�----------�

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-

REPUBLISHED FHOJJrf THE uJlIT. KISCO TVEEK'LY."

I

I

TO THE STRICTURES OF THE REV, M, W, NEWMAN

--ON-

MR. JAY'S ADDRESS BEFORE THE BIBLE SOCIETY

OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NEW YORK.

MT. KISCO, N. Y.:

PRESS OF "THE WEEKLY."

1879.



.J

."



ROME,

\

THE BIBLEANDTHE REPUBLIC.

MR. JAYS REPLY

TO THE STRICTURES OF THE REV, M, WI NEWMAN

--ON-

MR. JAY'S ADDRESS BEFORE THE BIBLE SOCIETY

OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NEW YORK.

MT. KISCO, N. Y.:

PRESS OF "THE WEEKLY."

1879.



I

:_r'

m

an

ce

inf

niz

thJ
fOD

Entered according to Act of Congress
in the year 1879, by

JOHN JAY, in the

Office of the Librarian
of Congress at Washington.

ge

an

and

lOWl

Ne

ligi;
oriri

Ball

zeIl



· ROME, THE BIBLE AND THE REPUBLIC,

SIR :-1 regret that I was unable to re- massacre, as will presently be shown on

ply immediately to the letter published Roman Catholic authority, was extended

by you November 20 of the Revd. Mr. during two months at the solicitation of

Newman, pastor of the Roman Catholic

I
Pope Gregory XIII., and was commem­

Church at Mt. Kisco, on my address be- orated by that pontiff in paintings and by
fore the Westchester County Bible So- a medal, as a triumph of the Church of

cietyon "the Bible and the Republic," a Rome.
letter which I observe that he hopes may Our citizens who do not belong to the

be answered "not by assertions merely Roman Catholic Church are quite agreed
but by solid arguments." that wherever there exists a loyal devo-

l accept with pleasure his assurance tion to the constitutional principles and

that "he had written not desiring to I
the institutions of our Republic, with no

offend for an instant;" and" that if any design to pervert or destroy them, or to

objections were found, then truth must introduce dogmas and practices contrary
be blamed and not the preacher." I te good morals like those, for instance, of

equally disclaim all desire to offend my the Mormons, there is in such case neither

neighbors of his faith in the town of Bed- right nor reason, in arraying class against

ford, among whom was included in his class, on account of a difference in their

earlier years His Eminence Cardinal Mc- faith.

Closkey; or the members generally of
that communion, among whom I number

valued friends on both sides of the At-

lantic.

They are not rerponsible for the ancient

.œimes of the Roman Court, nor for the

modern dogmas added to its faith in 1854

and 1870 on the Immaculate Con­

ception of the Virgin and the

infallibility of the Pope. Recog­

nizing the moral worth and loyal sympa­

thy with our institutions which are to be

found amoung our Roman Catholic citi­

zens, I believe that so far from intelli­

gently approving and sustaining every act

and dogma of the papacy, there are thous­

ands who in their hearts are ready to fol­

low and better the example of Father

Newman, when in accord with reason, re­

ligion and humanity he stigmatizes as a

crime to be viewed with horror the St.

Bartholomew massacre, although that

THE CHURCH OF ROME,

however, does little to encourage mutual

harmony and good will in continuing the

yearly cursing by the Pope with bell,

book and candle; a curse which is said to

be read also in every Roman church in

America on the Thursday before Easter,

excommunicating and anathematizing

"all Hussites, Wickliffites, Huguenots,

Anabaptists, Trinitarians and other apos­

tates from the faith, and all other her­

etics by whatever name they are called,

or of what sect they may be.
"

Whatever

fitness, undiscoverable by the rest of

christendom, Home may find in blending

with the sacred memories of holy-week

snch wholesale cursing of those who rest

their faith upon the Bible, it has a ten­

dency to arouse the hate and inflame the

passions of the less reflective class of

Roman Catholics in America, against

those whom they are thus taught to curse



2

as the enemies of the Pope. This effect should be burnt with the hands that han­

was shown in past ages in massacres like dle it.
"

that of St. Bartholomew's,and recently in The opposition of the Roman Church

the almost incredible savagery exhibited to the reading of the Bible is an old story
in the New York riots of 1863; and which, o� persecutions that have marked with

but for the speedy suppression of that at- torture and blood and flames the history

tempt at rebellion, threatened to repeat its of the papacy; not as Father Newman's

bloody scenes in our rural districts. language might lead some to suppose, for

Even the late Pope Pius IX, who had a the crime of reading the Bible in versions

high- reputation for amicability, was ac- adjudged heretical, but for the crime of

customed to apply to his opponents rath- reading the Bible in versions approved
er ungentle epithets; some of which have by the Church herself. 'I'o read that ver­

been noted by Mr. Gladstone. (Christian sion without special permission is ex­

World, XXVI, p. 101). Amongthem are pressly forbidden; and when in 1731

found "wolves," "perfidious thieves," Quesnel, a Roman Catholic, maintained

"dropsical liars," "ministers of hell," that" the rending of the Holy Scriptures
,.

demons incarnate'
j

and "stinking is for everybody," Pope Clement XI.,

corpses.
"

in the bull "Unigenitus,
,.,

denounced

In Father Newman's strictures on Bible his sentiments as "fftlse, shocking, offen­

societies there may be observed with sat- sive to pious ears, scandalous, pernicious
isfaction a more moderate tone than has rash, seditious, impious and blasphe­

sometimes marked the assaults made upon mous." Rome insists not only that none

them from papal quarters. shall read the Bible without
her permis-

It is true that, speaking for his church, sion, but that they shall then accept
her

Fathor Newman intimates grave charges interpretation of it.

against Biblè societies, when after re- THE ENGLISH BIBLE.

marking "that the Catholic Church Whatever correction of the
text may be

(meaning the Roman Catholic Ohurch) preparing by the commission of
revision

is not opposed to the genuine and ortho- of King James' Bible published by
the

dox edition of the Scriptures," he S�ilyS, Bible Society, that translation which

"
but she forbids the perusal of any mu- Rome has stigmatized as a false, heretical

tilated copies and dishonest versions of book, to be classed among profane
and

the Bible) from a corrupt text, like those infidel productions, and to be read only

circulated by the Bible societies; and on peril of damnation, is based, 'as we are

condemns the cant and hypocrisy or reminded by Dr, �J. J. Smith in his sug­

superstition and idolatry of it which meet gestive book on
"

The impending conflict

us at every step." . These expressions, between Romunism and Protestantism in

however significant of the feelings and the United States," (G. Goodenough, 122

motives by which they would seem to Nassau St., New York, 1871,) upon the

have been prompted, are yet gentle when translations of Wickliffe, Tyndale, -Cov­

compared with those of Pope Pius VII., erdale and Matthew; and Bishop L�dd,es,
who denounced Bible societies as "a t also a Romanist, is quoted as having said,

pestilence;" or of a newspaper in Ire- "It is of all versions the
most excellent

land which referred to a Bible society as for accuracy, fidelity, and the strictesb
"

a peli inspired junta of incarnate fiends;" letter of the text."

or Qf: the kindred remark in Madeiria that. In reply to the remark about
"the

"the Bible was a book from hell, and cant, hypocrisy, superstition and idola-
.



3

try" of the Bible,-a sneer that might

have come from the Atheists of the French

Revolution who dragged the Bible 3 t the

tail of an ass ;-perhaps no more appro­

priate reply could be offered than the

striking words attributed to a Roman

Catholic convert-his name should be one

of note-who, lamenting the general use

of the Bible as a strong barrier to the

.

aaccess of popery, said: "'Vho will not

say that the uncommon beauty and mar­

vellous English of the Protestant Bible is

one of the great strongholds of heresy in

this country? It lives on the ear like

music that can never be forgotten; like

the sound of church bells which the con­

vert hardly knows how to forego. Its

felicities often seem to be things rather

than words. It. is a part of the National

mind, and the anchor of National serious­

ness. The memory of
�he dead passes

with it; the potent traditions of child­

hood are stereotyped in its verses; the

power of all the griefs and trials of man

are hidden beneath its words. It is the

representative of his best merits, and all

there is about him of soft, and gentle,

and pure, and penitent, and good, speaks

to him forever out of his English Bible.

It is his sacred thing whicb doubt has

. never dimmed and controversy never

soiled. In the length and breadth of the

land there is not a Protestant with one

spark of religiousness about him, whose

spiritual biography is not in his Saxon

Bible.
"

The memory and instincts of the elo­

quent writer did not deceive him, and

Home is fight in her conviction that it is

the Bible scattered through Christian

homes which constitutes the perennial

source of unity and life for the members

of the universal Catholic Church, how­

ever separated by land or sea, by articles

or creeds, by liturgies, rubrics or forms

of government, who, despite the !U1H,th­

emas of Rome.. cling to the Bible and the

Redemption which it reveals with a faith

steadfast as that of their Fathers, refusing

to turn from the Saviour of world to wor­

ship the virgin or to deify the Pope.
Within the last month the world has

seen the most eminent members of church­

es transplanted to America from England

and the Continent, gathering with affec­

tionate regard around.the great Dean of

Westminster, representing the ancient

church of England. A little later it saw

the rector of old Trinity, the pastors of the

Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and

Congregational churches in New York,

assembling in honor of the two hundred

and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation

at New Amsterdam of the Reformed

Churoh of Holland. In those two gath­

erings Rome might have seen the unity
and the Catholicity of Churches, that stand

not on the varying dogmas of papal infal­

libility, but on ths word -of God revealed

in the Bible.

PAPAL OPPOSITION TO. 'THE BIBLE.

The constant and deep concern exhib­

ited by the Church of Rome at the HUC­

cessful efforts of Bible societies is both

interesting awl suggestive. It is a recog­

nition of the power of the Bible move­

ment, and a tribute to the wisdom of the

plan of distributing the Bible without note

or comment; of giving Divine truth with­

out admixture of human error. Then,

this fear and hatred of Bible Sel­

cieties on the part of the Court of Rome,

whether expressed in bulls by the Pope
at the Vatican, or by his appointed agents

in America show that in our day, of all

powers temporal and spiritual, imperial,

political and religious which Rome

dreads, that which it dreads the most is

the Bible-the Bible rendered in the ver­

nacular, and given freely to the people,

that they may "search' the ·Script.ures.
"

Rome knows well that a people who read

the Bible are not likely to accept.her syl­

Iabus and her dogmas; or to. use.the pray-



4

er to the virgin in the new Brevarium, I 34th) of the Church of England, which
tu es spes unica peccatorum (thou art

I. represent clearly
the views held by that

the only hope of sinnera ; ) or to believe and other branches of the Church, which

in the infallibility of the Pope and adore have protested against the errors into

him as "Our Lord God." "Noster which they say the Roman branch hath

Dominus Deus papa," "Venite adore- . fallen. f

mue e.iniurn. p xp : n:" The Bible, whic h I They allow, although Father NewmanFather Newman calls a grand and sacred seems unaware of it, due weight to "tra­
book, seems to be the divine weapon ditions which be not repugnant to the

from which Rome shrinks as from Ith- word of God," and they declare: "Holy
uriel's spear, knowing that "no false- Scripture containeth all things necessary
hood can endure touch of celestial tem- to salvation; so that whatever is not read

per." therein, nor may be proved thereby, is
In 1816 Pope Pius VII., in an Ency- not to be required of any man that it

elical letter against Bible Societies, said: should be believed as an article of faith;
"We have been truly shocked at this or be thought requisite or necessary to
most crafty device by which the founda- salvation."
tion of religion (meaning, of course, the PAPAL INFALLffiILITY.
Roman Catholic religion) are under- This article alone marks the irreconcil-

mined"; and His Holiness then de iable difference between the faith that
nounced it as "this pestilence," and rests upon the Bible and that which hangs
spoke of the wickedness of "this nefari- on the alleged infallibility of the Pope.
ons scheme." Father Newman, after quoting a passage

In 1820 Leo XII. denounced Bible 80- from my address, in which he remarks
cieties as "strolling with effrontery that I questioned "the supremacy, im­

through the world. The word is sng- ill utability and infallibility of the Cath­

gestive. The" effrontery" of distribu- olic Church," devoted a column to this

ting the Bible! Pius VIII. followed with subject, with the remark" we will prove
a circular letter in 1829, and Gregory from the Bible that he is mistaken."

XVI. with a bull in 1844 against Bibb I might, perhaps, without impropriety,
Societies and the Christian Alliance in ask to be excused from touching on these

New York, which closed with this declara- questions inasmuch as my address, re­

tion: "Moreover, we confirm and renew calling the traditions 01 the Republic and

the decrees recited above, delivered in the part born by the Bible in forming the

former times by Apostolic authority National character, could hardly be re­

against the publication, distribution» garded as inviting a theological discus­

reading and possession of books of the sion. I had said, "I beg leave, as a

Holy Scriptures." tauman, to suggest further, that all who

No further or higher proof can be need- value pure morals, sound education, good
ed of the entire exactness of my statement government or National honor, whatever

that Rome's olden opposition to the read- their creed, or however broad, independ­

ing of the Scriptures was still continued. ent or eccentric their belief, can consist-

In reply to Father Newman's argument ently join ill this work, as one that will

on the Scriptures and tradition from what contribute to the safety and welfare of the

he calls" a Catholic (meaning a Roman Republic." The points which I discussed

Catholic) s�andpoil1t," I may refer to the were not those of doctrine; the chief men

articles on these subjects (the 6th and I quoted were not theologir.ns, bi.t rather



is

it

h;

to

iu.

at

gs

pe.

ty,
ese

re­

and

the

, re­

cus­

s a

ho

;ood
ever

end­

sist-

will

I the

ssed

men

ather

statesmen and publicists Iik a Chatham and questioning submission to the dogmas
Burke, Bacon and Locke, Milton and that involve a blind allegiance to a foreign
Franklin. When I referred to the Church Prince, even though that Prince is His
of Rome it was in connection with her

\

Holiness the Pope of Rome.
effort to ruppress the Bible in America, The most thoughtful of the people of
seconded by infidels and Atheists, and whom I speak hold probably with the
with an incidental reference to the his- Church of England, that they cannot
torio fact of her burning of Protestants accept as necessary tJ salvation anything
and the massacre of St. Bartholomew's, that may not be read in the BIble, or that
to which I will devote a separate letter. may not be proved thereby. Others of
But courtesy may, perhaps, seem to de- them, perhaps, acknowledging in their
mand that I should not pass without no- entirety neither creeds nor articles, may
tice Father Newman's larger vi8w of the be ready to examine any formula of faith
outlines of his Church. Some of those which appeals to their hearts and con­
views ale closely connected with the ques- sciences, without offending their common
tion of pure morals, sound education, sense or violating the truth of history. It

good government and National honor, as may be well to recall in advance two or
influenced by the Bible on the one hand three points connected with Father New­
and byRome on the other; and while wish- man's argument.
ing to avoid a theologic argument and The one is the claim of Rome, alluded
to treat the subject" with judicial calm to 111 the letter of Pope Pius IX. to the
and historic freedom," I will beg leave Emperor of Russia in 1873, that all bap­
frankly to suggest in your next number tized persons of whatever denomination
some of the difficulties presented belong to the Pope whether they like it
Fatl.er Newmnn's letter, to men who or not. Another is that the Pope holds
however devoted to their respective that the people and the government of the
Churches, rest their faith upon the Bible. United States, like the l'est »f the world,

are all subject to his power. A third is thatSIR :-In dosing my first letter I l'e-
whenever the infallibi1ity of the ROmHJlmarked that I would frankly suggest
Catholicflhurch is spoken of, that infallibil­some of the difficulties presented by
ity which was formerly attributed to Bish­Father Newman's argument, where after
ops assembled in councils is now attributedobserving that Mr. Jay questioned "the
by the new dogma of 1870 solely to the

supremacy, immutability and infallibility
Pope when speaking ex cathedra regard­of the Catholic Church," he added "we
ing matters of faith or morals. 'I'he Popewill prove from the Bible that he is mis-

taken.
" alone can determine the extent of his in-

I propose as a layman, looking at the fallibility, but it includes, according to
broad outlines of the subject in its rela- Archbishop Manning, "politics as a

tion to the Bible, and in ita hearings on branch of ethics."

the Republic, to indicate Et few points in The world does nut. ypt appreciate the
the Roman pretentiona which strike the full bearing of this dogma, which npplies
minds of plain people who use the com.- equally to all Popes, past, present and to
mon sense which God has gIven them, come, upon freedom of conscience, of
and who are Dot prepared to exchange thought, of speech and of action; upon
their devotion to American principles, the government of the Republic and the

f�'eedom of conscienc�
and of thought, the II rights of the. people. Indeed, many Ro­right of speech nnd of the press, for un- man Catholics have not yet begun to

5



6

understand that all persons are required

to believe in papal infallibility, past and

present, under pain of damnation.

Those who wish to understand the ex­

tent to which this dogma of infallibility

displaces bishops and councils, and makes

the Pope the absolute rnler of the church,

may consult
with advantage the com­

ments on the "Vatican council and its

definitions," by Archbishop Manning on

the one hand and Mr. Gladstone on the

it would be no authority at all in matters

of faith. It would clearly be impossible

to have a firm faith in teachings which

we believed might perhaps be untrue."

In this last sentence, after dogmatic

assertion that Goel is responsible for the

teaching of the Church which is now the

teaehing of the Pope-an assertion which,

if regarded by Rome as the height of

piety, is rejected by all the. other branch­

es of the Church as more than akin to

other, and a recent work by Dr. Ewer
on blasphemy

- comes a proposition on

Catholicity. which, fortunately,
a "solid argument"

A large part of Father Newman's first
can be based; for we both admit the im­

letter consists of the customary present- possibility of having
a firm faith in teach­

ruent of the Roman dogmas of supremacy, ings which we
know to be untrue. Now

infallibility and immutability, coupled
take for example the well-known decree

with scriptural texts which are assumed
in the case of Galileo.

to confirm them.
GALII.JEO AND PAPAL INF.'ALLIBILI'rY.

We accept the texts, but we are un-
The Church, under Pope Urban VIII.,

able to accept the Roman interpretation;
declared that Galileo's announcement

and when Father Newman, after the that the sun is
immovable was "an ab­

manner of his Church, says that he has surd position,
false 'Ìn philosophy and ab­

proven his position, he simply assumes solutely
heretical because it is expressly

as proven the very points that are in dis- contrary
to Scripture" (1 Da Costa's nar­

puteo For instance, he says that
"the rative, The Inquisition at Lisbon, Lond,

Catholic Church"-and by this the 1871.)

reverend Father means only the This was an
"infallible decree," ap­

Roman Catholic Church, excluding all proved by an
"infallible Pope" uttering

the other branches of the Catholic Church ex
cathedra the voice of the Church, and

-the Eastern Church, which has sternly based upon
an "infallible interpretation"

refused to recognize the usurpations, the of the Scriptures."
The teachings of

heresies and the corruptions of Rome, that decree wer
made a matter of faith,

and whose venerable patriarchs refused and whoever refused to
believe them was

to accept the Pope's invitation to the late
anathematized as heretical. According

council; excluding the ancient Church of
to Father Newman, who repeats the

England, excluding all of the Reformed
formulas of ]l1S Church, that decree

Churches of the continent and of Amer- "must have
been infallible," because the

ica:-he says "the
Catholic Church is Church was appointed to teach, and we

immutable and infallible since it is are commanded to listen;
and GJd him­

founded on a rock.
* * It is infallible self was responsible for that teaching, be

in matters of faith and morals.
* * *, cause God had promised to be with hls

It must be 80 because it is appointed by Church to the end of
the world. But, in

God to teach us, and we are commanded spite
of Rome's assurances and its col­

to listen, 80 that God has, we may say,
umns of texts, do we not believe and

made himself responsible for its teaching. know,
and do not Father Newman and all

It must be infallible, because otherwise intelligent.
Romanists and Jesuits believe

tl

of t-1

mel

beli

sun,

ture

the €

in tH

any



7

and know, as certainly as the accursed I assumed to impose upon the world inter­
heretics themselves, that that "infalli-I pretations of Scripture and tests of faith
ble" teaching was untrue? Did not the! declaring that they were inspired by

grep, and if, adding arrogance to his .ig­
sun are damned, and by the syllabus thosenorance and folly, he attempted to palm
who say that Urban erred in that decreethem off upon the world as the infallible
fire also to be damned. Urban stands to­wisdom of the Omniscient God, and
day, under the dogma, an infallible Pope,assumed to consign to the tortures
and if infallible how could he proclaim soof the Inquisition her \, and to the tor-

ments of hell hereafter, all who should, great
an error?

believe that the earth revolved around the
I

IXPALLIBLE POPES DE�OUNCING EACH

sun, simply because he interpreted Scrip- : OTHER.
ture as making the sun revolve around i 'I'he case of Galileo, while a peculiarly
the earth,-how can we have a firm faith: s+riking refutation of the Boman assnmp­
in the infallibility of Pope Urban, or of! tion of papal infallibility, against which
any other Pore who in like manner has

l
the rest of christendom protests, as Ull-

Roman Church herself acknowledge that
she had erred, when, after placing on the
Index Expurgatoriu8 as wicked and
heretical the volumes of Galileo, Coper­
nicus and Kepler on the revolution of the

Heavenly bodies, she subsequently
allowed them to be read ? Was not that

a practical confession of her fallibility,
when she condemned Galileo to impris­
onment, and made him swear never to

teach again the earth's motion and the
sun's immovability, for the reason that

they were contrary to Scripture?

Now, if Urban, as we all believe and

know, erred in his interpretation of the

Scriptures, is it. right to say that God was

responsible for Urban's error? Will it
be suggested that God did not under­
stand the Bible which he had inspired, or
the solar system which he had created,
and that it was God who, by the voice of
the Pope, condemned all who refused to

believe that the sun revolved around. the

earth? Now, if the teaching of the

Church promulgated by Pope Urban in
that case was unsound; if his interpreta­
tion of Scripture was untrue; if both his

teaching and his interpretation were in
contradiction to God's word and works; if
the Pope showed himself not wise and in­

fallible, but ignorant and foolish to a de-

t

�-

of

th,

was

ing

the

ree

the

a we

nim­

,be
hls

t, in

col­

and

d all

lieve

Heaven, and anathematizing, as in the
case of Galileo, all who refused to accept
their shallow pretences for the truth of
science and the word of God!

The absurdity of the blundering about
the simplest features of the solar system,
and j ts logical effect in exploding the
claim of infallibility, have not been over­
looked by astute Romanists.

The apology has been attempted for the
error of that decree, that the Church had

gone a little out of her course in making
a decree on the subject of scientific, truth,
to which the divine promise of infallibil­

ity did not extend. But the Church of
Rome does not admit this. On the' con­

trary, Pius IX., in a letter to the Bishop
of Munich, said, and this corresponds
with the syllabus, "It is incumbent upon
every philosopher who wishes to be a son
of the Church, as well as upon philosophy
itself, never to utter anything contrary to
those things which the Church teaches,
and to retract everything which the
Church censures.

"

The 23d article of the syllabus con­
demns also those who hold that the Ro­

man pontiffs have committed errors in

defining matters of faith and morals; so
that by the decree of Urban those who
believe that the earth revolves around the



8

I

true and blasphemous, does not stand I diately
assembled a council consisting of

alone; and cases abound
where teachings I

the same men who had deposed him, and

of infallible Popes have been
condemned I who now deposed

his successor; so John

by councils and by themselves;
and have I reigned again as an

infallible Pope for a

been approved and reversed by their
sue- I few months until, says Bp. Hopkins,

cessors, until the
varied utterances and I "while he

was pursuing his favorite

decrees of Popes and councils
constituted a

I
pleasures at night with �1

married woman,

grand muddle in which each contradictory I
he received a violent blow on the temple,

proposition was equally
infallible with I of which he died eight days

after."

the rest. I These particulars
are not gathered from

One of those infallible pontiffs in the I
those whomRome deems heretical authors,

sixth century, Pope Vigilius,
had re-I but

from the Histoire Ecclesiaetique of

fused to adopt an edict of the Emperor I
the Abbe Fleury, one of the

ablest and

tTustinian condemning three heretical

I
most candid historians of the

Roman

chapters that were then
ourrent ; and for

Church. That work shows from the
tes­

that refusal the 5th Æcumenical
council timony taken that Cardinal Oajetan,

after­

of Constantinople, which had
small belief wards Pope Boniface, was

a downright

in
.,

papal infallibility,"
condemned and Atheist. He denied

that there was any

exiled the Holy Father. A brief
exile other life than the present;

he said that

opened the eyes of Vigilius, who,
we are the world had no beginning

and would

told, assented to the decrees of
the coun- have no end; that the soul

died with the

cil, retracting what he had
written and body; and that there was

no heaven or

avowing that he had been
deceived by hell; he

seemed to believe in nothing, not

the acts of the devil.
even in the devil, whose arts had beeu

A subsequent Pope, John XII.,
who acknowledged by one of his predecessors,

in 963 was summoned before a council
and whose health had been drunk by an­

held in the presence of the Emperor
other.

Otho, seems to have derived
his inspira- I will refrain

from soiling your paper

tion also from the same source. "He
and disturbing your readers by particular

was accused of ordaining Bishops for
allusions to the loose morals and unplens­

money; of having abused
several women; ant

scandals that marked the lives of

* of having converted the pontifìeial pal- many
of the Popes, and which demoral­

ace into a sink of debauchery; of having ized by
their example all orders in the

put out the eyes of his spiritual parent
Church, until Pope Paul III.

in 1536

Benedict; of having killed John. a
Car- complained in a bull to reform the city

dinal, sub-deacon, by castration,
and hav- and the court of Rome, of twenty-five

ing drunk wine to the health of
the devil.

"

abuses, one of which concerned
"the dis­

(Bp. Hopkins' End of controversy
contro- orders committed in many

convents of

verted," vol, 1, p. 80, quoting Fleury,
nuns conducted by monks."

tom. 12, 124.)
The report of the commission

showed

The council deposed this "Holy Fath-
that mankind had never beheld a disso­

er," and elected Leo VIII.
as his sue- luteness equal to that which reigned

in

cessor; but three
months afterwards Rome (I Bp. Hopkins' End

of contro­

John XII. entered Rome again; drove versy, 223; Fleury,
tom 28, 149-59.)

out Leo; cut off the hand of
one or his Nor is it necessary to pursue

at length

accusers, and the tongue, the nose,
and the constant cases in the history of

the

the two fingers of another; and imme-
Roman Church where Popes and councils



r:.r

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.,
01

al­

Ghe

536

Dity

five

dis ..

is of

Dwed

�iss�-
?d 1U

pntro-
19-59.)

�ength
01 the

)uucils

9
==========�========�=========�==============�=================

have been arrayed against each other, manists find themselves, however ready
two infalhbles condemning as heretical they may be to believe anything that has

the doctrines of the other. been uttered by the Holy Fathers, if they
Was there not an edict of Pope can only determine which of their oppos­

Constantius II., which was condemned by ing utterances they are to regard as in­

Pope Martin I. and approved by John fallible and which they are to shun as in­

IV. and Maxinius, and subsequently con- spired by the evil one; is it surprising

demned by the council of Constantinople that Christians who believe in the Bible

in 680 ? decline to accept the dogma of papal in-

Are we not told that at the sixth fallibility? Can Father Newman or any

council the Church anathematized Pope other intelligent Romanist expect Amer­

Honorius, and condemed as impious cer- ieans who reverence the Bible and value

tain dogmas which they found in his let- American institutions, and who know

ter to Sergius? from history the lives of the pontiffs to

Rome, which for centuries has pro- whom they are asked to pay the homage

Iessed to believe in the contemporary due only unto God-can he really expect

councils which held the teachings of that such men, the descendants
often of

those Popes heretical and instigated by the brave martyrs who
amid persecution

the devil, has now by the council of 1870 and
torture died rather than renounce

pronounced those same Popes infallible their
faith in the Bible, will discontinue

and inspired by God. their
work of distributing broadcast that

Then was it. not Pius II who in 1463, Book
at the arrogant summons ofthe Pope

finding a former bull 'which he had issued of Rome,
however backed by the anath­

inconvenient, published another in which emas
and curses of which so plentiful il.

he retracted his former opinions, attrib- supply
seems always ready at the Vatican!

uting them to his youth and inexpe-
'Vas it not Faber or some other eminent

rience, and ordering the faithful to reject pervert
from the English Church who

them as
"

unsound and dangerous?"
said that Borne could never hope to con­

(Fleury cont. 23, tom 192; Hopkins 188.)
vert the mass of the English Protestants

In this last hu l Pope Pius II. spoke
till it adopted the English BIble?

And when one who has studied the
ex cathedra, and therefore by the dogma
with infallible truth, when he attributed

Bible with the trustful and loving rever­

ence that to Father Newman seems like
his former teachings to his youth, ::1S his

predecessor already quoted had with

equal infallibility traced his own con­

duct to the instigation of the devil.

'I'hus, instead of a Romanist being able

to believe with certainty when he finds

how the Popes have spoken, he would almost exclaim with Hamlet:
seem to be subjected to much doubt and

confusion, since Popes themselves ac-
4'

Angels and ministers of grace defend us I

Art thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn '(l,

knowledge that their inspiration may be Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from

not from above but from below, or mere- hell!"

ly the impulse of youth, ignorance and The American people mDy well ask

folly.

I
themselves where the "papal infallibili-

If such be the dilemma. 1Il which
Ro-, ty"

will end, when it begins by proscrib-

"
cant and hypocrisy or superstition and

idolatry," first reads one of the bulls

hurled by the Bishop of Rome nt Bible

Societies, denouncing them as a "pest"
and a

"

pestilence," would it it be strange

if fi, Bible distributor thus startled should



10

ing the Bible and threatening with
hell required in yet fuller measure for an

all who dare read it and refuse to surren- equally extraordinary forgetfulness on

del' it. Father Newman in explaining the part of equally zealous champions

the position of Rome toward the Bible, of papal infallibility,
of the most decided

omitted to quote the rule of the Index and conspicuous measures
taken by the

which decrees :-" But if any person shall infallible Gregory XIII. to identify
the

have the presumption to read or possess Church and his pontificate
forever with

it (the Bible) without such permission, the St.
Bartholomew massacre, as an act

he shall not receive absolution until he glorious and holy, and deserving the most

have first delivered up such Bible to the splendid and enduring
commemoration.

ordinary.
" But in both cases, fortunately for the

truth of history.i--of which as Dr. Holmes

SIR : significantly says in closing his review of

It would be interesting to learn from the diplomatic injustice done to Motley,

Father Newman or from His Eminence "History never forgets and never for­

the Cardinal McClosky, whether the Irish gives,"-the proof of the grant
of Pope

members of their flock, whose devotion- -Adrian IV., and of its
confirmation by

to the Church is so conspicuous, accept. Pope Alexander III. in 1175, have com­

the dogma of papal infallibility in -tho pelled its recognition by the highest Ro­

one significant act of the papacy which man Catholic
authorities and dignitaries

hae most concerned the destiny of I1'e- both in Europe and America. [St�e
note

land during the last seven hundred years. to The Papacy and
the Civil Power, by

THE PAPAL GRANT OF IRELAND. R. W. 'I'hompson.i-=now Secretary of the

In 1152, the supremacy of the See of Navy. ]

Rome was acknowledged by the Synod of While the infallibility dogma
was still

the Irish clergy under the presidency of pending at Home, Archbishop Purcell,
of

Cardinal Papilion, the Pope's legatee; Cincinnati,
wrote to the Archbishop Du­

and in 1156, N icholus Breakspear, an panloup, of
France that, "Our citizens

Englishman who two years before (1154) of
Irish nativity, who are the majority

had become Pope Adrian IV., granted and chief support of the Catholic Church

the crown of Ireland- to Henry II., King in the United States, will
have much dif­

of England. 'I'hatgrant seems to be an ficulty in admitting
that Pope Adrian

extremely difficult one for the champions IV., who
was an Englishman, was infal­

of Rome to remember since the adoption lible when he gave Ireland to Henry II.

of the dogma of papal infallibility. King of England."
,

Father Burke, in replying to Mr. Froude,
.,

Until now," added the Archbishop,

had so entirely forgotten that interesting ". we have
.been permitted to say that the

fact in Irish history, that he declared Catholic Church
had nothing to do with

"with solemn earnestness that Pope Adrian these transactions, and that it
is not re­

never issued any snch document. sponsible
for all the) Popes have done or

We may sympathize, if we' please, with may
do."

Father Burke on the regrettable weak- I Do our Irish fellow citizens now
look

ness of his memory which disabled him upon
the transfer of Ireland to the Eng­

from retaining the slightest recollection lish King
as an act inspired by God, and

of a transaction so profoundly important for which they are to
bless the memory

to him, whether as Irishman or Boman- of the Pope
who did it? If they do

isto Our sympathies will presently be would
it not be a happy illustration,



11

for the Roman Ohurch to exhibit the votion of the Irish to their green island,
faith of their chief supporters in Ameri- and their gratitude to those who have
ca in the infallibility dogma, to celebrate died in the defence of the sovereignty
that disposition of Ireland by His Holi- and the independence of its people, will
ness Nicholas Breakspear, Adrian IV., not readily yield to the newly adopted
the only Englishman who ever sat upon dogma which demands them to honor the
the throne of St. Peters, and who ren- infallibility of the English Pope who
dered his reign memorable by present- granted Ireland to the English. The
ing the sovereignty of Ireland to the name of Ni.cholas Breakspear will not in
English King, receiving in exchange a our day at least displace in the Irish
"tribute of Peter's pence." heart the memory of Robert Emmett.

What strife and blood and pain and I Father Newman will of course unc1er­
sorrow might have been saved through stand that in suggesting as I have done
seven centuries, had the Roman priests some of the historic reasons which to the
believed themselves and taught the peo- great Christian world would be conclu­
pie to believe, that that transfer to the sive against the dogma of infallibility,
Plantaganet was the act of God through even if it were not found contrary to the
the Holy Father, who in the exercise of letter and spirit of tre Bible, I am aware
his right to dispose of Kingdoms and that under the accepted definition of the
people, had in his infalluble wisdom ad- dogma no Romanist is permitted even to
ded to his revenue, by subjectina them to consider the bearing of historic facts on
what. they have irreverently called the this article of his belief, or to weigh their
yoke of the Saxon. testimony however convincing and C011-

Archbishop Purcell had reason for his elusive.

regrets that the Roman Church was by a Archbishop Manning, after alluding to
new dogma assuming a responsibility for the cases of Honorius and Virgilius,
all which the Popes have done, no matter savs : "The true and conclusive answer
how great the crimes and guilt or the to"the objection (of history) consists not
folly. As Satan remnrked.i-=and how in it detailed refutation of alleged diffi­
thoroughly he and his work on that culties, but in a principle of faith, name­
principle,-" all that a man hath will he ly: that whenever any doctrine is con­
give for his life

"

(Job II. 4), and if he is tained in the Divine tradition of the
once brought to believe that a priest or a Churoh, all difficulties from human his­
Pope can pardon his sins or condemn him tory are excluded." (The Vatican Conn­
to hell, there are few beliefs at which he cil and its Definitions: London, 1870, p.
will bolt, few crimes-as St. Bartholo-

119.)
mew cnn testify-which he will not com-

We know something of the protests
mit at the bidding of or.e who he thinks

which have caned forth from learned
controls his salvation.

and. è.evout Romanists the world over,
But even in such cases there may be nnd frcm some of their tiblest bish­

some faint limit to credulity, when the
ops in Ameri �'ì" and it certainly gives us

dogma which he is ordered to acccj.t,
new reason to thank God that we are not

touches too nearly the traditions of a race
obliged to believe the bulls of the Pope

and the sympathies begotten by love of in defiance of the Bible and the tru+h of
country. The Right Reverend prelate of

history.
Cincinnati rightly believed that the de-



12

SIR :-Father Newman an�ounces in 1 here that an attempt
has been made to

your last
number that he will soon give change the order of things

heretofore ex­

solid reasons why Bible Societies are re- isting
in that Republic by publishing

garded by the Roman pontiffs as a pesti- programmes
in which are enunciated

lence. One solidreason was embodied in
'Fl'eedom of education and worship.'

the remark of a Roman Catholic writer, Both these principles
are not only con­

that" the Bible is the potent weapon of trary to the
laws of God and of the

the Protestant power." Without waiting Church,
but are in contradiction to the

for the additional reasons which Father Concordat," &c.

Newman may intend to offer, courtesy
to The papal announcement that

"' Free­

the reverend gentleman, and 'perhaps dom of
education and worship" are con­

other considerations of propriety, seem trary to the
laws of the Church of Rome,

to justify an immediate response to
his and the resolve of the Roman Court to

request for my authorities for
three or prevent them in Nicaragua, would alone

four quotations, some of which he inti- sufficiently explain
the curses poured

mates are forgeries. Should such prove upon
those who have the "effrontery"

to be the case, we shall all of course
be to circulate the Bible which of old iu­

obliged to Father Newman for exposing spired
our ancestors to resist to �he death

the forgery and disclosing the truth.
the efforts of Rome to trample out in the

Since Father Newman has shown a dis-
old world freedom of education and wor­

position to convert us to the Church
of ship, and which alone of all the volumes

Rome, he cannot be surprised that
we ever

written can so enlighten the under­

desire to know something of its dogmas; standing, strengthen
the will and purify

especially as we are constantly
remind- the heart, that with the Bible in every

ed that so soon as Rome shall obtain in house,
the attempt to destroy freedom of

the United States the supremacy which
education and worship in this American

she 'hopes soon to accomplish, no more
Republic will be a task impossible.

liberty of education, of worship, or
of Father Newman ridicules

as "ab­

government will be permitted in our Re-
surd" a claim to unity on the part of

public than the Pope HOW permits
in those branches of the Christian

Church

Ecuador and Nicaragua.
which hold with the Church of England,

The Concordat with Ecuador, for ex-
in her 6th article, to "the sufficiency of

ample, provides that the Catholic (mean-
the Holy Scriptures for salvation," since

ing the Roman) religion is the religion of they
differ on lesser points and un litur­

the State; and that, consequently, the gies,
rubrics and forms of government.

practice of any other mode of worship is
But their common belief in the Bible as

forbidden in the Republic. That any the
revealed word of God constitutes a

book forbidden by a Bishop is confis-
bond of union, the unity of the spirit in

cated by the government, and that the
the bond of peace, whose strength and

government will lend the Bishops its power
Rome knows and fears; and hence

powerful aid in putting down anyone
her desperate attempts to arrest Bible

who attempts to lead the faithful into the distribution;
for the Court of Rome has

paths of error.
learned from her own history that a peo-

In Nicaragua so recently as Jall. l, ple
imbued with the spirit of the Bible

1870, Cardinal Antonelli, 011 behalf
will never consent to surrender to the

Pius IX., wrote to the Bishop of N icara- Pope
the freedom of education and wor­

gua:
,.

We have lately been informed ship,
nor permit him to dictate to the



13

or­

the

American government as he has dictated

II
exact truth in regard to the faith and

to Spain and Mexico. It cannot be de- practices of the Roman Court during the
nied that the Romanists have had some

I past of Europe. which it proposes to
reason for boasting of the influence they

I'
engraft. on the future of America.

have exerted in our politics, and of the Father Newman at least will not com­
skill with which, wielding so large a vote, plain of our anxiety to be correctly in­

they have received in return enormous structed on the dogmas of his Church,
grants of public moneys. More than and in particular on those which con­

forty years ago Archbishop Hughes ex- cern the preservation of our national

ultingly said after referring to Rome as freedom, and which, if we reject, we are
the Church Militant, "Catholic doc- to be damned. He has himself invited

trines, practices, history: and connections us to the Roman faith in a friendly con­
with government have become living and troversy that pleasantly contrasts with

present facts, entering largely into the the modes of persuasion to which hun­
poli tical movements of the day, and con- dreds of thousands in days which, God
troling in part, if not governing the 01'- be thanked, are gone forever, were in­

ganization, of parties and platforms. vited by the suave messengers of the
This is what cannot be said of any other holy office.

religion.
"

(Quoted in Am. & For. Chris- THE �LD EASTER CURSE.
tian Union VIII., . ) With this apology-if apology be need-

'I'his interference with our politics, ed-for seeking exact information, and

peculiar us the Bishop suggested to the entirely agreeing with Father Newman's
Roman religion, seems to be progressing expression, that "it is a holy and useful
with more boldness than ever on the part work at all times to endeavor to dispel
of the Papal Court, and they boast at the mists of error by the sun of truth," I
Rome that New York is already coutroled come to the first of Father Newman's

by the Pope-a remark of which our tax- questions, in reference to the curse which

payers who have visited Rome may be I remarked "was sarid to be read in

reminded as they note in our city the every Roman Church," &c. I took it

blending of dirt, misgovernment and from Dr. I. I. Smith's " Impending Con­
confiscation. ilict," p. 287, where the author said,

The recent attempts to arrest Bible "The following is read in every Roman
Societies as "a pestilence," to overthrow Church on Thursday before Easter: 'In
our common school system, to tax the the name of God Almighty, Father, Son,
people for Romish schools where chil- and Holy Ghost, and of the authority of
dren will be bent like the twig, moulded the Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our
in the confessional, educated as subjects own, we excommunicate and anathematize
of the Pope, owing to him their chief all Hussites, Wickliffìtes, Lutherans,
allegiance, instructed according to St. Zwinglians, Calvinists, Huguenots, Ana­

Alphonso when the truth need not be baptists, Unitariaus, and other apostates
spoken, when oaths need not be kept, from the faith, find nll other heretics by
when the laws need not be obeyed, and I whatsoever nr me they may be called or

I

taught to regard all Protestants as ac- i of whatsoever sect they may be, and all
cursed--these attempts so boldly made, their adherents, receivers, favorers, and
surely justify our desire to know, as far generally any defenders of theirs, as also
as may be known from Roman Catholic Schismatics, and those who withdraw

authority an.l authentic history, the I themselves or recede obstinately from the

B



,..'

14

obedience to me the Roman Pontiff.'
" I wealth of that great country; and the

The curse, it seems, was contained in Inquisition from the 14th to the 19th
the Bull in Cœna Dornini, which has century, cursing alike the Old World
been called an extremely ex cathedra de- and the New with its dark, remorseless
cision, since it owed its origin to Greg- tyranny; its auto da fes j its black­
ory XI. in 1572, Gregory XII. in 1411, I robed familiars acting in secret; its
Pius V. in 1568, and was finally pro- gloomy prisons; its ingenious tortures;
duced by Urban VIII. in 1627. It ap- its robés of infamy: the gag, the rack,
pears to have been annually read in Rome

I
the pulley, the weights, the. screw, the

on Maunday Thursday for 200 years, until water and the fire ;-that "holy office,"
it was objected to by sovereigns and as it was called, which, according to Mr.
states, as encroaching on their independ- Lothrop Motley, the historian, whom
ence, in the imposition of taxes, the ex- Father Newman bas already quoted,
ercise of judicial authority, and the pun- "made the savages of India and Amer­
ishiaent of the crimes of clerics by

thl'eat-I
ica shudder at the name of Christianity."

ening with excommunication those who Among all these crimes-one that Father
perform such parts without special papal Newman himself pronounces a crime,
permission. (The Pope and the C01111- claiming in thia to follow certain alleged
ciI, by James, 1870, page 315.) Bulls of Gregory XIII. for which I shall

ROME'S BLOODY PERSECUTIONS. presently ask Lis authority-c-the Massa-
Referring to my remark that my cre of St. Bartholomew, towers in its bad

valued friends of the Roman communion
preeminence a crime unapproachable in

were "not responsible for the ancient its deliberate and prolonged wickedness,
crimes of the Homan Court,

"

Father cowardice, cruelty and horror.
Newman remarks, ""\Vhy don't the learn- THE ADORATION OF THE POPE.
ed writer mention some of those bloody 4th & 5th.-Father Newman next de-
persecutions? Tell us when and where sires the authority of for the Latin
they took place, and not be asserting nhrase of homage to the Pope: "Venit'j
generalities, * * * We should like ;lclo1'ernu8 eanctum pupam." (come let
to hear what crimes were those and when us adore the Holy Pope), and also the
they were committed." passage in the prayer to the Virgin:

Although I venture to doubt the pleas- "Tu es spes unica peccatorum" (Thou
ure which it will afford Father Newman art the only hope of s inners.)
to hear the list, and caring not to discuss To the suggestion that members of
the crimes of other days, excepting so far Christian Churches, other than the
as they may illustrate our dangers IU the r Church of Borne, "refuse to turn from
present, I will briefly say that among the the worship of the Saviour of the world
principal crimes to which reference was to worship the Virgin or deify the Pepe."
made was the Massacre of the Waldenses Mr. Newman replies as if in this approv­
in the thirteenth and later centuries; of ing their conrse : "Very correct indeed ;
the Vaudois of Provence in 1545; of the they are perfectly right in doing so";
Huguenots in France in 1572; of the, and then asks, "but whom have they
Protestants in Ireland in 1641; the Drag- refused ? Not the Roman Catholic
onnades of the seventeenth century Church certainly, for it never invited
which drove from France half a million

peopIe to do so."
of her noblest citizens-a blow to the in- The charge of forgery as an easy
telhgence, manufactures, commerce and answer to troublesome facts seems to be



15

a choice and cherished weapon with the Article
of the Church of England, as

trained advocates of the Society of Jesus; "grounded
on no warrant of Scripture but

and its appearance now to disprove the rather repugnant
to the word of God,"

adoration of the Pope and the prayer to are quite right
in refusing to turn from

the Blessed Virgin as the only hope of the Saviour
of the world to worship the

sinners, recalls the curious fact that, but Virgin
or to deify the Pope.

the other day, the doctrine of papal in-
The Latin invitation to adore the Pope

fallibility was denounced by Romanists
I quoted fiom a discourse in French

of the

as
"

a Protestant invention." Rev. M. Chiniquy, formerly
of Illinois,

To-day we are assured that it is not a for some twenty-five years
a priest in the

modern dogma, but "one of the old ones Roman Catholic Church. That
reverend

which had always been believed by the and learned Father, in exposing
like the

faithful.
"

old Catholics of Switzerland, Germany

The Roman Catholic Bishop Clifford, and France, the errors which they had

of Clifton, and Archbishop Errington, are abandoned, gave a description of the

said to have boldly stated in the council ceremony at St. Peter's, Rome,
after the

that the English Catholics had gained election of a Pope, and which he said

their political rights on the repeated "the Romanists, not the Protestants,"

assurance, and on the express condition, called the " adoration of the Pope."

�hat the doctrine of Papal infallibility "He is borne," said Father Chiniquy,

should not be taught and received in the "on the shoulders of six men; he has

English Church. upon his head a triple
crown of gold

In this country as late as 1862, Dr. sparkling with precious stones; upon
his

Bronson in his review (April, 1862, p. shoulders a cloak covered with diamonds.

161), in a paper headed
"The Church

* * * Where do they carry him?

not a Despotism,
"

said: "Infallibility is
They carry him to the

altar of his God;

the privilege of no individual, not even of * * there a Cardinal at the sound of the

the Pope"; and the controversial
cate-

chism approved by English Roman Cath­

olic Bishops and highly praised. by Arch­

Bishop Manning's "Tablet," was
noted

by the Pall Mall as giving
this question

and answer:

Q. Are not Catholics hound to
believe

that the Pope is in himself infallible?

A. "This is a Protestant invention, and

is no article of Catholic belief. No Papal

decision can bind under pain of heresy

unless received and proscribed by the

enacting body, the Bishops
of the

Church."

'I'his time, it seems, the forgeries con-

cern the adoràtion of the Pope and the

prayer to the Virgin; and despite
the

dogmas of the Immaculate Conception

and Papal infallibility, we are assured by

Father Newman that we who protest

against the errors of Rome, as III the 22d
account?

/

trumpets pronounces
these words:

'Venite adoremus sanctum papam'

(come let us adore
the Holy Pope.) At

these words the multitude fall upon
their

knees and adore that man. They call

him in the Church of Rome the Very

Holy Father; they say
that he is the in­

fallible source of light and truth. It is

towards him that all regards should in­

cline as being the luminary of
the world.

It is he alone with whom God
communi-

cates directly; it is he alone who
has the

Holy Spirit without measure;
it is he

alone who can speak in the name of God,

and when he speaks all should keep

silence. Nu one has a right to resist

him, no one has the right
to escape from

his domination." Can Father
Newman

find any forgery or
falsehood in that



lVIEDIATION OF THE VIRGIN.

Touching the prayer to the Blessed

Virgin, which Father Newman also re­

gards as a forgery, demanding the edition,
the date and the page of the Breviary,
with a rather threatening intimation that

if ,I do not name them, "Catholics (mean­

ing Romanis ts) may consider themselves

grossly maligned and offended,
"

I

quoted from another discourse of Father

Chiniquy, entitled
"

'I'he Church of

Rome as it is," dated Kankakee, Ill.,

Nov. 29, 1869. That Reverend Father

said that it was contained in "the sup­

plement to the Breuiarium. containing

the new office of Mary Immaculate, at

page 158, lines 7th and 8th:"
"

Accipe

quod offerimus, redona quod rogamus,

excusa quod timemus: QUIA TU ES SPES

UNICA PECCATORUM! p er te speramus
veniam delictorum et in te beatissima

nostrorum. est expectatis prœmiorum,

Sancta Maria succurre miseris," &c.

(" Receive what we offer, give what we

ask, excuse what we fear. Thou art the

only hope of einnere. Through thee we

hope for the pardon of our sins, and in

thee, 'Most Blessed, is the expectation of

our reward. Holy Mary, succor the

wretched," &c.)

Though Father Chiniquy may have

been excommunicated and consigned to

perdition, will it be pretended that that

prayer and the supplement to which he

referred were Protestant inventions? If

that petition is a forgery-and the Church

of Rome holds that it is a sin to address

the Blessed Virgin as the only hope of

sinners-was it also a forgery the en­

cyclical letter of Gregory XVI. in 1832,

"Mirare Vo']," in 'W hich he said, "Let

us raise our eyes and hands to the most

Blessed Virgin Mary, who ALONE de­

stroys heresies, who is OUR GREATEST

HOPE-yea, the entire ground of

hope" (quoted in Church Dictionary, by

Rev. Walter Farquer Hook, D. D.-Lon-

don, 1852.) Was it a forgery the

petition quoted by Dr. Hook from the
" Crown of the Blessed Virgin," "com­

mand your most beloved Son, our Lord

Jesus Christ, that He deign to raise our

minds?"

Does not the Roman Breoiarurn oon­

tain, as is stated, the words: "Gaude,

Virgo Maria, cunctas hœreeee SOLA

interemisti 'Universo mundo
"
-" Re­

joice, Virgin Mary, for thou alone hast

destroyed the heresies in the whole

world.
"

(" The Glories of Mary," trans­

lated from tne Italian of St. Alphonsus

Liquori, and published by Edward DUll­

negan & Bro., New York, 1855. ) Is

that a forgery? with its numerous author­

ities to show (p. 18) that all graces are

dispensed by the hand of l\_1ary alone,
and that all who are saved are saved

solely by means of the divine Mother;
"

that no one can be saved except through"

Mary (p. 189); that she is the mother of

God, omnipotent to save sinners (202);

that God has placed not only under the

patronage, but also under the dominion

of Mary. "Sub Dominatione ac po­
testate "(p. 203)-" A sinner cannot be

saved except by means of the Holy Vir­

gin" (256).
"

He who neglects the ser­

vice of Mary shall die in sin."

Does not Rome hold with St. Ilde­

fonsus that Mary is the most true medi­

atrix between God and man?
"

Dei

atirue hominum. uerissima mediatrix
"

(p. 170.)
The Bible,' on the other hand,· says

that "there is one God and one medi­

ator between God and man-the man

Christ Jesus (I. Tim., ii, 5)-and that

whoever believeth in the Lord Jesus

shall be saved.

Touching the deification of the Pope,
Iobs'erve a pertinent passage in Mr.

Gladstone's review of the discourses of

Pius IX.-and speaking of Mr. Glad­

stone I cannot forbear saying that



1
I

17

the Roman Catholics owe him a great

II
haps the ablest champion of Rome that

debt of gratitude for
- his efforts America has produced, deserves the at­

during thirty years to secure for them I
tention not only of the legislators who

civil justice in England; and now that,
I will be urged, year after year, to appro­

without changing his convictions, he has priate money for
Roman schools, but of

exposed with such admirable temper and every
Roman Catholic father and mother

marvelous skill the true meaning of the in our land who
desire their children to

infallibilIty dogma, especially in its have
an education that will fit them, not

bearing upon civil allegiance, the abuse for
the past, but for the present and. the

heaped upon him is the highest tribute to future,
that they may have an equal

the unanswerable force of his facts and chance with their neighbors to
achieve

arguments.
success in life .

.

Mr. Gladstone shows that the reporter Dr. Brownson,
who was an American

of the speeches, Don Pasquale, evident- before
he was a Romanist, and who re­

ly with the papal approval, pronounces
tained many of his

American character­

the speeches inspired. divine; calls the istics,
said again: "That foreignism

Pope the portentous father of the Nations w
bich Catholics bring with them and

(p. 11); "the living Christ" "the voice perpetuate
in their foreign colony, is un­

of God"; he is the God that condemns" Catholic
and antagonistic to the Amer­

(p. 17). (Gladstone's speeches of Pope
ican idea, and has done more injury to

Pius IX., New York, 1875, p. 6). our
American idea of civilization than

ROME EDUCATES FOR THE PAST.
the Catholicity they also bring has done

Certainly, in reference both to the Vir- good." (Brownson's
Review, April,

gin and the Pope, there is a difference uf 1868, p. 168.)

view between the Roman Church and the I Here, for instance, IS a specimen of the

Christian Churches that rest their faith tone in which
the

"

Foreign Colony," as

upon the Bible, which goes to explain
Brownson calls it, offers to America the

why Rome regards Bible Societies
as "a principles which have brought Spain

and

pestilence," and why those who hold to Mexico to
their present condition.

the Bible as the word of life object to the "Ca.tholic principles
alone can save

introduction int-i our system of Roman the Republic.
* * If Catholicity fails,

Catholic education. In fact, the most in- civilization will fail;
New York will be

telligent Roman Catholics of our land, as Carthage,
Baltimore as Hippo, Amer­

men like Dr. Brownson, who are accns- ica as Africa." (Freemans' Journal,

tomed to mark the admirable results of quoted by the Am. & F
or. Christian

our common school system, where the Union, VIII., 334).

Bible is appreciated and cherished, can-
However devoted and earnest a Ro­

not shut their eyes to the fact that for
manist Father Newman may be in

his

this age and this Republic, Roman Cath-
efforts for the accomplishment of the

'olic education is singularly unfitted. domination of
the Pope in our Republic,

"rrhe cause," wrote Dr. Brownson,
with power to suppress

all other relig­

"of the failure of what we call Catholic I ions as heresies,
and to enforce the doc­

education is in our judgment the fact I trines of the svllabus,
he has been too

that we educate not for the present or acute and intelligent
an observer since he

the future but for the past." (Quoted came to
America to suppose that that

re­

by Dr. Smith, Impending Conflict, 63).
sult can ever be accomplished while we

.That philosophic judgment, from per- preserve
the integrity of our common



18
---==-=����====================-=-=-=-=-=-�-�._==============================�

schools and keep the Bible in the hands If these oaths are not like the Papal

of the people; and Father Newman can infallibility, "a Protestant invention," it

hardly have failed to note, during his res- would look as if Rome anticipated some

idence in our Republic, the honest patri- exceptions, in the future as in the past,

otism of American citizens and their in- to the rule declared by Father Newman,

telligent love of country; and if he will that" the Catholic Church achieves her

study the history of the Republic to triumphs not by violence but by gentle­
which he has come, and trace the ante- ness and patience;" and the Roman

cedents of the early colonists, he can Court is right if it thinks that its Cardi­

hardly fail to understand the reasons nals and Bishops will have to resist unto

why the Roman "foreignism" imported blood before His Holiness can treat our

from Europe, where for ages the Pope Republic as he does our neighbor the

has assumed to rule Nations and govern- Republic of Mexico.

merits with coercive power, to depose 'I'ake, for instance, the allocution of

sovereigns, and absolve subjects from Pius IX., Dec. 15, 1856, in regard to cer­

their allegiance, disturbs even American tail) Mexican laws:
' ,

We condemn, dis­

Roman Catholics as at war with the inde- allow, and declare absolutely null and of

pendence and dignity of the Republic, no effect, all the decrees above mentioned,

and with their personal honor as Amer- and all the acts which the civil power in

ican citizens, bound to maintain the Mexico bas done in contempt ef the

National Constitution, and yet claimed as eoclesiastical authority and of the Apos­
the subjects of a foreign prince, obliged tolic See," &c.

absolutely to obey the Pope even at the Father Newman may perhaps reply
sacrifice of their country. The very that the Pope makes a difference between

oaths of the Cardinals and Bishops of the our Republic and that of Mexico and the

Roman religion have for Americans a

I
lesser States; and that he never treats

foreign and unchristia� �ound,', very
dif-

with disrespect the American govern­
ferent from the glad tidings Peace on ment or the American people: although
earth and good will towards men." even this would be a rather rash remind-

Each Roman Cardinal, we are told, er of the fact which tended to demor­

takes an oath that he will give to the alize many of our Roman Catholic citi­

Pope and his successors any assistance in zens, and to increase the difficulty of our

retaining, defending and recovering the task and the waste of life and treasure,
Roman papacy and the regalia of St. that Pius IX., while still a temporal sov­

Peter with all his might and endeavor; ereign, was the only sovereign in Europe
that he will resist unto blood all persons who recognized the Southern Confeder­

whatever who shall attempt anything acy when our national integrity hung

against them, and that he will seek out upon the issue of the war, receiving with

and oppose, persecute and fight against honor the rebel envoys and eommending
heretics and schismatics against our their chief as the "illustrious and hon­

Lord the Pope. (25. Christian World, ored President" of the Slave Confeder-

24.) . acy that pretended to have risen on the

The Bishops, too, are required to ruins of the Republic. He addressed to

swear they will persecute and wage war Mr. Jefferson Davis the memorable Latin

against all whom Rome calls heretics. letter which concluded: "Given at Rome,

(Bishop Wadsworth, of Lincoln, 2 New at St. Peter's, the 3d day of December,

Testament, pages 254 & 5, note.) 1863, and of our pontificate 18th.-

I



19

/

Pius IX." sovereign pontiffs.
After· expressing his pleasure that Mr. These are some of the dogmas which

Davis was animated by the same desire the most enlightened Roman Catholics of
of peace which the Pope had inculcated America are by no means prepared to ap­
on the Archbishop John Mary, of New prove.
Orleans, and the Archbishop John, of The letters from Rome on the Council,
New York, Pius IX. prayed God by Quirinus" (p. 108), said that the
, , that the other people of America and American bishops "ask how they are
their rulers" (these were the terms in going to live under the free constitution
which he referred to the American peo- of their Republic, and maintain their

pIe and their government founded by position of equality with their felloweiti­

Washington) would" adopt resolutely the zens, after committing themselves to the
part of peace," which meant the part of principles attached to papal infallibility:
surrender and national disintegration. such as religious persecution and the co-

The fidelity with which a great num- ercive power of the Church, the claim of
bel' of our Roman Catholic officers and Catholicism to exclusive mastery in the
men continued to fight for the whole State, the Pope's right to dispense from
country, in disregard of that powerful oaths, the subjection of the. civil power to
voice from the Vatican and the instrue- the supreme dominion," &c.
tion to the Archbishop John Hughes, In a letter during the same winter
fully justified the testimony which I have (p. 504), it was said, "the two prelates
always cheerfully borne to "the loyal (Archbishops Kenrick, of St. Louis, and
sympathy with our institutions which is Purcell, of Cincinnati), add that Amer­
to be found among our Roman Catholic can Catholics have very special reb sons
citizens," But the history of Rome, the for disliking the definition for the notion
doctrines of the syllabus and the dogma that the Pope had a right to depose mon­
of infallibility, reviving and consecrating archs, dispense oaths of allegiance and
the extreme acts and utterances of the give away countries and nations at his
most extreme Popes who 'tre held never I will (referring, perhaps, to Adrian, Ire­
to have exceeded theiv power, forbid the land and Henry II.), is equally strange
iàea

.

that the sovereign pontiff' or the to Protestants and Catholics in their
members of his court can entertain any country."

loyal sympathy with our institutions, to One reason, perhaps, for the vague
prevent them from exercising if they ideas prevailing even among educated
could once possess the power throughout American Romanists on these essential
this Republic, the policy which Rome has points, is the reserve which from mo­
exercised in what she calls Catholic coun- tives of expediency has been imposed on
tries, under the rules laid down by Boni- the Roman Catholic teachers in express­
face VIII. in Unam Sanctam, that the ing in England and the United States
whole world is subject to the Pope, even the doctrines which are openly pro­
in temporal and political matters, (letter claimed in Spain. The Tablet, for in­
from Rome on the Council, byQuirinus stance, which is said to reflect the teach­
-New York, 1860-636); that it is law- ings of Cardinal Manning, says, "For
ful for the Popes to depose Emperors example, in a country like this, where
and absolve subjects from their allegiance, toleration of religion is an established
as declared by Gregory VII., Alexander political principle, and when in point of
III., Innocent III., and others of the fact the followers of other religions taken



20

together far outnumber the faithful,

were it even possible, it would not only

be an impudence of which the Church is

incapable, but it would be the height

madness to attempt to give other ex­

pression of her intolerance than that of

words, and those words, too, the gentlest
and most charitable.

"But the case is very different in such

I a country as Spain. That people have

been Catholic ever since they believed:

the sovereign, government, people, all

Catholic."

The rules prescribed by St. Alphonso
de Liguori (confirmed by Gregory in

1839) for giving false evidence under

oath, or violating the truth or a promise
- some thirty cases being specified

where this is allowable to devout Roman-

under her rule been sunk in poverty, iu

political servitude and in intellectual tor,

por: while Protestant countries once pro­

verbial for sterility and barbarism have

been turned by skill and industry into

gardens, and can boast of a long list of

heroes and statesmen, philosophers and

poets. Whoever knowing what Italy and

Scotland naturally are, and what four

hundred years ago they naturally were,
shall now compare the country around

Rome with that around Edinburgh, will

be able to form some opinion as to the

tendency of papal domination. The de­

scent of Spain, once the first among mon­

archies, to the lowest depths of degreda­

tion, the elevation of Holland in spite of

many natural disadvantages to a position
such as no commonwealth so small has

ists-afford every variety of apology for ever reached, teach the same lesson.

denying in words the gentlest and the Whoever passes in Germany from a Ro­

most charitable, any statement however man Catholic to a Protestant principality;
true which would be to this advantage and in Switzerland from a Roman Catho­

of religion or to the common detriment, lic to a Protestant canton; in Ireland from

by hindering some blessed 'plan of the a Roman Catholic to a Protestant county;

Pope or Jesuit Fathers. (Moral Theol- finds that he has passed from a lower to a

ogy of the Church of Rome, by the Rev. higher grade of civilization. On the

Fred. Merridr, with an Introduction other side of the Atlantic the same law

the Rev. (now Bishop) Cleveland Coxe, prevails.

Baltimore).
"

The Protestants of the United States

Father Newman has quoted with enthu- have left far behind them the Roman

siasm the historian Macauley on the Catholics of Mexico, Peru and Brazil,

longevity of the Church of Rome; and The Roman Catholics of Lower Canada

his observant view of her later aims and remain inert, while the whole Continent

results is equally deserving of thoughtful round them is in a ferment with Prot­

consideration in contrasting the effect of estant activity and enterprize."
Romanism with that of the Bible, and In the face of these facts clear as the

illustrating the sort of civilization which sunlight, and teaching the plainest of

Rome offers for our acceptance: "Eut lessons, Rome pursues from century to

during the last three centuries to stunt century, and from clime to clime, her

the growth of the human mind has been career of ambition; and she is seek­

her object. Throughout christendom ing to establish in America the supremacy

whatever advance has been made in of the sovereign pontiff.

knowledge, in freedom, in wealth, and in We have answered, frankly and

the arts of life, has been in inverse PlO- fully, Father Newman's several de­

portion to her power. The loveliest and mands for the authority on which

most fertile provinces of Europe have I based the statements which he



regards' as forgeries, and I will respect,

I'
desperate, unless she can suppress the

fully ask him to state with equal partie- medal and invent
a bull.

ularity his authority for the statement in The story
as very recently told by

his first letter at the close of the sketch Lord Acton, one of the most eminent of

of the St. Bartholomew's matter, that the English champions of the Vatican de­

"
when the whole truth was afterwards crees, in a letter to Mr. Gladstone de­

disolosod, THE POPE BY HIS WORDS AND fending the dogma
of infallibility, gives

HIS BULLS PUBLICLY SHOWED HIS HORROR additional interest to Father
Newman's

f

AT SUCH A CRIME.
,.

I ask his proof for this exact and un­

qualified assurance on WhICh he accused

me of reviving "a rather stale and ex­

ploded calumny" against the Roman

Church, and -with which he declared that

"aH students of history who are correctly
informed know well that the Church is

not to blame in that affair.
"

Father New­

man will please give the dates and par­

ticulars of the bulls in question �xpress­

ing Gregory's horror of the St. Bartholo­

mew crime. How many such bulls

were these? when were they issued and

where are they to be found? What his­

torian has quoted them or alluded to

them?

These are questions to which, after my

ready response to his demands, the rev­

erend and learned gentleman will of

course cheerfully and readily answer,

especially as his statement seems to be at

variance with the statement of writers of

the highest authority in his own Church,

and tu the t estimony of Gregory himself,

as embodied 111 the medal representing

an angel, armed with a cr08S and sword,

engaged iu massacring the fallen and

flying Huguenots, which was explained

by Roman writers as indicating' 'a heaven­

ly work accompished by the divine aid

and counciL"

I shall, of course, not question in the

slightest degree the sincerity of Father

Newman in placing perfect faith in the

authority of the bulls on which he rests

the innocence of Gregory; nor will I repeat

his suggestion about forgeries, nor inti­

mate that Rome knows the case to be

21

statement of Gregory's horror of the crime.

Lord Acton said in illustration of his

argument that Mr. Gladstone attached

undue importance to the recent decree of

infallibility as affecting the character of

the Church: "Pius V., the only Pope

who hae been proclaimed a Saint for many

centuries, having deposed Elizabeth,

commissioned an assassin to take her

life; and his next successor (Gregory

XIII.), on learning that the Protestants

were being massacred in France, pro­

nounced the action glorious and holy,

but comparatively barren of results; and

implored the King during two months by

his nuncio and his legate, to carry the

work on to the bitter end, until every

Huguenot had recanted or perished."

(The Vatican decrees in their bearing on

civil allegiance, by Gladstone--D. Apple­

ton, New York, 1872-p. 84.)

Father Newman will see from Lord

Acton's clear statement of the case how

much interest will attach to the dates,

the occasions and the texts of Gregory's

bulls disapproving the massacre. It will be

interesting to know the time when he first

awakened to the character of the work in

which his legate and Cardinal Lad been

engaged. In what terms di.l he express

his horror, and why did he deem it neces­

sary to repeat it in another bull?
These

and similar questions connected with the

medal, and the frescoes of Vasari, ordered

by the Pope for the "Sala Regia"
of

the Vatican, to commemorate the massa­

cre as the great glory of his pontificate,

will all give to the bulls cited by Father

Newman an unusual historic importance.



22

I beg also to ask him to explain when horror at the deed."

and where they were discovered, as they If Father Newman will read the letters
seem to have been unknown to the of Lord Acton, the eminent Roman Cath­
writers on the subject from Joan Palatius, olio nobleman, to which he refers as hav­

quoted by the famous Jesuit Bonnani, I ing appeared in the London Times of

down to Lord Acton in 1872. Even at' November, 1874, and especially that pub­
Rome so late as 1840 the Roman Church lished Nov. 24th, on the 6th page of that

seemed to proclaim anew her desire to paper, he will find extracts from original

identify herself with the massacre, and letters in French and Italian of the

remind the world of her approval of it, by Pope's Nuncio Salviati, and of the Car­

reissuing the Gregory medal with the dinalOrsini. These show that the Pope

destroying angel and the divine theory. after being informed by Salviati on the

(Bp. Wadworth of Lincoln, 2 New Testa- 2d September, that the report that the

ruent, in Greek, 25-45, quoting Irish Massacre of Aug. 24, 1572, had been

Eccles. Journal No. 13.) provoked by the detection of a Protestant

I trust that Father Newman, who has conspiracy, was an utter falsehood too

very properly invoked "fair play" in ridiculous to be believed: 80 far from
this friendly controversy on points of the expressing his horror at the Massacre

gravest interest, political and religious, which had occurred, or seeking to pre­
and who has reminded us that

"

truth is vent its extension, caused the King to be

divine and beautiful," will be as prompt advised by the nuncio of the desire of his

to give the authority for the bulls on holiness
'

for the great glory of God and

which he based his charges of ignorance of the greatest welfare of France to see all the

history and the revival of an "exploded heretics of the Kingdom extirpated"­

calumny," as he was to demand my taus ies heretiques extirpees du roy­

authority for the quotation from a prayer aume--and he advised that the edict of
to the Virgin, and an allusion to the ador- pacification should be revoked. That ad­

ation of the Pope. vice, announced on the 22d September,
I make the request with perfect court- was followed by Salviati's writing on the

esy, and awaiting the answer on this 11th October, that the Holy Father had

point of the learned gentleman, to experienced an infinite joy and great con­

whose last letter, in its completed form, solation in learning that His Majesty had

I propose to make a further reply. commanded me to write that he hoped
that in a little while France would have

SIR :-On the 8th of February I inter- no more Huguenots-" qu elle esperait
mitted my answer to Father Newman's qu aoant pen la France n' aurait plus
last letter to give that reverend gentleman de Huguenots." On the 19th December

an opportunity of. citing the proofs and Cardinal Orsini, who had been despatched
particulars of the bulls of Pope Gregory as Legate from Rome, congratulated the

XIII., in which he said that the Pope King on the glory of the Massacre, and

"publicly showed his horror at such a "pressed him to renew his promise that

crime
"

- the Massacre of St. Bartholo- not a single Huguenot should be left

mew. In Father Newman's reply, which alive on the soil of France."

was continued for successive weeks and Some months later Cardinal Lorraine,
concluded on Saturday last, he says "I harranguing the King in the presence of

cannot readily and conveniently obtain the assembled clergy of France, declared

the bulls or letters showing the Pope's· that he had eclipsed all preceeding mOD-



23

I

archs, not by the Massacre only, but by

the holy deceit with which he had laid

his plans.
Lord Acton quotes the Egerton MSS.,

2,077, and in the Paris library the Italian

MSS., 1,272, and the Proces Verbaux

des Assembles du Olerpe, I Appendix

28, and refers with satisfaction to the fact

that among the applauding Cardinals one

voice was raised in protest-that of Mon­

talto, who became Sextus V., and who

expected. the Pope to prohibit rejoicings

WhICh would convince the world that the

Church was thirsting for blood. But

Gregory proceeded to commemorate his

part in the Massacre by the medal which

represented it as an angelic work, and by

the three frescoes which he ordered from

Vassari, and of which one certainly may

still be seen in the Vatican,

The proofs cited by Lord Acton, added

to those previously known, are complete

and irresistible: and the Bomanists

could hardly select an incident in papal

history, not even the grant of Ireland to

the Crown of England, nor the condem­

nation of Gallileo, where the attempts to

revise history in the interest of papal in­

fallibility, is so thoroughly overcome by

the papal records: serving to make more

clear and indelible the unpleasant truths

which it is now deemed essentaal to pal­

liate or deny.
It is gratifying to find among the high­

toned Roman Catholic laity such a frank,

outspoken contempt for the jesuitical

treatment of history, and such a manly

and scholarly exposure of the historic in­

ventions that are being palmed off upon

the ignorant credulity of those, who in re­

gard to historic facts of which the proof

is before them, have been taught to close

their eyes and shut their
ears and discard

the reason and judgment with which God

has endowed them, on the ground that

the Pope is infallible, and they must be­

lieve or be damned.

Father Newman's appeal to history

and to "solid argument" seems to rec­

ognize the fact, at least, that Americans

hold to the right of private judgment:

and his discussion of some of the

topics that are more or less connected

with the mission of the Jesuits to this

country, has an interest not alone for

Americans who question the infallibility

and supremacy of the Pope, but for all

Roman Catholic laymen who are unpre­

pared to surrender their constitutional

rights as citizens, the principle of relig­

ious toleration, the power of the State to

establish schools, and the great doctrines

of civil and religious liberty.

Among the topics with which Father

Newman has supplied the place of the

Bulls which he could "not readily and

conveniently obtain," is the Inquisition,

which he eulogizes as "an institution

holy in its objects, just in its measures,

and beneficial in its results." Touching

the chief measure-torture-he lays stress

on the point that it observed an unusual
" moderation" in torturing its victims, and

that it tortured under" medical surveil­

lance.
"

Lord Acton, at the close of his master­

ly paper, asked those who differed from

him "to ask themselves seriouslV wheth­

er the laws of the Inquision are or are not

a scandal and a sorrow to their souls."

Whatever might be the answer to this

question on the part oi the intelligent

and right-minded laymen of the Roman

Catholic Church in America, it would

seem from Father Newman's frank ex­

pressions, that the thought of the Inquisi­

tion causes no sorrow to the Roman Bish

ops, priests and Jesuits in our Republic

who are bound by no oath as citizens, and

who boast with a confidence real or affect­

ed that they will soon succeed by
their

management of our politics in subjecting

the American people to the rule of the



24

Pope. Father Hecker, who once said I from the tomb. * * All proclaim that
"

in fifteen years we wiU take this country, ! Ohristianity
- general, tolerant Ohris­

and build our institutions over the grave I tianity-Ohristianity independent of sects
of Protestantism," has since fixed the: and parties-that Chrisbianity to which

year 1900 as the time when they think! the sword and fagot are unknown-gen­
that" Rome will have a majority and be oral, tolerant Christianity is the law of

bound to take the country and keep it ;
"

the land."

and he predicted also that "there is ere For a mere glance at the Inquisition

long to be a State religion in this country, whose justice and moderation Father

and that State religion is to be a Roman Newman commends, let us refer to an

Catholic." The Catholic Review (Jan- historian whom tile learned gentleman

uary, 1852) reminded us that "Protest- has himself quoted, Mr. Lothrop Motley,
antism of every form has not and never and to his "History of the Dutch Be­

can have any right where Catholicity is public." (Vol. I., 322-26.) After show­

trumphant." This view, which is an ac- iug that underj the Dominican Torque­
cord with the history and dogmas of muda, duringeighteen yean�, 10,220 per­

Rome, would seem to be openly held sons were burned alive, 97,321 punished

by some of the Roman Bishops in Amer- with infamy, confiscation of property and

ioa, Bishop O'Oonor, of Pittsburgh, is perpetual imprisonment, Mr. Motley says

quoted as saying, "Religious liberty is in a Imssage whose length compels abbre­

merely endured until the opposite can be viation:

carried into effect, without peril to the "It was a branch of monks without

Catholic world;" and the Archbishop of appeal, having its familiars in every

St. Lonis, is reported to have said, house, diving into the se ..-rets of every
"

Catholicity will one day rule America, fireside.
* It condemned not deeds but

and religious freedom wilI be at an end." thoughts.
* Its process was reduced

(The Question of the Hour, by Rev. Dr. to a horrible simplicity. It arrested on

C. W. Clark, p. 108.) suspicion, tortured till confession, and

Such notifications give interest to the then punished by fire.
* * The ac­

authoritative views expressed by Father cuser might be his SOD, father, or the

Newman in regard to the Tnquisition, wife of his bosom.
* The prisoner was

apart from the curious illustration which tried by torture, 'I'he rack was the court

they furnish of "that foreignism" which of justice,
* * The torture took place

Dr. Brownson said "Catholics bring with at midnight, in a gloomy dungeon, dimly

them and perpetuate in their foreign col- lighted by torches. The victim, whether

ony," and which Brownson pronounced man, matron or tender virgin, was

"antagonist to the American idea of stripped naked, and stretched upon the

civilization." It is an antagonism, wooden bench. 'Vater. weights, pulleys,
which marks the hatred shown by screws, all the apparatus by which the

this" foreign colony" which hus come to sinews could be strained without crack­

conquerus-towarcls the Bible ìn the ver- ing, the bones crushed without breaking,

nacular, towards our common schools, and the body racked exquisitely without

towards those Christian institutions of giving up the ghost., were now put into

our Republic of which Webster said, operation.
* The period during which

"Ohristianity is part of the law of the torture might be inflicted from day to

land. * The generations which have day was unlimited in duration, and indi­

gone before speak to it and proclaim it viduals have bome the torture and the



25

dungeon fifteen years, and have been

I
holy office will exhibit in its treatment of

"Burned at the stake at last. * The American heretics the same "modera­
auto de fe was a solemn festival. The I tion" which it showed in Spain.
monarchs, the high functionaries of the With this brief response to Father

I bud, the reverend clergy, the populace, Newman on the subject of St. Barthol­
regarded it as an inspiring and delightful omew and the Inqusition subjects, which
recreation." deserves to be associated, let us resume

The Inquisition at the proper moment the consideration of some points in his
delivered the condemned into the hands earlier letter as published in pamphlet.of the executioner" with an ironical re- If, as I presume, I am indebted to the
quest that he would deal with them ten- Reverend Father for a copy of his pam­
derly, and without blood-letting or in- phlet, I beg to acknowledge the courte­
jury.

* It was; according to the biog- sy. Touching the question asked in one
rapher of Philip the Second, a Heavenly of my letters, whether an edict of "Pope
remedy, a guardian angel of Paradise. * Constantinus IlL" was not condemned byNo rank, high or humble, was safe from the council of Constantinople, I fully ad­its jurisdiction. * Even death offered mit the correctness of Father Newman's
no protection. The holy office invaded reply, that there was no Pope of that
the prince in his palace, and the beggar title name.
in his shroud. 1'11.e corpses of dead her- If we differ as to the infallibility of
etics were mutilated and burned. The the Popes, some of whom he admits may
Inquisition preyed upon carcasses and have been "vicious" and even "wicked,"rifled graves." we are, I think, agreed as to the fallibili-

'l'o Americans cherishing religious tol-
I ty of copyists and compositors, however

eration as the mcst imperative of duties, amiable and virtuous. Amid the confu­
and liberty of conscience as the most sion and antagonisms of Popes and
sacred of right, this treatment of persons Councils, the Pope to whom my questionfor no other crime than their belief in the related seems to have been in some way
Bible and in God, em hardly be read I renamed after the council by which he
without a feeling of horror and indigna- I was condemned. Father Newman, in
tiona To the agents of the Pope in Amer- his first letter, told us that" Admiral Fo­
ica, with their feelings towards American tiguy" was murdered in his bed on St.
institutions and American citizens who Bartholomew's eve. As no such Admiral
hold to the Bible and reject the Pope, it was known in France, I assumed, with­
conveys, it seems, the idea of" modera- out remark, that Father Newman intend­
tion:" and Father Newman's view n:- ed to name the great Admiral Gaspard
calls a remark of the London Times that Coligny, to whose pure memory repent­
"The vengence of Rome against heretics ant Paris is about to erect a monument.

I
is measured only by her power.

"

Despite the types, and the trust too often
Father Newman had assured us in au- reposed iu their infallibility by gentle

I
other part of his letter that "if Catholics credulity, "Fotiguy" was not the Ad­
(meaning Romanniste) were the vast ma- miral, and "Constantinus" was not the

, jority in this country to-morrow, the Pope.
same civil and religious liberty would be The attack upon Bible Societies made
tolerated and enjoyed." And if that con- by Father Newman, in his review of an
tingency shall hapen-which we are not address which had discussed the relation
quite prepared to bolieve-v-no doubt the of the Bible to the Rep�blic, and his in-



26

vitation to us to join the Church of

Rome and acknowledge the supremacy

and infallibility now centered in the

Pope, has naturally led in this
contro­

versy to the question of the position
in

which the Church of Rome stands to our

Republic. Excepting with the
view of

developing this relation, there
would be

little reason why a layman of the Protes­

tant Episcopal Church whom Rome es­

teems a heretic, should discuss with a

learned theologian of that communion,

the doctrines in which the Church of

England and all the Churches of Chris­

endom hold that Rome has erred from

the Christian faith. Nor are we careful

to answer the abuse, whether Romanis­

tic or Atheistic, which is heaped on Bible

Societies by those who treat with irrev­

erence the open Bible in the vernacular;

who join with the Popes in denouncing

its circulation "as a pestilence, and those

who circulate it as enemies of mankind."

But when we recall the facts mentioned

by Burke, iu his great speech
on concili­

ation, that the stream of colonists that

had flowed into the American Colonies

had been for the greater part composed

of dissenters from the establishments of

their respective countries, and remember

that without the Bible our Republic

could not have existed: the invitation ex­

tended to us, as American citizens, by

Father Newman, who comes to America

as an agent of the Roman Court, to abol­

ish Bible Societies and join his Church,

at once raises the question how far the

policy, ecclesiastical or civil, of the Court

of Rome, as developed in its history and

its dogmas, are in accordance with its

principles of the American Constitution,

the rights of American citizens, and the

interests, aims, and general welfare (1)£

our Republic.

Among the memorable counsels of the

Father of his Country which our p�o­

ple remember with affectionate rever-

ence, and which Father
Newman can find

in "Washington's Farewell Address,"

was his earnest warning to keep our jeal­

ousy constantly awake "against the
insid­

ious evils of foreign influence;" and

when we consider what at this moment

Rome desires and hopes to accomplish in

our Republic, this warning comes to us

with peculiar solemnity.

It calls up the thought of the distin­

guishing characteristics of the Republic,

which stands to-day the monument of the

God-fearing and heroic men whose fath­

ers had fought for the truths of the Bible

on the great battle-fields of Europe, and

who came to plant in America civil and
�

religious freedom. From them we
in­

herit popular government, resting upon

the free exercise by each citizen of his

intelligence and his conscience;
common

schools organized by the' State to teach

to all the elements of Christian morality;

and religious toleration securing to
all

freedom of education and worship, with

no condition exceptmg that they must

not infringe on the liberties of their

neighbors, Hor teach what might be inju­

rious to morals.

Then there are the fundamental prin­

ciples :-Separation of Church
and State;

freedom of speech and of the press,

which, combined with education, have

made the Republic foremost in intel­

lectual, scientific and philanthropic pro­

gress; placing it, in its first century,
in

the front rank of Christian civilization,

surpassing in wealth and power
and in­

fluence kingdoms that flourished before

Columbus and the other American States

founded as early as our own, where,
un­

der the teaching and sway of Rome,

there is neither education, nor industry,

nor progress among
the people, nor pub­

lic life, nor life in science,
literature or

art, but only a sluggish
mechanical move­

ment significant of poverty, superstition

and decay.



27

These are the grand and simple fea­

tures developed by the teachings of the

New Testament, which have raised this

Republic to so proud a height; which

have developed the intelligence of the

people and the resources of the country,

opening for the humblest the way to

comfort, respectability and influence.

These are the cherished American fea­

tures which are to be recalled and appreci­

ated, when we are asked to recognize the

claims of Rome to arrest in the Republic

the free circulation of the Bibl>, and to

substitute for the teachings of Christ the

traditions of the papacy and the ex-ca­

thedra utterances of a living Pope.
Father Newman seems to be con­

scious of the importance attached by
Americans to some of these points, such

as freedom, loyalty and toleration; for

on page 2d he speaks of "this free and

glorious country," and declares that
"

good Catholics could not consistently

be anything else but good citizens, as

they are bound in conscience to observe

the just laws of the State;" and on page

4 be asserts "that the Roman Catholic

Church is a warm advocate of toleration.
"

Before entering upon an examination

of these questions, and especially of the

question suggested by Father Newman's

argument how far the powers claimed by
the Popes under the dogma of infallibil­

ity are consistent with the allegiance of

our Roman Catholic citizens to the Con­

stitution and laws of our Republic, it

may be convenient for the avoidance of

future misunderstanding, to see precisely
what powers are claimed by Rome and

what is the change in this regard which

the dogma of infallibity seems to have

emphasized.
Father Newman not only denies that

the dogma was a new dogma, but goes so

far as to say, in allusion to the Vatican

Council (p. 38): 'If some distinguished

Roman Catholics expressed themselves

opposed to the infallibility, it must be

remembered that they did not protest

against the doctrine itself, but the oppor­
tunen=ss of the time for solemnly defin­

ing it.' But was there not in the Coun­

cil a contest so strong, upon the doctrine

itself, that it was styled "The battle be­

tween the papal and Episcopal princi­

pIes?
"

Can it properly be said that the

opposition of such Bishops as Kenricks,
of St. Louis; Hefcls, of Rotterburg;

Rauscher, Cardinal Archbishop of Vien­

na; Maret, of Sura; Darboy, -of Paris:

Strosmayer, of Bosnia and Sirnium;

Schwarzenburg, Cardinal Archbishop of

Prague; Dupanloup, of Orleans; and

Connolly, of Halifax, was based only on

the question of opportuneness? Take

for instance the powerful speeches of the

Archbishop of Halifax, who is reported

to have said: "Thrice have I asked for

proof, from Scripture according to all-,
thentic interpretation, from tradition and

from councils, that the Bishops of the

Catholic Church' ought to be excluded

from the definition of dogmas, but my

request has not been complied with.
* *

The Bishops have no right to renounce

the promise of Christ, 'I am with you

to the end of the world' ; but now they
want to reduce us to nullities, to tear the

noblest jewel from our pontifical breast­

plates, to deprive us of the highest pre­

rogatives of our office, and to transform

the whole Church, and the Bishops with

it, into a rabble of blind men, .among

whom iR one only who can see: so that

they must shut their eyes and belie=e

only what he tells them.'" (Dr. Ewer's
"

Catholicity," p. 244.)
It was either this speech or another of

like effect, which the eloquent and emi­

Aent Archbishop concluded by saying,
" That the proposal laid before the Coun­

cil was only fit to be put decorously un­

der ground.
"

(The Vatican Council,

North British Review, Oct. 1870.)



Or, take the eminent Archbishop Ken-
man Catholics of Great Britain, said in the

rick; of St., Louis, did he not say in his
Collective Declaration:

.,
The alleziance

pamphlet; which I is described, as a mar-
which Catholics hold to be due, and are

vel of ability, "that there were Bish-
bound to pay to their Sovereign, and to

ops in the Council" and himself among
the �ivil authority of the State, 'is perfect

thsm, who have 'solemnly' sworn that
'

and undivided.
* * *

They declare

least in England, the Pope possesses no
that neither the Pope nor any other pre­

such jurisdiction."
late or ecclesiastical persons of the Bo-

Ta' understand clearly-the practical im- man Catholic Church
* * * have any

portance of -this 'question" let us
refer right to interfere 'directly, or indirectly,

a moment to the examination of the Jrish in the civil government
* *

nor toop­

Bishops by a Committee of the House pose
in anymanner the performance of

of' Lords, pending the question of Oath- the civil
duties which are due to the

olic emancipation, and when there was a King."

suspicion. that iti might be,' held. in
the The same year the Hierarchy of the

Inish Church that the Pope -had a right Roman Communion, in its pastoral ad­

to absolve subjects from their allegiance. dress to the clergy
and laity of the Ro-

"Do you-conceive," it was asked, that man Cathohc
Church in Ireland, dated

" it was ever the principle of the Catho- January 25th, 1826, said,
Article II :

lie Church that thePope might Jure ,Di- "They declare on oath the belief that

vino absolve subjects from' their alle- it is not an article of. the Catholic, faith,

giance?" and
I Dr. Doyle" the famous neither are they required to believe that

Irish Bishop answered,' "certainly not." t�J.e ?ope is
infallible."

"Àre there circumstances, ,l, it was When. Father Newman declares that

asked, o"� under which the .Oatholie 'clergy papal infallibility
has always been an ar ..

would not obey a Bull of the -Pope ?" and tide of faith, his
statement is at variance

Dr. Murray said �'most csrtainly j
"

and with these solemn and sworn declara­

Dr. D.oyle said, "'But we should oppose tions. He
can hardly expect us to be­

him (the Pope) by every means in: our lieve
that the Vicars Apostolic and the

power; even in the
exercise of, onr spir- Irish HIerarchy were all ignorant on the

itual authority, if he were to 'meddle with point. and yet if papal infallibility
was

the allegiance which Catholics owe to 'the then the doctrine of the
Roman Church,

-King, by preaching the Gospel to the and they knew it
to be so, why did they

people and teaching -them to oppose the proclaim officially,
and solemnly swear

Pope, (Lords evidence, p.: 192, quoted, there was no such doctrine,
and while the

',.'

.

,-.

43, Edinburg-Review, 151.) worldmarked the
disclaimer and its ef-

Those Irish Bishops doubtless remem- fect on British legislation Rome seemed

, -bered with. pride how -bravely the
� Irish to confirm that disclaimer by her silence.

Catholics had fought against the Bull of The papal infallibility which Rome

the English Pope who had granted
:

Ire- now proclaims as a doctrine of the Ro­

land-to the BritishOrown.andthey seemed man creed, which has been acknowledged

prepared to- resent any further interfer- by all, always and everywhere,
was de­

enoe with their political affairs
:

by the nounced before God to the .British Par­

Court of .Rome -under cover of spiritual Iiament and the British people by the

jurisdiction, ' Irish Hierarchy and the Vicars Apostolic
..

'In 1828 the Vicars Apostolic, who with. To those oaths and protestations by

Episcopal authority governed the .. Ro- the official representatives
of Rome, full



29

,I

faith and credit was given. Emancipa-]'drawn by the Apostle of "that man of

tion was granted to the Roman Catholics sin," the "son of perdition who oppo­

whose Church repudiated papal infalli-. seth and exalteth himself above all that

bility as a Protestant invention, and -is called God" Or that is worshipped;
80.

who were ready to, fight against a Pope that he, as God, sitteth in the temple
of

who should dare to 'meddle with their al- God, showing himself that he -is God."

legiance; and to-day the world has a new (2 "I'hess. ii: 4.) Such, as, Mr. Glad­

and practical illustration, which Ameri- stone calls it, was the stroke of 1870,
the

cans' may well consider, of the ,dogma legal extinction of right.
and the en­

laid down by the greatest, legislators of thronement of will in its place. By
ex­

the m=diæval Church and confirmed by empting,the'Bishop of Rome from er­

the celebrated' Council, that allegiance ror, it "resolves, Catholicism into pa­

must not be kept with heretical princes. palism, and the Church into the Pope;"

Cum ei qui Deo fidem, non eerrat, fides it excludes the
exercise of the intellect

sevanda non sit. or the will, and impairs the. sense of per-
" Catholic Emancipation" in England sonal.responsibiliby."

having been accomplished, prominence The infallibility
of the Popes, as Fath­

was soon given to papal infallibility, and er Newman remarks, is
held to be entire­

the divine right of. the.Pope to direct the' ly independent of the
soundness of their­

temporal 'authority of all 'countries; and private opinions
or of the purity of their

even before the dogma was proclaimed _at lives.

Rome, Dr. Manning preached at Ken- "Who hall
not read," says Bishop Hop­

sington a sermon in the .Pope'a name kins,
whose words are more than con­

equoted by Quirinus, Appendix: I, 832,
firmed by the Abbe. Fleury, "of the

Dr. Schaff's History of the Vatican, awful immorality, the
licentiousness and

Council 72, note I) and said to have been degradation of the
Roman priests

printed in the Tablet of Oct. 9, 1864, in themselves 'during
the ages of darkness

which he said as coming from the Pope's which preceded the Reformation;
who-is

mouth: I so ignorant as not to know that many of

" I acknowledge no civic power; I am their Popes, their Bishops, and
even their

the subject of no prince; and I claim religious orders' were a reproach
not, only

more than that-I claim to be the su- to the Church of Christ but even to
hu­

preme judge and director of the con- manity." (The History
of the' Confes­

seiences of men: of the peasant that tills sional, p. 24.)
. But despite all this, the

the field, and the prince who sits upon official utterances of
-these Popes on mat­

the throne; of the household that lives ters of faith and duty
are to be beld in­

in .the shade of privacy, and the teqieia- fallible and irreformable, and·
are to be

ture that makes laws jar kingdoms. I accepted as the word of God.
This dog­

am the sole, last, supreme judge, of what rna, and the 23d article
of the syllabus,

is right or wrong." which declares
it error to say that a Ro-

This startling.elaim of the .Bishop. of man Pontiff has ever
exceeded the limits

Borne, against which all Christians pro- of his powers
or has ever committed er­

test; accords with .the terms" the-living rors in, defining
matters of faith and

Christ," and "the voice of God," ap- morals, compel
Bomanists who accept

plied to Pius IX. by the reporter of his

I
the new dogma, to defend the official acts

discourses; and the powers now assumed and utterances 'of all
the Popes. Hence

by the Pope recall the.prophetic picture' come the difficulties presented by history,



30

and the evasive plan which is so faith-I
eminent man in Rome, advised that tho

fully illustrated by the Jesuit Fathers, in book should be suppressed if the diffì­

denying the accuracy of every historic! culty could not be got over; and it was

fact which they may find indefensible or I suppressed accordingly.. Men guilty of
inconvenient, and ill pronouncing it, how- I this kind of fraud would justify it by
ever

s.ustained
by the highest Roman

au-I
saying that their

re.ligion
transcends the

thorities, as a "Protestant invention." wisdom of plnlosophy, and can not submit

This difficulty from history was foreseen to the criticism of history. If any fact

in the Council by other than the Ameri- manifestly contradicts a dogma, thatis a

can Bishops: and before referring to warning to science to revise the evidence.

some of the cases where Father Newman There must be SOllie defect iu the mate­

denies historical facts, as set forth in rials or in method. Pending its discov­

the records of his own Church, it may be ery, the true believer is constrained

well to quote a passage from the North humbly but confidently, to deny the:
British Review, which is not only inter- fact."

esting as showing the character of the This view, extraordinary or incredible

Romanist party in the Council, which tri- as it may seem to those unskilled in the

umphed over the Catholic element, and teachings of the Roman Court, and es­
the reality and extent of the' differences pecially in its ethics as expounded by
which underlie the outward unity of the Liguori's rule, easy methods of trifling
Roman Catholic Church, and of which,

I
with the truth, andgiving false evidence

as.exhi�:ted
in

�l�e . Council,
Lord Acton under oath, is confirmed by the authori­

said, - The dIVISIOn between the Ro-
i
tutive utterances of Archbishop Man­

man and the Catholic element in the I ning, who after an attempt to answer

Church, made it hopeless to mediate be the unanswerable argument based upon
tween them." the case of Honorius, announced that

The North British says: "The dog- "in the divine tradition of the Church"

matic commission of the Council pro- (which includes all that the Popes
claim that the existence of tradition has have said or may say, when they speak

nothing to do with evidence, and that oboo ex-cathedra, and of this the Pope is the

jections taken from history are not valid judge,) all "difficulties from human his­

when contradicted by ecclesiastical de- tory.are excluded."

cree. Authority must conquor history. Withthese authoritative explanations
The inclination to get rid of evidence of the way in which history is to be

was specially associated with the dogma treated, when it exhibits the folly, the

of papal infallibity, because it is neces- guilt, or the heresies of individual Popes,

sary that the Popes themselves should and their condemnation by Councils and

not testify against their own claims.
* * successive Popes, as in the case of Ho­

Their history is not irrelevant to the norius, let- us look at the grant of Ire­

question of their rights. It could not be land to the British Crown, by the English

disregarded; and the provocation to alter Pope Adrian IV., in a bull addressed to

or deny its testimony was so urgent that King Henry II., which Father Newman

men of piety and .learning became a prey does not hesitate to pronounce "an Eng­
to the temptation and deceit. When it lish forgery."
was discovered that' the Popes had for Among the historic difficulties in the

centuries condemned Honorins in the con- way of papal infallibility, few are likely
fession of faith, Cardinal Bona, the most to prove more troublesome in America



31

than the fact to which Archbishop Pur­

cell so earnestly called attention, while

the infallibility council was still sitting,

that the English Pope Adrian IV. made

a grant of Ireland to the English King

Henry II. In accordance with
the rule

which is said to have been agreed upon

in the council, that history when trouble­

some should be quietly denied, we have

had denials that Rome encouraged the

Massacre of St. Bartholomew; denials

that Rome in the case of Galileo de­

clared that it was a heresy to say that the

sun was stationary and the earth mov­

able; and now we are told with equal

gravity that,Adrian IV. never made
the

grant of which the venerable Archbishop

reminded the council and the world.

Papal bulls, it would seem, are to ap­

pear and disappear on the page of history

according to the exigency of the case.

When the delight of Gregory at the mas­

sacre, and his persistent efforts to
make

it a complete extermination of the Hu­

guenots in France, were
commemorated

in medals and frescoes, and in the letters

of his own nuncio and legate, affording

evidence of the truth, direct, absolute,

conclusive and overwhelming, we are

assured that Rome was innocent of that

wicked slaughter; and that Gregory had

issued "bulls" to ,express his horror of

the crime; and when these bulls or

some proof of them are asked for, they

cannot be readily or conveniently pro­

duced.

In the case of Adrian and Ireland, no

new bull thus far seems to have been in­

vented, but the" bull"
which ecclesias­

tica] history ascribed to Adrian,
which

his successor confirmed, and to which

Archbishop Purcell alluded
as a recog­

nized fact, is denounced as an "English

forgery."
Into whatever mistakes the.Archbishop

may have fallen
in his financial manage­

ment, the sympathy and regard
which

have been expressed for him, both with­

in and beyond the boundsof his Church,

do not incline us to accept the grave im­

putation upon the .integrity and learning

of the venerable prelate, which is sug­

gested by the language of Father N
ew­

man-although the reverend gentleman

may disavow such an
intention-that in

alluding to the most significant
event in

the history of Ireland, he had attempted

to deceive the council and arrest the

adoption of the dogma of infallibility, by

quoting as a papal grant
what was in fact

an "English forgery." The
situation is

not the less interesting to American ob­

servers as illustrating what Lord Acton's

historic. controversies had already shown:

the conflict which the attemp t to reform

history in the interest
of the infallible

dogma, has aroused
and must continue

to arouse among the intelligent members

of the Church of Rome, who revolt alike

from the immorality and the folly of at­

tempting by pious fraud to
rewrite the

annals of the papacy, and to
alter at

pleasure the irrevocable past.

This must be especially the case in

this country where our common schools,

enlarging and enlightening
the minds

and developing the reflective faculties,

tend to form that intelligent and inde­

pendent judgment.
which is viewed with

such profound dissatisfaction by
the

foreign agents of the
Court of Rome.

Archbishop Purcell's frank recognition

of the great central fact in the history
of

Ireland can hardly be without effect upon

the Irish members of his Church; and

we scarcely wonder that the J
esuit and

Roman Fathers who are impatient to

take the control of our Republic and to

"
erect (Roman) Catholic

institutions

upon the grave
of Protestantism," should

instinctively feel that the
Bible and the

common school are the great obstacles in

their path. Unless these
can be gotten

rid of, it will bB impossible
to expect



32

from American Roman Catholics that If such a facile, not to say contempt­
blind, unquestioning submission which uous treatment of so grave a matter
flows from helpless ignorance, and of shows no excess of consideration for the
which Rome has furnished the world Archbishop of Cincinnati, it ignores
with so sad an exhibition in the Romish

'

entirely the fact that the bull of Adrian
countries of Europe and America. We has an importance in Irish history in
hear much of the force of spiritual some degree similar to that. of the Declar­
authority in the Roman Church in ation of Independence in our own.
America, especially over its mem- There is, it is true, this essential differ­
bel's of foreign birth; and yet as ence between them, that the bull in­
the Jesuit plans against our lib- spired the invasion and conquest by
erties become more and more devel- England which destroyed the independ­
oped, and clerical intermeddling with our en'ce of Ireland and subjected it to
politics is more pronounced, differences English rule; while our Declaration
seem likely to increase between Roman commenced the war with England which
Catholics themselves, as in this case be- freed the united colonies from her rule,
tween an Archbishop on the one hand, and made them an independent nation.
and a reverend Father on the other. Ask an American to show you the great

Let us compare the respective state- charter of American freedom, and he
ments. The Archbishop wrote to Bish- points to the Declaration of Independ­
op Dupauloup:

"

Our citizens of Irish ence; ask an Irishman to show you the

nationality, who are the majority and the warrant of the subjugation of his country,
chief support of the (Roman) Catholic and he may point with the Archbishop to
Church in the United States, will have the grant of Pope Adrian IV. and the con­
much difficulty in admitting that Pope firmatory brief of Alexander III.
Adrian IV., who was an Englishman, The papal bull and the whole history
was infallible when he gave Ireland to of the invasion and subjugation of Ire­
Henry II. of England." "Uutil now," land are of course known to all Irishmen
added the Archbishop, alluding to the who are familiar with their country's
great change wrought by the infallibility history.
dogma, "we have been permitted to say The bull in question, addressed by
that the (Roman) Catholic Church had Adrian IV. to his most beloved son in
nothing to do with the transaction, and Christ, Henry II., recites Henry's desire
that it was not responsible for all that the to enter into the island of Ireland, "that
P opes have done or might do." you may reduce the people to obedience

Father Newman replies that this is only to law, and to extirpate the nurseries 01
,.

an opinion" of the distinguished Arch- vice, and that you are willing to pay
bishop of Cincinnati, and declares "the from each house, yearly, one penny."
fact that Adrian's bull was no bull at all, The value of the penny at that day, is es­
but an English forgery;" and that he is timated at from two to three shillings
"ready to prove from unquestionable sterling at the present time. Adrian pro­
authority that Pope Adrian's bull never ceeded to declare his favorable assent to
existed." that pious and laudable design of enter-

But no authority whatever is given ing into that island, and "that the peo­
by Father Newman, who opposes the ple of that land receive you honorably,
charge of forgery to the statement of the and reverence you as their lord.

"

Henry
Archbishop. was further enjoined to .form the nation



to virtuous manners, and to plant the

I
man Catholic historian of Ireland-and

faith, "that you may be entitled to the by Lingard in his history of England­
fullness of eternal reward in God, and I

referred to without denial by the Jesuit

obtain a glorious renown on earth Father Thebaud, in his recent work,

f throughout all ages." 1873, "The Irish Race in the Past and

With this promise from the Pope of a the Present;" and it is stated in Cu­

double reward, Henry entered upon his sack's History of Ireland, that John of

pious work of reducing the Irish, who Salisbury says in his "Metalogicus,"

had been weakened and distracted by that he obtained the bull from Adrian,

civil wars; and the Roman Catholic and also that it was annexed to a brief

Bishops, it is said, were the first to ack- addressed by Pope John XXII. (1316-

nowledge the English conqueror, bearing 1334) to Edward II.

the mandate of an English Pope. The explanation heretofore given for

Adrian having thus rendered his reign the bull, was that Adrian was an Eng­

memorable by so great a gift to the lishman, and. in his treatment of Ireland

C. own of Britain, died in 1159, and his and the Irish, a very fallible Pope. Now

successor, Alexander III., known in his- that the Irish Roman Catholics are bound

tory for his excommunication and sub- to regard Adrian as "infallible," his
bull

sequent pardon of the Emperor Barba- is suddenly discovered to be an English

rossa, and again for ordaining the espou- forgery. Pending the sitting of the

sal of the Adriatic by the Doge of Venice, Council it was treated by a learned Arch-.

and who is entitled to everlasting honor bishop as an authentic bull, resting on

for proclaiming that "nature having the highest ecclesiastical evidence; and

made no slaves, all men have an equal Father Newman, who has been so prompt

right to liberty :-"Alexander was ex- in his demanda for authority,
can see

tremely gratified by the extension of his that if he has a shred of evidence
to

dominion over Ireland, and in 1172 issued prove that the bull accepted as genuine

a brief confirming the bull of Adrian, for 700 years, was indeed an English for­

and expressing the hope "that the bar- gery, the production of that evidence
is

barous nation would attain, under Hen- now in order. In giving the "bright

ry, to some decency of manners," and discoveries" of which he speaks,
will he

wrote in addition three letters on the please explain why, if the bull was a for­

subject. gery, did Matthew Paris record
it in

I am advised by that eminent scholar, 1155? why did Pope Alexander II. con­

the Rev. Dr. Philip Schaff, who will firm it in 1172? why have the Roman

treat fully on this subject in his revised Catholic Irishmen recognized it? why to­

History of Mediæval Christianity, that day in England is it made a point by an

the bull is given by' Matthew Paris in eminent Romanist, that the Irish fought
1155: that the confirmatory letter of Pope like heroes against invaders authorized

Alexander III. to Henry, dated 1172, was hy the Pope.

published in Ireland, 1175, and printed
in Baronius' Annales, the copy being Father Newman adopts the same poli­

taken from a Codex Vaticanus; see also cyof denial in regard to the well-known

authorities quoted by Secretary Thomp- official and solemn condemnation by Pope

son, in his Papacy and Civil Power, rage Urban XIII., of the teachings of Gal-

410, note 34, showing that the grant is

Ilileo.
The t�uth of history would be

acknowledged by Dr. Lanigan, the Ro- fatal to the dogma of infallibility,
and



34

therefore as the North British puts it,

I
of argument that when Fenelon's book

" the true believer is constrained hurn
- was condemned, he "publicly accepted

bly but confidently to deny the
fact." the censure as the voice of God," and in

Father Newman, following recent writers I private
wrote that "Rome was getting re­

of his faith, says: "Papal infallibility ligion
into peril;" that the Irish fought

was not affected by this act of the inqui-
not only against Henry II. when author­

sition, since the Pope was not present
at ized by Adrian, but "against William

the issuing of the decree.
"

The last III., although the Pope had given him

pretences and evasions on this point
were efficient support in his expedition. Even

disposed of in 1867, when Mr. Henri
de James II., when he could not get a mitre

l'Epinois published in the Revue
des for Petre, reminded Innocent that people

Questions Historiques, a paper entitled
could be good Catholics and yet do with­

"Galilee et I'Inquisition," which con- out Rome. Philip
II. was excommuni­

tained a series of extracts that he had cated, but he despatched
his army

been permitted to make from the trial against
Rome with the full concurrence

record in the archives of the Holy office of the Spanish
divines."

at Rome. The Latin text of the record, It has occasionally happened
in this

dated tTune 16, 1663, and a t"'anslation, friendly controversy
that the argument

are given in an article on Galilleo and pa- has been interrupted by
the necessity im­

pal Infallibility, by Sidney 'I'aylor,
in posed by Rome's repeated denials

of

-Macmillan's Magazine for November, proving in detail historic facts
which

1873, pp. 89-97. They show that Pope Rome herself
had made immortal, and

Urban VIII. authorized the statement i
even of repelling the charge �f ignorance

that it was heresy to believe in the mo- I sustained by groundless
assertions and

tion of the Earth, and the motion of the imaginary bulls. It has
at least served

Sun, and ordered such statement to be to
illustrate the methods to which Rome

published by the congregation of the has
been driven by the infallibility dogma,

Holy office."
to reform the record of the Popes, until

The language of Lord Acton is yet the impression
created in turn by ea ih

more definite and significant, for com- denial is, simply, that while
the fact de­

pelled by good faith to admit historic
nied is beyond question, it would be a

facts-which are proven beyond doubt- fatal error to admit it;
and there is some­

he treats it as a blunder, which was thing startling in the anger
awakened

ridiculed even by the Roman divines. towards Lord Acton
for his simple state­

He said in his letter to Mr. Gladstone: ment of the truth and
his manly repudia­

'�There have been, and there is still, tion of the pious frauds.

some exaggeration in the idea men form The case of
Adrian is found to have all

of the agreement in thought and deed the importance which Archbishop
Pur­

which authority can accomplish. As far cell attributed to it,
and although Father

as decrees, censures and persecutions Newman is not an American,
his active

could comruit the Court of Rome, it was observation and quick intelligence
can

committed to the denial of the Co- doubtless gather for him some idea of the

pemiean system. Nevertheless
* a feelings with which loyal Americans of

Spaniard who thought himself bound to whatever
creed regard the treatment of

adopt the Ptolomaic theory, was laughed the
Irish by His Holiness Nicholas

at by the Roman divines."
.

I Breakspear.

Lord Acton remarked in the same line I It may be easier, perhaps,
than we

/



35

imagine for Roman Priests with no ties France that God
had set him over Kings

of family, and who swear allegiance not and countries, to
tear down and destroy,

to their country, native or adopted, but spoil and scatter,
build up and plant;

to the Bishops and Pope of Rome, and and that the King and
all persons owed

/ either to ridicule the bull of Adrian as a perfect obedience to the Roman Pontiff,

forgery, or to represent it as a proof of not merely
in religious matters but like­

the paternal care of the Holy Father, wise in secular and
human affairs. We

that he charged Henry with the manage- may learn them from
the infallible Greg­

ment of the Irish, enjoining him to im- ory when he declared it
lawful for the

prove their morals, to mend their man- Pope to depose Emperors
and absolve

ners and to collect from them Peter's subjects from their allegiance to un-

pence. righteous rulers,
and when he deposed

Americans, however, with whom devo- Henry IV. of Germany.
We may learn

tion to their own country is a matter of it from Innocent III.
when he absolved

religion and of personal honor; who are
the subjects of King John and cursed the

personally taught to .reverence their an Magna Charter,
and imposed rulers on

cestors who resisted all attempts to de- the Armenians,
Bohemians and Bul­

stroy their political and religious free- garians.
We may learn it from Paul III.

dom, and who have not forgotten the
when he deposed Henry VIII. and ab­

warning of Washington against the in-
solved his subjects from their oaths of

sidious dangers of foreign influence, can allegiance,
and commanded them under

sympathize with that regard for country, pain
of excommunication not to obey him

and kindred, and national honor, anI the nor any officer
under him. 'Ve may

memory of their dead heroes, of which
learn it from the sainted Pope Pius V.

Ireland has given us brilliant examples; who excommunicated Queen Elizabeth,

and which, as Archbishop Purcell rightly and �ho. as Lord
Acton thinks, although

feared, would make it hard for the Irish Father Newman
is of a different opinion,

Roman Catholics to' admit the infallibil
'

ccmmiasioned an ussassin to take her Iif'e.

ity of the Pope, to whom they owed a (See Dr. Smith's Impending Conflict,

perpetual humiliation,.' But beyond our 222-228, and
Lord Acton's letters to the

sympathy with the Irish in the papal sur- Times.)

render of their country to their powerful Some persons may regard
it hardly in

neighbors of Great Britain, the proceed- accord with courtesy
towards a Roman

ing has for .all true Americans of what- Catholic opponent
in a friendly contro­

ever faith a further interest, as exlril.- versv on dividing questions, to dissect

iting the character and methods of that
with merciless exnctness his most confì­

paternal policy with which) as we are dent pretences,
and to expOS8 hy proofs

told, the Beman Court and the Society of
furnished by Rome he1'881£ the ground­

Jesuits, turning from the worn countries
lessness of the attempt "tu reform"

of Europe, are preparing to eml.ruce
in ecclesiastical history in the iuterest of

their protection the American Republic. papal
infallibi lity.r-c-thut dogma which,

The papal claims and ends, we are
but the other day, was denounced iu

assured, are always immutable aud the
Roman catechisms as a "Protestant i n­

same; and to learn them we C'an open
n� ventiou;" while now we are to be damned

random the history of the papacy. We unless
we will admit that throughout ages

may learn them from
the infallible Bon- it was accepted d \yays, everywhere and

iface VIII. when he told Philip Kiug of by all.
Besides the English catechism



36

already. referred to, Overberg's Germ�n I
for three centuries successive Popes pro­

Katechismus III., Haupstuck F. 349, nounced on Honoriousan "eternal anath­

equally denied that faith in papal infalli- ema," and Leo II. "eternal damna­

bility was an article of belief-" Mussen tion," it is simply because his Church
uiir auch glauben das der Papst unfehl- had declared that all the Popes, how­
bar ist � Nein: dies est Rein Glau- ever condemned, by councilor by each
bensartikel.

"

But it is easy to see that other, in this world; however punished
the arguments presented by the advo- with eternal damnation for heresy in the
cates of Rome are simply the arguments next, are, nevertheless, to be now held
of the Court, and not of the mdividual. equally infallible :-their quarrels and
Weare reminded of the remark that the anathemas are to be denied as inconsist­

Jesuit must be in the hands of his supe- ent with the truth as decreed by Rome,
rior, as a corpse in the hands of the sur- and the difficulties of history are to be

geon. We recall the fact that a Reverend discarded as interfering with the serenity
Father speaks not of his own volition, of the Divine dogma.
and by his own judgment; not in accord The case of Honoriou s is one of pecul­
with his personal conviction with historic iar interest, as having been thoroughly
truth, with his sentiments of honor and sifted by Bishops Hefels and Pere Gratry:
the promptings of his conscience; that -the tract of the former is said to have
he does not collate and weigh historic evi- proved the case as conclusively as a

denoe, and give you the result of his de- mathematical demonstration; and ex­

liberations; but that he speaks, as it tracts from the decrees in the original

were, by order and by book. 'HIS facts, Latin are given in Dr. Schaff's History
his assertions and his proofs, are all mat- of the Vatican Council in the notes on

ters of regulation. At the conclusion of page 98.

his letter, page 37, Father Newman says No candid person will pretend that the

in a postscript, that "If I have HOt ex- art of Iyinz should be reckoned in any of

pressed myself in thorough accordance our communities as among "the lost

with the doctrines of the Catholic Church l arts;" and our political parties might
in this letter, I will be the very first to occasionally furnish an expert whose

retract any error." feats recall those of the Jesuits, for whose

Father Newman will probably not be peculiar skill the languages of Europe had

accused of violating the doctrines of his no expression until they adopted their

Church, even in the bold statement about name, and called it jesuitical.

Gregory's bulls, or Galileo's sentence, or But Rome, without having a monopoly
Adrian's grant of unhappy Ireland to the of the art, may safely claim pre-eminence
English Crown, with a reservation of as the only institution in the world call
Peter's pence. ing itself a Christian Church, which

If he has treated history as a nose of makes instruction in lying a part of edu-

,wax to be pulled, and flattened, and dis- cation, systematizing and refining in
torted at pleasure: if he presented as methods of equivocation, as for instance
evidence bulls that were myths, and has in the Moral Theology of St. Alphonso
denounced as a forgery a bull so real that de Liguori, until in place of the Scrip­
it determined for ages the destiny of the tural rule, "let your yea be yea and
Irish people; if he 'contends that the

I
your nay, nay," may be substituted in

Pope Honorius was infallible. and inno- every walk and relation of life, :t system
cent of heresy, in the face of the fact that, of falsehood and deception, veiled with

/:



pretence of sincerity and truth. pIe of the facile morality of the whole,
There would seem to be no truth, no and it certainly justifies Shakespeare's

oath, no promise, that may not be avoid- remark, "'tis as easy as lying." The
ed by" amphibology," meaning equivoca- saint in illustrating one of several modes,

I tion or mental restriction. says:
,.

Thus, if a man is asked about
Under this cover a woman may be re- something which it is to his interest to

fused the fulfillment of a promise to conceal, he can answer,
'

No, Isay'-that

marry, however solemnly it was made. is, I say the word No. Caedmar doubts
Anything under Heaven maybe denied; a about this, but saving his better counsel,
sworn witness may deceive the judge and he seems to do so without reason, for the
the jury, and defeat the rights of suitors and, word I say really has two senses: it
the ends of justice'; a wife may cajole her means to utter, make use of a word, and
husband, and every man practice upon assent. We here employ it in the sense
the credulity of his neighbor; and how- of utter."
ever odious and contemptible the scheme It must not be supposed that the right
for sanctioning immorality and crime to mislead a judge or jury is at all lim­

may be to honorable and truthful Roman ited to the "no, I say." 'I'hirty meth­
Catholics, no Roman Father, however ods, equally ingenious and equally nn­
honorable and truthful may be his own scriptural, are supplied for trifling with

instincts, dare address St. Alphonso with the truth and giving false evidence under
his immoral code, as Christ the devil,

loath:
one is by whispering a part of your

"Get thee behind me Satan," or warn evidence and giving the rest aloud ; let
his people that such doctrines are not the tongue swear without the mind, or
only fatal to the rights of propertv, to swear what is false for a good cause; or
the peace and security of society, and to reserve your right not to bind yourself
confidence between man and man, but by the oath; or, if you hold the oath as
destructive to personal integrity and per- useless, you may disregard your oath and
sonal honor. When we examine the 80 if you hold it obsolete; or if the cir­
moral theology of Rome, as taught au- cumstances bave changed and made it a;

thoritatively by de Liguori, can we won- trivial matter, or if you honestly think it
der at the remark of the member of the best to disregard it, or if to keep it would
Austrian Parliament, who said that" it injure the rights of a superior, or hurt
was the Popes who made the atheists." your character, or do you a dainage ; 01'

Persons interested in the controversy if you have received a dispensation 011

opened by Father Newman, on the rela- grounds of the good of the Church, and
tion of Rome to the Bible and the Re- the consequent advantage of the State.

public-and no controversy more mo- It is not difficult to understand why
mentous to the American people was ever the Court of Rome, when teaching such

opened by prieet or layman-may with unscriptural doctrines as a part of its

advantage, if they cannot con venientiy mural theology, should dislike to see the
refer t o the work of Liguori, look at the

I
open Bible in the hands of the people, a

extracts given from it in Mr. Merrick's: constant and divine witness against jes­
volume, �'The Moràl Theology of the I'uitical apologies for lying and for theft.
Church of Rome," with an introduction Nor would it be easy to imagine a piece
by Bishop A. Cleveland Coxe, pu blished of assurance more characteristic of Rome

by Joseph Robinson, Baltimore. A sin- than that involved in the declaration that

gle passage ma , be here given as a sarn- the Roman Catholic Church, while sane-

37



38

tioning the doctrines of Liguori, de- by Liguori
and endorsed by Rome in

nounces Bible societies" as a pestilence," elevating him to saintship in place of the

"because the doctrine of private inter- duty of truth as taught by Christ. The

pretation which they teach leads souls question
is of supreme

.

importance in

into heresy, infidelity and immorality." . connection
with the school question.

This slur may well be
remembered by It not only helps to explain the repug­

all who may be inclined to yield to the nance of the Court
of Rome to the Bible

l demand that the Bible shall be banished m our schools, but it presents the issue

from our schools. It gives point to the whether it is consistent
with good morals

remark of Tayler Lewis, that" it was im- and the public safety
to allow the papal

possible to remove that book from the doctrine to be
introduced in our schools,

place it had so long held in education, and to let our boys
and girls be taught to

without fixing a stigma upon it, as some- practice in social
life and in our courts of

thing in some way dangerous to liberty justice the
doctrines of Liguori.

and the social good." The Catholic
World for April, 1871,

If any fear the Bible in education, it is spoke
of the education they required to

feared by those who intend offence to lib- fit
their children "to gain the end for

erty and the social good; who decry our
which God created them;" and the sort

popular institutions with their broad of
education which the Court of Rome

Christian character, free at once from adopts to fit
them to support the papacy

sectarianism and intolerance. may be seen in the
all but incredible

The Bible is the most cherished by depths of ignorance prevailing
in the

those who most value what is best and Roman States.

purest in our social life, and who stand
An extract given' by Dr. I. t. Smith,

by the great principles of American free- pttge 33,
from the report of Prof. Ma­

dom. If there are any who wish to undo teucci, Secretary
of State for Public In­

the work of Washington, to debase our struction in 1861, gave
these significant

'people and prepare them for an easy sub-
statistics of the "sort of education"

jugation to foreign influence, superstition
which the Papal Court provides at home

and despotism, they will be found among for its
own people:

those who demand with the arrogance of "In
Lombard and Piedmont (always

the old Inquisition,armedwith torture and and
in everything the most advanced

the stake, that we shall exclude from our province
of Italy) little more than three

schools the Holy Bible, which is the persons in
one hundred were able to

foundation of our political and religious read and write; a few
more could spell ;

rights, and of our moral, religious and but making
all allowance possible, ninety

intellectual advancement: "the noblest of persons out of one
hundred did not even

the classics, the book cf the ages, the know
their letters nor the arithmetical

'word of God." figures. In central Italy, that is,
in the

Father Newman has thrown much light Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchies

upon the wide
difference between the _of .Parma, ,\1odena, Lucca, and in the

doctrines �f Christianity and those of the -.-"-; it was much worse; yet they
were

Jesuits, by exhibiting their denials of
his- well off ìn .eomparison with Southern

toric truths which are indelibly recorded Italy, beg'inning ,with Rome
doun to

.in the Roman annals; for this
has natu- Sicily j for here not one in one hundred

rally brought us to the .root
of the mat- had receiued C(;ny mental train ina."

ter-the doctrine' of falsehood as taught , Compare that .system
of education with



39

our cwn, and it is at once seen why the

agents of the papacy charged with ihe
establishment of the papal supremacy in

- our Republic, feel that their first ster
must be to place our common schools un­
der the

..

direction of the Roman Court.

"This sort of education," says the

Catholic World, "can be given only by
the (Roman) Church,_ or under her di­

rection, and as there
.

is for us (Roman)

Catholics, only one Church, there is and
C:1Il be no proper education -for us not

given by or under the direction and
control of the Roman Catholic Church.
* * If they (the American people)
lea�e education to the States separately,
(Roman] Catholics in several of them are

already a powerful minority, and will
soon be strong enough to force the State

Legislature to give them their propor­
tion of the public schools, supported at
the public expense.

The language is plain and bold, and
this threat from "the foreign colony,

"

that they will presently be strong enough
.to force the State Legislatures, is in per­
fect accord with the fearful boast put in­

to the mouth of Pius IX., by Archbishop
Manning, the awful impiety of which
makes one who 'Believes in the Bible

tremble as one reads the daring words:
"I claim to be the Supreme Judge and
director of the consci ences of men, of the

peasant that tills the field
* and the leg­

islaturc« that make {aW8 for kingdorn8;
I am-the SO]f\, Supreme Judge, of what
is right and wn mg.

"

In regard to our schools. the Jesuit

game is now fully exposed; all CHl1 see

that if American people could be induced
to consent to the abandonment of schools

to .Iesuit control, and the teachings of

Jesuit morality, the rising generation
would be instructed tha t they are sub�

jects of the Sovereigu�MPontiff, find 0'Ye
obedience to his decrees.

e

s

e

.8

n

o

ri

11

In considering the threat, so often re­

peated, that Rome will force our State

Legislatures to abandon their non-sec­
tarian policy and to appropriate a part of
the public moneys to the support of Ro­
man Catholic schools, it must be remem­
bered that the Court of Rome not only
repudiates the American doctrine that the
Church s hould be separated from the
State (Papal syllabus 55), but holds that
the Roman Catholic religion should be
the only religion of the State, to the ex­
clusion of all other modes of worship;
and further that the Church may avail

herself of force
* *

01· of any direct

or indirect temporal power.
As to the claims of the Popes of Rome

to control our State Legislatures, we have

already heard from Archbishop Man­

ning, now a Prince Cardinal, "that His
Holmess is the Supreme Judge and di­
rector of the consciences, * * and of
the legislatures that make laws for king­
doms," a passage by the way which
should all be carefully considered, as

showing that when we are told that when
an American law offends the conscience

of a Roman Catholic, it means simply
that is opposed to the policy of the Pope
of Rome.

We ought t rot perhaps to feel any sur­

prise nt the threat to force the legisla­
tures, after the assurance that the Court

of Rome proposes to manage our domes­

tic concerns, and to allow no freedom

either of worship or of education.
Its modes of attack have exhibite-d

something of the skin, and all (If the an­

òacity which have caused the expulsion of
the Jesuits from almost every country in

Europe, and against which OUf' country
has at last to defend herself. The Cath­

olic Telegraph (quoted in the Christian

Wurld, Jali. 1870, p. 17,) said: "The

public school system is a social cancer

presaging the death of national morality.
The sooper it is destroyed the better. It



40

will be a glorious day for Catholics

(meaning Romanists] in this country,

when, under the blows of justice and

morality, our school-system, will be shiv­

ered to pieces. Until then, modern pa­

ganism will triumph."
The term modern paganism, seems

here to mean the Ohristian civilization of

the republic, based on education and the

Bible. The Tablet, quoted on the same

page, develops the further intention of

the Court of Rome, after driving the

Bible from our common schools so that

they can be denounced as
"

Godless" and

"Atheistic,
"

to claim the management

not only of schools specially supported

by Roman Catholics, but of all schools

in the Republic, on the ground that edu­

cation is the province of the Church, and

that the State has no right to educate its

youth. 'I'his point is put ·with exceed­

inp' boldness, in defiance of the Consti­

tution and laws of the Republic and the

States, and of the traditions an.I feelings

of the people ; and it deserves attention,

especially on the part of those who have

been inclined to yield so far as to dismiss

the Bible, thinking that with this t;on­

cession they would be satisfied. Mr.

Horace Greeley, with a wiser judgment

and a longer sight, said: "The .great

body of those who seek to drive the Bi­

ble out of our schools,· will not be sat­

isfied after they have driven it out, .but

will insist on breaking up our common

school system into sectarian fragments,
* * * hence if we give up the Bible

we only weaken Our common school sys­
tem * * * while we fail to conciliate

rts enemies, but only excite them to new

and inadmissible exactions.
"

Now lis­

t en to the Ruman Oatholic Tablet. : "Etl­

ucatiou itself is the business of the spir­
itual society alone, and not of secular so­

ciety; the instruction of children and

youth is included in the sacrament of or­

ders, and the State usurps the functions

of education when it turns educator;
* * the organization of the schools,

their entire internal selection and man­

agement, the choice and regulation of

studies, and the selection, appointment
and dismissal of teachers belong exclu­

sively to the spiritual authority."

Upon this point the. issue is clearly
made between Rome and the Republic.
'I'he foreign colony denies to our several

States or to Congress, the right to establish

8c1100l3, unless they are under the control

and government of the Pope and his

Episcopal and priestly agents, whom the

Court of Rome wishes to emancipate en­

tirely from the jurisdiction of the civil

authority, Our doctrine as stated by the

learned and venerable Dr, Woolsey is,
"

that the State, as guardian of rights
and for public reasons, may .... ompel par­
ents to send their children to schooL'"

It is reported that Roman priests have

threatened to withhold absolution from

parents who permitted their children to

attend schools established by the State,
and that the propriety of this course has

been approved by oue or more Roman

Catholic organs.

Father Ne WID an, iu reply to my letter,

says: "Let him point out if he can, U

single actual dogma uf the Ohurch which

is dangerous to the State." Why ask fur

a single dogma, when it is so easy to des­

ignate so man}' dogmas in the domainof

faith and morals, which the syllabus pro­
nounces it error to deny, and which have

been enunc-iated by the infallible author­

ity of different Popes!
There are dogmas against the liberty

of the press, the liberty of conscience

and of _ worship, and the liberty of

speech: dogmas which deny to the State

the right to determine the civil rights
(jura) and province of, the Ohurch; that
which

.

affirms that the pontiffs have
"never usurped the limits of their pow­
er," as, for instance, in deposing rulers ;
in absolving subjects from their alle-



41

/

giance ; in assailing by force the rights
Their threat to force our Legislature to

of States, of peoples, and of persons:
maintain Roman Catholic education justi­

and that the Church lllay employ force fies us
in asking what is the principle

and temporal power. These are the dog-
and object of education by the State in

mas that in conflict of laws, civil and ec-; America,
and how far is the Roman sys­

clesiastical, the ecclesiastical should pre- tem,
which is to be forced upon our leg­

vail; that marriage not sacramentally islatures,
in accord with that principle

contracted, has no binding force, �L dogma
and fitted to accomplish that object.

which if Rome were to control the Re- Dr. Wayland says: "If
men choose a

public, would shake the foundations of Republican
form of government, in which

American society, disturbing the legitì-
the people are acknowledged to be the

macy of families, destroying the force of
fountain of all power, they come under

all marriages except those blessed by Ro-
the obligaticns to educate their children

man priests, reducing wives to concu- intellectually
and morally; for without

b 'nes, and children to bastards. Has'
intellectual and moral educat ion such a

Father Newman forgotten these dogmas, government
cannot exist."

or that which indicates that the (Roman) Here
we have in brief, as regards their

Catholic religion should be held the only
relation to the State, the raison d' eire of

religion of the State, striking at the
our common schools-the reason for their

equal religious toleration that exists un-
existence in the character of our govern­

del' onr National and State constitutions!
ment and the necessity for its preserva­

The dogma that concerns us at this mo-
tion that the people should be educated.

ment is that which strikes at the sover-
It is unnecessary even to

recall the out­

eign right of the State to direct the ed-
lines of our common school system which

ueation of its children and youth.
l has been for years expanding and im-

How the American people regard that proving
under the careful scrutiny and

assault upon the common school system loving
care and the generous appropria­

may be seen in the fact that when, in 1)e-
tions of the State. Our thoughtful citi­

eember, 1875, Mr. Blaine introduced in zens,
we may say, of all creeds, for they

the House of Representatives a
�

constitu- include the most enlightened
Roman

tional amendment prohibiting the St.�t;es·: Catholics,
are agreed that our common

from placing moneys raised for the sup- schools,
based now as anciently upon -the

port of the public schools under the C011-
divine morality of the Bible, with 110 sec­

trol of any religious sect, i t was adopt-
tarianism 1101' intolemnce,. and fitted to

ed by a vote of 166 to 5. It was lost. in
prepare our children

to take their pl-ce

the Senate after an amendment, and the:
ill the vau of modern civilization.

Democratic party at St. Louis, June 28, Let us
see with what sort of education

1876, decl-red themselves resolved to Rome
would snpply us if we were to ab:1 �r·

maintain the pubhc schools "without ish, at her bidding,
OUT common schor �18.

partiality 01' preference for any class, I On
this point we will not quote the .opiu­

s,ect
or

cr��d,
u/tld

'i�'itlwllé c()ntJ'�huti()�� I "?"
uf 1ih� oppouents -of.that.Ohurch and

.

from [he 'll'dlSU/'.ll/(/1' a'tty 1/'Jt.·� (!; them, :
ItR peculiar dogmas, 'It WIll' be

mere

It, seems clear, however, that the

Ro-I
fair to quote t.In- opinion-of an intelligent

man Catholic Hierarchy lWVc3 nut re- and devoted RUBH111i�t
familiar with the

nounced f1heir hope of obtaining in some Ruman Catholic
institutions of this coun­

manner, by .. political management, the ,I try,
tl�H1 Wi o would be careful to do them

control of the common schools, no iuj ustice. D.!. N
ewmau expressed his



42

surprise that Dr. Bronson should b« modes of thought and action, they find in

,quoted by any advocate of the common the general civilization of the country in

,schools, in view. of his c
....iticism on the which they live.

* * * The cause of

system as 'wanting a religious character ;' the failure of what we call Catholic edu­
but the fact that DI" Bronson had no cation is in our judgment in the fact that

pre-possession III favor of Protestant we educate not j(yr the present or the

schools gives the greater force to his future, but for the past.
* * * We

views on the character and inefficiency for do not mean that the dogmas are not

American life of Roman Catholic educa- scrupulously taught in all our schools

tione and colleges, and 'that the words of the

The following passage, with italics as catechism are not duly insisted upon.
here given, is taken from Dr. Smith's We concede this, and that gives to our

"Impending Conflict," p. 63, as quoted so-called Catholic schools a merit which

from Bronson's Review for Jan., 1862, no others have or can have. It is now be­

and its statements are so clear and nn- hind the times, and unfit» rather than

pressive as to forbid their interruption by prepares the student for taking an active

passing commente. Dr. Br01.1SQn said: part in the work of his own day and gen­
"

They �Roman Catholic schools) prae- erntion. 'I'here can be no question that

Ucally fail to recognize human prog- what passes for Catholic education in
rcse ; and thus to recognize the contin- this ur any other coumtru, has its ideal

uance and successive evolution of the of perfection in the past, and tbat it 1'8-

idea in the life of humanity.
* * * sists as un-Catholic, irreligious and op­

They do not educate thei»: pupils to be posed to God; tl,e tendencies of modern

at home, and at their ense in their own I civilization. * * * The work it gives
age and country, or train them to be its subjects or prepares them to perform

Iioinq, thinking and energetic men, is not the work of carrying it forward.

prepared for the work which actually but that of ret-J'tstù1!j it, driving it back,

iuoaits them,' either in Church or anathematizing it as at war with the Gos­

State.
"

As far as we are able to trace pel, and either of neglecting it altogether
the effect of the most approved (Roman) and taking refuge in the cloister III an ex­

Catholic education of our day, whether at elusive or exaggerated nseeticism, al­

home or abroad, it tends to repress ways bordering 011 immorality, or of re­

rather than quicken the life of the pupil, storiug a former order of civilization, no

to unfit rather than prepare him for the longer a living order, and which human­

active and zealous discharge either of his ity has evidently left behind, and is re­

religious or social duties. They who are solved shall never be restored."

educated in our schools seem misplaced It would be difficult to add to the force

and mistimed in the world, as if born of the significant truths so plainly stated

and educated for a 'world that has ceased by the great American champ.on of the

tu exist. * * * Comparatively few of papacy. He saw the terrible disadvan­

them (Roman Catholic graduates) take tages to which those children were sub­

their stand as scholars or as men on a jected who were taught in Roman Cath­

level with the Catholics of non-Catholic olic schools, educated for a past world

colleges, and those who do take that stand that no longer exists, unfitted to hold

do it by throwing as/ide nearly all they their own as scholars or as men, and fit­

learned from their Alma Mater, and ted not to advance the progress of Amer­

adopting the ideas and principles, the ican civilization, but only to resist and re-



43

tard it. Forwarned that the Sovereign The
'$

threat" to force our Legislatures

Pontiff or his foreign colony in this coun- to support Roman Catholic schools im­

try intends to force the State Legislatures poses upon those bodies the duty of en­

to appropriate moneys from the State quiring how far the rules and practices

treasuries to support Roman Catholic: taught by Rome accord with American

schools, the whole country should under­

stand the character and aims of Roman

Catholic education, even when surround­

ed by the Christian light and ci vilization

of the Republic; and every citizen of

whatever faith should appreciate the

wrong and injury done to every American

chi!d, allowing him, under the pretence
of education, to be unfitted for an honor­

able and successful career as an Ameri­

can citizen, and fitted only for an extinct

civilization which humanity has resolved

shall never be restored. Into whatever

errors Dr. Bronson may have fallen, the

youth of succeeding generations may
honor and bless his memory for that

stern protest as a Roman Catholic against
a system of education which handicaps
the boys subjected to it in the race of life

with exploded dogmas of antiquated ig­
noranoe which makes them foreigners in

their own land, strangers to American

ideas, enemies to American progress, and

helpless as scholars or as men, until they
throw aside as worthless nearly all they
had learned from their institution, mis­

named their Alma Mater. The difference

is great between the education that befits

an 1\ merican citizen with the rights,
duties'and dignities of an American sov­

ereign, bound to enlarge the power, the

resources an: I the Oh: istian influences of

the Republic. and an education based on

the imperfect civilization of the dark

ages, which is intended to fit the boy to

become the unquestioning and unresist­

ing subject of tlle Pupe of Rome, bound

to assist by his vote m overthrowing the

liberties of his country, and establishing
his supremacy upon the ruins of Repub­
lican government, and of political and re­

ligious freedom.

ideas of morals and manners, as essential

to the public welfare.

Apart from the teachings of Rome that

justify both lving and. theft, false evi ..

dence ar.d the breaking of oaths, as illus­

trated by St. Liguori, whose authority
Father Newman will not deny, there is

one matter connected with the education

of girls, to the dangers of which attention

has been gravely called by an eminent

Roman Catholic prelate-c-the late Arch­

bishopKenrick of Baltimore-in a warning

which neither the people nor the Legis­

lature, as the protector of the public

morals, can afford to overlook.
"It has always been," says the Tablet,

(NOVo 13, 1869,) "a cardinal doctrine of

the Catholic Church to incorporate re­

ligious instruction with their daily teach­

ings in its schools." And this fact brings

before us, as a part of Roman Catholic

education, the practice of confession in

its relation to the manners and morals of

the scholars.

The learned Archbishop, who was

twelve years the head of the Roman

Catbolio Church in the United States,

thus spoke in his work on Moral Theol­

og:y, as translated by the Rev. Dr. Ed­

ward Beecher, and quoted by Barnum's
"

Romanism as it is," p. 514:
"

We scarcely dare to speak concerning
that atrocious crime in which the office of

hearing confession is perverted to the

ruin of souls by impious men unner the

influence of their lusts. Would that we

could. regard it as solely i1 conception of

the mind and as something iuvented by
the enemies of the faith for the purposes

of slander. But it is not fi-t that we

should be ignorant of the decrees which

the pont iff's have issued to defend the

sacredness of this sacrament."



44

The Archbishop specified nineteen

dif-I
been framed in'this age, even by the

,ferent cases or ways of solicitation bi" courts, whose ancient scandals were per­
priests rn connection with the practice petuated by Cardinal Antonelli, whose

of confcssion ; and such statements by the amusements did not interrupt his closere­

head of the Catholic Church in America lations with the Sovereign Pontiff. They

may properly suggest to the Legislature date from those corrupt ages before the

the enquiry, how far confession is prae- Reformation, when no public opiu.on, en­

ticed in American schools, and how far Iightened by the Bible, restrained the im­

they are bound to shield American girls morality of the Roman Court when, in

from being demoralized, insulted and our- the words of Maccauley, the Court was" a

raged under cover of the ,sacrament of scandal to the Christian name; its annals

confession. are black with treason, murder and in-

The solemn words of the Archbishop, cest ; even its most respectable members

declaring that this is not "a conception were utterly unfit to be ministers of re­

of the mind," nor a "somet.hing invented ligion.
-,

Bishop Hopkins, whose learn­

by the enemies of the faith for the pur- ing and conscientiousness constituted him

poses of slander," ar« confirmed by the a reliable witness, testified in a passage

testimony of other learned writers, and which has been already quoted, to "the

are explained by the character of the awful immorality, the licentiousness and

questioning to which the female peni- the degradation of the Roman priest­
tents are subjected. hood ': during those dark ages; and

The Rev. Mr. Hart in his "Ecclesias- doubtless many Roman Catholic priests
tical Records," Cambridge, 1850, p. of our purer age and country share with

321, remarks: "The many enactments the venerable Archbishop of Baltimore

against Soliciùm (a priest who made his honor at the crime which impious

the confessional an instrument of men, professing to celebrate a sacrament,

seduction), shows the extent of the evil perpetrate upon the penitents who looked

and the inadequacy of the remedy." to them as to God for the fOl'g.venesR of"
Of the questions asked of the penitent their sins.

little is popularly known iu this country, It is seldom that public attention has

for the reason that their publications here been called to the actual dangers of the

would be, as it has been adjudged in Eng- coufessional as presented in the work of

land, illegal under the laws forbidding the Arch .rishop by those whose authority

indecent pubhcations ; but the Rev. Mr. is admitted by the l hurch of Rome.

Hart gives 'Some idea of their character There has been a natural hesitancy to

when he remarks of
.

he manual intended accept without reserve the charges con

to be placed in the hands of young stantly made against her moral theology
women before confession, "that it de- by priests who have seceded from that

tails abominations which it might never communion, and who, as hl the case of

have entered into the hearts to conceive," Father Chiniquy, allege the crime allud­

and that" it is not too much to say that ed to Ly Archbishop Kenrick as one of

by reading a work of this description the' the chief motives for their departure.
mind of a yonng person would be more Despite the character and services of

polluted in half an hour than by all the Father Chiniquy, which are said to have
licentious publications ever issued from won for him great applause and the

the press."

I
special notice of his late Holiness, the

Such instruction could hardly hav� penance
-

narrative given in his book

)



/

45

/

(" The Priest, the Woman and the

con-I.which
he gives (p. 186-7) both the Latin

fessional :" Montreal-F. E. Grafton, .and a translation referring to "lhe very
1875,) might perhaps be questioned by I great modesty with which a penitent may
those who denounce him as an apostate; ,be suffused at the confession of certain
but the same objection does not hold "o his ,sins," denouncing it as "fi motive so
extracts from the Boman Fathers, where vain," and enjoining that "this modesty
any incorrectness in the. quotation can be must be overcome."
shown ; and, according to Father Chin- Archbishop Kenrick has taught us the
iquy, the. Church authorities show the fearful extent and the various manners in
same uneasiness and apprehension shown which that instruction has been obeyed;
by Archbishop Kenrick in regard to the but even if there were no such proof of
behavior of priests at the confessional, resulting crimes, the denunciation of
by asking each in turn whether they had modesty as a vain motive, and the in­
asked questions on sins . against struction that it must be overcome, shows
the Sixth Commandment (the sev- the abyss that divides the estimate of
enth of the Decalogue), with the womanly modesty by the Roman Courts
intention, of gratifying. their evil and that entertained by the Christian
passions; whether they had not availed people of America who see in the mod­
themselves of what they heard in the c n- esty of their wives r-nd daughters the
fessional to induce .the penitents to com- purest guarantee for t he 'virtue and hap­
mit sin, and whether they had' not, dur- piness of their country.
ing or after confessional; done '�r said Whatever dogmas may be introduced to
anything" cum int ntione diabolica ha.c; show that every State is subject to the'
personas seducendi.

"

Roman Ohurch; that no State has a right
The Rev, Hobart Seymour in his work to educate its people; that the clergy of

on "the Oonfessional "-London, 1870- Rome owe neither allegiance nor obe­
shows one reason, perhap� the chief one, dience to' the authorities of the State,
why what is called.the moral theology of and are subject only to Canon law, and'
Rome is so little known to the Roman that the Ohurch has a right to use force
Oatholic laity in England and America, and compel the Legislatures to its will,
is that in England the publication of ex- the' question, how far the Legislatures
tracts translated from the Latin to the should permit Jle practice of confession
English is illegal under the laws which in our schools supported or assisted by
prohibit indecent publications." the State, is one of peculiar importance,

From this it would appear that the and which should have tile fairest iuves­
quest-ions put to the female penitents in tigation, in view of the light thrown upon
the privacy of the confessional, which are the character and results of the practice
sometimes put with improper motives by some of the Fathers and diguitariea of
and lead to criminal results, are of such a the Church ; and of the allegation that
nature that the law woul l punish, their however respectable the priest, the in­
P" blication ns inconsistent with the pnb- R ructions uf the Roman Court leaves them
lic morals, and with good manners. The IlO discretion, but require them to ask
question how the maidenly and womanly abominable and demoraliz ing questions,
modesty of the penitents wonld permit and to overcome by tact and persistence
questionsso indecent, is answered by the the modesty of the penitent, Every
quotation by Mr. Seymour from Bailly conscientious and enlightened Roman
on the Decalogue, of an instruction of Catholic American should wish the



cond.emnation of the crimes de- believe that good is to be accomplished

nounced by the A, chbishop to con- by a frank exchange of opinion. even if it

tinue; and the worthiest members of be so frank that the parties and the world

that communion in our country will re- beyond learn the point at which, in the

joice at the restriction of the dangers and light of the past, the present and the

crimes of the confessional, if they are in- future, further concession is impossible.

deed such as Archbishop Kenrick repre- The most enlightened of our Roman

sented and deposed. Catholic citizens, with whom we lived in

I beg to apologize to Father Newman harmony from the
Revolution to the Re­

for thus abruptly closing my reply to his bellion, should be able to see
this as

learned and elaborate letter without time clearly as ourselves, and they can assure

on the eve of my departure for Europe more recent comers of the
readiness of

for even a passing glance at various prop- the American people to give to the Ro­

ositions wnich deserve a complete reply. man faith the same tolerance which it

One is his suggestion that the papal gives
to others, and of the unwisdom of

recognition of Mr. Davis as President of
an attempt by foreign agents to force our

the Southern Confederacy, and the cor- Legislatures
into giving to the Pope the

dial reception of the Envoys by the Sov-
control of American education. They

ereign Pontiff, was a mere matter of
can assure the Court of Rome that they

courtesy, and had no significance ae re-
themselves are not ready as voters to sub­

gards the American people and the Amer-
mit themselves to the dictation of the Ro-

ican government.

History will attribute the course pur­

sued by Pius IX.-, followed as it was by

an influence so injurious to the National

cause, to something more than a habit of

courtesy.

I have also to apologize to the readers

for errors of the press which I have been

quite unable to prevent, and to say that

if in any case my language may have

seemed discourteous to Father Newman,

it has been entirely without intention.

Differing widely as we do, and perhaps

no greater difference can be found than

between an American who believes in his

country and her institutions as founded

on the Bible, and a representative of

Rome who comes to America with the in­

tention of advancing the supremacy of

the Pope and the doctrine of the syllabus,

there is a regard due to kindliness among

neighbors and to fairness of statement

and courtesy in argument; and when

these exist, however blended with de­

termined convictions, I am inclined to

man Pontiff, and that the best and safest

rule for that Court will be to observe the

principle which Americans think a good

one for all foreign powers and peoples­
�, Hands off in American politics."

I am, Sir, faithfully yours,
JOHN JAY.



THE BIBLE AND THE REPUBLIC.

ADDRESS OF MR. .JOHN .JAY, PRESIDENT,

AT THE SIXTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING

OF THE WESTCHESTER COUNTY BIBLE

SOCIETY, HELD AT PURDY'S STATION,

OCTOBER 8, ] 878.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MEMBERS OF

THE SOCIETY :-Among the resolutions Of

the Board of Managers which have been

laid before you, was one based upon the

report of a special committee appointed
to devise a plan for the supplying, during
the coming year, every destitute family
in Westchester county with a Bible, and

every reading person with a Testament.

Some years have passed since the en­

tire county WRS canvassed and supplied
with the Bible. With the changes

brought by time, many families are now

likely to be without it; and the cheap­
ness with which the American Bible So­

ciety supplies the Testament- the price
of a pocket edition being only five cents

---has induced our managers to add to

their next. distribution this important

feature. They propose not only that

each family shall have a Bible, but that

each individual shall have a Testament

in his own tongue, be it English, French

or German, Italian, Dutch or Danish,

Spanish or Portuguese, Russian, Polish,

Hungarian, Bohemian, or
.

other of the

seventy languages and 'dialects in which

the National Society in this its 63d year
is circulating the Sorrptures.

In such work, whether for a t own, a

county, a State, or what we should labor

to accomplish at the earliest possible pe­

riod, for this whole nation, we have a

right, to anticipate, as suggested by the

managers, the earnest and cordial co-op-

eration of the clergy and laity of all

Christian denominations that rest their

faith upon the Bible.

Its distribution, without note or com­

ment, presents, as has been happily said,
a common ground of co-operation and a

centre of union, without a sacrifice of

principles or the surrender of the small­

est atom of the respective opinions and

fJ'.L4l"Vl.aV'l..,Cl by which we are distinguished.
I beg leave, as a layman, to suggest

further that all persons who value pure

morals, sound education, good govern­

ment and national honor, whatever their

creed or however broad, independent or

eccentric their belief, can consistently

join in this work as one that will con­

tribute to the welfare and safety of the

republic.

It is, of course, one thing to give a

man a 'I'estament, or to induce him to

buy it, and another to secure its perusal.
But if there he fi chance that, having the

Testament, he will not read it, it. is cer­

tain that he will not read it unless he has

it; and we may safely trust that in the

vast majority of enses a day will come

when, from a desire to know what the

book contains, or some good impulse in

doubt, or in sorrow to seek therein for

light or consolation, the volume will be

opened even hy the most careless and in­

different. Then the reader, whether

young or old, rich or poor, in happiness

in sorrow, will learn to know some­

thing of the noblest book that has come

down through the ages; the book best

fitted to enlighten the understanding and

purify the heart. What that book has

done for civilization we know from histo­

ry, we know from our own annals.

"

The Bible," said Sir William Jt Ines,



2

who was familiar with Greek, Roman and by the narrow maxrms of a superstitious
Oriental literature--" the Bible, inde- tyranny."

pendently of its divine origin, contains Burke, in that magnificent effort of his

more sublimity, purer morality, more im- unrivalled genius, the speech on "Con­

partial history, and finer strains of elo- ciliation with America," said, "Religion,

quence, than can be collected from any always a principle of energy in this new

other book in whatever language it may people, is no way worn out or impaired:

have been written." and their mode of expressing it is also
"

Wherever the Scriptures are gener- one cause of this free spirit.

ally read,
".

says Robert Hall, "the stand-
" The people are Protestant and of tbat

ard of morals is raised, the public mind kind which is most adverse to all implicit

is expanded, a spirit of enquiry excited, submission of mind and opinion-"

and the sphere of intellectual vision in- Look next at the action and utterances

conceivably enlarged." of our early Congress, whose wisdom

The indebtedness of this country to command-d the admiration of Europe,

the Bible, and its recognition by our gov- and mark in them the influence of the

ernment in other days, are things not to Bible. We are told that a week before

be forgotten; and it is well to keep prom- Congress was driven from Philadelphia

inently before our people this distin- an order was passed for the importation

guishing feature of our history. The of 20,000 Bibles at the public expense,

great body of the original settlers on our On the capture of Burgoyne, Congress

newly discovered continent were men ordered a public thanksgiving, and ex­

whose ancestors had fought for civil and horted the people "to consecrate them­

religious freedom on the various battle- selves to the service of the Divine Bene­

fields of the Old World. factor and to offer their humble suppli-

'I'hey represented the clearest heads cations that it might please God, through

and the stoutest hearts that had defied the merits of Jesus Christ, to forgive

political and papal prosecution. their sins and prosper the means of re-

They brought the noblest blood of all I ligion, for the promotion and enlargement

parts of Europe, and in whatever they of that kingdom which consists in right­

differed they were alike in this, they eousuess, peace and joy in the Holy

brought the Bible. Ghost."

When, in the last century, an unwise In 1778, Congress, addressing the peo­

king and a convenient ministry deemed ple on the cruelties practiced by the ene­

it expedient to raise a revenue in Ameri- my, remarked, "notwithstanding the

ca, the far-sighted statesmen of England, great provocation, we have treated such

who warned them against the consequen- as fell into our hands with tenderness,

ces of their folly, recalled the origin of and studiously endeavored to alleviate

the American colonists and the character the afflictions of their captivity. This

and deeds of their heroic ancestors. conduct we have pursued so far as to be

Lord C natham referred to the revolting by them stigmatized with cowardice, and

Americans as a brave, generous and by our friends as folly. But our de­

united people, with arms in their hands pendence was not upon man, it was upon

and courage in their hearts; and he re- Him who hath commanded us to love our

minded England that they were "the

I
enemies and to render good for evil. Do

genuine descendants of a valiant and not believe that you have been or can be

pious ancestry, driven to those deserts good merely by your own strength. No;



3

/

it is by the assistance of Heaven; and celebrated with Te Deums the Massacre

this you must assiduously cultivate by of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's

acts which Heaven approves." Eve, and perpetuated those scenes in the

And what was the impression made in frescoes of the Vatican, as permanent

Europe by this Bible policy of non-retal- mementoes from century to century of the

iation of cruelties in time of war? Listen unrelenting policy of Rome when she has

again to the great Earl of Chatham. the power to enforce her dogmas. In

"Those men," he said to the Peers of England, during the papal rebellion, her

England, "whom you called .cowards, representatives demanded
" that the

poltroons, runaways and knaves, are be- people should be forbidden to read the

come victovious over our veteran troops; Bible." In our Republic they have de­

and ìn the midst of victory and the flush manded witn partial success' that the

of conquest have set ministers an exam- Bible should not be read in our public

pIe of moderation and magnanimity well schools; and to-day Rome opposes the

worthy of imitation." circulation of the B.ible, and holds th,_-.,t

That a change has come over our pol- the Holy Scriptures, when circulated in

ibics since those days, and that the teach- the vulgar tongue, produce more harm

ings of the Bible are less COl1SplCUOUS in than good.
our legislative debates, our diplomatic In its effort to suppress the Bible in

papers, our governmental policy, is a America, the Romish church has been

fact that we all feel and know. No suc- seconded by the Infidels and Atheists in

cessor of Chatham or Burke now holds us our midst, hailing from all lands; and to

up for the admiration of Europe, ranking l the skeptical schools of England, France
us above the master states of the world,! and Germany, and the parts of Europe
and declaring that for solidity of reason- where Romish superstition and immor­

ing, force of sagacity and wisdom of con- ality have landed the people in almost

elusion, no nation al' body of men can hopeless unbelief, has recently been add­

stand in preference t o the congress at ed the A theism of modern science which

Washington. seeks from the noblest works of God to

Despite the efforts of 01H Bible so- deduce His non-existence. The authors

cieties, considerable aA they have been, of the new school rejecting the immor­

various causes have combined during the ality of the soul, broach with seeming
last half century to limit the influence of pride the theory that they are purely uni­

that bood in forming the character of the mal in their origin, and that they have

American people. been evolved from t he lowest grades of

The rapid increase of foreign emigra- the brute creation.

tion added new: elements to our popula- Many seem to have adopted Atheistic

tione The Romish church, claiming fnll views when presented in the name of

power over the whole world, both in eccle- science from the professor's chair, who

siastical and civil affairs, and declaring would have: shuddered at the thought of

herself immutable and infallible, has joining the disreputable disciples of Tom

maintained her olden opposition to the Paine; and when we remembel' that Gl'O�

reading of the scriptures, although her tins began with doubts, and Sir Isaac

hostility is exercised with more of cau- Newton as an infidel, we may well regard
tion than she was wont to use when she with gentlest charity these who have

burnt the Protestants with the Bible been led to doubt, and hasten to put into

hanging about their necks, or when she their hands the volume inspired by that



4

God whom they will soon see and know.

With the neglect of the Bible and the

progress of atheism there has come a dif­

ference in the national tone which pre­

sents a noticeable contrast to the char­

acteristics of the early settlers and of

their sagacious descendants the founders

of the Republic.

Atheism has been well said to be the

plague of society, the corruption of man­

ners, and the undermining of property;

and the last point is especially noticeable

in a country where good government de­

pends upon the people, and where there

is no standing army for the maintenance

of law and order.

Whether or not i t was wise in the gen­

eration which succeeded that of the revo­

lution to abolish the checks and guards

with which the fathers of the Republic

had surrounded the exercise of the ballot,

universal suffrage as it exists is likely to

continue.

There is a tradition that Mr. Martin

Van Buren, when at first opposing its

concession, said that it was a right which,

once conceded, could never be recovered

except at the point of the sword.

Men who believe this have said: edu­

cation will save us; the common school

will make us not, only an intelligent but

a virtuous people. But now the Bible

has been partly driven from the common

school, and thoughtful men begin to talk

like Dr. Francis Parkman with a sadness

akin to despair of "the failure of univer­

sal suffrage."

They say that it tends to banish from

our politics, culture, character and abil­

ity, and to snbstitute the votes of men

who, beside their intellectual deficiencies,

are wanting in a proper sense of moral

and political duty.

They complain that a class of voters

become the easy tools of priests and dem­

agogues, or both; that under their rule

the scheme of republican government,

which was intended to secure wise and

righteous laws and an economical admin­

istration, has been ingeniously perverted

to the purposes of personal ambition and

official plunder. That misgovernment

and fraud, disturbing trade and industry,

oppress the poor, encourage discontent,

and threaten the foundations of social

order. That, while stimulating the prin­

ciples of the commune, our perverted

system, with its maxim "to the victor

belong the spoils," supplies the ma­

chinery for accomplishing its purpose

under th- forms of law, and of confiscat­

ing at leisure the property of citizens, not

only without danger to the perpetrators

of arrest and punishment, but with a

right to command courts and constable-.,

and all the paraphernalia of thelaw, to

execute the scheme by which the astute

managers enrich themselves at the ex­

pense of their neighbors,

The extent to which this is done

is shown in the city of New York, whose

municipal misgovernment and gigantic

frauds, oppressing alike th e rich and the

poor, have sbiurulated oorrupt.ion through­

out the country; and we are reminded of

the open boast made a few years since by
a papal paper pnblished at Rome, that

the court of Rome already controlled the

populous city of New York, and would

soon control the whole of the great Re­

public.

Now, in looking for a remedy for the

evils and dangers of our country, wheth­

er political or social, and however stimu­

lated by Romanism or Atheism, and in

seeking how to elevate the public tone, to

raise the people to a higher level, to

purify the national atmosphere, to re­

store to our institutions something of

their primitive virtue, as the guardians

of private rights and the national honor,

we must recollect that the governing

power rests with the masses,
and that

there are tens and hundreds of thousands



5

of these ruling sovereigns, millions in­

deed of men, women and children to

whom christian churches are unknown,
and who are in large measure beyond
their influence.

"The evil," says a recent writer, "is
not to be cured by reading, writing and

arithmette. The public school may cram
the brain with all it is capable of con­

taining, and he will be no whit the better
citizen for the process;" and the writer

justly adds, "the thing needed is to lay
the foundation of a sound morality."

Wellington, who had a wide experience
of men, is quoted as having said, "edu­
cate men without religion and you make
them but clever devils."

If we look at the ·question simply m
the light of public morality, where are
we to find so sound a code of morality,
so powerful an appeal to the deepest feel­

ings of the heart, as in the BIble?

Take the opinions of the greatest
statesmen and philosophers of modern

times, and they agree in their estimate of
the Bible in its elevating influence upon
the character of a nati on.

.,

There never was found," said Bacon,
"in alJy age of the world, either religion
or law, that did so highly exalt the pub­
lic good as the Bible."

"
In morality, said John Locke, "there

are books enough written, both by an­
cient and modern philosophers, but the

morality of the Gospel doth so exceed
them all that, to give �1, man a full knowl­

edge of morality, I shall sead hi tI to no
other book but the New Testament."

Milton said, "there are no politics
like those which the Scriptures teach" ;
and coming nearer to our own day and

pur own country, Dr. Franklin said:
"

a Bible and a newspaper in every house,
a good school in every district, all stud­
ied and appreciated as they merit, are
the prmoiple support o: virtue, morality
and civil liberty."

This testimony from .Franklin, placing
the Bible in every house, before the

newspaper and before the school, as the

chief support of morality and Iiberty, is
the more significant as the opinion of a

singularly prudent philosopher, looking
simply at the facts by the light of expe­
rience, with apparently no personal con­
victions nor ancestral ties binding him
to the Christian faith, although he is said
to have remarked on his death-bed, "that
it was safest ti) believe."

Whether the evils that disturb our

peace and engender our institutions come

chiefly from those who deny that there is
above an Almighty Creator and governor
of the world, or from those who believe
that the Vicengent of God rules at
Rome with plenary powers, spiritual and

civil, over all peoples and an govern­
ments, the reality of those evils is be ...

yond question: and there should be no
doubt that the reading of the Testament

by the millions of our people, great and
small, would purify the intellectual and
moral atmosphere of the land.

Centuries before the Christian Era,
Plato, the wisest of philosophers, said:
"

To act justly and wisely you must act

according to the will of God." Ili is
God's revealed will whieh we distribute,
teaching that code of morals and religion,
which the greatest statesmen of England
and America have declared the founda­

tion of society, which connects man with
his Maker and ho1ds him to His throne.

As for the result of our good works we
need not fear, when we remember tre
words of Isaiah :

"

For as the rain cometh do wn and the
snow from Heaven, and returneth not
thither, but watereth the earth and make
it to bring forth and bud, that it may
give seed to the sower and bread to the
eater, so shall my word be that goes
forth out' of my mouth: It. shall not re­
turn to me VOId, but it shall accomplish
that which I please and it shall prosper
in the thing whereto I send it."



 



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