" See lli^t. Sec. Char. August. De Commem.
Beat. Mar. J'ir. — Morn. Exer. p. 523.
Now, tliere horrid blasphemies are ¦weekly perpetrated by your priests in Latin.
But did suc'a a prayer book lie before the public in the common tongue, and were
such monstrous fictions, absurdities, and blasphemies, as arc recorded on the pages of
the Latin Breviary, uttered in a New-York, or any American audience, — they would
be shocked to such a degree tliatthey ¦svould start from their seats, and leave the
Chapel, to save themselves from the inflictions of such prayers, and vows as are fit
only for Rab-hakeh, Emd the court of the King of A'i'-yria 1
I hesitate not to affirm, that this reveals one of the chief reasons for your priest's
employing Lni'ux. No priest dare come out in the vulgar 'tongue, among an enlight
ened people, ¦with 'heir pravers to the saints; or with the monstrous, and revolting
fictions of the moss, in English, Thev would as soon venture out ¦with an English
translation of St. Bonaventure's psaltery ; in which all the psalms are altered so as to
be addressed to the Virgin Mary : or, with an EngUsh version of the most infamous
and obscene questions put by priests to persons, — and even females, in English,
at the confessional !
This practice of Latin pravers, and services, is condemned by St. Paul, speaking
bythe Holy Ghost. Sec 1 Cor. xiv. "If any man speak in an unknown tongue,
let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter let him keep sUence in the church."
Again, Ver. 9. "Except ye utter by the tongue, words easy to be understood, bow
shaU it bt^hown what is spoken! For ye shaU speak inlo the air!" " If I know
not the meaiinj; of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh, a barbarian, and
he that speaketh, shall be a barbarian unto me !"
Here, my fellow citizens, St. Paul declares that your priests raake themselves, ab
solutely, nothing but barbarians unto you. And if you believe St. Paul, speaking by
inspiration, you are bound to believe them barbarians, when they insult you by their
senseless Latin mummery! ^^^len wiU you rouse up and begin to act as men,— as
rational beings! When wUl you assert your raental and spiritual Uberty; and rod
off from you these endless wrongs, and insults, heaped on you, by designing sacer
dotal knaves ! Arise, and maintain your rights. Were you going lo petition a friend,
or die Corporation, orthe Congi-ess, for a special favor, would you address them m
an unknown tongue ? Do you not see tbe monstrous absurdity of Latin prayers,
which scarcely even one of your priests can translate, or even read accurately, and
none of all the people can understand ! Does not your Maker command you lo use

S16 roMan catholic C0NTRT)VEKBT^
"a known tongue? Hear the words of Paul, 1 Cor. xiv. 15., "IwiU pray with th«
Spirit, and I wUl pray -with the understanding also." But no people can" obey this
Command, under your priests' impositions. None of you can understand one word !
Hear, now, tbe Fathers of the church. They condemn the prayers in unkno^wn
tongues. Origen says, — " Christians in prayers, use not the Very words of scripture"
(that is the Hebrew and Greek,) "but tbe Greeks use the Greek, the Romans, the
Latin, and so every one according to his oton dialect, does pray unto God, &c." •' And
he who is the Lord of every language, hears the prayers put up to him in every lan
guage." Contr. Cels. Lib. 8. p. 402.
Hear St, Ambrose, — "If ye come together to edify the church, those things ought
to be spoken that the hearers may understand : for what does he profit the people, who
kpeaks in an unknown tongue 7" In 1 Cor. xiv. And if your priests do not know
that the Hebrews attempted this innovation, before thera, let them now know it. And
let fhem know, moreover, that St, Ambrose rebuked the folly thereof. In the place
above quoted, he thus adds, — " There were some, especially of the Hebrews, that
used the Syriac, and the Hebrew tongue, in their services, but these aimed at their
own glory and comraendation, not at the people's benefit." What a rebuke to your
haughty priests, from one of your own sainted fathers. Let them writhe under the
scourge of St. Ambrose !
But bear St. Augustine next : " Intelligere debemus, &c. We ought to understand
¦wliat we pray for, that we may not like birds, but like men, sing unto God. For
black-birds, and parrots, and crows, and magpies, &C., are taught to sound forth
what they understand not. But to" (and this includes, ¦as in David's psalms,
both prayers and praisings,) "sing with understanding, is granted not to a bird, but
to a raan, through Grod's good pleasure." Enarrat. in Psal. 18, Morning Exer. p.
303. Thus you see that father Augustine, and his ancient associates, considered
prayers in an unknown tongue, as similar every way to the pratings of a magpie, or a
parrot ! Origen, Chrysostom, Jerome, Basil tbe Great, are decidedly of the same
opinion. Their original words are before me. I omit them for want of roora. See
Fulk's Confut. ofthe Rhemish Test, on 1 Cor. xiv.
But I cannot omit Cardinal Cajetan, your own champion's words. In his Com
ment, in 1 Corin. cap. xiv. he says : " Ex hac Pauli, &x;. From this doctrine of St.
Paul, it follows, that it is better for the edification of the church, that the public
prayers which the people hear, should be made in that language which both priests
and people understand, than that they should be made in Latin!" Hear, finally,
St. Thomas Aquinas, your angelical doctor, — "Plus lucratur, &c. He gains most
who prays and understands the words which he speaks, &c." " Melius est, &c. It
is better that the tongue which blesses, should interpret, for good words should be
spoken to tbe edification of faith." Now surely where the people listen to the Latin
prayers, no man can understand — no raan can diligently say, amen ; no man can,
along with the priest, offer up a petition. How forcible the words of tbe apostle Paul :
" I thank God, I speak with tongues more than you all ; but I bad rather speak five
words to be understood by, and to edify, those that bear me, than ten thousand words,
in an unknown tongue !" 1 Cor. xiv. 18.
Thus far, we see, — your system is condemned by the word of God and the ancient
Fathers ofthe church, I am, feUow citizens, yours respectfully, &c.
W.C. B.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTItOVERST. 217
l.ETTLR .XI,
TO the members op the ROMAN CATHtLIC CHURCH.
Popery condemned by Scripture and the Fathers.
"But the abomin.ible, and murderers, and impure, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all
liars, shall have their part in the lake which burnetii with tire und brimstone." — Rev. xxi. 8.
Fellow Citizens: — Ha^•ing despatched tbe chief ?)iarfcsanrf notes of your priests'
church, I thought it proper, before I entered on a rainute examination of your sacra
ments, and essential riles, and doctrines, to take a rapid view of your system, as a
whole ; and to show you that we do not lightly affirm diat popery is condemned by
scripture aud tbe Fathers.
Your priests have their grand test of fhe truth of their whole system; namely, the
unanimous consent ofthe Fathers. These Fathers explain tbe scriptures, say they, and
give " the only true raeaiUng of them :" these Fathers conveyed the genuine traditions,
and handed down the holy RomEm catholic rites, ceremonies, and sacraments. In
fact, the unanimous consent of the Fathers is the pillar of popery. Tbis unanimous
consent of fhe sainted writers, j-ou say, is wielded by the pope, and the church, with
infalUble and immutable precision. It props up the tottering stool of St. Peter, and
sustains the pope on it ; and he in his turn, sustains the unanimous consent of the
Fathers. I am justifiable, therefore, in taking sorae time, and pains to overthrow it.
And before we dismiss it, I trust it will be made to appear as absurd and ridiculous,
as the claims of the holy and chaste priests to sanctity ! We therefore go on : —
Fifth. — Your peculiar worship oflered to the Virgin, " the mother of God," is
condemned by scriprare, and the Fathers. Whatever is not enjoined of God in his
worship, is to be considered will- worship ; and is, therefore, to be rejected, eis forbidden
of God. That which Paul in Col. ii. 18, calls eprtaxeia the worshipping of angels, is
by him called in ver- 23. cecXoepmacia tvill-worship.
Now, in all the New Testament, there is no comrasmd to pray to Mary, no example
favoring it, either on the part of Christ, or of bis apostles. The angel used the words
loher, which you torture wickedly into a prayer, " Hail Mary ! Ave Maria!" Now,
who that impious blasphemer was, who first conceived the monstrous idea of this
being a prayer, and an act of worship, is not known, — history does not reveal the
infamy of his name. The angel siraply used the comraon salutation, ^Sipe. And it
no more includes tbe idea of worship, than our comraon salutation, " Hotv are you ?
or, Good bye, — a contraction for " God be with you." " Hail Mary !" It is the sarae
word used by our Savior in JMatl. v. 12, to his people, and there rendered rejoice ye !
Did our Sav"ior in this address, worship his audience ? If so, then tbe angel also
adored Mary. And if so, you are correct in worshipping her with your Ave Maria !
If not, then you are imposed upon, by knavish priests !
Our Lord, whUe as man, be did bis mother reverence, — as one " under the law," —
never adored her, never admitted her right to interfere as intercessor, or adviser, in
his mediatorial work. There is a strong instance and proof of diis, in John ii. 4.
Mary seems to have suggested tbe idea that he should miraculously give wine : he
repUed in language .of the most polished respect, — Pvi-ai, Lady, what to me, and to
thee? "My hour is not yet corae." That is, — " Lady,— I honor you as my mother
in the flesh, as Son of man : but as Son of God, what is common between me an'J
20

213 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
thee?" Nothing: I receive no hints, no instructions; as Son of God, I have no
mother : I have no sovereign, "My hour," fixed by me as God, "is not yet come. I
shall work a miracle when lay hour comes.'' And the fact confirms this exposition.
If your prayers bad been due to ber, then St. Peter and St. John, and all the apos
tles were very irapious, very negligent, and most criminal men. They never name
ber: they offer no vows to ber: rear no altars to her : made ber no statues; brought
no incense to her! What impious atheists these men, tbe holy apostles, must have
been, in the belief of all Roman catholics dyed in tbe wool!
But let us bear the Fathers; — Epiphanius bishop of Salamis, in 366, thus wrote, ^ —
" AXX' dure HXi'ds &c. But neither is Elias to be worshipped, althougli he be
alive ; nor is John to be worshipped." ***** "Nor is Thekla, or any one of the
saints worshipped. For that ancient error shall not prevail over us, to forsake the
living God ; and to worship the things that are made by him. For they served and
¦worshipped the creature raore than the Creator, and became fools ! For if an angel
will not be worshipjied, hoiv much more will not she that was born of Anna, (Mary) ?"
Contra Haeret. 79. p. 448. See also Usher who quotes it: and Finch, Controv. p.
242. — Again he says, — " H Mopia &c. Let Mary be in honor, but let the Lord be
¦Worshipped. " Again, — " Let Mary be in honor, and let the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost be -«-orshipped. Let no man worship Mary. This mystery is ordained, I say not
for woman, but not even for a man ; but for God. The angels themselves do not assent to
this doxology." Do. p. 450. and 449. And Usherin his Reply to the Jesuit Fisher .* p. .345.
St. Augustine claims your unwavering faith here, and surely one of your demi
gods, as be is, 'must be submitted to iraplicidy, by every^ priest, who is not a rebel to
the saints inthe ghostly calendar. " Who is my mother, and who my brethrenl"
Then pointing to his (Zisc(;;?es, he added, — "these are ray brethren, and whosoever
shall do the will of my father, the same is my brother, and my raother, and my sis
ter." Now bear St. Augustine, — "What else did he teach ns by thjs, but that we
should prefer our spir/tMaZ to our caniaZ relationship," &c, — " Mary, therefore, ivas
more blessed in adopting the faith of Christ, than in conceiving his flesh. Foi when one
said. Blessed is the worab thatbarethee, he answered. Yea rather blessed are they that
hear the word of God and keep it."—" Her maternal relation would have profiled Mary
nothing, if she had not borne Christ more blessedly in her heart, than lU her flesh."
See Oper, Tom. vi. p. 342. De Sanct. Virg. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1685. How completely
does St, Augustine here overturn and destroy the popish monstrous tenet of worshipping
Mary as " the Mother of God !" " Uermaternal relation," says this Roman infalUble
oracle, — " would have profited Mary nothing if she bad not borne Christ more bles
sedly in her heart." Instead of being " Mediatrix," and a "goddess," and "inter
cessor," — as your priests feign, — she needed salvation from Christ, as well as the
humblest sinner. How completely does St. Augustine, then, annihilate the blasphe
mous tide invented by thepriests, and given to Mary, namely, "the Mother of God!"
Sixth : — Tbe judicial power of your popes and priests to forgive sins, is condemned
by scripture, and the Fathers. The council df Trent, Sess. 14. Canon I. declares
penance a sacrament, and dooms " to perdition," the unhappy man who doubts this,
or denies that it was instituted by Christ,— ^" to reconcile those christians to God,
who have fallen into sin after baptism." It is divided by your priests according lo the
council of Trent, into two parts : 1st. The matter, or the acts ofthe penitent, contrition,
eon fession, and satisfaction. 2. The judicial absolution of the priest in these words,
'' !^gO to absolve, I absolve thee." Atid, once in each year, at least, must every true

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 219
Roman catholic go to his priest, for confession, pen.-incc, and absolution. Thus, ut
one short kneeling, a man must confess the sins of the whole year! But, then, your
priests affect, though under the hazard of a " mortal impiety," to divide sin, — 1st inlo
deadly sins, — of which diere arc only these seven classes, — pride, covetousness, luxury,
anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth! 2d. iuto venial sins; or those easily f"orgiven; or,
to use the words of your writer S.uinius, — " venial sins arc tcorthy of pardon .-" or as
BeUarmine hatii it, — '- diey make not a man guilty of eternal death.'' Andradius
and your St. Bonaventure are even more accommodating, — " For venial sins," say
they, — "wc do not so much as need repentance." Now, all sins, not ranketi under
the seven deadly sins, are venial. These mortal sins the professed "penitent" aflects
to confess in the priest's CEirs. And upon " the exact confession of them," says the
council of Trent, Sess. 14. cap. 6. "the penitent has absolution pronounced on him,
iwt conditional, or declarative only, but absolute, and judicial." And thus the priest
pronounces an absolute and eternal pardon, "not conditional," for he cannot know
the heart, he csmnot know whether the penitent does truly and sincerely repent : it is
" not condhional." And the deluded man is assured th.it he can plead it before the
bar of his Maker, with infallible success! The penance to "make satisfaction," is
some bodily suffering, as fasting, kneeling in church, beating the breast, polling the
head, going in bah cloth, saying many Ave Marias, or as the simple faithful do in Ire
land, crawling round the course, at Loch Dearg, or Holy Well, on their bare knees,
on the sharp pebbles ; or walking a number of miles on pilgrimage, with their shoes
filled wi'h dry pea^'', -which the "knowing ones," particularly the delinquent prie.sts,
lake care to boil! But, all cases of penance are dispensed with, as usual, in this
infamous system, for a stipulated sum of money, from 25 cents, to cue hundred, or
five hundred dollars !
This monstrous system of impiety is worse than heathenism. But this was the
predicted feature of " Babylon the Great,"' tbe master-piece of popery. That sy.stcm j
stands out alone in this eternal infamj', that it made merchandize in the souls of men."
The slave dealer tralUes iu human bones, muscles, and flesh ! But according to the
prediction of John in the Apocalypse, popery traffics in human souls. See Revel.
xvui. 13. Monstrous n.s this appears to every one, your priests, nevertheless, affect
gravity enough, to quote holy scripture for it. For instance, Matth. xvi. 19. is pres
sed in as an evidence. Peter "received the keys of the kingdom." Hence he has
the exclusive power "of binding, and loosing."
Here, there is the commission of manifold errors in pressing tbis text into their ser
vice. First, admitting it to have been spoken exclusively to Peter, it remains to be
proved that your popes are his successors : and even although they were so, at first,
we have demonstrated by a chain of evidence that no priest can break, that die suc
cession has, in every point, been cut off, entirely, and forever! Second: tbe power
of "binding, and loosing, and opening," with the keys, was given to the other apos
tles, in every respect, as much, as it was given unto Peter. I refer you to John xx.
23. " Jesus says unto them (tbe apostles) receive ye the Holy Ghost : whosesoever sins
ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained."
But, third, tbis power was given to the church, who, by her proper officers, has the
conservative power of discipline, and of restraining and casting out from her holy
communion, the impute and wicked. I begto refer you to Matth. xviu. 18. "VerUy
I say to you," says Jesus Christ to all his apostles, and ecclesiastical officers, in holy
awecessioi), — " whatsoever ye shall hind on earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and what-

22CJ ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
soever ye shall loose on earth, sliall be loosed in heaven. Where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am Iin the midst of them" Hence, Christ being
in "the midst of us," in his church gathered in his naine, tbe deed is his own, -K-hen
duly done ; and by him is il ratified.
Of these things are your priesls wilfully ignorant, for they are miserably defective
in theological science; and the accurate knowledge of the Bible. It forms, in fact,
no distinctive part of their studies!
By "the kingdom of heaven," in the gospel, is meant the church on earth. How,
else, could it be compared to "a field having tares and wheat." Or to "the net hav
ing fishes, good and bad." Matth. xiii. 47. Or the Avedding feast chamber, having
guests good and bad 1 But your priests, stupidly enough, make it the heaven above ;
and give Peter the keys to open up those gates whieh Christ alone opened, into
heave:^ !
This point settled, the matter is easy. The church, by her proper officers, exer
cises the keys of discipUne, receiving in the truly penitent, on their confession : shut
ting out tbe apostate aud vile: and receiving bcvck again the truly contrite. "The
power of remitting sins, given to the church," sa^'S bishop Jeremy Tayloi's works, p.
587. " is nothing but an audiority to minister that pardon given by Jesws Christ."
And St. Jerorae says, "the church pardons sins, as the Levitical priest cleansed the
lepers ; — that is, he did discern whether they were clessn or not, and so restored them
to the congregation; or shut them out." And memorable are the w^ords of St. Au
gustine, — "Apud Deum, &c. God regards not the sentence of the priest; hut the
Ufe of the penitent." He adfte, " The priest is somethmg- ss to the ministry, and the
dispensation of the word and sacraments: but nothing sts-to the purifying, and justify
ing of the sinner, for none tvorks that, in the inner man, but He who created the whole
man." See Bishop Taylor,. Ductor Dub. p. 587.
I am, fellow citizens, yours respectfully,
W. C. B.

LETTER XII-
TO THE MEMEEES OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
On the Unity of the Romish Church.
" If there is aught, thought, or to think, absurd.
Irrational and wicked, this is more,
This most ; the sin of devils, or of those
To devils growing fast." Pollok,
Fellow Citizens: — I invited your attention, in my last, to the judicial power
claimed by Roman catholic priesls, to forgive, and absolve from sins.
This impious system of your priests, is not only based on the perversion of scrip
ture, but it is, in every form, opposed to the whole .system of Bible truth. " Christ
is the author and finisher of our faith :" he bas, by bis one sacrifice forever peifected
them that are sanctified :" "by the deeds of the law, no flesh Uving can be justified."
"Christ bath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us." If
man can make satisfaction, and can propitiate God hy pains, penance, and prayers,
then is not the atonement of our Lord perfect? And if not perfect, it is no atonement

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. >!^ "^ J "J "*^5>J21
at aU. To make place for penance and human satisfaction, is tB u^r the lie t<:>v^fl-v ,
most blessed Savior, who, when dying, said, in reference to liisVtdi^^menTijSrjt'V/^^'jJIr,,.--,
finished!" If there be any thing ofthe penalty, or the curse still reflraiS^g^n telfe^^^vs
ral evils, and afflictions, then has not Christ redeemed us from tbe c^se -sf flip )aw )'
That wretched priest who bas tbe audacity to bear deluded victims of poi^-vj "iff thci^„
confessional, and pronounce bis absolution, aud pardon judicially and absolut'ely'ri?^^
placing his -vile carcass " in the throne and temple of God, calling himself God !" 'That
miscreant who pretends to grant absolution ; and who gravely sells indulgences for
money, does "traffic in men's soids ;" and bas the insufferable daring ofthe atheist to
caUmen away from tbe Lord Jesus Christ ; to call men away from his one, onlj', and
perfect atonement; to call men away frora his only availing intercession, to his own
infinitely degraded system of chicanery ; his miserable system of trading iii souls for
pounds, shilUngs, and pence 1 The infinity of tbis littleness, and matchless bathos,
is surpassed only by its matchless atheism ! Over the whole pages of the Bible, this
one great, and all pervading doctrine is spread out, and raade most manifest to all, that
Almighty God alone pardons sin: that he does it to the believer, only, for Christ's
sake ; that he cannot, and wUl not, deny bis justice, insult his purity, or degrade his
Eternal Son, by accepting of any huraan merit, or any human works, to fill up
the measure of his all perfect atonement. And, hence, these words of Jehovah,
which are tbe summary- of the gospel : " /, even I, am he that blotteth out your trans
gressions for mine own sake ; and uill not remember thy sins." Isaiah xliii. 35.
We may sum up tbe scripture argument thus. The divine law required no human
penance; no works, to procure psurdon of sin ; nothing but the sacrifice only ; and that
pointed to Chri5t"s atonement. If God pardon sin for his ow-n name's sake, then he
does it, not for the SEike of any sinful raan, or impure priest. If the lamb of God takes
away the sin ofthe world, then no sinner — far less an irapious priest, can do it. We
"are saved through faith ; by grace; not of ourselves; not of works." Eph. ii. 8, 9.
Then is there no place for penance, none for merits, or ghostly buying, and selling !'
"God gives us, along with Christ, freely, all things." Rora. viii. 32. And, hence,
he not only grants us the reraission of sins, but remits the punishment, temporal and-
etemal also. Hence, there is no room for penance, or the impious intrusion of
a priest's absolution. Christ " trode tbe wine press alone ; and of tbe people
there was none wilh him." None could be associated with hira: none "could be
baptised with his baptism :" '-'he is God : beside him there is no Savior ! " His was
the only name under heaven, by wbich we can be saved." Hence there is no place
for saintly intercession, nor penance, nor ghostly imposition of absolvings from sin !
The case of tbe woman convicted of adultery, (John viU,,) affords us a deraonstra
tion on this point. If ever our Lord had ordained penance, here it would have been
enforced. "But He required of her no penance, no satisfaction for her great sin. He
only sealed his pardon to her, Euid dismissed her saying, 'Go and sin no more !'
Hence no satisfaction for sin by us is required in the scriptures." — Luther.
The saints in heaven were saved by Christ's merits only ; and tbeir song of grati
tude is the everlasting admission that tbey had no merits of their own. They bad-
nothing but what they received of grace. And in reference to their obedience to the
law as a mle of life, that law requires absolute perfection, and spotless purity, in,
aoul, in tongue, and in the whole moral deportment.
Now the saints are far from having any merits over and above all the requirements
of the l^w of God, as your priests, tempting the patience of heaven, do mjost au/la-
W

222 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
ciously, affirm. They do not, in tbis Ufe, even come up to the smallest requirements
ofthe pure and spotless standard of moral duty. "In many things,", says tbe highest
authority, "tbey offend all." Jas. iii. 2. Hence, fellow citizens, there is no truth in,
nor even the slightest foundation for tbe ludicrous fiction of priestcraft, that tbe saints'
merits, composed of the materials of all that perfect obedience, in word, deed, and
thought, which they render to God, over and above all that his holy law requires, are
carefully collected and laid up in a golden heap, in the pope's treasury ; and that the
pope keeps tbe key of this sarae treasury : and graciously, and very disinterestedly
sells out for pounds, shillings, and pence, tbe raercbandise of the merits of the saints,
under tbe narae of indulgences and absolutions ! This profitable ghostly manufactory
ihas by tbe wretched ignorance, and infinite degradatiou of all popish nations, been
;the pope's grand mint ! At this he bas coined more money, counterfeit coin I admit,
in his traffic in soula, than has been coined at the Mint of tbe United States ; or at
I the Mint of England ! For he has bad a brisk and uninterrupted trade in souls, and
indulgences, for more than twelve centuries ! ! What devoted followers tbey are of
their founders, Judas and Simon Magus ! !
Let us now conduct you to the Fathers. St. Augustine speaks in the strongest
terms, sigainst the judicial powers of priests, or any man to forgive sins. Having
quoted the passage out of John xx. 23, and solved some difficulties, he goes on, thus :
" Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted, &c. But since these words are introduced,
when he had said this, he breathed on them and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost ; and then
was conferred on them the remission, or retention of sin, it is sufficiently evident that
they themselves did not do this; but tbe Holy Spirit, by their agency, as he said in
another place ; It is not you that speak, but the Holy Spirit who is in you. See Aug.
Oper. Tom. ix. Lib. 2, p. 42. Contra. Epist. Parmen. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1685.
Again, — " Peccasti, &o. Hast thou offended thy brother ? Make satisfaction to him."
These satisfactions in private and public we admit : but satisfaction to God, neither
he nor we acknowledge." See, in Math. Serm. 16, De Poenit. cap. 10.
St. Jerome says: "The bishops and presbyters not understanding that passage,
assume to themselves something of the arrogance of the pharisees, so far as to imagine
that they may condemn the innocent, and absolve the guilty ; whereas with God, it
is not tbe sentence ofthe priests, but the Ufe ofthe guilty, that is looked into." Then
having quoted the case ofthe priests and the leper under tbe law, he adds, — "In the
same manner, as the priest, there, made a man clesm or unclean," (that is, declared
thera clean or unclean) " so, here, tbe bishop or presbyter binds or loosens, not those
who are innocent or guilty, but officially, when he has heard the nature of their sins
be knows who are to be bound, and who, to be loosed." Oper. Tom. vi. in Math. 16.
St. Chrysostom in one place, speaks strongly against this power of forgiving sins
judicially : " To forgive sins truly, indeed, is possible with God only." On 1 Cor.
15. Homil. 40. Tom. v. Mogunt. Edit. p. 451. Aud against auricular confession, ho
says: " Aia rovra &c. For this reason, I beseech thee and pray thee, to confess
continually to God. For I do not bring thee inlo the theatre of thy fellow servants,
nor do I call on thee to discover thy sins to men. Uncover your consciences to
God ; and show him your wounds ; and seek a cure from bim.'' Hom. 5, De incomp.
Nat. Dei. Par. Edit. 1621. And his Homil. De Poenit, et Confess. Tom. v. Lat.
Edit, he says — " It is not necessary to confess your sins to witnesses, — let God
alone, see thee confessing." And farther, in speaking agEunst the forgiving of sins by
priests, he says vehemently: "Km ri &e. -\nd why do I speak of the priests?

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 233
Neither angel nor archangel can perform any of the things which are given from
God. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost administer all things. The priest furnishee
his tongue, and lends bis bauds." Hom. 86, on John xx., Lat. Edk. BasU,1539. I
am fully aware tibat diis Father advances a sentiment, in his De Sacerdote, quite
opposed to the above : and quite opposed to the sentence above, taken from St. Je
rome. But I leave it to your priests to quote that, to help on my cause by setting
this Father in arms against himself; and against St. Jerome; and against tho
unanimous consent !
St. Ambrose thus writes: " To you, he says, I will give the keys ofthe kingdom
of heaven, that you may bind and loose." " What is said to Peter is said to the
aposdes." In Psal. 38, Tom. i. p. 858 ; Paris EdU. of 1690. Again : " Ecce quia,
&c. Behold ! truly, sins are pEirdoned by die Holy Spirit. But men hr'mg a ministry
forthe remission of sins; they do not e.^ercise the right of any power." De Spir.
Sane. Lib 3. c. 18. Again : " Sine peccato, &c. No one is without sin, but God
alone.'' "Also, no one pardons sin but God only, because it is written, who can par
don sins, but God alone?" De Spir. Sanct. ut supra.
Pope Gregory L the saint, who lived before your modern popes and priests had
invented the prominent and facetious fictions of your system, thus w^rites against the
judicial po-wer of the priests to forgive sins ; " Thou who alone sparest, who alone
forgivest sins. For i.vho can forgive sins but God only !" Greg. Expos. 2, in Sep
tem Psalmos Pcenit. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1705. Finch, Controv. p. 240. Thus, your
pope and saint, Gregory, overthrows the main pillar of your priestcraft !
St. BasU says : " EXflrro &c. Let tbe true lawgiver come, the powerful Savior :
he alone having the power to forgive sins." Comment, in Isai. cap. 6.
St. Hilary, in 358, thus writes : " Verum enim, &c. But it is true that no one can
forgive sins, but God sdone. Therefore it is God who forgives sins : but uo one for
gives but God." On Madi. Con. 8, Paris Edh. of 1652.
To the same purpose writes St. Cyprian, De Lapsis, sec. 7. Edit, of O.vford, 1682.
And St. Cyril speaks thus decidedly against tbe modem fanaticism and extra
vagance of popes and priests ; — " He only, who is by nature God, has the power of
absolvmg from their sins. For whom does it befit to release the violators ofthe law,
but the author ofthe law himself?" See mucb more of this forcible writer, who eon-
demns your priests, in all their impious system. Comment, in Johan. lib. 12,_Tom.
iv. p. 1101. Paris EdU. 1638.
FinaUy, Clemens Alexandrinus, in A. D. 250 thus writes; for he and aU his
associates knew nothing of popery m those days : tbe prince of hell, and the popes
had not yet matured the lie. " Aia rouro /lows Wherefore, he alone who was appointed
to be our Master, by the Father of all,— can forgive sins : since be alone can distin
guish between obedience and disobedience." Paidag. Lib. 1. cap. 8. p. 116. Paris
Edit of 1641.
I have dwelt longer on these topics, than I bad anticipated : but I was anxious to open
to your view the solemn testimony, and sentence of condemnation, passed by the scrip
tures and tbe Fathers on some ofthe most important dogmas of the church of Rome.
He who prays to the Virgin Mary, and goes to a priest to confess his sins and receive
judicial pardon, is doing what the sainted Fathers condemn in tbe very strongest
terms ; and what Almighty God forbids by the mouth of his prophets and aposlles.
Hence he who persists ui praying to tbe Virgin Mary, and seeks absolution from a
»acerdotal impostor, is a rebel against the " unanimous consent" of Fathers, is at war

824 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
with Almighty God, who alone can pardon sin ; and, as an idolater, ia in deadly
peril of damnation! See tbe 14th HomUy of the Episcopal church, entitled, Onthe
Peril of Idolatry. The language whichlhave allalongused, is feeble in comparison
with that of this honest, and truly apostoUcal HomUy ofthe Episcopal church. And
here, by tbe way, let me observe for the benefit ofthepresent generation, that of all the
writers that have entered tbe Usts, in English, against the Roman Antichrist, none
are more intelligent, more forcible, more violent and invincible, than the Episcopal
writers. I need only name Archbishop Usher, bishop Jeremy Taylor, bishop
Hall, ChilUngworth, the immortal Willet (Sjraopsis Papismi, folio,) and all the rest
erf" the old genuine Calvinistic Fathers ofthe Episcopal church of England. For
there were giants in those days !
Oct. 5, 1833. I am, fellow citizens, yours &c.
W. C. B.
P. S. Permit me, here, to record an historical fact, which throws a new and unex-
pectedlight on two prominent attributes of Holy Mother, and the pope: namely, their
immutability, and the pope's power to dispense, thereby making that which was sin by
law, to be no sin. The fact is this : — only a few days ago, it was a mortal sin in a
Roman catholic, to eat flesh on Saturdays. This mortal sin was defined by an infal
lible law of immutable Rome !
But bishop England, just arrived from Rome, has promulged the immutable decree
by which the former immutable decree is done aw-ay. The pope has made that
which was lately a mortal sin, to be now no sin. The simple faithful are permitted to
indulge freely, of a Saturday, in beef, pork, and mutton, henceforth, without sin, or
any damage lo a tender conscience, all the former immutable laws of infallible Rome
to the contrary, notwithstanding.
This, fellow citizens, you ought to hail as one step towards your emancipation from
the yoke of a cruel foreign despotism ! You will, next, be allowed to eat meat on
Fridays also!
W. C, B.

LETTER XIII,
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Popery condemned by the Scriptures and the Fathers.
-"But the unfaithful priesf, what tongue

Enough shall execrate ? His doctrine may
Be passed, tho' mixed with most unhallowed leaven,
That proved, to those who foolishly partook,
Eternal bitterness!'' Pollok.
, Fellow Citizens: — Bigotry and fanaticism possess singular attributes. In all
:: 1-ands where they have tbe ascendency, tbey answer arguments by sending their op-
: ponents to tbe gibbet, and the stake. These are their last and only arguments in
popish lands. But in Protestant countries where they are chcuned up, like the tiger,
they rail at all discussions of tbeir religion and pretensions, as " arrant persecution."
And they whine and fret under unanswerable argument, as " the ungodly raillery of
the reprobate !" And, finally, when driven from the field, by the force of truth, they

ROMA.N catiiolic CONTnOVl.ll.-V. 22,'>
hire the anonymous scribbler, who sells hiraself for a morsel of bread, to abuse the
character of their opponents, and even invade the decencies of family, and social
order. The late controversy of your priests, and the Saturday columns of the Ro
man kennel press, notwidistaudiug his late castigation, afford us painful evidences of
the truth, of this.
My fellow citizens, — I attack not the religion of your fathers. This charge against
119, is one of die sore evils under tbe sun, engendered by priestcraft, and jiropagated
by their kennel pre,-s. Their cry is, — " WiU any thing persuade you to forsake the
religion of your fathers ? Will you listen to one, who would seduce you from your
fathers' religion!" What impostors ! What imposition ! Now hear me. You had
fathers who lived under the benign influence of the genuine christian religion, befort-
your priests, and the popes had completed the invention ofthe novel fiction of pi)pei-\'.
AVhether you come from Ireland, or France, or Scotland, or Spain, — your ancient
forefathers enjoyed ehristiamty long before popery was born, or swaddleil by the
popes. There was pure christiauiry in Ireland, in Scotiand, and in Spain, long be
fore the popish emissaries invaded these countries, and reduced j'Our later forefathers
to its abominations. In mj- Letter VIII. I have jiroved that, during the first six hund
red years, there was not one that w-as properly a p.\pist. Your ancient fathers held
the same opinions in religion, that are nenv held by Protestants. Your later ancestors
were seduced by a heartless band of ghostlj- imposlors, into the atheistical principles
o( popen,-: just as the chUdren of the Seven churclies of Asia have been reduced by
the Turks inlo /s/nmtsm. Now, what would you think of those modern Turks, the
children of christians, who, when urged and entreated to forsake ]Moh.immed, and be
come christians, would reply, — " ^^'U1 you dare to seduce us from Islamism, the reli
gion of our fathers?" Would you not urge upon them that their more ancient fa
thers were true christians, — and that they ought to cast off the imposture of Moham
med, and become v. hat their fathers once were !
Now I am doing nothing more than this. Your ancient, and well informed fathers,
in Ireland, Spain, France, Scotland, England, — were true christians, before, the
emissaries of popery oveiTim these lands. AV'e are imploring you, by the fear of Al
mighty God, and the bowels of mercv, in the Lord Jesus, to return to ihe pure, and
holy religion of your forefathers ; and cast oft' the impostures, and fictions of popery !
Reject, with abhorrence, the novelty of popery: — return to the ancienl, pure, primi
tive christianitv of your forefathers, as it is found in the holy Bible. Should a sedu
ced chUd of (he ancient Greek church, believe his Turkish deceivers, or the solemn
voice of chri.stianity calUng him back to tbe ehristianity of his fathers ! Should you
rather believe the ghostly deceivers who trade in your souls and bodies ; and who in
vented popery for tbis traffic, — than tbe deeply solemn voice of truth summoning
you back fo the religion of Jesus, as held by your forefathers ?
Bull shall now go on with my discussion.
Seventh : Your priests' leading tenet that the holy Scriptures are not the Rule of
faith is deism ; and is condemned by the Scriptures and the Fathers.
The arguments on the divinity, and perfection of the Bible, as the only rule of
faith, I need not here repeat. Suffice it to say that Almighty God has given his
lioIy Word for this one unique purpose, — namely, the only rule of faith. And has
moreover, pronounced it perfect. " Tbe law of God is perfect, converting the soul :
the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, the statutes of the Lord
are right, rejoicing the heart ; the comraandment of the Lord is pure, culigbtening

226 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
the eyes: the judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether." Psalm xix.
" All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good tvorks." And, finally, the apostle says lo Timo-
diy, — "from a cliild thou hast known the scriptures," — he says not "the traditions,"
"the unanimous consent of uninspired men," — but "the scriptures, tvhich are able io
make you tvise unto salvation, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus." 2 Tim. iii.
15. 17.
Now hear the Fathers who conderan the modern system of the infidel priesthood,
on this matter. 1. Si. iZtfarji, in the 4th century says — " Fidem, &c. Do you seek
the faith, O Emperor ! Hear it then, not from new writings, but from ihe books of
God." To Cons. Aug. p. 244. Paris Edh. 1652. Again, — " Quee Scripta, &c. let
us read the things that are written, and let us understand what we have read ; and
then ¦we shall fully discharge a perfect faith." De Trinit. Lib, 8,
2. Basil iu 369 says, — " i>arepa &c. It is a manifest falling from the faith,
and a crime of the greatest pride, to desire to take away from the scriptures, or to in
troduce any thing that is nottvritten. For Christ says that his sheep hear his ¦^'oice,
and not the voice of another." Sermo De Fide p. 294. Tom. ii. Bened. Edit. Paris,
1722. Again : — To yap ^pas &c. It is right and necessary that every one should
learn what is useful from the holy scriptures, to furnish the mind with greater piety,
find also in order nof to be azcustomed to human traditions." Reg. Brev. Resp. 95. in
Tom. U. p. 449.
3. Tertullian, who lived in the close of the second century, saj's : — " Scriptura, Sic.
Let the school of Hermogenes show that it is written : if it is not written, let them
fear the curse directed against those who add or diminish." Adv. Herm. p. 241. Paris
Edit. 1671.
4. St. Ambrose in the close of the 4tb century says : — " Quee in Scripturis, &c.
How can we adopt those things which we clo not find in the holy scriptures?" De
Offic. Minist. Tom. ii. Lib, 1. Paris Edit. 1690. Hear him on traditions, — Again, —
" Lego, &c. I read that he is first, I do not read that he is second : let those who say
that he is second, teach it by reading." De instaur. Virg. Lib. 1.
5. St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, in A. D. 386, thus wrote : — TotiTui/ ras &c. Of those
books (the Canon of Scripture) "read two and twenty; but have nothing to do with
the Apocrypha, — ftijScv ex^ koi-jov, — have nothing in common with thera." Cat. 4,
Oxf. Edit. 1703. Again : — " a£i yap , &c. Not even the least of tbe divine aiid
holy raysteries of the faith, ought to be handed down without the divine scriptures."
MtjSc £/ioi &c. Do not simply give faitli to me speaking these things to you except
you have the proof of what I say, from the divine scriptures. For the security and
preservation of our faith are not supported by ingenuity of speech, but by the proof of
tlie divine Scriptures." Cat. 4. p. 56.
6. St. Cyril, of Alexandria, in the beginning of the Sth century, thus condemns
tbe priests' fictions, and deism; — O yap Jm &c. For how shall we receive, and
reckon among the things that are true that which tbe divine scripture has not
spoken ?" Glaph. in Genes. Lib. 2 Paris .Edit, of 1638.
7. St. Athanasius, — a name sufficient in itself lo be weighed against all the popes
and priests whom antichrist has ever canonized, or named, — dius writes, — " £i TDmn
&c. If then ye are the disciples of the gospel, speak not unrighteously against
(Jod; b)it walk Ul the things that are written- But if you wUl speak any thing h^-

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSTi 227
sides that which Is itHtten, why do you contend with us, who are dotermirted neither
to hear, nor to speak any thing but that which is icritten7 Tho Lord himself says, if
ye continue in my wo-an, ye are truly fi-ee." De Incam. Christi, Paris Edit, of lG2fi
.And again :— " AvraoKi,- &c. For the holy and divinely inspired scriptures arc) of
themselves, sufficient foV tbe discovery of divine truth." Orat. Com. Gentes.
8, Origen speaks thus admirably, in condemning your jiriests' errors : — "As al!
gold, whatsoever it be, that is ¦wUhout the temple, is not holy ; even so every sense,
which is without the divine scripture, however ndmirnblc il may appear to some, ig
not holy, beCattse H is foreign to the scripture." Sec bis 25 Homil. in 31ath. Lat.
Edit, Basil, 1571. Again; " Consider how imminent their danger is, jf/jo neglect
to study the scriptures, in whith alone the discernment of this can be ascertained."
Lib. X. cap. 16. in Rom. BasU Edit.
9. From S<. Chrysostom I could copy an entire column of noble sentiments, con^
demningthe deism, and sacrilege of your priests, who dare in the face of heaven, to
deny the holy scriptures, to be the rule of failh : and prohibit the use of them to th«
lay community. I shall copy a few extracts from this Greek father; — "What need
is tiiere of a homily? All things are intelligible and straight inthe divine scrip-
lure : all things that are necessary are clear .'" Homil. o. in 2 Thess. ii. Mcntz. Edit.
Again, in his Homily on tbe text, — " Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,"-=-
he says, "Hear, — how he enjoins you in particular (vii. the man "in business, afld
who governs a ¦wife smd children,") "to know the scripture, atid not lightly, nor, eis
it may happen, but ¦5s-itb great dUigence." " If you will have nothing else, get the
New Testament, the Acts of the Aposlles, and the Gospels, as your constant teach
ers." "Ignorance of the scriptures is the cause of all evil: we go unarmed, to the
balde." Hom. 9. in Epist. -ad Coloss. 3 ; Tom. vi. : Blentz Edit. How utterly does
this eminent Father and saint overthrow the deism, and the impious fictions of
popery ! And is there one intelUgent member of the Roman cathoUc church, so tho- ,
roughly priest-ridden, as lo yield bis failh and conscience to tbe keeping of a bigotted
and ignorant priest, who can count beads, and mutter pater nosters, — it may be, but
who is utteriy ignorant of the Bible, and of tbe Fathers ? Is there a human being,
endowed with reason, who would yield himself to the guidance of such men, in pre'
ference to St. Chrysostom? In his Sermons on Lazarus, he removes, and scatters
to the winds, aU the objections of your infidel priests, who deny the use of tbe scrip
tures to the plain and unlettered. He enumerates the objections of "tradesmen,"
and "business men," — he then goes on, — "I am engaged in the things of this life ;
it is not for me to read the scriptures, bnt for those who have taken a faretvell of the
world, who dwell on the tops of mountains, and live constantly after that fashion.
What sayest thou, O raan ? Is it not thy business to study the scriptures, because
thou art distracted with a thousand cares ? It is thine rauch more than it is tlieirs,
&c." Your priests, to sustain their imposture of keeping the Bible out of your bands,
usually corrupt tbe translation of our Savior's words, — Search the scriptures. They
render it-thus, — " Ye do search ;" and therfce lake away our Lord's command. Now
hear Chrysostora on this text. "He did not say, J?ead,— but, Epm/an, — search ye
the scriptures, since the things that are said of bim require rauch research. For this
reason he commands thera to 'dig with dUigertce, that tbey raay discover die things
that lie deep." Hom. 40. in Joh. cap. 5.
In his Serm. 5-3, De UtiUt. Lect. Scrip, he declares that in all lands, iu tbe east

;J28 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
and west, and south, all men read, and reasoned out of the scriptures. On the noted
text "all scripture is given by inspiration of God," — he thus reasons: "the man of
God could not be perfect without the scriptures. In the place of me, says he, you
have the scriptures ; if you desire to learn any thing, you may therein do so. But if
he wrote this to Timothy, who was filled with tbe Holy Ghost, how much more did
be write this to us ?" Horail. 9, in 2 Tim. &c. Mentz Edit. Tom. xii. p. 602. Did
your priesls retain the power of feeling compunction in their seared consciences, or
possess the characteristic attribute which lingers, to tbe IeisI, in fallen humanity, — the
faculty of blushing under crimsoned guilt, — assuredly this doctrine of the Greek Father
would raake them blush, and even writhe under his inflictions !
I cannot resist another extract from this father, in which he answers tbe objections
of sacerdotal deism alledged against tbe obscurity of the Bible. It is true, no priest
has ever been so stupid, as to believe what he daily affirms, on this point. For
<_-very man, possessing the least intellect, cannot but know that the Bible, as a book,
is plainer, clearer, and more easily understood, than any one of all the canons, rules,
and fictions over the breadth and length of popery ! But hear St. Chrysostom : after
having answered the objection, How can I understand them 7 — he thus goes on ; " It is
impossible that you, alone, should be ignorant of every thing. For this cause the
grace of the Holy Ghost has arranged, that publicans, fi,shermen, tent-makers, and
shepherds, and goat herds, aud comraon, and unlearned men, should compose tlie
books (ofthe scriptures) in order that no one of the common people may be able to
fly to this pretence ; and that the things declared may be understood by all ; so that
the artisan, the servant, the poor widow, and the raost unlearned of all men, may be
profited by the hearing."
Again: "The knowledge ofthe scriptures is a powerful defence against sin; while
the ignorance of them is a deep precipice, — a profound gulph ! It is a great betraying
of salvation to know nothing of the divine laws ! This it is, which has given birth to
heresies ; and has caused the corruption of morals, &c." " He therefore, who does
nof use the scriptures, but entereth" (as your pope and priests do) "by some other
way, (naraely by tradition,) cutting out for himself a way contrary to tbe prescribed
way, — He is the thief!" De Lazar, Concio. 3, Paris edit, of 1621.
10. Let me next refresh you out of St. Jerome : "The church of Christ possessing
churches in all the world, is united by the unity of the Spirit; and bas the cities of
the law, the prophets, the gospel, and the apostles. She has not gone forth from her
boundaries, — that is from the holy scriptures .'" Oper. Tom. v. p. 334 comraent. in
Mich. lib. i. cap. 1, Paris Edit, of 1602. How completely have your priests and pre
lates "gone forth from her boundaries," when they absolutely reject tbe scriptures
altogether, as " the rule ,-" and have built the novel system of popery upon traditions,
and die dreams, and visions, of uninspired saints !
11. I close with extracts from St, Augustine : " Civitas Dei, &c. The city of God
detests doubts, as the madness of the Academicians : for she believes die holy scrip
tures ofthe Old, and New Testaments, which we call canonical; whence our faith is
derived ; by which the just lives ; and by means of which we walk -ivithout wavering."
De Civil. Lib. 19, cap. 18, Tora. vU. Bened. Edit. Paris 1685. Again: — "Licet, si
nos, &c. If we, and he added iramediately what follows, or an angel from heaven,
declare unto you any gospel, besides that wbich ye have received, in the legal and
evangelical scriptures, let him be accursed!" Now, nole this every one of you. Here,
St.Paul, and St, Augustine pronounce heaven's terrific fulminarions on your priesls.

ROJLiN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 229
and their whole system, \\-ho in common witii deists, banish the holy scriptures ; ex
clude fromtheircbapels and sUtars the gospel of Jesus ; and introduce " a new gospel,"
which Jesus never revealed, and which Paul and the Fathers never heard of, nor
conceived! See above in Aug. Oper. Tom. ix. p. 302. Lib. 3. Contra, ix. Liter.
Petit. Edit. Supra.
Again: — "Who is ignorant that tbe canonical scriptures of the Old and New Tes
taments, are contaiued in certain limits : and that it is to be preferred to all the subse
quent writings of bishops ; so that no man can doubt, or dispute about it, whether
whatsoever is written in it, be true, and right, &e." He then goes on, at length, to
show that all human w-ritiugs, and councUs, are to be amended by this holy standard :
in fact, he places die authority of scripture above all that is human, and uninspired.
See Tom. ix. p. 98. Bened. EdU. Paris 1694.
In fine, he thus w-rites, — " In things openly set forth in the scriptures, all things
are to be found, which comprise faitli and raoral conduct." De Doctr. Christ. See
Tom. iU. Lib. 2. cap. 9.
And so far is St. Augustine from admitting the authority of the church to determine
and fi.K the authorit}- of the holy scriptures, as the Roman catholics do, — that he de
clares that it is in the divinely inspired Bible that "we must seek the church." He
declares that tbe hoiv church is proved not by human documents, but by the divine
oracles." And it was impossible that St. Augustine could be guilty, with your super
ficial priests, of reasoning in a circle, and thence proving the authority of the Bible
from the church. See Aug. Oper. Tom. ix.341^. De Unit. Ecrles. cap. 3.
If the priests can produce out of his pages, a contradiction lo these passages, 1 shall
be obliged to them. Thev will thereby aid me iu destroying their doctrine of the
unanimous consent. — Thus, fellow citizens, I have redeemed my pledge given lo my
late opponents, the prie.sts, that I would, in the proper place, produce eleven of their
best fathers against tbeir anti-christian rule of faith: — and on behalf of our Protest
ant rule of fEuth, tbe holy scriptures. I ara, fellow citizens, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

LETTER XIV.
TO THE MEMEEr-5 OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Popery condemned by Scripture and the Fathers.
" For I testify,-^that if any man shall add to the words of the prophecy of this book,
God shaU add to him tbe plagues that are written in this book." Jesus Chkist, Rev. xxii. 18.
Fellow Citizens : — In pursuing my argument on the condemnation of the Fio-
man catholic church, I solicit your attention to another fatal error : it is this :
Eighth :— The irapiety of your pope and priests adding the apocryphal books to the
saered canon of scripture, is condemned by scripture, and the Fathers. These bonks,
bound up in.some of our Bibles, commencing with Esdras, and ending wilh Meic-
cabees,— your priests with an affectation of gravity, impose on their .simple flocks, as
" the word of God." This I caU, unceremoniously, " uttering a falsehood in the
name, and under the very eye of the Almighty!" I beg of you to be assured, fellow
21

230 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
citizens, that tbe authors of these Tracts, did never even indulge the thought of lay
ing claim to divine inspiration. Tbey were not sent of God: they no where affirm
this : their writings have none of the e\idence of their divine mission, as prophets :
they abound with puerility, filthiness, errors, and glaring contradictions. Let me only
direct your attention to tbe fictions about the angel's grave recommendation to make a
smoke out ofthe heart and liver of a fish, to frighten away devils out of men ! Tobit. ch.
vi. 7. and viii. 3 ; and the disgusting fiction about Tobit's losing his sight. And, in the
close of Maccabees, the author has not only disavowed all guidance of divine inspira
tion, but even apologises for his deficisucies. And his errors are numerous and even
ludicrous. For instance, he puts Antiochus three times to death, by three different
kinds of death ! See 1 Mac. vi. 16. And 2 Mac. 1. 15. 16. And ch. 9. And,
finally, the author was so ignorant of the law of Moses, and the custora of the Jews,
that he actually represents Judas offering acceptably, wd with applause, sacrifices to
the dead, — a thing never coramanded by the law ; and never done by the Jews, while
they were the faithful people of God. And yet, fellow citizens, this ludicrous error
is the only cause and reason of this book being admitted into the canon by the Ro
man cathoUc priests ! It countenances their prayers and sacrifices for the dead !
Now hear tbe testimony of the Fathers. Your priesls do not even pretend thatthe
Fathers of the Jewish church ever received these books into their canon. AU the
Jewish saints and fathers, are, therefore, unanimously against them. So are the
best of your own Fathers, and saints.
Origen, in bis list of canonical bonks, omits all t'ne apocrj'phal books. See his
Commentary on Psal. 1. And Euseb. Lib. 6. cap. 25,
St. Athanasius, in his " Synopsis of the sacred scriptures," gives a list of the can
onical books, as we have them ; and adds, at the close of :iie list of the Old Testa
ment, these words, — " There are other books of the Old Testament, besides these,
which are not canonical." And having recited the principal books of the Apocrypha, he
adds, — Toaavra Kai ra, &c. These, and such like, are not canonical." Synops. Sacr.
Scriut, Paris Edk. 1627.
St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, enuraerating the canon, adds, — " but have nothing to do
with the Apocrypha." This he wTote in the close ofthe 4th century. See Cyr. Oat.
Oxf, EdU. 1703.
St. Jerome specifies the apocryphal ¦«'orks of the Old Testaraent, aud certain forged
works of the New Testaraent liraes, and says, — "these are not canonical, — non sunt
canonci — but are called fw the ancients ecclesiastical : — "all of which they thought
fit to be read in churches but not brought foncard for the confirmation of the faith."
See Oper. Tora. ix. p. 186. Symbol Ruffini. Paris Edit. 1602. Again, — having enu-
meratetl the true canonical books, he adds, — " Quidquid extra bos, &c. Whatsoever
is without these, is to be placed among the apocrypha. Therefore, Wisdom, com
monly called the wisdom of Solomon, and theBook of Jesus, tbe son of Sirach, and
Judith, and Tobit, &c. are not in the Canon." See his Pref. to the book of Kings ;
Tom. iii. Lib. 24. — I refer you, also, to Jerome's Preface to Daniel; he there caUs
the story of "BeU and the Dragon, mere fables." So also does St. Augustine, in
his work, De Mirabil. cap, 32. Ub. 2.
St. Cyprian having enumerated the true canonical books, says: " Sciendum est,
&c. It raust be known that there are other books, besides these, not canonical, but
ecclesianical, so called, as Wisdom, Sec." See his work. In Symbolmn.
St. Augustine goes all the length of St. Jerome against the apocrypha. His re-

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 231
mark on Judith is a specimen : — " The Jews are said not to have received it inlo the
canon of the scriptures ; and it is of small authority to strengthen any doctrine that
cometh into question." De Civit. Dei. 18. '2(!.
The council of Laodicea, canon 59, and 60, declared the fixed canon of scripture,
enumerating all the books of holy writ; and leaving out the apocrypha. Sec Sacr.
Concil. Labba'i. et CossartU. Tom. i. Paris Edit. 1671.
I am fully aware that your priests are in the habit of supposing three testimonies
in opposition to this council of Laodicea. and to these testimonies of t.he Fathers,
against their ctinon of faith; namely, the decree of the council of Carthage, and of
two laler Roman councils. These they quote as favoring the apocrypha.
Nov,-, shall I say that tbis betrays imposture, or sheer ignorance ? Mark the true
state of the case. Everv one of vour priests has access lo the Decretals and Canons.
The council of Laodicea was ratified and confirmed by the canons of the Roman
church. In proof of this, see Decret. p. i. Dist. 16. cap. 11. Nay, it was, also, sol
emnly confirmed by the si.Tth General council, Canon 2. as Gratian also \\itnesses;
See Decret. p. i. Dist. 16. cap, 7, Hence the sixth General council became respon
sible, or rather, re-enacted what that of Laodicea bad enacted. And now, are your
priests so exceedingly ignorant of their own canon laAv, that they do not know llist
the pope is sworn solemnly, to observe the Eight General Councils; of which the
Trullane was the si.xlh ? Hence your pope is sworn to sustain the decision ofthe council
of Laodicea, which excludes the apocrypha! ! And if j-ou, and he do not, you perjure
your souls, and bring on you a mortal sin ! The proof the pope's oath and vow lo do
this, you can see in i>ecrc<. Par. 1. Dist. 16. cap. 8. — And, raoreover, every scholar
knows that it was decreed in tbe council of Constance, Session 39 ; and in the council
of Basil, Session 38, that " the newly elected pope should takehis oathnot to violate the
faith of the eight General Councils. Here is the fullest and plainest historical evi
dence given, that in swearing to sustain the failh of tbe eight General Councils, tbe
pope and all your priesls, are pledged under the penalty of mortal sin, to sustain the
faith of the Laodicean councU. Hence every pope, and every bishop, and every Ro'
mish priest, are bound by their oath, to reject the apocrypha ! If your priests, and
popes do not, then are they perjured raen ! But of truth and verity it is, that the
pope, bishops, and priests do cling to the apocrypha! ! Therefore, they stand con
victed before the public, and the christian world, asperjured men, before God and man !
This is not all. By thus setting up council against council, each of which was
sustained by a pope, your priests have ruined and annihilated their infallibility and
immutability! ! Alas ! poor Rome ! And, yet, this is not all. 1 have tbe testimony
of Gregory I. pope and saint, against the apocrypha, and against the council of
Carthage, held in 397, and confirmed by pope Innocent I. ; and by tbe other two
Roman councils. Pope St. Gregory flourished in the close of the sixth century. He
declares that the Maccabees belong not to the canon : — Here are bis own words:-'
" De qua re, &c. Concerning wbich thing, we do nothing irregulariy, if we adduce
a testunony from the books which, although not canonical, are published for the edifi
cation of the people," &c. He then quotes frora tbe books not canonical, namely, —
the Maccabees,— the account of Eleazer, I Mac. vi. 46. wounding and killing the ele
phant, and perishing under tbe faUing aniraal. Greg. Mor. Lib. 19. in Job 39. Bened.
Edit. Paris, 1705. Hence, St. Gregory, ihe pope and saint, was perfecdy at one with
St. Jerome, and St. Augustine, in declaring against the apocrypha ; and, therefore,
against your popes and priests, — in solemnly condemning your rule of faith ; which

233 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
embraces these human fictions, and additions to God's holy word ! — I now leave my
earnest appeal with the American public, if I liave not succeeded by the aid ofthe
Roraish weapons, to pull down this, the main pillar of their heathen temple !
I ara, fellow citizens, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

LETTER XV.
TO THE MEMSERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Popery condemned by the Scriptures and the Fathers.
" Though contradicted every day by facts,
That sophistry itself would stumble o'er,
And to the yrny teeth a liar jiroved, —
She cries, — J lead tlie smocihcst way to heaven!
Ah ! none return fhat went with her; the dead
Are in her house, her guests in dejiths of hell.
She weaves the winding sheet of souls ; and lays
Them ill the urn of everlasting death !" Pollok.
Fellow Citizens: — I have now reached what one justly called the golden
doctrines of your priests, and the master-pieces of their superhuman invention ; — doc
trines dear to every Roman priest's heart, and fondly adhered to, as the sublimest,
cind most longed after, in the whole cherished system of Holy Mother, — for the best of
all reasons ; they bring into the ghostly treasury the steadiest and greatest revenues,
in their brisk traffic in "human souls !" I raean transubstantiation, the mass, and
jmrgatory. I shall devote my attention to each of ihem, before I retire from the field.
What I intend, is a brief sketch of each, showing the public that these are infamous
fictions condemned by scripture and even by your Fathers. And may I beg you to
follow me in this important discussion? I do not ¦war against the pure Christianity of
your forefathers. I war againt the novelty of poper^^, which your ancient forefathers
neither believed, nor even knew.
Why are you so slow to receive instruction, and our warnings against your greatest
foes? And who, think you, are they ? I shall answer by directing you to a deeply
interesting portion of dear old Ireland's history. There was a pure apostolic church
11 Ireland before my countryman, your St. Patrick, arrived. St. Ibar was an eminent
raan in it. It was he who decliired to St. Patrick, — "that the pure Irish church of
Christ never acknowledged the supremacy of any foreigner ,'" For 780 years this ancient
and pure christian church flourished. St. Patrick was nof a Roman catholic: he
and the Irish church submitted to no popery, and to no pope of Rome ! This was
the brightest and loveliest period of Irish history. But, hear me, who were the
traitors? They were the pope, and Henry II. of England. They conspired the
subjugation of Ireland. Henry overran Ireland, and betrayed it to the Roman pope.
This national degradation and ruin were consummated in the traitorous council of
Cashel, in A. D., 1172. Popery, from that year, overran Ireland : ber pure christ
ian pastors were driven off, and destroyed : im]iious priests of Rorae ruined your
fathers' lovely christian church. And England has held your land in bondage to
this day. The pope was the instigator, and Henry II. the tool. The pope, therefore,
and the king of England, were the despots and trailors_who compassed the ruin of old

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROyKRS*. 233
Ireland.. See Dr. O'Halloran's Roman catho&i} antiquitiei; and O'DriscoU's Viewa,
of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 85.
Is tbe spuit of your primitive fathers fl.ed and gone ? Is there none of the pure
Irish families left to rise up against tiie predominant Roman party who have ruined,
enslaved, and beggared your country ? If there be, then hear me. Side byiside wilh
you, I war against tbe gross, degrading, and irapious inventions of men ; against a
ghostly despotism, which has riveted its chains on your iraraortal souls ; and wbich
your ancient and primitive fathers, in the old worid, would have dashed from them
with horror. I wage war against die impieties, fictions^ and heaven daring knavery
of Roman priestcrjift. I weu: against a system, — not only not found in the Bible,
but condemned in it, by tbe Almighty God, our Bedeemer ! I bunibly offer you aid
against men who have '-traded in human souls;" who have their stipulated price
for every species of sin aud crime ; their price of each souU — be tbe man rich or poor.
I war against men w-ho profess to open heaven's gate unblushingly, fox money : men,
who are so destitute of the bowels of raercy^ that they will not pray one of you out of
purgatory without money ; — men who would let their best friends and neighbors lie
in "flaming waves of purgatory," for millions of years, unless they are bought by
large sums of money, to do this.! We come as hurable aids, to assist you against
impostors and barbarous despots,-^-compared to whom Mohamraed was pure ; and
Nero, mUdand merciful ! You caunot, then, fellow citizens, with any show of reason,.
or justice, deem me your enemy when I tell you the truth ! Be this as it may, I tell
you with deep solemnity, that there is a day coming, — if not in time, before you die, —
most certainly in efer«ijty, and at fhe bar of our commoij Judge, the Lord Jesus, when
you and these priests shall know whether I have spoken, the truth to you ; and warned
you in the name ofthe Eternal God ! To that day I desire, with humble devotion^
to carry forward my appeal to God, and your consciences.. I now go on.
Ninth : — The doctrine of transubstantiation is condemned by scripture and the-
Fathers. In tins doctrine unmatched by dogma of- Turk, or Brahmin, your priests,
affect with as much gravity, as they can put on, for the time, to teach and persuade
you to beUeve whatnoone of them in their sober senses ever believed : — namely, that
bythe muttering of the few Latin words, — '-'hoc est corpus meum," &c.t the little
wheat wafer is actually "changed into Christ's body and blood, soul and divinity;"
and the wine in the chalice, " into his real blood, body, soul, and diviniu-." See
Gratiani Decretum, p. 549, De consecratione 'Dist. ii., are these wozds, — "After the
consecration of the bread and wine, tbe true body and blood of Jesus Christ are, in
reality, and according to the testiraony of tbe senses, (sensualiter,); handled by the
priest; and broken, and crushed by the teeth ofthe faithful." — See also Canones et
decreta Concil. Tridenti, 'Lugd.. 'Edit. 1824 Sess. 13, cap. 4, Trent Catech. De Sac.
Euch, Sect, 33. And in section 31. That "holy coun-cil" taught that " a whole
Christ" is in the wafer, even his body, bones, and sinews :" verum Christi Corpus^ —
veluti ossa, et nervos, &.c." And my friend Dr. Avery, whospent a winteE in Rome^
told me that he once saw two of the priests in that city, take the wafer, and as they
chewed it, they grinned, and said, — "hear,, howl cranch his bones, nerves, and
sinews !" I have two copies of this section of the Trent catechism before me, one
in Latin, and an ancient EngUsh copy. These have the words, — "his body, bones,
nerves, sinews," are in th^ transubstantiated wafer. Bull am also avlare, and I shall
here impart the secret to you, that in Britain and Ireland, the priests, in their newly
assumed ppwer taehangeeven the- catechism of tb.eir l?st holy council of Trent, hav^

234 ROM.VN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
actually left out this shocking cannibal phrase, about "his bones, nerves, sinews,"
being in the wafer. The above Latin is quoted from the Venice Edition of tbe Trent
Catech. of 1582. page 241. See also the ancient EngUsh Edit. p. 212.
Your priests quote two passages to prove tiiis monstrous and incredible- doctrine.
The 1st is John ch. vi. Except ye eat ihe flesh of tlie son of tnan, ^c. This they
take literally. If this be correct,- then they raust take tbe other expressions as literally.
For instance, " be that eateth of tbis bread shall live for ever.'' Of course, if they be
correct, then, all, each, and every one, without exception, who eats of the wafer,
which is Christ's flesh, shall infallibly be saved ; and all who eat it not, — as baptized
infants, and thousands of adults, — and among others the penitent thief on the cross, —
even all these must, according to the Romish doctrine, be damned ! Nay, if we take
the words literaUy, in one part ofthe sentence, we must do so in the whole. Hence,
"be that eats of this, will never hunger, UteraUy : — never thirst literally." John vi,
35. Of course, if tbe priests be orthodox — all who have been so happy as to eat iheir
wafer, will bid a glorious fareweU to all the trouble of eating and drinking. They
will never more hunger, never more thirst! What glorious news for our poor hard
w-orking laborers ! Only go the priest, and secure the wafer, — he will keep all the
¦«'ine to himself, itis true, but no matter, in the wafer you have "the whole bodv,
bones, Emd nerves, aud sinews," — and you will never raore hunger after eating this :
never raore thirst ! You will need no raore food ! You need never go to market ! So
monstrously absurd are the doctrine, and the proof thereof! Does the priest soberly
believe that his victims are rational beings !
Tbe other proof of " the learned priests," who are only two hundred and fifty years
behind the Protestant world in knowledge, and general literature, is this: "This is
my body : this is my blood of the new covenant."
This tbey interpret literally ; and venture to teach that this means that the ¦wafer
is truly Christ's flesh, and bones, and body.
But our Lord says in John vi., " / am the living bread which came down from heaven."
Of course, this must be taken literally. Hence, in the Roraish mode of interpretiug,
our Lord was most certainly transubstantiated -into a piece of reaZ bread; that this
piece of real bread had animal life in it; and that tbis " animated bread," literaUy
came down from heaven. The priests are bound, in honor and principle, to believe all
this, and make the victims of their superstition beUeve it, if they believe in transvbstan-
tiation. But tbis is not all.
Were your priests biblical scholars, — and did they know the elements of Hebrew
literature, they would know what every Hebrew tyro knows, that the Hebrew and
Syriac languages have no term to express the word " signify." They always, of
course, use the word " is." Let any man open his Bible, and see the proof. Here
are some instances : " The seven ears are seven years :" " the seed is the word : " the
seven candlesticks are ihe seven churches:" "the woman is the great city:" (Rev.
xvi. 18.) " Judah is a lion's whelp :" " all flesh is grass " " the lock of hair is Jeru
salem." Ezek. v.l, 5.
Now, if the Roman priests' interpretation of the sentence, — " this is my body," be
just and correct, — then the seven ears of com were converted, substantially and really,
into seven years of time! The seven cows were really converted, bones, hides, and
horns, into seven years ! The seed of wheat was converted, in the hands of the
astonished sower, into the pure and real word of God ! Tbe seven candlesticks were
changed substantially into the magnificent and splendid array of seven real churches

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVBJIST. 235
Judah was doomed by this doctrine, to be a yelping lion's whelp ! All flesh, human
and bestial, — even each one of our bodies, is, by an unparalleled hocus pocus, become
the green, long, waving grass! And last, though not least, — a lock of hair, shorn off
by the barber, is in the bands ofthe astonished prophet, marvellously transubstantiated
into a solid, beautiful, walled city, — even Jerusalem ! A'erily, wc need only give die
Roman priests elbow room, in abundance, and no man will be so stupid, or ungene
rous, as to say that die age of miracles is past ! !
I shall not insult my reader's understcoiding by insinuating that any raan in the
exercise of reason, will say that this monstrous doctrine finds auy countenance from
reason or the holy scriptures. Wc do the Roman priest no injustice when we say,
that no man has ever suspected them of believing in it any farther than the counterfeiter
and issuer of base coin, does believe in his own base manufactory. He believes in it,
just so far as it robs his victim of bis money, and enriches himself at the expense ofthe
ignorEmt and unwary. So has the public said for many centuries ! He believes in
in it just so far as it puts his victim's gold and silver into his own purse ! !
It is worthy of the notice of our learned men, and those who have reformed the
phUosophy of the schools, that the Roraan catholic pope, and priests, who are as far
behind, in the Unprovement of phUos.jihy, as are the Mohammedans, and some ofthe
Hindoos, avaU theraselves of defence from the old exploded philosophy of Aristotle.
^^'hUe aU the learned and enlightened world reject the absurdities in the system of
Aristotle, the Roman priests, enveloped in the fogs and mists of the eighth and ninth
centuries, beUeve more in Arislotie, than in the Bible : and bring in lo the aid of their
monstrous doctrines, his savage, and antiquated sophisms ; naraely, that " there may
be taste, tcherenothing is to be tasted ; that there may be color, ivithout any thing to be
represented; tangibility, ivithout any thing to be touched; roundness, without any thing
that is round, &c." And when the progress of science swecjis away the remains of
the barbarism of Aristotle ; and the false philosophy of the East, — that same light
which scatters the darkness and barbarism of Turkey, and Hindostan, and China, will
help lo sweep away Romanism from tbe face ofthe earth!
The Romai* priests are at one with the Unitarian here ; and affect to say that tbe
same objection which we cherish against this conversion of a tvafer into Christ's bones,
muscles, sinews, soul, and divinity, doesmUitate equaUy against the raystery of trinity.
The cases are infinitely different. In the most Holy Trinity there is no contradiction
to reason, and the evidence of the senses. The doctrine of trinity holds out the God
head to be three in one sense, and one in another sense. When I say that God is one
in essence, and three in persons, I say nothing contradictory. I can say I have "a
soul, a body, and a spirit ;" and yet I am one. But to say that my body is a wafer;
or that a wafer is Christ's bones, sinews, muscles, soul, and God-head : that a priest
makes and creates his Creator, and then eats him, is beyond eonception, mon-
.sfrously absurd ! It sets reason, and the evidence of tbe senses; and aU gravity
utterly at defiance !
Your priests say, "Why is U incredible : Almighty God can do h !" Very true,
but has he converted it into Christ ? The Almighty can annihilate idolaters ; has he
done it, while your priests are alive !
" But the church of Holy Mother is a witness that he does it." No, feUow citizens ;
the testimony of Bome, is the testimony of the " Man of sin .'"
"But the real presence of Christ is in the wafer,— k can be no idolatry, therefore,
to worshipthe hcst!" The real presence of God is in aU the works ofnature,heisin

836 ROMAN CATHOHC CONTROVERST..
that tree, in that river, in that stupendous mountain, — would you, fherefore, worship-
these? This doctrine contradicts all the evidence of all my senses. Now, it is just as
mucb the fixed and immutable law of his government of nature, that I should be
lieve the evidence of all my senses, — as it is the fixed law of his kingdom of grace,
that I should believe the testimony of his Word. This monstrous fiction, therefore,
seduces you into a violation of God's immutable laws : it makes you infidels against
the God of nature ! This is not all of its evil consequences.
If I distrust the strongest evidence of my senses, I raust be an unbeliever in mi
racles. If I stood by, and saw our Lord raise Lazarus from the dead ;, if I believe in
your transubstantiation, I could not confide in my senses ;, taught as you are, to believe
contrary to tbe evidence of my senses, I could have no abiding faith in our
Lord's miracle. It might seem to rae that I saw Lazaras rise ; but I could not believe
it certEunly ; the wafer seeras just as certainly to my senses to be a wafer as that rising
ofthe dead man ; yet it is the body and blood of Christ really ! It may seem a resurrec
tion, it raay seera a miracle, but I cannot trust my senses : I cannot believe the
miracle ! Hence no raan who believes the dictate of your priests here, can believe
in miracles ; nor be a consistent christian.
And this is not all ; the raan who does really believe in transubstantiation, never
can be relied on, as a witness to give credible testimony on any thing. Suppose in a
case of raurder, a real believer in this fiction is brought to testify. The bench says,
" look on the prisoner at the bar ; did you see that man inflict the blow that killed the
deceased ?" He says, " I did ; I heard him, I saw him do it. That is the identical
ma«." "Take care what you say," replies the counsel for the criminal, — "bring
no false charges ; for any thing that the evidence of your senses can make you believe
to the contrary, that thing standing there at tbe bar, may really be apiece of bread !"
" Why, sir, I cannot be deceived ; I see bim; 1 know him; I feel him; I hear
him ; and I say, he is tbe one who murdered the deceased."
"No, sir, let me correct you; j'ou firmly beUeve, maugre all the evidence of all
your senses, that the priest's wafer is the very body, blood, bones, soul and divinity of
Christ ! You believe this on the priest's word, in opposition to all the evidences of
your senses. Now, my word is as good as the priests' word ; and I say, as solemnly
as he says, and as seriously and truly as he says, that the thing that you see at the bar
is, in fact, a loaf of brown bread ! And, sir, if you beUeve the one, and profess to deny
the other, you are a knave. Hence, on no principle of consistency, can you be a wit
ness here !" Exit, in silentio alto !
And, yet, unconvinced by arguraent, or by ridicule, enslaved minds will do as their
masters bid them; and will, as in duty bound, believe just as honestly, and as truly,
that a bit of a wafer is die body, soul, and divinity of Christ, — as do a nation of the
Asiatics, that our world is a great smooth body, as flat as a pancake ; and born* up
by the back of a huge land turtle ! I am, fellow citizens, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

ROM.^N catholic CONTROVERST. 237
LETTER X\l.
TO THE ME3IBERS OF THE KOMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Popery condemned by Scriplure andthe Fathers.
" Mi.n r!ier Delphini, sure yon will agree,
That, liir a bishop, none so lit as he,
\\'lio gives the king such vcrv good oris .'"
Fellow Citizens : — We have heard the voice of reason, common sense, and
ieripture, on the fiction of translibstantialion ; now let us hcEir the Fathers, — They
taught that the bread and wine were consecrated, simply, from a common to a holy
use, — sacrEimentaUy lo signify Christ"s bodv and blood,
1. St, Ire-Xj^us of die second century, bears ample testimony that this doctrine was
unknciwn to the church, in his davs, "All the bread whieh is ofthe earth," says he,
"when it has receiveel the divine invocation, is no longer common bread, but the
eucharist, consisting of two things, an earthly bread, and a heavenly.. Thus, also, our
bodies, when they have received tlie eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the
hope of eternal life.'' Contra. Hxres. Lib. 4. cap. 18. p. 251. Benedict. Edit. 1710.
And Bellarm. De S. Euch. Lib. 2. cap. 2. This ancient Father, it is obvious, held
the true apostolical doctrine, that the bread was still earthly bread, and a symbol of
the heavenly food, after invocation.
2. St. Ignatius gives no countenance to your priesls, — " Eko apmr &c. Break
ing 0-\E bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote by means of
which we sbEtil not die, but live forever." Epist, Ad Ephes. Oxf, edit. 1708.
.\ga\n; — "If any one is without the altar, deprive bim of the bread of God." He
says not, " the flesh of Christ and bis divinity." Again ; — "Do you, then, resuming
long suffering, re-establish Yourselves in faith, which is the flesh of Christ our Lord ;
and in love, which is the blood of Christ." Epist. Ad Trallesios.
3. Gelasius I., the pope who wrote, in 492. Having noticed that the sacraments
are divine things, by which we receive the body and blood of Christ, he says ; —
" Tamen esse, &c. However the substance, or nature of the bread and wine ceases not
toexi.it: and assuredly the image an'! similitude of the body and blood of Christ are
cek'orated in the performance of the mysteries." Gelas. In duab. Nat. in Christo
contra Eutych. This strong and most decisive testimony of a pope against the re
volting fiction of the mass, does of course meet with opposition from your popes.
But your own writer Dupin exhibits the certain and conclusive evidence of the au
thenticity of this part of Gelasius' writings, by /our arguments. See Dupin's Nouvelle
Biblioth. 5 cent. Edu. Utrecht, 1731.— Finch, pp. 242, 243.
\. St. Hilar;/ wrote thus : — "In fide, &c. For the sacrament ofthe heavenly
bread is received in the faith of tbe resurrection ; and who,soever is without Christ,
shall be left fasting for the food of life." P. 531. Edit. Paris, 16.52.
5. St. Cyprian, — "Nam quia, &;c. For since Christ carried us aU, and since he
bore our sins, we see that tbe people is understood by the water ; and that the blood
of Christ is shoivn by the wine." Epist. Caecil. Fratri, 65, p. 153. Oxf. Edit. 1582.
6. St. Ambrose says, — "In comedendo, &c. In eating and drinking the things
offered to us, we signify the flesh and the blood. You receive the sacrament as a
simUitude ; it is the figure of the body and blood of the Lord: you drink the likeness

833 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
of his precious blood." De Sacram. Lib. 4. cap. 4. Paris Edit. 1690. How sensibly
and thoroughly does St. Ambrose oppose your priests' fictions!
7. Teriullian wrote after this manner, — " Acceplum, &c. The bread which he
had taken and distributed to his disciples, he raade his body, by saying this is my body,
that is, — the figure of my body. He then goes on to notice tbe words of Christ in
John vi,, and shows, in our Lord's words, thatthe phrase is to be taken not corporally
and fleshly, but spiritually. See Advers. Marcf. Lib. 5, p. 458. Edit. Paris, 1675;
aud De Resur. Cam. cap. 37. p. 347.
8. St. Theodoret says, first, in his Dialogue II. in the narae of the ill inforraed
Eranistes, that "tbe symbols after invocation are changed and become another thing,
&c." He then corrects him, and gives his own mind thus, — " You are taken in a net
that you made yourself. For the mystical signs do not, after consecration, depart
from their own nature. For they remain in their former substance, figure, and form,
and may be seen and touched as before." Paris Edit. 1608, in Latin.
9. Eusebius says, — HaXn' yap &c. For again he gave to his disciples the sym
bols of tbe divine economy, and he commanded them to make the image of his own
body." Again, — " He commanded thera to use bread as the symbol of his own ¦
body." See Demonst. Evang. Lib. 8. cap, I.Paris Edit. 1544.
10. Justin, the Martyr, thus wrote in 150, — " On /ic>/ otiv &c. I also affirm that
the prayers, and the praises of the saints are the only perfect sacrifices acceptable
to God. For these only have tbe christians undertaken to perform : and by the
commemoration of the tvel and ihe dry food, in tvhich we call to mind the sufferings
wbich the God of gods suffered through Him whose name is blaspheraed, &c." See
his Dial, with Trypho the Jew ; Paris Edit. 1515. p. 345.
11. St. Cyril, of Jerusalera, writes: — " Er totoj &c. In the type ofthe bread is
given to you the body, and in the type of the ivine is given lo you the blood, that you
may be a partaker of the body and blood of Christ; and one body and one blood
w'iih him." Catech. Mystic. 4. L p. 292, Oxf. Edit. 1703. Again :—¦• rtvo/iti/o. &c.
For they tasting, are not ordered to taste of the bread and the wine, but of the anti
type of the body and blood of Christ." Cat. Myst. 5. 17. p. 300, Finch, p. 202.
12. Clemens Alexandrinus is full, and explicit against your priests, and their novel
figraents. He wrote thus in A. D. 220 ; — " EttciIc &c. And then he said the bread
that I will give you is my flesh: but flesh is irrigated by blotid ; therefore the wine
allegorizes the blood." Again, — "Thus the word is frequently described allegorically
as food, and flesh, and bread, and blood, and milk." — "Nor let it appear strange lo
any one, when we Sfiy that milk allegorically describes the blood of the Lord. For
does not ivine allegorize it?" See his Paedag. Lib. 1. cap. 6. p. 104. 105. Paris Edit.
1641. He has many sirailar expressions declaring the bread, and wine to be the
piystical or soleran sacramental symbols. See p. 100, and 156.
13. St. Athanasius, upon that passage of scripture, " Quicunque dixerit, &c.
lohosoever shall say, ifc", writes fully against your priests' impostures. Having quoted
the words fif our Savior respecting " eating his flesh," be proves thatthis means not
carnally, hnt spiritually. "Our Lord," — says he, — "spake both of the spirit and of
the flesh, and made a distinction ; between his spirit, and his flesh, that believing in
what was 'visible to their eyes, and in. his invisible nature, they might learn that the
.things which be said were not carnal, capxina but spiritual." He then adds a potent
refutation of the fiction of the priests. "For, for how many would his body have
j3ufRced for meat, that it should become the nourishment of the whole world ?"

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 239,
Again,—" the flesh he spoke of was heavenly nourishment, and spiritual food from
above." And he adds that Christ " draws dieni awav from the corporeal sense, and
teaches them to take it in this spiritual way." See the Paris Edit, of 1627.
14. Origen is as fully and decisively against thepriests. "KmorK&c. It is not
the matter ofthe bread, but the words spoken over it, which profit hira that eats not
unworthily. Aud these things I speak concerning the typical and sviiibolical body."
Comment on Matth. Rouen Edit. 1668. Again ; — " There is in tbe New Testament,
a letter which killeth bim who does not understand spirituaUy the things there said.
For if you take this according lo the letter, — Except ye eat my flesh, and drink my blood,
— THIS LETTER KILLETH !" Houiil. 7, OU Levit. 10 ; Basil Edit, 1571. Once raore ;
"If, as these Eiffirra, he had neither flesh nor blood — of what flesh, of-\vhat body, and
ofwhat blood, are tbe bread and cup, (which he delivered,) the images ? By these
symbols. He commended his memory to his disciples." Dialog, iii. contr. Marc. Basil
Lat. EdU. 157 1 .
15. St. Chrysostom in one place, holds the doctrine of Consubstantiation with
Luther; — "Christ prepEires for us bis body, not only in faith, but in very deed.'''
" We have become one body and one flesh with Christ. "Chrys. in Matt. Homil. i/S
In another passage be opposes this, and also Transubstantiation. For instance: —
"If Jesus did not die, ofwhat are the things we perforra, the symbols?" Sarae
Homily. AgEun: — "As before the bread is consecrated, we call it bread ; but when
the grace of God has consecrated it, by the priest, it is freed from the name of broad,
and is reckoned worthy to be called the Lord's body; although the nature of bread
remains init,'" &c. Chrvs. to the monk Cfesarius.
That this treatise is genuine, we have the testimony of Peter the Blartyr, and the
arguments, at length forit, in Dupin's Nouv, Bibl. Tom. iii. Utrecht Edit. 1731.
16. St. Bernard in Serm. 5. in Psal. says, — " Quid est manducare, &c. What
is it to eat his flesh, and to drink his blood ; but to communicate with his passion, and
to imitate bis conversation in tbe flesh." Willet. p. 510,
17. St. Jerome ¦writes : — "In typo sanguinis, &c. As a type, or symbol of his
blood, Christ offered not water, but wine." Tom. ii. Lib. 2. Advers. Jovin. p. 90.
Again, — " Because the flesh of our Lord is tme meat, and his blood is true drink, in
an exalted and spiritual sense, — juxta ai/cyuyiii ,— we have only this good in this life,
if we eat his flesh, and drink bis blood, not only in the mystery, but also in the read
ing of the scriptures." In Eccles. cap. 3. Tom. v. p. 24. Paris Edit. 1602.— Once
more, " I beUeve that the Gospel is the body of Christ. . I beUeve the holy scriptures
to be his doctrine ; and when be says, be who does not eat my flesh and drink
my blood, (although tbis raay be understood of the raystery,) yet the word of the
scriptures, and tbe divine doctrine is more truly the body of Christ, and his blood
If, at any time, we go to the mystery, whoever is faithful, understands that ifhe falls
into sin, he is in danger ; so if at any time, we hear the word of God ;— and the word
of Christ, and his blood, be poured into our ears, and we are thinking of something
else, how great is tbe danger we incur !" Tora. vU. p. 4-20 : in Psal. 147. So com
pletely doesthis father show his ignorance of tbe novel fictions of your priests, that
he believes in the body and blood of our Lord, as jjurely spiritual in the gospel, and
in the eucharist; — not carnal, in tbe bands, and mouths of priests !
18. Finally, St. Augustine gives this admirable exposition of "eating Christ's
flesh,"— in opposition to you. " If a passage is preceptive, and either forbids a crime,
or enjoins usefulness, or charity, it is not figurative. But, if it seems to command a

840 RO.MAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
crime, or forbids Charity, &c., it is figurative. Unless ye eat the flesh ofthe son of
man, and drink his blood. Here he appears to enjoin wickedness. It is, therefore,
figurative, teaching us that we partake of the benefits ofthe Lord's sufferings,'' &c.
D°e Doctr. Chr. Tom. in. Lib. -3, p. 52: Bened. Edk.
Again, — so far from beUeving that the bread and wine are converted into the
divinity, he says, — " How shall I put forth my hand to heaven, and lay bold of him
¦who sitteth there ? Put forth yonr faith, and you wUl have laid hold of him." Tom.
iii. p. 630. Again, — " This is the word of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent. To do this is to eat the meat wbich perisheth not. Why do you prepare
your teeth aud your stomach? Believe only, and you will have eaten." Tom. iii.
p. 490; Tract 25, in John vi. Lastly, — " When the Lord was about to give the
Holy Spirit, he said that be was tbe bread which descends frora heaven, exhorting us
to believe in hira. For to believe in him, is to eat the living bread.'" p. 494.
Again, — "It seemed to them a hard saying, when he said — except a raan eat my
flesh, and drink my blood ! They received it foUishly ; they thought on it carnally ;
they supposed that the Lord was about to cut off little pieces from his body, and give
thera to them." "But he taught them saying — it is the Spirit that quickeneth : the
flesh profiteth nothing ; my words, they are spirit, and tbey are truth. Understand
spiritually what I have spoken. You are not about to eat this body which you
see : nor to drink that blood which they shall shed, who shall crucify me. I have
recommended to 3'OU a certain sacrament, w-hich, if spiritually understood, shall
quicken you." In Psal. 98. Also Tractxi. in Ev. Johan. i. ii. vi.
Had St. Augustine Uved iu our times, aud among the raost enlightened Protestants,
no language could he have employed more clear, and decisive, in condemning the
monstrous fictions of popery, and in confirming our Protestant doctrine of tbe holy
Supper. The Liturgies of Chrysostom, and Basil, universaUy used in the Greek church,
condemn this novel doctrine. Thus in the forraer it is said, — " In remembrance of
this command of our Savior, we offer to thee thine own, out of thine own gifts ; we
offer thee this reasonable and unbloody worship. &c." Thus they call the bread and
wine after invocation, gifts ; thus precluding all idea of change into real flesh.
In the Liturgy of Basil we have these words, — "Laying before thee, these symbols
of the body and blood of thy Christ, we beseech thee, &c." Goar. Euch. Grasc. .
Biblioth. patrum. Tom. U. fol. 1624.
The Liturgies of St. James, and Mark use tbe same word "gifts," when speaking
of the bread and wine. The Ethiopic Liturgy, used inthe church of Abyssinia, after
the prayer of consecration, saj's, — "Now, O Lord, we, celebrating ihe memorial of thy
death, do offer thee this bread, and this cup, &c."
Cyril, tbe patriarch of Constantinople, in the 16th century, thus expressed the
views of the Greek church, — "In the eucharist, we do confess a true and real pre
sence of Christ ; but such a one as faith offers us, not such as a devised transubstan
tiation." Cyr. Respons. cap. 17. p, 60. Lond. Prot, Journ. vol. iv. p. 144. Finally,
Metrophanes, tbe patriarch of Alexandria, thus expresses tbe sentiraents of tbe Ori
ental churches : " We call the Lord's supper a sacrifice, but a sacrifice that is spiritual
and coramemorative ; spiritual, as hav'mgnothingcarnalm it; commemorative, as be
ing perforraed in remembrance of the sacrifice once offered on tbe cross. This is
taught by St. Chrysostom, and the whole church, saying, This is done in remembrance
of what was done then." " We never beUeved that Christ was bodilt present in the

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST- 241
Sftysleries." See Metroph. Conf. Catb. et Aposlok Eec5cs. in Oricm. Lond. Prot.
Journ. iv. 145.
To the ample testimoBics of the 'cliristian world against your priesls, we solicit
.your candid attenlitm.
ilow long will you suffer yourselves to be imposed on ? Is there the form of a
rational being, but yourselves, who can believe that an impious, God-despising
priest can create his Maker 7 What! Create the Almighty out of a litde flour and
water? The most degraded of tbe heathen, made bis god out of the trunk of a.stiitely
tree. One ptirt he cut up, and made fire of it, to cook his food : of the other part he
made a god ; £;id he bow-ed down to it, Emd adored it I This was infisiitely degrading,
and contemfitible ! But your priests sink j-ou all beneath tbe infinite degradation of
even these pagans ! He makes his god, and your god out of a little flour and water !
He actually makes the idol of his, and your Eidoration out of a liltle wafer ! And
after you have bowed down to this bran idol, and on your knees adored it with pray
ers, and with incense ; and after you have carried it about through the streets, as you
do in Catholic lands, and cemjielled, by \iolence and arms, others to commit the
damning sin of adoring the bran god, also : — you then actually eat it up ! Did you
ever hear of the naost brutish pagan eating his gods ! He might worship animals aud
vegetables ! But brutish as he was, e veo his letk and his onion that he worshipped,
he would not eat! But your priests, like the hero of Pope in tbe Dunciad,'takc a
long race, and jump fhe deepest into the abyss of abominable idolatry!
And what of the god is not eaten up, is put into the Pix, (box). And if some of
the god falls in the form of criunbs, the dogs pick up these parts, and pieces of the
god! And these dogs have the god in thera. Remember the instructive story ofthe
Lady's lap dog, which suddenly swallowed the wafer as the priest was giving it to
its mistress! The little fellow was actually put into a Nunnery, and kept.as a holy
personage, — as holy -certaiidy as any of his sacerdotal compeers — no one -doubts it !
And -when full of days, this little dog which had the god in him, died, he was buried
iu holy ground ! Moreover, tbe vermin, such as woi-ms, and mice, smd rats, ha-ve
entered the Pix ; and eaten the bran god ! What a sublirae god! What a ghostly
elevation of sentin*eat ! Your god eaten up by men, and dogs, and ¦worms, and -mice
What! Can he not take care of himself, then ! How can he take care of you? If
he cannot save himself frora tbe devouring threats of beasts and reptUes, how can
he ever sarve you frora death !
Had this unparalleled doctrineof Rome been obtruded on tbe fahh of die raost de
graded of the pagans, bow would thev have blushed for huraan nature, disgraced and
iasahed by beings, — men shall I call them ? who invented and imposed on you,
fellow citizens, for the sake of gaia, this monstrous fiction of transubstantiation!
I ara, fellow citizens, yours respectfully,
W. C. B.
P. S. I have the pleasure of announcing the conversion of another R. C. priest.
Lately, the Rev. Jehu Burk left the Romish church, and joined the Episoopalcburch
in Virginia. Tbe Rev. Mr. PeixOta, lately left the church of Rome, and joined the
Lutheran church in Pennsylvania. And, now, the Riv. S. B, Smith, many years a
priest, has tmited himself with tbe Eresbyterian church, in Philadelphia.
W. C. B.

22

242 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
LETTER XVII.
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Popery condemned by Reason, Scripture, and the Fathers.
The very origin ofthe word Mass establishes fhe identity of popery and infidelity: Ite ,
MissA est: Go; our unbloody sacrifice now offered, is sent to heaven and accepted!
Fellow Citizens : — Having paid our respects to trEmsubstantiation, I go on to ils
cognate doctrine, and observe in tbe next place, —
Tenth : that tbe Mass is condemned by reason, scripture, and tbe Fathers. As
many of my readers have never seen " ihe ludicrous play of a grand mass., in pontifi-
calibus," I intend soon to devote a letter to a graphic painting of it. My present aim
is to utter its condemnation from these three testimonies, from which Ues no appeal.
First, Reason condemns it. The Mass, in Roman style, is tbe offering up, in sacri
fice, the wafer, converted by transubstantiation, into the real flesh, and soul, blood,
and divinity, of Christ. This, the priests with an ill affected gravity, contrive to make
you believe, is a real sacrifice for the quick and tlie. dead! This same " body and
divinity" are offered up; yes! " the divinity" is offered up in sacrifice ! The divine
nature of our Lord was the altar wbich raade his true and only sacrifice ofthe human
nature to be of infinite value. But tbe Roraan priests take " the divinity and soul as
well as body of Christ," in his hands, and offers all of them in a sacrifice!
This, reason revolts at : — this, reason pronounces a horrible blaspheray ! Moreover,
all men, possessed of the least grains of coramon sense, are fully convinced that a raa
terial body cannot be in miUions of places, at once. " ToUe spatia, &c., take away
frora bodies," says Augustine in Epist. 57, — "their existing in one place, at one time,
and they no where exist." But the Mass assumes this principle without proof, that
the one human body of Chiist is in heaven, and in all parts ofthe earth, at once : —
that it is in glory, and yet it is daily and totally eaten up, and devoured by a million
of Romish mouths, every day ! And the next raoraent it is as ready to be eaten up
again, as ever! It is at once visible, and invisible ! Divisible, and indivisible ! It
is all here in tbe priest's box, and itis not here, but elsewhere! Itis one whole, and
yet in a million of bits, iu a million of different mouths ! It is contained in heaven,
and yet not there contained! It existed formerly, and yet it is daily made, by the
priests muttering ofthe words, — *'hoc est corpus." It is one, and a whole human
body, in small bits in a million of different stomachs, and yet it is altogether external
of all these same stomachs ! It is to be made daily, and yet never to be raade ! In
a word, our Lord, according to tbe doctrine of the Mass, while sitting at tbe first
table, was at tbe same moment, in tbe mouth, and the stomach of each of the apostles.
V/hile sitting, he took his own perfect body, bead, and all, into his own bands : and
while silting,, be broke himself into pieces, and with bis band, still sitting, after he
was broken, be gave himself to each of his people ; and was ealen by thera all, while
he was yet sitting, and talking to thera. And after being eaten up by eleven men,
he walked out, and made the intercessory prayer, while he was tbe same mo
ment, — in tbe stomachs of eleven different men ! And finally, after being eaten and
digested by these eleven different men, he was crucified, he rose, and ascended to
¦heaven !

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 243
All these unparalleled absurdities the Roman priest teaches his victims : and actu
ally commands thera to believe thera, — " on pain of damnation !"
Second: The holy scriptures condemn the Mass. It is a fundiunental doctrine of
Sorae, that the mass is a real, propitiatory sacrifice, offered up lo appease the wrath of
God, for the dead, and the living. The priests first create our blessed Lord out of a
littie wafer: and then offer up tbis new made bran god as a real sacrifice, to appease
the wrath of God ! And they worship widi solemn adoration and incense, this god
in the wafer. '
The scriptures pass a sentence of double condemnation on the mass. First: as a
horrible idolatry, at which every pious man shudders. The priests and their victims
worship a newly made wafer god ! Now, tbe Bible says, "Thou shalt worshipthe Lord
thy God, and bim only shalt thou serve." The worship of the host, and the mass,
is not a whit mors justifiable than the idolatry ofthe Jews, orthe Pagans. The
mass, is as degrading, as irapious, as God-despising, as God-provoking, as the mon
strous idolatry of tbe Jews in worshipping the golden calf! And in point of atrocity,
it comes the nearest of any sinful devices, to that of human sacrifices ! For if we
may believe the priests, they use real human flesh, and recti human blood in the
mass !
I beg you and your priests to hear how this abomination of tbe mass is conderaned
bj', first, fhe Old Testament. You know that our blessed Lord, aflerthe flesh, wasa
Jew, and so were his disciples. And be came to fulfil the law, and not to break it.
This you admit. Now, then, you teach that our Lord converted the bread into his
ownfltsh, really, and without deception ; and th'e wine of the cup into his oton real
blood, — that is inlo human flesh, and human blood, without any imiiosition. And hav
ing done this, he made his disciples, who were all Jews, — eat this human flesh, and
drink thishuman blood! Here your priests represent our Lord, as an impostor, de
liberately breaking the law of Moses, which prohibited the use of the blood of
beasts, — infinitely more that of a huraan being. May I direct 5'our attention to Levit.
s-vii. 10, " Whatsoever man there be araong you, that eateth any manner of blood ; I
¦wUl even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut hira off from.
among the people." And, raoreover, your priests represent our Lord as having broken
a noted law of Moses recorded in Numbers xix. 11, which prohibited a Jew from even
touching a dead body of a man; if he did, "he was unclean seyen days." But,
with these laws of Moses before their eyes, your priesls do in the mass, — Oh I raost
horrible, represent our Lord and bis disciples not merely " touching a dead body," but
absolutely eating Uving human fiesh! Yes! to crown die climax of satanic impiety in
the mass, your priests make the Lord, and bis disciples, and all the " simple faithful,"
to be absolutely guilty of cannibalism ! In the name of all that is sacred, — bow long
wiU you, feUow citizens, perrait these impostors to make cannibals, and idolaters
fif ym!
Second : Let your priests hear bow the mass, is condemned, by the New Testament.
Inthe Epistle to the Hebrews, the aposde contrasts the daily, and- ever repeated sa
crifices of tbe Jewish church, with the one sacrifice of our blessed Lord, once offered
for us ; and thence shows the imperfection of the fprmer; and the. infinite perfection
of the latter. The whole weight of tbe argument of inspiration, rests on the divine
fact ofthe perfection of the one, and never to be renewed sacrifice of Christ. Take thia,
away, as. your Roman priests do, and you destroy tbe whole force, and bpauty pf the,
*^.stle'a divine argument. "This man," says the aposde, "after hehfid offered.oNE

S44 ROSIAN CATHOEIC CONTROVERST,
sacrifice for sin, forever sat down on the right hand of God." "By one sacrificTe he-
hath perfected, forever, them that are sanctified." Heb. x. 12. 14. And St. Peter
says, " Christ hath suffered once for sin." 1 Ep. iii. 18.
But in Et hetwen; dating manner, in tbe very face of all these divine testimonies
borne to (he trutb ofthe one, perfect, and never to be repeated sacrifice of Christ, your
priests pt!etend to offer up Christ, daily, in his "real body, soul, and divinity,'" a
sacrifice for the sins of the quick and the dead. Now, we ask the.'ji, was our Lord's
sacrifice perfected, at his death ; or was it left imperfect'] If imperfect, it was worse
than none ; it was a mockery of an unclean, and spotted thing, effered to God ! You
will not, — you dare not openly avow this blasphemyr wbicb would make even Satan
blush! If it was perfect, — then it is utterly impossible, nay, even blaspbemous to
suppose- that you can renew il, and rejieat k, and make it acceptable to God for tbe
quick and the dead !
Again; supposing for a mo-meni, that your piiest's mass is "a propitiatory sacri
fice," it must be,, either the same as our Lord's atonement : or, it must be a continua
tion ofwhat he began ou the cross; or, it must be a renewal, and reiteration of it.
It cannot possibly be the same as Christ's; any more than thefirst Lord's Supper, is
that of our day. If it be the continuation of what Christ began ; — then our Lord raust
have left his work incomplete, imperfect, and, therefore, utterly useless ! If it be a
reiteration, and renewal of what our Lord did on the cross, — then your priests are
placing the perfectly finished tvork of Christ, onthe same footing as the imperfect, and
ever renewed sacrifices of beasts, in the ceremonies ofthe Mosaic law : and, thence,
it can be no more availing in ils efficacy than the blood of bulls ! This they will not
dare openly to avow. The- Bible declares, Rom. vi. 9. 10,. that " Christ being
raised from the dead, dieth no more."" "He died unto sin- once." "By one offering
lie hath perfected, for ever, ihem that are sanctified." " After Christ had offered one
sacrifice for sin, he forever sat down on the right hand of God." Heb. x. 12. 14-
This, your priests seek to evade by an extraordinary distinction. It is this .¦ —
There is one bloody sacrifice, not to be repeated: but we offer up "tbe unbloody
sacrifice of the mass." Here, in your painful and disgraceful ignorance of God's
holy Word, you contradict divine revelation; and deny what God has declared.
There can be no propitiatory sacrifice without blood : — there raay be sacrifices of
l>rayer and prsuse ; 'tmt there can be no propitiation without blood. " The unbloody
sacrifice ofthe raass" is an impious and diabolical invention. God has declared it,
and all the puny rebels of Rome cannot gainsay it. Hear his own awful and eternal
words: — "Itis the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." Lev. xvii. 11.
" Without shedding of blood there is no remission." Heb. ix. 22. " An unbloody
sacrifice," such as that of the mass, we, therefore, pronounce, to be the wickedest of
all tbe inventions to which the devil, and the pope of Rorae have ever yet given cur
rency !
Third: — The Mass is condemned by the christian Fathers. These writers knew
neither the name, nor the thing, — of mass. They called the holy Supper of our Lord,
" the gift." " the eucharist ;'¦' and more generally, as St. Jerome does, "the m3'stery."
And, with thera, this was synonyraous with a symbol, by which solemn and invisible
things were represented by outward, and visible elements. See St. Jerome; Evagr.;
Tom. iv. Again: St. Jerome calls it "the table of the Lord," and speaks ofthe
bread," and tbe " cup of the table of the Lord." Here he eonftrms two points : 1st.
That the cup was given to all; as well as tbe holy bread. 2d. That the holy Supper

ROM.tN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 245",
of our Lord, was, in the belief of these Fadiers, a feast upon a sacrifice ; and not " a,
sacrifice; not an altar." See St. Jerome, Lib. 7, De Ordin.
In like manner, Daraasus, Epist. 4, calls it, "tbe table of tbe Lord;" not "an
altar," not "a sacrifice." Tbis was Paul's designation of it; and our Lord -^-as not
sacrificed at, or ou " a table ;" but on the cross.
St. Augustine calls it "tbe Eucharist," — the thank offering. C. 88. And WiUet-s
Synops. p. 579. And that eminent Father, in Libr. Ad Fratres in Erem. when speak
ing ofthe prodigal son's return, and tbe fatted calf being kUled, says, — "He slew
the fatted calf, wheu He renewed in the sacrament of tho altar, tbe memory of bis
passion, in his mind, — memoriam passionis, &c." Thus Augustine mjikes the
Eucharist a sacramtnt. — not a sacrifice ofthe altar; a comraeraoration of bis passion
and death. I shall ofl'er one raeraorable sentence more, from this father, against your
priests. "Hujus saerificiicaro et sanguis, ante adventum, &c.. The flesh Eind blood
of this sacrifice of our Lord, before his coming, -»-as exhibited in the type ofthe sacri
ficial victims : during his actual suffering, it was presented indeed, and in truth ; but
after his ascension, it is celebrated through the sacrament of his commemoration." Aug.,
cap 20. Lib, Contra. F. Manicbaeum, Turet. vol. iii. p. 601. So decisive is this erai-.
nent Father against the modern fiction ofthe mass.
St. Bernard thus writes, — "Sicut Christus, &c.. As Christ is daily offered up,
while we do show forth his death ; so he. seemeth to be born, when we faithfully
represent his nativity." Bern, in Vigil. Natal. Sem. 6. Can any thing be more
decisive against tbe sacrifice of the mass ? If Christ, be often sacrificed, as tbe priests .
say, — "then," savs St. Bernard, "is he often, iorn .'" Inthe Lord's Supper, there
fore, St, Bernard advocates a holy sacramental remembrance of him ; and by no means
a sacrifice of him.
The Decretals are positively against your mass. Thus, in Decret. p. 2. Caus.
1. Qu. 1. cap. 72, Gregory calls it " the communion ,-" be never dreamed of it being
caUed a sacrifice. Again, iu cap. 63, it is called, — " Sacramentum pietatis," the sacra
ment of piety, — not a sacrifice. In cap. 12. Gelasius, it is called "the mystery."
In cap. 5, it is named, " the sacrament of the body and the blood of the Lord."
These were the names, and the sacred meaning, and use qf the Lord's Supper,
before the revolting modern fiction ofthe raass., 1 beg leave to give another extract
from the Decretals, — " Quod, factum, &c." That which was once done is done in our
memory, every year."- Deer, Par. 3, Dist. 2, cap- 51. And in cap. 53, we find these-
words : — " Quod nos, &c., that which we do, is done in the remembrance of him."
Pope Gregory says: — " Sine inlermissiorie, &c. Without ceasing, our Redeemer
immolates a sacrifice for us, in dtnwnst rating, or showing forth to his father, his incar
nation, &c.. See Greg. Moral. Lib. i. cap. 10. This pope had not conceived, as yet,.
any thing even like the figment of, the modern mass!
St. Chrysostom thus opposes tbe mass: — "Tovro yap &c."- "For, do this, he
says, in remembrance of me. We do not perform a,different sacrifice, as the high
priest did then; but always the sarae-: or, rather we raake a memorial of the sacri
fice." In Epist., ad Hebr. cap. 10.
Justin. Martyr, in A.. D. 150, thus wrote 4 — " On /^w, &c. I also affirm that the,
prayers, and praises of the saints are tbe only perfect sacrifices acceptable to God.
For these only have the Christians undertaken to perform ; and by the communication
ofthe wet food, and the dry, in which we call to remembrarwe the sufferings, in which
<hg God.of gods suffered &c." Dial. Cura Tryph. Judceo, p. 345, Paris Edit. 1515..
22*

246 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTllOVERsr.
Clemens Alexandrinus in like raanner, thus wrote : — " Eri yovr, &c. Our earthly
eltar is the assembly of such as join together in prayers ; having, as it were, a com
mon voice and mindi For the sacrifice of the chureh' is (be- word ascending as
iireense from holy souls; their sacrifices, and their whole minds being open- to God."
Stromatum. lib. 7, p. 717, Paris Edit. 1644.- These were the only saerifiets then
known, in the primitivei.pure, and apostolical church.
Tertullian-, in one of his books, shows us how utterly ignorant be was of the
mas«, both as- tO'Uame and thing. " Namque quod non terrenis sacrificUs, &c. For
we must not think of appeasing God with earthly sacrifices, but we must offer to him
spiritual sacrifices.'' " Thus, therefore, spiritual sacrifices are meant; and a contrite
heart is shown to be a-n acceptable sacrifice to God." See his book Advers. Judseos.
eap.5. p. 188: Paris- Edit. 1675.
L.\CT.iNTius, in- Uke raanner, had no conception of the modern Mass ; or of any
ghostly sacrifice of wafer, and wine, and water! See his Book De Vero Cultu. Lib.
6. Tom. ii p. 509: Paris Edit. 1748, — "Duo sunt &c. There are ttvo- things which
should be offered' to Gbd-.; agifvand asa-srifice-; a gift should be for ever, a sacrifice
for a time, — in tempus." And' having- shown- that no gifts nor sacrifices can nov/ be
given to God to propitiate him, since Christ has died, he adds in explaining the nature
»f our gifts and sacrifices as christians, — "Therefore to God is to be offered, — incor-
porale, the incorporeal offering, which he makes use of. The gift is integrity of
mind : the sacrifice is praise and a hymn."
I have thus far been Insensibly led on, in the examination of the mass ; and in con
trasting primitive purity of doctrine, with this revolting figment of Roraish priestcraft.
Ishali close tbis Letter -with a few miscellaneous remarks on the mass.
Although the Mass is sustained by neither reason, nor scripture, nor ihe early
Fathers,-r-it is yet mightily sustained; It is sustained by the whole posse of priests
from tbe popCi down lo Vicar Power, and Padre Levins. And in spite of rhyme and
reason, they will cling to it, until the whole system tumble in ruins. It is tbe grand
specific to convert every ¦thing into money. "Whither lendeth the doctrine concerning
the mass being- a propitiatory sacrifice for tbe dead," — says. Dr. Barrow, vol. vi. p..
233., — "but to engage men to leave, in their wills, good sums to offer on their behalf ]''¦
" By this, the priest raakes au irresistible appeal tothe dying wretch, of every class,,
overwhelmed with all the vices and attrocious poUutions, in which popery steeps its
abused victiras; and in which it entertains tlie.ii in the deepest sleep of moral death,
until its convenient hour comes, — that is to say, tbe fittest moment for making the
most lucrative- speculation on the soul of the dying wretch! For it is then, under
the exquisite tortures of conscience, and the merciless goadings of priestcraft, that he
-will eagerly purchase deUverance frora the pope's hobgoblin flames, — on any terms,
and for any sum of money, and for any lands, — especiaUy when be knows, be can
carry none of them with him!
It is a curious fact, and it ought to be more generally known, that the old Mortmain,
law of England, and which stands unrepealed in the statute book of our state to this
day, was imperatively called forth by sacerdotal rapacity, and the incredible success.
of die priesls in selling their purgatorial flames! By 'his lucrative speculation, they
were laying field to field, and domain to domain! Had it not been for the interveu-.
tiou of this law, prohibiting such bodies from receiving such bequests, the priests
wonld, probably, soon have possessed the landed property of all England 1' They

RbifAlf CA-THOLtt CONVttbVERSt. 247
would soon liave made the rich exchange of the dark flaming waves of purgatory,, for
the beautiful domains of Englsind !
I'he priests have invented masses admirably adapted to suit every btscfy, and all-
times. There are the dcc'asionat masses, and tbe ordinary masses ;' there are i^tg-fc'
tnasses, sung by tbe choristers, with the.aid of the deacon, &c.-; and there are the low'
masses, in which the prayers are merely rehearsed. The masses for the dead, de--
•igned to relieve, and finally, to bring out souls from purgal»ryf are the mosJ 6oti^eni'
ent, and profitable, because tbey are the best paid ! For who would not give all he
has, and even leave his ¦wife Emd children to beg, — if he cafl only bribe — what is no
easy matter, — a luxurioiis, ind6le'h+, and Avaricious priestj to set his poor soul out of
purgatorial flames ! The splendor, value, and efficacy of masses, are purely in pio-
portion to the Euuount of the cash paid. The most magnificent and earnest mass, being
the best paid, is when the Chapelle ardente is erected. Thatie, when a representatioa
cf the deccEised, the new inhabitant of purgatory, is set up, amid the blaze of ¦a'ax
candles. Then, -nhen the gold and silver are heard to tinkle in the coffer; a soleran
absolution is pronounced, foithwith, on the poor wretch iu the fiames. And, forth
with, at the simple nod ofthe priest, as he pockets the money, aU the demons, and tbe
devil himself, — so the priest says — quit tbeir hold; and the pure soul ofthe lately
oppressed wretch, is in a moment winging its flight to heaven, to tbe bosom of Abra
ham! How amazing ie the power of gold in Rome !
But, so far eis we can penetrate tbe priestly secrets, our "dealers in human souls,"
and die traders in Purgatory flames, have the candor to adrait, that this class of Ro
man redeemed souls, are not admitted exactly into the same place where those, who
are saved by grace alone, sing the praise of redeeming love. For those persons eannot
possibly join, wilh any kind of good grace, in- the same heavenly song. They -can
»ing only, in truth, of what saved them. They cannot sing of that in which they bEid
no interest, and from which they had no benefit. They can, with no kind of truth, or
honesty, sing of any thing else thau the singular praises of priests, silver, and purga
tory ! And in- bo other possible form can tbe chorus be framed, than in this, — " Wor
thy are the pnests. and the silver, and purgatory, to receive out most cordial praises, and
hearty commemorations Jtrever !
I have only lo add, that, to accoraraodate all persons who have the meaas, and a
taste for this ghostly merchandize, with the priests, there are masses to be sold and
said for cattle, for strai/ed beasts, for stolen goods, and for travelers, going a journey,
that they may have " priestly good luck ." Theae are styled votive masses. Verily j,
,as the poet sang, — " But laymen most renowned for devilish deed?.
Labored at diaSaae? stiU behind the priest!" Pollok.
I ara fellow citizens, yours, &C.-
W. C. B.

248 $«MAN CATB0J.IC CONTROVERST*
Letter xVlH.
To "TfiE MEMBERS OP THE ROMAN CA.*HOLIC CHURCH.
Popery condemned by Reason, Scripture, and the Fathers..
" One is led fo imagine that the Pope is no other than the incarnation ef the ancient idol'
JSamnwn, and that fhe priests are his tax gatherers.'" — McGavin.
Fellow Citizens: — Ihave at length, arrived with youj at Purgatory; and if
you have no fears of entering into the priestly fabric, I propose a thorough investiga
tion of it. It is the temple of Mammon incarnate ; wherein his HoUness, the genius
of the place, and the worshipped idol, has erected, before all tbe world, his "traffic in
human souls ;" — and where he deals in purgatorial flames, aud "souls of men;" sur
rounded by bis money changers, and his " tax gatherers,, the priests."
That some, although few of even your priests, have beUeved in puigatory, I am
rather disposed to admit. For I find a few instances of even your priests, in Ireland,
actually bequeathing all the Utile raoney they bad, — (one really left £500 sterl.) —
for masses for their souls — it seeras to be the only evidence, that such raen can give,
of the sincerity of their faith in it. But as it respects tbe great raass, nearly all the
body of the priesthood, frora the pope, down to the humblest priest, there are few in
America, and almost none in Europe, who ever supposed, for a moment, that your
priests believe in their own purgatory. For my part, I cannot think so. meanly of
their intellects, as even to insinuate that they do believe in any such thin-j. It is a
difEcult matter enough, to many of them, to believe in even a heaven or a hell,—
not to mention a purgatory ! Your priests can tell you the names of many a pope,.
who made heaven and hell, and ajudgment seat, the subject of their merriment ; and
of another, namely, pope Leo X., who used to call Christianity " a pretty and profit
able fable, withal!" And an author of no mean note, quotes from some of your old
writers, tbe foUowing in.structiT,-e anecdote of an eminent cardinal of Rome. One
day his eminence, disposed to be talkative, began to " pose" his chaplain, and try the
extent eif bis profound theology. " How many masses, I pray you," said he gravely —
" will it take u, pray a soul out of purgatory ?" Tbe chaplain was struck dumb at
the weighty question. Aftera painful silence, during wbich be bad rummaged every
eorner of his brain, and exhausted his knowledge of the Fathers,, he frankly told fb«
truth, — a thing not usual in Rorae, — that be could not tell bis eminence: that it was
prodigiously beyond his depth.''
" WeU, I wUl tell thee !" said his emihence, with a condescending air, — while the
godly chaplain was all eye, and ear, lo receive the awfully important discovery ; " It
will take as many masses to relieve a soul out of purgatory, as it ivill take snow balls to
heat our oven !" See the Preservative against popery p. 113. 114. Glasgow Prot.
chap. 76.
In tracing the history of purgatory, like tbe other prominent and peculiar cere
monies of your priest's church, we find it imported from the pagans. We disco
ver it raany hundred years before the birth of Christ. Nay, on the pages of Homer,
Plato, and VirgU, we discover the heathen fiction. I refer to the Odyssy, Lib. 12,
and Virgil, .iEneid Lib. 6 ; where, in the former, the ghosts of Elpenor utter their sor
rows ; and in the latter, Palinuras utters hi3 ; and where the ceremonies, used to reliev*

ROJIAN CATIIOLIC CONTROVERST. 249
them, as described by these great poets, are remarkably simUar to those of the Roman
catholics, used to reUeve the Roman ghosts in die improved model of purgatory.
This pagan fiction of purgatory, was unknown to the true christian church in the
first five centuries. Tbe man is no scholar, nor at all read in genuine historv, who
will risk his reputation in affirming the contrary. I admit that a few individuals,
philosiphers, rnd monks held this from early ages; and that these men were nominal
christisms. For, it is a painful fact that when Christianity mounted the dirone of the
Cffisars, in the person of Constantine the Great, paganism became unfiKshionablc, and
unprofitable ; and Christianity became of course, profitable to men of rank, and to
philosopbffis. And these "great" men when they came into die church, did not "put
off the old man" — they did not strip off paganism, and its pagan tenets. They put
on the mask of ihe hypocrite, over the pagan man! A thing, by the way, done by
mUlions in Europe, and perpetuated to this day. Hence with paganism, the rites of
this system, and its doctrines found their way inlo tbe early christian church. But,
Elsa systematic tenet, purgatory was not tolerated in tbe Roman catholic church, until
the days of pope Gregory, tiie great, or, the end of the sixth century.
It is true, Origen, Jerome, and Augustine have left some wild speculations on it ;
which indicate ihcit tbey had been occasionaUy staggered by the extravagant specula
tions ofthe bapti/td pagan philosophers, who bad crept into the church. But we shall
examine the Fathers presently.
I showed in a former letter, that the leading rites of "Holy Blother" were founded
in fanaticism, and by tbe visions of fanatic "saints." This was emphatically the
case ¦with purgatory. As soon as pope Gregory was known to favor this wild, pagan
fiction, eveiy monk's cell began to team with visions, apparitions, and rairaculous
disclosures, — all designed lo give a divine sanction to the purgatory of the heathen ;
and to baptize it, as a christian reaUty. " The flames of Mtna and Vesuvius," says
Archbishop Wake iu his "Discourse on Purgatory;" "were thought to be kindled
on purpose to torraent souls. Some were seen, in vision, broiling on gridiions ; others
roasting on spits; some burning before a fire; others shivering in water; and not a
few smoking in a chiraney ." Nay, says he, tbe way to purgatory was found out ; it
was situated in the centre ofthe earth ; and one way to U, lay through Sicily, another,
in Pozzoeto ; and another was found out in favored Ireland ; naraely the mouth of St.
Patrick's cave !
, During the seventh and eighth centuries, there were mighty disputations about its
locality, and the species of its torments. The disputants, wholly taken up about the
circumstances, gradually wrought themselves into the belief of the main fiction. Yet
even in the bosom of Rome, many opposed the ridiculous folly. In 1146, Otto Fri-
singensis, in Chron. lib. 8. cap. 26, thus writes,—" That there is in hoU, a place of
purgatory, wherein such as are to be saved, are either troubled whh darkness, or
decocted with the fire of expiatkm, some do affirm." See Morn. Exer. p. 252. This
conveys the fact that all did not then believe this popish fiction. " And even pope
Adrian," says Mr. Gavin, "confessed that there was no raention of it in the scripture,
or in the writings of the Fathers." See Master Key, vol. i. p. 166, &c. And an an
cient Latin writer gravely tells us that the Jesuit Coltonus was so puzzled for a text of
scripture to confirra it infallibly— but which he never could discover, " ut ab ipso de,^
mone, &c. that he did not blush to implore from the devil, a passage of scripture most
apt to establish it." But he got no answer ! For evcji the devil hiwsplf, if speflas,
could find no proof of it from holy writ I

SSO ROMAN C.VTHOLIC CONTROVERSTi
But, like every Other enormity of Romej designed to sdvStice the power of priestcraft)
and pour in immeasurable revenues into the pope's treasures, and the priests' pursesi
it was sustained by all the w-eight of the priesthood : and was, finally, estabUshed by
the council of Florence in the year 1430. And therefore, if is, properly speaking,
tinly 403 years bid ! And lest your priests should Venture to call this the invention
of heretics, I shall here, give a quotation otit of their famous ¦writer, Johannes Roffen,
quoted in Poly d. Virg. De Invent. Rerum. Lib. 8. cap. 1. "Nemo certe, &c. No one
true believer now doubts of purgatory, whereof, notwithstanding araong the ancients,
there is very little, or no mention at all. Tbe Greeks, to tbis day, do not beUeve a^
purgatory, let Who will, read the coramentaries of the ancient Greeks. And the La
tins did not all of them together, receive tbe truth of this matter, but by little and
little. Neither, indeed, was the faith either of purgatory or pardons, so needful in the
primitive church, asnotv it is." See Poly. Virg. De Invent. Rerum, Lib. 8. cap. 1. —
And Mom. Ex. p. 251.
This is from two ofthe most candid Romish writers that ever wrote. For, besides
admitting that purgatory and pardons are raodem inventions, and recent innovations;
they frankly assign the true reason of the invention. In primitive times, the holy,
and good men did not live the luxurious, and proud lives of Roraan tyrants, and ghosdy
despots, wallowing in pride, crimes, and luxuries, beyond bounds ! Now, tbe court
lof Rome " needs" tbe revenues of purgatory, to sustain their pomp, and the infamous
course of their lives !
In the progress of time, the monks, and friars have greatly improved upon this
lucrative fiction. Mr. Gavenin his Master Key (f Popery, vol. i. p. 166, &c. has
¦given us rauch light on this matter. And he was well able to do it. He had been long
a...Spanish priest, and had been deeply instructed in the system of this ghostly bank
ing business: and he knew the whole craft of adapting purgatoiy, and its "apart
ments," to the greatest advantage. He was converted from popery to Christianity, in
1715. The priests and friars, saj'S he, have distributed the dungeons of purgatory into
eight apartments ; corresponding to the eight classes, into which they have divided
society. And this division is shrewdly made to increase their gain ; which is always
the only, and all absorbing object of these holy despots! There is an apartment for
each according lo their wealth and rank. For, assuredly a king, or a gentlemen would
rather endure a raore rigid, and hot fire of purgatory, and pay higher to get out of it,
than to be crammed in, araong coblers, and beggars, even in a less hot atmosphere ! !
Hence, says Mr. Gaven, they place the poor people in tbe first apartment, where the
fury of the fire is the least. In the second, they put gentlemen, gentlewomen, and
tradesmen's wives ! In the third, which is hotter than either of these, they dispose of
the ladies of quality ! In the fourth, — hotter still, — are placed merchants, and trades^
men. In the fifth, which is very hot, indeed, they put noblemen. In the sixth,
which is amazingly hot, they arrange the grandees, lo be properly scorched. Ths
seventh, which is terribly fierce in its flames, contains princes. And the eighth, the
superlative degree, the deepest, darkest, and hottest ofall, contains kings! Each of
these bsis a tariff of prices nicely, and accurately adjusted by the ghostly financiersv
And, -what displays a shrewd policy in this novel trafic, there is power lodged with
the disinterested, and holy priests, to change, at any time, the lodgings of these people.
That is to say, should a poor man, or a tradesman get rich, — be can buy the priest's
interest, for a suitable sum, to transfer his poor dead ancestor into a more genteel oj?sr<,-«.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 251
inent, in purgatory ! He can buy the priest's influence with " the court of heaven,"
to transfer fhe soul, for instance, into that of " the gentleraen." And should he grow
very rich, and rise in rank, he can buy the priest's prayers, to transfer hira even inlo
the apartment of '• noblemen !" It is tme, tbe elevation will make the poor soul feel
hotter flames : but men must pay not ouly money to the priest, but also bear pains, to
be fashionable, and to be in genteel and noble company in purgatory !
This is quite an iraportant branch of fhe ghostly trade in those lands, where all
ranks are completely priest-ridden ; as in Spain, Italy, and Austria. Mr. Gaven
gives us instances to illustrate tbis. '• A cobler's wife, ignorant and proud, discovered
that her father was among the beggars in purgatory. Site implored the aid of a friar,
of the Franciscan order lo elevate hhn. " How manjf raasses can you spare for it 7"
said the priest. She said two. It was too little. " He is araong the beggars,— even
the lowest." The lady wept; and promised hira raore raoney, as soon as she got it.
And the quantum being duly fixed, and pEud, tbe " holy" priest graciously transfer
red him to the fourth apartment. The poor soul, no doubt, was unspeakably more
tormented ! But then, bis daughter after tbis, boasted that she was the daughter of a
rich merchant! See Gaven vol. i. p. 166, &c., Gla.sg. Prot. vol. i. chap. 77.
Could I find room, I mig'nt give my reader anecdotes to illustrate the good account
to which the priests convert their purgatory. In Ireland they have Penny a Week
Societies, called Purgatorial Societies. And those who pay into this "charity" a
penny a week, are entitled when they die, to so many masses. And thus, by paying
before hand, and fheir kind friends paying for them after they are dead, they get the
better chance of being, probably, sooner out ! At any rate, as the priest gets all the
proceeds of "this charity," he receives by this ingenious scheme, double pay! See a
copy of "the Constitution of a Purgatorian Society," in Gla.sg. Prot. vol. i. ch. 77.
The appropriate sale of these purgatorial fires, for cash payments, has brought im
mense wealth to Holy Mother; and filled, to overflowing, the coffers of men, bound
by the holiest oaths, to their vows of perpetual poverty !
And they have been rigidly exact, and shrewd in the collection uf these wages of
tiieir perjury and damnation ! They have grinded the faces of the poor ! They have
taken from the poor -widow ber last mile, and the very garments, and the last mor
sel from tbe weeping orphan ! Their cunning has had no bowels of mercy ! Yet,
occasionally tbeir knavery has met us match : and they have sustained losses from
men more shrewd, though uot more wicked than themselves.
A certain heir of a profligate father was long importuned by the disinterested priest
to pay for masses to reUeve "his poor broilUig father!" Tired with his importuni
ties, be bade hira go on, and relieve lUra. An apartment in the casde, was arranged
for him; and tho son remained by the devout priest, to witness the masses, and watch
the holy process of deUverance. At each proper pause, and the close of a mass, down
-went the gold. The priest went on : and the young lord still counted out the gui
neas! Masses must be over by twelve. It was now eleven. " How comes he out?"
said the youth. "We have hira neariy all out,"— says the priest, as he melo
diously chanted tbe mass ; with a sublime devotion, quickened by the music of
the descending guineas! "Hold on," cries tbe youth, "we must have hUn out
before twelve !" A large heap of gold now lay on tbe table. " Is he not out yet ?'^|
cried his^ lordship. " Patience ; my good sir, your father was a tough old sinner,"
says die gra.ve priest : " be has been pretty deep in tbe fires, and it needs many masses
to bring him up !" Down went more money : and another mass was chanted ; and the

252 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST
smoke of the incense ascended. At length the priest, suspecting that he could get tio
more money, exclaimed, "He is out; he is fairly on bis legs!" "Glad am lof it,"
says the youth ; " and now being on his legs, let bim shift for himself; for he had a
pair of good heels, w ben he was in tbis world." And saying tbis, be swept up sdl the
money ; and wishing the astonished and confounded priest a good morning, he left
him to plan how to be more watchful in all future barterings of the kind !
The anecdote of priest TAom of Dublin, Ihave heard related by an Irish gentleraan.
I have, since, seen it pubUshed in the Glasgow Protestant vol. i. ch. 75. And the
Editor of the Philanthropic Gazette, published it in Oct. 27, 1819; and assured the
public that he was responsible for the truth of it. A landlord in Dublin called on
one of his tenants for the rent. Tbe poor woman apologized for not being able to pay
it; and informed hira that she bad appropriated it to "a holy use." " In short," says
she, "the holy praste came along the other day, and says to me, 'have you beard
from your husband ?' " " Says I — and how can I, when he is dead, — and sure he
is!" "Oh! yes — but have you not heard tbe great news? A mighty crowd were pass-
i-ag over the bridge of purgatory to heaven ; and, och ! and ill luck to it, — it fell down,
and a mighty number fell on the wrong side — and your husband is one of them !
And now, I am come to get your share of the raoney to help to build up the bridge."
"And sure am I," continued she, "I could do no less than give him all tbe money I
had, — for he assured me it would be an expensive job to rebuild it!"
I have tbe pleasure of saying that tbe gentleman had this impostor brought before
a magistrate, — who whined out, as be reluctantly restored tbe money to tbe poor
^dow, — "that he only wauled the use of the money for a few days, and played tbis
trick to obtain it, — and that he was coming, at any rate, to restore it."
I shall only add here, that there are hundreds of respectable gendemen in this city,
who have witnessed, at an Irish catholic funeral, what is called the auction for the
soul . After getting all he can, at the mass, the priest takes a plate and goes round,
in the bouse, and among the crowd, and out of doors assembled at the funeral, call
ing out, " Who will give a leetle more to help the poor soul ? Will none of you have a
hetle more pity ? Will not one of you give us more ? Remember the soul of your
poor neighbor now in purgatory!" And thus he continues to dun, until his own, and
the people's patience is completely exhausted. And no wonder he is zealous in this
"charity" for "the poor soul ;" for, all this raoney goes into bis purse, for his own use!
In this happy country (which may God mercifully preserve from the withering
blight of priestcraft) we know nothing of the practical evils of this, and the other parts
ofthe popish systera. Ask our enlightened traveUers, in Europe, and in South Ameri
ca; ask our highly intelUgent Naval officers, who have been there. They will tell
you what they have seen and heard, a mere tithe of -which I am not able to disclose,
I present tbe following specimen from wbich we may form some idea of tbe jugglery,
and practical absurdities, with which the fiction of purgatory has been inseparably
connected. It is copied from a paper stuck up in the churches of Madrid, in Spain,
three years ago.
"The sacred and royal bank of piety has relieved from purgatory, from its
estabUshment, 1721 , to November 1825, 1,030,395 sosak, at an expense of £1,720,437
11,402 do., from November 1826 to Nov. 1827. 15,276,

1,041,797 souU. Total expense : £1,725,713.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 253
" The number of masses calculated to accomplish this pious work, -was 558,921 :
consequendy each soul cost one mass and nine tenths, or thirty-four shillings and
fourpence." Behold! onthe oue band, tbe economy of the Roman church! Souls brought lo
heaven Deonolente, aut volt nl., whether God will or not, al the rate of seven dollars,
and thirty-five cents, and a half, each! And on ih^- other, behold! the amount of
money brought into the priest's banils. namely; seven millions, three Iv.indred and
thirty one thousand, four hundred and twenty two dollars, and forty cents ! And all tbis
in Madrid alone, and for purgatory merely, and in a hundred and fi\'e years! Who
can form an estimate of the w-bole amount fvlundered by these ghostly robbers, from
the people, through the "oman cafholic church, by this and all the rest ofthe basest
and the most diabolical of false pretences ? If a culprit in t nr criminal courts, is
sent to fhe Slates' Prison for plundering his neighbor out of a few hundred dollars,
under pretences, and by forgeries far less atrocious than those — what do the Roman
priests not merit, at the judgment bar of tbe nations, for the countless suras they have
plundered out of the pockets of their insulted and wretched victims !
May 1 be permitted to beg your verj- candid atteniion to this sore aud alarming
grievance, enacted daily before your eyes. I am, fellow citizens, yours, &c.
V», C. B.

LETTER XIX,

TO THE ME.MBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Popery condemned by Scripture and the Fathers.
¦" Pope Gregory the Saint, saw tlie soul of Pascasius boiling in the hot baths of St, An-
gelo !" " Bishop Theobald heard a naked, shivering soul crying out of a lump of ire, ; and
prayed it out by mching its icy prison !" " St, Bernard never could decide whether the
pains of purgatory were in^re, in ice, or something else," Greg, Dial. IV. 40. — Hottinefer,
Vl. 1366.— Bern." 1719.
Fellow Citizens : — I shall now go on to show fhe condemnation of purgatory,
First, reason and scripture condemn it. Here, let me observe, that we do all admit
a purification of the soul, by afflictions, as it were, bj- fire, under the grace of God.
" Thou hast sent a fire into our bones;" "we have gone through fire and water."
These are the instrumental causes ; but, as the meritorious and efficient cause, "the
blood: of Christ purgeth us from all sins." Heb. ix. 14.
This is the only purgatory admitted of, by the primitive church, and by us. And
to this purpose we quote Origen on Levit. lib. 9. " Without doubt we shall feel the
unquenchable fire, unless we shall now entreat the Lord to send down from heaven,
a purgatory of fire unto us, by which worldly desires may be utterly consumed in
our minds."
But the Roman purgatory is a part of bell, and jsin the future world, and is entered
after death. Here all that enter, do finally reach heaven, after they have been purged
from their "venial sins," and " have satisfied the temporal punishment for their mor
tal sins." From this they are relieved by solemn masses, and the suffrages, or vows
ofthe church. See Canons df the CouncU of Trent Sess. 25.
23

254 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
The texts of scripture pressed in for mere show, to sustain this impious, but lucra
tive fiction, are these. Malt. xii. 32. "There is a siu that will -not be forgiven in
this world, or the world to come." Now, say your profoundly learned logicisins,
"this iraplies that other sins may be forgiven in the world to come." This is a false
conclusion; he is speaking only of this sin and of uo other; and itis utterly absurd
to draw from a particular premise, any such general conclusion. To settle the point,
let Blatthew, in ver. 31, and Mark iii. 29 explain their own expression, — "He hath
never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." And in the words, — "in
this world aud the world to come," or more literally, in ihis age, and the age to come,"
our Lord seems to reprove the idle traditions ofthe Jews, thatin "the age to come," or
the days of Messiah, "grace would be much more liberal; and reverse more rigid
decisions." No, says our Lord, this siu wUl not be forgiven in this Judaic slate, nor
in the new dispensation of Messiah. That is, in the words of Christ, recorded by
Mark, — " it will never be forgiven.'' But after all, what has this text to do wilh
the purgatory of your priests 7 They must be conscious that what it speaks of, and
their jiurgatory, are two perfectly diflerent things. This text speaks of "forgiveness
of sin." Now, purgatory has nothing to do with "forgiveness." It is no place of
" forgiveness." The priests theraselves declare it to be a place of suffering until the
victims have, by these torments, given all the required latisfaction ! How improper
is it to appeal to such a text !
The next text pressed in by you is, Matt. v. 25. 26. " If thou be cast into prison ;
verily, thou shall, by no means, come out thence, until thou hast paid the uttermost
farthing!" Here the "learned priests," find purgatory, not hell, iu the prison; the
"pay" is human suffering: and "venial sins" are "the farthings!" But, they have
not yet proved that it is purgatory, and not hell, that is here meant. And, again, they
leave this point unproved, that this infinite debt ever can be paid. But the finaUy
impenitent never can pay it. Therefore, they never can get out ? This is the expla-
i^at'ion given by all judicious expositors : and that by your own Jerome. Hear his
words; — "Semper non exiturum esse, &c. He wUl never come out, because he
v/ill always be paying ihe last farthing ; while he pays the eternal ptinishtnent of his
earthly st'r^s." Tom. v. p. 684, in Lament. Lib. 1. cap. 1. Paris Edit. 1602.
There is another text, on which tbey lay the greatest stress; 1 Cor. iii. 13. — 15.
" The fire shall try every man's work," — "if auy man's work shall be bumed, he
shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire." There is no allu
sion here, to any future, middle state. The apostle speaks of different preachers
building on the foundation laid ; his doctrine is his " works" here spoken of. Now, it
can have no reference to purgatory : for, there, you say, men are tormented in their
souls ; but this text says, " the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is."
Again, this fire tries the work of every man; as well those who build gold, as those
who build stubble. But, by your own confession, every man does not go to purgatory :
the pure enter heaven, and tbe atrocious men dying "in mortal sins," go to hell.
Finally, it is not affirmed here that "a manis saved by fire," but " he is saved as hy
fire." Hence it has no reference w-hatever to the purgatorial fiames; but to that
purification, wbich is effected by trials operating on his soul, as it were by fire.
But their Herculean club by wbich their unique Romish logic levels all opposition,
istakenfrom2 Maccab. xU. 43, &c. "He sent tbe 2,000 drachms to Jerusalem, lobe
laid out in sacrifices for the dead. It is a pious and wholesome thought to pray for the
dead, that they may be loosed from their sins.'' This is tbe form in wbich BeUarmine

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 255
quotes it. But be is guilty of perverting the Greek ofthe original writer. Il runs
thu,s — " He sent 200, not 2,000 drachms, lo ,f erus;tiera, to buy sacrifices," " pro peca-
to,"forsin, — or a sin oSering. Thewords, — " pro mortuis," "Ibrlhe dead," isasheer
forgery of that writer ! Maccabees, it sci-iiis, sent money for the purchase of victims
fora sin offering- But in reference to the writcr"s recoraraondution "of praying for
the (lead, &c." it is of no more weight than a sentence from Voltaire, or Pope Hilde
brand ! The book was not writtijn by inspiration : the author apologizes for his defects
inthe close of it: and the Jews never received it into their canon, Eind this, Bellar-
muie has confessed ; and what is unspeakably more to the confusion of all your Jesuits,
St. Gregory the pope pronounced the Maccabees " ex libris tion canoncis, not canorii-
«al books," See Greg. Mor. Lib. 19. in cap. 39, Beati Jobi. Benedici, lidU. Paris 1705.
It is manifest, I trust, to every unprejudiced mind, that there is no one solitary
passage in all the holy Bible, which can be pressed in to give any countenance to the
Roman fiction of purgatory : that there is no one soUtary sentence in it which can be
tortured even to utter the most distant allusion to it ! Hence the scriptures are utterly
against it. Besides, the Bible declares that " Christ by his one offering, forever
perfected them that are sanctified." And "there is no other name under heaven by
which we can be saved, hut by Christ's narae." It is the one, great, uniform doctrine,
in scriplure, that "the blood of Christ tvashes away all sin." But this doctrine of
purgatory sets up a rival to Christ's atonement; and teaches, wilh infidel audacity,
that miUions enter heaven 'oy tbe merits of their " own torments and prayers for the
dead." Hence it is as opposite to God's wUl, expressed in the Bible, as is the deadliest
iafldelity of Voltaire, and Hume !
The foUo-wing texts I shaU raerely set down, as condemning your doctrine, EccUs..
ix. 10. Rom. viii. 1  2 Cor. v. 1. and ver, 10. Rev. xiv. 13.
And, here, I raight caU your attention to raany extravagant sbsurdities, in the doc-
firine of your priests' purgatory. But I shall mention only a fev/ things to prove how
much itis abhorrent from reason, and scripture. First: —It i,, founded on (he suppo
sition that God Almighty, after having forgiven us all our sins, does yet punish and
torture us for fhem ! Let it be distinctly understood, that you leach that no one goes into
purgatory, but those whose sins are pardoned ; for when a man dies unJer mortal sin,
or is unpardoned, he is doomed to helL Now, here you teach that, after God has
forgiven us, and v,'hile Christ loves us, and the Holy Ghtisi comforts us, — wu are yet
seat inlo ineffable tortures for thousands of years ! ! Cau any man in the exercise of'
his reason, with the Bible before his eyes, believe that your god who presides over
your purgatory, is reaUy tbe compassionate Gon of our salvation?
Second: — Your priests in their purgatory, represent God as punishing those whom
he loves, with horrid tortures, of inexpressible flames on the soul, merely for the pu
nishment's sake. They admit that guUl is taken away, they admit tiiat those in purga
tory Aotie their sivs all pardoned; and that they "are in a slate of per/ect grace."
These pains are endured as a punishment, (tremendously severe,) for venial sins, and
something or other, called " temporal punishment due for sin, — and, — "the crime of^
punishment!" " Cum reatu calpse, culpis suis remissis," These I quote frora Bel
larmine, De Purg. Lib. 2. cap. 1. sub fine. Now, when guUt is removed, is not pu
nishment removed? And when these men in your purgatory, "are pardoned and in a
state of perfect grace," can any man under the sun, tell us what the "crime of punish
ment" means 7 It either has no meaning ; or U represents the merciful Father of our
souls, as torturing bis own pardoned children, in the flames, for the mere sake of pu-

256 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
nishing them! "Cum reatu culpa!" See Dr. Sherlock's Vind. of his Preservative
against Popery, p. 71. 72.
Third : — This doctrine of purgatory, in addition to its ineffable absurdities, repre
sents your priests as men absolutely destitute of the bowels of humanity, — as unspeak
ably more cruel than savages offering up human sacrifices ! I take tbe evidence from
their own stateraents. Here are thousands of their own "beloved flocks," their for
mer kind, and obliging neighbors ; their ¦\-ei-y " dear friends," " rolling in tbe hottest,
and most horrid flames;" all of them "in indescribable tortures, and agonies." And,
yet, O monsters ! they refuse to pray them out : even although, by their own confes
sion, they can, by ei word if their lips, or by a raass or t-ivo, and a little brief prayer, set
them free from their agonies! Unless the stipulated exaction of money he paid down,
they will not spend one breath, — tbey will not be at the cost of even a cheap wafer,
and a few masses, to pray out tbeir dearest friends, or one individual of their "very
dear flock!" They whine, and cant, and haggle obout a fe\^^ coppers, while their
"beloved friends," for whom "diey feel so much," are "broiling in the fiercest
flames!" May tbe mercy of heaven deliver rae, and you, ray fellow citizens, from
the jaws, and fangs of these Romish tigers, compared to whom the red Uon of Africa
is tender mercy. He devours the bleeding, lacerated body : they -devour substance,
and body, and soul, at once !
F'lnally: — Purgatory is condemned by the Fathers.
1, Justin Martyr taught thus : — "Meta & &c. After the departure of the soul from-
the body, there is instantly made a distinction between the just and unjust: — the
souls ofthe righteous are brought to paradise with the angels : the souls ofthe wicked
to places in hell, 'Respons. ad Orlbo-iox. Ciuest. '/S : Lusher i'- 121.
2. Lactantius says ; — " Let no one imagine that a soul is judged Immediately after
death, for all are detained in one common custodj^ till the time arrives, when the
supreme Judge examines tbeir merits. Then those whose righteousness is approved,
shall receive the reward of immortality," &c. He then notices tbe doom of the
"richct- Ks thus raught the Limbus patrum, but he bad no idea of a purgarory.
Tom. i. p. 574, De VU. Beata. Lib. 7. Paris Edit. 1748.
3. Hilary, in 358, says : — " Futuri boni, &c. There is hope of future good, when,
departing from this body into tbe entrance of the heavenly kingdom, all the faithful
shall be preserved in the custody ofthe Lord ; Using pia. ed, mean time, in the bosom
of Abraham ; the approach to which is forbidden lo the wicked by the intervening
gulph," On Psalra 2, also on Ps. 120, p, 978, Pr.ris EdU, 1G,52,
4, Cyprian is fuU and -xplicit in the testimony that he never heard of modern
purgatory. In his Book De mortaliiat, , section 2, he says : " Ejus est, &c. It is for
him to fear denth, wlio is not willing to go to Christ. It is fc him to be unwiUing lo
go to Christ, who does uot believe that he begins lo reign with Christ," &c. Thus he
represents death as " our going to Christ :" and " all who Uve by faith, when they die
go to Christ." And quoting the words of Simeon he adds :— "Tbis proves and wit
nesses that the s-j. vants of God then have peace,— then enjoy free and quiet rest,
when, beino: drawn from these storms of the worid, we seek tbe haven of an eternal
seat, and security ; when having pai'l thepenaUy of death, we arrive at immortaUty,"
Again, in section 11, he says,— "The nghleous are called lo a refreshing; the un
righteous are dragged away into torraent: safety is quickly granted to the faUhftU;
but punishment to the wicked." See the 0.x*"Qrd Edk. 1682; or the Edit, of Pame-
lius of 1593, whi-' I use.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 257!
5. TertuUian, so far from believing in these tormenting flames to purify God's
people, or even pitying tbe dead, says; — "Christum, &c. Wc injure Christ, when
¦»^e do not bear, with fortitude, tbe depuiture of those who are called away by him ;
as if they were to be pitied ! I desire, says the apostle, lo be received, and
to be with Christ. How superior does be show the desire of die christian lo hel
If, therefore, we impatiendy grieve for any who have obtained this desire, we shov/^
that we are unwUling to obtain it!" If this Father had belie^^ed in your purgatory,
he would, wilh you, have pitied, and mourned for them, in the flames! Ifhe had
believed in your purgatory, he \, ould ncpt have thus united our departure at death, with
our being immediately with Christ. Tert. L\ Paticniia. (.;ip. 9, Paris Edit. 1675.
6. Gregory Nyssen says : " E-nrtp 3vi> ^.c. As by a certain abuse of speech, we call
a bay ofthe sea, an arm, or a bosom, c-o it seemeth to me that the w-ord signifies the
exhibilionof those immeasurable good things, bythe narae of a bosom, into wbich all,
men that saU by a virtuous course through this present life, when they loose frora
hence, put their souls into a good bosom ; eu as it were, into a haven free from dan
ger," Dial. De Anim. et Resur. Tom. ii. p, 651, Paris Edit.
7. Gregory NaziEmzen taught, — ¦ S.i ^'h^tiov &z., — that it is better to be corrected
and purged now, than to be sent to the torraent there, where the lime of punishing
is, and not of purging." Orat. 15, in Plag. Grandinis: and Usher's Works against
Popery, p. 123.
8. St. BasU thus expressed himself, — "Ovtos b aiuK &c. This is the time of repent
ance, — the other Ufe after tbis, is that of retribution: this, of working; that of
rewarJing." In Proem, in Regul. See Usher, p. 123.
9. St. Ambrose ta-ught that death " is a certain haven to those who had long been,
tossed in the sea of life." — " It makes not a man's state worse ; but such as it findeth
in every one, even such it reserves unto future judgment: and refreshes with rest."'
"It is a passage from corraption to incorruption; frora raortality to immortality;
from trouble to rest." De B no Mortis, cap. 4.
10. An ancient Greek Father, usually bound up with Justin Martyr's works, says.:
"MtTjk&c. But after the departure from the body, a separation of the just and
unjust takes place. Tbe righteous go into paradise wilh angels, unto the vision of
Christ; and the souls ofthe wicked into heU, &c." truest, et Resp. ad Orthodoxos,
p. 437, Finch, 206.
11, Justin Martyr writes: — " Tu li &c. When "we assert thatthe souls of the unju.sf
are in existence after death, and are sensibly tortured ; but that the souls ofthe g-ood
are happy, free from punishment; we think we sang the same things that the poets
and philosophers have done." Apolcyg. pro Christ,. 2, 'P,aT:'i& 'Ed'it. 1515. Thus he
beUeved in two states only, — heaven and beii. He lived in A. D. 150.
12. Cyril of Jerusalem, says — " 'O -i'wjj. i&c. He- who beUeves in the Son of God
is not judged, but is translated from death lo Ufe. The just, indeed were tried through
many years, but that which tbey obtained, by the diligence of along life, 3t.Mi freely
confers on us, in one hour. For, if you believe, you shall be saved, and transferred
to paradise, by bim who therein introduced the thief." Cat. 5, Oxf. Edit. 1503.
I do uot conceal from you that the priests who can read Greek, may find out a
passage in this CyrU, somewhat favorable to modern popish errors. But it is com,-
fortable to reflect that we can produce you two crcdibla witnesses, that Cyril was not
deemed by the primitive men, quUe orthodox after his later vagaries. " Cyril's failh
was suspected." Buffinus aud Jerome observe that he often changed his faith, and,
23*

258 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
communion." Dupin denies that he did change bis faith, but these two Fathers iad
tbe best means of ascertaining i.iii. See Dupin's Eccles. Hist. 4 cent.
13. Cyril of Alexandria speaks thus decidedly: — "A;"' yap &c. For I think we
ought to decide it, as being highly probable that the souls of the saints, when they
depart from their bodies, are comraended unto God's goodness, as unto the hands of
a most dear Father ; and do not remain on tbe earth, as some unbelievers have ima
gined, until they have had the honor of a funeral ; neither are they carried, as tbe
souls of the wicked are, unto a place of immeasurable punishmeni, that is into hell;
but rather fly to the hands of the Father of all ; — our Lord and Savior having first
prepared a way for us.'' In Johan. Evang. Lib. xii. cap. 36, Tom. iv. p. 1069,.
Paris Edit. 1638.
14. Chrysosto.-n writes thus, in opposition to purgatory : " Tbe kingdom of heaven
is like unto a man that is an householder. The man that is the householder, is Christ,
to whora heaven and earth are as a bouse. But his farailies are celestial, and terres
trial; for whom he builds a house, with three chambers, that is hell, heaven, and
earth. The combatants dwell upon the earth; the vanquished in hell,' and the con
querors in heaven," Homil. in Math. xU,
15. St. Athanasius wrote thus : — ' Ouk c(m &c. That is not death that bcfalletb the
just ; it is -a translation ; tbey are carried out of this world inlo eternal rest: they go
as out of a prison, from their wearisorae life, to the good things prepared to them."
De Virgin. See also Usher, p, 12] .
16, St. Jerome, in Epist. 25, comforting Paula, on the death of her daughter,
mentions only the two states, — " hell, and its eternal fires, and glory to which believ
ers ar.ii instantly conducted by angels." See Usher, p. 123.
17. St. Augustine, in sorae parts of his works, seems rather inclined to go with
Origen, as ifhe inclined !o waver respecting the eternal pains of hell. In his Tom.
vi. p, 222, Enchir, aifLaur. he speaks of it being "not incredible that there is a ce?-
tain purgatorian Tire after this Ufe," and "it raay be inquired whether there be such a
thing, &c." Hence, being doubtful, it cannot be supposed to have been, with hira, an
article of failh. But, notwithstanding the idle blunderings of your priests, and a
sciolist who lately made some quotations out uf Augustine, it is raanifest, that this
erainent Father, in his best, reflecting raoments, goes decidedly against purgatory.
Hear hi-; words, — "After this life there remains no compunction, or satisfaction.'
Again : — There,, is all remission of sin ; here, be temptations to sin ; here, is tbe evil
from which we desire to be delivered ; but,, there, (in the other state,) are none of
these." Again, — "We are not here without sin; but we shall go hence without
sin." See HomU. 50. Tom. x. Enchir. c. 115. Perkins, vol. i. p. 607. folio. More
decidedly still speaks he in bis book De Peccat. Merit, et Remiss. Lib. 1. cap. 28.
" There is no middle place for any, he must needs be with the devil tvho is not with
Christ." Again, — " The catholic faith resting on divine authoritj', believes thefirst
place the kingdom of heaven: and the second, hell ! A third we are wholly igno
rant of." Again, — " There is no place for the amending of our ways, but in this life r
for after this life, every one shall reeeive according to what he seeketh after in this."
18. St. Bernard in Epist. 266, says, " What is it to thee, and thine earthly vestures,
that being about to go to heaven, thou bast ihe more glory to prnt on instantly 7"
19. In like manner the veiiera'uie JSede speaks in the most decisive terms. Here
are his words, on Psalm vi. "Here only is (be^place for mercy; after tbis world.
there is place only for justice."

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 259
20. Anselm on 2 Cor. v. says of tbe pardoned, — 'instantly on tbeir leaving the
flesh, they do rest in heavenly faiih."
21. Epipbaiuus asserts that; — "The saints are in honor; they rest in glory; and
their departure hence, is into perfection," See Adv. Hseres. 78, in the end : Perkins^
vol. U. p. 569, folio.
22, Olympiodorus says, — "Ei 'w '.'tSrc, In whatever place, therefore, whether of
light or of darkness; of evil doing, or of virtue, a man is taken at bis death, in that
doth he remain: eitiier in light with the just, aud with Christ: or -with the wicked,
and the prince of this world." Expos, of Ecclesiast, cap. xi. ; Usher, p, 127,
I shall close ¦with two remarkable testimonies against purgatory. Ist, The council of
Aquisgran, now, Aix la Chapelle, thus decreed : — " Tribus itaque, &c. By three modes
are the sins of men punished : b\ two in this Ufe ; and one in the life lo come," The
two "are by compunction and repentance; and by C id's corrections. "The third,.
in fhe other world, is a-\\-ful and tremendous ; wheu the Judge shall say, "Depart ye
cursed into everlasting fi.e, wi-Ji the devil and his angels." See Aquis, Capit.
ConcU. Ad Pipinium nUssa; Lib. 1. cap. 1 ; Usher, p. 129; and Labb. Concil. Tom.
ix. 844. — Crabb. Concil. Tom. ii. 711. Edgar's Var, p, 466,
2, At the council of Basil, in fhe year 14oS, the deputies of tbe Greek church, gave
in their solemn dissent from the Latin church's purgatory, "flop &c. A purgatory
by fire," said fhey, "that is temporal, and shall have an end, we have neither receiv
ed from our doctors : nordo ive know thai the church ofthe East receives it." They
added, — " Xo small fear doth trouble us, lest, by admitting of a temporary fire, both
penal and purgatorv, we shall destroy ihe full consent of the church!" "Hence we
never have affirmed, cor will we at all ever affirm it." S. Senens. Lib. 6. Bibl. Satict.
Annot. :159. Also Martin Crusius, In Turco Gracia, p. 166, /xich. Usher, against
popery, p. 1,S2.
The crafty Latins did, indeed, cajole, and entrap the Greek deputies, to admit,
" for the sake of peace, and unhv," a kind of half purgatory ; namely, without fire.
But the Greek church did, with indignation, reject this union, and tbe belief of Ro
mish purgatory. And to tbis day, do all the churches of the East reject it. Usher,
p. 13-2.
Can anv thing, therefore, equal the audacious impudence of Bellarraine, who
permits himself to say, — "that all the ancients, Greek and Latin, from the aposlles'
days, did constantly teach that there was a purgatory." De Purg. Lib. i. cap. 15.
But U is pleasa,.it to find virtue enough in some of your own writers, to give this
Jesuit the Ue ! Three of them declare that "in the ancient v.^rUers, there is almost
KO mention of purgatory, especially in the Greek writers. And, hence, the Greeks
believe U not until this day." I refer you to Alph. De Castr. Cont, Hsr, in Iridulg.
Lib. 8.— J. Roffens. Luth. Confut. Art. 8.— And Poly. Virg. De Invent. Rer. Lib. 8.
cap. 1.— Usher, p. 124.
Thus, amid the diversity of tbe opinions of the Fadieie of the primitive ages, we
perceiv- in the raost certain and distinct manner, that purgatory tvas utk .-ly vnknowii
to them! Hence, as U wants the unanimous consent ofthe Fathers, your priests are
bound in honor, to reject and condemn it as,— in fact it is,— an impious, and diabolical
invention. If they yet sustain it, wUhout the uninimous consent, then do they lake
iHcredible pains to make us believe that they are knaves, and thai they deem all their
victims to be utterly void of understanding !
And, my fellow citizens, you will readily admit that, in view of the whole argu-

360 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
ment on pt^rgatory, I cannot give you, and tbe priests a hotter advice than that of
g9od old archbishop Usher, " Those of you, who blindly follow cardinal Bellarmine,
may do very well to look a head, lest, while you are seeking for purgatory, you may
stumble into hell!"
I have, thus finished my argument on the condemnation of popery, by Reason,
Scripture, and the Fathers. And I rest the decision ¦with the enlightened American
public. I am, fellow citizens, yours, &c.
New- York, November 5, 1833. W. C. B.
P. S. It 13 somewhat "ominous," that the date of this Letter, falling out, in tbe
usual course, has happened onthe famous day of the celebration of "the discovery of
the popish gunpowder plot, in Great Britain! May Almighty God preserve our
repubUc ; and grant that, as a nation, we may never need to celebrate any such day
of nalioi'Ul deliverance ! Amen.
W. C. B.

LETTER XX.

TO THF -IORD .iRCiJBISHOP, ANU THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH, IN TIIE UNITED ST.\TES.
" Sicelides Musse, paullo majora canamus, -
Non omnes arbusta juvant, humilesque myricae." Virgil.
Reverend Fathers : — It is not unkno-wn unto you, that we and your learned
priests of New York, have been discussing the doctrines of your church, until tbey
retreated from their defence, and abandoned the cause of "Holy Mother," to the no
small grief and scandal of the "simple faithful." We next, in continuation of the
discussion, addressed ourselves to the members of your flock. " The condemnation
of Popery by Reason, Scripture, and the Fathers," — has been uttered before the
American public : and no one of your priests has opened his mouth to assign a rea
son before lIib people, why popery sho-uld not be sentenced, in pursuance ofthe ver
dict found and declared. I leave it to the public to pronounce tbe sentence. Before
I close, I beg leave to, make my appeal to your ears, Reverend Fafhers. And, in as
rauch as every section ofthe churches, is on a perfect footing of equality in this glo
rious, free, and happy republic ; Emd in eis much as my office is as high, and as
honorable, in my chureh, as yours is in your church, — I sh,-ll speak as one who feels
¦himself on a perfect footing of equality ; recognizing your superiority only in years,
and in that exclusively. And I do it under tbe perfect consciousness that your tenets
and principles, — and mine, are all open tothe inspection of our fellow citizens ; whUe
to Almighty God alone, are we all accountable, as the only Lord ofthe human con
science. Now, in the first place, Reverend Fathers, — the call on you is loud and impera
tive, for a general Reformation in your church. The reUgious tenets, and morals,
patronized and sustained by you, are those of the dreary times of the dark ages. Bet
ter men, and men invested with higher offices in your church, than any of you-.
Fathers, have felt the necessity of a Reformation. Gregory VII. in the eleventh

SlOJItAN CATHOLIC CONTtlOVEtlSY. 20l
Century, deplored the errors and the vices of the Churchi In the Lateran Council
called in 1215, Pope Innocent iii. deplored in a moving manner, tbe wretched state
of Holy Mother. "It is time," said he, "that judgment begin at the bouse of God.-
For all the corruption which is in the people, chiefly proceeds from the Clergy, sinccj
if the priest who is consecrated, sins, he causes the people lo sin, facit delinquere
populum, &e," Again, — '• Peril fides, &c, — faith perishes, religion is disfigured,
liberty is confounded, justice is trodden under foot, heretics" (we know what he means
hy heretics) "spring up, sehisraatics gather strength, the wicked rage." See Sac.
ConcU. Labbaei et Coss, Tom, xi. p, 134. Paris Edu. 1671.
These complaints were repeated iu the first Council of Lyons, in 1245, Pope Inno
cent IV, slated as his first rffuson for caUing it, — " the various excesses of the Clergy."'
Thesame were repeated in the second Council of Lyons, in 1274. Church discipline
and "the licentiousness of the Clergy" called aloud for reforraation. See Delahogue,
Tract, De Eccles, Append. 2. p. 447, and Dupin Tom. .\.
You all know the faraous speech of Dr. Chancellor Gerson, delivered inthe Coun
cU of Pisa, in 1409, before Pope Alexander. He thus introduces Holy Mother apos
trophising the audience ; — "Ah! wo is me ! Unhappy me! From what a height of
dignity am 1 dragged down, by tbe bands of tbe wicked ! How is my beautiful com
plexion changed, and the sp "endor of my countenance obscured-, &c." This is equal
to the language of Luther, describing the noted old "Mother of Babylon." And lest
you may suppose that Dr, Gerson meant this to be the evil doings ofthe "heretics,"
he goes on to enumerate the cause; naraely, the vile archbishops ignorant of, oir
despising their superiors; ar.d slmonical clerg}-, ignorant aud vicious. He holds n]y
¦'the warlike," and ca"rnal prelates to execration. " From what roots," he exclaims,
"cau I believe these evils to have =prnng? From ihe abominable pollution of the
Clergy!" "Those to whom marriage is forbidden, that they may attain to angelical,
purity," (yes, verily, to angelical purity!) — ¦•! behold poUuted wilh immorality, and!
uniting impure deeds, with impure woriU, filling their stomachs with feastings, and,
skilled in getting drunk ; aud snoring over their cups, — these, and a thousand otherills
have been inspected by me!" Gers. speech, in Counc. Pis. 1409. See also Mansi
Collect. ConcU. p. 414, Venet. Hdit, 178-1, and Finch p. 90.
And not only so, but ev?u the pope-^ v/ere deposed in theCouncU of Pisa as "schis
matics, notorious heretics, entangled in the enormous, and infamous crimes of perjury,
and violation of promise." And this is excelled in its manly force and accuracy of
delineation, onlv bv your historian r.ironiu<, when describing the three rival popes
in 1044, HecaUsthem "the three headed uL^it, ivho had issued out of the gates of
hell!" Baromi Annal. Tom. xi. A. D. 1014, Tnis festering evU, by the very laws
of corruption, went on waxing worse and worse. Even your holy Council ol Trent
was avowedly called for this, among oth-.r reasons,—" to procure areformation ofthe
tlergy and the christian people." And the Legates rehearsed the same reasons, and
avowed that "the evi' s which oppress the church surpass in number, the sea-sand ;
and cry out even to heaven!"
I speak of things well known to you all, Reverend Fathers. You do know that
your standard historians record, how the bishop of Bitonto, in his Oration, on a Sab
bath, before the Trent Fathers, said—" auibus enim, &c. With what monsters of
baseness, with what a heap of pollution, with what a pest of iniquity, are the priests
and the people corropted in the holy church of G od !" You know that Friar George,
of Lisbon, in hia Oration, on the first Sabbath of Lent, before these Fathers, declarecl

S62 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
that " the children of Holy Blother, had fallen into the hands of robbers, opprestive
rulers, impious princes, and infidel prelates !" I refer you to Labb. et Cossart. Concil.
Tom. xiv. 7.33, 734.
But no reformation has been ventured on : no nerve in all your ranks was blessed
with courage enough, to turn the river in, to cleanse tbe Augean stable ! And as cor
ruption by tbe fixed laws of nature, always waxes worse and worse, when left to itself,
— what, ia the name of all that is sacred, must now be the state of things iu Holy
Mother of Rome ! In our republic, it ia true, your church presents the aspect of, in
some degree, a comparative purity, and correctness. But your priests dare not come
out to defend, and practice your doctrines, as in the Roman catholic churches abroad.
For this less offensive state of things, — you, audi should, in justice, say, we also are
indebtad, exclusively to the potent influence of American opinions, and American
morals !
And, Second, you cannot possibly be ignorant. Reverend Fathers, that the deplo
rable state of your churches in point of knowledge and morals, is of necessity altogs-
ther, produced by certain doctrines, tenets, and rites of your church. I have establish
ed the fact by sufficient evidence, and also by the confession wrung from tbe reluc
tant lips of your priests here, that thefirst and grand fundamental tenet ofthe Romish
church involves deism., — as necessarily as cause does effect. You boldly, and unblush
ingly deny the holy scriptures to be the only rule of faith and practice! You sit in,
judgment on the holy Bible, aLd pretend gravely to give it all the audiority it has,
1 or can have. You sit in the temple of God ! You do usurp God's throne, by tradi
tion, and j'our church's authority, — even as does the deist, by his uneDlighlened rea
son. Hence the pestilent morals of deism pervade your church throughout !
Contrast, I implore you. Fathers, the state of your flocks, and that of all Roman
catholic lands, in point of knowledge and intelligence ; in point of virtue smd sound
morals, with those of the same class, in society, among those whom priestly intole-
rauceis pleased to call heretics,— thereby meaning good Protes'tauts. Is there a man
who has eyes, or who can connect three idcEis in bis mind, who does not perceive the
astonishing difference between the two classes, — Roman catholics, and Protestants, —
in all lands? Compare Spain with England, Irelir.d with Scotland, the United
States with South America? Il is not owing to an;,' inferiority, by nature, inthe
Spaniard and the Irishman. These are — especially the Irishman, a noble minded,
warm he-.^rted, and generous race of men. They Eire deteriorated purely, and alone
by the paralizing and infernal influence of popery !, And yoa act on principle, you
know. Whenever a nation becoraes an illumined, and raoral people, — forthwith is
the crael and savage yoke of civil, and ghostly tyranny broken off, and dashed on the
ground. Hence the pope detests kno-ivledge and sound morals, as be detests the loss
of power and of gold !
Now, Reverend Fathers, — how long will you permit wicked men, and profligate
(>hepherds to prey on the flocks? How long will you allow a simple and unlettered
people to be abused by priests putting such questions as they do, unblushingly, to them
at the confessional? How long will you allow them to corrupt the youth, and
maidens, and married women, by pouring in their ears, ideas which virtue and modesty
cannot li6(?n to without horror ; and which can be breathed by none but sacerdotal
libertines, and other cognate minions of vice, so far gone in conformity to the image
of their Father, that they do all his damning service without even a blush !
"""¦"^ Fathers, we possess copies of these questions, in Latin, French, and Spanish,

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSTr 263
which these priesdy libertines are permitted, by you, to put to young females, and
married women, in our land, weekly, and daily ! Were I to set them down in
English before my readers they would be horror slriclr^n! Yet, the recJliug and
uaching I >Jse raost obscene questions, in the ears of wives and maidens, forms a
part of your religion! The reciting of these corrupting and loathsome questions
forms a p.-irt of the daily instructions given lo Protestant youug ladies, in iheriiiinery-
seminaries of your church !
In the name of the Blost Holy One, I call on you, Reverend Fathers, to put a stop
to this poUution ! I implore you lo banish the thocking abominations froro the con
fessional, anil from tbe laud! Can it be wondered at that in Europe, monasteries
and nunneries have been, even to a proverb, denounced as so many Soi'oms aud
Gomorrahs ! Tbe most, if not all of you, are foreii,ners: Emd you, thereloi,-, hav»
had the best opportunities of knowing this to he a fact beyond denial! You know
what I mean ! I appeal to die Memoirs of Scipio De Ricci, now before the public !
But your very standard books of morality, Reverend Fathers, are full of corrup'-
[ion. T:ie order of Jesuits, you know, has been revived especially forthe purpose of
overrunuing this heretical government Emd republic ! Regiments of ibe.'-e papf^l sub
jects and household troops are pouring in upon us ! And their standard works of Jesuit
ism — so often condemned in Europe, are put into the youth's bEinds in the popish
seminaries here. Now bear a specimen uf these books used in the Jesuit schools.
I have referred lo them, once and ugain. Lut as these moral writers are die order
of the day, with you; and as they are the manuals for Protestant young men and
young females, whom cruel parents abandon to the fangs of Jesuits, I shall quote a
few, again.
"A chUd who serves bis father, may secretly steal as much eis his father would
have given a stranger for bis compensation! Escobar, Thcol. Moral, vol. iv. lib.
.34. p. 34=^, Precious instruction for our sons! Hear again, — " Ser^'anls may
sscretiy steal from tUeir masters as much as they judge their labor is worth, mora
than the wrges wbich they receive." Cardenas, Chr. Theolog. Diss. 23, p. 474. To
tills agrees Tabernas; and also Lud. Molina, Tom. U, p. 1150. This 1e!M, writer
says, "De bonis, &c. They may secretly abstract something of theirmaster's goods,
providing they have asked, r,nd been refused : and provided they can do it without
injury to themselves, and tbeir shame," &c. Hear the instructions to a thief, " A man
is not bound to restore what he has stolen in small sums, however large may be the
total." Tamburinus Explic. Decal. Lib, 8, p. 205. Next.-hear what a good wife
under a Jesuit confessor's hands, may do,— "A woman may take the properly of her
husband, to supply her spiriuual wants ; and to act like other women." That is to pay
her priest for putting to her lhe.se infamous questions at the confessional! See Gor
donus, Theol. Moral. Univ. Lib. 5. p. 826. But I beg leave to refer my reader to a
worid of sUnilar quotations in Secreta Monita of the Jesuits, Appendix, Princeton
Edit, And to Paschal's Provincial Letters, vi, viU, ix.
Now, I put it to your consciences. Reverend Fathers, whether such doctrines, and
the licentious questions put at the confessional, and ihe easy rales of absolution, and
pardon of sin granted to those who confess, and pay the church's dues, have not pro
duced the present appalling state of morals in the Romish church. And wilh all this
impiety, deism, and immorality, in your communion, in popish lands, are you grave,
or in jest, v/nen you actually affirm that there is no salvation out of your Roman
catholic church? As it is really impossible that you can be in earnest, I tell yoH

264 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
gravely, Reverend Fathers, that you do carry your jests too far, wbeh you persuade
your simple victims that all Protestants are damned ! !
But, THIRD, — We have already deraonstrated that your suficession from St. Peter,
and the true church, is utterly cut off: I beg to refer to ray Letter VIIL, &c. : that
you have lost the succession ofthe ministry, wbich becarae utterly aud finally cut off
at the Council of Trent, ¦when tbe church of God carae out of " Holy Mother," and
left her "asa cage of unclean birds;" that you have lost the pure doctrines of the gos
pel, and the holy ordinances of Christ: that you have substituted a sacrifice and an
offering of, as you say, human flesh and blood, called the mass, instead of the Holy
Supper ; and a huraan device of anointing with chrism, instead of the baptism of the
Lord : and have, moreover, added five rites, — such as marriage, holy orders, extreme
unction, &c. ; which you have very facetiously honored with the title of sacraments.
Now, Reverend Fathers, the most serious doubts are entertained by good men,
¦n'hether your church of Rome be not, in verity, a perpetuated branch of paganism !
Conscious that such grave inquiries are very congenial to your grave habits, I shaU
¦soon resume this theme. I am. Reverend Fathers, yours, &c.
JSfoT. 19, 1833. W. C. Brownlee.

LETTER XXI.

TO THE LORD AP.CHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THK ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES.
The Romish church a perpetuated branch of ancient paganism.
" Hail, holy Pantheon ! house of all our gods !"
Reverend Fathers — I introduced a very grave subject in my last; such as is,
in all respects, very befitting your Reverence's devoutest investigation. May I beg
you to follow me in the serious inquiry ?
It is certain that neither you, nor we, can find your church in the holy Bible.
Hence you have been compelled by complicated, and mortal errors, to reject the holy
scriptures, as the rule of faith ; and betake yourselves to traditions, lo keep yourselves
in countenance with your interrainable load of ceremonies and rites ! Pardon me, I
err. We do find her in the Bible ; but on the wrong side of tbe holy pale of Christ's
true and pure church. We find ber in Revelations, ch. xvii. ; and in 2 Thess. ch. ii.
But, if we cannot find you as a true church in the pages of the Bible, we can find
your whole system in tbe field of paganism ; only under a new noraenclature. It is
baptized paganism. ,
Let us approach one of the pagan teraples, then, Fathers, one of your cathedrals.
What a harmony ! What a consistency ! AVhat a fair sisterhood ! "When we enter
a pagan chapel, the first thing we find was " holy water, and a priest sprinkling it."
"The Amula," says Montfaucon, " weis a vase of holy water, placed by the heathens
at tbe door of tbeir temples, to sprinkle themselves with." This is exactly what you
have ordered to be placed in your chapels ! The true church, following tbe com
mands of Christ, has no such thing.
The next thing which strikes us as we enter a pagan temple, is the cloud of smoke

a numoi!<\()rAlta5^sj[^lii^
oud ¦; so il iSsjxacfly'i'ii*-^

RtlMAN CATHOLIC CON'TROVEllST. Yi'i^' "xflSih^
Prdm the burning of inceuse. This is exacdy the same in your Bhaijf|s !, Inxh^ Y,
heathen temple, you could see, in tbeir large apartments,
blazing, while the curling volume of smoke ascends in a cloud ';
your Cathedrals ! A number of altars are reared, and are smoking with ihc5ll*'«*^
In the heathen temples, tbe images stood in rows, all around, as in the Pantheon : or,
as inothertemples, the conspicuous image of the idol, tbe genius of tbe place, stood
alone. So it isexactly in your temples! The Pantheon of Rome, in olden times,
the house of all the gods, is now the temple of Mary, the mother of God, end all ihe
Saints! The \\ hole form, and tbe idolatiy, are the same tothe very letter; only
new names are given to the idols. The Mother of God, has the place of Jupiter,
"the father of the gods." Of old, every pagan could find his own god, here, and
worship bim : even so, now. every one of tbe simple fiiithful, from all countries, can
find his own patron sstint, and worship him, in the temple dedicated by pope Boniface
to St, Mary, and all the saints ! !
Inthe pagan temples, fhe images and paintings were black with smoke. Even so
are the idols in your old temples, \\'hen Dr, Middleton saw the " holy image" of
our Lady in the temple of Loretto, he -was amEized to find ber as black as the image
of ancient mother Proserpine, or, of au old negress !
In the heathen chapels, lamps and torches were kept continually burning before the
faces of the idols, and at the allEirs ; and near the dead. This was so pecuUarly apart
of the heathen religion, that the primitive christians opposed, and ridiculed it. " They
light up candles lo God," — says Lactantius, — " as if he lived in the dark : and do not
they deserve lo pass for madraen, ¦who offer lamps to tbe Author and Giver of lights
In this, your church copies tbe pagan model exactly ! Each altar, and each image
has ils lamp, and candle! And what an array of wax candles you Ught up to the
dead, lo iU amine tbeir path through tbe dark valley ! But it must be their misfortune,
not your fault, that these magnificent v.ax candles do not move, and travel through
the valley of death, with them !
Let us, in imagination, pass farther into the interior of the heathen temples. We
behold their votaries on their knees, before their Jupiter, or BInrs, or Venus, beating
their breasts, and performing their holy evolutions. Enter a Romish cathedral, and
you behold the same. Near an altar, a priestkneels, and goes through his canonical
gestures, and contortions, and evolutions! At another, or near the favorite idol, an
other kneels, or some bumble votary, praying, — " O holy Mother, by the rights of a
mother, command thy Sou tohearus!" "WhUe the priest repeats this in the canonical
Latin, " O feUx puerpera, nostra pians scelera, jure matris, impera Redemptori !"
There is another shocking piece of conformity, loo striking to pass unnoticed. The
pagans offered up human beings, — human flesh, —human blood, on their aUar! Now,
Reverend Fathers, if we are to believe your solemn word, and that of your priests,
the wafer andthe wine are, in transubstantiation, turned really into Christ's very body,
hones, nerves, muscles ; and the wine into his real blood, tvhich flowed in his veins!
Thisis either most certainly so, or, you utter an imposing falsehood before the world.
Unless you utter falsehood, then, you do offer up daily, and weekly, human flesh, and
human blood, in sacrifices of the mass ! That ie, if you utter truth, you yourselves,
do as ready offer up huraan sacrifices, as ever did, or do the heathen ! And you make
your victims of imposition eat this human jlesh, and drink this human blood! luthe
name of humanity, and of common sense. Reverend Fathers, will you persist in such
literal conformity to paganism, as to perpetuate hAtman sacrifices ! WUl you persis
24

266 RO.MAN CATHOLIC C0NTR0VEr.^T.
in making the simple faithful cannibals, as were, and still are fhe heathens ! Speak,
the American public deraands an answer.
In every heathen temple, tbe priest, in his outre vestments, was attended by a Uttle
boy, in a white, fantastic dress, widi a little bo.x, or chest in his hands. This contained
the incense for the altar. Tbis was too pretty a part of the show, to be omitted by
your church. Hence every one has seen a liltle boy, clothed in a surplice, — yes, a
surplice, like a young Astyanax, strutting near his father Hector. The youth bears,
with solemn grimace, the sacred utensils, and the incense pot ; which the priest, with
a number of ludicrous grimaces, and gestures, swings around the altar, exactly ae
the pagan priests, in every respect, did. See Middleton's Letter from Rome, p.
136, &c.
How ingeniously, and industriously you have copied, and even exhausted the
pagan ritual! Ihave discovered another prorainent feature of your pagan raodel.
It is well known that the priest bas a little box, called the Pix. In this is kept bie
wafer god ; into this he puts what of the wafer god is left, after communion. This
he carries about with him, to be always ready, " to prepare a sinner for dying," aud
give him a bran god passport to heaven, by laying it on his tongue ! Now, I was
pretty confident that this was borrowed : for the Roraan priests are by no means
geniuses, or remarkable for tbeir own inventions! I discovered, lately, the origin of
this, in Mr. Hope's Collection of statues, and antiquities. There is in that collection
an Egyptian Pastophora holding the god Horus. And iu a London publication of
January, 1833, we have a description of it. "A Pastophorawas an initiated woman,
who, in the religious processions of tbe Egyptians, carried the god Horus, in a box
before the people, and presented the idol io the adoration of the multitude." Here we
have, at once, the origin of the Pix, wilh the god in it ; and of the carrying it about ;
and also the elevation of tbe host, tothe adoration of the admiring Roman catholic
mobs ! It is purely pagan !
My learned author adds, that "the language of Clemens of Alexandria, one ofthe
Greek fathers who lived in Egypt, who mentions the females called Pastophoree,
(Paed. 3. 2.) with respect to the lifting up of the covering ofthe box, and the direc
tions of the Roman canon of the Missal, are curiously similar. The " discooperit
calicem," of the Mass Book, would seem to be almost a literal translation of Clemens'
Greek sentence, which is, as foUow-s : — " OXiyov ciravacTEiXas tov KaTairiTaupaTos w^ 6u([,iv tov
©Ml/." That is, — " Having drawn the veil aside, a Uttle, as exhibiting the god." See
Prot. Joum. of Lond. Jan. 1833. p. 44.
The processions of tbe heathen through the streets, carrying their idols, dressed
out in flaunting display, with the votaries bearing wax candles, or flambeaux in their
hands, have been faithfully, I should say, slavishly copied, in all Roman catholic
countries. To see one ofthe processions on Lady day, and the overgrown ruddy
'faced priests waddling along, in all their motly dresses, like so many well fed buffoons,
with grave men, and even magistrates, and even delicate ladies, with longwa.x can
dles, at noon day, in tbeir hands, — does actually reraind one of the days of pagan
Rome, and the ceremonies of demon worship throughout all pagan lands !
The ancient temple of Romulus was sacred to that Roraan hero god. Here infants
were presented by the ancients to be cured of diseases by tbis god, "who was gracious
to children." Itis reraarkable that tbis temple at Rome, is now dedicated, says Mid
dleton, to tbe christian hero god, or saint Theodorus, who bad been exposed when an
¦infant, like Romulus, and who like him, cures their diseases. When the Doctor

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 267
visited this church, be actually saw a dozen of well dressed females, holding their
sickly infants before the christian Romulus, — saint Theodorus! ! Here we actually
have a wicked superstition perpetuated from the founding of Romulus' teraple, to thia
day, by the Holy Head of tbe Holy Mother Church !
Even the cruel superstition and lacerations ofthe priests of Bellona, and the vota
ries of Isis are kept up, under the pious care of your Holy Father! In their proces
sions, these pagans used to lash, and cut their bare backs. Tbe only music they used
was the crack of their lashes, and the suppressed groan ofthe victims, atoning their
warlike deity by their own tortures ! Your sect ofthe Flagellantes, or tbe Whippets
do keep it up, even to the letter. Besides, at tbe season of Lent, in Romish countries,
the procession of the fleshly discipUnariems, march inlo the chapel: at tbe tinkUng of
a bell, the lights are extinguished, their backs laid bare,, and tbeir whips are applied
to effectual purpose, by the modern votaries of Bellona. Nothing is beard, in the
dark, during the canonical hour sacredly devoted to self torture, but the cracking of
the consecrated whip ! It is not to be understood, however, I believe, ihat the blows-
fall certainly on their backs. The wise ones know, that they can make as mucb noiss-
in the dark, and get the flesh as well mortified, by applying the whip to tbe benches !
It might be highly beneficial, and might contribute speedily to bring to their senses,
thesedevout "whipjiers'' and " holy disciplinarians of the unruly flesh," if his HoU
ness would re-enact the edict of the judicious and wily old emperor Coramodus,,
which "compelled these Bellonarii tu lash and cut themselves in good earnest ; and not
feign itmerely, and impose on the people." This point of holy discipline, I beg to
refer to you. Reverend Fathers. And bishop England can carry the projected raodel,
ofimprovemenls to Rome, when be returns to bis Holiness to complete bis schemes,
on our country's subjugation 1
Even the water idolatry ofthe pagans has been kept up by your church, where she
bas flourished gloriously. The ancients, and also the raodern pagans — you know,
held certain rivers holy. And to wash in thera, was equal to the purifying fire of
your lately invented purgatory : and to be drowned in them, did forthwith open up a
pathway to immortal glory ! Now, who bas not heard of St. Patrick's Purgatory,
an island in Locbderg, in Donegall county, Ireland ? "To this lake and island im
mense multitudes are sent, annually, by tbe Romish priests there, to wash away
their sins, precisely in the same manner, as is done in the Ganges, and in India ! See
a similar description to this, in the Glasgow Protestant, ch. 54.
You have left few important parts in the pagan rites uncopied ; and especially
have they met your pious and devout imitation, when they could be rendered useful
to the gaiu of the priestly craft. The ancients used the sprinkling of holy water not
only on raen, but on beasts. They sprinkled their horses, as Middleton bas shown,
in the Circeasian games. From tbis is borrowed tbe Roman annual festival in
January, at Rorae. All who vrish " good luck" to their horses, asses, and mules,
bring them up to the door of tbe convent of St. Anthony, near St, Mary's the Great*
There stands a holy priest clothed in his sacred siirpUce, armed with his consecrated
brush, and his tub of holy water, waiting with a solera grimace, the approach of bis
brother cattie. As they come up, he souses them with bis salt brine ; and in retum
for his " Benediction of the cattle," receives for each a sum, proportioned to the
zeal or abiUty ofthe devotee. Tbis, says Dr. Middleton, " procures a revenue suffi-.
cieat to keep no less than fifty idle, lazy, fat monks,, for ;; whole year !" Letter from
^ome, p. 141,

268 ROil.lN OATHOMC CONTROVERST.-
Thus I have traced the origin of your prorainent rites, ceremonies, and customs.- I
ought to have added that the pope bears the very title, and office of the great officer
ofthe pagan religion, in Rome pagan, naraely, Pontifex Maximus, the chiefest
pontif. Tbis, true history declares to be bis genuine founder, — and by no means the
humble, and holy St. Peter, who would absolutely have been shocked into a fit of
holy zeal against the impious sycophants, had he been hailed Pontifex Maximus, or
our lord god the pope Peter. It is well for you. Reverend Fathers, and his " holiness
of Rorae," that the choleric apostle is not alive, nor among you. For, if he were, he
would let you feel the "temporal sword" about your ears; as manfully and sharply
as be exercised it in "cutting off the ears" of, by far, your betters, in olden times!
Thus, I have shown, I trust, to the American community, that, at the rise ofwhat.
Rev. Fathers, you affect tocall the Roman catholic hierarchy, — conversion had become
a very different thing from what it was in the days ofthe holy apostles of our Lord.
In their days it was a devout aud holy "turning from idols, to serve the Uving God."
But in the early popes' days, it was a conversion from Christianity lo the service of an
innumerable rabble of saint-gods ! The Romish christians so called, to use thewords
of McGavin: "instead of converting heathen lothe faith, were, by the influence ofthe
latter, turned from the faith, and converted to heathenism!" "In point of fact," adds
lie truly, "idolatry is as palpable at Rome, at this day, as it was in the days ofNero!"
I am. Rev, Fathers, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

LETTER XXII,

to the lord archbishop, and the lords bishops of the ROMAN CATHOLIC
church, in the united states.

Pictttre of the Mass.
"MuftoUff yeXojrof a^iovs Kai oaKpvoiv.
Mummery -worthy of laughter, and of tears !

Amphilochius^

Reverend Fathers: — In ray last, I traced the origin of your chief tenets, from
paganisra. The IcEist degree of acquaintance, with your systera, and with the reli
gion of Greece and' Rome, will satisfy any raan ofthe correctness of my positions.
I propose as a kind of appendix to this inquiry, to give a picture of a High Mass, in
Pontificalibus ; and our readers will be the better enabled to judge whether the show
be christianlike, or pagan, in its every feature: or, rather, whether it does not actuaUy
out-pagan every sjiecies of paganisra !
" Specta-fum admissi, risum teneatis, amici ?"
The Mass includes alraost the whole of the Roman catholic worship. Its inventors
have lavished their genius in the device of tbe most singular antic gestures ; and an
endless routine of ceremonies ! Hence going to Mass includes nearly all a Roman
catholic's religion, and piety. It is tbe grand test of discipleship ; and, the evidence
of wearing "The mark ofthe beast inthe face, and in tbe hands!"
Now, were we to view the Mass as a coraparatively innocent innovation, a mere

RO.MAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 269-
idle ceremony, a show to gratify overgrown boys and girls, \\ e should not here notice
it. But it is that which you. Reverend Fathers, have substituted for tbe one only and
perfect atonement of Christ! It is a damning innovation, in as rauch as it is the
substitute of our Btoserf i?e(?ee7ner's perfect righteousness! It lakes fhe entire place
ofthe one and only blessed Savior, And it excludes "hie finished work of satisfac
tion on the cross," as completely as does the Koran of Mohamraed exclude our
Lord from the mosque ! And our proof of this strong assertion is this : — I'he Mass a-s
you solemnly profess it to be, is, " the offering up of a sacriHce of human flesh and
human blood, for the sins of tbe quick, and tbe dead to pacify God?"
And this substitute of our Redeemer's alonemenl is not only an anti-christian idola-.
try, and superstition, as we have in former Letters shown : — it is a curious show, at
which gi-ave christians cannot but smile. Aud thus it exhibits " a mumraery worthy
of laughter, and of tears!"'
The Mass, as viewed by a spectator, seems to consist of five divisions. The first
we may call die robing of the bishop in his pontificals, — which must afford a highly
intellectual, and a purely spiritual feast of soul, to the spectators, — worshippers, shall
I call them ?
The bishop enters the chapel in a woolen pontifical cope, which has its tail borne up
by a chaplain: and going to the altar, he kneels down and says the "introibo, — I
-will go in, &;c.'' He then walks to tbe place where the Paramenia (or robes and
ornaments) are laid, and seats himself; surrounded by the proper quota of chaplains
and deacons; one of whom acts as his prompter, to tell him what to say: and to
point, with his finger, to, the place in the book where he is to read. Near them, lie
the various, solemn paraphernalia, and, sacred vessels.
The attendants having duly put on tbeir sanctified copes and surplices, tbe bishop
rises, and turning towards the altar, says tbe Lord's prayer secretly. Then crossing
himself from his brow to bis breast, he says, " God be my helper, &c." And whil
the choir responds, he turns towards tbe altar, between two bearers of wax candles,,
and says, " the Lord be with you, &c., and other prayers. Then gravely laying
aside his phtDia?, or cope, he takes tbe ornament called h'lsplanet, approaches the altar,
and sits down, while the psalm of the hours is being sung. During tbe tinging, the
holy sandals are brought out : one deacon lifts up the corner of bis cope, while another
takes off the holy raan's shoes : then uttering certain prayers, he at last says, " Shoe
me with the sandals of gladness!" And the dutiful deacon then puts ou the conse
crated sandals. And so he answers this fervent prayer !
Then standing up, he says, " O Lord, strip the old raan off rae !" The sctitiferus,
or shield bearer, answers this prayer, by stripping him of his flowing cope. Then
looking on his hands, he says, " O Lord, give virtue to my hands !" Tbis grace is an-.
swered by another deacon bringing a basin and water to wash his bands, while he sits.
The towel and basin are held by the most honorable and exalted layman, who throws,
himself on his knees, and pouring out a litde water into the basin, he sips and tastes
it. Meantime another of the ghostly menials is taking off the holy consecrated rings,
from the bishop's fingers ; and then the distinguished layman, rendered iumortal by
this honor allowed bun,, -with tbe aid of a deacon, washes ihe saintly bishop's hands,
dries them, and carries back the basin and towel to the credentia.
Thus the bishop's feet being shod with the gospel preparation, by the pious act of
jutting on sandals ; and the old man being put off, by devoutly pulling off bis old
woolen cope ; and having washed his hands in virtue and innocence, bi/ getting thtny.

27tF KOjrAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
washed in water, — be approaches the robes, and prays : " O Lord, put on me the
helmet of salvation, &c." At this signal, the paramenia, or robes and ornaments are
all brought forward, wilh sanctimonious bowing and grimace,— -//ieen in number-
The bishop approaches, bows, and kisses fii-e of them, — namely, the amictits, the
p'Xtoral, and the cross, the stole, and' the pall. All these the deacons receive from
the chaplains, one by one, and put upon the bishop.
And, first, with edifying solemnity, tbey take the Amiclus, and having allkissed it,
they put it over the bishop's bead", and fix it on him. His head being thus armed
¦«'Uli the shield of salvation, he stands up and' prays : "O Lord, clothe me in white,
<fcc." Upon this they put" on the white surplice. Then be utters another prayer, while
all the people look on him wilh wonderful piety and edification, saying, " O Lord,
gird me with die girdle of faith, &c. On this, in answer to his devout prayer, the
ghosdy menials lake bis girdle, and place it round his holy corporation, and buckle it
in front. Then addressing the cross, the bishop thus prays, — " Deign, O Lord, to
fortify me, &c." On this the deacon, imhe due exercise of his sacred functions, takes
the cross, and bofding it up to the bishop to be kissed, hangs it round his neck, so as to
make it rest on his holy breast.
Next, tbe bishop in following up his devotions, says to the stole, " O Lord, give me
die robe of immortaKty, &c.'' The deacon, whose office it is to answer this prayer,
now puts on the robe, nicely adjusting it, as any mantua maker's maid would do, on
his sacred person. Next, the saintly man prays, — as he looks on the tunicella, or Uttle
coat, — "Put me in tbe coat of jocundity, and clothe me, O Lord, with the garment
of joy, — tunica jucuudUatis, &c.'' Here they put it on hira, fitting it with raantua-
maker like exactness, to bis holy neck, and holy hand's. He next prays, — " O Lord,
clothe rae with the garraent of salvation, &c. " Here they put on him the dalraatick,
or episcopal vestment, with tasteful nfceness. The holy man next fixes his devour
eyes on the gloves, and prays. — " Circumda manus, Domine," &c. Clothe my
hands,. O Lord, with the purity of the new man," &c. On this, the deacon, whose
office it is to answer all these devout prayers, first kisses his right hand, and puts a
glove on it, then kisses the left, and puts a glove on that; and so he clothes his hands
with heavenly purity !
This being over, the bishop prays another new prayer, saying, " O Lord, thy yoke
is easy," &c. On this, the spiritual menials who are illuminating the congregation
by all tbis sublime play, take the bishop's ornament called "the planet," and put it
on, bringing it back, so as to give his arms free exercise. The pall is next brought ;
the deacon takes hold of it by the cross on the right side : and the sub-deacon by the
cross on tbe left side, and holdforth the cross in the middle, that the bishop may kiss
it : tnen, while he mumbles a prayer or two, they put it round his neck, raaking part
of it on tbe left shoulder to lie double : and the whole is so tastefully, and so tailor
like put round his neck, that his arms are not hindered.
Then comes the putting on of the three thorns with their jewels. This, none But
the sanctified and initialed can weU describe; the /r,sf thorn goes into tbe breast of
tke pall: the second into the cross on his left shoulder: and tbe- ihird'mto the cross
behind. And these thorns, by the orthodox dressing, must not go quite through the
cross ! It is a raatter of deep concern to be orthodo.x here !
After this, tbe bishop, speaking to the mitre, says in way of prayer — "Mitram,
Domine, &c. Put on rae, O Lord, the mitre, and the helraet of salvation," &c.
Here he sits down : and the dutiful and busy deacon devoutly puts the mitre on the

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTTIOVKRST. 271
Wshop'shead; the sub-deacon as devoutly holding up the glaring baubles, and rib-
ions that hang from it. The bishop sitting, prays, " Decora cordis, &c. Decorate
with virtue, O Lord, tbe fingers of ray heart, and body," &c. Here tbe deacons, ia
consummating his devout prayer, put the'rings on his fingers. Next, the gremial, sc
rich piece of sUk held by two priests, between the bishop, and the people, when h»
says the raass, is laid on bis lap. This done, he prays to the manipulum, or tbe cloth
¦which is on the left arm, at mass — saying, — "Blerear, &c, Blay I be worthy,, I pray
O Lord, to carry the raauipulum, with a raouinful spirit," &c. Upon- this, the said
sloth is pul across bis arm.
At this stage of the SEmcrimonious raanceuvre, tbe incense is prepared in tbe proper
vessel, with about one dozen gesticulations, and contortions. Then with a nicely ar
ranged procession, the bishop comes to the steps of tbe altar, and makes a full halt.
Here the deacon takes off bis mitre, and religiously combs back, and smoothes down
his hair. Then foUows the confession of each of this holy confraternit v. The bishop
bo-wiog reverentiall)- to the altar, begins the confession of his sins. The deacon kiss
ing the bishop's left hand, goes up to the altar, with the manipulum, and the gospel
9pen in his right band. Tbe bishop next, with suitable prayers, goes up lo the altar,.
and kisses it with deep solemnity, and also the book of the gospels. Having next ap
proached the horn of the epistle, be takes tbe incense pot, puts incense into it, and
causes the cloud of smoke to cover the altar. And this religious, and very edifying
service is done thus : — having adored, with profound reverence, the image on the cross,
he whirls the pot of incense three times round it : theu he whirls the pot twice round
the image, and sacred relics, on the right : and then around those on tbe left, as often.
Next he gives three holy swingings of the pot, round the image and relics, near the
comer of the epistle : and as many be gives to ihe horn ofthe gospel. He then deliveis
the pot to the deacon, who swings it round the -bishop hiraself, and smokes him
etfectually !
After a number of other edifying gestures, and motions, the bishop is hfted up by
the arms, as if be were suddenly become paralytic ; and being on his legs, he as sud
denly gets well. And standing sturdily on bis legs, he says the " Gloria Deo, Glory
to Gorf,"&c., taking care, in the most orthodox manner, to join his hands on his breast,
at the word, God. While the choir sings a hymn, be has his mitre and gremial brought
to him: they are again taken off him, as the hymn ends. He is again helped on his
legs bythe activity of the sturdy deacons ; and he cries out to the people, — "Pax
vohis, Peace be unto you ;" and he keeps his hands before his breast, until the edified
and devout audience reply, "And with thy spirit." He then sEiys, "Let us pray,"
and then he goes on with his prayer in Latin, lo console and edify those who do not
understand a single word of the muraraery !
After an incredible number of similar gestures, the burning of incense, and kiss
ing of the bishop's hands, and bowing, and reading what they call the gospel, and
after the bishop has been again perflimed with incense smoke, and has stood up whhout
mitre and gremial, — he sUs down to listen to a sermon. Tbe preacher, now, conies
up, and on his knees adores the bishop, kisses his band, and asks bis blessing. This
lie freely gives by making the sign of the cross over bim. That finished, wilh mucb
gesture and bowing, tbe preacher givesthe bishop bis absolution, &c., &c.
Second: The bishop or priest sings five psalras : then uncovers, combs down his
hair, and washes his bands. Next comes tbe sprinkling of holy water : and singing
tie iniroitus, as the bishop approaches the altar. After a grea.t many gestures, again

3f2 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
alroitly performed, there is mucb chaunting. A linen cloth full of pictures is carried
aj a canopy over the bishop, by four sturdy ecclesiastics. Here again follow incense,.
and chaunting. There is the gradual, and the hallelujah ; and ihe tractus, — so called
from the long, drawling tone, and nasal twanging of the priests affecting much sorrow,,
as they sing it.
The third partis i^e consecration, more properly so called. The gestures, and par
ticularly the bowings, and adoration here are not easily recounted. The sub-deacon
puts ou a long veil ; takes the patin with two choice hosts, or wafers, and the chalict ;
and covering them with the veil, goes up wilh thera to the altar, following the bishop.
Another brings the wine and water. The bishop now puts on bis epistopal ring and
mitre, and comes to tbe altar. At the altar, bis mitre is taken off; and he adores with
lowly bowing to tbe altar. The deacon now takes one of the hosts, and touching the
patin and chalice wilh it, inside and outside, makes the sub-deacon taste of it. The
other host he offers to the bishop, who takes it wilh both hands, and holding it up
before bis breast, repeats tbe prayer, "O Lord accept it," &c. This is called the
Offertory, from its being offered to God; and from the people's making an offering of
gifts to the priests.
The priest before he offers tbe host washes his hands a second time. In the interim,
the deacon throws over the altar a clean linen cloth called corporate, or palla, because
they say, it covers Christ's body. The chalice is also covered with another palla, or
corporate. Tbe deacon having presented the patina, with the bost upon it, to the
bishop, also presents tbe chalice, in which tbe priest mixes wine, and water, and con
secrates it. In the consecration, the water only is blessed by the priest when mixed,
not the wine, because the wine they say, represents Christ, who needs uo blessing.
The Aosi is placed on the altar, between the chalice and the priest, to intimate that
Christ is mediator between God, {-who, they say, is represented by the priest,) and the
people, which the water in the chilice, as they say, represents. The priest again
jiorfumes tbe altar and sacrifice, three times in the manner of a cross; bows himself,,
and kisses tbe altar, and repeats very softly ihe prayer which they call secreta ; though
this prayer is said in silence, yet tbe conclusion of it is uttered with a loud voice Per
omnia secula seculorum. Theu follows what they call preefatio, which begins with
thanksgiving, and ends with the confession of God's majesty. The rainds of tbe people
are prepared with these words. Lift up your hearts. The answer to which is. He
lift them up unto the Lord. Then is sung the hyran. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God,
Sec. Heaven and earth is full of thy glory. Then foUows the hyran Hosanna, and
next the canon, which is also called Actio, (because it is a giving of thanks) wbich
is uttered With a loud voice. The canon, besides thanksgiviug, consists of various
prayers for the pope, cardinals, bishops, kings, all orthodox christians, gentiles, Jews,
&;c. These, also, are particularly reraerabered for whom tbe sacrifice is to be offered,
and their names rehearsed. Prayer is also made for those that are present at mass;
and for the bishop himself. Then mention is made of tbe Virgin, the apostles, evan
geUsts, and raartyrs. Next, after many crossings, follows the solemnity of the conse
cration of tbe host, by tbe pronouncing aloud these words, " Hoc est corpus meum :"
This is my body ; to which the people answer. Amen. The priest now falls down on
liis knees hefore the consecrated host, and worships it, offers prayers to it, and, rising
¦p, be elevates it, that it may be adored by the people. Then after seven several
crojsiBgs olthehost, and chalice, this part ofthe mass is concluded with prayers for the:

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 2?3
dead, and tbe people's offerings of raoney to the priest, as a reward for his prayers in
behalf of tbeir dead friends, for tbeir delivery out of purgatory.
The fourth part of tbe mass begins with the pater noster, and somo other prayers.
The sub-deacon delivers the patina covered to tbe deacon, who uucovers it, and de
livers it to the priest, and kisses his right hand. The priest kisses the patina, breaks
the host over tbe chalice, and puts a piece of it in tbe wine, to show that Christ's
body was not without blood. Then the bishop pronounceth a solemn benediction.
Next is sung the hymn Agne Dei, that is, O Lamb of God, that takest away the sin
of the world. Then the kiss of peace is given, according, as they allege, to the
apostle's commands. Salute one another with an holy kiss.
The fifth, and last part of the mEiss, contains their commimioii. The priest, or
bishop communicates first himself. He takes the one half of the host for himself,
ths other half he divides into two parts, the one for the deacon, the other for the sub-
deacon. Next, the clergy, and monks communicate; and after them, tbe people ;
but they have only the consecrated wafer allowed them, and put in their mouths, ihs
cup being withheld from them, and drunk by thepriests, or clergy alone. The priest
holds the chalice wilh both hands, and drinks three times, pretending thereby to signify
the Trinity! Tbe whole is concluded with what they call post-communion, which
consists in thanksgiving, and singing of antiphonies. The priest then kisses the altar,
aad removes again to the right side of it, where having uttered sorae prayers for the;
people, and blessed them, the deacon with a loud voice, cries. "Ite, missaest," that is,
"Go in peace, the host is sent to God the Father, to pacify his anger." See Steph.
Durant de Rit. Ecclesiae. Innocent III. de Myst, 3Iis6EE. Bernard.de Offic. et Gabriel.
Biel. de Canone Missas. See also Dr. M. Geddes' Works on Popery, vol. iv. p»
206, &c.
Such, christ ism reader, isa faint outline of tbe chief parts of the mass. To com
prehend tbe imposing puerility, you raust see it. I repeat nothing of what we said of
its idolatry, and outrageous insult offered, by it, to tbe one holy, and all perfect atone
ment of our blessed Redeemer ! I now speak of it as a splendid compound of irapo
sition and quackery, and childish inventions, played oft", upon an ignorant, gaping
assembly, by large, and bearded youths; each of whora, as a sophomore, is taught to
strut his boyish parts on tbe ecclesiastical stage of the consecrated theatre ; nnd to go
through his gbo-illy pautoraime, without laughing outright! And who are each of
them neariy ready, as hopeful, bearded boys, to be transferred to the ji.Tu'ordepartment,
to study the first elements of logic, and coramon sense ; and con over tbe priraary
parts of the gospel theology !
I appeal, from you, Reverend Fathers, to the enlightened, and highly inteUigent
American community. And I beg them to decide whether the mass be not whoUy
the invention of Romish priestcraft, throwing completely into the shade, all the idol
atry, superstition, and ghosdy manipulation ever known, or ever heard of, in Greek
sail Roman paganism ! I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &c.
W. C, B.

274 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.

LETTER XXUI,

TO THK LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH, IN THK UNITED STATES.
On the Idolatry and Superstition of Poptry.
" Confounded be all they that serve graven images; that boast themselves of idols: wor
ship Him, all ye gods!" Ps, xc. 7,
Revsrend Fathers :— In tracing, by the light of scripture and history, the true
origin of your church, its doctrines, and rites; and in liemonstrating its pagan pater
nity, it would be unpardonable to omit tbe most striking and irresistable demonstra
tion of this, set glaringly before all eyes, in its idolalry and superstition.
There is a six-fold idolatry which I charge upon you. Fathers, and your iburch of
Rome. And, be.'bre God, and the enlightened American community, I offer to make
good this charge. First, your worshipping of images. Second, your worshipping of
saints. Third, your worshipping of relics. Fourth, your worshipping of the cross, —
the wood ofthe cross. Fifth, your worshipping ofthe host, or the consecrated wafer.
Sixth, your worshipping of the sacrament, under the name of St. Sacrament. Your
Reverences will, of course, patiently hear me on each of these, in order.
By idolatry is raeant the ascribing of divine honor of latreia, to idols and other
objects, and the worshipping of God by images. If there be meaning in words, this
is condemned and prohibited by the law of God. " Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image," — that is, as all adrait, for religious uses and worship. " Thou
shalt not bow down thyself to thera," — that is, in adoration offered to them, or before
them." And, Reverend Fathers, tbe reason is obvious, why your Trentine council
crowded this precept out ; and why others of your writers cram it into a corner, not,
if possible, to be visible, or to stand out openly, as a commandraent. Hence tbe third
comraandment is your second one. I beg leave to quote other passages of God's law :
" Cursed be he that maketh a carved iraage ; or molten image, which is an abomi
nation to the Lord, — and setteth it up in a secret comer; and all the people shall say
araen!" Deut, xxvii. 15. This doctrine pervades the whole of the Old Testament.
And even your own Apocrypha utters the following words on your ears: " Cursed
is the idol that is raade with hands, yea, both it, and he that raade it," Wisdora, ch.
xiii. and xiv. In the conclusion, the author of this portion of your "sacred canon,"
says that the boqoring of abominable images "is the cause, tbe beginning, and the
end ofall evil ; and that the v,-orsbippers of them are either mad, or most wicked."
And you cannot be igporant. Fathers; that this same " canonical book" of your church
says, — " The painting of the picture, and the carved iraage with diverse colors
enticeth the ignorant, so that he honoreth and loveth the picture of a dead imags,
that hath no soul." Now, it is quite manifest that this sensible writer must have
looked often into a pagan temple; — if not, iu a shrewd vision, into a Popish chapel,
and seen the paintings, and statues of tbe worshipped saints; and flaring, party
colored robes of the "adored bishops and priests!" He adds the following bold and
thundering denunciation: read it, Fathers, and let all your flocks read it. They that
love such evil thinjs, they that trust in them, tbey that make them, they that favor
i.liem, they that honor them, — " Shedl feel a judgment worthy of God,"^-even, — ei-_
treme daitination ttpon them." — Wifdom, ch. xii. §6, 27, apd xv. 4, &,

ROMA* CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 275
In a word, it is the one grand, pure,- and simple doctrine of the Bible, that we
"Should worship the Lord our God ; and serve bim alone." And the second grand
Item is this, — Thou shalt not make, nor use pEuntings, and images, to worship God
by them. " Take good heed, for ye saw no manner of similitude on tbe day that the
Lord spake unto you in Horeb; — " lest ye corrupt jiourselvef , and make unto you a
graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male, or female!" Deut.
iv.l5, 16.
Reverend Fathers, is it possible that you can be ignorant of these passages of God's
holy word? Can bishops possibly be so ignorant, as not to know that Almighty God
has uttered this against the pagans, and against you, their too faithful descendants ?
Some of your more sober writers really have tried to defend your systera of idolatry.
"We do not worship figures, these painted saints, these statues: we worship God,
through them."
How deeply you Eire dyed in paganism ! This was exactly what the heathen said,
— "We do not worship these statues, but our gods through them." "But I beg two
replies to this your defence: 1st. In addressing a saint through his statue, it is
supremely absurd to say that you worship God through that statue. You pray ; not
to God, but to a dead man, or a dead woman! In praying to, and adoring a dead
man, you are as guilty of idolatry, as in praying to a stump of wood, carved into a
Madonna! But, 2d. God has prohibited in the most positive terras, the use of iraages,
"m his pure and spiritual worship. He hEis not only said : " Me only shalt thou wor
ship; and have no other God before rae:" but he has also uttered She most solemn
command " notto make any graven image; nor to bow down toil, or before" it, in hie
worship. Again, the champions of your renovated paganism say "We are not idolaters; we
distinguish between latreia, and douleia : thefirst, and highest worsliip, w-e render to
God only : the latter, or the lower, we may, and do apply^to tbe creature." To this
we reply, that these two words are used reciprocally, both by sacred and classic
¦writers. The Hebrew word, to serve God, is rendered sometimes by latreia, and
sometimes by douleia, by tbe Seventy. See Exod. iv. 23, and xxiii, 25. In these
texts they use latreia to express tbe holiest service of God. In Deut. xUi. 4. and
many other places, they use the word douleia to express the sarae divine service.
And, Rev. Fathers, if you wUl look into Laurent. VaUa's Annot. in ch. iv. of Mat
thew, you will perceive that he proves beyond gainsaying, that these ttvo words have
no difference in their meaning, and appUcation to divine worship, This also is
admitted by your own Nicb. Sarrar. in Lilan. 2, Quest. 27. And by Mouline de
Novit. Pap" L. vii. cap. 13. I have only to add here dial St. Augustine is considered
the one who first coined tbis distinction, where no difference exists. But hke your
selves,— Fathers, and your priests, he ifos no Greek scholar, as he himself frankly
confesses in these words; "Ego, quid Grajcae linguse perparura assecutus snm.etprope
nM." Aug. Cont. Petit. Lib. ii. cap. 28. Cont. Faust. Lib. xx. cap. 21. And tbis
isnotaU; that good Father never intended the distinction now used in the popish
sense. He actually confesses that both the terras belong only to God : " The one-
says he— "is due to hira, as our Lord ; the other to hira, as our God." And you are
well aware that St. Paul, in describing his own cliaracter and office, calls hiraself,
doulos, a servant of Christ. And surely, he did not thereby give Christ the inferior
Worship. Farther, to establish our point beyond the gainsaying of every Roman ¦^vriter, let mc

276 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSr.
only say that when tbedevil tempted our Lord, it was not tbe higher oxdei of worship^
the latreia, that he demanded ; nor did be himself pretend to be God ; be would have
been content with "a little religious worship, a little prostration;" just exactly such
as you exhibit in bowing down to idols. And yet Christ says to him, — " Get thee
behind rae, Satan: for it is written, thou shalt worship tbe Lord thy God, and him
only shall thou serve." You need not, — you cannot reply to this, by alledging that
il was the devil that demanded the worship; but that you jirofess to deraand worship
to saint's images. To this I reply, by rerainding you of St. Paul's words in 1 Cor.
X.19, 20, that what "the gentUes sacrificed to their idols, tbey sacrificed to devils."
Your idols. Rev. Fathers, are just as much devils, as are the idols of the Gentiles.
And if Christ refused the " lower worship," as you call it, to ihe devil; then is every
christian bound to refuse your "lower worship," to your newly baptized "devils!'^
I crave pardon. Rev. Fathers, if I have not spoken in plain enough and sober terms,
to you.
The more grave of your writers now admit, that it is a vile species of idolatry to
make images of God the Father, and of the Holy Spirit. And well may they do so.
For it is impossible to represent in visible materials, the invisible God. Every iraage
df this nature, does represent the Deity infinitely different from what he is. Hence
these images are designated by divine inspiration, "a lie." For they utter the most
glaring, and most pernicious falsehood, that can possibly be conceived. Rom. i. 25.
"They changed the truth of God," tbe true representation of the infinite and omni
present one, " iuto a lie, and worshipped, and served the creature, more than the
Creator."" But you insist on making, and adoring images of Christ: and you carry this into
practice to .such an extent, that these images, and thos? of the Madonna and the child,
are as numerous in your chapels as the Jupiters, and Venus, with her Cupids, were
inthe pag9,n teraples of ol^ Now, any iraage you can make of Christ, must exhibit
an imaginary countenance, ^nd features; no man, or church on earth, bas retained
his true likeness. As portraits, or statues of him, therefore, what you show off, are
actually mere fictions ; mere impositions; and they are, like all idols, a We. Besides,
no christian in his sound senses ever did, or ever will worship the manhood of Jesus
Christ. We worship him exclusively, and only, as "the eternal Son of God," or
¦" the Great God our Savior." And in this character, in which we do worship him,
no image, no painting, no similitude, ever can be made of him. A few rude materials
o'f straw and dust, can never represent the invisible, etemal, and omnipresent Deity !
To worship an image of a man, which you are pleased, without reason, or propriety,
to style a " Christ," is the grossest idolatry ! And according to the above arguraent,
it is doubly -"a lie!" First, as to bis manhood: and second, as to bis Godhead!
Hence our answer to your vulgar reason, in behalf of using images, — namely, that
they are "picture books," — " the instructive books," to lead and guide the illiterate
and ¦vulgar into truth : — " and that tbey exhibit, at one view, what it would take vol
umes to express." Yes ! they are the illiterate mEm's picture books : but they mis
lead, and impose on him raost scandalously. They are the infamous tools of a
reckless pagan priestcraft, to crush intellect, reason, knowledge, piety, and if possible,
the pure christian religion! Yes! — "They are tbe books of the unlearned." And
be it so : — ^but whoever saw a man in bis senses, fall down, and worship, and pray
to "his hooks," out of wbicb he was reading !
I beg leave to extend my remarks also to the images ef your saints, — ^namely.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 277
dead men, and dead women ! Do you pretend lo worship their dead bodies, or their
living souls? Not tbeir bones, and dust surely ! If so, avow it uprnly. But bow
canyon pretend to make au iniEige of a soul, now in heaven! Do you believe that
these rude, material images represent the invisible soul .' No! Then, surely, ibey
resemble not the torf)/ of tbe deceased: l"or vmi have lost the true likeness of St.
Peter, and St. Paul, and ten thousand otheis of your uilored saints. And 1 am surt
you will all admit that these images represent not tbe human soul. Here, then in
both ca^es your images are au utter " lie !" And, of course, they couvev to the minds
of your illiierate, and degraded victims, the veiy falsest imprcNsiuns which can, even
by Satan, be conveyed to mortals!
i Image worship, and image use, in chapels are, therefore, not only without authority
from God's law, but absolutely against the very spirit, and letter of it.
The man's intellect must be only a single, visible point above ralionalitv, who can
persuade himself (a thing which none of you. Fathers, nor any rational man, in the
ranks of the priesthood, ever for a moment believed,) that St. Peter, or the Virgin,
can be every tvhere presmt, to hear their million of votaries! How can the saints, I
pray you, hear a million of diflerent supplicants, in all parts of the world, al the
game moment .' If they cannot; and if they need to be told by God that such a one
is, tlmt moment, praying to them, then they cannot, withoul God, do any thing for
them! Nay, even if God told them, they could not li-ten, or attend to a million at
once! And I put it to you, if. in that case, it be not infinitely more proper, to refer
all the intercession to our Lord Jesus, whose infinite raerits can certainly admit of no
addition, Emd of no human, or angelic help: and to go directly to God, who
only can hear, and will hear ; and can help, and will help, those who corae unto
him through Christ. Why seek helpless aid, when we have omnipotent aid, at
hand! An instructive anecdote is recorded inthe history of the ancient house of Gordon.
A faithful, old tenant had got into difficulties ; and could nof pay his rent. He went,
first, to the under, and then to the chief factor. They spoke roughly t-o bim, and
would make, or accept of no compromise : the loss of his cattle, and the failure of the
crops, were nothins lo them. They demanded the full rent, under the piain of being
imprisoned, and all his goods sold, and his family turned out of doors. In bis cala
mity, he resolved, in despair, to make his way to the Chief. He pressed into die very
presence of tbe Duke, and implored his pity, and interposition. His grace no sooner
heard bim, than be kindly offered him all the relief he soUcited. x\she .showed hira,
on his departure, the paintings, and statues in the chapel of the casde, honest John
Gordon asked bis Chief "what was tbe use of these gaudy figures ?" Now the Chief
was a papist ; and he reproved John's ignorance very heartily ; and chid him for not
knowingtbat these "were St. Peter, and St. Paul, and the Holy Virgin." "And
what can ye possibly do wi' them a' ?" cried the plain Sfxjttish Protestant. "Why,
John, I pray to them to intercede for me with Christ, and his Father!" "Ah! gude,
my Lord, ye're a' wrong. Saving your presence, il is utter vanity, and worse ! Trust
to no saint, my Lord, but go directly lo God himself, our Savior. I have tried it just
now : these small fry bring no aid : in my own case, — ye see it. I first tried litde
Sandy Gordon; and I tried meikle Sandy Gordon, but a' would na' do: but when I
came to your own good Lordship, I got the whole desire of my heart ! I beg you, my
Lord, to go and do likewise.'' And the honest man's weU timed, coraraon sense in-
«hnction was effectuaUy blessed. The family record says that his Lordship was
25

278 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
awakened, and finally by God's grace converted, and he was the first of that distin
guished long line of that noble Protestant faraily of Scotland.
The subject of images, you know. Fathers, has, in your fierce agitations, absolutely
deranged the dnitt of Holy Mother church. You cannot be ignorant that the sen
timents of your sect, are of the most opposite, and discordant nalure.
There are three conflicting opinions in your church; and I beg leave of 5'ou to ask,
to wbich of the three factions, in your Unity, you and your priests belong? Or, are
you 33 much dislracled on this point of idolatry, in these States, as is your broken,
and distracted pect in Europe ?
Bellarmine, and Juenin, you know, divide the popish system on this topic, into tbe
following three classes. Thefirst class use iraages, but do not worship them. That
is, they allow the 'Romish superstition, but reject the idolatry of it. According lo
these, the image has neither sancdly, nor power; they worship the holy One only
hefore the presence of the image. " They honor the images only as the Jew did the
Ark, or the chiistian, bis Bible." This marvellously refined superstition character
ized the system of popery, as held out before rrotestants. Il was professed by Bossuet,
Juenin, Gerson, Dupin, Challoner. But as Edgar observes, " they were prudent in
pubUshing their opinions at a due, and res|)eclful distance from Spain, Portugal, Goa,
and the Inquisition." See BeUarmine on this. Lib. ii. 20., Juenin, Instil, vol. iv. p.
414. Bassanus, Edit. 1773. And Edgar's Tar. p. 402.
The .second faction, in your church, patronize both the idolalry and superstition of
Romanism. They offer the lower worship, — the douleia, lo the images and paint
ings. Tills faction is numerous. It boasts of Bellarmine, Baronius, Sanderus, Estius,
Godeau, and Spondanus. This, sa3^s Bellarmine, was the doctrine ofthe Nicean council.
They held dial "images are holy, aud communicate holiness?" They also enacted the
curse on those who used pictures only, to ap^ist their memory, and not for adoration !
Bell. Lib. ii. 20, 21. &c. And Labbeus vol. viU. 700. The council of Trent, which raet
after the Reformation, professed to follow tbe Nicean fathers. But, such were the force
of Ught, and the influence of literature and phUosophy, shining on.them from heretics,
that the Trentine fathers have been constrained lo present a less pagan, and a more
rational view of tbe subject, than that of the Greek council. By the Trent canons,
the " worship of the holy images," is made to dwindle into "honor and veneration."
Dupin ii. 636. Lab, ii. Tom. xx. p. 171.
The third faction in your church, carry out their theory into the grossest idolatry of
paganisra. They give the same worship to the images and paintings which they
give to the originals ; that is, they give the same solemn adoration to the images of
God, and Ijis Son, as that rendered to Almighty God, and to Christ himself. To tbe
image of Lady Mary, they give hyperdoulian, or intermediate worship; while thatof
the saint receives inferior, but still truly divine homage. Tbis is the system of Aqui
nas, Cajetan, Bonaveutu^ia, Carthusian, Turrecrema, andthe Schoolraen. See BeU.
Lib. ii, 20, Aquin, Ui. 25. Edgar, p. 403.
Pope Adrian, and the Nicean councU, pretend to find proof of this very gross idol
atry, in llie existence of the cherubim over the mercy seat ; and in the brazen serpent.
Is il not amazing, Fadiers, that the infallible pope, and these Greek fathers did not
happen to di-i&over dial these were neither the images of saints, nor the objects of
worship ? The cherubim were in the Most Holy place, and never toere seen by tht
people. And il surely did not require very profound knowledge of the Bible to disco
ver, that, when the brazen image was made an object of worship by some besotted

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 279
Jews, it was forthwith dashed into fragments, by one who " acted rightly in th« sight
of God." '2 Kings, xviii. 4. I am. Rev. Fathers, yours, ^;c.
W. C. B.

LETTER XXIV.

TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, -tND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CAT'tOLlC
CHURCH, IX THE D.MTED STATLS.
On the Idolatry and Superstition of Popery.
 " With crucifi.-ces hung.
And spells, and rosaries, and wooden saints,
Like one of reason reft, he journeyed forth,
In show" 
Reverend Fathers: — With vour piermission, I shall present to the American
community, some specimens ofthe peculiar and gross idolatry of tbe Romish church.
.ind, through you, I beg my readers to be assured that I am giving specimens of idola
try, — not ofthe dark ages, — but of such as bsis been perpetuated from antiquity down
to our time : — of idulatry practised in our land, in our cities, and in our own days, as
you. Rev. Fathers, very well know. And you can assure them past all doubt, on
their inquirie,-: made of you, that all I speak on this raatter, is the simple unvar
nished truth : that it is all exhibited in your books; sustained by your ghu-ily power,
and practised at your bidding, by the supple priests, and minions of antichrist. I
have spoken of your idolalry in tbe use aud worship of images, in my last. I pro
ceed to exhibit your idolatry iu the worship of saints. I select promiscuously.
Thomas a Becket is an illustrious saint in your calendar, to whora you pay your
¦worship. So great was his saintship's influence in heaven, for about 400 years, that
your "simple faithful"' said actually more prayers, and offered more gifts to him, than
even to Jesus Christ '. I beg to repeat what I forraerly had occasion lo quote flora
bishop Bumet, that "in one year, there was ofli.-red on Christ's altar, in his church at
Canterbury, about £3; on tbe Virgin's altar, about £63; and on Becket's altar,
upwards of £83^2 ! Next year, the amount of prayers and donations stood thus: —
On Christ's altar, — nothing ! on the Virgin's £4, and a few coppers : on Thomas a
Becket's, upwards of £954! ! Now, here is a specimen ofthe prayers which your
victims offer up to tbis k.vave, who justly fell for the crime of high treason against
his lawful sovereign ; but whora you raake an inferior g-oc?. "May this comraunion,
0 Lord, cleanse us from sin, and by the intercession of blessed Thomas a Becket
thy martyr, make us effectual partakers of this heavenly reraedy." Rom. Catb,
Missal for the use of the LaUy, p. 85. Again : Tu per ThomEB sanguinem, &c. Do
thon by the blood of St. Thomas, which he spent for us, — quem pro nobis impendit,
scant that we may ascend whither he has ascended."
In Scotland, in A. D. 1551, it was taught as salutary doctrine, by the popish priests
and prelates, that the Lord's prayer be uttered in devotion to the saints. See Fox, p.
1274. Willet, p. 384. To this day you utter Pater noeters to them !
Your homage to saints is admirably arranged. Lucian in bis Dialogues of the
heathen gods, mtroduces tbe god Mercury as complaining to Jupiter, with a ruefu^

280 ROMAN catholic comtrovehst.
countenance, that he had too many offices, and too rauch work assigned to him; thaf,
as a god, he was killed outright with work and toil ! Now, you have been more
judicious than the ancients : you select a potent host of saint-gods ; and hence
none of thera, e.xcept the holy Virgin, bas got too much work. St. Dennis takes care
of France: St. Jaraes, of Spain; St. George, of England ; St. Andrew, of the Scot
tish raen ; St. Patrick, ofthe Irish; St. David, of the Welch ; St. Nicholas, or Santa
Claus, besides taking care ofthe sea, watches over all good Dutchmen ; and is, raore
over, tbe patron of all young females, who wish to be married ! St. Anthony^ the
Abbot, presides oyer fire and inflammaticfns ; hence in these, and in fires, you implore
bim, "O St. Anthony, graciously defend us frora fire!" St. Anthony of Padua,
again, preserves his votaries from water, — " O holy Anthony, keep us from drowning !"
St. Barbara takes charge ofthe faithful in time of thunder, and war, — " O holy Bar
bara, pray for us : aud keep us from thunder and war!" St. Blass cures all disorders
of the throat ; and to this saint you have recourse when hoarse, or laboring under
colds : — " O holy St. Blass, pray for us, and cure our throats !" St. Lucia lakes care
of the eyes : and all those who want to have good eyes, or diseased ones cured, raust
pray to ber: "Merciful and kind. St. Lucia, pray for rae and cure my eyes!" St.
vkgalha cures sore breasts. St. Margaret presides over midwives. St. Ramon, —
nobody can tell who he is, — but on the ghostly calendar, be is declared to watch over
married ladies who are in that state in which all good ladies wish to be, who love their
husbands. St. Lazaro is his kind assistant ; fbr he takes them off St. Ramon's band's^
at the moment when their labors begin. St. Polonia has the care of the human teeth :
and all who have the tooth ache, or who want good teeth, devoutly adore St. Polonia !
St. Doraingo cures /tiers.- St. Roque wards ofl' f/iepfagwe.' See Townsend's Travels
in Spain, vol. iu. p. 215; Cramp, p, 352.
This is a very small specimen; but you have saints to preside over all diseases;
and over all cattle. There is a saint solemnly stationed, you know, over the geese and
poultry ; and others over less important mailers and animals : all are kindly provided
for! In some instances, our Lord is represented in your prayers, as mediator with the
saints, to obtain from them what their votaries ask. For instance, under the name
of St. Wenefride, you have this prayer drawn up for your victims : " O blessed St.
Wenefride, hear the prayers and receive the humble supplications of thy devout pil
grims, and obtain, by thy pious intercession, that God will be pleased to grant us a
full pardon and remission of sins; that we may increase and persevere in God's grace,
and enjoy eternal life with him in heaven. This ive beg of ihee, O blessed Virgin,
and martyr, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen." Here she is put in the place of God,
the Father; and she is implored lo grant tbe favor /or Christ, the Intercessor's sake!
This is copied from a book pubUshed by the papists in BrUain, in A. D. 1817, See
Glasg. Prot. vol. i. chap. 47.
Tbe following is the prayer used at the consecration of images, by pope Urban VIII.
taken from the Roman Rituale. "Grant, O God, that wbosoever, before this image,
shall diligently and humbly, on his knees, worship and honor thy Son, or the Virgin,
or the saint," (as the image may be,) " he may obtain, by his, or her, or theh merits
and intercession, grace in this Ufe, and eternal glory in the next!" Now, we ask in
the words of an eminent writer, — " if this be not idolalry of the grossest nature, let the
church of Rome show us wherein the worship of Jupiter and Apollo was idolatry."
One word more in reference to the comraon hand ofall the saints; — each of thera.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVBRST. 281
individually, is invoked as a god: and the Almighty is implored for the sake of their
merits, to grant all blessings. Here is a specimen ofthe whole, or AU-Saints, taken
from " the Roman Missal, for the use ofthe laity," London edit. 1813. "Oramtisle,
&c. We beseech thee, O Lord, by the merits of thy saints, whose relics are here;
and of all of the saints, that thou wouldst vouchsafe to forgive us all our sins.
Amen." The Holy Virgin is your great goddess and queen of heaven! The following is
from " the Hours of the Blessed Virgin,' Paris edit. 1553; and it is rcmaikable only
for this, that pope Sixtus IV. has solemnly granted as you well know, 1)000 years
pardon of sins to all who devoutly sav it before her image! — "Ave Maria, hail most
holy Marv, mother of God, queen of heaven, gate of paradise, mistress ofthe world,"
&c. Again, from the Roman Breviary, Sep. 8, Lee. 6. " Perte, &e. By thee we
hope for the pEirdon of our sins : and in thee, O most blessed Lady, is the expectation
ef our rewards." The following I copy from " The devotion ofthe sacred heart of
Christ, with the devotion of the sacred heart of Mary." ]2ih London edit. 1821.
This book is surpassed in authority, with you, only by the Missal. — For Friday, —
"I revere vou, O holy Virgin Mary, the holy ark of tbe covenant ; and with all tbe
good thoughts of all good men, on earth, and all the blessed saints in glory, do liless
and praise you infinitely ; for ihat you are the great mediatrix between • <: and man,
obtaining for sinners, all tbey can ask, and demand ofthe blessed Trinity!
MUlions of such prayers arise dailj^ from the baptized paganism, which you are
pleased to call j-our church. And yet, after all, these are uol tbe most offensive, or
blasphemous. I appccJ to the pages of one of your saints, which I have repeatedly
quoted; and beg leave, again, to quote, in order to sustain this heavy charge. I allude
to St. Bonaventure, whom you worship on the 14ih of July, — aday sacred lo his
service. — "Jure matris, ice. By the rights of a mother, order thy beloved Son, our
Lord, &c. impera filio tuo. Sec." Cur. Beat. V. Tom. 6. Roraan Edit. 1588.
Again, — "Ora patrem, jube natura, — '¦'O felix puerpera, &c. Pray lo the Father,
comraand thy Son." " O happv Mother of God, atoning for our crimes, by the rights
of a mother, order thv Son, the Redeemer, — nostra pians s-celera, jure matris impera
Redemptori ! !" I have thus I'lven the original, that all may judge of the Irarisjalion
I give. See Hist. Sec. Char. August. De Com. B. Virg. And to crown the climax
of the most shocking and revolting iilolatrv. ' ompared lo whi(-h, Ihat of Greece and
old Rome was tame and moral, — for they never placed their Venus, or Diana, or any
female deity, above their Jujiiier, — vour Saini I'oiiavf-niure has written "ihe P^alter
ofthe Lady Mary," in which he hasadapleil the psalms lo thewor,-hip of Mary; by
inserting instead of Lord and God, the name of Mary, and our Lady! Here is a
specimen, — "In thee, O Ladv, do I put my tru^i ; let me never be confounded," Ps.
Ixvui, opens thus : — "Let our Lady ari-,e, let her enemies be scattered." Psalm xcv.
thus opeii<, — " O corae, and let us sing unto our Lady : and make a joyful noise unto
the Queen of our salvation 1" One instance more ; the 1 lOth Psalm ojiens thus, —
"The Lord said unto my Lady, sit ihou on my right hand, until I make iliine ene
mies thy footstool !" — And yet. Fathers, you giaveiy call yourselves christians ! Nay,
you affect to be the only pure, apostolic church! "O judgment, thou hast fled lo
trutish beasts; and men have lo-^t their reason !"
But, even all tbis idolatry, horrible as it does appear, is not the tvorst ! You
pay adoration to the relics of the saints. You venerate old bones, old chains, old
garmaats, and the coals which burned certain saiatsJ Yes! lo use the words of
25*

283 ROM.\N CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
bishop Hall, Works, folio, p. 630, who quotes the idea out of Erasmus, you have
araong your worshipped relics, " St. Francis' cowl ; St. Anna's corah ; St. Thomas'
shoes; St. Joseph's breeches; and a piece of tbe Virgin Mary's green petticoat!"
These you devoutly venerate ! Verily "to be grave defies all length of face!" You
reUgiously venerate, in certain of your churches, iu Euiope, to tbis day, says bishop
Hall, St. Martin's boot,^: St. George's scabbard: St. Crispin's paring knife; the
parings of St. Anthony's toe nails ; and the tail of the ass which carried our Lord !
In France they have /oar heads of St. John; and in Rorae, says Dr. M'CuUoch,
/tic pilgrims a-j-rived with a budget of relics, forthe faithful: among which each of
thera 'nad afoot of the ass, which carried our Lord into Jerusalem! Popery Con
demned, vol. i.
But the cross, even the wood of the cross, is in great request among you. No chapel
is thoroughly consecrated, unless it have a bit of the holy limber.
Now, I particularly beg your attention to ttvo things relative lo ibis affair. 1. You
adoro tbe wooden cross itself. 2. You render it not the inferior, but tbe superior ado
ration ; that is, latria ,- which is precisely the same as that v,'hich, you adrait, dees
belong to Almighty God. This doctrine is sustained by the highest authority of yonr
church. St. Thomas Aquinas says, — "If we speak of the very cross, on which
Christ was cruciiied, )'/ is to be worshipped tvith divine worship, &c. " We hoik speak
to the cross, and pray to it, as if it were Christ crucified on it." P. 3. Qu. 25.
Art. 4.
" The Roman Pontifical, revised and pubUshed at Rome," in 1595, by order of pope
Clement VIIL, contains " the order for the processional reception of tbe Eraperor.''
Here are the words I allude to ; — " Crux legati, &c. The cross ofthe legate, because
latria is due to it, shall be on the right hand; and the sword of the Emperor on hie
left." Foho copy, p. 672. Finch, p, 289,
The following are the prayers offered up fo the wooden cross: — "O crux, &c. O
cross, only hope ! bail ! In this glory of thy triumph, give an increase of grace »o
the pious ; and blot out the crimes of the guilty." "Exalt, of the cross, Sept. 14."
Again, on the feast of St. Andrew, Nov. 30. you teach your deluded victims thus lo
pray, — " O bona cru.K, &c. O good cross, who bast obtained comeliness and beauty
from the Lord's limbs, receive me frora men, and restore rae to my Master." And
thisadoration of the cross may be seen in our cities, on Saturday in Passion week.
The priest uncovering tbe cross, says, "Ecce lignum, &c. Behold tbe wood of ths
cross!" Then the chorus sing out, " Come let us adore!" And all fall down and
atlore tbe wooden cross ! In another part of the ceremony, he pioceeds to the middle
of the altar, and uncovers the cross toially, as he cries aloud, — " Ecce lignum, &c.
behold ihc wood of the cross, on tvhich the salvation of the tvorid hangs! Come lei us
adore !" Then bearing the cross to another place, he kneels, and places it there.
Then putting olF his shoes from off his feet, he approaches "to adore the cross," —
kueelinglhree times before he kisses it! Then after bim, come the other clergy, and
laitv, two by two, who kneel tlirice, and adore the cross, — adoranl crucem!" fiee
Rom. Missal. Dubl. Edit. 1795. " The Roman Missal, forthe use ofthe laily,"
liEis omitted tbe closing part of this idolatrous ceremony, — because it is a translation,
in English : and is given io the Protestant public. Finch, p, 291.
The ^'.¦ol¦3hip of the consecrated tvafer lias been repeatedly noticed, as a prorainent
part of your idolatry. You convert it, by the rauttering of " hoc est corpus," into
tbe Host ; that is the hostia, or victim to be offered up in sacrifice for the quick, and

ROMAN CATBOLIC COITTROVERST. 283
the dead. This idolatry, whUe it is as palpable, and as brutish as that which was
the reproach of the ancient Egyptians, is decidedly ihe most degrading in all the hie-
tory of human infamy. The ignorant Egyptiiui would never degrade himself so low
as to eat his idol calf; or his onion god: be could never be so far brutalized, as to
become a cannibal ; ,ind eat a sacrifice of human flesh! But, you, Rev. Fathers,
and your victims, lets fastidious, make your bran god ; then adore him ; and, then,
rat him up! You convert the iron gorf into humau flesh, and human blood; and
then, Uke cannibal-, \ ou eat this human flesh, and drink this human blood !
Then, only think of the prayer which yon ofler up to this wafer god, before you
despatch bim into tbe ste-imacbs of die faithful, and, dience, " iuto the draught." Here
itis; — "O sa\ing Fost I thou that openest heaven's door, — the arras of our eneraies
enclose us; we need iliy help: O speedily help us, we humbly implore thee!" See
"Manual of godly prayers, and the hymn of Aquinas in it," And Glasg. Prot.
chap, GO.
In fine, being infuriate ¦with tbe spirit of itiolatry, you do actually convert tht
sacrament into a god! Yes, Fathers, you actually worship and adore it, under the
name of St, .Sacrament! ''The mEmual of godly prayers,'' contains the litany of
this new RoraEm catholic deity, A few extracts from it will close this Letter. And
I request my re-ider to remember that these prayers are addressed, not to Christ, not
to God, but to St. Sacrament ; as is evident from the words of a Uttle book published
inFrench, in 1669, entitled, "Practice to adore tbe holy Sacraraent," which begin*
thus, — "Praised and adored be tbe raost holy Sacrament of the altar !" Here is a
part of tbe litany: — "Bread com of the elect, have raercy on us! Wine budding
from nrgins, have mercy on us! Fat bread, and the delight of kings, have raercy
on us! Supersubstantial bread, have mercy onus! Word made flesh dwelling
i.f cs, have raercy on us I"
To understand this IeisI phrase, we have only to remeraber that they had swallow
ed the wafer; and that wafer, being the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ,
was in theh stoniacbs, at the moment of uttering this extraordinary prayer !
"Sacrifice, 0/ cll others most holy, have mercy on us ! Dreadful, and life-giving
sacrament, have mercy on us! Unbloody sacrifice, have mercy on us!"
Such are a few specimens of your unparalleled idolatry and superstition ; as they
are beUeved and practise-l by you, this day, in our cities ; and over the land. Yes!
such is the idolatry and superstition of yoar learned priests; aud " highly polished,
gifted, and accomplished bishops," whom one of the editorial corps, the other day,
caUed " die ornament of letters, and the glory of our land !" I rest my appeal, with
the enlightened American comraunity, if the idolalry and superstition of your soi-
disant christian church, do not utterly eclipse, and completely throw inlo the shade,
the foulest idolalry and superstition, of the raost pagan lands, in their most pagan
-condition ! I am. Reverend Fathers, yours, &c.
AV. C. B.

234 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSTi.

LETTER xxv.

TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES.
On the internal symptoms of certain decay, and final ruin, in Popery.
" Babylon the great is fallen, — is fallen ! Her sins have reached unto heaven; and God
has remembered her iniquities!" Rev. xviii. 2, 5.
Reverend F.vthers : — Having done some justice, to your doctrine of the mass,
nud purgatory ; and having, as you will generously admit, raade a fair exhibition of
the idolatry and superstition of your church, it raay be proper now to notice the
.symptoms of necessary decay in your novel and sectarian system. Every heresy has its
weak side, and vulnerable parts. Every apostacy from pure Christianity, and your
church is the grand apostacy, foretold even to the letter, — has in it the jarring and
deadly elements which work its death. The King of Zion has so ordained it. As sin
necessarily works death in the human body, even so there is that mortal eleraent in
every apostacy which, necessarily, by tbe laws of immutable justice, worketh its death
and extinction. In the natural world, the kind and benignant Deity sends an anti
dote to kill the viper's poison, where vipers abound ; and to neutralize the vegetable
.and mineral poisons, where these exist. Even so it is in the spiritual world. No
¦ -error, no heresy, no apostacy bas ever yet appeared, without some potent element of
truth set forth : cr some fatal internal disease to work its .gradual destruction ! And
jnst in proportion to the greatness ofthe evil system, so is the remedial element found
to be potent and irresistible. The king of Zion is very wise, and boundless in mercy.
Hence be has ordained, iu mercy to a bleeding and^ agonized world, that when a
-System, such as popery, or Mohammedanism is the mortal enemy ofthe human race,
in civil and religious things, — there shall be not only self 'remedial elements, but even
a suicidal principle embodied in it, by its impious fabricators.
Now this, if I mi.stake not, is pre-eminently the case with popery. And you can
.correct me, Fathers, if in aught I err on this point. There are elements wrought up
into your whole system, which are absolutely suicidal ; and will, as naturally and
jiecessarily, work the death of fhe whole system, as God's laws, in nature, produce
.their own proper effects. And it is a comfort to reflect that this process in the moral
world, and in religious systems, is just as certain in its effects, as in the natural world.
For instance, the systems ofthe Brahmins, and other pagans, which are founded and
sustained by darkness and ignorance of the sciences, must fall to the ground when
ever its victims are illumined in the arts and sciences of the christian world. That
reUgious system which has, for a part of its soleran creed, a belief that the earth is a
vast plain, and not a globe; and that it rests on the back of a huge land turtle, must
fall to ruins before the science of astronoray and geography. Even so as certainly
¦must popery fall by its own jarring elements, and the influence of its own corruption.
.First : — Your system lays no foundation for saving faith. This follows as a legiti
mate inference frora what we have established in our preceding letters. To tbe object
qf divine worship, you add angels, saints, relics, and the wood of the cross, to which
you render latria, or the higher worship. In the mass you have an entire substitu
tion of priestcraft, for die one, only, and perfect atonement : in the doctrine of justifi-

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 285
cation before God, jour church has thrown away the righteousness of Christ, and
has substituted good works, aa the ouly meritorious cause of our personal acceptance.
Justification by our own merits was established in the sixth session of the council of
Trent. And your standard writers universally teach the damning error. Moreover,
one needs only to open the Roman Missal, in order to see that you oiler up prayers to
the saints, that God, "through their merits"' would deliver you from all siu. I open
the book at random, — my eyes have just met this prayer of yours to St. Nicholas,—
"0 God, grant, that by his merits and inlercessioji we may be delivered frora eternal
flames."' Rom. Mis. for die use of the Laily, p, 527. Il is taught by your unblush-
mg priests, that the saints have not only meri( in God's sight to procure their own
salvation, but they have an immense surjilus thereof, which they kindly lend to
others: and the pope has generously assumed the keeping of tbis fund; and as
generously weighs it out, for ready gold and silver, to Ihe simple faithful ! Hence, it
is obvious that the entire foundation of saving faith is taken away. 1 do not deny that
there are pious men in your church ; but if there be, tbey are ¦n'here they ought never
lo be. But that victim of your delusions, who believes as the Roman church believes,
and dies in its faith, must either leave heaven, or Jesus Christ must leave il. They can
not possibly live in the same heaven ! As surely, then, as Christ's cause raust ,
flourish, so surely raust popery wither away and perish utterly.
Second: — The day is coraing when the contradictions so glaring in the systera of
Popery; and its jarring elements, will cause every man of sense, forthwith, to aban
don it, as infamous. A folio volume might be filled wilh gleanings of these : I can
give only a few specimens. The Roman church calls itself christian, — yet there is
now, no one doctrine of Christ which it has not altersd, and completely changed.
"You are saved by grace," says oar Lord. " No ! ye are saved by your own works,
andthe merits of the saints'" Says your Lord, the Pope. "By the deeds of tbe
law no flesh shall be justified," says our Lord "By the deeds of the law, all good
Roiaan cathoUcs are justified," says your lord, tbe pope. "Thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God and bim only shalt thou serve," says our God. "You shall worship
and invoke angels and saints, and Marj- the queen of heaven, the great mediatiix
between God and man," says your god the pope. " By his otie sacrifice and one offers
ing, Christ has perfected thera that are sanctified," says our Lord." "No! in tbe
mas.^ we offer up continually a real propitiatory sacrifice, to appease God, for tbe
quick and the dead," says your lord, the pope.
Our God has prohibUed the making of iraages for religious use and service, and
enjoins us " not to bow down to thera." " This by no means forbids us to make,
and use images in worship,'" says your lord in the Trentine Catechism, par. iii. sect,
33, &c.
Our God prohibits all iraages of himself,—" Take good heed to yourselves, for
ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that tbe Lord spake to you in Horeb, lest
ye corrupt yourselves and raake you a graven image, the similitude af any figure!"
"No, this is not to be obeyed," say your lord, the pope, and the Trentine fathers,—
"for no offence is committed against God's law to express, aud shadow out, by signs
any ofthe persons of the Trinity,"— "it is lawful to shadow out the Trinity by some
figures." See Trent. Catech. part iii. sect. 36. p. 850.
Our God prohibits male and female images to be made, for religious uses, or wor
ship. "Take beed to yourselves,— lest ye corrupt yourselves,— and make the simi
litude of any figure the likeness of male, or female .'" Deut, iv. 15. 16. " This wa

286 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
do not obey, nor believe," cry your lord, tbe Pope, and the Councils of Holy Mother,
— "We do make, and we shall raake, and we shall adore images of male saints, and
of female saints ,'"
The regenerate have to mourn the power, and evil fraits of sin that dwelleth in
them. "I delight in the law of God after the inner man," says St. Paul, — "But I
see another law in ray raerabers warring against the law of ray raind ; and bringing
me into captivity to tbe law of sin, which is in my members.'' Rom. vii. 22.
" This is not true ; it is heresy," — cries your lord, by tbe voice of tbe Trent Fathers.
" There is nothing in the regenerate that God can hate ; and thai they are inwardly
pure, and without spot." See Concil. Trent. Sess. 5. And while they bold that he is
thus " pure inwardljr, and without spot ; and while there is nothing in him that God
hales," I hey teach that, with all this perfection and love of God, " a raan doubts, and
must doubt, his salvation as long as he is in this life :" and needs purgatory, after all !
See Trent, Conf, 6, chap. 9.
It is a standard doctrine of Rome that each of their seven sacraments " conveys
grace." Nay, more than that, — in tbe mass, by the wafer, there is convej'ed into
each of their church members, a real, whole, and entire Jesus Christ : he is in thera.
Hence the prayer we formerly noticed in the Litany of St. Sacrament, in the
Manual of Godly Prayers, — " O word, raade flesh, and dwelling in us, have raercy
on us." This is addressed to "the Christ in thera," after be is swallowed iu the
wafer. Now, all raen, who choose to say that they are of Holy Mother, — even all
who choose to come under the priests' care ; even the raost infidel, and flagitious who
walk the earth, can possess the "real grace," — and what you call the diviue and
only Savior, as really in them, as food is in the storaach ! And yet, at the raoraent
of taking in this special grace, and real Savior, they are living in raortal sins against
tbe law of God. And hence, when they die, — they descend, not into purgatory, —
that is too good for thera; they descend inlo hell, with the special grace of Saint
Sacrament — and with " the real and true Jesus Christ dwelling in them." That is,
they take grace and "the true Savior," to hell, along with them! !
Hence, in perfect consistency with all this mass of absurdity and contradic
tion, the Rhemish annotators teach, "that wicked men and even reprobates, if tbey
only remain in the public profession of the church;" that is, the Romish church,
" are true members ofthe body of Chiist." Rhem. An. in. Joh. 15, Sect. 1. And
therefore, it is of no consequence bow a raan lives, — the raost obstinate unbeliever,
the adulterer, the murderer, the Uar, the thief, the perjured, are all safe, if they only
say, — yes, only say it to the priest, that they do belong to "Holy Mother church:"
and do swa' low down into their stomachs " the real Jesus in the wafer," tbey are quite
safe ! They may probably be subjected to a scorching and severe singeing in purga
tory, — but they will certainly for the matter of a few dollars and cents, get out of
even that. The Romish church, and doctors laugh to scorn those who teach the need
of "saving inward grace, and a new birth." Nothing more is needed, says Bellar
mine, than "the external profession, and their union to Mother church." See Bell.
Lib. iii. De Eccles. cap. 2. And we need only to add, here, their sentiments
respecting the holy scriptures, in which, as we have fully proved, they embrace reso
lutely the most inveterate deism!
Nothing is raore certain, therefore, than this, that the Roraish church is strictly
and properly speaking the mother of deism. She rejects, and even ridicules that
which iBe Bible makes the test of discipleship in the christian: — "If ^ny man be in

ROMAN CATHOLIC SONTROVERST. 287
Christ, he Is a new creature." This, to the pope and his bishops, .is you well know.
Fathers, is a nauseous, and disgusting doctrine. She takes away the very fountain
head of purity, virtue, and godliness. Hence she is as rauch Ihc mother of vice and
all abominations, as she is the mother </ deism !
Does any mau ask for proof.' Vou can sie it ou every page of your decretals,
canons, and books of doc^irine! Vou can sec it in your hue pope's Bull a;>ainst the
Bible, and all Bible societies! You can sec it in the opposition of cm ry Itomisb
priest, directed with a persevering, aud rancorous uiulignity, ag.iinst ihe n-adini; of
the holy scriptures. You can see it in their diabolical cUoris to burn c\(ry Bible
which they can find in the hands of the laity ! You cau see il in tbe Uagiilous lives
ofthe priests; especially iu all lauds v here poepry reigus in jiower. ^ ou know it
to be a canon of your house, and a practical law of popery, that priests may keep
their concuftiiies .- but w-o, wo be to diose, who shall, like good old Si. Peter, marry
and support an honest wUe ! To live in tbe damning siu of fornication, the Roraish
church bcis granted a free canonical i:ileratioii to every "holy" priest in hor service !
Should the priests dare to marry, thej' are forthwith guilty of a mortal sin! But
should they keep concubines, and frequent the bouses ¦ndiich "lead to the chambers of
death," they are -juite honest, clean, and pure priests ! Nay, Fathers, blush not
¦whUe you Edlect lo frown ! I appeal lo facts. Every body sees it here. A, id it is a
recorded fact of history, that the priests of Italy, Spain, Naples, Austria, aic a con
gregation of whoremongers of the most infamous and unblusbiug class ! Even the
nobles of these countries, bad as they are, — blush for thera ! — Hence also deism covers
these lands. Both priests and the people, of the better and well informed class;
and those who read for themselves, Eire all deists, — nay, Fathers, they are atheists !"
"I must either worship the virgin Mary, or no one," — said a genteel Italian, to ray
friend Dr. Avery, while in Rorae: "And I chose as a man,'" continued he, "to
worship no God! For, if this be the true and only religion, then say I deliberately,
fhere is no God!" And tbisexpresses the sentiments of nearly tbe whole body ofthe
middhng and higher classes of that coramunity ! It is not in human nature to be
otherwise. The master craft of Satan prevails over tbe human reason and judg
ment, in diese popish lands of tbe darkness of the shadow of death. Under the influ
ence of your church's diabolical priestcraft, men are taught, are tempted, are con
strained to reject all that is naraed christian, by those villainous priests' Ups; naj', to
laugh lo scorn even the existence of a God ! I appeal lo the most manifest facts of
history; and what every traveller sees with bis eyes; and hears with his ears.
Every popish country, thoroughly imbued with popery, is a land of deisra and athe
ism! No sober raan ever thinks of doubting U. The priests and bishops, as Mr.
Noah, in the Evening Star, justly observed of Bishop England, " are raerely men of
tht world, and politicians." They traffic in the ghostly trade of popery : they deal
in masses, and confessions and pmrgatory for ready money. They care no more
for the articles they deal in, than the Yankee does for his wooden nutmegs. Providing
they get ready money and can conceal the craft, in order to raake another draft on
the simple faithful, when tbey are again in funds, they care for nothing, present, or
future; for nothing in heaven, or in purgatory, or iu bell! ! They laugh in derision
atheU, and heaven ! It is tbe trade tbey have been brought up to ; and they follow
it as tbe farraer, or the jockey, or the gambler does his vocation. The sole object of
Somish priestcraft is gain, and guilty pleasure !
Hence, popery, by its deism and atrocious vices, and hs tyranny over die 60ul9 and

288

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.

bodies of men ; and by its systeraatic robbery of its victims, and exactions for masse),
and at the confessional, is infallibly working Us own ruin, and total downfall. The
explosion of the old French Revolution was one leghimate effect of popery. It
gendered the dtism of the French ; and thence their atheism. And, like tbe unguarded
man who is blowing up rocks according to rule, it lays the train, unwittingly, to
blow itself up, in an hour when it thinks not of it. And just as certainly as deism,
tbe fruits of popery, overturned the house of the Bourbon, Louis XVI ; and just as cer
tainly as the Jesuits' excess of zeal for Holy Mother produced the explosion which
drove the priest ridden Charles X. from his throne, — so certainly is popery laying
the train over Italy, Naples, Spain, Portugal, and Austria, which will, ere long,
produce such another explosion, as Europe has never yet witnessed. For, —
^' There will never be peace while Anti-Christ reigns!"
I am. Rev. Fathers, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

LETTER XXVI.

"to THE LORD .IRCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS, OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES.
On the symptoms of decay, and certain ruin, in the Romish church.
" The Man of Sin, shall be revealed, the Son of Perdition, who, as God, sitteth in tbo
temple of God, showing himself that he is God." — 2 Thess. ii.
Reverend Fathers: — In addition to ray former two specifications, I have,
thirdly, to beg your patient admission of another severe, but most manifest truth, on
this point, Il is Ihis : — The gross immorality of popery, and demoralizing tendency of
all its peculiar tenets, indicate tke certain decay, and ruin of that system.
It were an ea-iy mailer to show that tbe Romish church has, in theory and practice,
repealed all, and each, ofthe ten coramandments. In reference to the /rsi andsecond,
behold your new gods, saints, angels, and images! The third tbey abrogate, by
giving to Iheir idols, and saints, the divine titles, attributes, and works, — "Holy Mary,
fbrinstancr, is Mediatrix between God and man." They appoint days of worship, and
institute ordinances to adore and praise them, and they swear by them, lo the neglect
and contempt of the ouly true God. The fourth precept is virtually repealed, by
their inslitution of ihe days now alluded to, which are kept holier than the Sabbafh.
By a late bull of the pope, which was published in the Episcopal paper of Philadel
phia, tbe holy priests are prohibited from going into theatres, on Wednesdays and
Fridays; as u mortal sin! But they may go inlo theatres on the Sabbath day !
And this is actually done, as every traveller well knows, in all catholic Europe, and
in South America, and even in New Orleans, in our own country! It is, indeed, a
matter of recorded history, that just iu proportion as popery prevails in any land, is
the Sabbat h of the Lord desecrated, and utterly despised ! This follows as naturally
as our other position, that popery is the parent and nurse of deism !
The fifth precept is abrogated by placing the clergy above the law, and without th«
reach of civil law, and above tbe judgment bar of the magistracy, inRomancathoUe

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 289
lands: and by die insolent usurpation of tbe pope, in setting subjects free from thoir
oath of allegiance to tbeir lawful rulers. This y. iwcr is acknowledged by all bishojig,
as you very well know. Fathers. And as soon as you can gain an ascendency, here,
you have your seeu't insnuctions, you know; and you are bound by your oadi, to
loose EiU the citizens frora their oath of allogianee lo our lejiublic; ami lo own, as in
duty bound, allegiance to the pope, '-your only legal superior." This is enjoined on
every bishop, iu bis oalb, — namely, to sustain and support tbe pope's power against
all princes, and presidents ! And this you would do, lo render God a ;.ervii e by set
ting men free from tbe power and rule of our magistrates, ¦\\liom you curse and
denounce as heretics ! This, you are aware, is manifest from tbe words of vour oath ;
and from }-our books. And it has been actually done in every country in Europe,
where tbe pojie has heen. by the ¦wradi of Hod. permitted lo rivet his galling chains
onthe neck of magistrates Erad people. Hence tbe cases of king John of England,
and the Emperor Henry IV. of Germany, whom he trampled under bis feet !
"2"-"!' shalt not kill." — Tbis sixth precept they repeal by opening an asylum lo
murderers; and preventing murderous priests from suffering the due penalty of the
civil law: by preaching the doctrine of "no faith with heretics,'' and by teaching
that it is lawful, and even praiseworthy, in God's eyes lo raurder heretics, and all
enemies of •' IMolher Church." Hence the applauded assassinations of princes, and
other men bv iiV'ur merabers ; hence your authorized, and applauded massacres, per
secutions, and inquisitions? Popery is a system which patronises murder by whole
sale ! And we will .show iu another Lel,ter, that the scarlet Beast has already ou ils
hands, and its head, ihe blood of sixty-eight millions of human beings, — murdered ia
cold-blooded persecutions!
The abrogation of tbe seventh precept is, par excellence, the most noted trail of tha
Romish church. Tbe scriptures of the New Testament, with all ils perfect refine
ment, calU that church " The whore of Babylon ;" " the mother of harlots," — " the
mother of fornication." See Re^. xvii. She is shadowed forth as a "drunken wo
man, — drunk with tbe blood of the saints !" Nay, she is — pardon me, I u?e Bible
phrases, — " a Beast in all poUution !" See ver, •?, and 11.
Ihave raaterials in raj- pcession describi-jg the character, and vices ofiiic clergy,
which I cannot put down in English! It would male even the profligate shudder,
and crv out, for shame ! And, if it be so bad to name, — or even lo allude lo i;, — whu
a horrid scene would it jiresent, to lift up fiom the haunts of nuns and monks, the
veU which keeps the public from looking, vUb steadfast eye, at the priests of Rome,
as they really are ! I beg 1 eave to refer ray reader to tbe pages of ihe Ilomisb writer
Nicb, Clemangis : and to Edgar's Variations, last chapter, on " The celiliacy of the
Romish clergy."
It is notoriou:,ly known that houses of infamy, are publicly licensed at Rome, by
the pope, and that he receives, quarteriy, his .shares of the wa,t,'es of infaray and crime \
And did I set down here the materials furnished me by my friend Dr, Avery, who
resided a whole winter at Rome, il would fill all honest men w ith horror al Ihe vices
of the past, and present priesthood of Rome ! And yet, one of your own number,
bishop England, in violation of all truth, and the dictates of his own conscience,
bepraises these infaraous adulterers, and ghostly debauchees, as " holy and virtuous
men." — "Heaven save the mark !"
Why, tbe men and women of Sodom and Gomorrah, were quite modest, and vir
tuous personages compared to the priesthood of Rome, in ages past, and at this day.
26

1290 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVEHflT.
In Spain, tbe council of Toledo, in its 17th canon, allowed priests to have concubines,
publicly ; but to marry was pronounced, in thera, a deadly sin! In many parts of
that country, the priests have as numerous families, as any honest men have! They
are holy fathers, without wives ! The Roraan writer Clemangis says, — "The adul
tery, impurity, obscenity, drunkenness, and revellings of the clergy, are bevond all
description !" See Cleman. 26, Lenfan. i. 70. Olhers of their own writers declare
the Romish clergy over all Lnglard, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, " as a confra-
ternily of the filthiest, and most infamous fornicators! See Bruy. iii. 610. Mezeray
IV. 490. GildEiS Ep. 23. 33. M. Paris 8.—" The priests alraost universally, would
hasten from their haunts of infamy, and drunkenness, to celebrate mass," says Lab
beus, "and feared not to touch tie body of the Lord, with raost polluted hands."
vol. XV. 247, and vol, xix. 389. Even "Loly" councils treated purity and chastity
with bitter sarcasm. These "holy" fathers, wherever congregated in councils, turn
ed the city, where they met, into a Sodom; then with unblushing and diabolical
assurance boasted of it! After the council of Lyons, for instance. Cardinal Hugo,
in his speech to tbe citizens, had the characlerislic as,surance to say, — "V/hen th«
holy council assembled here, you had two or three houses of bad fame. But now.
there is only one ! But that one extends from the ea.it gale, lo the w-est, without in
terruption !" See Labb. xvi. pp. 1435, 1436.
In the council of Basil, the holy fathers taught tbe theory, which ¦was reduced lo
practice, in the councils preceding it, namely, those at Lyoas, and Constance. It
was in that Romish assembljf, publicly advocated, that "houses of infamy wert
necessary and proper!" And what crowned the climax of damning infamy, — " tb«
horrible atrocity was sanctioned by the holy, unerring, apostolic, Roman church."
See the i'act stated in Labb, vol. xvii. p, 0£f!. 988, And Canisius iv. p. 457. Edgar
p. 518. Hence they form a portion of the pope's revenues ! How appropriately sha
is, by you, baptized, — Hcly Mother!
The eighth prcc-jpt is repealed in the Roman church, by turning the temple of God
inlo a place of merchandize. AU things have been, and still are, set up for sale at
Rome lo the highest bidder; — namely, "d'e priesthood, — bishoprics, and even tbe
chair of St. Peter:" and prayers, and masses, and "tbe souls of men!" For pur
gatory is nothing raore than " a ghostly market place," — opened up for the sale of
masses, and trade in human souls! For the fi.xed price, any soul is sel free from
its pains, and put to "repose :" and without the sti]iulated price, no soul is delivered.
And as this place, is purely a fiction of priestcraft, as every one of you knows very
well, Reverend Fathers, — all the money procured by masses, and for delivering
souls out of purgatory, is just so much property got under false pretences, and by
sheer forgery ! You not only procure money by pnrgalory, but you sell the king
dom of heaven to the highest bidder. You usher all your victims, you teU us,
infalUbly inlo heaven, according to the suras fixed by the apostolical tariff. Absolu
tion, and a passage into heaven, are given to those of you who receive it, and pay
the church's duc.a !" Now Fathers, whether does that raan, or your Romish church,
offer the greatest outrage to the eighth coraraand ? He, who sells lands in the Texas,
and receives the ready money, while he owns not one square yard there : — or tht
pope, and his priesthood, who seU, for money, the kingdom of heaven : ¦whUe every
one of you knows that you have neither title, nor deed to the sraaUest portion of that
kin (fdom! This venality of Rome has passed into a proverb in all lands. Hence
itbe sacerdotal watchword,- — " No penny, no pater noster !" And Cheranitius in his

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 291
Bremen, has given us tbe copy of the following verses, written over an altar in a
popish cathedral. "Ut tibi ?it poensD venia, sit apcrtti crumcna,
Hicdat'ir e,\poni I'arailisus vcndilioni.
Hie si Kirge des, in ca<lo sit tua s-^dos,
Pro solo nuinmo, gaudebis in lUiliere summo I"
Which may be rendered thus : — " That you may ba\ e the free remhlancc of punish
ment, only let your purse be widely open! l.ere Paradise is sel forth, and exiiosed
to sale! Here, if you give liberaUy, in heaven shall be your abode! For the paltry
affair of money only, CEin you rejoice m the highest heavens!"
The ninth precept you repeal, by the ftdse witness you have borne, as a cburch,
against God's people, for upwards of a ihousand years. Not onlv as a body, have
the Roman catholics uttered the foulest slandeis acairst the best of men, v,hoiii they
pul to death, under the slanderous narae of heretics : but individual members deera it
a virtue in the ^ightof God, to utter slander against all the churches, aud ministry,
and pious raerabers of the Reforraation ! Open the popish books ; listen to the usual
declamation of priests, and monks, :.nd friars, of catholic Europe; and our own
country, — and you will perceive that nomcEisured terms are observed with the Pro
testant world ; and those who differ in the minutest point frora "Holy Mother!"
All men not within your pale, you pronounce accursed, and certainly doomed lo per
dition. This is tbe immutable, and very charitable doctrine of "Holy Mother."
The ninth precept has. therefore, no practical place in your bloody code !
Finally, the tenth precept is repealed by your whole system, which is one entire
and thoroughly concocted system of covetousness, and a cunningly devised scheme of
money making ; — from the vending and sellinc- ca.dinals' hats, and ihe pope's ;?"aro,
ilown to tbe manufacture of scapulars, and the selling of consecrated heads, and relics!
Aud in theory, t'ois holy precept is repealed by the Jetuit doctrine of your sect, that
"the emotions of covetousness in ibe human soul, are no sins al all, unless sanction
ed by the consent of tbe man I" That is, — " sin dweUing in us," is no sin!
Thus, popery has in it the elements of inveterate corruption ! And, according ta
the eternal laws of heaven in the natural, and moral world, it must be dissolved, and
utterly destroyed by its own internal elements. Such errors, — such heresies, and
infamous vices will necessarily annihilate popery; as time will reveal.
I have not noticed distinctly, here, the political tenets of popery; its tyranny over
the body, and the soul of man; its incessant, and unsubduable aim at univers,-,l, and
onlimited power, by chaining down nations, and fixing them, in the most wretched,
and degraded slavery, as bond slaves to tug at ils bloody car ! To tbis I must devote
a separate Letter.
I have only to observe, at present, that tyranny is the soul and spirit of popery !
Take away that, and thereby set the nations free, and it will speedily die, and be dis
solved, and utterly annihilated. No man knov/s this raore accurately than priests.
Nomanismore thoroughly persuaded of this truth dian those men -vvho are hired to
write it up in our community ; and who labor to persuade their victims that the genius
of popery is, — mirabile dicta ! the fostering genius of liberty and the rights of man !
Now, Fathers, the eyes of the nations are opening. This deadly hostility of '
popery to the rights and Ubertiesof mankind, is working ils downfaU, in Mexico, and
ia the South: and incur own happy republic: and over tbe Roman catholic OEilions

292 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
of Europe. And I tell you. Fathers, that the pope, and his minions, may as soon
chain the winds, and burl back the lightning of heaven, as keep the nations of
Europe much longer in the grasp of its ferocious claws, and the bloody dungeons of
its unheard of tyranny. I am. Rev. Fathers, yours, &c.
W. C, B.

LETTER XXVII,

TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES.
On the internal symptoms of certain decay, and ruin in Popery.
" They that see thee, shall look narrowly upon thee, and consider thee, saying, is this the
man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms ?" Isaiah, xiv, 16,
Reverend Fathers : — The influences of an apostate and false reUgion are as
necessary and certain, in tbeir kind, as are those of the pure and holy religion of
t'biist. But, while they are equally certain and necessary, tbey are perfectly oppo
site to each other. A false religion is the parent of ignorance and superstition : it
throws a deep and impenetrable cloud of darkness over the gloomy rainds of ils vic
tims. But the holy religion of Jesus scatters tbe most joyous rays of light and truth
over free and happy minds. A false religion hates tbe light, shuns discussion; and
locks up the sacred fountain of trath, and refuses even a soUtary rill to thread it»
way over the arid plains of the desert. The religion of Jesus courts the fullest and
freest investigation: it fears nothing: it throws open the pure sparkling fountain of
the waters of life and bids every one corae forward, and receive it as freely as tbe air
wbich he breathes; and the flood of Ught wbicb is poured around him. False reli
gion is a gloomy, and horrid tyrant grinning on bis throne of darkness over his pros
trate and trodden down votaries : true religion is a holy being from the skies, lovely
as the face of Jesus, smiling on us. An apostate religion wields his iron mace ; and
his clanking chains; he points to dungeons, and cells, and tbe horrid Inquisition's
tribunal ; and talks, when he deigns to converse, of penances, and of purgatorial
fires! True religion speaks in accents of redeeming love: and leads the weary and
tbe blind, and the halt, and the lame, lo the healing fountain, and everlasting com
forts ! False religion kindles the fire of inhuman persecution, and lights up the
blazing beacon cf deadly wars, and deluges the nation with human blood ! True
religion breathes nothing but love, pure and undying as the love of angels : it
cleanses the heart, and binds man to man in ties never dissolved even in eternity.
It never raised the war shout : it never prompted to deeds of resistance, except in self
defence, according to heaven's first and necessary law. False religion debases ihe
human mind, and brutalizes the people with atrocious vices, which, so far frora check-
¦ing, it rather nurses ; not purely frora an enraity to the Most High, so much as from
its accursed lust of gold, in turning sin into a very lucrative article of trade and gain,
by means of penances, and indulgences ! True religion exalts the mind, and ele
vates the humblest in society to the nobility of soul, wbich characterizes the

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.

293

christian, and which makes bim scorn a mean, and wicked action. False rehgion
leads on its disciples, blindfold, to tbe precipice impending over the gulf of perdition.
True religion leads man over the barren wilderness, with a cloudy pillar by day,
and a shining fire by night, while the smitten rock ministers to them in slreaiiis of
consolation, the purest and most e.Kalted joys! Trae religion, in aword, waxes
brighter and brighter in virtue and gloiy, until she reaches her own native skies, and
the palace ofthe King of Heaven. False reUgion has. in her, the seeds of death and
dissolution; and exists after death, — only in her horrid works, and images iu hell!
Fathers, — behold ibe one on the papal throne, putting forth its influences like tbe
smoke, and nameless phantoms, as seen in vision bv Jol ,i, issuing out of the mouth
ofthe bottomless pit. Behold the other, clothed in ihe robe of light, walking forth
over the protestant nations and shedding her choicest blessings on the people who
own Immanuel, iJehovah Jesus, for iheir king. And we bless God, that the time is
aow fast coming when the pure, one, and holj' religion of Jesus will cover the whole
earth with a flood of glory. For false and ap'^siale religions, with Rome at their
head, are turabling into ruins by their own innate corrujuion, like the old tottering
¦»featber beaten tower walls, smitten by the gleaming thunder bolt of heaven !
Ihave enumerated three of the infernal symptoms of decay and certain min of
papery. Tbe spirit of your church is the spirit of antichrist : hence, —
Fourth: — Tbe Roman catholic church has formally condemned the essential, and
holiest doctrines ofthe gospel. In addition lo those formerly specified, I add tbe fol
lowing from Tom. i. Indicis Librorum expurgandorum, SfC. Of the index of Books
ttpunrated, by Jo. Mariam Brans. Master ofthe sacred apostolic palace; Rome,
1G07. Under the title " Biblia Rob. Stephani," we find the following: "From tha
Index of these Bibles, on the books ofthe Old and New Testament, let there be blotted
out the following propositions as suspected of heresj' : viz : — •
1. " Sins are reraitted tothe beUever in Christ."
2. "The believer in Christ shall never die eternally.''
3. "The Holy Spuit is received by faith."
4. " Our hearts are purified by faith."
5. " God prohibits images lo be raade that we may adore them ; and bow ourselvta
down before them."
6. "There is no righteousness in us :" Rom. vii. 18,
7, " We are justified by faith in Christ."
8. " Christ is our righteousness."
9. " There is no justifying righteousness frora the works of tbe law."
10. "There is none ju^-t before God,"
11. "Believers are Eihout to enter into their rest.
12, "We are not set free (from sin) on account of our works."
13. " God desires, or wiUs, all men to repent."
14. "Repentance is tbe gift of God."
15. "The word of God ahme is to be obeyed."
16. " That each man may have bis own wife."
These pure and evangelical propositions are condemned by the Rorajsh church aa
"damnable heresy!" Hence your church errs mortally in doctrine. Your whole
«ystem of doctrine is, in fact, as opposite, and as hostile to the simple and holy gospel
of Christ, as is the code of Mohamraed ; or the Shaster ofthe Hindoo! And just as
••rtaiuly as ihe church stands, or falls with these doctrines ;— so certainly does that
20*

294 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
apostate church, which dares utter its veto against heaven's eternal law, and decree-?,
— bear, in it, the elements of its speedy and irretrievable ruin !
" He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ;
The Lord shall have them in derision :
He shall speak to them in his wrath ;
And vex them in his sore displeasure ;
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.
Thou shalt dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel."
Fifth: — The jarring elements in your church, relative lo the grand fundamental
tenet ofthe papal supremacy, are now working the ruin of your sect.
This 1 call a fundamental doctrine : it is the foundation of the whole system. On
it rest your claims of infallibilitt, and the impossibility of the church of Rcme
erring! On it rests the pope's claira of absolute power over your .souls, thoughts,
faith, bodies, and property! By il, he is tbe potter, and you the clay and dust! By
it, he wields the potent sceptre over kings as well as bishops. Bv it, he opens heaven
to his favorites, and slaves: and dooms all heretics to hell! By it be places his
half tvashed flock, in the fires, and waters of purgatory, that complete the work,
which, he avows, the infinite raerits of Christ's blood could nol do! It is, in fine,
the raain pillar of popery, the master-piece of Satan's deep laid conspiracy against
the rights of man !
Now, God, in mercy to mankind, has not perraitted this execrable evU to enter our
world, without an element in il, which will destroy il. I allude to the wars, and
feuds in " holy and infallible Mother," on this matter.
You, Fathers, and your priests have taken mucb pains to convince the American
public that you own tbe pope, not as a civil prince, — not as possessing any temporal
power at all, — but simply as a spiritual head of union. Now, were it even so, it is
dangerous enough to our republic to have men, — even the whole of your bishops,
and all your priests, and all your members absolutely at the spiritual nod, which is
far more potent than tbe political nod, of a foreign despot ; who, in case of a war
wilh any of his favorite powers, ¦«'ould lay you all under an injunction to ris»
against our government, to a man, under the terrific pains of purgatory, and the eler-
nEd pains of hell !
But, you do own tbis foreign despot as much as a temporal prince, as you do own
him as a spiritual head. You know it. Fathers ; you have never disowned this; it i%
beyond any man's gainsaying. Your oath lo hira as bishops, binds you, under pains
of elcrn.-il perdition, to own, and assist, and sustain tbe pope in all bis characters,
jiower.s, rights, and claims. Aud, let me tell your people, — and you know it well, —
dial if any one of you dared to disown bis temporal power, to his face, in Rome, or
iu any Roman catholic nalion in Europe, you would forthwith be stript of your
bis'nopric, hurried into a dungeon, and loaded with chains. Dr. England can tell vou
how many in.stances, and proofs be has seen of this. I invite Dr. England to stand up
before the American nation, and publicly disavow the temporal power ofthe pope.
Besides the struggles which have already been displayed by your priests against
the office of Wardens in your church in the , United States, show clearly enough that
the priesthood are determined lo exercise absolute power over the temporals, and die
property ofthe church. Mons. Reze, in a lelter lo a person in Europe, and published
in a printed "Report," which reached us, says, — -""Mgr. the bishop of Cincinnati,
bas the happiness of governing his churches, without church Wardens." " Were we

ROMAN CATHOLIC C0NT»0VERST. 295v
to establish them, they might be useful tons, but wc should fearscblms, dissentions,
of all evils the greatest. Despotism exercised against the pastor, and division, and
disorder, in many other churches, assure us of this." And in "the Annals," you
state thf-t, in the national council which met al Baltimore in 1629, you discussed
this subject, — "What is necessary to be done in regard lo triisiees, and the means ef
repressing their pretensions." And _\ou pronounce diis a struggle between the claims
of priests and laymen to exclusive power over ;ill temporals, and church property.
This is a plain, and irresistible evidence of the pope and his priests' unulienablt
claims to temporal power. .\,nd, finally, did you ever yet hear of a Romish national
church existing without such a union of cburch and stale, that the church bas an
absolute power over fhe slate, and guides the conscience of even tbe king, as a tutor
juides a child. The pa]u^t, belie priest or layman, who ventures lo tell the Ameri
can public that he owns uot the pope's temporal power, must have no ordinary a
degree of unblushing eflronlery !
But, even admitting that you do not, here then you form another greal faction in
the bosom of Holy Mother. You differ, hereby, on the pope's supremacy, from j'Our
European fellow members in the church.
In Europe there are /owr prominent factions in Holy Mother's bosora. Thefirst
maintains tbe pope lo be suprerae, as a president, — " the pope is only the first of
the bishops." He bas power, not legislative, but executive only ; he is inferior lo a.
general council; and i^ by no means infallible: and has no right to depose kings.
This is tbe prevalent doctrine of the French catholic church. See Dupin Diss. p.
S35, Lenfent i. p. 107. Gibert iii. p. 366. This sentiraent was held by tbe early
popes, Eis Pius, Julius, Zoziraus, Adrian. See Lannoy, i. p. 295, 314. Dupin 442.
It was also tbe avowed doctrine of three general holy councils, naraely, of Pisa. See
Dupin Dissert. 404. ; also of Constance ; see Gibert ii. p. 7. Labbeus xvi. p. 73 r
and of Basil; see Labb. xvii. 236, 390. And Dupin Hist. in. 38.
The second Roman faction invests tbe pope with unUraited sovereignly, tbey make
ftim a temporal and spiritual despot, even the sarae precisely in " tbeir church," as the
grand Turk, or tbe great Mogul is in his realm. He bas power unliraUed over all
bishops and priests ; over all princes, and kings, and nations ; be they heathen, or
christian: be they Protectant, or Roman catholic. Hence he is superior to councils.
This is tbe doctrine of the Italian school. Tbey add, that the pope, speaking as
pope, ex cathedra, is absolutely infallible. "He is exempted from all possibility of
ignorance, error, or mistake!" See BeUarm. iv. 5. 8. p, 987 &c,,-and Dupin
Diss. p. 333, Gibert iU. p. 36, 487 ; and Labb. xviU. p. 1428. This monstrous doe-
trine is held by Bellarmine, Barronius, and other nineteen leading doctors. It has
been also held, of course, by aU tbe popes, except the eariy ones ; and by thret
general councils, namelv,— of Florence, which made the pope absolutely infallible,
and the vicegerent of Almighty God ; see Labb. xvin. p. 1310. Cajetan i. p. 10,
Gibert i. p. 93. Also by the fiflh councU of tbe Lateran. And tbe councU of Trent,
after an exasperated contest between the ItaUan bishops, on the one band, and ihe
French and Spanish bishops, on tbe other, declared for this infaUibUily and unUmited
power in the church universal. See Cramp's Text Book; Gibert i, p. 181 ; L^ibb.
XX, p. 96.
Here, by the way, we find infallible doctors against equally infallible doctors ;
aniversities pitied against universities; councils against councils ; and popes Daraa
sus, Felix, Pius, against popes Leo, Gregory, Urban, Paul, and Sixtus ! And all of

296 ROMAN catholic CONTROVERST.
them gravely maintaining the unbroken, and undisturbed unity, and infallihility ot
Holy Mother !
The third faction actually raises the pope io an equality with God! This is not
wonderful. The heathen interest, it might be shown, bas triuraphed in Rome, from
the days of Constantine. They became wreftiersaWt/ christians, when the emperor
declared for Christianity; as tbey would have declared themselves Hindoos, bad the
emperor been converted by the Brahmins ! And, hence, even to ihis day, under tbe
narae and raask of the christian name, there has been a regular succession of pagan
men, and tvomen ; as thoroughly pagans, idolators, and superstitious devotees, as ever
lived, and ihoved, and bad Iheir being, in Rome pagan !
Now, the original pagans were duly accu.sfomed to bear Domhian call himself in
bis edicts, " Vester Dominus Deus," "your Lord God!" And Caligula called him
self Deus maximus et optimus! God, the greatest and best!" Hence, their
lineal descendants in place, in faith, and in practice, very naturaUy and appropriately
call the successor of the Neros, the Domitians, the Caligulas — Noster Dominus Deus
Papa!" Our Lord God the pope!" Tbis excites no surprise in the least. Tbe
pagan emperors were as pious, and holy, and respectable, as any one pope that ever
salon the old Saracen's stool, humorously called the chair of St. Peter, since 606"!
You know, moreover, thatthe canon law of tbe Romish church, says, — "Papa non
est homo!" The pope is nota man! "See Sext. Deer. L. i. Tit. vi. cap, 18.
" The pope is a God, who has all power in heaven and in the earth." "None is like
God, except the pope, either in heaven or in earth." See Turricr. Ques. 11 : Gianon
10 c. 12, Bernard, p, 1725. Edgar, p. 159,
Monstrous as this really is, and shocking to the ears of piety, there have been
doctors, canonists, popes, and councils, as we have already seen, who have sanc
tioned this damning blasphemy : and have appropriated to the spiritual despot of
Rome, the titles, attributes, and work of Almighty God ! Tbe canon law, we have
seen, and the fifth Lateran council bestowed these honors on the pope. "The Lord
our God, the pope!" is the title in Can. Extrav. Tit. 14. cap. 4. And this, be it
remembered, is the salutation of the kneeling votary, who stoops to kiss the pope's
foot. See Edgar's Var. for a complete specimen of these naraes, and titles of blas
phemy, p. 160, 161. ^
Tlie/ouTi7i faction absolutely setting reason, piety, and ccm,mon sense, outrageous
ly, at defiance, makes the p/ope superior to God! Tbe canon Law says, — "Habet
plenitudinem, &c. He bas the plenitude of power; he is above all law and right:
he can change the substantial nature of things; and transforra unlawful into lawful."
Thuanus vi. p, 397. Gibert ii. p. 103. Durand i. p. 50. Edgar, p. 161. And even
Bellarraine avows tbis. Premising that the pope cannot err, either in tbe decrees of
faith, or in the precepts of morals, be says, — " Tbis must be so, — or else, — secpn-
do, quia tunc necessario erraret eliam circa fidem. Nam, fides catholica docet om-
nera virtutem esse bonam, omne vitium esse raalura ; si autem papa erraret prascipi-
eodo villa, vel prohibendo virtutes, teneretur ecclesia credere vitia esse bona, et vir-
tutes, malas; nisi vellet contra conscientiara peccare." De Poniif. Lib. iv. cap. 5.
Tom. i. p. 988. That is, — "if the pope should err by enacting vice, or prohibiting
virtue, the church would be bound to believe that vices are virtues, and that virtues
are vices, unless she could be willing to sin against her conscience." And in the
eouncil of the Lateran, this sentiraent was openly avowed, — " that Pope Leo possess-
ad power above all powers, both in heaven, and in earth."^See Labb. xix. p. 924.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 29?
And this consummation of arrogance and blasphemy, is not confined lo an obscure
faction iu Italy. It is avowed openly, and unblushingly taught in the most pubUc
manner by every pope, every bishop, every priest, " Tbey arrogate to themselves
the power of creating their Creator, nay, of communicating to their underlings, the
potver of making their Maker! Deum euncta crcantera, creant." Labb. Tora. xii.
!W0. "Elevees a cet honneur supreme de creer la Crealeur!" See Bruy Tom. ii.
p. 535. This, they assure us, gravely, lliey do in every mass. They convert, or
create out ofthe wafer, "the body and blood, soul and tUvinitj' of Christ." Now,
that God can create himself is an utter irapossibility! But these sons of Belial, and
of holy Mother, if their word may be in aught believed, do this at every raass making !
They do make a common business of doing, they say, what tbe Creator cannot do !
Now, shall the throne of iniquity be established, which frameth mischief by a law!
Can tbe seed of evil doers ever be renowned, in a teraporal, or eternal well being ! :
Can such jarring doctrines, such raonstrous claims and usurpations, which Ihrow all|
pagEmism, and all ordinary wickedness, and all councils of panderaoniuni, into ihe
back ground, exist long in po\\er, in tbe dominions ofthe Holy and Just One ! No,
no: — It raust waste awav, and utterly disappear, as the fogs and vapors, charged-
wifh pestilence and death, in the natural world, are dispersed by the benevolence of
the Deity ? I am. Rev. Fathers, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

LETTER XXVIII.

TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLl*
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES.
On the internal symptoms of dtcay, and self destruction in Popery.
"Si quis di.'cerit, in ministris, dum sacramenta conficiunt, et conferunt, non requirii«<en<t-
onem, saltem faciendi quod facit ecclesia ; anathema sit .'" — Concil. Trident.
Reverend Fathers : — In pursuing this .subject I beg leave to observe, — Sixth: —
That your doctrine of intention, carried out in its legitimate tendency, must ruin
your system of popery, in tbe judgment of every raan who puts hiraself lo the trouble
of thinkinj., for a moment, on the subject. Your church holds this doctrine: — " that
the efficacy of die grace, conveyed by every one of your sacraraents, depends upon
the intention of your officiating priest." If tbis intention be awanting on the part of
the priest or bishop, then is the sacrifice without grace, without efficacy ; null, and
void! That is to say,— unless the priest officiating, has an intention in bis soul, con
science, and heart, to do that thing which "the cburch" intends that be should do;—
unless he intends in bis soul and conscience, to raake that sacrament, and the thing in
the sacrament, to be just that thing which tbe church intends it to be— then there is
no grace, nor efficacy in the sacrament.
Now, thatthis doctrine is an essential article of your creed, is evident frora the ex^
tract at the bead of this letter. Council of Trent, Sess. 7. Canon 11,—" Si quis &c.
If any one shaU say that the intention is not required of the rainisters, when they
make, and administer tbe sacraments, let hira be accursed!" From your standard
book,— "TAe abridgement ofthe Christian doctrine,"—! copy the following: "Is

298 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
the intention of the minister to do that which Christ ordained, a condition, without
which the sacraraents subsist not? Ans. It is; as also the intention of the receiver,
to r^eive what Christ ordained, &c." In all the sacraraents, every adult receiver
must have the intention, as well as the priest : otherwise the sacrament is null, and
void ! Doyle's Edition, 1833, p. 76.
Now, il is astonishing that the inventors and fabricators of popery, should have al
lowed such a fatal doctrine to be embodied into their system. It can be accounted
for only on tbe singular interposition of divine Providence, in pity to his bleeding and
suffering church, in order to work the certain ruin of popery. Quem vult Deus per
dere, prius dementat. Whom God wishes to destroy, he first renders infatuated.
This essential doctrine of intention, established by the decrees of the pope, and the
Trent Council, renders every thing utterly uncertain in your church. There is no
one sacrament, no priesthood, no canon, no doctrine, in any degree certain, or effi
cacious. It destroys the pope's supremacy, and the church's infallibiUty: it de
stroys your articles of faith : it annihilates all peace, all hope, all comfort! It shuts
up,- or rather expunges purgatory frora the list of your fables, and shuts up, and bolls
your gates of heaven against you aU, who believe in the intention!
And even some of your own leading doctors have had the confession wrung from
their lips. They felt the appalling confusion into which this doctrine throws yonr
system. "Nullus celebrans potest evidenter scire &c. "No priest," says one of
them, "who celebrates, can know, evidently, whether he be baptized, or lawfully or
dained." See Gab. Biel, in Epit. Carr. Misss. And Belarraine, while laboring to
overturn another doctrine in his way, unwittingly is constrained to speak the truth, in
tbe following extraordinary confession: — "No man can be certain, by the certainty
offaith, that he does receive a true sacrament; because it depends upon the intention
lef ihe minister ; and no one can see another raan's intention. Sacrementum non
canficiatur sine inientione ministri, et intentionem alterius nemo videre pussit." 'Bell.
Lib. Just. cap. 8.
Now, in perfect accordance with the uncontradicted admissions of these great doc
tors, let me offer you, Reverend Fathers, a specimen of tbe necessary destruction
which ibis doctrine works over tbe whole field of your fabricated system. The in
novators who got up the Romish church, took it into their beads to enact seven sacra
ments : that is to say, — exactly five more than the Lord Jesus, the only King of the
church, did divinely ordain. This is not all : you not only added five things humo
rously called sacraments, — you have romanized the only two out of all existence, in
your sect. We shall, however, let that pass. We need not stop gravely to refute
each, v/hen we are on your suicidal doctrine of intention, wbicb actually executes on
its own sacraments, what the noted Judas did on himself!
The first is your Baptism. This you make essentially necessary to salvation.
And hence this question, and atrocious doctrine put forth in your '* Abridgement of
Christian doctrines," p. 109. " Whither go infants that die without baptism? Ans.
To that part of hell, where they suffer the pains of loss, but not the punishment of
sense; and shall never see the face of God."
But, by tbe doctrine of intention, no person in the Roraan cburch can know that
he is baptized. For he does nol know, certainly, tiiat the priest who baptized him
was himself baptized : he knows not, certainly, that tbe bishop had "the intention''
to ordain that priest, when he was appai%ntly ordained. Hence, there is a double
llhance ajainst his being a priest at ajl ! And, finally, he does not know whether the

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 299
priest, who baptized him apparently, had die intention to do it ! Hence, no member
of tbe Roraan church can possibly have cither a certainly of his baptisra, or any
solid faith of being saved !
The second sacrament is " confirmation." It is not my design to stop here lo r«-
fute tbis, or any other gaudy ceremony. It is enough lo say that your elevating it lo
the rank of a sacrament, and your using oil and balm "to sign your victiras with tb«
chrism, &c." are acts of persevering high treason against our Lord, the King of the
Church, who never breathed one Word, who never caused lo be written in all the holy
Bible, one sentence originating, or countenancing this superstition. We need offer no
farther refutation than die doctrine of intention. The person going up lo the bishop
to be co:ifirmed "by cross, oil, and balm," never can have any evidence of his con
firmation, for three reasons. He caunot certainly know that the bishop was baptized
¦with intention ; nor that be was ordained wilh intention : and he bas no evidence
-whatever that, in the act of bis apparent confirmation by rubbing oil and balm oa
him, the bishop has in his soul the intention to give confirmation. Hence no benefit,
no grace can arise to him, from this rite.
"Holt Orders" is a third sacrament. By tbis, say you, " a character is given ;"
by it "the grace is conveyed" to make a man a priest, a bishop, a pope. Now, it i«
¦with 3-0U of infinite importance, that it be done right. If any thing be awanting,
particularly, if the intention to make the man a priest, a bishop, or a pope, is really
awanting, then is this sacrament void. And the man apparently a priest, or a bishop,
is only a lay man ! And the flock under bis spiritual care, has no sacraraents, and
thence, xo grace ! — For you know. Fathers, that all the grace you ask, or at all care
for, is "that which a priest conveys by intention, through the seven sacraments. And,
hence, to be under care of a priest, who is one only in appearance, is to be exposed,
as you teach, " to certain damnation" — without even tbe poor chance, or the poorer
benefit of purgatory.
This is not all ; as you can, by no means, prove the intention of the minister, you
cannot prove that any one pope was ever duly inducted into his chair, as a baptized
man, or a trae priest ofthe church! You have no evidence to believe, that any of
your bishops have been in "holy orders," or "ordained with the intention! And
tiience, you cannot beUeve, (for you have no evidence) that any one of your priests
has ever been "in holy orders,'' or "ordained with the intention." There is not
one man among you, guided by reason and evidence, who can, for a moment, beUeve
that your cburch bas a pope, or true bishop, or true priest in the whole worid ! If
any man can believe tbis, he believes without evidence ; and, therefore, acts unlike a
rational being! Every Roman catholic must, therefore, on this radical point, eitUr
cease to act as a rational being ; or surrender the whole system of popery.
X fourth sacrament is the Eucharist, and tbe Mass. Herein youworship " the
body and blood, soul and divinity of Chri.st." Now, you admU that there may be
defects to render tbis sacrament void : particularly, if the intention of tbe priest is
awanting. If be does not intend to turn the wafer into Christ; then U is not Chris*.
And even you adrait that, in this case, in worshipping that untransubstantiated w-afer
-«nd not Christ, you are guUty of idolatry ! Now, it is irapossible for any Roman
catholic audience to have the evidence ofthe priest's intention as be rapidly mutters
over the words,— "Hoc est corpus meum," which, by a marvellous charm, turns the
real wafer into the real Christ. The must unblushing Jesuit dare not insuh his vic
tims, by even insinuating that any one of them has the least evidence of his intcwiton.

300 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
to make Christ out of tbe wafer. Hence, when tbey bow down, and worship tke
Host ; tbey are worshipping what, they have not even the least shadow of evidence
to believe, is the true God! Hence, the whole Romish church is actually worship
ping what tbey have no evidence, in tbe least degree, to believe is God, in tbe wafer.
That is, the Roraish sect are reduced to tbis dileraraa ; tbey either believe without
any evidence; and thence act unlike rational beings, or, they are guilty ofthe mor
tal sin of idolatry !
But, to be brief, — let ray readers be kind enough to apply this forra of- argument to
tbe fifth, and sixth popish sacraments, bf Penance and Extreme Unction; and
they will arrive at the same result : that is, — the doctrine of intention takes away
all certainty, all faith, all peace frora the dying raan, in the article of death. Even
extreme unction brings hira no relief. He is told, it is true, to belieVe that the anoint
ing bim wilh oil, by tbe holy priest, "conveys grace io his soul;" and makes hira
"ready to die." But, he has not the least shadow of a consoling proof that the priest
has tbe intention. He raay tell hira so; but even there, the intention to tell tbe truth
raay itself be wanting. He lives in a cloud of uncertainty ; and dies, alas ! in raen
tal confusion, and the dreariness of a dark, dark night: and sinks into an unknown
state ! lie has strayed far from his God, and Savior, being seduced by the unprin
cipled slaves of Antichrist, who have rejected the gospel, and enveloped themselves,
and their victiras, in an endless mist of uncertainty, and darkness; in order — Oh !
shame on huraan villainy, — to trade in souls, — and barter heaven's holy light ; and
sell God's unsold pathway to paradise, for filthy lucre !
Lastly, Matriraony is a seventh sacrament of popery. This very novel sacraraent
" conveys grace to those who enter into it; and yet, Holy Mother scandalously denies
tbis potent instrument of "conveying its grace" to the one class of^men in her, who
of all other raen under the sun, do stand the raost in need of it, — I raean the priests !
Now, — for I let this pass, — by your doctrine of intention, there is not one raarried
couple in our city, or in all the land, of all the Roraan catholic cburch, that can exhi
bit even the slightest shadow of evidence that they are lawfully married.
For, unless the officiating priest had the intention in his soul, and conscience, at tbe
nuptial cereraony, to raake the raan and woman then standing before him, husband
and wife, they are not married! This is not all. You require intention in tbe
receiver, as well as in the minister officiating. If tbe bridegroora, as he takes the
woraan's band, does not intend in soul and conscience, to raake that person his wife,
they are not married! And, to crown the chapter of chances against the luckless
couple, — if the bride does nol, at that moment, intend, in her soul, and conscience,
to make that man ber husband, they are not married ! Here are three chances against
one ! And no person, no, not a catholic in all christendora, can prove either the
priest's, the groora's, or the bride's intention! Hence, no couple in eUI the limits of
"catholicity," has even the shadow of evidence that ^/leji nre jiof Zmng- m ifee morto/
sin of concubinage ! And if tbey should die in that mortal sin, they are doomed for
ever to hell, without tbe benefit of purgatory !
This appalling doctrine is calculated to throw civil society into the greatest disor
der. One evil growing out of it, is tbis: — ^Divorces are sued out on this assumption,
in Roman catholic countries. A man, or a woman goes into tbe proper court, in
Rome, for instance, and declares, on oath, that, at the marriage ceremony, he, or she
had not the intention to be married : — Or, a villain, who " married" a young person
whom be could not otherwise gain to his wishes, — needs only to go into a ghosdy

ROMAN CATHOLIC eONTROVERBT. 301
court at Rome, and swear that he did not intend to marry dial young woman when
the nuptials were solemnized, — and the apparent marriage is dis-^olved!
I refer my reader, for proof of this, to every intelligent traveller who has resided,
any time, in Rome, and has taken the pains to visit tlii-se eouits, b^ a priests' favor,
and inlroducliou. I refer also lo Bi-iliop Burnet ok the thirty-nine arti(,:.r, Arlielo25.
He narrates what be witnessed in Rome, himself: aud he add-, "that such divo.ees
are very freque.it diere." I refer also to T. Wardell's \ .iluable Letters, on Intention,
&c, p. 13. N. York, 1830.
Si.:-u:!k : — Your hostility to tbe progress of knowledge and tbe sciences, will work
Ihe downfall of popery.
The system of popery is hostile to tho prop:res6 ofthe arts and sciences, — except ouly,
painting and sculpture, which are, in a raelancholy manner, drag.ged in, to mini-ter
their enchanting powers, to an idolatrous religion, bloodier, and more destructivo than
pagMuism ! The evidence of diis ImstiUty, is found in the Inquit ilion ; nnd the stem,
imyieUling Index Expurgatorius, by which almost every classic author of BrUair,,
America, and France is prohibited. There is scarcely one of all the classic, English
authors wliicii a Roman catholic is allowed to read, Jiilion is a doomed author;
YoungEdso; L'owperisin the Index ; "SVatts loo ; our historians; our immortal John
son! All tbo renowned iheologir.ns of England, of Scotland, of Anierica, of Fuiucc,
are under the ban. And no ftoman cathoUc dare, under pain of purgatory, open a
single volume in a Protestant's whole Ubrary of our most approved writers.
This is a point but little known, and by tbe Romi--h priesls usually concealed from
Protestants ; and most stoutly denied by the most of thera ! But you. Fathers, know :
how trae this is.
Even in our enlightened da}-, — and in our city, no priest dares, without a wrilten'per-
mission from his bisho", look into a book written by a heretic, — that is, a Froleslant!
If the bishop aUows a:iv one to do it without this license, he breaks his soleran oath,
and violates tbe law of Rorae laid down in the Index ! No raan iu your communion
dares to think for himself, or even use his own con.science, without priestly permission
and dictation. Then, what blunders in science, ba.s Infullihility fallen into ' lu settling
the place of purgatory, for instance, we have seen that pope Gregory, i.'ie saint, and
Bellarmine, and even Dr. Rosaccio jilaced bell, and jiiigatory in the earth's'centre ,-
at a distance of 18300 1-2 miles below the surface. This bas never been corrected ;
nor even apologized for ! InfaVib'dilj, right or wrong, can never correct itself!
Il is very well known that the faraous GaUleo was formally condemned and
punished, simply for daring to invade the Romish darkness, byteaching that theearlli
isa sphere, turning on ils axis, and moving round the sun. Here I shall present, an
extract from tbe sentence of tbe Inquisition of Rome, in 16.33, acting under llie eye of
pope Urban, "tbe infallible vicar of God." " V\'bereas, you Galileo, aged 70 years
were denounced, — for holding as true, a false doctrine taught by many, that the sun
is immovable in the centre of the world, and thatthe earth moves; therefore, dii,^
holy tribunal, desirous of providing against the disorder, and mischief, proceeding and
increasing, to tbe detriment of the holy faith, — by tbe desire of his holiness, the
two propositions, are quaUfied by tbe theological qualifiers, as fidlows: —
1st. Tbe proposition that the sua is the centre of the world, and immovable flora
its place, is absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical ; because exjiressly
contrary to the holy scriptures. 2d. Tbe proposition that tbe earth is not the centre
of the world, nor immovable; but that it movei, and also bas a diurnal motion, is
27

302 ltd MAN CATHOLIC C0«TR0VERST»
also absurd, philosophieally false, and theologically ctmsidered, at least, erroneous iM
i"aiih." See The Life of GaUleo, published at Boston, 1832, pp. 179, 180.
/ Such was the decision of pope Urban, "the infallible head" ofthe church, and
,'his lord cardinals, and doctors! And tbis was as late as 1633! Pope Zachary had*
indeed, pronounced his " infallible" ban against Virgil, a Bavarian bishop, for pre
suming to teach the shocking heresy, that "there are men living on the opposite side
>. of the earth, from us." " If he persist in the heresy," says he to bis legate, "strip
him of his priesthood : and drive him from tbe church, and altars of God!" See
Life of Galileo, p. 192. But, then, tbis "infalUble pope" pronounced the curse
against Virgil, and bis antipodes in the middle of the eighth century, when there
were no lieretits to pour light upon the eyes of popes and infalUbles ! There can be
no excuse, therefore, for the ghostly judges of Galileo, but the invincible and incur
able depravity of popery. And, unless you also be under ils influence, you will
excuse the honest warmth of the bosora friend of Galileo, namely Micanzio, who
exclairaed of pope Urban, and the other tyrants who condemned Galileo,—" I shall
devote these unnatural, and godless hypocrites, to a hundred thousand devils I"
Il is right here to remark, that this doctrine, and these sentences of pope Zachary,
and Urban, against bishop Virgil, and Galileo, stand unrepealed by pope, bisnop, or
doctor, to this day, in the Romish church. Hence you, and the pope, and all your
priests sustain it, and avouch it, as much as Zachary, and Urban did. For no way
has yet been invented to correct one infallible, by another infallible !
Hence, upon the whole, as the light of science, and as the influence of virtue, and
tfuo religion, are spread over the regenerated nations : and as knowledge, like the
rays of the dazzling and glorious sun, gains an irresistible ascendency over the whole
¦World, popery, as a system, — the enemy of God's glory, and of man's happiness
must necessarily fall ; — and fall, to rise no more I And your Reverences will, no
doubt, unite wilh me in saying, — Amen, and amen I
I am. Rev. Fathers, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

LETTER XXIX.

to THE LORD ARCHBISUOI', AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIB
CHtJRCH, IN The united ST.\TES.
On the internal symptoms of decay, and certain ruin, in Popery.
" So I Went into the ch,imber.s of imagery and saw ; and beheld every form of creeping
things; and abominable beasts; and all the idols of the house of Israel; pourtrayed upon
the wall, round about." — Ezek. viii.
Reverend Fathers: — I have bad the honor of drawing your attention to a few of
tha more striking symptoms of decay and certain ruin in popery. I beg leave to spc
cify a fourth one, vividly displayed in your religious use of Relics. You believe in
their divine efficacy ; you worship them ; you maintain abrisk and lucrative traffic in
them. Now, when truth and sound philosophy, in their irresistible progress, shall open
the eyes of the blind, the contempt and abhorrence of all men will be poured upon
this system uf imposture.

ROMAN catholic CONTROVERST. 303
\
One naturally feels astonished thai a system of darkness, emerging from the Dark
Ages, should find a moment's rest for the soles of its feet, amid the flood of light poured
out on the present age. We alluded before to the influence of astronomy and geogra
phy putting to flight the systems of paganism founded in principles of the darkest
ages. Can a child, initiated into these sciences, ever be seduced lo believe in a reli
gious system that the world is a flat body, aud rests on the back of a huge turtle!
Cau a child believe tbe giavely related Romish doctrines, in many instances as su
premely absurd as this. Pope Gregory the Great and saint, places heU and bis pur
gatory in the hollow centre of the earth! Cardinal BeUarmine advocates the same
theory. Gregory adduces the spouting flames of .iElna and Vesuvius in proof of this,
for these come from heU aud purgatory! There is, to be sure, one redeeming trutii
in this theory: he placed the opening into these infernal regions in a correct latitude ;
that is to say, — in his owu immediate vicinity,. — the seat of " the Beast."
Dr. Rosaccio improves on tbis theory, and fills up tho measure of its glory. Ho
also makes a hell and a purgatory in the earth's contre. But let our infant scholars
mark the Romish geography. He raakes purgatory exactly 2550 1-2 miles below
the earth's surface ; and 15,750 above hell. By adding these, we find that the popish
doctors make it exartly 18.300 1-2 miles to the central cavity ofthe earth: wboreaa
the earth is only 8000 miles from pole to pole, through the centre ! I refer to BeUar
mine, De Purg. Lib. ii. cap. 6. in Tom. i. mihi, p p. 1923 &c. And Edgar, p. 536.
Yet all this is rational and sublime, iu comparison with the priests' world of Re
lics, set forth on the Edtar, and around the chapel, .and in tbeir variegated chambers
of imagery !
And, then, such Relics ! And held up, too, for the religious worship and homage
of human beings! Why, they would absolutely derange the gravity of our protestant
ohildren! Let us notice a few of them which garnish and consecrate your sanclujj-
ries; and, thence, draw in large revenues to your "Immaculate Mother" in Europe.
I shall not rehearse the wondrous hits of wood of the cross ; and the four nails, by
which our Savior was nailed to tbe cross. Like the four beads of John the Baptist,
in France, there are several duplicates of these font identical nails! You have "the
parings of St. Edmunds's toes,'' and several chapels have some of the coals which
roasted St. Laurence! Among the Glastonbury relics, you show us the identical
stones which the devil tempted our Lord to turn inlo bread ! In France, Spain, and
Flanders, they have eight arms of St. Matthew ! Of course antiquarians mu,st bless
you for the amazing discovery that he had 40 fingers ! And tbe author of one list of
relics, in the possession of tbe late Mr. McGavin, declares that he had seen three
arms of Sr. Luke. In tbe Lateran church in Rorae, they show the very Ark of the
Lord, made by Moses; and tbe rod with which be did bis miracles! In the same
church, tbey have tbe entire table on which our Lord eat the first Supper. And in
Spain, and in Flanders, they have genuine fragments of the table! In the same
church they have tbe entire heads of St. Peter and St. Paul. And in BUboa, there is
3 large part of Peter's skull, in tbe possession of the Augustines; and a large frag-
meni of Paul's skull, irijjthe convent of the Franciscans! In St. Peter's church at
Burgos, they have the cross ofthe good thief: "somewhat worm eaten;" with Judas'
lantern; and the very dice which the soldiers used in casting lots for our Lord's gar
ments ! They show also the tail of Balaam's ass ! In the same place, they have a
little of the manna in the wilderness; and a few blossoms of Aaron's rod! They
Ijave relics of Abr^hajm, IsEjac, and Jscah ; and stlso the Virgin's comb ; and a com.b

304 BOM.IN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
of each ofthe 12 Apostles, "nearly as good as new!" They have a part of Sf-
Mark's body; with an arm, and a finger of St. Ann, the Virgin's mother. The cata
logue, also, shows tbe Virgin's identical veil ; and St. Patrick's staff, with which he
expelled the toads and vipers frora Ireland! They have, also, what is very appro
priate in a den of traitors, a bit ofthe rope wilh which Judas hanged himself! There
is, also, some of the Virgin's hair; with several vials of her milk. And what is a
rare and devotional thing, they show a little butter, and a bit of cheese (very rare,)
made out af feer milk, which never decays I ! ! See Philos. Library for 1818; and
Glasgow Prot. chap. 52.
In the Cathedral of Glasgow, they bad a choice museura of these adored relics.
For instance, ihey had a bit of St. Bartholomew's skin : and the Virgin's girdle : and
a bone of St. Magdalene : with four vials of the Virgin's milk ! Also- a vial of St.
Kentigern's blood; and a bit of the manger where our Lord lay; and St. Martin's-
cloak, "rather moth eaten." See Beauties of Scotland, vol. iU. p. 217; Glasgow
Prot. eh. 53.
In 1668, Pope Alexander VII. sent into France, three chests of holy relics for
" Hospital Church." They were bound with silk cords, and sealed whh Cardinal
Ginetti's seal. On the ojiening of the relics, with mucb pomp and devotion, there
was found in the third chest, tbe head of St. Fortunatus. There unfortunately hap-
jjcned to be present a medical gentleman, who, with a heretical eye, perceived a bit
of painted cloth above the ear. This led bim to examine the skull; he scraped it,
and pierced it with his knirfe. And lo ! the holy relic, pronounced to be the true skull
of the saint, by your infalUble head himself, turned out to be a piece of pasteboard !
jSee Archhp. Tenison's Reply to Mr. Pulton, p. 72. Edit. 1687.
' Now, if ever there was a thing called a lusus natura, verily, here is one! And it
will be duly and gratefully chronicled by the Antiquarian Society ! And I call the
attention of our amateurs to it, not merely iu its physical, but in its moral bearing.
We have here pontifical authority, from the chair of St. Peter, that a raan can,, in th©
most perfect manner, fulfil the holy functions of a Roman priest; and be a Roman
saint, — and yet, after aU, have only a pasteboard skull, and brains to correspond!
There was a faraous crucifix at Bexley, in Kent, Old England. Its eyes, lijjs, and
head moved graciously, at the approach of its votaries, to pay their adoration to U,
and the holy relies. At tbe Reformation, says Hume, the bishop of Rochester
broke off' its head, and showed to the people its .springs and wheels, by which it was
moved. Henry IIL, king of England, used to sport a rare and precious relic — no less
than a vial of your Lord's blood, sent to him from Jernsalem. He used to show it
devoutly to all the great men of his court! King Canute very devoutly paid die
priests one hundred talents of silver, and one of gold, for the old black withered arm
of St. Augustine. My authors do not inform me what these honest traffickers in hu
man limbs, charged the kings of France, and Spain, and Naples, for similar arms of
that African father ! In the Lateran church at Rome are "some planks of the cove
nant;" in St. Paul's, are Paul's body, and such a number of vials of holy blood,
hung round the wall's, that a stranger is apt to think be has got, by some mistake, into,
an apothecary's shop ! Here is, also, the very pillars on which the cock crew, when
Peter denied our Lordl See Owen's Travels, vol. ii. p. 52. In anatber church, ia
shown the comb of the said cock, that set Peter a weeping. In Paris, at St. DenySi
they show a rfeal likeness ofthe queen of Sheba ; with Solomon's drinking cup ; an^
Judas' brass latitern, full of chrystals. Here is, also, the linen -with which Christ

ROMAN CATBOLIC CO»TBOV«R»T. 305
wiped the disciple's feet ; with a bit of the water pots of Cana ! See Evelyn's Me
moirs, In St. Basil's Chapel, at Bruges, Campbell, (Journey, p. 39, quarto,) saw
the sponge fuU of blood which Joseph of .\rimatbea wiped off our Savior! At
Aix la Chapelle, he saw tbe very chemise ofthe Virgin ; the cord that bound Christ,
and some of St. Stephen's blood nicely preserved in a bit of earth, on which it
dropped! In tbe Cathedral of Munster, Mrs. Pioz/.i saw the very sword wbich St.
Paul wore ! And behind the high altar, is a backgammon table, which belonged to
John the Baptist, or, as the keeper said, "to some baptist!" In Upsal they have
Judas' bag, and one ofthe thirty jiieccs of silver; with the identical pair ofredslip-
pers, in which the Virgin paid a visit to her cousin ! See Wraxall's Northern tour,
p, 127. In tbe church of Durham, they showed ihe teeth, and the head of St.
Aiden; and what is a very rare matter, two eggs ofthe griffin! See Smith's Beda,
Append. No. 13.
And, to crown the climax, I shall give an extract from Stephen's Traite preparatif
a I' Apologia pour Herodote, chap. 39. He relates that a monk of St. Andioiiy saw
"a bit ofthe flnger ofthe Holy Spirit, quite sound ;" also Ihe nose ofthe angel that
appealed to St, Francis; and "a finger nail of a cherub!" There were, moreover,
"a rib of the toord made flesh!" and a feather of the angel Gabriel! And, besides
the vial of St. Joseph's breath, caught by an angel, as be was cleaving wood, — there
is "a hem of his garment." Another scarce relic is this, — "a quantity ofthe iden
tical rays ofthe star which led the wise men to our infant Savior !" There are also
the identical square buckler, and the identical steel. sword of St. Michael, wbich ho
emploj'ed in bis bEiSle with the devil; together with a vial of his sweat, which he,
the angel, sweated on that occasion ! " All these have I devoutly brought home with
me," — added the monk, "see the Clavis Calendaria, vol. ii. p. 56, &c. ; and the
Recreat. Magaz. Bost. Edit., p. 384, 386.
I hold up this system before tbe eyes ofthe American people. Behold, fellow citi
zens, a system of unparalleled knavery, which blushes not lo palm these lying wonders
on the ignorant part of our community, even as if the reign of the Dark Ages had not
yet passed away ! Here is a system, which, worse than paganism in Greece and
Rome, holds up these solemn puetiliii'^s of gods and rotten bones, as objects of reli
gious worship in tbeir chapels; which compels its victims in all catholic lands, — yes,
and in our own enlightened laud, to fall on their knees, and worship these motley
remnants of bones, and garments, and angels, and dust; and yield up their property
to the immeasurable exactions of tlfcse ghostly traficers: -which robs its votaries of
fheir last shilling to sustain this villainous imposition, and throws them on the public
charities of our country; and plunders them of even the pittance of supplies, yielded
by public charitv, to eke out the iraposture to the closing ,sceiie of their ruined vic
tims! O merciful heaven! can such a curse be perraitted lo scourge the human
famUy forever! How long shall these deceptions, and lying wonders, and working.?
of Satan, find a place among civilized men ! Not long, my fellow citizens. The
lising light will chase away this darkness : these ludicrous, yet blaspheraous absurdities
are hastening, by irresistible necessity, its irrecoverable downfall! And from all
lands, tbe joyful signal will be uttered ; Babylon is fallen, — is falle.n !
I ara. Rev. Fathers, yours, &o.
W. C. B.
27*

306 ROIHAN CATHOXie CONTROVERST.

LETTER XXX.
TO TKE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS, OF THK ROMAN CATHCLIC
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES.
Popery essentially despotic ; and incompatible with the free institutions of our republic.
"Timeo Danaos et dona ferenlcs!
O Teucri, ne credite equo!"
I have my motives, Reverend Fathers, in spreading out all your "solemn titles,"
before our plain republican citizens. Your titles indicate the genius of your hierarchy ;
that lordly and absolute despotism, which has rested, as a horrid incubu i, on tho
breast of sleeping Europe, for so many centuries : and which yuu are seeking lo press
on I'le boSom of our repubUc !
I disclaim a-ll personal reflections, and even allusions. Indeed, Reverend Fathers,
both you, and your head the pope, we decra too bumble, and loo little known among
us, to be the subject of ai:y personal reflections, in the presence of the people of this-
gti It republic. Without bating one jot of your consequence, which you.borrow and-
imp it from Rome, the whole of your hierarchy and priesthood in our republic, are,
in fact, as ibe ily on the horn of the noble bull, mentioned in the fable. You can do
110 lasting mi .;i,;iief, were our fellow citizens only awake, to the inestimable value of
their ci^vil and religious liberties. Our only dangers are these:— ^e lethargy of our
repubUc, and tbe unwearied efforts of foreign Roman caliolic, and despotic powers,
to invade us, and corrupt the fountain of public opiniom /Disclosures have been
made, which establish the fad, that an extensive consniracy is formed by the des
pots of Eurojie, to make a dangerous attack on our free institutions. This they are
doing under the garb of the old and only reUgion, called Roman cathalieism.^ They
^ dare not send in araong us, their polilical emissaries, under the narae of " polificians"
i,_lij_tc:ich us, and our ch'ilJren, their Romish politics, and despotism! This would b&
loo barefaced. It would ruin their cause sooner, than if " Satan Iransforraed into an
an ;el of Ught," did shove the cloven foot and horns, out from beneath his ill adjusted
'ro:, ,'., and raask ! iBut, all the ¦world knows that the order of Jesuits was revived iu
1811, by pope Pius VIL, forthe express purpose of gaining ghostly power in Europe ;
and i?:)ecially to gain over the United Stales.CmAiid latteily, the Roman catholic
princes of Europe have entered deeply, and zealously into the enterprise. These, it
is true, crre Utile for the pope, and far less for his system of inventions, which be is-
plea rea, facetiously, tocall (/le christian religion I Tbe truth is, that as men, enter
taining t'ueir own private opinions, neither pope, nor the Roman caiholic princes, iu
Europe, ever gravely alfecled to believe in tbe system of tlie Romish reUgion.
Vie", ed strictly as a regular system of priestcraft and tyranny, it is a wretc'ncd substi
tute !br Christianity, and loit, strictly speaking, as such, is applicable all that Voltaire
and Hume wrote. In their ignorance of the holy Bible, ihey mistook popery for
i.iiRiSTiANiTY. So does die pope ; so do his ghostly court ; so do tbe despotic p-rinces
if T^.uropc,
Lut, nevertheless, this system, — a compqund of absurdities, pomp, and puerility,
a's il is, — liEs been an admirable tool in tyrants' hands. It amuses lounging cour-)
tiers and sinecure professors, and keeps them out of political plots : it edifies the weak

ROHAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 307
ninded ; and feeds the pious ignorance of fanatics : it lodges unlimited power with
priests and tyrants. And, then, it frowns on no damning crimes ; it allows men to serve
tlie devU, the world, and the flesh, to tbeir heart's content, as long as they live ; and,
then, for a small consideration, — (they cannot take dieir money with them at any
rate,) it sbiieves these children ofthe devil, and gives tlieni a passport to glory.
Moreover, it fills the coffers of bishops, mid monks, who have made vows of poverty :
it feeds an army of twenty millions of priesls and monks, w ho are ready, at an hour's
warning, to march to the onset against knowledge and liberiy, even to the ends of the
earth! And, finally, it si.rikes a veiy salutary terror into die trodden down'populacc,
which lo\es iniquity, and fears the flames of purgatory, which are sold, by the
priests ! \
It is, therefore, consummately adapted to create, and sustain despotism, on the
jargest scale. In the pursuit of his object, the pope has never ceased to add as proper
instrument, die power, and influence of Roman caiholic sovereigns, lo that of bis
army of ghostly militia, tbe cardinals, bishops, monks, and priesls. And these Roman
caiholic princes, who relieve their grave, filial obedience, by fits of the merriest
mockery of hira, and all his army of " shavttings ;" and send him, and thera, daily,
"lothe devil," — over tbeir cups, — do in tbeir tum employ bim, his bishops, and
priests, as their ]<olitical minions, to crush, still deeper, tlieir wretched, and plundered
lubjects ; and to prevent the progress of light, and knowledge araong them ; that tbeir
bondage raay be perj^etualed : aud, finaUy, to overturn every free govemraent under
heaven !
There is notbi:ig to which these despots of Europe look with more uneasiness, andj
real pain, than to the progress of liberty, and the establishment of self governmeuti
on our continent. Especially is our Republic tbe object of their unmitigated and un- j
j'lbdua'ole hatred. I do not say that the people, their subjests, do so view us. Theyf
a'lmUe, or envy us. But tbe princes, and tyrants who have put the screws on tbeir
people in church establishments, and in slate usurpations, do view our republic with
immeasurable \exation and haired. Hence tbe present conspiracy ; and combined
efforts to execute that con.^piracy, by these European despots. And the Jesuits, —
who have convulsed every nation and government in Europe, tbey have, as
the last resort, selected as the means to accomplish our ruin. And every man, in
our Union, who bas eyes to see, and has looked steadily on, for a few years past, has.
perceived that an army of Jesuits are at work over the land. - Tbe eff'ort now made,
—aud I implore my fellow citizens to mark it, and watch the progress ;-J-the untiring >
effort, and aira of these foreign emissaries, of European de.spots, are toilet theeduca- j
tionof our children, and young people, male and female, into their own handslj And ,
aU those unhappy victims whom they can obtain, they send home,— verily igno
rant enough of the usual ornamental, and useful branches,— but, then, their one,
only grand aim is achieved. They send them horae iuto the bosoms of tbeir families,
unblushing, irreli.gious, bigoted Roman catholics! This, as you know. Rev. Fathers,
is the plan adopted in the conspiracy again.sl our free institutions. The foreign des
pots know that it is vain to attack us wilh armies, and navies : that political emissaries
aad-wridn^s could find no place here. Tbey attack us under the mask of religion ;
tlie Jesuits^'are their soldiers ; tbe De propaganda of Rorae, and that of the south of
France train their 'soldiers : the despots, and tbe "Leopold foundation," at Vienna,
furnish die money. Every son of bis holiness is taxed to support tbe eraissaries in
our land. They are "teachers of reUgion!" Yes; but they cease not lo teach in

308 ROMAN CATIOUC- CONTROVERST. (
their religion, the sentiments of the Holy AUiance ! They are " teaehera of religion /"
Yes : but they instil into iheir pupils, despotic principles! They are "-teachers of reli
gion" ! O, yes ! But at the confessional they utter execrations against Uberty and
republics' They applaud monarchy; and popery, and absolutism! They are
ieacAers of religion.'' Yes! and that religion dooms all Aererico/ governments: and
teaches that no heretic has a right to rule : or even hold property : that no Protestant
heretic has a lawful heir, because no heretic is legally married, according tothe papal
law! They are "teachers 0/ religion " ! Yes! But in every nunnery, and ia
every male seminary, it is their religion to hold up the pope as the legitimate master of
all magistrates; and his court, and platform of rule, as the only model of perfection
in tbe art of government! No politics, no political emissary, — no armed bands can
be more fatal to our country, than these " teachers of religion" ! And their very
jealousy, and eternal outcry of "religious persecution," when we expose iheir conspi
racy against our unsuspecting people, is to me, a raanifest demonstratian that their
whole systera is a polilical conspiracy. The teachers of pure Christianity court pub^
Ucity : they raove in light, and triumph by the force of truth. But those "religious"
eonspirators " creep into houses ;" and move in darkness, and fear nothing more than
Ught and publicity !
I beg leave to lay down, emphatically, before the public, this doctrine : —
1' Popery is essentially despotic, and utterly incompatible with the free institutions of
eur Republic j
Here, I have to combat the prejudices, and ignorance of superficial men, who
maintain that popery is so altered, and so modified, and reformed, from what it used
to be, in the Dark Ages, that it can do litde, or no harm. Reverend Fathers, no ono
knows better than you do, that these ages were created Dark Ages by the plastic power
of popery ! And if she could have crushed the influence of the Bible ; and quenched
the light of truth, and science, we ahould have been in ihe Dark Ages still. Modern
light and improvement bring no improvement to her. One fact is enough to show
this: — Popery claims absolute supreraacy for her pope, and infallibility! Hence,
she declares "she never errs!" She can never alter one decree; nor revoke one
false step ; nor abate one evil that ever existed in ber. You afl'ect to compliment her
by calling her improved and reformed ! Were you in Spain, you should receive for
your compliraenl a corps du gard, to escort you to a cell in the duugeon of the bishop,
— the inquisitor, in his^ own diocese! You ought to know that you offer Rorae the
greatest insult, which in her estimation, you can contrive lo ofl'er her in tiiis land : —
by alledging that she is in any respect altered: for, in doing this, you take away the
largest and brightest gem from her crown. You take away her infallibility and
supremacy. The fact is this : — Popery is altered so far, that she puts on the mask, and a false
garb. For she feels that she is in an enemy's land. She suits herself in appear
ance, to the decent appearance of Prottstanls. But, as you know. Fathers, tbe
moment you can get the power, you will forthwith revive old Irish, Spanish, Italian,
and Austrian times. All our cities will gleam with the Auto da Fe! yr--
I need not appeal, hete, to what has been done by popes and couacils of old.lThe
pope claims, to this day, absolute and undoubted supremacy as a temporal and
spiritual prince, over all persons, and their property : and over all countries, as well
Mobararaedan, as Protestant, and catholic and pagan.\ Has any one forgotten that
the pope claimed, and still claims the giving away of newly discovered lands, to his

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 309
favorite princes ? From the beginning ofthe eighth century, the pope claimed this
power in Spain. It is true. Dr. Geddes has established the fact, beyond aU Romi^h
gainsaying, fhat the pope's supremacy was not owned, nor even knotvn in Spain,
until abeut the close of the seventh century. But early in the eighth, the pope threat
ened king V/itiza, for allowing and authorizing tbe priests to marry, that if he per
sisted, he should lose bis kingdom. See Dr. RI. Geddes' works against popery, vol.
ii. p. 29. It is true, king Wiliza of Spain, denounced the pope ; and asserabled tbe
great councU of Toledo, in A. D. 704; which declared and decreed that, — "the
bishops of Rome had no authority in Spain, either in church, or in state." See Ged
des u. p. 31. Yet the pope set up claims to that realm : letters of pope Gregory vn.
were produced out of the V^alican Library, addressed to all princes who were wiUing
to invade the moors of Spain, and drive them out. In these Letters, this spiritual
despot published his solemn grant to all princes, who should conquer fhe Moors,
"that the)' should have, aud hold from him, the pope, tbe use of all die countries in
Spam, which they should conquer from these 3Ioors. But," adds be, — " the property
of these countries, be could not part wilh, or give it to them: because it belonged to
St. Peter ; and the See of Rome .'" Geddes ii. p. 30.
The pope's spiritual supremacy was, in defiance of the great but unsuccessful
struggles of all good men, fully established in tbe raost of the countries of Europe,
about the beginning ofthe seventh century: and bis temporal power and supremacy,
about tbe year 756. Through the influence of that infamous traitor and usurper,
Pepin, this was eflTected. By him -.vas pope Stephen U. made Exarchate of Ravenna.
By insatiable ambition and lust of power, the popes continued to make constant acces-
tions to their domains, and revenues. Charlemagne mado very great and important
additions to tbe gift of bis father Pepin. This monarch, bigotted and superstitious,
helped on tbe Romish power towards its height. He was thefirst emperor that was
crowned by the pope. Give tyranny, especially ghostly tyranny, the least degree of
unlawful power, and its thirst becomes burning and insatiable for raore. Frora this
fune, the popes actually assumed tbe right of crowning kings : and, thence, they set
up the claims of conferring the crown; and with it, the right of conferring the
sovereignty of tbe empire. For, what was the crown " without tbe holy pope's bene
diction." From that time the popes claimed absolute sovereignty over all kings, and
magistrates, from the lowest tothe most exalted in all lands!
Such is the origin of papal suprem.vct. Nothing less than a traitor and a mur
derer of his royal master, and the usurper of bis throne, could have conceived it; and
his bloody son consummated it ! From that tirae, the illicit union of ihe spiritual
and the temporal power, by a frightful amalganiatioiL , gave birth tothe papal Beast,
as foreseen in tbe visions of St. John !
. I am. Rev. Fathers, yours, &c.
W, C. B.

310 ROHAN CATHOLIC CUNTRUVEBST.

LETTER XXXL

TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES.
Popery essentially despotic ; and incompatible with our free institutions.
" Per varies casus, per tot discrimina rerum,
Tendimus in Latium !" Vikg.
Reverend Fathers: — Through you, I earnestly beg the attention of my fellow
citizens, to the open and avowed doctrine ofthe Roraish church on this point. These
papal clairas are laid down by popes and councils; and they are view-ed, and acted
on, as " the essenticd doctrine of Christianity." And these clairas of tha pope, his
bishops, and priests extend to our republic, to our president, aud congress, and gov
ernors, and all the magistracy as fully, and as entirely, in their undiminished pre
tensions, as unto any Roman catholic power in Europe. I implore my fellow citi
zens not to be imposed on by tbe Jesuitism of the men who pretend that " tbey do
not own the pope as a temporal prince.'' j There is not a Roraan cathoUc in Europe,
or in tbe United States, who does nol fully believe thatthe pope has just as absolute a
right, and supremacy over Protestant Holland, and Protestant Britain, and over our
Protestant Republic, and over all our bodies, and our souls, and our real, and personal
property, — as he has over Spain, or Italy itself! \ ffhis is the solemn faith of every
Roman catholic, as it is laid down in his books; and taught him daily!! And you
know. Fathers, that papists could not expect to be saved, if they did not believe tbis.
It is true, tbey refuse to admit it: they even deny it. But this, you know, is denied
only before Protestants, and in all Protestant lands. They woiUd be guilty of ai
mortal sin if tbey did not believe that which they thus deny! I shall produce from
your own books, your authentic doctrines on this point; and we shall then see ho^^
atrocious and dangerous tbey are.
"Tbe pope,''- says the councU which bad Gregory A'll. at its head, — '.'ought to
he called the universal bishop : he alone ought to wear the token of imperial dignity j
all princes ought to kiss his feet: he has power to depose emperors and kings, and is
to be judged by no man." Pope Innocent III. proclaimed hiraself thus to the
world : — "The church my spouse, is not married to me without bringing me some-,
thing. She hath given me a dowery of a price, beyond all price: the plenitude of
spiritual things ; and the extent of temporal things: the mitre for the priesthood;
and tbe crown for tbe kingdom; raaking me the lieutenant of Him who has it written
on his thigh, " King of kings, and Lord of lords:" to enjoy the jdenilude of power,
that olhers may say of rae iiexllo God, — "out of his fulness have we received."
To deny this unbounded temporal potver. was deemed by the pope the greatest
heresy in the kings of Europe. Every one has read of tbe troubles and degradation
to which King John of England; and Henry II. of England, in the affair of the
vUlainous and treason working knave. Saint Thomas A Becket, were subjected, by
¦(.his usurped power of tbe pope. (^ Every student of history is familiar with the
pQwer cl^injed by the two popes who excommunicated King Henry VHL; and by
pope Pii|« "VL ¦vyhp ppt Queen Elizabeth under his ban, and called, authoritatively,
H^pn j(l) her subjepts, as his syb^'ects, {9 rjse up in rebellion agaip»t her, "whom he,

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 81]

e

by virtue of power from God, had judged and damned,"— yes, damned! ^ For h
affected to be "Lord, and God," of both worids, and judge of the bodies and souls
of all men !
When King Philip of France, showed a disposition to slight die pope's power, the
pope thus addressed bim in his Bull,— "AVe would have you to know, that you,
king of France, m-e subject to us, both in things Sjiiritual and temporal: and we pro'-
flounce all those tvho believe the contrary, to be heretics rS' On anodier oc/;asion,
addressing die same monarch, the pope said,— "Do not ihiagine that yoii have no
Superior: or, that you are not in subjection to the Head of the ecclesiastical hie\arcliy,—^
ho that maintains this is an infidel I" ''
And diis has been practicaUy played off by way of a comment, and a lesson lo
kings, and magistrates. .\ king of England, and a king of France, were compeUed
to hold the pope's stirrup, and act as bis groom's raan. An emperor of Germany
laid his neck at the pope's feet: and the pope, in lordly pride, put his heel on bis
prostrate neck, as be blasphemously repeated the sacred text; — " Thou shall tread
upon the serpent, and trample ou the dragon, and Uon!" Henry IV., the emperor,
did penance before tbe pope's gale al Canusium : three days did he stand there,
barefooted; bare headed, and in a wretched woollen cloth wrapped round him. On
the fourth day, the haughiy despot deigned to give bim an audience ; and be promised
him absolution, on condition of his submitting lo the dictates of a couucil, to be call
ed by the pope. That council, at the nod of this pope, — I raean Gregory VIL, deposed
him; and chose a new emperor; to whora the pope senta crown bearingthisraolto : —
"Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodolpbo." " Tbe Rock gave the crown to
Peter, and Peter gave it to Rodolphus !"^
/This supremacy of tbe pope, " over all persons, and things," says Bellarmine,
''is the MAIN substance OF CHRISTI AXiTT Pi Hcucc the following doctrlncs of the
Roman cathoUc church, wbicb I submit to everv citizen of this repubUc. Cardinal
Polus, De ConcU. 41. say,-;, — " Petri cathedrara. &c. The chair of St. Peter, Christ
has constituted, above all imperial thrones ; and all regal tribunals!"
Blasius, De Rora. Eccles. Dignltale, Tract 7, pp. 34. 83. 85, says, — "UnicusDei
vicarius, &c. Tbe Roraan Pontiff is the only vicar of God : — the pope's power is
over aU the world, pagan, as well as christian: the only vicar of God, who bas su
preme power, and empire over all kings, and princes of tbe earth ! As there is one
'God, the monarch of all, who presides and rules over all mortals; so there is one
ticar of God : Itings orfght to be under Peter : and raust bow down and submit their
necks to him, and his successors ; who is prince, and lord of all, whom all emperors,
and kings, and potentates, are subject lo ; and must burably obey."
Pope Boniface VIIL proclairas in the Extravaganles, (the extravagantes are the
decretals of popes, and councils, and of tbe civil powers,) — " Omnes Christi, &c. It
is necessary to salvation that all christians be subject to the pope .'"
Bzovius, De Rom. Pontif. Col. Agripp. cap. i. 3. 16. 32. 45. teaches thus : " Papa
est, &c. The pope is the monarch of all christians; supreme over all mortals :
from' hhn lies no appeah He is judge in heaven; and in aU earthly jurisdiction,
supreme: be is the arbiter of the world."
/ Mancinus, De Jur. Princip. Rom. Lib. 3. cap. i. 2. "Papa est, &c. Tbe pope
is Lord of tbe whole world. The pope, as pope bas temporal power : his temporal
power is most eminent. AU other powers depend on the pope."
Moscovius, De. Majest. Eccles. MiUt. Lib. i. cap. 7, p. 26, teaches the Romish doctntie

3l2 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
fully and frankly : " Pontifex Romanus, ifc. The Roman Pontiff is universal judge :
king of kings, and lord of lords ; because bis power is of God. God's tribunal and
the pope's tribunal are the same ; tbey have the same consistory. Aiiother powers are
his subjects. The pope is judged of none but God." See also Pithou, Corp. Jur.
Can. 29, Decret. Tit. 7, c. 3, also Gibert ii. 9. Bruy, ii. 100, and Labbeus, viu. 666,
and Binii Concil. ix. 54.
Scioppius, in Eccles. Jacob. Mag. Brit. Reg. Oppos. cap. 138, 139, 241, says, —
" Catholici non tantum, &c. Catholics believe tbe pope's power to be not only
ministerial, but imperial, and supreme ; so that he has tbe right to direct, and compel^
with tbe pov,rer of Ufe, and of death.'' t
Maynardus, De Privil. Eccles. Art. 5, Sect. 19, &c. Art. 6, Sect. I, &c. Art. 13,
Sect. 19, says : A' Emperors and kings are the pope's subjects. The pope has potver
in the lohole M>orld in temporals and spirituals. Statutes made by laymen do not bind
the clergy I'lj.
•J' Simanca, in his Enchir. Judicum. Tit. 67. Sect. 12. p. 349, says, — "Herelici
' privati sunt, &c. Heretics (Protestants) are deprived of all dominion, and jurisdic-
' tion; and their subjects are freed from their obedience."
' Emanuel Sa, Aphoris. Confes. Verb. Cleric, p. 41. thus teaches, — "Clerici rebellio,
&c. The rebellion of a priest is not treason : because clergy are not tbe king's,"
., (nor the republic's) "subjects." ,
Turrecremata. Card, ad Can. Alius 3. Caus. 15. Quest. 6. and De Eccles. Lib.
2. cap. 14, teaches thus : " Papa potest deponere, &c. The pope can depose empe
rors, and kings ; be may lawfully absolve subjects from their oath of allegiance. If
the king" (or President) "be raanifestly a heretic," that is, a Protestant, — "the
church raay depose hira," that is, frora his office as a raagistrate.
Paid IV. ihe pope, in his Bull, A. D. 1558, thunders forth bis anathema thus : —
*'All Protestants, be they kings or subjects," — that is, be they Protestants, or Govern
ors, or Mayors, or Aldermen, — "are all solemnly cursed." — And tbis Bull is a part of
tbe canon law : see Lib. 7. Decret. Lib. 5. Tit. 3. De Hereticis, &,c. cap. 9.
And let magistrates look well to the character which the Roraish church says, her
priesthood occupy, in tbe Republic. They never can, without violating tbeir solemn
oath to the pope, "take the oath of aUegiance to our government ; or become citizens.
If they do, tlfey are guilty of perjury before the pope! ;Nay, the Roraan Council of
the Lateran, under pope Innocent HI. Can. 43, thus declares, — " Sacri auctorilate,
&c. By the authority of the Holy Council, we declare it unlawful for secular prin
ces to require any oalb of fidelity, and allegiance of tbeir clergy; we peremptorily
forbid all the priests frora taking any such oath, if it be required."! See Corpus Jur.
Canonici. Again, in Corpus Jur. Can. cap. Sicut 27, Extrav. De Jurejurando, it is thus
taught, — "Juramentum, &c. No oath against the benefit of the church is binding:
all such oaths are perjuries." And Spottiswood in bis History of Scotland, p. 308,
says, — " If the pope dispense with voluntary oaths, it is valid." \
Filiueius, in his Moral Quest. Tract 16, cap. 11, sect. 307, 309, teaches that "by
the canon law, and the decree of tbe Lateran Council, under pope Innocent IIL, all
magistrates who interpose against ecclesiastical persons, in any criminal cause,
whether it be even for murder, or even high treason, shall be excommunicated."
And the Bull of pope Gregory ix. in 1580, declares thus : — " Judex secularis, &c.
No secular judge may condemn a priest: and if he do; he shall be excommuni-

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 313
cated."— Hence it is canonical Uoctrine of the Roman court tliat.'papaZ ecclesiastics
are not subject to the civil laws ! I
This is easily carried out, in every priest ridden govemment. Bui how is it managed
under a Protestant government ? I answer by facts,— when a priest commits a crime
which lays hira open to die lash ofthe law,— the bishop orders him oil" in an hour ;
and before the legal officer is at his house, he is on board of some vessel under a
borrowed name. We all kuow how often this occurs in our cities ! Rcniember priest
Smitii !
, I conclude with a few more extracts. Bellarmine, Controv. Lib. 5, cap. G, p.
1093 sa^s, — '^the spiritual powers must rule the temponil by all sorts of raeans, and
expedients, when necessary ,'i "Christians," — that means papists, — " should not tole
rate a heretic king," (or Pre^ident.)
Salmeron, Comment. Evan. Hist. Tora. iv. pars 3: Tract. 4, p. 411, thus teaches :
'f The pope has supreme power over all the earth ; o\-er all kiugs, and governments ; to
command and enforce them &). And if they resist hira, be must punish them, as
contumacious." -
Lessius, Lib, 2, cap, 42: Dub. VZ: p, G'.ii, loaches :— That "fthe pope can annul i
and caiwel every possible obUgatio.i arising from ,i,i oath."} So complelely does the
- pope set all civU goveraments, and all courts at defiance.
And, now, can any citizen, ofthe least reflection, deny that these essential doctrines
of popery can never be compatible widi tbe laws and institutions of our RepubUc ? If
the Jesuits do teach these doctrines, — as I do affirra before God and man, they do in
flieh seminaries, tbey are deadly foes of our free government. If tbey dare deny
fhem, while tbey lie open in tbeir standurd books in our bands, then are they verily
Jesuits, and knaves that ¦will lie ! I ara, Reverend Fathers, yours, &c-
. ,... AV. C. B.

LETTER XXXII.

TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THI; LORDS EISHCPS OF THE ROMLAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED ST \TES.
Popery Essentially Despotic ; and Incompatible with the Free Institutions of
our Rejiublic.
Hoc volo ; sic jubeo ; sit pro ratione voluntas !JUVENAI, VI. 219.
Reverend Fathers : — I beg that it may be dislincdy known by you, and my
feUow citizens, that all the above doctrine-- are extracted from the canons, and da-
cretals published by Roraan doctors, approved by inquisitors ; or enacted by councils,
and sanctioned by popes. Hence they exhibit the immutable faith ofthe Roman catholics.
Now, let us glance at facts to show that, in tiiis instance, popery is, if pos.sible, even
more intolerant in deeds than in theory. 1 /The Roraish church has never tolerated
any church of Christ, where she had the power .''i /fhe Jew, the infidel, the Moham
medan, the christian have all been, alike the victims of her unsparing bigotry ! She
knows no other sect, — adraits of no sister church : there is no religion out of her :
M salvation outof her: all are doomed to eternal perdition, mt of her communions
28 ¦ ^

814

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.

This is not all ! she is a lordly tyrant, who permits none to breathe, or livC) or ergoy
civil privileges, who differ from ber, — wherever she bas the ascendancy 1 Look at
Spain, Austria, and Italy! None will she allow to die in peace, or receive even the
.last honors of sepulture, — or even, — if she can prevent it, — enter the gates of heaven,
/who differ from ber petty tyrants, the priesls! /Her government, and all her habits
of rule are nol ouly strictly monarchial, but despotic, — absolutely despotic, over soul,
and bodyr'1 Vv'^ilness the absolute slavery of tbe lay people, to the imperious priest!
In Irelantr, the priest exercises bis whip and fists, on bis parishioners, as freely, and
as cruelly as the slave driver does on his -negroes. Theu, mark the slavery of the
crouching priest, to the bishop. He must, on his knees, kiss the lordly hand of the
despot, before be mounts the pulpit, if he happens to be present. And then, tho
slavish ])ro3tration of soul aud body, on the part of tbe bishop, to the "Lord his god
the pope," is a disgrace, — a foul blot on God's image, — raan! The bishops and
priests live, and move, by the breath of the pope's lips ! They have no opinion, nor
sentiment, nor religion, nor conscience, nor even soul of their own. It is all as the
lordly tyrant of Rome breathes it inlo them, even here, within the free air of our
republic ! .
2./'The Romish cburch has always united church and state, j Tbis is an essential
element of her religion.
And history reveals bow mucb her selfishness here rivals ber impiety. In every
instance of similar unhallowed connections, in Protesfant lands, there is the union of
the church lo the state; by which the latter uniformly raakes a tool ofthe former;
mid the church always suffers. But, in lordly Rome, the church unites tbe stale lo
herself, that in every instance, she may use its perfect Euhserviency. Hence her
unbounded arrogance. She sets up claims of power overall kings, emperors, presi
dents, and governments. Hence the secret of her treatment of civil powers. All gov
ernments not of her religion, are pro louuced, in her canons, heretical ; and that
means, in her court style, unlawful ; ind they must be pul down, at all hazards ;
and every where, as soon a.3 she reac lies the power. Carrying out these raaxiras,
I and principles of action, as an absolut : despot, she, of course, abhors and nauseates
'every form of govemraent that favors the liberties of the people. She has an uncon
querable horror of a republic. It is <k perfect antipodes with every sentiraent, and
feeling of Rome. Her people must (not think for themselves ; must not read ; ihey
have no tight to liberty of conscience : the press is muzzled : with her tbe Uberty of
the press is insupportable Ucentiousnjess. These maxiras pervade the present pope's
late encyclical Lelter. Hence, no flornish priest can be a republican. He has no
taste for it. Like die bear of die /north, the Romish priest is an animal that can
thriveonly in the icy regions of despotism. He cannot he a republican, had he even
a taste for it. He is a feudal vassal : be would bring on bis soul the mortal sin of
perjury, if he becarae a lover of liberty. Tbe ]iope has his v.bole soul, and bis great
oath : his ivord, and even his civil oath are not to be credited in oppositioti to his papal
interests ! Facts confirm this.
' The one great, and unwavering object of papal arabilion, has heen power, and
universal ascendency in all things, teraporal and spiriuialf\ ^"lisloiy declares that no
Roman catholic country has ever been a true repubUc. tt'he priesthood of Rome-
have been mouarchists of the most absolute character, frora the pope down to the
cure. Hence, wc frankly avow, that we oppose your system of priestcraft not on account of"

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 315
your religion, merely as a reUgion. We oppose you on this account, thai popery is a
despotism, breathing a deadly maU,gnity against every forra of religion, dilfbring in
any iota, from itself; and against all free, aud especially, all republican institutions!
I appeal tothe histo.y of Roman catiiolic countries in Europe, South America, and
Mexico. \The land of the Inquisilioii, aud of priestcraft- hu^ ever been the tomb of
liberty!^ ,Vnd die Roman catholic .church has been the modier and muse of th«
InquisUion, and priestcraft. Tire moral atmosphere of Rome, \\orsc ihan llieir own
malaria, and worse than tbo deadly Samiel ofthe desert, breadies death lo all liberi]-,
civU and religious!
3. Ofall the specifications which might be made, there is one, to which I beg the
earnest alte nti'-n of our citizens. It pourtrays the diaboKeal spirit of tiiis ghostly
despotism, in deepest hues. Eveiy Protestant, and, indeed, every man not a Roman
catholic, is denounced by the pope, and his foreign emissaries among us, as txcotmnu-
nicated heretics ! And, what is worse, every person in these United States, who is
not a Romanist, is annuaUy excommunicated, aud pronounced accursed, and doomed
to perdition !/ This unchristian, and horrid ceremony of cursing all the Americaii
citizens, and government, is annually pronounced on Thursday, before Good Fridayi
It begins at Rome. On that day, the pope, in his scarlet vestraents. the appropriate
clothing of the "blood red, scarlet colored Beast of the apocalypse,", utters in awful
form, this iuff rnal imprecatiou. And, in his name, in like manner, does every priest,
in his own chapel, read this hull In ccena Domini, re-echoing the papal curse over
the world ! 'Tbey denounce all our citizens; all our magistracy; ourraayors; our
aldermen; bur governors; the president; and all the branches of our government!
And t.iis curse of their foreign raaster, includes the sentence of deposition frora civil
-office ; as being heretics, and having, of course, uo right lo rule ! And there are just
two things wbich screen them from popular indignation. They deny the charge of
doing it, even while they are in tbe act of doing it : and it is done in Latiti, which
few understand.
But tbe priests and tbeir partizans gain tbeir aira notwilh.standing: they cherish
the secret spirit of hostility to our institutions ; and their subserviency to European
despots !
And in ca.se of a war, or insurrection, the whole army of priests, bishops, monks,
and partizans are bound by your foreign allegiance, as you know, Fathers, — and by
your great oath, to rise in defence of the pope and his allies; and against our govern
ment ! If you do not, the guilt of perjury re.st.s on you ; and you, thence, forfeit
your offices, and your revenues! ! No raan, acquainted with Romanism, and its des
potic vows, can imagine that a papist will permit bis oath of allegiance to any heretical
government, to sujiersede, in one instance, his vows, and oalb to the pope. And this
oadi, be it remembered, binds hira as -perfectly incivil, as in spiritual matters. '
It is now understood by us all, that tbe course adopted by our Jesuits, and tha
priests in general, in reference to this BuU of annual daranation of heretics, is, — to
deny it utterly ; to deny that it is promulged by any of thera. Hence tbe Jesuits
have caused it to be published in The Catholic Herald, that it is never promulged by
them; that "they have not even a copy of U;" "that it utters no curses ou any
one." I refer to the Protestant Vindicator, No. 12. I beg leave, also, to notice a
•mall book, lately published by one of you; I mean bishop England, entided Ex-
'^lanation of the ceremonies of Holy WeeJc, &c. ; but which is, merely, a childish.

3I(J IWTOTAN CATHOLIC CONTRCTVERST.
and contemptible apology for tbe theatrical mummery of Rome, and its intolerailf
dogmas. When Dr. E. comes to the services of Maunday Thursday, he bas the hardihood
to deny that these vindictive curses on the human famUy, "are now gone thrungh on
tbe Thursday of holy week." It is now laid aside ; and has " not been gone through
since the year 174a" See p. 69.
I do not stop to inquire whether courtesy should compel one to say that a person
speaks the truth, when he actually Ues ! But I cannot conceive it possible that our
.lesuits, and also Dr. England did not know that what they say on tbis matter, is
posilivel}' untrue and false.
I shall conduct them, and you. Fathers, direedy lo this very Bull for evidence to
sustain my strong assertions. "You do nol proraulge the BuU In coena Domini;"
you say. Hear what your sovereign lord at Rome says : — Sect. 29, — " Ut processus
ipsi &c. That the processes themselves, and diese present letters may be raade more
known, in virtue of canonical obedience, we do strictly charge and command aU and
singular, — that they publish them once annually or oftener, if expedient, when the
major part ofthe peojile are assembled,"
" You do not possess a copy of it, and therefore, you cannot pubUsh it," — you sav,
in The Catholic Herald.
What an act of rebellion against the pope, and tbe highest power in your church 1
Here are the words of the Bull, Sect. 2.5. " Episcopi, nee non rectores &c. Bishops,
and rectors, and curates, and presbyters of every order, shall have with them a tran
script of this Bull, and shall diligently read and study to understand it."
"-It has not been gone through since 1740;. but is nc«v laid aside;" says Dr. Eng--
land. Il is difficult lo say whether we should pronounce this to be impudence, or
reckless hardihood, or Jesuitism dyed in the wool. That he should have thus dared
to utter tbis at Rome, and thus beard the lion in his den, — Ihe pope in his very levee I
Yes! and with the very Bull uttering his papal roars in his very ears, — is surpass
ing strange ! The unblushing falsehood ought to be rebuked. I affirm that Dr.
England knows perfectly well that this BuU is ordered, by the highest authority of
his church, lo be annually promulgated. And in the teeth of his denial, I affirm that
he knows well that it has been uttered since 1740. — Dr. E. is " a member of the
Rom. Pont. Academy of Archaeology." Now there is a volume, printed at Rome in
A. D. 17GJ, enlidcd, — "Appendix ad Tusc. Synod, held by the Cardinal Duke of
York, Bp. of Frescati, in 1763-" Is it possible that this member of the Acaderay
has not seen that book, so well known in its library, and in the libraries at Rorae?
I cannot persuade myself that Dr. E. is so absolutely ignorant. He must have seen
it. Tt is well known even in the libraries in Britain. At p. p. .575, 576, of that book.
Dr. E. must have >een the copy of the Bull In coena Domini, as uttered by pope
Clemeiii XIIL, in tbe year 1764. I copv frora the preamble, liow before me. The
pope, staling that his predecessors on Maunday Thursday, did exercise such a spirit^
ual sword of cburch discipline, adds; — "We, therefore, following this ancient, and
solemn custom, do Firstly, — Excorainunicate, and curse on the part of Almighty
God, and the aposdes, all heretics, &c." Then follow the designated -victims of
papal intolerance : he " curses" them frora the eye brows to tbe toe nails; and their
souls, being damned by him, with the devil^ be adjudged into eternal fire: damnatum
cum diabolo, — in ignem ceternum j.udicamiis." See also Lond» Prot., Jour, April, 1834^
p. 230. 4

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVrRST. 817
Farther — "This BuU In coena Domini," — you say, " does not curse Protestants, —
does not interfere with Protestant governments." I beg the atteniion ofthe American
community lo an analysis of tbis famous Bull, which is annually pronounced against
us. It opens thus: — "In the name ofthe Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, and by the authority of St. Peter and St. Paul, and by our own, — we excom-
Mjunicate and pronounce accursed, all Hussites, Wickliffites, Lutherans, Calvinists,
Huguonots, Anabapists, Trinitarians, and all apostates frora ibe faith, and all who
keep, aud read kuow-ingly thsir books, &:c.
In section sixth, tbe pope utters his curse "on all civil powers who impose new
tases ¦without tbe consent of the Roman court."
In the 12th section he curses all who, in any way, hurt or maltreat cardinals,
bishops, aad priesls; or who drive thera from their lands, terrliories, &.c." Now, as
the pope claims all lands, and givfes tiiera to his priests, this republic falls under tho
maledicliou of the pope, because, it does not establish the popish religion by a latv -;
and pay the tithes of the fruits ofthe land, as his just tribute!
In the l-5th section, he curses all magistrates, who " take away the jurisdiction of
all benefices, and tithes; or other spiritual causes, from tho cognizance ofthe court of
Rome." Hence, if any of our courts take up a cause of quarrel between tbe priests,
or laymen, about monies due to " the church," or " any spiritual property" instead of
referring it siraply and dutifully to the foreign despot, they cora^ undsr tbe papal
eurse. In the 17tb section, tbe sovereign raaster of all Roman catholics utters his cur?«
Ml all tliose who shall hinder priesls, and ecclesiastics, from exerting their ghostly
jurisdiction ; or who shall appeal to a civil court for redress, and " lo procure prohibi
tions, and penal mandates against these priestly courts, &c.
In the 16lh section, he curses " all who lake away the priests," and church's proper
ty." At the Reforraation, the priests were made to disgorge their ill-gotten "goods and
gsar," which they had abstracted by fraud and impo,',ture. For, demanding back
their own, the protestant world has been put under the pope's weightiest ban. And
every priest and layman, does really aff"ect to believe, that for this thing alone, —
name!-,', for makin,g these ghostly thieves androbbers refund what they bad been, for
ages, plundering off tbe nation,, — every Protestant shall be doomed to hell! Nor,
can we, of lh"is republic, escape ! AU the earth is the pope's property; and as he i»
entitled to the t'lthe uf all its proceeds, — our nol giving iJiis lo his representatives and
foreign emissaries, and spies, here araong us to wit, the holy bishops, vicars, and
priesis,- is a sin wbich wUl send us aU, — magistiates aud people, a packing into infal
lible and inevitable perdition.
In the ]9lb section, be curses " those who, without express license, from the Roman
pontiff, impose ta.xes or tribute on Roman prelates, priests, monasteries, or churches, I
&c." Here the curse reaches our government, and our legislature, if they shall ven- ,'
ture to tax priests, or priests' property, " without express license ofthe pope."
In tbe 20tb section be utters the doom of judges and magistrates, who shall "sh in
judgment on a bishop, priest, or ecclesiastic, with express license from the Holy Apos
tolical See !"
In the 22d, the pope declares this BuU, and these sentences of doom binding forever,
ttaless revoked by tbe pope for tbe time being. In the 84, be utters his curse against
Mshpp or priest, who shall dare to give absolution to any one under these dwims, "iu
as*

318 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVKRST.
face of these presents ; and he declares that "be will proceed to sewrer spiritual, and
temporal punishments, as be sbaU think raost convenient."
Lastly : — This extraordinary docuraent is introduced with these words : " This
Bull — is always pronounced al Rome, and by all Roraan priests, on Thursday be
fore Easter." It has received tbe sanction,, and addition from at least twenty popes.
SliC Bullarium Magnum Romanum. And it is closed with tbe assurance, that "if any
shall infringe on these letters, and this Bull, or oppose thera, he shall certainly incur
the wrath of Almighty God, and of St. Peter and St. Paul.
4. Additional Ught is thrown on the nature of the Roman catholic subservi
ency to a foreign despotism, from the oath which chams the papal bishops and
priesthood, as feudal vassals, lo the foot of the pope's throne. It is recorded in
Bulla PU IV. -. " Omnia a sacris, &c. All things defined by the canons, and general
councils, and especially by tbe Synod of Trent, I undoubtedly receive, and profess :
and all things contrary to them I reject, and curse, and from my dependents, and
others under my care, as far possible, I will withhold. And the catholic failh I will
teach, explain, and enforce upon them."
This oath binds every priest to bold and enforce all these aforesaid doctrines, which
¦we have recited ; aud which are so essentially despotic ; and so utterly incompatible
with our republican inslitutions.
I subjoin the canonical oath which every prelate must take, at bis consecration.
It is copied from Pontif Roman. De congee, elect, in Episcop. p, 57. "Ego P, P. ab
hac hora, &c. I from this hour will be faithful, and obedient to my Lord, the pope,
and bis successors" (and he is a temporal prince, as we have seen, as well as a spirit
ual:) "the council they entrust to me, I, will never discover to any man, to the injury
of die pope. 1 will assist them to retain and defend tbe popedom, and the royalties
of St. Peter, against all men. I will carefuUy conserve, defend, and promote the
rights, honors, privileges and authority of the pope. I will nol be in any council,
fact, or treatj^ in which any thing prejudicial to the person, rights, or power ofthe
p,o!iC is contrived. And if I shall know any such things, I wUl hinder them with all
iriv power, and will speedily make them known to the pope. Tothe utmost of my
power, I will observe the pope's comraands" (temporal of course and spiritual) "and
I will make others observe them. And I will impugn and persecute all heretics, and
all rebeW, to my lord the pope."
I Now, is there a man in our RepubUc, who does n-ot see that such men, as the
priciis and bishops, who are the vassals of a foreign court, — and are sworn by an
iiaili paramount lo all other oalhs, lo act on such dangerous principles, — cau never
be true ciii:?ens ! To be republicans, is, on their part, absolutely impossible! They
;ire iuilialed into despotism: from their earliest habi'cs, they are trained to despotism ;
ihev are the vassals of that foreign, baughtj', and turbulent despot, the pope; whose
court has kept all Europe in confusion : aud has involved all nations thereofin con
tinuous scenes of bloodshed, rapine, and desolation, for upwards of twelve hundred
years! They are the- successors of those men who were tbe papal tools in doing
tbis : and they come among us to re-enact the sarae scenes.| I hold thera up to our
fellow citizens, as spies in our camp : as our deadly foes : Ifeund together by a fearful
oath, and pledge to a foreign power, lo compass the ruin of civil and religious liberty !
I implore my fellow citizens to listen to the words ofthe faraous Rucellai, the secre
tary ofthe govemraent of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. This patriotic man, a Ro
man caiholic, was filled with indignation at the proceedings of those scourges of the

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 319
human family, — the Romish priests. And he labored with the Grand Duke, to put
down this insuking and beaN-en daring Bulla in Coena Domini. In the close of bis
spirited appeal to the Grand Duke, diis faithful secretary says: — "The priests ought
tohe puuished as transgressors of national laws. Their obedience lo tbis Bull In-
Coena, should cease to operate as an excuse for ihem. That Bull is published every
where; ils principles are taught in the schools," — yes! and also in every popish
teminarj' in the United States ! " It is inculcated onthe penilcnls by their confessors ;
it is demonstratively unjust : it is subversive of all the rights of soNcreignl)', of law,
of good order, and of public tranquillity!'" Nay, exclaims that faithful and distin
guished statesman, in allusion to the priestly oaths; "That oath, is in fact, a solemn
promise uot only to be unfaithful to one's lawful govemraent ; but even to betray it,
as often as the Court of Rome's interests may render il necessary !" See Memoirs of
r;ipio de Ricci, ch. 3.
These are the atrocious principles of the men who are pouring in their legions of
Jesuit ;iriests on our shores! These are the outrageous principles, aud poUtics of the
men, v>-ho are rearing seminaries, and olUring lo leaeb Protestant childreu the true
religion; and American republicans, sound politics! ! These are the revolutionizing^
principles of men, who are looked upon with so much indifference, by some of our
jtatesmen, aud carressed as sound atid worthy patriots, by others. )
I lift mv pleading voice; and with deep solcranily warn every christian ; e^ery
politician; every magistrate; and every statesman in the land, against these foreign
emissaries, of a foreign des[)Ot! By your love of country; — by the raeraory of your
fathers who gallandy braved all dangers, and broke a foreign tyrant's cruel yoke ;—
'oy the souls of V'ur chUdren, and those yet unborn, — I implore you, throw the shield
of vour might V influence, over our free inslitutions, and liberties; and ward off the
fatal blo->v, aimed in a novel as.-ault by ihe despotic powers of Europe! Study the!
history of Jesuit ii..-^. ; popish supremacy, and its bloody deeds in Europe, — and tremble
for your country's liberties ! This, I implore you to remember, is no sectional ques
tion! It is no question of sectarianism: it is no question of even reUgion. It con
cerns everv lover of liberty, and of bis country, whatever be his creed, or politics.
Tbe broad question is this, — ;liall we sit quiedy slUl, and see our country converted
into an arena of Jesuitism, despotism, and blood-shed, Uke another Europe which
has been the bloody arena of an atroeiuus tyranny! Or shall we, by every fair and
honorable means — even by the weapons of light and truth, drive by one harmonious
efEijrt, tbe enemy from our schools, from our sanctuary, from our firesides, and
frora our happy shores ! .^ , .
I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

320 ROMAN CATHOLIC COMTROViCRST.

LETTER XXXIII.
TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOIIC
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED ST.ITES.
On the Six Grand Attributes of Popery, — Impurity, Impiety, Arrogance, Treachery,
Intolerance, and Cruelty.
"No great slaughter, and no notorious calamity hath ever happened, either to church, or
state, of 'vhich llie bishops of Rorae have not been the authors !" .iE. Sylvius, afterwards
pope Pius ii. in his Historia Austrife.
Reverend Fathers : — On the pages of the scriptures tbe rise and reign of a sin
gular Power are graphically delineated. It is manifestly distinguished, by Daniel '
in ch. vii. from the first beast, the IJabylonian erapire : and from the second, the
Median and Persian: and from the third, the Grecian : and frora the fourth, the Ro
man pagan erapire. The singular power I allude to, is " tbe Little Horn," wbich
sprang up among the ten horns." - " It had eyes like tbe eyes of man, and a mouth
speaking great things."
The aposde John also distinguishes it frora the Beast rising up out of the sea;
naraely, rhe Roraan empire pagan, rising amid the turbulent waves of the nations.
Rev. xiii. 1. Tbis pagan power preceded the Beast I allude to. Rome pagan was,
in the words of St, Paul, the power wbich " now," — in bis tirae, " letteth and will
let, until he be taken out of the way." 2 Thes. ii. 7. And this "letting" power
was "taken out ofthe way," under tbe opening ofthe sixth seal, inthe days of Con-
stanlinc, when paganism was overwhelmed, and utterly destroyed ; as a persecuting
power. It was upon tbis fall of tbe Beast, that John, in Rev. xiu. 11. saw " another Beast
coming up out of tbe earth, having two horns like a lamb; bul speaking as a
dragon." This, by Paul, is called "The Man of Sin;" and by John, "Babylon the
Great," — even a greater persecutor than the first Bahylon. Now, these predictions
cannot he referred lo any pagan power.
The pov/er foretold so minutely by Paul, arises out of " the falling atvay," — that
is, in the original Greek, — the apostacy, from that which Paul taught : that is, the
apostacy frora the christian faith. Hence it cannot be referred to any Pagan, or
Mohammedan power. These never were v,rithin the pale of the cburch; they can,
in no sense, therefore, be the apostacy from tbe christian faith.
Now, where, williin the name and limit of the christian world, shall we find a
power answering lo tbe naraes and designation here presented lo us, by Paul? I said,
it is a potver ; for it is evidently not applicable to otie man, or a few ivicked men ; nor
to a mere moral, and theological society, such as that of Socinians, Arians, or Deists.
It is a power clothed with civil power. It is a great potoer, wbicb the Roman impe
rial government, as it existed in Paul's days, "did let," and "would let," until
" removed out of the way." ' This fact determines it to bo some extensive citnl
tyranny, as well as spiritual tyranny, or "' apostacy" springing up, within the limits of
the christian world. Now, there is not a power that has ever existed, or does now
exist, in which this description can, with the least consistency be applied, but one.
Aud that is, — the Roman catholic bierarchy : tha attributes of which are these.
First: Impvritt. lie is " the Man of Sin." The pope, his cardinals, and court

KOMAS CAIHOLIC CONTROVERST. 321
are to a proverb, notoriously profligate. Such writers as Baronius, Dupin, and
Bower set tbis matter in the clearest light. Guicclardini, the historian, and secretary
to Pope Leo X, when speaking of die popes of the 15lh and Ititb centuries, frankly
avers that, " he was esteeraeS a good pope, who did not exceed in wickedness, the
worst of men !" One pope (John xxiU.) was, by a council, convicted, says Labbeus,
of forty crimes! Frora the fountain head was sjuead like a raighty torrent, universal
pollution and crime, over all Roman catholic countries. In fine, in addition lo all
that I have already exhibited, I refer lo the statements of Cardinal Ambrosius of Ca-
nadoli, who, in visiting his diocese " could not find even the traces of common
decency in tbe various convents." .\nd those who wish lo contemplate an honest
portrait of tbe holy priests' morals, ospeciallv since ceUbacy, the master device of the
devik and pope Gregory vii., was iinp.ised on them, can consult Edgar's Variations
of Popery, chap. 15. B3' chastity, the priests never mean what honest and pure
christians raean. With priesls it raeans no more than " the virtue of abjuring mar
riage ,-" whUe every nameless enormitv and shocking crime, which destroyed Sodom,
is perpetrated, and even gloried in by those chaste fathers ! European and Soulh
American catholic countries groan under the licentiousness of these clerical profli
gates ' I speak soberly when I affirm that church history sets thera forth, in general;
and thise of Italy and Spain, in particular, as many degrees worse than the priests of
pagan lands, in ancient or modern tiraes ! And, as if personal pollution did not redeem
their title given thera by the Spirit of God, — naraely, " tbe Man of Sin," — they actu
ally traffic in sin ! Hence, their indulgences to corarait sin, aud absolutions from old
crimes, for raoney ! — Hence, " the Tax Book of the Holy Ap/ostolical chancery" for
merly quoted by us, — in which is set down a regular papal tariff of the differeni
crimes, absolved for money ; the greater crimes being always the most profitable ta
the treasury of tbe pope and his ravenous priesthood : and therefore, — though with a
frown, — always tbe most gladly listened to at the confessional!
And it is not of Roraish morals in tbe dark ages, that we speak. We point to the
vicious morals of the present day, in Spain, Austria, France, and most especially in
Italy. For the nearer we come to the head quarters of his "Holiness," we perceive
their atrocity inereased in .a frightful ratio. Eustace in bis Cla,ssical Tour, vol. in..
131, speaking of the notoriiuslv depraved morals of Italy, says, — "may they not be
ascribed lo the corruptions ofthe national religion ; to the facility of absolution ; and
to the'easy purchase of indulgences 7" " We saw a mah al Tivoli," says a modern
traveller, '-who had stabbed his brother, who died in an hour, in agonies. The
murderer went to Rome, purchased his pardon from the church, and received a written
protection from a cardinal; in consequence of which he was walking about, uncon
cernedly, a second Cain, whose life Was sacred.". Graham's Three Month's Resi-^
dence &c, p, 34. '¦ Those who have interest with the pope, raay obtain an absolution
in full, from his Holiness, for aU the sins diey have ever coraraitted, or may'choose to
commit." "I have seen one of these edifying documents," continues the traveUer,
" issued by the present pope, to a friend of raine." Rome in the 10th century, vol. ii.
p. 271.-
Hence we are warranted in saying, that tbe voice of sober history has distinctly
pronounced that to no pagan, and to no other apostate religion, under tbe heavens, can
die extraordinary tide of " Man of Sin," be honestly apd truly applied,. than lo tbe
Romish church. It would be a positive breach of charily in a christian, to apply it
to a pagan, or any apostate religion, except die Roman bierjirchy,

322 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
The second, and third attributes of this power are Impiety, and Arrogance, which I
shall examine iu connection. "He opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is
called God; or that is worshipped."
This divides itself into a twofold count. First, "He opposeth all that is called
""God, and exalteth himself above all that is called God." Now let the Bible explain
itself: magistrates are, on its sacred pages, called gods. " I said ye are gods." Now
I revert to my first principle : tbis can refer to no Pagan, Jew, or Mohammedan
power. These grew out of no " apostacy" from Christianity. To a power within
the limits of the christian world alone, is it applicable. Bul has the Roman hierar
chy done this thing that is here laid in the count ? She bas, and she is the only power
¦within llie christian world who has done so. What Pope Gregory VII, at the head
of a Council decreed, bas been the audacious practice of these lordly priests; — "The
Pops ought lo bo called Universal Bishop; be alone ought to wear tbe tokens of Im
perial dignity; all princes ought to kiss his feet: he bas power to depose empeiors
and king^, and is to be judged by none."
The Glossa upon Can. 2, Cap. 15, says — " the Pope can give dispensations against
the gospel, the aposdes, and the law of nature." Glossa, Cap. 4. Extrav. Johan
nis XXII. " Whosoever shall presumptuously venture to maintain, that our lord
g.od lbs Pope, cannot thus decree, let him be holden as a heretic;" and Boniface in
his bull, says — " Gn.id has set us up over kings and kingdoras, to root up and destroy ;
whoso thinketh otherwise, we hold hira as a heretic."
Pope Boniface VHL concludes his famous Bull " Unam sanctam," wilh the foUow
ing words ; — "We, therefore, declare, say. define, and pronounce it to be necessary So
•alvalion, thai every huraan creature should be obedient to the Roman Pontiff."
Sext. Decret. extrav. lib. 1.
The church of Rome has never ceased to assert her temporal jurisdiction over
J'^rinces and magistrates. I refer you. Fathers, to the words of the council of Con
stance, fifteenth session: — "If any person shall presurae lo violate the statutes, and
ordinances of the holy council, — he shall be deprived of all dignities, estates, honors,
offices, and benefices, ecclesiastical or secular, whether he be eraperor, king, cardinal,
or pope." So also do the council of Trent, Sess. 25. In the Bull of Queen Eliza
beth's "damnation, and cxconruuunication," pope Pius V. declares that "Alraighty
God has appointed him, the pope, prince over all nations, and all kingdoms, that he
may pluck up, destroy, scatter, ruin, plant, and build." See Camden's Hist. A. D.
1570. I shall give a few extracts frora "the Pope's .Book of cereraonies." This singular
book is in the library of Dublin college : it was shown to Mr. Finch, by Dr. Saddler,
librarian. It is entitled, — Sacrarum Ceremon. Rom. Eccles. Libri Tres." Cologn.
Edit. 1571. — " 1. The eraperor shall hold the pope's stirrup. 2. The emperor shall
lead the pope's horse. 3. He must bear the pope's chair on bis shoulder — 7. Ha
shall carry the pope's first dish. 8. He shall carry tbe pope's first cup." See Finch,
Rora. Controv. p. 312.
And these laws of the ghostly usurper are fully confirraed by history, which reveals
how corapletely " the ten powers" of all Europe surrendered their power to " the
Beast:" and bow every class of the raagistracy bas, bythe pope, been insulted,
maltreated, and degraded ! I cannot help noticing two classes of facts, wbich set this
ia the clearest light. First, — Popes have deposed kings and emperors ; and even
set iLeif feet on their prostrate necks. Need I refer to king John of Englapd, and

ROHAN CAIHOLIC CONTROVERST. 323
Hetiry IV. emperor of Gerraany ? Second, — Popes have audaciously suspended the
laws of nations; have absolved subjects from their oath of allegiance to their lawful
rulers; nay, tbe wretched priest, residing at Rome, has, for ages exacted tribute from
kings, and their people, as his subjects. Tbis was exacted under die canting name
of Peter's pence, in Britain, Ireland, Spain, France, :iud the northern nations of
Europe. There was one hem more, to fill up the features of " the Man of Sin," as delineated
by the hand of unerring inspiration. The pope has claimed supreme power over
"these gods below," — the magistrates : bul angels are "the gods above," — the rulers
in heavenly places. Tbe pope bas filled np lUe full measure of the perfect likeness
of "the Man of Sin;" be claims supreme power also over the angels of heaven. For
instance, pope Clement VI. in bis bull for a jubilee, after having promised pardon of
ims past, present, audio come, adds, (p. 2.) "Et mandamus angelis ut auimam e
purgalorio, penitus absolutam, in Paradisi gloriam inlroducant. 'Wc command the an
gels lo lake his soul out of purgatory, wholly clear and absolved, and inlroduce it
intolhe glory of Paradise." But, there isa second count iu die indiclmeiii: — " The
Man of Sin — exalteth himself above all that is worshipped." ;\ e admit that tbe
pagan emperor was styled Divus, and even " dominus deus, the lurd god." I
revert to the principle laid down. The power, is an Apostate pi -> er from chris-
lianity. And we need only lo open the pages of approved Roman wi iicrs to discover
an overpowering e%idence that tbe Romish church is here intended, " Our Lord
god, the pope," is a comraon appellation of each pope. " Papa non est homo," the
pope is nol a man." "The pope holds the place of the true God." See Pithou 29
Canon law, Decret i. Tit. 7. cap. 3. Bellarraine in the faraous passage, so often re-
Terted to, teaches the pope's absolute infallibiliiy in laying down article.s of faith;
and precepts of morals: and adds that "if the pope could err, by enjoining vices, or
prohibiting virtues, tbe church would be bound to believe that vice-, v, i-re virtues, and
¦rhtues, vices, unless she chose to sin against her conscience." Le i ovtif. Lib. IV.
cap. 5. Among the first acts after a pope's election, is that called, the udcrriiunoftht
pope. We have an account of it by an eye witness, in Finch, p. 322. IU is carried
in by mea, and placed on the great allar, in .St. Peter's, where the host, their god,
usuallv is laid : and there as in Thibet tbis man god is adored, even as their host is
ailored! — Every man admitted to the pope at Rome raust kneel do-s^n, and kiss his
foot, as he salutes him with, — "Dominus noster deus, papa '.—The Lord our god tht
fope! And this gol-hip is thus claimed by pope Clement Vii., and his caidicah, in
tfaeh letter to Charies VI. , of France :— " As there is only one God in the hea-. ens, so
there cannot, and I'nere ought notto be but one God on earth,"— raeaning himself!
See Troissard, Tora. iii. 147, folio.
But the arrogant clairas of" tbe Son of perdition," are not confined lo an array of
dirine tides. As a legislator does the arrogant blasphemer seal hiraself in God's
throne: He has abrogated, as we have seen in a forraer leUcr, all G()t"s ten cora
mandments: to iheone only object of divine worship, has he added a host of false
gods; he has perverted both sacraments, and added five novelties to thera : he puts
the massm the place of Christs' atonement; and holy water, and outward rites uf
cleansing, in tbe stead of the Holy Ghost. Thus, bas he changed the law,, and ordi
nances of the Most High, as far as his power can do it. And, as if venturing the
utmost daring, the unmatched blasphemer bas set up his claims ef right to the keys of
hell, and of heaven. He saves; he damns, when he will! I appeal to his Bulls of

324 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
excommunication, in proof of this. I open tbe book at random : I fall on the Bull of
Pius v., against the Queen of England. In this, I have tbe proof of both points.
He declares that his catholics alone are saved : he opens the gates of heaven to non«
but those of Holy Mother, — "extra quam nulla salus est: out of her, there is no sal
vation." Hence he condemns the soul, as well as body; hence tbe tide ofthe Bull of
Pius v., against the Queen of England, — " ihe damnation of Queen Elizabeth."
There was only one step more that he could go, — and that he bas gone too. Hb
has actually set up his claira in a physical, as well as a moral sense, above " all that
is worshipped." I allude lo what I have again and again brought before the public.
In every raass-bouse, the pope and his delegates, the priests, by rauttering tbe con
secration words "hoc est corpus meum," convert a wafer into "die body and blood
soul and divinity of Christ !" He and bis lieutenants thus do create their Creator,
ten thousand times ! And having ten thousand tiraes eaten, " tbeir Creator," they
again create hira, ten thousand times raore !
May I be permitted here to advert briefly to the graphic delineation of this power
by St. Paul, iu 1 Tim. iv. 1 — 4,, in order to throw an additional illustration on these
papal attributes, frora that striking text ? — It is a power which " has departed from the
faith," that is, the christian faith. Hence it cannot be referred to any pagan, or
Jewish, or Mobararaedan, or atheistic power. It is an apostate christian society.
Now raark the full length, and perfect portrait, of popery ! First, it gives "heed lo
the doctrines of devils;" iu Greek, demons. By demons is understood, according
to the ideas ofthe ancients, that class of beings between the immortal God, and mortal
men, that is, deified spirits of men ; that is, canonized saints ; elevated to the rank of
inferior worship.
Now, let any candid ra.an, Roman catholic, or protestant, name a potver, within
the Umits of the christian world, which has set up canonized saints, and also angels,
for worship, besides die Romish church. Who is it that has its altars reared lo thera,
its shrines, ils images, and teraples? The Romish church. Who has ils enshrined
relics for adoration? The Romish church. Who burns its incense before an innu
merable host of gods and goddesses, surnamed saints? The Roraish church.
Second : It is said of this apostacjf frora the faith, that it shall forbid io marry."
Araong the fanatical pagan priesls, ancient aud modem, in the Eastern world, the
slate of celibacy has beeu bepraised to the skies, Justin proportion to their lewdness;
and marriage has been, of course, forbidden. But this passage of Paul refers only to
those who "had departed from the christian faith." To no pagans, therefore, can it
he applied. Now what power is it, within the christian word, that forbids marriage?
Do you Rev. Fathers, and your chaste priests answer, by an extract frora your vow
of chastity. Why do you nol raarry, like other honest men .' Why, — the answer is
written on your forehead, and in your morals, — because you obey that diaboUcal
APOSTACT, wbich "forbids to marry."
Third : This apostate power comraands " to abstain from certain meats, which
God bath created." Now, determining the meaning of this by the principle already
laid down, what power within the whole range of Christendom, coramands "to
abstain from rasats;" and raakes this abstaining from raeats, a portion of its reUgion ?
Let our learned priests answer tbe question, who would pronounce dieir terrific
anathema on thair followers, aud doom even to hell fire all those who would dare to
eat meat in Lent, and on Fridays, and until lately, on Saturdays. To the Boman
hierarchy is this descriptive prophesy wholly applicable ; and to it alone. Henee

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 325
fht Roman church is that impious Man of Sin, and arrogant Son of perdition,
spoken ofbyfaul.^
f ¦ Thijis far have we treated of tbe first three attributes of popery.
^ . I am. Rev. Fathers, yours, &c.
W. C, B.

LETTER XXXIV,

TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS, OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES.
On the Six Grand Attributes of Popery, — Impurity, Impiety, Arrogance, Treachery,
Intolerance, and Cruelty.
" Art thou that traitor angel, art thoy he,
Who first broke peace in lieaven, and faith, till then
Unbroken, and iu proud rebellious arms
Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons
Conjured against the Highest?" Milton,
Reverend Fathers : — The fourth grand attribute of popery, is Treachery ; to
this I beg your usual indulgent attention. Jesuitism was revived by Pope Pius vii.
in 1814; and Jesuitism in its priraitive virulence, is poured forth in a wide inunda
tion, o\er our land, by the spiritual despots of Italy, France, and Austria. And every
one knows that Jesuiti.«m is now a regular classical English word for Treachery.
1st, I shall quote a few specimens of tbeir avowed raoral tenets, in addition to what
has been formerly quoted by us.
"They do not falsify, who fo replace a lost title of heirship, forge another." Sa,
Aphor. p. 150. — "If any one promised, or contracted, without intention to promise;
and is called, upon oath, to answer, be raay siraply answer. No. And he may
swear to this denial, by secredy understanding that be did sincerely promise ; or that
hedid]iromise widiout an}' intention to acknowledge it." Suarez Ju. Precept Lib.
3. cap, 9. p. 473. "A person raay take an oath that he bas not done such a thing,
though he has, in fact, done il, by saying to himself, it was not done on a certain
day; or, before he was bom, &c." — Sanchez, Oper. Moral precept. Decal. pars 2 ;
Lib. 3. cap. 6. No. 13—" He who is not bound to led the truth before swearing, is
not bound by bis oath ; provided be raakes die internal restriction that excludes the
present ciLse." Charli, Prop. 6. p. 8. "A priest is not bound to declare the truth
before a lawful judge ; for a priest cannot be forced to testify before a secular judge."
Taberna, vol. U, p. 2.^8, "The rebeUion of a jiriest is not treason, for Catholic
priests are not subject to civil government." Era. Sa. Aphor. p. 41. And here is tbe
sentiment of Bellarmine, -which every priest in the United States is solemnly sworn
on the cross, to beUeve, and to carry inlo practice, whenever U is practicable, "on
pain of damnation,"—" The spiritual power raust rule the temporal by aU .sorts of
means, and expedients that raay seem necessary." " Tbe pope— potest mutare reg-
na &c. can change kingdoms ; can lake away power from one prince, and give k to
another, in his character as chief spiritual Prince." "The pope cannot, as pope,
enact aud annul laws, ordinarily, as if he were a political prince: he cau enact civU
laws and confirm them, or abolish them, if such be necessary to the salvation of souls,
29

326 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONt IlbVERST.
and kings be unwilling to enact them." " Tbe civil power is suhjeet fo tbe spiritual ;
potestas civilis subjecta est potesiati spirituali ; therefore, the spiritual prince, the pope
can rule over teraporal princes, and magistrates. In every ease, must the spiritual,
wbich is the superior, bear rule over the temporal, wbicb is inferior.'' See Bell. De
Pontif. Lib. v. cap. 6, 7. p. p. 1094, 1095., of my copy. I beg to give a few more
speciraens. . '
" The pope cau annul, and cancel every possible obUgation arising frora an oath."
iessius, Lib. ii. cap. 42. p. 632. " A raan conderaned by the pope," — (such as a
Jew, a Protestant, a deist,) raay be killed wherever be is found." Le Croix, vol. i.
p. 294. " A child may steal from his father, as much as the father would have
given to a stranger, for compensation." Escobar, Theol. Moral, vol. iv. p. 348.
"Servants raay steal from their masters as rauch as tbey judge tbeir labor worth,
,more than the wages ihey receive.'' , Cardenas, Cris. Theol. Diss. 23. cap. 2. p. 474.
And Lud. Molina, vol. ii. p. 1150. (My copy is the Mentz Edit, of 1614.) "It is
lawful lo kill an accuser, whose testimony may jeopard your life or honor." Esco
bar, Theol. Moral, vol. iv. p. 274. " Licet procurare abortum, ne puella gravida
infaraelur." &c. Mart"?!. Theol. vol. Ui. p. 428. This I must not translate. "If a
man becorae a nuisance to society, the son may lawfully kill his father." Dicastillo,
Lib. ii. p. 290. Such is a mere gleaning of their atrocious tenets. And in the redu-
cing of thera lo practice they are most faithful in every element of their treachery!
The history ofall the governments of Europe, who have all in their tu-rns, expelled
them, testify fn tbis ! And the faith.'"ul historian of /ufitre Ame-rica, if ever, by the
wrath of God, they gain the ascendancy here, will bear an appalling testiraony to the
same melau'jholy truths ; in the tears, and assassinations, and ma.ssaeres of our chil
dren's chUdren!
From these avowed teCets, it is easy to see that a Roman caiholic can take any
oath, be it bef jre a civil court, orthe oath of allegiance, and yet never design, in sober
truth, to consider hiraself found by it! Yes, ray fellow citizens; and he is quite con
sistent on his p,-inciples; for he has two ways of escaping as the deluded man
beUeves, without peijury resting, in its damning guilt, on his soul. First ; by mental
reservation. Second, by the priesl"s power lo ab.solve him from it. T'nere is another
and a,practical way to evade their oath. A friend of mine was present one day,
when a Roman catholic, in New York, boasted that he had voted at three diff'erent poles :
and took lire oath three times, that he was a citizen, and had resided the requisiteiime
ih each of die three wards, at once : " I caught them," said the Jesuit, " thus : I put
my thumb across the holy sign ofthe cross, on the book ; and kissed my thumb ! And
-that you know, is no oath al all, — at all !" This, as observers see, is no uncommon
thing with our Roman.?., in our civil, aud criminal courts!
2d. "Keep no faith with hsret'ics," is a regular dogma, and a solemn doctrine ofthe
Roman catholic church. ;
The denial of this has, lately, been repealed by a venerable citizen in PhUadel-
pibia. WUl sober readers of history believe it that such a man as Mr. C. gravely
denies it ? No mau can questionMr. C's. honor or sincerity. It is purely his want of
knowledge of the Boman cadiolie standard doctrines that has led hira to tbe rash as
sertion. He has appealed, U is-frue, to the answers of the famous foreign UniversUies, to the
questions .proposed by the Late ?dr. Pitt.. These grave -societies, combining aU tbe
learninir, and honor ofthe Romish world, really affect to start wii& horror at the bare

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 327
suspicion of their Holy Mother ever having iieUi, or taught that " no faith raust be kept
with heretics!" Tbey all flatly and solemnly deny that their church ever held it, or
ever taught U. And they even lay these den"ials before the British govemment !
JHere, again, Mr. C. betrays bis painful ignorance ofthe manners aud besetting sin
¦of all Roman ecclesiastics : I do uot say lay gentlemen, bul of priests, under wboss
"Jesuitism those Universities are sordidly enchained. No shrewd ]iolllician, nor chris
tian is deceived by these ansvvers, for one niomenl. Every body read in history, and
in popish Bulls, canons, and theology, as the professors of these same Universities
are, know in the ibost perfect manner, that there is no truth whatever in their re
plies lo Mr. Pitt. These were uttered merely for effect, aud did any one yet ever
hear tbe criminals al the bar reply otherwise than not guilty, to the usual question
put to them. Mr. Pitt as a well read man, could expect no other answer; and be got
no other, than what these ghoslly criminals chose to give, " we plead not guilty."
Now I shall go direeily to tbe decrelals and the pope's bureau, and to' historical
documents. Will you follow me. Fathers, while 1 try your pleas of noi guilty
of erer holding the dogma " That no faith is io be kept with heretics."
Gregory VII. in a council al Rome, declares, " We, following tbe statutes of our
predecessors, do, by our apostolic authority, absolve all those from tbeir oath of
fidehty, who are bound to excommunicated persons, either by duly or oath; and we
unloose them frora every tie of obedience, till tbe excoraraunicated persons have
made proper satisfaction." Decret. 2 part. caus. 15. quest. 6.
Urban II. teaches tbe sarae doctrine. "You are to discharge the soldiers,'' says
he, " who have sworn fidelity to Count Hu.eo, from paying any obedience while he
is excommunicated : for ihey are not obliged to keep that fidelity inviolate, which
they have sioom to a christian prince, who opposes God, and his saints, and despises
their precepts." — Ibid.
Gregory IX. has laid down the general princijile wilh the utmost care and pre
cision. "Be it known lo all who are under the dominion of heretics, that they ars
set free from every tie of fidelity and duty lo them; all oaths or solemn agreement to
the contrary notwithstanding." Decret. Greg. lib. 5. tit. 7.
Clement XL-being enraged al the treaty of Alt-Rbaslat, saj'S in his Brief to the
emperor Charles VL, " We denounce lo you, and, by the authority given us, by the
Most Almighty God, do declare the covenants of that treaty, &c. &c. to be, de jure,
null and void, invalid, unjust, reprobated, &c. ; that no person is bound to tbe observ
ation of them, or any of them, although the same have been repeatedly ratified, or
secured by an oath ; and they neither could nor ought to have been, nor can nor
ought to be, observed by any person whatsoever," &c.
Here'are a few more gleanings frora the papal decretals,— Martin V. in bis episde
to die Duke of Lithuania says,—" Be assured thou sinnest mortally, if thou keep
tiiy failh with heretics." St, Thoraas Aquinas is of the sarae opinion, " that a
catholic might deliver over an untractable heretic to the judges, ahhougb be had
solemnly pledged his faith to him ; and even confirmed it by the solemnity of an
oath." Bruce's Free Thoughts, &c. p, 119,
Bonacino says,—" Contracts raade against the canon law, are invalid, even though
confirmed by an oath ; and a raan is not bound to stand by his proraise, even though
he had sworp u." Pope Pius V. taught the emperor, and e.tborted hira,—" Nee fidera,
&c. That no faith, nor oaths were to be kept with an infidel." Pope Innocent
VIIL in his edict against tbe Waldenses, in A, D. 1487, declared, as tbe vicar of

328 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
¦God, that — "all those persons who had been bound by any contract whatever, t»
grant, or pay any thing to them, should not be under any manner of obligation, to
do so, for the time to come."
And, Fathers, what pope, and general council openly avouched that no faith must
be kept with heretics? Innocent IV., and tbe council of Lyons, when they deposed
the eraperor Frederick IL, and absolved his subjects frora their oath of allegiance to
their lawful prince ! Who avouched that no faith raust be kept with heretics ?. "rhat
pope who absolved tbe subjects of king John from their lawful oath of allegiance!
Who avowed that no faith raust be kept with heretics? Pope Pius V. who doomed
Elizabeth, and set her subjects free from their oath to their lawful sovereign ! Who
was guilty of that doctrine of devils that no faith is to be kept with Jews, Turks, or
heretics? That ghostly villain, pope Clement VIL, who dispensed with the corona
tion oalh of tbe king of Spain, the eraperor Charles V., in the year 1524; and com
pelled that prince in tbe face of the world, to break his faith pledged by oath, to protect
the Moors; and thence to turn that whole race, in Spain, over to the infernal Inqui
sition! See the Spanish Hist, of this periods and Geddes' Works on popery, -sol. i.
p. 36. 39.
And to suit the orlhodo.xy of those who judge a council superior tothe pope, 1 beg
leave to say that this dogma has been settled by the decree, and by the practice, of a
general council of your church. The council of Constance, in 1414, did solemnly
decree that "no failh shall be kept with heretics." Here are their words : — "Tbe
person who has given them the safe conduct to come thither, shall not, in this case,
be obliged to keep his promise, by whatevet; tie he may have been engaged, when he. has
done all that has been in his potver to do." Bruce, Free Thoughts, p. 120.
Nor was this a bold theory in the brains of licentious priests. It was, with that
savage ferociousness, the usual characteristic of Romish priests, reduced into practice,
in a horrible tragedy in Europe. The immortal JohnHiisshad come to this council
under the solemn pledge, and safeguard of the emperor Sigismund. These ghostly
judges, amid their revellings, and debauchery, found a brief space of relaxation, to
condemn the holy raan as a heretic. They dooraed him to the flaraes! The eraperor
interposed : pleaded his safeguard that had been pledged to Huss, on his royal honor.
Of all beings that walk the face of God's earth, the priests of a false religion, are the
raost destitute of honor, coraraon decency, and the bowels of pity- Charles V., at a
later day, had the resolution to reject with a noble firraness, the pleas ofthe inhuraan
assassins, who sought Luther's blood, with an appetite as keen as that of a New
Zealand cannibal ! When pleading wilh hira, and urging with indecent zeal, that
no faith should be kept with heretics, he nobly replied to fhe sauflg-e teachers of Jesuit
morals, "What! when good faith is banished from the earth, — ought it not to be
found with an emperor !"
But, alas! for John Huss, — Sigismund had not this honor nor firmness. He yielded
to tbe spiritual assassins df the council of Constance, and Huss' was consigned alive
tothe flames! And shortly after him, also, Jerome of Prague ! The councU of
Trent formally recognized the decrees of Constance. Hence this doctrine "of keep
ing no faith with heretics," is as ranch a regular dogma of the Roraish church, as is
the mass, or purgatory, or the pope's supremacy.
I conclude the specimens of Treachery with the following extracts from " The oath
of secrecy devised by the Roman clergy, as it remains on record in Paris, among tbe

KOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST, 329
society of Jesuits." It ia copied from a crUlection of papers by. Archbishop Usher.
It exhibits to American citizens, the secret oath, by which all Jesuits are bound to the
pope, and their foreign superiors. I beg tbe atteniion of every christian, and patriot
in the land, to this document.
Secret Oath. — "In the presence of Almighty God, and of all tbe saints, to you,
my ghosdy father, I do declare that his hoUness, pope  , is Christ's vicar-
general, and the only head of the universal cburch diroughout the catth : and that
by virtue of the keys given him by my Savior, Jesus Christ, he hath power lo depose
heretical kings, princes, slates, commonwealths, and governments ; all being illegal,
without his sacred confirmation ; and that they may safely be destroyed. Therefore I,
lo die utmost of my power, shall and wiU defend this doctrine, atid his holiness' rights
and customs against all usurpers," &c.
"I do renounce and disown any allegiance as due to any heretical king, prince,
state, named Protestants, or obedience io any of their inferior magistrates, or officers."
"1 do further proraise and declare that notwithstanding / am dispensed wilh, to as
sume any religion heretical, for the propagation ofthe Mother church's interest, — to
keep secret and private all ber agent's counsels," &c.
"AU which I, A. B. do swear by the blessed Trinity, and the blessed sacrament,
which I am, now, to receive. And I call all the heavenly and glorious hosts above,
to witness these my real intentions, to keep this my oalb. In testimony hereof, I
lake this most blessed sacrament of the eucharist, aud set to my hand, and seal."
Such is tbe secret oath of our Jesuits, so long in use, and never revoked la this day,
by their superior, or the pope. Such is tbe infernal oath by wbich the Jesuits, and
other household troops of the Roman caiholic powers of Europe, now pouring in upon
us, are banded together in their present conspiracy against our republic, and our holy
religion !
May tbe God of our fathers, in bis corapassion, awake our fellow citizens to a sense
of their real, and appalling danger, and turn inlo confusion tbe counsels ofthe leaders
of this hellish plot against our country. And to this none can refuse tbeir hearty
.4niere, but spiritual tyrants, and conscious t raitors.
I am, ray Lords Bishops, yours, &c.
W. C. B,.

LETTER XXXV.

TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS Or THB ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES.
On the Six Grand Attributes of Popery,— Impurity, linpiettj. Arrogance, Treachery,
Intolerance, and Cruelty.
"No illusion is more dangerous than to make toleration of religious sects, a mark of the
true church!" — Bossuet, Oeuvres, Tom, iii. 411.
Reverend Fathers :— I ara quite aware that your good sense approves my direct
appeals to documents, instead of assertions, and declamation : let us then go on. The
Fifth attribute of your church is Intolerance. Tbis and Cruelly, has ever been your
eminently characteristic marks. And this stmck the eye of the h6ly John in vision,.
29'*

330 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
He saw " the scarlet colored Beast;" bearing along in stalely procession, the woman
of Babylon in fiery scarlet colors, drunk with the blood ofthe saints, and the blood ofthe
martyrs of Jesus." Now, ihis is not fulfilled, ultiraately, in the scarlet robed pope,
and his scarlet chair, bis scarlet robed priesthood on Maunday Thursdays; and the
scarlet robed cardinals, with their scarlet hats,,their scarlet chariots, and scarlet horse
trappings ! Tbis we enumerate araong tbe striking coincidents of the case. It looks
to a deeper, amore atrocious, and daraning attribute of popery, which we are now to
consider. Boniface VIL, in Extravagantes, declares the principle on which all papists her
lieve and act; naraely, — "Omnes Christi fideles, &c. It is necessary to salvation
that all christians should be subject to tbe pope." " Papa est, &c. The pope is
monarch ofall christians; he is supreme over all mortals.'' Bzovius, De Pontif.
Roman Col. Agrip. cap. 1, 3, 16, 32, and 45.
The present pope keeps alive this intolerant dogma, id our day. " On the holy
See," says Gregory XVL, "do the churches depend for support, and vigor!" (En
cyc. Letter.) In this BuU, he denounces freedom of opinion, as "a senseless free-
dpra." "He, alone, has the dispensation of the canons: he, alone, decides on the
rules of the sanction of the fathers.'' Hence neither priest, nor layman, neither
sovereign, nor council, can dictate to him, in temporals, or spirituals ! He pronounces
"liberty of conscience an absurd and erroneous opinion, a delirious conceit!" He
holds up tbe freedom of the press, every where, to catholic indignation, " a never-
to-be-sufficiendy execrated liberty of booksellers!" He is "horror-stricken," at the
spread of knowledge : it is bis deadliest foe. And, thus, in the nineteenth century,
the popere news the sentiraent preached three centuries ago, by tbe vicar of Croy
don, — naraely, " We must root out printing, or printing will root us out .'" He ap
plauds the salutary Index Expurgatorius, by which all our theological works, and
almost all our classical English authors, are prohibited!
Your council of Trent, Sess. 4, prohibited "the free and proraiscuou.s reading of
the holy scriptures, — as causing more evil than good." Hence, the Romish church
places tbe holy Bible in tbe Index,^'— not raerely Protestant translations, but their otvn
Douay, and all other versions in any vernacular, as prohibited books, not to be read by
any man, without a written license from a bishop.''
Your pope Pius VIL, issued his Bull against Bible societies in 1816; and pro
nounced tUem " a shocking and most crafty device, lo sap tbe very foundalions of
roligion.'" See a copy of this Bull,- in Glasg. Prot. Ainer. Edit. vol. i. ch. 33.
In short, cast your eyes over Roman catholic land.s. There your jiope iirobibils,
under pain of death, all Protestants to leach their reUgion, Wherever he has control.
Your pope, and the priest-ridden despots of Europe, prohibit ever}- raan from uttering
under tbe penalty ofthe dungeon, even an opinion against your church, or the govem
raent !
Roraish lands are the lands of white slaves! The very soul is in chains. Your
church, and her sons, the civil despots, have a system of passports, by which you
know tbe iiiovements of every man in the land; tbey have their espionage, and
their armed police, at the appoach of which, liberiy sickens and dies. These
minions rush into any man's house ; seize his papers, and letters, and drag the sus
pected to dungeons ! The habeas corpus law, — which is dear to every freeman's soul,
has uo name, nor place in popish lands. They have tbeir secret inquisitions to cure
heresy, and stop the progress of light, and science. Troe, TVie Grand Inquisition is

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 331
no more. But every Romish bishop is the inquisitor in his own diocesCfin our land,
and in Europe!
Ia a word, no man in your communion is allowed to read, or even to think, for
hunself on religion. " I think it is so," said a young raedical student, a Roman
catholic, at the confessional, — " You ihink," exclaimed the confessor, in a voice
choked with fury, "what right have you to think 7 Lei me never catch you think
ing again !" He is now a man, and a Protestant ; and was lately, ifhe is nol still, in
this city.
In short, no slave in all the Indies, — no galley slave chained to his oar, no wretched
victim chained in the inquisitor's cell, is raore chained down, in body, than is the
genuine papist cliaiued down in soul, conscience, and thought, by an outrageous and
viUainous priest, to the pope's galley oar! We pity and deplore his case frora our
souls. And no tyrant's or usurper's fall, do we pray for, and toU, more, to accomplish,
than the prostration, and annihilation of priestcraft! Oh! Lord Ji-.sus, how
LONs! Come, Lord Jesus, come quicklt !
Such, Fathers, as you know, is the uncompromising spirit of poperj' ; unraingled,
and strong in ils elements of malignity ; without any one counteracting, or neutrali-
zmg principle of clemency to.lbe species! And it breathes this ferocious spirit into
the most devoted of its victiras. And as the lower order in every community, are tbe
most abjectly priest-ridden, tbis spirit shows itself in thera, just in proportion as
the light and influence of Protestantism, science, and piety, have shed none of their
transforming efficacy upon them.
Hence, the melancholy and deplorable condition ofthe middUng, and especially,
the lower order, in three, out of the four provinces in Ireland, in Italy, Spain, and
the Roman Caiholic cantons ofthe Swiss! Tbe native genius of these people is
equal lo that of any people under heaven. There is not a nobler, kinder, raore
generous, or more gifted soul than that of an Irishman, or the descendant of the Gaul,
of the Swiss, or the ancient and immortal Roman ! But, alas! behold tbe accursed,
the deadly influence of popery on thera ! It chains thera hand and fool, and throws
them back into the darkest days of the darkest ages!
Ilisau a.xiora of truth, established by the lurainous evidence of history, and experience,
that no class of our species, bears a nearer likeness to the Author of all false religions,
than the ¦priests of false religions. And, as popery, if we receive the tesiimony of St.
Paul, is "in its coming," in a pre-eminent manner, " after the working of Satan, and
-wilh all deceivableness of unrighteousness,"' of course, its priesthood, and ils priestcraft
bear. In all points, a superior resemblance to its supernatural fabricator ! Unrelent
ing maUgnity bas ever been theh prominent, and, I fear, their boasted, and cherish
ed attribute! Hence tbe Inquisition ! Hence persecution, terrific, refined in cruelty,
lavish in its horrid devices, and imnlements, persevering, and diabolical, on the
part of those who, in tbeir Uliberal, and exclusive views, call themselves Catholics!
And aU this has been to an extent, unknown, in number, as weU as degree of viru
lence, even in pagan persecutions! Did the pagans ever conceive an mquisition ?
Did the pagans create tbe monster, called an inquisitor ? Did the pagans ever
conceive tbe idea of the heU and tortures of a Spanish inquisUion ? No, never.
They are guildess of al! these !
It was in the prophetic vision of tbis bloody attribute of popery, that Jo in won
dered with great adiniration !" He saw raystic Babylon " drunk with the blood of the
saints, and whh the blood ofthe martyrs of Jesus." Had it been Rome pagan that

332 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
was presented to view, John would not have wondered, with any great admiration !
It was nothing more than what was expected from the hatred of such pagan einpe-
rors, and pagan soldiers. But there were two reasons why the apostle was over
whelmed with amazement. Here, before bis eye, was a society, in name ehristian,
"church of Christ:" — by its own avowal, ."the only church of Christ," "drunk
with the blood of tbe saints, and tbe blood of tbe raartyrs of Jesus !" And then, a
sect, christian by its own avowal, yet more cruel, more unrelenting, more perse
vering in persecution, than the most relentless of tbe pagan powers ! " A church, caU
ing itself the church of Christ," raurdering ils tens of thousands tor their religion, for
every hundred, murdered in the pagan persecution !
Tbis leads me to the Inquisition, and Persecution by the Romish church.
I am, my Lords Bishops, yours &c.
W. C. B.

LETTER XXXVI.

TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOP| OP THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES.
Cruelty an Essential Attribute of Popery,
" Go to your bloody rites again — bring back
The hall of horrors, and the assessor's pen
Recording answers shrieked upon the rack ;
Smile o'er the gaspiriffs of spine-broken men;
Preach — perpetrate damnation in your den ;
Then let your altars, ye blasphemers! peal
"With thanks to he.iven, that let you loose again
To practice deeds wjth torturing fire and steel
No eye may search, — no tongue rnay challenge, or reveal."
Thomas Campbell, On the Inquisition.
Reverend Fathers : — I ara indebted for your patient attention to these investi
gations. Bul I ara not indebted to you. Had I heen in the land of Romish catho
licity, such as your Spain, or Italy, I should likely, have had your company in tbe
, deepest dungeon of the inquisition ; and there have been pursuing ray discussions on
" the Beast," by tbe glare of the farailiar's lurid torch : and by the judicious help of
the torturer by fire and water, and the rack! Blessings on our cherished country!
Blessings on our beloved republic! Tyranny, §:hostIy, or civil, cannot live, nor
move, nor breathe here ! May it be so for ever ! And let the frost of death paralyze
the tongue of tbe guilty traitor, who refuses to say, — Araen !
Tbe sixth altribute of popery, is crueltt. Tbis divides ilself into two counts.
It shows this infernal attribute by tbe Inquisition ; and by Persecution.
Part First, — The Inquisition. — The Papacy, you know. Fathers, is a system
wbich bas ever bad, for ils object, unbounded power, amid the potentates of the
earth. This has been its one greal aim. The christian religion had tbe misfortune
to be laid hold upon by it, merely as a pretext to gain power. Every man, — every
tyrant has used one means, or another, to gain wealth and power. One man trades
in gold and diamonds: another in baubles, and jugglery. Tbe all absorbing aim of
unprincipled men is one; — namely, wealth and influence. One tyrant employs

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 333
arms; and boasts with Alexander, and the Romans, that bo gives nations Uberty and
peace, after he has plundered, and desolated the land. Mohammed set up a new
religion, simply to gain power. If he could have bent lo bis purpose, the christian
system, as successfully as the papacy, the Arabian impostor would have spared the
infliction of the alkoran on the world. And he would have marched through seas of
blood with the Bible, in the one band, instead of the alkoran; and his scymelar, in
(he other. But the genius of his voluptuous .-Vrabs, prevented this. The late empe
ror of France w-as a Jew with die Jews, a Protest ant with the Protestants ; a Roraan
caiholic when he coiiipellcd the infallible father, Pius VII, to crown hira ; and a
Mohammedan in Egypt! The trulh is this, these men were atheists. And not one
soul of them cared for the ware in which he trafficcd, ifhe only gained his ambitious
object. Alexander, and tbe Romans, cared no more for "the liberiy, or peace" of
nations: or Napoleon for "islamism;" or the juggler for his baubles and nicks, or
Mohammed for bis alkoran, than the papacy, for the christian religion! Each
tyrant bas a design upon the species; each tyrant climbs lo a crown by bis own
ladder: and his object gained, be is the first to kick it aside, as albiugnever cared for
of itself
The papacy gained its ascendency by chaining down tbe human intellect and con
science. To accomplish tbis, our ghostly tyrants seized upon the form ofthe christ
ian rehgion, the purest, and most holy, and only religion, vouchsafed to us from
heaven ; and that wbicb has tbe mightiest influence on tbe conscience, from Us exhi-
bilions of eternitv, its reward, and its punishraents. The pope usurps the throne of
the Deity; and sitting in the temple of God, he deals out glory, and damnation, as he
is in die humor. He erects a purgatory to make an easy way to heaven for evil raen
and knaves, and lo create a revenue of raoney, wrung from the ignorant, guUty, and
trembUng wretch ! He deals out its " tires," " waters," its " steam-baths" lo each
culprit, in a charitable manner, aud a charitable measure, just as he is able lo pay.
He takes heaven into his own band ; turns tbe Holy One away; places his Virgin
Mary on the throne, and opens heaven, and sells glory, to the highest bidder, and the
richest knaves !
All this enormity, which throws Satan's inventions in the dark pagan worid, en
tirely into the shade, bas poured in enormous revenues. All Europe, all ranks from
the king to the beggar, were his tributarie--. And the priesls, monks, and friars, and
nuns were his tools' and paunders; his raiUtia; and his lax gatherers! And by his
ghosllv ware, and traffic in religion, he has gained more riches, and raore pov/er,
than Mohammed did by his alkoran; or Alexander by his Greeks ; or Caesar by bis
Romans! Now, to consolidate tbis svstem, the pope knew that U was essential to check every
thing like liberty of thought,"' and the rights of conscience. To get, and lo keep pos
session of his revenues, he knew that he raust keep the souls of all Europe, in chains.
This he has labored to eflTect by two prominent and truly satann.c means. By the
Mex Expurgatorius, he keeps ibe Bible, and every valuable book from tbe subjects
of his kinsdom of- darknes.s, and despoti,.m. In other words, he employs ignorance,
palpable as the darkness of Egypt, to chain raan down. In this darkness he keeps
men "frora rising from their seats ;" and the gloom of their cells. The other wea
pon of hell is tbe iNQU.siTraN ! "It isessentiallosalvation,"-thal means, mother
words,-" It is essential to bis fleecing men of tbeir liberty and property that al
men be under the pope's power."-And the Inquisition may be defined,- mat tn-.

334 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
bunal, the joint invention ofthe devil, and the pope, whereby, men are punished, in
an exeraplary, and, lothe pope, a very lucrative raanner; for the deadly sin of obey
ing their Maker, by exercising the faculties of their own souls; and thinking differ
ently frora the Roraan cathoUc religion !
Tbe Inquisition Has three degrees in its rise, and progress. In tbe council of
Verona, in 1184, Pope Lucius constituted each bishop <Ae Inquisitor, or "The heresy
hunter," in his own diocess.
Bul when those, whom the despot was pleased to call heretics, and who, in fact,
were true and enlightened christians, rejecting with indignation tbe idolatrous system
of popery, had increased in an incredible degree, the popes, in the beginning of the
13lh century, in order to check thera, sent delegates into these parts where his power
was so unceremoniously trampled down. These sanguinary raiscreants, such as
Castelnati, and Dominic, preached downheresy. And their wretched sophisms utterly
failing to make men of sense apostatise frora Christianity, to popery,^ — they look ou
thera, without tbe leave of bishop, or magistrate, to inflict' capital punishments upon
tbeir victims !
But the Inquisition -was perfected in its terrific power, when the emperor Frederic
ii, and Louis ix, sirnamed Saint Louis, king of France," lent fheir authority to esta
bUsh this tribunal; and when the magistracy was converted into a tool ofthe priests
to enact legalized raurders, on raen, siraply' for tbeir opinions in religion. Then
Europe exhibited the novel and outrageous spectacle, — to use thewords of Dr. Jortin,
" of the priest being the judge, and kings the hangmen !"
Such has, in fact, been tbe true relation of the crowned heads of Europe, and in
deed, of the raagistracy, to the pope of Rorae,, and bis sanguinary array of priests.
The pope having usurped unlimited power over every crowned bead ; and these
ignorant and efl^eminate animals, called kings, and emperors, having in their treach
ery to God, and their subjects, "yielded up their power to tbe Beast," and lamely
put tbeir necks under his heel, they becarae the pope's spies and hangmen! Nay!
tbe whole raagistracy for several generations, became "the hangmen," of the Inqui
sition ; and the royal armies, tbe hired executioners of whole provinces, and cities,
in vast, and wide-spread massacres! All tbis was done at the nod, of an upstart,
and wretched priest, who succeeded in deceiving the world into a persuasion that he
was a christiau ; and God's vicar general, in St. Peter's chair! Hencei, we know how
to reply to the papal sophistry, on tbe lips of priests, within Protestant lands,—" Our
church inflicts no civil pains, the civil magistrate, alone, puts these criminals to
death :" and " their blood is no more tbe blood of the saints, and martyrs, than the
blood of thieves, man-killers, and other malefactors: for the sbedding.of which, by
order of justice, no coraraonwealth shall answer." Rhemish Annot. Revel. xvU. 6.
At the bidding of tbe pope, four edicts were issued bythe eraperor Frederick II.
In the first he asserts, the divine right of kings " to wield the material sword, given to
them separately from the priesthood, against the eneraies of the faith, for the extirpa
ting of heretical pravily." "We shall not suffer," says be,^"tbe wretches to
Uve, who infect the world with their doctrines." He then fixes the horrible punish
ment for heretics ; namely, — death in tbp raost appalling forms, by rack, and fire,
and sword: and their goods to be confiscated, tbeir children to be disinherited, -and
their raeraory, and tbeir children, to be held infamous forever !" No heretic, that is a
dissenter frbrn popery, could make a wUl; nor receive any propertyi by succession,
or inheritance. Pope Innocent VIIL, in his edict of 1437, enacted that '* cathoUcs

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 335
might seize upon, and possess the goods of heretic? : dial if bound to them by contract,
it must not be fulfilled ; if indebted to them, they must not pay debis." William the
Conqueror, in his devotion to Rome, enacted that " no man should buy, or sell, who
refused allegiance to tbe apostolic see." And pope Alexander HI. issued his bull
that, — "No man should traffic with tbe Waldenses." .\nd die council of Constance
uttered their anathema "on all who should dare to enter into ciintraets, or engage in
commerce with heretics." .\nil the Inquisitors were the rainisters of vengeance, charg
ed with the execution of these sanguinary laws.
So completely did these enemies of God, and his church, fulfil, unconsciously, even
lo the letter, tbe prediction respecting auticbrisl, in Rev. xiii. 15, 16. " The image of
iheBeast should both speak, and cause that as raany as would nol worship the image
of the Beast, should be killed. And that no man raight buy, or sell, save he that bad
the mark, orthe narae of tbe Beast !"
Such were die origin and the laws of this infernal tribunal, wbich had, under
Satan, pope Innocent III. for its founder, and one of the saints of the calendar,
St. Dominic, for its earliest inquisitor. It was fully in operation in Italy, in 1251.
Itwasgraduallv extended into other countries, and the executioners and tormentors in
"The Holy Office,'' were always Dominican friars, a class of men destitute of the
bowels of huraanity- 1
la some countries, they- never were able to establish this court, by all their efforts ;
for instance, in England, Scotiand, and Ireland. In France, it was forced on the
people: but soon were the miscreants and tbeir tribunal banished with indignation.
In Germany, the exasperated people drove these minions of popeiy frora their towns;
and, more rigorous than die French in their law of retaliation, the first inquisitor,
Conrad of Marpurg. was cut to pieces by the ungovernable populace. In Spain, and
Portugal, "this scourge, and disgrace to humanUy has, for centuries, glared like a
monster, with its frightful a?pect." At Rome U was generally most tolerant ! For
Rome acts on judicious principles. Gold and power are its only deity. And she
knows that a rigid Inquintioft would dry up the fountains of wealth poured in by
strangers and travellers. In Europe, while each bishop's Inquisuion is in fuU ope
ration, Ihe Grand Inqui,Mtion is suspended iu its operations. But it has never been
condenuied, not even disapproved of; and its crimes of murder and butchery have
never been atoned for, never even deplored, by the papaf church, in Europe, or the
United States ! Hence, it is manifest that on each priest's head, who walks our
streets, rest the atrocious guilt, and blood of the Inquisition, untU he repents, and
makes reparation to outraged human nalure. But Holy Mother, and her pnests,
tiever can repent of ber deeds, as a church ; for in that case, she would admit that she
has been in error ; and they would lose the caste of infallihility !
The Inquisitorial law took its rise out ofthe ignorance and brutalily of the Domini-
ean monks. " They were entirely ignorant," as Mosheim jusdy remarks, "of aU-
judicial proceedings, and sound law. They knew only the tribunal of penance ;
where men te.l'ifi a gainst, and for themselves. On this they modeUed the laws of
the InquisUion." Hence these laws are " in many respects, conlrary^to the coramon
feehnrrsof humanitv ; and the plainest dictates of equity and justice.^ ^
"The Inquisitor," exhibits the specimen of a huraan being, made m God s image,
destitute of the least feelingsof humanity ; and a consummate knave. He smileson
the most horrible torraents of a fellow being: the groans of bleeding, lacerated, and
dying mortals, are the music of his dark cave; in which, far below the surface ofthe

336 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
earth, in close dungeons, where the ear of man cannot hear him, he practices his,
horrid vocation ; after the manner of bis Lord, and , Master, in the dark regions
below !
In Spain, where tbis tribunal triumphed in the reign of terror, over religion, morals,
and bleeding humanity, there were eighteen diflerent Inquisitorial courts ; with
their apostolical Inquisitors. And besides the legions of officers in these bells, there
were 20,000 familiars, dispersed over the land. These, with the cunning and malig
nity of the devil, mingled as spies, and informers, in all companies; invaded the
sanctity of families, and dragged all suspected persons to, the cells of tbe Inquisition.
Tbey woul4 come upon famiUes, in noon day, and at the midnight hour. They car
ried off tbe wife, and mother frora the bosom of husband, and children; They singled
out tbe blooming maid ; and the young man, tbe stay of his widowed mother; and
the bride frora tbe very circle df her gay friends ! The greatest virtues, and respect
ability in society, were no shield against these infernal invaders. Mere suspicion, or
personal quarrel, or the glance of a voluptuous Inquisitor's eye on youth and inno
cence, were sure to send the horrid prison carriage at the dead hour of night, lo the
person's house, to carry the victim to this slaughter house of virtue, and tomb of the
living. Such was the terror inspired by these incarnate devils, that the parent, and
the brother would hurry, with trembling steps to tbe door. Andwhenever the appal
ling words were heard, — "Open lo the holy Inquisition ;" — " Deliver up your wife, —
deliver up your daughter, — deliver up your son, io the holy Inquisition;'" — thai in
stant would the terror-stricken relative, without daring lo ask one question, or breathe
one murmur, or even implore pity, lead the trembling victims out, and deliver them
to these fiends ! The bereaved father, or husband would, next day, go into mourning ;
and speak of the dear lost one, — as no more! Gloom and melancholy were spread
through the faraily ; aud tbe reraains of hope were swallowed up in the bitterest
despair. Even their tears, and their sorrows had they to conceal, lest they should
be the next victiras of ghostly suspicion.
And with such pre found secrecy did these familiars conduct their movements,
that the raembers ,of the same family, would, in numerous instances, know- nothing
of one another's apprehension. Dr. Geddes states that a father, and three sons, and
three daughters, living all in the same house, were carried prisoners to the Inquisi
tion, whhout knowing of one another's being there; until sewen years afterwards,
when those of thera who had survived the horrid tortures, met at an Auto da Fe!
There, after seven years-of weeping and despair, their eyes fell on each other, about
to be consuraed in the fire of Ihe papists' grand human sacrifice ! See Dr. M, Geddes'
Works on popery, vol. i. p. 392.
As for the victims seized by the familiars, they were hurried into the dungeon cells,
and loaded with chains. If females, they were placed in die harems of ibe sacerdpfal
monsters, who revel on tbe honor, tbe peace, and happiness of families; and subject
thera to disgraces worse than death, lodie pure and virtuous!
The prisoners were never confronted with the accusers, or inforraers. No witnesses
were produced, and ihe basest of mankind are adraitted as spies, and accusers. Even
the crime alleged against thera was not made known to them. They must make it out
tbe best way they can, and confess their own crime. If they did not, they were put
to the rack, and a conl"ession extorted from them. "This procedure," says the his
torian Voltaire, "unheard of, till the Inquisition,, raakes all Spain tremble; suspicion
reigns in all bosoms ; friendship, and quietness are at an end : brother dreads bpther;

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 337
and father, his own son. Hence the taciturnity of a nation, endued with all the
vivacily natural lo a glowing and fruitful clime." Univ. Hist. vol. ii. eh. 118. Jones'
Church Hist. vol. ii. p. 99.
Let me conduct my reader into tbe inierior of the Imiuisilion. I shall follow the
guidance of the most appiroved authors, in then investigations of die " Infernal
Tribunal." The exterior of the building is sufficient lo strike terror inlo the bosom
of even the bravest raan, who has always trodden the soil of freedom. The entran
ces are dirough long, dark, and winding passages; through ponderous doors : ojiened
by massy keys, and clanking chains. The walls are black and filthy; the flash of
gleaming torches reveals the sullen and taciturn officers, and familiars, whose coun
tenances retaining little of "the human face divine," frown an eternal scowl of ven
geance on all who have tbe raisery of coming near them ; while their eyes flash with
the glare of the bidden fire, perpetually burning within their guilty, and hoiror-
stricken souls ! The stoutest hearted cannot view them without honor! Tbe tor-
niring dungeons are so deep ; and the raa.ssy doors so close, that the groans, and the
horrid shrieks of the tortured victiras, cannot reach tbe air: or if perchance there
ever came, —  " So loud a shriek
As reached the upper air.
The hearers blessed themselves, and said,
The spirits of the sinful dead
Bemoaned their torments there !" Sir W. Scott.
But if my reader can follow me, let rae be more minute in detail. I shall describe, to
the public, the torments which were of every day's occurrence.
1st. The torture by water. The victim is laid on a table ; and tied down so tightly
by cords, that they cut through the flesh into tbe bone, of bis arms, thighs, and legs.
The nostrils ofthe wretch are stuffed with a thick paste. A narrow filler is insert
ed in his mouth, through which quantities of water are poured. At every breath he
is forced to swaUow a mouthful of water, tUl at last his swollen stomach, aud hea
ving breast, showed the extent of the torture be endures. He struggles fearfully to
escape from bis bondage, but bis struggles are of no avaih except to increase the
pangs he suffers. Nature, at length, is soon exhausted, and then these diabolical
operations are suspended for a moment, and the sufferer is asked ifhe will confesss his
crime. He cannot speak, but, with what liule strength he has remaining, shakes his
head. The torture is again put in force. Flask after flask of water is poured down
the8uff"erer's throat, to force him to confess a crime, of which he is entirely innocent.
This is often continued until the victim expires under his murderer's hands.
There is another form of torture by water. The victims nostrils being closed with
paste, a thin musUn cloth is put over bis mouth ; and water poured in a current on
it, untU the cloth is actually carried down inlo his stomach! This is dragged up by
his inhuman tormentors, with inexpressible pain, besides his continued danger of suf
focation. The victira often expires sooner, by this process, than by the other, just
mentioned. 2d. Torture by Fire. The victim is placed on the floor, with his feet toward a
blazing fire, his soles are fixed near the red coals ; the fire is placed alongthe whole
length of his Umbs. He is chained down by the neck and hands, fo the floor. One
ofHhe familiars is continually eraployed in basting the poor christian's feel and legs
30

338 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
with lard and oil; while another tormentor is stirring up the fire into the intensest
blaze! The torment is beyond conception! His feet and limbs are literally roasted !
Sometimes tbe fire bas been applied in " ihe dry heat." The victim is put into a
large vessel of iron or copper ; and the fire put beneath it ; and he is left beneath the
lid, lo tbe burning and suffocating air, — until be expire ; and his body is reduced to
ashes. 3d. Torture by the St. Mary. When tbe Inquisition was thrown open by the
troops of Napoleon, and king Joseph, in Spain, an image of fhe Virgin was found
standing in u damp corner of a cell. On inspection, il was discovered by the French
officer, to be a torturing engine ; as she had a racial breastplate, beneath her robes,
stuck full of needles, spikes, and lancets ! The familiar was ordered "tomanceuvre
it." He did so ; il raised its arms as if lo embrace ; a knapsack was thrown into her
arms; she gradually closed and crushed the knapsack, and pierced it in a hundred
places, with deep cuts, each of wbicb would have been a death's wound to tbe living
victim !
4th. Torture ofthe Rack. By one form of this torment the victira is fixed lo a post,
aud his arms are drawn back by great force until the shoulder joints are, each, dis
located. By another form, the rope is fixed, first above his elbows, then above bis
wrists, and he is hoisted suddenly to the lofty ceiling; then dropped wilh a sudden
jerk near to the floor, until all the upper joints of his body, are dislocated ! If the poor
christian refuses to confess, what he knows not, or refuses to become an apostate, then
tbe ropes are fixed to his lower limbs, aud he is hoisted up with his head downward;
and let fall repeatedly, with excessive violence, until his ankle joints, and knee, and
loin joints are all dislocated. And ob horrible! the whole weight of his body
hangs, as it were, danghng upon the loose flesh, and sinews I When the wretched
man faints, be is hurried into his cell, and thrown on the cold darap floor! And if he
recovers under the surgeon's care, the same horrid tortures are enacted on him, from
week to week, until he confess, — or expire in their hands! These are only a portion
of the tortures which have reached the public ear. There have been such "as eye
bath nol seen, and ear never heard." There bas been no recorder of them. Besides
who can register the tears, and groans, and a,gony of broken hearted huraan nalure !
Bul, Lord God ! Thou art just ; Thou art on thy judgraent seat! And there is a doora
to overwhelra the oppressor, and the inhuraan butcher of thy innocent, and bleeding
raartyrs, O Lord Jesus !
5th. The Auto da Fe. This closes periodically, the tragedy of "the Infernal
Tribunal." This sacrifice of Moloch, bas always taken place on a Sabbath day.
Tbe prisoners are brought into a great Hall, where they are dressed for the proces
sion. The Dominicans, the master spirits of this pandemonium, march first, bearing
tbe fiag with the appropriate motto, — (for they characleristicaUy unite mockery of
huraan nature, to their savage barbarity.) "Justice and mercy!" The penitents who
escape, are dressed in black coats, wUhout sleeves ; and tbey are marched barefooted.
Next came those who have narrowly escaped, — dressed in black coats decked oflf
with red figures of flames, top downwards. Next carae the negative and relapsed,
with red figures of flames curling upwards, on their dresses. These are to be strangled
and burned. And, lastly, carae our brethren, the dear devout Protestants and chris
tians, who abjured " the sectarian heresy of Popery," and died for the gospel of Jesus.
These had not only red figures of flames, but figures of open-mouthed dogs, serpents,
and devils, covering their vestraents !

ROM.\N CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 339
In their march to execution, our poor sun"ering fellow beings, and ftUow christians
are not even permitted lo speak, or give ultoruiice lo tlieir sorrows. A victim who
had opposed the idolatry of the mass, and the worship of die wafer, ami idol gods,
exclaimed iu an ecstacy, as be came out of his dungeon, and reached the open air,
and saw the sun shining in all his glory, — a si,2;ht he had not seen in many years: —
"How is it possible for people that behold that glorious body, to tvorship any being
hut Him who created it !" " Here,'' says Dr. Geddes," I saw liim-stopiied short in his
pious exclamations; and inimediaiely gagged, sn that lie could not speak a word
more!" See Dr. 31. Geddes' Tracts on Popery, \ol. i. p. 40G.
Arrived at the horrid Golgotha, and field of Aloloeli, a wretched declamation,
cahed a sermon, is uttered by some hypocritical Jesuit, or a half willed bul savage
Dominican, in praise of the " Holv Inquisition," and the devout serxants of God, " the
Inquisitor" and all " tlitse skilful tormentors" of our fellow beings. This being done,
sentence is passed ou each class ; and the two classes appointed to be burned, are de
livered over formally to the civil magistrate; while the reckless hypocrites, — the
Inquisitor and bis minions, " beg, and implore the magistrates not to take their Uves ;
not to kill them ; not to burn them : but tu spare them ! .'" This mockery of God and
human nature, being enacted, the penitents are dismissed ; — the relapsed who die in
Romanism, are first strangled, and then burned. This is aU their privilege, — they
are first strangled ! But the faithful christians who persevere in Christ's cause, are
chained on a high stake, many feet above the piles of faggots. Here two Jesuits again
inflict on each mariyr a long and whining e.Khortation, lo repent, — and die in the Ro
man faith, and receive tbe tender mercy of Holy JMother : — namely the benefit of
being strangled, and then burned. This mockery enacted by these inhuman priesls,
tiie loud screara is uttered — al tbe nod of the Inqaishor,—" Let the dog's beards be
made!" Instantly blazing torches and furze on long poles, are dashed onthe faces of
the agonizing raartyrs; and this is continued until their faces are burned to a cinder !
Then the flames are applied below, and tbe roaring flames ascend, and slowly con
sume the suff"erers to ashes ! -\nd toeroivnthe whole,— at the bidding of the Inquisitor,
and the example of all the priests, this horrid tragedy is enacted amid the peals of
laughter, and shouts of exultation, and merriment, from ten thousand beings actually
calhng themselves men,- and women— and christians! ! And yet, no people in Eu
rope,, perhaps show more kindly feelings, or deeper .sympathy wilh the suff"eri,ngs of
common criminals, dying for any crime a,gain.st the civil laws ! Such is tbe savage
and ferocious influence of popery and priestcraft, in these countries. It actually ren
ders man not only insensible to the feeUngs of humanity, but absolutely inhuman
toward his brother man. No .scene in the worship of Moloch; none, in the honid
rites'of Juggernaut; none, among our savage Indians around a captive warrior's
murderous fire, when be is put lo death by their ingenious tortures, has ever equalled
the scenes of torture in the the inierior of the Inquisition, and the closing tragedies of
the Auto da Fe ! And yet,— O most outrageous mockery ! All this has been enacted
from age to age, under tbe narae ofthe holy and benignant religum of Jesus Chrisl.
Even that religion which breathes nothing but love to raan; which prohibits all vio
lence, and even compulsion in religion: wbich declares that even "the man who
hates his brother isa murderer!" By the voice of this holy and peaceful religion
what mu,st the Roman catholic priests be, who sing psalras, chaunt the raass, and
butcher mankind by hundred-^ of thousands in cold blood !
The number ofthe victims of the Inquisition will never be known, untUthe day ot

340 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
final retribution. Various have been tbe numbers set down. " Authors of undoubt
ed credit," says Jones, — " have affirraed, and without any exaggeration, that mill
ions of persons have beep ruined by his horrible court. Moors were banished from
Spain, a '//jiWion al a lime! Frora six to eight hundred thousand Jews were driven
away from it, at once ; and aU their property seized." Jones' Ch. Hist. n. p, 98.
In Spain, alone, the numbers who suffered in tbe extrerae, are thus set down by
Lorente in his late history of the Spanish Inquisition ; Pans EdU. 1818. Tom. iv.
p. 271.
"It is the Inquisition which has ruled in Spain," says be, "from the year 1481, fo
tbe present day, of which I undertake to write the history." Tom. i. p. 140.
Recapitulation ofall the victims condemned and burnt .... 33,912
Burned in effi,a;y,  15,695
Placed in a slate of penance with rigorous punishments, , . . 291,450

Total  341,057
This number fixed on by this unusually accurate historian, is far below the Iruth.
Ilis generally admitted that under the first Inquisitor of Spain alone, naraely Tor
quemada, no less than 100,000 huraan beings suffered : under the above three
classes, that is, tbey were burned ; or they perished on tbe rack, or by it ; or in exile ;
and perpetual confineraent!
This, Rev. Fathers, is enough at one time, in all conscience, for your, or any man's
digestion ; you will, therefore, accord me tbe boon of pausing a while.
I ara, ray Lords Bishops, yours &c.
W. C. B.

LETTER XXXVn.

SO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND TKE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES.
Cruelty an Essential Attribute of Popery.
' Thus Beelzebub

Pleaded his devilish counsel, first devised
By Satan, and in part proposed : for whence
But from the author ofall ill, could spring
So deep a malice." Milton.
Reverend F.4Thers : — The tribunal of the InquisUion, bloody as it was, never
theless was loo slow, in ils exterrainating process for the sanguinary zeal ofthe papal
priests. Besides the arra of civil power was found to be necessaiy in some countries,
where neither Moloch, nor Satan, nor even the pope himself could establish " The
Infernal Tribunal!" Hence the summary process of crusades, and massacres. This
conducts me to, —
Part II, — Persecution. 1. Of the Crusades we may reckon two kinds. The
one may be terraed mora/: and besides violence and outrage, it included the resort
to every species of treachery, deception, and cunning, which power and Jesuitism
could employ, to bring men over to Romanisra, from the christian religion. As spe-

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 341
cimens of this, I reckon that violence, and those diabolical artifices employed to
undermine the ancient apostolical churches of liritain, Spain, and Ireland; and
spread the horrid impostures of popery over thera, — which to this day, enchain the
greater part of the latter iwo : aud thai ferocious system of raoral and civil persecu
tion which wasieil Hungary, and crushed three raillions of Protestants, for three
hundred years ; and closed, in a measure, only wUh the life, and reign of Maria
Theresa. The other species of Crusade was wholly of a sanguinary nalure. The papal
bearers of <^e cross, their insignia, went forth to butcher, in cold blood, raan, woraan,
infant, — who were not Romans ; and cover whole kingdoms with blood, and fire, and
havoc! Of this kind, were the crusades aaainst the Moors and Jews in Spain; the
Waldenses and Albigenses; and the infidels in the Holy Land. These specimens
of wild and infernal mania, were exhibited solely by the ambition and blood-thirsty
cruelty ofthe popes. The last, in the Holy Land, commenced in the year 1096, and
it raged, with fury, for two centuries ; causing, according to Mons. Voltaire, the death
of two millions of men, in the flower of their vouth : and ill prepared, we fear, to
meet their Judge. For the blood, and for the souls of these millions of human be
ings, has the Romish church, one dav, to give an account to Almighty God.
2. That the Roraan catholic church has been avowedly a ferocious, persecuting
sect, is frankly admitted bv ber standard writers. And that persecutions have been
carried on, over entire nations, by wholesale, is triumphantly avouched also ; and
even gloried in, as exhibiting a notable mark of "the holy and only church." And
Justin proportion as her temporal power, was united, in adulterous connection, with
the spiri^ua/, have the friends of blood and havoc been born and nursed by popery,
and turned loose in their unmuzzled ferocity, on the bleeding nations ofthe earth !
We conceal not that Protestants have persecuted, even unto death. We deplore the
existence of that civil law b}- wbich tbe magistrates of Geneva, with Calvin consent
ing, did doom the unhappy Servetus to death. We deplore the scenes enacted in
Protestant Britain ; and the cruelty lo some members of the society of Friends, in the
early days of New England.
But, we beg all men, Jew, infidel, and christian, to render justice to the Protestant
world; and mark the radical difference in this matter. There is no doctrine, — no,
nol one idea in the Holy Bible, — nor iu the Protestant creeds, and canons, that teach
es, or invites, or even insinuates a wish to persecute. It is an affecting truth that
"evU communications corrupt good raorals !" Our first Protestant Fathers were
nursed, and brought up in Popery. It is mortifying to reflect that they drank in the
persecuting spirit, from the breasts of "Holy Mother." That savage lioness taught
men to hunt the prey; and revel in human blood! And, when they escaped from
her den, and her devilish training, U look many a long age to eradicate from their
bones, and marrow, this king's evil,— this popish mania! Moreover, the civil laws
of each kingdora were corrupted, and poisoned by popery. Intolerance and persecu
tion were enacted in tbe statute books of all the kingdoms of Europe. The magis
trates of Geneva and John Calvin did not enact that bloody law, under which Serve
tus suff'ered. The Romish laymen and priests enacted it! The protestants did not
enact the intolerant laws of England : tbe Romish chureh enjoined the priest-ridden
kings of that realra to enact thera. Nay, so far did Rome carry her persecutmg
power, even in defiance ofthe crown of England, that by a law passed under Henry
IV., a bishop could convict the subjects of heresy; and, " unless the convict abjured
30*

342 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
his opinions, or if, after abjuration, be relapsed, the sheriff was bound, ex officio, if
required by the bishop, to coramit the raan to tbe flames, without leaiting for the con
sent ofthe crown!" See Blackstone's Cora. vol. iv.. Book 4, c. 4, Sect. 2.
No wonder, therefore, that il took years, and incredible labors to purify the fount
ains, and strearas from the pope's universal corrosive poison !
When, therefore, a Protestant ?persecutes, be acts against the pnre precepts of the
Bible, and against rdl the solemn articles and canons of his holy religion. And,
now, uo Protestant church persecutes; and the longer, and the farther removed we
are from the popish sect, the more completely is the deraon of persecution expelled
frora every church, and every faraily, and every soul, and heart! But persecution
is taught as a dogma, aud a regular canon, by the pope and all bis priests! No bloody
edict has been revoked : they are suspended in tbe pope'sold paralytic, and withered
hand: but never have tbey been revoked. And never has a breath of disavowal,
or even disapprobation gone forth against the persecutions enacted by her. The
Roraan caiholic cburch persecutes by canon and rule ! She cannot even repent of
her persecutions. She would inflict a death wound in her own heart, did she disa
vow bloody persecution ! For, to retrace ber steps, and repent, is to abandon her
prominent attribute of infallibility !
In proof of our assertion, I shall, first, give your standard authorities, that the
Romish church makes persecution an essential, unrepealed dogma of her religion: —
and, second, iUustrate this dogma by her uniforra practice. In other words, I shall
show that she makes it a principle of conscience to persecute by the sword of her
mouth ; and by the secular sword. And this, I beg leave to remind you. Fathers, is
according to tbe lelter of the prediction of St. John, relative to this "bloody Beast."
Revelation xiii, 5, &c. "And there was given unto the Bea,st, a mouth speaking
great things, and blasphemies ; and power was given unto him to continue forty and
two months: and he opened his raouth in blaspheray against God; to blaspberae his
name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given to hira
to make war with the .saints ; and to overcome them  "
First: — She persecutes by ihe sword of the mouth. This divides itself into two
forms of ferocious assault. 1st. Byher brutal mode of cursingand excommunicating.
In addition to the specimen already given, I shall subjoin a form of what is more
common in ber discipUne. The model is that which was uttered by the pope against
his Alum maker, for his eloping from bis Alum works; and carrying the chemical
secret to England. I copy it from Ledger Book of Rochester church: and Henry
Spelman's Glossary, p. 206. And from Prof. Bruce's Free Thoughts; Dr.
M'Cullocb's Popery condemned: and Glasg. Prot. vol. i. ch. 5. I abridge it thus: —
"May God the Father curse bim! May God the Son curse him! May the
Holv Ghost curse him! May tbe holy Cross curse hira ! May the holy and eternal
Virgin Mary curse hira! May St. Michael curse hira! May John the Baptist
curse him ! May St. Peter, and St. Paul, and St. Andrew, and all the Apostles,
and disciples, curse him ! May all the martyrs and confessors curse hira ! May all
the saints, from the beginning of time, to everlasting, curse him ! May be be cursed
in tbe bouse, and in the fields ! May be be cursed while living, and while dying ! May
he be cursed in sitting, in standing, in lying, in walking, in working, in eating, in
drinking, in mingendo, in  May be be cursed in all the powers of his body;
within, and without. May he be cursed in the hair of bis bead, in his temples, eye
brows, his forehead, his cheeks, and his jaw-bones, his nostrils, bis teeth, bis lips, his

ROilAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 343
throat, his shoulders, his arms, his wrists, his hands, his breast, his stomach, his
leins, • » * * his legs, his feet, his joints, his nails ! May he be cursed frora the
crown of his head, to the sole of his feet! May heaven, and all the powers therein,
rise against him to damn him ; unless he repent, and make satisfaction ! Amen."
2. Her doctors conspire against tbe human race, by strenuously advocating the-
principles of persecution.
BeUarmine, De Laicis, Lib. iii. cap. 21., is your church's sovereign mouth-piece-
He gives a labored defence of the principle of persecution ; or the putting of heretics
to death, merely for differing frora "Holy Molher," in their religious creed! Here-
are his words : — "Posse hereticos, &c. That heretics condemned bythe church,
maybe punished with temporal penalties, and even with death. We wUl briefly
show that tbe church has the power, and it is her duty, lo cast off incorrigible here
tics, especially ibose who have relapsed, and that the secular power ought to inflict
on such, temporal punishments, and even death itself."
Then follows a long list of painful arguments in defence of these ferocious dogmas?
which a christian cannot read without shuddering! He argues frora the holy Bible-
ofthe God of raercy: frora civil law; canon law; the Fathers; and from reason!
This last argument is curious: itis tbis, — It is a benefit to the heretic, to be sent out of
ih world, as soon as possible. For the longer he lives, the worse he becomes ; and if
heissoonsent off, his hell will be so much lighter!
Thus tbe cardinal "deals damnation round the land" on all who diff'er from your
and with a singular species of popish compassion, he is for hurrying all heretics
speedily to death ; and inlo hell, in order lo raake it a little less intolerable !
In chap. -22, Bellarraine answers objections. Luther bad taught " that the church
of God had never, frora the beginning, to bis lirae, burned a heretic : that it was not
the mind ofthe Holy SpirU, that they should be burned." Here is the reply of this
cardinal in the narae of all popery, —
"I reply, this argument admirably proves not the sentiment, but the ignorance, or
impudence of Luther : for as almost an infinite number were either burned ; or other
wise put to death, Luther either did not know ir, and was therefore ignorant ; or, if be
bew it, he is convicted of impudence and falsehood ! For that heretics were often
humed by the church, may be proved by adducing a few from raany exaraples."
"Argument second. Experience shows that terror isnot useful insuch eases. "I
reply," says Bellarraine, " that experience proves tbe contrary— for tbe Donatists,
Manicheaus, and Albigenses were routed, and annihilated by arms."
Such, also, is the doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas, ii. 11. iu. p. 58.^ " Haeretici
possenl, &c. Heretics may not only be excoraraunicated, but justly killed."
And aU tbis is not the doctrine of such intolerant cardinals, and blood thirsty saints
only. Even Bossuet, aU politeness, and all accoramodation as he affected lo be, in
his bigotry, advocated intolerance, and persecution. Speaking of the power of tbe
sword in matters of religion, be says,—" It cannot be called in question, without weak
ening, or maiming the public authority, or power. No illusion can be more dange-
wus than making toleration a mark of the true cburch." "No," adds he,— "the
church's holy severity, and her holy delicacy, forbad her such indulgence, or rather
softness!" Boss. Oeuvres, Tom. iii. p. 411. Paris, 1747.
But we ascend to higher authority. No pope since the beginning of the 8th cen
tury can be named, who condemned, or even disapproved of persecution. Pope»
Urban, Innocent IIL, and VIIL, Clement, Honorius, and Martin, earned out theur

344 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
avowed dograas; and were ferocious patrons of extermination! Urban II. sirnamed
The Turbulent, in A. D. 1090., declared in his Bull, — " That no one is to be deemed
a murderer, who, burning with zeal for the interests of Mother church, shall kill
excomrounicaled persons." See Pithou, corpus Jur. canon, p. 324, Paris Edit.
1687. Itis true, Bruys, speaking of hira, calls his morals "diabolical and infernal."
Hist. Des. Papes, Tom. ii. p. 508. But then, he was no worse than his successors,
who faithfully copied his maxims against bei^tics.
We have tbe decisions of National Councils enjoining the extermination of heretics,
such as that of Toleda, Tours, Oxford, Narbona, and Tolosa. See Edgar's Varia
tions, p. 244. That of Tolosa was pre-eminent in ils fury; and whal is striking, it
waged war against the Holy Bible also. "No layman was permuted on the penalty
of heresy, to have the scriptures ofthe Old and New Testaments in his vernacular
idiom.'' This was enacted in 1229: and has never to tbis hour been repealed. See
Labbeus, vol. xui. p. 1239. Alexand. His. Eccles. vol. xx. p. 668.
And what is raore, we have the decisions, aud the recorded practice of tbe General
Councils, namely, Third of the Lateran, and the Fourth of the Lateran, in 1215.
In canon Ui. De hereticis, it enacted, — "Let secular powers, — if necessary, be com
pelled by church censures, — to endeavor, in all good faith, according to their power,
to destroy all heretics (Protestants,) marked by the church, out ofthe lands of their
jurisdiction." It then proceeds to enact that if princes refuse to cut off, and destroy
heretics, "they shall be accursed, and their subjects absolved from tbeir allegiance."
I refer to Labb. Tom, xiii, 934: Bruy's Hist. Pap. Tom. iii. p. 148.
The council of Constance was fully a match to this, in Satanic severity, and
blood-thirstiness. It was convoked in 1414. The pope, Martin V,, presided in this
assembly. They not only condemned, and burned alive, the holy martyrs Huss,
and Jerome or Prague; but issued tbeir terrific anathema against tbe raillions of
heretics over all Europe ; and commanded all emperors, kings, and princes dutifully
to proceed, forthwith, in their extermination, by fire and sword. And the decrees of
this council were applauded, and confiiraed bythe last council of your church, — the
council of Trent, which lent it all the authority which it gave to any dograa of your
church. So late as 1825, the lale pope Leo XII. exhibited the sentiments of Rome in our
day. In his Bull of a jubilee, he makes two conditions ofthe faithful "receiving a
plenary indulgence, and pardon ofall sins;" namely, — "the exaltation of the holy
Mother church, and the extirpation of heresy."
So avowedly is this a dogma ofthe Romish church, that it is introduced into the
class book of tbe college of Maynooth, in Ireland : and every candidate for tbe priest
hood is painfully taught it. Here is tbe sentiment I allude to : — " the church retains
its power over all heretics, &c. ; although they may no longer belong to its body ; as
a general has a right to inflict punishment on a. deserter." That is, as we all know,
capital punisbment. See Delahogue's Tract. Theolog. cap. 8. De Merabris : p. 404.,
Dublin Edit. 1795.
•'In fine, I have only to lay before the Araerican public, one extract frora the oath
which every Romish bishop must swear before he is consecrated. I beg my reader's
attention to il. " I swear, — that heretics and schismatics, and rebels to our Lord, the
Lord pope, or his successors, I will to the extent of my power, persecute and beat
down: pro posse persequar et impugnabo. — So help me God, and the holy gospels of
God." See Pontif. Rom. De consec. Elec. Episcop. p. 57. Hence, every Romish

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 345
bishop must, by solemn oalb, be a persecutor. He has no other choice. If he is
liberal and gracious lo heretics, and does not persecute them as far as he can, then is
he a deliberately perjured man ! !
Nothing, therefore, is more obvious than this, — dial the principle of tolerance and
Uberality, is not at tbe choice of auy Roraish priest, or subject ofthe Roman court.
Intolerance Emd persecution are as essential, necessarj', and integral a dogma of
popish faith, and practice, as is the mass, or the papal su]iremacy ! !
And 1 callon every patriot, and every christian inthe United Slates, and beg their
atteniion to tbis fact, — that every one of the popish clergy in Europe, and in our
Republic, profess, upon their great and solemn oath on the cross, and holy sacrament,
to receive, obey, and practice, this principle of persecution, that has thus received the
sanction of the whole Roraish church ; and has been niaiked, as Edgar says, with
the sign raanual of infalUbility ! Aud tbis principle they will reduce to practice,
under pains of perjury-, as soon as they can gain the ascendancy, in our Republic!
Then will returu the days of the reign of the bloody Queen Mary. Then will be
the new reign of Terror, by ihe fire and the faggot, and the horrid Inquisition, in our
once free and happy land ! It is for this that the sons of St. Dorainic long and pray!
It is for this the Jesuits are toiling over our country ! It is for this object the Roman
catholic powers of Europe are expending such large sums annually, and pouring in,
upon us, myriads of the pope's household troops! I ara, Rev. Fathers, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

LETTER XXXVIII.
TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLia
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES.
Ferocious Cruelty an Essential Attribute of Popery.
"1 saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored Beast : she was arrayed in purple and scarlet:
Md 1 saw her drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs OS
Jesus."— St. John.
Reverend Fathers :— The patience with wbich you have been pleased to listen
to my exhibitions, shows at least, this rauch, that you feel deeply on the subject. I
now invite your atteniion tu it for the last time.
Second, and last .—These principles of persecution, which are peculiar, and essen
tial lo the Roman catholic religion, have been, with scmpulous fidelity, leduced to
practice, in innumerable terrific instances.
The persecutions of the Waldenses, and Albigenses,-lbe genuine successors ofthe
ancient apostolic Italick church, after the church of Rome began her fatal apostacy,
have been regular, and protracted from generation lo generation. Pope Innocent III.
succeeded in caUing int"o the field 500,000 warriors against thera ! France alone
brought 200,000 men as ber share. The carnage on both sides, was appalling, for
the Waldenses defended themselves. The leader of ihe persecutors was Eari Mont..
ford ; and his name will pass down with deeper, and deeper infamy, as truth prevails.
and history wields her impartial pen.
When the city of Be.iers was taken by the cmsaders, in 1209, the Albigenses wer«

346

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.

SO mixed with the papists, inthe rnele of batde, that tbe warriors did not know their
own. "Kill all," cried tbe papal missionary Arnauld, "and God will knotv his
own!" Seven hundred christians were slain by the papists iu one church: 60,000
perished, in all! This last is the number set down by Mezerey aud Velly : Edgar p.
252. When tbe city Lavaur was taken, the governor and bis lady were cruelly
murdered : 80 gentlemen were slaughtered in cold blood ; 400 christians were burned
alive; and all the rest of tbe citizens indiscrimiuately put lo the sword! Velly,
vol. iii. 441. 454.
[When Languedoc was invaded by these monsters, owe hundred thousand Albigenses
fell in one day fi See Bruys, vol. iii. 139. Houses were burned, females violated,
towns, and cities laid in smouldering ruins. Gallantly did the brave christians defend
themselves : and sorae idea of their havoc may be conceived, before they were exter
minated, from the fact, that 300,000 crusaders fell dead on the plains of Languedoc!
And for the blood of each one of these is ihe Roman caiholic church accountable to
God ; as well as for that of the christians ! For she brought the war.
But who can travel in rainute detail, over the lands visited by the demon of popish
intolerance and persecution? Who can follow him in bis butcheries of Moors, Je^ws,
and Christians in Spain and Portugal, in the times of Charles V., and bis son PhiUp !
What must have been the carnage of the commons, when this king witnessed an Auto
da Fe, in which 23 Spanish nobles, were burned at the stake, before him, all at one
time! What man has yet conceived the agonies, and bloodshed ofthe christians who fell in
Spain, Portugal, and Italy, before the deraon of popery succeeded in extinguishing
tbe Reformation, in the sixteenth century ?
Who can follow Ihe demon of popish intolerance and persecution, over the plains,
and raountains of Bohemia? What tongue can tell the horrors of popish persecution
inflicted oii three raillions of christian Hungarians, during no less than three
centuries? Who can conceive tbe horrors of the French raassacre at Merindol, at Grange!
Who can conceive the infinite horrors of the St. Bartholomew raassacre, al Paris!
"The streets," says a popish historian, — "were paved with dead bodies, and tbe
mortally wounded; the gateways were literally choked up with them. There were
heaps of them in the squares; the small streams were filled with human blood, which
flowed in great torrents to the river. Six hundred houses were repeatedly pillaged."
SeeMezerai, Hist. De France, Tom. ii. p. 1098, Paris EdU. 1646,
Similar massacres were continuously enacted, at the same time, alMeaux; at
Troyes; al Orleans; alNevers; at La Charite; at Toulouse; atBourdcaux; at
Lyons ! France was drenched in the blood of Huguonot christians, in the reign o{
Charles IX. !
What pen has ever, yet, done justice lo the sufferings, and barbarous slaughter of
tbe French christians, under Louis XIV., when that odd compound of religious
bigotry, and savage ferocity, revoked the edict of Nanlz; and drove a nation of Pro
testants to the gibbet, the dungeon, and perpetual exile !
What hand has yet delineated the horrid scenes of war, and ma.ssacre, by the
Duke of Alva, on the plains of Holland ! What history has yet recorded all the
Bufferings of British christians; the sorrows, and deaths of the Wickliffites, and Lol
lards, and Culdees, and Protestants !
"What tongue bas ever yet told tbe tale of tbe christian church's sufTerings, in Ik*

ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 347
land, previous to her being over-run by popery, in the close of the twelfth century:
and of her Protestant children of later days, by assassinations, and the most recoiling
Irish massacres! Her sighs, her groans, and lears, and blood have never been re
corded on earth. They are known only to the Mcisl High: they are recorded in the
book of divine remembrance alone !
Now, nothing is more evident on the page of history, than tbis fact, that all these
persecutions, and massacres were done at the iiisiigalian, and by the command of the
popes. They never concealed it: they actually gloried in U. To use ihe disgusting
cant of papal hypocrisy, — "It was all in the way of purifying the nations frora
heresy ; and of extending the Caiholic religion !" The Letter of Pius V,, is yet ex
tant, in which be stirred up Charles lo the Parisian massacre. See Finch's Rom.
Controv. p. 140. Aud sev^-ral historians, Roraan catholics, record die rejoicings at
Rome, by pope Gregory XIIL This mournful, and atrocious, and national murder
of Protestants, was celebrated at Rome with extrerae porap. The pope led the way
in savage exultation ; and solemnly off'ered thanks lo God for the massacre of the
Huguonots! A medal was struck to commemorate this victory over humanity, and
the christians of France ; an engraved, London fac-simile of which is in my posses
sion. The literary Roraan catholic can see a perfect description of it in Bonanni's
Nummismaia Pontiff. Rom. Tom. i. p. 336; Rome, 1699.
Besides this, ever}- one who has seen the paintings in the Vatican, raust have seen
three pictures, got up, and exhibited for centuries lo coraraemorate this raassacre. The
first exhibits the admiral Coligny mortally stabbed : the second, the admiral butchered
in his house, with all his family : tbe third exhibits king Charles IX., approving
the massacre !
In order to enable you to form some faint idea of Roman catholic persecutions, I
¦ shaU set down the following estimate of the numbers that have fallen victims to tbe
intolerance, and sanguinary religion of Rome. And I beg leave here lo inlroduce it
witii the remark, that bad the pope, or a council, or the Roraish cburch ever seen fit
to disavow, and laraent over these wholesale, and national murders, and massacres, —
those in that communion should never have heard one reproachful word :— never
have met one charge of persecution and murder, from us. But Rome has never dis
avowed the principle; never condemned, nor protested against the blood-guiltiness of
these massacres, by their pope ; and their forefathers. Hence that church, like every
other incorporate body, is chargeable with ihe debt of that bloodshed ; as really as if
they had been aiders, and abettors, and tbe most raanifest accoraplices ! If you. Fa-
fliers, or any one in your communion, have ever disavowed this dogma of your
church; or conderaned'her former persecutions, by any act, or deck ration whatever,
show us the bull, or the edict. I here -chaUenge all your Uterary men to produce
any disavowal, or one solitary confession authorized by the pope, or church of Rome,
in opposition to the principle, or practice of persecution.
Here, then, before God and man, I do most solemnly charge on you. Fathers, and
aU those In open comraunion wilh your persecuting church, this blood guiltiness
¦which has ever rested on her !
^here perished under pope JuUan 200,000 christians : and by the French massacre,
on a moderate calculation, in 3 months, 100,000. Of tbe Waldenses there perished
150,000 ; of the Albigenses 150,000. There perished by the Jesuits in 30 years only,
900,000. The Duke of Alva destroyed by the common hangman alone, ^b,LUU per-
wns; tbe amount murdered by hira issetdown, by Grotius, at 100,000. Ihere per-

348 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST.
ished by tbe fire, and tortures of tbe Inquisition in Spain, Italy, and France, 150,000.
Tbis does notinclude the exiled, those confined for Ufe : and those who died in conse
quence of hard usage, after tbey had escaped. In die Irish massacres, in which were
displayed all the horrid arts, and tortures of tbe Spanish Inquisition, there perished
150,000 Protestants! Besides those who were burned in bloody Queen Mary's tirae,
Of who died on tbescaff'old, — 22,000 were driven into exile, after losing their aU.
{To sum up the whole, the Roman catholic church has caused the ruin, and destruc
tion of a raUlion and a half of Moors in Spain ; nearly two millions of Jews, in Europe!
In Mexico, and South Araerica, including the islands of Cuba and St. Doraingo,
fifteen mUlions of Indians, in 40 years, fell victims lo popery. And in Europe, and
the East Indies, and in Araerica, 50 millions of Protestants, at least, have been mur
dered by it ! Jl
Thus the church of Rorae stands forward before the world, "the woman in scarlet,
onthe scarlet colored Beast!" A church claiming tohe cAmiiora, drenched in the
blood of sixty-eight millions, and five hundred thousand human beings! And, horrible
as this is, what is all tbis guilt, and overwhelming damnation, compared to the infinite
guilt of her seducing, and sacrificing, if grace prevented it nol, — the souls of hundreds
ef millions of her victims, on the allar of Moloch, and of dooming them, so far as
her fatal influence can go, to the pains of tbe second, and never-ending death !
Can any christian, in the sober exercise of reason, conceive this sanguinary power,
to be a branch of Christ's pure and holy church !
Can any politician beUeve that such principles can make their votaries good and
orderly citizens !
Does not outraged humanity utter its execrations of these tenets, in the deepest
tone of irrepressible indignation ; and pronounce the Roman catholic church ihe pre
destinated son of perdition : and the icurst enemy, on earth, of the human race! —
Rev. Fathers, you can answer this, if you will permit your consciences to utter their
unrestrained response. But, whether you will answer it, or not, here, — you must
answer it at tbe bar of etemal justice, soon. And there is uo concealment, no eva
sion there !
And, now, I have done. I appeal from you, in your present delusion, and mortal
error, to you, as you shall see, and feel, — when at tbe bar of God's eternal justice!
There I shall raeet you ; and you will meet me, before my jud,ge, and your judge !
And thereupon, I appeal you, and your predecessors in office, of your guilty deeds
against God's holy cause, and saints, to answer for them, before God's judgment
seat! Il will be known there, at the bar of Christ, in the light of eternity, whether your
cause, or our cause, was tbe cause of God, and of our country ! And whether, or
not, our ancestors, massacred by tbe Roman catholic church, were the saints and
martyrs of God !
To my Divine Master I humbly dedicate these Letters : imploring his pardon for
any thing that is wrong in them ; and his blessing on whatever is proper, aud useful,
in them, to vindicate His gospel, and His royal honor, and prerogatives against the
grand rebel, and usurper !
Farewell, Rev. Fathers, I have spoken plainly, because I am on a perfect footing
of equality with you, — occupying as high a rank of ofBce in the Protestant Reforraed
church, as you do in the Roman cathoUc church ! I have spoken boldly, — because I
am a free man, and no Romish slave ! I have spoken often indignantly, — yet I trust

ROM.VN C.\THOLIC CONTROVERST. 349
in charity, — because I have been rebuking an intruding foreign power; an audacious
conspirator against tbe liberties of our republic ; — a cold-blooded usurper ; who has
taken the crown from JAe head of Him, "ou whose head arc raany crowns:" and
whohas trampled tbe gospel, audits ordinances under bis feet: and who has out
raged the feelings of humanity : and who has taught high treason, and sown discord
in every nation in Europe, in Soulh America, and Mexico: and who has excited
almost every war in all these lands, from time imraeraorial; and who has deluged
the earth with tbe blood of the raartyrs of Christ ; and the raartyrs of patriotism, for
theh country's cause !
Reverend Fathers, fare^well forever! We part, to raeet no raore again, until we
meet, front lo front, at the judgment seat of Almighty God ! One of your number has
gone to his account, since I first wrote these Letters. I do humbly pray that the rich
grace of God raay be given to each of you who survive ; to rest on you ; to guide
you inlo all truth ; and, finally, conduct you into the mansions of glory ! Amen.
I am. Reverend Fathers, yours, &c.
W. C. B.

A CARD.  TO THE PUBLIC.
I now retire from the field ofthe Roman catholic controversy : because it is proper
to stop, when one is done. I have kept possession of the field, undisputed, by any
priest, for the last six months. But, I retire with an assurance, in the words of Mc
Gavin, — that I am ready to return to the discussion, at an hour's notice, if any moral,
regular, and respectable popish priest shall choose to renew the contest.
1 tender my aflfectionate regards to Mr. Vandewater, and Mr. S. E. Morse, and to
all tiiose editors who have published the first edition of these Letters: and to all
those distkiguished christians, and politicians, who kindly sustained rae, and cheered
me on, in this arduous controversy.— May God bless all the churches of our Lord
Jesus Christ; and prosper our government, and our beloved country. And in his
most benignant goodness, may He avert from us, and our children, popery, the most
pestilential of all evils in cburch, and in state ! Araen. W. C. Brownlee.
New- York, Nov. 25, 1834.

31

NOTICE.

The reader will find some quotations, and statements repeated in a few instances, Thia
was deemed necessary to elucidate oUr argumenf. In p. p. 256, 257, a quotation from a
Greek father (usually bound up with Justin Martyr,) has been, by mistake, repeated, and
ascribed to the martyr. We have studied to be accurate, yet there are some Errata. In
three instances, only, is fhe sense injured by them : viz. In p, 132, 1, 8 from the foot, for
foUovoing, r, foregoing; in p. 317, 1. 5, from the foot, for tcith, r. without: in p, 3'25, 1, 19,
from tbe foot, before sincerely insert the word not. In the other instances, the errors are in
letters. The following is a list. In p, p. 5, 6, read Augustinians : in p, 34, 1, 26, r, lose : p,
46 1, 28, r. Gregory VII. : p. 68, 1. 9, from the foot, r. Acts II. : p. 75, 1. 20, r. summam : p. 80,
1. 16 r.'you, and then your, in the same line : p. 83, 1. 20, i. belongs: p, 97, 1, 13, strike out the
repetition: p, 100, 1, 9 from the foot, r. confessor: p. 155,1. 12, r. antediluvian: p. 190, 1.
27, r. say : p. 205, 1. 25, r. throw : p. 264, 1. 6 from the foot, for teas r. is : p. 333, 1. 22, for
humo r. homo : p. 330, 1. 24, r. the pope renews. —

APPENDIX.

I. ON THE COMPARATIVE NDMBER OE ROMAN CATHOLICS.
First. In arriving at our conclusion on " the minority" of tbe Romish church,
we should deduct from its numbers those who avotved infidelity ; and treated Popery
with ridicule. Here is one great deduction; say one-fourth7
Second. Deduct the Christians, of various names, who held the doctrines ofthe
"Waldenses, and were rwminally papists. This class was immensely numerous.
"These Waldenses," says Rainerus, — '- were in nearly every country." '-They
are multiplied through all lands," says Sanderus. " They have infested a thousand
cities," says Caesarius. " They spread their contagion ihrougb almost the whole Latin
world," says Ciaconius. " Scarcely any region remained free and untainted from
this pestilence," says Gretzen. Aud Poplinar says "they have spread not only
through France, but nearly all the European coasts : and appeared in Gaul, Spain,
England, Scotland, Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Saxony, Poland, and Lithuania."
"Their numbers in those places," says Benedict, "were prodigious," " invaluerunt,
they prevailed," or exceeded in numbers. Says Newburgh, — "they becarae like the
sand ofthe sea ; without number; raultiplicati esse, super numerura arenae videan-
tur." See Labbeus; vol. xiii. p. 285, Newburgh, ii. p. 13, Edgar, p. 54. "Their
number was jirodigious in Sarraalia, Constantinople, Philadelphia, and Bulgaria."
See Mathew Paris, 306.
And many of these were no raean raen. Those who favored the Waldenses, were
found in all ranks of society, from kings to peasants. Hence the singular circum
stance which occured at the batde of Murel, so fatal to the pious Albigenses. Araong
the slain was found, after tbe batde, a knight in black armor. On exaraination it
was found to be Peter, the king of Arragon, — that very monarch who had negotiated
between the pope's legate, and Beziers. Near him lay one of his royal suns, with
many nobles, and gentry, and vassals, — "who ivhile ostensibly supporting the Romish
church, had, in d'lsguise, been assisting the Albigenses .'" Jones' Hist. vol. ii, p, 133.
During these ages, may we not deduct hom the Roman catholic ranks one-half
more in Europe ? The above surely would authorise something like tbis.
Third. We deduct the Albigenses and Waldenses; the Bohemian brethren, Lol
lards, aud all classes of primitive christians in the churches of England, Wales,
Scotiand, Spain, and Ireland, who were in a pure, and flourishing state before tbe
emissaries of Rome overran thera. What vast numbers of pure christian churches
flourished in Scotland, Spain, and Ireland, before tbe Roraans introduced popery
among thera !
Besides, the number of the Waldenses who lived in a body, was prodigious, in
addition to those, who were scattered over the bosom of the popish churches. Ihe
diocese of Passau alone contained 80,000 of them. And Daniel, vol. in. p. 510,
says that they "had covered with their errors, all Languedoc, both nobles, and popu
lace!" "There," says Bernard, Epist. 40.— "the Roraan teraples were left with
out people, the people without pastors, and the pastors without respect. And we
may form some idea ofthe number of these people in the Vallies, from their sending
an army to defend themselves, of 100,000 young men ! Aud also from the t rench

352 APPENDIX.
sending 300,000 men against thera. Tbe Pope sent Crusades against them, as he did
against the Saracens ofthe East. And for nearly 200 years these christians defend
ed theraselves, and set the violence of tbeir enemies at defiance. "They injured
the cburch in tbe West." says a Roraish author, — "as mucb as the infidels in the
East." And "at one time, they bad nearly overwhelmed the holy warriors of the
cross, and had hoped to establish heresy on the ruins of Romanism !" From this
we may form some idea of tbeir imraense numbers !
I wish we had accurate data to show the proportions existing between them, and
tbe Romanists. How erroneous must be our conception of the nurabers //icn opposed
to the Roraan catholics, from the raodern statistics of Malle Brun!
Fourth. Next deduct tbe whole Greek church which opposed tbe Roraish church.
These christians covered the modern Russian dominions in Europe and Asia: they
covered European and Asiatic Turkey, — which is now Mobararaedan! They took
in Greece proper, and all her thousand isles. They extended over Syria, Mesopo
tamia, Asia Minor, Palestine, Georgia, and Mingrelia. From one fact stated in one
of my letters, we may form some idea of the number of christians in this church.
The Patriarch of Constantinople governed, in the eleventh century, 65 metropolitans,
and upwards of 600 bishops. And these bishops must have had many hundreds, if
not thousands of officiating priests under thera. Sorae bishops of Europe have
bad 11,000 priests under their ghostly care.
Fiflh. The Nestorians were another iramense class of christians. These exlend-
ded their dense population over Asiatic Turkey, Arabia, Persia, Tartary, India,
China. Cosmas, as quoted by Monlfaucon and Edgar, says, that " in the sixth cen
tury their churches and people were infinite, — unnumbered." The writer Vitricius
Tom. i. p. 76, states that there was " a numerical superiority of the Nestorians and
the Jacobins (named from St. James the Apostle) over the Greek and Latin churches !"
Canisius quotes for bis authority, an old writer, stating the same calculation. Polo,
who had spent seventeen years in Tartary, and was in the employ of the Cham
speaks of their immense numbers, scattered over Tartary, China, and the empire of
the Moguls. M. Paris, Godeau, and Thoraassin attest " their diflTusion through
India, Persia, and Tartary," and add that "their multiplication in the North, and
East, was nearly to infinUy :" — " lis s'y raultiplierent presque a I'infini, &c."
Sixth. The class of christians called Monopbysians were " .spread over raore
than forty kingdoms." Then the Abyssinian Christians " boasted a Christian
empire and establishment." Tbe myriads of these have never been estimated. An
cient writers speak of christians there as innumerable. Seventh, there are the
myriads ofthe Armenian churches ofthe East. Besides tbe country which gives
them their name, they were spread over Cappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, Persia, the isles
of the Mediterranean, India, Turkey, Poland, Transylvania, Russia, Hungary. At
Julfa alone, near Ispahan, there were 30,000 of these Christians; 20,000 of their
famiUes, or about 120,000 persons, resided in the province of^Guilam. These facts
are stated by Chardin, in his Travels. Forty thousand famihes, or 240,000 indi
viduals of them, reside in India, engagedin the intonrf trade : and 200,000 at Constan
tinople, and on the Bosphorus. Chardin, vol. ii. 97. The Armenian Patriarch at
Antioch, has under him 14 metropolitans, and a thousand bishops!
Eighth. The Syrian churches have counted immense numbers. They had
occupied western India, with their prodigious host of raembers, for more than 1200
years before they had ever heard of the name ofthe pope, or the Rnmish church.
With the visit of Vasco di Gama, "the infernal spirit of popery and persecution
invaded that apostolical church." Godeau reckons their population in Coraorin,
Coutan, Malabar, at 70,000 persons. But, the historian adds, "their nurabers
toward the West and North, and Cochin, are rauch greater."
Then, there were the Egyptians, whose See was at Alexandria. Whohas ever
numbered tbe christians there; and all along the Southern shores of the Mediterra
nean, even the prodigious numbers of African christians which flourished from
tbe infancy of popery; and boasted of such men as St. Augustine, and St.
Cyprian !
I repeat the words of Edgar, whose testimony I prefer to Malle Brun, or any

APPENDIX. 353
modern papist, who has not entered into the estimates ofthe comparative numbers in
ancient times; nor examined the statements of these fathers, and traveUers, now
quoted by us : " The European, the Asian, and African denominations that dissented
from popery were y"ot<r tiraes raore nuraerous than die partizans of Roraanism, when,
prior to the Reformation, the papacy shone in ,all ils glory. Popery, instead of
universality, which is its vain boast, was never embraced by more than a fifth part
of Christendom." Variations of Popery, p. 67, Dublin edition.
II. TAifi CANCELLARIJ: APOSTOLICX; et tax.!; SACRjIE penitentiarijs,
THE pope's bank; or CHAN cert TAX BOOK.
I have before me, these TAxa: in two different editions : First, Taxa, frora the
archives of the " Roman Chancery," in tbe British Museum, Nos. 1650, 1651, 1652.
The money is marked in Grossi ; it is in the original Latin.
Second: — An edition in tbe original Latin, with a French translation; having the
the text as copied and corrected by Antoine Du Pinet, Lord of Noroy, in Fraiiche-
comte. Rivet drew the exact copy of his edition from the Paris edition of the Chan
cery Book, of A. D. 1520. Voetius also exhibits the ancient editions: and Bayle, in
his Diet. Article Ba.ntk. Claud D'Espence, a popish doctor mentions "Les Taxes
Be la chancellarie apostolique ,-" as a book well known iu bis day; and holds it up
to odium; see his Digr. ii. ad Epist. ad Titum. cap. 1. There were three editions
of die Taxte at Paris; one is dated 1523; two, at Cologu, one, dated in 1532;
two al Venice; one at Wirterabergh, dated 1538. The copy from which I take ray
extracts, is printed frora that of Pinet, of 1564. It bears date of 1744. Several
editions were published by Protestant doctors iu the 17tb century: tbey were care
fully printed from the early Roman caiholic editions. No literary man now denies
the authority of this genuine Romish work. I refer to tbe edition now before me,
andthe statements of Dr. Drelincourt, and Mons, Bayle, in defence of its authen
ticity. The following I off"er as a specimen, in addition to what I have given; tbe
pages marked, are of the edition of Pinet, which I use.
" Absolutio, &c. Absolution, in form, for a dying person, the tax is, 14 carlins."
Seep. 73. "Absolution for a confrateruily, or a Societas, 50 catV— p. 74. Abso
lution of a priest for celebrating a clandestine marriage, 7 cari."— p. 88. " Absolution
of a priest for keeping a concubine, and a dispensation for his irregularities, &c., 7
cariins."— p. 89. " Absolution of a layman for keeping a concubine, 8 cariins."
p. 89.^ [It is one carlin more wicked in him, than in a " holy priest !"]
"Absolutio pro eo qui matrem, sorrorem, aut ahara consanguinera, aut comraa-
trem, caraaliter cognovit, taxatur ad 5 carlinos." p. 89. "Absolutio pro eo qui vir-
ginem defioravit, 6 carl." p. 89. " For forging apostohcal dispensations, 17 carUns."
p 94 ''For simony, 6 carl." p. 90. "A layraan killing any ecclesiastic less than
a'bishop, provided he present himself at the apostolical seat, is taxed at 7, or 8, or
cariins." p. 94. " For a layraan killing a layntian, 5 carl. p. 96, ,.,,,,.
From Tilulo XX. I copy tbe following. " Absolution for him who has kUled his
father, his mother, his brother, sister, wife, or other relative, tax is 5 car ms ; provid
ed he be a layraan: if any of them be of clerical rank, he must, besides that fine,
visit the apostolical seal." p. 97, 98. In TUulo XX entitled Additions of absolu
tions, this crime is taxed at " 1 ducat. 5 carl.ps," p. 102. "For striking one's wife,
and Causing a raiscarriage, 8 cariins." p. 98'' For a woraan to use poisons to cause
ahoTxCimi^K 5 eariins '' n 99. In Tilulo XXL, p. 103, the feraale doing this, "is
Si ducat 6 cariins.'''^'' For pushing oneself into holy orders wilhou. ibehishop's
1™ tax 2 ducats." p. 102- "For a priest who strikes another pnest after raass,
SducaV" p 103 "But if he beat him' before be celebrated the mass, the lax is .
2 "; " p 103 [In thefirst case, the wafer god is in hira ; m the last it is not !
" AbolutfoH and perraission to bury a suicide in holy ground 1 d-at 9,carhns/'
p. 104. " For a priest entering holy orders by s.raony 4 d-Jcats 4 carl s^ p. 105.
" For an abbot or bishop kUling a man, his tax is 50 1°"3' f ^"/f^'^' ? 'g'g' °^.
p. 123. " For killing a bishop, or abbot, or any ^^J^^'^J'^^': !}"' '"" '' ^^ *°"'^-
nois, 9 ducats." p. 136. These are amon^ "the additvynal taxes.
81'*

354 APPENDIX.
Ih Tilulo XXXIL and XXXIII. I find the following: "Absolution for a man
killiu" a wife, the same as kiUing a father, or molher, 4 tournois, 1 ducat, 8 cariins."
p. 139. "Dispensation tothe raan whohas killed his wife, to marry another wife,
the fax is 8 tumois, 2 ducats, 9 carUns." p. 139. " For killing an infant, 4 tour. 1
due. 9 cari." p. 139.
" Absolution for theft, sacrilege, burning houses, rapine, perjury, 36 tour. 9 due."
p. 145. "Absolution of a priest for tbe most licentious deeds, 36 tour., 3 ducats."
p. 154. " Absolution and dispensation for a priest keeping a concubine, 21 tour. 5
due, 6 cariins." " Absolution of a Nun for fornication, 36 tourn., 5 dgcats."' p. 155.
"Absolution of an adulterer, 4toum." "Absolution of a lay raan /or oni/ act of un
cleanness, 6 tourn. 2 ducats." p. 156.
" Absolution for incest with a sister, a mother, or any near relative, 4 tourn." p. 156.
" Absolution for one guilty of adultery, and incest, 6 tourn." p. 157. "Absolutio
De Bestialitate, et Sodomia, 90 tourn. 12 ducats, 6 cariins." p. 158,
This is a specimen of the Pope's Chancery Book, which was ordered by papal
authority, to be denied, and held up by all priests, "as a wicked forgery of the Pro
testants." But editions still exist, in Europe, that were printed in 1520. Of course
it could not have been invented by thera. Besides, as we have hinted already, Ro
mish doctors of more pure morals, have declaimed against it, as a regular, author
ized book. And it is an historical fact that this denial was not given out, until it was
discovered by the papists, that the book had fallen into the Protestants' hands ! But,
why deny tbe Book of larifF, when every one -who goes to confession rfoes pay : and
every friend of souls in purgatory must pay for masses to bring them out !
I beg leave to add one curious quotation. At tbe end of tbe chapter of "Absolu
tions to marry within a certain degree," and "in case of divorces," it is added, —
" Note well : graces and dispensations of this kind, are not conceded to the poor : be
cause they have no means ; therefore they cannot be comforted!" See folio XXIIL,
Edit. 1520: and p. 208. EdU. of 1625: also Folio 130, Edit, of 1545: and p. 19 of
the Edit, which I use.
In reference to the money set down here, I shall copy these explanations. A
Tournois weighed 2Deniers, 7 grains: there were 58 in a marc. A Ducat, a gold
coin, valued, it is supposed, at cent dix sols. A Carlin is the same as the Gros. It is
a;small silver coin, valued at 7 sols, in France.
In fine it appears, that in each country, tbe priests adapted the tax to the current
money of tbe realra; and to tbe poorer, or richer circumstances of the knaves who
applied for relief, and a good bargain in this popish "traffic of human souls." — See
Revel, xviii. 13.
III. GROSS IMPURITT ENJOINED BT POPES AND COUNCILS.
In the Decretals of Gratian. Dist. -39, we have the following canon from the coun
cil of Toledo: — "Qui non habet uxoreni, loco ilUus concubinam habere debet. He
who has not a wife ought inthe place of one, to have a concubine."
In thel7thcanon of that council it was enacted, — "Christiano habere licUum est
unam tantum aut uxorera, aut eerie loco uxoiis concubinam. Il is lawful for a chris
tian to have only one wife ; or certainly in the plaee of a wife, a concubine." Pi
thou Corpus Jur. canon, p. 47, Paris Edit. 1687. Binius, ConcU. Tom.i. p. 737,
739, 740, states the same ; and adds that the canons of this council were confirmed
by Pope Leo. Edgar's Var. of Popery, p. 503. This permission says Gianon, ex
tends to the clergy and laity; Hist, of Naples, XI. 7.
IV. INDEX EXPURGATORIUS.
The best definUion of tbe use of the Index, is given by a Spanish Roman catho
lic in tbe Lond. Cath. Magaz. of 1832, p. 50. Says Mr. Fejada,— " The Indexes Ex
purgatory are eraployed in those kingdoms allogether caiholic ; and in which there
is no liberty in worship, or of printing permuted." He should have added, — where
no,man is allowed tbe use of his own soul, but as Roraish priests condescend to per
mit him ! Its sole design is to arrest the progress of knowledge.

APPENDIX. 355
To give an idea of the Index, I shall quote a specimen of the manner, in which
Rome treats her sainted fathers. I copy out of Solo Major's Spanish Index Expur
gatorius, of A. p. 1667. The Inquisitors direct, in p. 52, ao exjiurgalion of St. Atha
nasius, by striking out the foUowing doctrines of that father. " God alone is to be
adored. Angels are not to be adored. Christ alone is to be adored. The body of
Christ is not corporeal food, but sprirUual. No creature is to be adored: for that is
to follow the Arians, and the heathens. The sacred scriptures are in themselves
sufficient for the discoveries of truth." Let these be stricken out.
In p. p. 56 and 57, we find St. Augustine pul into the crucible to be expurgated of
certain doctrines, off"ensive to Rome. And hence, the scandalous deception of our
priests, who atfect to be araazed that we should quote these doctrines out of this father
after he had, by these doctors, been purged of thera. The followiug are some of
them. — " Why angels, or just men refuse lo be adored. We do not raise temples to
them. The superstitious abstinence from flesh. "What Christ said about eating his
flesh is spiritually understood. In Augustine's time, no one set himself up for bishop
ofbishops. Two sacraments flowed from the side of Christ. Works necessarily
follow faith. Before God we are justified by faith. The use of images is prohibited.
The book of Maccabees is apocryphal. See p. 58. The saints are lo be loved, and
imitated, not worshipped. It is a sin to place the image of God iu churches." p. 59.
These precious doclrines are ordered by the pope to be expunged. And this being
declared by their raasler, the priests have, thence, the audacity to affirm that St, Au-
gustine never taught them ! !
Under tbe head of St. Chrysostora, the following words, of tbis father, namely, —
" Priests are subjected jto princes," are made to suffer papal expulsion. See p. 703. —
To this I add tbe Inquisitor's damnatory sentence on Lewis Vives, who bad taught
that the king's power and majesty is inferior only to God on earth. This in p. 65, is
ordered to be " expurgated." — As tbe best book on the subject, I refer to Mendham's
Literary policy of the church of Rome, exhibited in an account of the damnatory cata
logues, ur Indices, both Prohibitory, and Expurgatory. Lond. 1320. And to the
Lond. Prot. Journ. for 1832, p. p. 781, 782.
V. Confession.
The form of a Roman catholic's confession at the feet of the priest. "I confess to
Almighty God ; to ibe blessed Mary, ever Virgin : to blessed Michael the archangel ;
to blessed John Baptist: to St. Peter, and St. Paul; to all the Saints, and to you,
father, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, in word, in deed, &c. &c, See
Ordinary ofthe Mass. — Thus, we see, tbe victim of this iraposture, is raade to con
fess to tiie "dead men, and dead women," called saints, and to the priest, just as he
does to Almighty God !
"VI. Absolution. — See Letter xU. p. 220.
It is usually said by raany Protestants, and by all Roman catholics, that the
priests do not pretend to pardon sin in granting absolution: but th^t they simply
declare sin to be remitled to the penitent, by God. I shaU quote a docuraent, and
leave the reader to decide how far ignorance and imposture have propagated tins
sentiment. Here are the words of the decree of the Council of Trent, which, as
every priest knows, is of more authority in Rome, than tbe Bible. " Si quw dixerit,
ifC- If any one shall say that the sacramental absolution of the priest is not a judt-
cid act, but a naked ministry of pronouncing and declaring that sins are remitted to
the person confessing, provided only that he believes, &c. let him be accursed.
Hence it is not simply a declaratory, hnt formal and judicial act of the pnest, sitting
as judge; and in Christ's stead, uttering the sentence of pardon to the victims ol m»
imposture ! Concil. Trid. Sess. 14. Can. 9.

INDEX.

Absolution, — God only pardons sin, 9-2;
tation of, 218.

refu

Alfn's defence ofthe Waldenses, '27
.Ambrose, defended .ig.iinst Dr. V.irela, 80 ; i
no idolater, 80, 81; ou the succession, '210
on images, 113; on praj'ers in unknown
tont;iies, -216: against absolution, 22-2: —
against the popish rule, '2-25 ; and transub
stantiation, 237; and purgatory
Anecdotes, — of a horse and the bost, 115; of
bees and the host, l^^^¦, ofthe snuls in form
of .Crabs in velvet. 143; of a popish maniac
exorcised, 144: of St. Peter's chair, 144
of an ignorant priest, 148; of a priest and a
Dutch Dominie, 180; of a candid cardinal
and his chaplain, -248; ofthe Jesuit who
could not even with the help ofthe devil,
find a text to support purgatory, 249; of
¦ a priest and a nolileman, 2,31; of priest
Thom, and a poor widow, '2,5-2 ; ofthe chief
of the house of Gordon. 277 ; of the vicar
of Croydon preaching against printing, 3,30 ;
of a young medical student at the confes
sional, 3,S1.
Anthony St. miracle of, 107.
Antiquity, whether a mark of the truth ofthe
Romish church, 150.
Apocry|)ha, not belonging to the sacred canon,
38; refutation of its claims, 229.
Aquinas, St. Thoraas, on prayers in unknown
tongues, 216.
Archbishop, anecdote of an Italian, 84.
Arian cobler, 63; origin and exposure of this
popish sophism, 76,
Aristotle's absurdities employed by papists on
transubstantiation, 235.
Ass, feast of the, song sung lo if by the
priesls, 140, 141,
Athanasius, on the rule offaith 74,225; on
images 113; on saint and an el worship,
214; on the apocrypha, 230 "on transub
stantiation, 237; on purgatory 258.
Attributes of popery, — impurity, 321; impiety
and arrogance, 322; treachery, 325; intole
ranee, 329; cruelty, 332.
Auction for souls, at Irish funerals, what, 252
Augustine, azainst the popish rule of faith,
72, 2i9; defended from Dr. Varela's quota
tions, 81; on papal supremacy, 94; saintf

worship, 96, 214 ; against retaining the
scriptnros in a dead tongue, 99; on "the
Rock," 206; on images, '213: on prayers in
an unknown tnngne, 216; on the worship
ofthe Vngiii Mary, 218; on the pardon and
absolution ufsins, by the priests, '222; on the
apocrypha not being canonical, 230; against
transubstantiation, 239; and the mass, 245;
and purgatory, 258,
.'Vu rie u lar confession, originated by fanaticism,
113 ; a novelty, 152,
Authority of the church of Rome, not the
cause ofthe Bible"s authority, 30,
Auto da Fe, description of a Spanish, 338.
B
Bajitism, not established by tradition only, 68.
Barnabas' epistle, 6-2,
Baronius, on the wickedness ofthe popes, 37,
38,
asil, against absolution, 223; and the popish
rule offaith, 2-26; and purgatoiy, 257,
Becket, Thomas a, more honor paid to this
saint, than to Christ, 123, "279,
Bellarmine, on papal supremacy, 43, 44, 75,
83,89: on the rule offaith, 75; on the suc
cession, 111; he taught the supremacy of
spiritual power over civil governments in
iem;)orfl? things, 313; his atrocious defence
of persecution, and extermination by fire
and sword, 343,
Bells, popish baptism of, 136,
Bernard, St. against transubstantiation, 239;
and the mass, 245.
Bible, see Scriptures.
Bishop, every Roman prelate is bound by his
oath to persecute, 344.
Blasphemies of popery, specimens of, 44, 46,
79.
Bolsec, the priests quote this infamous man
.against the Reformers, 15, 26.
Bonaventure, St. a singular blaspheming fa
natic, 97.
Brunswick, the old Duke of, his curious bar
gain with the Romish priests, for the life
insurance of his soul, 9, 14, 139.
Bullinger, quotation from, vindicated, 24.
Buder's Lives ofthe Saints, monstrous mira-
cles in, 143.

358

INDEX.

Call to the ministry, Roman priests know not
even the meaning of it, 47.
Calvin, vindication of, from popish slanders,
25; case of Servetus, papists enacted the
laws, under which he sufliered, 341.
Canon, council of Carthage on the, 38; de
claring the apocrypha not ofthe canon, 38;
no canonical book lost, 61 ; priests absurd
ly insist that the Bible should do that by in
ternal evidence, which can be done only by
external evidence, in reference to its canoni
city, 78; the Greek church cudgelled tlie
church of Rome into orthodoxy, respecting
the canon, 119.
Canonizing, power of, 106.
Cardwell refutes Curtis on his charge of er
rors in the English version, 79, 89, 90.
Cafholic church of Christ very different from
the Roman catholic church ofthe pope, 24
Catholicity, on the claims ofthe popish church
to this attribute, 153.
Celibacy of priests and nuns, a novelty, 98 ;
it originates infinite licentiousness in the
Romish church, 186.
Chancery book of the pope, tariff prices of
sin, 45 ; Appendix II.
Chair of St. Peter, ludicrous anecdote ofthe
144.
Charlea V. the emperor » tool of Clement
VII, 328 ; his noble answer in the case of
Luther, 328.
Chastity, its meaning among popish priests,
321.
Chillingworth on the rule of faith, quoted
19, 38.
Christians, number of, compared fo that of
papists, 201, 202 ; and Appendix I.
Chrysostom St., on "prophetic remains," 61 ;
on the rule offaith, 74, 227 ; against the in
vocation of saints, 96 ; on the text of " the
Rock," 209 ; against absolution by priests,
222 ; and transubstantiation 239 ; and fhe
mass, 245 ; and purgatory, ?58.
Church of God, never cut off, 42; not always
visible, — not visible in Israel in Ahab's time,
42 ; doctrinal marks of, 91 ; separate from
the state always when in her purest condi
tion, 92.
Circle, the vicious, the priests resort to this
form of false logic, 58, 64.
Civil power, over magistrates, and temporal
things, claimed by popes, 44.
Clemens Alex, condemns absolution by priests,
223; against transubstantiation, 238; and
the mass, 246.
Conclave of cardinals choose ttvo popes af fhe
same time, 165.
Confessional, immoral influence of, on fhe
minds of priests, 129; and on servants,
129, 130.
Conscience, liberty of, 9; papists deny this
liberty, 9, 30, 43, 76; their disingenuous
manner of replying to this charge ; they

call it " our interior spirit," "private spirit,"
15; their system necessarily opposed to this
liberty, 43 ; God the only Lord of the con
science, 92 ; papal usurpations on if, 122.
Conversion of three Romish priests, 241.
Conversion, papal, what it is, 81 ; evangelical
conversion, not admitted on popish princi
ples, 81.
Corpus Christi, festival of, originated by gross
fanaticism, 114.
Councils', and popes' power, 19, 20: two
councils quoted against purgatory, 259.
Crabs in velvet, souls coming out of purgatory
in the form of, 143, 144.
Creed of Protestants, priests' opinion of, 78 ;
in scriplure texts, 146.
Cross, the wood of, worshipped by papists,
139; farther proof and specimens, 282.
Croydon, vicar of, his saying about printing,
330.
Crusades, two kinds of, 340; specimens of,
341.
Cup, or wine, abstraction of, inthe eucharist,
a popish novelty, 99.
Curse, specimens of the papal, 342.
Curtis' collection of errors in the English
Bible, 79, 89; CardweU in reply, 89, 90.
Cyprian against the apocrypha, 230; and
transubstantiation, 237 ; and purgatory, 256.
Cyril, — against absolution, 223; against fhe
popish rule offaith, 226 ; and the apocrypha,
230; and transubstantiation, 238; and pur
gatory, 257, 258, D

Damasus, against the mass, 245.
Damnation, power of, claimed by popes, 333,
324.
David, St. of Scotland, popish miracle by,
109.
Deism of N. Y. priests proved, 10, 12, 34, 54,
59, 60, 76.
Deists, — necessary tendency of popery to pro
duce and increase them, 90, 225.
Demons, doctrine of, in fhe Romish church,
324.
Despotism essential to the genius of popery,
17, 306, 320, 322.
Devil, — Luther a pupil of the, refuted, 25.
Divisions of Protestants, one real cause of
fheir appai intly greater number, 5 ; the
divisions of papists, excessive, 5, l5.
Doctrinal contradictions of popery. 285,
Doctrinal marks of the true church of Christ,
91,-93.
Doctrines and rites of popery, originated by
fanaticism, 110 ; popery at open war with
Bible doctrines ; 285, 286, 293,
Douay translation, its glaring errors, 71; not
authorised by the pope, or " church," 88 ;
122 ; the priests' lame and Jesuitical defence
ofit. 133, 134.
Duke of Brunswick's curious bargain with
the priests about the insurance of his soul's
life, 9, 14, 139.

INDEX.

359

Dutch christians of Holland, sufferings and
massacres of, 346, 347,

E

England, Dr,, notice of his late book on po
pish ceremonies ; his Jesuitism and false
nood exposed, 315, 316; he contradicts ii
his book the words of a papal Bull, 316.
English version of the Bible, the papists have
no authorised one, 7-2.
Epiphanius against saint invocation, 96
against the worship of Mary, 218. against
purgatory, '259.
Eusebius, against transubstanri.ition, '238.
Excommunication of vermin, 142 ; annual ex
communication and cursing of Protestants
by papists, 315, 342.
Exorcism of a demoniac pretended, an anec
dote, 144, F
Fair sex of Spain, and Romish priests, anec
dote of, 189,
Faith, new articles of, power of the pope to
enact, 83, twelve new articles added, 83, 85,
Faith of Roman catholics what? 33, 34,
contradicted by express texts, 148, carbona
rian faith, 1-82,
Faith of God, no foundation for it in popery,
284; the popish doctrine of Intention ren
ders faith, and hope, and salvation utterly
uncertain to them, 297, 301.
Fanaticism of the Romish church, 15, 105,
106,108, 113,
Fathers unanimous consent of, nof in exis
tence, 11, proof of this, 72, 73.
Field, Dr,, Vindication of, from popish quota
tions, 24,
Francis, St, miracles ascribed to him, 108,
French christians, sufferings and massacres of
them, 346, G
Galileo's sentence of condemnation, unre
pealed by the pope, to this day, 301 ; say
ing of one of his companions, respecting
hisjudges, 302,
Gelasius, ihe pope, against transubstantiation.
Generations, the 14, textual difficulty of, in
Matth, i„ solved, 66.
God's singular family group, according fo
popery, 106.
Gordon, anecdote ofthe chief of the house of,
277.
Governments, civil, convulsed by popery, 287,
289; hostility of popery to liberty, 306,
danger to our free institutions from its pre
smt conspiracy against our republic, 306,
307,308; BeUarmine aud other writers on
the subjection of civil powers to the spiritu
al, 313; farther shown from the bishops',
and priests' oath to the pope, 318, 322.

Grace, doctrines of, in tho Romish church
82; Trent fathers on them, 82, 83, '
Gregory, the saint, and pope, against papal
supremacy, 95; on succession, 110; con
demns penance and absolution 223; and
the muss, -245,
Gregory, pope, "the hell brand," an ultra on
supi-ciiiaoy, 8-2,
Gregory Nazianzen, against purgatory, 257.
Gregory Nyssen, against saint invocation, 96;
against purgatory, '257,
Gregory XVI, the present pope, an idolatroui
worshipper of Mary, 97,
H
Hampton conference, speeches fhere against
" translations ofthe Bible," 79, exposure of
this, 89,
Hebrew and Greek ofthe Holy Ghost, always
ridiculed by the priests, 28, 48, 50, 51,
77, reason ofit, 84, 100,
Hebrews not witiiout the written rule for 14
generations, 59,
Hebrew text, reply to the priests' injurious re
flections on ihc, 72.
Herbert, Lord, a fanatical deist, 104.
Heretic, definition of, at the priests call, 16.
Heretics, no faith to be kept with, a regular
popish dogma, proof, 326; specimens, 327,
329.
Hilary, ou the succession and "The Rock,"
110; condemns absolution, 2-23; against
the popish rule of faith, 2-26; against tran-
substuntiation, 237; against purgatory, 256.
Holiness, succession of Rnnie cut off by the
loss of. 161, — ^But }io]iish holiness is con
veyed by the most atrocious of rnen, 164, —
their ideas of it, 184.
Holy Mother church, — the priests cannot even
ree in telling us what it is, 11, 33.
Holy V^ater, origin of, 137; in popery it
takes the place ofthe Holy Spirit, 323,
Hooker, vindication of him fjoiii popish quo
tations, 24, 38,
Horse, devoutly teorsliips the mass, a popish
miracle, 115,
Httss, a mariyr of Christ, by the popish dog
ma, " keep no faith with heretics," 166, 328.

Iddo, book of, noticed. 61.
Idolatry of popeiy, 106. see images.
Ignatius against transubslantiatiiin, 237.
Images condemned by councils, 81, 82; fheir
use a novelty in the christian world, 98;
condemned by scripture and the fathers, 212,
213, 274, -277, 283 ; three factions in Rome
respecting images, 278.
Immoralitv of popeiy, 45; the mother of
deism a"nd vice, 286, 287 ; full exposure of
this, 288, 321,
Impostures of popery, 105, 142.

360

INDEX.

In ama Domini, analysis of this bull, 317.
Index Expurgatorius, one of the mighty wea
pons of papal power, 333.
Indulgences, sources of wealth fo the Romish
priesthood, 222.
Infallibility, — the papists cannot agree in de
ciding where it lies, 19, 3-2, 75, 89 ; it has
notsetUed any divisions inthe R. C. church,
11, 21, 46; ludicrous error of our priesls on
thia ; they assert, repeatedly, that the use of
their infallible rule of faith, makes those in
fallible who use it, 14, 60, 84, 103 ; their
leading maxim is, that the promise of infal
libility is made by Christ, to oral teaching,
not vmtten inspiration, 'ii; infallibility, and
their dogma of intention irreconcilable, 48;
their vicious circle on this, 121 ; Bellarmine's
doctrine on this, 323.
Inquisition, 332 ; this grows out of the very
nature and aim of popery, which thrives
only by despotism, 333; definition of, 333,
334; history of its rise and progress, 334
some countries never submitted to it, 335
Inquisitorial law, curious origin of it, 335
Inquisitor, definition of an, 335; picture of
. — 336; the interior, 337; various tortures,
337, 340; number of those who perished by
it in Spain, 340.
Intention, papal doctrine of, fatal fo their
priests, and their rites, 48; it bids defiance
to their infallibility, 48; striking specimen
of Jesuitism in defending, and covering it,
50,76; an examination of its fatal effects
on the whole system of popery, 297, 301,
Internal evidence of the Bible confounded by
priests, witfi eziemai, 78: and passim.

Jpsuits, — maxims and practices of, 85, 87, 129,
130, 197; character of, 131; a solemn ap
peal and warning against their present con
spiracy, 319 ; their secret oath by which
they are banded together, copy of it, 329.
Joan, the pope, 62.
John the apostie ; the popish doctrine of suc
cession and supremacy, load him with con
tempt and insolence, 93.
Jones' defence of the character and doctrines
of the "Waldenses, 27.
Judas, — a part of the rope with which he
hanged himself, among " the holy relics," at
Rome, 107.
Judge of controversy, the Holy Ghost, speak
ing in the \Vord, 3 ; passim in the Letters ii.
iii. iv. v.
Judgment, rights of each person's private,
ridiculed by priesdy intolerance as "ihe in
terior spirit," 15, 43.
Justin Martyr, against transubstantiation, 238;
and the mass, 245 ; and purgatory, 256, 257.
K
Kettle, anecdote of fhe copper, and Patrick
O, B,, 32,
Kings of Europe, have, for generations, been
. "the pope's hangmen,'.' 334.
Kno.v, John, ludicrous slander of, by the pa
pists, 26.

Intolerance one of the grand attributes of

Lactantius, on Images, 213 ; against the mass,
246; against purgatory, 256.

popeiy, 399.
Irenaeus against transubstantiation, 237
Italic, old, version of, older than Jerome's, or
the Vulgate, 69.
Irish catholics, an earnest appeal tothem, on the
novelty of popery, and in behalf of the an
cient and primitive religion of their original
ancestors in Ireland, 232.

Jamea, Dr. his Bellum Papal'. 87.
Januarius, St. the annual miracle of melting
his blood, at Naples, 143.
Jasher, the book of, noticed, 61.
Jerome, — his Latin version of fhe Scriptures
altered inthe Vulgate, 69, 70; Jerome quo
ted on the popish rule of faith, 73 228; on
the Latin version, 88; against papal supre
macy, 94; on the text of "the Rock," and
succession, 207, 209 ; he condemns penance,
and absolution, 222; against the apocrypha,
230; and transubstantiation, 239; and the
mass, 244 ; and purgatoiy, 258.
Jerome of Prague, a martyr of Christ, by po
pish treachery, 116, 328,
Jesuitism, instances of in N. Y. priests, 50, 58,
85,87; its spirit, 169, 197.

Laity, treated by the Romish priests with in
solence and contempt, 57.
Laodicean council against the apocrypha,
231 ; vindication of the, 231.
Latin prayers condemned by scripture and the
fathers, 214, 215 ; and by Cajetan, 216.
Learning, hostility toil, an essential element
of popery, 301 ; specimens of its retaining
the sentiments ofthe Dark Ages, on common
science, 301 ; its ludicrous condemnation of
Bishop Virgil for believing in antipodes;
and Galileo, for believing in our doctrine of
the solar system, 301, 302.
Leo X., fhe pope, claimed power to enact new
articles of failh, 83.
Levins, Mr , his peculiar taste for the low, dis
gusting, and ribaldrous, specimens, 28, 30,
31,86; his cowardly insolence in insulting
ladies, 86, 87, &c. ; specimen of his blas
phemy, 79, 90; calls Dr. B. his opponent
A LIAR, 147 ; his appropriate prototype, an
officer of the court of the king of Assyria,
171; fhe epitaph, 172.
Liberality, and toleration of sentiment never
known in the Romish church, 313; not al
lowed on Roman catholic principles, proof,
344, 345.
Liberty, fhe genius of popery is in deadly
hostility to, 47, 77; pure Christianity the

rVDEA.

parent and nurse of Uue liberty, 92 ; an ap
peal to Roman catholic laymen on tiiis,
178, 193.
Liturgies of the Oriental churches opposed to
transubstantiation, 240.
Logic, — curious specimens of Romish logic,
34,85; N, Y. priests euipjoy as an argumeutiNathuii, book of, noticed, 61

MoTiiiiK or Gou, a name of blasphemy, 96
97, 103 ; thia involves the Eutychian heresy'
105. Epiphanius and Augustine on this, 218!
N

againsttiie divine rule of faith, the abuse of
it by evU men, 76 ; specimen of fheir logic
on their church's antiquity, 150; in their
claims to catholicitj-, 154,
Luther's character vindicated from the slang
of our priests, '24, 25, 119: anecdote of bim
and an ignorant priest, 148,
31
Magistrates, papist contempt of, 32-2. In Eu
rope they were, for centuries, the pope's
"spies and hangmen," 334.
Man of Sin, a peculiar titie ofthe Romish hie
rarchy, 321, 323, 3-25.
Marcellinus, the pope, an idolater, 75.
Marks of their church claimed by papists, an-
ti^itj, 150. See Catlwlicity, S\-c.
Marry, forbidding to, peculiar attribute of tiie
popish apostacy, 324.
Mary. See J'irgin.
Mary St. a torturing machine of papists. 338
Mass, a substitute for our Lord's atonement,
81 ; a mere novelty, 98 ; it was originated
by fanaticism, 114 ; worshipped by a horse,
a popish miracle, 115; superstition ofit,
136; bees worshipping if, 143; full e.xa-
mination of it, refutation, — by reason, 242 ;
by Scripture, 243; bythe fathers, 244 ; rea
sons why popish priests cling fo this grand
invention, as their last hope, 246 ; various
convenient masses, 247 ; picture of a high
mass inpontificalibus, 268.
Matrimony, thrown into confusion among pa
pists by the priests' doctrine of Intention,
300.
Maxim, a useful one in controversy, 13.
Meats in lent, 138 ; allowed lately to be eaten
on Saturdays, 224; forbidden by popery,
324.
Middleton quoted on the pagan origin of po
pish rites, 264, 268.
Miracles, popish, 106, 107, 108, 109. 115.
Misquotations and textual perversions by pa
pists, instances of, 14, in reference to 2
Pet.i. 20; and our rule of faifh, .54, 58,—
in reference to 2 Peter iii. 16, "hard to be
understood," 57, glaring instance of, 95.
Misrepresentations, 75, 76, of Dr. Curtis and
pnests, 79, apecimen of, 102.
Mohna's works noticed, code of Jesuitism,
183, and 263.
Monkish orders, seven of them, founded by
fanatics, 111, — they cause distractions, 204.
Morals, Popish, 129, infamous maxims on,
130, 194— 199,— quotations, 263.
Mortmain law of England, cause and origin
of, 246. S .

.\azarene, Christ called a, 67.
Nicholas, Dr. Melchior, his vindication of
Luther, noticed, '2."i. O
Oalh of Jesuits, and papists, not to be relied
on, 3-215; fheir own secret oath, 3'29,
Oath taken by Roman cafholic priests, and
bishops, 318,
Objections and misstatements of priests, ex
amined, see Letter VI, part i. 55.
Odor of sanctity, popish meaning of, 107.
Oral instruction nof to be separated, as fhe
priests insist, from the use ofthe Scriptures,
68.
Ordination, and episcopal consecration, no
Romish priest can prove his, 47, 48.
Origen, quoted, 209; on prayers in an un
known tongue, 216; against fhe Roman
cafholic rule of faith, 227 ; and fhe apocry
pha, 230 ; and tranaubsfantiafion p. 239.

Pagan origin of popish rites, 106, 137, 264 —
268 ; pagans outdone by papisfa 331.
Parents, appeal to, on Jesuit seminaries, 192.
Patrick, Sf. miracles of, 108, 109, defence of
him from popish legends, note, 139, 232.
Paul, F. his saying of fhe Trentine fathers,
85.
Penance, superstition of, 138, impiety and
deism ofit, 221; source of wealth, 22-2.
Persecution, essential fo popery, 127 ; differ
ent kinds, 340; if isa dogma of popery to
persecute, — if is enacted by its councils,
and advocated by its doctors, 342 — proofs,
343, 344 ; each bishop is sworn in to per
secute, 344 ; specimens of massacres
and persecutions, 345, 348 ; numbers killed,
347.
PuTER, 2. Epist. of, ch, 1, 20 ; perversion of
by Romanists, 14,
Peter, whether at Rome, no pope, 160 ; para
ble of him, 173, spirit of antichrist shown,
174, 178.
Pius ii. fhe pope, .(Eneas Sylvius, quoted,
75, 159.
Pix, or box containing the wafer god, curious
pagan origin of, 266.
Pollution an essential element in popery, 289.
Pontifical and priesdy arrogance, wielding
the power " to damn," 17.
Pontifical high mass, curious picture of this
theatrical show, 268,
Pope, the pontifex maximus ; the lord god m
the Roman church, 19, 44; his temporal

INDEX,

power affected to be disowned by American
Roman catholics, 20 ; he must be in fact,
a god, if he do what the Roman catholic
rule of faifh requires him to do, 22 ; papal
succession cut off, 36; wicked popes, 36,
37, 45 ; the pope appoints new articles of
faifh, 43, 83 ; fhe names of our Lord arro
gantly given to him, 43, 44; he calls him
self " God," 44, 323: specimens of the
character of popes, 45, 46; "a god upon
earth," he pardons sins ; makes new gods,
or saints ; and thus adds fo the number of
the objects of worsh'ip, 56, 57; pope Joan
62; fhe pope made by papists "pater fa
miiias," in fhe place of Christ, 83, 89 : spe
cimen of atrocious popes, and yet vicars of
God, 162, 163; frightful scenes^iRome, by
the conduct of popes, 163 ; three antipopes
uniting to mak.e a barter ofthe church, 165 ;
worse than any civil tyrant in any land,
167 ; a pope's idolatrous prayer af the con
secration of images, 280; they bring all
things, for sale, info market, for money,
290; the adoration of the pope at his elec
tion, 323; a pope's public rejoicings on ac
count of fhe French massacres of fhe
Huguonots, 347.
Popery, it labours to conceal, in our land
ifs real tenets, 40; ifs genius strictiy mo
narchical, and despotic, 41 ; its hostility fo
the freedora ofthe people, and to republics,
41, 195 ; ifs spirit and doctrines the samCj
now, unchanged, as in fhe Dark Ages, 41,
126; ita nature, and atheism, 44, 123, 127.;
its revolting immorality, 45, 188, 189 ; the no
velty of its essential doctrines and rites, 91;
it is a system of forgeries and novel inven
tions; proof. Letter viii, part i,, 87, 93, 187,
232 ; ifs dogmas, and rites originated in fa
naticism, 105, 115; family gronp of its gods,
106 ; it peoples tiie world with saint-idols,
even as the pagans did if, with hero-idols,
106; offio.e?, of its idols, 106 ; if has lost fhe
spirit of Christianity, 126 ; it claims the pow
er of " damning" ifs enemies, 128 ; the
viced and ignorance of its vofai-ies, 128;
the raarks and notes of its church, 149; its
passport given, for fhe usual consideration,
to any dying man, to heaven, 149, 150; its
images, 152 ; a ih'ree headed monster in it,
which cut off ifs succession, 164 ; it never
reforms, never improves, on its own avowal
191 ; it is a very broken, divided, and dis
tracted sect, 202, 903, 205; its claims to
pardon sin, and a,bsolve, refuted, 218; it is
a sj^sfem of pious frauds fo plunder nations
successfully; proof, Spain, 252, 253; its
deplorable moral condition in popish lands ;
its tenets cause the evil to wax worse and
worse, 263^; it is shown to be perpetuated
paganism, 264 ; proof; contrast of it, and
pflgaBism, J3S5; its- frightfiil idolatry; 374,
883; symr/loms and efemeota^ of its ruin,
884,; its^-ppllution, 289 ,- it^ is- at war with
-the gospel of Chriat, on essential particu

lars, proof, 293; every doctrine, rite, and
" efficacy of grace" in it, rendered utterly
uncertain; and its whole system abortive,
by its extraordinary doctrine of iNXENTioif,
297, 300; its essential attribute of despot
ism, 306 ; its six grand attributes discussed^
320, ifcc. ; the number of those who have
been murdered by it, 347, 348.
Popish authors quoted relative to the popes,
37 ; blunders of, about ordinances, 83.
Power, Dr. solemnly appealed to God that he,
and fhe priests encouraged the reading of
the Bible in the vernacular tongue, — ^yet no
authorised version in English, 88, 122 ; his
lame defence of it, 133 ; specimen of the
saints to whom he prays, 163.
Precepts, fhe ten precepts of God repealed,
practically, by popery, 288, 289.
Predictions, Romish priests fill up these, as
recorded in ScriiJfure, 194.
Priest of a false religion, character of, 331.
Priest, an office as used among the papists,
unknown in the New Testament, 47, 48.
Priesthood, a ghostly aristocracy and nobility
in popery, 57 ; impure by their very office,
129, 188, 189 ; its legal existence rendered
uncertain by their own doctrine of Inten
tion, 297, 300.
Priests, of New- York, — boast against our rule,
the Bible, as Paine did, 78, 116; fheir un
fairness, 84,85,115, 118; the attributes of
their logic, 87 ; specimens of it, 101 ; their
spirit indicative of popery, 104, 116, 119 i
fhey borrow all the little they say, out of
old Mumford, and Milner, 105, et passim;
fheir violence against fhe holy Bible, 116,
117, 133; their unguarded admission against
their, own saints' legends, 119; they charge
false miracles on Protestants, 119; two sin
gular admissions drawn from them, 122 ;
fhey aim at personal violence, 131 ; Dr. B-'s
card on this, 132 ; their acerbity of style,
133, 147; they caU Dr. B. "a liar," l&t
their aim utterly defeated, 148 ; fheir maniae
logic, 150, 151 ; their final Letter, and re^.
tieaf, 167,
Primitive Christianity of Ireland and Spain
before popery overran them, 91(, 93, 225.
Protestant, and papist, contrast oft on an ea.
sential point, 84; Profestanf divisions, i-eply:
to charge of, 84 ; Protestants' harmony iJ*
doctrine, 153; contrast of the Protestant
and ])opish claims to have the true faith,
156 ; Protestant parents appealed to on Jesuit
seminaries, 192; Protestants have persecut
ed, instances, 341 ; radical difference be^
tween the principle prompting them, and
that of fhe papists, 341,
Purgatory, a novel invention, 98, 152,250;
it was originated by fanatics, 113 ; the moot",
ed question if priests know who are in it,
142; miracle of visibly letting; out somls-r in
form of miee, 142^ as crabs- in- vefe>et, ,144 ;
anecdote- of a priest who had p«rga*wyin
his house, 180 ; it is the temple of mammon,

iNDi:,\--

248; curious remark of a cardinal about it,
248; history of it, — a pagan fiction import
ed; neither the Jesuit Cotton, nor the devil,
could find a text for it, '249; the eight dun
geons in purgatory for eight castes of hope
ful sinners, '250; the real use of if, '251 ;
specimen of popisli extortion by this, in
Spain, 252: refutation of purgatorj-, — from
reason, and Scripture, '253 ; the monstrous
absurdities of if, -255 ; if sets out the priests
before die public, as inhuman monsters,
256; condemned bythe best of the fafhers,
256; by councils, •2.:>fl; has nof the unani
mous consent, and therefore, wants even po
pish evidence, -2o9, Q
Quotations, unfair ones, valuable maxim on, 16,
R

Rack, tortures of the, 338.
Beformation needful in Rome, 260 ; quota
tions of ber writers urging it, 26] .
Reformers \-indicated, 24, 26.
Relics, origin of, amere noveltv, 99; rare spe
cimen of them, 107, '281, &c,: worship of
them, 282 ; farther specimens, very curiou
303; fhe ridiculous folly of these will work
the final ruin of popery, 302, 305.
Religion, contrast between fhe true and the
false, 292.
Republicanism, — popery's essential doctiines
in deadly hostility to if, 195, 196, 308, 313,
322 ; proof from fhe oath of prieats, and
bishops, 318; its present conspiracy against
our republic, 306, 308.
ReucbHn's saying ofthe Latin version, com
pared with the original Hebrew- and Greek,
88.
Rites of Romanism, founded in fanaticism
113.
Eock, text of the ; criticism on it ; the senti
ments of the fafhers on if, 205, 207.
Roman catholics, earnest appeals to them,
178, 182, 232, 241.
Roman church, in the 4fh century, rejected
the epistie to the Hebrews, 119.
.'Romish ayatem, or popery, is the perpetuation
of paganism, 264,268.
Roscoe, and fhe laconic senate, 16.
,Sljcellai's judgment on fhe political tendency
of the bull In cmna Domini, 318, 319.
Rule of faith, 7, 8. 9, 12, 16 ; our sentiments
on this, always misquoted by papists, 23,
54; the church of God had always the
same rule of faith. 59 ; no books of the
wored canon lost, 61.
Rule of faifh, among papists, 7, 17, 21,31;
their rule is tlte church, 149 ; their errors in
this matter, 9, 10, 11 ; their avowed rule a
cumbrous load, 21, 120 ; fheir infallible rule
made up of faUible materials, 7, 11 ; the real
origin of this papal dogma, 19 ; refutation of
the papal rule in ten arguments, 19, 32, 34,
3S, 61,

Sabbafh, change of, not determined by tradi
tion ub/^ 158.
Saints, invocation of, a novelty, 95; origin
ol, :H; ; opposed by fhe fadiers, 96 ; the la
borious services imposed on each by pa
pists, 106; reported miracles of, 109; ape-
eimcn ot" ^yickcd men made saints, 162;
biiiut worship condemned by scripture and
the fafhers, '213, 214; specimen of extraor
dinary saint \\orship '279, 283 ; farther no-
tiee of fhe labours and services of these
saints, 280.
Sanctitjf of Romanism, reviewed, 184,
Scarlet colored Boast &c, notices of, 330,
Schisms in the Romish church, view of fhe,
162.
Scriptures, no obscurity in them, 9, 13; fheir
authenticity and genuineness, 9, 10, 52. 53.
fheir inspiration, proofs ofit, 8, 9, 12, 18, 51,
to 55 ; confession of this wrung from the
priests, 17; evidence of this, external and in
ternal, 51 ; historical evidence, tradition, 52;
no inspired books lost, 53 ; our English ver
sion the priests call " most abominably cor
rupt," 79; Dr, Curtis' collection of errors,
Dr, Cardwell's exposure, 79 and 89,90;
Walton's judgment of our version 89 ;
Selden's 89 ; Geddes', 89 ; keeping them
in a dead language, a popish tiovelty, 99 ;
fathers quoted, 99, 100; priest's renewed
attack on them, 101, 102; fheir sophistry
^(Bxposed, 103 ; Scriptures prohibited by the
Tloman catholic church, 135; anecdote of
a papist, and a Bible, 181.
Selden, his judgment of our version of the Bi
ble, 89.
Servants, priests' instructions fo, at the con
fessional, 129, 147.
Society, and marriage among papists thrown
into confusion by fhe popish doctrine of In
tention, 300.
Spirit of God, speaking in fhe Bible, the only
judge of controversies in doctrines, 3, 7, 8 ;
the priests' perversion on fhis, "the interior
spirit," " our private spirit," 15, 23, 30; they
always misquote our definitions, 54, 58.
Spirits, evil, successfuUy baffled by Romish
saints, 109.
State always in union, wifh the chnrch. in
Roman catholic lands, 314.
St. Sacraraent a Romish idol, 136 ; farther spe
cimens of its idolatrous worship, 283.
Statues and images work miracles, 110.
Succession, apostolical, of the papists totally
cut off, 35, 38 ; review ofit, 159.
Supererogation, base superstition of, 140.
Superstition of popery, 135, incense ; holy
wafer, charms, 137; condemned by reason
and Scripture 274, 283. ^ ^,,- .,
Supremacy, papal, four sects of f^''" "1 '^
Romish churcli on this point, 19, 2U, l/i4 ;
Bellarmine's ultra views of if, 75, «.S; ori-
ein of.it, 93 &o. resisted by councils and
the fafhers, 93, 95 ; jarringeleraents and
factiotiB in Rnme on it, 294, 397.

INDEX.

T

Tax Book of popery, tarifl' prices of siu, 191 ;
and Appendix ii.
Temporal power of fhe pope, 124, 125, anec
dote to illustrate if, 125, 126; proof of this
claim by fhe popes, 308, 312, 322; far
ther proof, 326.
TertuUian, on the rule of failh, 74, 2,26 ;
against papal supremacy, 94; on succession
110; on images, 213; transubstantiation,
238; the mass, 246; and purgatory, 257.
Testament, the new, not written, say fhe
priests, by Christ's command, 34.
Textual difficulties solved, 65 ; Maffli, i . Luke
iii., Matth. xxvii., and chap, ii.23 — G6, 67.
Theodoret, against papal supremacy, 94;
against saint worship, 96 ; on the succes
sion, 210; against transubstantiation, 238.
Tortures of fhe Inquisition, 337, 340.
Tradition, historical, an evidence of the inspi
ration ofthe Bible, 18 ; fhe priests reject all
historical traditions, except simjily those of
their own sect, 31.
Traditions, papal, fheir fanaticism, extrava
gance, and irapiety, 55, 56 ; apostolical tra
ditions, 68, 69 ; the priests' vicioua circle on
them, 120.
Traffic with heretics forbidden by fhe Blan of
Sin, 335.
Translations, the priests' ludicrous assaults
on them, 14.
Transubstantiation, a novel invention, 98
refutation from Scripture and the fatliers_
233 ; the papists sustain their doctrine by
one ofthe absurdities of Aristotle, '235; if
brutalizes a man ; it compels ifs believers
to disbelieve the evidence of fheir senses,
235 ; a believer in it cau never he a witness
in any case, 235 ; condemned by eighteen
of fhe fafhers, and fhe eastern liturgies,
237, 241.
Treachery, a grand attribute of poperv, 325.
Trinity, representation of, in fhe popish idol
atry, 106. U
Unanimous consent of fhe fathers, the popish
system destitute ofthe, 72, 75, 209, 216, 217.
Union of church and state, characteristic of
popery, 314.
Unitarians at one wifh papists on an essential
point, 235,
Unify claimed by Roman catholics, no such
thing amojig them, 5, 6; cause of their ap
parent unity, 5 ; the only kind of union
among fhem, 6 ; review of fheir affected
unity, 200, 220.
Usher, a good advice of his to popish priests,
relative fo purgatoiy, 260.

Varela, Dr. retreats, yet, Parlhiun-lifee, keeps
up a retreating fire, 12 ; his daring attack
on the only rule of faith, fhe Scriptures, 12,
16 ; reply to his Letters, 80 ; specimen of
his misquotations, 82 ; ludicrous blunder of
his about " ordinances," 83.
Vicars of God, three perjured ones, in Holy
Molher, at once, 166.
Vicious circle, — this false logic employed by
papists, 58, 120, 121 ; fhey deny it, yet use
it, at the same time, 64 ; they employ if on
traditions, 120 ; and on their infallibihty,
121.
Virgin Mary, specimen of her worship, ren
dered by papists, 96, 97 ; this idolatry con
demned by Scripture, and the fathers, 217,
218 ; she is fhe great goddess, fhe Diana of
the Romans, — farther specimens of proof,
281.
Virgin Magdalen, popiah miracle by her, 107.
Vulgate, one of fhe woraf translations of fhe
Bible, 14; N. Y. priests' defence of it, 65;
exposure of if, 69; Clementine and Sextine
editions of if, 70, 71, 88 ; Jerome's saying
of the Latin version, 88 ; there ia no autluyr-
issd version of the Bible in Engliah, by the
Roman church, 88. W
Waldenses lindioatedfrom the atrocious slan
der of N. Y. priests, 26, 27 ; testimony in
fheir favor, by two inquisitors, and a pope,
27, 28 ; their terrible sufferings and massa
cres by papists, 345, 346.
Walton, quoted by fhe priests as favoring
their Vulgate, 65 ; this is not correct, 89.
Wars in Europe for ages, caused, mainly, by
popery, 166, 204.
Wax candles, lamps, — origin of, among pa
pists, 138,
Wenefride, St., three popish miracles in her
life, 108.
Wesley, John, "^vindicated from fhe wanton
charges of N. Y. priests, 23, &c.
White slaves, Roman cafholic lands, fhe coun
try of, 330. X
Xavier, St., popish miracles in his life, 109.
Y
York, fhe cardinal duke of, referred to ; the
book containing an account of a synod held
by him, gives the lie to bishop England's
statement, De Bulla, In coena Domini, 316.

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