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INVALUABLE GEMS,

FROM

The best Writers, and the most approved Authorities.

The eleventh daie of Maie [1532], the Kyng [Henry VIII.] sent for the Spekar again, and twelve of the Common House, having with him eight Lordes, and said unto them :-"Well beloved Subjectes, we thought that the Clergie of our Realm had bene our Subjectes wholy, but now we have well perceived, that they be but halfe our Subjectes, yea, and scarce our Subjectes; for all the Prelates at their Consecration make an Othe to the Pope clean contraire to the Othe that they make to us; so that they seme to be his Subjectes, and not ours. The copie of bothe the Othes, I delyver here to you; requirying you to invent some ordre, that we bee not thus deluded of our Spiritual Subjectes "-The openying of these Othes was one of the occasions why the Pope, within two yere followying, lost all his jurisdiction in Englande.-Hall's Chronicle, entitled, "The Union of the Houses of York and Lancaster," fo. p. 205.

"I rely with the utmost confidence, upon your zealous exertions to promote true piety and virtue-to reclaim those who are in error by the force of Divine Truth, and to uphold and extend among my people THE PREFERENCE WHICH Is So JUSTLY DUE to the PURE DOCTRINE and SERVICE of OUR ESTABLISHED CHURCH. THAT CHURCH has EVERY CLAIM to my CONSTANT SUPPORT and PROTECTION."-Speech of his Majesty, George The Fourth, to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other Lords and Clergy of Convocation, Nov. 28, 1826.

"With respect, my Lords, to the circumstances, which brought our family to the British throne, your Lordships well know, that they originated in the Revolution. The GREAT OBJECT of that Revolution, was to SECURE the RELIGION and LIBERTIES of these realms. These objects were confirmed by the Act of Settlement, by the Declaration of Rights, by the Oath of Supremacy and Abjuration, and by the succession to the Crown in the Protestant line. To maintain and uphold all these, my Lords, our Family was called to the throne. And whatever can militate against these principles, in the remotest degree, it is MY BOUNDEN DUTY, as a Member of this Family, and as a Member of your Lordship's House, To RESIST."-SPEECH of His Royal Highness Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, in the House of Lords. See also CHAMPION, No. 1. p. 24.

"Accordingly," in the letter, King William wrote in 1697, he said, "I wil give you every privilege I can, consistently with the free exercise of your religion, and every other privilege BUT THAT OF ADMISSION TO CERTAIN STATE OFFICES, AND INTO PARLIAMENT ; but I cannot consent to admit you into Parliament, or to those offices which constitute the Executive Government, because I do believe, although I respect you, that you MUST EXERCISE, as members of that Government, an INFLUENCE TO PROMOTE THE VIEWS of the ROMAN CATHOLIC BODY." So that, Sir, King William and his counsellors, when it was determined that the Crown should be Protestant, did not believe that the Crown would be safely secured in that succession, unless offices in the Executive, State, and Seats in Parliament, were denied to those who professed the Roman Catholic faith."-The very eloquent and argumentative speech of The Right Hon. Robert Peel, in the House of Commons, March 5th, 1827.

LETTER II.

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT REVEREND DOCTOR CROLLY,

TITULAR BISHOP OF DOWN.

[Concluded from page 47, of CHAMPION, No. 2.]

REVEREND SIR,

I HAVE alluded to the uninterrupted and unrestrained process of intimidation and agitation, which the vacillation, indecision, and weakness of the Executive Government in Ireland, has solely contributed to nurture, promote, and increase. But, though, the effects of such glaring imbecility, and palpable misrule, may for the present cast a destructive blight on that unfortunate country; and though, for a season, the genial blessings of religion and social order, may wither upon its surface,-dry, sapless, and inflammable; ready to receive the spark which every hireling incendiary may, for the aggrandizement of his party, or gratification of his employers, fling among the deluded rabble;-still, the friends of legitimate control and government will be enabled, thus, to appreciate and uphold, from this melancholy contrast,—the due exertion and vigorous influence of lawful power, whenever it appears in the magistracy, or rulers of the land. The present appearance of the devastating horrors of the increasing fury of a wild democracy, and the tolerating, yielding weakness of the executive power, give also

[Continued from Note, p. 39.1

I have instituted an accurate inquiry into the conduct of Gregory, on occasion of receiving the first intelligence, of the murder of Mauritius and his family; whilst the assassin and usurper-Phocas, got possession of the reins of Eastern sovereignty;-because, it is the legitimate task of the historical, and philosophic, observer of these remote ages, to scrutinize, impartially, with the utmost diligence, such established facts, as place before the view, a complete develop

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to the profound observer of the effects of civil polity, an irresistible proof, of the sagacious Montesquieu's maxims, and reflections on the laws which establish political liberty. It cannot be doubted, how delighted and struck, would this great and illustrious writer have been, in witnessing the present, practical verification of his enlightened precepts. He would have seen the truth of his just observation,-" that the

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ment of Roman policy, and Papal machinations, in the furtherance of the great work, of their usurpation of ecclesiastical, and secular domination the incipient workings of which, were, about this period, just beginning to mark out an Epoch, in the history of the Church, as remarkable for its origin, as for the tremendous effects, produced, for so many centuries, on the Religion, Government, and Policy, of every State, within the pale of Christendom. (Nor can pass on, to the proposed inquiry, without making my acknowledgments, for the benefit and instruction, which I have received on this important topic, from two works, that without any other research, are so well adapted, to assist the investigations of the Scholar and Divine. And such, I refer, to the truly admirable production of the "History of Europe during the Middle ages" by the learned Mr. Hallam, in his chapter on Ecclesiastical Power, vol. ii.; and to the Introduction to the History of Europe" by Puffendorf, in his very enlightened, and deeply searching views "Of the Spiritual Monarchy of Rome," chap. xii.;-a work, which should always be read in company with the Universal History" of Bossuet.). Well, as to the proposed inquiry in relation to Gregory, all the various incidents, above related, conduce to heighten our curiosity. But, certainly, none more so, than the circumstance of the Pontiffs, being then in a state of Spiritual, and Secular, vassalage to the Eastern Emperors; and consequently to Mauritius, owed a debt of fealty, and subjection. For, if Romanists pretend, in opposition to the clearly attested facts of historical testimony, to dislike, or turn aside from the truth of such an assertion; they will get themselves involved in a dilemma, that will assuredly expose them, to a summary castigation, for their presumption, and ignorance. To proceed to a greater length, in confirmation of the fact, than I have already done, would be needless. One point, however, it may not be superfluous to add. It has been most amply established, beyond all controversy, that Charlemagne,-when he was received at Rome, as the Imperial Master of the Italian provinces and of the West, in opposition to the acknowledged dominion, and sacred rights of the Byzantine Monarchs, -continued, in reality, to preserve entire his supreme authority over the city of Rome, and its adjacent territory; gave laws to the citizens, by judges of his own appointment; punished malefactors; enjoyed the prerogatives, and exercised all the functions, of royalty: -in short, we find, that the new Monarch reserved to himself the

power of the people has been confounded with their liberty;"-for, how little indeed, does the indulged, lawless licentiousness-and fostered, savage barbarity of the excited Democracy, comport with the invaluable blessings of genuine liberty! Montesquieu would now, have beheld the force of his remark," that in democracies the people seem to act as they please; but Political Liberty does not consist in an unlimited

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supreme dominion, and the inalienable rights of majesty; and granted to the Church of Rome, only, a subordinate jurisdiction over the city, and its annexed territory. This has been unanswerably confirmed, by the most unexceptionable, and authentic testimonies. And it establishes the fact, that in all the preceding ages, the Patriarchs of the West, or Roman Prelates, humbly bowed, and peaceably submitted to the temporal sceptre of sovereign dominion, however, or wherever deposited. Bossuet himself, in his deservedly renowned Historical Reflections," does not presume to conceal this well-established point. And this is the more remarkable in that celebrated writer, for I do not know any modern author, who, whilst he commands our highest reverence and admiration, as a philosophic historian of the very first order; has notwithstanding, so incessantly violated, the fundamental maxim, and golden rule, of historical composition, at least, in one of its most essential parts-" never to presume to advance any falsehood, and to have always courage to speak the truth,"- quis nescit Primam esse historiæ Legem, ne quid falsi dicere audeat ; deinde ne quid veri non audeat" (Cicero, Lib. ii. de Orat. 62.) :— it were, indeed, an easy task to point out Bossuet's failure in the latter-his extreme timidity in publishing the whole truth :—the savant Bishop, however, it is to be carefully noted, was drawn along, by a threefold cord of immensely opposite interests-the maintenance of the security of Gallican independance-the high and overtopping honor of his Royal master and pupil, the King, and Dauphin of France-and his accommodating devoirs to his Holiness, surrounded by the artillery of the Vatican!!! But Bossuet, for once, has been ingenuous. He slyly informs us, that after Pepin effected his schemes of usurpation and ambition, and had given a valuable bribe, by way of a thrice "noble gift" to the church; then, from that time the Emperors were but little acknowledged in Rome"; and to satisfy the squeamishness of the fastidious casuist, he lets us know, that, as the lawful Monarch,--Childeric, was "a drone," and "a fool," and Pepin had "exalted merit;" so, this was sufficient for Pope Zachary to cancel the ties of allegiance, and violate the sanctity of oaths;—and quite meritorious on the part of Pepin, to make an unhallowed seizure of the indefeisable, vested rights of a Monarch, of a venerable and ancient race!!! Besides, Bossuet, in the case of Charlemagne, says, that he exercised in Rome itself the supreme authority, in quality of patrician, and confirmed to the

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freedom;"-that, "Political Liberty is to be found only in moderate governments: and even in these it is not always found:"-for, if this liberty be, as this Philosophic politician defines it," a tranquility of mind arising from the opinion each person has of his safety;" and that," in order to have this liberty, it is necessary that the government be so constituted as one man not to be afraid of another;"-how, I ask, can

Holy See the donations of the king his father" (Discours sur l'Hist. Univ. Prem. Part. l'epoq. xi.). How candid it is for Bossuet, to place in the same sentence, so closely in juxtaposition, the papally acknowledged, usurped privileges of Charlemagne, and the seductive power of his valuable bribes!!! Now, from this, it appears, that, though, the unlimited power, possessed by Charlemagne, was the wages of Papal treachery and intrigue, still, that this very same supreme dominion, was enjoyed by all the other Sovereigns, who had preceded him in the government of Italy and the West. For, otherwise, this very disagreeable dilemma awaits the contumacy of those who would desire to deny the fact :-they must in respect to the acknowledged authority which Charlemagne enjoyed without limitation, over the Ecclesiastical and Temporal powers, confess, that all his predecessors possessed the same; else, that every one of the former Popes was manifestly guilty of the crime of Ananias; in sacrilegiously injuring the interests of the church, by iniquitously withholding from it, the secular arm of Princes, and depriving it of their protection, in return for their privileged investiture of controul, over its ecclesiastical dominion;—and they must equally confess that every preceding Pope, was guilty of the crime of Judas, or of Esau, in thus bartering, for the first time, their holy cause, and sacred rights, to Charlemagne, in exchange, like Judas, for "Donations;" or like Esau, for a Mess of Pottage!" (See Muratori's "Droits de l'Empire sur l'Etat Ecclesiastique," cap. vi. p. 77, and p. 102; where this learned antiquarian, and ecclesiastical writer, reduces the Popes, in opposition to Fontanini, to be no more than the exarchs or vicars of the emperors. With which, compare the more indulgent, and flattering opinion, of the Protestant Mosheim (Eccles. Hist. Cent.viii. Part ii. chap. ii.), who says that the Popes, held Rome under the Empire as the most honourable species of feudal tenure. The reader may choose between the severity of the Romish, and the lenity of the Protestant writer). It being thus clearly established, that Gregory, like all the early Popes, was but a feudal vassal, under the absolute jurisdiction, of the Eastern Emperors; we will now see how the Sainted (!) Pontiff, performed his duty as a grateful dependant, manifested his sympathy as a Christian Prelate, and succoured the despairing and helpless family of Mauritius-once his devoted patron and applauded friend. For at the court of the unfortunate Emperor, we are told, Gregory for some time lived,- -as soon as he had received the cha

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