His anger and in the day of His just visitation may remember mercy. Implore Him to relieve our country from pestilence, which now strews the land with victims, from the disorders of the elements which spread terror and destruction,- but, above all, from the maddening influence of the demon of civil discord. Ask Him to continue and perpetuate those free institutions, which have hitherto united in social brotherhood and concord the millions of men of various nations and creeds, that, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, bask in the sunshine of liberty. Pray that to all may be imparted the still greater blessings of faith and love, that we may with one heart and mouth glorify God and fulfill his law, in order to our salvation." (NOTE a.) LAFAYETTE'S LETTER- The testimony of Professor Morse is sometimes alleged as evidence of a contrary saying by Lafayette. But so far as we have seen the Professor's statement, it does not denounce this letter of Lafayette as a forgery, though it alleges what might be deemed inconsistent with its contents. An elaborate refutation of it appeared some time ago in the New York Freeman's Journal; and if the Professor answered the strong, if not conclusive arguments therein contained, and published under his own eyc, we have not seen or heard of his reply. We will give a few reasons to show why we believe that the statement of Mr. Morse is wholly unsatisfactory and unreliable. He was, and perhaps is still, a man of strong religious prejudices against the Catholic Church; and every one knows how far religious bigotry may warp the judgment of men otherwise estimable. His statement is based upon a recollection of oral interviews with Lafayette, held several years previously; and all know how easy it is in such cases to exaggerate or make mistakes, the narrator being but too apt to give to the sayings of his friend the coloring of his own prejudices. He says, indeed, that he received a letter on the subject from the French general, but he takes special care not to publish that letter, though its publication, if his account of its contents be correct, would have greatly.corroborated his statement. He owes it to himself still to produce and publish that letter entire, and to exhibit the original, which he must have in his possession, if he received it at all. He furnishes no dates or specifications of his conversation with the French patriot; and though he says that similar declarations were made by him to "more than one American," he does not produce the testimony of even one, in verification of his statement. His testimony is, in fact, as vague and unsatisfactory as it could well be, and we doubt whether, at least in its present shape, it would be admitted as evidence in any court of Christendom. All this looks sufficiently suspicious; but there is yet another circumstance connected with the matter, which is still more so, and which greatly weakens, if it does not wholly destroy, the value of his testimony. His statement was made only in October, 1836, whereas Lafayette had died May 20, 1834,— two years and five months previously! Why this long delay, if Lafayette had it so much at heart-as the Professor declares-that Americans should be warned of their imminent danger from "Romish Priests?" Did he communicate with the patriot's long departed spirit by a species of spirit-rapping, or did he trust to a vague recollection of mere conversations held several years previously? Or did he wait prudently, until the Catholic hero was already long dead, that he might incur less risk of contradiction? What hypothesis will you adopt to explain this strange delay? Finally, the statement of Professor Morse, besides bearing the marks of the greatest intrinsic improbability, bordering on moral impossibility, was published at a time when the Maria Monk excitement was at its height in New York, and when it was fashionable to receive, without much questioning, any statement, no matter how improbable, that might affect injuriously the Catholic Church or its members. The temporary success of the glaring Maria Monk impostures,- sustained as they were by such Reverend ministers of God as Brownlee, Bourne, Slocum, Hoyt, and others, until the base fabrication was triumphantly exposed, by Col. W. L. Stone, a distinguished Protestant editor of New York, is a sufficient illustration of this mischievous and prurient spirit of pious fraud and easy credulity. We close our remarks on this subject with the following dilemma: either Lafayette was a Catholic, or he was an infidel;- he certainly was not a Protestant. If a Catholic, he could not have originated the motto ascribed to him by Morse, without being a hypocrite,- which no one will venture to assert. If an infidel, then his testimony against Catholics has no more weight than that of Voltaire and Tom Paine; and like them, he may have meant by priests, the ministers of all Christian denominations. Whichever horn of the dilemma our adversaries may choose to select, the Catholic Church still remains unscathed. 1 That he died a Catholic, may be inferred from the fact, testified to us by an eye-witness, that he was solemnly interred with all the rites of the Catholic Church. Reviews, Essays, and Lectares. PART I.-HISTORICAL. I. CHURCH HISTORY.* ARTICLE I. THE EARLY AGES. Palma and Palmer as historians - Rome and Oxford-Gratuitous assertions - Promises of Christ in favor of the Church-Essential and Non-essential doctrines - Bishop WhittinghamPuseyism - Palmer's division - Purity of early Church-The Age of persecution-DonatistsStriking avowal - Peter in Rome - The "Thundering Legion "-Disciplina arcani - Testimonies of Sts. Ignatius and Justin on holy Eucharist Cases of Popes Victor and Stephen - The Primacy- - St. Irenaeus - The Cross of Constantine-Early heresies - Church of Rome - - Story of Liberius and of Honorius I. - Monastic Life - Holy Virginity Nestorius St, Cyril of Alexandria-St. Patrick-Early British Churches - Primitive Irish Churches - St Simeon Stylites"Rank Popery "-Early "abuses and corruptions"- Wisdom of the Church - The Seventh and Eighth General Councils. We notice together the ecclesiastical histories of Professors Palmer and Palma, not on account of the similarity in name of the two distinguished authors, but for other obvious reasons. They have both lately given to the world the results of their respective labors in a very interesting department of human inquiry. Both, though in very different ways, have attempted to trace the various phases and vicissitudes which mark the history of the Church of Christ. Both too are men of distinguished ability and learning. They belong to two different, and we may say opposite schools;-thoseof Rome and Oxford; though the latter not long since manifested somedisposition to approximate to the former. And they are tolerably good representatives of these two schools. The Roman Palma, as a historian, has a character distinct in its outline and clearly marked in all its features; with a decided and unfaltering step he boldly treads the path of antiquity, with all the tortuous windings of which he is thoroughly *I. A compendious Ecclesiastical History, from the earliest period to the present time. By the Rev. William Palmer, M. A., of Worcester College, Oxford; author of Origines Liturgica, &c., &c. With a Preface and Notes by an American Editor. New York, 1841. 1 vol. 12mo. pp. 228. II. Prælectiones Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ, quas in Collegio Urbano Sacra Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, et in Pontificio Seminario Romano habuit Joannes Baptista Palma, Sacerdos Romanus, Hist. Eccles. Professor. Tomi IV, 8vo. Roma, 1838-1840. (Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, delivered in the Urban College of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, and in the Pontifical Seminary of Rome; by John Baptist Palma, a Roman Priest, Professor of Ecclesiastical History. |