Harcourt Lees, or of Dr. Robert Southey. It it however time to return to the Martrys for August: the first upon the list is Leonard Keyser, a Bavarian renegade priest, who adopted the opinions of Luther, with some improvements of his own, for which he suffered at the town of Possaw, on the 16th of August, either in 1526, or in the following year. The second martyr, John Abbes, a poor lad, who fancying himself an equal match for the Bishop of Norwich and his chaplains, voluntarily entered into a dispute with them, and thus subjected himself to the penalty of death. The next three were from Maidstone, in Kent; a master, and two disciples. Then follow six more from Canterbury, and other towns in Kent, poor workmen and artizans. After these come six more, five men and one woman; the leaders among these, were George Tankerfield, a cook, and Robert Smith, a painter, whose insolence and presumption, when examined by the Bishop of London, could only be equalled by their general ignorance and infatuated folly. After these, we have Robert Samuel, minister martyr. This man was a married priest, and famous for his dreams; he appears also to have been an enthusiastic visionary. Fox relates many miracles, which, were you to believe him, happened at the execution of this martyr. Now comes a poor blind woman, who suffered at Derby. And then come six martyrs, three men and three women, who suffered at Colchester, in Essex; the cases of these, differed in nothing from those already noticed, if we except one of the women, Elizabeth Fulkes, who was, after her first examination, discharged, and delivered over to the care of her uncle; but although but 20 years of age, she returned to the charge, attacked and set at defiance the commissioners, who were then sitting, and thus she voluntarily brought on her own condemnation. The next four were of the same party, two men and two women; the wife and daughter-in-law of one of the men. These had been dismissed after they had undergone an examination in London, and had retired into the country, and there, their imprudence involved them a second time in difficulties, and at last, brought them all to the stake. Three more martyrs appear in the list for this month; the first of whom resembles some of the martyrs already noticed at the commencement of the year. This man, George Eagles, a tay lor by trade, appears to have been of such a wandering disposition, that he obtained the name of Trudge-over-the-world. "Next day," says Fox, "he was carried to London to the bishop and council, and there remained a certain time, and then was brought down to Chelmsford to the sessions, and there was indicted and accused of high treason, because he had assembled companies together, contrary to the laws and statutes of the realm in that case provided." He was hanged, drawn, and quartered, and his quarters were sent to four of the principal towns in Essex, there to be exposed. "His head was set up at Chelmsford, at the market cross, upon a long pole, and there stood till the wind did blow it down; and lying certain days in the street, was tumbled about, untill one caused it to be buried in the church-yard in the night." If protestants are obliged to have recourse to such characters as these for martyrs, why do they not at once make a selection from the Newgate Calendar. The two other martyrs who complete the catalogue for this month, are a man named Friar and a sister of Eagles. Fox writes, that they both suffered for the like cause of righteousness. And a goodly cause it seems to have been ! The introduction of these three culprits give a variety to the scene; and has enabled John Fox to eke out his list to the end of the month with tolerably apparent ease to himself, and doubtless with great edification to his fanatic reader. And here, sir, I shall conclude this letter by subscribing myself to be Your's, &c. A CATHOLIC. 10th June, 1824. To the Editor of the Catholic Miscellany. SIR,-Having great veneration for the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, and respect for their indefatigable priesthood, I do myself the pleasure of forwarding to you, for insertion in your truly meritorious publication, a letter of the Rev. L. Strongitharm, Priest of the Chapel in St. John's, Madder Market, Norwich. It was addressed to the Editor of the "Norwich Mercury," during the controversy of the Rev. J. 66 quainted with the fearful excitement which at this moment agitates the minds of millions of your countrymen, and as a statesman you must be aware of the importance of conciliating that great and powerful body which you have this day publicly affronted in the person of one of its members, but without whose cooperation, neither the contributions of the liberal, nor the influence of your lordship, nor even the efforts of the pious and well intentioned will, I fear, ever prove availing." Respectfully leaving the grounds on which your lordship, as a christian and a gentleman, may be disposed to defend the proceedings complained of, to your more mature consideration, I have the honour to be, my lord, Birmingham, June 7th, 1824. Your lordship's most obedient servant, SPEECH OF THE REV. MR. M'DONNELL. We have received the following from the Rev. T. M. M'Donnell, as the substance of the address which he intended to have spoken at the Meeting above mentioned. MY LORD, May I solicit the attention of your Lordship and that of the ladies and gentlemen here assembled, to some observations upon the proceedings of this day? When the Rev. Gentleman who moved the first resolution eulogised your Lordship's residence in the unfortunate country to which you belong, and held forth such residence as an example well worthy the imitation of other great landed proprietors, I cordially agreed with him; and when he and the other gentlemen who have followed him, bestowed their eloquent eulogiums on the objects of this institution, considered abstractedly, I also cordially agreed with them. Education, well directed, is perhaps the greatest advantage which one human being can confer upon another, and it is difficult to view without emotions of delight the zeal that appears on this occasion to animate this assembly; and if I differ from some of the speakers, in regard to several of their assertions, it is very far from my wish to malign their motives. On the contrary, if the assertions, which they have been instructed to make be correct, if those be really facts, which they have related as such, then the warmth with which they have commented upon those facts, and the warmth with which those comments have been received by this respectable audience, must be acknowledged to be not only justifiable, but highly commendable. My Lord, such warmth is the spontaneous emotion of a virtuous soul, which naturally kindles into indignation at the bare prospect of any outrage against morality, and still more of any impiety against God. On the other hand, if I impugn not their motives, if I regard what I consider their mistakes as, at the worst, but the effects of a virtuous credulity, I claim the same credit for myself; I claim that you give credit to my solemn assurance that I rise now with unfeigned reluctance,-that I rise only in compliance with a solemn conviction that I owe it to that unfortunate country, which I am proud, even for its misfortunes, to call " the land of my forefathers;" I owe it to that exemplary body of men, of which I have the honour to be a member; I owe it to the important station which, as pastor to the Roman Catholic congregation of this town, I occupy, to endeavour to remove the erroneous impressions which the statements of two Rev. Gentlemen are calculated to make. These gentlemen, in advocating this charity, have thought it right, in no very measured language, to declaim against the religion, and the clergy of the religion of the Irish people. I will not dwell on the impolicy of such declamation, and its inconsis christian, but a paragon of wickedness in one who professes to be a teacher of the religion of charity. It is then highly incumbent upon those who have ventured upon the defamatory assertion, that the religion of by far the most considerable part of the christian world is replete with corruption-to examine impartially, the grounds of their allegations, and not thus rashly to expose themselves and their hearers to the awful consequences which must arise from villifying a system which can be proved incontrovertibly to have been devised by the infinite wisdom and consolidated by the infinite power of God. Before they form their opinions on this subject, much more before they give utterance to these opinions, ought they to anticipate the great day of general manifestation, and the overwhelming confusion of those who shall then be found to have fought against God, and to have despised him by despising and calumniating his Church." "On the occasion which produced this flow of gratuitous invective, it was asserted that the Catholic religion was a bad system, and must be put down. But in sober truth, is it not a strange aberration from intellect or from sincerity for a man to urge the absolute necessity of doing that which it is absolutely impossible to effect. The words of Him who deceives not, declare that He will be with his Church to the end of the world, and that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it. To assert then, that a church must be exterminated which is supported by Him who upholds the universe, is to oppose the contemptible weakness and folly of man to the omnipotence and omniscience of God-it is to falsify the scriptures, which declare that there is no wisdom, no power, no counsel against the splendid designs of the omnipotent-who, although man may purpose, absolutely disposes all things. Let history be examined, and if it can be discovered that the agency of earth and hell combined, have ever prevailed the least against the stability of the Catholic Church, these proud declaimers may then hope to see their presumptuous declarations realized. We know that at the commencement of christianity, the Roman empire, which had caused the most distant nations to crouch under its towering eagle, and before whose colossal power the whole earth was silent-directed every engine of its gigantic strength against a religion established by One who died on the cross, and published to the world by a few fishermen. Every artifice of cruelty was exhausted, but the Church increased, deriving strength from the opposition of its enemies. "Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus Nigræ feraci frondis in Algido Merses profundo, pulchrior evenit Cum laude victorem." Hor. b. 4. ode 3. That empire has passed away, and others arose and passed -kingdoms have fallen, and the political world has undergone a thousand revolutions; but in the midst of these vicissitudes, the Church has remained the same. Earthly changes affect not her, because He is her support who knows no change-no shadow of alteration. She stands forth a noble monument of the power and wisdom of her Heavenly Founder-amidst the ruins of broken empires and prostrate kingdoms, herself alone uninjured by the impetuous sweep of ages. Let then common sense, and common justice, and common piety suggest the necessity of checking those profane reveries in which passion and prejudice too often indulge. But since, according to the dictum of a certain profound individual, the Catholic religion must be annihilated, allow me to ask the reason for this exterminating sentence.-Because it is the enemy of the Bible. It is extraordinary that a man who pretends to any thing like information, should be so intrepid in his assertions, knowing as he must, full well, that the Catholic Church had preserved the scriptures during 1500 years before his religion was thought of. For from whom does he receive this highly-estimated bible? From the Catholic Church which he condemns. How is he informed that such a book was written by such an apostle, or by such an evangelist ?— Because the Catholic Church has delivered it to him as such. But why has he not received one of those false Gospels which appeared in the early days of christianity? Because the authority of the church condemned these false accounts, and pre- |
