good men being rejected and oppressed; which custom, would to God, our age had not sometimes retained." (Plat in. vita Sylvestri iii.) Onuphrius, a learned Romish Divine, who wrote the Lives of the Popes, reckons 50 schisms in the Church; and Cardinal Baronius admits 22. The latter, who was the Pope's own historian, confesses, that for a succession of fifty Popes, not one pious or virtuous man sat in the chair of St. Peter ; some,he says, were raised to it at tenor twelve years of age, others were murderers and whoremongers, who never spared man in their anger, or woman in their lust. The salutary restraint which the Emperors and Kings of Italy maintained over the Popes, in consequence of their supremacy, kept their ambition within bounds, and enabled them to prevent any but men of piety and learning from being advanced to the Papacy; but after the usurpa tion of Gregory, no dynasty ever produced such vicious ministers as the Papal throne. John XXII. the scandal and shame of human nature, was deposed for crimes, which would require a volume to enumerate. Innocent III. endeavoured to deprive the Emperor Frederick, a minor, of his dominions, of whom his father, Henry VI. had appointed him guardian, by his will. He caused a million of the Albigenses to be extirpated by massacres, tortures, burnings, and other violent deaths, as beretics; and deprived Raymond Count of Thoulouse, their Sovereign, of his crown; for no other reason than that they professed pure Christianity, and refused to embrace the tenets of the Romish Church. He was the founder of that dreadful engine of persecution, the Inquisition. He extirpated 70,000 of the Paulicians (called in Italy Paterini, from pati to suffer) with fire and sword; plundering, burning and confiscating their property. Alexander VI. obtained the Popedom by bribes given to the Cardinals, whom he afterwards got rid of by poison, imprisonment, and the hands of the executioner. Guicciardini, and all the Italian historians, represent him as a vic ous monster, without religion or morals; who sacrificed every thing to his ambition, and the advancement of his natural children, of whom he had many. Julius II. threw the keys of St. Peter into the Tyber, saying, that as they did not auswer his purpose, he would take up the sword of St. Paul. It was universally allowed, that partly by his bulls and excommunications, and partly by the wars which were kindled by him, he destroyed in a few years, 200,000 Christians. (Acts and Mons. 675.) Pios V. soon after his elevation to the holy See, had the following persons noted for their profound and elegant erudition, committed to the flames as beretics, to shew his zeal for the advancement of the holy faith;-Julius Ganetti, and Aonius Paleario, of Padua, and Peter Carueshi of Horence. (Thuanus, lib. xxix. sec. 2.) MELANCTHON. To the Editor of the Protestant Advocate, SIR, I must again employ my weak pen in a cause that deserves a better advocate, and, thank God, in you, it has it but I do not now address you to pour out my honest sorrows on the alarming state of the cause which we are engaged to defend, but to offer congratulations on the inroad we have already made into the enemy's territory, and on the successes which we have already obtained, and are even now obtaining, over him ;--successes, Sir, which warrant me in hoping conquest wilk be the ultimate reward, and the thanks of all well-wishers to king and country, coupled with the proud feelings of our own hearts, will be the meed assigned to our exertions; and this will be all the eulogium we seek, for the steddiness with which we have repelled all attacks upon our venerable establishment in Church and State. Passing over the result of the elections, which, in many places, have most materially strengthened the Protestant cause, I come to speak of the spirit lately displayed by many of our Protestant brethren- a spirit, at last awakened by the audacious front with which the Papists have urged their demands. I say, Sir, it is most gratifying to all good men, and most honourable to you, (for your exertions and intentions have been powerfully conducive to the accomplished good), that those, who for a while slept, are now completely roused; and that the table of the House of Commons is now likely to be covered, not, as the advocates of the Romanists used proudly to boast, with "Catholic' (spurious Catholic) but with, what every advocate of justice and truth must rejoice in, with Protestant (the only real Catholic) petitions. The addresses from Ireland especially demand attention,because the friends of the Romanists have, with their usual correctness, asserted, that the Protestants of that country, are almost-unanimous in their wishes for Catholic Emancipation," so codied; but let the intelligent Protestants of Westmeath (justly noticed in your last Number) speak for themselves; -- When we see clains converted into unqualified demands, we deem it our duty, thus to come forward and avow our sentiments upon this important subject, and the more so, as it has actually been declared in Parliament, that the Protestants of Ireland are favourable to the unquali find repeal of existing disabilities." Now what will our Gratians, our Cannings, our Ponsonbys, and our Hutchinsens, I was going to say, but he, poor man, must be content to utter his virulent and unmeaning anathemas on the outside of St. Stephen's Chapel, say to this? - Let them " read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it," and let them, if they dare, say, that Itish Protestants are the staunch advocates of violent Papists. Sligo, Leitrim, Monaghan, on that side of the water; Oxford and Cambridge universities, in particular, and many other great commun ties on this side St. George's Channel, have equally histed their tandards, and drawn their weapons of defence against the encroaching and insolent enemy of our free constitution. : I congratulate you, Sir, also, on Lord Liverpool's declaration in the House of Lords, "that for his part he ahould act in a manly and decided manner, and give them [the Roman Catholic claims] his distinct opposi tion, which he thought far more honourable than eluding them by a side wind, and evading, instead of boldly meeting, the question;" this is as it should be, so should a leader of our Protestant Government act, and the fleast we can do, is, to cheer him with our applauses, and assist him, as much as in us lies, with our best faculties, and most strenuous exertions. I am unwilling to close this article without calling your attention to a very important document which appeared in the last Anti-Jacobin Review; its title is "a Statement of the Penal Laws which aggrieve the Catholics of Ireland, with Commentaries, part 3d."* This publication promulgated under the avowed direction of the Papists is, in my opinion, one of the : it most important we have been called upon for a long time to peruse speaks volumes as to the actual wishes of the Papists, and it ought, (as it is calculated) to open the eyes of the most bigotted, and satisfy the most besotted of their advocates concerning their real designs. Is it to be endured that they are unblushingly to utter language like the following?"The absolute repeal of those statutes, whereof we have hitherto pursued the affecting detail, may assuredly do much for Ireland. The Catholics, who, during the lapse of 50 years, during the reluctant and niggard dealing out of extorted toleration, have acquired sufficient strength for claim, instead of intreaty, and who at this moment dictate terms, instead of receiving con ditions must not even yet contemplate their acquirements with entire security? much yet remains to be done, and the advocates to whom is delegated the work of universal emancipation, must once more summon their attention to the still necessary exertion." And are the great council of the nation, are Englishmen, are Protestants, to be dragooned into an unconditional surrender by language such as this? forbid it justice? forbid it duty; No, let us as they increase in demand, increase in vigilance; unite all lawful efforts in our cause, and oppose this hydra before it putteth forth more of its pestilential heads.-Let us not be daunted by the despond. ent language of timid men, nor the absurd concessions of weak friends; for be it remembered, "the emancipation of the Catholics has nothing to do with the happiness of Ireland, generally, and those who expect that it will bring peace, should that fatal measure ever be carried, will find * We have ascertained, on unquestionable authority, that this publication is not the work of a Papist. See page 280. themselvas grievously mistaken."* Allow me to conclude this address, (imperfect as I feel it to be, yet dictated by a sincere spirit), with the sound opinions of a good Christian,† who, I believe, looked further into, and considered more deeply the history of the Papists, than Mr. Canning has done. "Should Parliament once admit the claims of the Roman Catholics on the ground of right, where are we to draw a line? they would then have a right to fill every office in the State; to pay tithes exclusively to their own clergy: to restore the ancient pomp and splendour of their religion; to be governed exclusively by the laws of their own Church; to place their Bishops in the House of Lords, and a Popish Prince on the throne; to subvert the established government and to make this a Popish country this I bave little doubt is their ultimate object.” I am, Sir, Your sincere well wisher, and humble assistant, W-n, Wilts, Φιλος Πατρίδος. Dec. 12th, 1812. To the Editor of the Protestant Advocate. Mr. EDITOR,-Your publication merits the support and encouragement of every true Briton; most sincerely do I hope it will have the effect of convincing the nation at large, of the very serious consequences to be apprehended from investing with political power a set of men, who profess a religion no less hostile to every denomination of freedom, than to our Established Church, and Civil government. The changes which every day take place in doctrines and opinions, are so various and extraordinary, that they cause no little astonishment to men of steady principles and sound opinions. Who would have ever expected to see that party which has ever professed itself the friend and zealous sup porter of freedom and the British constitution, as established at the glorious. Revolution, who would have expected to see the whig party advocating the cause of Popery, and, under the pretence of liberality and equal rights, exerting its influence to invest with power the professors of a religion, the principles of which are most unfriendly to freedom; which exercises a most oppressive tyranny over those who are unhappily subjected to its power? how are we to reconcile the professions and practice of this party? are those who compose it dazzled and deluded by the visionary ignis fatuus See a Serious Call to the Electors. + Lord Clare.. of philosophistical liberality, into a dereliction of the path they ought to pursue? Deceptive as this meteor undoubtedly is, it cannot surely produce such a total obliquity of conduct. Are they then sincere in their wishes for the extension of civil and religious liberty, and do they really imagine that it is to be effected by the admission of Papists to power?-as well might we expect the increase of a flock of sheep from the introduction of a wolf into the fold, as hope that the cause of freedom will be promoted by giving power to Papists. Has not the Church of Rome been ever the ally of arbitrary government? does she not at this moment lend her aid to rivet the galling fetters of the French nation? and can men be found pretending to love freedom, and yet wishing to see the enemies of it in situa tions of power and authority? the absurdity is too glaring for any spe cious veil to conceal, Those who express just and well founded apprehensions on the subject, are told, that the Roman Catholics of this age are men of such enlightened minds and liberal opinions, that no danger can be apprehended from any concessions in their favour; should we however grant this to its full extent, still we must recollect that it was not against any peculiar members of the Church of Rome that our ancestors erected those barriers which their descendents would rashly destroy, but it was against the tyrannical and persecuting spirit, against the tenets and principles of Popery itself, which tenets and principles remain in their full force at this day, though, from their having been thus deprived of the power of inflicting persecution, they may have assumed a mild appearance. Those who are incredulous as to the effects of a Popish yoke should read the reigns of Mary I. and James 11.; in the former, they will see how severely it galled those who were the unfortunate subjects of that unfeeling bigot, and they will see the same spirit which actuated her, striving for pre-eminence, though bappily prevented from attaining it, in the latter. This reign indeed is a fine instructive lesson for our study at this period. We see how strikingly similar were the means made use of to raise to preeminence a religion, which has ever proyed destructive to the comfort of mankind, "James II." says Hume," persisted to his last breath in asserting that he never meant to subvert the laws, or procure more than a toleration, and an equality of privileges to his Catholic subjects; such however was his zeal for proselytism, that whatever he might at first have intended, he plainly stopped not at toleration and equality. He confined all power, encouragement and favour, to the Catholics. Converts from interest would soon have multiplied upon him; if not the greater, at least the beiter part of the people, he would have flattered himself, was brought over tobis |