It is our will, however, that thou shouldst be empowered to use the above-mentioned powers by license from the proper ordinary for three years only, from the date of these presents; and that thou shouldst abstain from granting absolution from cases reserved for the ordinaries of the various places, unless power to do so is obtained from them. Given at Rome, from our palace, on the 9th day of December, 1819. (Signed) R. MAZIO, Corrector of the Holy Church. (And upon the back of the seal) J. P10,

Secretary of the Holy Penitentiary."

I shall not make many remarks on this modern piece of popish jugglery but it lets out certain secrets with regard to the practice of religious persons, which it is worth while to mention; such for instance, as the monks and nuns being in the practice of stealing into one another's apartments. The fourth clause empowers the confessor to grant absolution for this fault, which would have been needless if the practice did not exist. Nay, so profligate and shameless are these religious women, that they will violate for a wicked purpose the apartments of the religious men; and the confessor is empowered to grant absolution for this, provided it be kept secret. This is the fruit of their vows of chastity! this is the boasted sanctity of those who have obtained holy orders, and who profess to have fled from the pollutions of the world!

We learn from the third clause that, as lately as the year 1819, sorcery and witchcraft, and the crime of making unlawful bargains with the devil, were understood to be practised in the church of Rome. Whether such things are really practised, I shall not take upon me to say; but it is certain that the pope and his "holy lords" believe they are; from which we may infer that the gross darkness of the tenth century has not yet passed away from the capital of the Christian world.

The eighth clause empowers the confessor to dispense with all simple vows, five only excepted, on condition of some penance or pious work being performed; and as those of civil allegiance are not excepted, the confessor can, whenever he pleases, relieve a man from the obligation of any oath he may have taken to the king or government that affords him protection. The simple fact that this is an existing law in the church of Rome, ought to open the eyes of some of our statesmen and others, who seem to have fallen into a most romantic fit of love and affection for the children of Babylon, if not for the old lady herself. Every reader of history knows that the pope exercised the power of absolving subjects from their oaths of allegiance; and here is a proof that he does so still, which proves what I have all along maintained, that popery is unchanged, let simple Protestants say what they will to the contrary.

The ninth, tenth, and eleventh clauses need no comment. They lay open so plainly the gross wickedness which Rome tolerates, that I think no person can doubt the truth of what I asserted at the commencement of my work, that the church of Rome grants indulgence, or rather dispensation, to her members to commit sin.

I had prepared to be inserted here, the present state of Rome with regard to indulgences, from a work entitled, "Rome in the nineteenth century," but I find I have not room for it. It will appear in a future number.

CHAPTER CXLVIII.

ROME IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. CONTINUATION OF LETTER FROM IRELAND, COMMENCED IN CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR. IRISH MIRACLES. SAINTS' DAYS. EDUCATION. DISHONESTY. MARRIAGES. MAYNOOTH COLLEGE. RECIPE FOR MAKING ITALIAN SOUP. PRAYER OF THE KING OF FRANCE TO THE VIRGIN MARY.

SATURDAY, May 12th, 1821. THE following was intended for the conclusion of last number, but was omitted for want of room :

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Plenary indulgence and remission of sins are liberally offered here on very easy terms. I was at first rather startled with the prodigal manner in which that full pardon of all transgressions, which the gospel promises only as the reward of sincere repentance and amendment, was bestowed at Rome, in consideration of repeating certain prayers before the shrine of certain saints, or paying a certain sum of money to certain priests.

6

"I was surprised to find scarcely a church in Rome, that did not hold up at the door the tempting inscription of Indulgenzia Plenaria.' Two hundred days' indulgence I thought a great reward for every kiss bestowed upon the great black cross in the Coliseum; but that is nothing to the indulgences for ten, twenty, and even thirty thousands of years, that may be bought, at no exhorbitant rate, in many of the churches; so that it is amazing what a vast quantity of treasure may be amassed in the other world with very little industry in this, by those who are avaricious of this spiritual wealth, into which indeed the dross or riches of this world may be converted with the happiest facility imaginable. "We are told that it is easier for a camel to enter into the eye of a needle, than a rich man into the kingdom of heaven,' but at Rome at least, it would seem to be difficult, nay, impossible, to keep a rich man Rome in the nineteenth century, Literary Gazette, No. 213, p. February 17, 1821.

out."

101.

The one hundred and forty-fourth number of the Protestant broke off in the middle of a letter from a gentleman in a remote part of Ireland, who has the advantage, if such it may be called, of seeing popery in its naked deformity. Having stated the fact that a miraculous virtue was supposed to reside in the clay that had touched the coffin of a priest in his neighbourhood, lately deceased, my correspondent proceeds:

"The writer saw a woman, a cripple, who, hearing of this celebrated relic, had been taken there for a cure; on her return, being asked if she had received any benefit, she replied she did, but her husband saying she did not, the wife asked him how he could dare to deny that

The reader will be aware that these are not THE PROTESTANT's words.

+ You may buy as many masses as will free your soul from purgatory for 29,000 years at the church of St. John Lateran, on the festival of that saint; at Santa Bibiana, on All Soul's Day, for 7,000 years; at a church near the Basilica of St. Paul, and at another on the Quirinal Hill, the names of both of which I have unluckily forgotten, for 10,000, and for 3,000 years, and at a very reasonable rate. But it is vain to particularize, for the greater part of the principal churches in Rome and the neighbourhood, are spiritual shops for the sale of the same commodity.

a miracle was wrought in her, though he could not see it! Indeed, this idea is not at all unfamiliar to them, since they are accustomed to believe that bread and wine is transubstantiated into the very body, bones, and blood of our Lord, although to their visual comprehension, they still remain the same substances without any alteration whatsoever. I had in my possession a printed paper, giving an account of some of the miracles performed at the shrine of this saint, and headed, Miracles have not ceased;' these were publicly cried through the towns by hawkers, of one of whom I purchased the copy.

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Those who receive any benefit by such impostures, are the priests and the publicans; (the latter erect booths around these precious relics, as long as curiosity, faith, or superstition invite customers;) and it is natural enough that this should be the case, and that they should act in concert, for while the former are vending their clays, the latter are vending their spirits. It is remarkable, that wherever there is a saint's day held, (called a patron,) you will uniformly find the greatest superstitions succeeded by the grossest sensuality, drunkenness, and vices of all kinds. The writer had been a long time at a loss to conjecture the cause of this intimate connexion between superstition and vice, until he was informed by a Roman Catholic, a great devotee, in his employment, and whom he accused with getting drunk, that, as it was committed on a saint's day, it was no sin, for they believed that each of the saints ask and receive the pardon of all sins committed on the days kept for their commemoration, provided they attended the prayers offered up to them in the chapel. We therefore need not wonder why so many saints' days are kept in Ireland, since such great benefits are said to arise from them. Indeed, the wonder is, that they do not make saints' days of every day in the year; but on recollection, this would not be agreeable to the priests, for if the people believed that the intercession of the saints in their favour went on daily, and as a matter in course, there would be nothing left for the priest to do-or, what would be worse-to receive.

"Is it therefore a matter of surprise that Papists are held back from education by every means, and even threats held out by their priests, since it is so much for their advantage to prevent the moral and religious improvement of their parishioners; and they have brought them so completely into obedience, (I mean the lower orders,) that they can make them believe the grossest impositions of their church in opposition to their reason.

"The mind of man is naturally desirous of knowledge, but if you can draw off the mind from seeking more rational attainments to rest in superstitions, you thereby enervate the faculties, and make the understanding a mere machine to be impressed or impelled at the will of the mover. The common Irish, sir, do not want naturally good capacities; they are intelligent, generous, and unsuspicious, and if these qualities were improved by a real, not pretended moral and religious education, they would not come behind the most celebrated of other countries—but these mental endowments are beclouded by the dense and gross atmosphere which every where overhangs popery, preventing any rays of intellectual light to shine out.

"Of late years there have been many efforts made by the Protestants in Ireland to improve the condition of the lower orders, by the establishment of schools calculated to promote their moral and religious im

provement,—and, as a means best calculated to produce these desirable ends, the Bible simply, without note, comment, or catechetical lectures of any kind, has been introduced into their schools, one would reasonably suppose that no objection could be taken against the morality of the Bible as a reading book; but this is not the case, the most violent determined opposition is every where given to the admission of Roman Catholic children into these schools by their priests, who, dreading the effects of a moral and religious education, denounce publicly and repeatedly the parents of those few children who attend. In the town where I live, at this present time, week after week, the thunders of the church are hurled from the altar against some, whose only crime is the anxiety they have to get instruction for their children. Their names are individually called out, to make them obnoxious to the rest, and every curse poured forth upon their devoted heads. It is of no avail to inform the priests that during the fifteen years which this school has been established no one instance of any attempt to proselyte, by drawing away the Roman Catholics from the communion of their church, can be adduced; it is of no value to assure them that the object of the school is solely to convey moral and religious instruction by means of the Bible and the Bible alone, without any notes, comments, or catechetical lectures whatsoever, and that they recognise no sect or party amongst the children in their schools. The priest's answer invariably is, "we cannot allow the Bible to be read by the people," "they must only hear such explanations from it as we choose to give." On expostulating with a younger priest here, on this subject, he replied, he was only obeying the orders of his bishop, whom he was bound to obey, by the most solemn and sacred oaths taken at his ordination, and of which his bishop often reminded him, nor did he execute his directions with that severity he ought; for he was positively directed by his bishop to bring all the children who were sent by their parents to this school before him; and while he denounced all the curses of the church against their parents by name, the children were ordered to curse their own parents, by pronouncing audibly at the end of each curse, Amen!!!

"It is a precept of the divine law to honour thy father and mother; and he that curseth father or mother let him die the death.' Matt. xv. 4. But the popish bishops and priests order, that children shall curse their fathers and mothers; and they that shall refuse to curse their fathers and mothers, shall be cursed, and that bitterly by the holy mother church.

"To counteract the growing avidity for education amongst the lower orders of the people of Ireland, the priests have established in most parishes, what are called monks' and nuns' schools, that is, schools kept by monks and nuns, for what they are pleased to term, the moral and religious education of the poor Roman Catholic children, the entire of which nearly consists in teaching the children to repeat their catechisms and rosaries-it is evident that the sole object of establishing these schools is to prevent the children's being sent to the free schools of the Hibernian school society, and thereby hold them in ignorance; complaints are frequently made by the parents that their children, after a close attendance at these schools for two or three years, do not learn as much as children sent to the free schools do in as many months; and the writer has known instances, where even poor labourers have pre

To

ferred paying something for their children's education, rather than lose their time at the schools of these monks and nuns, who are generally as ignorant as their predecessors of the ninth and tenth centuries. support these establishments, every means are used to prevail on Roman Catholics, living and dying, to give or bequeath a proportion of their properties to such pious uses; and the great merit of keeping poor Catholics from Protestant heresy, is pointed out to them in the most glowing colours.

However, in the division of the booty thus obtained, things do not always go on as smoothly as they could wish. Take a recent instance of some notoriety, which occurred in a pretty large town in Ireland. The pastors of the holy mother church having prevailed on a wealthy Papist to bequeath, for the good of his soul, the interest of a large sum of money for the education of poor children in the Roman Catholic faith; the monks and nuns each contrived to possess themselves of a moiety of this property for the purpose or pretence above mentioned, and left the parish priest in the lurch; but as his reverence thought that he had as good a right to his share of the booty as the monks and nuns, who had made vows of poverty! he endeavoured to wrest it out of their hands, and made representations to the trustees that the parties in possession were totally unqualified to teach the children, being ignorant themselves of the very rudiments of learning. Now as the priest's opponents could not perhaps well rebut this charge without first going to school, for which they were rather elderly, they attacked the priest where he was most vulnerable, they charged him upon oath, with being guilty of certain practices, not reckoned among Protestants, at least, very moral; such as kissing the young females at confession, &c., but although these nuns did not throw the veil over the grossest crimes with which they charged their priest, I must, for they are too indelicate to be mentioned. The priest, you may be sure, did not remain an idle or an indifferent spectator during these proceedings; he also accused the brotherhood and sisterhood, upon oath, with perjury, the subornation of witnesses, and with other immoral practices of a more personal and private nature. How this dispute will end is uncertain, it being referred to a higher tribunal.

"The parishioners have also divided, part siding with the priest, and part with the holy fraternity; and to such a height has this enmity been excited, that they have more than once from invectives come to blows.

"By their fruits ye shall know them,' is a short but very comprehensive direction, given us by our Lord himself for the examination of individual or collective character: For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit;' now applying this rule to the religion of Papists, we shall find that their practice produces fruit the very reverse of every moral law contained in the Bible. Every religious rite and ceremony from the cradle to the grave is, amongst them, succeeded by the grossest sensualities: and whether we observe their christenings, weddings, wakes, or funerals, they are all attended with the grossest idolatry and superstitions, and succeeded (among the lower orders) by revellings, drunkenness, and such like; 'of the which,' says the apostle, 'I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things, shall not inherit the