gb^dtefcafaAdfeg&E^gte^Kte&s&K&AaK S&i^faafa^^ Mr. BOWER's ANSWER T O A Scurrilous Pamphlet, &c. & &B&&Gp^pqpj&qfQ>&&q* pq w*&&9*&tt [ Price Two Shillings. ] 9 0&2 6 j oo >- < CO T O A v/, / Mr. B O W E R's ANSWER Scurrilous Pamphlet, &c» HAVE been long threatened by Rome with an anfwer to my Hiftory of the Popes ; and the threatened anfwer at lift has appeared, the only one I ever expected, an attack upon my reputation <© and character. This method Rome has ever pur- °" fued in defending herfelf agai.nft thofe, who have ^ undertaken, with any fuccefs, to expofe her errors, "* or difturb her in the pofTefficn of her antichriftian power, when me thought it not fafe to employ the daorrer, and could not recur to the faggot. If the book itfelf be a little too troublefome to be meddled With, fays the great Stillingfleet (#), fpeaking of his ■ Popifh adversaries* it is lejl to fall upon the author; and it is a hard cafe if by falfe and ridiculous fiories y c3 W open calumnies, or at leaft bafe and ugly infinuations, H ' bey cannot dintinijh his characler, and then they hope {a) Ztillingfiut in hi: anfwer to feveral late treatifes, p. 4, 5. A that 30107 2 Mr. Bower'; Anfwer to that the book will Jink with its author. But this their common and eafy way of confuting, thofe, who dare to oppofe them, they have improved on the prefent occafion. For feniible that their ca- lumnies would do but little hurt, if propagated only by them, they have had the addrefs to engage fome Protectants, ibme at leaft who call themfelves Proteftants, to ferve under their banner in the mean capacity of Trumpeters to publifh their fcandal. Who thefe Proteftants are I know not ; but the inve- terate and unaccountable hatred they betray through- out their performance to one, who never injured them, nor, to his knowledge, any man elfe, the mod indecent and furious railing, in which they vent it (a), lliow them to be men of illiberal minds, and {a) I {bull give here a fpecimen of the language with which they have honoured me : for as they are only the voice or the trumpets of the Papiiis and Jefuits, 1 deem it an honour to be abufed by them, agreeably to what I declared in my Preface, viz. that IJJjould hear their abufe and reproaches, (the abufe and reproaches of the Papifts and Jefuits, or of any they mould employ to abufe and reproach me in their Head) with as much phafure and fatisf action as the commendations of others ; it being no lefs meritorious, as I obierved there, in a writer to have difpleafed the enemies of truth, than to have pleafcd the friends. And that I have incurred the high difpleafure of the former will fuffici- ently appear from the names and the epithets the author of the libel before me has done me the honour to diltinguifii me with in every page of his performance, fliling me an impojlor of low cunning and impudent faljhood ; a mercenary hackney fcribhler ; One who defcrves to be expofed to the infamy of me % a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 7 Rome, in the night) that the above-mentioned pro- pofitions had been advanced, and advanced gravely at the fi^ht of two poor Capuchins ; that the evi- dence was unexceptionable, and that they were therefore met to determine the quality of the pro- portion, and procede againft the delinquent agree- ably to that determination. There are in each In- quifition 12 Counfellors, viz. 4 divines, 4 ca- noniffc, and 4 civilians. It is chiefly the province of the divines to determine the quality of the pro- portion, viz. whether it is heretical or only fa- vours of herefy, whether it is blafphemous and inju- rious to God and his faints, or only erroneous, rafh, fchifmatical, or orTenfive to pious ears. Thar part of the proportion, fools if they think that there is any merit in tormenting onefelf, was judged and declared heretical, as openly contradicting the doctrine and practice of holy mother Church re- commending aufterities as highly meritorious. The Inquifitor obferved on this occa-fion, that by the proportion fools indeed, &c were taxed with folly not only the holy fathers who had all to a man practifed great aufterities, but St. Paul himfelf, who chaftifed his body, that is, whipped himfelf as the Inquifitor underftood it, adding that the prac- tice of whipping onefelf, fo much r commended by all the founders of religious orders, was bor- rowed of die great Apoft'e of the Gentiles. The propofition being declared heretical, it was unanimoufly agreed by the board that the perfon, . who had uttered it, fhould be apprehended and proceded againft agreeably to the laws of the In- quifition. And now the perfon was named •, for till it is determined whether the accufed perfon mould or fnould not be apprehended, his name is kept concealed horn the counfellors, left they fhould be biaffed, fays the directory, in his fa ■ or tinft him. For in many inftances they keep up 8 Mr. Bower'* Anpmer to an appearance ofjuftice and equity at the fame time that, in truth, they act in direct oppofition to all the known laws of juftice and equity. No words can exprefs the concern and aftonifhment it gave me to hear, on fuch an occafion, the name of a friend, for whom I had the greater! efceem and regard. The Inquifitor was apprifed of it, and to give me an opportunity of pra&ifing what he had often recommended to me, viz. of conquering na- ture with the afliftance of grace, he appointed me. to apprehend the criminal, as he ftiled him, and to lodge him fafe before day-light in the prifon of the Holy Jnquifition. I offered to excufe myfelf, but with the greate.lt fubmiffion, from beingn? - ways concerned in the execution of that order, an order, I laid, which I' intirely approved of, and only wifhcd it might be put in execution by fome other perfon ; for your lordfhip knows, I laid, the connection : but the Inquifitor mocked at the word, What ? faid he, with a ftern look and angry tone of voice, talk of connexions where the faith is concerned! there is your guard, pointing to the fbirri or bailiffs in waiting, let the criminal be fecured in St. Luke'j- cell (one of the worft) before three in the morning. He then withdrew with the reft of the Counfellors, arid as he palled me, Thus^ he faid, nature is con- queued. i had betrayed ibme weaknefs or fenfe of humanity not long before in fainting away while I attended the torture of one, who was racked with the utmoft barbarity, and 1 had on that occafion been reprimanded by the inquifitor for fuffering nature to get the better of grace, it being an inex- cufable weaknefs, as he obferved, to be any way affected with the fuffering of the body however great, when inflicted, as they ever are in the Holy Inquifition, for the good of the foul. And it was, I prefume, to rriake trial of the effect this repri- mand a Scurrilous Pamphlet, n : rnand had had upon me, that the execution of tnis cruel order was committed to me( per and his kindnefs to all about him. Being arrived at the Inquifition 1 configned mj ptifoner into the hands of the Jayler a lay brother of St. Dominick, who fhut him up in the dungeon mentioned above and delivered the key to me. I lay that night in the palace of the Inquifition, whi every counfcllor has a room, and returned n< morning the key to the Inquifitor, telling him that his order had been punctually complied with. 1 he Inquifitor had been already minutely informed oi my whole conduct by the notary. noon my -delivering the key to him-, ' B 2 12 Mr. Bower'j Anfwer to he faid, like one, who is dejirous at leafi to overcome- with the afjiflance of grace the inclinations of nature^ that is like one, who is defirous with the affiftance of grace to metamorphofe himfelf from a human creature into a brute or a devil. In the Inquifition every prifoner is kept the firit week of his imprifonment in a dark, narrow dun- geon, fo low that he cannot ftand upright in it, without feeing any body but the Jayler ; who brings him every other day his portion of bread and water, the only food that is allowed him. This is done, they fay, to tame him, and render him thus weakened more fenfible of the torture, and lefs ca- pable of bearing it. At the end of the week he is brought in the night before the board to be ex- amined ; and on that occafion my poor friend ap- peared fo altered in a week's time that had it not been for his drefs I mould not have known him, and indeed no wonder a change of condition fo Hidden and fo unexpected, the unworthy and bar- barous treatment he had already met with, the ap- prehenfion of what he might and probably mould fuffer ; and, perhaps, more than any thing elfe the diftrefTed and forlorn condition of his once happy- wife whom he tenderly loved, and whofe company- had enjoyed only fix months could be attended with no other effect. Being afked, according to cuftorn, whether he had any enemies and defired to name them ? he anfwered that he bore enmity to man and hoped that no man bore enmity to him. For as in the Inquifition the perfon accufed is rot told of the charge brought againil him, nor of the perfon by whom it is brought, the lnqui- >r afks him whether he has any enemies, and de- fires him to name them. If he names the Informer, jail further proceedings are ffopt till the Informer is examined anew, and if the Information is found to prgcede from ill-will, and no collateral proofs can a Scurrilous Pamphlet, 13 be produced, the priibner is difcharged (a). Of this piece of juftice they frequently boaft at the fame time that they admit both as Informers and witneffes perfons of the mo ft infamous characters and fuch as are excluded by all other courts. In the next place the priibner is ordered to fvvear that he will declare the truth and conceal norhing from the holy tribunal concerning himfelf or others, that he knows and the holy tribunal is defirous to know. He is then interrogated for what crime he has been apprehended and imprifoned by the holy court of the Inquifition of all courts the molt equi- table, the moft cautious, the moft merciful. To that interrogatory the Count anfwered with a faint and trembling voice, that he was not confcious to Jiimfelf of any crime cognifable by that holy court, nor indeed by any other ; that he believed and ever had believed whatever holy mother Church believed or required him to believe. He had, it lecms, quite forgot what he had unthinkingly faid at the fight of the two friars. The Inquijitor therefore, finding he did not remember or would not own his crime, after many deceitful interrogatories, and promifes which he never intended to fulfil, ordered him back to his dungeon, and allowing him ano- ther week, as is cuftomary in fuch cafes, to recol- lect himfelf told him that if he could not in that time prevail upon himfelf to declare the truth, {a) In the Inquifition two witnefles are diffident to prove any Crime ; and the informer jrsay bore i, ptogji as one of the two, if the party informed agair.ft has noi- pruned him aniongft. his mortal enemies : I fay mortal c/ietmcs, becaufe mortal enmity alone prevents a man from being a witnefs. But as authors dis- agree in the definition of mortal enmity it is left to the prudence of the Inquifitor and his counfcl to determine that point in parti- cular cafes. All befidcs mortal enemies arc admitted as wit- l ffes, heretics, Jcrvs, Mahometans, infidel?, public profbtutes, procurefl'es, and even perjured perfons ; and of fuch witnefles If lire generally thought fufliricnt to prove the crime. agreeably i4 Mr. Bower'j Anfwer to agreeably to his oath, means would be found of forcing it from him j and he rnuft expect no mercy. At the end of the week he was brought again before the infernal tribunal, and being afked the fame queflions he returned the fame anfwers, ad- ding that if he had done or had faid any-thing amifs unwittingly or ignorantly he was ready to own it, provided the leaft hint of it was given him by any there prefent, which he intreated them moil earneftly to do. He often looked at me, and feemed to expect, which gave me fuch concern as no words can exprefs, that I fhould fay fomething in his fa- vour. But I was not allowed to fpeak on this oc- cafton, nor was any of the Counfellors ; and had I been allowed to fpeak I durft not have faid any thing in his favour, the advocate appointed by the Inquifition, and commonly ftiled the Devil's Ad- vocate, being the only perfon that is fuffered to fpeak for the prifoner. This advocate belongs to the Inquifition, receives a falary of the Inquifition, and is bound by an oath to abandon the defence of the prifoner if he undertakes it, or not to under- take it, if he finds it cannot be defended agreeably to the laws of the Holy Inquifition •, fo that the whole is mere mam and impofition. I have heard this advocate on other occafions allege fomething in favour of the perfon accufed, but on this occa- fion he declared that he had nothing to offer in de- fence of the crirai^ D( Vi r In the Inquifitic '. the perfon accufed is always fuppofed guilty unlefs he has named the accufer amongft his enemies •, and he is put to the torture if he does not plead guilty and own the crime that is laid to his charge, without being fo much as told what it is ; whereas in all other courts, where tortures are ufed, the charge is declared to the party accufed before he is tortured. Nor are they ever; infli£tf$ a Scurrilous Pamphlet, 1 5 snfli£ted without a credible evidence brought of his guilt. But in the Inquifition a man is frequently tortured upon the deposition of a perfon, whcfe evidence would be admitted in no other court, and in all cafes without hearing his charge. As my unfortunate friend continued to maintain his inno- cence, not recollecting what he had faid, he was, agreeably to the laws of the Inquifition, put to the torture (a). He had fcarce borne it twenty minutes, crying out the whole time Jefus Maria, when his voice failed him at once and he fainted away. He was then Supported, as he hung by his arms, by [a) Two forts of tortures are ufed in the Inquifitions of Italy, the Cor da, and the Veglia, as the Italians call them. The per- fon, who is tortured with the Corda, having weights at his feet and his hands tied behind his back and fattened to a rope hanging in a pully from the cieling of the room, which is of a valt height, is hoilted up to the very cieling ; and being thus kept hanging till his joints and limbs are all horribly ftretched, he is fuddenly let down with a jirk within a few inches of the ground. The fudden flop of his fall is attended with the moffc exquifite pain, and he is to hang with his legs and arm? thus dif- jointed a whole hour, if he does not own bimfelf guilty. The Corda is called the Queen of torments ; and very lew imtances there are of perfons bearing it a whole hour, fome dying of the pain before the hour is expired, and others confeffing the crimes with which they are charged whether they committed them or not, to redeem themfelves from it. The other torture, the Veglia, is fomewhat like a fmith's an- vil with a fpike at the top of it that ends in an iron die. At the four corners of the room are four ropts hanging from four pul- Jies. Thefe ropes are tied to the arms and legs of the criminal ; and he is by them lifted up and fet down with his back bone exa&'y on the die, which works by degrees, as his whole weight relts on it into the bone. This torture is to laft eleven hours if tiie perfon does not in the mean time confefs the crime laid to lis charge. Count del/a Torre was to. tured with the Corda. In Italy neither of thefe tortures is ufed with women ; but inftead of them they either wrap matches round their fingers and fet fire to them, or tie their thumbs fo very tight with fmall cords as to make the blood fpout out frem. under their 112 two \6 Mr. Bower 5 * Anfwer to two of the fbirri whofe province it is to manage the torture, till he returned to himfelf. He ftill continued to declare that he could not recollect his having faid or done any thing contrary to the ca- tholic faith, and earneftly begged they would let him know with what he was charged, being ready to own it if it was true. The Inquifitor then was fo gracious as to put him in mind of what he had laid in feeing the two Capuchins. The reafon, why they fo long conceal from the party accufed the crime he is charged with, is that if he mould be confeious to himfelf of his having ever faid or done any thing contrary to the faith, which he is not charged with, he may difcover that too, imagining it to be the very crime he is accufed of (a). After a fhort paufe the poor Gentleman owned that he had faid fomething to that purpofe, but as he had faid it with no evil intention, he had never more thought of it from that time to the prefent. He added, but wrth fo faint a voice as fcarc-e could be heard, that for his rafhnefs he was willing to un- dergo what punifhment foever the holy tribunal mould think fit to impdfe on him ; and he again fainted away. Being eafed for a while of his tor- ment and returned to himfelf, he was interrogated by the Promoter Fifcal (whole bufinefs it is to ac- cule and to profecute as neither the informer nor the witneffesare ever to appear) concerninghis intention* For in the Inquifition it is not enough tor the party accufed to confefs the fact, he muft likewiie de* clare whether his intention was heretical or not ; and many, to redeem themfelves from the torments they can no longer endure, own their intention was [a) In the Spnnifb Inquifition if tha party informed againft does not accufe himfelf, he is kept confined, in fome cafe?, whole years in one of thofe dark horrid dungeons, and there left to guefb at the crime that is laid to his charge. heretical a Scurrilous Pamphlet. iy heretical tho' it really was not. My poor friend often told us he was ready to fay whatever we pleafed ; but as he never directly acknowledged his intention to have been heretical, as is required by the rules of that court, he was kept on the torture till quite overcome with the violence of the anguifh he was ready to expire, and being then taken down he was carried quite fenfelefs back to his dungeon : and there on the third day death put an end to his fufferings. The Inquifitor wrote a note to his widow to defire her to pray for the foul of her late hufband, and warn her not to complain of the holy Inquifition as capable of any injuftice or cruelty. The eitate was conlifcated to the Inquifition (d), and a fmall jointure allowed out of it to the widow. As they had only been married fix months, and fome part of the fortune Was not yet paid, the Inquifitor lent an oixl^r to the Conftantim family at Fermo to pay to the Holy Office, and without delay, what they owed to the late Count della Torre. For the effects of heretics are all ipfo fatto conlifcated to the Inquifition ; arid confifcated from the very day, not of their con- viction, but of their crime ; fo that all donations made after that time are void; and whatever they have given is claimed by the Inquifition, into what hands foever ir may have parted : even the fortunes they have given to their daughters in marriage have [Te was condemned after his death as a negative beretit. They are • :s by the laws of the Inquifition, who perfiit in (!< nyiug either the heretical fads or words, with which they are charged, or the pravity of intention after they have nfcfled l tical facia or words. Delia 'Tone confer I the words, owned they were heretical, but perfillcd in denying that he I ad uttered them with an heretical intention, or h I ' belief but that of the catholic church : and he cer- tainly had r,o other, never thought of any other, and on'y ut- sd thofe word: inadvertently and ralhly. C been it Mr. Bo w e R'.f Anfwer to been declared to belong to and are claimed by the Inquifition : nor can it be doubted that the defire of thofe confifcations is one great caufe of the in- juftice and cruelty of that court (e). The death of the unhappy Count delta Torre was foon publicly known ; but no man cared to fpeak. of it, not even his neareft relations, nor fo much as to mention his name, left any thing mould in- advertently efcape them, that might be conftrued Into a difapprobation of the proceedings of the moil holy Tribunal : fo great is the awe all men live in of that jealous and mercilefs court. The other inftance of the cruelty of the Inquifi- tion, related in the fpurious account of my efcape published by Mr. Baron, happened fome years be- fore I belonged to the Inquifition ; and I did not relate it as happening in my time, but only as hap- pening in the Inquifition of Macerata. It is re- lated at length in the annals of that Inquifition, and the fubftance of the relation is as follows. An order was fent from the High Tribunal at Rome ta all the Inquifitors throughout Italy, enjoining them to apprehend a clergyman minutely defcribed in that order. One anfwering that defcription in many particulars being difcovered in the diocefe of Ofimo, at a fmall diflance from Macerata, and fubject to that Inquifition (f), he was there decoyed into the Inqui- (e) This practice of confiscating the eftates of heretics, and beggaring their children, Ludonjicus a Paramo blalphemoufly derives from the example of God depriving our firft Parents, for their difobedience, as well as their offspring, of all their effects, of the pofleifion of their earthly Paradife, and of the dominion over all creatures. For thus, fays he, did God, as the firif. In- quifkor, teach other Inquifitors his delegates, how heretics are to be dealt with. (/) In Italy there is an Inquifrtor in every Bifhopric, or a Vicar of the Inquifition called alfo CommifTary of the Inquifi- tion. For if the jurifdiclion of the Inquifitor extends over fe- veral Bilhoprics, he refides himfelf in the chief city, and has a \ icar a Sciirri.cus Pamphlet. ig Inquifition, and by an order from Rome fo racked as to lofe the ufe of his fenfes. In the mean time the true perfon being apprehended, the unhappy wretch was difmifled by a iecond order from Rome ; but he never recovered the ufe of his fenfes, nor was any care taken of him by the Inquifition. Fa- ther Piazza, who was then Vicar at OJimo to Father Montecuccoli Inquifitor at Macerata, and died fome years ago a good Proteftant at Cambridge, publifhed an account of this affair that entirely agrees with the account I read of it in the Records of the In- quifition. The deep impreflion that the death of my un- happy friend, the mod barbarous and inhuman treatment he had met with, and the part I had been obliged to act in fo affecting a tragedy, made on my mind, got at once the better of my fears ; fo that forgetting, in a manner, the dangers I had till then fo much apprehended, I refolved, without iurther delay, to put in execution the defign I had formed of quitting the Inquifition, and bidding for ever adieu to Italy. To execute that defign with fome fafety, I propofed to beg leave of the Inqui- fitor to vifk the Virgin of hereto but thirteen miles diftant, and to pafs a week there •, but in the mean time to make the bell of my way to the country of the GrifenSj the neareft country to Macerata out of the reach of the Inquifition. Having therefore after many conflicts with myfelf afked leave to vifit the neighbouring Sanctuary and obtained it, I fet out Vicar or CommifTary in each of the other cities. Under the In- quifition of Macerata are the fallowing cities, Macerata, Tolen- uno, left, and OJimo, the Inquifuor himfelf relichng at Macerata, and his Vicars in the other cities. The Vicars are impowered ro receive informations, to imprifon, and even to torture with the approbation of the Bifhop of the p'ace or his* Vicar. But the Inquifitor generally refcives the definitive fentence t? him« itif. c % 20 Mr. Bower's An fiver to on horfeback the very next morning, leaving, as I propofed to keep the horfe, his full value with the owner (g). I took the road to Loreto, but turned out of it at a lmall diftance from Recanati after a moil violent itruggle with myfelf, the attempt ap- pearing to me, at that juncture, quite defperate and impracticable, and the dreadful doom referved for me, mould I mifcarry, prefentmg itfelf to my mind in the frrongeft light. But the reflection that I had it in my power to avoid being taken alive, and a perfuafion that a man in my fituation might lav/fully avoid it, when every other means failed him, at the expence of his life, revived my dag- gered refolution •, and all my fears ceafing. at once, I fleered my courfe, leaving hereto behind me, to Rocca Contrada, to Fojfombrone, to Calvi in the dukedom of Urbinc, and from thence through the Romagna into the Bolognefe, keeping the bye-roads and at a good diftance from the cities of Fano, Pe- faro, Rimini, Forli, Faenza, and lmola, thro' which the high road palled. Thus I advanced very flowly, travelling, generally fpeaking, in very bad roads, and often in places, where there was no road at all, to avoid not only the Cities and Towns, but even the villages, In the mean time I feldom had any other fupport but fome coarfe provifions, and a very fmall quantity even of them, that the poor fhephcrds, the country-men, or wood- cleavers, I met in thofe unfrequented bye-places could fpare me. My horfe fared not much better than my- felf; but in chufing my fleeping-place I confulted his convenience as much as my own, paMing the night where I found moll fhelter for myfelf, and molt grafs for hirm In Italy there are very few (g) I told the owner that as I was a very bad horfeman, and might fpoil his horfe, I ihould be glad to know at what he' valued him.' He named his price, and I paid him the fum he named. folitary a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 11 folitary farm-houfes or cottages, the country-peo- ple there all living together in villages j and I thought it far fafer to lie where I could be any way fheltered than to venture into any of them. Thus I fpent feventeen days before I got out of the Ec- clefiaftical State ; and I very narrowly efcaped be- ing taken or murdered on the very borders of that Hate. It happened thus. I had paffed two whole days without any kind of fubfiftance whatever, meeting no body in the bye-roads that would fupply me with any, and fearing to come near any houfe as I was not far from the borders of the dominions of the Pope. I thought I mould be able to hold till I got into the Mcdenefe, where I believed I fliould be in \ck danger than while I remained in the Papal domi- nions ; but finding my felf about noon of the third day extremely weak and ready to faint away, I came into the high-road that leads from Bologna to Florence at a few miles diftance from the former city, and alighted at a Poft-houfe that (food quite by itfelf. Having afked the woman of the houfe whether me had any victuals ready, and being told that {lie had, I went to open the door of the only room in the houfe, (that being a place, where Gentlemen only flop to change horfes) and faw, to my great fur.prife, a placard patted on it with a moft minute dcfcription of my whole perfon, and the promife of a reward of 800 crowns, about two hundred pounds Englijh money, for delivering me up alive to the Inquifition being a fugitive from the holy Tribunal, and of 600 crowns for my head. By the fame placard all perfons were for- bidden, on pain of the greater excommunication, po receive, harbour or entertain me, to conceal or to fcreen me, or to be any way aiding and afTifting to me in making my efcape. This greatly alarmed me, as the reader may well imagine. But I was ftiU 2 a Mr . Bower^ Anpwer to frill more affrighted when entering the room I Taw two fellows drinking there, who fixing their eyes upon me as foon as I came in, continued looking at me very ftedfaftly. I ftrove by wiping my face, by blowing my nofe, by looking out at the win- dow to prevent their having a full view of me. But one of them faying, the Gentleman feems afraid to be feen, I put up my handkerchief, and turning to the fellow faid boldly, What do you mean you rafcal ? look at me, I am not afraid to be iecn. He faid nothing, but looking again ftedfaflly at me, and nodding his head went out, and his companion immediately followed him. I watched them, and feeing them with two or three more in clofe conference, and, no doubt, confult- ing whether they mould apprehend me or not, I walked that moment into the (table, mounted my horfe unobferved by them, and while they were deliberating in an orchard behind the houfe, rode off full fpeed, and in a few hours got into the Mo- denefe, where I refrefhed both with food and with reft, as I was there in no immediate danger, my horfe and myfelf. I was indeed furprifed to find that thofe fellows did not purfue me, nor can I any other way account for it but by fuppofmg, what is not improbable, that as they were ftrangers as well as myfelf, and had all the appearance of Banditti or ruffians flying out of the dominions of the Pope, the woman of the houfe did not care to truft them with her horfes* . From the Modenefe I con-r tinued my journey more leifurely through the Par- mefan, the Milanefe, and part of the Venetian terri- tory, to Chiavenna, fubjedt, with its diftrict, to the GrifQns, who abhor the very name of the Inquifi- tion, and are ever ready to receive and protect all, who, flying from it, take refuge, as many Italians do, in their dominions. However as 1 propoied getting as foon as I could to the city of Bern, the metropolis (i Scurrilous Pamphlet, 23 metropolis of that great Proteftant canton, and was informed that my belt way was through the can- tons of Ury and Underpaid, and part of the canton of Lucent, all three Popifh cantons, I carefully concealed who I was and from whence I came. For though no Inquifition prevails among the Swifs, yet the Pope's nuncio, who refides at Lu- cent, might have perfuaded the magistrates of thole Popifh cantons to flop me as an Apoftate and de- ferter from the order. Having refted a few days at Chiavenna, I refumed my journey quite refrefhed, continuing it through, the country of the Crifons, and the two fmall can- tons ot Ury and Under-wald -to the canton of Lucern. There I milled my way as I was quite unacquainted with the country, and difcovering a city at a di- ftance was advancing to it, but very llowly as I knew not where I was, when a countryman, whom I met, informed me that the city before me was Lucern. Upon that intelligence I turned out of the road as foon as the countryman was out of fight i and that night I paffed with a good-natured fhepherd in his cottage, who fupplied me with fheep's milk and my horfe wiih plenty of grafs. I let out very early next morning, making the bed of my way weftward as I knew that Bern lay weft of Lucent. But after a few miles the country proved very mountainous, and having travelled the whole day over mountains I was overtaken ainongft them by night. As I was looking out for a place, where I might flicker my felt, during the night, againlt the ihow and the rain, for it both ihowed and rained, I perceived a light at a diitance, and making towards it got into a kind of foot-path, but fo narrow and rugged that I was obliged to lead my horfe, and feel my way with one too:, having no light to direct me, before 1 durfc rno the other. Thus with much difficulty 1 reach \ the 24 Mr. B o w e r\? Anfwer to the place where the light was, a poor little cottage? and knocking at the door was afked by a man within who I was and what I wanted ? I anfwered that I was a ftranger and had loft my way. Loft your way ? replied the man, there is no way here to lofe. I then afked him in what canton I was, and upon his anfwering that I was in the canton of Bern, ~I thank God, I cried out tranfported with joy, that I am. The good man anfwered, and fo do I. I then told him who I was, and that I was going to Bern, but had quite loft myfelf by keep- ing out of all the high-roads to avoid falling into the hands of thofe, who fought my deftru&ion. He thereupon opened the door, received and en- tertained me with all the hofpitality his poverty would admit of, regaled me with fower-crout and ibme new-laid eggs, the only provifions he had, and clean ftraw with a kind of rug for my bed, he having no other for himfelf and his wife. The good woman expreffed as much fatisfaclion and good-nature in her countenance as her hufband, and faid many kind things in the Swifs language, which her hufband interpreted to me in the Italian. For that language he well underftood, and fpoke fo as to be underftood, having learnt it, as he told me, in his youth while fervant in a public houfe on the borders of Italy \ where both languages are fpoken. I never palled a more comfortable night ; and no fooner did I besrin to ftir in the morning than the good man and his wife came both to know how I had refted, and wifhing they had been able to accommodate me better obliged me to breakfaft on two eggs, which Providence, they faid, had fupplied them with for that purpofe. I then took leave of the wife, who with her eyes lifted up to Heaven feemed molt fincerely to wifh me a good journey. As for the hufband he would by all means attend me to the high-road leading to 8 Bern 9 a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 25 Bern, which road he faid was but two miles diftant from that place. But he infifted en my firft going back with him to fee the way I had come the nicrht before, the only way, he faid, I could have pof- fibly come from the neighbouring canton of Lu- cem. I law it and fhuddered at the danger I had efcaped : for I found that I had walked and led my horfe a good way along a very narrow path on the brink of a dreadful precipice. The man made fo many pious and pertinent remarks on the occa- fion as both charmed and furprifed me. I no lefs admired his difintereftednefs than his piety. For upon our parting, after he had attended me till I was out of all danger of lofing my way, I could by no means prevail upon him to accept of any reward for his trouble. He had the fatisfaction, he faid, of having relieved me in the greateft di- ftrefs, which was in itfelf a fufEcient reward and he cared for no other. I reached Bern that night, and propofed flaying fome time there, but being informed by the prin- cipal rninifter of the place, to whom I difcovered myfelf, that boats went frequently down the Rhine at that time of the year with goods and paifengers from Bafd to Holland, and advifed by him to avail myfelf of that opportunity, I let out accordingly the next day, and croffing the Popiiri canton of Soleurre in the night, but very carefully avoiding the town ot that name, I got early the next morning to Bafd. There I met with a mod friendly recep- tion from one of the minifters of the place, having been warmly recommended to him by a letter I brought with me from his brother at Bern. As a boat was to fail in two days he entertained me very elegantly, during that time, at his houfe ; and 1 embarked the third day, leaving my horfe to my hoff in return for his kindnefs. D The 26 Mr. Bower'.? Anfwer to The company in the boat confuted of a few traders, of a great many vagabonds the very refufe of the neighbouring nations, and fome criminals flying from juftice. But I was not long with them ; for the boat (Iriking againft a rock not far from Stra/lurg, I refolved not to wait till it was refitted (as it was not my defign to go to Holland) but to purfue my journey partly in the common Diligence or ftage-coach, and partly on poft-horfes, through France into Flanders. And here I fnuft inform the reader that though the cruelties of the Inquifition had infpired me with great horror at their being encouraged under the name 01 religion, and I had thereupon begun to entertain many doubts concerning other doctrines that I had till that time implicitly fwallowed, as inoft Italian Catholics do, without examination ; neverthelefs as I had not thoroughly examined them, nor had an opportunity of examining them being employed in ftudies of a quite different na- ture, I was not yet determined to quit either that Church or the order. Having therefore got fafe into French Flanders, I there repaired to the Col- lege of the Scotch Jeiuits at Douay, and difcovering myfelf to the Rector, I acquainted him with the caufe of my Hidden departure from Italy, and begged him to give immediate notice of my arri- val as well as of the motives of my flight to Michael Angelo Fcmburini General of the order and my very particular friend. My repairing thus to a college of Jefuits and putting myfelf in their power, is a plain proof, as we may obferve here by the way, that it was not beeaufc I was guilty of any crime, or to avoid the punilhment due to any crime, that I had fled from Italy. For had that been the cafe no man can think that inftead of repairing to Hol- land or England, as I might have eafily done and bid the whole order defiance, I would have thus a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 27 thus delivered myfelf up to them, and put it in their power to inflict on me what punifhment fo- ever they pleaied. The Rector wrote, as I had defired him, to the General ; and the General, taking no notice of my flight in his anfwer (for he could not difapprove it and did not think it fafe to approve it) ordered me to continue where I was till further orders. I ar- rived at Douay early in May and continued there till the latter end of June or the beginning of July, when the Rector received a fecond letter from the General, acquainting him that he had been com- manded by the Congregation of the Inquifition to order me, wherever I was, back to Italy, to pro- mife me in their name full pardon and forgivenefs if I obeyed, but if I did not obey to treat me as an Apoftate. He added that the fame order had been tranfmitted foon after my flight to the nun- cios at the different Roman Catholic courts ; and he therefore advifed me to confult my own fafety without further delay. It is to be obferved here that it is deemed Apoftacy in a perfon of any religious order to quit his habit and withdraw, without the knowlege of his fuperiors, from the college, convent or mona- ftery, in which they have placed him •, and that all Biihops are not only impowered, but bound to ap- prehend fuch an Apoftate within the limits of their refpective juiifdictions, and deliver him up to his fuperiors to be punifhed by them. As I had quitted the habit and withdrawn from the College or Maccrata without leave from my fuperiors, who had placed me there, I mould have been treated as an Apoftate had I been difcovered in my flight in a Roman Catholic country, even where no In- quifition prevailed. But my returning voluntarily to my obedience and reluming the habit, cleared me from the guilt of Apoftacy at the General's D 2 tribunal. 28 Mr. Bower'j Anfoer to tribunal, nay and at that of the Inquifition itfelf. However the Congregation of the Inquifition had it (till in their power to oblige the General to recal me to Italy), and to treat me as an Apoftate if I did not obey, difobedience to an exprefs command of a lawful luperior being deemed apoflacy, and pu- nifhed as fuch with clofe confinement, and with bread and water for food till the order is complied with. That order the General received ; but his friendship for me, of which he had given me fome remarkable inftances, and his being fully convinced of my innocence, the Jnquifitor himfelf having no- thing to lay to my charge but my flight, prompted him to warn me of the danger that threatened me. Indeed I thought myfelf quite fafe in the domi- nions of France ; and mould accordingly have lived there unmolefted by the Inquifition, what crime foever I had been guilty of cognifable by that tri- bunal alone. But as I had belonged to it, and was confequently privy to their hellifh proceeding?, they were apprehenfive I mould difcover them to the world ; and it was to prevent me from ever difcovering them that they obliged the General to order me back to Italy, and promife me, in their name, a free pardon if i complied, but to confine me for life if I did not comply with the order. Upon the receipt of the General's kind letter the Rector was pf opinion that I mould repair by all means and without lofs of time to England, not only as the'fafeft afylum I could fly to in my prefent fituation, but as a place where I mould foon recover my nacive language and be ufefully employed, as loon as I recovered it, either there or in Scotland. I readily clofed with the Rector's opinion, being ;ry uneafy in my mind as my old doubts in point: of religion daily gained ground, and new ones arofe upon my reading, which was my only employment, the books of controyerfy I found in the 'library of the a Scurrilous. Pamphlet. 29 the college. The place being thus agreed on, and it being at the fame time fettled between the rector and me that I mould fet cut the very next morn- ing, I folemnly promifed, at his requcft and defire, to take no kind of notice, after my arrival in Eng- land, of- his having been any ways privy to my flight, or of the General's letter to him. This promife I have faithfully and honourably obferved, and mould have thought myfelf guilty of the blacked ingratitude if I had not obferved it, being fenfible that had it been known at Rome that either the Rector or General had been acceflbry to my flight, the Inquifition would have relented it fe- verely in both. For though a Jefuit in France, in Flanders, or in Germany is out of the reach of the Inquifition, the General is not, and the High Tri- bunal not only have it in their power to punifh the General himfelf, who refides conftantly at Rome, but may oblige him to inflict what punifhment they pleafe on any of the order obnoxious to them. The Rector went that very night out of town, and in his abfence, but not without his privity, I took one of the horfes of the College early next morning, as if I were going for change of air, be- ing fomewhat indifpofed, to pais a lew days at UJle : But fleering a different courfe I reached Aire that night, and Calais the next day. I was there in no danger of being ftopt and feized at the pro- fecution of the Inquifition, a tribunal no Ids ab- horred in France than in England. But being; in- iormed by the General that the nuncios at the dif- ; rent courts had been ordered, loon after my flight, to caufe me to be apprehended in the Rom Catholic countries through which I might pais, as an Apoftate or deferter from the order, I was unc no fmall apprehenfion of b lifcovered and ap- prehended as inch even at ( . No fooner there- re did I alight at the Inn than I went down to 20 Mr, BowerV dnfwer to the quay ; and there, as I was very little acquainted with the fea, and thought the paflage much fhorter than it is, I endeavoured to engage fome fifhermcn to carry me that very night in one of their fmall vefTels over to England. This alarmed the guards of the harbour ; and I mould have been certainly apprehended as a perfon guilty or fufpected of fome great crime flying from juftice, had not Lord Bal- timore^ whom I had the good luck to meet in the Inn, informed of my danger, and pitying my con- dition, attended me that moment with all his com- pany to the port, and conveyed me immediately on board his yacht. There I lay that night, leaving every thing I had but the cloaths on my back in the Inn ; and the next day his Lordfhip fet me afhore at Dover, from whence I came in the com- mon flage to London. No words can exprefs the fatisfaction it gave me to reflect, as I did the moment I fet foot on Engliflj ground, that I was at I aft in a country of liberty j intirely free to think and to act agreeably to the dictates of my reafon and confcience. I did not however think it justifiable in the fight of God or of man to quit the Church, in which I was baptized and brought up, till I had thoroughly examined her doctrines. And I was determined to continue in that Church or to quit her as thole doctrines mould appear to me, upon a ftrict and impartial examination, well or ill grounded. Thus I continued a member of the Church of Rome, and confequently of the order to which I belonged ; and I complied under the direction of Father Parker then Provincial, to whom I was warmly recom- mended by the General, with all the duties of the order, agreeably to the vows that I had made, and that were certainly binding fo long as I continued a member of the Church, in which I had made them. But in the meantime I ftudied the corrtro- verly a Scurrilous Pamphlet, 3 1 verfy between the two Churches, not only with re- gard to the Papal Supremacy, which 1 knew be- fore to be groundlefs, but to all other points -, and had many helps and advantages, which I wanted in Italy for my inftru&ion, being iupplied with proper books for that purpofe by Dr. Afpinwall fubdean of the Chapel Royal, and the learned Dr. Clark of St. James's, to whom the fubdean intro- duced me. I heard of Dr. Afpinwall foon after my arrival in England ; and as he too had belonged to the order of the Jefuits I waited upon him, and being very kindly received I opened my mind to him without difguife, had feveral conferences with him and Dr. Clark, and fome with the late Bifhop of Cloyne then dean of Londonderry : and the reiult of thefe conferences as well as of my own reading and reafoning was the fulJeft conviction that many of the favourite doctrines of Rome were not only evidently repugnant to Scripture and reafon, but wicked, blafphemous, and utterly inconfiftent with the attri- butes of the Supreme and Infinite Being. I there- fore withdrew from the communion of that Church without further delay, took leave of the Pro- vincial, quitted the order, and removing from the Popifh houfe in Little Wyld-Street, where Father Parker had placed me, I went to lodge with a Pro- teftant Attorney at law next door to the chapel in Oxenden-Street, to whom Dr. Afpinwall recom- mended me. This happened in the month of No- vember 1726, about four months after my arrival in England; and fince that time, that is, for the fpace of thirty years. I have never performed any function of the Popifh religion, nor have 1 ever either in public or private aflifted at any. In thus renouncing the Popilh religion I could be influenced by no temporal views or motives of intercft. For at that time I had no Proteltant friends or acquaintance in England, but Lord Baltimore, B Dr. -2 Mr. Bowers Anpwer to Dr. Afpinwdll, and Dr. Clark; and befides I de- clined conforming to any particular Church, but. fufpefting all alike after I had been fo Ions; and fo grofsly impofed upon, I formed a fyftem or re- ligion to myielf, and continued a Proteilant for the fpace, I think, of fix years, but a Proteilant of no particular denomination. At laft 1 conformed to the Church of England as free in her fervice as any reformed Church from the idolatrous practices and fuperftitions of Popery, and lefs inclined than many others to fanaticiim and enthufiafm. I could no more be influenced by temporal views in thus con- forming to the Church of England, than I was in renouncing that of Rome. For by declining to aiTumc, or rather ireiurrie the gown, as I did for very jiift reafons, I debarred myfelf from all pre- ferment in the Church, and was then known to none able to procure me any in the State. Dr. Afpinwatt, with whom I loon contracted an intimate friendfhip, introduced me to all his* friends and acauaintance ; and among; the reft to Mr. Orthwet of Pall-mall-Court, in the latter end of No- vember 1126; and on that occafion I became ac- quairitcd with Mr. Dalton of Cleveland-Row, who is the oldeft acquaintance I have now living; and Ire* well remembers my having been introduced by Dr Jfpinwkll to Mr. Orthwet his brother-in-law. In the month of December of the fame year 1726, I became accidentally acquainted with Dr. Goodman, one of the Phyficians in ordinary to his Majefty King George I. and afterwards to his prefent Majefty, who finding me pretty well verfed in the daffies (and there was no man in all England better verfed in them than he) introduced me, upon the recom- mendation of Dr. 'Afyinwall and Dr. Clark, to the late Lord Aylmer, who wanted a perfon acquainted with that branch of literature to affift him in read- ing the Gallics. Thus was I firfc acquainted with the a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 33 the late Lord Aylmer. But as I was unknown in England^ though, my family was well known in Scotland^ and though his Lordfhip found nothing to blame in my behaviour and conduct, yet he did not admit me to his confidence, nor even into his ' family, till he was informed of my character from abroad. Indeed no one can fuppofe that a man of the late Lord Aylmer\ uncommon good underftand- ing, difcretion and prudence, would have taken me into his family, would have honoured me with his confidence, nay and trufted me, as his Lord- fhip afterwards did, with the education of two of his children, without caufing the moft diligent In- quiries to be made abroad, where I was known, concerning my character as well as the motives of my flight, and being well allured that the account I gave of myfelf was no impofition or forgery. For that purpofe he employed feveral of his rela- tions and acquaintance travelling into Italy, feveral officers of the navy, his Lordfhip having been brought up in that fervice •, and none of them could hear any thing amifs of me, but on the con- trary all, who were acquainted with me in Jtaly\ gave me a very good character, the Jefuits them- felves having nothing to lay to my charge but my leaving them, at which they expreffed great con- cern for the fake of my foul. Only Father Luthrel % an Irijh [efuit, then Rector of the College of Leg- horn, told one of My Lord's friends, upon his afk- ing why I had left them, that he could not well tell, but imagined I had left them becaufe I was tired of lying alone, and wanted a bed-fellow. But the good father was miftaken, for I was twenty years in England before I thought of a bed-fellow, and twenty-four before I had one. This charge is by Papiih brought againft all who having vowed chaltity turn afterwards Proteftants j though the vow of chaftity is no kind of reftraint to nine in E ten 34 Mr. Bower'j Anfwer to ten of thofe, who have made it. Lord Aylmer\ friends could hear nothing of my criminal corre- fpondence with a nun ; of my robbing the Inquifi- tion •, or of my being piqued becauie I was not preferred to a Bifhopric (h). Thefe things have all happened fince I wrote the hiftory of the Popes, and would never have happened had I never med- dled with the Popes nor with Popery. The above- mentioned inquiries concerning my character were made by Lord Aylmer unknown to me, but his- Lordfhip afterwards acquainted me with them ; and fo he did many others, and the hy Helton family among the reft, upon my being firft introduced to that family by his Lordfhip's niece the late Mrs. Lyttelton, whofe extraordinary merit well known to all, who knew her, I might perhaps fay, -to all Egg^ land, wants no commendation. With her I was acquainted from her childhood ; by her I was in- troduced and commended to Lord Lyttelton as one worthy of his acquaintance and frienclfhip ; and ilie {h) No fooner did the firft volume appear of my Hi/lory of the Popes than the whole tribe of Popiih priefts, of monks, of friars, of Jefuits, took the alarm, and flattering themfelves that by discrediting the author they fhould at the fame time diicredit the work, (undiftinguiihing people, that is, the far greater part of mankind, being apt to difregard a work, let its merit be ever fo great, when they once entertained a bad opinion of its au- thor) they began to fpread many falfe and fcandalous reports concerning me and the motives of my flight out of Italy. A Roman Catholic Gentleman was aflured by his priefts, and he afTured the late Mr. Pelbam, whofe neighbour he was in the country, that I had robbed the Tnquifition ; and to that robbery he imputed my flight. It was pofltively afierted by the Papifts in Wales, efpecially at Holy-well, that I had renounced their religion, piqued at my not being preferred to a Bifhopric, which they averred could be fhewn under my own hand. Indeed I do not queftion their having letters to that purpofe, quite as au- thentic as thofe that have been lately produced. Of my pre- tended criminal correfpondence with a nun I lhall fpeak here- after. honoured a ScurrLcus Pamphlet. 35 honoured me herfelf with her friendfhip and efteem to the hour of her death. My acquaintance, I may fay my intimacy, with Lord dylmer, by blamelefs behaviour for nine whole years, and the better part of twenty in his family, and the good opinion his Lordfhip enter- tained of me, commended me to all the families related to or connected with his, viz. to the Norris, to the Forte/cue, to the Mojlyn, to the Lyttelton fa- milies, not to mention many others ; and to them, as I have been many years intimately converfant with them all, and with fome of them ever fince a few months after my arrival in England, or con- verfion from Popery, I appeal for my character. I queltion whether any of thofe, who have fo un- jultly impeached it, could fo eafily, for fo long a fpace of time, and by fo many unexceptionable wit- nefles, vindicate theirs, were it impeached, as I can vindicate mine. While I was yet with Lord Aylmer, I undertook for Mr. Prevoft, Bookfeller in the Shop now Mr. Vaillant's, the Hijioria Literaria, that came out in monthly Pamphlets, and the firft: was publifhed in 1730, twenty-fix years ago. I wrote the Preface to that work, and feveral of the articles in Italian y not being yet fufficiently acquainted with the Eng- lijh to write in that Language. The preface was tranllated by Mr. Lockman, and the reft by the Rev. Mr. Barkley, who kept afterwards a boarding- fchool at Little Chelfea. In the mean time I clofely applied to the ftudy of the Englifh tongue, and al- ter fix months I begun to think that I had no fur- ther occafion for a tranflator ; and I employed him no more. The firft article I wrote and pub- lifhed in Englijh was the firft of the fecond volume ot that work, containing a Parallel between the doc- trine of the Pagans and that of the Jefuits concerning the jlate of nature and natural power of man's fr - E 2 ivill 9 36 Mr. Bower' j Anpwcr to will, written originally in French : for it was my province to give an account of the books in the Latin, French, and Italian languages, and of them the work chiefly confifts. I have mentioned the Hijicria Liter aria the rather, as no man can perufe it without concluding the au- thor a Proteftant. The very firfl book I chofe to give an account of was Pietro Giannoni's Civil Hiftory of the kingdom of Naples, a work calculated to expofe the urijuft ullirpations of the Popes, their wicked- nefs and debauchery, the pride and avarice of the Popifh clergy, and the fcandalous lives of the Friars and Monks, with the fevereft reflections upon the whole fyftem of the Canon Law. I clofe my abridgment of the firfr, volume of that work (vol. i. p. 15.) wich commending the free and noble fpiri: of the author, and his regard to truth, Jince he has not, even in Italy, been afraid to write with fueb freedom of the Roman clergy 's bold ufurpations : and elfe where (vol. i. p. 350.) I fpeak of him thus ; In few words, Mr. Giannoni is a profeffed enemy to bi- gotry, prieftcraft and fal/hood, and hinc ilise lacryma^! this is the true caufe why thofe, who are in the Roman communion, 'decry his performance fo very much. . Vol. ii. p. 135, 136. having related out of Pro- copius the fabulous account that writer gives, and feems to have credited, of an ifland he calls Brittia, I add ; And here we may obferve by the way, if fuch chimerical accounts zvere in thofe days believed by the generality of the learned themfelves, how eafy a matter might it have been then, and much more in the enfuing mcjl dark and difmal centuries, to introduce and ejiab- li/b, without much oppojition, the absurd doctrines of Purgatory, Transubstantiation, &c. the people being then inclined to believe the greatejl abfur- dities, efpecially when they were propofed under the notion of myfieries in religion. P. 189. in the ac- count I give of the war of the HuJ/ites from Len- fanfs a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 37 fant's hiftory of that war, I obferve that Zifka, their famous leader, thought it a meritorious work (as he HAD IMBIBED FROM HIS YOUTH THE PIOUS PRIN- CIPLES of the Church of Rome) to maffacre all thofe who were of a different perfuafion. Tantum re- ligio potuit fuadere maloruml P. 272. I give, out of the Spicilegium Ravennatis Hifori^e, an ac- count of the building and confecrating the church of St. John the Evangelifl in Ravenna, and of the Evangelift's holy fandal worfhipped there ever fince the eighth century, when the author of the Spici- legium is iuppofed to have flourifhed ; and that ac- count I clofe with the following; words : From hence we may infer how early fuch chimerical accounts began to find credit, and fuch fuperjlitions to be introduced into the Church of Rome. Vol. iii. p. 334. I afk the author of the Orbis facer et prophanus (a work I there give an account of) commending the Italians for their fincere and hearty attachment to the true religion, In what do they Jhew this great at- tachment to the true religion ? In living up to the rules and precepts laid down in the Scripture ? This, we mufl own, is a very idle and impertinent infinuation, when addrejfed to a Roman Catholic. For what have morals, fay they, or a good life to do with reli- ligion ? Our author tells us in what the Italians fhow themf elves fincere followers of the true religion ! 'Tis true, fays he, they fuffer Jews to live among them, hit they keep their country clear of all feci s of heretics ; as if thofe they call heretics were worfe than Jews, and the perfecuting and murdering them a full atonement for all their other murders. Nothing is more inconjijlcnt with and repugnant to the true ; . igiotij than per feta- tion ; and ncverihclefs, in the Church cf Rome the whole duty of a man truly religious is to perfecute* maf- facre, and defiroy, with fire and fword, all thoje, -if ho refufe to admit of their superstitious and idola- trous 30107/ ^8 Mr. Bower'; An fiver to trous worship. Though our author cries up his countrymen on account of their piety and religion, fitch as have travelled into Italy cannot but know that the Laity there have no religion at all, tho' they take care to diffemble their true fentiments, for fear of the In- quijition. As for the Clergy, they are mere Libertines (even comprifing the Cardinals), the mofl debauched and profligate fellows in the world. Hence they often make merry among themfelves, when they Ice the Ultramon- tanes (whom they call Prichia-petti, Schioda-CriiH, &c.) flock in crouds from remote countries to vifit the fuppofed tombs of the Apoftles, to which they them- f elves, excepting fome of the meaner fort of people, are very fparing in their vifits. ■ P. 393. 'To this water (the luilrifical water) the Pagans afcrihed the fame virtue, which the Roman Catholics (their Ap e s ) afcribe to their holy water : we may juflly re- proach them both with the words of Ovid, Ah nimium faciles qui triftia crimina — ■ — Fluminea tolli pofife putatis aqua. . P. 398. I fpeak thus of the worfllip of images: .If the primtive Chriftians thought fit to keep fome rites cf the Gentiles, in order to gain them over with more cafe to the Chriftian religion •, yet they never kneeled down before images, nor offered incenfe, or addrefjed iheir prayers to flocks and ft ones, as the Roman Ca- tholics do now-a-days. There are feveral Edicls of the flrfl Chriftian Emperors forbidding the kneeling down or burning of incenfe before any image or flattie what- soever: And the Fathers, namely, Gregory and A trTa- nafius, often put the Chriftians in mind that the images of faints are not to be worfhipped, being allowed in the churches only as ornaments, &c. Were Gregory, Atha- nafius, and the other Fathers, who were for embellijh- ing the walls of churches with the mages of faints, to return from the dead 7 and fee the fcandalous abufes^ and a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 39 ami idolatrous worship, which by degrees have been introduced, and are entirely owing to juch nfelefs crnaments, they would, no doubi, be of a different mind, and the fir ft to pull down and con fume in the flames all images of faints. Thus did I exprefs 26 years ago, at the very time when the authors of the Libel lately publifhed againft me fuppofe me a Papiflr, my disapproba- tion of lbme of the mod favourite principles, and difbelief of fome of the moit favourite doctrines ot the Romijh Church ; and I could therein be influ- enced by no temporal views, flnce they, who em- ployed me, little cared whether I was a Papift or a Proteftant, a Turk or a Chriftian. Could any man, who wrote thus, be a Papift in his heart, or popifhly inclined, or difpoled to keep any meafures with the Papifts in point of religion ? But the au- thors of that Libel being ignorant of the fhare F had in this work, imagined I had writ nothing againft that religion, or oflfenfive to the Papifts, before I publifhed my Preface to the Hiflcry of the Popes. Happily for me the work ftill remains, and I cannot defire a more evident proof that I was then no lefs willing than I am now to declare my contempt and abhorrence of Popery to the whole world. While I was yet employed in writing the Hiftoria Litteraria* the Proprietors of the Univerfal Hiftory would willingly have engaged me for that under- taking. But 1 rejected the offers, however advan- tageous, that were made me by Mr. Batley, then manager, I believe, of the work, till the Hiftoria, Litteraria was dropt by Mr. Prevoft. That hap- pened in 1754 •, and the following year I agreed with the Proprietors of the above-mentioned work, a laborious undertaking that employed me for the fpace of nine years, that is to fay, from the year l 735 4ofed againlt me, no lefs injurious to tl rs a to Proteftants In general, and co the Proteftant Re- ligion it 1 un to me. Ho s r the Proteftant Libelier, taking, as a friend to truth, and as a fin- cere Proteftant, the Popifh Libeller for his guide in the firft part of his wovk, queftions, upon his au- " chority, my having ever been Counlellor of t Inquifition, and quotes his words to prove that I never did bear any fuch office. His words are, p. 2. §ut how can ive think him at a lojs tor titfes), whilfi 44 Mr. Boweiu Aufeer to we rtadhim qualified Counfellor of the Inquifition ? By this word IJhouId naturally underfiand a judge in that tribunal : for the word counfellor in a court a~ broad, Jignifes a judge, and it is explained of our author in that fcnfe, in the relation publifhed by Dr. Hill. Bui: JJhould be glad for his fake to pre fume that by this title he means to file himfelf only Confultor, to bring to the inquifdion prohibited books, efpecially Englilh, or to be (onfulted by the inquifitcrs in certain cafes, which is a thing poffible, and very probable : for in country towns a curate or fchool-maflcr may bear fuch a title. In France book fellers are often deputed — to examine books, which are imported. But for a Jefuit inquifi- tor in Italy, every one who has travelled abroad, and informed himfelf of that court, knows it is an Hirco-cervus, a monjier in nature, it being a thing repugnant to the laws and cufloms of that country, whatever might be poffible elfewhere. .... Here the Douay prieft feems not only to be at a lofs about the meaning of the word Counfellor of the Inquifition, but even to doubt whether there be in the Inquifi- tion any fuch office But that there is fuch an office, that there are Counfellor s of the Inquifition, is as well known in the countries where the Inquifition prevails, as it is known that there is an Inquifitor. Had the ignorant prieft but ever dipt into Limborch, who has treated more knowingly than any other writer of the affairs of the Inquifition, that author would have informed him, that in each Inquifition there are twelve Counfellors, \'yl. four Divines, four Canonifls, and four Civilians ; that the Counfellors are judges ; that they judge jointly with the Inqui- fitor, and are on that account called likewife AJj'ef- fors, but that their votes are only by way of ad- vice and not decifive -, and that the Inquifitor is not bound to conform to their judgment, but may condemn the perfon, whom they have judged in- nocent, or abfolve the perfon, whom they have a Scurrilous Pamphlet, 45 judged guilty (Limborch, I. ii. c. 4). However, it is to be obferved that when either happens, the Inquifitor is refponfible to the High Court or Tri- bunal at Rome for his conduit ; and he may by them, or by the Pope, be removed from his office, but is quite fafe when he has the majority of the Counfellors on his fide. The High Court * High Tribunal, or holy Congre- gation of the Inquifition confifts of fix Cardinals, a Commiftary-General, the Matter of the Holy Pa- lace who is always a Dominican, the General of the Dominicans, and a great Number of Divines, Ca- nonifts and Civilians. This High Tribunal has been impowered by the bulls of feveral Popes to proceed again ft all perfons, whether Bifhops, Arch- bifhops, Patriarchs, and even Cardinals fufpected of herefy, on the one as well as on the other fide of the Alps ; to fummon them to appear at their tri- bunal, and to excommunicate and depofe them, if they do not, in a limited time, comply with their fummons. The Congregation meets twice a week, on Wednesdays in the church of St. Alary fupra Mi- nervam belonging to the Dominicans, and on T'hurf- days in the prefence of the Pope ; and to them the Provincial Inquifitors apply in all difficult cafes. In Italy the Provincial Inquifitors are appointed by them ; and in moil places the Inquifitors are al- lowed to chufe their own Counfellors. They are confined in their choice to no order of men, but take, at their own pleafure, Fraud/cans, Dominicans, Benediclines, Bernardines, Jefuits, and even laymen. The Divines are always Ecclefialtics ; and lb, for the moil part, are the Canonifts, but the Civilians are commonly laymen. The Counfellors Divines, in my time, at Macerata* were two Dominicans, the Dean of Macerata and myfell ; the Canonifts, one Dominican, two Minorites, and one Scolopian, t>Ut the Civilians were all laymen. They are called in 46 ' Mr. Bower'j Anfwer to in Italian, Confultori, a name that is common to them all, and anfwers the Engliflj word Counfellor. There is no office in the Inquifition anfwer- ing to the title of Confultor, as that word is under- stood by the author of the note before us, every man being obliged, whether he does or does not belong to the Inquifition, to denounce prohibited books (not to bring them, which may not be al- ways in his power) to the lnquifitor. What is added in the fame note, viz. that in France book- fellers, who befl know the laws and privileges of the jiationers, are often deputed by the parliaments to examine books, which are imported, is too abfurd and foreign to the purpofe to deferve any anfwer. It is the province of the Counfellors of the Inquifition to examine the doctrine and principles contained in books imported, and to inform the lnquifitor whe- ther they be confiftent with, or repugnant to, the doctrine of the Church : and this province is, I believe, feldom committed by the French Parlia- ments to their bookfellers, how well foever ac- quainted with the laws and privileges of the fta- tioners. A Jefuit lnquifitor in Italy, or indeed any where elfe, is a thing, I own, unheard of ; and I never pretended to have exercifed that office, the Inquifition being in the hands of the Do- minicans or the Francifcans in Italy, and of the fecular clergy in Spain. But a Jefuit Counfellor of the Inquifition, the only office I ever faid I had exercifed, is no new thing either in Spain or in Italy. The Inquifitors may chufe for their Coun- fellors whomever they pleafe : I was chofen Coun- sellor by Father Montecuccoli, lnquifitor at Macerata % and my very particular friend ; and at that time Father Provenzali, a Jefuit, was Counfellor of the Inquifition at Fermo, chofen by Father Vifconti, ln- quifitor in that city, his friend and relation. • The Jefuits are not excluded from the Inquifitoriai ' office a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 47 office by any Papal Bulls or Conftitutions, by the laws of any country, or by thofc of the Inquifition itfeif, but by the laws of their own order ; which however allow them to exercife the office of Coun- fellor, as every Jefuit well knows. As for the letter I received from the Inquifitor Montecuccoli, about lix months after my arrival in London, inviting me back, and promifing me in his own name and in that of the Holy Congrega- tion entire forgivenefs, I cannot indeed produce it, nor can I produce any of the many letters I received from Rome and Douay, when my Apoftacy, as they termed it, was firfl known there. I have deftroyed them all, thinking I mould never have occafion to produce them ; and the perfons, to whom I mowed them, viz. Lord Baltimore, Lord Aylmer, Dr. Af- pinwall, Dr. Clark of St. James's, and Dr. Goodman, the only perfons of any note with whom I was ac- quainted at that time, are no more : fo great an advantage have my enemies gained by delaying their charge againft me fo long ; and under fuch difficulties am I now to defend myfelf againft their attacks, when the principal witneffes for me are dead, and many important papers deftroyed or . miflaid. But feveral perfons, I do not doubt, are ftill living, who muft have heard of the Inqnifitor's letter from fome who then faw it. The Rev. Mr. Aylmer has often heard, as he is ready to declare, the late Lord Aylmer, his father, fpeak of that letter, and conclude from it as well as from the other letters mentioned above (for none of them did I conceal from his Lordfhip) that I muft have been well e deemed by the Jeluits abroad, fince they feemed fo defirous to bring me back to the order. I am charged in the next place, p. g — S, by the Proteltant libeller, out of his faithful guide, the Popifh remarker, with having contradicted, in the 4 public 4.8 Mr. Bower; Anjwer to public papers, the account I had given in private of my efcape from the Inquifition, and of the dan- gers to which it expofed me, when that account appeared in print, being fenfible that it was a tale fit only for feleR companies, and not proper to be made public. A charge no leis abfurd than ridiculous ! I did not contradict the account I had given, but one very different from any I had ever given, pub- lished by Mr. Barron unknown to me, but pub- lished as mine, and containing fo many improbabi- lities, inconfiflences, falfhoods, abfurdities, that I mould have been greatly to blame had I furfered the public to be fo grofsly impofed upon, and may well be excufed if I contradicted it, in the firft warmth of refentment, in terms, perhaps, a little too ftrong. I fay perhaps ; for indeed there is fcarce a fact there, that is not related with fuch circum- ftances as impeach the truth of it, and confequently deftroy the credit of the whole. Thus, for inftancc, that I faw myfelf defcribed in the Pope's domi- nions, and a reward offered for apprehending me, is true ; that I faw myfelf thus defcribed in one of the Swift cantons, is falfe : that I embarked on the Rhine at Bafil, is true •, but it is falfe that I em- barked on that river at Bern, which ftands on the Aar, at a great diftance from the Rhine : that no fooner did I arrive at Calais than advertifements were fixed upon the gates, defcribing me, and pro- mifing a reward for apprehending me, is what I never faid ; and I might as well be charged with faying, that / travelled on horfeback in the bye-roads through the Adriatic, as I am fuppofed to have done in a manufcript account of my efcape, which I have ken, and which is faid to have been taken down from my own mouth : that I received in Lon- don a letter from Father Montecuccoli, Inquifitor at Macerata, about fix months after my arrival in England, a S cur rile us Pamphlet. 49 England, is true (k); but it is falfe that I re- ceived a letter as foon as I landed at Dover ; and that I received it from the Inquijitor General, that office being difcharged in Italy, not by one perfon, as in Spain and Portugal, but by fix Cardinals ftiled lnquifiiors General, &c. Thus may the relation of true fails, by the change of place, of time, and of other circumftances, become falfe and incredible. And this only I meant in contradicting Mr. Har~ ron's fpurious account, viz. that fome facts related there are abfolutely falfe, and that others, though true in themfelves, yet were told with fuch cir- circumftances as impeached their credit. For, what fault foever may be found with the wording of my advertifement, no man can fuppofe that I thereby intended to give myfelf publicly the lie, and contradict the account 1 had given to all my friends. However, upon my being told that the Papifts took occafion from my advertifement, as it was worded, to pretend that I had contradicted every fact contained in that account, the very facts I myfelf had related, I chofe to foften tfre terms of the former by a fubfequent advertifement, declaring the furreptitious account to be very imperfect and falfe in many circumftances; and none perhaps but this forry Quibbler will find a moft ejfential difference between {k) That letter I did not receive, nor did I ever fay that I received it, on my landing at Dover ; and they, who pretend that I advanced a thing Co abfurd and incredible muft neceflarily fuppofe me deftitute of all common fenfe, How could the In- quifitor know that I was to land at Dover ? How could the perfon, whom he trufted with his letter, know, as foon as I landed, that I was the man, to whom he was to deliver it ? The letter here fpoken of was (and fo J have always laid) deli- vered to me, about fix months after my arrival in London, by one of the waiters of Pous's Coffec-houfe in Cecil Court, St. Martin' s-Lane, while 1 was dining there, as I frequently did ; and 1 no fooncr opened it than, feeing it fubferibed J. Meni - atccoli, I haftened down Hairs; but the perfon, who brought it, had already difappearcd, Q an ^o Mr. Bower's J n fiver to a n account falfe in many circumftances, and onz falfe in almcft every circumfiance. But if we except, fays the Libeller, perhaps one or two geographical inaccuracies in the account publiflied by Mr. Barron, it agrees, as to the principal particu- lars, with the Jlory % which very many of Mr. B- — r'j acquaintances well remember to have heard from his own mouth. I have, long before Mr. Barron'j pam- phlet appeared, been entertained with the fame tale, repeated to me by gentlemen of judgment and vera- city, who heard the author him f elf give the narration. But I challenge the Libeller to name a fingle friend of mine, or acquaintance, who will fay, or ever faid, that he well remembers to have heard from my mouth, that I found myfelf defcribed in one of the Swifs cantons -, that upon my arrival at Ca- lais, advertifements were fixed on the gates describ- ing me •, that the day after I arrived at Dover I re- ceived a letter from the Inquifitor General, &c. cir- cumftances that affect the credit of the whole ac- count. As to the account faid to have been taken from my own mouth by a Lady in Cumberland, and to differ principally from that of Barron in this, that it is vajlly more copious and circumftantial, and paints the cruelties of the Inquifition in much flronger colours^ I am confident that the Libeller, however bold in his afTertions, and regardlefs of truth, would never have had the aiTurance to advance fo notorious a falfhood, had he apprehended that I mould or couid procure a copy of that account. But I have procured one, and can allure the reader, that not one of the abfurdities I have juft pointed out in Barron\ is to be found in that of the Cumberland Lady. As the Reverend Mr. Hill, chaplain to his Grace the Archbifhop of Canterbury, was faid, in the pre- face prefixed to Barron's account, to have heard it from a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 5 1 from my mcuth, he favoured me, on that occafion, with a vifit, to afiiire me that he had never faid he had heard it from my mouth, as he had never before been in my company -, and would therefore con- tradict that aflertion in the public papers -, which he did accordingly. I would have willingly, and unaftcd, let Mr. Hill know upon what grounds I contradicted that account, and began with ob- ferving that the author of it fpoke of Rome, Flo- rence, and Macerata, diftant at leail 150 miles from efTch other, as if they were as near to one another as London, Marybonne, and Knightjbridge. But Mr. Hill declined entering upon the fubjecl:, faying that did not concern him, and repeating what he had faid, viz. that he never had pretended to have heard that account from my mouth, he took his leave, after a few minutes. This is all that palled on the occafion between the Reverend Mr. Hill and me. Let us now hear how this interview is reprefented by the friend to truth. And he muft well remember, fays he, meaning me, that he had a viftt from the Reverend Mr. Hill, chaplain to his Grace the Arch- biffjop of Canterbury, to know upon what grounds he had jo abfolutely denied the Jiory ; and his anfwers were fo prevaricating and evafive, that Mr. Hill came away with the lowefi opinion of his fincerity •, for the only mijiakes that he pretended to find in the account were of the name of a place and of a date. I would un- ajked as I have faid, have let Mr. Hill know why I had contradicted that account •, but he ftopt me, faying, that does not concern me : nor did it indeed concern him : the printed account was not his, but the copy of one fent up to his Grace of Canterbury, by a correfpondent in the country, and the country correfpondent's account was a copy of one taken down by William Duncombe Efq-, and his fon, from the mouth of a confiderable perfon, who upon hearing it read acknowleged it to be what he had heard from G 2 my 5" 2 Mr, Bower*.* Anpiver t$ my mouth : fo that none but the conjiderable ptrfon had the leaft fhadow of reafon to take my contra- dicting it amifs •, and I cannot think that he did* fince by contradicting it I did not arraign his ve- racity, but only his memory ; and every man muft be fenfible that in long accounts, containing great variety of incidents, it is morally impofiible that any perfon, who hears that account, iliould exactly remember every particular, unlefs it is immediately taken down in writing from the mouth of the re-- lator. Had the perfon, from whofe mouth that account was taken, imagined that it would be com- municated to the public, he would, I am confi- dent, diftrufting his own memory, have been of opinion that ic ihould be firft fhewn to and revifed by rne •, and it had been commendable in Mr, Hill, who conveyed it to the prefs, to have done fo. Had he had that attention, he would have come away with a very different opinion of me from that which the Libeller will have him to have formed, and to have formed in a few minutes con- versation. — Is for Mr. Barrm, he could only have been provoked at my contradicting the account, as his pamphlet might thereby be rendered lefs fale- able. I am not acquainted with the man, nor did I, to my knowlege, ever fee him. But what I have heard or him, from thofe who know him, inclines me to think that the peevilh and ill-natured ad- vertifement under his name, which the Libeller triumphs in, was not his own. — I promifed, it is true, to give myfelf an account of my efcape from the Inquifition, as foon as I had completed the fe- cond volume of my hiflory of the Popes, and would have performed my prornife, had I not been advifed, by very many of my friends, and fub- fcribers, and feme for whofe authority I had the created regard, to defer that account till the courfe of my hiflory brought me naturally to the inftitu- tion a Scurrilous Pamphlet, 53 lion of that Tribunal. This the Libeller calls fhamefully breaking my word to the public ; adding, and he, who could be guilty of this, hath given but too much reafon for our difbelieving any thing which hath no other evidence but his own word to fupport it. I fhall now aniwer the main objection that is urged by the Popifh as well as the Prot ' 1 it Li- beller, to impeach the truth oi the account I have given above of the motives of my flight from Italy, viz. that my efcape from thence was not owing to any motives o r hurrfanity or conference, but to one very different from either. Mr. B. in- deed made his eftaj. >. from Perugia to Venice, fays the Popifh Libeller, p. 7. and I do not doubt in great hajle. 'The occafion is very well known in that country, in the family of Buonacorfi. What is only hinted at here is related at length in a letter, faid to have been written from Rome, which the Protectant Libeller has com- municated to the public, though he has not thought fit to inform us by whom or to whom it was writ (/). Being fent to Macerata to teach philofophy, fays the writer of the letter, meaning me, he was there over head and ears in Love with a Nun, a young woman of quality, but fimple to the lafl degree, called Buona- corfi. // was whifpered about, that foe had agreed to let him take her out of the monajiery, and carry her off. It is at leajl certain, that her Father was enraged againfl B — r in a high degree, and threatened him with his life. The affair was carried to the Inqui/I- tion, for it properly belonged to that Tribunal, B — r being the Lady's Ghoflly Father. Mr. Lunardi, who has fince been very well ac- quainted with the Lady, fays, that B r denounced (/) Till the writer is named, the letter can only be looked upon by the public as an anonymous one; and what credit u to be given to an anonymous letter from Romr, concerning the con- duct and character of one who has provokeJ that Church in the manner I have done, I leave every reader to judge. Vmfelfi <^ Air. Bower's Anfwer to himfelf, and advifed. her to da the fame, in order to -prevent any farther prof faction (m). But this had not she defired effecl. For the hiquifition were taking far- ther informations ahout the affair^ when B r was re?noved (by an order of his fupcriors) to Perugia. The Inquifitor interceded with his fuperiors to let him flay at Macerata, alleging other pretences \ but his true reafon was to keep him there till he had fufficicnt proofs againfi him to lay hold of him. But it feems they had heard too much to leave him any longer at Macerata. He was, therefore, ordered to Perugia, where Mr. Coniers was majler. Very focn after his arrival there, he had notice from three different hands that a Capiatur was given out againfi him by the In- qiiifition. He would have communicated his letters to Mr. Coniers, but he refufed to hear them, not to draw himfelf into difficulties. Nor did Mr. Coniers give him any order or leave to fly ; but was intirely pafivc in the affair, excepting that he procured' him money enough to carry him to Venice, and recommended him to one there who fupplicd him with what he wanted to continue his journey to Don ay. He 'made his efcape from Perugia difguifed in a clown's drefs, which he laid afide as foon as he got out of the Pope's ft ate, and put on a cajfbek that he had carried with him. They fay that one of the perfons, who gave him notice of the Capiatur, was the Lady Buonacorfi. This is the. fubfiance of what Meffieurs Alticozzi, Coniers, and Lunardi, have attefted concerning Mr. B'j behaviour at P ome and Macerata. Thus far the writer of this very remarkable let- tcr. But it will be no difficult tafk to prove, I hope, to the intire fatisfaction of the reader, that the contents of fuch a letter neither were, nor could be gravely attefted by theft three eminent Jefuits, as (m) This is afiually done, fays the Libeller, in the Inquijition by ferfms 'voluntarily declaring themfelves penitents. But this is not admitted in any crime between a ConfeJJarius and bis Penitent. the a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 5* 5* t L e Libeller flilcs them, p. 85. nor indeed by any ether Jefuit at leaft in Italy. For in that letter the affair, that is, the correfpondence between the Nun Bu ft and me, is faid to have been carried to the Inquifition. But in all Italy there is no Jefuit, nor indeed Ecclefiaftic or layman, fo ignorant of the laws of the Inquifition as not to know that to make love to a Nun, nay and to debauch her or carry her off, are. crimes that fall under the cogni- fance of the Bifhop of the diocefe, and not of the Inquifitor •, that the Inquifition meddles not with the morals of men, but only with their faith and opinions, and that it is the province of the Incjui- fitors to prevent the growth of herefy, and not of immorality ; infomuch, that a man might, without fear of the Inquifition, debauch a whole nunnery, provided nothing relating thereto were tranfacted in the a 51 of facr anient al confeffion. But the affair -properly belonged to that 'Tribunal, B. being the Lady's Ghojlly Father, fays the writer of the letter. I was not nor could I be the Lady's Ghoftly Father, the Jefuits being forbidden by the rules of their order to take upon them the office of Confeffors in ordinary to Nuns, and the Confeflbrs in ordinary alone are and are called their Ghoftly Fathers. I was appointed, it is true, by the Bifhop of Macerata Monfignor Varani, to fupply for a fortnight, as ConfefTor extraordinary, the room of the ConfefTor in ordinary to the monaftery of the Nuns of St. Catherine in that city, and Donna Fran- cefa Eleonara Buonaccrfi being a profefied Nun in that monaftery, I heard, in all likelihood, her con- feflion, but cannot pofitively fay I did, as in Italy the Nuns confefs in a dark room, with an iron grate between them and the ConfefTor, covered on the infide with a veil, and very few of them chufe to let the ConfefTor know who they are. I had no opportunity of fee/ng he.r during the time I was Conielfor ^ 6 Mr. Bower'* Anfwer to ConfeiTor extraordinar) , nor had I ever feen her or any other Nun of that monaftery before. But the day I was to take leave of them, the Lady Abbefs defired to fpeak with me at the grate of the 'our, in order to thank me, as is ufual, for my trouble •, and I then faw that Nun, as fhe attended the Abbefs, for the firft time. This was the be- of my acquaintance with her ; and I = forth vifited her, as well as fome other Nuns .1 monaftery, little apprehending then that vifits would be conftrued, two-and-thirty years after, into a criminal correfpondence, and that I mould be called to an account for them in a Proteftant country. I never faw her but behind two iron grates at a good diftance from each other 5 and my vifits were not very frequent, all regulars being forbidden at lead in Italy, by the Papal Bulls to vifit Nuns, without firft afking and obtaining leave of the Bifliop of the place toties quoties, or as often as they vifit them. And here I appeal to the reader whether it is not highly improbable, and al- together incredible, that the Biihop would have granted me leave, if it had been whifpered about that floe had agreed to let me take her out of the monaftery and carry her off, nay if my vifits had given the leaft icandal. The affair, that is, the correfpondence between me and the above-mentioned nun, is laid in the letter to have properly belonged to the Inquifition, be- caufe 1 was her ghoftly father. I was not, as I have fhown, her ghoftly father ; but fho'uld it even be allowed that 1 was, it would not follow from thence that the affair, whatever it was, by any means be- longed, on that account, to the Inquifition, unlefs it v/as tranfacled in the aU of facramental confeffon, or in the Confcffion- feat. And here I muft beg leave to inform the reader, that in the year 1562 a bull was ifiued by Pope Paul IV, which the fucceeding 2 Popes a Scurrilous "Pamphlet. $j Popes Clement VIII, Paul V, and Gregory XV. ap- proved and confirmed, declaring it a crime cog- nizable by the Inquifition for any ConfefTor to fc- licite or entice women to lewdnefs in the act of Sa- cramental Confeffion or in the place deftined there- unto, fince he, who thus abufes that facrament, can- notsbe fuppofed to believe it a facrament ; and not to believe it a facrament is rank herefy. The in- continence of the priefts gave occafion to this bull ; but it is fcarce any reftraint on the debauched and incontinent ConfefTors ; and by them many women, their penitents, as they call them, are daily feduced with impunity. For unlefs they fo licit e in the aft of facramental confeffion, or immediately before or after it, fo that no act intervene between the folicit- ation and confeffion, the crime is not, by the Papal bulls, cognizable by the Inquifition, nor does that tribunal ever interfere in). Thus fhould a Con- fefTor, prefuming on the known frailty of a wo- man, whofe conteffion he has heard, follow her to her own houfe, and there, at any intervening time, folicite and debauch her, no Inquifitor would re- ceive the accufation, fhould fhe accufe fuch a Con- fefTor, as it has fometimes happened, but would (n) The bull affects thofe only, , thofe of the years 1727, 1728, he never flept one night in Town, nor did I. Of the other winters, he pafled fome months in London, and I then lodged either at Mr. Claufen y s, or Mr. Ranfom's Grocer in Long- Acre, or at Mr. Thompfon's Woollen-Draper in Henrietta- Street Covent-Garden, all good Protectants. When Lord Aylmer quitted his houfe in London to return to Greenwich, I lodged again for fome time with Mr. Thompfon, -and then removed to the houfe where I lodge now, and have lodged thefe feventeen years and upwards, without ever fleeping one night, when in Town, out of it, or fcarce ever coming home later than eleven at night. I have faid no- thing here but what can be irrefragably proved. But the Proteftant Papift greedily fwallows what every low Popifh Shop-keeper is pleafed to tell him: an excellent difpofition to fwallow in time Tranfubftantiation itfelf!— As for my frequent- ing Lewis the Bookfeller's Shop; that Shop was, and, I doubt not, ftill is, frequented by twenty Pro- tectants to one Papift, nay, and by fome very wor- thy Divines of the Church of England: it is under Tom's Coffee-Houfe, and few frequent the one, as I did for fome years, without ftepping into the other. Mr. Lewis muft remember my coming otten to his mop with the late Lord Aylmer, with the R everend Mr. Aylmer * with Mr. Binion, a very honeft and worthy diflenter, well known to many perfons of distinction, and with fome one or other of my Proteftant friends — What the Libeller adds is worthy of our notice. Martin Folkes Efq; fays he, the late worthy prejident of the Royal Society, ivha> by frequenting TomV Coffee Houfe, had often feen our Convert thus engaged, below jlairs, ufed to exprefs his fufpicions of our Hijlorian's character, from this circumjlance^ and fubferibed to his lliflory merely hecaufe. a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 95 becaufs it was faflrionable to do fo. I frequented To . : Coffee-Houfe for feveral years, and I never onr e faw Mr. Folkes there. He may however, for aught I know, have come once or twice in a year to that Coffee-Houfe, without my feeing him; and that the Libeller may call frequenting it with much reafon as he ftiles my having been once in Gordon's company, ujing to be in his company. I was well acquainted with trust worthy Gentleman. He invited me to his houfe to fee the wondrous ope- rations of the Polype-, and fhewing me on that occafion his collection of books, he very politely offered to fupply me with any he was poffefied of, and I might want for my work. One might, I think, conclude from this circumftance, that he entertained no fufpicicns of my character^ and that he did not fubfcribe to my Hijlcry merely becaufe it was fajhionable to do fo. Indeed I never looked upon Martin Folkes Efq; as a very fafhionablc man, or a man who would do any thing merely to com- ply with the faihion- As lor the character he gives the Popifh Bookfeller of an honeft worthy man, I ihall not object to it -, but I cannot help obferving that all Papifts, be who they will, that give evidence again ft me, tho' utterly unknown to the Libeller till the time they give it, are rev :.\\\ by him with a good character, even Mrs. //--/--. r . What a pity that Mother D — gl — s has nothing to lay to my charge capable of entitling her to a good character, and a place amongft his I never alfumed the tide of knigki of Malta, I was dubbed knight ot that order by Mrs. Sttti as is related by the infallible Mrs. Hvyks in her nar- rative, p. 75. I fee no reafon why Mrs. / or I iliould have told Mrs. Hoyles that I was a Jefuit, on occafion of cur meeting in her room, which fl .alls, like a woman of lafliion, h( ent. Be- fides, I had been, ac I ig to this writer, turned out g6 Mr. Bower^ Anfwer to out of the order in Italy for the irregularities of my condutt^ and therefore could not tell her, with truth, that I was a Jefuit 1 was, it muft be owned, for fome years a Free-thinker ; that is, di- verting myfelf of all prejudices of education, I thought freely of the tenets and doctrines of diffe- rent religions and Churches, and freely examined them till I fixed upon one. As I had been fo long and fo grofsly impofed upon by one Church, it is not at all to be wondered that I was in no hafte to truft any other. I may have laughed in his honefi worthy friend's fhop at his Saints, as I did at the Popifh picture in the country, which the Libeller calls mockery of our holy religion, (p. 29.) And is iuch mockery fo very offenfive to the pious ears of our zealous Proteftant ? Is he acquainted with none 3 does he keep company with none, who impioufly ridicule the Chriftian religion and all revelation ? In page 29 : in February lafl, fays the Libeller, a friend of mine was told by one, who, I fuppofe, had his information from B r himfelf that upon his coming to England he waited upon Bifhop Gibfon, to acquaint him, that tho* he had left his own religion, he was not as yet determined as to the opinions to be fubfiituted in it's Jlead. What, in the name of wonder, can this driveler mean ! Did I wait upon Bifhop Gibfon to acquaint him that I was a Free-thinker, that my mind was a tabula rafa ! In the very next page he tells his readers, that it is one of my talents to accommodate myfelf to the principles of the company in which I hap- pen to be-, and el fe where, p. 35, that I become all things to all men, that I may gain fomething. If that be true, and it likewife be true that I waited upon the Bifhop to acquaint him that I was a Free-thinker, I muft have looked upon his Lordfhip as a Free- thinker too, and expected from him, as fuch, fome preferment in the Church, The truth i?, Dr. Afpin- wall a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 97 wall infifted on my waiting on Bifhop Gibfon. And all I faid on that occafion to his Lordihip, was, that I was indeed fully convinced of the errors of Popery, but not yet fatisfied as to the truth of the Doctrines taught by the Church of England., or by any other particular Church. And was this accom- modating my/elf to the principles of the company, in which 1 happen to be P Was it becoming all things to all men, that 1 may gain fomething ( — Could the Li- beller have ajfigned any inftances of my impious buf- foonery and mockery of our holy religion, even publicly in bookfellers /hops) No man, I believe, will doubt, who has proceeded thus far in his Libel, but he would have very readily affigned them. What the exprefllon was that I am charged with, in page 30, I cannot recollect at the diitance of twenty-five years. Every light word muft be anfwered for in the next world ; but we are feldom obliged in this to lb Uriel: an account, and few would be abfolutely clear, if we were. Before I take notice of what follows in the libel,- I muft inrorm the reader upon what it is grounded. In a family, which I lived with in the greateft inti- macy, there happened fome little mi.funderftanding and coolnefs between the father and the fon, and they had not leen one another for fome time. I offered to mediate a reconciliation, and frequently prefTed the fon to wait upon his father \ which he at laft agreed to, on condition that I would accompany him. To this I very readily confented, and the place and hour we mould meet at were appointed. The young Gentleman came to the place the firlt, and as he did not care to wait there, he llept into a houfe of civil reception juft by, defiringto be lent for as loon as I came. It was not long belore I came, and finding nobody in the houfe to fend of an er- rand, there being nobody there but the daughter of the houfe, I went for him myfelf The lather happened to fee us coming out together, and turn* N ing 98 Mr. Bower'.? An fiver to ing to me, Is this, he laid, your Roman Hijicry ? However the father and ion were, by my interpofi- tion, perfectly reconciled. Would the Virgin Libeller have fcrupled to fet his foot in fo profane a place on fuch an occafion ? The fact is known : I ufed to relate it amongft my friends as a comical adventure, and if I had not related it myfelf it would never have been heard of. The Libeller muft have heard it told thus : and now let us fee how faithfully this Jincere Prctejlant, this good citizen, this lover of truth, re- peats or tells it again. Mr. B — r, far from conceal- ing his irregidaritks, ufed to glory in them. Amongft other ficries, he hath frequently entertained his com- panions with an account of his being met coming out of a houfe of civil reception in the regions of Covent- Garcen, by an acquaintance who afked him, Mr. B — r, is this your Roman Hiftory ? When we con- Jider that he was, at leaf, forty years of age before he came to England, and that he did not begin to write the Roman Hiftory till feveral years after ; t& find him, fo late in life, thus reveling in brothels, and glorying in his fhame, giveth us no very fa- vourable ?wticn of the regularity of his conduct. Per- haps he was endeavouring to make amends for the time that he had loji in the college of Macerata ; where, it feems* he could find no means of gratifying his amorous inclinations \ but by making an experiment, which proved fatal to him (/cj. The HiJlo?y of this, already hinted as in a quotation from his remarker, jhall be more par - (k) The Ladies and women of Macerata in general are greatly obliged to this writer, for the high opinion he entertains of their virtue. But it was very unlucky for me to be fent to a place, where the women were all io ftriftly virtuous from the higheit to the loweft, that in order to gralijy my amorous incli- nations, I was obliged to apply to a Nun, the only woman in the whole city that had not virtue enough to withiland my addrefTes. For that he means, I fuppole, by my making an experiment izbich proved fatal to me. The hiftoi ; of this, or rather this tale, i have already anfwered, and evidently con- ticularty a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 99 ticularly mentioned before I conclude. What name fhall I bellow on one who, with the moil folerrin proteflations of candour, of fincerity, and love of truth, in his mouth, has not only malice but ef- frontery enough, thus to diguife and notorioufly mifreprefent the known truth ! I mall hereafter unanlwerably confute the mali- cious afperfions the Libeller, determined in his malice to fpare neither the living nor the dead, calls, in page 28, 29. on the memory of my de- ceafed friend Dr. Afpinwall, but cannot help taking- notice here of one thing, that concerns me as well as him, and will fhew in a very ftrong light that our great friend to truth has as good a talent at a in- ferring falfe fads as mifreprefenting true ones. In raking, page 29, into good Dr. AfpinwalFs grave for fome fcandalous anecdote that might equally affect his character and mine, he writes thus : / ficuld be ferry to find that Mr. B r acquainted no ether Divine of the Englifh Church ■with his abjuration of Popery. But I am much more forry to find, that, not many months ago, Mr. B r told a very worthy Divine of high rank in cur Church, with whofe friend- ffoip he hath been honoured, that he himfilfi and Mr. Iktrton, then curate of St. AnnV (but who had alfo been a Popifli priefi) attended Dr. Afpinwall duri his I aft illnefs. I fear that by this declaration Mr. B r will inrreafe the fufpiaens which had been en- tertained before by many concerning his own faith, with- out convincing any one, as he intended it jlcuU, that Afpinwall did not die a Papijt. Thus the Libeller; and not one perhaps of his readers has ever in the leaft queflioned the truth ot what he lb boldly aflerts. And yet nothing is lefs true I did not attend Dr. Afpinwall in his h!l illnefs, nor have I ever laid that I did : and the very worthy Divine, whom this writer introduces, with an unparalleled aflurance, as the rcj of N 2 fucii ioo Mr, Bower'.? Anfwer to fuch a tale, thinking himfelf bound as a Gentle- man, as well as a Divine, to contradict fo noto- rious a falfhood, took the very firft opportunity, without any application from me, to fend me his refutation of it, which I fhall deliver in his own words : With regard, fays he, to what paffed in con- verfation fome months fince between Mr. Bower and a Divine of the Church of England, concerning Dr. Afpinwall, that Divine folemnly declares that he never heard it fuggeftcd by any one that Mr. Bower attended Dr. Afpinwall during his lafi illnefs, but Mr Barton wily, till he faw it in print. Whoever therefore re- ported this was miftaken in the account given by the faid Divine of the converfation with Mr. Bower; for Mr. Bower did not so relate the affair to him, nor did he so relate it to others. It was confe- quently fo related by the Libeller only, by the man, who having nothing in view but the difcovery of truth, has advanced nothing but upon the mofi un- qiieflionable authorities. He mult have • rubbed his forehead hard, or have a forehead of brafs, not to blufti here. — I renounced and abjured the errors of Popery foon after my arrival in England, and in the Hijioria Literaria, publifhed twenty-five years ago, I acquainted not Dr. Afpinwall alone, but all Eng- land, with my having renounced and abjured them. See above, p. %6 — 39. It is to me matter of the greateft furprife that they, who chofe this forry fcribbler for their tool, mould net have had the attention to inftrudb him with refpeel to fome very material points, before he entered the lifts in defence of their caufe, but /uftered him to make himfelf, by his ignorance, the laughing-flock of all the monks, friars, Popifh priefts, and Jefuits in England. For he tells his readers, page 31, that I had not thrown off the order, but the order had thrown off me; and, in the follow- ing page, that I negotiated for feveral years about being re-admitted a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 101 re-admitted into the order, without Juccefs. but th.it I fucceed at laft with bribing them with all I was worth, and was accordingly re-admitted in a formal manner, fays the Libeller, as if he had been prefent at the ceremony, about the end of the year 1744. Now there is no monk, no friar, no Jefuit, no Popifli Prieft in the whole world fo ignorant, as not to know that a man by his laft vows and folemn pro- fefllon, is tied for life to the order in which he makes them, and the order to him ; fo that they cannot throw him off or difmifs him, but mud re- ceive him, if he has apoftatized, as they term it, and left them, the moment he offers to return to his duty. That I was a profejjed Jefuit, and had made my laft folemn vows, the Libeller might have learned of his friend and afliftant the Popilh pried Buttler ; for fo it is faid in the very firft remark he has tranferibed out of that Prieft's Libel into his own. To fay, therefore, that I courted the Jefuits for feveral years without fuccefs, and bribed them at laft with all I was worth to readmit me into the order, is as much as to fay, that I thus courted and bribed them to do what they muit have done, and certainly would have done, had I not been worth one fingle fix-pence in the world. I will add, and I appeal for the truth of what I fay to the Jefuits themfelves, that mould I offer to return to them even now, they would readily allow me, if I re- quired it, to difpofe of all I am worth to whom I pleafed, and receive me again with open arms into the Society. My oppofers are, no doubt, ac- quainted with many Jefuits, and of them they may enquire, or of their oracle Mrs. Hoyles, whether i have advanced any thing that is not, in the ftrictell fenfe, true. We come now to the money-tranfac"lion, which I fhall place here in it's true light, a light very difl rent from that in which it is let forth by the 1.' be! 102 Mr. Bower'.? Anfivcr to beller. Having in the year 1740 compleated the fum of 1 100/. in the Old South-Sea Annuities, I re- folved to purchafe a life-annuity v/ith that fum. This refolution I imparted to feveral of ray Prote- jlant friends, and, among the reft, to Sir 'Thomas Mofiyn\ lawyer, and to Sir Thomas himfelf, offering at the fame time the above-mentioned fum to him, as he well remembers, and is ready to atteft. But neither Sir Thomas, nor any of my other ProUftant friends caring to burden their eftates with a life- rent, 1 left my money in the funds till Augujl 1741 ; when beins; informed that an act of Parliament had palled for rebuilding a Church in the city of London, St. Buttolph's Aldgate, upon iife-annuities at 7 per Cent. I went, upon that information, into the city with a defign to difpofe of my money that way. That this was my intention Mr. Norris, elded ibn to the late Sir John Norris, with whom I ad- vifed about it at the time, Hill remembers, and is ready, if required, to declare. But I came too late, and found the fubfcription was clofed. This difappointment I mentioned to Mr. Hill, whom I accidently met in Will's Coffee-Houfe near the Royal- Exchange; and upon his offering me the fame intereft that was given by the truftces of the above- mentioned Church, the bargain was concluded in a lev/ meetings, and the fum of 1100/. transferred Auguji 21 1 74 1, not to Mr. Shirburn, as is laid in the letter from Flanders, p. 64, but to Mr. Wright, Mr. Hill's Banker, as appears from the books of the Old South-Sea Annuities. Mr. Hill was a Je- fuit, but tranfacted money-matters as an Attorney, and was in that way a very noted man, bore the character of a fair dealer, and dealt very largely in affairs of that nature with Proteftants as well as with Papifts. h was with him I immediately dealt, as is manifeft from the orders on his Banker or Cifhier, Mr, Wright, in p. 72 of the libel, which were ct Scurrilous Pamphlet. 103 were all figned by him, and by nobody elfe and he payed me fo punctually, that fome time after I added 25c/. to the fum already in his hands, and received for the whole 94/. 10 s. a year. I after- ter wards refolved to marry ; and it was chiefly upon that confideration, tho' not upon that alone, I applied to Mr. Hill to know upon what terms he would return me the capital. The terms he propofed were as ealy as I could expect. For he agreed at once to repay it, only deducting what I had re- ceived over and above the common interelt 4 per cent, during the time it had been in his hands; and he did fo accordingly as foon as he conveniently could. Thus did this money-tran faction begin with Mr. Hill, was carried on with Mr. Hill, and with Mr. Hill did it end. In this whole affair the Libeller has, as every rea- der mult well be apprifed, greatly the advantage of me, his clients the Jefuits having freely commu- nicated to him all the papers forged or genuine in their polTelTion, as to one whofe bufineis it was to afcertain, and not to difpute their authenticity. But from me every thing has been fo carefully con- cealed, that I have not yet been allowed fo much as a fight of the letters which they make a chief article of my charge, tho' this writer aiTerts, in p. 44, with his ufual unexampled afiurance, that I own the forgery to have been executed with the great ejl /kill, and from thence, that is from my owning what I never did nor could own, concludes it a fatl in- controvertible, that the letters in qmfiion are as like my writing as if I had written them myfelf. But deter- mined as he is to maintain the authenticity of every thing that comes irom that quarter, he feems un- warily to betray fome fufpicion of the genuinenefs ot the receipts, which he Jays before the reader from page 6y to page 70. For he makes no doubt in page 71, that J as well as my friend will reprefent tbofi 104 Mr* Bower** Anfwer to thofe receipts as the produ5lions of the fame hand whs wrote the letters and forged for the fame purpofe. Why does he make no doubt of that, if he has not him- felf difcovered fomething in them that he thought my friends and I might reafonably object to ? But there is no occafion to object to the genuinenefs either of the Receipts or of the Bond, in order to convince every reader, who has attended to the circum- ftances of this money-tranfaction, that it was not with a defign, as is pretended by this writer, to regain the favour of the Order, to be re-admitted into the Society, or to be made eafy and happy the reft of my days (a notion that muft make every Jefuit laugh at the head into which it could enter) that I difpofed of my money to Mr. Hill, or, as the Libeller will have it, to the Provincial of the Jefuits. Had I put it into the hands of Mr. Hill or the Jefuits without attempting to difpofe of it any other way j had the interefl they allowed me been offered by others, and their offers rejected, fome room would be left for fuch inferences. But as I firft offered it to feveral of my Prottflant friends, as my place - ing it at laft with Mr. Hill was perfectly accidental, and upon previous difappointments in other Me- thods intended, I fhall leave the reader to judge whether my placing it thus with him proves what alone it is brought to prove, and what alone con- cerns the point in queftion, any defign or intention in me of being reconciled to the order. It was a mere money-tranfaction ; and my motives were all folely confined to it as fuch ; infomuch that had a Jew offered me better intereft, or had been the firft to offer me the fame, I mould have preferred the Jew to the Jefuit. And it is to be obferved that at the time r of this tranfaction, that is in 1741, I was flill an Heretic and an Apoftate both from the Church and the Order, according to the account they give of me themfelves, and confequently no 3 more a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 1 05 more connected, in point of religion, with txhe Church of Rome and the Jefuits, than I was with the Jews and the fynagogue, the money-tranfa&ion being near three whole years earlier than my pre- tended reconciliation in 1744. The Libeller in- deed tells his reader in page 34, that it never hath been charged to Mr. B 's account that he was re- conciled to the Church of Rome ; and for a very good reafon, he adds, becaufe he had never renounced it. But he muft himfelf know, and does know, that I have been charged with having been reconciled to the Church of Rome, it being notorious that Mr. Carteret told fevcral perfons he had reconciled me to the Church. Befides, amongft the other queries that Sir H. B. fent me by a perfon of diftinction, were the two following ; Was net Mr. Bower recon- ciled to the Church of Rome in 1744? Is not the priejl fill living who reconciled him ? He meant here, no doubt, Mr. Carteret, who was then living* and mull have told him, as he did many others, that he had reconciled me to the Church. But whomever he meant, it is evident from his queries* that it has been charged to Mr. B\r account that he 'was reconciled to the Church of Rome, tho' the con- trary is fo peremptorily afferted by this great friend to truth. But that he was aclually reconciled to his order, adds the friend to truth, jhall be proved by evidence, as convincing as the mojl peremptory affida- . vit. Quid tanto dignum feret hie promijfor hatu ? Why, Father Carteret faid fo, a Jcfuit indeed, but a man of unqueftionable veracity ; and the very religious Mrs. Hoyles^ who has the profits of a good trade, (that of felling diftilled waters) and cannot therefore be fuppofed to give a falfe teftimony, has confirmed what Father Carteret laid. And is not the bare word of two fuch unexceptionable witneflcs as convincing evidence as the mojl peremptory affidavit ? But Carteret is dead, and the Libeller may make O him 1 06 Mr. BowerV Anjhafer to him fay what he pleafes, that he reconciled me to the Church, or only to the order , as it beft ferves his prefent purpofe. As for the confcientious Mrs. Hoy'es I mall mow hereafter, that her word is not quite as convincing evidence as the moji peremptory Affidavit. But waving that for the prefent, if Carteret faid that he re- admitted me into the Order, and Mrs. Hoyles confirmed what Carteret faid, the one affirmed and the other confirmed what every Papift knows to be falfe •, for every Papift knows that I could not be expelled the order, nor confe- quently re-admitted mto it. And thus is this wretch- ed fcribbJer's malice defeated here by his ignorance. — That I publickly renounced the Church of Rome t and declared myielf a Proteftant twenty-fix years ago, has been mown elfewhere (fee p. 36.) But if I was ftill a Papift, as the Libeller pre- tends, at the time of the money-tranfaction ; if I only wanted to be re- admitted into the order, and it was with that view I gave up to Father Shirburn in iy4 r >-> as the reprefentative of the Society ', all 1 was worth at that time, how will this writer account for their not re- admitting me till three whole years after I had given them, what he himfelf calls (p. 32.) a fatisjatlory proof that 1 was fwecre in my dejire to be re-admitted into the order? For, according to him, (p. 33.) / was readmitted into the order of Jefus about the end- of the year 1 744, or the beginning of the year 1 745, and not fooner. Now can any man pofTibly imagine, that if I had given up all I was worth to the Jefuits in order to be re-admitted into the Society, and had by that means fatisfied them of my fineerity, they would neverthelefs have delayed three whole years to comply with my fine ere requeft and defiile •, they, who compafs fea and land to make one profiyu\ and leave no means they can think of unattempted to reclaim thofe who have apoftatized, as t-h< y term it, and left them ? This writer mult have a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 107 have rea'd of feveral Jefuits who had quirted the Society after their Jaft vows and iblemn ppofeffione (a). But has he ever read of any whom they d not drive by ail pofTible means to bring back to tl order? I challenge him to name one-, and the in- ilance he alledges himfelf in page 5S, of their zeal to reclaim the Jefuit Jarrige (tho' he alledges it to ferve a different purpofe, which I mail take notice of hereafter) fufficiently mows that no provocation whatever is capable of flackening their endea- vours to regain fuch of the trv.jiy band as have proved unfaithful and left them. Jarrige had not only quitted the order, but abufed them jo fevereiy in a book entitled the Je suits expo s ed on as caf- fold, that the Society never met with any thing thai vexed them fo much, fays the Libeller after Mr. Bayle. But neither his abufive invective, nor his fcandalous life, could prevent thofe whom he had fo abufed from attempting to bring the ltrayed fheep back to the fold •, and their endeavours were in the {a) The General may grant every Jefuit, who has not made his Jaft vows, leave to quit the order, if he defires it. If he quits it without leave he is deemed-an Apoltate. But in thai cafe the General would difmifs him without giving himfelf any further trouble about him. If he has made his lalt vow?, he can never afterwards bedifmiiTed, unlefs the Popeinterpofes his omnipotency, which he fe'dom does. And hence it is that the Jefuits looking upon him, even after he has apotlatized and left them, as a brother and a member of their body, grudge no pains, but ftrive per /'as per nefas to regain him. I know th;m, and am therefore fatibfied in my own mind, that it is to com- pel me to return to them they have fet fo many well-mean- ing Protectants againlt me, and among them, what grieves me moll, fome very worthy clergymen of the Church of England, not acquainted with my private character. That this is the work of the Jefuits is not to be doubted, there being nothing mate- rial alledgtd againll me from the beginning to the end of this fcurrilous Libel, but what comes from that quarter. The lan- guage indeed isal) the Libeller's own, for the Jefuits, as nun of b.rth and a polite cducati m, would think it beneath them to ulc fuch a dialect, tho' perhaps they may not be forry to have found a low loul-mouthcd Proteftant to employ it ia. their room. O ?. end I c 8 Mr. Bowk h'j Anfwer to end crowned with fuccefs. Jarrige returned to the order, and his pall offences being all forgiven and forgotten, he was received with open arms by his fuperiors and all his brethren, was treated with the greater! tendernefs, and even allowed to go into fuch kingdom or province of the world as he foould think ft, as the Libeller informs us in Italicks in p. 59. Indeed this whole account mould have been printed in that letter, as a remarkable proof that the Jefuits fpare no pains, and think no trouble too much to reclaim fuch ol their brethren as have forfaken them, let their demerit be ever fo great, and confequently contradicts, point blank, what this writer, as in- confiftent with himfelf as with truth, afferts elfe- where (in pages 31, 32, 33.) viz. that I negociated about being re -admitted into my order for fever al years without fuccefs ; that I was obliged to bribe them with all I was worth to receive me again, and that they did not comply with my rcquejl, the? they no longer quejlioned, my Jincerity, till three whole years after 1 had given them a fatis factory proof of it. I have oblerved above, and appealed to every Jefuit for the truth *of that obfervation, that no man can be turned out of the order in which he has made his laft vows, and that, if he apoffatizes, the prder is bound to receive him again whenever he offers to return. Now as the jefuits did not, ac- cording to the Libeller's own account, receive me again into the Society at the time of the above- mentioned agreement with Mr. Hill, but three years after, ir evidently follows from thence, that at the time of the agreement I did not intend to return or to be reconciled to the order, and conr lequently that it was with no fuch intention that I made it. In fhert, the order is bound to re T ceive me the moment I offer to return : they did pot receive me at the time of the money- tranfac- tion 5 a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 109 tion, therefore I did not at the time of that trans- action offer to return. The. Papifts pretend, that I was reconciled to their Church in 1744; but the Libeller better in- formed than they, or rather thinking it will better ferve the prefent purpofe of his malice, will not allow me to have ever quitted that Church, and lays, that I was only reconciled to the order in the latter end of 1744, or in the beginning of 1745. But had I been reconciled to that Church, I muft have been prefent at Mafs on Sundays and Holy-days, in com- pliance with one of her chief precepts ; had I been reconciled to the order, I muft have faid Mafs not only on Sundays and Holy-days, but every day, agreeably to the laws of the fociety. But I chal- lenge all Papifts, priefts, and Jefuits, to fay they ever faw me any- where at Mafs, or were prefent when I faid it, during the time I am fuppofed to have been reconciled to the Church and the order. On the contrary, it can be proved by many unex- ceptionable witnefles, that in that very time I fpoke with all the abhorrence I had ever done before of the Popifh religion ; that I continued to join in communion with the Church of England, and even received the Sacrament in that Church, as the Cler- gyman, who adminiftrcd it to me, is ready to atteft. I might add, that if I had been turned cut of the order for the irregularities of my conduct, as is afferted by the author of the libel, I could not have thought nor entertained the leaft hope oi being ever admitted again into the fociety, it being a law with the Je- fuits, as every Jefuit well knows, and a law that has in no fingle inftance yet been difpenfed with from the foundation of the order to the prefent time, never to re- admit thofe into the fociety who have once been difmtffed before their lajl vows, or after them, by the authority of the Pope. But I have wafted al- ready j j o Mr. BowerV Anfiper to ready too much of my time in confuting this dri- veler's abfurd and ridiculous notions (m), and every reader is, I apprehend, fully convinced that it was not with a defign of regatning the favour of the order , cr engaging them to re- admit me into the fociety\ that I made the above-mentioned bargain with Mr. Hill, or, as the Libeller will have it, with the Pro- vincial, but merely becaufe he agreed to pay me better intereft for my money than any- body elfe was willing to allow me : and consequently that k can no more be concluded from my agreement with him, that I intended to return to the Popifh CJitHch or the order, than it could be concluded from my making the fame bargain with a Mahometan or a Jeiv, had I happened to make it with either, that I intended to embrace the Mahometan or the Jewijh religion. As for the Bond or Security for the payment of the intereft, on which the author of the libel feems to lay great ftrefs, it matters little whofe it was. In the letter of J. P — z, who fucceeded Mr. Hill, it is only faid, page 64, that I had a bond: the Libeller fays it was Mr. Shirburns, though the Je- fujts have not fuffered him to make it public. But be it Mr. Sbv burns, or even the tnojl Reverend Father RezV, it can be no proof, as I have fhewn, of any intention or deiire in me of being reconciled either to the Church or the order; nay it proves quite the contrary. For as al! private property is ba- niihed from religious communities by the vow of poverty, a vow that every man is bound to make upon his being admitted into thofe communities, I could not but know that the bond would be null (m) Abfurd and ridiculous indeed ! for he feems to have no other idea or notion of a rehgious or rnonafHc order than he has of a club here in England at a tavern or a coffee- hou ft', whereof every member may be turned out and again taken in at pieafure by tiic chairman and the reit of the members. the a Scurrilous Pafnphkt. I r i the moment I returned to the order. To what puf- pofe therefore fliould I have required one, if I really defigned to return ? Every man mult be lenfible it would, in that cafe, have been the height of folly in me to afk a bond, and in them the height of folly to grant me one. In lhort, my requiring a bond for the payment of an annuity, during my life, which bond I knew would be null the moment I was reconciled to the order, is a convincing proof that at the time I demanded it I had no intention, ol being reconciled to the order, as long as I lived. Befides, if I had wanted nothing fo much as to con- vince the Jefuits of my fincerky, inltead of infilling upon Seven per cent, for my money, and a bond for the payment of that intereft, I mould have demanded no interefl at all, which indeed would have been a fatisfatlory proof of my fincerity. But furely no man of fenfe can think that the Jefuits would have looked upon my letting them have a fum of money at Seven per cent, intereft, during my life, (efpe- cially as I required a bond for the payment of it, not trufting them without one) as a fatisfattory proof that I was fincere in my dejire to be readmitted into the order, though they had never feen me a Mi ft at any function of the Popifh religion, nor periorm any. Before I difmifs this fubject, I (hall take notice of one circumftance more relating to this money-tranf- acfion, that would alone fufficiently clear mc, were every other proof wanting, from any wicked defign in that affair. I acquainted my Proteftant friends with it, as can be proved by feveral unexceptionable witneiles. One of them in particular, a Gentleman of high rank in his Majefty's navy, oblerving how groisly and malicioufly that tranfaction is mifrepre- fented in the libel agamic me, declared that he was no ftranger to it, and that he had heard the late Lord Ayimcr, with whurn he was intimately ac- quainted, 112 Mr. BowerV Anfwer to quainted, frequently tell me that I had acted there- in indifcreetly, fince fuch a tranfaclion might one time or other be reprefented to my prejudice. What his Lordfhip forefaw is come to pafs. But I defy malice itfelf to make good any other charge befides that of indifcretion againft me. The author of this libel has indeed had malice enough to attempt it ; but inftead of fucceeding in the attempt, he has expofed himfelf, as I have proved, by the many grofs abfurdities he has advanced on the fubject, to the contempt and the laughter even of thofe whofe caufe he has undertaken. That I acted indifcreetly in thus laying myfelf open to the malice and ma- lignity of my enemies, both Popiih and Proteftant, the event has fufficiently mown. For as forgeries have, generally fpeaking, fome foundation in truth, the Jefuits have improved the money-tranfaction, the only thing they knew of me at the time, into the ground-work of the letters they forged in my name, and of all that is faid in them. But in the fecond part of this my defence, which is ready for the prefs, I lhall demonftrate thefe letters to be as impudent, as abfurd and barefaced a forgery (if falfe fads, falfe dates, and improbabilities border- ing on impoilibilities, are marks of forgery) as Rome, or the emiifaries of Rome , ever attempted to impofe on mankind : fo that the world muft either reject them as fuppofititious, or receive as genuine every fpurious piece the mother of lies has brought to light out of her dark and inexhauflible magazines to this day. I lhall clofe this part of my defence with the pro- mifed vindication, p. yg, of my deceafed friend Dr, Afpinwall's character, as unjuftly, as ungeneroully arraigned of Popery, by the author or the authors of this libel , when he is no more in a condition of clearing himfelr from fo foul and fogroundlefs a charge. This duty I owe to his memory, in jultice, in gratitude* and a Scurrilous Pamphlet. 113 and in honour : in juftice, becaufe I knew him, ib far as any thing of that nature can be poflibly known, to be a fincere Proteftant •, in gratitude, becaufe I am in fome meaiure indebted to him for my being a Proteftant ; in honour, becaufe it is on account of his connection with me, and to de- fame more effectually my character, that his alfo has thus been impeached. But before I enter upon this talk, I muft inform the reader that it is from an untruth they have taken occafion to bring that worthy clergyman in as a party in their charge again ft me, pretending to have heard that to fome of ray friends I had faid that I abjtired the, errors of Popery upon my arrival in England to Dr. Afpin- wall. This they may have dreamt, or, more pro- bably, invented, as they dreamt or invented that / bad told a worthy Divine of high rank that 1 had ".jfjledT)r. Afpinwall during his laft illnefs ''fee above, p. 99.) ; but they never could hear it ; and I chal- lenge them to name the perlon of whom they heard it, or any of my friends to whom I faid it. For I never pretended to have abjured Popery, nor did I think it necefiary to abjure it any otherwife than by withdrawing from all communion with that Church, by declaring to the whole world my dif- approbation and difoelief of fome of her favourite doctrines, which I did as foon as I had an oppor- tunity of doing it, (fee above, p. 36 — 39.) and by joining in communion with the Proteftant Church of England, I fhould be glad to know in what more folemn and effectual manner I could have abjured the errors of Popery. But to return to Dr. Afpinwall \ had that pious and worthy Divine been no-ways connected with me, the Libeller would have fullered him to reft undifturbed in his grave. But being informed, while he made it his bufinefs to inquire into every action, 60th public and private, of my life, into V all U4 Mr. Bower^ Anpwer to all my friend fhips, connections, correfpondences, nay and into my very thoughts and intentions, that I lived in the greateft intimacy with Dr. Afpinwall almoft from the time ol my arrival in England to the hour of his death, he thought that if he could perfuade the world that Dr. Afpinwall, who had been a Jefuit as well as myfelf, was a man of no principles, that he lived a hypocrite, and died a Papifl, he would thereby greatly corroborate his charge againft me. Having therefore firft taken care to acquaint him- felf with the time of the Doctor's death, as well as with that of his wife's, and finding that he died twenty- four and fhe fixteen years ago, he flat- tered hirrifelf that nobody would be ftill living ca- pable of authentically contradicting any calumnies he mould publifh againft the deceafed, and that he fhould pleafe by it fuch of his friends as are de- firous by any means to blacken all thofe who dare to quit the Church of Rome and turn Proteftants. Thefe are the words of the Libel : To do B r jujlke on this point, I mufi own that I have heard, that to fome of his friends he hath faid that he abjured the errors of Popery upon his ar- rival in England, to Dr. Afpinwall. 1 hope for his own fake, this is net true ; becaufe to mention his ac- quaintance and connection with Dr. Afpinwall, will never ferve any purpofe, but to confirm the charge brought againft him. Dr. Edward Afpinwall, had originally been a Jefuit •, but, upon giving what BifJoop Gibfon thought to be fati'sfutlcry proof of the fine erity of his converfion, he was, by the patronage of that learned and worthy Prelate, made Prebendary of Wefl- minfter, and Sub dean of the King's Chapel. Thus honoured, as a fine ere convert to the Church of Eng- land, Dr. Afpinwall died on the 3d of Auguft 1732, a faithful f on of the Church . 904- charge. APPENDIX. 131 He fell fick of a Dropfy in the fixth year of his eonverfion, and was fuffocated by a Catarrh fome time charge. The duke of ll'irtembnrg anfwered them, that if Reib- ing was guilty of thofe crimes, they might juridically proceed againft him, and that he would appoint fome upright judges to try him without any partiality ; but that if the profclyte was innocent, julticeand equity required that he fhould be allowed to live quietly in the profeffion of that religion which feemed the beft to him. If it fhould happen, added the duke, that my two preachers fhould quit their religion, I would not ftir out of my chamber upon fuch an account. Father Keller had at that time a conference with R:ihing, and reproached him with thofe irregularities which had occafioned fo many fougs and fatirical letters. Reibing vindicated himfelf upon all thefe heads, and even took an oath for his justification in the prefence of the three deputies of the duke of Bavaria. — * Bearing in mind that anfwer, vjhich like an engine be darted ' back upon you and your companions in the prefence of a very ho- 1 norable company, laying bis band upon bis brtafl, and lifting up * his eyes toward heaven, [b) I Hand, faid he, in the fight of that * Heavenly Judge, who both hears and fees what we do. Be- ' fore him I acknowledge that I am none of the leaft of finners : * but I call the fame G O D to witnefs that I am intirely inno- ' cent of all thofe crimes which are laid to ray charge ; and may ' he, who never is deceived, punifh me if I tell a lie.' Keller having not been able to prevail with his old Fellow-Jefuit, retired and told him, Eve has been the occaf.on of your fall. His meaning was, that the defire of marrying had induced R:ibing to renounce his order and Popery. All the accufations were at (aft reduced to this ; the other vanifhed away ; but they obitinately maintained that love was the only motive that had made him embrace the Proteftant religion. They added, that after he had married, and got many children, he found himfelf fo clogged, that he wanted courage to return into the bofom of the church, and departed this world to go into hell. This is what Allegambe reproaches him with. This is a common place fo trivial and fo much worn out, that I wonder people are not weary of making ufe of it. It has been turned a thoufand different ways ; and fome paffionatc men have chofen to allcdge it againft the Protellants in general, ra- ther than againft the profelytcs. They fay that the firft thing the Proteftanta do in favour of a monk or prieft who embraces their religion, is to procure him a wife ; it is the cement whtre- (b) This ;i an af/oftrof-Lt of ttt tracer to Father Keller. with 132 APPENDIX. time after. New lies were fpread concerning his death [F]. ♦. with they incorporate him into their feet, and make him con- ftantly adhere to it. ' They know that fuch birds of prey can- not be better allured or tamed, # -ihan by fuch a bit of nefh, What a gfofs fancy is this ! I only mention it as an inflance of the brukifhnefs of fome controverfifts. Father Reihing had, without doubt, forefeen that things would be brought to that paf?, and that he would be expofed to fuch railleries if he fhould marry ; but he overcame that -fear^ and had a greater regard for the doctrine of the apoitle of the gentiles, who. will have the biihop to marry, and who reckons the prohibition' of mar- riage among the doctrines of the devil. He therefore married the next year, and chofe in his native country a wife whom he had never feen. She was a choice woman, and of a very good family, handfome, fober, and adorned w,th all virtues. [F] Ne om the neighbourhood ; nay. Utters from the Jcuth of France ha