LETTERS
ADDRESSED TO THE
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
AND THE
_
Protestant Clergy of England,
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF
CATHOLICS;
As inserted in the British Press :
WITH
ADDITIONAL LETTERS AND NOTES;
SIGNED
A CATHOLIC PRIEST;
OR,
A REPLY TO THE CALUMNIES AND SLANDERS ADVAN-
CED AGAINST THE CATHOLIC PETITIONERS,
IN THE YEAR 1813.
LONDON:
Printed and sold by KEATING, BROWN, and Co. 38, Duke Street, Gros-
venor Squarej
And also sold by BOOKER, 61, New Bond Street;
and FJTZPATRICK, Dublin.
LETTERS
ADDRESSED TO THE
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY*
AND THE
Protestant Clergy of England.
As inserted in the British Press.
LETTER I.
LATELY preaching a
setmon, on the virtue of Charity to a large Con-
gregation of Catholics, I concluded the discourse
in these words : <c In respect to those who are
nut of the same faith and communion as your-
selves, always retain for them that love and af-
fection which true charity requires from you.
Love them as Jesus has loved you ; commiserate
them in their misfortunes ; help them in their
distress, as well temporal as spiritual ; pray daily
* Although these Letters were Addressed to the Archbishop of
Canterbury and the Protestant Clergy of England, they were de-
signed for the public in general. Circular Letters intended for the
whole community, are thus often directed to individuals for their
special perusal and consideration. This is all that the y/i-itor pro-
poses by the above address.
A
for them, and let them see, by a union amotig
yourselves, that you are the true disciples of Je-
sus Christ. Never let a diversity of faith de-
prive them of your affection; but 'all to all,' in
your journey towards Heaven, try to conduct
them also to the mansion of eternal bliss, where
your charity will receive its full reward. Amen.
u Charity is the soul of a Christian life, and
without it, as the Apostle writes, we are sounding
brass ; but a Minister of the Gospel, without
charity, is a monster !"
From the period when the Commons' House of
Parliament came to the resolution of considering
the laws affecting the Catholic subjects of this
empire, I sreadily directed my attention to the
deportment of the Established Protestant Clergy;
I did imagine, as the sense of the House of Com-
mons had been expressed independently of minis-
terial influence, that the Bishops and Clergy of
the Established Church would have acquiesced in
any determination, which legislative wisdom
might advise in the actual circumstances of Eu-
rope, and this country in particular. I did ima-
gine that, as ministers of peace and charity, they
would have preached union and love to their
flock , and have taught Christians, by word and
i x.nnplc, to serve and esteem one another. But
how have we been disappointed ! From that period
mai.y of the Protestant Clergy have set the worst
of p;i^,i>iis to work : malice, jealousy, hatred,
ige, calumny, slander, intolerance, bigotry,
mistrust, and all their hateful sisterhood, have
been roused into most active exertion, and have
appeared prominent in their sermons and publica-
tions.
The public is disgusted the public is scanda-
lized at what they have witnessed within these last
five months in many of the Protestant Clergy.
The very productions of their pens are posi-
tive evidence; for in tenderness to their own
character and reputation, they have not dared to
acknowledge their own works, but have foisted
them into the world as anonymous foundlings.
It will be said that I am warmed, and I avow it.
For truly, I conceive to be stigmatised a murderer,
a traitor, a seditionist a violater of public
faith, merely because I hold communion with the
venerable Bishop of Rome, is enough to warm any
man, whose blood is not already cold as the grave.
Nay, if this be not libellous, according to the deci-
sions of my Lord Ellenborough, I know not what
is. What man of spirit will consent to swallow
such appellations, because they are uttered by those
who style themselves friends of the Church
friends of the Constitution ? Where is that tamed
soul that can see his religion proscribed as vile and
monstrous himself held up to his countrymen an,
object of horror, and not feel those sensations
which must rouse his nature, however torpid ; but
especially when these slanders are propagated by
those who profess themselves Ministers of the
Gospel, and the champions of Toleration ?
When under these titles they give to the public
specimens of the blackest calumny ; when by
anonymous pamphlets they thus cowardly prostj?
tute their pens, lo rob their neighbour of his most
valuable property, an honest fame and unsullied
reputation let it not be thought that persons
wiii be wanting to repel these shafts of malice.
In the name of goodness, if they are desirous that
credit be given to their professions of esteem and
friendship for virtuous religion -if they are desir-
ous that the world should believe them actuate^
by the noble spirit of genuine toleration, when
Catholics petition for a redress of civil grievan-
ces; whence the motive for branding peaceable,
respectable, and honourable men, in every depart-
ment of society, with the denomination of trait-
ors and scditionists ! Really I am at a loss to
conceive a motive for this conduct, unless they
feel disposed to revive those laws, which in the
heat of civil war were written in blood- or have
the vanity to imagine that the heaven born planet
of toleration, has risen only to shed its blessings
on the Church of England.
I propose to commence a series of letters con-
nected with the Catholic Question. I shall abstain
from controversy, and equally from personalities.
My sole object will be to shew, that the objec-
tions of Protestants have no. other foundation
than their hercditaiy prejudices ; and, iji my en-
ours K) effect this, I shall not hesitate to avail
if of the arguments and reasonings which
have been often used before; which, however,,
like old gold, have not on that account lost their
. I shall decline taking notice of an-y an-
swers, until I have concluded what I have to say.
Interim I shall subscribe myself,
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
London, Dec. 29, 1812.
* LETTER II.
OX THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE
OF CATHOLICS.
AN almost every speech,
sermon, and pamphlet lately published against
the Catholic Petition, we observe apprehensions
strongly expressed, that the petitioners, having
already much increased in number and opulence,
will subvert the Protestant religion, and raise
their own on its ruins. Now, certainly at present,
they muster a very weak minority, and if the con-
sequence, property, and mass of talents in the
respective parties be compared, the odds are SQ
tremendously in favour of the Protestant, as to
leave no ground of alarm for the present, and
little for the future.
In contemplating, therefore, the increase of
Catholics in the United Kingdom, with the dif-
ferent schemes of Protestants for reducing their
number, I wonder no one in this philosophic and
inquisitive age, has thought of examining into the
causes of this spread of Catholicity : or has attempt-
ed to discover why it has made a progress, or even
* The basis of this, and of a few of the immediately succeeding
letters, \^as taken from a work published near half a century ago..
a stand, under the many disadvantages that it con-
fessedly has had, and still has to contend against.
It is certainly an object of curiosity to discover
the latent methods, hy which Catholicity is upheld,
and the human mind influenced against interest?,
reason, and eloquence : it is- moreover of unques-
tionable importance, because surely a knowledge
of the secret supports of the Catholic religion,
and the modes of propagation, would shew men,
upon principle and evidence, how to obstruct and
defeat them. But in this necessary kind of
knowledge, the adversaries of Catholics seem
very deficient, whether we consider the causes to
which they attribute its spread, or the vague urn
satisfactory schemes by which they attempt to
combat it.
The general motives which determine men in the
profession of their religion, are, either the interest
of this world or of the next ; for, the prejudice of
education being equal on both sides, must be ex-
cluded from the question. Now, the motives of
this world, in Great Britain and Ireland, are all
against the Catholics. Priests hare, on their
side, no benefices to allure men with no high
commissions in the Navy or Army-~no lucrative
employments in the Law, or at Court no places
nor pensions to distribute. Those, whom they
ptrsuaclc to embrace their religion, know well,
that they and their posterity, while they continue
Catholics, must labour under great disadvantages,
and be liable to numerous hardships and exclu-
sions i and, accordingly, it is generally found, that
those who hare any thing to lose, are proof
against the arts or arguments of Catholics; and
the Catholic Priest has no chance but amongst
such as are disengaged from worldly considera-
tions, and think they chuse their religion for the
sake of their eternal interests. It is plain, then,
that the whole art and address of Catholics is to
assume the fair appearance of truth : however,
though it may be obvious that the success of the
Catholic religion depends upon its assuming the
appearance of truth, the question will naturally
be asked, by what strange means 9 by what secret
management does it happen that the Catholic
should be able to give his cause the appearance of
truth. He himself believes his tenets to be true, and
is not therefore surprised at their prevalence: but
the Protestant, svho sees the whole fabric of Catho-
licity raised on ignorance and error who sees the
Catholic Priest struggling through absurdities,
against the superlative force of truth and reason,
may be justly astonished at the unaccountable
manoeuvres and mysterious resources by which
Catholicity makes a progress, or even maintains
its ground. There is not a proposition in Euclfrl
more obvious than, that truth and reason,
when equally supported, are, by vast odds, an
over match for falsehood and nonsense. But let
us take into consideration, on the Protestant side,
the advantages of interest, theaccomplishmentsof
its Ministry, their superior address, eloquence,
and means ; and we sjiall plainly see, that the
success of Catholicity in such an unequal opposi*
tion is yet to be accounted for { and must be
owing to some gross mistake in the methods
taken to. support the Protestant religion, and
weaken the Catholic ; for no efforts of art can
avail on the weak side, in such an unequal match,
against equal exertions and address.
A discovery, therefore, of the false steps which
Protestants make in the suppression of Catholicity,
and of the art by which these mistakes are im-
proved by Catholics, will, undoubtedly, be an in-
quiry agreeable to a philosophic mind, and will
contribute more to the triumph of rational Chris-
tianity, and the spread of the doctrine of the
Gospel, than the unmeaning cry of " No Po-
pery," which so many endeavour to raise.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
LETTER III.
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE
CATHOLICS.
I
.T may be thought sin*
gular, that a Catholic Priest should inquire
into the errors which Protestants have com-
mitted, in their attempts to suppress Catholicity.
However, as I profess myself a friend to univer-
sal truth, I will not be diverted from the inquiry
by any apprehensions, or hesitate to exclaim,
9
FIAT JUSTITIA, RUAT CCELUM ! Perhaps there
is no necessity to prove to Protestants, who be-
lieve in the weakness and absurdity of their ad-
versaries' religion, that it would never have
gained ground, nor even maintained itself in
these kingdoms, if the Protestant cause had been
judiciously supported ; because truth and reason,
when equally well defended, will at all times be a
superior match to error and falsehood. But this
clear and striking observation brings us to the
important question, which I would fain discuss
with a fair and candid adversary, viz. What are
the false steps made in the support and establish-
ment of the Protestant religion, that allows Ca-
tholicity to mike a stand before it ; or by what
latent means does it happen, that the Catholic
religion is not overwhelmed in sb unequal a compe-
tition ?
I believe every man who has the least acquaint-
ance with the spirit and nature of Christianity,
expects that it should be propagated by its Minis-
ters and Preachers ; and is shocked when he see
the civil Magistrate bear the heat and burthen of
the day, while the Clergy slumber in the vine-
yard, with Gospel arms iu their hands. When
.Reverend Prelates and Churchmen, who have
large possessions, livings, and honours, for de-
fending the cause of religion, abandon the
grounds of argument, I mean the Sacred Scrip-
tures, and in their stead shew the arm of the civil
law, stiffened like a porcupine with long oaths,
statutes, penalties, and disqualifications; it is
10
no wonder that the effect should be answerable to
the means employed, and that the bye-standers,
who in general judge by appearances, should con-
clude, that if the Clergy of the Establishment
had any better defence or proofs, or any other
practicable method of conversion and conviction,
agreeable to the spirit of Christianity, they would
certainly make use of it, and rest satisfied with
those arms of the Spirit which the Gospel has
aloue entrusted to them. Every one supposes
that they are acquainted with the strength and
weakness of their own cause, and that they adopt
measures which promise most success.
I do not mean in these letters to pass a judg-
ment on Protestantism ; the religious sentiments
of the people of this country are decidedly fa-
vourable to it. It, therefore, wants no props
no buttresses to support its massy walls ; but if it
be desirable that it should escape the very suspi-
cion of weakness, it should be allowed to stand
by itself in the free scale of public opinion. The
very appearance of those outworks raises an
alarm, and detracts from its solidity ; just as
the framing of a law to oblige the public to be-
lieve that a pound note is worth twenty shillings,
is the very proceeding; that makes men imagine
that the general sentiment must be against the
law.
The Reformation holds out to view its own
charter, or rather, the very principle of its ex-
istence, viz. Liberty of Conscience, and the evi-
dence of Common Sense. Whoever robs it of
11
these, robs it of its very life and being; and
mortally wounds it, as far as systems or doctrines
are mortal. When the unthinking Protestant
openly declines the method of proving by instruc-
tion and evidence, and appeals to the conviction
of oaths, statutes, disabilities, and penalties, the
watchful priest slips to the other end of the argu-
ment that has been left for him, and loudly appeals
to truth and reason. " But alas !" he exclaims,
" what truth or reason can be expected from
people who have taken up the principle of liberty
of conscience, merely for convenience who retain
it in theory, but abjure and disclaim it in prac-
tice.'' It is stupidity to imagine that Catholics
will not make the . most of these advantages,
thrown so directly in their way by Protestants ;
or that such open self-condemning inconsistency
will not have its effect : I mean that of confirm-
ing the Catholics in their opinions, and of leaving
Protestantism charged svith contradiction.
It is remarkable and worthy our reflection, that
there is no country on earth where the Catholics
have been so industriously reformed by forfei-
tures, gavels, informations, restraints, premu-
nires, and penalties, as in Great Britain and
Ireland ; nor any country where Catholicity, un-
assisted by visible means, has made such an ob-
stinate stand against the Reformation. In short,
a further law is requisite against Catholicity, to
give the present laws effect; and that is, an act
to deprive men of their senses, with a view to per-
suade them that oaths, constables, lawyers, and
parliaments, arc the genuine successors or' the
Apostles, and guardians of Christianity ; or that
disabilities and penalties, inflicted on a people for
mere matter of opinion, can be reconcileable with
Liberty of Conscience. Having made it pretty
evident that the stand which Catholicity ha$
made, is not, as is generally believed, o\\ing to
the inactivity of the civil law, it remains to be
otherwise accounted for.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST,
LETTER IV.
ON* THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF
CATHOLICS.
X HE consequences of neglect-
ing to attack Catholics with the irresistible force
and advantages which truth commands, and the
whimsical method of convincing them by the
arguments of the civil law, continue to be felt
long after the laws have been enforced ; and the
remote feelings to which this proceeding gives
rise in the mind of a Catholic, are extremely pre-
judicial to the Protestant cause.
The Protestant Clergy, as I observed in my
third letter, arc too apt to leave the conversion of
Catholics to the efficacy of the law, to the logic of
Jong oaths, acts of Parliament, and penalties *
and think they have discharged their duty, by
proclaiming their adversaries idolaters, blasphem^
erS, murderers, rebels, seditionlsts, violaters of
public faith, and enemies of religion. This singu-
lar method of convincing is nearly confined to
the Bishops, and Clergy of the Established
Church ; who, it is supposed, wish to palliate
some of their own trespasses on what is forbid-
den by St. Paul in the 19th, 20th, and 21st
verses of his fifth chapter to the Galatians, by this
full discharge of obloquy against their inoffensive
adversaries. Their old maxim is, "Throw plenty
of dirt, and some will stick."
I certainly will not waste my time by taking
much notice of the Rev. Mr. Maberley and 'his
history of the DEN OF LIONS, I suppose he is
just arrived in London from Nebuchadnezzar, the
king of Babylon. In these dear and scarce times,
however, I should be almost afraid that such a
man would propose to the Regent, by way of eco-
nomy, to feed the lions in the Tower with the
Papists. I will not stop, then, with such an ad-
versary, though he were to place himself again in
the public streets, distributing his tracts, in his
parsonic robes. But when 1 receive every month
a pamphlet, entitled The PROTESTANT ADVO-
CATE (by the Catholics hick-named the Devil'*
Advocate) and there read the most extraordinary
specimens of virtuous and apostolical writing, in,
the Charges and tracts of the Right Rev. Prelates
of Durham, Gloucester, Lincoln, and 'St. David's,
14
when the whole work is full of the most un-
founded and injurious aspersions upon theCatholics
when I say it, as a fact, that this work is con-
ducted by the Bishops of Durham and St. David's,
assisted by two other Clergymen, and then circu-
lated by Mr. Stockdale in every corner of these
kingdoms when I read in the last number of
this publication the following advertisement, dat-
ed the 22d of December "We have further to
state, that A SOCIETY HAS BEEN FORMED, UN-
DER THE DENOMINATION OF FRIENDS TO THE
ESTABLISHED CHURCH, IN ORDER TO SUPPORT
THE PROTESTANT RELIGION, AND TO CO-OPE-
RATE WITH THE CLERGY AND LAITY IN DE-
FENCE OF OUR HAPPY CONSTITUTION IN
CHURCH AND STATE." When I observe all this,
I say, I certainly may exclaim, Oh> tempora ' Oh,
mores ! Oh ! to what unfortunate hands has the
justification and defence of Protestantism been
committed ! ! !
Undoubtedly a settled design and determined
endeavour to render any man or party odious to
the public, and obnoxious to the laws, may have
their intended effect, while the passions are heated
and kept up. But in' the human mind, when
passion has cooled, there is a reflux, which car-
ries us far back towards an opposite sense of feel-
ing and sentiment, and we are apt to look on
those, who have been too hastily accused, as ob*
jects of favour and regard.
In cases of controversy and litigation, it has
always been found fatal to give the reins to pas-
; and nothing can be more prejudicial and im-
politic, even in a just cause, than to defend it by
prevarication and falsehood ; because it gives a
skilful adversary an opportunity of raising a pre-
judice against the truth, by exposing the prevari-
cation and the calumny of the defenders a tri-
umph which the present Bisbop of Durham has
most foolishly afforded to our cause, in bis me-
morable controversies with his Catholic adver-
sary. After bis opponent had proved to him, by
instancing all our Scriptures, Catechisms, and
grayer-books, that Catholics retain the whole of
the Ten Commandments, the good man persists to
this hour in telling the world, that we have ex-
punged the second ! Now, here are new nuts for
a Catholic Priest ! The Reverend or Right Re-
verend Authors of the "STRONG REASONS FOR
REJECTINGTHECATHOLIcCLAIMS/'mUStalsobe
informed that I recommend their work, as, in my
opinion, one of the best to convince persons un-
der instruction, that the Protestant Clergy have
never been the slaves of truth. I hold the pic-
ture up as it has been drawn, and I ask, if they
esteem it like what it should represent?
Bossuet the Great, Bishop of Meaux, the most
clever and successful champion that ever entered
the lists in defence of Catholicity against the Re-
formation, formed his attack wholly against the
prevarications and intemperate zeal of some weak
Protestants, who did not care what they wrote
against the Catholic religion, provided they ren-
hi
defed it odious. True, these misrepresentation!'
are, in fact, no refutation of this reformed re-
ligion, which ought only to stand or fall by its
own evidence and truth, and not hy the vices
and folly of any of its defenders ; and when we
consider the numher of the reformed in Europe,
it is not wonderful that several individuals among
them should he weak and abandoned. However,
it is not easy for Protestants to separate the cause
from the man ; and these misrepresentations gave
room to Bossuet to exert his whole art and ge*
nius, which were both great, against the Re-
formation ; and accordingly his EXPOSITION
OF THE DOCTRINE OF THECATIIOLIC CHURCH,
his HISTORY OF THE VARIATIONS, and his
other pieces, did irreparable damage to the Pro-
testant cause in France, in Germany, and in
England. The other writers of the Catholic par-
ty, seeing his Success, followed his tradk, and
every stroke they gave wounded deeply, because
it was aimed at a vulnerable and defenceless
part.
Bayle, the most penetrating and best writer by
far amongst the reformed of France, saw the de-
sign of Bossuet, and endeavoured to guard against
it ; and consented to give up all that was indefen-
sible, and, like a prudent General, to collect his
forces, and choose his ground where it was more
tenable, lie, therefore, advises Protestants not to
contend that Luther, Mclancthon, and Bucer, did
not give a written approbation to the Landgrave
Ics-c, to marry a second wife in the life-time
pf the first, or that such a person as Pope Joan
ever existed. He also clears away several absurd
stories, invented or published by Protestants, re-
specting some of the Popes ; so as even to have
given occasion to the Consistory of the Walloon
Churches of Rotterdam to rebuke him, for mak-
ing Protestant writers appear false accusers.
Weak Protestants, like the Consistory, may
imagine that Bayie, by rejecting these foolish
calumnies, which were thrown out amongst the
vulgar, did harm to the Protestant interest ; but
Catholics, who feel where their own strength
lies, entertain a very different sentiment : for
while Burnet is held up to view as a butt by
Bossuet, and every young controvertist in the
Catholic schools drags out Jurieu to triumph
over him, the reading of Bayle is forbidden un-
der the strictest prohibition. The truth is, weak
Protestants, by an obstinate defence of Luther,
of the fable of Pope Joan, and their misrepresen-
tation of several Popes and historical events,
have done irreparable mischief to the Protestant
cause, by affording ground to their watchful
adversanes for charging the whole body of
Protestants with guile, and falsehood, and ca-
lumny.
D
IS
LETTER V.
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE Of
CATHOLICS.
IN my last letter I took no-
tice, in general, of the irreparable mischief which
the inconsiderate zeal of weak Protestants does
to the Reformation. Indeed, a greater misfortune
cannot happen to a good cause than to be de-
fended by men of warm hearts and weak heads.
There are, no doubt, a set of people, who think
it better that the story of Pope Joan, and the
witchcraft and sorcery of several Popes, be still
insisted on, and displayed in Protestant books of
instruction for youth ; that the inflexible virtue
and integrity of both Luther and Cranmer, when
solicited by Princes to make religion bend to
their passions ; in short, that all the falsehoods
which impiety, or ignorant zeal ever invented, or
urged against the Catholic Religion, should be
defended through thick and thin. This class of
disputants might be told, in order to make them
sensible of the mischief they do, that misrepresen-
tation cannot serve to convert the Catholic, but
rather to confirm him effectually in his own reli-
gious opinions, as well as in his prejudices against
the Reformation ; whilst, in the sentiment of a
candid discerning Protestant, it casts a suspicion
on the integrity of his brethren, as well as on the
cause they defend by such unworthy means. But
19
since it is in vain to reason with bigots, of any
persuasion, all that an unbiassed and virtuous
Protestant can do, who is convinced that he has
truth and reason to support him, is to renounce,
publicly, all misrepresentation, and to rest the
cause of the Reformation on the evidence of
truth alone.
The ingenious expedient of forming and pub-
lishing tenets for Catholics, which they neither
believe nor teach, but which are the very reverse
of what they inculcate in 'their sermons, cate-
chisms, and rules of faith, is ludicrous enough.
A man upon the stage is persuaded, with a very
good effect, to profess himself a Physician against
his own better knowledge ; but to attempt to
make Catholics believe that they are mistaken in
their own tenets, and that they actually believe
what they do not believe, is combining fiction
with reality, and spoiling both. If those wise
Creed-mongers had conspired to make the world
imagine that the Catholic tenets were impregna-
ble, and could not be attacked with any hopes of
success, unless they were misrepresented, I defy
them to take any other course half so effectual.
The watchful and indefatigable Catholic Priest,
who lets no advantage escape, makes a most un-
merciful use of this childish stratagem. He does
not fail to call upon his followers as witnesses,
that he never preached rebellion or disloyalty to
them, but, on the contrary, took every occasion
to impress them with the principle of passive
obedience to the Constitution, and of gratitude
c 2
20
and affection to a King, to whom it is princi-
pally owing that they are treated as British sub-
jects, and enjoy the common rights of humanity.
He appeals to them to say, if they were ever
taught that it is lawful to break faith with Here-
tics. He cannot fail observing to them, that even
the Protestants have no need of evidence to this
point, since the kingdoms of England, Ireland,
and Scotland, can bear testimony to it, for the
Catholics of these nations suffer publicly the
hardships of the laws on account of their since-
rity. They are excluded from all offices and posts
of honour; they suffer by restraints and priva-
tions; they bear the loss of property and power;
they bear insults, disgraces, and a varitty of dis-
advantages, merely because they will not dis-
pense, by a hypocritical and perjured profession,
-with that integrity of soul, which they refuse to
barter for any consideration. The Catholic
Priest, moreover, has an unanswerable argument,
to which his flock cannot be inattentive, that the
very persons who charge them with the doctrine
of allowing a breach of faith with Heretics, in
making laws against Catholics, give indisputable
evidence of a consciousness of th f ' sincerity of
Catholics on principle ; since those laws could
never operate, unless the Catholics were obliged,
on principle, to suffer all things, for the sake of
sincerity, to those whom they know to be not of
their Church. The people to \\hom the Priest
appeals are perfect judges in this case; they
know what- doctrines they have been taught, and
21
the conclusion they naturally make from this ab-
surd dispute is, that the Reformation can attack
Catholicity only by misrepresentation and impo-
sition. Is it not foolish that Protestants should
take pains to raise prejudices in the candid and
honest part of mankind against themselves, by
the disingenuous artifices under which they at-
tack Catholicity ?
When the Catholics of England, Ireland, and
Scotland, who suffer so much by exclusion and
obloquy for making a sincere profession of their
faith, publicly profess, and teach, that the power
of the Pope beyond his own territories, is merely
pastoral, and of the same nature as that which
every parson has over his own flock; and when
they assert their readiness to defend their King
and Country against all temporal jurisdiction of
the Pope, even at the hazard of their lives and
fortunes, they ought by all rules of reasoning to
be credited, especially when the same doctrine is
known to be publicly taught and universally in-
culcated by the Catholic Clergy of France, Flan-
ders, and Germany, and in all the universities of
those nations: unless we can suppose that the
-.Catholic principles are different in England from
those which are professed on the Continent.
There is another point continually advanced by
these wise folks, as Catholic doctrine : " that the
Pope is infallible and impeccable ;" though every
man, who has visited the city of Rome knows, that
the Pope there professes himself a sinner, and has
his confessor publicly, to whom he confesses his
22
sins. Therefore since it is impossible to persuade
Catholics that they believe what they do not be-
lieve ; and since the disingenuity of misrepre-
senting them must offend candid and discerning-
Protestants, it is evident that such paltry shifts
and subterfuges, instead of the invincible powers
of reason and truth, must prove detrimental to
the Protestant Religion, and favourable to Ca-
tholicity.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
LETTER VI.
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF
CATHOLICS.
PROTESTANTS of the Estab-
Jished Church, by calumnies and misrepresenta-
tions, and by persecuting Catholics for consci-
ence sake, in direct opposition to their own prin-
ciples, raise suspicions and prejudices in sincere
Christians against their integrity and religion,
and give Catholics great advantages over them ;
I rail upon my antagonist to account in any
other manner, for the spread and continuance of
the Catholic Religion in these kingdoms, against
such prodigious odds as it has to struggle
25
against, and to shew that this explanation is
unnatural or insufficient.
It may be said that the prejudices of educa-
tion are alone sufficient for the purpose. The
prejudices of education are sufficient to account
for the perseverance of those who are not in the
way of being undeceived, and also of a few mule-
headed mortals ; because amongst mankind there
are some who will stand immoveable in their
prejudices against the efforts of reason and
truth. But at the same time there are surely
others who will listen to reason and yield to con-
viction ; for if that be not admitted, there would
exist no difference between truth and falsehood,
and no such thing in reasoning as credibility and
evidence. Besides, there will always be a very
numerous party of renegadoes, who profess the
religion of the state from fashion, and on account
of the advantages it holds out, so that the preju-
dices of education are by no means sufficient to
account for the stand and continuance of the
Catholic Religion, whilst the arguments of rea-
son and worldly interests so powerfully prepon-
derate in the Protestant scale.
A second mode of accounting for the continu-
ance of the Catholic Religion, is still more unfor-
tunate. It has been said, that in the neighbour-
hood of Catholic mansion-houses, portions of
money, meat, clothes, and other premiums, are
distributed among poor cottagers. The growth of
Catholicity is likewise attributed to the superior
zeal and indefatigable labour of Catholic Priests.
24
Might it not be supposed that these persons had
before their eyes the age of the apostles, or that
they were describing the circumstances which
gave occasion to the creation of Deacons, and
that they were really painting the labours and
unwearied zeal of the first preachers of Christi-
anity ? But none of these causes, to which the
Clergy are so fond of attributing the continuance
and increase of the Catholic Religion, can unra-
vel our problem, or satisfy a philosophic inqui-
rer. And though other causes may have an in-
fluence, those we have already mentioned will al-
ways produce their effect. Let us suppose it
proved, that there are several currents and eddies,
which accelerate a ship in her course from the
Canaries to America, yet the trade-winds must be
allowed their share in the voyage. In like man-
ner, although other causes may occur to operate
on the minds of men, who are resolved to surren-
der all earthly advantages for what appears to
them the truth, yet it will always make a plain
honest man mistrust a neighbour or a party, when
he rinds by experience, that he or they are ad-
dicted to falsehood and slander, and habituated
to act in opposition to their most sacred princi-
ples. By this simple and natural sentiment of
moral virtue, any one may account why many
sincere Protestants, on the principle of liberty of
conscience, may choose to embrace the calum*
niated Catholic faith; and why Catholics so
steadfastly adhere to their religion, notwithstand-
ing the tremendous odds it has to struggle
25
against. Therefore, those who Undertake to
prove that the causes specified have no effect,
must not think of succeeding by simply asserting
that there are collateral causes. In order to re-
fute me, they must shew, that calumny, false-
hood, and prevarication, when used by Protest-
ants, have no eflfectin bringing disgrace on their
religion ; or they must prove, that the instances
of calumny, falsehood, and prevarication, which
have qeen produced, never existed amongst Pro-
testants, and are merely the inventions of their
enemies.
Now the moral feelings of mankind, which will
not bear an open insult on virtue, should forbid
our antagonists to maintain in the face of the
public, that slander and prevarication are not dis-
graceful to their cause ; therefore I repeat, the
only effectual manner of answering me, is, for
them to demonstrate, that the instances alledged
in evidence never existed amongst Protestants.
When the dispute shall come to this issue, there
will be nothing wanting but a little candour and
honesty to bring it to a clear decision ; because
the question will resolve itself in matters of fact
and notoriety. I will refer to a fact which
occurred lately at Worcester: an election of an
Apothecary and Surgeon to the Infirmary of that
City was to be decided by the votes of the go-
verning Subscribers, and one of the two competi*
tors for the situation was a very respectable Ca-
tholic, to whom a considerable number of the
Protestant Subscribers (for the Subscribers are
D
chiefly Protestants) had promised their votes;
on observing that the scale of votes was nearly
balanced, and that a most respectable Catholic
Gentleman (and who had long had the honour
of naming one of the members of the county)
was approaching to poll for the Catholic, a Pro-
testant Clergyman suddenly addressed the com-
pany, saying, that it was no longer a competition
in favour of the abilities of the respective Candi-
dates, but a contest for power and ascendancy be-
tween the Church of England and the Catholics
that all Protestants were called upon to stand up
for their religion and that since the law did not
consider the Catholics as deserving of any civil
trust, it was surely not right to commit to them
the lives and health of the Protestant subjects.
The Bishop of Worcester, who was in the chair,
most honourably withdrew, declaring he would
not disgrace himself by filling it any longer*.
* .1 have heard, since the first printing of this Letter, that the case
I refer to is not correct as to every circumstance. I may have been
possibly misled in respect to some circumstances, having only heard
the affair related by a person who was travelling through Worcester
at the time. But the main fact, I believe, is true, viz. that a
No POPERY cry was raised in the above-mentioned meeting, and
that the Bishop of Worcester resigned the chair to another. Surely
not without a cause. 1 have since learnt that the Protestant can-
didate was a young man, aged one and twenty, the Catholic six and
twenty that the Catholic had the usual testimonials of the physi-
cians, which the Protestant candidate could not obtain.
The following Letter was subsequently inserted.
To the Editor of the British Press.
SIR Since the interruption of the Letters in your paper, signed
" A CATHOLIC PRIEST," which has been owing to an accidental cir-
27
The infamy of this business, however, did not end
here it had been agreed upon that the poll
should be kept open for three hours before the
expiration, however, of that time, when the Pro-
testant Candidate had one a head, his party, under*
standing that others were on the way to vote for
the Catholic, resolved to close the poll, and, in a
most outrageous and violent manner, insisted on
the Chairman complying thus excluding the
remaining voters from their right of suffrage. I
may safely ask, then, if this be keeping faith with
either heretics or Catholics? The respectable
part of the Protestant Clergy blushed in silence
the Laity, to this day, pass the most unfavour-
able reflections on the Clergy, and the Catholic
triumphs.
Before I close this Letter, however, 1 feel in-
clined to hint at a cause which, within these last
twenty years, has operated very powerfully in,
cumstance, I have been informed that the account wl ich I gave in
some of those Letters respecting the election of a Surgeon tor the
Worcester Infirmary, was incorrectly stated by me, and has given
offence to some of the parties on that account. Indeed I relied on
the information of a person who happened to be travelling through
Worcester at the time, and I am truly sorry to perceive that I was
misled by him as to some of the circumstances, I am now iniormed,
that the respectable Catholic Gentleman I nouced, was not insulted
in the personal manner I stated, by a Protestant Clergyman ad-
dressing the company in his hearing.. I am also informed that tne
Bishop of Worcester, on retiring from the chair, assigned the late-
ness of the hour as the reason.
I respectfully remain, the Author of the Letters signed,
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
JV&.4, 1313=
28
favour of Catholicity. My Right Rev. and Rev.
Adversaries little suspect what great obligations
we have to them in this secret and individual
cause. As a friend to Catholicity, I should
be sorry were it to cease, since it can never
fail to operate a certain effect. It is known
to many other Catholic Clergymen as well as
to myself, and before I take my leave of the
public, it shall be made known to Protestants.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
LETTER VII.
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE
OF CATHOLICS.
enumerating the various
advantages that have been given to Catholicity
by the indiscreet methods made use of to over-
throw it, I should be very deficient in my cata-
logue, if I did not take notice of the no less lu-
dicrous than unsuccessful attempts to prove the
Pope to be Antichrist.
This is a standing jest among Catholics, and
gives them an opportunity of retorting upon
Protesiants, that they are the false Prophets
foretold in the Scripture, to come in the latter
days.
In the times of Protestant bigotry and dark-
ness (for there have been the dark ages of Pro-
testancy as well as of Gothic superstition), when
29
the railing in of the communion-table was viewed
like the erection of an altar to the Pope ; when
an organ in the church was considered as the
Devil's bag-pipes, and a decent surplice or cas-
sock, a foul remnant of the whore of Babylon,
and a filthy rag of Rome ; I say, when many
Protestants were so little enlightened as to talk
in this strain, we should not wonder, that to
prove the Pope to be Antichrist, was looked
upon as one of the first-rate arguments against
the Catholics. But in these sceptical days, when
men seem rather inclined to dispute demonstrated
truths, than to admit ill supported chimeras, to
make use of such inconclusive arguments is the
surest way to betray the cause of Protestantism,
and the Catholic Priest desires no better sport,
than to have such childish antagonists to deal
with. Suppose a Deist was to prove the existence
of a God by the doctrine of an innate idea; or a
Christian the truth of revelation by the internal
witness of the spirit, as the Quaker does: can it
be imagined that such a wretched method of ar-
guing, however well intended, would not rather
confirm the Atheist and Infidel in their impious
opinions, than tend in the least to convince them
of their error? What success, then, can be ex-
pected against Catholics, by arguments equally
vague and desultory ; and which only serve to
impress upon the mind a mean opinion of the
cause which is defended by such reasoning, and
a contempt for other arguments which might have
had their weight with them ?
30
Every man, therefore, that wishes well to the
Protestant cause, ought to be very careful of em-
ploying such arguments as these ; for though
they may serve as a tub to the whale, and a bau-
ble for the vulgar to play with, the more candid
and sensible will always review them with reserve
and suspicion ; and accordingly we observe that
some of the more moderate and learned Clergy,
in the time of James the First, were reproached
by the Puritans for teaching that the Pope is not
Antichrist ; and it would certainly have been
more to the credit of Protestants, if all could
have been thus reproached, rather than that so
many of them should have exposed themselves to
the reproaches of the Catholics, by making all
posterity witnesses of their refutation and dis-
grace.
To give a few instances of the unfortunate
soothsayers, who have been confuted by the un-
erring decision of time the famous Brightman
makes the fall of Rome and destruction of the
Pope to happen in 1546; Mr. Durham in 1559;
Mr. Cotton, Mr. Mede, and Mr. Tillinghurst, in
1656; Mr. Symonds in 1695. Mr. Burroughs
makes it fall within 1760 ; and the famous mar-
tyrologist, Mr. Fox, says, after long study and
prayer, it y was cast suddenly in his mind by di-
vine inspiration, that the forty-two months must
be referred to the Church's persecution under the
Roman Emperors, reckoning from John the Bap-
tist ; which exposition, says a Protestant author,
may be received (cum grano salts) as a fair gloss
31
upon the passage; though he owns Fox's compu-
tation did not reach beyond the year 1666. But
whether this Protestant author's gloss upon John
Fox is a fair or a foul one, 1 leave the public to
judge of.
Sir Isaac Newton also prophesied on this sub-
ject, as well as Moore the astrologer, better
known as an almanack maker. The Rev. John
Wesley endeavoured to convince his hearers that
the Papal die was cast, when he began to pour
out the pious effusions of his spirit; and since
the French Revolution, every second year almost
has been marked out for the downfall of Papal
Babylon. Johanna Southcote also joined in the
chorus, and, I believe, committed her lucubra-
tions to print. So that we have the wonderful
phenomenon of Sir Isaac Newton and Johanna
Southcote, with rival arms contending in the
field of fame :
Ferat qui mcruit fialmam.
Several of these works, to which I have just al-
luded, have been recently reprinted by Protes-
tants. But for what purpose I cannot conceive,
unless to convince men that they have frequently
put their confidence in false prophets. It is
strange that the experience of such numerous
miscarriages of old, should not have taught many
modern learned Protestants more wisdom than to
beat their brains out against the almost impene-
trable mysteries of the Apocalypse; in order to
make out, that every one in the catalogue of the
Bishops of Rome, for more than the last thou-
sand years, is the very man of sin, the very Anti-
christ mentioned in the Apocalypse. How much
more worthy of them would it have heen to have
treated these arguments with the contempt they
deserve, and, with the most moderate and learn-
ed Protestants, to have attacked Catholics in their
trenches 1
These more learned champions understood
where their own strength and weakness lay, as
well as the Catholics, and fought the Protestant
cause, not with the scare-crow weapons of mas-
sacres, plots, Pope Joan, and by calling the Bi-
shop of Rome the whore of Babylon, but by
appealing to reason, Scripture, and primitive
authority. How superior were those heroes of
the Reformation to the cabalistical Protestants,
who have fixed the hebdomadal number of Da-
niel, and the number of the beast in the Revela-
tion, on the rack, to make them confess the Pope
to be Antichrist ! I think it evident, then, that
it is the duty of every man, who has a love for
the oracles of God, to endeavour to rescue them
from the hands of such interpreters, who have
not only rendered themselves ridiculous to Ca-
tholics, but have exposed those inscrutable mys-
teries of the Word of God to the laughter of
infidels !
It would be foreign to my intention, as well as
inconsistent with the brevity of a letter, to enter
into the merits of the arguments on both sides of
the question ; it is sufficient for the proof of my
S3
general point, that asserting the Pope to be Anti-
christ, and Christian Rome Bah} ion, is the oc-
casion of great scandal, and has tended to con-
firm Catholics in their religion ; for thry are
struck at observing so many learned Protestants
such bad calculators, not to say deceivers and
false prophets.
But however clear and positive these Christian
rabbins may be in their interpretation of the Re-
velation, some of the most grave and learned
Protestants, at the beginning of the Reforma-
tion, were quite blind to this evident conformity
between the Pope of Rome and the whore of
Babylon, and thought either that Antichrist was
not yet come, or that he was the Turk.
Some ingenious Protestants have indeed found
o
out another, and much shorter way of proving
this grand thesis ; and that is by a kind of divi-
nation by letters and figures, pretending to find
in the numerical letters of 666, (the number of
the beast), the whole mystery of iniquity unfold-
ed ; but, unfortunately for these Gentlemen,
they seem to prove too much : for not only Lewis
the XlVth is proved to be Antichrist by this ar-
gument, but Martin Luther himself. In short,
a bare repetition of these trifles, is a sufficient re-
futation of them ; and therefore, for fear of enter-
ing into insignificant particulars, and tiring my
liberal and enlightened readers, I conclude.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
LETTER VIII.
OX THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF
CATHOLICS.
IT is well known to all atten-
tive readers of English history, that there have been
repeated complaints of the increase of Catholics
since the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign
that is, from a period when at least three-fourths
of the kingdom were Catholics. If this be true
in fact, and not merely a malicious cry of alarm,
or if we even believe that the Catholic religion has
kept its ground at any time since that epoch, in
this case there arises a very curious and important
question to all Protestants, viz. By what
strange means have error, absurdity, and igno-
rance, even while they laboured under so many dis-
couragements and disadvantages, been enabled
to prevail against learning, eloquence, reason,
truth, and the Gospel ?
It is certain, that the writers of Romance never
ventured to bring their little knights into more
unequal combats, or to make them cut down large
giants, at a rate more improbable. However, if
Catholicity has prevailed, it is, I repeat, indis-
putably the interest of Protestants to become ac-
quainted with the secret means of its success, in
order effectually to oppose and prevent it.
As no arts can render falsehood a match for
35
truth, or absurdity for reason, when truth and
reason are equally well defended, it must be clear
to every Protestant, that the arts of Catholics
cannot possibly make up for the defect, unless
there be some mismanagement on the Protestant
side, that renders abortive the all-powerful effects
of truth and reason ; and from .a view of the
forces of the respective parties, he cannot doubt
but his own advantages, if judiciously improved,
would inevitably overwhelm his adversaries.
This reflection has led me to consider the ge-
neral plan which has been adopted in these nations,
for checking and restraining the Catholic reli-
gion ; and after closely examining the course pur-
sued by the Established Clergy, my first conclu-
sion is, that the commanding eloquence of truth
and reason, the light of Scripture, and the preach-
ing and example of the ministers of the Esta-
blished Church, are not the chief means which
have been employed to propagate the Reformation
and enlighten the ignorant Catholics. I do not
say that these means have been entirely overlooked,
but only that the professed confidence, trust, and
reliance of the Established Clergy, in checking
and suppressing the Catholic religion, are in the
strength and \\eight of the secular arm.
Whether this plan of operation against the Ca-
tholic religion he necessary or not, when the
strength and weakness of the parties be consider-
ed, is an enquiry I have not meddled with. I only
ventured to draw the following simple and general
inference from the conduct of Protestants; that
36
when the evidence of truth and reason are little
depended on in religion, and people publicly ap-
peal to statutes, pains, and penalties, they yield a
strong presumption of the weakness of their cause,
and naturally bring it under suspicion. For it is
difficult to persuade men who have any idea of
Christianity or reason, that oaths and proscrip-
tions are, in preference to sermons and instructions,
the proper instruments for converting men from
error, and for propagating true religion; or that
persecution is consistent with liberty of conscience.
Consequently, this plan is ill calculated for per-
suading Catholics of the truth of the Protestant
religion, and even naturally disgusts honest
Protestants, who expect great results exclusively
from the force of truth and the light of the
Gospel.
I aloo, in this inquiry, could not avoid observ-
ing several other measures that enter into the
common plans and conduct of Protestants, in op-
posing the Catholics ; which obviously give to
their religion the appearance of distressed, slaii-
deied, persecuted truth; and at the same time affix
to the Protestants who adopt them an appearance
of calumny, malevolence, and even a spirit of
persecution against principle.
This conduct I alledge to be a sufficient reason
to prejudice many in favour of the Catholic reli-
gion, especially those who judge from appeal ance
only : and thus, to a philosophical inquirer, I
have sufficiently accounted in the mistaken con-
duct of Protestants, for the continuance, and
37
perhaps spread, of the Catholic religion. It fe
also evident, that the Catholic Clergy have here
no necessity of much eloquence or address, since
very little reading or penetration, even in the
Laity, will serve to expose notorious misrepre-
sentation ; and men have no need of being
informed, that calumny and persecution for con-
science sake, by people who profess liberty of
conscience, carry with them a very forbidding
aspect.
To these reflections I acknowledge, that a ge-
neral and indefinite answer, evading all particu-
lars, might be given, by alledging the assiduity
and arts of the Catholic Priesthood, which in-
deed may be a sufficient answer for all those who
require no principles to reason upon, and \vho
are satisfied with words that have no determinate
meaning; but a troublesome Deist, who makes
his own reflections, and will not be put off with
bare sounds, asks, Whether those arts of Catho-
lic Priests are any other than arguments that con-
vince men, 'who have the advantage of that rea-
son which God was pleased to give them ? and
then, pursuing the inquiry through all its diffi-
culties, requests to be told, what are those par-
ticular arts of persuasion, by which Catholics
bewitch men out of their senses ? I say bewitch
men ; for what, besides enchantment, can make
truth appear like falsehood, reason like absurdity,
and the pure light of the Gospel like thick dark-
ness ?
I have shewn by facts, and not by vain meta-
38
physical reasonings, that the best ground of the
Reformation is given up, by the perverse manage-
ment of some Protestants, of more cunning than
sense, who in great measure neglect to make use
of the always irresistible force of truth, and in its
stead betake them to old wives' tales and calum-
nies, where they must inevitably have the worst of
it for the circumstances of Catholics have un-
dergone a complete alteration since the period
when this mode of preaching the Gospel was first
resorted to by Protestant Divines. It certainly
might have produced some effect in the days of
violent persecution, when no priest dared to put
on a black coat or preach a sermon when no
Catholic was allowed, by writing, or any other
way, to answer calumny; it might have succeed-
ed, I say, in some degree, when only one party
was allowed freely to speak (and in this manner
alone are we to account for the amazing calum-
nies propagated against the Catholics). But now
those disgraceful clays of slavery and despotism
have passed, never, I hope, to return; the course
is open to truth, and those who slander must ex-
pect to be publicly exposed; and, like AMAN,
see themselves consigned to that infamy which
they had intended for others. With a view to
truth, peace, and charity, I am thus placing
Protestants on their guard against the advanta-
ges they allow the Catholics, and this is no other
than the same rational advice which has been
frequently given by the greatest champions of the
Reformation. However, I do not mean to infer
39
that the weakness or wickedness of any of its
professors should be a real charge against the
Protestant cause, which should rest on its own
intrinsic merits, on truth and on the Gospel. It
is plain, then, that all those who are inclined to
intrust it to truth and reason, should give up
with contempt those calumnies and misrepresen-
tations of weak Protestants, which, independ-
ently of every other circumstance, cast a disgrace
and suspicion on the Reformation, as they always
will on any cause thus defended.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
LETTER IX.
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF
CATHOLICS.
WELL ! thanks to the
new Society of Friends to the Established
Church, I noticed in my fourth Letter, now the
elimax seems completed, and we are all pro-
nounced Pagans. " Conyers Middleton's Letter
from Rome," has just been put into my hands,
hot from the press ; and I do not conceive that
colour can make us blacker, than the shades in
which we are there drawn. " We are Pagans."
" Our Religion is Paganism" " Our Churches
and Chapels are Heathen Temples" " Our acts
of worship all Idolatry" and <f The Saints whom
40
we venerate are no other than the ancient Gods
and Goddesses under new names." Well ! now
that the farce has heen written, I would have
the Rev. and Right Rev. Actors come forward,
and play off the whole on Covent Garden stage,
for the Christmas amusement of the young gen-
tlemen and ladies at this season of the year. But
I must first let the young audience into a secret,
which, by the suppression of dates, the present
Pall-Mall Editor, it seems, does not wish should
be known. This work was first got up in capital
style eighty-four years ago, when a tall spare-
faced man, with a full-bottomed wig, and waist-
coat pockets that would have held more guineas
than are perhaps at present in all London (his
name wasChalloner) stood up in the midst of the
fun, and administered to the actors a vomit and
cathartic, that set them all scampering ; so that
till this day they have never ventured to appeal-
before the public again. Now I should like to
give them once more the fcame dose, and then I
think for some time we should hear no more of
these mountebanks.
I observe that the words Papist, Popish, Ro-
mish, Romanist, are the magical terms by
which our adversaries chiefly hope to make an
impression ; and am told there has been a consi-
derable correspondence in one of the Oxford
Journals, on the propriety of our friends using
these terms. I have not seen any part of the
correspondence, but I have been informed that a
respectable Protestant friend of ours justifies the
41
use of them by a reference to dictionaries. Oh '
if all language be good and polite that is drawn
from a dictionary, the Oxford Protestant Corres-
pondent could not have been offended had he
received the following letter from any of his gen-
teeler neighbours :
" My DEAR FELLOW On my way home from Oxford, I met one of
your knaves, whom you keep at home to manage your business ; and
he tells me, that your daughter, who, in my opinion, is a very nice
wench, is going to be married to a rich tenant of yours, who, lean
assure you, is a villain that may be depended upon in these rough
times. By the bye, I think your eldest son and heir would find an
excellent match in one of Sir Harry 's maids !
" I remain, your obedient servant,
"A.B."
Now, should the Gentleman, on receiving
such a letter, express himself extremely insulted,
and determined to have satisfaction, the writer
has only to say "Indeed, Sir, I never meant to
affront you ; I have said nothing that should give
you offence ; and I appeal to Johnson's Dic-
tionary." To this, I think,* the reply would be,
" Sir, if you ever again make such indiscreet
use of Johnson's Dictionary, I'll make free use
of my cane, and so believe me to be,
" Your humble servant, c."
Thus we perceive, that the propriety and po-
liteness of an expression is not to be determined
by a dictionary, (otherwise foreigners would not
commit the blunders they make in language) but
by the sense in which the expression Js commonly
42
used. Now, Papist is a nick-name; and if you
ask the maiden aunt (whose charge it is to in-
struct the children in their catechism and first
principles) to define a Papist, the pious lady will
inform you, that a Papist is a man who has put off
human nature, and all its tender feelings ; who
lays aside all regard for friends, country, laws,
and connections, whenever he happens to live in a
society of men, who differ with him in religious
opinions ; that in every such case, he is changed
into an enemy ; their calamities and woes are his
joys ; the dying groans of mothers, and the
cries of expiring babes, clinging to the breast,
become his music ; that the burning of houses,
at the dead hour of night, when the peaceable and
innocent inhabitants are asleep, or the cutting of
throats, and drinking a little of the blood while it
is yet warm with life, are his darling appetites : in
short, words can never represent the Papist, but
especially the Popish Priest, in shades sufficiently
black and hideous for the vulgar idea; or for
an imagination that has received the impressions,
as the vulgar have, from a thousand bloody and
horrid talcs, successively repeated, and deeply en-
graved by the hand of time ; and to perpetuate
uhich, are daily printed and sold at cheap prices
to the poor, abundance of pious sermons, books
of instruction, and tracts, all with a view of
strengthening Protestant youth against the dan-
gers of Popery.
The tremendous name of Papist, certainly has
answered several of the good purposes for which
, 43
it was invented ; it has pulled down Bishops, co-
vered as they were with the badges of the heast ;
it has cut oft* a stiff Archbishop's head, and'his
Royal Master's soon after; it has singled out
every man who durst be loyal, to the fury of an
enraged populace ; it has abolished the liturgy of
the Established Church, set three kingdoms in
flames, and destroyed the constitution ; and it is
still piously preserved for the same salutary pur-
poses, whenever a proper occasion occurs for
using it with effect, as every one knows it has
been lately employed most profusely by many of
the Right Rev. Bishops and Rev. Clergy of the
Established Church, to raise an opposition to the
Catholic Claims ; though the claimants merely
petition, as lo^al faithful subjects, for an equal
share in the advantages of the constitution. Our
adversaries seem to have forgotten, that the terms
Papists, Popish, and Popery, were once most li-
berally bestowed upon themselves ; and that in
the year i643, a petition was presented to Parlia-
ment by the Puritans, styling the Established
Religion Popery, and praying, " that the whole
body and practice of Popery might be totally
abolished " and I would have these same gen-
tlemen take care, lest the cry of Paganism be one
day raised against them.
How unfair, then, and impolitic is it, to set the
Protestant population against the Catholic, and
thus urge them both, as in the days of Charles the
First, into a civil dispute? How irreligious and
ungenerous, to make no distinctions, and to ca-
F 2
44
lumniate without reserve a whole hody of persons.
Surely, such men as Bishops should not commit
themselves in the society of the vulgar, or prosti-
tute their respectability as Preachers, as Gen-
tlemen, and as Christians, hy allowing- their
publications to stand in a No POPLIIY Cata-
logue.
If an individual totally unacquainted with Ca-
tholics, was to form his opinion of our community
by what he reads in Mr. Storkdale's publications,
such as the Protestant Advocate, certainlvL he
would conceive that we form a people worse than
the disciples of Mahomet, exhibiting every vice
without a single virtue a miracle of contradic-
tion monsters in heart and mind. I will not
waste my time any longer, than in protesting
against these slanders, libels, and fabrications ;
but 1 will appeal at once to those persons in
Great Britain and Ireland, \vhoare situated in the
neighbourhood of Catholic families, to say, if in
fact they are not the very contrast of what has
been reported of them by their enemies if they
are not generous, kind hearted, and neighbourly
if they are not well educated and enlightened
if their wives are not loving, prudent, and
faithful if their daughters are not accomplished,
good natured, and modest if their sons arc
not friendly, sincere, and loyal if their do-
mestics are not affectionate and honest if
their Chaplains arc not chaste, sober, modest,
virtuous, and humble men if they arc not of-
ten.?r seen at church, than in a ball-room or a
45
theatre if they are not more attentive in instruct-
ing the poor, and consoling the dying, than to
fox hunting, shooting, lounging, and racing
if they are not oftener found breathing the putrid
air of a prison and an hospital, than inhaling the
fragrant perfumes in the lobbies of the opera-
house, or at a masquerade fete.
Any one then may now understand why Protes-
tant Clergymen wish to stigmatize us with the
names of Papist, Popish, Romish, and Romanist,
in opposition to our own family name of Catholic.
In fact, as they are used, the one signifies a villain,
the other, an unreformed Christian. The distinc-
tion is strikingly displayed in the little work of
a man, who was once a Protestant, intitled, THE
PAPIST MIS-REPRESLNTED AND REPRESENTED.
Men with their property general lv inherit and
retain the names of their ancestors ; whereas
those who are newly introduced into the world,
often take their name from the estate, which has
been given to them.
But my reverend adversaries smile and say, I
am only a Catholic Priest and what is that to
the purpose? Is there an Act of Parliament that
changes the nature of tiuth in the mouth of a
Catholic Priest ? If in reckoning, he says, that
two and two make tour, and if he condemns
prevarication and falsehood, it is surely a wretch-
ed refutation, to alledge that these are only the
assertions of a Catholic Priest, and therefore not
true : yet this kind of refutation is as confidently
used, as a demonstration of Euclid, and is daily
46
imposed as such, on his Majesty's subjects of
Great Britain.
Now, that these gentlemen may be under no
mistake, I will shew them in what circumstance
the evidence of a Catholic Priest is weak. When
a Catholic Priest attempts to offer his own testi-
mony for a secret fact, or a piece of intelligence
he pretends to have received by the confession of
a certain Protestant of veracity; or by the con-
fession of several of the common people among Pro-
testanls ; or \\henheobtrudes upon the public
any other kind of intelligence, supported merely
by his own assertions ; then the fact of his being
a Catholic Priest wholly destroys his credit. But
observe, for the same reason, the tales published
from time to time in the newspapers, and pam-
phlets against Catholics, are of no other conse-
quence than to show the animosity and persecut-
ing spirit of the writers. But when a Catholic
Priest speaks of notorious facts, that depend not
on his own veracity for their credit ; for instance,
when he says it is absurd to frame doctrines for
Catholics, which they neither believe nor teach ;
when he says they are a slandered, insulted people,
robbed by public prejudice of that brotherly
esteem which is due to every creature that bears
the sacred image of human nature ; when he says,
that persecution for conscience sake is inconsist-
ent with the principles of Protestantism, lie in-
sists, that the person who pretends to refute him,
by calling him a popish priest, only shows his
teeth, without biting; and has said nothing to the
47
discredit of these facts. I say also they are false
friends to Protestantism, and do a greater injury
to their cause than they are aware off.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
LETTER X.
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF
CATHOLICS.
I HAVE always observed, that,
in proportion as a Catholic Priest shews a dash of
the world, in proportion as principle sits easy upon
him, and he can make himself (in a sense rather
different, I believe, from that in which the Apos-
tle uses the words) "all to all," just in the same
ratio he rises in the esteem of many of the Pro-
testant Clergy, and they confer upon him the
distinguishing title of a gentleman and a good
fellow. I just mean to say, that when a Priest
will sit clown in any company and drink a cheer-
ful glass, not that he is to get drunk, for I never
saw a Priest drunk in my life, or if he will enter-
tain the company with a little drollery, or a bit
of fun, or a good toast, I do not mean any thing
indecorous or immodest, for I never heard an
oath uttered, or an immodest song or ex-
pression from any Priest, though I have associated
with hundreds, both French and English I say.
43
when a Priest happens to be of worldly character
or a bon viva?if, he is in general particularly, well
spoken of by the Protestant Clergy, and in high
favour with the Bishops. I imagine that some of
them consider this fashioned, merry, jolly hearted
character the very best for a Minister of the Gos-
pel ; and, consequently, that they endeavour to
model themselves upon it.
Now, it is hardly fair to expect that I should let
the Protestant Clergy into the secrets of Catholic
economy ; hut I will just put them in possession of
a fact, in the way of friendly communication,
which they may take advantage of, if they please,
viz. Catholicity owes all its success to the choice
of a different description of Ministers. The cha-
racter I have been describing, may be very amia-
ble; but unfortunately the generality of mankind
have such peculiar and original tastes, at least the
Catholics, that they toss up their noses, and turn
and twist in every direction, till they fix their
eyes upon some humble, grave, and retired Priest ;
and then, like sure spaniels coming upon game,
all go directly in pursuit; and this unworldly
praying Priest, immediately gathers like a snow-
ball. Now, if the Protestant Bishops were wise,
they would take advantage of this hint ; for the
Catholic Bishops are aware of what is so de-
cidedly to the interest of their flocks, and there-
fore if they can avoid it, they never give a con-
gregation to a Clergyman of any other descrip-
tion.
It is sticl, that there is a great falling off from
49
the Protestant Church in London, to the Catholic,
and if it be so, it should chiefly be attributed to
this cause. What reason, then, can the Protestant
Clergy have in future for complaining of an effect,
which they may remedy if they please ? Now, to
be open, I will just sketch for them that plan of
life, by which the Catholic Clergy gain so many
proselytes, in this great city of London, in order
that, by adopting the same course, they may reap
equal success.
The Catholic Priests, winter and summer,
generally rise between the hours of five and seven,
though some make a practice of never being in
bed after four. The two first hours of the day
are devoted to private prayer. Our chapels open
every day in the year, at half past seven in the
morning: and between the hours of eight and
twelve you will seldom enter, without seeing a
Priest at the altar; as they officiate at the dif-
ferent hours, in regular rotation, for the advan-
tage and convenience of the congregation Nearly
the whole of the morning, till one o'clock, may
be said to be taken up with prayer, or the in-
struction of individuals, and often will you see
the Priest, who can rise with Pindar in his loftiest
flights, cheerfully descending to the level of the
humblest understanding, and with the utmost
solicitude and labour, explaining to the infant, or
the poor unlettered matron, the first article of the
Apostles' creed.
He then issues forth from his chamber, not to
G
50
distribute his cards at the doors of fashion- not in
quest of invitations to dinners to balls or to
routs ; but to the couches of the sick to the
hovels of the distressed to loathsome cellars and
garrets to the workhouses and the hospitals : and
his chief riches are a cheerful heart and an upright
conscience. With these he cheers the drooping and
desponding, and when he can afford a gift, he
leaves behind him the generous tribute of his
humble means.
Neither the name of Protestant, Dissenter, or
Methodist, repels him ; no disorder, however con-
tagious or offensive *, nor distance, startles him ;
at all hours of the night he is called upon, and no
Catholic Priest in London ever retires to his bed,
without being exposed to be roused from it at any
hour to assist the dying. Such is the manner in
which they spend their day ; the evenings of which
are cither occupied with private prayer, the pre-
paration of sermons, instructive reading, or in the
society of virtuous and respectable friends. With
all this toil and labour, their receipts however
* Within a very few days after the insertion of this Letter in the
newspapers, the Rev. Philip Darell, a Priest of most interesting
character and accomplished manners, fell a victim to his charity in
the town of Preston in Lancashire, in the 31st year of his age;
having taken a putrid fever, from a person whom he had attended
in the last stage of that disorder, lie belonged to a very ancient
Catholic family in Kent ; and at his death, left the companion of
his labours (another respectable clergyman), confined to his bed,
with a fever, which had been communicated to him, in a similar
manner.
51
seldom reach 1001. a year. Nevertheless, they in
general contrive to distribute several pounds of
this sum among the poor.
Now can Protestant Bishops be surprised that
this kind of life, whether in England or in Ire-
land, should have its natural effect among those
who, some how or other, have got a taste and
liking for this singular species of virtue, and pre-
fer it to any other ? The poor all say it is true
and genuine, and the rich avow there is no
better ; and so this strange, stiff-principled, and
antiquated being of a Catholic Priest, con-
trary to all expectation, gathers like a snow- ball
in spite of himself. But then, is it fair that
all the Protestant Bishops and Clergy should
fall foul of him for making proselytes, when, in
fact, the Protestants are proselyting themselves ;
and the law says, the Priest shall not shut the
doors of his Chapel against any description
of persons? Concluding with the hope that I
have advanced nothing that should give offence,
I remain,
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
o 2
LETTER XL
OX THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF
CATHOLICS.
** HEN the feelings of men
have been wound up to an unnatural state, by an
improper or immoderate use of stimulants, the
patient is sure to sink under the violence of some
paroxysm, or to pass into a state of excessive
lassitude and debility.
We observe continually, that those who, at
times, exhibit an extraordinary flow of spirits,
are often subject to a great depression of mind
and if the traveller will only wait till the sweep-
ing torrent has spent its force, he may usually
continue his journey on dry land. Thus in the
moral, not less than in the physical world, we
(distinguish the truth of the axiom, Xil violentum
durabile.
The Protestant Clergy, by their anonymous
publications, as well as their acknowledged ad-
dresses, sermons, &c. have fixed the public at-
tention so steadily upon the body of Catholic
Priests, that every man, woman, and child, is
now eager to weigh us in the scales of common
virtue, in order to determine if, in their senti-
ment, we ought to pass current ; and the mode
is usually to place us in one balance, and the Par-
son of the Parish in the other.
53
Certainly, whilst the fever of public irritation
is made to heat with so high a pulse, the un-
thinking crowd may he brought, for the moment,
to charge the Priest with the worst of passions.
I can well conceive, in these days of prejudice,
a jolly Clergyman of the Established Church
resting upon his sleek horse at a village ale-
house door, after a hard chase in pursuit of rey-
nard, and surrounded by the squires of the hunt,
telling the glorious feats of the day to the land-
lord, who is pouring forth before him the grate-
ful libation of a glass of ale ; and as he careless-
ly whisks the noble brush across the mane of his
steed, the neighbouring Priest, with a grave
countenance and fatigued step, passes by, on
his \vay home from a distant member of his flock,
whom he had just communicated in a dying
state, under the violence of a putrid fever. As
he passes by, dressed in a powdered wig, a
square coat, and a three cornered hat, which he
civilly touches, the parson, giving the wink to
the squire, exclaims, " Do you see that supersti-
tious mortal? I wonder what mischief he has
been at. Ah ! take my word for it, he, and all
the rest of his sort, are ready to cut our throats.
I think, next Sunday, of giving the people a
caution against them, and of telling them what
disloyal blood-thirsty rascals they are." " Lord,
Sir !" exclaims the landlady, " that Gentleman is
very inoffensive; I don't think he would hurt a
chicken. You need not be so spicious of him;
he has only been about five miles off to see a
man in a fever he passed by about four hours
agone, and told me he was going upon yonder
feld I am told that several of your people have
the same disorder." " Well, what can I do ?
let them live or die I'll not go near them "
"But then they will send for the Priest," answered
the good dame. u Well, let them; all I say is,
that if he makes proselytes of them, I'll prosecute
him, before a Grand Jury, for getting members
over from the Church " Now, I have here said
nothing which is not nearly fact.
Certainly, then, whilst the popular cry is artifi-
cially raised, and prejudice runs with so strong a
tide against the Catholic Clergy in England and
Ireland, little can be said with effect in their
defence. But this state of things cannot last ; the
waters will ebb in their turn, and then any good
and respectable landlady is equal .o expose and
refute all the false logic of this fox-hunting Par-
son. I will simply ask, if it be likely that such
men as I have described in this and my last letter,
would make the murdering of a Protestant, dis-
loyalty to a King, and a breach of public or pri-
vate faith, the principles of their religion and moral
virtue ? Nay, will any man lay his hand upon
his heart, and say that he btlieves it possible?
By their fruits ye shall know them : do men gather
grapes off thorns, and Jigs off thistles ?
Our principles of probity and justice are car-
ried, rot only in theory but in practice also, far
beyond what Protestants have ever formed any
conception of. For instance, should half a dozen
servants conspire to rob their master and divide
the booty, perhaps Protestant justice would be
satisfied, if each make restitution of his share,
whether all consent or not; Catholic justice
goes farther, and requires each individual to see
that the master be put in the same state in respect
to his property as before the robbery and if five
of the number refuse to surrender their shares, it
insists that the individual sixth shall make resti-
tution of the whole amount. In the same man-
ner, if an individual have knowledge of a de-
sign against the life of any person, Protestant
or Catholic (if I must explain the word any),
or against the lawful authority of the King or
Government, it requires that he shall not be ad-
mitted to sacramental communion, until the same
te communicated to the interested parties. In
short, instead of imagining that a Priest can ex-
cuse sin, either past, present, or to come, let
it be known, to use a strong figurative expres-
sion, that our principles will not allow us to
break a hair of our neighbour's head. But it
will be said, there were several Priests who joined
in the late Irish rebellion, more properly called
disturbances I admit the fact ; but what sort of
Priests were they? were they not of the drunken
fox-hunting kind ? were they not previously bad
in their morals, lewd in their conversation, des-
pised in their flocks, and in every thing the re-
verse of what a good Priest ought to be? Yes I
If iu the three kingdoms of England, Scotland,
and Ireland, there be one Priest that is called vir-
56
tuous and respectable by his Bishop and Congre-
gation, who is a disloyal man, and inclined to
hurt his Protestant neighbour, or to infringe
upon any of the rights of others, let him be nam-
ed let him be named. I appeal to the whole
country Heavens, what a challenge ! Could
Protestants stand such a test ? I'll extend the
challenge to the last hundred years and if not
a single fact can be produced in evidence, then let
virtue, loyalty, and a Catholic Priest be synoni-
mous.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
LETTER XII.
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE
OF CATHOLICS.
J N my last, I challenged the
whole united kingdom to name that individual
Priest, who, professing principles of disloyalty
tohisking, or of injustice to his neighbour whe-
ther Catholic, Protestant, or Mahometan, is
suffered to officiate for any Catholic congrega-
tion. I again appeal to every county and parish,
to say, if our loyalty and patriotism is not of the
warm and enthusiastic kind. If we shew not an
hereditary affection to Royalty in an English Mo-
narch if those who have been nursed with us in
the land of our fathers, who have fattened in the
57
.
same soil, and breathed the same free air, are
not, in a political sense, dearer to us as Bri-
tons, than all the other Christians of the world ?
Again, I challenge my country to name an
individual that is deserving of suspicion, and
entreat all Protestants to judge of the fidelity
of the English and Irish Catholic Priests, by
the upright and steady deportment of sixty
thousand French Clergymen during the French
Revolution. I entreat them to mark the pa-
tient suffering of the Pope himself, for con-
science . sake, and to observe, that amidst the ge-
neral wreck of principle, and through the dark
and tedious night of irreligion and courtly de-
pravity which have overspread the entire conti-
nent of Europe, he shines the uneclipsed star of
justice to other potentates and sovereigns, and
lives the victim of charity and unbroken faith
with Protestant England*. I would, moreover, if
* See PIECES OFFICIELLF.S ET AUTHENTIQUES QUI ONT PATIU A CF
SUJET, vol. 1. pp. 103, 119, 147. Londres, Keating ct Co.
FIRST DECREE.
" Napoleon, by the grace of God, and by the constitution of the
state, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Con-
federation of the Rhine, &c. c.
" Seeing that the actual Sovereign of Rome has constantly re-
fused to declare war against the English, and to coalesce with the
Kings of Italy and of Naples, for the defence of the peninsula of
Italy the provinces of the. Pope's government shall be irrevocably and
for ever annexed to our kingdom of Italy.
" Given at our Imperial Palace of St. Cloud, April 2d, 1808.
(Signed) NAPOLEON."
H
58
his Majesty's Ministers would agree to my propo-
sition, put the loyalty, charity, and justice of
Answer to hi* Eminence Cardinal GABRIELLI, First Secretary of
State, to the Note of his Excellency M. CHAMPAGNY, addressed to
M. LEFEBRE, Charged' Affaires from the EMPEROR OF THE FREHCH.
Dated AprilW, 1808.
" After your Excellency had made known to the Holy Father*
that it was the decided wish of his Majesty the Emperor and King,
that he should enter into an offensive and defensive league with the
other powers of Italy, as had been declared by M. Champagny to
the Cardinal Caprara by the note of the 3d current, the dispatch of
the said Cardinal has been received, which brought the original note
of the above minister.
" The Holy Father, after having attentively read and considered
the said document, has ordered Cardinal Gabrielli, First Secretary of
State, to make known to your Excellency his Holiness's sentiments
on, its contents. Beginning with that which forms the cardinal point
among all the others, his Holiness has seen with pain, that even
the final proposal therein contained, of the offensive and defen-
sive league, should be accompanied with the threat of depriving hira
of his temporal dominions in case of his non-compliance. If worldly
considerations had at all influenced the conduct of the Holy Father,
lie would from the first have yielded to the wish of his Majesty, and
not have exposed himself to suffer so many calamities ; but the Holy
Father is regulated alone by the consideration due to his d ityandhis
conscience: both have prevented him from agreeing to the federation,
and they equally hinder him from consenting to the offensive and
defensive league, which differs but in name : since it is not meant
to except any prince to whom the Pope, according to the circum-
stances of the times, might not become an enemy.
" His Holiness feels, moreover, that this article, far from im-
proving, detracts from his situation. In the articles presented to
Cardinal de Bayan,the federation was proposed against the Infidels*
and the English only. But this is couched in general terms, and
whilst it points out no people as an enemy, it excludes no govern-
ment, no nation, from the contingency of becoming one. If, then, his
Holiness declined from conscientious motives to be a party to that
federation, he is equally withheld from this league. The Holy Father
would not then merely bind himself to a defence, but to an aggres-
* The Algcrines and Moors, who are always at war with. the States
ofltaly.
59
every Catholic Priest and Bishop in England and
Ireland to a sure test, by the following contriv-
sion. Then would be seen the Minister of the God of Peace plac-
ing himself in a state of perpetual warfare ; then would be seen
their common Father in arms against his children, and the Head of
the Church exposing himself, by his own act, to a deprivation of his
spiritual connection with the Catholics of those powers against
which the league would make it imperative on him to act hostilely.
How, then, can his Holiness shake off his proper and natural charac-
ter, and sacrifice his duty, without making himself responsible beforo
God, for the mischief that would ensue to religion?
" His Holiness, unlike other Princes, is invested with a two-fold
character, namely, of Sovereign Pontiff, and of temporal Sovereign,
and has given repeated evidence that he cannot, by virtue of this
second qualification, enter upon engagements which would lead to
results militating against his first and most important office, and in-
juring the religion ol which he is the Head, the Propagator, and the
Defender, His Holiness, therefore, cannot enter into any offensive
and defensive league, which would, by a permanent and progres-
sive system, drag him into hostility against all those powers upon
which his Majesty may think proper to make war : since the Italian
States, now dependant upon his Majesty, can never avoid taking
part in such wars. His Holiness would consequently be obliged to
become a party in them by virtue of this league. Such an engage-
ment must begin to be acted upon by the Pope trom this moment,
against the King of Portugal, and against any Catholic Prince ;
thus waging war against him without a motive. Farther, it must be
waged against all those powers, whether Catholic or not, who may,
upon whatever grounds, be the enemies of any Italian Prince.
Thus is the Head of the Church, accustomed as he is to rule
his estates in peace, driven in a moment to a state of warfare, offen-
sive against hostile powers, and defensive of the others. This engage-
ment is too repugnant to the sacred duties of his Holiness, and too
injurious to the interests oi religion, to be entered into by the Head
of that religion.
" His Holiness considers equally false and wide of truth, the pro-
position, * thg,t by refusing to enter into this offensive and defen-
sive league, he would shew a determination of consenting to no arrange-
ment or peace with the Emperor of the French, and that it would
amount to a declaration of war?
" How could it be supposed that the Holy Father would harbour
H 2
60
ance : I would have the annexed questions print-
ed in a circular letter, which on a fixed day should
Mich a thought; since it is because he will not enter into war with
any power, tiiat he has so long endured the most hostile treatment,
and is still prepared to endure the threatened loss of his dominions.
Heuvenis witness of the purity of his Holiness's intentions, and the
world will judge if it were likely that he should have conceived so
extraordinary a design/'
DECLARATION OF HIS HOLINESS
To M. ALBJbirri, Chargt d'Ajf'airc s of the Kingdom of Italy.
From the Quirinat Palace, May 19, 1808.
" The Holy Father has seen, with infinite regret, that the force of
those reasons which he before advanced, has not prevented his Impe-
rial and Royal Majesty from putting his threats in execution. He
has seen with the same sentiments that the powerful Monarch in
wiiosc hands he placed, at the foot of the altar, the sceptre and the
rod of justice, has, in return, committed a new act of spoliation .upon
his remaining possessions.
" But what was the surprise of his Holiness, on seeing a decree
dated one day previous to M. Champagny's note ; so that, before
that minister renewed his proposition, and received an answer, the
tale of the usurped provinces had been determined.
" The astonishment of the Holy Father was still more increased
by seeing that the cause assigned for !his spoliation was, his constant
I to make w r upon the English, and to league himself wit k flic
Kings of Italy and Naples.
" His Holiness had never ceased to represent, that his sacred
character of Minister of Peace, (the God, whose representative
h<: i-, being the God of Peace> that his quality of Head of
Religion, Unive.rsil Pastor, and common Father of all the Faith-
ful ; that those sacred law-, of justice, of which, as representative
of a God who is the source of it, he ought to be the guardian
and avenger, permitted him not to enter into a system of war, and
still less to declare it, without any motive whatever* against the Bri-
tish government, from which he had rjfvcv received the slightest of-
fence. Nevertheless, the Holy Father in treated his Majesty to re-
flect, that neither having nor being capable of having any enemies,
i ho Vicar of Christ, who ramc into this world, not to foment,
but to destroy enmity, he could not pledge himself and his successors
for ever, as the Emperor desired, to make war in the cause of other?.
61
be franked to every Catholic Bishop and Priest
in the united kingdom The questions should be
1st. Can any power on earth, civil or religious,
justify you in rebelling against, or in encouraging
others to rebel against, the authority of the Bri-
tish Government ?
2d. Can any power on earth, civil or religious,
justify you in meditating, or in encouraging
others to meditate, the death of any person or
persons in the whole world ?
3d. Can any power on earth, civil or religious,
justify you in injuring any man within these
kingdoms or empire, either in his person, proper-
ty, or character, whatever be his religion or in
encouraging: others to do the same or in com-
o o
mitting an act of revenge against persons not
of the same religion as yourself or in per-
mitting others to do it or praising them for
so doing ?
4th. Can any power on earth, civil or religious,
authorize you to admit to Sacramental Commu-
nion, or the last rites of your Church, any one
who is or has been in this disposition of mind,
" His Holiness had stated the incalculable mischiefs which would
result to religion, if he were to enter into a system of perpetual
league, and that he could not, without violating his honour, with-
out incurring universal hatred without betraying his duty and his
conscience, expose himself, in consequence of the proposed treaty,
to become the enemy of every sovereign, even non-Catholics, and
to lay himself under the obligation of making war upon them ;
but all these representations, and all these arguments, so often
laid before his Majesty with paternal mildness, have produced no
impression.
62
until he has repented of his sin before God, and
absolutely renounced such intention, wish, or de-
sign ?
Now, if these propositions were submitted in
the manner I have advised, with the request of an
answer to them by the return of post, addressed
to the Secretary of State (which would necessari-
ly exclude all collusion) I will venture to affirm,
that there is not a Catholic Bishop or Priest in
the United Kingdom, who would not affix a ne-
gative to each proposition. This is a bold chal-
lenge, but let it be made, if we cannot be other-
wise believed. In proof, moreover, look to our
Catechisms, Prayer-Books, and works of instruc-
tion, in general use among Catholics. Theie is
one little book, however, which I will particu-
larize, and recommend to every Protestant who
wishes to become acquainted with the principles
of Catholics, with their faith, and their religious
practices. I merely specify this book, among a
great many others that I could name, because
therein a Protestant is able to view the Catholic
principles and religion in his own light; and
consequently will be most likely to comprehend
them. The title of the book is, " Liturgy ; or,
a Book of Common Prayers, and Administration of
Sacraments, with other Rites and Ceremonies of
the Church, fur the use of all Christians in the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.' 1
Sold by Keating and Co. Duke-street, Grosve-
uor- square. Price 5s. (kl.
This little book is almost invaluable to a Pro-
63
testant, because he may refer to it as he refers to
his dictionary. Under the " Article xl. Of the
King and Civil Magistrates" I there read, u All
men, whatever be their profession or religion,
are subject to the civil powers under which they
live; and, therefore, must never suppose that
any spiritual authority can lawfully claim civil
obedience from them in any civil matter, when
such obedience would be a violation of the laws
of their country. In morals and religion, they
must bedirec'ted by their proper pastors ; but in
state affairs are to own no authority but what is
sanctioned by the law."
" Article x\i.Of a Christian's Oath. An
oath is a solemn appeal to God, and never lawful
but on solemn occasions, and when we are in ear-
nest. To take an oath without the intention of
faithfully keeping it, is a manifest perjury.
Those are truly calumniators of truth, there-
fore, who say, that oaths given to a Protestant
Government are not binding ; or that those who
have taken them can be absolved from their ob*
legations."
In Dr. Butler's Catechism, which is an approv-
ed work, in universal use in Ireland, I read
the following illustrations of the 4th Command-
ment :
" Question. What are the duties of subjects to
the temporal powers ? Answer To be subject to
them, and to honour and obey them : not only for
wrath, but also for conscience sake ; Jor so is the
of God. 1 Pet. 2. and Rom. 13.
' Q. Does the scripture require any other duty
of subjects ?
" A. Yes : to pray for kings, and for all who are
in high stations, that we may lead a quiet and
peaceable life. 1 Tim. 2.
" Q. Is it sinful, to resist or combine against
the established authorities, or to speak witn con-
tempt or disrespect of those who rule over us ?
" A. Yes ; St. Paul says: let every soul be subject
to the higher powers : he that resisteth the power,
resist eth the ordinance of God ; and. they that re-
sist, purchase to themselves damnation. Rom 13."
In fine, returning once more to the Liturgy, in
page 216, I read this question and answer.-"
" Q What, therefore, is necessary to be a good
Catholic ? A. To take great pains in seeking af-
ter instruction in the word of God ; to submit in
all matters of faith and discipline to the authority
of the Church ; to pray with great earnestness
and humility ; to receive the sacraments with de-
votion at the proper season ; to practise well
every duty that becomes a good Christian, hus-
band, parent, child, or subject; to be in charity
with all mankind."
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
LETTER XIII.
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE
OF CATHOLICS.
JL HE Bishop of Durham, by
the means of his beloved child, the Protestant
Advocate(page 16), sets out with a violent invec-
tive against the Catholics, and broadly repeats
the assertion he once ventured to publish in his
Diocese, that the Catholics have suppressed the
Second Commandment. Now it should be observ-
ed, that as the Bishop of Saint David's is one of the
secret organs of this oracle of truth, and as it is
particularly patronised by the Bishops of Lincoln,
and Gloucester, and by many other great charac-
ters in the Established Church, among the
Clergy and Laity, these individuals must admit,
that their title to credit before the world, in
respect to Catholic principles, is now abso-
lutely staked, on the truth or falsehood of this
charge. If it be true, they were certainly
justified in guarding their flocks against such
apostacy, exposed in the Catholics ; nay, more-
over, it was their duty to denounce us as little
better than heathenish idolaters; it was their duty
to proclaim us, to all mankind, as fallen from
Christianity, as beings unworthy the protection of
the law, or the esteem of either Protestant, Method-
ist, Dissenter, Quaker, or Jew men that could be
bound by no principle, held by no law; proscrip-
66
tion even, and extermination, might have been
lawfully substituted for the No POPERY cry in a
Christian Country. Such is the vengeance, such
is the infamy, such is the state of persecution to
which they might have been justified, in exposing
five millions of their fellow-subjects ; and as to
the Priests, who teach and promote such doctrine,
what could be bad enough for them ? Now, to
convince my Readers, and all descriptions of per-
sons, how cautious they should be in crediting
the charges which are daily brought against the
Catholics, by Protestant Bishops and Protestant
Clergymen, I will beg leave to extract the whole
of the Ten Commandments from the Douay Ca-
tholic Catechism, in universal use in these king-
doms. We merely join the first arid second Com-
mandments together, and divide the ninth and
tenth, a thing of no kind of consequence, since
the whole Decalogue is included.
To the question, why the first and second Com-
mandments are thus united, I read the following
answer " Because the Scripture, mentioning no-
thing which is the first, second, or third Com-
mandments, and these words Thou shalt not make
to thyself any graven thing, being only an explana-
tion of the foregoing words, Thou shalt not have
strange Gods before me ; we, therefore, with St.
Augustine, make of them but one commandment,
which seems to have been done by Moses himself
(Evod. xx. 23), when he says Ye shall not make
unto you Gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto
you Gods of gold, in which words he plainly in-
cludes both in one."
67
The commandments are disposed thus :
Jst. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of
Egypty and out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have
strange <ods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself any gra-
ven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above,
or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth : thou
shale not adore nor worship them. 1 am the Lord thy God, strong
and jealous, visiting the sins of the fathers upon their children to
the third and tburth generation of them that hate me ; and shew-
ing mercy to thousands of those that love me, and keep my com-
mandments.
2d. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in
vain.
3d. Remember thon keep holy the sabbath day.
4th. Honour thy Father and thy Mother.
5th. Thou shalt not kill.
6th. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
7th. Thou shalt not steal.
8th. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neigh-
bour.
9th. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife.
10th. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods.
Now, immediately beneath the ten command-
ments as they are extracted from the Catholic
Catechism, I will place the solemn assertion of
the Bishop of Durham. " To disguise such re*
pugnance to the letter of God's Commandments
(the Bishop alludes to the veneration which Ca-
tholics express towards the pictures and images
of the Apostles, Saints, relics, &c.) an artifice
was adopted in the Romish Books of Religious
Institution, as contrary to the honour of God, as
image worship itself. In the enumeration of the
ten commandments, the second is wholly sup-
pressed, and the number ten completed, by di-
viding the tenth into two, and this in direct vi<>
i 9
68
lation of the injunction which was given by Mo-
ses for the entire observance of the Decalogue :
"Ye shall not add unto the word which I com-
mand you ; neither shall ye diminish ought from
it; that ye may keep the commandments of the
Lord which I command you/'
Now if the aucii alter am part em, be the univer-
sal principle of a wise and prudent man, can it
ever be more necessary than in reading and
weighing the charges which are so constantly
urged against the Catholics, by their Reverend
and Right Reverend Adversaries? I have pro*
duced a grave and strong case, and 1 have no
hesitation in saying, ex uno disce ownes, this is
a true sample of a// the others. I conceive then
I may now fairly retort upon my adversaries, by
asking this question, " Whether they have not
expunged from their book of practice the eighth
commandment, i. e. their seventh*? I \\ili simply
* Witness also the work which occasioned the following resolu-
tion, lately passed at a General Board of the Catholics of Ire-
land :
" Resolved, That a Pamphlet, entitled, THE THIRD PART op A
STATEMENT OF THE PENAL LAWS which aggrieve the CATHOLICS,
having been industriously circulated throughout England, for the
manifest purpose of misleading our fellow-subjects, counteracting
the growing liberality of sentiment, is now disclaimed by the CA-
THOLIC BOARD, who cannot suppress their astonishment at the suc-
cess of the imposition : that the said pamphlet is a gross and defa-
matory mislatement a malignant and malicious forgery, slander-
ing our views and principles misrepresenting our just and reasonable
complaints, falsely purporting to be the authorized publication of
the CATHOLIC BOARD, and really originating in a venal branch of
the Dublin Press, and which, however received and credited in
the Sister Country, has not imposed upon a single individual in
this."
ask, therefore, if a great advantage be not thrown
into the hands of every Catholic Priest, by this
indiscreet conduct of our enemies, and if it re-
quire any great abilities or learning for him to
turn it most unmercifully against those who have
recourse to such unjustifiable means of contro-
verting their opponents ? Does not this proceed-
ing betray an excess of' weakness, if it be not in
itself an act of desperation ? What conclusions
will be drawn by every coal-digger and washer- wo-
man through the whole county of Durham ? Are
they not as well able to judge, upon this case, as
he who possesses 50,0001. a year? What are
likely to be their thoughts and reflections, when
in contradiction to the grave assertion of the
Bishop of Durham, the Catholic Priest reads to
them the Ten Commandments from the Catholic
Scripture, from the Catholic Prayer- Book, and
the Catholic Catechism ?
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
I will take this opportunity of saying that Fox's Book of Martyrs
is a work of exactly the same stamp and description a false and
scandalous libel, originally written and still circulated for the pur*
pose of prejudicing the Protestants against the Catholics. There
have been bad Catholics no doubt in every age but as Catholics,
we hate and abominate the crimes therein imputed to us as we
hate and abominate theft, adultery, or murder.
70
LETTER XIV.
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF
CATHOLICS.
-DY continually hanging over
tta tracts, charges, and pamphlets of ihe Reve-
rend and Right Reverend Clergy of the Estab-
lishment, I had so famiiiaiized myself with the
idea of plots, massacres, and assassinations, that
I began to think the art of apostolical writ-
ing was lost, and that the works uf these modern
divines have been wholly compiled from the re-
cords of the Old Bailey. I compared the invec-
tives they contain, with the charitable sentiments
every where expressed in the writings of ancient
Bishops ; I exposed their misrepresentations by
the side of the wholesome and tender instructions
which formerly used to edify and convert so ma-
ny. I lamented this departure from primitive
simplicity, and felt disgusted that nothing should
be placed before me, but what is sour, bitter, and
indigestible. With this feeling of disappointment
upon me, I directed my view again to that little
work,alluded to in my last Letter, the Liturgy, when
behold my eyes were feasted with a treat they had
not for a length of time enjoyed. In the Intro-
duction to that work 1 discovered a most choice
morsel, prepared by the Bishop of Durham. I
flew to it ; I devoured it with joy ; it was honey
to my lips, and delight to my senses ; it was a
71
rose amidst a bed of briars, and an antidote for
all the poisonous weeds that grow in the four
counties of Lincoln, Durham, Gloucester, and
St. David's*". I will give it to my readers just as
it is enshrined in the Introduction of that little
work, THE LITURGY.
" There appears to me," says he, " to be in the present circun.-
stances of Europe, a better ground of hope for a successful issue to a
dispassionate investigation of the differences which separate the two
Churches of England and Rome, than at any former period. With
this view, and with these hopes, I continue to exert my humble ef-
forts in this great cause of charity and truth.
" If, I say, by persevering in a spirit of truth and charity, we
could bring the Roman Catholics to see these most important sub-
jects (the Bishop is referring to charges of idolatry, sacrilege,
blasphemy, and disloyalty) in the same light that the Catholics of
the Church of England do, a very auspicious opening would be
made for that long desired measure of CATHOLIC UNION, which for-
merly engaged the talents and anxious wishes of some of the best and
ablest members of both communions.
" And what public duty of greater magnitude can present itself to
us, than the restoration of peace and union to the Church, by the
reconciliation of two so large portions of it, as the Churches of
England and Rome ? What undertaking of more importance and
higher interest can employ the piety and learning of the ministers of
Christ, than the endeavour to accomplish this truly Christian work ?
What more favourable period can occur than the present, when
gratitude on one hand, and mutual interest on the other, prompt to
such an accommodation ? Gratitude, for valuable privileges already
received, and mutual interest, in opposition to an overwhelming ty-
ranny, equally hostile to ail Ecclesiastical Establishments, that are
not yet subject to its infidel domination, which has at this time
usurped, or is labouring to usurp, the domination of every state in
Europe, except this happy- country, so highly favoured by a protect-
ing Providence. If I should live to see a foundation for such union well
laid, and happily begun ; if Providence should but indulge me with
even a dying prospect of that enlargement of the Messiah's kingdom,
which we have reason to hope is not very remote ? with what consolation
and joy would it illumine the last hours of a long life ! With what
* Pembroke.
7C
\
heart-felt pleasure should I use the rapturous language of good old
Simeon ' Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace !'
May that Saviour, who has left us, in the record of his Gospel, his
own anxious prayer for the union of his disciples, promote and pros-
per the blessed work of CATHOLIC UNION ; and for this purpose, may
he divest the minds of both Protestants and Catholics of all prejudice
and passion of all interest and uncandid views of every feeling
contrary to the spirit of the Gospel ! May he dispose all parties to
make the Word of God the rule of their judgment and conduct; and
so form the hearts of all to the simplicity of the Gospel, that, in all
their endeavours for the good of the Church, the ; r great purpose may
be to seek CHRIST, AND HIM CRUCIFIED." (1 Cor. ii. 2.)
" Such," adds the Editor of the LITURGY, "is
the Christian language of the Learned Prelate, with
whom I cordially pray, that while all parties de-
pend on the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, for the
pardon of their sins, they may govern their lives
according to the precepts of his Gospel; that sanc-
tifying them by his word, and disengaging their
hearts from all affection to the things of this
world, or that savours of superstition and iniquity,
and is repugnant to Scripture, they may sincere-
ly fulfil the command of Christ, to WORSHIP GOD
IX SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH."
Surely, then, this is the true language of a mi-
nister of peace. These are words of reconciliation,
which, if oftener employed, would gain for the
Established Church greater security and strength,
than any of those violent and repulsive measures
to which its inconsiderate advocates have had re-
course. As things are at present constituted, the
Established Church has a political enemy in every
Catholic, as well as a religious opponent ; and it
tends to his civil advantage to do his utmost to
73
weaken her. Not only a speculative difference in
matters of faith, then, but family politics and per-
sonal interest, at present prompt him to array
himself against her ; and I believe the latter mo-
tives in general influence men much more power-
fully than religious opinions, when un combined.
In. throwing our strength and weight into the
public scale, we never inquire whether a man be a
Christian, Jew, or Mahometan, but whether he be
a friend or adversary of the Established Church ;
for by the very same rule we mark him out
as a political friend or enemy. Surely then it
cannot be supposed by the Established Clergy,
that in our opposition to them, we are actuated
by religious hatred ; it is their exclusive politics
that we oppose, both in England and Ireland;
and if they do not wish to see for a century to
come, every Catholic and Dissenter* arrayed
against the Established Chinch, as political as
well as religious opponents, they must adopt the
.more liberal and enlightened views of the Clergy
of the county of 'Suffolk, and address a prayer
to Parliament, praying that Catholics may shares
with their Protestant fellow subjects in all the
honourable distinctions of the British constitu-
tion.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
* I do not see why the Catholics draw not in closer union with
the Methodists and Dissenters. . Are they not as good Protestants
as the members of the Church of England ? I think they are.
LETTER XV.
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF
CATHOLICS.
oEEING the divided and dis-
jointed state of Protestantism in this country-
seeing the Established Church, surrounded by
degenerate children, who rise up against her in
open rebellion seeing her assailed by adversa-
ries more numerous than her own members, I am
not surprised that the Bishop of Purham, and
many other learned Clergymen, should turn their
thoughts towards union, concentration, and incor-
poration. Division is not only the effect, but the
cause of weakness ; and, like compound interest,
or the spreading cancer, it advances with the
action of new energies every instant. Whilst so
many thousands, therefore, are annually with-
drawing from the Establishment to each of the
dissenting sects (for I think the table of profit
and loss among the Catholics are nearly balanced,
and prescinding from the general increase of popu-
lation in the empire, nearly what it was a hundred
and fifty years ago) while so many thousands
yearly become seceders from the Church, and
every religion, without uniting themselves to any
sect (yet nevertheless form an anomalous com-
munity, like the Saturday's economical pye, con-
taining all the scrapes and pairings of the week)
while thus the Established Church is gradually
75
approaching in resemblance to an egg's shell, with
deserted walls, hollow and empty, I think it much
more rational in the Bishop of Durham to talk of
alliance and peace with the Church of Rome, to
hold out propositions of friendly intercourse with
the Catholic Church, and union and incorpora-
tion with her members, than to drive them to
madness and despair, and by giving them a poli-
tical interest in the dissolution of the Establish-
ment, set them, together with the Dissenters, in
the fiercest array against her.
The Right Reverend and Reverend Clergy of
England must see that they cannot force Protes-
tantism down the throats of the Irish, bristled as it
is with oaths, exclusions, and penalties that they
cannot make that people love it, by the means of
abuse, unkindness, and persecution that they can-
not strengthen their own party by the force of
calumny and slander ; and, therefore, let them
hold out the olive branch of peace let them de-
scend from their. high thrones of prejudice and
disdain, to offer a Catholic brother the embrace
of charity and let them exert all their endea-
vours to heal the wound, which they have hither-
to only irritated and festered by their acrimoni-
ous applications. Then, indeed, cold reserve
may give place to confidence, animosity to affec-
tion, and jarring irritability to acts of friendship.
Then religion and her train of lovely virtues may
spring up, where hideous vices have hitherto been
fostered, and a new day of union, peace, and
happiness, may brighten upon these fairest of
K 2
76
Islands; establishing security within our confines,
and strength without. Then only can the blood-
stained banners of war be safely struck, and the
reeking sabre, without danger, exchanged for
the rusty sickle. Then only will the constitution
of the State be relieved from a cancerous disease,
-which is now feeding upon her vitals, and expos-
ing her existence. For until health is thus re-
stored to her by this prudent sacrifice of the pas-
sions of prejudice .and jealousy, and each great
member of the empire discharge those offices
which nature has marked out for them, that is,
if Great Britain be distracted with internal
frights, and thus cramped in her exertions, if
her right arm, Ireland, become paralysed, and
like a log to her neck, she must continue endan-
gered in war, and exposed in peace. For the
cunning enemy of this government will never
lose the opportunity, in peace cr war, of break-
ing in upon her in the midst of her distractions ;
and whether the forecastle, Ireland, or the
quarter deck, Great Britain, be carried, the co-
lours of our national independence must be haul-
ed down, and the proud and gaudy vessel of the
Established Church, together with the State,
borne off, with insulting triumph, to an enemy's
port, or dissolve into the ruin of wreck*
Truly here is reason for alarm since what
will it then avail to have fastened the
Church, by a marriage knot, indissolubly to the
State what comfort will then be found in meet-
ing destruction together ? No, it is not by di-
77
visions that the Established Church can be de-
fended, but by civil union only it is not in
tests and oaths that her strength will be found in
the hour of danger, but in the contentment and
good- will of the people it is not by refusing po-
litical emancipation to Catholics and Dis-
senters that her existence can be secured, but by
civil concentration and incorporation. There-
fore the Prelate of Durham wrote well when he
said : " What public ciuty of greater magnitude
can present itself to us, than the restoration of
peace and union to the Church, by the reconcilia-
tion of two such large portions of it, as the
Churches of England and Rome? What under-
taking of more importance and higher interest
can employ the piety and learning of the Minis-
ters of Christ, than the endeavour to accomplish
this truly Christian work?"
But the old hackneyed objection is always be-
fore our eyes, " this is, to be sure, very sensible
and desirable, but only reflect upon the prejudices
of the Catholics and Dissenters.'* In answer, 1
say, if you wish to subdue the prejudices of men,
reflect on the expedients used in the fable, to
force the man to lay aside his cloak. Boreas
was employed with all his tremendous hurricanes;
but the more furious he blustered and stormed,
so much the more obstinately the other fastened
himself to his garment But when the sly-boots
of a Phoebus Apollo took the work in hand, he
pursued an opposite course, and soon stripped the
- 78
fellow to the skin. Oh ! then may a
Jpollo now rise to the comfort and consolation of
all parties, may he for ever put an end to bluster-
ing and storming; and although I do not intend
to be stripped to the skin, may he divest me of
every bail passion, every unkind sentiment j and
may he in the meridian of his flight long restrain
his coursers, to shed upon all classes of his Ma-
jesty's subjects the invaluable blessings of inter-
nal peace and tranquillity.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
53- Many amongst the more timid Catholics having at this pe-
riod expressed their fears to the editor, that these Letters might
render the furious still more furious against our cause, so long an
interruption ensued in the correspondence, that the author did no*
think it worth while to resume it again in a public newspaper. The
subsequent Letters, therefore, though prepared, never appeared.
That however these Letters never spoke any thing beyond the
sentiments of the public feeling, is evident from the liberal obser-
vations made in Parliament by the Bishop of Norwich and the
Duke of Norfolk, on some of the Bishops presenting petitions
against the Catholic claims, and on Lord Nelson's presenting one
to the same effect, from the Archdeaconry of Norwich.
" The Bishop of NORWICH could not refrain from saying a few
words on the present occasion, which he was the more inclined to
io, from considering the reasons which had caused the Petition to be
presented by the Noble Earl. When he called to mind the zeal
and activity which produced this and similar Petitions, he could
not withhold from bearing his testimony against the propriety and
expediency of such proceedings. Among other reasons, he felt it
highly unbecoming, that, amongst Protestants who professed to
regard all the principles of toleration, any recourse should be had to
the measures of those- times, when alarm was raised among
the people by the clamour and cry of " No Popery," and
44 the Church is in danger." These timrs were past, and those pre-
judices had long slept, and their fallacy had been evinced by the
79
diffusion of literature. He was therefore sorry to see the members
of the Established Church pursue means inconsistent with their
own doctrines, and hostile to the principles of toleration."
" The Duke of Norfolk considered it his duty to notice some ex-
pressions .which these petitions contained, as deviating from the
fact, as far as they regarded the tenets of the Roman Catholics
in England, as well as in Ireland. It was stated in one of
these petitions, that the tenets of the Roman Catholics in these
times were precisely those of the Roman Catholics who ex-
isted before the Revolution. On this subject much error reigned
among the people ; and though he should not have been
astonished to find such expressions in petitions which were
lying for signature at almost every ale-house in Westminster,
he was the more surprised when he found them in a petition sign-
ed by so respectable a body as the Clergy of the Established
Church. To the petitioners he would impute no improper motive
all men had a right to entertain their own opinions ; but when the
fact was perverted, he wished to notice it, before it went to the pub-
lic consideration. Before the Reformation, the Pope assumed the
power of dethroning the sovereign, and absolving his subjects from
their allegiance, and the Roman Catholics of those days assented to
the doctrine ; but would any one impute such tenets to the Roman
Catholics of these days, who, on the contrary, most solemnly de-
nied that any such power could belong to the Pope ?"
" Lord HOLDAKD also condemned those expressions which imputed
to the Roman Catholics a belief of the Pope's infallibility ; for the
Catholics of Ireland and this country were ready to take their solemn
oaths that they believed no such doctrine, but that they considered
very Pope fallible. It is not only the doctrine here, but of those in
other countries ; and he was glad the Noble puke had called his at-
tention to the improper expressions contained in these Petitions,
which ought not to pass without animadversion."
See British Pmsy Feb. 4M, 1313.
80
LETTER XVI.
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE OF
CATHOLICS.
SlNCE the horrid clays of
Guy Fawkes, Oates's Plot, and the fabricated
Irish Massacres, there has never been a n>ore de-
termined effort to influence the popular passions
against the Catholics, and never one, that has so
completely failed. The Bishops are all at their
posts ready for action, and the Protestant Advo-
cate informs us, in page 171, " That the Diocese
of St. David's is so organized, as to he enabled at
any time, on very short notice, to bring all its
members and minutest subdivisions to act in con-
cert. The Archdeaconry cf Leicester has par-
ticularly distinguished itself; the admirable
Charge of the Bishop of Lincoln, printed in the
Leicester Journal, which now lies before us,
(continues the Editor) has had its complete effect
in that part of his diocese, and we are confident
it will produce the happiest results elsewhere ; not
in that diocese only, but throughout Great
Britain. It has been printed by an individual,
and circulated with great advantage in Ireland."
It has been circulated, I have been informed, to
the number of six thousand copies in the United
Kingdom. The holy work has been moreover,
according to the Advocate, page 224, "materially
assisted by the Officers of the Militia in the
8i
North Riding of Yorkshire," who have signed a
No POPERY Petition. Pious souls! they recall
to my mind what a wag once wrote upon the
gates of York, under a No POPERY scrawl :
" What ye have written, ye have written well ;
" No POPERY is written on the gates of hell.'*
The Reverend Clergy are likewise all activity,
and eachSunday morning numbers of them mount,
what should only be the Chair of Truth, and
like King Balac, they call upon others to unite
with them in cursing those whom they curse.
But they answer them, saying, " How shall we
curse them, whom God hath not cursed ? By
what means should we detest them, whom the
Lord detesteth not?" (Numb, xxiii.) Notwith-
standing, then, all the abuse and odium discharg-
ed against us, it is evident that the good sense of
the people enables them to discern the real mo-
tive for this conduct and that jealousy is the
spring and origin of all. Things are not as they
were a hundred years ago. Men are now more
enlightened, and choose to examine and think for
themselves. We are more mixed with the people
Protestant and Catholic marriages have formed
so many alliances between families of the two reli-
gions, who nevertheless love and esteem each
other, that our fellow-subjects will suffer them-
selves to be no longer gulled as they have been,
and persuaded that we are no better than hypocri-
tical murderers and savages. They will not believe
that we profess to hate, or think it lawful to in-
L
jure any man, when he happens to be in our
power. They will not believe, in spite of all they
hear, that the sketch I lately gave of the life of a
Catholic Priest, answered in their minds to the
description of men thirsting for plots and mas-
sacres of men who are by profession violators of
public faith, traitors, rebels, and seditionists.
They witness our undistinguishing acts of bene-
volence towards the Protestant as well as the Ca-
tholic ; they mark our assiduity in attending on
the poorest and most abandoned tfhey trace our
daily steps to hospitals, prisons, and workhouses;
they buy, and take delight in our books they
hear our preachers and instructors, and they re-
fase to join in the No POPERY WAR nay, in
many instances it 'has been intimated to a de-
claiming preacher, that he must either change his
language from invective to Christian instruction,
or the more respectable part of the congregation
would seek it elsewhere. In all such cases of fai-
lure, the cry never fails to redound to the advan-
tage of Catholics, who in consequence of such
unworthy attempts, are sure to rise in favour
with their Protestant neighbours, and to draw
closer with them the ties of friendship and con-
fidence. In London, the cry has been thus al-
most exclusively confined to the Bishops and the
Colleges of the Clergy, and it is a fact, that the
words No POPERY- are not seen to disgrace the
walls ofjany part of this city. Is not this fact, then,
which others can attest as well as myself, a proof,
an evident proof, that the cry does not take
as
that it will not communicate that the Clergy
and the Ministers have it all to themselves ?
Nay, the great Protestant Petition, which was
hatched in the dark by nobody knows whom,
remained ten days in Pall Mall waiting for sig-
natures, and though advertised and puffed in all
the ministerial prints, was only honoured at
that period with thirteen names, and with the
exceprion of two Clergymen's names, the whole
belonged to persons in the lower walks of life.
It is impolitic, then, in the Bishops and
Clergy to pursue the course they have so
wrongly adopted. -Every year will contribute
to weaken their cause, and strengthen ours.
Every year devoted to these controversies will
brighten our fame, divide our enemies, and in
the end leave them defeated, both in argument
and reputation. Let them, then, in time prac-
tice that philosophy which they profess let them
act by those principles of wisdom, which they
have learnt from dear-bought experience let
them study the moral history of the world, and
let them recollect, that opinion is a tide that will
make its way direct it you may, controul it you
cannot; and whoever makes the attempt, will
prepare ruin for himself or his children. The
days of intolerance are past freedom of thought
and opinion have been established in the great
empires of Europe, and not to admit them into
England, is the extreme of inconsistency and the
essence of folly.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
84
LETTER XVII.
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF. THE INCREASE OF
CATHOLICS.
W E are accused by our Re-
verend Adversaries of making a great many pro-
selytes ; and the Editor of the reprinted Letter
from Rome, noticed in my ninth Letter, fixes the
number in the metropolis during the year 1812,
at 7000. If my sentiments were asked, I should
frankly answer, that we stand in the same pro-
portion to the rest of the community, as we did
fifty years ago. For if London has been doubled
in population, if Liverpool and Manchester have
been nearly trebled, within that period, and
the surplus of Ireland universally diffused 1 , it is
no wonder that our congregations should be more
numerous at present than they were half a century
back. But our adversaries charge us with an in-
crease of seven thousand souls within the Bills of
mortality during one year. Well, wherever there
is a debtor's account, there must be a creditor's,
and if we have gained seven thousand, 1 conceive
it is to be inferred that others have lost as many.
Now let us inquire how it did really happen, that
these seven thousand persons, were so bewitched
as to abandon the pious, the learned, the attrac-
tive, the eloquent, the exemplary, the educated,
the refined, the No POPERY ministers of the
Established Church, and suddenly, without any
cause, motive, rhyme, or reason, fall in love with
a plain, praying, absurd, wig headed, worsted-
stocking Priest ; who instead of making long
essays, and entertaining his audience with poetic
effusions, or metaphysical disquisitions, is always
boring his hearers with the old-fashioned style of
preaching, I mean Scriptural doctrine, and Scrip-
tural arguments, and Scriptural truths ; such as,
" What will it avail a man to gain the whole world,
if he come at last to lose his soul. 9 ' Or, " That the
works of the flesh are fornication, uncleanness,
immodesty, luxury, idolatry, witchcraft^, enmi-
ties, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dis-
sensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness, revel-
lings, and such like, excluding men from the king-
dom of God.''- I ask again then, what can be-
witch all the people, and make them such block-
heads and fooJs, as to like us poor Catholic
Priests, better than the rich Bishops and the
Clergy of the Established Church? What is it
that can make them prefer the forbidden society of
murderers, traitors, violators of public faith, re-
bels, and seditionists ? What is it that has given
them such a hungry appetite for long oaths, pe-
nalties, exclusions, calumnies, and proscriptions ?
Surely a phrenzy fever has prevailed during the
last twelvemonths in this metropolis ? Why then
have his Majesty's Ministers, and the Bishops
neglected to send an account of this strange ma-
lady to the University of Edinburgh, that some
cure may be applied to this spreading infection ?
86
But I am told that all the sects of Dissenters,
the Calvinists, the Methodists, the Anabaptists,
the Independents, the Jtrusaleinites, the D tinkers,
the Sweden bergians, the Socinians, the Trinita-
rians are equally in a thriving condition as well
as the Catholics; and that the poor Church of
England is the only one that is falling away, and
growing lean, in spite of rich Bishoprics, and
good livings. Moreover, that for one that passes
to the Catholics, ten go over to each of the other
sects. Now^ I ask what is the meaning ot all
this ? Will my Right Reverend and Keverend
Adversaries condescend to give us an answer?
All are thriving, all are fattening, all seem to be
in wholesome and excellent pasture except the
Established Church, and to be sure, if all be
true, that is told of some of her congregations,
I think the Pastors may be compared to Pharao's
oxen which were ill-favoured and lean fleshed
though they fed on the bank oj the river, in green
places. And they devoured, (the writer should
have said, they wished to devour) them whose
bodies were very beautiful and well-conditioned.
Now should any grazier in the kingdom, going
into a meadow, where cattle are feeding and
thriving on grass up to their eyes, observe one
huge beast devouring tuice the quantity that any
of his companions consumes, yet in a wasting con-
dition, would he not exclaim that beast is sick ?
It is true that each sect is daily receiving an
increase of members but where do they coinc
M
from ? Is it out of the clouds, or out of the sea ?
There can be no profits where there are no losses,
the one always stands opposite to the other. If
the sects and Catholics have all the profits, and
the Established Church all the losses; pray let a
reason be given, why the balance of trade is uni-
versally against the latter. Is credit at too low
an ebb to admit an inquiry or is it a problem that
cannot be solved by any of Euclid's principles?
At least till an inquiry be instituted, let not the
Bishops and Clergy of the Established Church
raise such a hooting at the Catholic Priests and
others, because men choose to proselyte themselves
out of the Established Church by their golden
principle, Liberty of Conscience.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
LETTER XVIII.
ON THK SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE
OF CATHOLICS;
.AMONG the many causes
which influence the increase of Catholics, and
the universal spread of their religion, in spite of
the many difficulties it has to contend against, I
know of none so powerful in effect as the unmar-
ried state of the Catholic Clergy. I know this
question involves two points of consideration ;
one religious and controversial, the other politi-
88
cal. It is then with the latter only that I have
any concern at present If men will consent to
lake a retrospective view of the world, and with
a philosophical, a political, and an unprejudiced
eye compare what has been done for the esta-
blishment and glory of religion by the married
and unmarried clergy, they will not hesitate to
acknowledge that she is infinitely more indebted
to the former. " Lord Bacon owns," says a
Protestant writer *, " that more good is to be
expected from single men than others ; and in-
stances the monuments of beneficence left by
persons of that description in this country, most
of whom were of the monastic order, or at least
tied down to celibacy."
The married have certainly reaped a rich har-
vest from the liberality and sacrifices of the un-
married ; they have enjoyed noble churches,
elegant palaces and parsonages, and have collect-
ed plentiful revenues. But what have they done
for the further establishment of religion, as the
population has increased and fluctuated ? Have
their zeal and liberality kept pace, as formerly,
with the enlargement of cities? History informs us,
that of old, when the poor became too numerous
for the size of the churches, it was common for
the Bishops and Clergy, at their own expense, to
raise new edifices upon the sites of the old, more
proportioned to the flocks they were to contain.
It was in this manner that almost all our grand
* Nightingale's Tortraiture of the Roman Catholic Religion,
pago 166.
89
cathedral's were renewed in the middle centuries,
and no expense or sacrifice was spared by the
clergy necessary for the convenience and comfort
of the people. Whereas now a- days it seems that
every thing is done for the rich and nothing for
the poor; and it is even considered a hard case,
that a founded clergyman should be obliged to
keep his own house and church in repair. Indeed
I believe the latter is usually one of the burdens
of the parish, if not of the nation. Of old, or
amongst the unmarried Clergy, it was regulated
that the revenue of the parish curacy should be
equally divided into three portions. One was for
the support of the curate ; that is, the parish
minister for whoever held the benefice was ob-
liged to do the duties of it; the second portion
was destined for the relief of the sick and poor,
and the third was designed for the repairs of the
church and vicarage. At that time, moreover,
there were no pews parcelled out to the exclu-
sion of those who could not meet the expense.
Religion was not so much a matter of profit and
loss the whole church (as to this day in all
Catholic countries) was open to the poorest as
well as to the richest. But at present the poor,
as if they had no souls, are necessarily excluded ;
and it is almost as difficult to enter a church as
to get into a palace. Anciently the unmarried
clergy left their churches open, that at all
hours of the day the poor and the de-
vout might to them repair, to offer their pray-
ers and supplications to God ? undistracted by
M
90
the occupations and business of the world. But
now the doors are shut against every one who
cannot produce half a crown, and instead of be-
ing allowed to say a prayer to their Creator, they
are only taught to form a comparison of what was
done for religion when the Clergy were unmar-
ried, with what has been effected since.
I shall be asked to explain why the marriage of
a Clergyman should operate so powerfully to the
disadvantage of religion. I will answer this
question by shewing that unmarried Clergymen
possess far more abundantly the means of render-
ing service to religion. The attention of
married men must always be divided between
their families and their flocks ; and when these
two interests clash, it is much if the ties of flesh
and blood do not prevail. Whereas the unmar-
ried man, being relieved from these anxieties, is
more free to make any sacrifice which the good of
religion and the spiritual advantage of his flock
require. The married man having a wife and fa-
mily to provide for, and all the attendant caresj
like most other men, finds in this single charge
nearly full occupation for his mind. Wisdom
dictates to him the prudent course " of mak-
ing hay while the sun shines," that is, of laying up
some provision for a widow and children, during
the few years he may be allowed to enjoy the be-
nefit of his living. He is necessitated, therefore,
to look after his tithes, rather with the eye of
a merchant than the feelings of a pastor ; and
thus is often blamed for only exacting his just
rights.
91
Besides, by the means of a wife and family,
who wish to rise into the notice of the neighbour-
hood, he gradually becomes so dependent oft
others, that in discharging the duties of his
station, one consideration must always be at hand
to influence his conduct :, I mean, whether he is
likely to please or offend and thus serve or preju-
dice his own family Moreover, how continually
is he exposed to disagreements with his parishio-
ners, through the means of his wife or the mis-
conduct of his children ? How often is he in-
volved, by endeavouring to cover their faults with
some excuse ? But should he be required to at-
tend and administer to a person in an infectious
fever, what numerous objections will rise in his
mind, and in the fancies of his wife and children,
from the clanger of bringing the same into his
own family, or, of falling a victim himself,
leaving them abandoned in the wide world ? An
instance of this description at Exeter Verifies my
proposition. There was lately an intention of
erecting an Hospital for that city, which was to
contain a FEVER-WARD. In the course of dis-
cussion, however, at a public meeting for carrying
the design into effect, it was stated by the Bishop
of Exeter *, on the part of the Established Clergy,
* This is the Prelate who assumed to himself last year, in the
House of Lords, the title of Catholic Bishop of the Protestant
Church; affirming that zee are only to be styled ROMAN CATHOLICS.
I can tell this good Bishop, that Catholic and Roman Catholic are
the same thing in the sentiment of the whole world. Whereas the
title he has assumed carries in the very face of it something very
like an IJUSH BULL,
M 2
that should it be determined to establish a fever-
ward, none, though summoned, would ever approach
the hospital. Now with all these considerations
on the mind, with the cares of maintaining and
settling a family, to say nothing of other common
incidents in life, can the married Clergyman find
much time at his disposal, to devote to the inte-
rests of religion and his flock ? From what
portion of the day will he select his hours for
studying, and instructing his parishioners ? For
if he imagine that a pulpit lecture on the Sunday
will suffice to explain to the people the mysteries
contained in the Apostles' Creed, or their Cate-
chism, he will deceive both them and him-
self.
Now every one must perceive that unmarried
Clergymen, being unfettered by these difficulties,
are possessed of many more means of rendering
service to the cause of religion, than the wedded.
Time is more entirely at their disposal, money
is less necessary to them, and consequently more
readily parted with they are more independent
of the world, and less liable to be intluenced by
the great, and having but one object to attend
to, the cultivation of religion among their flocks,
they are more likely to devote and dedicate
themselves to it without reserve. In short, if a
church is to be improved, repaired, or rebuilt,
prompted by zeal, they may make a tender of
their ALL to that purpose, observing, " if our
livings, maintain us whilst alive, and our flocks
bury us u hen dead, our desires are satisfied, and
our sacrifice is not great."
93
Such then are the political arguments for ap-
proving and preferring unmarried men, to dis-
charge the offices of religion. As the means are
greater, so it is no wonder that the effects should
be in proportion. A body of unmarried Clergy-
men hold the same superiority over a body of
married men, as an army composed of batchelors
does over another, incumbered with wives and
children*. By the actual law of France, no youth
can marry whilst he is liable to be drawn a con-
script for the military life. The Methodists seem
to have discovered the wisdom of the policy I
am contending for; and with that view I sup-
pose have regulated, that their ITINERANT
PREACHERS shall not marry during the four
years that they devote themselves to the functions
of that ministry.
I think then I have openly and satisfactorily
accounted for another cause of the prosperous
state of the Catholic religion over that of the
Established Church. I have abstained from all
religious controversial consideration of the ques-
tion, and have simply treated it as a state fact, or
subject of political discussion. I am aware that
I shall be accused of defending the violation of
one of the rights of nature but no, I am merely
contending for the wisdom of what was once
sanctioned by the law of the land. And I cannot
see that it is a greater violation of the rights of
nature, to forbid by statute a Clergyman to marry,
* I have saicTnothing of the long train of evils \\hic\\ unprovided
children often eatail upon society.
than it is to restrain the members of the Royal
Family from connections with a subject. Indeed
i consider the latter as a harder case. For no
one is obliged to become a Clergyman he is left
to choose between what he sacrifices and what he
gains and he freely embraces that state, not for
the sake of himself but for the sake of religion.
But the Prince is not suffered to choose whether he
will be a prince or no he is born with all those
restrictions upon him, and rather by compulsion
than his own free choice he submits to the
enactment. Yet I consider the law very just,
because general benefit 13 the object and that
is universally the political apolog) for individual
grievances. Whether, however, the unmarried
body of Catholic Clergymen are contented in
their state, is a question to which my adversaries
can speak as well as myself. I can say that I
never heard a complaint uttered by an individual
amongst them.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
LETTER XIX.
OX THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE
OF CATHOLICS.
BEFORE I conclude these
letters I wish to notice a conduct in the Esta-
blished Clergy, which I consider extremely un-
manly and illiberal, that of appeasing the public
indignation by holding the innocent up to ven-
geance. For when men are guilty, and convict-
ed of neglect or misconduct, I cannot well con-
ceive any thing more base and mean, more dis-
honourable and unworthy the man, the gentle-
man, and the Christian, than to screen them-
selves from reproach and disgrace, by fixing the
odium upon the head of an innocent person.
It was common among the ancient Pagans,
when an unsuccessful expedition had been under-
taken, or a battle lost by the misconduct of the
commander, to attach the failure to some inno-
cent person, and to mark them as a victim for
sacrifice on the altar of vengeance. Thus the fair
and unoffending Iphigenia was immolated by the
princes of Greece, to pacify the tumultuous
Greeks at the siege of Troy and Tertullian in-
forms us, that in his time no disaster ever befel
the Roman arms no harvest was damaged no
public misfortune ever occurred, but the Maber-
leyan cry was raised, Chrlstlanos ad Bestias ; let
us avenge ourselves by giving the Christians to
the lions. It seems, then, notwithstanding the
rancorous hatred which the Right Reverend and
Reverend Clergy entertain for Catholic princi-
ples, the maxims of Pagans are not in equal dis-
repute; and on that account, whilst by their
own supineness, or misconduct, or neglect, or
djsedification, or immoralities, or indifference, or
idleness, or rapaciousness, or uucharitableness, or
inconsistency, the great masses of their flocks
are dispersing themselves among the Methodists,
96
the Calvinists, the Anabaptists, the Indepen-
dents, the Moravians, and aj'eze among the Ca-
tholics, the whole weight of their rage the \* hole
fury of their animosity the whole fire of their
jealousy the whole torrent of their displeasure,
is to be directed against the Catholics and the
Catholic Priests in particular, and with Mr. Ma-
berley they are to raise the Pagan cry of Pa-
pistas ad Bestias let us give all the Papists to the
lions. It is not however the Catholics or the Dis-
senters who are to be blamed, it is not the Catholic
Priests who should be given to the lions. This
general falling oif from the Established Church,
is solely to be attributed to the negligence and
misconduct of those, who are so "well paid to
serve, to edify, and instruct the public. It is
solely to be ascribed to those worldly maxims
and ideas, which have taken possession of the
minds of so many of the Protestant Bishops and
Clergy to those worldly habits and pursuits
.which prejudice the community against them,
and never fail to scandalize the devout and hum-
ble Christian. It is to be ascribed to their great
affection to riches, to their fondness for pleasure,
to their dislike to religious functions, to a shame-
ful negligence in discharging them, and often to
a highly immoral deportment. The evil is also in
a great measure to be charged to the Bishops,
whom the vulgar public consider as the objects of
courtly preferment and intrigue who hang about
St. James's to raise a no popery cry, whenever a
minister is pleased to give them the signal,
-97
who in long parliamentary pleadings waste their
precious hours, which would be more becomingly
spent in the service of religion. Can any thing
be more revolting from common sense, than to see
the ministerial successors of the Apostles, and
guardians of the Christian faith, nightly assem-
bled, day after day, week after week, and month
after month, in order to decide about the policy
of a malt tax, or the negligence of a. minister in
fitting out an expedition ? Can any thing be
more ridiculous, than to see all the Arch-Bishops
and Bishops of England collected, to say if the
India trade shall be extended to Liverpool, or
confined to the port of London. I think that
Bishops have as much. to do with such questions
as with the cut of a lady's habit. But it will be
said that they are lords of parliament. True, the
constitution admits them into parliament; but
only for the good and service of religion; to
speak to the interests of their respective church-
es, and that they be heard on ecclesiastical cases.
But it is not that the sacred character of a minis-
ter of the gospel shall be exchanged for that of a
lay legislator, not that it shall be prostituted to
the profane intrigues of a minister of state, not
that they shall become his body guard, not that
they shall ever live out of the diocese over which
they preside. By the 14th canon of the fourth
Council of Carthage, held in the fourth century,
it was ordained, that the Bishop's mansion should
be near to his church. And if we refer for a rule
to the original institution of things in this
N
93
country, do we not observe that the Bishops'
palaces are all within their dioceses, and near to
their cathedrals? It is the same all over the
world and for a Bishop to remove from his flock
is not less in defiance of rule and ordinance, than
for a husband to recede from his wife. And the
reason is, that he is the true shepherd of the sheep,
and should be constantly occupied in instructing
them, in edifying them, and in guarding them
against the ravages of intruding wolves.
Now, if instead of losing their time in London,
the Bishops lived constantly in the midst of their
flocks, like the Catholic Bishops of old, I main-
tain that equal zeal would have an equal effect.
The inferior Clergy would then be more moral
and circumspect in their conduct than many of
them at present are. Though numbers of them,
I allow, are without reproach, they would never-
theless be more attentive to all the duties of a true
pastor and the sure consequence would be, an
end to further defection from the Established
Church to other sects, and the return of a very
great proportion to her communion.
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
LETTER XX.
ON THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE INCREASE Of
CATHOLICS.
the moment for parlia-
mentary activity is arrived, and the public news-
papers for some time will have little room for ex-
traneous matter, I have come to the resolution of
closing this series of Letters, which, though
addressed to his Grace the Archbishop of Can-
terbury, and the Protestant Clergy of England,
were chiefly designed for the public in general,
They contain the unstudied reflections of an in-
dividual, who entertains the very highest respect
for his Grace. And although I have written with
some degree of warmth, in looking back, I am
not aware that 1 have advanced any observation
which I wish to recall. . It was at a time when
the Bishops and Clergy of the Established Cburch,
with a few exceptions, were moving heaven and
earth in opposition to the constitutional claims of
the Catholics, when all other political controver-
sies seemed hushed for the moment, and the press
was daily emptying into the public market, loads
of publications replete with slander, calumny, and
misrepresentation, that I singly ventured forth to
encounter this formidable array. It was not
willingly, but in self defence that I entered the
lists with my opponents, and if in this short
struggle, they have felt the nervous logic of a
N 2
100
Catholic Priest, I would have them recollect,
that they themselves were the rude and un-
just aggressors, and that I had no alterna-
tive left, than either to allow our cause and
character to be stigmatized with infamy, or
to expose the persons who were endeavouring
to fix disgrace upon them. It has been
far from my intention however, to pass an undis-
tinguishing reflection upon the whole body of the
Established Bishops and Clergy. There exist
amongst them numerous exceptions, whose de-
portment has been in every thing the reverse of
that illiberal conduct of which we complain.
Let it not be thought however, that I am
a man of prejudice, or the hateful foe of
any individual : the same lips which rebuke can
express forgiveness, and the same hand that re-
pels the enemy is extended to embrace him. In
apologizing to the Public for engrossing so much
of its attetition, I trust I shall find an excuse in
the importance of the subject, and in the magni-
tude of those interests which are staked upon it;
for the question of Catholic Emancipation is of
the most vital importance to the empire, and
pregnant perhaps with the fate of Europe.
In my sixth letter I hinted at a cause which for
a successive number of years has been secretly ope-
rating in effecting an increase of Catholics. I
then stated, that my Right Reverend and Reverend
adversaries little suspect \vhat great obligations
we have to them in this secret and individual
cause. It is then no other than the annual dis-
101
cussion of our question in parliament, which I
believe is principally owing to that strong oppo-
sition shewn to it on all occasions by the Bishops
and Clergy of the Established Church. They
have been uniformly successful in getting the
evil day put off, till the last year, when they were
left in a decided minority. The consequence of
this system of conduct is, that the Catholic Ques-
tion and religion are the subjects of every public
and private conversation. They are discussed by
the fire side, they are debated in the senate,
they are the badge of party, and a man almost
appears ignorant and uneducated if he be unac-
quainted with the Catholic Catechism. Not a
newspaper can be read not an election carried
not a bookseller's shop can be entered, but the
word Catholic strikes the eyes, and fills the ears
of every one ; and while such a mass of talent,
vinue, property, and respectability are inces-
santly employed in supporting the justice of Ca-
tholic Emancipation, and in defending our reli-
gion against reproach, can it be a wonder to any,
that the number of Catholics increase, or that the
people become daily less prejudiced against that
religion. This is a cause which has been operat-
ing for these twenty years, and is it a cause like-
ly to be barren of effects? No ! it has produced
its effects, as must be evident to every one, and
will continue to produce new effects, till the
Question has been completely hushed by the full
Emancipation of the Catholics and Dissenters of
the United Kingdom.
102
Now I will fairly ask our adversaries, if they
are so strong at present, as to fear nothing for the
future. I am speaking of constitutional opposition,
for I am not so fanatical in principle, as even to
allude to any other less justifiable proceeding. I
ask them, if they fear nothing for the future?
But if they do, where is their philosophy in not
applying a remedy in good time ? Where is that
sacred wisdom winch should sit on the grey heads
of experienced age, and guide the giddy crowd by
the principle of prudence ? If you cannot dam
up the waters of the brook, how will you confine
the river, swelling with new innundations from
every quarter? Our cause is the cause of liberty
and the constitution, and each year it comes for-
ward with the accession of new forces, gained
from our wasting adversaries. In withdrawing,
therefore, from the public attention, I do it with
unfeigned respect for the public \vith sincere
loyalty to my Sovereign, and warm attachment
for my country ; and in the firm hope that the
barriers of religious distinctions will be entirely
throun down, and the pale of the constitution
opei;cd to the admission of his Majesty's subjects
of 'every denomination, which can alone establish
union, strength, peace, and harmony in these
kingdoms, I remain,
A CATHOLIC PRIEST.
103
POSTSCRIPT.
Extract from a Memoir by Citizen TALLEYRAND,
read at the National Institute, the 15th
Germinal, in the Year 5.
" WE know that, in England, religion has
preserved a powerful influence over the mind ;
that even the most independant philosophy has
not there dared to divest itself of religious ideas ;
that, from the time of Luther, all sects have
found their way thither ; that all have maintained
themselves, and that many have there taken their
rise. We know the share which they have had
in the great political changes; in short, that all
have been transplanted into America, and that
some of the states owe their origin to them.
It appears, at first, as if these sects would,
after their transmigration, preserve their original
state; and it is natural to conclude that they
might agitate America. But how great is the
surprise of the traveller, when he sees them
all to exist in that perfect calm, which, , as
it would seem, can never be ruffled ; when in
the very same house, the father, the mother,
104
the children, each follows peaceably, and without
opposition, that mode of worship which he pre-
fers ! I have been more than once a witness of this
spectacle, which nothing that I had ever seen in
Europe could have prepared me to expect. On
the days consecrated to religion, all the individu-
als of the same family set out together ; each
went to the minister of his own sect, and they
afterwards returned home, to employ themselves
in common in their domestic concerns. This
diversity of opinion did not produce any in their
feelings, or in their other habits : there were no
disputes, not even a question on the subject.
Religion there seems to be an individual secret,
which no one thinks that he has a right to doubt
or to investigate. Thus, when there arrives in
America, from any country in Europe, an am-
bitious sectary, eager to afford a triumph to his
doctrine, by inflaming the minds of men, far
from finding, as in other places, persons dis-
posed to enlist under his banner, he is scarcely
even perceived by his neighbours ; his enthusiasm
is neither attractive nor interesting ; he inspires
neither hatred nor curiosity : in short, every one
perseveres steadfastly in his own religious opinions,
and uninterruptedly prosecutes his temporal con-
cerns.
This apathy, which cannot be roused by the
most furious spirit of proselytisrn, and which it
is our present business to point out, not to ac-
count for, certainly takes its immediate rise from
the perfect toleration of the different sects of re-
105
ligion. In America no form of worship is pre-
scribed, no one established bylaw; and, there-
fore, there are no disturbances about religion.
But this perfect toleration has itself a principle ;
which is, that religion, although it is there every
where a real sentiment, is more especially a senti-
ment of habit ; all the ardour of the moment is
employed about the manner of speedily improv-
ing worldly prosperity; and hence results the
chief cause of the entire calm of the Americans
respecting every thing which is not, according
to the constitution of their minds, either a me-
dium or an obstacle."
FINIS,
Keating, Brown, and Keating, Printers,
l*i Duke, jU Grgsvenor-s^. Loudoa,
