tract on popery

' ;§«

v" hm
'

>*.. I
: •§-

EXACT CONFORMITY OF

POPERY AND PAGANISM.

By CONYERS MIDDLETON.

PUBLISHED BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OP THE

NEW-YORK PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION.

AQ-4

m

ORK:

CRAIGHEAD AND ALLEN, PRINTERS.

1836:

\



JESUIT’S OATH.

“I A. B., now in the presence of
Almighty God, the blessed

Virgin Mary, the blessed Michael
the Archangel, the blessed

St. John Baptist, the Holy
Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul,

and the Saints and Sacred Host
of Heaven, and to you my

ghostly father, do declare from
my heart, without mental re-

servation, that Pope Gregory is
Christ’s Vicar-General, and

is the true and only head of
the universal church throughout

the earth ; and that by
virtue of the keys of binding and

loosing given to his holiness
by Jesus Christ, he hath power

to depose heretical
kings, princes, states, commonwealths,

and governments, all being
illegal, without his sacred confir-

mation, and that they may safely be
destroyed : therefore to

the utmost of my power, I shall and
will defend this doctrine

and his Holiness’ rights and
customs against all usurpers oi

the heretical or
Protestant authority whatsoever,

especially

against the now pretended authority
and church in England,

and all adherents, in regard
that they be usurped and hereti-

cal, opposing the Sacred
Mother Church of Rome. I do re-

nounce and disown any
allegiance as due to any heretical

king, prince or state,
named Protestants, or obedience to any

of their inferior magistrates
or officers. I do further declare,

that the doctrine of the
church of England, of the Calvinists,

Huguenots, and of other Protestants,
to be damnable, and

they themselves are
damned, and to be damned who will not

forsake the same. I do
further declare, that I will help, as-

sist and advise all, or any
of his holiness’ agents in any place

wherever I shall be ; and
do my utmost to extirpate the he-

retical Protestants’
doctrine, and to destroy all their pretend-

ed powers, legal or
otherwise. I do further promise and de-

clare, that notwithstanding!
am dispensed with to assume any

religion heretical for
the propagating of the Mother Church’s

interest, to keep secret
and private all her agent s counsels,

as they entrust me, and
not to divulge directly 01 indirectly

,

by word, writing or circumstance
whatsoever; but to execute

all what shall be proposed,
given in charge, or discovered



EXACT CONFORMITY

OP

POPERY AND PAGANISM.

BY CONYERS MIDDLETON.

Rome is certainly of all cities in the world the most entertaining to

strangers: for whether we consider it in its ancient or present, its civil

or ecclesiastical state
;
whether we admire the great perfection of arts in

the noble remains of Old Rome
;
or the revival of the same arts in the

beautiful ornaments of modern Rome
;
every one of what genius or taste

soever, will be sure to find something or other, that will deserve his at-

tention, and engage his curiosity
;
and even those who have no particu-

lar taste or regard for all things curious, but travel merely for the sake

of fashion, and to waste time, will spend that time with more satisfaction

at Rome, than any where else
;
from that easy manner in which they

find themselves accommodated with all the conveniences of life
;
that

general civility and respect to strangers : that quiet and security which

every man of prudence is sure to find in it. But one thing is certainly

peculiar to this city
;
that though travellers have been so copious in their

descriptions of it, and there are published in all parts of Europe such

voluminous collections of its curiosities, yet it is a subject never to be

exhausted : since in the infinite variety of entertainment, which it affords,

every judicious observer will necessarily find something or other, that

has either escaped the researches of others, or will at least afford matter

for particular and curious remarks.

The learned Montfaucon, speaking of the villa of Prince Borghese,
says, “ though its antique monuments and rarities have been a hundred

times described in print, many more of them still have been overlooked
and omitted, than are yet published.” And if this be true of one sin-
gle collection, what an idea must we have of the immense treasures of
the same kind, which the whole city is able to furnish ?

As for my own journey to this place, it was not any motive of devotion,
which draws so many others hither, that occasioned it. My zeal was
not bent on visiting the holy thresholds of the apostles, and kissing the

feet of their successor. I knew that their ecclesiastical antiquities were
mostly fabulous and legendary

;
supported by fictions and impostures,

too gross to employ the attention of a man of sense. For should we
allow that Peter had been at Rome, of which many learned men how-
ever have doubted, yet they had not any authentic monuments remain-
ing of him

;
any visible footsteps subsisting to demonstrate his residence

among them : and should we ask them for any evidence of that kind,
they would refer to the impression of his face on the wall of the dun*

1*1



2 POPERY AND

geon in which he was confined, or to a fountain in the bottom of it, raised

miraculously by him out of the rock, in order to baptize his fellow priso-

ners
;
or to the mark of our Saviour’s feet in a stone, on which he ap-

peared to him and stopped him as he was flying out of the city, from a

persecution then raging. In memory of which, there was a church built

on the spot called St. Mary delle Piante, or of the marks of the feet;
which falling into decay, was supplied by a chapel, at the expense of

Cardinal Pole. But the stone itself, more valuable, as the writers say,

than any of the precious ones
;
being a perpetual monument and proof

of the Christian religion
;

is preserved with all due reverence in St. Se-

bastian’s Chnrch
;
where I purchased a print of it, with several others of

the same kind. Or they would appeal perhaps to the evidence of some

miracle wrought at his execution
;
as they do in the case of St. Paul in

a Church called “ at the three Fountains the place where he was be-

headed : on which occasion, “ instead of blood there issued only milk

from his veins
;
and his head when separated from the body, having made

three jumps upon the ground, raised at each place a spring, of living water

which retains still,, as they would persuade us, the plain taste of milk ;”

all of which facts we have an account in Baronius, Mabillon, and all

their gravest authors
;
and may see printed figures of them in the descrip-

tion ofmodern Rome.

It was no part of my design, to spend my time abroad, in attending
to ridiculous fictions of this kind; the chief pleasure which I proposed to

myself, was to visit the genuine remains, and venerable relics of Pa-

gan Rome
;
the authentic monuments of antiquity, that demonstrate the

truth of those histories, which are the entertainment as well as the instruc-

tion of our younger years
;
and wdiich, by the early prejudice of being

the first knowledge we acquire
;
as well as the delight which they give, in

describing the lives and manners of the greatest men who ever lived,

gain so much sometimes upon our riper age, as to exclude too often other

more useful and necessary studies. I could not help flattering myself

with the joy that I should have, in viewing the very place and scene of

the important events, the knowledge and explication which have ever

since been the chief employment of the learned and polite world
;
in

treading that ground, where at every step we stumble on the ruins of

some fabric described by the ancients
;
and cannot help setting foot on

the memorial of some celebrated action, in which the great heroes of an-

tiquity had been personally engaged. I amused myselfwith the thoughts

of taking a turn in those very wralks where Cicero and his friends had held

the philosophical disputations, or of standing on that very spot wrhere

he had delivered some of his famous Orations.

Such fancies as these, with which I had often enteitained myself on

my road to Rome, are not, I dare say, peculiar to myself, but common
to all men of reading and education

;
whose dreams upon a voyage to

Italy, lik e the descriptions of the Elysian fields, represent nothing to their

fancies, but the pleasure of finding out and conversing with those ancient

sages and heroes they have most admired. Nor indeed is this imagina-

tion much disappointed in the event
;
for Cicero observes

;
“ ^Vhether it

be from nature, or some weakness in us, it is certain we are much more

affected with the sight of those places where great and famous men have

spent most part of their lives, than either to hear of their actions, and read

their works;” and he was not, as he tells us, “ so much pleased with

ancient Athens itself, for its stately buildings or exquisite pieces of art,



PAGANISM. a

&b in recollecting the great men whom it had bred ; in carefully visiting

their sepulchres
;
and finding oiit the place where each had lived or

Walked, or held his disputations.” This is what every man of curiosity

will, in the like circumstances, find true in himself ; and for my own

part, as oft as 1 have been rambling about in the very rostra of old Rome,

or in that temple of Concord, where Tully assembled the Senate in Ca-

taline’s conspiracy
;

I could not help fancying myself much more sensi-

ble of the force of his eloquence whilst the impression of the place served

to warm my imagination to a degree almost equal to that of his old au-

dience.

As therefore my general studies had furnished me with a competent

knowledge of roman history, as v/ell as an inclination to search more

particularly into some branches of its antiquities, so I had resolved to

employ myself in inquiries of this sort
;
and to lose &s little time as pos-

sible in taking notice of the fopperies and ridiculous ceremonies of the

present religion of the place. But I soon found myself mistaken
;
for

the whole form and outward dress of their worship seem so grossly idol-

atrous and extravagant, beyond what I had imagined, and made so

strong an impression on me, that I could not help considering it with a

peculiar regard
;
especially when the very reason, which I thought would

have hindered me from any notice of it at all, was the chief cause that
engaged me to pay so much attention to it

;
for nothing, I found, concurred

so much with my original intention of conversing with the ancients
;
or

so much helped my imagination, to find myself wandering about in old
Heathen Rome, as to observe and attend to their religious worship

;
all

whose ceremonies appear plainly to have been copied from the rituals of

primitive Paganism
;
as if handed down by an uninterrupted Succession

from the priests of old, to the priests of new Rome
;
whilst each of them

readily explained, and called to mind some passages of a classic author,

where the same eeremony was described, as transacted in the same form

and manner, and in the same place where I now saw it executed before
my eyes

;
so that as oft as I was present at any religious exercise in the

Churches, it was more natural to fancy myself looking on at some solemn

act of idolatry in old Rome, than assisting at a worship instituted on the

principles, and founded upon the plan of Christianity.

Many of our divines have, with much learning and solid reasoning,
charged and effectually proved the crime of idolatry on the Church of

Rome-; but those controversies where the charge is denied, and with

much subtlety evaded, are not capable of giving that conviction, which I
immediately received from my senses • the surest witness of fact in all
cases; and which no man can fail to be furnished with, who sees Popery,
as it is exercised in Italy, in the full pomp and display of its pageantry

;

and practising all its arts and powers without caution or reserve.—This
similitude of the Popish and Pagan Religion, seemed so evident and

clear, and struck my imagination so forcibly, that I soon resolved to give
myself the trouble of searching it to the bottom : and to explain and de-

monstrate the ^certainty of it, by comparing together the principal and

most , obvious part of each worship: which, as it was my first employ-
ment), fter I came to Rome, shall be the subject of my Letter

;
showing

the source and origin of the Popish ceremonies, and the exact conformity

of them with those of their Pagan ancestors.

The very first thing that a stranger must ncessarily take notice of, as
soon as he enters their churches, is the use of incense or perfumes of



4 POPERY AND

their religious offices
;
the first step, which he takes within the door, will

be sure to make him sensible of it, by the offence that he will immedi-

ately receive from the smell as well as the smoke of this incense
;
with

which the whole Church continues filled lor some time alter every solemn

service. A custom received directly from Paganism; and which present-
ly called to my mind the old descriptions of the heathen temples and al-
tars, which are seldom or never mentioned by the ancients, without the

epithet of perfumed or incensed.

Thuricremis cum dona imponerit Aris.—Virg. iEn. IV. 453. 486.

Scepe Jovem vidi cum jam sua mitere vollet
,

Fxdmina
,
thure dalo sustinuisse manum.—Ovid.

In some of their principal churches, where you have be
r
ore you in one

view, a great number of altars and all of them smoking at once with

streams of incense, how natural it is to imagine one’s self transported into

the temple of some heathen deity, or that of the Paphian Venus described

by Virgil ?

Her hundred altars there with garlands crown’d,

And richest incense smoking breathe around
Sweet odors, &c.

—

JEn. I. 420.

Under the Pagan emperors, the use of incense for any purpose of re-

ligion was thought so contrary to the obligations of Christianity, that in

their persecutions, the very method of trying and convicting a Christian,

was by requiring him only to throw the least grain of it into the censer,

or on the altar.

Under the Christian emperors on the other hand, it was looked upon

as a rite so peculiarly heathenish that the very places or houses, where

it could be proved to have been done, were by a law of Theodosius con-

fiscated to the government. Martyr Nicandri
,
<^c, apud Mobil. Iter. Itat .

T. 1. Par. 2. p. 247. Durant, de Ritib. 1. 1. c. 9.

JSTon est in eo tantum Servitus Idoli, siquis duobus digitulis Thura in bus- *

turn arce jaciat. Hieron. Oper. T. 4. Epist. ad Heliod. p. 8.

In the old bas-reliefs, or pieces of sculpture, where any heathen sacri-

fice is represented, we never fail to see a boy in sacred habit, which was

always white, attending on the priest, with a little chest or box in his

hands in which the incense was kept for the use of the altar. Jac. Goth-

of. de Stat. Pagiior, sub. Christian. Imperleg. 12. p, 15. Montfauc . Antiq.

Tom. 2. plate 23, 24, 25.

Da mihi Thura
,
Puer, Pingues facientia Flammas.-~Ovid. Trist. 5. 5.

And in the same manner still in the church of Rome, there is alwrays

a boy in surplice waiting on the priest at the altar, with the sacred uten-

sils, among the rest, the Thuribulum or vessel of incense, which the

priest with many ridiculous motions and crossings, waves several times,

as it is smoking, around and over the altar in different parts of the

service.

The next thing that will of course strike one’s imagination, is their use

of the holy water
;
for nobody ever goes in or out of a church, but is

either sprinkled by the priest, who attends for that'purpose on sclemia



PAGANISM. 5

days, or else serves himself with it from a vessel usually of marble,

placed just at the door, not unlike to one of our baptismal fonts. Now this

ceremony is so notoriously and directly transmitted to them from Pagan-

ism, that their own writers make not the least scruple to own it. The

Jesuit La Cerda, in his notes on a passage of Virgil, JEn. 6. 230 ; where

this practice is mentioned, says; “Hence was derived the custom of the

Church, to provide purifying of holy water at the entrance of their

churches.”

Aquammarium or Amula, says the learned Montfaucon, was a vase of

holy water placed by the heathens at the entrance oftheir temples, to sprin-

kle themselves with. Montfauc. Antiq. T. 2. Pt. 1.1.3. c. 6. Eurip. Jane, u . 96.

The same vessel was used by the Greeks called Perirranterion

;

two of

which, the one of gold, the other of silver, were given by Croesus to the tem-

ple of Apollo at Delphi : Herodot. 1. 1. 51 ; Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. 1 ; and the

custom of sprinkling themselves was so necessary a part of their relig-

ious offices, that the method of excommunication seems to have been by

prohibiting to offenders the approach and U3e of the holy water pot.

CEschin. Orat. contra Ctesiphon. 58. The very composition of this holy

water was the same also among the heathens, as it now is among the

Papists, being nothing more than a mix'ure of salt with common water.

Durant de Hit. 1. 1. c. 21 ; and the form of the sprinkling-brush, called

by the ancients, aspersorium or aspergillum, .which is much the same with

what the priests now make use of, may be seen in the bas-reliefs, or an-

cient eo-ins, wherever the insignia, or emblems of the Pagan Priesthood

are described, of which it is generally one. Montfauc. Antiq. T. 2. P. t.
3. c. 6. It may be seen on a silver coin of Julius Caesar as well as many

other emperors. Ant. Agostini discorso sopra le Me deglie.
Platina in his lives of the Popes, and other authors ascribe the insti-

tution of the holy water to Pope Alexander I. who is said to have lived

about the year of Christ, 113: but it could not be introduced so early,

since for some ages after, we find the primtive fathers speaking of

it as a custom purely heathenish, condemning it as impious and detes-

table. Justin Martyr says, “That it was invented by daemons in im-

itation of the true baptism signified by the Prophets that their votaries

might also have their pretended purifications by water
;
Apol. 1. p. 91 ;

and the Emperor Julian, out of spite to the Christians used to order the

victuals in the markets to be sprinkled with holy water, on purpose

either to starve or force them to eat, what by their own principles they

esteemed polluted. Hospinian de Qrig. Templor. 1. 2. c. 25.

Thus we see wnat contrary notions the primitive and Romish church
have of this ceremony

;
the first condemns it as a superstition, abomina-

ble and irreconcilable with Christianity
;
the latter adopts it as highly

edifying and applicable to the improvement of Christian piety; the one

looked upon it as the contrivance of the Devil to delude mankind : the

ether as the security of mankind against the delusions of the devil. But

what is still more ridiculous than even the ceremony itself, is to see their

learned writers gravely reckoning up the several virtues and benefits,

derived from the use of it, both to the soul and body
,
Durant, de Ritib. I.

1. c. 21. Hospin. and to crown all, producing a long roll of miracles,

to attest the certainty of each virtue, which they ascribe te it. Durant.

Why may we not then justly apply to the present people of Rome, wbat
was said by the poet of its old inhabitants, for the U9e ofthis very ceremony ?



0 POPERY ANH

Ah easy fools to think that a whole flood
Of water e’er can purge the stain of blood 1

—

Ovid, Fast. 2, 4£.

I do pot at present recollect whether the ancients went so far as ter

apply the use of this holy water to the purifying or blessing their horses*

asses, and other cattle
;
or whether this be an improvement of modem

Rome, which has dedicated a yearly festival, peculiarly to this service*

called in their vulgar language, the benediction of horses ; which is always

celebrated with so much solemnity in the month of January; when all

the inhabitants of the neighborhood send up their horses, asses, &c. to

the convent of Anthony, near Mary the Great, where a priest in

surplice at the church door, sprinkles with his brush, all the animals

singly, as they are presented to him, and receives from each owner a

gratuity proportionable to his zeal and ability. Rom. modern. Giorn. fi.

c, 46. Rion de Monti. Amongst the rest, I had my own horses blest at
the expense oi about eighteen pence of our money

;
as well to satisfy

my own curiosity, as to humor the coachman; who was persuaded, as
the common people generally are, that some mischance would befall

them within the year, if they wanted this benediction. Mabillon, in giv-

ing an account of this function* of which he happened’ also to be an eye-

witness, makes no other reflection upon it, than that it was new and un-

usual to him. Mobil. It. Ilal.^p. 136. I have met indeed, with some hints

of a practice not foreign to this, among the ancients
;
of sprinkling their

horses with water in the Cireensian Games. Rubenii. Elect. 2. IB, But

whether this was done out of a superstitious view of inspiring any virtue,

or puiifying them .for those races, which were esteemed sacred; or

merely to refresh them under the violence of such an exercise, is not easy

to determine. But allowing the Romish priests to have taken the hint

from some old custom of Paganism
;
yet this however, must be granted

to them, that they alone were capable of cultivating so coarse and barren

a superstition, into a revenue sufficient for the maintenance of forty or

fifty idle monks.

No sooner is a man advanced a little forward into their churches, and
begins to look about him, but he will find his eyes and atten-

tion attracted by a number of lamps and wax candles, which are kept

constantly burning before the shrines and images of their Sair.ts. In the

great churches of Italy, says Mabillon, they hang up lamps at every altar;

a sight which not only surprises a stranger by the novelty of it, but will

furnish him with another proof and example of the conformity of the

Romish with the Pagan worship; by recalling to his memory many

passages of the heathen writers where their perpetual lamps and

candles are described as continually burning before the altars and stat-

ues of their deities. Mobil. It. Ital. p. 25. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. 34. 3 Cic.

in Verr. 2. Virg. JEn. 4. 200.
Herodotus tells us of the Egyptians who first introduced the use of

lamps into their temples. Clem. Mex. Strom. 1.1 . c 16. That they had a

famous yearly festival, called from the principal ceremony of it, the light-

ing up of candles, but there is scarcely a single festival at Rome which
might not for the same reason be called by the same name.

The primitive writers frequently expose the folly and absurdity of this
heathenish custom. Hospin. de Orig. Templw. 1. 2. 22. They light up
candies to God, says Lactantius, 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 light?



PAGANISM. 7

In the collections of old inscriptions, we may find instances of pres-
ents and donations from private persons, of lamps and candlesticks to
the temples and altars of their gods. Grut. Insc. 177. 3. A piece of
zeal, which continues still the same in. modern Rome, where each church
abounds with lamps of massy silver, and sometimes even of gold • the
gifts of princes, and other persons ofdistinction

;
and it is surprising to see

how great a number of this kind are perpetually before the altars*of their
principal saints, or miraculous images

;
as St. Anthony of Padua, or the

lady of Loretto
;
as well as the vast profusion of wax candles, with

which their churches are illuminated on every great festival when the
high altar covered with gold and silver plate, brought out of their trea-
suries and stuck full of wax-lights, disposed in beautiful figures, looks
more like the rich side board of some great prince, dressed out for a feast
than an altar to pay divine worship at.
But a stranger will not be more surprised at the number of lamps or

wax-lights, burning before their altars, than at the number of offerings
or votive gifts which are hanging all around them, in consequence of
vows, made m the time of danger

;
and in gratitude for deliverance and™re

lf '!f
0,1ShtJn sickness or distress ; a practice so common among

the heathens, that no one custom of antiquity is so frequently mentioned
by all their writers

;
and many of their original donaria, or votive offerings

are preserved to this day in the cabinets of the curious
;
images of metal

stone, or clay as well as legs, arms, and other parts of the body, which
had tormerl ' been hung up in their temples in testimony of some divine
favor or cure effected by their titular deity in that particular member,
Mmifauc. Antiquit. T. 2. p. 1. /, 4. c. 4. 5. 6. But the most common of
all offerings were pictures representing the history of the miraculous
cure or deliverance, vouchsafed upon the vow of the donor.

Now, goddess help for thou can’st help bestow
;

As all these pictures round thy altars show.— Tibiil. El 1. 3.

A friend of Diagoras the philosopher, called the Atheist, having found
him once in a temple as the story is told by Cicero, Nat. Deor. f3 253
You, says he “who think the gods take no notice of human affairs’

do you not see here by this number of pictures, how many people for
the sake of their vows, have been saved in storms at sea and git safe
into harbour? Yes,” says Diagoras, “ I see how it is, for those are
never painted who happen to be drowned.” The temples of Esculanius
were more especially rich in those offerings, which Livy says L 1 45
23 were the price and pay for the ernes, that he had wrought for thi sick

•’

where tney used always to hang up and expose to common vew, in tables
'

ofbrass or marble, ^catalogue of all the miraculous cures, which hi had ner-
ormed forhis votaries

;
Strabo. T. 1 . 515

;
a remarkable fragment ofone of

these tables is still remaining and published in Gruter’s Collections, having
been found m the rums of a temple of that god, in the island of the Tiber
at Rome: upon which the learned Montfaucon makes this reflection-
that in it are either seen the wiles of the devil, to deceive the credulous •
or else the tricks of Pagan Priests, suborning men to counterfeit diseases
and miraculous cures. Gruter. Inscript, p. 41. Montfauc. A,.tiq. T. 2. p.

thZ°Z Ilf ii'T °f.
suPf;stition had been found of old so beneficial to

the priesthood, that it could not fail of being taken into the scheme of the



POPERY AND8

Romish worship
;
where it reigns at this day in its full 'height and vigor,

as in the ages of Pagan Idolatry
;
and in so gross a manner, as to give

scandal and offence even to some of their own communion. Polyaore

Virgil, after having described this practice of the ancients
;

“ in the same

manner,” says he,
u
do we now offer up in our churches little images of

wax
;
and' as oft as any part of the body is hurt, as the hand or foot, &c*

we presently make a vow to God, or one of his Saints, to whom upon

our recovery, we make an offering of that hand or foot in wax
;
which

custom is now come to that extravagance, that we do the same thing for our

cattle which we do for ourselves, and make offerings on account of our

oxen, horses, sheep
;
where a scrupulous man will question, in this we

imitate the religion or the superstition of our ancestors.” Pol. Virg. de

Inv. Rer. 1. 5. 1.

The altar of St, Philip Neri, say3 Baronius, “ shines with votive pic-

tures and images, the proofs of as many miracles
;
receiving every day

the additional lustre of fresh offerings from those who have been favored

with fresh benefits;” amongst whom the present Pope himself pays, as

I have been told, a yearly acknowledgment, for a miraculous deliverance,

that he obtained by the invocation of this saint when he had like to

have perished under the ruins of a house, overturned in an earthquke.

Jinn. 1. An. 57. n. 162. It. Aring. Rom. Subter. 1. 1. c. 30. it. 1. 6. 27.

This Philip Neri is a Saint in high esteem in all parts of Italy, where

he has many churches dedicated to him : he was founder of the congre-

gation of the oratory, and died about a century and a half ago : his altar,

with the following inscription, is in a fine Church called Ckiesct Nouva,

which was founded and built for the service of his congregation ;
where we see his picture by Guido, and his statue by Algardi. Cardi-

nal Baronius, who was one of his disciples, lies buried too in the same

Church.

Corpvs

S. Philippi Nerii Congr. Vatvrii

Fvndatvris

Ab ipso doi'mitionis die annos

Qvcitor et Qvatraginta

Incorrvptvm divina

Virtvte servatvm ocvlis fidelivm

Expositvm a delectis in Chnsto

FUlis sub eivsdem S. Patris altari

Perpetvae stpvltm'ae more maioi'vm

Comendatvm est

Anno salvtis. M.DC.XXX VIII.

There is commonly so great a number of those offerings hanging up in

fheir churches, that instead of adding beauty they give offence, by cov-

ering and obstructing the sight of something more valuable and orna-

mental
;
which we find to have been the case likewise in the old heathen

temples
;
where the priests were obliged sometimes to take them down;

for the obstruction, which they gave to a fine pillar or altar. Afi his co-

htmnis his qua incommode opposite videbantur, signa amovit, &c. Liv. I 40.

fil. For they consist chiefly, of arms and legs, and little figures of wood or

wax, but especially pieces ofboard painted, and sometimes indeed fine pic-

tares, describing the manner of the deliverance obtained by the miracw-



PAGANISM. 9

loua interposition of the saint invoked
;
of which offerings, the blessed

Virgin is so sure always to carry off the greatest share, that it may
truly be said of her, what Juvenal says of the goddess Isis, whose reli-

gion was at that time in the greatest vogue at Rome, that the painters got

their livelihood out of her.

As once to Isis, now it may be said,
That painters to the Virgin owe their bread.

As oft as I have had the curiosity to look over those Donaria, or votive
offerings, hanging round the shrines of their images and consider the

several stories of each, as they are either expressed in painting, or rela-

ted in writing, I have always found them to be mere copies, or verbal

translations of the originals of Heathenism
;

for the vow is often said to
have been divinely inspired, or expressly commanded

;
and the cure and

deliverance to have been wrought either by the visible apparition, and

immediate hand of the titular Saint, orby the notice ofa dream, or some oth-

er miraculous admonition from heaven. “ There can be no doubt,” say their

writers, “ but that the images of our Saints often work signal miracles,

by procuring health to the infirm, and appearing to us often in dreams,

to suggest something of great moment for our service.”

And what is all this, but a revival of the old impostures, and a repe-
tition of the same old stories of which the ancient inscriptions are full,

with no other difference than what the Pagans ascribe to the imaginary

help of their deities, the Papists as foolishly impute to the favor of their

Saints ? As may be seen by a few instances, that I have subjoined, out
of the great plenty, which all books of antiquities will furnish : and

whether the reflection of Father Montfaucon on the Pagan priests, men-

tioned above, be not in the very same case, as justly applicable to the

Roman priests, I must leave to the judgment of my reader.
Rut the gifts and offerings of the kind, that I have been speaking of,

aie the fruits only of vulgar zeal, and the presents of inferior people
;

whilst princes and great persons, as it used to be of old
;
Consul Apollino,

iEsculapio, Saluti dona vovere
,
et dare signa inaurata jussus. Liv l. 40,

37, frequently make offerings of large vessels, lamps and even statues of
massy silver and gold

;
with diamonds, and all sorts of precious stones

of incredible value; so that the church of Loretto is now become a pro-
verb for its riches of this sort, just as Apollo’s temple at Delphi was with

the ancients on the same account.

Nor all the w'ealth Apollo’s temple holds

Can purchase one day’s life, &c.

—

Iliad. 404.

In the same treasury of that holy house
;
one part consists, as it did

likewise among the heathens, of a wardrobe. For the very idols,
as Tertullian observes, used to be dressed out in curious robes,

of the choicest stuffs and fashion. De Idolat
. p. 116. While they

were showing us therefore the great variety of rich habits, with which

that treasury abounds
;
some covered with precious stones, others more

curiously embroidered by such a queen, or princess, for the use of the

miraculous image
;

I could not help recollecting the picture which old

Homer draws of Q,ueen Hecuba of Troy, prostrating herself before the
miraculous image of Pallas, with a present ofthe richest and best wrought

gown, that she was mistress of.



10 POPERY AND

A gown she chose the best and noblest far,
Sparkling with rich embroidery, like a star, &c.—Iliad, 293.

The mention of Jjoretto puts me in mind of the surprise that I was in,
at the first sight of the holy image : for its face is as black as a negro’s

;

so that one would fake it rather for the representation of a Proserpine,

or infernal deity, than what they impiously style it, of the Glueen of

Heaven. But I soon recollected that this very circumstance of its com-

plexion, made it but resemble the more exactly the old idols of Paganism,
which in sacred as well as profane writers, are described to be black

with the perpetual smoke of lamps and incense. Baruch 6. 19, 21. Jlr-
nob. 1. 6.

When a man is once engaged in reflections of this kind, imagining
himself in some heathen temple, and expecting, as it were, some sacri-

fice, or other piece of Paganism to ensue, he will not be long in suspense,

before he sees the finishing act and last scene of genuine idolatry, in

crowds of bigotted votaries, prostrating themselves before some image of

wood or stone, and paying divine honors to an idol of their own erecting.
Should they squabble with us here, about the meaning of the word, Idol

,

Jerom has determined it to the very case in question, telling us, that by

idols are to be understood the images of the dead. Com. in Isa. c. xxxvii

;

and the worshippers of such images are used always in the style of the

fathers, as terms synonimous and equivalent to Heathens and Pagans.

Pamphili Jlpol. pro Orig. Huron. Op. Tom. 5. p. 233.

As to the practice itself, it was condemned by many of the wisest hea-
thens, and for several ages, even in Pagan Rome, was thought impious

and detestable : for Numa, we find, prohibited it to the old Romans, nor
would suffer any images in their temples : which constitution they ob-

served religiously, says Plutarch, Plutar. in Vit. Num. p. 65, C. for the
first hundred and seventy years of the city. But as image worship was

thought abominable even by some Pagan princes, so by some of the

Christian emperors it was forbidden on pain of death : Gothof Comment

.

de statu Pagan, sub. Christian. Imperatorib.
r
Leg

.

6. p. 7

:

not because

those images were the representations of demons, or false gods, but be-

cause they were vain, senseless idols the work of men’s hands, and for

that reason unworthy of any honor: and all the instances and overt

acts of such worship, described and condemned by them, are exactly

the same with what the Papists practise at this day
;
lighting up candles

;

burning incense
;
hanging up garlands, &c. as may be seen in the law

of Theodosius before mentioned
;
which confiscates that house or land,

where any such act of Gentile superstition had been committed. Leg.

12, p. 15.

Those princes who were influenced, we may suppose in their con-
stitutions of this sort by the advice of their bishops, did not think Pagan-

ism abolished, till the adoration of images was utterly extirpated
;
which

was reckoned always the principal of those Gentile rites, that agreeably

to the sense of the purest ages of Christianity, are never mentioned in

the imperial laws, without the epithets of profane, damnable, impious,

he. Leg. 17. 20.

What opinion then can we have of the present practice of the church
of Rome, but that by a change only of name, they have found means

to retain the thing
;
and by substituting their saints in the place of the

old demigods, have but set up idols of their own instead of those of



PAGANISM. 11

their forefathes ? In which it is hard to say, whether their assurance,
or? their address is more to be admired, who have the face to make that
the principal part of Christian worship, which the first Christians looked
upon as the most criminal part even of Paganism, and have found means
to extract gain and great revenues out of a practice, which in primitive
times would have cost a man both his life and estate.
But our notion of the idolatry of modern Rome will be much height-

ened, still and confirmed, as oft as we follow them into those temples,
and to those very altars which were built originally by their heathen an-
cestors, the old Romans, to the honor of their Pagan deities

;
where we

shall hardly see any other alteration, than the shrine of some old hero
filled by the meaner statue of some modern saint. Nay, they have not
always as I am well informed, given themselves the trouble of making
even this change, but have been content sometimes to take up with the
old image, just as they found it

;
after baptizing it only, as it were, or

consecrating it anew, by the imposition of a Christian name. This their
antiquaries do not scruple to put strangers in mind of in showing their
churches

;
and it was I think, in that of St. Agnes, where they showed

me an antique of a young Bacchus, which with a new name, and some
little change of drapery, stands now worshipped under the title of a fe-
male saint.

Tully reproaches Clodius, for having publicly dedicated the statue ol
a common strumpet, under the name and title of the Goddess of Liberty,
a practice still frequent with the present Romans

;
who have scarce a

fine image or picture of a female saint, which is not said to have been
designed originally by the sculptor, or painter, for the representation of
his own mistress

;
and who dares, may we say ironically with the old

Romans, “ to violate such a goddess as this the statue of a whore ?” Cie.
pro Dom. 43.

The noblest heathen temple now remaining in the world, is the Pan-
theon or Rotunda

;
which, as the inscription over the portico informs us,

having been impiously dedicated of old by Agrippa to Jove and all th©
gods, was impiously reconsecrated by Pope Boniface IV. to the blessed
Virgin and all the Saints.

PANTHEON, &c.
Ab Agrippa Augusti Genero,

Impie Jovi, Caeterisq
;
Mendacibus Diis,

A. Bonifacio IIII. Pontifice,
Deiparse & S. S. Christi Martyribus Pio

Dicatum, &c.

With this single alteration, it serves as exactly for all tho purposes of
the Popish, as it did for the Pagan worship, for which it was built. For
as in the old temple, every one might find the God of his country, and
address himself to that deity, whose religion he was most devoted to; so
it is the same thing now

;
every one chooses the patron whom he likes

best
;
and one may see here different services going on at the same time

at different altars, with distinct congregations round them, just as th©
inclinations of the people lead them, to the worship of this or that parti-
cular Saint.

r

And what better title can the new demigods show, to the adoration
now paid them, than the old ones, whose shrines they have usurped ?



12 POPERY AND

Or how comes it to be less criminal to worship images, erected by the
Pope, than those which Agrippa, or that which Nebuchadnezzer set up ?

If there be any real difference, most people, will 1 dare say, will be apt

to determine in favor of the old possessors. For those heroes of an-

tiquity were raised up into gods, and received divine honors, for some

signal benefits, of which they had been the authors to mankind
;
as the

invention of arts and sciences
;
or of something highly useful and neces-

sary to life. Cic. Nat. Deor. 1. 2. 223. Off. 3. 299. Whereas of the

Romish Saints, it is certain that many of them were never heard of, but
in their own legends or fabulous histories

;
and many more instead of

services done to mankind, owe all the honors now paid to them, to their
vices or their errors

;
whose merit, like that of Demetrius, Acts xix. 23,

was their skill of raising rebellions in defence of an Idol, and throwing

kingdom into convulsions, for the sake of some gainful imposture.

And as it is in the Pantheon, it is just the same in all the other heathen
temples, that still remain in Rome

;
they have only pulled down one

idol, to set up another
;
and changed rather the name, than the object of

their worship. Thus the little tempel of Vesta, near the Tiber, men-

tioned by Horace, Carm. 1. 1. 2, is now possessed by Madonna of the
Sun

;
Rom. Mod. Gior. 2. Rime di Ripa. 5 ; that of Fortuna Virilis, by

Mary the Egyptian
;
that of Saturn, Gior. 5. Rione di Campitelli. 15,

where the public treasure was anciently kept by St. Adrian
;
that of

Romulus and Remus in the Via Sacra, by two other brothers, Cosmaa
and Damianus.

Urbanus VIII. Pont. Max. Templum Geminis

Urbis Conditoribus Superstiose dicatum

Ji. Felice IIII. S. S. Cosmce el Damiano Fratribus

Pie Consecratum
,
vetustate Labefactatum

,

In splendidiorem Formam Redegit.

Jinn. Sal. MDCXXXIXI.

That of Antonine the Godly, by Laurence the Saint ; but for my part

I should sooner be tempted to prostrate myself before the statue of a

Romulus or an Antonine, than that of a Laurence or a Damian ; and

edve divine honors rather with Pagan Rome to the founders of empires,

than with Popish Rome, to the founders of monasteries.

At the foot of Mount Palatin, in the way between the Forum and

Circus Maximus, on the very spot, where Romulus was believed to have

been suckled by the wolf, there stands another little round temple, dedi-

cated to him in the early times of the republic, into which for the pre-

sent elevation of the soil without, we now descend by a great number of

steps. It is mentioned by Dionysius Halicarnassus, who says, that in

his time there stood in it a brazen statue of antique work, of the wolf

giving suck to the infant brothers ; Z. 1. 94 ; which is thought by many

to be the same, which is still preserved and shown in the capitol :

though I take this rather, which now remains, to have been another of

the same kind, that stood originally in the capitol, and is mentioned by

Cicero to have been there struck with lightning ; Orat. in Catil. 3 ; ofwhich

it retains to this day the evident marks in one of its hinder legs. It ia

however to one or the other of those celebrated statues, that Virgil, aa

Servius assures us, alludes in that elegant description :



PAGANISM. 13

It he martial twins beneath their mother lay,
And hanging on her dugs, with wanton play,
Seeurely suek’d

;
whilst she reclined her head

I o lick their tender limbs, and form them as they fed,—JEn* 8. 631.

vefvXnp
6
^11“" °ft

j

e W
k

onde
,

rful escaPe> which Romulus had in thisveiy place, when exposed in his infancy to perish in the Tiber
; as soon as

h!n‘iX
e

a

b
f

a g0
r
d

’
he was iooked uPotl as singularly propitious to thehealthand safety of young children: from which notio/it became a praC!

Xine [n tX
e

mtleV'‘
0t

,

he
-

S
’
t0 ^SCnt their sic% beforHisrine in this little temple m confidence of a cure or jelief by his favor

velZ7‘n°n

2daC
A

36 ' Rwn
l
de Ripa- Now when th ' s temple

7
was coniveited afterwards into a church

;
lest any piece of superstition should be

he’b°e

r

nefi

e

t

PfP*
6

,

thlnk ^emselves supers by thl change, b losin®the benefit of such a protection for their children
; care was taken tofind out m the place of the Heathen god, a Christian Saint who had

for theXme*^reason
“S
'tr 3

'’ and foU
",
d chance like Romulus

;
ando me same reason, might be presumed to be just as fond of childrenas tter old deity had been

;
and thus the worship paid to Romulu"’

and theXi
ranS

p

lred l° Theodorus » the old superstition still subsists’
day wfthout ime

P
1

'

636 " 11
"?

ekU<
?

re

r

n at this skrine continues to thfs

in

7
seen as nft f., t'f

‘1“
’a

,

whX 1 myself have been a witness, hav-
Z^tUr AL a [

Io
?

l

^

ed lnto ^is church, ten or a dozen women de-

before thp
a chiid 111 her la

P’
shting with silent reverence

Ihe heu» Stataa
“

“

P““,ion h“ influence

e.
n

yir&.t TteP*" -I

of AponiZX
e

huTthe
y
re

S

X
e

t

d

hey feU°l!s’ tio^Z XhaUhe* ‘‘T*

Mars hence expell’d
; Martina, martyr’d maid

Claims now the worship, which to him was paid.

Gior 6
°
^7 f

r pHC-e ’
{

have taken notice of an altar erected to St. Baceho *

firing. Rom. Subt. ll’ni 3 12??f’ foTfX’ Jtympha, Mercurius:

2



POPERY AH0
14

adding of a modem tetminadon,
or Italia

'J^ Tkug the corrup-
has given existence

to some°f P
of a mountain

mentioned by

tion of the word
Soracte, the oW iiame

according to
Addison,

Horace, Cam. i. 1. 9, m the ^3? ,°* fe
°“\

ei n̂ now softened,
Travels

added one Saint to
the Rom

.

a

"ffe
e

t̂ begins wfth
an S, into St.

Oreste ;

from Pesaro, fcc. to
Rom

f> ^f
a

?®Vded on the place.
A change very

in whose honor
a m

,

ona
t^he lire of Samt is never written by

the Ital-

ians ^t'
f'ength^mtexpresse^ common^ protecticm

beLgVnd newer is just
as imaginary,

as that o i

old guardian
Apollo.— Virgil •*;»•

extravagant to
those who are

No suspicion of >h>s
kl"d

^‘
U
f £% y . which abounds

with msta_n-

at all acquainted
with the history of

Popery
relic which,tothe scandal

cesof thl grossest
forgerms bo h of

saints^
for e on he

of many even among
themselv

» 225_ It ia certain,
that in the

poor ignorant
people. Mail •

p. \ : fteD made free
with the sepul-

earlier ages of
Christianity, the^

r‘st'a

hi h being ready
cut to their hands

chral stones of
heathen monuments

which
wn^,ards the side, on

they converted
to their own use ;

and ™™*n
|ither to inscribe a

new

which the old
epitaph ™aa ®^

ra
.

haps without
any inscription at

all,

BhJS&ssS

»

ts.i— - p-
criDing » ,

S
Mabillon gives a

remarkable instance
of it in an old

stone, oun

thegmveofa Christian
with this inscription.

D. M.

folia Evodict

Filia Fecit.

MatrU

And because in

or lachrymatory
vessel, ting

upoll as a certain
proof of martyrdom ,

both for saint
and martyr, on

authon

.

d and borrowed
from

atSS » k« -"tor o»l,. .to.
»«». » •”

,ue,o, »«.»• r\rsLr,&"toto»~
the Barbarine

library giving
^pleasant accounUita^^ k ct .

great reverence
in some parts of|P“X»ed the Pope to grant some



^AtJAttiSM. 15

which the antiquaries readily saw to be a small fragment of some old
Roman inscription, in memory of one, who had been PrafectuS VMRum

,

or overseer of the highways.

But we have in England an instance still more ridiculous, of a fictious
aaintship, in the case of a certain saint, called Amphibolus

;
who accor-

ding to our Monkish historians, was bishop of the Isle of Man, and fell
martyr and disciple of St. Alban. Yet the learned Archbishop Usher
has given good reasons to convince us, that he owes the honor of his
saintship to a mistaken passage in the old acts or legends of St. Alban •
Usser. de Britan. Eccles primord. c. 14. p. 539. Floyd's Histor. Jicc. of
Church Government in Great Britain, c. 14. p. 151., where the Amphibo-
Jus mentioned, and since reverenced as a saint and martyr, was nothing
more than the cloak, which Alban happened to have, at the time of his
execution

;
being a word derived from the Greek, and signifying a

rough shaggy cloak, which ecclesiastical persons usually wore in that
age.

1 hey pretendto show at Rome, two original impressions ofour Saviour’s
face, on two different handkerchiefs

;
the one, sent a present by himself

to Agbarus, Prince of Edessa, who by letter had desired a picture of him •
the other given by him at the time of his execution, to a saint or holy
woman, Veronica, upon a handkerchief, which she had lent him to wipe
his face on that occasion : both which handkerchiefs are still preserved
as they affirm, and now kept with the utmost reverence : the first in St!
'Sylvester s Church

;
the second in St. Peter’s; where in honor of this sa-

^red rehc^reis a fine altar built by Pope Urban VIII., with the statue
I?eronicairerself, witn the following inscription.

Salvatoris imaginem Veronicas.

Svdario exceptam

Vt loci maiestas decenter

Cvstodiret Urbanvs VIII,

Pont. Max,

Marmorevm signvm
Et altare addidit conditorivm

Extrvxit et ornavit.

Aring-. Rom. Subterran. Tom. p. 153. There is a prayer in their honk
of offices, ordered by the rubic, to be addressed to this sacred andmi-
raculous picture, in the following terms.— 1 Conduct us, O thou blessed
figure, to our proper home where we may behold the pure face of Christ ’
Conform, of Jinc. Mod. Ceremonies

, p. 158.

thi^VR
n

RONI
h

pA
nd 'ng the of this Pope, and his inscription,

S™ w°MC£’ a of tbesr best authors has shown, like Amphib-olus before-mentroned was not any real person, but the name given tothe picture itself by old writers, who mention it; being formed by blun-dering and confounding the words VERA ICON, or true ima^e the title
inscribed perhaps or given originally to the handkerchief by the first con!tnvers of the imposture. Mabill. Iter. Ital. 88.

1

These stories however fabulous and childish as they appear to menof sense, are yet urged by grave authors in defence of tLir image-wo!ship, as certain proofs of its divine origin, and sufficient to confound all
Hns- Rom- ”**• T‘ 2- *• 5- «• 4'



16 POPERY AND

I shall add nothing more on this
article, than that whatever worship

was paid by the ancients to their heroes or
inferior deities, the Romanists

now pay the same to their saints and
martyrs as their ®*’“

plainly declare; which like those
mentioned above of St. .hdaitma, and

the Pantheon, generally signify
that the honors, which of old had

been

impiously given in that place to
the false god, are now piously and rightly

transferred to the Christian
saint : or as Mantuan, one of their celebrated

Poets expresses himself in
regard to St. G eorge :

A.s Mars our father once adored,
so now

To thee, O George, we humbly prostrate
bow.

And every where through Italy,
one sees their sacred inscription#

sDeakino- the pure language of
Paganism, and ascribing the same powers,

charactms and 'attributes to
theft saints, which lmd formerly been

as-

cribed to their heathen gods ;
as the few here exhtb.lcd will evince.

Popish Inscriptions<,

Maria et Francisee

Tutelares meL

Divo Evstorgio*

Gtvi hvic temp?©

Freeside t»

Nvmini

Divi Georgii.

Pollentis. Potentis

Invicti.

Pagan Inscriptions.

Mercvrio et Minervw

Diis tvtelarib.

Dii qvi hvic tempi©

President,

Nvmini

Mercvrii sacr.

Hercvli. Victor**

Pollenti. Potent!

Invicto.

Praestitit lovh

Divis

Prestitibvs ivvantibas

Georgio. Stephanoqu©

Cum d„eo opt. raaxt

Diis

Deabvs

Q,ve. cum.

love.

“kStS'u.'S™& SoT'o?2.T». intotipUoo, '»•“O
r ttino- the <=aints before God himself ;

and imitating too closely the an-

cientmscriphon, which I have
set against it, where the same

impropriety

‘S

ITto that celehfated acf of Polish
idolatry, the adoration of the

Host
;

1 cannot find jk®
^y*at ijiassfamfseentlffwhole con^

^vegation

1

prostrat^o^ttie ^round^in the
humblest

the^levation of the
;

consecrated p-ee of bread i I
-^.ot h ^

is” rt



PAGANISM. 17

Roman could not but think too gross, even for Egyptian idolatry to swal-
low, is now become the principal part of worship, and the distinguishing
article of faith, in the creed of modern Rome.
But their temples are not the only places where we see the proofs and

overt acts of their superstition : the whole face of the country has the
visible charactei'3 of Paganism upon it

;
and wherever we look about us,

we cannot but find, as Paul did in Athens, Act. Apost. xvii. 17., clear
evidence of its being possessed by a superstitious and idolatrous people.
The old Romans, we know, had thoir gods, who presided peculiarly

over the roads, streets, and highways, called Viales, Semitales, Compi-
tales : whose little temples or altars are decked with flowers, or whose
statues at least coarsely carved of wood or stone, were placed at conveni-
ent distances in the public ways, for the benefit of travellers, who used to
step aside to pay their devotions to those rural shrines, and beg a pros-
perous journey and safety in their travels. Jlpulen Florid. 1. Plant. Merc.
5; 2.

•Now this custom prevails still so generally in all Popish countries, but
especially in Italy, that, one can see no other difference between the old
and present superstition, than that of changing the name of the Deity,
and christening as it were the old Hecate in triviis

,
by the new name of

Maria in trim; by which title, I have observed one of their churches dedi-
cated in this city : Rom. Mod. Gior. Rion. di Colonna. c. 11

;
and as the

heathens used to paint over the ordinary statues of their gods, with red or
some such gay color, Fictilem fuisse et idea miniari solilum. Plin. Hist. N.
1. 35. 12. et a Cansoribus Jovem miniandum locari. 1. 33. 7. It. Pausan. 2. 2 •

so I have oft observed the coarse images of those saints so daubed over
with a gaudy red, as to resemble exactly the description of the God Pan
in Virgil, Eclogue 10.

In passing along the road, it is common to see travellers on their knees
before these rustic altars

;
which none ever presume to approach without

some act of reverence
;
and those who are most in haste, or at a distance,

are sure to pull off their hats, at least, in token of respect: and I took
notice that our postillions used to look back upon us, to see how we be-
haved on such occasions, and seemed surprised at our passinc so negli-
gently before places esteemed so sacred.

But besides those images and altars, there are frequently erected on the
road huge wooden crosses; Durant, de Ritib. 1. 6. dressed out with flow-
ers, and hung round with the trifling offerings of the country people

;

which always puts me in mind of the superstitious veneration, which the
heathens used to pay to some old trunks of trees or posts, set up in the
highways which they held sacred, Tibul Eleg. 1

;
11 :-~0r that ven-

erable oak in Ovid, Metamer. 8 • covered with garlands and votive of

Reverend with age a stately oak there stood,
its branches widely stretch’d, a wood,
With ribbands, garlands, pictures cover’d o’er,
The fruits of pious vows from rich and poor.

h.JP
h,

:;t
,eSC"

1

pt
;°
n °f ‘he

Tf
a
?
a
,

n oak Puta me in mind of a story, that I

devoted to ih'^ °A?0pir^ .
oak very kke it ! how a certain person

that he t°
worship of the Virgin, hung up a picture of her in an oak,mat he had in his vineyard, which grew so famous for its miracles, that

2*



18
POPERY AN©

the oak soon became
covered with votive offerings

and presents from

distant countries, so as to
furnish .fund

thw"citrf

u'X
h

^ridT:rK
,Cr God. Rom. Jtfadenu Gior. 3; 3*3. Bio«.

^But wfat gave me still the
^atern^o^s^u*^

countries, was to see
^ ora o «

’

b, , the description,
of

placed under the cover ot
a tree or grove aCTeeaoj

£nd Ara

the old idolatry, in the
sacred as well “ eminence, or in the

Diana. Horace; or more
generally rai

^ ne cf idolatrous wor-
phrase of Scripture, on high

places
,
the conrt

the heathens, that

ship in all ages ; it
bemg an.owwri

'»{£?£ ^ioenL or tJps of
the gods m

Which Pazan notion prevails still so
generally

mountains. Cu\ pro * »
Unrdlv a rock or precipice, how

dreadful

S.&SS5 riu -®, -«-*
*>

least, planted on the top
of it ..

gaV0T very near to a
little

‘and sometimes we

for a miracle of a singular
Kind

,
1

>:< f baptism, after
which

life
;
but so far only,

as to make
bapn^^ daily

they a2aiu exV™.
e.h driMn- brought from all quarters to

bethey a2ain expire
: ^ from all quarters to be

^en°^ before Su. shrine ; who
never failed toshow man.fest

tokens of

?.i
e

, rvnt tlioir arms. or opening ther
presented before this

shrine
;

whon^erweo —
r ;ven some .

life, by stretching
out

b
^’

ere h£ld‘ bv
=
the priest m presence of the

times mating water,
wh

, -
a French gentleman,

who

image. All which
appeare -*

heard the storv from
our landlord,

was with me at the place,
but had not be^ tne rto^ ^ J brQu?ht Um

that he looked upon
* “ *

as our y0itnrins, very seriously
to mv author, who

with his wire a - when the French arrnv

testified the truth as to throw down

passed that way m *e la5‘

"

aT
>

1

/ a=t precipice hard bv it, which

this sacred image
to the

^Tb^L ertire and unhurt by the fall, and
s»« h»« *'» »>

same passage of Savoy
covered \\ th ^ P '

vear in the month of

chapel, in which they
perform dwme sem - ’

t destruction cf

August; and sometimes,
as our^^^‘ tempest in a.p’ace

the whole congregation,
bv

*
a 1b

:'
«urelv comes up to the

description ol

so elevated and
exposed.

-^ commanded to extirpate from
the face

that worship, which
the J

destroy the places
wherein the nations

of the earth:
“Ae shall utt^v Ue t oy

the h;Us, and under

eron. xn. 2, 3. .... _„Q -, se ; s c(iH the same, as it
was mthe

When we enter their towns,
the case «

idolatry, and the
same



PAGANISM. 19

at every corner we see images and altars, with lamps or candles burning

before them
;
exactly answering to the descriptions of the ancient writers

;

Omnibus vicis Statuce , ad eas Thus, et Cerei. Cic. Off. 3. 26 ; and to what

Tertullian reproaches the heathens with, that their streets, their markets,

their baths were not without an idol. De Spectac. c. 8. But above all, in

the pomp and solemnity of their holy-days, and especially their religious

processions, we see the genuine remains of heathenism, and proof enough

to convince us, that this is still the same Rome, which old Numa first
lamed and civilized by the arts of religion : who as Plutarch says, in

Numa, “by the institution of supplications and processions to the gods,

which inspire reverence, whilst they gave pleasure to their spectators, and

by pretended miracles, and divine apparitions, reduced the fierce spirits of

his subjects under the power of superstition.”

The descriptions of the religious pomps and processions of the hea-

thens, come so near to what we see on every festival of the Virgin or

other Romish Saint, that one can hardly help thinking those Popish ones

to be still regulated by the old ceremonial of Pagan Rome. At these

solemnities the chief magistrates used frequently to assist in robes of cere-

mony
;
attended by the Priests in surplices, with wax candles in their

hands carrying upon a pageant or thensa the images of their gods, dres-

sed out in their best clothes. These were usually followed by the princi-

pal youth of the place, in white linen vestments or surplices, singing

hymns in honor of the god, whose festival they were celebrating
;
accom-

panied by crowds of ail sorts, that were initiated in the same religion, all

with flambeaux or wax candles in their hands. This is the account which

Apuleius, and other authors give us of a Pagan procession
;
and may I

appeal to all, who have been abroad, whether it might not pass quite as

well for the description of a Popish one. Tournefort, in his travels

through Greece, reflects upon the Greek church, for having retained and

taken into their present worship many of the old rites of heathenism, and

particularly that of carrying and dancing about the images of the saints in

their processions to singing and music. Lit. 3. 44. The reflection is full

as applicable to his own, as it is to the Greek chuch, and the practice

itself, is so far from giving scandal in Italy, that the learned publisher of

the Florentine Inscriptions takes occasion to show the confoimity between

them and the heathens, from this very instance of carrying about the pic-

tures of their saints, as the Pagans did those of their gods, in their sacred

processions. Inscript. *Intiq. Flor. 377.

In one of those processions, made lately to St. Peter’s in the time of

Lent, I saw that ridiculous penance of the flagellant.es or self-v hippers,

who march with whips in their hands, and lash themselves as they’go along,

on the bare back, till it is all covered with blood
;

in the same manner, as

the fanatical Priests of Bellona or the Syrian Goddess, as well as the vo-

taries of Isis, used to slash and cut themselves of old, in order to please

the Goddess, by the sacrifice of their own blood
;
which mad piece of

discipline we find frequently mentioned, and as oft ridiculed by the an-
cient writers.

But they have another exercise of the same kind, and in the same sea-

son of Lent, which under the notion of penance, is still a more absurd

mockery of all religion. When on a certain day appointed annually for
this discipline, men of all conditions assemble themselves towards the
evening, in one of the churches of the city

;
where the whips or lashes

made of cords are provided, and distributed to every person present
;
and



20 POPERY AND

after they are all served, and a short office of devotion performed, the

candles being put out, upon the warning of a little bell, the whole com-

pany be jin presently to strip, and try the force of these whips on their

own backs, for the space of near an hour: during all which time, the

church becomes, as it were the proper im vge of hell : where nothing is

heard but the noise of lashes and chains, mixed with the groans of those

self-tormentors
;

till satiated with their exercise, they are content to put

on their clothes, and the candles being lighted again, upon the tinkling

of a second bell, they all appear in their proper dress.

Seneca, alluding to the very same effects of fanaticism in Pagan Rome,

says, “ So great is the force of it on disordered minds, that they try to

appease the gods by such methods, as an enraged man would hardly take to

revenue himself. But, if there be any gods, who desire to be worshipped

after this manner, they do not deserve to be worshipped at all : since the

very worst of tyrants, though they have sometimes torn and tortured peo-

ple’s limbs, yet have never commanded men to torture themselves.”

Fragm. apud. Lipsii Elect. 1. 2. 18. But there is no occasion to imagine,

that all the blood, which seems to flow on these occasions, really comes

from the backs of these bigots : fo'r it is probable like their frantic prede-

cessors, they may use some craft, as well as zeal, in this their fury ; and

I cannot but think, that there was a great deal of justice in that edict of

their Emperor Commodus, with regafd to these Bellonarii, or whippers of

antiquity, though it is usually imputed to his cruelty, when he commanded,

that they should not be suffered to impose upon the spectators, but be

obliged to cut and slash themselves in good earnest. Lamprid. vn Com*

modo
,

9.

If I had leisure to examine the pretended miracles, and pious frauds of

the Romish church, I should be able to trace them all from the same

source of Paganism, and find, that the Priests of new Rome are not de-

generated from their predecessors in the art of forging these holy impos-

tures : which, as Livy observes of old Rome; l. 24. 10; were always

multiplied in proportion to the credulity and disposition of the poor people

to swallow them.

In the early times of the republic, in the war with the Latins, the gods

Castor and Pollux are said to have appeared on white horses, in the Ro-

man army, which by their assistance gained a complete victory. In memo-

ry of which, the general Posthmius vowed and built a temple publicly to

those deities; and for a proof of the fact, there was shown, we find, in

Cicero’s time, the mark of the horses’ hoofs on a rock at Regillum, where

they first appear ed. Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1. 3. 5. ib. 2. 2. de Div. 1. 34.

Now' this miracle, with many others, that I could mention of the same

kind, Cic. Nut. D. 2. 2. Plutar. in vita P. JEmil. Val. Max. c. 8. 1. L. Flm\

l. 1. 11. i. 1. 12
;
has, I dare say, as authentic attestation, as any which

the Papists can produce ; the decree to confirm it ; a temple erected in

consequence of it
;
visible marks of the fact on the spot where it was

transacted
;
and all this supported by the concurrent testimony of the best

authors of antiquity
;
amongst whom Dionysius of Halicarnassus says, l.

6. p. 337 ; that there xvas
subsisting in his time at Rome many evident

proofs of it3 reality, besides a yearly festival, with a solemn sacrifice and

procession in memory of it
:
yet, for all this, these stories were but the

jest of men of sense, even in the times of heathenism ; Cic. ibid. 3. 5 ; and

seem so extavagant to us how there could ever be any so simple as to

believe them.



PAGANISM, 21

What better opinion then can we have, of all those of the same stamp

in the Popish legends, which they have plainly built on this foundation ?

and copied from this very original ? Not content with barely copying,

they seldom fail to improve the old story, with some additional forgery

and invention of their own.—Thus, in the present case instead of two
persons on white horses, they take care to introduce three ; and not only

on white horses, but at the head of white arrnies
;
as in an old history of

the holy Wars, Written by a pretended eyewitness, and published by Ala-

billon, it is solemnly affirmed of St. George, Demetrius, and Theodorus*

Bell. Sac. Hist, in Mabill. Iter. Ital. T. 1. Par < 2. p. 148, 155. They show

us too in several parts of Italy, the marks of hands and feet on rocks and

stones, Said to have been effected miraculously by the apparition of some

saint or angel on the Spot
:
just as the impression of Hercules’ feet was

shown of old on a stone in Scythia, Herodot. 1. 4.p. 251., exactly resembling

the footsteps of a man. And they have also many churches and public

monuments erected, in testimony of such miracles. Of saints and angels

fighting visibly for them in their battles, whiieh though always as ridicu-

lous as that above-mentioned, are not yet supported by half so good evi*

dence of their reality. There is an altar of marble in St. Peter’s, one of

the greatest pieces of modern sculpture, representing in figures as large as

life, the story of Attila king of the Hunns, who in full march toward Rome

with a victorious army, in order to pillage it, was frighted and driven back

by the apparition of an angel in the time of Pope Leo. I.

The castle and church of St Angelo have their title from the appath

tion of an angel over the place, in the time of Gregory the Great. Moder.

Giorn . 1. Boldonii Epigraph. 1. 2. p. 349. 1lion, di Borgo. 1.

“The religion of Ceres of Enna was celebrated, as Cicero informs us,
with a wonderful devotion, both in public and private through all Sicily

;

for her presence and divinity had been frequently manifested to them by

numerous prodigies, and many people had received immediate help from

her in their utmost distress. Her image therefore in that temple was held

in such veneration, that whenever men beheld it, they fancied themselves
beholding either Ceres herself, or the figure of her at least not made by

human hands, but dropt down to them from heaven.” Now, if in the

place of Ceres of Enna, we should insert into this religion, our Lady of
Loretto, or of Impruneta, or any other miraculous image in Italy

;
the

very same account would suit as exactly with the history of the modern

saint, as it is told by the present Romans, as it formerly did with that of

Ceres, as it is transmitted to us by the ancients. And what else indeed
are all their miraculous images, which we see in every great town, said to
be made by angels, and sent to them from heaven, Jlring Rem. suiter. 1.

5. c. 5. Mountfauc. Diar. ibid. 136
;
but mere copies of the ancient fables of

the Diopetes Agalma
,
or image of Diana dropt from the clouds

;
Act, A post,

c. xix. 35. or the Palladium of Troy, which according to old authors,

Pitisci Lexic. Jintiquitat ., was a wooden statue three cubits long, which

fell from heaven.

In one of their churches here, they show a picture of the Virgin, which,

as their writers affirm, Rom. JModrn. Giorn. 2 Rim. di Ripa. c. 43, was

brought down from heaven with great pomp, and after having hung a
while with surprising lustre in the air, in the sight, of all the clergy and

people of Rome, was delivered by angels into the hands of Pope John I.,

who marched out in solemn procession, in order to receive that celestial

present. And is not this exactly of a piece with the old Pagan story of



22 POPERY AND

King Numa, when in this same city he issued from his palace, with pnests

and people after him, and with public prayer and solemn devotion receiv-

ed the ancile, or heavenly shield, which in the presence of all the people

of Rome, was sent down to him with much the same formality from the

clouds? Ov. Fast. L 3. And as that wise prince, for the security of his

heavenly present, ordered several others to be made so exactly like it, that

the original could not be distinguished
;
so the Romish Priests have thence

taken the hint, to form after each celestial pattern, a number of copies

so perfectly resembling each other, as to occasion endless squabbles

among themseives about their several pretensions to the divine origi-

nal.

The rod of Moses, with which he performed his miracles, is still pre-
served, as they pretend, and shown here with great devotion, in one of

the principal churches
;
and just so the rod of Romulus, with which he

performed his auguries, was preserved by the Priests as a sacred relic in

old Rome, and kept w ith great reverence from being touched or handled

by the people ; Plutar. in Camil. 145. D. which rod too, like most of the

Popish relics, had the testimony of a miracle in proof of its sanctity

;

for when the temple, where it was kept, w as burnt to the ground, it was

found entire uuder the ashes, and untouched by the flames. Vaier. Max.

c. 8. 10. It. Cie. de Divin. 1. 17. Plutar. in Rom., which same miracle has

been borrowed and exactly copied by the present Romans, in many in-

stances; particularly, in a miraculous image of our Saviour in John Late-

ran
;
over which the flames, it seems, had no power, though the church

itself has been twice destroyed by fire.

Nothing is more common among the miracles of Popery, than to hear
of images, that on certain occasions had spoken

;
or shed tears

;
or sweat

;

or bled. And do not we find the very same stories in all the heathen wri-
ters ? Of which I could bring numberless examples from old, as well as
new Rome, from Pagan as wTell as Popish legends. Rome, as the des-

criber of it says, abounds wdth those treasures, or speaking images. But he

laments the negligence of their ancestors, in not recording, so particularly

as they ought, the very words and other circumstances of such conversa-

tions. They showT us here an image of the Virgin, which reprimanded

Gregory the Great, for passing by her too carelessly. And in St. Paul’s
church, a crucifix, which spoke to St. Bridgid. MabiU

,
D. Italic, p. 133.

Durantus mentions another Madonna, which spoke to the sexton, in

commendation of the piety of one of her votaries. Durant, de Rit. Lie.

p. 5. And did not the image of Fortune do the same, or more in old
Rome ? Which, as authors say, spoke twice in praise of those matrons,
who had dedicated a temple to her. Vaier. Max. I. 8.
They have a church nere dedicated to Mary the Weeper, or to a

.Madonna famous for shedding tears. St. del Pimto. Rom. mod. Gior.
3. Rion. della Regosa 5. They show an image too of our Saviour, which
for some time before the sacking of Rome w*ept so heartily, ibat the good
fathers of the monastery were employed in w iping its face w ith cotton.
And was not the case just the same among their ancestors, when on the
approach of some pub ic calamity, the statue of Apollo as Livy tells us,
wept for three days and nights successively. Liv. 1. 43. 13. They have
another church built in honor of an image, which bled very plentifully,

from a blow given to it by a blasphemer. And were not the old idols too
as full of blood, when as Livy relates, all the images in the temple of
Juno were seen to sweat with drops of it? Lw. 23. 31. 27. 4.



fcACUNlSM; 23

All whieh prodigies, as well modern as ancient, are derived from the

same source
;
the contrivance of priests or governors, in order to draw

gain or advantage out of the poor people, upon whom they thus im-
pose.

Xenophon, though himself much addicted to superstition, speaking of

the prodigies, which preceded the battle of Leuctra, and portended vic-

tory to the Thebans, tells us that some people looked upon them as all

forged and contrived by the magistrates, the better to animate and encour-

age the multitude; and as the originals themselves were but impostures,

it is no wonder, that the copies ot them appear such gross and bungling

forgeries. Xenophon. Ellen. 1. 9.

I have observed a story in Herodotus, l. 4. p. 235., not unlike the ac-

count, which is given of the famed travels of the house of Loretto; of cer-

tain sacred mystical things, that travelled about from country to country,

and after many removals and journeys, settled at last, for good and all,,
in Delos. But this imposture of the holy house might be suggested

rather as Addison has observed, Travels from Pesaro to Rome, by the

extraordinary veneration paid in old Rome to the cottage of its founder
Romulus : which was held sacred by the people, and repaired with great

care from time to time, with the same kind of materials, so as to be kept

up in the same form, in which it was originally built. Dion. Halicar. 1. 1.

It was turned also like this other cottage of our Lady, into a temple, and

had divine service performed in it, till it happened to be burnt down by

the fire of a sacrifice in the time of Augustus : Dio. 1. 48. p. 347. But what

makes the similitude still more remarkable is, that this pretended cottage

of Romulus was shown on the Capitoline Hill : Vat. Max. 1. 4. c. 11 :

whereas it is certain, that Romulus himself lived on Mount Palatin

:

Plutarch, in Rom, p. 30. Dion Hal. 2. p, 110. So that if it had

been the house of Romulus, it must needs, like the holy house of Loretto,

have taken a leap into the air, and suffered a miraculous translation,

though not from so great a distance, yet from one hill at least to the other.

But if we follow their own writers, it is not the holy house of Loretto,
but the homely cradle of our Saviour, that we should compare rather with

the little house of Romulus : which cradle is now shown in Mary the

Great, and on Christmas-day exposed on the high altar to the adoration

of the people
;
being held in the same veneration by present Rome, as the

humble cottage of its founder had been by its old inhabitants. “ Rome,”

says Baronius, Jlnnal. 1. Christi. 5. It. Aring. Rom. Subt. 1. 6. 1. “ is now

in possession of that noble monument of Christ’s nativity, made only of

wood, without any ornament of silver or gold, and is made more happily

illustrious by it, than it was of old by the cottage of Romulus
;
which,

though built only with tnud and straw, our ancestors preserved with great

care for many ages.”

The melting of St. Januaris’s blood at Naples, whenever it is brought

to his head, which is done with great solemnity on the day of his festival,

Aring. Rom. Subt. 1. 1. 16.. whilst at all other times it continues dry and

congealed in a glass phial, is one of the standing and most authentic

miracles of Italy. Yet Addison, who twice saw it performed, assures us,

that instead of appearing to be a real miracle he thought it one of tho

most bungling tricks that he had ever seen. Trav. at Naples.

Mabiilon’s account of the fact seems to solve it very naturally, without

the help of a miracle : Iter. Ital. p. 10G : for during the time that a Mass

or two are celebrated in the church, the other Priests are tampering with



24 POPERY AND

this phial of blood, which is suspended all the while in such a situation,

that as soon as any part of it begins to melt by the heat of their hands, or

other management, it drops of course into the lower side of the glass

which is empty
;
upon the first discovery of which, the miracle is pro-

claimed aloud, to the great joy and edification of the people.

But by what way soever it be effected, it is plainly nothing else, but the

copy of an old cheat of the same kind, transacted near the same place,

which Horace makes himself merry with on hi£ journey to Brundusium
;

telling us, how the Priest would have imposed upon him and his friends,

at a town called Gnatia
;
by persuading them, that the frankincense in

the temple used to dissolve and melt miraculously of itself, without the

help of fire, Sat. 1. 5. v. 98.

In the Cathedral church of Ravenna, I saw in Mosaic work the pic-

tures of those Archbishops of the place, who as well as their historians

affirm, Hist. Riven, fyc. Aring. Rom. Subl. 1. 6. c. 48., were chosen for

several ages successively by the special designation of the Holy Ghost,

who in full assembly of the clergy and people, used to descend visibly on
the person elect, in the shape of a dove. If the fact of such a descent

be true, it will easily be accounted for by a passage in A ulus Gellius,
whence the hint wTas probably taken

;
who tells us of Archytas the phi-

losopher and mathematician, that he formed a pigeon of wood so artifici-

ally, as to make it fly by the power of mechanism, just as he directed it.

A. Gell. Noct. Att. 1. 10. J2. And we find from Strada, that many tricks
of this kind were actually contrived for the diversion of Charles the

Fifth in his monastery, by one Turrianus, who made little birds fly out of

the room and back again, by his great skill and machinery. Gronovii. Not.

iu Gell. Ibid.

It would be endless to run through all the Popish miracles which are

evidently forged, or copied from the originals of Paganism
;
since there is

scarcely a prodigy in the old historians, or a fable in the old poets but

what is transcribed into their legends, and swallowed by their silly bigots,

as certain and undoubted facts.

The story of Arion the musician riding triumphant with his harp on
the back of a dolphin, that took him up when thrown overboard at sea,

one would think is too grossly fabulous to be applied to any person ofChris-

tian superstition. Yet our present Romans so far surpass the old in fable

and imposture, that out of this single story they have coined many of the
same stamp, of dolphins taking up and bringing ashoie with great pomp
several of their saints, both dead and alive, 'who had been thrown into the

sea by infidels, either to drown, or to deprive them of burial. Aring. Rem.

Subterr. 1. 1. c. 9, 10.

The fable of the harpies, those furies or winged monsters, who 'were so
troublesome to iEneas and his companions, Virg. JEn. 3. 21., seems to

be copied in the very first church within the walls ol Rome, close to the

gate of the people, as it is called, by which we enter it from the north :

where there is an altar with a public inscription, in order to drive away a

nest of huge daemons or monsters, who used to perch upon large trees in

that very place, and terribly insult all who entered the city.

The Popish writers themselves are forced to allow, that many both of

their relics, and their miracles have been forged by the craft of Priests, for

the sake of moneys and lucre. Duran tus, a zealous defender of all their

ceremonies, gives several instances of .the former; particularly of the

bones of a common thief, which had for some time been honored with an



PAGANISM. 25

altar, and worshipped under the title of a saint. Durant de Ritib . 1. 1. c.

25. And for the latter; Lyra, in his comment on Bel and the Dragon,
observes that sometimes also in the church, very great cheats are put upon

the people, by false miracles, contrived, or countenanced at least, by their

Priests for some gain and temporal advantage. Me, Lyr. in Dan, c, 14.
And what their own authors confess of some of their miracles, we may
venture, without any breach of charity, to believe of them all

;
nay, we

cannot indeed believe any thing else without impiety
;
and without sup-

posing God to concur in an extraordinary manner, in the establishment of
fraud, error, and superstition in the world.

The refuge or protection given to all who fly to the church for shelter,
is a privilege directly transferred from the heathen temple to the Popish

churches
;
and has been practised in Rome, from the time of its founder

Romulus
;
who in imitation of the cities of Greece, opened an asylum or

sanctuary to fugitives of all nations. Ov. Fast 3.

But we may observe the great moderation of Pagan above that of Po-
pish Rome in regard to this custom

;
for I do not remember that there

was ever more than one asylum in the times of [the republic
;
whereas

there are now some hundreds in the same city
;
and when that single one

which was opened rather for the increase of its inhabitants, than the pro-

tection of criminals, was found in the end to give too great encouragement

to mischief and licentiousness
;
they inclosed it around in such a manner,

as to hinder all access to it. Dio. 1. 47. p. 385. Whereas the present

Popish sanctuaries stand perpetually open, not to receive strangers, but to

shelter villains
;
so that it may literally be said of these, what our Saviour

said of the Jewish temple, that they have turned the house of prayer into

a den of theives. Matt. xxi. 13.

In the early ages of Christianity there were many limitations put upon
the use of that privilege by emperors and councils

;
and the greater crimes

of murder, adultery, theft, &c. were especially excepted from the benefit

of it. Justin. Novel. 17. c. 7. But now they scruple not to receive to sanc-
tuary, even the most detestable crimes

;
and it is owing without doubt to

this policy of the church, that murders ^ire so common with them in Italy
on slight provocations

;
whilst there is a church always at hand and always

open to secure offenders from legal punishment
;
several of whom have

been shown to me in different places, walking about at their ease and in
full security, within the bounds of their sanctuary.

In their very priesthood, they have contrived to keep up as near a re-

semblance, as they could, to that of Pagan Rome : and to the sovereign
Pontiff, instead of deriving his succession from Peter, who, if ever he was
at Rome, did not reside there at least in any worldly pomp or splendor,
may with more reason and much better plea, style himself the successor
of the Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest of old Rome

;
whose authority

and dignity was the greatest in the republic
;
and who was looked upon

as the arbiter or judge of all things, civil as well as sacred, human as
well as divine : whose power established almost with the foundation of

the city, “ was an omen,” says Polydore Virgil, “ and sure presage of
priestly majesty, by which Rome was once again to reign as universally,
as it had done before by the force of its arms.” Pol. Vir. In rer. 4. 14.

But of all the sovereign pontiffs of Pagan Rome, it is very remarkable

that Caligula was the first who ever offeied his foot to be kissed by any
who approached him : which raised a general indignation through the city,
to see themselves reduced to suffer so great an indignity. Those who en-

3



36 POPERY AN»

deavored to excuse it, said that it was not done out of insolence, but vanity;

and for the sake of showing his golden slipper, set with jewels. Seneca

declaims upon it as the last affront to liberty
;
and the introduction of a

Persian slavery into the manners of Rome. Senec. de benef. 1. 2. 12. Yet,

this servile act, unworthy either to be imposed or complied with by man,

is now the standing ceremonial of Christian Rome, and a necessary con-

dition of access to the reigning Popes
;
though derived from no better ori-

gin, than the frantic pride of a brutal Pagan tyrant.

The great variety of their religious orders and societies of priests seems

to have been formed upon the plan of the old colleges or fraternities

of the Augurs, Pontifices, Selli, Fratres Arvales, &c. The vestal Vir-

gins mi^ht furnish the hint for the foundation of nunneries : and I have

observed something very like to the rules and austerities of the monas-

tic life, in tne character and manner of several priests of the heathens, who

used to live by themselves retired from the world, near to the temple or

oracle of the deity to whose particular service they were devoted
;
as the

Selli, the Priests of Dodonsen Jove, or self-mortifying race. From the

character of those Selli, or as others call them Elli, the Monks of the Pa-

gan world
;
seated in the fruitful soil of Dodona

;
abounding, as Hesiod

describes it, with every thing that could make life easy and happy
;
and

whither no man ever approached them without an offering in his hands,,

we may learn, whence their successors of modern times have derived their

peculiar skill or prescriptive right, of choosing the richest part of every

country for the place of their settlement. Sophoc. Trachin. p. 340. v. 1175.

Sokol. Triclin.

Whose groves the Selli, race austere, surround

;

Their feet unwash’d, their slumbers on the ground.-Pope. II. 17. 234.

But above all, in the old descriptions ofthe lazy mendicant Priests among

the heathens, who used to travel from house to house, with sacks on their

backs
;
and, from an opinion of their sanctity, raise large contributions of

money, bread, wine, and all kinds of victuals, for the support of their fra-

ternity, we see the very picture of the begging friars; who are always
about the streets in the same habit, and on the same errand, and never

fail to carry home with them a good sack full of provisions for the use of

their convent. Jlpuleius JVIetam. 1. 8. p. 262.

Cicero, in his book of laws, restrains this practice of begging, or gath-

ering alms, to one particular order of Priests, and that only on certain

days
;
because, as he says, it propagates superstition, and impoverishes

families. Which may let us see the policy of the church of Rome, in the

great care that they have taken to multiply their begging orders. Cic. de

X,egib. 1. 2. 9, 16.

1 could easily carry on this parallel, through many more instances of

the Pagan and Popish ceremonies, to show from what spring all that su-

perstition flows, which we so justly charge them with, and how vain an

attempt it must be, to justify by the principles of Christianity, a religion

formsaupon the plan, and after the very pattern of pure heathenism. I shall

not trouble myselfwith inquiring at what time, and what manner, those sev-

eral corruptions were introduced into the church : whether they were con-

trived to the intrigues and avarice of Priests, who found their advantage

in revHfllg and propagating impostures, which had been of old so profitable

to their predecessors
;
or whether the genius of Rome was so strongly



PAGANISM. 27

turned to fanaticism and superstition, that they were forced, in condescen-

sion to the humor of the people, to dress up their new religion to the
modes and fopperies of the old. This, I know, is the principle, by which

their own writers defend themselves, as oft as they are attacked on this
head.

Aringhus, in his account of subterraneous Rome, acknowledges this
conformity between the Pagan and Popish rites, and defends the admis-

sion of the ceremonies of heathenism into the service of the church, by

the authority of their wisest Popes and Governors : “ who found it neces-
sary,” he says “ in the conversion of the Gentiles to dissemble and wink

at many things, and yield to the times
;
and not to use force against cus-

toms, which the people are so obstinately fond of
;
nor to think of extir-

pating at once every thing, that had the appearance of profane
;
but ta

supersede in some measure the obligation of the sacred laws
;

till those

converts convinced themselves by degrees, and informed of the whole

truth, by the suggestions of the Holy Spirit, should be content to submit

in earnest to the yoke of Christ.” Airing. Rom . subter. Tom. 1. Lib. L
Cap. 21.

It is by those principles, that the Jesuits defend the concessions, which

they make at this day to their proselytes in China; who, where pure
Christianity will not go down, never scruple to compound the matter be-

tween Jesus and Confucius; and prudently allow, what the stiff old

prophets so impolitely condemned, a partnership between God and Baal;
of which though they have often been accused at the court of Rome, yet
I have never heard, that their conduct has been censured. But this kind

of reasoning, how plausible soever it may be, with regard to the first ages
of Christianity, or to nations just converted from Paganism, is so far from

excusing the present Geniilism of the church of Rome, that it is a direct
condemnation of it

;
since the necessity alledged for the practice, if ever

it had any real force, has not, at least for many ages past, at all subsisted :
and their toleration of such practices, however useful at first for reconcil-

ing heathens to Christianity, seems now to be the readiest way to drive
Christians back again to heathenism.

I have sufficiently made good what I first undertook to prove : an exact
conformity, or rather uniformity of worship, between Popery and Pagan-

ism. For since, we see the present people of Rome worshipping in the
same temple

;
at the same altars

;
sometimes the same images

;
and al-

ways with the same ceremonies, as the old Romans
;
who can absolve

them from the same superstition and idolatry of which we condemn then?
Pagan ancestors?

finis.





nnto me by you my ghostly
father, or by any of this con-

vent. All which I,
A. B., do swear by the blessed

Trinity

and blessed Sacrament,
which I am now to receive, to per-

form, and on my part to keep
inviolably : and do call all the

heavenly and glorious
host of heaven to witness my real in-

tentions to keep this my oath.
In testimony hereof, I take

this most holy and
blessed sacrament of the

Eucharist ; and

witness the same further
with my hand and seal, m the face

of this holy convent.”

FORM OF ANATHEMA IN SPAIN.

In 1772. a mandate
was issued by the Inquisitors of

he-

retical pravity, in the
city of Vallodolid, Castile ;

to al the

inhabitants, requiring them
under the usual ecclesiastica p

nalties, to make known to the
Inquisitors, within a limited

time any offences on the
subject of heresy, which might come

to their knowledge.
In pursuance of which by an

Edict of

the same year, those who ,
failed to give the required

^for-

mation were excommunicated.
If they presisted in their

reserve or contumacy, for
another term, of six days, the In-

nuisitors declared, that they
anathematized them in the name

KT Father, of th. Son?and of the Hoi, Ghost, and pro-
nounced upon them the

malediction by which they became

accursed, and as members of the
Devil, were separated from

the bosom and union of
the Holy Mother Church.

,

To adopt their express words,
“ we command all ecclesi-

astical persons,” that they
hold them; as such, and curse

them, so that they may fall under
the indignation of Almighty

G
°?Let all the maledictions and

plagues of Egypt which came

upon king Pharoah and his
country on account of their diso-

bedience to the command of God,
come upon them.

“Let them be cursed in the city
and in the country , and

wherever they are, eating and
drinking, waking and sleeping,

living

^ased y^ ^ tbeir lands, and the cattle which

they possess. , ..

‘‘Let God send uponthem famine and
pestilence to consume

them. Let them be overtaken
by their enemies, and hated



by all. Let the devil be always at their right hand. When
they come to judgment let them be condemned, let their
goods and property be transferred to strangers, and usurpers
spoil them. Let their wickedness be ever remembered be-
fore God. Let them be cursed with all the maledictions of
the Old and New Testaments. » Let the curse of Sodom and
Gomorra come upon them, and may thev burn in the flame
m which they burned. Let the earth swallow them up, as
Dathan and Abiram, for the sin of disobedience. Let them
be cursed like Lucifer, and with all the demons of hell, where
let them remain in the company of the perverse Judas, and
the other damned, for ever, till they acknowledge their sin,
imploring mercy and amending their life. And we command
the people that they say, Amen.

u And we comiflandthe Archpriests, Vicars, Curates, Chap-

Tms Sacrists, under pain of the greater excommunica-
tion, that in the accustomed form they anathematize them,
repeating the Psalm,” &-c. “ Carrying before them across,
covered with mourning, and lighted candles in their hands,
they are to quench them in water as a mark of their per-
dition and contumacy, saying: As these candles die in this
water, so let their souls die in hell. . The bells are then to
be rung, while they, the Priests, proceed in the cursing the
obstinate heretics.

5 ’

If they persist in their contumacy a year longer they are
to be considered as of suspected faith, and to be dealt with
according to the utmost rigor of the law.

The form of Anathema is given at length in the collection

z* y
rdzn que se ha de tener

y fyc. And afterwards the
Antiphona, fyc. The water in which the flambeaux

and candles are quenched is holy water.
Suchjs the genuine spirit and practice of Popery when in

power; and if Protestants will give it, let them thank them*
selves for the consequences .

[Price 3 cents.]