Dealings with the Inquisition; Or, Papal Rome, Her Priests, and Her Jesuits

APPENDIX.

Letter

To Cardinal Lambruschini, Secretary of State.—Vide p. 41.

CorfÙ, Nov. 1842.

Most Reverend Eminence,—

I have reason to be grateful for the singular attention your Eminence has manifested towards me, in so repeatedly recommending me to the care of the Governor of the Ionian Isles, in Corfu. I am aware that the Papal Consul, Signor Mosca, has done his utmost that I should be again given up to the authority of the Inquisition; on the contrary, however, I have, in consequence, been the more sedulously protected by this respectable Government, which glories in granting an asylum to all honest persons from the shores of Italy, particularly to such as come from the Papal States. It was in this same country that the Neapolitan emigrants, and among them the Papal Consul himself, were so cordially received in the year 1821. An equally kind welcome was also extended to the exiles from Modena and Romagna, in the year 1831, to many of whom were granted public employment, and the rights of nationality.

I do not myself belong to that honourable body who, for the sake of their country, have been exiled by their monarch. I am a voluntary exile, in consequence of the priestly domination and despotism which prevails to a greater extent than ever; and I have sought refuge among strangers, hoping to pass the remainder of my life secure from the outrageous oppression with which we were continually visited by our wretched rulers, in consequence of their heart-corroding suspicions and alarms. From the first moment that I landed among these noble-minded Greeks, I found hospitality, personal security, liberty of conscience, peace, and tranquillity. I chose this spot as being near to Italy, and where kindred spirits lament over the present disastrous state of affairs, and endeavour to preserve themselves and their children from similar misfortunes. Above all, I came here because I felt a presentiment that I shall be called upon to maintain the cause of the Cross; and I am desirous, moreover, to be ready to defend myself from those who, having before so unworthily attacked me, will doubtless renew their molestations, unless I am present to refute their calumnies.

I need only refer to the late letters written to the Consul and others, to my injury, the falsehood of which your Eminence well knows; not to mention the numberless schemes put in practice to annoy me. But are you not aware that it is in my power to cover my adversaries with confusion, and render them infamous in the eyes of the whole world, simply by narrating things as they really are? Yet, I shall rather check this spirit of reaction, unless I am absolutely constrained to allow it in my own vindication.

My sole desire is to possess and enjoy peace in my own mind; to have my understanding enlightened; to feel the influence of goodness in my own breast, and to be guided in all things by Him who alone is wisdom and light, "the way, the truth, and the life." I declare to you, Signor Cardinal,—I declare to all your brethren of the Sacred College, and to the Pope himself, that from this very moment I intend no longer to be conjoined with the sect of the so-called Roman Catholics, of which the Pope is the head, Rome the seat, and the Canons the law. I renounce all belief in Papistic doctrines, as being opposed to the Gospel, the only light left us by Jesus Christ, the only volume of religious truth, the single code of faith, the sole rule and guidance for our moral conduct; as such, I desire in all things to be obedient to the injunctions of that Holy Gospel, and to follow it in its original purity, divested of all the corruptions introduced by the Church of Rome, which subject the Word to the domination of a soi-disant Vicar of Jesus Christ, a high priest intruded upon the Universal Church. Thus I hope to return to the early faith established by Christ, promulgated by His Apostles throughout the whole world, and professed by His true disciples, our forefathers, to whom neither Pope nor Cardinals were necessary, and who lived together in peace, as brethren; arrogating to themselves no superiority over others, nor any right to command their fellow-servants in the cause of religion, their only distinctions being titles of affection and kindness; knowing that God, who contemneth the proud, and severely rebuketh those who are clothed in purple and fine linen, regardeth with favour the meek and lowly of heart, and him who having two cloaks gives one to his neighbour who has none.

My religion, therefore, is no longer that which God has abandoned to the false prophets; but that which He visibly protects upon earth; that which He has himself brought forth out of the corruptions which the followers of pomp and wealth have occasioned, to the destruction of true morality, the profanation of what is holy, the falsifying of the very truth itself. My religion is that which has been purged from the Romish infection by men raised up for that purpose by the Almighty himself; and to whom was also given the power and grace to rescue half Europe from the abyss of papal contamination. And now is the time that the people of every nation are called upon to join in this reform; and I doubt not they will come from every quarter for that purpose, weary of belonging to an abominable sect, which so greatly dishonours the Gospel by the immoderate luxury of its court, and the ignorance and vices of its entire priesthood.

I rejoice that finally, after so many trials and tribulations, the Lord hath effectually called me to Him, through the truths of faith; and as I owe Him thanks for all His dispensations, I am more particularly called upon to bless His holy Name for having enabled me to turn this last persecution of the Romish priesthood to such good account. Behold me then always a true Roman with respect to my country, but no longer so with regard to religion; a Christian, but no Papist. And as such, in the path that opens before me, I trust I shall be enabled to lead others also unto the truth.

I flatter myself that we may now enter into a sort of agreement with each other. I, for my part, solemnly engage to relinquish every privilege I have received at your hands, and expect that you, in return, will give up all right to exercise authority over me. Let there be a complete divorce, a wall of separation between us. I do not indeed imagine that I shall be further molested, at any rate I shall be but little disposed to put up with it. My intentions are nevertheless far from hostile: now that we are divided, let there be that peace betwixt us which, as long as we were united, never could exist. Communicate the contents of this letter to the whole Congregation of the Holy Office, to whom I am indebted for the first idea, not of my reform itself, but of my declaration of it; as I am now to your Eminence for this full and solemn protest.

P.S. Your Eminence must know, that among the events which took place the day I left the Inquisition, one was the depriving me of a valuable watch, by one of the Inquisitors in the name of the Holy Congregation, for what reason I cannot tell. As the loss of it was very disagreeable to me, I did not fail to make many urgent requests to have it back again, but all in vain. Poor watch! as it had been my constant companion for ten years, I suppose it was imagined it also had imbibed a portion of heresy, and who knows what terrible sentence may not hang over its head! I maintain, however, that my watch has always been true and faithful, and regular, and if it has no claim to infallibility, it is solely because it has never belonged to the Pope: it belongs to me, and I have no intention to resign it to others. If, therefore, the Inquisition does not think proper to restore it to me, I shall be under the necessity of making my complaint public; which I shall assuredly do in the Maltese and London Journals.

I have the honour to be, &c. &c.
Giacinto Achilli.

To Gregory XVI., Bishop and Sovereign of Rome, Giacinto Achilli, Minister of the Italian Catholic Church.—Vide p. 42.

Letter I.

However known my sentiments may already be to you, from several letters, which I have recently written to your two Cardinals, Polidori and Lambruschini, I still regard it as desirable to make a more ample declaration to yourself, so as to throw greater light on my faith, and to leave no longer in doubt the form of religion which I follow and profess.

Believe not, Holy Father, that I am urged to this step by any feeling of resentment in consequence of the injuries done me in Rome by certain of your ministers; or that I wish to avenge myself thus, for the hundred days during which I was shut up, last year, in the Inquisition without any just cause. May God pardon you your offences as entirely as I pardon you that act, though it brought upon me heavy sufferings! I have been enabled to derive benefit from it; and that which by you was designed for my injury, the all-wise God has turned to my advantage. So that now, on reckoning up my account, I find that my gain has been far greater than my loss; that my sorrow has been turned into joy; that the plot has turned against the plotters, to whom nothing has remained but remorse for the attempt, and the shame of a miserable defeat.

Holy Father, if you really fear God, you know sufficiently that He is not to be trifled with—we cannot lie to Him, nor purpose one thing and say another. Allow me, then, now to summon you into His presence, to discuss your faith and my own; for we are both equal before Him; the Decalogue and the Gospel are equally imposed upon us both. Excepting these, I know no other law to direct me in my belief and in my actions; and I am convinced that there should be no other for any one who calls himself a Christian.

Tell me, I pray you, whence you derive those of your dogmas which exist not in the Gospel, and those numerous doctrines which are not to be found in any book of the Scriptures? I am entitled to ask you; for, after examining your lauded fountains of tradition, your theologians, and the Fathers, so dishonestly edited,—I have found superabundant fraud, both in interpretation, assertion, supposition, and inference; for all seem to be concentrated in the object of making the Pope universal sovereign; establishing him as head and lord of the entire Church, with full and absolute power of loosing and binding—that is, of destroying and building up,—declaring his Church, as a spiritual kingdom, superior to every state, to every people, to every dynasty; so that, according to this theory, the power of the pope is made to absorb every other power; from that of God Himself, who alone, in other times, judged men to life or to perdition, down to that of the lowest baron, who can only have from the pope the legitimate power over his vassals.

Such fables might be told in the vaunted days of Gregory VII.; when they were coined with the design of extending the papal mantle over the whole world; subjecting to him, as far as possible, the kingdoms of Europe and Asia. Such was the object of the Crusades. Such was the object of the foundation of the numerous Orders,—enrolled, under various devices, for the purposes of the popes, and sent to the most remote countries, to preach, together with the Gospel, the primacy, the sovereignty, the infallible, irresistible, fearful omnipotence of the Most Holy Bishop of Rome; under pain, if they did not, of being severely punished, and with the promise, if they did, of being rewarded, after death, with the honours of the altar.

History, Holy Father, teaches us this, whenever we read it with the necessary discernment. These Orders, however, increased, spread, and were laden by Rome with privileges, exemptions, and even riches; for the monks, yet more than the priests, played the papal game, and related to the nations the holiness of the popes, how they were chosen by the Holy Spirit, and how Christ and the Virgin conversed with them familiarly. Happy, then, did those consider themselves, who could obtain an Agnus Dei, or other favour; whilst for an indulgence, silver and gold were spent without restraint. Hence the immense riches which, from every quarter showered upon Rome, and rendered the popes proud, their courts insolent, their city the most beautiful in the world.

But times changed; that is to say, many well-informed persons amongst the faithful, perceived the imposture of these sellers of Christ; and first with words, afterwards by acts, revolted against the disorder which not only blinded them with error, but despoiled and oppressed them.

And now came the epoch of the Reformation—of that religious rising which, excited by God, and guided by the Spirit of the Lord, succeeded in enlightening and persuading half Europe to separate from the theories of popery, without fear of offending religion,—nay, rendering justice, by so doing, to that Gospel which the popes had adulterated, which Rome had profaned, which had been made an instrument of extortion and falsehood, by the aid of priests and monks. But this lesson, honestly given to them by nations, was not enough to correct the popes; even the half of their proselytes who remained to them, were sufficient to maintain their courts in all their luxury; and one hope comforted them, that by the use of skilful artifices, they might destroy the work of Luther and of Henry VIII., as they had done that of many others.

Holy Father, how has this hope for three centuries failed your predecessors! Nay, you yourself have had the grief of losing several districts, in the north and in the south, which called themselves yours, without any hope that they will ever return to you again. If you wish to know the reason, I can tell it you. It is because our times are no longer in accordance with the impostures that you sell by your monks, who, full of ignorance, superstition, and knavery, still hawk about the fables of Rome. The world will no longer listen to your universal primacy, because every one knows that it does not extend beyond the two millions and a half of people, which, by the deference of the sovereigns of Europe, it is still permitted you to govern by force of arms.

Your indulgences, your relics, are specifics which are gone out of use. The excise upon sins, which you enforce once a-year, to be paid through your privileged exactors, is, be assured, paid by the generality in false money; inasmuch as now nearly every one comprehends that, however great may be the authority you possess, that power assuredly is wanting to you which belongs to God alone. Still it is to be bitterly lamented, that a great part of Europe yet tolerates that trickery of yours—a spectacle revolting to the good sense, not to say to the religion, of mankind—that a priestly juggler should boast of being able to transform, by virtue of certain words, a portion of bread and wine into Deity. Too great, O Holy Father, too great is the abuse attempted to be practised on your adherents; placing them in the very condition of those who were once taught that gods might be born in a garden. Why so far outrage your friends as to make them afterwards ashamed of themselves, when they come to reflect upon the fraud? It makes them hate and curse you when this happens. In these our days, when even children are angry at being deceived, men have sufficient self-respect rather to bear blows than to be treated with fraud and delusion.

And do you know what follows? The gravest of all evils—the total loss of religion. Roman Catholics, if not quick in taking refuge in some reform or other, become Atheists, the first moment that having their eyes open, they perceive they have been drawn into such gross errors. They feel an indignation which makes them discredit everything; believing that there can be nothing good where so many evil things are presented to them to swallow. Just as when in a most exquisite dish we find foreign substances which offend our senses, we do not endeavour to separate them, but rather reject the whole; so it happens to Papists, when they perceive the falsity and fraud which lie hidden under the Roman faith.

What now will you say, Holy Father, if I prove to you that by means of popery men become more wicked, and are so speculatively? The power that you claim of granting absolution of sins,—to whom does it secure pardon? Who is there that, having fulfilled the condition you lay down of confession, does not feel persuaded that he has settled his accounts, to open them again with equal extravagance? Where are the greatest numbers of robbers, traitors, adulterers, if not in the midst of your Roman Catholics? And why? Because it costs them nothing but to cast themselves at the feet of one of your plenipotentiaries, to cancel every iniquity. If you have been at Naples, you know of whom it is that the churches are full; who it is that beat their breasts before the altar, who are those that weep all day at the confessionals! And such as Naples is, such are all the other countries more or less papistical.

But there is still more to observe. Who are generally the most wicked persons in every locality? (I speak only of Italy, indeed only of Southern Italy—a country emphatically Roman Catholic.) Forgive me, Holy Father; but it is a matter of fact,—priests and monks; whatever iniquity, wickedness, and abomination has ever existed upon the earth, you will find among them. Haughtiness, luxury, ambition, pride,—where do they most abound? In your temples. There the excessive love of money, falsehood, fraud, duplicity, cover themselves with a sacred veil, and are almost in security from profane censures. And oh! how great are the horrors of the cloisters (sepulchra dealbata), where ignorance and superstition, laziness, indolence, calumny, quarrels, immorality of every description, not only live, but reign. The most abominable vices, long banished from all society, have there taken refuge; and there will they continue miserably to dwell, until God, outraged by them, shall rain down upon them the curse of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Am I exaggerating? or do not you yourself, while reading this paragraph, utter the sigh of sorrowing conviction? But who are to be blamed for such evils? Mankind, you will tell me, evasively. But I reply: Are not the immense mass of Protestants also a part of mankind? and do not they live quite differently? Worshipping the same Deity, followers of the same gospel, their temples are truly the house of prayer; their Sundays the Lord's-day, their ministers patterns of probity and morality. Can this be denied concerning the Protestant clergy in general? But against the Roman Catholic clergy thousands of accusations can be most justly made. Will you venture to deny it? You must first hide the episcopal prisons of your State, and numerous other places of punishment for ecclesiastics;—you must prevent the world from knowing of the Ergastolo of Corneto, full to overflowing with priests and monks, whom you send there yourself, when they become intolerable to you. Find me anything like this in Germany or in England—countries eminently Protestant. Can you deny, then, that your popery renders men more wicked?

It follows, from what has been said, that such a religion is the pest of society; insomuch as it conceals the truth, disfigures the gospel, promotes error, favours ignorance and bigotry. Hence comes the ruin of poor Italy, which, owing to this system of belief, is in many parts desert, the country uncultivated, the commerce in a deplorable condition. Italy, once the queen of the world, is now the servant and slave of other nations. Kings consulting with their confessors how best to oppress their people! Jesuits restored to the ascendant! Monks continually enriching themselves! While all the rest of the world is progressing, Italy alone is going back, on account of her popery, which degrades, debases, and renders her contemptible in the sight of God and man.

Holy Father, are you grieved by what I say? I rejoice not in your grief, but in the hope that it may be for your benefit. It rests with you, if you will, to change the system. Be not ashamed of having erred till now. You will be the man of the age; a man glorious in all history: you will be the true apostle of Jesus Christ, if, renouncing the vanity of your primacy, which can last to you but little longer, you lay down the titles and the dignities which do not belong to you. You, better than any other, can bring back to Italy the religion of Christ in its purity; taking away all that has been maliciously invented, to defraud the faithful for the profit of the clergy. The imposture is now thoroughly seen into; there are no longer persons who believe in Confession, in the Mass; in the sufferings of Purgatory, in the patronage of Saints. Your indulgences have lost all their credit; your excommunications are totally valueless: your bulls and canons only raise a smile.

How is the world changed in regard to you! Once all Catholics, even the least earnest, spoke of the pope with respect. Now even your own court speaks ill of you. Accusations against yourself personally, which circulate through the world, and state things in the highest degree disgraceful, originate with Romans. You will call this the work of Satan, but I must, with more suitable language, call it the hand of God; that terrible hand which is preparing your punishment.

It will happen to you as it happened three centuries since, to Pope Clement VII. Germany and England then separated from Rome under his eyes: Poland and Spain are about to do the same under yours. Hasten, Holy Father, to accept the call which Heaven makes to you. Despise not the voice of God, as your ill-advised predecessors despised it. Your measure is now full. In the first days of your pontificate you saw the most violent revolution that ever happened in your States,—the sincere expression of the opinion and wishes of every one. It was echoed and applauded by all Italy. Italy wishes for you no longer; Italy no longer believes, respects, or loves you. It was requisite, at that time, for the Austrians to interfere. Will they do so again? Or, if they do, will they be able to extinguish the flame?

Regard not who it is who gives you these suggestions. I am less hostile to you than you imagine. Nay, I protest to you that I have no hostility in my heart, except towards your doctrine and policy; I have none towards yourself, whom I regard with religious affection, and for whom I desire the holy light of God, to promote your repentance and that of your brethren.

Corfu, January 15, 1843.

To Gregory XVI. Bishop and Sovereign of Rome, Giacinto Achilli, Minister of the Italian Catholic Church.

Letter II.

It is not party spirit—it is not a vain-glorious craving to contend with you,—but the love of truth, the interests of religion, and the charity of the gospel, which induce me to write to you again.

It has ever been the custom in the Church of Jesus Christ for the elders to treat with the bishops, upon the most important matters. Thus Jerome did with Damasus, and Bernard with Eugenius. I do not set myself up as a judge. I only wish to be a truthful witness, in a cause where there are a thousand accusers. The issue lies between you and the Church—that is, between the Christian people and one Bishop of Christendom. No question could be more important, from the subject to which it relates, the parties who compose it, the period at which it is raised. The subject is the faith of the gospel, the only law given to Christians. The parties are a multitude against a few; a people against individuals; the Christian Church against its pretended lords. The period is the nineteenth century. The terms of the question: whether the world at large should continue to believe in you, to obey you, to follow you, wherever you are pleased to lead it. You support the affirmative, which others deny. I will openly deliver my solemn testimony.

The Christian world will no longer believe in you, because you have deceived it, and because you continue in your intention of deceiving it. It believed you as long as you announced the truths of religion, as they are written in the book of the common faith. To you, as more instructed than others, it allowed the faculty of explaining the mysteries of charity, the symbols of the Divine Word. Your speech ought to have been simple and pure; but you adulterated it with false doctrines, with fallacious arguments, with meanings extorted from the philosophy of the pagans,—you explained the gospel by the theories of Plato and the sophistries of Aristotle. The world no longer knows what to believe.

Your doctors exalted themselves above the apostles; they perverted the holy expressions of those Epistles which men of God left for the instruction of the faithful. A new Word prevailed above the old—an earthly and human over the heavenly and Divine. The faith, the patrimony of a free people, was made over to a caste which domineered over them. The property of the simple was usurped by the cunning; the inheritance of the poor of Jesus Christ was extorted from them by the rich; who, clad in purple and gold, disdained the title of brethren and friends—the only appellation of Christians—and chose instead to be called fathers and lords. And the people were deceived by them.

Yes, the people; they who constitute the Church, were deceived by the ministers of a religion which knows nothing but the people, which is given to the people only—by which, whosoever aspires to be the first, is condemned to be the last,—the people who, as St. Peter says:—

"Laying aside all malice, and all guile, and evil speaking; as new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, in order to grow thereby, after having tasted that the Lord is gracious: to whom coming, as to a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, they are built up as living stones, a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ ... a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, which in time past were not a people, but now are the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."

Yes, the people, deceived by you, have good reason no longer to believe in you. You have deceived them with your doctrines—your own, not those of the gospel; invented for your own profit alone; not for the benefit of men's souls, to which you have even denied consolation, when they could not give you silver and gold in payment for it. You deceive them with your practices, when you, so avaricious, preach disinterestedness; you, so impure, chastity; you, so vindictive, forgiveness; you, so insubordinate, submission; you, so turbulent, peace; you, so self-indulgent, temperance; you, so indolent, industry; you, so immoral, holiness.

Thus to this day you have deceived the people; and they have ceased to believe in you; perceiving that God did not dwell in you, that God no longer spoke through your untruthful lips.

How, indeed, could they longer believe in you, when your words were in open contradiction with the Word of God—your institutions with its principles?

God pardons him that believes and repents—you declare none pardoned but through outward works! God will be worshipped by believers in spirit and in truth; He prohibits sculptures and images, in order that no one may ever give worship and homage to another.

Oh, how many things have you taught, how many divers practices have you adopted! How have you changed the temple of prayer, the mystic table of the Lord's Supper, the simple hymn of the faithful, the pure preaching of the Word!

Who ever saw in the ancient Churches—who could have anticipated in the modern ones, the golden ornaments of your sacerdotal crowns and vestments? so that, on solemn days, your whole person shines in the temple like a sun; to which the dazzled eyes of a deluded multitude of disciples are turned, substituting, alas! the senses for spirit, earth for heaven, man for Deity.

Fatal illusion, which has caused such great evils throughout Christendom! these appearances are supposed to be faith, and in these religion is made to consist. Deny it if you can. What is, in fact, the faith of the people, and what must it be from your practical instruction? That, of course, which they see and hear with you. And what else do they see and hear, but superstitions and errors? To whom are the solemn days dedicated? To the saints. Concerning whom are the most glowing orations made in the Churches? The saints. Who is over the altars? A saint, at full length; with, or perhaps without, a small crucifix, scarcely visible. Which way do the people turn on entering the temple? To the spot where they see an image exciting to their feelings. And what follows? They worship that image. And you priests, spectators of that worship, are silent. You are consistent in being so, for none but yourselves deserve to be blamed for this abuse,—you, who place the image there—you, who relate its miracles, so as to enamour the simple who trust you! You are silent also because it is your interest to keep so. Oblations, gifts, offerings, follow the adoration. But are not the people deluded? What matters it, if only the priesthood be profited!

The people, however, will not believe themselves deluded, in doing what they see you do. Who is there among you that does not adore the saints, does not adore and kiss their relics? It is useless to urge the distinction about sorts of worship, which you make in the schools. The people know it not, because they have never been taught it. It is shut up in your books, from whence it never comes out, except to be learnt by those who have to support and defend it against every attack. In short, it is the doctrine of controversy, not of practice.

If you regulated the practice by the doctrine, you would prohibit kneeling before images and relics; but you are the first to kneel. You would not permit the use of incense to relics and images, practised from antiquity in honour of God alone; but it is you who offer incense to them. You would not tolerate even the candles on the altar, to inspire the people with a high idea of the majesty of God; but you light them yourselves. You come upon us with the distinction of the school, between the worship and the adoration of images.

Who are you who dare to distinguish, where the law precludes all distinction? It is God who says in the Second Commandment, "Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." But you have purposely taken this commandment out of your Decalogue, dividing the last into two, in order to complete the number ten.

Need I remind you of all the other inventions by which you have deceived the people; making them believe that you have found them in the Scriptures; and that they have, moreover, the suffrage of a constant tradition within the Church? The people having now learnt to read, take the Bible in their hands, and look for your doctrines in it. Where, they ask, is the precept for auricular confession, of which the Church of Rome makes an express command, and has declared it a sacrament? Not a word of it can be found in the gospel, nor the slightest allusion to it in the letters of the apostles. But perhaps it was practised by some Christians in the early ages? For the first four centuries of Christianity, it was not known even by name, and when it began to spring up, it found more opponents than followers; no one even venturing to reduce it into a precept. The people search the Bible for the famous doctrine of purgatory; and how great their surprise to find that our Lord Jesus Christ, who brought life and immortality to light, with the double eternity of rewards and punishments, has never mentioned purgatory, nor have His apostles.

You send them to read a sentence of the Book of the Maccabees, and wish Judas Maccabeus to teach the Christian people what Jesus Christ did not teach. But the people, who are not wanting in sense, ask their priests what is the value of that Book of Maccabees? The priest, if he have any conscience, is obliged to reply that it is one of the Apocryphal books; it having never been received by the Hebrews, from whom we are bound to receive faithfully the books of the Old Testament; it not being written originally in their language; never being quoted, either by Christ, or by His apostles; consequently, not received in the ancient Catholic Church, and only inserted among the sacred books by the Council of Trent; to whom it was an object to authenticate the doctrine of purgatory. So much for the Scripture proof. Now, let us go to the tradition of the ancient Catholic Church.

You will admit that, for two centuries, prayers for the dead, and still more the doctrine of purgatory, never entered men's heads. Tertullian, that imaginative mind, which saw so many other things upside-down, was the first to recommend prayers for the dead; without, however, mentioning purgatory. Towards the end of the fourth century, Augustine, another African mind, spoke more decidedly both of prayers, and of a sort of suffrages for the dead. However others choose to act, shall we rely on the authority of his discoveries? Even the purgatory of Augustine was not an existing fire, but one which is to be lighted up at the final destruction, through which then, and not previously, souls shall pass. This theory is of perhaps equal value with his theory respecting the Antipodes, whose existence that learned man denied!

The case is similar with all the other dogmas which, since the time of Gregory VII., have originated in the Church of Rome. Is the Christian Church bound to receive the wicked inventions of Honorius III., proposed and sanctioned by him in the Lateran Council (1215)? Shall she adhere to his famous dogma of transubstantiation, invented by the heretic Eutychus, unknown in the first ages, and ably contradicted by Pope Gelatius? (De Duab. Christ. Natur.) Shall she abide by the impious doctrine that the sacrifice of Christ, offered once for all, as a full satisfaction, even to the end of the world, should be renewed every day, by hundreds, by thousands, by hundreds of thousands of priests, who say that they are authorized to offer it, both for the living and the dead? Most enormous sacrilege, to which the whole Bible is opposed, and which the Apostle Paul loudly condemns in his Epistles! What elder, or bishop, in the first centuries, ever allowed himself to celebrate your mass, or the sacrifice which you call unbloody; or to make use of anything but the simple commemoration of the supper of the Lord; very far removed from that idea with which you have clothed it in the ages of error and ignorance? Is the sacrament which you now celebrate the original august mystery of the Divine food, instituted indeed in substances of bread and wine, but containing spiritually the body and blood of Christ, which are communicated to His Church, that is, to the multitude of believers, not materially and physically, as you say, but in virtue of faith? Yes! if you will but celebrate it with that simplicity with which it was celebrated by the first bishops and elders of the Catholic Church, we will come willingly to receive it at your hands. Celebrate it in all its extent, and the people will approach the eucharistic table, to eat of the Divine bread, and to drink of the Divine cup. But the people desire both the one and the other, and cannot yet understand the reason for which you have taken the cup from them.

Is it not the precept of Christ that every believer should drink of that cup, as well as eat of that bread? Was not this the practice of the primitive times of Christianity? The Greek Church has always retained that practice, and the Reformation immediately resumed it. The people have as good a right to the cup as have you priests;—even better than you, since you cannot avail yourselves of it without the Church properly so called. In taking it alone, you perform an act contrary to His institution, which is to "communicate,"—that is, to take it together, as the word itself teaches you. Yes! Only on this condition will the people remain united to you, that you be faithful in the exercise of the ministry, not altering the faith, not changing the practice, not deceiving them in anything.

They are willing to confide in you as the appointed servants of the Church, in the offices of religion. But instead of this you think of nothing but to command. The yoke of Christ, which He made easy, and His burden, which He made light, you have rendered so heavy and insupportable that the people refuse to bear them. Something very different from indulgences and benedictions is now needed to satisfy the people. In the present day fables please none but children, and lies are no longer tolerated by any. The Christian people desire from us, the ministers of its Church, the Word of Life as announced by Jesus Christ, as preached by the apostles, as written in the sacred books of our faith.

If, instead of chaplets and Agni Dei, which are deceptions, you, the bishop of Rome, were to give the Bible to the people, you would see how readily they would follow you! But it must be the Bible translated into their own language, so that they may comprehend it. Give them the Bible! Bestow on them those sacred books which Moses and the Prophets, the Evangelists and the Apostles wrote for the people, and not for the priests only! Give the people that which is their own; they have a right to it of which you cannot deprive them. It is the testament of our God, who left His people the heirs of His holy Word; in reading which, faith will be granted, and to the belief of which are attached salvation and life.

Who gave you the power to deprive the people of their privilege and highest benefit? Fear lest God end by avenging His oppressed ones, and causing a curse to fall upon you.

You venture to excommunicate the people, if they read the Bibles which a beneficent Christian society has taken pains to print in all languages, on purpose that all nations may enjoy the benefit of reading them. You condemn the charity and the religion of those good men, who, in their zeal for souls, undertake this work with much expense to themselves! O Pope Gregory, what manner of spirit are you of? As one of the bishops of Christendom, you should have a care to feed your flock; on what will you feed them if not on the pure and holy Word of God? You ought, therefore, to be well disposed towards all who take this Word from the holy originals in Hebrew, and Greek, and faithfully translate it into the vulgar tongue, so as to enable you and other bishops to administer it to your flocks. You ought yourself to accept these sacred volumes from their hands, and, accompanying them with the warmest expressions of paternal solicitude, recommend them to the reading and the study of your children. What do I say? You ought, on your own account, to print them, and not wait for others to supply you with them. You would then see the faithful in your Church apply themselves eagerly to that Divine book, and draw from it food and nourishment. But, alas! you do just the opposite. You do not print it, and you do not choose that others should print it. You never give it to the people, and you do not wish that others should give it. I will add what I hear is said,—you do not read it, and you do not wish that others should read it. And for this you allege, as your sole reason, the pretext that the people are not capable of understanding it. Sure enough, they do not understand it in Latin; but they would understand it in their own language. The Germans and the English, to whom their own Churches impart it, understand it; why should it not be understood by the French, the Italians, and the Spaniards?

You say, in your Encyclical of last March, that the Council of Trent, in order to explain the Bible to the people, provides that in each cathedral church a canon should be charged to deliver, every year, certain lectures on the Scriptures. And think you this is enough? I know of this provision, and I know, too, how it is practised. Would that this were done in all the cathedrals, and that the number of lectures amounted to twenty in a year! But, let me ask you, has every village its cathedral and its theologians authorized to lecture on the Scripture? Away with such excuses! why abuse the inexperienced with illusive words, which only mock the people? The fact is, you do not wish the Scriptures to be read at all, still less to be read aloud, by any one who, having no interest in flattering you, would consult them in order to investigate your doctrines. Those humble souls to whom the Lord would reveal the knowledge which he denies to your theologians, would find in them the falsity of your system; instead of believing in you, they would begin to believe in Jesus Christ, who announces to His people salvation by faith, and not by works; remission of sins to sinners by grace, and not by penance; satisfaction by the merits of the Redeemer, and not by those of good men; Jesus Christ the sole Mediator with God, not the Virgin and the saints; Christ the Head and Chief of the Church, not Peter nor you; Christ alone perfectly holy, Christ alone infallible.

These, and other such things, the people would find in the Bible, if they read it. And the consequence would be, that they, being the many, finding themselves deceived by you, who are the few, would summon you to judgment, for having too long kept them in error; to the serious injury of religion, as well as to the danger of their own souls. Think you that the antiquity of dates, the traditions of canons, or the authority of the Fathers would then serve to defend your cause? The people, with the Bible in their hands, after having confuted your errors and those of your Councils and of your Fathers, all of whom were uninspired men, were but too liable to err, as in fact they did err—the people would pronounce such a sentence as would oblige you and your theologians to return to the Bible, that is, to the true Catholic Church of the first three centuries; reforming, by this means, what has been added since, whether by the desire of novelty, or by the spirit of ambition and interest.

Do you know what the people are? They are the Church of Jesus Christ. We are the ministers, or servants, of this Church; and we therefore depend upon the people. This truth, announced by Jesus Christ, and openly taught by His Apostles, but which men have wilfully denied, begins now to revive. The people, whom it has been attempted to deprive of their privileges, now begin to reclaim them. The man who now reads in his own language the Epistles of St. Peter and St. Paul, discovers in them his own privileges; he reflects on the usurpation practised upon him, and claims the rights to which he is entitled. The people, as constituting the Church, to which the ministers are servants in the dispensation of mysteries and in the office of preaching, will then have the help of Christ, even to the end of the world. On this People-Church the promises of the Redeemer descended, and we only participate in them as part and ministers of the people.

Bishop of Rome! continue, if you will, as long as men will allow you, to sit on the throne of the CÆsars, who are dead; but invade not that of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns. He is the only Sovereign of the People-Church, nor does He allow himself to be represented by others. He governs it at all times by His own laws, nor does He suffer others to usurp His rights, by substituting their laws for His.

And does it follow that He must be longer silent, because He has borne with you in silence until now? It is now nearly the middle of the nineteenth century. Do you not see the providence of God in operation over all material and earthly things? When was there ever such progress in enlightenment, such knowledge of the arts of industry? Remote nations approach each other by the easiest means, connect themselves in the most rapid manner, and form plans for a degree of union, of peace, and of prosperity, such as has never before existed. Nations which slept for ages, have woke up full of vigour and energy; their steps are those of a giant; their look is that of the eagle; they measure the earth, in its vastness, and overrun it in all its extent. The people of our day differ widely from those of by-gone times; their wants are more strongly felt, their language is more decided.

In former times, no Roman could have been found to speak to his pope with frankness. You have now found one who spares you not; who dares to present himself before you: not on his knees, to adore you, but erect, to speak to you with freedom, and to tell you what he thinks. And with him are thousands, nay millions, who partake his views. And who is this man? An Italian, a minister of an Italian Church;—a Church which assembles to pray to God in the Italian language, and to listen to the reading of His holy Word. And in whose name does he minister? In that of God. By whom chosen and received? By the people, who are the Church; and previously by yourself, and by the Church of the priests; if, indeed, that Church of yours be really a Church, consisting, as it does, of priests only, without people. You are called the Latin Church, but where is the Latin people? From the time that the language of the priests has ceased to be the language of the people, priests and people no longer form one Church; unless by the word Church you mean a theatre, with a stage for the actors and a space for the spectators. The country from the Alps to the sea is Italy; its inhabitants are called by all the world, Italians; its language is Italian, and has been so for four centuries. Where is there room for a Latin Church? Such did exist before God extinguished it; but God has extinguished it, and man cannot maintain it in existence.

Yes, Pope Gregory, Italians we are, and Christians we are resolved to be. What shall be the name of our Church? Answer, or the people will answer for you, "The Italian." The Italian Church we are, by the will of God and in the name of Jesus Christ who presides over us. Will you join us? You, too, are an Italian. You, too, are a Christian. Nay, you are a minister and an elder, as St. Peter designated himself; and among the elders we will recognise you as a bishop, whenever you will return with us to the Christianity of primitive times; otherwise we must part.

Understand that in religion there is no compromise, and we are persuaded that the religion of the first three centuries is alone the pure and true Christianity. Can you deny this? You are a conscientious man; do justice, then, to your country, since the providence of God has made you pope, that is to say, Bishop of Rome, in the nineteenth century. Blame us not, that in wishing to be Christians, we refuse to be Romanists. Within the present century, heaven and earth will contradict you; posterity will condemn you; and an Omnipotent God will pass your sentence, dooming you to be the last of a series which has existed long enough, by coming down to our own days.

July, 1844.

Letter to Pius IX. Bishop and Sovereign of Rome, Giacinto Achilli, a Minister of the Italian Catholic Church.

It is not unknown to you that I addressed two letters to your exalted predecessor, Gregory XVI., making a full retractation of the Romish doctrines which I had professed, more or less, up to 1841, and declaring to him my entire belief in Divine Scripture alone, to the exclusion of everything else. In this faith I intend to live and die, so help me God and His holy Word!

Being appointed, however, by the will of the Lord, a minister and elder in His Church, I cannot abstain from the exercise of that employment without entailing upon myself God's anger, and committing a culpable desertion of duty. My ministry is consecrated to the Church of Jesus Christ, and I am deeply impressed with the obligation of fulfilling my vocation. "The Pastor and Bishop of souls" gives me both the command and the strength to discharge my duties. The Church, which is the people, calls me to serve it. I must be faithful to my ministry, rendering a good account of the charge entrusted to me.

I have been bidden to keep in remembrance "that true faith which is in me," and "to keep alive that gift of God which is in me by the imposition of hands," seeing that God "has not given us a spirit of fear," but of strength, and of love, and of a sound mind. Therefore, "I must not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord." "I know in whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." I therefore "keep the form of sound words which I have heard, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." "I keep that good thing, which was committed unto me by the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in me." I profess before God and the Lord Jesus Christ "to preach the Word, to be instant in season and out of season, to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine." I purpose to be vigilant in everything, "to endure afflictions, to do the work of an evangelist, to make full proof of my ministry."

Such being my office, such my obligations, here I stand before you, Holy Father, "studying to show myself approved of God, a workman not needing to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." I know that the elders who have performed well the duty of ruling should be "reputed worthy of double honour; especially those who labour in the Word and in doctrine." You are the elder to whom was recently committed the charge of ruling over the Church of our country; and this charge was committed to you by other elders, who divide amongst them the various offices of that Church, or who are called to preside over other Churches. You the overseer, or bishop, of the Church of Rome, took upon you the heavy responsibility of feeding that portion of the flock of Christ, and of strengthening your brethren with good example and holy doctrine; your brethren, who look to you for counsel and direction, and depend in a certain degree on you, regarding you as an elder brother, whose judgment and prudence may aid their timidity and weakness. On you, therefore, it devolves to propose to them that which is of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, and which tends to the welfare of His Church. You it behoves to restore the truths of religion to their primitive purity; to take away every extraneous admixture; to separate the good wheat from the tares, in order to give to the Christian people the nourishment of faith and of salvation. Your brethren look up to you in this matter, which ought to be conducted with harmony, in order to preserve the union of the Christian Churches: and although each possesses over his own Church an equal authority, they nevertheless hesitate to act without you; they expect you to set this work in motion, and to be their model in the reformation of doctrine.

Yes, Holy Father, the reformation of doctrine is the serious business to which you and your brethren are called by the people to turn your earnest attention; for it is well known to all Christians, that upon the purity and holiness of the doctrines of the Church depend the purity and holiness of the actions of believers. Now, the doctrines which proceed from man are neither pure nor holy; seeing that "God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all." Therefore, none but the doctrines of God are the truth in religion; all others are lies.

Think you, then, that those are doctrines of God, which are not contained in His Book, but are opposed to the sacred precepts of His holy Word? Have you ever compared the doctrines taught in primitive times with those of later ages? Have you ever compared the dogmas of the Decretals with the doctrines of the Bible? I have compared them, and have shuddered in amazement, that so many strange novelties, amounting to an actual renunciation of the ancient faith, the pure creed of our fathers, should ever have been introduced into Christianity.

Strip yourself, then, of that fatal prepossession that your predecessors were holy and infallible. Examine carefully the sources of the existing belief. Observe what is from God, and what proceeds from man. Man has erred in presuming to legislate in the things of God. Not only singly, but in the aggregate, men have erred. The Divine assistance was no doubt promised, but it was for preserving the ancient doctrines, not for framing new ones; the Holy Spirit is with those who believe in the ancient Scriptures, but not with those who tamper with the Divine Word. In the middle ages the ministers of the Catholic Church revelled in innovation, and from that time the desire for change has grown upon them to such a degree, that primitive Christianity can no longer be recognised.

Think you that it was ever permitted to men to add their ideas and thoughts to the ideas and thoughts of God, or to take anything away from the Divine Book? Are you not rather persuaded with me that whosoever does this, on him are denounced the chastisements of God, as it is written in the last verse of the Divine Revelation—"God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book?" To add to the meaning, or to change it! to overturn, on certain points, the entire system and spirit of the Divine Legislator! I ask you, who were an elder before me, and a ruler among the elders, are such things to be endured? However ancient these errors may be, however concealed by some or acquiesced in by others, shall prescription prevail to this extent? No! not any antiquity can establish the abuses of religion; and even if the whole world were combined to maintain error (supposing such a thing were possible), even that would not hinder its destruction by any single person who had with him the Word of Truth.

This, then, is the point at issue;—the abuses of Rome have existed long, and obtained for a long time the support of the multitude; do they for that reason cease to be abuses? Her errors have been adopted, applauded, followed; do they on that account cease to be errors? And must not abuses and errors be reformed wheresoever they may be found, or however long they may have existed?

But with whom does it rest to effect a reform in matters of religion? Who is to promote it, and by what means? I reply: first, the bishops; then, the elders; afterwards, all who have a zeal for religion. The instrument of reformation is simple; viz. the Word of God as it stands written in the Sacred Scriptures, pure as our forefathers received it, powerful in itself to change the face of the whole universe. The truths of that inspired volume constitute the whole of Christianity; out of it there exists no truth for the Church. Be it yours, then, with the Holy Bible in your hand, to reform the doctrine corrupted by your predecessors! No one can do this work so well as you; no one so much as you is bound to do it by conscience and by special obligation.

Let this consideration sink deep into your mind, how sad is the present state of religion in Italy, that country with which you are most closely connected! Where, now, can be found among us that holiness of faith, whence alone proceeds holiness of works? When we look for Christianity, what do we see around us? Infidelity or superstition. Infidelity in all those classes who call themselves enlightened; superstition in all those who follow the teaching of your priests. On the one hand, are men who have cast off all belief, and have rejected Christianity with popery. Seeing that both Gospel and Canons have come to them through the same hands, they have concluded that both must be lies; that both being preached to them with the same fervour, nay, the Canons sometimes exalted above the Gospel, both have been contrived only to shackle consciences, to degrade the spirit of man, to subjugate the people to the rule of an individual, who has had, in all ages, an insatiable appetite for power! Thus, not distinguishing the work of man from pure Christianity, which is the work of God, they have rejected everything alike, and live the life of infidels. On the other hand, we behold men who receive implicitly all that is taught them—to whom all is gold which is sold by the priests—to whom all is sacred which has any show of religion or piety—men who, not caring for faith, seek only for good works; and, thinking little or nothing about God and Jesus Christ, run after saints and the Virgin,—relics, images, and indulgences!

These two classes, generally speaking, comprise all the Christianity of Italy; and to this unsoundness is to be referred the reigning immorality, the want of energy of mind, the absence of virtue and of union among our citizens. "The Church which divides the races within our country" was the great subject of lamentation to that immortal genius, who, three centuries ago, on the banks of the Arno, revealed to the world the wickedness of princes. "The Church which demoralizes the people" with its doctrines even more than with its practices, is the lamentation which I, a son of Italy, a minister of the Italian people, raise aloud to heaven; and which, with all the strength that is in me, I would echo in the ears of all good men who love our country. Yes! from the Church, or rather from those who call themselves the Church, proceeds all that series of evils which degrades our beautiful land, and lowers our finely gifted people in the eyes of the stranger. Nor will I ever cease to lift up my voice, until, in this respect more than any other, our beloved Italy shall be seen reforming herself, and returning gloriously to holiness of faith, purity of morals, and mutual love among our citizens.

And you, Holy Father; are not you, like me, an Italian? do not you, like me, feel burning within you the sacred love of country—"la dolce caritÀ del natio loco?" Oh! I will not so wrong you as to suppose you now destitute of a sentiment which has hitherto distinguished you; a sentiment which ought rather to grow stronger in your mind, now that, as bishop of the most ancient of cities, you occupy the most glorious of thrones. To you the applauding people ascribe a generous liberality; from you are expected good laws, and ameliorations in the difficult details of government. From you they hope to receive that in which they would receive everything—which by a single act you have the power to give them—a religious reformation. Whoever thinks correctly knows that on this point depend social improvement, public prosperity,—in a word, every good thing which, by the favour of Divine Providence, citizens are capable of enjoying. Without this, we shall always remain in wretchedness, unhappiness, disunion. Without this, there will never be contentment, nor any tranquillity among the people. The spirit of restless change will continue to agitate them—to their own injury, it is true, but also to the destruction of yourself, and of others who are their princes.

Let us then have reform in the Church; but what reform, and in what particulars? Must I repeat it? Remove everything invented by popes, decreed by popes, designed for the interest of popes. All this is popery, not Christianity; and we are resolved to be henceforth Christians, not papists. The reformation will be complete, when once the sentence is uttered, "The Bible, and nothing but the Bible."

For instance, that you, Pius, should be Bishop of Rome, is not contrary to the Bible. But this is contrary to it, that you should assume a bishopric over those sees which have already another bishop; for all bishops are equal; each one the pastor of his own flock, and each independent of the other. For my part, you should have my vote to be bishop of all Italy, were all the other bishops removed; but you cannot rightfully co-exist. That elders, too, should exist, is in accordance with the Bible—and you may call them priests, if you will; but as for friars, they are contrary to the Bible; their vows are repugnant to the Gospel and to nature, whatever your theologians may say of them; and their ministry useless, at least, if not hurtful, to the Church.

What, again, do we mean by the Church? You know well that in the Word of God it means the Christian people. It is contrary then to the Bible for the Church to mean the priests only. Let it please you, Holy Father, to consider well, for a moment, this point, which is at present of the highest importance. Do you believe that what has been usurped should be restored? Let it, then, be by your means that the people resume their ancient rights, and repossess the Church according to their right. But what Church will you restore to the people of Italy? The Latin? But where is now the Latin people, or the Latin language? Do you not perceive what a scourge God sent you, when the priests of Rome wished to appropriate the Church to themselves, and to make it their private property; declaring themselves princes and governors, and the people subjects and slaves to the Church of the priests? It was a chastisement not unlike that which God sent in the valley of Shinar, when daring men set themselves to build the famous tower which was to reach to heaven. Audacious priests, in the thirteenth century, also attempted to raise themselves into a spiritual power, intending to hold the people for ever in subjection. But God sent among them by degrees the spirit of confusion, rendering their language unintelligible to the people, so that people and priests were compelled to separate. With the priests remained the ancient language, in which they had dictated laws at variance with the Gospel; and, sometimes in Christ's name, sometimes in the name of Moses, had oppressed, burned, tortured the people; a language associated with crimes which daily mounted up to the throne of the Omnipotent, provoking the infliction of condign punishment,—such crimes as prayers addressed in the temple to saints instead of to God; the Word of Truth exchanged for fables; and Christian teaching founded no longer on the ancient doctrine of the Bible, but on the new doctrine of the Canons. The whole language of Catholicism, having become exclusively Romish, had adulterated the things of God, the doctrines and maxims of the religion of Jesus Christ.

So grievous a scandal drew down upon Rome the anger of the Eternal, who seemed, as it were, to repeat the ancient words, "Let us go down, and there confound their language." That beautiful idiom, which originating in Latium among the descendants of Romulus, grew with the greatness of ancient Rome, the language of Virgil and of Tully, became confused and lifeless; and Rome, the new Babel, beheld issuing from her bosom and growing up at once, a generation of sons who understood not the language of their fathers. The Church of the priests felt the heavy blow which came upon it from heaven; but, instead of weeping and humbling herself before God—instead of repenting, and correcting her faults, she persisted in her error, and launched her anathemas against the people; declaring, like the haughty synagogue of old, that it was enough for her to comprehend herself,—as for the people, if they did not understand her language, so much the worse for them!

What followed? People and priests were divided. The Church and the nation became separated for ever; the Church and the priests called themselves Latin, while the nation and the people called themselves Italians. This is a great fact which has not hitherto been sufficiently regarded. The people, ever under subjection to the tyranny of the priesthood, had not the spirit to resist oppression, scarcely even to open their eyes to look upon the chains it had imposed upon them. In the meantime, the priests laboured to impress them with a belief that such was their natural condition. Slaves by the will of the strong, they were taught to believe themselves so by the fatality of nature, and the will of God.

But enough! The eyes of the people are shut no longer. They have opened them; they have beheld their chains. Like a lion they have burst through them. They threaten their former oppressors with a look that may well make them tremble. Their roaring was like the waking up of nature, indicating a grand change in the face of the world. The people have declared that the times are gone by when they would submit to be badly governed by their pretended masters; and that they are now the arbiters in their own affairs. We priests are specially bound to do justice to the people; for to us, more than to others, has their cause been confided. Be it ours, then, to enlighten them; which is the first thing they need. Be it ours to assist and protect them, with that holy Ægis which they themselves have confided to us. Let us unite with them in the true religion of our forefathers. When God extinguished our Latin language, he meant thereby to punish us priests, and not the people. Let us submit to that punishment. The Latin language has corrupted the truths of the Catholic Church, and, therefore, God has extinguished it. Let our Church rise again in the Italian language, and let this be the ancient Church of apostolic times. Anathema to the Church of the middle ages! Thus, alone, can we priests become again united to the people; thus, alone, can we recover the Church. For—once more let it be said—the Church means the people; bishops and priests being only the ministers of the people. It is not in the nature of things that the language of the Church should be other than the language of the people. Italian is our language, and Italian must necessarily be that of our Church.

This Church it is which I desire to serve as a minister. Will not you, Holy Father, serve it as bishop? Gladly would I then return to you; and with me many who are now alienated from you would gladly return. Thenceforth they will have no cause to separate from the Church, for Jesus Christ will truly reign in it, and with Him will reign union, peace, concord, charity. Oh, what a sight were this! "How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" Thus united in the Italian Church, we should remove everything which separates us from other Christian Churches. Germany, England, Switzerland—all other countries at present divided from the communion of Rome, would be again united with us in one faith. Nations would be drawn together in the bonds of brotherhood. And you, Holy Father, would be the blessed instrument by which would be realized the Divine prophecy, "There shall be one fold and one Shepherd."

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all. Amen."

Malta, 1846.

EDICT.

(Vide p. 74.)

We, Fr. Vincenzo Salva, of the Order of Dominicans, Master in Theology, Inquisitor General of the Holy Office of Ancona, Sinigaglia, Jesi, Osimo, &c.

It having been determined fully to re-establish the disciplinary laws relative to the Jews living in our jurisdiction, and which we have hitherto in vain endeavoured both by entreaty and exhortation to carry out in the several ghettos of Ancona and Sinigaglia; we, authorized by the venerated despatch from the Holy Inquisition of Rome, dated 10th June, 1843, in which we are expressly enjoined and commanded to enforce the observance of the Pontifical Decrees and Ordinances, especially with respect to Christian nurses and servants, and the sale of possessions, either in the city or in the country, whether bought and held before the year 1827, or after that period,—we ordain as follows:— 1.—That at the expiration of two months from the present period, all Christians, male or female, employed as servants in the Ghetto, either by day or night, are to be discharged, and the Jews are expressly prohibited to employ in future any Christian whatsoever in domestic affairs, under pain of such fine as the Pontifical Decrees have appointed.

2.—That every Jew possessing real property of any kind whatsoever, or any annuity or mortgage, shall, within three months from the present date, dispose of the same by an actual bonÂ fide sale; at the expiration of which term, if the order be not complied with, the Inquisition shall cause the property to be peremptorily disposed of by public auction.

3.—That no Jew, much less any Jewish family, shall inhabit or carry on business in any town or village where there is no Ghetto; and such as are at present acting in contradiction to this law, are hereby commanded to enter into their respective Ghettos, within the period of three months, or they will be prosecuted accordingly.

4.—That no Jew shall be permitted, more especially in towns where there is a Ghetto, to sit at table and eat with Christians, in any eating-house or tavern.

5.—That no Jew shall sleep out of his Ghetto, nor enter any Christian's house for familiar conversation.

6.—That no Jew be allowed, under any pretence whatever, to induce Christians to pass a night in the Ghetto, more especially women.

7.—That no Jew shall employ as day-workers, any Christian men or women, in their houses in the Ghetto.

8.—That no Jew, male or female, shall be allowed to frequent the houses of Christians, or enter into friendship with them.

9.—That the law which prohibits the Jews to travel about the State without a licence, shall remain in full force.

10.—That the Jews are expressly forbidden to traffic in church ornaments, or in books of any description, or to buy, read, or keep any prohibited book whatsoever, under penalty of a fine of one hundred crowns, or seven years of imprisonment. And in case any Jew, already possessing such, neglects to bring them to the Tribunal of the Holy Office, he will be liable to the same penalties.

11.—That the Jews in the removal of their dead bodies shall not be allowed to use any ceremonial rite, or public display; more especially are they enjoined to abstain from all singing of psalms, and carrying of lights through the streets, or out of the Ghetto, under penalty of a fine of one hundred crowns, the forfeiture of their lights, and corporal punishment to be inflicted on the nearest relatives of the defunct.

Any person infringing these laws and regulations will be subject to the penalties and fines imposed by the Holy Office. And that no one may plead ignorance of their existence, it is hereby ordered that a copy of the present Edict be published, and fixed up in the synagogue, which shall be deemed equivalent to serving it personally on every separate Jewish individual, as well on those in Ancona, as on such as may reside in other places belonging to the same Ghetto.

Given at Ancona, from the Holy Office,
this 24th day of June, 1843.

Fº. Fr. Vin. Salva, Inquisitor General.

The above Edict, published in the year 1843, and authorized by Rome, is a sufficient answer to those who pretend that the Inquisition is no longer what it was three centuries ago. We have here the decree of the very essence of the Roman Court, composing the Holy Office—fifteen Cardinals, thirty Councillors, &c. &c., with the Pope at their head.

We are returned to those delightful times in which the Neapolitan, Caraffa, better known as Paul IV., and Michael Ghisler, called Pius V., lighted their funeral piles, and inflicted their tortures; and when, not to be behindhand with his predecessors, the monk Felice Peretti, called Sixtus V., proclaimed a crusade against the poor Israelites. O glorious days, when the holy indignation of Rome was responded to by the ferocious bigotry of Spain, the religious fury of France, and the papal fanatics throughout Italy!

Who is there that would not delight to see those good old times restored, when Christian men enjoyed the pleasing spectacle of the public burning of fifty thousand Moors, by Ferdinand and Isabella of pious memory, and as many Jews consigned to the flames alive, through the various countries of Europe? Who would not wish to act over again the famous day of St. Bartholomew, and a hundred other deeds more or less celebrated, but all testifying the zeal of the holy Roman Inquisition?

And what is the reason why these spectacles, so creditable to the human race, are no longer to be witnessed in these days? Is it that the people are no longer instigated by that species of devotion which rendered the burning of their fellow-creatures alive, on account of their difference in religious opinions, a matter of such consolation and enjoyment? The zeal of the Romish Church remains the same, and our popes have not lost their holy desire for the conversion of the whole world by fire and sword to their sacred doctrines. How is it then that these glorious days do not return?

Let us, however, confine our remarks to the present Edict, in which the Inquisitor equally shows his profound knowledge of jurisprudence and of morality. The Jews are spoken of as being under his jurisdiction; but I cannot understand whether this jurisdiction be political or religious. The first he has nothing to do with, as his authority is purely ecclesiastical; and as to the second, I would ask, what right has he to exercise it upon persons of a different religion? It is idle to say that the Pope has conferred it upon him, since he himself has no right over such as are not baptized. To usurp any authority whatsoever, is a crime, in the eye of the law of every nation. The Inquisitor is consequently either extremely ignorant, or most daringly presumptuous thus to defy a principle acknowledged and submitted to by all civilized people.

He says that he has hitherto in vain implored that the laws of discipline relative to the Jews should be maintained in full force, and therefore takes occasion to issue anew a mandatory Edict. Surely those who call themselves Masters in Theology, ought at least to understand common honesty. Could laws be considered as conscientiously binding which were the result of sheer hatred towards an unoffending community? And were not the subjects of it justified in evading them as much as possible?

As to the 1st article, that all Christians are to be dismissed from the service of Jews, what can be more arbitrary and unjust? The Inquisitor would have done better to have laid his interdict upon the Christians, in forbidding them to go to the Jews, rather than to compel the latter to shut their doors in their faces. And, concerning these very Jews in your own jurisdiction, Mr. Inquisitor General, you know how charitable they have always been; you know what service they rendered us in the time of the cholera; how, in this very city, they assisted the poor, and condoled with them under their sufferings; and how charitable they showed themselves on every occasion.

Before, then, you forbid the Jews to employ Christian servants, tell those who are in want of bread to seek it at your convents, at the doors of the Inquisition.

As to the 2d article, touching the disposal of the property of these people, what can be said in its justification? Whether they retain it or not, I suppose they are equally liable to be called upon for the government taxes. There is one of this race, however, who must be a sad trouble to you; one who has lately possessed himself of an enormous extent of property, and has claims upon the very estates of the Church, even to the palaces of the Pope, the prebendaries of the Cardinals, the revenue of the bishops, and the whole body of the clergy, friars, nuns and all, which are absolutely mortgaged to him, to the extent of many millions. Now, is it an agreeable thing, O Father Inquisitor, that this great Jew, this powerful Baron Rothschild, should be invested with such awful authority, as to be legally justified in driving the Pope from the Vatican, should Cardinals Tosti and Lambruschini be behindhand in their accounts? This wealthy baron is, in fact, master of half the Pontifical State; and if things go on at the same rate, super Cathedram Petri sedebunt IsraelitÆ. What remedy will you propose, my dear Inquisitor, if, on the Pope's neglecting to pay, this Jew, Rothschild, seizes on the church-property? You threaten the poor Jews of Ancona with forced sales, but the Baron may put the whole of you up to auction at once.

If this article was designed to evade such a catastrophe, I doubt if it would be of any avail. Rothschild is too well supported to have his rights invaded even by the Holy Roman Inquisition. This unjust attack is indeed altogether as unwarrantable as it is impolitic. What would you say if the Grand Sultan were to issue a decree that all the Catholics in his dominions should be constrained to sell, within three months, whatever property they might possess, merely because they were Catholics? Yet you set him and others an example of this crying injustice, for no more defensible reason.

The 3d article savours strongly of the monk. To oblige all the descendants of Israel to live cooped up in their Ghetto, as in a monastery. Perhaps you feared that the Christians might turn Jews, if free intercourse were permitted between them; or do you rather apprehend that the Jews might become Christians? Rarely does the former take place. It is the latter, then, that you dread, for you know very well that the Jews profit the Inquisition far more than the Christians. The real object of this law, therefore, must be to estrange the two parties, and to sow enmity and dislike between them, so as to cause them to live in perpetual vexation, and discord, and distrust.

The 4th is a singular article,—that no Jew shall be allowed to eat at the same table with a Christian, or in any public eating-house or tavern out of the Ghetto. It would be well if every one could make it convenient to take his meals at home; but when, from the nature of a person's occupation, or any other cause, this cannot be the case, what is he to do? To the trattoria, or eating-house, every one is admitted; there is no distinction made there between the Jew or the Turk, the Christian or the Heathen. The noble sits by the side of the plebeian. He is the most respected who spends the most; he is the best served who pays the highest. Every one is admitted, even the thief and the assassin. The Jew alone is to be forbidden! But what a disgrace it is to prohibit the Jew from eating in company with the Christian, when Christ himself, the Divine Head of our Church, sat at meat with the children of Israel, even with the Samaritan and the Sadducee, and imparted to them the benefit of His instruction.

How shall we in future have the courage to persuade these people that we are partakers of that most holy religion which began with Adam, and had the Jews for its early fathers? How, in proof of our assertion, present to them the code which is contained in the books of Moses and the Prophets, by us, as well as by them, believed and reverenced? With what face can we boast to them of our Gospel as abounding in precepts full of peace and love? Will they not reply to us by pointing to the laws of the Roman Inquisition, the famous Edict of Ancona, where all is division and hatred? Are you a preacher, brother Salva, and is such your doctrine? To be consistent, you ought to begin your sermon with the duty of religious intolerance, evangelical persecution, and Christian cruelty. Speak the same language in your pulpit as you do in your Edict, and observe the good effect it will produce upon your audience.

Your 5th article prohibits the Jew from sleeping out of his quarters, and from any friendly intercourse with Christians. Well done! So the Jew is for ever to remain a Jew, and avoid all opportunities of being converted; he is to forego any advantage he might derive from conversing with us. But perhaps you imagine the race to be so bad that good Christians might be injured in communicating with them; indeed your Edict treats them as such throughout. But whoever consults the calendars of our tribunals will find that in all our towns there are very few Jews who figure in the list of criminals; a sufficient proof of their regularity of conduct, their obedience to the laws, and their respect for the authorities.

In the 6th, it is stated that no Jew shall allow any Christian man, much less any Christian woman, to sleep in the Ghetto. The inuendo here conveyed might not inappropriately be retorted upon the friars, notwithstanding the closed gates of their monasteries. They may thank the Jews for not publishing the story of a certain Vicar of the Holy Office, who frequently, under cover of the darkness of night, was accustomed to find his way into the Ghetto, certainly not for the purpose of preaching morality to its inmates. I should advise you, then, Father Inquisitor, not to be over curious in your researches, when there is need of so much indulgence in your own proceedings.

The 7th is a very extraordinary prohibition, forbidding any Jew to employ a Christian as a day-labourer in his house in the Ghetto. So that they are not allowed to have the services of bricklayer, carpenter, or builder, all of whom work by the day, and it is well known that the Jews themselves do not exercise these employments. This law, in fact, was made to oblige the Jew every time his house required repairing, to go to the Inquisition, with all due reverence and respect, and not empty handed, to get leave to have his work done, without which he is liable to a heavy fine.

In the 8th, the Jews are forbidden to contract any friendship with Christians. For charity's sake, poor children of Israel, pay no attention to such nonsense. Be as good friends with us as you can.

We esteem you as our fellow-citizens, notwithstanding our difference of religion; we regard you as brothers, since we both call God our Father, and both of us ascribe honour and glory to Him.

The 9th article relates to a licence with which every Jew must provide himself, before he can be allowed to travel about the State—a licence which the Inquisitor alone can grant—which must be referred to the decision of the bishops and vicars; and the infringement of any of the rules it contains, subjects the offender to arbitrary punishment, besides imprisonment and a fine of three hundred crowns. In this licence it is forbidden to dwell with, or to enter into familiar conversation with Christians. Now it is only in a very few of the towns in the Roman States, that a Ghetto is to be found. It follows then, that as their business leads the Jews to visit places where there is not any, they are obliged, in that case, according to the conditions of their licence, to live with their beasts, in their stables.

The 10th prohibits the Jews from dealing in church ornaments, and in books of every description. This is of no great consequence as respects the future; but in the meanwhile what is to be done with such of these forbidden articles as they may already have in their shops? they must make a present of them to the Inquisitor, for it appears that unless they do so, there is a fine of three hundred crowns to pay, and imprisonment to undergo.

As an appendix to this new decalogue which is directed against the living, the Inquisitor has thought proper to add an order or two respecting the dead; forbidding the Jews, in burying them, to make use of any ceremony or rite, or to carry any lights with their funeral processions, or to sing psalms. What, does your anger then extend even to the dead? are they too to be punished? Would your canon laws prohibit the decent performance of those last sad offices which are held sacred by all nations, respected by all classes of people? Every religion has its form of worship, every form of worship its peculiar rites, every rite a proper ceremonial form. These things, although extrinsic, and not strictly essential, are nevertheless established by custom, and observed with befitting reverence. Can you deny that the Jews have a right to practise their own religious observances? He that is born a Jew and remains one, must die and be buried as a Jew. How can you, then, prohibit the necessary ceremony at their funerals? You keep them among you, and allow them the exercise of their religion. Their dead have a claim to sepulchral rites, which can only be performed in the manner their own religion prescribes. The Catholics, the Protestants, the Greeks, and the Armenians, the Arabs, and the Chinese, have each of them, according to their peculiar views, established their funeral ceremonies, which, however imposing they may be to those of their own creed, may appear trivial and insignificant in the eyes of others. Nevertheless they are not to be despised, any more than their religion itself, although neither understood nor approved by others. But to forbid these children of Israel to sing the Psalms of David! their own prophet-king! Good heavens! And you yourselves recite these very prayers in your own sepulchral ceremonies! What greater right have you to them, composed as they are by a Jewish monarch, than the Jews themselves have? They, moreover, recite them in the language of King David himself, in their original Hebrew, a language full of harmony and pathos and lofty meanings; whereas you declaim them in a barbarous dialect, which you call Latin, but which in reality has nothing of the graces of Latium: the version is badly translated, too, incorrect, and every way imperfect.

According to your ideas, then, not only the Jews are forbidden to honour their dead, but the Greeks also, although Christians; since, in this country, their rites and ceremonies are prohibited, and all, in short, who dissent from the canons of the Vatican, and attribute no authority to the Inquisition. You alone are at liberty in this respect, you alone are entitled to the benefit of prayers and spiritual song, since in you alone are to be found faith, holiness, and salvation!

In the meanwhile look at the tolerance that prevails throughout the rest of Europe. But could you with any justice complain if you were yourselves treated as you treat others? Is it fair, that in Greece, in Russia, in the Ionian Islands there should be Romish churches, Romish worship, Romish processions, and other public ceremonies, whilst, in the Roman States, the Greek Church, its rites and ceremonies, are not permitted? Equally might the Romish Church be banished from England, because in the Pontifical States the Anglican Church is prohibited.

But the forbearance of others increases your insolence; their kindness only augments your pride, and their religious feeling your impiety. O wicked race, how long will you deceive mankind!

Behold, O Italy, what manner of men are your priests, your ministers of religion! They who ought to alleviate your woes and render your chains less galling, whose duty it is to shed the balm of consolation on your wounds, they, on the contrary, engender strife and disgust among you; every hour they recall to your mind your past shame, your excessive credulity, your blind adherence, your too great submission. They pretend to lament over your illiberality, your religious incredulity, only that they may the better devour your substance. They, rapacious vultures, greedy wolves, they are the bad shepherds of whom the Prophet speaks. God of Israel, God of our fathers, remember the promise thou hast made through the mouth of thy servant, Jeremiah: "Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord.... Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings.... I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds: ... And I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed.... Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; ... because of swearing the land mourneth; ... their course is evil, and their force is not right. For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness.... I will bring evil upon them, the year of their visitation. I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; ... also in the prophets of Jerusalem: ... they are all unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them chink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.... In the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.... I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.... Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every one to their neighbour, ... The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.... Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words.... Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, ... and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: ... Therefore, behold I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence: and I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not he forgotten."[125]

Letter to Cardinal Caracciolo, Archbishop of Naples.

(Vide p. 237.)

Capua, August 27, 1835.

Eminentissimo e Reverendissimo Padrone,

This, my most respectful letter, will be presented by Father Giacinto Achilli, a Doctor of the Dominican Order, who was lately proposed to me as a preacher in the Metropolitan Church of Capua, by Father Jabalot, the Master-General of the Order; to whom I applied for a serviceable and talented person to occupy the pulpit during the period of Lent.

It would be difficult for me to express to your Eminence the satisfaction that this same Dr. Achilli has given to the Clergy and to the people. He has now fixed his residence in Naples, in the Monastery of St. Peter the Martyr, which may be greatly benefited by his superior talents in Philosophy, Mathematics, and Theology; all which sciences he taught in Viterbo, his native place. He is desirous to place himself under the protection of your Eminence, to whose exceeding kindness I therefore venture to recommend him; more especially, as I know the favour with which your Eminence regarded Doctor Salsano, also a Dominican, on account of his singular talent and virtues; and it is to be hoped, that Dr. Achilli, who is certainly in no wise inferior to him, will prove himself equally agreeable to your Eminence. The Master of the Sacred Palace, Buttaoni, whose learning is well known in Rome, frequently consulted him in the revision of new publications, when he was residing at the Minerva; from which circumstance, it is evident in how high a degree of esteem he was held; and how worthy he is of the favour of your Eminence.

I avail myself of the present opportunity to offer my humble duty and respects, and most respectfully kissing your hands,

I remain,
Most Reverend Eminence,
Your most humble and devoted Servant,

F. Card. Serra, Archbishop of Capua.

The above letter, which is written with all the attention to etiquette and ceremony that the Cardinals observe towards each other, may serve as a model to those who wish to study the code of politeness received in the Court of Rome.

Letter.

(Vide p. 284.)

Fr. Antonio di Gesu, formerly Pietro Leonini Pignotti of Rome, to the General of the Order of Carmelite Friars at Rome, Health.

Some time ago you summoned me to Rome to give an account of my belief. Nothing was ever more agreeable to me than your invitation, since I have always desired to bear testimony to the truth. I should not have hesitated in the least to obey you, if I had imagined that I could as freely have confessed my opinions at Rome as I do at Malta. But at Rome, as you well know, there are certain theologians, who for any dissent expressed against their views, immediately raise the cry of heresy, and conclude with Thomas Aquinas, "that heretics should be burned." Willing, therefore, to spare myself any such proceedings as you would, doubtless, have thought it necessary to put in force against me, had I presented myself before you, I judge it best to give you no other trouble than will accrue to you in examining my present belief, such as I now hold it, and, with the help of God, hope to keep it to the hour of my death.

I believe then all that God has revealed to us in his holy word, in which he has clearly pointed out to us the way, the truth, and the life we ought to follow, in order, through the assistance of Christ, to enter into his kingdom. I consequently believe, with the true Catholic Church, all that is taught in the Apostolic and the Nicene creeds.

I do not believe in the traditions of the Church of Rome, which are altogether false, and fabricated for interested purposes, partly from errors in the writings of the early fathers, and false interpretations of Scripture, and partly from foolish superstitions, which are by the Church called pious, although contrary to the spirit of the word of God.

I believe that Jesus Christ instituted two Sacraments—Baptism, and the Holy Supper: the first, when he said to the Apostles, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" and the latter, when he said, "This do in remembrance of me."

I do not believe that Jesus Christ ever instituted the sacrament of confirmation, since he gave no commands respecting it. The imposition of hands is a simple rite in imitation of what was done by the apostles. Acts viii. 17. The anointing is entirely of Romish invention. Neither is there any mention of auricular confession in the New Testament. St. James exhorts the faithful to confess their sins to one another, that is, to ask forgiveness of each other for mutual wrongs. Of extreme unction not a word is said in the whole of the Bible. Ordination is nothing more than a simple rite, a ceremony consisting in the imposition of hands, praying God to give to his people good and faithful ministers. And matrimony is merely a contract between the parties, and the priest is enjoined to implore the Lord to bless the union. These five last have by no means the same claim to be regarded as sacraments as the two first. And even these two are altered and injured by the Romish Church, since in baptism water alone should be used, and not salt and oil; and in the Holy Supper common bread should be used, as it was originally, and as it has always been in the true Catholic Church.

I believe that original sin consists in the corruption of human nature descending from Adam. I believe that justification is solely the work of grace, without regard to works, as the Apostle teaches in his Epistle to the Romans.

I do not believe that original sin consists in following Adam, as the Pelagians say, and as the Church of Rome teaches; neither that it is washed away by the water of baptism. Born as we all are to natural life, we are re-born unto spiritual life "by water and the Holy Spirit." Neither do I believe that our own works in any way contribute to our justification, the works themselves being the effect of justifying grace. Jesus Christ has not said that those who work will be saved, but those who "believe and are baptized." And speaking of works, he has declared that when we have done all that is commanded us, we are to acknowledge that we are only "unprofitable servants."

I believe that Jesus Christ has once for all made propitiation for our sins, in that one sacrifice, which was ordained for our eternal redemption, he being a high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. I believe that any other sacrifice is false and deceitful; any other propitiation is sacrilegious. Consequently, I deny the pretended propitiatory sacrifice of the Romish Church, as impious and heretical, contrary to the teaching of the Gospel, to the Epistles, and to the doctrine and practice of the ancient Catholic Church.

I believe that in the Sacrament of the Holy Supper, Jesus Christ communicates himself, through faith, to the believer, in the substance of the bread and wine, in a real and spiritual manner, so that eating that holy bread, and drinking of that sacred cup, with true faith, we receive through the word of Christ, the resurrection and the life.

I do not believe that in this sacrament the substance of the bread and wine disappears, and that of the actual body and blood of Christ is substituted in its stead, as the Church of Rome teaches, in which she follows the notion of the heretic Eutychus—"This is my body," is to be understood as "John is Elias," and that passage in Exodus, "It is the Lord's passover." Esti in the Greek signifies represents. St. Luke explains the meaning in the following words, "This cup is the New Testament in my blood." And in this sense alone the ancient Church understood it.

I believe that the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ are received, when the bread and wine are eaten and drank according to the order and the warning of Christ, "Except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you."

I do not believe that in receiving one half alone, the whole sacrament is received, it being indivisible according to the will of the Divine institution, and was so understood in the Church for twelve centuries, and continues still to be so in the most ancient Christian Church, that of the Greeks.

I believe that, according to the Holy Scriptures, the souls of the dead are forthwith consigned to their eternal destiny; the elect and the justified to the joys of heaven; the wicked and the reprobate to the abyss of perdition.

I do not believe in an intermediate or third place or state, between heaven and hell. If purgatory exists at all, there is no reason why it should not always have existed, and have been mentioned in the Scriptures as well as heaven and hell. I do not believe that the Almighty created it only in the fifth century of the Church, and revealed it to St. Augustin alone, to become after the lapse of ten centuries a dogma of faith.

I believe that the saints, who are known as such to God only, stand in his presence, and together with the angels adore Christ and the majesty of God.

I do not believe that the saints know anything about us, nor that they can in any manner interfere in our concerns: certainly, we owe them no worship, since like ourselves they are created beings; neither should we invoke their aid, which they are unable to bestow. Jesus Christ, says St. Paul, is our sole mediator; He continually intercedes on our behalf with his divine Father, and exhorts us to come unto Him. His mother, who in one solitary instance attempted to intercede at the marriage feast of Cana, had for her sole answer, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" I do not believe that the reliques of saints are to be worshipped, since God in his second commandment prohibits all worship but to himself alone. Why has Rome hidden this commandment?

I believe it is right to hold the memory of the saints in due estimation, and to place their portraits among those of our friends and relatives.

I do not believe that any images, whether of Christ, of the Virgin, or of any saint, ought ever to be worshipped, as an act especially forbidden by God.

I believe that Jesus Christ has left to the Church the power which the ministers exercise in public, to absolve,—that is, to declare that all those are pardoned who believe in the satisfaction He has made, and who humbly implore forgiveness.

I do not believe that Jesus Christ pardons in virtue of our works, neither on account of the merits of his mother, or of the saints, none of whom have a superabundance; and much less for the mere asking of the Romish Church, in its notable discovery of indulgences.

I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ is the congregation of all the faithful who are baptized, and who believe in neither more nor less than what is taught in the Holy Scriptures, which Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, having Christ for its head. And I believe that this Church exists separately, among the different languages and nations, as in the time of the Apostles.

I do not believe that there is a mother Church superior to the rest, having dominion and power over all others. And I am of opinion that Rome, who arrogates to herself such dominion, has in reality no Church at all; since God, who has destroyed the Latin language among the people, has also, at the same time, destroyed the Church which existed in that language, the people and the priests having become totally separated through this difference of language; nor can the Church be restored until it is regenerated.

I believe that the faith and the confession of the Apostle Peter is the faith and confession of the true Church of Christ, the foundation and the pillar of truth. I believe that this faith should be preserved pure and intact among believers, who are bound to reject all innovations which, through error or ignorance, are introduced into Christianity; and that obedience is due to God and not to man.

I do not believe that the blessed Apostle Peter ever left any successor either at Jerusalem or at Rome,—which latter city he probably never visited. All true believers are his successors; and I believe it to be a blasphemy that a miserable sinner like myself should dare to call himself the Vicar of Jesus Christ,—his representative upon earth. I do not believe that He has any need to be represented, since He, much better than any man, or than the whole race of men, sees and provides for the necessities of his Church. No obedience whatever should therefore be paid to a man who impiously calls himself the successor of St. Peter and the Vicar of Jesus Christ.

I believe that all the canon and other laws of Rome are contrary to the spirit of the Gospel; that all the Councils and Synods, including that of Trent, held in support of Rome, and favouring her interests, are false and erroneous, and that their memory will always be a disgrace to Christianity. I believe that of all the errors that have infested the Church, the worst and the most detestable is that of Popery, as all the articles I have thus far enumerated sufficiently demonstrate, and against which, I, therefore, as a servant of God, and a minister of Jesus Christ, loudly protest, and condemn.

I do not believe that any Christian can ever live tranquilly under a system which is contrary to the Bible, whose doctrines are so many heresies, and whose practice is impiety throughout. I do not believe that any one who has heard and received the truth, can conscientiously remain conjoined to those who are opposed to it. The least pardonable sin is that of unfaithfulness.

I will conclude then in the same words by which you, professing the most unworthy belief of Pius IV., deceive yourselves; in opposition to which I have expressly modelled this my present profession of faith. This true Catholic faith, out of which no man can be saved, and which I now freely profess and truly hold, and which, by the blessing of God, I hope to retain pure and undefiled to my last breath, I, Pietro Leonini Pignotti, minister of the Italian Catholic Church, promise, swear, and make oath, to uphold, declare, and preach, to the extent of my ability, that it may also be received by those who are committed to my charge. So help me God and his holy Evangelists. Amen.

To the Allocution of Pius IX.

At the Consistory of Gaeta, held on the 20th April, 1849.

(Vide p. 312.)

Since you oblige us to reply to your address, we intend to make it clearly evident to whom are to be attributed "the disastrous storms," which, you tell us, "overwhelm your State, and plunge the whole of Italy into confusion and disorder." Not to insist upon the fact, that the State properly belongs to us the people, and not to you, a repudiated monarch, we shall offer our remarks, not to your colleagues of the Consistory, whose opinions we value not, but to our own brethren, our fellow-countrymen, who share with us in the affection and interest for the public weal; so that no one may be ignorant how much and to what end we have laboured. "And may the Almighty," (we use your own words,) "grant that men, made wiser by these most unhappy events, understand that they cannot occasion a greater injury to themselves than by deviating from the paths of truth, of justice, of honour, and of religion." If you suffered yourself "to be led away by the wicked counsel of evil men; and to learn of them to deceive and to ensnare, we, on the contrary, shall make evident to the whole world with what care and solicitude and brotherly love we have endeavoured to promote the real good, the tranquillity, and the prosperity of the people," our brethren, no longer your subjects, in our Republic, which you obstinately persist in calling "your Pontifical State;" and which is most truly "the fruit of our great care and affection. In these words we condemn not only yourself, but all those most deceitful workers of such great evils, attributing to every one his proper share." And here, above all, it delights our minds that "many of our people, aware of having been miserably deceived by you, have now closed their ears to your words and to your counsels, and opened them," instead, to the righteous doctrines of the friends of the people, of the holy evangelists, who, pointing out "the right path of virtue, and treading in the ways of honour and justice, aim alone at encouraging the mind, and directing the understanding in the pursuit of truth."

All are at present aware of your utter deceitfulness, and constant disregard to truth; and they cite, as the first proof of it, your famous amnesty, on account of which, with unparalleled effrontery, you so often reproach us, and which you pretended was to restore peace to so many families, including, be it remembered, your own, and those of your relations. And we, at first, gave credit to your assertions, wondering that a pope could do so much. But to our extreme surprise we discovered that our names were secretly handed over to the Austrian police of Italy, that our persons might be under surveillance. And among the exiles who received the amnesty, there were many to whom your consuls refused passports to return to their homes; while others had to undergo such humiliating treatment, that many chose rather to remain in exile than purchase a degraded freedom at such a price.

It naturally followed that those who returned did not consider themselves under great obligation to you, individually, but felt themselves more and more confirmed in the necessity of getting rid of your race altogether, as a race that never forgives.

"It grieved you" to see the people meet in assemblies, from which issued the sparks of a fire you had attempted to cover over with ashes; but which the more you endeavoured to extinguish it, the more it fed itself and flamed forth; neither did the Edict of the Secretary of State, in April, 1847, produce any other effect than to make evident your own apprehension and that of your government, concerning matters which had no other aim than to protect a people against the artifices and the control of him, who, from the first, intended, after having granted them a moment's relief, to oppress them afresh. It was very natural that your endeavour should be resisted, and that the people who had roused themselves from their lethargy, should not suffer themselves to be cast into it again. A vigilant people will not remain inert. To you, who feign to be ignorant of its most heavy grievances, it has spoken and it has written. Why then did you not listen to it? You complain of its language and its threats! It is the genius of a southern race to be resentful; towards those who turn a deaf ear to our complaints we feel anger, and to the restive beast we are accustomed to use the whip. You have a peculiar faculty in playing the deaf and the restive, and we very naturally apply to it the treatment it deserves.

According to your account the conspiracy of July, 1847, was not a real one, "but contrived for the express purpose, by public agitators." And pray did you make this notable discovery at Gaeta? Is it not true that when you showed some intention towards useful reform, the adherents of the government of your predecessor, those men of vengeance and of blood, who had filled the prisons and crowded the scaffold with their innocent victims,—those men with whom to love their country and to praise the sacred name of Italy, was a crime;—is it not true that they conspired to our injury and against yourself? And was it not the object of this conspiracy "to plunge the City of Rome into civil war, with slaughter and destruction; until the new institutes being entirely abolished and done away with, the ancient form of government should be restored?" Whence arises then your present madness, to deny a fact which you had full proof of, and which you yourself admitted at the time? Is it true then no longer? And have these conspirators, because they have paid court to you at Gaeta, suddenly become "patterns of goodness, eminent for their religion, and distinguished for ecclesiastical dignity?" Since you have remained out of Rome, how dear they have become to you. It was well for them that you quitted it, and it is through them that you will never more return.[126]

"It was," as you say, "in this time of agitation that it was proposed to form a Civic Guard." We know full well with what jealous eyes you look upon this institution—what a dagger it is in your heart. "Hastily assembled by your own act," it was after your departure only that "it was completely organized and disciplined." If you could now behold this Guard which has received the title of National, you would be compelled to acknowledge it the finest spectacle that Rome affords. It is to this body we owe the tranquillity and good order which never existed before. It defends our country against the aggression of your satellites. It is composed of the flower of our citizens, and has exulted in the cry, VivÀ la Repubblica, À basso il Papato." Do you not blush at the remembrance of that solemn piece of deceit which you termed a Council of State? Was it not natural for us to imagine that in this Council the will of the majority should prevail over that of the minority? that the influence of the people was to be equal to that of the priests? that yourself, a single individual, and by no means infallible, might have the courtesy to submit your individual opinion to that of the many? Otherwise, for what purpose is the Council assembled?—to cause us to undergo the usual humiliation of finding laws imposed upon us in opposition to our own wishes?

As to your glorious Allocution in the Consistory of Oct. 1847, of which you still make boast, we shall leave those to judge who have read the production. For us it was as an apple of discord, thrown among the people of Italy, in order that they might mutually distrust each other, and that all might withdraw themselves from the holy cause of emancipating their common country. And that was no dream of an armed foreign intervention secretly invited and even implored for, by a conspiracy of cardinals and the monarch, to root out, as they said, every germ of what they were pleased to call sedition. And were not you, who, in February, 1843, spoke deceitful words of comfort in order to tranquillize men's minds,—were not you foremost in this demand?

Still we continued to deceive ourselves: many persevered in their opinion that you were good and liberal, and every day expected to see civil and progressive institutions emanating from your decrees; the Romans, still devoted to you, were willing to ascribe every delay, every retrograde movement, every deceitful promise, to the intrigues of evil-minded persons, and to believe that the Jesuits, who were most assiduous about your court, prevented the expansion of your bounty. It was through affection for yourself that we called out for their suppression. Already expelled from other Italian States, why should they continue to hold sway in Rome, where you yourself contributed to render them the more odious? It was not, therefore, so much personal hatred towards them, as love towards our country and yourself, that induced the Romans to rise against the abhorred sons of Loyola. A proof of this is, that not one of them was ill-treated, or even prevented from remaining in the city, provided he kept himself quiet and unobtrusive.

The removal of the Jesuits was so far beneficial, that on the 14th March, a Statute was issued which appeared to us to regard our necessities, and to give evidence of your surpassing liberality. It was read with avidity, and we asked ourselves if the government had really become constitutional. Many reports were spread. The more credulous were transported with extravagant enthusiastic delight; the more sagacious, before they gave way to hope, required time, to see the fulfilment of the promise; long, and sad experience had taught them to distrust the specious professions of a pope. With sincerity and right feeling you might have conducted us to a Republic, but such was not accordant to your character nor to the innate genius of your caste. A republic to be proclaimed by a pope in his own States, would be as impossible as for the devil to turn Christian. You were right, therefore, to exclaim against those who, to tell you what they had fondly dreamed, broke in upon your slumbers, with so little ceremony. You too have had your dream, conjured up through an association of ideas very different from theirs, which you have confided not to their ears alone, but to the hearing of the public at large, when you state that the Republic they wished for "had no other object in view than perpetual agitation, the removal of every principle of justice, virtue, honour, and religion; and to introduce and spread abroad on every side, with loss and ruin to all human society, the fatal and horrible system of Socialism, contrary to all natural right and reason."

This was an ugly dream, and, doubtless, arose from a diseased imagination. But that was no dream which you have since related to us with such satisfaction, how you had, to our injury, opposed the Italian cause, secretly at first, and afterwards more openly. Our youth who flew to arms in the righteous cause, assured you of their intention to seek the sanguinary Croat, where the battle raged the fiercest. And you feigned to approve of their holy design, blessing their banners, and auguring from heaven itself auspicious omens for their victory. Was it not you who expressed to Charles Albert your grief that you could not assist him as you wished? And when was it that Rome discovered your real intentions, and your secret orders not to pass the confines, if not when they heard from your own lips your celebrated Allocution of the 29th April, 1848? Bitter remembrance of an act that destroyed all the hopes of a people, at that time, devoted to you! It is evident, then, that your love for the Italian cause, and all your speeches and professions, were priestly and royal deception. And you dare bring to our recollection those times in the past and the present year; when, in the former, you abhorred to shed the blood of the Croat, and in the latter you thirsted for that of the Romans!

On the 29th of April last, the army of Louis Buonaparte displayed itself beneath the walls of Rome, with a direful train of artillery, of cannon and of bombs, to slaughter in your name all those Romans who should maintain that you, a Christian prelate, ought not to govern them as king. A fatal day was that for Rome; the most disastrous in our annals; the most disgraceful to the Papacy!

Since matters are in this state, strike out from your Allocution words that you have no right to utter: "that you, elevated, although most unworthily," (most true,) "through the inscrutable decree of Divine Providence, to the summit of apostolic dignity, to exercise upon earth the office of Vicar to Jesus Christ," (a false and blasphemous assertion,) "you receive from God, the fountain of Charity and Love, your mission to regard with paternal affection, all mankind, of whatever country or race, to watch over and to promote their safety, and not to impel them to slaughter and to death." That these words are false is evident from your own confession that you have yourself brought and impelled against us, in fratricidal war, Austria, France, Spain, and a portion of Italy.

To whom are to be attributed the slaughters at Bologna, at Ancona, and beneath the walls at Rome? You were averse to a just war, for the safety of Italy; not so to that most unjust one which had for its object the replacing of yourself, the most abhorred of sovereigns, upon a throne which you had yourself deserted, and from which, "through the inscrutable decree of Divine Providence," rather than through any effort of ours, you had been removed.

Who will pardon your mis-statement of facts, your outrage upon individuals? Language has no words more abusive or scornful than those you have employed against us, who, you assert, are guilty of the heavy offence of despoiling you of your territory, and that, too, after having constrained you in so many ways to grant a reform which was true, stable, and conformable to our wants. But it is not the empty name of a republic that satisfies us; it is a wise, a provident, and a just government, that we require. Call our present one what you will; it is that which we have always wished for, and to which we have a just right. It is one which we endeavoured to urge upon you, because the Papal Government removed you too far from us. Some who fancied you a wise and considerate prince, believed your influence might be beneficial, and without delay proposed that you should rule the destinies of Italy. You, however, it appears, considered this proposition as extremely insulting. In fact, it was not from a pope that Italy could hope for her redemption. The popes, at the head even of a republic, would have finished by subjecting the whole of the country, as they did at Rome, where the Church became the incubus of the State, although at one time denominated a republic,—Sancta Dei Ecclesia et Respublica Romanorum.

This attempt, then, having been made as a last proof of devotion towards your person, it was inevitably forced upon our conviction that no other hope remained for us than what might arise from the separation of the priestly and royal functions. The Church was to be the sole empire for the priests; Rome and Italy would together arrange a form of government for themselves. But this simple act, full of justice and moderation, you stigmatise as the fruit of "the most unbridled licentiousness, audacity, and depravity," and they who are actuated by love for their country and mankind are stigmatised by you as "enemies both of God and man." ...

How entirely has the spirit of falsehood possessed you! When have "the streets" as you say, "been sprinkled with human blood?" when have "the most deplorable sacrileges taken place, and the most outrageous violence been offered to your person in your own house?" What infamy for the Head of our Church to be guilty of such scandalous untruths! You declare also that "traitors, infuriated, and threatening, indulged in all sorts of deceit and violence to terrify the good, already sufficiently intimidated." We ask you, Who were these traitors, and when were these intimidations employed? All the world knows that you were not yourself more legally chosen pope, than the Constituent Government was authorized by the whole of the Roman people, in fair and unbiassed freedom of election....

The love of empire, that sways the base and ignoble mind, is more present with you than the love of the people or a regard for humanity. It is in vain you endeavour to hide it; nevertheless, it is ridiculous in our days to talk of a temporal throne in the apostolic seat, in the Holy Roman Church. The Apostles possessed none, and could consequently give no right to inherit any. The words of our Divine Master are moreover in direct opposition to such possession, enjoining them to arrogate to themselves no titles of authority. "After these things do the Gentiles seek;" "but be ye not like them;" and many more passages might be adduced to the same effect....

If, however, it be alleged that our progenitors gave to the High-Priest of Rome the office of governor, we, by the same right, have power to take it away. In like manner, the sister Churches of France, Austria, and Spain, may, if they choose, make either a king, an emperor, or a president, of their chief-priest. We have no right to object to their doing so, and all we ask in return is that they should not trouble their heads about us.

Your dethronement was occasioned by your ill-government and oppression, in which you followed the example of other despots; and moreover, you did so in the name of St. Peter, and even of Christ. And all the temporal power and trust you placed in the hands of the clergy, a measure injurious alike to the interests of the Church and of the people. The most talented were employed in the service of the State, the most ignorant in that of the Church; the former were active and rapacious in acquiring wealth, and the latter supine and superstitious in the duties of their calling; the one party rolling in luxury, and the other poor and needy, so that by degrees they began mutually to hate each other.

This monstrous union of Church and State has thus gone on until the present period. Profane and sacred things have been so jumbled together that good sense and right feeling with respect to them have altogether been lost. The progress of civilization on every side except among ourselves, rendered our situation still less endurable, so that among all classes the two powers were held in slight and derision. In proportion as they ceased to love the prince they began to despise the priest. By the one the laws were transgressed, by the other the offices of religion neglected. The sovereign laid his snares, and the priest through his negligence brought the Church into discredit. Meanwhile, the obstinacy of the popes, to keep the two powers united in their own person, threatened them not only with the loss of the State, but of the Church also. It was, therefore, a kindliness towards yourself, and a love for religion, that induced us to decree, that in order to guarantee the Roman pontiff in the free exercise of his spiritual power he should no longer wield the temporal sceptre. It is necessary when the whole body is threatened with gangrene to cut off the morbid portion....

We ardently desire to see established the religion of Christ, as holy and saving, and this, we conceive, may exist without bishops or priests;—the invisible and universal Church, which includes believers in all parts of the world; of which Christ alone is high-priest and Head. And this invisible Church does not do away with a visible and material one, which is divided among all people and nations, and of which every one has a right to choose that form which appears to him the best. Many of these Churches have no bishops, as the German, the Scotch, the Helvetic, and the evangelical Churches of France and Italy. Who is the bishop of the Church of the Waldenses? No one. And yet it is full of zeal, has existed from the eleventh century, and after so many fierce persecutions and massacres still presents a body of twenty-four thousand believers.

It is possible, then, to be good Christians, and to form a visible national Church on such a model without the aid of bishops. At any rate, you cannot deny that a Church can change its bishop for a sufficient cause. Do you think it then absurd or contrary to the precepts of the gospel that the people of Rome, who may be termed the whole Romish Church, should repudiate you as an apostate-bishop, a traitor, a bombarder, and that they should elect another, faithful, true, and beneficent?

Those who were asleep have now awakened, and they no longer trust your words. When you went out from Rome, the Bible entered in; the Bible, persecuted by the popes! and the gospel of Christ and the holy writings of the Apostles, faithfully translated into the Italian language, are now in the hands of the people, who read them, and find there neither popery nor the pope.

Take care that it does not happen to yourself in Italy, as it happened to your predecessors out of it, who, desirous to obtain more, lost all. They who last February took from you the temporal power, intended by so doing to guarantee and ameliorate your spiritual authority. From the 30th April to the present period, you have rejected every friendly advance, and violated every law in presenting yourself before the walls of Rome, surrounded by bayonets and cannon; and you announced to this city your return and your solemn entry with bomb-shells and incendiary acts among the wounded and the dying. Is this the entry of a bishop? Is it in such a manner that the pretended Vicar of Jesus Christ returns to his people?...

Let us suppose, by way of argument, that you, environed by thousands of bayonets, should effect your return to a city overpowered by foreign violence, what would you find at Rome?—a people capable of loving you and serving you as formerly? No, indeed; you would find a desert. The city which has abhorred you as a prince, and through you has learned to despise the whole race from which the popes have descended, is no longer disposed to receive your laws, to pay you tribute. Over whom do you expect to reign? Over the few who followed you to GaËta? or those who here and there have remained favourable to the old system? Even of these there are none that really love you; it is to the system, and not to yourself personally, that they are attached....

It is in vain you exaggerate the disorders of our government, and in disgraceful language descend to the lowest scurrilities, calling Rome "a den of furious beasts" and those who dwell there "apostates, heretics, communists, and socialists—bent on disseminating their pestiferous doctrines, and corrupting every heart, and possessed with a daring and sacrilegious desire of seizing upon the property and revenues of the Church." If this property and these revenues belong, as you say, to the Church, then we have done no other than restore them to their rightful owner, rescuing them from the hands of lawless spoilers. The people constitute the Church; the property of the Church then is the property of the people. And the priests and bishops, considered as servants to the Church, are to be maintained by the people. By divine command the tribe of Levi was supported by the other tribes. Christ also directs that the ministers of his Gospel are to be maintained by the faithful, when he says, "for the labourer is worthy of his hire." This was the practice in the early times of Christianity, and to them we must return. If our former ministers are content to return to the Church under this new arrangement, we are willing once more to receive them; otherwise, we must look out for servants who will be more zealous for heavenly riches, and less greedy after the wealth of this world.

Is it because these doctrines have been established for more than eighteen centuries, and are based on the Gospel and the writings of the Apostles, that you call those who profess them apostates and heretics?

We have "despoiled the temples of their ornaments!" That is, we have taken their superfluous silver to coin into money, to supply the place of that which you and yours have concealed or carried away. We have "turned religious houses to profane uses!" Yes; some of the haunts of the lazy and the worthless we have given as habitations for the industrious poor, who live as God has commanded them to do, by the sweat of their brow. In the eyes of those to whom idleness is sacred and labour profane, we have certainly committed a crime, but for us heretics and apostates, we imagine we have done a holy work.

We have ill treated "the sacred virgins!" The chronicle does not say so. They have never been more safe and more respected than by ourselves and our government. Who it was that ill treated the sacred virgins under your own government, is well known to you, without our taking the trouble to repeat it. Pay a little more regard to truth, and be silent on these matters, unless you wish us to reveal what for the sake of charity we do not mention.

We have "most cruelly persecuted, imprisoned, and put to death the most worthy and excellent ecclesiastics and holy monks; venerable and esteemed bishops, even such as were elevated to the degree of Cardinal, we have barbarously driven from their flocks, and thrust into prison!" You accuse us of what, for reasons of state, we ought to have done, but which, through too great consideration, we abstained from doing. All wicked and insidious traitors, spies and conspirators, whether priests, monks, bishops, or cardinals, who sought to bring ruin upon the people, we ought undoubtedly to have hanged, in reward for their infamy. That we did not do so was, perhaps, through an overweening regard for their persons. Pope Gregory, and his cardinal, Lambruschini, on the slightest suspicion of liberalism, tore from the bosom of their families citizens far more useful and respectable than these priests and monks, consigned them to horrible dungeons, or after a mock trial, handed them over to the public executioner. All the vengeance we took, was, on the commencement of our revolution, to pardon all those accursed wretches who did not die with Pope Gregory; and our government calmed the fury of the populace, who, on account of their crimes, were eager for their destruction. It was a grief to us when some of those who had received pardon at our hands again sought to irritate the people, who then knew themselves to be masters. Certain death would have been their fate had not our government shut them up in confinement.

Certainly, when any one was taken with arms in his hands, and firing upon our people, as the curate of Monte Mario, the priest Racchetti, and another or two were, the people conceived they had a perfect right to take the law into their own hands, and get rid of their enemies, without writing to you to ask leave to do so. You may thank Providence that our people are so mild and so obedient to their governors as they are, or you would have had some of your monasteries visited, and the ribald monks turned out to pay you a visit at GÄeta. In the provinces likewise, every here and there, a band of factious insurgents roamed about, headed by a priest or a monk, and protected by a bishop or a cardinal. Was it not an unheard-of act of mercy to spare the lives of such wretches? And is it on account of such acts that you complain of the Republican government?

We felt an extreme repugnance, which the government of the priests never felt, to shed the blood of the citizens, considering them not in the light of subjects, but as brethren. And we grieve that all do not share with us in these fraternal feelings.

As to the exhausted treasury, to whom was it owing, if not to yourselves? We, on the contrary, in a short space of time, restored the finances, and put the administration of them into the best possible order. Who paralysed the exertions of commerce, and with unjust laws and enormous duties forced all the capital of the provinces to the seat of government? Who, on the other hand, reformed the laws, reduced the duties, and gave encouragement to commerce, if not the Republic? Certainly, commerce greatly suffered, and still continues to do so, in consequence of the siege and bombardment, by your favourites, of Bologna, Ancona, and Rome.

What falsehoods you state with respect to "heavy contributions imposed upon the nobility, property plundered from individuals!" Many of the nobility never contributed a single farthing, whilst many, not noble, paid large sums into the treasury. Is it not yourselves who teach that the superfluity of the rich is the patrimony of the poor? But who was ever plundered by us? Can you bring a single example to justify your assertion? If not, we have a right to stigmatize you as a calumniator. Neither can you bring any proof of your other most injurious assertion, that we "interfered with the personal liberty of all good people, destroying their peace, and even threatening their very lives with the dagger of the assassin." The audacious nature of this falsehood is apparent. Have we not abundant testimony of the good character and conduct of our government, from persons of every nation, from the representatives of foreign powers, who are ready to certify that none of these excesses were ever perpetrated under the Roman Republic? How frequently they took place under the government of the popes, I need not relate; how many innocent individuals were torn from the bosom of their families, how many lives sacrificed, it were painful to disclose. The reign of the late Gregory furnished numberless examples, and your own reign, too, is not without its share in these enormities.

Let us now advert to that glorious confession of yours, of having sought from foreign powers an armed intervention to replace you on that throne from which you were removed more through your own weakness and folly than through any act of ours: and which you have had the simplicity to publish, in order, as it seems, that history may hand down to posterity this last ignominy of the papacy. Four foreign armies were invited to Rome to place the last of the popes upon a throne which is renowned for having the early pages in its history marked by fraud and usurpation; the succeeding ones by extortions, deceits, civil wars, the barbarities of the Croats, and the horrors of the Inquisition; and the last with the destruction of liberty, with parricide, and the bombardment of Rome, the great act on which you pride yourself. Do you, then, imagine it possible that you can return to fill a throne, so abhorred by Rome, and by all Italy? It is only possible through the support of foreign armies, bayonets, cannon, and all warlike means! It is only to be effected by the shedding of blood, and slaughter of thousands sacrificed to sacerdotal fury and ambition! Can you return to Rome to hear the cries of mothers, deprived by you of their dearest hopes, of widows whose husbands have been slain through your agency? And in the midst of such universal grief will you return smiling and joyful? How long, John Mastai, will you continue to insult our country, and how long is she to endure your presence? The presence of one who has allied himself with kings to betray the people, who united in friendship with the Bourbon of Naples, in order to devise the best means of oppressing every generous mind, of eradicating from the sons of Italy every noble sentiment! O insensate men that we were, to believe you, to trust in your deceitful promises, to the disappointment of your hopes, to the ruin of our happiness! Do you not believe that the Almighty is the judge of our cause; that he is powerful to abase the rich and the proud, and to exalt the poor and the oppressed? If you make an appeal to the canonical laws, we refer to those of the Gospel.

Christ has taught us to bless those who curse us, to do good to those who hate us, and to pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us. But you begin to curse those who have always blessed you, to hate those who have done good to you, and to persecute those who have prayed for you. You who alone could have preserved the country, and have restored what was lost, joined yourself to our enemies to ruin and destroy us.

And you dare to call yourself the Vicar of Christ! Is Christ then divided? is there a Christ opposed to the gospel? If so, you doubtless are his Vicar, and we have nothing more in common with you; neither the country which you have betrayed, nor the faith which you have denied. Keep possession of your Church; it is no longer ours: and enjoy your kingdom, since we are no longer your subjects. Go where your wishes lead you; but dare not again to place foot in a city which accuses, judges, and condemns you. Who could endure to raise their eyes to encounter those of a traitor? Who could receive a benediction from a hand yet stained with blood? No one, indeed, could consent to enter the temple with a hypocrite, who at the very time he was planning by the basest means to wreak upon us his cruel vengeance with fire and slaughter, had the assurance to give breath to the following words, which, to undeceive the present and to warn the future generation, not without a sensation of extreme horror and disgust, we venture to repeat;—

"Lastly, venerable brethren, resigning ourselves entirely to the inscrutable decrees of the wisdom of God, with which he operates his glory, while in the humility of our heart we render Him infinite thanks for having made us worthy of so great suffering for the name of Jesus, and for having rendered us, in a degree, similar to Himself in His passion, we are ready in faith, hope, patience, and in gentleness, to suffer the most severe pains and trials, and, for the sake of the Church, to give even our very life, if by the shedding of our blood her calamities could be remedied."

Such impudence of declamation amid such atrocious deeds, for ever closes the page whereon, in characters of blood, is registered the perpetual downfall of the Roman Pontificate.

FINIS.

R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.

[125] Jer. xxiii.

[126] Unhappily, this prediction has not been verified.

New Edition, in fcap. 8vo. cloth, price 6s.

LECTURES FOR THE TIMES:
OR,
ILLUSTRATIONS AND REFUTATIONS
OF
THE ERRORS OF ROMANISM AND TRACTARIANISM.

BY THE
REV. JOHN CUMMING, D.D.

CONTENTS.

1. The Teaching of Cardinal Wiseman.
2. Cardinal Wiseman: "his Oath and its Obligations." Two Lectures delivered in the Hanover Square Rooms, in November 1850.
3. What is Popery?
4. Is Tractarianism Popery?
5. Romish Plausible Pretensions.
6. Apostolical Succession.
7. The Unity of the Church.
8. The Fathers.
9. The Nicene Creed.
10. The Bible, not Tradition.
11. The Invocation of Saints.
12. Transubstantiation.
13. The Sacrifice of the Mass.
14. Purgatory.

NOTICES OF THE WORK.

"In these Lectures Dr. Cumming gives the fullest scope to all his high powers. Careful research, acute argument, brilliant illustration, graphic description, eloquent appeal, all unite in enriching and embellishing his pages, alluring the most indifferent to read, and compelling the most prejudiced against his views to pause and consider."—Edinburgh Ecclesiastical Review.
"Dr. Cumming exhibits an extensive knowledge of the subject, great powers of reasoning, and a wish to proceed to a right conclusion. The volume is both interesting and instructive, and it unquestionably deals with matters of the highest importance, in which all mankind are deeply and permanently interested."—Newcastle Courant.
"These Lectures embrace the most prominent errors of Romanism; and we need not add that the subjects are discussed with ability, and the victory over Popish misrepresentation complete."—Edinburgh Advertiser.
"Happy specimens of eloquence. It meets most of the difficulties suggested by Romanists and sceptics, and may be regarded as a suitable work to be placed in the hands of those who are wavering on the brink of error, and will be hailed as such by all lovers of Protestant truth."—Kitto's Journal.

ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE & CO. 25, PATERNOSTER ROW.

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