Page images
PDF
EPUB

sentiment contained in the following extract we subscribe our cordial as. sent. We recommend our readers to direct their attention to the whole sermon, as it contains much important matter, which, in these times, cannot be read without the deepest interest.

"The wonder is not that the professed members of the Church of Rome unite their hearts and hands; and leave no methods, whether of deceit or violence unattempted for the service of that cause, which, in all their lowest fortunes, they never suffer to be removed out of their sight; that they put on all the forms of complaisance and dissimulation; of civility and good humour, even to heretics themselves, to inveigle them into their own ruin; that they flatter, and promise, and swear every thing that is good and kind to their fellow labourers; and at the same time enter into all the resolutions of destruction and desolation whenever the opportunity of power shall come. This is nothing but what is worthy of them, selves, and of that Church, to the slavery of which they have devoted themselves. It is no more than what they fairly and publicly profess, if Protestants will but open their eyes and see it. It is their religion, and their conscience: it is inculcated upon them as the great condition of their acceptance with God, that no good nature of their own, no obligations from others, no ties of oaths and solemn assurances, no regards to truth, justice, or honour, are to restrain them from any thing, let it be of what sort soever that is for the security or temporal advancement of their Church.

The case with them is not as it is with Protestants, who, to their shame, have indeed been unmerciful to one another on all sides; but then, their mutual violences have been rather the sudden effects of passion and revenge, and still there hath been a principle left, by which, in the time of calm and cool reflection, there may be hope of curing so great an evil. And every sort of them, when they are undermost, disown and disclaim the lawfulness of all such proceedings.

"But in the Romish Church it is firmly settled upon never altered principle; it is an established article of religion; equally believed and owned, and inculcated in their adversity and low estate, as in the height of their power. It stands unrepealed upon record, and it is confirmed by experience, that they are most likely not to fail of the honours of saintship and the applauses of that Church, who act the most uniformly and the most steadily upon that foundation. Every weapon they use is sanctified'; every instance of fraud and perfidiousness, every degree of violence and fury is consecrated. It is not only allowed, but first recommended, and afterwards rewarded.

"If the impressions of this are so much decayed with any amongst us

that they ask where or when that Church has taught all this; let any of its advocates answer and tell as, where or when that Church ever taught the contrary: let them name any one instance in which the public authority, or the most celebrated writers of that Church, ever disapproved or con. demned, or ever did not encourage and applaud any sort of wickedness for their own temporal interest; let them shew us where their leaders incul cate it as an indispensable duty, that oaths taken, and promises solemnly made to such as they please to account heretics, are to be religiously ob served: let them produce their authentic condemnations and anathemati zations of those of their own Church, who have dealt in all the arts of per fidiousness and cruelty, to enlarge or recover dominion and riches. This might justly be expected, if it were just to expect what is impossible.

"They themselves know that this is no imaginary satire, merely to em. bellish a discourse, or to raise the passions of men, but that it is too plain to all who will open their eyes and see. It is writ too deep in, characters of blood and ruin, to be so much as denied even by themselves, that the methods of dissimulation to inveigle unhappy men into a trust and confidence; of perfidiousness to cut in sunder the ties of all security; of bar. barities and inhumanities in cold blood, and upon mature deliberation, have been all consecrated to glory; blessed, applauded, and rewarded by the public voice of that Church: whose true and legitimate son we ac knowledge him to be, who now CLAIMS our destruction as his RIGHT; and comes forth to assert it sanctified by the benedictions, aud prepared by the lessons of so holy a mother; and fired with the madness of revenge made ten times hotter by the fury of such a religion. This is a short view of that scene of things which not only may, but must come, if the cause now avowed by our enemies should be crowned with power and opportunity." Sermon xi. page 220.

MELANCTHON'S THIRD LETTER.

(See page 262.)

The Origin of the Regal and Papul Supremacy in the Christian Church, and their Effects respectively on the State of Society.

WHEN the Popes had succeeded in usurping a supremacy in the Church; in order to maintain the power which they had acquired, they procured many sanguinary and tyrannical ordinances to be enacted in the General Councils, over which they exercised complete control; their members being the passive instruments of Papal aggrandizement. In giving some specimens of these, I shall begin with the Canons of the 4th Lateran,

A

[ocr errors]

Council, convened by Pope Innocent III. who was raised to the Pontificate in the year 1198. It was decreed by the 3d Canon, "that all Archbishops, by themselves, or their Archdeacons, or by some honest and fit persons, shall visit their parishes, twice, or at least once a year, and compel three or four persons of good repute, or the whole neighbourhood, to swear that if they know of any Heretics, they will inform the Bishop of the same.""All secular powers, what offices soever they enjoy, shall be compelled, by ecclesiastical censures, that as they desire to be reputed Christians, they will take an oath, that they will honestly endeavour to exterminate out of: their territories, all Heretics condemned by the Church; and if the tem poral Lord, on being required and admonished by the Church, shall refuse to do so, and to give satisfaction within a year, the Pope shall absolve his: subjects from their oaths of allegiance, and expose his territories to be enjoyed by Catholics, who shall possess them, without all contradiction, on exterminating the Heretics." All Heretics are excommunicated every year, as a matter of course, by the bull in cœnâ Domini, mos bis bold lo By the 3d Canon of the same Council, it is decreed, that an excommu nicated Heretic shall be infamous, and shall not be allowed to give testir mony, or admitted to public offices, or to Councils, or to the election of those that belong to them. He shall not have power of making a will, 95 succeeding to any inheritance; no man shall be obliged to answer him in any cause, but he shall be compelled to answer others. ;o if he be a judge. his sentence shall be null and void; nor shall any cause come before him if an advocate, he shall not be permitted to plead if a clerk or notary the instruments drawn by him shall be of no force. All this is confirmed. by the Constitutions of Frederick II. by those of Pope Clement IV. Const 27. and by the Canon Law; Decret. lib. v. tit. 7, cap. 13.d By the same Canon, it is decreed, "that they who, under the badge of the cross, shall set themselves to exterminate Heretics, shall obtain a full remission of all their sins, and a greater degree of everlasting happiness, than others can expect." All persons are declared to be released from the obligation of fealty, homage, and subjection, to obstinate Heretics The General Councils of Constance and Basil pronounced the 4th Lateran to be among those Councils, which all Popes must swear to maintain, to the least tittle, even to the shedding of their blood. (Concil. Const. Sess. 39, Basil 37And the Council of Trent, held in 1545, affirms one of its definitions to be, the voice of the whole Church. (Sess. 14. c. 5.)-The Council of Constance requires all Archbishops, Bishops, and other persons chosen for the purpose, to search for Heretics, and to deliver them over to the secular Magistrate, to be punished. (Concil. Const. Sess. xiv, Bin. Tom, vilj p. 1120.) They are required to do this, under pain of deprivation, by the VOL. I. [Prot. Adv. Mar. 1813.] 2 R

Councils of Lateran and Constance. The Council of Constance decrees, "that all Heretics, though they shine in the dignity of Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, Kings, Queens, or Dukes, shall be excommunicated every Sunday and Holiday before the people, and that they shall be proceeded against, by the punishments of excommunication, suspension, interdict, and deprivation of their offices ecclesiastical and civil, or any other punishments with which Heretics are usually punished, according to the canonical sanctions. (Concil. Const. Sess. xiv. Bin. Tom. viii. p. 1126.) Now the punishments which, by various General Councils, and the Canon Law, must be inflicted on them are, excommunication, confiscation of their goods, imprisonment, exile, death, (Concil. Bin. Tom. xi. p. 668.) By the Council of Constance, all Archbishops, Bishops, Inquisitors, or elected persons, are required to be vigilant in the extirpation and correction of all heresies and errors; and they are empowered to exhibit an oath, ex officio, for their purgation; by which they are compelled to answer whether they believe all the articles of the Romish Church, which are to be distinctly enumerated to them. "If any person will not undergo his canonical purgation (in this manner), or by a damnable obstinacy refuses to swear, for the purpose of his purgation, he is to be con. demned as a Heretic." (Concil. Const. Sess. xiv. Bin. tom. vii. p. 661.)— This is commanded both by the Councils of Lateran and Constance. (Concil. Lat. Quartum, Can. iii. tom. x. p. 152.)-Thus the Pope, like Mahomet, enforced his superstition by a system of terror.

When Pope Innocent IV. convened a General Council at Lyons, in the year 1245, for the purpose of deposing the Emperor Frederick II. for heresy, it was thus decreed, "we declare the said Emperor deprived of all honour and dignity, perpetually absolving all his subjects from their oath of fidelity to him, and by our Apostolical Authority, forbidding them to acknowledge or obey him, hereafter, under pain of excommunication." "If any persons after their death shall be found to have been Heretics, their bodies shall be dug up, and their bones burnt." (Concil. Alb. can. III. p. 727.) The temporal lords shall, by the Diocesan and Inquisitors, be compelled by ecclesiastical censures, to dig up their bodies." (Idem. can. 27. p. 728.) According to this the bodies of Wickliffe, Bucer and Fagius, were dug up and burnt, in the reign of Queen Mary. It is decreed by different General Councils, that their Canons are inspired by God.

"It would be blasphemy in any person to assert, that the sentences, canons, and decrees of a General Council were not dictated by the Holy Ghost." (Concil. Basil. apud Binium, tom. viii. p. 128-131) The Canon Law declares the same, "The canons of the General Councils

are dictated by the Spirit of God, and whoever violates them, speaks against them, or acquiesces with one that does, or intends to do so, is guilty of a sin agaist the Holy Ghost." (Decret. ii. par. caus. 25, quest. i.) -The last of the General Councils, convened at Trent, in the year 1545, decreed thus:-" Be it, therefore, known to all men, that the most Holy Canons are to be exactly, and, as far as possible, indiscriminately, observed by all!!!" (Sess. xxv. cap. 20.)-This was the last General Council, and it requires a strict observance of all the tyrannical and sanguinary canons of all the General Councils..

I shall now give some specimens of the Canon Law, which is equally obligatory on the consciences of Papists, as the General Councils. "Whoeyer shall presume to contemn the opinions, mandates, interdicts, sanctions, or decrees, wholesomely promulgated by the Bishop of Rome, let him be accursed." (Nicolaus Papa, in Synod. univers. Rom. decrot. 2d par. caus. 25.) Gregory VII. pronounced," that all those who were bound to excommunicated persons, either by duty or by oath, were absolved from their fidelity and every tie of obedience." (Decret. pars 2da. quæst. 6.)

A few years after, Urban II. made a similar determination. (Ibid) In the 13th century, Gregory IX. decreed thus: "be it known to all, who are under the dominion of Heretics, that they are free from every tie of fidelity and duty to them; all solemn oaths or engagements to the contrary notwithstanding." (Decret. Greg. lib. v. tit. 7.)-According to the Canon, Law, no oath or promise can bind persons to the omission of that which is their duty. or to do any thing against the benefit of the Holy Church; for according to the determination of Innocent III. confirmed by the General Council of Lyons, and received into the body of the Canon Law,

[ocr errors]

they are not to be called oaths but perjuries, which are attempted against the interest of the Church," non juramenta, sed potius perjuria dicenda sunt, quæ contra utilitatem ecclesiasticam attentantur. (Concil. Lugd. concil. Binii, tom. xi. p. 645. Decret. lib. ii. tit. 24. cap. 27.)

In like manner, the Popes have uniformly claimed and exercised a right of absolving Sovereign Princes from all oaths and promises made to heretical subjects. The Kings of Spain were bound by their coronation oath, not to persecute or expel the Moors from their territories, and that they would not accept of any dispensation from it; and yet Pope Clement VII. at the instance of the Spanish Clergy, sent Charles V. a dispensation from it, which contains the following paragraphs: " and we do further release your Majesty from the obligation of said oath, never to expel the said infidels; absolving you from all censures and penalties of the guilt of perjury, which you might incur thereby." (Geddes's Miscellaneous

« PreviousContinue »