physiognomy, and complexion, made us fancy ourselves in Rome or Madrid, rather than within a ride of the Lakes of Neuchatel and Geneva: they wear black gowns and cassocks, with a canon's cap or a coif in-doors, and when in the open air a broad brimmed low-crowned hat of black beaver, trussed up at the sides, and peaking out before and behind. I could have picked out the counterpart of Bartolo in Il-Barbiere-di-Siviglia. In their principal gallery are numerous portraitures of Popes, and of eminent Members of "the Order," from Ignatius de Loyola, Francis Xavier, Laynez, Aquaviva, to Canisius, and so on downwards, including Campian, Garnet, and some other British and Irish born subjects of Elizabeth and Jamesmen, whom the Latin inscriptions at the bottom of their respective picture frames, designate as "Martyrs to their religion." Yes: but then it was a réligion which taught them to be traitors to their Sovereign, and conspirators with the foreign enemy of their country-a religion, under which they were bound by a vow of absolute obedience to that Pontiff, who adjured his spiritual subjects, at the peril of their salvation, not to deny his power of deposing such Princes as he chose to brand with the appellation of heretics-a religion which instructed them to equivocate and dissemble; to say that black was white, and white was black, for the benefit of their church; and to contend for the lawfulness of putting a King to death whom the Pope had deposed.* We mounted to the top of the tower, which commands some superb views. In this most elevated part of the college is an Observatory for astronomical purposes, and * See the Rev. G. Townsend's able commentary on these facts, in his "Accusations of History against the Church of Rome." a fine cabinet of Natural History. Our reverend guide obligingly took the pains to shew us every thing that he thought would interest us in the collection: among the rest an extraordinarily large piece of Crystal from Mont Blanc; a remarkably fine and well preserved Bruyere Cock or Grouse of Switzerland; a noble specimen of the Lemmer-Geyer, or Eagle of the Alps; skins of the Chamois, Bouquetin, and Ibex; a grand electrifying machine, and several good telescopes. He also shewed us the Library amongst its contents, as in those of the museum, are to be found numerous proofs of the energetic ardour with which this celebrated community (to render it no more than justice) has always cultivated not only the divinity of the Catholic school, but the study of ancient and polite literature, as well as the pursuit of the liberal sciences and the ingenious arts. Near one of the glass cases, containing mineralogical specimens, in the Cabinet of Natural History, a small tablet is placed, on which with feelings of national pride, not unmixed with a certain degree of surprise, I perused the following inscription Nature is the Glass reflecting God; As by the Sea reflected is the Sun, Too glorious to be gaz'd on in his sphere. YOUNG, Night IX. Yes, Messieurs, but of what avail to your pupil is such a Glass as that of Nature in your excellent Cabinet here; if, when he goes down into your Theological Lectureroom, you peremptorily require him "to swallow, not only against all probability, but even against the clear evidence of his senses, the doctrine of Transubstantiation?"* What is it but a mockery? what, but to "keep the word of promise to his ear and break it to his hope," if after thus expanding his mind with the enlarged and enlightened sentiments of "divine philosophy," your novice is compelled to narrow it again, by conforming his mode of life to the rule prescribed by Ignatius de Loyola; once a soldier of fortune in Spain, now a Saint of supererogation in Papal Paradise? The Author of the Night Thoughts, whom you have done our literature the honour to quote, says Read Nature; Nature is a friend to Truth; A creed, be it observed, however, of which reverence for visionary extasies and approval of fanatical extravagance, such as those which characterised the Founder of this newly revived Order, can form no part. Nature's works! how wonderful are they! yet all in wisdom made and perfected by Nature's GOD-they are framed with consistency—they are dedicated to beneficence-never are they found incom * LOCKE: whose writings all True Catholics are forbidden to read, through the instrumentality of "the Index Expurgatorius" of the Roman See.-"I venture to think (says Sir R. Inglis, in his admirable Parliamentary speech on the Roman Catholic Question), “that a good library in almost every branch of Literature might be formed out of books which the present Papal Index prohibits." The Hon. Baronet shewed how well his conjecture was warranted by quoting, from the condemnatory Catalogue itself, the illustrious names of Bacon, Locke, Milton, Copernicus, Descartes, Galileo, Grotius, and Puffendorf, from whose fate of proscription there are works even of Fenelon and of Pascal which are not exempted!! patible with Reason; never repugnant to true Religion.— The creed that Nature aids, and the truth that she inspires, are in correspondence with those which the Saviour of the World himself came down from Heaven to teach mankind. But both Reason and Revelation are diametrically opposed to the superstitious follies, the puerile fancies, the idolatrous inventions that have sprung out of the system which commands a belief in Purgatory, Saint-worship, and Miraculous Images. Natural Religion, no less than the written Word of God, discountenances and disowns the abject prostration of intellect, the wretched slavery of conscience, by which "The spirit nursed "In blind INFALLIBILITY's embrace," is bound to hold the absurdest doctrines, to defend the most unjustifiable acts, to augment and promote the highest assumed authority of a Church, that asserts an unlimited right of interference in temporal concerns; and prides herself on her invariable adherence to “The gathered ERROR of a thousand years.” Since the establishment of the Jesuits in 1555, by the constitutions of Paul III. no event perhaps has occurred of more importance to the interests of the See of Rome, than their restoration by the late Pope in 1814. In the circumstances attendant, as well on the creation, as on the revival of this Order, there are some striking points of coincidence: yet in few things has the state of the Protestant mind offered a stronger contrast to that of Catholic feeling, than in the indifference with which the sudden resuscitation of an extinguished community, canonically suppressed for its alleged offences against God and man, was viewed by those of the Reformed Faith, as compared with the exulting anticipation of advantages to their Church with which it was hailed by the Romanists themselves. When indeed we refer to the evidences of History, and observe at what a critical juncture,* and for what special purposes that peculiar body of men, calling themselves "the Company of Jesus," first received the necessary sanction and confirmation for their institute and proceedings-when we consider their unexampled devotednesst and pre-eminent services to the Pope, whose chosen soldiers and whose ablest champions they had ever shewn themselves to be-when we look at the perfect despotism of their internal government, and at the system of espionage practised over the novices by the superiors, and by their General over them all-when attention is paid to their characteristic attachment to their Order, and to the spirit of active intrigue and of unrestrained ambition which animated its members, among whom were to be found the most strenuous advocates of ecclesiastical encroachment on civil government, the most zealous supporters of Papal usurpation and presumption, the most decided foes to liberty of conscience and freedom of worship-when moreover we pay regard to their sedulous propagation of doctrines not less dangerous in their political tendency than pernicious in their consequences to When the principles of the Reformation were making rapid progress, and the Papacy stood greatly in need of such a pillar to its establishment. -Walsh's Hist. of the Popes. + Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History. # See Preface to Burnet's History of the Rights of Princes, p. 31. |