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MILNER'S I^OS" APPEAL, MY CATHOLIC BRETHREN, Overpowered as I am, by the number and the diversity of my literary foes, rather than their force, it seems to me that I can disarm, if I cannot drive off, one of the most formida- ble bodies of them, if you will permit an in- dividual, who has, for a considerable time past, devoted himself to your interest and service, now to appeal to your characteristical justice and generosity, and indulge him with a ool and deliberate hearing ; for it is notorious, that I am unremittingly attacked in the front by the Musgraves, the Duigenans and their Orange bands,* whose unbounded indignation I have b drawn * See Sir Richard Musgrave's Remarks on my Tour, and Abraham Plymley's Answer to his Brother Peter, Le Mes- urier's Bampton Lectures, and the different numbers of the Anti-jacobin or No-Popery Review. This monthly pub- lication 4 drawn upon myself, chiefly by fighting your battles. It is equally manifest that / am, on one hand, assailed and harrassed without ceas- ing, by a confederate band of Irish Catholic writers, who shew me no more respect or mercy, either as a fellow Catholic, or as a prelate of their church, than the Orangemen themselves do : and you will now, at least, learn that I am annoyed on the other hand, with weekly pamph- lets, essays, and satyrs, by a desperate Gallic sect, who threaten, as well as insult me, be- cause I will not acknowledge them to be Ca- tholics, whilst they proclaim our venerable Pon- tifrj the exemplary Pius VII. and the great universal Church, in communion with him, to be involved in schism and heresy ! I say, you will necessarily learn this now, because the champion of this sect, Abbe; Blanchard, has recently appealed from my judgment, and that of his own bishop, to your prelates, in a book of 244 pages, * declaring at the same time, that lie shall take their silence for an approbation of his doctrine. Behind me are , but as they lication is the common vehicle of the anonymous cftlumnies and infectives of Dr. D. and Sir R. M. against Popery, and its defenders. See, in particular, the number which has just appeared for December last, in which the Orange writer makes common cause with my Catholic foes in Ireland. * The author has very properly entitled his last prpductiou Abus sans Example. they keep out of sight, I will not drag them into it. Yes, my Catholic brethren of Ireland, for these six months and more during which I have been chiefly taken up, as you will soon see, with prosecuting my former undertaking of illustrating your history and antiquities, of vin- dicating your apostle and ancient saints, of de* monstrating the purity and truth of your reli- gion, and of beating clown the different adver- saries who have risen up against it, of celebrat- ing your national character, and more particu- larly, of defending your clergy and hierarchy, with all their divine rights and jurisdictions, te the best of my power, and at the risk of losing what is most valuable to me in this world a confederate host of your Catholic writers have been employed in executing their threat, made in August last, of depriving me of my popu- larity that is to say, of your affection and esteem. In the prosecution of this most uncha- ritable undertaking, they have kept no bounds in the malice of their insinuations, or in the grossness of their misrepresentations and calum- nies. Do you fancy this an exaggerated com- plaint ? Look at the hand-bills posted upon your walls, or dispersed through the post-office, over the two islands; in which I am charged with- being " an agent in selling your venerable " hierarchy to the highest bidder." Happily for b 2 my 6 my credit, but unhappily for that of our holy religion, two other prelates were associated with me in the charge; one of whom, probably the immediate head pastor of the calumniators, for his zealous and successful exertions in de- fence of this religion, has long been the com- mon shooting mark of all its declared enemies ; while the other, by his charity, piety and sweet- ness, has the rare merit of having disarmed those enemies, in every country in which he is known. To say one word now of myself: so, it seems, I am posted throughout England and Ireland, as the salesman of your hierarchy ! Take up, fellow Catholics, that book, * which probably first taught my accusers to appreciate the dignity and the value of that hierarchy, to judge me on this charge, by the contents of it. Turn in particular to that passage, page 29, in which I deprecate, with all the energy I am master of, the pensioning of the Catholic clergy, and be assured that I shall repeat the same sen- timent in the new edition of my work. If you have any doubt concerning the meaning and ten- dency of that passage, consult the commenta- ries of your enemies upon it, namely, the " Re- marks of Sir R. Musgrave" upon my Tour, and V the Report of Lord B shire's Speech" in a certain illustrious assembly, on the 27th of last May, * Letters from Ireland, &c. May, . But I am wandering from my subject, which at present is not to argue, but to relate. Examine then the files of the Dublin Evening Herald, from July to December, in- clusively ; you will see me therein charged with " a blasphemous attempt against the existence " of the hierarchy ;" * with " sacrificing the li principles, tenets, and discipline of the Ca- " tholic Church ;" f with being " an agent " sent to Ireland, by Mr. Perceval, to accom- " plish the work in which Lord Redesdale " failed, that of subverting the Popish super- ft stition, and of grinding down the faith and " morals of Catholic Ireland, more than all the " efforts of Luther and Calvin could do ;" J with being " disposed to barter away the inalienable " spiritual rights of the Church for my own " temporal advantage ;" with being " a wolf " in sheep's clothing," the hypocritical priest described by Boileau, and "Judas Iscariot, agent " to the party that sought to arrest Jesus " Christ." |J In consequence of this accumu- lated guilt, formal notice is given to me and to the British empire, that " I have been tried and " found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged in " effigy by the parliament of Pimlico, (in " Dublin,) under the prosecution of Mr. Attor- " ney General, Sarsfield, and Mr. Solicitor Ge- * ueral, Laicus, for conspiring, at the instiga- " tion * Evening Herald, July 20. f Sept. 2. Sept. 12. C lh\A II Sent. flt. <; tion of the devil, under the form of thirty " pieces of silver, to adopt resolutions subver- " sive of the faith I was sworn to protect."* I have more recently been compared, in a copi- ous parallel, with " the proud Pharisee" of the gospel, f It has been roundly asserted before the public, that, " as much as in me lies, I " encourage persecution against the Christian " Church ;" J that I am " so far maddened " by disappointment, as to be instrumental iri " quickening the malice of the avowed enemies, " or affected friends of the Irish bishops," and that " the Irish prelates and Catholics in general " are (possibly) doomed to a new persecution, " unnaturally roused into action, by that uu- " grateful accusing spirit which dictates all my " furious letters on the question." I ask you now, my Catholic brethren, whe- ther the picture which I drew of your confe- derate Irish writers is overcharged ? and, in your opinion, whether Sir It. Musgrave himself is capable of writing with more rancour, and coarseness against the author, who has exposed the falsehoods and fabrications in his darling Memoirs of the Rebellions, than these good Catholics do write against a prelate of their' own communion? I sincerely hope, for the' consistency of what I have publislied and am publishing of your moral and religious charac- ter, Evening Herald, Sept. 26. f Npv. IS. % Dec. 2. S. Knv Sft ter, that the number of these writers is not great, though they describe themselves as con- stituting a parliament. For my part I never found any thing like this rancorous disposition amongst those who are considered as the refuse of your nation ; I mean the poor sailors and soldiers, who were brought from Portsmouth and Gosport to my parish town of Winchester, for trial, on some indictment or other, to the number of many hundreds, during the twenty- four years I resided there. On the contrary, I found such an innate goodness of heart, and respect for the ministers of religion, and especi- ally that exuberance of gratitude for the ser- vices of which it was my duty to render thetn in life and at their deaths, as to endear their national character to me, at a time when I little expected to become acquainted with the more religious and moral orders of their countrymen. Alas ! till of late, I thought the mental poison of your country had been confined to the breasts of Orangemen ! These writers, of the Herald, boast of having covered me " with shame and confusion, by put- " ting me down in argument ; a circumstance," they are pleased to say, " which I had pre- " viously been & stranger to."* If this be true, let them have the full merit of their victory : for thus much is certain, that the question at issue- * Evening Herald, Nov. 13. 10 issue was to me a professional subject, and the very subject on which I have published three different works;* while my antagonists pro- fessed to be utterly unacquainted with the great Catholic theologians and canonists, whom we bishops and priests are obliged to study, but to draw all their information from that single source from which Luther and Calvin drew their information.f I must add what you my brethren will naturally suppose, that in conse- quence of their writing numerous hasty and desultory essays, on subjects which they had never studied, they fell into grosser errors and more numerous contradictions than any one of those several adversaries has done, whom they admit I have had the advantage over during the twenty-five years of my literary polemics. However, they fancy they have " put me down " in argument," and it is -not my intention to disturb them in the enjoyment of their triumph ; only I will mention to you what they themselves avow," namely, that long ago I signified my resolution not to have any controversy with them at all under the disguise of feigned sig- natures; and in this resolution I was fortified by the advice of the Catholic prelates, who never spoke of these anonymous Herald writers but in The Letter to a Layman, the Divine Right of Episco- pacy and Ecclesiastical Democracy detected, f Evening Herald, Sept. 23. 11 in the severest terms of censure and displeasure. The writers, however, ask by what rule of Locke I can shew, that a knowledge of the dis- putant is of any consequence as to the force of his argument ? Undoubtedly there is no rule either in Locke or in Aristotle of this nature ; but there is a rule of common sense, which tells every gentleman and scholar not to- commit himself, either by word of mouth or in writing, if he can properly avoid it, with any person, unless he has some sort of pledge that the person will observe due decorum of language, that he Will adhere to the fundamental prin- ciples on which the controversy rests, and that he will abide by the consequences of a refuta- tion, so far at least as to acknowledge his error, or to be silent on the subject. Now, it is evi- dent that I am bound by all these laws, while I give my name to the public, as I invariably do, whether in periodical papers or in other publications : but what hold have I, and what hold has the public, upon A. B. and Laicus, and Sarsfield, and Detector, for their obser- vance of any of them ? For example, is it to be supposed that any of these writers would have the confidence to address me in such lan- guage as that set down above under his own name, supposing at the same time this name to belong to a gentleman ? And would any con- trovertist, whom I could tie down to the laws C of 12 of the Catholic Church, and who is amenable to the reproof of its pastors, vauntingly scoff at the authority of Cabassutius, Thomassi- nus, and Bellarmine,* on a question concern- ing the canons and discipline of the Catholic Church, and that he would appeal from them to his own interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles, and to some unknown clergyman's interpretation of a Greek word, which the writers do not know even how to spell ?f Well, and supposing now, that, after having been so often " put down in argument" by these pro- found canonists and linguists, I should, by mere chance, gain a victory in my turn, what shall I be the better of it, or my enemies the worse ? LaicuSj perhaps, will transform himself into A, B. and Sarsfteld into Detector, and in these new characters they will open batteries upon me upon fresh grounds : in the mean time Mr. C. and Mr. D. which I suppose to be the real names of my opponents, will walk the streets with unblushing countenances, and will insult as usual that of Dr. Milner ! But my anony- mous calumniators have two other reasons for keeping in the dark; they say that by " avow- ing their names they would expose themselves to the dagger of the vile Orangeman, or to the slanderous tongue of the more vile pensioned and pension hunting Catholic.''^ Both these reasons * Evening Herald, Sept. 2-3. Nov. 13. f Sept. 23. 13 reasons I submit to the consideration of the public ; first, whether the writers are not quite a match for the pension hunters in the line in which they affect to dread them ? And secondly, whether it is not at least probable that the names of these writers, when they come to be known, will not be found more obnoxious to Orange- men than that of Dr. Milner, which name, however, the owner of it never conceals either in Ireland or in England ? There is a case, my fellow Catholics, in which I might be induced to affix a false signature to my publication ; namely, in case (by way of an essay, or for any other reason) I were to write upon a subject which I knew nothing at all about. But in no case whatsoever could I re- concile it to my ideas of justice to lay an accusa- tion, or, what is worse, to insinuate one against any man, whether prelate or peasant, whether Catholic or Orangeman, without giving my name, as a pledge that I would stand the issue of a trial with him before the public, or even before a court of justice. Never could I recon- cile it to the feelings of my heart to hide myself in a corner, and thence to shoot poisoned shafts at the man whom I think, or who actually may be my enemy, No ; if for any good purpose I must fight with him, it shall be on equal terms ; he shall have the advantage of his sword as well c 2 as 14 as of his shield. Irishmen ! do not your hearts beat in unison with mine? I shall conclude this long digression with expressing my surprise and my concern at the conduct of my adversaries. I am surprised that, in extolling the resolutions of their upright and edifying prelates, in their Synod on the 15th of September last, they should take no notice of, and should even trample upon, the third and fourth articles of them : for have they ever once appeared sensible of the severe censure which was then passed by that venerable body upon thea licentious pens? Have they paid the least respect to the four and twenty crosiers that were then projected in my defence ? No ; for the bitterest, the most libellous calumnies of these Heraklists are those which were published within a week or ten days from the breaking up of the Synod. I shall here insert the resolutions in question, the original of which is in my possession. " At a meeting of the Roman Catholic arch- " bishops and bishops of Ireland, held in Dub- " lin, September 15th, 1808, resolved unani- " mously, that the satisfactory explanation of " the Kio-ht Rev. Dr. Milner's conduct in a late " arduous transaction, as received this day, " through a specially deputed friend, most " amply proves to us, how grossly he has been l< misrepresentedin certain newspaper publications. < We 15 " We are fully convinced of the unblemished " rectitude of his principles, of the purity of " his intentions, and of his disinterested zeal in "the Catholic cause: and we hereby entreat " him to accept of our warmest thanks, for his " powerful and unwearied exertions in promot- " ing it. Resolved unanimously, that the Right " Rev. Dr. Milner be requested to act as agent " to the Roman Catholic Clergy of Ireland at " the seat of government, agreeable to such " instructions as he may occasionally receive M from the Archbishops, in concurrence with " their Suffragans." The concern which I feel arises from a zeal for the reputation and interest of our common Church, one of the essential and mostly con- spicuous marks of which you well know, my Catholic brethren, is HOLYNESS. Thisholyness implies the strictest observance of the Ten Commandments, and, above all, the practice of the favourite virtue of our Divine Master, charity. Without this, as you have oftentimes heard, your faith, " though strong enough to move mountains, would avail you nothing" 1 Cor. xiii. 2. Now, I appeal to your cool consideration, what ideas our mistaken fellow- christians of other communions must form of the sanctity of that Church, in which such men as Lord Fingall and Lord Southwell are con- stantly 16 stantly held up by Catholic writers, as nomi- nally irreligious; half Catholics, the disgrace of their Church, &c. They who have made, and who constantly do make, such sacrifices to it ; they who are universally revered for their moral and religious virtues by the public at large, as well as by myself, who have known them from their childhood; whilst the men who put themselves forward in the face of the public, as the genuine, strict, conscientious Catholics ; and who, to use their own swaddling language, " have been saved by their religion," * are chiefly distinguished by the uncharitable- ness of their language, as appears by the spe- cimen I have given of it, and by their conti- nued, open violation of the commandment, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour! What scandal must not you, my brethren, take at the conduct of these men, who, as strict, conscientious Catholics, of course, you know are in the habit of frequenting the holy sacraments, whilst you are constant wit- nesses to their detraction and calumnies against their own prelates, as well as against others, and never hear of the least attempt, on their part, " to make their injured neighbour satisfac- " tion, and to restore his good name as soon " as possible." Catholic Catech. p. 32. It * Evening Herald, Nov. 30. 17 It is pleasant enough^to hear these anonymous writers retorting the charge of injustice and uncharitableness upon me, because when they began to call me to an account, and to a number of impertinent questions, (threatening me first with the loss of my popularity, and then with gibbets and fire to enforce their requisition,) I took the liberty of enquiring their real names, in order to judge from their characters, of their motives, and their authority in questioning me ; adding that ic Sarsfield and Laicus may be " good Catholics, or mere nominal Catholics, a " disgrace, by their principles and conduct, to " the religion they profess ; or that they may " even be wolves in sheep's clothing, who come " only to kill and destroy, for any thing I " can know of them, and that the disclosure " of their real names would probably settle my " opinion upon these points, and enable me to " decide how far they are deserving of my " respect and regard." This is the passage, which some man, woman, or child, who falsely assumes the name of the Great Sarsfield, Lord Lucan, maintains is contrary to justice and charity.* But, tell me, my brethren, I beseech you, what injustice or uncharitableness can be deduced from it, except that, in my opinion, some bad Catholic or some Orangeman is as capable * Erening Herald, Nor. 13. 13 capable of writing in th newspapers, under the signature of Sarsfield, or Laicus, as a good Catholic is? Heavens defend me from insinuating, that your immortal countryman, the real Sarsfield, (for as to Laicus, I suppose the millions whom I have the honour to address are all Laid,) who nobly faced in the field " the hero of Glencoe, atid the pacificator of " Limerick," was " a disgrace to his religion, " or a wolf in sheep's cloathing." If any thing were wanting to the completion of the jest, it is, that this mock Sarsfield complains I have " attacked a character which I cannot pos- " sibly know,"* and which, he adds in the same paper, he " keeps concealed, for fear of " the dagger of the Orangeman, and the slan- " derous tongue of the pensioned Catholic.'* To attack a fabricated name ; to injure a repu- tation which is a profound secret; to ruin a character which does not exist; by what name, I pray you, my brethren, do you call this in your country ? I am far from wishing to lay additional re- straints upon the press; but again, and again, my Catholic brethren, I beseech you, to dis- courage, by all the means in your power, anonymous publications upon matters relating to your religion. I have much higher motives for Evening Hcralil, Not. 15. 19 for this advice, than those which I have already suggested; and, take notice, they are such as all and every one of your excellent prelates and pastors will decidedly sanction. For under their correction, I, though a doctor and a prelate of your Church, always speak to you, my brethren of Ireland, upon these subjects. The case is this; there is a living authority, a speaking tribunal in the Catholic Church ; the singular, the happy prerogative, the immorta- lizing principle of which is, that we all and every one of her children, are subject to it. By pub- lishing our real names with our religious essays, we profess ourselves, or at any rate we be- come, amenable to this tribunal. But if bad Catholics, under the pretence of being good ones, if the heterodox, under the pretence of being orthodox, by means of feigned names, and specious declamation, are permitted to lecture you, how can your real pastors and prelates arraign them ? What security have you that they will not impose false doctrines upon you, for the genuine doctrines of the Church ; as I maintain the above mentioned anonymous writers have done in scores of instances ? I give you my word, my Catholic brethren, that when I sat down to write this letter, I had no intention of running into this exposure of the anonymous writers in the Evening Herald; my 20 my business not being to refute their calum- nies, but to eradicate some groundless preju- dices against myself; which 1 fear have been instilled into the breasts of several of the most upright and edifying persons among you. However, as these prejudices have probably originated in the still repeated and unrefuted calumnies in question, (in confirmation of the Machiavelian maxim, calumniare fortiter, fyc. (throw on dirt enough, some of it will stick) this digression may be of service to me, in the cause which I have undertaken ; at the same time that it will be useful to you for the different purposes which I have pointed out. The prejudices which I mean to combat are nearly allied to the following assertions of my adversaries, in their latest publications : " Dr. u Milner at the last hearing of the Catholic " petition, engaged that the King should hold " a veto upon the election of our bishops. " He did grant a veto. Before the passing of u the resolutions, we were advised by Dr. "Milner to leave the settling of the dispute ** to our worthy prelates. The bishops did exa- " mine the question, and unanimously decided " against Dr. Milnefs plan."* " He is enthu- ' siastically attached to it."f His recent letter "in * Evening Herald, Dec. 2. f The present slate, by Inimicus Veto, Esquire! Tin* writer 21 " in the Morning Chronicle, has filled the " nation with astonishment, and excited loud " and general censure on this wanton and un- " politic renewal of hostilities."* In opposition to these assertions, I undertake to prove ; first, that neither the plan, which the great bulk of you so strongly object to, for allowing of a certain interference of the Crown in the nomi- nation of your bishops, nor any other plan for making the least change whatsoever in your ecclesiastical discipline, is my plan : secondly, that I never did grant to the Crown the power of a veto in this business, nor engage that your bishops should grant it: thirdly, that, as well since, as before the passing of the resolutions, I have uniformly advised the Catholics to leave this matter to their worthy prelates; knowing perfectly well that it is for them, and them exclusively, to decide upon the expediency of the measure, as it is mine to obey their instructions. I disclaim an attachment to any measure which the prelates of any part of the Catholic Church may deem inconsistent with its safety or its welfare; and I maintain my late letter was not intended by me, nor indeed generally calculated to occasion hostilities of d 2 any writer proves himself by his language to be a gentleman, no less than Mr. Trotter, Mr. Clinch, and one or two others of my opponents : yet I never, before now, heard of an Esquire of that name in any part of Ireland. * Evening Herald, Dec. 5. 22 any kind, but rather to promote the inestimable blessing of peace. Should I, my Catholic bre- thren, obtain that success which I promise myself in establishing these three points, I foresee that I shall have nothing to fear from the utmost malice of my inveterate foes on your side of the water, and that I shall have no future occasion to renew this disagreeable topic, in either island, barring such explanations as may become inevitably necessary, in consequence of the expected debates in Parliament. Of one thing remain perfectly assured, that, as I have received no instructions whatsoever from your prelates, or from any one of them, relative to the business in question, so I should decline receiving any if sent to me. In any other con- cern I should be happy to serve them, but of this I trust I have' washed my hands for ever. To proceed now with some degree of order in establishing the two first points of my de- fence; namely, those which regard my conduct previously to the meeting of the bishops: I positively deny, that I formed the plan, or conspired with any other being or beings, to introduce any sort of interference, on the part of the Crown, in the nomination of your bishops, or in any other of .your ecclesiastical concerns whatsoever. It is notorious to the public, both Protestant and Catholic, that I am not less a professed advocate for your hierarchy, and the 23 the mode by which it is perpetuated, as being primitive, and calculated for the peace and welfare both of Church and State, * than I am a foe to every the least encroachment of the civil power, or of the people, upon that indepen- dent spiritual jurisdiction which Christ has left to his Church, and which is the very vital spirit of its never failing existence. For more than twenty years, my brethren, have I been engaged with the enemies, and chiefly the domestic enemies of this jurisdiction, who in various modes have attempted to infringe it, that is to say, either by recommending the oath of supremacy or the direct R oyal nomination: God knows, my brethren, you will know at the great day of manifestation, what I have suffered for my constancy, in defending the independency of your Irish Catholic hierarchy and jurisdiction, no less than that of our little English Catholic flock. This being to a certain degree a matter well known to the heads of your hierarchy, and having first attracted, on my behalf, the honour of their notice and friend- ship, what likelihood is there that I should, ail on a sudden, in the month of May last, when the ink was hardly dry in that pen with which I had been defending the divine rights and free- dom * See Appendix, No. 5, to Sir J. Hippesley's Additional Observations. iff 24 dom of that hierarchy and jurisdiction against their most inveterate and powerful enemy, Dr. Duigenan, * renounce the leading principles of my conduct and conscience, hy devising a plan, or conspiring with other persons in devising a plan, against your hierarchy and jurisdiction ? Again, my brethren, though conscientiously attached to the King and Country, to which we have sworn allegiance, as I have maintained you also are ; I have always measured my alle- giance and your own, not by the news in the Gazette, but by our duty and our oath; I have always vouched to this King and Country for the purity and firmness of your civil and social principles, and mofe particularly for those of your exemplary prelates, and have shewn that our Catholic ancestors, and the bishops and clergy, in particular, have evinced a principle of conscience, in opposition to apparent interest, beyond every other description of christians, even the divine right men. In short, I have always maintained, by the tongue and by the pen, what I am fully convinced o that there is no need of any change at all in the existing discipline, by way of securing or ascertaining the fidelity of your prelates and clergy. Nay, I will go so far as to say that, in my opinion, the most considerable personages, who have called f See Supplement to the second edition of Addit. Obsertr. 25 called for a change on this ground, do not think it necessary. They only sought to throw out a tub to the whale of vulgar Protestant prejudice; just as when they tacked new for- mularies of allegiance, but exactly the same in substance, to the different acts of parliament which they have, from time to time, passed in our favour. I had then no political motive for desiring a change in your discipline ; and as to the personal motives of avarice and ambition, which the Herald writers have alternately attri- buted to me, I disdain to answer them when I am writing to you. But, though / have never devised or desired a change in your Church government, others, in great numbers, have; I mean other Catho- lics; for as to Protestants, they, of course, must always wish it to be changed, and even destroyed. Instead, however, of enumerating the works written by Catholics, or mentioning the respectable personages among them who have negociated in favour of this change, so far as to recommend the vesting of an absolute and uncontrouled power in the Crown over all our prelacies in both kingdoms, I shall satisfy myself with citing the declaration, upon this head, of the celebrated and well informed writer whose publications have been more read, and have produced a greater effect than those of any other of our advocates whomsoever; I mean 26 mean Peter Plymley, so called. This is then, what he published in his Ninth Letter, a little before the late debates on the Catholic Petition : " To my certain knowledge the Catholics have " long since expressed to his Majesty's ministers " their perfect readiness t& vest in his Majesty , " either with the consent of the Pope, or " without it, if it cannot be obtained, the "nomination of the Catholic prelacy."'' There was then a poweiful conspiracy of still growing strength to which several of our Catholics were accessary, for enslaving the Catholic Church of both islands, or rather for extinguishing what I have called its vital principle : but so far was I from being a party to it, that I pre- pared myself to oppose it, whenever it might break forth, with all my might, as I am well known to have opposed other attempts of the same tendency. Some of your prelates, particularly two venera- ble metropolitans, will testify that I consulted with them long ago upon the best means of averting the dreaded mischief, and that I went up to London the last time I was there for the express purpose of making such efforts, as it might be in my power to make, against it. That noble Lord also, whose zeal in your cause made him a sort of courier between London and Dublin, in the worst weather of last spring, will testify that in every one of the visits with which 27 which he honoured me in travelling between those capitals, I never failed to warn him, in the most emphatic language, against consenting to the projected change. You will certainly conclude that I had taken such means as seemed to me, at the time, sufficient for ascertaining the sentiments of the Irish prelates on this momentous concern. To be brief, I did under- stand that these sentiments perfectly agreed with my own ; namely > that we could not, to save our lives, yield the direct patronage of our hierarchy, or the right of appointing Ca- tholic bishops, to an A- Catholic state or sove- reign ; but that it would not be contrary to the faith or essential discipline of our religion, to yield that sort of negative interference which has been so often explained, provided it were otherwise expedient, for the welfare of the Catholic religion or of the Catholics themselves. Of this latter point I never took upon myself to judge, but I understood that your prelates, whose exclusive right it was to judge of it, were disposed to grant it out of a regard to you, their flock ; namely, as the price of your civil rights, and the condition of your emancipation. For you are sensible that we, the ministers of the Catholic religion, and the religion itself, are to derive no benefit from the emancipation : come when it may, it is understood that we are to remain after it, just as we are before it. With k respect ?8 respect to yourselves, the Catholics of Ireland, I was not honoured with any commission from you, and I never took upon myself to judge of your political interests or your national feelings : there were other persons every way better qualified, and those duly authorized to attend to them, and who at the same time were privy to, and witnesses of, every step that I subsequently took. In a word, it never once entered into my imagination (here I confess my egregious error) that you, or any part of you* would conceive an alteration in the process of recom- mending candidates for episcopal institutions, to undermine " the only undestroyed monu- ^ ment of your national grandeur," any mora than the different changes which have taken place in this respect since the year 1682 have done. So far from this, I really believed tha>t you wished every concession, consistent with the principles of our common religion, to be made by your clergy, in order to obtain a com- plete redress of your existing grievances, and to annihilate for ever those odious distinctions which still make you, the population of the country, an inferior cast in it. I had seen Maynooth accepted, with gratitude ; I had wit- nessed your patient acquiescence in those dis- graceful formularies of allegiance, unexampled in the history of civilized states, which I have mentioned above. For Ljudge of your feelings, my 29 my brethren, by my own; and I solemnly declare, that I never felt myself so humbled in all my life, as when, in the public court at Win- chester, I was forced to sweat that " I did riot *' think myself bound by my adherence to the " Catholic Church (that Church which- my " Protestant fellowrsubjects call HOLY when- " ever they repeat their creed) to rebel, to " commit murder, and every other sin ; and', H lastly, to perjure myself t" Oh! with what enthusiastic ardour and galling sarcasm have I not heard my respected acquaintance, and your immortal advocate, the great Fox^ dwell upon the absurdity of calling upon men to swear that they .think themselves obliged to keep an oath ! But, to return to my defence: the very first morning after my arrival in London, and 1 in consequence, I am persuadedj of my earnest cautions; mentioned above, to a noble and wor- thy personage, I was summoned, to attend cer- tain illustrious parliamentary friends, when this question was put? to me, as nearly as I can recol- lect : " What sorfr of power the Catholic " bishops of Ireland were disposed to yield to " the Crown, in order to bring about the eman- " cipation ?" The question, you observe, was, as: the business itself was, not about my own dispositions or concessions, but about those of the Irish bishops* How now, I pray you, was e2 I to 30 I to act in these circumstances? Methinks every honest man amongst you would say, M Satisfy our friends to the best of your know- " ledge and belief; but take care not to add a * word beyond that," Well, my brethren, I did exactly this; I answered, ' that I had no " instructions from the prelates to speak to this f* point, (in fact I had partly ventured to hope " that reference would be made to them upon < l the business,) and that there was not time to " obtain any answer from Ireland previously to " the day (namely, the ensuing Wednesday) fixed " upon for the debate." I added, that I was " convinced the prelates neither would or could " yield any positive power to the Crown in the 4t business, nevertheless that I had good reason " to believe (as in fact I had good reason, and ? as some of the most distinguished prelates " have, since the assembly, publicly declared " I had) that they were willing, upon the con- " ditions, and in the circumstances mentioned, " to concede a certain negative power:" namely, that which has been so often explained. But, again and again, I empirically repeated, that I coujd give no pledge on their part. I must here observe that, though I conceived it possi- ble the dispositions of the bishops might be mentioned in parliament, I had not the least idea that it would come forward in the shape pf a distinct proposal. I must also remark, that the 31 the word Veto never occurred in any one com- munication which I held with our parliamentary friends, or previously with the bishops. Intact, it does not correspond with the idea which I entertained of the negative interference. The word was affixed to it in Ireland by those wh were enemies to the interference in general. It was so well understood by the personages alluded to, that I gave no pledge whatever on the part of the prelates, and, in short, that I did nothing more than declare my opinion con- cerning their disposition, that I was pressed to do what I was otherwise resolved upon doing, namely, to lose no time in consulting them wpon the point. Accordingly, on the very day of my first conference with those personages, namely, on Saturday, May 21, I wrote to each of the four Catholic metropolitans, giving them an account of what had passed, and assuring them in particular, that " I had entered into H no pledge on their part, but that they were " at liberty to throw me, like another Jonas, " into the sea, in case they were not willing to " sanction the measure." Had I received, in due course, an answer to this effect from any one of them, or from any other prelate, (for I wrote to other prelates,) most undoubtedly I should have communicated the circumstance to our friends in parliament, and, I make no doubt, a proper explanation would have taken place in that that assembly. But no such letter did I receive dining the whole time of my continuance in J-ondon, which was till about the middle of June ; nor indeed any other letter, which did not lead me to suppose that the measure would be sanctioned. It is true, that after I had quit- ted the capital, for Hampshire and Dorsetshire, that is to say, when it was too late for me to state the circumstance to members of the legis- lature, I received letters from three prelates, stating objections against the royal interference in toto. But not one of these " finds the least " fault with my conduct," whatever the anony- mous Herald writers, who pretend to know the contents of my letters better than I do myself* have asserted to the contrary.* I will not pub- lish the confidential communications of my friends in the newspapers, as these writers very? decently call upon me to do,f but they shall at all times be forthcoming to the prelates them* selves. You will naturally suppose, that if I was in such haste to communicate to my constituents the contents of private conferences regarding theni) I should not be more slow in disavowing those false and detestable newspaper reports of the parliamentary debates, which represented me as authorizing a proposal for making an A-Catholic *" Evening Herald, Nor. 13. f Ibid. 33 A-Catholic king to become virtually the head of the Irish Catholic Church. No, my brethren; if I were capable of making or consenting to such a proposal, or even conceding to the Crown any f*eal efficient pozver ox jurisdiction, little or great, direct or indirect, open or secret, you may de- pend upon it, I would act a more consistent part; I would make better terms for myself ; in a word, I would take the oath provided for the purpose, I mean the oath of the King's spiritual supremacy. The fact is, the very morning on which this lying and scandalous report of the debates appeared, which was no other than that on which they terminated in the House of Commons, May 6, amidst the reli- gious duties of the festival,* I drew up, and caused to be printed, a formal disavowal of the scandalous imputation, and of certain other errors connected with it. It was my earnest wish to insert this in the newspapers, which had I done, I should still have retained your good opinion ; but in this instance I sacrificed your favour, to what was considered by persons acting in your name, and by some of the greatest orna- ments of the Catholic body, as your interest. In brief, I contented myself with circulating this printed disavowal among the prelates and a very few other friends, after it had been shewn to ** Ascensioh Day, 34 to your parliamentary advocates, no one of whom condescended to authorize my circulation of it with greater kindness than the Right. Hon, George Ponsonhy. It may be objected to me that, in the interval between the debates in parliament and the assem- bly of the bishops, I was active and industrious in defending and promoting the plan in ques- tion. I grant, my brethren, that, considering it as a measure which virtually had already ob- tained the sanction of your metropolitans and senior bishops, and having sufficient grounds for supposing that it would obtain the sanction of the assembled prelacy, I took some pains to explain certain circumstances to some of them, which they had not otherwise means of becoming acquainted with, and of obviating objections which to me seemed ill founded ; still adhering to that axiom which I published in the news- papers, and from which I have not, for one moment, swerved by act, by word, or by thought, that to the Catholic prelates of Ire- land, and to them alone, belonged the final decision upon this momentous business. Never- theless my principal business, during the time in question, was to enforce, by every means in my power, and with all sorts of persons, and every .where, the necessity of those checks or restraints upon the regal interference, (an interference that, as I have said, I considered as already virtually 35 virtually granted,) which, I was satisfied, your prelates would, upon mature reflection, find in- dispensibly necessary for the independency of your Church ; though I was not aware they had heretofore sufficiently prescribed them, and with- out which, be assured, I would not have been agent in the business to save my life. Here then, my brethren, is my sole crime, if I was guilty of any, namely, that having reason to believe your prelates were disposed to grant a negative interference to the Crown, I devised the most effectual limitations of which it was susceptible, for preventing your hierarchy from being en- slaved or injured by it. This is the only act and deed, throughout the whole business, which, properly speaking, belongs to Dr. Milner. Having* now been counsel in my own cause, let me also be cryer in it. How say you, my Jury: GUILTY or NOT GUILTY ? Take notice, I do not call for your verdict upon the impeachment of Mr. Attorney General Sarsfield, and Mr. Solicitor General Laicus, before the Parliament of Pimlico, namely, that "'Dr. Mil- " ner, not having the fear of God before " his eyes, but being moved by the instigation " of the devil, under the form of thirty pieces " of silver, has caiispired to adopt certain re- " solutions subversive of the faith, he was " sworn to protect.' No, my brethren, I do not ask for your decision upon this charge, as I f am 36 am already perfectly sure upon whose head, your verdict of GUILTY, in this case, would fall. But I call upon you to pronounce upon the two first counts or charges in the former indictment against me, relative to my conduct, previously to the meeting of the bishops. First Have I devised, or conspired with other persons to de- vise a veto, or other plan, for admitting of the royal interference in the election of your bishops? Secondly, have I granted, or engaged that the bishops should grant any veto, or other inter- ference of the Crown in this business ? I am sure what your verdict is on both these points ; and therefore, I now proceed to ask you further, whether, upon the whole of the case, I appear to have acted any other part than that of a faith- ful agent to your prelates, anxious to learn and express their sentiments and transact their busi- ness, with the ultimate view of serving. you, but still more anxious to preserve from subjection, and every other danger, one of the most vene- rable and important portions of that Catholic Church, of which I myself am a prelate ? I shall now be asked, why I did not publish the explanation six months ago, when I was called upon to do so, in the newspapers, and thereby " save myself and the nation an immen- " sity of trouble and anxiety ?" * I answer, t;hat I published sufficient reasons at the time, but that Evening Herald, Nor. 13v 37 that I had a still more powerful motive, in my own breast, for not obeying the requisition then made to me. I was satisfied by private letters, as well as by those published in the Herald, * that the writers who are now employed in exe- cuting their denunciation against me, were then desirous of sparing f my character to the utmost of their power, and of turning their vengeance on the prelates, particularly upon one of them, whose virtues I revere and love, and who, at all times, labours under more than his full share of obloquy and persecution. In these circum- stances, my brethren, I judged, as I always shall judge in similar circumstances, that it was better the flock should think ill of, and be in- censed against a stranger than against their own pastors ; and however anxious I may be in tak- ing this leave of you, to regain your esteem and affection, I give you my honest word, I would not publish this Appeal to you on any account, if I did not think that, in the existing circum- stances, I can do so, without any risk of occa- sioning the slightest jealously between you and your native prelates. I come now to the third head of accusation against me, that which regards my conduct since the decision of the bishops. It is this charge, as I understand, from private letters, which chiefly indisposes the generality of you, f 2 even * Evening Herald, Aug. 5. Sept. 2. f Sept. 2. 38 even the pious and edifying part of you, even my warm friends, as well as my bitter foes against me. This part of my indictment stands as follows: " that Dr. Milner is enthusiastically " attached to the plan of the veto, against which M the bishops have unanimously decided ; and " that he has written a letter in the Morning " Chronicle, which has filled the nation with " astonishment, and excited loud and general " censure on his wanton and impolitic renewal *' of hostilities." I can refute this, accusation, my brethren, in three words : but, for your more complete satisfaction, I will previously enter into some explanation regarding it. It is clear to me, by all my letters from Ire- land, that my friends there, fancy all the public reside in Dublin. In the agitation occasioned by their detestation of this veto, so called, they forget that in my situation I have various rela- tions with the English, no less than I have with the Irish : they seem insensible that there is an imperial parliament about to meet in this island, which is sure to agitate the question of the veto, though I were to observe the most profound silence concerning it, and that without expla- nation from some quarter or other, the honour and character of those personages, to whose interests I cannot be indifferent, I mean the Catholic bishops, are liable to be grievously mis- represented, to the great detriment of religion it- self. 39 self. I must add that there are certain distinguish- ed members of this parliament to whom we are all infinitely indebted, and who therefore have a riht to demand justice at one hand. To speak of these first: it is well known that these parlia- mentary friends, who have not only exerted their unrivalled, but have also sacrificed their high situations and ample emoluments twice over in our cause, and. who, if they have not suc- ceeded in it, have at least prepared the way for success, and who have actually restored our good name, at the expense of their own popu- larity; it is well known, I say, that they had, for a long time previously to the appearance of my letter, in the Morning Chronicle, been tra- duced by their political adversaries, in the minis- terial papers, as a set of impostors, who had deceived parliament and the public, by pretend- ing to have held conferences with me, relative to the disposition of your bishops, while no such thing had taken place. In proof of this allegation, they cited my words published in the Evening Herald of July 29; " that I would " sooner lose my life than be instrumental in a " Catholic king's obtaining any power or influ- " ence over any part of the Catholic Church." Now, my brethren, it was very easy to shew that this declaration no way militated against the existence of those conferences ; in as much as the negative interference, as I have always . j explained 40 explained it, did jiot go to confer any such power or influence on his Majesty. This being so, I appeal to your hearts, whether I ought to have refused that easy reparation, in my power, to the character of friends, who have done so much to raise yours ? It is notorious, that the English public, whose ideas, of course, were not more accurate than those of ministerial writers, were astounded and indignant at the whole of the business in ques- tion, and were led to believe and report the most extravagant and injurious stories concern- ing all the Catholics, who had been mentioned or alluded to in it. You will easily believe this, when I inform you that many of our most dig- nified and best informed Catholics, as well as very many Protestants, have, to my certain knowledge, maintained and published, that I " requested Lord F. to introduce me to certain " great men, whom I persuaded to propose the *' plan in question, on the part of the bishops, " and that then I went over to Ireland to in- " duce these bishops to reject it." Again, it is certain that a great number of our most pious English Catholics, and even those of my own flock, were scandalized at my conduct, suppos- ing me to have acknowledged a branch of the royal ecclesiastical supremacy ; whilst other well disposed Protestants were offended at my alleged punctiliousness in insisting upon the above men- tioned 41 tionecl checks or restraints upon the negative power: at the same time that they admitted, we had a right to provide for the security of our Church. Now, my friends, it appeared to me that all these objections might be answered, and all this mischief be removed by one plain and candid explanation of the whole matter in the newspapers ; nor have I found reason, since the publication of it, to alter my opinion, in these respects, at least as far as England is con- cerned. Lastly, I know for certain, from dif- ferent quarters, that the motives by which the bishops were actuated in forming the resolutions were grossly misapprehended by persons of con- sequence. The bishops were even suspected of having been tampered with by ministers ; in the same manner as your Herald writers have charg- ed me with that baseness. Violent threats of censure, at the meeting of parliament, if not something worse, were thrown out against them, and I was particularly cautioned not to unite my cause with theirs. In a word, still worst of consequences to our holy religion were seri- ously apprehended by me. Now it appeared to me, my brethren, that if I could not wholly disperse this storm, I might at least mitigate its violence, and prevent some of its bad conse- quences, by shewing that the prelates had acted upon good and laudable motives in forming their resolutions; being the same motive, in substance, to . 42- to the best of my memory, which I had heard them, and one venerable metropolitan, in parti r cular, allege as the grounds of their decision. One of the Herald writers terms these leasons "unanswerable,"* while another accuses me of a " breach of confidence" in denying at the same time their authenticity, and calling them inadequate, or impertinent, or false or mali- cious."f I will not enter into a controversy with this writer, about the authenticity or the superior propriety and strength of the motives which we respectively assign; but this I will do; if any three of the bishops will disavow the motives, or any of them, which I, in the sincerity of my zeal for them and for our common religion, God knows, attributed to them, I will publish my retraction in the newspapers, or in any other way that may be prescribed. To be brief, the letter which has been so complained of by so many, upright and pious Catholics, in Ireland, has been more applauded, as I can easily prove, by the same description of Catholics in England, than any other publica- tion of mine which has appeared for a long time past. It has also given great satisfaction to many impartial, independent Protestants, and I trust has been productive, in a great measure, of the good effects which I had in view *Erening Herald, Dec. 5. f Erening Herald, Dec. 2. 43 view in writing it. It is not considered in England, as " a perseverance in, and a still pressing of a measure" which the bishops have rejected, but quite the contrary. In proof of this I may refer to the Monthly Review (no contemptible authority, like the Anti-jacobin Review) for November last, published soon after my letter in the Morning Chronicle appeared. I have not the number before me, but the sense of the passage I allude to I believe is this ; that " since " Dr. Milner and his episcopal friends in Ireland " do not approve of the Veto, the Reviewers " hope Parliament will not insist upon it as " a condition of the emancipation." Having made these observations, I now come to the short, the satisfactory refutation of the charge on which you ground your present ani- mosity against me ; and I thus declare before the world, that, as I never was attached to, and never should have thought of the plan of the Crown obtaining a negative interference, called by you a veto, in the nomination of your bishops, had I not been persuaded, upon sumV cient grounds, that it had been previously ap- proved of by your bishops ; so, from the moment of its being rejected and condemned by them, at their late meeting, I have never said, done, or imagined any thing by way of reviving or encouraging it, in any shape or degree whatso- $ve/. If this does not satisfy you, and you o require 44 require tye to give my vote upon a question on which I never yet have voted, and on which I have no claim to vote ; I declare, that, since those venerable personages, who are the proper and authorized judges of the matter, find his Majesty's interference in any shape, or in any degree whatever, in the choice of your bishops, to be inexpedient, i, Dr. MUner % also do declare it to be inexpedient. But, take notice, my Catholic brethren, that in making this declaration, I have, I hope in God, been swayed by motives of conscience only ; not by the desire of disengaging myself from that hornet's nest in the Evening Herald, which has been annoying me for these six months past; not by the desire of regaining what is certainly very dear to me, but which is an inadequate motive of action for a minister of him, who was the outcast of men, and the. reproach of the people, to be guided by; I mean your favour aud confidence. Hence I would not on this, or any other account, advance one step beyond the truth. In declaring the plan, as checked and limited by me, to be still inexpedient, I will not allow it to be " contrary '^ to - the doctrine of the Roman Catholic W Church, or to any practice or usage essen- " tially and indispensibly connected with the " Roman Catholic religion." Much less will I give into the many extravagant, scandalous and erroneous propositions of the anonymous writers in 45 in the newspapers, who take upon themselves to contradict your venerable, learned, and intel- ligent Primate, and to correct the resolution of the whole prelacy itself. I am struck with horror at 'the language of one of these writers, who, professing to imitate the Emperor Constantine in covering the scandalizing bi- shop, with his own cloak, nevertheless de- scribes the metropolitans and other senior bishops, the glory and defence of pure faith and virtue in Ireland, as having for a long time " their slumbers broken by the torturing " visions of an affrighted conscience, and as " weeping for the lost blessings of innocent " repose."* 1 will not permit my pious corres- pondents to institute a comparison between them and the great Fenelon, revoking a real and dan- gerous error, which had been condemned by the Church. Nor shall any writer, under his own name, who is certified to me as being a gentleman, and a canonist, tell me without refutation, that I have countenanced a plan which is contrary to the faith, or to the essential discipline of the Catholic Church. Should such a controversy take place, it will then be seen whether I have yet " ransacked history and " the canon law for those numberless forci- ." ble precedents/'')' and arguments, which they g c 2 are "* Inimicus Veto, p. 24. -] Evening Herald," Dec. 5. 4(5 arc capable of furnishing for the purpose in question; and whether I cannot answer the several objections which certain friends of mine, persons of distinguished genius and learning, have adduced against it. But I do not so much as hint at the nature of these materials at present, lest I should again be accused of " furnishing arguments," in favour of a plan which, however lawful in itself, I have con- demned as inexpedient. One remark only I shall add, by way of shewing that the persons who describe the plan as being " a dereliction of the Catholic faith, an apostacy," &c. do, in fact, pretend to correct, and do virtually con- tradict the resolution of the assembled prelates ; namely, that the latter have contented them- selves with pronouncing the measure inexpedient. Would they employ this word in censuring a measure which they judged to be in itself irreligious or immoral? Would they solemnly declare, that it is inexpedient to abolish the Seven Sacraments, or the Ten Commandments. ? Upon another point also I must feel myself obliged to protest against the extravagance of these writers, and indeed against the errors of many persons of all the three following descrip- tions: the statesmen, the Catholic minority, who are impatient to recover their civil rights, and the Catholic majority, who consider the hierarchy as a monument of their national grandeur. 47 grandeur. All these argue that, because they are, one way or other, interested in the state of the hierarchy, therefore they have an undoubted natural right to be consulted about it. # Why, my brethren, there is not a poor peasant amongst you who is not as much interested in the deci- sion of every article of Catholic faith and disci- pline, as are the bishops and the Pope himself; because his soul is as dear to him as their souls are to them ; but it does not thence follow that he has an equal right to deliberate and to vote upon these matters with them, who are the judges of faith and legislators of discipline, either in synod or out of it : and I will under- take to demonstrate, if necessary, that all the numberless changes of discipline, which have taken place in different ages and countries, (including those which have taken place in your own country) have been made by the bishops or the Pope, without ever once consult- ing the people. No doubt, these pastors pay a proper degree of attention, on all such occasions, to the wishes as well as to the. welfare of their flocks, but this is a very different thing from acknowledging them to have a natural in- defeasible right to judge, and pronounce on such matters. How absurd then, as well as Erroneous, is the language of a late writer, who describes Evening Herald, Sept. 12, Dec. 2, &c. 48 describes your four metropolitans and six other prelates a9 "guilty of robbery and sacrilege!" who talks of " the birthright of our baptism, " and the prerogatives of our faith" in the jargon of whiggism ! and who asserts, that the " Pope " would more easily be deposed for attempting " to compel, than would the Catholics of Ireland " be condemned for resisting the penal inno- *' vation !"* This is a language, my brethren, which, as every divine knows, nearly borders upon schism. But, instead of stopping to con- fute it, I will place before your eyes the lumi- nous and energetical address of the great Bos- suet, relative to the pretended natural rights of Christians in the Church of God. "Thus speaks " the Catholic Church to her christian children. " You are a people, a state, and a society: but " Jesus Christ, who is your king, holds nothing * l from you: his authority is of a higher origin ; " you have no better natural right, as to the " appointment of his ministers, than you have " to appoint Christ himself to be your king."-]* The remaining observations which I have here to make shall be contracted within as few words as possible. It is then a shameful falsehood, and an outrage upon the Holy See, as well as upon me, to publish, that " the head u of the Church, whom I had consulted, about " the Evening Herald, Dec. 1. f Variat. B. xt. 4 " the interference of the Crown; had -declared " to me, in the words of Benedict XIV. that " were he to attempt to give effect to such a " power, -he should deserve the execration of M the christian world."* The original letter, from which this passage is said to be taken, now lies before me, and I do positively assure you that it distinctly refers to a positive power of nomination in the Grown; whereas a negative interference is spoken of in very different terms. It is an equally glaring falsehood, that " in " all my speeches and essays it has escaped me, " that if the Pope, from certain knowledge, " were to judge a candidate unfit, he must even " keep his faculties at home, &c." in consequence of which supposed blunder on my part, the writer proceeds to insult me in his usual styte. Ask any of your prelates, my brethren, for a sight of my first printed paper, dated May 26; you will there see that the rights of the Holy See were not forgotten by me, nor passed over in my communications with members of parliament. But when the phantom called Detector is itself detected in issuing lying oracles, Mr. A. or Mr. B. will walk the streets with the. same confidence as usual. My meaning, in using the epithets factious and seditious in my letter to the English public, has been enlarged by the * Evening Herald, Dec. 2. Not. 30. 50 the same writer within the compass of a few- lines, to " the whole Catholic population of the country," and has been contracted to "one distinguished gentleman."* The shortest way with these terms, under such circumstances, is to retract them, without further explanation, as I now publicly do. With respect to the gentleman alluded to, the most I have heard of him from my friends in Dublin is, that the Catholics of Ireland are indebted to him for the constitutional privilege, which has chiefly contributed to raise them to their present na- tional consequence. " Palmam qui meruit ferat J* I do not envy him his fair praise: praise ought to be no object to me. Were I to interfere again in the affairs of Ireland, and were I possessed of any influence among you, my brethren, all my efforts would be directed to the uniting of all the talents, yes, ALL THE TALENTS of Ireland as well as England, in the common cause. The only persons among you against whom I would declare war, are those who try to divide you, and to animate one class against another. But God in his mercy prevent that I should ever oppose, as I am accused, or despise or neglect the poor, of all others ; the poor, to whom I have been a willing- slave all my life ! The same method of retract- ing: * Eveuing Herald, Dec. 5. 51 ing is the best and most congenial to my feelings with respect to the unfortunate epi- thet of wrong-headed, which has been inces- santly hurled back at my head, for several months past, both in print and in manuscript. Now I solemnly declare, that neither in my meaning nor in the context of my paper, does the term apply to any other clergymen except the very limited number, perhaps three or four, who were the subject of my correspon- dence with the parish priest. However, as the word has been so much enlarged beyond my meaning and its own, I revoke it, and beg the Catholic Clergy of Ireland to accept of this public apology for my having made use of it. At the same time, however, I have one request to make them, that if they know of any writer or other person who has travelled farther, put himself to more expense, or taken greater pains to vindicate and raise their character for natural and acquired talents, as well as for virtue and piety, than the author of the letters from Ireland, some one of them will have the goodness to transmit to me the name of that person. I cannot bring myself to make any apology to my honoured friends, your prelates, because I am perfectly sure there is neither a substantive nor an adjective, nor any other part of speech, in all my writings, that can even be tortured m\o a meaning disrespectful to them, or to any h one 5* one. of them. One of the Herald writers, after caricaturing, in the most indecent manner, the persons of three or four of your most dignified and amiable prelates, tries to press me into his service on account of my looks ! He says that, on some occasion or other, I " surveyed the " prelates with a sarcastic leer, shewing that I " knew them well."* Others, who, again and again, have denied the competency of the bishops to decide upon the late question, | and* have threatened to abandon them J and the Pope too, if it were settled contrary to their wishes; who have talked of suspending the prelates, like Mo- hammed's tomb, in the air, JJ and have taunt- ingly advised them to \ l recant their religion, " rather than t improve upon apostacy, like ". bishop Judas ;"^[ finally, who have tried to spirit up the second order of the clergy to take the important business, then pending, out of the hands of the prelates into their own : " Exper- " geacemi?ii aliquando et capcscite rempubii- " Qam ;"** these Jlerald writers, I say, now reproach me with " addressing the Irish pre- " lates" (namely, when I was addressing the English public) " like a bullying dictator, pro- " puecying what I am determined to do myself, " namely, to overwhelm them with public ceu- " sure in the course of two months"|f from the date Evening Herald, Sept. 23. t Aug. 5, Dec. 2, &d. % Sept. 26. Dec. 2. || Sept. 23. If Sept. 2. Sept. 12. ft Dec. 5 - 55 date of my letter. Such, my fellow-Christians, is the charitable construction which these boasted good Catholics (oh ! the malice of the bitterest Orangeman is charity compared with theirs) put upon the intimation I gave of my apprehension of the prelates being severely treated in parlia- ment ; in consequence of which I openly, before the meeting of parliament, made common cause with them, in opposition to my own interest and the advice of all my friends, by publishing, in the English newspapers, certain arguments on their behalf, which these very writers, on the self-same occasion, allow to be "unanswerable."* I have said, that I cannot bring myself to apologize to your bishops, because my heart revolts at the very idea of ever having offended them. But I will bring the matter to as short and decisive an issue as if I were to apologize. In case then you, my brethren, in reading over any book or paper which I have published, or may hereafter publish, should, from your own judgment, and without the comments of any anonymous writer, find one sentence or one innuendo which you conscientiously believe to be injurious to authority, or disrespectful to the character of your prelates ; do not, indeed, burn or hang me in etrigy, -according to the sentence of these writers, | because this would be a breach of the peace; nor vent your indignation " in h 2 " the * Evening Herald, Dec. *. t Sept. '26. 34 *? the most violent imprecations and maledic- " tions" on my head, and " on the heads of " some of your bishops and the whole body of " the clergy," as these men scandalously assert you did not long ago,* because this would be a sin against God, which would render your faith of no avail to your salvation : but burn all my books which you can lay your hands upon : never read any of my publications in future, and rank my name with the Duigenans and the Mus- graves. In a word, to prevent the mischiefs complained of, in future insist upon these mens' publishing their names, in order that they and I may hereafter, and to the end of our lives, con- tend together, not by words, but by our conduct, in a contempt of niQney,and all worldly advantages, in respect and obedience to all ecclesiastical supe- riors, and in uniformly supporting the spiritual rights and freedom of the Catholic Church against all encroachments, whether regal or democratical. One more word, and I have done. These writers boast of having " put me " down in argument," at the same time taat tlwy allow I have " put down all my former an- " tagonists :"f insist upon it then, for your cre- dit, and that of our religion, that they keep these antagonists down, now they are down, as my studies must necessarily take a different course from that which they have for some time held. If * Evening Herald, Nor. 13. f Nov. IS. 55 If these writers, who are so much my superiors in genius and literature, do but exert half the spirit and industry against your worst enemies, which they have long been exerting against your honest, zealous, and disinterested advocate, the Musgraves will no more blast your character with forgeries, nor the Ledwiches rob you of your apostle and ancient faith. I am and ever shall remain, your faithful and affectionate friend and fellow Catholic, JOHN MILNER, D. D. Wolferhampton, Jan. 9, 1809. P. S. Just as I have concluded this Appeal, I have received two different works from Dublin, published within these few days, by clergymen of the established Church, in which I am se- verely handled, as well as the Church to which I have the happiness to belong. Of the author of one of them, * I know no more than that, according to what he tells us of himself, in his title page and at the beginning of his book, he is " such a one as Paul the aged" that is to say, such a one as St. Paul the apostle. Of course the Catholics of Ireland will know him, by his hungering, thirsting, nakedness, stripes, &c. in * An Address to the Clergy of the United Church in Ire- land on the present Crisis, 1803. Watson. 56 &c. in short, by his apostolical labours and sanc- tity in general ; and they will have felt the effects of all this, in the innumerable multitude he must have reclaimed from their antichrktian apostacy : for his principal aim is to prove that such is the ancient religion of Ireland, and that I am *t amongst his most acrimoniously active '} enemies," in supporting his apostacy, and the M soul of the league formed to rob the esta- " blished clergy of their property, to vilify the " character of their priesthood, and to assert " a superiority in the clergy of another deno- " mination over them in every qualification and " endowment that can render ministers of the " gospel worthy of their sacred function, and " useful to God's people," p. 5, 6. The other work, which is interesting for its very title, * is written by my former very entertaining oppo- nent, Dr. Ryan, and is well worth being re- garded by those Catholics, who. can afford to buy it. It is almost all levelled at me, as the capital enemy of that conciliatory plan, which he so strongly recommends to the Catholics. What he proposes is to make peace with the Catholics, and to allow of their superstition, immorality, and even their idolatry, provided they . Strictures on Dr. Milner's Tour, and on Mr. Clinch's Enquiry, with a New Plan for obtaining Emancipation, kc. a Conciliatory Tract, by Edward Ryan, D. D. 1809: Watson. 57 they will only give up their doctrine concerning heresy and the Pope's spiritual supremacy, and unite with him, who is a Milesian like them- selves, against ?ne, a foreigner, and a vicar of that usurper, who deprived him of his inheri- tance 700 years ago. In addition to this gene- ral, motive, he is extremely angry with me for not taking notice of his Answer to IVard's Errata. On this head, I hope to make my peace with him, as soon as the work, which is now almost printed off in London, shall reach Dublin. But the most interesting parts of his book, in my regard, are those in which he maintains that I was the person who prevented the bishops from consenting to the negative; , that I went to Ireland for that express purpose, &c. &c. He wrote this, with my letter to the parish priest, and that to the Morning Chro- nicle, lying before him. Now I would appeal even to the writers of the Herald, whether it is not extremely hard, that I should be accused and formally condemned upon opposite and con- tradictory charges, as I am in other instances, no less than in this ? However, these men, who have " put me down in argument," will set all these matters to rights, when they come to " put " down" the Ryans and the Elringtons, &c. as well as to keep down the Musgraves and the Ledwiches ; which task is known to be now transferred into their hands. I finish 58 I finish with one remark, which I hope will be seriously weighed, and not forgotten. How- ever disastrous the late dispute concerning the admission of the negative interference of the Crown may have been in many respects, it has been infinitely less so, than a dispute about admitting its positive interference would have been. Now that the latter would have taken place, but for the existence of the former, clearly follows from certain circumstances stated above* Tims. DELIVERED IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL t C^ati, CHADWELL-STREET, BIRMINGHAM, On JANUARY the 18th,' 1816, Being the Day appointed for a General Thanksgiving for the Peace. BY THE JR. KEY. BiR* MILNER, Y.A. B. C. &c. BIRMINGHAM : PRINTED AND SOLD BY J. FERRALL. SOLD IV LONDON BY MESSRS. LONGMAN AND CO. PATERNOSTER. ROW ; HATCHARD, PICCADILLY ; RICHARDSON* ROYAL EX* CHANGE; KEATING AND CO. GROSVENOR SQIARE } ANDREWS, ORANGE-STREET j AND BOOKER, BOND-STREET. ALSO BY SMART, SIMfSON, &C. WOLVERHAMPTON. J. Fcrrall, Printer, Birmingham. DISCOURSE. IWbHl Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem : Praise thy God, O Sion: For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates ; he hath blessed thy children within thee : He mdketh Peace in thy borders, andjilleth thee with the fat of the wheat. Psalm cxlvii. 12, 13, 14. TT is a point agreed upon among the Holy Fathers and other commentators, and plain in itself, that these and the corres- ponding verses of the Royal Psalmist, in their literal sense, refer to the deliverance of the city of Jerusalem from some siege of it, or some assault upon it, that had taken place during his reign, or that he foresaw by his prophetic spirit, would take plac? afterwards ; for which deliverance Holy David calls upon his people to g*ive praise and thanks to God. It is equally clear, that this passage of holy writ may be pro- perly applied to any Christian people whom God has saved in a singular manner, from the calamities of a destructive war, in which they had been engaged, and whom he blessed with peace and plenty ; as is happily the case of this our nation at the present day. Yes, dear Christians, it is God who is the author of these as of all other benefits : for so he declares by ano- ther of his prophets, Holy Isaiah, xlv. 7. - I form the light, and create darkness : I make peace and create evil: /, the Lord, do all these things. It is true that, in the dispensations of his Providence, he ordinarily makes use of natural means for effecting them ; never- theless, as the means no less than the effects are in his almighty hands ; as he, for ex- ample, enlightens the head of the states- man and strengthens the arm and soul of the warrior, so we are equally indebted and ought to pour forth as fervent thanks to him for saving" us, in the present instance, from the dreadful consequences of defeat and subjugation, on the part of an unre- lenting* exterminating foe, by the natural means of prudence and valour, as if he had protected us in a miraculous manner as he protected his former people from the fury of Pharaoh and Sennacherib. The chief rule for measuring our gratitude and devo- tion, on such occasions, is to proportion them, as far as we can, to the magnitude of the evils from which we have been de- livered, and of the benefits which we have received : hence it appears to be my duty, my dear Brethren, in the situation which I this day fill, to lay before you, in such manner as the occasion will permit, the ex- tent of those evils and of those benefits, as they regard you in quality both of British subjects and of catholics. Having done this, I shall proceed, in the second part of my discourse, to shew what appears to be the chief requisite for completing 1 the pre- sent national blessing, together with my reasons for treating of this matter on the present occasion. 6 I. To form an adequate idea of God's mer- cy in preserving* us from Hie chief calamities of the late revolutionary commotions and wars, which, for one quarter of a century, have convulsed and afflicted so many other nations, we must consider the extent of their scene, the rapidity of their progress, the fury of their course, the length of their duration, the number of their victims, as also of the cities, provinces, and kingdoms which they have desolated. Never, since the earth was re-peopled by the sons of Noah, has such a war existed, in these se- veral respects. The wars of N ebuchadnes- sar, of Alexander, of Caesar, and of Tamer- lane, with all their horrors, dwindle to no- thing* when contrasted with those of the war which we have witnessed in our days. Place the map of the globe before your eyes, and view the numerous countries which have been the theatre of it, and con- sider the effects which it hath produced in them. Look first at France, (which, in giving" a beginning* to the Revolution, such as it actually proved to be, did, in fact, declare war against the peace, the morality, and the religion of all Christian countries as well as her own), view the torrents of her native blood shed in mutual slaughter, which bathed her soil during that period, , and observe the succession of scourges which have continued to torment her, in a tenfold degree, all the time that she has been an instrument in the hand of God to chastize other nations. Carry on your view in one direction to the Netherlands, to the different states of Germany, to Poland, Denmark, and Russia, and, in the other, to Piedmont, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Where do you see a state or province of Europe, beyond the bounds of these favour- ed islands, which has not been devastated with rapine, fire, and sword ; which has not been heaped with her own children, mutilated or slain ; which has not been insulted with the mockery of liberty and an amended constitution in the most de- graded state of slavery and misery? IjQ this most mournful survey, how many par- ticular spots of unparalleled human woe must meet your eye ; here Gemappe and Fleurus; there Wagram, Austeriitz, and 8 Jena ; further on Friedland, Borodino, and Moscow ; on this side Lodi and Marengo ; on that Burgos and Saragosa. Should you extend your survey to the continent of Asia and Africa, you will continue to meet with ensanguined memorials of this revolution- ary war, in countless numbers, from the streights of Constantinople to the plains of Syria, and thence to the sands of Egypt, to the several African Islands, to the celebrat- ed Cape, and even to remote India through- out its whole extent. These are still more common and mournful throughout both parts of the New World, from the frozen lakes of Canada, to the parched soil of Gui- ana, and thence to the remote extremity of Paraguay. Who can count up the millions upon millions of human victims whom this Moloch of revolutionary war has devoured in the different quarters of the globe ? Who is capable of describing the various misery to which a great proportion of the human race has been reduced by the same demon ? It is true these calamities have fallen upon our enemies, as well as upon our friends, (while we, through the mercy of God, have 9 escaped the whole, or, at least, far the worst part of them). Still it is sufficient for us to know that they have fallen upon our fellow-creatures, to whose miseries, as men, and still more as christians, we can- not be indifferent. Hence, in pouring out our praises and thanksgivings to the Al- mighty for exempting us from the general calamity, we cannot but thank him at the same time for having cauped the calamity itself to cease throughout the whole scene of it. In this particular, the present call upon us to rejoice and give thanks to God, differs greatly from former calls upon us of the same nature, in the course of the late war, for some splendid victories atchieved by our navies and armies. It was our duty indeed to rejoice on these occasions, still our joy could not fail of being more or less damped by our tears in recollecting* the suf- ferings of the killed and wounded comba- tants on both sides. But to form a just idea of your signal deliverance from the revolutionary commo- tions and devastations of other states, you 10 must, my dear brethren, consider how nearly, in all appearance, and according 1 to the ordinary course of events, they ap- proached to your own. In the first place, therefore, when that terrific volcano of revolution broke out in the neighbouring* kingdom, it was far from being the inten- tion of the unprincipled Deists, who, under the assumed mantle of Philosophers and the pretext of improving the state of society, were the real authors of it, that its ravages should be confined at home. No, they meditated the destruction of thrones and of altars, and of every institution connected with them throughout the world, and they were resolved to make their first attempt abroad on these important islands. Ac- cordingly they sent hither not only their inflammatory speeches and other publica- tions without number, but also some of their most able and active missionaries, and even large sums of money, the efficacy of which they had experienced in their own democratic commotions. By the help of these and other means, they formed numer- ous British parties, and one, of more conse- 11 quence than the rest, in the metropolis, which corresponded with them and directed their measures. In short, these domestic republicans began to train themselves for active warfare, and to furnish themselves with weapons both offensive and defensive, among" which were daggers, for the more speedy riddance of their obnoxious fellow subjects. But what constituted your greatest danger was, that the nation and even the senate was, for a long time, un- conscious of it, so that many well meaning subjects even hailed the spreading blaze as a joyful bonfire for French liberty which was fast approaching to devour whatever was most valuable in Britain. Such was our perilous state till one enlightened and good senator, at the expense of his dearest private feelings, made us sensible of it. The danger was no sooner understood than it ceased to exist in a powerful and well regulated nation : when, behold ! what that statesman had predicted war, unde- fined endless war, with an enemy equally insatiable and unrelenting, of course suc- ceeded. 12 In the next place, consider now how often, in the progress of this tremendous storm, our safety and very existence, as a nation, appeared to be doubtful. Remem- ber, in particular, when the Army of England, as it was called, consisting of 150,000 disciplined veteran troops, and flushed with victory, stood marshalled within our sight, on the opposite side of our narrow channel ; with vessels, adapted to the enterprize, ready to receive them, and with every other requisite to insure their success. They were, it seems, to have sailed in three different divisions, in order to attempt a landing on as many different points of our coast at the same time : our desperate foe being perfectly willing to sacrifice two thirds of his host provided he could effect a landing with the remaining part of it, in the confidence that we had not troops sufficiently numerous or disciplined to resist even 50,000 of his veterans. By this expedient Constantius Chlorus, under Dioclesian, reduced Britain, then subject to the naval Emperop Alectus. Nothing is more certain and clear than that our safety, 13 at the time I am speaking* of, did not altogether depend upon our few troops on the coast, or upon our flotilla of frigates, which, from various causes, might have been incapable of either acting or even moving, but upon winds and calms and tides and a thousand other accidents over which no human wisdom or valour had any control ; all which, however, are perfectly in the hands of the great Ruler of the Universe. I am sensible that these demonstrations of the enemy, now that the danger is past, may be derided by the ignorant and the presumptuous, but it is certain that they were not derided, at the time of their being made, by the ablest statesmen and generals of our country, including his Majesty's ministers ; so far from this, orders were then issued, on the part of government, for all the male inhabitants of the counties on the sea coast to enrol their names for actual service of some kind or another ; the corn and cattle were to have been removed into the interior country at the first appearance of the enemy, and such parts of it as could not be conveyed away, together with every thing" else which could contribute to the subsistence of .in enemy, was to have been destroyed. Such, my dear Brethren, was then the alarm of government for the state of the nation, that is to say, of the person- ages who were best qualified to form a true idea on the subject. O ! had the general subjugator, who negociated and fought and lived for no other purpose than to triumph over this envied kingdom, succeeded with his mighty preparations against it, we may well conceive, from his treatment of other states and kingdoms, that were not the objects either of his hatred or his fears, how fie would have treated this ; we may well believe his general, who seems to have been intended to command the invading army, when he declared, that " in the " event of his conquering England, he " would make it such a place that even " Englishmen would not choose to live in " it." No doubt, but that in this case, both islands would have been instantly stripped of the whole collection of their young men to fight the conqueror's battles against the most remote of his enemies, ac- 15 cording" to his general policy, perhaps against the Emperor of China or Japan,' if either of these dared to refuse the yoke. The unresisting- mass of the population, despoiled and trampled upon, would have been left to wither away with poverty arid misery ; and effectual means, we may he assured, would hate been taken to prevent England recovering" herself of ever more shewing herself the rival ofFrartcer. Nor was it alone against the mighty Na- poleon and his numberless host that we had to contend, during a considerable part of the war ; but also aga'ifist the other powers of Europe, together with those of America and of several others in Asia and Africa. The fact is, all the civilized nations, at least, were sensible that our cause in tlie war was their own, and ac- cordingly they were originally our allies of our friends ; but being defeated in their turns t>y the common enemy, they fell off from their engagements with us and added their countless hosts to his countless host, until, at length, our comparatively diminu- 16 five kingdom and population had to combat, single handed, against several millions of armed and powerful enemies at one and the same time in all the four quarters of the globe. If the question be asked how we could then escape the threatened destruc- tion ? The Royal Prophet, speaking* of his escape from his own numerous enemies, will furnish the answer : Had not the Lord been with us ; let Israel now sat/ : Had not the Lord been with us, when men rose up against us ; they had swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us, Ps. cxxiv. 1, 2, 3. But what did I say of escaping ? Through the Providence of God, (which indeed was displayed on some particular occasions, in a most signal manner,) through the wisdom, courage and perseverance of her rulers, warriors and people, this little nation not only saved herself, but also several others, enabling the remainder to save themselves from the destruction in question, until, behold, at length, by one mighty effort, she hurled her gigantic enemy from his usurp- ed throne, forced him to seek his life on board her vessels and chained him to a rock 17 in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean ! High indeed has been the rank of England in the scale of nations ever since she herself became one, and supremely exalted, on many occasions, have been her Princes and her Heroes. Great was our Edgar, when he was rowed down the Dee by the King of Scotland and seven other vassal Princes as his boatmen : Great were our Edwards at Cressy and Poictiers, but especially when the younger of them led the French Monarch a captive to his Royal Father: Great were our Henries, when the Fifth of that name, having atchieved the splendid feat of Agincourt, his generals followed up the victory till they saw his son crowned at Paris, King of France : but neither our Edgars nor our Edwards, neither our Henries nor any other of our Princes or Heroes ever reached the height of glory which our present Prince Regent attained, when, kaving 1 , by the unparalleled deeds of heroism on the part of his immortal general and army, lopped off and seared the last neck of the tremendous hydra in the field of Waterloo, he was hailed by 18 the powers of Europe, the finisher of their miseries and the author, under God, of their security and happiness. Met h inks I see tjrjem, on that ever memorable field, combining" to raise our Prince's figure in breathing" marble, the right hand present- ing the portrait of the Royal Parent,, the left resting on a sheathed sword ; while the emblems of wisdom and valour crown the head with laurel and olive, and a groop of British statesmen and heroes support the pedestal. Among these I seem to descry the prophetic orator who roused tj^e nation to its heroic exertions ; (1 ) the inflexible ancjL hated enemy of revolution- ary France, whose lofty terms of peace, so long derided, have now proved practicable ; Indemnity for the past, security for the future;) l^e indefatigable Admiral, who exalted the fame even of the British navy, and died in gaining the greatest of all its victories ;^ and the incomparable General, ( 1 ) The late Edmund Burke. X2) The late Mr. PLtt. (3) The lute Admiral NeUojj. 19 who, with British troops, in different climes, has eclipsed the glory even of that navy, the conqueror of Napoleon's Gene- rals, and of Napoleon himself/ 1 ) Such, in part, my dear Brethren, are the motives why, as loyal subjects and good citizens, we ought to pour forth before the Lord our God, our souls in fervent thanks- giving for the blessings of the present General Peace, and more particularly for his having strengthened the bars of our national gates, while those of so many other nations have been forced open by insatiable, unre- lenting foes ; and for having established the borders of this, kingdom in peace, during the whole time that the borders oi so many others were laid waste by rapine and slaughter. With good reason may we join with the abovementioned prophet in singing the conclusion as well as the begin- ning of the 147th Psalm : The Lord hath not. dealt thus with any other nation. But I pro- mised to shew additional motives why, as, / 1 ) The Hero of Waterloo, 20 Catholics, we ought to redouble our grateful praises to God for the extinction of the revolutionary war and the general return of peace and justice. It is notorious that the deistical authors of the French revolution, and thereby of all the calamities throughout the world, which have been described, together with their numberless partizans and followers, though the declared enemies of all revealed religion, waged war of extermination ex- clusively against our religion ; accordingly all the blood that has been shed in such torrents in the deistical or revolutionary persecution, on the mere score of religion, has been catholic. The great oracle of the party, at the commencement of the work of dis- organization/ 1 ) ceased not to exclaim : ** II taut decatholiciserlsL France :" to succeed in your revolution you must drive the CATHO- LIC RELIGION out of France, These men accordingly entered on and prosecuted the work of decatholicizing with the greatest . " ___{.l) Mirabeau. 21 activity, or rather fury. They began by confiscating' all the property, of whatever kind, even to sacramental plate which was destined to the support or service of the Catholic religion, without touching that of any other religion* They next abolished all religious orders of both sexes, leaving the members of them to the extremity of disgrace and penury. They then present- ed a captious oath, under the form of a civil test, but which, in fact, was a schis- matical renunciation of the spiritual juris- diction of the church, to all the officiating clergy, and, upon the refusal of it by the greater and better part of them, they pro- ceeded to murder, by the hands of hired ruffians, above three hundred of them, in- cluding three bishops, within a day or two, at Paris,*- 1 ) and above three times that number in different parts of the kingdom ; the rest of the clergw, of different descrip- tions, to the number of 50,000, after depriving them of the whole of their pro- perty at home, they sent to die of famine { 1 ) At the Carmej, the Abbeye, #c. 22 and misery in foreign countries. It must, however, here he acknowledged, and ought never to he forgotten, that the very large portion of faithful and persecuted Catholic Clergy, amounting* to 6000, who sought refuge in this Protestant country, were not only hospitably received, hut also gener- ously supported by our humane sovereign and fellow countrymen. The Anti-catholic tragedy, performed at the head quarters of the revolution, was repeated, with a few variations, and, as far as circumstances permitted, in the different Catholic countries subjugated by the revolutionary arms, namely, in the Netherlands, in the Catholic Electorates and other States of Germany, in Savoy, Piedmont, and in the whole extent of Italy, but more particularly in Rome; finally, throughout the Western Peninsula. Every where the churches, monasteries, colleges and hospitals were despoiled, their revenues, sacred plate and furniture seized, and the bishops, clergy anl relig-ious, who refused to acquiesce in the irreligious and revolutionary measures of the invaders, were shot, or banished to 23 desert islands or countries, or shut up in dungeons, without being* afforded the very necessaries of life. With respect to the two Pontiffs who have successively occupied the Chair of St. Peter, since the beginning of the revolution, the first of them, Pius VI. without even the shadow of a negociation, was seized upon by the deistical republi- cans in his capital, and carried away by force into a foreign state, and thence trans- ported, with circumstances of singular cruelty, into France, where, like St. Silverius, St. Martin, and some of his other predecessors, he died a martyr to the obli- gations of his holy station. In the mean time his property, public and private, was seized upon, his Cardinals and Prelates were robbed and banished, every thing sacred was profaned, and the most glorious monument of religion ever raised by mortal hands, the Vatican Basilick, was sold to the jews, to be despoiled, and con- signed to the jacobins for a club house. Then it was that the enemies of our church boasted of having gained a complete triumph over it, swearing that, as they 24 had deprived it of its necessary head, they would take effectual care it should not have another. But, my Brethren, there is no force, there is no fraud to obstruct the promises of the Most High. He had promised that the gates of hell should not prevail against his Church founded on a roclc l ) that is, on St. Peter, and his successors ; in fulfillment, therefore, of this his promise, at the very period when our Anti-catholic foes thought themselves most secure of success, he dispatched against them, from the frozen regions of the North, a bold chieftain with an army of hardy warriors/ 2 ) who, by successive victories, cleared the way into Italy, and there enabled a free Conclave to be held, in which the present Holy Pontiff was elected and enthroned ; which being done, victory resumed its former course, the Russians were forced to return upon their steps, and the Catholic Church became exposed to fresh trials and sufferings. Long did the arch enemy of the CatlK>lic religion and of our country, (1) St. Matthew, xvi. 18, 19. (2) General Suwarrow with his army. 25 by false promises and protestations, and every other artifice of the most consummate hypocrisy, endeavour to beguile the upright and unsuspecting mind of Pius VII. till, having proposed to him in open terms, " A ** confederacy against England according to *' a plan that should be laid before him/'C 1 ) he met with a firm refusal. The conse- quence of which was, that our Pontiff, like his predecessor, was made a prisoner in his palace, robbed of all his property, even to his necessary apparel, dragged from prison to prison, sometimes on this side and sometimes on the other side of the Alps, and more than once threatened with instant death, if he persisted in refusing to gratify the tyrant. In the mean time we may well suppose that his faithful Cardinals and other true catholics, together with the capital of Christianity itself, did not fare better under this than under the former persecution. With respect to our British establishments, English, Irish and Scotch, (l) See the correspondence between the Pope's Court and the French Government, published at Palermo, and translated into English. Keating and Co. 26 which the severe persecutions of former reigns had obliged our ancestors and pre- decessors to form in different parts of the continent, to the number of at least fifty, as well for the education of the catholic youth of both sexes, as for the supply of our ministry, and as retreats for the devout and contemplative, these, as the revolutionary arms advanced in success, were all swept away, with their funds and property of every kind, while their inhabitants were subjected to ill treatment of every sort, and, in many instances, sent into loathsome dungeons, where they long had to eat the bread of sorrow and to drink the water of affliction. From this imperfect sketch of the persecution which our church has con- tinued to endure during the whole length of the revolutionary war, you will judge, my dear Brethren, what peculiar motives we catholics have to rejoice and return our fervent thanks to God for putting an end to it, more especially as we already begin to see the happy effects of the General Peace with respect to religion in the dif- ferent catholic countries, , II. However great and happy this nation appears to be, and actually is at the present zenith of its glory, still, when its interior structure comes to be accurately examined, something" defective and even insecure will be discovered in it, chiefly from the dis- union of its component parts ; which dis- union, instead of being" healed by the wis- dom and justice of the laws, is perpetuated and enlarged by their inconsistency and want of equity. You will readily con- ceive, my Brethren, that I here speak of the penal laws against catholics; which, though greatly softened and diminished by the benevolence of his Majesty and the wisdom of the other branches of the legis- lature, during the present reign, yet a suf- ficient quantity of the more active and virulent part of them remains to render the objects of them, consisting of much more than a fourth part of the whole po- pulation of the united kingdom, contemp- tible and suspected in the eyes of the other parts of it, and therefore unhappy in them- selves. Thus are internal animosities* with all their terrible consequences arid dangers, 28 kept alive in the political body, by the very instruments which ought to eradicate them ; and yet the power from which these hold their force, (I mean the legislature it- self,) has more than twenty years ago, al- luding" to the situation of the catholics, pro- nounced those wise maxims, that all Bri- tish subjects, of whatever religion, ought to be united together in the bonds of cor- dial peace, and ought to be governed by equal laws. Yet what has been ever since, and what is still now the state of the laws with respect to the said catholics ? That is to say, of subjects who have introduced no new religion into the country, but who have barely adhered to that which was preached to their ancestors when the latter were con- . verted and civilized ; who hold no political tenet inconsistent with the duties either of good subjects or citizens, but who are ex- emplary for the practice of them both ? I will shew what this state is in some few particulars. Those brave catholics, who have shed much more than their due share of blood in the cause of their country dur- ing the late war, have been refused the 29 consolations of their religion when dying" of their wounds, and this in ,a catholic country ; and every catholic soldier, in the same situation, is liable to meet with the same refusal, from the, cruelty or big- otry of his officer, while the first article of war continues to be yearly sanctioned, such } as it is, by parliament. I mentioned above that the British catholics have lost as. many as fifty religious establishments on the con- tinent, with the funds destined to their support, in the course of the revolutionary war. The injustice of their seizure in many instances originated in an anti-catho- lic intolerance, but in some of the earlier and more fatal instances, it arose from na- tional hatred. The colleges of Douay, St. Omer's, and several others, were ordered to be seized in revenge for the British troops and navy having taken possession of Toulon, as soon as that event was known. at Paris ; and yet, though we have lost so much for the cause of our country, and are otherwise encouraged to practice our reli- there. (1 ) In the Peninsula during the early part of the war < 30 gion and educate our youth at home, yet we are precluded from settling- or bequeath- ing- the smallest portion of our own property for the support of our chapels or our schools, and all such settlements or be- quests are declared illegal, under the pre- tence of their being destined to superstitious purposes. Again, matrimony, in our system, is an indissoluble contract and a sacrament, which is to be celebrated with a solemnity and publicity that the legislature has even copied it in the Marriage Act from the canons of the Council of Trent ; and yet the laws do not recognize the validity of matrimonial contracts, among catholics, however sacred, solemn and public, but expose the wife and children to infamy and misery, merely on account of the clergyman's religion, before whom such contracts are made. The evil effects, however, of the invalidating clause, alluded to, as they affect the public morals, as well as the happiness of individuals, are now so well understood by the first authori- ties in the state, that it needs nothing but a serious and combined effort* on the part of the catholics, to get this particular and 31 most weighty grievance, as it certainly is in a conscientious light, effectually redress- ed ; especially as we can give complete satisfaction to all the constituted authorities, with respect to the mode of our concurring to the desired effect. Finally, our catholic noblemen, gentlemen, and people in general, though acknowledged to be of the purest principles and conduct, as subjects and as citizens, and though many of them have been distinguished for their services and sufferings for their king and country, are all of them degraded in their several ranks, as men unworthy of enjoying the constitu- tion framed by their ancestors. It is this circumstance that wounds their feelings ; they are not, in general, very eager for posts or lucrative employments ; indeed they are sensible, that, in the event of com- plete emancipation, they would have but a poor chance of rising to such situations, and that they never could rise at all but at the will of a protestant sovereign : still, the idea of their not being even admissible to the favour of their master, whatever might be their merits, harrows their souls 32 and humbles them to the lowest degree. It is the same unequitable and impolitic dis- tinction subsisting 1 in the laws, which causes even the more liberal-minded protestants to look down on their catholic neighbours in the same rank with themselves, as an in- ferior cast of beings, and which encourages the grosser and more intolerant among them to insult and persecute those of their own condition, till deeds of revenge and violence sometimes ensue, to the great in- jury of the public peace and welfare. I will not here take up your time with prov- ing, what has already been intimated, how necessary internal peace and union are for the strength and well-being of every kind of society, and therefore shall content my- self with barely reminding you how weak our England was, when divided under the heptarchy ; how comparatively strong she became, when united under one monarch ; how this strength was increased when the inroads of the ancient Britons and their jea- lousies ceased, by the wise condescension of our victorious Edward, in contriving that his eldest son should be born in their coun- 33 try ; finally, how great and powerful she grew to be when Scotland became united with her, which union was never perfect till the religious prejudices of the latter were gratified. What now hinders a still greater national benefit from taking* place, by admitting* the catholics of Ireland, that numerous, hardy, high-minded and rising* people, together with the meritorious ca- tholics of England, to the benefits of the British constitution, without injury to their religion ? I purpose, on the present occa- sion, stating to you some of the chief ob- jections that stand against the admission ; together with what appears to me satisfac- tory answers to the objections ; and I em- brace the present occasion of doing this, not only because the subject seems here to find its proper place, but also because I am now addressing a respectable audience of the different protestant societies, as well as of catholics, whose opinions may j ustly be expected to have their weight in the public scale, i It might seem, from the tenor of the laws 34 which catholics complain of, that they stand excluded from the benefits of their heredi- tary constitution, on the score of their be- ing" idolaters ; since the door of admission to these benefits consists in an oath whieh de- clares that, There is ho tr an substantiation in the mass ; but that the said mass and the worship of the saints j as practiced in the Church of Rome, is IDOLATROUS. It would be a melancholy reflection, and big 1 with the most fatal con- sequences to the religion of our protestant brethren, if all their ancestors for a thou- sand years, from the days of their apostle St. Ag*ustine down to those of Cranmer, in the reign of Henry VIII. together with ail the other churches of Christendom, as well those out of communion with Rome as those in it> all of whoaa worshipped God by the mass and invoked the saints to pray for them those ancestors, from whom they have derived their liturgy, their ministry, and their Christianity, no less than their consti- tution ifall these, I say, had been involved in the guilt of idolatry. But if the persons who require us to swear that the mass is idolatry, will but candidly inquire what the 35 mass really is, they will be forced to con- fess that, even in the case of there being' no real presence of Christ in it, there is at least no idolatry ; because it is admitted that we catholics firmly believe him to be there : thus, of course, our adoration is addressed by us to the living" Christ, not to inanimate bread ; which bread, we are persuaded, after the consecration, by no means exists in the sa- crament. The case is precisely the same as if any subject were to make his oath of allegiance to some inanimate representation of the King-, or to an impostor, believing the thing* or person to be his Sovereign ; in this case there would be a mistake, but evidently no treason. I will not, however, pursue this controversy any further, but will let it be supposed that our worship is idolatrous ; why, in the name of common sense and justice, should this crime be so severely punished in us, and passed over with impunity in all other subjects? A man, for example, may be a Gentoo idola- ter, and worship the impure and sanguinary idol, Juggernaut ; or he may be a jacobin idolater, and adore a prostitute in the character of the Goddess of Liberty or the 36 Goddess of Nature; or he may be a pure atheist, denying' the existence of any Deity at all, and the obligation of moral virtue ; and still he may enjoy the benefits of the constitution, and even take a seat in parlia- ment, provided he only swears that, There is no transubstantiation in the mass, and that the mass is idolatrous / Will posterity believe this ? Can foreign nations conceive it ? The real truth is, these oaths and declarations were invented and sanctioned a century and a half ago, when the nation was in a phren- sy at the idea of a catholic succeeding to the throne, and when the senate itself was so far delirious as to vote the reality of that most chimerical and at the same time most barbarous of all fictions that jealousy ever conceived, Titus Oates's plot. A more popular and acrimonious objec- tion against emancipating the catholics is, that their religion enjoins persecution, that, of consequence, whatever power they might obtain would certainly be employed in ex- terminating 1 their protestant fellow subjects. This is the never-foiling engine of intole- rant and persecuting men for rousing the 37 No Popery spirit and cry among' the igno- rant and vulgar. By this they raised a protestant association in 1780, which set fire to the metropolis and nearly overturned the state. By the same, with the help of misrepresented accounts of some low party riots in France, they have lately irritated the inhabitants of many places in this island to form similar societies, and to pass reso- lutions equally false and inflammatory.; I know that men of ail religions have pro- claimed and practised persecutions on those of different creeds from their own, when they have had it in their power to do so ; (1 > but I do not know any christian church that teaches, upon principle, the doctrine of per- secution. I grant that our Queen Mary Tudor put to death a great many protes- tants, as her sister Elizabeth, James I. Charles I. Oliver Cromwell, and Charles If. put to death a great many catholics, on the mere score of their religion, but it has been demonstrated^ that Mary's persecution ori- ginated not in religious but political mo- (1) See Letters to a Prebendary, sixth edition, chapter o*n religious persecution. (2) Letters to a Prebendary, 38 fives, and that the next catholic sovereign after her, James II. lost his crown for per- sisting* in a declaration of liberty of conscience. But to come to the point in question ; I main- tain that nothing short of the most stupid ignorance or the most consummate hypo- crisy can support any man, at the present day, in declaring" that he opposes the claim of the catholics from a real dread that, if the same were granted, they would have it either in their power or their disposition to practice persecution upon him or any other person. There are those who are so deluded or so malicious as still to charge catholics with a disregard to the obligation of an oath, at least when taken to persons of a different religion from themselves ; which charge, however, by implication, falls likewise upon the wisdom of the legislature, since in all the several acts in our favour, during the present reign, there have always been oaths appointed to be taken by us. I will refute this foul imputation by facts, instead of rea- soning. What but their sense of the sacred obligation of an oath, when taken to ty 39 rants without any religion at all, caused the 50,000 virtuous clergy of France, menti- oned above, to prefer the loss of their pro- perty, their country, and, in many instan- ces, their lives, to the taking of the civic oath, so called, when tendered to them by their national assembly ? Nay, what hin- ders our nobles from walking into the house of peers and taking their hereditary seats in it, and what hinders our gentry, clergy, and people in general, from emancipating themselves, without the aid of parliament, but their conviction that no consideration can excuse the guilt of perjury, nor any power on earth can permit the commission of it for a single instant ? We have oaths, without number, appointed for a great va- riety of civil and religious purposes : but who will shew me one out of them all, which has so effectually answered its intended pur- pose as the two or three which are opposed to the consciences of catholics, for keeping them out of the benefits of the constitution ? The only remaining objection against the emancipation of catholics which I think it necessary to answer, is, that their clergy 40 and even a foreign prelate claims a juris- diction over them, independent of the state. But have not protestants of all denomina- tions and countries claimed the same juris- diction ? They have it : or else the Refor- mation could not have been originally preached in any place where it now prevails. Was the legislature ignorant of this claim, on our part, when it passed four different acts in our favour during the present reign? Or was it, perhaps, then indifferent about the securities necessary for the safety of the constitution? Neither of these things can be affirmed ; nor can it, on the other hand, be asserted that the smallest detriment or danger to the state has accrued from the freedom of our spiritual jurisdiction which it left us ; on the contrary, it must be con- fessed that this has added greatly to its peace and security in the sister island on many important occasions. What pretext then is there for shackling it now ? And how will the diminution of the clergy's influence, which hitherto has been, and ever will be, while it is left pure and free, employed to keep the people loyal, peace- ble and moral, tend to the security of the 41 state ? Or how will the shackling* of our clergy prevent nobles and g'entry from making an unconstitutional use of any civil or political power which may be granted them? The misfortune is that some poli- ticians, at the present day, cannot distin- guish between temporal and spiritual power : yet the parliaments could make that distinction twenty years ag"o, as will appear by the oaths they appointed us to take, in the different acts they passed in our favour : in like manner, all denominations of protestants made it at the Reformation, as I have already signified ; in a word, Christ and his Apostles made it throughout the whole course of their sacred ministry. On one hand, our blessed Saviour was per- fectly obedient to the Civil Power in all temporal affairs, going to be enrolled at Bethlehem at his birth, in obedience to Crcsar Augustus, ordering" tribute to be paid to Caesar Tiberius, and even working* a miracle to procure the tribute money due for himself and St. Peter : while, on the other hand, he claimed pure, independent power in the exercise of his spiritual juris- diction : sAll power in heaven and on earthy 42 says he to his Apostles, is given to me. Go teach all nations P^ baptizing them, 8$c. Being" questioned by Pilate about his character, he owned himself to be a King ;09 but, as he explained at the same time, that his kingdom was not of this world, he quite satisfied the mind of that jealous tyrant, who immediate- ly afterwards told the jews that he found no cause (of death) in him. What occasion is there for any modern politician being* more jealous of power than Pontius Pilate was ? In a word, while we submit our pro- perty of every kind, our personal services and our very lives to our king* and country, as we actually do ; while we engage our- selves by oaths, which our conduct proves to be sacred, not to acknowledge the smallest civil or temporal power in any temporal Prince or Prelate, or in any case whatsoever ; but to perform every duty of ailegiance, as we are in the habit of doing ; can it concern government or the legislature that the catholic bishops and priests, within their dominions, should continue to bless and ( 1 ) St. Matthew, xxvii'u (2) $t. John, xviii. 43 consecrate, remit sins to the contrite, regu- late prayers and fasts and transmit the faculty of doing' the same to others, an order among themselves and their usual ceconomy, as is more or less practiced by all other societies . of christians, whose ministers are not supported by the state. It is easy to shew that the legislature with equal wisdom and benignity accommodates itself to the scruples of other dissidents from the national church in far more im- portant matters. But, to conclude : whatever may be the conduct of government and the legislature in your regard, do you, my catholic brethren, as you are admonished in your prayer book, " exactly fulfil your duty to them," obeying-, as the Apostle commands, not only fdt wrath, but also for conscience sake. In like manner, if you are reviled with the abovementioned, or otherwise calumniated by your uninformed fellow subjects, revile not again, but strive to overcome evil with good; for thus you will possess your souls in patience, you will practice the characteristical virtue 44 *'f Jesus Christ, and you will g-ainover four uding- brother, if he is to he gained at ail, to sentimertts of charity and peace. We have already joined mi offering up the Great Sacrifice of the New Law./ in thanksgiving* to God for the signal blessing's he has con- ferred upon our counfiy and ourselves in THE GENERAL PEACE: let us now, before w r e separate, join in singing the usualhymn of thanksgiving", the Te Deum, forth same intention, and afterwards join in the appointed prayer for our gracious Sovereig-n, his Royal Highness the Prince liegent, the Queen and Royal Family and the Nation in general. \ May the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, descend upon you and keep y&iifor ever. Amen. BY THE SAME AUTHOR, The Substance of a Sermon, preached at the Blessing of St. hapel, Birmingham, Dec. 17, 1809. A, Funeral Oration on the Death of Louis XVI. &cc. A Sermon on the Thrtik-giving Day for the Recovery of the Health of His Majesty,* &c The History of Winchester. Letters to a Prebe A Treatise on the Ecclesiastical Architecture of England during the Middle Ages, &c. A REPLY TO THE RE P R T, PUBLISHED BY BR-ICE ONE SHILLING. ERRATA. Page 14, I. 4. for letters, r. Utter, p. 18, 1. 25. for has r. have. p. 20, for accidcntol r. a/, ibid, at the end of the note, add, See alfo the faid Lord Ch B. Gil- bert's and L. Chancellor Talbot's doBrine, on the voidance of deeds by fight era fur es or alterations which do not at all affeel the fenfe, when made by the parties them/elves, p. 24, I. 14, 15, 16. dele emblazoned with the names of the principal Catholics of England, of which the antiquated deed had been f ripped, p. 28, I.24, dele apprehend to have been illegal, and am. p. 29, 1. 3, 4. dele taken out of the Houfe of Commons, and the fignatures. p. 30, note, before fgnatures, r. fame. p. 31, 1. 12, for all r. fome. Ni B. The five lad errata have been occafioned by a miftake, into which I had been led by the Blue Books and the late Report, in fuppofing that the original fignatures of the Catholics to the celebrated Protection, had been prefented to the twohoufes of parliament. It was natural to draw this inference from the following paflages, a- mongft others of the fame import: " an inftrument was " generally figned and prefented to both houfes." ift B. B. p. 13. " The Protection was a folemn inftrument "figned, with a few exceptions, by all the Clergy, &c. to 41 the houfes of parliament, &c. your Committee had fo- M lemnly prefented it." 3d B. B p. 8. f! $ix bifhops, .*' near 240 clergymen, &c. had fgned that inftrument. " In the name of the body we had prefented it." ibid. p. 12. In confirmation of this opinion, I obferved that all the other papers, publifhed by the Committee, as a feparate body, bore their names, whilft the Petition has no names annexed to it. See Appendix to 3d B. B. N. iv. Hence I fuppofed it to have been emblazoned with the fignatures of thofe in whofe name it was avowedly deli- vered. In fhort the late Report, fpeaking of the Pro- tefiation, has the following terms: " When it was pre- " fen ted to the houfe in the form of a petition, the lan- ' guage of it was necefTarily varied to adapt it to that 11 form." p. 4. Inconsequence of the former pafTiges, I long imagined that the original deed, figned, as it had been A REPLY TO THE REPORT, PUBLISHED BY ON THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE PROTESTATION AT THE MUSEUM: IN WHICH THE SPURIOUSNESS OF THAT DEED IS DETECTED. Melius non tangere, clamo. Hor. BY THE LONDON: Printed by J. P.Coghlan, No. 37, Duke-Street, Grofvenor- Square; and Sold by Meflrs. Booker, Bond-Street; Keatinc, Warwick-Street; Lewis, Ruffel-Street; Dbbrktt, Piccadilly; and Rob i,m sons, Pater- Nofter Row. M,DCC,XCV. f ) been by us all, was delivered in to parliament : but when I difcovered that, inftead of the original, a petition was prefented, I was induced to believe, particularly by the* laft quoted paffage, that no other change had taken place, except precifely fuch an alteration in the terms as was ne.ceffary to adapt it to the faid form of a petition ; and that of courfe, our fignatures at leaft had been laid before the legiflature. Thinking it however neceffary to afcer- tain this point, by information immediately derived from the Houfe of Commons, whilfl my work was actually in the prefs, I difcovered (but too late to introduce the proper corrections into the text) that the petition of the Catholic Diffenters, delivered to the Houfe of Com- mons May 7, 1789, (on which day a fimilar petition was prefented by Lord Rawdon to the Houfe of Lords) was figned by 13 perfons only, almoli all of them then mem- bers of the late Commute, whofe names of courfe ftill remain affixed to it. This difcovery exhibits the tran- factions in queftion in a more favorable light, in fome particulars, and in a more unfavorable light in others, than I have reprefented them. It appears indeed that our fignatures were not illegally prefented to the Mu-> feum, or withdrawn from the Houfe of Commons; be- caufe, in facl, they never had the honor of being deli- vered to the latter, for which purpofe, however, we con- ceived that they had principally been affixed. It appears airo that none of the 33 punlures, which are feen in the parchment, at the head of the fignatures, were occa- fioned by tacking the latter to the petitions to the two houfes : but this very difcovery only aggravates the proof of forgery againft the inftrument in the Mufeum,as every man of common difcernment will inftantly fee. This unimportant miftake, with the corollaries from it, being thus rectified, whatever elfe I have advanced on the pre- fent occafion, particularly in proof that the inftrument in the Mufeum is not the fame that we originally figned, and that the petition prefented in our name to Parlia- ment effentially differs in (cnie from them both, in many particulars, (lands evident and incontrovertible. TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CISALPINE CLUB. GENTLEMEN*, I HAVE received a printed copy of the " Report" made to you by the M Law-members of your foci- " ety," and of your " Refolution" grounded upon the fame, dated the 10th of February 1795, which your fecretary was ordered to tranfmit to me, in common with the Apoftolic Vicars, the Coadjutors and the Rev. Mr. Plowden, relative to " an afler- " tion of Mr. Milner, repeated by Mr. C. Plowden, M refpecling the authenticity of the Proteftation *' lodged in the Mufeum." I am fenfible how difgufting the appearance of any frefh debate, connected with that unhappy con- troverfy, which ought ever to be forgotten, will prove to the Catholic public ; and I feel how irk- fome and how diftrefling to myfelf the tafk is which you impofe on me, of proving an afTertion, made in the heat of contrcverfy, and fo long ago as the pub- lication of my Ecclefiajiical Democracy Detecled. But called upon as I am by Gentlemen, highly re- fpeftable in our body, as individuals, however little they are fo, as a Cifalpine Club, I am not at liberty to refufe them the proofs they demand ; and I am aware of the confequences to be apprehended, at * The author has but an imperfect knowledge who the remain- ing 27 members of this club are. This will account for any fault in point of etiquette into which he may fall. B their ( if 1 their next meeting, fhonld I fail to produce thefe proofs. Even, in thefe circumflances, I mould not have had recourfe to the prefs, had I not experi- enced, in a fimilar cafe *, how unfafe it is to truft to private letters, even in the hands of honorable men, for a faithful report upon proofs and authorities, when the fame are found to be unfavorable to their views. I truft, Gentlemen, you will afcribe my relu&an- cy to enter into the prefent queftion to its only caufe, a difpofition to make every other facrifice, except that of truth, at the altar of peace. In order to ex- pofe this to as little frefh danger as poffible, I fhall fupprefs a great deal of ufeful matter that prefents itfelf to me, and fhall endeavour to make the pre- fent difcuflion, on my part, wear the face rather of literary criticifm than of angry controverfy. I can- not however conceal my conviftion that, in every other point of view, except that which I have exhi- bited, the prefent inquiry is interefting, ufeful, and in fome fort neceffary. Hence if I am forced into a ftate of war 1 fhall confole myfelf with the prof- peft of the advantages that are likely to be the ifTue of it. Thefe advantages are, the information of Catholics concerning a bufinefs, in which they are fo much interefted, and which is fo little underftood amongft them, the removal of a blemifh, which is fuppofed at prefent to difgrace them, in confequence of their names being pledged to an ambiguous and * Sec Appendix to EccUJiaJlkal Democracy Dctcclcd, p. 283. & feq. captious, ( 3 ) captious expofitfon of Catholic docTrine, the taking aw3 ) ' tain that (wo names, thofe of Wm. P/owden, M. D. and Hen. IVeedall, have been foifted in fince the month of April, 1791, that is near two years after the lift was made out and prefented to parliament. In proof of this I refer to that perfeft lift, now under my eye, which was circulated amongft mem- bers of parliament; and which the fecretary has certified contained "the whole of the names*." By the fame argument it is proved, that the laft name of all in the lift has been interpolated, .and, to my certain knowledge, at a ftill later period than the two others} a name that has no pretentions to ftand on the fame roll, -either with Englifhmen or with Catholics. It is that of Alexander GedJes, L. L. D. IV. I maintain that the deed in the Mufeum, bears upon its face the marks of fraud, and of counterfeit manufactory. I lay no ftrefs upon the frefhnefs of the two fkins, on which the prote- flation is written, compared with thofe containing the fignatures; which frems to argue that they have been tacked to them at a later date: but I refer to the punerures and marks, to be feen in many- places of the fcroll, which (hew that it has been taken to pieces, fince it was firft formed and made into one Charta-partita inftrument: and I refer, in particular, to the top of the third fkin, where the fignatures commence, which is evidently much rumpled and worn with handling, and which, in an extent of twelve inches (the whole breadth of the * See Utter to the Author, Ma) 11, 1792, in Democracy Detected, p. 301. parchment) ( li ) parchment) is perforated with no fewer than thirty-three needle holes, befides thofe occu- pied by the threads, which fallen it to the prefent proteflation. Now the very taking to pieces of a Charta-partia, atleaft where, as in the prefent cafe, there is no Chyrographum or indentura, to atteft the relation of the parts to one another, totally deftroys its credit, as an authentic inftrument: And the ftate of the third flcin in particular, as defcribed above, forms fo ftrong a prefumption of the fignatures having been fixed to other inftruments, befides that which they grace at prefent, as no mind can refift. V. But I have now done with preemptions of fraud, and with all fuch arguments as only militate againft the authenticity of the prefent proteflation ; I appeal to the text of it, which I proclaim, varies, in feveral points, from that, which we figned fix vears ago: of courfe it is evident, that the above- mentioned is, not only a copy, but alfo a falfified copy. In proof of this, I call upon you to collate, as I have done, the prefent inftrument, with the original edition of the proteflation, I mean with that printed fheet, to which you refer in your report*, and which was circulated amongll us with the Ikins of parchment for our fignatures. It was to the text, as this fheet exhibited it, that nine tenths of the fubfcribers affixed their names. That this text was flriclly accurate we have the teftimony of the able foreman of your prefent Reporters, then fecretary * The printed fhcets circulated araongft the Catholics, with " the parchment* for their fignaturc had no title." Report, p. a. to ( *5 ) to the committee, upon whofe talents and profef- fional learning, no one will beftow warmer or more fincere applaufe than myfelf : the following is an extract from his printed circular letters, dated April 7, 1789. t* The committee anxious to procure the " fignature of the Catholics to it (the proteflation) " have direfted me to circulate it for that purpofe. " I therefore take the liberty to addrefs this to you. " You receive with this a printed copy of the pro- " teftation, (which has been attentively " COMPARED WITH THE ORIGINAL NOW IN " MY CUSTODY) and with it, a fkin of parchment; " upon which you, and thofe whofe fignatures you *' procure, are requefted to write your names, &o M C. Butler, Secretary." I am warranted then in confidering this printed fheet, thus certified to have been attentively collated with the original, as being ftri&Iy conformable to the original, and indeed, in fome fenfe, as the original itfelf, fince, it was that, to which the greater part of our fubfcriptions were actually given *. WhaJ would add, in an infinite * A copy of any inflrujnent, thus certified by due authority, to be conformable to the original, is termed by Diplomatifts a Vidimus, and is admitted by them to be of fufficient authority, to deter- mine the authenticity of the original itfelf, if any queflion, on that head takes place in after times. See Dom Vaines. Dic~l. Diplo. Copie. It is efTentially requifite that 'thofe perfons, who chufe to fatisfy themfelves with their own eyes, whether the deed in the Mufeum be authentic or fpuiious, fhould procure this firft edition of the proteflation, printed on one page of a broad fheet, copies of which were fent round the kingdom In April, 1789, with parchment to procure fignatures. Thofe perfons who have not an opportunity of examining the fpurious proteflation in the Mufeum, may remain fatisfied that the edition in the lift Blue Book is, with the excep- tion of a fingle point, and the addition of the title at large is exadlly printed from it. degree, ( 16 ) degree, to the authority of this firft edition of the proteftation, if it flood in need of the leaft credit, is that it is fupportcd throughout in fenfe, grammar, and punctuation, by the fecond edition of the fame, which was given by the Rt. Hon. Lord Petre, in the Appendix to his Letter, addreffed to the Rt. Rev. Dr. Rorfely, dated March 2*, 1790. And yet this latter edition was not printed from the former, as appears by the difference with refpect to fmall and capital letters, that is feen between them. Indeed his Lordfhip having conftant accefs to the original, it is not to be fuppofed that he would have recourfe to any other. It is only by an attention to flight circumftances that literary frauds, or indeed frauds of any kind, can, in general be dete&ed, and thofe perfons, who cannot bend their minds to fuch minutiae, muft give up all pretenfions to diplomatic criticifm, and to pronounce upon the authenticity of records. Mr. Plowden has juftly obferved, in the paffage you quote, that the variation of a Angle point in the prefent parchmeut, from what is known to have exifled in the original, would prove that the former is not the original, but a falfe copy. The quefiion however at prefent (to fpeak firft of punctuation) is not about the difference of one or two flops, but of as many flops as there ar.e whole lines in the above- mentioned printed fheet : in fhort, they are about forty in number, f'everal of which materially affecl: the conflruclion; as where a paffage is refpe&ively divided, by a fubordinate flop, into different claufes, or C *7 ) or by a full flop, followed by a capital letter, into different fentences. I will not detain you with all thefe particulars, but I appeal to any man acquainted with the bufinefs, whether the numerous variations in queftion, between the aforefaid printed copy, and the pretended original in the Mufeum,are the cafual errata of a hafly typographer; or two different fludied fyftems of punctuation ? Had they been errata, would they, in fuch numbers, have efcaped the obfervation of the accurate collator above* mentioned ? Would they have been copied by the aforefaid Rt. Hon. Author ? I may argue, in a fimilar manner, with refpeft to the dallies which are feen iri the prefent parchment, but for which there is no authority in the two firft editions; as alfo for the change of the Roman cyphers I, II. III. IV. V. into the arabic cyphers, with letters, as follows, id. ad. 3d. 4th. 5th. In all thefe particu- lars, obferve, the collated edition in 1789, and Lord Petre's edition in 1790 agree together, with the difference of a fingle point; on the other hand, the modern parchment in the Mufeum, which dif- agrees from them in all thefe particulars, is exa&ly copied, with the variation only of a fingle point, in the edition for the ufe of members, in April, 1791, and that of the Blue Book publifhed April 21. 1792. I proceeed now to variations of greater confe- quence, fuch as will be found to affel the grammar and the fenfe of the proteftation, On this point I have to obferve that it is of no confequence to the main queftion, whether thefe alterations are made D for ( ! ) for the better or for the worfe : becaufe, if any alte- ration at all is proved to have taken place in the text, as it ftands now, and as it is known to have ilood formerly, then a fraud has moft undoubtedly taken place, and a fpurious proteflation has been lodged in the Mufeum, inflead of the authentic one. But take notice, this circum fiance is of great confe- quence to me, who figned it, as an erroneous deed, and who could not be induced to fix my name to it, until the learned Divine who gained my fignature, had acknowledged that it was inaccurate*. This conceffion, as I then conceived, fecured me from the wrong inferences, in point of theology, of which I faw it was fufceptible, and enabled me to declare my civil and focial principles in a form of words, which, it was given me to underftand, had been prefcribed and even impofed by miniftry. Nothing however contributed more in my mind to fmooth away thefe theological imperfections, than the faults which flruck me in the grammar and Tenfe of the inftrument. To correct any of the latter then, whilft the former are left behind, is to do away, in fome degree, the motives for my fubfcribing. The firft then of thefe folecifms of the original, which has been corrected in the new inftrument, and in all the late editions, occurs in]the third paragraph of the article, marked II. in the collated copy, and in his Lordfhip's edition, which ftands thus: '* We * believe that no aft that is in itfelf immoral or " difhoneft can ever be juftified by, or under colour See Democracy Dcttclcd, p. 29$. * that ( *9 ) (i that it is done, either for the good of the church, " or obedience to any ecclefiaflical power whatever." To do any thing for obedience, as it occurs here and in Lord Petre's edition, is evidently an error in grammar; it is therefore corre&ed in the Mufeum parchment and in all the late editions, as follows, " done either for the good of the church, or in obe* " dience, &c." The next folecifm, which occurs in the fucceeding paragraph to that which I have quoted, is ftill more flagrant ; viz. " We do fo- " lemnly declare, that no church or any prelate '* nor any prieft, &c." So we alfo read in the No- bleman's edition. But the Mufeum parchment and the two abovementioned late editions very grammatically turn the affirmative or into the nega- tive nor. I afk you now, Gentlemen, does any of you believe that the original, with which the learned Secretary compared this firft edition, was the pro- teftation in the Mufeum, which is free from both thefe blunders ? Does any of you believe that the noble Lord, writing to a learned prelate, would de- liberately have fanclioned fuch blunders, if he had not thought himfelf obliged to adhere to the text of the proteftation as it then flood ? But I have now an opportunity of making fome amends to the collated edition and to that of the noble Peer. In the next variation which I have to produce, their reading is much more conformable to the context and to common fenfe, than that of the modern initrument, and the late editions, which are copied from it. Call your eyes, Gentlemen, D 2 on i 20 ) on the article, marked V. in the firll edition and in that of Lord Petre: you will read as follows. ' And we have alfo been accufed of holding, as a principle of our religion, that Faith is not to be " kept with heretics." Thus the charge againfl us is made in the fame words, with thofe in which it is afterwards denied, as follows ' This do&rine, " that faith is not to be kept with heretics, we re- "jet, &c." Whereas the aforef aid charge in the Mufeum copy, and in the two new editions, is changed thus " We have been accufed of holding, &c. thdtnojaitkisto be kept with heretics:" which, in faft, is a much more extenfive and ablurd accu- fation. If I am rightly informed by a celebrated literary character, not ian officer of the Mufeum, your Reporters actually difcovered this variation, when they infpecled the parchment, though, it teems, they did not think it worth their while to trouble you with an account of it*. Their mode of explain- ing this is laid to be, by an accidentol tranjpojition of the prejs. Thus they are reduced to luppori the latter reading as the true one, becaufe it is feen in the modern parchment, though contrary to the context and to common fenfe ; and thus the very * The doftrine here and elfewherelaid down is ftri&Iy con- formable to that of Lord Chief Baron Gilbert in his celebrated work, on The Law of Evidence, where he fays: " If there be leveral covenants in a deed, and one of them be altered, this deftroys " the whole deed : for the deed is but a complication of all the * covenants, fo that the deed, which is the whole, cannot be the fame, unlefs every covenant, of which it confilts be the fame alfo." th Edition, p. 106. man, . t tf ) man, who had before allured us that the ancient edition had " been attentively compared with the " original," is obliged now to fay, that it was [ft. me- fully inaccurate and erroneous, in a manner that affecf s the fenie. But did the fame tranfpofition or the prels accidentally happen at the lame iden- tical place in the Noble Lord's edition ? As like- wile in the coi responding pafljge of the petition to parliament ? lhe truth nuwevsr is, that no tranfpo T iition whatfoever, either ot words or even of letters, can transform one of theie leniences into the other. Whatever be faid of the motive for making the above mentioned change, (tor 1 am peifuaded there was a motive for it) 1 certainly give lhe author of the following ciedit for his intentions. In the collated edition, lupported by hisLordfhip, we read, in the lait paragraph but two, that " no breach of ?1 faith with any perlon whomfoever, can ever be jultified by reafon ot, or under pretence that " fuch perlon is an heretic or an infidel." Now in the prelent inftiument and in the edition of the blue book, the emphatical word ever is, from an apparent qualm of conscience, fuppreifed. Probably the forger of the amended Pioteitation, which Is the lubjectol the prefent inquiry, had, in the courfe of our com roveriy concerning the oath, heard of the permiflion winch St.Paul 1 Lor. c. vii. v. ij. gives, in a particular cale, ot breaking matrimonial faith with an infidel partner. But the intentions of the perfon in queltion, be he who he may, have no- thins ( 22 ) thing to do with the authority of the piece. The fignificant emphatical word ever occurred in this callage of the original inlirumeHt k the foreman of your report and Lord Petre are vouchers for it) that word docs not ftand, nor any erafure where it might have flood, in the correfponding paffage of the inftrument at the Mufeum : the faid inftrument then at the Mufeum is not the original proteflation. O.E.D. Thus then thofe ftrong prefumptions of forgery in the prefent inftrument, which I ftated at the be- ginning, are now converted into pofitive proofs, and henceforward I truft that even the members of the Cifalpine Club will, with the candour and liberality of gentlemen and fcholars, abandon the hopelels caufe of the prefent fpurious proteflation, and take the proper meafures for withdrawing the 4,500 names from it, which, in fact, were never fub- fcribed to it, and which, by a feries of diplomatic frauds, as they will fee, are at prefent annexed to it. I fpeak merely to fa6ls : I neither call guilt, nor the fufpicion of guilt, upon any one. And with refpe6l to the late Committee, I have hereto- fore teftified my perfuafion, that they are men of too much honor either to pralife or countenance any fraud whatfocver*. The * Sec Democracy Detcclcd, p. 268. The author has been cen- iured by perfons, for whofe opinions he entertains the utmoft re- fpta, for the latitude of allowance which he has made in the faid parage. He is far however in that paffage, or in any other part of hu ( 2 3 ) The authenticity of the proteftation in the Mu- feum being compleatly overturned, and it being demonftrated that a fpurious copy is at prefent lodged there inftead of the original, I might here drop my pen, had I not promifed fomething more, and were it not neceflary, for the compleat informal tion of Catholics, in a bufinefs which fo mueh inte- refts them, that they mould be acquainted with certain intermediate changes which this Proteus of a'proteftation has gone through, between its prefent fhape and that in which we firft of all beheld if. Upon this fubjecl: however I will be as brief as pof- fible. You will obfervethen that in both the pafTages, which you do me the honor to quote, I maintain, by way of invalidating the authenticity of the pre- fent proteftation, that it is not the fame which was prefented to Parliament. The Catholic public in- deed has hitherto been of a contrary opinion. They could not believe it to be either juftor fafe to pre- fent any other inftrument to Parliament in their name, except the original which they had figned, and which had been " avowedly framed to be pre- his writings, from denyingthat any perfons,whofe authority has t-een abufed by artful agents orbad canonifts and divines, to the fancTion- ingof do&rinesor meafures injurious to the fpirtual welfare of others, are obliged in confcience to difavow and retral fuch do&rines or meafures, when they are properly mode known to them. On this important point he bows to the decifion of our ecclefiaftical fuperiors and he fubfcribes to the general doftrineof divines. See Pajloral Let- teroi thethree Bifhops, Dec. 26, 1792, p. 16. Vide Thcologos pajfim, dc rtjlitutionc ob damnum in bonis fpiritualil/.us. '* fented ( *4 ) * fented to the legiflature*." It is however now openly acknowledged, that indeed the proteftation " was not prefented in its ancient fhape, but in the " form of a petition." What, now I afic, is the na- ture of this form, which, without change of quality / quantity, this one indivifible, authentic inftru- ment isdefcribed to put on, at its folemn entrance into Parliament? To my mind, I own, it does not prefent a more diflinfl idea than the form of the ghoft, which is defcribed to have appeared in the Jhape of the found of a drum: The plain fact is, the original inftrument, after which we inquire, was laid afide on that folemn occafion, and a fpu- rious proteftation, emblazoned with the names of the principal Catholics of England, of wh continuing to officiate in spite of it, though none but necessitous j.-ersons over whom lie has a controul assist at his worship. Thus , he has got mio the situation of his hero, Peter Walsh. O ! may he, lil.e Peter Walsh, do penaitce, and /lisfurm r wot Us. (Revel, ii. 5.) ally calls upon his countrymen to reduce to practice, and with the foulest scurrility and calumny against the successors of St. Peter, his native Prelates, and myself. Having in a for- mer publication reviewed the three first numbers of his work called Columbanus, and a more de- tailed refutation of his schismatical system hav- ing been published by an eminent canonist, Couusellor Clinch, I shall content myself here with giving a very few extracts from the first number of the above-mentioned work. These shew the nature and extent of the democratical, or rather anarchical system, which he is desirous of substituting to the religion of St. Patrick. Having declaimed against " the Dominatio in CU' ros," ashe calls the Episcopal Government, which he says, "has denied employment to some clergy- men and withdrawn faculties from others, "whom he attests to be "qualified for the highest stations " in the Church." He calls upon his countrymen, V Not to be cajoled by the hypocritical canting " of men who would dispense thraldom to others, " and reserve independence for themselves, but, c< in a national and free council, and in union f' with the Bishops to reform themselves." Co- lumbanus, No. I. pp. 23, 24, 25. Here thisanti- prelatic reformer attributes an authority to alter the existing discipline and laws of the Church [even as to giving and withholding sacerdotal powers] to the second order of the Clergy, to Ab- bots, monks, and to the laity themselves, [for he requires the presence of all these persons to con- stitute "a free national council," p. 18.] In short, he says : " We may finally establish " a National Church discipline, independent " of Dominatio in Cleros, on GENERAL '* WILL." This is as much as to say : We laity and clergy are resolved that the Divine jurisdiction and discipline of the Catholic Church shall be so and so constituted and administered in future, independently of you Bishops, who are the Episcopal Dominantes. I must observe, how- ever, that Dr. O'C. has not the merit of inventing this system of forming the constitution of Christ's Church, as we form a political society, or club ; that is to say, according to our own will and convenience : since Hobbs and the Freethinkers of the 17th century advocated it long ago. I must add, that though the Reverend Reformer founds his constitution on general will, yet he would have it " supported, not by this will only, ' nor by the inferior clergy only, but by a reci 1 procity of general affection, (words without a ' meaning) and by what has a meaning, the 1 LAWS, which, he says, restrain the petulance of human power, &c." p. 119- In short, he would have the whole spiritual jurisdiction of the Catholic Church, agreeably to the notions of his Patron, subject to municipal law ; so that, if a Bishop should suspend a refractory Priest, like himself, for broaching schism, or for violating his vowed continence, an appeal should lie from him to the neighbouring Justice of Peace ; who, it is an equal chance, may be the minister of the Established Church. Hence he is ever calling for "the interference of the law " and the responsibility of the law;" and hence he repeatedly invokes " anti-fanatical statesmen " to interpose an segis of defence between the " liberties of Catholics and the usurpation of the " Maynooth imperium, styled the independent hie- " rarchy of the Irish Church" p. 9. Can Dr. Duigenan wish for a more concordant and zeal- ous partizan than Dr. O'Conor ? Speaking of the appointment of Bishops, he prescribes to the Iiish people the following schismatical plan : '* The election of the Clergy, with the approba- " tion of the Gentry and the confirmation of the " Civil Power, is the only wise and CATHO- " LIC plan, that, in the present circumstances, " can be adopted by the Irish People." He adds the following heretical, no less than schismatical dogma : " Neither the election of Bishops by " the Pope, nor their confirmation by him after " election, nor their nomination to any vacant " see, nor the Pope's consent, nor even his know- " ledge of the appointment, is a necessary requi* " site to establish the validity of any of these " acts." Ibid. pp. 79, 80. Upon the publication of these and similar doctrines, in the first number of the work called Columbanus, dated March 16, 1810, I judged it to be so notoriously and scandalously erroneous, calumnious, schismatical, and even heretical, that I directed all the Clergy of my district, in the neighbourhood of the author's residence, not to 10 liold any communication with him in spiritual matters, without a public retractation, and though some respectable divines are said not to have been able, for two whole years, to " 6nd any " thiug to take hold of," in these propositions, yet I think I can assert thus far, that there is now a perfect unanimity at least among the Ca- tholic Prelates of the United Kingdom, that the system of Dr. O'Conor, as it appears in the ex- tracts I have given above, from his Columbanus, \s schismatical, and that the object of the whole "work is to excite a schism. It would require a folio work to expose and refute all the pestilen- tial errors here alluded to, together with the au- thor's misrepresentations of history, his misquo- tations and wrong translations of other writers, and deliberate falsehoods and calumnious charges against living personages (i), contained in the (1) If these pages should meet the eye of Dr. O'Conor, I request him to consider how tar his. present honour, as well as his future wel- fare, is implicated in such calumnies as the following, among hun- dreds of the same sort. " The Bishops have enteied into a solemn " compact, that they shall be allowed to bequeath their respective " dioceses to whonusoever they please." Coluinb. No. I. p. 12. " He who stems the tide of immorality is informed by the Bishop " -of Castabala, that the very title of a priest is a title of contempt." No. Ill", p. 3f. " The V. B. of Castabala dares to assert, that I (Dr. O'C.) stole mi/ grandfather's MSS." The Address, p. 149. To these express calumnies I must add the one implied in the fol- lowing passage ; " Those (blood-stained) days, I trust, shall not be i estored by any Castabala or Gordon. No, vile hypocrites ! you who are a disgrace to Christianity, lie down: spare yourselves the shame of exciting us to new murders : lie down, &c. Hist. Addr. P. III.p. 223 Yet thisis the unfortunate man who ends his book with the following imprecation: " May that day be my last, when I " will dare to injure any man'* character by calumny." Ibid, p. 492. 11 different numbers of his Columbanus and Ad- dresses. Nor is it necessary for me to undertake this task; as Counsellor Clinch, in his able and learned Letters on Church Government, which has merited the thanks of the Irish Prelacy, has detected and refuted a sufficient number of these to bring the whole voluminous collection of the writer into deserved disrepute among scholars, and to exhibit the writer himself as a literary empyric, who, by declamation and effrontery, imposes poisonous drugs, for salutary medicine, on an ignorant and unsuspecting populace. Another professing Catholic, who is the de- clared foe of the independent jurisdiction of our Church, is Mr. J. J. Dillon, an acute lawyer ; but who having received his education among Dissenters, as he boasts in one of his late pub- lications, is found to be ignorant of the very first principles of the Catholic religion, and, by his obstinacy in adhering to his schismaticai er- rors, does in fact unchurch himself. He is, as might be expected, the firm ally of the excom- municated Dr. O'Conor, and accordingly they pay each other the loftiest compliments in their respective publications (l). To say nothing of this gentleman's former works, in his late Me- moirs, addressed to the University of Oxford, he (1) See Mr. J. J. Dillon's praises bestowed on the work and the author of Columbanus, Two Mem. Append, p. x. In return Dr. O'Cpnor says, " no praise I can bestow on Mr. Dillon's Tno Me- " moirs can add to its merit ; but it is a duty I owe to my country " to recommend that excellent work." Columbanus, No. III. p. 138. 12 lays down his system of spiritual jurisdiction in the following terms : " The character or faculty * of the ministry emanated from, and can be " conferred by the Church alone ; and the " clergy, of whatever order, hold their abstract " spiritual functions solely under a divine com- " mission, as successors of the Apostles ; those " faculties not being of human institution /" This, it is, for men to dogmatize on subjects which they are ignorant of, and are too arrogant to be instructed in. Hence it is that this declared enemy of the clergy here gives them a greal deal more than they are willing to accept of; for, you all know, my Brethren, that we only claim a divine commission in favour of the two highest, or, at most, of the three highest of the seven orders of our clergy, and that we ac- knowledge the rest of them to be of ecclesiasti- cal human institution. You also know that we QytK i hold none but persons of the higher order of %*** \ the priesthood, namely, Bishops, to be succes- y>.sors of the Apostlcs.-^Qux theological layman proceeds thus : " But, though the state enjoys " not the power of conferring the abstract fa- t#-1 iXj " culty of divine ministers, it is invested with a ^J\h( right of declaring by zchat persons, in what places, ^nd under what qualifications that spiritual au- 14 " negative upon the appointment of Catholic Bi* " shops" Letter to Mr. Canning, p. 3.(1) (1) Two whole pages of this quarto Letter are employed in invec- tives against the present writer. He charges me with being the greatest enemy of the Emancipation, with having been so ever since 1804 ; he ascribes to me what he calls " the temper of Ire- " land, and the discrepancy of opinion respecting the positions in his " Memoirs." He says, " By Dr. Milner were the difficulties *' (about the Veto, &c.) first started, promoted and encouraged : by " Dr. M. have they been supported and maintained : I challenge " him to deny the assertion. I charge him, that he wrote to Rome " to infuse jealousy into the minds of its Cardinals, &c. I charge " him that, imposing on the Court of Rome, he obtained a letter " from Cardinal Borgia, dissuading the Bishops of Ireland from " acceding to the arrangement ; and I call upon him to produce " and verify the nature of his correspondence, &c. Those to " whom I am known will give me credit for not advancing points " without mature consideration." Letter to Mr, Canning, pp. 7, 8. > -I have elsewhere stated, that this lawyer's charges form what is called & fishing bill, and that I will not gratify his curiosity till his friend in Parliament shall require me to do so in that Secret Com- mittee which he is incessantly calling for. Id the mean time, I will confidently assert, that neither the learned Gentleman, nor any of his friends, has more zealously, more disinterestedly, or more effec- tually promoted the emancipation of the Catholic laity, than I have done ever since its proposal in 1800. True it is, I have refused to sacrifice religion itself for civil advantages ; and it is also true, that I exhibited the consequences attending the effectual Veto, as the Gen- tleman himself and Dr. O'Conor have detailed them from the lips of illustrious personages, its avowed patrons. Still I trust that the Veto and Emancipation are not in c eparable companions. With re- spect to the temper of Ireland, it is notorious that I advocated a certain restricted species of Veto, and was burnt in effigy for so doing, at the very time when my revered friends, the Irish Prelates, re- solved not to admit of any change in the established discipline what- soever. As to my alltdg?d correspondence with certain Cardinals, and my obtaining a letter from one of them, dissuading the Bishops of Ireland from agreeing to the Veto, &c. I aver it is a tissue of falsehood. In the last pamphlet of this Writer, dated Feb. 6, en- titled, Cursory Suggestions, p. 32, he concedes so far to the English VV. A. as to recommend " concerting with those (he says) who 15 I pass by several other writers on this subject, belonging to our body, in order to take notice of the public speeches and letters of an Honourable Personage, Sir John C. Hippisley, to whom many Catholics are indebted for signal benefits, and to whom I myself am indebted for much civility ; being already a member of the open Parliament- ary Committee, and likely soon to become a member of the secret Committee for preparing the Bill on our concerns, and he having, again and again, pledged himself to vote against it, unless it is modelled upon his own preconcerted plan, (the Hon. Baronet has frequently been called upon to produce any authentic document that the Church has acknowledged any right or privilege in the sovereigns of Prussia to nominate to the Catho- lic Sees of Silesia in their dominions, though richly endowed ; or to name a Bishop of Quebec whohas been presented by the English cro vvn, ) what then have we not to expect should he draw over a majority of his Honourable Collegues to adopt his sentiments ? In this case we must prepare our- selves for persecution instead of relief. This plan, " possess our confidence, and who wish not to suhject us to the " extravagant dominion of an Hibernian Hierarchy;" and he ex- presses an apprehension lest " the doors of the House of Commons " should be open to (Catholic) Chaplains, with the R. Rev. Dr. Mil- " ner, &c." To allay these fears of the expectant barrister, I may state to him, that as our sacred Orders are admitted both by the Legislature and the Established Church, I apprehend the Catholic Clergy are already excluded from St. Stephen's Chapel, according to the resolution in the case of the Rev. Home Tooke. But if this should not be the case, I earnestly wish that Dr. M. and all other Catholic Clergymen, may for ever be excluded from entering that particular chapel, provided it be done by an enactment, and not by an exercise of the Veto. 16 as he has repeatedly printed and published it, or at least the most material part of it, consists in the legislative enactment of an unrestricted Veto on the appointment of Catholic Bishops, both as to the number of times and the motive of its exercise, and in the establishment of a new Crown Office, to revise and suppress, or sanction each part of that necessary correspondence, which the Prelates of the Catholic Church all over the world ever have kept and must keep up with their fel- low Bishops, and especially with the Chief Bishop, on a variety of spiritual concerns. We may well suppose that the person intended to fill this new office of Ministre de Culte, must be some public character, distinguished for his knowledge of the Catholic doctrine, hierarchy, and discipline. Upon what motive, now, does the Hon. Baronet ground his stern demand of this Veto, and this Inquisition ? Is it for the sake of conciliating Irish Catholics and tranquillizing the empire? So far from this, he admits, that he has incurred the hatred of the Irish Catholics, and has experienced the coolness of the English Catholics by insisting on these measures (]). But instead of consulting their wishes or feelings, he tauntingly tells them, that " If he has not their praise, he is determined V to deserve it." (2) Does the Baronet alledge, that disloyal or se- ditious men have been promoted to the Catholic Bishoprics in Ireland? No, on every occasion (1) Substance of a Speech of Sir J. Hippisley, April 24, 1812, p. 40. (2) Ibid. p. 23. 17 he has to speak of them, collectively or indivi- dually, he bears ample testimony to their civil and social, as well as Christian principles and conduct. To judge from his testimony, it would be impossible to find subjects more worthy of the prelacy than they are ? On the other hand, does he pretend that either they, or any of them, or either of the two Popes, or any one of the Car- dinals with whom he has been personally ac- quainted, or has confidentially corresponded, has ever once devised or promoted a plot or attempt to overturn or disturb the established constitu- tion, either in Church or State ? So far from this, he publishes numerous letters and other do- cuments, written by Popes and Cardinals, and by our native Catholic Bishops, of quite the opposite tendency ( l). But without looking into these, we may be quite sure, if any such plots had been hatched, either at Rome or in Ireland during the last quarter of a century, that a person of the Baronet's peculiar talent, with the facilities he has enjoyed, would have discovered it, and that a subject of his eminent loyalty would have de- nounced it to his Majesty's Government. Instead, then, of shewing any existing neces- sity for the grinding conditions, which he re- solves upon tacking to Catholic Emancipation, or any utility resulting from them, he flies off to abstract and those false principles. He lays it down as a fundamental maxim, (1) Substance of a Speech of Sir J.Hippisley, 1810, Appendix. 18 which he frequently repeats in one shape or ano- ther, that the supreme civil power in every state has a right of controul over the appointment and the concerns of persons possessing great religious influence, like Bishops ; and he quotes, from the Swiss Jansenist Vatel, that "The Clergy, as well " as every other order, ought to submit in their " functions, and in every thing else, to the pub- " lie power (l)." What, I ask, will our brethren of the national Kirk of Scotland say to this principle ? Nay, what will every dissenting class, of whatever denomination in this free kingdom, say to it? Do they, will they permit the supreme civil power to controul the appoint- ment or the functions of their ministers? Now it would be an insult, to ask whether these mi- nisters have great influence over their respective flocks or not. Again, did the Divine Founder of Christianity consult with Pontius Pilate or King Herod before he chose his Apostles, or be- fore he sent them to exert a wonderful influence over mankind, by teaching ihem the Christian faith ? Were the Pagan Emperors and persecutors, a Nero, a Decius, and a Dioclesian, possessed of a right of Veto, or of any other right of interfering in the concerns of the Christian Religion, during the golden ages of its birth and progress ? Besides this, if influence gives a right of controul to the civil power over those who possess it, since it is evi- dent that riches and rank have more influence over mankind than religion has, it will follow that (1) Summary of Speech, 1811 p. 38. 19 the Crown ought to have the power of a Veto on the descent of estates and titles. The Hon. Baronet says, that our Catholic an- cestors formerly established similar barriers against the encroachment and abuse of the Papal and other ecclesiastical powers, to those which he is resolved on establishing at present, and he maintains, that all the Catholic states, of Europe have adopted the same sort of barriers. , Hence he instructs us Irish and English Catholics, that we need not be under any apprehensions for the integrity of our religion, since he proposes nothing but what is perfectly consistent with it(l). To this we answer, first, that supposing we Irish and English Catholics choose to have a species of Catholicity of our own, one more analo- gous to the present freedom of our constitution, and to the religious liberty enjoyed by all other dissidents from the Established Church, how can this concern the Hon. Baronet, provided we are what he constantly mainfains we are, good and loyal subjects, and strictly tenacious of our oath, which declares, that " No foreign Prelate, " Prince, or Potentate, hath or ought to have u any temporal or civil jurisdiction, directly or " indirectly, within this realm ?" I answer, 2dly, With respect to the statutes of provisors and prcE?nuni?'e, that these were devised and ope- rated merely to prevent the Court of Rome from bestowing the temporal Jiefs, annexed to Bi- shoprics, on foreigners, and for keeping up the established discipline of the English Catholic (1) Letters to Lord Fingal. Speeoh of 1812. c2 20 Church(l). They neither did nor could operate to prevent the Chief Pastor from conferring that mere Spiritual Jurisdiction in which Episcopacy precisely consists, or from determining other spiritual matters referred to him. In proof of the first point, we need but glance at the Registers of Confirmation of the several Archbishops of Can- terbury, from St. Augustin down to Cranmer, in Richardson's Commentarius Prasulum, or Wharton's Anglia Sacra. In proof of the se- cond, we have but to look into any printed ac- count of the steps which Henry VIII. himself took at the Pope's Court to get divorced from Catharine of Arragon.- The same may be said, in a great measure, of the discipline of late ages in Catholic countries. The Sovereign presents to the Bishoprics in his dominions, as repre- sentative of the Clergy and People, who ought to bear testimony to the merits of their future Pastors, and as the representative also of the founders of the temporalities belonging to such Bishoprics ; not, however, by an inherent right, but merely by virtue of a Concordat urn, or agree- ment with the Church (2). Now none of these instances come home to the case of Irish Catholic Bishops, or English Vicars Apostolic. We have no fiefs, estates, or other endowments annexed to our spiritual charges : on the other hand, it is (1) See Preamble to 25 Edw. III. (2) Fleury, in his Treatise on the Liberties of the Gallican Church, acknowledges thus : " La nomination du Roi n'a outre fondement " legitime que la concession du Pape, autorisee du consentement " tacite de toute l'Eglise." Opusc. p. 81. 21 impossible that a King, who must be a Protest- ant, should represent a Catholic Flock, or bear testimony to the orthodoxy of its Catholic Pastors. As to various acts of intolerance and oppression enacted or exercised of late years by Jansenistical or Deistical Princes, Ministers, or Parliaments, which the Baronet recommends to the adoption of his Honourable Colleagues against his former clients the Catholics (merely it should seem to furnish business for the proposed new office) he might with as much reason and hu- manity, propose the adoption here of Lettres de Cachet and the Inquisition itself. In France, un- der Louis XIV. the liberty of the Gallican Church, as Fleury complains, had become its servitude (l). Under his successor this servi- tude grew to be still more intolerable', till, at length, unbelieving magistrates refused to let the pastors of the Church proclaim its own doctrines, and sent files of soldiers to drive reluctant priests, at the point of the bayonet, with the sacred Host in their hands to administer the holy sacrament to ob- stinate Jansenists. We all remember the irre- ligious caprices of another favourite of the Ba- ronet, the Emperor Joseph II. which drove a faithful, no less than a religious people, into open revolt, and gave a beginning, to the first disturb- ances on the continent. These, as well as the other instances of irreligious oppression, which Sir John regularly details in all his speeches and Letters, if properly stated, would make (1) Opuscles, pp. 89. 97, &c. 22 against his argument rather than for it To what purpose does the Baronet print, at full length, again and again, the edict of Catharine II. by which she pretends to erect Mohilow into a Catholic Archbishopric, investing it with actual jurisdiction over other Churches, and appointing, by her own supposed authority, its Archbishop, &c. As well might he cite the Bull of Adrian IV. and the act of Pandulph, to prove that the Pope has a right to dispose of Ireland and England. The Hon. Amateur of our theology has to learn that propositions, properly drawn and affirming the validity of the acts he here refers to, would be schismatical and even heretical. To make short of the matter, the Baronet, after all his indefatigable researches, has been unable to find a single Con' cordatum, or other authentic deed of the Catho- lic Church, or of the Chief Pastor, by which any un- Catholic Prince or Princess, avowedly such, whether in Prussia or in Russia, or in any other part of the world, has at any time been vested with, or acknowledged to have the power of appoint- ing, nominating, or recommending any Catholic Bishop, or other depositary of spiritual jurisdic- tion. Still I grant the Church is and must be anxious, that her Prelates should not only be faithful, but also, as far as may be, acceptable to their temporal sovereigns, and, to ascertain the latter point, she may listen to their suggestions, though they should not be of her communion, especially if they do not offensively protest a- gainst her, but she never did, and never can con- 23 fer a right or privilege on any professed un- Catholic person to take part in the appointment of her Prelates. It is here to be observed, that the Hon. Baronet, in publishing his Speeches, and his late Letters to Lord Fingal, is not suggesting to Parliament what it may enact in the plenitude of its power concerning these matters, but what they may en- act, consistently with the tenets and discipline of the Catholic Church. On the former point he protests against the least attention being paid to our opinions or our wishes. Such is his spirit of conciliation ! " I should much regret,*' he says, " to find a legislative question to be influenced by " the assent or negative of the R. Catholic Pre- lates." Letters to L. F. p. 33. On the latter point he disputes the decision of those Prelates in their Synod of Nov. 18. last, as to " the integrity " of the R. Catholic religion, and its being in- " jured by the proposed measures," p. 3. as also their Declaration of the same date, as to their being " incompetent to propose or agree to any " changes in the established mode of appointing 11 Bishops." Ibid. p. 57. In opposition to their decisions, the Baronet maintains that " No Con- " cordat with Rome, under the circumstances sug- " gested, is necessary, on Catholic principles," p. 92. That " the Sovereign Power of the State " is the source from which the legitimacy of dis- " ciplinary regulation in this instance is derived " to the ecclesiastical body : that a devolution " of the spiritual authority in extenso, to the . 24 11 national Prelacy, sanctioned by the declaration, " or tacit consent of the supreme magistrate, will " be found to have occurred at various periods " and on various occasions, &c." p. 60. He ex- tends this power even to " the total abolition of " the Pontifical authority," p. 63. and he teaches us that " when such matters of human institu- " tion (as he terms them) whether ecclesiastical " or civil, become the subjects of state regulations, " those who are disposed to resist them must be " reminded of the Gospel injunction ; to submit td * every ordinance of men for the Lord's sake," p. 6 1. The only answer I shall give to this theologi- cal lecture of the Hon. Baronet on the integrity of our religion, addressed to us, its prelates is, 1st, that such a lecture comes with a very bad grace from a layman, who is in the habit of swearing that our religion is idolatrous; 2dly, that we prelates are resolved to give our lives' rather than our assent to it, or to any part of it; 3dly, that, if the Hon. Baronet is capable of lec- turing us in this style at present, we have just reason to tremble at the idea of a Ministre de Culte, particularly in case the Hon. Baronet should be appointed this Ministre. But the Hon. Baronet maintains that we Pre- lates have already subscribed to his principles, and "must marshal ourselves on his side, whe- " ther we will or not ;*' the Irish Bishops by the resolutions of ten of them, in 1799, and I> by my Letter to a Parish Priest, in 1S08. Not to mention that both the papers in question were 9.5 Confidentially communicated subsequent to the de- bate at the end of May in that year, and treach- erously published, I maintain that by neither of them did we mean to subscribe, nor did we actually subscribe to the Baronet's theological principles or printed sketch of regulations. On the contrary, the ten Irish Prelates began by establishing the principle, that the negative in question was barely to be exercised to ascertain the loyalty of episcopal candidates, they stipu- lated for their just influence, or controul, over the whole business in conclusion for the Pope's Concordat. My project, as contained in the above mentioned Letter and my other printed papers, mentions the necessary checks on the civil powers still more expressly, requiring, among other things, that the exercise of the pro- posed negative should be confined to three times, and that each time it should be accompanied with a distinct impeachment of the candidate's loyalty. In the end the parties concerned found that they had misunderstood each other, as is often the case in other human transactions, and the nego- ciation ended without impeachment of either party's honour, or dereliction of principles. The Hon. Baronet objects that our mutual friend, Dr. Troy, approved of his intended speech in 1805, which contains his present system, and that I wrote a pamphlet in defence of it. True it is that we, in common with all other Ca- tholics, thought ourselves under great obliga- tions to Sir John C. Hippisley, and to our other D 26 distinguished advocates in parliament on that occasion, and of course we circulated their speeches, when published. . In addition to this, I wrote an elaborate vindication of certain parts of Sir John C. Hippisley's speech, as to the mean- ings of the Councils of Lateran, &c. which had been misrepresented by Dr. Duigenan, or some other writer, in the Antijacobin Review; but God forbid that I, or my episcopal brethren, should bind ourselves to {he terms, or to the whole substance of any defence which the Baro- net, or any of our other Protestant friends, has or may set up for us. Perhaps Dr. Troy, &c. did not at the first perusal notice the passages in question ; thus much I can testify, that when an J fish edition of the speech seemed on the point of taking place, he wrote to me that he " could not be a party to it on account of those passages." With respect to myself the Hon. Baronet knows well, and has often testified, that, from the very first mention, on May 26', 180$, of an unrestricted Veto (such as is contained in his printed Sketch), I protested, in the strongest terms, against it, and declared I wouW rather give my blood thau my consent to it. In conclusion, the Hon. Baronet is driven into the region of possibilities to support his oppres- sive arrangements. What he says is, that, as matters now stand, it is possible the Pope may appoint an alien, or a disloyal man, to he a Ca- tholic Bishop ; and he mentions an alledged alien, the Rev. Dr. Fehan, wh,o, he says, was sent upon 27 a commission, which, however, he admits to have beeil, " a very innocent one," into CoiihaUght, irtl795: he mentions ah o the proposal of Mons. rskihe's going from Londdn into Ireland in the same year. He adds, th^t dangerous in- trigues and plots against the peace and safety of the realm, may be carrtett on in the correspond- ence of Catholics with the Pope; aild other fo- reigners of our communion; hence lie infers that " no letters coming from foreign jurisdictions, H though only in spirituals; should be executed " without a ratification of our Court." Let. to L. F. p. 8. To the first of the fdture contin- gents, as to aliens, I answer, that as the law stands, no alien can come into the United Kingdom, or remain there, without the conseUt of his Majesty's government ; of course there can be no alien Bishop. As to Dr. Fehan, he was as much a native Irishman as Dr. Egan himself was, and if he was termed by the latter an alien, it was merely because he was not an inhabitant of the province of Cbhtiaught. 2dly, Who and what Cardinal Etskine was, and by whose means; and for what purpose, he was " sent with private credentials from Rome to London," the Htffi. Baronet himself can give the best account, and he has already partly given it, In his published speech of 1810; pp. 117, 118; so far at leaSt; as suffices to prove, that a perfectly innocent, arid even meritorious correspondence between Rome and Britain may be carried on without the inter- vention of a Ministre de Culte, With respect to r> 2 the metaphysical possibility of a disloyal subject being appoiuted to a Catholic Prelacy, I appre- hend that the Hon. Baronet cannot possibly fence against, even though he were to give lajeuille des Benefices Catholiques to my old friend, [who borrows the motto of his charge from one of my Pastorals] the Right Rev. B. of Gloucester; [especially since the latter may privately conform to the Catholic Religion, as two of his predeces- sors, Bishop Cheyney and Bishop Goodman, did.] But by means of the checks on the Pope's autho- rity, which, with the approbation of my brethren in Ireland, I shall propose below, I affirm that such a thing as a disloyal Catholic Bishop wili be morally impossible. In like manner I grant it is absolutely possible that the Catholic Bishops, notwithstanding their tried loyalty, which the Baronet so honourably attests and records, may mix up in their correspondence with the Pope and other foreign Prelates, on doctrine and spi- ritual faculties, and other matters of a temporal nature, affecting the peace of the realm and the safety of the constitution; but may not the Mo- ravian Bishops of this country, in their inter- course with their episcopal colleagues in Mora- via; may not the Quakers, in their circular letters to and from America ; may not the Jews, in their dealings with the Hebrews of Holland ; may not the Freemasons, in their affiliations with alien lodges ; may not the merchants, in their bills of invoice about wine and oil, and Roman fiddle strings ; nay, may not Hon. Members of the le- 29 gislature, in their credited or unaccredited nego* ciations with foreign Prelates and Ministers, such as swell the appendixes of Sir John Hippisley's speeches; may not all these persons, I say, make their foreign correspondence a vehicle of treason as easily as Catholic Priests and Prelates, if they are disposed to do so ? And must now all this epistolary mass be revised and examined by the new Minister before the letters can be delivered. Let the Minister be who he may, he will require numerous clerks, &c. and be entitled to a very large salary. Had I not been willing to give the Hon. Ba- ronet's arguments fair play, I might have made short with them, by proving that his projected civil controul over the transmission and exercise of our spiritual jurisdiction, where this is not ac- companied with temporalities, as is the case with us, is absolutely impracticable. Indeed he seems rather sensible of this himself, and therefore al- ways publishes his scheme as " A Sketch of pro- \\ posed Regulations, concurrent with the esta- " blishment of a State Provision for the Roman " Catholic Clergy of Ireland. In fact, what is an Irish or English Catholic Bishop, unendow- ed and unsupported by the state ? He is a cler- gyman who has received episcopal consecration from another Bishop, by which he is enabled to consecrate, ordain, and confirm whom he pleases, and who also has derived from Christ, through the Chief Pastor, an authority to instruct, direct and govern in their spiritual concerns, a certain 30 portion of the great body of the Catholic faith- ful. Now by what kind of regulations can the Baronet 'prevent a private administration of the sacrament of order more than that of penance, or the transmission of that spiritual jurisdiction 1 , which, as I have said on a former occasion, can no more be torn away or handled than a beam of the sun can ? It is precisely this spiritual power over a diocese which the Baronet is desirous of controuling. But is he ignorant that it may be communicated, not only by the pen, but also by word of mouth, by sign or by signal ? The Prelate possessing it may delegate the whole or any part of it to one Vicar to-day, to another to-morrow, and to a third the next day. I own I should be curious to learn how the Hon. Baronet, with all his knowledge of Catholic theo- logy and canon law, would propose to regulate these intricate and subtle matters, in the Secret Committee which he is incessantly calling for. In conelusibh, my Rev. Brethren, while you in- still into your respective flocks, the purest and warmest sentiments of loyalty to our King and country, and of brotherly affection to all our fel- low subjects* of whatever communion, and, while you aid them with your talents and influence in the recovery of their civil rights, take care to guard them against the pernicious errors of pro- fessing Catholics, or friends of Catholics, such as are here pointed out j since the adoption of these might make them purchase temporal benefits at ]the price at which Catholics might always have 1 purchased them, namely, the price of their reli- gion. Imprint deeply on their minds that the spiritual authority and jurisdiction, which essen- tially constitute a Bishop, neither can, nor ever, could be given or taken away, or controlled by any earthly power whatsoever, being a diyine com- mission, which is derived from Christ, through th,e confirmation or institution, as it is now called, of the Chief Pastor; (l) With respect to themselves, admonish them in the words of the sublimeBpssuet: M You are a spiritual kingdom* and Christ is your " King : now as he is not ypur King by virtue " of your election, so you jiave no natural right U to choose his ministers, who are your Pastors." Variat. Book xv. 220. Explain to them how the privilege of bearing testimony to the merits of episcppai candidates, which, in different times and places, has been called election, postulation % (1) This has been defined by the Council of Trent, and therefore, \Jjtf fc in the actual discipline of the Churchis an article of Catholic faith, " liomanus Pontifex, ex muneris sui officio ; Pastures singulis Ec- " clcsiis praeficit." Trid. Sess. 24. cap. 1. De Itef. The late Pope ^/l#' Pius VT .quoting this decision, in his memorable Brief of April 13, 1791, says : "'Hsec porro jurisdictionis conferendae potestas, ex nova dis- * ciplina a pluribus sasculis jam recepta, a Generalibus Conciliis" aT" " et ab ipsis Concordats confirmata, ne ad Metropolitanos quidem " potest ullo modo attinere; utpote quae illuc reversa unde dites- aJ , ** serat, unice residet penes Apostolicam Sedem." In fact, the great Patriarchates of Asia at Antioch, and of Africa at Alexandria, /OftA- ' were formed by and received their jurisdiction from St. Peter, as a, did the Metropolitical Sees of Aries, &c. in France, Canterbury * : **" in England, Armagh in Ireland, which during some ages confirmed their suffragans from the successors of St. Peter. It will be inferred from hence that the Pope may absolutely delegate a part of his power now as he has heretofore done ] still the Archbishop must fl + J^ hold from the Pope W* - " : ; *4 ?* 52 presentation, and nomination, has been granted by the Church (to whose controul this must ever be >ubject) first, to the clergy and people indis- criminately, next, to the clergy exclusively, (1) then to the cathedral clergy, and, last of all, in most Catholic countries, to their respective sove- reigns, as the representative of both the clergy and people, and likewise as the founders and pa- trons of the temporalities of the several Sees. With a clear conception of those undeniable Ca- tholic principles, and with upright and religious hearts, it will be impossible for your flocks to go astray, either in belief or in practice, on this matter among all the bye paths now pointed out to them, by unauthorized guides. It seems strange that in granting emancipation to the Catholic laity, our statesmen should look to us clergy for a security that the former shall not make a wrong use of it ! Yet, as such is the case, and as we are at all times disposed to make every sacrifice, except that of the integrity and security of our religion, not only to the wel- fare, but also to the prejudices of our fellow- subjects, in case the Legislature will be satisfied, on this occasion, with the same hind of security with which it has always hitherto been satisfied on the like occasions, namely, in 1774, and again (1) Thomassinus, De Marca, Van Espen, Fleury, &c. invincibly prove that the Metropolitans and Bishops in ancient times presided in and had a con'rouling power over the choice both of the clergy and the peop'e. The Second General Council of Nice, absolutely pro- hibited the interference of the laity of whatever rank in Episcopal elections. 33 in 1778, and a third time in 1791, when we were allowed the free exercise of our religion; and lastly in 1793, when the Irish Catholics were admitted to political power and the elective fran- chise ; I mean by a nezo form of oath, calculated to obviate the particular objections raised at the respective periods against the proposed relief. I am prepared to suggest one of this nature at present, the several clauses of which have either been formerly sworn to by my brother Prelates in Ireland, or have been very lately sanctioned by the most dignified among them, viz. " I N. N. do swear that I do profess the Ro- " man Catholic Religion," with the rest of the last Irish Oath, that of 1793, commonly called Dr. Duigenari's Oath, down to the words, in- clusively, " I solemnly abjure any intention to " subvert the present Church Establishment" after which add : " And I do swear that I will " not, by secret fraud or open force, seek to set " aside or alter the lawful Succession to the II Crown of this realm, as it is limited by Act of " Parliament to the Heirs of the Body of the 41 Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, being M Protestants ; or to overthrow or disturb the " present Church Establishment of this United " Kingdom : and I do swear that I will make u known. to his Majesty's Government all at- " tempts, plots, or conspiracies, whether at " home or abroad, which shall come to my " knowledge, for effecting these or any of these " purposes. And I do swear, that I will not E 34 opes in the. next are attached.- Grace be with^ you. J. MILNEU, Bishop of Castabala, Vic. Ap. Wolverhampton, March 24, 181 3* / u ^Keating, Brown; arid*, eating, Printers, Sfr/Diikc-sU aiOJVeoor.s^: London. [A0T J'VBLISHED.} A PASTORAL CHARGC ADDRESSED TO THE CATHOLIC CLERGY OF THE MIDLAND DISTRICT. PART II. ii ii i i m ,i t i On the Doctrine of the Catholic Church. REVEREND AND BELOVED BRETHREN, The name of BISHOP implies circumspection, an4 the emblem of a Shepherd, which the Church, at our consecration, puts into our hands, is intended by her to remind us of the watch- fulness, with which we ought to guard, and the couarge, with which we ought to defend the mystical flock, entrusted to us, from the infernal wolves who come to scatter and destroy. John x. 12. Hence our Holy Mother gives us, Pastors, the following awful' admonitions : " Non admittitur excusatio, si lupus comedit ovei " et Pastor nescit." Trid. Sess. vi. c. 1. De Reform. " Non est '* magna differentia an lethum inferas an admittas." Decret. 82. Jtt. 3. Before the date of this you will have received the First Part of the present Pastoral Charge, relating to the JURISDICTION of the Church ; which jurisdiction, at this period of boasted Catholic Emancipation, is in great danger of being overwhelmed and op- pressed by different projected enactments of the Legislature. As this danger arises from the passions of some, the weakness of others nd the ignorance of a third class, belonging to each communion, it is evidently the duty of a person in my station to remove at A {J, Smart, Printer, Holeerhampton. 2 least the latter cause as far as it is in his power to do so. With this view I have given what publicity 1 could to the abovementioned first part of my Charge. But there are not the same reasons for publish- ing the two remaining parts of it. On the contrary, it seems that their object may be best answered by sending copies of them to you, Dear Brethren, the coadjutors of my ministry, and to a few other distinguished Catholics, especially those of the Episcopal Order. At present, as I have intimated, my business is to defend the Doctrine of the Catholic Church. Far be it, however, from me, to hold the same language or form the same judgment, of the writers and other persons whom I am going to speak of or allude to, as of those mentioned in the first part of this Charge. The object of the latter is evidently bad, and their doctrine obviously and enormously heterodox and schismatical : whereas the proposed object of the former I believe was innocent and laudable, and a great part of the errors into which they have fallen, may, in some shape be palliated, on the score of oversight or other human infirmity. Still, as these now stand on the face of alledgcd Professions of Faith and standard Homilies of Catholic morality, and as I have been actually called upon by some most respectable members of your body to gire my judgment upon them, I should feel conscious of a breach of duty, if I neglected to do so. It is evident that in publications of these two descriptions, no error is light in itself, or of trivial consequence to the faithful; since the Spouse of Jesus Christ, his holy Church, is all fair a gloi'ious Church not having spot or wrinkle. Ephes. v. 27 ; and since Christ himself tells us ; He that shall break one of these least commandments and shall SO TEACH MEN, shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven. Mat. v. 10. The first publication which I am called upon to revise, having been so called upon both by its approvers and its censors, pro- fesses, in its title-page, to be nothing less than THE FAITH OF CATHOLICS. It was printed and published a few months ago, n\ this District, and is now spread throughout every part of it, and. more or less, throughout all England. The text or substance of it is said to have been first printed in the reign of Charles II. but it does not appear to have been then sanctioned by any person of eccle- siastical authority or learning. It then bore the title of ROMAN CATHOLIC PRINCIPLES IN REFERENCE TO GOD AXD THE KING. (1) Its next appearance was about 22 years ago, wben it was republished, but greatly abridged and altered, under (1 ) TUii original edition wa put into the hands of tie Rev. J. Nightingale, who has accordingly published it in his' late Portraiture of the K. Culhoite Religion, but with very considerable omissions, which, however, do not satis;/ a certain Catholic supporter both of Mr. N. and the work. Accordingly lie laments that this writer did not make greater use of the priming knife and the fll ui giving it ty the public. See yit. Jw~ 's Letter in The Catholic Magazine* ft.c authority (A the abettors of the famous Blue Books. It was then tilled CATHOLIC PRINCIPLES IN REFERENCE TO GOD AND THE COUNTRY. But though the Gentlemen " sent this ** Treatise to the Minister, signifying it to be a Summary of our " tenets, which, we assured hi in," say they, "we were persuaded every " Catholic would readily subscribe to," and though they " directed " 200 other copies to be distributed among members of the " Established Church and Dissenters," Second Blue Book, p. 13, yet to my certain knowledge, it never was approved of by nor even submitted to the judgment of the proper Superiors, the then Vicars Apostolic. This is the more remarkable as the Gentlemen had pointedly denied, five pages before, their ever having " interfered " in spiritual concerns," particularly with respect to " declarations " or instruments containing doctrinal matter." In proof of this, they alledge, that they formally resolved, " not to distribute copies " of the Thanksgiving for His Majesty's recovery (approved Prayer* it and Psalms of the Church) without consulting the Vicar Apostolic " upon it." 2. B. B. p. 8. The work thus abridged was printed in 8vo, in 4to, and in folio, and was hung up in many Chapels of thi* county ; from which circumstance it probably acquired its title of The Staffordshire Creed. All, however, that we need remark at present is, that thus far the work had not met with any due ecclesiastical approbation. The work in question is now published, but with considerable omissions and alterations on one hand, and with very copious additions on the other, in an 8vo. volume of. 463 pages, with the following title : The Faith of Catholics, confirmed by Scripture, and attested by the Fathers of tlve five first ages of tlie Church. It is accompanied with a letter, dated, Oct. 24, 1812, to the R. Rev. Dr. Poynter, V. A. L. D. in answer to some remarks and queries pro- posed by this Prelate to the editor of the work concerning certain passages in it; and, on the credit of these remarks, and of the answers given to them in that letter, the work is now advertised and, recommended as " having been perused and remarked on by * Dr. Poynter." (1) Thus the treatise assumes a new character, and becomes an object of much greater importance than it was before. There is even reason to apprehend that the public, both Catholic and Protestant, here and elsewhere, will now consider it (1 ) Sincerely desirous as I ever have been to act in concert with my R. R. Brethren, in the common concerns of Religion, and particularly in what regards The Failh of Catholics, I lately gave notice to Dr. P of my intention to make certain remarks on the work bearing that title, as he had made his upon it; signifying that, in case he was dissatisfied with the use made of his name and the answers to his observations, published in the abovementioned work, I would on the present occasion " say what ever he should be pleased to dictate to me" on those subjects. But " he declined to give any answer at all" to this proposal, as I was informed by a note from a highly respectable common friend. Thus I am obliged to take up the whole matter, as far as my episcopal brother is concerned, exactly as is stated in the book, called 7'ht Faith of Catholics, as an approved symbol of Catholic Faith, concluding of course that the numerous extracts from Scripture and the Fathers contained in it, do, in fact, attest and confirm its truth in every point ; unless some means or other are adopted to counteract such a persuasion. The Protest which I here enter with you, my Brethren, against this persuasion, which is to be communicated to your flocks, as you shall find expedient, is the least offensive method that occurs to me, of doing this, with regard to the Midland District. Before I enter upon the matter itself of this work, I must premise, 1st, that the objections which I am about to make to it, do not at all invalidate it as a Profession of civil and social Duty, but merely to shew its inaccuracy as an Exposition of Catholic Faith. 2dly, I do not profess to remark on all the passages of the text, which I object to. Much less do 1 undertake to collate with their originals the numerous extracts from the Scriptures and Fa- thers, which make up the bulk of the volume ; or to examine how far they respectively apply to the propositions which they are brought to confirm. Indeed I have no doubt, from the fidelity and attention of the intelligent clergyman of this District, who collected most of the extracts and compared all of them with the originals, that they are authentic and accurate. Still they will not be found to establish any of the points which I am about to notice. 3dly, I cannot admit of the learned editor's claim to expound one proposition or passage, in a work of this nature, by the help of another, in order to vindicate its accuracy or truth. I admit indeed this method, as far as it goes, in defence of the editor's personal orthodoxy ; but I maintain that in an Exposition of Catholic Faith, or a Creed, as this work professes to be, every sentence ought to be translucidly clear and rigidly exact; without the tedious and uncer- tain medium of collating, arguing and inferring. To speak now, generally of the treatise : it is a strong pre- sumption against it that in neither of its former editions or forms, I mean those of the 17th and 18th centuries, was it approved of by any due authority. A still stronger presumption against it arises from the very circumstances of its having put on a variety of forms. I have several editions of it now before me, and no two of them agree together even upon essential points of doctrine : the latter editors being evidently dissatisfied with the texts of their pre- decessors. The Holy Fathers objected to the Arians that they had " New Creeds every year and every month, while their own pro- " nounced at Nice was fixed to remain for ever." So it ought to be with every Profession of Catholic Faith. Lastly, it is a strong argu- ment against a Profession of Catliolic Principles in reference to God and the country, or an Exposition of The Faith of Catholics, that it does not contain a Won) about the Unity and Trinity of God, ot the Incarnation and Divinity of our Saviour ! To proceed now to a short examination of a few particular propositions, as they respectively stand in the Original Edition, the Blue Book Edition and the late Birmingham Edition. The Second Proposition in the two former editions, and the Fourth in the last edition declares that ". The merits of Christ are not applied y< to us otherwise than by a right faith." This proposition in what I take to have been the sense of the different editors, namely that a right faith, with respect to persons who are capable of making an act of it, is necessary to salvation ; but, as it stands, in the text of the Exposition, it evidently sanctions the condemned error, espoused by the Methodists, &c. that " man is justified by faith alone," as Dr. Poynter (1) jstly observes; and, it no less evidently sanctions that other condemned error of the Anabaptists, that " Baptism is of no avail for the remission of sin, till persons arrive " at the years of maturity and are enabled to conceive an act of ' faith." The 12th Article of the Original editions concerning the Mode by which the Church proposes her faith to us is omitted in the B. B. edition, no doubt from its being disapproved of, and it is essentially altered in the late Birm. edition. The Second Section of the Original begins with expressing that " General Councils are the Church of God representative." This expression seems to have been intended by its author to signify that the Prelates present at General Councils represent all their absent brethren, and speak tlie faith of tlie whole Church, in which sense it is orthodox, though obscure; but the B. B. and the Birm. editions change the expression greatly for the worse thus ; " The Pastors of the Church, are the body representative, either dispersed, " or convened in Council." Dr. P. finds this " expression equi- " vocal." (2) Without entering into his reasoning on the expression, I say of the whole proposition that, in declaring that the Pastors of the Church dispersed form altogether, a body representative, it insinuates that they derive their authority from certain earthly constituents, Jike Members of the House of Commons, and that they deliver the faith of the Church in the name of those constituents and not of God ; which is the error formerly condemned in Richer, and lately marked with the note of heresy by P. Pius VI. (3) I say 2dly that, (!) See the Editor's Letter to Dr. Poynter in answer to the latter's remarks in The Faith of Catholics, p. XLV. '" " , (2) Letter to Dr. P. Faith of Catholics, p. XLV. (3) " Propositio quae statuit ; Potestatem a Deo Jatam Ecclesm f " communicaretur Pastoribus, qui sunt ejus Ministri; sic intellecta ut a " communitate Jidelium in Pastores derivetur ecclesiastici imnitttrii at * rtgiminit potestas, H.E RETICA." Damnatio Synod. Pistoj. as there is no di&tiiiction made in the proposition between Pastors nf the 1st and of the 2d Order, but they are indiscriminately and equally represented as " commissioned by Christ to explain to the *' faithful what is of faith, ' it savours of the schi.^matical doctrine f the condemned Dr. O'Conor (1) and the Calvinists. The next proposition, N. XI. affirms that " It is fio article of " faith that the Church cannot err in matters of fact, or discipline, *' things alterable by circumstances of time and place, &c. These " things are no revelations deposited in the Church, in regard of " which alone she has the promised assistance of the Holy Spirit." Wy learned colleague expresses doubts concerning these and similar positions in this and in the preceding article. For my part, I say, that if they can be tolerated, then we may, without the guilt of heresy, deny the definition of the Council of Florence : " Dcfi *' nimus ipsum Romanum Pontificem successorem esse Petri" or that heresy is contained in the celebrated Three Chapters, or in the Augustinus of Jansenius. (2) Again if there we're no promise of the assistance of the Holy Ghost to the Apostles and their successors, even in General Councils with respect to the establish men t of univer- sal discipline, though she may alter this according to circumstances, then the Apostles could not have declared as they did when they prohibited the eating of blood : Visum est SPIRITUI SANCTO et nobis ; Act. XV. 28, and then Christ himself would not have said : Si ecelesiam non audierit nit tibi sicut Flthnicus et Publi- canus. Mat XVIII. 17. Art. 3. of theB. B. edition, by suppress- ing an important clause in the original, attacks the Pope's civil right, as a Sovereign Prince, and makes an error where there was none before. Art. 4 both of the Original and the B. B. editions qualifies the deposing doctrine as impious and damnable, which it i* evident impiety to assert. (3) The Birm. editor avoids this error by suppressing the whole passage ; but then both he and the B. B. editors are highly blameable for suppressing the Pope's title of Vicar of Jesus Christ % which occurs in Art. 5 of the Original, aa (1) See Address of the R. Catholic Prelates, Dublin, Nor. 18, 1812, p. 5. (2) In opposition to this doctrine of the Catholic Church an ingenious lawyer, who too often plays the Divine, publishes thus: " The lawfulness o{ ' religious tenets, expressed in an oath, is a question of theology ; but the * meaning of the words, or the sense of any particular passage is a matter of *' personal judgment, to which, in ordinary cases any man endowed with com* " mon sense is competent." J. J. Dillon's Two Memoirs, p. '27 ; where he argues for the lawfulness of Catholics, taking the oath of supremacy, on the au- thority of a writer whom, J hope, he misrepresents. (3) True it is thai, by our oath of 1791, we abjured the deposing doctrine; but we positively refused to abjure it in the terms first proposed to us, as im- pious, damnable and heretical, which would have rxcommunicated, as it were, many of the best citizens, subjects and Princes, as well as of the holiest met f former age?, aod have fabricated a nw heresy. 7 well as in the definitions ofGensral Councils: the Birm. edits* is even satisfied with ascribing to him pea/ liar powers in the Church, which expression implies no superiority in him over other Bishop*, lutt is compatible with a perfect equality, each one having hit peculiar department. I pass over many other errors or inaccuracies which strike me in this too often published Exposition of our Principles. In the original and the B. B. editions, it is declared of Indulgences that they " are nothing else, than a mitigation or relaxation of canonical penances," which, as. these penances are now abrogated would at once prove their inutility, contrary to the definition of the Council of Trent and its description of them, where it terms them Caileste* Thesauri. Indeed the proposition as it stands has been censured by P. Pius VI, in a Declaration, received by the whole Church, (!) It is a justice due to the present editor to acknowledge that he has suppressed this error of the two former editions ; but, on the other hand, he makes use of less appropriate terms concerning the object of our worship and the honour which we pay to the repre- sentation of Christ and his Saints than the former editions do, and particularly the Original edition. In the new matter which the pre- sent editor introduces, he speaks too lightly of the celibacy of the clergy, describing it as a thing which " may be changed when it " shall seem good to our ecclesiastical rulers f* P. 383; (2) and he falls into a positive error of fact where he affirms that heretofore " the discipline of the Church permitted marriage," to the clergy, meaning the higher orders of the Clergy. He is guilty of a mure formal and equally dangerous error in the following new article f Catholic Faith which he brings forward : " We believe Matrimony 41 to be a Sacrament of the new law, instituted by Christ ; whereby " a new dignity is added to THE CIVIL CONTRACT of marriage, " and grace given to those who worthily receive it." Now the Civil contract of marriage in some countries is indecent, in t)ther idolatrous, and in others again, contrary to the Divine law. In eur own country, for example, it very frequently happens that parties, having obtained a sentence of Divorce from Parliament, enter (1) u Propositio affirmans, Indulg-entias secundum snanj pveefcam &.? * tiouein, aliud non esse quain remissiouem partis ejus penitentice qua* pf " canoaes statuta erat peccanti quasi Indulgentia, ptt&tt nudam remi* u siouera penaj canonic*, 11011 etiain valeat ad remissiouem penaj temporsji* " pro peccatis acticaliinis debitie apud Divinaip justitiam ; Falsa, tetnarutin " Christi meritis in.jnrU)$a, dudum in Lutheri Art. 19. damnuta." l)am*f, Synod, ristoj. N, 40. (2) S. Epiphanins traces the canons, enjoining sacerdotal eautyienoe up fo the Apostles. Heres. 48. u. 7 ; and siys, that, if this was violated in c Churches (namely iu certain obscure ones) it happened through the " slofji yf men, aad contrary to the Canons." Heres. .'>9. n. 4. S. Jeiom bears vitttfi* to the strictness with which this discipline was enforced in the great Patriap,'haU* f Antioch) Alexandria nd Rome. Advert. I'iyilant. into new pretended contracts of marriage, with other persons, their real husbands or wives being still living ; yet these are valid Civil contracts. But does the Church acknowledge them to be lawful in the sight of God, and to form the matter of her Sacrament? No, she defines the contrary ; Trid. Sess. XXIV. can. VII. and she declare* with sufficient evidence the contrary doctrine in the following terms: " Duhitandum non est clandestina rnatrimonia, libero con- " trahentium consensu facta rata et vera esse rnatrimonia QUAMDIU ECCLESIA EA IRRITA NON FECIT. Ibid. Decret. Be Kef. - e. 1. But more than enough has been said to convince you, Dear Brethren, that this oft published treatise is not to be received by you or your flocks as an authentic Exposition of ft. Catholic Principle* and still less as THE FAITH OF CATHOLICS. I should be exceedingly glad, my Reverend Brethren, to be ex- cused from noticing, on this occasion, certain other works, entitled " Sermons on various Moral and Religious Subjects for all the Sun- " days and some of the Principal Festivals of the Year," and " A " Second Series of Sermons, &c." ; but as these, notwithstanding their general orthodoxy, in addition to their eloquence, contain a certain mixture of erroneous and dangerous morality, and frequently breathe a spirit very different from that of the Holy Fathers and the Saints ; and, as these Sermons are habitually read from different altars of this as well as of the other Districts, my conscience will no lor::er permit me to authorize or connive at this use of them. In my first Pastoral Letter to you, nine years ago, I omitted to mention these celebrated Sermons among other Catholic works of morality which I recommended to be used for public in- struction, because I could not altogether approve of them. Since that time I have on different occasions recommended in vain a re- visal and correction of them on the part of the authors or of my brethren. Should this ever be done, I shall be one of the first per- sons to testify my public approbation of them. To speak first of the fundamental virtue of Christian morality. Humility; the eloquent Preacher, in a Sermon under this title, lays down the following maxims concerning it : " Humility implies in it these two things, that we entertain a just and * moderate opinion of ourselves, and that we do not prefer ourselves unrea- 4 * sonably to others. All virtues lie in a middle point between two opposite M extremes : and thus humility is situated exactly between pride and abjectnesa " of mind. The proud man thinks too highly of himself, the abject man too * meanly : but the humble man thinks justly concerning himself and what be ' longs to bim. We must be careful to avoid each of these errors, keeping as " far from mean spirit? dness on one hand as from pride on the other." Vol. III. 2d. Series, p. p. 64, 63. Such I know is the morality of this unchristian age, which has transferred the vice that the word of God pronounces to be, The Si beglnnirtg of all Sin, Ecclesiastieus x. 15, into the class of virtues, and which is for ever boasting of its pride ; but this, I testify, is con- trary to the morality taught by the H. Fathers, and dictated by the Word of God. Let us hear, upon this subject, the great Patriarch of ascetics, St. Benedict. He says : " Sextus gradus humilitatis est " se omnibus viliorem credere et pronunciare." Let us next listen to the last in number, but one of the most enlightened of the H. Fathers, St. Bernard, who thus accurately defines this virtue : " Humilitus est virtus qua homo verissima sui cognitione, sibi ipsi " vilescit." After this let us attend to the Angel of the schools, St. Thomas, who expressly tells us : " Homo debet se omnibus per " humilitatem subjicere." Let us, at all events, receive the inspired maxim of the Apostle, St. Paul, who thus admonishes us : In humili- tate superiores sibi invicem arbitrates, Philip ii. 3 ; and finally that of Jesus Christ himself, who teaches us : Si qtds vult primus esse erit omnium novissimus. Marc. ix. 34. But the principle upon which the eloquent moralist proceeds is a false one, namely, that, " All virtues lie in a middle point between two opposite extremes ;" for what will he say about " a middle point 5 ' in the love of God, for example, if we are to believe the great Doctor of this virtue, St. Bernard, who says ; " Modus diligendi, Deum. est diligere sine " modo," S. Bern. Tract de Amand. Deo ; or even Christ himself who thus commands Us : Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et in tota anima luaet in tota made tua. Mat. xxii. 37. I might argue upon equally firm ground, against some of the eloquent Preacher's positions, respecting " The Passions/' Serm. xxxviii. and " The Means of subduing the passions," Serm. xxxix. which are very different from those of the Holy Fathers and our approved Catholic moralists in general, insomuch that I have witnessed a learned Priest, now distinguished by his situation, breaking short off, as he was reading one of the said Sermons to his congregation, his conscience not permitting him, as he afterwards told me, to proceed with the lecture. In like manner the Preacher's disdain of controvesy, (which subject, nevertheless, occupies more than half the volumes of the H. Fathers) his affected liberality in soothing rather than rousing the just apprehensions of his heterodox and schismatical hearers, and his indulgent compounding with the dangerous amusements of the theatre, are of quite an opposite ten- dency to the lessons of the II. Fathers and approved Doctors of the Church in all ages. On one occaion, whilst he cautions his hearers against ** Romances and novels, made up of a series of fictitious events, calculated to fill the fancy ' with a thousand dangerous images, to corrupt a virgin-heart, and teach the *' arts of intrigue;" no one can fail to remark that he does not say a word agaro.9t t?w*trieal entertainments, though these are made up of the selfsame materials^ the former, and are aided, in their fatal effect upon the imagina- tion by "every object that can strike the senses, such as soft music, immodest dresses and attitudes, bad company, &c. 2. Series V. 1. p. 3a. On another occasion, having condemned " masquerades, balls, and promiscuous assein- B 10 * blies, as dangerous to virtue ;" lie adds, " on other assemblies t do not tliink 41 myself authorised to throw any undistinguishing censure. In many ea^es thev '.* may he innocent. But each one best knows whether he returns from them u with the same purity and peace of mind, with which he went. Certain it is, " that many public assemblies are calculated to give confidence to those whoso r< virtue makes them timorous, and to kindle ardour in the breasts of the cold " and unsuspecting. In them the vigilance of a discreet monitor is frequently " eluded, and the outworks of chastity are easily demolished. As to the truth of " this observation, think for yourselves; and the same may be said of u theatrical entertainments. Such as are in any degree indecent, are always " so far criminal. Others, though iu themselves innocent, which is rarely the 4i case, are in their consequences tilled with guilt. When people run to them *' with dissipated minds and unguarded imaginations, it is well, indeed, if they " do not. contract from them some defilement of heart :" 2. Ser. V. II. p. p. 11. 12: just as if any description of spectators, whether clerics or laics, went to the Play-house with recollected minds!" In a word this lecture on the theatre is not calculated to deter our Catholics from frequenting it, but to afford a palliative to their scruples in their too common habitude of frequenting it. How widely distant, My Dear and Reverend Brethren, is this language from that of alt the Fathers and approved Doctors of the Church on the same subject since its beginning down to the present time ! I will give a few specimens of the latter. St. Augu.^tin bewailing his sinful life, before his conversion, says: " Rapiebant me specta- ' cula theatrica, plenajmaginibus miseriarum mearum et fomitibus ' ignis mei." Confess. L. 3. c. 2. He elsewhere terms these enter- tainments: " Animarum pestis, probitatis et honetstatis eversio." De Civit. L. 1. c. 13. St. Cyprian says of these amusements: " Avocandus est animus ab istis; habet Christianus me'.jora specta- " cula. Cito in hoc assuescimus quod audimus scelere." Epist. ad Donat. To these we may add a few words from Salvian : " In " theatris nil reatu vacat. Quomodo, O Christiane ! spectacula, " post baptismum, sequeris quae opus esse Diaboli confiteris i" De Gub. Mund. L. C. , Having said thus much to you, My Brethren, concerning the doctrine of the Church, I must subjoin a few words concerning the riht way of inculcating this to the people. Of late years you know that numerous Societies have been formed and incredible suras of money raised throughout the United Kingdom among Christians of other communions for the purpose of distributing Bibles gratis to all poor people who are willing to accept of them. In acting thus tbev act conformably to the fundamental principles of their religion, "which teach that " the Bible contains all things necessary " for salvation and that it is easy to be understood by every person *' of common sense." But who could have imagined that Catholics, S rounded upon quite opposite principles, should nevertheless show a isposition to follow the example ot Protestants, in this particular ; by forming themselves also into Bible Societies and contributing their money for putting the mysterious letter of God's Word into the hands of the illiterate poor, instead of educating clergymen even U> the present distressing scarcity of Clergy, to expound the sense 11 of that word to them. Yet such has been the influence either of public opinion or of politics upon several Catholics of both Islands at the beginning of this 19th Century ! As it is highly probable that the prevailing Biblio-mania may soon reach this district, 1 think it my duty to lay down a few maxims on this subject, which, in the supposed case, you will not fail, My Dear Brethren, to impress upon the minds of your people. 1. When our Saviour, Christ, sent his Apostles to convert the world, he did not say to them : Go and distribute volumes of the Scripture among the nations of the world j but: Go into the whole world and PREACH the gospel to every creature. Mark xvi. 15. 2. It is notorious that not one of the nations, converted by the Apostles or their successors, nor any part of a nation, was con- verted by reading the scriptures. No, they were converted in the way appointed by Christ, that of preaching the Gospel, as is seen in the Acts of the Apostles, Bedes History, &c. 3. The promiscuous reading of the Bible is not calculated nor intended by God as the means of conveying religious instruction to the bulk of mankind. For the bulk of mankincUcannot read at all ; and we do not find any Divine commandment as to their being ob- liged to study letters. In the next place, the Bible is a book, which, though inspired, is more or less obscure in most parts of it and full of things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest to tlieir own destruction. 2. Pel. iii. 16. Some texts mem to contradict others : several appear to inculcate the very vices which God condemns. Hence the worst of crimes may be perpetrated and defended, as they very frequently have been, on the supposed authority of Scripture; when scripture is left to the interpretation of the ignorant or ill-disposed. Thus all the horrors and follies of the Grand Rebellion, even to the murder of the King, were sup- posed by the people to be authorized by certain texts of seripture. (1) In a word it is evidently a much more rational plan to put the Statutes at large into the hands of the illiterate vulgar, telling them to become their own lawyers, than it is to put the text itself of the mysterious Bible into their hands, for enabling them to hammer their religion and morality out of it. 4. Even the learned among those Christians who make the text alone their rule, cannot agree on the sense of scripture in its funda- mental points ; as the endless variations of Protestants on all reli- gious subjects prove. Hence we may infer, what experience proves to be the case, that a plain well meaning man, (ollowing that rule, may spend a great deal of time, every day of his life, in reading the Scriptures, without acquiring any clear consistent plan of religion whatsoever from it. The adoption of the rule and practice in ques- (1) This is acknowledged by Dr. Hey in his Norrisian Lectures, vol. i. p. /7, and by other ingenuous Protestant writers. 12 tion will indeed unsettle and pervert ignorant Catholics ; and on tin* ery account the Bible Societies are so very industrious in deluging Ireland with Bibles ; but they will never make a believer in the 39 articles or in any other existing or possible Confession of faith what- soever. 5. We perfectly agree with the Bibliomimists that the word of God is the bread of life, and an inestimable treasure, brought from heaven itself, and which ought not to be locked vp from the most illiterate of mankind, but which rather ought to be more largely imparted to them in proportion to their ignorance ; but then v e know and we force our opponents occasionally to admit, that the word of God is twofold, the written word and the unwritten word, or tradition, We shew that both these are and ever have been carefully preserved in the Catholic Church, and are communicated to the faithful, in a manner adapted to their comprehension, by the piva voce instructions of her Pastors, whose first and most essential duty she declares it is (1) to break the woid of God to them by preaching, as likewise in her approved Catechisms, and other books of instruction and morality. In these all the necessary truths of reve- lation, whether contained in the Written or the Unwritten Word of God, have been collected together, digested in a regular order, and expressed in the clearest terms by the most learned and pious Prelates and other Divines, under the inspection and authority of the Infalli- ble Church of Christ. Hence it appears and it really is, that a plain Catholic peasant who is well grounded in the knowledge of his Catechism really knows more of the Word of God, as to the sense and substance of it, than a Methodist Preacher, who can repeat the words of the whole Bible by heart. As to the text itself of the Bible, the Catholic Church, so far from locking that up, requires her Pastors to study the whole of it assiduously, as being, by excel- lence, the Liber Sacredotalis ; and she imposes an obligation upon them, under the guilt of a grievous sin, as you well know, to recite no small portion of it, every day of their lives. She moreover re- commends the reading of it; to all persons who have some tincture of learning, and an adequate knowledge of their religion, together with the necessary humility and docility to dispose them (in com- mon with her first Pastors and the Pope himself) to submit their own private opinion upon all articles of faith, to the belief of the Great Church of all nations and all ages. In conclusion, then, My Dear and Beloved Brethren, I am con- fident you will not encourage or countenance the distribution of Bibles or Testaments among the very illiterate persons of your re- spective congregations, as proper initiatory books of instruction for them. Rather procure for them if you can a sufficient number of copi of the First and Second Catechism, the Catholic Christian (I) Trid. Sept. t. De Ref. c. 2. Sep. xxiv. De Ref. c. 4. 13 Instructed, the Grounds of the Catholic Doctrine, and the History of the Old and New Testament. In the line of morality recommend the Think well on it ; the Meditations for every Day in the Year ; the Following of Christ; and the Introduction to a Devout Life; all which works were either written or published by the late Ven. Bishop Challoner ; and, for general religious information and edifica- tion, promote the reading of that Cyclopedia of Theological learning. The Lives of the Saints, by the late Rev. Alban Butler. (1} The Grace and the Peace of God he ever with you. JOHN MILNER, '"dverhampton, March 30, 1813. L (1) A new stereotype edition of this work is now coming out from the press of Keatings & Brown, under the care of Mr. Murphy, of No. 19, Howland- street, in numbers, price a shilling, or sixpence each, according to the quality of the paper and the decorations. " Sacra Scriptura est liber Sacerdotalis." S. Ambros. L. 3. de Fid. " Nunquam a manibus Ecclesiasticorum liber legis, hoc est Bibliaj depo. i{ natur." Concil. Colon. P. ii. c, 5. Vide etiamTrid. Sess. V. de Ref. c. 1. " Cum experimento manifestum sit, si sacra Biblia> vulgari lingua passim, " sine discrimine, permittantur, plus hide, ob hominum temeritatem, detri- *' menti quam utilitatis oriri, hac in re, judicio Episcopi aut Inquisitoris stetur, " ut cum consilio Parochi vel Confessarii, Bibliorum, a Catholicis auctoribus " versorum, lectionem in vulgari lingua eis cencedere possint quos intellexerint " ex hujusmodi lectione non damnum sed fidei atque pietatis argumentum " capere posse." Reg. 4. Indicis a delectis Patribus Cone. Trid. confecti, et k P. Pio IV. editi. " II est utile et necessaire en tout temps, en tous lieux, et a toules sortes " de Personnes d'en etudier de l'Ecriture." Propos. 79. Quesneliana per Bul- lam Unigenitus a tota Ecclesia receptam, condemnata. " La lecture de l'Ecriture, Sainte est pour tout le mondc." Prop. 80 Condem. " L'obscurite sainte de la parole de Dieu, ' est pas aux laiqucs une " raison pour se dispenser de la lire." Prop. 81. comdeui. M Doctrina perhibens a lectione S. Scripturarum non nisi veram impotentiam " excusare : Falsa temeraria, &c. in 2uesnel damnata." Darjmatio Synodi Pistoyensis per P. Pium VI. a tota Ecca recepta. J, Smart, Printer t (thronkle~0icef Wolverhamp :. a of r, and relate Infalli- A DISCOURSE DELIVERED AT THE CONSECRATION O F T H E Right Rev. WILLIAM GIBSON, BISHOP of ACANTHOS. A.V.N. IN THE CHAPEL OF LULLWORTH CASTLE, On SUNDAY, 5th of December, 1790. PRICE ONE SHILLING. Lately publiflied by the 'Author , A Funeral Difcourfe on the Death of the Ven. and moft Rev. Bifliop Challoner. Price 6d. George III. the Sovereign of the Hearts of his Subjects, being a Sermon in five Sheets 4.10. with Notes Hiftorical and Explanatory, Sec. preached in the Roman Catholic Chapel at Wincheftcr. Price is. 6d. The Monthly Review, June 1789, Page 564, gives the following Characler of this Sermon-" Mr. Milner has, in this valuable Difcourfe, given to the public, as we apprehend, a very fatisfa&ory vindication of the principles and conducl of the Roman Catholics, as good citizens, and loyal iubjtcts. In proving this, he found himfelf unavoidably obliged to embark on the ' turbid feaof controverfy,' as he well exprefles it ; which having pafled, he enters ' On the more pleafing fub- jecY of ' the particular motives of attachment,' ou the part of the BritiQi Roman Catholics, to their prefent Sovereign. In this part of his well-written difcourfe, he exprefles himfelf in the moil becoming and animated terms, as a grateful and affectionate fubjeel of a good and worhy Prince. In a word (for we null not enlarge, in this part of our catalogue,) wc cannot but recommend this uncommon publication to the can- did perufal of Proteflant readers of every denomination." The Clergyman's Anfwer to the Layman's Letter on the Appointment of Bifhops, in which the arguments in favor of innovations in that particular are confidered, efpecially with relation to the flate of the Catholic religion in this kingdom. Trice 6d. The Exclamations of the SonI to God, or Meditations of St. Terefa after Communion; together with an Introduclory Letter to a reverend Priorcfs on the Spirit of the prefent Times. Price is. 6d DISCOURSE DELIVERED AT THE CONSECRATION OF T H Right Rev. WILLIAM GIBSON, BISHOP of ACANTHOS. A. V. N. IN THE Chapel q/lullworth castle, On SUNDAY, 5th of December, 1790. Together with an Introductory Account of the Consecration, &c. &ello7U- of tn&K^iTvUaaarlan zjocietu* LONDON: Printed by J. P. Cocxiah, No. 37. Duke Street, Grofvenor Square. M,DCC,XCI. r v ] INTRODUCTION. HE Author of the following difcourfe, having been folicited to give it to the Catho- lic public, is chiefly induced to comply with this requeft from a conviction that the practi- cal leffons it contains are thofe only that are capable of reftoring and preferring to us the long loft bleflings of order and of its attend- ant peace. Without a cordial love of the Church, and a due fubmiffion to its authorifed minifters, our prefent evils muft be incurable, and frefh evils cannot fail to arife. Without a fenfe of the advantages of focial union, and a proper fubordination of the component parts, every kingdom, of whatever nature, muft be divided againft itfelf ; and the eternal truth has pronounced, that every kingdom divided againjl itfelf Jhall be laid wajle. Mat. xii. 25. The fentiments that occur below, and which, it is hoped, are appofite to the occafion on which. which they were delivered, will be found widely different from thofe of a late refpel- able writer, who, profefling the fame defire of reftoring peace amongft Englifh Catholics*, aims at effecting this by reprefenting the fub- jeft of their divifions in a directly oppofite point of view to that in which it has been confidered by its "lawful judges and arbitra- tors," as he exprefsly calls them t, and who confeffing that our pallors "moft certainly " moved within the circle of their paftoral " charge for the direction and fafety of their u flock J," in their fynod on the 19th Octo- ber, 1789, endeavours by the moft glaring fophiftry \ to fap the foundation of the fen- tence * See a View of the Oath, certain inftrument has hi- &c. by the Rev. Jof. Reeves, therto refted, he fubftitiftes Pref. others of his own invention, + Page 11. but equally rotten. It has, J Ibid. therefore, been too haftily To account for fo harfh afTumed, that the View is in a term being applied to the all refpetts a mere echo of production of a writer of what is called the Blue Book, chara&er and abilities, the Speaking of our too noto- well-meaning reader is re- rious divifions this well- ferred, amongft other paf- meaning writer exclaims, fages, to pp. 20, 32 and 46, " O fuffer not fo much as a in which pulling down as un- " whifper of our difagree- fafc the props on which a " ment to fteal out, left our ** adverfarie i vii ] tence they then pronounced * t and exhibits an example of difobedience to lawful autho- rity which is dangerous in proportion as the reft of his conduct is edifying. It adverfaries upbraid us." With more reafon may the author be permitted to ex- claim, O tell not in Geth, pub- UJb not in the Jlreets of Afca- colon the grounds on which fome Catholics in the above- mentioned works have been found willing to reft their confeiences in a folemn ap- peal to God and their Coun- try, left the enemies of the Church fhould rejoice. The author can with a fafe con- fcience declare, that this confideration has been the chief reftraint upon his pen from entering upon that am- ple but delicate matter. * The author is aware of the unfatisfaclory plea, that the Oath has been altered Jince it ivas the fubjeft of the epif- copal cenfure ; but that cen- fure being general, as the writer tells us, on what ground can he prefume that the fingle alteration, which has fince been adopted, has deprived it of its pernicious qualities of being ambiguous , derogatiug from Catholic prin- ciples, and confounding the f pi- ritual and temporal powers to- gether, for which it was con- demned by its lawful judges , as was notified to him by his own bilhops public letters of November 2, and De- cember 24., 1789 ? From the latter of thefe he learns, that not one, but federal parts of the faid Oath were cenfurable. Befides, he well knows that thefe paftors, " moving ivithin the circle of their pafioral charge ," declar- ed in their Encyclical letter dated Hammerfmith, Oft. 21, 1789, that " none of tie " faithful ought to take any " new Oath, or Jtgn any " ne than to dxoell in the ta- hernacles oj [inner s. Pfalm Ixxxiii. The other perfons of note, befides the family of the Caftle and the ftated congregation, were the Right Honourable Lord Arundell, the Ho- nourable Mr. Clifford and Lady, Mr. Ray- mund Arundell, Major O'Brien and Lady, the right Reverend John Douglas, Bilhop Eleft, who arrived too late to acquire the ne- ceffary hability for bearing a part in the auguft ceremony, &c. * The awful examen, made with a dignity and piety perfectly according with the charac- ter of the venerable confecrator, the humble proftrations, the all-important impofition of hands, the myfterious un&ions, multiplied be- nedictions, joint reception of the adorable * The confecration of this worthy prelate has fince been performed, viz. on Sunday 19th of December, by the Right Rev. Bifhop Gibfon, at the fame place, and with equal dignity and fplendor, through the pious liberality of the above-mentioned refpedable gentleman. fpecies, [ XV ] fpecies, the fpeaking inveftiture of epifcopal infignia, majeftic inthronation and dignified folemn bleffing; all this being accompanied with the moft fublime and moving prayers adapted to the occafion, and combined with the liturgy of the tremendous facrifice per- formed in all its pomp, could not but confti- tute a folemnity truly afFe&ing and elevating, which produced the moft fenfible effects on the perfons prefent, no lefs than on the elect himfeTf. It was at the beginning of this {Ink- ing ceremony that the following difcourfe was delivered. The paffage alluded to above, p. xii. from the cele- brated work entitled Refleclims en the Revolutions in France, &c. 5th ed. p. 220. Speaking of the fanatic principle in favor of popular eleclions to bijhoprics and parochial cures t Mr. Burke fays, " This in the prefent ftate " of the world would be " the laft corruption of the " Church, and the utter " ruin of the clerical cha- " rafter. 53 Then C xvi ] Then adverting to the abufes by which church prefer- ments are liable to be obtained under the eftablifhed patro- nages that prevail at prefent, he goes on, 4 But the other mode of ec- 4 clefiaftical canvafs fubje&s 4 them infinitely more fure- 4 \y and more generally to 4 all the evil arts of low am- 4 bition, which, operating on 4 and through greater num- 4 bers, will produce mifchief 4 in proportion." A d i s- r * 3 A DISCOURSE, &c. Tu es Petrus, Sec. Thou art Peter, (that is to fay a Rock) and up- on this Rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell Jhall not prevail againjl it. St. Mai. c. 16. ver. 18. o N the prefent awful occafion, dear Chrif- tians, on which we behold the Church of Chrift, even in the day of her greateft afflic- tion and depreffion, providing for her mira- culous indefe&ibility, by perpetuating the fucceffion of her Prelates through the never- failing miniftry of her Supreme Paftor in the chair of Peter, the text of fcripture which I have repeated to you naturally prefents itfelf to our confideration: a text which, like the Church itfelf to which it appertains, is too confpicuous to be overlooked, too firm to be deftroyed or fhaken# B From C i 3 From this glorious promife which Jefus Chrift made to St. Peter, in return for the clear and explicit declaration of his divinity which the latter was infpired by the heavenly Father to make, we may draw the following conclufions : That the infernal enemies of the Church, fignified by the gates of hell, will ne- ver ceafe to wage war againft it : that, how- ever thefe enemies may prevail over indi- vidual members of the Church, they will never fucceed fo far as to compafs the deftru&ion of the Church itfelf ; and that this its indefe&i- bilky is, under Divine Providence, owing to the form of government Chrift has eftablifhed in it ; in other words, to that regular and well difcipHned hierarchy, in which, while the faithful reft fecurely on the authority of their paftors, the paftors themfelves are preferved in unity and othodoxy by being immovably fixed to one common center, which is the Rock of Peter fpoken of in my text. At the prefent alarming crifis, the moft threatening perhaps that has occurred in the long hiftory of the Church, it muft be a moft interefting feene to behold in what manner the divine prediction before us'has hitherto been fulfill- ed in its feveral parts : we fhall fee that it is not matter of mere fpeculation, but of the moft i ferious t 3 3 ferious practical tendency. For firft, whilft, on one hand, we are taught to venerate the Church as the object of the Almighty's pecu- liar care, and to truft for its fafety, in the moft imminent dangers, to a protection that it has fo often experienced ; we are taught, on the other hand, to tremble and to take precau- tions for our individual fafety, left we, like fo many millions of others, mould deferve to be- come aliens from its bleffings and its hopes. In the fecond place, while we contemplate the ge- neral means by which the Almighty has prefer- ved the Church entire and incorrupt during fo many ages, amidft the fport and malice of human paffions, we learn what we have to truft to for fafety in our prefent peculiar dangers; I mean, we learn a due veneration for the facred hie- rarchy, to the perpetuity of which the prefent auguft ceremony is fubordinate. But it is the Spirit of the Moft High alone that can beftow an efficacious blefling on this ceremony, and on thefe inftruclions which in the name of the Church I am now addrefling to you, that both the former and the latter may anfwer their intended effects in your regard. Let us then invoke this divine Spirit to con- fer the defired blefling through the intercef- fion of the moft acceptable of his creatures, B 2 -: the C 4 ] the chief honor, the" mod powerful fuccor, and molt perfect emblem of his holy Church, faying, in the words he hi-mfelf has infpired, Hail Mary y &x. It is not in the prefent paffage of fcripture alone that the immortality of Chrift's fpotlefs Spoufe, I mean his holy Church, is foretold. The whole economy of the word of God, if I may fo fpeak, turns upon this point, or is referable, to it. The grand objeft which man- kind were taught to look forward to from the very creation, was the eflablifhment of a new and happier order of things, which, when it began was to have no end, in fhort of the blefled and eternal kingdom of the Meffiah. In the 88th Pfalm the Almighty is even intro- duced /wearing by his own mojl [acred beings that the fpiritualjfod of David JJiall remain for ever, and that his throne y the Church, JJiall continue unmoved like the fun itjelffor ever in his fight. The accomplifhment of this often re- peated prophecy is a {landing miracle pro- claiming the truth of the Church, and ftill growing more palpable and confpicuous by the lapfe of ages. During the eighteen cen- turies the Church has fubfifted empires have rifen and fallen, arts and fciences have been forgotten and revived, the manners of man- kind r 5 3 kind have undergone repeated revolutions, the whole face of the world has been often changed, while the Church of Chrift, unlike any thing elfe here below, but in perfect con- formity with the predictions of fcripture, has continued immovable and unaltered, with the fame code of belief, the fame form of government, and with an uninterrupted fuc- ceffion of pallors, and in particular of her chief pallors in the See of Peter, to whom the promifes in my text were particularly ad- drefled. The firft grand trial to which the Church was expofed confifled in thofe fevere perfec- tions which, with a few intervals, it endured for near three centuries. In fat, who wquld not have thought that an inftitution propa- gated by a few of the loweft order of mankind, equally deftitute of art and of power, muft have funk under the power of the greatefl empire that the world ever knew, directed with fo much violence, and for fo long a time againft it? But fo far from this being the cafe, the Jlone cut out of the mountain without hands, fmote the huge metallic jlatute and reduced it to dujl> and became itfelf a mountain filling the whole earth, as had been revealed to Daniel, c. ii. In fliort, the blood of the Martyrs was, in C 6 3 in the hand of God, the feed of Chriftianity, as an eye-witnefs relates, and the Church of Chrift became every where triumphant. To this exterior violence fucceeded a more dangerous evil from the fubtil poifon which innumerable heretics, rifing like the locufts in the Apocalypfe from the bottomlefs pit, endeavoured to infufe into the Churches vi- tals. Each of thefe fucceeding fefts of heretics, aided by the fecular power, feemed for a time on the very point of compaffing the infernal foes hellifh defign ; but thefe private opinions, like other errors of the human brain, after fluttering for a day, fell to the ground. God every where raifed up holy paftors and doc- tors eminent for their fan&ity, no lefs than fof their learning, who afting in concert by prek Jing clofe round the common ftandard of orthodoxy the creed of the Roman Church extolled by the Apoftle, Rom. i. c. 8. proved an overmatch for thefe numerous hofts of the Churches foes, with all their exterior ad- vantages. But lo! a new deluge appears, threat- ening at once to overwhelm the Church. Numberlefs hords of barbarians from the North and the Eaft come pouring in upon the Chriftian world, and feem bent, not fo much on ft 7 1 on fubduing it, as on fweeping away its indi- viduals with all their civil and religious infti- tutions, and with every monument that was capable of calling them to memory. The inundation indeed was general, its force was irrefiftible ; the Romans, the Gauls, and the other civilized nations were no more to be found, the arts fell, fcience became nearly extincl, but the Church of Chrift, by his omnipotent protection, rofe fuperior to the common ruin ; it even fubdued thefe univerfal conquerors, "and fubjecled them to the fweet and civilizing yoke of the gofpel. Not to detain you with lefs interefting events, near three centuries ago an ill-omened ftar appeared in the Northern hemifphere, and drew a third part of the heavenly hoft along with it into the deep abyfs of herefy. But that faith which the Northern nations, by their tepidity, deferved to lofe, was transferred to other nations that brought forth fruit in due feafon. New worlds were then difcovered, and new refources for the Church appeared; amongft thefe I cannot but mention one, which is honored by the Church with that title in her folemn office, and which the chief paftor declared to have been fpecially raifed up by God againft the prevailing evils of the time, a religious t 8 ] a religious fociety that was defervedly honored with the facred name of Jesus, becaufe it was ever moft active and fuccefbful in making that faving name known to thofe diftant nations, and which on account of the fignal and extenfive fervices it rendered to the Church, was always the firft object of the calumnies and perfecutions of her enemies. It was at that time, my dear brethren, that this our country, once known as the ijland of faints , having gradually fallen from its primitive fer- vor, deferved to be deprived of that light which had twice been communicated to it by the watchful care of the fucceflbr of St. Peter. Still, however, a remnant was left, which by its zeal and piety made amends to the Church for the fcandal occafioned by the apoftacy of their countrymen ; thefe were tra- duced as deceivers yet were they true, 2 Cor. vi. they were racked, not accepting of deliverance that they might Jind a better refwrreUion, they had trials of mockeries and Jlripes, moreover of bonds and of prifons, they were Jloned, they were cut afunder of whom the world was not worthy, Heb. xi. It is to their conftancy and piety, to their labors and to their blood that we are indebted for being exempt from the gene- ral mift of error, a mift, through which the fpotlefs G 9 ] fpotlefs fpoufe of Jefus Chrift, whofe children we glory in being called, appears to fuch as are involved in it, in no other fhape and co- lours than thofe of the filthy harlot defcribed in the book of Revelations. The prefent day, my dear brethren, pre- fents us with the ftill more alarming fpe&acle of nations that heretofore formed the ftrensth o and glory of the Church rufhing forward at once to the very brink of infidelity, while ma- ny others, who do not go thefe lengths, are infe&ed with a fpirit of religious anarchy, which renders them impatient of the neceffary control of their paftors, and inflames them in particular with a contempt and hatred of Chrift's Vicar on earth, their common father, to whom they owe fuch infinite obligations, as abfurd and unnatural as it is impious and fa- tal. Would to God this fpirit were confined to the countries from which it took its rife, and that our little flock, weakened as it is by frequent defertions, and expofed as it is to legal reftraints, and to the more dangerous temptations of worldly example and worldly blandifhments, were not infected with the prevailing diftemper. Would to God that the fcandal even of the diflentions occafioned by this fpirit of unfubmiffion could be con- C cealed. f 1 ] ccalcd. But, alas J our calamities arc now notorious to our enemies no lefs than our friends. Your venerable and experienced paftor, in whofe prefence and by whofe autho- thority I now fpeak, who never before, in the eourfe of a long, a refpeeled and a beloved ininiilry, was obliged to have recourfe to fuch a mcafure, has found it neceffary to proclaim to you the exiftence of this fcandal, in orde* to guard you againft it, and to call upon you for your iupport, in order to enable him and bis worthy colleagues to* exert their juft au- thority to put an end to it. Yes, dear Chril- tians, however irkfome the talk is, there is a neceflity of announcing to you, that there has bten of late years a great falling off amongft many of our brethren from that piety which made the Catholics of this ifland the fzueet odor of Chriji throughout the Church. There is a leaven of the irreligion and anarchy of the times fermenting amongft us, and the ftate of our affairs has almoft come to a frightful cri~ fis. Unlefs the Almighty fhould interfere in an unexpected manner, as he has already done more than once, or unlefs, by a more benign exertion of his mercy, he fhould infufe into the hearts of Catholics a becoming fpirit of union and docility, yet a very little time and wc C ] we arc a divided people, no longer united in cccleflaftical government or communion. But remember, my dear brethren, that if we are fplit into two Societies, but one of us can be- long to the one, holy, catholic and apoftolic Church; and that will be the portion, which, in hearing the Churches pallors, liftens to Chrift himfelf, that will be the portion, which is found adhering to apoftolic Rock and the immova- ble chair of Peter founded upon it. My heart bleeds with anguifh when I confider the ma- ny and dreadful evils that muft be the confe- quence of fuch a fatal fchifm; but without a fpirk of docility on the. part of the flock the evil is inevitable. The pallors cannot aban- don their trull, becaufe they are to give an ac- count of our fouls ; they cannot permit infection to come near their folds; they muft retain the model of found words, 2 Tim. i.; they muft ba- nilh the profane novelties of fpeech, 1 Tim. vi. ; and if any one is contentious, fays the apoftle, l Cor. xi. we have no fuch enjiom, nor the church of God. It is the part of folly tolhut our eyes againft impending evils; wifdom dire&s us to forefee and prevent them. You have feen that the Church of Chrift is the fubjelof his perpetual care; let this, as I faid above, infpire you with love and venera- tion for it, and with a confidence for its fafety C 2 even E * I even in the prefent dreadful florm ; but as you muft be fenfible that the promifes of fcripture are not made to individuals, but to the Church at large, let this fill you with a falutary fear left you fhould be abandoned to the effects of your own pride and felf-confidence, the rock on which millions of your brethren have here- tofore fuffered tfie fhipwreck of their faith. Be cautious how you tamper with the facred bonds of faith and difcipline which unite you with the Univerfal Church, and with its vifi- ble head here on earth. Remember, that though the Church is neceffary for you, you are not neceffary for the Church. To nou- rifh this love and veneration for the Church, call to mind all the obligations you have, all the endearing bonds that unite you to this your facred and tender mother. It was fhe that brought you forth at the baptifmal font to Jefus Chrift, and to the inheritance of his rich graces and glories by a new and happier birth than that for which you are indebted to your carnal mother. It is fhe that has eno- bled the meaneft of you, who has not rejected her honors, far beyond the princes of the earth, and has entitled the pooreft of you to lift up his eyes to the riches of heaven and to call them his own. It is fhe that keeps open for C i ] for you the inexhauftible fund of Chrifl's paflion and merits, which fhe applies to the feveral difeafes and wants of your fouls, and that, in particular, fpreads before you that fe- raphic banquet in which you are invited to unite yourfelves in the moft tender and extatic intercourfe with the majefty of heaven. It is this Church to which you have the happinefs of belonging that teaches you to fanctify, and that renders fweet and meritorious the pains and labors of your fhort life. It is fhe that will (land by you, that will comfort and fupport you in the diftrefs and agonies of death ; nor will fhe abandon you even beyond the grave, but even there will extend her charitable and efficacious fuccor to your afflicted fouls. It is for this your holy Mother the Church that the apoftles have preached and labored, that the holy fathers have written and taught, that the martyrs have fhed torrents of blood, and that a million of faints have fpent their fub- fiance and their lives. The Church, in fhort, is the only objel of the divine complacency here below, the fpoufe of Jefus Chrift, for whofe fake alone the world fubfifts. It is not that kings and princes may aggrandize them- felves here on earth ; that ftatefmen may raife temporary ftru&ures of politics, and from time to [ '4 3 time new model the face of the earth ; that a few philofophers may indulge in uncertain fpe- culations, and that fome millions of our fel- low-creatures may eat, drink and fleep like other animals, and leave children behind them to walk in the fame unimportant round; it is toot for fuch purpofes as thefe that the Almigh- ty fufpends his juftice, and permits himfelf to be infuked by the fins of the world; it is that the Church militant may anfwer her intended purpofe in bringing forth as many as are pre- erdained to eternal Ufe t in order to fill the va- cant feats at the banquet of eternal blifs in the Church triumphant. You cannot, my dear brethren, miftake this Church, which is of fuch infinite confequence to vou in this world and in the next; (he is every where to be found, becaufe five is the Catholic or Univerfal Church; and, in fat, fhe every where bears the name of Catholic written upon her forehead. In quality, there- fore, of her true children, be jealous of thii glorious diftinclive name, by which (he and they have in all ages been known. Never acknow- ledge any other title, except this pure, un- mixed, unqualified na-me of Catholic ; a name which all heretics and fchifmatics have in vain attempted to ravifh from her, but which no true C 5 2 true Catholic has been found willing to re- nounce, or defirous to debafe by alloying it with any other. But above all, my dear brethren, remember that the Church to which you belong is holy no lefs than it is Catholic, and that it is not lefs incumbent on you to exhibit as another beacon to your night wandering brethren the mark of fanclity than that of catholicity. Without charity in both its branches, without humility, patience, chaftity, temperance, and other con- genial virtues, a faith Jlrong enough to move mountains, and the ftricleft union with the only true Catholic Church will avail you nothing ; without the praelice of thefe virtues, there is reafon to fear that you may not even preferve your faith ; for experience fhews that the underftanding is, in general, the dupe of the paffions, and that we become irreligious in proportion as we become fearful of the con- fequences of believing; or rather, Almighty God withdraws from us the light of faith, when we do not make ufe of it for the regulation of our morals. However, as the above men- tioned virtues are to be obtained, nourifhed and encreafed by the practices of a devout life, particularly by prayer, the ufe of the facraraents, lifteningto the word of God, flying the I 6 3 the infelion of bad example, and ftimulating ourfelves by fuch as is good ; hence, dear Chriftians, be afliduous in improving fuch advantages as heaven in its mercy has for this purpofe put into your hands. Happily foryou, my brethren, you are particularly favored with every choiceft advantage for attaining to true piety that your circumftances can poflibly admit of, fo that looking around you, you may exclaim with the Prophet, Pfalm cxlvii. He hath not done thus to every people, nor hath he made known his jujlices to them. You have enlightened and zealous pallors to expound the word of God to you, and to lead you by the fafeft ways to the fummit of Chriftian per- fection. You have the holy facraments laid open to your fpiritual wants, and in conformity with the intention of the Church, you are invited often to draw life and health to your fouls from thefe heavenly fources. It is given to you frequently to aflift at the all powerful and tremendous facrifice, which, with the other fervices of the Church, being performed with due dignity and devotion to excite your fervor, cannot but be a moft powerful aflift- ance to you. Finally, infteadof the con- tagion of worldly example, from which by your very iituation you are in a manner infu- lated, C *7 ] lated, you have fubjeas of edification before you, in thofe whofe example muft be of the greateft weight in your regard. When I contemplate all this, and much more that I now fupprefs, particularly with relation to the time in which we live, and to other cir- cumflances, I cannot avoid exclaiming with the Prophet, Pfalm cxvii. This is the work of the Lord t and it is wonderful in our eyes. To him be the glory thereof; but as to the principal inftruments in his hands of your enjoying all thefe ineflimable advantages, may their reward not be in the empty voice of human applaufe, but in the benediaion of Jacob; May God give to thee, faid his infpired father, of the dew of hea- ven and of the richnefs of the earth : I mean bv this, the dew of heavenly grace here, and a fuper- abundance of the good things of the Lord in the land of the living hereafter. 2. The prefervation of the Church, fo much beyond the period of all human inftitutions, is, as I obferved to you before, a ftanding mi- racle, which is the more mining in proportion to the frequency and folemnity with which this event has been prediaed. But we may obferve that the Almighty, even in the per- formance of his miracles, generally accommo- dates himfelf to the ordinary courfe of things, D by C '8 ] by making ufe of fuch natural caufes as have a kind of tendency to produce the event in queflion, however inadequate they would be for this purpofe without his fpecial agency. Thus, in the miraculous prcfervation of his Church, he has given it that form which was beft calculated for liability and incorruption ; and, like the wife-man mentioned in the gofpel, Matt. vii. has founded it upon a rock, againft which the winds and waves fpend their force in vain. He has built in exaft; fymetry and proportion the beautiful pyramid of his hierarchy, gradually rifing to a point: I mean, he has eftablifhed that due fubordination of the component parts of his Church, from the lowed fctiufek* high eft. which is necefTary for the exiftence of every fociety whatever; and to his heavenly hoft thus marfhalled and dis- ciplined, he has Superadded a celeftial force that renders it invincible againft all the my- riads of infernal foes which the gates of hell have never ceafed, and will never ceafe to pour out againft it. Chrift has not left the interpretation and execution of his laws, which has been found impracticable in every fyftem of legiflation, to the caprice and felf-love of individuals, but has provided a living fpeak- ing authority, which he commands us to have recourfe I 9 3 recourfe to in cafe of neceflky, and to hear under pain of being confidered as heathens and publicans. In fhort, he has appointed paftors duly authorized, to direct, us in all that re- lates to the bufinefs of falvation, commanding us to hear them as we would hear himfelf and affuring us that any contempt of them re- dounds on him who has given them their com- mifiions. Luke x. Thefe paftors themfelves are amenable to the Shepherd in chief, whom the Mafter of the flock has commanded not only to feed his lambs, but alfo to feed his fieep, John xxi. whom the lambs in other refpeBs are bound to follow. It is this their attra&ion to one common center which is the principle of their mutual adhefion. It is by their being founded on the rock of Peter, that they par- take of that fecurity againft the force and arts of hell promifed in my text. From What has been already faid, you will conclude that it is neither for you nor me, nor for the moil teamed doctor of the Church, to decide for himfelf in controverted points of religion, the queftion each one is to afk is, what does the Church teach ? This queftion is to be refolved to him in the firft inftance by his paftor, and his teftimony of the doctrine and tradition of the Church is unqueftionably a rule to him D 2 in r 20 ] in the firft inftance, from which it is not lawful for him to depart, but by an appeal to a higher authority; and that muft be to a fpeaking authority, not to a dead letter, in cafe he is in his confcience perfuaded, that his imme- diate paftors hold a different language from that of the Church, and its living organ in the chair of Peter, Without entering into any con- tended queftions concerning the prerogatives of the tribunal juft mentioned, all true Ca- tholics agree that without a formal oppofition on the part of the Church, an inftance of which has never yet occurred, the doQrinal decifions of the fucceffor of St. Peter properly notified to the Church at large, are a certain proof of its tradition, and therefore are an unerring rule of our faith ; all agree, with the modern Father of the Gallican Church at their head, that in every poffible divifion of the Church, that part which is in commu- nion with the See of Peter, is the inheritor of the promifes of Chrift. Thefe conclusions evidently flow from the very effence of the Churches infallibility, which, without them in the prefent ftate of things, would anfwer no effectual purpofe, but would be a mere found- ing title; in fhort, we fhould be as much at a lofs concerning many acknowledged here- fies C =1 J lies in the two iaft centuries, and concerning fuch future herefies we have reafon to fear, will from time to time arife, as if no fuch infalli- bility had ever been eftablifhed. Nor is the doctrine above ftated that of modern divines alone. The writings of the ancient fathers all teem with the fame. I might detain you whole hours were I to repeat the exprefs and invincible texts that occur to this effeel; but let the great light of the Weftern Church, the illuftrious prelate anddotorSt. Ambrofe, fpeak for the reft, whofe words are thefe, " He agrees with the Catholic bifhops, who * agrees with the Church of Rome." Orat. de Obit Satyr, I have intimated that it is not peculiar to the Church to require, but that every kind of ciyil fociety requires a due fubordination of its component parts, and the exiftenceofan effici- ent, living, fpeaking authority in order to ex- plain and enforce its laws. No kind of legiflature has yet been found in which the interpreta- tion and the execution of the laws could be entrufted to unauthorized individuals. Under no kind of focial contract is it lawful or rea- fonable to fay, the proper judges have decided wrong, I am wifer than they, and under that pretext to take the law into our own hands, inftead C ] inftead of appealing to a higher tribunal where fuch a tribunal exifts. To convince ourfclves of the neceffity of fubordination and fubmiflion for the happinefs of individuals, and for the peace and even the exiftence of fociety, you need but caft your eyes acrofs that narrow channel before you : in the ruins of that once mighty and religious empire, in the accumu- lated diftrefs of all ranks of people there, ex- cept a few feditious individuals, you will fee the difmal effects both of civil and ecclefiafli- cal anarchy. Already, my dear brethren, you anticipate the application of thefe practical reflections to the particular perilous circumftances to which you are at prefent expofed ; you are al- ready convinced by what general means God will preferve thofe whom he has pre-ordained to perpetuate his holy Church in this nation, mould things come to thofe fatal extremities they now threaten. It is by liftening to the direction of our pallors, and in particular to thofe of the Mafter Shepherd, who has the care of the whole flock, that we {hall be pre- ferved from the infernal wolves. We (hall not be at a lofs to comprehend their inftruc- tions, becaufe in fa6l they have already fpo- ken and forewarned us; and the decifions of our t *3 3 our own upright and enlightened paftors have been ecchoed back in accents of applaufe from every quarter of the church to which they have reached, and particularly from the chair of unity and orthodoxy. To fay that neither your pallors at home nor thofe abroad are ca- pable of understanding a formula, the very nature of which is, that it mould be level with the meaneft underftandings, befides be- ing an infufferable infult, is an heretical de- vice, under which Janfenifm endeavours to hide her deformity at prefent ; but which the Church of God has exploded in practice each time fhe has condemned a heterodox, or fanc- tioned an orthodox proportion. To fay that your paftors arc averfe to your tendering a mere profeffion of the allegiance you owe your temporal fovereign, is to belie their doc- trine, their praclice, and their folemn oaths. No, dear Chriftians, there is not an atom of dif- loyalty in the oppofition your pallors make to that confufed, undigefted formula, from which as much mifchief has proceeded, or may be expecled to proceed, as from thofe other lay doclrinals the Henotichon of Zeno, or the Ec- thefis of Heraclius. 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