Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

have had amongst us many bad and weak men, who have often spoken and often acted wrong; but it is unfair to involve the innocent in the ways of the guilty. By this ordeal, the virtues and good qualities of every society upon earth would be utterly done away. As Christians, therefore, we admit all the doctrines of divine revelation; as Catholics, we submit our faith to the authority of that church, which we think Christ has founded; as Men, we profess our obedience to the moral precepts of reason and nature; and as Subjects, the king has our allegiance, the laws our reverence, and the state may command

our services."

Thus I have furnished the reader with the acCount which Roman Catholics give of themselves. It is fair that they should be heard and judged accordingly. The persecuting and domineering spirit of their forefathers must not be imputed to their reformed posterity. All churches, having power, are too apt to abuse it in matters of religion. Mr. Pitt, in the year 1788, requested to be furnished with the opinion of the Catholic clergy and foreign universities on certain important points. Three questions sent to the universities of Paris, Louvain, Alcala, Douay, Salamanca, and Valadolid, were thus unanimously answered-1. That the Pope, or cardinals, or any body of men, or any individual of the church of Rome, has not any civil authority, power, jurisdiction, or pre-eminence whatsoever within the realm

of England. 2. That the Pope or cardinals, &e. cannot absolve or dispense with his majesty's subjects from their oaths, allegiance, upon any pretext whatsoever. 3. That there is no principle in the tenets of the Catholic faith, by which Catholics are justified in not keeping faith with heretics or other persons differing from them in religious opinions, in any transactions either of a public or a private nature. To these replies must be added, that the declarations signed by the English, as well as Scotch Catholics, in 1789, is to the same purpose and most unequivocally expressed. The present Roman Catholics, also, disavow all manner of persecution; indeed, they profess to acknowledge the principles, and to admit, in its full extent, the claims of religious liberty. Some Roman Catholics, renouncing the supremacy of the Pope, distinguish themselves by the name of Catholics, and sometimes of Catholic Dissenters. Of this number was the ingenious, and learned Dr. Alexander Geddes, who, having translated a large part of the Old Testament, died, and lies buried in Paddington church-yard. His patron was Lord Petre, and be wrote a curious tract entitled, "A modest Apology for the Roman Catholics of Great Britain, addressed to all moderate Protestants, particularly to the Members of both Houses of Parliament.”

There have been seventeen general councils, and to these is attached by Roman Catholics infallibility. In the council of Trent, the last of them, held 1549,

the tenets of their religion were embodied, and the summary exhibited in Pope Pius' Creed containing the substance of the decrees and canons of this council. Father Paul gave a curious history of this council, which was composed of 196 bishops. Bellarmine, an acute Jesuit, and Bossuet, the subtle Bishop of Meaux, are the two most popular defenders of the Catholic religion. Massilon, Bourdaloue, and Flechier, were deemed models of pulpit eloquence. A list of the Popes from St. Peter down to Pius the Seventh, will be found in the Rev. R. Adam's Religious World displayed. Many of these spiritual fathers were men of learning and piety, whilst others, by their ambition and tyranny, proved themselves the pests of the world. Ganganelli was a most honourable exception; he was known to the public under the title of Clement the Fourteenth. It was his common saying, that "We too often lay aside charity to maintain faith, without reflecting, that if it be not allowed to tolerate men, it is forbidden to hate and persecute those who have unfortunately embraced heresy!" He died in 1775, not without suspicion of being poisoned. As to his far-famed Letters there are doubts of their authenticity. Archbishop Fenelon was also distinguished for his benevolence and piety. His Life and that of Bossuet have lately appeared from the pen of Charles Butler, esq., well known by his learned and liberal productions. An eloquent delineation of the Catholic religion in its glory, will

be found in Godwin's Life of Chaucer, the Father of English Poetry; in which work are described the manners of our forefathers in the 14th century, a period not long antecedent to the reformation. Among the Roman Catholics are several monastic orders, the Augustines, the Benedictines, the Carmelites, the Dominicans, the Franciscans, &c., and also a variety of sects, the Jesuits, the Jansenists, the Molinists, and others of celebrity. Pascal, in his Provincial Letters, famed for their sarcastic severity, aimed an effective blow at the order of Jesuits, and it was abolished in France, 1762, being suspected of practices inimical to the country.

For further information the reader is referred to a little volume entitled, "A Papist misrepresented and represented, or a twofold character of Popery." By John Gother; an edition of which has been recently published. The writings of Challoner, Milner, Hay, Troy, O'Leary, and Berrington, should be also consulted; as well as a work lately produced by a Protestant; the Rev. J. Nightingale's Portraiture of the Roman Catholic Religion, a publication of con siderable research, and whose Appendix is replete with information. The Roman Catholics, though more than once relieved in the course of the present reign, complain of the penal statutes now in force against them; and their late strenuous application for their repeal was negatived by a small majority. A similar application, in the year 1780, produced

the Protestant Association, headed by Lord George Gordon, whose followers, inflamed with an outrageous zeal, burnt the houses of the Roman Catholics and threatened the metropolis with extinction!. Since that period the temper of the nation is greatly ameliorated. Men of every description begin to perceive that whatever absurd tenets or ridiculous practices attach to any party, they are not on this account, to be deprived of their religious freedom. Indeed, the time is at length come when Catholic and Protestant are agreed, that the spirit of persecution is not the spirit of Christianity.*

GREEK, OR RUSSIAN CHURCH.

THE Greek, or Russian Church, which now spreads itself over the eastern part of Europe, is ancient, and bears a resemblance to the Church of Rome, though in communion with the Patriarch of Constantinople.

It agrees, however, with the reformed church, in disavowing the supremacy and infallibility of the Pope, and the church of Rome as the true Catholic church, and in rejecting purgatory by fire, graven images or statues; the celibacy of the secular clergy, and in

* See A Vindication of complete Religious Liberty, in a Letter to a Friend in the country, by J. Evans. Second edition

« AnteriorContinuar »