138 The Exiles send a remonstrance to the Queen ; me?" The aptness of the quotation silenced the Priest; and orders were given to kindle the fire. This was done ; he bathed his hands in the flame till they were consumed; and his legs being burned away, his body fell over the chain into the fire. His sufferings were long and severe, but he bore them patiently, exclaiming with a loud voice, "O Lord, receive my soul! O Lord, receive my spirit!" Fox has minutely recorded several particulars respecting this faithful Martyr; they were communicated to him by the person already mentioned, who, as well as several others, took him by the hand after he was fastened to the stake. The narrator held him by the hand till the flames rose, and forced him to depart. The Priest was very angry on seeing this, and said, "It was not lawful to take him by the hand, as he was a heretic, and condemned by the Church.".

After the burning of Bishop Farrar, the executions ceased for a few weeks. The cause is not stated; it might arise from the great sensation excited throughout the kingdom by these bloody scenes; or from its being Easter, the persecutors might suspend their proceedings, lest they should interfere with the idolatrous ceremonies practised at that period in the Romish Church. We may, therefore, here notice a petition, drawn up and printed by the exiles, which they sent over about this time. It was addressed to the Queen. They cautioned her against being carried away by a blind and furious zeal to persecute the church of Christ, and reminded her of the manner in which Cranmer had preserved her life during her father's reign. They quoted many passages from the writings of Gardiner and his associates, in which the Romish Prelates had spoken in the strongest terms against the supremacy of the Pope, and the lawfulness of her mother's marriage; thus shewing that they were men who sought only to promote their own interests. They also reminded her that during the reign of Edward, none of the Romanists had suffered the treatment now experienced by the Protestants. They then addressed the nobility, gentry, and the people in general, setting forth the dangers to which the nation was now exposed, both in a spiritual and temporal point of view; exhorting them to repent, and humble themselves for the sins which had brought these sore afflictions upon the nation; and lastly, urged

139

1555.] she determines to restore the Abbey Lands. them to intercede with the Queen, that she might stop these deeds of cruelty, or at least allow her Protestant subjects to leave the kingdom.*

Nor was the Queen free from remorse at this period; on the 28th of March, she sent for the Marquis of Winchester, the Lord Treasurer, and some other Privy Counsellors, and spoke to them concerning the inward grief and trouble whereby she was affected. But let not the reader suppose it was remorse for her breach of promise to her Protestant subjects; for the blood she had shed, or the cruelties inflicted by her orders upon these holy and exemplary characters! She was filled with remorse because the Crown still possessed some of the Abbey Lands!-She said she considered that the church had been unlawfully deprived of these possessions, during a time of schism; and therefore she desired to resign them, to be disposed of as might seem best to the most holy Lord, the Pope, or his Legate. She said that she considered her soul endangered by retaining these lands, and that she was more concerned for the salvation of her soul, than for ten kingdoms. Alas! that her conscientious scruples were not better placed. They had probably been heightened by a recent Bull of the Pope; in which he excommunicated all persons, without exception, who retained any ecclesiastical property or Abbey Lands in their possession; and all Princes, and others in authority, who did not promote the execution of this decree.

66

Herein," as Fox says, "is to be observed another

Strype has preserved a prayer, which was used by the congregations that assembled in this time of persecution. The following extract will shew that they did not forget the Exiles, who, as just mentioned, were mindful of them. "We humbly beseech Thee to stretch forth thy mighty arm for the protection and defence of all those that are exiled for the testimony of thy Truth, because they would not bend their backs, and incline their necks under the yoke of Antichrist, and be polluted with the execrable idolatries and blasphemous superstitions of the ungodly that it would please Thee not only to feed them in strange countries, but also to prepare a resting-place for them, as thou hast done from time to time for thy elect in all ages, that they may unite themselves together in the sincere ministration of thy Holy Word and Sacraments, to their singular edification; and in due time restore them home again into their land, to celebrate thy praises, promote thy Gospel, and edify thy desolate congregation.

140 The Pope's Bull as to Ecclesiastical Property. Catholic fetch. For where this kind of Catholics, by rigour and force overmaster, they spare for no cost, but lay on load enough. This will appear, and doth appear, in burning the poor and patient Christian, whom they see to be destitute of power and strength to resist them, and make no end of burning and persecuting, but where they find themselves overmatched, or fear to receive a foil in presuming too far; there they keep in, and can stay the execution of their laws and bulls, till they spy their time convenient for their purpose." He then shews that this was the case in the instance just mentioned for although the Pope's commands were peremptory, the Romish Prelates in England, being aware that they could not yet venture to set up these nests again, not only took no open proceedings strictly to enforce the Bull, but even stated to the people that it was not meant to apply to England, although the terms used by the Pope were general, and without any exception whatever. And we may ask, Has the Bull ever been recalled? Does it not still continue unrecalled, although allowed to sleep? Many writers have declared this to be the case, and that full particulars of the Abbey Lands have been preserved, so that they can be produced if ever they should be called for.

We trust such an attempt will never be made in our land, although the eagerness with which monastic institutions are promoted in these kingdoms, shew us that Romanism still looks upon them as an important part of her system.

In addressing Protestants, who are, or ought to be, conversant with the Scriptures, it is unnecessary to say that they no where command a life of celibacy; but the Church of Rome has ever sought to strengthen its power and influence thereby. That it does so at the present day, even in our own land, is plain to the most superficial observer; for it is scarcely possible not to have seen some of the many inflated descriptions published by Romanists, of the exhibitions on the occasion of nuns taking the veil, and their repeated panegyrics upon the state of monastic seclusion. It is not intended to enter into details* respecting Monasticism, in all its horrors and dreadful consequences; but a

A recent author (Blanco White, in his " Practical and Internal Evidence against Catholicism,") has entered very fully into this question; the reader will do well to refer to his work. Referring

Remarks on Monastic Establishments.

141 few words may be added upon one point, namely, the actual slavery of the system.

Erasmus, in his Dialogues, published at the commencement of the Reformation, referred to the monastic system, as having renewed the slavery which had been abolished by Christianity. Speaking of monastic establishments, he says, Nothing there is lawful but what is commanded; whatever may accrue to the professed, becomes the property of the community: if you stir a foot, you are brought back, as if flying after murdering your father and mother." This system was confirmed by the Council of Trent, and is acted upon in the strictest manner at the present day, in Roman Catholic countries. To those who enter voluntarily upon the state, no change of opinion is permitted; even those who have by force or fraud been compelled or induced to enter the profession, are not allowed to quit it; unless they have applied for leave to do so, within five years of the time of their entering thereon. Mark the ingenuity by which this rule is strengthened. It is obvious that the same force or fraud, which at first existed, would in general be able to prevent the disclosure of the feelings of these unhappy victims during five years; and after that period, all appeal is unavailing in those countries. Some few might escape from their prison house, during that interval, and when they had thus regained liberty, seek to avail themselves of the privilege; but no:-if they thus escape, they are thereby absolutely debarred from pleading their privilege; they are compelled to return to their convents, and punished as apostates.

Many instances are recorded, as having occurred of late years, which shew that this system is rigidly acted upon,

to the advice of St. Paul, he says, "The Church of Rome, on the contrary, allows boys and girls of sixteen to bind themselves with perpetual vows: the latter are confined in prisons, because their frailties could not be concealed; the former are let loose upon the people, trusting that a superstitious reverence will close the eyes or seal up the lips of meu on their misconduct." At Rome there is a convent, called the Sepolta Vivo, or Living Sepulchre, where offending Nuns are immured for life. What may pass within its walls, can never be known; none of its inmates are ever allowed to quit it. Once a year, they may have a short interview with their parents, but only in the presence of the Abbess!

* See his Virgo Misogamus.

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The Slavery of the Monastic System.

wherever Romanism prevails. May it never again be supported by authority in our land!*

This subject may be closed with the description given by Blanco White, of the results of monasticism in his own family. "I saw my eldest sister, at the age of two-and-twenty, slowly sink into the grave, within the walls of a convent; whereas, had she not been a slave to that Church, which has been a curse to me, air, amusement, and exercise might have saved her. I saw her on her death-bed; I obtained that melancholy sight in my capacity of Priest; and at her own request, I heard her last confession. I saw that dear sister no more; but another was left to me. To her I looked up as a companion for life. But she had a heart open to every noble impression; and such among Catholics are apt to be misled from the path of practical usefulness, into the wilderness of visionary perfection. At the age of twenty, she left an infirm mother to the care of servants and strangers, and

The following is from the work of Blanco White, just quoted. "The great poet, who boasted that slaves cannot live in England,' forgot that superstition may baffle the most sacred laws of freedom: SLAVES DO LIVE IN ENGLAND; and, I fear, multiply daily, by the same arts which fill the convents abroad. In vain does the law of the land stretch a friendly hand to the repentant victim; the unhappy slave may be dying to break her fetters; yet death would be preferable to the shame and reproach that await her among relatives and friends. It will not avail her to keep the vow which dooms her to live single; she has renounced her will, and made herself a passive mass of clay in the hands of a superior. Perhaps she has promised to perform austerities, which cannot be performed out of the convent; never to taste meat, even if her life were to depend on the use of substantial food; to wear no linen; to go unhosed and unshod for life; all these, and many other hardships, make part of the various rules which Rome has confirmed with her sanction. Bitter, harassing remorse seizes the wavering mind of a recluse; and even a yielding thought towards liberty, assumes the character of sacrilege. Nothing short of rebellion against the Church that has burnt the mark of slavery into her soul, can liberate an English Nun. Whereto could she turn her eyes? Her own parents would disown her, her friends would shrink from her, as if her breath wafted leprosy. She would be haunted by priests and their zealous emissaries; and like her sister victims of superstition in India, be made to die of a broken heart, if she refused to return to the burning pile from which she had fled!"

Can such a system find advocates among those friends of humanity who so deeply feel for the unhappy slaves in our colonies?