REASONS 
 
 FOR 
 
 NOT TAKING THE TEST; 
 
 FOR 
 
 NOT CONFORMING TO THE ESTABLISHED 
 
 NOT DESERTra^galE^eiENT FAITH ; 
 
 WITH PRELIMINARY AND CONCLUDING 
 OBSERVATIONS ; 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 SOME REMARKS ON THE BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH'S 
 LATE CHARGE, 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN, EARL OF SHREWSBURY 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED FOR JOSEPH BOOKER, NEW BOND STREET. 
 
 1828. 
 

 London: Pi-inted by C. RICHARDS, 
 St. Martin's-lane, Charing-cross. 
 
TO HIS GRACE 
 
 THE DUKE OF NORFOLK, 
 
 r ] EARL MARSHALL, 
 
 CONCEIVING myself called upon to 
 vindicate the religion of my Catholic fellow- 
 countrymen from the virulent calumnies so 
 unwarrantably fixed upon it by the laws of the 
 land, as well as to defend their conduct in their 
 capacity of members of the state, I cannot 
 bring the hasty result of my labours before the 
 Public, in a manner more worthy of the sub- 
 ject, or more agreeable to my own feelings, than 
 by dedicating them to your Grace. 
 
 The Catholics of this Empire may be 
 justly proud in the reflection that, while they 
 are fellow-sufferers in the same cause with the 
 
IV 
 
 first nobleman in the kingdom, they suffer with 
 one who is more entitled to his rank and ho- 
 nours, by the public and private virtues which 
 adorn him, than by the adventitious circum- 
 stance of hereditary descent, whose patriotism 
 is only outshone by the noble sacrifice which 
 he offers to the dictates of his conscience, and 
 whose chief regret in being deprived of the 
 privileges from which he is so unjustly de- 
 barred, arises from the inability to employ 
 them for the advantage of his country. 
 
 I have the honour to remain, 
 
 MY LORD DUKE, 
 
 With the most sincere respect 
 
 and esteem, 
 
 Your Grace's most obedient 
 humble Servant, 
 
 SHREWSBURY. 
 
 SlDMOUTH, 
 
 March 18, 1828. 
 

 , &c. 
 
 So many, with much abler pens than mine, have 
 of late years entered the lists of controversy, that 
 I should consider myself only a useless volunteer 
 in the cause, were it not for the peculiar circum- 
 stances in which I find myself placed. Out of more 
 than a hundred English peers of my own rank, I am 
 the only one who refuses the Test which the Legis- 
 lature has thought proper to establish, as the quali- 
 fication for the exercise of constitutional rights. It 
 is an enviable privilege to enjoy a voice in the 
 affairs of the Commonwealth; to be a guardian 
 over the people's rights, and an instrument for 
 the public good : I therefore consider it a sacred 
 duty to show, why I refuse the exercise of functions 
 so exalted in their character, and so important in 
 their consequences. That such a Test should ever 
 have existed, is matter of astonishment ; (a; but 
 
 This Test is the true-horn offspring of that atrocious 
 conspiracy which sacrificed the lives of so many innocent 
 individuals, and which Mr. Fox thus characterizes : 
 " The proceedings on the Popish Plot must always be 
 
 a '*if 
 
11 
 
 that it should exist now, as a measure of high 
 state policy, is beyond all reason and understanding. 
 How the faithful and honourable discharge of the 
 duties of Parliament can be affected more by a 
 belief in Transubstantiation, than by a belief in 
 Consubstantiation, or by a disbelief in the real 
 presence altogether ; how a man is less fitted to 
 
 considered as an indelible disgrace upon the English 
 nation, in which king, parliament, judges, juries, wit- 
 nesses, have all their respective, though certainly not 
 equal, shares. Witnesses of such a character as not to 
 deserve credit in the most trifling cause, upon the most 
 immaterial facts, gave evidence so incredible, or to speak 
 more properly, so impossible to be true, that it ought not 
 to have been believed if it had come from the mouth of 
 Cato ; and upon such evidence from such witnesses, were 
 innocent men condemned to death and executed." We 
 have only to look around us to be satisfied that the same 
 delusion still exists in the minds of many ; that even 
 those master-spirits who are the enemies of emancipation, 
 are haunted with the same imaginary horrors of Popery ; 
 and that both our doctrine as Christians, and our reputa- 
 tion as subjects, are, to this very day, condemned upon 
 evidence equally incredible and impossible. 
 
 When this Test was passing the House of Lords, 
 " Gunning, bishop of Ely, maintained that the Church 
 of Rome was not idolatrous. The lords did not much 
 mind Gunning's arguments, but passed the bill. And 
 though Gunning had said he could not take that test 
 with a good conscience, yet as soon as the bill was passed, 
 he took it in the crowd with the rest." Burnet. 
 
iii 
 
 serve his country, because he acknowledges a 
 spiritual authority in the Bishop of Rome, as head 
 of the Christian Church, than if he believed that 
 authority to belong to the King of England, are 
 paradoxes which no reflecting mind can for an in- 
 stant entertain. That they who preach, (in con- 
 formity with the Doctrine of Christ,) that the 
 kingdom of God is not of this world, and that men 
 are bound to honour and obey their king, and to 
 be subject to the civil power, under pain of damna- 
 tion; that they should hold a divided allegiance, 
 between the spiritual head of their Church, and the 
 lawful authorities of their country, it is prepos- 
 terous and absurd to imagined No : it cannot 
 
 (6) Vindicating his church and country from similar 
 accusations, that admirable patriot and exemplary pastor, 
 Dr. Doyle, in his most powerful and most eloquent reply 
 to Dr. Magee, says : 
 
 " The Catholic Church is also loyal but she is loyal 
 through a sense of duty, and because such is the line of 
 conduct prescribed to her by Almighty God. She is 
 devoted to the prince established by divine Providence, 
 not through fear or necessity, but freely and cheerfully ; in 
 every country, and under whatsoever circumstances, she 
 offers up, as is prescribed by St. Paul, prayers and petitions 
 for the king, and for all that are in high station, that all 
 men may lead a quiet and holy life. To impugn the sincerity 
 of her children in this country in praying for the monarch 
 and bearing towards him the most sincere devotedness of 
 
 a2 
 
IV 
 
 be, that \ve merit our exclusion, because we con- 
 tinue our submission, in doctrinal points, to the 
 
 mind and will, is one of the most unworthy deeds of which 
 any person, lay or ecclesiastic, could be guilty. 
 
 " The insinuations in the Charge respecting a division 
 of allegiance, and the insecurity of that which we owe and 
 pay to the sovereign of these realms, are SLANDEROUS and 
 MALIGNANT. They are founded on no facts, supported 
 by no proof ; they are contradicted by every page of our 
 history, by the preambles of divers acts of Parliament, by 
 the statements of our friends, the confessions of our enemies, 
 by the senate and the ministers of the king. I omit our 
 own oaths of allegiance, which are incompatible with a 
 division of allegiance, because I cannot submit to vindicate 
 myself or my fellow-countrymen from the imputation of 
 perjury. It is the grossest insult which men were ever 
 condemned to endure." 
 
 But, says the Bishop of St. Davids', " they [Roman 
 Catholics] are incapable of the allegiance, which is due 
 from subjects to their sovereign. My Lords, they are in- 
 capable of that allegiance, because they are bound by a 
 contrary allegiance to a foreign sovereign.'' (Speech of 
 Dr. Thomas Burgess, Bishop of St. David's, delivered on 
 the 9th July, 1823, and published by the Right Reverend 
 prelate himself ! !) 
 
 My only reply to Dr. Burgess is, that his assertion is 
 false, calumnious, and insulting. But to what a condition 
 are we reduced ! we not only swear a true and perfect al- 
 legiance, but we swear it in much stronger terms than any 
 Protestant in the kingdom, than the Bishop of St. David's 
 himself. That oath is framed by the legislature, is ac- 
 
authority of the ancient Church of Christendom, 
 instead of transferring it to one of more modern 
 
 cepted by the sovereign, and qualifies us for the service of 
 the state. Yet, a peer of parliament is suffered with im- 
 punity, and in the face of the whole world, to impeach other 
 peers of parliament, of bearing no true allegiance to their 
 sovereign, though the sovereign himself has ratified that 
 allegiance by his acceptance of it, to accuse them of having 
 called the Almighty to witness, that they would do that 
 which they were incapable of doing, in truth, to arraign 
 them both of perjury and of treason, of the highest 
 crimes before God and man. Was ever outrage like this ? 
 But this, and much more than this, are we compelled to 
 endure. This same Bishop of St. David's (since translated 
 to the bishopric of Salisbury, doubtless for the merit of 
 having composed the Catechism from which the follow- 
 ing dogma is taken) emphatically avows, that, in his in- 
 fallible judgment, no man can be a Protestant, whatever 
 he may profess to be, who does not KNOW it to be TRUE 
 that the worship of the Church of Rome is idolatrous. 
 That the Bishop of St. David's should know that to be 
 true of us, which we know to BE FALSE of ourselves that 
 he should SWEAR that to be true of us, which we would 
 su-ear to be false of ourselves, is not so much to be won- 
 dered at, because. ...but even against the Bishop of St. 
 David's, I will not condescend to employ the weapon of 
 retaliation which he has thrust into my hand. But if his 
 Protestantism depends upon his knowledge of the truth of 
 
 that WHICH IS POSITIVELY, AND ABSOLUTELY, AND 
 
 NOTORIOUSLY FALSE; and, if the sincerity of his alle- 
 giance is to be ascertained by his abjuration of the spiritual 
 authority of the head of the Christian Church ; I envy him 
 
VI 
 
 date; nor, because in a. country in which a hun- 
 dred different sects have found an unmolested 
 
 neither his principles as a Protestant, nor his profession 
 of fidelity as a subject. But let us hear his own words : 
 
 Q. " What is Protestantism ? " 
 
 A. " The ahjuration of Popery, and the exclusion of 
 Papists from all power, ecclesiastical or civil." 
 
 Q. " Is it any hardship on Protestants to make the de- 
 claration against Transubstantiation and the invocation 
 of Saints?" 
 
 A. " No : Because if they are really Protestants, they 
 are so, on this very principle, that the worship of the 
 Church of Rome is unscriptural, superstitious, and idola- 
 trous." 
 
 Q. " Is it any objection to the declaration, that many 
 Protestants, who are called upon to make it, do not know 
 enough of the subject to be satisfied of the truth of the 
 declaration ?" 
 
 A. " No : Because no one can be a Protestant on prin- 
 ciple, who is not satisfied of the truth of the declaration, 
 and if he is a Protestant in principle, there can be no hard- 
 ship in making a declaration, which he knows to be true, 
 and, as an avowed Protestant, he professes to believe." 
 
 Q. " Is it any objection to the declaration, that many 
 Protestants, who are called upon to make it, do not con- 
 sider the worship of the Church of Rome to be idolatrous, 
 and may therefore think the declaration an unfounded 
 (calumny ?" 
 
 A. "If they think the declaration an unfounded ca- 
 lumny, and hold the worship of the Church of Rome not 
 to be idolatrous, they are not Protestants, whatever they 
 may profess to be ; and the objection does not apply to them." 
 
Vll 
 
 footing, we choose to believe one code of religious 
 tenets in preference to another ; nor because, in 
 
 Q. " Can we, then, consider the declaration as unne- 
 cessary, in respect of the Papists, or hard on Protestants ?" 
 
 A. "It is neither unnecessary as to the Papists, because 
 the experience of the past shews that former laws were 
 insufficient without it ; nor can it be any hardship on the 
 Protestants, because if they are Protestants, on principle, 
 they know it to be true, and, as avowed Protestants, profess 
 to believe it ; and which, if they do not believe, they belie 
 their Protestant profession." 
 
 Q. " How may we co-operate with the laws for prevent- 
 ing the growth of Popery ?" 
 
 A. " By exposing the false pretensions, the errors, the 
 evils, and the interests of Popery ; and by doing what the 
 laws require us to do for its prevention." 
 
 Q. " What do the laws require us to do for this pur- 
 pose?" 
 
 A. " Certain solemn days are set apart for commemo- 
 rating the plots and conspiracies of Popery against our 
 Church, and our deliverance from them, &c." (The Pro- 
 testanfs Catechism, by Thomas Burgess, Bishop of St. 
 David's. Fourth Edit. pp. 216, 242, 250. 
 
 Now, if to our Catholic Catechisms, we were to at- 
 tach the following Appendix, to edify our catechumens 
 with a specimen of the Christian charity of a Protestant 
 divine, we should only be delineating with accuracy the 
 conduct and principles of many of our revilers, and ex- 
 hibiting a true portrait of the Bishop of St. David's " Pro- 
 testant's Catechism," painted with his own colours. 
 
 Q. What is Protestantism ? 
 
 A. The abjuration of Popery, and the exclusion oi 
 Papists from all power, ecclesiastical or civil. 
 
Vlll 
 
 spite of calumny and proscription, we continue to 
 profess a Christianity which has been the admira- 
 
 Q. How are we to abjure Popery ? 
 
 A. By falsifying history* by substituting* the asser- 
 tion of that which is false, under pretence that it is the 
 proof of that which is true ; by framing such fictitious 
 doctrines for the Papists as they abhor and detest, for 
 their Church is so pure, that without this, we should have 
 nothing to allege against them, by calumny and misre- 
 presentation in every shape and of every hue ; by denying 
 that which is true, and believing that which is false ; by 
 accusing Papists of crimes which they never committed, 
 and punishing them for trespasses of which they never 
 dreamt ; by swearing that we know their doctrines to be 
 superstitious and idolatrous, though they believe the same 
 gospel that we do, and though they most solemnly aver 
 that they hold superstition and idolatry in the same abhor- 
 rence and detestation as ourselves. 
 
 Q. How are we to exclude Papists from all power 
 ecclesiastical or civil. 
 
 A. By tyranny, oppression, and injustice ; by refusing 
 them all civil rights ; by declaring them to be incapable 
 of fulfilling the duties of good subjects ; by pretending 
 that they desire to overthrow the constitution which they 
 are so justly proud of having inherited from their ances- 
 tors by carefully excluding them from that inheritance 
 by accepting of their services when we want them, and 
 rejecting them, unrequited, when we have no farther need 
 
 * See Examination of certain opinions of the Right Rev. Dr. 
 Burgess, &c. ; Dr. Lingard's Tracts, p. 351, &c. 
 
 " Forgery I blush for the honour of Protestantism while I 
 write it, seems to be peculiar to the reformed 1 look in vain for 
 one of those accursed outrages of imposition among the disciples 
 of Popery." Dr. Whitaker. 
 
tion of all ages, and of all nations, and which is 
 still the prevailing religion of civilized man. (c) It 
 
 of them hy working- them like beasts of burden in all 
 hard, dangerous, and laborious occupations, and suffering 
 tine Protestants alone to be their task-masters by keep- 
 ing all the good things, both of this world and the next, 
 for ourselves by leaving nothing for Papists but poverty, 
 misery, and exclusion for their treasons here, and damna- 
 tion for their superstition and idolatry hereafter by so ex- 
 citing the execration of the whole country against them, 
 that Englishmen shall again rank Papistry where it stood 
 but a few years back in our Statute Book, with treason 
 and murder. 
 
 Q. How may we co-operate with the laws for prevent- 
 ing the growth of Popery ? 
 
 A. By the same means by which we are to abjure 
 Popery, and to exclude Papists from all power, ecclesias- 
 tical or civil. 
 
 Q. What do the laws require us to do for this purpose ? 
 
 A. Certain solemn days are set apart for worshipping 
 the God of Charity and Truth with falsehood, calumny, 
 and detraction upon our lips f ! ! (See the Service for the 
 5th of November in the Book of Common Prayer ; and the 
 real History of the Gunpowder Plot, in Lord Castlemain's 
 Catholiquc Apology (1674), Milner's Letters to a Prebend- 
 ary ', and Lingard's History of England.) 
 
 ^ Speaking of the religious belief of a Catholic, the 
 faithful and elegant historian of his country, Dr. Lingard, 
 says : " His belief is not the belief of a single nation, nor 
 the growth of a few years. It is the belief of the great 
 majority of Christians. It is, and for centuries has been, 
 the belief of learned and polished nations ; the belief of 
 
cannot be, that, in this free and enlightened country, 
 we are not equally at liberty with others, to enjoy 
 the common prerogative of the Reformation, and 
 to interpret Scripture at our will. There is no 
 reason in such things. We must look to other 
 causes, to account for that delusion of which we 
 have been so long the victims ; which imprints a 
 stain upon our country; which makes us a bye- 
 word among the nations of the earth ; and which 
 converts the pride and glory we would gladly che- 
 rish, even as the degraded members of a free state, 
 into feelings of shame and indignation. We 
 consider ourselves, in common with a hundred 
 millions of our Roman Catholic brethren in Europe, 
 
 scholars, philosophers, and divines ; of generals, states- 
 men, and princes. Proudly as I may think of my own 
 country, I cannot yet persuade myself that intellectual 
 excellence is exclusively confined to this island; and 
 when I look on the continent, and view the populous 
 nations which there profess the Catholic faith when I 
 look back into past ages and behold millions of men, 
 during a long series of generations, reckoning it as their 
 pride and their happiness, I can smile at the invectives 
 of it's adversaries, and despise the disgrace which is 
 heaped upon it here." 
 
 " Catholicity, which has been this night the subject of 
 so much abuse, has been the belief of the most extensive 
 and enlightened nations in Europe ; and of the most il- 
 lustrious characters that ever did honour to the name of 
 man." Speech of Lord Hutchinson in the Home of Lords, 
 May 10, 1805. 
 
to possess as strong intellectual faculties, as clear 
 a judgment, and as upright intentions, as any body 
 of Protestants in the world : it is therefore the 
 more wounding to our feelings to be treated as an 
 ignorant, a worthless, and an unprincipled race, 
 which we must be, if we are the just objects of 
 the incapacities to which we are subjected by 
 law, and such as every member of the Legislature 
 calls God to witness that he believes us to be, the 
 abettors of superstitious and idolatrous doctrines. 
 
 The Catholic Peer is defrauded of his hereditary 
 rights; the Catholic commoner, of the opportunities 
 which wealth or talent might afford him to serve 
 his country, in situations of honour and of trust ; 
 the professional man, of those objects of lawful 
 ambition, which are the incentives and the rewards 
 of a long life of toil and labour ; the freeholder, 
 of the exercise of that qualification which is as 
 dear to him, as the proudest distinction is to the 
 most exalted personage; ALL are deprived "of 
 their fair chances in the lottery of life, and con- 
 demned hourly to the innumerable slights that 
 wait upon political inferiority. (d} A painful sense 
 
 (o \\r e take from them every object of honourable 
 ambition ; we doom them to the martyrdom, as far as our 
 laws have power to inflict it, of popular scorn from the 
 cradle to the grave ; we leave them a separate class, with- 
 out one public occupation or one aspiring hope, in the 
 midst of a busy and ardent-spirited people." (Lord Nu- 
 gent's Plain Statement, &c.) 
 
xii 
 
 of implied criminality, which is more galling to 
 a well-constituted mind, than any corporeal suffer- 
 ing," is constantly present to our imaginations ; we 
 carry the mark of Cain upon our forehead ; we 
 drink the waters of bitterness in our journey through 
 the desert ; and, though some of our fetters have 
 been removed, the dishonourable traces which they 
 imprinted, still remain, to bear false evidence 
 against us. 
 
 We know it to be an incontestable truth, that 
 the main edifice of the constitution of this country, 
 was the work of Catholic valour, talent, and per- 
 severance ; and yet we are doomed to be strangers 
 to its benefits ; to hear the principle proclaimed 
 and acted upon, every day, that Catholics are only 
 known to the constitution for the purposes of pains 
 and penalties ; (rf) and that it is just and lawful to de- 
 spoil us, in the land of our forefathers, of that sacred 
 and glorious inheritance, which they so solemnly 
 bequeathed, as his birth-right, to every free-born 
 Englishman. We are worse than aliens in our native 
 land, inasmuch as that an alien is under the protec- 
 tion of equal law, which we are not. If an alien be a 
 
 (d " Witness, amongst others, the decisions, in 1825, of 
 the Lords in council, upon the claims of the British Ca- 
 tholics for the restoration of their confiscated property, 
 by which, though the money was actually paid by the 
 Government of France, it was not permitted to reach its 
 destination, under the plea that it would be employed in 
 superstitious uses. 
 
xiii vV ^ 
 
 delinquent, or a presumed delinquent, he is entitled 
 to a trial by his peers, and half of those peers are his 
 own countrymen, and of his own religion; whereas, 
 our delinquency, imaginary as it is, is tried by men 
 who have no fellow-feeling with us, and who convict 
 us, upon evidence, collected, produced, and attested 
 by themselves. We are condemned to endure the 
 stings of insult and calumny, frequently without 
 either the opportunity of reply, or the hope of 
 redress by law. We are denied the privilege of the 
 meanest malefactor, that of being confronted with 
 our accusers. We are excluded from the places 
 in which the most galling and most influential of 
 the calumnies pronounced against us are uttered ; 
 and, if we dare to answer them elsewhere, our ca- 
 lumniators may sit in judgment upon us, and punish 
 our audacity with imprisonment ! ! 
 
 When the country calls forth the Roman Ca- 
 tholic in her defence, his blood flows as freely 
 as that of his Protestant companion in arms ; when 
 our treasure is demanded, we give it in the same 
 proportion as our more favoured fellow subjects : 
 but, when we ask for the same rewards, the same 
 honours, the same privileges, the same rights, we 
 are repulsed with reproaches, we are rejected, as 
 the refuse of a state which, but for her Roman 
 Catholic subjects, would long since have been 
 annihilated. Yes, it was Catholic blood which 
 kept the ark of the country afloat in the deluge of 
 
XIV 
 
 perils from which we have but lately emerged, 
 and in which, be it remembered, we may so soon 
 be plunged again/* What must be the natural 
 consequences of such outrageous injustice, but 
 to wean our affections, not from our country, 
 for our country we must ever love and cherish, 
 out of respect and veneration for the memory of 
 our ancestors, but from the government and 
 institutions under which we are doomed to live? 
 But we are weary of proclaiming our griev- 
 ances; suffice it to say, that we are treated with 
 an inhumanity and injustice, such as I hope clearly 
 proves, (and for the honour of human nature be it 
 spoken,) that our oppressors have neither any 
 knowledge of us, or of our sufferings, of our prin- 
 ciples, or of our services. We must look to other 
 causes for such a state of things, than a mere love 
 of oppression and cruelty in our rulers. It is 
 ignorance and prejudice, faction and interest, 
 which alone can uphold such a system of absurdity 
 and tyranny. For faction and interest there can 
 be no excuse, save the darkness with which these 
 
 (< If, previous to any one engagement during- the 
 late disastrous war, either by sea or land, the Catholic 
 soldiers or sailors had been withdrawn, no victory would 
 ever have been obtained. Without Irish bravery and 
 Irish blood, neither Nelson nor Wellington had ever worn 
 a laurel. 
 
XV 
 
 passions overspread the mind ; neither is a volun- 
 tary and cherished ignorance less culpable in 
 men, who use it as a weapon to inflict pains and 
 penalties on millions of their innocent fellow sub- 
 jects. When an umpire is appointed to decide 
 upon the most trivial affair between man and 
 man, does he ever presume to do so, without 
 a full and fair inquiry ? Would he not consider 
 it a flagrant injustice, to come to a decision upon 
 partial or insufficient evidence? Yet here is a 
 case, involving not only the well-being and pros- 
 perity of the whole empire, but, in a more intimate 
 manner, affecting the rights, the properties, the 
 reputation of seven millions of people, and yet both 
 deliberative branches of the legislature, almost 
 without hesitation, certainly without adequate 
 knowledge, or mature examination, pronounce a 
 verdict of guilty. It is wholly impossible, it is ut- 
 terly inconsistent with the exercise of their rational 
 faculties, that they can have duly weighed and 
 examined the question, and yet come to the decision 
 which they do. The evidence is now so clear, so 
 fully before the world, that whoever, in spite of it, 
 should shut his eyes to the light of justice, we must 
 pronounce to stand convicted of an inveterate 
 hardening of the heart, and a palpable blinding of 
 the understanding. We must then conclude, that 
 it is only by ignorance and prejudice, by faction 
 and interest, that men are governed in this matter. 
 

 xyi 
 
 My object, therefore, is, as far as my humbL 
 endeavours may extend, to warn the thinking por 
 tion of the community from being misled by thos< 
 false and malignant spirits who are so busi 
 to poison the public mind against us ; who dresi 
 us up in a hideous garb, and put upon us al 
 sorts of deformities of their own invention, til 
 people believe us to be any thing but what, ] 
 trust, we really are. Still the injustice whicl 
 we are doomed to suffer from ignorance anc 
 credulity, is that of which we have, perhaps, the 
 most reason to complain, because it is the easiesi 
 to rectify. While every other species of learning 
 is pursuing a rapid and triumphant career whilsl 
 the press teems, almost daily, with authenticatec 
 expositions of our doctrine and whilst well-in- 
 formed Catholics are to be met with at every cor- 
 ner, ready to give evidence of our faith, is it not 
 too much to be reduced to the alternative, of being 
 either neglected as unworthy of attention, or oi 
 seeing our tenets and our conduct studied only in 
 the writings of our adversaries 1 ffJ The errors oi 
 
 (?> " I believe that there are few subjects on which so 
 many opponents are to be met with, of that very numerous 
 class who think themselves justified in feeling strongly 
 without enquiring deeply, who acquiesce in unexamined 
 statements merely to fortify their own preconceived sense 
 of the case, and who are ever recurring to defences a thou- 
 sand times overthrown, and now, by universal consent of 
 all well-informed persons, abandoned, merely because the 
 
xvii 
 
 the generality of mankind may, it is hoped, be 
 extenuated, as arising from prejudices carefully 
 
 fact of the discomfiture and surrender may have escaped 
 their not very extensive research, or may have lost its 
 place in their not very impartial memory. This is a seri- 
 ous difficulty, because with such persons it is not easy to 
 determine at what precise period of the controversy to 
 begin. There is, however, another class with whom it is 
 impossible to deal : the mere shouters of " No Popery ;" 
 those who, without the desire of enquiry, or the capacity 
 of reasoning, think that they see their interest or their 
 honour bound up in a determination never to doubt any 
 early, or accidental, or careless, impressions, to which by 
 habit they consider themselves pledged. Such we can 
 only leave to rejoice in their own conclusions, unques- 
 tioned and undisturbed, withdrawing ourselves from all 
 dispute with them as we should from the attempt to go 
 through a proposition in mathematics with a person to 
 whom the admission of an axiom appears to be matter of 
 too hazardous generosity, and who accordingly, while ex- 
 pressing his readiness to listen to proof, feels that he owes 
 it to his cause to refuse every preliminary concession on 
 which a proof can by possibility turn. Until they shall 
 have done what they never will do, until they shall have 
 enlightened themselves on the history, not of their own 
 country only, but of some other parts of modern Europe, 
 until they shall have learned what the penal laws were, 
 and what they are now, until they shall know the story 
 and condition of the Roman Catholics in this empire, and 
 of Protestants in others, they must be content to be chal- 
 lenged as Jurors to pass upon this Question. Nay, more, 
 
 b 
 
XV111 
 
 instilled into the infant mind, fostered through every 
 stage of education, and perhaps matured by sub- 
 sequent habits of indifference in religious matters, 
 or at least by a neglect of all further enquiry ; but 
 for men who profess to make accurate research 
 and profound study the basis of every opinion 
 which they deliver to the world men of re- 
 puted learning and of extensive literary fame 
 there can be no palliation, when, in the face of the 
 strongest historical evidence, they are guilty of de- 
 liberately advancing the most gross and unfounded 
 calumnies against their Catholic fellow-countrymen. 
 Amongst the many to whom these imputations 
 apply, there is no one who offends more conspi- 
 cuously than Dr. Southey. The glaring misrepre- 
 sentations of Catholic history and Catholic doc- 
 
 they must, till then, absolutely abstain from all cus- 
 tomary expressions of vituperation against the Papists, 
 on pain of convicting themselves of possessing less than 
 they ought of common honesty, or less than most men 
 would be thought to possess of common discretion." Lord 
 Nugenf s most excellent Statement, $c. in Support of the 
 Political Claims of the Roman Catholics. Hookham, 1826. 
 The virulent abuse of that portion of the public press 
 which is opposed to emancipation, as well in England as 
 in Ireland, is an irritating and never-failing insult which 
 we are daily condemned to endure, and is one of the most 
 grievous of all our penal inflictions. As long as it is the 
 support of that system which oppresses us, so long shall 
 we be its victims ; but the cause which produces it being 
 removed, it will vanish with all our other disabilities. 
 
xix 
 
 trine in his " Book of the Church," though so ably 
 exposed by Dr. Milner, Mr. Butler, and others, 
 continue to glitter through every subsequent edi- 
 tion, and to diffuse their pestilential influence 
 among the public, and that, too, at a moment when 
 the most calm and unprejudiced consideration of 
 the great question of the policy of establishing 
 religious tests for the qualification to political pri- 
 vileges, is become necessary, certainly for the 
 strength and stability of the country, and perhaps 
 for the very existence of social order in the em- 
 pire. The fact is now fully established by long 
 experience and incontrovertible evidence, that no 
 permanent peace and tranquillity can exist in Ire- 
 land under the present system of religious warfare 
 and political oppression.^ Whatever, therefore, 
 does not directly tend to advance that consumma- 
 tion so ardently desired by every friend of justice 
 and humanity, and of the general prosperity of 
 the State, cannot be too sincerely and too strongly 
 deprecated. But what shall we say of him, who 
 endeavours by the most extensive circulation of 
 the most atrocious and most unfounded calum- 
 nies, not only to oppose a barrier to the tide of 
 
 peace and goodwill which, sometime back, appeared 
 
 
 
 te> See Mr. Shiel's temperate but eloquent speech, on 
 moving an Address to his Majesty on Lord Sidmouth's 
 letter of the 23rd Sept. 1821, APPENDIX, No. v. 
 
 b 2 
 
XX 
 
 to be so happily setting in upon the country, but, 
 by wounding and irritating the feelings of those 
 who are already harrassed almost beyond endu- 
 rance, as well as by alienating the friends of tole- 
 ration by the false picture he draws of those whom 
 they were endeavouring to relieve, thus augments 
 a disunion which it should be the object of every 
 honest man to close. 
 
 I will not weary the reader by citing the in- 
 stances of some of the most ungenerous calumnies 
 that ever appeared in print, but will refer him 
 to pp. 7 and 14 of Milner's " Strictures on Dr. 
 Southey's Book of the Church," and to pp. 214, 
 253, &c. 280. 284. 319, &c. of Mr. Butler's " Book 
 of the R. C. Church," and to p. 49 of the " Me- 
 moirs of Capt. Rock." w There he may behold a 
 
 (//) It is astonishing that a work of such transcendant 
 merit as this undoubtedly is, should have produced so 
 little effect. But even unrivalled genius, allied with un- 
 compromising patriotism, and shedding fresh brilliancy 
 on the cause of Truth and Justice, is no match against 
 interested bigotry. The fabrication here noticed by the 
 admirable author of the " Memoirs of Captain Rock," was 
 even too gross for Dr. Southey, who, on discovering his 
 mistake, omitted it in his 2nd edition. 
 
 As to Dr. Southey's Vindicide, it is really too contempti- 
 ble to notice, being a complete farrago of folly and mis- 
 representation, and only one slander defended by another ; 
 cajoling his readers with the most senseless trash, alto- 
 
XXI 
 
 Christian author, under pretence of promoting the 
 cause of truth, rehearsing the most unfounded 
 and antiquated falsehoods, a thousand and a thou- 
 sand times refuted, against infinitely the most 
 numerous denomination of Christians in the world ; 
 and, in spite of the most incontestible evidence, 
 he will see him so wedded to his error, so ena- 
 moured of his calumnies, as obstinately to adhere 
 to the impositions which he seems so happy to 
 drag forth from their merited oblivion, and once 
 more to employ for the oppression of his fellow- 
 countrymen and fellow Christians. 
 
 In the Protestant Canton du Vaud, in Switzer- 
 land, such is the tyrannical intolerance of the 
 government, that the Catholic clergyman is not 
 permitted, under pain of dismissal, to explain, even 
 in private, the articles of his religion to any one 
 of a different persuasion, who may apply to him 
 for that purpose. This may, perhaps, well enough 
 answer the object of insuring a monopoly to Pro- 
 testantism ; but, tyrannical as it is, it is a much 
 more charitable scheme than that adopted by Dr. 
 Southey, who, apparently with the same views, 
 has done all in his power to contrive, not that the 
 people of England should be kept in ignorance of 
 
 gether beneath the notice of any honourable mind, and 
 the very publication of which is a stain upon the litera- 
 ture of the country. 
 
XX11 
 
 Catholic doctrine, in his acceptation of the term, 
 but that they should learn it only through the mis- 
 representations and calumnies of his " Book of the 
 Church." However easily and triumphantly the 
 calumniator may be refuted, the poison is diffused 
 through a thousand channels through which the 
 antidote never makes its way ; and, like his fellow- 
 labourer in the same vineyard, Dr. Tomline, he 
 has never the justice to retract his errors, and 
 disabuse his readers of the unworthy prejudices 
 he has been the means of fostering in their rninds 
 against us. But, to speak truth, and to render 
 justice, is not the object of the ascendancy fac- 
 tion ; and, in violating both, they are acting upon 
 the doctrines so falsely imputed to Catholics, of 
 keeping no faith with heretics, and of sanctifying 
 the means by the end, when the defence of their 
 Church is in question/ 60 
 
 (<r) " The furious men," says Dr. Doyle, " who now agi- 
 tate this country, seem to know that the sword of the law 
 could not have been drawn, or if drawn, could not have 
 been wielded with such deadly effect against the holy and 
 ancient religion of these islands, if that religion had not 
 first been decried, abused, and maligned, until it appeared 
 to the multitude a very moral monster. ' From the sole 
 of it's foot,' like its founder, ' to the top of it's head, there 
 was no soundness in it;' it was buffetted, abused, spit 
 upon ; it was covered with a mantle of derision ; it was 
 scourged and drenched with vinegar and gall ; the waters 
 of affliction entered into it's very soul ; and it was when 
 
XX111 
 
 Another example of extreme injustice towards 
 his Catholic fellow-countrymen, is presented to us 
 by the Bishop of Winchester ; that prelate ought 
 certainly to have given himself the trouble of 
 ascertaining that what he asserted was true, or he 
 should have abstained from that assertion alto- 
 gether. Ignorance, in a case like this, is no 
 excuse ; no criminal escapes the punishment of 
 the law, upon the ground that he knew not that 
 he was infringing it. The Bishop has been guilty 
 of a gross and unfounded calumny upon the Ca- 
 tholic world, (A) and though he has been long called 
 
 thus disfigured by a clamorous rabble, and seemingly 
 abandoned by God, that the bigots and the fanatics cried 
 out to the agents of the law and of the sword 'Away 
 with it, away with it.' " (Reply to Dr. MageeJ 
 
 I most earnestly recommend this little work to every 
 dispassionate reader ; for argument and eloquence it stands 
 unrivalled. 
 
 (A) See the libel contained in Dr. Tomline's u Life of 
 Mr. Pitt," stated and refuted in Mr. Butler's " Book of 
 the Roman Catholic Church," p. 137 ; a libel which 
 charges us with doctrines subversive of civil government, 
 and of every principle of civilized society and Chris- 
 tian morality; doctrines which we have over and over 
 again refuted upon the most authentic evidence, and dis- 
 claimed upon oath. Such a libel would entitle any but a 
 proscribed race to redress at law against such slander 
 and defamation. 
 
XXIV 
 
 upon to prove his assertions, or to retract the 
 slanders so detrimental to the happiness and pros- 
 perity of so many millions of his fellow-subjects, 
 though a Christian Bishop, bound by the com- 
 mon laws of morality to repair the injuries which 
 he may inflict upon his neighbour, in his character 
 and reputation, yet finding that he is unable to 
 accomplish the former, he has neither the charity, 
 the justice, nor the magnanimity to do the latter. (i) 
 Controversy should always be conducted with 
 the utmost moderation ; all harsh and offensive ex- 
 pressions should be carefully avoided, and nothing 
 advanced in the way of insolent triumph. But 
 what is the controversy to which these rules apply? 
 a calm discussion of the arguments bearing on the 
 
 fe * Since the above was written, the bishop has been 
 summoned before the bar of Divine Justice, leaving be- 
 hind him 200,000 as the fruit of his episcopal labours. 
 What would William of Wykham have thought of this ? 
 or even his Protestant predecessor, Dr. Andrews ? I do 
 not hereby impute blame to the Bishop of Winchester, 
 but notice the circumstance merely to show the injustice 
 of that system of ecclesiastical discipline, which allows 
 the surplus revenues of the church to be perverted from 
 their true purposes of repairing and embellishing the 
 temples of God, and of satisfying the necessities of the 
 poor ; thus imposing a tax upon the people for whose 
 benefit those revenues were originally granted, equal in 
 amount to the revenues so misappropriated. 
 
XXV 
 
 question in debate, accompanied with a sincere 
 endeavour to elucidate the truth, and to avoid all 
 irritating and irrelevant matter. But how does 
 the controversy of the Ministers of the Church of 
 England with Roman Catholics, partake of this 
 character ? Instead of displaying the meek spirit 
 of Christianity, it is full of rancour and malignity ; 
 instead of a calm, sober search after truth, it is a 
 violent exposition of all the atrocious calumnies 
 and falsehoods heaped upon us through three 
 centuries of persecution. It is, in fine, no contro- 
 versy at all ; but a marshalling of all sorts of acri- 
 monious invective, in the face of the strongest 
 historical evidence, and often in absolute contra- 
 diction to the principles of those who impugn us. 
 Can the laws of fair controversy be applicable to 
 such a system, (for a mere system it is become,) 
 which vilifies and calumniates Catholics, in order 
 to preserve the monopoly of political privileges 
 now in possession of Protestants. In mere matters 
 of opinion in religion, much diversity is permitted, 
 and must necessarily exist : in matters of faith and 
 of fact, much discussion may sometimes be neces- 
 sary, to dispel the darkness in which obscure and 
 uninformed writers rnay have involved them, and 
 to remove the difficulties with which prejudice and 
 impiety may have encumbered them : but to take 
 up accusations which come only from adversaries, 
 to receive every fact, with the distortions put upon 
 
XXVI 
 
 it by calumny, is to play the character of a partizan 
 who carries on a warfare for the purposes of de- 
 struction, and who thereby places himself out of 
 the protection of the law, and is, as it were, only 
 to be repelled by force. 
 
 What, I will ask, can be dearer to an Englishman 
 than his constitutional rights, rights secured (I 
 cannot say to him) but to the Protestant subjects 
 of this nation, by his Catholic ancestors, the wise 
 and spirited framers of Magna Charta, of trial by 
 jury, and the representative system ? and what can 
 be more iniquitous than to defraud him of those 
 rights, because Dr. Sou they chooses to call him idol- 
 atrous and superstitious. Let Dr. S., and his coad- 
 jutors in the work of libel, if they have not the ge- 
 nerosity to do us justice by advocating the cause of 
 truth, at least cease their calumny ; and in a very 
 short time prejudice will subside, bigotry will re- 
 sign her sway, and the triumph of civil and reli- 
 gious liberty will be, at length, achieved. 
 
 The last debate upon the Catholic question fur- 
 nished a lamentable instance of misrepresentation 
 in a quarter from which it was least expected. It 
 was asserted, with much parade of solemn and 
 momentous accusation against the most unim- 
 peachable prelacy in the world, that they cancelled 
 a precept from the Decalogue ; and it was at least 
 insinuated, that they did so in order to flatter their 
 favorite propensities to Idolatry. Mr. Peel, for 
 
XXV11 
 
 this purpose, quoted from an abridgment of our 
 catechism, in which, as a purely elementary work, 
 the heads only of each commandment are given, 
 when he could easily have found a hundred 
 others in which they are recited at full length; 
 one even being produced in the house that very 
 night. As to the ridiculous charge of curtailing 
 the commandments, by dividing them as we do, 
 it is utterly without foundation. We give the 
 first and second together, and divide the last into 
 two. The consequence is, that in an abridgment, 
 the heads only being given, what Protestants con- 
 sider the second commandment is omitted ; but then 
 it must be remembered that this second command- 
 ment is merely an explanation of the first, and 
 necessarily comprised in it in substance. It is 
 astonishing that a man of Mr. Peel's character and 
 reputation for fair dealing, should condescend to 
 use misrepresentation when he finds argument fail 
 him. But it only shews the extent of his delu- 
 sion, and how fitted his mind is to receive impres- 
 sions contrary to truth, reason, and common sense, 
 when his favourite prejudices are to be cherished. 
 If that delusion only affected the individual, we 
 should lament it, without presuming to correct 
 him ; but when the delusion of an individual stands 
 between the happiness of millions, and that indivi- 
 dual is the champion of a party opposed to the 
 best interests of the empire, then indeed it is a 
 
xxviii 
 
 delusion which ought to be exposed to the whole 
 world. (m) 
 
 know that the Decalogue consisted of ten 
 commandments; we find in it fourteen precepts ; the ques- 
 tion is, how they are to he reduced into the ten classes 
 which form the ten commandments. In the Hebrew and 
 other oriental versions, and in the early Vulgates, there 
 is no classification of the ten commandments : how they 
 should he classed, was an early subject of dispute in the 
 Christian Church. St. Augustin recommended the clas- 
 sification now used by the Catholic Church : from his 
 time till the Reformation, it was generally adopted. The 
 early reformers made a new division of the precepts, by 
 separating the first commandment from the second, and 
 blending the ninth and tenth into one ; but the Decalogue 
 remained the same. 
 
 " This was fully explained by Dr. Llngard on the Dur- 
 ham Controversy, and by the Irish Prelates in the exami- 
 nations before the Committee on Irish Affairs. How 
 then can the charge be now gravely made ?" Extract 
 from the Catholic Miscellany for May, 1827. 
 
 " In the division of the Decalogue, the Christian 
 Churches are not agreed. That of England, and the 
 whole of the Calvinists, with Josephus, make two distinct 
 precepts of verses 8 and 7, Exodus, xx. ; whereas, the 
 Roman Catholics, and the Lutherans, divide with Saint 
 Austin, and make one commandment, of what the former 
 make two; but to keep the number of ten, they split 
 what, in the other division is deemed the ninth. Every 
 one who looks into Walton's Polyglott may see that the 
 command not to make sculptilia, neque omnem similitudi- 
 
XXIX 
 
 I will cite another illustration in point, both as a 
 proof of the blind fury of our opponents, and of the 
 ignorance to which it is to be attributed, and as 
 enabling me to present to the reader an eloquent 
 and argumentative appeal to his fellow-country- 
 men, from my valued friend and relative the pre- 
 sent secretary to the British Catholic Association. 
 See APPENDIX, No. I. 
 
 Neither can I refrain from referring the reader 
 to another and a very flagrant instance of misrepre- 
 sentation, from the mouth of a distinguished mem- 
 ber of the upper House, which, though of ancient 
 date, I consider to be of very considerable impor- 
 tance, as tending to exemplify the dispositions of 
 mind of those individuals in the legislature, who 
 have so long succeeded in making us the victims 
 of their delusion. See APPENDIX, No. V. 
 
 nem, fyc. neque adorare ea, is retained in the Latin Vul- 
 gate ; and surely, as to the division, it is of so little im- 
 portance, that we may wonder it ever could beget a con- 
 troversy. In the English church not a single word is said 
 about the interdict to the Jews against making or wor- 
 shipping graven images. Nor, through the whole of our 
 Catechism, is there any caution introduced against the 
 practice of the Church of Rome. I am not then warranted 
 in arraigning the sincerity of the Roman belief, or the up- 
 rightness of their intentions, at all events. I should be 
 ASHAMED of urging against them any FALSE accusations 
 of disingenuous omission, or unauthorized arrangement in 
 the Decalogue." Parr's Characters of C. J. Fox, vol. ii. 
 page 129. 
 
XXX 
 
 EMANCIPATION is no longer a question between 
 two parties in the state : (n} it is a question between 
 two nations; one struggling for its liberties, the 
 other endeavouring to rivet the chains of slavery 
 and oppression. This is a contest going on, and 
 which will go on, in the very heart of the British 
 empire, and between two people not very unequally 
 balanced, in either physical or moral force ; and is 
 it to be supposed that this struggle is never to pro- 
 
 ()u This question had, within the last twenty years, risen 
 from a state of comparative insignificance to one of para- 
 mount importance. It was now the question of the empire ; 
 the question which divided the people as well as the 
 Parliament ; a question which had not only divided, but 
 had broken up, and would break up, Cabinets and Ad- 
 ministrations. Look at the effects of the Penal Laws in 
 this country ; they had destroyed that friendly intercourse 
 and those social habits which were, perhaps, not less essen- 
 tial to private and domestic comfort, than to the well-being 
 of the community at large. They kept up a perpetual 
 excitation and ferment in the public mind they rendered 
 property insecure they prevented the introduction of 
 capital sufficient to develope the great and hitherto dor- 
 mant resources of this fine and fertile country. And to 
 their operation alone could be attributed those occasional 
 bursts of public commotion, which are produced by 
 rapacity and oppression on the one hand, and by poverty 
 and despair on the other." 
 
 (Extract from Lord Killeen's excellent speech at the 
 public dinner, lately so deservedly given to that patriotic 
 nobleman, by the friends of civil and religious liberty.) 
 
XXXI 
 
 duce any thing but angry murmurs, and irritated 
 feelings ?^ 
 
 (k) Nothing can he finer than the present dispositions 
 of the whole Irish people. Mankind never exhibited a 
 more noble instance of zeal tempered with discretion ; 
 and of suffering sanctified by patience. God grant that 
 such dispositions may last as long as the occasion which 
 produces them ! But their own history, and the history 
 of the whole world tells us, and warns us while it tells us, 
 that there are circumstances beyond which patience will 
 not endure, and tyranny will goad on to desperation. 
 May heaven avert so dreadful a calamity ! The following 
 prayer, proffered by a whole nation smarting under a cruel 
 and unjust infliction, is a noble and decisive answer to 
 the calumnies of our enemies, and a sublime panegyric 
 upon the religion of the people who offer it : 
 
 " O Almighty and most merciful God, in whose hands 
 are the hearts and designs of men ; prostrate before thy 
 altar, we humbly and earnestly beseech thee to look down 
 with an eye of pity upon the long continued sufferings, 
 the unmerited privations, and severe legal enactments, 
 under which the Catholic population of these realms are 
 still unrelentingly doomed to complain. Our own indi- 
 vidual transgressions against thy law, have, doubtless, 
 justly drawn down upon us those heavy inflictions. Against 
 the state, however, we have not transgressed. An invio- 
 lable attachment to the faith once delivered to the saints, 
 is the only state crime we can be charged with that un- 
 changeable faith, professed at this day by the great majority 
 of thy Christian people ; but such fidelity to thy sacred 
 deposit, instead of being criminal in thy sight, O Lord, 
 
XXX11 
 
 When every other nation in Europe, in which a 
 difference of religion exists, has cemented its power, 
 and concentrated the affections of its people, by 
 the most enlarged system of religious toleration, 
 it is certainly most extraordinary that we, who 
 pretend to be the wisest and the most liberal of 
 all, should alone continue a policy, which divides 
 
 instead of uniting, which irritates instead of con- 
 
 
 
 furnishes us on the contrary, we firmly hope, with a 
 stronger claim upon thy mercies. Thou hast declared 
 those blessed who shall suffer persecution for justice sake. 
 We are now suffering for it. We are suffering, and alas ! 
 have long suffered, with patience, under the influence 
 of religion, as our ancestors have suffered. They have 
 generously preferred thy law, O Lord, to eveiy earthly 
 consideration"; their example, we trust, has not been 
 unavailing; and with thy divine assistance we are fully 
 determined never, upon any account, or under any penal 
 pressure whatsoever, to relinquish any one article of our 
 holy religion. Graciously hear us, then, O merciful God ; 
 vouchsafe, in thy infinite goodness, to enlighten our So- 
 vereign, his Ministers, and the British Legislature ; that 
 they may at length more justly appreciate our ill-requited 
 fidelity, and adopt such prudent and wholesome councils 
 as will unite every denomination of our fellow-subjects in 
 one general bond of mutual charity, unshaken loyalty, 
 and universal peace ; thus securing the stability of the 
 throne, and effectually promoting the happiness of the 
 people : through Jesus Christ thy beloved Son, who with 
 Thee and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, one God, 
 world without end. Amen." 
 
XXX111 
 
 ciliating, and which weakens where it ought to 
 strengthen. That, in England alone/ that far- 
 famed garden of liberty, the baneful weed of intol- 
 erance should flourish in such rank luxuriance ; 
 in England, where a hundred different religions 
 have found their way, and where there is no 
 limit to the intrusion of new ones, that one reli- 
 gion alone should be proscribed, and that the 
 mother of the religion of the state, the foundress 
 of all her institutions, and the nurse of all her liber- 
 ties, is an enigma which no ingenuity can solve, 
 unless we put it down as the effect of consummate 
 bigotry. Our intolerant legislators of England, like 
 the former noblesse of France, are endeavouring to 
 continue their monopoly of privileges, at the risk 
 of subverting the social institutions of the country, 
 and of dismembering the empire. (m) And this is 
 
 (l) Even Italy and Spain are no exceptions to the present 
 happy diffusion of religious freedom throughout the world ; 
 for, in those countries, there are no Protestants. If there 
 were, there can be no doubt but they would be treated 
 with the same liberality, justice, and equality, which they 
 now experience in every other Catholic state ; whereas 
 a British subject, being a native of these Islands, is the 
 only individual upon earth, upon whom the profession of 
 Catholicity is a penalty and a reproach. 
 
 W Another and striking instance of such a disposition 
 is to be found in the obstinate refusal of the House of 
 Peers to make any efficient amendment in the present 
 
 c 
 
XXXIV 
 
 the end to which the enemies of Great Britain are 
 so anxiously looking. In France it was said, (how- 
 ever absurd the idea,) that the defeat of the bills 
 for our relief, in 1825, was owing to a combined 
 scheme of the Jacobins of both countries, who, fore- 
 seeing that the settlement of this great question 
 would for ever consolidate the power of England, 
 were therefore determined to exert themselves for 
 its discomfiture. To attach credit to this idea, a 
 report was circulated, and which was actually used 
 as an argument against the measure, by at least one 
 member of the House of Commons, that the main 
 object of the Catholics was the restoration of the 
 forfeited property, now in the hands of both 
 clergy and laity. This opinion was much strength- 
 ened by the indemnity granted to a class of men, 
 somewhat similarly circumstanced with the dispos- 
 sessed Irish. Others attributed the defeat of the 
 
 disgraceful state of the game laws ; laws which are rapidly 
 converting the whole country into one great arena of 
 crime, and producing consequences at which every mind 
 must shudder. The fate of the last bill on this subject was 
 a complete burlesque on legislation. After the question 
 had been vehemently agitated for many years after re- 
 peated attempts and repeated failures after fighting its 
 way with extreme difficulty to a certain point, its ephe- 
 meral success was suddenly arrested by the magic power 
 of seven noble lords ; the division being, content six, 
 non-content, seven ! ! ! 
 
XXXV 
 
 measure, or, in other words, the blind intolerance of 
 the majority of the House of Peers, (to which we 
 must unfortunately now add that of the House of 
 Commons,) to the secret agency of the Holy Alli- 
 ance, which aims at nothing more sincerely than the 
 humiliation of England ; and which seeks an ex- 
 ample, in the tyrannical conduct of our government 
 towards her Catholic subjects, for the slavish prin- 
 ciples by which they are guided towards their own 
 people, and the whole world. This opinion, in its 
 turn, was strengthened by the happy allusion to 
 this view of the case, in the manly, convincing, and 
 brilliant speech of the ever-to-be-lamented and 
 intrepid Canning ; a speech which has endeared 
 and immortalized his memory, in the heart and 
 mind of almost every Catholic in the empire. 
 On the other hand, the liberals, who looked to 
 nothing but the well-being of both countries, la- 
 mented, most sincerely, the failure of this great 
 covenant of conciliation, not only because it was a 
 sad example of tyranny, but because it might, at 
 no distant period, serve as a precedent for their 
 own government to enact a series of penal statutes 
 against the Protestants of France, under the plaus- 
 ible pretence of disaffection to the reigning dynasty. 
 In this view of the question, they were supported by 
 the sometimes misguided zeal of the present royal 
 family, and by the well-known fact, that the Pro- 
 testants were never sincerely attached to any 
 
 c2 
 
XXXVI 
 
 government that has ever ruled in France, save 
 that of Napoleon. Thus, in whatever point of 
 view it was considered, it was looked upon as a 
 policy fraught with evil of the blackest dye. Na- 
 poleon is reported to have said ; La famille des 
 Bourbons est la plus intolerante de la terre : 
 however this may have been, it is certainly not so 
 now ; the present king of France, (n) with all his 
 zeal for Catholicity, having given full security to 
 his dissenting subjects, by swearing in his corona- 
 tion oath, (and it presents rather an extraordinary 
 contrast,) to give equal rights to his Protestant 
 thousands, while the king of England, upon a 
 similar occasion, is supposed by some to swear 
 eternal proscription against his Catholic millions.^ 
 
 (n) Compare the late speech of the King of France with 
 that of the King of England, and if we do not blush at 
 the contrast, the spirit of Englishmen is not in us. 
 
 Compare also the oath required of a legislator in France 
 with the Test exacted amongst us. While a Frenchman 
 swears allegiance to his king, fidelity to the constitution, 
 and a determination to do his duty to his country an 
 Englishman is thought better qualified for the functions 
 of a senator, by swearing a libel on millions of his fellow- 
 subjects, and proscription against an extinct and de- 
 parted race. For the performance of his duty to his coun- 
 try, no pledge is required of him ; but unless he knows 
 and swears a Catholic to be an idolater, he can have no 
 pretensions to legislative wisdom or integrity. 
 
 (0) It is a very singular circumstance, and highly worthy 
 of remark, that precisely at the same moment at which 
 
xxxvn 
 
 And what, in the event of the continuance of this 
 system of proscription, is to be the ultimate fate 
 of these millions? With the prospect of England 
 before them, happy, prosperous, and tranquil, (that 
 is, seen as it appears to them) because governed 
 by equal laws, and in the possession of equal 
 rights, shall they be condemned to gaze for 
 ever upon this blooming land of promise, and 
 yet be always doomed to linger in the desert? 
 Are they to be eternally consigned to pauperism, 
 and coerced by military law ? Are they to be 
 always told, that they are unworthy to be received 
 as members of the state ; that to participate in the 
 general prosperity of the commonwealth, is too 
 great a blessing for them ? that they shall be for 
 ever accounted as aliens and outcasts, that their 
 only inheritance shall be, from one generation to 
 
 the government of Catholic France is driven from it's 
 post, because it is not liberal enough, the ministers of 
 Protestant England are removed from the councils of 
 their sovereign, because they are too liberal for the age ! ! 
 For this, after all, seems to be the truth. Neither may it 
 be unfair to observe, that, while the Catholic hierarchy 
 of France have lately displayed their wisdom and virtue, 
 by refusing the political privileges with which their sove- 
 reign was desirous of investing them, there is no instance 
 upon record in which the Protestant hierarchy of Eng- 
 land have ever evinced a distaste for the power and pos- 
 sessions which have fallen to their lot. 
 
XXXV111 
 
 another, to be hewers of wood and drawers of water? 
 Oh! the shame and the disgrace of England, 
 to allow her bigotry to place her in such a situation, 
 that perhaps the best and only hope of one third 
 of her people, shall be to look for the weakness 
 and humiliation of their oppressors : for the day 
 of England's prosperity, has never yet been a day 
 of grace or justice to Ireland. The hour of atone- 
 ment,~however, has not yet past. (;>) In the name of 
 heaven, let it not be neglected. May the timely 
 
 W Neither is the degrading system earned on in Ireland, 
 under the name of Reformation, likely to mend the matter; 
 a system of immoral, unprincipled, and corrupting persecu- 
 tion, practised upon a half-starved population, "beginning 
 with the child in the cradle, and only ending with the 
 aged and forlorn ? upon the bed of death." Good God ! 
 where have these lords and ladies, prelates and parsons, 
 these Apostles of Ireland's reformation, where have they 
 learned that charity consists in bribing a man to perjury 
 and apostacy to sell his birth-right for a mess of pottage 
 to commit crimes that cry to heaven for vengeance, 
 and lose his soul for the sake of saving a starving body 
 for a few years of misery and infamy ! We see that these, 
 and these only, are the fruits of this fanaticism, since every 
 day brings back these converts of the Reformation ; not 
 one in twenty remaining obstinate in his apostacy. But 
 the people of England know little or nothing of all this. 
 Almost all that the London papers ever tell us of Ireland, 
 is, that a riot or a murder has been committed, and that nu- 
 merous and notable conversions are daily made to Pro- 
 testantism : but any, who will take the trouble to inform 
 
XXXIX 
 
 and happy settlement of this great question (in com- 
 mon with other important amendments in our sys- 
 
 themselves, through the medium of the Irish papers, will 
 see how false and exaggerated are the statements made 
 in England. How much more good might Parliament do, 
 by spending a few thousands a year in a liberal system of 
 education in Ireland, than by lavishing the same sums in 
 charter-school grants, on the principle of excluding the 
 great body of the people from the benefits of education. 
 
 Do they think to achieve, by such means as these, what 
 the long continued efforts of the most horrible system of 
 destruction that ever disgraced the character of civilized 
 man, were incapable of accomplishing ? History, " which 
 is philosophy teaching by example," tells us, that the 
 monsters whom regenerated England employed to govern 
 Ireland, have mown down whole generations of Papists 
 at a stroke, ravaging the field with fire and sword, in the 
 hopeful expectation that a harvest of Protestants would 
 arise ; when lo and behold ! in lieu of Protestantism, 
 Popery springs up again, but only to be cut down once 
 more, and to be cast again into the fire. Still the crop 
 of Protestants never once grew up : the land was obstinate 
 and intractable ; and, in spite of every new system of ex- 
 perimental cultivation, has continued as barren of Pro- 
 testantism, and as fertile of Popery, ever since. Prac- 
 tically convinced of the utter vanity of their attempt, let 
 them at length rather endeavour to make them good and 
 faithful subjects, than bad and dangerous Christians. 
 
 The Catholics, who are styled the enemies of education, 
 oppressed and impoverished as they are, have at this mo- 
 ment 420,000 children under tuition, in schools esta- 
 blished and supported by voluntary contribution ; and 
 happy I am to say, that many liberal and humane Pro- 
 
xl 
 
 tern of government) cement together every portion 
 of the empire, in eternal union, and elevate us 
 higher upon the pinnacle of glory, happiness, and 
 prosperity, than any Christian nation has ever yet 
 attained to. 
 
 God knows how far we are from such a situation 
 at present! And amongst the numerous evils 
 that afflict us, there is none greater than the mise- 
 rable condition of Ireland, which will, in part, be 
 seen in the following extract from a printed cir- 
 cular, dated Mansion House, Dublin, Jan. 17, 1828. 
 
 " The present distressed and impoverished state 
 of the country having given occasion to the con- 
 testants have most handsomely seconded their exertions 
 by grants of land, as well as of money ;* and, in return, 
 the children of Protestants are educated indiscriminately 
 with Catholics, and this without any attempt at prose- 
 lytism, the religious instruction being- given separately. 
 Many of these schools are supported by a religious order 
 of lay brothers, not uncommon upon the continent, but 
 lately introduced into Ireland by Dr. Doyle and other 
 prelates. The sole intent of this society is the education 
 of the poor, and those who are not engaged in teaching, 
 maintain themselves by manual labour ; yet all assistance 
 from Government is refused them, while large sums are 
 lavished upon places where, when a school-house is erected, 
 no scholars can be found to occupy it. 
 
 * The Duke of Devonshire is a noble example of liberality in 
 this respect, having lately, amongst a hundred other similar dona- 
 tions, given an acre of land and six hundred pounds, to erect a 
 Catholic Chapel, at Dungarvon. Felix faustumque sit, tarn donanti 
 quam accipienti ! 
 
xli 
 
 vening of a public meeting in this city, in order 
 to devise measures for endeavouring to avert the 
 consequences that must result from its continu- 
 ance, &c. &c., I hope that your presence and in- 
 fluence will not be wanting on this occasion to aid 
 in devising and promoting such measures as shall 
 be deemed most effectual towards rescuing the 
 country from its present alarming condition, and 
 for rendering its resources available towards the 
 improvement of the great body of the people, and 
 the prosperity of the empire at large." Such was 
 the alarming condition of Ireland on the 17th of 
 January, yet on the 29th it was wholly unknown 
 to his Majesty's ministers. For it is not to be 
 supposed that such a state of things should be 
 known to exist, and yet no notice be taken of it 
 in the speech from the throne. As if foreboding 
 inefficacy to their prayers, instead of apply- 
 ing to parliament for assistance in their distress, 
 and appealing to the wisdom and good feeling of 
 the legislature, they seem to throw themselves in 
 despair upon the charity of individuals ! Parlia- 
 ment has devised one scheme of emigration after 
 another has expended thousands in charter-school 
 grants, and thousands in the draining of bogs; 
 but misery still reigns predominant, and threatens, 
 as it would appear, the very existence of the 
 country. But parliament is to do no more : the 
 efforts of individuals are to supply those of the 
 great council of the nation. The administration 
 
xlii 
 
 of public affairs is to be a sinecure in regard to 
 Ireland. She is to be abandoned in her greatest 
 need to the frantic reign of Bible Societies, of 
 reformation crusaders, and perjured conspirators. 
 She is to be given over to a malevolent faction, 
 which " like a raging lion, goeth about seeking 
 whom it may devour ;" which not only preys, but 
 gorges upon it's victims ; a faction against which 
 innocence is no protection, and a verdict of not 
 guilty -is no acquittal : and to brighten her prospects 
 for the future, her avowed and determined enemies 
 are placed at the head of the Government in Eng- 
 land! Good God! when will the folly of our 
 rulers cease ? They drive the people into misery 
 by a long continued system of mal-administration, 
 and then insult and mock them in their afflictions 
 by the most obstinate and contemptuous silence. 
 It is both sending them the sword, and giving 
 them the arm to wield it ! (q} Till the Catholic 
 peasant be taught to regard the law as his pro- 
 tector, by finding himself on an equality with 
 his Protestant neighbour till all cause of irri- 
 tation be removed, and the spirit of bigotry be 
 laid, by rescinding all penal distinctions no per- 
 manent tranquillity can be expected ; and till tran- 
 
 (?) When Scanderherg sent his sword to Mahomet II. 
 at the request of that monarch, Mahomet returned it, say- 
 ing, that though he had sent him his scymetar, he had 
 not sent him the arm that wielded it. 
 
xliii 
 
 quillity be established on a solid basis, to invite 
 the investment of capital for the employment of the 
 people, Ireland will be poor, and wretched, and 
 miserable. It is a well known fact, that, during 
 the discussions upon the Catholic claims, in 1825, 
 very large sums of money were only waiting for the 
 security which the final settlement of that great 
 question would afford, to be immediately embarked 
 for Ireland. It has probably been lent to Mexico, 
 and been lost ; for in the present situation of things, 
 our surplus capital finds a readier channel for in- 
 vestment in the remotest corners of the world, and 
 upon the most shallow security, than in calling 
 into action the fertile but latent resources of our 
 own immediate provinces. Those yearly droves 
 of ragged and hungry Irish peasants a faint por- 
 trait of the still greater misery they leave behind 
 who traverse the country in search of a preca- 
 rious subsistence, ought to speak more feelingly 
 to the minds of Englishmen than they do. In 
 wretchedness they outvie those " Papists of the 
 East," the very Greeks themselves, without being 
 equally fortunate in attracting the compassion 
 or goodwill of the nation. The Greek dies nobly 
 in the field, and his death is sweetened with 
 the compassionate regard of the whole civilized 
 world while the victim of English bigotry, pines 
 out a miserable existence, or sinks under the 
 slow but deadly poison of disease and famine, 
 
xliv 
 
 with scarcely a heart to lament him. (r) If we steel 
 ourselves to every sentiment of compassion for 
 the sufferings of Ireland, as they regard herself \ 
 let our own interests, at least, excite us to reflect 
 upon the consequences to us. In proportion as 
 Ireland is poor, so will England be the victim of 
 that poverty. Hitherto the voice of Ireland has 
 been heard only in the distance ; she now comes 
 in person to tell us of her afflictions ; she sends 
 forth her people like swarms of locusts upon the 
 land, to devour and to make sterile : wherever she 
 bends her course, famine and misery are attendants 
 in her train ; the original proprietors are dispos- 
 sessed, or sink to the same level of wretchedness 
 with the miserable intruders. Such has frequently 
 been the result, to a greater or a less extent, in all 
 those districts which have been more immediately 
 the rendezvous of the Irish emigrants ; the poor 
 rates having, in many instances, absolutely exceeded 
 the whole rental of the property on which they were 
 levied. Though the consequences to other parts 
 
 frj It is not intended to depreciate the generosity of, 
 perhaps, a large portion of the people of England, in the 
 succour they have so often given to arrest the ravages of 
 famine amongst the poor of Ireland. The hand of indi- 
 vidual charity has been bountiful, and has met with a 
 proportionate return of gratitude. But, as a nation, we 
 perpetuate those scenes of misery by blinding ourselves 
 to their causes, and while we apply the balsam with one 
 hand, we open the wound again with the other. 
 
xlv 
 
 of the kingdom have been less perceptible, they 
 have been every where real and considerable. 
 The evil is one which, under the present system 
 of government in Ireland, must not only exist, 
 but must necessarily increase ; and who shall say 
 whether it will terminate before the whole of Eng- 
 land be consigned to the same dreadful condition 
 of miserable poverty, to which she has so woefully 
 contributed to reduce that unhappy country? It is 
 now nearly a month, since the distressed and impo- 
 rished state of Ireland has rendered her condition 
 alarming ; and though this has been officially an- 
 nounced for the same period, it does not yet appear 
 to have attracted the notice of the legislature, or 
 even of the English journals. Really to judge 
 from the contents of our public press, the details 
 of a fashionable party, the birth of some unnatural 
 monster among the animal creation, or even the 
 flowering of a primrose in January, is of more im- 
 portance to the people of England, than are the 
 most vital interests of the sister island, the pos- 
 session of which has alone elevated us above the 
 rank of secondary nations, by furnishing us with 
 almost unlimited resources by supplying half our 
 navy, and more than half our army. 
 
 I hope a few words may be permitted me (and I 
 speak them with all due respect) to the Right Rev. 
 Bench of Bishops Gratitude alone should induce 
 them to act differently from what they do ; for 
 they have certainly never yet repaid the obligation 
 
xlvi 
 
 under which they were placed by the votes of the 
 26 Catholic Peers, who in 1661, united in restoring 
 them to their seats in the Legislature (from which 
 the persecuted sectaries had driven them,) nor 
 requited the good offices they had previously 
 received from the Catholic Peerage in 1641. No 
 greater proof than these facts present, can be 
 given of the sincerity of those professions which 
 we make, in case of justice being done us, to rank 
 ourselves amongst the constitutional supporters of 
 the established church ; and yet, she opposes eman- 
 cipation, to secure her temporalities! One while, 
 she argues that Catholics will thrive so fast on 
 freedom, that they will overrun the whole empire. 
 If so, Protestantism, deep-rooted as it is, must 
 indeed be a meagre plant, to be expelled the soil 
 by a new half-starved comer. Others say, the 
 Catholics thrive well enough as it is. True : they 
 do so : they gain in wealth, in numbers, in import- 
 ance daily ; and, in proportion as they thrive, so do 
 they become more discontented with their political 
 situation. Every day, their condemnation weighs 
 more heavily upon them ; the object which they 
 seek becomes of more value, in proportion to their 
 increasing capacity to enjoy it ; and every day their 
 exertions will be redoubled, with the power they 
 possess, towards obtaining the redress of their 
 grievances, and the objects of their lawful ambition. 
 In any case, emancipation must and will be achieved, 
 and better in peace and quiet, than in war and 
 
xlvii 
 
 tumult better in the day of prosperity, than in 
 the hour of distress. Thank heaven ! the time is 
 past when the system of persecution by which we 
 are oppressed, was pursued to its full extent ; but 
 though its power is broken and enfeebled, its spirit 
 is not yet fled. We still suffer directly in our 
 privileges and our rights, and even in our for- 
 tunes ; ( * } while our reputation, both as subjects 
 and as Christians, is still loaded with the defama- 
 tion of nearly three centuries. If the state seeks 
 for defence in such measures, it cannot find it : it 
 is only erecting a barrier against its best friends. 
 If the Church looks for support from such wea- 
 pons, she only combats against herself, by alienat- 
 ing the good opinion of those who would other- 
 wise be sincere in protecting her. 
 
 The Protestant is now the Established Church. 
 Let her rest satisfied with this advantage. It gives 
 her all the splendour, and power, and influence of 
 worldly state, with the largest ecclesiastical reve- 
 nues in Christendom to support them ; thus insur- 
 ing her as complete an ascendancy over every 
 other religion as can with justice be desired. But 
 
 (4) Witness the double land-tax. I am most happy in 
 this opportunity of publicly testifying the sense which the 
 Catholics of England must ever entertain of the very 
 handsome manner in which Mr. Bankes has come forward 
 to relieve his fellow-countrymen from this very oppressive 
 and unjust grievance. 
 
xlviii 
 
 if her prelates and ministers provoke the exposure 
 of her errors of the false principles on which she 
 separated from the Church of Rome and of the 
 iniquity in which she was cradled, by calumniating 
 the religion of those whom they have dispossessed, 
 and by continuing against them a system of un- 
 merited condemnation, as well as against all who 
 dissent from them; they themselves are answer- 
 able for the consequences. The firebrand with 
 which they are still desolating the victims of their 
 bigotry and their fears, may be hurled back into 
 their own quarters, and the golden harvest which 
 they are now reaping in such plenty, may be 
 blasted and destroyed for ever ! 
 
 The Church of England should ever recollect, 
 that she has already once fallen in conflict with 
 her enemies ; and perhaps it would be well for 
 the Sovereign to remember, that the monarch fell 
 too : she has seen her hierarchy destroyed, her 
 benefices usurped, and her religion reduced in its 
 turn to the melancholy condition of a persecuted 
 sect. (0 And is she not fearful of a second contest? 
 
 (0 I went to London," says Evelyn, in his Memoirs, 
 " to receive the blessed Sacrament, the first time the 
 Church of England was reduced to a chamber and con- 
 venticle, so sharp was the persecution. The parish 
 Churches were filled with sectaries of all sorts, blasphemous 
 and ignorant mechanics usurping the pulpits every where. 
 
xlix 
 
 Can she hear that one half of her followers have 
 deserted, and not tremble lest they should raise 
 the standard against her? Is it not folly is it 
 not madness, to learn these tidings, and not cease 
 to irritate and offend? While she has yet the 
 power to give before she loses the ability to 
 refuse, let her shew herself worthy of her cause, 
 by her generosity, her justice, and her wisdom : 
 let her doff the blood-stained armour of persecu- 
 tion, and clothe herself in the spotless garments 
 of clemency and moderation, and, like a meek and 
 humble disciple of Christ, let her meet her ene- 
 mies with the kiss of peace, and inscribe on her 
 standards, GOOD WILL TO ALL MEN. Clemency and 
 moderation will attach a large and zealous body 
 to her interests. We should support her, not 
 as a church possessing purity of doctrine, but as 
 a teacher of good morals, and as a member of the 
 great edifice of the constitution. Conciliation is 
 her best and only resource : let her desist from 
 her miserable and petty persecution of the dissen- 
 ters, and her vigorous and determined warfare 
 against the Catholics. This would place her 
 on a proud pre-eminence, and be unto her a 
 
 Dr. Wilde preached in a private house in Fleet-street, 
 where we had a great meeting of zealous Christians, who 
 were generally much more devout and religious, than in 
 our greatest prosperity." 
 
 d 
 
1 
 
 tower of strength ; and if ever hereafter, in the 
 vicissitudes of things, it should be her fate to fall, 
 she would at least fall with honour and regret ; 
 at present she would meet her ruin unmerited 
 and unlamented ; and as long as the question be, 
 whether the Church of England shall perish, or 
 seven millions of the king's subjects be emancipated 
 from civil thraldom, we shall not hesitate to ex- 
 claim, Fiat justitia, mat ccelum. (M) As the estab- 
 lished religion, like the Greek schism, began by a 
 simple act of separation, so, saving this exception, 
 has she deviated less widely from the parent church 
 than any other, and so, in proportion, will she find 
 the professors of the ancient faith more ready and 
 willing to defend her, when they can do so with 
 advantage to the country, and with honour to 
 themselves : they are now the most numerous of 
 her enemies, and may be easily transformed into 
 the most powerful of her friends. But if she is 
 obstinately determined not to do us justice, at least 
 
 CM) What is it but the consciousness of injustice, or 
 the innate weakness and inconsistency of any church, 
 which can require in the present times that she be fenced 
 in with laws and terrors, and rendered secure, not by her 
 own truth and virtue, but by the oppression and humili- 
 ation of those who refuse to bow down and worship her 
 like some golden calf. Let the church perish that thrives 
 by oppression, and visits with temporal penalties the con- 
 sciences of men ! !" (Reply to Dr. Magee.} 
 
li 
 
 let her cease to make us the victims of calumny 
 and misrepresentation ; for it is calumny and mis- 
 representation alone that have reduced us to what 
 we are. As credulity is one of the prevailing 
 weaknesses of human nature, it is no wonder that 
 the unjust accusations of our enemies should have 
 been so successful in deceiving ; that while our re- 
 ligion remains pure and untainted as when it ema- 
 nated from the revelations of heaven, it should be 
 condemned by the credulous and the ignorant as 
 superstitious and idolatrous ; (x) and that though we 
 remain as loyal members of the state as when we en- 
 joyed our inheritance in full, we should be regarded 
 as the disaffected and ill-omened of the creation. 
 It is through interested defamation working upon 
 extravagant fears, that we have been brought to 
 this, that almost all who speak of us, deride and 
 insult us all who write of us, calumniate us all 
 who read of us, or hear of us, imbibe the poison, 
 and reject the truth. How many, by the abuse 
 of Catholicity, have paved their road to prefer- 
 
 (x) See a few specimens of the hideous calumnies in 
 vogue against us, in the 32nd Letter of The End of Re- 
 ligious Controversy; calumnies which have reached the 
 cottages of the poor as well as the houses of the rich, and 
 which no one can read without blushing to belong to the 
 religion of the men who propagated them, or to the soci- 
 ety of Christians who receive and believe them : they are 
 still to be met with in almost every publication of the day. 
 
 d2 
 
Hi 
 
 ment both in church and state ; and have found 
 ample gain in so disgraceful a traffic. How 
 many prelates have forfeited the title of CHRISTIAN 
 by their anti-christian illiberality ? How many 
 statesmen have abandoned their dignity and honour 
 by prostituting their talents in the cause of cruel 
 and unjustifiable oppression ! But at the same time 
 that we find many to condemn, it is a pleasure to 
 find others to commend. How illustrious are those 
 many virtuous and patriotic senators, who have 
 scorned to be any thing but the honest advocates 
 of religious toleration ; how benign amongst his 
 colleagues is that venerable member of the Pre- 
 lacy, who, in the true spirit of a Christian bishop, 
 has ever known how to unite charity and benevo- 
 lence with a dissent in religious tenets who is 
 now calmly journeying to the grave, eminent in 
 wisdom and virtue, and who, when he is removed 
 from amongst us, will perhaps leave Charity to 
 seek in vain for another associate amongst the 
 hierarchy of the establishment. w Would to God 
 
 (y) That charitable and benevolent individual, who a few 
 years ago so laudably signalized his zeal, and exerted his 
 talents in the cause of religious unity and peace, also bears 
 most ample and liberal testimony in our favour. " By the re- 
 flecting members of the Church of England," says this 
 amiable writer, " who consider themselves a second branch 
 of the Catholic church of Christ, the Church of Rome has 
 
liii 
 
 that such truly Christian sentiments as this amiable 
 prelate has always professed, were common among 
 his Protestant brethren; but the reverse is too 
 generally the case ; their judgment is distorted by 
 prejudice, and their charity is converted into ran- 
 cour by the force of falsely conceived opinions 
 both in regard to us and to themselves. They 
 weigh with impartiality every thing but Catho- 
 licity. They see others in their true colours, but 
 
 never been denied to be of the true church :" and again, 
 " There is among the Roman Catholics a fixedness in their 
 religious principles which will have influence ; there is a 
 decided attachment to their faith, which comprises all the 
 genuine doctrines; 1 of ?the gospel ; and amidst the sad di- 
 versity and alarming indifference generally prevailing 
 among Protestants, some consolation may be derived from 
 a hope, that in reward for the zealous affection of Roman 
 Catholics for their religion, that respectable and numerous 
 body may, under divine providence, become purified from 
 error, and be the honoured means of conveying the true 
 faith to the remotest generations." 
 
 " I am pained," says the late Dr. Parr, " by the out- 
 rageous invectives that are thrown out against the Church 
 of Rome ; and I must further confess that they appear to 
 me not only unjust, but even inhuman." " I hope," he 
 says in another place, " to find a better way of showing 
 myself either worthy to live, or fit to die, within the pale of 
 the Church of England, than by insulting Roman Catho- 
 lics with the opprobrious imputations of superstition and 
 idolatry." 
 
liv 
 
 they look at Catholics only through a jaundiced 
 medium. They fasten the crimes of individuals 
 upon the whole body, and the virtues which they 
 are sometimes forced to admit and to admire, they 
 confine to individual merit. Thus, whether we be 
 good or bad whether we be dark or lightsome, 
 we are always wrong. There is a general perver- 
 sion of opinion against us, and, in the quaint lan- 
 guage of former times, " no wood comes amiss to 
 make arrows for our destruction."^ We are 
 
 ( * } The Bishop of Chester (in his Letter to Mr. Butler, 
 4th edition) observes : " Most sincerely do I wish that re- 
 ligious controversy could always have been carried on in 
 that tone of mildness and moderation which, a few in- 
 stances only excepted, pervades your answer to Dr. 
 Southey's Book of the Church. " Shortly after he says : 
 " You have yourself, in strong terms, deprecated the un 
 fairness of imputing to the principles of a church, the in- 
 dividual obliquities of a few of it's members ;" and yet the 
 very next moment, forgetting, in the ardour of his zeal, 
 his own regulations for polemic warfare, he buckles on 
 his armour, seizes the firebrand with one hand and the 
 poisoned arrow with the other, and with slander on his 
 tongue, rushes headlong not against his antagonist in 
 single combat but into the midst of the whole camp of 
 the enemy. " It affords," cries the bishop, " a most clear 
 and inanbitable evidence, that there is something in the 
 spirit ot the Roman Catholic religion which neither time 
 nor experience can alter ;" and with the charitable 
 intention of slandering, he only pronounces an honour- 
 
Iv 
 
 deemed both foolish and criminal for adhering to 
 our religion in opposition to more modern and 
 
 able eulogium ! But increasing in rage as he advances 
 in the conflict, he exclaims, " which contains the germ 
 of intolerance and persecution :" if the aggressor were 
 here met with " the cruel arms of retaliation," he would 
 he instantly heaten from the field. Let him, however, 
 proceed in his attack : " Which poisons the fountain of 
 truth ! ! !" Whatever truth there be in Protestantism, 
 whence does it come? The Catholic Church most as- 
 suredly had the keeping of the fountain of truth for 
 1500 years before Protestantism was heard of; and sup- 
 posing the poison to have been thrown in only a thou- 
 sand years before, the stream must have been so woefully 
 impregnated, that it is no presumption to surmise that 
 the God of purity and holiness would have employed more 
 able and less dishonest workmen in it's purification than 
 a Luther or a Cranmer, a Henry or an Elizabeth ; who 
 were sure more thoroughly to pollute and embitter, in- 
 stead of restoring, its sweetness and transparency . Like 
 unhandy workmen on a masterpiece of art, they only de- 
 formed where they pretended to embellish ; like unskilful 
 alchymists, they only tainted what they undertook to 
 purify. They encountered the certain punishment of pre- 
 sumption ; and what in their vanity, their folly, and their 
 impiety, they chose to designate as blemished and conta- 
 minated, was only proved to the world to be more beauti- 
 ful in it's form, and more excellent in it's quality. That 
 all-consummate work which the hand of God himself had 
 fashioned, was not to be improved by the presumptuous 
 labours of created man. 
 
Ivi 
 
 more convenient opinions ; no credit is given to 
 us for our motives ; and we are accused of a dere- 
 
 But, supposing the fountain to have been poisoned, can 
 the Bishop of Chester tell us who or what effected the 
 miracle of its purification ! If it were not the wonder- 
 working sceptre of an immaculate Henry ? was it the 
 fury and impiety of Luther ? If it were not the supremacy 
 of Henry, was it the repeated doctrinal amendments of the 
 child Edward ? If it were not the amendments of Edward 
 was it the worldly-wise and more deliberate improvements 
 of Elizabeth ? If it were not the forty-two, why should it 
 be the thirty-nine articles ? Is there such magic in num- 
 bers ? Is there such virtue in fitful and evanescent doc- 
 trine ? But, the spleen of the Bishop not being yet ex- 
 hausted, he thus completes the climax of his slander: 
 " which obscures and blunts the most sagacious intellect, 
 and represses the natural movements of a just and ingenu- 
 ous mind ! ! !" We benighted Catholics being all too 
 blunted to be capable of any reply to this specimen of 
 Protestant acumen, the Bishop surely will not object to 
 our taking an auxiliary into pay, from his own ranks, 
 to fight this intellectual battle for us ; to do so, would be 
 to oppose the natural movements of a just and ingenuous 
 mind. " But I must here confine myself (says our auxiliary) 
 to this charge against the Catholic religion, of being unfa- 
 vourable to genius, talent, and in short to the powers of the 
 mind. Those who put forward this piece of rare impu- 
 dence, do not favour us with reasons for believing that the 
 Catholic religion has any such tendency. They content 
 themselves with the bare assertion, not supposing that it 
 admits of any thing like disproof. They look upon it as 
 

 liction of our duty in seceding from the service of 
 our country, because we will not conform to Pro- 
 
 assertion against assertion; and, in a question which 
 depends on mere hardness of mouth, they know that their 
 triumph is secure. But this is a question that does admit 
 of proof, and a very good proof too. The " Reformation," 
 in England, was pretty nearly completed by the year 1600. 
 By that time, all the " monkish ignorance and super- 
 stition" were swept away. The monasteries were all pretty 
 nearly knocked down ; young Saint Edward's people had 
 robbed all the altars ; and the ' virgin' queen had put the 
 finishing hand to the pillage. So that all was, in 1600, 
 become as Protestant as heart could wish. Very well : the 
 kingdom of France remained buried in " monkish ignorance 
 and superstition" until the year 1787 : that is to say, 187 
 years after happy England had stood in a blaze of Pro- 
 testant light ! Now then, if we carefully examine into 
 the number of men remarkable for great powers of mind, 
 men famed for their knowledge or genius ; if we carefully 
 examine into the number of such men produced by France 
 in these 187 years, and the number of such men produced 
 by England, Scotland, and Ireland, during the same period ; 
 if we do this, we shall get at a pretty good foundation for 
 judging of the effects of the two religions with regard to 
 their influence on knowledge, genius, and what is gener- 
 ally called learning. 
 
 " But how are we to ascertain these numbers ? Very 
 well. I shall refer to a work which has a place in eveiy 
 good library in the kingdom ; I mean, the " UNIVERSAL 
 HISTORICAL, CRITICAL, AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DIC- 
 TIONARY." This work, which is every where received as 
 
Iviii 
 
 testantism. Though the presumption is both un- 
 charitable and unjust, yet too many imagine that 
 
 authority as to facts, contains lists of persons of all nations 
 celebrated for their published works. But, then, to have 
 a place in these lists, the person must have been really dis- 
 tinguished ; his or her works must have been considered as 
 worthy of universal notice. From these lists I shall take 
 my numbers, as before proposed. It will not be neces- 
 sary to go into all the arts and sciences : eight or nine 
 will be sufficient. It may be as well, perhaps, to take 
 the ITALIANS as well as the French ; for we all know that 
 they were living in most shocking " monkish ignorance 
 and superstition ;" and that they, poor, unfortunate and 
 unplundered souls, are so living unto this very day [ 
 
 " Here, then, is the statement ; and you have only to 
 observe, that the figures represent the number of persons 
 who were famous for the art or science opposite the name 
 of which the figures are placed. The period is, from the 
 year 1600 to 1787, during which period France was under 
 what young GEORGE ROSE calls the " dark despotism of 
 the Catholic Church," and what BLACKSTONE calls 
 " monkish ignorance and superstition;" and, during the 
 same period, these Islands were in a blaze of light, sent 
 forth by LUTHER, CRANMER, KNOX, and their followers. 
 Here, then, is the statement : 
 
 England, Scotland, 
 
 and Ireland. France. 
 
 Italy. 
 
 Mathematicians 
 Physicians and Surgeons 
 Writers on Natural History 
 Historians 
 
 Dramatic Writ<>rc . 
 
 17 
 13 
 6 
 21 
 10 
 
 52 
 
 72 
 33 
 139 
 
 , fiR 
 
 15 
 
 21 
 
 2 
 
lix 
 
 we remain firm to the ancient faith, merely through 
 a blind attachment to the prejudices of education 
 
 England, Scotland, 
 
 and Ireland. France. Italy. 
 
 Grammarians 7 42 2 
 
 Poets 38 157 34 
 
 Painters 5 64 44 
 
 132 676 164 
 
 " Here is that very " SCALE, " which a modest 
 Scotch writer spoke of the other day, when he told the 
 public, that, " Throughout Europe Protestants rank higher 
 in the scale of intellect than Catholics, and that Catholics 
 in the neighbourhood of Protestants are more intellectual 
 than those at a distance from them." This is a fine spe- 
 cimen of upstart Protestant impudence. The above 
 " scale" is, however, a complete answer to it. Allow one 
 third more to the French on account of their superior 
 populousness, and then there will remain to them 451 to 
 our 132 ! So that they had, man for man, three and a 
 half times as much intellect as we, though they were buried 
 all the while in " monkish ignorance and superstition," 
 and though they had no Protestant neighbours to catch 
 the intellect from ! Even the Italians surpass us in this 
 rivalship for intellect ; for, their population is not equal 
 to that of which we boast, and their number of men of 
 mind considerably exceeds that of ours. But, do I not, 
 all this while, misunderstand this matter ? And, by intel- 
 lect, does not the Scotchman mean the capacity to make, 
 not books and pictures, but checks, bills, bonds, exchequer- 
 bills, inimitable notes, and the like ? Does he not mean 
 loan-jobbing and stock-jobbing, insurance-booking, annu- 
 ities at ten per cent., kite-flying, and all the " intellectual " 
 
Ix 
 
 and parentage ; that we are content to sacrifice 
 our country's good to an obstinate perversity of 
 
 proceedings of 'Change Alley ? Ah ! in that case, I con- 
 fess that he is right. On this scale Protestants do rank 
 high indeed!" History of the Protestant Reformation, 
 
 P .n. 
 
 As to the charge of the Catholic religion being opposed 
 to " the natural movements of a just and ingenuous mind," 
 I will only reply through another and a very eminent 
 auxiliary, that " Catholicity has been the belief of the 
 most illustrious characters that ever did honour to the 
 name of man," and leave the bishop to seek the solution 
 of his problem where and how he may. I refer not to 
 the long catalogue of saints, of martyrs, and of apostles ; 
 to men who at the risk of their lives, and with the sa- 
 crifice of every temporal comfort, have carried the light 
 of the gospel to all the nations of the known world : I 
 refer not to a Moore, a Fisher, a Boromeo, a Turenne, a 
 Fenelon : I refer not to those hundreds of individuals, 
 who in every Catholic province of the universe, devote 
 every faculty with which God has blessed them, to the 
 sublime occupation of doing deeds of charity to mankind: 
 -I refer not to them ; for / am too blunted to see, and the 
 Bishop is too enlightened to believe, that all these were, 
 or are Roman Catholics. 
 
 With the bishop's permission, however, I will say one 
 word more in my own person. This is not the place, 
 neither is it my province to follow the right reverend pre- 
 late into the arena of polemic history. Mr. Butler's reply 
 being entirely out of print, I have been unable to procure 
 a copy of it, and therefore know not whether that gentleman 
 
Ixi 
 
 mind, and are only resolute in maintaining our- 
 selves to be right, because it might appear degrad- 
 
 has triumphantly refuted the bishop's historical assertions, 
 as I am sure he is so capable of doing ; but which it was 
 not necessary that he should do, as they have long since 
 been ably confuted by others. I will, however, observe in 
 passing, that Dr. Blomfield's annotations upon the creed 
 of Pius IV. would shame the meanest tyro in theology ; 
 that his application of the decree of the Council of 
 Constance relative to Huss, is wholly and entirely per- 
 verted ; that he every where confounds discipline with 
 doctrine, and doctrine with discipline; that he cites the 
 opinions of councils, without waiting to discuss their valid- 
 ity, or without distinguishing the unratified decisions of an 
 unauthorized few, from the authenticated decrees of an 
 oecumenical assembly of the pastors of the church. As 
 long as the bishop's historical facts rest only upon his 
 ipse dixit, the ipse dlxit of any other man is as good to 
 refute them : but, satis super que. 
 
 My object has been to show that his Lordship can some- 
 times convert the sword of the spirit into a sword of steel ; 
 and that, neither the fire-brand nor the poisoned arrow are 
 weapons so entirely disused by ministers of the establish- 
 ment, as he would wish us to suppose.* 
 
 How effectual is example ! In a charge delivered last 
 year, in the diocese of Chester, and published at the re- 
 quest of the Clergy present, we find the following extract, 
 from a bull of the present Pontiff : " We also, venerable 
 
 * The Bishop refers his readers to " A comparative view of the 
 Churches of England and Rome." I beg to refer them to Dr. 
 Lingard's convincing answer to that publication. 
 
Ixii 
 
 ing to acknowledge ourselves to be wrong. But 
 I should wish it to appear that we have other 
 
 brethren, conformably to our apostolical duty, exhort you 
 diligently to occupy yourselves by all means to turn away 
 your flock from these deadly pastures ; [i. e. the Scriptures 
 translated into the vulgar tongue]." The Archdeacon 
 of Richmond here proves himself a worthy subaltern of his 
 diocesan commander. Nay, we are free to confess that 
 the servant has outdone the master ; if not in the boldness, 
 at least in the impudence of his slander. What will be the 
 astonishment of the reader, when, instead of these deadly 
 pastures, referring to the Scriptures translated into the 
 vulgar tongue, he sees that these expressions relate to 
 what shall be described in the Pontiff's own words : 
 
 " What shall I say more ? The iniquity of our enemies 
 has so increased, that, besides the deluge of pernicious 
 books, contrary to the faith, it even goes so far as to con- 
 vert to the detriment of religion the Holy Scriptures, 
 which have been given us from above for the general edi- 
 fication. You are not ignorant, venerable brethren, that 
 a society, commonly called the Bible Society, audaciously 
 spreads itself over the whole earth ; and that in contempt 
 of the traditions of the holy fathers, and contrary to the 
 decree of the Council of Trent, it exerts all its efforts, and 
 every means, to translate, or rather to corrupt the holy 
 scriptures into the vulgar tongue of nations, which gives 
 just cause to fear that the same may happen in all the other 
 translations, as in those already known namely, that we 
 shall find in them a bad interpretation ; instead of the 
 gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of man, or rather the 
 gospel of the devil. Behold, venerable brethren, whither 
 
Ixiii 
 
 motives for not deserting an ancient cause, a cause 
 in which we have endured so long and so cruel a 
 
 it tends, omitting nothing to accomplish its impious pur- 
 pose ; for it glories, not only in printing its translations, 
 but even in going about to towns and distributing them 
 among the people : sometimes it sells them, and some- 
 times, with perfidious liberality, gives them away." 
 Rescript of May 3, 1824. 
 
 Such are the deadly past ares mentioned in the " Rescript," 
 and not, as the Archdeacon unblushingly asserts, the 
 Scriptures translated into the vulgar tongue. But, such are 
 the extravagant and disgraceful impositions by which the 
 people of this country are deluded, by which Christianity 
 itself is brought into disrepute, and by which the rights 
 and characters of innocent men are sacrificed. 
 
 Is there not also some reason for the vigilance and re- 
 strictions of the Bishop of Rome, as to reading the scrip- 
 ture in the vulgar tongue ? In one of the regulations of 
 the Council of Trent, it is declared, as a matter of discipline, 
 " That since the promiscuous allowance of the bible in the 
 vulgar tongue has been proved by experience to do more 
 harm than good, it is determined that a discretionary power 
 should be invested in the curate or confessor, to allow 
 such versions to be read by those only who would suffer no 
 detriment from the reading, but would receive an increase 
 of faith and piety." There has long been an authorized 
 translation of the sacred writings in the Italian language, 
 which till lately was open to every one ; but in consequence 
 of the eager and intrusive circulation of the corrupted trans- 
 lations of the Bible Societies, the restrictions of the 
 Council of Trent, originally framed under similar circum- 
 
Ixiv 
 
 martyrdom, than the shame of being branded as 
 apostates ; and that, circumstanced as we are, it 
 
 stances, were again imposed : but the regulations are not 
 binding on the Catholics of this country, nor, indeed, do 
 they extend beyond Italy itself. We have every where 
 editions of the bible in every size, from the folio to the 
 duodecimo, and have full liberty to read as we list, with 
 proper dispositions, and a due regard to the annotations 
 annexed for the interpretation thereof. In Ireland the 
 circulation of the scriptures among the Roman Catholics 
 has been very great, particularly of late years. Two 
 editions of the New Testament are now lying before me, 
 one dated 1821, and the other 1826; the latter is a ste- 
 reotyped and a very cheap edition. It is prefaced by the 
 following approbation of the Archbishops : 
 
 " We approve of this stereotyped edition of the New 
 Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, being 
 according to the Douay version ; and we authorize Richard 
 Coyne, of Capel Street, Dublin, to print and publish it. 
 " Given at Dublin, December 16, 1825. 
 
 PATRICK CURTIS, D.D. &c. 
 
 ROBERT LAFFAN, D.D. &c. 
 
 DANIEL MURRAY, D.D. &c. 
 
 OLIVER KELLY, D.D. &c. 
 
 So that, though the Pontiff has been pleased to style 
 the Bibles of the Society deadly pastures, yet the salutary 
 food of the word of God, translated into the vulgar tongue, 
 whatever the Archdeacon may say to the contrary, is still 
 freely permitted, with an almost nominal restriction in 
 the Papal States, to the whole of the Christian world. 
 
Ixv 
 
 is both ungenerous and unjust to accuse us of 
 being supine and indifferent to the public interest. 
 In arduous times, in periods of political danger, if a 
 man is not found at his post, he should be able to 
 give a good excuse for his absence. It is this which 
 I profess to undertake : I profess to prove that the 
 fault lies with those who impose the restrictions, 
 not with those who submit to them ; and that, by 
 acting otherwise than as we do, we should only 
 incur the guilt of a criminal subserviency to our 
 temporal interests, and make a sacrifice both of 
 our honour and our conscience. Such are the 
 motives for the publication of the following REA- 
 SONS : they are convincing to me, and I hope they 
 may prove so to others. (0) 
 
 (ff) I feel another inducement to this undertaking. Charity 
 urges us to use every reasonable expedient and exertion 
 to do good to others ; to diffuse those blessings which we 
 enjoy ourselves ; to impart a knowledge of the truth which 
 we believe, and bear testimony to the faith we have 
 received from our forefathers. 
 
 But, to those who believe not in the necessity of any 
 fixed and steadfast faith who, far from esteeming heresy, 
 schism, and dissension in matters of religion, as works of 
 the flesh, and suggestions of Satan, allow themselves to be 
 tossed about by every wind of doctrine, heedless whither 
 they are carried; to those who peruse the Scriptures, 
 believing what chimes in with their ideas, but rejecting 
 what displeases them, (though both the one and the other 
 
 e 
 
Ixvi 
 
 As I have written nothing in a spirit of animosity, 
 so I hope none will be offended with that freedom 
 
 rest equally upon the same authority, and are often to be 
 found together, in the same page ;) to those who, in con- 
 tradiction to the opinion of St. Peter, imagine that none 
 are so little learned as not to be fit interpreters of the law, 
 and expounders of the sacred doctrine, and that all are so 
 wise and stable as to be proof against the enemy of truth, 
 in his endeavours to induce us to wrest the words of God 
 to our own destruction and perdition ; to those who are 
 unwilling to submit their reason to the obedience of faith, 
 but are resolved to emancipate themselves altogether from 
 ecclesiastical authority ; upon which resolution, both in 
 theory and in practice, every religious establishment may 
 be said to have been founded, even at the moment of its 
 separation from the parent Church ; to those who have 
 no faith in the promise of Christ, that the spirit of truth 
 shall abide for ever with his religion ; to those who take 
 religious faith to be a belief in what requires not the 
 exercise of faith, namely, a belief in what they can com- 
 prehend with their own reason, and see with their now 
 eyes; instead of, what St. Paul terms, the evidence of 
 things which are not seen, and the remedy to that state of 
 intellectual darkness to which original sin had reduced 
 mankind, (a doctrine itself as inexplicable and incompre- 
 hensible as any that the Almighty has revealed to manj 
 but which, if we do not believe, we are no longer Chris- 
 tians); to those, in fine, who look upon religious faith as a 
 matter of indifference, who, knowing that two contradic- 
 tory propositions cannot both be true, yet fancy that each 
 is equally pleasing to the God of truth, and equally satis- 
 
Ixvii 
 
 of discussion which the nature of the subject re- 
 quired : none will be so unjust as to deny us the 
 
 factory as a foundation on which to huild that steadfast 
 faith without which we must be condemned, who laugh at 
 error as a play-thing with which we may amuse ourselves 
 as long and in what manner we will, without heing answer- 
 able for the consequences, and who consider delusion in 
 controverted points as a matter of no importance what- 
 ever: to all such I am well aware that my REASONS con- 
 sidered in reference to religion, will appear vain and 
 unmeaning. 
 
 I address myself to these only who, while they believe 
 in the doctrines of Revelation, are willing to take them 
 in their approved and established sense; to inquire sin- 
 cerely in what manner they were received in the first ages 
 of the Church, and what authority has been appointed to 
 interpret them; and who, while they acknowledge the 
 divinity of our Saviour, are also ready to believe and follow 
 his Gospel. How can we say we believe in Christ, without 
 believing in his doctrines? surely the one is incompatible 
 with the other. 
 
 It will be seen that I have touched but slightly 
 upon the evidence, tending to establish the truths of Ca- 
 tholicity. I have only done so incidentally ; merely tak- 
 ing advantage of the opportunities afforded for that purpose, 
 in the arguments I have undertaken to advance against 
 some of the doctrines of Protestantism. The controverted 
 points however, enumerated in the parliamentary oaths, na- 
 turally gave a greater scope to that portion of the subject. In 
 undertaking the defence of Catholicity, the difficulty must 
 always be, rather to avoid a redundancy of evidence, than 
 
 e2 
 
Ixviii 
 
 right of displaying the motives of our conduct with 
 candour and with truth. 
 
 Much more might have been offered in exculpa- 
 tion; more reasons adduced, and more objections 
 
 to produce strong- and convincing testimony of its truth. 
 The descent, the parentage, and the hirth of our religion ; 
 her infancy, her youth, and her age ; her troubles and her 
 misfortunes ; her success and her triumphs : every period 
 of her history, and every event of her lengthened exist- 
 ence : every prophecy of ancient days, and every revela- 
 tion which accompanied her announcement to the world : 
 the wickedness of a few, and the eminent sanctity of num- 
 bers of her pastors : the zeal of her friends, and the ma- 
 lignity of her enemies : the perfidiousness and apostacy 
 of some of her most distinguished champions : the open 
 revolt of thousands of her own rebellious children ; the 
 learning and the piety of her faithful followers: the 
 countless multitudes whom she has ever embraced within 
 her fold : all, in their various and respective ways, pro- 
 claim the power and the truth of Catholicity, as well as 
 the fostering care of a superintending Providence, that 
 cherishes and marks her as his own. It cannot, there- 
 fore, be for want of materials, that I have confined my- 
 self within such narrow limits, in treating of the Roman 
 Catholic Religion ; but, because it was not necessary for 
 my purpose to say more. 
 
 If there should appear any inconsistency in arguing at 
 one time, upon the ostensible articles of the Church of 
 England, and at another time as if she had no articles at 
 all ; the inconsistency must rest with the Church that 
 places herself in such a predicament, and thereby affords 
 only another proof of her insufficiency. 
 
Ixix 
 
 refuted : but it is not the intention of the writer 
 to enter into a long and elaborate discussion, (that 
 has been often done by abler hands than his ;) it is 
 only hoped that sufficient has been brought for- 
 ward to stimulate inquiry upon a most important, 
 but most perverted or neglected question ; to re- 
 move some at least of the causes which keep alive 
 a spirit of hostility towards us ; to do justice to our 
 motives, and to promote unity, peace, and har- 
 mony among Christians. Let us indulge the hope, 
 that the night is past, and that the day is at 
 hand ; and that the darkness of prejudice may at 
 length be dispelled by the force of the light of truth. 
 Catholics are often accused of seeking the redress 
 of their grievances with intemperance ; but let 
 Protestants fancy themselves in the same circum- 
 stances in which they have placed us, and if they 
 are not indignant at their wrongs, their sensibilities 
 are little to be envied. Is it imagined that the 
 length and ferocity of the persecution we have 
 endured, have so daunted the spirit and lowered 
 the pride of its devoted victims, that men of high 
 rank and ancient name, of honourable feeling 
 and of untainted reputation, that the descendants 
 of many who have deserved well of their country, 
 that the lineal representatives of the barons of 
 Runymede, will hang their heads and hide their 
 faces, when a vial of slander and defamation is 
 
Ixx 
 
 poured out upon them? Are we to afford credit 
 to the imputation, by silence, or are we to confront 
 our accusers and repel the slander, to the shame 
 of those who gave it birth ? It is no satisfaction 
 to hear that we are accused as a body, and not as 
 individuals : since, as members of the same reli- 
 gion, we are all so linked together, by that unity 
 of faith which is the very essence of Catholicity, 
 that what is true of the body, is true also of 
 the individual. No man can be a Catholic, 
 who does not hold each doctrine of his Church 
 whole and entire; no man can be a Catholic, who 
 rejects one single tenet which the Church has 
 proposed to his belief, as a revelation from heaven. 
 If he does so, he separates himself from the great 
 community of Christians, and ceases to be a Ca- 
 tholic. What the Church teaches as an article of 
 faith, we must believe as such; if she holds a doc- 
 trine, we must hold that doctrine also, or we are not 
 Catholics. It is therefore impossible to separate the 
 community from the individual, or the individual 
 from the community. The Church is not an imma- 
 terial being, nor a creature of the imagination, but 
 an immense congregation of individual members, 
 all holding one faith and one baptism ; all united in 
 one fold, under one shepherd. Neither the Pope, 
 nor the college of cardinals, nor the court of Rome, 
 constitutes the Church, but that immense society of 
 
Ixxi 
 
 Christians, dispersed throughout the universe, yet 
 bound together by a spiritual obedience to the same 
 supreme but spiritual head of the Christian world. (A) 
 As Christians, the various sects by which we are 
 surrounded and assailed, make no impression on 
 us ; but, as men, we are equally influenced by 
 the freedom or despotism of civil governments 
 we partake, in common with others, of the evils of 
 unjust oppression, or of the benefits of wise and li- 
 beral legislation. I wish, therefore, to be understood 
 to make a distinction between speaking politically, 
 as the degraded member of a free state, with the 
 remembrance of all our wrongs and the miseries of 
 Ireland present to my mind, and speaking as a 
 Christian, dispassionately discussing a mere point 
 of religious controversy, without reference to its 
 political consequences. In either case, I trust I 
 have advanced nothing in a spirit unbecoming the 
 subject, though I have said much which I am sorry 
 to have been obliged to say. In justice I might 
 have said much more. I will take this opportunity 
 of stating that I am confident we are not actuated 
 by any selfish or private views, in thus strenuously 
 and warmly advocating our rights; but that we 
 look mainly to the general peace and prosperity of 
 
 (W It must always be remembered that this spiritual 
 head is much more restrained in the exercise of his spi- 
 ritual sovereignty, than are the civil rulers of the freest 
 states in the use of their temporal power. 
 
Ixxii 
 
 the empire ; which can never be true to herself, or 
 great in the eyes of foreign states, till she cancels 
 every trace of that barbarous code which has so 
 long disgraced her statute book, and thereby drives 
 that spirit of bigotry from the world, which has 
 chosen England for her last and solitary haunt. 
 
 REMARKS ON THE BISHOP OF PETER- 
 BOROUGH'S LATE CHARGE. 
 
 The charge of the Bishop of Peterborough, 
 delivered in July of last year, and printed at the 
 request of his Clergy, having within these few 
 days fallen under my observation, and conceiving 
 it to be a document of importance at this juncture, 
 I beg leave to offer the following observations upon it. 
 
 The Bishop observes that Roman Catholics are 
 excluded from parliament " not because they be- 
 lieve in Transubstantiation, but because they who 
 believe in that doctrine, believe also that a foreign 
 Potentate hath or ought to have jurisdiction in the 
 dominions of his Majesty, King George." His 
 Lordship, however, does not show how this practical 
 principle, as he calls it, affects the allegiance of 
 Roman Catholics to their sovereign, or the exercise 
 of their duties as civil members of the state. He 
 does not state it openly, and I trust he does not 
 
Ixxiii 
 
 mean to insinuate that, in violation of their oaths, 
 Roman Catholics acknowledge any but a purely 
 spiritual jurisdiction in the sovereign Pontiff. 
 Hence, we have not to prove that the jurisdiction 
 of the Pope is only spiritual, but that this spi- 
 ritual jurisdiction is not a practical doctrine, 
 hostile to the liberties of those countries in which 
 it is exercised, and incompatible with those civil 
 duties which, as subjects, we owe the state. Now, 
 if the doctrine itself be not considered a sufficient 
 guarantee if the renunciation, by all Catholic 
 Divines, of every iota of temporal sovereignty, 
 either directly or indirectly, in the supreme head 
 of the Church; and the duty of civil obedience 
 to every form of government under which our lot 
 may be cast, as inculcated by all Catholic moral- 
 ists be not enough to satisfy the most timid and 
 the most prejudiced; let us examine the machinery 
 of this practical principle, and see how it works, 
 and how it has worked, ever since the deposing 
 power, (which was a temporal and not a spiritual 
 power,) was abandoned by the general concurrence 
 of Christendom. The spiritual authority of the 
 supreme head of the Church neither entitles him 
 to appoint to a single Bishopric, nor a single Cu- 
 racy gives him no power over any portion of the 
 temporalities of the Clergy nor any right to inter- 
 fere with the discipline or government of any 
 national Church : it only invests him with a 
 
Ixxiv 
 
 general superintendance over the Christian world, 
 in spiritual concerns, and places him under an 
 obligation, as far as in him lies, to see that the 
 doctrines and morality of the Gospel are both 
 preached and practised by his subalterns in the 
 hierarchy. He rules not as a despot, but is com- 
 pelled to regulate his conduct by the canons of the 
 Church ; he possesses no power of punishment, 
 but that of suspension from the performance of 
 spiritual functions ; no power of removal from 
 temporalities, but with permission of the sovereign, 
 or commonwealth. In point of fact, I believe it to be 
 true, that not a single instance is upon record, in any 
 state, whether Catholic or Protestant, in which any 
 inconvenience has arisen from the exercise of the 
 spiritual supremacy of the Bishop of Rome. The 
 Protestant states of Prussia, Holland, Hanover, 
 Germany, Switzerland, &c. have all entered into a 
 concordat with the Pope, for the exercise of his 
 spiritual supremacy amongst their respective sub- 
 jects. As well as Russia, they all retain accredited 
 agents at the court of Rome ; leaving England a 
 solitary example of the infraction of the common 
 rules of propriety and courtesy, in the intercourse 
 between civilized nations. We send ministers to 
 the Turk and the Idolater, to the worshippers of 
 the sun, and perhaps to the votaries of Juggernaut, 
 while we esteem it a crime, worthy of punishment 
 by the laws of the land, to hold any communica- 
 
Ixxv 
 
 tion whatever with the most ancient and most 
 dignified sovereignty in Christendom ! 
 
 But, to pursue our argument; what is no treason 
 in Prussia, Holland, or Hanover, cannot surely be 
 treason in England. If the exercise of the spiritual 
 supremacy of a foreign Potentate neither tarnishes 
 the lustre of those crowns, nor impairs their autho- 
 rity, what is to infect it with it's blighting and 
 destructive quality the moment it arrives within 
 the atmosphere of the British Isles ? Does the 
 Bishop of Peterborough suppose that his Majesty's 
 Roman Catholic subjects in Hanover bear him a 
 divided or qualified allegiance, because he has 
 placed them upon an equality with their Protestant 
 brethren, and legally permits the exercise of the spi- 
 ritual supremacy of the head of their Church amongst 
 them ? Or does such a supposition exist in the 
 minds of any one of the Protestant sovereigns of 
 continental Europe, who have all been wise enough 
 to act with the same good sense and liberality ? 
 Are they not rather assured thereby, of the en- 
 creased affections and loyalty of their people, of 
 the augmentation of their strength, and of the 
 stability of their government ? Are the same tried 
 and sacred principles to be true every where else, 
 and false only in England ? why are the feelings and 
 dispositions of men to be regulated here by the laws 
 of contrariety? Are wisdom, justice, prudence, be- 
 nignity, and mercy, to be virtues in Germany, and 
 
Ixxvi 
 
 follies in Great Britain ? While the experiment 
 has been found to fail every where else, is England 
 alone expected to thrive upon the heart-burnings, 
 jealousies, humiliations, and contentions, growing 
 out of unjust and invidious legal distinctions be- 
 tween man and man? Are religious feuds and 
 domestic strife to be the eternal, cherished, and 
 hopeful inheritance of these realms ? Is England, 
 and only England, to be that cursed hot-bed of 
 intolerance, which shoots up her rank and poisonous 
 herbage, to the very infecting of the air we 
 breathe? It is absurd to attempt to explain it; 
 and for this reason I suppose it is that the Bishop 
 of Peterborough does not attempt to explain how 
 a system of justice and liberality is to weaken 
 the allegiance and alienate the affections of the 
 people how this practical doctrine of the spiritual 
 supremacy of the Pope is thus to run riot a- 
 mongst Englishmen, while it passes soberly through 
 the imaginations of the Dutch, the Prussians and 
 the Hanoverians. Really it would seem to have 
 become an axiom amongst us that, while the rest 
 of the world were triumphantly advancing in the 
 science of legislation, we were compelled, as a 
 matter of duty, to retrograde, for the sake of pre- 
 serving an example of the perverse fatuity of man : 
 and, as if a period of almost unparalleled political 
 embarrassment, together with the common ills of 
 mortality, were not sufficient to torment us, that we 
 
Ixxvii 
 
 must needs try our strength and our patience, with 
 the frightful evils of religious persecution. Itwould 
 appear that the time was come, when the wisdom 
 of our neighbours ought to supersede our own; 
 that old principles and old adages, which had been 
 the pride of our ancestors for centuries, were to be 
 reversed ; and that it was now befitting the cha- 
 racter and reputation of an Englishman to look 
 with envy and complacency on the civil and reli- 
 gious liberties of foreigners, and even of French- 
 men! But this spiritual supremacy is, and has 
 been, and will be exercised in these realms, in 
 spite of laws, opinions, and penalties ; and that, 
 too, amongst an irritated and insulted, though a 
 loyal people. Even, in the very worst of times, 
 under the most cruel and trying persecutions/ 
 and when an assumed and presumptuous power in 
 the spiritual head of their Church endeavoured to 
 mislead them, the Catholics of this country, as a 
 body, were never drawn into one single act of 
 disloyalty to the state. On the contrary, they were 
 ever remarkable for an inflexible and conscientious 
 
 (l) Persecution never yet consolidated the interests of 
 any country, but has invariably had the effect of weak- 
 ening, by the discord, turbulence, and even rebellion, 
 which it has occasioned ; neither did it ever yet gain a wil- 
 ling and sincere convert to it's cause. Yet do we find 
 both statesmen and divines who are still enamoured 
 with it. 
 
Ixxviii 
 
 fidelity to the sovereign. And, in times nearer 
 to our own, it is a singular fact that the most 
 influential members of the rebellion in Ireland, 
 which was any thing but a Catholic rebellion, w r ere 
 all Protestants who disowned allegiance to this 
 spiritual authority, and not Catholics who acknow- 
 ledged it. Is it not, then, better that this spiritual 
 supremacy should be exercised in an open, regular, 
 and legal manner, than as it is now, by stealth, and 
 in opposition to the laws ? Would the sanction of 
 government to this practical doctrine make it 
 more dangerous in its nature, or more hurtful in 
 its consequences ? w 
 
 w " It cannot be necessary to enter into the history of 
 Catholic affairs during the present reign. With the re- 
 plies of the foreign universities to Mr. Pitt's queries, and 
 the oaths taken by Catholics according to the acts passed 
 in their favour, the reader must be acquainted. I shall, 
 therefore, content myself with asking whether the oaths 
 and protestations contained in the preceding pages, do not 
 fully bear me out in the assertion that the great body of 
 the British Catholics has never been accustomed to ac- 
 knowledge in the Pope any temporal authority, or to 
 consider the deposing and dispensing powers as parts of 
 it's religious creed. But if this be true of Catholics in 
 former times, it must be true of those of the present day ; 
 nor do I see how any man can rationally accuse them of 
 partiality to the doctrines they have disclaimed, or fear 
 that they should adopt them at any future period. The 
 fact is, that there exists not within the United Kingdom, 
 
Ixxix 
 
 The Bishop of Peterborough, having thus far 
 contented himself with merely stating a reason 
 
 nor within any kingdom in Europe, a body of men whose 
 religious opinions with respect to civil government are so 
 accurately ascertained. They have not only explained 
 their sentiments, they have sworn to the truth of their 
 explanation. They have made their allegiance doubly 
 secure : they are hound to it by their religion ; they are 
 also bound to it by their oath. 
 
 " In conclusion, it may be observed, that the statute- 
 book at present is, on this subject, in contradiction with 
 itself. Whoever peruses the preambles to the statutes, 
 from the pressure of which the Catholics pray to be re- 
 lieved, will learn that they were enacted against persons 
 described as traitors to their country, supposed to hold 
 that faith is not to be kept with Protestants, and to believe 
 that the Pope could lawfully depose princes, and absolve 
 subjects from their allegiance. By the acts passed during 
 the present reign in favour of Catholics, it is admitted 
 that those who take the oaths prescribed therein, do not 
 come under this description. Of course they are not the 
 men against whom the penal statutes were enacted ; why 
 then are they still made to suffer under them ? Certainly 
 justice and consistence require that this contradiction 
 should no longer exist ; but that all who bear true alle- 
 giance to the king all who abjure the temporal superior- 
 ity of every other prince or prelate should be admitted 
 to the common rights and distinctions of British subjects." 
 (Dr Lingard's Tracts, pp. 290-1.) 
 
 N.B. This " Collection of Documents to ascertain the 
 sentiments of British Catholics in former ages respecting 
 
Ixxx 
 
 for our exclusion, without any attempt to prove its 
 justice, proceeds to absolve the opposers of eman- 
 
 the power of the popes," and Dr. Lingard's excellent 
 Observations thereon, ought to be the study of every legis- 
 lator. 
 
 " But it is said, and from high authority too, that to a 
 king who is not a Roman Catholic, they cannot bear other 
 than a divided allegiance. I say the charge is unsup- 
 ported by fact, and, if it were true, would not be a very 
 discreet charge to make against more than seven millions 
 of people, now living within the allegiance of the king of 
 this empire. I say, further, that it is disproved wherever 
 Roman Catholics are admitted (and that is every where 
 but here,) to a full enjoyment of civil rights under sove- 
 reigns not of their creed. I say that it is disproved in 
 Prussia, disproved in Denmark, disproved in Sweden, dis- 
 proved in Hanover, disproved in the Netherlands, dis- 
 proved throughout the Russian Empire, and proved 
 nowhere. 
 
 It is a charge not imputed by the laws of England, nor 
 by the oaths which exclude the Catholics : for those 
 oaths impute only spiritual errors. But it is imputed, 
 which is more to the purpose, by those persons who ap- 
 prove of the excluding oaths, and wish them retained. 
 But, to the whole of this imputation ; even if no other 
 instance could be adduced; as far as a strong and re- 
 markable example can prove the negative of an assump- 
 tion which there is not a single example to support, 
 the full, and sufficient, and incontestible answer is Canada. 
 Canada, which, until you can destroy the memory of all 
 that now remains to you of your sovereignty on the North 
 
Ixxxi 
 
 cipation from the charge of bigotry and intolerance, 
 which is brought against them, by asserting that 
 
 . . , 
 
 American continent, is an answer practical, memorable, 
 difficult to be accounted for, but blazing as the sun itself 
 in sight of the whole world, to the whole charge of 
 divided allegiance. At your conquest of Canada, you 
 found it Roman Catholic ; you had to choose for her a 
 constitution in Church and State. You were wise enough 
 not to thwart public opinion. Your own conduct towards 
 Presbyterianism in Scotland was an example for imita- 
 tion ; your own conduct towards Catholicism in Ireland 
 was a beacon for avoidance ; and in Canada you esta- 
 blished and endowed the religion of the people. Canada 
 was your only Roman Catholic colony. Your other colo- 
 nies revolted ; they called on a Catholic power to support 
 them, and they achieved their independence. Catholic 
 Canada, with what Lord Liverpool would call her half- 
 allegiance, alone stood by you. She fought by your side 
 against the interference of Catholic France. To reward 
 and encourage her loyalty, you endowed in Canada 
 bishops to say mass, and to ordain others to say mass, 
 whom, at that very time, your laws would have hanged 
 for saying mass in England ; and Canada is still yours in 
 spite of Catholic France in spite of her spiritual obe- 
 dience to the Pope in spite of Lord Liverpool's argu- 
 ment and in spite of the independence of all the states 
 that surround her. This is the only trial you have made. 
 Where you allow to the Roman Catholics their religion 
 undisturbed, it has proved itself to be compatible with 
 the most faithful allegiaiiQe. It is only where you have 
 placed allegiance and religion before them as a dilemma, 
 
 f 
 
Ixxxii 
 
 as we have now complete religious toleration/ 70 the 
 question at issue regards not religious liberty, but 
 political power ; at the same time observing that 
 a " claim to civil power must be founded on civil 
 relations." Now, it is precisely upon this ground 
 that we rest our claim. We swear civil allegiance 
 to the sovereign, not by force, but freely and wil- 
 lingly, and as a matter of conscience ; we pay taxes, 
 even in a greater proportion than others ; we con- 
 tribute to poor-rates, tithes, and Church-rates; we 
 serve the army and the navy ; we perform every 
 civil duty demanded of us, and even ask leave to 
 perform more. If this does not place us in a situa- 
 tion of civil relationship with the state, what can ? 
 It is not our fault that we do not serve our country 
 as senators, &c., or hold offices of trust or power; 
 and if we be deficient, it is bigotry and intolerance 
 which make us so. But if it was no crime in St. 
 Paul or in our Saviour to dissent from the religion 
 
 that they have preferred (as who will say they ought not?) 
 their religion to their allegiance. How then stands the 
 imputation ? Disproved by history, disproved in all states 
 where both religions co-exist, and in both hemispheres, 
 and asserted in an exposition by Lord Liverpool, solemnly 
 and repeatedly abjured by all Catholics, as of the disci- 
 pline of their church." Lord Nugent' s Statement, fyc. 
 
 ( *> It is only mockery to talk of tolerating a religion, 
 as long as penalties and disabilities are made the neces- 
 sary appendages to its profession. 
 
Ixxxiii 
 
 of the state, because they knew it to be false, it is 
 no crime in us : and as long as the religion of the 
 state requires us to forswear ourselves, before we 
 can serve that state as senators, or in offices of 
 trust and power, I am confident we are not want- 
 ing in our civil duty for refusing to do so. We 
 do not ask for political rights as Roman Catholics, 
 but we ask for them as good subjects of the king, 
 as useful members of the state, and as fulfilling 
 all the duties of civil relationship towards the 
 government and the institutions of the country, of 
 which the Protestant church establishment is one. 
 Neither do we ask, as the Bishop of Peterborough 
 would imply, for offices of trust and power : these, 
 the sovereign must always bestow or withhold at 
 his pleasure. We ask only for those rights which 
 belong to us in virtue of the constitution of our 
 country, for eligibility to office, for those pri- 
 vileges which belong to our respective states, 
 for that liberty to serve our fellow-subjects which 
 all others of our own class in the commonwealth 
 possess : in fine, for that, and that alone, which 
 we should enjoy, were we not Roman Catholics. 
 Is it not, then, bigotry and intolerance to deprive 
 us of our birth-right, not because we are bad sub- 
 jects, but because we conscientiously differ from 
 the religion of the state ? It is much rather the 
 opposers of emancipation that are deficient in their 
 civil relationship to the government, by disfran- 
 
 f2 
 
Ixxxiv 
 
 chising many whom the constitution invests with 
 senatorial rights, by circumscribing the preroga- 
 tive of the crown in the choice of its officers, and 
 by defrauding the state of her intrinsic right to 
 avail herself of the worth and talent of every indi- 
 vidual member of her community. While the 
 accusation, therefore, will not stand, as far as it 
 regards us, it applies with double force against our 
 political opponents. 
 
 If, however, there be not bigotry in this, there 
 is, at least, selfishness and injustice in the next po- 
 sition in which the Bishop places himself as the 
 enemy of the civil rights of Catholics. " And if 
 the clergy," says he, " in particular, have reason 
 to apprehend that additional power conferred on 
 the Roman Catholics, would endanger their own 
 Church, they are surely entitled, without being 
 branded as bigots, to petition the legislature 
 against measures injurious to themselves." This 
 is a candid, manly avowal, which does equal credit 
 to the Bishop with the general temperance and 
 propriety of his language, and which forms so 
 pleasing a contrast with the rhapsody and abuse 
 which too often has been, and still is, poured out 
 upon us by the dignitaries of the Established 
 Church. I have long thought that the fancied 
 danger to their own Church, and the risk of seeing 
 " themselves and their families reduced to beg- 
 gary," had, at least, an equal share in the very active 
 
Ixxxv 
 
 opposition we met with from the prelates and mi- 
 nisters of the establishment, with the desire which 
 they must necessarily have, as members of the 
 " True Church, to support it for its own sake." 
 Now, if the property of the Church were only 
 proportioned to its necessities, or if its surplus 
 revenues were voluntarily applied, as formerly, to 
 the erection and endowment of hospitals and col- 
 leges, and the establishment of other useful insti- 
 tutions, we could not fairly prefer an accusation 
 of selfishness from the avowal of such a motive : 
 we could only say it was unjust. For it is undoubt- 
 edly unjust to sanctify the means by the end, when 
 those means are a direct penalty upon one half of 
 the population of the empire, and a visible dete- 
 rioration of the well-being and prosperity of the 
 whole state. Even supposing the premises to be 
 true, that emancipation would endanger the tem- 
 poralities -of the establishment, it must surely be 
 unjust to defend them by such means as these ; but 
 when, even in the opinion of their present posses- 
 sors it is only problematical, it amounts to tyranny 
 and injustice of the very first order, to punish 
 men for crimes, not only before they have com- 
 mitted them, but of which it is not known that 
 they will ever be guilty. They might as well 
 arrest every poor man in the kingdom, and throw 
 him into prison, lest he should be tempted to 
 rob his richer neighbour upon the first opportunity. 
 
Ixxxvi 
 
 But I trust to shew that, far from there being any 
 reasonable ground of danger to the establishment 
 from reinstating the Catholics in their civil rights, 
 it would equally be our interest and our inclina- 
 tion to uphold the honours and temporalities of 
 the Church of England. 
 
 In the first place, we most solemnly disclaim 
 even the most remote idea of ever being repos- 
 sessed of the temporalities of the church in these 
 realms ; and in proof of the sincerity of this dis- 
 claimer, we state both the utter impossibility of 
 the thing, and the probable inexpediency of it, 
 even were it possible. It is impossible, from the 
 present state both of religious and political parties 
 in the country. Supposing emancipation to intro- 
 duce eight Catholics into the House of Peers, and 
 ten or twenty into the Commons ; what is this 
 against hundreds ? Catholicity must indeed work 
 by enchantment, to gain the ascendancy over such 
 an opposing mass ; at least it would be a novelty 
 in the history of mankind. It is equally impro- 
 bable that we should unite with the dissenters for 
 the purpose of despoiling the establishment, and 
 dispossessing " a party which will then [when the 
 cause of religious liberty shah 1 be achieved]] have 
 lost its ascendancy, and have become a sect among 
 sects." The Bishop of Peterborough cannot surely 
 be serious in asserting that as long as the esta- 
 blishment retains her temporalities, with the influ- 
 
Ixxxvii 
 
 ence necessarily attached to them, together with 
 the Universities, and her paramount political pri- 
 vileges, that she can ever fall from that immense 
 ascendancy which she now enjoys over every other 
 religion in the state. The only ascendancy she 
 would lose, is a hateful lording it over all who 
 presume to differ from her an ascendancy which 
 teaches her to insult and oppress those whom, in 
 her fears, she fancies to be her enemies, an ascen- 
 dancy that marks her for the scorn and pity of her 
 victims. I am sure that every true friend of the 
 establishment will acknowledge, that the sooner 
 she falls from such an ascendancy as this, the 
 better. But what object can Catholics have in 
 uniting with the dissenters to despoil the esta- 
 blishment? We most cordially unite with them 
 in our common endeavours to obtain the most per- 
 fect religious freedom ; and we rely upon those 
 common endeavours for success. The Church of 
 England, " if more numerous than any single sect, 
 is less so than the others united :" w and does she 
 expect still successfully to oppose the energies of 
 such antagonists, bound together by a similarity of 
 grievances, with justice to embolden them in their 
 career, and with so noble and glorious an object in 
 view ? The thing is impossible. " The removal 
 of civil disabilities can alone remove all cause of 
 
 W Vide Charyc. 
 
Ixxxviii 
 
 contention can alone restore harmony between 
 the Church of England and other religious par- 
 ties." And all cause of contention being removed, 
 the union which was cemented by their common 
 grievances, is at once dissolved. When the pas- 
 sions are calmed, and the interests of every class 
 are amalgamated by equal laws and equal rights, 
 the present lamentable discord will cease, religious 
 harmony will be restored throughout the land, and 
 Christians of every denomination will be linked 
 together by the bonds of charity and good will 
 alone. In every country in Europe, in which Ca- 
 tholics and Protestants have been confounded in 
 a community of interests by an equality of rights, 
 such has been the happy result. The Church 
 of England might then enjoy her revenues 
 and her privileges in peace and comfort, with- 
 out the hatred or envy of her neighbours; ex- 
 changing the fierceness of the vulture for the 
 meekness of the dove ; being no longer a domi- 
 neering mistress, nor an insulting tyrant. The 
 only point of union between Catholics and dissen- 
 ters, is the great cause of religious liberty. That 
 being accomplished, no further alliance can either 
 be required or expected. The dissenters have 
 invariably departed infinitely further from the 
 parent Church, than the members of the Esta- 
 blishment. What, therefore, should we gain by 
 uniting with them to despoil that Establishment ? 
 They, united, being infinitely the stronger party, 
 
Ixxxix 
 
 would, in case of success, take every thing for 
 themselves. I speak not of Ireland : any spoli- 
 ation of the Established Church there, must pro- 
 ceed either from a convulsion in the country, or 
 from the power of the Protestant landholders. There 
 are no sectaries of sufficient force and numbers in 
 that portion of the empire ; and, as I said before, 
 ten Catholic representatives must be more than de- 
 stroying angels, to accomplish such a work. The 
 redress of the most grievous clerical exactions, 
 and a moderate competency from the Government 
 to the Catholic clergy, operating with the late 
 amendments in the tithing system, and equal laws, 
 and equal rights, would so far satisfy the people, 
 as to remove every idea from their minds of de- 
 spoiling the establishment. To shew the probable 
 inexpediency of Catholics repossessing themselves 
 of the Church property, even if they had the power 
 to do so, we have only to look to the history of 
 Europe to satisfy ourselves that every church 
 which has yet fallen, has fallen under the weight 
 of its own riches. Those riches first produced a 
 laxity of morals among the clergy, before they 
 became the envy, or excited the cupidity, of the 
 laity. Suffice it to say, that they effected the 
 downfall of the church which possessed them. As 
 zealous members of our religion, we ought not, 
 therefore, to desire to see her again exposed to 
 similar hazards and temptations ; and I am sure 
 
xc 
 
 there is not a Catholic in the country who would 
 not infinitely sooner see his religion with a decent 
 competency, (such as we could give her ourselves, 
 if the laws permitted it,) but free and independent, 
 than again breathing the air of courts and palaces, 
 and luxuriating in all her former riches. The 
 Catholic Church of Ireland, with all her poverty, 
 is probably a purer and a better Church (I mean 
 as to morals and sanctity, for her faith has been 
 always the same,) than she ever was in the days 
 of her prosperity. For herself she desires nothing 
 more than she enjoys at present, save the cessation 
 of calumny and persecution against her children : 
 she has all the authority she could desire over her 
 people, because she rules them with a paternal 
 solicitude, and receives their affectionate attach- 
 ment in return : she sees and knows that riches 
 are not requisite for the establishment of the king- 
 dom of God that rather covetousness is the root 
 of all evils, and seeing this, she cherishes her 
 poverty as her best and surest support. 
 
 But the great security of the protestant esta- 
 blishment would consist in the alliance which it 
 should be her inclination to form with her Ca- 
 tholic brethren. Though we differ from her on 
 points of faith ; those points are not many, and 
 have, all of them, at one time or other, been 
 warmly defended by some of her ablest Divines. 
 Her ministers have frequently acknowledged that 
 
XC1 
 
 the Catholic religion contains nothing contrary to 
 salvation nothing that should prevent her from 
 being considered as a true Christian Church ; and 
 such has been more solemnly and frequently 
 avowed by Protestant Divines upon the continent. 
 Her discipline is nearly, her constitution is pre- 
 cisely, the same as ours. In our Liturgies, in the 
 administration of the sacraments, we approximate. 
 But the great uniting link between us, is her code 
 of morality. The insufficiency of man ; the atone- 
 ment for sin ; the divinity of Christ ; the neces- 
 sity of good works for our acceptance before God, 
 and of repentance to obtain forgiveness of our 
 sins ; the application of the merits of Christ for 
 our sanctification by means of the sacraments ; the 
 Decalogue of the old law, and the moral precepts 
 of the new, are all points in which Catholics and 
 Protestants are thoroughly united. Is it not, 
 therefore, natural, that we should support the 
 establishment, should we see it invaded by Cal- 
 vinists and Levellers. Catholics, most assuredly, 
 have nothing to anticipate from the downfall of 
 the Church. As long, however, as she is unjust 
 and intolerant, we shall oppose her ; but the mo- 
 ment that the support of her cause becomes sanc- 
 tified by moderation and justice, she may rest 
 assured of our assistance/ 70 An Established 
 
 (tt) " At the same time, sir, I must protest against it's 
 
XC11 
 
 Church has ever formed a part of the constitution 
 of the country ; she is the promoter of learning, 
 the preserver of the splendid memorials of the 
 piety of our ancestors ; she is now become the 
 encourager of the arts ; she " discharges many im- 
 portant duties besides those of her immediate 
 vocation, and supplies what would otherwise be 
 a chasm in the administration of public justice." 
 
 being imputed to me that I am hostile to the establish- 
 ment in this country. You would wrong me by such an 
 imputation ; I have no unfriendly feeling towards it when 
 it does not exceed it's constitutional limits; but as an 
 Englishman, viewing with conscious exultation the proud 
 pre-eminence of my country, founded on her free institu- 
 tions ; I execrate, with unfeigned reprobation, every at- 
 tempt to trench upon the civil and political rights of the 
 meanest individual in the community, be his oppressors 
 who they may. And if a church establishment, of any 
 form of worship, in any country, requires the sacrifice of 
 the recognized rights of the subject, to uphold its power, 
 in my opinion it cannot fall too soon. A Church distin- 
 guishing itself by the apostolical virtues of its leaders ; by 
 its abstractedness from earthly pursuits, and preaching 
 peace and Christian concord, serves well the cause of good 
 government, and might, not only with safety, but with 
 great benefit, be closely allied to it. But establishments, 
 like most other things, must stand each on its own merits ; 
 they may be blessings, or they may be curses." (Letter 
 of Edward Itlount, Esq. to a Protestant Gentleman ; pub- 
 lished in the Catholic Miscellany, for February, 1828. 
 
XC111 
 
 The property of the Church in the hands of lay- 
 men, or in possession of the sectaries, neither 
 would nor could be half so advantageous to the 
 country as it is now. I have already said why we 
 have no wish to see it in our own. The sacri- 
 fice of the Church Establishment is, therefore, a 
 sacrifice which we neither desire as Christians, 
 nor as members of the State. (A) While in all this 
 I deliver only the sentiments of an individual, at 
 
 W There is certainly some difference in the relative 
 connection between the Church and the State, in Catholic 
 and in Protestant England. In Catholic times, the 
 Church was invariably the opposer of the encroachments 
 of the crown, and, in many cases, the able and effectual 
 supporter of the liberties of the people ; whereas, the sys- 
 tem of translating from one Bishopric to another, (a sys- 
 tem which exists in no other Christian state) and which 
 has been subsequently introduced, has entirely altered 
 the character of the Episcopacy ; by destroying its inde- 
 pendance, and by depriving it of the power of throwing 
 its weight where it might be serviceable to the interests 
 of the country. But this is an abuse, which, great as it 
 is, the crown has always the power to remedy. It is the 
 Minister and not the Church, who is the greater delin- 
 quent ; and we must hope to see the day when England 
 shall possess a premier, virtuous enough to overturn this 
 system, which marks her prelacy as a dependant class, 
 and which certainly is not calculated, either to promote 
 dignity in the hierarchy, or respect towards it in the 
 people. 
 
XC1V 
 
 the same time I believe that I speak those of the 
 body to which I belong ; at any rate I am sure 
 that what I have said, I have said in the sincerity 
 of my heart. 
 
 I have one word to offer upon a circumstance 
 which is frequently advanced as a mark of the 
 liberality of the times, and as a proof that the Ques- 
 tion of Catholic Emancipation is now permitted to 
 stand upon its own merits, and to be decided by 
 the unbiassed judgment of the public. I mean the 
 neutrality of the Cabinet; which has long been a 
 mere delusion, sounding plausible in theory, but 
 being absolutely contradicted in practice ; since 
 THE WHOLE of the Church patronage has ever been 
 showered down solely upon the professors of as- 
 cendancy principles. For it cannot be supposed 
 that it has all fallen by accident on those only, 
 who see imminent danger to the establishment in 
 equalizing the distribution of civil rights through- 
 out the country, and of satisfying all classes of the 
 people, that they have no longer any thing to fear 
 from ecclesiastical tyranny. We know and for 
 the honour of the establishment be it said that 
 individuals do exist in this kingdom in sufficient 
 numbers, of irreproachable conduct, and of com- 
 petent learning to fit them for the most elevated 
 
xcv 
 
 order of the hierarchy, and yet believing that 
 emancipation from civil thraldom would neither 
 make Catholics nor dissenters more dangerous to 
 the revenues of the Established Church ; nay, who 
 think that a generosity of conduct on her part, 
 would altogether overcome the hostility of both. 
 Is it therefore probable, that, while the existence 
 of such men is known to all others, the first 
 Lord of the Treasury alone should never be able 
 to discover them ? But, till he does accidentally 
 light upon them, or rather, till every vacant see 
 be filled with a liberal candidate until the epis- 
 copal bench be equally divided in opinion upon 
 the question of emancipation, there can be no 
 virtual neutrality in the Cabinet. It is mere 
 mockery to talk of the hopes of emancipation 
 from the neutral qualities of the ministry, while 
 we see every particle of Church patronage thrown 
 with force into the scale against us, and while 
 bigotry is still the chief climbing ladder to pre- 
 ferment ; for it is now self-evident, that the 
 Bishops, and the Bishops alone, are the bar to 
 our success. We are confident it will soon ap- 
 pear that we have the House of Commons 
 with us ; we have a decided majority amongst 
 the Irish members; we should even triumph in 
 the Lords, if the bishops would but give us 
 their six-and-twenty votes. We only ask them 
 to repay in kind what twenty-six Catholic peers 
 
XCV1 
 
 so freely gave them, in 1661. They have en- 
 joyed the fruits of this liberality for upwards 
 of 150 years, without making any acknowledg- 
 ment in return ; and the repayment now, in- 
 stead of costing them any thing, would be a gain 
 to them, as well as to us. It would assure them 
 a firm and lasting support, founded on the solid 
 basis of reciprocal generosity. As it is, they pro- 
 voke us to hostility, not only by a violent and 
 ungenerous opposition as spiritual peers, but as 
 spiritual pastors, by deserting their duty to their 
 own people, to attend to us, who belong not to 
 them; they abandon their flocks to the wolf, 
 while they go in pursuit of an imaginary foe ; they 
 put on the helmet instead of the mitre seize the 
 lance in lieu of the crozier and the pulpit, which 
 ought to breathe peace and charity, resounds with 
 the angry notes of war and slander. 
 
 Would it not much better accord with the voca- 
 tions of their ministry, to strive more earnestly 
 against that torrent of crime and immorality which 
 is gaining so rapidly upon the country, than to 
 waste their energies, as they do now, in a mad 
 crusade against Catholics? It is a notorious fact, 
 that the hostility of that portion of the people who 
 are opposed to us, is to be ascribed almost entirely 
 to the influence of the clergy; the apathy of those 
 who are indifferent, proceeds from ignorance of Irish 
 and of Catholic affairs ; while we have good reason 
 
xcvn 
 
 to hope that the great body of educated men are 
 favourably inclined to emancipation, from policy 
 as well as principle : and it is much more to the 
 extension of this feeling that we must ultimately 
 look for success, than to any pretended neutrality 
 of the cabinet. 
 
 THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON THE ADVO- 
 CATE OF EMANCIPATION. 
 
 After many anxious vicissitudes of hope and fear, 
 after passing through a trying variety of tempera- 
 ture the political horizon appeared to have settled, 
 in almost unclouded sunshine upon the Catholics 
 of the empire ; when, to our dismay and horror, 
 it is now again suddenly darkening around us. 
 We cannot but fear that the appointment of the 
 Duke of Wellington as premier, is a fatal omen to 
 our cause : for hitherto he has but too often ranked 
 amongst the most signal of our opposers. If the 
 Duke of Wellington be the bigot which many 
 imagine, our fate is sealed as long as his counsels 
 prevail. But we are willing to hope against hope ; 
 to anticipate the strength of argument, and the 
 influence of wisdom and expediency ; and to expect 
 that the new circumstances in which the destinies 
 of the empire are again placed in his hands, will 
 
 g 
 
XCV111 
 
 elevate his mind to the level of those beneficent 
 and liberal ideas, by which the affairs of a great 
 nation ought alone to be guided. 
 
 When the Duke of Wellington looks back to 
 the brilliant scenes of his eventful life, he will see 
 that the time was, when he thought it no dishonour 
 to hold command under Catholic sovereigns, to 
 receive the rewards of his services from them, and 
 even to place himself, on very many occasions,, 
 under singular obligations to those whom he has 
 since declared to be unworthy of their hire. Were 
 it not for his Catholic soldiers, the Duke of 
 Wellington had never gathered one solitary lau- 
 rel for all the laurels which he wears have 
 sprung from their valour, and have been wa- 
 tered by their blood ; but for the confidence re- 
 posed in him by Catholic governments, he had 
 never been carried forward in his career ; but for 
 the honours heaped upon him by Catholic mon- 
 archs, his breast had never blazed with half that 
 brilliancy which beams upon it now ; and many of 
 those high-sounding titles which so loudly proclaim 
 his glory to the world, would have been mute. 
 
 If justice, gratitude, and wisdom still dwell upon 
 the earth, we trust that the day will soon arrive 
 when the Duke of Wellington, from the elevated 
 station which he now holds, a station far more 
 enviable than that of the commander of the proudest 
 army in Europe, will stand forth to remove that 
 
XC1X 
 
 blemish from his political life, of having hitherto 
 left unrequited the services which his Catholic 
 troops have so eminently rendered him. And I 
 think we are justified in this expectation, by the 
 noble sentiments which his Grace, not many months 
 ago, expressed in parliament upon the subject. 
 The Duke of Wellington still holds the situation 
 under the crown w which he is reported to have 
 said to be " so consonant to his feelings, liking it, 
 as he did, from the opportunities which it gave him 
 to improve the condition of his old comrades in 
 arms .... which enabled him to recommend to the 
 notice of his majesty all his former friends and 
 companions, and to reward them, according to 
 their merits, for the exertions which they had 
 formerly made, under his command, in the field." (e) 
 
 <*) This was written when the Duke of Wellington was 
 both commander-in-chief and first lord of the treasury. 
 
 W The following public testimony which history has 
 transmitted to us, of the Duke of Wellington's opinions 
 on the propriety and justice of" cementing a general 
 union of sentiment among all classes and descriptions of 
 his Majesty's subjects, in support of the established Con- 
 stitution," ought certainly to inspire us with the con- 
 fident expectation, that the same unsdom and liberality, 
 which distinguished his views of Irish Politics, thirty- 
 five years ago, will likewise constitute the characteristics 
 of his grace's administration of similar affairs now. 
 
 On the 16th of January, 1793, the House of Commons 
 
Now, all that we ask is, that the Duke, as a just, 
 a grateful, and an honourable man, will redeem this 
 pledge. How would it not brighten all his fame, 
 
 being met, a message was brought from his Excellency 
 the Lord Lieutenant, which contains the following pas- 
 sage : " I have it in particular command from his Ma- 
 jesty, to recommend it to you, to apply yourselves to the 
 consideration of such measures as may be most likely to 
 strengthen and cement a general union of sentiment 
 among all classes and descriptions of his Majesty's sub- 
 jects, in support of the established constitution ; with this 
 view, his Majesty trusts, that the situation of his Majesty's 
 Catholic subjects will engage your serious attention, and 
 in the consideration of this subject, he relies on the wis- 
 dom and liberality of his Parliament." After this mes- 
 sage had been read, an address, which was an echo of 
 the sentiments contained in the recommendation from the 
 throne, was agreed to. The speech of the Hon. Gentle- 
 man who seconded the address, [now Duke of Welling- 
 ton,] is in page five of the 13th volume of the Irish Par- 
 liamentary debates, and is thus reported : " In regard to 
 what has been recommended in the speech from the 
 throne, respecting our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, 
 he could not repress his approbation on that head : he 
 had no doubt of the loyalty of the Catholics of this coun- 
 try, and he trusted that when the question should be 
 brought forward, respecting that description of men, that 
 they would lay aside all animosities, and act with moder- 
 ation and dignity, and not with the fury and violence of 
 partisans." ( See Mr. Shields speech, at the late aggregate 
 meeting of the Catholics of Ireland. ) 
 
Cl 
 
 and crown all his honours, thus to address the 
 House, (upon the first occasion of a debate on the 
 question of Catholic emancipation) as the champion 
 of that ill-fated land, for whose welfare, equally 
 with that of every other portion of the empire, 
 his sovereign has now placed the reins of state 
 in his hands : a land which, while it gave him birth, 
 has also the merit of having been the fostering 
 parent of those companions in arms of whose ser- 
 vices he speaks so feelingly, and for whose reward 
 he is so impatient. 
 
 My Lords ; in presenting myself to your lord- 
 ships, as the advocate of the measure now pro- 
 posed to your consideration ; I am only indulging 
 in the pleasing task of discharging a debt of gra- 
 titude, which has long weighed heavy upon me ; 
 for, independently of the indisputable policy of 
 uniting all classes of his Majesty's subjects, in a 
 common participation of the blessings of the con- 
 stitution, and for other reasons, which I leave 
 to be argued by other noble lords; I owe too 
 much as an individual to the Catholics of this 
 empire, and to those of several foreign states, 
 not to avail myself with eagerness, of every 
 opportunity of advocating these claims, as a 
 measure of justice to the one, and as a grate- 
 ful return of enlightened liberality towards the 
 other. It is already well known to your lordships, 
 that amongst the troops which our Gracious So- 
 
Cll 
 
 vereign did me the honour to entrust to my com- 
 mand, at various periods during the war ; a war 
 undertaken expressly for the purpose of securing 
 the happy institutions and independance of the 
 country ; that at least one half were Roman Ca- 
 tholics. My lords, when I call your recollection 
 to this fact, I am sure all further eulogy is un- 
 necessary. Your lordships are well aware for what 
 length of period, and under what difficult circum- 
 stances, they maintained the empire buoyant upon 
 the flood which overwhelmed the thrones, and 
 wrecked the institutions of every other people : 
 how they kept alive the only spark of freedom which 
 was left unextinguished in Europe ; and how, by 
 unprecedented efforts, they at length placed us, 
 not only far above danger, but at an elevation of 
 prosperity for which we had hardly dared to hope. 
 These, my lords, are sacred and imperative titles 
 to a nation's gratitude. My lords, it is become 
 quite needless for me to assure you that I have 
 invariably found my Roman Catholic soldiers as 
 patient under privations, as eager for the combat, 
 and as brave and determined in the field, as any 
 other portion of his majesty's troops; and in point 
 of loyalty and devotion to their king and country, 
 I am quite certain they have never been surpassed. 
 I claim no merit in admitting that others might 
 have guided the storm of battle as skilfully as my- 
 self. We have only to recur to the annals of our 
 
cm 
 
 military achievements to be convinced, that few 
 indeed of our commanders have not known how to 
 direct the unconquerable spirit of their troops, and 
 to shed fresh glories round the British name. 
 But, my lords, while we are free to acknowledge 
 this, we must also confess, that without Catholic 
 blood and Catholic valour, no victory could ever 
 have been obtained ; and the first military talents 
 in Europe might have been exerted in vain, at the 
 head of half an army. My lords, if on the eve of 
 any of those hard-fought days on which I have had 
 the honour to command them, I had thus addressed 
 my Roman Catholic troops : " You well know that 
 your country either so suspects your loyalty, or so 
 dislikes your religion, that she has not yet thought 
 proper to admit you amongst the ranks of her free 
 citizens ; if, on that account, you deem it an act 
 of injustice on her part to require you to shed your 
 blood in her defence, you are at liberty to with- 
 draw :" I am quite sure, my lords, that however 
 bitter the recollections which it awakened, they 
 would have spurned the alternative with indigna- 
 tion ; for the hour of danger and of glory, is the hour 
 in which the gallant, the generous-hearted Irish- 
 man, best knows his duty, and is most determined 
 to perform it. But if, my lords, it had been other- 
 wise ; if they had chosen to desert the cause in 
 which they were embarked ; though the remainder 
 of the troops would undoubtedly have maintained 
 
CIV 
 
 the honour of the British arms ; yet, as I have just 
 said, no efforts of their's could ever have crowned 
 us with victory. Yes, my lords, it is mainly to the 
 Irish Catholic that we all owe our proud pre-emi- 
 nence in our military career ; and that I, personally, 
 am indebted for the laurels with which you have 
 been pleased to decorate my brow for the honours 
 which you have so bountifully lavished on me 
 and for the fair fame (I prize it above all other 
 rewards) which my country, in its generous kind- 
 ness, has bestowed upon me. I cannot but feel, 
 my lords, that you yourselves have been chiefly 
 instrumental in placing this heavy debt of grati- 
 tude upon me, greater, perhaps, than has ever fallen 
 to the lot of any individual; and however flatter- 
 ing the circumstance, it often places me in a very 
 painful situation. Whenever I meet (and it is al- 
 most an every-day occurrence,) with any of those 
 brave men who, in common with others, are the 
 object of this bill, and who have so often borne me 
 on the tide of victory ; when I see them still branded 
 with the imputation of a divided allegiance, and 
 still declared unfit to enter within the pale of the 
 constitution, I feel almost ashamed of the honours 
 which have been lavished upon me : I feel that 
 though the merit was their's, what was so freely 
 given to me, was unjustly denied to them ; that 
 /had reaped, though they had sown; that they had 
 borne the heat and burden of the day, but that the 
 
cv 
 
 wages and repose were mine alone. My lords, it 
 is indeed to me a subject of deep regret, that of 
 the many brave officers of the Roman Catholic 
 persuasion, some of whom I have had occasion 
 to bring to the notice of the country, in relat- 
 ing the honourable services they have performed, 
 not one has risen to any eminence in his profes- 
 sion. It is not to be supposed, that either ta- 
 lent or merit is the exclusive privilege of Pro- 
 testantism: attached as I am to the Reformed 
 Church, I cannot give her that monopoly. No 
 man, my lords, has had more experience to the 
 contrary than myself. Entrusted with the com- 
 mand of two Catholic armies, I soon found that, 
 with similar advantages, they were quite equal to 
 our own. The same hatred of tyranny, the same 
 love of liberty, the same unconquerable spirit, per- 
 vaded both the soldier and the peasant of those 
 two Catholic states. I even found amongst them 
 Irishmen, whom the intolerance of our laws had 
 driven to shed the lustre of their talents over a 
 foreign clime. 
 
 It now becomes me, my lords, to speak of the 
 liberality which I experienced from their hands. 
 Notwithstanding that I dissented from the religion 
 of the state, it was never made a preliminary that 
 I should abjure my own creed, and conform to 
 another ; (and why should I demand this sacrifice 
 from those who are now only petitioning your lord- 
 
 h 
 
CV1 
 
 ships for similar opportunities of serving their coun- 
 try ?) neither my known denial of the doctrines 
 of Transubstantiation, and of the supremacy of the 
 Pope, presented the smallest obstacle to my ad- 
 vancement; neither my merit nor my capacity 
 were weighed in the scale of speculative belief in 
 religious tenets : it was my country, and not my 
 faith, that was my title to approval: I was an 
 accredited delegate from the British empire, and 
 that was sufficient. I was entrusted with the su- 
 preme command of all their forces ; I was admitted 
 to their councils ; I was called upon for my opinion 
 in the senate ; and for the services which I was 
 fortunately enabled to render them, nothing could 
 exceed the prodigality of the reward. The highest 
 honours, the most munificent donations, and per- 
 haps the most splendid presents that ever were 
 bestowed upon a subject, were all showered down 
 upon me, with the most generous profusion. Every 
 succeeding service was met with a fresh eagerness 
 of reward ; and, in countries super-eminently Ca- 
 tholic, I was loaded with benefits only equalled by 
 those bestowed upon me by our own Protestant 
 legislature. Indeed, there was not a Catholic state 
 in Europe which was not emulous to overpower 
 me with honourable distinctions, and to place me 
 under an imperative obligation to it. I feel it, 
 therefore, my lords, tobe an act of the purest justice, 
 on the one side, and of only reciprocal liberality, 
 
CV11 
 
 on the other, to lend my most fervent and cordial 
 support to the measure now before you, to 
 open, to my Catholic fellow-countrymen, the same 
 road to preferment along which / have been so 
 generously borne ; and to display to continental 
 Europe our determination to follow the example 
 she has set us, by putting an end to the reign of 
 bigotry and exclusion for ever. My lords, it is a 
 great additional gratification to me, to advocate 
 these principles, in conjunction with a distinguished 
 member of my family, so lately at the head of the 
 government of his native country; a country ever 
 dear to me from the recollections of my infancy, 
 the memory of her wrongs, and the bravery of 
 her people. I glory, my lords, in the name of 
 Ireland, and it is the highest pleasure I can ambi- 
 tion, to be thus united with the rest of my kindred, 
 in the grateful task of closing the wounds which 
 seven centuries of misgovernment have inflicted 
 upon that unfortunate land. 
 
REASONS, 
 
 As those parts of the Oaths and Declarations re- 
 quired of members of Parliament, which touch upon 
 controverted points of Religion, form the basis of 
 this discussion, I will begin with the tenets recited 
 therein, taking them in the order in which they 
 are there introduced. 
 
 The Oaths and Declarations to which we object, 
 are as follows : 
 
 "And I do declare, That no Foreign Prince, 
 Person, Prelate, State, or Potentate, hath, or ought 
 to have, any Jurisdiction, Power, Superiority, Pre- 
 eminence, or Authority, Ecclesiastical or Spiritual, 
 Within this Realm." 
 
 THE TEST DECLARATION. 
 
 " I, A. B. do solemnly and sincerely, in the Pre- 
 sence of God, profess, testify, and declare, That I 
 do believe, that in the Sacrament of the Lord's 
 
Supper, there is not any Transubstantiation of the 
 Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and 
 Blood of Christ, at or after the Consecration 
 thereof, by any Person whatsoever ; and that the 
 Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary, or 
 any other Saint, and the Sacrifice of the Mass, as 
 they are now used in the Church of Rome, are 
 superstitious and idolatrous. And I do solemnly, 
 in the Presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, 
 That I do make this Declaration, and every Part 
 thereof, in the plain and ordinary Sense of the 
 Words read unto me, as they are commonly under- 
 stood by English Protestants." 
 
 I will observe, in passing, that we are hereby 
 called upon not only to renounce Catholicity, but 
 to swear to a belief in doctrines, in the sense in 
 which they are commonly understood by English 
 Protestants ; hence the necessity of not only 
 shewing, Why we cannot renounce our own Faith, 
 but also, Why we cannot renounce it in favour of 
 other tenets, which we are called upon to embrace 
 in its stead. 
 
 I. In the first place, therefore, I cannot either 
 conform to Protestantism, or take the Oaths in 
 question, inasmuch as both call upon me to declare 
 that no Foreign Prelate hath, or ought to have, 
 any Spiritual Jurisdiction or Pre-eminence, with- 
 in this Realm: Whereas, I do solemnly and 
 
sincerely declare, and am ready to attest it with an 
 oath, that I firmly and truly believe in the Primacy 
 of the successor of St. Peter, as regulated by the 
 usages and Canons of the Catholic Church. 
 
 The spiritual supremacy over the Christian 
 world was conferred upon St. Peter, by these 
 words of our Saviour : Thou art Peter [a rock^, 
 and upon this rock I will build my church ; and 
 the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it ; 
 and I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom 
 of Heaven : (a) and again : Feed my lambs, feed 
 my sheep. (b} There is scarcely any instance in 
 which St. Peter is mentioned in the sacred writ- 
 ings without a marked pre-eminence being shown 
 to him over the other apostles ; and consequently 
 over the church of Christ, which they then con- 
 stituted, or at least represented. This spiritual 
 superiority, (and I beg the reader to bear in mind 
 that it is only spiritual, since the kingdom of 
 Christ is not of this world (c} ) consists in a right 
 of general superintendence over all orders of the 
 hierarchy ; it is an authority to see that the faith 
 which is preached, is that which was revealed by 
 the Almighty and delivered to us by his Church : 
 
 () St. Matt. xvi. 18, 19. N. B. The texts and refer- 
 ences from Scripture will he found to correspond with the 
 Douay version of the Bible. 
 
 < St. John, xxi. 16, 17. ^ St. John, xviii. 36. 
 
 2 
 
it is a commission to guard the purity of religion, 
 the morality of its pastors, and the integrity of its 
 discipline. " The visible head is for the preserva- 
 tion of a visible unity," to continue and connect 
 the chain of faith, for the discovery and condem- 
 nation of heresy, and for the due observance of 
 canonical discipline. This, and this alone, is the 
 spiritual supremacy by divine institution, and that 
 only to be exercised in the manner prescribed by 
 the acts of general councils and the canons of the 
 church. (d) To the bisliop of Rome we owe a spi- 
 ritual obedience as to the successor of St. Peter, 
 
 W On this head of the primacy of the Roman bishop, 
 the Council of Trent issued no decree ; but because in the 
 general Council of Florence, convened in 1439, in order 
 to unite the Greek and Latin churches, the point was 
 fully decided, I shall here insert the decree. 
 
 " Moreover we define, that the holy apostolic see, and 
 the Roman bishop, has the primacy over all the earth ; 
 and that he is the successor of the blessed Peter, the prince 
 of the apostles, the true vicar of Christ, the head of the 
 whole church, and the father and teacher of all Christians ; 
 and that to him, in the person of the blessed Peter, was 
 committed by our Lord Jesus Christ, the full power of 
 feeding, directing, and governing the universal church, 
 in such manner as it is contained in the acts of general 
 councils, and in the holy canons."* Definitio S. CEcumen. 
 Synod. Florent. Cone. Gen. T. xiii. p. 515. 
 
 * KaO' oV TpOTrov KCLI Iv TOIQ TrpaKrtKoiQ ruv oi/cyuvt*cwv owoeW, 
 Kai kv rote tepoie Kavoai 
 
not an allegiance as to a temporal sovereign ; and 
 that spiritual obedience is limited to the points 
 just mentioned. Our temporal obedience to ma- 
 gistrates and rulers is commanded and regulated 
 by the same authority (e) which imposes a spiritual 
 obedience to spiritual superiors ; to both we owe 
 a like submission, but both are separate and inde- 
 pendent of each other. (/) As the church was built 
 to endure for ever, even to the consummation of 
 the world^ so, unquestionably, the government 
 which Christ appointed for it, was to be co-existent 
 with it. A supreme head, a centre of unity, is 
 indeed much more necessary now to preserve one 
 faith and one baptism, (h} in the midst of heresy and 
 
 (<?) " Let every soul be subject to higher powers, for there 
 is no power hut from God :....and they that resist, purchase 
 to themselves damnation." Rom. xiii. 1, 2. " Be ye sub- 
 ject to every human creature for God's sake ; whether it 
 be to the king as excelling, or to governors as sent by 
 him." 1 Peter ii. 13, 14. " Render to Caesar the things that 
 are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" St. 
 Matf.xxii. 21. 
 
 So strongly is the duty of civil obedience enjoined hy 
 the law of God, and by the same law which commands 
 our spiritual obedience to the church : " He that will not 
 hear the church, let him be to thee as a heathen and a 
 publican" St. Matt, xviii. 17. 
 
 (f] See Appendix, No. II. for some excellent observa- 
 tions on the Spiritual Supremacy. 
 
 fo> St. Matt, xxviii. 20. 
 
 (A > Ephes. iv. 5. 
 
6 
 
 schism, than when the world was filled with in- 
 spired teachers in the persons of the apostles. It 
 is the exercise of this supreme spiritual authority, 
 which has handed down to us both the faith and 
 morality of these disciples of our Saviour, pure 
 and untainted through a course of more than 
 1,800 years ; and it is the want of this power, 
 lawfully obtained and authoritatively administered, 
 that has produced all those mad and foolish here- 
 sies, the prolific growth of protestantism, which, 
 like so many poisonous plants, have banished al- 
 most every wholesome fruit from those portions 
 of the garden of Christianity in which they have 
 established themselves. There is no blasphemy 
 however wicked, no immorality however mon- 
 strous, but, at some period or in some country, 
 has formed part of the faith and practice of sec- 
 tarianism. Into such absurd impieties has the 
 reasoning pride of man beguiled him ! 
 
 But to confine our remarks to the Church of Eng- 
 land. So necessary did her founders and her pa- 
 trons consider a spiritual supremacy in their 
 church " to support the unity of faith and the in- 
 tegrity of Christian discipline," (i) that they estab- 
 lished it in the person of the sovereign. But so 
 strange an anomaly as spiritual jurisdiction in a 
 layman, a child, or a woman, and that too usurped 
 
 (t) Preamble of several Acts of Parliament. See " Ser- 
 mons after Pentecost" with illustrations, Vol. i. pp. 140. fyc. 
 
from those to whom it had been formally entrusted 
 by the divine authority, could never answer the 
 purpose of repressing error and reforming abuses. 
 Unlawful authority seldom enforces submission. 
 From the moment that the monarch forcibly 
 wrested this power from the successor of St. Peter, 
 and placed it in his own rapacious hands ; from 
 that moment all unity disappeared. The chiefs of 
 the state, entangled as they generally are, with the 
 cares, the riches, and the pleasures of this life, (k} had 
 the weakness to acquiesce in so glaring and mon- 
 strous an usurpation, and the whole nation became, 
 like the great multitude mentioned in the Scriptures, 
 as sheep not having a shepherd.^ Each individual 
 ranged at large in the fields of speculative belief 
 he spurned at the ridiculous assumption of spiritual 
 pre-eminence by a civil magistrate, and instead of 
 obeying his mandates, each one, in imitation of 
 the monarch, took the same authority upon himself, 
 and thereafter placed the foundations of his faith 
 upon the tottering basis of private interpretation. 
 The evils which followed have been thus forcibly 
 described by a learned and eloquent pastor of the 
 Catholic Church : 
 
 " Spite of royal mandates, of royal canons, and 
 royal censures, error in every varied, versatile, and 
 frightful form, continued to erect new temples ; and 
 
 <*> St. Luke, viii. 14. & St. Mark, vi. 34. 
 
8 
 
 the nation presented to the astonished world a scene 
 of folly, bigotry, and superstition, striking and 
 preposterous, as any that curiosity can trace in 
 the lengthened annals of fanaticism. Such were 
 the consequences of pretending to enforce unity 
 of belief by means which Revelation has not sanc- 
 tioned." (Sermons after Pentecost, p. 14*2.) 
 
 Such were the miserable effects of the usurpa- 
 tion of unlawful power, and of rebellion to just 
 authority. The almost universal conflict of reli- 
 gious opinions, and the swarm of meeting-houses 
 of every description which still continue to spring 
 up around us, will enable us to judge whether time 
 has diminished the fruits of such a system. 
 
 But, fully satisfied of my utter inability to offer 
 any thing in illustration of this doctrine of the 
 spiritual supremacy, a doctrine so important in 
 itself, and against which the Test is so pointedly 
 directed, at all equal to the following eloquent 
 and spirited argument of the titular Bishop of 
 Kildare and Leighlin : I will insert the observations 
 of that talented and learned Prelate, without fur- 
 ther comment. 
 
 " But where," says he, " there is question of the 
 promise of the keys to Peter, and of the command 
 given to him to feed the lambs, the sheep, the 
 whole flock of God, then antiquity, like a torrent, 
 sweeps away all opposition, every obstacle which a 
 perverse sophistry would at any period, oppose to 
 
9 
 
 the supremacy of this Apostle. All the Fathers, for 
 I know of no exception, consider him as repre- 
 senting the whole Church, and receiving from 
 Christ, in his own single person, the keys or power 
 of its government, to be exercised by himself and 
 by his brethren with due subordination to him as 
 chief or head." 
 
 Here the writer introduces his authorities ; for which I 
 must refer the reader to the work itself, asfthey are too 
 numerous for insertion here. He then proceeds : 
 
 " But why is this venerable host of primitive 
 pastors and doctors drawn forth in order to prove 
 the primacy or supremacy of Peter? Why, be- 
 cause for my purpose, it is necessary to bring 
 back the minds of readers to the primitive form 
 of the Church, and to the ground-work of Christ- 
 ianity, which in these times of religious intem- 
 perance and fanaticism, seem to be entirely over- 
 looked. Political economy, or the art of founding 
 joint-stock companies, are scarcely the subjects 
 at present of less rational speculation than the Tes- 
 tament or religion of Jesus Christ. One creates a 
 company for the conversion of the Jews, another 
 for enlightening the Hindoos, a third under- 
 takes to instruct the Blacks who border on the 
 Cape, a fourth will emancipate from spiritual 
 despotism the Slaves in Barbadoes, or the more 
 miserable Irish ; one proclaims the necessity of 
 Prelates, and boasts of the beauty of his liturgy ; 
 
10 
 
 a second says, liturgies embarrass the spirit in its 
 flight, and why should those made free by Christ 
 be subjected to the rule of Bishops ? One system 
 of religion is suited to the wealthy and the proud, 
 having order, pomp, and ceremony ; the other, 
 coarse, irregular, and loud, fitted to the peasant 
 or mechanic. The word of God, the Bible, is on 
 the lips of all ; the right and power of private 
 judgment are unreasonably extolled the sacra- 
 ments are neglected the ministry superseded 
 and whilst fanaticism thus burns on the surface, 
 immorality weighs upon the heart, whilst infidelity, 
 secretly and silently advancing, prepares to erect 
 it's standard on the ruins which this fanaticism 
 will have made. If men do not return to first 
 principles, and arrest their minds in their present 
 course ; if they do not review the Christian reli- 
 gion, not as presented in the passing declamations 
 of the day, but as it was originally established by 
 the Spirit of God, no gift of prophecy is required 
 to foresee how lamentable are the results which 
 press upon us. To bring back the public atten- 
 tion, then, to the consideration of the leading 
 maxims of the primitive Church, is deserving at 
 least of an effort, but besides this motive, it was 
 necessary for my special purpose to show how 
 unity (so essential to the kingdom of Christ,) was 
 preserved in the immense society of true be- 
 lievers. 
 
11 
 
 " It was with this view principally that I en- 
 deavoured to demonstrate that a primacy was 
 given to St. Peter a prerogative which vested 
 him with power as extensive as the Church, and 
 which might, and ought when necessary, be exer- 
 cised over every sheep within the fold of Christ, 
 of whatever rank or order. 
 
 " The language of the Redeemer, as quoted by 
 me, from the 16th chapter of his gospel according 
 to St. Matthew, shows of itself that the authority 
 given to Peter was to last as long as the Church, 
 for if he were made the foundation of it after 
 Christ, the rock on which it was built, it is per- 
 fectly obvious that as long as the superstructure 
 lasted, the foundation could not be removed ; in 
 other words, that as long as a Church was to re- 
 main on earth, the authority given to Peter should 
 continue to it that so long as the kingdom of 
 heaven or city of God, continued in this world, 
 so long should some person be vested with the 
 keys of government that as long as there would 
 be a fold of sheep and lambs, so long there should 
 be a pastor to feed them in the place of Peter in 
 fine, that as long as the faithful were to be one 
 body, saying the same thing, and not having divi- 
 sions among them, so long there should be some 
 person vested with power to enforce obedience 
 to collect the sentiments of the body to publish 
 its acts to institute or sanction its officers to 
 
12 
 
 preach and cause to be preached the doctrines of 
 Christ to dispense and cause to be dispensed the 
 mysteries of God, that so the people might obey 
 their prelates and be subject to them, that the 
 prelates might not lord it over the people, but be 
 made patterns to them from the heart ; in fine, 
 that all might have one faith, and not be tossed 
 about by every wind of doctrine, but be kept 
 united in that common charity which is the great 
 source, as it is the bond, of perfection. 
 
 " But this consequence, however plain and ne- 
 cessary however spontaneously flowing from the 
 very source of Christianity, yet it has been con- 
 tradicted, and seldom more violently, or at least 
 less temperately, than at the present day. The 
 furious men who now agitate this country, seem 
 to know that the sword and the law could not have 
 been drawn, or, if drawn, could not have been 
 wielded with such deadly effect against the holy 
 and ancient religion of these islands, if that reli- 
 gion had not first been decried, abused, and ma- 
 ligned, until it appeared to the multitude a very 
 moral monster. 'From the sole of its foot,' like 
 its founder, ' to the top of its head, there was no 
 soundness in it' ; it was buffetted, abused, spit 
 upon ; it was covered with a mantle of derision ; 
 it was scourged, and drenched with vinegar and 
 gall : the waters of affliction entered into its very 
 soul, and it was, when thus disfigured by a cla- 
 
13 
 
 morons rabble, and seemingly abandoned by God, 
 that the bigots and the fanatic cried out to the 
 agents of the law and the sword, ' away with it, 
 away with it.' 
 
 " But as there was no tenet of this religion more 
 opposed to the machinations of those furious and 
 designing men, nor again, no tenet more strongly 
 supported by argument, by the practice of the 
 Church, and an undisputed possession of fifteen 
 hundred years, than that of the supremacy of the 
 successor of St. Peter, so there was no tenet against 
 which their sophistry, their misrepresentations, 
 their violence, their rancour and persecution were 
 so unceasingly directed. To such extremities did 
 these men proceed, as not only to confound the 
 power claimed by some few popes of Rome over 
 the temporal interests or rights of kings and king- 
 doms, with the spiritual jurisdiction of St. Peter's 
 successor, but, in addition to this misrepresenta- 
 tion, they actually designated not one or other, but 
 a whole series of those successors, as Antichrists, 
 and excited the deluded multitude to hate them 
 and curse them as the capital enemies of our Lord 
 and Saviour. Yes, the very men who maintained 
 from the beginning, and r still maintain, against an 
 infidel or Arian world the divinity of the Son of 
 God ; the very men who designate themselves as 
 the last of his servants, and who, without any doubt, 
 have caused his name to be published and adored 
 
u 
 
 throughout nearly the whole Christian world, these 
 men who never ask any thing of the Father except 
 through the Son, and identify him in their daily 
 prayer with the King of Ages, the immortal and 
 invisible God, to whom alone are due and given 
 all honor and glory, these very men have been 
 called, by the ferocious leaders of the revolt, ' An- 
 tichrists'!! and the Church in which they have 
 always presided, and whose faith was from the 
 beginning, and still is spoken of throughout the 
 entire world, this Church they called e Babylon/ 
 and the ( great apostacy,' with all manner of op- 
 probrious and insulting names. 
 
 " To the present day, this warfare of calumny is 
 continued for the same purposes, and by the ge- 
 nuine successors of the wicked men who first com- 
 menced it ; hence it necessarily enters into the 
 design of these observations that I endeavour, not 
 to dissipate the cloud of calumny which still pre- 
 vails, (a task to which I confess my incompetency), 
 but to prove, in addition to the argument adduced 
 by me, that the supremacy given to Peter has 
 passed to his successors, the bishop, for the time 
 being, of the See of Rome. 
 
 " This is a truth, like many others, connected 
 with a matter of fact, and a fact which, as it com- 
 menced with the demise of Peter, cannot be found 
 recorded in the Holy Scriptures ; but it is, at the 
 same time, as we have seen above, a truth flowing 
 
15 
 
 necessarily from the institution by Christ, of the 
 primacy in the person of that apostle ; and all an- 
 tiquity, as it attests the existence of that primacy 
 in Peter, so it attests the transmission of it to his 
 successors in the See of Rome. 
 
 " The law of nature sanctions a presumption in 
 favour of him who has the peaceable possession of 
 any thing, and he is supposed to have acquired it 
 justly, until his title to it is disproved. The bur- 
 den of proof lies on him who questions the right 
 of possession, and not upon him who holds it ; but 
 when we Catholics call for this proof against the 
 title of Peter's successor to the spiritual supremacy 
 which he enjoys, we are replied to by loud decla- 
 mation, by angry invective, or by visionary specu- 
 lations on the Apocalypse. If we refer to histo- 
 rical records to show not only the possession, but 
 also the exercise of this supremacy in every age 
 from the apostolic times, we are told that Mosheim 
 (the faithless Hume of the Protestant Churches,) 
 says, that the early churches, like the Greek re- 
 publics, were all independent one of the other, 
 and their councils like the amphyctionic assem- 
 blies. To refute this folly we refer to Eusebius, 
 to Fleury, to Natalis Alexander ; we present the 
 long and accurate catalogue of cases compiled by 
 Cardinal Perron for the information of King James 
 the First, to show that no Church was ever inde- 
 pendent of the head of the episcopacy that he 
 
16 
 
 exercised in every quarter of the known world a 
 jurisdiction commensurate with the exigency of 
 the case which required it. We exhibit the appeals 
 made to him from each of the three great patri- 
 archates, as well as from all parts of his own in the 
 West, and refer to the decisions pronounced by 
 him we mention the names and the sees of the 
 bishops whom he acquitted or deposed the nature 
 of the discipline which he sanctioned or reproved 
 the errors and heresies which he condemned. 
 We refer to the councils in which he presided 
 either in person or by his delegates, from the time 
 when councils were first held ; we produce copies 
 of his instructions to his legates, whether proceed- 
 ing to the East or to the West ; his confirmation 
 or rejection of the whole or of a part of their pro- 
 ceedings ; his spiritual pre-eminence asserted by 
 him, and for him, and admitted with acclamation 
 by all the orthodox, whether in council or dis- 
 persed, and never disputed unless by the wicked, 
 the refractory, and the rebellious the successors 
 of Core, of Dathan, of Jannes and Mambre. We 
 appeal to argument and common sense ; but the 
 spirit of the great revolt from the just authority 
 established by Christ in his Church, answers to 
 us, saying; " Obedience, that great virtue by which 
 all were justified by one, is no more to be prac- 
 tised ; there are no longer judges in the Church, 
 every believer is to judge for himself; he who 
 
17 
 
 separates himself no longer, sins by so doing ; the 
 man who chooses for himself, setting at nought 
 the judgment of those appointed to teach all na- 
 tions and rule the Church, is no longer condemned 
 by his own judgment ; no man is obliged to hear 
 the Church, as if Christ spoke through her ; every 
 old man and silly woman is now competent to de- 
 cide on all controversies ; a man may think on 
 religion as he pleases, and speak as he thinks, nor 
 is there any one entitled to reprove him and cast 
 him out among the heathens. The day of gospel 
 liberty is at length arrived, we have been freed, 
 not from the yoke of Jewish observances, which 
 neither we nor our fathers could bear, and made 
 the children of God, under the dominion of Christ 
 and of his heavenly grace, but we have been freed 
 from all restraint upon our will or passions, upon 
 our reason or fancy, and totally exempted from all 
 obedience to those pastors who were formerly ap- 
 pointed to watch, so as if to give to God an account 
 of our souls. We want no teacher, for the unc- 
 tion of God teaches us all things, even the most 
 contradictory, illusive, and impious ; we may now 
 without danger be tossed about by every wind of 
 doctrine ; no unity of belief is required of us ; we 
 need not worship at the same altar, nor partake 
 of the same sacraments, nor hear the voice of the 
 same pastor ; the body of Christ has undergone a 
 thorough reformation ; it is now a mass of hete- 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 rogeneous, discordant, and conflicting members, 
 the head and the foot and the hand each goes its 
 own way, and performs its own function indepen- 
 dent of the other ; in a word, there has been a 
 great and entire revolt from the mutual depen- 
 dance, the well regulated obedience, the singleness 
 of faith, the uniformity of discipline, the brother- 
 hood of charity which was originally established 
 and prevailed. Formerly, the believers had but 
 one heart and one mind, now no two of them are 
 of the same mind; formerly all said the same 
 thing, nor were there any schisms among them, 
 now no two persons say the same thing, and 
 schisms are multiplied without end or number ; 
 formerly there was but one church, one font of 
 baptism, one altar in the town or village, now 
 there are as many churches or conventicles as 
 streets, some with, and some without an altar, 
 some having a font for baptism, others having no 
 such means of regeneration ; in this only are we 
 all agreed to condemn the faith of our fathers, 
 and to dissent from each other in all things else. 
 
 " We speak sometimes about essentials, and 
 non-essentials, but incapable of ascertaining what 
 should be designated by those terms, we say the 
 Bible, and the Bible alone is our religion (a tole- 
 rably sized one, it must be confessed), and in its 
 interpretation we seek only a justification of dis- 
 cord and the condemnation of unity. 
 
19 
 
 " But leaving this view of the subject, painful, 
 and at the same time ludicrous, if the follies of 
 Christian men could be a just subject of ridicule, 
 let us proceed with a sketch of the doctrine of an- 
 tiquity relative to the supremacy of the See of 
 Rome." 
 
 Here again follow the citations, and for which, as they 
 are copious, I must again refer the reader to the work. 
 He then continues : 
 
 "I have selected these few passages from the acts 
 of councils holden in the Eastern or Greek Church, 
 composed almost exclusively of Bishops residing 
 outside the western Patriarchate, which was still 
 more closely connected with the Pope, and more 
 faithful at all times in adhering to the apostolic 
 doctrine, and to that centre of union by which it 
 is preserved. 1 have referred to those councils, 
 because they are admitted as general and orthodox 
 by all ; because matters of the greatest moment 
 were discussed and decided in them, such as 
 dogmas of faith, and the guilt or innocence, not of 
 ordinary individuals, or Bishops, but of two great 
 patriarchs, the one of Constantinople, the other 
 of Alexandria; I have referred to them as to 
 large mirrors, in which may be clearly seen the 
 faith and discipline of that pure and primitive 
 Church, which sectaries pretend to revere ; and 
 introduced them as the depositaries of the doctrine 
 which prevailed throughout all the orthodox 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 churches of the then Christian world ; as bodies 
 of Pastors and Doctors, declaring, not by their lan- 
 guage alone, but by their conduct, on the most 
 important occasions which could occur, that the 
 Pope of Rome was the successor of Peter, and, as 
 such, the head of the whole Church, possessing the 
 right to preside in synods wheresoever held, to 
 give judgment in matters of faith, whether provi- 
 sionally or finally, and to try, punish or acquit the 
 most exalted of his colleagues. 
 
 . " I was about to cite, as in the case of Peter's 
 supremacy, the testimony of the ancient Fathers, 
 Greek and Latin, in support of the doctrine main- 
 tained at Nice, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, but I 
 find those preliminary observations have already 
 extended to a greater length than I anticipated. 
 The opinions on this subject of SS. Irenseus, 
 Dennis of Alexandria, Athanasius, Basil, Gregory, 
 Naziunzen, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, and of The- 
 odoret, all Greeks : and of the Latins, Tertullian, 
 SS. Cyprian, Ambrose, Jerome, Optatus, Augustin, 
 Fulgentius ; of Vincent of Lerins, and the others 
 up to St. Bernard inclusive, may be read, in any 
 of our books of theology ; so that, as far as human 
 testimony can add security and stability to a right 
 evidently founded on the power and wisdom, and 
 will of Christ a right essential to the preserva- 
 tion of unity in the faith and integrity in the 
 Church a right confirmed by an undisturbed, 
 how-often-soever-assailed possession of eighteen 
 
21 
 
 centuries, so far is the spiritual supremacy, and 
 no other, of the Pope eminently supported and 
 secured ; so far is the Church of Rome, the head and 
 mistress of all other churches, the depository of 
 Christian truth, the guardian of discipline, and the 
 centre of unity, to which, in the language of Ire- 
 nseus/ all the faithful, wheresoever dispersed, should 
 come in Christian harmony and with one accord/ 
 Nor can we more appropriately conclude these 
 few general observations on the nature and doc- 
 trine and discipline of the Catholic Church, whose 
 authority is so reviled by furious men, than with 
 the following striking passage, extracted from the 
 Pastoral Instructions, addressed, in 1824, by all 
 the Irish Catholic Bishops to their flocks. These 
 prelates, instructing the Catholics of Ireland, ob- 
 serve : ( but above all to protect you against these 
 men who are erring and driving into error, you 
 have the infallible testimony of the Church of God, 
 which Jesus Christ appointed the depository of his 
 doctrine, to preserve it, to explain it, to teach it, pro- 
 mising her that she would always be animated and 
 directed by the Holy Ghost, and that he himself 
 would be constantly assisting her till the 'end of 
 time ; that the gates of hell would never prevail 
 against this bulwark, which, as an Apostle says, 
 ' is the pillar and ground of the truth.' (n) The Re- 
 
 W Him. c.3. v.15. See also Matt. 16. v. 18, and John 
 14. v. 16, 17. 
 
22 
 
 deemer foresaw how great would be the incon- 
 stancy, the rashness, the pride, the rebellion of 
 the mind of man, and that many even of those who 
 would venerate the holy Scriptures, would, in 
 searching into their depths, loose the anchor of 
 faith, see vain things, and prophecy lies, saying 
 and persevering to say, ' the Lord speaketh,' when 
 as Ezekiel saith, ' the Lord had not sent them.' (0) He 
 foresaw that such men would create dissentions, 
 bring in sects and broach heresies, would oppose 
 authority, contradict the truth, fluctuate in a 
 chaos of unsettled opinions, be tossed about by 
 every wind of doctrine, condemn each other, and 
 yet all cry out, ' so saith the Lord,' ait Dominus, 
 whilst they all rejected what the Lord had said. 
 He foresaw that these sects, turbulent and li- 
 centious, known, and scarcely known, by the 
 names of their founders, would break the unity 
 of his mystic body, which is the Church, of which 
 he himself is the Head ; of that Church which has 
 but ONE FAITH, as she has but ONE SAVIOUR, ONE 
 BAPTISM, and ONE LORD ; and hence it was that he 
 vested in her an infallible authority, which, like a 
 light always shining, could dissipate the darkness 
 of error, remove every doubt, interpret faithfully 
 the Word of God, and conduct mankind into the 
 haven of truth and salvation. And where can 
 this Church be found, unless it be she which was 
 
 Ez. oh. 13. v. 6. 
 
23 
 
 I 
 
 built on the Apostles, which received from them 
 the true sense and meaning of the Scriptures, and 
 which, at her very commencement, decided the 
 disputes, and settled the doubts which arose 
 amongst the faithful, whilst the Holy Ghost dic- 
 tated her decision ; ' it hath seemed good to the 
 Holy Ghost and to us.' (/0 
 
 " Where can this Church be found, if it be not 
 she who from that time to the present, has sub- 
 sisted and been governed by an uninterrupted 
 succession of pastors ? she who was always un- 
 changeable in her faith and morality, and who, 
 like her divine Founder, was yesterday, is to-day, 
 and will be always the same, till the consumma- 
 tion of ages ; that Church, which amongst all 
 the sects which have sprung up about her, or pro- 
 ceed from her bosom, has always, as the pagan 
 Celsus testifies, been known by the name of THE 
 GREAT CHURCH ; that Church, which has con- 
 demned all other Churches, which, like withered 
 branches, were lopped off from the ancient 'and 
 living trunk, whose root is Christ ; that Church 
 which has triumphed over so many persecutions 
 excited against her by the Jews, by the Pagans, 
 by the impious, by all the enemies of her doctrine ; 
 a Church always assailed and never conquered! 
 In a word, where can this Church be found, if it 
 
 ^ Acts, ch. 15. v. 8. 
 
24 
 
 be not she which is extended throughout the en- 
 tire world, which alone is one, which alone can 
 glory in the title of CATHOLIC a title which she 
 has borne from the apostolic times, which her 
 enemies themselves concede to her, and which, if 
 arrogated by any of them, serves only to expose 
 their shame. 
 
 " In this Church, dearly beloved brethren, you 
 possess the fountain of all true knowledge, and 
 the tribunal where God himself presides. He 
 speaks to you by the mouths of all her pastors, 
 whom, w r hen you hear, you hear him. (9) Never 
 deviate from her decisions, they are the decisions 
 of the Holy Ghost, who governs her, and always 
 preserves the purity of her doctrine. Never at- 
 tend to any voice but to her's, she is the tender 
 mother who has brought you forth, who has 
 nursed you in her bosom, fed you with milk from 
 her breasts in your infancy, and now furnishes 
 you with strong food. She watches unceasingly 
 over the deposit of the faith which has been con- 
 fided to her by her heavenly spouse ; she is always 
 armed against every error, against every impiety, 
 always shining in the midst of the disorder and 
 confusion of this world, like the morning star 
 from the midst of the clouds, to direct her child- 
 ren in the ways of truth and salvation. Watch, 
 
 (*> Luc. 10. v. 16. 
 
25 
 
 therefore, we again beseech you by the mercy of 
 God, remain firm, do not fall from your stedfast- 
 ness, be constant in the faith ; repel with meek- 
 ness, but with the zeal of God, all the assaults of 
 those who would seduce you ; be strengthened 
 and animated with the aid of divine grace against 
 all the ungodly, against all enthusiasts and im- 
 postors ; watch, stand in the faith, act manfully, 
 and be comforted."^ 1 Cor. ch. 16. v. 13. 
 
 II. In the second place, I can neither conform 
 to Protestantism, nor take the Oaths required, 
 because both call upon me to profess, testify, and 
 declare, solemnly and sincerely, in the presence 
 of God, not merely that I do not believe in Tran- 
 substantiation, but that I believe there is no such 
 thing as Transubstantiation ; and moreover, that 
 what I do believe on this point, I believe in the 
 sense in which it is commonly understood by 
 English Protestants : not after the definition of 
 any Christian Church ; not in any precise terms, 
 such as might be intelligible to the understanding ; 
 not from any authority remote or recent, but 
 according to the sense in which it is commonly 
 understood by a body of men who own no authority 
 in matters of faith, but their own judgment; who 
 
 < r} Reply to the Most Reverend Dr. Magee, by J. K. L. 
 pp. 35-56. See also a learned Examination of the Supre- 
 macy of St. Peter, in Dr. Lingard's Tracts, in answer to 
 Dr. Burgess, bishop of St. David's. 
 
26 
 
 think on all controverted points as their fancy may 
 dictate ; and who have no standard of orthodoxy 
 to refer to for the explanation of their doctrine. 
 The thirty-nine articles, and the Church Catechism, 
 are both incompetent to the purpose, since, in this 
 case, it appears to remain quite undetermined 
 whether we are to believe the body and blood of 
 Christ truly and really present in the sacrament, or 
 not. At least, I think no one will be bold enough to 
 attempt to define, in any thing like intelligible 
 terms, what is the doctrine of the English Pro- 
 testants on this head. Is it not then most unrea- 
 sonable to require us to swear to a belief in 
 doctrines, the exposition of which we really know 
 not where to find ? While the thirty-nine articles 
 and the Church Catechism leave us quite in the 
 dark as to what we really are to believe, the Pre- 
 lates of the establishment do not at all elucidate 
 the matter by their discordant and contradictory 
 opinions, leaving us still to guess at what is the 
 common belief of English Protestants upon the 
 doctrines to which we are required to swear. If we 
 look to the earlier periods of the history of English 
 Protestantism, we shall find some of its most dis- 
 tinguished Divines holding the following opinions : (r) 
 " We agree as to the object" says Dr. Andrews 
 
 (r) See The Faith and Doctrine of the Roman Catholic 
 Church proved by the Testimony of the most learned Pro- 
 testants. Dublin, 1813. 
 
27 
 
 of Winchester, " the whole difference respects the 
 modus or manner of the presence.. ..We believe a 
 real and a true presence, no less than you do. The 
 King too (James I.) believes Christ not only really 
 present, but truly adorable in the Eucharist, and 
 I myself do adore the very flesh of Christ in the 
 mysteries." (r) 
 
 Dr. Lawrence thus expresses himself: "As I like 
 not those who say he is bodily there, so I like not 
 those who say his body is not there: because Christ 
 says it is there ; St. Paul says it is there ; and our 
 Church says it is there, really, truly, and essentially, 
 and not only by way of representation or comme- 
 moration. For why would our Saviour bid us take 
 what he would not have us receive? We must be- 
 lieve it is there. We must know what is there. 
 Our faith may see it : our senses cannot."^ 
 
 Archbishop Laud says, " The altar is the greatest 
 place of God's residence on earth : yea, greater 
 than the pulpit ; for there it is, Hoc est corpus 
 meum : in the pulpit it is, at most, Hoc est ver- 
 bum meum. And a greater reverence is due to 
 the body than to the word of the Lord ; and to 
 the throne where he is usually present, than to the 
 seat where his word is preached." (0 
 
 W Answer to Card. Bellarmin's Apology, chap. 1, p. 11, 
 and chap. 8, p. 194. 
 
 ( * } Lawrence's Sermon, p. 17 18. 
 (/) Speech in the Star Chamber, p. 47. 
 
28 
 
 And yet the Bishop of Peterborough tells us, 
 that at this very time [m the reign of Charles I/], 
 the Church of England professed the SAME true 
 religion which it professes at present." (w) 
 
 " Concerning the point of the real presence/* 
 says Dr. Montague, " there need be no difference, 
 if men were disposed as they ought to peace ; for 
 the disagreement is only de modo Presentlce ; the 
 thing being yielded to on either side : viz. that 
 there is in the Eucharist a real presence." (J?) 
 
 Bishop Bramhall writes thus : " No genuine 
 son of the Church of England^ did ever deny a 
 true, real presence. Christ said : This is my body, 
 and what he said we steadfastly believe," &c. (y) 
 
 Bishop Cosin is not less explicit in favour of the 
 Catholic Doctrine. He says : " It is a monstrous 
 error to deny that Christ is to be adored in the 
 Eucharist," &c. ( * } 
 
 Hooker thus expresses himself: " Sith we all 
 agree that Christ, by the sacrament, doth really 
 and truly perform in us his promise, why do we 
 vainly trouble ourselves with so fierce contentions, 
 whether by consubstantiation or else by transub- 
 stantiation." (a) 
 
 M Charge, p. 16. 1827. Appeal to Csesar, p. 289. 
 y) Answer to M. de la Militere, p. 74. (z) Hist, of Tran- 
 substantiation, p. 139. (0) Eccles. Polity, B. v. 67. 
 
29 
 
 Will it be believed that these, and many others 
 who held the same opinions, were all eminent di- 
 vines, and members of the English Protestant 
 Church, some of them posterior to the last revisal 
 of the 39 Articles, (6) and only a very few years prior 
 to the time (c) when members of Parliament were 
 called upon to swear precisely to what they are 
 at the present moment ; namely, that they believed 
 this doctrine in the sense in which it was com- 
 monly understood by English Protestants. 
 
 But while the oath remains the same, the doc- 
 trine appears to have differed ; preserving only 
 one characteristic of its former qualities that of 
 being as vague and indeterminate as ever. While 
 the creed of the Established Church always appears 
 at first sight to inculcate a true and real presence 
 of the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament, 
 it invariably alters its course, either by admitting 
 every possible variety of opinion, through the 
 vagueness of its definitions ; or, by Catechistical 
 
 w In 1634, the Convocation of the Irish Bishops de- 
 nounced an excommunication against those who affirmed 
 that any of the articles of the Church of England were 
 in any part superstitious or erroneous. Twenty-eight years 
 afterwards, they were discovered to be both. 
 
 (<?) Dr. Andrews died 1626; Laud (executed) 1644; 
 Montague, 1641 ; Archbishop Bramhall, 1663 ; Cosin, 
 1671; Hooker, 1660; Parker, 1575; Nowell, 1602; Taylor, 
 1667; Wake, 1736; Usher, 1656. 
 
30 
 
 explanations, doing away with the reality of the 
 presence altogether ; or by stating things in such 
 contradictory terms, that it still contrives to leave 
 the doctrine itself involved in mystery, doubt, and 
 darkness. " Its original framers knew that the 
 Christian world was divided into two parties : the 
 one consisting of the Catholics and the Lutherans, 
 who contended for the real presence of Christ's 
 body, though they differed as to the manner of 
 that presence ; the other of the Zuinglians and 
 Calvinists, who rejected the real presence and 
 admitted nothing more than a bare figure and 
 memorial of the death of Christ. By appearing to 
 admit both opinions into different parts of the 
 articles, catechism, and rubrics, they opened a 
 door for proselytes from either party, who might 
 thus become orthodox churchmen, and still retain 
 their favourite opinions. Thus, the original articles 
 published by the authority of Edward VI. contained 
 a long paragraph against ' the real and bodily pre- 
 sence/ as they term it ; (rf which paragraph, though 
 it was subscribed by both houses of Convocation, in 
 the reign of Elizabeth, was omitted by the command 
 
 W The first communion service, drawn up by Cranmer, 
 Ridley, and other Protestant bishops and divines, and 
 published in 1548, clearly expresses the real presence, 
 declaring that "the whole body of Christ is received 
 under each particle of the Sacrament." Burnet, T. ii. p. 1. 
 
31 
 
 of that female head of the Church." " The design 
 of government," says Burnet, " was at that time 
 much turned to the drawing over the body of the 
 nation to the reformation, in whom the old leaven 
 had gone deep ; and no part of it deeper than the 
 belief of the corporeal presence of Christ in the 
 Sacrament ; therefore it was thought not expedient 
 to offend them by so particular a definition in this 
 matter, in which the very word real presence was 
 rejected." (<?) In like manner, in the second Book 
 of Common Prayer, published by Edward VI., was 
 inserted a long rubric, rejecting " all adoration 
 unto any real presence of Christ's natural flesh 
 and blood" This also was laid aside by order of 
 Elizabeth. " It being the Queen's design," says 
 Wheatley," to unite the nation as much as she could 
 in one faith, it was therefore recommended to the 
 divines, to see there should be no definition made 
 against the aforesaid notion, but that it should 
 remain as a speculative opinion not determined, 
 but in which everyone might be left to the freedom 
 
 (f) Burnet, Exposition of the xxxix Articles, p. 308. 
 " This part of the article was omitted, in 1562, probably 
 with a view to give less offence to those who maintained 
 the corporeal presence, and to comprehend as many as 
 possible in the established church." Bishop of Lincoln's 
 Elements of Christian Theology, vol. 2, p. 483. 
 
32 
 
 of his own mind." (/) King James imitated the 
 caution of his predecessor ; and in commissioning 
 Bishop Overal, then Dean of St. Paul's, to add to 
 the catechism the explanation of the Sacraments, he 
 was careful that the real presence should be taught 
 in such j, manner as might satisfy the patrons of 
 that doctrine.^ 
 
 The 28th Article of the Church of England de- 
 clares that " the body of Christ is given, taken, 
 and eaten in the supper, only after a heavenly and 
 spiritual manner." Catholics say the same. " The 
 Holy Synod openly and plainly professes that in 
 the Sacrament of the Eucharist, after the conse- 
 cration of the bread and wine, our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, true God and man, is truly, really, and 
 substantially present under the appearances of 
 those sensible objects. Nor in this is there any 
 repugnance, that Christ, according to his natural 
 manner of existence, should always remain in hea- 
 ven at the right hand of his father ; and that, at 
 the same time, he should be present with us, in 
 many places, really, but sacramentally, in that way 
 of existence which, though in words we can hardly 
 express it, the mind, illuminated by faith, can con- 
 ceive to be possible to God, and which we are 
 
 W Wheatley's Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer, 
 p. 334. 
 
 to See Dr. Lingard's Tracts, 
 
33 
 
 bound firmly to believe ; for so all our ancestors, 
 as many as were members of the true Church of 
 Christ, who wrote on the subject of this holy sa- 
 crament, openly professed."^ 
 
 Dean Nowell, in his Catechism for Schools, first 
 published in 1570, says the same. " The body 
 and blood of Christ are given to the faithful in 
 the Lord's Supper, are received, eat, and drank by 
 them, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner, 
 but truly and really fyere tamen atque reipsd ]. 
 So that when it was asserted by a Catholic con- 
 trovertist, that, according to the doctrine of the 
 Church of England, the bread of the supper is but 
 a figure of Christ, Bishop Montague had some 
 reason to answer ; " Is but a sign, or figure, and 
 no more ! Strange ! and yet our formal words 
 are, This is my body ; this is my blood. This is, 
 is more than this figureth, or designeth : a bare 
 figure is but a phantasm. He gave substance, and 
 really subsisting essence, who said, " This is my 
 body, this is my blood." (f) 
 
 " I know," says the elegant and learned writer 
 from whom this argument is taken, " that both 
 this divine, and others who have held a similar 
 language, have on other occasions taught the con- 
 trary doctrine; but this corroborates my asser- 
 tion, since it shews that in endeavouring to defend 
 
 W Council of Trent, Sess. xiii. c. 1. p. 86. 
 CO New Gag. p. 250. 1624. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 the tenets of the established creed, they were com- 
 pelled, first, to acknowledge a real presence, and 
 then to explain it away till it meant a real ab- 
 sence." The article says, " the body of Christ is 
 given, &c." Now, Archbishop Wake's catechism, 
 entitled, The Principles of the Christian Religion 
 Explained, asks this question : " Are the body 
 and blood of Christ really distributed to every 
 communicant in this sacrament ?" And the answer 
 is, " No, they are not. For then, every commu- 
 nicant, whether prepared or not, would alike re- 
 ceive Christ's body and blood there." Is not this 
 contradictory to the Article ? The Article says, 
 " the body of Christ is given ;" the Archbishop's 
 catechism, that it is not given. " That which is 
 given," says he, " by the priest to the communicant, 
 is, as to its nature, the same after the consecra- 
 tion that it was before ; viz. bread and wine, only 
 altered as to its use and signification." He says 
 again : " That which is given by the priest, is, as 
 to its substance, bread and wine ; as to its sacra- 
 mental nature and signification, it is the figure or 
 representation of Christ's body and blood, which 
 was broken and shed for us. The very body and 
 blood of Christ as yet it is not. But being with 
 faith and piety received by the communicant, it 
 becomes to him, by the blessing of God, and the 
 grace of the Holy Spirit, the very body and blood 
 of Christ" We have seen, that the Article at 
 first says the body of Christ is really present, for 
 
35 
 
 how can it be given, if it be not there ? yet at 
 last it asserts that it is not there ; and that to bring 
 it there, it must first be received by faith. In the 
 Archbishop's definition a real and true presence is 
 also expressed ; and yet when the Bishop asks how 
 the bread and wine become to the faithful and worthy 
 communicant the very body and blood of Christ, he 
 replies : "As it entitles him to a part in the sacrifice 
 of his death, and to the benefits thereby procured 
 to all his faithful and obedient servants !" If this 
 has any meaning at all, it signifies that, instead of 
 a real presence of the body and blood of Christ, 
 there is in the sacrament a title to the inheritance 
 of the merits of his death ; that is, some spiritual 
 benefit, but by no means the very body and blood 
 of Christ, as he had said before ! 
 
 The late Bishop of Durham, in his celebrated 
 Explanation of the Doctrine of the Lord's Sup- 
 per, thus expresses himself : " To eat Christ, is to 
 incorporate with the mind the spiritual food of 
 faith and righteousness. To eat Christ, is to im- 
 bibe his doctrines, to digest his precepts, and to 
 live by his example. We eat Christ, by having 
 him in our minds, and meditating on his life and 
 sufferings. To eat Christ, is to believe in him ; 
 and to eat his flesh is to keep up the remembrance 
 of him, especially of his death. To eat the body 
 of Christ, therefore, and to drink his blood at the 
 sacrament, are figurative terms to denote an act 
 
 D2 
 
36 
 
 of faith, by which we profess our faith in Christ, 
 and commemorate his death, by eating the repre- 
 sentative and vicarious elements of bread and 
 wine" Hence, to eat the body and drink the 
 blood of Christ, is to eat, not his body, but bread, 
 as a representation and substitute for his body ; 
 and to drink, not his blood, but wine, as a repre- 
 sentation and substitute for his blood. Yet, a 
 few pages afterwards the Bishop says : " To think 
 and believe, are as really acts of the mind, as to 
 eat is an act of the body. What is done by the 
 mind, is as truly done, as what is done by the 
 body. The body of Christ is therefore as truly, 
 as verily, and indeed, received by faith, as the 
 bread is by the mouth ?" What are we to under- 
 stand from all this ? What is the sense in which 
 ENGLISH Protestants understand it? I confess that 
 to me it is wholly and entirely unintelligible and 
 contradictory ; but not one tittle the more so than 
 every other explanation of this doctrine to be found 
 in Catechisms, Charges, Sermons, or even in the 
 Articles of Faith of the Established Church.^ 
 
 But it is useless to multiply proofs of the dis- 
 cordant opinions of prelates and members of the 
 establishment of the present day, and to show 
 that too many of them reject the real presence 
 
 (A) See this argument pursued more at length in Dr. 
 Lingard's Tracts. 
 
37 
 
 altogether, and attempt to explain the whole by 
 a figurative meaning. I will only notice another 
 and a very remarkable instance of the contrariety 
 of opinions between prelates of the Established 
 Church at the time when the oath was framed, and 
 of the period in which we live. When the Duke 
 of York asked Archbishop Sheldon, in the time of 
 Charles II., if it were the doctrine of the Church 
 of England, that Roman Catholics were idolaters ? 
 he answered, " that it was not ; but that young 
 men of parts would be popular, and such a charge 
 was the way to it." w While in the reign of George 
 IV., Dr. Burgess, Bishop of St. David's, tells us 
 that " they who do not hold the worship of the 
 Church of Rome to be idolatrous, are not Pro- 
 testants, whatever they may profess to be !" (A) I 
 would ask, whether contradictions and absurdities 
 like these were ever found in Catholicity ? 
 
 Hence it appears clear, that the oath no longer 
 bears the same signification now that it did when it 
 was first established, and may at any time go round 
 again to the sense in which English Protestants 
 held it in former times ; but not, perhaps, till, 
 cameleon-like, it has caught a dozen different hues, 
 from the colour of the politics or fancies of the 
 day ; for it seldom happens that the opinions of 
 
 (0 Burnet, Hist, of his own Times. 1673. 
 Cfc) Protestant's Catechism, p. 46. 
 
38 
 
 men pass from one position to its reverse, except 
 through numerous gradations. Is it not, then, pre- 
 posterous to call upon us to swear to so variable, con- 
 tradictory, and incomprehensible a doctrine as this 
 appears to be in the hands of English Protestants ? (/) 
 
 ( ;) See note at the foot of p. 155. 
 The contrariety of opinion that has ever been so remark- 
 able amongst the prelates of the Establishment in England, 
 appears likewise to have prevailed about this same period in 
 the Irish branch of the Protestant church. While many of 
 the archbishops and bishops of Ireland, with Archbishop 
 Usher at their head, declared that " the religion of the 
 Papists was superstitious and idolatrous," &c. ; and " that 
 to consent that they might freely exercise their religion, 
 was a grievous sin:"* Dr. Jeremy Taylor, bishop of 
 Down, much to his credit for candour and discernment, 
 says ; " The object of their [the Catholics] adoration in 
 the sacrament is the only true and eternal God, hyposta- 
 tically united with his holy humanity, which humanity 
 they believe actually present under the veil of the sacra- 
 ment ; and if they thought him not present, they are so far 
 from worshipping the bread, that they profess it idolatry 
 to do so. This is demonstration that the soul has nothing 
 in it that is idolatrical; the will has nothing in it 
 but what is a great enemy to idolatry."! About the 
 same time, in England, Thorndyke, prebendary of West- 
 minster, argues thus: "Will any Papist acknowledge 
 that he honours the elements of the Eucharist for 
 God? Will common sense charge him with honouring 
 
 * See Plowden's Hist, of Ireland, vol. i. c. 4. 
 f Liberty of Prophecy ing, Sect. 20. 
 
39 
 
 But even if I knew what I was called upon to 
 believe, yet, under the view which I take of the 
 
 that in the sacrament, which he does not believe to be 
 there ?" J But Dr. Porteus, bishop of London, a few years 
 ago, charged Catholics with " senseless idolatry," and with 
 " worshipping the creature instead of the creator." It 
 is really extraordinary, but not less time, that prelates and 
 divines of the Church of England should, in this enlight- 
 ened age, require to be sent back to periods of comparative 
 barbarism (when there was at least as much inflammable 
 matter in the polemical world, as there is at present) to 
 learn candour, fair dealing, liberality, charity, and com- 
 mon sense. Let them take a lesson from Dr. Parker; and, 
 while they blush at the contrast, would to God they would 
 apply his reasoning in the cause to which his candid mind 
 directed it, namely, the abrogation of the Test. " So 
 black a crime as idolatry," says he, " is not lightly to be 
 charged upon any party of Christians, on account of the 
 foulness of the calumny, and the barbarous consequences 
 that may follow upon it. Before so bloody an indictment 
 is preferred against the greatest part of the Christian 
 world, the thing should be well understood. The charge 
 is too big for a scolding word. It is a piece of inhuma- 
 nity that outdoes the ferocity of the cannibal, and damns 
 at once both soul and body ; and yet after all, we have no 
 other ground than the rash assertions of some popular 
 divines, who have no other measures of truth than hatred to 
 Popery, and therefore never spare hard words against 
 that church; running up all objections against it into 
 
 I Just Weights and Measures, c. 19. Confut. p. ii. c. 1. 
 
40 
 
 question, I could not possibly subscribe to any 
 such misconstructions of the ancient doctrine of 
 Christendom on the real presence of Christ in the 
 Eucharist : For, in conformity with this doctrine, 
 I most firmly and steadfastly believe, and am ready 
 solemnly and sincerely to call God to witness my 
 belief, that Transubstantiation does verily and truly 
 take place in the sacrament of the Eucharist, and 
 in the manner in which it is taught and explained 
 in the Catholic Church. 
 
 In the first place, I believe it because the Catholic 
 Church has always taught it ; she has taught it, 
 because it was revealed to her from heaven ; and 
 
 atheism and blasphemy, of which idolatry is the greatest 
 instance. As to the use of images in the worship of God, 
 I cannot but wonder at the confidence of these men to 
 make so bold a charge against them in general, when the 
 images of the cherubims were commanded by God him^ 
 self (Exod. xxv. 18.) ; which instance is so plain and 
 obvious to every reader, there being nothing more re-* 
 markable in all the Old Testament than the honour done 
 to the cherubim, that 'tis a much greater wonder to me, 
 that those men who advance the objection of idolatry so 
 groundlessly, can so slightly rid themselves of so preg- 
 nant a proof against it ; till therefore it can be proved that 
 the papists worhip the images of false gods as supreme 
 deities, or the true God by corporal images and the re- 
 presentations of his divine nature, there can be no footing 
 for idolatry in Christendom. "|| 
 
 || Parker's Reasons for abrogating the Test. 
 
41 
 
 of its revelation from heaven there is abundant and 
 incontrovertible proof. Yes, if there be one tenet 
 of Christianity more clearly defined, or more fre- 
 quently illustrated in the sacred writings than 
 another ; if there be one article of faith which it 
 appeared to be the object of our Saviour to enforce 
 more strongly upon our minds than usual ; if there 
 be one mystery to which more importance is given, 
 or to which more consequence is attached, it is 
 the doctrine of Transubstantiation. It is a singular 
 circumstance, that Transubstantiation should have 
 been the characteristic both of the first and of the 
 last miracle which our Saviour performed in the 
 course of his sacred ministry, the conversion of 
 water into wine at the marriage feast of Cana, and 
 the conversion of bread into his body, and of wine 
 into his blood, at the last supper. 
 
 Like every other tenet of her creed, the Catholic 
 Church can trace the belief in Transubstantiation 
 up to the very aera of the Apostles, by an un- 
 broken series of authentic history, by the luminous 
 evidence of those unexceptionable attestators of 
 truth, the Fathers of the Church. (wl) 
 
 But why should we have recourse to the testimony 
 of history, and the opinion of the Fathers, while 
 we have the evidence of the Scripture, and the 
 words of Christ himself to guide us? It is impos- 
 
 (m) See APPENDIX, p. xviii, where these testimonies 
 are adduced at some length. 
 
42 
 
 sible for any one, with an unbiassed judgment, to 
 read the 6th chapter of the Gospel of St. John, 
 and disbelieve in the real and substantial presence 
 of the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour, 
 Jesus Christ, in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. 
 We there see the express declaration of Christ : 
 / am the bread of life ; the bread that I will 
 give is my flesh : (w) and we see the sense in which 
 his words were understood, and the manner in 
 which they were received, by the unbelieving Jews, 
 who incredulously asked ; How can this man give 
 us his flesh to eat ? Instead of denying that this 
 was his real and literal meaning, and undeceiving 
 
 (n) It may be here observed, " that if Christ had wished 
 to inculcate the Catholic doctrine, he could not have done 
 it in terms better adapted to the purpose ; and if he meant 
 to inculcate the doctrine of the Church of England, he 
 could hardly have selected words more likely to lead his 
 disciples into error." (Lingard's Tracts, p. 215. ) 
 
 During the period of our Saviour's sojournment upon 
 earth, he was God under the appearance of man ; and 
 though he proved his divinity by miracles, yet those mi- 
 racles were momentary and passing, and left mankind 
 without any evidence that was perceptible by the senses, 
 in testimony of so incomprehensible a mystery as a God 
 made man. And why should we require more in the sa- 
 crament of the Eucharist ? Instead of the Son of God 
 under the appearance of man, we behold him under the 
 semblance of bread and wine, and we have his own word 
 in attestation of the fact. 
 
43 
 
 those who heard him ; instead of ceasing to tempt 
 their faith by what he had no intention of forcing 
 upon it ; he only confirms his own assertion, and 
 their interpretation of it: Except, he replied, you eat 
 of the flesh of the son of man, and drink of his blood, 
 you shall not have life in you. His disciples, like 
 the members of the Established Church, were still 
 obdurate, and, like them, they exclaimed : This 
 
 If the second person of the blessed Trinity, united with 
 the nature of man, but veiling his divinity under the form 
 of an infant, had been presented in common with a hun- 
 dred other infants before any indifferent person, would 
 it have been possible to distinguish him from the rest ? 
 Why then should we look for any peculiar distinction in 
 a consecrated host, over one that is not so ? If the son of 
 God could appear amongst men as an infant child, pre- 
 serving his divinity without altering the ordinary appear- 
 ances of human nature ; why can he not 'equally veil his 
 divinity under the appearance of bread, without changing 
 the appearance of that bread to the visual faculties of 
 man ? And why can he not also delegate the power to do 
 so to his minister, he who gave power to the rod of Aaron 
 to convert the waters of the Nile into blood, and that 
 blood into water again, he who was able, by one single 
 word, to call a whole world from nothingness ? 
 
 The remark of Tertullian, that he believed in Transub- 
 stantiation because it was impossible to have been the off- 
 spring of the human mind, is worthy of observation. He 
 did not disbelieve and reject it, because it appeared extra- 
 ordinary and inexplicable ! but feeling it impossible that it 
 could have originated with man, he referred it entirely to 
 God. 
 
44 
 
 saying is hard, and who can hear it ? But the 
 doctrine of Jesus was fixed and immutable ; and 
 though many went back and walked no more with 
 him, because of this hard saying, that he would 
 give them his flesh to eat, yet his words were 
 irrevocable ; his decision was final. He never 
 attempted to soften down his expressions, to adapt 
 his meaning to the capacity of the senses, nor to 
 measure his instructions by the understanding of 
 man. At the same time that he conferred his 
 favors, he wished to exercise our faith : he therefore 
 left his doctrine as it was, and turning round to his 
 Apostles, he asked ; If they also would leave him ? 
 Was it possible to give a more striking proof that 
 they had rightly understood him, and that his words 
 were to be received in the plain and literal sense 
 in which they had been taken by those who had 
 left him disbelieving, and by those who, like Peter, 
 remained and believed ? If they had not rightly 
 understood him, if they had left him with any 
 material misconception of his meaning, would not 
 he, who was the good shepherd, ready to lay down 
 his life for his sheep, and whose sole desire was to 
 gather all mankind into one fold, would not he 
 have called them back, and by a seasonable explana- 
 tion, have relieved them from their errors ? The 
 only rational, the only possible method of explaining 
 this conduct of our Saviour is, by subjecting our 
 understanding to the obedience of faith, and ex- 
 claiming in the words of St. Peter : " Lord, thou 
 
45 
 
 hast the words of eternal life : we believe and have 
 known that thou art Christ, the Son of the living 
 God." It is probable, however, that at this time, 
 neither party precisely understood the manner in 
 which Christ was to give his body and blood for 
 the spiritual food of mankind. But the conduct of 
 our Saviour, and the declaration of St. Peter, both 
 point out the implicit obedience which we owe to 
 the words of Christ, whether we understand them 
 or not. Had our Saviour been explaining the 
 mystery of the Trinity, or any other of the myste- 
 rious doctrines of Christianity, which no human 
 capacity can possibly fathom and comprehend, we 
 may well imagine that the conduct of Christ, the 
 exclamation of St. Peter, and perhaps the incredu- 
 lity of the Jews, would have been precisely the 
 same. 
 
 But to terminate the explanation of this wonder- 
 ful mystery to manifest the completion of this 
 august sacrament and to exhibit the fulfilment 
 of the promise he had made of giving himself as 
 the bread of life, our Saviour, at his last supper, 
 took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to 
 his disciples, and said: Take ye, and eat, THIS is 
 MY BODY ; (0) and taking the chalice also, he gave 
 
 <0) An Almighty God has said it : And man, vain 
 man, has presumed to question it. O man ! who art thou 
 that repliest against God ? Rom. ix. 20. 
 
46 
 
 thanks, and gave it to them, saying: Drink ye all 
 of this; FOR THIS is MY BLOOD,, &c. (/>) Christ did not 
 say, here is my body, here is my blood ! which 
 might have appeared to countenance the doctrine 
 of Consubstantiation; but he says, this is my body: 
 this is no longer bread, but the body of him who 
 addresses you ; the life-giving flesh of the Son of 
 God : this is no longer wine, but the sacred foun- 
 tain of life, that blood which shall so soon be shed 
 upon the cross for the remission of your sins. 
 If any other testimony were required, the manner 
 
 W A flimsy quibble is frequently resorted to for the pur- 
 pose of destroying the force of these expressions ; namely, 
 that all that was required of us by these injunctions of 
 Christ, was a mere commemoration of the last supper 
 Do this in commemoration of me. But it is at once over- 
 turned by the simple question ; What was the important 
 this that was to be done ? Were the disciples to do what 
 our Saviour had just done, or something else that was left 
 to their own fancy ? On one occasion Luther says : " The 
 devil seems to have mocked mankind in proposing to them 
 a heresy so ridiculous and contrary to Scripture as is that 
 of the Zuinglians, namely, the denial of the real presence." 
 (Op. Luth. Defens. Verb. Con.) In another place he ac- 
 knowledges that he had tried to persuade himself of there 
 being no real presence of Christ in the sacrament, on 
 purpose to irritate and offend the Pope; but that the 
 words of Scripture were too plainly in favour of it. See 
 Letters to a Preb.p. 154.) 
 
47 
 
 in which St. Paul bears witness to this doctrine is 
 a striking confirmation of it. The chalice of bene- 
 diction, which we bless, says he, is it not the 
 communion of the blood of Christ, and the bread 
 which we break, is it not the partaking of the body 
 of the Lord (9) And whosoever shall eat this bread, 
 or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall 
 be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lor d. (r} 
 In receiving the bread, how can we be guilty of the 
 body and blood of the Lord, if his body and blood 
 be not there ? How can we eat and drink judg- 
 ment to ourselves, not discerning the body of the 
 Lord, (s} if the body of the Lord be not there to be 
 discerned.^ An omniscient God foresaw the incre- 
 
 W 1 Cor. x. 16. ^ 1 Cor. xi. 27. < s) Ibid. 22. 
 
 (t) While St. Paul says that the unworthy communicant 
 is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, the doctrine of 
 the Establishment renders the profanation of the sacra- 
 ment an impossibility. I presume and after all it is 
 only a presumption, though I doubt whether any Pro- 
 testant will contradict me that the Church of England 
 denies the real presence in toto : and this being the case, 
 what is there in the sacrament for the unworthy commu- 
 nicant to profane ? Where is the body and blood of the 
 Lord, of which he is to be guilty ? But, supposing, ac- 
 cording to the words of the 28th Article, an act of faith 
 really gives the body and blood of Christ to the commu- 
 nicant, who but a madman will make that act of faith, 
 when he receives the sacrament unworthily and unpre- 
 
48 
 
 dulity of mankind, and in mercy to those who are 
 willing to believe, afforded evidence without end 
 to preserve them from error upon this most im- 
 portant point. All the Evangelists, all the inspired 
 writers, all the Fathers of the Church, concur in 
 opinion upon this doctrine. There is no tenet for 
 which there are so many vouchers ; there is no 
 mystery so distinctly revealed and so clearly de- 
 fined. 
 
 If Transubstantiation were a modern doctrine, 
 a doctrine of human invention, why cannot those 
 who assert it to be so, prove both the manner and 
 the period of so extraordinary an innovation in 
 the faith of Christianity ? If, in our own times, a 
 minister of the Church of England were to ascend 
 the pulpit, hold up to the people the consecrated 
 elements, and exclaim, ' This is the body and 
 blood of Christ :' what astonishment would not fill 
 the minds of his audience ; what an outcry would 
 there not be raised throughout the country ! And 
 
 pared ? How can he be guilty of the body and Uood of 
 the Lord, when, making no act of faith, he receives no- 
 thing but bread and wine ? In one case, there is a cer- 
 tainty that it cannot, in the other there is a moral impos- 
 sibility that the sacrament can, be profaned by an un- 
 worthy communicant who is a member of the Established 
 Church. Hence the denunciation of St. Paul becomes 
 void and unmeaning. 
 
49 
 
 is it to be believed, that, if a similar occurrence, 
 under similar circumstances, had taken place du- 
 ring the first ages of the Church, the effect would 
 not have been the same? Would it have been 
 so completely overlooked both by history and 
 tradition ? That such an assertion, under such cir- 
 cumstances, should have met with success, is a 
 monstrous supposition, because, independent of its 
 contradiction to our senses, it is a doctrine which 
 has nothing but the authority of revelation to re- 
 commend it ; for, unlike every false tenet, it nei- 
 ther flatters our passions nor our pride : that under 
 such circumstances it should have been eagerly 
 embraced, and universally adopted, would have 
 required no less than the interposition of a miracle. 
 But it did not originate in such circumstances ; it 
 rested not upon the authority of man ; it was a 
 doctrine not confined to a particular period, or a 
 particular country : it was coeval and coextensive 
 with Christianity itself/ w; Of this doctrine abun- 
 
 (tt) Transubstantiation is equally the doctrine of the 
 Greek church, and of all the Eastern churches that have 
 separated themselves from the communion of the see of 
 Rome ; and as this separation took place, in some in- 
 stances, as early as the fifth century, even they can bear 
 testimony of its existence for 1400 years. The Lutherans, 
 also, believe in the real presence. " I clearly saw," says 
 Luther, " how much I should thereby [by disproving the 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 dant evidence has descended to us ; whoever, there- 
 doctrine of the real presence] injure Popery ; but I found 
 myself caught without any way of escaping, for the text 
 of the gospel was too plain for this purpose." (Epist. ad 
 Argenten. torn. iv. fol. 502. Ed. Witten.) In another 
 place he says, " That no one among the fathers, nume- 
 rous as they are, should have spoken of the Eucharist as 
 these men do [the opposers of the real presence], is truly 
 astonishing. Not one of them speaks thus : There is only 
 bread and wine ; or, the body and blood of Christ are not 
 present. And when we reflect how often the subject is 
 treated by them, it ceases to be credible it is not even 
 possible that not so much as once such words as these 
 should not have dropped from some of them. Surely, it 
 was of moment that men should not be drawn into error. 
 Still, they all speak with a precision which evinces that 
 they entertained no doubt of the presence of the body and 
 blood. Had not this been their conviction, can it be 
 imagined that, among so many, the negative opinion 
 should not have been uttered on a single occasion. On 
 other points this was not the case. But our Sacrament- 
 arians, on the other hand, can proclaim only the negative 
 or contrary opinion. These men then, to say all in one 
 word, have drawn their notions neither from the Scriptures 
 nor the Fathers." (Defensio Verborum Csense, T. vii. p. 391. 
 Edit. Witt. 1667. J Again he says : " This I cannot, nor 
 am I willing, to deny, that had any one, five years ago, 
 been able to persuade me that in the Sacrament were 
 only bread and wine, he would have laid me under great 
 obligations to him ;....for I was clearly sensible that nothing 
 would give so much pain to the Roman Bishop." Ibid, 
 p. 502 
 
51 
 
 fore, will take the trouble of investigating the sub- 
 ject, will find ample proof of these positions.^ 
 
 We are all well acquainted with the heresies of 
 Montanus and Tatian in the 2nd, of Tertullian 
 and Origen in the 3rd, and of Arius in the 4th 
 century, and so on ; and shall it be said that the 
 tenets of Catholicity alone are without evidence 
 and proof; and that while the errors of every 
 petty sect, and even sometimes of individual wri- 
 ters, were carefully detailed in history and trans- 
 mitted to posterity, the faith and practice of the 
 Universal Church alone were left unnoticed and 
 unattested? Let any one peruse the passages in 
 St. Ignatius, St. Justin, St. Irenaeus, &c. &c. in 
 proof of the doctrine of Transubstantiation, during 
 
 ^ Let not the reader be deterred from this examina- 
 tion, under the idea that he has neither the capacity nor 
 the leisure to explore the voluminous writings of the early 
 Fathers of the church. He will find every passage of 
 moment which bears upon this, or any other Catholic 
 tenet, selected, translated, and arranged to his hands, in 
 an admirable and most useful compilation of scriptural and 
 historical testimony, in a single volume, entitled : " The 
 Faith of Catholics confirmed by Scripture, and attested 
 by the Fathers of the five first Centuries of the Church ;" 
 by the Rev. Jos. Berington and the Rev. J. Kirk. Should 
 any doubt arise as to the authenticity of any extract, or 
 the fidelity of its translation, the reference at the end of 
 every passage will afford a ready clue to the original. 
 
 E2 
 
52 
 
 the 1st, 2nd, and subsequent centuries of the 
 Christian sera, and then determine whether it be 
 the doctrine of primitive Christianity, or the com- 
 paratively modern innovation of the dark ages. 
 
 Under such a view of the subject, and with such 
 evidence before us, is it possible we can swear that 
 we believe the doctrine of the Eucharist in the 
 sense in which it is commonly understood by Eng- 
 lish Protestants ? 
 
 III. In the third place, I cannot conform to Pro- 
 testantism, because she calls upon me solemnly and 
 sincerely ,in the presence of God 9 to prof ess, testify, 
 and declare not simply that I disbelieve in the 
 Invocation of Saints, but that / do believe that 
 the Invocation of the Virgin Mary, or any other 
 Saint, as now used in the Church of Rome, is 
 superstitious and idolatrous. Whereas, I do 
 solemnly and sincerely declare, and am ready to 
 call God to witness the same, that I believe, in 
 accordance to the decrees of the Council of Trent, 
 that the doctrine received from the earliest ages 
 of the Christian religion, has been that the Saints, 
 reigning with Christ, offer up their prayers to 
 God for men ; that it is good and profitable 
 suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse 
 to their supplications aad assistance, in order to 
 obtain favours from God, through his Son Jesus 
 Christ, our Lord, who is our only Redeemer and 
 Saviour. 
 
53 
 
 The texts of Scripture which tend to prove this 
 doctrine are as follow. The angel Raphael says to 
 Tobias : When thou didst pray, with tears, and 
 didst bury the dead, I offered up thy prayer to 
 the LordJ 9} Judas Machabeus relates a vision, in 
 which he saw the late high-priest Oniah, whom he 
 describes as he appeared to him stretching out 
 his arms, and praying for the Jewish people. He 
 then mentions another personage whom he saw, 
 of whom Oniah says : This is the lover of the 
 brethren and of the people of Israel. This is 
 Jeremiah the prophet of God, who prays for the 
 people, and for the holy city. (z} / say to you, that 
 even so there shall be joy in Heaven upon one 
 sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety- 
 nine just who need not penance. So 1 say to 
 you, there shall be joy before the angels of God 
 upon one sinner doing penanced And when he 
 had opened the book, the four living creatures, 
 and the four-and-twenty ancients fell down before 
 the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and 
 golden vials, full of odours, which are the prayers 
 of Saints. (b) From all this we argue the intimate 
 communication between the saints in Heaven, 
 and mankind upon earth; the efficacy of their 
 
 M Tobias, xii. 12.- w Machab. xv. 12. 13. 
 
 w St. Luke xv. 7. 10. (6) Apocal. v. 8. 
 
54 
 
 prayers ; and the interest they take in our behalf. 
 Since St. Paul besought the Romans, Corinthians, 
 and Ephesians to pray for him, is it not clear that 
 it is lawful for us to do the same ? and may we 
 not do so, without detracting from the only me- 
 diator between God and man? The practice of 
 Protestants in praying for the king, &c. proves 
 their assent to this position. And, if we may 
 solicit the prayers of our fellow-men, who are 
 mortals and sinners like ourselves, much more 
 should we invoke those of the peculiar friends 
 and companions of God, the adorers around the 
 throne of grace and mercy ; and whom we know, 
 from the texts above quoted, to be informed of 
 what is passing upon earth; to be eminently qua- 
 lified for the task, and in the constant habit of 
 performing it. All we beg of them is to intercede 
 with the Mediator, through whom alone we hope 
 for mercy, grace, and salvation, or for any favour 
 that we may ask for at the hands of his saints. (c) 
 
 (c) The doctrine of the Invocation of Saints is so an- 
 cient and so universal, that the Greek church, together 
 with all the eastern churches which separated themselves 
 in the earlier periods of Christianity from the church of 
 Rome, still maintain it. Luther, so far from finding any 
 thing idolatrous or superstitious in the doctrine or prac- 
 tice of the church in this point, exclaims : " Who can 
 deny that God works great miracles at the tombs of the 
 saints ! I therefore, with the whole Catholic church, 
 
55 
 
 Since there is not one single text of Scripture that 
 can, in any way, be taken to contradict this doc- 
 trine, it is impossible it can be contrary to Scrip- 
 ture ; and the convincing fact, that such has 
 always been the view taken of it, and such the 
 constant practice of the Catholic Church, is to be 
 gathered from the works of the earliest ecclesias- 
 tical writers ; copious extracts from which, relative 
 to this point, are to be found in the work men- 
 tioned below. (<f) To this the reader is referred, as 
 
 hold that the saints are to be honoured and invocated by 
 us."* Suck also was the opinion of many of the prelates 
 of the Church of England.! Bishop Montagne, especially, 
 says : " The blessed in heaven do recommend to God, in 
 their prayers, their .kindred, friends, and acquaintance on 
 earth." J " This is the common voice, with the general 
 concurrence, without contradiction, of reverend and 
 learned antiquity, for aught I ever could read or under- 
 stand ; and I see no cause or reason to dissent from them 
 touching intercession in this kind." Is it then safe for 
 Protestants to swear that Catholics are superstitious for 
 holding such a doctrine ? 
 
 W The Faith of Catholics confirmed by Scripture, and 
 attested by the Fathers of the jive first Centuries of the 
 Church:' Booker, London, 1813. 
 
 * In purg. quoramd. Artie. Tom. i. Germet. Ep. ad Georg. 
 Spalat. 
 
 t See Duchess of York's Testimony, in the Duke of Bruns- 
 wick's Fifty Reasons, Burnet's Hist. &c. 
 
 t Antidote, p. 20. Ibid. p. 23. 
 
56 
 
 these testimonies are far too numerous for inser- 
 tion here. 
 
 The charge of idolatry brought against us for 
 honouring those whom God has honoured, but 
 especially for invoking the intercession of the 
 Mother of God, the Queen of Angels; and the 
 Saint of Saints, she who tells us, in an inspired 
 Canticle, that all generations shall call her 
 Blessed^ and who was addressed by this appella- 
 tion by the prophetic Elizabeth ; f ^ who was hailed 
 by the angel as full of grace, (9} and to whom the 
 Saviour and Maker of the world was obedient, as 
 a child is obedient to its parent, is too absurd to 
 obtain a moment's credit with an unprejudiced 
 mind. So far are we from the ' abomination of 
 idolatry,' in the invocation of Saints, that the 
 Catechism of the Council of Trent, published in 
 virtue of its decree, by order of Pius Vth, teaches 
 that " God and the Saints are not to be prayed to 
 in the same manner ; for we pray to God that he 
 himself would give us good things, and deliver us 
 from evil things ; but we beg of the Saints, because 
 they are pleasing to God, that they would he our 
 advocates, and obtain from God what we stand in 
 need of." (A) 
 
 & St. Luke c. i. 48. ^Ibid. v. 42. <*> Ibid. v. 28. 
 w If it should be observed, that prayers are occasion- 
 ally addressed to the saints in a manner which appears at 
 first sight to dispense with the mediatorship of Christ, or 
 
57 
 
 Our elementary Catechism in English says : " we 
 are to honour Saints and Angels as God's especial 
 friends and servants, but not with the honour which 
 belongs to God." Thus, when it is recollected that 
 the reverence paid to the Saints is due to them 
 only through the merits of our Saviour, it can- 
 not be deemed any dishonour to the Creator to 
 see his creatures honoured for the gifts he himself 
 has bestowed upon them ; nor will it be considered 
 unbecoming the weakness aud the misery of man, 
 to offer our petitions to the throne of mercy 
 through less unworthy hands than our own ; to 
 make friends for ourselves amongst the friends of 
 God ; and to implore the intercession of those in 
 our behalf, who had already succeeded so well for 
 themselves. 
 
 As an additional proof of the efficacy of the 
 
 to ascribe a power to them which they do not possess, it 
 must be remembered that " by a species of metonomy, 
 we frequently employ the subordinate for the principal 
 agent, and attribute to the intercessor what we know 
 is the office of his superior. Let us suppose a criminal 
 under sentence of death, who solicits the queen to obtain 
 his pardon from the king. Were he in his petition to beg 
 of her majesty to save his life, would any one contend that 
 he had ascribed to the queen the power which the consti- 
 tution has entrusted to the sovereign alone ; and on that 
 account indict him for treason, or a contempt of the king's 
 prerogative?" (Dr. Lingard's Tracts. ) 
 
58 
 
 merits and prayers of the Saints, suffice it, amongst 
 others, to mention two recorded in Holy Writ : / 
 will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my ser- 
 vant Abraham's SAKE. (<) For thy servant David's 
 SAKE, turn not away the face of thine anointed. (k} 
 Do not these texts clearly show that, in considera- 
 tion of the zeal and fidelity of his departed servants, 
 God may sometimes be induced to grant particular 
 blessings and favours to the living ? And this too 
 without any derogation from the merits and media- 
 torship of Christ, because whatever grace the Saints 
 may possess in the eyes of God, it is wholly founded 
 on the merits of our Saviour. 
 
 To understand the question rightly, and to ex- 
 plain that text of St. Paul, which says ; There is 
 one mediator between God and men, the man Christ 
 Jesus, (l} it must be observed that Catholics ac- 
 knowledge Christ to be the only mediator of sal- 
 vation ; but it cannot be argued from thence that 
 there is no other mediator of intercession, without 
 condemning the conduct of St. Paul, the commands 
 of Almighty God himself, and the practice of the 
 Established Church. If, therefore, it is not dero- 
 gatory from the mediatorship of Christ to solicit 
 the prayers of each other, while here on earth, 
 how should it be so in any other state of existence? 
 
 W Gen. xxvi. 24. W Psl cxxxi. 10. 
 
 ^ 1 Eph. Tim. ii. 5. <) See Dr. Lingard's Tracts. 
 
59 
 
 And if the efficacy of prayer be such in behalf of 
 each other, while in this mortal state, in which no 
 man stands justified in the sight of his Creator , (n] 
 how much more may not -be expected from it, 
 when the just man is not only removed from this 
 imperfect state of existence, but has received 
 power over the nations ; (0) is seated upon the same 
 throne with the Almighty ; (p) and is become a pillar 
 in the temple of his God, (q} in that temple where the 
 smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints 
 ascends up before God. (r) Where, then, I would 
 ask, is the superstition and idolatry of all this ? 
 
 & Psl. cxlii. < 0) Apoc. ii. 26. <*> Ibid. iii. 21. 
 W Ibid. iii. 12. < r > Ibid. viii. 4. 
 
 (* } I will subjoin the opinion of Luther upon this point, 
 though rather as .as an object of curiosity, than for the 
 purpose of founding any argument upon it. 
 
 " Concerning the Invocation of Saints," says he, " I 
 agree with the whole Christian Church, and am of opinion, 
 that the saints in heaven are to be invocated ; for, who 
 can contradict the wonders daily wrought at their tombs?" 
 (In Purg. Quorund. Artie. Tom. 1 .) Again : " Some, 
 however, may say ; Of what use can the saints be to us ? 
 Thou art to use them as thou dost thy neighbour ; for as 
 thou sayest to him ; Pray to God for me ; so mayest thou, 
 St. Peter pray for me." (In Festo St. Johannis Eaptistse.) 
 And in another place : " Let no one omit to invoke the 
 blessed Virgin, and the Angels and Saints, that they may 
 intercede with God for them at that instant [the hour of 
 death]." Luther's Prep, ad Mort. 
 
60 
 
 Though relics and images are not expressly 
 mentioned in the oath, yet, as we are not sure 
 that they may not by implication be comprised 
 therein, and that the charge of superstition and 
 idolatry may not be grounded in the minds of those 
 who take this test, upon the supposed doctrine and 
 practice of Catholics upon these points, I deem it 
 quite necessary for our justification to state our be- 
 lief thereon. This belief may be found in the follow- 
 ing propositions : " God alone is the object of 
 our worship and adoration, but Catholics shew 
 honour to the relics of saints, and they place ima- 
 ges and pictures in their churches, to reduce their 
 wandering thoughts, and to enliven their memo- 
 ries towards heavenly things. They shew, besides, 
 a respect to the representations of Christ, of the 
 mysterious facts of their religion, ?nd of the saints 
 of God, beyond what is due to any profane 
 figure; not that they believe any virtue to reside 
 in them, for which they ought to be honoured, 
 but because the honour given to pictures is re- 
 ferred to the prototype, or thing represented. 
 
 " They maintain also that honour and respect 
 are due to the bible, to the cross, to the name of 
 Jesus, to churches, &c. as things peculiarly apper- 
 taining to God; as well as to kings, magistrates, and 
 superiors : for to whom honour is due, honour may 
 be given, without any derogation from the majesty 
 of God, or that divine worship which is appro- 
 priate to him." 
 
61 
 
 To any one at all read in sacred history, it must 
 be superfluous to produce texts of scripture to 
 shew the wonderful miracles wrought by Almighty 
 God by means of the relics of his saints : When 
 Eliseus smote the waters of Jordan with the man- 
 tle of Elias, they parted, and the prophet passed 
 over; (/) When a dead man was let down into the 
 sepulchre of Eliseus, no sooner did he touch the 
 bones of the prophet, than he revived and stood 
 upon his feet. (M) Numbers were healed merely by 
 the shadow of St. Peter passing over them ; (x) and 
 others by handkerchiefs which had touched the 
 body of St. Paul/ y) Surely it is lawful to vene- 
 rate the instruments which the Almighty has some- 
 times been pleased to employ in the performance 
 of his wonderful works ; and from time immemo- 
 rial it has been the custom, when a church was 
 not actually built over the tombs of martyrs, to 
 furnish it with the relics of saints, placing them 
 immediately under the altar, that their mortal re- 
 mains might occupy a similar situation upon 
 earth, in which their souls were seen by St. John 
 in heaven : / saw under the altar, says he, the 
 souls of them that were slain for the word of God, 
 and for the testimony which they held. (z} 
 
 W 4 Kings, ii. 14. <) Ibid. xiii. 21. 
 
 <*> Acts, v. 14, 15, 16. M Ibid. xix. 11, 12. 
 
 W Rev. vi. 9. 
 
62 
 
 Having shewn that we are not superstitious in our 
 veneration of relics, I trust also to prove that we 
 are not idolators in our respect for images, and in 
 the manner in which we use them. The answer in 
 our English Catechisms to the question, Do Ca- 
 tholics pray to images ? is this : No, by no means, 
 for they can neither see, nor hear, nor help us. 
 A similar answer, together with the most pointed 
 condemnation of every species of Idolatry, is to 
 be found, without one exception, in all the cate- 
 chisms in use in Italy, France, Spain, Flanders, 
 Germany ; in a word, in every portion of the Ca- 
 tholic world, in every language in which Chris- 
 tianity is preached, and in every clime in which 
 the name of Jesus is known. Now, if we consider 
 the diligence with which the Catholic clergy in- 
 culcate the study of the catechism, the earnest- 
 ness with which they impress it on the minds of 
 children the clear and familiar manner in which 
 they explain it and the assiduity .and frequency 
 of these explanations, we ought at least to hesi- 
 tate before we pronounce that those who receive 
 and believe these doctrines, receive and believe 
 them in one sense, and practice them in another. 
 It should also be observed that the clergy are no 
 ways interested in keeping up any delusion upon 
 this point; while the common instinct of man, 
 every principle both of natural and revealed reli- 
 gion, conspire to direct his adoration to the sole 
 
63 
 
 object worthy of it to the great Creator and Dis- 
 poser of all things. If, with all the checks and 
 precautions employed, some abuse or extravagance 
 should partially and occasionally exist, it must in 
 justice be attributed rather to the perversity of 
 human nature, than to any thing radically vicious 
 in the system. 
 
 When the Almighty commanded cherubim, (a) who 
 are his creatures as much as man, to be made for 
 the ornament of the ark of the covenant, he did 
 so without fear that the Israelites, prone as they 
 were to idolatry, would transfer those divine 
 honours to them which they owed to himself alone. 
 Indeed, when the Jewish people fell into this most 
 abominable of all crimes, the idolatry was generally 
 meditated first, and the idol raised afterwards : so 
 far were they from being led astray by the use of 
 images in their worship ! Yet, be it remembered, 
 that, though we are bound to pay a due respect to 
 the images of Christ and of his Saints, when used, 
 
 (0) Upon the Propitiatory stood two Cherubim, face to 
 face, with their wings expanded and spread, so as to cover 
 the Ark, forming, as it were, a throne for the God of all 
 Sanctity and Majesty. Hence comes the expression often 
 met with in the Sacred Writings, of God sitting upon the 
 Cherubim. It is in imitation of this, that Cherubim are 
 not unfrequently placed to ornament the altar of the 
 blessed Sacrament, where the Almighty deigns to be 
 visibly present. 
 
64 
 
 we are not bound to use them. They are not 
 necessary appendages to our service, and may be 
 dispensed with, when it is judged proper. Except 
 the Crucifix, an image is hardly ever seen in our 
 Chapels in England, for fear of giving scandal to our 
 Protestant brethren: in this we act in conformity 
 to the advice of St. Paul, who recommends conceding 
 to the weaknesses of others, when concession is no 
 sacrifice of our duty. The Clergy of Catholic coun- 
 tries are the best judges how far the use of images is 
 liable to be abused, and whether any mischief arises 
 from the toleration of them ; and, as they are not 
 condemned, where there can be no sinister motive 
 for continuing them, it is but charity to suppose, 
 that they are not worthy of condemnation.^ In 
 
 (*) That it is in itself no impiety to pay religious vene- 
 ration to inanimate objects, is to be deduced from the 
 commands of Almighty God himself, in the Old Testa- 
 ment. Moses was ordered to put off his shoes on Mount 
 Horeb, and walk barefoot, because it was holy ground. 
 The Israelites were, in several instances, commanded to 
 show a high respect to the Ark of the Covenant, and se- 
 vere punishments were inflicted upon those who either 
 touched it, or looked upon it with irreverence or inatten- 
 tion. In the New Testament we are commanded to bend 
 the knee at the name of Jesus; and why may we not pay 
 the same mark of respect to the representation of his suf- 
 ferings, without the imputation of Idolatry ? By both we 
 only honour the Redeemer of Mankind. 
 
65 
 
 England we pray to Saints, without their images 
 before us, and we invoke the assistance of the 
 Mother of God, without the aid of a picture to 
 enliven our devotion. Protestants take off their 
 hats out of respect before a sinful man ; they pay 
 homage to the portrait of their sovereign, in the 
 halls of his ambassadors, and to the empty throne 
 in the house of peers ; they rise from their seats, 
 and stand uncovered, during the performance of 
 music in honour of the King ; they bow the head 
 when the name of Jesus is pronounced; they kiss 
 the Bible when they have sworn by it, they de- 
 corate their Churches with images painted upon 
 glass; they even kneel before their consecrated bread 
 and wine ; " mere bodily elements, of earthly ma- 
 nufacture ;" (c) and all this without incurring 
 the charge of idolatry. But why similar marks of 
 respect and veneration may not be shown to the 
 image of the Mother of God, or of the Prince of the 
 Apostles, without subjecting those who show them 
 to the odious imputation of superstition and idola- 
 try, is only conceivable to the minds of men who 
 come forward with so groundless and uncharitable 
 a charge. It evinces a degree of ignorance and 
 credulity, equalled only by the want of charity 
 which it betrays. Those who see with a superficial 
 eye, and without a due knowledge of the circum- 
 
 (c) Bishop of Durham's Charge. 
 
 I 
 
66 
 
 stances, may doubtless be scandalized. The Jews 
 were so even in regard to our Saviour, whom, in 
 the ignorance or the blindness of their hearts, they 
 called a drinker of wine, and the companion of 
 publicans. Idolatry is an act of the mind, and 
 not of the body : and it is a crying injustice to 
 presume that a Catholic is praying to an image, 
 because he is praying before it. (rf) 
 
 (rf) Speaking of the conduct of the people towards a 
 supposed miraculous image in the Pantheon, in 1817, 
 Mr. Hobhouse, in his learned researches into the Anti- 
 quities of Rome, observes : 
 
 " The veneration for a miraculous image which has 
 lately crowded the Rotunda, has not bettered the condi- 
 tion of the pavement ; nor does it help the general effect 
 of the interior prospect, to be aware that we see exactly 
 the same idolatry w^hich was practised in the same spot 
 sixteen centuries ago. A philosopher may smile, but a 
 less indifferent spectator is shocked at the inexplicable 
 credulity which stares in the stedfast faces of a hundred 
 worshippers, seated in chairs for hours before the image, 
 in the wish the hope the certainty of some indication 
 of omnipotence from the dirty cobweb-covered block 
 which has been preferred into divinity" 
 
 Now, leaving the credulity to be dealt with as it may 
 deserve, I certainly must exonerate these individuals from 
 the heavy charge of idolatry here brought against them. 
 Had Mr. Hobhouse, whom I most sincerely admire as the 
 steady and uncompromising advocate of civil and religious 
 liberty, employed the same spirit of research in respect to 
 
But such things are stumbling blocks to those 
 only whose mind is darkened : that darkness may 
 
 the grounds of the religious tenets of the Romans, as he 
 has done in support of his reasons for and against the 
 identity of the various and interesting antiquities of their 
 capital, it is impossible that his acute and penetrating 
 mind, should not have discovered enough to have divested 
 him of all predisposition to judge so hastily and so wrong- 
 fully of his neighbour, as he most assuredly has done in 
 this instance : and had he, with this knowledge, applied 
 himself to the particular case before him, I am quite sa- 
 tisfied, that he would have felt as convinced as I do, that 
 no imputation of idolatry could be borne out. Whether 
 any miracle was to be seen in the image is a different 
 question, and depends solely upon the evidence of the 
 senses; but supposing that there was, that miracle was 
 not attributed to the statue, but to the omnipotent power 
 of Him who gave efficacy to the brazen serpent in the 
 wilderness to the shadow of St. Peter to the handker- 
 chiefs which had touched the body of St. Paul and to 
 numerous animate and inanimate objects, in every period 
 of sacred history. No divine attribute was imagined to 
 exist in the statue no worship was paid to it no effi- 
 cacy was attributed to it : it was supposed, in all proba- 
 bility, by over-heated imaginations, that the Almighty 
 had made use of it to express in a supernatural manner, 
 either his displeasure or his satisfaction upon some parti- 
 cular occasion, or to add one more to the many miracu- 
 lous attestations in favour of the religion of Rome. That 
 Catholics are often predisposed to lend too easy a belief to 
 miracles, is unquestionably the case : it arises from a firm, 
 
 F2 
 
68 
 
 proceed only from ignorance ; that ignorance from 
 prejudice; and that prejudice from the erroneous 
 impressions of our youth : and however pardonable 
 it may be in some cases, yet it becomes our 
 bounden duty to dispel it by the light of reason, 
 and by the more invigorated powers of the under- 
 standing. But it is always most unjust and uncha- 
 ritable for men, with minds prepared for exaggerated 
 impressions, to pass judgment upon questions on 
 which they are quite incompetent to decide for 
 want of information ; and still more so to publish 
 those judgments to the world ; thereby inflaming 
 the passions of men, and giving weight to that mass 
 of prejudice which already exists in so lamentable 
 a degree, in this country, against the most numer- 
 ous, the most enlightened, but most calumniated 
 body of Christians in the universe : and this, too, 
 
 unhesitating faith in the truth of their religion. Under 
 this impression, they are necessarily more inclined to look 
 for supernatural testimonials in its favour, and to receive 
 them with but little investigation. This, however, is 
 not the case when they undergo the scrutinizing test 
 recommended by the Council of Trent, and which is re- 
 sorted to on all occasions before a miracle is officially an- 
 nounced to have taken place. 
 
 It is by such means as these, that false impressions are 
 produced upon the minds of the people of England, re- 
 specting the religion of Ireland, and the cause of reli- 
 gious liberty is unintentionally impeded. 
 
when a little research jwould have exhibited these 
 matters in their true light, and would have shown 
 that to be a pious practice, agreeable both to reason 
 and revelation, which is now first of all misrepre- 
 sented, and then stigmatized as superstitious and 
 idolatrous. It is surely beyond endurance that every 
 thing should be calculated upon the impressions of 
 prejudice ; and that, from the most liberal and most 
 learned, as well as from the most bigotted and most 
 ignorant, we should hear of nothing but the absurd- 
 ities and impositions of the Catholic religion. 
 Every doctrine, practice, and ceremony of our 
 Church is too often seen through the same distorted 
 medium ; but, happily for the cause of Christianity, 
 to the eyes of the sincere inquirer, the darkness by 
 which she is enveloped, is as quickly and as com- 
 pletely dispelled by the light of truth, as are the 
 shadows of night before the dawning of the day. 
 
 IV. From the idolatry of the Invocation of 
 Saints, and the use of images, the oath now leads 
 us to consider the grand accusation of idolatry 
 against Catholics, as the worshippers of bread and 
 wine in the sacrifice of the Mass. We are called 
 upon " solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of 
 God, to profess, testify, and declare, that we do 
 believe that the sacrifice of the Mass, as now used 
 in the Church of Rome, is superstitious and idola- 
 trous." Whereas, I do solemnly and sincerely 
 
70 
 
 and am ready so to do with God for my witness, 
 that I most firmly and steadfastly believe that the 
 sacrifice of the Mass, as now used by the Church of 
 Rome, was instituted by our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, as a perpetual commemoration of his death 
 and passion; and that far from being either supersti- 
 tious or idolatrous, it is a sacrifice of propitiation, 
 most pleasing and acceptable to the Almighty, who 
 absolutely requires it from the hands of his minis- 
 ters. Independently of the authority of the Church, 
 I believe it from the following view of the question, 
 which I shall state in as cursory a manner as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 In almost the earliest periods of Sacred History, 
 we read of the sacrifice of bread and wine offered 
 by Melchisedec, the priest of the Most High ; this, 
 together with the feast of unleavened bread, was 
 emblematical of the matter and form, while the 
 chief sacrifice of the law of Moses, the Paschal 
 Lamb, was a type of the essence and substance, of 
 that great sacrifice which was once offered up upon 
 the altar of the cross, and has been ever since 
 perpetuated in the continual commemoration of 
 that event, ordained by our Redeemer himself; a 
 commemoration which so distinctly verifies the 
 prophecy of Malachias, delivered so many years 
 before. / have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord 
 of Hosts, (e] addressing himself to the stiff-necked 
 
 ^Malac.i. 10. 
 
71 
 
 and reprobate Jews, neither will I accept an offering 
 at your hands. For, from the rising of the sun 
 to the going down of the same, my name shall be 
 great among the Gentiles, and in every place 
 incense shall be offered to my name, and a clean 
 offerlng. (f} We see how this sacrifice was offered, 
 and in what manner its institution was understood, 
 by the Apostles, immediately after the death and 
 resurrection of our Saviour. As they were minis- 
 tering to the Lord, and fasting, say the Acts of 
 the Apostles, (xiii. 2,) the Holy Ghost said to 
 them, fyc. Again, The chalice of benediction, 
 which we bless, is it not the communion of the 
 blood of Christ ? and the bread which we break, is 
 it not the partaking of the body of the Lord $ (g} 
 These, and many other texts of the inspired writ- 
 ings, point out the practice, and innumerable 
 testimonials of the first ages of the Church mark 
 the interpretation which it bore ; and it has ever 
 since continued, and ever will continue (for the 
 word of God shall not pass away (hy ) a perpetual 
 commemoration of that great peace-offering, in 
 propitiation for the sins of mankind, the passion 
 and death of our Saviour, and a striking and com- 
 plete verification of the above pointed and remark- 
 able prophecy, and without which no accomplish- 
 ment of it is to be found. Though Protestants 
 
 ( /} Moloch, i. 10-11. <*> 1 Car. x. 16. 
 
 fh) St. Luke, xxi. v. 33. 
 
72 
 
 have retained the symbols of bread and wine, and, 
 in one sense, use them as a commemoration of 
 the death of our Redeemer (though this but seldom), 
 yet Catholics alone (the Greek and Eastern schisma- 
 tics included, who believe in Transubstantiation as 
 well as ourselves) cease not to offer them in the way of 
 sacrifice. As sacrifice is a homage which we never 
 pay but to God alone, so also is it an essential mark 
 of that supreme and sovereign duty which we 
 owe to the Omnipotent Author of the creation ; 
 and from the very first existence of man upon 
 earth, it has ever formed a principal part of the 
 worship which heaven required at his hands : and 
 yet protestantism has abolished it. (l) 
 
 c ^ Cain and Abel offered to God the fruits of the earth 
 and animals. Gen. iv. 3, 4. 
 
 Noah, also, when he quitted the ark, immediately 
 erected an altar, and thereon offered to the Lord of all 
 things, a holocaust of clean animals. Gen. viii. 20. 
 
 Under the old law there were three distinct species of 
 sacrifice : 1st. The Holocawt, which was entirely con- 
 sumed by fire, to signify the complete and unreserved ho- 
 mage due to the Sovereignty of Heaven ; 2nd. The Vic- 
 tim for sin, which was always united to the Holocaust, 
 and was divided into three parts ; one being consumed 
 upon the altar, the second burnt beyond the precincts of 
 the camp, and the third eaten by the priests ; 3d. The 
 propitiatory sacrifices, offered either in thanksgiving to 
 God for past favours, or to implore fresh blessings: of 
 these not only the priests, but also the people, partook. 
 
73 
 
 In the Temple of Jerusalem 32,000 Levites 
 were appointed to serve therein, and the sacri- 
 fices were offered with music. Four lambs were 
 offered for a holocaust ; two in the morning, and 
 two in the evening ; and this was called the Per- 
 petual Sacrifice. On sabbath days and festivals 
 the sacrifices were multiplied. 
 
 Under the Christian dispensation, the Sacrifice 
 of the Mass has succeeded to the Sacrifice of the 
 Temple of Jerusalem ; indeed the latter were em- 
 blematical of the former, which now constitutes 
 that universal and perpetual Clean Offering, fore- 
 told in those very times. 
 
 Notwithstanding the ample manner in which 
 this subject has been already treated, of such high 
 importance do I feel it to be to justify ourselves in 
 the eyes of our fellow Christians from the very 
 gross imputations heaped upon us, on the ground 
 of our belief in Transubstantiation, and the Sacri- 
 fice of the Mass imputations which go to class 
 us with the idolaters of China and Hindostan 
 that I will insert an able and learned argument 
 from the pen of a late venerable prelate of the 
 Roman Catholic Church, which will, I trust, be 
 found to elucidate the points at issue. 
 
 " But if," he says, " abstracting from the infal- 
 lible authority of the Catholic Church, this ques- 
 tion of fact, whether the Sacrifice of the Mass was 
 instituted by Christ as the sacrifice of his body 
 
74 
 
 and blood, really present under the appearances 
 of bread and wine, be made a matter of historical 
 inquiry, the truth of it may be easily ascertained 
 by the evidence of historical testimony. The esta- 
 blishment of Christiany in all countries was a great 
 public fact. The establishment of Christianity 
 consisted in the establishment of the belief and 
 profession of the doctrines, and of the reception 
 and observance of the precepts and institutions of 
 Christ. Every Christian will surely give credit 
 to the Apostles for having introduced into all 
 countries, where they established Christianity, the 
 very same doctrines, precepts, and institutions, 
 that they had received from Christ himself. The 
 Apostles could all say, what St. Paul said of him- 
 self, when he shewed the Corinthians what autho- 
 rity he had for instructing them in the doctrine of 
 the Eucharist : ' I have received of the Lord that 
 which also I delivered to you.' (1 Cor. xi. 23.) 
 
 " As there could be no contradiction or incon- 
 sistency in what they received from Christ, the 
 Apostles must have uniformly delivered and esta- 
 blished the same in all places. Hence, by ascer- 
 taining what religious doctrines and institutions 
 were uniformly taught and established in all na- 
 tions by the Apostles, or by Apostolic teachers 
 instructed and sent by them, we come to the cer- 
 tain knowledge of the doctrines and institutions 
 of Christ. What those were which were uniformly 
 
 
75 
 
 delivered and established by the Apostles in all 
 nations, where they established Christianity, may 
 be shown by historical evidences, attesting what 
 religious doctrines and sacred rites have con- 
 stantly and uniformly been professed and observed 
 through all ages from the beginning, by all Chris- 
 tian Churches founded by the Apostles, or by men 
 deriving their mission from Apostolic authority. 
 So that if, on inquiry, it be found that the same 
 religious doctrines and ordinances have been uni- 
 formly professed and observed in all Christian 
 countries, for eighteen, or at least were, for fifteen 
 centuries, and that no later origin of the introduc- 
 tion of these doctrines and ordinances can be as- 
 signed, than the first establishment of Christianity 
 in those countries, in some of which it was esta- 
 blished by the Apostles themselves, surely this 
 must be admitted as a most convincing proof that 
 these doctrines and ordinances are the same as 
 the Apostles delivered, and as they had received 
 from Christ himself. 
 
 " If at any period of the Jewish state proof had 
 been called for, to show that the sacrifice of the Pas- 
 chal Lamb was instituted by the authority of God, 
 on the eve of the passage of the Israelites out of 
 Egypt, as a constant memorial of that miraculous 
 event, and of the circumstances attending it, would 
 not the historical evidence of the annual oblation of 
 the Paschal sacrifice in the Jewish church, the un- 
 
76 
 
 interrupted observance of which rite might be 
 traced back to the time of Moses, serve as an au- 
 thentic and undeniable testimony of the origin and 
 ends of its institution. If it were required to 
 show that the sacrament of baptism was instituted 
 by Christ, for the remission of sin, and for the 
 other spiritual effects which it is believed to pro- 
 duce ; most undoubtedly the uniform and univer- 
 sal practice observed in all Christian churches, in 
 all countries, and in all ages, from the first esta- 
 blishment of Christianity in those countries, of 
 administering baptism as a sacred rite ordained 
 by Christ for those spiritual effects, would be ad- 
 mitted as a strong and legitimate proof, that this 
 sacrament originated in the institution and com- 
 mand of Christ himself. And this ancient and 
 universal practice of all Christian churches, would 
 have the force of an authentic decision of the true 
 meaning of the words of Christ, related in Scrip- 
 ture, concerning the necessity of baptism, by water, 
 for the remission of sin. Could the origin or 
 meaning of any civil law be better shewn, than by 
 the uniform practice of the judges and magistrates 
 in enforcing the observance of it, from the period 
 at which it is supposed to have been made? 
 
 " If, therefore, it can be historically shewn, that 
 the sacrifice of the Mass, as the sacrifice of the 
 body and blood of Christ, really present under the 
 appearances of bread and wine, had been con- 
 
77 
 
 stantly and universally offered in all Christian 
 churches, in all countries, and in all ages, from the 
 first establishment of Christianity in those coun- 
 tries, to the time of Luther in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury ; it will be established as an historical fact, 
 that the Sacrifice of the Mass was introduced by 
 the apostles into all countries where they esta- 
 blished Christianity, and consequently that it was 
 received by them from Christ, no less than the 
 Sacrament of Baptism, or any other doctrine or 
 institution of the Christian religion. This can be 
 shewn by the evidence of historical testimony. 
 
 " It is an historical fact, that when Luther first 
 began to abolish the practice of offering the Sa- 
 crifice of the Mass, in the year 1534, this sacrifice 
 was then universally offered as the sacrifice of the 
 body and blood of Christ really present under the 
 appearances of bread and wine, by all Christian 
 churches of every denomination in the world ; not 
 only by those which were in communion with the 
 see of Rome, and which are spread more or less 
 over all nations ; but by those, which for many 
 centuries had been separated from its communion ; 
 by the Greek schismatical church, and by all the 
 various sects of the Nestorians, Eutychians, and 
 other heretical churches spread over Asia and part 
 of Africa. That the Sacrifice of the Mass was at 
 that period offered in all churches throughout the 
 world, which were in communion with the See of 
 
78 
 
 Rome, will not be denied. That it was offered at 
 that time, by the schismatical and heretical churches 
 alluded to, will be shewn by proper testimonies. 
 It has, indeed, been acknowledged by Protestant 
 writers of the first respectability. 
 
 " It is also an historical fact, that the constant 
 and universal practice of offering the Sacrifice of 
 the Mass, as the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood 
 of Christ really present under the appearances of 
 bread and wine, may be so far traced back in all 
 those Christian churches, in every country, from 
 the sixteenth century to the earliest ages ; that no 
 later origin can be assigned of this religious prac- 
 tice, than the first establishment of Christianity in 
 those countries. 
 
 " It may be observed that none of those schis- 
 matical or heretical churches mentioned above, 
 had derived any religious doctrine or rite from the 
 Church of Rome, since the period of their sepa- 
 ration from the faith and communion of the Apos- 
 tolic See : and, consequently, that the Christian 
 doctrines or rites, which they held in the sixteenth 
 century, in common with the Church of Rome, 
 were held by both before the period of the sepa- 
 ration. Hence the testimony of the Greek schis- 
 matical church, and of the other schismatical and 
 heretical churches in Asia and Africa, concerning 
 the antiquity and divine institution of the Sacri- 
 fice of the Mass, cannot be suspected as given in 
 
79 
 
 favour of the Church of Rome, but must be ad- 
 mitted as strong evidence of fact. 
 
 " The attempts which were made by some Lu- 
 therans and Calvinists in the sixteenth or seven- 
 teenth century, to engage the Greek schismatics 
 in the East to adopt the doctrines of the Reforma- 
 tion, and particularly to reject the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass, drew from the Greek bishops the most so- 
 lemn attestations of the practice of their churches, 
 the most explicit professions of their ancient doc- 
 trines, and the most energetic condemnations of 
 the innovations, both in doctrine and practice, in- 
 troduced by the reformers of religion, in the six- 
 teenth century. Relative to the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass, the following declarations were made by 
 the first ecclesiastical authorities of the different 
 schismatical churches in the East. 
 
 " The Eutychian Patriarch of the Armenians 
 published the doctrine and practice of the Euty- 
 chian churches, in a solemn act, dated Aleppo, 
 May 1, 1668 : ' We adore/ says he, ' with su- 
 preme worship, Jesus Christ, who is hidden in 
 the Holy Eucharist, and we offer, in the Holy Sa- 
 crifice, for the remission of the sins of the living 
 and the dead, the same body which was crucified, 
 and the same blood which was shed for us on 
 Mount Calvary.' 
 
 "TheNestorian patriarch, Joseph, and his clergy, 
 in a public attestation, given at Diarbec, in the 
 
80 
 
 year 1669, thus express their condemnation of the 
 doctrines falsely imputed to the Nestorian churches 
 by the Calvinists, and also their profession of the 
 doctrine held by those churches concerning the 
 Real Presence, Transubstantiation, and the Sacri- 
 fice of the Mass : ' We have learnt with extreme 
 astonishment that a certain son of Satan, of the 
 French nation (they speak of the minister Claude) 
 has dared to offer an atrocious injury to the Ori- 
 ental church, by falsely charging it with not be- 
 lieving, and not receiving, the great mystery of 
 the sacred oblation. We firmly believe, that after 
 the words of Jesus Christ, which the priest pro- 
 nounces by the authority which he has received 
 from heaven, the substance of bread is changed 
 into the substance of the body of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and that the substance of wine is changed 
 into the substance of his precious blood, so that 
 nothing remains of the bread and wine, but their 
 accidents. We offer this holy body, which was 
 crucified for us, and this blood, which was shed 
 for many and for us ; *. e. for the living and the 
 dead, for the remission of their sins/ 
 
 " Seven schismatical Greek archbishops, who 
 were assembled at Constantinople, on the 18th 
 July, 1671, attested the doctrine of their churches, 
 by this solemn declaration : f That the Eucharist 
 is a sacrifice for the living and the dead, instituted 
 by Jesus Christ, and delivered to us by the Apos- 
 tles/ 
 
81 
 
 " It is therefore an historical fact, that at the 
 time of the Protestant reformation, by Luther and 
 Calvin, not only the Greek schismatical church, 
 but the heretical Churches in Asia and Africa, of 
 which the Nestorians and Eutychiansare the leading 
 sects, admitted and offered the sacrifice of the body 
 and blood of Jesus Christ, really present under the 
 appearances of bread and wine. From whom did 
 they receive this doctrine and this sacred rite? 
 Not from the Church of Rome, from which they 
 had received no rite of religion, no tradition, no 
 doctrine, since the distant period of their separation 
 from its communion. The Mass was, therefore, 
 admitted as the common Christian sacrifice, by the 
 Greek schismatical Church before the year 890; 
 by the Eutychians, before the year 451 ; and 
 by the Nestorians, before 431 : the periods of their 
 separation from the communion of the Church of 
 Rome. Indeed, we see that the seven Greek Arch- 
 bishops cited above, declared ; ' That the Eucharist 
 is a sacrifice for the living and the dead, instituted 
 by Jesus Christ, and delivered to us by the Apos- 
 tles' The doctrine of the Nestorians and Euty- 
 chians concerning the sacrifice of the Mass, which 
 is the same on this point as the doctrine of all 
 other ancient Christian churches, was not invented 
 by Nestorius, nor by Eutyches, when they began 
 to teach their heretical doctrines against other 
 articles of the Christian creed; but this doctrine 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 of the sacrifice of the Mass, was the ancient doc- 
 trine of the churches in which Nestorius and Euty- 
 ches were originally instructed in the Christian 
 Faith. 
 
 " The above testimonies, which show what was 
 the doctrine and practice in the sixteenth century 
 of the Greek, and of all the Christian Churches 
 of Asia and Africa, which are separated from the 
 communion of the Apostolic see, and which show 
 the high antiquity, even the divine origin, of that 
 universal doctrine and practice of offering the 
 sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, really 
 present under the appearances of bread and wine, 
 cannot be suspected of partiality to the Church of 
 Rome, but must be received as evidences of histori- 
 cal truth. 
 
 " But when we consider the universality and 
 primitive antiquity of the uniform doctrine and 
 practice of all Christian Churches in communion 
 with the see of Rome, concerning the sacrifice of 
 the Mass, as the sacrifice of the body and blood of 
 Christ, really present under the appearances of 
 bread and wine, what a collection of historical evi- 
 dence is presented to us, demonstrating that this 
 doctrine and practice was established by the Apos- 
 tles, as the doctrine and institution of Christ, in 
 all nations where they established Christianity? 
 The most incontestible and irresistible proofs of 
 this universal and primitive doctrine and practice, 
 
83 
 
 are found in the ancient Liturgies, or Missals, or 
 books containing the form and order of divine 
 worship, used in all Christian Churches, from the 
 beginning of Christianity. 
 
 The holy fathers of the Church agree that the 
 substance of these Liturgies, which is the same in 
 all, was derived from the Apostles, and communi- 
 cated by them to the churches, where they preached 
 and established the religion of Christ. The first 
 Liturgy was that which was formed and used by 
 the Apostles, in the Church of Jerusalem, and 
 which is sometimes called the Liturgy of St. James, 
 the first Bishop of that see ; then the Liturgies 
 of the patriarchate churches of Alexandria, called 
 that of St. Mark, of Antioch, and of Constantinople. 
 TheseLiturgies were communicated to the Churches 
 under those Patriarchates. The most sacred part 
 of these Liturgies, the Canon, was not originally 
 written, but was carefully committed to memory 
 by the Bishops and Priests, as the Apostles' Creed 
 was by the faithful. The Canon was not com- 
 mitted to writing till the fifth age, when the danger 
 of exposing all that was most sacred in the mys- 
 teries of religion, to the derision and blasphemy of 
 infidels, was not so great as in the first three or 
 four centuries. But when the Canon was gener- 
 ally committed to writing, it was found to be the 
 same in substance in all Christian countries, which 
 showed the unity of its origin, in the unity of that 
 
 G2 
 
84 
 
 faith which was every where taught by the Apos- 
 tles. In all these ancient and primitive Liturgies, 
 we find the clearest expressions and professions, 
 made by priests and people, that the same body 
 and blood of Christ, which were immolated on the 
 cross, are offered to God in the Christian sacrifice, 
 under the appearances of bread and wine, for the 
 living and the dead ; and that this same body and 
 blood are really received in the communion. In 
 all these Liturgies, we read the most sublime hymns 
 of praise and thanksgiving to God and Christ really 
 present ; acts of spiritual communication between 
 the faithful on earth and the saints in heaven ; and 
 prayers offered for the repose of the souls of those 
 who have departed this life in the faith and com- 
 munion of the Church. Some short citations, from 
 a few of the principal Liturgies, will show the spirit 
 of them all. They all profess that the Mass is the 
 sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, really 
 present, under the appearances of bread and 
 wine. 
 
 " In the Liturgy of Jerusalem, after the form of 
 the consecration of the bread and wine, the priest 
 says, ' We offer to thee, O Lord, this tremendous 
 and unbloody sacrifice! Before the Communion, 
 the Priest, addressing his prayers to Jesus Christ, 
 on the altar, says, ( O Lord, my God, may thy grace 
 render me worthy to receive thy sacred body and 
 thy precious blood, for the remission of my sins, 
 
85 
 
 and for life everlasting.' In the Liturgy of Alex- 
 andria, which has been in use among the Cophtes 
 or Eutychians for about 1300 years, the Mass is 
 called the c sacrifice of benediction.' In the prayer 
 of the oblation of the bread and wine, the Priest 
 thus prays to Jesus Christ : ' Change them, so that 
 this bread may become thy sacred body, and what 
 is contained in the chalice, thy precious blood.' 
 
 In the Liturgy of Constantinople, the Mass is 
 called a "rational and unbloody sacrifice' The 
 Priest offers this prayer to Christ, ' O, Jesus Christ, 
 our God, thou who dwellest in heaven with 
 the Father, and who art here invisibly with us, 
 make us worthy to partake of thy most pure body, 
 and of thy precious blood, and to distribute it to 
 thy people. 
 
 " In the Liturgy of the Syrians, it is called a 
 ' propitiatory sacrifice' In the Syriac Liturgy, 
 called of St. Maruthas, the priest prays, ' that this, 
 which is mere bread, may be changed, and may 
 become the same body that was immolated on the 
 cross, the same body that was raised in glory, and 
 did not see corruption ; the body of the Word of 
 God, of our Saviour Jesus Christ, for the remis- 
 sion of sins.' The people say ' Amen.' And that 
 ' the wine, which is in the chalice, may be changed, 
 and may become the same blood that was poured 
 forth on the summit of Golgotha ; the same blood 
 that flowed on the earth and purified it from sin ; 
 
86 
 
 the blood of the Lord himself, of the Word of 
 God, of the Saviour Jesus Christ, for the remis- 
 sion of sins, and for life everlasting, to those who 
 receive it/ 
 
 " In the Armenian Liturgy, the priest, praying 
 for the dead, says ; ' Be mindful, O Lord, and hav- 
 ing pity, be propitious to the souls of those who 
 have departed this life, and particularly to that 
 soul for which we offer this holy sacrifice' Du- 
 ring the communion this canticle is sung : f This 
 bread is the body of Christ ; this cup is the blood 
 of the new testament. The hidden sacrament is 
 manifested to us, and by it God shews himself to 
 us. Here is Jesus Christ, the Word of God, who 
 is seated at the right hand of the Father. He is 
 sacrificed in the midst of us.' 
 
 " The Roman Liturgy was brought to England 
 by St. Augustin in the year 595 ; and in substance 
 has been the common Liturgy of all the Latin 
 churches, from their conversion to Christianity. 
 It agrees with our catholic Liturgy now in use, 
 except in some accidental additions that have been 
 made. In the Roman Liturgy, according to the 
 sacramentary of Pope Gelasius, written about the 
 year 490, we find these words before the conse- 
 cration : ' We beseech thee, O Lord, in all things 
 to bless, approve, ratify, sanction, and accept this 
 oblation, that it may become the body and blood 
 of thy most beloved son, our Lord Jesus Christ.' 
 
87 
 
 And after the consecration the priest says; ( We 
 offer unto thy supreme majesty, of thy gifts be- 
 stowed upon us, a pure victim, a holy victim, an 
 unspotted victim, the holy bread of eternal life, 
 and the chalice of everlasting salvation.' 
 
 " By the evidence of the ancient Liturgies, used 
 by all Christian churches in the world, previous 
 to the change of religion by Luther and Calvin in 
 the sixteenth century, the uniform and universal 
 religious practice of offering the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass, as the sacrifice of the body and blood of 
 Christ, really present under the appearances of 
 bread and wine, may be traced back to the earliest 
 ages of Christianity. No later date can be as- 
 signed of the introduction of this sacred rite, than 
 the period of the introduction of Christianity itself, 
 into those countries in which the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass was received. The primitive practice and 
 the divine institution of Baptism by water, are not 
 more strongly attested than the antiquity of the 
 practice of offering the Sacrifice of the Mass, and 
 the primitive belief that this holy sacrifice was in- 
 stituted by Christ himself. The Sacrament of Bap- 
 tism, and the Sacrifice of the Mass, are both pro- 
 posed to our belief, by the same authority, as in- 
 stitutions of Christ ; and both equally attested by 
 the universal practice of all ages of the Christian 
 church. Both, therefore, ought to be received 
 with the same certainty of faith by every Chris- 
 tian." 
 
88 
 
 At the end of this volume (a) will be found some of 
 the authorities by which we deduce our doctrine 
 upon these points, from the age of the Apostles, 
 through the first five centuries of the Church, 
 taken from that learned compilation, The Faith of 
 Catholics, confirmed by Scripture, and attested by 
 the Fathers of the first five centuries of the church ;* 
 and which may be taken as a specimen of the tes- 
 timony we can produce in favour of each indivi- 
 dual article of our faith. The authorities from 
 the fifth century to the present time, are so copious 
 that it would be only a redundancy of proof to 
 cite any of them ; indeed it must be considered 
 perfectly unnecessary so to do, since all Protestant 
 writers agree that if the Catholic creed of the pre- 
 sent day, can be proved to be conformable to that 
 of the first four ages of the Church, the question 
 of its authenticity must be considered as settled. 
 
 I trust that sufficient proof has now been offered 
 in favour of the doctrine of Transubstantiation 
 of the real, undivided, and substantial presence of 
 Christ in the Eucharist, and in the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass ; and if Catholics are still to be accused of 
 idolatry and superstition for their belief on these 
 points, the accusation must, in the first place, be 
 preferred against the Apostles themselves, and 
 then be repeated against their descendants in the 
 
 w See APPENDIX, No. 3, page xvi. 
 
89 
 
 ministry through every succeeding age, implicat-, 
 ing the great mass of the whole Christian world. 
 
 But, admitting for a moment, for the sake of 
 argument, that the immense majority of Christians 
 have, for upwards of 1,800 years, been labouring 
 under an egregious mistake, to what does this 
 charge of idolatry amount? That we believe 
 Christ to be where, in the opinion of Protestants, 
 he is not ! ' This is the head and front of our 
 offending/ Not that we adore any false or sup- 
 posititious divinity, but that we worship the one 
 only true and living God, the Creator of heaven, 
 of earth, and of all things, truly and substan- 
 tially present on our altars, though concealed un- 
 der the sacramental veils of bread and wine ; for 
 it cannot be that we adore the elements of bread 
 and wine, since the faith of Catholics is, that the 
 elements no longer exist, but that they are totally 
 and entirely changed into the body and blood, 
 united with the soul and the divinity, of Christ. 
 It is, therefore, only the true God whom we adore; 
 and if we are mistaken, the adoration is equally 
 directed to Him. The greatest possible extent of 
 our error, therefore, can be in believing God to be 
 visibly present where he is not so/ i; 
 
 (i) That colossus of literature, Dr, Johnson, speaking 
 of the supposed idolatry of the Mass, is reported to have 
 said : " Sir, there is no idolatry in the M ass ; they [Ca 
 
90 
 
 With such principles of Christianity as we pro- 
 fess, and such a steadfast faith as we hold in the 
 articles of our belief, it can no longer be a matter 
 of astonishment that Catholics cannot conscienti- 
 
 tholics] believe God to be there, and they worship Him."* 
 But in thus enlisting him amongst the Protestant autho- 
 rities in favour of many of the doctrines of the Roman 
 Catholic church, I am fully aware to how little weight 
 his opinions are entitled upon such subjects. Like all 
 those who are not united in their creed by one common 
 principle of obedience to revelation and authority, he was 
 unsettled in his religious belief, and totally incompetent 
 to pronounce upon such matters, from want of information, 
 which, great as his acquirements were, in other respects, 
 he had never taken the trouble to obtain in these. I 
 chiefly cite him as an honourable example of liberality, 
 and as above the vulgar short-sighted prejudices so com- 
 mon in the present day ; and that too amongst persons who 
 have enjoyed much better opportunities of divesting them- 
 selves of the errors of education, than he ever had. The 
 same observations may, more or less, apply to all the other 
 Protestant authorities, which, while they exhibit the vac- 
 cillating nature of Protestant belief, serve also to prove 
 how much more substantial it was in the days of her 
 earliest and most learned divines, than are the shallow 
 and unmeaning doctrines to which it has been reduced 
 and explained away, by subsequent teachers in their 
 church. 
 
 * See the whole Dialogue, which does great credit to Johnson's 
 liberality. 
 
91 
 
 ously swear that these doctrines of their Church, 
 which we have just discussed, are either supersti- 
 tious or idolatrous : and, I trust that enough has 
 been said to show, that it ought to be the earnest 
 desire of Christians of every denomination, to see 
 so false and so odious a test wholly and entirely 
 abolished. What, in the name of heaven, has the 
 Supremacy r of the Bishop of Rome, the Doctrine of 
 Transubstantiation, the Invocation of Saints, or the 
 Sacrificeof the Mass, to do with the imposing or col- 
 lecting of the public taxes (which, notwithstanding, 
 Catholics pay the same as others), with the propriety 
 of applying the sinking fund to the exigencies of the 
 state with the liberation of Greece with the game 
 laws or indeed with the regulation of any part of 
 our economy, either foreign or domestic ? Though 
 no encomium was thought fitting in the speech from 
 the throne, the nation has been loud in its just and 
 heartfelt praises on the heroes of the glorious and 
 brilliant victory of Navarin : and I will challenge 
 even a Peel to say, if it has ever once flashed 
 upon his mind, that the laurels so nobly won by 
 admiral de Rigny, were less bright because that 
 gallant officer believes in Transubstantiation, and 
 in the spiritual supremacy of the Pope? That 
 admiral Heiden's were blighted by the Invocation 
 of Saints ? or that sir Edward Codrington's were 
 the more glorious, because, like a true Protest- 
 ant, as we must suppose him to ,be, he looks 
 upon these partners of his victory as idolators? 
 
92 
 
 Away, then, with the folly and hypocrisy of those 
 who would taint the merits of the valiant and the 
 virtuous, because they believe in the purest and the 
 oldest doctrines of Christianity, doctrines which we 
 prove to have been revealed from heaven; but which 
 a new and persecuting church has erroneously con- 
 ceived it to be her policy to stigmatize as super- 
 stitious and idolatrous ! If they will exclude Catho- 
 lics from parliament, let them invent a Test for the 
 purpose, which shall not be a libel on the memory of 
 those ancestors, of whom Englishmen are so fond of 
 boasting that shall not be a gross insult upon 
 one hundred millions of the people of Europe, and 
 twenty millions of the people of America, all and 
 without exception, the allies of this country, 
 a Test which, while it ceases to defame those who 
 refuse it, will not risk to wound the consciences of 
 those who take it. (c) 
 
 (cj I trust I have given the true construction of that 
 part of the oath which calls upon us to declare that there 
 is not any Transubstantiation of the elements, &c. in the 
 sense in which it is commonly understood by English 
 Protestants. I have taken these words to refer to that 
 tenet of Protestantism, be it what it may, which has been 
 substituted for that doctrine of the Catholic Church, of 
 which Transubstantiation forms a distinctive feature. If 
 the oath were meant as a mere condemnation or rejection 
 of the doctrine of Transubstantiation, why did it not say 
 so in plain, simple, and unequivocal terms ? Why add, 
 " in tire sense in which they [the words of the oath] are 
 
93 
 
 V. Let us now proceed to Other Reasons which 
 must for ever prevent a Catholic from conscien- 
 
 commonly understood by English Protestants," unless it 
 were meant to pledge us to the belief of that which English 
 Protestants commonly hold as an article of their faith ? If 
 I have mistaken the meaning of the oath, I trust it is from 
 the want of perspicuity and precision in the oath itself. 
 But surely this very circumstance is but another objection 
 to it. We allow that the terms of an oath are not always 
 to be canvassed, and cavilled at too minutely; but the 
 sense in which the oath is taken must be clearly under- 
 stood, and by no means be contradicted by the oath itself. 
 There must be a perfect understanding between the par- 
 ties as to its real meaning. Now, if it be contended that 
 the oath in question, is so loose, vague, and indetermin- 
 ate, that, its object being merely to exclude Catholics 
 from parliament, it is not meant to bind the consciences 
 of men in any other respect ; we meet with difficulties at 
 every point. In almost every part of it we find, not 
 merely a negation of opinions, but an absolute and so- 
 lemn asseveration of the truth of others, stated in plain 
 and intelligible terms. Out of four distinct propositions 
 of which the oath consists, there is but one that savours 
 of any ambiguity ; and this, I contend, does but make it 
 the worse, unaccompanied as it is by any explanation. 
 Such an evasion, as I have supposed, of the plain and 
 positive terms in which it is couched, would only sub- 
 ject the individual who alleged it, to the guilt of a total 
 disregard of the solemnity of an oath, and of calling the 
 Almighty to bear witness to the truth of assertions, which, 
 with the sacred volume in his hand, he was making with 
 his lips, but from which his mind dissented. 
 
94 
 
 tiously conforming to the Established Church, or 
 to any other system of Protestantism. For, inde- 
 pendently of what is demanded of us by the Test, 
 being also called upon to conform to the establish- 
 ment by the Corporation Acts, which require us 
 to take the sacrament according to the rites of the 
 Church of England ; there likewise arises a neces- 
 sity for stating our reasons more generally for non- 
 conformity to that Church. 
 
 In the First place, then, I cannot conform to Pro- 
 testantism, because, as the Scriptures do not contain 
 all things whatsoever Christ commanded his Apos- 
 tles to teach, (d} Protestants are not authorized in 
 holding them forth as our only rule of faith, our only 
 teacher. We know that there are also many other 
 things which Jesus did and of course said] ; which, 
 if they were written every one, the world itself 
 would not be able to contain the hooks that should 
 be written.^ We know that St. Peter testified with 
 very many other words cf) than those which were 
 committed to writing ; and St. John also informs 
 his disciples that, having more things to write to 
 them, he would not by paper and ink, for he hoped 
 he should soon be with them, and speak face to 
 
 There are numerous other instances in the sa- 
 
 (rf) St. Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. & St John xxi. 25. 
 ^ Actsii. 40. Cf) 2 St. John, 12. 
 
95 
 
 cred writings of similar declarations,^ yet with 
 such a knowledge of the rich treasures which 
 came from the lips of our Saviour and his Apos- 
 tles, Protestants argue as if they considered that 
 nothing more was worthy of preservation but 
 what was recorded, at a considerable distance of 
 time, in the New Testament. What reason have 
 we to suppose, that the doctrines which we hold 
 by Tradition, were not those which were preached 
 by our Saviour, but omitted by the sacred pen- 
 men? Because the scriptures are silent, are we 
 to conclude that Christ was so too? It is no 
 where said, that they were written for the purpose 
 of containing a regular code of faith : they were 
 written to edify, instruct, and exhort not to be 
 a sole and independent guide in matters of doc- 
 trine ; to confirm, rather than to define, our faith. 
 There are clearly other sources of historical evi- 
 dence than written documents. If it pleased our 
 Saviour to inspire the writers of the New Testa- 
 ment, (and which we do not know to have been 
 the case, from the scriptures themselves, save in 
 regard to the Apocalypse, though, indeed, many 
 parts may be said to bear internal evidence of the 
 
 W Christ shewed himself alive after his passion, by many 
 proofs, for forty days appearing to them [his apostles and 
 disciples] and SPEAKING OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 Acts i. 3. 
 
96 
 
 hand of God,) so it has pleased him to guard un- 
 injured and unbroken, by his particular provi- 
 dence, a chain of traditionary evidence. Is it not 
 as easy for the Almighty, by a peculiar superinten- 
 dance of his providence, to preserve the purity of 
 his doctrine inviolate through the lapse of ages, 
 as it was to inspire illiterate fishermen to preach 
 that doctrine in the first instance ? If Christ 
 could inspire men to write and to preach, can he 
 not equally inspire them, when sitting in judg- 
 ment, relative to the verdict they are to pro- 
 nounce? It is this superintendance of his Pro- 
 vidence which has transmitted to us that part of 
 his holy law which was not written, and which we 
 reverence and obey equally with that which was, 
 because they proceed from the same authority 
 the authority of God. 
 
 Though the Protestant Church rejects the doc- 
 trine of Tradition, yet, amongst her numberless 
 inconsistencies, she grounds a part of her creed 
 upon it ; namely, the sanctification of the Sunday, 
 the validity of infant baptism, and indeed, the 
 ground-work of all her belief, the authenticity and 
 inspiration of her sole, independent rule of faith, 
 the canonical books of the New Testament. {0 For 
 
 (l-) See Strictures on Dr. Marsh's Comparative View of 
 the Churches of England and Rome, by Dr. Lingard. 
 Booker, 1815. 
 
97 
 
 it is traditionary evidence alone that can possibly 
 prove, in most cases, the inspiration, and, in all parts, 
 the authenticity and integrity of the Scriptures. 
 In her xxixth article, the Church of England quotes 
 St. Augustin for his opinion, and yet she rejects 
 his evidence on other points. If he is worthy of 
 belief in one case, the circumstances being the 
 same, equal credit is due to him in others. But 
 this she refuses, and not only to him, but to all 
 who, like him, are the most fit to guide us in such 
 inquiries, and to make us most intimately acquainted 
 with the belief and doctrines of the Catholic Church, 
 during the first ages of Christianity. It is not to 
 be imagined with what reason, or justice, the evi- 
 dence of such a constellation of the brightest lu- 
 minaries of the Christian world, as the Fathers of 
 the first ages of the Church, is refused ? How is 
 it possible that any deception can be practised, 
 when we rely on the testimony of men the most 
 virtuous and the most learned, of every age, and 
 of every country, not only divided by distance of 
 space, but by distance of time, yet all concurring 
 in the same opinions ; men who could have no 
 object in deceiving, but whose only aim was the 
 elucidation of truth, and the maintenance of the 
 Christian religion in its native purity. They could 
 have no object in deceiving ; for, unlike the Re- 
 formers of the sixteenth century, they inculcated a 
 just obedience to authority, instead of an emancipa- 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 tion from it. They preached penance and morti- 
 fication, instead of laxity of morals and criminal 
 indulgence. In rejecting tradition, a chain of 
 evidence is denied, calculated most infallibly to 
 establish any facts or any opinions to be drawn 
 from the testimony of man; and such demonstrative 
 proofs are refused, as we should be ashamed to 
 disown for the establishment of a point of history, 
 or a matter of inquiry in any other cause. We do not 
 rely upon the Fathers as the infallible oracles of 
 the word of God ; we quote them only as proofs of 
 the doctrines of the Church in their own times : 
 in this light, their evidence is most conclusive and 
 unexceptionable, and as such they form a most 
 invaluable traditionary history. 
 
 We have, at the same time, Scripture evidence 
 to prove, that it was ordained by Christ that much 
 of his doctrine should be handed down to us by 
 tradition. Tradition gives us the sense, at the same 
 time that it proves the authenticity and inspiration, 
 of the sacred writings ; and as Catholics alone have 
 existed in all ages, so Catholics alone have the 
 tradition of all ages in their favour. St. Paul says, 
 to the Corinthians ; Keep my ordinances as I 
 delivered them to you : (k} to the Thessalonians ; 
 Brethren stand fast, and hold the Traditions, 
 which you have learned by word, or by our Epis- 
 
 W 1 Cor. xi. 2. 
 
99 
 
 tie : (t) to Timothy ; Hold the form of sound words, 
 which thou hast heard from me in faith, and in 
 the love, which is in Christ Jesus : (m} and again ; 
 And the things, which thou hast heard of me before 
 many witnesses, the same commend to faithful 
 men, who shall he jit to teach others also^ 
 
 With such Scripture authority for tradition, 
 surely we are justified in contending, that, if a 
 doctrine was known to have prevailed in a district 
 which had been converted to Christianity by the 
 preaching of the Apostles, and if the same doctrine 
 was prevalent in all other districts, under similar 
 circumstances, that that doctrine must have been 
 derived from them, and is clearly an apostolical 
 tradition. Hence it formed an article of Catholic 
 faith, as much as if it had been detailed in the 
 Sacred Writings. Throughout the Holy Scriptures, 
 there is constant mention of a command to teach, 
 but never to write ; preaching was the grand 
 method of diffusing Christianity ; writing was only 
 an auxiliary and subordinate means. Christianity 
 had been widely spread before any part of the New 
 Testament was written, and, still more so, before 
 it obtained any general circulation. Yet Protest- 
 ants maintain, that what was written is alone to be 
 attended to ; that teaching and preaching are of 
 no avail, unless that which was taught and preached 
 
 2 Thess. ii. 14. '^ 2 Tim. i. 13. () Ibid. ii. 2. 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 was forthwith committed to writing : they argue 
 as if St. Paul had said : " Hold fast the doctrine 
 which you have learnt by our Epistle ; but that 
 which we have preached by word of mouth, heed 
 it not." 
 
 When our Saviour gave his final instructions to 
 the Apostles, he thus addressed them : Go ye, 
 therefore, and TEACH all nations, baptizing, fyc. 
 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
 have commanded you; and behold, I am with you 
 all days, even to the consummation of the world. (0} 
 Go ye into the whole world, and preach the Gospel 
 to every creature. He that believeth, and is bap- 
 tized, shall be saved ; but he that believeth not 
 shall be condemned.^ " This is his promise (says 
 St. Jerome) ; he will be with his disciples to the 
 end of the world : thus showing that they shall 
 never die, and that he will never desert them that 
 shall believe in him." r<7) The Catholic Rule of Faith 
 therefore is, and always has been, that we are 
 bound steadfastly to believe that, which the Almighty 
 having revealed, the Church has proposed to our 
 belief. We hold that the Church is the sole depo- 
 sitory of the revelations of heaven, and that she 
 alone has authority to promulgate them upon earth: 
 and, consequently, that the same truths have been 
 
 (0) Matt, xxviii. 19. 20. *> Mark, xvi. 15. 16. 
 
 (9) Comment, in Matt. L. iv. T. iii. p. 734. 
 
101 
 
 delivered down to us by the same channel, namely, 
 by the teaching of the Apostles and their successors. 
 We receive the doctrines of the successors of the 
 Apostles, with the same credit as if we received 
 them from the Apostles themselves. " The differ- 
 ence lies in this only ; that the interval between 
 us and Jesus Christ, the fountain of every Christian 
 truth, is measured by eighteen centuries ; whereas, 
 the communication between that fountain and the 
 Apostles, and between these Apostles and the next 
 to them in succession, was immediate. But truth 
 is not lost, nor altered, nor weakened, by descent, 
 when an unbroken chain of living witnesses, pro- 
 vided with all necessary documents, proclaims its 
 identity ; and the promised assistance of the Holy 
 Spirit gives security to their words : / am with you 
 all days, even to the consummation of the world." 
 
 I have preferred beginning with this point, rather 
 than with the more systematical line of argument 
 which follows, because it afforded me an opportu- 
 nity of stating the Rule of Faith amongst Catholics, 
 a rule which ought always to be borne in mind in 
 every controversial discussion, and to which every 
 article of our belief is deducible. 
 
 In the Second place, I cannot conform to Pro- 
 testantism, because no Protestant church pos- 
 sesses any of those characteristic marks of the 
 true Church, so clearly and incontrovertibly pointed 
 out in the sacred writings, and attested as such 
 
102 
 
 by the universal consent of Christendom Pro- 
 testantism is neither oNE, (r) HOLY, W CATHOLIC,^ nor 
 
 APOSTOLICAL. (W} 
 
 Fir sty No Protestant Church is one, because 
 none of them have ever succeeded in preserving, 
 even for a single moment, any unity of faith. ( * } 
 They began with variations, and have continued 
 in a constant succession of variations ever since. 
 All the Apostles of the Reformation differed in 
 their creed and doctrines : the Church of England 
 differs from them. The divines of the Church of 
 England differ among themselves, and hardly any 
 two members of any Protestant church agree in 
 their belief; so that, being without unity of faith, 
 they have not even, like the Greeks, the limited 
 uniformity of a separate church/* If Protes- 
 tantism were true, Protestantism would be one, 
 because truth is essentially one. The common 
 rules by which the faculty of man is usually regu- 
 lated, appear to be strangers to Protestantism. 
 It would appear to be forgotten that opposite con- 
 clusions, drawn from the same authority, cannot 
 both be true that there cannot be many truths, 
 
 (r) St. John, x. 16, and Ephes. iv. 3, 4, 5. 
 W Ephes. v. 26, 27. <'> Acts, 1. 8. Romans, x. 17, 18. 
 (M) St. Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. Ephes. iv. 11, 12, $c. 
 <*> Ephes. it. 12. M See Bossuet's Histoire des Va- 
 
 riations, Sfc. 
 
103 
 
 all in contradiction to each other. Truth disdains 
 to be made subservient to circumstances ; she 
 scorns to be the sport of the passions, and of the 
 pride of man ; she is always uniform and consistent 
 always open and undisguised always sublime 
 and unchangeable, like the Deity, from which she 
 emanates. 
 
 No Protestant church can be one, because, though 
 Protestants acknowledge an authority to decide 
 upon matters of faith, yet they lay no pretensions 
 to infallibility ; (z) they have no infallible tribunal 
 
 < 5) Our definition of the Church is the same as yours 
 (See the %Qth of the Thirty-nine Articles J, but with this 
 difference between us, that you will not acknowledge it 
 as a guide, whereas we do. You claim for your church 
 the same powers that we do for ours, namely, authority in 
 controversies of faith ; but then you will not submit to 
 that authority. 
 
 " For what cause, or by what authority, do you condemn 
 the Arian, the Socinian, or the Unitarian, because he un- 
 derstands those texts, and such others as prove the eter- 
 nity and divinity of the Son of God, in a sense different 
 from what you assign to them ? Are the Socinians not 
 men of sound judgment ? Have they not, according to 
 your rule, a right ; nay, are they not obliged to follow, the 
 dictate of that judgment, in preference to all authority on 
 earth ? and yet you exclude them from the kingdom of 
 God, because in the exercise of their judgment, or in what 
 you consider the discharge of their duty, they differ in 
 
104 
 
 to appeal to, for the interpretation of those parts 
 of scripture which are hard to be understood, and 
 which the unlearned and unstable wrest to their 
 own destruction, (a} and, consequently, they have no 
 right to establish a point of union, by which all 
 Christians may become members of onefold, (b] and 
 believers in one faith. (c] The Protestant churches, 
 instead of being collected into one fold, under the 
 superintend ance of one shepherd } d} are split and 
 divided into an endless variety of heresies and 
 schisms. (e} They are not one body and one spirit. (/) 
 They are neither perfect in the same mind nor in 
 
 opinion from yourself. Your opinion of them, if judged 
 of by your own principles, is unjust, uncharitable, unrea- 
 sonable ; you have divested yourself of all right to repute 
 any man a heretic, to censure any man for being a schis- 
 matic ; you have erased heresy and schism from the cata- 
 logue of vices, and said with the false prophet, Peace, 
 peace, when there was no peace." 
 
 You have established a system " which sanctions heresy 
 and condemns it; which invites to schism and punishes 
 it, which tells the believer to hear the church, and 
 teaches him to prefer his own opinion, however monstrous 
 and absurd, to her most solemn judgments. Why, a 
 church thus constituted is incoherent and inconsistent ; 
 a hulk thrown upon the waters without helm or compass." 
 Reply to Dr. Magee by J. K. L., pp. 18, 62. 
 
 < a > 2 St. Peter, iii. 16. <*> St. John,*. 16. ^ Ephes. iv. 4. 
 
 (d} St. John, x. 16. ^ 1 Cor. i. 10. W Ephes. iv. 4. 
 
105 
 
 the same judgment , (8) nor careful to keep the unity 
 of the spirit in the bond of peace ^ They are 
 divided every where, and, as if a change of clime 
 must naturally produce a change of doctrine, they 
 vary wherever they are found. Thus, having no 
 rule to direct him, and admitting his church to be 
 liable to error, every Protestant immediately be- 
 comes his own Apostle. Every one follows the 
 weak and fallible guidance of his own limited rea- 
 son and capacity, which, creating an endless va- 
 riety of opinions, and frequently of absurd con- 
 tradictions, is wholly incapable of demonstrating 
 the truth, or of conducting to a unity offaith. (i} 
 The consequence is, that religious dissension dis- 
 tracts the land ; almost every family is at variance 
 within itself: what God and Nature formed for 
 harmony and concord, Religion, the lover of unity, 
 and the promoter of peace, brings into strife and 
 difference. Every year is ushered in with a new 
 creed every year, some new temple is erected for 
 another false worship to the God of Truth. The 
 wild reveries of a female impostor ; the senseless 
 ravings of an itinerant, self-inspired preacher; 
 every crafty knave, or vain enthusiast, who throws 
 the absurd and fantastic wanderings of his mind 
 into the form of a religious belief, is sure to find 
 
 fr > 1 Cor. i. 10. (*> Ephes. iv. 3. ( Ephes. iv. 13. 
 
 
 
106 
 
 votaries amongst Protestants : they contrive to 
 divide what has already undergone a thousand 
 subdivisions ; and if Protestantism shall last ano- 
 ther century, we may expect to see, in this bewil" 
 dered country, almost as many creeds as there are 
 Christians. Is there, can there be unity in Pro- 
 testantism ? but is not unity the proud and exclu- 
 sive attribute of Catholicity ? 
 
 Secondly, The Protestant churches are not holy, 
 because Luther, Calvin, Beza, and other inventors 
 and propagators of Protestantism, instead of being 
 pure apostolic men, and models of meekness, piety, 
 and mortification, such as the ministers of the reli- 
 gion of Christ ought undoubtedly to be, who himself 
 fasted, prayed, and forebore, to teach us to do the 
 same, were directly the reverse. Far from imitating 
 the lives of the primitive saints and apostles, whose 
 doctrines they professed to preach, they every 
 where established a greater laxity of morals, and, 
 instead of reforming the wickedness of the times, 
 only fostered and increased it. w Nay, even the 
 principal champion of Protestantism, does not he- 
 sitate to acknowledge in his own writings as if 
 to confound his followers, and open their eyes to 
 his deceit that he learned the principal tenet of 
 
 (k) For an account of the increase of immorality, as a 
 consequence of the Reformation in this country, see Dr. 
 Milner's Letters to a Prebendary ', Lett. 5th. 
 
107 
 
 his new creed, not from the spirit of light and the 
 God of Truth, but from the spirit of darkness and 
 the Father of Lies, (m) giving heed to spirits of 
 error, and doctrines of Devils 9 (n} and thus making 
 himself a real object for the application of the 
 words of St. Paul to Ely mas : Ofull of all guile 
 and of all deceit, child of the Devil, enemy of all 
 justice, thou ceasest not to pervert the right ways 
 of the Lord. (o] 
 
 The Church of England is not holy, because it 
 sprang from such unhallowed sources because it 
 originated in the lust of Henry VIII., was nur- 
 tured by the rapacity and profligacy of the minis- 
 ters of Edward VI., and perfected by the ambition 
 of Queen Elizabeth. Surely a religion which had 
 so impure an origin, which was fostered in vice, 
 " and which neither improves the piety nor the 
 morals of the people, cannot pass for the work of 
 God :" by its fruits you shall know it. (p ^ 
 
 (WI) St. John, viii. 44. See an Account of Luther's conver- 
 sation with the devil, in The Faith and Doctrine of the 
 Roman Catholic Church, proved by the Testimony of the 
 most learned Protestants, &c. p. 54 ; by the Author of the 
 Protestant Apology for the Roman Catholic Church. Dub- 
 lin, 1813. 
 
 M 1 Tim. iv. 1. < 0) Acts xiii. 10. 
 
 W St.Matt.vii.16. " Even the authors of the Reform- 
 ation were themselves the first to mark its baneful effect 
 upon the morals and piety of the people. ' The world,' 
 
108 
 
 Instead of endeavouring to bring our morality 
 into a stricter conformity with the severe precepts 
 of the gospel, and the maxims and the conduct of 
 our Saviour, Protestantism has absolved its fol- 
 lowers from many of those salutary restraints and 
 mortifications, such as confession and fasting, 
 which the religion of Christ had wisely imposed 
 upon us for the subjugation of our passions, and 
 as some slight atonement for our sins, through 
 the merits of Christ. The evil tree bringeth forth 
 evil fruit : do men gather grapes from thorns, 
 or figs from thistles ?^ Instead of encouraging 
 the people to pay a daily public homage to their 
 God in the house of prayer, the doors are closed 
 against them 5^ and, except on the Sunday, when, in- 
 
 says Luther, ' grows every day worse and worse. It is 
 plain that men are much more covetous, malicious, and 
 resentful ; much more unruly, shameless, and full of vice, 
 than they were in the time of Popery.' 
 
 W S. Matt. vii. 16, 17. 
 
 (r) The hishop of London, in his Charge for 1790, p. 11, 
 observes : " Scarcely one symptom of religion ever appears 
 amongst us, except on the Lord's day." " It must be 
 acknowledged," says he, in another publication, "that 
 the present remarkable thinness of our churches on Sun- 
 days, at the east as well as the west end of the town, is a 
 proof that the neglect of divine worship is not confined to 
 the great, but has pervaded almost every class of people 
 in this capital." Sermons, vol. I. p. 212. Will not the 
 same observations equally apply to the present day ? 
 
109 
 
 deed, no one who bears the name of Christian, 
 would willingly absent himself from the service 
 of his Creator, their altars are silent, and their 
 churches empty. With what feelings would our 
 Catholic ancestors, whose piety was proverbial, 
 and whose daily practice it was to assemble in 
 public adoration of that God who was their daily 
 benefactor and protector, have looked upon the 
 degeneracy of these days, upon the melancholy 
 fruits of Protestant Reformation ! 
 
 Whatever, to a superficial, and, perhaps, a pre- 
 judiced observer, may be the general appearance of 
 immorality and irreligion, in Catholic countries, 
 in our own times ; and whatever may be the real 
 degree of vice among the wealthy and the great, 
 whose virtue, as is usually the case, is too gene- 
 rally choaked up with the cares, the riches, and 
 the pleasures of this life ; there is, at any rate, 
 to be found, even in demoralized France, a large 
 portion of sincere and unaffected piety. One can 
 never enter a Catholic church, at any hour, even 
 upon a week day, without being edified by the 
 devout comportment of at least a few, and at the 
 hour of morning service, of a great number of 
 pious Christians.^ 
 
 () Even on week-days the churches are not deserted, 
 pious Christians may be seen on their knees at all hours ; 
 and the ancient and affecting custom of the Catholic 
 
110 
 
 The Protestant churches are not holy, because, 
 among the ministers of their religion, no one has 
 
 church, so much recommended hy Erasmus, is not yet 
 forgotten or neglected, even in this profane capital." 
 Eustace's Letter to G. Petre, Esq. It is to be remarked 
 that, since this period, religion has made immense pro- 
 gress in France, especially in the provinces. 
 
 The Catholic church is holy in her people, from the 
 number of devout persons of both sexes, who, preferring 
 the part of Mary to Martha, have retired from tlie bustle 
 and temptation of the world, to adore their God in solitude 
 and in silence : 
 
 " Who quit a world where strong temptations try, 
 " And since 'tis hard to combat, learn to fly." 
 
 Without taking into consideration the preference which 
 the Almighty has generally been pleased to show to a se- 
 cluded and ascetic life, no one has a right to complain of 
 the pious refuge from temptation, and retreat from the 
 attractive, yet dissipating pleasures of the world, of so 
 many devout persons, but those who are able to fulfil the 
 duties and obligations of a Christian amidst the cares, the 
 riches, and the pleasures of this life. These are the only 
 persons who, with any justice, can complain of the seclusion 
 of so much virtue, and the loss of so much good example 
 to mankind : yet when they consider the difficulties they 
 themselves have daily to contend with, they will not be 
 so ready to condemn the more timorous, but, perhaps, 
 safer and wiser resolution, of withdrawing from the trou- 
 bles and temptations to which they remain so fearfully 
 exposed. 
 
 
Ill 
 
 ever yet appeared of such exalted piety, such mor- 
 tified passions, such holy meekness, such unwea- 
 ried zeal, and such sublime devotion, as to render 
 him worthy of being held up to the people as the 
 pattern of a saint, or a model of the man of God. 
 It is the prerogative of Catholicity alone to fur- 
 nish such examples. 
 
 The Protestant churches are not holy, because 
 they have never been sanctified by the manifesta- 
 tion of miracles. No Protestant teacher ever yet 
 wrought a miracle in confirmation of his faith, 
 whereas, there is no country in the world which 
 has been converted to Christianity by Catholic 
 missionaries and few there are which have not 
 been both edified by their virtues, and enlightened 
 by their doctrine without the miraculous inter- 
 position of Divine Providence having been exerted 
 in its favour/^ 
 
 W Catholics are often accused of lending too easy a 
 belief to miracles, though generally without reason. It is 
 surely natural that those who believe firmly in the truth 
 of their religion, should be more disposed to expect su- 
 pernatural proofs of its authenticity ; and it is upon the 
 firmness of their faith alone that this predisposition is 
 grounded, not upon any superstitious feelings, or excess 
 of credulity. On the other hand, an obstinate disbelief 
 of miracles, when clear to the evidence of the senses, 
 would appear to be characteristic of an unsound religion, 
 and of perversity of intention. The Scripture informs us, 
 
112 
 
 No Protestant minister ever yet executed the 
 following commission of our Saviour a commis- 
 
 that the very day on which St. Peter had healed the sick, 
 he was, for this crime of producing a miraculous evidence 
 of Christianity, apprehended, and thrown into prison, 
 from which he was delivered only by another miracle. 
 When St. Stephen was brought before the council, they 
 saw his face as if it had been the face of an angel, and yet 
 they condemned him to death ! When the Holy Ghost 
 descended upon the Apostles, and imparted to them the 
 gift of tongues, the people exclaimed: These men are full 
 of new wine ! Such was the obduracy and incredulity of 
 the enemies of the Doctrine of Christ. As it was with his 
 Disciples, so had it been with Christ himself. When our 
 Saviour, armed only with a scourge, but supported by the 
 power of God, drove the multitude of profaners from the 
 temple, the Jews said to him : By what miracle do you prove 
 to us your right to do these things ? as if the very act they 
 had just witnessed was not itself a miracle, and the evidence 
 of a supernatural power. They ask for one miracle to prove 
 another, like those sectarians and unbelievers, who ask 
 for evidence upon evidence in favour of a truth which has 
 already the mark of heaven upon it, and the Revelations 
 of God to establish it. They act like the Pharisees and 
 Sadducees of old, who, immediately after witnessing the 
 most astonishing miracles, asked our Saviour for a sign ; 
 but, instead of granting their request, he only condemned 
 their unbelieving curiosity, censured the voluntary blind- 
 ness in which their pride and obstinacy had involved them, 
 referred them to the signs that had just passed, and to 
 another that was to come. That other sign arrived: it 
 
113 
 
 sion which, to the honour and credit of the Ca.. 
 tholic Church, has been so literally fulfilled in a 
 thousand instances by her pastors, not only in pri- 
 mitive times, but in every age of Christianity. 
 And going . . . heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse 
 the lepers, cast out devils. (u} They went forth and 
 preached every where, the Lord working withal, 
 and confirming the word with signs that fol- 
 lowed.^ 
 
 The Church of England is not holy in her Mi- 
 nisters, because she disallows the sacrament of 
 Holy Orders ; and without it, how can her pastors 
 be qualified for the arduous duties of the shep- 
 herds of the flock of Christ? How are they to 
 discharge the awful duty of rendering an account 
 of the souls entrusted to their care. (>) Without 
 the peculiar graces of Almighty God, (and how 
 are they to receive those graces but through the 
 sacraments, the only means we have of applying 
 
 verified all those which had gone before, it was the sign 
 which they had so eagerly and so importunately demanded : 
 but they remained perverse in their judgment, and ob- 
 durate in their infidelity. How merited, then, was the 
 reproof which Jesus so soon afterwards pronounced even 
 on his own disciples : Do you not yet know, nor understand ? 
 Have you still your heart blinded ? Having eyes, see you 
 not ? and having ears, hear you not ? (St. Mark viii. 17, 18.) 
 M St. Matt. x. 7. 8. <*> St. Mark, xvi. 20. 
 
 W Heb. xiii. 17. 
 
114 
 
 the merits of our Redeemer to our soul,) how, it 
 may be asked, are they to be holy and vigilant 
 watchmen of the Lord ? Upon thy walls, O Jeru- 
 salem, I have appointed watchmen all the day, 
 and all the night, they shall never hold their 
 peace. (z In fine, if they use not holy orders as a 
 sacrament, how can her ministers possess the grace 
 of God, which should be in them by the imposi- 
 tion of the hands of the priesthood ? (a) They who 
 have extraordinary duties imposed upon them, 
 must surely need extraordinary graces to be ena- 
 bled worthily to fulfil them. 
 
 As the Church of England is not holy in her pas- 
 tors, for the same reason she is not holy in her 
 people. w In acknowledging but two sacraments, 
 she has narrowed the means destined to convey 
 the graces of heaven to her followers ; she has 
 cut off so many sources for applying the merits 
 of our Redeemer to the soul, and thereby abridged 
 the sanctification and perfection of man. 
 
 Another proof of the want of holiness in the 
 Protestant Church is, that those who leave the 
 Catholic communion for the Establishment, inva- 
 
 W Isai. Ixii. 16. (a) 1 Tim. iv. 14. 2 Tim. 1. 6. 
 
 w Let any one read Dr. Clarke's Account of the public 
 and private morals in Sweden, Norway, and Russia, and 
 say whether he thinks holiness a characteristic mark of 
 the Protestant Reformation in those countries. 
 
115 
 
 riably shew by their conduct, that they do so, solely 
 in furtherance of their worldly interests, and to en- 
 joy a greater latitude both of faith and practice. In 
 deserting their religion, they almost always de- 
 sert their morality with it : yet, even then, they 
 generally flatter themselves with the hope of return- 
 ing to die in the bosom of the ancient faith. (c) But 
 how seldom does the Almighty permit them thus 
 to trifle with him ? They say within themselves : 
 Yours is the church in which we will live at 
 our ease, but we will return to our own, to die in 
 penitence and peace. But as they abandon God, he 
 abandons them in their turn; he withdraws his 
 grace, and consigns them to their folly. Far dif- 
 
 (c) It has been no uncommon occurrence for Catholics, 
 who for temporal motives have abjured their religion, to 
 educate their children in the creed they had deserted, thus 
 giving the strongest practical proof of the fallacy of their 
 own conversion, and of the estimation in which they held 
 the ancient faith. This was the case with the Earl of 
 Arundell, the father of the unfortunate Lord Stafford, as 
 well as with many others. " Sir William Scott informs 
 me that he heard Johnson say : * A man who is converted 
 from Protestancy to Popery, may be sincere; he parts with 
 nothing, he is only superadding to what he already had : 
 but a convert from Popery to Protestancy, gives up so 
 much of what he has held as sacred as any thing that he 
 retains : there is so much laceration of mind in such a 
 conversion, that it can hardly be sincere and lasting-.' " 
 (Bos well's Life of Johnson.) 
 
 If 
 
116 
 
 ferent is the conduct of converts to Catholicity ; 
 evincing the purity of their motives by the severity 
 of their religious observances, and by the example 
 of disinterested piety which they exhibit to the 
 world. No one scarcely has yet left us, who has lived 
 well, or died happily : hardly any one has yet 
 sought and found us, who has not been a pattern 
 of virtue while living, and a saint in death. 
 
 The extraordinary circumstance of her followers 
 choosing rather to remain without places of divine 
 worship, than to make any sacrifices or exertions 
 to erect them, might also be cited as another 
 proof of the want of holiness, or at least of 
 zeal, in the Protestant Church. It certainly is 
 an anomaly in the history of Christianity, that 
 the richest church in Europe in the most opulent 
 country in the world should be compelled to call 
 upon the whole nation, not one half of whom pro- 
 fess the religion of the State, to supply her with 
 temples for the celebration of her religious rites. 
 It was far different when the present possessions 
 of the church were in the hands of a Catholic 
 Hierarchy. The most sumptuous buildings in the 
 world, the wonders of each succeeding age, then 
 every where arose in profusion, through the spon- 
 taneous zeal and piety of the clergy and the people. 
 In poor, degraded, insulted, and impoverished 
 Ireland, what exertions have not a Catholic starv- 
 
117 
 
 ing peasantry, and an unbeneficed clergy, 
 
 for the erection of decent places of public worship ! 
 
 Thirdly. No Protestant Church possesses that 
 other characteristic of revealed truth, Catholicity, 
 that is, universality. The Protestant Churches are 
 not universal in point of time, having had no 
 existence for upwards of 1500 years after the 
 coming of Christ ; for no one can show that the 
 doctrine and belief of Protestants was ever pro- 
 fessed by any individual, much less by any Church 
 or any congregation of Christians, previous to 
 the days of Luther. Their very name is a 
 novelty. 
 
 No Protestant Church is universal in point of 
 space, because not one of them embraces more than 
 comparatively a very small portion of the Christian 
 world, no where comprehending any large num- 
 bers of the flock of Christ : no where is Protest- 
 antism any thing but a sect. If the Church of 
 England looks for universality, she finds herself 
 checked upon every side ; she is a mere insulated 
 province of Christendom. To be universal, she 
 should be like the Roman Catholic, preached to 
 every creature ; (c} carried to the uttermost parts 
 of the earth ; (d} ruling from sea to sea, and from 
 the river even to the ends of the earth ; (<?) offering 
 
 St. Mark, xvi. 15. <*> Acts, i. 8. w p sa l. Ixxi. 8. 
 
118 
 
 a clean sacrifice in every place from the rising to 
 the setting of the sun ; (f) extending from the sands 
 of Syria to the deserts of Paraguay ; from schisma- 
 tical Moscow to infidel Japan. To be universal, 
 like the Roman Catholic, she should have preserved 
 inviolate the everlasting covenant,^ a covenant 
 like that of the day and the night, (h] to stand for 
 all generations, which the Almighty has made with 
 her, and confirmed by a solemn oath. (0 By a per- 
 petual, uninterrupted, and visible existence, she 
 should have shown herself the constant and steady 
 light of the world ',the standing and living memorial 
 of the promises of Christ ; she should have been the 
 mountain of the House of our Lord in these latter 
 day 'S, prepare don the top of mountains, and exalted 
 above the hills, with all nations flowing unto it. (k} 
 There neither is, nor ever was, upon earth, any 
 other Church to which these and numberless other 
 prophecies can possibly be applied, but the Roman 
 Catholic : she is universal in point of time ; she 
 is universal in point of space. After an existence 
 of more than 1800 years, we still find her every 
 where. We find her glorious and magnificent 
 before the learned and the rich, under the golden 
 dome of the Vatican, seated triumphant on the 
 
 ^ Malach. ii. 11. W Ezek. xxxvii. 26. 
 
 (h} Jer. xxxiii. 20. 21 . w Ps. Ixxxviii. 4, 36, & Isaias, liv. 9. 
 
 W Itaia*, ii. 2. 
 
119 
 
 ruins of Paganism, and encompassed by the splen- 
 dour of the Eternal City ; (l) we find her preached 
 to the poor and the ignorant, under the canopy of 
 heaven, in many a distant and unfrequented clime ; 
 we find her in the palaces of kings, and m the 
 cities of the great ; we find her among the idola- 
 ters of the Old, and the savages of the New 
 World ; w we find her in the east and in the west, 
 in the north and in the south; and we find her 
 every where with the same image and likeness, 
 always in possession of the same pure and holy 
 doctrine. We find her to be that great and various 
 multitude... .like the stars of heaven, or the sands 
 
 W Amongst all the Revolutions recorded in history, the 
 most remarkable, certainly, is the establishment of the 
 temporal sovereignty of the Popes. That the successor 
 of St. Peter, who was crucified by order of a Roman em- 
 peror, as a mean and contemptible impostor, should now 
 possess the capital of that empire, for the seat of his do- 
 minion, and the temples of their gods, for the rites of his 
 religion : and that the individual who now represents the 
 proud senate of Rome, should hold his station at the will 
 and appointment of that same successor of St. Peter, are 
 circumstances which appear to point out a peculiar pro- 
 vidence, and afford irfatter of contemplation to the Chris- 
 tian philosopher. 
 
 W On the missionary labours of the Catholic church, 
 see Milner's End of Controversy, Lett. xxx. 
 
120 
 
 of the sea, (l} ....which no man could number, of all 
 nations, and tribes, and people, and tongue s. (m} 
 The very name of Catholic, which no other Church 
 ever has assumed, or can assume, and which by 
 universal consent is inseparably attached to her, 
 is alone sufficient to prove her Catholicity. fl) 
 
 W Gen. xxii. 17. (m) Apoc. vii. 9. 
 
 () "The followers of Luther or Calvin are precisely 
 the same, in his eyes, [the eyes of a Catholic] as those of 
 Kant, or Knox, or Wesley, or any other of the number- 
 less tribes who wander about the desert and attack the 
 people of God, as they journey, under the divine protection, 
 to the promised land. He may see some senate, or stadt- 
 holder, or prince, or potentate, associate himself with one 
 or other of those sects, and bestow upon it all the wealth 
 and dignity, which law, or rapine, or conquest placed in 
 his hands he may see one of them preserve much of the 
 form, order, dignity, rites, and liturgies of the church, 
 whilst another strips its members in the market-place, 
 and presents itself to the world as a sad image of human 
 fatuity, or divine wrath ; but as to the unity, sanctity, 
 catholicity, and apostolicity of the Church, all these sects, 
 whether assembled in palaces, in the, conventicle, on the 
 moor, or on the mountain, are equally removed from 
 them." 
 
 The following beautiful simile will be found illustrative 
 of the subject : " Like the material world, the Church is 
 continually vivified by a central and divine fire, enlight- 
 ened by an eternal sun, watered by a miraculous dew, by 
 which, like nature herself, she is at once embellished and 
 
121 
 
 Fourthly, No Protestant Church is Apostolical, 
 because, instead of originating with the Apostles, 
 instead of being founded by any teacher, deputed 
 and commissioned by authority from the apostolic 
 college, instead of being established by men who 
 were sent, as the Father had sent the Saviour of 
 mankind ; as my Father has sent me, I also send 
 you; 0) and again, how shall they preach, unless they 
 be sent; {p} they all grew out of the angry spirit, 
 the pride, and the presumption of Luther, who, in 
 the arrogance of his mind, set himself up in oppo- 
 
 refreshed, and endowed with a fertility which makes her 
 bud, and bring forth fruit both for time and eternity." 
 (Ganganelli's Letters!) In another place, speaking of the 
 Church, both militant and triumphant, he says: " I figure 
 her to myself as a tree, whose top reaches the summit of 
 the heavens, whose roots pierce to the deepest abyss, and 
 against which all the storms let loose their rage, without 
 being able to wither or overthrow it." " If we consider 
 the church in her outward appearance, nothing can be 
 more weak ; her head and her members are men of flesh 
 and blood, subject to all the passions ; she has no other 
 arms, no other strength than those words of Jesus Christ : 
 Go preach the Gospel to all nations Lo / / am with you all 
 days, even to the end of the world. But, take a view of her 
 internally, and nothing is stronger ; for being unceasingly 
 guided and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, God himself 
 is her impregnable rampart." 
 
 ^ St John, xx. 21. <"> Rom. x. 15. 
 
1-2-2 
 
 sition to the received opinions of every nation, of 
 every age, and of every Church ; and who virtually 
 confessed, that it was impossible he himself should 
 be right, and every body else wrong. (?) 
 
 The Protestant Churches are not Apostolical, 
 because their Hierarchies have no links to connect 
 them with the sera of the Apostles, because they 
 know not how they have received the Holy Ghost ; (r) 
 because some of them cannot even demonstrate 
 that their spiritual functions emanate from any 
 other than a lay authority. They are not Apos- 
 tolical, because their founders bore none of the 
 characteristics of Apostolical men. It is a notorious 
 fact, that, instead. of being eminent for their hu- 
 mility, their piety, and their morals, the first 
 reformers, equally with their patrons, were renowned 
 for their profaneness, their pride, and their public 
 irregularity of life : instead of preaching by ex- 
 ample, as well as by word, they bore testimony to 
 the falsehood of their mission by the licentiousness 
 of their manners. 
 
 No Protestant Church is Apostolical, because we 
 
 W " How often," says he, " did my trembling heart ask 
 me; Art thou alone right? Is all the world, except thee, 
 involved in error?" (Pr&f. de abrog. Miss. PrivJ For 
 the extravagances, contradictions, and turbulence of this 
 Prince of Reformers, see Letters to a Prebendary, Lett. v. 
 
123 
 
 know from history that, in the infancy of the Re- 
 formation, instead of following the Apostolical 
 writings Slid Apostolical traditions, its abettors did 
 not scruple to torture and pervert the Sacred Text, 
 to their own innovations, favouring their new 
 creed by falsely pretending it to be conformable 
 to the will of the Almighty ; propagating their 
 religion by adulterating the word of God, and 
 veiling the light of the Gospel, instead of exhibiting 
 the manifestation of the truth : w thus impugning 
 the known faith by fiction and deceit, and fabri- 
 cating ordinances for the God of truth and holiness, 
 in the cause of falsehood and impiety.^ Well may 
 we say, with St. Paul, to the deluded victims of 
 such iniquity : Who hath hindered you, that you 
 should not obey the truth ? (u} and well migfct they 
 answer ; They who changed the word of God into 
 a lie ; ( * } the adulterators of the Sacred Text, the 
 Protestant Reformers. (y) 
 
 W 2 Cor. iv. 2. 
 
 W See Ward's Errata of the Protestant Bible, and Dr. 
 Milner's Inquiry into certain vulgar Opinions concerning the 
 Catholic Inhabitants and Antiquities of Ireland, pp. 271, &c. 
 
 '"> Gal v. 7. <-) Rom. i. 1. 25. 
 
 ^ " Henry VIII., in his first essay at reformation, al- 
 lowed the free use of the Bible in an authorised version, 
 not absolutely without comment, but, as his majesty after- 
 wards discovered, disfigured by unfaithful renderings, 
 and contaminated with notes calculated to mislead the 
 
124 
 
 The Church of England, in particular, cannot be 
 Apostolical, because there is no saying of the Apos- 
 tles, nor any Text of Scripture, nor any authority 
 of Christ, to support the monstrous notion, that a 
 woman of the sixteenth century should be invested 
 with the divine right of reforming the Church of 
 
 ignorant and unwary." See Dr. Lingard's History of 
 England, vol. iv. p. 309. 
 
 Zuinglius, addressing Luther concerning his Scriptural 
 works, uses the following energetical language : " Thou 
 dost corrupt the word of God, Luther. Thou art seen to 
 be a manifest and common perverter of the Scriptures." 
 Zuing. Lib. de Sacr. ad Luth. Op. torn. ii. See Milner's 
 Letters to a Preb. p. 185. 
 
 Let us try this question by another test. Let us 
 examine what is the main object of the two religions. 
 The Catholic has the truth and sincerity of religion in 
 view, to make it neither more nor less severe than it 
 really is ; to represent it in its most winning and amiable 
 light, and, at the same time, not to divest it of its terrors 
 or restraints. But Protestantism, on the other hand, has 
 ever evinced a marked and decided tendency to weaken all 
 the obligations of the Gospel, to explain away all the 
 injunctions which are most opposed to our inclinations, 
 to smooth the thorny path of our duties, and to admit as 
 little as posible of what is irksome to our nature, or 
 which necessitates the mastery of our passions. Which 
 of the two is more likely to have corrupted the Sacred 
 Text, to have distorted its meaning, and abridged its 
 authority ? 
 
125 
 
 God, of setting herself up as the arbiter of religious 
 faith, and the infallible teacher of fallible doctrine. 
 
 Again, I cannot conform to Protestantism, be- 
 cause it possesses not two other characteristic 
 marks of the true Church, namely, constant Visi- 
 bility and Indef edibility fi 
 
 First, No Protestant Church can claim any 
 pretensions whatever to Visibility, because for 
 upwards of 1500 years they were all perfectly 
 invisible, having had no existence. To have been 
 visible, she should always have been as the Catholic 
 Church alone has been, and, as the true Church 
 is described in Scripture, the light of the world, 
 like a city seated on a mountain, which cannot be 
 No Protestant Church can be thus constantly 
 
 w Micheas, iv. 1-2. St. Matt. v. 14. and xvi. 18. and 
 xxviii. 18. 19. 20. St. John, xiv. 16. 26. and xvi. 13. 
 1 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
 () St. Matt. v. 14. Evelyn, in his memoirs, relates that 
 Sir R. Browne, Charles the Second's Minister in Paris, 
 returned after a nineteen years' exile, during all which 
 time he had kept up in his chapel the liturgy and offices of 
 the church of England, to his no small honour, and at a 
 time when it was so low, and as many thought, utterly 
 lost, that in various controversies, both with papists and 
 sectaries, our Divines used to argue for the visibility of 
 the church from his chapel and congregation ! / Where, 
 I would ask, was its universality ? 
 
126 
 
 visible, because they all admit within themselves 
 the principle of error : they admit that they may 
 fall from their foundations and vanish. For the 
 moment a church has erred, all truth has vanished, 
 has departed from it ; the moment it has fallen 
 from the truth in which it was established by our 
 Saviour, it has ceased to be visibly the true Church. 
 If she fail in one point, she fails in all : He who 
 offends in one point, is become guilty of all. w 
 When a witness gives his evidence, in part true 
 and in part false, is he not immediately declared to 
 be unworthy of credit in toto ? He is not consi- 
 dered as a true and credible witness, because his 
 testimony is in part true, but he is rejected alto- 
 gether as a liar and a prevaricator, because it is in 
 part false : we do not wait to sift the good from 
 the bad, or to try its merits in separate portions, 
 but we at once expunge it entirely from our minds. 
 So it is with the Church of Christ. She is the 
 witness of the doctrines of the Gospel : if we find 
 her bearing false testimony in one point, we should 
 condemn her in all ; we should declare her to be a 
 false church, and unfaithful both to the promises 
 and the commands of her divine founder. How 
 then can a false church be visibly the church of 
 Christ, the God of Truth! How can she be 
 the light of the world, when she is shrouded 
 
 <*> St. James, ii. 10. 
 
127 
 
 in the darkness of heresy ? But admitting any 
 Protestant to be now visibly a true Church, which 
 is a monstrous proposition, and allowing the pos- 
 sibility, contrary even to their own expectations, 
 of her remaining so, for ages to come, where was 
 her visibility in ages past? To have been a visible 
 Church, she should have been discoverable, as the 
 Roman Catholic Church alone is, by one direct and 
 luminous track, through every age which has suc- 
 ceeded the coming of her Divine Founder. She 
 should have been a holy and a glorious Church, not 
 having spot or wrinkle ; (c] alike triumphant amidst 
 the storms of persecution, and victorious over the 
 assaults of heresy or schism. 
 
 Secondly. No Protestant church has any title 
 to mdefectibility , because they are all founded 
 upon the principle, that the Catholic church had 
 erred. All who acknowledge themselves to be 
 Christians, acknowledge the Catholic as the parent 
 church; for the time was, when there was no 
 other. They, therefore, who contend that the 
 Catholic church had erred, necessarily admit a 
 liability to error in the true church of Christ. For 
 as the Catholic church was, for many ages, the 
 only church in Christendom, she must then, at 
 least, have been the true church, or no true church 
 existed. Whichever be the case, there is a clear 
 
 (c'l 
 
 Ephes. v. 27. 
 
128 
 
 admission on the part of Protestants, of the falli- 
 bility of the church of Christ. It is then natural 
 to inquire, how a fallible and erring church a 
 church which may preach falsehood as well as 
 truth a church which may be possessed with the 
 spirit of darkness as well as the spirit of light, can 
 be the church of the living God, which is the pil- 
 lar and ground of the truth : (d} either the promises 
 of Christ have failed, and the spirit of truth has 
 erred, or the church of God has preserved the 
 purity of its faith and doctrine. Our Saviour, the 
 God of light and truth, has said : I am the light 
 of the world : he that followeth me, walketh not 
 in darkness, but shall have the light of life ; (<?) 
 / am with you always, even to the consummation 
 of the world. (f) He has promised the Pastors of 
 his Church a comforter, the spirit of truth to abide 
 with them for ever, (e} to teach them all things, (h} 
 and to teach them all truth. (f) 
 
 Yet, in opposition to these and many other 
 express declarations and promises of Christ, Pro- 
 testants presume to say, that our Saviour has left 
 his Church without a guide to lead her through the 
 mists of ignorance and the mazes of error, into the 
 ways of truth and life. They argue as if they 
 
 < rf > 1 Tim. iii 15. (e} St. John viii. 12. 
 
 (rt St. Matt, xviii. 20 ( r) St. John xir. 16, 17. 
 
 < A) Ibid. 26. St. John xvi. 13. 
 
129 
 
 wished to persuade us that the God of infinite good- 
 ness and infinite justice had commanded us to 
 believe that which we have no means of ascer- 
 taining, and that he has given us only the faint 
 glimmerings of human reason to interpret the 
 sublime mysteries of Divine Revelation. They 
 tell us that he, whose decrees are fixed and immut- 
 able, (if these ordinances fail before me, saltli ilie 
 Lord, then also the seed of Israel shall fail : (<} and 
 again, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my 
 word shall not pass, (k} ) has condemned us to seek 
 a steadfast faith in the wavering inconsistencies of 
 our own minds ; that Christ, who loved his Church, 
 so as to deliver himself up for it, has now cruelly 
 left it to be tossed to and fro with every wind of 
 doctrine. l) That the God of wisdom has abandoned 
 his own work to dishonesty and craftiness ; (m} dnift. 
 that the good shepherd, who laid down his life for 
 his flocTi^ has now thrown it a prey to false 
 prophets, who come in sheep's clothing, but who 
 inwardly are ravening wolves. (0} 
 
 Again ; our Saviour declared to St. Peter, that he 
 built his Church upon a rock, and that the gates of 
 hell should not prevail against it :' p] yet Protestants 
 pretend that the words of the Godhead have been 
 falsified ; that the Church of Christ was built upon 
 
 <*> Jeremiah, xxxi. 36. <*> Ephes. v. 25. ( '> Eph. iv. 14. 
 <"> 2 Cor. iv. 2. <"> St. John, x. 15. () St. Matt. vii. 15. 
 M St. Matt.xvi.18. 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 sand, and not upon a rock, that the powers of 
 darkness have prevailed over the spirit of light, 
 and that the pillar of truth has been overthrown 
 by the machinations of the father of lies. To 
 shew the force of the declaration that the Church 
 was built upon a rock, our Saviour elsewhere 
 says : Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine 
 and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise 
 man who built his house upon a rocky and the rain 
 descended) and the floods came, and the winds 
 Hew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, 
 for it was founded upon a rock/ p} But Protest- 
 ants, in maintaining that the Church of Christ had 
 been torn from its foundations by the force of 
 error, most pointedly falsify these words of the 
 Son of God. They say that the Church was built 
 upon sand ; that the rain descended, the floods 
 came, the winds blew, and beat upon that house, 
 and it fell ; for it was founded upon sand. They 
 say, that the Eternal Wisdom is not so wise as man, 
 and that instead of building secure from the 
 storms of persecution, and the blasts of heresy, he 
 lays his foundations upon a shallow and a tottering 
 basis. They say that the omnipotent arm of the 
 Deity has refused to uphold his own work from 
 destruction ; that the right hand of God is short- 
 ened for the protection of his chosen generation, 
 
 tf) S. Matt, xxvii. 24, 25. 
 
131 
 
 his kingly Priesthood, his holy nation, his pur- 
 chased people \ (q) They would have us believe, that 
 our faith reposes upon the wisdom of men, and not 
 upon the power of God^ 
 
 Innumerable are the texts of Scripture to prove 
 that indef edibility is a necessary mark of the true 
 Church, and innumerable and uninterrupted are 
 the testimonies to shew, that the Roman Catholic 
 Church alone possesses this characteristic. This is 
 my covenant with them, saith the Lord : My Spirit 
 that is in thee, and my words which I have put 
 in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor 
 out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth 
 of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from hence- 
 forth and for ever.^ 
 
 Such is the promise of the Almighty to his 
 people ; such is the declaration of his fidelity to 
 his Church : and the truth of the Lord remaineth 
 for ever. (f) From the vocation of Abraham to the 
 coming of our Redeemer, the seed of Israel never 
 failed ; they suffered a persecution of 400 years in 
 the bondage of Egypt ; numbers of them aposta- 
 tized ; they rebelled against their Maker, and they 
 were led captive into Babylon : at one moment 
 they triumphed in victory and prosperity at an- 
 other they mourned in defeat and disaster ; at one 
 
 W 1 St. Peter, ii. 9. M 1 Cor. ii. 5. Isai. lix. 21. 
 < Psl cxvi. 2. 
 K2 
 
132 
 
 period they were a free, a numerous, a powerful, 
 and a wealthy people ; at another, they were re- 
 duced to the extremity of slavery, poverty, and 
 ruin; they were encompassed by enemies on every 
 side ; they were desolated with the sword, with 
 famine, and with pestilence, but their race was 
 never extinguished, the true religion was never 
 lost : there always remained a chosen few, whose 
 virtue was invincible, and whose fhith withstood 
 every temptation ; who never bowed the knee to 
 Baal ; (M) but who walked in the name of the Lord 
 their God. (x > 
 
 So has it been with the Catholic Church, of 
 which the Jewish dispensation was but a type. She 
 was persecuted, and she rose up stronger and more 
 glorious from persecution ; she was assailed by 
 heresy and schism, and she acquired force and 
 stability from the attacks of her enemies. The 
 Lord has set his sanctuary in the midst of her for 
 evermore ; (y) she has always walked in his judg- 
 ments, and observed his statutes ; z} she is always 
 guided by one shepherd, (a and illuminated by the 
 everlasting light ^ In fine, she alone is, she 
 alone can be infallible, because she alone has ever 
 been true to herself: setting all the prophecies 
 and every text of Scripture aside, she alone can be 
 
 (t<) Rom. xi. 4. & Micheas,ii. v. w Ezekiel, xxxvii. 26. 
 w Lev, xviii. 5. '' St. John, x. 16. W Isaiah, Ix. i. 
 
133 
 
 infallible, because she alone has ever declared her- 
 self in possession of infallibility. No other Church 
 has ever advanced any pretensions to it. All others 
 are founded upon the fallibility and infirmity of 
 man, without any regard to the promises and the 
 power of God. 
 
 To pursue the same reasoning. As the Almighty 
 gave the Israelites a pillar of fire to guide them 
 through the obscurity of night, and a cloud to con- 
 duct them during the day, through a strange and 
 hostile country; so has the same beneficent Being 
 given us, in consideration of the same necessity, a 
 bright and safe conductor through the dangerous 
 and toilsome pilgrimage of this world, a never- 
 failing, a never-erring Church. And, as the Jewish 
 people were ordered to observe and do whatever 
 was commanded them by the Scribes and Pharisees 
 who sat in the chair of Moses ^ so are we com- 
 manded to hear and obey those who sit in the 
 chair of St. Peter, and fill the stations of the 
 Apostles \ (b) they who are appointed by the same 
 power and for the same purpose, namely, for the 
 interpretation of the Law of God. That this law 
 has always received the same interpretation from 
 this divinely appointed tribunal ; that the same 
 articles of faith have always been proposed to our 
 
 < 0) St. Matt, xxiii. 2, 3. (ft St. Matt, xviii. 17. 
 
 xxviii.20. St. Luke,*. 16. Heb.^iu.7,17. 1 Ep.John,iv.6. 
 
134 
 
 belief, and the same precepts held up for our ob- 
 servance is a truth to which there is the strong- 
 est and most perfect chain of evidence to conduct 
 us ; a truth which Protestants deny in vain ; a 
 truth which most incontestibly establishes the 
 triumph and the indefectibility of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. 
 
 From all that has been advanced, it follows as a 
 matter of course, that I cannot conform to Protest- 
 antism. I cannot, if it were only for this reason ; that, 
 when I read in Scripture, that he that believe th not 
 shall be condemned^ I cannot trust so important a 
 concern as my religious belief to a Church which may 
 deceive me. We know that the ways of God are 
 so straight, that even fools shall not err therein. (d} 
 We know also, that, in Scripture, there are things 
 hard to be understood} 6 which the unlearned and 
 
 ^ St. Mark, xvi. 16. (rf) /saixxxv. 8. 
 
 & In Boswell's Life of Johnson, we find the following 
 passage : " Mrs. Knowles. She had the New Testament 
 before her. Johnson. Madam, she could not understand 
 the New Testament, the most difficult book in the world, 
 for which the study of a life is required. Mrs. Knowles. 
 It is clear as to essentials. Johnson. But not as to 
 controversial points." Vol. iii. p. 324. Are not all 
 points, even the most essential, controverted by the dif- 
 ferent denominations of Christians ? 
 
 " St. Augustin observes, (Lib. I. contra Cress. 33 .) that 
 it is only by the Church we know what is the sense of 
 
135 
 
 the unstable wrest to their own destruction ; (f} 
 that false prophets come in the clothing of sheep 
 to ensnare us ; (9} that there are never wanting those 
 who would make dissensions and offences contrary 
 to the doctrine ; (h) and that there will always arise 
 men speaking perverse things, to draw disciples 
 away after them ; (l) erring and driving into error. (h} 
 With such facilities on the one hand, and with 
 such difficulties and dangers on the other, is it not 
 folly, is it not madness, to trust to a Church which 
 bears the insignia of error upon her forehead, and 
 owns herself incapable of protecting us ? If we dis- 
 
 Scripture, or what is not. His words are : ' The truth of 
 the Scripture is held by us, or we possess the true meaning 
 of them, when we do that which is approved of in the 
 whole church, which church the authority of the Scriptures 
 themselves commends :' so far removed was he from the 
 opinion of those who would undertake to determine reli- 
 gious doubts, by the very book, from the misunderstanding 
 of which they all arise. This the holy doctor, (Tract. 18. in 
 Johan. Cap. 5 J expressly attests, in the following words : 
 ' Heresies have arisen, and certain perverse doctrines, 
 ensnaring souls, and precipitating them into the abyss, 
 have been broached, only when the good Scriptures have 
 been badly understood, and when that which was badly 
 understood, was rashly and boldly attested/ " Reply to 
 Dr. Magee,p. 12. 
 
 </> 2 Ep. St. Peter, iii. 10. & St. Matt. vii. 15. 
 
 w Rom. xvi. 17. <0 Acts, xx. 30. 
 
 w 2 Tim. iii. 13. See Dr. Doyle's Defence, p. 88. 
 
136 
 
 own her authority, which her principles well war- 
 rant us to do, and have recourse to private inter- 
 pretation, do we not immediately fall into pre- 
 sumption, by searching, in the infirmity and incon- 
 sistancy of our own minds, for the discovery of that 
 firm and steadfast faith, without which we shall be 
 condemned ? Is it not incomparably safer to rely 
 upon the united wisdom, talents, virtue, and ex- 
 perience of the good and great in every age ; upon 
 a' representative assembly of the universal Church, 
 under the sacred guidance of the Holy Spirit 1 It 
 liath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us, (l} are 
 the remarkable and emphatic words used by the 
 first council of the Church, in promulgating its 
 decisions. Protestants, however, say that the Holy 
 Ghost is no longer our guide ; but as if to silence 
 their doubts, and compel their submission, our 
 Saviour himself declares the contrary ; he says, 
 his Paraclete shall abide with his Church for 
 ever, and lead her into all truth ; (m} and, in conse- 
 quence, he declares us no better than heathens or 
 publicans, (n) if we refuse to hear her. Still, Pro- 
 testants say : We owe no obedience to the Church ; 
 let us follow the guidance of our own fancy, for 
 the Almighty will not require our allegiance, 
 where he has given no power to rule. But, as if 
 again to confound their presumption, and to give 
 
 Acts,*v.-28. <" St. John^iv. 16,26. 
 
137 
 
 a clear confirmation of his doctrine, our Saviour 
 inspires his apostles thus to admonish and instruct 
 the faithful : Take heed to yourselves, and to the 
 whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed 
 you Bishops, to rule the Church of God, which he 
 hath purchased with his own bloodf 0) Such are 
 the words of Scripture, and yet Protestants main- 
 tain that the Church has no authority; that the 
 Hierarchy has no divine commission to rule the 
 Church of Christ. 
 
 Again I repeat, that I cannot conform to Pro- 
 testanism, because I cannot trust so important a 
 concern as my religious creed, to a church which 
 must necessarily be fickle and inconstant in her 
 doctrine, and may, perhaps, altogether cease to 
 exist. Because, as such, she can never lead me 
 to any fixed and certain faith ; since as she " claims 
 the twofold privileges of changing her tenets at 
 will, and of being infallible at every change," (/>) 
 
 (/) The right of private judgment, as allowed hy the 
 established church, was a sort of an apology for her own 
 revolt, and a sacrifice made to the Baal of puritanism ; 
 but it is opposed to the letter and spirit of the church 
 creed, as well as incompatible with the gospel, which 
 foretels of heresies and schisms ; for if the right of private 
 judgment, in opposition to the declared decision of the 
 church, exist, it is utterly impossible that heresy should 
 be damnable, or schism a crime. Every church, then, 
 
138 
 
 she can never answer the end proposed ,by the 
 immutable God of Truth that of pointing out 
 his ways, and expounding his doctrine. During 
 the period in which she is wedded to her errors, 
 she is evidently incapable of being the teacher of 
 truth ; and even in the season of her greatest pu- 
 rity, her liability to error must always disqualify 
 her for that office : for though she may teach truth 
 to day, we have no assurance that she will continue 
 to do so to morrow ; and, under such circumstances, 
 who shall pretend to say when truth fails, and 
 falsehood begins, who shall tell us when she is 
 possessed with the spirit of error, and when with 
 the spirit of Truth f q) 
 
 If I am unable to repose my confidence on 
 such a church, and it is evident I cannot, only 
 two alternatives remain : I must either submit 
 implicitly to some safe and certain guide, or, as I 
 
 that excommunicates authors of heresy, that is, men who, 
 exercising their right of private judgment, choose their 
 own religion ; or which casts out among the heathen the 
 maintainers of conventicles, (all which the established 
 church does) is guilty, if guilt it be, of denying the right 
 of private judgment, and of exercising, thereby, a dominion 
 over conscience. Whether the church, doing so, claim 
 infallibility or not, is nothing to the purpose ; her judg- 
 ment, and the effects of it to the excommunicated persons, 
 are the same." Reply to Dr. Magee. 
 (9> 1 St. John, iv. 6. 
 
139 
 
 have said before, follow my own private interpre- 
 tation. But this latter course, though so repug- 
 nant to reason and common sense, is yet so gene- 
 rally prevalent among Protestants, that, in my mind, 
 it forms another very powerful argument against 
 conformity to their principles. Considering the 
 fluctuations of opinion necessarily attending the 
 person who frames his creed merely by the light 
 of his own judgment in the interpretation of the 
 scriptures, it is utterly impossible he can ever 
 attain to that firmness of belief on which a rational 
 man would ground the security of his faith ; or if 
 by such inadequate and disproportionate means, 
 he should form to himself some consistency of 
 mind upon the subject, he must, at least, be guilty 
 of presumption, in venturing upon that which the 
 wisest and best men in Christendom have always 
 declared themselves incapable of accomplishing. 
 
 But there are not wanting those, who, seeing 
 the difficulties of their situation, boldly contend 
 that a diversity of opinion in matters of faith de- 
 stroys not the unity of religion. This is a doc- 
 trine so monstrous, that it is impossible to read a 
 chapter in the inspired writings, and not feel con- 
 vinced of the falsity of such a position. It is at 
 variance with the very principles of the Reforma- 
 tion, because, if unity of faith were not necessary, 
 why make a schism in the church in favour of any 
 particular code of tenets ? It is at variance with 
 
140 
 
 reason, because it is unreasonable that we, who 
 are the children of obedience, should be permitted 
 to follow our own fancy in interpreting the immu- 
 table word of God : it is at variance with revela- 
 tion, because it destroys charity, which is the 
 essence of religion, (r) because revelation says: 
 speak all the same thing, and let there be no 
 schisms among you. w 
 
 If a diversity of religious opinions were per- 
 mitted, whence all those denunciations against 
 innovators and false teachers? Why does the 
 Apostle so often and so strenuously insist upon 
 unity? Why does he exclaim, Is Christ divi- 
 ded?^ God is not the God of dissension, but of 
 
 w 1 Cor. xiii. 1,2. <*) 1 Cor. i. 10. (/) 1 Cor. i. 13. 
 
 Jesus Christ, praying to his Father for his apostles 
 and disciples, says : As thou hast sent me into this world, 
 I also have sent them into the world. And for them do I 
 sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.... 
 That they all may be one as thou, Father, in me, and I in 
 thee : that they also may be one in us: that the world may 
 believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou 
 hast given me, I have given to them ; that they may be one, 
 as we also are one. (St. John xvii.) How could truth and 
 unity be more clearly and more energetically inculcated ? 
 
 The following passages are to the same effect. St. 
 Paul, writing to the first Christians, says : For first of all 
 I hear that when you come together in the church, there are 
 schisms amongst you; and in part I believe it. For there 
 
peace. (u] Many also hush the voice of conscience, 
 and, while they strive to vindicate their conduct 
 to themselves, plead for their apology, that their 
 faith is complete if they believe, in what they call, 
 the grand leading tenets of Christianity ; and in 
 consequence they profess to consider doctrinal 
 points as matters of minor importance. But so 
 
 must be heresies, that they also who are approved, may be 
 made manifest among you. (1 Cor. xi. 18, 19.) Again ; 
 Be of one mind, have peace ; and the God of peace and of love 
 shall be with you. (2 Cor. xiii. 11.) But there were also false 
 prophets among the people, even as there shall be among you 
 lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition, and deny 
 the Lord who brought them, bringing upon themselves swift 
 destruction. (2 St. Peter, ii. 1.) My brethren, if any of you 
 err from the truth, and one convert him, he must know that 
 he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his 
 way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a mul- 
 titude of sins" (St. James,y. 20.) For such false Apostles are 
 deceitful workmen, transforming themselves into the Apos- 
 tles of Christ. (2 Cor. xi. 13.) The word of the Lordendureth 
 for ever, and this is the word which has been preached unto 
 you. (1 St. Peter i. 25.) We are of God : he that knoweth 
 God, heareth us ; he that is not of God, heareth us not : by 
 this we know the spirit of Truth, and the spirit of error. 
 (1 St. John iv. 6.) How true it is that error does, will, 
 and must exist : and that truth is immutable and endur- 
 ing, and always discoverable, if we will but apply the 
 proper means, and have recourse to the proper sources. 
 <"> 1 Cor. xiv. 33. 
 
142 
 
 far from this being the reality, there is not the 
 slightest doubt but that we shall stand or fall, we 
 shall live or die, by our faith in doctrinal points. 
 
 We may find a striking illustration of this in the 
 doctrine of the real presence. The Israelites in 
 Egypt were informed that, unless they were sprin- 
 kled with the blood of the paschal lamb, they 
 should be destroyed. Our Saviour informs us, 
 that except we eat the flesh of the Son of man, 
 and drink his blood, we shall not have life in us. (y} 
 Is it, then, a matter of minor importance whether 
 we are to live or die, and that eternally too ? and 
 yet the words of Christ declare that this depends 
 upon our eating his flesh and drinking his blood. 
 But do Protestants do this ? They frequent the 
 Sacrament of the Lord's Supper but do they 
 there eat of his flesh and drink of his blood ? They 
 say they do not. We say we do, in the Sacrament 
 of the Eucharist. Is it, then, a matter of minor 
 importance to have this point decided, on which 
 depends everlasting life ? Is it a case of little mo- 
 ment, whether we have a false or a true faith, upon 
 a doctrine involving such stupendous consequences? 
 As, without faith, it is impossible to please God, (t} 
 so, without faith, even though we should be the 
 partakers of it, it is impossible to live by thi bread 
 of life. 
 
 <*> St. John, vi. 53. (z) Hebrews, xi. 5. 
 
143 
 
 Many also hold the preposterous idea of an 
 amalgamation of truth and falsehood in the true 
 Church of Christ, and are satisfied with it in this 
 state; but surely, if the religion of the God of 
 truth once becomes contaminated with error, it 
 ceases to be his. By superadding new and unwar- 
 ranted doctrines, or by denying the smallest article 
 of the Christian faith, she errs as much as if she 
 rejected the greatest mysteries of our belief, be- 
 cause the smallest rests upon the same authority 
 as the greatest, not upon the wisdom of men, but 
 upon the power of God. (a} If she has failed in one 
 point, she has failed in all : He that offends in 
 one point, is guilty of all. (b} Truth is essentially 
 one she associates not with error, without the 
 loss of her reputation. What fellowship hath light 
 with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with 
 Bellal? (c If there be a true Church, and undoubt- 
 edly there is, that Church is true, in every sense 
 of the word. She is not an unnatural combination 
 of truth and falsehood, a chaotic mixture of light 
 and darkness, which neither the ingenuity nor the 
 capacity of man can separate or distinguish. She 
 is the truth, and only the truth ; not true in some 
 doctrines, and false in others ; but, like the God by 
 whom she was established, and by whom she is 
 still protected and directed, she is TRUTH itself. 
 
 (a) 1 Cor. ii. 5. (ft) St. James, ii. 10. i<> 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. 
 
114 
 
 But to return to our argument : Let us take, 
 for instance, this same doctrine of the real presence, 
 and see whether reason can guide us into any 
 settled faith concerning it. Catholics and Greeks 
 believe in Transubstantiation, and Lutherans in 
 Consubstantiation, while the Church of England, 
 perhaps, rejects the real presence altogether. Yet, 
 this contrariety of belief is all grounded upon the 
 self-same texts of Scripture. The light of reason 
 directs us all, and yet we all arrive at opposite 
 conclusions : and how can it be otherwise ? How 
 is it possible, amidst such a variety of opinions, to 
 reason ourselves into any decided judgment ? fc) 
 
 < c) Dr. Doyle, writing upon this subject, observes : 
 " The numerous and discordant sects which, since the 
 16th century, have sprung up in the midst of the Sclavonic 
 nations, which, as Leibnitz observes, then separated 
 themselves from the Latin Church and name, afford am- 
 ple evidence of the insufficiency of human reason, or of 
 the scriptures, interpreted by private judgment, to pre- 
 serve unity in the body of Christ ; as also of the absolute 
 necessity of a controlling and supreme church authority 
 to preserve such unity, and check the spirit of religious 
 innovation. 
 
 " These sectaries, like a discomfited army, having been 
 driven from one position to another from reason to the 
 scriptures from the scriptures to the scriptures inter- 
 preted by the judgment of each individual from the 
 scriptures so interpreted, to the same interpreted by the 
 >f erior unction or taste of the Spirit ; driven, in fact, from 
 
145 
 
 Let us take another illustration : After insti- 
 tuting the Sacrament of the Eucharist, our Saviour 
 
 absurdity to absurdity, with the mark of schism, like that 
 of Cain, imprinted on their forehead, without possessing 
 one church, or one altar, throughout the kingdom, con- 
 nected in any way with those which were Catholic and 
 Apostolic ; they, in the delirium of their revolt, sought to 
 break down the church herself into an immense mass of 
 confused and jarring elements, preferring a place in this 
 chaos to a recognition of their errors, and to the obtain- 
 ing, by a dutiful submission, a place in that house of 
 peace and unity, from which, in a moment of passion, 
 they had departed. They said that the church of God, 
 the kingdom of the Redeemer, the body of Christ, con- 
 sisted of every sect and every heresy which invoked the 
 name of the Lord. When they first broached this mon- 
 strous opinion, it was said to them, (Psal. Ixxiii.) and his 
 house is in peace. Are those contending sectaries the men 
 of goodwill to whom the angels announced at Bethlehem, 
 (Luke ii. 14) that Christ came to bring peace upon earth? 
 Are they, who contend one with another even to 
 excommunication, that strong body, which, drawing its 
 strength from its union, is called by Christ himself a rock ? 
 Are these sectaries that one fold, under one pastor, spoken 
 of by our Lord, (John, x. 16 J where all hear the same 
 voice, where all feed on the same pasture, where altar is 
 not erected against altar, but where all are one body who 
 partake of the same bread ? Is it possible, that he, who 
 came to gather together in one, the children of God who 
 were dispersed, (John^\\\. II J should assemble them only 
 to contend with one another ? Is it for an assemblage of 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 said: Do THIS IN COMMEMORATION OF ME; and he 
 imposed a positive command thereby. Our Sa- 
 viour also said, and that upon the same occasion, 
 You ought to wash one another's feet, for I have 
 given you an example, that as I have done to you, 
 so do you also. (d} Yet nothing is more certain than 
 that no positive command is conveyed by these 
 words. But how do we know it? By reason ? No. 
 Reason would say that one command is equal to 
 another ; if both proceed from the same authority, 
 both are equally binding. But reason, singly, has 
 no sway over such questions. No : it is not within 
 the province of the weak and fallible guidance of 
 our own limited capacity, alone to conduct us 
 through the maze of religious controversy. We 
 must have recourse so some superior power, to 
 the divine Spirit of truth, to those whom the Holy 
 Ghost has appointed to rule the Church of God. (e} 
 
 discordant sects, that Christ prayed, saying : " Holy 
 Father, keep them in thy name, whom thou hast given 
 to me, that they may he one as you and I are one?" 
 (John, xvii. 11.) Was it for such assemblage he invoked the 
 spirit of peace, saying to his Apostles : " Peace be to you ; 
 as my Father sent me, so I send you : and, having said 
 this, he breathed on them, saying ; Receive ye the Holy 
 Ghost." (John, 20, 21, 22.) Reply to Dr. Magee. 
 
 & St. John, xiii. 14. 15. 
 
 & Acts, c. xx. v. 28, &c. " Take heed to yourselves, 
 and to the whole flock wherein theHoly Ghost that placed 
 
147 
 
 Talent, genius, ignorance, and simplicity, 
 alike bow to this tribunal. We must no longer 
 give a pretended superiority to human reason over 
 Divine Revelation. This is e the head and front of 
 our offending ;' this is the spring and essence of 
 heresy ; and till this spirit of pride, disobedience, 
 and presumption shall yield to a meekness and 
 docility, bringing into captivity all understanding 
 unto the obedience of Christ ; (/) till we consider 
 the ' sun of Revelation as brighter than the twi- 
 light of our reason/ the same miserable effects, 
 dissension and division, doubt and error, will con- 
 tinue to flow from the same corrupted sources. 
 Without a centre of unity, without those ancient 
 bounds which our fathers have set, (g} without a 
 rallying point to which all may fly, without a tri- 
 bunal of final decision, from which no appeal can 
 be made, we shall never rest satisfied or secure. 
 
 This tribunal can be no other than that which 
 the Eternal Wisdom has appointed to preserve 
 with jealous care the sacred deposit of his law, a 
 
 you Bishops, to rule the Church of God, which he had 
 purchased with his own blood. I know that after my 
 departure, ravening- wolves will enter in among you, not 
 sparing the flock : and of your ownselves shall men arise 
 speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after 
 them." 
 
 (/ > ii Cor. x. 5. <* ; Prov. xxii. 28. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 representative assembly of the universal church, 
 the concurring opinion of those whom the Holy 
 Ghost has placed to rule it. Here all doubts are 
 quieted, and all dissensions allayed ; here the 
 weak are strengthened, and the strong are con- 
 firmed, in their faith ; here we tread with a firm 
 step ; and while others are tossed to and fro by 
 every wind and wave, we remain secure upon the 
 steadfast rock. It is by this we preserve the unity 
 of the spirit in the bond of peace ; (g] through this 
 we believe and are saved ; (A) by this with one 
 mind and with one mouth we glorify God and the 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.^ 
 
 Independently of all this, which to my mind 
 brings full and entire conviction, and assures me 
 in the clearest terms which of the two is the safer 
 and the better church ; many other reasons may 
 be urged, and many other arguments may be ad- 
 vanced, against conformity to Protestantism. 
 
 In the Third place, therefore, I cannot conform 
 to Protestantism, because, instead of being governed 
 by any fixed principles, it is full of contradictions 
 and inconsistencies. 
 
 It is inconsistent, because in rejecting the spi- 
 ritual supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, the suc- 
 cessor of St. Peter, Protestants have established 
 a much more arbitrary spiritual jurisdiction and 
 
 <> Ephes. iv. 3. W St. Mark, xvi. 16. C|-) Rom. xv. 6. 
 
supremacy in the person of a layman, a woman, or 
 even of a child, by ascribing to Henry VIII. and 
 his successors the power of deciding on heresies, 
 schisms, and all doctrinal points ; a power never 
 entrusted by the Catholic Church to any Pope 
 whatever. (k} It is inconsistent, because in the 
 20th article of her formulary, the Church of Eng- 
 land declares that the church hath authority in 
 controversies of faith. If so, why does a modern, 
 isolated church, that has separated herself from the 
 great family of Christendom that was founded 
 by a haughty and voluptuous prince, not by a meek 
 and mortified Apostle that has modelled her doc- 
 trines and her discipline, not by the canons of any 
 general council, but by the acts of a national par- 
 liament ; (/) - - why does such a one deny the same 
 power to a church who traces through eighteen 
 centuries an uninterrupted descent from the Apos- 
 tles who stands illustrious by the piety and learn- 
 ing of a thousand saints and scholars who has 
 
 { * } See Dr. Milner's History of Winchester,^. 364. vol. 1. 
 
 (/) I know it is said that the parliament does not define 
 doctrines, but only proposes them : but it is equally true 
 that no tenet can be a doctrine of the Church of England, 
 which is not first sanctioned and promulgated by an act 
 of parliament. The authority of the church, in matters 
 of faith, is subservient to the parliament, not having the 
 right to frame a single article, without her sanction. 
 Such has been, almost always, her undeviating practice. 
 
150 
 
 beheld her pastors assembled from every region 
 of the Christian world, in eighteen general coun- 
 cils, to bear witness to her faith, and who looks 
 forth upon a hundred nations, dwelling within her 
 fold, and constituting the true kingdom of God 
 upon earth? 
 
 Again, the Protestant church is inconsistent in 
 holding the impossibility of performing a work of 
 supererogation ; Wl) for, at the same time that she 
 acknowledges the efficacy of fasting, confession, and 
 other acts of humility and mortification, she sel- 
 dom recommends, and never enforces, their ob- 
 servance. If she considered them necessary, she 
 would enforce them ; but as she is content only to 
 recommend them, she must, of necessity, account 
 them as works of supererogation. Of those who 
 deny the power of performing a work of superero- 
 gation, let us ask an explanation of the following 
 words of scripture : And some fell upon good 
 ground, and brought forth fruit that grew up, 
 
 (*) Voluntary works, besides, over, and above God's 
 commandments, which they call works of supererogation, 
 cannot be taught without arrogance and impiety : for by 
 them men do declare, that they do not only render unto 
 God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do 
 more for his sake, than of bounden duty is required: 
 whereas, Christ saith plainly : ' When ye have done all 
 that are commanded to you, say, We are unprofitable ser- 
 vants.'" Uth 0/39 Articles. 
 
151 
 
 and increased and yielded, one thirty, another 
 sixty, and another a hundred. (n) Hence, is it not 
 clear that a produce of thirty fold will make us 
 acceptable in the sight of God ? And is it not 
 equally clear, that by a life of greater perfection, 
 by a stricter compliance with the severer precepts 
 of the gospel, by following the counsels as well as 
 the commands of Christ, we may attain to a much 
 fuller measure of the riches of his bounty to 
 sixty or a hundred fold? The parable of the 
 pounds is equally in point : he who had gained but 
 five pounds, was rewarded as a good and faithful 
 servant, while he who had gained ten, he who had 
 done more than was exacted of him, was still more 
 liberally rewarded. (o) 
 
 Elsewhere our Saviour has also said : If thou 
 wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give 
 to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in hea- 
 ven ; and come, follow me. (p} This surely is not a 
 command, but a counsel ; not a work of necessity, 
 but one of absolute perfection. No one can say 
 that the observance of this precept is necessary for 
 salvation, yet none can deny its superior efficacy 
 and virtue, without falsifying the words of Christ. 
 What, then, is it but a work of supererogation ? 
 a conduct which will render us more perfect fol- 
 
 . Mark, iv. 8. & St. Luke, xix. 24. 
 
 W St. Matt. xix. 21, 
 
152 
 
 lowers of our Saviour, and more deserving in the 
 sight of God ; more worthy to receive a hundred 
 fold, and to possess life everlasting ^ Yet, when 
 we have done all this, we are still, and most truly, 
 unprofitable servants ; (r} because it is not in the 
 power of man to do any thing that is profitable to 
 his Creator. We are only profitable to ourselves, 
 in serving that Creator well. Neither can we per- 
 form for him any service which we do not owe 
 him, a thousand and a thousand times. We are 
 unprofitable servants, because we have nothing 
 good in ourselves, but receive all through the 
 merits of our Redeemer, and the efficacy of his 
 sacred passion and sufferings : " God," as St. Au- 
 gustin says, " crowning his own gifts, when he 
 crowns the good works of his servants." 
 
 In the Fourth place, I cannot conform to Pro- 
 testantism, because I have no means of discovering 
 its tenets ; because I can find no one to instruct 
 me in its doctrine. As to the thirty-nine articles, 
 they are every where openly impugned, or totally 
 disregarded.^ If we apply to her pastors, we find 
 them all in doubts and difficulties. Bishop Watson, 
 in a Charge to his Clergy, in 1795, says ; " I think 
 
 <*> St. Matt. xix. 29. ^ St. Luke, xvii. 10. 
 
 w See the disputes about the meaning of the Thirty- 
 nine Articles, and the quo ammo with which they are to 
 be subscribed. 
 
153 
 
 it safer to tell you where they [[the Christian doc- 
 trines]] are contained, than what they are. They 
 are contained in the Bible, and if, in reading that 
 book, your sentiments concerning the doctrines of 
 Christianity should be different from those of your 
 neighbour, or from those of the Church, be per- 
 suaded, on your part, that infallibility belongs as 
 little to you as it does to the Church !" In ano- 
 ther, he informs them, that Protestantism consists 
 in believing what each one pleases, and in profess- 
 ing what he believes ! ! This, indeed, I have al- 
 ways thought to be the truest definition of Protes- 
 tantism, which is no where agreed, but in one 
 single point that of protesting against Catholi- 
 city. She is, in fact, little more than a negative 
 religion, a mere renunciation of Romanism. Her 
 articles of faith have always been received more as 
 civil edicts, emanating from a lay authority, and 
 as safeguards to scare away that phantom-monster, 
 Popery, than as definitions of the true religion of 
 God. Many even profess their adherence to the 
 Established Church to arise more from a feeling 
 of loyalty and attachment to existing institutions, 
 than from any assurance that she holds a better 
 or a purer creed than any other of the various 
 sects of Protestantism/" Catholicism, on the 
 
 ft} " It is the humour of some men," says the Protestant 
 Dr. Heylin, " to call any separation from the Church of 
 Rome, the Gospel ; and the greater the separation, the 
 
154 
 
 contrary, is not a system of opinions, it is a 
 collection of facts. It is a series of historical 
 
 more pure the Gospel." Of Dr. Abbot, archbishop of 
 Canterbury in the time of James I., Lord Clarendon 
 observes, that he considered " the Christian religion 
 no otherwise than as it abhorred and reviled popery, 
 valuing those men most who did it most furiously" How 
 many have been weighed in the same scales, in times 
 much nearer to our own ! 
 
 I am sorry to be obliged, in our own defence, to exhibit 
 such a picture of Protestantism ; though I am not aware 
 that I have in any way, exaggerated the deformity of the 
 portrait. But when we see ourselves condemned in the 
 futile nonsense, regularly doled out by ministers of the 
 Church of England and others, to a devouring multitude, 
 in the shape of sermons and lectures ; when we are as- 
 sailed by hosts of impious pamphlets, issuing also from 
 "ministers of the Church of England," who, by fighting 
 with their vizors down, prove their cowardice and their 
 shame ; when we are reviled in more courteous and mea- 
 sured language in Charges, printed " at the request of 
 the clergy" to whom they are delivered ; when the pre- 
 sumed errors of Popery are made the point of many a 
 text, and the burden of many a spiritual philippic, in 
 almost every pulpit throughout the kingdom; when 
 there are many who do, and few who are not willing 
 to swear, that they believe us to be idolators : when, to 
 crown the whole, we are punished with pains and penal- 
 ties for crimes expressly invented for us, are we to be 
 denied even the weapons of Truth in our defence ? When 
 we are daily called upon, both by the legislature and the 
 clergy, to desert the mystery of iniquity, to come out of 
 Babylon, that ' prodigious structure of imposture and wick- 
 
155 
 
 documents, supported on indubitable and incontro- 
 vertible evidence ; evidence which has been carried 
 
 edness,' and to take refuge under the tents of the estab- 
 lishment ; and then are taunted and scoffed at for our re- 
 jection of their offers : are we to he denied the privi- 
 lege of declaring why we prefer the security of the fold 
 of the shepherd in which we now repose, to the dangers 
 of the trackless wilderness to which we are so importu- 
 nately invited? 
 
 The almost total absence of religious instruction, espe- 
 cially on doctrinal points, observable in the charges, and 
 other publications of the prelates and ministers of the 
 Establishment, just alluded to, goes far to prove what I 
 have stated above, that in practice, Protestantism is now 
 become little more than a negative religion. It consists 
 only of two propositions : That it is just and lawful to 
 defend the temporalities of the Establishment, by calumni- 
 ating Catholics, and marking them as a caste among the peo- 
 ple, and, That the bible, and the bible alone, 'is the religion 
 of Protestants. We are even told that this last proposition 
 has passed into a familiar maxim. But, when we ask to 
 know what the bible contains, we plunge at once into a 
 fathomless ocean, we arrive at nothing fixed or sure, 
 we fight as with men beating the air they wander to and 
 fro they repeat negative propositions, but as to any thing 
 positive and certain, we may as well look for substance 
 in a shadow. The Church of England has so often ex- 
 changed her doctrine, for the preservation of unity in the 
 kingdom, pretending, at each exchange, to have been di- 
 rected by the Holy Spirit,* that, as if ashamed of her ver- 
 
 * See the Articles and Liturgy, as they stood in 1548, clearly 
 expressing the real presence; in 1552 as clearly denying it; in 1562, 
 leaving it doubtful, and in 1 662 apparently rejecting it altogether ! ! 
 
156 
 
 down upon the stream of time, from generation to 
 generation, during a period of eighteen hundred 
 years. 
 
 satility of character, she is become more circumspect in her 
 public professions of faith. She has allowed upwards of a 
 hundred and fifty years to pass over without announcing- any 
 new method of preventing a diversity of judgment amongst 
 her followers. She has chosen the wiser course, to retain 
 the same ostensible articles, but, adopting the whole Bible 
 as her creed, to remain silent and slumbering at her post, 
 and to permit her children to range at large among the 
 mazes of speculative belief, as long as they disturb her not 
 by open revolt, nor break their licence by venturing within 
 the precincts of Popery, which is the only forbidden fruit 
 in that spiritual garden of Eden, " the liberty of believing 
 what each one pleases." But, while they are allowed to 
 gather from every other tree, the moment they presume to 
 eat of that, not only does their spiritual death ensue, but, 
 they are banished from the paradise, the earth is cursed in 
 their regard, and they are, for ever after, condemned to la- 
 bour and to toil, in a land fertile only in thorns and thistles. 
 I am sure there is no exaggeration in all this : and if it 
 be offensive to hear these truths, it is much more so to be 
 obliged to write them ; since we are not only the objects, 
 but the victims, of that system, against which we are en- 
 deavouring to defend ourselves. In a case like the present, 
 charity rather compels us to speak the whole truth, than 
 to conceal any portion of it. For the greater the evil, the 
 more ought it to arrest attention, and the more loudly 
 should it demand a remedy. If the spirit of discord which 
 
157 
 
 In the Fifth place, I cannot conform to Pro- 
 testantism, because it rejects the doctrine of Purga- 
 
 is abroad, be not considered an evil to the country, the 
 minds of our rulers must be modelled on principles far 
 removed from reason ; and if it be considered such, the 
 remedy is in their own hands. The wand of Circe never 
 wrought a more complete and sudden transformation than 
 would be effected by the magic of just and equitable laws. 
 Were it no longer the supposed interest of one party to 
 maintain an ascendency over the other, by any means but 
 those of virtue and of truth, England would rid herself of 
 sectarian dissension, that plague which now preys upon 
 her very vitals, and religious harmony and tranquillity 
 would be restored throughout the empire. If it should 
 prove otherwise, we must then indeed acknowledge, that 
 some heavy and peculiar curse has fallen upon the country. 
 When we are no longer vilified as idolaters, and con- 
 demned to the alternative of either conforming to the es- 
 tablishment, or of being incapacitated for the exercise of 
 civil rights, we may defend our own religion, without 
 exposing that of others. Its truth, happily, does not 
 depend upon the falsehood or impiety of other societies 
 of Christians ; it rests upon its own transcendant merits ; 
 and upon these, alone, we are ready to rely for its vindi- 
 cation. We now adhere to it, for its own purity and 
 perfection, through evil report and good report in peace 
 or in persecution in its glory or in its abjection ; as our 
 fathers revered it in its prosperity, so do we cling to it 
 in its adversity. We know that our religion was reared in 
 trouble, and will live on in trouble ; we know that she 
 will survive both us and our oppressors ; and that whether 
 
158 
 
 tory. We know that nothing defiled can enter 
 heaven ; (M) we know also that, in the sight of God, 
 no man living shall be justified ; M and our Saviour 
 himself has declared, that every idle word that men 
 shall speak, they shall render an account of, in the 
 day of judgment ;^ } how then, with the dangers 
 and distractions of the world around us, with the 
 weaknesses of human nature upon us, and with our 
 natural proneness to sin, can we expect to die in a 
 state of heavenly purity? It would be presumption 
 to think of so doing. Sin, and the consequences 
 of it, are not so easily cleansed from our souls. 
 There must be a middle state, a state of purgation 
 from those lesser offences and imperfections, which 
 have passed unheeded and unrepented of; a state of 
 satisfaction, but always through the merits of our 
 Saviour, for the debt of temporal punishment due 
 to our more grievous offences, after their guilt has 
 been remitted by the Sacrament of Penance. For 
 
 we remain faithful to her or not, she will still continue 
 from one generation to another, the great parent of Christ- 
 ianity, the great city and empire of God. Should we have 
 the baseness to desert her, we should only brand our race 
 with apostacy ; we should be lopped off as a withered and 
 lifeless branch ; while that gigantic tree, whose roots 
 overspread the earth, and whose summits ascend into the 
 very heavens, would equally continue to nourish and to 
 fructify to the end of time. 
 
 (tt > Rev. xxi. 27. ^ Psal. cxlii. 2. ^ St. Matt. xii. 36. 
 
159 
 
 who shall say that his repentance is so perfect as 
 not only to cancel the guilt of sin, but even to make 
 atonement for all the penalties due to his trans- 
 gressions ? 
 
 Who will not tremble for the future atonement 
 to be required of him, when he remembers that 
 Moses himself, the chosen servant of God, was 
 prohibited from conducting the people of Israel 
 into the land of promise, in punishment of his dis- 
 belief at the rock of Cades, though he still retained 
 the favour of the Almighty ? Who shall say, that 
 having sinned like David, and repented like David, 
 he shall be more deserving than that great 
 monarch, and exempt from the punishment which 
 the royal penitent nevertheless received ? Though 
 this punishment may befall us in this life, it must 
 of necessity be more generally inflicted on us in the 
 next. For it is but too obvious, that our failings 
 and imperfections, generally at least, continue with 
 us to the end ; and if we fail and are imperfect to 
 the last, how much less can we expect that the 
 penal atonement for our former and more grievous 
 offences, was ever completed in us. Instead of 
 leading to despondency, it is a doctrine the most 
 consoling. Is it not consoling to reflect, that 
 though we pass imperfect through the trials and 
 tribulations of the world, the divine mercy and 
 goodness will still permit us to satisfy in another 
 life, for our deficiencies in this? At the same time it 
 
160 
 
 tempts us not to presume, for in no way do we 
 hold the pains of purgatory to be a substitute for 
 the torments of hell. They are of quite an oppo- 
 site nature ; the pains of purgatory cleanse us from 
 our smaller offences ; the flames of hell feed for 
 ever upon our greater and more heinous sins. We 
 all offend in many things, and if we say we have 
 no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not 
 in us. (z] Hence the necessity of a purgatory, for 
 nothing defiled can enter heaven ; (a) and hence also, 
 an end of that presumption, which would teach us 
 to believe, that we stand like angels pure in the 
 sight of God ; holy, without spot or blemish. We 
 must hope that we do not deserve to be cut down 
 and cast into the fire, w but may we, therefore, 
 deem ourselves worthy to enter immediately upon 
 our eternal weight of glory. (c] We must hope, 
 that we are not to suffer eternal punishment in 
 destruction,^ but, without further purgation, do 
 we merit to see the face of the Lord, and par- 
 take of the glory of his power ? (<?) If he is not 
 to be condemned by the wrath of God to that 
 place of fire and brimstone, where the smoke of 
 his torments shall ascend for ever and ever ; (/) 
 yet who shall be warranted in saying, he is that 
 
 & St. John, i. 8. (a) Rev. xxi. 4-6-8. (6) St. Matt. iii. 10. 
 < c) 2 Cor. xiv. 17. W 2 Thess. i. 9. & Ibid. i. 9. 
 
 iv. 10, 11. 
 
161 
 
 wise and faithful servant, whom the Lord shall 
 forthwith appoint over all his goods ? (g} Should 
 reasoning by analogy, and the authority and evi- 
 dence of tradition, not prove sufficient to convince 
 us of the existence of a middle state of suffering, 
 the words of the Old Testament are decisive on 
 the point, where it is related; That Judas the valiant 
 commander, sent twelve thousand drachmas of 
 silver to Jerusalem, for sacrifice to be offered for 
 the sins of the dead ; for thai it was a holy and 
 wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that 
 they might be loosed from their sins : w and in 
 the New Testament, this purgation from our lesser 
 offences after death, is clearly described, where it 
 is said ; If any man's work burn, he shall suffer 
 loss ; but he himself shall be saved ; yet so as by 
 fire. (i) (1 Cor. iii. 15.) 
 
 <*) St. Matt. xxiv. 45, 47. <*> 2 Machab. xii. 43, 44, 45, 46. 
 
 (') p or Christ, who had once suffered for sins, the just 
 for the unjust, (that he might bring us to God) being put 
 to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit, by which 
 also, he went and preached unto the spirits in prison : 
 which, sometime, were disobedient, when once the long- 
 suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the 
 ark was preparing." (1 Pet. iii. 18, 19, 20.) 
 
 " From this text, it appears, that at the time of our 
 Saviour's death, there were some souls in a state of suffering 
 (in prison ) in the other world, on account of lesser sins, 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 In the Sixth place, I cannot conform to Pro- 
 testantism, because it is a religion only for the 
 
 not deserving of damnation ; for, certainly, our Saviour 
 would not have gone and preached to them, had they not 
 heen capable of salvation. These souls, therefore, were 
 not in Heaven, where all preaching is needless, nor in 
 hell, where all preaching is unprofitable ; but in the 
 middle state of suffering souls, which is the purgatory 
 maintained by Roman Catholics." (See Tlie Protestanfs 
 Trial by the written Word, p. 76. 
 
 Many Protestant divines have believed and advocated 
 the Catholic doctrines on these points ; amongst others, 
 Dr. Forbes and Dr. Taylor, from whom I cite^the two 
 following passages : " Let not the old practice of praying 
 and making oblations for the dead, received throughout the 
 whole Christian world, and the whole church, almost from 
 the times of the apostles, be any longer rejected by Pro- 
 testants, as unlawful, or vain. Let us respect the judg- 
 ment of the primitive church, observing in public this 
 rite as lawful, profitable, and approved by the church uni- 
 versal, which has ever believed this practice not only 
 lawful, but profitable to the faithful departed." (Bishop 
 Forbes's Discourse on Purgatory.) " Nay," says Dr. Taylor, 
 " we find, by the history of the Maccabees, the Jews did 
 pray, and make offerings for the dead. Now, it is very 
 considerable, that, since our Saviour did reprove all their 
 evil doctrines, practices and traditions, and did argue 
 concerning the dead, and the resurrection, yet he spoke no 
 word against this practice, but left it as he found it, which 
 he, who came to declare to us the will of his Father, 
 would not have done, had it not been innocent, pious, and 
 
163 
 
 learned and the rich, and to which the lowly and 
 the illiterate cannot in reason belong. No one, 
 who cannot read, can deduce his creed from the 
 only Protestant rule of faith, the Sacred Writings, 
 and thus take advantage of the licence of his Pro- 
 testant principles, the licence of private interpre- 
 tation. As a Protestant, he must either have no 
 religious tenets at all, or he must take them at 
 second hand from the lips of his pastor. Now, can 
 any one be so far removed from the dictates of 
 common prudence or common sense, as to adopt 
 implicity, without hesitation or doubt, and as the 
 faith on which he is to rest his hopes of salvation, 
 the opinions of a man, who acknowledges no 
 authority to guide him but his own judgment ; 
 
 full of charity. The practice of it was at first and univer- 
 sal, it being 1 plain in Tertullian, Cyprian, and others, 
 and is still the doctrine and practice of the Jews." 
 (Taylor's Liberty of Prophesying, No. II. p. 345.) 
 
 Dr. Montague, bishop of Norwich, also held similar 
 opinions : " Though there be no third place," says he, 
 " mentioned in the scriptures, yet it would not follow that 
 there is no such place ; because, there are many things 
 which are not expressed in scripture: as to those texts 
 which seem to restrain the state of souls departed to 
 Heaven, or hell, such are to be understood of the final 
 state, after the day of general judgment ; when there will, 
 according to all sides, remain but two everlasting states, 
 viz, Heaven and Hell. (Appar. p. 135J 
 
 M2 
 
164 
 
 whose creed is neither watched nor regulated by 
 any superior power ; and who has no more than 
 a common right with himself to interpret the doc- 
 trines of Scripture ? If he is not satisfied with his 
 own pastor, he goes to another, and is puzzled with 
 the difference of his doctrine : he sees a champion 
 for methodism in one pulpit, and an orthodox 
 member of the church of England in another ; he 
 becomes perplexed ; he has no means of extricat- 
 ing himself from his difficulties ; he goes to the 
 meeting-house, where he either finds an enthusiast, 
 or a knave, crafty enough to make merchandise of 
 him, (k) by the apparent vehemence of his zeal ; or 
 confounded by the absurdity and folly of the doc- 
 trines which he hears, he becomes an unbeliever ; 
 and, probably, in the end, degenerates into a pest 
 to society. And how can it be otherwise ? He sees 
 nothing to command his confidence, and without 
 confidence he can have no fixed and steadfast 
 faith, and must needs walk in darkness, and know 
 not whither he goeth. (l} 
 
 (k} 2 St. Peter, ii. 1-3. But there were also false pro- 
 phets among the people, even as there shall be among you 
 lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition, and 
 deny the Lord who bought them, bringing upon themselves 
 swift destruction. And through covetousness shall they, 
 with feigned words, make merchandise of you; ivhose judg- 
 ment now of a long time lingereth not, and their perdition 
 slumbereth not. 
 
 < St. John, xii. 35. 
 
165 
 
 It is far different with the Catholic ; to him in- 
 deed the ways of God are so straight that even 
 fools shall not err therein ; (m] the most lowly, the 
 most illiterate, and the most busily employed, 
 may be as firm and sincere in their faith as those 
 who have both ability to read, leisure to discuss, 
 and capacity to understand. They willingly take 
 the preacher's word for the doctrine which he 
 inculcates, because they have confidence in it's 
 orthodoxy. They know if it were unsound, that 
 he would be immediately displaced ; he is the 
 authorized organ of the Catholic church, and as 
 such they bow submission to him. Were they 
 addressed by St. ! Peter himself, they would not 
 believe him with a firmer faith. (n) A man must be 
 a controvertist to be a protestant ; he has only to 
 be an humble disciple of Christ to be a catholic : 
 and when once a catholic, he infixed in unfailing 
 
 (m) Isai. xxxv. 8. 
 
 (n) St. Paul says, " Faith comes by hearing; and it was 
 the custom during the earliest ages of the Church, to con- 
 vey all religious instruction viva voce. It was many cen- 
 turies before any written catechism was adopted; and, 
 generally speaking, the scriptures were read and explained 
 publicly, and not privately. The people knew from whom 
 they learnt their doctrines, and who had sent them their 
 pastors : so far were they from adopting the licence of 
 private interpretation, or listening to unauthorized teach- 
 ers. If any did so, they were immediately rejected from 
 the society of the true followers of the gospel. 
 
166 
 
 security ; The true religion is built upon a rock ; 
 the rest are tossed upon the waves of time! 0) 
 
 Lastly : I cannot conform to Protestantism, 
 because, when I reflect how necessary, even in 
 health and prosperity, are the consolations of reli- 
 gion, of the religion of the God of all comfort; (p) 
 I cannot but experience a melancholy dread of 
 being bereft of it's cheering influence when op- 
 pressed by trouble, or languishing on the bed of 
 sickness, or of death. Come to me all you that 
 labour and are burthened, and I will refresh 
 you^ is an invitation of the kind and benevolent 
 Jesus, the most applicable to the professors of 
 that religion which abounds most in consolation ; 
 which affords us a more intimate intercourse with 
 our spiritual pastors, and more copious means of 
 applying the merits of our Redeemer to our souls. 
 If our conscience be loaded with the guilt of sin, 
 in the sorrow of our hearts we apply to our pastors, 
 and find a remedy for our troubles in sacramental 
 confession. There the fever of the soul is assuaged, 
 the pangs of remorse are quieted, and iniquity is 
 washed away, because by an act of obedience of 
 humiliation of sincere repentance for our trans- 
 gressions joined with a sincere purpose of 
 amendment for the future, she is reconciled 
 
 Lord Bacon. W 2 Cor. i. 3. 
 
 W St. Matt. xi. 28. 
 
167 
 
 with her Creator. The confession of our sins may 
 be repulsive in theory, but it is most consoling in 
 practice. It is also a strong argument in favor of 
 this doctrine of the Catholic Church, that, however 
 benign its influence and soothing its effects, it 
 is yet so contrary to the inclinations of man, and 
 so opposite to our nature, that it is impossible to 
 have been of human institution. If, again, our 
 troubles arise, not from the pressure of any par- 
 ticular criminality on the conscience, but from 
 some of the melancholy list of misfortunes inci- 
 dental to mankind, we still have recourse to our 
 pastors. We are healed of our lesser offences and 
 imperfections, by the sacrament of penance ; we 
 receive comfort from the advice of our spiritual 
 director, and having thus PROVED ourselves we 
 venture to the great sacrament of grace, the com- 
 munion of the body and the blood of ChristS q} 
 Does Protestantism provide us with such a refuge 
 in our necessities, such manifold sources of conso- 
 lation in our troubles? 
 
 But it is upon the bed of sickness, and of death, 
 that the superior comforts of our religion are the 
 most striking. It is a lamentable truth, that the 
 Protestant clergyman is but seldom found by the 
 couch of the dying Christian : he is but rarely 
 sent for, and seldom comes ; and if he does make 
 ._ 
 
 W 1 Cor.xi. 2. (?) 1 Cor. x. 16. 
 
168 
 
 his appearance, it is only to hurry over a few pray- 
 ers, and escape from the distressing scene. In 
 cases of fever and contagion, they will not, per- 
 haps, in consideration of their families, they can- 
 not attend. (r) But where is the Catholic, however 
 poor and forlorn, dying within reach of a clergy- 
 man of his own communion, who does not receive 
 both the benefits and the consolations of his reli- 
 gion ? Where is the pastor who shrinks from the 
 functions of his ministry, from fear of taking the 
 disease with which his penitent is afflicted, and of 
 paying the forfeit of his life in the cause of cha- 
 rity ? Where is the cabin so wretched that does 
 not find him a ready inmate the being so desti- 
 tute, to whom he is not a willing and a faithful 
 friend the malady so loathsome or infectious, as 
 to drive the messenger of the God of all comfort 
 from the performance of his duty ? It is not from 
 one solitary visit that the penitent sinner, or the 
 just man, derives consolation, (for even the just 
 man requires consolation when the terrors of death 
 are upon him,) but from a series of unremitting 
 attentions during the whole course of his disorder. 
 Nor is it by mere exhortation and prayer that 
 the contrition of the dying man is excited, his con- 
 
 {r) This single circumstance pleads more eloquently for 
 the celibacy of the clergy, than a whole volume upon the 
 subject could possibly do. 
 
169 
 
 science calmed, and his hopes elated, but by the 
 seasonable administration of the sacraments of Pe- 
 nance, the Eucharist, and Extreme Unction. Is 
 any man sick among you ? Let him bring in the 
 priests of the churchy and let them pray over 
 him, anointing him with oil in the name of the 
 Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick 
 man ; and the Lord shall raise him up ; and if 
 he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess 
 therefore your sins one to another, The Pro- 
 testant Liturgy formerly contained these injunc- 
 tions equally with the Catholic/ 
 
 W St. James, v. 15, 15, 16. 
 
 (fl If in this discussion I have asserted any thing con- 
 cerning the Establishment, which is not founded in fact, 
 I am willing to stand corrected : I have relied upon the 
 best information that came within my reach, and any 
 misapprehension into which I may have fallen, will, I 
 hope, be admitted as an unintentional error. 
 
170 
 
 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS 
 
 HAVING thus shortly attempted to detail some of 
 the reasons which govern Catholics in their non- 
 conformity to Protestantism, and serve to attach 
 them so firmly to their own faith ; I beg the in- 
 dulgence of my readers for a moment, whilst I 
 offer a few desultory observations, intimately 
 connected with, and naturally arising from, the 
 subject of the foregoing pages. Of the importance 
 of religious controversy, I need say nothing. AFi 
 who believe in Revelation, all who value the 
 morality of the Gospel, all who ground the hope 
 of their salvation upon the doctrine of our Re- 
 deemer, must acknowledge the necessity of a 
 firm, a lively, and a steadfast faith. (a) This being 
 the case, and since it is the misfortune of Christen- 
 dom to be harrassed and divided by such a va- 
 riety of religious creeds, out of which we are 
 bound to adopt ONE as the only true one, the 
 utility and necessity of polemic controversy appears 
 to be incontestably established. So long as there 
 
 (a > 2 St. Pet. iu. 17. 
 
171 
 
 are false prophets and lying teachers among the 
 people ; (b} so long as we should always be ready 
 to give an answer to every man that asketh us, a 
 reason of the hope that is in us, with meek- 
 ness ; c) so long as it is necessary to distinguish the 
 spirit of truth from the spirit of error : (6 so long, 
 also, will religious controversy be necessary to 
 furnish us with a knowledge of the points in dis- 
 pute, and for the defence and the confirmation of 
 our faith. tf) I must apologize for again reverting to 
 
 < 2 St. Pet. ii. 1. W l St. Pet. iii. 15. ^ St. John, iv. 6. 
 
 (<J) If the Protestant practice in cases of divorce, were 
 the only instance of a violation of the morality of the 
 gospel on the part of the Reformers, it would of itself be 
 amply sufficient to justify a continual controversial dis- 
 cussion. If divorce is attempted to be justified by the 
 letter of the gospel, the letter of the gospel will be disco- 
 vered to be diametrically opposed to it ; and if an appeal 
 be made to the spirit of the gospel, that spirit will rise up 
 in judgment against it. The solitary text of scripture 
 upon which it is so vaguely attempted to justify divorce, 
 is susceptible of a very different interpretation from what 
 Protestants endeavour to impose upon it. The corres- 
 ponding passages in St. Mark (xii), St. Luke (xvi. 18), St. 
 Paul (Cor. vii. 10.), and even in St. Matt, himself (v. 32.), 
 most unequivocally point out the manner in which we are 
 to understand it, namely, that whosoever shall put away 
 his wife, excepting for the cause of fornication, committeth 
 adultery; and whosoever shall put away his wife, and 
 shall marry another, committeth adultery. If not, the sa- 
 
172 
 
 the subject of misrepresentation ; but it is the most 
 cruel and the most successful weapon which our 
 
 cred penmen are all at variance and in contradiction with 
 each other; and the positive injunction of our Saviour, 
 What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder, 
 (St. Mark x. 9.) is a false and nugatory precept. It was 
 even in the very act of abrogating 1 the ancient law of 
 divorce, that these words were pronounced ; and instead 
 of permitting divorces upon any terms, the object was to 
 do away with them altogether. But to revert to the text 
 of St. Matthew, since without any contortion it will bear 
 the interpretation which the Catholic church affixes to it, 
 and which St. Matthew himself has clearly given it in 
 another passage (Chap. v. 82.) ; and since we know, by 
 incontrovertible historical evidence, that it was understood 
 in that sense during the earliest ages of the church, there 
 is an end to the argument of scripture authority being in 
 favour of divorces. So far for the literal interpretation of 
 this text ; as to the spirit of it, there is no passage in the 
 sacred writings, the misinterpretation of which is of more 
 serious and permanent detriment to domestic happiness 
 and morality, than this. How many would restrain their 
 passions, were it not for the previous knowledge that 
 those passions may in the end be legally indulged. Is it 
 not an incentive to adultery to know that it may be pur- 
 sued almost with impunity ? Is it not a temptation to 
 every species of villainy and hypocrisy, to be aware that 
 the sacred bond of matrimony may, at any time, be broken 
 asunder, and transferred to another object? It is this 
 state of things, which has occasioned in this country vio- 
 lations of the laws of matrimony, that have made us the 
 scorn and contempt of every civilized people in the world. 
 
173 
 
 enemies employ against us. It is, however, a 
 signal triumph to us, that none can ever attack 
 Catholicity, without first enlisting falsehood and 
 
 The divorces which take place yearly, not to say 
 monthly, in the British empire, (though, thank heaven, 
 they are not yet become the law of the land) are an in- 
 fringement upon eveiy law both human and divine, ec- 
 clesiastical and civil. I have already shown that they 
 stand in opposition to the law of God ; they are also pro- 
 hibited by our civil code, which recognizes only a separa- 
 tion a mensd et a thoro; they are also contrary to our ecclesi- 
 astical law, which permits no more (both being the laws 
 of ancient Catholic times) ; and it is necessary to call on 
 the omnipotent power of a British parliament, which ar- 
 rogates to itself a superiority over every power in the 
 world, to break down all the fences which reason, law, 
 and revelation have united to erect for the security of do- 
 mestic life, and the durability of the sacred vows of ma- 
 trimony. As to the regulations respecting divorces, and 
 the facilities afforded them in Scotland, they would 
 almost disgrace a tribe of savage Indians. 
 
 As in every thing else that is the offspring of Pro- 
 testantism, there is so much inconsistency in the prin- 
 ciples and the laws of divorce, as to render the whole 
 system a complete paradox. The bishops in their own 
 courts acknowledge no such practice"; but the bishops 
 in the House of Lords lend their sanction to them. The 
 trial of the late Queen is a striking instance of the incal- 
 culable evils of such a system ; it may with truth be said, 
 that a more disgraceful scene was never exhibited in any 
 Christian country. 
 
174 
 
 calumny into their cause. That religion must, 
 indeed, be in itself invulnerable, which obliges her 
 opponents to forge a new creed for her adoption, 
 before they can hope to make any impression upon 
 her ; which, having no blemish of its own, compels 
 malice to seek her gratification at the expence of 
 truth, to surround her with ideal forms, and 
 then, with hypocritical knavery, to exert all her 
 might to destroy the wicked phantoms of her own 
 creation. But so it was, from the commencement 
 of Christianity, and so it will be, to the end. The 
 primitive Christians, and the Catholics of the pre- 
 sent day, are severally accused of the same crimes, 
 and subject to the same calumnies. The reverential 
 honour in which the primitive Christians held the 
 cross, was divine worship to images ; their miracles, 
 were magical enchantments ; their loyalty to Christ, 
 was treason to the state; their adoration of the One 
 Eternal Author of all things, was atheism and infi- 
 delity to the gods. (/) To such an extent has misre- 
 
 (/ > Both in pagan and in Christian times, the cry of dis- 
 loyalty and treason has ever been the signal for the most 
 atrocious crimes, the war-whoop against virtue and religion. 
 Socrates, perhaps the most virtuous Athenian that ever 
 lived, was condemned to death, for teaching that immortal 
 truth, the unity of the Godhead : and his crime was called 
 disloyalty to the state, because it was treason to its religion. 
 It was disloyalty, always imputed, but never proved, that 
 raised the cry of ad Leones, against the primitive Chris- 
 
175 
 
 presentation been carried, that it would be no very 
 bold defiance to stand pledged to discover a false- 
 
 tians, and that has continued to shed the blood of prophets 
 and of saints, in every age, and in every nation, that has 
 been darkened with the spirit of bigotry, and stained with 
 the horrors of persecution. " It was the imputation of 
 disloyalty to Caesar, which led St. Paul to prison, and con- 
 demned our Saviour to the cross ! It is a proud and 
 honorable distinction, that our loyalty to God, the King 
 of kings, our eternal prince, and supreme ruler, should 
 bear the dishonorable title of disloyalty to our temporal 
 sovereign, and treason to the constitution." Blessed are 
 they who suffer persecution for justice sake. Blessed are 
 ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say 
 all manner of evil against you, UNTRULY, for my sake. It 
 is enough for the disciple to be as his master ; if they have 
 called the master of the house, Beelzebub, how much more 
 them of his household ! 
 
 The Almighty has said, through the mouth of an in- 
 spired teacher : Let every soul be subject to the higher 
 powers : for there is no power but from God. Therefore 
 he that resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. 
 And they that resist purchase to themselves damnation. 
 And again, Thou shalt not speak evil of the prince of thy 
 people. Hence, in serving and honoring our king, we 
 serve and honor our God ; and it is a most extraordinary 
 expedient to make us more faithful to our prince, by en- 
 deavouring to make us unfaithful to our Creator : which, 
 most undoubtedly, we should be, did we subscribe to the 
 Test now required of us. We must ever remember that 
 while ' we give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,' we 
 must also ' give to God the things that are God's.' 
 
176 
 
 hood in the very first argument of every book 
 that has come from the pen of our adversaries. 
 They stand about us objecting many and grievous 
 accusations, which they cannot proved As far as 
 
 ^ Acts, xxv. 7. Unless it were to shew the furious 
 extremities to which our enemies allow themselves to be 
 carried, it would be beneath a Catholic to notice that 
 crowd of abominable and impious tracts, which, at this 
 moment, are so widely and so industriously circulated 
 amongst the poor and the ignorant of this country, and 
 that, too, by members of the established church, with the 
 absurd intent of proving that the pope is Antichrist. I al- 
 lude to them principally for the purpose of replying to them, 
 in the eloquent words of Dr. Doyle : " To such extremities 
 did these men proceed, as not only to confound the power 
 claimed by some few popes of Rome, over the temporal 
 interests or rights of kings and kingdoms, with the spiri- 
 tual jurisdiction of St. Peter's successor, but, in addition 
 to this misrepresentation, they actually designated, not 
 one or other, but a whole series of those successors, as 
 Antichrists, and excited the deluded multitude to hate 
 them, and curse them, as the capital enemies of our Lord 
 and Saviour. Yes, the very men, who maintained from 
 the beginning, and still maintain, against an infidel or 
 Arian world, the divinity of the son of God, the very men 
 who designate themselves as the last of his servants, and 
 who, without any doubt, have caused his name to be pub- 
 lished and adored throughout nearly the whole Christian 
 world, these men, who never ask anything of the Father 
 except through the Son, and identify him in their daily 
 prayers with the King of ages, the immortal and invisible 
 
177 
 
 regards us, it is bad policy, for it does but confirm 
 the Catholic in his faith, to find it so invulnerable ; 
 and to those who are sincere in the pursuit of truth, 
 the exposure of such deception frequently forms a 
 strong inducement to their conversion. But, 
 among the weak and the timid, among those who 
 have little leisure, and perhaps less opportunity for 
 examining the question, it does much mischief, It 
 blackens us in the eyes of many, who are other- 
 wise inclined to look favourably upon us, and makes 
 them turn away in disgust from that investigation, 
 which, in justice to themselves, they are bound to 
 go through an investigation which would termi- 
 nate so much to our honour and to their satisfac- 
 tion. To what other possible circumstances can 
 the following rebuke of our Saviour to the Phari- 
 sees be more applicable ? Woe to you, doctors of 
 the law, for you have taken away the key of 
 knowledge; you yourselves have not entered in, and 
 those that were entering in you have hindered. 
 
 
 
 God to whom alone all are due, and given, all honor and 
 glory, these very men have been called, by the ferocious 
 leaders of the revolt, ' Antichrists P and the Church in 
 which they have always presided, and whose faith was 
 from the beginning, and is still spoken of throughout the 
 entire world, this Church they called ' Babylon,' and the 
 ' great apostacy,' with all manner of opprobrious and in- 
 sulting names." Reply to Magee, p. 42. 
 <*> St. Luke, xi. 52. 
 N 
 
178 
 
 That no one into whose hands these pages may 
 chance to fall, may henceforward unknowingly 
 subject himself to a similar denunciation, and that 
 none may in future plead ignorance for their errors 
 or their prejudices, I have annexed to this volume 
 a copious list of Catholic controversial writings/ 
 Almost any one of them is sufficient to satisfy an 
 impartial mind, a mind seriously and sincerely 
 engaged in the pursuit of truth. Let them be 
 considered as counterparts to the writings of our 
 adversaries; let them be consulted as mirrors, in 
 which our principles and our doctrines are reflected 
 in their true light. They will remove that dismal 
 mask from the fair face of our religion, first im- 
 posed upon it by the malice of it's enemies, and 
 afterwards continued by the ignorance and credu- 
 lity of mankind. They will exhibit it as it really 
 is, pure, holy, spotless, and undefiled. 
 
 There is another point on which we feel par- 
 ticularly jealous, because we are particularly inno- 
 cent ; namely, BIGOTRY. If by bigotry is meant 
 a blind and ignorant attachment to our tenets, we 
 plead not guilty, upon the credit of this single 
 fact, that for one Protestant who can give any sort 
 of plausible reason for the hope which is in him^ 
 there are at least ten Catholics, who will produce 
 strong and solid arguments in defence of their 
 
 :i > See APPENDIX. No. VI. <*> 1 St. Pet. iii. 15. 
 
179 
 
 creed. (/) But if by bigotry is meant an unchari- 
 table, illiberal, and sweeping condemnation of all 
 who differ from us in belief, it is certainly no dif- 
 ficult matter to prove ourselves not only far less 
 bigoted than any of our accusers, but indeed alto- 
 gether exempt from the charge. 
 
 In the second chapter of an excellent work en- 
 titled " Charity and Truth," first published many 
 years ago, and recently republished under the 
 sanction of the venerable prelates of the Roman 
 Catholic Church in Ireland, a work most deservedly 
 held in the highest estimation among us, the fol- 
 lowing positions are to be found : 1st. That what- 
 ever be the religious belief of the parents of a 
 person who is baptized, and whatever be the faith 
 of the person who baptizes him, he becomes, in 
 the instant of his baptism, a member of the Ca- 
 tholic church, as the true church of Christ. 2ndly. 
 That he receives in his baptism justifying grace, 
 and justifying faith. 3dly. That he loses the 
 former by the commission of any mortal sin. 
 4thly. That he loses the latter by the commission 
 of a mortal sin against faith ; but does not lose it 
 by the commission of any mortal sin of any other 
 
 (/) It stands to reason that a Catholic should be better 
 instructed in matters of religion than a Protestant, since 
 all our Catechisms, and Books of Devotion, contain a vast 
 deal more information both on faith and morals, than any 
 that are in use among Protestants. 
 
 N2 
 
180 
 
 kind. 5thly. That without such wilful ignorance, 
 or wilful error, as amounts to a crime in the eyes 
 of God, a mortal sin against faith is never com- 
 mitted: and 6thly. That, except in an extreme 
 case, no individual is justified in imputing, even in 
 his own mind, this criminal ignorance or criminal 
 error to any other individual. From an admirable 
 sermon on UNIVERSAL BENEVOLENCE, delivered by 
 an eminent Roman Catholic preacher, (m} in the year 
 1816, both in Bath and London, and which has 
 been published and widely circulated under the 
 authority of the Vicars Apostolic of this country, 
 the following passage is extracted : " Never be 
 so uncharitable and so gross, as indiscriminately 
 to give the harsh and odious appellation of Here- 
 tics to all those who belong not to our commu- 
 nion/' That word implies guilt as well as error. 
 
 (""The Rev. Dr. Archer. 
 
 (B) That such have always been the sentiments of the 
 brightest luminaries of the Catholic Church, the following 
 passages from St. Augustin will tend to show : ' The 
 apostle Paul,' says this great man, in his one hundred and 
 sixty-second letter, ' has said, an heretical man, after one 
 reproof, avoid; knowing, that he who is of this sort is 
 subverted and sins, and is self-condemned ; but they who 
 defend not with an obstinate animosity, their own opinion, 
 though false and perverse, especially if it be an opinion 
 which they did not originate in the assurance of their 
 own presumption, but which they received from their 
 parents, seduced and fallen into error, and who, seeking 
 the truth with a cautious solicitude, are ready on finding 
 
181 
 
 You have been taught in your catechisms, that 
 heresy is an obstinate error in matters of faith. 
 
 it, to be corrected, they are not by any means to be reputed 
 among heretics.' Reply to Dr. Magee. 
 
 Let us hear Dr. Doyle himself: ".It was a question," 
 says he, " amongst the Jews, what was the greatest com- 
 mandment in the law, whether to worship the Deity by 
 sacrifice, which was a profession of faith of absolute de- 
 pendance on the Supreme Being, and an act of prayer, or 
 to love him with the whole heart. The Redeemer decided 
 the question in favor of the love of God, and of our neigh- 
 bour ; and St. Paul, having enumerated faith, hope, and 
 charity, the three great Christian virtues, says, expressly, 
 that charity, which lasts for ever, is the greatest of the 
 three. Sins, therefore, against faith, such as heresy, are 
 very grievous ; perhaps, next to apostacy, this vice is the 
 worst of all, as it cuts up the roots of justification ; but, ab- 
 stracting from this character of it, it may not be so mali- 
 cious, not so much opposed to the nature of God, as those 
 sins which conflict with charity ; and this is a reflection 
 which ought often to occur to those, who, agitated by a 
 fiery zeal, and swoln with a selfishness, which they mis- 
 take for faith, break down all the charities of human life, 
 sow dissentions amongst brethren, and totally forget the 
 divine command of doing to others what they would that 
 others should do to them. We should reprobate heresy 
 as we reprove drunkenness or theft, usury or oppression of 
 the poor ; we should denounce schism as we proclaim the 
 guilt of calumny or detraction ; but as we should exercise 
 patience and long suffering towards the drunkard, the 
 thief, or the calumniator, so we should use forbearance 
 
182 
 
 He only is a heretic, who, when he has discovered 
 truth, wilfully and perversely, from human re- 
 
 and charity towards the wilful and obstinate heretic, 
 hoping that the Lord may, perhaps, yet give him repen- 
 tance, like to other sinners. But, if the person who is in 
 error, has been seduced into it by others, if he have re- 
 ceived it as an inheritance from his fathers, and if his 
 education, his habits, his passions, his interests, his con- 
 nexions, raise a barrier about him, which the light of 
 truth cannot, morally speaking, penetrate, or the force of 
 argument approach, still less break down ; to cherish for 
 such a person any other feeling than that of the most 
 unmixed and ardent charity, would not only be unchris- 
 tian, but inhuman ; to consign such a man to future suf- 
 fering, on account of his errors, would be an usurpation 
 of the divine knowledge and power, and whosoever should 
 pass judgment on him, should fear that a similar judg- 
 ment, without mercy, would be passed upon himself. It 
 is the duty of those who are ministers of Christ, to exhibit 
 the truths of the gospel, and the errors opposed to them, 
 to display virtue in all her beauty, and exhibit also the 
 deformity of vice; to exhort and beseech men in all 
 patience and doctrine, to adhere to truth and virtue, and 
 to fly from vice and error ; to minister the aids of religion 
 to all who seek them at their hands ; to exclude from 
 their assemblies and communion all who obstinately ad- 
 here to vice or error, but to leave the judgment of men's 
 souls to Him who created and redeemed them, who alone 
 is able to discern the innocent from the guilty, and who 
 will repay to eveiy one according to what he did in the 
 body, whether good or evil. 
 
is;* 
 
 spects, for worldly interests, or some such un- 
 worthy object, shuts his mind against it ; or who 
 obstinately or negligently refuses to be at the 
 pains necessary for discovering it ; and how can 
 you presume to pronounce of any individual man, 
 that this is his case, unless he acknowledge it? 
 Can you assert that the doctrine which you know 
 to be true, has been proposed to him in such a 
 light of evidence, as to give conviction to his 
 rriind ; or that he is not so satisfied with his own 
 creed, as to preclude every idea of an obligation 
 to make further inquiry? Those who carefully 
 seek the truth, and sincerely follow the best light 
 they can obtain in their respective circumstances, 
 are innocent in the sight of God, and secure of 
 his acceptance, whatever may be the errors into 
 which they involuntarily fall. Who art thou, 
 
 . 
 
 " There is no person who rightly understands the spirit 
 in which Christians are called, and which spirit created 
 and preserved that unity amongst the members of the 
 church, who will not subscribe to those sentiments. They 
 are the dictate of charity and liberality, rightly under- 
 stood ; but far removed, certainly, from that novel opinion 
 now so prevalent amongst Protestants, which would open 
 the church to all sorts and descriptions of sects, and erase 
 from the catalogue of vices, revealed to us by Almighty 
 God, the crimes of heresy and schism." Reply to Dr. 
 Magee. 
 
184 
 
 then, that judgest another man's servant? To 
 his own master he standeth orfalleth." (o} 
 
 Again, in a most learned, temperate, and con- 
 ciliatory work, from the pen of an eminent French 
 divine, (now Archbishop of Strasbourg,) we find the 
 following note : " What shall we say of that mul- 
 titude of Protestants who daily die without con- 
 fession, without even knowing that it was ordained 
 by Jesus Christ for the remission of sin ? A firm 
 faith, and involuntary and insurmountable error, 
 are powerful titles to the divine mercy, and may 
 obtain from heaven that disposition of mind which 
 would induce us to fly with eagerness to the tri- 
 bunal of confession, if we were only aware of its 
 necessity. This species of implicit desire this 
 indirect, though blind preparation this wish, 
 though ill expressed, yet comprehended by an om- 
 niscient God, joined to a lively repentance and a 
 perfect charity, may, it is true, supply the place 
 of the actual confession of our sins." C;>) 
 
 (0) Rom. xiv. 4. 
 
 (p) Discussion Amicale, vol. ii. p. 178. London, 1817. 
 The passage continues as follows : " We fondly wish to 
 suppose this high degree of contrition and of love in all 
 those who die without the assistance and the graces of 
 the sacrament ; but, unfortunately, we cannot dissemble 
 to ourselves, and must fear that it is rarely to be found, 
 though it is the only resource with which we are ac- 
 quainted, even for excusable ignorance." 
 
185 
 
 It would be useless to swell these pages with 
 numberless other quotations in proof of the cha- 
 ritable and liberal interpretations of our exclusive 
 doctrine, since the most sceptical must acknow- 
 ledge, that sufficient has been advanced to expose 
 the mistake of those who accuse Catholics in ge- 
 neral of bigoted and uncharitable tenets. But if 
 there be any individuals amongst us whose out- 
 rageous zeal might induce them to entertain opi- 
 nions on these points, which their creed neither 
 obliges nor authorizes them to hold, let not those 
 opinions be imputed to the whole body. The 
 bare dogmatical tenet, that " out of the Catholic 
 church there is no ordinary possibility of salva- 
 tion," unaccompanied by any explanation, and 
 which is so to be found both in our formularies 
 of faith and in the writings of our most able and 
 most liberal controvertists, might, at first sight, 
 appear to warrant the charge of bigotry against 
 us. But when it is considered that in the appli- 
 cation of this doctrine we always hold those only 
 to be heretics who wilfully believe or obstinately 
 profess errors in matters of faith ; that, in declar- 
 ing the Protestant religion to be a heresy, we do 
 not condemn its professors as heretics,^ (" which 
 
 to } We do not say, You are a Protestant, and therefore 
 a heretic, and, consequently, have no chance of salvation ; 
 we only say (and it is the doctrine which we all learn in 
 our catechism) that he only is a heretic who wilfully be- 
 lieves or obstinately professes errors in matters of faith. 
 
186 
 
 appellation implies guilt as well as error"); that 
 we leave the guilt of every individual between his 
 God and himself; that we count all within the 
 pale of Catholic unity, who do not perversely re- 
 fuse to enter it ; and lastly, that the Church con- 
 tents herself with the simple declaration, that " wil- 
 ful heresy is deserving of condemnation ;" there 
 is surely clear and ample evidence on which to 
 acquit us of bigotry and illiberality. 
 
 It now remains to be seen if we cannot more 
 justly charge our adversaries with that, of which I 
 trust it now fully appears, they have most unjustly 
 accused us. Protestants, as well as Catholics, hold 
 the Athanasian Creed, which says, " that unless a 
 man doth keep entire and inviolate the Catholic 
 faith, without doubt, he shall perish everlastingly." 
 We have collected the meaning and interpretation 
 attached, by us, to this dogma ; let us see if the 
 doctrine of any of the Protestant Churches will 
 give them an equal right to so charitable an expla- 
 nation. The eighteenth article of the Established 
 Church is couched in the following harsh terms : 
 " They also are to be had accursed, that presume 
 to say, that every man shall be saved by the law or 
 sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to 
 frame his life according to that law, and the light 
 
 So that when the church pronounces judgment against 
 heretics, she always pre-supposes that they have a know- 
 ledge of their errors, hut have not the will to correct them. 
 
187 
 
 of nature." The Protestant Church of Scotland 
 holds, that out of their Church, " there is neither 
 life nor eternal felicity to be hoped for, and that it 
 is blasphemy to affirm, that men who live according 
 to equity and justice shall be saved, in whatever 
 religion they may have lived." The Protestant 
 Church of France propounds in her catechism : 
 " that no one obtains pardon of his sins, who is not 
 incorporated with the people of God, and the unity 
 of their Church, out of which there is nothing but 
 death and damnation." How the Roman Catholic 
 Church can be accused of bigotry and illiberality, 
 by men who profess tenets like these, I am at a 
 loss to understand ; and how the excluding doctrine, 
 couched in such harsh and forbidding terms, can 
 possibly be susceptible of the same charitable 
 interpretation which we give to our declaration, 
 "that out of the Catholic Church there is no 
 ordinary possibility of salvation," it is equally 
 difficult to imagine. Still, among the many incon- 
 sistencies of Protestant belief, many of her most 
 learned Divines have admitted, that we can be 
 saved by the faith of the Catholic Church, since all 
 points necessary for salvation are contained in that 
 faith. (r) The Protestant Divines of the university 
 
 (r} See the third chapter of The Faith and Doctrine of 
 the Roman Catholic Church, proved by the Testimony of the 
 most learned Protestants, &c. 1813. Keating, Brown, and 
 Keating. 
 
188 
 
 of Helmstadt decided, in 1708, that Catholics are 
 not in fundamental errors, and such as are opposite 
 to salvation : w thus disowning the exclusive doctrine 
 altogether, and virtually making a renunciation of 
 Protestantism; for, as the Catholic Church is the 
 parent stock from which all other sects and religions 
 are derived, by what arguments can she defend her 
 separation, if she admit that every necessary truth, 
 nothing opposed to salvation is taught and prac- 
 tised by it ? I am the true vine, says our Saviour, 
 and my Father is the husbandman... .As the branch 
 cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the 
 vine ; so neither can you, unless you abide in me. 
 By your act of unjustifiable separation, you have 
 ceased to abide in me.... you are cast forth as a 
 branch, and shall wither. w These strange incon- 
 sistencies produce strange dilemmas. If Protest- 
 ants reject the excluding doctrine altogether, they 
 surrender the principles upon which they separated 
 from the Church of Rome ; if they maintain it, 
 according to their authenticated tenets, they stand 
 
 W Whoever is curious to examine the motives for this 
 candid and liberal decision, may find them detailed at 
 length at the end of a little pamphlet, entitled : The Duke 
 of Brunswick's Fifty Reasons for abjuring Lutheranism, 
 and embracing the Roman Catholic Religion ; to be had of 
 all Catholic booksellers. 
 
 W St. John, xv. 1.&4. 
 
189 
 
 justly convicted, by their own evidence, of that illi- 
 berality for which they so unjustly condemn us. (M) 
 Having already trespassed too long upon the 
 patience of my readers, I will very shortly take my 
 leave of them. If these Reasons should fortunately 
 so far influence the minds of any, as to induce 
 them to enter more at large upon the inquiry into 
 their moral conduct and religious creed, an inquiry 
 the most important of all that can occupy the 
 attention of man, it is much of what I desire. As 
 conciliation and union, founded upon truth and 
 justice, is my object, I will venture once more to 
 express a hope that what I have said will give 
 offence to none. If I have failed in convincing, 
 I trust, at least, that I have confirmed none in 
 their errors ; that if I have not brightened, at 
 least, I have not extinguished the lamp of truth ; 
 and, above all, that I have not violated the strictest 
 bounds of Christian charity. Let me exhort those 
 who enter upon the discussion of religious contro- 
 versy, to bring with them an humble and a docile 
 
 (M) The following definitions of bigotry and illiberality, 
 will clearly show to which party those epithets most pro- 
 perly belong. The Bigot is he who is blindly and pas- 
 sionately wedded to an opinion, for which he can neither 
 show the authority of God nor the force of reason. The 
 Illiberal Man is he who refuses to another the right of 
 exercising his understanding where God has left him free. 
 
190 
 
 mind, a mind disposed and desirous to be instructed, 
 ready to subject their reason to the obedience of 
 faith ; (x) not with a determination to perpetuate 
 their prejudices, and cherish their incredulity. 
 There is nothing we should guard against more 
 than an " ignorance, unwilling to be informed, and 
 an obstinacy, resolving not to be convinced." In 
 the prosecution of this inquiry, let us candidly 
 ask ourselves, if we are seriously and sincerely 
 engaged in the pursuit of truth ; and if so, whether 
 we are determined, at all hazards, to embrace it, 
 when we have succeeded in discovering it ? By 
 this standard alone can we determine our sincerity, 
 and satisfy our conscience that we are performing 
 our duty. If those who are in error will but fairly 
 and candidly put their religion to the test, I answer 
 for it they will discover it's falsehood ; if, with the 
 Bishop of Ephesus, in the Apocalypse, they will 
 but try those who say they are Apostles, and are 
 not ; (y} I will pledge my existence that they will 
 find them liars. (z} Controversy is the most simple 
 and the most easy of all studies ; it resolves itself 
 into one question, The Infallibility of the true 
 Church of Christ. When once we have discovered 
 this Church, and surely its characteristics are so 
 marked that none can mistake them, then all we 
 have to do is to bow, in humble submission, to her 
 
 Rom. xvi. 26. & Apo. ii. 2. 
 
191 
 
 doctrinal decisions. (a) Let us, then, no longer suffer 
 ourselves to be tossed to and fro with every wind 
 of doctrine ; but, in accordance with the apostolic 
 precept, listen to the authority of the Church; we 
 are of God ; he that knoweth God, heareth us, he 
 that is not of God, heareth us not : by this we 
 know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. ( 
 With this view let us also put the same question 
 to ourselves, which Philip put to the Eunuch who 
 was reading the Scriptures : Thinkest thou that 
 thou understandest what thou readest ? And if 
 we answer in the same spirit, and with the same 
 docility, How can I, unless some man shew me ? (c} 
 no doubt we shall be rewarded with the same 
 success. Though, in hearing the Church, we seem 
 
 (a) As all must stand upon the basis of historical evi- 
 dence, hence in discussing this or any other tenet or con- 
 troverted point, it is surely the most natural method to 
 refer, in the first instance, to the most ancient written 
 evidence, namely, the Scriptures and the Fathers of the 
 Church. If the Scriptures are not sufficiently full and 
 satisfactory, we then go to those who followed nearest, in 
 point of time, to the Apostles, and in whose writings we 
 readily discover the sense in which the particular doctrine 
 in question was understood in their days ; from them it 
 was handed down to the succeeding generation ; and from 
 thence we may trace it, always with an accumulating 
 weight of testimony, to our own times. 
 
 <*> 1 Epist. St. John, iv. 6. <> Acts, viii. 30, 31. 
 
192 
 
 to listen to men; yet it is not men who speak 
 therein, but God who speaks, by the ministry of 
 men. Let us then listen, with proper dispositions, 
 and we shall find her wisdom and her spirit irre- 
 sistible. (rf) It is thus, and thus only, that ff the 
 ignorant can be delivered from the seductions of 
 false teachers, and the learned from the pride and 
 delusion of false wisdom."^ 
 
 Neither is it any reason for us to be satisfied, 
 because, without diligent inquiry made with the 
 necessary dispositions, we may feel already con- 
 vinced. " They who allow their passions," and I 
 will add, their prejudices, " to confound the dis- 
 tinctions between right and wrong, are criminal : 
 they may be convinced, but they have not come 
 honestly by their conviction." They are in that 
 state in which it is to be feared, that the Almighty 
 has sent them the operation of error to believe 
 lying ; (f] they are amongst those unbelievers in 
 whom the God of this world hath so blinded their 
 minds, that the light of the gospel of the glory 
 of Christ, who is the image of God, should not 
 
 (rf) Acts, vi. 10. 
 
 (<f) Though error may be innocent because it may be 
 sincere, yet there can he no sincerity without inquiry, 
 nor any inquiry without a solicitude to discover the truth, 
 and a determination to follow it when discovered. 
 ( /} 2 Thefts, ii. 10. 
 
193 
 
 shine unto them. They are suffered to be de- 
 ceived, because they love deception : they are 
 permitted to be confirmed in error, because they 
 have been unwilling to behold and to embrace the 
 truth. But if we wish to be preserved from such 
 callous hearts and darkened understandings, let 
 us, with the advice of the Apostle, anoint our eyes 
 that we may see (k} with sincerity and humility. 
 Let us beseech the God of light to remove from 
 us all blindness of heart : let us not forget that 
 those who think themselves wise, may make them- 
 selvesfools (t ' by the folly of their own conceits, (m} 
 by vanity, pride, or obstinacy : let us fervently 
 pray, that through the mercy of God, . . . the orient 
 from on high may visit us, may enlighten them 
 that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, 
 and direct their feet in the ways of peace. (n) As 
 we cannot be "too strongly impressed with the 
 necessity of such dispositions, I will again request 
 the reader, in the words of a pious, an excellent 
 and an amiable man, now no more, to bear in 
 mind, " That candour and impartiality, necessary 
 in all discussions, are particularly so where the 
 passions are all engaged on one side ; that truth 
 must come from the Father of light ; that it be- 
 hoveth the sincere inquirer to remove the obsta- 
 
 <*> 2 Cor. iv. 4. < Apoc. iii. 18. W R (mif i. 22. 
 (m) Rom. xii. 16. <"> St. Luke, i. 78, 79. 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 cles which the ignorance and the pride of the 
 human mind oppose to it ; and, in fine, that only 
 the pure of heart see God, and that into a mali- 
 cious soul wisdom will not enter, nor dwell in a 
 body subject unto sin." 
 
 If, in the course of the inquiry, we meet with 
 that which it is impossible to comprehend, and 
 difficult to believe, we must remember that the 
 Almighty has so ordained it for the exercise of our 
 faith ; iwt faith is the evidence of things that ap- 
 pear not. (0] We must equally adore in humility 
 and silence, the revelations of God to man, and 
 the inscrutable counsels of heaven in the govern- 
 ment of the world ; and we must apply to both, 
 these words of the apostle, O the depth of the 
 riches, of the wisdom, and of the knowledge of 
 God! how incomprehensible are his judgments, 
 and how unsearchable his ways. (pj If we cannot 
 reduce every thing to the standard of human rea- 
 son, nor to the narrow comprehension of our capa- 
 cities, we must recollect that omniscience is an 
 attribute not granted to man ; that we see now 
 through a glass, and in a dark manner ; but the 
 time will come when we shall see face to face : 
 now we know only in part, but then we shall know 
 even as we are known. (q} We must be satisfied 
 that every thing is in conformity with the inscru- 
 
 () Hefcxi. 1. W Ram. xi. 33. M 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 
 
195 
 
 table decrees of the wisdom of the Deity, because 
 we know we are not to enter into judgment with 
 God, nor call our Creator to account for his con- 
 duct towards his creatures. The God of all know- 
 ledge has revealed to us enough for the purposes 
 of our salvation, and that is sufficient. His is the 
 province to command, ours to obey ; his counsels 
 are righteous and his ways are unsearchable ; and 
 it is not for us to question the equity of his provi- 
 dence, nor penetrate the depths of his designs. 
 He has taught us his holy will, and we must per- 
 form it with alacrity ; not wait to discuss it's 
 utility, or question it's propriety. Though in re- 
 velation there is much beyond reason, yet there is 
 nothing contrary to it. It is only the ' sophisms 
 of reasoning pride' that would lead us into contra- 
 diction and absurdity. Let us not lose ourselves 
 in the intricate mazes of human speculation ; but 
 taking a straight-forward path, let us ' adhere 
 firmly to the sacred laws of truth, of reason, and 
 of revelation : of truth undisguised by fashionable 
 error ; of reason unbiassed by worldly motives ; 
 of revelation unsullied with the infectious breath 
 of pretended reformation.' 
 
 In conclusion, let me call upon those who en- 
 gage in polemic combat, to shake hands upon the 
 field of battle and cleanse the venom from their 
 weapons ; we extract the sting from controversy, 
 by discarding acrimonious invective and passionate 
 
196 
 
 hostility. Freedom of discussion is necessary in 
 the cause of truth ; but that freedom must not be 
 suffered to degenerate into licentiousness. As 
 reason should be subject to revelation, so should 
 zeal be obedient to charity; and though we 
 differ in belief, we may live in harmony. Let 
 it be our endeavour to promote the happiness of 
 each other ; and if we are not likely to concur in 
 opinion upon all points, let us rejoice that we 
 agree in many ; and knowing with how much diffi- 
 culty truth is sometimes found, let us not wonder 
 that some should miss it. Whenever we are ar- 
 rayed as adversaries, let it be under the banners 
 of ' the meek and humble Jesus i and may the 
 motto blazoned on them be that golden sentence 
 of an eloquent Father of the Church : IN NECES- 
 SARIIS UNITAS, IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS, ET IN OMNIBUS 
 CHARITAS ; and while we display our triumph, let 
 us also learn to show our moderation. Thus will 
 error be overthrown, the troubled passions be 
 allayed, and the olive branch of peace proclaim 
 that the waters of discord have subsided. May they 
 never flow again, but be dried up in their sources, 
 absorbed by CHARITY and TRUTH. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 IN offering to the reader the Traditionary Evi- 
 dence of the Doctrines of our Church on the points 
 to which it relates, contained in No. III. of the 
 following APPENDIX, I beg leave to call his atten- 
 tion to a rule laid down by the Bishop of London, 
 in his Charge of 1826 (p. 17). "When we are 
 acquainted," says he, " with the true state of the 
 controversy, we may form our own conclusions : 
 
 and how is this to be done ? Not, surely, by 
 
 retaliating mis-statements, invectives, and calum- 
 nies, or crudely asserting an unqualified right 
 of private judgment, but BY REFERENCE TO PRIMI- 
 TIVE ANTIQUITY ; disproving the allegations of our 
 opponents from the silence of scripture, of general 
 tradition, of ancient writers, which, in a case of 
 this nature, is decisive ; appealing to the proceed- 
 ings of Emperors, the acts of councils, the lan- 
 guage of Fathers, of Bishops, and even of Popes, 
 which contradict the pretensions of the Papacy, 
 
 &c " The genuine records of ancient usage and 
 
 practice, will, in like manner, supply us with proof, 
 &c." Now, with all deference to the Rt. Rev. 
 Prelate, we may surely be allowed to ask, what 
 this silent evidence, to which he appeals, can 
 weigh against the positive and speaking testimony 
 
198 
 
 which we can produce? As to the contradicting 
 evidence, except on the point to which his Lord- 
 ship refers, it is no where to be found : and even 
 on that point, it will be seen only to contradict, 
 not the lawful and spiritual authority of the Pon- 
 tiff, but \hepretensions of the Papacy. To deduce 
 proof from the genuine records of ancient usage 
 and practice, is an admirable rule, and one by 
 which every Catholic, in common with the Bishop, 
 is ready to be judged. I trust I have shewn in 
 another part of this work, that the silence of scrip- 
 ture is not proof. The contradiction of scripture 
 certainly is : for, if a doctrine be contrary to scrip- 
 ture, it cannot be true. But till the scriptures 
 can be proved to be an independent rule of faith, 
 and to have been delivered to us in this capacity, 
 which the Catholic Church has always proved NOT 
 to have been the case, by ancient usage and prac- 
 tice, the mere silence of scripture cannot be 
 taken in evidence. And as to the speaking and 
 positive testimony of the sacred writings, this 
 unerring rule of ancient usage and practice will 
 shew that the Church, and the Church alone, has 
 ever been considered as the authorized expounder 
 of it. 
 
 In evidence of this, I will here content myself 
 with citing the sentiments of only one of those 
 great and learned men, whom all Christendom has 
 agreed to honour with the distinctive title of Fa- 
 
199 
 
 thers of the Church. St. Irenseus, writing during 
 the second century, observes : 
 
 " Paul says : ' God appointed in his church 
 apostles, prophets, and doctors. Where, there- 
 fore, the holy gifts of God are, there must the 
 truth be learned ; with them is the succession from 
 the apostles, and there is the society whose com- 
 munication is sound and irreproveable, unadul- 
 terated, and pure. These preserve the faith of 
 one God, who made all things ; increase our love 
 towards his divine Son, and expound, without dan- 
 ger, the scriptures to us, not blaspheming the 
 name of God, nor dishonouring the patriarchs, nor 
 contemning the prophets.' (Adversus Hcer. L. iv. 
 c. 45. p. 345.)" To him that believeth that there 
 is one God, and holds to the head, which is Christ 
 to this man all things will be plain, if he read 
 diligently the scriptures with the aid of those who 
 are the priests in the church, and in whose hands, 
 as we have shewn, rests the doctrine of the Apos- 
 tles." ( Ibid. c. 52. p. 355 J 
 
 The infallibility of the Church of God, in ex- 
 pounding the scriptures, and delivering the doc- 
 trines of Christ, is the only question which our 
 adversaries have any right to attack ; for till this 
 point be carried, all others must remain invulner- 
 able; but it wears ' a panoply against which every 
 arrow falls blunted to the ground/ There is no 
 proposition more true than this that if a Catholic 
 
200 
 
 be once separated from that great sheet anchor of 
 his faith, the indefectibility of the Church of Christ, 
 he is drifted as a mere wreck upon the waters, 
 and, in point of religious belief, becomes as mu- 
 table as the waves, and as uncertain as the winds. 
 " Where such are the pretensions advanced," viz. 
 to infallibility, says the writer of the Charge to 
 which I have alluded, " the truth or the falsehood 
 of particular articles of faith becomes a secondary 
 question. If Christ has appointed the Church of 
 Rome the exclusive possessor of his promises, the 
 sole depositary of his authority, the infallible judge 
 in controversies regarding the faith, it is useless to 
 debate on other matter. If this point is decided 
 in her favour, our only resource is to acknowledge 
 our errors, to sue for reconciliation, and accept 
 the system of doctrines which is proved to be true 
 by her sanction." ( P. 16.) Now, if this point be 
 not decided in her favour by the Bishop's own 
 rule, the language of Fathers and of Bishops, 
 and from the genuine records of ancient usage 
 and practice , I pledge myself to desert her com- 
 munion on the morrow . (r) 
 
 (r) Any one who chooses may see the proofs in the work 
 from which the following extracts are taken. The Faith 
 of Catholics confirmed by Scripture, and attested by the 
 Fathers of the first four Centuries of the Church. Booker, 
 1812. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 SPEECH OF EDWARD BLOUNT, ESQ. 
 
 AT an Open Meeting of the General Committee of 
 the British Catholic Association, held at their 
 rooms, on Saturday, the 21st of July, 1827, 
 Lord Stourton in the Chair, 
 
 MR. BLOUNT said, I feel it my duty, as Secretary to 
 this Association, and Chairman of that Committee whose 
 peculiar province it is to repel unfounded calumnies upon 
 our principles, to bespeak your attention for a few minutes. 
 On Friday, the 29th of last month, a General Public 
 Meeting was held at the City of London Tavern, for the 
 purpose of forming an Auxiliary Society in the City of 
 London, to the British Society for promoting the religious 
 principles of the Reformation. The Eight Hon. Lord 
 Farnham was in the Chair. The Hon. Granville Ryder 
 moved the formation of the society, and Captain Gordon 
 seconded the resolution. General Ord moved the next 
 resolution, which was seconded by the Rev. Jos. Ivimey. 
 It is to the substance of the speeches of Captain Gordon, 
 and the Rev. Mr. Ivimey, that I think it my duty to call 
 your attention, premising that not one word of disap- 
 
 a 
 
11 APPENDIX. 
 
 probation at the assertions made by these persons, or at 
 the sentiments uttered, was expressed by the Chairman, 
 or by any person present ; and we are therefore compelled, 
 with regret, to regard their sentiments as adopted by the 
 meeting. 
 
 Captain Gordon, after stating that " the vast mass of 
 the population of Ireland were in a state of the most 
 grievous moral degradation ; and that crime, rapine, and 
 bloodshed were the effect of this moral degradation," in- 
 quired to what this alleged depravity was owing ; and he 
 replied, that " he had no hesitation in answering, to the 
 nature and essence of the Roman Catholic religion, and to 
 the total ignorance of the word of God prevailing in that 
 community. Hence the necessity of a standing army of 
 30,000 men, and an armed police throughout the whole 
 country. 1 ' He then proceeded to enumerate the number 
 of criminals tried and condemned at the late assizes at 
 Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, and Westmeath ; and exult- 
 ingly declared again, that " all this he attributed to the 
 nature and essence of the Roman Catholic Religion." 
 [hear, hearJ] The Rev. Mr. Ivimey was not quite so 
 strong in his pretended illustrations of alleged facts ; but 
 in the coarseness of his abuse, the Rev. Gentleman out- 
 stripped his competitor. " He was one of those who 
 would use no measured terms when speaking of Popery : 
 it was the abomination that maketh desolate ; it was 
 a great lie, a long lie, and made up of every species of 
 aggravation. It exposed its wretched followers to every 
 sort of misery here, and eternal perdition hereafter." The 
 assertion made by these persons is neither more nor less 
 than that the Roman Catholic faith produces the total 
 breach of every moral obligation ; and that the professors 
 of it are the most abandoned and worthless of mankind. 
 
APPENDIX. Ill 
 
 This is the proposition distinctly avowed at a meeting held 
 for the professed object of promoting the religious prin- 
 ciples of the Reformation, my Lord Farnham in the 
 Chair, with names around him of still higher note than 
 his own, and not one murmur of disapprobation was 
 whispered ! I should be wanting in my duty, did I not 
 bring these facts before you. Are we then, indeed, the 
 outcasts of society which these persons would teach the 
 public that we are ? Does that form of Christianity which 
 we profess, really inculcate every breach of morality ? This 
 was the religion of our Alfreds, our Henrys, our Edwards, 
 of our Mores, and our Fishers; of the most splendid 
 heroes, and exemplary characters that this country has 
 known ; of those who founded our seats of learning, to 
 whom we are indebted for the preservation of science and 
 of letters, and for very numerous editions of the holy 
 writings. Does this religion necessarily cramp the genius, 
 or debase the heart ? God forbid that any form of Christi- 
 anity should teach its votaries to violate the dictates of 
 Christian charity, or the laws that are instituted for the 
 well-being of society. The long catalogue of atrocious 
 crime that now stains the moral character of this Protest- 
 ant country, and which is nowhere exceeded in enormity, 
 is not attributed to the principles of the Protestant faith. 
 These crimes sprang from the disregard of the moral obli- 
 gations imposed by every form of Christian worship ; and 
 if any cause, more than another, tends to loosen the bonds 
 of religious duty, it is the conduct of these professors of 
 one form of faith, who shew so little of the vital spirit of 
 Christianity, as to pour out the most rancorous and insult- 
 ing denunciations on the heads of the professors of 
 another. The vast mass of the people of Ireland, who are 
 declared to be in a state of the most grievous moral de- 
 
IV APPENDIX. 
 
 gradation, are beyond comparison more moral in their 
 habits than the people of England ; nor is their ignorance 
 so great as that of thousands here who affect a tone of in- 
 sulting superiority over them. An immense unemployed 
 population, swarms over the land, without any legal 
 claim to relief : and in such a state of society, where the 
 severest pressure of distress weighs upon so many millions, 
 crime must abound : but is it honest to look into their 
 faith for the causes of it ! Is there no source from which 
 her various miseries may be deduced without imputing 
 them to the faith of the people ? Suppose that England, 
 regarding the strength of Ireland as injurious to her in- 
 terests, had made it the leading feature of her policy to 
 degrade, to weaken, and impoverish her, she might be 
 steeped in misery to the veiy lips, without owing her 
 misery to her faith. Had England proceeded still further : 
 had she mocked by insult, the misery she had created by 
 violence ; traduced the morals, as well as the religion of 
 the population ; and then, to complete the climax, had she 
 gent forth her modern apostles with the bible in one hand, 
 and the bayonet in the other, to wean the people from 
 their veneration for a priesthood who, in the worst of 
 times, had laboured to allay irritation ; whose influence 
 had always been exercised in the exemplary discharge of 
 their pastoral duties ; who had lived with their flocks, 
 been sharers in their privations, and, in the midst of pesti- 
 lence, had never shrunk from the bed of contagion ; if 
 England had acted thus, would there have been need to 
 search into the faith of Ireland for the cause of the de- 
 plorable position in which she stands ? That position is 
 not, as Captain Gordon states it to be, the work of the 
 Catholic religion: the Roman Catholic religion has taught 
 the miserable victims of English cupidity to submit to in- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 justice and oppression, and to seek consolation in the 
 hopes of a better world ; it has been their only solace, and 
 has effected what was beyond the reach of human power, 
 it has kept them loyal : and let the modern reformist 
 pause before he attempts to rob the poor Irish peasant of 
 these pastors and this religion, lest he remove the only 
 barrier between Ireland and despair. 
 
 No calculation of consequences, no estimate of politi- 
 cal expediency, no debtor and creditor account of loss or 
 gain, shall prevent me from raising my humble voice to 
 repel such foul slanders on all that men of honour value 
 most. Not that we will be induced by any provocation 
 to retaliate : we know how to respect ourselves ; and 
 neither Captain Gordon, nor Mr. Ivimey, shall be able to 
 reproach Catholics with being goaded by the foulest 
 slanders into retaliation. We will not meet the insults 
 cast on our religion, by imputing atrocities to the religion 
 of others. Instances have frequently occurred of persons 
 of other religious persuasions addressing our meetings, 
 and expressing sentiments of hostility to our tenets ; they 
 have been always attended to, not only with patience, 
 but with marked attention and courtesy. We violate not 
 the decencies of life ; on the contrary, if a person profess 
 his opinions in the singleness of his heart, and from the 
 real conviction of his mind, we can honour his sincerity, 
 though we dissent from his belief. We take every occa\ 
 sion publicly to declare, on the word of men of honour, 
 that we claim equal rights with our fellow-subjects, on 
 the broad principle, that human legislation exceeds its 
 legitimate boundary when it presumes to visit with pains, 
 penalties, or disqualifications, the conscientious followers 
 of any form of Christian worship. We appeal from the 
 verdict of violent and enthusiastic men, to a better tribu 
 
VI APPENDIX. 
 
 nal, to the good sense and honest hearts of our country- 
 men ; we implore them dispassionately to examine our 
 principles and our conduct, and to decide which is the 
 best subject, which best merits the approval of his country, 
 the Catholic who is obedient to the laws, performs with 
 fidelity every relative duty, and disavows on his honour, 
 and his oath, every obnoxious principle or opinion, and 
 sincerely desires to live in harmony with all the world ; 
 or the votary of the new reformation, who foments reli- 
 gious acrimony by calumnious imputations, by reviving 
 expiring prejudices, and invoking the continuance of 
 those humiliating laws, that have been too long the bane 
 of Ireland, and the disgrace of England. We court fair 
 and honourable discussion ; it is the privilege of English- 
 men, and the parent of truth : but we would ask Mr. 
 Ivimey, and Mr. Gordon, and Lord Farnham, whether 
 theirs is this description of discussion, this calm debate, that 
 can alone advance a good cause ; whether these scandalous 
 imputations, bearing falsehood on the face of them, are 
 calculated or intended to promote the cause of truth ? We 
 would ask whether Christian charity is a Reformation 
 virtue? In one word, we would ask the Protestants of 
 England whether they are parties to such accusations as 
 these ? If they are, let them no longer lavish abuse on 
 others. The worst spirit of the darkest and most intole- 
 rant times cannot, in the estimation of any sober-minded 
 man, be his faith what it may, cannot have exceeded the 
 virulent and an ti -Christian spirit that appears to have ac- 
 tuated these persons on this occasion, when they were met 
 to promote the principles of the Reformation. If these 
 are not the principles of the followers of the Reformation, 
 and we should blush for our country if we thought they 
 were, then do we implore them candidly to come forward , 
 
APPENDIX. Vll 
 
 and to disavow being- parties to such imputations, and by 
 so doing to rescue the principles of the Reformation from 
 foul disgrace. Other meetings of a similar description 
 will perhaps be held ; and we do hope that persons who 
 are not Catholics will be found ready to wipe so foul an 
 aspersion from the character of Christianity. We ask the 
 public to examine us with candour, to judge us by our 
 conduct, and not to give credence to the accusations of 
 persons who evidently bear towards us the most rancorous 
 hostility. We call on that large portion of our country- 
 men who certainly have not the leisure, perhaps not the 
 means, to come to a dispassionate conclusion themselves, 
 and who, from the first dawn of reason, have had their 
 minds perverted with prejudices against us ; we call on 
 the well-intentioned portion of the community who can- 
 notjudge but through the eyes of others, to be cautious 
 to whom they give their confidence. The clergy of the j 
 establishment, almost to a man, are against us. It is 
 necessary to state the fact in our own defence ; their hopes 
 of advancement in their profession have been made to de- 
 pend on their hostility to us. It is a fact beyond dispute, 
 that no clergyman of the establishment, had his learning, 
 his virtues, his attainments, been almost super-human, 
 would have had a chance of preferment, if he had dared to 
 advocate our cause : whilst, on the contrary, the bitterest 
 rancour against us was the surest road to preferment. 
 And are these the persons to whom those who seek im- 
 partial information on the merits of our question, ought 
 to apply for the knowledge of our real principles ? Is there 
 no other quarter where impartiality may be more reason- 
 ably expected, where may be found as much information 
 and talent, united with as much general reading, more 
 knowledge of the world and of society, and a more perfect 
 
Vlll APPENDIX. 
 
 acquaintance with the practice and spirit of British law, 
 and of the various institutions of this country ? I mean the 
 bar of England ; that har, the members of which, without 
 any solicitation from us, have become the spontaneous ad- 
 vocates of our claims. On one of the last days of the 
 session, his Majesty's Attorney-General presented a peti- 
 tion to the House of Commons, signed by 239 Sergeants 
 and Barristers-at-law, in favour of the Catholic claims ; 
 comprising in their number a weight of legal talent, 
 greater probably than ever before appeared at the foot 
 of any document of a similar character. Can these dis- 
 tinguished persons be suspected of want of knowledge 
 of the subject which their petition embraces ? They must 
 necessarily, from their general communication with the 
 world, and the nature of their reading, be acquainted with 
 it in all its bearings and details. Are they actuated by 
 hostility to the institutions of their country ? They are by 
 education, by habit, by birth, the firmest supporters of 
 them. Or do they espouse our cause from interested 
 motives? No possible personal advantage can accrue to 
 them from their advocacy of it. What must have been 
 their motive for this voluntary act ? Like honourable men, 
 they scorned to remain parties to a base delusion ; they 
 felt that their silent acquiescence in the state of the laws 
 in our regard, stamped a share of the disgrace upon them, 
 and they disdained to wear the imputation any longer. 
 Are these the persons who would consent to lend them- 
 selves to the free and unconstrained practice of a religion, 
 " the nature and essence of which is, to plunge the great 
 mass of a people into a state of the most grievous moral 
 degradation," and, by their criminal delinquency, " to 
 render necessary a standing army of 30,000 men, and an 
 armed police throughout the country ?" I do not hesitate 
 
APPENDIX. IX 
 
 to express my full conviction, that if fair opportunities 
 were afforded to the people of this country of judging this 
 question on its merits, without having their prejudices 
 studiously fostered, twelve months would not elapse be- 
 fore they would see their own injustice, and join with the 
 bar of England in petitions to the legislature for the total 
 remission of the laws in force against us. The question 
 is not now whether the Catholic Claims shall be granted, 
 but when they shall be granted ? Whether it is better to 
 prolong a system of irritation and insult, producing ex- 
 asperation and violence ; or whether it be not more wise, 
 and more just, to allay the discontent without loss of time ? 
 Were the law in Ireland accessible to all, equal to all, and 
 mildly administered, the people would soon learn to re- 
 gard it as a protection, and not as a scourge. Their acquired 
 propensity to violence would soften into habits of patient 
 industry ; and that overgrown army, which helps to im- 
 poverish England, and to prolong the discontent of 
 Ireland, would convert their swords into plough-shares, 
 and join in promoting the common prosperity. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 DR. POYNTER'S OBSERVATIONS ON THE 
 SPIRITUAL SUPREMACY. 
 
 The following observations on that declaration 
 in the oath of supremacy, which says that " No 
 foreign Prelate ought to have any Jurisdiction, 
 Power, Superiority, Pre-eminence, or Authority, 
 ECCLESIASTICAL or SPIRITUAL, within these Realms? 
 were made by the late Dr. Poynter in March, 1821, 
 and transmitted by him to the Managers of Mr. 
 Plunkett's late Catholic Relief Bill. He has herein 
 placed the distinction between spiritual and tem- 
 poral, ecclesiastical and civil, power and jurisdic- 
 tion, in so clear a point of view ; and has so hap- 
 pily illustrated his positions by one or two cases, in 
 which the two powers would seem to conflict, that 
 our most strenuous adversaries may rectify their 
 confused or erroneous notions on this subject, and 
 thus be induced generously to cease from alarming 
 the ignorant, the prejudiced, and the bigotted 
 part of the community, by the unfounded versions 
 they are continually promulgating of this article 
 of our doctrine. 
 
APPENDIX. XI 
 
 " If the pope ought not to have any ecclesiastical or spi- 
 ritual jurisdiction, &c. within these realms, he ought to 
 have none at all; for he has no civil jurisdiction here. 
 The above clause denies the divine right of the pope, as 
 head of the church of Christ, to govern the universal 
 church. 
 
 " What is the proper and obvious meaning of the terms 
 ecclesiastical and spiritual ? 
 
 " The term spiritual does not here mean the same as 
 incorporeal or internal : but it means that which in its 
 nature directly tends to a supernatural end, or is ordained 
 to produce a supernatural effect. Thus, sacrifice, which 
 is an external oblation of a sensible victim to God ; and 
 the sacraments, which are visible rites, are spiritual things, 
 because they tend to the worship of God and to the sanc- 
 tification of souls. That is called temporal, which in its 
 nature and institution tends directly to the good order of 
 civil society. 
 
 " The power of the church is spiritual ; and the power 
 of the state is temporal. 
 
 " By the term ecclesiastical is properly meant whatever 
 in its own nature belongs to the spiritual power and go- 
 vernment of the church as by the term civil is meant 
 whatever in its own nature belongs to the temporal power 
 and government of the state. 
 
 " This is the proper and limited meaning of the terms 
 ecclesiastical and civil, when the two powers are in a state 
 of separation from each other, and act without any mutual 
 co-operation. Such was the ecclesiastical power of the 
 church under the heathen emperors ; such was the civil 
 power of the Roman state during the same period. 
 
 " When the two powers are associated together by a 
 friendly concordate, the ecclesiastical power has sometimes 
 exercised acts of a civil nature, by the concession of the 
 
Xii APPENDIX. 
 
 state ; and the civil power has sometimes exercised acts of 
 an ecclesiastical nature, by the concession of the church. 
 In these cases, the term ecclesiastical, when applied to 
 courts and causes of a mixed nature, under the jurisdic- 
 tion of an ecclesiastical person as judge, is to be under- 
 stood in a less strict and less proper sense. In this sense 
 some of our courts in England retain the name of ecclesi- 
 astical. It is not in this mixed sense, that the spiritual 
 power of the pope, and of Catholic bishops in England, 
 is now called ecclesiastical. 
 
 " At the change of religion in England, the state totally 
 divorced and separated itself from the Catholic church, 
 and withdrew every portion of civil power from the pope 
 and Catholic clergy, which they had ever exercised in 
 England by the concession of the state. Consequently, 
 the spiritual powers which the pope and Catholic clergy 
 now hold and exercise over the Catholics in England, 
 are PURELY ecclesiastical without the least mixture of 
 any civil or temporal power whatever. 
 
 " This power and authority, purely ecclesiastical, is that 
 which Christ gave originally to his apostles ; and which 
 was, by his ordinance, to be transmitted from them to 
 their legitimate successors, to the end of time, for the pur- 
 pose of enabling them to preach his faith, to promulgate 
 his new law, to administer his sacraments, to govern his 
 church, and to enforce the observance of his general 
 commands by particular and efficacious regulations. By 
 the exercise of this ecclesiastical power, the church, from 
 the earliest ages, without the co-operation of the civil 
 power, has issued many laws and ordinances relating to 
 the form of divine worship, to the manner and circum- 
 stances of administering or of receiving the sacraments, 
 to the observance of the great Christian festivals, to the 
 rules of abstinence and to the fast of Lent, to the impedi- 
 
APPENDIX. Xlll 
 
 ments and celebration of matrimony, to the conduct of 
 the clergy, to the qualifications requisite for holy orders, 
 to the limits of the jurisdiction of the different orders of 
 the hierarchy, &c. Many such external and purely eccle- 
 siastical regulations, were made by the church, and en- 
 forced among the faithful in different parts of the world, 
 before the church had any where any connection with the 
 state. The object of the church in making them was, to 
 enforce the observance of the commands and institutions 
 of Christ ; which are not of a temporal nature, but which 
 tend directly to the worship of God and to the sanctifica- 
 tion of the souls of men. The means by which the church 
 enforced the observance of them, were not of a dw7 nature, 
 but were ecclesiastical and spiritual ; viz. the influence of 
 her authority, and the privation of the benefits of her 
 communion. * The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.'' 
 2 Cor. x. 4. 
 
 " In establishing and enforcing these ecclesiastical laws 
 and regulations, the pope has from the earliest ages borne 
 a principal part. Every Catholic must acknowledge that 
 the pope, as head of the church, has ecclesiastical and 
 spiritual authority over all the members of the Catholic 
 church. This authority, which he now exercises over the 
 Catholics in England, is purely ecclesiastical and spiritual ; 
 it has not the least mixture of any portion of civil or tem- 
 poral authority annexed to it. It is chiefly exercised here 
 in appointing bishops, and in giving them powers for the 
 spiritual government of the Catholics in their respective 
 dioceses or districts ; in superintending the religious con- 
 duct of the Catholics ; and in granting dispensations from 
 the ecclesiastical impediments of matrimony, when neces- 
 sity requires. But this ecclesiastical and spiritual autho- 
 rity of the pope in England, as well as that of the Catholic 
 bishops here, is not invested with any civil formality, nor 
 
XIV APPENDIX. 
 
 has it any civil effect. In its object and in its means, it 
 stands in a very distinct order from the civil power of the 
 state. This may be illustrated by one or two cases. 
 
 " A Catholic confesses to a priest that he has injured 
 his neighbour in his property or good name. The priest 
 admonishes him of the obligation of making restitution 
 as far as he is able, to the extent of the injury done, if he 
 wishes to be reconciled to God, and to be admitted 
 to the sacraments. The man refuses to make restitution. 
 In this case the priest can only urge him by advice and 
 by command, to comply with this moral obligation ; and 
 if he persists in his refusal to do his duty, by refusing to 
 admit him to the participation of the spiritual benefit of 
 the sacraments. But the priest cannot employ any civil 
 means, such as imprisonment, fine, &c. to compel him to 
 make restitution to which he is bound by the law of nature, 
 and by the positive law of God. 
 
 " In the same manner, the pope cannot enforce in 
 England the observance of a divine or ecclesiastical pre- 
 cept by any civil or temporal punishment, but only by 
 ecclesiastical or spiritual means ; such as depriving a Ca- 
 tholic clergyman of his spiritual powers, or others of the 
 participation of the sacraments and of the communion of 
 the church. 
 
 " In cases of impediments of matrimony, on which the 
 laws of England are different from the laws of the Catholic 
 church, the laws of the church have their proper and dis- 
 tinct effect, and are not enforced by any civil means. 
 Suppose then that two Catholics, first cousins, marry 
 according to the forms of the law of England, their mar- 
 riage is valid and good according to law, as the degree of 
 first cousins is not a legal impediment ; but their marriage 
 is considered by the Catholic church as invalid and null, 
 db initio, in conscience and in the sight of God ; because 
 
APPENDIX. XV 
 
 the degree of first cousins is an impedimentum dirimem, 
 totally annulling the matrimonial contract in the sight of 
 God. In this case, the Catholic bishop or priest would 
 inform the parties of the invalidity of their marriage, and 
 of the conscientious obligation of their separating. If 
 they refuse to separate, he cannot compel them by any 
 civil means ; if they have children, he cannot declare 
 them illegitimate, so as to make them incapable of suc- 
 ceeding to the titles and estates of the father, or of enjoying 
 the temporal benefits of legitimate children. But if they 
 refuse to separate, the priest can refuse to admit them to 
 the sacraments of the Catholic church ; and if they have 
 children, these children will be ecclesiastically illegiti- 
 mate, so as to be incapable of being admitted to holy 
 orders. Hence it appears evidently, that the ecclesiasti- 
 cal and the civil powers are clearly distinct from each 
 other in their means and effects. Whilst the Catholic is 
 bound by the law of God to acknowledge that the king 
 has temporal authority for the government of the state, 
 he is equally bound by the law of Christ to acknowledge 
 that the pope has ecclesiastical and spiritual authority for 
 the government of the Catholic church, and of all the 
 members of the Catholic church wherever they are. If 
 any Catholic were to swear that the pope ought not to 
 have any ecclesiastical authority in England, he would 
 abjure the divine right of the pope to govern the members 
 of the Catholic church ; he would abjure the principle of 
 the supremacy of the pope ; he would separate himself 
 from the centre of Catholic unity and communion ; he 
 would, ipso facto, cease to be a Catholic. 
 
 (Signed) WILLIAM POYNTER, V. A. 
 
 4, Castle Street, Holborn, March 5th, 1821. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 TESTIMONIES IN FAVOUR OF THE DOCTRINE OF 
 TRANSUBSTANTIATION, AND OF THE SACRIFICE 
 OF THE MASS. 
 
 THE EUCHARIST. 
 
 // is an article of Catholic belief, that in the most 
 holy sacrament of the Eucharist, there is truly 
 and really contained the Body of Christ, which 
 was delivered for us, and his blood, which was 
 shed for the remission of sins ; the substance of 
 the bread and wine being, by the power of God, 
 changed into the substance of his blessed body 
 and blood, the species or appearances of bread 
 and wine, by the will of the same God, remain- 
 ing as they were. This change has been pro- 
 perly called Transubstantiation. 
 
 SCRIPTURE. 
 
 John vi. 51, 52. / am the living bread, which came 
 down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall 
 live for ever : and the bread, that I will give, is myjleshfor 
 the life of the world. 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59. Except you 
 
APPENDIX. XV11 
 
 eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, you shall 
 not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh 
 my blood, hath everlasting life : and I will raise him up in 
 the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed; and my blood 
 is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my 
 blood, abideth in me and I in him. As the living father hath 
 sent me, and I live by the father : so he that eateth me, the 
 same also shall live by me. This is the bread that came 
 down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and 
 are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever. 
 Matt. xxvi. 26, 27, 28. And while they were at supper, 
 Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke, and gave it to his 
 disciples, and said : Take ye, and eat : This is my body. 
 And taking the chalice, he gave thanks : and gave it to them, 
 saying : Drink ye all of this. For this is my blood of the 
 New Testament, which shall be shed for many for the re- 
 mission of sins. Mark xiv. 22, 23, 24. And whilst they 
 were eating, Jesus took bread ; and blessing, broke, and gave 
 it to them, and said : Take ye, This is my body. And hav- 
 ing taken the chalice ; giving thanks, he gave it to them : 
 and they all drank of it. And he said to them : This is my 
 blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for many. 
 Luke xxii. 19, 20. And taking bread, he gave thanks, 
 and broke, and gave it to them, saying : This 'is my body, 
 which is given for you : Do this for a commemoration of 
 me. In like manner, the chalice also, after he had supped, 
 saying : Tliis is the chalice, the New Testament in my blood, 
 which shall be shed for you. 1 Cor. x. 16. The chalice of 
 benediction which we bless, is it not the communion of the 
 blood of Christ ? And the bread which we break, is it not 
 the partaking of the body of the Lord ? Ibid. xi. 23, 24, 25, 
 26. For I have received of the Lord, that which also I de- 
 livered to you ; That the Lord Jesus, the same night in 
 
 b 
 
XV111 APPENDIX. 
 
 which he was betrayed, took bread, and giving thanks, broke 
 it, and said : Take ye, and eat : this is my body, which 
 shall be delivered for you : this do for a commemoration of 
 me. In like manner also the chalice, after he had supped, 
 saying : TJi'ts chalice 'is the New Testament in my blood : 
 this do ye, as often as you shall drink of it, for the comme- 
 moration of me. For as often as you shall eat this bread, 
 and drink this chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord 
 until he come. 
 
 FATHERS.' 
 
 CENT. I. 
 
 S. IGNATIUS^*) G. C. 
 
 These Gnostic heretics " abstain from the Eucharist and 
 from prayer, because they do not acknowledge the 
 Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, (c) 
 
 ( a ) The capital letters L. C. are used to designate the Fathers 
 of the Latin Church, and G. C. those of the Greek Church. 
 
 ( 6) St. Ignatius was bishop of Antioch, the second from St. 
 Peter ; and having governed that church about 40 years, suffered 
 martyrdom at Rome, by the command of the emperor Trajan, in 
 the beginning of the second century, leaving behind him seven 
 epistles, addressed to different churches, and acknowledged to be 
 genuine. He had been the disciple of St. John, and his letters 
 breathe the whole spirit of that apostle. 
 
 ^ Sta TO fir) b/no\oyeiv rr\v fv^a^iffnav aapKa iivai rov 
 'I/<7oi/ K^torov. 
 
APPENDIX. XIX 
 
 which suffered for our sins, and which the father by his 
 goodness resuscitated. Rejecting, therefore, this gift of 
 God, they die in their disputes." Ep. ad. Smyrn. p. 36. 
 T. ii. PP. Apost. Amstelsedamiy 1724. " I take no delight 
 in food that perishes, nor in the pleasures of this life. 
 What I desire is the bread of God, the heavenly bread, 
 the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ the 
 son of God/ d) who was born of the seed of David ; and I 
 desire the drink of God, his blood, which is charity in- 
 corruptible, and eternal life." Ep. ad. Rom. p. 29. 
 
 CENT. II. 
 
 S. JUSTIN/') L. C. 
 
 " OUR prayers being finished, we embrace one another 
 with the kiss of peace. Then to him who presides over 
 the brethren, is presented bread, and wine tempered with 
 water ; having received which, he gives glory to the father 
 of all things, in the name of the Son and the Holy 
 Ghost, and returns thanks, in many prayers, that he has 
 
 ( rf ) OQ e&ri trapE, " 
 
 W A Christian philosopher, by birth a Greek, who suffered mar- 
 tyrdom at Rome, about the year 166, having, a few years before, 
 addressed two apologies, in favour of the Christians, to the em- 
 peror Antoninus Pius and to the Roman senate. In these is con- 
 tained much curious matter on the doctrine, the manners, and the 
 religious ceremonies of the early Christians. Justin is also author 
 of other works, particularly of a Dialogue with the Jew, named 
 Tryphon. 
 
XX APPENDIX. 
 
 been deemed worthy of these gifts. These offices being 
 duly performed, the whole assembly, in acclamation, 
 answers, Amen; when the ministers, whom we call 
 deacons, distribute to each one present a portion of the 
 blessed bread, and the wine and water. S#me is also taken 
 to the absent. This food we call the Eucharist, of which 
 they alone are allowed to partake, who believe the doctrines 
 taught by us, and have been regenerated by water for the 
 remission of sin, and who live as Christ ordained. Nor 
 do we take these gifts, as common bread and common 
 drink ;f) but as Jesus Christ, our Saviour, made man by 
 the word of God, took flesh and blood for our salvation ; 
 in the same manner, we have been taught, that the food 
 which has been blessed by the prayer of the words which 
 he spoke, and by which our blood and flesh, in the change, 
 are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus incar- 
 nate.^ The apostles, in the commentaries written by 
 them, which are called Gospels, have delivered, that 
 Jesus so commanded, when taking bread, having given 
 thanks, he said : Do this in remembrance of me : This is 
 my body. In like manner, taking the cup, and giving 
 thanks, he said : This is my blood : and that he distributed 
 both to them only." Apol. I. p. 95, 96, 97. Edit. Londini, 
 an. 1722. 
 
 S. IRENJEUS,W L. C. 
 " It is our duty to make an offering to God, and with a 
 
 ( f) oil yap w KOLVOV aprov, ov$e KOLVOV no/net. 
 
 W eiceivu rs ffapKOTroirjdevrog Irjo-a Kat crapKa KUL uip.a i^iSa^drjiitev 
 f.iva.1. 
 
 W St. Irenceus, though by birth a Greek, was bishop of Lyons 
 in the second century ; and in his youth had lived with St. Poly- 
 
APPENDIX. XXI 
 
 pure heart, a sincere faith, a firm hope, and a fervent 
 charity, to present to the maker of all things the first 
 fruits of his creatures. But this pure oblation the church 
 alone makes. The Jews make it not, for their hands are 
 stained with blood ; and they received not the word that 
 is offered to God. Nor do the assemblies of heretics make 
 it : for how can these prove that the bread over which the 
 words of thanksgiving have been pronounced, is the body 
 of their Lord, and the cup his blood, (/) while they do not 
 admit that he is the Son, that is, the Word of the Creator 
 of the world ? Or how, again, do they maintain that the 
 flesh turns to corruption and partakes not of life, which is 
 nourished with the body and blood of the Lord ? Where- 
 fore let them either give up their opinion, or cease from 
 making that offering. But our sentiment accords with the 
 nature of the eucharist, and the eucharist again confirms our 
 sentiment. The bread that we receive is no longer common 
 bread, but the eucharist, consisting of two things, terres- 
 trial and celestial." (fc) Adv. Hssr. Lib. iv. c. xxxiv. p. 326', 
 
 carp, bishop of Smyrna, the disciple of St. John the Evangelist : 
 this brings him near to the apostolic times. In what year he died 
 is not ascertained ; probably about the close of the century. He left 
 behind him a Treatise against the Heresies of the Age, in five 
 books. Of this work, which contains much that is highly valuable, 
 and which was written in Greek, a Latin version of great antiquity, 
 but harsh and often obscure, alone remains, some passages ex- 
 cepted, which have been preserved in their original language. 
 Some fragments also are extant. 
 
 (* ) Corpus esse Domini sui, et calicem sanguinis sui. 
 ( fc) OVKETI Kotvoc apTog iffriv, aXX' h^apiffria, EK Svo wpay/uarwv 
 avveffTr)Kvia, eTriyetov rt KCLI ovpaviov. The heretics against whom 
 he writes, maintaining that Christ was not the word in the Ian- 
 
XX11 APPENDIX. 
 
 327. " They are truly vain (these heretics) who contemn 
 the whole divine system, and denying the salvation and 
 regeneration of the flesh, maintain that it is not suscep- 
 tible of incorruption. According to this, then, the Lord 
 did not redeem us by his blood ; nor is the cup of the eu- 
 charist the participation of his blood ; nor the bread which 
 we break, the participation of his body. When, there- 
 fore, the mingled chalice and the broken bread receive the 
 word of God, they become the eucharist of the body and 
 blood of Christ, by which the substance of our flesh is 
 increased and strengthened: how then can they pretend 
 that this flesh is not susceptible of eternal life ? And as 
 a section of the vine laid in the earth produces fruit in 
 due season, and as, in like manner, the grain of corn is mul- 
 tiplied by the blessing of God, which afterwards are used 
 for the benefit of man, and receiving on them the word 
 of God, become the eucharist, which is the body and 
 blood of Christ ; (/) so our bodies nourished by that eucharist, 
 and then laid in the earth and dissolved in it, shall in due 
 time rise again." Ibid. L. v. c. 11. p. 395, 397, 399. 
 
 guage of St. John, by whom the world was made, and that the 
 material things of the world were adverse to Christ was it con- 
 sistent in them, he says, to say that Christ by his ordinance, 
 changed the bread and wine into his body and blood, hostile as 
 they were to his nature which, however, they professed to be- 
 lieve and that the eucharist thus formed was the offering most 
 acceptable to God ? 
 
 ( ' OTTfp earn ffwficL KCU aifj-Ct TOV Kptorov. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 TERTULLIAN,^ L. C. 
 
 Having shewn, in many instances, how anxious our 
 Saviour was to accomplish all that the prophets had fore- 
 told concerning him, he adds : " Professing his ardent 
 desire to eat the pasch as his own, he took the bread, and 
 distributing it to his disciples, he made it his body, saying : 
 This is my body, that is, the figure of my body. (w) But 
 it would not have been this figure, had not his body 
 been real ; for a thing void of reality, as is a phantom, 
 cannot be represented by a figure : and if they say that 
 Christ formed to himself a body of the bread, not having 
 a real body, it was then this bread he was going to sacri- 
 fice for us. How stupid is Marcion not to understand 
 that bread was the ancient figure of the body of Jesus 
 Christ, spoken by Jeremiah : They have devised devices 
 against me, saying; Come, let us put wood into his bread, (o} 
 that is, the cross upon his body. Thus Christ, illustrat- 
 ing the ancient figures, sufficiently declared by calling 
 
 (m) Tertullian was a native and citizen of Carthage, contempo- 
 rary with St. Irenaeus, whom he survived. The zeal and talents 
 with which he defended the Christian cause, and vindicated its 
 faith and discipline, have immortalized his name, which, however, 
 suffered by his defection to the errors of the Montanists. His 
 genuine works are not few, written with great erudition ; but of 
 which the style, resembling the asperity of his mind, is inelegant, 
 rude, and often intricate, though always nervous and impressive. 
 
 (") Corpus suum ilium fecit, Hoc est corpus meum dicendo, id 
 est, figura corporis mei. 
 
 <) The reading of the Latin vulgate Mittamus lignum in 
 panem ejus. 
 
XXIV APPENDIX. 
 
 the bread his body, what was at that time (the time of 
 Jeremiah) his intention that the bread should signify." ( *> 
 Adversus Marcion, L. iv. c. xl. p. 733. He had before 
 advanced the same sentiment ; L. iii. p. 677. And again : 
 " He rejected not the bread by which he represents his 
 own body."to } Ib. L. i. p. 624. In other passages, follow- 
 ing his contemporaries, Tertullian is less ambiguous: 
 " Our flesh is fed with the body and blood of Christ, (r) 
 that the soul may be nourished with God." De Resurrect. 
 carniSj c. viii. p. 569. There are Christians worse than 
 Jews ; " for these laid violent hands on Jesus but once, 
 but they daily insult his body." (<) De Idol. c. vii. p. 240. 
 " Christ is our bread, because Christ is life, and bread is 
 life. / (he says, John vi ) am the bread of life. And again : 
 
 &) The opinion of the Marcionite heretics whom he combats, 
 was, that the two covenants were opposed to each other. This he 
 refutes by shewing that Christ was anxious to apply to himself the 
 prophecies of the old covenant, and to fulfil them. Thus Jeremiah 
 having used the word bread to prefigure the body of Christ, Tertul- 
 lian remarks that when Christ said of the bread, This is my body, 
 he plainly signified that the prophecy was fulfilled, the bread being 
 the ancient figure used to denote his body. This is my body, that 
 is, the figure of my body, agreeably to the expression of the pro- 
 phet Jeremiah. The same heretics also pretended that Christ, 
 having no real body, adopted the bread for his body ; so that 
 according to them, in the eucharist was a real body, that is, the 
 bread but no sacrament ; no sign or figure of the real body of 
 Christ. Endless have been the contests on the meaning of the 
 above passage. See Perpetuite de la Foi, vol. iii. lib. 11. 
 
 (?) Corpus suum reprcesentat. The latter word is often used 
 by him and others, for pr&sentemfacere, to render present. 
 
 ( r) Caro corpore et sanguine Christi vescitur. 
 
 ( s ) Quotidic corpus ejus lacessunt. 
 
APPENDIX. XXV 
 
 The bread in the word of God, that came down from Jieaven. 
 As also because his body is acknowledged to be in the 
 bread/ This is my body: wherefore, when we pray for 
 our daily bread, we beg for a perpetuity in Christ, and 
 individuity from his body." De Orat. c. vi. p. 181. 
 
 CENT. III. 
 
 ORIGEN,W G. C. 
 
 THOUGH this great man was very fond of allegorising, 
 that is, of not confining himself to the literal meaning of 
 the scriptures ; yet, on the subject of the eucharist, he 
 seems sometimes to speak sufficiently plain : thus in his 
 great work against Celsus, he says : " We who study to 
 please the Creator of all things with prayers and giving 
 of thanks for benefits received, eat of the breads that 
 are offered, which by prayer are made a holy body. (<r) By 
 this, they who partake of it with a pure spirit, are 
 rendered more holy." Lib. viii. T. 1. p. 766. Again : 
 " You that have been accustomed to be present at the 
 
 W Corpus ejus in pane censetur. 
 
 (") Origen was contemporary with St. Clement of Alexandria, 
 and succeeded him as catechist or teacher, in the celebrated school 
 of that city. Few men, from a variety of causes, have left behind 
 them a greater name, applauded and opposed, admired and per- 
 secuted. His works, as we have them, are imperfect ; as written, 
 they were almost innumerable. He died about the year 252. 
 
XXVI APPENDIX. 
 
 divine mysteries, know when you receive the body of the 
 Lord,^ with what care and veneration you preserve it, lest 
 any particle of it fall to the ground, or be lost ; and you 
 think yourselves guilty, and with reason, if it should so 
 happen through your negligence." Horn. xiii. in Exod. 
 T. ii. p. 176. " In former times, baptism was obscurely 
 represented in the cloud and in the sea : but now regene- 
 ration is in kind, in water, and in the Holy Ghost. Then, 
 obscurely, manna was the food ; but now in kind the flesh 
 of the word of God is the true food f z} even as he said : 
 My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." 
 vii. in Num. T. ii. p. 290. 
 
 S. HIPPOLYTUS/*) G. C. 
 
 Commenting on the words of Proverbs ix. ; Wisdom 
 hath built herself a house, he says : " He (Christ) prepared 
 his table, that is, the promised knowledge of the Holy 
 Trinity ; and moreover, his venerable and sacred body and 
 
 W Cum suscipitis corpus Domini. 
 
 (*) Tune in senigmate erat manna cibus, nunc autem in specie 
 caro verbi Dei est verus cibus. 
 
 () These homilies, which are not extant in Greek, are thought 
 to have been rather loosely translated by Rufinus of Aquileja ; 
 but as Rufinus lived in the fifth century, the contemporary and 
 antagonist of St. Jerome, his testimony alone serves to prove the 
 faith of the age. 
 
 (*) St. Hippolytus flourished in the beginning of the third cen- 
 tury, but of what see he was bishop is uncertain. Of the many 
 works he wrote, only fragments remain, which were published by 
 Fabricius, in 1716. He suffered martyrdom about the year 230. 
 
APPENDIX. XXV11 
 
 blood, which arc every day offered up( c) in remembrance 
 of that divine and mysterious supper. Come, eat my 
 bread and drink the wine which I have mingled for you, 
 that is, his divine body and his venerable blood, which 
 he gave us to eat and drink (rf) for the remission of sins." 
 In Prov. c. ix. 71 1. p. 282. Edit. Hamburg, 1716. 
 
 S. CYPRIAN/') L. C. 
 
 Speaking of those, who in time of persecution had 
 through weakness denied their faith, he relates instances 
 of signal judgments that had fallen on many, who after 
 that, dared to profane the sacrament of the body and blood 
 of Christ. The facts may, perhaps, by some be disputed ; 
 but the belief of the narrator on the point of the real pre- 
 sence in the elements, cannot be questioned. A woman 
 having brought home with her which then was usual 
 part of the consecrated bread, when she attempted to open 
 the box which contained the Holy Thing of the Lord^ was 
 alarmed by a rising flame. And a man in similar circum- 
 stances, opening his hand, discovered nothing but ashes." 
 
 () TO TLfllOV KCLl aKQCLVTOV OVTOV ffW/XCt KTCU CtlUCt, d Kaff KCtffTr) 
 
 rTrirfXovvreu QvofjLtva. 
 
 W TVJV Qeiav dvrov ffapKa KCLI TO TI/AIOV dvTov aupa. 
 
 & St. Cyprian was bishop of Carthage, and died a martyr in 
 the year 258. Actively concerned in the affairs of his own and of 
 other churches ; he corresponded widely, and has left us eighty- 
 one Epistles on various ecclesiastical subjects, and several Tracts ; 
 among which is one on the Unity of the Church, written against 
 the Novatian schismatics, who disturbed the peace of the church. 
 
 (-0 In qua Domini Sanctum fuit. 
 
XXV111 APPENDIX. 
 
 De Lapsis, p. 132, 133. Of the same weak Christians he 
 had before said : " Returning from the altar of the devil, 
 they approach, with filthy and sordid hands, to the holy 
 of the Lord. In this state of contamination they invade 
 his body.te) Regardless of the menaces of God, they dare 
 to offer violence to the body and blood of the Lord;W 
 thus sinning more against him than when they denied 
 him." Ibid. p. 128. " Christ is the bread of life, and this 
 is not the bread of all, but it is ours : and as we say 
 Our Father, because he is the father of the intelligent 
 and the believing ; so we say our bread, because Christ 
 whose body we touch/ *) is our bread. This bread we 
 daily pray for, lest, belonging to Christ, and receiving the 
 eucharist daily for the food of salvation, we be withheld 
 by some grievous crime from that heavenly bread, and 
 be separated from the body of Christ. He has said : lam 
 the bread of life who came down from heaven. If any one 
 eat of my bread, he shall live for ever. But the bread which 
 I shall give, is my flesh for the life of the world. Hence it 
 is manifest, that they have this life who approach his 
 body (fc) and receive the eucharist." De Orat. Dom. 
 p. 146, 147. 
 
 He elsewhere laments, that some ministers of the altar 
 dared, before the forms of repentance and confession were 
 fulfilled, to distribute the Eucharist, and " thus profane 
 the holy body of the Lord."W Ep. xv. p. 34." At this 
 time, peace is necessary not to the weak, but to the strong ; 
 that while we excite and exhort them to battle, we leave 
 
 te) Domini corpus invadunt. 
 
 ( A ) Vis infertur corpori ejus et sanguini. 
 
 & Qui corpus ejus contingimus. W Qui corpus ejus attingunt. 
 
 w Sanctum Domini corpus profanare audeant. 
 
APPENDIX. XXix 
 
 them not naked and unarmed, but fortified by the body and 
 blood of Christ. (m) For how can we urge them to shed 
 their own blood, if we refuse them the blood of Chirst ? 
 Or how do we fit them for the cup of martyrdom, unless 
 we first admit them in the church to partake of the chalice 
 of the Lord?" Ep. Ivii. p 117.'* When the Lord called 
 the bread his body, which bread is formed of many 
 grains, he indicated the union of his people ; and calling 
 the wine his blood, which is pressed from many grapes, 
 he signified the conjunction of his flock." Ep. Ixix. p. 182. 
 
 CENT. IV. 
 
 COUNCIL OF NICE, G. C. 
 
 Condemning an abuse, which had crept in, that deacons 
 in some places, administered the Eucharist to priests, the 
 council says, " that neither canon, nor custom, has taught, 
 that they (deacons), who have themselves no power to 
 offer, should give the body of Christ to them that possess 
 that power."< n) Can. xviii. Cone. Gen. T. ii. p. 38. 
 
 JUVENCUS, (O) L. C. 
 Speaking of the institution of the Eucharist, he says 
 
 () Protectione sanguinis et corporis Christi muniamus. 
 
 ro ff(j)p.a rov 
 
 W He was a native of Spain and a priest, and has left us the 
 Life of Christ in hexameter verse. He flourished about the year 
 329, under Constantine the Great. 
 
XXX APPENDIX. 
 
 " Christ taught his disciples, that he delivered to them 
 his own body ;" and when he gave them the chalice, " he 
 taught them, that he had distributed to them his blood : 
 and said ; This blood remits the sins of the people : drink 
 this, it is mine."^ Bill. Max. PP. T. iv. p. 74. 
 
 EUSEBIUS OF GflESAREA/0 G. C. 
 
 " Since then, as the New Testament establishes, we 
 have been instructed to celebrate the memory of this sa- 
 crifice of his body and of his saving blood, v ^ again we are 
 taught by the prophet David to say : Thou hast prepared 
 a table before me. (Ps. 22.) In these things he openly 
 signifies a mystical unction, and the august offerings of 
 the table of Christ, by which we have learnt to offer to 
 our supreme Lord, through the hand of this great high- 
 priest, unbloody, rational, and benignant sacrifices." (s) 
 Dem. Evany. L.I. c. x. p. 39. " He shall have delight in 
 the Lord, whose mind being purged from all defilement, 
 shall eat the living bread, the life-giving flesh of the Lord, 
 and drink his saving blood. "^ Com. in Psal. xxx. v. 1. 
 
 W Discipulos docuit proprium se tradere corpus ; 
 
 Edocuitque suum se divisisse cruorem. 
 Atque ait : Hie sanguis populi delicta remittit : 
 
 Hunc potate meum. 
 
 (^ Eusebius was bishop of Caesarea, in Palestine, and the confi- 
 dential friend of Constantine the Great. Besides an Ecclesiastical 
 History, in ten books, he is the author of other valuable works, 
 some of which are extant. He died in the year 338. 
 W TOVTE ffupaTOs civrp /cat rov aarurrjpiov I/J,CLTOQ. 
 W rag avaifjiove teat XoytKac, dvry re KpoaqvtiQ Owiag. 
 w etrOeiv TOV vj/wvra dprov KCU rat; ZUOTTOIOVS dvrov aapKag, 
 
 aVTOV dlfJLCL. 
 
APPENDIX. XXXi 
 
 T. ii. pa. 149. Collect. Nova Montfaucon. Paris. 1706. 
 " We, who by faith arc called to sanctification, possess 
 the bread from heaven ; that is, Christ, or his body. (M) 
 Should it be asked, what the power of that body is? we 
 answer : It is vivifying, because it gives life to the world." 
 Com. in c. iii. Isa. p. 368. Ibid. 
 
 ST. ATHANASIUS/^ G. C. 
 
 " Our Sanctuaries are now pure, as they always were ; 
 having been rendered venerable by the blood alone of 
 Christ/ 10 and embellished by his worship." Apol. adv. 
 Artan. T.I. p. 127. " Take care then, O Deacon, not to 
 give to the unworthy the blood of the immaculate body, (z) 
 lest you incur the guilt of giving holy things to dogs." 
 Serm. delncontam. Myst. T. ii.jo.35. Collect. Nova. Mont- 
 faucon. Parisiis, 1706. 
 
 S. HILARY,^ L. C. 
 " If the word, truly, was madefiesh^ and we, truly, re- 
 
 M TOVTEffTL KptOTOV, ^TOL TO (TUftd OVTOV. 
 
 W St. Athanasius succeeded St. Alexander in the patriarchal 
 chair of Alexandria, in 326, and inherited all his zeal against the 
 Arians. He was one of the most eloquent fathers of the church, 
 and the most strenuous supporter of her faith during a period of 
 forty-seven years. He died about the year 373, leaving us many 
 monuments of his erudition, piety, and zeal. 
 
 W fj.ov(f> ffepvvvofjieva ry di^ari TOV Kpurrov. 
 
 ^ rr]v Tropfyvpav rov dvafnapTrjTov ffatfiarog. 
 
 W St. Hilary was bishop of Poitiers, in France, and the great 
 champion of the orthodox faith in the western church, against the 
 
XXX11 APPENDIX. 
 
 ceive this word for our food : (6) how can he be thought 
 not to dwell naturally in us, who assumed the nature of 
 our flesh inseparably united to him, and communicates, in 
 the sacrament, that nature to us ? For thus, we are all 
 one : because the Father is in Christ, and Christ in us. 
 We are not to speak of heavenly things as we do of 
 human. (<?) Of the natural verity of Christ in us, whatever 
 we speak, we speak foolishly and wickedly, unless we 
 learn of him ; for it is he that said : my flesh is meat in- 
 deed^ and my blood is drink indeed. (John. vi. 56.) There is 
 no place left to doubt of the truth of Christ's flesh and 
 blood : (d} for now, by the profession of the Lord himself, 
 and according to our belief, it is truly flesh, and truly 
 blood. But he himself attests how we are in him by the 
 sacramental communication of his body and blood : And 
 the world, says he, sees me not, but you see me, because I 
 live and you shall live ; for I am in my father, and you are 
 in me, and I am in you. (John xiv. 19, 20.) If he wished 
 the unity of will alone to be understood, why would he 
 establish a certain order and progression in the formation 
 of it ; but that he should be in the father, by the nature 
 of the divinity ; we in him, by his corporal birth ; and he 
 in us by the sacramental mystery." De Trin. L. viii. p. 
 954, 955, 956. 
 
 Arian heretics. He wrote a work, in twelve books, On the Trinity; 
 a Treatise on Synods or Councils ; and three Discourses against 
 the Arians, addressed to the emperor Constantine. St. Hilary 
 died in the year 367. 
 
 (*) Verbum carnem cibo dominico sumimus. 
 
 () Non est humano aut saeculi sensu in Dei rebus loquendum. 
 
 (rf ) De veritate carnis et sanguinis non relictus est ambigencli 
 locus. 
 
APPENDIX. XXX111 
 
 ST. JAMES OF NISIBIS,^ G. C. 
 
 In his fourth discourse, On Prayer, he says : " None will 
 be cleansed unless they have been washed in the laver of 
 baptism, and have received the body and blood of Christ ; 
 for the blood is expiated by this blood, and the body 
 cleansed by this body. Be assiduous in holy prayer, and 
 in the beginning of all prayer place that which the Lord 
 hath taught us. When you pray, always remember your 
 friends, and me a sinner," &c. 
 
 ^ St. James was bishop of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, and was 
 held in ranch estimation by his contemporaries. He was present 
 at the council of Nice in 325, and died about the year 350. His 
 works, mentioned by Gennadius in the fifth century, were pub- 
 lished at Rome in Armenian and Latin, by Antonelli, in 1756. 
 It is to be lamented, that in the course of collating with the ori- 
 ginal works, the different passages extracted from the various 
 fathers, the editors were unable, at that time, notwithstanding a 
 most diligent search, to find a single copy of this father's writings 
 in England ; and have, therefore, been obliged (in this single in- 
 stance) to depend on the authority of a most learned and laborious 
 author, (noted, however, for his scrupulous accuracy), for the ex- 
 tract they have given ; viz. the Rev. Alban Butler, who in his life 
 of this saint, July llth, quotes it at length from Antonelli's 
 edition. 
 
 N.B. I have just learned that a copy of this work has lately found its way 
 into this country, and is now in the Collegiate Library at Manchester. 
 
XXXIV APPENDIX. 
 
 ST. EPHREM OF EDESSA,^ G. C. 
 
 " His body, by a new method, is mixed with our bodies ; 
 and his most pure blood is transfused into our veins. He 
 is wholly incorporated with us. w And because he loved 
 his church, he was made the bread of life that he might 
 give himself to be eaten." Hymn, xxxvii. de Virginitate, 
 Bibl. Orient. Assemani, T. 1. p. 97. " Consider, my be- 
 loved, with what fear those stand before the throne, who 
 wait on a mortal king. How much more does it behove 
 us to appear before the heavenly king with fear and 
 trembling, with gravity and awe ! Hence it becomes us 
 not to look boldly on the mysteries that lie before us, of 
 the body and blood of our Lord." (0 Paraen. xx. T. ii. 
 
 to) St. Ephrem was a disciple of the above mentioned father, 
 and a deacon of Edessa in Syria. He wrote many works in the 
 language of his country, which were translated into Greek during 
 his life ; and were held in such estimation, that in many churches, 
 as St. Jerome testifies in his Catalogue, they were publicly read 
 after the canonical books of scripture. They were published in 
 Latin by Gerard Vossius, at Rome ; and in Greek by Twaites, at 
 Oxford. In 1732 and seqq., Cardinal Quirini, with the aid of 
 J. S. Assemani, gave a new and splendid edition of his works, in 
 six volumes, folio. The three first contain the works which had 
 before been published in Greek and Latin ; the three latter, those 
 which he found in the Vatican Library, which are in Syriac, with 
 a Latin translation. St. Ephrem died about the year 379. 
 
 W Corpus ejus novaratione nostris corporibus immistum est; 
 ipsius quoque sanguis purissimus in venas nostras diffusus, totus 
 ipse nos totos pervasit. 
 
 M Proposita mysteria corporis et sanguinis Domini nostri. 
 
APPENDIX. XXXV 
 
 p. 126. Edit Vossii. " Sedulously consider all these things, 
 and believe that they are true as they are related ; for if 
 you view them not with the eyes of faith, you cannot rise 
 from earth to heaven, nor in spirit behold what Christ 
 suffered. When the eye of faith is clearly open, it con- 
 templates in a pure light the Lamb of God who was im- 
 molated for us, and who gave us his body for our food, to 
 the remission of our sins. This same eye of faith mani- 
 festly beholds the Lord, when eating his body and drinking 
 his blood, and indulges no curious enquiry. W You believe 
 that Christ, the son of God, for you was born in the flesh. 
 Then why do you search into what is inscrutable ? Doing 
 this, you prove your curiosity, not your faith. Believe 
 then, and with a firm faith receive the body and blood of 
 our Lord. (/) Abraham placed earthly food before celes- 
 tial spirits, (Gen. xviii.) of which they ate. This was won- 
 derful ; but what Christ has done for us greatly exceeds 
 this, and transcends all speech and all conception. To us 
 that are in the flesh, he has given to eat his body and 
 blood. Incapable as I am of comprehending the mysteries 
 of God, I dare not proceed ; and should I attempt it, I 
 should shew only my own rashness." De Nat. Dei. T. iii. 
 p. 182. Ibid. 
 
 ( fc ) Corpus manducat ac sanguinem bibit ; haudquaquam cu- 
 riose divinam sanctam fidem perscrutans. 
 
 W Si ista curiose rimaris, non jam fidelis nuncupaberis, sed 
 curiosus. Esto itaque fidelis. Participa immaculatum corpus et 
 sanguinem Domini tui fide plenissima. 
 
XXXVI APPENDIX. 
 
 ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM, (W>) G. C. 
 
 In his instructions, addressed to those who had been 
 newly baptised, he says : " The bread and wine, which 
 before the invocation of the adorable Trinity were nothing- 
 but bread and wine, become after this invocation, the body 
 and blood of Christ." (n) Catag. Mystag. 1. n. 4. p. 281. 
 " The eucharistic bread, after the invocation of the Holy 
 Spirit, is no longer common bread, but the body of 
 Christ." (0) Ibid. Catech. iii. n. 3. p. 289." The doctrine 
 of the blessed Paul alone is sufficient to give certain proofs 
 of the truth of the divine mysteries; and you being 
 deemed worthy of them, are become one body and one 
 blood with Christ. For this great apostle says : That our 
 Lord in the same niglit wherein he was delivered, having 
 taken bread and giving thanks, broke it and gave it to his 
 disciples, saying to them; Take and eat, this is my body. 
 Afterwards he took the cup, and said : Take and drink, 
 this is my blood. As then Christ, speaking of the bread, 
 declared and said : This is my body ; who shall dare to 
 doubt it? And as speaking of the wine, he positively 
 assured us, and said : This is my blood ; who shall doubt 
 
 ("*) St Cyril was patriarch of Jerusalem, and died about the year 
 355. The works which he has left, in twenty- three Catechetical 
 Discourses, form a full and very accurate abridgement of Chris- 
 tian Doctrine. 
 
 ( rt ) 6 p.ev dproQ yivercu ffufta Kpiorov, 6 Se oivog aipa 
 () 6 aprog rrjg iv)(a.ptffTta.G, fiera TJJV iiriK\Tiffiv r 
 OVK etrri aproQ Xtroc, a\Xa trapa Kptorov. 
 
APPENDIX. XXXV11 
 
 it, and say that it is not his blood?" to Catech. iv. n. 1. 
 p. 292. 
 
 " Jesus Christ, in Cana of Galilee, once changed water 
 into wine, by his will alone ; and shall we think it less 
 worthy of credit, that he changed wine into his blood ? 
 Invited to an earthly marriage, he wrought this miracle ; 
 and shall we hesitate to confess that he has given to his 
 children his body to eat, and his blood to drink ? (r) Where- 
 fore, with all confidence, let us take the body and blood 
 of Christ. For in the type or figure of bread, his body is 
 given to thee; and in the type or figure of wine, his blood 
 is given ^ that so being made partakers of the body and 
 blood of Christ, you may become one body and one blood 
 with him ; thus, the body and blood of Christ being dis- 
 tributed in our members, we become Christoforl^ that is, 
 we carry Christ with us ; and thus, as St. Peter says, " we 
 are made partakers of the divine nature." Ibid. At ano- 
 ther time, speaking to the Jews, Jesus Christ says : Unless 
 you eat myjlesh and drink my blood, ye shall have no life 
 in you. (John vi.) But they not understanding the words 
 spiritually, were offended with them and withdrew from 
 him, because they fancied that he would make them eat 
 human flesh. (a) In the old dispensation there were loaves 
 
 W dvrov ovv dTrofyyvafjif.vov, KCU eiitovTOQ irf.pi TOV dprov t TOVTO fj.ou 
 earn TO <7<ityia, m TO\p.ijffet dptytflaXketv \ot7rov; KCII dvTuv 
 fieftaiaffa/Lievov KUI eipijKOTOs, TOVTO fiov tan TO dtpa, rtc fa 
 ?ror, \tyd)v /uj; etvae dvTOv TO dipa ; 
 
 M Kai OVK d&OTriffTOG <rriv OLVov peTupaXuv etc aifjia ; 
 
 ( r ) rt\v hiro\avffiv TOV o-w/uarog O.VTOV KCU TOV at^iarog. 
 
 (*) j/ TVTry aprov, StSoTai <roi TO aup-a, KO.I iv rviry otvoi/, 
 (rot TO atfj.it. 
 
jtXXVlll APPENDIX. 
 
 of bread which were offered before God, and because they 
 pertained to that old dispensation, they have ceased with 
 it : but now in the new dispensation, there is bread from 
 heaven, and a cup of salvation, which sanctify soul and 
 body. For as the bread is the nourishment which is 
 proper to the body, so the word is the nourishment which 
 is proper to the soul. Wherefore I conjure you, my 
 brethren, not to consider them any more as common bread 
 and wine, since they are the body and blood of Jesus 
 Christ according to his words ; and although your sense 
 might suggest that to you, let faith confirm you. Judge 
 not of the thing by your taste, but by faith assure your- 
 self, without the least doubt, that you are honoured with 
 the body and blood of Christ ; this knowing, and of this 
 being assured, that what appears to you bread is not bread, 
 but the body of Christ, although the taste judges it to be 
 bread; and that the wine which you see, and which has 
 the taste of wine, is not wine, but the blood of Christ." (x) 
 Ibid. n. 2, 3. p. 293, 294.-" Taste and see how good the 
 Lord is. Think you, now, that you are required to dis- 
 cern this by the sense of taste ? (y) No, by no means ; but 
 by the testimony of faith which is certain, and leaves no 
 doubt. For when you take them, you are not commanded 
 to take bread and wine ; but under the appearance of 
 these, to take the body and blood of Christ" Ibid. Cat. v. 
 n. 17. p. 300. 
 
 (*) p.rj a?ro TIJQ ytvaeus Kptvys TO irpuy/Aa, aXX' euro rrjar 
 TrXrjpofyopov avevdoiaarwQ ffuparog Kai atparoQ KOUTTOV 
 TCLVTCL p.aQit)v KUI Tr\r){)0(f)oar)0ig, WQ 6 fyaLvofJLEvog hproQt OVK aprog e 
 ei feat TJJ yevffei, aicrdip-og, aXXa o-w^a Kptoroi;, rat 6 0aivo/ievoc 
 OVK OIVOQ eoriv, ei Ken tjy vaie TOVTO /3ov\erai, a\Xa aijjia Kpiorou 
 
 (*) Mty T(f Xapvyyt 
 
APPENDIX. XXXix 
 
 S. OPTATUS OF MILEVIS, (S L. C. 
 
 " What is so sacrilegious as to break, to erase, and to 
 remove the altars of God, on which you yourselves made 
 offerings ? On them the vows of the people, and the 
 members of Christ were born. For what is the altar, but 
 the seat of the body and blood of Christ ? (o) What offence 
 had Christ given, whose body and blood, at certain times, 
 do there dwell ? (A) This huge impiety was doubled, when 
 you broke also the chalices, the bearers of the blood of 
 Christ." (c) Contra Parmen, L. vi. p. 91, 92, 93. Among 
 other excesses with which he charges the Donatists, he 
 had before mentioned, that they ordered the consecrated 
 elements to be poured out to dogs ; which, seized with 
 madness, turned against their masters, as against strangers, 
 " guilty of the body of the Lord."< rf) Ibid. L. ii.p. 39. 
 
 S. BASIL/> G. C. 
 
 " About the things, that God has spoken, there should 
 be no hesitation, nor doubt, but a firm persuasion, that all 
 
 (*) Milevis was a city of Africa, of which St. Optatus was bishop 
 about the middle of the fourth century. The work quoted was 
 written against the Donatists, in seven books, addressed to Par- 
 minianus, a bishop of that sect. It abounds with innumerable 
 passages in favour of the unity, and other marks of the true 
 church. 
 
 ( a > Sedes et corporis et sanguinis Christi. 
 
 W Cujus illic per certa momenta corpus et sanguis habitabat. 
 
 (*) Calices, Christi sanguinis portatores. 
 
 f*) Sancti corporis reos. 
 
 W St. Basil, surnamed the Great, for his admirable eloquence 
 and profound erudition, was bishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, an 
 died about the year 379, leaving many valuable works. 
 
xl APPENDIX. 
 
 is true and possible, though nature be against it. (/) Here- 
 in lies the struggle of faith The Jews therefore strove 
 among themselves, saying : How can this man give its his 
 flesh to eat ? Then Jesus said to them : amen, amen I say 
 unto you : except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and 
 drink his blood, you shall not hare life in you. (John vi. 53, 
 ^^Regula viii. Moral. T. ii. p. 240." With what fear, 
 with what conviction, with what affection of mind, should 
 we partake of the body and blood of Christ ? The apostle 
 teaches us to fear, when he says : He that eateth and 
 drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to him- 
 self (1 Cor. xi, 29) ; while the words of the Lord : This is 
 my body, which shall be delivered for you (ibid 24.), create 
 a firm conviction."^ Ibid. In Reg. brev. quaest. clxxii. p. 
 472. The Christian must be without spot or stain and 
 thus prepared to eat the body of Christ, and drink his 
 blood." (; Ibid, in Moral, reg. Ixxx. c. 22 ? p. 318." It is 
 very profitable, every day, to partake of the body and 
 blood of Christ ; r/) since he himself says ; He that eateth 
 my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life (John 
 vi. 55). We communicate four times in the week, on 
 Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, and on other 
 days, if there be a commemoration of any Saint. At 
 Alexandria, and in Egypt, the people, generally, have the 
 communion in their houses, and they receive it as they 
 judge proper, having received it from the priest." Ep. 
 xcii. T. iii. p. 186. " What can be said of that person, who 
 dares idly, and uselessly, to eat the body and drink the 
 
 ij 0u<7te 
 
 ovTwg eaftttv TO orwjua r Kptorw KCU irivew TO 
 
 i' r ciytH ow/xaroe KCU utfjiaTog Ttt 
 
APPENDIX. xli 
 
 blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,( fc) and thus sometimes 
 more afflicts the divine spirit, while he eats without 
 charity ? Let us therefore judge, and not live to ourselves, 
 but eat and drink to him, who died and rose again for us. 
 It is the duty of him who approaches to the body and 
 blood of Christ, (/) and to the memory of his passion, not 
 only to be pure from all defilement, but likewise to shew 
 forth and express the remembrance of the death of Christ, 
 lest he eat and drink to his own judgment." (m) L.Ide 
 Bapt. c. 3. T. ii. p. 651. " If he who was unclean under 
 the old law, might not touch what was holy, how 
 much more criminal is he who, in the impurity of his soul, 
 rashly approaches to the body of our Lord. (n) Let us 
 therefore cleanse ourselves from all defilement." Ibid. L. 
 ii. c. 3, jo. 654. 
 
 S. GREGORY OF NYSSA,( O) G. C. 
 
 " As that which is pernicious is admitted into our 
 bodies, so should that which is salutary ; in order that the 
 virtue of this latter may bring aid to us. When this 
 
 TO ff(t)[j.a t KCLI TTIEIV TO dipa r Kvpia 
 W Toy TrpoaiovTa TO) trw/icm /cat T%> atpaTi r Kptorw. 
 < m ) The Benedictin Editors of St. Basil's works are of opinion, 
 that these books on baptism are not his ; though of some ancient 
 author. Combesis ascribes them to Eustatius of Sebaste the 
 contemporary of St. Basil. 
 
 M St. Gregory of Nyssa was the younger brother of St. Basil, 
 like him, highly celebrated for his acquirements, and Bishop of 
 Nyssa, on the confines of Cappadocia, in Asia Minor. His 
 writings are numerous. He died late in the fourth century. 
 
xlii APPENDIX. 
 
 salutary medicine is within us, it repels, by its contrary 
 quality, the poison we had received. But what is this 
 medicine? That body, which was shewn to be more 
 powerful than death,^ and was the beginning of our life ; 
 and which could not otherwise enter into our bodies, than 
 by eating and drinking. Now we must consider how it 
 can be, that that one body, which so constantly, through 
 the whole world, is distributed to so many thousands of 
 the faithful, can be whole in each receiver, and itself re- 
 main whole. ( 9) The body of Christ, by the inhabitation of 
 the word of God, was transmuted into a divine dignity : 
 and so I now believe, that the bread, sanctified by the 
 word of God, is transmuted into the body of Christ.( r ) This 
 bread, as the apostle says, is sanctified by the word of God 
 and prayer, not that, as food, it passes into his body, but 
 that it is instantly changed into the body of Christ, 
 agreeably to what he said, This is my body.W And there- 
 fore does the divine word commix itself with the weak 
 nature of man, that, by partaking of the divinity, our 
 humanity may be exalted. By the dispensation of his 
 grace, he enters, by his flesh, into the breasts of the 
 faithful, commixed and con tempered with their bodies,^ 
 
 <W OV$V .TOOV t] KLVO TO ffWfJLCL, O TST QaVCiTU KOUTTOV 
 
 W TTwg iyevETO Ivvarov TO tv EKUVO ffcjjjta b\ov kv IraoTp, Sia TOV 
 fJLfp&S yveadat ) KCU UVTO fjieveiv 0' kavra 6\ov. 
 
 ( r ) KO.I vvv TOV T<J) Xoyp TOV QEOV ayia^ofJiEvov UOTOV lie trwpt TOV 
 Oeov \oyov p.eTaTroieiffdat Trtorfuo/Ku. 
 
 (*) IvOvg TTpoc TO aoifjia TOV \oyov /zcraTroiou/xc^oc* Kaflwe etprjTai VTTO 
 TOV Xoyou, OTC TOVTO iffTt TO ffii)fjia IJLOV. 
 
 W eavTOV ivcnreiQei Sia ri/e <rap/coe, big ij ffvffraaiQ el; oivov T /cat 
 UOTOV iffri TOIQ ffiopafft TWV 
 
APPENDIX. xliii 
 
 that, by being united to that which is immortal, man may 
 partake of incomiption." Orat. Catech. c. 37, T. ii. p. 
 534, 535, 536. " The bread also is, at first, common 
 bread ; but, when it has been sanctified, it is called and 
 is made the body of Christ." (M) Orat. in Bapt. Christi, T. ii. 
 p. 802. 
 
 S. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUM, (X) G. C. 
 
 He says of his sister, labouring under a grievous dis- 
 order : " Despairing of all other help, she had recourse 
 to the universal physician She falls down in faith before 
 the altar, and calls upon him who is there adored."' y) 
 Orat. ii. T. 1. p. 186. " Without doubting, eat the body, 
 and drink the blood, (2) if thou desirest to live." Ibid. 
 Orat.Jilii.p. 690. 
 
 S. AMBROSE,^ L. C. 
 " The manna in the desert was given in figure. You 
 
 M ffti)fj,a Kpiora Xeyereu re /ecu ytverat. 
 
 <*) St. Gregory of Nazianzum was the friend of St. Bazil, 
 with whom he studied at Athens ; he became bishop of Constan- 
 tinople, which see he afterwards relinquished, retiring to Nazi- 
 anzum in Cappadocia, near which city he was born, and where he 
 died, about the year 389. He was much celebrated for his elo- 
 quence, in which he is said to have excelled the greatest orators 
 of the age; and of that eloquence many examples are yet extant 
 in the various discourses or sermons, which form the principal 
 body of his works. 
 
 &) rov 7r' avrw Tipup.evov. 
 
 W &v7rarxviTa> /ecu cWv&>iaoTwe, 0aye TO ffw/za, Trie TO tupa.. 
 
 W St. Ambrose died in the year 396, having held the see of 
 Milan twenty years, with great profit to the church, edified by 
 
xliv APPENDIX. 
 
 have known things more excellent. For light is prefer- 
 able to the shadow ; truth to the figure ; the body of Christ 
 to the manna from heaven. But you may say : I see some- 
 what else ; how do you assert, that I shall receive the body 
 of Christ ? This remains to be proved. How many ex- 
 amples may we not make use of to shew, that we have not 
 here what nature formed, but what the divine blessing 
 has consecrated, and that the virtue of this blessing is 
 more powerful than that of nature ; because by it nature 
 itself is changed ? Moses held the rod ; he cast it on the 
 ground, and it became a serpent. Again he took it by 
 the tail, and again it became a rod. See you not that, by 
 the prophetic power, the nature of the rod and the serpent 
 was twice changed?" He proceeds to instance many 
 other miraculous changes, as recorded in Scripture, and 
 then adds : " If now the blessing of men was powerful 
 enough to change nature, what must we not say of the 
 divine consecration, when the very words of our Lord 
 operate ? For that sacrament, which you receive, is 
 accomplished by the word of Christ. If the word of 
 Elias could call down fire from heaven, shall not the word 
 of Christ be able to change the form of the elements ? ^ 
 You have read concerning the creation of the world : He 
 spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it was formed. 
 Therefore the word of Christ, which could draw out of 
 nothing what was not, shall it not be able to change the 
 things that are into that which they were not ? (c) For it is 
 
 his exalted virtues the western provinces, and instructed them by 
 his writings. These are numerous, comprising Commentaries on 
 many parts of Scripture, and moral Treatises. 
 
 (*> Non valebit Christi sermo ut species mutet elernentorum ? 
 
 (c) Sermo Christi non potest ea quae sunt, in id mutare quod 
 non erant ? 
 
APPENDIX. xlv 
 
 not a less effect of power, to give new existence to things, 
 than to change the natures that were. We will now estab- 
 lish the truth of the mystery, from the example itself of the 
 incarnation. Was the order of nature followed, when 
 Jesus was born of a virgin ? Plainly, not. Then why is 
 that order to be looked for here ? It was the true flesh of 
 Christ which was crucified, which was buried ; and this 
 is truly the sacrament of his flesh. Our Lord himself 
 proclaims: This is my body. Before the benediction of 
 the celestial words, the bread (species} is named ; after 
 the consecration, the body of Christ is signified. He him- 
 self calls it his blood. Before consecration, it has another 
 name ; afterwards it is denominated blood. And you answer 
 Amen; that is, it is true. (rf > What the mouth speaks, let the 
 internal sense confess : what the words intimate, let the 
 affection feel. By these sacraments, Christ feeds his 
 church, and by them is the soul strengthened. " w De 
 Initiandis, c. ix. 71 iv. p. 350, 351. In the same chapter, 
 he afterwards adds : Taste and see how sweet the Lord is : 
 blessed is the man who hopeth in him. (Ps. xxxiii. 9.) 
 
 C rf ) Ipse clamat Dominus Jesus : Hoc est corpus meum. Ante 
 benedictionera verborum cselestium species nominator ; post con- 
 secrationem : corpus Christi significatur. Ipse dicit sanguinem 
 suum. Ante consecrationem aliud dicitur ; post consecrationem 
 sanguis nominatur. Et tu dicis, Amen ; hoc est, verum est. 
 
 O The expressions of this passage are repeated, and more em- 
 phatically stated, in a succeeding treatise On the Sacraments, often 
 quoted under the name of St. Ambrose; but as its authenticity is 
 doubted by the most able critics, though it is admitted by them 
 if not to be coeval with him, to be very ancient, I shall make no 
 use of an uncertain authority. Still the authority proves what 
 was the faith of the times in which the work was written. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Christ is in that sacrament, because it is the body of 
 Christ : wherefore the food is not corporeal, but spiritual/'/) 
 Hence the apostle, speaking of its type (or figure) says : 
 Our fathers did eat the spiritual food, and did drink the 
 spiritual drink. (1 Cor. x.) For the body of God is a 
 spiritual body. The body of Christ is the body of a divine 
 spirit, because Christ is a spirit, as we read, the Lord 
 Christ is a spirit before our eyes" Ibid. p. 352. 
 
 ST. EPIPHANIUS.^) G. C. 
 
 " The Church is the tranquil port of peace, and daily 
 distributes to us that drink which disperses care, the true 
 blood of Jesus Christ." (A) In Acephalos, T. ii. p. 152. 
 
 S.JEROME, < L. C. 
 A lady, named Hedibia, had consulted the Saint on the 
 
 (/) In illo sacramento Christus est, quia corpus est Christi : 
 non ergo corporalis esca, sed spiritalis est. 
 
 ^ St. Epiphanius was chosen bishop of Salamis, in the Isle of 
 Cyprus, in 368, and was the author of many works, particularly 
 against the reigning heresies of the time. The unity of faith 
 was never more zealously maintained than in these early ages. 
 He died in the beginning of the fifth century. 
 
 ^ TO \v<JL"KOvov ij^jnv 7rop.a Kcid' eKttffrrjy tjpepavy atyua Kpiorw 
 
 W St. Jerome was the most eloquent, the most learned, and the 
 most accomplished scholar of an age, which, in every branch of 
 knowledge, could boast of men of eminence. His life, which 
 began in 329, was protracted to 420, a space filled by him in 
 various offices, in travelling, in retirement, and in increasing 
 application. His works are numerous, and marked by a peculiar 
 elegance of style. He never tose above the order of priesthood. 
 
APPENDIX. Xlvii 
 
 meaning of the passage in S. Matthew : / say to you, I 
 will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that 
 day when I shall drink it new with you in the kingdom of 
 my father. He tells her, that the passage by some had 
 heen interpreted very sillily, and then adds : " But not to 
 trouble ourselves about such fables, let us acknowledge, 
 that the bread which Christ broke, and gave to his disci- 
 ples, is the body of our Lord and Saviour ; (fc) lie saying to 
 them : Take and eat ; this is my body : and of the cup ; 
 Drink ye all of this : this is my blood of the new Testament 
 which shall be shed for many. If then the bread that 
 came down from heaven is the Lord's body, and if the 
 wine, which he gave to his disciples, is his blood, which 
 was shed for many for the remission of sins, let us reject 
 those Jewish fables, and receive at his hand the cup of 
 the new covenant. Moses gave us not the true bread, 
 but our Lord Jesus did. He invites us to the feast, and 
 is himself our meat: he eats with us, and we eat him. 
 We drink his blood, and without him we cannot drink : 
 we daily tread in the sacrifices the grapes that are red 
 with his blood/'-' and of these is the new wine in the 
 kingdom of the father." Ep. cl. ad Hedib. T. 1. p. 1219. 
 " The fatted calf, which is offered to obtain the salva- 
 tion of repentance, is the Saviour himself, whose flesh we 
 daily eat, and whose blood we daily drink/"'^ The rea- 
 der, who is one of the faithful, understands as well as I 
 do, what this nourishment is, which filling us with abun- 
 
 w Esse corpus Domini Salvatoris. 
 
 W Ipse conviva, et convivium ; ipse comedens, et qui comeditur ; 
 illius bibimus sanguinem, et quotidie in sacrifices ejus, rubentia 
 musta calcamus. 
 
 < m ) Cujus quotidie carne pascimur, cruore potamur. 
 
xlviii APPENDIX. 
 
 dance, makes us put forth outwardly praises and holy 
 thanksgiving's. The sacred feast is daily celebrated ; (n) 
 the father receiveth his son eveiy day ; Jesus Christ is 
 continually offered upon the altars."^ Ep. cxlvi. ad Da- 
 mas. T. I. p. 1201. " There is as much difference between 
 the loaves offered to God in the old law, and the body of 
 Jesus Christ, as betwixt the shadow and the body, be- 
 twixt the image and the truth, and betwixt the types and 
 the things they represent. So let the mind, which pre- 
 pares to form the body of Christ, ^ be free not only from 
 every unclean action, but from every indecent glance, 
 every wandering of the mind." Comment, in Ep. ad Tit. 
 c. 1. T. iii. p. 1045." God forbid, that I should say any 
 thing amiss of these men (priests) who, succeeding the 
 apostles in their ministry, make the body of Jesus Christ 
 with their sacred mouth."^ Ep. 1. ad Heliod. T. I. p. 5. 
 " After the typical passover was accomplished, and 
 Christ had eaten the lamb with his apostles, he takes the 
 bread, which comforteth the heart of man, and passes to 
 the true sacrament of the passover ; that as Melchisedec, 
 priest of the high God, in prefiguring him, had done, 
 offering bread and wine, Christ also should make present 
 the truth of his body and blood." (r} Comment, in Matt, 
 c. 26. T. iii. p. 716. 
 
 W Hoc convivium quotidie celebratur. 
 
 () Semper Christus credentibus immolatur. 
 
 to 1 Mens Christi corpus confectura. 
 
 '& Christi corpus sacro ore conficiunt. 
 
 ( r ) Ut quomodo in praefiguratione ejus, Melchisedec, summi 
 Dei sacerdos, panem et vinum offerens, fecerat, ipse quoque veri- 
 tatem sui corporis et sanguinis repraesentaret. See Perpttutte de 
 la Foi, T. ii. L. iii. c. v. 
 
APPENDIX. Xlix 
 
 GAUDENTIUS OF BRESCIA, ( * } L. C. 
 
 Speaking of the paschal lamb among the Jews, and the 
 manner in which it was distributed, he says : " But now, 
 when the figure has ceased, the one that died for all, im- 
 molated in the mystery of bread and wine, gives life 
 through all the churches, and, being consecrated, sanc- 
 tifies those that consecrate. This is the flesh of the lamb ; 
 this is his blood : (/) for the bread that came down from 
 heaven said : The bread, which I shall give you, is my flesh 
 for the life of the world. His blood is rightly expressed 
 by the species of wine, because when he says in the gos- 
 pel, / am the true vine, he sufficiently declares all wine, 
 which is offered in the figure of his passion, to be his 
 blood.( M) And he who is the creator and lord of all na- 
 tures, who produces bread from the earth ; of the bread 
 makes his own proper body, (for he is able, and he pro- 
 mised to do it ;) and who of water made wine, and of 
 wine his blood. (x) O the depth of tJie riches of the know 
 ledge and wisdom of God ! (Rom. xi. 33.) It is the pasch, 
 
 (*) He was ordained bishop of Brescia, in Italy, by S. Ambrose, 
 towards the close of the fourth century; but the time of his death 
 is not known. His works are comprised in nineteen discourses 
 or sermons, written in a plain and easy style, from the second of 
 which the above extract is taken. 
 
 W Consecrantes sanctificat consecratus. Haec agni caro; hie 
 sanguis est. 
 
 (") Sanguinem suum esse omne vinum quod in figura passionis 
 ejus offertur. 
 
 ( x) De pane rursus (quia et potest et promisit) efficit proprium 
 corpus ; et de vino sanguinem suum. 
 
 d 
 
1 APPENDIX. 
 
 he says, that is the passover of the Lord ; think not that 
 earthly which is made heavenly hy him, who passes into 
 it, and has made it his body and blood. (y) Believe what 
 is announced to thee ; because what thou receivest, is the 
 body of that celestial bread, and the blood of that sacred 
 vine ;' z ) for when he delivered consecrated bread and wine 
 to his disciples, thus he said : This is my body ; this is my 
 blood. Let us believe him whose faith we profess, for 
 truth cannot lie. (a) Let us not break his solid and firm 
 bone : TJiis 'is my body ; this is my blood. Now what re- 
 mains in the sense of any one, which he does not conceive 
 by this exposition, let it be consumed by the ardour of 
 his faith." Tract. 11. inExod.Bibl. PP. T.v.p. 946,947. 
 Edit. Lugduni, 1677. 
 
 S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, ( * } G. C. 
 
 " Elias left his garment to his disciple ; but the 
 Son of God left us his own flesh. (c) The prophet in- 
 to) Ne terrenum putes, quod caeleste effectum est per eum, qui 
 transit in illud, et fecit illud suum corpus et sanguinem. 
 
 ( z) Quod accipis, corpus est illius panis caelestis, et sanguis est 
 illius sacrse vitis. 
 
 (> Credamus, quaeso, cui credidimus. Nescit mendacium 
 veritas. 
 
 (*) St. John Chrysostom, was bishop of Constantinople, and re- 
 ceived the appellation of Chrysostom, (the golden-mouthed) on 
 account of his transcendant eloquence. His works are numerous ; 
 indeed, there is scarcely any subject, connected with religion that 
 he has not illustrated. His Expositions of Scripture are particu- 
 larly valuable. He died in the beginning of the fifth century, 
 about the year 407. The edition of his works quoted is that of 
 Paris, 1636. 
 
 ^ Tt\v o-apMx np lv KareXtTre TTJV kavra. 
 
APPENDIX. li 
 
 deed threw off his covering ; but Christ ascending, took 
 with him his body, and left it also for us. (rf) Let us not 
 therefore repine nor fear any difficulties ; for he who re- 
 fused not to shed his blood for all, and communicated to 
 us his body and blood, what will he not do for our salva- 
 tion?" Homil. ii. ad Pop. Antioch. 71 1. p. 37. " Let us 
 then touch the hem of his garment ; rather let us, if we 
 be so disposed, possess him entire. For his body now lies 
 before us, not to be touched only, but to be eaten and to 
 satiate \is. (e} And if they who touched his garment drew 
 so much virtue from it ; how much more shall we draw, 
 who possess him whole ? (/) Believe, therefore, that the 
 supper at which he sat, is now celebrated ; for there is no 
 difference between the two. This is not performed by a 
 man, and that by Christ; both are by him.^ When, 
 therefore, thou seest the priest presenting the body to 
 thee, think not that it his hand, but the hand of Christ 
 that is stretched out towards thee."^ } Homil. li. in cap. 
 xiv. Matt. T. vii. p. 553, 554." Let us believe God in 
 every thing, and not gainsay him, although what is 
 said may seem contrary to our reason and our sight. Let 
 his word overpower both. ( ' ; Thus let us do in mysteries ; 
 not looking only on the things that lie before us, but 
 holding fast his words ; for his word cannot deceive ; but 
 our sense is very easily deceived.^ That never failed ; 
 
 KCU v\\iiv 
 
 wore KCLL tyayrjvai /cat 
 bi 6\ov CLVTOV Ka.T*xpvTf.Q. 
 
 OV^EV yap EKELVO TUTU $ivi)voyf.v ctXAa icai TUTO K<JLKEWO avrog. 
 d\Xa Tfj.v TV Kpiora X fl P a "^ ai TTJV iKTetvofjtevrjv. 
 a\X' kffTii) KCII Xoyifffjiov KCLI d^/ewg /cvptwrcpo^ UVTOV 6 Xoyoc- 
 o p.ev yap \oyoQ O.VTOV aTrapaXoyurroc, rj Se 
 
 d 2 
 
Hi APPENDIX. 
 
 this, often. Since then his word says, This Is my body; 
 let us assent, and believe, and view it with the eyes of our 
 understanding. Christ left to us nothing sensible (no 
 object of the senses) ; but things intellectual under sensible 
 forms. (/) Thus the blessing of baptism is given by water, 
 which is corporeal ; but what is done by it, namely the 
 regeneration and renovation, is incorporeal or intellectual. 
 If you were incorporeal, he would have bequeathed to 
 you gifts purely incorporeal ; but as your soul is united 
 to a body, those gifts are to be comprehended under cor- 
 poreal signs." Homil. Ixxxiii. in Matt. T. 7. p. 868. 
 " How many persons are heard to say : I would willingly 
 behold his figure, his shape, his attire ! But thou seest 
 him, thou touchest him, thou receivest him into thy 
 breast. (w>) Yet thou desirest to see his garments. He 
 gives himself to thee not to be looked on only, but to be 
 touched, to be eaten, to be admitted into thy breast." 
 Ibid. " These are not the works of human power. He 
 who in that supper made these things himself, now also 
 does them for you. We hold the order of ministers ; but 
 thesanctifierand changer of them is himself. (n) Ibid. p. 870. 
 " Who will give m of his flesh, that we may be filled ? 
 (Job xxxi. 31.) This Christ has done ; not only allowing 
 himself to be seen, but to be touched too ; and to be eaten, 
 and teeth to pierce his flesh ; (0) and all to be filled with 
 the love of him. Parents often give their children to be 
 nourished by others : Not so I, says Christ ; but I nourish 
 
 ovfiev aiadiyrov, a\X* aiffdrjTOic p,ev Trpayp.affi t Travra 
 ^ ov, CLVTOV opae, avrov curry, O.VTOV iadiei. 
 o Se ayiaW avra, KCU jira<rKi/awv, avroc. 
 aXXo cn//a(70cu KCU <f>ayeit> 
 
APPENDIX. liii 
 
 you with my flesh, ^ and I place myself before you. I 
 was willing to become your brother ; for the sake of you 
 I took flesh and blood, and again I deliver to you that 
 flesh and blood by which I become so related ,'W Homil. 
 xlv. in loan. T. viii. p. 292. " What sayest thou, O 
 blessed Paul? Willing to impress awe on the hearer, 
 and making mention of the tremendous mysteries, thou 
 callest them the cup of benediction, (1 Cor. x. 16.) that 
 terrible and tremendous cup. That which is in the cup, 
 is that which flowed from his side, (r) and we partake of it. 
 It is not of the altar, but of Christ himself that we 
 partake. Let us, therefore, approach to him with all re- 
 verence and purity ; and when thou beholdest the body 
 lying before thee, say to thyself: By this body I am no 
 longer earth and ashes this is that very body which bled, 
 which was pierced by the lance." (<) Homll. xxiv. in Ep. 
 ad Cor. T. x. p. 255, 257, 260. " He that was present at 
 the last supper, is the same that is now present and con- 
 secrates our feast. For it is not man who makes the 
 things lying on the altar become the body and blood of 
 Christ, but that Christ who was crucified for us. The 
 words are pronounced by the priest; but it is the power 
 and grace of God that consecrate them. He said, This is 
 my body: these words make the change." (/) Homll. de 
 
 TCLIQ ffdpfy rpefat rate 
 
 TraXiv avTriv VIILV TI\V ffapKa Kai TO cupa, $t &v 
 
 ^ TOVTO TO ev TTOTrjpip oV, (.KEIVO tori TO a7ro Tr]Q TT\vpaQ pevvctv. 
 
 W TWO eKEivo TO ffup,a tort, TO rjfjiaynevov, TO Xoyxjy ir\r}yv. 
 
 (/) <fXnp a TT^npuv toTi)Ktv 6 iepevG, TO. pripaTa^deyyofJievof fcctva* 
 17 e cWape> Kai tj ^aptg r 0e etrri. Tro 
 THTO TO privet fj.ETappvBp.i^et TCt 
 
liv 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Prodit. Judas. T. v. p. 415. " As many as partake of this 
 body, as many as taste of this blood, think ye it nothing- 
 different from that which sits above, and is adored by 
 angels."^ HomU. in. in c. 1. ad Ephes. T. x. p. 885. 
 " This table supplies the place of the manger, for even 
 here shall lie the body of our Lord;*** not wrapped in 
 swaddling cloths, as then, but surrounded on all sides by 
 the Holy Spirit. They that are initiated understand these 
 things. The Magi or wise men did nothing but adore ; 
 but if thou comest with a pure conscience, thou wilt be 
 permitted to take him to thyself." Orat. de S. Philogonio y 
 T. I. p. 357. " The servants of Job, to shew their love of 
 him, said, Who will give us of his flesh, that we may be 
 filled, (xxxi. 81.) In like manner, Christ gave us his 
 flesh, that with it we may be filled and inflamed with the 
 love of him. This body lying in the manger the wise 
 men reverenced, seeing no such thing as thou seest: 
 thou dost not see him in the manger, but on the altar 
 nor dost thou only see him, but moreover thou touchest 
 him ; nay thou eatest him, and returnest home with him 
 in thy breast.^ Cleanse then thy soul from all defile- 
 ment, and prepare thyself to receive these mysteries." 
 Horn. xxiv. in \ Cor. T. x. p. 261, 262." Wonderful ! 
 The table is spread with Mysteries, the lamb of God is 
 slain for thee, and the spiritual blood flows from the sacred 
 table. The spiritual fire comes down from heaven ; the 
 
 LTE OTl TH p.T^V KIVOV 
 
 W ij yap TpaTT^rj fivTr), ratv rr/e ^arvrjQ TrXrjpoi' Kat yap /ecu 
 
 \VTCLvQa KL(TTai TO ffWjUtt TO ^(.(TTTOTLKOV. 
 
 W bv% ooag ^icvov, tiXXa /cat airTr)' /cat bv% anr*; /uovoi', aXXa, /cat 
 /cat Xa3w>/ ot/ca^e 
 
 
APPENDIX. Iv 
 
 blood in the chalice is drawn from the spotless side for 
 thy purification. Thinkest thou that thou seest bread ? 
 that thou seest wine ? that these things pass off as other 
 foods do ? Far be it from thee to think so. (z ^ But as wax 
 brought near to the fire loses its former substance, which 
 no longer remains : so do thou thus conclude that the 
 mysteries (the bread and wine) are consumed by the sub- 
 stance of the body. Wherefore, approaching to them, 
 think not that you receive the divine body from a man, 
 but fire from the hand of the Seraphim." Horn- de Panit. 
 sen de Euchar. in Encdsniis. T. v. p. 489. 
 
 There is a letter, written to the monk Caesarius, and 
 ascribed to this prelate, wherein he says, refuting the 
 monk's opinion, that the divinity and humanity in Christ 
 were so mixed, as to form but one nature : " Jesus 
 Christ is God and man ; God as impassible, man as 
 having suffered. Yet is there one only Son and one 
 Lord: one and the same, who, by the union of the 
 natures, has one domination and one power ; although 
 these natures are not consubstantial ; for each one retains, 
 without mixture, the characters which distinguish it. The 
 natures are united without being confounded. For as (in 
 the Eucharist) before it is sanctified, the bread is called 
 bread ; but when the divine grace, by means of the priest, 
 has consecrated it, it is freed from the appellation of bread, 
 and is esteemed worthy to be called the Lord's body, 
 although the nature of bread remains in it, and we do not 
 say, there are two bodies, but one body of the Son : so 
 here, the divine nature being joined to the human, they 
 both together form but one Son, one person ; yet it must 
 
 (*) pr) on aprog iffrw t'tfyd /uty$ ort OIVOQ itrn vofjuerrig a?rayc, fj.rj 
 TUTO voei. 
 
Ivi APPENDIX. 
 
 be acknowledged, according to an unconfused and indi- 
 visible manner, not in one nature, but in two perfect 
 natures." a) Ep. ad. Csesarium. p. 22. Paris, 1689. 
 
 S. MARUTHAS,^ G. C. 
 
 " Do this in remembrance of me. This was necessary 
 and very proper : for if the perpetual participation of the 
 
 () Sicut enim antequam sanctificetur panis, panemnominamns; 
 divina autem ilium sanctificante gratia, mediante sacerdote, libe- 
 ratus est quidem appellatione panis, dignus autem habitus est 
 Dominici corporis appellatione, etiamsi natura panis in eo per- 
 mansit, et non duo corpora, sed unum corpus filii praedicatur : 
 sic et hie, divina insidente corporis natura, unum filium, unamper- 
 sonam, utraque haec fecerunt : agnoscendum tamen inconfusam 
 et indivisibilem rationem, non in unasolum natura, sed in duabus 
 perfectis. 
 
 The Greek original of this letter is not extant, and the Latin 
 translation seems imperfect ; but what difficulty there may be in 
 the word nature, applied to the bread after consecration, should 
 be explained by the other passages from the same father, which 
 clearly express the real change of substance. From other ancient 
 writers, such as Gelasius of Rome, and Theodoret of Cyrus in 
 Syria, both of the fifth century, passages, similar to that above, are 
 adduced, wherein the word natura, and the Greek equivalents, 
 fjwffig and ou<na, are used, in comparisons from the Eucharist, to de- 
 note the external qualities of bread and wine, which before and after 
 consecration remain the same. See Perpetuite de la Foi : T. iii. 
 and on the authenticity of the Letter to Caesarius, Dup'tn Bibliot. 
 T. iii. Cave Hist. Lit. p. 267, and Montfaucon T. iii. Op. S. 
 Chrysostomi, p. 736. To my own apprehension the Letter is 
 manifestly spurious. 
 
 W St. Maruthas was bishop of Tagrit, in Mesopotamia, and 
 began to flourish about the end of the fourth century. He compiled 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Ivii 
 
 sacraments had not been delivered, whence could we have 
 learnt salvation through Christ ; or by whose persuasion 
 have been led to the knowledge of so great a mystery ? To 
 the bulk of mankind it would have been most difficult to 
 be believed ; and thus they would have been deprived of 
 the communion of the body and blood of Christ. But now, 
 as often as we approach, and receive on our hands the 
 body and blood, we believe, that we embrace his body, 
 and become, as it is written, flesh of his flesh, and bone of 
 his bone. For Christ did not call it the figure or the spe- 
 cies of his body, but he said : This truly is my body, and this 
 is my blood '." (c) Com. in Matt. apud. Asssemani, Bibl. Orient. 
 T. 1. p. 180. Romse, 1719. 
 
 CENT. V. 
 
 S. AuGUSTIN, (rf) L. C. 
 
 " As you know the sacrifice of the Jews, according to 
 the rite of Aaron, consisted in the offerings of beasts, and 
 
 the Acts of the Martyrs who suffered in the persecution of Sapor, 
 from 340 to 380, and wrote some commentaries on St. Matthew, 
 and other works, in Syriac. He was the friend of St. Chrysostom, 
 but survived him many years. He died before the middle of the 
 fifth century. 
 
 < c) Figuram et speciem ejus haud ipsum appellavit, sed dixit, 
 hoc vere est corpus meum, et hie est sanguis meus. 
 
 W St. Augustin was bishop of Hippo in Africa, and himself 
 an African. His works are very numerous, and his name, on 
 account of the erudition of those works, their vast researches, 
 and their deep insight into all the ways of the divine economy, 
 
Iviii APPENDIX. 
 
 this in mystery : as yet the sacrifice of the body and blood 
 of the Lord was not, which the faithful understand,^ and 
 they who have read the gospel; which sacrifice is now 
 diffused through the whole world." In Psal. xxxiii. T. viii. 
 p. 92. " Wherefore the sacrifice of Aaron was taken away ; 
 and that, according to the order of Melchisedec, com- 
 menced. Our Lord was willing, that our salvation should 
 be in his body and blood. And this was an effect of his 
 humility. For had he not been humble, he would not 
 have been to us meat and drink." ^ Ibid. " When, 
 committing to us his body, he said: This is my body, 
 Christ was held in his own hands. He bore that body in 
 his hands." (i/) Ibid. p. 94. " Sacrifice and offering thou 
 didst not desire, said the psalmist to God. For the ancients, 
 when as yet the true sacrifice was foretold in figures, cele- 
 brated the type of what was to come. Those sacrifices, 
 therefore, signifying promises, were annulled : and what 
 was given to complete those promises? That body, which 
 you know ; which all do not know ; and which, it were to 
 be wished, some did not know to their condemnation. (A) 
 
 has ever borne the greatest weight in the Christian churches. 
 He illustrated the close of the fourth, and the beginning of the 
 fifth century, in the Latin church, while St. Chrysostom shone in 
 the east. He died in the year 430. 
 
 ^ Nondum erat sacrificium corporis et sanguinis Domini, quod 
 fideles norunt. 
 
 Cfl Nee manducaretur, nee biberetur. 
 
 <*) Ferebatur Christus in manibus suis, quando, commendans 
 ipsum suum corpus, ait : Hoc est corpus meum. Ferebat enim illud 
 corpus in manibus suis. 
 
 W Corpus quod nostis ; quod utinam qui nostis omnes, non ad 
 judicium noveritis. 
 
APPENDIX. lix 
 
 This was promised by certain signs : but when the pro- 
 mised truth came, the signs were taken away. In this 
 body we subsist ; of this body we are made partakers ; < i} 
 we know what we receive." In Psal. xxxix. Ibid. p. 142, 
 143. " Christ took upon him earth from the earth; be- 
 cause flesh is from the earth, and this flesh he took from 
 the flesh of Mary : and because he here walked in this 
 flesh, even this same flesh he gave to us to eat for our 
 salvation ;' fc) but no one eateth this flesh, without having 
 first adored it ; and not only we do not sin by adoring, 
 but we even sin by not adoring it." W But is it the flesh 
 that quickeneth? The Lord even, in exalting this earth to 
 us, informs us, that it is the spirit that quickeneth, and that 
 the flesh prqfiteth nothing. Wherefore in abasing yourself, 
 and in casting yourself down before any matter whatever, 
 consider it not as matter, but consider in it that Holy one, 
 of whom the body, which you adore, is the footstool. For 
 it is for his sake that you adore it." In Psal. xcviii. Ibid, 
 p. 452. " The man Christ Jesus, though in the form of 
 God, he receive sacrifice with his father, with whom he is 
 one God, yet in the form of a servant he chose rather to be 
 himself the sacrifice than to receive it ; lest, even on this 
 occasion, any one should imagine, that sacrifice might be 
 offered to a creature. Thus is he the priest, himself offer- 
 ing, and himself the victim. It was his will, that the 
 Church's sacrifice should be the daily sacrament of this 
 ablation ; (TO) which Church, as it is the body united to its 
 
 W Hujus corporis participes sumus. 
 
 (*) Et ipsam earnem nobis manducandara ad salutem dedit. 
 
 W Nisi prius adoraverit et nonsolumnonpeccemus adorando, 
 sed peccemus non adorando. 
 
 (m) p er h oce t sacerdos est ; ipse offerens, ipse etoblatio. Cujus 
 rei sacramentum quotidianum esse voluit Ecclesiae sacrificium. 
 
Ix 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 head, learns to offer herself through him. The ancient 
 sacrifices of the Saints were the manifold and various signs 
 of this true sacrifice. And to this high and true sacrifice 
 all others gave way." De Civit. Dei, Z. x. c. 20, T. v. 
 p. 605. Speaking of the Jews converted by S. Peter, he 
 says : " They were converted ; they were baptised ; they 
 approached to the table of the Lord ; and now believing, 
 they drank that blood, which in their rage they had shed." W 
 Serm. Ixxvii. De Verb. Evang. T. v. p. 420. Ed. Bened. 
 Paris. 1679. " You ought to understand what you have 
 received ; what you are about to receive ; and what you 
 ought every day to receive. The bread that you behold 
 on the altar, sanctified by the word of God, is the body of 
 Christ. That cup that which the cup contains, sanctified 
 by the word of God, is the blood of Christ. (o) By these the 
 Lord was willing to set forth his body and that blood 
 which he shed for us for the remission of sins." Serm. 
 ccxxvii. al. Ixxxiii. In die Pasch. ad Infantes. T. x. p. 
 555. Edit. Paris. 1614. " We receive with a faithful heart 
 and mouth, the mediator of God and man, the man Christ 
 Jesus ; who has given us his body to eat, and his blood to 
 drink ; although it may appear more horrible to eat the flesh 
 of a man than to destroy it, and to drink human blood than 
 to spill it."^ Contra Advers. Legis, L. ii. c. ix. T. vi. p. 
 264. " We have heard our master, our divine Redeemer, 
 recommending to us the price of our redemption his own 
 blood. For he spoke to us of his body and blood : his 
 
 M Sanguinem, quern saevientes fuderunt, credentes biberunt. 
 
 () Panis ille, quern videtis in altari, corpus est Christi. Calix 
 ille immo quod habet calix, sanguis Christi est. 
 
 0> Quamvis horribilius videatur humanam carnem manducare, 
 quam perimere, et humanum sanguinem potare, quam fundere. 
 
THR 
 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 body, he said, was food ; his blood was drink. (<?) They w 
 believe, acknowledge here the sacrament of believers. 
 But some were scandalised, saying, This is hard ; who can 
 hear it? Jesus answered: Doth this scandalise you? 
 If then you shall see the son of man ascend up where he 
 was before ? (John vi.) What does this mean, doth this 
 scandalise you? Did you think, that I was going to 
 divide into parts this body that you see : to cut these 
 members, and give them to you ? What then if you shall 
 see the Son of man ascending where he was before ? Truly, 
 he that could ascend entire, could not be consumed. 
 Wherefore of this body and blood he gave us a salutary 
 banquet, (r) and, in a few words, solved the question con- 
 cerning the entireness of his body. Eat then what is life ; 
 drink what is life, and thou shalt have life. And this will 
 be, that is, the body and blood of Christ will be life to 
 each one, if what is visibly taken in the sacrament, be 
 truly eaten spiritually, and drunken spiritually. For we 
 have heard the Lord himself declare : It is the spirit that 
 quickeneth ; the flesh prqfiteth nothing. The words that 
 I have spoken to you, are spirit and life. (John vi.) But 
 some say, This is hard ; who can hear it f It is hard to the 
 hard, that is, it i incredible to the incredulous." Cs) De 
 Verbis Apostoli, Serm. ii. T. x. p. 94. " In what sense do 
 we understand the words of Christ : He that eateth my 
 flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him ? 
 (John vi.) Can we extend this to those, of whom the 
 
 ( ^ Locutus est nobis de corpore et sanguine suo : corpus dixit 
 escam, sanguinem potum. 
 
 r) De corpore ac sanguine suo dedit nobis salubrem refectionem. 
 M Durus est, sed duris ; hoc est, incredibilis, sed incredulis. 
 
Jxii APPENDIX. 
 
 apostle says, that they eat and drink judgment to them- 
 selves, although they eat the very flesh, and drink the very 
 blood of Jesus Christ ?( Shall we likewise say that Judas, 
 who betrayed his master, abode in Christ and Christ in 
 him, because with the other disciples he partook of the 
 first sacrament made by the hands of Christ himself? 
 Shall we say that they who eat and drink with a hypo- 
 critical heart, or who afterwards apostatize, abide in Christ 
 and he in them ? There is a way of eating this flesh and 
 drinking this blood, of which it is true to say, that he who 
 thus eats and drinks, abideth in Jesus Christ, and he in 
 him. To this way our Saviour directed his view." Serm. 
 xi. de Verbis Dom. T. x. p. 18. " To abide in Christ, and 
 to have him abiding in us, this is to eat that food, and 
 drink that drink. Wherefore, he that abideth not in 
 Christ, and has not Christ abiding in him, plainly eats 
 not spiritually his flesh, nor drinks his blood ; although 
 carnally and visibly he press with his teeth the sacrament 
 of the body and blood of Christ: he rather eats and 
 drinks judgment to himself." Tract, xxvi. in loan T. ix. 
 p. 94. " Our Saviour taught us this in mystic words 
 but many who were present not understanding this, were 
 scandalized ; for hearing him, they thought of nothing 
 but their own flesh. He therefore said, The flesh prqfiteth 
 nothing ; that is, it profiteth nothing as they understood 
 it; for they understood it to mean flesh as it is in a dead 
 body, or as it is sold in the market, not as animated by 
 life."< M) Tract, xxvii. Ibid. p. 95, 96. Speaking of his 
 
 ipsam carnem manducent, et ipsum sanguinem. 
 (M) Carnem sic intellexerunt, quomodo in cadavere dilaniatur, 
 aut in macello venditur ; non quomodo spiritu vegetatur. 
 
APPENDIX. Ixiii 
 
 mother's death, he says : " She desired that remembrance 
 of her should be made at the altar, a service which on no 
 day she had omitted ; knowing that thence was dispensed 
 the holy victim, by which the hand-writing against us had 
 been blotted out." Z.ix. Confess, c. 13. T. 1. p. 69. 
 
 S. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA/*) 
 
 " / am the living bread that came down from heaven. 
 (John vi. 51.) The manna, he says, was the type, was the 
 shadow, and the image. He aragain how openly and 
 plainly he speaks : / am the living bread ; if any one shall 
 eat of this bread, he shall live for ever. They that ate of 
 the manna are dead, because it gave not life. He that 
 eats this bread, that is, me or my flesh, shall live for 
 ever."( y) Comment, in loan. L. iv. T. iv. p. 352. " Our 
 Lord Jesus, by his own flesh/*) gives life to us, and inserts, 
 as it were, in us the seed of immortality, destroying all 
 the corruption that is in us. And his blood is not that of 
 any common man, but the natural blood of life itself (a ) 
 Wherefore, receiving the Son within us, we are called the 
 body and members of Christ." Ibid. p. 363, 364." For 
 he that eateth my fiesh and drinketh my blood, abideth in 
 me, and I in him. (John vi. 56.) As he that joins wax to 
 
 W St. Cyril of Jerusalem was patriarch of Jerusalem, and died 
 about the year 385. The works, which he has left, in twenty- 
 three Catechetical Discourses, form a full and very accurate 
 abridgment of Christian doctrine. 
 
 M TOT iffriv IfJie, fjTOt rrjv aapKa TK\V t^.i\v. 
 
 (*) diet rrjg ISiaQ (Topfcoc. 
 
 W aifia yof> kcmv oi/x tvoq rwv TV^OVTWV aTrXwe, X\' avrrjQ TTJG 
 Kara va 
 
Ixiv APPENDIX. 
 
 wax, forms of them one body ; so it seems to me, he that 
 eats the flesh of our Saviour, and drinks his precious 
 blood, as himself says, becomes one with him ; by this 
 participation being commixed and incorporated with him, 
 so that he be found in Christ, and Christ in him."( fr) 
 Ibid. p. 365. And what is the meaning and the efficacy 
 of this mystic eucharist ? Is it not that Christ may cor- 
 poreally dwell in us by the participation and communion 
 of his holy flesh ? c) It is here proper to observe, that 
 Christ does not say that he will be in us only by a certain 
 regard of affection, but by a natural participation.^) For 
 as he that shall melt wax upon wax, foms one body of 
 two ; so by partaking of the body and blood of Christ he 
 is in us, and we are united to him."( e ) Ibid. L. x. p. 862, 
 863. " The Son therefore is in us corporally as man, 
 commixed and united to us by the mystic eucharist;^ 
 but spiritually as God, by the virtue and grace of his spi- 
 rit, renovating our own spirit in us, and making us par- 
 takers of his life and divine nature. By the mediation of 
 Christ, therefore, we enter into an union with God and the 
 
 (*) W7Tp jap 1 TIG KqpOV Tp$> (TVVCL^l Krjph), TTCLVTUG ^T/TTH (Cttt 
 
 Irepov kv Tp<p ysyovora Karo^frac rov avrov, otpai, T/WTTOV, rat 
 6 TTJV crapKO. d^opwoQ ra ffwrripog r//iwv Xpiora, KCtt TTIVOJV avra TO 
 Tipiov atjLta, v we Trpof avrov evpiffKerat ffvvavaKtpvafjLevog tiffTrep feat 
 dvafjiiyvvfjifvoQ dvry $ia rr)Q ^ueraXr/^wCj & & Kpwry (J.V avrov 
 
 VpLffKffdai, X/)IOTOV ^ UV TTOKlV V dvT<p. 
 
 W rg fj6^L Kcti. Koivwviq. r^e dytag a'vra ffaoKos. 
 
 W aXXa <$ Kara ^defa tyvfftKCtv. 
 
 W ovTto ^ta TTJG fJLrjToXri^fVG TH ffafiarog TU Xpiorw, KCti TO 
 at/zaroe, avrog JJLEV Iv /ft<v, 7/uetc ^e dv TraXtv iv dvTt* 
 
 ( fi ffUfJLariKog fjiw WQ dvOpwTrog, awavaKipva(ivoQ re KCLI avvwu- 
 pevog 
 
APPENDIX. 1XV 
 
 father, receiving him within us, corporally and spiritually,^ } 
 who, by nature, and truly, is the Son, and consubstantial 
 with him ; and thus are we glorified, being made partakers 
 of, and associated, to the supreme divine nature." Ibid. L. xi. 
 p. 1001, 1002. " Let those verbose and absurd men tell 
 us, with whose body the sheep of the church are fed, or 
 from what springs her children are refreshed ? For if the 
 body of God is delivered, this God is the true God, Christ 
 the Lord, not a mere man, nor an angel, as some pretend. 
 And if it be the blood of God, the cup of God, this God is 
 not purely God, one of the adorable Trinity, the Son of 
 God, but the word of God made man. But if the body 
 of Christ be our food, and the blood of Christ be our 
 drink, (A ) and this Christ be a mere man, how is eternal 
 life promised to those who approach to the holy table? 
 And how again, shall this body be divided here, and in 
 many places, and not be diminished ? A mere body cannot 
 impart life to those who receive it. Wherefore, let us 
 receive the body of life itself: that life, which for us has 
 dwelt in our body ; and let us drink his sacred blood for 
 the remission of our sins, and to partake of that immor- 
 tality which is in him ; believing Christ to be the priest 
 and the victim, the offerer and the offered. (<) Horn, in 
 Mysticam Csenam. T. v. parte ii. p. 378. 
 
 COUNCIL OF EPHESUS, G. C. 
 The following extracts are from an epistle of S. Cyril, 
 
 W et de KptffTOv uupa rj fipuffig, KCLI Kptorrw iupa rj 
 (f ) p.ETa\apftav(i)fj.v fjfftiQ TTJQ avTofarjg trwyua KCLI TTIVOJ^EV avrov 
 TO ai/ua TO hyiov Triorfvovrec on Trep avroc jwey ispevt Kai dvarta, 
 KOI TrpofffapofAevoe. 
 e 
 
Ixvi APPENDIX. 
 
 and an Egyptian Synod, read in the general council of 
 
 Ephesus, in 431, and approved by the council, as con- 
 
 veying the belief of the universal church. They write to 
 
 the heresiarch Nestorius. " On this occasion it is our 
 
 duty to add, that while we announce the death of Jesus, 
 
 the only Son of God, and his resurrection from the dead, 
 
 and his ascension into heaven, we likewise celebrate the 
 
 unbloody sacrifice in the churches, approach to the mystic 
 
 thanksgivings, and are thus sanctified, being made par- 
 
 takers of the sacred flesh and precious blood of Christ, the 
 
 Saviour of all men. For we receive it not as common 
 
 flesh : far be this thought from us : (A) nor as the flesh of 
 
 a sanctified man, and united to the word by an equality 
 
 of honour, nor as having obtained a divine inhabitation ; 
 
 but we receive it as the truly vivifying flesh of the word 
 
 made man. For as the word, as God, is essentially life, 
 
 the moment it became one with its flesh, it imparted to 
 
 this flesh a vivifying virtue. Wherefore, although Christ 
 
 said : Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink 
 
 his bloody you sliall not have life in you; (John vi. 53.) we 
 
 are not to imagine, that it is not the flesh of a man like 
 
 to ourselves, but truly the flesh of him who for us was 
 
 made and called the Son of man. For how could the 
 
 flesh of man, according to its own nature, give life ?" Ep. 
 
 ad Nest. Cone. Gen. T. iii. p. 404. In confirmation of this 
 
 doctrine, they then add the following anathema : " He 
 
 that does not confess the flesh of the Lord to be vivifying, 
 
 and the proper flesh of the word of God made man ; but 
 
 ev TCUQ f.KK\r)ffiaiQ T\ovp,ev BvffLav, Trpoo't/xev re 
 rate fjLVffriKais cvXoytcug, /ecu ayiao/z0a, nsroypt yevo^ievoi TIJG 
 re dyiag ffapcoe, KCU, TOV Tipiov aijLtaroc TOV Travriav rjfj,uv 
 Kpurrov. KCU ov\ ac ffapica. KOIVTJV le^pfj-evoC p.rj yei/oiro. 
 
APPENDIX. Ixvii 
 
 to be the flesh of some other, united in dignity to the word, 
 or that has obtained only a divine inhabitation ; and shall 
 not acknowledge that flesh to give life, as we have said, 
 because it is the flesh of the word that gives life to all 
 things, let him be anathema." Ibid. p. 409. 
 
 THEODOTUS,^ G. C. 
 
 In his sermon on the birth of Christ, which was read in 
 the same Council of Ephesus, he says : " He who at that 
 time, by his ineffable power, drew the Magi to godliness, 
 has also this day called us together ; not now lying in a 
 manger, but placed before us on this saving table; for 
 that manger was the parent of this table. (fw) For this 
 reason was he laid there, that on this table he might be 
 eaten, and become to the faithful the food of salvation. () 
 And that manger indeed represented this glorious table." 
 Ibid. p. 1004. 
 
 S. ISAAC," G. C. 
 " I saw the vessel mingled, and in place of wine, full of 
 
 V Theodotus was bishop of Ancyra, in Galatia, and assisted 
 at the Council of Ephesus, in 431. 
 
 () oXX' in TTJQ ffuTrjpiaSovQ rpaTre^T/e ravrrjq *rpoKjLii>oc. 
 
 (") Iva en Tavrrjg fipaSri, IML yev^rcuroie irurroig atirrrjpiov t^ea^ia. 
 
 () St. Isaac was a priest of Antioch, and flourished under 
 Theodosius the younger, about the middle of the fifth century. 
 Some account of him and his works may be seen in the first volume 
 of the " Bibliotheca Orientalis " of Jos. Assemani. The above 
 sermon is mentioned by Gennadius, who died about 493. 
 
Ixviii APPENDIX. 
 
 blood ; and the body, in lieu of bread, place on the tabled 
 I saw the blood, and shuddered ; I saw the body, and was 
 awed with fear. Faith whispered to me ; Eat, and be 
 silent; drink, child, and enquire not.^ She showed me 
 the body slain, of which placing a portion on my lips, she 
 said, gently : Reflect what thou eatest. She held out to 
 me a reed, directing me to write. I took the reed ; I wrote ; 
 I pronounced : This is the body of my God. Taking then 
 the cup, I drank. And what I had said of the body, that 
 I now said of the cup : This is the blood of my Sa- 
 viour."^ Serm. de Fide. Bill. Orient. T.I. p. 220. Romae, 
 1731. 
 
 S. PETER CHRYSOLOGUS, ( * L. C. 
 
 " Let Christians understand, who every day touch the 
 body of Christ, w what helps they may draw from that 
 body, when the woman was perfectly cured by only touching 
 the hem of his garment." Serm. xxxiv. p. 872. EditLug- 
 duni, 1676. " lam the bread that came down from heaven: 
 He is the bread which, sown in the womb of the virgin, 
 
 W Pro vino, sanguine plenam ; et pro pane, positum corpus in 
 medio mensse. 
 
 & Commede et sile : bibe, non scrutare, puer. 
 
 (r) Confessus sura, hoc esse Dei corpus hunc esse Redemptoris 
 nostri sanguinem. 
 
 (*) He was placed on the archiepiscopal chair of Ravenna about 
 the year 430, and governed that church about twenty years. We 
 have 176 of his discourses, which were so much esteemed in those 
 days as to procure him the surname of Chrysologus. 
 
 (/) Qui quotidie corpus Christi attingunt. 
 
APPENDIX. Ixix 
 
 and finally brought on our altars, daily affords celestial 
 food to the faithful."^ Serm. Ixvii. p. 899." In what 
 manner the body of Christ should be eaten, and his blood 
 drunken/*) they understand, who are instructed in the 
 heavenly sacraments." Serm. xcv. p. 920. 
 
 S. PROCLUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE/*) G. C. 
 
 " By these prayers (of the liturgy) the descent of the 
 Holy Spirit was expected, that, by his sacred presence, 
 he would make the bread that is presented for the offering, 
 the body of Christ, and the wine, mingled with water, 
 his blood."^ In Bill. PP. Max. T. vi. p. 618." The 
 solemn day of the sacred mysteries arrived,: the evening 
 came, more bright than any day. For, on this evening, 
 all is full of admiration and awe. The Lord sat down 
 with his disciples, and laid open before them the scene of 
 mysteries. He gave to them for food his pure body ; and 
 drink for the remission of sins. (a) Or at. x. in S. Ferlam v. 
 T.I. p. 406. In Novo Auct. Cvmbesis, Paris, 1648. 
 
 ( ") Qui satus in virgine illatus altaribus, caelestem cibum 
 quotidie fidelibus subministrat. 
 
 (*) Quemadmodum manducetur caro Christi ; quomodo libatur 
 et sanguis ejus. 
 
 M St. Proclus was the disciple of St. Chrysostom, and was 
 placed on the patriarchal chair of Constantinople, in 434. He 
 died in 447. Several of his homilies and letters are still extant. 
 
 (*) Ut efficeret ipsum illud corpus, et sanguinem Domini. 
 
 TI\V avajuapr//rov crapKa' ap.apTij[JLaT(i)y orroyyo 
 
1XX APPENDIX. 
 
 S. LEO/*) L. C. 
 
 " To the end that the shadow might give way to the 
 reality, and, in the presence of truth, that representations 
 might cease, the ancient observances are now [at the 
 passion of Christ] annulled by a new sacrament, the victim 
 passes into another victim, blood excludes blood,( c) and 
 the legal festival, by being changed, is fulfilled. The 
 disciples, being seated with their master to eat the mystic 
 supper, while the Jews held council how they might kill 
 him, Jesus ordained the sacrament of his body and blood, (rf) 
 teaching what victim was to be offered to God ; nor did 
 he refuse the mysterious banquet to the traitor Judas.'* 
 Serm. vii. de Passione Dom. p. 259. " The participation 
 of the body and blood of Christ (e) causes us to pass into 
 that which we receive ; whence being dead, and buried, 
 and rising again in him, we carry him about with us in 
 spirit, and in our flesh." Serm. xiv. p. 284. " Denying 
 in Christ the reality of a human body, these men make 
 void the tmth of his passion and resurrection. And so 
 immersed are they in the shades of ignorance, as not to 
 
 <*) St. Leo, on account of his exalted virtues and signal govern- 
 ment of the church, acquired the appellation of Great ; while the 
 works which he has left, comprising numerous sermons and 
 letters, prove the solidity of his judgement, the extent of his ac- 
 quirements, and the firmness of his courage on many trying 
 occasions. His style is at once elevated and elegant. He died 
 in 461. 
 
 ( c ) Hostia in hostiam transit, sanguine sanguis aufertur. 
 
 < rf ) Corporis et sanguinis sui ordinavit sacramentum. 
 
 W Participatio corporis et sanguinis Christi. 
 
APPENDIX. Ixxi 
 
 have learned either by hearing or by reading what, in the 
 church of God, is so universally acknowledged, that even 
 the tongues of infants proclaim, in the sacrament of our 
 common faith, the truth of the body and blood of Christ.^ 
 For in the mystic distribution of this spiritual food, we 
 receive the virtue of the celestial aliment, and are trans- 
 formed into his flesh, who took our flesh upon him.^ Ep, 
 xlvi. Al. xxiii. p. 518. 
 
 THEODORET,W G. C. 
 
 He wrote four books against the Eutychians, who de- 
 nied the reality of the human nature in Christ, in which 
 he introduces two persons, under the names of Orthodoxm 
 and Eranistes, who discuss the subject. The first, it is 
 plain, is the Catholic believer. In the first dialogue the 
 
 ( f> In Ecclesia Dei in omnium ore tarn consonum est, ut nee ab 
 infantium linguis veritas corporis et sanguinis Christi inter com- 
 munionis sacramenta taceatur. 
 
 W Ut in carnem ipsius, qui caro nostra factus est, transeamus. 
 
 W Theodoret is best known as the author of the " Ecclesiastical 
 History," which begins in 322, where Eusebius finishes, and comes 
 down to 428. He was bishop of Cyrus, a city of Syria; was 
 connected with many of the great men of the age, and was in- 
 volved with them in various controversies. He found time, how- 
 ever, for study ; for few men have written more, and this with so 
 extensive a knowledge of all the subjects which he treats, scrip- 
 tural, moral and historical : hence, it has been said of him, that 
 he equally deserved praise as an able interpreter of Scripture, a 
 profound divine, an acute controvertist, a learned apologist, and 
 an accurate and eloquent historian. He died at an advanced age, 
 about the year 457, if not later. 
 
Ixxii APPENDIX. 
 
 reality of Christ's presence in the Eucharist had been 
 established ; and, in the second, the subject is resumed, 
 and the change of the bread and wine more distinctly 
 pointed out. " Orth. Now: tell me the mystical symbols, 
 which are offered to God by the priests, of what are they 
 the symbols ? Eran. Of the body and blood of the Lord. 
 Orth. Of his true body, or not ? Eran. Of his true 
 body.( l ) Orth. Very well ; for every image must have 
 its original. Eran. I am happy you have mentioned the 
 divine mysteries. Tell me, therefore ; What do you call 
 the gift that is offered before the priest's invocation ? 
 Orth. This must not be said openly ; for some may be 
 present who are not initiated. Eran. Answer then in 
 hidden terms. Orth. We call it an aliment made of cer- 
 tain grains. Eran. And how do you call the other sym- 
 bol ? Orth. We give it a name that denotes a certain 
 beverage. Eran. And after the consecration what are 
 they called? Orth. The body of Christ, and the blood of 
 Christ.( fc) Eran. And you believe that you partake of 
 the body and blood of Christ ? Orth. So I believe. 
 Eran. As the symbols, then, of the body and blood of 
 Christ were different before the consecration of the priest, 
 and after that consecration are changed & in the same 
 manner we (Eutychians) say, the body of Christ, after his 
 ascension, was changed into the divine essence. Orth. 
 
 (*) TH SeffTTOTlKti ffUfJdTOQ T K(U O.lfJLaTO. TU OVTOQ (T(i>fl,a.TOQ, 1J OVK 
 
 OVTOQ J TH OVTOQ. 
 
 ( fc ) fiBTa eye rov ayicioy^ov ? trw^ua KjOtorw, /cat dtpa Kpiora. 
 
 W TO. avfjifioXa. ra ceairoTiKti ffw^uarog re. /ecu cujuaroe, aXXa fif.v 
 elffi irpo TIJQ lepaTLKijg tTrt/cXt/crew^, /mera cte ye rr)v iiriK\riffiv /iero/3a\- 
 \erai KO.L trepa 
 
APPENDIX. Ixxiii 
 
 Thou art taken in thy own snare ; for, after the consecra- 
 tion, the mystical symbols lose not their proper nature : 
 they remain in the former substance, figure, and appear- 
 ance (or rather, in the shape and form of the former sub- 
 stance)/" to be seen, and to be felt, as before ; but they 
 are understood to be what they have been made ; this 
 they are believed to be ; and as such they are adored." 
 Dial. ii. T. iv. Edit. Paris. 1642. 
 
 S. PROSPER/") L. C. 
 
 " He receives the food of life, and drinks the cup of 
 eternity, who dwells in Christ, and Christ in him. For 
 he that departs from Christ, eats not his flesh, nor drinks 
 his blood, though he daily take to his own condemnation 
 that august sacrameiit." (0) In Sententiis. p. 596. Edit. 
 Paris. 1711. 
 
 SYLVIANUS,^ L. C. 
 " The Jews ate manna ; we Christ : they the flesh of 
 
 yap ETTI rrjg Trporepag ovviag, 
 The word wpo-Epac, (former) seems to imply the second trans- 
 lation. 
 
 W St. Prosper was a learned layman of Aquitain, and contem- 
 porary with St. Augustin, in whose defence he wrote several works, 
 which are extant. He died about the year 456. 
 
 () Nee carnem ejus manducat, nee sanguinem bibit ; etiamsi 
 quotidie indifFerenter accipiat. 
 
 M Sylvianus was a learned priest of Marseilles, who 
 flourished from about the middle, to the end of the fifth 
 century; and of whom we have eight books " On the 
 Government of God," and four books " Against Avarice," 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 birds; we the body of God: they the dew of heaven; 
 we the God of heaven " (9) Adv. Avaritiam, L. ii. p. 246. 
 Edit. Paris. 1684. 
 
 S. NILUS,W G. C. 
 
 " Before the prayer of the priest, and the coming of the 
 Holy Spirit, the things laid on the table are common bread 
 and wine ; but after the solemn invocations, and the de- 
 scent of the adorable spirit, it is no longer bread, and no 
 longer wine, but is the body, and pure -and precious blood, 
 of Christ, the God of all."^ Ep. xliv. L. 1. p. 21." Let 
 us not approach to the mystic bread as to mere bread, for 
 it is the flesh of God, the venerable, adorable, and life- 
 giving flesh." (/) Ep. xxxix. Z. iii. p. 322. 
 
 Avarice," addressed to the Catholic Church, under the name of 
 Timotheus ; besides some epistles. Baluze published them, to- 
 gether with the " Commonitorium" of Vincent of Lerins, at Paris, 
 1684. 
 
 ^ Nos Christum, nos corpus Dei nos Deum coeli. 
 
 ^ St. Nilus was a disciple of the great St. Chrysostom. After 
 having been governor of Constantinople, he retired into the 
 desart of Sinah, and there led a solitary life. He flourished under 
 the emperors Arcadius and Theodosius, and died about 451. He 
 has left us several treatises, and a great number of letters on 
 religious subjects. 
 
 l *) OVK iari \l>i\ov aprov, KOLL KOLVOV divov ra liriTeSeifJieva ry ayt^ 
 /, aXX' erw/ia, KO.I dipa rijuiov, KO.I a^pavrov Kprr, r 
 
 yap i/7rap^t 0, <rap rt//ta, 
 
APPENDIX. 1XXV 
 
 GELASIUS;*) L. C. 
 
 Having- quoted Theodoret, I shall give a similar passage 
 from Gelasius, who is also writing against the same Eu- 
 tychians : " Certain sacraments of the body and blood of 
 Jesus Christ, which we receive, are something divine, and 
 render us partakers of the divine nature ; but the sub- 
 stance or nature of the bread and wine ceases not to be. 
 In the holy mysteries are celebrated the image and resem- 
 blance of the body and blood. Hence we are sufficiently 
 informed, that what we believe, and celebrate, and receive 
 under that image, we must believe to be in Christ him- 
 self. And as, by the operation of the divine Spirit, the 
 things pass into the divine substance, though their nature 
 retains its properties ; so are we thus taught, that the 
 mystery of the Incarnation consists in this, that the two 
 natures remaining, there is but one Christ, who is one, 
 because he is whole and entire." (<r) Libel, contra Nest, et 
 Eutych. ap. Baron, an. 496. T. vi. p. 665. Edit. Mogwntlse y 
 1601. 
 
 () St. Gelasius succeeded to Felix II. in 492, and held the 
 Roman see about five years. He has left us several letters and 
 treatises. 
 
 (*) The authenticity of this piece has been strongly contested ; 
 but let the decision be what it may, it is plain, that the words nature 
 and substance, applied to the bread and wine after consecration by 
 Gelasius, and the equivalent Greek words <j>vffis and ovata t used by 
 Theodoret in the preceding quotation, mean not what, in their 
 present acceptation, is understood by them. They both assert, that 
 the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ ; 
 therefore, when they add that the nature and substance of both 
 
Ixxvi APPENDIX. 
 
 THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 
 
 Our Saviour, in leaving to us his body and 
 blood, under two distinct species or kinds, insti- 
 tuted not only a Sacrament, but also a Sacrifice ; 
 a commemorative sacrifice, distinctly shewing his 
 passion and death until he come. For as the 
 sacrifice of the cross was performed by a distinct 
 effusion of his blood, so is that sacrifice comme- 
 morated in this of the altar, by a distinction of 
 the symbols. Jesus, therefore, is here given not 
 only to us, but for us ; and the church is thereby 
 enriched with a true, proper, and propitiatory 
 sacrifice, usually termed the Mass : propitiatory 
 we say, because representing in a lively manner 
 the passion and death of our Lord, it is peculiarly 
 pleasing to our eternal Father, and thus more 
 effectually applies to us the all-sufficient merits 
 of the sacrifice of the cross. 
 
 still remain, they must mean the external or sensible qualities. They 
 may be seen and felt, says Theodoret, as before. The authors of the 
 learned work, Perpetuite de la Foi, Vol. III., prove this by many 
 examples drawn from ecclesiastical and profane writers, as well as 
 from the obvious context of the passages themselves. Should it, 
 however, be conceded, that there is an ambiguity in the expressions, 
 or even that the authors of them meant to convey a sense, in our 
 estimation, heterodox, how light must their authority be, when 
 balanced against the massive evidence of so many writers of their 
 own age and of the preceding centuries ! 
 
APPENDIX. Ixxvii 
 
 SCRIPTURE. 
 
 As the bloody sacrifices ordained by the Jewish law, 
 are understood to have prefigured the sacrifice which the 
 Redeemer of Mankind was once to offer on the cross, by 
 the effusion of his blood ; so do we believe that the un- 
 bloody offerings of the same law, but much more than 
 these, the bread and wine, which Melchisedec, " the priest 
 of the most high God" presented to Abraham, (Gen. xiv.) 
 were a type or figure of that unbloody sacrifice, which 
 Christ, the priest for ever according to the order of Mel- 
 chisedec, (Ps. cix.) would contiue to offer, through all 
 ages, under the symbols or species of bread and wine. 
 
 Malach. i. 10, 11. / have no pleasure in you, saith the 
 Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. 
 For from the rising of the sun to the going down of the 
 same, my name shall be great among the gentiles ; and in 
 every place incense shall be offered to my name, and a clean 
 offering. Matt. xxvi. 28. This is my blood of the New 
 Testament which is shed for man^ for the remission of 
 sins. Mark xiv. 24. This is my blood of the New Testa- 
 ment which is shed for many. (y} Luke xxii. 19. This is 
 my body that is given for you: (z) do this for a commemo- 
 ration of me. 20. This is the chalice, the New Testament 
 in my blood, which is shed for you. 1 Cor. xi. 24. This is 
 my body which is broken for you ;M this do for the com- 
 memoration of me. 25. This chalice is the New Testament 
 in my blood ; do ye this as often as you shall drink it, for 
 the commemoration of me. 26. For as often as you shall 
 
 ( y ) TO VTTfp TTOXXWV EK^VVO^tVOV '. ^ TO V7T/> fylWV Sl()OfJiVOV. 
 
 ) TO virep vfjuav K\<i>jjievov. 
 
Ixxviii APPENDIX. 
 
 eat this bread, and drink this chalice, you shall shew the 
 death of the Lord until he come. 
 
 According to the translation of these passages, which 
 is conformable to the Greek, our Saviour speaks in the 
 present tense (or time) of the actual immolation of his 
 body, and the actual effusion of his blood for the remission 
 of sins ; because at that moment, he really, but mystically, 
 offered up his body and blood for the salvation of the 
 apostles and of all men ; while the words, do this for a 
 commemoration, or in remembrance of me, plainly denote 
 the institution of a sacrifice to be celebrated to the end of 
 time. Thus Christ seems to say : As I now immolate my 
 body and shed my blood for the remission of sins ; so do 
 you offer up this same body and this same blood in re- 
 membrance of me. What I now do, do you and your 
 successors. In this sense, as we have seen, and shall see, 
 have the words of Christ always been understood in the 
 Catholic church. 
 
 1 Cor. x. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. Wherefore, my 
 dearly beloved, fly from the service of idols. / speak as to 
 wise men ; judge ye yourselves what I say. Tlie chalice of 
 benediction which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood 
 of Christ ? And the bread which we break, is it not the 
 partaking of the body of the Lord ? For we being many 
 are one bread, one body all that partake of one bread. 
 Behold Israel according to the flesh : are not they that eat 
 of the sacrifice, partakers of the altar ? What then ? Do 
 I say that what is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing ? 
 Or that the idol is any thing ? But the things which the 
 heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God; 
 And I would not that you should be made partakers with 
 devils. You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord, and the 
 chalice of devils ; you cannot be partakers of the table of 
 the Lord, and of the table of devils. 
 
APPENDIX. Ixxix 
 
 As the apostle speaks of the participation of the victims 
 among the Jews, which were offered on their altars, and 
 of a similar participation among the Gentiles ; so, insti- 
 tuting a comparison, he plainly speaks of Christians par- 
 taking of the body and blood of our Lord from the Eu- 
 charistic altar. 
 
 Heb. xiii. 10, 11, 12. We have an altar, whereof they 
 have no power to eat who serve the tabernacle. For the 
 bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanc- 
 tuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the 
 camp. Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the 
 people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. 
 
 The meaning of the passage is not plain, but it seems 
 to intimate the superiority of the Christian worshippers. 
 Not only the Jews, but even their priests, were not allowed 
 to taste of the victims which were solerrmly offered for sin ; 
 whereas we have an altar and a victim, typified by those of 
 the Jews, of which we may at all times partake : a victim 
 once offered for sin, and represented by the daily oblation 
 of his body and blood. 
 
 Acts xiii. 2. And as they were ministering to the Lord 
 and fasting, the Holy Ghost said to them. The breaking 
 of bread is often mentioned in the same Acts; and 
 in the two quotations just given from St. Paul, the 
 altar and table (b} are mentioned, which must refer to sa- 
 crifice. Rev. v. 6. And I saiv : and behold in the midst 
 of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the 
 midst of the ancients, a lamb standing as it were slain. 
 8. And when he had opened the book, the four living crea- 
 tures, and the four and twenty ancients, fell down before 
 the lamb. 9. And they sung a new canticle, saying ; Thou 
 
1XXX APPENDIX. 
 
 art worthy, O Lord, to take the book, and to open the seals 
 thereof: became thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to 
 God in thy blood, out of every tribe and tongue, and people 
 and nation. 10. And hast made us to our God a kingdom 
 and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. 
 
 FATHERS. 
 
 CENT. I. 
 
 S. CLEMENT OF ROME, L. C. 
 
 " Whatever God has commanded to be done at stated 
 times, that we must perform in regular order ; thus must 
 our offerings be made, and other public functions exer- 
 cised ; (c) not inconsiderately and without order, but as it 
 was ordained, at stated times and hours. They, therefore, 
 who in this manner present their offerings/ rf) are accept- 
 able to the Lord and blessed; for, following his com- 
 mandments, they do not go astray." Ep. 1. ad Cor. n. 40. 
 T. l.PP.Apost.p. 170. 
 
 CENT. II. 
 S. JUSTIN, L. C. 
 " Inflamed by the word of his calling, as it were, by 
 
 (J rac Tf. Trpocr^opae KOI \rpyia 7riT\eiff$ai. 
 (*) rag Trpoatyopag avrctv. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 fire, truly we are the sacerdotal offspring of God, as he 
 himself attests, saying, that in every place among the na- 
 tions, we offer to him well-pleasing and clean victims. 
 These victims he accepts from his own priests alone. 
 Wherefore, shewing preference to all those who through 
 his name, offer the sacrifices which Christ ordained to be 
 offered; that is, in the eucharist of bread and the cha- 
 lice, (<?) which in all places of the earth are celebrated by 
 the Christian people, God declares that they are well- 
 pleasing to him. But the sacrifices of you Jews, and of 
 your priests, he rejects, saying : / will accept no offering 
 from your hands; because from the rising of the sun to the 
 going down of the same, my name is great among the Gen- 
 tiles, but ye have profaned it. Malach. 1. But I myself 
 say that those prayers and thanksgivings are alone per- 
 fect, and the victims pleasing to God, which are offered 
 by good men. These Christians alone have learned to 
 offer in the commemoration of their dry and liquid food (/) 
 (bread and wine) in which commemoration they are re- 
 minded of the passion which Christ suffered/' Dial. 
 cum Tryphon. Judxo,p. 386. 
 
 S. IREN^EUS, L. C. 
 
 " Giving advice to his disciples to offer their first fruits 
 to God, not as if he stood in need of them, but that they 
 might not seem ungrateful, he took bread into his hands, 
 and giving thanks, said, TJiis is my body. Likewise he 
 declared the cup to be his blood, and taught the new 
 oblation of the new Testament, which oblation the church 
 
 in ry ev^aptffTKjf. ru opr 
 O.VTOV fyat; rt 
 
Ixxxii APPENDIX. 
 
 receiving from the apostles, offers it to God over all the 
 earth, ( ^ to him who grants us food the first fruits of 
 his gifts in the new Testament, of which the prophet Ma- 
 lachias spoke : / will not accept offerings from your hands. 
 For from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, 
 my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place 
 incense is offered to my name, a clean sacrifice. (1.) Mani- 
 festly hereby signifying, that the first people (the Jews) 
 will cease to offer to God ; and that in every place a sa- 
 crifice, and that clean, will be offered to him,W and that 
 his name is glorified among the gen tiles. "( f) Adver. H&r. 
 L. iv. c. xxxii. p. 323, 324." Therefore the offering of 
 the church, which the Lord directed to be made over all 
 the world, was deemed a pure sacrifice before God, (/c) and 
 received by him ; not that he stands in need of a sacrifice 
 
 <*' Calicem suum sanguinem confessus est, et novi Testimenti 
 novum docuit ohlationem, quatn Ecclesia ab apostolis accipiens, 
 in universe mundo offert Deo. 
 
 W Omni autem loco sacrificium offeretur ei, et hoc purum. 
 
 W On this passage, the learned Editor of Irenseus, Dr. Grabe, 
 observes : " It is certain that Irenaeus and all the fathers either 
 contemporary with the apostles, or their immediate successors, 
 whose writings are still extant considered the blessed Eucharist 
 to be the sacrifice of the new law, and offered bread and wine on 
 the altar, as sacred oblations to God the Father ; and that this was 
 not the private opinion of any particular church or teacher, but 
 the public doctrine and practice of the universal church, which 
 she received from the apostles, and they from Christ, is expressly 
 shewn in this place, by Irenaeus, and before him by Justin M. and 
 Clement of Rome." Nota in Irenceum, p. 323. 
 
 W Ecclesiae oblatio, quam Dominus docuit offerri purum 
 sacrificium reputatum est apud Deum. 
 
APPENDIX. Ixxxiii 
 
 from us, but because he that makes the offering, if his gift 
 be accepted, is thereby rendered worthy of praise. As 
 then in simplicity the church offers, her offering is accepted 
 by God as a pure sacrifice. It is our duty to make an 
 offering, &c. See above, p. xx. Ibid. c. xxxiv. p. 326, 327. 
 
 TERTULLIAN, L. C. 
 
 " It was ordained in the old law, That no sacrifices 
 should be offered to God, but in the land of promise, 
 which the Lord was to give to the children of Israel ; and 
 that when they entered, sacrifices and holocausts should 
 there be celebrated, Why then does the spirit declare 
 by his prophets, that in all the earth, and in every place, 
 sacrifices shall be offered ? In every place incense shall be 
 offered to my name, and a clean offering. (Malach. 1.) As 
 then it is plain, that a temporary Sabbath was appointed, 
 and an eternal Sabbath predicted ; a carnal and spiritual 
 circumcision ; a law that would pass away, and a law to 
 endure for ever ; carnal sacrifices likewise, and spiritual 
 sacrifices promised : from this it follows, that all these 
 things being commanded to the Jewish people, the time 
 would come when they would cease, and the promise of 
 a new law, with spiritual sacrifices, and a new Testament 
 would take their place." Adversus Judseos, c. v. vi. p. 139. 
 The same he repeats against Marcion, L. iii. p. 679. 
 But it would seem, that he alludes principally to the 
 pure sacrifices of the heart, and not to the establishment 
 of a real sacrificial offering. In other parts of his works, 
 however, I meet with expressions which evidently pertain 
 to a sacrifice such as altars, offerings for the dead, the 
 duty of priests to offer, and annual oblation of husbands 
 and wives for their departed consorts. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 CENT. Til 
 S^CYPRIAN, L. C. 
 
 Writing to the clergy and people of a certain district 
 in Africa, he laments that, contrary to an established rule, 
 a brother clergyman had been appointed, by will, an ex- 
 ecutor or guardian, when it was the sole duty of the mi- 
 nisters of the gospel " to attend to the altar and sacri- 
 fices,^ and to prayers and supplications." Such, like- 
 wise, he observes, was the view of the Almighty in the 
 establishment by Moses of the Levitical order, and then 
 adds : " The same disposition holds good now, that they 
 who are promoted by clerical ordination, be not called 
 away from the service of God, nor perplexed by worldly 
 business; but, receiving aliment from their brethren, 
 they withdraw not from the altar and from sacrifices, (w} 
 day and night intent on heavenly things." He next 
 remarks that, in a case like this, it had been decreed, that 
 for no brother, who by will had made such a disposition, 
 " any offering should be made, or sacrifice celebrated for 
 his repose \ (n) because he merits not to be named at the 
 altar in the prayer of the priests, whose wish it was to 
 withdraw them from the altar." He, therefore, forbids 
 prayers and oblations to be made for him. Ep. 1. p. 1, 
 2, 3. " Although I am sensible, that most bishops, set 
 over the churches of God, hold to the maxims of evange- 
 lical truth and divine tradition, and depart not, by any 
 
 W Altari et sacrifices deservire debeant. 
 
 ( m ) Ab altari et sacrifices non recedant. 
 
 W Nee sacrificium pro dormitione ejus celebraretur. 
 
APPENDIX. IXXXV 
 
 human and innovating discovery, from that which Christ 
 our master taught and did ; yet as some, through igno- 
 rance or simplicity, in the sanctification of the cup of the 
 Lord, and in delivering it to the people, do not that which 
 Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, the teacher and founder 
 of this sacrifice/ '' himself did and taught ; therefore, I 
 judge it necesssary to write to you, in order that, if there 
 be any one still in that error, he may, when he sees the 
 light of truth, return to the root and fountain of Christian 
 tradition." Then proceeding to the point, he says : " Be 
 then advised, that, in offering the cup, the rule ordained 
 by Christ, be followed ; that is, that the cup, which is 
 offered in commemoration of him, be wine mixed with 
 water. For as he said : / am the true vine ; not water, 
 but wine, is the blood of Christ. And what is in the 
 chalice cannot be thought the blood, by which we obtained 
 redemption and life, if wine be wanting, whereby that 
 blood is shewn, which, as all the scriptures attest, was 
 shed." Ep. Ixiii. p. 148." In the priest Melchisedec 
 we see prefigured the sacrament of the Christian sacri- 
 fice,^ > the holy scriptures declaring : Melchisedec king of 
 Salem brought forth bread and wine ; and he was the priest 
 of the most high God, and he blessed Abraham. (Gen. xiv.) 
 And that he bore the resemblance of Christ, the Psalmist 
 announces: Thou art a priest for ever according to the 
 order of Melchisedec. (Ps. cix.) This order thus comes 
 and descends from that sacrifice ; that Melchisedec was 
 the priest of the Most High ; that he offered bread and 
 wine ; and that he blessed Abraham. And who was so 
 
 Sacrificii hujus auctor ct doctor. 
 Sacrificii Dominici sacramentum. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 much a priest of the most High God, as our Lord Jesus 
 Christ? He offered sacrifice to God the Father; he 
 offered the same as did Melchisedec, that is, bread and 
 wine, his own body and blood : and the blessing given 
 to Abraham, now applies to our people." " But, in the 
 book of Genesis, that the blessing given to Abraham might 
 be properly celebrated,, the representation of the sacrifice 
 of Christ, appointed in bread and wine, precedes it ; which 
 our Lprd, perfecting and fulfilling, himself offered in 
 bread and wine ; and thus he who is the plenitude, ful- 
 filled the truth of the prefigured image." Ibid. p. 149. 
 He afterwards adds : " If Jesus Christ, our Lord and 
 God, be himself the high priest of his father ; and if he 
 first offered himself a sacrifice to him, and commanded 
 the same to be done in remembrance of him ; then that 
 priest truly stands in the place of Christ, who imitates 
 that which Christ did, and then offers in the church a true 
 and complete sacrifice to God the Father, (<l} doing what 
 he ordained. For the whole discipline of religion and of 
 truth is subverted, if that which was commanded be not 
 faithfully complied with." Ibid. p. 155. 
 
 I could quote many other passages from the Letters of 
 S. Cyprian, and from his other Tracts, in which he speaks 
 of the Christian sacrifice of the New law, in terms the 
 most plain and obvious, such as : " We are mindful of 
 you day and night, and when we offer up prayer in the 
 sacrifices." Ep. xxxvii. p. 72. " As often as we cele- 
 brate the anniversary days of the martyrs, we offer sacri- 
 fices for them [the relatives of Celerinus]." Ep. xxxix. 
 
 W Ille sacerdos vice Christ! vere fungitur, qui id quod Christus 
 fecit, imitatur, et sacrificium verum et plenum tune offert in 
 ecclesia Deo Patri. 
 
APPENDIX. Ixxxvii 
 
 p* 77. " To God and his Christ, whom I serve, and to 
 whom, with a pure and undefiled countenance, in persecu- 
 tion and in peace, I unceasingly offer sacrifices." ^ Ep. Ixvi. 
 p. 169. " Whilst we were offering sacrifice, (s) the girl was 
 brought in by her mother." De Lapsis,p. 132. 
 
 CENT IV. 
 
 
 
 EUSEBIUS OF C^SAREA, G. C. 
 
 " And as he (speaking of Melchisedec), who was the 
 priest of the Gentiles, seems never to have offered animal 
 sacrifices, but wine alone and bread, while he blessed 
 Abraham ; so our Saviour and Lord first, and then the 
 priests who are descended from him, performing, in all 
 nations, according to ecclesiastical ordinances, the sacer- 
 dotal function, represent, in bread and wine, the mysteries 
 of his body and salutary blood, < e) which mysteries Mel- 
 chisedec had so long before by the divine spirit foreknown, 
 and used in figure. The scripture of Moses says : And 
 Melchisedec, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine: 
 and he was the priest of the most high God : and he blessed 
 Abraham" (Gen. xiv.) Demonst. Evang. L. v. c. iii. p. 223. 
 Colonise, 1688. " Since then, as the new Testament," 
 &c. See the passage, p. xxx of this Appendix. 
 
 S. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM, G. C. 
 He mentions the various prayers and ceremonies which 
 
 M Sacrificia indesinenter offero. & Sacrificantibus nobis. 
 W oivy KO.I ctprg>, TWE erw^aroe avrw u ra awrtjpiu dt/uaro? 
 rnvtrrovrat ra p.v(rrv)pia. 
 
Ixxxviii APPENDIX. 
 
 accompany our sacrifice of the altar, and adds : " When 
 this spiritual sacrifice, this unbloody worship over the 
 victim of propitiation, is ended/" ; we supplicate God for 
 the common peace of the churches, for the tranquillity of 
 the world, for kings, for their armies and their allies, for 
 the sick and the afflicted ; and in a word, for all who want 
 assistance. Again, when we offer this sacrifice, we com- 
 memorate those who have departed this world before us. 
 We offer up that Christ who was slain for our sins, that 
 he who is most kind, may be propitious to us and them. 11 
 He proceeds to the Lord's prayer which is recited in 
 the Mass, and dwells on its several clauses ; and then pre- 
 scribes the reverential manner in which the body and 
 blood of Christ are to be taken. Catech. Mystag. v. n. 6, 7. 
 p. 297, 298. 
 
 S. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUM, G. C. 
 
 " And where, and by whom, could God be worshipped 
 in those mystic and elevating sacred rites, than which no- 
 thing among us is greater nor more excellent, if there 
 were no priesthood nor sacrifice ? (*' Knowing this, and 
 knowing besides that no one was worthy of this great 
 God, this sacrifice, and this priesthood, who had not first 
 offered himself a victim to the Lord how should I dare 
 to offer to him that external sacrifice, ^ that antitype of 
 great mysteries, or to take up the name and habit of a 
 
 TT}V avat^icuTov Xarpetav, ITTI TI^G Ovcriac 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 priest?" Orat. 1. T. 1. p. 3, 38. " Julian, in impure and 
 wicked blood, washes away his baptismal rite, opposing 
 initiation to initiation he denies his hands in order to 
 purify them from that unbloody sacrifice ( * } through which 
 we communicate with Christ, with his divine nature, and 
 his sufferings." Orat. iii. in Julian. T. \.p. 70. 
 
 S. OPTATUS OF MILEVIS, L. C. 
 
 See the quotation from him, p. xxxix, of this Appendix. 
 " What is so sacrilegious," &c. 
 
 S. AMBROSE, L. C. 
 
 Commenting on the appearance of the angel to Zacha- 
 rias, (Luke 1 .) he says : " It were to be wished, that while 
 we burned incense on our altars, and offer sacrifice, the 
 angel would assist and become visible to us. That he 
 does assist, cannot be doubted, while Christ is there, while 
 Christ is immolated ; (o) For Christ our pasch is sacrificed" 
 (1 Cor. v.) L: 1. in Evang. Luc. c. 1. T. iii. p. 12." We 
 have beheld the prince of priests coming to us; we have 
 beheld and heard him offering his blood for us : let us 
 priests then follow him as we can, and offer sacrifice for the 
 people, weak as we are in merit, but rendered honourable 
 by this sacrifice ; for although Christ is not now seen to 
 offer, yet is he offered on earth, when his body is the vic- 
 tim/^ Indeed, he manifestly offers in us, since it his 
 
 TTJQ 
 
 Quando Christus assistit, quando Christus immolatur. 
 
 Ipse offertur in terris, quando Christi corpus offertur. 
 
XC APPENDIX. 
 
 word that sanctifies the sacrifice that is offered." Enarr. 
 in Psal. xxxviii. T. ii. p. 740. 
 
 In a letter to his sister Marcellina, giving an account 
 of some disturbances at Milan, when an attempt was made 
 to seize the church, he relates : " The next day, which was 
 Sunday, after the reading and sermon, when I was ex- 
 plaining the creed, word was brought that officers were 
 sent to seize the Portian church, and that part of the 
 people were nocking thither. I continued to discharge my 
 duty, and began Mass ; (c) but as I was offering, I was in- 
 formed that the people had laid hands on an Arian priest. 
 This made me weep, and I prayed to God in the midst of 
 the offering,^) that no blood might be shed in this quar- 
 rel." Ep. xiv. T. v. p. 205. Having heard from the em- 
 peror Theodosius, of the victory which he had gained over 
 the tyrant Eugenius, Ambrose writes to him. " I took 
 your letter with me to the church ; I laid it on the altar ; 
 and whilst I offered sacrifice (e) I held it in my hand, that 
 by my voice you might speak, and your august letter per- 
 form with me the sacerdotal office. 1 ' Ep. Iviii. T. v.p. 322. 
 
 As the Mass has just been mentioned in* a quotation 
 from S. Ambrose, I will here subjoin a passage on the 
 subject, from the learned and pious cardinal JBona, who 
 flourished at Rome in the seventeeth centuiy. " There is 
 an epistle of Pius I., acknowledged to be genuine, written 
 about the year 166 to the bishop of Vienne, in the opening 
 of which he thus speaks : * Our sister Euprepia, as you 
 well recollect, made over her house to the poor, where we 
 dwell and celebrate Mass.' " Cone. Gen. T. 1. p. 576. 
 
 ^ Missam facere csepi. ^ Et orare in ipsa oblatione. 
 ' Cum offerrem sacrificium. 
 
APPENDIX. XC1 
 
 A letter also from pope Cornelius to another bishop of 
 the same city, written about the year 254, remarks that 
 on account of the persecutions, the Christians could not 
 publicly "celebrate Mass." Ibid. p. 681. In the fourth 
 century, St. Ambrose writing to his sister, mentions the 
 mass, as likewise in his thirty-fourth Discourse : " I ex- 
 hort you, you that are near the church, and can do it 
 without great inconvenience, to hear Mass daily." T. v. 
 p. 48. In his preparatory prayer before Mass, he says ; 
 " Grant me thy grace on this day, and on every other, 
 with a pure mind and clean heart, to celebrate the solemn 
 service of Mass."^ Ibid. p. 335." St. Augustin and 
 other ancient fathers use the same expression, and they 
 use it as if it were common and generally received at the 
 time." L. 1. Rerum Liturg. c. iii. p. 17. Edit. Paris, 1678. 
 
 In this fourth century, various Councils were held, 
 which in plain terms speak of the Christian sacrifice. 
 
 COUNCIL OF ANCYRA, M G. C. 
 
 Against such priests who, in the times of persecution, 
 had shown great weakness, it enacts : " That they be not 
 deprived of their stations ; but that they be not allowed 
 to offer ^ nor to address the people, nor to perform any 
 priestly function." Can. 1. Cone. Gen. T. I. p. 1455. 
 
 W The two works quoted by Cardinal Bona, as productions of 
 St. Ambrose, are not allowed, by the learned, to be his, though 
 of some ancient author. 
 
 W This council, held about the year 314, consisted of bishops 
 from all the principal sees of the East, to the number of, at least, 
 118. They enacted twenty-five canons for the establishment of 
 discipline. 
 
XC11 APPENDIX. 
 
 COUNCIL OF NEOCJESAREA,(') G. C. 
 
 " Country-priests, in the presence of the bishop, or the 
 priests of the city, cannot offer ^ nor give the sanctified 
 bread, nor present the chalice. Ibid. Can. xiii. p. 1483. 
 
 COUNCIL OF NICE,* G. C. 
 
 " The holy Synod has been informed that, in some 
 places and cities, the deacons present the Eucharist to the 
 priests. This thing no canon nor custom has taught 
 that they, who have themselves no power to offer ^ should 
 present the body of Christ to those who possess that 
 power." Can. xviii. Cone. Gen. T. ii. p. 38. 
 
 COUNCIL OF LAODICEA, (WJ) G. C. 
 
 Having established certain rules to be observed in the 
 service of the church, it adds : " And after the priests 
 have given the kiss of peace to the bishop, the laity must 
 do the same one to the other, and thus the holy offering^ 
 be completed : but the ministers alone may approach the 
 altar, and there communicate." Ibid. Can. xix. p. 1499. 
 
 M This council was called soon after that of Ancyra, and con- 
 sisted of nearly the same bishops. 
 
 W irpo(T(j>epiv. W irpofftyepeiv. 
 
 * Held in 325, against the errors of Arius. 
 
 W This council met about the middle of the fourth century, 
 and has left us sixty canons, which have ever been held in the 
 greatest estimation. 
 
 ( w ) rrjv ayiav 
 
APPENDIX. XClll 
 
 SECOND COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE,() L. C. 
 
 It enacts that, if any priest, having been reprimanded 
 by his bishop, withdraw from his communion, and " offer 
 sacrifice privately, (p) erecting altar against altar, con- 
 trary to established discipline he be deprived of his 
 office." Ibid. Can. viii. T. ii. p. 1161. 
 
 THEOPHILUS OF ALEXANDRIA/?) G. C. 
 
 " Let the priests, after certain portions have been con- 
 sumed in the use of the mysteries, divide the remainder of 
 what was offered in the way of sacrifice ;( r) but of them 
 the catechumen may not eat nor drink, but clerks only, 
 and the believing brethren with them." In Commonit. 
 Can. vii. Apud Bevereg. p. 172. Edit. Oxonii, 1672. 
 
 S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, G. C. 
 
 On the words of the prophet Malachias ; And in every 
 place incense shall be offered to God, and a clean offering ; 
 
 W This council was called by Genethlius, bishop of Carthage, 
 who presided at it, in 390. It enacted thirteen canons, respecting 
 the celibacy of bishops, priests, and deacons, and other points of 
 discipline. 
 
 <W Separatim sacrificium Dei obtulerit. 
 
 (?) He succeeded Timotheus, and sat on the patriarchal chair of 
 Alexandria, from 385 to 412. Some of his letters are to be found 
 among those of St. Jerome, and in Beveredge's "Canons of the 
 Greek church." 
 
 ^ TO. Trpoff<}>pop.Ei'a etc \oyov 
 
XC1V APPENDIX. 
 
 he says, addressing the Jews : " When did this happen ? 
 When was incense thus offered ? When this clean sacrifice ? 
 You can produce no other time than this, after the coming 
 of Christ. & And if of this time the prophet had not spoken ; 
 had he prophesied, not of our sacrifice but of that of the 
 Jews, his prophecy would have been contrary to the law : 
 for Moses forbids sacrifices to be offered in any other place 
 than that which God had chosen : to this he confines them. 
 But Malachias declares, that in everyplace incense shall be 
 offered, and a clean sacrifice. In truth, however, there is 
 no discordance between them. They speak of different 
 sacrifices. In the first place, the prophet foretels that, 
 not in one city, as among the Jews, but from the rising of 
 the sun to the going down of the same, offerings shall be 
 made. Then, by calling the sacrifice clean, he plainly 
 denotes of what victim he spoke. And finally, the offerings 
 will be made, not in Israel, but in all nations. In every 
 place, says he ; evidently showing, that wherever the sun 
 sheds its light, there the gospel shall be preached. He 
 speaks of a clean offering, not as if, by its own nature, 
 that of the Jews had been unclean, but only through the 
 will of the offerers. Wherefore God said : their incense is an 
 abomination to me. Nevertheless, if our present sacrifice 
 be compared with the former, so vast will the difference be 
 found, that ours alone can merit the name of clean." 
 Adv.Judseos, Orat. iii. T. 1. p. 437. " The office of priest- 
 hood is, indeed, performed on earth, but it should itself 
 be referred to the class and order of things celestial. 
 Wherefore, it is necessary that the priest be pure, as if, 
 
 OVK av i\otg trcpov f.nrtiv /ccupoj', aXX' ij rwrov, rov fjiera ri]v TH 
 
APPENDIX. XCV 
 
 placed in heaven, he stood among the celestial spirits. 
 For when you behold the Lord immolated, and the priest 
 at the altar offering sacrifice, and pouring out prayers, 
 and then the surrounding multitude partaking of the sacred 
 blood/ ') can you, at that moment, fancy you are among 
 mortals, and dwelling on the earth ? Rather, are you not 
 transported to the heavens ? De Sacerd. L. iii. c. iv. T. iv. 
 p. 27. " But when the priest shall have invoked the 
 Holy Spirit, and shall have completed this tremendous and 
 awful sacrifice, the common Lord of all being handled by 
 him ; (M) I ask you, in what rank shall we place him ? And 
 what integrity of life, and what sense of religion shall we 
 not demand from him ? Reflect, what those hands should 
 be ; what the tongue, that utters those words ; how pure 
 and holy the soul that has been so honoured. Meanwhile, 
 the angels stand by the priest, the army of heavenly powers 
 cry out, and the space around the altar is filled by them 
 in honour of him who lies there." Ibid. L. vi. c. iv. p. 82. 
 These sentiments he often repeats. " He has ordained 
 a sacred rite, changing the victim, and, in the place of 
 animals, commanding himself to be immolated. " (x) Horn. 
 xxiv. in 1 Cor. T. x. p. 256. " It was not in vain that the 
 apostles ordained that, in the celebration of the tremen- 
 dous mysteries, mention should be made of the dead. 
 They knew that great advantage would thence be derived 
 to them. For all the people being present, and raising 
 
 W TOV Kvptov reBvjjievov KO.L /cet/xevov, KCU TOV lepta e^eorrwra 
 dvpart icai Travrag emvp r$> ripta <poivtffffojjLvug aifian. 
 
 (**) TOV 0puc$OTarrjv fVireXrj 9'vo'ia^, KCU. 
 <j>a.Trrr)Tai 
 
 *} rr\v 
 avn rrjg aXoywv o^ayrjCj eavrov irpoffQepetv 
 
XCV1 APPENDIX. 
 
 their hands to heaven, and the sacred victim lying there, ^ 
 shall not God be rendered propitious to them ?" Horn. iii. 
 in c. 1. Ep. ad Philip. T. xi. p. 32. " But do we not (it 
 may be asked) offer sacrifice daily?" We do ; but in remem- 
 brance of his death. And the victim is one, not many. 
 But how is this? Because it was once offered and brought 
 into the sanctuary. This sacrifice is a copy of that ; the 
 offering is the same. Not one on one day, and on the 
 next another; but always the same. (z) Thus then the 
 sacrifice is one. But are there many Christs, as the offering 
 is made in many places ? By no means : it is the same 
 Christ every where ; here entire and there entire ; one 
 body. As then, though offered in many places, there is 
 one body, and not many bodies : so is there one sacrifice. 
 He is our high priest, who offered the victim of our ex- 
 piation : that same victim we now offer that was then 
 offered ; which cannot be consumed. This is done in 
 remembrance of what was done. Do this, he said, in remem- 
 brance of me" Horn. xvii. in c. x. Ep. ad Heir. T. xi. 
 p. 856. 
 
 S. INNOCENT IJ a < L. C. 
 
 He writes to the bishop of Eugubium : " You say that 
 the kiss of peace is sometimes given before the sacred 
 mysteries are completed, which should not be done till 
 after those parts which I must not reveal ; for that kiss 
 
 W TrpoKEtrai rj (f>piKrrj 
 
 (*) TOV yap OLVTOV aet irpofffyepofjiev' ov vvv per erepov, avpiov f 
 ertpov, a'XXa aa TO ctvro' wore juia eoriv rj SvffLa. 
 
 ( a) St. Innocent succeeded Anastasius, in 402, and governed the 
 church of Rome till 417. Thirty-three of his letters are extant. 
 
 
APPENDIX. XCV11 
 
 denotes that the faithful present have assented to all that 
 was performed." He gives other directions, speaking of 
 " the sacred mysteries, and the victim that is offered." 
 Ep. ad Decentium : Cone. Gen. T. \\.p. 1246. 
 
 S. JEROME, L. C. 
 
 " / have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord; neither will 
 I accept an offering at your hand. For from, the rising of 
 the sun"&c. Malach. 1 . It is a fixed rule when a prophecy 
 manifestly refers to future events, not to weaken it by un- 
 certain allegories. The present prophecy regards the 
 Jewish priests who brought improper victims to be offered, 
 to signify to them that spiritual victims would succeed to 
 carnal ; and that not the blood of bulls and goats, but 
 perfumes, that is, the prayers of the saints, should be 
 offered to God ; and that, not in one province, nor in one 
 city; but a clean oblation in every place, such as is 
 offered in the Christian ceremonies : For from the rising 
 of the sun to the going down of the same, great is my name 
 among the Gentiles." In cap. 1. Malach. T. iii. p. 544. 
 
 Having stated what were the opinions of many learned 
 men on the character and offering of Melchisedec, (Gen. 
 xiv.) he says : " The apostle affirms, that the priesthood 
 of Aaron, that is, the Jewish priesthood, had a beginning 
 and an end (Heb. vii.) ; but that the priesthood of Melchi- 
 sedec, that is, of Christ and his church, should be eternal, 
 and had no author ; and that the priesthood being trans- 
 lated^ it is necessary that a translation also be made of the 
 law" Ep. cxxvi. ad Evagrium, T. 1. 1060. I find him, 
 on many occasions, expressing the same sentiment : that 
 the offering of bread and wine by Melchisedec, was a type 
 of the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ in the ele- 
 
 (J 
 
XCV111 APPENDIX. 
 
 ments of bread and wine, and thus dedicated the Chris- 
 tian mystery in the blood and body of our Saviour." < 6) 
 Ep. ad Marcel. T. iii. p. 151. " According to thee, the 
 Roman bishop does wrong, who offers sacrifices to the 
 Lord, over the bodies of Peter and Paul, which bodies we 
 call venerable remains, but you, vile dust. To him their 
 tombs are altars." Adv. Vigilantium, T. \.p. 591. Hav- 
 ing treated, at great length, of the superior virtues of the 
 state of celibacy, he says : " And if the lay-man, or any 
 one of the faithful, is not able to pray, unless he be con- 
 tinent ; it is the duty of the priest, who is constantly to 
 offer sacrifices for the people, always to pray ; but if 
 always to pray, then to be continent." (c) L. 1. Adv. Jovi- 
 nianum, T.I. p. 487. He gives the same advice to bishops : 
 " What must be our opinion concerning the bishop, who 
 daily, for his own and the sins of the people, is to offer to 
 God pure sacrifices ?" Inc. I. Ep. ad Titum, T. iii. p. 1045. 
 
 CENT. V. 
 
 S. AUGUSTIN, L. C. 
 
 " Then Abraham (Gen. xiv.) was blessed by Melchi- 
 sedec, the priest of the most high God, of whom many 
 and great things are said in the epistle to the Hebrews : 
 (vii.) which epistle most people ascribe to the apostle Paul, 
 
 ( fc) This letter of Paula and Eustochium to Marcella, written to 
 induce her to repair to Bethlem, is generally supposed to have 
 been penned by St. Jerome. 
 
 W Si semper orandum, ergo semper carendum matrimonio. 
 
APPENDIX. XC1X 
 
 though some deny it. Then first appeared that sacrifice, 
 which is now offered to God hy Christians through all the 
 earth ; (rf) and that is fulfilled which, long after the fact of 
 Melchisedec, was said of Christ by the prophet : Thou art 
 a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedec. 
 (Psal. cix.) Not according to the order of Aaron ; for this 
 order was to be annulled, when the things, which those 
 shadows prefigured, should come to pass." De Civ. Dei. 
 L. xvi. c. xxii. p. 1019. " This eating and drinking, of 
 which the wise man speaks, (Eccles. iii.) relate to the par- 
 ticipation of this table, which the mediator of the new 
 covenant, the priest, according to the order of Melchi- 
 sedec, offers of his body and blood. This sacrifice has 
 succeeded to all those of the ancient covenant, which were 
 offered, as the shadows of this that was to come." Ibid. 
 L. xvii. c. xx. p. 1138. " The prophet Malachias fore- 
 telling the church, which we now behold propagated by 
 Christ, thus manifestly speaks to the Jews in the person 
 of God : / have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord, neither 
 will 1 accept an offering at your hand. For from the rising 
 of the sun to the going down of the same, my name shall be 
 great among the Gentiles ; and in every place incense shall 
 be offered to my name, and a clean offering. (Malach. 1.) 
 Since then we behold this sacrifice, in every place, offered 
 to God by the priesthood of Christ, (<?) according to the 
 order of Melchisedec ; and as the Jews cannot deny that 
 their sacrifices have ceased, why do they still look for 
 another Christ?" Ibid. L. xviii. c. xxxv. p. 1210. 
 
 Speaking afterwards in reply to those who asked, why 
 
 W Quod mine a Christianis offertur Deo toto orbe terrariim. 
 '*) Hoc sacrificium per sacerdotiam Christi, cum in omni loco 
 videamus oflferri. 
 
C APPENDIX. 
 
 miracles were not then wrought ; he recounts many, to 
 most of which he was himself a witness, and among them 
 relates, that the property of a great man, whom he names, 
 having been much troubled by wicked spirits, he re- 
 quested that, " in my absence, some of the priests would 
 go, and by their prayers remove the evil. One of them 
 went ; offered there the sacrifice of the body of Christ, ( ^ } 
 praying that the mischief might cease ; and, by the mercy 
 of God, it instantly ceased." Ibid. L. xxii. c. viii. p. 1485. 
 " The Hebrews, in the victims which they offered to 
 God, in many and various ways, as became so great a 
 subject, prefigured the future victim, which Christ has 
 offered. Hence Christians, by the holy oblation and par- 
 ticipation of the body and blood of Christ,^ } celebrate the 
 remembrance of that sacrifice. But the Manicheans un- 
 derstand not what they should believe, or what observe, 
 in this sacrifice of the Christians." Contra Faustum, Lib. 
 xx. c. xviii. T. vi. p. 155. Then, to the objection of his 
 adversary, that the Catholics had substituted the martyrs 
 in the place of the idols of the Gentiles, he replies : " The 
 Christian people celebrate the memories of the martyrs 
 with a religious solemnity, in order to excite themselves 
 to an imitation of their constancy, to be united to their 
 merits, and to be aided by their prayers ; but to no martyr, 
 to the God alone of martyrs, (A) in memory of them, do we 
 raise altars. For what prelate, assisting at the altar where 
 the bodies of the martyrs lie, was ever heard to say : To 
 thee Peter ; to thee Paul ; or to thee Cyprian, do we make 
 
 Cfi Obtulit ibi sacrificium corporis Christi. 
 W Sacrosancta oblatione et participatione corporis et sanguinis 
 Christi. 
 
 (*) At nulli martyrum, sed ipsi Deo martyrum sacrificamus. 
 
APPENDIX, Cl 
 
 this offering ? To God alone, who crowned these martyrs, 
 is sacrifice offered. We frequently sacrifice to God in 
 the churches of the martyrs, hy that rite, according to 
 which, as the scriptures of the new Testament declare, he 
 commanded sacrifice to be offered to him. This pertains 
 to that worship, which the Greeks call Latria, and which 
 can be offered to God alone." Ibid. p. 156. " It cannot 
 be doubted, that, by the prayers of the holy church, and 
 by the salutary sacrifice/ i} and by alms which are given 
 for the repose of their souls, the dead are helped ; so that 
 God may treat them more mercifully than their sins de- 
 served. This the whole church observes, which it re- 
 ceived from the tradition of the fathers, to pray for those 
 who died in the communion of the body and blood of 
 Christ, when, in their turn, they are commemorated at 
 the sacrifice, and it is then announced, that the sacrifice 
 is offered for them."( &) De verbis Apostoli, Serm. xxxii. 
 T. x. p. 154. See other passages, p. Ivii, as above. 
 
 S. ISIDORE OF PELUSIUM,( /; G. C. 
 
 " I exhort you to desist from doing these things, or not 
 to approach the venerable altar." Ep. xii, L. v.p. 556. 
 
 W Orationibus sanctae Ecclesiae, et sacrificio salutare, et elee- 
 mosynis. . 
 
 (*) Hoc a patribus traditutn, universa observat ecclesia, ut pro 
 cis, qui defuncti sunt, cum ad ipsum sacrificium commemoran- 
 tur, ac pro ill is quoque id offerri commemoretur. 
 
 (/) St. Isidore was a priest of Pelusium, in Egypt, now known 
 by the name of Damietta. He flourished from the beginning of 
 the fifth century, till towards the year 435, or 440, and has left 
 us a collection of more than 2000 letters, written in Greek. 
 
C1I APPENDIX. 
 
 " Crimes acquire a deeper guilt from the place and time. 
 For example, murder is always detestable ; but it is more 
 so, when committed in a sacred place ; and still more 
 wicked, if in the time of sacrifice. "( OT ) Ep. ccccxcii. p. 705. 
 " Either cease to be guilty of such crimes, or withdraw 
 from the sacred table, that the children of the church may 
 safely approach to the sacred mysteries/") without which 
 they cannot be saved." Ep. dlxix. p. 723. 
 
 S. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, G. C. 
 
 " We offer in the church a holy, vivifying, and unbloody 
 sacrifice ; < not believing it to be the common body and 
 blood of man, but the real body and the real blood of the 
 life-giving word.W For common flesh cannot give life, 
 which our Saviour himself attested, saying: It is the 
 spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh prqfiteth nothing. (John vi. 
 64.)" Declar. Anathem. xi. T. vi. p. 156. " God said 
 plainly to the Jews, that they were not pleasing to him, 
 or rather, that he would not accept their sacrifices in 
 shadows and figures : but foretels, that his name shall be 
 great among all nations, and that, in every .place and 
 nation, pure and unbloody sacrifices shall be offered." (q} 
 Comm. in c.\. Malach. T. iii. p. 830. See also the letter 
 read at Ephesus, p. Ixvi, as above. "On this occasion, "&e. 
 
 TOIQ deoig Trpoffepx 
 
 /cat ava.ipa.KTOV iv TCLIQ e/ocXrjo-tate reXufAev dvfftav. 
 
 uc ifitov ff<t)p.a -yeyovOQ, KO.I petrol /cat aipit r Travra 
 roe Xoy. 
 Qvariai /cadapcu /cat 
 
APPENDIX. Cll 
 
 COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON, G. C. 
 
 In this council, which was held in the year 451, 
 the following complaint was read against Dioscorus, 
 the bishop of Alexandria : " So great was his audacity 
 against all not as became a bishop, and a bishop of 
 so great a city and of this evangelical see as not to permit 
 the corn to be received, which our kind emperors had 
 granted to the churches of Lybia, on account of the 
 sterility of the province, and because no corn is grown in 
 it. It was granted, in the first place, that, of it the un- 
 bloody sacrifice might be offered ; (r) and then that travel- 
 lers and the poor inhabitants might be aided. From this 
 oppressive act it has happened, that the tremendous and 
 unbloody sacrifice has not been celebrated. ( * } Libellus 
 Ischyrionisy &c. Cone. Gen. T. iv. p> 400. 
 
 THEODORET, G. C. 
 
 " Melchisedec was the priest, not of the Jews, but of the 
 Gentiles : and so Christ offered himself to God, not for 
 the Jews only, but for all men. He opens his priesthood 
 in the night, when he took bread; and blessing, broke, and 
 gave it to them, and said: Take ye, this is my body, &c. 
 (Matt, xxvi.) We read, that Melchisedec was a priest and 
 a king the figure of the true priest and king and that 
 he offered to God, not animals, but bread and wine. For 
 these he presented to Abraham, whilst in spirit he con- 
 templated in the loins of the patriarch the true image of 
 
 Qvaiav e 
 <j>piKrrjv t Kai avaifjiaKTov Qvaiav i 
 
CIV APPENDIX. 
 
 his priesthood. Christ is now the priest, according to the 
 flesh born of Judah, not himself offering, but being the 
 head of those that offer. (/) For he calls the church his body, 
 and by this church, as man, he exercises the priestly office, 
 while, as God, he accepts the offerings that are made. 
 For the church offers the symbols of his body and blood. (M) 
 In Psal. cix. v. 4. T. 1. p. 852. 
 
 S. LEO, L. C. 
 
 Thus writes to Diascorus, the bishop of Alexandria: 
 " That the discipline of our churches may in all things 
 agree, this should! be observed : That, when a more solemn 
 feast calls the people together, and more assemble than the 
 church can contain, the offering of the sacrifice be re- 
 peated. (x] lest any be deprived of it ; for religion and reason 
 demand, that the sacrifice should be as often offered,^ as 
 there are people to partake. Otherwise, if the custom of 
 one mass be followed, they who cannot find place must 
 be deprived of the sacrifice. (2) We therefore anxiously 
 exhort you, that you do not neglect, but join with us, as in 
 faith so in practice, to observe a rule that by tradition is 
 come down to us." Ep. xi. al. Ixxxi. ad Diosc. p. 437. 
 
 OVK O.VTOQ TI Trpofftyepw, otXXa TWV 
 
 we 0fog. Tlpvatyepei ve ij 
 
 ra ra ffw^uarog vru KCII r 
 
 ^ Sacrificii oblatio indubitanter iteretur. 
 
 ^ Toties sacrificium subsequens offeratur. 
 
 z) Si unius tantum Missae, more servato, sacrificium offerre non 
 possint. 
 
APPENDIX. CV 
 
 S. EUCHERIUS/) L. C. 
 
 "Let all unbelief be gone, since be is witness of the 
 truth, who is the author of the gift; for the invisible 
 priest does, by his word and secret power, change the 
 visible creatures into the substance of his body and blood,W 
 saying thus: Take and eat, this is my body, &c. And 
 therefore, as at the command of the Lord, the highest 
 heavens, the deep waves, and the vast earth, suddenly 
 rose oat of nothing ; so by the like power in the spiritual 
 sacraments, the virtue of the word commands, and the 
 effect obeys. (c) Let no one doubt that these creatures, by 
 the nod of his power, by the presence of his majesty, pass 
 into the substance of the Lord's body. (rf) When the crea- 
 tures to be blessed by the heavenly wordsi are placed on 
 the altar, before they are consecrated by the invocation of 
 
 (a) St. Eucherius was bishop of Lyons, and had been a monk in 
 the convent of Lerins. Some works, very elegantly written, are as- 
 cribed to him ; but I would not say that the sermon, from which I 
 quote this passage, is from him, though I find it under his name. It is 
 admitted, however, to be ancient ; and, as it delivers explicitly the 
 doctrine, which, in this and in the preceding centuries had been 
 taught, its authority may fairly be added to the general mass of 
 evidence. He probably was contemporary with Vincent of Lerins ; 
 and died about the year 454. See Dupin and Cave. 
 
 W In substantia corporis et sanguinis sui, verbo suo, secreta 
 potestate convertit. 
 
 ^ Verbi praecipit virtus, et rei servit eflfectus. 
 
 (<*) Novum et impossibile non debet videri, quod in Christi 
 substantiam terrena et mortalia committuntur. 
 
CV1 APPENDIX. 
 
 the Most High, the substance of bread and wine is there ; 
 but after the words of Christ, it is the body and blood of 
 Christ. (e) And what wonder is it, that he who could create 
 these things by his word, should change them when 
 created W> Nay, it seems matter of less wonder, if that 
 which is acknowledged to have been created of nothing, be 
 now changed into better >> Search what is hard for him 
 to do, to whom it was easy to raise things visible and in- 
 visible, by the power of his will ; to whom it was easy to 
 clothe man made of the matter of clay, with the image of 
 his own divinity," &c. Horn. v. de Pasch. sub nomine 
 Eusebii. Bill. PP. T. vi. p. 636, 637. 
 
 COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 " Because under the former testament, as the apostle 
 Paul witnesses, (Heb. vii, ix, x.) on account of the weak- 
 ness of the Levitical priesthood, there was no consumma- 
 tion, it became necessary God so ordaining it that 
 another priest according to the order of Melchisedec 
 should arise, our Lord Jesus Christ, who might be able 
 to consummate all that were to be sanctified, and perfect 
 them. Wherefore, this our Lord and God, although he 
 was about to offer himself once, on the altar of the cross, 
 to his Father, that on it he might operate our eternal re- 
 demption ; yet, because, by death, his priesthood was not 
 to cease, he, at his last supper, the same night in which he 
 
 <*' Post verba Christi, corpus et sanguis est Christi. 
 f /) Verbo possit creata convertere. 
 (*> In melius valeat commutare. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 was betrayed, (1 Cor. xi.) that he might leave to his church 
 a visible sacrifice such as the nature of man requires, by 
 which the bloody sacrifice, once to be completed on the 
 cross, might be represented, and its memory might con- 
 tinue to the end of time, and its salutary virtue be applied 
 to the remission of those sins which we daily commit; 
 declaring himself to be the appointed priest for ever, ac- 
 cording to the order of Melchisedec, he offered to his 
 father his body and blood under the appearances of bread 
 and wine; and, under those appearances, delivered the 
 same to his apostles, whom at the time he appointed the 
 priests of the New Testament. To them, aud to their suc- 
 cessors in the priesthood, he gave command to offer the 
 same, saying, Do this for a commemoration of me. (Luke 
 xxii.) So the Catholic church has always understood and 
 taught. This is the clean offering which the prophet 
 Malachias foretold should be offered in every place. This 
 the offering which was prefigured by the various typical 
 sacrifices of the law and of nature, comprising whatever 
 good things they signified, consummating and perfect- 
 ing all." Sess. xxii. c. 1. p. 189. " And because in 
 this divine sacrifice which is performed in the mass, the 
 same Christ is contained and offered in an unbloody man- 
 ner, who, on the altar of the cross, offered himself in a 
 bloody manner the holy synod teaches that this sacrifice 
 is truly propitiatory, and that by it, to the sincerely peni- 
 tent, the sins we commit, however enormous they be, 
 are remitted. For it is one and the same victim, the same 
 Christ now offering himself by the ministry of the priest, 
 who offered himself on the cross ; the difference being 
 only in the manner of offering. By this offering, then, 
 the fruits of that bloody offering are most plentifully re- 
 ceived ; so far is it from truth, that hereby the least part 
 
CV111 APPENDIX. 
 
 is derogated from it/ A) Wherefore, according to aposto- 
 lical tradition, the mass is duly offered not only for the 
 benefit of the living, but also for those who, though dead 
 in Christ, are not fully cleansed from all defilement." 
 Ibid. c. \i.p. 191. 
 
 <*' I subjoin, on this important point, the Exposition of our 
 great Bossuet : " The church is so far from believing that any thing 
 is wanting to the sacrifice of the cross, that she deems it, on the 
 contrary, so perfectly and so fully sufficient, that whatever is 
 afterwards added, has been instituted to celebrate its memory, and 
 to apply its virtue. We acknowledge that all the merit of the re- 
 demption of mankind is derived from the death of the Son of God : 
 when, therefore, in the celebration of the divine mysteries, we say: 
 ' We offer to thee this holy victim,' we pretend not by this oblation 
 to make, or to present to God, a new payment of the price of our 
 salvation; but to offer to him, in our behalf, the merits of Jesus 
 Christ present, and that infinite price which he once paid for us 
 upon the cross." Exposition de la Doctrine Cathol. Sect, xiv, p. 
 168, Edit. Bruxelles, 1751. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 Extract from the DIARIO DI ROMA of July, 1822. 
 
 " ON the second reading of the Bill proposed in the 
 house of Lords for the admission of Catholic Peers into 
 Parliament, we read in the English journals, that one of 
 the honourable members, among other reasons for his 
 opposition, adduces the following accusation against his 
 Holiness : ' that he had manifested the greatest intole- 
 rance by refusing to the burial place of the Protestants 
 in Rome, that protection which his predecessors had 
 granted, and that he had moreover resisted the repre- 
 sentations of all the ambassadors on this subject.' 
 
 " To the above imputation we give the most unqualified 
 contradiction, and will prove it to be perfectly false and 
 calumnious ; indeed, we are at a loss to comprehend how 
 it can be said ( that the present pope has refused to the 
 burial place of the Protestants in Rome that protection 
 which his predecessors had granted." 
 
 " Preceding pontiffs merely granted permission to Pro- 
 testants to be interred in the Campo di Testaccio. This 
 permission has been extended to the present day, and 
 Protestants are still buried in the same place ; nor can it 
 be said that this place is unenclosed or unprotected, being 
 sheltered on one side by a part of the city wall, on another 
 by a wall which separates it from the public road, and 
 on a third also by a wall which separates it from several 
 
CX APPENDIX. 
 
 adjoining vineyards. There is likewise a guard stationed 
 in the same field, and another in the field adjoining, for the 
 protection of the gunpowder manufactory, and the pyra- 
 mid of Caius Cestius. It is true that access to the 
 above field is allowed to persons going to the Monte di 
 Testaccio, which adjoins, as well as to those who visit the 
 pyramid, yet it can by no means be said, that the burial 
 ground of the Protestants is in an open, unprotected, or 
 unguarded situation. 
 
 "Nevertheless, several Protestants, (and not all the 
 Ambassadors, as has been falsely asserted) having ex- 
 pressed a desire to have a burial ground which should be 
 entirely enclosed, or to speak more correctly, separated 
 from the rest of the field, and having afterwards requested 
 permission to encircle with a wall that portion of land 
 destined for the said burial ground, the pope, so far from 
 having refused to extend, as was most falsely stated, the 
 protection of his predecessors to the tombs of the Pro- 
 testants in Rome, even exceeded their generosity, by grant- 
 ing to the same Protestants, permission to surround with 
 a wall that portion of land in the same field destined for 
 their interment. If this concession was never acted upon, 
 the cause must be attributed to the slight alteration which 
 the Roman government found it absolutely necessary to 
 make respecting the situation of the former burial ground. 
 The ground then proposed, was in the same field, and 
 only a few paces from the former. The following will 
 clearly explain the whole. 
 
 " In the first instance, the burial place of the Protestants 
 was situated directly facing the pyramid of Caius Cestius, 
 and almost immediately adjoining to it. It was no sooner 
 reported that two walls were to be raised, one in front of 
 the pyramid, and another on the side, to form the enclosure 
 
APPENDIX. CXi 
 
 for the burial place of the Protestants, than the Academia 
 di San Lucca, the Societa delle Arti, and other establish- 
 ments, as well as the commissioners entrusted with the 
 inspection and repair of the public works of antiquity 
 existing in Rome, immediately represented to the govern- 
 ment in the strongest terms, that in case the said enclo- 
 sures were effected, the consequence would be, that the 
 height of the walls, and the trees which Protestants are 
 accustomed to plant round their places of interment, 
 would materially obstruct the view of so noble and inter- 
 esting a monument as the pyramid, unique in its kind, 
 holding so distinguished a rank among the ornaments of 
 the capital, and claiming the attention and admiration of 
 all connoisseurs and lovers of the Fine Arts. To these 
 representations, made in very strong terms, were added 
 others still stronger on the part of the public ; carriages 
 and pedestrians can at present approach the pyramid 
 by a direct and short passage, but the new enclosure 
 would oblige them in future to take an indirect route, at 
 a considerable increase of distance, and much inconve- 
 nience. These certainly were arguments quite strong 
 enough to excite in the public, just cause for remon- 
 strance and discontent. 
 
 " After this, the government could not most assuredly 
 consent to the formation of an enclosure in a place, where 
 it could not be executed without sacrificing so much of 
 the interesting view of the above remarkable monument, 
 and without depriving the public of the convenience 
 they now enjoy. Neither justice nor good taste could 
 allow of such infringements. Still, in substance, his 
 Holiness wished to comply, as far as lay in his power, 
 with the request of the Protestants for the formation of 
 an enclosure ; and though the above reasons induced him 
 
CX11 APPENDIX. 
 
 to refuse permission for the same in front of the pyramid, 
 he expressed his willingness to grant a new portion of 
 land for that purpose, situated in the same Campo di Tes- 
 taccio, but on one side, and not in front, of the pyramid, 
 and a few paces only from the site of the former ground. 
 At the same time, he repeated his permission to Protest- 
 ants to enclose U entirely, by surrounding it with a wall ; 
 thus fully providing for future interments, and even for 
 the preservation, in part, of the former burial ground, a 
 portion of which came within the precincts of the one 
 about to be formed. The remaining part of the interred 
 might, if it were thought proper, be transferred at any 
 time to the new enclosure ; if not, they would remain in 
 perfect security in their present situation, which, as we 
 have already shown, was neither unprotected nor un- 
 guarded. 
 
 " Again, if the enclosure of the newly allotted ground 
 was not carried into eifect, the reason was, that the pa- 
 rents and friends of the deceased, finding themselves pre- 
 vented by the urgent remonstrances made to the govern- 
 ment from the quarters already named, from surround- 
 ing with a wall the place where the greater part of the 
 deceased actually lay, had withdrawn their names from 
 the subscription necessary for the completion of the 
 second enclosure. 
 
 " Still, this circumstance did not prevent his Holiness 
 from carrying his own concession into effect. Pie gave 
 orders to the treasury to raise at their expence, the above 
 mentioned wall on the side towards the pyramid, so that 
 Protestants can no longer say that their place of interment 
 is unenclosed. 
 
 " The foregoing is a true and simple statement of the 
 whole transaction, for the entire correctness of which we 
 
APPENDIX. CXI11 
 
 can fully vouch. Let the public now judge whether it can 
 be affirmed with truth or with justice, ' that the present 
 pope has refused to the tombs of the Protestants in 
 Rome, that protection which his predecessors had gran ted.' 
 It cannot be a matter of surprise, that, among the nu- 
 merous foreigners who are received in Rome with the 
 most courteous hospitality and marks of particular kind- 
 ness, to which the generality of them are willing to testify, 
 some should be found, who, instead of evincing the least 
 grateful feeling for their courteous reception, take every 
 opportunity of giving vent to their ill feeling by slander 
 and falsehood. If to such men gratitude be too weighty 
 a burden, we willingly free them from all obligation 
 whatsoever; nay, if they even wish to dispense with those 
 sentiments professed by every individual of proper edu- 
 cation and feeling, they have our full permission so to 
 do : but honour will ever demand that due respect be 
 paid to truth ; and whatever may be our private opinions, 
 we should not seek to support them by recurring to the 
 base and dishonourable arts of misrepresentation and 
 calumny."* 
 
 Such are the merits of a case, which, as I know not 
 that the calumny founded upon it has ever been refuted 
 in this country, and especially in the place in which it 
 was brought before the public,f I cannot, in justice to 
 
 * Since the above was written, the spot of ground which gave 
 rise to this misrepresentation, has been entirely enclosed by a 
 deep sunk fence. 
 
 t " The intolerance of the Romish church at the present day, 
 was also displayed in the most marked manner, by the present 
 
 h 
 
CX1V APPENDIX. 
 
 our cause, pass it by unnoticed. It is important on many 
 accounts ; from the quarter from which it proceeded 
 from the circumstances which accompanied it from the 
 total absence of truth which characterized it but above 
 all, because it was urged as an argument to prove, not the 
 intolerance of the court of Rome, but of the Romish 
 CHURCH ; and, consequently, as a reason why the rights 
 of free-citizenship should be denied to an immense portion 
 of the subjects of the King of England. 
 
 It is evident that the noble lord was unconscious of the 
 calumny he was uttering ; but it's effects have, hitherto, 
 been precisely the same as if it had been founded on the 
 most indisputable facts, instead of resting on hearsay and 
 misrepresentation. An unfounded accusation advanced 
 upon slight authority, and circulated only within a nar- 
 row sphere, may, without much injury, be permitted to 
 float it's hour, and sink unheeded into the stream of 
 oblivion. But, as the speech of a member of the Bri- 
 tish Parliament, travels not only into every village and 
 every ale-house of the united kingdom, but to every region 
 of the universe, and thus disseminates both the opinions 
 and the statements which it contains, almost ad infinitum, 
 and becomes either the fortunate harbinger of truth, or 
 the evil messenger of falsehood, calumny, and injustice, 
 to the larger portion of the civilized world ; it is the duty, 
 as well as the interest, of the parties more immediately 
 
 Pontiff refusing to grant any protection to the tombs of the Pro- 
 testants who have died at Rome, although that protection had 
 been requested by the Protestants of all countries residing at 
 Rome, and by the ministers of Protestant sovereigns." Lord 
 Colchester's Speech, as reported in the Courier, on the second 
 reading of the Catholic Peers' Bill, June 21, 1822. 
 
APPENDIX. CXV 
 
 concerned, to repel the accusation by every means in their 
 power. Coming, too, from so grave a senator, from an 
 individual who is considered to have filled one of the 
 most arduous and honourable stations in the kingdom, 
 with peculiar dignity and justice who was known to 
 have been upon the spot to which his statement relates 
 to have had every facility of information and who may 
 be thought to have himself borne a share in the transac- 
 tion : all these circumstances combine, by giving weight 
 to the accusation, to render it's refutation the more im- 
 portant. It is a grievance severely felt, and much to be 
 lamented, that calumny of what kind soever (so prone is 
 mankind to believe evil rather than good), is always sure 
 to carry such a degree of conviction with it, especially 
 among the weak and ill-disposed, as to leave the refuta- 
 tion, however complete, a difficult task to perform, in 
 order to remove the stigma : it is always sure to meet the 
 eye of many who never see it's disavowal, and the evil 
 impression is carried with them to the grave. 
 
 The authority of the calumniator will also be weighed 
 against the reputation of the calumniated ; and it is not 
 difficult to determine where, in the mind of prejudice, the 
 better credit will be supposed to lie. People will feel it 
 impossible to believe that a British senator, lately elevated 
 by his merit to the House of Peers from the first rank in 
 the House of Commons, and who must necessarily have 
 to maintain a reputation for truth and justice, should so 
 far allow himself to be misled by prejudice, as to give 
 implicit credit to mere reports which he must have had a 
 full opportunity of investigating, and that too for the pur- 
 pose of founding upon them an ungenerous accusation 
 against a government from which he had received the 
 rights of hospitality in the most marked manner, and of 
 
CXV1 APPENDIX. 
 
 establishing thereon an argument against extending the 
 benefits of the Constitution to seven millions of his fellow 
 subjects. 
 
 This, certainly, must appear incredible to all who are 
 unacquainted with the darkness which habitual prejudice 
 spreads over the mind, depriving it of the will to reason, 
 and robbing it of the faculty of judging. Such men will 
 rather question the testimony of the accused, though sup- 
 ported by facts, than believe it to be true, in opposition to 
 such an authority. 
 
 But even supposing, for a moment, the accusation to 
 have been founded in fact, was there a shadow of justice 
 in the inference drawn from it ? Does either the Pope, or 
 the government of Rome, constitute the Catholic Church ? 
 How absurd, then, to bring forward any act of theirs, as 
 a proof of the intolerant spirit of the Catholic Church in 
 general ; and how much more absurd, to make the declara- 
 tion with the same breath with which so intolerant a speech 
 was delivered ! 
 
 But so far from a spirit of illiberality being prevalent 
 at Rome, it is directly the reverse. The late venerable 
 Pontiff, Pius VII., a man revered by all, and against whom, 
 save in this solitary instance, the breath of slander never 
 breathed, was proverbially humane, liberal, and enlight- 
 ened : and, among the many proofs that the same spirit of 
 liberality also presides over the councils of his successor, 
 the election of Torwalsden, as a member of all the acade- 
 mies in Rome, may be mentioned. Since academical ho- 
 nours are viewed in the same light there, as civil offices are 
 here, this honour is a high and enviable object of distinction ; 
 and much to the credit of the capital of Catholic Christen, 
 dom, which knows that merit is not the exclusive posses- 
 sion of any religion or of any country, both Foreigners and 
 
APPENDIX. CXVH 
 
 Protestants are freely admitted to enjoy them. The same 
 liberality allows the free exercise of their religion to Pro- 
 testants : nay more (unless according to the Bishop of 
 Saint David's Protestant's Catechism, it be a tenet of the 
 Established Church to revile and calumniate Catholics, 
 which I cannot yet believe) for though some, not content 
 with the duties of their ministry, and with worshipping 
 God in charity and peace, so far abused their licence, 
 as to cast aspersions and obloquy on the religion of 
 the state that tolerated them, from which, especially under 
 the circumstances, good sense and good feeling ought 
 to have protected it; yet no interruption was given to 
 the free and continued exercise of the religion, during 
 the celebration of whose service these insults had been 
 offered. All this was going on at the very time the 
 noble Lord is reported to have said, that the celebration 
 of High Mass ought no longer to be tolerated in his Ma- 
 jesty's dominions ! Let me ask, was it charitable, was it 
 just, was it politic, to send such statements and such opi- 
 nions into every tavern and every ale-house in the kingdom, 
 among men heated with wine and liquor ; extending the 
 guilt of the imagined crime to every Catholic in the United 
 Empire, teaching his fellow countrymen to despise and to 
 detest, perhaps, every tenth individual whom they met 
 here, and nine out of ten whom they encountered on the 
 other side of the water ? It was a long series of calumnious 
 accusations against Catholics which inflamed the public 
 mind to that degree of insanity to which it arrived in 1780, 
 when a mob of 50,000 Protestants put the very state into 
 jeopardy, for the sake of demolishing what in their folly 
 and fanatic ism they believed to be, and what calumny had 
 taught them to consider, the temples of the idolater. It 
 was a system of calumny and misrepresentation, carried 
 on by a succession of writers, (copying one another, and 
 
CXV111 APPENDIX. 
 
 darkened by bigotry) the blind leading- the blind which 
 at various periods during the three last centuries, caused 
 torrents of innocent blood to be shed, and crimes to be 
 perpetrated, which called to heaven for vengeance. It 
 was the spirit evoked by this system, that, at one period, 
 infuriated bigotry with such fiend-like emulation, that tlie 
 two rival parties in the state exhausted their strength in 
 endeavouring to affix on each other the odium of toleration. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No.V. 
 
 SPEECH OF MR. SHEIL, 
 
 At the Association, on moving an Address to 
 the King, on the last Day of the Fourteen Days' 
 Meeting. 
 
 MR. SHEIL rose and said I gave notice that I should 
 move that an address should be presented to the King, 
 founded upon the letter written by the authority of his 
 Majesty, by Lord Sidmouth, on the 23rd of September, 
 1821. I hold that letter in my hand. The following pas- 
 sage deserves to be extracted : " I am commanded (says 
 my Lord Sidmouth) to state, that the testimonies of duti- 
 ful and affectionate attachment which his Majesty has 
 received from all classes and descriptions of his Irish 
 subjects, have made the deepest impression on his mind ; 
 and that he looks forward to the period when he shall 
 
APPENDIX. CX1X 
 
 re-visit them, with the strongest feelings of satisfaction. 
 His Majesty trusts, that, in the mean time, not only the 
 spirit of loyal union which now so generally exists, will 
 remain unabated and unimpaired, but that every cause of 
 irritation will be avoided and discountenanced, mutual 
 forbearance and goodwill observed and encouraged, and 
 a security be thus afforded for a continuance of that con- 
 cord among themselves, which is not less essential to his 
 Majesty's happiness, than to their own, and which it has 
 been the chief object of his Majesty, during his residence 
 in this country, to cherish and promote." (Loud Cheers.) 
 I have read this extract from this epistolary sanative of 
 the evils which afflict this country. But, in reading it, 
 I found it difficult not to pause and break into exclama- 
 tion, at almost eveiy section of this piece of amiable 
 diplomacy for, in reading it, the events by which this 
 utterly abortive admonition, unsustained by any practical 
 measure for the conciliation of Ireland, has been followed, 
 pressed themselves upon my recollection, and I could not 
 shut out from my memory, the scenes of ferocious discord 
 which succeeded, almost immediately after the departure 
 of our gracious Sovereign, and the bequest of his benevo- 
 lent recommendation. Let me be allowed to revert to the 
 passage which I have read, and put it into a free but re- 
 spectful analysis. The interpreter of his Majesty's sensi- 
 bilities, my Lord Sidmouth, speaks of " the affectionate 
 attachment" of the Irish people, and " of the deepest 
 impression " which had been made upon his Majesty's 
 mind. Well might he speak of the " affectionate attach- 
 ment " which was manifested towards our Sovereign. Do 
 you remember, (you cannot fail to do so) the glorious spec- 
 tacle which was presented upon his arrival amongst us ? 
 I do not believe that in the annals of romantic loyalty, 
 
CXX APPENDIX. 
 
 and in all the records of the wild chivalry of allegiance, 
 an example could be found of more high and unanimous 
 enthusiasm, than was displayed hy the universal masses 
 of ardent and devoted population, which hailed the entrance 
 of King George the Fourth into this great metropolis. 
 If most of you had not witnessed that extraordinary scene, 
 I might attempt to describe it : but the reality is too 
 deeply imprinted in your recollections, to admit of any 
 successful delineation, and you could not fail to feel 
 that any picture, no matter how richly tinted, must be 
 greatly below the dignity and grandeur of that important 
 national event. I will not, therefore, attempt to paint 
 what is inlaid in such fresh colours in the memories of 
 every one of you. I will not tell you in what a noble 
 triumph of peace, in what an ovation of concord, the 
 Sovereign of the empire, of which Ireland constitutes so 
 large a department, entered this great city. I will not 
 recall to you the array of myriads, who were assembled to 
 greet him, and who, with uplifted eyes and hands, and 
 with voices, into which their hearts were thrown, sent up 
 their invocations for his welfare : I will not tell you how 
 George the Fourth looked, and must have felt, upon that 
 lofty and almost sublime occasion. If I made such an 
 attempt, you would stop and chide me you would say, 
 that I fell far beneath the glory and magnificence of the 
 scene which I should endeavour to present to you. It is 
 enough, therefore, that I should make a simple mention 
 of that singular exhibition of rational enthusiasm, in order 
 to bring it back, in all its vividness to your minds. It is 
 stated, that the " deepest impression " was made upon his 
 Majesty's mind. I entertain no doubt of it. How was 
 it possible that he should behold such demonstrations of 
 affection and of fidelity, without a profound appreciation 
 
APPENDIX. CXX1 
 
 of the qualities of the people from which those noble feel- 
 ings derived their origin ? How was it possible that he 
 should witness what he beheld on his arrival but above 
 all, how could he behold what took place on his depar- 
 ture, without a profound and thrilling emotion ? He stood 
 upon the shore he was surrounded by his people he 
 heard their prayers for his happiness offered up from 
 hearts as honest as ever sent an orison to heaven he saw 
 the tears that flowed down many a manly cheek, and he 
 beheld many a brawny arm stretched out to him in an 
 affectionate farewell. He ascended the ship that was to 
 waft him from the island, in which the traces of his foot- 
 steps ought to have been left in measures of benevolence 
 behind. The winds filled the sails the vessel went 
 slowly and majestically through the ocean. He stood 
 upon the deck, and thence looked back towards Ireland, 
 and saw the hills by which she was encompassed, crowded 
 to the tops by hundreds of thousands, who sent their 
 benedictions along with him. Is it possible that at such 
 a moment his heart should not have melted and dissolved 
 within him ? Did not the tears of a generous sensibility 
 rush into his eyes, and, as the shouts of his people came 
 from the receding shores, across the water, did he not ex- 
 claim : " I will I will do something for Ireland." But, 
 I forget myself. I am hurried away by the emotions 
 which the recollection of those striking scenes cannot fail 
 to awaken in the bosom of every one of us. I should re- 
 sume a more sober and befitting tone of sentiment and 
 yet, even now, I cannot avoid relapsing for a moment into 
 the feelings which had swept me beyond the limits of 
 temperate discussion, and exclaiming : " What, after all, 
 has he done for Ireland ? " But I return. His Majesty 
 proceeds to say that he hopes " that every cause of irrita- 
 
CXX11 APPENDIX. 
 
 tion will be avoided and discountenanced." Alas ! what 
 imperfect views his Majesty must have taken of the real 
 sources of the calamities of this country ? How little he 
 knew of the real character of the faction, which has so 
 long trampled upon Ireland, when he conceived that his 
 mere behest could have the effect of subduing the spirit 
 of insolent domination, by which that ferocious confede- 
 racy, as long as they are sustained by the law, never can 
 cease to be influenced ! What took place almost imme- 
 diately after his Majesty's departure? He left us his 
 advice, and gave us nothing else. How did the Orange- 
 men of Ireland fulfil it? at their civic banquets, the 
 watchword of ascendancy was almost instantly proclaimed. 
 The banners of Ireland's shame were unfurled in a still 
 more ostentatious and offensive publicity. The Sovereign 
 himself, was insulted in the person of his representative, 
 and Justice, when called in to avenge the affront, appeared 
 dressed in orange ribbons. The spirit of faction got pos- 
 session of the public tribunals of the country ; more vehe- 
 ment hatreds, and more relentless detestations ensued, 
 than had ever before taken place, and the contending 
 parties wanted but a pretence to rush, in a sanguinary 
 conflict, upon each other. His Majesty hoped, indeed, 
 " that every cause of irritation would be avoided." Did 
 his Majesty then know so little of Ireland ? Had he him- 
 self learned so little from his Royal observation, or had he 
 derived so few useful instructions from his early friend 
 and adviser, Mr. Fox, as to think it possible that as long- 
 as the exasperating disqualifications, which disgrace, and 
 brand, and burn upon us, are permitted to continue, that 
 the " causes of irritation " could be avoided? His 
 Majesty talks of " the continuance of concord." How 
 can he imagine that concord can exist in a country where 
 
APPENDIX. CXX111 
 
 the law itself is the hot-bed of rancour, and foments and 
 throws up nothing but poisoned plants ? Does his Majesty 
 conceive that his mere admonition is sufficient to divest 
 the spirit of political domination of its insolence, and to 
 take from the consciousness of deep wrong, the indignation 
 which, in all generous minds, it cannot fail to generate ? 
 But, it is better, at once, to speak openly and unequivo- 
 cally. I will no longer pursue the spirit of this letter 
 throughout all its phrases, or dissect its syllables. Better 
 to give a direct and undisguised utterance to the feeling 
 which the perusal of that letter, with the commentary 
 which events have furnished, cannot but create. The 
 King came here he was received with acclamations he 
 told us to live in union, concord, and peace and he has 
 done nothing to effectuate his benevolent wishes, and 
 cany his own gracious injunctions into execution. What 
 did our most gracious Sovereign mean, by directing his 
 minister to indite such a document ? I repeat the question 
 what did he mean ? we are told " that our concord is 
 as necessary for his happiness as for our own." Would 
 to Heaven, then, that he had adopted some more effectual 
 means of promoting his own felicity. Let him look at 
 the condition of Ireland, and pronounce how far his bene- 
 ficent aspirations for our welfare have been realised. 
 Perhaps more deadly animosities exist at this moment, 
 than at any previous period in those annals of discord, 
 the history of Ireland. The two great classes into which 
 the population is divided, are marshalled in a deep and 
 well-disciplined array against each other. A most mon- 
 strous state of things has grown up, whose features of 
 anomaly are every day becoming more enlarged and 
 marked. Seven millions of the people of Ireland have 
 become so much habituated to self-government, that they 
 
CXX1V APPENDIX. 
 
 move and are regulated by exact and uniformly operating 
 principles of universal organization. A great precedent 
 of the power and of the union of the people has been 
 established on a single day, seven millions of the Irish 
 people assembled simultaneously round the altars of their 
 religion. Can things remain thus ? King of England, 
 enjoiner of concord, answer the question ! 
 
 I have prepared an address to his Majesty, founded 
 upon Lord Sidmouth's letter, in which some of the topics 
 which I have adverted to are introduced, but with that 
 tone of respect which should mark the language of sub- 
 jects towards their sovereign. Although I think that we 
 have a good deal of reason to complain that his Majesty 
 has not followed up his own advice by any measures for 
 the effectuation of his purposes, yet I think that his letter 
 furnishes indications of a disposition to do so, whenever 
 circumstances will allow of his Royal interposition in our 
 behalf. The conclusion of his letter is remarkable : 
 " His Majesty well knows the generosity and warmth of 
 heart which distinguishes the character of his faithful 
 people in Ireland, and he leaves them with a heart full 
 of affection towards them, and with a confident and gra- 
 tifying persuasion that this parting admonition and in- 
 junction of their Sovereign will not be given in vain." It 
 has been given in vain ; but it depends upon his Majesty 
 to take away from it the character of nullity and invalidity 
 which is attached to it, and to embody his own wishes for 
 the peace of Ireland, in an act of substantial and perma- 
 nent conciliation. That he left us " with a heart full of 
 affection," I entertain no doubt ; but it is to be' desired 
 that the cordiality of his attachment should be exem- 
 plified in some legislative exemplification of his Royal 
 predelictions in favour of Ireland. He has rightly said 
 
APPENDIX. CXXV 
 
 that we are a generous people ; let him also give us some 
 materials for the exercise of our gratitude. He has a noble 
 opportunity, not only of embodying his solicitude for our 
 welfare in some practical act for the pacification of Ire- 
 land, but of commending his own name to an everlasting 
 glory. How splendid an epitaph (for even Kings must 
 die) he may procure for himself. He has to make his 
 choice. What shall be written upon his sepulchre? 
 Shall it run thus " Here lies the King, who was beloved 
 by Ireland in his youth, who beguiled her in his manhood, 
 and betrayed her in his age ;" or shall it be " Here lies 
 the King, who by the tranquillization of Ireland, not only 
 received for himself the attachment of seven millions of 
 his subjects, but bound a great and powerful people in 
 an indissoluble allegiance to the State, and while he im- 
 parted prosperity and concord to a vast portion of his do- 
 minions, gave an imperishable security to the empire, and 
 rendered England immortal." Let me be permitted to 
 pursue the train of thought into which I have fallen, and 
 enquire what sort of monument would George the Fourth 
 desire? What emblems does he wish upon his tomb? 
 Shall Ireland be presented upon it, with her arms bound 
 in fetters behind her, with shame, and sorrow, and re- 
 proach in her countenance ; or shall she stand, with her 
 manacles fallen to the earth, and with her unfettered arms 
 uplifted in freedom to Heaven. (Loud and continued 
 cheers.) 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 WORKS ON CONTROVERSY. 
 
 BOSSUET'S Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic 
 Church in Matters of Controversy. 
 
 FAITH OF CATHOLICS, confirmed by Scripture, and at- 
 tested by the Fathers of the first Jive centuries. 
 
 Protestant's Trial by the Written Word. 
 
 MILKER'S End of Religious Controversy an admirable 
 Work. 
 
 Letters to a Prebendary. 
 
 History of Winchester. 
 
 Essence of Religious Controversy. By the Rev.Dr.CooMBES. 
 GOTHER'S Papist Misrepresented and Represented. 
 Catholic Christian Instructed. 
 LINGARD'S History of the Anglo-Saxon Church. 
 
 Tracts. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY; or the Evidences and Characters of the 
 
 Christian Religion. By the Right Rev. Dr. POYNTER. 
 Discussion Amicale. 
 
 Reply to the Most Rev. Dr. Magee. By J. K. L. 
 Protestant Apology for the Roman Catholic Faith. 
 Reflections on the Spirit of Controversy. By the Rev. Dr. 
 
 FLETCHER. 
 DUKE OF BRUNSWICK'S Fifty Reasons; and numerous 
 
 others to be had of all Catholic Booksellers. 
 N.B. COBBETT'S History of the Reformation gives a 
 
 clearer insight into the principles and conduct of the 
 
 Reformers in this country, than any work that has 
 
 ever been published. 
 
London. Printed by 
 C. Ricliauls, 100, St. Martin's Lane. 
 
OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY