own I was not a little surprised to find even at Rome such a glaring exhibition of error and folly; but still I supposed, as the canonization is to take place, it is thought needful to give it all possible eclat, even at the expense of exposure to the indignation and contempt of Protestants and all sensible persons. But, will you believe it, that on visiting Milan, not a month ago, I found a display of a similar description in the splendid cathedral still more gross and revolting. Nor, as far as I am aware, was there any public occasion for such an exhibition, except the annual festival of the Fete Dieu, which was at hand. Between the immense pillars which support the lofty roof of this gothic building, pictures of a large size were suspended, representing the following subjects. I shall translate literally from the Italian, the inscriptions placed beneath each painting. "Blood flows forth from the Holy Host (the wafer), when pierced through by four jews." "St Catherine of Sienna lives for a long time only on angels' food, and Christ changes his own heart with hers." "In Gaeta, two devils make a usurer buried in church reject the Holy Particle (the wafer), and then destroy him."* "St. Catherine of Sienna communicating, sees the child Jesus in the Holy Particle.” "A woman is saved amidst the ruins of a building by St. Catherine of Sienna, lover of the Holy Host." "A dove appears with the Holy Host to the holy martyrs, Faustinus and Jovitas, and these give the food to a new soldier in the faith." "In 1231 the devil pretending to be the Virgin Mary, St. Peter the Martyr discovers him by means of the consecrated Host." "Amidst emotions at the holy altar, and amidst penances, St. Catherine of Sienna faints away, and the angels relieve her." "By means of the Divine Sacrament St. Hyacinth passes the river Borysthenes dry shod." "St. Mary Magdalen supported by the angels whilst she receives the communion from St. Maximus Bishop." "In the plague of 1576 a devotee of the most Holy Sacrament leaps amidst the corpses, asks for it, obtains it, and dies.” "St. Antony of Padua points out a beast (an ass!) which leaves its corn in order to adore the Holy Host, and by means of it convinces a heretic." "The Holy Host, fallen from the neck of St. Eudoxia, is changed into fire, and burns and puts to flight the wicked." “In Milan the most Holy Sacrament is placed by St. Bernard upon the head of a demoniac, and immediately she is delivered." "St. Catherine of Sienna receives the communion from the Saviour himself." "Christ rewards the fervour of St. Catherine of Sienna at the Divine Sacrament, by crowning her with thorns." * I suppose this means, that the devils induce the spirit of the usurer to show contempt to the wafer, and thus obtain the power of effecting his final ruin. "St. Stanislas Kostka receives the communion from an angel in a temple of the Lutherans, supposed by him to be one of the Catholics." "St. Catherine of Sienna draws her charities from the Holy Host, and Jesus appears to her with a cross of silver, given by her to a poor man." "A prisoner receiving the Holy Particle, his chains are broken." "The Virgin Mary liberates the son of a Jew who had been thrown by his father into a furnace for having received the communion." "The Holy Host vanishes away when applied to the breast of St. Juliana Falconieri, and she dies with triumph." "The Virgin Mary assists a poor sick person devoted to her, and procures her the most holy viaticum." “A ball of wax is formed by the bees around the eucharistic Sacrament when fallen into the mire." "By celestial admonition St. Honoratus administers the most holy viaticum to St. Ambrose when dying." Surely, Sir, every enlightened christian, on hearing of so deplorable an exhibition as this, will feel deeply distressed that the religion of Christ his Saviour should be dishonoured in this manner; and he will sigh for that blest time, when the millions of his Roman Catholic fellow-creatures shall be rescued from errors so appalling. Can any one be surprised at the prevalence of Infidelity in Roman Catholic countries? When the religion of Christ is presented under such a form as this to the population of a large city, and when (a crime, if possible, still more awful) they are not allowed to read that Sacred Volume, which at once contains within it the evidences of its Divine original and the revelation of the religion itself, the wonder is, that there can still be found a single believer in christianity. I heard the Cardinal Archbishop preach a sermon in the very midst of all these pictures on Whitsunday, and his discourse partly explained the paradox. The Church of Rome still retains some of the great doctrines of the gospel, and it is the good which remains which renders it possible for some who seem to be sincere to believe the sad errors "which have been grafted upon it." The sermon of the Archbishop was certainly very defective, for, to my astonishment, he said nothing of the regenerating and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, and there were of course allusions to the doctrine of human merit; but still there was much said on the great subject commemorated at Pentecost which was scriptural; and important truths, expressed with earnestness, on eternal interests, will reconcile many persons even to gross and fatal errors connected with them. I lately met with the maxim, More persons are deceived with error with some truth, than by no truth. I have thus been witness to the false miracles of the Church of Rome being avowed by the highest authority in the two grandest edifices which that church can boast, the Grecian structure of St. Peter's at Rome, and the Gothic cathedral at Milan. The former are of course sanctioned by the Pope, the latter by the Cardinal Archbishop. Knowing that it is desirable our countrymen at home should be increasingly acquainted with the real character of the Romish Church, I trust you will be able to admit this letter into the Record. Bex, Canton of Vaud, And believe me, Sir, Yours most respectfully, THE CATHOLIC INSTITUTE. We have not been unobservant of the machinations and progress of the self-styled Catholic Institute. It is, as our readers well know, an association formed under the patronage of some Popish bishops, and two or three wealthy Popish peers and gentlemen, a few converted Popish barristers, and Mr. Daniel O'Connell; and its object is to extend itself by means of branch societies throughout the kingdom; to circulate by their agency Popish tracts; and generally to guard and to promote the interests of Popery at home and in the colonies. We frequently have before purposed to remark upon its proceedings with the degree of seriousness and anxiety for which they seemed to call; but that degree not being very high, we have generally contented ourselves with mentioning its new auxiliaries or its meetings. Now, however, when some portion of success has attended its exertions, and instead of appearing before us like any other of Mr. O'Connell's new societies, as a thing intended to last only a short time for the purpose of temporary agitation, and as a bank for deposits of the spare money of deluded subscribers,-is to be regarded in a more novel and more important aspect, as a machinery for the organization of Popery in England on the plan which with such success was pursued in Ireland prior to the rebellion, and to the passing of the so-called Emancipation Act in 1829—we feel that it is right more particularly to notice it. At the same time we express neither alarm nor surprise at its motions. Indeed we rather rejoice whenever Popery comes to the light and avows her conspiracies instead of working insidiously in hidden plots, and by means of secret cabals moved by the main spring of the perverted confessional. The most remarkable circumstance connected with the Institute is, that the Pope the foreign potentate concerning whom Lord Shrewsbury himself, and all the Popish members of both houses, have solemnly sworn that they consider that he "hath not nor ought to have any authority, power, or jurisdicVOL II.-September, 1840. T tion in this realm "has given audiences at Rome to Lord Shrewsbury and Lord Stafford, to receive a copy of its rules and to express his approbation of its principles and proceedings. And not only so, he has lately written to Lord Shrewsbury expressing this sentiment, praying for its success and encouraging its promoters. Now this correspondence with Rome is felony, and subjects the correspondents to all the penalties of a Præmunire. About this there can be no mistake whatever. This country has no ambassador or chargé-d'affaires at Rome; nor is there admitted to the court of England any emissary representing the bishop of that see. In foreign countries of course it is different; and even here in Free England the time has been when our king has knelt to kiss the spangled slipper of a Popish legate, when the nation has trembled lest by the fiat, called an inderdict, of a presumptuous stranger pretending to be vicar of Christ, it should be deprived of the comforts of religion and the administration even of its ordinary rites, of the sacraments, and of christian burial. Even so recently as in King James the 2nd's time, the advice of the Pope was deemed necessary prior to any great undertaking, and his emissary was in fact the ruler of the sovereign, and so in fact the actual monarch of the country. But "we have altered all that;" and any attempt to bring in the authority which was once supreme, nay more, any correspondence with the once triumphant and now rejected Romish Pontiff is adjudged by law to be felonious. But in Spain, even in these enlightened days, as they are called, the Pope's consent seems essential to the validity of every change, particularly in ecclesiastical affairs. Very recently an account appeared in the papers of an embassy of a Spanish nobleman to Rome to negociate with "His Holiness" concerning the present state of the Popish church in Spain; and a few months back the Pope issued a bull against the slave trade, which in itself was good enough, though very impotent, and which was exceedingly valuable in evidencing that the Popish prelate still claims the right to interfere with the subjects of other sovereigns. And still more recently it has appeared that the Pope has been interfering in the Prussian dominions in support of the rebellious Archbishop of Cologne to the distraction of that nation; and unhappily we have too good reason to know that he has long virtually governed Ireland, by means of his bulls and canon law. And now Lord Shrewsbury and the Catholic Institute are endeavouring it appears by means of the correspondence between them and the Pope, to introduce the narrow end of the wedge, and to restore those halcyon days to England when she was a province of Rome, sent tithes and offerings to Italian bishops and priests who never visited their sees or their livings, * * See "The Laws of the Papacy, or the Pope the Ruler of Ireland," by the Rev. R. J. McGhee. Seeleys, London, 12mo. OATHS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS, ETC. 291 took her religion from the Pope and not from the Bible, and paid Peter's pence. This attempt it becomes our duty to watch and to expose, and if possible, with God's blessing, to defeat. This of course would very easily be done by an honest government, resolved to enforce the law; but no hope of interference on the subject can be expected from the present administration. A prosecution or two would very soon vindicate the authority of the law, and repress the arrogant spirit of the Popish faction. But if none such be undertaken, and if these par excellence loyal Romanists persist in their correspondence with a despotic and foreign sovereign, all that can be done by human means is to oppose Popish organizations by Protestant organizations, to answer the Catholic Institute's tracts by sound Protestant tracts, and to spread abroad by all means, by the press, the platform, and the pulpit, information respecting the nature of Popish thraldom, and the superstitions and idolatries that mark out the Romish Church as the Great Apostacy. So far, therefore, as the efforts of the Catholic Institute are concerned, we fear it not; we shall rejoice if it provokes discussion, and shall be heartily thankful if the Papists come forth at its meetings and show themselves and their designs to the public. But as a sign of the times, the exertions of the Catholic Institute are not only interesting but important, and worthy of deep consideration; still more important as such a sign are they, when viewed in connection with the careless Gallio-like spirit they have discovered in the executive government of the country. It certainly does seem as if God's judgment, so often anticipated, were at length coming heavily on the land, when so gross an act of treason as an attempt to restore the rejected supremacy of the pontiff in these realms should be passed over as if by common consent, or noticed only to be applauded. But if these judgments be coming, as it is to be feared they are, one mode of averting them remains to all-prayer to the King of kings for the nation. May He be pleased mercifully to guide and direct us; restoring to our rulers a spirit of obedience to His laws, and to the people the love of His glorious and fearful name. OATHS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS AND OF THE JESUITS.* Oath of a Roman Catholic Bishop. "I, N-, elect of M-, from henceforth will be faithful and obedient to St. Peter the apostle, and to the holy Roman Church, and to our Lord Pope and his successors. I shall never to their prejudice or detriment, reveal to any man the counsel they shall * This article has been published as a Farthing Tract at Derby. Any one is at liberty to reprint it. |