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with his wife. They went to Frizeland, and commenced the trade of cap-knitting; but this not answering, they returned to London; and Rough having discovered that there were some persons calling themselves protestants, who secretly met near London, he insinuated himself among them, and became their preacher. He was soon discovered and apprehended; and after various examinations, &c. was sentenced to the stake; his companion in suffering seems to have been no favourite with him: for Fox writes, "Master Rough, the Friday before he was taken, in the open face of the congregation, did excommunicate her out of the same company, and so seemed with the rest, to exclude and cut her off from their fellowship and society; whereat she being moved, did not well take it, nor in good part, but thought herself not indifferently handled among them Whereupon, to one of her friends, in a heat, she threatened to remove them all; but the providence of God was otherwise." She was, however, taken herself: and as she supported with pertinacity her erroneous opinions, she was condemned and executed. Of the next six confessors, nothing is known, if we except John Dale, who was a labourer belonging to the town of Hadley, in Suffolk. This man took it into his head to insult the rector of the parish in his church during divine service; for which he was put into the cage, and afterwards committed to the prison in Bury St. Edmond's. We have then Nicholas Burton, who, according to Fox, was an English merchant, burned at Seville, in Spain, for holding the doctrines of Zwinglius; with him is set down Thomas Rhedonenis, earl. He was an apostate French Carmelite friar, and in such high estimation with his annalist, that not content with giving his history on the 10th of February, he now favours us with a second version of the same story. The next two confessors were both Catholics, and each wrote against the prevailing heresies of their age. The first was John Picus Earl of Mirandula. This young nobleman was an Italian, and endowed with an extraordinary share of learning and piety. He wrote many books in support of the Catholic religion, and both lived and died a zealous Catholic. His life has been written by Sir Thomas More, and others. The second was Erasmus, of Rotterdam, a most learn

ed man and a Catholic; but one who possessed a sarcastic vein of humour and wit; which he was more solicitous to display, than to write correctly; many of his works are consequently disapproved of. Few, however, have attacked Luther with greater asperity than he has.

"We now come to some confessors of distinction, men who dignified themselves with the title of reformers. The first of these is Martin Bucer. This great personage was a Dominican friar, a man of talents and of learning, but fond of sensual pleasure; he therefore quitted his convent and took three wives, one after the other. He was one of Luther's first followers, and through his means procured a benefice. After some years he opposed with extraordinary warmth the opinions of his master, and attached himself to the Zwinglians. To support his new friends, he set about translating some of the works of Luther and his disciples, and contrived so to suppress and alter parts of the texts, that they appeared to be the productions of Zwinglius himself; for this conduct he was obliged to quit Saxony, he then went first to Zurick and afterwards to various towns in Switzerland. In 1536, he attended a synod held at the house of Luther, and again adopted the opinions of his old master; this brought about a dispute between him and his Zwinglian connection; a public confession and profession was put forth against him, and he was treated as a heretic. He was consequently obliged to take refuge in Strasburg, where he endeavoured to steer a middle course between the two parties; this plan not succeeding, he again declared himself a Lutheran: he was soon again in trouble, for he, and Paul Phagieus, another apostate priest, were banished from Strasburgh as preachers of sedition. They both came to England in the reign of Edward the 6th, and both procured appointments at Cambridge. Phagieus died shortly after, but Bucer lived until 1551, continually changing his religious opinions, so as to suit with the temper of the times. At his death no one knew what his religious sentiments were; some have thought that he died a Jew. His memory was held in no great estimation, for when Queen Mary came to the throne, all the members of the University of Cambridge, petitioned that his body might be taken

up and burned; a full account of which may be found in the Acts and Monuments. Philip Melanthon, another reformer, was born at Bretta, in Sarabia, in the year 1497. When he was about twenty-years old he commenced lectures upon divinity, under the auspices of Luther, with whom he became so closely connected, that, they generally went by the names of Paul and Titus. Philip was well acquainted with the languages, and possessed a pleasing address, a crowd of young men therefore frequented his lectures; he displayed much learning in his writings in defence of the real presence against the Sacramentarians. But in his various works such a deversity of opinion appears, that he laid himself open to the attacks of Beza and Calvin, who lashed him severely; he died in 1560, professing no religion at all. The last of these worthies, Peter Martyr, was an Italian Friar, who run away from his convent, and took a nun to live with him; he travelled into Germany, where he preached Evangelical liberty, until he was obliged to fly in 1547, when he sought a refuge in England, and presented himself to Cranmer and the Lord Protector, he offered to teach any religion that the parliament might hereafter fix upon. They sent him to Oxford, where he got into some difficulties in consequence of the delay of parliament in deciding upon the religion of the state. When king Edward died, he quitted England, and in 1556 he was appointed Zwinglian preacher at Strasberg. After this he accompanied Beza and other ministers to the conference at Poisye, in France. Here Beza and he quarrelled about their religious opinions, and he commenced an attack upon Calvinists. A dispute ensued which appeared to give him much pain, and he died on the following year; some authors say of grief, but others attribute his death to poison. Genebraud writes, Peter Martyr, the 12th November 1562, gave up the ghost, not without suspicion of poison given him by the Calvinists, from whom he had disagreed in the meeting at Poisye." The list closes with a confessor of superlative consequence, no less a personage than Edward 6th King of England. He was a precious boy, and juvenile head of an infant church. A convenient instrument in the hands of reformers, who forgot not in their pious zeal for reformation to enrich themselves with the spoils of a church which had endured for ages, and which in spite of their malignant assaults will endure till time shall be no more.

Your's, &c.

15th Nov. 1824.

A CATHOLIC.

To the Editor of the Catholic Miscellany.

Mr. Editor-The unanimity which is said to exist between the English and the Irish Catholics at the present time, as far as it is real, must undoubtedly be a subject of joy to every friend of our common religion; but, Sir, it is too true that some of the leading men of these bodies, are notoriously at variance with each other in their sentiments and political connexions; whence I, who was witness to the storm that broke out among them in February, 1812, at a moment when they seemed to be most united, dread a similar explosion whenever serious business is to be done amongst us; unless the English Catholics have firmness enough to stick to their promises of not giving up any part of their discipline and ecclesiastical independency to gratify the most powerful of their political friends: for be assured, Mr. Editor, that the minister to whom the English Catholics principally look up for assistance, will repeat the requisition he made at the above mentioned time, when he so emphatically called out in Parliament-"What, are the papists to receive every thing from us, and to give us nothing on their part?"

I might mention several things on which those leading men of our respective bodies whose opinions and talents are accustomed to influence the votes and conduct of their countrymen, are publicly opposed to each other. But I will content myself at present with mentioning two of them. The other day, when a motion was made at the Association of the English Catholics, but to present that Achilles of modern writers, Mr. Cobbet, with the copy of a book upon sale, a gentleman there present, who acknowledged himself to have been concerned in the affairs of his body for more than forty years, (he might have said that he had directed them during that time) offered to go down on his knees to prevent the assembly from giving this slight mark of their approbation and gratitude to their unpaid and powerful advocate; and he carried the point he was bent upon.

But what said the oracle and the idol of Catholic Ireland to his countrymen concerning the same personage, and on or about the same day? He called Cobbet "a powerful, honest, and disinterested friend of Ireland," adding, If ministry go "to the length of purchasing the carrion of the London press, "what would they not give for such an animal as William "Cobbet?" Finally, he gave it as his opinion, that "no sys"tem of unjust expediency ought to preclude the Irish Catho"lics from the happiness of having so able and efficacious an "advocate in the Imperial Parliament." Dublin Evening Post, October 19th.

The other instance of opposition between English and Irish Catholic leaders which I wish to mention, occurs between the

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same gentlemen, with respect to the late unhappy Lord Castlereagh. The English Director extols him to the skies as the friend of Catholics, and speaks of the assurances to this effect which he gave to a certain Prelate, (who, indeed, had witnessed many such assurances) two or three days before he destroyed himself. Speaking of this modern Achitophel, Mr. O'Connel calls him "an unfortunate monster, hurried by his own hand "to his grave, perpetrating on his country the retributive jus"tice which he afterwards perpetrated on himself.” He adds, that "If it were ever lawful to stamp on the grave of any man, "that man was Castlereagh; for he it was that bargained "and sold the country; be it was that spread corruption far "and wide; he it was that tampered with all classes, the rich " and the poor, the noble and ignoble, the church and the law, "the mitre and the robe; these were all tributary, not to the ascendancy of his genius, but to the ascendancy of his debasing corruption, &c." Dublin Evening Post, Oct. 19th. is plain that Mr. O'Connell alludes to Castlereagh as an Orange Magistrate in Ireland; as the Castle Secretary and Torturer; as the purchaser of the Irish legislature, as the pledge of Catholic emancipation to the laity and of a legislative establishment to the Catholic Bishops and Clergy. We can therefore estimate the truth of his portrait of the Felo-de-se. But to judge of that which is drawn by the English director, we ought to hear the smooth language, assurances and promises which he made to the latter and certain Catholic Prelates; his vituperation of the religious system to which he himself adhered; his proposed amendments of Messrs Canning's and Butler's persecuting bill; his proposals and promises to a late political Cardinal, &c. But leaving these matters apart, it is sufficient for us to see the direct opposition there is between the English and Irish Catholic leaders on points of a practical tendency, to justify our dread of a recurrence of the schism of 1813; unless the partisans of one or other of the leaders abandon him, and prove that they prefer religion itself to any temporal advantages that may attend it.

Poetry.

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS, FOR CHRISTMAS DAY.

Arise my soul, in exstacy arise,

The King, thy Saviour, quits th'empyreal skies,
Where choirs immortal chaunt their Maker's praise,
And loud Hosannah's fill their raptur'd lays;

Where music's charms increase the joyful sound,

And fuming censors shed their fragrance round:

J. M.

XXX

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